Zeitgeist: The Movie
Internet polemic by independent filmmaker Peter Joseph, this has been periodically revised over the years and is kind of a YouTube favorite in the conspiracy theory department. Though it has spawned several sequels this film remains the flagship of the Zeitgeist Movement, whose central concerns are the establishment of a more equitable society and ecologically sustainable way of life, as well as informing people of the 'lies' on which our world is based. The film is divided into three acts, each seeking to expose ways in which the collective 'we' are manipulated by a power elite. The first act concerns astrotheology and the way in which Christianity is really just the latest in a series of Sun worshiping religions that has been appropriated by the elite as a tool for controlling society at large.The second act is about 9/11 conspiracy's, very well presented in a disturbingly plausible sounding way, though the consensus of experts in the fields here discussed do not agree with the thesis of the film makers. The last act concerns the global conspiracy of the power elite to return the world to a form of feudal state.
The film is really a mixture of many of the 'conspiracy greats', the false flag attack, the moneyed class and the fed, the Bush dynasty and the new world order. The thing that sets it apart the most would have to be the critique of religion, other wise most of whats in this film corresponds to the apocalyptic precepts that Pat Robertson has been expounding for years. This is kind of one of the musts for Internet film literacy, agree or disagree its certainly interesting.
Fair
Hot Tub Time Machine
It is the marked consensus of theoretical physicists that if a hot tube where a time machine, it would inevitably take you back to the mid-1980's. Director Steven Pink examines the implications of this theory on a trio of friends and one of their nephews, each of whom have experienced largely disappointing lives. After Rob Corddry is hospitalized after an apparent suicide attempt, his long time friends decide to take him upon his release to The Kodiak Valley Ski Resort, scene of there youthful glory days. Kodiak too has seen better days, and is now largely run down. Disappointed, the group gets sloshed and takes a dip in their hotel hot tube, only to spill a Russian energy drink on the controls and get sent back in time.
It of course takes them all a little bit to realize what has happened, ("are they having some kind of retro thing this weekend?"), but after a while they figure out that they have somehow travailed back to 1986, and while they look the same to each other, every one else see's them as the image of their period selves (with nephew Clark Duke looking as he did in 2010 given that he hasn't been born yet). A mysterious mystical hot tube repair man (Chevy Chase) implies that they must not significantly change the past so as to avoid the 'butterfly effect' that may significantly change their futures, and could result in Clark not being born at all (they arrive on the weekend of his conception).
This film owes a lot to Back to the Future, not least the presence of Crispin Glover as a hotel doorman destined to have his arm chopped off. Lead John Cusack, veteran of 80's teen comedies, is a fine disappointed sad sack, as indeed are all of the characters, their lives hadn't turned out as they'd hopped when they were younger, and the temptation to change the past to better themselves grips them all, with Clark doing his best to keep them on track and insure that he gets born. Craig Robinson drunkingly calling his then nine year old wife to chew her out for cheating on him is an awkwardly funny moment of which this film has many. But in near Apatowian style the crudity has pathos to it, and the midlife crises trope has one of its better film outings.
Good
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Saturday, January 14, 2012
The Rules of the Game (1939)
As France stood precariously on the eve of a second world war, the prescient film maker Jean Renoir took on a decedent, self obsessed culture on the brink of collapse, and created a genera bending satire that is today recognized as one of the greatest films ever made. The Rules of the Game is a comedy of manners, if an unusually subtle and probing one. Renoir took on this classic form because it is through a societies frivolity that some of its most damning defects can be made clear.
This is not to say that The Rules of the Game is either an excessively lite or an excessively dark film, indeed it is a hard to classify one. Though the through line of parallel criticism of two social classes (more on this later) is ever present the film moves shiftingly through a sea of conventional genera types. It begins as 'white telephone' melodrama, escalates too high farce, and ends in a melancholy, almost resigned sense of tragedy. It is Shakespearean.
The film concerns as it where, two classes under one roof, a perfectly fitting metaphor for any society, be it expressed as the British Upstairs, Downstairs, or its true life American counter-part Backstairs at the White House. Love (and lust) transcend class, with one as likely to be felled by it as the other. Here we see parallel 'love triangles', though sometimes containing as many as five players. We see class distinctions not so much in the game, but in the rules by which it is played.
Among the upper classes it is a game of form, odd unspoken rules, hypocrisy and a passive aggressiveness that is sometimes directed out word and sometimes in. Andre Jurieux (Roland Toutian) is a daring aviator (at the beginning of the film he's just set the world speed record for a solo flight from New York to Pairs) and is in love with Christine de la Chesnaye (Nora Gregor), the Austrian born daughter of a late famous orchestra conductor. Chrisitne is married too Robert de la Chesnaye (Marcel Dalio, good in this straight role, though he usually played comic figures), a bored, independently wealthy French aristocrat whose spends his time indulging a passion for mechanical toys and music box's. Robert is also having an affair with Genevieve de Marras (Mila Parely, who ironically died just last week at the age of 94), though he wants to end it and recommit to his wife.
