I arrived at this movie mainly as a fan of Kevin Kline, and I suppose I shouldn't be surprised to see that, despite the way the U.S. posters were put together. It is, after all, a French movie, and Kline, after all, is playing the role Jean Reno or Stellan Skarsgard would play in an American film, which is seldom the lead. Still, you seldom see people doing that sort of thing in reverse; the Hollywood money is so good that a person who would be a lead in France will often take supporting roles in the US, and it seems odd to see someone going in the other direction, taking what is likely a cut in both prestige and pay.
But, then, it's not like Kline has been a lead in a while. This actually surprises me; in my head he's still the guy in his forties carrying movies like Dave and In & Out, but that last one was almost fifteen years ago, and though he doesn't really look like he's aged out of those roles, he hasn't had a lead since 2007's Trade (likely not as good as I thought at the time, and which didn't get picked up by a major studio). In the meantime, his calendar age caught up with him on screen something fierce; he now seems to be specializing in supporting roles where it seems to be fifty/fifty that he dies in order to teach the younger main character about the fleetingness and preciousness of life. Truth be told, I can't recall if one of his characters has actually died yet, but, man, the threat is sure alive.
It's a shame, really. He's still a vital, funny guy, and I hope doing another comedy with Lawrence Kasdan (set for release next year) gets him back center stage where he belongs.
Not that I'm complaining about the guy I came to see being in a secondary part, becuase I found myself really loving Sandrine Bonnaire. Apparently I had seen her before, in Intimate Strangers, but I didn't realize that at the time; she was a vaguely familiar name but not face. Quite a lovely face, though, especially once she smiles. Expressive, too, which is a good thing when much of the movie is going to be her playing chess.
The movie doesn't get too much into the mechanics of the game, which is a little disappointing but makes it accessible. Not that I am the guy to look down his nose at straightforward descriptions of the game. My chess-playing abilities are pretty reflective of me as a person - I am reasonably intelligent and retain information well enough to know the rules and how the pieces move, but stink at long-term planning. Still, it would have been nice to hear something more specific than how chess is about knowing the time and place to break the rules (like life, you know), just because I like specifics and would kind of like to learn something so that I could be better at chess, on the off-chance I ever find myself playing the game with someone who doesn't stink at it as much as I do.
Anyway, sorry for the late review, as tomorrow (Thursday) appears to be the Queen to Play's last day in town. It's certainly not a bad couple of hours.
Joueuse (Queen to Play)
* * * ¼ (out of four)
Seen 9 May 2011 in Landmark Kendall Square #5 (first-run)
There should be more chess movies, although there are probably more than I think because I just haven't gotten around to seeing many (I remember Siskel & Ebert raving about Fresh, but I missed it). It's a game where everyone knows the rules but can gain some insight over the course of the film. And with it such a game of the mind, you can see something special from close-ups of faces as expressive as those of Sandrine Bonnaire and Kevin Kline.
When the movie starts, Hélène (Sandrine Bonnaire) has never played chess; she's a maid at a small Corsica hotel. Something about a pair of American guests playing the game catches her eye, though, and she gets her husband Ange (Francis Renaud) an electronic chess game as a birthday present, something they can play together or practice individually. He's not interested, but she suddenly sees reminders of the game everywhere. She soon finds herself unable to go much further with the cheap computer, but it turns out that the American expatriate whose house she cleans for extra money, Dr. Kroger (Kevin Kline), plays a little himself, though he has to be cajoled into teaching Hélène.
Director Caroline Bottaro (who also wrote the screenplay, adapting a novel by Bertina Henrichs) is not doing anything tremendously complicated or unpredictable; from the opening where Hélène looks longingly at the American tourist couple to the pride that's on the line in her last on-screen game, the movie is cinematic comfort food for the most part. Even the obvious triangle with Hélène, Kroger, and Ange is played relatively low-key, as if Bottaro knows that the audience will roll their eyes at too much melodrama. It does get weird for a bit in there, but she rights the ship soon enough. And while most in the audience can see what she's going for with each minute, she doesn't feel the need to underline it. Yes, a scene is clearly about how Hélène's co-worker is giving up on something she loves as Hélène ponders doing the same, but there's no speech about it.
Full review at EFC.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
German guys with odd releases: Rammbock and Cave of Forgotten Dreams
Happy Barely-A-Theme Day, as I take a couple day break from doing IFFBoston write-ups to comment on a couple of things that won't be in theaters long, but may well be worth a look while they're there. Both are directed by folks from Germany, so it makes a little sense to group them together like this, and although both are somewhat unusual fits for big multiplex theaters, they're targeted toward fairly different audiences (with the overlap, obviously, being me).
Rammbock is the first film to be released by The Collective under their "Bloody-Disgusting Selects" partnership with, well, Bloody-Disgusting.com, which will release a different horror film at AMC theaters nationwide every month, with Friday midnight shows and encores on Wednesday at 10pm. Each film gets four weeks, and then the next one takes its turn. In this case, that next one is Yellowbrickroad, which might have been an easier sale as the first, being in English and having a name that means something to the audience.
I kind of wonder whether many of the small audience that saw Rammbock with me will be back. There was a technical screw-up that made the movie somewhat difficult to watch, in that the screen was configured for a "scope" movie (2.35 times as wide as it is tall), and this one was flat (1.85 times as wide as tall). In this case, that means the top and bottom of the image wasn't quite cut off, but they were being projected against the black wall rather than the white screen. This could have been a real problem, as the subtitles were in that bottom space, although they were large and white enough to be readable - enough so that nobody (myself included) felt the need to go find an usher, but it was annoying.
Also, this was a very, very short movie - Google listed its running time as sixty-four minutes, while the IMDB says fifty-nine; I suspect Google is including the "what to do in case of a zombie attack in the theater" short that preceded it. Now, I'm generally for shorter movies if that's the proper length, but this one could have used some room to breathe on the one hand, and on the other... This is going to be everyone's first encounter with Bloody-Disgusting Selects, and while I think it's a pretty neat idea, you can't really say that the audience got a whole lot for its money. There are no matinees for these movies, and $11.50 is pretty steep for an hour of movie (plus, no way to take the T home on Friday). The audience doesn't know that July's selection, Cold Fish, is two and a half hours long and brilliant. With no reason to assume that Rammbock is an outlier, Yellowbrickroad may be a hard sell, even with its good-looking preview.
After some quick sleep, I was back at Boston Common for Cave of Forgotten Dreams, a little surprised to see it playing there. It seems to be very last-minute; Google didn't have it on its movie listing page (I only found out about it when checking Fandango to make the pricing chart for last week's "Next Week"), and up until a few days earlier it had been on Landmark's schedule of movie's opening at Kendall Square on the 6th. Neither were where I'd expected it to show up; when I heard of Werner Herzog doing a 3D documentary, I figured on AMC's Harvard Square theater, which has 3D projection but would often get the more upscale studio and indie product. I don't know as that's so much the case any more; they seem to be more mainstream now that the studios aren't enforcing exclusion areas around here (Thor opened in Harvard Square, Fresh Pond, and Arlington, which are pretty close to each other; that never used to happen).
It was a surprisingly good crowd, which is very cool - folks were paying $15.50 a ticket at the evening show, and whenever you hear somebody pooh-poohing 3D, one of the frequent comments is that it's all very well for kiddie or dumb action movies, but you'll never see a crowd of adults putting on stupid glasses to watch a serious film. As it turns out, they just might, so long as you give them a compelling reason, and this one, at least, filled the bill.
Rammbock (Berlin Undead)
* * ¾ (out of four)
Seen 6 May 2011 in AMC Boston Common #5 (Bloody-Disgusting Selects, digital)
Rammbock is far enough outside what usually the parameters of what shows up on multiplex screens - a low-budget German horror movie so short that only an hour and fifteen minutes passes between the lights going down and the last credit, even with a repeated preview and a draggy shorty accompanying it - that the expectation is that it must be extraordinary. After all, this wouldn't be one of four horror movies chosen for a national release (albeit one that gets eight or nine screenings total per location over the course of a month) unless it were too brilliant to be denied, right? Well, that's not the case. It's pretty good in spots and clever in others, but not the sort of thing to make plans for.
Michael (Michael Fuith) and Gabi (Anka Graczyk) broke up some time ago, but Michael has not really accepted it yet; he's just made the trip from Vienna to Berlin to return her keys rather than just dropped them in the mail because what he really wants to do is convince her to get back together. When he gets to her apartment, she's not there, but a workman of some sort is, and he's come down with one of those highly-contagious diseases that makes him crave human flesh and not communicate so well. Another worker, Harper (Theo Trebs), helps him dispatch the infected guy and barricade themselves in the apartment, but in the process Michael drops his phone in the hall. Now it's ringing, Michael is convinced that it's Gabi calling for help, and there's not much room to fall back - they can see other people stranded in their apartments across a courtyard that fills with infected whenever someone tries to make a break for it.
It's not a bad set-up at all, especially for a feature being shot on an indie budget - a basically contained location, a small cast, the effects limited to some well-practiced prostheses. Director Marvin Kren does fairly well by his limited resources; we get to know the location well enough to feel things tighten up as Michael and Harper are forced to fall back, and he's able to get shocks from just gore; perhaps the most horrifying scene has a victim simply disappearing amid a horde of ravenous flesh-eaters.
Full review at EFC.
Cave of Forgotten Dreams
* * * ½ (out of four)
Seen 7 May 2011 in AMC Boston Common #1 (first run, Real-D 3D)
Pundits declaiming the use of 3D in recent years often act like it was gone for a generation between the mid-eighties and late-naughts, but that's not really the case; it was used extensively for documentaries that played at science museums and the like. With few exceptions, those tended to be the work of relatively anonymous filmmakers, the subject more important than authorial voice. That's the case here, to an extent; even a personality like Werner Herzog eventually steps aside to simply marvel at the Chauvet cave paintings.
The Chauvet cave system was discovered by a trio of explorers on 18 December 1994, and while it would have been a remarkable discovery regardless, the contents are the reason why the government of France strictly limits access: There are paintings in the cave estimated to be thirty-two thousand years old, by far the oldest ever discovered. They are a tremendous resource to anthropologists, archeologists, and even zoologists - before seeing these paintings, they could only guess as to whether the extinct cave lion had a mane like present-day African lions - but even beyond the macro level, these paintings touch something in the romantic souls of the researchers; there's a connection between them and an artist who lived millennia ago.
The paintings themselves are interesting, but Herzog and company do an impressive job of placing them in context. An image on the wall of a horse with eight legs will lead to discussions of how even at this incredibly early stage, the artists were already using distortions and other techniques beyond simple representation to illustrate movement, power, and emotion; the sole human figure leads to sculptures with similar designs found at a German site not far away. We see what a fine, technologically sophisticated process archeology has become; work with a shovel would likely destroy the small, fragile artifacts in question, and a laser-generated map allows researchers to explore the cave without opening it up to potential contamination.
Full review at EFC.
Rammbock is the first film to be released by The Collective under their "Bloody-Disgusting Selects" partnership with, well, Bloody-Disgusting.com, which will release a different horror film at AMC theaters nationwide every month, with Friday midnight shows and encores on Wednesday at 10pm. Each film gets four weeks, and then the next one takes its turn. In this case, that next one is Yellowbrickroad, which might have been an easier sale as the first, being in English and having a name that means something to the audience.
I kind of wonder whether many of the small audience that saw Rammbock with me will be back. There was a technical screw-up that made the movie somewhat difficult to watch, in that the screen was configured for a "scope" movie (2.35 times as wide as it is tall), and this one was flat (1.85 times as wide as tall). In this case, that means the top and bottom of the image wasn't quite cut off, but they were being projected against the black wall rather than the white screen. This could have been a real problem, as the subtitles were in that bottom space, although they were large and white enough to be readable - enough so that nobody (myself included) felt the need to go find an usher, but it was annoying.
Also, this was a very, very short movie - Google listed its running time as sixty-four minutes, while the IMDB says fifty-nine; I suspect Google is including the "what to do in case of a zombie attack in the theater" short that preceded it. Now, I'm generally for shorter movies if that's the proper length, but this one could have used some room to breathe on the one hand, and on the other... This is going to be everyone's first encounter with Bloody-Disgusting Selects, and while I think it's a pretty neat idea, you can't really say that the audience got a whole lot for its money. There are no matinees for these movies, and $11.50 is pretty steep for an hour of movie (plus, no way to take the T home on Friday). The audience doesn't know that July's selection, Cold Fish, is two and a half hours long and brilliant. With no reason to assume that Rammbock is an outlier, Yellowbrickroad may be a hard sell, even with its good-looking preview.
After some quick sleep, I was back at Boston Common for Cave of Forgotten Dreams, a little surprised to see it playing there. It seems to be very last-minute; Google didn't have it on its movie listing page (I only found out about it when checking Fandango to make the pricing chart for last week's "Next Week"), and up until a few days earlier it had been on Landmark's schedule of movie's opening at Kendall Square on the 6th. Neither were where I'd expected it to show up; when I heard of Werner Herzog doing a 3D documentary, I figured on AMC's Harvard Square theater, which has 3D projection but would often get the more upscale studio and indie product. I don't know as that's so much the case any more; they seem to be more mainstream now that the studios aren't enforcing exclusion areas around here (Thor opened in Harvard Square, Fresh Pond, and Arlington, which are pretty close to each other; that never used to happen).
It was a surprisingly good crowd, which is very cool - folks were paying $15.50 a ticket at the evening show, and whenever you hear somebody pooh-poohing 3D, one of the frequent comments is that it's all very well for kiddie or dumb action movies, but you'll never see a crowd of adults putting on stupid glasses to watch a serious film. As it turns out, they just might, so long as you give them a compelling reason, and this one, at least, filled the bill.
