Stars Trapped in their Vehicles

Robin Williams, Brad Pitt, Tilda Swinton and Nicholas Cage are no slouches but these releases fall short despite their best efforts, usually due to over-indulgent writers/directors. I’m giving all of these two shakers each.

A pre-heart attack Robin Williams shot “The Worlds’ Greatest Dad” in Seattle and although that’s good for our local economy I wish this black comedy worked for me. Written and directed by fellow frantic comedian Bobcat Goldthwait, both the comedy and Williams are surprisingly understated. In fact Williams is so quiet that he almost disappears performance-wise and that doesn’t help. As a high school teacher, aspiring novelist and single parent, his character Lance Clayton seems to do all badly. Lance’s teenage son is a pervy arrogant fool (well-played by Daryl Sabara) who meets an early death which earns both he and his father the fame that eluded them both while he lived. The reverence and whitewashing we give to the dead is a great topic for satire and this film almost works; however, even a black comedy must have laughs. Caught up in its own dour plot machinations it wastes not only Williams but the great supporting cast. Too many music montages, an over-reliance on cutting to the goth girl and what feels like a tacked on Hollywood ending eventually bring it down. It’s a shame because I think if Bobcat played it less safe we might have a comedy in the “Heathers” vein instead of a film as repressed as Lance is.

I’m not going to lie; I am not a fan of Quentin Tarantino. I find his movies over-hyped and ridiculous. Long b-movie speeches interrupted by sensationalized hyper-violence and not a touch of reality. His fan base eats them up though and I was curious how he’d take on a period drama in his latest: “Inglorious Basterds”. Weighing in at two and a half hours it’s a long haul but for a war film it had surprisingly less torture than I suspected, unless you count the twenty minute scene set in a basement pub to be audience torture. I feel if someone had been allowed to edit Tarantino the film would have worked better but perhaps not. When all the top brass for the Third Reich are attending an event it’s a bit surprising to see that only two guards are posted. We also are supposed to believe that the “Basterds” are a super squad of Nazi hunters but we see very little of their tracking and hunting, only Eli Roth (the fellow torture-porn director of “Hostel”) happily beating a Nazi to death with a baseball bat. Pitt’s portrayal is complete caricature, kind of like Foghorn Leghorn in a uniform. However the two female stars, (Diane Kruger as a German film actress/spy and Mélanie Laurent as a Jewish survivor who is living covertly as a local theater owner) outshine their material. But the breakout performance here and probable Oscar nom is Christoph Waltz portraying a nefarious “Jew hunter” SS Officer. Acting well and in four languages he represents the quiet evil of the Nazis better than most war movie heavies outshining even the Hitler in this one. If only the film lived up to his performance with a little less conversation a little more action. (Thanks Elvis!)

Another Oscar worthy performance trapped in a bad film is Tilda Swinton as the title character in “Julia”. It begins as a naturalistic character-driven story where Julia is shown as a hopeless alcoholic who sleeps around and finds it hard to hold down a job or to attend her AA meetings. However soon she meets her neurotic Mexican neighbor who wants to kidnap her son from his wealthy grandfather and the film begins to turn into a marathon of the improbable. This time director Erick Zonca steers the two and half hour ship as Julia makes one bad decision after another, abusing the ten year old in question endlessly before the film literally transforms into a Mexican soap opera where evil-looking gangsters scream “Puta!” a lot with drawn weapons. One twist too many for me and an unbelievable ending to boot, which is a shame since Swinton really shined through this overlong story.

Finally we have the newest trend in action films- full-out apocalypse! We know Nicholas Cage can act from “Leaving Las Vegas” but since then he has chosen films more for their paychecks which is a shame. In “Knowing” we have numerology, crazy psychic kids, Matrix-like aliens with shiny mouths and a shitload of CGI! Cage is a single parent whose son loses out when a fifty-year old time capsule is opened at his school; while the other kids in his class get drawings from the past students (kind of an expensive and wasteful school project no?) he gets a page filled with numbers written by a creepy girl in the film’s prologue. Cage cracks the code which turns out to be a listing of the time, locations and casualties of all the major disasters in the world. Frantically he races off to witness elaborately staged plane and subway crashes but seems only slightly perturbed. The biggest disaster is this film itself. You’ve been warned! Here’s to better DVDs in 10!!

The 20 Best DVDs of 2009

As we finish up 2009, it's time again to look back at the DVD film releases of the past year and give thanks! Again, I am talking about new films on disk, most released theatrically in 2008 (unless noted as a 2009 release).There are many fine TV series and re-releases, but that's another blog. Happily we've reviewed many of these films already on this blog, so I've included the links. Most of these films I give four shakers to unless noted as the elusive fifth shaker.

With all the chaos in life, nothing beats getting lost in a good film. So here are my picks on the best twenty. I think any film lover on your list would appreciate any of these. (Why not do a gift basket and get them all? :)

Happy Holidays and Happy viewing! (When the January rental doldrums hit, I will offer up some additional good films of the past year)

1) Anvil: The Story of Anvil - Old Head bangers keep the dream alive into middle age. Review here.

2) The Cove (2009) - A dramatic doc on the battle to save dolphins from slaughter and captivity.

3) Days and Clouds – A successful Italian couple try to keep their marriage afloat and start over in a harsh economy. Review here.

4) Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son about His Father – Began as a project to tell a son about his murdered father, director Kurt Kuenne successfully covers additional tragic twists in one of the most heart-wrenching films you'll ever see.

5) District 9 (2009) – A great sci-fi film on lost humanity that I think was totally overlooked this summer. Director Neill Blomkamp gives us an exciting story about aliens who become refugees in South Africa and how the corporation tasked with relocating them then seeks to exploit them for their weapons technology. 5 Shakers

6) Doubt - John Patrick Shanley's powerfully acted tale of the power struggle between a conservative nun and a progressive priest in a 1964 New York City parish. Our Reviews here. 5 Shakers

7) Eden - A simple but universal story of an Irish couple struggling with their ten-year marriage. Review here.

8) Frozen River - Another story of personal survival, Melissa Leo brings amazing truth and believability to her role of a mother struggling to keep her family afloat by any means possible. Jessi's Review here.

9) The Hangover (2009) - Todd Phillips directs a believable and likeable cast in a tale of the ultimate bachelor party gone bad in Las Vegas. Comedies about men who don't want to grow up are a Hollywood stable, but this one avoids the usual bathroom humor to deliver a fun and clever flick.

