3 gibbles out of 5
Director: Sofia Coppola
I really shouldn’t be giving this three gibbles, seeing as how I fell asleep about 89 million times. But Somewhere is a good movie – it’s well made and it feels purposeful. I just sense that it’s more of a personal project, and as I’m not a man-whore celebrity, didn’t strike a chord with me. (However, if you are interested in my services as a man-whore, with enough interest I’ll consider changing professions. Let me know.)
‘Somewhere’ is about the inbetween moments of being a celebrity. Not the ‘tender’ moments, more like the downtime, falling asleep watching strippers in your room (which is the second scene). It’s interesting from afar, but I can’t say that it’s a compelling view, as told by the opening shot: Perhaps 2 minutes of a car speeding around a test track. No music, no other sound effects. Then, a tired Stephen Dorff gets out and looks around, his expression one of – “Well, we’ve done that. What’s next?” This is the entire film. Kudos to Coppola for not making this off-putting or lesson-laden – it’s neither rubbing our face in the coolness of movie life or telling us “woe is me for being bored with money,” it’s just sort of showing it for what it is.
I haven’t seen Coppola’s other movies. I’ve always avoided them in an attempt to dispel the “these are great movies” feeling before watching them, so I can view with an unclouded mind. It also seems that Coppola was attempting to do the same here. I go back to that opening moment – it’s a long shot. Almost as though warning us that this won’t be Air songs all the way through, but rather a quieter affair, only to be watched if you’re interested, but happy to exist if you’re not.
As a last annoyance / quirk, if you get the DVD, watch some of the extra featurette. The manager of the hotel where most of the movie was shot (famous Hollywood layaway Chateau Marmont) tells us that Coppola celebrated her 13th birthday there. And all of the extras featuring Dorff tell us that he’s pretty much exactly like the character he’s “playing” on screen. It’s sort of strange, and sort of disgusting in a way, but adds a further funny “celebrities, they’re just as boring and predictable and stupid as regular humans” reality on to the whole thing.
Yes, BUT WHERE?
vaguely-offensive 