Among the 'lower classes' in this film is Lisette (Paulette Dubost), Christine's loyal maid, who is married too Gaston Modot (Edouard Schumacher), the groundskeeper at the de la Chesnaye's country estate. As Lisette always accompanies Chrisitne to the city which is her primary residence, the young maid's frequent absences from her husband allow her to conduct an ongoing affair with Octave, who is played by Renior himself. Octave is the only character in the film who transcends or bridges the classes, feeling comfortable in both worlds, a cultured man with little money. He studied under Chrisitnes late father in Vienna, and is a friend of the aviator Jurieux. Reluctantly Octave agrees to ensure that Jurieux is invited to a weekend of quail and rabbit hunting at the de la Chesnaye estate, so that he may try to persuade Christine to run away with him.
While at the estate Robert befriends Marceau (Julien Carette) a poor local who has been pouching rabbits on his land. Marceau has recently become the object of Modot's frustrations, a poacher he couldn't catch. When Modot does apprehend Marceau he finds that Robert doesn't care as he'd been trying to get rid of the rabbits anyway. Robert gives Marceau a job on the estates household staff where he becomes enamored of Lisette, who returns his affections, and the two attempt to start an affair. Modot, who already hates Marceau, picks up on this and becomes insanely jealous. As Modot has a gun, and is a member of the lower classes, he is more apt to become violent in love then his more reserved betters.
The film more or less climaxes in a prolonged, comic party sequences before ending a forlorn manner after Christine and Octave revel that it is really each other that they love, and Octave decides he must leave as the consequence of a mistaken shooting in which he was not really involved. Complicated and tragic, though sometimes funny, this mediation on 'the game' seeks to point out, among other things, the often selfish way in which we pro fess to love others, and the degree to which we will degrade our selves in loves pursuit. Insularly amusing themselves with the game of love as the world falls apart around them, Renoir's film is a fatalistic rumination on the French of all classes, that is really a comment on the complicated nature of all men & women.
Great
This is not to say that The Rules of the Game is either an excessively lite or an excessively dark film, indeed it is a hard to classify one. Though the through line of parallel criticism of two social classes (more on this later) is ever present the film moves shiftingly through a sea of conventional genera types. It begins as 'white telephone' melodrama, escalates too high farce, and ends in a melancholy, almost resigned sense of tragedy. It is Shakespearean.
The film concerns as it where, two classes under one roof, a perfectly fitting metaphor for any society, be it expressed as the British Upstairs, Downstairs, or its true life American counter-part Backstairs at the White House. Love (and lust) transcend class, with one as likely to be felled by it as the other. Here we see parallel 'love triangles', though sometimes containing as many as five players. We see class distinctions not so much in the game, but in the rules by which it is played.
Among the upper classes it is a game of form, odd unspoken rules, hypocrisy and a passive aggressiveness that is sometimes directed out word and sometimes in. Andre Jurieux (Roland Toutian) is a daring aviator (at the beginning of the film he's just set the world speed record for a solo flight from New York to Pairs) and is in love with Christine de la Chesnaye (Nora Gregor), the Austrian born daughter of a late famous orchestra conductor. Chrisitne is married too Robert de la Chesnaye (Marcel Dalio, good in this straight role, though he usually played comic figures), a bored, independently wealthy French aristocrat whose spends his time indulging a passion for mechanical toys and music box's. Robert is also having an affair with Genevieve de Marras (Mila Parely, who ironically died just last week at the age of 94), though he wants to end it and recommit to his wife.
Among the 'lower classes' in this film is Lisette (Paulette Dubost), Christine's loyal maid, who is married too Gaston Modot (Edouard Schumacher), the groundskeeper at the de la Chesnaye's country estate. As Lisette always accompanies Chrisitne to the city which is her primary residence, the young maid's frequent absences from her husband allow her to conduct an ongoing affair with Octave, who is played by Renior himself. Octave is the only character in the film who transcends or bridges the classes, feeling comfortable in both worlds, a cultured man with little money. He studied under Chrisitnes late father in Vienna, and is a friend of the aviator Jurieux. Reluctantly Octave agrees to ensure that Jurieux is invited to a weekend of quail and rabbit hunting at the de la Chesnaye estate, so that he may try to persuade Christine to run away with him.
While at the estate Robert befriends Marceau (Julien Carette) a poor local who has been pouching rabbits on his land. Marceau has recently become the object of Modot's frustrations, a poacher he couldn't catch. When Modot does apprehend Marceau he finds that Robert doesn't care as he'd been trying to get rid of the rabbits anyway. Robert gives Marceau a job on the estates household staff where he becomes enamored of Lisette, who returns his affections, and the two attempt to start an affair. Modot, who already hates Marceau, picks up on this and becomes insanely jealous. As Modot has a gun, and is a member of the lower classes, he is more apt to become violent in love then his more reserved betters.
The film more or less climaxes in a prolonged, comic party sequences before ending a forlorn manner after Christine and Octave revel that it is really each other that they love, and Octave decides he must leave as the consequence of a mistaken shooting in which he was not really involved. Complicated and tragic, though sometimes funny, this mediation on 'the game' seeks to point out, among other things, the often selfish way in which we pro fess to love others, and the degree to which we will degrade our selves in loves pursuit. Insularly amusing themselves with the game of love as the world falls apart around them, Renoir's film is a fatalistic rumination on the French of all classes, that is really a comment on the complicated nature of all men & women.
