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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-

Risk

In this Australian import, a naïve young man takes a job as an insurance adjuster because he “wants to help people.” He comes under the tutelage of an older adjuster (veteran Bryan Brown in a fine, scenery-chewing turn) and finds himself caught up in both fraudulent scams as well as a romantic relationship with a crooked lawyer who is in cahoots with his boss. The acting is top-notch and the locales are excellent in this sprightly effort that handily demonstrates that venality isn’t limited to the Northern Hemisphere. The downside is that the neophyte’s character is so spineless and lacking in direction/distinction that it is tough to care much about what happens to him. Enjoy it for the relish with which Brown plays the baddy.

The Rules of Attraction

Almost too clever for its own good, this story of college-based sex, drugs, rock ‘n’ roll and suicide starts at the end then uses tricky manipulations of time and points of view as well as some flashy split-screen work to flesh out what is in the final analysis a love triangle peppered with prodiguous collegiate debauchery and callow humor. Writer-director Roger Avary who co-wrote Pulp Fiction adapted his screenplay from the novel by the much-reviled Bret Easton Ellis (American Psycho) retaining all of that writer’s venom. Be warned that there are no characters here who you will want to root for—they are a self-centered, disgusting bunch. There is also a lot of gross-out humor belonging to the American Psycho variety rather than Animal House genre.

Roger Dodger

This dialogue-driven film is the acerbic portrait of a smooth-talking, glib-tongued copywriter who, following a breakup with his boss/lover, takes on the sexual education of his 16 year-old nephew. Roger is a sad and lonely guy beneath the bluff and bravado, and it is his story rather than the nephew’s that is ultimately the stuff of this well-wrought, if talky film. Strongly recommended to Mamet fans.  

Ratcatcher

Set in the summer of 1973 when Glasgow’s garbage men are on strike and the city staggers under the weight of rotting garbage and the vermin it attracts, this striking piece of social realism from first-time director Lynne Ramsay is redolent with pictorial details. Her protagonist, James, is 12 and lives in a crowded, run-down council house with his handsome, hard-drinking Da and still-young Ma together with three siblings. In the early going he gets into a shoving match with a friend at the edge of a fetid canal which leads to the friend’s drowning. From that moment in the film onward, James wears the weight of his act on his face. Though he seems more sensitive than most of the kids in his neighborhood, James takes part in their cruel games. For him, a comfortable home is paramount. In a telling sequence he explores a nearly finished modern home at the countryside’s edge—the house is clearly idyllic to the boy. James marks his territory by peeing in an unconnected toilet and later frolics with child-like abandon in adjacent field of grain. Ramsay’s experience as a still photographer informs her film: it is full of tiny details some tawdry, others resplendent that collectively provide an indelible sense of time and place.
 

Room at the Top

This British film came out in 1959 during the height of the Angry Young Man period in Britain. Though it is a fairly conventional story about choosing between love and fortune, its distinction is a hero who manipulates the class system rather than simply rebelling against it, as is the case with the other AYM entries of the era. Excellent location shooting and a moving performance by Simone Signoret as a spurned lover are big plusses; Laurence Harvey however is not quite the equal of his role as Joe Lampton, a complex character struggling with the old British class structure while he connives to get ahead. A further liability is the often stilted and cliched dialog that accompanies the film’s several love scenes. Ironically, Room has a torrid if not graphic necking scene in a car that includes one of the smokiest screen kisses ever.

The Royal Tanenbaums

Russian Ark

Filmed in a single, fluid shot using a Steadicam, this revolutionary film is set in the sumptuous splendor of St Petersburg's Hermitage museum and recounts the history that has played out within its walls. Director Aleksander Sokurov uses an unnamed protagonist, a 19^th century French diplomat, as a device to guide his audience through three centuries surrounded by the immense museum's collection. One moment we are at a Romanov ball alive with spectacular costumes, courtly dances, and powerful music, in the next we witness knapsack-toting modern-day tourists gaping at the collections. Sakurov takes his title from the notion that Hermitage is the repository for all of Russia's art and culture, and his breathtaking film makes a strong case for that conceit. The advertising for the film trumpets, 2,000 actors. 300 years of Russian History. 33 Rooms at the Hermitage Museum. 3 Live Orchestras. 1 Single Continuous Shot. Which hradly begins to suggest the breathless power of this undertaking.
 

