Clerks II (2006)

I am beginning to suspect that somewhere in my aging feminine form lurks a 20-year old lad struggling to escape.  How else to explain the fact that I found the above movie so amusing and engaging, while at the same time generally abhoring the dumbed-down humour and emphasis on bodily functions so prevalent in other contemporary flicks.  I was enchanted by the original Clerks when I first saw it -- a breath of fresh air, both well-written and laugh-out-loud with its memorable blue-collar characters.

Well, Brian O'Halloran is back as Dante, Jeff Anderson is back as Randal, and Jason Mewes and the director, Kevin Smith, are back as your friendly local drug-dealers Jay and Silent Bob.  Not that any of these actors have much of a cinema career outside of Smith's films (and parenthetically I was amused to see Smith himself cast as a computer-nerd freak in the recent 4th "Die Hard" film), but their personas are so well-established that it is like welcoming back old -- if not very reputable -- friends.  In this movie, the convenience store where Dante and Randal worked has burned down and they now work at a cheesy burger joint managed by Rosario Dawson.  Dante is about to leave for Florida with his pushy fiancee played by Smith's own wife without any vanity, and neither Randal nor Dawson want to lose him.  Randal decides to organise a farewell performance by a donkey act (inter-species erotics or something like that) and chaos ensues before the completely satisfactory conclusion.

Again the script is disrespectful, rude, and smart, full of film and comic book allusions so dear to Smith's fans and we have the usual obligatory cameos from Ben Affleck and Jason Lee (although no sign of Matt Damon who is possibly now too A-list to oblige).  All in all it's a good-natured romp which definitely appeals to the young lad in each of us.

I shall be away for a few days, so no more raves or rantings until after the weekend...

Tags: Clerks II, Kevin Smith

The Oscars

Watching the Oscar ceremony is always a highlight of my viewing year, even if great dollops of the proceedings are a colossal bore.  However I'm not sufficiently keen to force myself to stay up all night to allow for the time differential; I record it on the hard disc and watch it at my leisure the next morning.  This year's 80th celebration felt a little subdued (maybe it's the hangover from the writers' strike) and the usual compilations lacked some verve; however, there were still some fine moments and I was especially pleased that the Coen Brothers did so well, taking best adapted screenplay, best director, and best picture.  I was a little afraid that "There Will be Blood" might get in the way of their overdue recognition.  Pity they didn't win best editing as well, since it would have been amusing to find out how the nominated editor would accept his award, since he doesn't exist and is only the said brothers under a pseudonym. 

I was not unpleasantly surprised to find that the acting awards -- Day-Lewis, Bardem, Cotillard, and Swinton -- duplicated those at the BAFTAs, and while the male accolades were expected, the female ones were something of a shock to those anticipated.  I do wonder how the American Academy feels to see all of the acting Oscars going to non-American actors, and even if favourites Christie and Blanchett had  won, there still would have been no U.S. talent taking the top prizes.  For one very small moment I did hope that Johnny Depp might just have pipped Day-Lewis to the post since his roles are a lot more fun, but perhaps he plays too tongue-in-cheek to be taken seriously by the Academy voters.  Still I hope that his day will come.

The remainder of the awards seemed to be business as usual -- and since I've not yet seen the nominated documentaries nor foreign films, I don't know whether the best man won as it were.  The only other award that might have pleased me would be to have seen Ruby Dee take best supporting actress; it would have been a sentimental choice as she is a grand, old lady, but it was never really on the cards.

Tags: The Oscars, Coen Brothers, Non-American winners

After Midnight (2004)

On paper this Italian movie should have been right up my alley, being set at Turin's Italian National Museum of Cinema and intercut with nostalgic clips from silent cinema especially from the divine Buster.  However I was left with something of a niggling feeling that the writer-director Davide Ferrario was trying just a wee bit too hard to be winning and winsome, and this was not helped by an intrusive narrator playing nudge-nudge, wink-wink with the viewer to make certain we got most of the cinema references.  What was almost certainly intended as a celebration of the glories of cinema and how it can transform our lives turned out to be done with a respectful but somewhat heavy hand.

