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I saw 31 films in March 2015, including comedies, dramas, film noir, documentaries, filmed theatre, classics, and period pieces- a great variety of movies from the United States, Great Britain, Ireland, France, Belgium, Germany, Sweden and the Czech Republic. Kick off your shoes and explore these films with me!
(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.)
> And the 31 films are:
FAUST (1994)*****
THE PINK PANTHER STRIKES AGAIN (1976)**+
MOZART’S SISTER (2011)***+
MONKEY BUSINESS (1952)*****
THE LONG GOODBYE (1973)**+
KIDS FOR CASH (2013)****
MA VIE EN ROSE (1997)***+
BEYOND THERAPY (1986)*+
THE OVERNIGHTERS (2014)****+
THE GOOD EARTH (1937)*****
NIGHTCRAWLER (2014)****
MR. NOBODY (2009)***+
AMERICAN WOMEN (2000)***
KILLER’S KISS (1955)****+
LISTEN UP PHILIP (2014)***+
TORTILLA SOUP (2001)***
20,000 DAYS ON EARTH (2014)***
WETLANDS (2014)***+
THE BOXTROLLS (2014)****
THE WALL (2012)****+
THE COMPLETE HISTORY OF AMERICA
(Abridged) (2005)****
THE GOOD LIE (2014)****
FORCE MAJEURE (2014)****
THE INTERNET’S OWN BOY:
The Aaron Swartz Story (2014)****
GHOSTS OF THE ABYSS (2003)***+
TOP FIVE (2014)****
ONE LITTLE INDIAN (1973)**+
DANTE’S INFERNO (2007)***
THE BOOK OF LIFE (2014)***+
DEAR WHITE PEOPLE (2014)****
ANDRÉ GREGORY:
BEFORE AND AFTER DINNER (2013)***+
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
FAUST (1994) *****
> In his take on the legend of FAUST, he singular Jan Švankmajer helmed a predictably unique amalgam of live action, stop motion and puppetry.
. Based on the classical sources of Goethe and Marlow, it’s a familiar tale about an arrogant doctor who is so eager to learn the secrets of the universe that he is willing to sell his soul to Satan for the knowledge. Turns out a “Faustian bargain” is not a good one for the human who makes it.
. Like this unique artist’s surrealist take on Alice in Wonderland (ALICE, 1988), Jan takes the familiar source material and runs with it into an unfamiliar land of inexplicable phenomena and otherworldly strangeness, where everyday objects take on a life of their own, seeming to have an inscrutable malevolent agenda all their own. This visionary fantasist is quite unlike any other artist living and working today, with the possible exception of the Quay brothers, whose unsettling films owe a big debt of gratitude to the innovations of Jan Švankmajer.
– No amount of description could begin to approximate the experience of his fascinating experiments. If you love to be exposed to new things and challenged by the unfamiliar: his films are for you.
THE PINK PANTHER STRIKES AGAIN (1976) **+
As a young kid, I was a big fan of the original Blake Edwards PINK PANTHER. But let’s face it: these films are far better suited to the mind of a child than a grown adult. As an adult viewer, I just never found bumbling Inspector Clouseau’s clumsy pratfalls and snooty Frenchness all that riotous. And this outing is certainly no better than the rest of the many sequels. It has moments. There one clever scene where twelve international assassins all converge to murder the Inspector at Germany’s Oktoberfest, but only succeed in killing one another, but there’s not much more to recommend it. I was about to give it two unenthusiastic stars, until it suddenly got much better toward the end, when it seemed to veer into territory that lampooned elaborate spy films like DR. NO. The only laugh-out-loud moment for me: Peter Seller’s decidedly un-sexy strip tease near the end for a sexy spy that came to kill the inspector , but stayed to screw him. One bit of praise I can offer: Blake Edwards sure kept the kid in him alive, well into adulthood, didn’t he?
MOZART’S SISTER (2011) ***+
This rich, beautifully appointed French film transports us back to the Europe of Mozart’s youth, when he travelled with his family from court to court entertaining royalty with his prodigious talent, accompanied by his older sister on harpsichord. It’s the story of an extremely talented woman living in the shadow of her celebrated sibling, whose own budding talent is stifled at every turn, because in her day, girls were not considered smart enough to study music, were discouraged from composing and were only allowed to play certain instruments that society considered “ladylike”. The sense of time and place is sharply rendered here- the colors, settings and costumes are a marvel. And it’s a good story too, if it moves a bit slowly. Ultimately, this is a tragedy about the historical inequality that women have to deal with every day, right up to and including today.
MONKEY BUSINESS (1952) *****
> After last month’s heavy focus on catching up with classic titles I had missed, I’m becoming addicted to them.
. When I realized I had yet to see this Howard Hawks-Cary Grant-Ginger Rogers-Marilyn Monroe screwball classic, I moved it to the top of the queue, and I was not in the least disappointed.
. The ever-charming Mr. Grant does his best absent-minded professor routine, opposite Ms. Rogers as his patient, loving wife who seems to handle and caretake him expertly. A brilliant eccentric, he stumbles upon a compound that makes the user feel young again for a limited time- but only if they drink the catalyst, made and mixed into the drinking water by an errant lab monkey when no one was looking! It’s a crazy set-up, delivered with wit and grace by celebrated screenwriter Ben Hecht and his team, and directed with a light, deft touch by the expert director. Under the influence of the drug, it’s fun to watch these stars regress from their adult selves, into the people they were in their childhoods. Ginger Rogers is particularly good in this transformation. (Watch as she places a cocktail on her forehead and then gracefully lowers herself to the floor, then rises steadily back to her feet, without spilling a drop.) As an added treat, Marilyn Monroe does her usual dumb-bunny secretary thing, with a kind of sad sympathy.
. It all works here, from the impeccably timed slapstick to the clever wordplay, the characterizations sparkle, the situations delight. In one wonderful segment, Ginger awakens from her joyride into youth, to find a stray baby a neighbor was supposed to be watching, laying naked in bed beside her. Knowing the effects of the drug on the psyche and seeing Cary’s discarded clothes draped over a chair- she assumes the naked baby is her husband, having overdosed and physically regressed to infancy!
. The best term for this stuff: “inspired lunacy”. All is untangled in the final reel, and a wiser Cary Grant notes that youth isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Ain’t that the truth!