10) I've Loved You So Long – Another tale of family dynamics, this time two siblings who struggle to get reacquainted after a fifteen year absence. Kristin Scott Thomas is compelling as a shell-shocked woman who slowly reveals her secrets to her well-meaning but puzzled younger sister (Elsa Zylbertstein). Jessi's Review here.

11) Let the Right One In – An alternative vampire flick to the one which shall remain nameless. Original and creepy, the setting of a cold, dark, depressing Swedish town is spot on and the concept of a little girl vampire is spooky. Review here.

12) Milk – Director Gus Van Sant really captures the details and tone of the era in this timely biopic of Harvey Milk (Oscar winner Sean Penn) the first openly gay man to be voted into public office in America. A great supporting cast includes Josh Brolin who is brooding and intense as Dan White, a troubled fellow official on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors who feels threatened enough to murder.

13) Revolutionary Road – Though I didn't notice the trend before this is my third pick to focus on a troubled marriage. Based on the novel by Richard Yates, Sam Mendes delivers a film not really about the homogenized suburbs but about the compromises of marriage and conformity. Very similar in time period and theme to "Mad Men", seeing April (Oscar winner Kate Winslet) framed behind a picture window like a caged bird is tragic. Review here.

14) Sin Nombre (2009) – A Honduran girl falls for a Central American gang banger on a train heading to the US border. Review here.

15) Slumdog Millionaire – Last years' big Oscar winner tells the fairy tale odyssey of an 18-year-old Mumbai "slumdog" (Dev Patel) attempting to find his lost love (Freida Pinto) by going on a TV game show. Director Danny Boyle directs this story with energy and heart and a breakout final song unexpectedly paying tribute to big Bollywood dance numbers. Jessi's review here.

16) Star Trek (2009) – J.J. Abrams reboots the franchise for new fans and old trekkers alike. A great finish to a decade of some outstanding sci-fi! 5 Shakers Review here.

17) Summer Hours - As an aging widow reunites her adult children and their families to their childhood home; she realizes her possessions and legacy will become devalued once she passes on. A subtle but powerful film on how the global economy is not only splintering families, but undermining cultures, creating a society does not value its’ own history.

18) Up (2009) – Pixar does it again with an amazingly touching film on never being too old to live out your dreams.

19) Waltz with Bashir – An "animated documentary" for adults as ex-soldiers revisit their fractured wartime memories. Review here.

20) The Wrestler – Mickey Rourke's amazing comeback film of a tortured middle-aged wrestler trying to come to terms with his life while staging a final bout. This is the wrestling picture Barton Fink should have written.

Corrupt leaders & other runaway trains

I wanted to see me some Italian corrupt politics riddled with assassination but I got more than I needed in Il Divo. Rather than just tell the story straightforward, which would have been gripping enough, director Paolo Sorrentino goes gonzo and thinks he’s Kubrick meets Scorcese but is neither as proven by his pretentious over-direction. Lead actor Toni Servillo plays the main character of long-time Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti like a grotesque caricature, hunching around, an expressionless Dracula save for the stagey (but really it’s all so stagey) soliloquies where he rants rapidly like a madman. Much like 2006’s visually beautiful but hollow “The Fall” this director knows how to make beautiful pictures, he just doesn’t know when the say ‘basta’ and tell a story. Subtlety is not sin signore; see ‘La dolce vita’ instead.

The frustrating age of Bush resulted in a backlash that produced not just a satirical film in last years’ “W.”, but also a one-man show, before he had even left office. Will Ferrell’s “You’re Welcome America, A Final Night with George W. Bush” being the latter. Ferrell is as always absurd and funny, his political satire spot-on, but weighing in at almost an hour and a half the show does get tired. It seems like a drawn out SNL sketch not helped by a dancing secret service man between scenes played by Ferrells’ brother. Maybe it’s just too soon.

The remake of “The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3” is a textbook example of how current Hollywood does thrillers bad with Tony “Top Gun” Scott pulling out all his tricks: The macho mustachioed men from Central ‘New Yawk’ casting, loud soundtrack booms with pulsating rock riffs, intermittent slow motion with over-saturated colors, super quick cuts and zooms, the overused helicopter shots and not one ounce of honest character development in the mix. Denzel Washington goes from a coffee spilling demoted MTA boss to a superhero chasing his nemesis on the Brooklyn Bridge with gun in hand. (I would say “Spoiler alert” but the tell-all trailer for this film already gives most of this film up). John Travolta is the brains of the subway-napping who eats up the scenery and all but gives his name and address to the dispatchers. In short this movie sucks. Scott constantly cuts to police officers and SWAT teams who do nothing with the exception of getting into three (Count em!) separate car crashes in one trip uptown. The filmmakers had unrestricted access to the NY subway system so it’s a shame this film pales in comparison to the original. That 70’s film directed by Joseph Sargent was shot with real grit and intelligence as it had the meticulous Robert Shaw matching wits with the great low-key Walter Matthau. Its classic ending was near perfect. They don’t make them like that anymore as this remake proves loudly.

Lose your Illusion

There have been many documentaries about the war in Iraq but Tony Gerber and Jesse Moss's “Full Battle Rattle” captures the motivation and policies of our military better than most. Ironically it was filmed in the US, in a mock Iraqi city in the Mojave Desert of California. The “city” is a battle training ground that seems to be a cross between a video game simulation and the town featured in “The Truman Show”. The make-believe hamlet is populated by Iraqi-Americans and other soldiers portraying the locals. There are meetings with the city council, confrontations at check points and even photo opportunities as building contracts and cash are handed out to buy good faith. Insurgents and assassinations also sneak in as programmed by the war game officials. A soldier and the man portraying the deputy mayor refer to their script as they discuss how to play a scene in one of the many surreal moments in this interesting film. When the same deputy mayor proudly shows video of his mock execution to his real family, his wife breaks into tears and we are reminded that this role playing is mirroring the real life violence effecting actual families. As the military personnel are shipped off after their training exercise you can really sense the anxiety as they leave a place where the dead were just actors or medical dummies to enter the very real chaos of war. I found this to be an interesting dissection of the logistics of modern war with the implied violence eerily foreshadowing the reality that awaits them.