Rammbock (Berlin Undead)
* * ¾ (out of four)
Seen 6 May 2011 in AMC Boston Common #5 (Bloody-Disgusting Selects, digital)
Rammbock is far enough outside what usually the parameters of what shows up on multiplex screens - a low-budget German horror movie so short that only an hour and fifteen minutes passes between the lights going down and the last credit, even with a repeated preview and a draggy shorty accompanying it - that the expectation is that it must be extraordinary. After all, this wouldn't be one of four horror movies chosen for a national release (albeit one that gets eight or nine screenings total per location over the course of a month) unless it were too brilliant to be denied, right? Well, that's not the case. It's pretty good in spots and clever in others, but not the sort of thing to make plans for.
Michael (Michael Fuith) and Gabi (Anka Graczyk) broke up some time ago, but Michael has not really accepted it yet; he's just made the trip from Vienna to Berlin to return her keys rather than just dropped them in the mail because what he really wants to do is convince her to get back together. When he gets to her apartment, she's not there, but a workman of some sort is, and he's come down with one of those highly-contagious diseases that makes him crave human flesh and not communicate so well. Another worker, Harper (Theo Trebs), helps him dispatch the infected guy and barricade themselves in the apartment, but in the process Michael drops his phone in the hall. Now it's ringing, Michael is convinced that it's Gabi calling for help, and there's not much room to fall back - they can see other people stranded in their apartments across a courtyard that fills with infected whenever someone tries to make a break for it.
It's not a bad set-up at all, especially for a feature being shot on an indie budget - a basically contained location, a small cast, the effects limited to some well-practiced prostheses. Director Marvin Kren does fairly well by his limited resources; we get to know the location well enough to feel things tighten up as Michael and Harper are forced to fall back, and he's able to get shocks from just gore; perhaps the most horrifying scene has a victim simply disappearing amid a horde of ravenous flesh-eaters.
Full review at EFC.
Cave of Forgotten Dreams
* * * ½ (out of four)
Seen 7 May 2011 in AMC Boston Common #1 (first run, Real-D 3D)
Pundits declaiming the use of 3D in recent years often act like it was gone for a generation between the mid-eighties and late-naughts, but that's not really the case; it was used extensively for documentaries that played at science museums and the like. With few exceptions, those tended to be the work of relatively anonymous filmmakers, the subject more important than authorial voice. That's the case here, to an extent; even a personality like Werner Herzog eventually steps aside to simply marvel at the Chauvet cave paintings.
The Chauvet cave system was discovered by a trio of explorers on 18 December 1994, and while it would have been a remarkable discovery regardless, the contents are the reason why the government of France strictly limits access: There are paintings in the cave estimated to be thirty-two thousand years old, by far the oldest ever discovered. They are a tremendous resource to anthropologists, archeologists, and even zoologists - before seeing these paintings, they could only guess as to whether the extinct cave lion had a mane like present-day African lions - but even beyond the macro level, these paintings touch something in the romantic souls of the researchers; there's a connection between them and an artist who lived millennia ago.
The paintings themselves are interesting, but Herzog and company do an impressive job of placing them in context. An image on the wall of a horse with eight legs will lead to discussions of how even at this incredibly early stage, the artists were already using distortions and other techniques beyond simple representation to illustrate movement, power, and emotion; the sole human figure leads to sculptures with similar designs found at a German site not far away. We see what a fine, technologically sophisticated process archeology has become; work with a shovel would likely destroy the small, fragile artifacts in question, and a laser-generated map allows researchers to explore the cave without opening it up to potential contamination.
Full review at EFC.
Sunday, May 08, 2011
IFFBoston 2011 Night #3: Green, Submarine, and The Catechism Cataclysm
I had the uncharitable thought, toward the beginning of Green, of hoping that this was one of those movies where one of the people in the opening scene gets killed, not just for the reason of that meaning there would be less of them, but because it would at least give the rest something to complain about. And, hey, if one of them had actually murdered the other, then we've got a story.
Fortunately, Green, at least, makes itself into something fairly interesting quickly enough, but the other movies in the festival that gave me the same sort of first aggravated impression (Submarine and The Future) didn't have the the same ability to redeem themselves. It's an odd thing - as I've grown older and more aware of how fortunate I am, I've made attempts to not complain about minor things. I inevitably backslide, but my annoyance with movie characters who do so only accumulates.
Which makes a nice segue into my annoyance with the festival schedule this year, I guess. I love the folks at IFFBoston, but as soon as it came out, my first impression was "man, that's a lot of documentaries, specifically performer-related docs." I don't blame festival programmers for loading up on those - from a purely pragmatic point of view, they bring their own audience who might be convinced to stick around for the rest of the festival; from a personal perspective, folks who are drawn to the arts enough to run (and attend) a film festival are going to be drawn to films about artists and performers.
Still, that leads scheduling dilemmas like Friday night, when I look at the schedule for the 9-10pm slot, realize that while I may get to the Brattle in time to see The Troll Hunter, I likely wouldn't be able to get back to Somerville in time for The Catechism Cataclysm (even not knowing until later that Troll Hunter would start late). At that point, my thought process is basically "documentary about a musician I don't care about (Last Days Here), documentary about a musician I don't care about (Cure for Pain: The Mark Sandman Story), documentary about a skateboarder I don't care about (Dragonslayer), so, Submarine it is, even if the program does compare it to Rushmore". Followed by "wait, I liked Rushmore; have Wes Anderson's crappy later movies really soured me retroactively on his earlier ones?"
Maybe I would have been better off going to The Troll Hunter anyway, but then I would have missed The Catechism Cataclysm, which isn't perfect by a long shot, but has its moments. And I have to admit, I found myself mentally marking it up a notch when director Todd Rohal mentioned that some of the stuff from the end was lifted pretty directly from Funky Forest: The First Contact, and I love me some Funky Forest.
And now, the terrible photography and reviews:
Green's Kate Lyn Shiel, Lawrence Michael Levine, and Sophia Takal
Green's Sophia Takal. I've spent a lot of time in movie theaters as both a customer and an employee, and I don't think I'd even consider going barefoot in one. Although, granted, I don't like going barefoot for the ten feet between my bedroom and bathroom in the morning.
The Catechism Cataclysm's Todd Rohal
Green
* * * (out of four)
Seen 29 April 2011 in Somerville Theatre #2 (IFFBoston 2011)
Ignore the first scene of this movie; it sets a tone and a theme that winds up being a relatively minor part of what follows. The remaining hour or so turns into something much more interesting than the conversational one-upmanship that starts Green, and while uneven, it's at least an interesting and focused look at something that can be a cliché.
Sebastian (Lawrence Michael Levine) and Genevieve (Kate Lyn Sheil) have been together for four years before they rent a house in Virginia. The idea is that Sebastian will make an attempt at farming and blog about it, and since they are New Yorkers rather than people used to living off the land, hilarity will ensue. On their first morning in the rented house, they find Robin (Sophia Takal) passed out on the front lawn; the owner of the place keeps a spare set of keys there for her. After that, Robin's always around, which isn't so bad at first - she's friendly, and while not part of the sophisticated crowd from back home, Genny finds it nice to have someone to hang around with, what with all the time on her hands. At least, until one day at the swimming hole, when it seems like everyone's getting a little close.
Green takes a major turn there, and having come into the film cold, I'm a little loath to say exactly what the change is, although it is almost impossible to discuss the film's merits and faults without doing so. At first, the change in tone seems like a fatal flaw in the film; it's sudden, unmotivated, and irrational, and when it appears as an incidental occurrence in a movie, the filmmakers usually deserve every bit of ripping they get for it. Here, writer/director/editor Takal doesn't explain causes, basically just inviting us to look at the two halves of the film, compare them, and consider whether or not we engage in this sort of ridiculous destructive behavior.
Full review at EFC.
Submarine
* * ½ (out of four)
Seen 29 April 2011 in Somerville Theatre #5 (IFFBoston 2011)
Watching Submarine, I wondered about director Richard Ayoade's youth, speculating that he'd spent his time in the cinema, watching French movies rather than hanging out with other kids. There's an argument to be made that one is better off that way, at least until trying to make a movie about a teenager and winding up with a bunch of characters who only barely seem human, even once the thick crust of quirk is pulled back.
The teen is Oliver Tate (Craig Roberts); he's a smart but self-aware boy who decides he wants Jordana (Yasmin Paige) to be his girlfriend and sets out to make it happen. Since she's just as off-kilter and self-designed as he is, it does, albeit in a formal, self-examined way. There are some things at home which distract Oliver from Jordana, though - his new neighbor Graham (Paddy Considine) is not just a flashy self-help guru but his mother Jill's ex-boyfriend. Oliver is terribly worried that Graham will steal Jill (Sally Hawkins) away from father Lloyd (Noah Taylor), a rather bland marine biologist, so he starts planning.
Oliver is one of those movie kids who not only gives everything he does a lot of thought, but gives those things the same sort of thought as an adult screenwriter. So of course he narrates the film, peppering it with little comments that are meant to sound adult and sophisticated in his head while revealing his actual immaturity to the audience. Unfortunately, the line between "precocious but misguided" and "annoying little snot" can be a fine one, especially when the adult characters aren't particularly nuanced, and Oliver winds up on the obnoxious side on a rather consistent basis. Part of his deal is spying on his parents, and bits about "routine searches" of their bedroom start out kind of funny in their matter-of-fact delivery, but eventually Ayoade can't get the right contrast, and a sequence involving Jordana's dog later in the movie is just utterly misguided.
Full review at EFC.
The Catechism Cataclysm
* * ¾ (out of four)
Seen 29 April 2011 in Somerville Theatre #3 (IFFBoston 2011)
There are two distinct types of strange at play in The Catechism Cataclysm - a weird character in a somewhat conventional situation and parts that are just plain bizarre. Some in the audience aren't going to be down for the whole package, but there's enough of each sort of oddity to satisfy most anyone willing to pick the movie up of a shelf.
Father William Smoortser (Steve Little) is a Catholic priest, but not a very good one. His parables are more like bad jokes than biblical illustrations, and he spends a lot of time on the diocese's computer watching YouTube videos. His superior (Wally Dalton) suggests he take a few days off to reassess his relationship with God, which he opts to do by going on a canoe trip with Robbie Shoemaker (Robert Longstreet), the brother of his high school girlfriend. Robbie's music inspired William as a teen, but he's been a little less successful as a musician than William imagined. Still, they head out on that trip, only to get lost with a pair of Japanese girls calling themselves "Tom Sawyer" (Miki Ann Maddox) and "Huckleberry Finn" (Koko Lanham) and their guide "Jim" (Rico).
Steve Little's Father William is a difficult character, to put it one way. There is, perhaps, an interesting drama to be made about this guy or someone like him - a socially stunted outcast who finds himself drawn to the Church's unconditional acceptance, but not really bright enough or good enough with people to do the job despite the utter sincerity of his belief in God and desire to help. Little actually does an impressive job acting the part; we're given little exposition, but Little makes it possible to infer the guy's whole story. Similarly, Longstreet builds his working class opposite number just as solidly; he's the film's straight man, but one whose confusion is real and tempered with curiosity.
Full review at EFC.
Fortunately, Green, at least, makes itself into something fairly interesting quickly enough, but the other movies in the festival that gave me the same sort of first aggravated impression (Submarine and The Future) didn't have the the same ability to redeem themselves. It's an odd thing - as I've grown older and more aware of how fortunate I am, I've made attempts to not complain about minor things. I inevitably backslide, but my annoyance with movie characters who do so only accumulates.
Which makes a nice segue into my annoyance with the festival schedule this year, I guess. I love the folks at IFFBoston, but as soon as it came out, my first impression was "man, that's a lot of documentaries, specifically performer-related docs." I don't blame festival programmers for loading up on those - from a purely pragmatic point of view, they bring their own audience who might be convinced to stick around for the rest of the festival; from a personal perspective, folks who are drawn to the arts enough to run (and attend) a film festival are going to be drawn to films about artists and performers.
Still, that leads scheduling dilemmas like Friday night, when I look at the schedule for the 9-10pm slot, realize that while I may get to the Brattle in time to see The Troll Hunter, I likely wouldn't be able to get back to Somerville in time for The Catechism Cataclysm (even not knowing until later that Troll Hunter would start late). At that point, my thought process is basically "documentary about a musician I don't care about (Last Days Here), documentary about a musician I don't care about (Cure for Pain: The Mark Sandman Story), documentary about a skateboarder I don't care about (Dragonslayer), so, Submarine it is, even if the program does compare it to Rushmore". Followed by "wait, I liked Rushmore; have Wes Anderson's crappy later movies really soured me retroactively on his earlier ones?"
Maybe I would have been better off going to The Troll Hunter anyway, but then I would have missed The Catechism Cataclysm, which isn't perfect by a long shot, but has its moments. And I have to admit, I found myself mentally marking it up a notch when director Todd Rohal mentioned that some of the stuff from the end was lifted pretty directly from Funky Forest: The First Contact, and I love me some Funky Forest.
And now, the terrible photography and reviews:
Green's Kate Lyn Shiel, Lawrence Michael Levine, and Sophia Takal
Green's Sophia Takal. I've spent a lot of time in movie theaters as both a customer and an employee, and I don't think I'd even consider going barefoot in one. Although, granted, I don't like going barefoot for the ten feet between my bedroom and bathroom in the morning.
The Catechism Cataclysm's Todd Rohal
Green
* * * (out of four)
Seen 29 April 2011 in Somerville Theatre #2 (IFFBoston 2011)
Ignore the first scene of this movie; it sets a tone and a theme that winds up being a relatively minor part of what follows. The remaining hour or so turns into something much more interesting than the conversational one-upmanship that starts Green, and while uneven, it's at least an interesting and focused look at something that can be a cliché.
