January 8-14, 2013
Second
week in and already it’s a challenge to keep up with this. I’ll blame
it on coming down with the crud that’s going around, writing for the TV
show, and consuming quite a bit. Better late than never, right?
Film
5. IT’S SUCH A BEAUTIFUL DAY (Don Hertzfeldt, 2012) (DVD) (January 8)
At
the end of last year the champions of this animated feature came out of
the woodwork and for good reason. Don Hertzfeldt made a funny,
achingly sad, and empathetic movie that defies expectations. (Review)
Grade: B+/75
6. GANGSTER SQUAD (Ruben Fleischer, 2013) (35mm) (Arena Grand) (January 11)
Everyone
I’d tell that this was no good kept saying, “But that cast!” True, an
impressive cast is assembled, but they’re not credible because Ruben
Fleischer applies the comic book team-up film aesthetic (ie., MARVEL’S
THE AVENGERS) to a period gangster picture that provides scant
characterization. The tongue-in-cheek humor doesn’t mix well with the
off-the-books (but totally OK because they’re cops) violence. Ryan
Gosling does something weird with his voice, at least in his first
scene. The Chinatown sequence is put together nicely enough--is this
the replacement scene for the section removed after the Aurora, Colorado
movie theater shootings--and the final stand-off isn’t too shabby
either. Ultimately, though, it feels like everyone’s playing dress-up
as hard-boiled heroes and villains.
Grade: C-/45
7. BARBARA (Christian Petzold, 2012) (2K DCP) (Gateway Film Center) (January 11)
Although
BARBARA is, in part, a thriller and a melodrama, it resists feeling
anything at all until the protagonist must make a crucial decision.
Nina Hoss is inscrutable but intriguing as the title character, a
doctor banished to the countryside in 1980 East Germany. The film
supplies few details about her and is all the better for it as the
larger picture of who she is comes into focus. BARBARA’s strength is
not knowing which direction it may lead us at any moment.
Grade: B/70
8. DJANGO UNCHAINED (Quentin Tarantino, 2012) (35mm) (AMC Dublin Village) (January 12)
The
second time seeing DJANGO UNCHAINED was the charm for me. I liked it
during my first viewing but wasn’t entirely sure that it was complete.
It opened up on a repeat visit, proving to be much deeper and more
controlled than I gave it credit. My favorite films of 2012 tended to
require being seen multiple times, which I’ll choose to characterize as a
sign of their richness and not my deficiency as a viewer. (Review)
Grade: A/92
9. THE IMPOSSIBLE (Juan Antonio Bayona, 2012) (DVD) (January 13)
The
tsunami sequence is suitably impressive, and the period in which mother
and son, played by Naomi Watts and Tom Holland, must try to get to
safety is ripe with drama. Then they receive some help, and all the air
seems to go out of the film. My NOW PLAYING co-host respectfully
disagrees with that point, but the effort to reunite the family, if
everyone survived, felt perfunctory to me more often than not. (Review)
Grade: C+/58
Shorts
AVANT-GARDE MASTERS: A DECADE OF PRESERVATION (Wexner Center for the Arts) (January 10)
I’ll
be the first to admit that I don’t have much familiarity with
experimental cinema, and sometimes what little I’ve seen completely
baffles me as to its appeal. Still, I try to remain open to
appreciating the work being done off the beaten path. I’m acquainted
with the person who introduced this particular program, so I thought I’d
show support and check it out. I also feel it’s important to support
the Wexner Center’s Film/Video department, as the folks there do an
excellent job of providing chances to see films like these on celluloid.
As it turned out, I enjoyed this particular restored shorts program
overall and noted how some of these have had clear influences on music
videos.
For accounting purposes in this journal, I’m counting shorts separately from features.
1s. COSMIC RAY (Bruce Conner, 1961) (16mm)
Most
of the energetic COSMIC RAY features a nude woman dancing to Ray
Charles’s “What’d I Say”. If this have never been projected in the
background at a Flaming Lips concert, someone let Wayne Coyne know about
it. It’s exactly the sort of thing that I could see playing behind the
band.
2s. RABBIT’S MOON (Kenneth Anger, 1950-70) (35mm)
The
only other Kenneth Anger film I’ve seen is LUCIFER RISING, which played
on a bill with Olivier Assayas’s DEMONLOVER and David Cronenberg’s
VIDEODROME. I found that Anger film to be pretty silly, although I did
see it ten years ago, an eternity in cinema literacy terms. Still...
RABBIT’S
MOON, on the other hand, is a lovely tragedy about a clown’s romance
with the moon. There’s some revelatory matching of the doo-wop
soundtrack with the images on screen. The print shown was outstanding.
3s. VELVET UNDERGROUND IN BOSTON (Andy Warhol, 1967) (16mm)
The
longest short in the program was also the most trying. Andy Warhol’s
document of a Velvet Underground concert has its moments, mainly in
revealing details with archival/historical interest, but at 33 minutes I
found it to be a real slog. It’s composed of whatever happened to
interest Warhol during the show, making it kind of like his version of a
Frederick Wiseman documentary.
4s. PIXILLATION (Lillian Schwartz, 1970) (16mm)
5s. OLYMPIAD (Lillian Schwartz, 1971) (16mm) (3D)
6s. ENIGMA (Lillian Schwartz, 1972) (16mm) (3D)
Sensory
overload with colors and shapes rendered in early computer animation
set to electronic music proved to be the program’s most visually
stimulating segments. My favorite was ENIGMA, the most aggressive of
the three.
7s. PREFACES (Abigail Child, 1981) (16mm)
The
sound collage is impressive, even if I couldn’t always follow it very
well. Chalk this one up to appreciating the technique but not being
grabbed by it much otherwise.
8s. AMERICA IS WAITING (Bruce Conner, 1981) (16mm)
Conner’s
montage of what I presume is stock footage is set to the music of David
Byrne and Brian Eno, again making his influence on music videos seem
apparent to me. I want to say something by Ministry resembles this
short, but who knows if that’s right. It feels like something I’ve seen
mimicked a lot.
Literature
Still working (slowly) on GONE GIRL and THE ONE YEAR BIBLE (NEW LIVING TRANSLATION).
Music
8. David Bowie STATION TO STATION (1976)
Not much to say other than what a weird, wonderful album. I look forward to the new album he’ll be releasing this year.
Key tracks: “Golden Years”, “Word on a Wing”, and “TVC 15” (although I should just put the whole album here)
9. Kylie Minogue X (2007)
-Kylie Minogue FEVER
Kylie
Minogue’s tenth studio album is more of the same. No complaints here.
These two albums--I wrote a little about FEVER last week--kept me
moving at the gym this week.
Key tracks: “2 Hearts”, “In My Arms”, “Speakerphone”, and “Sensitized”
Live music
1. Jeff Mangum (Opening acts: The Briars of North America and Tall Firs) (Southern Theatre - Columbus, Ohio) (January 14)
Because
of the near-unanimous praise for Neutral Milk Hotel’s IN THE AEROPLANE
OVER THE SEA on a Guided by Voices LISTSERV I was subscribed to in 1998,
I bought the album unheard. So what if the band’s name was weird and I
had no idea what the album would sound like. Once I got my hands on
it, I thought it was as great as it had been touted. Little did I
expect this album to attain the modern classic status it enjoys. It
seemed more like an underground secret.
