Fall came on like a ton of bricks! I have quite a backlog of movies going back to August that I never even mentioned here, so I'm clearing off my desk. I'll start with some new films, followed by the somewhat older stuff.
Keane - I'd prefer to read more reviews of this film before taking it on, because I walked out with at least 3 interpretations of the story, but maybe that fact alone will interest others. Anchored by one of the best performances of the year by man, woman or child (Damian Lewis as the title character), the film takes a good hard look at an economically and (surely it's not unrelated) psychologically troubled man looking for work and a long missing daughter in NYC. Only thing is, did he ever have a daughter? And once he befriends a woman with troubles of her own who places her daughter in his care for a weekend, how will he handle it? Keane seems to be an undiagnosed schizo, stable enough most of the time but occasionally swinging into obsessive mode over his missing daughter. In such states, he becomes anxious and defensively hostile, muttering to himself a stream of narration that becomes key to our understanding of his story. As an alternative to voiceover narration or, as the Dardennes might have approached it, through action alone, the technique works brilliantly. A dramatic thriller for grownups, edgy and intelligent in a way that will have you discussing the possibilities long after you leave the theater. Highly recommended.
Rating: 3 1/2 out of 4 stars.
The Constant Gardener - Excellent through and through, but is a thriller the right genre for examining so serious an issue as exploitation of the world's poorest (to the point of murder) by big drug corporations? I find it a bit tacky. See it anyway. Rachel Weisz gives yet another unique performance (she's clearly a young actress with the sexiest of all assets, a brain), and Ralph Fiennes is in top form. Their love story is a beauty, with the wonderful twist that his love for her deepens after her sudden death, as he uncovers her mysterious mission. As an aside, I do wonder what was up with Pete Postlethwaite's HRC hat--didn't seem to fit his character. Also, watch for John Le Carré's note near the end of the credits. After the typical boilerplate "characters are fictitious, any resemblance" blah blah blah, he says the more research he did, the more this story seemed to pale beside the reality.
Rating: 3 1/2 out of 4 stars.
Lord of War - I usually don't like voiceover narration, but in Lord of War the technique really works because of the humorously subversive tone. It's an issue film, but the issue is fresh to the big screen--the scumminess of global arms dealing. It's also told from the point of view of the gun runner, played by one of my personal favorites, Nicholas Cage, and so the audience is implicated in his actions, as we should be, since most moviegoers live in nations that supply these arms to the worst dictators on Earth. The film blends a wealth of information into its elegant narrative, shrewdly feeding the newly popular hunger for documentary film while also providing us the kind of Heller-esque satire of recent war movies like Three Kings or the underrated, swept-under-the-carpet Buffalo Soldiers. Cage's character has three neat foils who all draw something different from him: his wife, his brother, and the cop who, somewhat Javert-like, stalks him. Jared Leto is surprisingly effective as the sweet kid whose soul is corroded by dealing arms, and Ethan Hawke has never been better--outside Linklater's work--as the cop. Perhaps it's because he plays a character with ideals he shares, but he's fired up and angry in this part in a very good way. Cage is, as usual, excellent. To me, he and Johnny Depp are the best actors of their generation in big budget Hollywood, and like Depp, Cage comes alive when the material is edgy and intelligent. An opening sequence from a bullet's p.o.v. from factory to an African kid's head struck me as unnecessary, bordering on gimmickry, but at least it served an intelligent purpose, more than you can say about most such splashy Hollywood opening sequences.
Rating: 3 out of 4 stars.
Serenity - Enjoyable and entertaining, better than most episodes of the show (Firefly) that spawned it, with soaring action and witty one-liners, the likes of which I haven't heard on the big screen since Harrison Ford's long-ago prime. Don't think too hard about the plot, however--why exactly does the signal trigger both an outburst and a top-secret revelation in River? The quest to air a scandalous expose is a cute metaphor for the show's own struggle on tv, and certainly it has larger, not untimely reverberations. But Joss' pattern of killing off major characters to up the emotional ante threatens to become as predictable as it once was liberating.
