Ask the Dust: Grade D

D

Ask the Dust

Colin Farrell, Salma Hayek, Donald Sutherland; Director Robert Towne

Farrell and Hayek meet in 1930’s LA, he a struggling writer, she a waitress. They fight, argue, then predictably fall in love. Then she dies of TB. That’s it. There is utterly no plotline. The dialog is trite, scenes cliché, revealing racism. In depression-era LA? Shocking! No acting takes place (except Sutherland). The stars look good but there is no chemistry. Shouting is how emotion is expressed. Dreadful directing. The pace is mind-numbing. Dark, muddy, colorless photography. Poor period music. Costumes are too cute to be believed. The only saving graces are 1. Towne (who wrote Chinatown) has a good eye for period LA sets, and 2. You get to see both Colin and Salma stark bare naked. Is that enough to save this movie from utter failure? I’m feeling generous.

Pure: Grade B

B

Pure

Molly Parker, David Wenham, Harry Eden, Keira Knightley.
Dir=Gillies MacKinnon

A 10 yr old boy (DW) figures out that his mother (MP) is a junkie and what that means. She tries to kick it but can’t. Social services come to take the child into foster care. She finally gets methadone treatment and there is a quasi-happy ending. There isn’t much new here as far as the depiction of heroin addiction, or in the relationship between the boy and mother, but the outstanding acting, photography, and music raise this picture to above average. I think it's criminal to let or make young children be big screen actors, but I admit that David Wenham does an amazing job. Keira Knightley was a complete unknown then (2002) but puts out a dazzling performance. Molly Parker plays the junkie mom to perfection. The sugar-coated ending allows you to have hope, even though, intellectually, you know it doesn’t work that way.

V for Vendetta: Grade A

A

V for Vendetta

Natalie Portman, Hugo Weaving, Stephen Rea, John Hurt

This allegorical political action-thriller is set in an Orwellian future when the fascist British government controls the behavior, thought and beliefs of the cowed population. “V”, a masked terrorist or freedom fighter (depending on which side you are on), is a mixture of Zorro, Batman, and the Phantom of the Opera. He kills government officials, blows up state buildings, and goes on TV to suggest that “We’re mad as hell and we aren’t going to take it any more.” Natalie Portman becomes radicalized after her head is shaven by interrogators in one of many scenes eerily evocative of the Nazi regime. She becomes sympathetic to V and the revolution. Detective Rea hunts them both, despite his conscience and obstruction by Hitlerian Chancellor Hurt.

The characters and story are derived from a comic book (or “graphic novel”), explaining the silly visual clichés. Perhaps to offset that two-dimensionality, when anything moves, whether a door opening or a hat being taken off, it is accompanied by ear-splitting, earth-shaking, irrelevant noise. Despite these contrivances, the movie carries a serious political message that is basically seditious if you look past the wild costumes and sets. It starts slowly, with stentorian speechifying and theatrical posturing, but once it gets going, the fine acting, excellent photography, and well-delivered message keep you hooked.

Sorry, Haters: Grade A

A

Sorry, Haters

Robin Wright Penn, Abdellatif Kechiche, Sandra Oh. Writer, Director: Jeff Stanzler.

RWP is a phenomenal actor. Her performance is riveting in this psychological thriller. AK also does a superb job. Penn is psychologically distraught after a divorce she claims was caused by “home-wrecker” Oh. She meets AK, a cab driver from Syria with a single mom sister in need. Penn is a media person and decides to help the sister reconnect with her Syrian husband who has been sent to Gitmo after being “profiled” at an airport. Or maybe there’s more to it than that. The story is realistic, compelling, thought-provoking, and unpredictable. Great Mid-Eastern music in the opening.

The Confederate States of America: Grade B

B

The Confederate States of America

Kevin Willmott, writer and director

This satire of American history and social attitudes examines the idea: what if the South had won the Civil War? The movie is presented as a television show on American history since the “War of Northern Aggression”, complete with commercials, and using close up shots of expert historians giving sound bites, Ken Burns’ tinkling pianos over still photos, and actual archival historical footage.