Sebastian (Lawrence Michael Levine) and Genevieve (Kate Lyn Sheil) have been together for four years before they rent a house in Virginia. The idea is that Sebastian will make an attempt at farming and blog about it, and since they are New Yorkers rather than people used to living off the land, hilarity will ensue. On their first morning in the rented house, they find Robin (Sophia Takal) passed out on the front lawn; the owner of the place keeps a spare set of keys there for her. After that, Robin's always around, which isn't so bad at first - she's friendly, and while not part of the sophisticated crowd from back home, Genny finds it nice to have someone to hang around with, what with all the time on her hands. At least, until one day at the swimming hole, when it seems like everyone's getting a little close.
Green takes a major turn there, and having come into the film cold, I'm a little loath to say exactly what the change is, although it is almost impossible to discuss the film's merits and faults without doing so. At first, the change in tone seems like a fatal flaw in the film; it's sudden, unmotivated, and irrational, and when it appears as an incidental occurrence in a movie, the filmmakers usually deserve every bit of ripping they get for it. Here, writer/director/editor Takal doesn't explain causes, basically just inviting us to look at the two halves of the film, compare them, and consider whether or not we engage in this sort of ridiculous destructive behavior.
Full review at EFC.
Submarine
* * ½ (out of four)
Seen 29 April 2011 in Somerville Theatre #5 (IFFBoston 2011)
Watching Submarine, I wondered about director Richard Ayoade's youth, speculating that he'd spent his time in the cinema, watching French movies rather than hanging out with other kids. There's an argument to be made that one is better off that way, at least until trying to make a movie about a teenager and winding up with a bunch of characters who only barely seem human, even once the thick crust of quirk is pulled back.
The teen is Oliver Tate (Craig Roberts); he's a smart but self-aware boy who decides he wants Jordana (Yasmin Paige) to be his girlfriend and sets out to make it happen. Since she's just as off-kilter and self-designed as he is, it does, albeit in a formal, self-examined way. There are some things at home which distract Oliver from Jordana, though - his new neighbor Graham (Paddy Considine) is not just a flashy self-help guru but his mother Jill's ex-boyfriend. Oliver is terribly worried that Graham will steal Jill (Sally Hawkins) away from father Lloyd (Noah Taylor), a rather bland marine biologist, so he starts planning.
Oliver is one of those movie kids who not only gives everything he does a lot of thought, but gives those things the same sort of thought as an adult screenwriter. So of course he narrates the film, peppering it with little comments that are meant to sound adult and sophisticated in his head while revealing his actual immaturity to the audience. Unfortunately, the line between "precocious but misguided" and "annoying little snot" can be a fine one, especially when the adult characters aren't particularly nuanced, and Oliver winds up on the obnoxious side on a rather consistent basis. Part of his deal is spying on his parents, and bits about "routine searches" of their bedroom start out kind of funny in their matter-of-fact delivery, but eventually Ayoade can't get the right contrast, and a sequence involving Jordana's dog later in the movie is just utterly misguided.
Full review at EFC.
The Catechism Cataclysm
* * ¾ (out of four)
Seen 29 April 2011 in Somerville Theatre #3 (IFFBoston 2011)
There are two distinct types of strange at play in The Catechism Cataclysm - a weird character in a somewhat conventional situation and parts that are just plain bizarre. Some in the audience aren't going to be down for the whole package, but there's enough of each sort of oddity to satisfy most anyone willing to pick the movie up of a shelf.
Father William Smoortser (Steve Little) is a Catholic priest, but not a very good one. His parables are more like bad jokes than biblical illustrations, and he spends a lot of time on the diocese's computer watching YouTube videos. His superior (Wally Dalton) suggests he take a few days off to reassess his relationship with God, which he opts to do by going on a canoe trip with Robbie Shoemaker (Robert Longstreet), the brother of his high school girlfriend. Robbie's music inspired William as a teen, but he's been a little less successful as a musician than William imagined. Still, they head out on that trip, only to get lost with a pair of Japanese girls calling themselves "Tom Sawyer" (Miki Ann Maddox) and "Huckleberry Finn" (Koko Lanham) and their guide "Jim" (Rico).
Steve Little's Father William is a difficult character, to put it one way. There is, perhaps, an interesting drama to be made about this guy or someone like him - a socially stunted outcast who finds himself drawn to the Church's unconditional acceptance, but not really bright enough or good enough with people to do the job despite the utter sincerity of his belief in God and desire to help. Little actually does an impressive job acting the part; we're given little exposition, but Little makes it possible to infer the guy's whole story. Similarly, Longstreet builds his working class opposite number just as solidly; he's the film's straight man, but one whose confusion is real and tempered with curiosity.
Full review at EFC.
Friday, May 06, 2011
Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 6 May 2011 - 11 May 2011
There's going to be some tooth-gnashing about how summer movie season has started and now it's time for non-stop sequels, remakes, and comic book adaptations (especially after Universal self-awarely pushed the start back to late April in the advertising for Fast Five), and while that's not entirely undeserved, this is really one of the most downright odd movie weeks I've seen in a while. The big 3-D comic book movie is by a guy best known for Shakespeare, the boutique cinema has new movies starring Kevin Kline (where he speaks French) and Mel Gibson (where he speaks through a puppet), the multiplex has a Werner Herzog documentary (in 3D), there's a German zombie movie popping up, and the remake is Takashi Miike with samurai.
My plans? I'm thinking a horror 2-fer at Boston Common on Friday with Scream 4 (wow, that cleared out of theaters fast!) and Rammbock, and then probably Thor and Cave of Forgotten Dreams on Saturday. Maybe Fast Five after seeing a ballgame with my brother, sister-in-law, and nieces on Sunday. Some time will be spent at Kendall Square during the week with 13 Assassins, Meek's Cutoff, and Game to Play.
In short, it's going to be a crazy-fun week at the movies.
- The big, big opening this week is Marvel's Thor, with 3D, digital, IMAX... the works. I'm more than a bit excited about this, because it's got a darn good cast - I liked Chris Hemsworth in Star Trek, Anthony Hopkins and Natalie Portman are usually pretty solid, and there are folks like Kat Dennings, Colm Feore, Idris Elba, Rene Russo, and Tadanobu Asano in the supporting cast. I love Kenneth Branagh.
And, really, how crazy is it that there's a Thor movie directed by Kenneth Branagh with that crazy cast, that looks like the production designers have gone full Kirby? When Iron Man came out, I wondered at how, when DC couldn't get their big-name heroes into movies, Marvel made Iron Man, whose fame doesn't really extend outside the comic shop, a big deal. And Thor is less well-known as a superhero (even considering the references in Adventures in Babysitting). Marvel has been really clever about putting together good cast and crews with their comics - I'm really looking forward to Captain America, and wish they could get the rights to Fantastic Four back. They've also been clever with the marketing, pushing how it appeals to women, and despite the Nordic origins, Thor has surprisingly broad appeal (as in, you'd be surprised how many African-American and Latino people go for the comics).
As for what it's going to cost at its various venues, let's go to the grid:Screen Price (before noon) Price (afternoon) Price (evening) Fresh Pond, digital/RealD 3-D N/A $9.00 $12.00 Arlington Capitol, Digital 3-D N/A (Mon-Fri) $9.00 $11.50 (Sat-Sun) $10.00 AMC Harvard Square, 35mm $6.00 $8.00 $10.00 AMC Harvard Square, digital 3-D N/A (likely $9.00) $11.00 $13.00 AMC Boston Common, 35mm N/A (likely $6.00) $9.50 $11.50 AMC Boston Common, digital 3-D $10.00 $13.50 $15.50 AMC Boston Common, IMAX Digital 3-D $12.00 $15.50 $17.50 Regal Fenway, 35mm $9.00 $9.00 $11.50 Regal Fenway, digital 3-D $13.00 $13.00 $15.50 Regal Fenway, RPX 3-D $13.50 $13.50 $16.00 - The studios are going to give counter-programming the old college try, though. Something Borrowed is a chick flick with Ginnifer Godwin as the nice girl who meets a nice guy (Colin Egglesfield) only to have her best friend (Kate Hudson) scoop him up. I've seen the trailer about a dozen times, and it looks inoffensive enough, although quite generic. There's also Jumping the Brrom, with two families from different social classes gathering for a wedding; Angela Bassett, Paula Patton, Laz Alonso, Loretta Devine, Meagan Good, Mike Epps, and Romeo Miller star.
Boston Common fills their theaters out with a few smaller releases. There Be Dragons is writer/director Roland Joffé's with a journalist investigating a would-be saint during the Spanish Civil War. It's got some interesting people involved - Wes Bentley, Dougray Scott, Olga Kurylenko, and Geraldine Chaplin - but, wow, Joffé's reputation seems to have just gone steadily downhill since The Killing Fields. There's also The Beaver, which stars Mel Gibson as a family man trying to deal with clinical depression who takes to dealing with people via a hand puppet. Gibson has a bunch of baggage, but he can be a great actor, and this looks like some of his best work.
One of the 3D screens there will be showing Werner Herzog's Cave of Forgotten Dreams, which should be a real treat - Herzog makes great documentaries, and here he'll be using 3D photography to bring us inside France's Chauvet Caves for an up close and personal look at the world's oldest known pictures drawn by human hands. This seems to be a last-minute shuffle - it's not listed on Google's movie page and the 2D version was originally scheduled to open at Landmark in Cambridge, but now I'm seeing no sign of it there.
And, remember that Bloody-Disgusting Selects series that was announced a few months back? It starts this week, with Rammbock (aka Berlin Undead), a German zombie movie from last year. It apparently opened on Wednesday, and is playing twice a week for the next month - Wednesdays at 10pm and Fridays at midnight - when it will be replaced by the next film in the series. It appears to be extremely short - roughly an hour - so it won't keep you up too late. - The Beaver also opens at Kendall Square, which has a genuinely exciting slate of films opening. 13 Assassins, for instance, is fresh off its win of the Audience Award at IFFBoston, and it looks like a cracker - though Takashi Miike is known for his strange, even grotesque, work, even when doing family movies, by all accounts this is straight-ahead samurai action. As much as I like his screwy stuff, there have been times when it seemed to get in the way of just doing a great action movie; and I'm looking forward to seeing if this one delivers.
Another notable director with a new movie out is Kelly Reichardt with Meek's Cutoff. She reunites with Michelle Williams for a story of settlers moving into Oregon, likely led astray by their guide and not sure whether they can trust the native who offers to lead them. Bruce Greenwood, Will Patton, Zoe Kazan, Paul Dano and Shirley Henderson make for a heck of a cast.
The one-week warning is for Queen to Play (aka Joueuse). It's a French comedy with Sandrine Bonnaire as a chambermaid who discovers an aptitude for chess and Kevin Kline as the American who tutors her. Kline is always worth watching, and I believe he speaks French fairly well, so this should at least be interesting. - The Coolidge Corner Theatre has another indie opening, Beautiful Darling, a documentary by James Rasin about Candy Darling, a transgendered actress who rose to fame in Andy Warhol's Factory but died young. It's split between two screens, the small digital "Goldscreen" during the afternoon and screen two in the evenings.
They also kick off a new series of midnight shows, a month of bloody Asian thrillers, with Kim Jee-woon's I Saw the Devil. It's pretty fantastic, and the later movies in the series (Oldboy and Dream Home) aren't bad either. It plays midnights on Friday the 6th and Saturday the 7th; Saturday midnight options also include "The Taunting", a burlesque show featuring the Slaughterhouse Sweethearts. If your tastes run a little more toward the wholesome, there's a Saturday morning screening of the original animated version of Charlotte's Web.
And on Tuesday, the festivities for the annual Coolidge Award begin. This year, rather than presenting the award to an individual, the Coolidge Foundation honors film preservation with programs throughout the week. Tuesday night there is a screening of These Amazing Shadows, a documentary on the American Film Registry, with an introduction by the co-director and a panel discussion after the film. Wednesday brings a panel discussion on "Film Restoration and Access in the Digital Age" in the afternoon and a screening of All About Eve in the evening. - The Museum of Fine Arts and Brattle Theatre will both be the venues for the 27th Annual Boston LGBT Film Festival; it runs through the 15th at both locations; there's also a screening of Go Go Crazy at the Machine dance club on the 11th.
The MFA will also feature various compilations of short films: On Friday, a program of Boston College Senior Thesis projects will run at 1:30pm. On Thursday the 12th, the half-hour "Dave Chihuly in Action" will run continuously in the Alfond Auditorium as part of their Chihuly exhibit. Thursday evening will also include a program of short animated films by the 2011 graduates of the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. - Another short program will play at the ICA at 3pm on the afternoons of Saturday the 7th and Sunday the 8th; New England Animators features 24 animated short films by local filmmakers. There will be guests on both days, with filmmaker Joel Frenzer on Saturday and Rhode Island School of Design professor Amy Kravitz on Sunday.
- Only two films at Emerson's Paramount Theater this weekend, but they're both notable. Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train plays Friday and Saturday night, followed by chapter 7 of Godard's Histoire(s) du Cinema. Saturday afternoon and Sunday evening bring screenings of West Side Story, in part to promote a Boston Ballet presentation of works choreographed by George Balanchine and West Side Story choreographer Jerome Robbins.
- The Harvard Film Archive has Nicolás Pereda in person this weekend; the young Mexican director will introduce his films on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night; another pair of films will play Monday the 9th, although he is not scheduled to attend.
- The second-run scene is relatively quiet this week (pending Stuart Street's always-late listings); Somerville picks up Source Code and the Capitol in Arlington picks up African Cats
My plans? I'm thinking a horror 2-fer at Boston Common on Friday with Scream 4 (wow, that cleared out of theaters fast!) and Rammbock, and then probably Thor and Cave of Forgotten Dreams on Saturday. Maybe Fast Five after seeing a ballgame with my brother, sister-in-law, and nieces on Sunday. Some time will be spent at Kendall Square during the week with 13 Assassins, Meek's Cutoff, and Game to Play.
