Todd Haynes' highly anticipated Carol screened a week ago for NYFF press and I immediately began marking time P.C. "POST CAROL". It was that impactful. For something that appears so delicate it breaks with immeasurable force. Carol recounts the relationship between a posh 40something society wife (Cate Blanchett), no stranger to lesbian affairs, and a curious 20something photographer/shopgirl (Rooney Mara) who has never been in love. Haynes's sixth feature is one of his best and thus both a marvel and a relief since he had gone AWOL from movie screens for eight years. The film which began the long drought, I'm Not There, is the only one that this longtime Haynes fanatic doesn't cherish.
Herewith 10 favorite things (in no particular order) about Carol right after meeting her. This infatuation is too potent to think clearly at this point for a traditional review. A word of caution: exciting first dates don't always lead to fullblown rewarding relationships but this one appears to be a (celluloid) romance for the long haul.
1. Gifts & Gift-Wrapping
We like to think of final quarter movies as "gifts" since so much of awards season is centered around the holidays. This one is beautifully wrapped (the production values are breathtaking on literally every level) and even better once you start tearing the careful packaging apart to see what it's gifted you with. Carol also takes place during Christmas just like Tangerine so in one single cinematic year we've received the best Lesbian Christmas movie and the best Trans Christmas movie. How about that? More...
If only there were a great Gay Christmas movie also released this year. One of the best wordless scenes in the movie (and there are many mesmerizing images that don't require the mundanity of words) involves Carol shopping for a Christmas tree while Therese watches her.
Speaking of that scene...
2. What Jose said...
CAROL captures the exact moment when you fall in love with *such* precision. It made my heart skip a beat. pic.twitter.com/yHeziTs3cu
— Jose Solís (@josesolismayen) October 1, 2015
3. Meet the World's First Movie Blogger
Albeit without the internet. One of the smallest but not uncrucial supporting roles is a would be writer named Dannie (very well played by John Magaro, who you'll recognize as Morello's new husband on Orange is the New Black). Every time he shows up, three times I believe (?), he seems to say something totally crucial to our understanding of the movie without feeling like a screenplay construct as opposed to a real character. We first meet him in the projection room of a movie theater and he's scribbling notes while letting Therese and her friends watch Sunset Blvd through his projectionist window. This is his sixth time seeing it and this time, he tells Therese, he's writing down every instance where the characters say one thing but mean another. I can't imagine that this moment won't warm the cockles of every movie-buff's heart who chances upon it. If you've ever had feelings about a beloved movie that you just had to get out somehow, you will relate.
4. It casts an unshakeably romantic spell
And old vinyl recording that Therese knows Carol likes plays a part in the narrative and the movie definitely inspires the kind of romantic feelings that have inspired people to serenade each other, make mixed tapes, or share playlists throughout our evolving history. This will seem odd but I keep wanting to sing it that old New Wave hit from the General Public.
So hot you're cool
So cool you're hot
Show me my favourite beauty spot
Tie me up in a love knot
Boiling over bubbling up
Why? Well, much has been made of Carol's "frostiness." But that's overblown. Yes, it takes place in the dead of winter and there's a lot of ice and inhospitable temperature for gay love in the 1950s. And, yes, the emotional behavior is often chilly exactly when you wish that people would thaw but it generates remarkable heat all the same. Cate Blanchett has never ever been sexier onscreen. And when the clothes come off...
5. ...OMGTHECLOTHES
From Carol's glamourpuss trunks of 'em (with a wide color palette range depending on her moods) to Therese's repetitive (read: lowly shopgirl) looks and ever present childlike hat, to the generational differences between their respective crowds, to Abby's (Sarah Paulson) relaxed lesbian-but-not-butch chic, Sandy Powell's instincts remain remarkably strong and character-fortifying. An eleventh Oscar nomination better be on its way and a fourth Oscar might be too. It wouldn't be uncalled for. This is her 3rd collaboration with Todd Haynes after the spectacular costumes on Velvet Goldmine (Oscar nomination) and Far From Heaven (no Oscar nomination... yes, I'm still trying to get over that)
6. Gay Friendship dramatized, not just Gay Love
There is one beautiful shot in the movie featuring Abby (Sarah Paulson) & Carol that says more about LGBT friendship than I've seen onscreen in many many years, if ever. There isn't much of Paulson in the movie but she serves it every time she's called upon. Attention all filmmakers: why aren't you giving her leading or ginormous supporting roles at this point? This woman always delivers. (She's been running circles around Jessica Lange on American Horror Story for years now, if you ask me.)
Paulson's pinpoint sharp reads on her deep backstory with Carol and her soured history with Carol's husband Harge (Kyle Chandler) are a joy to watch. The only scene (that I can recall) in the movie that does not involve either Carol or Therese is between Abby & Harge and it is brutal perfection. But that's what can happen when filmmakers are smart enough to hire actors as good as Chandler and Paulson for texture even when the movie is the type that's laser focused on just two characters.
7. Cinematography by Edward Lachmann
He's one of the greats (Erin Brockovich, Desperately Seeking Susan, The Virgin Suicides, The Limey, Far From Heaven). That he doesn't have an Oscar yet (and only one nomination at that!) is deeply annoying.