Round Midnight

Ram Dass: Fierce Grace

In the 1960s, Ram Dass, nee Richard Alpert, then a Harvard professor, fell under the spell of Timothy Leary and became a psychedelic warrior proselytizing for the use of LSD as a means of expanding consciousness. Later he went to India and became a devotee of a Hindu holy man and replaced drugs with meditation as a means to spiritual evolution. His book Be Here Now became an operating manual for the Flower Children and over time Ram Dass became the elder spokesman for the consciousness movement as well as a nutritional advisor to a generation of aging baby boomers. In 1999 he was felled by a stroke (he says that God stroked him) leaving him with partial paralysis and some mental/speech impediments.  This film begins with Ram Dass in the present, coming to terms with and even embracing his deterioration. Then, using archival footage and interviews with counter-culture figures such as Wavy Gravy and Timothy Leary’s widow, we follow the transitions in Ram Dass’s life. There are idyllic scenes from the ‘60s with throngs of hippies blissfully cavorting on the lush Alpert family estate in New Hampshire, stills and films of his India sojourn, and finally a meeting with a young woman who has suffered a devastating loss in which Ram Dass shows that he is still open to receiving as well as dispensing wisdom.     

Ray

While Jamie Foxx’s embodiment of Ray Charles is downright spooky in its accuracy, the cliché-ridden story in this lavish biopic is less compelling. The film smartly avoids the pitfall of attempting to cover Charles’ entire life by focusing on a span from the late 1940s through the mid-1960s. The music is a blast and the period recreations are immaculate; what undoes the film is its by-the-number treatment of Charles’ womanizing and smack habit, both neatly explained away by the drowning death of his younger brother in the 1930s. And there’s way too many shots through the recording studio control room glass of Ehmet Ertegun, Jerry Wexler and Tom Dowd nodding conspiratorially at one another in their certainty that music history is being made. That aside, the film is a must for anyone with even a passing interest in the man and his music.

The Red Circle aka Le Cercle Rouge

A devotee of American gangster flicks, French auteur Jean-Pierre Melville had a knack for marrying the best of that genre with a certain Gallic fatalism in which crooks do what they must in the context of stringent codes of honor and in the face of treachery. One of his technically most accomplished films, Circle is ostensibly a heist film in which a big robbery and its planning are meticulously detailed. But it is Melville’s stylistic floutishes in the end that offer the biggest payoffs. That, coupled with a top-notch cast of French regulars going tersely about their criminal business makes this an exceedingly satisfying movie.

The Red Circle aka Le Cercle Rouge

A devotee of American gangster flicks, French auteur Jean-Pierre Melville had a knack for marrying the best of that genre with a certain Gallic fatalism in which crooks do what they must in the context of stringent codes of honor and in the face of treachery. One of his technically most accomplished films, Circle is ostensibly a heist film in which a big robbery and its planning are meticulously detailed. But it is Melville’s stylistic floutishes in the end that offer the biggest payoffs. That, coupled with a top-notch cast of French regulars going tersely about their criminal business makes this an exceedingly satisfying movie.

Rushmore

Wes Anderson has built a small and quirky body of work that includes Bottle Rocket and The Royal Tenenbaums. Rushmore is his breakout film, an oddball story about Max Fischer, an odd-duck prep school student who is at once annoying, egocentric, and utterly beguiling thanks to an indefatigable enthusiasm and mercurial nature that plunges headlong from one obsession to the next. Bill Murray is wonderfully understated as a burned-out industrialist who forges a strange alliance with Max.

The Return

This austere Russian film concerns a pair of adolescent boys whose father suddenly reappears after a 12-year absence and announces they are going on a camping trip. What follows is a grim, enigmatic journey in which the taciturn father alternately scolds, educates and abuses the boys. There are subtle hints about his whereabouts during the absence but little is revealed in terms of narrative. Instead, the film focuses on the conflicted emotions of the trio, and in this it is very good with exceptional performances being drawn from all three.