– This MONKEY BUSINESS is sheer wonderfulness. Delight in it.
THE LONG GOODBYE (1973) **+
Robert Altman’s fourth feature takes on Raymond Chandler,- with Elliot Gould as L.A. private-eye Phillip Marlow, a score by John Williams (four years before STAR WARS), and D.P. Vilmos Zsigmond behind a camera that is always on the prowl. It’s pretty good. Certainly, the only time I’ve enjoyed watching Elliot Gould this much was in LTTLE MURDERS. He is the King of Cool here- neurotic, always repeating his inner monologue aloud to himself, but gifted with preternatural aplomb and an unflappably calm demeanor in the face of great danger. (You can feel a kinship with P.T. Anderson’s newest, the similarly disappointing INHERENT VICE.) I would have liked this film much better if the ending did not seem so totally out of place. In the final reel, Mr. Marlow does something so egregiously immoral, it seems completely out of character, and seriously damages the film. Perhaps this is the ending the iconic detective writer provided. I don’t know. Either way, it’s lame, lame, lame- and Altman does absolutely nothing to shed light on his character’s very bad decision.
KIDS FOR CASH (2013) ****
> Here, we have another horror story, clearly demonstrating (again) how COMPLETELY FUCKED-UP WE ARE IN THIS COUNTRY.
(Pardon my completely appropriate use of ALL CAPS…)
. The United States of America is a basket case. We are so busy building altars to the destructive fantasy of the imaginary “American Dream”, we cannot be bothered with simple human compassion. We are a punitive country- all stick and no carrot. We blame the poor and disenfranchised for their plight, when the playing field is not level and the bottom rungs on the ladder of upward mobility have been removed by social criminals like the Koch brothers. We stigmatize minority populations… like the undesirably ethnic, the homeless, women- and in this case: children. We throw people in jail and throw away the keys at the drop of a hat- for incredibly minor infractions, using stupid “No Tolerance” tactics that (surprise-surprise!) promote intolerance.
. Since 9/11, we have introduced this hateful dogma into the juvenile “justice” system, severely punishing children when they have the nerve to behave like… children! There is a strange (right-wing propagated) delusion that you can control a child’s undesirable behavior by threatening future consequences. That is what almost cluelessly corrupt Judge Mark Ciavarella had in mind, when he routinely kidnapped the children who came before his court, tricking their guardians into signing away their right to council, and wrenching them, sometimes for years at a time, away from their parents and families, removing them from school, shackling them like violent criminals and shipping them off to a private facility (aka “JAIL”) run by a fellow conspirator. All this, (thinks this criminally stupid ex-judge,) is justified, because after all- he had personally gone to their high schools and “told them” in assemblies that if they found themselves standing in front of his court- this is what he would do. They’ve been warned! And all the time, he was receiving cash kickbacks for funneling these “clients” to his gangster friend- to the tune of 2.2 million dollars! He will call it a “finder’s fee” until his dying day, which is likely to happen while he is still in prison. (That is just justice.)
. But the whole logic that jails children instead of treating them, is just as flawed and egregious as this “Kids For Cash” scheme. It’s just idiotic, as it goes against everything we know about the still-developing adolescent mind. The part of their brains that can calculate risk, or even contemplate future consequences of their own actions- the crucial center that controls judgment is just not fully developed until their mid-20’s. Children are not just little adults. They are fundamentally different beings- more impressionistic and impulsive, and much more vulnerable, demanding our care and nurturing, not our spite and fury. The fact that this wayward country of perverted priorities arrests about two million children every year, (and 95% of those for non-violent “crimes”,) is a national disgrace of the highest order. The fact that the U.S. spends $10,500 a year to educate a child, but $88,000 to incarcerate them, is not only state-sanctioned child abuse, it’s fiscal madness. When this criminal judge robbed these thousands of children (and their families) of their childhoods, he stole something that could never be replaced. Many of these kids are scarred for life. They suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, and having been stigmatized as being “criminal”. Their self-images are so distorted, they often cannot adapt to normal life. Two-thirds of them never return to school- meaning their educations have also been stolen from them.
. But the truth is- as shocking as it is to contemplate, we don’t care much about our children. Not really. After all, kids are expensive and too lazy to work, they can’t vote and they don’t pay taxes- so they are nobody’s constituency. Children are basically powerless over their own environments, and we rarely ask their permission for anything. When they behave normally, we deem them a nuisance. The U.S. incarcerates nearly FIVE TIMES MORE children than any other country in the world. There is a term for this behavior: the word is “depraved”. Why do we stand for this? What is fundamentally wrong with us?
– Depraved, I say.
MA VIE EN ROSE (“My Life in Pink”) (1997) ***+
> This is a very good, more than a little bittersweet Belgian film, about a seven-year old boy who identifies as a girl, in a world where that kind of thing often provokes bullying by other kids and even worse behavior from some adults.
. Ludo’s parents are understanding at first, but when his cross-dressing begins to throw monkey wrenches into the whole family’s everyday lives, things get ugly. Young Ludo is certain he will be a girl someday, and then marry the boy he is obsessed with, viewing his genetic makeup as a mistake that will one day be rectified. A therapist cannot get Ludo to speak to her. He escapes into a cartoon world of the imagination, where a magical French “Barbie” knock-off, (crossbred with Tinkerbell), welcomes him as the girl no one else seems to recognize. These are gorgeous sequences, delighting the eye with vivid, saturated colors. It’s like a clandestine peek inside a child’s fantasy world- expressed by some very cool art direction.
. The child actor playing Ludo could not have been better. (All of the kids here are very believable in their responses- the result of some remarkably skilled directing I think.) All the actors shine. When their world is turned upside-down, their limits are severely tested, and both parents struggle to accept their son for who he/she is. It’s something millions of parents around the world go through: are they open-minded enough to accept their trans-gendered children for who they are?
– MA VIE EN ROSE is fine, resonant filmmaking with a big heart.
BEYOND THERAPY (1986) *+
> This steaming turd has got to be the absolute worst film I have seen since I began writing reviews in January of 2012.
