Sofia Coppola: Not just for girls
It’s fitting that Sofia Coppola’s new movie is called “Somewhere,” an apt title for a filmmaker whose works are grounded in a sense of place and yet feel as if they’re taking place in their own hermetically sealed world. The same qualities that got “Lost in Translation” lauded for its dreamy atmosphere prompted attacks on “Marie Antoinette” for being cosseted and self-indulgent, which had more to do with critics’ sympathies toward the former’s melancholy May-December romance and their hostility to the feminine frippery of the latter than any profound shift between the two. (Anthony Lane’s New Yorker review of “Marie Antoinette” remains one of the most sexist pieces of criticism I’ve ever read.) A few of the same brickbats have been lobbed at “Somewhere,” but in the main the story of divorced action-movie star Johnny Marco (Stephen Dorff) bottoming out at the Chateau Marmont has met with a warmer reception, winning the top prize at the Venice Film Festival. As he sleepily watches twin strippers gyrate in his hotel room and cops a fake smile …
