.
AUGUST 2014- 32 films: French ballet, John Wayne, Errol Morris, Ginger Baker, George Cukor, Howard Hawks and William Wyler, Danish Royalty, Ip Man, Jimmy Stewart, Ralph Fiennes and Charles Dickens, Fredrick Wiseman, Ian McKellan and Patrick Stewart WAITING FOR GODOT, Tom Hardy, Richard Brooks, Pip, Magwich and Mrs. Havesham, Bille August, Ben Stiller, Walt Disney and Tom Hanks, Mike Birbiglia and Miranda July, Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn and the RAF terrorist organization, Suzanne Bier and a cute cartoon mouse with a French name. Jonathan Glazer. Max Von Sydow. Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn again! Edgar Rice Burroughs on Mars and Edward G. Robinson in San Francisco. A ravishing Nicole Kidman and THE BELLY OF AN ARCHITECT!! O, the riches!
(Ratings are on a 5 star scale. Note that a classic only becomes a classic after a decade or more.)
(Titles in purple have been expanded for Flix Pix columns.)
> THIS MONTH, the following films:
LE DANSE: The Paris Opera Ballet (2009)****+
McLINTOCK! (1963)***+
STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE (2008)***+
BEWARE OF MR. BAKER (2012)***+
A DOUBLE LIFE (1947)***
COME AND GET IT (1936)***
A ROYAL AFFAIR (2012)****+
THE GRANDMASTER (2013) **
THE NAKED SPUR (1953)*****
THE INVISIBLE WOMAN (2013)***+
BOXING GYM (2010)****
THEATRELAND (2014)***+
LOCKE (2014)****
GREAT EXPECTATIONS (2012)****+
NIGHT TRAIN TO LISBON (2013)***+
THE PUNK SINGER (2013)***
LET IT RAIN (2008)***+
THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY (2013)***
SAVING MR. BANKS (2013)****
SLEEPWALK WITH ME (2012)***+
THE STATE OF THE UNION (1948)*****
THE FUTURE (2011)**+
FROZEN (2013)****+
KEEPER OF THE FLAME (1942)*****
THE BAADER–MEINHOF COMPLEX (2008)****
IN A BETTER WORLD (2010)****
THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX (2008)***
INTACTO (2001)****
JOHN CARTER (2012)***
THE BARBARY COAST (1935)*****
BIRTH (2004)***
THE BELLY OF AN ARCHITECT (1987)**+
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
LE DANSE: The Paris Opera Ballet (2009) ****+
> I didn’t expect to enjoy this intensive look at the highest echelons of the ballet world half so much. Happy to be so wrong!
. I do love the dance, but the usual formality of ballet puts me off. Not so here. Much of the work seemed more experimental than traditional. I saw another film about the Russian ballet a few years ago- BALLET RUSSES, from 2005… and I just hated it. Talk about B-O-R-I-N-G. I decided to watch this film despite that previous flirtation with sleep, because LA DANSE was so highly rated on the database A Critical Consensus (a rare 8.2), and rightfully so.
. This compelling slice-of-life documentary peeks behind the scenes into the diverse crew that makes an enterprise as massive as the ballet happen- from dancers to techies, costumers to construction workers, from janitors emptying the trash to administrators bloviating egregiously in the office of the pompous, self-important artistic director of the company. Watching these athlete/artists prepare for performance is just mesmerizing. The level of skill, artistry, devotion on display here is just awe inducing, the work of the choreographers so abstract and ethereal. What a great love letter to the dance!
. Enthusiastic thumbs up to anyone who admires artists or loves art.
McLINTOCK! (1963) ***+
This mostly lighthearted western romp is a loose adaptation of Shakespeare’s ‘Taming of the Shrew’, with John Wayne in the Petruchio role and a typically feisty Maureen O’Hara as the shrew to be tamed. This one is jam-packed with familiar character actors of the era, and everyone appears to be having a ball. Much of it was too broad and slapstick for me, and the basic irreconcilable flaw of Shakespeare’s tidy, politically-incorrect ending was jarringly intact- a capitulation that no self-respecting humanist could stomach. Here, after a humiliating public spanking, his “shrew” of a wife suddenly turns docile and subservient and peacefully domestic. Yeah, right. Despite this egregiously sexist outcome, McLINTOCK! is a fun film to watch. And despite his tough, macho image, John Wayne was very at home doing light comedy, and the more I see of him the more of a fan I become.
STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE (2008) ***+
> Errol Morris delivers yet another thoughtful, incisive document in this examination of American detainee abuse at Iraq’s infamous Abu Ghraib prison.
. This important film turns over the rock and exposes the slime that crawls under cover when the sunlight shines, unveiling the very worst in human behavior. All the principals of the shameful scandal are interviewed, and not a one of them seems to believe that they did anything wrong. Instead of explanations, we get denial and excuse.
. Just pitiful.
. Pitiful and typical of the military mindset. Everyone seems to agree that what happened was wrong, but faced with the damning indictment of photographic evidence, no one will claim any responsibility whatsoever. This pitiless documentary makes the corrupting influence of war abundantly clear, and exposes the breathless arrogance of this soulless country that values American life so much more highly than the lives of… everyone else on the planet. It examines the post-9/11 illusion that it is not possible for us “Good Guys” to go too far in pursuit of the evil, nasty, inhuman “Bad Guys”. STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE is more powerful and repulsive truth-telling from one of America’s hardest working documentarians.