Rivers and Tides

British artist and sculptor Andy Goldsworthy works with ephemeral stuff like leaves and ice to create works of great imagination and beauty that often exist for just moments before they collapse, melt or are swept away by the tides and rivers of this meditative film’s title. Watching him work intuitively in natural settings is awe inspiring and may forever change the way you look at the landscape around you.  

Rosetta

As with their other feature films La Promesse and Le Fils, directors Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne take a cinema verité approach in telling their story of a teenage girl struggling to get by in a grim Belgian landscape. Like their other films there is a lot of focus on the work that people do to get by. In Rosetta’s case, she gets hired as a seamstress in a sweatshop with dispiriting results and resorts to demeaning ends to survive. This is perhaps the grimmest of the three feature films thus far from this directorial pair and is clearly far more than mere entertainment.

Requiem for a Dream
This is harrowing stuff. Technically brilliant and heart wrenching in
its emotional attack, it�s the story of four unrealistic people and
the way their hopes are dashed by their slender grasp on reality as well as
the drugs that prove their ultimate undoing. Sara Goldfarb (Ellen Burstyn)
lives in her Coney Island apartment and imagines that her husband is still
alive, denies her attractive son's smack habit, and with the extensive help
of diet pills, plans an appearance on a TV game show once she can get back
into an old party dress. Her son (Jared Leto) and his sidekick (Marlon
Wayans) meanwhile plan to become big-time dealer s while Leto�s addicted
girlfriend (Jennifer Connelly in a role that finally gives her something to
work with) has dreams of becoming a fashion designer. The subject matter is
grim and the performances are excellent, making this a film not easily
dismissed from memory. Directed by Darren Aronofsky who made the innovative
�Pi�, he also demonstrates his cinematic flash here with some dazzling
montages and set pieces in which his characters indulge in their chemicals of
choice.
 
 
 
 

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 thug life  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".
 

Reservoir Dogs

Before "Pulp Fiction" crowned Quentin Tarantino as the reigning enfant
terrible of Hollywood, "Dogs" garnered him an appreciative cult audience.
Superficially a rather standard heist movie, the director's use of over the
top violence, a body count rivaling Hiroshima's, and tons of directorial
quirks set this apart. In retrospect it has proved at least as influential
as "Pulp", spawning a score of lookalike flicks, among the best being the
tightly plotted "The Usual Suspects" which would make a fine double-bill.
Fair warning: there is one torture scene that will have all but those
missing the squeamish gene averting their eyes. Additionally, there is
enough bloodshed to leave the average viewer feeling in need of a
transfusion by the time the final credits roll.
 
 

Rita, Sue and Bob Too

Those who hew to strictly politically correct rules are warned away from
this profane and vulgar but endlessly funny comedy from England. Bob is a
30-something married guy who enters into a three-way liaison with two
blue-collar teens who babysit for him and his frigid wife. Some of the sex
scenes in Bob's car will leave you gasping-either with anger or laughter,
depending on your mindset.
 
 

The Rocking Horse Winner

D.H. Lawrence's sad story about a boy who is able to pick horse race
winners while in a trance-like state aboard his rocking horse enjoys a
superior transition to the screen. On the surface it is a story about an
unusual form of ESP; beneath, it delves into the universal insecurities
that children suffer.
 
 

The Real Blonde

Tom Dicillo who was once Jim Jarmush's cinematographer has made a career
out of offbeat little films such as "Living in Oblivion" and "Box of
Moonlight" in which his protagonists struggle to find their way in life and
get their careers jump started. Such is the case with "Blonde" in which we
first get to know a hapless but principled wannabe actor (Matthew Modine)
whose day job is as a cater-waiter and his long term live-in girlfriend
(Catherine Keener) who works as a makeup artist for a domineering fashion
photographer (Marlo Thomas). Through the two principals we meet a series of
indelible characters all struggling with career, sexuality, urban angst and
all the rest of life's facets in the artsy regions of NYC. The title refers
to the quest by a fellow actor friend of Modine's for a woman who is really
blonde, right down to her pubic follicles. Though the interleaved plots are
minimal, witty dialogue and politically incorrect observations about life
in the 90s hit the mark. This is "Seinfeld" with balls of steel.
 