In short, it's going to be a crazy-fun week at the movies.
Wednesday, May 04, 2011
IFFBoston 2011 Night #2: The Bengali Detective and On the Ice
Not a whole lot to say about this day - both shows were on screen #2 at the Somerville, which is not my favorite; there's zero leg room, an aisle right up the middle, and as you can see from the picture below, it's not the best for Q&A type situations, although my phone's camera doesn't help.
It was however, a pretty good day for eating. With coupons to use up, I picked up a chocolate banana cream pie at Petsi Pies before working from home that day, and was able to do the quick running in and out of Boston Burger Company and scarf down a King burger (bacon, peanut butter, fried bananas) while standing in line between films. Let me tell you, I got me some potassium that day.
So, anyway, one movie that didn't quite live up to its potential, one that was surprisingly good. I could say more, but let's just get to the awful photography and reviews:
On the Ice director Andrew Okpeaha MacLean, answering questions about his film and not zapping us with laser eyes.
The Bengali Detective
* * ¼ (out of four)
Seen 28 April 2011 in Somerville Theatre #2 (IFFBoston 2011)
Often, a good documentary will seem like the result of as much good fortune as anything; after all, it's entirely possible to have a compelling topic, an interesting subject to follow around, and a good crew, but that's no guarantee of having a great film come together. Sometimes, a filmmaker will have all that and just be unable to will something fascinating to happen on camera. The Bengali Detective certainly seems to be that sort of movie - a good concept whose great, climactic scene just never materialized.
Rajesh Ji is the Bengali detective of the title, a private investigator who started fifteen years ago with just a pair of cell phones. He now has an office, a half-dozen or so employees, and multiple clients who have him investigate a broad range of cases. His bread and butter is infidelity and stores selling counterfeit products, but his firm has just been engaged by a family that doesn't believe the police are doing enough to investigate a grisly murder. The detectives are a close-knit group, entering a television dance competition together, although Rajesh is showing the strain from other parts of his life - his wife Minnie is seriously ill.
Those last two elements often seem to be at war with each other; this dance thing seems to be taking up a fair amount of time that Rajesh could be spending with his family while he still can. Sure, the audience can't really judge how any man deals with that sort of stress - practicing his dance moves might be just the release Rajesh needs - but most are certainly going to give it a try and find it lacking; we see a man lying to himself and his wife about the seriousness of her health problems. Besides that, the dance competition seems like extra tacked-on quirkiness, comic relief at the expense of the movie's subjects.
Full review at EFC.
On the Ice
* * * ¾ (out of four)
Seen 28 April 2011 in Somerville Theatre #2 (IFFBoston 2011)
Thrillers like On the Ice are traditionally set among shadows and night, with the lines and crags on the actors' faces all the backstory needed to explain how they wound up in such a spot. Of course, you don't get shadows if the sun never sets, so it's entirely appropriate that this film's twisty plot is navigated by a fine young cast.
Qalli (Josiah Patkotak) and Aivaaq (Frank Qutuq Irelan) are best friends in a small Alaska town, but they are on different trajectories. Responsible Qalli is headed to college in the fall, while Aivaaq has just learned that his girlfriend Uvlu (Sierra Jade Sampson) is pregnant. The morning after a party, they're going seal-hunting with their classmate James (John Miller), but Qalli arrives late, to find Aivaaq and James in a serious fight, and before he really knows what is going on, James is dead. The truth doesn't seem to be an option, so they do what they can to misdirect the authorities to make it look like an accident. Of course, no plan is perfect, and something seems off to Qalli's father Egasak (Teddy Kyle Smith), head of the local search & rescue team.
On the Ice is not an extraordinarily complicated movie; writer/director Andrew Okpeaha MacLean and his cast lay out just about everything the audience needs to know about the characters and the situation in the first ten or fifteen minutes. It is, however, the sort where the next complication follows logically and inevitably - not just because the plans are flawed mechanically, but because human nature in both general and specific cases will not be denied. MacLean makes the plot twists interesting in a number of specific, interesting ways - scenes where geography is important are shot clearly, blows to the head produce realistic concussion-like symptoms, and James's girlfriend Michelle (Adamina Kerr) has an interesting role.
Full review at EFC.
It was however, a pretty good day for eating. With coupons to use up, I picked up a chocolate banana cream pie at Petsi Pies before working from home that day, and was able to do the quick running in and out of Boston Burger Company and scarf down a King burger (bacon, peanut butter, fried bananas) while standing in line between films. Let me tell you, I got me some potassium that day.
So, anyway, one movie that didn't quite live up to its potential, one that was surprisingly good. I could say more, but let's just get to the awful photography and reviews:
On the Ice director Andrew Okpeaha MacLean, answering questions about his film and not zapping us with laser eyes.
The Bengali Detective
* * ¼ (out of four)
Seen 28 April 2011 in Somerville Theatre #2 (IFFBoston 2011)
Often, a good documentary will seem like the result of as much good fortune as anything; after all, it's entirely possible to have a compelling topic, an interesting subject to follow around, and a good crew, but that's no guarantee of having a great film come together. Sometimes, a filmmaker will have all that and just be unable to will something fascinating to happen on camera. The Bengali Detective certainly seems to be that sort of movie - a good concept whose great, climactic scene just never materialized.
Rajesh Ji is the Bengali detective of the title, a private investigator who started fifteen years ago with just a pair of cell phones. He now has an office, a half-dozen or so employees, and multiple clients who have him investigate a broad range of cases. His bread and butter is infidelity and stores selling counterfeit products, but his firm has just been engaged by a family that doesn't believe the police are doing enough to investigate a grisly murder. The detectives are a close-knit group, entering a television dance competition together, although Rajesh is showing the strain from other parts of his life - his wife Minnie is seriously ill.
Those last two elements often seem to be at war with each other; this dance thing seems to be taking up a fair amount of time that Rajesh could be spending with his family while he still can. Sure, the audience can't really judge how any man deals with that sort of stress - practicing his dance moves might be just the release Rajesh needs - but most are certainly going to give it a try and find it lacking; we see a man lying to himself and his wife about the seriousness of her health problems. Besides that, the dance competition seems like extra tacked-on quirkiness, comic relief at the expense of the movie's subjects.
Full review at EFC.
On the Ice
* * * ¾ (out of four)
Seen 28 April 2011 in Somerville Theatre #2 (IFFBoston 2011)
Thrillers like On the Ice are traditionally set among shadows and night, with the lines and crags on the actors' faces all the backstory needed to explain how they wound up in such a spot. Of course, you don't get shadows if the sun never sets, so it's entirely appropriate that this film's twisty plot is navigated by a fine young cast.
Qalli (Josiah Patkotak) and Aivaaq (Frank Qutuq Irelan) are best friends in a small Alaska town, but they are on different trajectories. Responsible Qalli is headed to college in the fall, while Aivaaq has just learned that his girlfriend Uvlu (Sierra Jade Sampson) is pregnant. The morning after a party, they're going seal-hunting with their classmate James (John Miller), but Qalli arrives late, to find Aivaaq and James in a serious fight, and before he really knows what is going on, James is dead. The truth doesn't seem to be an option, so they do what they can to misdirect the authorities to make it look like an accident. Of course, no plan is perfect, and something seems off to Qalli's father Egasak (Teddy Kyle Smith), head of the local search & rescue team.
On the Ice is not an extraordinarily complicated movie; writer/director Andrew Okpeaha MacLean and his cast lay out just about everything the audience needs to know about the characters and the situation in the first ten or fifteen minutes. It is, however, the sort where the next complication follows logically and inevitably - not just because the plans are flawed mechanically, but because human nature in both general and specific cases will not be denied. MacLean makes the plot twists interesting in a number of specific, interesting ways - scenes where geography is important are shot clearly, blows to the head produce realistic concussion-like symptoms, and James's girlfriend Michelle (Adamina Kerr) has an interesting role.
Full review at EFC.
Monday, May 02, 2011
IFFBoston 2011 Opening Night: Being Elmo
Man, if this is just getting up today, I fear for how long getting the rest up will take!
I don't see movies multiple times when they're on the festival circuit, so I haven't yet caught a fillmmaker telling two separate audiences that they're the best. I don't doubt that the emotion, at least, is true most of the time, and I'm not sure how you differentiate between them other than the obvious - those French audiences that boo, for instance, are likely not going to be anyone's favorites.
This comes up because director Constance Marks and company made frequent comments about the IFFBoston audience in Somerville being the best, and while I'm sure some of that is playing to the crowd, I wouldn't be surprised if there was a little more to it than that. After all, about midway through the movie, there was a real frisson of excitement and anticipation when Kevin Clash started talking about Henson & Oz calling him to work on The Dark Crystal, and disappointment when he ultimately didn't take the job because it would mean quitting the ones he had at the time. This audience, perhaps more than the ones at Sundance and SXSW, dug puppetry enough that a sizable chunk found The Dark Crystal really cool; it wasn't just parents taking their kids to "the Elmo movie".
There were a fair chunk of those, of course, and that was a great demonstration of how the people involved knew how to work an audience: After the movie, Kevin pulled Elmo out of his bag and asked all the kids to come up to the stage so that Elmo could say hi and give them hugs. Then, the kids could go home and to bed, and Elmo went back in the bag while Clash, Marks, and company answered questions about the movie and the stuff that wasn't covered in it.
Then, after that, Elmo came back out to participate in the Q&A himself. As I mention in the movie's review, it's a real testament to Kevin Clash's skill as a puppeteer that you can see how he manipulates Elmo and still see the character as an individual. It's also fun to see the way Elmo changes when he's not on a Sesame Street segment; he's a little more of a troublemaker and wiseguy. He does a great Barry White impression on demand, and in a way he's Kevin Clash less filtered.
My favorite bit, just because it would please my neice, came when someone asked the best and worst parts about being on such a popular TV show: "What's he talking about? Elmo's not on a show, Elmo just lives on Sesame Street!" (Amazingly cute fawning for the camera) "But Oscar can be difficult."
So, here's some pictures, and the start of the review underneath. I apologize for how the camera on my Droid isn't really that great; sometime, I'll have to get a real one.
Director Constance Marks and Kevin Clash
Elmo greeting kids on stage
A young fan shows Kevin Clash & Elmo his puppet.
Q&A w/ Constance Marks, Elmo, Kevin Clash, and cinematographer James Miller (l-r). Yes, Elmo has his own guest badge that says "Cast & Crew: Elmo".
Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey
* * * ½ (out of four)
Seen 27 April 2011 in Somerville Theatre #1 (IFFBoston 2011)
I don't have kids of my own, but I have a four-year-old niece, and Elmo sort of drove her parents up the wall, at least for a while. Something about the high voice, the talking in the third person, and utter omnipresence of the energetic, almost aggressively friendly little red monster makes him connect to kids like few other Muppets have, but at the same time makes adults grumble about how in their day, Sesame Street's Muppets weren't so one-note. There were more sophisticated and less annoying characters, like Grover. Being Elmo won't necessarily change that opinion, but it will at least let them appreciate Kevin Clash, the performer who brings him to life.
Like many a parent of Elmo's fans, Clash watched Sesame Street as a kid too, sharing a small house with four siblings in Baltimore. As much as the characters delighted him, he was just as curious as to how the puppets were made and how they worked, and it wasn't long before he was cutting up his father's trenchcoat for materials to make his own. He had a talent for it, and it wasn't long before he was doing shows for his mother's day care kids, then in the parks, and then on local television. He also got to meet two important mentors - Kermit Love, the Santa-bearded puppetmaker who showed him some of the tricks of the trade, and Jim Henson. He'd go through a number of different jobs before landing on Sesame Street, developing a few characters that didn't quite connect (the most notable probably being Hoots the Owl) before picking up a red puppet that veteran puppeteer Richard Hunt just couldn't make work.
Much of Being Elmo is a "local boy makes good" story, and it's a very pleasant and well-made example of the genre. The filmmakers are very fortunate in a number of ways: Their subject is an open, friendly person who never seems to be holding back but brings out extra bits of himself when performing. He's humble and self-deprecating but takes pride in his accomplishments. While some important figures like Love and Henson are sadly no longer with us, Clash's parents are, and the time we spend with them certainly backs up another mentor's claim that they are the inspiration for Elmo's boundless energy and love. Director Constance Marks and the other filmmakers were able to dig up some impressive material from the archives - it's really an incredible stroke of luck that a visit by Clash to Love's workshop as a teenager was recorded for a TV show.
Full review at EFC.
I don't see movies multiple times when they're on the festival circuit, so I haven't yet caught a fillmmaker telling two separate audiences that they're the best. I don't doubt that the emotion, at least, is true most of the time, and I'm not sure how you differentiate between them other than the obvious - those French audiences that boo, for instance, are likely not going to be anyone's favorites.
This comes up because director Constance Marks and company made frequent comments about the IFFBoston audience in Somerville being the best, and while I'm sure some of that is playing to the crowd, I wouldn't be surprised if there was a little more to it than that. After all, about midway through the movie, there was a real frisson of excitement and anticipation when Kevin Clash started talking about Henson & Oz calling him to work on The Dark Crystal, and disappointment when he ultimately didn't take the job because it would mean quitting the ones he had at the time. This audience, perhaps more than the ones at Sundance and SXSW, dug puppetry enough that a sizable chunk found The Dark Crystal really cool; it wasn't just parents taking their kids to "the Elmo movie".
There were a fair chunk of those, of course, and that was a great demonstration of how the people involved knew how to work an audience: After the movie, Kevin pulled Elmo out of his bag and asked all the kids to come up to the stage so that Elmo could say hi and give them hugs. Then, the kids could go home and to bed, and Elmo went back in the bag while Clash, Marks, and company answered questions about the movie and the stuff that wasn't covered in it.
