"My friends just got back from San Francisco this morning," I overheard Teresa telling her friend on the phone. "Yeah, they went to go watch a movie."
"Um, can you put that into context?" I protested. "It's not like we said, 'Oh, the 2pm matinee's sold out. Let's go see what's playing in San Francisco.' Besides, we don't do this for just anyone ..."
The Road Trip
Just as it is about to be released on video in Australia, Noah Taylor's latest film, "True Love and Chaos," debuted in the US on Friday, October 10, 1997 at the Mill Valley Film Festival, just outside of San Francisco. It should come as no shock that I was there. I am forever grateful to my email pal, Alicia, for tipping me off just in time to order tickets. I tried to justify driving from Los Angeles to San Francisco for a movie: what's a few hundred miles for a die-hard fan? I'm still in the same state.
What is a shock is that I'd managed to talk my friend from San Diego, Rozzie, into joining me. She'd already left a message on my machine: "I don't think I can join you." I put an end to that nonsense with a quick phone call. Come on, it still doesn't have an American distributor. You're going to kick yourself if you miss this. You can stay with me that weekend and join me for the Duran Duran concert on Sunday (don't ask). Besides, we'll get to do a road trip just like in the movie - except we're not smack addicts.
"Okay." Rozzie sighed. "Put me down for a ticket. But only because I don't want you to get into an accident."
Like all road trips, we didn't leave anywhere near on time. Something about Rozzie leaving her ticket to Duran's concert back home and having to go back. This being our first road trip together, I'm sure the same questions were running through both of our minds: Is she going to annoy the hell out of me? Can we listen to the same music? Are we going to get there on time? Can Rozzie get through this trip without a cigarette and not kill me?
Unlike most road trips, however, the ride was surprisingly smooth as we coasted up the breathtakingly gorgeous Interstate 5 (those who live in California know I am completely joking). Road trips - being stuck in an intimate space with another person for a length of time - have a way of bringing the deepest confessions out of people, and Rozzie later described the drive as a "therapy session on wheels." We listened to the tape of the Noah's Lark interview. We turned off the music and bonded for hours about everything from Duran's sexually wayward guitarist to feminism to crappy LA radio stations to Noah to our childhoods.
Furthermore, Rozzie would like you to know that we stopped only once for gas and corn dogs, and only then did she succumb to the nicotine craving.
At some point, Live 105 came in clear on the radio. The car became really quiet. In unison:
"We're in San Francisco."
The lunacy of the fact that we'd just driven up 7 hours to see a Noah Taylor movie - and still had to drive 7 more to return - finally hit us. We weren't even stopping in San Francisco; we were heading straight for the Golden Gate Bridge on our way to beautiful, woods-enshrouded, upscale Marin County.
Due to my over-anxious planning, we made it in plenty of time. Enough time to grab coffee, collect our tickets, harass every festival volunteer for that bitchen "True Love and Chaos" poster ("We deserve it!") - to no avail - and still be first in line. We were hoping if we talked loudly enough about Noah, maybe one of the Noah's Lark readers would spot us. No such luck. Oh, well - we were too punchy after the long ride not to have fun at the screening.
The Screening
The organizer who introduced the film made much of Miranda Otto's recent prominence as an international film star, but said nothing about the other actors, much to our chagrin. When Noah's face first appeared on the screen, Rozzie and I grasped each other's hands and giggled like teenagers. When his name came up, I said, "Whoo-hoo" and Rozzie clapped. I'm sure the people behind us were thinking, "Oh, God..." We were on our best behavior, but nevertheless, we were waaaaaaay too happy to be there. We laughed first and loudest at every humorous moment, and we were extremely pleased to see that the audience responded particularly well to Noah as the comic relief in the film.
