Blue Jasmine: The Best Movie of 2013 Thus Far

Blue Jasmine opened last weekend in L.A. and New York.  One of the advantages of living in these two cities is, outside of film festivals, you get the opportunity to see all the new limited releases before anyone else.  It kind of sucks that so many film enthusiasts have to wait longer, but that's the way it goes, unfortunately.  I imagine, though, in the near future, things will begin changing, as the way movies open and roll out in the marketplace will change.

I'm pretty difficult to please when it comes to films, those.  My standards are too high for what comes out of the mainstream, but my tastes aren't refined enough as cineastes who can appreciate the most obscure of foreign language directors, and are genuinely excited by each new Terrence Malick film.  I mostly find my favorites in the higher profile projects in the art-house circuit.  But, even then, it feels like slim pickings.  I didn't even do a Top Ten list for 2012, because I felt myself stretching my opinions disingenuously to complete it (as I kind of did in 2011), so I scrapped it all together.  This year has proven to be a bit more promising.  We've had the excellent relationship examination "threequel" Before Midnight.  Mud was a southern coming-of-age dramatic thriller.  And The Conjuring was one of the best horror suspense movies I have seen in a quite a while.  However, it was last weekend, when I truly got my socks blown off by veteran filmmaker Woody Allen.

You never really know what to expect each new year he turns out a new movie like clockwork.  After his penultimate Annie Hall, he quite frequently batted one out of the park for over a good decade.  One classic, memorable film after another.  Pretty soon, his creative juices began leaking just a little, and he was able to provide entertaining, if not dependable material quite consistently.  And, then, for a while, even though one of his "worst" films is better than your average's directors best, he kept hitting brick wall after brick wall.  But, then, ever since he began traipsing across Europe in the mid-2000s, with a new major metropolitan setting each time, he experienced a career renaissance, bringing back audiences and critics into his fold.  Two years, he came out with the crowdpleaser Midnight in Paris, a hilarious and inventive comedy that saw a return-to-form for the writer/director.

Now, with his latest, Blue Jasmine, he has done the imaginable, and topped himself in a very short time.  The movie involves a NYC socialite Jasmine (Cate Blanchett) who has lost everything after her shyster husband (Alec Baldwin) gets arrested for screwing people out of their money.  Her character has not only been compared to Ruth Madoff, but also Blanche Dubois. She's a deluded, entitled woman who, after living a life of obscene luxury built on lies and willful ignorance, must move in with her lower-class sister Ginger (Sally Hawkins) in a less posh area of San Francisco's Mission District.  The film, fortunately, isn't an exact parallel to A Streetcar Named Desire, and has plenty of insight in regards to social strata, mobility, and the ugly relationship between the rich and the poor, as the movie oscillates between present day and flashbacks.  Truth be told, the seams sometimes show a little too glaringly between shifts in time, but the payoff at the end really packs a punch.  I've admired Blanchett from a distance for a great while.  She exudes sophistication and intelligence, and is a preeminent Hollywood style icon.  Unfortunately, I've never really cared for most of her films and/or performances.  Her talent on the screen, while apparent, was always difficult for me to appreciate through her bland choices.  But, thankfully, with this film, I can embrace her for once as the real deal and revel in how great she truly is.  While her portrait of Jasmine is mannered (very early on, she begins talking to herself), it's hard not to imagine any other actress giving her character a naturalness.  She is just so larger than life, it's quite forgivable.  And, she's supported by a strong, eclectic cast which includes Bobby Cannavale, Andrew Dice Clay, Louis C.K., and Peter Sarsgaard.  Also, we don't get the typical locale shots, but it was still pleasurable to get somewhat of a tour of one of the finest U.S. cities, and by a director of Allen's caliber non-less (I wouldn't mind a warranted revisit).

This movie was packing the houses all week and expanded this weekend, where I hope it will continue to set box-office records.  Last weekend and continuing this week, it opened with the highest PTA (per theater average) for 2013, surpassing that of Midnight In Paris' wildly exceptional debut. Below is a non-spoiler clip from one of the NYC flashbacks where Jasmine accuses her husband of cheating on her.