The South won, slavery was imposed nationwide for economic and cultural reasons, Lincoln was exiled to “Red Canada.” The idea is fun, well-researched, and there are some ironically funny surprises, but it all becomes routine after 20 minutes. The commercials are the best part, for genuine American products like Darkie Toothpaste. Clearly a work from the heart, it has a genuine message about racism in America, but the movie takes the TV show joke too seriously, and that’s what keeps it from perfection. It needed more goofiness like the scene of Lincoln in blackface escaping to Canada with Harriet Tubman. It will be valuable in the college classroom.

Inside Man: Grade D

D

Inside Man

Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, Jodie Foster. Director Spike Lee

With all that talent, how can a project go so wrong? It’s a traditional bank heist movie, and the photography, script and directing are as clichéd as you can imagine. Crooks disguised as painters, SWAT team and snipers surround the building, hostage negotiator DW plays cat and mouse by phone with bad guy CO. Seen it all before. The first half is like a really poor remake of Dog Day Afternoon. Then the story line takes a couple of implausible twists. Christopher Plummer is old, I admit, but there is no way he would have been head of a bank in 1940. Jodie Foster snaps her lines like a smart-alec, but does no real acting. The story is full of holes and the characters are unmotivated. There are a couple of creative moves by Spike Lee, one where DW walks or glides to his fate, and the interrogation room, which is done in a different kind of film stock or something to indicate flashforward. Why doesn’t he do the right thing with his creativity?

Side-Effects: Grade B

B

Side Effects

Katherine Heigl. Director=Kathleen Slattery-Moschkau

KH plays a pharmaceutical salesperson, calling on doctors and trying to persuade them. She battles her way forward in the fast lane, hyping the drugs, ignoring dangerous side-effects. She burns out and decides to tell nothing but the truth about the drugs to the doctors. Her success consequently becomes phenomenal and she is the star sales rep. Finally she gets conscience and quits in a dramatic ending.

The film is an indie made on a shoestring, and that may be the reason why it does not quite hit on all cylinders. The acting is superb, the story line important, the script funny, and the photography competent. Music is several pop bands overlain (not my cup of tea, but quite adequate). The problem is that we don’t know why she burns out, or why the doctors start buying more when she tells the truth, or how her crisis of conscience comes about. There is just not enough detail there (not enough scenes). So it is more of a sketch of a movie than a finished movie. The directing is good except for one slip-up, a gratuitous nude scene, for which the director essentially apologizes in the DVD extras.

Billy Connolly Live in New York: Grade B

B

Billy Connolly: Live in New York

Billy Connolly

BC is a very well-known British comic who doesn’t really tell jokes, but relates autobiographical stories, in the style of Ellen DeGeneris, perhaps. His observations are acute, his humor self-effacing. He has a good sense of irony, and of course, the charming Scottish accent. I found the act to be light-hearted, not angry, and despite mandatory overuse of “fuck,” not vulgar. But it was also not very edgy, politically or socially, and consequently, not really sharp or memorable. Funny, but too tame for me.

Second Best: Grade B

B

Second Best

Joe Pantoliano, Jennifer Tilly. Writer, Director=Eric Webber

JP plays a failed NYC editor, now an unpublished author and unemployed “loser” living in New Jersey. He hangs out with his buds at Cheers-like taverns and plays terrible golf at a muni while writing sardonic flyers that he staples to telephone poles, about the life of the loser. JT is his loopy (and married, of course) girl friend, also a loser. We get access to the flyers when he reads them to his gang and in voice-overs. They are witty, angry, and depressed rants about mindless living, pretension, and bad luck. Then his successful friend visits from Hollywood and his jealousy goes into overdrive. The acting and writing are first class. The photography does some interesting things with orange filters. But I just didn’t buy the premise of a natural “loser” personality. The solutions to his woes are obvious. Since I never related to him as a real character, the movie was like a mildly amusing stand-up comedy act. Above average though, worth watching.