. I am usually very, very good at choosing my titles wisely- that is: choosing films I am likely to enjoy or at least appreciate. This matters to me, because life is finite, and like fellow movie lover Roger Ebert, (and every man who has ever lived), time is short- there are just not enough hours left in this incarnation to see all the good, (and great!), films I’ve yet to see. I chose this title because the description looked good, it’s taken from a play by normally witty Christopher Durang, the cast looked promising, and I will see any Robert Altman film I have not yet experienced. But Altman made very good films (MASH, NASHVILLE, GOSFORD PARK), and very bad films (QUINTET, POPEYE, BUFFALO BILL AND THE INDIANS), and there is no doubt BEYOND THERAPY belongs in the second category.
. Though at the time, the very inclusion of gay and bisexual characters may have seemed progressive, by today’s sensitivities this film is packed with offensive gay stereotypes. The word for it would be breathtaking- and not in a good way. Some modicum of political incorrectness can certainly be forgiven in a film from another less sensitive era- presuming it is funny. This turgid dud elicits barely a guffaw for the entire movie. From time to time, inspiration breaks out among the game cast, (Jeff Goldblum, Glenda Jackson, Christopher Guest, Tom Conti and a shrill, hysterical Julie Haggerty), trying to spin gold from shit, but these flashes of promise are quickly extinguished by some inane silliness, an improbable turn of events, or downright incomprehensible bits of indecipherable business that just fall flatter than a concrete crepe. Thats okay. Great filmmakers are allowed to fail from time to time. in fact, risking failure is one of the hallmarks of a talented director.
– See Altman’s great films, (including 3 WOMEN, McCABE & MRS. MILLER, and IMAGES), and skip this embarrassing failure!
THE OVERNIGHTERS (2014) ****+
> I have been so moved lately by the latest spate of socially conscious documentaries to shine a clear, bright eye on seemingly intractable American problems.
. Important and powerful films like this give me some glimmer of hope that at least someone is telling the truth about the hard choices we face in this country. It’s heartening to know that there is someone who is not just throwing in the towel and capitulating to the soulless interests of Big Business, but actively and earnestly examining thorny issues and offering some fresh perspectives to deal with them.
. This is a truly devastating examination of the desperation of economics in this morally diseased country- how so many are left behind in the rush to globalization. (And it got a 98% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes!) It’s an examination of the boom-and-bust cycle created by unchecked market forces, that view people as disposable tools to achieve their ends: generators of more obscene profits for fat cat investors. In our blind, headlong rush to support the wealthy and punish the poor, we disrupt- and even destroy countless lives in the process. The (former) middle-class is hurting: badly! There is no upward mobility in this country. (The “American Dream” is a destructive lie!) Thanks to the immoral, environmentally criminal practice of fracking, our energy sectors are suddenly booming. As oil prices sink, this evil technology is used to wring every last drop of liquid dinosaur from the ground, replacing it with highly toxic chemicals that WILL- ABSOLUTELY WILL contaminate our precious groundwater over time. (And we aren’t even allowed to know what these chemicals are! It’s protected as being “proprietary”.) Industry apologists who deny this are FUCKING LIARS seeking profit uber alles- at the expense of the public health and welfare.
. Because of the new economic and technological realities, it has suddenly become cost effective to reopen long abandoned oil fields in North Dakota, until recently a sparsely populated wilderness with little economic engine to drive growth. As a result, desperate people pack up their lives and move there by the hundreds daily, seduced by the often-illusory lure of high-paying oil jobs. And there is work there- for highly skilled laborers mostly- not so much for entry-level workers. (Prostitutes, on the other hand, are doing a booming business.) Huge numbers of the hopeful arrive to find a hostile welcome from locals who feel their relaxed, country way of life is under assault by the mass migration.For most, if they don’t secure a position in the booming industry within a week of their arrival- they never will. The oil industry simply does not want these people. No one does. They are the human refuse of a failed system.
. Fortunately, for a while anyway, there was one Lutheran minister in Williston who actually understood and remembered what it is supposed to mean, to be “Christian”. While fear and hatred of these economic refugees grew and swelled in the community all around him- and within his own congregation, pastor Jay Reinke steadfastly followed the true precepts of Christianity and welcomed these people into his care. He allowed them to camp in the church parking lot, to the anger and frustration of the reactive neighbors, and opened the hallways inside for drifters in sleeping bags to roost. And when all else failed- he invited these struggling people into his own home until they could find a situation. But it all begins to unravel when the forces of intolerance organize to stop his “overnighters” program, imagining that if they just treat these arriving hordes badly, then they will just go away. This attitude is so UN-Christian it’s actually evil. These overwrought haters are evil hypocrites. There is NOTHING “Christian” about them.
. This film is packed with heart-wrenching testimonials from people who are just doing everything they can think of to provide good lives for their families, only to be vilified and ostracized for their efforts. And as the tension mounts, the pastor’s life is not immune from terrible consequences, with revelations in the final reel that bring the entire universe down on this good, flawed man, simply because he had the nerve to be… human!
– Powerful and intense. See it and weep.
THE GOOD EARTH (1937) *****
> This very dated film is an earnest, heartfelt rendering of the celebrated Pearl S. Buck novel that succeeds in fits and starts.
. Nonetheless, it engages the viewer in the hardscrabble lives of a peasant farmer and his family, trying to scrape a living of land that can be both fruitful and barren, when the rains come too early, or fail to come at all. The problem lies in the screen conventions of its time: Western actors in makeup playing other ethnicities just looks Imperialist and culturally-condescending now. (It is one of the rare cases where it’s actually good practice to apply political-correctness.) The fact that audiences no longer tolerate people like Paul Muni, Walter Connolly and Charlie Grapewin (the grandpa is GRAPES OF WRATH) playing roles that should have been given to ethnically appropriate actors, is progress. It’s an insulting convention. These actors just look and sound silly in character. What may be appropriate for little community theatres is not appropriate for the big screen. That said- these western actors are pretty good at engendering the necessary sympathy to make us compassionate about their character’s plight. I had no idea from the early scenes that I was in store for such a big, epic film. It’s a tale of rising up from slavery to land ownership, only to be forced to desert their precious land when famine grips pre-revolutionary China, and begin to rebuild their lives from scratch. It’s a story about the hubris of the common man, once he rises “above his station” and begins to see himself differently, and the privation that shames him back to his roots. The way the villagers battle a potential devastating locust infestation is grand and grandly visual. In such moments, THE GOOD EARTH is very exciting filmmaking.
– And thanks to Academy Award winning cinematography, it is often stunning to watch.
