film review: Somewhere by Sofia Coppola
The basics: In the latest film written and directed by Sofia Coppola, Stephen Dorff plays Johnny Marco, a famous Hollywood actor living at the Chateau Marmont. His pre-teen daughter, Cleo (Elle Fanning, who was fantastic) comes to stay with him. My thoughts: I'm a huge fan of Sofia Coppola, and I found the premise of this film exciting. It's a nuanced look at celebrity culture through the eyes of someone is somewhat an insider and somewhat an outsider. Coppola grabs the viewer from the opening scene, which features a car being driven in circles. The steady frame is almost unsettling in its length. There were nervous rumblings in the theater, but the scene does exactly what I imagine Ms. Coppola intended: it disarms the viewer, makes her pay attention and realize her own uneasiness. It's a quiet film but an incredibly profound one. The dialogue is sparse and in some scenes it's non-existent. Coppola managed to make me analyze the construction of the film while enjoyi...