Great
Thursday, January 12, 2012
The Perfect Host (2010), Suddenly (1954), Kisses for my President (1964)
The Perfect Host
We all like David Hyde Pierce, but it seems he has nothing to do. How to use him? He's done animated voices (A Bugs Life), and Tony Randell like fay supporting characters (Down With Love), but nothing that puts him at the center of attention; even his Niles Crane played second fiddle to Kelsey Grammer. But first time film maker Nick Tomnay had an idea.
In The Perfect Host, a kind of cross breed between Psycho, Dexter, and Hard Candy, Pierce plays Warrick Wilson, a character of multiple characters. We first meet Warrick when the films marginal lead (Clayne Crawford), a bank robber on the lamb, knocks on his door and precedes to 'con his way inside' faining having been mugged and a mutual friendship with 'Julia', a name he got off of a postcard in Warrick's mail box. At first Warrick appears to be a cultured, presumably gay man who is preparing to host a dinner party; he offers Crawford wine. Crawford believes his rouse is working until a report about his recent robbery and wanted status comes across the radio. Crawford turns on Warrick, threatening him, commanding that he cancel his dinner party and put him up for the night on pain of death. Warrick however has drugged Crawford's wine, he passes out, and the party gets started.
A sadistic evening ensues, with Warrick torturing and humiliating Crawford in various ways over both psychological and physical over the course of a very long night. Warrick has his dinner party only its not quite what Crawford might have expected, because it turns out that only Warrick can see and hear his guests. This is a great show piece for Pierce, who gets to let lose and seems to really enjoy the part, towards the end of the film he dons a personality quite different from anything we have seen before, and while it doesn't truly work it lets him stretch a little. Crawford's adequate, not much expected of him, though he does get a flash back story that renders him slightly more complicated then uppers at surfice. Not a lot of other characters in this one, mostly Warricks imaginary party guests, and Helen Reddy unexpectedly playing Warricks nosey, Jehovah's Witness neighbour.
In many ways this is only fair, but Pierce's almost hypnotic performance and a couple of good twists push what could have been an only mediocre outing into full Good status.
Suddenly
Vaguely norish, imminently disposable 'political thriller' with canned screen play and performances. Sterling Hayden is the Sheriff of the small town of Suddenly, a quite post-war berg that's about to get an unexpected visitor or two. Hayden is woodenly trying to woo a war widow (Nancy Gates) with a young son (Kim Charney). Gates won't give Hayden the time of day, even turning down his invitations to accompany her to church, although son Charney thinks he's cool because he has a gun. Nancy doesn't like guns, she lives in perpetual mourning of her late husband who was killed in 'the war' three years before (so that would make it Korea). Nancy lives with her father-in-law (James Gleason) in a hill top house overlooking the town train yard.
Sheriff Hayden is called down to the train station to receive an urgent secret message through the town telegraph operator. It seems the President of the United States will be stopping by to disembark a train and take a motorcade to a near by ranch (I guess the president is going on vacation?). Hayden teams up with the highway patrol and visiting secret service agents to ensure the presidents security during his brief stop, extra important as it seems the chief executive has recently become the target of a suspected assassination plot. Chief agent Willis Bouchey is pleasantly surprised to find that the owner of the house on the hill is (conveniently) his retried former boss from the Secret Service. Bouchley and Hayden head up to the Benson house to visit Gleason and insure that this prime shooting point is secure. They are too late.
Frank Sinatra and a couple of associates have already arrived at the Benson house, first posing as FBI agents sent to scout the place for the presidents visit, but quickly reveling themselves to be the intended assassins. The family is held hostage, Hayden and Bouchey stop by, Bouchey's killed and Hayden's wounded. Later the TV repairmen shows up and is also taken hostage. Sinatra is a crack shot, decorated in the war (this time the war in question is WWII), he doesn't know whose hired him, he's mostly in it to stoke his ego. But can the unstable Sinatra's pride and ego be used against him to foil the assassination? Can Nancy overcome her aversion to guns to save those she loves? And will the darn television get fixed.
It's pat, wooden, and the script's paint by numbers composition draws undue attention to its self. Thank goodness its only about 75 minutes long, because this is a rather poor movie.
Kisses for my President
Comedy about the first First Husband. Leslie McCloud (Polly Bergen) has just ridden a landslide of female support to become the first women President of the United States (not a lot of experience, though she came from a political family and has served as a judge). Her husband Thad (Fred MacMurray, in full family comedy mode) was forced to sell his electronics business to avoid conflicts of interest relating to government contracts, and now finds himself stuck in the White House with nothing too do. It seems the whole role of the presidents husband has been surprisingly un-thought out by Bergen's advisers and staff, in fact they haven't even settled on a formal title yet.
With his wife generally too busy for him, and his young son and teenage daughter just trying to adjust to life with secret service protection, MacMurray finds himself spending lots of time in his femininely decorated office, and trying to engage his secret service men in conversation. Then Leslie finds something for him too do. Valdez (Eli Wallach) the dictator of an unspecified Latin American country has come to Washington in the hopes of renewing U.S. aid for his crocked regime. The President is dubious, reluctant to bend to her general election opponent, Senate Majority Leader Edward Andrews demands that aid be renewed. While contemplating what to do Bergen sends her husband out to show Valdez the sights which results in various comic episodes, including a car race, a speed boat race, and a brawl at a strip club. MacMurray must face Andrews down at Senate hearings regrading accusations that his fight with Valdez was orchestrated to provide an excuse for cutting off foreign aid (huh, how dose this make sense or even matter). McMurray bests Andrews by exposing the ties between Valdez's government and the Senators former law firm. Then Bergen gets pregnant and resigns her office for her health and the safety of her unborn child.