Fifteen
years later, including a period where it seemed like no one knew what
Jeff Mangum was doing or what happened to him, I finally got to see him
perform songs from IN THE AEROPLANE OVER THE SEA. I didn’t really have
any expectations. Even if I had, they would have been exceeded. I
pretty much had the chills through his entire set. Except for when a
member of The Briars of North America came out to add French horn or
trumpet, it was just him on stage playing an acoustic guitar and belting
out his songs with a voice like a brass instrument. If I had a weaker
constitution, I might have cried through the whole show. From the
opener “Oh Comely” to the encore “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea”, it was
so painfully beautiful.
That
reaction may sound like hyperbole, but this was a concert where the
normal rules were thrown out. After the first song Mangum invited
people to come closer and sing along. The Southern Theatre isn’t really set up for a standing room crowd, yet a good number
of folks surged forward. Fourteen rows back I could still see him and,
like some other rear orchestra stragglers, had the row almost to myself.
The concert was still very intense and had a worshipful air. (The
discomfort I did feel was for Mangum when people would shout out extreme
praise at him, which was fairly common between songs. As I understand
it, part of the reason he went “missing” was because he couldn’t handle
his previous success.)
As
for the opening acts, The Briars of North America played an enjoyable
set of folk/chamber pop while the duo Tall Firs plodded through one
mid-tempo song about death after another.
TV
-DON’T TRUST THE B---- IN APARTMENT 23 (ABC)
File
under Unfortunately Named Television Series. It’s not in the top tier
of current TV comedies, but it’s finding its legs during the second
season and deserves a chance to develop. Too bad the way it’s being
aired--leftover season one episodes that break continuity scattered
among season two shows--indicates it isn’t long for this world.
DON’T
TRUST THE B---- IN APARTMENT 23 can push the limits on TV’s standards
and practices--note the title--but the raunchy humor here has the
cleverness that seems to be missing in pop culture free to be as nasty
as it wants to be. I’ll concede that I’m not crazy about excessively
vulgar humor, so this show may hit the sweet spot for me of challenging
boundaries but being restrained from obliterating them. The
obstructions require creativity to work around them.
The
push and pull between Krysten Ritter’s cheerful wickedness and Dreama
Walker’s idealistic stodginess is balanced quite nicely. There’s room
for both characters to be who they are without casting judgments on
their opposite personalities and worldviews. I’ve grown weary of the
washed-up celebrity playing himself/herself for easy laughs in movies
and TV shows, but James Van Der Beek is very funny playing James Van Der
Beek. The series has given him something to do rather than just stand
around debasing himself as has-been for our amusement. Ray Ford steals
scenes as JVDB’s loyal assistant.
-THE 70TH ANNUAL GOLDEN GLOBES AWARDS (NBC)
I
couldn’t care less who wins the Golden Globes, but this year’s ceremony
was entertaining by awards show standards. Or it was worth paying
attention to while following the comments of a significant portion of my
Twitter stream. It’s too bad that hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler
didn’t get to do much beyond a solid opening monologue, but that’s how
these programs usually go. (Loved the DOG PRESIDENT nominees, though.)
Funny how there’s such a fuss about who’s hosting when they don’t get
much time.
DJANGO UNCHAINED (Quentin Tarantino, 2012)
Quentin
Tarantino loves mixing low and high art in his films, but until DJANGO
UNCHAINED he never combined disparate ingredients to make a cocktail of
the Molotov variety. Through exploitation film violence and articulate
dialogue--fancypants talk, as the film’s villains might say--the
writer-director creates a lurid, funny, and smart entertainment that
sneaks in potent commentary on racism in America and the movies. DJANGO
UNCHAINED can be enjoyed purely for its numerous surface
pleasures--Robert Richardson’s widescreen cinematography, the screenplay
structure mirroring Germanic legend, and the clever, unconventional
soundtrack cues--but careful study reveals it also to be a work
expressing historical and contemporary fury. The
film opens in 1858, roughly two years before the start of the Civil
War, with German bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz)
enlisting the help of slave Django (Jamie Foxx) in his pursuit of three
brothers with nice prices on their heads. Django is glad to cooperate,
as the wanted men heaped abuse on him and Broomhilda (Kerry Washington),
the wife he’s recently been separated from. Schultz promises to pay
Django and give him his freedom once they’ve found and killed the
Brittle brothers, but rather than parting ways, they become partners in
acquiring Broomhilda’s independence.They
learn that she was sold to Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio), the
Francophile owner of a notorious Mississippi plantation. To make
Candie’s acquaintance Schultz pretends to be interested in getting into
the mandingo fight game, in which slaves spar to the death. Django will
pose as Schultz’s expert, a black slaver. While their ruse might fool
Candie, his head house slave Stephen (Samuel L. Jackson) is more
suspicious of their motives.Playing
a role is one of the recurring themes in DJANGO UNCHAINED, and it’s a
sly way for Tarantino to discuss how African-Americans are often
required to adapt to pass in what gets defined as mainstream culture.
Django must swallow his pride and put forth a different appearance to
achieve what he desires. In that manner he’s no different than Stephen,
an Uncle Tom whose demeanor shifts enormously when addressing blacks or
whites and within a group or in private. (Even Schultz, who does not
bear the burden of being a racial outsider but is a foreigner, must
adopt an exaggerated appearance of propriety and intellect to be
perceived as less threatening.) Not breaking character is literally a
matter of life and death.
Tarantino
also dissects politeness as a defensive weapon, with the artful in-joke
that Waltz’s Dr. King is expertly practiced in it, and the dropping of
formal civility as an offensive action. After all, DJANGO UNCHAINED
turns on the refusal to shake hands. Passive resistance and dampened
emotions can’t help but be unleashed in a more explosive form after so
long of a struggle to keep them in check. It’s a neat trick that
Tarantino evokes the volatility of the 1960s civil rights campaign and
the Civil War battlefield with a bloody shootout inside a plantation
house. Tarantino’s
films have a complicated relationship with violence. He enjoys bloody
revenge fulfilled on screen yet can be repulsed by having the basest of
impulses satisfied. DJANGO UNCHAINED is no different. Tarantino’s
expert use of sound and suggestion convey the horrific treatment of
slaves without lingering over it. (His reputation for depicting violent
acts is greater than what’s actually visible.) The violence exacted
upon the villains, almost all white, is more explicit visually, but in
featuring blood geysers taken from the trashy movies that inspire him,
it’s cartoonish too. Somehow he finds a way to be responsible with
on-screen violence and wallow in its disreputable appeal.Django
must hold his passion in reserve for much of the film, which makes it
all the easier to overlook Foxx’s subdued performance. The character
mustn’t betray his feelings, so the power of Foxx’s work is found in his
eyes and posture and how he withholds the anger burning inside him. If
ever an actor was born to deliver Tarantino’s words, it’s Waltz. He
savors the ornate sentences and brings lightness to the heavy narrative
lifting he’s called upon to execute. Waltz also displays crack comic
timing that he shows off when he walks Django through his method of
doing business. DiCaprio relishes playing the self-regarding creep and
does a dazzling flip from southern-fried hospitality to menace. Jackson
gets the difficult task of acting the part of a classic Hollywood
stereotype, but he fleshes out his despicable character as Django’s
opposite. A white man gave Stephen the opportunity to have some
latitude too and he took it. Tarantino supports the fantastic performances
by letting major conversation-driven scenes play out in wide shots and
thus allows observing the dynamics between multiple characters at once.DJANGO
UNCHAINED presents Tarantino as a film critic and cultural analyst.