There are three main characters: Martino the night watchman at the museum who spends his evenings exploring its delights, Amanda a fast-food worker whom Martino has worshipped from the sidelines, and her lover a petty thief referred to as The Angel.  After an incident at work where she scalds her boss and is on the lam from the police, she takes refuge at the museum and soon falls under its spell and the silent devotion of Martino (who seldom says anything and who takes his wooing cues from Keaton).  Soon she finds that she is in love with two men and when she is able to leave her sanctuary, the three characters try to work out their predicament.  The numerous veiled references to "Jules et Jim" are to me a little excessive as the actors here lack some charisma.

There is in fact a fourth main character, the museum itself, the 19th Century architectural folly known as the Mole Antonelliana.  The building with its imaginative layout and displays had far more appeal than the somewhat pedestrian protagonists, although Martino as a Buster-clone was not without charm.  All in all, this was a respectful homage to film history, but not quite the masterpiece it could have been.

Tags: Mole Antonelliana, silent movies, After Midnight

A Couple of German Films

No, I haven't got around to "The Lives of Others" yet which is sitting somewhere in my backlog awaiting my attention, but I did watch two lesser-known German movies which, while very different from each other, surprisingly proved interesting in their own ways.

First up came "Schultze Gets the Blues" (2003), a first effort from writer-director Michael Schorr.  This one was a fairly quiet, leisurely and quirky movie and could only appeal to the patient viewer.  Three middle-aged friends in a back-of-beyond German mining town are retired on the same day and find time heavy on their hands.  Schultze lives alone and has only his accordion for solace.  One day on the radio he hears a snatch of zydeco and can't get the rhythm or the melody out of his head or his fingers.  This doesn't go down well with the local community whose musical tastes are limited to oomp-pah-pah.  The town is twinned with an East Texan town with a heavy germanic heritage and they elect to send Schultze to attend the local American music festival.  He uses this as a stepping stone to hire a small boat and to proceed through the swamps to find his new musical inspiration.  Since he has virtually no English, Schultze doesn't say a lot but carries on in search of that evasive tune.  To say any more would be to spoil the pleasure that another patient viewer might find in seeking out this little but very worthwhile movie.

In jarring contrast, I then watched "Atomised" (2006) which is the English title for a German film based on a novel by cult French writer and misanthrope Michel Houellebecq.  It was also known on the festival circuit as "Elementary Particles" which is probably closer to the German, although neither title gives the potential viewer much of a clue as to what is in store.  Two half-brothers, Bruno played by Moritz Bleibtreu and Michael played by Christian Ulman, do not know of each other's existence until they are in their teens.  Their feckless mother who spends most of each year at hippy communes in Poona has abandoned them to grandparents to raise them.  While Michael grows into some sort of mathematical genius whose ideas will revolutionise genetics, Bruno becomes a sex-obsessed, bitter, and racist teacher, unable to cope with his many failures, and an occasional mental inpatient.  Their joint story is picked up when they are in their thirties and it is clear that there is a strong bond between them despite their many differences.  Michael has been in love since childhood with Franka Potente but was too shy to accept her adolescent approaches and is still a virgin.  Bruno on the other hand will screw anything in skirts, although he is so clumsy socially that he has lost his wife and child and is often rejected; on a sex holiday he meets Martina Gedeck an older but sexually voracious woman and he thinks he has met his true love.   Tragedy threatens both brothers' relationships, but where Michael and his love find a worthwhile way of life, Bruno according to the end captions spends the rest of his days in institutions warmed only by the ghost of a woman that only he can see.  This film was full of many interesting ideas and while occasionally as nihilistic as the author on whose book it was based, still an extremely absorbing 100-odd minutes.  

Tags: German Movies, Schultze and the Blues, Houellebecq

The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)

The title of this film is taken from the misspelt graffiti on the wall next to the daycare center where Will Smith leaves his young son each working day.  His character interprets this line from the Declaration of Independence as meaning that happiness is not a God-given right but something that must be actively pursued.  And boy does he actively pursue it in this movie!