Rating: 3 out of 4 stars.
Broken Flowers - Jarmusch has great fun with the juicy Don Juan: the Later Years set-up, allowing him to play to his episodic strengths, and the cast is very entertaining, beginning with Jeffrey Wright as an Ethiopian-American Sherlock Holmes. I thought Bill Murray's performance was needlessly inert in the first 20 minutes, but he more than makes up for it later.
Rating: 3 1/2 out of 4 stars.
The Brothers Grimm - Gilliam's romp is misshapen and disappointing, with too many trips back and forth to the forest and the magic never quite magical enough. Another of Gilliam's playful attacks on Enlightenment rationalism, it has a fun premise--the Grimms were hucksters preying on the superstitious who encounter a real witch. It almost could have launched a franchise in another universe, with the Brothers discovering the truth behind fairy tales in each episode. Ledger gets role I'd have expected Damon to take, the shy, bespectacled true believer, while Damon plays he braver and more exploitive Wilhelm, and both are fine, but, as too often in Hollywood, the producers skimp on the female lead. Why pay a female star when you can always get a pretty up-and-comer, though Lena Heady isn't bad. Sleepy Hollow is a lot more fun.
Rating: 1 1/2 out of 4 stars.
Cronicas - A strong set-up, with John Leguizamo playing a Geraldo-like U.S. star journalist investigating a serial killing in Ecuador. Just whodunit is too predictable, and the story feels like it's missing an act or two, but Leguizamo shines.
Rating: 1 out of 4 stars.
Duma - Watchable but ultimately bland, disappointing fare from the director of The Black Stallion. Some beautiful photography, a few interesting episodes.
Rating: 2 out of 4 stars.
The Edukators - Love triangle among 3 student radicals whose political pranks somewhat accidentally take a turn into serious crime. It becomes a meditation on the cliche question, How did so many student radicals of the 60s end up selling out? It's overlong, but the characters have a fair amount of depth, and Daniel Brühl (a star in Germany) is likeable.
Rating: 2 1/2 out of 4 stars.
Grizzly Man - Documentary of the year? I had to be talked into seeing this almost-snuff film about Timothy Treadwell, an environmental activist who felt more at home recording the life of grizzly bears in Alaska than he ever did in human society and who (along with a girlfriend) was devoured by a bear, arguably an act of suicide. Their deaths were caught on audiotape, footage which is discussed by not included here. His utter foolishness is fascinating and heartbreaking, and this psychological portrait is rich and colorful, thanks to his practice of using videotape like a therapeutic confessional journal. In Werner Herzog's hands, it becomes pure gold. I hate to think this story pertains to most environmentalists and animals lovers, but as a meditation on the dangerous border between civilization and the wild, it serves as an invaluable warning. It may even help save someone's life.
Rating: 4 out of 4 stars.
Junebug - Rich portrait of a newly-married, upscale Chicago couple who go home to meet his folks in the deep south, where she (Embeth Davidtz), an English-born art dealer, is made to feel like a real outsider, even somewhat in her marriage, facing hostility from her new mother-in-law (Celia Weston) and almost desperately sweet need for friendship and affection from her pregnant, naive and neglected sister-in-law (an amazing Amy Adams). I found the story true, affecting...and utterly depressing.
Rating: 3 out of 4 stars.
Last Days - Not nearly as good as Elephant or Gerry, Van Sant's film struck me as an honorable failure. Some critics complained that without Kurt Cobain's real-life story to prop it up from behind, this film would be nothing, but Cobain's legend does exist and has troubled enough people over the years to more than justify the film. The problem is that Last Days is never anything more than a meditation on his death, nothing more universal. Its poetic and insghtful, but it just doesn't resonate much.
Rating: 2 out of 4 stars.