 

Red Cherry

A rather disjointed but fascinating film produced by the Beijing Youth
Studios, this is based on the experiences of a Chinese boy and girl, both
orphaned by the execution of their communist parents by the Nationalists.
They arrive at a Russian international school in 1940 on the eve of the
German invasion. The haven of the school takes up the first quarter of the
film and sets into relief the horrors that are to come. The film follows
their harrowing attempts to survive in the chaos that ensues when the
Germans overrun Moscow and shut down the school. Unfortunately, the
narrative is very fragmentary with large lapses in the story development
that left me wondering about all sorts of plot points. But the two child
actors as well as the supporting cast are very appealing and the subject
matter is extremely unusual. Interestingly, the Russians, especially those
connected with the school are painted in a very positive light while the
Germans are without exception shown as evil incarnate. One of the subtitles
refers to "The Anti-Fascist Revolution" and it is unclear whether it's
referring to the civil war going on in China in 1940, or the Russian
resistance to the Third Reich. This was an enormously popular film at home
winning the best picture award at the Shanghai Film Festival. There is a
substantial amount of nudity, some involving adolescents, which is
surprising given the strictness of Chinese censors in the past. Though not
entirely successful due to narrative lapses, the subject matter makes it
involving viewing.
 

Repulsion

Another Polanski flick about a sexually repressed woman who mentally
deteriorates when left alone in her sister's apartment. It is very eerie
and stays with you. This was Polanski's first English-language film.
 

Red Rock West

A clever little made-for-cable movie also about a murder for hire starring
Nicholas Cage. Like "Blood Simple", it's the plot that really puts this one
over. Cage is mistaken for a hitman, played brilliantly by Dennis Hopper,
who becomes involved in a dark series of events that take on nightmarish
proportions.
 
 

Repo Man

This is one cult movie that's just about impossible to describe. Basically
it's about a punk who apprentices to Harry Dean Stanton, a seasoned repo
man. But it takes off in a variety of strange directions that involve
everything from pachucos to aliens. Try it - you'll like it!
 
 

Restoration

A young 17th century English doctor is torn between his practice and his
penchant for sex. He becomes a favorite in the court of Charles II and to
please the king become the proxy groom to one of the king's mistresses. A
great performance by Robert Downey Jr. is matched by a sumptuous production
and close attention to period detail.
 
 

Riff Raff/Raining Stones/Ladybird, Ladybird
 

A trio of films by English director Ken Loach who works in a similar milieu
to that of Mike Leigh. They are all a bit grim in spots, especially the
latter, but each has bright and funny moments. They draw their truthfulness
from their director's unrepentant left-wing world view. The first is about
a Scots guy who works under the table on a London building site with a
collection of other struggling blue collar workers. (The accents are so
thick that subtitles were added to the U.S. version.) The second deals with
a down and out man who becomes embroiled with a loan shark as the result of
borrowing money to pay for his daughter's confirmation dress. "Ladybird"
chronicles the life of a woman who keeps having illegitimate kids only to
have them taken away by the authorities and who forms a relationship with
an illegal immigrant. Terribly sad but very engaging, the lead is played by
a first-time film actress who was a standup comedienne that Loach
discovered playing at a seedy joint in Liverpool. These movies share an
emotional climate with the Italian neo-realism flicks that followed WWII
such as "The Bicycle Thief" and "Umberto D" (which you should check out if
you haven't seen them).
 
 

Ridicule

In 18th century France a baron travels from his malaria-infested lands to
Paris to petition the king for funds to drain the swamps back home. He
quickly learns that at court, it is the bon mot - the clever barb or turn
of phrase that earns access to the king who is surrounded by a clever and
cruel coterie of advisors and hangers on. Full of sly humor and authentic
period detail, this is very chatty.
 
 

Roger and Me

A brilliant documentary about the collapse of Flint, Michigan in the 70s
after GM decides to pull out. Made by a former editor of Mother Jones
magazine, this is a biting indictment of corporate America and a hilarious
spoof on mindless chamber of commerce boosterism. Much funnier than it
probably sounds.
 
