CINEMA
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Martin Paule's Micro Movie Reviews:
A-B-C-D-E-F-G-H-I-J-K-L-M-N-O-P-Q-R-S-T-U-V-W-X-Y-Z--
Brand New Entries:
Winter Sleepers aka Winterschlafer
From the innovative director of the kintetic Run Lola, Run,
Tom Twyker, comes this arresting story of five characters whose lives intersect
in unexpected ways. The film opens with a dizzying series of shots
from the perspective of a downhill skiier plunging through a frozen Bavarian
Alps landscape. We then meet the primary players: an egocentric, hunky
ski instructor and his passive, translator girlfriend; a projectionist
who has lost his short-term memory in a military accident; a nurse who
would like to become an actress; and a bankrupt farmer taking an ailing
horse to the vet. The film weaves their stories together using impressive
camerawork and imaginative integration of music, all of which is permeated
by an oppressive chilliness reflecting the setting. As with Lola,
Twyker’s primary concern is the seeming serendipities that shape lives
and events—with the exception of the farmer, his characters are a passive
lot who are acted upon rathere than being the actors in their own lives.
Wild Things
This Florida Noire concoction of lies, deceit, sex and doublecrosses
has as many twists as a roller coaster. Matt Dillon is a high school
counselor who is charged with rape—apparently the result of a conspiracy
between a female student from a wealthy family and another girl from the
wrong side of the alligator farm. Bill Murray has a wonderful if lesser
role as a sleazebag ambulance chaser who defends Dillon. Consider
this one a guilty pleasure with its colorful locales, steamy sex scenes,
and convoluted plotting. OK, so high art it ain’t, but it nonetheless
offers a lot of entertainment of the fluffier variety.
Rata, Ratones, Rateros AKA Rodents
This rough and tumble street drama comes from an unexpected source:Ecuador.
Salvador is a teenage punk doing small time crimes and scams on the streets
of Quito. The ante is upped significantly when his older cousin Angel turns
up fresh from a stretch in prison. Salvador becomes enmeshed in a series
of events that spell disaster for himself, his friends and his family.
Though it is thoroughly grim in tone, the film sheds insight on Latin American
thuglife which isn't in the final analysis so different from that
in the U.S. Energetically filmed and acted, I was reminded more than once
of Scorcese's great early effort,
Mean Streets.
Snatch
From slam-bang director Guy Ritchie, this more recent heist flick shares
with his earlier Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels a disjointed
plot, a cellarful of fascinating and creepy characters, and above all,
frenetic pacing. With plenty of hard-as-nails dialogue, a solid lineup
of character actors from both sides of the Atlantic, and an intent to outrage
at every turn, the movie succeeds. Brad Pitt sparkles in a smaller role
as a wacko bare-knuckle Welsh fighter who issues forth streams of completely
undecipherable dialog. The plot too, is fairly well incomprehensible, but
that clearly isn't the point with Ritchie's films.
Sugarcane Alley aka Rue Cases Negres
The story of an 11 year-old boy growing up in 1930s Martinique
where his poverty-stricken grandmother sacrifices everything so that the
talented boy can attend a decent school. There are certain disconnects
in the episodic plot structure, and some of the acting is amateurish, but
the central story of haves and have-nots is powerfully and honestly told.
State and Main
This comedy about a Hollywood crew trying to shoot a troubled
costume drama in a pastoral Vermont village is quite a lighthearted departure
for writer-director David Mamet. Riddled with wisecracks and fueled by
quick pacing, the laughs come hot and heavy. But Mamet hasn't abandoned
his fascination for characters with hidden corruptions and agenda—everyone
in the film shifts allegiances at will in this comedic delight.
Sugarbaby aka Zuckerbaby
German director Percy Adlon (Bagdad Cafe, Rosalie Goes Shopping)
makes small, off-kilter comedies that often feature the zaftig actress
Marianne Sagebrecht. That is the case here with Sagebrecht playing a lonely
morgue attendent who becomes fixated over a subway train operator. After
she stalks and seduces him, a strange relationship ensues. This is one
of the pinkest films you're likely to encounter; it is as though Adlon
has subjected his print to some sort of Barbie-Vision process.
The Boat is Full aka Das Boot Es Vol
A motley collection of German Jewish prisoners together with a defecting
soldier and an abandoned young French boy escape from a train and manage
to make their way into Switzerland. Discovered hiding in a barn by an innkeeper's
wife, she gives them shelter until her husband objects and alerts the local
constable. Threatened with deportation and certain death
in Germany, the group masquerades as a family with suspenseful and
sometimes funny moments. Beneath the narrative is the constant question
of following laws versus one's conscience. It calls into doubt the reputation
of the Swiss as noble neutrals given their habit of handing refugees back
over to the Nazis.
Startup.com
In decades to come this documentary will likely help people understand
the madness that was rampant at the end of the twentieth century when the
marketplace was saturated with investment venture capital and bad business
plans. This is the story of two long-time friends who launch a website
intended to aid people deal with local governments by helping them pay
parking tickets and suchlike. In the 20 months documented, the two entrepeneurs
run through a heap of money and seriously damage their friendship. The
filmmakers were given complete access to their subjects and have dutifully
recorded them, warts and all.
The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl
An exhaustive look at the life and work of the German director whose
Olympia
and
Triumph
of the Will stand among the most important documentaries in cinema
history. Filmed when she was 90, Riefenstahl is still amazingly spry and
feisty and her mental acuity seems completely undiminished. In the opening
scenes we see her shooting an underwater documentary about marine
life, getting up close and personal with formidable aquatic creatures.
In a telling shot, after an exhausting day of submerged filming, she hauls
her own gear down a jetee accompanied by two younger men who wouldn’t dream
of offering her, as an equal, a hand. Of course, what is most intriguing
in this biography is the director’s relationship with Hitler and the Third
Reich. She claims to have been politically naive and unaware of the atrocities
of the Nazis—a position that is hard to swallow. She perfunctorily condemns
the Holocaust but it becomes clear that her greatest regret in becoming
the Nazis’ cinematographer is the blackballing she suffered following the
war. But undeniably, her skill in bringing the Munich Olympics to the screen
with radically innovative camera work that is brought home by many excerpts
from the original film clearly points to a woman of enormous artistic and
technical virtuosity.