When wife Thandie Newton walks out on Smith who is unable to sufficiently provide for her and their son, he not only insists upon keeping the boy with him but also drags him from pillar to post until a happier future is ensured.  This movie is intended to be morally uplifting and moving and to demonstrate that the American Dream can be a reality, but possibly because I knew upfront that the film would finish with the requisite happy ending, I found it just a wee bit difficult to root for the determined Smith.  Now there is no denying that he is an able and likeable actor and that he probably totally deserved the Oscar nod that he had for this role, but the movie was in fact a little depressing at times, as the brave young kid -- beautifully played by Smith's own son -- loses increasingly less satisfactory homes and has to spend his nights in homeless shelters or even worse in toilets.  All the while Smith is putting on a brave front at his six-month stockbroking internship, refuses to let on the difficulties he is encountering, and continues to believe in their future  I suppose the fact that he needs to produce a series of white lies to appease his mentors is neither here nor there when one is searching for one's dream.

Tags: Will Smith, the American dream

"Paradise Lost" (2006)

I've seen so many rubbishy flicks over the last few days, that I have had trouble getting myself to write anything about them.  The above movie was a "make-weight" with some other DVDs purchased (I was probably misled by the cover quotes about it being the best horror film of the year - ha!); it wasn't until I got it home that I realised that this was the UK title for the American movie called "Turistas".  If I'd known that up front, it never would have found its way into my player to add to the overall crappiness of my recent viewing.

The film fits broadly into the new genre labeled "torture porn" and was about tourists (in Brazil here) being waylaid and harvested for their body parts.  Now I have no big objections to this genre as such; I've seen "Wolf Creek" and "Hostel" and did not find them totally irredeemable (although I have developed an absolute hatred for Eli Roth and his bigheadedness).  Well, this movie was by and large just draggy and poorly acted and the gore factor was hardly high by anyone's standards-- partly because it was photographed so darkly and largely because the worst blood-letting seemed to take place off-screen.  There was little new here to justify its existence -- and an incredibly long sequence with our intrepid group of nubile survivors trapped in an underwater cave seemed to go on forever.  The cast were attractive but largely unknown to me; I did have hopes for lead female Melissa George who was so very good in "Waz", but she was just another theoretically expendable actor here.

I guess this disc will join the growing collection of those kept but never to be watched again, which is one step up from those which are immediately consigned to the waste bin.  I must be more careful with my selections in future -- except I probably won't be!

Tags: Turistas, torture porn, Eli Roth

A Good Year (2006)

The critics had a good shot at putting people off this movie since it was not the sort of wham-bam high-action cooperation that is normal for director Ridley Scott and favourite actor Russell Crowe, but come the day it was a fine, enjoyable, and totally likeable film.  Based on the Peter Mayle novel of life in Provence, Crowe is first shown as a 'master of the universe' City type without a care for anything bar ruthless business, who learns that his uncle whom he has not seen for many years has just died and left him his estate in France, his chateau, his vineyard.  Crowe had just about forgotten the idyllic summers he spent there as a child (as portrayed by the winsome Freddie Highmore) with roguish uncle Albert Finney.  So Crowe takes himself off to Provence to settle the estate, sell the dump as quickly as possible, and return to his ruthless stocktrading life.

However this movie is meant to be a gentle comedy, and while one does not normally associate Crowe with comedic roles, he does in fact -- being a good actor if not necessarily a charming one -- make a good stab at it.  He "meets cute" with local cafe owner Marion Cotillard in non-Piaf mode in an explosive Ridley Scott way when he accidentally runs her bike off the road while he is gabbing on his phone and she retaliates by nearly drowning him while he is stuck in a deep unused swimming pool.  Things do however look up from there and we watch the attraction between them grow.  The rest of the cast including his vicious City staff, the old retainers on the estate, Tom Holland as his greedy estate agent friend, and Abbie Cornish as a would-be American cousin all do their part to make this an unexpectedly pleasant watch.  Don't believe the critics: this movie definitely has its moments and comes as a charming aside in the Scott-Crowe canon. 

Tags: A Good Year, Ridley Scott, Russell Crowe

The Baftas

When there seemed a good chance that the Oscar ceremony this year might go the same way as the Golden Globes, there was great anticipation that this year's Bafta awards would attract the Hollywood A-list who were suffering from red carpet withdrawal syndrome.  Amusingly this did not prove to be the case and the American talent that showed up for last night's awards did not appear to include many of those actually in contention; however the group did include some lesser personages who were given presenting duties for no good reason.  I fail to see what Sylvester Stallone or Kate Hudson or Cuba Gooding Jr. added to this British occasion.