– All Americans need to be aware of this travesty of justice and appropriately ashamed of the terrible atrocities done in their name every day of the year, in all corners of the world.
BEWARE OF MR. BAKER (2012) ***+
> Ginger Baker is a difficult man.
. Always has been, it would appear- abusive and hostile to most people who cross his path. This biopic of the celebrated drummer establishes that baseline quickly. It begins with the mad old fart physically assaulting the filmmaker with a polo stick and drawing blood!
. All his life, people have cut Ginger slack, as though artistic brilliance were an excuse for simple rudeness. Genius in not an excuse to be an asshole- and Ginger Baker is an asshole. Damaged goods himself, Mr. Baker passed the favor along to his own son, treating him as no father should ever treat their child. Yes, it does appear the man is a musical genius. No, it does not excuse the way he treats people in his life. (When asked on camera if Ginger is a good father, the befuddled silence of his current wife speaks volumes.) But if you can separate the man from his art, the music on display here is pretty awesome to behold! (I’m heading straight to my local library to see if they have any of his smokin’ hot solo material that I’d never heard until now.)
. BEWARE MR. BAKER (the sign greeting mostly-unwanted visitors upon arrival at his South African ranch), is always fascinating to watch as it attempts to get under this complicated man’s skin and painting a vivid picture of the creative mind at work- even if it isn’t always a pretty one. We hear very direct and insightful observations from Ginger’s former Cream and Blind Faith bandmates Jack Bruce, who speaks lovingly of him despite their very public estrangement- and Eric Clapton who speaks with a tender compassion that helps explain why people love this ostensibly unlovable man.
– Acerbic!
A DOUBLE LIFE (1947) ***
> The classic writing team of Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon penned this strange George Cukor film, and tonally- it’s all over the map.
. Most of the film plays like a character-driven comedy, but in the third act things get very, very serious, making the early part of the work feel at odds with the later part. Could this be an early example of the hybrid “dramady”? It’s an interesting conceit:
. A celebrated stage actor gets so drawn into each role he undertakes, that he completely internalizes each character’s conflict and behavior and makes it his own. This is not usually a problem when he does a comedy, but it’s a potentially disastrous quirk when performing a tragedy. And somehow, he gets it into his noggin that he should play Othello…
.Uh-oh.
. His customary leading lady is his ex-wife. To complicate things, they are still in love, but she is too savvy to give their marriage another go, having evidently learned more from the disaster of their union than he did. Wonderful leading man Ronald Coleman from a golden age of Hollywood, pushes the limits a little too far here, delivering an acting style that might have been normal for its time but now looks so amped-up and exaggerated as to approach buffoonery.
. It’s all a clever setup in A DOUBLE LIFE, but Cukor, Kanin and Gordon provided no satisfying payoff.
– Entertaining, but certainly not Cukor’s crowning achievement.
COME AND GET IT (1936) ***
This supposed “classic” from celebrated directors Howard Hawks and William Wyler didn’t do much for me. It’s a story about a rich, privileged kingmaker and the inherent hubris that brings him down a notch. This was part of the problem. Actor Edward Arnold always seemed to play this arrogant, self-absorbed character, a real asshole that sure does not make for a very sympathetic hero. One is happy to see this total dick get his comeuppance at the end, as he rings the dinner bell to call his guests to dinner, and the title finally makes a little sense, but is that enough to make an involving film? Nope.
A ROYAL AFFAIR (2012) ****+
> Lars Von Trier helped bring this lush, romantic historical drama to the screen, and what a strong, powerful bit of filmmaking it is!
. The sweep of European history has rarely been so compellingly encapsulated in a single film. I was entranced by the richness of this movie, hanging on to savor every moment.
. It’s the story of a German expat doctor who comes to Denmark to treat the king, who appears to suffer from mental issues stemming from the stress of office. They bond so thoroughly that the outsider eventually rises to be de facto king, ushering in the new age we now call “the Enlightenment”. One little catch: the German and the queen have fallen passionately in love, and begun a dangerous, illicit affair that ever teeters on disaster, as they grow bolder and bolder in expressing their passions. We can see the slow-motion train wreck a’comin’. It’s that kind of film where you like the doomed lovers so much, you want to reach up and seize them from the screen and bring them into the audience with you, so they will have the detachment to see where their secret tryst is leading them. Worse- the radiant queen is pregnant, and the King hasn’t visited her chambers in a long, long time…
. These actors are wonderful. Winsome Alicia Vikander is absolutely stunning as the ripe, delicious queen, and fine international actor Mads Mikklesen is compelling to watch in every beautifully articulated frame. His character is warned: As an outsider grown too close to the inner circles of power, the German is distrusted and disliked- and rumors are circulating. It is only a matter of time until these nasty whispers reach the king, but the twin gravitational pulls of power and passion blind him to the tragedy on his horizon.
. Every ingredient here contributes to a sumptuous feast: the gorgeous period costumes, the rich, evocative score that bathes the film in romance, the lush natural and opulent manmade settings, the suburb screen acting, the first-rate art direction that includes a remarkable recreation of 18th century Denmark in telling detail. Nikolaj Arcel has made a truly stunning film. A ROYAL AFFAIR is a royal feast of a movie.
– Film lover? History buff? Incurable romantic? See it! You will be enchanted.