Then, after that, Elmo came back out to participate in the Q&A himself. As I mention in the movie's review, it's a real testament to Kevin Clash's skill as a puppeteer that you can see how he manipulates Elmo and still see the character as an individual. It's also fun to see the way Elmo changes when he's not on a Sesame Street segment; he's a little more of a troublemaker and wiseguy. He does a great Barry White impression on demand, and in a way he's Kevin Clash less filtered.
My favorite bit, just because it would please my neice, came when someone asked the best and worst parts about being on such a popular TV show: "What's he talking about? Elmo's not on a show, Elmo just lives on Sesame Street!" (Amazingly cute fawning for the camera) "But Oscar can be difficult."
So, here's some pictures, and the start of the review underneath. I apologize for how the camera on my Droid isn't really that great; sometime, I'll have to get a real one.
Director Constance Marks and Kevin Clash
Elmo greeting kids on stage
A young fan shows Kevin Clash & Elmo his puppet.
Q&A w/ Constance Marks, Elmo, Kevin Clash, and cinematographer James Miller (l-r). Yes, Elmo has his own guest badge that says "Cast & Crew: Elmo".
Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey
* * * ½ (out of four)
Seen 27 April 2011 in Somerville Theatre #1 (IFFBoston 2011)
I don't have kids of my own, but I have a four-year-old niece, and Elmo sort of drove her parents up the wall, at least for a while. Something about the high voice, the talking in the third person, and utter omnipresence of the energetic, almost aggressively friendly little red monster makes him connect to kids like few other Muppets have, but at the same time makes adults grumble about how in their day, Sesame Street's Muppets weren't so one-note. There were more sophisticated and less annoying characters, like Grover. Being Elmo won't necessarily change that opinion, but it will at least let them appreciate Kevin Clash, the performer who brings him to life.
Like many a parent of Elmo's fans, Clash watched Sesame Street as a kid too, sharing a small house with four siblings in Baltimore. As much as the characters delighted him, he was just as curious as to how the puppets were made and how they worked, and it wasn't long before he was cutting up his father's trenchcoat for materials to make his own. He had a talent for it, and it wasn't long before he was doing shows for his mother's day care kids, then in the parks, and then on local television. He also got to meet two important mentors - Kermit Love, the Santa-bearded puppetmaker who showed him some of the tricks of the trade, and Jim Henson. He'd go through a number of different jobs before landing on Sesame Street, developing a few characters that didn't quite connect (the most notable probably being Hoots the Owl) before picking up a red puppet that veteran puppeteer Richard Hunt just couldn't make work.
Much of Being Elmo is a "local boy makes good" story, and it's a very pleasant and well-made example of the genre. The filmmakers are very fortunate in a number of ways: Their subject is an open, friendly person who never seems to be holding back but brings out extra bits of himself when performing. He's humble and self-deprecating but takes pride in his accomplishments. While some important figures like Love and Henson are sadly no longer with us, Clash's parents are, and the time we spend with them certainly backs up another mentor's claim that they are the inspiration for Elmo's boundless energy and love. Director Constance Marks and the other filmmakers were able to dig up some impressive material from the archives - it's really an incredible stroke of luck that a visit by Clash to Love's workshop as a teenager was recorded for a TV show.
Full review at EFC.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 29 April 2011 - 6 May 2011
If you're in Boston and like quality film, there's roughly one place you're going to be through Wednesday. Well, technically four, but it's the same event spread over multiple venues. Still, that doesn't mean that the area's other theaters (and sometimes, the very same ones!) are going to make that easy on you.
My plans, like I said, involve more or less living at IFFBoston. I'm taking Thursday off work to recover and see the Sox game, and honestly will probably just drop after that.
- The major event, of course, is the Independent FIlm Festival Boston 2011, which actually started on Wednesday with Being Elmo (review forthcoming). It's Boston's biggest and likely best film festival, and while very doc-heavy (and performer-doc-heavy) this year, that's not exactly a bad thing. It started at the Somerville Theatre on Wednesday (the 27th) and runs there through Monday (the 2nd of May); there will also be shows at the Brattle from Friday (the 29th) through Sunday (the 1st) and the Stuart Street Playhouse on Tuesday (the 3rd), before closing at the Coolidge Corner Theatre on Wednesday (the 4th).
Unfortunately, I didn't have time to write a full preview article, but you should be able to check out my schedule on Slated for an idea of what I'm seeing. There are plenty of other worthy films screening; I'm just trying to avoid documentaries about musicians I've never heard of and trying to see the stuff with no announced Boston release. - Potentially the most annoying festival counter-programming is Rubber, which opens at Kendall Square and is hilarious; it was one of my favorite movies at Fantasia last year and I'm dying to see how it plays in an environment other than "midnight with a packed house of exhausted lunatics". Please, Landmark, keep this around at least for a second week.
Actually, I'd like to ask the same of some other the other movies playing there, too: The official one-week warning is on Carancho, an Argentine thriller set among the shady world of people who benefit from the countries frequent road accidents. Also playing is The Double Hour, which an Italian romantic thriller about two very different people who meet by chance and then find their paths crossing. - Landmark, at least, has the excuse of not taking part in IFFBoston. The Coolidge, on the other hand, is cruelly tempting people away from the festival with a few special attractions: Friday and Saturday at midnight, they will be running Back to the Future on the big screen. Monday night, there is a "Sounds of Silents" screening of It, the movie which made Clara Bow a superstar and gave us the phrase "The It Girl"; it will be accompanied by students from the Berklee College of Music. And Sunday morning, Talk Cinema will have a preview screening of The Tree, featuring Charlotte Gainsbourg as a mother whose daughter believes that her recently-deceased father talks to her using the leaves of the tree outside her window. There's a good chance The Tree will open elsewhere, and the Brattle has the Back to the Future trilogy on their next schedule, but missing It hurts.
- The mainstream theaters have relatively scant openings, at least. The big one is Fast Five, the latest sequel to The Fast and the Furious to have its name drive sticklers for alphabetic order nuts. It looks like it could be a lot of fun, though, with Dwayne Johnson joining characters from all four previous movies as a cop hunting the hard-driving outlaws down. It's also hitting the premium (IMAX, Imax digital, RPX) screens, though likely for only a week before Thor's release.
Also opening is Prom, a generically named high-school comedy from Disney that will probably be huge among its target audience, for all I know (although it doesn't seem to boast any of the Disney Channel stars that usually drive that sort of attendance). A couple theaters also open up Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil, a sequel to the reasonably-cute animated movie from a few years back mashing up fairy tales. 3D at Boston Common, 2D (apparently) at Fresh Pond. - Fresh Pond also opens Immigration Tango, an comedy about two couples who switch partners for green-card marriages, with hilarity intended to ensue. It apparently opened in other markets over two months ago to not-great reviews. The Hindi movie opening is Dum Naaro Dum, which appears to be a story about students lured into being drug mules - with songs. Oddly, it comes not from the usual importers, but from Fox, whose Indian branch produced it, so the prices are low for a Bollywood movie.
(And yet, no Dylan Dog, which I was sort of looking forward to.) - Once the Brattle finishes with their IFFBoston screenings, they will pick back up with their tribute to founder Cyrus Harvey Jr., who recently passed away. The films include Seven Samurai on Tuesday, Jules et Jim and I Vitelloni on Wednesday, and a Bogie double feature of Casablanca and Beat the Devil on Thursday.
- ArtsEmerson will be featuring the early films of Kelly Reichardt on Saturday and Sunday night. The not-quite-double-feature features Old Joy, the film which first got her widespread notice, and a rare 16mm screening of her first feature, River of Grass, which plays alongside the featurette "Ode".
This ties in to the release of her new film, Meek's Cutoff, which has a preview at the Harvard Film Archive on Monday the 2nd. The screen there is dark Friday and Saturday, although Sunday features the final film in the "Middletown" series from last weekend, Seventeen - The screen at the Museum of Fine Arts is also dark most of the week, with the next scheduled screening being on Thursday, when the 27th Annual Boston LGBT Film Festival opens with 3, the new film by Tom Tykwer.
- The Regent Theatre in Arlington will be running the latest Spike & Mike animation complimations on Friday and Saturday. Friday night, it's "Sick & Twisted" at 7:30pm and "New Generation" at 9:30pm; the showtimes are reversed on Saturday.
- It's a slow day on the second-run-shuffle front as well, although My Perestroika re-opens in one of the digital rooms at the Coolidge.
My plans, like I said, involve more or less living at IFFBoston. I'm taking Thursday off work to recover and see the Sox game, and honestly will probably just drop after that.
This Week Month In Tickets: 21 March 2011 to 24 April 2011
I've been getting behind on these, so it's time to catch up. Writing up BUFF took a ridiculous amount of time, so these kept getting pushed back, and back, and back, until four weeks get bound up in one post. So here's a little table of contents; as always, once at the page from the calendar, click the ticket for the review.
21 March 2011 - 27 March 2011
28 March 2011 - 3 April 2011
4 April 2011 - 10 April 2011
11 April 2011 - 17 April 2011
18 April 2011 - 24 April 2011
Why so long? Well, I imagine looking at this will explain that:
13 movies (including a shorts package) in four days isn't quite peak festival gorging, but it was a work week too. Of all the movies to choose to see that week, The Lincoln Lawyer may seem an odd one, but Lionsgate and Fandango were running an online promotion where the ticket cost $6, so I wound up trying to get that in before BUFF.
The Lincoln Lawyer
* * * (out of four)
Seen 2 March 2011 in AMC Boston Common #5 (first-run)
The Lincoln Lawyer doesn't re-invent the wheel, but it doesn't have to. It's a fun crime story that works as both mystery and legal thriller, thanks to a nice cast, polished production values, and a story that stays just on the right side of being too clever for its own good.
There are, admittedly, times when the movie feels less like a feature film than an episode of a television series. Not because it seems cheap or pat; rather because of the large supporting cast that are around to do one specific job here but could theoretically me more central in next week's story. I don't know if Michael Connelly has written more Mick Haller novels, but I wouldn't mind seeing them adapted if he has. Matthew McConaughey slips easily into the role of the slick huckster who may just have a decent core to him, and the folks surrounding Haller bounce off him nicely.
The script could perhaps use a little bit of work; there are bits where it seemed screenwriter John Romano has perhaps simplified something that a novelist can take his time explaining a little too much, and even those of us who basically learned what we know about jurisprudence from Law & Order may wonder if some of the courtroom antics would work for even a second. The finale's a little too pat, perhaps. It's forgivable stuff - the end is satisfying, even if it does strain credibility a little, and it's easy enough to go along with things up until then.
I did sort of want a breather after BUFF, but I wasn't going to wait much longer to see Source Code than necessary (and picking one of those gold tickets up for $4 from an online coupon site a few months ago would keep it at a reasonable price). I wound up falling a little behind on the reviews because nobody else on EFC was going to write about Cold Weather or The Music Never Stopped, and I wanted to talk about them before they left Boston theaters.
Oh, by the way - I'm going to talk about the end of Source Code, so if you don't want any of that, you can skip ahead.
Source Code
* * * ½ (out of four)
Seen 1 April 2011 in AMC Boston Common #14 (first-run, DLP projection)
As a computer programmer, I'm kind of annoyed by the name of Source Code. Well, not really as a computer programmer; I suspect that I wouldn't really be cool with taking a technical term with a specific meaning and using it to refer to whatever you want no matter what it was. Because I've been programming computers since I was seven, I just happen to recognize that this movie's "source code" isn't a text file that is assembled or compiled into executable machine language.
But that's about all I have for complaints. Much as he did with Moon, director Duncan Jones takes a story potentially full of technical jargon and weird concepts and gives the audience an emotional connection without reducing the science fictional ideas to standard genre fare that's been tarted up with laser guns. He and writer Ben Ripley do sling a lot of pseudoscience (the the point where I suspect no two audience members will have quite the same explanation of what "the source code" is), but they also do a nice job in structuring the movie - both the scenes on a military base with Vera Farmiga and Jeffrey Wright running a program to investigate the bombing of a commuter train using weird science and on the train with Michelle Monaghan and confused by the odd behavior of her seatmate (not aware or able to believe that he's "possessed" by a soldier whose consciousness has been thrown back in time) are nice little thrillers, connected only by Jake Gyllenhaal as the soldier. Ripley doesn't make either one too complicated, and he and Jones make the combination of simple and complex plots work. Jones proves to be a solid filmmaker in this more mainstream effort, not compromising for a larger audience and keeping things running smoothly even though he isn't able to exert quite the control he could with Moon.
I like Jake Gyllenhaal in this sort of role; he's got action-hero physicality but comes off as down-to-earth. His Colter Stevens is exactly what you'd expect of a soldier in this situation: Cocky but confused, intelligent if not necessarily book-smart, a blue-collar guy out of sorts in his current surroundings (props to the costume guys, who help out by making him look reasonable but wrong in the train sequences). Vera Farmiga plays another sort of military character, the professional career officer who nonetheless has a conscience, and she handles it well - she builds a rapport with Gyllenhaal despite their characters mainly communicating over computer monitors. Jeffrey Wright plays the chief scientist as the pompous, egotistical sort, and does so more and more as the film goes on, but it never tips toward the negative. Michelle Monaghan is rather underused; she's mainly there to be beautiful and appealing enough that we can believe Colter falls for her within eight minutes. There's probably nobody more qualified for the job, but it would be nice if she were a more active participant.