A few years back the British Academy moved their ceremony date forward so that it would precede the Oscars and be taken more seriously.  I do watch it each year and I am usually amused by its home-grown and often amateurish approach to international glory; I don't mean this cruelly.  There is enough British talent around to avoid aping Hollywood.  The presenter this year was Jonathan "Woss" who is an improvement in my book on Stephen Fry who is usually so self-consciously bright and precious.  So while I'm at it, let me give you some of my further "take" on the proceedings:

"Atonement" was up for the largest number of awards but only won one major one, namely best picture.  Would someone please explain to me how this is different from best British picture for which it was also nominated, but didn't win.

There was a suspicious consistency to the major award winners actually being present, perhaps this explained some of the Hollywood absences -- it was almost as if the organisers ensured that the main winners would be in the audience.  In the acting categories these were Daniel Day-Lewis, Marion Cotillard, Javier Bardem, and Tilda Swinton and at least one Coen brother in the best director category.

The big surprise -- to prove that Bafta can still produce them -- was the best acting nod to Cotillard for "La Vie en Rose" over home-grown talent Keira Knightley and Julie Christie, both of whom were present.  She seemed as generally flabbergasted as the rest of the audience, which was rather sweet.

Bafta made a big deal about boasting that "The Lives of Others" was up for four awards which could not happen at this year's Oscars.  Maybe that's because that German film was a winner at last year's Academy Award ceremony.

Do I think that last night's awards foresage the Oscar results in just under two weeks?  Not really.  I would be more than surprised if "Atonement" was judged best pic, although Day-Lewis and Bardem seem a lock, and positively amazed (though not unhappy) if Cotillard duplicated her success.

One last question for you.  Cate Blanchett has been nominated both here and in the U.S. for best actress as "Elizabeth" and best supporting actress for her Bob Dylan turn in "I'm not There" (neither of which she won yesterday).  How can one of five or six actors who split the leading role in a biopic be considered a supporting actor.  There are some weird definitions extant.

 

 

Tags: The Baftas, British film

Madhouse (1974)

For some reason I had made a note to watch this film again, but having done so I could not begin to tell you why.  Mind you it is always something of a delight to watch Vincent Price, who although he has been in movies since the late 30s and was not always associated with horror films is always never less than watchable with his velvet voice of menace, even in rather disposable movies like this one.

In it he plays a horror icon called Doctor Death who went 'round the twist after his fiancee was decapitated and spent a number of years in the loony bin of the title.  On his release he agrees to appear in some television specials to help out his old friend, financially-strapped Peter Cushing, an ex-actor who turned to screenwriting for the Doctor Death series.   The series is being produced by Robert Quarry a former porn director whom Price blames for his slagging off his fiancee just before her death.  We quickly are shown a cloaked and gloved figure murdering other bosomy blondes and are meant to assume that Price is still well and truly gaga; it doesn't take much of a Sherlock Holmes to guess the real culprit early on.  One lovely part of this movie involves showing clips from some of Price's far better movies when he co-starred with two other horror icons Basil Rathbone and Boris Karloff; these serve to remind one of Price's very strange career.

A writer, a gourmet, an art collector, and a general bon vivant, Price had many more strings to his bow than just being a famous scare-monger.  Yet he made a number of highly memorable movies, particularly with Roger Corman's Poe cycle.  He was also an early inspiration for film-maker Tim Burton which can't be a bad thing either.  So am I glad that I saw this movie a second time?  Well, I must admit that it was worth it just to be charmed yet again by Price's elegance.

Tags: Madhouse, Vincent Price, horror

Zoom (2006)

A few weeks back I watched a totally idiotic movie called 'The Adventures of Captain Zoom' or something like that about a fourth-rate actor from a cardboard sci-fi television series back in the 50s who is whisked away to a threatened planet as its potential saviour.  Not a particularly original premise and certainly not a particularly clever film.  So when I saw the above movie listed in the schedules I thought this had to be more of the same and if you take the IMDb's rating as a guide (3 out of 10) you could well expect this to be in the same category as "Ishtar" or "Howard the Duck", but on a smaller budget -- well, I must disagree.  There are times when a bit of silliness can hit the spot.