THE GRANDMASTER (2013) ***
> Beautiful and boring, this martial arts showcase is a triumph, or perhaps failure of style over substance.
. The plot is thick and often nearly indecipherable- something to do with warring clans selecting champions to battle each other. Lots of mumbo-jumbo about the different styles and traditions of Kung Fu in a torrent of talk, talk, talk. Mixing violence with romance and quick action with leaden dialogue, THE GRANDMASTER is graceful but tedious. It is both dense and vaporous, breathtaking but vapid, and slow-paced with machine gun action. Yeah, iconic martial artist ‘Ip Man’ (Bruce Lee’s trainer), is the King of Cool, and this film contains some of the most carefully crafted images I’ve ever seen in a film, and features the sublime Ziyi Zhang- but is it enough?
. Most decidedly not. The good parts were very memorable- with technically astounding images and occasionally lively editing, but all the rest is quickly forgotten and best left that way.
– THE GRANDMASTER is a stunning achievement- and a real disappointment.
THE NAKED SPUR (1953) *****
Catch Jimmy Stewart at his very best in this Anthony Mann classic, opposite a beguiling Janet Leigh and a sly, dangerous Robert Ryan. This is as good as the western genre gets. Like many great oaters, it’s a story about justice, difficult choices and moral character. Jimmy plays a bitter, cold man, hunting a desperate criminal for the reward money- to buy back some beloved land he lost when his wife ran off with another man. He is just terrific, and has the single most emotionally intense scene I’ve ever seen in a cowboy movie, when his moral conundrum moves the stoic man to tears. It’s one of those stories where the center of power is constantly shifting, leading to a breathless unpredictability of what the next moment may bring. Just damn good, with a damn good ending. Western greatness in every frame.
THE INVISIBLE WOMAN (2013) ***+
Ralph Fiennes has always been a very fine actor. (His turn as the chillingly soulless concentration camp commandant practicing forgiveness in the mirror in SCHINDLER’S LIST was simply unforgettable!) Guess it should come as no surprise that he is a fine director as well. This beautifully appointed period romance about the forbidden love between Charles Dickens at the height of his powers and a young actress half his age, works very well in transporting the viewer to a time and place very different from the world we live in now. It’s very good stuff, yet somehow feels that it could have been much better. The pacing flags near the end and though we see and understand the choices Mr. Dickens makes, we never really feel we fully see the complex man hinted at. Still, there is much to admire and enjoy here.
BOXING GYM (2010) ****
> This solid film by celebrated documentary maker Fredrick Wiseman (who served as producer, director, sound man and editor), takes a peek inside Lord’s Gym in Austin, Texas.
. It’s a place where everyday people train side-by-side with aspiring boxers in a supportive and friendly atmosphere that feels in sharp contrast to the inherent violence of the sport. Everybody here is keepin’ it real- no posers here.
. BOXING GYM is the kind of film that makes you love people. If I had to choose between Scorsese’s RAGING BULL and Wiseman’s BOXING GYM, I’d take this one, hands-down. Sure RAGING BULL was technically great art, but it was so brutal to watch, so depressing and degrading, it is not an experience I would ever care to revisit.
. This look at the same sport from the bottom up instead of the top down, is so warm and humanistic and life affirming, it was just a joy to watch.
– Dig it.
THEATRELAND (2014) ***+
This package contained four episodes of the British TV series that takes a backstage peak at the cluster of revered theatres in London’s West end- an area appropriately called “Theatreland”. Here, the focus is on the centuries-old Haymarket Theatre and their star-studded production of WAITING FOR GODOT, starring the great actors Ian McKellan and Patrick Stewart, and stage stalwart Simon Callow. It’s a warmhearted look at the magic of professional theatre and all the functionaries therein. As I love live theatre and the fine, tempered actors of THEATRELAND, I loved this video Part four was particularly fun, when in the middle of a matinee, Patrick Stewart is noticeably shaken by an onstage sighting of the storied theatre’s fabled ghost-in-residence!
LOCKE (2014) ****
This tense thriller is basically a one-man movie for the fine Tom Hardy, about a construction foreman on a ninety-minute roadtrip that changes his life forever. Once Locke begins his drive from Birmingham to London, the action never leaves the interior of his car- a claustrophobia that informs every frame. The other actors are not seen, but only heard in cellphone voiceovers as the desperate man drives, drives, drives, making 36 fraught calls to manage multiple hotspots in his life- any of which could explode at any moment and cause a total meltdown of his life. These disembodied voices (including Ruth Wilson, Andrew Scott, Olivia Colman, and Tom Holland), all give fine, emotionally resonant vocal performances- but LOCKE is Hardy’s film. If he had failed to give a powerhouse tour de force performance in the pivotal lead, this film would not have worked. LOCKE works beautifully. What does that tell you? It tells you Tom Hardy was amazing in his role, and well-worthy of the Oscar consideration the performance never received. Great stuff for such a “limited” movie! Director Steven Knight takes what could have been a liability and makes it an asset. Neat trick.
GREAT EXPECTATIONS (2012) ****+
> How many versions of this Dickens masterwork have I seen… four? Five? This recent Mike Newell outing ranks among the very best.
. Screenwriter David Nicholls took pains in his adaptation to preserve the somewhat labyrinthine subplots from the prodigious book that are often smoothed over and omitted for time, giving these wonderful secondary characters a chance to shine the way the great author intended.
