Beginners

[MacGuffin]

Trailer here.

Release Date: June 3rd, 2011 (limited)

Starring: Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer, Mélanie Laurent

Directed by: Mike Mills (Thumbsucker)

Premise: Oliver meets the irreverent and unpredictable Anna only months after his father Hal has passed away. This new love floods Oliver with memories of his father who --following 44 years of marriage --came out of the closet at age 75 to live a full, energized, and wonderfully tumultuous gay life. The upheavals of Hal's new honesty, by turns funny and moving, brought father and son closer than they'd ever been able to be. Now Oliver endeavors to love Anna with all the bravery, humor, and hope that his father taught him.

[RegularKarate]

I saw this at SXSW too.  It was nice little movie that didn't get caught up in itself like I expected it to (from the trailers).
Probably my second favorite that I saw at the festival (I missed all the really cool stuff like Attack the Block).

The dog is really good in this.

[modage]

I'd been looking forward to this since it played at Toronto last year (and esp. since SXSW). I saw it a few weeks ago the day after I got back from Hong Kong (on a 12 hour time difference / 16 hour flight jetlag) and could not keep conscious through it. It wasn't boring or anything but once they turned the lights off my body just started to shut down involuntarily and I tried to pinch my leg and shift in my seat to stay awake but the energy I spent doing that was not spent concentrating on the movie. So yeah, I saw this but I did not see this. I have to see it again to have any opinion on it whatsoever.  

[polkablues]

I have nothing much to add but to make the observation that Melanie Laurent is really, really pretty.

[Mr. Merrill Lehrl]

Pretty good interview of Mike Mills by Gus Van Sant in this month's Filmmaker Magazine.

[Just Withnail]

Just tuning in to say that nothing much has been said about this movie.

[Mr. Merrill Lehrl]

Just tuning in to say that nothing much has been said about this movie.

Here or in the media?

If you mean here I did think I should've maybe included some points from the interview I previously mentioned.  Some points from that interview (zero spoilers):

Mills's father was married to his mother until the end of her life, and after she died he came out of the closet and began to live a gay life in Santa Barbara.  The movie is based on that real life experience.  Mills prefers to shoot with many open mic channels to record sound in that Altman way, but he's not sure which particular mic his sound guy used.  Both him and Van Sant prefer small crews.  Mills does advertisements because then he's financially free yadda yadda typical stuff about them giving him tons of money.  Mills is dating Miranda July but they don't talk about each other's work too much.  She read his script one and a half times and vice versa.  But what he wants to do is make a film good enough to impress her.

[matt35mm]

Mills is dating Miranda July

They're married now.

[Mr. Merrill Lehrl]

Mills is dating Miranda July

They're married now.

I forgot they were married but it makes sense because he also talked about the marriage of Agnès Varda
and Jacques Demy as an influence on their relationship.

[Mr. Merrill Lehrl]

It felt lifeless, the drama was flat, and I had trouble connecting.  Its aesthetics are rich but shallow.  The characters experience reality but not in a real way; its believability is calculated.  Which means if it dials your number you'll really like the movie.  I respect Mike Mills as a risk taker and a filmmaker who avoids compromise and easy solutions.  He imprints his personality.  He seeks his personal vision.  These are qualities I admire.  But cinematically we're speaking different languages.

[picolas]

this is a massive step forward from thumbsucker. it's not perfect. ewan does an adequate job but overall his performance is pretty monotonous and a little too self-conscious, and important portions of his emotional arc are vague to me on first view. most of the performances have an odd, self-conscious twang to them. BUT plummer and laurent and that fucking dog are amazing. the dog does so many ridiculously specific things you'd think he was once owned by uta hagen or someshit. it's one of those movies where every scene has some cool little idea at the center of it, like they've been collecting for years, and it surpasses feeling gimmicky for pretty much the whole time. and it's quite funny. and hugely personal.

[Ghostboy]

The dog spent years acting on Frasier. He knows his shit.

EDIT: I was misinformed. He was TRAINED by the same dog trainer who trained the dog on Frasier. Much less impressive. But the dog in Beginners definitely made me cry.