The pregnancy plot not very feminist, but Bergen comes off as a competent, able leader, and a pretty good mother as well. MacMurray gives the type of performance you hire him for in the type of role he usually played, good natured, pron to misadventure, vaguely irked. It's nothing special, but is moderately entertaining. Fair
We all like David Hyde Pierce, but it seems he has nothing to do. How to use him? He's done animated voices (A Bugs Life), and Tony Randell like fay supporting characters (Down With Love), but nothing that puts him at the center of attention; even his Niles Crane played second fiddle to Kelsey Grammer. But first time film maker Nick Tomnay had an idea.
In The Perfect Host, a kind of cross breed between Psycho, Dexter, and Hard Candy, Pierce plays Warrick Wilson, a character of multiple characters. We first meet Warrick when the films marginal lead (Clayne Crawford), a bank robber on the lamb, knocks on his door and precedes to 'con his way inside' faining having been mugged and a mutual friendship with 'Julia', a name he got off of a postcard in Warrick's mail box. At first Warrick appears to be a cultured, presumably gay man who is preparing to host a dinner party; he offers Crawford wine. Crawford believes his rouse is working until a report about his recent robbery and wanted status comes across the radio. Crawford turns on Warrick, threatening him, commanding that he cancel his dinner party and put him up for the night on pain of death. Warrick however has drugged Crawford's wine, he passes out, and the party gets started.
A sadistic evening ensues, with Warrick torturing and humiliating Crawford in various ways over both psychological and physical over the course of a very long night. Warrick has his dinner party only its not quite what Crawford might have expected, because it turns out that only Warrick can see and hear his guests. This is a great show piece for Pierce, who gets to let lose and seems to really enjoy the part, towards the end of the film he dons a personality quite different from anything we have seen before, and while it doesn't truly work it lets him stretch a little. Crawford's adequate, not much expected of him, though he does get a flash back story that renders him slightly more complicated then uppers at surfice. Not a lot of other characters in this one, mostly Warricks imaginary party guests, and Helen Reddy unexpectedly playing Warricks nosey, Jehovah's Witness neighbour.
In many ways this is only fair, but Pierce's almost hypnotic performance and a couple of good twists push what could have been an only mediocre outing into full Good status.
Suddenly
Vaguely norish, imminently disposable 'political thriller' with canned screen play and performances. Sterling Hayden is the Sheriff of the small town of Suddenly, a quite post-war berg that's about to get an unexpected visitor or two. Hayden is woodenly trying to woo a war widow (Nancy Gates) with a young son (Kim Charney). Gates won't give Hayden the time of day, even turning down his invitations to accompany her to church, although son Charney thinks he's cool because he has a gun. Nancy doesn't like guns, she lives in perpetual mourning of her late husband who was killed in 'the war' three years before (so that would make it Korea). Nancy lives with her father-in-law (James Gleason) in a hill top house overlooking the town train yard.
Sheriff Hayden is called down to the train station to receive an urgent secret message through the town telegraph operator. It seems the President of the United States will be stopping by to disembark a train and take a motorcade to a near by ranch (I guess the president is going on vacation?). Hayden teams up with the highway patrol and visiting secret service agents to ensure the presidents security during his brief stop, extra important as it seems the chief executive has recently become the target of a suspected assassination plot. Chief agent Willis Bouchey is pleasantly surprised to find that the owner of the house on the hill is (conveniently) his retried former boss from the Secret Service. Bouchley and Hayden head up to the Benson house to visit Gleason and insure that this prime shooting point is secure. They are too late.
Frank Sinatra and a couple of associates have already arrived at the Benson house, first posing as FBI agents sent to scout the place for the presidents visit, but quickly reveling themselves to be the intended assassins. The family is held hostage, Hayden and Bouchey stop by, Bouchey's killed and Hayden's wounded. Later the TV repairmen shows up and is also taken hostage. Sinatra is a crack shot, decorated in the war (this time the war in question is WWII), he doesn't know whose hired him, he's mostly in it to stoke his ego. But can the unstable Sinatra's pride and ego be used against him to foil the assassination? Can Nancy overcome her aversion to guns to save those she loves? And will the darn television get fixed.
It's pat, wooden, and the script's paint by numbers composition draws undue attention to its self. Thank goodness its only about 75 minutes long, because this is a rather poor movie.
Kisses for my President
Comedy about the first First Husband. Leslie McCloud (Polly Bergen) has just ridden a landslide of female support to become the first women President of the United States (not a lot of experience, though she came from a political family and has served as a judge). Her husband Thad (Fred MacMurray, in full family comedy mode) was forced to sell his electronics business to avoid conflicts of interest relating to government contracts, and now finds himself stuck in the White House with nothing too do. It seems the whole role of the presidents husband has been surprisingly un-thought out by Bergen's advisers and staff, in fact they haven't even settled on a formal title yet.