A Self Made Hero aka Un Heros Tres Discret
Structured as a psuedo-documentary and told in flashbacks interjected
by modern interviews with the protagonist and his associates, this is the
story of a young French man who during WWII takes the easy way out by steering
clear of the Germans and the resistance. Following the war he invents a
new identity for himself as a former high-level operative in the underground.
He is treated as a hero and is put in charge of prosecuting French collaboraters.
After falling in love with a co-worker, he is tortured by his inability
to tell his girlfriend the truth about his past. An intelligent examination
of identity, suggesting that with the right degree of chutzpah, it is possible
to make ourselves over into wholly different people. There are many moments
of suspense and laughter in this unusual film.
Rendezvous in Paris aka Les Rendez-Vous de Paris
Another talk-fest from director Eric Rohmer, this is a trio of stories
about singles in Paris trying to get on with their love lives. Typical
of Rohmer’s work, they are brimming with subtle humor and understated emotions.
Unlike their American romantic comedy counterparts, the people in these
stories talk about interesting things—politics, love, art, science—instead
of merely whining on endlessly about their troubled psyches and pent-up
libidos.
Brief Encounter
David Lean’s story, based on a Noel Coward one-act play, is a nearly
perfect filmed romance. Two middle-class people, both married, meet in
a railway station and slowly succumb to their intense attraction for each
other. The locations, supporting players, moody score, and especially the
intensely emotional yet withdrawn “veddy British” performances of Celia
Johnson and Trevor Howard work in perfect harmony. Far different from the
director’s later sagas, this is an intimate and heart-wrenching effort.
A Nos Amours
Sandrine Bonnaire offers a fine performance as a 16 year-old French
girl who revels in her promiscuous lifestyle while doing battle with her
family—a father intent on leaving; a neurotic mother, and a smarmy, sycophantic
brother. The film makes no judgments about the girl’s behavior; it is simply
presented and the viewer is not directed in what to think about her, so
in the end this is not the melodrama or social protest piece it might have
otherwise been.
Children of Nature aka Börn Náttúrunnar
Thorgein, now widowed, is an aging, crotchety Icelandic farmer who
is reluctantly relocated to live with his daughter’s family in their city
apartment. When that doesn’t work out, he’s relegated to a retirement home
which he likes even less. There he meets Stella, an old flame who is equally
unhappy living at the old folks home. They go on the lam in a poetic odyssey
back to their home turf in the Western fjords where they elude authorities
and rediscover aspects of their youth. Directed by Fridrik Fridriksson
(Devil’s Island, Cold Fever both reviewed here), the pacing is as
deliberate as his aging lovebirds’ gaits and requires patience that is
rewarded with a lovely payoff.
Shall We Dance? (1996)
A Japanese salary man who is bored and disillusioned with his eat-sleep-work
existence is enchanted one night as he glimpses a dancing teacher from
his subway car. Without quite knowing why, he enrolls in a ballroom dancing
class at the studio where she works and develops a tender, respectful passion.
In the final third, the film takes on the trappings of “big contest” movies
such as Strictly Ballroom and became a bit less engaging for me
with its rather canned happy ending. But up to that point, this is a wonderful
exposition of repressed passion in modern Japanese society; one which in
many respects still is Victorian.
Cafe Society
The fact-based story of a margarine fortune heir, Mickey Jelke, who
establishes himself as a leading light in New York’s cafe society of the
early 1950s. On the side he dabbles in pornography and pimping and hosts
orgiastic soirees resulting in his being targeted by a city commission
intent on wiping out such goings-on. A vice cop is assigned to set him
up for a big fall. This made-for-cable film offers a rich sense of atmosphere
as we;; as time and place with excellent performances by Frank Whalley,
Peter Gallagher and Lara Flynn Boyle appropriately seductive as a femme
fatale with a past.
Autobiography of a Princess
Madhur Jaffrey plays an Indian princess now exiled in Britain who gets
together annually with her former man servant played exceedingly well by
James Mason. They sip tea, eat biscuits, run old home movies and reminisce
about their shared days of old when she was the daughter of an important
maharaja with vast holdings and he was the general factotum administering
the estate. A lovely study of nostalgia that may prove a bit too chatty
for some viewers.
The Wanderers
A well-wrought little film recounting the experience of growing up
in an Italian Bronx neighborhood during the early 1960s, it has a grittiness
and charm that I have not found in other films mining this familiar turf.
With plenty of surrealistic moments that would do Fellini proud, imaginative,
colorful camera work, and a perceptive script that batters the bounds of
today’s political correctness, we sense the coming ferment of the later
‘60s through the lives of teenage gang members who are thunderstruck by
the JFK assassination.
Croupier
This is the exceptionally well-written story of an observant young
man who takes a job in a swank London casino to acquire material for his
writing career. In so doing, we learn a lot of fascinating things about
how casinos work beneath the surface. There is also a worthwhile suspense
story that eschews most of the usual trappings of that genre with minimal
violence and not so much as a single car chase. From British director Mike
Hodge who filmed the influential Get Carter in the ‘70s, this is
his best work in years. Unfortunately, it failed to find a substantial
audience in its theatrical release.
Thieves Like Us (1974)
Three career criminals bust out of a Midwest prison in the ‘30s and
resume their habit of sticking up banks. This superbly mounted production
directed by Robert Altman doesn’t seem to get counted as being among his
best work. I would rate is as highly as his top efforts such as M.A.S.H.
and
Nashville for its perfect evocation of Depression-era America
and exquisite key performances by Keith Carradine and Shelley Duvall.
Fallen Idol
Based on a Graham Greene short story, this compact gem is told from
the perspective of Philippe, the young son of the French ambassador in
London. He adores the embassy’s butler, Baines, and loathes the man’s shrewish
wife who makes both their lives miserable. In his efforts to exonerate
the butler who becomes a suspect in a police investigation, the boy spins
a web of lies that achieves the opposite effect, implicating his friend.
Restrained and subtle, this early work of director Carol Reed takes full
advantage of a sterling cast which features Ralph Richardson as the servant.