. I must ask: Why must young Pip always look like “Pip” and Magwich the convict look like “Magwich” across all versions? Is it a lack of imagination from casting directors or are they just following a blueprint painted so very deftly by the detail-oriented master storyteller? This young Pip (Jeremy Irvine), strikes all the right cords, and the older Pip seems to be the best Pip I can remember seeing, or at any rate most sympathetic. Helena Bonham Carter in the plum role of the decrepit Mrs. Havesham pushes the boundaries of “crazy” a bit at first, but eventually redeems herself nicely in a rich, heartbreaking performance. Ralph Finnes looses himself in the Magwich role, and he is as wonderful as any of them.
. I know Dickens. I have read Dickens. Believe me, it is really, really hard to strike the right balance to fully bring Dickens to life on the big screen. Include all the studied detail and you get LITTLE DORRIT, clocking in at six exhausting hours long! Include too many of the peripheral characters and subplots and you feel you might as well have read the book instead- cut too many and the whole fabric of the story begins to unravel.
– All this, making this GREAT EXPECTATIONS close to perfect.
NIGHT TRAIN TO LISBON (2013) ***+
Deft director Bille August made a quietly powerful film here, avoiding his usual sentimentality, with a restrained Jeremy Irons playing a milquetoast professor whose life is changed when he saves a woman from suicide and accidentally ends up with her raincoat containing a book that mesmerizes and fascinates him into an un-characteristically impulsive act. The great supporting cast (Lena Olin, Tom Courtenay, Charlotte Rampling, Bruno Ganz, and Christopher Lee!) contributes to this thoughtful adult fare, that got more intriguing and resonant as it went along.
THE PUNK SINGER (2013) ***
Felled by a mystery illness that eventually proved to be Lyme disease, feminist-punk icon Kathleen Hanna’s body forced her to stop performing at the height of her career as a “Grrrl Power” prophet and angry social critic. Interesting. I knew little about this musical oeuvre or the social movement it started. And the raw, visceral emotion of the music kept my feet tapping.
LET IT RAIN (2008) ***+
This is the third gentle human comedy from French duo director Agnès Jaoui and co-writer Jean-Pierre Bacri and I’ve enjoyed all three efforts. (The other two: LOOK AT ME and THE TASTE OF OTHERS.) This one is a sweet, low-key film about an aspiring French liberal politician who agrees to be interviewed for a film about her life, during a summer of rain that just won’t seem to let up- but gets both more and less than she bargained for, when the team making the film prove to be anything but competent. It’s a film that draws you in as it progresses, until you notice you are having a very good time watching everything these very real human characters do- which is not much of anything, really. Nice.
THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY (2013) ***
This remake of the wonderful 1947 Danny Kaye classic is a bit of a throwaway It may have been a good idea but doesn’t quite bear fruit. Ben Stiller (who also directs) looks awfully thin and gaunt here and seems more than a bit tired. This extends to the film itself. Kirsten Wiig is adorable, as always, but there’s no pretending there’s any chemistry between these two film lovers. There isn’t. The film has great travelogue locations, but it’s pretty thin stuff, even with the promise of a Sean Penn cameo. This WALTER MITTY is an entertainment, nothing more.
SAVING MR. BANKS (2013) ****
> Very fun self-referential Disney film about Walt’s delicate pas de deux with P. T. Travers, author of the Mary Poppins books, when he struggled to sweet-talk her into signing off on the film rights.
. There is nothing the mighty Tom Hanks can’t do, and Walt Disney is apparently no exception. Somehow, we really feel a sense of the celebrated icon in his performance and not just imitation. This is the Walt Disney my family welcomed into our living room every Sunday night- warm and effortlessly disarming. And Emma Thompson as the prickly, damaged, uptight English author is spot-on perfect in one of the best roles of her career. All the secondary parts are jam-packed with fine actors having fun. It’s so entertaining, and a potent time capsule of a gentler era that includes a nifty peak into the Disneyland of the early sixties- but I feel quite certain old Walt would have been far too uncomfortable being a protagonist in one of his own stories…
– And Ms. Travers would likely be horrified to see herself represented as such a wounded, uptight priss!
SLEEPWALK WITH ME (2012) ***+
This frequently laugh-out-loud funny comedy, written, directed and starring Mike Birbiglia, who has a winning, low-key, sardonic persona that infuses this film about a struggling comic’s attempts to grow up and commit to a partnership. He narrates throughout, speaking directly to the audience with wry understatement, and it all works very well to keep the story moving from his perspective. The poor guy is roiled with internal conflict, exacerbated by a dangerous form of sleepwalking where he unconsciously acts out whatever he is dreaming. Very enjoyable stuff!