8. Even the hoary opening framing device feel fresh!
Carol begins, subversively, with a character that is neither Carol (Cate Blanchett) or Therese (Rooney Mara). We're with a newspaper man at a bar and we expect him to be a major character but he won't remotely become one! He's talking to the bartender when he spots the lovely ladies dining. While the camera sees only Carol (Blanchett, utterly movie star radiant throughout), it's the less focus-pulling shy Therese (Rooney Mara), with her back to the camera, that this man recognizes. He's clearly interrupted something and Carol excuses herself quickly. Our POV quickly shifts from the surface to the interior as it were. The ladies are first objects and then Therese's inner feelings, however unreadable, are abruptly the subject as she stares out the window of a cab, clearly not thinking about whatever this newspaper man is thinking about. It's only at this point (just three or four minutes into the movie but without helpful time stamps) that you realize we're witnessing the most overused framing device in both movies and television. We're beginning near the end and looping back around for an hour or so to see how we got here. And determining where "here" even is in the lives of its characters.
9. Superb pacing / control.
For the past decade media and civilians alike have been arguing that "Tv is the future/best/better than cinema" which has been a source of considerable exasperation to yours truly. Look, each medium has its titan creatives and each medium its strengths. But some directors and stories were obviously meant for the cinema. I'd toss Haynes's version of Mildred Pierce and its 5 hour running time in the recycling bin in a split second without remorse if it meant I could have 2 movies from him between 2008 and 2014 instead. Carol is 118 minutes long and never feels anything but perfectly paced. Mildred Pierce, while beautiful to look at was filled with dead spaces and it robbed Haynes of one of his best skills as a filmmaker: his merciless precision. Too many filmmakers (and definitely too many TV show runners) dilute the impact of their stories by indulging them, treading in their waters rather than controlling their currents. Carol has the kind of concentrated pacing and tight crystallization of character arcs through images that you only get in cinema when the creative team is keeping it tight and understands that they are not making visual epic novels or comic books but visual short stories. You only have these series of shots alone to tell a full satisfying story. And they're going to tell it in such a way that you give the audience abundant room to build their own extensions -- miniseries, prequels or endless franchise installents -- in their imagination from how rich the images and implications are and how deeply the characters resonate. I readily admit that I prefer my own imaginated extensions of cinematic stories to run-on serial stories or padded single stories which is probably a huge part of why I am more innately drawn to cinema than television... and why I have a sore spot for films of any kind that think they need several hours to tell a story. If that's what you need, filmmakers, you either chose the wrong medium or you just aren't willing to edit yourself!
10. It inspires great conversations and beautiful praise.
And the conversation has only begun. (The movie opens in limited release on November 20th, perfect timing for the holidays which play so beautifully into the narrative.) Here are some of my favorite tweets about Carol already from other critics and/or film lovers and/or me.
"Katharine. Jasmine. I want you to be cordial when Carol arrives." - Cate Blanchett to her Oscars
— Louis Virtel (@louisvirtel) September 29, 2015
The best part of my day has been seeing the CAROL still in @TheNYFF pre-show slides. SO READY TO SEE THIS %# MOVIE ALREADY
— Dor Dotson (@dordotson) September 30, 2015
Impossible to forget. @MsSarahPaulson as Abby Gerhard in "Carol," a film written by @PhyllisNagy. pic.twitter.com/S6aHucr6Yd
— James Grissom (@JGrissomNYC) October 3, 2015
Best #NYFF features I've seen so far: Carol and The Lobster (which sounds like a 1968 ABC sitcom but is actually two movies).
— Mark Harris (@MarkHarrisNYC) October 1, 2015
Still my favorite Carol from Todd Haynes. pic.twitter.com/bj5kPQj3h5
— Tim Grierson (@TimGrierson) October 3, 2015
There’s only one word to describe Todd Haynes’ 1950s queer drama ‘Carol’: flawless. http://t.co/J6wBW9d1cs pic.twitter.com/Xgf8DQKnKQ
— Flavorwire (@flavorwire) September 29, 2015
1 big surprise in Carol: Kyle Chandler, digging deep in a completely credible & shaded performance as Blanchett's rough, unhappy husband.
— Mark Harris (@MarkHarrisNYC) September 28, 2015
@MarkHarrisNYC @kateyrich so rewarding how the script allows Harge and Richard to function as funhouse mirrors for one another
— david ehrlich (@davidehrlich) September 28, 2015
I feel we take Cate Blanchett for granted. After seeing CAROL, I'm convinced she's really the only movie star. http://t.co/dDNKpfcJpq
— Mike Ryan (@mikeryan) September 29, 2015
what if the Pope is really just here to see CAROL at NYFF? "yeah sure bless my flock or whatever but seriously that Blanchett is DIVINE."
— david ehrlich (@davidehrlich) September 22, 2015
not to be too #OnBrand, but MAD MEN lost for the same reason CAROL will: awards don’t go to #subtlety & #ThingsUnsaid & #UtterFuckingGenius.
— david ehrlich (@davidehrlich) September 21, 2015
if only this were literally true so I could just walk backwards and watch it on loop. pic.twitter.com/Q9MQ4a9pxB
— Nathaniel Rogers (@nathanielr) September 28, 2015
Final #CAROL tweet for now: what did this world ever do to deserve TODD HAYNES? It was not enough.
— Nathaniel Rogers (@nathanielr) September 28, 2015
Grade: A
Oscar Chances: All over the place. But in order of most-to-least likely it probably goes like so...
Likely: Costumes, Supporting Actress (Category Fraud); Decent Shot at It: Best Actress; Possible but they'll have to fight hard for it: Adapted Screenplay, Production Design, Original Score; Longer Shots: Makeup and Hair, Picture, Director; Unlikely (which does not mean unworthy): Everything else... ; Ineligible: Best Animated Feature but it's a better movie about loneliness and intergenerational love than Anomalisa!