With his wife generally too busy for him, and his young son and teenage daughter just trying to adjust to life with secret service protection, MacMurray finds himself spending lots of time in his femininely decorated office, and trying to engage his secret service men in conversation. Then Leslie finds something for him too do. Valdez (Eli Wallach) the dictator of an unspecified Latin American country has come to Washington in the hopes of renewing U.S. aid for his crocked regime. The President is dubious, reluctant to bend to her general election opponent, Senate Majority Leader Edward Andrews demands that aid be renewed. While contemplating what to do Bergen sends her husband out to show Valdez the sights which results in various comic episodes, including a car race, a speed boat race, and a brawl at a strip club. MacMurray must face Andrews down at Senate hearings regrading accusations that his fight with Valdez was orchestrated to provide an excuse for cutting off foreign aid (huh, how dose this make sense or even matter). McMurray bests Andrews by exposing the ties between Valdez's government and the Senators former law firm. Then Bergen gets pregnant and resigns her office for her health and the safety of her unborn child.
The pregnancy plot not very feminist, but Bergen comes off as a competent, able leader, and a pretty good mother as well. MacMurray gives the type of performance you hire him for in the type of role he usually played, good natured, pron to misadventure, vaguely irked. It's nothing special, but is moderately entertaining. Fair
Thursday, January 5, 2012
They All Laughed (1981), Battle: Los Angeles (2011), The Assassination of a High School President (2008), Garbo Talks (1984)
The All Laughed
Part detective story, part screwball comedy, part romance, part Woody Allen movie, and part navel gazing. In what he confesses is his favorite of the films he's directed, Peter Bogdanovich here indulges himself with pet cinematic proclivities. He'd always wanted to make a movie that had a long opening sequence so he does that, he'd always wanted to make a movie with Audry Hepburn so he does that, he likes Ben Gazzara so he's in the movie, as is Jon Ritter, and a diverse cast of Bogdanovich associates whose characters are often modeled on themselves, including screen writer Blaine Novak as a rollerskating private eye.
The plots not really that important, and becomes obscenely complicated in the standard screwball manner, and I must confess this is on of the most precisely constructed screwballs since the 1940's. The movie is a love song to New York as well (hence the Allen reference) and captures the city at a moment of transition, the end both of the gritty seventies, and a sub strata of formality and class that had endured beneath it. The films a little jarring at first, its hard to get a handle on all of what's going on, but it was designed to be that way and if you can get passed the initial discombobulation then you'll have a good time. I get the sense that this movie improves on re-peat viewing, but despite its strengths I don't feel that there's really that much here, maybe when I see it again my assessment will improve, but for now its a Fair.
Model Dorothy Stratten makes her debut in this movie as a young women with an obsessive husband, ironically and tragically Stratten was killed by her real husband before this movie could be released, it is dedicated to her.
Battle: Los Angeles
Think Independence Day, only concentrating on one theater of the war. SSgt. Micheal Nantz (Aaron Eckhart) is haunted by the death of men under his command in Iraq, no back in the States as a Marine instructor Nantz just wants to quietly retire, but this is not to be. You so those meteors the press keeps on talking about aren't really meteors at all, there alien space craft bringing a race of invaders to our shores (literally) in an effort to steel our precious water.
After the death of there young commander (Ramon Rodrigues) Nantz must lead his reluctant and appropriately racially diverse charges in an effort to rescue civilians in Santa Monica. When a tough air force intelligence TSgt (Michelle Rodriguez of course) gets separated from her unit and joins Nantz, there mission changes to an effort to cut of the aliens conveniently located, and conveniently only central command center. Wait, I don't want to spoil the surprise ending.
Nothing here we haven't seen countless times before from Roland Emmerich. Likable enough, but completely derivative, and director Jonathan Liebesman doesn't really seem to be trying. I hesitate to call it poor because I guiltily kind of liked it, but it is. Poor
The Assassination of a High School President
Think Brick, but less serious. Bobby Funke (Reese Thompson) is a sophomore and aspiring reporter for the student newspaper at his Catholic High school. Assigned to do a fluff piece on the schools popular, basket ball star, student body president Paul Moore (Patrick Taylor), Funke who idolizes Woodword and Bernstein stumbles across a possible connection between Moore and the recent theft of SAT tests from the office of the schools gum hating, Gulf War veteran principle Kirkpatrick (Bruce Willis, in what's suppose to be a self parody).
Some how the school newspaper lets him run his muckraking story, Kirkpatrick finds the tests in Moore's locker, Funkie is vindicated and secretive and arrogant vice president Marlon Piazza (Luke Grimmes) ascends to the presidency. All of this is accompanied by the sudden interest beautiful senior and Piazza step-sister Francesca Facchini (Mischa Barton) takes in Funkie. What's Femme Fatal Francesca's true interest in Funkie, what goes on in the secretive recesses of the student council, why are some of the schools smartest students doing so poorly on their SAT's, and will Funkie really get that coveted scholarship to Northwestern's summer writing program? Only the films conclusion and possible Internet spoilers will tell.
