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05May

Reviews in Short: May 2013

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Sun Don’t Shine

On-the-lam movies can be fun — but only if you care about the people on the lam. In Sun Don’t Shine, Kate Lyn Sheil and Kentucker Audley play young lovers sweating it out in Florida because there’s something in the trunk of their car, but a decomposing body isn’t what made me nauseous. That would be Sheil, who, as the clingy, whiny, emotionally stunted female half of this not-so-dynamic duo, gives one of the most annoying performances of the year. Release: 2012 Grade: D

*****

Swimming Pool

Until it goes off the deep end, Swimming Pool is a sleek erotic thriller about the murderous results when an uptight British novelist finds herself sharing a summer house with her boss’s promiscuous young daughter. Charlotte Rampling, as the repressed writer, and Ludivine Sagnier, as her wild-and-crazy opposite, regard each other like the proverbial cat and canary — but which is which? It’s smooth and sexy, but the final scenes are either deliciously ambiguous or a groan-inducing cheat. You decide. Release: 2003 Grade: B

*****

Sightseers

A nerdy British couple (as part of their holiday, they schedule a stop at a pencil museum) decides to enliven their road trip with road kill — literally. If the concept of dull tourists as serial killers is clever enough to sustain you for 90 minutes, then knock yourself out, mate, but for me the plot and characters failed to live up to that amusing premise. Release: 2013 Grade: C

*****

Wasted on the Young

A familiar tale — high school bullies, the rich and popular kids, make life hellish for other students — is told with originality and flair by Australian filmmaker Ben C. Lucas. It’s not an uplifting story, but Lucas’s decision to leave adults out of the film works well, immersing the viewer in a nightmarish, but riveting, teenage society. Release: 2010 Grade: B

02May

Plutocrats

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by Chrystia Freeland

Plutocrats is the type of book you suspect will make you angry before you turn a single page. The subtitle alone is hackle-raising: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else. The fall of “everyone else”? This book probably will piss you off – but don’t blame the messenger.

Freeland, a financial journalist, makes the case that there is alarming income inequality in most countries – but you probably already knew that. She interviews a laundry list of the ultra-rich, determines how these men (almost always men) rose to the top, and speculates on what it all means for “everyone else,” i.e., the 99 percent. Is vast income disparity the inevitable result of capitalism? Is it possible that the wealth chasm is actually a good thing?

Plutocrats documents how the actions of Big Business are benefiting, if not the American middle class, then certainly new middle classes in emerging world markets such as China and India. It’s hard to argue that that’s a bad thing.

But our billionaires and millionaires are not exactly selfless. Many of them, particularly in the United States, feel victimized by government regulation and taxes, and they don’t understand why they are increasingly demonized by the 99 percent. They do contribute to charity, but those contributions treat the symptoms of inequality, not the problem itself.

Freeland doesn’t come right out and say it, but she implies that only government can place checks on Wall Street and corporate America. That might be anathema to conservatives and libertarians, but after events of the past five years, isn’t it common sense to everyone else? Apparently not, for as Freeland writes:

“That’s the irony of superstar economics in a democratic age. We all think we can be superstars, but in a winner-take-all economy, there isn’t room for most of us at the top.”

19Apr

Rectify

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Sundance Channel could use a better publicist. If you browse entertainment Web sites, you’ll find story after story about new series launches by Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu. There is much excitement over the brave new world of scripted programming by and for the Internet.

Meanwhile, with little fanfare and a “buzz” only your dog could detect, Sundance is also venturing into series television, and it’s offering some shows worth crowing about. On the heels of Top of the Lake, which concluded last week, Sundance on Monday premieres Rectify, a compelling, character-driven drama about an ex-con’s attempt to reassimilate into his Georgia hometown.

Aden Young stars as Daniel Holden, a man convicted of murder whose sentence is “vacated” after DNA evidence calls his original conviction into question. Holden has spent the better part of two decades on Death Row, and moving back into his mother’s house proves as difficult for him as it is for other residents of Paulie, Georgia — some of whom remain convinced of Holden’s guilt and won’t be satisfied until he’s returned to jail.

Rectify moves at a leisurely tempo, but it’s absorbing because what matters in this tale is character reaction: How will Daniel’s younger brother, a regular teen who is into girls and movies, interact with an older sibling who is familiar with prison rape but has never seen a DVD? Will the prosecutor-turned-politician who put Daniel behind bars let bygones be bygones? Why does Daniel’s own mother seem so guarded in his presence?