He’s a highly gifted filmmaker whose work is more thoughtful and
nuanced than the statements he sometimes offers while playing the manic
provocateur part in publicity appearances. This bloody, hilarious,
shocking, and righteously angry film is the kind of great art and great
trash he aspires to make. Grade: A
IT’S SUCH A BEAUTIFUL DAY (Don Hertzfeldt, 2012)Basic
techniques yield complex results in Don Hertzfeldt’s hand-drawn
animated and mixed media epic IT’S SUCH A BEAUTIFUL DAY. The feature
film is comprised of three shorts (EVERYTHING WILL BE OK, I AM SO PROUD
OF YOU, and IT’S SUCH A BEAUTIFUL DAY) in which Bill, a stick figure
everyman, wrestles with existential despair, health problems, and a
family history of mental illness.Underneath
IT’S SUCH A BEAUTIFUL DAY’s simple surface and droll humor is a
philosophical core as dense as any film’s. Hertzfeldt’s trenchant
examination of the human condition cuts to the essence of what keeps
people awake at nights and occupies our minds in those moments when the
noise and distractions of everyday life are quieted. Bill frets over
germs in the produce aisle and awkward social interactions. He also
dwells on what could be a wasted life and the death that will all too
quickly end it at some unknown point. Although
Bill expends untold neurotic energy on the things he can’t control,
IT’S SUCH A BEAUTIFUL DAY also acknowledges the exquisite blessings
surrounding us that often go unnoticed until circumstances force
appreciation for even the tiniest marvel. As the put-upon protagonist
gains compassion for the people in his past and the answer to the
meaning of life, Hertzfeldt transforms sorrow and existential agitation
into triumphant acceptance of life in its entirety, including its
culmination. To put it in the film’s comedically askew terms, what’s
the use in worrying about contracting a fatal disease when there’s
always the chance of getting run over by a train. Rather
than emphasizing a nihilistic streak, the bittersweet tone of IT’S SUCH
A BEAUTIFUL DAY comforts with the assurance that everyone shares these
fears and doubts. The stripped-down style enhances identification with
Bill and permits subtle expressiveness to be interpreted in his
reactions. Hertzfeldt’s acerbically funny and deeply moving
experimental film does a lot with a little. Grade: B+
THE IMPOSSIBLE (Juan Antonio Bayona, 2012)THE
IMPOSSIBLE dramatizes one incredible true story to emerge from the 2004
Indian Ocean tsunami, the deadliest natural disaster of its kind on
record. Like many others, Henry and Maria Bennett (Ewan McGregor and
Naomi Watts) and their three boys have come to Khao Lak, Thailand for
Christmas vacation. They’re relaxing by the resort’s pool when the
tsunami hits the southeast Asian coast.Maria
and her oldest son Lucas (Tom Holland) surface from the floodwater near
each other. He’s scraped up but otherwise in good shape. She’s
received large wounds in her leg and side but, with her son’s
assistance, is able to hobble to the safety of a tree. They suspect the
rest of their family is dead. Their own survival is also a question.
Some
locals eventually discover them and provide help. Maria is taken to
the hospital, but her injuries and a staff overwhelmed by the number of
patients mean that she’s far from being in the clear.Director
Juan Antonio Bayona stages the tsunami as though an enormous monster
has risen from the ocean. The birds are spooked, and in the distance
trees in its path are toppled like blades of grass by a lawnmower. Then
the wave spills into the resort, casting people aside like rag dolls
and smashing the buildings. In the even more terrifying sequence that
follows, survivors are desperate to keep their heads above water while
being swept across the flooded landscape. Potentially dangerous
obstacles bob along the surface while even more hide below. With
heart-stopping immediacy, Bayona plunges into the midst of the disaster
while making it seem unimaginable that anyone could make it out alive if
near the shore when the giant wave first reaches land.The
challenges in the disaster’s aftermath are anything but minor, yet once
the survivors reach safe ground, THE IMPOSSIBLE loses dramatic urgency.
For as tragic and horrific an event as this was, the Bennetts have a
relatively easy time of it in retrospect. At least that’s how the
screenplay frames their experiences, especially in comparison to the
hardships of their fellow tourists and the mostly ignored Thai
residents. The post-tsunami period brings chaos of a different kind,
but the protagonists manage to navigate it as though it’s but an
inconvenience.Few
actresses suffer as expressively on screen as Watts. In THE IMPOSSIBLE
she beautifully conveys a mother’s will to endure her suffering for the
sake of those she loves. Holland does good work as a kid who is forced
to be strong in an unthinkable situation. THE IMPOSSIBLE doesn’t turn a
blind eye to the physical and emotional devastation, but the
comparatively uncomplicated path it follows to arrive at a reassuring
conclusion minimizes the impact.Grade: C+
By
now I’m resigned to the fact that I simply won’t and can’t be able to
write about everything in my pop culture diet. Rather than letting some
of my thoughts spin around my head and then disappear (or occasionally
emerge on Twitter and slip away from memory), I’ve decided to follow the
lead of Nick Hornby’s THE BELIEVER column about what he’s reading and a friend’s weekly log of artistic consumption. This way there’s no
pressure to write in full about these works, yet I can still scratch
down a few things that might be of interest. Maybe it will be of more
value to you than to me, but I hope this will be a worthwhile read.Tracking
films watched and books read will be easy enough. For the sake of
practicality and keeping this log a reasonable length I won’t list every
TV episode I watch or song I listen to. (Note: this first entry turned
out to be much longer than intended. So much for keeping it short.)
With TV I’ll write about whatever grabs me; with music I’ll indicate
the albums I spun and the individual songs that stood out.
January 1-7, 2013
Film1. ROSETTA (Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne, 1999) (Blu-ray) (January 1)I’m
quite fond of the Dardenne brothers’ films and now only have LA
PROMESSE to see of those that brought them international attention and
acclaim. (Never mind the nearly two decades of hard-to-see
documentaries and narrative features preceding it.) ROSETTA won the
1999 Palme d’Or, so surely it’s another brilliant work on par with their
other films, right?ROSETTA
provides a relentless and visually narrow look at the daily realities
of poverty and trying to break free from it. The camera’s point of
view, the enveloping sound design, the charismatic but unsentimental
lead performance (a feral Emilie Dequenne), and narrative urgency are
equal to any of their films, yet this one didn’t grab me as much. I
suspect that seeing Gabriela Pichler’s excellent ROSETTA-influenced
docudrama EAT SLEEP DIE (ÄTA SOVA DÖ) at TIFF 2012 took some of the
shine off its inspiration for me. ROSETTA is another good effort by the
Belgian brothers and one that I hope to appreciate more whenever I
watch it again. Grade: B/692. HEAVEN’S GATE (Michael Cimino, 1980) (2K DCP) (Wexner Center for the Arts) (January 4)The
critical reevaluation of this notorious flop has brought newfound and
renewed appreciation for a film that’s been pop culture shorthand for
Hollywood folly. I tried watching it years ago on DVD and never
finished it. I think I bailed around the time Kris Kristofferson goes
into the general store, so not even a third of the way into the running
time of the director’s cut. I’m glad I didn’t complete it then because
seeing it in 4x3 letterbox would not have been the best introduction to a
shaggy but stunning epic.To
a degree HEAVEN’S GATE is an ancestor of THERE WILL BE BLOOD in how it
delineates business and government in America. (I’m passingly familiar
with the TV series DEADWOOD, which plays like another potential
descendant.) Thematically it feels as contemporary as anything being
made now, and stylistically it’s just as fresh. If this film marked the
last hurrah of 1970s studio adventurousness, what a bold and lively way
to go out.The
visual scope is enough to sell me on the film’s value. Widescreen
shots of location shoots with hundreds of extras are crammed with detail
and natural beauty. The clattering sound design, especially in the
action-packed climax, builds the sense of bigness and chaos. Sure, the
energy flags at times, but Cimino fulfills his ambition. Although the
violence isn’t particularly realistic to today’s eyes, it’s still as
disturbing as the exaggerated bloodshed in DJANGO UNCHAINED.Random
observations: I was surprised to discover Terry O’Quinn in a small role
delivering dialogue that would be comfortable coming from his LOST
character. And isn’t that Tom Noonan? (Yes.) Mickey Rourke gets a
funny lesson about biting from a trapper played by Geoffrey Lewis. Jeff
Bridges has to have one of the most interesting filmographies of actors
in his generation. It’s always great to see Kristofferson and Isabelle
Huppert. I feel like people tend to treat Christopher Walken as a
caricature of the oddballs he’s played, but he’s quite good in this.