This film is rated R, and surprisingly sexual in content. Thompson's kind of annoying at first, but you get to like him. There's nothing that original in the characters of the various students, and the film makers are trying too hard with Willis's character, who acts like his days in the Gulf where as traumatic as Nam (he did lose a leg there however, so maybe there's some warrant). Barton, who I've never watched much has a strong presence, and gives probably the best performance among the films limitedly talented key players. I liked the groups of misfits who befriend Funkie, and the depiction of in-school suspension being run like a prison is funny and Brick like. Funkies final driving school sequence, in which his performance greatly improves when hung over is pretty fun as well. Brick broke this territory first, but as I inferred above this movie is less rigid and self serious. Both films feature drug themes and a lack of parents. Not for high schoolers. Assassination, though it has some moments (particularly the evolution of Barton and Thompson's relationship), too often falls back on vaguely annoying cliche and thin characters. Fair
Garbo Talks
I've wanted to see this little film for some time, turns out it was as sweet and likable as I had hopped, and also boastes a dryer sense of humor then I'd expected. Though I haven't seen him in many things I like Ron Silver, though I'd always gotten the impression that he was something of a tough guy, in Garbo Talks he plays anything but. A quite, unassuming, even shy accountant, Silver's Gilbert Rolfe is at first a rather passive character. His wife (Carrie Fisher) loves him, but hates New York and longs to move back to California to be near her rich parents. His mother Estelle (Ann Bancroft) is an over sized character, its easy to see how she might raise a timid son. She means well though, and they truly love each other, though Gilbert wishes she'd just dial it down a notch.
Estelle loves three things, her son, standing up for social justice (she has a life long marked proclivity towards protesting and getting arrested), and Greta Garbo. The Garbo movie she's across the years watched often coincided with important moments in her life, and it is the actresses strong, self-willed persona, that proved a life long source inspiration. When Estelle is diagnosed with terminal cancer she mentions that she would like to meet Garbo before she dies, and so Gilbert sets out on a quest to contact the reclusive star (who was then in New York, where she had lived most of the latter half of her life). Gilbert tries everything, hiring a paparazzi who once got a picture of Garbo, taking on a second job as a delivery man to get in the building where she lives, hunting down an obscure actress who's a friend of hers, and trying to find her place on Fire Island.
Gilbert becomes so obsessed with finding Garbo that he starts neglecting his work, strains his already faultering marriage, and doesn't get to see his mother as much as he would like. Amidst this a relationship slowly starts to bloom with co-worker Catherine Hicks, an aspiring actress who takes a liking to Gilbert and with whom he becomes fascinating. Carrie Fischer's leaving him, and Hicks work helping him track down that obscure actress (Hermione Gingold) brings the couple together, and as Gilbert comes more and more out of his shell a new lease on life opens up to him. Then after three months of searching Gilbert tracks the notoriously bargain savvy Garbo to a flee market, makes his case, and fulfills his mothers dream.
A likable, sweet natured film, with a beautifully breezy and enchanting score. A low tempo movie with a sense of romance, it revels in its shear pleasantness. The movie also boasts a number of veterans of the classic film era in small supporting roles, including the above mentioned Gingold, as well as Howard Da Silva in his last role, and cameo's by Adolf Green and George Plimpton. This simple, unasumming movie is simply Good in almost every way.
Part detective story, part screwball comedy, part romance, part Woody Allen movie, and part navel gazing. In what he confesses is his favorite of the films he's directed, Peter Bogdanovich here indulges himself with pet cinematic proclivities. He'd always wanted to make a movie that had a long opening sequence so he does that, he'd always wanted to make a movie with Audry Hepburn so he does that, he likes Ben Gazzara so he's in the movie, as is Jon Ritter, and a diverse cast of Bogdanovich associates whose characters are often modeled on themselves, including screen writer Blaine Novak as a rollerskating private eye.
The plots not really that important, and becomes obscenely complicated in the standard screwball manner, and I must confess this is on of the most precisely constructed screwballs since the 1940's. The movie is a love song to New York as well (hence the Allen reference) and captures the city at a moment of transition, the end both of the gritty seventies, and a sub strata of formality and class that had endured beneath it. The films a little jarring at first, its hard to get a handle on all of what's going on, but it was designed to be that way and if you can get passed the initial discombobulation then you'll have a good time. I get the sense that this movie improves on re-peat viewing, but despite its strengths I don't feel that there's really that much here, maybe when I see it again my assessment will improve, but for now its a Fair.
Model Dorothy Stratten makes her debut in this movie as a young women with an obsessive husband, ironically and tragically Stratten was killed by her real husband before this movie could be released, it is dedicated to her.
Battle: Los Angeles
Think Independence Day, only concentrating on one theater of the war. SSgt. Micheal Nantz (Aaron Eckhart) is haunted by the death of men under his command in Iraq, no back in the States as a Marine instructor Nantz just wants to quietly retire, but this is not to be. You so those meteors the press keeps on talking about aren't really meteors at all, there alien space craft bringing a race of invaders to our shores (literally) in an effort to steel our precious water.
After the death of there young commander (Ramon Rodrigues) Nantz must lead his reluctant and appropriately racially diverse charges in an effort to rescue civilians in Santa Monica. When a tough air force intelligence TSgt (Michelle Rodriguez of course) gets separated from her unit and joins Nantz, there mission changes to an effort to cut of the aliens conveniently located, and conveniently only central command center. Wait, I don't want to spoil the surprise ending.
