Some Days are Better Than Others (2010)

Director: Matt McCormick                               Writers: Matt McCormick & George Andrus
Film Score: Matthew Cooper                          Cinematography: Gregg Schmitt
Starring: Carrie Brownstein, James Mercer, Renee Roman Nose and David Wodehouse

I almost didn’t get this film because of some bad reviews on Amazon and IMDb, but they should all be ignored. Some Days are Better Than Others is a wonderful little independent film out of Portland, Oregon. Most of the negative criticism is that the film is boring, but that is almost always code for low intelligence in the reviewer and an inability to understand what the film is really attempting to do. Writer-director Matt McCormick has served up a slice of life picture that has some terrific characters working in mundane circumstances in order to accentuate the honest and real emotions of everyday people. Okay, it’s not for everyone, but I feel sorry for those who don’t get it. This is a fantastic film that works on a number of literal and metaphorical levels. It’s incredibly well filmed, and well acted. The film score by Matthew Cooper is very unique and appropriate for the visuals, with long, single notes and lots of ambient sound like traffic or waves that interweaves with the music. And the cinematography by Gregg Schmitt is also very impressive, with excellent lighting and memorable visuals.

The film begins with Carrie Brownstein talking into a video camera, recording an audition tape for a reality TV show. Life is good. She works with dogs at a shelter and has a long-time boyfriend, and a few days later she gets a letter from a talent agency that wants her to audition in person. Meanwhile, James Mercer is unemployed by choice, an anti-corporate liberal who works for a temp agency and has to borrow the car of his step-grandfather, David Wodehouse, who usually goes along with him, to get to work. The other main character is Renee Roman Nose, a sorter at a thrift store. She lives utterly alone in her apartment and barely speaks all day. After the characters have been introduced, McCormick starts throwing curves into their mundane lives. Brownstein, who has been dating her boyfriend for five years, logs onto his email when she can’t get a hold of him and discovers he’s having an affair with another woman. Mercer has a job counting cartons of milk in local grocery stores, and gets tossed out by security from a big chain store, while Roman Nose discovers the ashes of a child in an urn that someone has donated to the store.

What soon becomes apparent about the film’s purpose is that the three main characters are more emotionally connected to life than those around them. Benjamin Farmer plays a cutthroat estate liquidator. He’s crude and heartless and hires Mercer through the temp agency to empty an old woman’s home. Roman Nose continues sorting clothes, but everything seems to remind her of the child’s ashes that no one has bothered to come back and claim. And Brownstein, while the breakup is squeezing her heart, runs across her boyfriend with his new girlfriend and suddenly she can hardly breath. The other subtext is the idea of being discarded, whether it’s Brownstein being upset because one of her dogs is set to be euthanized, Mercer cleaning out the dead woman’s home, or the abandoned ashes of the little girl. But along with that is the metaphor of the Goodwill store, where someone’s trash is someone else’s treasure. And there are also two terrific dream sequences. The one with Brownstein's boyfriend getting out of the car and leaving her in the middle of the road is one of the highlights of the film. One of the most satisfying aspects of the film is the way that McCormick weaves all of the stories together at the end.

There are some really nice bits of writing in the film, most of them about James Mercer’s character. One is when Mercer tells David Wodehouse exactly how he can manage to eat out, three meals a day, for a mere six dollars. Another is when he and Wodehouse are spending the day at the beach. Their conversation is so heartwarmingly real that it’s difficult to believe. All of the principals are incredibly good. Both Carrie Brownstein and James Mercer are able to convey a sad sweetness that perfectly realizes McCormick’s message. Renee Roman Nose, in her quiet way is equally strong, and David Wodehouse is an absolute marvel. It’s also terrific to see other Portland actors show up in the film. Benjamin Farmer, who was so great in Jon Garcia’s The Falls films, gives a solid performance, and Luke Clements, who appeared to good effect in Justin Koleszar’s One Foot in the Gutter, has a bit part on a mock television show. I’ve seen a lot of independent films in the last few months, but this one is nearly perfect. While the ending might seem abrupt for some viewers, it really isn’t. Some Days are Better Than Others comes highly recommended.