The Matador: Grade B

B
The Matador

Pierce Brosnan, Greg Kinnear, Hope Davis. Dir=Richard Shepard

Brosnan gives an electrifying performance as a paunchy, grizzled, drunken, burned-out assassin having an existential crisis. This is not the monosyllabic James Bond, but a garrulous, vulgar, debauched character with enormous range of expression. It completely changes my opinion of Brosnan as an actor. Where has he been? One is tempted to credit director Shepard for drawing out such a stunning performance, but who knows what goes on in filmmaking.

PB meets businessman Kinnear in Mexico and they go to a bullfight together (implying that PB was once the “matador” of assassins) and form an unlikely and hilarious friendship. There is no overall story. A lot of themes and suggestions don’t go anywhere and some scenes don’t make any sense. There is no particular ending. It seems like either bad editing killed the story or good editing salvaged an incoherent mess. The result is worth looking at either way.

One Last Ride: Grade C

C
One Last Ride

Patrick Cupo, Chazz Palminteri, Charles Durning

Cupo plays a compulsive horse race gambler. The movie shows his self-delusion, predictable humiliations coverd by bravado bluster, spiraling loss of friends, family, job, marriage, and of course, money. Written by somebody who obviously knows compulsive gambling, it is completely convincing. However, this story has been told many times, and there is nothing new here. Chazz Palminteri plays a marvelous, patch-eyed, evil loan shark. The acting is competent throughout, but the dialog is repetitive and clichéd (no problem, I got it covered), and the characters are stereotypes. It plays more like a bland television drama than a theatrical movie.

Find Me Guilty: Grade A

A
Find Me Guilty
Vin Diesel, Ron Silver, Annabella Sciorria, Peter Dinklage
Director=Sidney Lumet

Vin Diesel can act. Who knew? This is a lightweight piece, with VD as a mafia gangster defending himself in court along with 20 other mobsters who have attorneys. He wisecracks his way to acquittal. Only the fact that it is a true story, using actual trial transcripts, makes it believable. The directing adheres to a realist theme, which kept me engaged throughout. VD's performance is funny but genuine, so the film is not a comedy. The cool jazz music is excellent, although unrelated to the movie. Mobsters don’t like jazz, do they? Just laying down a sound track is an improvement over the usual use of a score to inform us what we are supposed to feel. A rousing Louis Palma number is thrown in for the credits. Ron Silver does an outstanding job, as does Peter Dinklage. Annabella Sciorria leaps off the screen in her brief scene. She has incredible presence.

Nine Lives: Grade A

A

Nine Lives

Rodrigo Garcia, writer and director. With Glen Close, Dakota Fanning, Joe Mantegna, Aidan Quinn, Holly Hunter, Sissy Spacek, Robin Wright Penn, Elpidia Carrillo, and others.

This is a tour de force for Garcia. The nine short stories present vignettes of women’s lives in 10 to 15 minute slice of life mini-dramas. Each mini-movie is shot in one take – no editing, so the quality of the performances is edgy and alive, and the camera becomes a character in the scene. But the real star of this picture is the writing. Each of the stories is an existential gem. Women (and the people around them) confront death, love, confusion, aging, loneliness, memory and tragedy. Each story is poignant and intellectual at the same time. Not all are equally effective. The opener, in which Elpidia Carrillo plays an inmate in a women’s prison, is riveting and memorable. The second one is also commanding, then the third is a little flat. Glen Close’s scene with Dakota Fanning in a cemetery is extremely well acted, but doesn’t do anything. Others, such as the woman (Kathy Baker) in surgery prep for a mastectomy with her husband (Joe Mantegna) are absolutely gripping. The dialog on that one reminded me of Samuel Beckett. Stunning performances all around.

