Katharina Otto-Bernstein’s
Absolute Wilson
Opens Friday, October 27, 2006

Starring: Robert Wilson, Suzanne Wilson, David Byrne, Susan Sontag, Philip Glass

Reviewed by Wendy R. Williams

We travel through the world unseen and unseeing; each with our own internal TV sets showing only one show: our show, our own personal view of the world. But then on the same pathway traveled by many, a Diane Arbus stops and takes a photo of someone walking on the sidewalk, a subject she saw that no one else saw. Or a Philip Perkis stops by the side of a road and takes a photo of a desolate field as other travelers whiz by asking, “How much longer, aren’t we there yet?”

Robert Wilson, the subject of Katharina Otto-Bernstein’s documentary Absolute Wilson, is an artist who definitely sees the world differently. Wilson was born and raised in Waco, Texas, the learning disabled homosexual son of the town mayor and his lovely but distant wife. Waco was then and is still a bastion of the Southern Baptist Church and the home to Southern Baptist Baylor University. Young Robert had trouble fitting in with his life. He was clumsy and did not talk until he was five and when he started talking, he stuttered. His only friend was the socially unacceptable son of his family’s black housekeeper.

And from this seemingly unpromising beginning came the artist Wilson. As a child he received some advice from his sister’s dance teacher Byrd Hoffman that he should simply slow things down. And slow things down he did and by doing so he saw a different world.

Young Wilson tried to fit in, even enrolling his dyslexic self in the University of Texas to study law. But it was to no avail. He was miserable until he “came out” to his family and relocated to New York to study architecture at Parsons. Once in New York of the 1960’s, he was fascinated by the revolutions that were taking place in theater and dance and he vastly preferred the joy of working in the artistic world to studying for school (he did graduate, barely).

Absolute Wilson tell the chronological story of Wilson’s life: covering his great successes in Europe; the play he staged in the Shah’s Iran that took seven days to perform; Einstein on the Beach (with composer Philip Glass); and his battle to stage the CIVIL wars during the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics (it was never staged in its entirety). The film also tells the story of how although Wilson is revered in Europe he is less well known in the United States. And the film tells the story of Wilson’s work with disabled children including the deaf mute child that Wilson adopted. Wilson is fascinated with the way these children see the world and borrows what he perceives to be the images in these disabled children's internal TV’s.

Wilson’s lens on the world is from another dimension of time and space. He sees vivid colors, huge spaces filled with nothing, eloquence in silence and power in stillness. It is a different world and one well worth visiting. Bravo to Katharina Otto-Bernstein for telling the story and to Robert Wilson for simply being the
story.

For more on the film, log onto: www.absolutewilson.com.

Quad Cinema| 3 34 West 13th Street

Lincoln Plaza Cinemas Broadway | 3Between 62nd and 63rd

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Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s
Babel
Opens Friday, October 27, 2006

Reviewed by Frank J. Avella

Babel is not an easy sit. It is not a fun sit or a particularly pleasant one. It is, however, a sense-challenging, hypnotic and transcendent piece of cinema.

Like Amores Perros and 21 Grams before it, the film is a rather doomy and gloomy meditation on what unites humanity. Collaborating a third time, gifted director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and maze-obsessed screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga once again mess with traditional narrative space and time to create a potent visual and aural experience that seems to be warning us to take better care of our children.

Babel follows three different story-segments on three separate continents to deliver one punch of a flick. In Moroco, a reckless young boy aims a newly-acquired gun at a tourist bus, trying to prove to his brother that the bullets can reach that far. This lapse in logic results in the near-fatal shooting of an American woman, who is traveling with her husband after a family tragedy. Their children are back at home in the US being cared for by a loving nanny, who makes her own consequence-filled choice to attend her son’s wedding in Mexico. Finally, a sexually-awakened young deaf girl in Tokyo, who recently lost her mother to suicide, is spurned by each and every man and boy she attempts to seduce.

These plots, teeming with loss, lack of communication and the need for redemption hold Babel together pretty sturdily. Inarritu is a master of image maneuver, but here sound (or lack thereof) becomes just as important to the narrative. Editing is crucial as well, visually and sound-wise and the use of deliberately jarring cuts work most effectively.

Lest he be accused of filmic dazzle over substance, Inarritu has assembled a terrific cast who provide their own character nuances. They include: the fine Cate Blanchett, Brad Pitt (who has a final reel phone moment that is remarkable), the ubiquitous Gael Garcia Bernal, the extraordinary Rinko Kikuchi and Adriana Barraza, in a heartbreaking turn.