Funny Games
Whether you find this German shock-suspenser engaging or merely repellent
will depend on your tolerance for depictions of extreme physical and emotional
violence. A pair of MTV-deranged youths take a vacationing family hostage
in their lakeside cottage and proceed to play sicko games with them. An
appropriately chaotic sound track based largely on the work of avante-garde
saxophonist John Zorn's group, Naked City, and moments in which the two
crazies break the fourth wall help differentiate this shockfest from similar
fare. Is it art or is it sick voyeurism? You be the judge, if you dare.
Memories of Underdevelopment aka Memorias del Subdesarollo
Following Castro's revolution in Cuba, Sergio, a young, wealthy intellectual
finds himself strangely unwilling to follow friends and family to Miami.
He's caught between a paralyzing ennui and a fascination with the ideals
of the revolution. Spanning the period from the revolution to the Cuban
Missile Crisis, this is an unusual look into a society and culture undergoing
foment. Given its scenes involving corrupt customs officials and less than
flattering perspectives on the revolution, the film surprisingly was funded
in part by the Cuban government.
Genghis Blues
Paul Peña is a blind blues singer from San Francisco who in
the early '90s became intrigued with the remarkable throat singing tradition
of Tuva, a central Asian region now part of the Russian federation. After
learning the Tuvan technique of singing multiple notes simultaneously and
developing a repertoire of traditional Tuvan songs, he sought to connect
with the culture. This documentary follows Peña and a small entourage
as they travel to Tuva where he competes in a nationa singing competition
and astounds the natives with the skills he has cultivated. The film will
be of great interest to both world music devotees and anyone interested
in learning about this remote culture and its traditions.
My Man aka Mon Homme (1996)
Bertrand Blier's films are, with their highly-charged and unconventional
sexual politics, not for everyone. Marie (Anouk
Grinberg) is the personification of the Happy Hooker. She takes in
a homeless man, Jeannot (Gérard Lanvin), feeds him, gives him enthusiastic
sex, bathes him, and then sets him up as her pimp. His thanks takes the
form of a beating. He then recruits a second hooker to flesh out his stable.
Without revealing any more of the plot, it is safe to say that this is
a film with a mischievous, misogynous sense of humor and something to offend
nearly everyone. As with Blier's other films, the design is startlingly
original.
Get Out Your Handkerchiefs
Gerard Depardieu and Patrick Dewaere portray two men who both love
the same woman and enter into a strange triangle typical of director Bertrand
Blier's odd take on romance and sexual politics. Recommended only to those
with open-minded views of such matters.
Too Beautiful for You
An ordinary man, Gerard Depardieu, in another exquisitely realized
and difficult role, plays a businessman who falls irretrievably in love
with his secretary. She is plain, slightly overweight, and physically no
competition whatever for Depardieu's drop-dead gorgeous wife. Yet she fires
a passion in Depardieu—something his wife has never done. Another off-kilter
exploration of love, sexual politics, and obsession by the iconoclastic
French director Bertrand Blier.
Buffet Froid
Director Bertrand Blier again turns to his favorite leading man, Gerard
Depardieu, in this absurdist comedy/drama about the alienation brought
on by modern urban existence. Blier's stark, minimalist design helps underscore
the paranoiac atmosphere.
Meet The Parents
Ben Stiller has become Hollywood's favorite punching bag. He excels
at playing nebbishes who are at once earnest and terminally bumbling
in matters of love. Here he's cast as Greg Focker, a male nurse, who joins
his girlfriend (Teri Polo) on a nightmarish visit back home. He is quickly
intimidated by the father (Robert DeNiro doing his patented authoritarian,
menacing schtick.) Trying to fit in and earn the father's acceptance, Stiller
tells some whoppers which lead to the near destruction of his would-be
inlaw's home and the trashing of his future sister-in-law's wedding. The
comedy comes in fits and starts with some gags going nowhere. And the Stiller/Polo
matchup doesn't compare with the chemistry of the Stiller/Diaz casting
in There's Something About Mary. Yet there are enough howlingly
funny bits and strong characterizations to justify checking this one out.
Camera Buff aka Amator
With this film, Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski began to cultivate
an international reputation. It is the story of Filip, a Polish factory
worker who spends two month's salary on an 8mm movie camera with which
to record the birth of his daughter. He becomes so devoted to filmmaking
that he neglects his wife and child. His skill with the camera is noticed
at work and he becomes the official cinematographer for the industrial
collective where he quickly runs into censorship and bureaucracy. Full
of wry jabs at the authoritarian, centralized Polish state that preceded
Solidarity.
Dancing at The Blue Iguana
I rented this with pretty high expectations since, as the box prominently
trumpets, it's directed by Michael Radford, who made Il Postino.Sadly,
Iguana
is not of anywhere near that quality though it offers entertainment
on its own soapy terms. Apparently Radford spent five months in workshops
with his cast during which time the actors were allowed to shape and flesh
out (if you'll pardon the expression) their characters, the cast of a slightly
upmarket strip club situated in a forlorn industrial corner of L.A. What
results is a highly overcooked series of melodramatic
vignettes involving the various strippers, all of whom seem to be going
through perpetual and simultaneous crises. Still, taken individually, these
stories are quite interesting, and overall, this good-looking film with
its prodigious T&A, provides a presumably more authentic look at this
milieu than say, the ludicrous Showgirls.
Get Carter (1971)
This hard nosed British crime story has proven an influential one.
Its influence isapparent in other crime dramas such as The Long Good
Friday and Mona Lisa. Michael Caine is exceedingly effective
playing the title character, a British gangster who shares some traits
with Caine's earlier Alfie. But Carter is a far more brutal force in this
tale of vengeance set against the bleak townscape of Newcastle. More slowly
paced than current crime films, the emphasis here is on character.
Antonia and Jane
An offbeat British comedy that chronicles the long-term relationship
of the title pair. Antonia is good looking and self-assured; Jane is portly,
uncertain of herself, but game to try anything. Complicating matters, Antonia
is married to Jane's former boyfriend and they both see the same shrink.
Full of incisive, very British humor with lots of clever bits about friendship,
rivalry and insecurity.