Memory of a Killer - When an older assassin, suffering from Alzheimer's, gets an assignment he finds despicable (to kill a little girl), he rebels against the whole corrupt syndicate in this slick Memento-meets-Silence of the Lambs thriller. Jan Declair gives an excellent performance as that killer with a conscience and Koen De Bouw plays an honest cop one step behind him. I was more or less with the film until the end, in which Declair, deprived of his medecine, acts like a superhero. The story breaks its own rules, the only real source of suspense it had going for it.
Rating: 1 out of 4 stars.
Straight Jacket - Another disappointing gay indie, slightly distinguised from the pack by its premise: a Tab Hunter / Rock Hudson era star (Matt Letscher) goes through men like martinis, leaving his publicist to sort out the image problems. Then one day he meets the one, played with unconvincing "charm" by Adam Greer. At first he's defined as different from all the others (he's a political leftist, Ken doll version), but the plot has him sell out his convictions to the point of ridiculousness. The director clearly spent more time on the colorful, too-clean digital visual effects than on the script or casting. I didn't expect the film to actually observe anything realistic about gay life in the fifties, but since it didn't, it begs the question, why not set the action now? Gay stars are more closeted today than ever before. It might have had a bit more bite.
Rating: 1 out of 4 stars.
2046 - Wong Kar-Wai's sequel of sorts to In the Mood for Love lulled me for the first half hour, but ultimately pleased me. Perhaps Wong deliberately aims for a slightly drowsy rhythm in order to get you into that late-night mood he specializes in, where eroticism and drunkenness collide. The film is stylish beyond belief--those dresses are worth the price of admission alone--though to air a purist quibble, the digital work doesn't quite match the celluloid yet. And what a thrill to see Gong Li light up the screen again like it's 1991, if only briefly. The music is sumptuous (another killer soundtrack), and the SF story-wthin-a-story works well. If you can't see this on the big screen, at least fucking turn off the lights!
Rating: 3 out of 4 stars.
Lastly, check out this brilliant trailer for The Shining. Imagine some p.r. lackey being ordered to sell the movie as a feel good, family friendly romantic comedy. What does he do? First off, drop the article. Now it's just... Shining.
Song: "Crack the Whip" by Spinto Band
Keane - I'd prefer to read more reviews of this film before taking it on, because I walked out with at least 3 interpretations of the story, but maybe that fact alone will interest others. Anchored by one of the best performances of the year by man, woman or child (Damian Lewis as the title character), the film takes a good hard look at an economically and (surely it's not unrelated) psychologically troubled man looking for work and a long missing daughter in NYC. Only thing is, did he ever have a daughter? And once he befriends a woman with troubles of her own who places her daughter in his care for a weekend, how will he handle it? Keane seems to be an undiagnosed schizo, stable enough most of the time but occasionally swinging into obsessive mode over his missing daughter. In such states, he becomes anxious and defensively hostile, muttering to himself a stream of narration that becomes key to our understanding of his story. As an alternative to voiceover narration or, as the Dardennes might have approached it, through action alone, the technique works brilliantly. A dramatic thriller for grownups, edgy and intelligent in a way that will have you discussing the possibilities long after you leave the theater. Highly recommended.Rating: 3 1/2 out of 4 stars.
The Constant Gardener - Excellent through and through, but is a thriller the right genre for examining so serious an issue as exploitation of the world's poorest (to the point of murder) by big drug corporations? I find it a bit tacky. See it anyway. Rachel Weisz gives yet another unique performance (she's clearly a young actress with the sexiest of all assets, a brain), and Ralph Fiennes is in top form. Their love story is a beauty, with the wonderful twist that his love for her deepens after her sudden death, as he uncovers her mysterious mission. As an aside, I do wonder what was up with Pete Postlethwaite's HRC hat--didn't seem to fit his character. Also, watch for John Le Carré's note near the end of the credits. After the typical boilerplate "characters are fictitious, any resemblance" blah blah blah, he says the more research he did, the more this story seemed to pale beside the reality.
Rating: 3 1/2 out of 4 stars.