This kind of drama doesn’t work if the actors aren’t intriguing, but happily that’s not an issue with Rectify. Young and Abigail Spencer, as Daniel’s combative sister Amantha, are especially good at balancing the story’s heavier elements with some choice, fish-out-of-water comedy. And Rectify’s production design is more like what you find in theatrical films than on cable television. Grade: B+

Cast: Aden Young, Abigail Spencer, Michael O’Neill, Hal Holbrook, Clayne Crawford, Bruce McKinnon, J. Smith-Cameron, Adelaide Clemens, Luke Kirby Premieres: April 22, 2013

Watch Trailers and Clips (click here)

12Apr

Four Past Midnight

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by Stephen King

I’ve been a member of Stephen King’s “constant reader” club for years, but I fear that I might be coming down with a case of King fatigue. Maybe I could call it “Castle Rock Burnout.” One symptom occurs when King characters, past and present, begin to blur together and induce a feeling of déjà vu: In Four Past Midnight (published in 1990), we once again meet the small-town sheriff, the awkward teen, the shady businessman – even King’s demons, witches, and monsters begin to feel a bit stale.

02Apr

Reviews in Short: April 2013

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The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Despite an appealing cast, this high-school drama strikes an immediate pity-party tone and never strays from it. Charlie (Logan Lerman), abused as a child, is timid in school, misunderstood by girls, suicidal and, to an irritating degree, Oh. So. Sensitive. He is befriended by two seniors — a girl “with a past” (Emma Watson) and a gay boy (Ezra Miller) who dates the school’s quarterback — and they all become best buds. In this movie, most (not all) of the heterosexuals are brutish, insensitive clods, and our heroes are all tragic victims. If you love snow angels, To Kill a Mockingbird, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, then this is a movie for you. But gag me with a spoon. Release: 2012 Grade: C-

*****

The Grey

A plane goes down in the Alaska wild, where Liam Neeson and a small group of oil workers face hostile elements and inhospitable wolves. The Grey wants to be both thrilling adventure and a profound meditation on the meaning of life — and falls short. The wolf attacks are fairly entertaining, but the “deep meaning” scenes sputter because Grey’s characters are thinly drawn, with a vocabulary that seems limited to the word “fuck.” Release: 2012 Grade: B-

*****

Hitchcock

It plays fast and loose with the facts, but Hitchcock is a surprisingly sweet biopic. If you can overlook the screenplay’s fabrications about the famous filmmaker’s alleged monetary problems and supposedly shaky marriage, and focus instead on the interplay between stars Anthony Hopkins (Hitchcock) and Helen Mirren (wife Alma), the reward is a droll depiction of an enduring creative partnership and, as a bonus for film buffs, an amusing look at the making of Psycho. Release: 2012 Grade: B+

*****

Suspiria

Jessica Harper plays a young American who enrolls at a German dance academy that turns out to be something else, entirely. Horror director Dario Argento’s primary-colored movie is an expressionistic treat, with a score by the Italian band Goblin that could make your skin crawl (in a good way). Unfortunately, the stilted dialogue, dated special effects, and wooden acting could have the same effect (in a bad way). All in all, though, this is one eerie, sensory experience. Release: 1977 Grade: B

*****

Ted

Mark Wahlberg stars as a 35-year-old slacker who must choose between his walking, talking teddy bear and Mila Kunis. If you would choose the teddy bear, then this is a movie for you. There are a few amusing pop-culture references and the animation is good, but writer-director Seth MacFarlane’s big-screen debut is mean-spirited, childish and, well, pretty much unbearable. Release: 2012 Grade: D

*****

The Impossible

The special effects are impressive — most of them were created the old-fashioned way, using miniatures and water tanks — and there are some fine performances, but this fact-based drama about one family’s struggle to survive a tsunami that pummeled Thailand in 2004 is often a drag. Knowing the fate of the family deprives the story of suspense, and we are instead left with more than an hour of unrelenting misery. It’s realistic, sure, but aren’t disaster movies also supposed to entertain? Release: 2012 Grade: B

30Mar

Room 237

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I love Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining — even though the man who wrote the original story, Stephen King, does not. I have never understood King’s disdain for the 1980 film adaptation of his novel. King’s stories, after all, have been bastardized on screen many times (sometimes by King himself), from Sleepwalkers to Thinner to Maximum Overdrive. And yet, this is the movie that rankles him?