In “Anvil! The Story of Anvil”, director Sacha Gervasi first introduces the Canadian rockers via old footage of the 1984 Japanese Super Rock Festival that they appeared at with The Scorpions, Whitesnake, Bon Jovi and other top bands. Members of Metallica, Motorhead, Guns N Roses and others are seen telling of their influence. We then cut to 2007 Toronto to see the band members working middle-class jobs while still holding onto the dream of making it big. Lead guitar/singer “Lips” (Steve Kudlow) and his long suffering best friend/drummer, Robb Reiner are mellow but often prone to explosive arguments like an old married couple. This is one of the many parallels of this film with the famed mockumentary “This is Spinal Tap”: We see the band making its’ way to the stage saying “Hello Cleveland!’, the silly album covers, an audio knob going to “11”, the foreign road manager girlfriend, the series of humiliating gigs, Stonehenge and the redeeming call from Japan. Yet somehow this flick does not mock its subjects, in fact the optimism of “Lips” in the face of all odds is actually inspiring and touching. Their families are still trying to support them and you can’t help but to pull for (or head bang for) this group as well.

Steven Soderbergh follows his dense but unmoving “Che (Parts One & Two)” with a small film about a high-end escort in Manhattan just prior to the election of 2008. “The Girlfriend Experience” uses real-life porn star Sasha Grey to portray Chelsea, a call girl just trying to make it in the world of the wealthy. Captured in a series of high-end restaurants and stores we see what may be a collapsing gilded era as Chelsea acts as ‘the girlfriend” of several nervous movers and shakers, which mostly means listening to them talk about finances. Her live-in boyfriend is a personal trainer also trying to leverage his relationship with his rich clients to get ahead. Their parallel realities comment about the materialism and superficiality of life. Sex, looks and money is all important, but this soullessness is also the death of real love. The film even has a trip to Vegas in it, the ultimate metaphor for the illusions of wealth and the American dream of success. However, again Soderbergh just doesn’t pull it off. This is yet another arty film that moves slowly and seems plot less. To mix it up a bit, it is edited in a confusingly deliberate non-chronological order which is reminiscent of “Memento”. The biggest problem is the monosyllabic, boring performance by Grey in the lead. I suspect a high end call girl would be intelligent and an excellent conversationalist. Grey seems more like a bored teenager here and that’s a GF experience that no one would pay for.

Quick review: “Watchmen” a sadistic abomination, torture porn and fanboys still ruling Hollywood!

The American dream: Elusive, then hard to maintain

As the US seems more divided than ever lately, I recently saw three new DVDs that deal with our freedoms in their own personal way.

In “Sugar” (2008), Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s follow-up to their very good “Half Nelson” (2006), we are introduced to a Dominican baseball player whose whole town depends on him making the minor leagues in the US and then possibly the majors. The pressure to succeed and the fish-out-of-water culture clashes of his life are examined in a very low-key, naturalistic style: Far too low-key for my tastes. Whereas in “Half Nelson” we had the Oscar nominated performance of lead actor Ryan Gosling taking us into the shadowy world of teachers who abuse drugs, here we have a non-actor, Algenis Perez Soto playing the lead. The fact that he isn’t an actor does increase the realism but since in 90% of this film the camera is pointed at him, the story would have benefitted if we could have had more insight into his mind. He just seems to stare vacantly most of the time as things occur almost randomly around him. This trend of almost hyper-realism, where we find ourselves stuck into one unstructured scene after another seems a bit lazy and pretentious to me. In one long shot we see ‘Sugar’ walking through a blurry entertainment arcade finally arriving at the edge of a bowling alley where his American counterpart is enjoying a game surrounded by friends. I know I was supposed to sympathize with his isolation here but I was too bored by the length of the take of his walk. That’s just me- ADD boy! His character then makes a questionable decision halfway through the film that seems unlikely given all we’ve been shown. So although this film came with high praise and had some nice plays, it just failed to score with me.

On the opposite end of the spectrum is “Sin Nombre” (2008), which although shot with equal realism gives us memorable imagery, strong dramatic performances and a tight story. Filmmaker Cary Fukunaga wrote and directed this tale of a group of Central American immigrants making their way to the American border. Casper (Edgar Flores) is a Mexican gang member of the scarily tattooed ‘Mara Salvatrucha’, who needs to prove his worth. Sayra (Paulina Gaitan) is a young Honduran girl just trying to follow her family to a better life. Both end up hitching on top of a rural train that snakes its’ way north. Somehow these images capture the beauty and sacrifice of these people. One touching scene has the train passing under a large statue of Mother Mary as many pray for her blessing. As the gang pursues Casper, he tries to thwart the advances of Sayra to no avail. Like good and evil itself these two seem trapped with each other. I found this film similar in my mind to “The Warriors” another surreal adventure of a road trip to redemption.

“State of Play” (2009) is based on a popular BBC mini-series and I’m sure if I had seen this I would have hated this film. In fact, I expected not to like it since it seemed super-hokey, which it is to some degree. However, although not the best political thriller ever it does make its’ points, have strong performances and is nicely shot. Russell Crowe plays Cal McCaffrey a veteran reporter for the fictional Washington Globe (a stand in for the Post); Della (Rachel McAdams) is a newbie blogger for the paper which has just been acquired though a merger by a global corporate media group. Helen Mirren is the editor who must weigh the pressure to sell papers with the infotainment demands of a 24-hour news cycle rather than taking the time to get the story told correctly. Stephen Collins (Ben Affleck), Cal’s old college roommate, is a congressman from Pennsylvania who oversees a committee investigating a defense contract corporation which eerily looks like Blackwater. The film opens with a series of killings that somehow link up to the death of a female Collins’ staffer who also was having an affair with him. Collin’s wife Anne (Robin Wright Penn) still pines for Cal in a ‘Casablanca’-like triangle that I found to be great old-timey Hollywood fun. The old-school vet reporter and newbie blogger team up to clear Collins’ name and get to the bottom of the killings in an attempt to bring the evil defense contractor out into the light while saving the paper from the pressures of its’ new owners.
There sure is a lot going on in this flick (since it is distilled from a mini-series) but it sucked me in and I enjoyed it! Director Kevin Macdonald (“Touching the Void”, “The Last King of Scotland”) really captures the surroundings from the messy newsroom, to the streets and eateries of DC, to the clean yet ominous halls of our government. He also gives some visual nods to “All the Presidents’ Men” with scenes at a creepy garage, the Watergate hotel, as well as extreme close-ups of copy being written, this time with a blinking cursor rather than the rifle-like cracks of typewriter strikes. Although it is flawed and a little too tidy in resolution, this film demonstrates how diligence is always needed to maintain our country’s morality in the face of a very complex, corrupt world. Sadly, this film also seemed like an epitaph for printed newspapers in a world overcome by the internet and bloggers (like me?).