Nothing here we haven't seen countless times before from Roland Emmerich. Likable enough, but completely derivative, and director Jonathan Liebesman doesn't really seem to be trying. I hesitate to call it poor because I guiltily kind of liked it, but it is. Poor
The Assassination of a High School President
Think Brick, but less serious. Bobby Funke (Reese Thompson) is a sophomore and aspiring reporter for the student newspaper at his Catholic High school. Assigned to do a fluff piece on the schools popular, basket ball star, student body president Paul Moore (Patrick Taylor), Funke who idolizes Woodword and Bernstein stumbles across a possible connection between Moore and the recent theft of SAT tests from the office of the schools gum hating, Gulf War veteran principle Kirkpatrick (Bruce Willis, in what's suppose to be a self parody).
Some how the school newspaper lets him run his muckraking story, Kirkpatrick finds the tests in Moore's locker, Funkie is vindicated and secretive and arrogant vice president Marlon Piazza (Luke Grimmes) ascends to the presidency. All of this is accompanied by the sudden interest beautiful senior and Piazza step-sister Francesca Facchini (Mischa Barton) takes in Funkie. What's Femme Fatal Francesca's true interest in Funkie, what goes on in the secretive recesses of the student council, why are some of the schools smartest students doing so poorly on their SAT's, and will Funkie really get that coveted scholarship to Northwestern's summer writing program? Only the films conclusion and possible Internet spoilers will tell.
This film is rated R, and surprisingly sexual in content. Thompson's kind of annoying at first, but you get to like him. There's nothing that original in the characters of the various students, and the film makers are trying too hard with Willis's character, who acts like his days in the Gulf where as traumatic as Nam (he did lose a leg there however, so maybe there's some warrant). Barton, who I've never watched much has a strong presence, and gives probably the best performance among the films limitedly talented key players. I liked the groups of misfits who befriend Funkie, and the depiction of in-school suspension being run like a prison is funny and Brick like. Funkies final driving school sequence, in which his performance greatly improves when hung over is pretty fun as well. Brick broke this territory first, but as I inferred above this movie is less rigid and self serious. Both films feature drug themes and a lack of parents. Not for high schoolers. Assassination, though it has some moments (particularly the evolution of Barton and Thompson's relationship), too often falls back on vaguely annoying cliche and thin characters. Fair
Garbo Talks
I've wanted to see this little film for some time, turns out it was as sweet and likable as I had hopped, and also boastes a dryer sense of humor then I'd expected. Though I haven't seen him in many things I like Ron Silver, though I'd always gotten the impression that he was something of a tough guy, in Garbo Talks he plays anything but. A quite, unassuming, even shy accountant, Silver's Gilbert Rolfe is at first a rather passive character. His wife (Carrie Fisher) loves him, but hates New York and longs to move back to California to be near her rich parents. His mother Estelle (Ann Bancroft) is an over sized character, its easy to see how she might raise a timid son. She means well though, and they truly love each other, though Gilbert wishes she'd just dial it down a notch.
Estelle loves three things, her son, standing up for social justice (she has a life long marked proclivity towards protesting and getting arrested), and Greta Garbo. The Garbo movie she's across the years watched often coincided with important moments in her life, and it is the actresses strong, self-willed persona, that proved a life long source inspiration. When Estelle is diagnosed with terminal cancer she mentions that she would like to meet Garbo before she dies, and so Gilbert sets out on a quest to contact the reclusive star (who was then in New York, where she had lived most of the latter half of her life). Gilbert tries everything, hiring a paparazzi who once got a picture of Garbo, taking on a second job as a delivery man to get in the building where she lives, hunting down an obscure actress who's a friend of hers, and trying to find her place on Fire Island.
Gilbert becomes so obsessed with finding Garbo that he starts neglecting his work, strains his already faultering marriage, and doesn't get to see his mother as much as he would like. Amidst this a relationship slowly starts to bloom with co-worker Catherine Hicks, an aspiring actress who takes a liking to Gilbert and with whom he becomes fascinating. Carrie Fischer's leaving him, and Hicks work helping him track down that obscure actress (Hermione Gingold) brings the couple together, and as Gilbert comes more and more out of his shell a new lease on life opens up to him. Then after three months of searching Gilbert tracks the notoriously bargain savvy Garbo to a flee market, makes his case, and fulfills his mothers dream.
A likable, sweet natured film, with a beautifully breezy and enchanting score. A low tempo movie with a sense of romance, it revels in its shear pleasantness. The movie also boasts a number of veterans of the classic film era in small supporting roles, including the above mentioned Gingold, as well as Howard Da Silva in his last role, and cameo's by Adolf Green and George Plimpton. This simple, unasumming movie is simply Good in almost every way.
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon (1970)
Otto Preminger was one of those directors who always liked to be current, who always wanted to be cutting edge. You can see this in his film choices, touching on controversial topics in the 1950's such as drug abuse and rape (The Man with the Golden Arm, Anatomy of a Murder), and in the 1960's the Arab-Israeli conflict, homosexuality and racism (Exodus, Advise & Consent, Hurry Sundown). For his first feature of the 1970's Preminger made Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon, adapted by Marjorie Kellogg from her novel of the same name. As far as what 'controversal' topics it covers their are a couple, homosexuality, disfigurement, the welfare state, epilepsy, though I think Preminger mostly wanted to cover contemporary youth culture, as his previous attempt Skidoo didn't quite succeeded on that front.
