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Hollywood High for 'Man on Wire'

2008-10-07T10:12:00.000-07:00

The documentary "Man on Wire" - the story of French high-wire artist Philippe Petit and his walk 1,350 feet above ground between the Twin Towers of New York's World Trade Center on August 7, 1974- has been called a delicious heist film with "Mission: Impossible" moments. Director James Marsh, who says he set out to make a gripping suspense film more than a standard documentary, is not only fine with Hollywood powerbroker Robert Zemeckis and his production company Imagemovers acquiring the story; he encouraged Petit to make the deal.

"Making a documentary is not a way to become rich I can tell you that," says Marsh. "Robert Zemeckis is going to do a fairly big, expensive and very advanced film with Philippe. It's a different kind of film that looks at Philippe's adventure in a different kind of way."
The idea of another crack at helping retell the "artistic crime of the century," perhaps in Zemeckis' trademark motion-capture technology, sounds interesting. But Marsh is already at work on his next project, an independent drama about Britain's Yorkshire Ripper.
"This is a story with enormous universal appeal and has endless possibilities. You can make it as a stage play, like a one-man show or on and on." Despite the big-budget allure, Marsh says his time with Petit is over.
"I've done my thing with it and it was a very enjoyable film to make and it was year of my life happily spent making the film but I wouldn't want to do it again or repeat it."
- Steve Ramos

Cheering for Kevin Costner, or should I say, ‘Mr. Brooks’

2007-06-07T08:29:00.000-07:00

At a recent screening, a colleague responds with an are-you-kidding-me stare when I share my excitement for director Bruce Evans’ Kevin Costner thriller “Mr. Brooks.” I happily explain the reasons for my high anticipation without an ounce of guilt.
It’s not enough that “Mr. Brooks” is the increasingly rare adult movie surrounded by an ever-growing pile of family-oriented blockbusters. Better yet, it’s also a suspense drama, a clever Jekyll and Hyde-inspired psycho-thriller co-written by Raynold Gideon (John Carpenter’s “Starman”) and Evans.
Post-viewing, I have to admit that “Mr. Brooks” relied a bit too much on action chases for my taste — I don’t care how geriatric it sounds to say, Imagine what Hitchcock would have done with this story, I’ll say it anyway. Still, “Brooks’s” adult pleasures far outweigh its faults. Kevin Costner (left) finds believable creepiness in his character’s blonde, bland persona. As a hipster artist looking to blackmail Brooks, Dane Cook keeps his smarmy brand of comedy in check. Demi Moore is all surface-level gusto as the police detective trailing Brooks. Still, it’s good to see Moore back on-screen. Only the William Hurt truly stumbles as a character best described as Brook’s devilish advisor, a Jekyll-like cliché. Like I said, Hitchcock would have done things better but the very fact that I’m even mentioning the one-time Master of Suspense says there’s plenty to like about “Mr. Brooks.”

“Mr. Brooks,” released by MGM, is playing in commercial theaters across America throughout June, or however long it can last against more popular summer blockbusters.

New BBC Screenplay puts spotlight on Paul Andrew Williams, but will U.S. Audiences ever catch ‘London to Brighton’?

2007-06-04T13:48:00.000-07:00

One talent who benefits from the recently announced joint productions between BBC Films and Pathe is up-and-coming British filmmaker Paul Andrew Williams. Hired to write “The Choir,” an original script about a widowed old man whose life changes upon joining a strange choir, Williams will be working for producer Ken Marshall, who produced his fantastic debut feature “London To Brighton.”
No director has been announced for “The Choir.” Perhaps, Williams may get the nod. “London To Brighton,” one of my favorite films from last year’s Toronto Film Festival, shows Williams to be a talent worth celebrating.
A woman’s tale about a middle-aged prostitute, Kelly (Lorraine Stanley in a standout performance), who befriends and protects an eleven-year-old runaway, Joanne (Georgia Groome, pictured left), “London To Brighton” has the energy and visual spark of the best British gangster films. What separates Williams’ debut feature from the crime genre pile is its substantial storytelling, believable grit, fully drawn characters and humanistic heft. “London To Brighton” has earned Williams comparisons to Mike Leigh, which after watching the film, is a celebratory but fair review.
Currently, as far as U.S. audiences are concerned, “London To Brighton” has yet to break out of the film festival bubble and enjoy a full, theatrical release. Perhaps Williams’ BBC Films deal will help get “London To Brighton” into stateside theaters. It deserves to be seen.

My Holiday with Student Films Across America

2007-05-31T12:19:00.000-07:00

Between swimming pool dips and cookouts, the more typical of Memorial Day activities, I also watched and re-watched some half dozen short films courtesy of the ambitious folks behind the debut film tour Student Films Across America. As a volunteer judge, I’m not going to disclose my rankings publicly. I’ll leave that task to Student Films Festival Director Steven Amos and his ambitious crew. What’s worth mentioning is the consistent quality of the entries I watched, all from emerging artists and all worthy of big-screen, public viewings. One of the films I viewed repeatedly was filmmaker Moon Molson’s “Pop Foul” (pictured left), a tense coming-of-age tale about a young boy who acts out after watching his father beaten by a local criminal during a walk home from his Little League game. I missed “Pop Foul” during its Sundance Film Festival screenings, where it was part of the shorts program, but I was glad to finally catch up with the standout film.
Filmmaker Gavin Heffernan pays homage to Agnieszka Holland’s 1999 faith drama “The Third Miracle” with “Santa Croce,” his picture-perfect tale of a rural California town responding to a religious miracle.
In “Somewhere in the City,” a tale of a restaurant owner reaching out to man in desperate need for a job, filmmaker Ramsey Denison makes beautiful use of the film’s cramped kitchen setting.
“Alibi Inc.” is a French-language thriller involving a company who provide alibis to their less-than-honest customers (The same idea was used on a recent “CSI: New York show). Director Gregoire Bedard serves his story well with plenty of atmospheric flourishes.
A scene at the end of “An Abstraction on the Chronology of Will,” co-directors Ben Collins and Kevin Phillips’ tale of a young man who joins the military as means to get over his failed love life, is visually astounding. It’s as if the main character travels back through the entire film in order to apologize to his ex-girlfriend.
Finally, actor/filmmaker Ryan Krickow works both sides of the camera in “Hyperhydrosis,” a subtle comedy about nervous sweating taken to comic book-like proportions.
Short films may be abundant on the Internet but the majority are quick, homegrown, uploaded rants, closer in spirit to e-mail than literature.
Student Films Across America, which will showcase these films as part of a tour beginning June 7 in select cinemas across the country, treat these young directors as artists and not video bloggers. I was honored to have the chance to help out.

Check out tour dates, maps and fun videos from the festival tour bus at www.studentfilmsacrossamerica.com

Will Audiences Go Crazy for ‘Crazy Love’?

2007-05-22T11:11:00.000-07:00

Michael Moore’s “Sicko,” about America’s healthcare system, continues to be one of the big stories out of the Cannes Film Festival thanks to the positive reviews of the film, White House threats of a ban over its climactic footage of US citizens seeking medicines in Cuba and disagreements over footage featuring Sen. Hilary Clinton in a less than positive light. Controversy is a tried and true marketing ploy for documentaries; one that has served Moore extremely well over the years.
Another documentary worth talking about is “Crazy Love,” director Dan Klores’ rollicking good time of a film about the fifty-year love affair between lying husband Burt Pugach and his beautiful girlfriend Linda Riss (pictured left).
The sadness, crimes and terrible actions between Pugach and Riss made New York newspaper headlines for many years but I wouldn’t call the film controversial. Instead, reviewing the film for “indieWire” at the film’s Sundance Film Festival premiere, I wrote of its great period music, archival footage of New York and fast-paced he said/she said interviews. “Crazy Love” does not generate anger like a Michael Moore polemic. Instead, Linda and Burt, the craziest lovebirds you’ll ever meet, let their unique romance and devotion to each other take command. In this case, controversy is not needed for a great time at the movies.

"Crazy Love" premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. Magnolia Pictures will release it in New York on June 1 and in theaters across America throughout the summer.

Welcome Back, James Gray

2007-05-21T09:36:00.000-07:00

There are numerous reasons critics and journos choose to support favorite filmmakers. Surprisingly, the consistent quality of their films isn’t always at the top of the list. Case in point is James Gray, whose last film, 2000’s New York drama “The Yards,” failed to match the intensity and intelligence of his debut film, the Russian mob drama “Little Odessa.” Those who pay close attention to the business of moviemaking will tell you that the movie audiences watched was not the same film Gray intended. His was a case of a young filmmaker losing creative battles with the company behind his movie.
Seven years after box-office defeat, Gray is at Cannes with his 1980s-set crime drama “We Own the Night,” about a war between New York police and the Russian mob, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg, his stars from “The Yards.” Gray’s latest film, just his third in twelve years, screens for Cannes audiences later this week but the film has already been bought by Columbia Pictures with plans for an Oscar-focused, late 2007 release. It’s a bold comeback for Gray and proof of what I admire best about him: enthusiasm for storytelling, a refusal to sell out and an unwavering belief in his art. It’s something I remember vividly upon first meeting Gray at an East Village bar to talk about “Little Odessa” and I’m betting that enthusiasm remains as fierce as ever.

Who will speak out for indie films ‘Orphans’ and ‘Hannah Takes the Stairs’?

2007-05-17T13:39:00.000-07:00

On the phone late yesterday with Nashville Film Festival Artistic Director Brian Gordon, talking about the fest’s successful 2007 edition and its creative synergy of its hometown music industry and independent film. (Note: I covered the fest for the online trade "indieWire"). Our conversation soon shifted to the subject of film advocacy and the essential role of festivals like Nashville in providing venues for independent dramas like “Orphans,” Ry Russo-Young’s powerful drama about two adult sisters coming to terms with the death of their parents, and Joe Swanberg’s “Hannah Takes the Stairs,” an improvisational comedy about a young woman (Greta Gerwig, pictured left) incapable of making an emotional commitment.
The Cannes Film Fest is underway; so the allure of red carpet/celebrity moments is more captivating than ever (Didn’t Norah Jones look stunning?). Even Nashville, one of the most laidback festivals around, claims its share of red-carpet frenzy courtesy of Matchbox Twenty front man Rob Thomas in attendance to support his lively and engaging documentary “My Secret Record,” about his battles with his Atlantic Records bosses while recording his 2005 solo album.
Thomas and his screaming fans aside, Nashville is an oasis for low-profile/high-quality films, like Adrian Belic’s documentary “Beyond the Call,” about a group of men who travel the world’s trouble spots helping out people in need.
My question for Gordon, a true lover of film, is what happens when art houses play “The Da Vinci Code” instead of movies like “Hannah Takes the Stairs,” when festivals focus on “Spider-Man 3” instead of “Orphans” and the number of cinematheques, the most alternative of film venues, continue to shrink in size? Gordon did not have an answer other than continuing doing his job for the Nashville Festival.
Advocacy for quality, grass-roots cinema, is my buzzword of the moment and here on the blogosphere, where the majority of film talk rests with superhero blockbusters, it’s more important than ever to promote films like “Beyond the Call,” “Orphans,” and “Hannah Takes the Stairs.” They’ve already played in front of audiences in Nashville, and hopefully, they’ll find their way to you.

Danish Director Lars Von Trier talks to BBC about his depression

2007-05-15T13:15:00.000-07:00

The Price of Cynicism – Danish Director Lars Von Trier talks to BBC about his depression

One of the great joys I’ve experienced as a film journalist these past fourteen years is the time spent watching, critiquing and debating the challenging work of Danish film artist Lars Von Trier. While I don’t consider every Von Trier film successful, in fact, I still scratch my head over his comedy “The Idiots,” I do consider “Breaking the Waves” and “Dancer in the Dark” as extraordinary and all of them worth seeing, if only to witness the world cinema’s most artful and intentionally political mind at work. Von Trier’s film movement, the “Dogme” principle and its pure filmmaking free of props, lighting and sound editing, continues to be an artistic force, one that has outlived its controversy.
In a May 13 news report to the BBC, Von Trier (pictured left) reports that his next film, the horror movie “Antichrist,” which depicts Satan as the creator of the world, may be postponed due to his current battle with depression. The 51-year-old filmmaker confirms a hospital stay earlier in the year and describes his depression as an ongoing battle. True to his bad-boy reputation, this report could be a staged gag by Von Trier but I'm guessing it's real.
Here’s hoping for a speedy recovery, although I can’t say I’m surprised by the news. Von Trier is an artist provocateur, a worldly cynic unabashed about his negative feelings on the state of the world and its political future. His storytelling is honest, often to the point of being bleak and I wonder if his artistic anger has taken a toll on his senses.
More so than his famous phobia about traveling by plane or boat, Von Trier’s anger and solemn outlook has impacted his health.
The artist who suffers for his craft is a timeless cliché, but still somewhat true. As Von Trier suffers for his craft, I’d like to add my voice to the chorus of supporters. There are few film masters left in contemporary cinema and Von Trier’s absence, no matter how long, will be felt.

Fan Boys Don’t Like ‘Spider-Man 3’ and First, Best Film of 2007: ‘Away From Her’

2007-05-14T08:32:00.000-07:00

Musings in Rewind: Blogosphere, did you miss me?

The joking rule of thumb I tell friends is like most journalists, I blog between deadlines; tossing out musing that are slightly different from my assignments. With a Grand Canyon-like gap of dead blog space behind me, I must add new criteria to my blogging rulebook: I also blog around college thesis papers. To those on the blogosphere who even noticed that Flyover Online has been dark for many weeks, I thank you for missing my musings. But my thesis is complete and ready for defense, so I promise to blog daily. If anyone is interested in hearing more about John Dewey’s “New Individualism” and how it provides a home for Auteur Film Theory, by all means, drop me a message. Without coaxing, I promise not to bore people with my newfound passion for Dewey’s book “Individualism Old and New.”
On the subject of movies, since we’re closing in on the midway point of 2007, I’d like to make two quick comments. “Spider-Man 3” may continue to be the box-office kingpin, earning another $60 million in U.S. theaters over the weekend. Still, I feel confident saying that true fan boys, those comic book lovers who can effortlessly rattle off Peter Parker facts, don’t like the film.
On the flip side of cinema, I’d like to state my first contender for best film of the year honors, actor-turned-filmmaker Sarah Polley’s tearful melodrama “Away From Her,” starring Julie Christie (pictured, left) as an elderly wife dealing with a crippling illness. “Away From Her” gets better each time I watch it and while I have always admired Polley as an actor, I can’t begin to say enough about her as a director. Actually, I will say more, but at a later time. Now, back to work.

Joe Roth battles Julie Taymor over ‘All Across the Universe” - Is love all they need?

2007-03-21T14:52:00.000-07:00

Monday reports in the Hollywood trades and an extensive story in “The New York Times” made public producer Joe Roth’s tussle with filmmaker Julie Taymor (pictured left) over final cut of her Beatles-inspired musical “Across the Universe.” Based on the stories, Roth requested a shorter version after Taymor’s cut tested poorly. When Taymor refused, he produced his own edit for additional screenings. Taymor’s responses were promises of non-cooperation and a threat to remove her name from the film.
With psychedelic visuals every bit as fantastic as one of Taymor’s acclaimed stage productions, “Across the Universe” is a period drama about young lovers (Jim Sturgess and Evan Rachel Wood) caught up in the 1960s anti-war movement. Already pushed back once, the film is scheduled for a September release, as long as an agreement on the film’s final version is reached.
The “Times” story took Taymor’s side; portraying her as a unique artist caught in the commercial bear trap set by a schlock maven like Joe Roth.
The perfect counterpoint arrived via Nikki Finke’s Deadline Hollywood column (go to it at http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/why-did-you-hire-her-in-the-1st-place-details-on-taymor-vs-roth-missing-from-nyt/), which showed Taymor as an egotistical, out-of-touch artiste incapable of making sound, commercially viable judgments.
What’s left unsaid is who benefits most from airing their squabble. My chips lie with Taymor, who comes to the fight with legitimate artistic acclaim and sufficient commercial clout thanks to her Broadway smash “The Lion King” and her art-house hit “Frida.” Her excuse for being difficult is that she’s fighting for art without the benefit of a contractual final cut. Roth’s fight is one of box office venues and profits, a worthy battle but one less noble in many peoples’ eyes.
Whose version makes it into theaters is anyone’s guess but one thing is certain. Roth and Taymor’s public tussle looks like the year’s best Hollywood battle.

Springfield Ohio Politicians to Simpsons: Drop Dead, Doughnut Heads!

2007-03-20T08:40:00.000-07:00

My favorite Hollywood publicity campaign of the moment is the tug-of-war orchestrated by “Simpsons” creator Matt Groening and his fellow producers of “The Simpsons Movie” for various towns named Springfield to host the film’s premiere. The clever catch is that cartoon dad Homer Simpson and his dysfunctional clan lives in a carton burg named Springfield; one with a nuclear power plant spewing waste. So choosing a town named Springfield over the typical red carpet locales of New York City and Los Angeles makes perfect sense. Of course, the politicos representing the various Springfields are expectedly out-of-touch. Speaking to Capital News Connection, Republican Congressman David Hobson, who represents Springfield, Ohio, said, “I know my daughters don’t allow their children to watch it. I’m not really excited about the Hollywood types.” Hobson’s boneheaded statement may cost him the votes of Springfield, Ohio teens. Of course, teens don’t vote, but when they do, they should remember that Hobson may have blown their chances at calling The Simpsons cartoon residents of the Buckeye State.

When Studio Marketing Departments Do Their Job Too Well: Julie Taymor’s ‘Across the Universe’

2007-03-16T11:01:00.000-07:00

Late into the trailer for the upcoming Julie Taymor movie “Across the Universe,” a fantastical period drama about young lovers (Jim Sturgess and Evan Rachel Wood, pictured left) caught up in the 1960s anti-war movement, some choice words come bursting into view: “THE MOST ORIGINAL, EXHILIRATING, GROUNDBREAKING MOTION PICTURE OF THE YEAR!”
Good movie marketing is about hype and making an impact. The fact that I’m even writing about a trailer means the folks at Sony Pictures have done their job building anticipation for “Across the Universe.” Yet, I wonder, is calling a movie groundbreaking some six months before it reaches audiences – “Across the Universe” is due in theaters in September — a kiss of death?
I’m a longtime admire of Julie Taymor’s work greatly, from her films “Frida” and “Titus” to the opera productions “The Magic Flute” and “Grendel” but the bold blurb still made me laugh. The folks surrounding me; itching to watch Adam Sandler and Don Cheadle in the 9/11 widower drama “Reign Over Me,” reacted with similar amusement. When a film is labeled as “groundbreaking,” the chances for disappointment only skyrocket. Of course, in this case, I’m hoping to be proven wrong.
Check out the trailer yourself at http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony_pictures/acrosstheuniverse/

Must See Movie: South Korean director Bong Joon-ho’s horror film “The Host”

2007-03-10T06:51:00.000-08:00

The best time at the movies belongs to director Bong Joon-ho and his South Korean horror film “The Host,” a clever hybrid of monster scares, foreign-language drama and world politics. On one level, “The Host” is the tale of a lazy dad and his splintered Seoul family who come together to save his young daughter from a beast in the Han River. Horror fans will focus on the fast-paced scares as the monster sprints across the riverbank in search of victims to gobble. Audiences normally uninterested in monster movies will be amazed by the intelligence in Bong’s storytelling, a film that is as much about the reach of the U.S. military, terrorism and political activism as any slimy creature. Between the shrieks, Bong has something serious to say with “The Host.”