Babel forces the viewer to examine his/her own prejudices. but is NOT contrived or pandering in the way last year’s Crash was. And although there is a connection between all these characters, it’s the human connection that is ultimately felt.

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Gaston Biraben’s
Cautiva
Opens November 9, 2006

Starring: Bárbara Lombardo; Susana Campos; Hugo Arana; Osvaldo Santoro; Noemí Frenkel; Lidia Catalano; Mercedes Funes; Silvia Baylé; Luis Gianneo.

Reviewed by John Harris

In some of our bleakest childhood moments, many of us have wondered, "Where did I really come from?" In the beginning of Gaston Biraben’s Cautiva, a young Argentinean woman celebrates her fifteenth birthday at an emotional gathering of family and friends. Soon afterwards, she is summoned by her Catholic school principal and told she must meet with a mysterious Argentinean judge. For children, there is no habeas corpus, no constitutional rights. They are compelled to do what they are told. When she asks to speak with her parents, she is told that will not be permitted until she speaks with the judge. A shattering secret awaits her which will completely change her life.

Cautiva is a film with subtle moral complexity There are two kidnappings committed upon Cristina (played by the incandescent Barbara Lombardo in her first feature film role), one by her adoptive parents when she was an infant and then the legal “return” kidnapping by her grandmother and the judge when she is fifteen. The Judge (played by Hugo Arana) tries to explain why he has committed this legal "kidnapping" and is returning her to her biological Grandmother. Her "parents" are not to know where she is going, he explains. He must go about his business furtively and in time she will come to understand why.

Cristina is turned over to her grandmother (played by Susana Campos) and her name is changed back to Sofia Lombardi. Slowly she begins to unravel the mystery of her past, going through an initial stage of denial, then anger, then finally acceptance of the fact that her own parent’s death may be in part attributable to the adoptive parents that she grew up loving.

All the actors give excellent performances in a morality tale told in shades of gray. Inspired by the book by Rita Arditti, “Searching For Life. The Grandmothers Of The Plaza De Mayo And The Disappeared Children Of Argentina,” Mr. Biraben has crafted a thought provoking cautionary tale on the abuse of power, and ultimately, on the nature of evil itself. There is no black and white in Mr. Biraben's universe, just an endless array of choices. The timing of the release of this film, considering the overwhelming results of our recent elections, should give us all pause to think.

Cautiva opens Friday November 10, 2006 at Cinema Village, 22 East 12th Street

 

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Joey Lauren Adams’
Come Early Morning
Opens November 10, 2006

Starring: Ashley Judd; Jeffrey Donovan; Laura Prepon; Diane Ladd; Scott Wilson

Reviewed by Wendy R. Williams

Actress Joey Lauren Adams, the memorable Alyssa in Kevin Smith’s Chasing Amy, had a story she was dying to tell. It was a story about Lucy, a hard-times girl from the hard-drinking-God-fearing South, who just can't get her life together. Adams is from the South and according to the press notes, Adams first thought about playing Lucy herself. But then decided that she really wanted to direct and cast the lovely and talented Ashley Judd.

Judd is also the South; she is the youngest daughter of country star Winona Judd and definitely knew this world before. Judd has also played a lower class Southern gal before in 1993’s critically acclaimed Ruby in Paradise.

Here is a quote from the film’s press release: ”Come Early Morning tells the story of Lucy (Judd), a hard-working, Southern woman, whose personal life has been reduced to a spiral of late nights and one-night stands. When Lucy meets Cal (Jeffrey Donovan), a newcomer to town, she is finally forced to confront her fears as he challenges her accept a more meaningful relationship. Lucy must decide whether to push Cal away or face the demons that have left her incapable of intimacy and growth. She begins a spiritual journey toward love and redemption that takes her, and the film, to an entirely unexpected and original place.”

Adams has told a compelling story about a world that few outside the south know exists. It is a world populated by carousing ass-kicking drunks who occasionally haul their hung- over-asses to church on Sunday morning just cuz that is what they have always done and they like the music. They are not hypocritical Christians who act better than thou during they day. They are the real sinners of the old saying, “A church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints.” L. L. Nash. And religion is as much a part of their life as beer and chicken-fried steak.

Ashley Judd does a fine job of bringing Lucy and all her complexities to life. Jeffrey Donovan gives a solid performance portraying the love interest that Lucy can't get her shit together enough to appreciate. And Bravo to Adams for bringing this, her first feature, to the screen. .