THE STATE OF THE UNION (1948) *****
Tracy and Hepburn smolder in this political potboiler whose message is even more timely and resonant today than when Capra made it more than seven decades ago. If anything, the threats to democracy cogently laid out in this film, are sadly even more dire today. Tracy plays a successful tycoon- a decent man of basic integrity, who is convinced to run for president by his Lady Macbeth of a girlfriend (Angela Lansbury: young, sexy and dangerous!), who intends to be the power behind the podium. Hepburn plays the candidate’s estranged wife, who knows all about the ‘other woman’, but decides to join his campaign anyway, and put up a false-front of domestic tranquility, because she shares his idealism and respects his veracity. Tracy goes on a national speaking tour, but the true Powers That Be are appalled when he attacks both the left and the right, with a populist message that finds a receptive audience. Bit by bit, in the course of his campaign for the Republican nomination, Tracy is nudged into uncomfortable compromises, and he gradually becomes more obsessed by the lure of power than by pursuing his once noble goals. Does any of this sound familiar? Though usually categorized as satire- yesterday’s satire has become today’s reality. More tragedy to me! Still, it was fun to watch Margaret Hamilton as a lovestruck servant making goo-goo eyes at a dashing Van Johnson. That is simply not a mode we envision for the woman who played the Wicked Witch of the West! Adapted from a successful play by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse this screenplay is a tart, witty script. Yes, there is the usual rah-rah Americanism we get in all of Capra’s films, the usual unrealistically sunny conclusion- but the criticism of how the rich and powerful routinely hijack democracy for their own personal gain, is very potent stuff. THE STATE OF THE UNION is a great American film. I just wish it weren’t so accurate.
THE FUTURE (2011) **+
> What a mess!
. I wanted to like this film. Really. I tried.
. I just adored actress, director, writer Miranda July’s first effort so very much- the winning YOU AND ME AND EVERYONE WE KNOW. And the title of this one foretold ambitious storytelling… But Ms. July bit off more than she could chew here.
. THE FUTURE was peppered with fun moments throughout, but had little to no cohesion. The pacing frequently lagged, and the film couldn’t seem to decide what exactly it was. The Netflix description was hands-down the most ludicrous, off-the-wall misdepiction of a film I have ever read- as though the reviewer had the same problem as the filmmaker, making any sense of this crazy mush of a storyline.
. THE FUTURE is a relationship film where neither partner feels like real people, although Miranda’s partner (Hamish Linklater), fares far better than she does here. He has a kind of lost puppy persona that is very endearing; she just seems woefully baleful and miserably unhappy in nearly every frame- anything but comfortable in her own skin. He is far and away the more interesting of the two, because in addition to having the mystical power to stop time (W!T!F!) he is on a quest to be more aware of the world around him, to sense and respond to his environment in fresh new ways, and say “yes” when his default position might have formerly been a kneejerk “no”. For her part, Ms. July’s character proves unable to produce thirty new dances in thirty days- not nearly as interesting. And she just behaves stupidly. The liaison she enters into that might doom her primary relationship seems totally self-destructive and unmotivated and more than a little creepy.
. If this is THE FUTURE- skip it! Better luck next time Miranda… presuming anyone will give you another dime to make a movie after this muddled failure.
– I hope so. I believe in second chances.
FROZEN (2013) ****+
> Rarely has such a good film looked so terrible in the publicity shots and coming attractions trailer. The look of the poster is goofy and plastic in that empty TV way computer-generated character animation can often be. It does not inspire optimism…
. Every time I see a new bit of Disney animation, I can’t help but wonder what old Walt would have thought of it. There’s absolutely no doubt, many of the 34 animated features the studio made after his passing (not counting the Pixar flicks), would never have gotten the green light from the great, domineering storyteller. Disney had pretty rigid ideas about what constituted his brand and what did not. I have little doubt he’d have hated ALADDIN for example, and felt outraged and affronted by Robin William’s improvised wisecracks as the sly genie- a character that was wildly popular with American audiences. The problem? ALADDIN is jam-packed with timely cultural references which may have been a hoot when the film was released in 1992 but may well be close to incomprehensible to future audiences who have no clue, for example, who Leona Helmsley was. It was very important to the exacting taskmaster that his films stand the test of time. He was making art, not just commerce. And I have no doubt he’d have bristled at the base, lowbrow humor in both films.
. Additionally, FROZEN is a packed with slick, highly-produced pop music that, despite being part of the formula that made it Disney’s most profitable film ever, may not sound so good a decade from now. It feels like a commercial gamble that appears to have paid off in spades. But the music runs the gambit from the stirring (“For the First Time in Forever”) to the insipid (“The Trolls”). The big show-stopping number (“Let It Go”, this year’s Best Song winner), did not appeal to me in the slightest when I heard it at the Oscar telecast, despite the fact that it was on the lips of every seven year old girl in America! Nonetheless, in context, it worked beautifully.
. Despite a wonderfully artful opening sequence about burly Nordic outdoorsmen harvesting ice from the surface of the frozen fjord, it took me a while to warm to the considerable charm of this truly wonderful film- probably because so much of it was clearly aimed at the younger set. (The dreadful Troll’s Song seemed aimed at the Care Bears set.) Wonderful scenes are followed by scenes that are so stilted and cardboard as to be completely uninvolving, finely crafted songs followed by hackneyed tripe. But the good news here far outweighs the bad, making FROZEN Disney’s best animated film since THE LION KING.
. The story is freely (and well) adapted from Hans Christian Anderson’s “The Snow Queen”, and once it gets into gear it works a charm. There is some stark tragedy in the first reel that surprises us for a Disney film (think: BAMBI, whose mother is killed in the first reel), but the darkness is summarily pasted-over as the plot plows on at breakneck speed. It’s the story of two royal sisters: Elsa, a princess with amazing powers of cold and ice, and Anna: her younger sibling who is easily among the most pleasantly quirky heroines in the Disney cannon. Theirs is an unabashed tale of female empowerment. I really loathe the exaggerated features used in commercial computer animation these days- the huge, fat heads barely supported by all but nonexistent necks, the ridiculously huge anime-style eyes that make every character look like a freakish mutant, the impossible shapes and sizes of the hyper-feminine female bodies and the puffed up machismo of the musclebound men, the facial profiles that look like no human face I’ve ever seen- but the characters are so well developed here that I was usually able to ignore the package and appreciate the contents. And the content here is as strong as any Disney toon that came before it.