NIGHTCRAWLER (2014) ****
> Good thing Jake Gyllenhaal is a watchable actor, or I would have had a hard time keeping my interest in the cluelessly despicable character he plays here.
. It’s a problem for me: If the film in question is an examination of a really nasty example of a human being- whom do you root for? Or do you just root for the asshole to get his comeuppance? Then, what if he doesn’t? In anti-hero stories like BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID or TAXI DRIVER, the trick is to get you to care about the “bad guys” despite their character flaws. That is just not possible here. Jake plays a completely amoral man- a petty criminal stealing and reselling copper wire and manhole covers for scrap- not above assault if he sees you are wearing a watch he fancies. Because he is not in the least concerned with anybody else and only out for himself, he is always looking for an angle to exploit. Coming upon a grisly traffic incident just after it happened, he sees the way self-employed photo “stringers” swoop to snap grisly pictures, to sell to the highest bidder. Inspired, he wades right in to the field, with no idea at all what he is doing, making enemies in the process.
The trailer suggests it was supposed to be a comedy. This raises the question: just how dark can a film get and still be called a “comedy”?
. This disturbing film kind of grew on me, and I realized I liked it better than I originally thought. The director made the soullessness of El Lay look almost appealing with bright, sharp images, reminiscent of Michael Mann’s COLLATERAL, and the story is truly something we haven’t seen before.
– A morally complicated and interesting effort.
MR. NOBODY (2009) ***+
> What a difficult film to review. (What a difficult film to watch!)
. There’s got to be a reason Belgian director Jaco Van Dormael made this one film and no others. I’m guessing it had something to do with the fact that this apparently big budget extravaganza did little or no box office in its theatrical release, because it’s certainly not for lack of talent and ideas! The startlingly original first act is unabashedly brilliant. Dazzling images dance on the corneas and eardrums of the viewer. MR. NOBODY is simply packed with visual and editing surprises that amaze and delight, with a crisp artistic sensibility that invokes slick TV commercials.
. But the minute the (several) romances kick in, this wildly uneven film became that most egregious of cinematic entities: it became boring, and the film all but crept to a halt. Too bad, because MR. NOBODY is a strange and truly original story about a 118 year old man, in the final days of his life, well played by Jared Leto, in perpetual wide-eyed wonderment, like Billy Pilgrim in Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five. In this future world, “Nemo Nobody” is the last mortal human, and the entire world is watching his final moments and taking a populist vote on whether he should receive the gene enhancement technology that makes people virtually immortal, or whether nature should be allowed (for the last time) to run its course. During this process, Nemo is being interviewed about his lifestory, but the tales he tells seem to make no sense. The stories are mutually exclusive, and cannot possibly all be true. Again, as in Slaughterhouse Five it seems as though time has been thrown into a blender and stripped of it’s natural order. Today, yesterday and tomorrow all seem to exist concurrently, and Nemo appears to have lived different lives, with different families and different fates. Yet, he insists that they are all him. Nemo has lived all these moments because he has never made a conscious choice in his life- fearing that any decision would block out all other possibilities. So each of these loose threads were different real possibilities- consequences of the choices he could have made. The concept of non-linear time dictates editing that is so wild and disjointed that one begins to wonder if it will ever make sense. And it doesn’t, really. It’s the same tricky editing used in CATCH 22- only what worked so well there does not work at all here. The result is a mess of a film.
. The thing is- what a fascinating mess it is! Until the film loses and then finds its way again near the end, the images throughout are so extraordinarily eye-popping, it seems you are watching a Tarsem Singe film- the visual genius behind THE CELL and THE FALL. This one-shot wonder had ideas! But Dormael seems to throw them all at the viewer hoping something will stick. When Nemo’s three possible wives come into the picture, nothing does. Poor Sarah Polley (a very skilled actress), has a horribly thankless role as a severely depressed alternate wife. When she is onscreen, the film gets as depressed as she is, becoming very, flat and boring. During this midsection, I had to work to stay with it, in the hope Jaco was keeping his powder dry for a final salvo. And there were still great images to come- if little to no coherence. (Including one unforgettable shot of hundreds of loose bicycles orbiting Mars after a catastrophic explosion. Mesmerizing!)
– Despite these serious faults, I rated the film highly, awarding points for sheer audacity and an extraordinary imagination. See it, but be prepared to be patient.
AMERICAN WOMEN (2000) ***
> This is predictable formula fun from the makers of the far-superior THE FULL MONTY is nothing special. But hey, I love any film taking place in Ireland, the home of my heart- especially organic Irish films that feel rooted in real (if idealized) Irish life, like this one.
. AMERICAN WOMEN is a light romance about lonely, hopelessly single Irish country folk who reach out to foreign cultures to find mates, as the men don’t find the local women much of a catch (For their part, and the local women don’t think much of the available men either!)
. Here, the focus is on wild, rugged Donegal. The parish butchers, publicans and sheep ranchers gather over pints and commiserate about the situation. Oddly, they decide to advertise in a Miami newspaper for American women to come meet eligible Irish bachelors at the annual dance, with an eye towards marriage. But these simple guys are very naive about it- expecting the floodgates of American pulchritude to open for them, flooding the village with desirable female mates- totally unaware that they have offered these women no reason to drop their comfortable Floridian lives for the lonely isolation of a small Irish seaside village.
. Every afternoon, the men wait in the bushes for the arrival of the Loch Swilly bus, but invariably: the doors open, pause, and then close with no one disembarking.
(I’ve ridden this bus! And I have a great story about it:)
https://lastcre8iveiconoclast.wordpress.com/2011/06/02/irish-ramblings-7-an-overwound-american-learns-to-chill-in-letterkenny-from-my-irish-diaries-©-kpkeelan/
. Understandably pissed off about this insult to their feminine desirability, the local women exact their revenge by inviting local Spanish fishermen to the same dance. The difference is, the amorous Spaniards actually show up and eagerly romance the local ladies, to the major consternation of the menfolk, now that the shoe is on the other foot. Goes around, it comes around!
– AMERICAN WOMEN (called “THE CLOSER YOU GET” in Europe) is fun, if minor moviemaking. One criticism: I sure wish the music sounded more… Irish. “Modern” Irish music like this? It sucks.