The Ladykillers (1955)
During the mid 1950s Britain's Ealing Studios put out a succession
of funny comedies, this among the best of the bunch. With a crackerjack
cast that includes Alec Guinness, Herbert Lom, and Peter Sellers, the comic
book plot concerns a gang of criminals who exploit an innocent little old
lady who is Guiness's landlord and who turns out not to be the patsy she
seems. Story-wise, there's nothing special here; it's the fantastically
funny ensemble chemistry and comedic timing that makes this film the small
gem that it is.
Nurse Betty
Renée Zellweger shines as the title character in a role that
takes full advantage of the fresh-faced innocence that has become her stock
in trade. After witnessing a murder, Betty (who is actually a waitress)
retreats into a fantasy world that involves characters on her favorite
TV soap. Pursued by a pair of hit men (Morgan Freeman and Chris Rock) for
reasons that only become apparent later, delusional Betty heads to L.A.
where she means to resume a romance with a heart surgeon on the soap. The
plot's pretty preposterous at times seeming like an unworkable amalgam
of Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore and Pulp Fiction. And
Chris Rock's one-note persona becomes grating. But the film survives these
weaknesses with excellent direction by Neil LaBute (the director of Company
of Men for whom this represents a big departure in tone), great photography,
a capable supporting cast, and most importantly, Zellweger's performance.
The Corndog Man
Ace is a beer-swilling, fast-talking, foul- mouthed boat salesman played
with florid realism by character actor Noble C. Willingham. He begins receiving
prank phone calls that are at first merely annoying but later turn dark
and threatening. The caller seems to know a lot about his past including
a long-supressed incident from his youth. An interesting concoction that
blends comedy, drama and suspense in one compact and effective package.
Yellow Earth aka Huang Tu Di
Among the earliest of the so-called Chinese New Wave films, it's the
story of a soldier ordered to gather cheerful, motivating folk songs to
be used by the Communist regime to inspire the proletariat. He settles
into a remote village living with a widow and her two daughters, one of
whom forms a strong attachment to the soldier. His idealistic, revolutionary
notions are shaken when he finds that the repertoire of songs sung by the
villagers bitterly reflects their grim, hard lives. Unlike some of the
later New Wave films, it paints a rather idealized, noncritical portrait
of the Chinese revolution's early days that contrasts with the more agnostic
approach taken in later films such as The Blue Kite.
Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her
A collection of five loosely related, vignette-like stories about seven
L.A. women, it is at once subtle, enigmatic, and emotionally powerful.
Particular standouts among the high-octane cast are Glenn Close as an emotionally
opaque woman dealing with loneliness, Holly Hunter who discovers she is
pregnant by her married lover, and Cameron Diaz as a blind young woman.
Writer-director Rodrigo Garcia coaxes exquisite performances from his cast.
Expression and movement as much as the well-wrought dialogue are used to
convey their internal states.
Ball of Fire
Eight bachelor scholars share a hermetic life in a New York mansion
where they are working on an encyclopedia. The English specialist, played
by the cast-against-type Gary Cooper realizes he's way out of his depth
in writing the entry on slang and enlists the help of a nightclub torch
singer (Barbara Stanwyck) who is well versed in vernacular. She's on the
lam from the cops and when she comes to live with them, she turns the academics'
lives upside down. The gags-galore script, co-written by Billy Wilder,
is supercharged by an excellent cast of character players who work this
variant of the Snow White story for all it's worth.
The Adventures of Sebastian Cole
A coming of age film that concerns an impulsive boy with a self-destructive
bent growing up in America during the early 1980s. His story is told in
a fragmentary way with many plot elements that seem to be purposely left
unresolved. A pivotal event occurs early on when his father announces that
he plans to undergo a sex change causing the family to split asunder. The
relationship between Sebastian and his father is the only one that is fully
realized; all the boy's other liaisons are episodic and skeletal. His adventures
are told matter-of-factly without sentimentality or melodrama—often the
pitfalls of similar adolescent-crisis films. A solid little sleeper worth
looking for.
Masala
This is the story of two Krishnas, one the Hindu deity, the other a
mortal namesake, a young Indian expatriate living in Canada. A former junkie,
the human Krishna lost his family five years earlier in a plane crash and
has come to live with an aunt and her husband, a sari shop owner. The film
blends magical realism with a portrait of the Asian experience in Canada.
Though the disparate approaches don't always mesh well, there are enough
curious human and divine doings to involve the viewer.
Bulworth
Warren Beatty's brazen attack on the body politic concerns a senator
who in the midst of a reelection campaign suffers a crisis of conscience.
Recognizing that he has abandoned his former progressive values in exchange
for big business money, he flips out in the midst of delivering a canned
speech at a black church. He tells the congregation that if they'll "put
down that chicken wing and malt liquor and get behind somebody other than
a running back who stabbed his wife", they just might manage to get someone
elected who is truly sympathetic to their community. He goes on to dis
a gathering of wealthy Hollywood supporters bymaking anti-Semitic cracks
and telling them that their product is crap. Taking on a wildly off-the-cuff
rap-spouting white homeboy persona, his outrageous moves are tracked by
a cable news crew doing a campaign-trail story. A subplot has Bulworth
hiring a hit man to do himself in for insurance money seems forced, but
it does set up the senator's dalliance with a ghetto girl, and thus the
movie's preoccupation with class differences. A smart, barbarous comedy
that
takes just a little too long to score all its points.
The Yards
Director James Gray who made the equally glum hitman movie Little
Odessa some years back, sets a very deliberate pace and uses operatic
proportions to tell his story of a dim-witted ex-con inevitably drawn back
into crime by his smooth-talking buddy. In that, it resembles Scorcese's
seminal Mean Streets. In its concerns with how criminal organizations
work, it recalls The Godfather and On The Waterfront. The
setting here is the corruption-riddled world of subway train repair shops
which bribe city officials for contracts. (For Gray this is personal turf;
his father was implicated in a N.Y. scandal that led to the suicide of
a corrupt city councilman.) Were it not for a sudden ending that seems
to belong to another movie, I would have to rate The Yards on a
par with those films to which its obviously indebted.