A Shaky First Year!

Wow! As August comes to a close after flying by, a lot of great films hit which I would give four salt shakers to: Harvard Beats Yale 29-29, Trouble the Water, Tyson, The Class and Goodbye Solo. Normally I would choose one or two of these and tell you why to see them, but I didn’t want August to pass without acknowledging that this month marks the first anniversary of this blog!

Jessi and I worked together before she moved to New Mexico. I have seen so many friends come and go out of my little friendship fish bowl that I assumed we would e-mail once or twice a year before eventually losing touch. We are both frustrated creatives with the exception that Jessi works at it and I just repress it. Our e-mails would often turn to films we’d seen and we’d compare notes. As is obvious in this blog, some of the films she loved I hated and visa-versa. She then suggested this blog which I was dead against it since I see most blogs as self-indulgent and didn’t want to jump in that pool. However she convinced me to give it a try, nothing fancy just straightforward, concise reviews.

Last August, 'Salty Popcorn' began with Jessi’s post on 'Tsotsi'- I immediately countered thinking it was going to be the point-counterpoint deal, like the original Siskel & Ebert. We then both reviewed "The Savages" and "Surfwise", two great little indies and I put my best of all time list down. As we closed the most productive month ever, Jessi reviewed "Jumper" and I looked at "August" as we quickly realized it would never work for us to line up our viewing habits with the same films. We persevered somehow and this blog literally became my therapy.

Without going into detail we have both continued our struggle for meaningful work, again Jessi being more successful than I. I thought this blog would just die off since there were so many other places where folks could get opinions- but between Jessi and myself I feel we have added some original voice on the state of current home cinema. Even if we do have very light traffic, content is content.

I know one thing- as life gets me down - I do still find watching films to be my most favorite thing ever. This past year wasn't a banner year but through it all I have been able to watch many films I would never have had time for. Films inspire me and take me to a world as seen through someone else’s eyes. They touch and inform me- and remind me that the struggles of life are a common drama. I've seen artists who understand film as the 20th century art form and those who see it as a business churning out product. SP has allowed me the forum to yell at those who get it wrong and praise those who get it right. I’m still touched by heartfelt dramas and laugh loud at good comedies but unfortunately, more often than not, I feel like a hollow piece of crap has wasted my time and sucked out my soul. Yet that’s the point, I can suffer that turkey so you don’t have to. Even in my negative reviews I try to steer you to a similar film that got it right. So I thank you Jessi for nudging me into this. Happy Birthday ‘Salty Popcorn’! - Let’s keep the films popping and I’ll keep it shaking!

Your co-editor,

Tim

Surreal Japan – Lost in Translation

Hikikomori - a Japanese term to refer to the phenomenon of reclusive individuals who have chosen to withdraw from social life, often seeking extreme degrees of isolation and confinement because of various personal and social factors in their lives.

Well I’m down for this! I love to learn about social phenoms and in the film “Tokyo!” which presents three short films (about 35 minutes each) we have this lifestyle dramatized in the final sequence "Shaking Tokyo," directed by Korean director Joon-ho Bong (“The Host”). Similar in style to 2006’s “Paris, je t'aime”, this time all three films are by foreign directors again using the titled city as a setting.

The first segment is “Interior Design,” by Michel Gondry who gave us the great “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” and the poor “The Science of Sleep” and “Be Kind, Rewind” (Though Jessi and I disagreed on that one). I really enjoyed this tale in the offbeat style of Jim Jarmusch. A quirky indie director and his supportive girlfriend crash at her friends’ apartment in Tokyo in attempt to get his film shown and to become established there. They look at dirty potential apartments and try to find work as their host becomes increasingly annoyed since her apartment literally gets smaller as the film goes on. Once her filmmaker beau begins to get some recognition, the girlfriend is sidelined and must find a new purpose in her life possibly supporting another artist, this time a musician. Wonderful and bizarre!

The next segment “Merde” by director Leos Carax then destroys the charm by introducing an overacting Caucasian male playing a childlike “monster” who lives in the sewers and terrorizes the city. This film was so horrible I had to fast-forward through it. It is pretentious, boring and I swear unwatchable which means it will be hailed by critics as a masterpiece.

The final triptych “Shaking Tokyo”, as I noted at the start, returns to the offbeat tone of the opening segment, presenting an isolated man living off his fathers’ kindness (mailed cash) who has chosen not to leave his apartment in 11 years. The shots outside of an empty Tokyo are quite remarkable as everyone else appears to have chosen to do the same. I thought this was a very creative take on the isolation of a mega-city and Yû Aoi as the cute delivery woman who literally displays her emotions is great. Yet this story’s pace is way slow and in the end the structure is weak. So the cumulative effect of the film “Tokyo” is one of exhaustion and frustration due to its' uneven nature, a common problem with these kinds of anthology films. I think “New York Stories” started this trilogy and trend twenty years ago since I remember that Coppola’s segment really bit. My rating therefore is based on the segments and the overall effect; the salt here would be four shakers, one shaker and three shakers which gives us a two shaker overall.

In a full length film which actually would be better off it were a shorter entry in the above is Hitoshi Matsumoto’s “Big Man Japan” This one features some wonderfully freaky fight scenes between the title character (A beefy giant in his briefs carrying a big stick) and bizarre monsters that have to be seen to be believed. Unfortunately these absurdist scenes are interspersed in a mockumentary about the hero who spends most of his time as a normal-sized man looking sullen and bored. There are some clever ideas about how the glory days of his giant ancestors are gone as modern Tokyo holds him accountable more for the wreckage he causes than for his heroism in his frequent battles to protect its’ citizens. He must now rely on selling his giant body as a corporate billboard and deal with a condescending agent and an estranged daughter. Yet these sections just drag on and any potential humor gets lost in the tedious direction. Then the ending just drives the stake through this films’ heart as it dramatically changes style and tone further alienating the frustrated viewer. Like the giant himself, the director doesn’t know when to let up and move on.