I’ve never seen Sam Waterston play a character as cold-blooded as he
does here.As
for the 2K DCP presentation, HEAVEN’S GATE’s transfer is remarkably
film-like most of the time. I feel safe in saying that it doesn’t look
as good as a 70mm print would, but since that is not an option, this was
a worthy alternative. Preserving the grain and softness goes a long
way in making it look like celluloid. Grade: A-/823. OBSESSION (Brian De Palma, 1976) (DVD) (January 6)De
Palma’s VERTIGO homage pales in comparison to Hitchcock’s
masterpiece--how could it not?--but he throws enough curves for it to be
trashy fun anyway. (Vague spoiler for a 37-year-old film follows.) I
guessed one of the major turns using the cinematic laws of economy of
characters and the persistence of hairstyles, but other surprises were
still in store. OBSESSION overlaps nicely with the director’s PASSION,
and an enterprising programmer would do well to pair them in a double
feature when the latter is released this year.Grade: B-/654. TEXAS CHAINSAW (John Luessenhop, 2013) (2K DCP in 3D) (Gateway Film Center) (January 7)I
strive to keep an open mind before whatever I’m seeing, but I’d be
lying if I said I expected much from the seventh film in THE TEXAS
CHAINSAW MASSACRE series. I liked the 2003 remake, unpopular as that
opinion may be, but I held little hope for this functional sequel to
Tobe Hooper’s 1974 original. TEXAS CHAINSAW isn’t good, but give it
credit for trying to be a little substantive and not piling on the
visual murk favored by many of today’s horror films.In
the new film’s prologue, which picks up where the original film ends,
the angry townsfolk initiate a shootout with the warped Sawyer family
and then burn the farmhouse to the ground, presumably killing everyone
inside except for the baby girl one of the mob takes to raise as his own
with his wife. Twenty-odd years later the baby returns to Texas to
claim the mansion from a grandmother she never knew and gets a hard
lesson in her biological family’s history with the locals.None
of TEXAS CHAINSAW is particularly scary or disturbing. Seeing it in 3D
adds no benefit, although the shots expressly acknowledging the format
are worth a laugh or two since they border on parody. Still, the film
can’t be dismissed entirely because of the thematic question that
emerges. Is it right to treat figurative monsters with monstrous
behavior rather than letting the justice system handle them? TEXAS
CHAINSAW doesn’t aspire to be a political allegory like Hooper’s film,
nor is it equipped to provide a thoughtful response to the question it
poses. Still, it deserves a few points for attempting to be about
something.Grade: D+/36 Literature1. Gillian Flynn GONE GIRL (2012)I
don’t read novels as often as I’d like, but December travel jumpstarted
my desire to pick up books again. I needed a physical book so I could
keep reading when my flights required turning off my Kindle. I selected
GONE GIRL because praise for it popped up time and again in my Twitter
feed. I tore through the first hundred pages pretty quickly, but I’ll
reserve comments for when I’ve finished it.2. THE ONE YEAR BIBLE (NEW LIVING TRANSLATION)A
few times I’ve made a New Year’s resolution to read the Bible in full
but haven’t been able to keep up with the daily readings. With the
beginning of another year, here goes another attempt.
Music1. Kylie Minogue LIGHT YEARS (2000)2. Kylie Minogue APHRODITE (2010) 3. Kylie Minogue KYLIE MINOGUE (1994)4. Kylie Minogue FEVER (2002)Never
let it be said that a small role in an art film won’t sell albums.
After seeing Kylie Minogue in HOLY MOTORS and being reminded of her
terrific 2002 single “Can’t Get You Out of My Head”, I decided to seek
out some of her music. I never expected to be quite so taken with what
I’ve heard, especially since I don’t regularly listen to electronic
dance pop. I
started with FEVER and LIGHT YEARS and have been working through
her catalog in both directions. The disco-inflected LIGHT YEARS has
provided the template for what’s followed: a seemingly endless supply of
irresistible hooks and workout-maximized beats per minute. (Her albums
soundtracked most of my runs during my time out of town during the
holidays.) Considering how successful this formula has been almost
everywhere, I’m amazed she’s struggled to make much of a dent in the
United States. Is her lack of popularity here the reason why she’s yet
to record a James Bond theme song? Otherwise she’d seem to be a
shoo-in.KYLIE
MINOGUE reveals an artist trying to transition from teen sensation to
serious artist. At least on first listen the album seems more reliant
on adult contemporary ballads and textures than I prefer (or than her
subsequent albums feature), but it’s still a solid collection of songs.
With its seamless blend of styles LIGHT YEARS competes with FEVER’s
all-out disco for the top spot among her albums that I’ve heard. APHRODITE is pretty much more of what you’d expect: lots of good
melodies married to up-tempo rhythms.
Key
tracks: “Spinning Around”, “On a Night Like This”, and “Please Stay”
(LIGHT YEARS); “Get Outta My Way” and “Aphrodite” (APHRODITE); “Confide
in Me” (KYLIE MINOGUE), “Can’t Get You Out of My Head”, “Come Into My
World”, and “In Your Eyes” (FEVER)5. Paul McCartney RAM (1971)Catching
up with the Paul McCartney solo and Wings reissues and seeing him in
concert in 2011 reminded me of how many great songs he’s written even if
his whole time in The Beatles is ignored. His early solo work is a lot
weirder and rougher than I realized.Key tracks: “Dear Boy”, “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey”, “Monkberry Moon Delight”6. Kat Edmonson WAY DOWN LOW (2012)I
suppose WAY DOWN LOW should be classified as a vocal jazz album,
although it’s what would have passed for a pop record until rock ‘n’
roll came onto the scene. (The snarky might tag it as Starbucks/NPR
music, even if such a classification is sort of spot on.) Edmonson’s
voice possesses that jazz chanteuse timbre familiar to the genre--you
know it when you hear it--yet the quality isn’t so pronounced as to
sound affected or precious. On
this spotlessly recorded and performed set Edmonson demonstrates that
she’s a talented singer and interpreter. The slowed down cover of The
Beach Boys’ “I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times” works beautifully.