Deep Crimson aka Profundo Carmesí
This Mexican retelling of the sensationalist Honeymoon Killers story
of the 1950s is full of pitch-black humor and features a truly repellent
pair of lovers on the run. Coral, an obese nurse and careless mother meets
Nicolas through the want ads. He is a sleazy lothario who attaches himself
to wealthy women and drains them of their money. They go on the road posing
as brother and sister where they prey on a series of victims. What is perhaps
most disturbing are the carefully structured characterizations of these
targets. We are all the more offended by the two con artists due to our
sympathy for their prey. Director Arturo Ripstein began his career as an
assistant to Buñuel, and his style has some obvious parallels with
the master surrealist.
Bully
As was the case with director Larry Clark's earlier film Kids,
I came away from viewing this movie with conflicted feelings. Clark has
made a career of depicting the lives of aimless kids caught up in drugs,
violence and careless sex . Though it is clear that Clark has empathy for
his subjects, his long, ogling shots
of nude teenagers engaged in sex can be readily seen as exploitive.
Bully
concerns
two disaffected teens, Marty, an introverted but attractive surfer dude,
and Bobby, his lifelong friend who regularly physically and emotionally
abuses his slower-witted pal. After Bobby rapes and beats Marty's new girlfriend
as well as another friend, a plot emerges among a circle of their associates
to murder Bobby. Based on an actual Florida case, Clark witnesses their
empty-headed scheming and ultimate fates in the same non-judgmental manner
which earned Kids its notoriety. And as in the earlier film, the
parents of these teenagers are at best uninvolved in their children's lives,
and at worst, patently stupid. This is a brutal film that in the end is
unclear in just what it is that Clark wants to say, if anything. Whether
you will find it compelling or repellent may depend on your sympathy for
kids caught up in a sterile suburban world in which the main pursuits are
getting high, having sex, and playing violent video games. If you found
Kids,
The River's Edge, or Over The Edge worthwhile, then Bully
may
prove of interest to you.
La Discrete
A writer, after being dumped by his girlfriend, targets a seemingly
inexperienced young woman with view to toying with her emotions as material
for a book. This is a sly and minimalist creation with an outstanding performance
by Judith Henry as the intended victim.
Despair
Based on Nabokov's story, Dirk Bogard is superb as an emigre chocolate
maker in Berlin during the rise of the Nazis. Though the story of his delusional,
attempted insurance fraud becomes somewhat drawn out, a stylish design,
witty dialogue by Tom Stoppard and an exquisite central performance keep
the interest level up.
The Thin Red Line
Terrence Malick's adaptation of James Jones' autobiographical account
of the WWII battle to take Guadalcanal is poetic and striking, and for
two-thirds of its length is a gripping account of the madness that is war.
After a pivotal hill has been captured, the film loses focus and meanders
for its final hour. Malick's approach is chaotic-a strength in depicting
the irrationalities that assail men in the pressure of battle. The juxtaposition
between the lush hothouse beauty of the Pacific island with its tree canopy
shielding us, at least for a time, from the carnage taking place below,
is striking and remarkably well filmed. Flawed as it is, this is a powerful
and artistic meditation on war.
The Anniversary Party
Jennifer Jason Leigh and her real-life husband, Scots actor Alan Cumming
directed and wrote this largely autobiographical film about the 6th-anniversary
party of a fragile Hollywood marriage that in many respects resembles their
own. Some viewers may experience a sense of voyeurism as their extensive
cast of beautiful-people friends subtly (and nakedly) parodize their own
lives. The party, brimming with narcissism, superficiality, and neuroses
is a rather lighthearted affair until the guests partake of one of the
anniversary presents: a bag full of Ecstasy, at which point things begin
to turn dark and bitter. Leigh and Cumming are to be commended for their
willingness to hold their lives and those of their friends up to the brutal
light of digital video. In the DVD 's voice-over director's commentary,
discussing an early scene in which the couple's actual yoga instructor
takes them through asanas, Cumming muses that only in Hollywood can one
call out for enlightenment as well as pizza.
The Glass Key (1942)
A classic noire entry based on the Dashiell Hammett novel that stars
Alan Ladd as the laconic, hard nosed sidekick to a corrupt politician (Brian
Donlevy). Veronica Lake is excellent as an enigmatic object of love and
William Bendix is appropriately menacing as a sadistic thug. This is a
near-perfect exemplar of the noire genre with a superb design and game
cast.
The Go Masters
A Japanese-Chinese co-production, this is the epic account of two families,
one from each country, spread over three decades. The father of a young
Chinese boy who is a Go-playing prodigy tearfully places him in the hands
of a Japanese Go master who becomes his mentor and surrogate father. Hostilities
between the two countries create tensions for all. Exceedingly colorful,
often suspenseful, and occasionally confusing, the story is a painless
introduction into Sino-Japanese 20th century relations as well as the strategy
game that resides at its center.
I Went Down
It is said that the Irish have the gift of gab and this movie
certainly makes a powerful case for that contention. A crime/road movie,
its main strength is dialogue that is very nearly musical in conception
and execution. In one scene, a kidnapped gangster observes, “Did you ever
make love to a gangster’s wife? It’s like making love while the angel of
fucking death is looking over your shoulder. Jesus, you just can’t enjoy
yourself.” The story is about a pair of two low-level hoodlums, Bunny and
Anto. To pay off a debt to a gangland boss they agree to go to Cork
to collect some money that is owed him. Along the way they come across
a parade of indelible characters and quirky Irish villages. But ultimately,
it’s the constant chatter between the two that is the film’s central delight.
Like Tarantino, writer-director Paddy Breathnech has a keen ear for telling
and often hilarious dialogue that is an Irish variant on the wonderful
nonsense spouted by Samuel Jackson and John Travolta in Pulp Fiction.
Irma Vep
This French film should prove to be fun for cinephiles who have an
interest in the way movies are made. A once-great, now foundering art film
director has been hired by a troubled production company to remake an old
silent movie about a sort of catwoman who burgles wealthy homes passing
on some of the proceeds to the poor. Her name is an anagram for “Vampire”,
which has a rather different meaning than that of the Bela Lugosi/Bram
Stoker model. Hong Kong martial arts movie star Maggie Cheung (playing
herself) is the lead. The production is beset by all sorts of trouble:
rampant egotism, miscommunication, backbiting, financing problems and more.