Last September (2008)

Director: Chapin Hemmingway                              Writers: Tyson Balcomb & Chapin Hemmingway
Film Score: Jim Walker & Tim Ellis                        Cinematography: Sean Rawls
Starring: Jeremy Fiske, Andrew Fletcher, Emily Michele and Laurie Balcomb

While Portland director Chapin Hemmingway’s first film, Last September, initially feels like a practice run for his more assured work in The Gray Area, this is still a film that stands on its own and delivers some strong work from both the principal cast and the director. The lead in the film is the director’s college roommate at Emerson University, Jeremy Fiske. The two roomed together in Boston before moving to the school’s Los Angeles campus, and while Hemmingway worked on the screenplay Fiske served as a sounding board during the writing. After a successful premiere in Portland, the film went on to appear at a number of small festivals including the Tacoma Film Festival and the Indiefest U.S.A. festival in California, in which the film was given an award for best visual effects. Like most first films, however, it suffers from choices that Hemmingway would make differently in his later film, as well as some technical issues that were unable to be ironed out in post-production. While the extremely low-budget and independent quality has to be taken into consideration--along with this being the director’s first attempt at filming his own screenplay--the end result shows a lot of promise.

The film begins at the house of college student Jeremy Fiske. It’s the day of the funeral after his mother has died and when his childhood friend, Andrew Fletcher, comes over all he wants to do is get out. The two aren’t exactly estranged, but they haven’t seen each other for a while and there’s a definite tension between them. Very quickly the film becomes one of contrasts in character. While his mother’s death has forced Fiske to grow up quickly, Fletcher still seems stuck in the adolescent world of his high school years. He doesn’t want to go to college and still fights with his mother, Laurie Balcomb. At the same time Fiske decides to break up with his girlfriend, Emily Michele, who the audience later learns also dated Fletcher at one time. When Fletcher invites Fiske to go up to the San Juan Islands in Washington for the weekend, Fiske readily agrees in order to get away from things for a few days. The first stop, however, is at the apartment of a girl Fletcher knows, Allea Martin, in the hopes that she can get Fiske hooked up with her friend, Ashley LeBel. But Fiske simply winds up drunk and crying in the bathroom.

The next day the trip continues on an idyllic note, with a ferry ride to the islands, followed by a hike in which the two begin talking about the real conflict in their relationship: the feelings they both share for Michele and the tension that they’ve felt ever since. It’s not until the trip takes an unexpected turn that they develop a new understanding for each other. Though Jeremy Fiske may not be a household name, he has gone on to do some interesting work after this film, authoring another independent film he starred in that was shot in Boston, but primarily as a production assistant on such big-budget films as Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island and Moneyball with Brad Pitt. He does a good job in this film, only his second feature, though the technical issues with the sound tend to hamper his quiet delivery. He has a look similar to Ron Eldard, but his acting style is closer to Giovanni Ribisi. Andrew Fletcher is taller and more angular, and presents a nice contrast to Fiske both physically as well as in character.

In terms of the acting itself, the men do a decent job but the women in the film don’t fare so well. Emily Michele is painfully awkward on the screen in the couple of scenes she has, first with Fiske when he breaks up with her, and then with the two of them before they leave on the trip. Laurie Balcomb also seems a little unequipped for her dramatic scene as Fletcher’s mother. To be fair, the early scenes with the men are rough as well, but since they have the entire film to develop some chemistry it doesn’t make as much of an impact. Hemmingway and producer Tyson Balcom’s screenplay emphasizes realism, which is interesting to a point but wears thin after a while. The goal with dialogue shouldn’t be realism, but instead a natural feel while moving the narrative along, something the team vastly improved upon in their next feature. And that is the real takeway from the film. On its own it’s a moderately successful independent first feature, but when viewed as a stepping stone to the much more successful follow-up, the difference shows a filmmaker who can learn from mistakes and who has exhibited a tremendous amount of growth in a short time. In that context, Last September is a bittersweet experience in that this growth hasn’t been able to continue in a series of later projects.