Upbeat and downbeat versions of “I Don’t Know” bring out different
shadings in her voice and the lyrics. Lyle Lovett drops by for a
playful duet. This is nothing earth-shaking, but innovation for its own
sake can overrated. Plus, in the age of AutoTune it’s a pleasure to
hear a talented singer doing her thing.Key tracks: “I Don’t Know”, “I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times”7. Japandroids CELEBRATION ROCK (2012)Front
to back one of last year’s much-praised rock records still sounds samey
to my ears, but then again, I had a similar issue with The Hold Steady
until something clicked. Lots of energy here, no doubt, and I’m not
immune to it. Just waiting to be won over completely. Key tracks: “Fire’s Highway” and “The House That Heaven Built”TV-College and professional football (ABC, CBS, ESPN, FOX, NBC)More
women are involved in sports media than used to be, but isn’t there
something kind of insulting to them and to the audience in literally
putting them on the sidelines? The woman in the booth for football
games is rare--I vaguely recall coming across one calling a college
game--yet you’ll see women reporting from the sidelines at most
televised football games now. Regardless of if it’s a man or woman on
the field, the sideline reporter strikes me as one of the least
essential parts of game productions, especially when he or she is
sticking a mic in the face of a coach or player running to the locker
room. Is this progress when there’s a sense that having female sideline
reporters is just a way for the producers to add pretty faces to
telecasts? The boys club atmosphere of televised sports exists and
reared its ugly head when Brent Musberger ogled the Alabama
quarterback’s girlfriend during the BCS Championship. Random observation: Is there a reason why the Pepsi commercial with Drew Brees and One Direction was produced in 4x3?-666 PARK AVENUE (2012) (ABC)The
series has been canceled--the final four episodes are apparently airing
in the summer--and the show never really worked. So why did I watch
the two post-Thanksgiving episodes on my DVR? It’s likely I would have
eventually bailed on 666 PARK AVENUE, even if it had been renewed. At
this point I feel like riding it out the rest of the way to see how they
close it out and provide some answers that have been frustratingly
absent.. The
supernatural, soapy fun hinted at in early episodes never amounted to
much as the series delivered halfhearted stand-alone entries and
mythology building. Not all of the answers needed to be provided by
episode #9, but a sense of the rules and a master plan would have helped
immensely. The series played okay when sticking to Rachael Taylor’s
unsettling experiences in the hotel and Terry O’Quinn’s machinations to
get her in his debt. Instead it seemed like 666 PARK AVENUE was doing
too much and not enough with subplots including the boyfriend’s
unbelievably rapid ascent in New York City politics, the professional
and personal pickles a Broadway writer got into, the psychic teenager,
the mystery around the death of the hotel owners’ daughter, the red box,
the basement.-FINAL CUT: THE MAKING AND UNMAKING OF HEAVEN’S GATE (2004) (YouTube)I
was curious for more information about the brouhaha around HEAVEN’S
GATE and was pointed toward this documentary, which isn’t included in
the Criterion Blu-ray/DVD set.
PROMISED LAND (Gus Van Sant, 2012)
Steve
Butler (Matt Damon) knows firsthand how small towns can be ravaged in a
down economy. Born and raised in Iowa, he saw how the closure of a
Caterpillar plant devastated the community. Unlike many of those he
grew up with, Steve got out and is enjoying success as a representative
for a global natural gas company. He travels to rural areas to persuade
property owners to sell drilling rights on their land. Steve isn’t
ignorant of the risks involved with hydraulic fracturing, otherwise
known as fracking, but he is convinced that what he does improves the
lives of the struggling folks he encounters. Any charity Steve feels
for them doesn’t interfere with his knack for securing contracts for the
lowest price possible, though.
In
PROMISED LAND Steve and co-worker Sue Thomason (Frances McDormand)
expect a short stay for their assignment to close deals in a small
Pennsylvania town, but gaining local approval is complicated when
science teacher Frank Yates (Hal Holbrook) raises objections during a
town hall meeting and the citizens postpone a vote on the matter for
three weeks. Then Dustin Noble (John Krasinski), an environmental
activist from Nebraska, rolls into Miller Falls warning everyone that
fracking can lead to dead livestock, land that can no longer be farmed,
and contaminated ground water. His message quickly gains traction and
raises the pressure on Steve and Sue to deliver.
The
makers of PROMISED LAND clearly object to fracking but attempt, not
always successfully, to explore the issue without stacking the deck in
favor of its viewpoint. Steve counters critics with the contention that
natural gas is a clean, domestically plentiful alternative to coal and
oil. Even if one doesn’t fully buy his argument, rejecting natural gas
means implicitly accepting dirty energy sources and relying on overseas
suppliers. Fracking will bring an influx of money to the area and may
restore a place and population that is economically disadvantaged. In
the end the situation boils down to which risks are the ones worth
taking.
Damon
and Krasinski, who co-wrote the screenplay, and director Gus Van Sant
approach PROMISED LAND like a Frank Capra film. The American people and
process are trusted to arrive at the right decision, even if opposing
forces are working to manipulate them. The townsfolk are credibly
portrayed as being aware of what’s at stake, if not fully informed, and
susceptible to the lure of easy, much-needed money. Steve and Dustin
are on different sides but generally seem sincere in their efforts.
PROMISED
LAND is at its best when showcasing the details of life in a
self-contained agricultural community and the strategies and
affectations Steve, Sue, and Dustin employ to influence the people
there. For all of his good intentions, Steve is something of a
huckster. Damon plays him with genuine charm and strong
compartmentalizing abilities. Krasinski displays his everyman appeal as
his character effortlessly ingratiates himself with the locals. The
film’s middle section amuses with the maneuvering and passive-aggressive
interactions between Steve and Dustin.
PROMISED
LAND is well-acted and observed, although two flaws emerge. Steve and
Sue are more flustered by the presence of a single environmentalist than
a couple of old pros should be. PROMISED LAND tends to be savvy about
risks and rewards, but one turn of events is unearned. The development
doesn’t ruin the film but wipes out the balance it was striving for.
Grade: B
THE DEEP BLUE SEA (Terence Davies, 2011)THE
DEEP BLUE SEA opens with Hester Collyer (Rachel Weisz) reading the
suicide note she’s left for her lover, Royal Air Force pilot Freddie
Page (Tom Hiddleston). While her passion for him is as intense as ever,
she can no longer stand the imbalance in their feelings for one
another. Hester’s attempt is unsuccessful and does her no harm, but
considering the place and time--London, around 1950--the act itself
could get her in a great deal of trouble as attempted suicide is a
crime. Although Hester’s husband Sir William Collyer (Simon Russell
Beale) was deeply hurt when she left him for his younger friend and
refuses to grant her a divorce, he shows no indication of wishing to use
her bid to end her life or his position as a judge to gain revenge. After
being revived Hester lingers in a daze in her rented flat reflecting on
the events that brought her to the point of preferring death to the
pain of her unmatched fervency for Freddie. She makes a desperate pitch
to elicit the desired response she wants from him but is resigned to
knowing she will always need him more.As
Hester tries to hold onto the ephemeral remains of what once existed in
her relationships, THE DEEP BLUE SEA is lit so as to catch the dust in
the air, the smoke from her cigarettes, and the breath on a chilly
night. While visible, those fleeting byproducts can never again return
to what they were. Florian Hoffmeister’s painterly cinematography wraps
the film in a shroud. What’s gone is gone, and Hester inhabits the
wreckage of her choices just as Londoners get on with life among the
destruction and ruins from World War II. Love
becomes malignant when it is dampened or when it mutates into lust in
writer-director Terence Davies’ adaptation of Terence Rattigan’s play.