And, perhaps, it might make the ending work a little better. I like how this movie ends, but I get some of the complaints that people might have about it. The source code is poorly enough defined that I can understand that some people think that it's a simulation of sorts, although the end states pretty definitively that there's quantum stuff going on that creates new, divergent realities/timelines. Some folks seem not to like it because the dark ending was in play, but I kind of dig that Jones and company don't go for it. Not just on the basis of wondering what's so wrong with rewarding your heroes, but because I like that Duncan Jones's science fiction isn't cynical. Yes, there are bad people in control of technology, using it in fairly horrific ways, but it can be used for good.
Of course, there are some awkward conversations to come at the end of each of Jones's movies. That's the other issue that one may potentially have with that ending - sure, it's great that Colter is getting a second chance, but it's at the expense of someone else's life, and the girl he's going to be romancing thinks he's that someone else. Doesn't sound so noble, does it? I think it's acceptable, though: - Colter is inevitably going to tell Christina the truth; he's attempted to with almost every iteration, and it's just who he is. As to the creepiness of taking over another man's life... Well, the man was eight minutes from certain death in the original timeline, and with this being a new one, you could argue that there was never an original in that timeline.
That would be a heck of a lot to explain in not a little time in the end, though, and it would blunt the emotional impact of the finale something fierce. I don't think it's hard to figure out with a little thought, though it could have been made clearer earlier.
Honestly, I'd forgotten I had tickets for Frankenstein until just a couple days before the screening. It had been a busy week.
Huh, someday I'm going to figure out why I instinctively write "tickets" when the normal case for me is generally a single. There's societal pressures at work there, I reckon.
Saturday at the multiplex was a bit about me trying to put my money where my mouth is about using loyalty programs and different showtimes to send a message. I wanted my big ticket purchase to be for Hanna, so I wound up seeing that on the premium screen as opposed to the others, and used an expiring-that-day free pass on Your Highness, which happened to be on film as opposed to digital. I honestly might not have seen Your Highness if not for that expiring freebie (which couldn't be used on the premium screen, even if you paid the difference), and, well, sometimes you get what you pay for.
NT Live: Frankenstein
* * * ½ (out of four)
Seen 4 April 2011 in Coolidge Corner Theatre #1 (NT Live, digital projection)
Not really a movie, but rather a simulcast of a play (or, in this case, I think it's the encore presentation of a simulcast of a play; a 7pm Eastern start would be, what, midnight Greenwich Mean?), although director Danny Boyle is probably best known for his film work. The gimmick to this production of England's National Theatre is a clever one: On alternate nights, the two lead actors would switch between playing Victor and the Creature; for this performance, Benedict Cumberbatch was the former and Jonny Lee Miller the latter. I'm kind of annoyed with myself for not getting tickets to both times it ran at the Coolidge, because that seems like the obvious casting, and I'm very curious as to what the other way around was like.
This version, at least, was quite good. With its two strong antagonists, Mary Shalley's novel translates to the stage fairly well, especially since it doesn't take the adaptation very long to give us the verbal, well-read Creature of the original story as opposed to Karloff's silent, child-like hulk. The decision to tell much of the play from the Creature's point of view, starting from its "birth", is a clever one, giving us a unique and visceral look at his confusion that the nested narratives of the book perhaps lacks.
It's a good-looking adaptation, too, done not quite in the round but with an impressively malleable stage setting. It's maybe a little difficult to tell that Boyle is the one behind it - so much of what we associate with his style is a moving camera and how he cuts his film, and that's just not a factor on the stage. For the cinematic presentation, the camera does move, which initially seems like a bit of a cheat - it means sitting in the Coolidge isn't really like sitting at the National Theatre in London, but rather hopping from one seat to another.
I hope I get a chance to see the other version, whether it be on television, DVD/Blu-ray, or another encore at the Coolidge. It's an interesting adaptation of the work, and part of the fun of seeing plays is how different people interpret the same material.
Loong Boonmee raleuk chat (Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives)
* * * ¼ (out of four)
Seen 9 April 2011 in the Museum of Fine Arts Remis Auditorium (special engagement)
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives is a weird one; writer/director Apichatpong Weerasethakul takes us to a forest teeming with life to deliver a quiet meditation on life, death, and rebirth. It's graceful and nonsensical, maybe not for all tastes but perhaps for more than one might imagine.
Boonmee (Thanapat Saisaymar) is dying. There's cancer in his kidneys, and though he's not entirely bedridden, he knows the end is near. So he's called what's left of his family to his farm - his sister-in-law Jen (Jenjira Pongpas) and her son Tong (Sakda Kaewbuadee), Soon, though, he finds himself with other visitors - his late wife Huay (Natthakarn Aphaiwonk) and his long-lost son Boonsong (Geerasak Kulhong). Clearly, the border between this life and the next is growing extremely thin.
In some movies, that would be the springboard for a fantasy story; in this one, the likes of ghosts and monkey spirits are simply accepted, for the most part. Not blandly - several scenes which involve the monkey spirits are in fact rather unnerving; their glowing red eyes and dark silhouettes make them clearly other, if not threatening. These manifestations are not part of everyday life, but they are things which do not require explanation - the forest contains spirits, and imprints of the living linger and do appreciate offerings. Indeed, while the characters seldom comment upon the supernatural creatures which appear around them - Jen quite frequently seems more worried about the Laotian workers Boonmee has hired than her dead sister reappearing - it clearly has an effect on them in the closing scenes.
Full review at EFC.
Your Highness
* * (out of four)
Seen 9 April 2011 in Regal Fenway #4 (first-run)
You want your mind blown? Go to the IMDB entry for All the Real Girls. I started making jokes about that as soon as I realized that Zooey Deschanel was in Your Highness, but finding that Danny McBride was also in that cast was kind of amazing. These people (McBride, Deschanel, and director David Gordon Green) went from a quality, achingly real movie like Girls to this thing in about ten years. I can understand making Pineapple Express - even the indie-est of indie directors must secretly want to blow some things up every once in a while - but it's starting to look like Green was making quality dramas because that's all that he could afford to do on his way up, and dumb comedies were where his heart really was. Which is kind of odd.
The really weird thing about Your Highness isn't that Green is doing this sort of movie, or that I can barely remember Zooey Deschanel seeming like a young actress with a lot of promise as opposed to a pretty piece of mannered quirk. It's that despite the title, there's very little weed comedy in it. That's the obvious pun that the title is going for, and there are a couple off-hand mentions of it (but, strangely, never in connection to James Franco's noble prince character, and he's the one who seems high most of the time), but the basic story is basically fraternal jealousy grafted onto a quest that takes a sudden turn for the sincere once we hit the third act.
Less weird than annoying is that Green and co-writers McBride and Ben Best seem to not quite grasp what could make this movie really funny. A good chunk of the comedy comes from spoofing fantasy of the sword & sorcery, except that spoofing isn't really the right word. Spoof and parody are generally good-natured ribbing, whereas McBride and Best display a genuine vicious streak. The quest is quite specifically about preventing Justin Theroux's evil wizard from raping Deschanel's virgin, there are gags about child molestation and dismemberment, and other forms of nastiness. Natalie Portman's warrior woman is basically a sociopath. Your Highness at times seems like an astonishingly aggressive de-romanticizing of high fantasy (I'm reminded of how Punch Drunk Love took Adam Sandler movies apart to show the underlying ugliness) by showing what a miserable place an enchanted kingdom populated by actual human beings would be to live in would be, but it's almost like the filmmakers don't realize that their combination of parody and crude jokes almost add up to satire.
But not quite. Too bad, because I laughed the most when the movie was at its most vicious. Granted, I strongly suspect that this wasn't really on the mind of anybody making the movie - I sort of hate this genre and am very willing to see attacks on it, while the filmmakers were probably trying to combine things they loved (fantasy and vulgarity).
Hanna
* * * ½ (out of four)
Seen 9 April 2011 in Regal Fenway #13 (first-run, RPX digital projection)
Hanna got itself some attention by director Joe Wright positioning it as the smart teen-girl action flick in contrast to Sucker Punch, although putting it next to a movie that got very little respect and angered many critics for calling itself "visionary" and/or "empowering" may be the equivalent of standing next to a short guy to make oneself look tall.
It is, on its own, pretty darn good. If you're aiming to make a great movie with a young woman at the center, "hire Saoirse Ronan" is a good place to start. She can't necessarily cure all that ails a film - The Lovely Bones, for instance, suffered greatly from having her remain separate from the rest of the cast - but she's been the best part of nearly every movie she's been in. Here, she's pretty darn good as the title character, a girl brought up in the wilderness by her father (Eric Bana), trained to hunt, fight, and speak a dozen languages, but with no interaction with other people; her knowledge of the outside world mainly shaped by a book of fairy tales. It's a nifty performance, only occasionally leaning on her acting like an ignoramus - most of the time, though she's clearly unfamiliar with the world around her, she's curious and intelligent.
The story itself is sort of a Bourne Identity thing - a variation on the dangerous operative hunted down by an intelligence agency trying to keep a program quiet - but it's a niftily made one. While main antagonists Eric Bana and Cate Blanchett often seem a bit like ciphers (with some odd accents to boot), most of the smaller parts (like Olivia Williams) are well-done, and director Joe Wright does a lot of things to give this movie a different feel: The sharp contrast between the polished steel of the CIA's interrogation chamber and the almost surreal shuttered amusement park where the action winds up. The funky Chemical Brothers soundtrack. And one or two amazing long tracking shots, better-used here than in Atonement, where it just looked like showing off as opposed to giving the audience a real idea of what's going on in a fight.
Hello, baseball. You have been missed.
This was my first game attended this year, and it was a pretty good time. There was a bit of craziness in the week beforehand trying to get the tickets sorted out - the brother who was originally going to come had to bail, and then Matt couldn't say for sure that he was coming until the last minute - and there was a bit of rain to start the day, but overall, there's not much nicer than sitting in the sun at Fenway Park and watch the Red Sox start to crawl out of the hole they'd dug themselves.
Super
* * (out of four)
Seen 14 April 2011 in Landmark Kendall Square #6 (first-run)
As much as I think Roger Ebert's spoiler-ridden review of this movie is very bad form (seriously, don't find and read it unless you want a major development from the finale spoiled in the first paragraph), I do find myself similarly confused on who Super is trying to appeal to. It's not a mean-spirited movie, but it is a fairly joyless one.
It has its moments, to be sure - especially the energetic animated opening titles - but despite being promoted by its connection to writer/director James Gunn's Slither, it shares more cast members than attitude. This is a movie about a loser, and how for many people like Rainn Wilson's Frank D'Arbo, it's very difficult to rise above mediocrity in a positive way, and that even when seizing the things that which bring you joy and pride, the outcome is destructive more often than not. That's a sobering thought, and it's somewhat impressive that Gunn doesn't really ever flinch from it - we never harbor any illusions of The Crimson Bolt or Boltie being a great superhero, even when lesser movies might play the last act like that.
This doesn't actually make Super a bad movie, or even really a cynical one. Just one where the rewards are quite possibly much more modest and subtle than either the viewer or main character expected.
Two baseball games in two days! Not really a deliberate plan - I got a 4-pack to share with family for Christmas, and another one for myself, and the way they were set up had games on consecutive days. This was another good one, with Jed Lowrie continuing his ridiculously hot start and Daisuke Matsuzaka making all of us who joked about the appropriateness of him starting on Marathon Monday eat our words.
Speaking of Marathon Monday - I always forget just how utterly impassable Boston becomes once the runners start. It took me the usual forty minutes to walk from my house to the ballpark, but an absurd amount of time to get back, because there's really no easy way to cross Commonwealth Avenue on foot while it's blocked off for the marathon. I wound up making a huge mistake and getting on the Green Line rather than walking to the Common and either taking the Red Line or just turning left and walking home. Or ducking into a theater and watching a movie while the runners went past. Ah, well. Next year.
Later in the week, I went to The Warring States opening night, figuring maybe that was when these movies had their big crowds, but... not so much. And I had to duck out and tell an usher that the print was misframed. Fortunately, it was a pretty good movie. Not quite in the top tier of Chinese period epics - I figure this is like the Chinese equivalent of a Hollywood light blockbuster that stars second-tier stars and has competent visual effects but nothing groundbreaking - but entertaining nonetheless. And someone must be seeing it, because it's sticking around for another week of evening shows.
The week finishes off with the Brattle's Schlock-Around-The-Clock series; I took in some dubbed kaiju and the original Gone in 60 Seconds. The Creature Double Feature was an odd event - before the screening, one of the projectors went on the fritz, so at the end of each reel, they paused for a minute or two to thread up the next one. Between the commercial-break-approximating pauses and the English dubbing, it must have been like seeing them on WLVI back in the day.
Of course, back then you wouldn't have had the tool a couple rows in front of me who had his iPhone out and was constantly taking pictures of the screen. Really annoying. I can deal with the little girl behind me who was constantly asking her father questions, because parents bringing their kids to the Godzilla double feature is cool, but this other guy? Ugh.
Kaijû daisensô (Monster Zero)
* * ½ (out of four)
Seen 23 April 2011 in the Brattle Theatre (Schlock Around the Clock)
So, this turns out to be a big chunk of where Godzilla: Final Wars comes from, with its X-aliens with the skinny shades to the plot about them bringing monsters to earth; there's even an American co-lead. It is certainly pleasantly goofy, with special effects of the man-in-suit and cardboard variety.
It does kind of boggle my mind a little that these two movies were directed by Ishiro Honda, who wrote the original Gojira, a serious and intelligent film that personified atomic horror. It's hard to believe that htis movie with Godzilla's little victory dance came from it.
Kaijû sôshingeki (Destroy All Monsters)
* * ¼ (out of four)
Seen 23 April 2011 in the Brattle Theatre (Schlock Around the Clock)
Okay, maybe this one is a more direct antecedent to Final Wars, containing as it does almost all of the Toho kaiju. It's a similar storyline - aliens control monsters to make them attack our cities so that they can take over - but the details of it aren't quite so memorable. It lacks the entertaining human/alien villains of Monster Zero and Final Wars.
