Margaret (Kenneth Lonergan, 2011)

[domino harvey]

So Lonergan's long-awaited follow-up to You Can Count on Me is finally getting a (probably contractually obligated) theatrical release September 30th, six years after principal photography wrapped, with no posters, trailers, or other marketing available. IMDB lists the running time as about 149 minutes, which is longer than the two hour cut Fox Searchlight wanted but shorter than Lonergan's preferred three hour cut (the one Ruffalo called "a masterpiece")-- I wonder if this is the Scorsese-arbitrated version?

[flyonthewall2983]

I wonder if Criterion would want to get a hold of this and release the three hour version, unless it would jeopardize their relationship with Fox.

[Antoine Doinel]

The "Margaret" edit was actually handled by Thelma Schoonmaker and Martin Scorsese, and I believe the final running time is closer to 2 hours 30 min. Whether or not Criterion releases it (kind of doubt it) or if that mythical 3 hour version will ever seen the light of day will be interesting to see. But if they do, I doubt it would affect any relationship with Fox Searchlight since they would have to license it from them anyway.

[John Cope]

Trailer.

[Professor Wagstaff]

Stranger than a new film starring high school aged Anna Paquin is seeing Sydney Pollack and Anthony Minghella's names in movie credits agains.

[John Cope]

Keith Uhlich's rave. It's strange to think that such an ambitious film would have been treated so poorly. No, actually, it isn't.

[mfunk9786]

It's startling to see how young Matt Damon looks in that trailer. This is certainly the most remarkable cinematic tragedy since Lodge Kerrigan's In God's Hands was lost to negative damage before ever being shown.

[knives]

Funny you bring up Kerrigan because I keep getting the two confused.

[Noiradelic]

Lodge Kerrigan is practically an anagram.

[Perkins Cobb]

Has anyone ever seen them in a room together?

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

At this rate Rebecca H. won't get a U.S. release until around 2015, so they have something in common.

[Fierias]

So has nobody else seen this yet? Since it's now dead in the water in terms of making any money whatsoever, I think this is due to go down as one of the most absurdly mistreated films of the last half-century. It's absolutely a masterpiece, with a grand, sprawling scope that recalls Altman's opuses and Magnolia, but is essentially unlike anything I've seen before. The rhythmically abrupt cutting (which isn't a product of its editing room woes, as the detractors are idiotically using as a defense; based on the early drafts of the script, only entire scenes are missing, not chunks of each scene), the glorious shouting matches, the operatic and literary splurges...freakin' divine.

[mfunk9786]

I'm waiting for Blu-ray, in case they let Lonergan release his cut. Because why not?

[domino harvey]

I doubt it even gets a Blu release

[mfunk9786]

DVD would be fine, Blu-ray has just taken its place in my vocabulary at this point.

[Jeff]

Has it screened anywhere outside of NY/LA? The chances of it coming to a theater near me seem remote.

[knives]

It's over here in San Diego, but I don't want to drive to La Jolla.

[Fierias]

It opened up in a handful of other cities, like SF, Dallas, Austin, Boston, Philly, Toronto, but with a ~$900 per screen average, it's not looking good for more expansion than that.

[Brian C]

Here in Chicago, too. I should go but doubt I will, given that I only have one more day.

[Jeff]

Kenneth Lonergan still hopes the Scorsese cut will be released eventually. Really hope the #teammargaret movement gets the film another shot in more cities.

[thirtyframesasecond]

Margaret's showing in one London cinema, in the smallest screen. It had five star reviews in both The Guardian and Time Out but still it seems no-one's really going to take a punt on it. I like it, not the same extent the aforementioned papers do, but it's easy to admire its scope and ambition and it has something of note to say about contemporary America. Anna Paquin's really good in what is probably the most obnoxious role of the year - apart from maybe the Emily role.

[dad1153]

OK (sigh). Watched "Margaret" last night/today at the only theater showing it in NYC (Cinema Village on 12th St.). Yes, I'm shallow-enough to want to see a movie I had never heard of until a few days ago just because of the whiff about its troubled history and the involvement of Scorsese & Schoonmaker in its editing. Only me and four other patrons in attendance but it started at 9:30PM on 12/31/11 and concluded at 12:07AM on 1/1/12. So I spent the last hours of 2011 and the first few minutes in 2012 in the company of an orphan and old people trying to stay warm. Happy new year, indeed.

