Causeway (2022)

Rated R for a lot of drug and alcohol use...at least by my Puritan standards.  There's language and the mildest of sexuality.  It's more tension than sexuality proper, but I gotta point it out.  There's also a lot of talk of violence without actually having any violence on-screen.  Still, it does get a little dicey.  Again, we're dealing with a depressing movie, so strap in for all that accompanies that.  R.

DIRECTOR:  Lila Neugebauer

This is the third blog I'm writing in a row.  It's like I'm writing my Master's thesis in one sitting, but just completely ignoring typos at this point.  Something really weird happens when you binge content.  I think people are more aware of it when it comes to TV shows, but it does happen with movies too.  It almost does a disservice to the film in itself.  Don't get me wrong.  I love watching all the movies.  For years of this blog, I had a movie a day.  But when it comes to Academy Award season, I even ramp that watch schedule up.  But if my words start becoming gobbelty-gook, I've broken through to a level of hallicinatory writing that is reserved for few times in my life.  Let's see how many more blogs I have to write after this?  Oh good, only eight more left.

Causeway might not be a great movie.  I can't do three movie blogs in a row where I tear apart the movie, so I'm going to finish that thought.  Causeway might not be a great movie, but it actually might be significantly better than some of the movies that are up for Best Picture this year.  The broad stroke version of my blog is that it is a bit of low-hanging fruit.  We are probably all aware of the phrase, "Oscar Bait."  This movie is Oscar Bait without the Oscar quality.  If I came to a studio and told you that I could get two big-time actors to talk about how hurt people fix each other, I'd probably get some check before I walked out the door.  Part of that logic comes from the fact that having an ailment gives the actor something to play.  With Jennifer Lawrence, not being able to depend on one's body is an interesting thing to work through.  For Brian Tyree Henry, having to backpedal ableism is kind of a fascinating exploration.  But like a lot of Oscar Bait, it's low-hanging-fruit.  

The threads that keep these two characters together seems a little dated for 2023. I'm going to flash back to the halcyon days of Miramax independent film.  I know.  I crap on his filmmaking a lot, but I want to talk about Kevin Smith's Chasing Amy​.  There was a time that I thought that this movie was genius.  A low-brow writer / director showed some maturity and made a movie that was gutsy and talked about homosexuality in a way that most mainstream culture hadn't heard before.  Now, while I don't love Chasing Amy now, Kevin Smith gets all the points in the world.  He was the perfect voice to talk about a challenging topic and bring it to an audience that may not have been willing to hear about it.  But it is 2023.  I'm going to beat you to the punch right here and state clearly, "We absolutely should make movies that deal with homosexuality and queer theory."  But the relationship between Lynsey and James isn't there to really say anything except for "how daring!"  The story is about two friends helping each other beyond the limitations of their injuries.  The problem is, there is no ending to that story.  The thing about dealing with a life-altering injury is that it follows you for life.  If you want to tell the story of two friends, making up a conflict that might ruin their friendship shouldn't be "gay."  That's a different movie.  That's Chasing Amy.  (I really want to just transcribe Silent Bob's entire "Chasing Amy" speech, but that might stress that I still like Chasing Amy.)

Ultimately, Causeway is the dramatic equivalent of a Saturday Night Live skit.  SNL, like most sketch comedy, has to just decide when the story is over.  Now, with the case of Lynsey (a name that I hate to write out because it's "Lynsey"), there is a decision on the horizon.  She teases the notion of going back into the military, despite the fact that she absolutely will never be physically ready to go, as this thing over her head.  But that's an external conflict.  External conflicts are great and this movie actually has a pretty good one.  But we care more about James than we do Lynsey.  James, for all of his confidence, has something to lose.  It's weird when the protagonist is less important than her supporting cast, but James is also a person who has a bit more of an arc than Lynsey.  

I don't want to put down Lynsey.  She seems like a lovely person who has just been through a lot.  Her story is completely sympathetic.  But James is this guy who makes the choice to step out of his comfort zone and shows mercy to someone who looks like they're going through a lot.  Trust me, I hate me too for bonding with the male character.  But he's up for the Academy Award, so I almost feel compelled to talk about him. Okay.  So let's talk about James.  James isn't at his come-to-Jesus moment.  If anything, James is the end of the line, especially compared to Lynsey. He's a guy who has his life together.  He has this deep, dark secret about how he's partially responsible for his nephew's death.  But he's learned to move on.  He sees his leg as a reminder of what he did and he somehow functions.  Because he approaches with grace, he's punished.  Honestly, I do think that the relationship, regardless of what it finally ends up being, is one that is overall healthy.  But if we're using heartache as punishment, I can't deny that he would probably avoid any heartache if he just steered clear of Lynsey.

He does all the right things.  It is a bit weird that this guy, a car mechanic, takes a personal investment in every element of Lynsey's life.  He doesn't know Lynsey.  They become fast friends, but the power dynamic is one-sided.  Because James has his whole life together, Lynsey quickly becomes dependent on him.  But it's the pool kiss that I want to talk about.  I'm going to try to separate my frustrations about real life coerced kisses from women and put those aside.  (Mainly because the stories are lame and I'm trying to be objective.) While I do get the vibe that James is attracted to a homosexual woman, I think it's pretty mild.  It's not like James comes across as infatuated.  I mean, the point could be made that he keeps showing up for Lynsey at the drop of a hat could be that infatuation peeking its way through.  But that also almost defines us as an audience more than it defines James as a character.  If he's doing this out of infatuation, then the movie is a bit more bleak than I would like to admit.  James doing it out of a sense of altruism makes for a better story for me, but that's all something that could be argued back and forth.  That kiss, though.  That's unfair, right?  Like, I get genuinely upset at Lynsey for that kiss.

I'm holding Lynsey up to a standard that's unfair.  I know.  I know.  I know.  It's just that, man, James doesn't need that in his life.  One of the key "nice guy" trope things is the notion of deserving attention.  James is a nice guy, but he actually treats what emotions he has appropriately.  Lynsey sets firm rules and barriers about what the relationship should be and James doesn't really cross those lines.  I suppose that Drunk James might have pushed it a bit by inviting her to move in, but that also seems like a friendship thing.  James is actively punished for doing the right thing.  Because the problem isn't having feelings; the problem is acting on those feels or expecting something from those feelings.  James doesn't break any of these rules.  If anything, Lynsey plays with his consent. He says he doesn't want to get into the pool.  If he does have feelings, it's him setting up boundaries.  I applaud that.  It's a rough spot because it's not his fault.

I am a little weirded about Lynsey's brother in jail. There's this big secret that Lynsey's brother being alive, but in prison.  I don't know what this adds to the story.  Similarly, her brother is deaf.  (At one point, the movie stopped giving us subtitles for the ASL and I thought it was a choice.  Then I YouTubed it and realized that Apple TV+ was just being an idiot.)  The end of the movie made it about the brother and that was barely a thread up to that point.  Again, I chalk a lot of this scene up to Oscar Bait, which is probably not the strongest motivating factor when deciding what scenes make it into the movie.

I mean, it's fine.  I enjoyed the movie.  I even enjoyed the movie more than some of the Oscars that are up for Best Picture.  It's just a movie that feels woefully underbaked. It has all of the elements of a great film without actually being a great film.  It's just that there is no cohesion between anything beyond the performances, which are pretty great.