I hope the American fans who haven't seen the film will forgive me if they get a little lost on the details. I would describe the film as sort of a Gen-X Woody Allenish film - not so annoying, almost as neurotic, and definitely as funny. Rozzie, the film student, praised the amazing editing as well as the framing and composition of the cinematography, which I agree was gorgeous. The mournful soundtrack of Leonard Cohen and Nick Cave songs served the film well. This is not to say that the movie is all jump-cuts and cinema verite and great music. Maybe we empathized with the characters because of the trip we'd just taken. Ultimately, however, we found the film to be very real, funny and involving.
Stavros Efthymiou makes a fine feature film directorial debut, having created engaging characters whose agendas unfold over the course of the movie. Efthymiou skillfully develops Mimi (Miranda Otto) and Hanif's (Naveen Andrews) conflicted relationship and establishes Noah's character, Dean, as a concerned friend and more than a third wheel. As the characters embark on their respective journeys of self-exploration, seeking escape or resolution, they are fleshed out fully enough to make the film's climax especially powerful.
Certain scenes were directed so brilliantly by Efthymiou - the shot of an eight ball hurling towards Jerry's (Ben Mendelsohn) car; Hanif discovering that Mimi is pregnant - that they left us howling and stuck in our minds long after we were heading back for LA. Efthymiou also has a subtle eye for seemingly off-handed scenes which prove more profound than one assumes: Mimi watching a dog aggressively chase its tail; the sliding doors of a convenience store malfunctioning; Mimi nervously playing with the switches of a fan.
There are only a few low points in the film in my opinion: I think Ben Mendelsohn was miscast as Jerry, the psycho brother - it seemed to me he was trying too hard, but Rozzie doesn't agree. I also said if I had to witness the puppy dog routine between Jerry and Ariel (Kimberley Davies) one more time, I was going to run screaming out of the theater. Again, Rozzie didn't agree and thought the quirks in their characters served to make them sufficiently creepy and pathetic. Also, I thought Mimi's embarrassingly long dance scene was more about Efthymiou's fascination with Miranda Otto than Mimi's character. Rozzie agreed with me there. ;->
Noah
This being a Noah Taylor fansite, we know you want the specifics on Noah's performance. To put it in Rozzie's words, Noah's deadpan comic delivery and timing f***ing cracked us up. ;-> The character of Dean has many of the funniest lines, and yet he also reveals a vulnerable side. Rozzie particularly loved that fact that Dean showed so much concern for Mimi and Hanif's relationship.
And we need to tell you that Noah looks damn good in this film with his hair so thick and lovely and dishelved (that Polaroid Mimi took - we want it!). I think in one way it's a traumatic film for a Noah fan to watch - in the first 10 minutes we see Noah get slapped by Ben Mendelsohn in one scene and stagger around with a bloody nose in another. On the other hand, "True Love" heralds a new direction for Noah in which he gets to play someone his own age and exercise his comic muscles.
A few details to note:
The Trip Home
Insane women that we are, after the screening we paused just long enough to scribble our thoughts on the film in my notebook. After midnight, we drove straight back to LA. Why, you ask? We needed Saturday to recuperate. Hey, we had a Duran Duran concert to go to the next day!
We couldn't have planned our trip more perfectly if we tried. I, being the morning person, drove us up, and Rozzie, the night person, drove us back down. We had dinner/breakfast at the infamous Casa de Fruta near Gilroy, Garlic Capital of the World. I passed out through most of the trip, leaving Rozzie alone with bad 40's music and her "lovely thoughts of Noah Taylor." The sun rose as we entered LA. Ugh. "Did we really leave LA and come back in less than 24 hours?"
Nevertheless, there is no question in our minds that seeing "True Love and Chaos" was well worth the long trip and is definitely worthy of distribution. Even if the film does play in LA, we were happy to witness the American premiere. Even if Noah weren't in the film, we can objectively say we would have loved this movie. Rozzie and I think it could do well with proper marketing towards an MTV-audience, but the story and character development should still appeal to a wider audience. "True Love and Chaos" needs to be released!
Photo courtesy of Beyond Films. Special thanks to Pamela, who truly rocks.
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