Per William’s mother (Barbara Jefford) extolling the virtues of guarded
enthusiasm over passion, his affection for Hester is kept at a polite
remove. Hester requires ardor in her relationships, even if it is not
reciprocated, and is willing to chuck comfortable but cool certainty
with William for the heat of carnal attraction to Freddie. Hester
is trapped between a rock and a hard place. Neither William nor
Freddie can supply or share the acute emotion that sustains her.
Weisz’s sensitive and finely modulated embodiment of yearning and
torment speaks of the internal decay that has taken root in Hester. The
character is a victim of her own decisions, but Weisz’s bruised
performance in THE DEEP BLUE SEA yields empathy for being battered by
doomed romanticism.Grade: B+
THIS IS 40 (Judd Apatow, 2012)
A
milestone birthday is causing tension for married couple Pete (Paul
Rudd) and Debbie (Leslie Mann) in THIS IS 40. With their pivotal
birthdays occurring in the same week, it’s natural that they use the
occasion of turning 40 to assess their lives and decide what needs work.
They try to be calm and sensible, making standard promises to eat more
healthfully and take more time for each other, but Pete and Debbie
can’t shake the existential panic creeping up on them.
It
doesn’t help that their businesses are in crisis to varying degrees.
Pete’s record label is bleeding money trying to sell new albums from
music industry legends whose audiences have dwindled since their glory
days. Debbie’s boutique is managing to do OK but can’t afford to be
short the thousands of dollars that an employee may be stealing.
Debbie
responds to it all by refusing to admit to her age, preferring to claim
to be turning 38 or younger. She sneaks cigarettes and withholds
information that she doesn’t think Pete wants to hear. Pete doesn’t
seem as hung up on how many birthdays he’s had. Rather, he secretly
rebels against the idea that a number means he should cut down or
eliminate cupcakes and French fries from his diet. He also doesn’t tell
Debbie that they might need to sell their house and lies to her about
the loans he continues to give his dad Larry (Albert Brooks).
At
some time or another every adult has surely taken pause at the thought
of having turned into one’s parents at least a little, but Pete and
Debbie worry independently about the prospect of the other becoming like
their father. The concern is especially acute for Debbie. She sees
Pete’s dad unable to support himself and having a much younger wife and
kids. Never mind that her own father Oliver (John Lithgow) abandoned
her as a child, goes years without seeing her, and also has a second
wife and kids about the same ages as hers. Pete frets that Debbie could
develop the same kind of emotional distance with him that she has with
Oliver, particularly as they go through a rough patch in THIS IS 40.
The
protagonists’ joint fear is stagnation, not mortality. Have they
become so at ease around each other that all mystery is gone? With his
legs spread eagle in the air, Pete asks Debbie to check out and confirm
what he hopes is a hemorrhoid. She thinks nothing of barging in on him
while he’s on the toilet. He uses the bathroom for alone time to play
iPad games and escape from her and their daughters Sadie (Maude Apatow)
and Charlotte (Iris Apatow). They don’t hate one another, at least not
most of the time, but the strains of running businesses, raising a
family, and turning an age deemed culturally significant have piled up.
Thankfully
the Pete and Debbie in THIS IS 40 are dialed down from the bickering
couple that first appeared in KNOCKED UP. They engage in their fair
share of arguments, but this time around the relationship isn’t as
acrimonious and Debbie, while still quick to anger, isn’t as shrill.
Whether they’re having a conversation or talking to others, all the
chatter functions like therapy sessions. (One funny moment has the pair
attempting to use counselor-approved language while they fight.)
THIS
IS 40 works better as light drama than comedy, with humor defusing the
bombs being lobbed in the marriage. The jokes rely on common
observations than insight, but writer-director Judd Apatow corrals many
of the niggling worries into a squirming mass of anxieties capable of
being laughed at. Despite the title, by no means is the film a
definitive or universal statement on reaching middle age.
For
better or worse Apatow likes to take a lot of detours in his films.
This time the aimless course he follows makes more sense even though it
could stand a more guided approach. Still, the path leads to every
nook and cranny in individual and shared lives to illuminate the
totality of what the duo is dealing with. There’s also no single
destination where Pete and Debbie must arrive as long as they’re on the
journey together.
Grade: B-
ZERO DARK THIRTY (Kathryn Bigelow, 2012)As
the years after the 9/11 attack pass, information regarding the
whereabouts of Osama bin Laden becomes less frequent. The push to find
him also diminishes, but CIA investigator Maya (Jessica Chastain), who
is first seen at a black ops interrogation site in Pakistan in 2003,
refuses to give up the search. She believes that if they can find a
specific al-Qaeda courier known to many terrorists, they will find the
organization’s leader. Nearly a decade after the hunt began,
intelligence work suggests that bin Laden could be hiding in a compound
in Abbottabad. No direct confirmation can be made that he is there, but
Maya insists that this is the place. ZERO
DARK THIRTY is based on first-hand accounts of actual events. While
there isn’t a person who will see it who doesn’t know how the film will
turn out, how the characters go about their jobs can be plenty
surprising. As with all fact-based films, the assumption must be made
that liberties have been taken with the true story for the sake of
narrative clarity, creative license, and, especially in this case, the
protection of confidential documents. ZERO
DARK THIRTY is concerned with the process, not the characters. The
real-life inspiration for Maya played an important role, but this
mission was far bigger than any one person. Director Kathryn Bigelow
and writer Mark Boal go into painstaking detail depicting the dead ends,
setbacks, breakthroughs, and direct action taken that culminated with
bringing bin Laden to justice. The filmmakers set a business-like tone,
which is not to say that the work isn’t personal for the agents.
Clearly it is but letting emotion cloud judgment does not help to
achieve their goal.
The no-nonsense action scenes crackle with tension despite unfolding as though these are rather common, albeit highly dangerous, assignments. The climactic raid on the Abbottabad compound is the standout sequence, yet what is most remarkable is how small it feels. The same goes for other scenes that could have come straight out of any number of thrillers, like the trailing of the man believed to be the courier. Bigelow’s great achievement is stripping down the action from the exaggerated theatrics in movies and television shows so the missions feel no less exciting and immediate.
