A blog formerly known as Bookishness / By Charles Matthews

"Dazzled by so many and such marvelous inventions, the people of Macondo ... became indignant over the living images that the prosperous merchant Bruno Crespi projected in the theater with the lion-head ticket windows, for a character who had died and was buried in one film and for whose misfortune tears had been shed would reappear alive and transformed into an Arab in the next one. The audience, who had paid two cents apiece to share the difficulties of the actors, would not tolerate that outlandish fraud and they broke up the seats. The mayor, at the urging of Bruno Crespi, explained in a proclamation that the cinema was a machine of illusions that did not merit the emotional outbursts of the audience. With that discouraging explanation many ... decided not to return to the movies, considering that they already had too many troubles of their own to weep over the acted-out misfortunes of imaginary beings."
--Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude

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Wednesday, September 30, 2026

Wildlife (Paul Dano, 2018)

Carey Mulligan and Jake Gyllenhaal in Wildlife

Cast: Ed Oxenbould, Carey Mulligan, Jake Gyllenhaal, Bill Camp, Zoe Margaret Colletti, Darryl Cox, Travis Bruyer, Mollie Mulligan. Screenplay: Paul Dano, Zoe Kazan, based on a novel by Richard Ford. Cinematography: Diego Garcia. Production design: Akin McKenzie. Film editing: Louise Ford, Matthew Hannam. Music: David Lang. 

Paul Dano made his debut as a director with Wildlife, a well-made, particularly well-acted adaptation of a Richard Ford novel. It details the breakup of a marriage as seen primarily from the point of view of a 14-year-old boy played by Ed Oxenbould. Joe Brinson has moved with his parents, Jerry (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Jeanette (Carey Mulligan), to a town in Montana where Jerry hopes their fortunes will improve. It's clear from the start that things are not going right for the Brinsons: Jerry loses his job at a country club; Jeanette, a former teacher, is unhappy as a stay-at-home mom; and Joe disappoints his father, who wants him to play football, by winding up as a benchwarmer. When a forest fire breaks out, Jerry goes off to join the crew fighting it, leaving Jeanette and Joe to fend for themselves. Joe gets a job as an assistant to the photographer in a portrait studio, and Jeanette takes work as a swimming teacher at the Y. One of her students is a middle-aged man, Warren Miller (Bill Camp), the well-to-do owner of a car dealership. She responds to his flirtation, seeing a way out of a marriage gone stale. Mulligan is perfect in the part of Jeanette. demonstrating her frustration with Jerry and her semi-reluctant capitulation to the advances of Warren, who has not much other than his wealth to attract her. Oxenbould also skillfully captures Joe's awakening to the reality of his parents' dysfunctional marriage and his mother's infidelity. Gyllenhaal has a less demanding role, mostly demonstrating Jerry's fundamental aimlessness and initially passive response to worsening circumstances. Wildlife is a sober, low-key film that probably worked better on the page than on the screen because its melancholy story lacks urgency and drama. It too often feels like we're watching performers instead of actual people. 

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