Through this maelstrom Cheung moves with quiet aplomb registering a powerful
presence. As in 8 1/2, Day for Night and Living
in Oblivion, the conceit of a film-within-a-film works well here. Unfortunately
the proceedings close with an irresolute whimper rather than a bang. But
along the way there is some trenchant dialogue about the difference between
the French avant garde’s preoccupation with films that are little more
than intellectual exercises designed to amuse the director and his clique
versus movies “made for the people” like Schwartzenegger flicks.
Life Is a Long Quiet River
This French film deals with the divides that exist between the wealthy
and working classes. Twelve years after their birth, it is discovered that
two children were mixed up in the hospital. Trying to restore things to
their natural order causes comedic results that are wryly rendered here.
La Ronde
This sly, witty comedy is based upon a play by Arthur Schnitzler and
is directed by Max Ophuls It is built from a circle of tales about
couples in affairs. Cleverly constructed in the circular fashion that the
title suggests, the stories converge at the finale.
The Girl On The Bridge aka La Fille en Le Pont
Shot in gorgeous, wide-screen black and white, the story begins with
the rescue of a young woman about to commit suicide by plunging from a
bridge. Her rescuer (Daniel Ateuil) is an enigmatic circus knife-thrower
for whom she becomes his target. Their relationship is a highly charged
telepathic and erotic one and their story plays like a fabulist fable.
The Cup
A slight but beguiling story about a group of young Tibetan monks who
are hooked on international soccer in general and are especially fans of
teams from the U.K. They are obsessed about seeing the World Cup finals,
and overcoming myriad obstacles, connive to rent a TV set from a neighboring
Indian merchant. Their shenanigans cast the Tibetan monastic life in an
altogether different light from the stereotype.
The Cell
This is a crackerjack entertainment that melds fantasy, sci-fi, police
drama and psychological thriller. Jennifer Lopez plays a gifted psychologist
who works with schizophrenics by entering into their injured psyches and
helping them to surface from their delusional states. With more than a
nod to Silence of The Lambs, Lopez is recruited to help catch a
serial killer by entering the mind of a catatonic boy. Dazzling effects
and costumes coupled with a genuinely creepy atmosphere and brisk direction
by Tarsem Singh generate a lot of suspense. There are some exceptionally
grisly scenes which the suceptible viewer may find upsetting.
Topsy Turvy
Director Mike Leigh Secrets and Lies departs from his usual
off-kilter style and contemporary settings to tell the story of Gilbert
and Sullivan by focusing on their efforts leading up the production of
The
Mikado . The film is a colorful and often hilarious look into the Victorian-era
theatre and the two comic opera titans who are a very odd couple, often
at each other’s throats. Especially interesting is a segment in which a
group of Japanese women are consulted as technical advisors in the development
of the musical. It is great fun to watch their oriental manners transformed
into a burlesque at the hands of the G&S team.
Captain’s Paradise
Alec Guinness plays the captain of a steamship that plies the waters
between Gibralter and a North African port. He has found paradise through
bigamy. In the North African town his wife is a sexy Latina spitfire (Yvonne
De Carlo) who answers all his needs for a gregarious, party-filled life.
Back in Gibralter he has a veddy proper British wife (Celia Johnson) who
faithfully darns his socks and retires with the Captain every night at
the stroke of 10. Needless to say, this idyll won’t last. There are plenty
of uproarious situations as Guinness juggles both halves of his matrimonial
state.
Le Samourai
An existential take on the killer-for-hire story, Alain Delon plays
a Paris assassin who kills a nightclub owner and is then doublecrossed
by his employers. Beautifully filmed and directed with many interesting
late ‘60s Paris locales, this is an exercise in form over function. Director
Jean-Pierre Melville seems much more concerned with his killer’s solitary
life than he is with the mechanics of the hitman’s trajectory.
From Mao to Mozart: Isaac Stern in China
This astonishingly moving documentary covers the maestro's 1979
visit to China during its recovery from the devastating Cultural Revolution
in which music faculties were imprisoned and all western music traditions
were expunged. The interactions between Stern and Chinese music students
are remarkable. In a matter of minutes he is able to take technically
proficient but stiff Chinese students and infect them with his joie
de vivre for the music. We witness an instant transformation in their
playing—Stern's impish and caring presence imparts the passion. Rarely
have I seen such an immediate and obvious transmission of emotion, or better,
soul, take place. This is a testament to the power of music as the universal
language and as a means to achieve international understanding. No matter
how cliched that may sound, there are some truly transcendental moments
in this Oscar-winning film that hold out the hope for genuine cross-cultural
acceptance.
Wounds aka Rane
This horrific, comedic Serbian film traces the lives of Pinki
and Kraut , two Belgrade teenagers, between 1991 and 1996, as the
pair transit from relatively innocent adolescents to brutal, narcotized
thugs. The film is intercut with soundbites from the Yugoslavian civil
wars, but the boys are depicted as being completely apolitical and
amoral while they perfect their criminal careers as apprentices to a brutal
(and hilarious) thug. Their twisted, violent friendship reflects their
country's chaotic descent into ethnic cleansing under the racist leadership
of Slobodan Milosevic. Gut wrenching, adventurous, and nonjudgmental, the
film leaves a searing impression and is not recommended to viewers sensitive
to intense violence.
No Man's Land (2001)
The Bosnian civil war of the 1990s was a Balkan catastrophe about which
we understood little, and for which many Americans, cared even less. This
near-allegorical story of that war concerns a pair of Bosnian soldiers
who find themselves sharing a trench in no man's land with a Serb. Oscillating
between savage violence and brooding, bitter humor, the situation grows
more tense when UN observers and journalists become involved. This is a
sad and wry depiction of the irrational hatred that poisons the lives of
so many.