Imagining Argentina: Grade D

D
Imagining Argentina
Antonio Banderas, Emma Thompson

Banderas directs a children’s theater in Buenos Aires during the mid 1970’s during one of South America’s “dirty wars” in which thousands of ordinary people were “disappeared” by the dictatorial government. His wife is disappeared and he tries against hope to find her. The movie is a plodding docudrama of a dirty war, but then it takes a surprising and improbable twist and Banderas becomes psychic, able to locate or at least tell people the status of their missing loved ones. This was probably done to keep boredom at bay. It is an important political commentary, about events that few Americans know anything about, so for getting the message out, it gets high marks. But as a movie, it stinks. Banderas mutters inanities stone-faced while Emma Thompson acts circles around him. But since she is the one that gets disappeared, early in the movie, we don’t see much of her. There are no other redeeming qualities.

Jesus is Magic: Grade A

A

Jesus is Magic

Sarah Silverman

Stand-up comic Silverman does her act, intercut with video scenes of her doing comedic skit-songs she wrote. Her material is provocative, edgy, vulgar, and would even be racist if it weren’t so funny that it couldn’t possibly be taken seriously. There are childish and adolescent jokes about sex and body functions and some sharp and subtle social commentary, often about ethnicity, especially Jewishness. She appeared in The Aristocrats, and that performance is included on the DVD extras. She has obviously studied the greats: Lily Tomlin, Ellen DeGeneris, Rita Rudner, and the influences show, but she is an original. Her act may not be sustainable since it depends heavily on a sort of “Omigod!” valley-girl cuteness that won’t age with her. Her songs are retreads of tunes from Grease, although the lyrics are hilarious and her voice is quite adequate. Funniest material I’ve heard in a long time.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang: Grade B

B

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

Robert Downey Jr., Val Kilmer, Michelle Monaghan

RDJ is an apprentice detective to VK in Hollywood. I couldn’t make any sense out of the plot (it is apparently for a younger audience than me), but the important thing is that the movie has a high corpse count. The script is self-consciously clever, funny in its own right though not believable. The tone is noir, with a hard-boiled Sam Spade voiceover, but it is not a serious movie. Not a comedy either, despite the wise-cracking and sexual anxiety. More of a “romp.” Enjoyable but forgettable.

Separate Lies: Grade C

C

Separate Lies

Emily Watson, Tom Wilkinson, Rupert Everett

Basically a glorified soap opera, the story is about a woman, her husband and her lover involved in covering up a hit and run accident she caused. The plot has a few unexpected twists and an overall Hitchcockian cleverness about it, but it goes on too long. There is a dramatic and effective denoument where it should have ended, but then a surprising voice-over narrative kicks in and extends the story another 20 minutes or so, robbing it of its dramatic effectiveness. That is inexplicable. The acting is strong, especially by Watson and Wilkinson, although their relationship stretches credulity because of the age difference. Everett does a wonderful villain. The story, set in London and the countryside nearby, has a stagey, Agatha-Christie claustrophobia because we can’t really see the context of these people’s lives. Sets and scenery are good. The camera does a lot of television-like swooping and circling, which detracts from the performances. Watchable for the acting, but nothing special.

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada: Grade A

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada

Tommy Lee Jones, Barry Pepper, Julio Cedillo

Set in modern day rural Texas (somewhere near Odessa), a young, emotionally stunted border patrolman (Pepper) reflexively, but accidentally shoots an innocent man out in the desert, and buries the body to cover it up. The man was a best friend and employee of TLJ, ranch manager. The body is found, circumstances implicate the border patrol, but there is no investigation, to keep things quiet. TLJ kidnaps the patrolman, makes him exhume his friend’s body and drags them both on horseback to Mexico for a proper burial in his home town. Some fine, macabre scenes involving the corpse. Beautiful scenery, and a good story between the two men on the journey, like many others where two antagonists are tied together on a long trip. The story takes place in some surrealistic world, as in Leone’s Westerns. Even the “in-town” scenes are otherworldly. This allows the characters to be symbols of human qualities rather than actual people. That strategy works. Ultimately it is a story of friendship, commitment, forgiveness and redemption. There is a political subtheme about immigration and the border patrol. Even at two hours, I didn’t want it to end. It’s TLJ’s first time directing a film, and the directing is noticeably excellent. Acting by Pepper is remarkable, and not bad for TLJ either (especially his drunk scene). Many unknown Latino actors do outstanding work. Photography is terrific. The music is inoffensive, suggestive again of the Sergio Leone spaghetti pictures.