KILLER’S KISS (1955) ****+
> Brilliant craftsman Stanley Kubrick brilliantly crafted this black-and-white noir, with the darkness seeming, in every frame, to be at war with the light.
. There is very little mid-range gray. It’s the world reduced to the stark contrast of melodrama.
. A fighter loses an important comeback fight and soon finds himself drawn into some dark stuff with the woman living in the apartment opposite his. It’s wonderfully gritty, written, directed, produced, photographed and edited by the singular director, and every frame foreshadows the brilliance to come. It’s funny- the trailer looked so lame and overwrought. The acting looked terribly amateur, but the film itself was none of these things- at least not any more than any other noir, which, let’s face it- is a shamelessly overheated genre.
– I’m glad I was able to find this early title, (along with FEAR AND DESIRE), because it did provide an interesting window into the mind of a cinematic genius, even if that mind was still forming into the great director he is remembered as now.
LISTEN UP PHILIP (2014) ***+
> In LISTEN UP PHILIP, Jason Schwartzman does his very best grumpy misanthrope. It’s something he does well.
. Jason has a ball playing an arrogant, self-absorbed New York novelist, trying to stay one step head of his life and career, but failing miserably at being a professional writer, a decent partner or even a good person. Elizabeth Moss of Mad Men is really very good as the long-suffering woman with whom he tries to carry on a primary relationship. But good luck with that! The only person this guy loves is himself. Other people are just a means to an end. Jonathan Pryce also shines as a celebrated reclusive, curmudgeonly writer whose primary default position is bitterness. The man has burned every bridge he’s crossed, and is now paying the cost in his declining years.
. LISTEN UP PHILIP is presented as kind of a living book, with a detached narrator running commentary throughout, (the beautiful, sonorous voice of Eric Bogsian), speaking in terms more suited to a novel than a film. Some may find this off-putting, but particularly in this context, it works well. Presented as a comedy- this is not. There is plenty of humor here, but really it’s a “dramady”, exposing some pretty raw human emotion.
. Critics really liked this, awarding it a hefty 7.7 out of 10. For some reason, Netflix audiences are not so enamored, rating it only the equivalent of 5.2. As a smarmy elitist, I am with the critics on this one. The public is just missing the boat. Maybe it was a matter of expectations. Perhaps audiences expected the straight-up comedy the trailer suggests and were put off by the roiling emotion of the film. Give it a chance.
– It’s well-written, well-acted and entertaining.
TORTILLA SOUP (2001) ***
I enjoy sweet, gentle human films like this, even if they are not generally great cinema. This is the warm story of a Latino widower (the always-solid Hector Alanzo) raising three willful daughters in L.A. while trying to keep the kitchen running in a fancy restaurant, despite the fact that this wonderful chef has lost his senses of taste and smell. The cast is uniformly good- and watching Elizabeth Pena do her thing got me in touch with why I felt so sad when she passed away (shockingly, from the results of alcoholism). I had a screen crush on her that had never broken through to my conscious mind. And she is pretty adorable here as the most uptight of the sisters, falling into an unexpected romance with comic actor Paul Rodriguez. It’s a sweet family movie, custom-made for foodies. But my favorite thing about TORTILLA SOUP is it’s complete lack of ethnic stereotypes. This Latino family could have been of any ethnicity. There is no pandering here. Nice.
20,000 DAYS ON EARTH (2014) ***
> I’m sure it would help, in enjoying this film, if one were a fan of Nick Cave and his music…
. Can’t say I was, going into this biography that documents the 20,000th day of the iconic, laconic singer-songwriter’s life. I do have, in my collection, one track of his on the soundtrack to Wim Wender’s UNTIL THE END OF THE WORLD that I thought was kinda cool, but most of Nick’s stuff sounded too weird and ethereal for me, the lyrics- almost random, the vocals… (How shall I put it?), earnest, but not good. All the songs I heard sounded alike and didn’t seem to go anywhere. But the critics liked this film, so I gave it a whirl- and it was quite good.
. Nick himself is a very observant and erudite observer of life, art, and the creative process. The man is interesting and likable in his cool, detached way, and he’s very fascinating to watch, because his face often tells a completely different story than the words he is speaking. As a performer myself, I found his musings interesting and often evocative of deeper pondering.
. Unfortunately, I kinda lost interest at the halfway point. The tone and pacing was too consistent and occasionally plodding, but there is a lot to appreciate here- mostly on an intellectual level.
– Still, 20,000 DAYS ON EARTH is peppered with unexpected, transcendent moments that sparkle like… life!
WETLANDS (2013) ****
> I loved this film! No. Wait. I hated this film! It was excruciating to watch. No. Wait. It was crazy fun! It’s… complicated.
. Of the 5,000+ films I’ve seen in my life, WETLANDS was, by some measure, the single most vulgar movie I have ever seen. (It makes PINK FLAMINGOS look like a Disney film!) That’s saying something. And while I generally do not enjoy vulgarity as entertainment, this was a damn entertaining film! The sheer audacity of the narrative and dialogue is a visceral thing to behold. This is a sexually and scatalogically graphic film taken from a biographical book that was a notorious sensation upon its release in Germany, in 2009. In seeing the film version, this is no great wonder.
. We are introduced to a strange and very perverse young girl named Helen, who takes personal delight in her extremely bad feminine hygiene… No, I am not kidding. This is the mainspring of the film. Are you wondering why you should continue reading this review? Now you know what it was like for me to continually wonder why I was watching this film, as again and again it would saddle right up to the edge of complete tastelessness, and then gleefully plunge over! To call most of this film “gross” would be a dramatic understatement. “Disgusting” is a more fitting adjective. Packed with crude references to the penis, the vagina, the rectum, menstrual flows, and unprotected sex, WETLANDS is characterized by severely self-destructive behavior that just makes you cringe. I all but involuntarily averted my eyes several times, when the behavior being depicted was so perverse, it was not something I cared to watch. (Unfortunately, I could not pretend I didn’t know what was going on. It was too late for that- and there was always the graphic soundtrack to remind me!) WETLANDS forced me confront the prude within me, that was so uncomfortable with so much of this film, which was altogether so much fun!
