the groundhog day project

Newark, New Jersey, September is a great way to start a movie that is very much not set in Newark, New Jersey, nor in September. By the time the opening credits finish, we're in California. The landscapes along the way, the tiny bit of dialogue voiceover, establishing the car needing a push at the Canyon Portal Motel--there is something weirdly charming and, in retrospect, a little strange, about this montage. We don't just meet Daniel (Ralph Macchio) and Lucille (Randee Heller) as new arrivals in California; we get a glimpse of them before the transition, we see the process. We come with them. And, of course, most of the audience is not watching the film in California, so Daniel meeting Ali (Elisabeth Shue) at a beach party in September is strange. And really, that's all exemplary of how The Karate Kid introduces characters through their actions rather than having people tell us who they are. There's a little bit of exposition--like Freddy (Israel Juarbe) asking D...

20th Century Women begins with an aerial shot of the ocean, then a subtitle: "Santa Barbara, 1979." Importantly, that subtitle includes the period. Narration immediately connects the present to events in the past, Jamie's father, Dorothea's husband, their marriage, his car, their divorce. Other bits of narration and voiceover later will put various characters into the context of their history but even more, late in the film, we are offered specific facts about the future lives of these characters. That the title references the time period is no mistake, of course. This is about a specific time, a specific place, geographically as well as metaphorically within these lives. This is where Jamie and Dorothea and Abbie and Julie and William are at this moment. This is what their lives are like now . Now being 1979, of course. Summer. The film even begins on Dorothea's birthday. She is turning 55. Jamie tells us about her life so far. Later, Dorothea will tell us abo...