"The Host" premiered at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival and opened in major cities on March 9. Magnolia Pictures will open it in art house theaters across America throughout March and April.

Give the usher a scorecard — preview audience gets review of Terrence Howard’s ‘Pride’ before the film starts

2007-03-09T14:55:00.000-08:00

The usher at a recent Cincinnati preview screening of “Pride,” the feel-good drama about a Philadelphia swim coach (Terrence Howard, pictured in the photo) who trains and inspires a group of inner-city youths to the championships, gave all the expected pre-show introductions.
“Turn off your cell phones and pagers or put them on vibrate so not to disturb your neighbors,” she said, raising her voice in order to be heard by the anxious crowd.
What came next was completely unexpected.
“Oh, and enjoy the movie. It’s a pretty good one.”
The audience laughed at her honesty. If she had to anything to say about “Pride,” shouldn’t she have called it the best movie of the year, or at least a really good one? Later, the crowd laughed at co-star Bernie Mac’s frequent scenes of comic relief.
Interested in my thoughts? Well, let me gather them and comment on Howard’s performance closer to the film’s March 23 opening. Let’s just say I don’t see eye-to-eye with the opinionated usher.

The Leap: Indie filmmakers Mark and Michael Polish make a successful jump to studio movies with ‘The Astronaut Farmer’

2007-03-08T09:52:00.000-08:00

Filmmaking brothers Mark and Michael Polish (L-R Michael Polish, Mark Polish and cameraman M. David Mullen on location)knew nothing of working with a production designer when they left behind the independent film world for the Warner Bros. family adventure “The Astronaut Farmer.” What makes the Brothers Polish’s leap into studio moviemaking, complete with a treasure chest of technical resources, so successful is how they blend their quirky sense of storytelling with child-friendly fantasy and feel-good sentimentality.
Billy Bob Thornton stars as Charles Farmer, a former Air Force pilot who has dedicated his life to building a rocket at his Texas farm and piloting it into space. Finally, he’s found an eccentric character equal to his own oddball personality. Virginia Madsen brims with easygoing charm as his wife Audie. Tim Blake Nelson is aw-shucks brilliant as a small-town lawyer helping Farmer fight against government officials who want to prevent his rocket flight.
Michael Polish makes the larger leap since he’s the one in the director’s chair, although Mark Polish is in front of the camera as one of the FBI Agents watching Farmer.
“The Astronaut Farmer” is as beautiful to watch as earlier Polish brothers films, their 1999 debut drama “Twin Falls Idaho” and subsequent films “Jackpot” and “Northfork.” More importantly, their thumb prints, their distinct way of looking at the world and telling stories, remains intact.
The Polish brothers are authors of the book “The Declaration of Independent Filmmaking,” a manifesto for self-produced moviemaking. But their next production is the sci-fi drama “I.D.,” another big-budget studio movie. Looks like they may need to write a new chapter to their book, explaining how one can remain creatively independent within the studio system without being Martin Scorsese or Clint Eastwood.

Goodbye Premiere Magazine

2007-03-07T10:24:00.000-08:00

True sadness is what I remember feeling when the American Film Institute stopped publishing “American Film Magazine” close to twenty years ago. I remain biased towards “American Film” because the magazine represented my growth from a kid who waited excitedly in line for “The Empire Strikes Back” to a college-bound teenager experiencing the joys of foreign-language cinema, documentaries, classics and the avant-garde, basically, the other side of cinema. Of course, one still retains their love for Hollywood blockbusters — yes, I’m very much looking forward to “Spider-Man 3” — which is why I feel sad about the magazine rack demise of “Premiere,” announced Monday by its publisher Hachette Filipachi (Foreign editions of ‘Premiere” will remain operating). I have always considered the evolution of an American movie buff to be something like this: Grow up watching Disney movies and blockbuster adventures; seek out and embrace art-house fare; then, sneak back to the multiplexes and contemplate “Pirates of the Caribbean’s” Captain Jack as a symbol of pansexual freedom.
“Premiere,” the April issue will be its last, was a voice that understood the childlike fan inside many serious-minded moviegoers.
New Technology prevents the “Premiere” brand from closing completely. The magazine will survive as “Premiere.com” and “Premiere Mobile,” another reasons for film buffs to remain glued to their laptops.

Panic at the Corner of Beverly and La Brea: Quentin Tarantino Brings Back the Grind house for a two-month festival!

2007-02-28T18:14:00.000-08:00

“Grindhouse,” filmmakers Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s collaborative homage to retro exploitation cinema, will play state-of-the-art cinemas when it opens nationwide on April 6.
But if these two pulp mavens had a say, “Grindhouse” would play slightly worn, urban auditoriums like the New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles. Great pulp — and “Grindhouse” is penultimate pulp — requires the right atmosphere: worn seats, slightly sticky aisles, and a talk-back-at-the-screen crowd whose refreshment of choice comes in a hidden beer bottle.
Tarantino and Rodriguez understand this and as part of the “Grindhouse” countdown, the New Beverly Cinema, Los Angeles’ lone seven-day revival house and onetime “X-rated” venue complete with a stage nudie show, becomes exploitation ground zero March 4 with a two-month festival through April 30. Over fifty films, many from Tarantino’s collection, will screen at the New Beverly. For the first time in years, lucky audiences will have the chance to watch little-seen gems like “The Girl from Starship Venus,” “Chinese Hercules” and “Asylum of Blood,” the Blaxploitation classic “The Mack” and the Kung Fu action film “Return of the Tiger.”
Find the complete “Grindhouse Cinema” calendar at www.newbevcinema.com or call the theater: 323-938-4038.
The only downside that Tarantino and Rodriguez haven’t considered is that after watching original cut fare like “Grave of the Vampire,” their own film may turn out to be a disappointment.

David Mamet’s “Bambi vs. Godzilla” teaches Hollywood a thing or two

2007-02-27T08:18:00.000-08:00

My favorite anecdote regarding playwright, filmmaker and all-around man of letters David Mamet involves an interview when he discussed in detail his working habits. Told that I was impressed by his set up of a writing shack behind his home; a workplace void of even the most basic connections with the surrounding world, including a phone line, Mamet acted surprised.
“You’re a journalist,” Mamet said, expressing surprise. “Isn’t this the way you work?”
My response was a matter-of-fact “No.”
Mamet’s advocacy for quiet and privacy when writing continues to make an impact on me. Currently, I’m reading his latest book, “Bambi vs. Godzilla – On the Nature, Purpose, and Practice of the Movie Business,” a collection of brisk essays offering his insider’s opinion about the rights and wrongs of Hollywood moviemaking. “Bambi vs. Godzilla” is a tough love book; a series of slaps from someone who knows his target intimately. But Mamet pokes Hollywood because he cares about movies passionately. That’s an important lesson to remember in an age of instant gossip and far-reaching tabloids. Movies do matter and they’re worth discussing intelligently. That’s what Mamet is reminding us in “Bambi vs. Godzilla.”

Oscars 07: Marty’s Everywhere, but what about De Niro?

2007-02-26T15:56:00.001-08:00

A double win at the Oscars Sunday night earned veteran New York moviemaker Martin Scorsese (pictured above, left, with his longtime collaborator Robert De Niro) coast-to-coast front-page newspaper coverage. “Scorsese Scores at Last” was the headline in “The Seattle Times.” Hometown tabloid “The New York Post” trumpeted the success of its local golden boy with the headline “Marty Scores.” Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director qualified “The Departed,” Scorsese’s rousing remake of the Hong Kong gangster drama “Infernal Affairs,” as the project that finally ended his streak as an Oscar runner up. Thelma Schoonmaker’s third career Oscar for editing brought extra glory to “The Departed.”
Marty Scorsese was the expected Oscar story, but my core comment focused on someone who wasn’t competing for Best Director alongside Scorsese, one of his peers and the artist responsible for the extraordinary spy drama “The Good Shepherd,” Robert De Niro.
Richer, vaster and timelier than “The Departed” and its gangster shootouts, “The Good Shepherd” and its epic tale of the CIA deserved a spot at the Oscars podium. More importantly, De Niro deserved a chance to compete with Scorsese, “Letters From Iwo Jima” director Clint Eastwood, “United 93” director Paul Greengrass, “The Queen” director Stephen Frears and “Babel” filmmaker Alejandro González Inárritu for a shot at Best Director.
Scorsese’s Sunday night win came after years of losing, despite creating some of the best American films. I’m convinced that De Niro will have his prize, sooner rather than later.

Will “The Hill Have Eyes 2” do seventies horror proud?

2007-02-25T08:44:00.000-08:00

An end-of-Sundance chat with directors Craig Zobel (“The Great World of Sound”) and David Gordon Green (“Snow Angels”) landed on the topic of classic seventies scares and current filmmakers who get the blood and lewdness right. Heavy Metal Rocker-turned horror moviemaker Rob Zombie (“The Devil’s Rejects”) is at the top of the list. Eli Roth (“Cabin Fever” and “Hostel”) and Alexandre Aja (“Haute Tension’) are close seconds.
Talk about seventies-inspired horror movies, remakes or otherwise, quickly turned to films that fail. “Black Christmas,” the recent remake of Bob Clark’s 1974 killer in the sorority house thriller, was chosen as a prime example of a film void of the drive-in spirit.
A new chance to do seventies horror proud is director Martin Weisz’s “The Hills Have Eyes 2” — Aja directed the 2006 “Hills Have Eyes” remake — which opens in theaters March 23.
Helping core blood and guts fans wait out opening day is “15 Gigs of Fear,” a contest on FOXATOMIC.COM where scenes from the upcoming movie can be edited together via a blender tool into a personal music video. Each uploaded video, besides earning its makers chances at cash and prizes, also serve as an example of what fans appreciate about seventies horror and why veteran horror-maker Wes Craven continues to attract large crowds at comic conventions. For director Martin Weisz, the “15 Gigs of Fear” entries are warning shots of what fans expect from ‘Hills Have Eyes 2.”

Sundance 07: Cheering for Steve Berra’s ‘The Good Life’

2007-02-11T08:04:00.000-08:00

Advocacy is the noblest role of any film critic and a task most needed at the Sundance Film Festival. For reasons of celebrity, controversy or publicists doing their jobs well, the media spotlight falls on a number of films that don’t deserve the fuss. Deborah Kampmeier’s overboard, Southern gothic “Hounddog” is a good example of an undeserved spotlight film. Along the way, a number of quality festival movies fall by the wayside with its creators left wondering what went wrong. Granted, Sundance’s sheer size makes an impact. Festival attendees eventually leave Park City, Utah without catching every film on their must-see list. Often, dumb luck plays a major role.
Cheering for an overlooked film like writer/director Steve Berra’s coming-of-age melodrama “The Good Life” (pictured above) is one attempt at making the Sundance balance right. Mark Webber is believably down-home as Jason Prayer, a young man in Lincoln, Nebraska, desperate to make a new life for himself but unsure how to do it. His time and energy is spent caring for his widowed mother. Jason’s flaw is his inability to make his own wants and needs a priority. (For more thoughts on ‘The Good Life,” check out my review at www.indiewire.com)
Coming-of-age tales are a tried and true film genre and the idea of a young man aching to leave his grim surroundings is nothing new. Berra, who has spent some time in Lincoln, builds a distinctly beautiful story that weighs heavy on one’s thoughts. I hope to watch it again, this time, with audiences at some commercial art-house theater in Lincoln or any city where young people dream of escaping to better lives.

Must See Movie: ‘Puccini for Beginners’

2007-02-06T09:19:00.000-08:00

A film I have been cheering for since last year’s Sundance Film Festival is “Puccini for Beginners,” a screwball comedy with a pansexual twist from the fertile mind of writer/director Maria Maggenti (“The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love”).
Opera fan Allegra (Elizabeth Reaser) loves Samantha (Julianne Nicholson) but commitment issues bring their relationship to an end. Grace (Gretchen Mol) loves Philip (Justin Kirk) but like many young lovers, hearts and eyes wander elsewhere, in this case, on the pretty Allegra. Their romance playing field is New York City, the perfect locale for crazy love affairs and a supporting character in its own right. To Maggenti’s credit, their lives crisscross with the right amount of lunacy to make the funny endings believable. Adorable lead performances from Elizabeth Reaser and Gretchen Moll (pictured above) give the film its dizzy romantic flavor. After years scripting TV dramas (“Without a Trace”), Maggenti returns to the medium (feature film) and genre (romantic comedy) where she belongs. It’s a puzzle to me why “Puccini for Beginners” took so long to get into art-house theaters after audiences responded enthusiastically at Sundance. Still, it’s finally in theaters, just in time for a winter cold snap, offering audiences a chance to huddle together and warm up with communal laughter.

Puccini for Beginners premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival and opened in New York City on February 2. Strand Releasing will open it in art house theaters across America throughout February and the spring.

Sundance 07: Lilli Carre and the Filmmaker Pecking Order

2007-02-03T09:14:00.000-08:00

Some Sundance filmmakers, like Brett Morgen, whose opening-night documentary “Chicago 10,” about the anti-war protests surrounding the 1968 Democratic Party Convention in Chicago, took part in an opening day press conference with Sundance founder Robert Redford. The spotlight was bright and lasting, granting Morgen a level of awareness other filmmakers lacked.
“Chuck & Buck” and “Good Girl” screenwriter Mike White returned to Sundance for his directing debut, the ensemble comedy “Year of the Dog.” His experience was relatively chaos free, complete with a pre-screening dinner party where reporters were invited to chat with White and his cast as long as tape recorders were turned off.
Rory Kennedy, longtime documentary filmmaker and social activist, took part in the traditional Sundance treadmill on behalf of her film “Ghosts of Abu Ghraib,” zipping from screenings to panels and countless interviews throughout Park City, Utah. Still, she enjoyed numerous comforts, including a car service, to make the hectic schedule a lot more tolerable.
My favorite Sundance meet involved filmmaker Lilli Carre, in town in support of her short film “How She Slept at Night” (pictured above). It was late on opening weekend and I was searching for a Wi-Fi signal at festival headquarters. Carre was in need of a place to nap and the hallway couches outside the press office doors worked perfectly for her.
Deadlines kept me from talking much with Carre and her partner before they left to attend a screening. Still, in the few minutes we shared, we discussed the Sundance topic of choice: what movies have you watched; what did you like and what did you hate?
It seemed that Carre was left to fend for herself at Sundance without dinner parties, car services, gift houses or any of the festival pizzazz. She was proof of the cruel truth of pecking orders and the low food chain status of a shorts filmmaker.
On a brighter note, our meet was that rare Sundance moment, a non-scheduled, sponsor-free, completely casual get-together. Lilli Carre was simply looking for a place to snooze but our chance meeting brought back memories of Sundance at its laidback best.

Sundance 07: No Escaping the ‘Hounddog'

2007-02-02T09:44:00.000-08:00

The main press-screening venue at Sundance, the locale for many films in dramatic competition, is a Yarrow Hotel ballroom converted into a cinema via office chairs on risers, a temporary screen and a four-walled projector. The location is dead-on convenient; smack in the middle of Park City, just across the parking lot from the main supermarket.
In terms of a quality viewing experience, the Yarrow 1 is roughhewn at best (Its down-the-hall counterpart, the Yarrow 2 is the same set up only smaller).
When crowded, it’s hard to get up and leave due to plastic fencing along both edges. It’s a fact worth remembering when measuring the disastrous press reception to Deborah Kampmeier’s overboard, Southern gothic “Hounddog.”
I’m not going to go into detail about my reasons for disliking “Hounddog,” the story of Lewellen (Dakota Fanning), a young girl in 1950s rural Alabama who lives something of a miserable life with her lecherous father (David Morse) and bible-thumping granny (Piper Laurie). For that, you can read my “indieWire” review at www.indiewire.com. What I want to focus on via my blog is the painful efforts critics made in order to leave the “Hounddog” screening early. For me, that speaks volumes about Kampmeier’s disastrous film.
“Hounddog” may only be 98 minutes in length but many audience members decided by its midway point that they had watched enough. There were plenty of choices for fed-up moments: lightning striking Lewellen’s daddy, her granny waving a shotgun or an army of snakes slithering through her window.
Sitting alongside James Mottram, covering Sundance for UK’s “Independent” newspaper, I watched numerous people attempt to climb over the fence in order to get out of the screening. There wasn’t much time left to the movie but that didn’t matter. They just had to get out, even if that meant falling over the fence and landing on their ass.
“There’s no escaping the “Hounddog!”” I yelled to the escaping critics. Sure, they avoided watching more of “Hounddog” but the memory of the film has stuck to them like the stink of road kill on a hot summer drive. That's something we all shared, early exits or not.

Sundance 07: “B” also stands for bad behavior when actor withdraws support for Sundance hit “Waitress”

2007-01-31T14:16:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite Sundance gossip stories involves a Canadian friend and colleague involved in the festival’s shortest press interview.
My reporter friend sat down to interview a fellow Canadian, Nathan Fillion, who was at the festival to support his lead role in “Waitress,” an audience-friendly drama about an unhappily married waitress (Keri Russell; pictured above) who experiences a shot at a happier life via a relationship with the new town doctor (Fillion).
Fillion’s publicity work was extra important because the director of “Waitress,” veteran New York actress Adrienne Shelly, was tragically murdered in November. Feeling ill due to her pregnancy, Keri Russell bowed out of many of her press commitments. It was up to Fillion to stand right by Shelly and work at spreading the word on her film. Instead, after recognizing his interviewer’s name, he went on a tirade regarding his earlier film work, the sci-fi adventure “Serenity” and the monster movie “Slither.”
“Now I know why you didn’t introduce yourself,” Fillion snarled at the surprised reporter. “Do you know you’re the only critic who didn’t like “Serenity”?”
Fillion was referring to the critic’s negative “Serenity” review, which ran in his hometown paper in Edmonton, Alberta, in front of his parents, no less.
Any attempts to flip to the topic of “Waitress” was lost when Fillion got up and left. Clearly, his ego took priority over his obligation to Shelly and her movie.
The good news is that Fox Searchlight bought “Waitress” at Sundance and plans to release the film in late 2007. This means Fillion will have another chance at promoting the film and acting right. My Canadian friend would probably be willing to sit down again for a second-try interview. After all, she’s a professional.

