Reviews

Distant is the story of two alienated people and their intercrossed lives that end up illustrating something about the fate of mankind in a downsizing world. The basic premise is that of a country bumpkin, Yusuf, with whose arrival at his cousin Mahmut's house begins a dance of discomfiture between the two men who have become distanced from their inner selves each in a separate way. Yusuf's removal from his feeding grounds is not enough to cast a pall over his mood, but his naïve, insecure optimism is quick to turn him into a permanent cripple in the frigid atmosphere of Istanbul when it is denied all nourishment from Mahmut whose sophistication is a casebook recipe for alienation. Mahmut is a photographer who has labored hard to make it in the big city and by Yusuf's arrival completely turned himself over to his profession.

The women in Mahmut's life are transits, too, in one way or another: his ex-wife, now married again, has come to terms with the fact that she was left infertile by an abortion, which still vexes Mahmut's conscience, and now she and her new husband have decided to move to a new country, possibly never to return. His mother is ill and dying, but Mahmut puts off going to see her in the hospital until three quarters into the movie when a surgery has left her wailing with pain and bemoaning her fate like almost every other character in this picture. The motif of ailing mothers is one of the crucial ties between the cousins, for Yusuf has one too. In contrast to Mahmut's neglectful attitude, the very first thing Yusuf does in Istanbul is to call his own mother. Nonetheless, neither man may hope to effect much change in the women from whom they are separated by physical or emotional distance. Not only can they relate to the relationships in their lives, but also neither man can form a new relationship throughout the movie, with Yusuf experiencing repeated rejections from one employer after another and both men never mustering the courage to formalize a relationship with the attractive women who pass through their lives. Both transits, the cousins find that their lives are peopled by the relationships of most transitory kind.

Like a symphony, the film plays around with the various meanings of its title in a virtuoso directorial performance by NB Ceylan, who has made a career out of enshrining Tarkovsky into the landscape of Turkish cinema. The influence of Tarkovsky here is felt not only in Mahmut's private screenings of Solaris, and the movie's decidedly meticulous cinematography, but also in the mysterious deployment of free indirect imagery (imagery of a character's thoughts), and a mystical signpost at the end of the movie that recalls Tarkovsky's Nostalghia. Interestingly, Distant won three Palme D'Ors at the Cannes film festival, where it was judged by no other than Steven Soderberg who has remade Solaris, that seminal masterpiece of Tarkovsky.

Unlike Tarkovsky and even Soderberg, however, Ceylan ends his film at a note that is nonetheless captivating for having been obvious for a very long time. The cousins drive each other to the brink and finally, disillusioned, Yusuf moves out and disappears from Mahmut's life. The story unfolds like a classic parable with readily identifiable and human elements that offset its "alien" features, such as its Turkish setting, and makes this film a universal and poignant tale of lives held at a devastating distance.

The literature of childhood is filled with stories about characters negotiating the precarious existence of their first summer away from their parents. Usually, the main character in a coming of age story is a freshly minted adolescent wanting to experience the world in isolation from his or her handwringing parents. "Kiki's Delivery Service" features such a character in Kiki, a thirteen year old witch who is mandated to leave home and find a new city in which to train her skills.

The hurdles of independence await Kiki in the town she chooses as her new home. But for the most part Kiki seems to be able to find a generous benefactor to help her overcome those hurdles without resort to her powers. Her helpfulness earns her a lodging at a bakery where Kiki quickly resolves to start a delivery service. When she almost botches her first errand she relies on the kindness of a cabin dwelling artist who has found the toy black cat Kiki had dropped. And later a sleepy eyed St Bernard helps her exchange it with her black cat Jiji, who had been pretending to be a toy in the recipient's house. Because Kiki meets with friendliness from everyone, the film avoids confronting the lurking menace the big town would normally pose for a thirteen year old girl. Rather, the unimaginative conclusion of the film seems to be that friendliness always pays off.

After Kiki promises a boy she meets to attend a party with him, she spends her entire day helping an old woman prepare a herring pie for her granddaughter and misses the appointment. This is around the time Kiki begins to lose her magical powers. But this is a rare reminder that Kiki is supposed to be a "training witch," and the film never explains how Kiki lost her magical powers and how she subsequently regains them at a conveniently helpful point in the story.

Because of Hayao Miyazaki's spirited direction, the film rarely loses its magical glimmer. Nonetheless, also the writer of the film, Miyazaki takes far too many detours from the fundamental themes underlying the story. After seeing this film, a viewer may still wonder why those people seemed to be so undisturbed by the sight of an adolescent witch zooming across their town on a broomstick. One may also ask why Kiki decides to start a delivery service instead of sticking to her avowed mission to train to be a witch. Unfortunately, "Kiki's Delivery Service" leaves these and many more questions unanswered.

Sometimes i think i could have passed on this movie. I thought it would be another of the long line of movies Robert Altman has made that satirizes the heck out of a place, period or mode of culture that finally led to nowhere. I should give credit to Altman because he fooled me. This movie is not a pointless satire, although it does wander occasionally, but only briefly and with good reason. Altman could have packaged this movie to great success by underlining its similarities to such movies as "Fight Club" and "American Beauty" which follow basically the same theme: a beleagured man fighting for his own survival in a hostile world.

"DR.T", of course,does not have the same charge and immediacy of an "American Beauty" or the violent indignation of "Fight club", but in its own light hearted, amusing treatment of Dallas high society it offers a very serious look into the travails of lovable Doctor Travis.

Such as the scene toward the end of the movie when Gere comes into Bree's home, with a boyish glee on his face, and a crazy notion in his head: "run away with me!" He has just discovered that his wife Kate, played by Farrah Fawcett, has regressed into a childish state of mind and that he has forgotten how to be a good father to both of her daughters. So he once again assumes a prince charming pose and proposes to the Hunt character in all earnestness. It was a great pain to me when her response came cold and clear. "Why would i do that?" After all, she has a perfectly secure career and flings every now and then. Why would he think that she would risk it all for him? Here is a woman who shows a degree of cruelty that were only reserved to men in a previous era. This led me thinking if love was dead. If all is lost in our decadent era if two people cannot "love" each other, but only use and be used in return.

Altman makes a movie of great poise and brilliance.

This was a movie i was longing to see. It was greatly promoted by comedians everywhere who purported Andy Kaufman to be their rolemodel into comedy. I as an Andy Kaufman fan know his story, and understand his revolutionary brand of comedy. I know his stageact also, but that is like after the fact. What i expected and didn't get from this movie was a backstory. I didn't want to watch Jim Carrey pulling Andy's stageact and his legendary pranks. I expected his passion articulated on screen. If you like E! entertainment story type bio pics, you'd enjoy man on the moon, but it's a clunger for anyone expecting to understand the real Andy Kaufman. One often finds himself laughing at the man rather than with him. And I think that is something Andy Kaufman would not be proud of.