ON THE ROCKS (A-minus) - Sofia Coppola, ensconced in her comfort zone, puts it all together for the most mature and nuanced film of her career, a comic but melancholy slice-of-life pas de deux between a 30-something daughter and her incorrigible father. It combines the best elements of two of Coppola's best films: "Lost in Translation" and Somewhere."
Rashida Jones is Laura, Coppola's standard world-weary everywoman, drifting in ennui like Stephen Dorff's rock star in "Somewhere." She has writer's block and is beginning to suspect that her workaholic husband, Dean (Marlon Wayans), is cheating on her with his gorgeous co-worker. When she shares this suspicion with her aging playboy father, Felix (Bill Murray), the old devil stokes her concerns and ropes her into a private-eye caper.
There is a playfulness and silliness to the father-daughter espionage gambol, but that lightweight feel is more than balanced out by the gravitas brought by Jones and Murray. Coppola's camera gets up close with Jones, as if trying to burrow into Laura's psyche or to scan for clues into the motivations of a woman trying to keep a family together as she inches toward 40. Murray, perhaps in the culmination of his career, presents Felix, a high-end art buyer, as cultured but delusional, an unrepentant ladies' man constantly walking the line between charming and creepy at his age. His line deliveries leave some things unsaid -- hinting at regrets and perhaps a boyish insecurity that has always fed the lineage of cocky characters, including his memorable turn with Scarlett Johannsson in "Lost in Translation." His shmoozing with a New York City cop during a traffic stop is a marvel in comedic timing and the avoidance of cliche.
The idiot aspects of the caper aside, Coppola gets a lot of the little things right here. Laura is in a constant state of low-level exasperation with her father, calling him on his bullshit in lighthearted ways. Felix dispenses his brand of assured zen-pop wisdom with the confidence of a man who never gets held accountable, while he leverages his access to power. A small scene of father and daughter admiring a painting in an old rich woman's Manhattan home is just one example of Coppola's willingness to pause at times to contemplate each character's place in the world and their relation to each other. She has a natural feel for the rhythms of the city. The ending is a little too pat, but until then, Coppola has a lot to say about a woman's role in a patriarchal society, and Jones and Murray deliver the goods for her from beginning to end.
LILYA 4-EVER (2003) (B-minus) - This early film from Lukas Moodysson (2014's "We Are the Best!") starts out grim and evolves into downright despairing with a horrific depiction of a 16-year-old Estonian girl abandoned by her mother and then drawn into a life of desperation. Oksana Okinshina gives a powerful performance that just barely makes this watchable all the way through. With her dimpled cheeks and world-weary mien she perfectly captures the fateful transition from girl to woman.
Lilya's mother finds a boyfriend and moves to America, leaving Lilya with a grumpy aunt who wants nothing to do with her. Lilya develops a sweet friendship with younger Volodya (Artyom Bogucharskiy), who crushes on her and obsesses over playing basketball. Volodya has a horrible home life and spends a lot of time in the grimy apartment Lilya squats in. Their scenes together are the highlight of the film.
In a key plot development that strains credulity, Lilya's best friend Natasha (Elina Benenson), who frequents a disco where she picks up older men to have sex for money, flips that narrative and convinces the town that it's Lilya who's the actual working girl. Desperate for cash, Lilya takes up the habit. A hunky younger man offers Lilya hope, in the form of an escape to Sweden, but the set-up devolves into a petrifying scheme that makes matters even worse.
As a viewer, you hold out for any glimmer of hope, but it never seems to come. This film is from the same era as "Osama," one of the all-time candidates for most depressing film ever. Not for the squeamish.
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