. But there is no subterfuge here, we know what we are in for within the first five minutes, as we meet our rebellious teenage heroine and she cheerfully divulges the horror of having hemorrhoids. Entering what looks to be the same filthy bathroom used so memorably in TRAINSPOTTING, Helen savors the repulsive disgustingness of the unimaginably filthy public toilet she stops in to apply medication to her bottom. The camera zooms in to some questionable bodily fluid on the toilet seat, zooming in to the pubic hair embedded into it and continuing to miniaturize until we are surrounded by the horrible microscopic entities living within it- who lash out at us as we cruise by, in an attempt to devour us! It is easily one of the most memorable title sequences I have ever seen in a lifetime of film viewing.
. Following her carnal impulses, Helen attempts to shave herself down behind, with catastrophic results. “No! Stop!” you scream! “Enough! Tell no more!” Don’t worry: I’ll spare you that… pleasure? But I will tell you that director David Wnendt’s vision here is strikingly original. Every scene is shot with verve and energy and bursting with style and color. The acting is good, the editing- crisp, the camera, kinetic and the soundtrack rocks. The main actress (Carla Juri) delivers one of the most fearless screen performances I can remember seeing, managing to be both adorable and repulsive at the same time- as does this film.
– It’s fascinating. Horrible! Unpleasant. Delightful! Clever. Banal! One thing WETLANDS is not- is boring. SEE IT! AVOID IT! I am awash with cognitive dissonance!
THE BOXTROLLS (2014) ****
I just loved the design of this very original Claymation feature from the fine artists that brought us the sublime CORALINE. The story seems to take place in France, yet all the vocal talent speaks with lower-class British accents. It’s the story of an infant separated violently from his father and raised by timid little trolls who hide turtle-like in packing crates they wear over their tiny green bodies. A very evil man is on a quest to kill all of them in order to rise in station, and the now-grown boy must find his true identity to stop it. In an age where it often feels like every other damn movie is a retread, reboot, rerun or the sequel to a retread, reboot or retread- it is a delight to find such a truly original bit of work, filled with sly, understated comic bits and bursting with heart. I love animation, and I loved this film. The ending is a fitting homage to the stop-motion animators who worked so hard, frame-by-frame, to bring these puppets to life. Sweetness!
THE WALL (2012) ****+
> Wow. This is one impactful film, if you’ve the stomach for it!
. THE WALL is not for the weak-minded. If you are able to tune to its rhythms, this can be a very unnerving experience. It’s kind of a fantasy-horror-thriller, yet none of those adjectives do it justice. THE WALL is a dive into the deep end of the human psyche. If you undertake this film, be willing to confront potentially devastating existentialist territory.
… Imagine you are on a holiday with an older couple, visiting a hunting lodge high in the Austrian alps. As soon as you arrive, they take off to the nearby town to go shopping, leaving you behind with the dog, who, strangely, refuses to go along. They plan to be back before dark, but when you wake up in the morning, your friends still haven’t arrived. Worried, you take the dog and begin to walk into town, but as you turn a bend in the road, the dog recoils in horror. You see nothing, so you keep walking… Until you run smack into an invisible barrier that seems to extend in every direction, blocking your way. You think: this CAN’T be happening! I’m dreaming, or hallucinating. So you test the invisible wall again and again and again, only to find out it’s very frighteningly real. I won’t share much more, because here, the essence is in the journey, but I will say for the character this happens to, her life will never be the same.
. Martina Gedeck, (very good in THE BAADER MEINHOF COMPLEX, NIGHT TRAIN TO LISBON and especially THE LIVES OF OTHERS,) plays this horror-stricken woman, trapped, alone, in a world that seems to have opted out of time. She is writing a report, longhand, on a rapidly diminishing stack of paper, with a steadily shortening pencil, until both are spent. Martina is grave and somber throughout, and her voiceover narration, a device that drives the film by putting you inside her head when dialogue is not possible, has a kind of hypnotic effect on the viewer that adds to the spooky unease. The film takes its time building the tension and skin-tingling atmosphere, but when things happen- little incidents or big shocks, you really feel the impact.
. This thinking person’s horror film is a deep, occasionally ponderous examination of human loneliness, alienation and isolation. Who are we, if we are suddenly not a part of the family of men? How can we go on, day to day, it life comes to feel utterly meaningless, and a daily struggle to survive? I chose this title simply because the description intrigued me. So did the movie!
– Though not for everyone, THE WALL is a powerful and original film experience. Just: wow!
THE COMPLETE HISTORY OF AMERICA (Abridged) (2005) ****
> I had the privilege of seeing this company perform live one time, doing their signature show THE COMPLETE PLAYS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (ABRIDGED). It was a gas!
. What these three performers do is a huge amount of frenetic fun. The Reduced Shakespeare Company are clever, witty, funny, silly and yes- even thoughtful in their satire. I really enjoyed that show, as I have always had a particular love for (the plays attributed to) William Shakespeare. But the last decade or so I have also developed an interest in American history, (I loved LINCOLN and 1776), so I thought I’d give this one a shot. And I was surprised to find this sophomore effort to be even better than the inspiration that started it all.
. For me, every gag here worked- and it is packed with ’em! It’s a laugh a minute romp using props, wigs and imagination to truncate 20 years into an hour and a half. This trio has a political agenda. This is not textbook American history. Some folks on the right might not be too happy about the show. As a dyed-in-the-wool lefty, I found their message right on. I think I got all the more obscure references, and the only bit that didn’t work was clearly not planned: when a latecomer entered distractingly and clearly threw off one of the performers so badly, he had to improvise, and include the woman as part of the program. It was embarrassing, frankly- both for the woman and for the performers who were dragging it out well past the point of funny.
– But that’s a small gripe about a really fun, illuminating and entertaining theatre piece.
THE GOOD LIE (2014) ****
> This film was an emotional experience for me, because I am deeply moved by the plight of the “lost boys” of Sudan, and all child victims of war- and especially infuriated by the forced conscription of child soldiers.
. THE GOOD LIE is a potent (if commercial) dramatization of the plight of these pitiable refugees. Many of the key roles are played by Sudanese refugees, and these traumatized people give surprisingly self-assured performances.
. The first half of the film takes place in the war-torn African nation, as we watch a family ripped apart by violence. The orphaned children must walk many hundreds of miles across an active battleground to find potential safety in the living hell of a refugee camp. It is intense and compelling- yet one gets the feeling that it is not, in fact, intense enough to match the horrific realities. Had this part been more unflinching, the impact would only have been greater.