Come Early Morning opens November 10, 2006 in NY Metro area at the Loews Village 7, Clearview Manhasset Theater, Clearview Tenafly Cinema 4, NJ, and the
Clearview Cinema 100 White Plains

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Gabriel Range’s
Death of a President
Opens Friday, October 27, 2006

Starring: Hend Ayoub; Brian Boland; Becky Ann Baker; Robert Mangiardi; Zahra Abi Zikri; Jay Patterson; Jay Whittaker; Michael Reilly Burke; James Urbaniak; Neko Parham; Seena Jon; Christian Stolte; Chavez Ravine; Patricia Buckley; Patrick Clear; and Malik Bader.

Tagline: Do not rush to judge.

Reviewed by Wendy R. Williams

Let's get one thing straight: this film does not glorify violence nor does it incite violence. Instead it is a thought provoking exploration of the United States’ culture of violence and of our present administrations assault on our civil liberties.

Here is a quote from the film’s press release: Death of a President follows the investigation of the fictional assassination of President George W. Bush in October 2007. Combining real archival footage with a credible but fictional story, Death of a President presents a fascinating and thought-provoking political thriller.”

Filmmaker Gabriel Range has stated that he picked the fictitious assassination of President George Bush as a catalyst so he could explore how our present administration would react to such a horrific event.

The film is formatted like a documentary; Range uses actual news clips of President Bush interspersed with film he (Range) took of protest groups in Chicago. These film clips are interspersed with interviews with people who were supposedly with the President in Chicago on the day of the assassination and also with the Secret Service agents who were charged with his protection and with the FBI agent who was in charge of the investigation afterwards. The film also shows interviews with the wives of the two suspects: a Syrian engineer and the father of a slain African American soldier.

This film is riveting without being exploitative. You never see the President being shot, only the lead up to the assasination and the aftermath. This film is also incredibly sad. I walked out of the film depressed with this one thought, “How can a nation who was founded on the wonderful principles of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, have gone so far off course?”

For more information on this film, log onto: www.deathofapresident.com

For more reading on the subject of how we are now persecuting Arab Americans, not for terrorist acts but just because we think they look funny, read my theater column for June of 2006.
http://www.newyorkcool.com/archives/2006/June/theater_1.html.
Scroll down on the linked page to see the review of Alison Maclean and Tobiase Perse’s documentary film Persons of Interest.

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Martin Scorsese’s
The Departed
Opens Friday, October 6, 2006

Reviewed by Frank J. Avella

So Martin Scorsese doesn’t have a best director Academy Award. Neither does Robert Altman. What do the two master filmmakers have in common besides being seventies mavericks, without Oscars, who are still working? Well, both happen to be turning out some of the best films of the new millennium. Neither show any signs of slowing down. And both have made spectacular films this year (Altman’s is Prairie Home Companion).

Scorsese seems to feel most at home when he’s tacking crime. And The Departed, ironic title notwithstanding, is quite the filmically fascinating homecoming for him. Scorsese’s brilliant technique has gotten more interesting to watch and his ability to glean the best from his actor’s is perfectly evident in his new pic.

Gritty, grisly and especially bloody in the final reel, The Departed is also wickedly witty with moments of intense and dizzying suspense.

Loosely based on a Hong Kong thriller, Infernal Affairs, and inventively penned by William Monahan, the story revolves and unravels around a powerful mobster named Costello and the two cops who work for him--one of whom is actually operating as an informer. How these two VERY different officers (one a street-smart thug, the other an ambitious slickster) manage to try to outwit one another and Costello is part of the exhilarating plot.

Leonardo DiCaprio finally proves he’s deserving of all the praise that was heaped upon him when Titanic docked nine years ago. The ferocity he brings to the role of hothead Billy Costigan propels him to the ranks of serious actor. It’s a stirring performance.

The always dashing Matt Damon cuts quite the nasty yet paradoxical figure as Costello’s inside man, Colin Sullivan. Damon charms even when he’s cutthroat.

In a film filled with fantastic acting, Mark Wahlberg manages to steal every scene he is in as a vulgar, no-nonsense sergeant. If there’s any justice this overlooked thesp will finally snag an Oscar nomination.

Adding to the luster of the fine ensemble are wonderful turns by Vera Farmiga, Alec Baldwin, Martin Sheen and Ray Winstone.

The casting of Jack Nicholson as the feared mob boss Costello, may have appeared odd to some and I’m sure certain critics will yelp that Nicholson is simply doing his old shtick. Bollocks to those fools! Nicholson manages to etch a dastardly and horrific portrayal of a vicious brute who has grown rightfully paranoid. Yes, he’s a raving nut, but Jack tempers the character with a surprising bored-with-his-life spin. It’s one of the year’s best performances from one of our best and most treasured actors.