Past Lives

I like scary movies but not torture porn. For example I was spooked by “The Blair Witch Project” because it was so inventive for its’ budget and it went for the root of what scares us: “There’s something out there in the dark trying to get us!” I also enjoyed the original Japanese versions of “The Ring” and “The Grudge”. Yet American horror movies of today are a dime a dozen, full of soundtrack jolts and cheap scares. To confess a guilty pleasure, I do TiVo all of the paranormal stuff for easy entertainment. I especially love ridiculous shows like “Ghost Adventures” where Scooby Doo is recreated and ghost teams startle each other on night vision camera.

One ghostly documentary “A Haunting in Connecticut” was made in 2002 but still airs frequently. It was genuinely spooky following a family who move into a large house which is offered at a surprisingly cheap asking price so that their son, who suffers from cancer, can be closer to his treatment hospital. The house which is next to a cemetery is actually an old funeral home and the sick boy who sleeps in the basement discovers that this is where the mortician did his thing. Needless to say as someone whose childhood home was also nearby a cemetery, I found this show scary. The main ghost even wore those black contacts which on its own freaks me out. So hoping for the best I rented the Hollywood film version which was recently released on DVD. My worst fears were realized as even the credits were filled with the quick cuts and soundtrack blasts that earmark the worst horror films of today. Virginia Madsen and Elias Koteas are two actors who try to ground all the unnecessary CGI vainly. Lifetime movie vet, Martin Donovan is featured as always playing the well meaning dad. (Spoiler) When the house burns the end titles tell us it was rebuilt and stands there to this day. Well the house does stand because it was never burned and therefore never needed to be rebuilt. Since “based on a true story” means nothing to Hollywood versions of ghost stories they obviously feel no shame in rewriting history like this, kind of like Fox News. It’s a shame though since as I say the original story was spooky before they rewrote. See the original version if you can.

Past glory is also what haunts the title character of “The Great Buck Howard’ played by the great John Malkovich. The story here however is not Howard himself but that of his assistant played by Colin Hanks. Based on the real life experiences of a former assistant to “The Amazing Kreskin”, Howard is a mentalist who performs mind reading, hypnosis and the like before finishing up with a few cornball songs. His act is dated, his audience dwindling and Howard is constantly repeating stories of his salad days, especially his appearances on “The Tonight show with Johnny Carson”. (I do love it when Buck calls Leno Satan!) The film wants to be quaint old-fashioned fun but is actually kind of predictable and dull. Hanks is likable enough but doesn’t seem to have the charisma of his dad Tom to pull off this one-dimensional character. (Hanks Sr. appears here briefly playing, of course, his father) The Howard role seems custom made for Malkovich but yet it is too cartoony and underwritten. Involving has-beens do make for interesting stories (“Sunset Boulevard”, “Raging Bull”, “All about Eve”, “My Favorite Year”. “The Wrestler” etc) but here the magic just isn’t there.

In the film version of Dickens’ “Great Expectations” there are haunting scenes of the crazy Miss Havisham still in her wedding dress trapped in the past, living in her rotting mansion. In 1975 the Maysles brothers made a bizarre documentary about a mother and daughter living in similar conditions. Edith Bouvier Beale was nearly eighty and her daughter “Little Edie” was in her fifties at the time of filming, both living in the squalor of their rotting East Hampton mansion. Both women were obviously mentally ill with “Little Edie” being absolutely manic doing dances with her head constantly wrapped in a makeshift scarf. It was a sad film to watch and yet the subjects seemed perfectly happy in their little world, delusional as they were. Their home and the film was perfectly named “Grey Gardens”

This year HBO returned to these subjects making a dramatic film that attempts to fill in the blanks on the plight of these women. Also titled “Grey Gardens” the filmmakers do a great job at recreating scenes of the original doc between flashbacks of the characters affluent earlier years. Drew Barrymore who has made some bad films really shines here playing little Edie from her teenage years into her fifties. She totally nails this character and has a great time doing so. Jessica Lange playing the elder Edie also brings to life the desperation and increasing madness of her character. Both women, along with Ken Howard who plays Mr. Beale and Jeanne Tripplehorn as a shell-shocked Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (the womens’ famous cousin) have been nominated for well deserved Emmys. I think this film is best viewed after seeing the original documentary but in any case it is as haunting as the original. See it and then clean your home.

Love & War

As an audience member you really shouldn’t be too ahead of your characters or they come across as idiots. Just as in horror movies where it’s a constant battle of dumbness with folks going backwards into dark rooms, splitting up and of course assuming the maniac is dead and not kicking their weapon away or shooting them again. James Gray’s “Two Lovers” doesn’t have any murders- just the predictability. Leonard (Joaquin Phoenix) is supposed to be a manically depressed, but often witty, regular-Joe. He has it half-down not seeming to be any fun in the least and almost “Sling Blade” slow. He also is just not believable as a middle-class Jewish boy (nor is Isabella Rossellini- yeah you heard me, as his mom.) Predictably Vinessa Shaw is the nice Jewish girl who would save him versus the fragile and exploitative shiksa played by Gwyneth Paltrow doing her best to sell the “New Yawk” accent. This film has received good reviews and I did find the camera work atmospheric and the mood appropriately downbeat. However the all star casting goes against it making it seem a little like an SNL skit- though if I could just transplant Adam Sandlers’ character in “Reign over Me” into Phoenix’s place we may have had the likeability we needed as we watch this dude stumble through his love life. Robin Williams also did a great job in a similarly toned, little known film “Seize the Day” twenty years earlier –so I think Phoenix’s performance was the problem. Then he went on Letterman in that prank deal- Oy Vey!

Having given thirty choices for best releases this year so far, I am happy to give my first recommendation for the second half of 09. “Waltz with Bashir” is an “animated documentary” about the 1982 Lebanon war as seen by the Israeli foot soldier. Director Ari Folman is the basis of the main character who has his own repressed memory of the war jarred after a friend tells him of a recurring nightmare which features the many dogs he killed during that war coming back to get him. The animation seems to be rotoscoping (painting over a filmed image), but supposedly it is not. Actors were filmed for reference only. I think the animation serves its’ purpose, adding to the unreality and dreamlike nature needed as various characters recount their war stories. It also captures the absurdity and odd juxtapositions of war (creepy dead horses, an attack in an orchard, apartment dwellers watching a firefight from their balconies) which I found to be reminiscent of “Apocalypse Now”. As our heroes’ memory is stimulated by his comrades’ tales we realize why he has blocked them in the first place. Perhaps this films’ compelling visual style will pull one teenager away from their war porn video games long enough to give the joy of killing a second thought.

