An Education Staff Review

From the first bouncy notes of its opening credits, “An Education” springs onto the screen with all the energy and joie de vivre of a bevy of chattering schoolgirls, and maintains this breezy pace and an appropriately, refreshingly lighthearted tone through to the very last frame. Carey Mulligan, playing the luminous, precocious protagonist Jenny, has been repeatedly likened by critics to Audrey Hepburn — and while her charm and expressiveness are a little reminiscent of Hepburn in her breakout role in “Roman Holiday,” Mulligan is a delight as Jenny not because she is pretty and perfect, but because Jenny is naïve and arrogant, confused and disillusioned, just like so many other bright teenagers galloping headfirst toward the humbling place that is the real world.

The film, set in post-war, pre-Beatles Britain, centers upon Jenny’s budding relationship with David (Peter Sarsgaard), a charming thirtysomething man of questionable repute, who picks her up one rainy afternoon on the pretense of keeping her cello dry. One can almost read her mind as the two sit in David’s car chatting: This man is intoxicatingly sophisticated compared to the boys Jenny is used to — is the age difference simply what it takes to keep up with a sixteen-year-old girl praised by teachers for her cleverness and groomed for Oxford by her parents? It seems that way to Jenny, at least.

David’s courtship of Jenny, juxtaposed with the pitiable-yet-humorous efforts of one of her classmates, gradually progresses. His worldliness and affability help him win over Jenny’s well-intentioned petty bourgeois parents, played brilliantly by Alfred Molina and Cara Seymour, who seem just as dazzled by his world of fine art, nightclubs, and spontaneous jaunts to Paris as Jenny is. All they want is for their little girl to have a more prosperous, more glamorous life than they’ve had, and David seems to be offering one — for free.

The story — criticized by some as “safe” and “predictable” — is admittedly a fairly straightforward coming-of-age tale. But the conventional plot is precisely what allows the rest of the film to shine: Mulligan and Molina are tender, humorous and wonderfully real, Olivia Williams (“Rushmore”) and Dominic Cooper (“The History Boys”) provide solid support, and Emma Thompson is hilarious and horrid as the cold-hearted headmistress. A dynamite soundtrack is present throughout — with the exception of a very out-of-place modern number during the final credits — featuring less predictable artists, like Mel Tormé instead of Frank Sinatra, for instance, who give the film a vibrant atmosphere without being so familiar as to distract viewers. The production design, costumes and makeup are slick and stylized without forfeiting accuracy, making pre-swinging London look as pristine and chilly as a glittering Swarovski figurine.

The unrelenting lightness of “An Education” is what makes the film truly great; director Lone Sherfig and writer Nick Hornby allow the darker moments to flit by in a way that creates a gripping sense of tension as the older and wiser audience realizes the dangers Jenny is dancing frightfully close to. Humorous moments, too, are peppered throughout, particularly whenever things threaten to take a turn for the sentimental. (“If it does happen, it will never happen again,” says Jenny before sleeping with David. Why? Well, she clarifies, the first time can only happen once, can’t it?) Though the resolution of this fairly brisk film is a bit rushed, not a minute of any of it is dull. “An Education” will be opening at The Loft this Friday.

The Baader-Meinhof Complex Staff Review

The Baader Meinhof Complex is a highly stylized and pretty well-paced film, clocking in at over 2 hours long. The film does not stray far from the facts, yet such a history lesson in late 60’s through the better parts of the 70’s West German socio/political upheaval never disappoints, except maybe in that it is missing some of this man’s favorites in the German acting world. But I do digress. The film starts out with the humble beginnings of what would later become the Red Army Faction, also known as the Baader Meinhof gang.

We see the respected leftist journalist Ulrike Meinhof played by the stunning actress Martina Gedeck coming into her own as a politically active journalist when she takes the side of student demonstrators who, while peaceably protesting the visiting Shah of Iran, were attacked by the Shah’s entourage, then later the German police force. Her compassion for the students' and leftists' views were obviously not stomached well by the establishment’s right-wing eyes. But nonetheless Ulrike strikes a chord with the burgeoning student subversive groups. The political situation at this time in Germany was one of much suspicion towards those in political and economic power on both respective sides of Germany. Former Nazis still managed to find their way back into positions of power in the political and business sectors. And great suspicion of Nazism and/or American Imperialist influence did not sit well with the distrustful younger generation. Enter social unrest, the setting for the rest of our film.

Johanna Wokalek delivers a sexy and substantial breakout performance as Gudrun Ensslin, the other intellectual brain of the early RAF days. She drives the film and the newly born terrorist group like a jockey at the bridle. She also holds the bridle to the movie's other namesake, Andreas Baader, the psychopathic strong-arm of the RAF. Moritz Bleibtreu plays Andreas with a rageaholic’s vigor, both convincingly and fearfully. I cannot truly express the delivery these actors employ in their powerful roles as real life figures. Even after watching the film a second time I can’t with all honestly say I have seen any blatant over-acting, which one could expect from people who have the chance to play idealistic Marxist radicals (the vilified enemy of the Cold War generation) in a movie.

The first half plays like a youthful deviant’s joy ride in a stingray corvette of yesteryear. The last half is still a fever dream-paced ride, but in said stingray with blown struts and grinding gears as our proto-terrorist heroes begin their downward spiral in the same fashion of their fiery rise. Once again the film never strays far from fact; as the grueling trail and prison confinement grates on the souls and sanity of the group's incarcerated founding members, friendship and organizational dynamics take a boot to the head as solitary confinement and hunger strikes work chaos and ravage their respective psyches. The trailer does not lie about the birth of modern terrorism, as these influential but tragically egotistical miscreants help set off a tirade of international events in their wake, even after their capture. Excitement and a damn good history lesson is what one gets from The Baader Meinhof Complex.

Once again my only qualm with the film is that I would have loved Alexandra Maria Lara to have a speaking line and not just be gratuitous eye candy. And a bit more screen time for the ever-brilliant Bruno Ganz. But, none of this diminishes from the film itself. Hollywood should take note of Uli Edel’s direction and learn how one can make a film that is sexy, fast-paced and dripping with style that can somehow still contain substance. In closing, the film is more than worth seeing, not only for educational and entertainment value but also for its relevance to today’s trouble with terrorism and the consequences of free market capitalism. It brings food for thought to anyone who grew up in the 80’s and 90’s seeing the fall of the great enemy of communism and its ideology, and forces you to wonder if both sides took their views too far in one direction. Which in the end was perhaps a loss to both sides. Come watch the film and take from it what you will. Love, D.