Sundance 07: Old-Time Park City Means Bar Talk with David Gordon Green and Friends

2007-01-30T14:30:00.000-08:00

Late into Sundance, I asked veteran actor Aidan Quinn, in town to support his performance in the enthralling drama "Dark Matter," about a Chinese graduate student who sinks into despair, if the fun and casual comradery of past festivals were gone. He answered with a definite "Yes."
Speaking a day earlier, Picturehouse President Bob Berney agreed, although with the qualification that Sundance was still one of the best things about the independent film business.
Still, for those publicists and buyers, directors and reporters, festival programmers and actors who have enough Sundances under their belts to make comparisons (Sundance 07 was my 14th festival as a journalist), it's difficult not to wax nostalgic.
A burst of old-time Sundance emerged on the festival's second Friday, during an interview with "Snow Angels" director David Gordon Green at one of Park City's more casual bars. Once the tape recorder was turned off and a talk about "Snow Angels" (pictured above) ended, the drinks kept flowing and cigarettes were lit. Craig Zobel, director of the Sundance entry "The Great World of Sound" and a longtime friend of Green's joined the chat (Green is also a producer on his film). Soon, other members of their North Carolina posse gathered around the bar.
Topics shared included festival gossip and guesswork involving closing-night awards. But the majority of the conversation focused on all types of movies, whether loved or loathed.
Two promises were made at the bar. One was to watch Zobel's much-acclaimed "Great World of Sound" on disc soon after returning home and to let him know my thoughts. The other was to fulfill a back-home-from-Sundance tradition and go watch some Hollywood fare as a counter-balance to all the edgy festival films. We agreed on Joe Carnahan's gangster movie "Smokin' Aces" and hoped it would be closer in spirit to "Narc" and less like his sloppy debut "Blood, Guts, Bullets and Octane."
Left unsaid was a third promise, the most important of all.
If the group of us are together at a future Sundance, we end the festival at the same local bar with more drinks and smokes.

Sundance 07: 'Zoo' Wows Shuttle Driver

2007-01-29T11:14:00.000-08:00

The drive between Park City, Utah and the Salt Lake City Airport takes thirty minutes depending on weather conditions and the number of passenger pick-ups. Exiting Sundance is always a test in patience thanks to overflowing shuttle vans. One way of coping with the return trip is to debate festival films with the fellow passengers. When the crowd is a mix between festival attendees and skiers who happened to catch some movies, the conversations turn livelier.
Most everyone in my van this festival agreed that the Dakota Fanning drama "Hounddog" was awful and that Marla Olmstead, the young girl painter in the documentary "My Kid Could Paint That," did receive help from her father.
The Sundance film that generated the most interest from the shuttle driver was Robinson Devor's (pictured above) documentary "Zoo," about a group of men who have sex with horses. One, he couldn't believe anything like that happens. Two, he wondered who would make a movie like "Zoo" and who would watch it?
Told that "Zoo" was more artful than graphic, the driver settled down. Still, it's worth noting that of all the films discussed, "Zoo" was the one he kept discussing. Personally, I considered his outbursts a good sign for "Zoo."

Sundance 07: Musings in Rewind

2007-01-28T14:31:00.000-08:00

A general rule of thumb that I like to tell friends is that journalists blog between deadlines. To readers of “Flyover Online,” I would like to point out that numerous daily deadlines kept me from blogging throughout this year’s Sundance Film Festival.
This morning, an ice cold Sunday, the various filmmaker victors and might-haves put the Saturday night Awards Ceremony behind them and head to the Salt Lake City Airport.
With every deadline completed, I can finally exhale and comment on Sundance 2007.
In past years, I have scratched my head over jury prizewinners but this time the jurors and I are completely in-sync.
“Manda Bala” (Send a Bullet), director Jason Kohn’s stunning and fascinating omnibus film about the culture of crime in Brazil, won the Documentary Grand Jury Prize.
The drama I praised the most, director Chris Zalla’s Mexican immigrant drama “Padre Nuestro,” won the Dramatic Grand Jury Prize.
Now, I could say something silly about the jurors being influenced by my “indieWire” reviews but I’ll leave that for my overly proud mother. I’m just happy for the two deserving filmmakers.
As far as more musings on the busy and colorful festival, I promise to post my hindsight commentary regularly, or at least between gulps of cold medicine. Not everybody leaves Sundance with a trophy, or even gift house goodies, but almost everyone I know has a cold.

Sundance 07: Main Street Dogs

2007-01-19T04:56:00.000-08:00

Main Street Dogs

Day One of Sundance offers the one, momentary chance for empty shuttle busses; the calm before the deluge of media, film industry professionals and movie fans. It is also a chance to witness Park City ski culture before the Sundance hordes take over and make the winter resort town their own. From what I see outside the shops on historic Main Street, treating one’s dog more like a person is status quo for style conscious skiers. Just after the opening day press conference, held at the Egyptian Theatre with “Chicago 10” director Brett Morgen (pictured above), a dog follows behind his owner sporting bright red booties on his four legs. The owner’s point is that his dog shouldn’t have to suffer cold paws, or basically live like a dog. Later, exiting the New Frontier On Main exhibition area, the festival’s debut spot for film art installations and the latest filmmaking equipment, a woman approaches the front doors pushing a large stroller. I quickly step aside and open the door, impressed by the stamina of anyone capable of navigating Sundance with twins at their side. But there were no babies in the stroller; just two tiny dogs bundled up in blankets. If this woman has children, my guess is that the dogs get first dibs on the stroller.

Sundance 07: Blockbuster Girls 1 Steve Buscemi 0

2007-01-19T04:42:00.000-08:00

Blockbuster Girls 1 Steve Buscemi 0

Press check-in on the first day of the Sundance Film Festival means long lines for unlucky journalists whose credential photos were lost by the festival computer server and quick sign ups for those whose photos remained intact. (I am happy to report that I avoided the long photo line, although I am sympathetic about computer malfunctions after recently replacing a frazzled laptop).
Inside the second-floor press lounge at the Park City Marriott, where everyone huddles over a computer, actor-turned filmmaker Steve Buscemi sits alone at a table, adjusts his wire-frame glasses and studies his screening list.
A few colleagues stop and say hello, offering their pledge to catch his adaptation of controversial Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh’s “Interview” on Saturday. But for the most part, people walk by Buscemi without notice or choose to leave him alone. Instead, the spotlight belongs to the Blockbuster Total Access Girls – a squad of pretty corporate cheerleaders straight out of the Detroit Auto Show. Yet, these smiling women are at Sundance, proof of what Robert Redford said later at the opening press conference (pictured above), that like it or not, fashion and promotion of new goods has become part of the Sundance experience.
Buscemi doesn’t stand a chance against the Blockbuster posse with their beige thigh-high boots, white parkas with the Blockbuster Total Access logo, white tights and plenty of sass. His lonely guy experience is a page from Buscemi’s nerd performance in “Ghost World.” Nobody wants to pay attention to an unassuming middle-aged filmmaker and actor no matter how acclaimed he might be. There are babes to meet and photograph, for some people, a key part of the Sundance experience.

A film for the ages: Neil Burger’s ‘The Illusionist’ on home video Jan. 9

2007-01-11T17:26:00.000-08:00

Filmmaker Neil Burger probably never imagined that magician movies would become something of a trend when we sat down to discuss his period romance “The Illusionist” at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. Sitting on a backroom sofa at the constantly chaotic VW Lounge, one of the festival’s hot spots for publicity, Burger blocked out the surrounding commotion and spoke eloquently about his use of classic moviemaking technique in order to give “The Illusionist” its timeless look. His efforts paid off handsomely.
Set in 1900 Vienna, with Edward Norton playing Eisenheim, a magician who becomes entangled with Austria’s Crown Prince (Rufus Sewell) over the hand of a pretty woman (Jessica Biel), “The Illusionist” rode the wave of its positive Sundance reception into sizable audiences during its early fall release. Burger’s acclaim outshone the favorable reaction to the season’s sophomore magician drama, “The Prestige,” a larger-budgeted production featuring Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman as dueling London magicians. It was Burger who earned comparisons to German expressionist FW Murnau and other pioneer moviemakers. Now, film lovers have another chance to experience “The Illusionist” with its January 9 release on home video. Better yet, aspiring moviemakers and magicians can show off their own illusionist skills by submitting a video short of their own feats of magic via the “Illusionist Favorite Magic Trick Contest.” Go to http: sweepstakes.illusionistdvd.com to enter (submissions must be received by January 31). Appropriately enough, the grand prizewinner will receive a trip to the Magic Castle in Los Angeles, Mecca for aspiring magicians everywhere. Like all timeless films, “The Illusionist” offers new surprises with every repeated viewing. Consider the contest a cool DVD extra.

All is forgiven if Tom Cruise saves United Artists

2006-11-07T06:55:00.000-08:00

Acclaimed filmmaker and raconteur Michael Moore’s core reason for coming to Tom Cruise’s defense is generating laughs. Asked his opinion on the magazine photos of Cruise and Katie Holmes’ newborn baby, Moore lets loose an aw-shucks guffaw.
“I really think it’s time to quit picking on Tom Cruise,” Moore said, addressing an audience at the 2006 Toronto Film Festival. “His biggest crime is he jumped on Oprah’s couch.”
Cruise has been a favorite celebrity punching bag for many months. His recent films “The War of the Worlds” and “Mission: Impossible 3” failed to meet box-office expectations. His public relationship with actress Katie Holmes and his day-to-day promotion of Scientology have made him the butt of jokes. After a fourteen-year relationship, Paramount dropped Cruise in a surprisingly public manner over “personal conduct” believed to be hurting his movies financially.
More than the anticipated photos of his and Holmes’ baby, Cruise’s PR bounce back comes with the Nov. 3 announcement that he and producing partner Paula Wagner are in control of United Artists via a deal with the studio’s owners, MGM, and its parent company Sony. Wagner will become United Artists Chief Executive and Cruise will produce and star in many of the studio’s films. For United Artists, which started via a partnership by Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford and DW Griffith and enjoyed success via its Pink Panther and James Bond franchises, as well as the Cruise/Dustin Hoffman drama “Rain Man,” Cruise’s involvement puts the low-profile film company back in the spotlight. For those of us with fond memories of United Artists and its history of moviemaking, Cruise’s decision to salvage the historic company compensates for much of his clownish public behavior. Of course, Cruise’s involvement offers no guarantees. Remember, in 1980, United Artists executives thought it had a commercial and critical hit with Michael Cimino’s epic Western “Heaven’s Gate.” Instead, the film bankrupted the company.

All Hail Borat!

2006-11-03T06:01:00.000-08:00

Hollywood pundits may focus on the buzz factor surrounding “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan,” the hilarious feature film based on British comic Sacha Baron Cohen’s (pictured above at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival) popular character, Kazakh TV reporter Borat Sagdiyev. “Borat,” about the crazy Kazakh man’s travels throughout America and goal to meet his dream woman, Pamela Anderson, is a hit on the Internet. The key pundit question prior to the film’s opening today is whether these young “Borat” devotees will buy theater tickets in sizable numbers. Will “Borat” be the new “Jackass 2,” meaning a gross-out comedy hit? The more pessimistic possibility is that “Borat” will sink like another movie with tons of Internet buzz, a recent horror movie featuring Samuel. L. Jackson battling snakes on a plane. But what grabs my attention like Borat clad in a clownish swimsuit, an elongated thong that barely holds his privates in check, are critical reviews as enthusiastic as any Internet posting by Borat’s army of young fans. Not since past gross-out hits “American Pie” or “There’s Something About Mary” has a rowdy comedy appealed to young and old, the serious film buff and the college frat boy, high and unapologetic lowbrow followers of culture. It’s encouraging proof that when politically incorrect comedy is done well, and Cohen performs his improvisational bits with goofball perfection, the result is overwhelming, belly-aching laughter for all.

Choose Your Hugh (Jackman), ‘The Fountain’ vs. ‘Flushed Away’

2006-11-01T04:13:00.000-08:00

Early excitement for the Darren Aronofsky fantasy film “The Fountain” is completely understandable. A time traveling adventure set in sixteenth-century Spain as well as a medical lab in the near future and the twenty-sixth century, “The Fountain” is Aronofsky’s first film since his mind-bending adaptation of Hubert Selby Jr.’s drug addict drama “Requiem for a Dream.” Aronofsky crated the sci-fi story with Ari Handel. Cameraman Matthew Libatique creates some amazing imagery. Rachel Weisz is the beauty behind the tasks, playing Spain’s Queen Isabel as well as a modern-day woman. Hugh Jackman is the conquistador, scientist and future traveler. To call “The Fountain” anything but a dizzy, mind-blowing catastrophe is to overlook the utter wackiness of the movie (more on that at a later date). What’s fascinating is that of the three Hugh Jackman movies this fall, “The Fountain,” the turn-of-the-century magician’s drama “The Prestige,” and the cartoon comedy “Flushed Away,” Jackman is at his best in the latest cartoon feature from the creators of Wallace and Gromit.
As Roddy, a clumsy rodent trying to return to his comfortable London home after being swept down the toilet drain, Jackman shows the same lunacy and grinning verve he displayed as singer/songwriter Peter Allen in the Broadway musical “The Boy From Oz.” As a tuxedo-wearing mouse, more than a magician or a conquistador, Jackman reveals the best part of himself. He’s funny and one hopes he has the chance to be funny again, whether cartoon or in the flesh.

The Fountain opens nationwide Nov. 22. The Prestige is currently playing theaters nationwide. Flushed Away opens in theaters across America Nov. 4.

A Letter to Mel Gibson regarding ‘Apocalypto’

2006-09-30T08:30:00.000-07:00

A bigger entertainment story than most of the summertime films was Mel Gibson’s July 28 arrest for suspicion of DUI by a Malibu, CA. sheriff. Of course what set Gibson’s reckless driving on the Pacific Coast Highway apart from others were the religious epithets he spewed at the arresting officers.
Plans for his “Mea culpa” tour of public damage control have been set aside for test screenings of his latest directorial effort, the Mayan civilization drama “Apocalypto.”
On Sept. 22, at the Fantastic Fest in Austin Texas, Gibson took part in a post screening Q&A with his leading man Rudy Youngblood after a work-in-progress showing of “Apocalypto.”
After weeks of commentary about the extant of damage to Gibson’s standing in Hollywood and what he needs to repair his public profile, new questions arise regarding the ability for critics to watch “Apocalypto” free of biases regarding Gibson and his shameful, anti-Semitic and anti-woman remarks on the night of his arrest.
Gibson’s dilemma is a common one, a need for people to separate the life of the artist from the finished art. It’s no different from the current pleas of German novelist Günter Grass who wants readers to accept and understand his newly revealed Nazi past.
My critic’s pledge to Gibson is this: I’ll write about “Apocalypto” fairly, treating it like any other film from goofball releases like “Jackass 2” to event releases like “The Departed.” I’ll emphasize dramatic content, filmmaker technique and performances over commentary about your pleas for forgiveness or lack thereof. I must admit that I’m not the least bit interested in whether you take on a “Mea culpa” public relations tour or not. After all, as a person, what more do you have to tell us that we haven’t already heard before? But as a filmmaker, well, I’m anxious to watch “Apocalypto” and I think I’ll always be anxious to see any of your new films. Looks like I have already made the split between Gibson the suffering man and Gibson the talented film artist.

Will ‘Open Season’ in 3D bring kids back to theaters?

2006-09-24T13:50:00.000-07:00

Just spent a rainy weekend afternoon at a 3D screening of the kids cartoon comedy “Open Season” with my eight-year-old son and the experience led to thoughts about more than the number of quality laughs in the movie. Warching the film with a large audience of children, all of us sporting 3D glasses; may provide answers to the rising dilemma of teenagers choosing gaming, text messaging and other handheld leisure activities over repeated trips to the movies.
“Open Season,” a slapstick comedy about a domesticated bear named Boog (voice of Martin Lawrence) trying to adjust to life in the forest with the help of a nutty deer named Elliot (voice of Ashton Kutcher), may be a kids cartoon movie like any other. What separated this trip to the movies from the typical couch potato experience were an IMAX-sized screen and a steady stream of smile-generating 3D effects. Basically, no matter how good you’re home theater system may be, it’s impossible to match the wow of a giant IMAX picture and the virtual feel of 3D images. The big experience made the run-of-the-mill “Open Season” better, more fun and a trip worth taking. If 3D can boost the slapstick gags in a movie like “Open Season,” it’s safe to assume that it would also help current teen-targeted comedies like “Jackass 2” and “School for Scoundrels.” After all, teens, like their younger siblings, want something different, a bigger, flashier movie experience.
Then again, the simple idea that bigger is better may not be the answer theater owners and movie distributors are seeking. I asked my eight-year-old if he had the choice between watching “Open Season” on his video iPod or going to the cinema, what would he choose? His answer was a toss-up. So I pushed the question further, emphasizing the joy of watching a movie on a big screen.
“Dad,” he told me. “It’s not about big and small. It’s about portability.”
Leave it to an eight-year-old to perfectly sum up the challenge facing movies in an era of handheld, downloadable entertainment.

Documentary ‘Deliver Us From Evil’ faces ratings controversy

2006-09-22T15:28:00.000-07:00

Amy Berg’s years of experience producing news segments for CBS, ABC and CNN help explain the matter-of-fact style, precise, face-the-camera interviews and well-informed backdrop of her feature documentary debut “Deliver Us From Evil.” What separates Berg’s first film from her broadcast work is its controversial subject, Father Oliver O’Grady (pictured above), a Catholic priest guilty of raping and abusing numerous children throughout Northern California. Actually, O’Grady’s story is one Berg might have covered for one of the network news divisions. But she never would have been given the room to tell the stories of the families devastated by O’Grady’s crimes. More importantly, the network news outlets would have forced Berg to sensationalize the story. Instead, with “Deliver Us From Evil,” she recounts O’Grady’s horrors with an even hand and a steady recounting of how this abusive priest was left alone by his church superiors.
There are moments in the film’s first half when it feels like Berg might be retelling events with too much restraint, although the pace quickens late into the movie as O’Grady’s victims attempt to take their tale to the Vatican.
Still, it’s surprising that a documentary as fair and balanced as “Deliver Us From Evil” received a red band or restrictive rating for its trailer from the Motion Picture Assn. of America (MPAA). Granted, the film’s subject, a pedophile priest left unpunished by the Catholic Church for close to thirty years, is for adult audiences only. But it’s clear the MPAA has not watched the film. If they had, they would be impressed by Berg’s thoughtful, restrained handling of her subjects and the thought of branding the film with a NC-17 rating would never cross their minds.
A red band trailer for "Deliver Us From Evil" means it can only play before Rated R and NC-17 movies; something that severely limits its marketing reach. It’s also fair to say that staffers at Lionsgate, the film’s distributor, acted proactively by deciding to release “Deliver Us From Evil” without a rating. Why take a chance on a NC-17 ruling, although the publicity could only help the film. With the MPAA out of the picture, what remains is convincing theater operators that this compelling documentary deserves a chance to impact audiences with a tough story that won’t go away.