The Best DVD Releases of 2009 so far…

So here we are already at the mid-year point of 09! How can this be? As our little blog rolls along we continue to try to give shakers as they are due. Take a walk through a chain video store and see the sheer avalanche of DVD releases out there- most sadly to say just suck. So here’s my year to date picks on the best disks so far- note these only indicate new releases of the past year and not old films re-released. I’d also like to give a shout out to the release of the final season of “The Wire” representing a new high in TV drama. (Though this blog doesn’t usually weigh in on TV shows)

Some of these flicks were reviewed or mentioned previously on this blog, many others weren’t but trust me- all of these are good viewing! (Sorry The Reader and “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” didn’t make the cut for me) Also all of these should link back to their Netflix pages for easy queuing. Let’s hope the second half of the year has some more good ones (which will include the Sin Nombre and Star Trek releases of course)

1. Alexandra


2. Days and Clouds


3. Dear Zachary


4. Doubt


5. Eden


6. Frontline: Bush's War


7. Frost/Nixon


8. Frozen River


9. George Carlin: It's Bad for Ya! (His final HBO concert)


10. Gran Torino


11. Happy-Go-Lucky


12. Home


13. I've Loved You So Long


14. I.O.U.S.A.


15. In Bruges


16. Iron Man


17. John Adams (3-Disc Series)


18. Let the Right One In


19. Mamma Mia!


20. Milk


21. Rent: Filmed Live on Broadway


22. Revolutionary Road


23. Role Models


24. Slumdog Millionaire


25. Smart People


26. Step Brothers


27. W.


28. The Wackness


29. WALL-E


30. The Wrestler

Failed plots- the law of average

I had a friend tell me I was too tough on films in this blog. My response is that isn’t being critical the whole point here? I don’t think I am too critical; I just love good films and I’m here to save you time. When some fail or worse yet come out average, I have the time to sit through them and spare you. Obviously it’s only my opinion and there are thousands of other blogs and sources for you to look at if you disagree. Jessi also counters me sometimes, but she has her fingers in many creative pies and is currently saving our world and so she lets me ramble here. I always say it is somehow sadder for me when a film is just average. The ones that fail outright are at least adventurous and committed to a vision. The vast majority of films are just average (3 shakers) and so they are usually the result of compromise, playing it safe, or just telling a story that we’ve seen many times before without much originality. So in this post I’ll look at three such average Joes: a romcom, a crime story and a war flick.

Expecting nothing but a cute pic I saw “He’s Just Not That into You” with a female friend when it was still in theaters. The place was just packed with the females that were its target audience. I’m kind of glad my friend was with me because where I saw harmless fluff she was outraged by both the female characters onscreen and their live counterparts in our theater. The pic has interwoven stories featuring thirty-somethings coming to terms with their relationship status. Like most Hollywood films they all have perfect jobs, great clothes, beautiful homes and wonderful friends (hey just like the show “Friends” which also had Jennifer Anniston) but all they do is whine about their unhappy lives. Poor them!

The main character, Gigi (Ginnifer Goodwin) has been told since childhood that men act like jerks if they like you and she therefore continues to throw herself at douche yuppies with apropos names like Conor (Kevin Connolly). When the studly bar manager Alex (Justin Long of the Mac commercials) pities her and begins offering her detailed advice on male behavior, my friend and I wondered what was ridiculously obvious: “Gee I wonder if these two will fall in love?”

Meanwhile, Connor still has the hots for his girlfriend Anna (Scarlett Johansson) who is on the hunt for married man Ben (Bradley Cooper) whose friend Neil (Ben Affleck) has been dating Beth (Anniston) for seven years but she seems only now to be peer pressured to get married against his wishes. Ben’s wife Janine (Jennifer Connelly) is back at their townhouse doing extensive renovations. Probably a heavy-handed metaphor for all the wanna-be, nesting females here. You get the picture? As my friend pointed out all the females here cared about was the opposite sex, they seemed more like 16-year-olds than grown women. Goodwin’s character was an idiot and Johansson seemed sleepy. So how can a film for and about women be so misogynistic? Obviously the writers were just not that into you!

The crime film that averages out is one I thought might have some real grit since it was written and directed by a true life criminal. In “What Doesn’t Kill You” Brian Goodman plays a local Mafioso boss and wrote the screenplay based on his memories of life in the tough streets of south Boston. Brian (Mark Ruffalo) and Paulie (Ethan Hawke) are friends since childhood and do what they have to in order to survive. Petty crimes aren’t cutting it anymore and Brian needs to provide for his family, so tensions develop as the boys want to break out from under their boss's thumb. Brian then develops a (symptom free) coke habit but here the believability starts to strain. As Paulie plans for that one “big heist” that they need to retire both the film and his acting seems to become one big cliché. This film shot in stark winter is lean and mean and Ruffalo almost sells it, but for me it went nowhere, much like the lives of those it portrays.

Finally we have “Valkyrie” which has Tom Cruise playing beloved World War II German hero Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg. Do I have to go on here? Tom Cruise is a crazy dude and watching him become more erratic and fanatically Scientologist has been kind of a sad thing. When an actor so obviously manic speaks against psychotherapy it’s just bizarre. When he acts mad in his films he just seems like a little boy stomping his foot for his blankie. Like Richard Gere I think he is best when he plays against type as the heavy. The supporting cast is strong although they all speak in different accents (Kenneth Brannaugh, Terrence Stamp, Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkerson) which I know shouldn’t matter but between the star casting and the accents we already have more of a stagey less believable feel. Then there is the structure; it is played out in strict chronological order and played seemingly for suspense. This is odd since we obviously know Hitler was not assassinated and therefore it’s tough to get to that tension. I’ve seen many more effective films like this that would frame the film as the main characters are about to be executed and work it in flashbacks. The structure and lead can’t take away from the nice location shooting though; many scenes were shot in their actual locations. I can imagine an older Germans’ blood would run cold as they past a an old Nazi building again being filmed draped in Swastikas so perhaps this whole film was just a bad idea about a good idea.