. The second part of the film takes place over a decade later, as what remains of the family tries to make a go of it in Kansas City. Here’s where a self-absorbed, world-weary Reese Witherspoon comes in and this well-intentioned film begins to falter a bit. Now, their story is told more through the American perspective. They are strangers in a strange land, completely unfamiliar with most technology and absolutely without a clue culturally. Here, it becomes a fish out of water story, and though it’s still good stuff, the film begins to feel more calculated and mainstream.
. At one point during a reunion scene, I thought to myself: “If what I suspect will happen does happen… this is a pretty hackneyed bit of filmmaking”. Sadly, a few seconds later, that is exactly what happened. Witherspoon predictably morphs into a caring and empathetic person, though, as the talented actress she is, Reese manages the transition well.
. This is the third film I’ve seen about the subject, after the fine documentaries LOST BOYS OF SUDAN, from 2003, and the heartbreaking GOD GREW TIRED OF US, in 2006. All three have something important of offer on the subject, yet somehow, it doesn’t feel as though the definitive film has been made, about this terrible chapter in recent history.
– Maybe it’s time to tell the story without the Hollywood treatment, from the point of view of the people this wrenching diaspora happened to.
FORCE MAJEURE (2014) ****
This is a mature, compelling psychological drama about what happens when a Swedish family on a ski vacation fears it is about to be swept away by an avalanche. The woman who sees herself as wife and mother reaches down to protect her children, the husband and father takes more of an every-man-for-himself approach, grabbing his cellphone and fleeing for his life, abandoning his family in the melee. Afterwards, when confronted by his actions, he cannot face this reality, choosing stonewalling denial. But his wife and kids know the truth. Will he ever regain the trust and faith of his family? This is a pretty heavy drama, and it works. Critics loved it. I see why. Just fascinating. The Will Farrell American reboot (DOWNHILL), takes the same story and plays it for black comedy. It bombed spectacularly. You would be wise to stick with this original.
THE INTERNET’S OWN BOY: The Aaron Swartz Story (2014) ****
> Ah! Another modern horror story, brought to you by our criminal government, which has grown so pathologically paranoid, that it has started to devour its best and brightest.
. Not being young enough to be a techno-nerd, I knew nothing of the tragic story of Aaron Swartz, making me completely ignorant of this shameful chapter in recent American history. It’s a truly pathetic story that clearly illustrates how badly this wayward country has lost its way.
. One of the brightest lights of his generation is dead- and the blood is on Obama’s hands. It was, after all, his justice department (under then Attorney general Eric Holder), who viciously hounded 24 year old Aaron to his death, for having the nerve to think public records should be public.
. Aaron Swartz was an exemplary citizen. Instrumental in the development of Reddit and the RSS feed, he was a writer, programmer, social activist who founded a huge number of non-profits and public advocacy entities before the intense pressure applied by our punitive government became too much for him and he responded by taking his own life. A child prodigy, Aaron grew up to develop a keen social conscience that is badly needed in America today. Ever the idealist, he hoped someday to enter politics, with an eye to the White House itself. But the writing was on the wall. Aaron had been fighting these trumped up charges for over a year of his life, and this moment of truth was quickly approaching. The idea of being a convicted felon devastated him. Walking past the White House with his girlfriend, he ruefully remarked: “They don’t let felons in there.” And all this, for attempting to do the RIGHT thing. If you are a U.S. citizen, these files he downloaded through Harvard University are your records. The federal courts are the people’s court, and all documents they produce are a matter of public record.
. The problem began some years ago when a law was passed that gave the government the right to charge “reasonable” fees to reimburse the costs to the court. But what constitutes a “reasonable” fee? Access to this public information was awarded to an ostensibly not-for-profit entity called “JSTOR” who became the gatekeepers of the archives. Before long, they began to charge outrageous, inappropriate, I would say criminal fees to access these scholarly papers that clearly should be freely available to all who seek them. JSTOR makes millions (and billions!), in profit on this cash cow, when by law, they are meant to merely break even. This is a total ripoff to the consumer- an egregious disservice to our citizens whose tax dollars paid for most of this research in the first place and a lucrative sweetheart deal for JSTOR. Now imagine that our misguided government, in it’s zeal to make an example, decided it was a criminal act to inform the public about the very same laws they are expected to adhere to…
. Imagine no longer- this is exactly what is happening!
. The status quo powers-that-be reap huge dividends from the present (rigged) system- why would they want this to change? Big Business fights hard to control the flow of information, the better to keep the general public ignorant, and thus disempowered- and easier to manipulate. It does not seem possible any longer, for a filmmaker to make an honest, unflinching documentary about American life without it becoming a sad, pathetic, infuriating portrait of an arrogant, corrupt country behaving abysmally. THIS IS JUST WHO WE ARE TODAY: A SAD, PATHETIC, IGNORANT, ARROGANT COUNTRY. With a world brimming with bad guys needing to be dealt with, our stupid, stupid government chooses to harass and persecute anyone who believes in transparency, as if they were our real enemies- not Al Qaeda or ISIS. Eric Holden is all but gone now (if the lazy, ineffectual congress ever stops playing offensive political games and acts to confirm his predecessor), but as far as I’m concerned, it is not too late to hold Obama accountable. It’s time for this president to resign in disgrace. He is a dismal failure and this country would be better off without him. The best adjective to describe this whole episode is “criminal”. WE HAVE A CRIMINAL GOVERNMENT THAT IS AT WAR WITH ITS OWN CITIZENS.
. Do people care enough to change this? No, I don’t think so. As a group, Americans are scared, paranoid, childish reactionaries, who are too timid, polarized, and willfully disempowered, to take responsibility for… anything!
– Too bad.
GHOSTS OF THE ABYSS (2003) ***+
> Accomplished director James Cameron became so fascinated with the great doomed ocean liner after filming TITANIC, that he decided to collect a team of technicians to go down to the ocean floor and explore the wreck himself.
. Using submersible video-bots “Jake” and “Elwood” to capture stunning 3-D images of the tragic scene, the results are now available on DVD. Gone is the 3-D element, but most of the images are stunners nonetheless.