Deliver Us From Evil premiered at film festivals earlier this year including the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival. Lionsgate Films will release it in theaters across America on Oct. 13.

‘Feast’ brings back the Midnight Movie – if only for one weekend

2006-09-21T18:11:00.000-07:00

Strong memories from the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival include great new discoveries like writer/director Rajnesh Domalpalli’s lush South India coming-of-age drama “Vanaja” and British director Paul Andrew Williams’ gritty gangster thriller “London to Brighton.”
Fantastic new works by established masters such as Patrice Leconte’s “Mon meilleur ami” (“My Best Friend”), a clever adult comedy starring Daniel Auteuil, and Ken Loach’s “The Wind that Shakes the Barley,” an epic period drama about freedom fighters in 1920 Ireland, continue to stay on my mind.
But one of my favorite festival habits continues to be the Midnight Madness series of foreign horror films, adult animation and politically incorrect comedies. In a packed auditorium on the Ryerson College campus, I watched “All the Boys Love Mandy Lane,” “Black Sheep,” “The Host” and thirty minutes of the hilarious Sacha Baron Cohen comedy “Borat” before a broken-down projector stopped the screening (more on that another time).
Masters like Leconte have a hard time getting their foreign-language films into U.S. theaters long enough to generate audiences. Meanwhile, an emerging artist like Rajnesh Domalpalli struggles to get his film bought by a distributor. Weekend classics series have gone by the wayside at many U.S. art houses. The same is true for midnight cult series. But anyone at Toronto’s late-night showing of “All the Boys Love Mandy Lane” will tell you about the joy of watching a scary movie in the midnight hour surrounded by a crowd of horror fans.
Midnight madness comes to the U.S. courtesy of “Feast;” the horror feature produced via the reality TV series "Project Greenlight 3." In the nine-part show, director John Gulager and screenwriters Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan tackled a quick shoot and a $3 million budget to bring to life the tale of flesh-eating beasts attacking the occupants (including Judah Friedlander and Navi Rawat, pictured above) of a working-class tavern.
“Feast” will enjoy its debut on DVD in October but before then, on September 22 and 23, it will play late-night showings at select theaters across the United States. It’s the type of debut every horror filmmaker dreams about having, a midnight showing in front of hungry horror fans.
Let’s hope the cinemas are packed and “Feast” becomes part of an ongoing midnight movie trend.

John Dahl returns to form with ‘You Kill Me’

2006-09-20T13:45:00.000-07:00

John Dahl is a veteran director with enough acclaim to generate anticipation for each impending film but little to zero name recognition. His early films, “Kill Me Again” (1989), “Red Rock West” (1992) and “The Last Seduction” (1994) gave rise to the neo-noir movement. More recently, there have been missteps, “Unforgettable” (1996), a mystery starring his “Last Seduction” star Linda Fiorentino, “Rounders” (1998), a poker drama, and the road-trip thriller “Joy Ride” (2001), which Dahl re-shot after test audiences did not react well to the ending. But I have always thought of Dahl as a survivor in a business that makes it hard for independent-minded craftsmen to survive. You just know that he’ll be back with another feature no matter how many setbacks are tossed his way.
The last time I spoke with Dahl he was in Cincinnati to screen his Bataan Death March drama “The Great Raid” to a 2005 convention of World War II veterans. He thanked the elderly men and their spouses for coming to the riverfront multiplex; singled out a few men for special kudos and left them to watch a dramatic version of what many of them experienced sixty-three years prior.
Over coffee at an adjacent restaurant, Dahl and I did not talk much about “The Great Raid.” Like many of his admirers, I tend to focus on his early, no-budget movies. But he hinted at a new film he was considering to direct, the mob comedy “You Kill Me,” just picked up by IFC Films for a nationwide release in 2007.
In the film, Ben Kingley plays Frank, an alcoholic hit man who attempts sobriety by working at a mortuary. Mucking up his get-straight plans is Laurel (Téa Leoni), the type of ballsy woman character found in Dahl’s best films.
Leoni, who spurts rat-tat-tat banter like a modern-day Barbara Stanwyck, has a kindred spirit in Dahl (Leoni must know this since she produced the film). The two of them are capable of making something truly special; not to discount Kingley’s contribution to the mix. “You Kill Me” leads to what I have always thought about Dahl. He consistently makes the opportunity for one more triumph.

Secret performance by Flaming Lips launches 2006 Toronto Film Festival in cool fashion

2006-09-10T18:32:00.000-07:00

Toronto 2006 Sights and Sounds: Roadside Concert by The Flaming Lips

A temporary fire pit adjacent to an alleyway held a campfire large enough for the exuberant crowd to roast marshmallows. Plates or burgers and hot dogs were passed around the partygoers.
Gabby’s is a worn neighborhood pub, the type of place Toronto Festival attendees often ignore. It doesn’t meet the coolness requirement of many at the festival.
That all changed on a warm Friday evening when cult Rockers The Flaming Lips took to a small makeshift stage and performed for a private party on behalf of the festival documentary “Summer Camp,” a light-hearted trip to Swift Nature Camp in Wisconsin for a warm and uplifting look at the camp kids and the adults who inspire as well as keep them in line.
Co-directors Sarah Price and Bradley Beesley were in attendance at the party, clad in camp counselor gear and wearing glowing visors.
Two of the children from the documentary, Cameron and Holly, were also on hand; enjoying a special night out far past their bedtime.
Sing-Along songs warmed up the crowd but the highlight of the evening were the Lips. Standing under the lush branches of a backyard tree, up against the back alley that runs parallel to Bloor Street, The Flaming Lips performed in what had to be the party of all kept-under-wraps festival parties. The band’s many local fans had no idea what they were missing.
Even better, The Lips helped recreate the down home and friendly feel of the film at a Toronto pub miles away from the Midwest nature camp at the heart of the heartfelt documentary.

Ken Loach’s ‘The Wind That Shakes the Barley’ exceeds all expectations

2006-09-09T05:37:00.000-07:00

The Standouts at Toronto 2006

One category of movie at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival is the feature that comes with its acclaim already built. “The Wind That Shakes the Barley,” director Ken Loach’s rich and gripping political drama set in 1920 Ireland, won the Cannes Palme d’Or just four months earlier. “Wind That Shakes the Barley” arrives in Toronto with high expectations and one’s greatest complement may be that it surpasses all hopes. Actually, the best thing one can say about this relevant tale of British occupation is that Loach has made his finest film. It certainly is his most epic film. Yet, alongside the lush Irish countryside and perfect period details lie the human attributes of his landmark, early films, “Poor Cow” and “Kes,” an understanding and in-depth connection with the human condition.
Ireland 1920 is a welcome spot for Loach, who’s been making films since 1968. Like American director John Sayles, Loach is a patriot filmmaker, someone who flaunts his politics openly. In “Wind That Shakes the Barley,” Loach recreates the Irish rebel fighters who strike back against the violent Black and Tan squads representing England. At risk is any hope for independence of Ireland.
Damien (Cillian Murphy, left, in the picture above) and his brother Teddy (Pádraic Delaney) fight the British along with other poor young men from rural villages.
When Ireland’s peace seems at hand, civil war erupts and a new chapter in violence begins.
Cillian Murphy “(Red Eye,” “Batman Begins” and “Breakfast on Pluto”), whose dramatic skills are every bit as potent as his piercing blue eyes, brings home the human cost of democratic freedom. Early into the film, it’s clear that “Wind That Shakes the Barley” would be less powerful with anyone else in the lead.
“Wind That Shakes the Barley” makes a strong political statement equal to Loach’s Spanish Civil War drama “Land and Freedom” and Los Angeles union tale “Bread & Roses.” While the film may be steeped in Irish history, Loach’s connections with contemporary politics are clear. You may not agree with the thread Loach makes between 1920 Ireland and current-day Iraq but the film is better for the substance the veteran British filmmaker brings to Paul Laverty’s screenplay. It’s the surest sign of Loach’s master status, someone who generates excitement with every project.

IFC Films plan to release “The Wind That Shakes the Barley” in late 2006 in time for Oscar consideration.

Keanu Reeves, One-time King of Cool

2006-08-22T19:29:00.000-07:00

Central air-conditioning has been part of my life long enough to become bourgeois blasé. But early August’s triple-digit heat wave brought back twenty-something memories of stifling apartments, clunky window air-conditioners that seldom worked and evenings spent watching ice melt. Way back in 1991, during a heart wave as grueling as this summer’s, Keanu Reeves was my savior, my personal King of Cool. It was a dog day afternoon in mid July and my girlfriend and I were weary of walks at the local shopping mall. We had already watched every summer movie we wanted to see: “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves” and “Terminator 2: Judgment Day.” It was too hot to say in our apartment so we opted for Reeves as stone-faced FBI Agent Johnny Utah battling Patrick Swayze’s surfer/bank robber in the action movie “Point Break.” Twitchy Lori Petty played the love interest and Gary Busey provided lackadaisical support as Utah’s partner. I remember director Kathryn Bigelow managing a couple of exciting robbery escapes in a movie best summed up as a B-grade mess. Still, the movie delivered exactly what we were seeking, a break from the heat.
Power failures, steaming sidewalks and melting pot temperatures came back with gusto this summer but I wonder if as many people need movie theaters for escape from the heat they way I needed them in 1991. If that were the case then filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan’s failed mermaid thriller “Lady in the Water” certainly would have sold more tickets.

What a Hit Looks Like – ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest’

2006-08-21T16:51:00.000-07:00

My eight-year-old son was not happy about being the last boy at his summer camp to watch “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest,” especially since his dad’s a film critic. So I took him to a Sunday morning show in late July, early enough in the day for plenty of swim time later. I know there’s plenty of stats and box office rankings to describe how "Dead Man’s Chest" qualifies as a movie phenomenon. But what continues to astound me was the packed crowd inside the Cincinnati multiplex and its incredible diversity. Who would have thought that ordinary people (not film buffs waiting in line outside some cinematheque for a weekend Western series) even considered Sunday morning a good time to catch a movie? I may take summers off from attending church, in addition to fall, spring and most of winter, but I’m convinced there are lots of churchgoers left in the world. If they’re not singing, praying and listening to sermons, they’re at least sleeping late.
But 500-odd people skipped their Sunday routine to watch “Dead Man’s Chest” with my son and I. Hundreds others filed into an adjacent auditorium. There were parents with young children, teens on early dates; college-age buddies horsing around; elderly couples, basically every possible demographic. There were there to see the performance of the summer, Johnny Depp’s flamboyant anti-hero Capt. Jack Sparrow. While nobody left declaring “Dead Man’s Chest” the film of a lifetime, everyone had a laugh-out-loud, rollicking good time.
This past late August weekend, ‘Dead Man’s Chest” finished in eighth place for the weekend box office and with $5 million in sold tickets but it crossed the $400 million mark to become the seventh film in box office history to reach that milestone. The stats say phenomenon but I use different criteria. Any movie that fills the house on a Sunday morning with every age, race and economic class represented, is a movie people have decided they have to see.

Ciao Wisconsin! ‘The Last Kiss’ travels well to Mid-America

2006-08-19T13:31:00.000-07:00

Love Italian style is not something that translates well to American storytelling. Roman machismo and its constant companion, an insatiable libido, remain misunderstood. The Italian women who forgive their philandering partners are often seen as weak and co-dependent. The 2002 Italian film “l’Ultimo Bacio” (“The Last Kiss”) portrayed the Latin man with his complexity intact courtesy of its tale of an Italian thirty-something who cheats on his pregnant girlfriend only to see the error of his ways. With believable heartache and well-placed laughs, “l’Ultimo Bacio” was another foreign-language film deserving of crowds ten times larger than what trickled through art house doors.
Filmmaker Tony Goldwyn and screenwriter Paul Haggis adapt “l’Ultimo Bacio” and transplant it to Madison, Wisconsin. What’s surprising about Hollywood’s “The Last Kiss” is how well Italian machismo transforms into typical American selfishness and upper Middle Class angst.
The core story is the same. A young man, Michael (Zach Braff) grows nervous about becoming a father with his live-in lover (Jacinda Barrett). His release from anxiety comes in the form of a pretty University of Wisconsin student, Kim (Rachel Bilson). In the original movie, the fling was an 18-year-old but that’s too much of an age gap for American audiences.
Michael’s gang of goofball buddies, all unlucky in love to some extant, provides much of the humor. But the heart of the story lies in whether Michael can get back what once scared him.
The laundry list of foreign-language classics butchered by Hollywood filmmakers is long. “The Last Kiss” is a warm, fizzy exception; the perfect fall film for wiping away summer blockbusters. Its opening is still weeks away; so there’s plenty of time to say more about this likable film.

Let Us Now Praise: ‘Brothers of the Head’ filmmakers Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe

2006-08-18T08:13:00.000-07:00

Original is a rare film description but it perfectly sums up filmmaker duo Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe’s edgy Rock-and-Roll drama “Brothers of the Head.” As much a faux documentary as a straight-on adaptation of Brian Aldiss’ novel about Siamese twins leading a ’70s Glam Rock band, Fulton and Pepe accomplish the near impossible. With their new movie, they capture the rebellious spirit of Rock-and-Roll.
Conjoined twins Tom and Barry Howe (Luke and Harry Treadway) turn the challenges of their lives into artistic fuel for their Punk songs. Fame is within reach, if that’s what they want.
Fulton and Pepe’s debut feature, “Lost in La Mancha,” an in-depth expose of Terry Gilliam’s failed attempt at adapting Cervantes’ classic story of Don Quixote, introduced them to the public in a glorious manner.
For their follow-up, the creative duo step into outlandish territory with a film both distinct, risky and a brave twist on the non-non-fiction movie.

“Brothers of the Head” made its North American premiere at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival. IFC Films will release it in theaters across America throughout August and September.

A well-deserved hit, ‘Little Miss Sunshine’

2006-08-17T08:16:00.000-07:00

Comedy is hard work but the perseverance of husband and wife filmmakers Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris has paid off with “Little Miss Sunshine,” a fast growing hit deserving of every ticket buy. One part road tale and two parts dysfunctional family comedy, “Little Miss Sunshine” is as credibly bleak as it is funny. Sure, screenwriter Michael Arndt has created a gang of low-achieving nuts but their frequent setbacks make them completely approachable and a little bit lovable. Greg Kinnear’s smarmy personality is put to perfect use as Richard Hoover, a motivational speaker who preaches success but can’t get his own career in order. Toni Collette settles nicely into the role of Sheryl, the disheveled mom trying to keep her family together. Steve Carell is deadpan hilarious as Sheryl’s brother Frank, a depressed college professor unlucky at love and suicide. Alan Arkin adds extra sass as a grumpy grandpa and Paul Dano brings life to his role as a detached teen. But the film’s plot and spark revolves around young Abigail Breslin as Olive, the Hoover’s seven-year-old daughter intent on winning the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant. The Hoover family's attempt to help Olive win her beloved contest is a nerd triumph.
No film taps into America’s celebrity-obsessed culture with the razor-sharp precision of “Little Miss Sunshine.” It’s as if there’s a little Hoover in all of us, no matter how much we may deny the comparisons.
For Dayton and Faris, who first showed their flair for comedy by directing numerous episodes of the hip Cable TV series “Mr. Show,” the gushing reaction to “Little Miss Sunshine” confirms that their instincts for what’s funny is on target.

“Little Miss Sunshine” premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. Fox Searchlight will release it in theaters across America this summer.

'Viva Pedro' series celebrates Pedro Almodóvar

2006-08-16T09:35:00.000-07:00

The idea of Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar asking anyone for style advice is comical, since, well, a flair for fashion surrounds him like a rainbow-colored halo. It’s been a few years, but I still have crystal clear memories of watching Almodóvar try on clothes for an upcoming party. He asked what I thought and of course, he looked fantastic with every costume change.
Almodóvar’s sense of film style, his undeniable art and bold thumbprint on world cinema is being celebrated with “Viva Pedro,” an eight-film tour from Sony Pictures Classics celebrating the director’s body of work.
The series is underway at New York’s Lincoln Plaza Cinemas with a restored print of his 1988 comic melodrama “Women on the Verge of Nervous Breakdown.” Upcoming are newly restored prints of “Bad Education” (2004), “Matador” (1988), “Law of Desire” (1987), “Live Flesh”(1997), “Flower of My Secret”(1996), “Talk to Her” (2002) and “All About My Mother” (1999) (pictured above with Cecilia Roth, left and Marisa Peredes).
The series opens in Los Angeles later in August and travels cross-country in the fall, playing choice cinemas from Portland, Ore. to Boston, Mass. and numerous points in-between.
Foreign-language films continue to scramble for a shot in theaters and the list of world masters unable to gain recognition in the United States keeps growing. The one exception to this dismal trend is Almodóvar, who deserves every bit of name recognition he’s built through the years.
“Viva Pedro” is arguably the film event of the fall; a bold reminder of why people continue to fall in love with movies. Better yet, it is the perfect warm up to the November release of Almodóvar’s latest drama, “Volver.”
Retrospectives on the scale of “Viva Pedro” usually honor deceased artists. It's as if their death is required for such recognition. But Almodóvar is alive, vibrant and kicking out the best films in his career. His retrospective is perfectly timed. It celebrates his glorious past and reminds his fans that the best is yet to come.

“Viva Pedro” is underway in New York City and expands throughout the United States in late August. “Volver” screens as the Centerpiece film at the 2006 New York Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival before Sony Pictures Classics opens the film in November.

America’s Next Top Moviemaker: Project Greenlight winner ‘Feast’ hits theaters Sept. 22

2006-08-15T14:57:00.000-07:00

The movie bookend to reality TV series like “The Amazing Race” and “America’s Next Top Model” is “Project Greenlight,” the television show and contest created by actors Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and producer Chris Moore. Slightly tweaked for its third installment, Project Greenlight Series 3 (PGL 3) offered two concurrent contests, one for selecting screenwriters, the other for filmmakers.
Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton are the scribes left standing who won the right to team up with filmmaker finalist John Gulager. Their collaboration is “Feast,” a gory horror tale about strangers at an isolated tavern who band together to fight flesh-hungry monsters. (At first glance, the beasts resemble the monsters from “The Descent,” which is not a bad coincidence).
Actors Henry Rollins, Balthazar Getty, and Judah Friedlander bring “Feast” some unexpected independent film credibility. But the spotlight regarding any Greenlight feature belongs to the fresh talent behind the camera. Boosting the prize value this time is news that “Feast” will play theaters for special late-night shows on Sept. 22 and 23. Soon afterwards, on Oct. 17, the film will street on DVD. This means that “Feast” will receive a release plan for theaters and home video similar to the strategy earlier this year for Steven Soderbergh’s small-town drama “Bubble.”
Gulager can now tell people his low-budget horror movie is getting the Soderbergh treatment and he’ll be telling the truth.