Seriously though, in its current form "Margaret" is a mess but a glorious one that comes alive more often than it falls flat. As a NYC resident since 1996 that actually lived two blocks from where the Cohens live in the movie I can tell you that Kenneth Lonergan nails the peculiar world-within-a-world environment that is the Upper West Side of Manhattan (the same way Whit Stillman's "Metropolitan" is a love letter to the Upper East Side) and mid-2000's 9/11 anxiety. At times the movie switches gears from its character study and attempted visual poetry to what feels like procedural scenes (conference calls with lawyers, police interviews, etc.) left from an unused "Law & Order" episode. If Tommy Wiseau's "The Room" gets rightfully ridiculed for its endless San Francisco B-roll transition scenes then the same has to apply to "Margaret" with its frequent, endless and repetitive B-roll shots of Manhattan streets, skylines and buildings (set to incidental music not unlike "The Room's" piano riffs). Anna Paquin's troubled Linda character has a difficult arc that is not helped by the editing making her and her same-age friends (none of which are well-developed or shown much except for classroom discussions and some Kieran Culkin nookie) seem too juvenile, too political, too wrapped into themselves, too sexualized (which is at odds with how Linda is portrayed earlier in the film) or too overtaken by grief/guilt depending on what the scene/script calls for. At 2 1/2 hours the movie feels not only short but somewhat incoherent because there are scenes that end abruptly/start suddenly (at one point we cut to a door frame for two seconds for no particular reason) alongside scenes that are tight and allowed to breath. The three-hour Lonergan DC can only be an improvement over this still-watchable-but-lacking 2 1/2 hr. version. And unless better scenes emerge that paint them with more dimensions Broderick, Damon and Mark Ruffalo were severely underused or cast in two-dimensional roles that waste their talents.

And yet, despite flaws and being dated (the 9/11 classroom discussions/fights feel older than '05, and seeing "Serenity" and "Flightplan" on the theater marquee just feels weird), you can almost discern the outlines of a masterpiece around every corner. The sporadic use of slow-motion and music (especially the song that starts and closes the movie) is visually/aurally perfect. Though short-changed by editing the classroom scenes come alive with students that challenge their teachers and each other while showing articulate teens as more intelligent and curious than your usual movie (without turning them into saints or sinners, just kids that swear and don't bow to authority). Jean Reno's attempt to pass himself as a Latino businessman reeks of Sasha B. Cohen in "Hugo," but in the end I buy it because Reno totally commits. Paquin is excellent at selling that her guilt for her share of the blame for what happened to Allison Janney (the chattiest dying woman in movie history) is slowly driving her bonkers but not in a troubled-youth movie way. Like Brit Marling in "Another Earth" its the self-destructive nature of Linda's quest to get justice for Janney's death expecting some sort of redemption that is the glue holding "Margaret" together. As the adult women in Lisa's life (who don't control her as much as steer her toward them to channel her drive) J. Smith-Cameron and Jeannie Berlin each sell their characters' somewhat-selfish motives well. When "Margaret's" final scene unfolds it fucking detonates with an avalanche of pathos that I was surprised it packed despite all the editing/pacing flaws, a sure sign that through its post-production problems Lonergan never lost track of keeping the audience engaged and sympathetic to Lisa's cause whether you like her or not.

So, no top 10 of 2011 for "Margaret" from me. As with Reitman's "Young Adult" it has too much baggage for me to justify choosing it over other movies that were less ambitious but were otherwise solidly entertaining (ahem, "Captain America," ahem). That said "Margaret" (flaws and all) in its current form is better than most movies released since 2005 and feels like its an editing session or two away (without length constraints) from being excellent. Count me in on Team Margaret because this type of cinema has to be encouraged and championed even if its delights are buried amidst an avalanche of protracted self-inflicted post-production wounds.

[mfunk9786]

Is it okay that I'm refusing to watch this until the director's cut becomes available? Am I barking up the wrong tree?

[domino harvey]

Yeah, probably, but keep in mind so many of the films we all love from the studio era were butchered after the fact before release, just not as publicly as this one

[dad1153]

Is it okay that I'm refusing to watch this until the director's cut becomes available? Am I barking up the wrong tree?

I say seek it. It's a lost cause financially and critically (not every critic can be as forgiven with the movie in its current shape as me or the one's championing its cause) so what's left, like Coppola's "The Cotton Club" (which never got a proper DC and exists only in the butchered theatrical form), may be flawed but it still works. The ending had me in tears (a minor miracle for such a disjointed 2 1/2 hr. narrative) and lets be real, this might be the only version Fox ever puts out until (or if) Lonergan gets a sugar daddy willing to rescue "Margaret" from becoming an answer in 'Cinephile Trivial Pursuit.'