THINGS TO CHECK OUT // A RAINBOW OVER THE CHATEAU MARMONT
BY CASSADY DIXON
I used to have an ambivalent relationship with Sofia Coppola’s work that closely resembled the malaise-fueled nature of her films. I loved The Virgin Suicides, couldn’t ever come down one way or the other on Lost in Translation, and then summarily avoided Marie Antoinette. I should rectify that, as her latest movie, Somewhere, completely blew me away. Amazingly, this one is even less plot-driven than her first two films were. One would not be wrong in describing it as the uneventful days and nights of a lackadaisical movie star cooped up in Hollywood’s Chateau Marmont with his oft-estranged young daughter and an old buddy played by one of the dudes from “Jackass.”
Yet somehow this film finds its footing. It’s tone isn’t exactly dreamlike, but more like that feeling of waking up after a long night’s sleep, the sun creeping in through the blinds, and you just stay there in bed, half in reality and half somewhere else. I can’t say if there is any big theme at work here, not anymore than French Impressionism or classical music carries an obvious message. Rather, Coppola has crafted such a careful, delicate portrait of a listless existence that the, hopeful, effect on the audience is an affirmation of life, looking up at the stars from the gutter. Somewhere, in its own quiet way, is a masterpiece.