In
an extraordinary performance Chastain projects a tough exterior as
Maya. Resolute in her purpose and unyielding in her actions, Maya can
appear closed off as she invests every fiber of her being to completing
the job. Practically nothing is known about her life outside work--the
same goes for her co-workers--but with few words Chastain says volumes
about the core of this character through the quiet intensity with which
she pursues her objective and responds to developments. When she
permits more outward displays, the effect is as bracing as a slap to the
face.Those
responsible for finding and killing bin Laden are hailed, but Bigelow
resists making ZERO DARK THIRTY into a rah-rah patriotic movie. The
matter-of-fact manner in which she handles this subject feels like the
only appropriate way. Pride can be felt in achieving a hard-fought
result. Satisfaction is earned in eliminating an enemy; however, as
the film’s identifying figure expresses, relief in the moment cannot
ease past wounds, especially as the larger undertaking still goes on
unresolved.Grade: A
THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER (Stephen Chbosky, 2012)
Shy,
introspective Charlie (Logan Lerman) dreads starting high school in THE
PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER. He spent the summer leading up to his
freshman year at Mill Grove in a psychiatric hospital and doesn’t have
any friends or old acquaintances who want anything to do with him. His
sister Candace (Nina Dobrev) can be protective of Charlie, but as a
senior with a boyfriend, she doesn’t want to be responsible for his
development within the suburban Pittsburgh school’s delicate social
ecosystem.Charlie
senses an outsider kinship with Patrick (Ezra Miller), a senior in his
freshman shop class, and soon becomes friends with him and his
step-sister Sam (Emma Watson). He isn’t bothered that Patrick is gay or
that Sam has a reputation based on her early high school years when
upperclassmen would get her drunk at parties. Their freely expressed
individuality and comfort with being misfits in the eyes of their
classmates proves greatly appealing to him. Patrick and Sam’s
acceptance into their circle is the most important thing in the world to
Charlie. That’s why it hurts all the more and could trigger another
breakdown when his misreading of a cue requires him to keep his distance
from his new friends for an unspecified amount of time.THE
PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER flutters with the excitement and terror
that comes in being young and trying to find your way. Everything is
more keenly felt. High school is perceived to be the entire world, and
nothing is more meaningful than being wanted, even if it’s by the social
outcasts. In adapting his own novel, writer-director Stephen Chbosky
makes plain the magnified emotions that define this stage of life. He
treats the characters with respect for their limited perspective.
Although Charlie and his friends are partial to melancholy modern rock
and vulnerable to the judgment of their peers, they’re not twee sorts
who shrink at the first sign of difficulty.
THE
PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER understands the prominent role music can
play in the mental landscape of teenagers. Set in the mid-’90s, it
features a virtually perfect selection of tracks that express more than
the characters can verbalize or might want to. Chbosky nails the
details regarding the thought and effort put into making mixtapes all
the way down to goofing up the timing and running out of space. His
precision with the soundtrack earns him a pass for one improbability.
Even if these teens weren’t using the internet yet, they couldn’t
identify “Heroes” by David Bowie? (Having these characters perform in
THE ROCKY PICTURE SHOW floorshow cast is spot-on, though.) Chbosky
also excels at depicting the various dynamics within families and
groups of friends. Charlie’s parents and siblings, including a brother
playing football at Penn State, don’t get a lot of screen time, but the
few scenes with them convey the supportive environment and affectionate
teasing that make it a crucial base for each member. The sub-alliances,
shifting lines, insecurities, and jealousies within a circle of friends
are also laid out through careful attention to body language and
implied messages. THE
PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER gets so many things right about adolescence
that it’s unfortunate some of the angst gets explained in a third act
revelation that isn’t really necessary. It’s a specific plot point that
takes away from the universality of everything before it. This small
misstep aside, THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER knows what it feels like
to be young, to explore your hometown without adult supervision, and to
hang out with people who get you better than you may know yourself. Grade: B
HITCHCOCK (Sacha Gervasi, 2012)
Rather
than following his hit NORTH BY NORTHWEST with a more conventional
thriller, Alfred Hitchcock (Anthony Hopkins) seeks something more
adventurous for his next project. In HITCHCOCK the legendary director
decides that he must adapt Robert Bloch’s PSYCHO. Many in the industry
feel that the book, inspired by Wisconsin mass murderer Ed Gein, is too
violent and perverse to be a mainstream film and that a horror picture
is beneath Hitchcock. A Paramount studio executive is wary about
backing PSYCHO, so the Master of Suspense and his wife Alma Reville
(Helen Mirren) choose to finance it themselves.
Although
based on Stephen Rebello’s book ALFRED HITCHCOCK AND THE MAKING OF
PSYCHO, HITCHCOCK takes dramatic liberties with the behind-the-scenes
story that strain credulity and attempt to diminish Hitch’s artistry by
detailing his personal shortcomings. Gein is imagined as a Hitchcock
confidante, like a devil perched on the director’s shoulder fanning the
flames of his fears. Hitchcock’s obsessions and neuroses are
well-documented in film scholarship and the movies themselves, yet this
drama fails to expose the psychologically complex figure that the
director’s public persona shields. Even in private Hitchcock the
character remains ever the showman.
HITCHCOCK
theorizes that PSYCHO provides an allegory for Hitchcock and Reville’s
relationship. At best it’s a misguided attempt to explore her motherly
role in their partnership and his untamed indulgence. At worst it’s an
insulting perspective of a longtime marriage and vital creative
collaboration. Additionally, HITCHCOCK makes the assumption that it
must reduce his achievements to give Reville her deserved due.
Director
Sacha Gervasi quotes shots from Hitchcock films and reproduces a
measure of the director’s dark, droll sense of humor, but ultimately
HITCHCOCK comes off as a glib film about a great film. The snarky tone
yields a movie as breezily entertaining but unfulfilling and
unenlightening as Hollywood gossip items. Hitchcock’s controlling
behavior isn’t beyond reproach, but what matters in the end to audiences
is how the director channeled his fixations into art, not how those
hang-ups may have made him difficult to live and work with. In its
attempt to demystify the people and process behind a classic film,
HITCHCOCK feels petty and disposable.
From
the replication of old movie sets and methods to the novelty of seeing
contemporary stars as Tinseltown legends, like Scarlett Johansson as
Janet Leigh, HITCHCOCK is content to be a film of minor surface
pleasures. Essentially it’s the antithesis of it’s subject’s work.
Grade: C-
UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: DAY OF RECKONING (John Hyams, 2012)
The
dead of night interruption that begins UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: DAY OF
RECKONING is a familiar one in homes with young children. John (Scott
Adkins) is awakened by his daughter, who claims there are monsters in
their house. The dutiful father gets out of bed and goes room by room
to assure her that everything is fine. The difference in this situation
is that there really are predators lurking in the dark. A trio of
black-clad bad guys clobber John and then execute his wife and child in
front of him.
Nine
months later John awakens from a coma. His memory is shaky, but when
an FBI agent (Rus Blackwell) shows him a photo of Luc Deveraux
(Jean-Claude Van Damme), John recognizes him as the man who murdered his
family. Deveraux was one of the first government-created super
soldiers. Now he leads the UniSol underground against their makers.
Among his troops is Dolph Lundgren reprising his UniSol character in
what amounts to something between a cameo and a supporting role in
screen time.
Upon
his release from the hospital John begins his quest for vengeance with
the assistance of a stripper (Mariah Bonner) who suggests he had a
different life than the one he recalls. Standing in the way is Magnus
(Andrei Arlovski), a sleeper super soldier who Deveraux turns and sends
after John.
After
Roland Emmerich’s UNIVERSAL SOLDIER debuted in 1992, the series
puttered along with a couple TV movies and a 1999 theatrical sequel
until John Hyams revived it in 2009 with REGENERATION, an entry that
went direct-to-video in the United States. For the fourth installment
DAY OF RECKONING director and co-writer Hyams treats ‘90s brain-dead
action like art cinema.
It’s
a far cry from what Van Damme and Lundgren were doing twenty years ago,
but in the end this film comes off like a band that claims all of the
“right” influences in interviews but can’t synthesize good taste into
work of merit. The first-person point of view opening scene, complete
with a blinking eyes effect, recalls Gaspar Noé’s ENTER THE VOID. The
surreal tone of David Lynch’s films heavily informs UNIVERSAL SOLDIER:
DAY OF RECKONING’s unreal and rudderless feeling. The body horror in
David Cronenberg’s oeuvre and APOCALYPSE NOW’s journey ending with
confronting a charismatic leader are also quoted.