Dimension Films, the genre division of The Weinstein Company, will release “Feast” Sept 22 after a world premiere at Las Vegas’ Palms Casino Resort.

Let Us Now Praise: Ryan Gosling in ‘Half Nelson’

2006-08-14T07:20:00.000-07:00

Often, my favorite moments at film festivals come at the end when a random film wows me. Earlier this year, just before the 2006 Sundance Film Festival wrapped, I caught “Half Nelson,” the gripping high school drama by director/co-writer Ryan Fleck and his longstanding creative partner, co-writer Anna Boden. It’s a film I think about often; can’t wait to watch again and imagine it headlining many top ten lists this year.
In a rich and complex lead performance, Ryan Gosling plays Dan Dunne, an idealistic junior high history teacher at a rough inner-city neighborhood. Dunne will do anything to help his students, especially a bright young woman named Drey (Shareeka Epps, pitched above with Gosling), but he first has to help himself. Dunne has his own battle with drug addiction to face and it’s unclear whether he has the strength to make the right choices.
Like another independent spirit, actress Maggie Gyllenhaal, Gosling also jogs between studio films and smaller fare and he’s always good. But “Half Nelson” is a standout performance, the kind that leaves one dazed and bedazzled by the film’s end.
With Fleck and Bowden, who based “Half Nelson” on their 2004 short film “Gowanus, Brooklyn,” Gosling has found kindred spirits. They’ll continue to do great work separately, there’s no doubt about that. Imagine what they’ll accomplish if they team up again.

“Half Nelson” made its premiere at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. THINK Films will release “Half Nelson” in major U.S. cities throughout August 2006.

Filmmaker Neil Burger makes them like they used to: ‘The Illusionist’

2006-08-11T10:40:00.000-07:00

Re-watched “The Illusionist” last night, my reunion with the film since catching it at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival more than six months ago. I must confess that I had to exit the film early at Sundance due to the typical whirlwind, festival schedule. Finally, viewed in its entirety, writer/director Neil Burger’s period romance is lovelier than ever. I can’t think of another recent film that recreates classic movie making technique as beautifully as “The Illusionist.”
Set in 1900 Vienna, Edward Norton plays Eisenheim, a popular magician who butts head with Austria’s Crown Prince (Rufus Sewell). Jessica Biel plays the prince’s fiancée, who also happens to be the love of Eisenheim’s life. Paul Giamatti is at his bumbling best as the Chief Inspector who watches Eisenheim’s every move.
But praise for “The Illusionist” begins with Burger, who cut his feature filmmaking teeth on the enjoyable faux documentary “Interview with the Assassin.” Every remarkable scene, from moments of stage magic to a passionate, secretive kiss, looks as if they were touched by the hands of German expressionist FW Murnau, Frenchman Georges Melies and every other pioneer filmmaker Burge honors. Newfound distributor The Yari Group plans to release “The Illusionist” at summer’s end; so there’s plenty of time to comment further on this welcome alternative to Hollywood’s summertime offerings.

Reel Stories: Ticket Seller shames man from seeing ‘The Devil Wears Prada’

2006-08-10T11:29:00.000-07:00

Proof that there is no guarantee to predicting box office is this funny tale (unless you work at Fox) about why people end up buying tickets to certain movies.
Grandparents babysitting their young child allowed a Greater Cincinnati husband and wife to spend the evening at the movies watching something other than “Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties.”
The husband was leaning towards “The Devil Wears Prada” and it’s easy to figure out why. There’s enough sass, style and spite in director David Frankel’s (“Sex in the City” and “Entourage”) adaptation of Lauren Weisberger’s best-selling novel to please both genders.
Attractive women, Anne Hathaway, as the overworked assistant Andy, Emily Blunt, as Andy’s sarcastic mentor, and Meryl Streep – single-handedly turning white hair into a stylish option – as Andy’s devilish boss, fashion magazine editor Miranda Priestly, all look beautiful in their fantastic clothes.
But the older woman at the ticket counter questioned the man’s choice.
“It’s really girly,” she told him, recommending he seek out a different movie.
The husband defended his initial choice by explaining his love for romantic comedies but the ticket woman stood her ground.
“Too girly,” she said with a snicker.
So the couple ended up watching the horror film “The Descent,” which although it features a group of attractive young women trapped deep inside a cave, is anything but girly.

Ordinary Gays are the highlight of ‘The Night Listener’

2006-08-09T11:13:00.000-07:00

I laughed upon hearing the complaint from a middle-aged woman exiting an advance showing of filmmaker Patrick Stettner’s suspense drama “The Night Listener.”
“They could have told us sooner that Robin Williams was gay !” she complained to everyone within earshot.
In the movie, Williams pushes his funnyman antics aside to play Gabriel, a New York-based author and late-night radio host who’s unhappy in life and facing a creative block. Everything changes for Gabriel when a troubled young writer (Rory Culkin) shares his manuscript with him. The boy’s autobiographical story is one of sexual abuse and life-threatening danger. Gabriel is intrigued, perhaps slightly obsessed, and travels to Wisconsin to meet the teenage writer.
The problem, as pointed out by Gabriel’s former partner (Bobby Cannavale) and friend (Sandra Oh) is that the boy may not exist. He may be a JT Leroy-inspired hoax concocted by his guardian (Toni Collette). To the end of his journey, Gabriel remains unconvinced of the lie.
What bothered the woman in the next aisle is what I liked best about “The Night Listener,” a glossy trinket of a movie with little substance beneath its visual shine.
Based on the novel by Armistead Maupin (“Tales of the City”), Gabriel’s sexual orientation is portrayed with matter-of-factness. He’s one of many ordinary gays in the film. It’s a trait, no different from Williams’ boyish brown hair and bulging Buddha belly. It’s no big deal and that’s a wonderful thing, to think that American independent film has reached a point where homosexuality is no longer a source of high drama or campy laughs. In “The Night Listener,” Gabriel's sexual life is just part of the background.
Everything else about Stettner’s sophomore feature, his follow up to the enjoyable “The Business of Strangers,” is a little less than ordinary. Williams is steady but subdued to the point of transparency. One never understands Gabriel’s true thoughts about the boy. Is it love, or envy over the manuscript? There’s not enough substance in Williams’ performance to provide an answer. Stettner worked with Maupin and Terry Anderson on adapting the novel; so he holds the majority of blame for the lack of spark and accomplishment by the end of the film.
I know I praised Stettner for treating Gabriel’s homosexuality with complete nonchalance. But that doesn’t mean I wanted him to be blasé throughout the film.

Grade: D

“The Night Listener” premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. Miramax Films released it in theaters across the U.S. August 4.

The summer’s most audience friendly film is “Quinceañera”

2006-08-04T12:00:00.000-07:00

Its core celebration, the fifteenth birthday of Magdelena (Emily Rios), the age when, in her culture’s eyes a young girl becomes a woman, is enough to make “Quinceañera,” the melting pot melodrama from writers/directors Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland, into the most audience friendly film of the summer. But the filmmaker duo adds emotional heft to their heartfelt and often comic tale. Major change is occurring in Magdelena’s L.A. neighborhood as new residents are buying and renovating Echo Park homes. The gentrification is pushing out some members of Magdelena’s family. Any tale featuring Latino immigrants is timely but Glatzer and Westmoreland reach beyond the politics to focus on the human side of their travails.
“Quinceañera” offers a subplot for everyone: Latinos, working-class people, gays and the affluent. But instead of being a film of separate boxes, its story embraces everyone equally, and more importantly, lovingly.
Rios is a smiley firecracker as Magdelena, a cushy teen whose heart and mind is in the right place. Jesse Garcia, best known for his gritty performance on Cable TV’s “The Shield,” gives a standout performance as Magdelena’s ostracized cousin Carlos.
Their individual stories, and how they make amends with their family, celebrate Mexican culture. But its well-placed laughter and tears build a story that emphasizes what unites Americans as people who value homeland, their family and the freedom to be themselves.

“Quinceañera” made its world premiere at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, where it won both the Dramatic Grand Jury Prize and the Dramatic Audience Award Sony Pictures Classics will release it in theaters major cities across America on August 4 and the rest of the country by the end of summer.

Scream Queens Fight Back in horrifying ‘The Descent’

2006-08-04T11:57:00.000-07:00

Their screams feel real not so much because the script is high literature but more so because it’s what you would do in a similar situation. “The Descent,” the horrific new monster tale from British director Neil Marshall, made a cold January night at the Sundance Film Festival feel even colder the first time I watched it. Better yet, it turned a recent press screening on a sweltering July afternoon into a breeder of goose bumps. Marshall’s film, a clever twist on the Screaming Mimi stereotype, makes chills no matter where one watches it.
A group of athletic female friends (Shauna Macdonald, Natalie Mendoza, Saskia Mulder among others) reunite in the Appalachian Mountains for a cave expedition. The sperlunking trip is meant to invigorate damaged friendships, test their physical skills and discover a new cave. But fanged monsters await the women, who shriek and run like countless scream queens before them. Then, something fascinating happens. The woman stand tall, fight back and show the monsters that women with the right stuff can save themselves.
Marshall, creator of the cult favorite werewolf thriller Dog Soldiers, takes full advantage of the film’s creepy backdrop, the narrow passages far underground in an unmarked Appalachian cave. He fills the caves with the perfect beasties, a tribe of fanged, pasty-skinned man-beasts desperate to tear at the flesh of the women adventurers.
Still, what sets “The Descent” apart, what makes it one of the summer’s best surprises, is the way he twists his scream queens into rough and rugged heroines. Midway into “The Descent,” the women learn that if anyone is going to save them, they’re going to have to do it themselves. At that moment, “The Descent” evolves from a fun scream show to a scream show that’s fun and smart.

“The Descent” made its North American premiere at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. Lions Gate Films will release it in theaters across America August 4.

First Person Flashback: Mike Leigh & Me

2006-08-02T08:48:00.000-07:00

I had written my questions down in advance in order to be as thoughtful and informed as possible. But it wasn’t long into my interview with British filmmaker Mike Leigh that he stopped our conversation with a biting response.
“I don’t think you know what you’re talking about,” Leigh barked over the phone. He repeated himself for emphasis. “I know you don’t know what you’re talking about.”
My 1993 press interview on behalf of Leigh’s film “Naked” (pictured above) ended earlier than planned but I had already learned much that a beginning, twenty-something film journalist needs to know about his craft. The interviewer has to be confident of his skills and knowledge, that he’s worthy of sharing the table with filmmakers and artists and reviewing their work with authority.
Often, the interviewee's task is to knock the interviewer down to size. Here is journalism as a whirling dance of ego and humility, accomplishments and setbacks, pride and humiliation. It’s human life at its most dramatic, boosted by the art of film and the pizzazz of celebrity culture.
It’s worth noting that I met with Leigh three years later to interview him about his film “Secrets & Lies” and he was utterly charming (He apologized profusely for keeping me waiting).
I’ve enjoyed plenty of wonderful interviews since that early interview with Leigh, many of them moving beyond the realm of journalism and becoming something friendly. Of course, more blow-ups landed at my feet as I wrote profiles and covered film and culture for various newspapers. But I was never rattled, never unsure of my thoughts or words. I have Leigh to thank for my confidence. Long ago, he tested me with fire.

Random Splices: Bob Dylan film “I’m Not There” gets underway July 31

2006-07-29T09:04:00.000-07:00

News of movie productions getting underway is run-of-the-mill when it comes to assembly line Hollywood. The one standout is Todd Haynes’ forthcoming biopic about singer/songwriter Bob Dylan, “I’m Not There.” Production begins July 31 in Montreal, Canada with plans to wrap sometime in November. The finished film will reach audiences in 2007 after an anticipated premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. Part of the film’s appeal is the starry ensemble of talent who will portray Dylan at various stages of his life: Christian Bale, Richard Gere and Heath Ledger. Michelle Williams, Julianne Moore and Charlotte Gainsbourg fill out the supporting roles.
Granted, much of the early excitement revolves around Blanchett playing Dylan, by the far the toughest undertaking in her impressive career. Todd Haynes, easily one of the most distinct and talented of American filmmakers working today, is always reason for joyful anticipation. The fact that Haynes is reuniting with his “Far From Heaven” cameraman Ed Lachman is a bonus.
But the core source for all the “I’m Not There” excitement starts with its colorful subject. Dylan on film has been something of a disappointment. He co-wrote and starred in the recent comedy “Masked and Anonymous,” playing a veteran singer, but not one moment was believable. But Haynes overcomes the challenge of Dylan’s stiff on-screen presence by reaching out to others to bring the singer/songwriter alive. No one knows for sure how “I’m Not There” will turn out. The one certainty is that it will be a must-see.

Believe it — 'Saw III’ is old-fashioned, Hollywood moviemaking

2006-07-23T10:49:00.000-07:00

My favorite summation regarding the hugely popular “Saw” horror movie franchise comes from a friend involved with publicity for its 2005 sophomore installment. Moviemaking does not get any more golden age, old school, and Hollywood dream factory than this.
Production began and finished on “Saw II” last summer. Editing and fine-tuning took place in early fall. By October, mere months after the start of filming, “Saw II” was in theaters and on its way to becoming one of the most profitable films of the year. Was Warner Bros. ever this efficient at the height of its assembly line moviemaking?
The scare franchise created by Leigh Whannell and James Wan continues full throttle with a special presentation of “Saw III” featuring cast and filmmakers at the July 2006 Comicon International in San Diego and news that its trailer will premiere Aug. 4 in front of another Lionsgate horror film, the scream-worthy cave thriller “The Descent.” Confirmation of the Aug. 4 trailer premiere soothes devoted “Saw” fans anxious for the film’s Halloween opening. Any worries about the trailer giving away key surprises are unwarranted. True to its dream factory lineage, “Saw III” is still being stitched together in preparation for scaring its growing fan base this fall.

The trailer for “Saw III” premieres August 4 in front of “The Descent.” Lionsgate Films will release it in theaters across America this Halloween.

Kevin Smith’s jolt of middle-age nostalgia makes “Clerks II” better than the original

2006-07-21T08:47:00.000-07:00

Writer/director Kevin Smith returns to the stomping grounds of his 1994, breakthrough film “Clerks” and with the help of middle age nostalgia makes the rare movie sequel that’s better than the original.
Original leads Jeff Anderson and Brian O’Halloran are back as under-achievers Randall Graves and his longtime pal Dante Hicks. The fiery destruction of their longtime place of work, a rundown Quick Stop convenience store in New Jersey, is the gag that opens the film with a loving nod to the original tale. Rising from the ashes as non-spectacularly as possible, Graves and Hicks shift to equally dead-end jobs at a fast food joint named Mooby’s. Rosario Dawson sparkles as their pretty boss, Becky. Trevor Fehrman makes a welcome addition to the “Clerks” universe as Elias, a nerdy co-worker obsessed with the live action "Transformers" movie coming out next summer. Elias’ pop culture banter, a staple of Smith’s comedies, provides the biggest laughs in the film.
Gross Out gags, another Smith trademark, include a heavyset man having sex with a mule (Interspecies Erotica). They’re every bit as funny as they’re outrageous.
What sets Clerks II apart from Smith’s previous films (“Chasing Amy,” “Dogma,” “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” among others), what makes it the most enjoyable movie surprise of the summer, are the things Smith hasn’t tackled much before.
Sure, there are scenes of sweeping photography and a level of technical polish new to a Kevin Smith movie. But true growth lies in the sweetness, romance and yes, nostalgia, that Smith shows for his New Jersey slackers.
Randall and Dante ride go-karts to the sounds of “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head” as a means to unwind. In the film’s best scene, Dante wants to learn how to dance and Becky teaches him on the Mooby’s rooftop. Dante watches Becky dance to The Jackson Five’s “ABC” with a look of pure love.
It’s a wonderful, joyous moment, one that complements the film’s raunchy chitchat and gross out gags perfectly.
The world of American independent cinema has changed a lot since the guerrilla, no-money days when Smith made “Clerks.”
Smith has changed, too. He’s learned that gags work better when you surround them with a meaningful story.

The Weinstein Company will release “Clerks II” in theaters across North America July 21.
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Let Us Now Praise: Maggie Gyllenhaal in ‘Sherrybaby’

2006-07-16T20:19:00.000-07:00

The 2006 Karlovy Vary Film Festival has recently wrapped in the Czech spa town and writer/director Laurie Collyer won the Best Film Prize for her blue-collar melodrama “Sherrybaby.”
Maggie Gyllenhaal won a Best Actress Award for her starring role in the film; cementing an opinion I’ve had about her for some time.
Not only the brightest female star of American independents, Gyllenhaal is queen of the industry dance, meaning a constant jog between smaller, independent films and larger, more mainstream studio features. Actors, whether upcoming or veteran, practice this jog but what sets Gyllenhaal apart is the way she boosts mediocre films (the sloppy L.A. ensemble drama “Happy Endings” and the period college tale “Mona Lisa Smile” come immediately to mind) no matter their size.
When the storytelling is solid, as is the case with “Sherrybaby,” Gyllenhaal dazzles with the type of everyday, off-the-street character that has become her trademark.
Gyllenhaal plays Sherry Swanson, a single mom just released from prison who wants a decent job and the chance to raise her five-year-old daughter. Drug addiction is the demon that keeps her from achieving her dreams. Character actor Danny Trejo (pictured above with Gyllenhaal) complements Gyllenhaal as a fellow twelve-stepper. Giancarlo Esposito adds edge to the story as a parole officer on Swanson’s back.
Collyer, directing her first fiction film and just her sophomore feature after the documentary Nuyorican Dream, never strays far from recognizable formula. “Sherrybaby” would have benefited from a surprise or two.
Watched for the first time at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, “Sherrybaby” may not have been my favorite festival drama. But Gyllenhaal shines through every hard-knock scene with emotional certainty. In her hands, “Sherrybaby” transforms from a likable working class woman’s picture into a movie that’s heads and shoulders above most of the summer’s art-house releases.

“Sherrybaby” made its premiere at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival and continues to play festivals around the world.
IFC Films will release “Sherrybaby” in major U.S. cities on August 25.