But much as I like Kubrick’s movie, my admiration is nothing compared to that of some fans, five of whom describe their Shining obsession in Room 237, a documentary about hidden messages in the film. Or so these people believe.

According to these conspiracy theorists, who have laboriously studied the movie (often frame-by-frame), Kubrick, a meticulous filmmaker, planted subliminal messages throughout his movie. The Shining, they say, is an allegory about the Holocaust (look how often the number 42 appears!). Or, The Shining is a commentary on the “white man’s burden” — a burden our ancestors relieved by committing genocide against the American Indian (see those cans of Calumet in the background of the pantry?). But wait: Kubrick is the man who helped the United States government falsify footage of the 1969 moon landing, and the evidence of that hoax is scattered, confession style, throughout The Shining.

A problem with Room 237 is that there are so many conspiracy theories proposed that they tend to cancel each other out. Assuming Kubrick did insert subliminal comments about the Holocaust, did he also plant messages about manifest destiny, and about Apollo 11? Not likely.

Personally, I was intrigued by the patterns in the carpeting of Kubrick’s Overlook Hotel and their alleged symbolism. Then again, if you are going to spot Minotaurs in pictures of snow skiers on the wall, you might as well analyze every other picture on the walls of the hotel — or every cloud in the sky, for that matter. Wait, someone does analyze the clouds … and spots Kubrick’s “face.”

When I was in college, I took a film class where we studied Hitchcock’s Psycho. I noticed something in a scene in which Norman Bates disposes of evidence by pushing a car into a swamp. As the vehicle sinks, Hitchcock shows a close-up of the license plate, and we can clearly see the letters “NFB.” In my class paper, I speculated that the letters might be a wink from the director to his audience: NFB = Never Find Body. My professor loved this theory and gave my essay an A.

But who knows? Maybe the letters NFB were completely arbitrary. Maybe The Shining is simply a great horror film littered with continuity errors and an art director’s whimsy. Sometimes a monkey tossing a bone into the air is just a monkey tossing a bone into the air. Grade: B

Director: Rodney Ascher Featuring: Bill Blakemore, Geoffrey Cocks, Juli Kearns, John Fell Ryan, Jay Weidner, Buffy Visick Release: 2013

Can you see the electrical cord for the TV? Of course not, because there isn’t one.

Watch Trailers (click here)

27Mar

Come Out and Play

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Going in to an “evil kid” movie, you know it’s just a matter of time before all hell breaks loose. In Come Out and Play, a low-budget remake of a 1976 Spanish cult film, the evil kids eventually do come out and play — but the wait is a bit of a drag.

Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Vinessa Shaw play young Americans who are also in a holding pattern. Beth, seven months pregnant, and husband Francis decide to enjoy some pre-baby free time by vacationing at a picturesque Mexican island. When they arrive at Punta Hueca, there are children playing and fishing off the dock. Upon further exploration of the village, Beth and Francis make an unsettling discovery: There are, seemingly, only children on the island. Where are all of the adults?

(The director of this film is a strange character called “Makinov” who seems to have one or two bones to pick with the world. In a YouTube video, Makinov shields his face beneath a hood, a la pick-your-favorite-serial-killer, and rants against modern society. During the end credits of Play, Makinov dedicates his movie to “the martyrs of Stalingrad.”)

Think what you will of Makinov the politician, the man knows how to stage a creepy scene. When children perch atop a fence lining a village street, silently watching as Beth and Francis pass by, they resemble nothing so much as the ominous crows in The Birds, at rest on a schoolyard jungle gym between attacks. Makinov, like Hitchcock, takes something that’s everyday normal — children, birds — and turns it into an object of fear. When you do something like that, you run the risk of generating unintentional laughter; to his credit, Makinov generates suspense.

But this movie is not The Birds. Despite an eerily effective soundtrack, arresting visuals, and a pair of surprising plot turns, Come Out and Play simply takes too long to get to the fun stuff. Grade: B-

Director: Makinov Cast: Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Vinessa Shaw, Daniel Gimenez Cacho Release: 2013

Watch the Trailer (click here)

27Mar

Top of the Lake

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I’m not sure why everything isn’t filmed in New Zealand. Sure, Southern California has nice beaches and nearby mountains and a big city, but … New Zealand — have you looked at pictures of New Zealand?