. Tireless explorer Cameron invited actor Bill Paxton along for the journey, who becomes a kind of everyman through whose lens we view the expedition. Although Bill is a clearly likable guy, this motif doesn’t work as well as the great director thought it would, due to his folksy “gee whiz, aw shucks” manner that makes him seem a fish out of water (unintended pun) next to these scientists and experts. His observations, while authentic and honest, also feel trite and obvious.
. Though often fascinating to watch, this documentary doesn’t really go anywhere. It’s just a snapshot of the expedition really, and the real drama lies in viewing the actual scene that so many of us have visited in our imaginations so many times, and in the occasional scary glitches that threaten to strand Elwood, and then Jake inside the carcass of the deceased ship.
– There is a terrible coincidence that caps the film, as the venture is coming to a close on September 11th, 2001, and the terrible events of that day seem to cast a pall on the whole project, providing some potent and unexpected perspective on the tragic loss of life on April 15th, in 1912.
TOP FIVE (2014) ****
> Chris Rock has always been a very funny man, with a sharp ear for the language of the street and no leeway for hypocrisy or pretense.
. He became an accomplished documentarian with GOOD HAIR in 2009. His acting chops were always a bit too broadly drawn to be very effective, but as he matures as a man, a filmmaker, and a very funny social critic, the subtlety and realism of his acting have also grown considerably. Here, he is a triple threat: star, writer and director, and he excels beautifully at all three!
. Perhaps it helped that he did not invent an entirely new character for himself, but rather created a character that was not far removed from his own reality. TOP FIVE is the story of a successful comic and mainstream filmmaker who stopped having faith in his ability to be funny when he admitted his alcoholism and stopped drinking. The stunning and delightful Rosario Dawson is his foil- a New York Times feature writer doing a story on him, until things get complicated.
. It’s sharply observed and often very funny stuff. Just look at the talent that he recruited for this sly, telling film: Kevin Hart, Cedric the Entertainer, Jerry Seinfield, Tracy Morgan, Whoopie Goldberg, Ben Vereen, Luis Guzmán, Charlie Rose, Gabourey Sidibe, and very funny SNL alumni Leslie Jones, Adam Sandler, Jay Pharoah and Michael Che.
– Chris Rock has always been good at what he does, and he’s only getting better with age!
ONE LITTLE INDIAN (1973) **+
> There are many ways to tell this live-action Disney flick was a child of the seventies.
. The score for one thing: typically lame and incongruous as so many scores from the era were- and the “good guy” (James Garner, who is the best thing about the movie), is a bad guy…
. Or is he?
. Of course not! A man on the run, Garner is being pursued by a posse bent on hanging him for mutiny and desertion, though of course- what he did was an act of conscience, performed by a highly moral man. Classic. Western. Plot. There’s a reason for this: It’s a good setup. It works. In this iteration, there are many entertaining moments, but the film often feels assembled by factory committee, tiresomely predictable and hackneyed. Because it’s Disney, the hunted man partners with a settler child who has been raised from infancy as a Cherokee. Together, they have potentially perilous adventures while evading the mean men who want to string him up. The resourceful boy uses the skills he gleaned from living with his tribe to save the day.
. Wait a minute! If I had seen this film when I was a kid (and who knows- maybe I did!), I would have loved it, identifying strongly with the determined, independent Anglo “Indian” boy. Every generation of kids deserve their own media- and movies geared specifically to them.
– Well, never mind then.
DANTE’S INFERNO (2007) ***
James Cromwell, as Greek philosopher Virgil, and Dermot Mulroney as Dante Aligretti lead us on a mind-bending trip down into the deepest pits of Hell, in this animated feature that uses the classic as a template and gives it a thoroughly modern spin. It’s a puppet film, basically, and a bit self conscious of it’s limited nature, using itself as the butt of a number of gags. It had a look I’ve never seen before: the characters are all cardboard cutouts- so don’t expect to see any mouths move. (Dante remarks that nobody’s mouths seem to move in Hell.) It doesn’t seem to work at first, but the filmmakers have ideas, and the setpieces are a pleasure to see, so the film wins you over before long and you begin to enjoy the sly satire that eviscerates things in our world that need and deserve evisceration… like FAUX News, for example. A bit of fun, this.
THE BOOK OF LIFE (2014) ***+
Iconic Latin-American director Guillermo del Toro produced this very charming animated film, inspired by the traditions celebrated in Mexican Day of the Dead. Good idea! And good fun. Have to say- I hated some of the character design: the spindly spider legs under enormous bodies didn’t work for me. The ingénues with waists so thin they could not possibly support the enormous bosoms, and the necks so thin their heads would just topple over are ludicrous and offensive stereotypes of what it takes for a woman to be feminine. The bizarrely shaped heads with tiny jaws are just lame and annoying to me- and I wish character designers would just cut this the fuck out! But I was able to ignore these flaws most of the time, because this story was just so much fun to watch. (The clichéd end stunk to high heaven, though. The music- horrible!)
DEAR WHITE PEOPLE (2014) ****
Presented as a satire about racial tensions on college campuses in America, I found it to be closer to a drama. It’s pretty potent stuff, though it took me a while to warm to, because it does not have one main character, but four. Prompted by shameful headlines about racist events at white frat houses from coast to coast, it is- for an old fart like me- a fascinating look into the minds of people who are of an age I have almost no contact with, and a minefield-strewn cultural front line that is comfortably alien to me. I see racism in America (everywhere I look!), but I rarely find myself in the middle of the thorny issues these four protagonists face as part of their daily school lives. I found the issues raised in DEAR WHITE PEOPLE too serious and heartbreaking to consider this fine film a comedy.
ANDRÉ GREGORY: BEFORE AND AFTER DINNER (2013) ***+
Because I really adore the subject of this loving biography (made by his wife Cindy Kleine), and have ever since his extended blatherings with his lifelong friend Wallace Shawn in MY DINNER WITH ANDRE in 1981, I am probably overrating this film by half a star. Certainly, it might not be of much interest to viewers who may not know the man and his work as a theatre director, and to a smaller extent, Hollywood actor. (DEMOLITION MAN, THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST) But it is my hope they would walk away from this warm portrait of a warm man with the same adoration of this great thinker and feeler that I have.
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So many great treasures this viewing month- but after last month’s focus on classic titles, I appear to have grown somewhat addicted to their many consistent rewards. So next time, I am revisiting the strategy. WATCH THIS SPACE for a shitload of great films to devour!
VIVE Cine, homo sapiens!
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