The characters in this feature aren't exactly your typical young people though, and some of them really aren't that young. The movie centers on three characters, all of whom had spent time together in a hospital and decided to pool their resources and live together upon release. The title character of Junie Moon is played by Liza Minnelli. Junie had been a party girl, and one night on a date the man she was with turned out to be quite disturbed and pored battery acid on her face and arm leading to some disfigurement (this is why she was in the hospital at the beginning of the film). Robert Moore is a paralyzed homosexual confined to a wheel chair, and Ken Howard an epileptic with a difficult childhood. None of these characters have much in the way of actual family and bond together because of there mutual outsider statues.
Junie secures a home for the trio, a little run down bungalow owned by a rich, eccentric elderly women, and they all move in. Robert has a small monthly stipend left to him by his grandmother, and Ken is eligible for welfare but refuses it feeling he's been on it too long. Ken decides to contribute his share to the groups expenses by getting a job, but his epilepsy prevents him from returning to his old position. A kindly, middle-aged fish shop proprietor agrees to give him a job, but backs off when he receives an anonymous call by someone accusing Ken of being a sodomite (this turns out to be the trios meddlesome neighbour who wants them to move out). Ken is distraught by this an sinks into a melancholy period of hallucinatory depression and wanders off on the road. When Ken doesn't return home after his first day on the job Liza sets out looking for him. She comes across the Marty-esque fishmonger (James Coco) who apologizes for dismissing Ken and the two set out together in search of him (with the lonely Coco hopeing this could be the start of a relationship with Minnelli.
Eventually Ken is found and returns home, though he is more depressed then before and having stopped taking his medication is experiencing increased frequency and severity of seizures. Thinking they all could use a break, and hopeing to further ingratiate himself with Liza, Coco offers to pay for them to have a free vacation to the beach (this movie appears to be set in the Carolina's). Coco stays home having to run his fish shop but the trio set out for the beach, maintaining a flimsy facade to the hotel establishment that Liza is a disfigured heiress. Its in this beach side vacation town that most of the youth culture elements come in, with Robert enjoying a spree on the town with black beach boy Fred Williamson (which ironically results in the former having heterosexual sex), while Ken confesses his love for Liza. The movie ends tragically.
Unconventional, especially for the time (this is the kind of stuff that Micheal Cunningham would do in the 1990's), likable, and very well directed. I was surprised how good this was given that the post-1965 Preminger films I'd seen had been of noticeably lesser quality then his earlier work. The movie has a nice rhythm to it, not rushed, much like the largely rural south in which it is set. Both the lead and secondary characters are intriguing, and there is a general feeling of modest nobility about it. Unexpectedly solid, worthy of its directors gifts.
Good
The characters in this feature aren't exactly your typical young people though, and some of them really aren't that young. The movie centers on three characters, all of whom had spent time together in a hospital and decided to pool their resources and live together upon release. The title character of Junie Moon is played by Liza Minnelli. Junie had been a party girl, and one night on a date the man she was with turned out to be quite disturbed and pored battery acid on her face and arm leading to some disfigurement (this is why she was in the hospital at the beginning of the film). Robert Moore is a paralyzed homosexual confined to a wheel chair, and Ken Howard an epileptic with a difficult childhood. None of these characters have much in the way of actual family and bond together because of there mutual outsider statues.
Junie secures a home for the trio, a little run down bungalow owned by a rich, eccentric elderly women, and they all move in. Robert has a small monthly stipend left to him by his grandmother, and Ken is eligible for welfare but refuses it feeling he's been on it too long. Ken decides to contribute his share to the groups expenses by getting a job, but his epilepsy prevents him from returning to his old position. A kindly, middle-aged fish shop proprietor agrees to give him a job, but backs off when he receives an anonymous call by someone accusing Ken of being a sodomite (this turns out to be the trios meddlesome neighbour who wants them to move out). Ken is distraught by this an sinks into a melancholy period of hallucinatory depression and wanders off on the road. When Ken doesn't return home after his first day on the job Liza sets out looking for him. She comes across the Marty-esque fishmonger (James Coco) who apologizes for dismissing Ken and the two set out together in search of him (with the lonely Coco hopeing this could be the start of a relationship with Minnelli.
Eventually Ken is found and returns home, though he is more depressed then before and having stopped taking his medication is experiencing increased frequency and severity of seizures. Thinking they all could use a break, and hopeing to further ingratiate himself with Liza, Coco offers to pay for them to have a free vacation to the beach (this movie appears to be set in the Carolina's). Coco stays home having to run his fish shop but the trio set out for the beach, maintaining a flimsy facade to the hotel establishment that Liza is a disfigured heiress. Its in this beach side vacation town that most of the youth culture elements come in, with Robert enjoying a spree on the town with black beach boy Fred Williamson (which ironically results in the former having heterosexual sex), while Ken confesses his love for Liza. The movie ends tragically.
Unconventional, especially for the time (this is the kind of stuff that Micheal Cunningham would do in the 1990's), likable, and very well directed. I was surprised how good this was given that the post-1965 Preminger films I'd seen had been of noticeably lesser quality then his earlier work. The movie has a nice rhythm to it, not rushed, much like the largely rural south in which it is set. Both the lead and secondary characters are intriguing, and there is a general feeling of modest nobility about it. Unexpectedly solid, worthy of its directors gifts.
Good
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