Lord of War - I usually don't like voiceover narration, but in Lord of War the technique really works because of the humorously subversive tone. It's an issue film, but the issue is fresh to the big screen--the scumminess of global arms dealing. It's also told from the point of view of the gun runner, played by one of my personal favorites, Nicholas Cage, and so the audience is implicated in his actions, as we should be, since most moviegoers live in nations that supply these arms to the worst dictators on Earth. The film blends a wealth of information into its elegant narrative, shrewdly feeding the newly popular hunger for documentary film while also providing us the kind of Heller-esque satire of recent war movies like Three Kings or the underrated, swept-under-the-carpet Buffalo Soldiers. Cage's character has three neat foils who all draw something different from him: his wife, his brother, and the cop who, somewhat Javert-like, stalks him. Jared Leto is surprisingly effective as the sweet kid whose soul is corroded by dealing arms, and Ethan Hawke has never been better--outside Linklater's work--as the cop. Perhaps it's because he plays a character with ideals he shares, but he's fired up and angry in this part in a very good way. Cage is, as usual, excellent. To me, he and Johnny Depp are the best actors of their generation in big budget Hollywood, and like Depp, Cage comes alive when the material is edgy and intelligent. An opening sequence from a bullet's p.o.v. from factory to an African kid's head struck me as unnecessary, bordering on gimmickry, but at least it served an intelligent purpose, more than you can say about most such splashy Hollywood opening sequences.
Rating: 3 out of 4 stars.
Serenity - Enjoyable and entertaining, better than most episodes of the show (Firefly) that spawned it, with soaring action and witty one-liners, the likes of which I haven't heard on the big screen since Harrison Ford's long-ago prime. Don't think too hard about the plot, however--why exactly does the signal trigger both an outburst and a top-secret revelation in River? The quest to air a scandalous expose is a cute metaphor for the show's own struggle on tv, and certainly it has larger, not untimely reverberations. But Joss' pattern of killing off major characters to up the emotional ante threatens to become as predictable as it once was liberating.
Rating: 3 out of 4 stars.
Films from late summer:
Broken Flowers - Jarmusch has great fun with the juicy Don Juan: the Later Years set-up, allowing him to play to his episodic strengths, and the cast is very entertaining, beginning with Jeffrey Wright as an Ethiopian-American Sherlock Holmes. I thought Bill Murray's performance was needlessly inert in the first 20 minutes, but he more than makes up for it later.
Rating: 3 1/2 out of 4 stars.
The Brothers Grimm - Gilliam's romp is misshapen and disappointing, with too many trips back and forth to the forest and the magic never quite magical enough. Another of Gilliam's playful attacks on Enlightenment rationalism, it has a fun premise--the Grimms were hucksters preying on the superstitious who encounter a real witch. It almost could have launched a franchise in another universe, with the Brothers discovering the truth behind fairy tales in each episode. Ledger gets role I'd have expected Damon to take, the shy, bespectacled true believer, while Damon plays he braver and more exploitive Wilhelm, and both are fine, but, as too often in Hollywood, the producers skimp on the female lead. Why pay a female star when you can always get a pretty up-and-comer, though Lena Heady isn't bad. Sleepy Hollow is a lot more fun.
Rating: 1 1/2 out of 4 stars.
Cronicas - A strong set-up, with John Leguizamo playing a Geraldo-like U.S. star journalist investigating a serial killing in Ecuador. Just whodunit is too predictable, and the story feels like it's missing an act or two, but Leguizamo shines.
Rating: 1 out of 4 stars.
Duma - Watchable but ultimately bland, disappointing fare from the director of The Black Stallion. Some beautiful photography, a few interesting episodes.
Rating: 2 out of 4 stars.
The Edukators - Love triangle among 3 student radicals whose political pranks somewhat accidentally take a turn into serious crime. It becomes a meditation on the cliche question, How did so many student radicals of the 60s end up selling out? It's overlong, but the characters have a fair amount of depth, and Daniel Brühl (a star in Germany) is likeable.
Rating: 2 1/2 out of 4 stars.