Documentary ‘Edge of Outside’ celebrates the original movie rebels

2006-07-05T06:11:00.000-07:00

Talk of maverick filmmakers often revolves around players from the current American independent movie scene, John Sayles, Steven Soderbergh and Kevin Smith, to name a few. In fact, we refer to this trio as “indie” veterans; directors who can discuss the beginnings of contemporary alternative cinema (the 1980s) with firsthand knowledge.
But serious talk about rebel cinema means going back to the original mavericks, directors who worked some forty years before Soderbergh’s 1989 debut drama “sex, lies and videotape.”
Shannon Davis, senior vice president of original production Turner Classic Movies (TCM), directs and produces the documentary mini-feature “Edge of Outside,” a celebration of early mavericks: Orson Welles, Stanley Kubrick, Nicholas Ray, Samuel Fuller, Sam Peckinpah and John Cassavetes.
Before there was a Sundance Film Festival and Miramax Films, back before the digital revolution and inexpensive digital cameras and multi-hour cartridges, filmmakers like Kubrick and Ray worked within the studio system and yet, still managed to make distinct movies that spoke to their own interests, talents and personalities.
Like all historical documentaries, “Edge of Outside” thrives on its archival footage and face-the-camera interviews from various opinion makers.
Filmmaker Martin Scorsese provides welcome passion and heartfelt enthusiasm. Actress Gena Rowlands discusses her husband John Cassavetes with warmth and love.
John Sayles, director of modern-day landmarks “Lone Star” and “The Return of the Secaucus 7,” helps bridge the gap between past and the current “indie” scenes with thoughtful commentary.
Repertory cinemas that play film classics are a thing of the past for many people. So TCM steps in with a calendar of “maverick” films throughout July. If you want to fully understand alternative cinema today, it’s essential to acquaint oneself with the mavericks that came earlier.

“Edge of Outside” premieres July 5 on Turner Movie Classics (TCM). The original documentary repeats throughout July with a calendar of movies featuring filmmakers discussed in the film. Highlights include Sam Peckinpah’s “Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid,” Samuel Fuller’s “The Naked Kiss” and Nicholas Ray’s “On Dangerous Ground.”

'District B13' - More Butt Kicking, S’il Vous Plaît

2006-07-04T21:25:00.000-07:00

One way to avoid an oncoming speeding car is to leap over its trunk and sprint over its roof. It’s an acrobatic feat reserved to select street heroes like Leïto (David Belle), a young man trying to rise out of his Parisian ghetto, and his unlikely partner, Detective Damien (Cyril Raffaelli).
Leïto and Damien are gritty, roughhewn versions of Asian superstar Jackie Chan, capable of Spider-Man-like leaps and scaling the walls of buildings whenever the need arises. They’re also unlikely partners, incapable of trusting one another, which is part of the pulpy fun of the rollicking French action movie “DistrictB13 (Banlieue 13)”
A vicious drug lord named Taha (played by the film’s co-writer Bibi Naceri) has a deadly bomb directed towards central Paris. He also has Leïto’s young sister held captive. It’s up to the mismatched duo to infiltrate B13, a walled slum on the outskirts of Paris with no schools, no police and no post offices, find the bomb, free the girl and save the day.
Grim, violent, but infused with the playful spirit of a comic book, “District B13” offers straight arrow stunts and no-nonsense fighting that explodes in a worthy rooftop finale. Director Pierre Morel, a veteran cameraman making his directing debut, may lack the special effects budget of his American counterparts but he beats them at wowing audiences.
French filmmaker Luc Besson produces in addition to his co-writing duties with Bibi Naceri.
David Belle, the champion of parkour, a sport based on surmounting all obstacles at top speed, makes for a glum hero whenever he’s standing still but luckily he never stops moving. Cyril Raffaelli, a veteran stuntman, complements the dour Belle with equal agility and extra sass and charisma.
Their oil-and-water partnership borrows heavily from the “Lethal Weapon” films but the film’s grit and pulpy fun pays homage to beloved B action movies like “Escape from New York” and “Shakedown.”
The spirit of John Carpenter, the creator of “Escape from New York” and countless other B movies, is alive and well in “District 13” and that spirit beats Hollywood pizzazz every time.

“District B13” made its North American premiere at the 2005 Toronto Film Festival after playing theaters throughout Europe. Magnolia Pictures will release it in theaters across America this summer.

Worlds Collide in “A Prairie Home Companion”

2006-06-29T05:13:00.000-07:00

The culture clash between Garrison Keillor, creator of “A Prairie Home Companion,” and Robert Altman, filmmaker of standouts “Nashville,” “The Player” and “Short Cuts,” is one of good-natured hokum (Keillor) and razor-sharp cynicism (Altman).
When it comes to movies, especially those meant for adult audiences, I’d take cynicism every time.
“A Prairie Home Companion” has been airing regularly (except for a break in the 1980s) on public radio stations across America and Keillor, who wrote the screenplay in addition to starring in the film, stays true to the radio show’s Americana format. There are live bands and singers, a crime series featuring Guy Noir (Kevin Kline), anecdotes from small town life and make-believe commercials for homespun items like Powder Milk Biscuits.
Tweaks that separate the movie from the long-running radio program include Tommy Lee Jones as a Texas businessman who has come to shut down Prairie Home Companion and Virginia Madsen as a mystery woman in a white trench coat. The one tweak that’s desperately missing is Altman’s biting dialogue, complex characters and mature themes.
“Prairie Home Companion” is good-natured, aw shucks cinema patched together like a filmed stage play or concert. It’s the last thing one would expect from Altman because, well, it’s a waste of his wonderful, mean spirit.
Granted, the film has its share of beautiful images. There’s no denying Altman’s skill. Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin add sass as the country singing due Yolanda and Rhonda Johnson.
But the film never rises above affable – much like Keillor with his dark blue suit, white dress short and banker’s tie. It’s easygoing, chatter and homespun advice and Altman has better things to offer than that.

“A Prairie Home Companion” premiered at the 2006 Berlin Film Festival. Picturehouse released the film in theaters across America earlier this summer.

Filmmaker Phil Morrison: Poet of the American Divide

2006-06-27T07:34:00.000-07:00

The premise of an America divided by red (Conservative Republican) and blue (Liberal Democratic) states was moonshine clear in first-time feature director Phil Morrison’s extraordinary Southern drama “Junebug.” It was the standout film at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival for a simple reason. Morrison shattered the Sundance storytelling formula that liberals are good and tolerant and conservatives are rigid and bad. Working from Angus MacLachlan’s script, Morrison looked at the American divide with impressive tolerance.
In ‘Junebug,’ Madeleine (Embeth Davidtz), a pretty Chicago gallery owner who deals in outsider art accompanies her new husband George (Alessandro Nivola) to North Carolina to meet a rural painter. While there, they decide to visit his family, conservative Christians who instantly clash with Madeleine.
In a move that continues to surprise audiences (“Junebug” played U.S. theaters last summer and is currently on home video), Madeleine comes off as rigid and intolerant. Meanwhile, George’s ultra-right family is shown honestly, flaws and all, but ultimately in a positive light as they strive to accept their son’s big city, college-educated, arty wife. George, played with charisma by Nivola, is the most attractive conservative ever to appear on film.
When he sings a gospel hymn at a church potluck, the moment is beautiful.
Morrison revisits the idea of an America divided into cool and square communities with his series of “Get a Mac” Apple Computer ads. The series of six commercials cover Mac selling points like avoiding viruses, the ease of working with other gadgets and glowing consumer reviews.
Shaggy-haired and soft-spoken Justin Long, seen in the films “Waiting” and “Jeepers Creepers,” plays the Mac computer as a cool and confident hipster in blue jeans and a casual top. John Hodgman, a regular on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” plays the PC as a doughy nerd in an ill-fitting suit, the type of geek who breaks into a sweat any time a pretty woman passes.
Morrison’s “Get a Mac” ads are the polar opposite of “Junebug.” The geeks, the conservatives, in this case, PC owners, are nothing more than inept buffoons. There’s none of the tolerance Morrison showed in “Junebug,” a movie that celebrated both the cool and un-cool. For the sake of boosting Apple Computer sales and emphasizing the ads’ jokes, tolerance is tossed out the TV screen.
Still, when it comes to portraying an America as two divided communities, even down to the computers they own, Phil Morrison has become the leading storyteller.

“Junebug” premiered at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival and is available on home video from Sony. The “Get a Mac” ads can be seen on a variety of screens (TV, computer etc) at all times.

Let Us Now Praise: Emily Blunt

2006-06-23T08:16:00.000-07:00

The young actress who exchanges passionate art house drama for slick Hollywood comedy is labeled a practical careerist by sympathizers and a sell-out by serious-minded fans.
The exception is British actress Emily Blunt, who shifts effortlessly from last summer’s erotic coming-of-age drama “My Summer of Love” to the bubbly big city girl tale “The Devil Wears Prada.”
Meryl Streep receives the film’s best dialogue and spotlight moments as Miranda Priestly, the devilish editor of the fashion bible “Runway Magazine.” Anne Hathaway flaunts her girl-next-door charisma as Andy Sachs, Priestly’s overworked assistant.
But much of the sass, style and spite in director David Frankel’s (“Sex in the City” and “Entourage”) adaptation of Lauren Weisberger’s best-selling novel belongs to Blunt as Emily, Priestly’s previous assistant and an obsessively dedicated follower of fashion.
Every moment from Blunt is funny. More importantly, it rings true.
“My Summer of Love,” a love story about women from opposites of the British class divide, was an undiscovered summertime gem worth seeking. “The Devil Wears Prada” is anything but little seen, arriving in theaters with all the publicity and marketing oomph worthy of a summertime blockbuster.
For Blunt, the extra attention is well deserved.

“A Scanner Darkly” shows cartoons aren’t just for kids

2006-06-22T05:15:00.000-07:00

Cartoon critters cause backyard chaos in the popular slapstick comedy “Over the Hedge.” The fat tabby cat Garfield lets loose a belch loud enough to rattle the windows in “Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties.”
But the dreamlike images animator Bob Sabiston creates via his digital rotoscope technique are more surreal and darker than any current kids cartoon whether big or small screen. Sabiston’s segment in “The Five Obstructions,” a 2003 experimental film by Lars Von Trier and Jorgen Leth, “Waking Life,” his chatty 2001 collaboration with filmmaker Richard Linklater, even his Charles Schwab TV ads, are set up for the creepiness and uneasy feelings that fill “A Scanner Darkly,” an adaptation of Philip K Dick’s sci-fi thriller.
Set in the year 2014, America has dissolved into a police state in order to win the war on drugs and stop the latest craze, a deadly pill named Substance D.
Bob Arctor (Keanu Reeves) is an undercover narcotics cop looking to nab the dealers of Orange County, CA. His druggie contacts include the slackerish trio of Freck (Rory Cochrane), Barris (Robert Downey Jr) and Ernie (Woddy Harrelson) as well as the pretty dealer, Donna (Winona Ryder). But Arctor is over his head, more than he realizes.
“A Scanner Darkly” is a Linklater/Sabiston reunion but the film’s most memorable moments belong to the animator. The cops wear scramble suits, creating a constant flicker of images, in order to protect their identities. Cokehead nightmares include armies of beetles and bug-eyed aliens. It's intentional, sensory overload.
Dick’s thriller occasionally veers into confusion but the disorienting feeling suits the story well. “A Scanner Darkly” aims to make one feel uncomfortable, the last thing you’d expect from a kids cartoon.
If successful, “A Scanner Darkly” may pull adult animation out of its cultish corner and into the mainstream. After all, kids shouldn’t have all the fun to themselves.

“A Scanner Darkly” premiered at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. Warner Independent Pictures Films will release it in major US cities on July 7.

Grabbing Godzilla by the tail

2006-06-07T09:56:00.000-07:00

There are plenty of scenes throughout director Ishiro Hondo’s 1956 film “Godzilla” of the sea monster smashing his long lizard tail atop Tokyo buildings. It’s one of many acts of destruction Godzilla does so well. But the tail I think of when reminiscing about Godzilla has nothing to do with a man in a rubber monster suit stomping atop a model of Tokyo. My mind rests on a simple length of masking tape with the word “Godzilla” stenciled in green marker alongside a cartoon sketch of the famous movie beast. The tape is attached to the final thread of film on the last reel of the uncut, original, Japanese version of the film, which I helped project for a series of shows at a Cincinnati cinematheque.
Film buffs will tell you nothing in the digital video universe compares to celluloid in terms of beauty and richness and they’re right. There’s even more poetry in handling a restored film print of “Godzilla.” Crisscrossing U.S. theaters over the past twelve months, “Godzilla” came to my hands slightly worn and fragile, which made the experience all the more magical. You handle the reels delicately, repairing the few torn frames. For these showings, the advance hype is accurate. This is film history in the making on a private scale. Everyone has childhood memories of their favorite movie monsters; the first time they watched James Whale’s “Frankenstein” or Todd Browning’s “Dracula.”
But the original Japanese version of “Godzilla” never played U.S. theaters until recently. Stripped of the added scenes featuring Raymond Burr’s reporter and the dubbed English, “Godzilla” is sober, solemn and fantastic to watch.
Adult film fans in the crowd appreciate the film’s morality, the seriousness that makes “Godzilla” more than a creature feature. Hondo, a former assistant to Akira Kurosawa, makes the most out of Takashi Shimura’s role as a sympathetic scientist who wants to study the underwater creature blasted awake by an H-bomb explosion.
The theme of man messing with nature is clear in this version of “Godzilla” – as clear as the Al Gore/global warming documentary “An Inconvenient Truth.”
Midway into the film, a young woman is asked if she plans to evacuate Tokyo if Godzilla heads their way. She answers with a definite yes. After all, she survived the bombing of Nagasaki and is not about to jeopardize her life.
Children in the crowds may not instantly connect with the morality of “Godzilla.” They’re more interested in the beast’s path of destruction, his first appearance above a rural hillside and his fiery demolition of Tokyo.
Granted, the man in the rubber lizard suit looks clumsy to children accustomed to the computerized special effects of “Harry Potter” and “The Chronicles of Narnia.”
The clever way Honda keeps Godzilla hidden in nighttime skies is lost on movie kids who want to see everything. A swishing tail crashing against Tokyo apartment buildings doesn’t cut it. After watching the movie, my seven-year-old son promptly declared the movie as “lame.” Godzilla, he told the people exiting the cinema, just wasn’t scary enough.
Of course, that didn’t stop him from having nightmares later that night.
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X-Men to the World: Take Us Seriously!

2006-06-05T09:42:00.000-07:00

Godzilla – Monster-sized Movies that can’t be ignored

The Golden Gate Bridge rises off its moorings and levitates across San Francisco Bay. Cars fly across mountain highways and burst into flames. A winged teenager crashes through a skyscraper window and soars above the city skyline. The perpetrators of these fantastic feats are the costumed heroes and villains of “X-Men: The Last Stand,” the third movie blockbuster based on the popular comic book.
The X-Men formula of mutant teenagers with fantastic powers, one controls the weather, another can move through walls, battling baddies with their own superhuman skills is rock solid action formula.
“X3,” directed by Brett Ratner, has sold $175.7 million worth of tickets in the U.S. in its first ten days of release, meaning that a lot of teenage movies goers are returning again and again.
“X3” may also have just enough thrills to please that ardent art-house film buff in need of a movie void of any intellectual engagement.
“X3,” boasting a villain named Juggernaut who crashes through cement walls like a human bulldozer, offers a sugary rush at all its best moments but there are some who look beyond the explosions.
On a May 30 “National Public Radio” story, commentator Mike Pesca says the “mutantism” in “X3” represents real-life issues ranging from dwarfism to deafness and sexual orientation. He’s not the first person to place sociopolitical issues atop the film’s constant special effects. “X3” actors have been discussing the film’s human rights philosophy during their pre-release publicity appearances. Halle Berry, who plays the X-Men leader Storm, flashes eerie white eyes that match her dyed hair whenever she uses her powers to manipulate the weather. Toss in Berry’s body-hugging leather jumpsuit and it’s almost impossible to take her seriously. Sometimes, a comic is simply a comic. Any political debate around “X3” feels like an awkward stretch.

Air Conditioner breakdown boosts “An Inconvenient Truth”

2006-06-02T06:37:00.000-07:00

The film company Paramount Vantage did not hire the air conditioning repairman to mess with the cinema thermostat nor did they break the central air system in the first place. But it would have made for brilliant publicity if they had thought of it. The one movie that benefits from a stifling cinema is director David Guggenheim’s “An Inconvenient Truth,” an elaborate documentary about former Vice President Al Gore and his efforts to inform people about global warming.
The air conditioning was promptly fixed by the tightening of a loose wire. Still, the unseasonably stifling temperatures outside the Cincinnati screening room continued to give an extra boost to Gore’s warnings about rising carbon dioxide and resulting hotter and hotter temperatures.
The outdoors climax occurred soon after the documentary ended and the press returned to their cars. Ferocious thunderstorms brought torrential rain and heavy winds to the Cincinnati area. It’s as if Gore’s multimedia lecture, the core of Guggenheim’s earnest film, came to life with a climactic thunderclap.
Now, I’m not saying Paramount Vantage manipulated the weather to better promote “An Inconvenient Truth.” If they could, if it was at all possible, “An Inconvenient Truth” could turn into the movie of a lifetime. Of course, Al Gore would call it a coincidence destined to become more likely unless the movie inspires people to create real, environmental change.

Remembrance: Japanese Filmmaker Shohei Imamura

2006-05-31T09:59:00.000-07:00

Japanese filmmaker Shohei Imamura referred to his films as "messy," but that's not the word I would use to describe his extraordinary movies, from recent dramas like “The Eel” (shown above) to earlier work like his acclaimed 1966 film “The Pornographers.”
News agencies today reported the death of Imamura from liver cancer. He was 79 and the tragedy is how death of word-of-mouth support for foreign-language cinema, or any independent film for that matter, prevented Imamura from gaining widespread acclaim in the U.S.
Imamura created the best segment in the controversial omnibus film “11'09"01,” telling the fairy-tale-like story of a Japanese World War II soldier who returns to his village devastated by his battle experiences. As a result, he begins to act like a snake, much to the horror of his family.
In his last feature film, the 2001 fantasy “Warm Water Under a Red Bridge,” a laid-off businessman Yosuke (Koji Yakusho) goes in search of a golden Buddhist statue, allegedly hidden in a house by a red bridge. Upon arriving, Yosuke meets and becomes obsessed with Saeko (Misa Shimizu), a woman who secretes magical waters during sex.
In all his films, Imamura showed Japan's underbelly, its lowlifes and perverts. Maybe that’s what he meant by describing his films as “messy.” Yet, Imamura always portrayed his characters respectfully, no matter their predicaments.
Proof of Imamura’s master status lies with the fact that he is one of only four filmmakers to to win the Palme d’Or twice, for “The Eel” in 1997 and “The Ballad of Narayama” in 1983.
It’s worth mentioning that European filmmaker Emir Kusturica, another member of this gang of four, has yet to create a sizable profile in the United States.
Imamura’s death notices may not attract much U.S. news coverage but postwar Japanese cinema is as much about Imamura and his sensuous stories as any Akira Kurosawa Samurai epic.
In honor of Imamura’s recent passing, watch one of his films and you’ll agree.