. There is just so much to enjoy here, I hardly know where to start.
. The production design is so flawlessly executed, that it threatens to upstage the characters and story. Stunning to watch, breathtaking to experience, this film is that true oxymoron: commercial art. FROZEN is certainly art as much as it is commerce. The colors are rich and vibrant, the snowstorms and ice effects are awesomely rendered. And even though the central conceit is so predictable and overused (the heroine and her world are in grave, existential danger and they can only be rescued by a selfless act of True Love), the final reel is so perfectly crafted, that any one of four characters could be her savior- so we are kept guessing until the end. (In a fascinating bit of plotline sleight-of-hand, each represents a different type of “True Love”- romantic love of course, sisterly love, the love of a compatriot sharing a quest or the selfless, self-destructive love of a friend- in this case a magically living snowman who has some of the best quips in the script.) Fine work!
– And do stay put for the first half of the closing credits. Like the rest of the film, they are simply awesome: a gorgeous mix of color and design as mesmerizing as anything that came before.
KEEPER OF THE FLAME (1942) *****
> In their second film pairing after WOMAN OF THE YEAR, Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn reunited- this time as a bonded, codependent couple, in another compelling story by directorial great George Cukor.
. I sensed there was more here than I was absorbing, from lack of context. According to the collective Oracle of Wikipedia, I was right. So much going on with the backstory here! This fascinating film from the early war years is a lefty’s wet dream. (Bet Aaron Sorkin digs it!)
. A celebrated American hero is dead. The country and our world mourn the passing of a “great” man. But was he the lionized figure all he seemed to be? Who was the man behind the fiery populist rhetoric: patriot or fascist? Tracy is a journalist who intends to write a flattering biography of the towering figure, but Hepburn as his sullen widow is not cooperative. She is the “keeper of the flame”, protecting the legacy of her storied husband. But her handler suggests it would be better if she were to cooperate, to help them keep some control over the message. Eventually, of course, wise lion Tracy wins her over with his steely integrity, and the horrible truth us revealed.
. The screenwriter thought it was his best work ever, Cukor thought it was his worst, and filthy rich studio producer Louis B. Mayer stormed out of the advance screening, enraged that he had made a film that equated wealth with fascism. His rich buddies were not gonna like this. What kind of America does this film reflect? It foretells today! A political landscape where patriotism is co-opted by demagogues, and the cult of personality is used to manipulate public thought; a corrupt good ol’ boy system that uses the press as an arm of its public relations department, threatening true freedom of the press; the way civil liberties can be steadily eroded by charismatic authoritarian strongmen who espouse hateful, divisive rhetoric exploiting latent racism and antisemitism, and playing on reactive fears, hoping to sew chaos to divide and conquer in an attempt to remake America into a fascist state… OUCH! The seeds of today were sewn long ago. Upon it’s release in 1942, Republican congressmen wailed and complained Hollywood had become an outlet for leftist propaganda and a backlash ensued.
. Shot entirely on soundstage with no external locations, Tracy drank like a sailor throughout the shoot, and Hepburn hovered like a drone around him, trying to manage the volatile thespian, who is at his best here, as the quiet, clear voice of integrity- the point man for the truth in a world of pretense and lies.
– There’s a hero for ya.
THE BAADER-MEINHOF COMPLEX (2008) ****
> Terse, tense action-packed dramatization of leftwing extremist group “RAF”, who took to violent means to promote their revolutionary agenda in what was at the time, the West Germany of the turbulent 70’s.
. The country was ruled by a strongarm rightwing government, who reacted to the social unrest of the time by cracking down brutally on all dissent. The more heavy-handed their hardline, the more the people reacted to the burgeoning police state, their actions fueling the fire.
. THE BAADER-MEINHOF COMPLEX is an exhilarating ride. This train hits maximum speed as soon as it leaves the station. If you aren’t familiar with history’s story, I sure ain’t gonna spoil it. For me, having no idea what was coming next was a part of the (somewhat perverse) thrill of this movie. Several times I thought the story was coming to a close, only to be surprised by an unexpected new twist that propelled the narrative further.
. At 2½ hours it’s a long film- thick and detailed, but top-notch editing keeps this thriller in perpetual motion. Director Uli Edel delivers the highest of production values throughout. Reflecting the times, there is a LOT of cigarette smoking here. (I only noticed, because it’s in nearly every scene!) And blood: a LOT of blood. The many characters among the loose-knit terrorist network are strangely compelling assholes. I found myself agreeing with many of their points, while at the same time- completely appalled by their tactics. The great German actor Bruno Ganz plays the brains behind the German government’s counter-terrorism efforts, and I will watch him do anything.
– It felt a bit… uncomfortable to feel so entertained by this nasty, brutal tale, but I guess it can be a nasty, cruel world sometimes, can’t it- a world in which the “justice” can be nearly as egregious as the offense?