Grizzly Man - Documentary of the year? I had to be talked into seeing this almost-snuff film about Timothy Treadwell, an environmental activist who felt more at home recording the life of grizzly bears in Alaska than he ever did in human society and who (along with a girlfriend) was devoured by a bear, arguably an act of suicide. Their deaths were caught on audiotape, footage which is discussed by not included here. His utter foolishness is fascinating and heartbreaking, and this psychological portrait is rich and colorful, thanks to his practice of using videotape like a therapeutic confessional journal. In Werner Herzog's hands, it becomes pure gold. I hate to think this story pertains to most environmentalists and animals lovers, but as a meditation on the dangerous border between civilization and the wild, it serves as an invaluable warning. It may even help save someone's life.
Rating: 4 out of 4 stars.
Junebug - Rich portrait of a newly-married, upscale Chicago couple who go home to meet his folks in the deep south, where she (Embeth Davidtz), an English-born art dealer, is made to feel like a real outsider, even somewhat in her marriage, facing hostility from her new mother-in-law (Celia Weston) and almost desperately sweet need for friendship and affection from her pregnant, naive and neglected sister-in-law (an amazing Amy Adams). I found the story true, affecting...and utterly depressing.
Rating: 3 out of 4 stars.
Last Days - Not nearly as good as Elephant or Gerry, Van Sant's film struck me as an honorable failure. Some critics complained that without Kurt Cobain's real-life story to prop it up from behind, this film would be nothing, but Cobain's legend does exist and has troubled enough people over the years to more than justify the film. The problem is that Last Days is never anything more than a meditation on his death, nothing more universal. Its poetic and insghtful, but it just doesn't resonate much.
Rating: 2 out of 4 stars.
Memory of a Killer - When an older assassin, suffering from Alzheimer's, gets an assignment he finds despicable (to kill a little girl), he rebels against the whole corrupt syndicate in this slick Memento-meets-Silence of the Lambs thriller. Jan Declair gives an excellent performance as that killer with a conscience and Koen De Bouw plays an honest cop one step behind him. I was more or less with the film until the end, in which Declair, deprived of his medecine, acts like a superhero. The story breaks its own rules, the only real source of suspense it had going for it.
Rating: 1 out of 4 stars.
Straight Jacket - Another disappointing gay indie, slightly distinguised from the pack by its premise: a Tab Hunter / Rock Hudson era star (Matt Letscher) goes through men like martinis, leaving his publicist to sort out the image problems. Then one day he meets the one, played with unconvincing "charm" by Adam Greer. At first he's defined as different from all the others (he's a political leftist, Ken doll version), but the plot has him sell out his convictions to the point of ridiculousness. The director clearly spent more time on the colorful, too-clean digital visual effects than on the script or casting. I didn't expect the film to actually observe anything realistic about gay life in the fifties, but since it didn't, it begs the question, why not set the action now? Gay stars are more closeted today than ever before. It might have had a bit more bite.
Rating: 1 out of 4 stars.
2046 - Wong Kar-Wai's sequel of sorts to In the Mood for Love lulled me for the first half hour, but ultimately pleased me. Perhaps Wong deliberately aims for a slightly drowsy rhythm in order to get you into that late-night mood he specializes in, where eroticism and drunkenness collide. The film is stylish beyond belief--those dresses are worth the price of admission alone--though to air a purist quibble, the digital work doesn't quite match the celluloid yet. And what a thrill to see Gong Li light up the screen again like it's 1991, if only briefly. The music is sumptuous (another killer soundtrack), and the SF story-wthin-a-story works well. If you can't see this on the big screen, at least fucking turn off the lights!
Rating: 3 out of 4 stars.
Lastly, check out this brilliant trailer for The Shining. Imagine some p.r. lackey being ordered to sell the movie as a feel good, family friendly romantic comedy. What does he do? First off, drop the article. Now it's just... Shining.
Song: "Crack the Whip" by Spinto Band
Labels: Movie Reviews
posted by Steve at 5:02 PM
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