A Salty Spring Rain

I’ve done more viewing than writing and most certainly don’t deserve their own posts so let’s click off some recent Tim- takes on these (mostly) recent releases:

“Reign over Me”- Yuck, the immense tragedy of 9/11 deserves a better exploration of grief than Adam Sandler in a Dylan haircut glumly tooling through an empty city on a motorized scooter. Contrived characters including an embarrassingly obvious love interest don’t stop Don Cheadle from trying. – Three Shakers

“Elegy” - Ben Kingsley is too dull and Penelope Cruz too old for the part in this boringly understated take on Phillip Roth’s tale of a man facing his mortality via a fling with a young student. – Three Shakers

Stranded: I've Come from a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains” – This oft told tale of the Uruguayan rugby team whose plane crashed in the Andes forcing them into cannibalism is an amazing one. For the first time we hear their first person accounts. Unfortunately it goes on way too long and it’s hard to be inspired if you end up bored. I think this would have been a more moving film if the editors would have eaten a half an hour of this. – Three Shakers

“Cadillac Records” (Three Shakers) and “Notorious” (Two Shakers) - Bio-pics like these belong on cable. It is obvious in both that scenes are just being fabricated and the actors playing real recognizable celebs are just playing dress-up. Having the Puff daddy character in “Notorious” lecture the Christopher Wallace character on the evils of drugs is particularly egregious since Diddy was behind this film. In “Cadillac Records” Adrien Brody just didn’t seem to nail his character and the whole subject of his exploitation of his clients was too easily glossed over.

“Alexandra” – I really wanted to hate this film. Plotless and contrived (a grandmother visits her grandson in a war camp) but it also seemed to speak in a universal language on the horror of war without even showing a battle. It expresses a simple humanity. Thanks for stopping by Grandma! – Four shakers

“Last Chance Harvey” Emma Thompson and Dustin Hoffman completely outshine the lame material. These characters deserve a better chance than this! - Three Shakers

“Ricky Gervais: Out of England: The Stand-Up Special”- I love Ricky G and both the original “The Office” and “Extras’ were genius. But here he goes off on children with cancer, visualizes the start of the AIDs virus and attacks the obese all between swigs of Fosters. Without an obvious character to hide behind these riffs come off as cheap shots. He seems more like a jerk in a bar than a successful comedian. I lost a brother to AIDs so a bit with him laughing himself silly while reading an obvious gag AIDs prevention pamphlet for ten minutes was a little over the top for me. – Two Shakers

“War, Inc.” – Poor John and Joan Cusack who mug their way through a film that tries to hard to satire everything and ends up just a noisy mess. As in ‘Grosse Pointe Blank’ John again plays an assassin, this time dealing with a familiar looking Mideast war for profit and a Brittany Spears knock-off. It wants to be “Dr. Strangelove” but instead it’s another “Southland Tales”. Plus I saw the twist coming a mile away. – Two Shakers

“Role Models” – I used to work with gamers so I really enjoyed the second half of this film set at a live action role playing game. Sean William Scott and Paul Rudd worked great together as well as with their younger costars. The man playing the King is also wonderfully obnoxious. Good times! – Four shakers

“Of Time and the City” –. Pretentious and self-absorbed filmmaker Terence Davies rhapsodizes all bout his early gay feelings and his hatred of the church, the Queen and the Beatles against pretty evocative and eerie footage (mostly old stock footage). This “visual poem” dedicated to Liverpool would have been more effective with a little less bombastic poetry recitation and venom. I would not like to have tea with this chap. – Two shakers

So that’s five average flicks, four below average and two above average recommendations - and that’s how the corn gets salted for now! Happy viewing people!

Doubt, Debt, Dud

A nun is taken out by a tree limb and copes with oncoming blindness, a pigeon flies in church, rustling leaves abound, light bulbs pop and windows that were closed always seem to open during storms. The encroaching nature symbols come hard and heavy in John Patrick Shanley’s “Doubt” a film that my co-blogger Jessi screened last December. Sister Aloysius (Meryl Streep) comments ‘the winds are changing’ and we know she is right. Set in 1962, the turbulent sixties were about to erupt and Vietnam was to be a war that divided the land. In the Catholic Church, Vatican II would ease the formalities and reform the mass to a more user friendly format. The hermetically sealed world of Sister Aloysius and her pious sisters was coming to an end and she is the General Custer of the old guard directing her wrath at the friendly new priest, Father Flynn (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) whose kindness must surely mask some ghastly secrets. I unfortunately didn’t see the original play but it looked like a scaled down “The Crucible” with “Our Town” staging, winning a Pulitzer Prize and several Tonys. This attracted the film adaptations' dream cast and made it prime Oscar bait, though it was closed out of all 5 awards. Being a 12 year Catholic school survivor I had no experience with evil old nuns but my older siblings did. So I am personally grateful that clergy like cool Father Flynn persevered. This film could have been overly pretentious and it is a bit stagy but it's also a great old fashioned movie. Viola Davis and Amy Adams provide strong support but it’s all about the battle of the two leads. As Jessi noted, seeing two of the greatest film stars of our time turn in strong performances is a blessing. Student vs. student, nuns vs. priests, conservative vs. liberal, authority vs. freedom, nature vs. man - Shanley seems to have distilled all dramatic conflict into the films' lean framework. Father Flynn’s great homilies on doubt and gossip also reminded me of those innocent times when good priests inspired me before puberty hit.

"I.O.U.S.A" is like “An Inconvenient Truth” in that it brings basically a fleshed out PowerPoint presentation with grave news to life. Regardless of your political leanings we must come to realize that debts do have to be paid and this film does a good job in describing and breaking down the complex jargon that is our economy. Citizens have sleepwalked as our economy has been sold out to foreign investors and now cry when billionaires are asked to pay their share of taxes- this is what will bring the country down without a shot being fired. To see the heavy hitters in banking and commerce agree on the problem is at least hopeful and former US Comptroller David Walker is a man on a mission: to get the word out on the impending problems of long-term unresolved debt. After last years economic crash this DVD’s release has pretty good timing. Like the sober lessons of oil production peaking in “The End of Suburbia”, this is another essential film tackling a key social problem which is a classic documentary tradition. These films aren’t the most fun to watch but the information they provide is critical.