Welcoming Departure (2012)

Director: Scott Ballard                                      Writer: Scott Ballard
Music: The Blue Cranes                                   Cinematography: Dave Rosenblum
Starring: Thomas S. Campbell, Eve Pryce, Rachael Perrell and Dave Morales

Welcoming Departure is the feature debut of Portland writer-director Scott Ballard. Getting his start in feature work as a cinematographer, he did some impressive camera work on the otherwise stilted How the Fire Fell in 2010, but already had amassed a substantial resume writing and directing short films prior to that. The theme of this film is a tired one, the elderly person who makes an impact on the life of a younger one, and Ballard is clearly intent on finding something new to say with it, though it’s difficult to know if he succeeds. It’s an odd film in many ways. While there are a lot of things to like about it, they don’t really seen to fit together very well. For the first nine minutes of the movie Tom Campbell seems perfect for the part, but as soon as he opens his mouth it’s clear he’s way more intelligent than his character first appears. The jazz soundtrack, which includes some terrific music by the Portland quintet The Blue Cranes and the Alan Jones Sextet, almost seems as if it belongs in a different film. And there are certain ways of handling a story like this by directors like Alexander Payne or the Coen Brothers, but Scott Ballard chooses to go in a very different direction. The subdued nature of the telling is far more reminiscent of Some Days are Better Than Others by Matt McCormick, but Ballard’s screenplay lacks the symbolic underpinning of that film, and the stakes for his characters don’t seem nearly as high.

The film opens at breakfast time, with Thomas S. Campbell dropping the needle on a jazz LP, eating Cheerios and opening his mail at the kitchen table before heading off to work in his station wagon. Campbell works as the night janitor at the public library. After his shift he meets Dave Morales and the two have a real breakfast at a diner before Campbell goes back home. The next day is just like the last except he brings a letter from home with him, which he opens during his lunch. Apparently a relative of his has died and he is one of the beneficiaries. It’s nine minutes into the film before there is any dialogue, at breakfast with Morales. Campbell thinks the letter is a scam because he doesn’t have any relatives, but calls the lawyer when he gets home and the next day is told to pick up a package at the airport. Campbell is decidedly low-tech guy who prefers vinyl to digital, and doesn’t own a computer, and the scene where he attempts to navigate an automated phone system is amusing if familiar. One morning when Morales doesn’t show up, he goes to the restaurant alone and talks to waitress Rachael Perrell. The conversation is intended to show the viewer how bland his life is, and sets up the reappearance of Perrell later on. Oh, the package at the airport? It keeps him awake wondering what it is and so he finally drives out to pick it up. It’s an old Norwegian woman named Odessa played by Eve Pryce.

The results should be predictable, but they’re not. Not unlike the episode on the phone, Campbell handles the crisis in his typically methodical fashion. Absent are the histrionics that a character like this would normally indulge in, or the obsessive-compulsive breakdown the viewer might expect. Instead, Campbell goes about his business of working the problem, gradually uncovering information about Pryce as well as exploring his own reaction to her presence in his life. The film is short, at barely over an hour, and it certainly could have benefitted from spending more time with the supporting cast, especially in the second half. That said, there are some very nice moments. One is the actual LP that Campbell is playing on his turntable. Even though the jazz on the soundtrack is provided by local Portland groups, the LP is a Blue Note album. It’s a small detail, but for the knowledgeable jazz fan it’s a nice one. Equally impressive is when Campbell goes through Pryce’s suitcase. The photo album, postcards and sweaters have a palpable feeling of authenticity to them, and when Campbell neatly arranges everything as he puts it back it’s quite touching. There’s also a nice moment at the coffee shop when Ballard keeps the camera on Pryce while Campbell and Morales talk about her, only her eyes moving in time with the conversation. It’s an economical technique, as it only requires one set up, but used judiciously it can be very effective as it is here.

Tom Campbell is solid in the lead role, intelligent and level-headed despite the curves he is thrown. Eve Pryce is a much better choice visually than the actress Ballard had on the original promotional materials, and she does a terrific job with no dialogue. While David Morales starts off as the typically goofy best friend, he becomes something else again when he meets Pryce and it would have nice to see more of him at the end. Rachael Perrell is absolutely riveting onscreen and it’s a shame that both she and Morales couldn’t have had more time to develop their characters in an additional twenty minutes that the story cries out for. And that’s probably the fatal flaw of the film: the screenplay. The cinematography and direction are solid, but the narrative simply doesn’t have time to gel. This may be a result of Ballard spending so much time working on short films, or it may be just a function of being his first feature. First features are notorious for weak screenplays. Welcoming Departure is certainly not a bad film, however, and as stated earlier there are things to admire and enjoy. Fortunately Ballard has made a second feature and the hope is that he will continue working in the long form and hone his considerable skills even more in the future.