Let Us Now Praise: Aaron Eckhart

2006-05-30T06:54:00.000-07:00

Hollywood’s summertime blockbusters, whether ‘The Da Vinci Code’, ‘Over the Hedge’ or ‘X-Men: The Last Stand,’ continue to rack up gigantic box office with machinelike precision. It’s as if a new record is made every weekend.
The lone specialty film that qualifies as a break out hit is the hilarious political satire ‘Thank You for Smoking.’
Christopher Buckley’s comic novel has a joke for everyone and neophyte director Jason Reitman shows a knack for generating laughs equal to his filmmaker father, Ivan Reitman. But much of the credit for the film’s crossover success belongs to leading man Aaron Eckhart.
There’s no better character for a comedy than someone who talks for a living. Nick Naylor (Eckhart), lobbyist for the Academy of Tobacco Studies, faces his teenage son’s classmates and compares what he does to a movie star. The way he sees things, he and Brad Pitt both make their living performing in front of the public.
Naylor has a simple message for the kids, challenge authority. The qualifier is to make money while challenging the powers-that-be, in Naylor's case, protecting the interests of the tobacco companies.
Eckhart is the longtime muse of playwright/filmmaker Neil LaBute — ‘Your Friends & Neighbors,’ ‘Nurse Betty,’ ‘Possession’ and ‘In the Company of Men,’ as the womanizer Chad. But he puts his smarmy personality and blonde, prep school looks to comical use as the ruthless lobbyist.
Eckhart has worked on his share of Hollywood blockbusters, action thrillers ‘Paycheck,’ ‘The Core’ and dramas like ‘The Missing’ and ‘Erin Brockovich’ but more independent fare attracts his interest. Eckhart would be a welcome addition to any mainstream movie but he shines in films with an alternative edge, a film like ‘Thank You for Smoking.’
Spin control is seldom this funny and Eckhart is the most handsome chatterbox imaginable.

Todd Haynes to finalize casting on his Bob Dylan bio-drama. One tip, hire anyone but Dylan.

2006-05-26T07:51:00.000-07:00

Armchair Advice

Showbiz trades recently announced the latest casting news regarding Todd Haynes’ forthcoming biopic about Bob Dylan. Cate Blanchett, will join a starry ensemble that includes Christian Bale, Julianne Moore, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams. Blanchett, who just wowed Cannes Film Festival audiences with her role in ‘Babel,’ will portray Dylan at one stage of his life.
The idea of Blanchett playing Dylan sounds tough to swallow until you look back at Haynes’ androgynous characters in his previous rock and roll drama, ‘Velvet Goldmine.’ Haynes can make anything work with the one exception being Dylan himself.
Dylan co-wrote and starred in ‘Masked and Anonymous,’ playing a veteran singer, but not one moment was believable.
At age 65, Dylan still surprises. He reveals welcome wit and friendliness as the host of XM Radio’s Theme Time Radio Hour. His music is as vibrant as ever. Yet, in front of the movie camera, Dylan turns to stone. He’s a challenge Haynes could never solve, even if the role existed at the tip of Dylan’s nose.

What Makes Marie Antoinette Run?

2006-05-25T07:35:00.000-07:00

Random Splices: No cake for Cannes critics who boo 'Marie Antoinette'

Sofia Coppola’s ‘Marie Antoinette’ premiered yesterday at the Cannes Film Festival and all reports emphasize the extreme, negative reaction to the film. Basically, many in the audience booed, earning filmmaker Sofia Coppola’s third effort a harsher reaction than the underwhelming response to ‘The Da Vinci Code.’
The film follows Antoinette’s life after her marriage to France’s King Louis XVI but ends before her beheading at the hands of angry mobs.
Kirsten Dunst, who plays Antoinette, praised Coppola at a festival press conference: “She speaks greatly to women my age.”
What Dunst may be oblivious to is the negative feelings expressed by women her age towards her own work. Young women who grew up watching Dunst’s movies, from ‘Bring It On’ to ‘Elizabethtown,’ have grown fed up with her, which is all very Antoinette.
Whether the Cannes critics attacked Coppola’s film due to their own Dunst breaking points is unclear. Considering that we’re mostly talking about middle-aged men, their points of contention probably lie elsewhere. Maybe their grief is with Jason Schwartzman’s portrayal of King Louis XVI.

How Dark the Con of JT LeRoy

2006-05-24T07:02:00.000-07:00

The most fascinating thing for me regarding the ongoing ticket sales phenomenon of director Ron Howard’s ‘The Da Vinci Code’ is how all the attention, both negative and otherwise, continues to boost the film. It doesn’t matter how ludicrous the conspiracies in Dan Brown’s bestselling thriller may be, or the devout belief held by armies of readers in the truths of his story, the moviegoers keep marching to cinemas.
All publicity is good ‘Da Vinci Code’ publicity. Yet, what works well for a Hollywood blockbuster doesn’t always translate for an independent film.
My favorite art movie mess playing select independent cinemas is actress/filmmaker Asia Argento’s adaptation of JT LeRoy’s ‘The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things.’ The shock value of drugs, alcohol and prostitution runs through the journey of Sarah (Argento) and her abused son Jeremiah (Jimmy Bennett), a story supposedly based on LeRoy’s own troubled life.
I remember watching Argento introduce the film at the 2004 Toronto Film Festival with LeRoy standing alongside her, clad in his trademark dark glasses and thick mop of long blonde hair.
But none of it, not the sordid life or the premise of a West Virginia truck stop hooker turned author sensation is true. LeRoy is the creation of Laura Albert and Geoffery Knoop, two people who claimed to have met and helped LeRoy. The man I watched onstage was really Savannah Knopp, the half sister of Geoffrey Knoop.
LeRoy is fiction, a hoax even more complete than James Frey’s embellishments for ‘A Million Little Pieces’, and yet, this crazed movie born from lies remains a fringe pleasure. The bad publicity occurred too early, or perhaps, the film and LeRoy are too small for any controversy to really matter.
Gus Van Sant once planned to direct an adaptation of LeRoy’s debut novel Sarah. He still should do it; but make the hoax part of the story. A farce this entertaining should not be wasted. Consider Argento’s wild ride of a movie a taste of things to come.

The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things premiered at the 2004 Cannes and Toronto Film Festivals and recently opened in New York City and Los Angeles. Palm Pictures is slowly releasing it in select theaters across America.

Macho Chiwetel Ejiofor and his ‘Kinky Boots’ role

2006-05-23T08:31:00.000-07:00

Footwear is at the heart of the audience-friendly British comedy ‘Kinky Boots’. So it’s unsurprising that every reporter asks acclaimed actor Chiwetel Ejiofor the same question: “What was it like to wear women’s heels?”
In director Julian Jarrold’s upbeat comedy, Ejiofor plays Lola, a burly London drag queen in need of high heels that can support a man’s weight. Lola’s unexpected hero is Charlie Price (Joel Edgeton), a nice guy desperate to save his family’s failing Northampton, England shoe factory.
Capitalizing on the transvestite market turns out to be business genius. It also provides some lessons in tolerance for Price and his factory workers.
Comedy is hard for a dramatic performer like Ejiofor, best known for his role in the British immigration tale ‘Dirty Pretty Things’. Comedy while balancing on high heels is next to impossible.
“It was hard,” Ejiofor says with a wide grin and wink. “It was really hard. But I thought I looked good.”
British audiences know Ejiofor — he goes by the nickname Chiwe, pronounced “Chewy”, for his roles on the lawyer show ‘Trust’ and ‘The Canterbury Tales’. His stage performance Joe Penhall’s Blue/Orange earned nominations for the Olivier Awards and London Evening Standard Awards. He’s a nominee for the BAFTA Rising Star Award. Ejiofor, a London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art alum, has already gained a lifetime’s worth of acclaim by age 29.
U.S. audiences recognize his face thanks to roles in the John Singleton crime drama 'Four Brothers' and the sci-fi action movie 'Serenity'.
“You gain a qualified instinct from experience,” he says. “You learn from past decisions. You believe in the projects because you believe in yourself.”
Ejiofor can now add wearing woman’s heels to his list of experiences. Rest assured, he’ll be back, although probably in more sensible shoes.

Kinky Boots made its U.S. premiere at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. Miramax Films is currently releasing it in theaters across America.

Ironic Victory for ‘Da Vinci Code’ Critics

2006-05-22T06:52:00.000-07:00

The Monday morning lesson for the army of ‘Da Vinci Code’ protestors is to be careful about what you’re fighting. ‘Da Vinci Code’ critics were worried that the big-budget adaptation of Dan Brown’s bestseller would flame its grand conspiracies about Vatican cover-ups regarding the true domestic life of Jesus Christ. So they mobilized outside theaters and on the Cannes Festival red carpet to persuade people against seeing the movie.
Holding back the ‘Da Vinci Code’ crowds was like holding back the tide. A Sunday release from Sony delivered the news. Director Ron Howard’s ‘The Da Vinci Code’ earned $77 million in U.S. box office and a whopping $224 million in worldwide ticket sales.
‘The Da Vinci Code’ gives new meaning to the industry term Teflon; meaning a film resistant to vicious reviews.
But the upside for ‘Da Vinci Code’ protestors is surprising. Howard’s ‘Da Vinci Code’ is awful enough to keep any moviegoer from accepting its conspiracies as true, revised history.
No more protests are needed. In fact, ‘Da Vinci Code’ protesters need a new plan of attack. They should start buying blocks of tickets and passing them out for free. Their best ally in defrauding the ‘Da Vinci Code’ myth is the film they once targeted. If the protesters get busy, ‘The Da Vinci Code’ will continue to make more money than ever and Sony will have an unexpected ally helping bring people to theaters.
There’s also an upside for those critics (myself included) who have no problems with the film’s conspiracy fictions but take issue with its plodding dullness. Any adult-oriented film that out-earns teen action movies is a good thing for those of us who want more adult-themed stories. God willing, the next adult thriller will be better than ‘Da Vinci Code’.

If boredom is a sin, let lightning strike ‘The Da Vinci Code’

2006-05-20T04:26:00.000-07:00

Godzilla – Monster-sized Movies that can’t be ignored

Author Dan Brown’s best-selling thriller ‘The Da Vinci Code’ is everywhere: television, billboards, newspapers and anti-Da Vinci Code documentaries. The vast number of art house cinemas playing director Ron Howard’s ‘The Da Vinci Code’ may persuade serious-minded moviegoers to accept the big-budget crime thriller as the rare Hollywood blockbuster with adult characters, themes and a plot more serious than the average comic book.
The fact that ‘The Da Vinci Code’ claims the best opener of any recent movie thriller only heightens expectations.
A Louvre curator is found murdered, left naked in the position of Da Vinci’s Vitruvian figure inside the sprawling Paris museum. Occult symbols are carved into his bare chest. Called to the scene is symbols expert Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) to help French police decipher the clues. On hand to assist is a pretty police cryptographer, Sophie Neveu, (Audrey “Amélie” Tautou) who has a secret connection to the crime.
Their attempts to solve the murder turns into a Holy Grail quest throughout France and England in search of the 900-year-old religious cult, the Priory of Sion, and its secrets about Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene. It turns out to be a laborious journey.
Tom Hanks sports long slick hair in a failed attempt to play the dashing leading man. He’s out of sorts in ‘Da Vinci’, worlds away from the type of casual comic Joe he plays effortlessly.
Audrey “Amélie” Tautou is plenty pretty but surprisingly dull as Langdon’s girl Friday. Put together, they claim the sexual spark of a rock.
As British Sir Leigh Teabing, a Grail expert who joins the adventure, Ian McKellen brings the much-needed bluster and presence that Hanks lacks. McKellen’s ability puff out his chest and match up against the spectacular backdrops points out the differences between an actor who’s classically trained and someone who comes out of TV sitcoms, someone like Hanks.
Paul Bettany flashes a pasty white ass, a barbed “cilice” belt on this thigh and a cat o’ nine tails for whipping but little menace as Silas, the mad Albino monk on their trail.
Working with ‘A Beautiful Mind’ screenwriter Akiva Goldsman, Howard unloads plenty of flashbacks to the Crusades and Constantine without much explanation. Each crime-solving step unfolds with impressive detail but no tension. ‘The Da Vinci Code’ is plush, even by Hollywood standards. What’s missing are the Hitchcock touches, a dash of sex appeal, nail-biting excitement and boiling suspense worthy of the spectacular backdrops.
As is often the case with cultural phenomenon, the stories surrounding the movie are more interesting. The recent copyright infringement suit against Dan Brown and Random House has been resolved. Religious protesters rally against the film and its fictional blasphemy. Meanwhile, Tom Hanks and the rest of the ‘Da Vinci Code’ cast travel to the Cannes Film Festival on a specially painted Eurostar train.
Imagine the on-board chatter. Anything must be better than the dull movie.

The Morning After Headache That’s Poseidon

2006-05-18T06:52:00.000-07:00

Godzilla - Monster-sized Movies that can't be ignored

Read “Easy Riders, Raging Bulls”, Peter Biskind’s zesty celebration of ’70s cinema, until its book spine breaks but you’ll remain unconvinced that Hollywood’s golden age of mature moviemaking was free of turkeys.
‘The Poseidon Adventure’ rests atop the dream era trash heap, one of numerous disaster movies that have as much to say about ’70s moviegoers as any Al Pacino film.
Classic ’70s movies have resulted in misstep sequels; proof of just how difficult it is to recreate past glories. ‘The Two Jakes’ is something of a mess compared to ‘Chinatown’. ‘The Godfather Part III’ has half the emotional weight of ‘Godfather Parts 1 and II’.
A bad blockbuster like ‘The Poseidon Adventure’ is bound to result in something as lackluster as director Wolfgang Petersen’s noisy update ‘Poseidon’. The task of raising ‘Poseidon’ into something more than schlock is too much to ask any director, even a skilled entertainment maker like Petersen.
It’s New Year’s Eve and the party is underway in Poseidon’s giant ballroom. Kurt Russell, a meddling dad and onetime mayor of New York City, complains to his daughter (Emmy Rossum) about her revealing dress. Richard Dreyfus is an architect who wants to forget about a failed relationship by drinking lots of expensive wine. Josh Lucas is the handsome gambler who becomes the man of the hour once disaster strikes. Everyone dances well; sidestepping the countless hazards tossed their way. True dramatic performances would probably feel out of sync with the film’s fiery explosions.
‘Poseidon’ has an ocean’s worth of subplots but everything revolves around the big boat and the giant rogue wave that turns it upside-down. At night, with all its porthole lights blazing, the cruise ship looks stunning. Everything else about the movie, even the monster wave washing people out of the rooftop pool, leaves one with a sinking feeling. When action becomes this mechanical, it’s no longer any fun.
One unintended benefit of ‘Poseidon’ is its shattering of ideals about ’70s cinema as the perfect era. Just look at Kurt Russell, star of ’70s Disney comedies. Sure, there were amazing movies, serious fare far better than what hits theaters today. But they were surrounded by popular trash, like an epic about a sinking ocean liner. Of course it’s the trash that sticks around.

Must Mee Movie: Somersault

2006-05-15T08:23:00.000-07:00

The type of discovery that makes independent films essential is actress Abbie Cornish, lead of the must-see movie ‘Somersault’. Cornish is dynamic and utterly convincing as Heidi, a sixteen-year-old Australian girl who uses her sexuality to meet other boys and build relationships. Fleeing home after being caught with her mother’s boyfriend, Heidi heads to the ski town of Lake Jindabyne, hoping to reconnect with a past acquaintance. While there, she meets Joe (Sam Worthington), the son of a local farmer. Heidi and Joe first hook up at a local bar out of mutual physical attraction but something more develops from their liaison. They are both unsure about themselves but together they might find answers.
‘Somersault’ is filmmaker Cate Shortland’s first feature after directing four short films and she shows a skill at melodrama worthy of Fassbinder. Worthington is complex and believable as Joe, someone who is as confused as Heidi and desperate for a firmer sense of self. Still, any limelight that falls upon 'Somersault' should go to the impressive Cornish. As Abbie, a flawed teenage girl desperate to be loved and to love herself, Cornish deserves the attention reserved for Hollywood starlets.

Somersault is a winner of 13 Australian Film Institute Awards. It is currently playing art house theaters across America courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.

2006-05-11T15:43:00.000-07:00

Reel Question: Sam Shepard and Wim Wenders on being yesterday’s news

It took three years for filmmaker Wim Wenders and actor/playwright Sam Shephard to secure financing for their melancholy Western ‘Don’t Come Knocking’ despite their track record as the pair responsible for the landmark film ‘Paris, Texas’.
“We were dealing with financiers who never heard of ‘Paris, Texas,’” Shepard says, speaking after the film’s U.S. premiere at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. “People don’t remember anything from last week more or less years ago.”
In the film, Shepard plays an aging cowboy movie actor who leaves a film shoot in order to return home and find some sanity in his life. He ends up reuniting with the son he never knew.
Wenders takes the struggles in stride. He’s been making movies long enough to experience his share of ups and downs. Still, at a filmmakers’ oasis like Sundance, the two artists expect slightly more recognition than what they’ve been getting.
“A woman came up to me after last night’s screening,” Shepard says, sitting down next to his friend and collaborator. “She asked me, ‘Have you and Wim Wenders ever worked before?’ She was nice but I couldn’t believe it. I told her, well, we made this film some time ago called Paris, Texas. She hadn’t heard of it.”

Don’t Come Knocking made its U.S. premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and is currently playing in theaters via Sony Pictures Classics

2006-05-10T15:58:00.000-07:00

Must See Movie: Sympathy for Lady Vengeance

A woman takes the role of avenger for ‘Sympathy for Lady Vengeance’ (Chin-jeol-han Geum-ja-ssi), the final film in Park Chan-wook’s stylish revenge trilogy. The gender switch proves to be inspirational, bringing much-appreciated heartache and sensitivity to Park’s tale of blood justice (He co-wrote the script with Chung Seo-kyung).
Lee Geum-Ja (Lee Young-ae) is free after spending 13 years in prison for the kidnapping and murder of a young boy. It’s a crime she did not commit. Geum-Ja wants to pay back the man responsible for her wrongful sentence and her former prison inmates are happy to help.
Lee worked with Park on his popular 2000 romance ‘JSA: Join Security Area’ but Geum-Ja is the type of colorful femme fatale actresses dream of playing. She’s razor smart, pretty, in a deceivingly delicate manner and fearless when it comes to exacting her deserved revenge.
Park surrounds Lee’s operatic performance with artful flourishes. Her crimson red eye shadow becomes a fashionable symbol for her bloodlust. Her handmade gun is disguised as a prayer book. Less graphic than his previous installments, ‘Old Boy’ and ‘Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance’, Park celebrates his female anti-hero with the best film of his acclaimed career. ‘Lady Vengeance’ is a complete break from the pulpy sensibilities that prevent Park’s Old Boy’ from receiving its due acclaim. ‘Lady Vengeance’ is melodrama with a killer’s instinct thanks to Lee’s love/hate performance and Park’s willingness to let her loose on the world. Actresses interested in challenging work have just discovered their best patron.

Sympathy for Lady Vengeance premiered at the 2005 Venice Film Festival and opened in New York City on April 28. Tartan Films USA will release it in art house theaters across America later this spring and summer.