Syriana: Grade B

B

Syriana

George Clooney, Matt Damon, Jeffrey Wright, Amanda Peet

Clooney is a CIA operative in Teheran, doing what exactly, we aren’t sure. Damon is a high flying financial consultant trying to get a contract with oil-producing sheiks, in some Arabic country, maybe Iran, maybe not. Wright is a lawyer-investigator for a big US oil company who is trying to find out something, or cover up something, we aren’t sure which. Later, Clooney is “reassigned” to assassinate an oil prince for reasons unknown (he is declared as “bad” by the government, and that seems to be good enough), but we don’t know if he is successful. A couple of Pakistani guest workers lose their jobs in the oil fields but that is not connected to anything else. Damon’s child drowns in a sheik’s swimming pool but there doesn’t seem to be any foul play so the tragedy is gratuitous to the story. Except there is no story. Good photography, acting, and script. A nice quiet movie, engaging. There is often a sense of high tension in the scenes, but in fact nothing ever happens. A non-thriller that had the elements of a great thriller. All it needed was a good filmmaker.

The Girl From Monday: Grade A

A

The Girl From Monday

Bill Sage, Sabrina Lloyd, Tatiana Abracos; Director=Hal Hartley

A sci-fi story, set in the future, when a giant marketing monopoly has taken over the country (or is it the world?). They monitor every citizen’s impulses then create products and services to satisfy them. Independent thinkers, the bright and curious, are weeded out early. Immigrants from outer space try to rebel against the system. The story is very similar to Godard’s 1965 “Alphaville,” and themes from “The Fifth Element” are borrowed, along with “Splash” – an alien woman (from the ocean) has to learn earth culture quickly by watching TV. Bill Sage looks like a young Robert Redford, and the two main women look like young Genvieve Bujold (high forehead, eyes low on the head, disappearing nose, small chin). So all in all, the movie is an unoriginal pastiche. Still, it’s an engaging story, good social satire, humorous script, good acting, fantastic, dreamlike photography, and interesting music. Those features overcome its lack of originality.

Celebrity Mix: Grade A

A

Celebrity Mix

David Hyde Pierce, Felicity Huffman, Jim Belushi, Laura Kightlinger, Lewis Black, Coolio, Amy Lippman, Others. An independent from tla releasing. It may be hard to find but Netflix has it.

This is a collection of eight short films by different teams. They have nothing in common except they are all very entertaining. They run from about 2 minutes to about 15 minutes. All are high production values – no grainy hand-held home movies here. All are well written, acted and directed. Most are very funny. David Hyde Pierce plays a Hollywood producer in the opening piece, which just parodies that character type. Laura Kightlinger, a prominent stand-up comic, appears as Cinderella in one film (Fairy tale women in a group counseling session led by Jim Belushi), and she wrote and directed and stars in another film of her own (as a temp worker in an anonymous corporate office). She is a real talent to watch in all categories. These are the up and coming film makers.

Dear Wendy: Grade B

B

Dear Wendy

Lars von Trier (writer) Thomas Vinterberg (director)

Jamie Bell, Bill Pullman, Alison Pill, Danso Gordon, others

A half dozen young people in a W. Virginia mining town start a gun club in which they each acquire one pistol, learn everything there is to know about it, and shoot targets in an abandoned mine shaft. There are made-up rituals, costumes and vows taken. They carry their guns outside one day to escort an old woman and a shoot-out with the state police ensues. Themes are 1. A gun makes you feel powerful, can even give your life meaning. 2. If you own a gun, you will use it. 3. When guns are around, people get killed. 4. Killing with a gun is trivially easy. 5. A gun can be a personal expression or just a technical killing machine. When those ideas are in conflict, the latter triumphs.