 

Reversal of Fortune

Jeremy Irons is brilliant as the cold and aristocratic Klaus von Bulow who
is accused of the attempted murder of his bed-bound hypochondriacal heiress
wife played equally well by Glenn Close. Though when all is said and done
we're none the wiser as to what really happened, the quality of the script
and performances leave you not caring much. In a creative move, Close's
character narrates the story from her perpetual coma. This is based on a
real case and the script was adapted from a book written by the lawyer who
defended von Bulow.
 

The Rachel Papers

A charming little number based on a Martin Amis novel about an English
youth who develops a huge crush on an American girl and pursues her with
the help of his computer. Notable as one of the first instances in which a
PC plays a significant role, and for delightful performances in the key
parts.
 
 

Raise The Red Lantern

Some of the most pictorially splendid stuff has been coming out of China
over the past few years and this is one of the prime examples. An educated
woman is sent to become the fourth (I think) wife of a feudal lord. It is
full of intrigue, seething, understated sexuality and above all, glorious
production values. The title refers to the convention that a red lantern is
placed in the compound in front of the house of the wife who the lord is
favoring with his company.
 

Return of The Secaucus Seven

If you've seen "The Big Chill", you'll recognize this as a far superior
mining of the same territory. Made on a shoestring budget, this was Sayles'
directorial debut and is the story of seven 60s radicals who hold a reunion
at an old house in New Hampshire. Some of them have "sold out" -taken jobs
in the real world, and one of the women brings her very square, very
conservative boyfriend along. Yet they all manage to get along; after all
it's no longer the 60s and things are a lot less polarized. Again, Sayles
gives himself a juicy part as a local mechanic who never went to college.
Full of well crafted dialogue and believable situations.
 

River's Edge (1986)

When a high school girl is found murdered on a river bank, a conspiracy of
silence overtakes her friends and acquaintances who know who did it.
Loosely based on an actual case, it is a disturbing look at peer pressure
and the lack of connection between teenagers and adults. Dennis Hopper has
a great part as a druggie-biker who finds himself at odds with the kids'
lack of ethics!
 

Round Midnight

The elegant grace of tenor saxman Dexter Gordon is translated effortlessly
to the screen in Bertrand Tavernier's story of an alcoholic expat jazz man
working in 50s Paris. A rabid French fan takes the jazz man under his
impoverished but committed wing and they both prosper from the odd
coupling. The story, partially based on the lives of Bud Powell and Lester
Young, is brought to the screen with sensational art direction and
photography that evokes the time and place winningly.
 
 

Romper Stomper

The brutal portrait of a group of Melbourne skinheads whose idea of a good
time is to go out and hunt Asians, it calls to mind "A Clockwork Orange".
Difficult to watch but ultimately compelling.
 

Ruby in Paradise

Director Victor Nunez recently had a small hit with his quietly effective
"Ulee's Gold" for which Peter Fonda's received an Academy Award nomination.
His previous film offers a lot of the same quiet satisfactions as that
followup effort. Ashley Judd, sister of C&W singer, Wynonna, plays a young
woman who walks out on a deadend relationship in Tennessee and heads for
Florida to try and start over. There she finds work in a gift shop where
the owner's randy son relentlessly hits on her. But she's not willing to be
a victim. This is an assured little film that avoids the hackneyed
solutions to what has recently been an overworked storyline.
 

Rules of the Game

Jean Renoir's masterful and satiric look at the French überclass during the
30s depicts a decadent weekend in the country at an aristocrat's country
mansion where all manner of intrigues below and above stairs go on. Try to
find a tape that has the 1959 restoration which runs 113 minutes.
 
 

The Ruling Class

One of my favorite British black comedies. Peter O'Toole who's convinced
that he's Jesus Christ is the last in a line of deranged British
aristocrats. The plot, such as it is, involves a twisted collection of
relatives and a conniving minister expertly played by the redoubtable
Alistair Sim who are trying to get O'Toole committed so as to lay their
hands on the family jewels. Lots of loony breaking into song and assorted
other madness add up to one relentlessly silly flick. Python fans should be
pleased.
 
 

Ruthless People