Getting on the Bus

The We and The I (2012) - Gondry

Michel Gondry did a 2 year workshop with teenagers from the Bronx for The We and The I, a one-day-in-the-life-of-real-innercity-teens on screen. It's a unique social experiment that is rarely seen in American cinema. Kids talk like themselves, loud and obnoxious, oblivious to their surroundings. No one in the film is made-up, snapshot-ready pretty. And all of it takes place inside a public bus.

It's the last day of the school before the summer recess, and about 30 High School kids gets on the MTA bus to go home. They bully people out of their seat, gossip incessantly, furiously texting into their blackberries, exchange funny youtube videos, make guest lists for parties, flirt and fight. There is a hierarchy even in seating arrangement inside the bus. Asshole bullies all the way in the back, then cluster of other cliques scattered through out. There are gay kids, popular girls, artistic kids who always draw in their sketchbooks, musicians and so on. As they intermingle with each other, playing unending musical chairs, the ever mobile camera jumps from one chat to another. This overlapping cacophony of interactions are like old Altman movies but given that it's a confined, noisy space, you don't really get to grasp everything they say. There are some Gondry moments but he keeps his visual gags to a minimum (for comic relief), only accompanying only small portions of kid's recounting their many stories and anecdotes.

Things become a little more coherent as kids get off (or kicked out) at their destinations or middle of the road. The rhythm kind of settles and the meat of the story emerges: Teresa and Michael, once a couple but not anymore, she not attending school at the moment and he the part of asshole/bully clique. Without sentimentalizing, Gondry observes their insecurities and misunderstandings and finds gems in the rough. Much more real than Laurent Cantet's The Class, partly because the absence adults save for the no non-sense, tough as a nail bus driver, The We and The I is a one of a kind, beautiful observation that's all about kids.

Meeting of the Minds

Is the Man Who is Tall Happy? (2013) - Gondry


Bulk of criticisms of Noam Chomsky, an activist and cognitive scientist, comes from his seeming inability to give satisfactory answers in interviews. In Manufacturing Consent, the filmmakers point out this very problem: Chomsky's lengthy explanation on any given subject is not quite fitting for a 5-10 or even 30 minute TV debate format. Considering he is a renowned linguist, then perhaps it's the questions that are put on him the wrong kinds? In this charming, mostly hand drawn Animated documentary, Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of Spotless Mind, Science of Sleep) makes that dissonance work and less awkward.

It's pretty much two men just talking in a very relaxed, intimate manner. Gondry wisely keeps political subjects at bay and concentrate on happier, more benign things. The heavily French accented director's inquiry is mainly in how we human beings perceive the world and how the language comes in to play. Chomsky insists that human's physical perception of the world is a wrong way to look at the world. A dog which turned into a camel in a children's book is still a dog. fghttagifwkwftgggehr. My favorite moments are short glimpses into Chomsky's private life, especially about his wife Carol who passed away in 2008. I was expecting to be bored out of my skull but the film turns out to be very engaging. I'd love to watch this again.