In terms of rip-off movies, this could be perceived as another in the "X-Men" vein where child misfits are trained to develop their special abilities, although this one was really played for laughs.  If one tries to ignore an over-the-top Rip Torn playing a mad army type and a fat and unfunny Chevy Chase playing his lead scientist, one is left with a bolshie yet ultimately caring Tim Allen as an over-the hill ex-superhero who has lost his powers and Courteney Cox as a klutzy psychologist trying to train only four youngsters who must save the world from the return of Allen's gone-bad older brother.  Of the children, the only one I recognized was chubby Spencer Breslin as the boy who could extend his body parts to gigantic size in a wonderfully amusing way.  He was joined by a bolshie teenager who could become invisible, a rather sweet high school outcast who could control objects, and a tiny little girl with the strength of a Titan.  To save their being exposed to behaviour-changing drugs as Allen and his brother were many years previously, he manages to inspire them to become a fighting family with true family loyalties and indeed they do save the day.  OK, this will not enter the mainstream as one of the great films but it was pleasant and amusing enough not to be consigned to the turkeys either.  Yes, there are times when a dose of silliness may be just what the doctor ordered -- and I did laugh out loud more than once.  So there! 

Tags: Zoom, Tim Allen, silly movies

The Good Shepherd (2006)

Is it in order for me to comment on a film that I've only seen in part?  Well, yes, since this journal is posted primarily for my own benefit and since the number of readers seems to be diminishing.  La de dah!  At least I shall be able to look back and find out what absorbed me (or otherwise) in earlier times.  Or something!  The truth is that I only saw about two-thirds of this movie and had all I could do to stay awake and pay attention.  Sometimes when this happens, I then go back and watch the end of the film in question, but in this instance I have no desire to do so.  Instead I have read the plot outline to cover the missed portion and will try to explain why this movie shall forever remain half-seen.

I'm not the greatest fan of non-linear storytelling, although sometimes it serves a purpose.  In this instance it only seemed to blur the action and to take away from any potential dramatic suspense.  It's a recreation of how the Office of Strategic Services evolved into the CIA, as embodied by a fictional operative played by Matt Damon.  Starting with the Bay of Pigs fiasco, it weaves forward and back to Damon's days at Yale and his recruitment into a basically WASP circle through to the unlikely denouement when the traitor within is exposed.  While I am not saying that Damon was bad in his role, his character was largely such an unemotional cypher that it was difficult to feel any involvement with a man for whom 'patriotism' was all and who would sacrifice just about everything in its cause.

Directed by Robert DeNiro, who also appears in a small role, the film seems to me over-ambitious with its many sub-plots (not all resolved) and large but generally able cast, including Angelina Jolie as Damon's wife in a fairly thankless role.  I seem to be running against the herd in saying that this film did not work for me; I crave intelligent cinema as much as the next guy, but I like to feel that a film has either entertained or enlightened or challenged me.  This one failed on all counts.

Tags: The Good Shepherd, Matt Damon, non-linear storytelling

The Osterman Weekend (1983)

Sam Peckinpah directed some of the most violent yet most elegiac movies of the 60s and 70s if one accepts that these two adjectives are not a contradiction of terms.  He will be long remembered for films like "The Wild Bunch", "Straw Dogs", "The Getaway", "Ride the High Country", and my own favourite amongst his gentler movies "The Ballad of Cable Hogue".  One understands that he was a notorious drinker and all-round troublemaker and after the relative flop of "Convoy" back in 1978, he made no movies for five years until this, his last one.  Unfortunately he was unable to end his career on a high note and he died a year later.

I've seen 'Osterman' before, but thought it was worth another go out of my respect for Peckinpah's earlier movies; while it had a few moments, it was still something of an incomprehensible mess.  Based on a convoluted novel from author Robert Ludlum, we have CIA operative John Hurt, whose wife we have seen murdered in the opening scenes, approaching well-know TV interviewer Rutger Hauer to help him expose three of Hauer's best buddies who he claims are Russian spies; these friends are played by Craig T. Nelson, Dennis Hopper, and Chris Sarandon.  Since the four always meet for an annual weekend together, Hurt convinces Hauer to let him establish surveillance.  As it turns out after a ridiculous amount of violence and death, the whole charade was an attempt by Hurt to gain revenge on CIA bigwig Burt Lancaster, whom he blames for his wife's murder.  It's all horribly unsatisfying and one can only hope that the original book was easier to understand.  I really wished old Sam could have faded away with a superior return to directing.

Tags: The Osterman Weekend, Sam Peckinpah, CIA