Wild Canaries
Director: Lawrence
Michael Levine
Writer: Lawrence
Michael Levine
Starring: Sophia
Takal, Lawrence Michael Levine, Alia Shawkat, Annie Parisse, Jason
Ritter
Rating: Three and a
Half Stars out of Five
Yesterday I was
reminded of a fun bit of film history. Woody Allen's Oscar-winning
romantic comedy, Annie Hall, was originally a
four-and-a-half-hour-long epic called Anhedonia, featured a
murder mystery, and was generally a dour affair that somehow became a
relatively sunny (though bittersweet) classic. This dovetailed nicely
with my viewing of Lawrence Michael Levine's Wild Canaries,
now available on demand.
Levine does
something similar with his movie to what Allen aimed for in the
original Annie Hall cut. He creates a relationship drama
clearly inspired by Allen's 1980s heyday but attempts to balance it
with a wacky murder mystery investigation by amateur sleuths. Sophia
Takal is Barri, a thirtyish aspiring resort owner-operator struggling
with a bout of unemployment while living with her fiance, Noah
(Levine, again recalling Allen). She's too excited about every idea
that pops in her head to stick with anything and he's a depressed,
hard-drinking jerk most of the time, pushing her away while he pines
for his coworker and former girlfriend/theoretically now-out-of-reach
lesbian, Eleanor (Parisse). Complicating this tenuous relationship is
Barri and Noah's roommate, Jean (Shawkat), who is on the cusp of
going into business – and possibly more if her crush is to be
believed – with Barri.
Standard fare for
modern indie dramedies, right? Yes, exactly. Everything about this
section of the movie is shot in the naturalistic mumblecore style,
with a lot of handheld cameras, lighting that recalls cigarette
stains on wallpaper, and some editing that is loose but not choppy.
It doesn't look bad, per sé, and this technique is a product of the
budgetary restrictions, but it's not pushing any envelopes, either.
The same goes for the interactions between these characters. They're
well drawn, distinct from each other in written and spoken voice, and
their motivations are all fairly clear to the audience if not the
characters themselves. But it essentially boils down to crisscross of
love triangles. He wants her, she wants her, jealousies lead to
feelings of being used, nobody communicates this properly for fear of
offending each other and in turn their pettiness is more offensive
than their original feelings actually are. There's something there,
but something that has been done better – and wittier – before.
But then an old
lady downstairs drops dead and this work done to build these
characters begins to pop in fun, silly ways.
In her unemployed
boredom, Barri starts making connections. Sure, she had befriended
the old lady and gave her lessons on things like chess, but that's
not why she starts going down the wormhole of nonprofessional gumshoe
work. Despite all the obviousness of an 80-something woman dying
being a fact of life, Barri starts looking into estates and
foreclosures and a son (Kevin Corrigan) who can't make good eulogies.
She does this while breaking and entering apartments without a clue
in her head about how any of this stuff works. So she enlists Jean.
They try to convince Noah that something is fishy, he keeps pointing
out the logical thing to do is to drop it and leave him alone to pine
for his crush, thank you very much.
What Levine does
during these breaks into detective mode is a wry wink to the
audience. He uses power zooms, iris shots, and more controlled bits
of camerawork to indicate there's an investigation afoot! Barri and
Jean skulk around like Elmer Fudd in the fowest looking fow wabbits,
their heads popping around trees, although the rest of their bodies
aren't particularly hidden from view, either. Noah's insecurities,
lack of observational skills, and ailments – he spends half the
movie in a neck brace, mostly for the exaggerated comic effect –
begin to pay off one by one as they discover the heinous beginnings
of their adventure.
For all the solid
payoff, it still struggles to be a complete movie. Those
character relationships are still a bit too familiar, the tone of
their interactions pre-investigation too somber. Levine comes close
to pulling it all together, but perhaps a little more time spent
learning the lessons of Annie Hall would help him turn Wild
Canaries into an amateur gumshoe classic.
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