IN A BETTER WORLD (2010) ****
> Here is another fine film from Danish director Susanne Bier, who does not appear capable of making bad movies.
. For my money, she is one of the best female directors currently working. (AFTER THE WEDDING, the original Danish version of BROTHERS)
. This Best Foreign Language Oscar winner is a potent family drama about what it is to be a male in Danish society. A man is roughed up by a complete brute of a clod, in front of his bullied child and his child’s only friend- but he takes the high ground, turning the other cheek so to speak. In one amazing scene, he goes in to the man’s work to confront him with words not fists, and demonstrate to the kids how a real man handles conflict. But his child’s friend can’t stomach this. He knows how you deal with bullies at school- unblinkingly head on, matching blow for blow, and takes it upon himself to exact revenge on the asshole- a revenge that could prompt a truly awful tragedy when it spins out of control.
. Very fine acting here from the adults- including Ms. Bier’s usual leading lady Trine Dyrholm, and from the kids who give very real, very heartbreaking performances.
. This BETTER WORLD is intense stuff and absolutely excellent filmmaking. I urge you to see it– and all of her fine films.
THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX (2008) ***
> One of the things I love about modern feature animation is the extraordinary number of great vocal performances it elicits from a host of delightful actors.
. Just check out the vocal talent who collaborated on this one: Matthew Broderick, Dustin Hoffman, Emma Watson, Tracey Ullman, Kevin Kline, William H. Macy, Stanley Tucci, Ciarán Hinds, Robbie Coltrane, Frank Langella, Richard Jenkins, Christopher Lloyd, and narrator Sigourney Weaver! DESPEREAUX is the film version of a Newberry Prize winning children’s book, and it is charming fun.
. The separate ‘Mouseworld’ and ‘Ratworld’ design is imaginative fun, and our fearless hero is way-cute, with his gigantic Dumbo-ears and gentle personality. Unfortunately, what felt like a potentially great film in early scenes grew rather pedestrian by the final reel. This TALE got lesser as it went along, marred by an ending that felt altogether too cursory and pat.
– All this is not really a problem though, as DESPEREAUX delivers what we most want from this kind of film: good family fun.
INTACTO (2001) ***+
> This is a markedly unusual and original thriller, about an obscure underground ‘cult of luck’ that conducts strange and potentially deadly “games”, where people who consider themselves lucky wager esoteric things like other people’s luck, or their pinky finger… or their life!
. It is of particular interest to me that this film explores an obscure point I’ve contemplated in quiet moments myself: “What is luck? Is the lucky man, the man who never boards a doomed flight, or the man who finds himself the sole survivor when the plane crashes? (Here, it is the latter.)
. I found it curious that this Spanish TV movie was filmed (mostly) in English- perhaps with foreign markets in mind, or because they really wanted Max Von Sydow in a pivotal role, and he is not a Spanish speaker. In any case, it’s not dubbed. The great Scandinavian actor plays the heavy here. He is getting typecast in later years as the Bad Guy, perhaps because he can be so effortlessly sinister. This time, he is the Machiavellian mastermind behind these games, the “luckiest man in the world”, hunkered down in his own isolated casino that seems situated in a desert moonscape. He has the amazing ability to bestow and withdraw luck with a mere touch. Everything is set into motion when, disappointed by his younger protégé, he does just that: removes the luck he originally instilled in him. Now, it’s all about revenge. The spurned man goes in search of someone even luckier, to manipulate and use against his former mentor in the deadliest game of all: Russian Roulette, that continues until there is only one man left standing…
. Yep, it’s pretty original stuff. Once it found its groove, INTACTO got really good!
JOHN CARTER (2012) ***
This is silly, Disney B-movie fun, with big production values and imaginative, if derivative design. The first live action film from the director of the wonderful animated hits FINDING NEMO and WALL-E, it’s based on the Edgar Rice Burroughs book A Princess of Mars. JOHN CARTER is a wild fantasy about a self-directed adventurer out to feather his own nest, when he gets mysteriously transported to Mars and becomes embroiled in an extraterrestrial war between competing creatures. Lead actor vacuous prettyboy Taylor Kitsch cannot act, but he looks good in Conan the Barbarian mode. There are fine actors voicing some of the CG critters (Samantha Morton, Ciarán Hinds, Thomas Haden Church, and Willem Dafoe), but it doesn’t amount to much. That’s okay. This is a great film for undemanding 14-year old boys. Fortunately, when it comes to this pulp genre, that silly little boy is still alive in me, so I had fun with it.
THE BARBARY COAST (1935) *****
> Howard Hawks directed this classic melodrama about a good man (pure as the driven snow Joel McCrea), a bad man (vicious, heartless Edward G. Robinson), and the woman they both love (gold-digger with the heart of gold Miriam Hopkins), in San Francisco’s wild gold rush days.
. Robinson is the big, strong-arm boss of the city. Above the law, with the drunken judge in his back pocket, he runs a crooked saloon that parts prospectors from their gold. One tough, ruthless son of a bitch- his heart begins to soften when a “white woman” shows up from New York, expecting to marry for money, only to find that her betrothed was cheated out of the fortune she hoped to share and murdered in that very saloon by Robinson’s henchmen. With nowhere to go, she becomes his kept woman, running crooked games at the rigged roulette wheel that sealed her fiancée’s fate.
