ACROSS THE UNIVERSE
Directed by Julie Taymor
Starring Evan Rachel Wood, Jim Sturgess, and Joe Anderson
“Across the Universe” is a very conflicting movie. Most of it I loved. Parts of it were extraneous or made no sense. It was directed by Julie Taymor, who is best known as the director of the live-action stage version of “The Lion King”. If you see that show, as well as some of her other stag works, and even some of her other movies (“Titus Andronicus” and “Frida”) you will see that she definitely has a signature style. Taymor spent some time in Bali, where she was introduced to Balinese puppet theatre. This style shows in all her work, and this is no exception. In this movie it is most noticeable in the first protest scene and the scene involving “Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite”.
Though Taymor's style is obvious in this movie, I felt as though I was seeing something different from her stage shows and previous movies. Rather than be hampered and held back by the limitations of the style, the movie seemed to flow naturally out of it. I never felt like there were puppets for the sake of having puppets. There were also delightful film effects that would never be possible on the stage. I was very surprised that this film was not nominated for Art Direction. This movie is nothing short of visually amazing.
The sole nomination that this movie did get was for Albert Wolsky's costumes. Wolsky's Oscar history includes wins for “All That Jazz” and “Bugsy”. He was nominated for “Sophie's Choice”, “The Journey of Natty Gann”, and “Toys”. His costumes ranged from the glorious 1960's styles, to psychedelic carnival, to Balinese-inspired full body puppets. He lost this Oscar to Alexandra Byrne for her straight-from-the-rental-house Elizabethan standard work on “Elizabeth: The Golden Age”, showing once again that the Academy doesn't know much about Costume Design. Also nominated in this category were the movies “Atonement”, “La Vie en Rose”, and “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street”.
Back to the movie. It's about a young Liverpudlian named Jude (Jim Sturgess) who comes to America to meet his father, and he consequently befriends a soon-to-be college drop out named Max (Joe Anderson) and falls in love with his sister Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood). They all wind up in Manhattan's East Village where they meet even more people, including Sadie, a Janis Joplin-esque singer played by Dana Fuchs, JoJo, A Jimi Hendrix-esque guitarist played by Martin Luther McCoy, and Prudence, an Asian Lesbian from Ohio played by T.V. Carpio. All of this is set in the 1960's and themes from the 60's overshadow the entire movie, including Vietnam, artistic expression, and personal freedom.
Did I mention that this movie is a musical set to the music of The Beatles? Well it is. I'll admit that I was a little nervous when I first heard about this film, seeing as how the three main characters are name Maxwell (as in “Silver Hammer”), Lucy (as in “in the Sky With Diamonds”), and Jude (as in “Hey”). My fears were completely unfounded. Yes, there were some times when the story seemed to take a left turn for the sake of adding another Beatles song (The character Prudence could have been removed completely without much trouble), but when the songs work they work brilliantly! “Strawberry Fields Forever”, “I Want You (She's So Heavy)”, and “Happiness is a Warm Gun” are favorites of mine. There are also great cameos by Bono, Joe Cocker, and Eddie Izzard singing “I Am the Walrus”, “Come Together”, and “Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite” respectively.
The choreography was spectacular. Daniel Ezralow, who also played the priest in “Happiness is a Warm Gun”, did an amazing job using dance to create the moods of high school fun, New York City madness, Army bureaucracy, LSD trips, underground dance clubs, and shell-shocked morphine madness. It's a special treat to see Salma Hayek as five sexy nurses pampering a stupored Max. It almost makes me want to get sick!
As I hinted at earlier, there were parts that didn't work as well. For example, I didn't know that Prudence was supposed to be from a different city than Lucy until I heard Julie Taymor say it in the director's commentary! There is also a scene early in the movie where Jude and Max first meet and they sing “With a Little Help From My Friends” while passing around an imaginary joint. According to Taymor's commentary, the joint was mimed because Princeton (Where the scene was shot) wouldn't allow them to use a prop joint and also because they didn't want to lost their PG-13 rating. It simply didn't work. Rather than enjoying a scene showing a budding friendship, I was thinking, “Why aren't they smoking a real joint? Surely one of those characters has one!” It would have worked much better if they'd just passed around a flask or a cigar or something.
Yes, the movie is flawed, but it's very easy to overlook the flaws and enjoy this movie for what it is: A slice of life from the 1960's told with such imagination and craftsmanship that it's impossible to be bored and impossible to not be touched by this love story.