That said, it does have a tremendously satisfying finale, with the other kaiju just going to town on King Ghidorah. That, at least, is something that sticks out.
Gone in 60 Seconds
* * ½ (out of four)
Seen 23 April 2011 in the Brattle Theatre (Schlock Around the Clock)
Gone in 60 Seconds is an amazing car chase in search of a movie. The final half hour or so is writer/director/star H.B. Halicki tearing across Los Angeles in a 1971 Mustang as what seems like half the city's cops follow. The movie ends abruptly after that, and the set up to get to that point is often pretty perfunctory - a procedural look at the mechanics of grand theft auto and just enough sibling friction to set the chase up.
And you have to kind of admire Halicki's single-minded devotion to his skill set, to be honest. The man knew cars inside out, and apparently knew just enough about movies to get capable work from his team. The rest mostly worked itself out, but even when it didn't, the feeling was that it didn't matter, because the important stuff looked good.
21 March 2011 - 27 March 2011
28 March 2011 - 3 April 2011
4 April 2011 - 10 April 2011
11 April 2011 - 17 April 2011
18 April 2011 - 24 April 2011
Why so long? Well, I imagine looking at this will explain that:
13 movies (including a shorts package) in four days isn't quite peak festival gorging, but it was a work week too. Of all the movies to choose to see that week, The Lincoln Lawyer may seem an odd one, but Lionsgate and Fandango were running an online promotion where the ticket cost $6, so I wound up trying to get that in before BUFF.
The Lincoln Lawyer
* * * (out of four)
Seen 2 March 2011 in AMC Boston Common #5 (first-run)
The Lincoln Lawyer doesn't re-invent the wheel, but it doesn't have to. It's a fun crime story that works as both mystery and legal thriller, thanks to a nice cast, polished production values, and a story that stays just on the right side of being too clever for its own good.
There are, admittedly, times when the movie feels less like a feature film than an episode of a television series. Not because it seems cheap or pat; rather because of the large supporting cast that are around to do one specific job here but could theoretically me more central in next week's story. I don't know if Michael Connelly has written more Mick Haller novels, but I wouldn't mind seeing them adapted if he has. Matthew McConaughey slips easily into the role of the slick huckster who may just have a decent core to him, and the folks surrounding Haller bounce off him nicely.
The script could perhaps use a little bit of work; there are bits where it seemed screenwriter John Romano has perhaps simplified something that a novelist can take his time explaining a little too much, and even those of us who basically learned what we know about jurisprudence from Law & Order may wonder if some of the courtroom antics would work for even a second. The finale's a little too pat, perhaps. It's forgivable stuff - the end is satisfying, even if it does strain credibility a little, and it's easy enough to go along with things up until then.
I did sort of want a breather after BUFF, but I wasn't going to wait much longer to see Source Code than necessary (and picking one of those gold tickets up for $4 from an online coupon site a few months ago would keep it at a reasonable price). I wound up falling a little behind on the reviews because nobody else on EFC was going to write about Cold Weather or The Music Never Stopped, and I wanted to talk about them before they left Boston theaters.
Oh, by the way - I'm going to talk about the end of Source Code, so if you don't want any of that, you can skip ahead.
Source Code
* * * ½ (out of four)
Seen 1 April 2011 in AMC Boston Common #14 (first-run, DLP projection)
As a computer programmer, I'm kind of annoyed by the name of Source Code. Well, not really as a computer programmer; I suspect that I wouldn't really be cool with taking a technical term with a specific meaning and using it to refer to whatever you want no matter what it was. Because I've been programming computers since I was seven, I just happen to recognize that this movie's "source code" isn't a text file that is assembled or compiled into executable machine language.
But that's about all I have for complaints. Much as he did with Moon, director Duncan Jones takes a story potentially full of technical jargon and weird concepts and gives the audience an emotional connection without reducing the science fictional ideas to standard genre fare that's been tarted up with laser guns. He and writer Ben Ripley do sling a lot of pseudoscience (the the point where I suspect no two audience members will have quite the same explanation of what "the source code" is), but they also do a nice job in structuring the movie - both the scenes on a military base with Vera Farmiga and Jeffrey Wright running a program to investigate the bombing of a commuter train using weird science and on the train with Michelle Monaghan and confused by the odd behavior of her seatmate (not aware or able to believe that he's "possessed" by a soldier whose consciousness has been thrown back in time) are nice little thrillers, connected only by Jake Gyllenhaal as the soldier. Ripley doesn't make either one too complicated, and he and Jones make the combination of simple and complex plots work. Jones proves to be a solid filmmaker in this more mainstream effort, not compromising for a larger audience and keeping things running smoothly even though he isn't able to exert quite the control he could with Moon.
I like Jake Gyllenhaal in this sort of role; he's got action-hero physicality but comes off as down-to-earth. His Colter Stevens is exactly what you'd expect of a soldier in this situation: Cocky but confused, intelligent if not necessarily book-smart, a blue-collar guy out of sorts in his current surroundings (props to the costume guys, who help out by making him look reasonable but wrong in the train sequences). Vera Farmiga plays another sort of military character, the professional career officer who nonetheless has a conscience, and she handles it well - she builds a rapport with Gyllenhaal despite their characters mainly communicating over computer monitors. Jeffrey Wright plays the chief scientist as the pompous, egotistical sort, and does so more and more as the film goes on, but it never tips toward the negative. Michelle Monaghan is rather underused; she's mainly there to be beautiful and appealing enough that we can believe Colter falls for her within eight minutes. There's probably nobody more qualified for the job, but it would be nice if she were a more active participant.
And, perhaps, it might make the ending work a little better. I like how this movie ends, but I get some of the complaints that people might have about it. The source code is poorly enough defined that I can understand that some people think that it's a simulation of sorts, although the end states pretty definitively that there's quantum stuff going on that creates new, divergent realities/timelines. Some folks seem not to like it because the dark ending was in play, but I kind of dig that Jones and company don't go for it. Not just on the basis of wondering what's so wrong with rewarding your heroes, but because I like that Duncan Jones's science fiction isn't cynical. Yes, there are bad people in control of technology, using it in fairly horrific ways, but it can be used for good.
Of course, there are some awkward conversations to come at the end of each of Jones's movies. That's the other issue that one may potentially have with that ending - sure, it's great that Colter is getting a second chance, but it's at the expense of someone else's life, and the girl he's going to be romancing thinks he's that someone else. Doesn't sound so noble, does it? I think it's acceptable, though: - Colter is inevitably going to tell Christina the truth; he's attempted to with almost every iteration, and it's just who he is. As to the creepiness of taking over another man's life... Well, the man was eight minutes from certain death in the original timeline, and with this being a new one, you could argue that there was never an original in that timeline.
That would be a heck of a lot to explain in not a little time in the end, though, and it would blunt the emotional impact of the finale something fierce. I don't think it's hard to figure out with a little thought, though it could have been made clearer earlier.
Honestly, I'd forgotten I had tickets for Frankenstein until just a couple days before the screening. It had been a busy week.
Huh, someday I'm going to figure out why I instinctively write "tickets" when the normal case for me is generally a single. There's societal pressures at work there, I reckon.
Saturday at the multiplex was a bit about me trying to put my money where my mouth is about using loyalty programs and different showtimes to send a message. I wanted my big ticket purchase to be for Hanna, so I wound up seeing that on the premium screen as opposed to the others, and used an expiring-that-day free pass on Your Highness, which happened to be on film as opposed to digital. I honestly might not have seen Your Highness if not for that expiring freebie (which couldn't be used on the premium screen, even if you paid the difference), and, well, sometimes you get what you pay for.
NT Live: Frankenstein
* * * ½ (out of four)
Seen 4 April 2011 in Coolidge Corner Theatre #1 (NT Live, digital projection)
Not really a movie, but rather a simulcast of a play (or, in this case, I think it's the encore presentation of a simulcast of a play; a 7pm Eastern start would be, what, midnight Greenwich Mean?), although director Danny Boyle is probably best known for his film work. The gimmick to this production of England's National Theatre is a clever one: On alternate nights, the two lead actors would switch between playing Victor and the Creature; for this performance, Benedict Cumberbatch was the former and Jonny Lee Miller the latter. I'm kind of annoyed with myself for not getting tickets to both times it ran at the Coolidge, because that seems like the obvious casting, and I'm very curious as to what the other way around was like.
This version, at least, was quite good. With its two strong antagonists, Mary Shalley's novel translates to the stage fairly well, especially since it doesn't take the adaptation very long to give us the verbal, well-read Creature of the original story as opposed to Karloff's silent, child-like hulk. The decision to tell much of the play from the Creature's point of view, starting from its "birth", is a clever one, giving us a unique and visceral look at his confusion that the nested narratives of the book perhaps lacks.
It's a good-looking adaptation, too, done not quite in the round but with an impressively malleable stage setting. It's maybe a little difficult to tell that Boyle is the one behind it - so much of what we associate with his style is a moving camera and how he cuts his film, and that's just not a factor on the stage. For the cinematic presentation, the camera does move, which initially seems like a bit of a cheat - it means sitting in the Coolidge isn't really like sitting at the National Theatre in London, but rather hopping from one seat to another.
I hope I get a chance to see the other version, whether it be on television, DVD/Blu-ray, or another encore at the Coolidge. It's an interesting adaptation of the work, and part of the fun of seeing plays is how different people interpret the same material.
Loong Boonmee raleuk chat (Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives)
* * * ¼ (out of four)
Seen 9 April 2011 in the Museum of Fine Arts Remis Auditorium (special engagement)
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives is a weird one; writer/director Apichatpong Weerasethakul takes us to a forest teeming with life to deliver a quiet meditation on life, death, and rebirth. It's graceful and nonsensical, maybe not for all tastes but perhaps for more than one might imagine.
Boonmee (Thanapat Saisaymar) is dying. There's cancer in his kidneys, and though he's not entirely bedridden, he knows the end is near. So he's called what's left of his family to his farm - his sister-in-law Jen (Jenjira Pongpas) and her son Tong (Sakda Kaewbuadee), Soon, though, he finds himself with other visitors - his late wife Huay (Natthakarn Aphaiwonk) and his long-lost son Boonsong (Geerasak Kulhong). Clearly, the border between this life and the next is growing extremely thin.
In some movies, that would be the springboard for a fantasy story; in this one, the likes of ghosts and monkey spirits are simply accepted, for the most part. Not blandly - several scenes which involve the monkey spirits are in fact rather unnerving; their glowing red eyes and dark silhouettes make them clearly other, if not threatening. These manifestations are not part of everyday life, but they are things which do not require explanation - the forest contains spirits, and imprints of the living linger and do appreciate offerings. Indeed, while the characters seldom comment upon the supernatural creatures which appear around them - Jen quite frequently seems more worried about the Laotian workers Boonmee has hired than her dead sister reappearing - it clearly has an effect on them in the closing scenes.
Full review at EFC.
Your Highness
* * (out of four)
Seen 9 April 2011 in Regal Fenway #4 (first-run)
You want your mind blown? Go to the IMDB entry for All the Real Girls. I started making jokes about that as soon as I realized that Zooey Deschanel was in Your Highness, but finding that Danny McBride was also in that cast was kind of amazing. These people (McBride, Deschanel, and director David Gordon Green) went from a quality, achingly real movie like Girls to this thing in about ten years. I can understand making Pineapple Express - even the indie-est of indie directors must secretly want to blow some things up every once in a while - but it's starting to look like Green was making quality dramas because that's all that he could afford to do on his way up, and dumb comedies were where his heart really was. Which is kind of odd.
The really weird thing about Your Highness isn't that Green is doing this sort of movie, or that I can barely remember Zooey Deschanel seeming like a young actress with a lot of promise as opposed to a pretty piece of mannered quirk. It's that despite the title, there's very little weed comedy in it. That's the obvious pun that the title is going for, and there are a couple off-hand mentions of it (but, strangely, never in connection to James Franco's noble prince character, and he's the one who seems high most of the time), but the basic story is basically fraternal jealousy grafted onto a quest that takes a sudden turn for the sincere once we hit the third act.
Less weird than annoying is that Green and co-writers McBride and Ben Best seem to not quite grasp what could make this movie really funny. A good chunk of the comedy comes from spoofing fantasy of the sword & sorcery, except that spoofing isn't really the right word. Spoof and parody are generally good-natured ribbing, whereas McBride and Best display a genuine vicious streak. The quest is quite specifically about preventing Justin Theroux's evil wizard from raping Deschanel's virgin, there are gags about child molestation and dismemberment, and other forms of nastiness. Natalie Portman's warrior woman is basically a sociopath. Your Highness at times seems like an astonishingly aggressive de-romanticizing of high fantasy (I'm reminded of how Punch Drunk Love took Adam Sandler movies apart to show the underlying ugliness) by showing what a miserable place an enchanted kingdom populated by actual human beings would be to live in would be, but it's almost like the filmmakers don't realize that their combination of parody and crude jokes almost add up to satire.
But not quite. Too bad, because I laughed the most when the movie was at its most vicious. Granted, I strongly suspect that this wasn't really on the mind of anybody making the movie - I sort of hate this genre and am very willing to see attacks on it, while the filmmakers were probably trying to combine things they loved (fantasy and vulgarity).
Hanna
* * * ½ (out of four)
Seen 9 April 2011 in Regal Fenway #13 (first-run, RPX digital projection)
Hanna got itself some attention by director Joe Wright positioning it as the smart teen-girl action flick in contrast to Sucker Punch, although putting it next to a movie that got very little respect and angered many critics for calling itself "visionary" and/or "empowering" may be the equivalent of standing next to a short guy to make oneself look tall.