. The literate script by Ben Hecht is very good, if McCrea’s Pollyanna poet romanticist does lay it on a bit thick. It’s a convention of the time. The actor is still very appealing as the silver tongued but dangerously naive bumpkin. A young and scrawny Walter Brennan does his very best Walter Brennan and he is having a ball chewing up the scenery as someone who wants to convince everyone he’s a terrible, nasty, ornery scoundrel, when he is actually quite a decent guy- for a thief and street hustler. Things come to a head when McCrea’s illusions about his ladylove are squashed and he too comes under the thrall of the very bad boss man. Then there are the vigilantes, beginning to find voice through San Francisco’s first local newspaper, who are beginning to rise and demand the rule of law- a deathknell for authoritarian powermongers like Robinson.
– Yeah, it’s really good.
BIRTH (2004) ***
> Jonathan Glazer’s amazing UNDER THE SKIN (2013) drew me to this earlier directorial effort, starring Nicole Kidman as a widower who is having a hard time getting over the sudden death of her husband ten years before.
. Along comes a 10-year old boy who seems to know every intimate detail of her life, claiming to be the reincarnation of her dead partner. Unnerving to say the least! The whole family feels it must be a hoax or a delusion, but there are so many unexplainable details they are forced to contemplate the imponderable. Great storyline, potentially great director, great actors, including Lauren Bacall, Anne Heche, and Peter Stormare who is so good in everything- it’s pretty darn interesting. But it does not engage the heart.
. BIRTH feels cold and detached like a formal museum piece. This studied moodiness worked spectacularly in UNDER THE SKIN, but not so well here. Because of this, it is a considerably lesser film than his new gothic horror sci-fi masterpiece. But the good news is: crisp, rich production values, Nichole Kidman at her most ethereally, ravishingly beautiful- young Cameron Bright giving an unnervingly intense performance for a juvenile- and Danny Huston, an actor I have always loathed from some completely unconvincing early performance I have chosen to forget, was good- quite good indeed. He’s grown considerably as an actor or I’ve been shortchanging him all along. (Probably both.)
– Even though it all somehow didn’t quite gel for me, I saw signs throughout of the great work to come from Jonathan Glazer. I am now more convinced than ever that there is amazing stuff ahead from this unique, stylish director.
THE BELLY OF AN ARCHITECT (1987) **+
> I have been curious about this Peter Greenaway film since its initial release, for one odd reason:
. This is a pretty heavy drama. There’s not a giggle in it. But the awkward title and the bombastic grandiosity of the trailer made preview audiences laugh. And not just a little. They laughed quite a lot! I had this peculiar experience twice- before two different features, with two different audiences. The longer the trailer went on, the more laugh-out-loud ludicrous it seemed. The basso profundo voiceover boomed in self-important tones that spoke to the great importance of this ‘instant classic’, thundering with an earnest intensity that made the theatre tremble: “THE BELLY OF AN ARCHITECT! ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT FILMS EVER MADE!” or something to that effect. (An interesting note: this DVD contains the theatrical trailer, so I went strait there to see what was so funny at the time, only to discover: they had re-done the initial teaser! This was most certainly not the trailer we had seen. Apparently the studio learned from the laughter of preview audiences, and reimagined the whole thing.)
. Now, as for the movie I’m supposed to be reviewing: I liked it, more than not, but even though I am a real fan of Peter Greenaway’s films (despite his both wonderful and unwatchable PROSPERO’S BOOKS), I found this to be the least of his films. I was floored by Greenaway’s THE COOK, THE THIEF, HIS WIFE & HER LOVER (1989), and I made it a point to find and ingest his back catalogue. Some interesting stuff, but none of it showed the promise of COOK, THIEF, WIFE & LOVER. Here, it was a pleasure to watch compelling actor Brian Dennehy in a rare leading role. He’s a solid orator who has been relegated to the ghetto of the character-actor, often giving good performances in bad films and frequently typecast as the gleefully evil villain, but capable of so much more. (Bet he could make Shakespeare really sing!) And Mr. Dennehy (who I had the pleasure of meeting once,) is quite good here in a meticulous film that treads the line of self-important treacle and art- playing gamely but helplessly off a leading lady who was just stupefyingly dreadful! Coming off the triumph of her Nancy in SID AND NANCY, Chloe Webb is just useless here. Her delivery is just so thick and leaden and wooden and phony, her phraseology so stilted and mystifying, this woman with the strange, drugged babydoll voice simply could not act- not if acting is reacting, believably, as Stanislawski suggested.
. Greenaway’s usual visual flair is evident here, the careful composition that appears to be influenced by classical painting. The soundtrack it is worth noting, is both good and hopelessly dated: keyboard centric music that seems influenced by Vangelis. But the shockingly predictable symbology of the end was just… laughable. Kind of an embarrassment. It put a last minute bummer spin on an otherwise decent film.
– Maybe the preview audiences were right! Maybe THE BELLY OF AN ARCHITECT is a comedy…
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Looks like I only had a couple of disappointments this month- Miranda July’s sophomore effort and Peter Greenaway’s bombastic melodrama. The rest are a great bunch of movies! Three 4½ star films in one month is unprecedented for me! And check out all those 3½ and 4 star films. Plus, FOUR of 5 star classics I had not come ‘round to in 57 years. A stellar month! Do us both a favor and CHECK OUT A FEW OF THESE FILMS. You’ll be glad you did.
Viva cinema, you incorrigible lot!
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