The Man Who Wasn't There
Above all, the Coen brothers are stylists, and in that regard, this
somber yet comedic film noire delivers the goods in spades. Eschewing much
of the strangeness that has become their trademark, the freres Coen keep
the story largely down to earth here. It concerns Ed Crane, a laconic,
sad-faced barber played astonishingly well by a practically unrecognizable
Billy Bob Thornton who delivers deadpan narration throughout the film telling
us far more than his face does. Though the plot strikes me as a slightly
undernourished homage to Hitchcock, the story is secondary to the intensity
of mood rendered by Roger Deakins' lavish black-and-white photography and
the indelible characterizations achieved by Thortnon, Frances McDormand
as his philandering, boozing wife, and a host of other Coen regulars. Fans
of classics such as Double Indemnity will find much to cherish here.
Mulholland Dr.
In the early '90s, director David Lynch managed to piss off a whole
lot of people with his much-debated TV series Twin Peaks. After
launching into a fairly conventional murder mystery set in a town full
of strange characters, the series began to veer away from any semblance
of rationality growing increasingly hallucinogenic week by week.
Mulholland
Dr. shares that same trajectory moving during the final third into
the realm of complete irrationality. Viewers with entrenched Aristotilean
needs are bound to be displeased while those who revel in the non-rational
and who welcome strange dreams will find much to enjoy. Briefly, the story
concerns a young woman freshly arrived in Hollywood seeking a film career
whose life becomes entwined with that of another actress in a story that
has passing similarities with Conrad's Secret Sharer.
Testamento
In the mid-1980s, a wealthy Cape Verdean businessman dies, and instead
of bequeathing his substantial estate and business to a conniving nephew
as expected, his fortune goes to his illegitimate daughter. The businessman
also leaves her a set of cassettes on which he has chronicled his life.
The tapes provide transitions to a series of flashbacks in which we trace
his rise from a barefoot immigrant boy to great success as an importer.
Bright and lighthearted, the stories are featherweight and charming. Aside
from giving us a feel for this West African island's culture and land,
the soundtrack offers a good bit of the lilting indigenous music. The comedy
is pretty broad and some plot points don't really scan, but in balance
this is a pleasing little entertainment.
Who The Hell is Juliette?
The highly original documentary portrait of a 16-year-old Cuban child-woman,
the film's kinetic, impulsive structure perfectly reflects its subject
who veers between playful childishness and feminine seductiveness. Juliette
and her born-again Christian brother lead a tenuous existence near Havana
dependent on their extended family for support following the suicide of
their mother and the abandonment of their father who lives in the U.S.
Because many storylines are abruptly dropped the movie's non-linearity
may prove frustrating to some. But for those who will stick with it, what
emerges is a telling portrait of adolescence and the anger that comes with
abandonment.
The Naked Kiss
Made in 1964, this is a strange and wonderful film by that auteur of
B movies, Samuel Fuller. It is the story of a hooker who has been brutalized
and exploited by men all her life and who decides upon moving to a new
town to go straight. She takes a job as a nurse working with crippled children
and embarks on a romance with the town's most eligible and very wealthy
bachelor. Things seem to be too good to be true, and they are. Indeed,
this movie never ends up where it seems to be going; Fuller's apparent
melodrama is a highly creative examination of feminism and of the exploitation
of women. Due to the constraints made by the censors of the day, there
is a great deal of loopy, double-entendre dialogue dealing with sex and
prostitution that at times is howlingly funny.
Time and Tide aka Seunlau Ngaklau
Though I am not a fan of martial arts movies, I found this innovative
actioner from Hong Kong a delight, albeit a largely mindless one. The bewildering
plot concerns a couple of drug cartels, a pair of lesbian cops, and dual,
somewhat parallel lines of action occurring in Latin America and Hong Kong
simultaneously. A more precise synopsis is pointless; the storylines exist
as devices on which to string a series of thoroughly creative and breathtaking
action sequences that dispense with most of the cliches of kung fu flicks.
Ultra-caffeinated non-stop action is the central attraction here.
Judy Berlin
Set in sterile, suburban Long Island, this understated indie production
concerns the stalled lives of a handful of residents on the first day of
school which coincides with a total solar eclipse. Only the title
character is on the move—she's striking out for Hollywood to try and make
it in the movies. Everyone else is caught in exhausted, failed lives brought
into surreal focus by the eclipse which goes on and on. A slow film that
will prove rewarding with careful attention.
The Pledge
Jack Nicholson is back on track here after a number of going-though-the-motions
efforts in recent years. He plays a Reno homicide cop who on his retirement
day becomes ensnared in the brutal murder and rape of a little girl. He
promises the victim's mother that he will track down the killer and attempts
to keep his word despite the fact that the rest of his department is convinced
that an Indian who committed suicide while in custody was the perpetrator.
Whether his quest is the result of his heightened ethics or the playing
out of a mad obsession is left to our speculation. Actor-director Sean
Penn's handling is careful and well thought out avoiding just about all
the cliches of the standard whodunit. This moody and haunting film ends
without any neat wrapup.
Jerry Maguire
A film that proves Hollywood is still capable of creativity, this is
the story of a high-powered sports agent (Tom Cruise) who suffers a crisis
of conscience causing him to be canned. The firing comes when he
distributes a manifesto to his colleagues in which he argues that they
need to take a more humane tack. Leaving the agency he is able to only
retain one second-tier football-player client (Cuba Gooding Jr.) and the
loyalty of a single-mother accountant (Renee Zelwegger in a break-through
role) at the firm whom he barely knows. All three actors animate writer-director
Cameron Crowe's smart script with brilliant performances and smashing chemistry.
This is a heartwarming and crowd pleasing effort that assumes some smarts
on the part of its audience.
Hard Core Logo
This mockumentary about a Canadian punk band reuniting for a
low-rent tour of the western provinces invites inevitable comparisons with
This
is Spinal Tap. But this is a much darker, meaner film, albeit one with
plenty of laughs. The central conflict involves the alcoholic, domineering
singer's efforts to pressure the lead guitarist into permanently reforming
the band, thus giving up his chance to become a regular part of a major
L.A. band with whom he's been subbing. Recommended to folks who find
fare such as Trainspotting up their alley.
Odd Man Out
From its opening that employs a swooping aerial sequence, this 1948
Carol Reed film serves notice of its thoroughly modern visual sensibility.