It is, on its own, pretty darn good. If you're aiming to make a great movie with a young woman at the center, "hire Saoirse Ronan" is a good place to start. She can't necessarily cure all that ails a film - The Lovely Bones, for instance, suffered greatly from having her remain separate from the rest of the cast - but she's been the best part of nearly every movie she's been in. Here, she's pretty darn good as the title character, a girl brought up in the wilderness by her father (Eric Bana), trained to hunt, fight, and speak a dozen languages, but with no interaction with other people; her knowledge of the outside world mainly shaped by a book of fairy tales. It's a nifty performance, only occasionally leaning on her acting like an ignoramus - most of the time, though she's clearly unfamiliar with the world around her, she's curious and intelligent.
The story itself is sort of a Bourne Identity thing - a variation on the dangerous operative hunted down by an intelligence agency trying to keep a program quiet - but it's a niftily made one. While main antagonists Eric Bana and Cate Blanchett often seem a bit like ciphers (with some odd accents to boot), most of the smaller parts (like Olivia Williams) are well-done, and director Joe Wright does a lot of things to give this movie a different feel: The sharp contrast between the polished steel of the CIA's interrogation chamber and the almost surreal shuttered amusement park where the action winds up. The funky Chemical Brothers soundtrack. And one or two amazing long tracking shots, better-used here than in Atonement, where it just looked like showing off as opposed to giving the audience a real idea of what's going on in a fight.
Hello, baseball. You have been missed.
This was my first game attended this year, and it was a pretty good time. There was a bit of craziness in the week beforehand trying to get the tickets sorted out - the brother who was originally going to come had to bail, and then Matt couldn't say for sure that he was coming until the last minute - and there was a bit of rain to start the day, but overall, there's not much nicer than sitting in the sun at Fenway Park and watch the Red Sox start to crawl out of the hole they'd dug themselves.
Super
* * (out of four)
Seen 14 April 2011 in Landmark Kendall Square #6 (first-run)
As much as I think Roger Ebert's spoiler-ridden review of this movie is very bad form (seriously, don't find and read it unless you want a major development from the finale spoiled in the first paragraph), I do find myself similarly confused on who Super is trying to appeal to. It's not a mean-spirited movie, but it is a fairly joyless one.
It has its moments, to be sure - especially the energetic animated opening titles - but despite being promoted by its connection to writer/director James Gunn's Slither, it shares more cast members than attitude. This is a movie about a loser, and how for many people like Rainn Wilson's Frank D'Arbo, it's very difficult to rise above mediocrity in a positive way, and that even when seizing the things that which bring you joy and pride, the outcome is destructive more often than not. That's a sobering thought, and it's somewhat impressive that Gunn doesn't really ever flinch from it - we never harbor any illusions of The Crimson Bolt or Boltie being a great superhero, even when lesser movies might play the last act like that.
This doesn't actually make Super a bad movie, or even really a cynical one. Just one where the rewards are quite possibly much more modest and subtle than either the viewer or main character expected.
Two baseball games in two days! Not really a deliberate plan - I got a 4-pack to share with family for Christmas, and another one for myself, and the way they were set up had games on consecutive days. This was another good one, with Jed Lowrie continuing his ridiculously hot start and Daisuke Matsuzaka making all of us who joked about the appropriateness of him starting on Marathon Monday eat our words.
Speaking of Marathon Monday - I always forget just how utterly impassable Boston becomes once the runners start. It took me the usual forty minutes to walk from my house to the ballpark, but an absurd amount of time to get back, because there's really no easy way to cross Commonwealth Avenue on foot while it's blocked off for the marathon. I wound up making a huge mistake and getting on the Green Line rather than walking to the Common and either taking the Red Line or just turning left and walking home. Or ducking into a theater and watching a movie while the runners went past. Ah, well. Next year.
Later in the week, I went to The Warring States opening night, figuring maybe that was when these movies had their big crowds, but... not so much. And I had to duck out and tell an usher that the print was misframed. Fortunately, it was a pretty good movie. Not quite in the top tier of Chinese period epics - I figure this is like the Chinese equivalent of a Hollywood light blockbuster that stars second-tier stars and has competent visual effects but nothing groundbreaking - but entertaining nonetheless. And someone must be seeing it, because it's sticking around for another week of evening shows.
The week finishes off with the Brattle's Schlock-Around-The-Clock series; I took in some dubbed kaiju and the original Gone in 60 Seconds. The Creature Double Feature was an odd event - before the screening, one of the projectors went on the fritz, so at the end of each reel, they paused for a minute or two to thread up the next one. Between the commercial-break-approximating pauses and the English dubbing, it must have been like seeing them on WLVI back in the day.
Of course, back then you wouldn't have had the tool a couple rows in front of me who had his iPhone out and was constantly taking pictures of the screen. Really annoying. I can deal with the little girl behind me who was constantly asking her father questions, because parents bringing their kids to the Godzilla double feature is cool, but this other guy? Ugh.
Kaijû daisensô (Monster Zero)
* * ½ (out of four)
Seen 23 April 2011 in the Brattle Theatre (Schlock Around the Clock)
So, this turns out to be a big chunk of where Godzilla: Final Wars comes from, with its X-aliens with the skinny shades to the plot about them bringing monsters to earth; there's even an American co-lead. It is certainly pleasantly goofy, with special effects of the man-in-suit and cardboard variety.
It does kind of boggle my mind a little that these two movies were directed by Ishiro Honda, who wrote the original Gojira, a serious and intelligent film that personified atomic horror. It's hard to believe that htis movie with Godzilla's little victory dance came from it.
Kaijû sôshingeki (Destroy All Monsters)
* * ¼ (out of four)
Seen 23 April 2011 in the Brattle Theatre (Schlock Around the Clock)
Okay, maybe this one is a more direct antecedent to Final Wars, containing as it does almost all of the Toho kaiju. It's a similar storyline - aliens control monsters to make them attack our cities so that they can take over - but the details of it aren't quite so memorable. It lacks the entertaining human/alien villains of Monster Zero and Final Wars.
That said, it does have a tremendously satisfying finale, with the other kaiju just going to town on King Ghidorah. That, at least, is something that sticks out.
Gone in 60 Seconds
* * ½ (out of four)
Seen 23 April 2011 in the Brattle Theatre (Schlock Around the Clock)
Gone in 60 Seconds is an amazing car chase in search of a movie. The final half hour or so is writer/director/star H.B. Halicki tearing across Los Angeles in a 1971 Mustang as what seems like half the city's cops follow. The movie ends abruptly after that, and the set up to get to that point is often pretty perfunctory - a procedural look at the mechanics of grand theft auto and just enough sibling friction to set the chase up.
And you have to kind of admire Halicki's single-minded devotion to his skill set, to be honest. The man knew cars inside out, and apparently knew just enough about movies to get capable work from his team. The rest mostly worked itself out, but even when it didn't, the feeling was that it didn't matter, because the important stuff looked good.
Saturday, April 23, 2011
The Warring States
Another Chinese movie playing at Boston Common, another somewhat sparse crowd, even on opening night, which surprised me a little bit; it's a movie that certainly seems commercial enough, and even if the pirate DVDs are already on the way (it appears to have opened in China a week and a half earlier, and Chinese pirates are are fast and shameless), it's the sort that people like to see on the big screen, or so you'd think.
(Surprisingly, there seemed to be a fairly impressive turnout for the Boston International Film Festival across the hall. I tend to take that one for granted, and in fact have made something of a deliberate effort to ignore it since they moved their dates to conflict with IFFBoston a couple years ago. Seems like they draw an audience, though.)
I must admit to being a little disappointed that this was the only Chinese movie opening in Boston this week. Well Go opened Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen in New York, Los Angeles, and a couple other markets this weekend, but not Boston. They didn't open either of the Ip Man movies here, either, and I don't get that - the other Chinese movies do okay here, there's a couple of theaters right next to Chinatown and the Kung Fu Video store. Plus, there's a not-entirely-illegitimate claim that he's local; he went to school at Newton North high school for a while and his parents are still nearby (heck, I think mother Bow Sim Mark still teaches tai chi). And Boston does like to support its local guys; I think The Company Men lasted longer here than anywhere else, and, heck, I remember Gerry sticking around.
Thankfully, Legend of the Fist is going to play Boston, just not for a month; it's scheduled to open at the Brattle on 20 May, the same day as China Lion has their next day and date release, A Beautiful Life. That one's a romance with Shu Qi, and considering that their biggest hit in the USA thus far was her in If You Are the One 2, I'm guessing that will do pretty well.
Zhan Guo (The Warring States)
* * * (out of four)
Seen 23 April 2011 in AMC Boston Common #12 (first-run)
The Warring States is the sort of movie that, for one reason or another, only China seems to make in quantity: The period melodrama about the clash of nations and individuals, with playful comedy existing side-by-side with romance and horrible betrayal. It's perhaps not the grand epic that some of its fellows are, and may be a bit confusing to westerners, but it's diverting and pulls together by the end.
The time is roughly 355 BC, in the middle of China's "Warring States" period. Military strategists are a precious commodity and are often free agents - or, just as often, kidnapped for their expertise. That's what happens with Sun Bin (Sun Honglei), the greatest student of the legendary Gui Guzi - he is first recruited by the Wei army to help them take a border city, and after that plan is successful, the daughter of the Qi general he defeated (Jiang Wu) has him kidnapped. That's not so bad, though - Tian Xi (Jing Tian) is young, beautiful, and spirited, though initially not quite so taken with Sun Bin as he is with her. However, this skirmish has made the other kingdoms nervous, and they come together to make peace. This reunites Bin with the general of Wei's army, Pang Juan (Francis Ng). Juan is Gui Guzi's other student and Bin's sworn brother; his sister Fei (Kim Hee-seon) is the princess of Wei. Of course, there's more going on than may first appear, and despite being a savant in the area of military strategy, Bin will likely be hurt by his nature as a trusting pacifist.
Bin's a bit of a weird character, at least as presented in this movie. A quick glance at his Wikipedia entry suggests that, at a minimum, the events have been reordered somewhat, and he's become as much folk hero as historic figure over the centuries; I'm not sure how much of his backstory the film's main audience would be expected to know. There's an enjoyable contradiction between his genial personality and his skill at planning war; at times the audience may wonder how he got to that point. We don't get that story, but Sun Honglei embodies the contradictions amusingly, finding the line between Bin being childlike and understanding the basic facts of war enough to want no part of it. Especially toward the beginning, it's a funny, larger-than-life performance, but that works to give some extra heft to the end, when the clownishness of the Bin we meet at the start is no longer appropriate.
Full review at EFC.
(Surprisingly, there seemed to be a fairly impressive turnout for the Boston International Film Festival across the hall. I tend to take that one for granted, and in fact have made something of a deliberate effort to ignore it since they moved their dates to conflict with IFFBoston a couple years ago. Seems like they draw an audience, though.)
I must admit to being a little disappointed that this was the only Chinese movie opening in Boston this week. Well Go opened Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen in New York, Los Angeles, and a couple other markets this weekend, but not Boston. They didn't open either of the Ip Man movies here, either, and I don't get that - the other Chinese movies do okay here, there's a couple of theaters right next to Chinatown and the Kung Fu Video store. Plus, there's a not-entirely-illegitimate claim that he's local; he went to school at Newton North high school for a while and his parents are still nearby (heck, I think mother Bow Sim Mark still teaches tai chi). And Boston does like to support its local guys; I think The Company Men lasted longer here than anywhere else, and, heck, I remember Gerry sticking around.
Thankfully, Legend of the Fist is going to play Boston, just not for a month; it's scheduled to open at the Brattle on 20 May, the same day as China Lion has their next day and date release, A Beautiful Life. That one's a romance with Shu Qi, and considering that their biggest hit in the USA thus far was her in If You Are the One 2, I'm guessing that will do pretty well.
Zhan Guo (The Warring States)
* * * (out of four)
Seen 23 April 2011 in AMC Boston Common #12 (first-run)
The Warring States is the sort of movie that, for one reason or another, only China seems to make in quantity: The period melodrama about the clash of nations and individuals, with playful comedy existing side-by-side with romance and horrible betrayal. It's perhaps not the grand epic that some of its fellows are, and may be a bit confusing to westerners, but it's diverting and pulls together by the end.
The time is roughly 355 BC, in the middle of China's "Warring States" period. Military strategists are a precious commodity and are often free agents - or, just as often, kidnapped for their expertise. That's what happens with Sun Bin (Sun Honglei), the greatest student of the legendary Gui Guzi - he is first recruited by the Wei army to help them take a border city, and after that plan is successful, the daughter of the Qi general he defeated (Jiang Wu) has him kidnapped. That's not so bad, though - Tian Xi (Jing Tian) is young, beautiful, and spirited, though initially not quite so taken with Sun Bin as he is with her. However, this skirmish has made the other kingdoms nervous, and they come together to make peace. This reunites Bin with the general of Wei's army, Pang Juan (Francis Ng). Juan is Gui Guzi's other student and Bin's sworn brother; his sister Fei (Kim Hee-seon) is the princess of Wei. Of course, there's more going on than may first appear, and despite being a savant in the area of military strategy, Bin will likely be hurt by his nature as a trusting pacifist.
Bin's a bit of a weird character, at least as presented in this movie. A quick glance at his Wikipedia entry suggests that, at a minimum, the events have been reordered somewhat, and he's become as much folk hero as historic figure over the centuries; I'm not sure how much of his backstory the film's main audience would be expected to know. There's an enjoyable contradiction between his genial personality and his skill at planning war; at times the audience may wonder how he got to that point. We don't get that story, but Sun Honglei embodies the contradictions amusingly, finding the line between Bin being childlike and understanding the basic facts of war enough to want no part of it. Especially toward the beginning, it's a funny, larger-than-life performance, but that works to give some extra heft to the end, when the clownishness of the Bin we meet at the start is no longer appropriate.
Full review at EFC.
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