With
its muddled story, familiarity with the ongoing UNIVERSAL SOLDIER
series doesn’t appear to matter. If only there weren’t so much of that
ponderous, slow-moving plot leading up to and between the fight scenes.
A car chase that spills into hand-to-hand combat in a sporting goods
store and two climactic boss battles give the primal satisfaction that
action movies can deliver. Hyams’ action chops and some neat
flourishes, like the strobe effect and noise that accompany the
summoning of Deveraux in visions, demonstrate his potential to
invigorate the genre if he find or develop source material that isn’t
such a slog.
Grade: D+
SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK (David O. Russell, 2012)Pat
Solitano (Bradley Cooper) has resided at a Baltimore psychiatric
facility for eight months when his mother Dolores (Jacki Weaver) arrives
to see that he is discharged in SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK. Diagnosed
with a bipolar disorder after beating the stuffing out of a man having
an affair with his wife Nikki (Brea Bee), Pat is better than he was
before being admitted. He’s lost a lot of weight and talks about having
a positive mental attitude, but his improvements cover up the fact that
he’s still struggling to control his explosive anger. Pat
moves into the attic of his parents’ Philadelphia home eager to fix
what his violent outburst ruined. Although Pat is laser focused on
repairing his marriage with Nikki, everyone else doesn’t seem to think
it’s such a good idea. For one, she has a restraining order, so Pat
isn’t supposed to communicate with her. His friend Ronnie (John Ortiz)
tries to set him up with Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence), an emotionally
damaged widow, but Pat thinks she’s even more messed up than he is. He
reconsiders getting to know Tiffany when his therapist points out that
helping her as a friend would be good for him too. Also, Tiffany says
she can get a letter to Nikki for him. The catch is that in return Pat
must be her partner in a dance competition.On
the surface SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK is a raucous romantic comedy, but
its real interests are superstition and delusion. In a world that can
be senseless and cruel, dealing with pain and disappointment through
irrational beliefs or rituals can provide comfort and order. Pat puts
his trust in the self-improvement system and psychotherapy. His father
Pat Sr. (Robert De Niro), running books to make ends meet since he was
laid off, casts his lot with obsessive-compulsive behavior and sports
and combines them when it comes to rooting on the Eagles. Donning a
favorite team’s jersey doesn’t help them win, and wearing black while in
mourning won’t bring back a loved one. Religion isn’t explicitly
mentioned, although both Pats wear necklaces bearing the face of Christ.
Dressing in these ways can give relief, though.
Whether
or not one sees putting faith in any of these spots as silly or
meaningless, they aren’t necessarily problematic unless they harm others
or cause self-incapacitation. Of course, that’s where the delusion
comes in and the source of these characters’ struggles. Pat can’t fully
recover until he accepts that his wife may not want anything to do with
him again and that he ought to stay on his meds. Serial flings won’t
grant Tiffany the freedom to shed her grief. The tension and confusion
pinging inside these characters’ brains have them poised on the knife’s
edge. Writer-director David O. Russell emphasizes their jittery
mindsets and boundary issues through editing and camera placement and
movements that indicate manic depression. From
the taboo scenario in SPANKING THE MONKEY to the protagonist’s
combative family in THE FIGHTER, Russell’s films feed on chaos and
relationship dysfunction. The humor in SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK flows
from unfiltered words and deeds. Cooper and Lawrence’s scenes crackle
with their blunt and hilarious assessments of each other’s neuroses.
Both give excellent comedic performances that avoid playing mental
illness as a colorful quirk. While there’s a lot of brutal truth
telling in their exchanges, tenderness and vulnerability underline the
sharpness. The
romantic comedy formula often contends that people being horrid to one
another masks a deep, abiding affection that will eventually emerge.
It’s a crock but nevertheless that’s what gets stressed time and again.
The difference in SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK is that presenting abrasive
personalities is a distancing technique for scared people struggling to
recognize their willingness to love and be loved.Grade: B+
ANNA KARENINA (Joe Wright, 2012)ANNA
KARENINA begins in 1847 imperial Russia with Anna (Keira Knightley),
wife of government official Count Alexei Karenin (Jude Law), traveling
from St. Petersburg to Moscow to comfort her sister-in-law Dolly (Kelly
Macdonald) for the infidelity of her brother, Prince Stepan “Stiva”
Oblonsky (Matthew Macfadyen). While Anna pleads with Dolly to forgive
Stiva, something she suggests her relative must do to regain her own
happiness as much as anything, the promise of unspoiled love eases the
tension in the home. Dolly’s 18-year-old sister Princess Ekaterina
(Alicia Vikander), otherwise known as Kitty, has two suitors. In
anticipation of rich cavalry officer Count Alexei Vronsky (Aaron
Taylor-Johnson) asking for her hand to be his wife, Kitty declines the
proposal of Stiva’s friend Konstantin Levin (Domhnall Gleeson).The
prospect of Kitty and Vronsky marrying is dashed when he and Anna
unexpectedly connect with an animal magnetism that shocks and thrills
her. Although the scandalous affair taints Anna in society’s view and
threatens to destroy her, with Vronsky she finds the passion that has
been lacking in her relationship with Karenin. In response, her husband
approaches Anna’s relationship with Vronsky as if it is a policy
matter. Karenin shares his perspective and a clear set of consequences
if she is to continue it. Director
Joe Wright’s entry to the film world came with his fresh cinematic
treatment of PRIDE & PREJUDICE. The Jane Austen novel seemed as
though it had been adapted to death by the time of Wright’s version, but
he lent immediacy to the period piece with modern touches and
filmmaking verve. ANNA KARENINA is another giant of the literary world
that would seem to invite a staid, classical style, yet once again the
director’s bold vision shakes up what might have otherwise been a fusty
filming of the canon.
In
their version of ANNA KARENINA Wright and screenwriter Tom Stoppard
deliver an audacious adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s classic of Russian
literature. Much of the realist fiction’s action--everything set in
cities--is transposed to the artificial confines of a theater. Scenery
and costume changes occur on camera in elaborately choreographed
transitions. Characters wander into the wings, the auditorium, and
above the stage. With nothing incapable of being put on view, the
visual strategy makes plain the hypocrisy between the public and private
as well as the male and female. It also pokes fun at urban progress,
such as the lengthy tracking shot punctuated with the delivery of an
ashtray.Yet
for all of the flashy staging indebted to Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger,
gorgeous cinematography, and sumptuous production design, ANNA KARENINA
relies on small, human gestures to convey the depth of feeling and
judgment. Emotional expression tends to be clipped and indirect, with
much being communicated through glances and the subtlest of movements. Paced
like a surging locomotive, ANNA KARENINA plays like the ultimate
CliffsNotes, which is both testament to Stoppard’s exceptional
adaptation and abridgement of Tolstoy’s novel and acknowledgment of the
film’s somewhat superficial center. Anna’s choice to sacrifice
everything for Vronsky merits more inspection but is shortchanged for
the sake of expediency. Even with portions rendered in shorthand, ANNA
KARENINA is a stylistic triumph in its exploration of the collisions
between love and passion, the rational and irrational, and the moral and
sinful. Grade: B+