The characters are all 2-dimensional so we don’t mind when they are blown away – reinforcing the media stereotype. The sets look awfully “setty.” The story is creative, weird and improbable. “Wendy” is the name of a gun. The lead character writes letters to it as if it were a lover. I get the point, but its believability is low. The story does not unfold, but is shown, like a fable designed to illustrate a moral, though it is engaging after a very slow first half hour. The shoot-em-up finish on a dusty street is exceptionally well done. Fabulous music by the 60’s group, the Zombies. This movie would have been better if it had developed theme 5 more, which is somewhat original. The rest of it is old news.

Firewall: Grade D

D

Firewall

Harrison Ford, Paul Bettany, Virginia Madsen, Alan Arkin, Robert Forster

With all due respect, Harrison Ford is way to old to be chasing after bad guys. He can hardly walk upright. Needless to say, he is also way too old for Virgina Madsen. Skillful editing blends the stunt doubles ok, but somebody should slip him the word: he is no longer credible as an action figure. Of course, what else would he do? His facial acting ranges from scowl to frown, his vocabulary from grunt to mumble. He doesn’t need the money, so why wouldn’t he want to preserve his dignity at least? Bad guys hold his family hostage to force him to rob his own bank. How many times have we seen that one before? The plot is like swiss cheese. The technical gizmo for breaking into the computer (a fax scanning rod taped to a CRT, wired to an iPod), is laughable though creative. The good parts are reasonable acting by a strong cast (HF excepted), and the music. Paul Bettany makes a good evildoer.

The War Within: Grade B

B

The War Within

Unknown Pakistani actors, Director: Joseph Castelo

A Pakistani engineering student sneaks into the US and joins a terrorist cell planning multiple suicide bombs in NYC. The plot is somehow foiled and only two of them remain free. He finds an old friend and lives with that family in New Jersey while he regroups. The family catches him making bombs in the basement. “The mind of the terrorist” is an important story that needs to be told, but this doesn’t do it. The protagonist is a mystery man: silent, solemn, expressionless. He mouths some platitudes about jihad, but we don’t understand his motivation, except that in nightmares we learn that he was tortured by Western intelligence in Lahore and his brother was killed. So is he on a personal revenge mission because he can’t handle grief? That doesn’t seem right. He quotes from the Koran about doing “God’s will” but what is that? He never is tempted by evil western ways (alcohol and naked women). So what is his problem? He displays the numbness of severe depression, so maybe he needs a lithium treatment. Or maybe such terrorists are simply psychologically opaque to western understanding. A very watchable movie, with good photography, but it doesn’t teach us anything.

Transamerica: Grade B

B

Transamerica

Felicity Huffman, Kevin Zegers, Fionnula Flanagan, Graham Greene

A man living as a woman (Huffman) is about to have a transgender operation that will make him a physical woman, when she discovers she has a long lost son (Zegers). She bails him out of jail, representing herself as a do-gooder from a Christian church. They drive from New York to LA, so most of it is a road movie where they get to know each other. The story is driven by surprises – she discovers her son, he discovers she is a guy, then ultimately that she is his father. The character completely absorbs Huffman. Makes me wonder how it would have worked if a male had been cast in that role. The script is excellent, ranging over subtle and sensitive to obvious guffaw. Is it a comedy? It is LOL funny in moments, but more a human drama told in a comedic vein. Not a joke-a-minute, but a serious exploration of gender and relationship. What does it really mean to be male or female? It’s a puzzling question. Flanagan, Huffman’s mother, is a scene-stealer. Greene has a small role, in which he actually sings. Huffman did a fantastic job, no question, but she played her character too loopy to be fully believable; absent-minded, disconnected, reminiscent of Peter Sellers bumbling through.