Rara Reviews: Adaptation (2002)

(Note: This is another assignment from my Movies as Narratives class. The review was intended as a piece for a scholarly journal, based on our major. I chose Adaptation because Charlie Kaufman is one of my favorite screenwriters and a constant source of inspiration for neurotic folk like me who just want to get our shit together.)

     The irony of writing about Spike Jonze’s magnificent film Adaptation is that much like the main character - screenwriter Charlie Kaufman - we find ourselves struggling to concentrate on just one aspect of the enigmatic source material. Adaptation is Kaufman’s third screenplay and it is perhaps his most ambitious, employing tried and true cinematic elements and plot devices through the filter of Kaufman’s cerebral vision to create one of the most original movie-going experiences in recent years.

     The story is based on Susan Orlean’s The Orchid Thief, which chronicles her time in Florida with the eccentric orchid hunter John Laroche. However, Adaptation focuses more on Kaufman’s experience of turning Orlean’s book into a screenplay, switching between his struggle in the present day and that of Orlean (Meryl Streep) and Laroche (Chris Cooper) during the writing of The Orchid Thief. He adds fictional elements about Orlean and Laroche that abruptly switches the gears of the intended genre, creating that unmistakably surreal voice that Kaufman is best known for, and elevating it to virtuosity.

     Charlie Kaufman is a middle-aged screenwriter who has carved a career out of his ingenious scripts, yet his neurotic, obsessive thinking cripples him in his personal life. Nicolas Cage portrays both pessimistic Charlie and his clueless twin brother, Donald (who Kaufman jokingly credits as co-writer). The two performances are so convincing that we forget Cage is reacting to himself . One of the best examples of this is the scene in which Donald pitches the plot of his first script (a painfully predictable crime thriller) to an exasperated Charlie, who is torturing himself over the minute details of his own magnum opus. 
     Meryl Streep avoids the hoity toity glamour of the typical New York writer and gracefully conveys Orlean’s intelligence and sadness, almost as painfully aware of her tragic posturing as the audience is. Chris Cooper is casually magnetic as Laroche, whose toothless grin is so disarmingly charming that we mentally assign the underdog hero status to him almost automatically.

     This is perhaps the most accurate portrayal of the creative process of any writer. Kaufman (the character)  is not rich or glamorous or even very popular. In fact, he is not any more successful than the characters he writes about. Kaufman deconstructs three major archetypes of writers throughout the film: the respected big-city journalist, the optimistic and artless novice, and the experienced yet tortured veteran. Adaptation is a must-see not only for experienced writers, but those who aspire to hone their craft with authenticity. It is a brilliant portrait of the nature of artists and their struggle to bring their visions to life. As Donald Kaufman muses in one of the most surprisingly cathartic scenes, “You are what you love, not who loves you”.

welcome to my bloggy wog

Rara Imler was born and raised on the beautiful island of Guam. She is the firstborn of three diabolical hellspawn, who will probably one day be acolytes of the Antichrist prophesied in Revelations. 

Her first stage performance was in the 4th grade, in a play about forest animals. She played the gripping role of “mischievous bunny”. Since then, Rara has found many occasions to show off. She danced (badly) for over a year with the Danzjazz Company, earned her purple belt in Aikido, and was briefly the vice president of her high school drama club.  

She dropped out of high school in junior year to pursue being a total shit head. Eventually, she took her GED test and stopped being such an asshole. She continued participating in productions for local theaters and the University of Guam. The roles she is most proud of are Dr. Emma Brookner in a stage reading of The Normal Heart by Larry Kramer, an apostle in Jesus Christ Superstar, and a kit kat girl in Cabaret.

But her proudest achievement is her recurring role as “drunk karaoke singer” at various adult establishments. Rara has been performing stand-up comedy for two and a half years. She majors in Film Studies at Santa Fe College in Gainesville, Florida. She sincerely hopes this biography comes off as totally legit and not at all written by her.

pictured above: Rara Imler in her natural habitat.

Rara Reviews: The Host (2006)

(The following review was for my Movies as Narratives class I took in the Spring. The goal of the assignment was to write a review for a general audience, hence the cheesier phrases like genre-bending romp'. Some minor edits were made post-deadline.) 

Dissecting The Host

     In Bong Joon-ho’s The Host (2006), the carelessness of an American military doctor leads to a mutated monstrosity swimming up from the Han River, causing a state of panic so severe that South Korea is transformed into a military-controlled dystopia. It is part monster movie, part not-so-subtle commentary on the American military industrial complex. Whether it shows us images of the terrifying creature that carries its prey off to the vast sewage system beneath the Han, or injects slapstick comedy in the midst of otherwise dramatic scenes, The Host never fails to entertain.

     It would be selling this fantastic film short to try and categorize it into one particular genre. Manohla Dargis of the New York Times described it as “[a] carnival of horrors and a family melodrama… a rethink of those 1950s cine-quickies in which mondo ants, locusts, wasps, crabs and snails and one seriously ticked off amphibious reptile go on the rampage, visiting punishment on a hapless, guilty humanity.” Another part of The Host’s allure comes from the gorgeously crafted scenes by cinematographer Kim Hyung-ku, who foregoes the all-out gore dynamic of traditional horror films, instead creating scenes where the focal point is the characters’ reactions to the chaos that the monster creates. The strongest scenes by far are when the creature displays its tenacity and intellect to its already horrified victims, blending instinctual violence born out of nature with almost comical timing (much to the characters’ terror).

     Quirky family dynamics play a strong role in The Host. There is the good-natured yet flustered grandfather (Hie-bong Byeon), the slacker sons (Hae-il Park and Song Kang-ho), the bronze medalist daughter (Doona Bae) and the precocious granddaughter (Ah-sung Ko). The standout performance comes from Song’s character Gang-du, who is both charming and maddeningly frustrating as the clueless but loving father of Hyun-seo (Ko). “Above all, though, it is the story of how these slapstick figures rise painfully to the level of competence, and beyond” remarks Stuart Klawans in his review in Nation.

     This is Bong Joon-ho’s third feature film. It has received wide accolade, including Best Film at the 2007 Asian Film Awards, Blue Dragon Film Awards and the Baeksang Film Awards. This genre-bending romp is a true original and worth repeated viewings on the big screen. Don’t take my word for it, though. Get out there and dissect The Host yourself!