2006-05-09T11:02:00.000-07:00

Are We Ready for United 93? A second, more grounded look

The second-week numbers behind the 9/11 drama ‘United 93’ strips away the glow of non-stop, opening weekend publicity and sizable crowds.
$11.5 million in debut ticket sales at just 1,795 theaters was good enough to call director Paul Greengrass’ film about the doomed Sept. 11, 2001 airliner a hit and claim people ready to look back at 9/11 no matter how solemn a movie might be.
More grounded Hollywood hindsight comes with week two numbers and this time the ‘United 93’ tale is less celebratory.
Greengrass’ real-time drama played in 24 additional cinemas, a modest 1,819 total, but ticket sales plummeted 53%.
The best cinematic comparison is a horror movie like the recent ‘Silent Hill’. Scare-junkie teens may mob theaters on the opening weekend just to check things out. But if they declare the flick as lame, the theaters turn from packed to empty in a flash.
The same thing may happen to ‘United 93’ despite continuing commentary by political pundits like Frank Rich of The New York Times, who sees the film as anti-President Bush, and his conservative counterweights at Fox News who promote the film as a patriotic must-see.
Of course, it’s up to everyday people to make a movie a real-life phenomenon and not just topic number 1 with editorial writers.
If moviegoers continue to lose interest as more and more summer blockbusters pile up, at least Greengrass can claim the year’s best reviews for ‘United 93’. That should take the sting out of a movie that opened hot and then turned surprisingly cold.

2006-05-08T08:02:00.000-07:00

Reel Question: Top Beastie, Adam “MCA” Yauch on making the concert film of a lifetime

51 filmmakers share the billing with Nathanial Hörnblowér — alias for top Beastie Boy Adam “MCA” Yauch, on their concert film ‘Awesome: I Fuckin’ Shot That!’ Yauch handed out 50 handheld Hi-8 cameras to lucky concertgoers at the Oct. 9, 2004 sold out Madison Square Garden Beasties Boy show. Their task was to film the show of a lifetime. Yauch has been in charge of the band’s video art and photography for 15 years but he credits inspiration for ‘Awesome’ to one of the band’s devoted fans. Yauch says he saw concert footage a kid shot on his camera phone and could envision an entire concert filmed in the gritty format.
The amateur photographers filmed until their video cartridges run out and Yauch edited the hundreds of hours of fan footage into a kaleidoscope of rocking images.
Told that “Awesome’ looks like the perfect movie to watch on a handheld device, Yauch gives a shout out for cinema nostalgia. He’s more old fashioned than you think.
“I love going to the movie theater. It’s an amazing thing, a room full of people and a full-blown sound system and a big screen. Film is an amazing medium and I hope it does not come down to everyone looking at an i Pod.”

Awesome: I Fuckin’ Shot That! premiered at 2006 Sundance Film Festival. THINK Films is currently releasing the film in theaters across America.

2006-05-08T07:41:00.000-07:00

Why I Love Going to the Movies: Part One

2006-05-05T08:02:00.000-07:00

Do Art House Devotees Dream of Mission: Impossible III?

Summer doldrums, as far as art film fans are concerned, means a four-month string of Hollywood blockbusters loud enough to shake beloved French auteur Louis Malle from his grave. ‘The Da Vinci Code’, ‘Superman Returns’ and a big-screen adaptation of ’80s TV show ‘Miami Vice’ soak up all the media attention. The upshot is that larger crowds at the multiplexes means smaller lines and less hassle at art house cinemas committed to truly independent programming. Going to watch director John Hillcoat’s gritty Western ‘The Proposition’ while elsewhere, mobs jostle for seats at the remake of ‘The Poseidon Adventure’, is like being a member of an exclusive club. Being part of small crowds is a badge of coolness.
Still, once in awhile, everyone needs a change of pace, even the most ardent indie film buff. They crave the movie equivalent of a candy bar – a quick sugary rush. These fans want entertainment free of any intellectual engagement. They want to relive their childhood movie-going experiences. But does this mean they want ‘Mission: Impossible III’?

A solid opening scene between boyish spy Ethan Hunt (the eternally youthful Tom Cruise) and Philip Seymour Hoffman’s menacing black market arms dealer, Owen Davian, leads skeptics to accept ‘Mission: Impossible III’ as a clever espionage tale worthy of the beloved TV show.
But the impossible missions leading up to Hunt’s entrapment unload redundant noise, smoke, sparks, gunfire and broken glass. Writer/director J.J. Abrams, a TV it boy thanks to his popular castaways drama ‘Lost,’ shows little improvement on his less successful small screen spy adventure ‘Alias’. When it comes to spy-on-spy adventures, ‘Mission: Impossible III’ has half the spark of Steven Spielberg’s recent terrorist drama ‘Munich’.
The film’s standout moments include supporting turns by Billy Crudup and Laurence Fishburne as agency administrators who question Hunt’s loyalty, British comedian Simon Pegg’s light-hearted performance as an agency techno geek and some welcome glances at Hunt’s everyday life.
On the action side, highlights include a helicopter chase through a field of hi-tech windmills and a mission inside the Vatican in order to kidnap Hoffman’s arms dealer.
Credit Cruise for an action man performance steady enough to keep his celebrity gossip piled outside theaters.
But it’s Hoffman, Oscar winner for Capote and longtime favorite of indie film fans, who stands out as the main reason moviegoers who shun multiplexes may give ‘Mission: Impossible III’ a chance. They’ll leave unimpressed. Outside of Hoffman’s scenes, there’s little about ‘Mission: Impossible III’ to recommend as exceptional. But maybe these art house devotees will try one more blockbuster before summer ends, ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest’ or ‘Superman Returns’. The lesson of Hoffman, as earnestly serious as any American actor, is that it’s OK to lighten up and take a blockbuster break. Just choose your blockbusters more carefully.

Paramount Pictures releases 'Mission: Impossible III' nationwide on May 5.

2006-05-03T11:36:00.000-07:00

Are We Ready for United 93? The numbers say, yes.

The numbers behind the weekend opening of the controversial film 'United 93' says the public is ready for a 9/11 drama as long as it’s good — $11.5 million in ticket sales at just 1,795 theaters. Break the box office grosses down to an average of $6,395 per theater and 'United 93' boasts the weekend's biggest crowds. It’s no wonder that the feedback from staff at Universal Pictures, the film’s U.S, distributor, is celebratory. They have taken a movie thought to be a hard sell and made it the first must-see, prestige release of 2006.
A matter-of-fact suspense movie that recreates the events on the doomed Sept. 11, 2001 airliner in real-time, director Paul Greengrass also earned the best reviews of his career. The media can be a cynical bunch when it comes to movies ripped from current events but 'United 93' was better than all expectations. In this tale of everyday heroes, Greengrass created heart-pounding suspense without ever resorting to knee-jerk sentimentality. Basically, he’s told the story respectfully.
More important than the glowing statistics are the tears shed by people exiting the theaters. I’ve overheard moviegoers describe 'United 93' as the most emotional film they’ve watched since 'Schindler’s List'. What they tell their friends and family about 'United 93', the precious word of mouth, will help determine the long-term financial and critical success of the movie. After all, a successful opening weekend pales compared to recommendations from teary-eyed moviegoers.

2006-05-01T12:54:00.000-07:00

2006-05-01T12:44:00.000-07:00

Must See Movie: The Death of Mr. Lazarescu

At my first viewing of ‘The Death of Mr. Lazarescu’ (Moartea Domnului Lazarescu), Romanian actress Monica Barladeanu spoke on behalf of the documentary-like drama set in a poorly equipped Romanian hospital. Lazarescu director/co-writer Cristi Puiu refused to fly but the pretty brunette actress represented the film well in front of fall 2005 Toronto Film Festival audiences. Barladeanu’s charisma was one reason that audience members stayed for a post-screening question and answer session after the 154-minute film. More credit belongs to Puiu’s emotional drama, an artful mix of gritty realism and epic melodrama.
Lazarescu is an elderly loner who drinks his nights away in the company of his cats. He accepts his vomiting and headaches as collateral damage from the latest bender. The pain escalates and Lazarescu calls for an ambulance to his cramped apartment. In a better place, Lazarescu would be on the road to relief. But this is Bucharest and its crumbling health care industry is ill equipped to help the dying Lazarescu.
Luminta Gheorghiu brings an emotional boost as the concerned medic who accompanies Lazarescu on his death march but the film’s soul belongs to veteran actor Ion Fiscuteanu in the title role. Beneath his unshaven face and bulging belly, Fiscuteanu displays the battered spirit of a man unaware of his fading strength and the inability of the people around him to help. Fiscuteanu gives a natural, subtle performance. It’s everything the film needs.
Bucharest-native Cristi Puiu studied painting and his dedication to detail is evident in every scene. Puiu’s experience making short films and documentaries explains his knack for movie-made realism. Puiu has joked about the “Romanian slowness” responsible for the film’s epic length but every scene matters.
‘The Death of Mr. Lazarescu’ is about everyday problems, told in real time, but it packs the punch of a grand epic.
A hundred times more emotional than any ‘E.R.’ TV show, ‘The Death of Mr. Lazarescu’ is a medical drama worth sticking around to watch. It’s a discovery from a part of the world seldom portrayed in movies. It’s the best one can hope for from any trip to the art house.

The Death of Mr. Lazarescu premiered at the 2005 Toronto Film Festival and opened in New York City on April 28. Tartan Films USA will release it in art house theaters across America later this spring.

2006-04-28T08:06:00.000-07:00

Godzilla – Monster-Sized Movies That Can’t Be Missed

Coming in for landing: United 93

The media can be a cynical bunch when it comes to movies. But journalists wept at a private screening Monday afternoon in Columbus, Ohio for the controversial 9/11 film United 93.
Director Paul Greengrass (Bloody Sunday, The Bourne Supremacy) recreates the events on the doomed Sept. 11, 2001 airliner, a counterattack by the passengers against the terrorist hijackers, with real-time precision and gripping drama.
Greengrass has made a matter-of-fact suspense movie stripped of sentimentality but its cinematic qualities may suffer in the wake of public sentiment. The time may not be right for any 9/11 movie no matter how good it might be.
United 93 begins with prayers. The young terrorists kneel and pray in a non-descript budget hotel. Their faith is undeniable, although misdirected at terror.
One young man shaves his belly in preparation for strapping on a bomb.
“It’s time,” his comrade-in-terror announces. No other words in the entire movie carry such a solemn weight.
Greengrass uses traditional cinematic elements to build tension throughout United 93. Thumping music by composer John Powell emphasizes the suspense. Ariel footage of Times Square unfolds with a slow and steady hand. The impact is eerie, a view of Midtown Manhattan before the horror struck.
Greengrass, a veteran documentary filmmaker, boosts United 93 with “you are there” moments. Everyday people are at work at Newark’s Airport: fueling the planes; preparing the cabin, checking in passengers. The jet crew arrives at the terminal. The air traffic controllers arrive in the dark control rooms. One passenger barely boards the plane in time – a tragic twist of fate – and the thump of the cabin door is ominous.
United 93 is ready for take off and there’s no reason to expect anything out of the ordinary.
Handheld camerawork (courtesy of cameraman Barry Akroyd) puts you in the plane. The camera glides above the cabin seats and up close to the thirty-odd passengers.
Granted, United 93 is a polished, Hollywood movie but it’s also grounded, and naturalistic in the best sense of the phrase.
United 93 is as honest as any Hollywood can be – even more so than recent true-life dramas like Traffic and Syriana.
Greengrass, who also wrote the script, never shows the overseas plotting responsible for the terrorist attacks. He has not interest in fleshing out the story. United 93 is about the core action, what’s happening on the plane and that’s more than enough to take one’s breath away.
Things begin to go wrong when Boston air traffic controllers lose contact with American Airlines 11. They monitor the computer screens in search of answers they cannot fathom; staring at blips on a monitor, green glowing lights like fireflies.
It’s everyday business back at Newark’s airport as United 93 finally takes off. In the distance stand the twin towers of the World Trade Center, symbols of all that went wrong that day.
The story flits from the traffic controllers struggling to comprehend what’s transpiring to the chaos aboard United 93.
A knife to a passenger’s throat leads to screams, bloodletting and the breach of the cockpit. Two terrorists defend the cockpit with knives. The key questions: is the bomb strapped to the one man’s chest real?
Back on-ground, military leaders debate the rules of engagement – should they shoot down the planes once they get close to Washington DC and air traffic controllers decide to shut down the air space. But it’s too late to change what’s happening on United 93.
For a film comprised of mighty ifs — it’s hard to know what really happened onboard — Greengrass makes everything believable. It’s these final scenes of hand-to-hand conflict that shine brightest thanks to Greengrass’ style of up-close filmmaking.
There are different levels of bravery among the passengers as well as acts of cowardice. One question unites the passengers determined to fight back: who is going to fly the plane?
Everyone does the same thing when their life is in jeopardy: they reach out to their loved ones to tell them they love them. The lead terrorist makes a good-bye call. So do many of the passengers in the cabin.
As the Western Pennsylvania countryside comes rushing towards the cockpit window, one wonders if there are any true villains on board. Perhaps, United 93 is a flight of victims, young terrorists twisted by their faith, and the innocents killed by their misguided actions. The evil lurks in faraway shadows, far removed from the horror.
Greengrass’ movie is just one piece of the healing process.
Ninety relatives of the victims of the flight watched United 93 at the Tuesday launch of the Tribeca Film Festival in Manhattan. The audience wore pins commemorating the passengers.
There is a planned monument in Shanksville, Pa., the site of the United 93 crash. But a movie, especially one as powerful as United 93, is the best memorial of the heroism that occurred that day.
Movies are best at bringing out emotions and in this case, tears mean more than any thumbs up.

Universal Pictures releases United 93 in theaters nationwide April 28.

2006-04-12T09:10:00.000-07:00

Gal Pals Catherine Keener (left) and Jennifer Aniston star in the comedy 'Friends With Money.'

2006-04-12T09:09:00.000-07:00

Reel Question: Jennifer Aniston on the Simple Life

Actress pals Catherine Keener and Jennifer Aniston handle promoting their film ‘Friends With Money’ in tandem. At the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, on the second floor of a massive two-story white tent known as The Village At The Lift, Keener and Aniston laugh over tales of past pranks. In the film, Aniston plays Olivia, the lone member of her L.A. girl clique with money problems. Olivia is content to clean houses and live lackadaisically. Aniston insists she can relate. In fact, there’s a funny story behind her working girl roots.
At a past lunch date, Keener popped a restaurant saltshaker into Aniston’s purse without telling her. Desperate to avoid the headlines — Jennifer Aniston Caught Stealing — the celebrity actress called the restaurant back and made good.
“I worked as a waitress and I know what happens when something is taken from your station,” Aniston said. “So I called and explained that a friend played a joke on me and I didn’t know it was in my purse.
“But I didn’t return it,” she added, laughing. “I liked it too much. I just sent them money to pay for it.”

Friends With Money is currently playing in New York and Los Angeles. Sony Classics will release it in theaters across America April 21.

2006-04-07T13:38:00.000-07:00

2006-04-07T13:20:00.000-07:00

Jennifer Aniston flashes her comic skills in ‘Friends With Money’

Filmmaker Nicole Holofcener, who launched her moviemaking career with the 1996 relationship comedy, ‘Walking and Talking’, is an independent filmmaker who has carved a successful niche, female ensemble stories.
Her latest variation on girls night out is ‘Friends With Money’, a breezy and likable tale about a group of Los Angeles women whose friendships survive despite the fact they’re at different happiness levels in their lives. Catherine Keener, who’s something of a Holofcener regular, enjoys the film’s best lines as the unhappy side of a husband and wife screenwriting team. The always-engaging Frances McDormand is less successful as a 43-year-old clothes designer having difficulty facing middle age. McDormand portrays anger well, but her sass and bitterness feels misguided except for a blow up scene at an Old Navy store.
The normally reliable Joan Cusack is dramatic wallpaper as the wealthiest of the group. She’s pure backdrop, a letdown considering her talents.
The most famous face in the ‘Friends With Money’ ensemble belongs to former ‘Friends’ sitcom star and current gossip column queen Jennifer Aniston. As Olivia, the lone gal pal without money, Aniston shows an easygoing charm and an ability to generate laughs effortlessly. Olivia is a woman content to clean houses for a living and spend what little money she has on pot. Her friends are perplexed but she’s happy with her slacker situation.
Olivia is at a crossroads, but then so are her friends. She’s the only one admitting to it.
Aniston, who’s shown her indie film credibility before with the Miguel Arteta comedy ‘The Good Girl’, is a gifted comedienne who also happens to be pretty. ‘Friends With Money’ capitalizes on both those attributes and it’s hard to complain with that combination.

— Steve Ramos

Grade: B

Friends With Money premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival and opens in New York and Los Angeles April 7. Sony Classics will release it in theaters across America later this spring.

2006-04-06T06:13:00.000-07:00

2006-04-06T05:50:00.000-07:00

Licensed to Film: Beastie Boys create the concert film of a lifetime

Awesome: I Fuckin’ Shot That!, a film diary of a sold-out Beastie Boys show at Madison Square Garden, is a concert documentary like no other and it took someone who doesn’t fit into the classic moviemaker box to make it happen. Before The Beasties Boys — Adam “MCA” Yauch, Mike “Mike D” Diamond and Adam “Ad-Rock” Horowitz — played their Oct. 9, 2004 show, Yauch handed out handheld Hi-8 cameras to fifty-one lucky concertgoers. The task for the one-night filmmakers was to film the show of a lifetime. Awesome is a concert film tied to the digital revolution, much how Gimme Shelter and Woodstock were connected to the age of handheld 16mm cameras. The Beasties’ trademark street smarts mix well with new film technology and the result is radical moviemaking.
Veteran cinematographers might consider Awesome’s off-the-street filmmakers as nothing more than amateur photographers told to shoot whatever they want until their video cartridges run out. That’s not how real movies are made. But Awesome dazzles with a kaleidoscope of rocketing images that matches the chest-pounding beat of the Beasties’ music.
Yauch, always working under the alias Nathanial Hörnblowér, has been in charge of the landmark band’s video art and photography for 15 years. The experience has given him an incredible eye and instincts. Yauch edited the hundreds of hours of fan footage into Awesome and every minute matters.
The instant filmmakers responsible for providing footage from all corners of Madison Square Garden prove that a landmark movie can be made anywhere thanks to small and relatively inexpensive cameras. It’s what technology is supposed to do: create a pure cinematic democracy. For The Beasties, who are already musical gods, Awesome qualifies them as New Model Filmmakers, the creators of a different type of concert movie.

Grade: B+

— Steve Ramos

Awesome: I Fuckin’ Shot That! premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival and opened in New York City and Los Angeles on March 31. THINK Films will release it in theaters across America later this spring.