JamesMason, in one of his most indelible performances, plays an operative
for an unnamed organization in an unnamed city (it's clearly the IRA in
Belfast) which conducts a holdup in order to finance its agenda. In the
robbery Mason is hurt and spends the rest of the film hiding out from the
police, often in near-surreal situations. His long day’s journey into night
plays as a parable of desperation while his consciousness waxes and wanes.
With startlingly creative dream sequences and a cast of yeoman British
actors, this film has lost none of its punch over the years. Highly recommended.
Medium Cool
Master cinematographer Haskell Wexler shot his cast against the tumult
of the actual 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago in this highly creative,
groundbreaking film that blurs fictitious storylines with real events.
A remarkable time capsule of a hectic era, the film is most succesful in
raising questions about TV journalism's ethics. Unfortunateley neither
Wexler's so-so script nor his wobbly direction of a shaky cast serve the
more personal story about a journalist facing a crisis of conscience while
becoming involved with an Appalachian woman and her young son.
Waking Life
Director Richard Linklater whose directorial debut was the audacious
Slacker
, returns with a film that is at least as radical in its conception, and
far more daring in its execution. All the action for the film was first
shot conventionally using live actors and then, using rotoscoping, converted
to animation which varies dramatically in style throughout the film. The
central character is an unnamed young man who while in either the throes
of sleep or a coma (it's unclear which) has a succession of encounters
with characters who raise all the Big Questions. Though it ocasionally
grows a bit too talky, the sheer creativity of the images flashing across
the screen will keep adventurous viewers engaged.
He Walked By Night
Moodily effective lighting and exquisitely realized noir photography
by John Alton are key elements in this documentary-like crime drama
that is said to have been influential in the creation of TV's Dragnet.
The
story, partially directed by Anthony Mann, concerns a perversely brilliant
copkiller hunted by the police (including a very young Jack Webb) and is
quite gripping.
Joy Ride
Director John Dahl's metier is the western highway. His earlier flick,
Red
Rock West, was a compact masterpieces of apprehension set in similar
territory. On this joyride he explores the horror genre in which the boogie
man is only fleetingly seen. The familiar road movie story has three
young folks trying to dodge a psychotically vengeful truck driver on whom
they've played a practical joke. What sets the film apart is a series of
creatively choreographed chase sequences and enough character development
to let us care about these people.
Under The Sand aka Sous le Sable
While on vacation at the beach, a man disappears and is presumably
drowned. The rest of this French film is focused on his widow and how,
slowly disintergrating, she fails to come to terms with his death. In the
absence of a body there can be no closure. Charlotte Rampling, in perhaps
her most riveting appearance ever, is the wife who suffers from a big case
of denial. Subtle and introspective, director Francois Ozon's film creates
feelings without any obvious manipulation of the audience.
Monsoon Wedding
Director Mira Nair (Salaam Bombay, Mississippi Masala) offers us a
film that is both a derivative of Father of The Bride and a riotously colorful
and chaotic concoction inspired by Bollywood. In New Delhi, a couple is
about to be wed in an arranged marriage and members of their extended families
turn up from all corners of the world to join the celebration, bringing
with them foibles and even dark secrets. Indeed, the bride has a shocking
confession to make. Though the settings are exotic, the themes and familial
dramas are universal, and an unalloyed joyousness will have all but the
most curmudgeonly viewers smiling.
L.I.E.
Fifteen-year-old Howie Blitzer is suffering from abandonment. His nurturing
mother was killed on the Long Island Expressway (hence the title), leaving
him in the inept hands of his clueless, neglectful father who is
preoccupied with trying to dodge a criminal fraud charge while boinking
his live-in girlfriend in the still-warm marital bed. Howie deals with
ambiguous sexual urges, hangs out with kids who are much slower than he,
and gets involved in petty crimes. Enter Big John Harrigan, played brilliantly
by Brian Cox, a creepy pederast who maneuvers himself into the position
of Howie's surrogate dad. Cox's portrayal is multilayered—he is both a
man and a monster. First-time director Michael Cuesta gets uniformly fine
performances from his predominently teenaged cast.
Traffik
This 1989 six-part British mini-series was the inspiration for the
U.S. feature film Traffic. Like that Hollywood remake, it
explores the complexities of drug addiction and the heroin trade from three
perspectives: cops chasing smugglers and distributors in Hamburg, a British
minister struggling with his daughter's smack addicition while attempting
to deal with the same problem on a political level, and a Pakistani peasant
who goes from poppy farming to becoming the right-hand man to a major heroin
exporter. It is in the last story that there is a major departure between
the two versions. In the American release, the third story concerns a Mexican
undercover cop. Perhaps the producers felt that the Pakistani story was
too remote and exotic to be relevant to U.S. audiences. In any event, it
is this third element of the story that works least well in the English
version. We don't come to understand these Asian people and their motives
nearly as well as we do the Germans and British characters. Nonetheless,
this is a gripping and wonderfully detailed account of a problem that deserves
the complex treatment it is given here.
Chopper (2000)
Mark “Chopper” Read, an ultra-violent career criminal, is an actual
and highly controversial figure in Australian society who has written extensively
of his experiences in and out of prison. This film is based on those writings
and mixes large dollops of blood and humor in the manner of Pulp
Fiction. An opening advisory states that what is depicted in the film is
based on real events that have been altered for dramatic purposes. Although
it is impossible to judge to what extent liberties have been taken with
the truth, that hardly matters. Eric Bana, an Aussie standup comic who
plays the title character, serves up a powerfully visceral performance
that isn’t easily dismissed. This is definitely not recommended to those
who have trouble with scenes of extreme violence.
The Taste of Others aka Le Gout de Autres
It is a widely-held perception that the French are the masters of snobbery.
That would be born out by this witty, arch comedy about a businessman,
who in the course of taking English lessons from an actress, becomes enamored
of her social circle and aspires to become part of it. He is gauche and
uncultured and is roundly ridiculed by this clique which has great fun
at his expense. Underlying the nastiness is the worthwhile notion that
we all have something to teach one another. Clever stuff.
Martin Paule's Micro Movie Reviews:
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