Ceremony (Max Winkler, 2011)

[domino harvey]

I've been talking this one up via PM, but now that this film has finally hit the home video market, there's already some indication that it merits further discussion, so it's been suggested to bring said discussion above board. To start things off, I'll just move my initial comments from the Dynamic Top 10s of 2011 thread here:

It occurred to me while watching Ceremony (Max Winkler, 2011) how so much about it would sound pretty antithetical to greatness on paper. That it's an indie quirkfest. That it's highly indebted to the works of other, more well-known auteur filmmakers. That even the story and setting seem trite and well-trod . So it's of particular delight to confirm that the positive buzz on this one is correct and perhaps even underselling things a bit-- this is the first legitimately great film I've seen this year. The film rises so far ahead of the "cute indie" brethren that have emerged on the cinematic landscape post-Wes Anderson by keeping the lightness of touch without falling into the aesthetic affectations that plague so many other indies of late. The film resists the darkness of recent Baumbach films for a more frothy but still intelligent, slightly off-kilter and above all likable product. All of the main characters are played with such charisma and charm that there's a reason why every festival report I read about this film spends such inordinate amount of time on the cast.

[swo17]

I liked this a lot too, especially on reflection.

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I think the standard version of this story would have played out with Angarano's character getting the girl, and in fact, the film pushes you in that direction at times (i.e. Lee Pace's character being given few redeemable characteristics) but only reveals itself in the end to be something else entirely, more of a coming of age tale about the realization that your first feeling of love is not the great be-all and end-all that you imagine it to be. But it's not exactly that either, as Thurman's character does frequently give the kid some reason to rationally carry on in his obsession with her, and even seems to retain some tender feelings for him at the end, and so the film resides firmly in the same gray area as life.

Also, swearing and dick jokes are treated in many films as inherently funny when they aren't, but they are very funny as employed here.

[domino harvey]

Yes, there's a wonderful sense of play with the expectations on the part of the audience meeting up with the ambiguities of the filmmaker and his characters, with my favorite misdirection being

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the protagonist's eternally-shelled friend getting rejected by the maid, which is set up with this romantic comedy build-up only to come crashing down with the reality of that situation.

[therewillbeblus]

In my recent viewings of films that reconstruct genre, I've been thinking of Max Winkler's Ceremony more and more. I feel like this film plays with the clinically diagnosable self-absorbed people from Margot at the Wedding but planted within the subgenre of romantic comedy where the guy goes for the girl against all odds, to results that are both realistic and exploitative of the false notes in these narratives.

There is an early moment where one narcissist calls out another narcissist for their narcissistic behavior in a move that is both hypocritical and totally right. That’s the breath of fresh air in this movie, that it sets up a wild idea and follows through on itself finding authenticity along the way. On the surface, the premise is ridiculous and disturbing, and the characters are either pathetic or just awful. The trick is that the drives for the plot becomes fair and validated by the reciprocal affections, and the characters are given depth as their pathetic or awful characteristics are covering honest vulnerabilities and pain. There is a convincing representation of interpersonal dynamics and symptoms of maladaptive psychologies that are striking, but the film retains the magic of the movies in following the model of chasing a dreamgirl and achieving some satisfaction in the process.

Simultaneously it disbars conventions in making both suitors unlikeable, refusing to infuse humility into the protagonist so he finds the same result through “being himself” but in relentless inappropriate invasions instead of gentle personable modesty. The structural genre gag is that this actually mimics a lot of these typical rom-com heroes who are dressed up to be kind when they’re really doing just what Sam is with all the facades stripped away. So there’s realism in the emotional relevance and in dissecting the genre. The characters are judged like people would judge them in real life, rather than hailed artificially as characters might be, but the romanticism in fighting for your love is cemented as real inside and outside of the movies, as well as the other reality that the world does not revolve around you, varying between these spaces as it churns out truths. These truths are admirably not transmitted as mutually exclusive like they normally are, which makes for a better comedy- as well as drama.

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I think the standard version of this story would have played out with Angarano's character getting the girl, and in fact, the film pushes you in that direction at times (i.e. Lee Pace's character being given few redeemable characteristics) but only reveals itself in the end to be something else entirely, more of a coming of age tale about the realization that your first feeling of love is not the great be-all and end-all that you imagine it to be. But it's not exactly that either, as Thurman's character does frequently give the kid some reason to rationally carry on in his obsession with her, and even seems to retain some tender feelings for him at the end, and so the film resides firmly in the same gray area as life.

I like that the promised subgenre totally switches into that one you cite here without feeling like a leap, and revisiting it a second time the film works even better because it still presents as a change-up but one that is natural and earned (In many ways it’s like Rushmore if Max was a very late-bloomer, age-difference and all). When Sam admits that he hasn't been quite honest with himself at the very end, but retains his previously obnoxious, fake-seeming confident persona by making friendly bromance compliments after the ride we've just endured, this quality is revealed to be exactly what we never gave Sam credit for: Genuine kindness, which exists along with his less redeemable traits.

The film is also funnier than one might imagine, and a lot of the comedy comes from the audacious characters finding themselves in a plot they don't belong, but due to their natures they participate in overdrive. All the jokes involving the groom's horrid egotism and the party guests' eccentricities exposed nonchalantly by the intrusive main characters are gold, but the central friendship's strange pairing sells this one home. The 'mismatched friends-as-brothers' is an old idea, but here the power dynamic is exploited just as the rapport is treated with care. The scene where they're on the bed and Sam comments on Marshall's penis shows how comfortable their friendship is solely because of how warm and sweet the entire exchange is portrayed.