Speaking of lessons, the original “The Day the Earth Stood Still” warned humanity to shape up and behave. The remake has the aliens now on an extermination mission with a lot of flashy special effects. (Including the destruction of Giants stadium in NJ which means my old hometown would have been toast!) Keanu Reeves and Will Smith’s son Jaden along with Jennifer Connelly and Kathy Bates make some grocery money in this unnecessary remake. The new effects are kind of cool but still…Why don’t they remake bad films? Why would you remake a film that is an iconic classic? Why do I watch them? And does the earth have restless leg syndrome?

To have and to hold: Coupling probs and my Woodman diss

Since February gave us that cursed Valentines Day, it is timely that three recent DVD releases deal with finding and keeping love. (Eat baguette now, smoke and adjust beret) Since my last post was a diatribe against the loud, kitchen sink approach in todays’ films, I’m happy to report that some seemed to have agreed with my screams to create, understate and find emotional reality.

In “One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, RP McMurphy told the mental hospital administrator that his problem was he that he liked to “fight and fuck too much”. There was the very definition of the modern man raging against the machine of conformist society. Author Chuck Palahniuk has given us stories on these two modes of expression, with the film versions of both books now released. In the big budget “Fight Club” Brad Pitt gave us one of his best performances as the idealized alpha male to Edward Nortons’ beleaguered everyman. It also had Meat Loaf with tits. Great flick with a lot to say.

The film version of the second 'f' is “Choke” and it is a smaller film with a first time director but just as absurd. Sam Rockwell bounces back from the overacted angst of “Snow Angels” (on my worst of 08 list) to play a more playful but equally confused main character. Working in a recreated colonial village ala Williamsburg, he moonlights as a low level con man. By fake choking on food in restaurants and allowing rich diners to ‘save’ him, he somehow hits them up for cash down the road. He’s also a sex addict who gave up medical school to put his mentally disturbed mother in a home where she doesn’t even recognize him. Now here’s a guy who would have trouble finding real love! A catalyst in the form of a new female doctor appears and forces him to question his very confusing life, despite having her own issues. A sacred foreskin, flashbacks of his insane youth, chapel sex, a hilarious staged rape and foul mouthed old ladies all come into play. This could have been a god awful film but I did love the absurdity and creativity of it all. The first time director Clark Gregg clearly botches up the staging several times but he gains points for bravery. The supporting cast: beautiful Kelly Macdonald as the bizarre doctor, the excellent Anjelica Houston as the crazy mother and Brad William Henke as the obligatory best friend, who outgrows our main character, all give great quirky performances. Sam Rockwell is also sympathetic in a very difficult role. This reminded me a bit of the superior “The World according to Garp” which also taught us that we all need love despite lifes’ insanity and our own non-traditional upbringings. This could have been a great film but it passes as a pleasant distraction, much like the meaningless sex it portrays.

With over forty films under his belt, writer-director Woody Allen in his prime has given us some great stories on the difficulties of love; “Annie Hall”, “Manhattan” and “Hannah and her Sisters” being his best. However I have to admit that he seems to have really become mediocre and repetitious to me. Pretentious and top-heavy with literary and academic references, his films always feature the well-monied, elites that Allen seems to worship despite the fact that he feigns disapproval of their homogenized WASP values. His characters tend to ramble about the meaning of life while behaving selfishly but never seem to need to work for a living. His obsession with these Upper East Side neurotics became downright claustrophobic, so Allen began to drop in more old school, broad comedies and has gone on a European filming jag in recent years. To fanatical devotees these seem to be a new direction, but to me they seem to be the same characters with new accents.

“Vicky Cristina Barcelona” is a good case in point. The title itself (taken from two of the characters names plus its’ setting) seems to demonstrate its’ generic, formulaic approach. Lazy writing then puts in unnecessary narration as Allen tells a tale of two good friends on a summer in Barcelona and their dealing with an attractive bohemian painter. Javier Bardem loses the soup bowl haircut and limp from “No Country for Old Men” and proves he can be a romantic lead. Vicky the sensible, engaged one (charismatic Rebecca Hall) and Cristina the free spirit (Scarlett Johansson looking sexy but bored) go through their paces like happy lap horses. Vicky’s businessman fiancé Doug (Chris Messina) is so stereotypically superficial that you wonder why anyone would find this safe relationship appealing, but I guess that’s the point. Allen flies his freak flag a little higher giving us a ménage à trios scenario, and (gasp) a lesbian scene. Infidelity and madness seem intertwined, again demonstrating to us that love seems to be at odds with our animalistic impulses in his view. Barcelona helped fund this film which is why the settings look more tourism less realism. Would Vicky be the bird in her yuppie husbands’ gilded cage? Allen shows us her husband literally wanting a bird in a cage to bang us over the head here. The older host couple of the women also act as a too convenient foil for Vicky’s dilemma. Penelope Cruz shows up after an hour as the clichéd, hot blooded Spanish ex-wife, but gives a strong (and now Oscar winning) performance. This is a welcome relief to the self-absorbed, over-analytical conundrums of our cast despite their equally strong acting. To Allens’ credit he doesn’t try to wrap all the loose ends up nicely. Yet just because a film leaves off a happy ending doesn’t make it less forgettable. These are the same well-off, New York City characters he’s given us for decades, the fact that they are eating tapas and touring landmarks doesn’t make their sexual peccadilloes more interesting. For a Twilight Zone version of Spanish love woes, I prefer the creativity of “Abre los ojos’ and no worries, both this and the American remake feature the beauty of Penelope Cruz.

So we’ve seen the elusiveness of finding love, but how does one keep it? “Eden” shows us an Irish couple struggling with just that. With two children and approaching their 10th wedding anniversary, their relationship has grown stale. The husband, a telephone worker; would rather spend his nights at the pub then with his family. This film, like last years’ “Once” (which had the same producers) again shows us a small slice of life but manages to say a lot in that framework. Eileen Walsh is excellent as the under-appreciated wife who tries to woo her husbands’ affections back through understanding, dieting and new hairstyles. Aidan Kelly as the disturbed lonely husband recalls his heroism of the past while obsessing on a minor flirtation. There is more truth in five minutes of this film than of the two previous films combined and it recalls the suburban loneliness of John Cheever. Life is tough, love is hard but we have to keep trying.