This review was written on May 16, 2008.
Directed by Julie Taymor
Starring Evan Rachel Wood, Jim Sturgess, and Joe Anderson
“Across the Universe” is a very conflicting movie. Most of it I loved. Parts of it were extraneous or made no sense. It was directed by Julie Taymor, who is best known as the director of the live-action stage version of “The Lion King”. If you see that show, as well as some of her other stag works, and even some of her other movies (“Titus Andronicus” and “Frida”) you will see that she definitely has a signature style. Taymor spent some time in Bali, where she was introduced to Balinese puppet theatre. This style shows in all her work, and this is no exception. In this movie it is most noticeable in the first protest scene and the scene involving “Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite”.
Though Taymor's style is obvious in this movie, I felt as though I was seeing something different from her stage shows and previous movies. Rather than be hampered and held back by the limitations of the style, the movie seemed to flow naturally out of it. I never felt like there were puppets for the sake of having puppets. There were also delightful film effects that would never be possible on the stage. I was very surprised that this film was not nominated for Art Direction. This movie is nothing short of visually amazing.
The sole nomination that this movie did get was for Albert Wolsky's costumes. Wolsky's Oscar history includes wins for “All That Jazz” and “Bugsy”. He was nominated for “Sophie's Choice”, “The Journey of Natty Gann”, and “Toys”. His costumes ranged from the glorious 1960's styles, to psychedelic carnival, to Balinese-inspired full body puppets. He lost this Oscar to Alexandra Byrne for her straight-from-the-rental-house Elizabethan standard work on “Elizabeth: The Golden Age”, showing once again that the Academy doesn't know much about Costume Design. Also nominated in this category were the movies “Atonement”, “La Vie en Rose”, and “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street”.
Back to the movie. It's about a young Liverpudlian named Jude (Jim Sturgess) who comes to America to meet his father, and he consequently befriends a soon-to-be college drop out named Max (Joe Anderson) and falls in love with his sister Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood). They all wind up in Manhattan's East Village where they meet even more people, including Sadie, a Janis Joplin-esque singer played by Dana Fuchs, JoJo, A Jimi Hendrix-esque guitarist played by Martin Luther McCoy, and Prudence, an Asian Lesbian from Ohio played by T.V. Carpio. All of this is set in the 1960's and themes from the 60's overshadow the entire movie, including Vietnam, artistic expression, and personal freedom.
Did I mention that this movie is a musical set to the music of The Beatles? Well it is. I'll admit that I was a little nervous when I first heard about this film, seeing as how the three main characters are name Maxwell (as in “Silver Hammer”), Lucy (as in “in the Sky With Diamonds”), and Jude (as in “Hey”). My fears were completely unfounded. Yes, there were some times when the story seemed to take a left turn for the sake of adding another Beatles song (The character Prudence could have been removed completely without much trouble), but when the songs work they work brilliantly! “Strawberry Fields Forever”, “I Want You (She's So Heavy)”, and “Happiness is a Warm Gun” are favorites of mine. There are also great cameos by Bono, Joe Cocker, and Eddie Izzard singing “I Am the Walrus”, “Come Together”, and “Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite” respectively.
The choreography was spectacular. Daniel Ezralow, who also played the priest in “Happiness is a Warm Gun”, did an amazing job using dance to create the moods of high school fun, New York City madness, Army bureaucracy, LSD trips, underground dance clubs, and shell-shocked morphine madness. It's a special treat to see Salma Hayek as five sexy nurses pampering a stupored Max. It almost makes me want to get sick!
As I hinted at earlier, there were parts that didn't work as well. For example, I didn't know that Prudence was supposed to be from a different city than Lucy until I heard Julie Taymor say it in the director's commentary! There is also a scene early in the movie where Jude and Max first meet and they sing “With a Little Help From My Friends” while passing around an imaginary joint. According to Taymor's commentary, the joint was mimed because Princeton (Where the scene was shot) wouldn't allow them to use a prop joint and also because they didn't want to lost their PG-13 rating. It simply didn't work. Rather than enjoying a scene showing a budding friendship, I was thinking, “Why aren't they smoking a real joint? Surely one of those characters has one!” It would have worked much better if they'd just passed around a flask or a cigar or something.
Yes, the movie is flawed, but it's very easy to overlook the flaws and enjoy this movie for what it is: A slice of life from the 1960's told with such imagination and craftsmanship that it's impossible to be bored and impossible to not be touched by this love story.
This review was written on May 16, 2008.
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