Sundance Channel is airing a seven-part miniseries from director Jane Campion called Top of the Lake, a crime drama filmed in New Zealand. Elisabeth Moss plays a young police detective who, while home visiting her cancer-stricken mother, gets drawn into the case of a missing 12-year-old girl who also happens to be five-months pregnant.

The plot is a bit familiar (at least through the first three episodes): Robin Griffin (Moss) is basically Clarice Starling, a conscientious cop trying to conduct serious business while battling male-chauvinist colleagues and her own personal demons. When you’re telling an oft-told tale like this one, it helps if your supporting characters add luster. And boy, do the supporting characters add luster to Top of the Lake.

Peter Mullan is rough, gruff, tough and — surprisingly — quite funny as the apparent villain, a drug lord named Matt Mitcham, father of the missing girl and several adult sons with biblical names, if not leanings. Holly Hunter is also in the cast as the spiritual guru of a tribe of middle-aged women living in “Paradise,” a makeshift commune that is, unluckily, located on land that Mitcham considers family territory.

(I’d like to add that David Wenham, as Griffin’s sort-of boss and potential romantic interest, also lends wonderful support to the drama. I’d like to say that, but I have to be honest: With his mumbling delivery and heavy New Zealand accent, I couldn’t understand a word that Wenham said.)

Campion, sharing directing duties with Garth Davis, lets the actors and story proceed at a leisurely pace, but don’t equate “leisurely” with tedious; this mystery takes unexpected turns and has a chilly, pervasive sense of doom. But the real star of the production is New Zealand — the spectacular mountains, hills, and lakes. These stunning vistas put Hollywood, California, to shame. Grade: A-

Directors: Jane Campion, Garth Davis Cast: Elisabeth Moss, Peter Mullan, Thomas M. Wright, Holly Hunter, David Wenham, Jacqueline Joe, Gavin Rutherford, Jay Ryan, Genevieve Lemon, Robyn Malcolm Release: 2013

Watch the Trailer and Clips (click here)

17Mar

The Searchers

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by Glenn Frankel

It’s funny how you can sail through life thinking that you are reasonably well-versed in popular culture, yet be oblivious to certain landmark events (or movies). I lived for 20 years in North Texas, but had never heard of Cynthia Ann Parker, a legendary frontier girl who was abducted by Comanches near Dallas in 1836, and whose kidnapping became the basis for John Ford’s classic western, The Searchers – a movie I have not seen.

Frankel’s book is an ambitious attempt to link Parker’s story, Ford’s movie, and America’s tortured racial past, but it’s only somewhat successful. Searchers suffers from the same disease that afflicts so many other historical books: the author’s obligation to include genealogical minutiae of interest primarily to other historians. Yes, I’m intrigued by Cynthia Ann’s tragic life – but please don’t bore me with details about her uncles and aunts.

11Mar

Dead End (2003)

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I suppose a psychologist can explain the link between humor and horror, and why so many of us seek a mix of the two in our movies. Why, for example, did we want Abbott and Costello to meet Frankenstein? I can’t answer that, but I do know that my favorite parts of the Evil Dead films come when bug-eyed Bruce Campbell ventures into slapstick, Looney Tunes territory.

So what a treat it is to discover Dead End, a bottom-of-the-Walmart-bin gem from 2003. With all of the cheesy, low-budget horror out there, how does a good one like this escape notice?

If you haven’t seen it, and I’m guessing not many people have, the story is this: The Harringtons, composed of all-American mom, dad, son Richard, and daughter Marion, along with Marion’s boyfriend Brad, are on a Christmas Eve road trip to grandmother’s house — or so they think. In reality, or perhaps unreality, they are on a road trip to hell. Things begin to go sour when dad stops to offer a lift to a “lady in white,” an ethereal blonde with a baby who is inexplicably wandering the woods.

The woman is not what she seems, the baby is not what it seems, the road is not what it seems, and before long each Harrington is not what he or she seems.

The plot does veer into horror-film cliché, but Dead End’s wit and comic performances — especially by Ray Wise and Lin Shaye as the bickering, hapless parents — are priceless. It’s inspired lunacy, what you might get if the Bundys from Married … With Children showed up in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Grade: A-

Directors: Jean-Baptiste Andrea, Fabrice Canepa Cast: Ray Wise, Lin Shaye, Mick Cain, Alexandra Holden, Billy Asher, Amber Smith, Karen S. Gregan, Sharon Madden Release: 2003

Watch the Trailer (click here)