The Departed is like cinematic hashish. It makes you feel joyous. A rare emotion you want to keep alive...for as long as you can! Thank you, Mr. Scorsese!

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Julie Walters and Rupert Gint in Jeremy Brock's Driving Lessons
Jeremy Brock’s
Driving Lessons
Opens Friday, October 13, 2006

Reviewed by Frank J. Avella at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival

From her spectacularly profane and marvelously wacky first moment onscreen in Driving Lessons, Julie Walters metaphorically grabs the film, and the Rupert Grint character, by the balls and never lets go. And thank the thespian gods for that! Walters plays the hell out of the role of eccentric Dame Evie Walton and reminds us why she is simply one of the finest actresses working today.

Ms. Walters also happens to be brilliantly discerning since Driving Lessons stands as one of the best coming-of-age films in recent memory. Nothing feels forced or contrived, which is surprising since the movie is culled from real events in the life of it’s gifted writer/director, Jeremy Brock.

Based on Brock’s actual experiences with the extraordinary stage and screen legend Dame Peggy Ashcroft (Oscar winner: A Passage to india), Driving Lessons tells the story of Ben (Harry Potter’s Rupert Grint), a terribly shy seventeen year old, who lives with his hypocritical Jesus-freak mother (an effectively bitchy Laura Linney) and too-quiet vicar father (Nicholas Farrell). Ben goes to work for once-celebrated actress Evie (Julie Walters) and slowly begins to bond with this passionate, whirlwind of a woman.

Ben’s initial apathy shocks Evie: “For a boy of seventeen you have a lamentable lack of curiosity!” But Ben soon finds himself entranced by her and the two embark on an oddball friendship that leads to both finding out certain important personal truths about themselves.

Grint is quite impressive. Adorably dubious at first. Decidely weird and confused. It’s a layered and convincing portrait of what forced Evengelical life can do to a child and how the perfect bad influence can help point out it’s incongruities. Grint has fantastic screen chemistry with the dazzling Ms. Walters.

Driving Lessons is filled with gorgeous moments including our duo gazing at a transcendent view of Scotland. The view is indeed gorgeous but the beauty lies in the expression on the faces of the two leads. Who’d have thought that the best screen couple of the year may very well be an awkward young boy and a bizarre older actress!

 

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Steven Shainberg’s
Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus
Opened November 10, 2006 (NY Only)

Starring: Nicole Kidman; Robert Downey, Jr.; Jane Alexander; Harris Yullin; and Ty Burrell.

Reviewed by Wendy R. Williams

Steven Shainberg’s (of Secretary fame) film Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus is a dreamlike reinvention of Arbus’ life and an attempt to use the art of film to portray the inspiration that compelled Arbus (played by Nicole Kidman) to leave her semi-conventional life as the wife of a fashion photographer in Greenwich Village and become a world class photographer. In the same manner that a modern art portrait only represents the feeling or essence of a subject, this film does not attempt to tell the real story of Arbus’ life, but only a story about how Arbus might have felt.

The film is mostly set in the apartment house where Arbus (played by Nicole Kidman) lives and works with her husband Allan Arbus (played by Ty Burrell) and children. Her apartment is a marvel of 1950’s beige chic, as is Kidman at the beginning of the film and her parents (played by Jane Alexander and Harris Yullin) throughout the film. And one night, while hosting a fashion show for her father’s fur line, Arbus escapes for a moment to look out the window when she catches a glimpse of her new upstairs neighbor, Lionel (played by Robert Downey, Jr.). Lionel is wearing a mask so all she can see are his eyes, but that one glimpse bewitches Arbus and compels her to don a blue dress and make the journey up the stairs and into Lionel’s blue world. Lionel is a sophisticate who lives in an apartment with beautiful deep blue walls and a huge roman tub in his bathroom (I told you this was a fantasy). Lionel is also a wigmaker and former circus freak who suffers from a rare form of hirsuteness that makes him look like a sexy version of the Wookiee in Star Wars.

Lionel befriends Arbus and introduces her to his world of circus freaks. And by doing so, he opens her eyes to see herself as what she really is - a voyeur. The film then continues with her story as she tries to integrate her world upstairs (of the imagination) with her real life downstairs.

There are metaphors in the film. Arbus’ parents are famous furriers and Lionel is covered with fur and Arbus feels compelled to both liberate herself from the oppressiveness of her parents and to liberate Lionel from his earthly covering of fur.

This is also the kind of film that you either love or hate (I loved it). Arbus has become an icon to many people. She had an unflinching eye on the world and her portraits have attracted a cult following. And because she was such a powerful artist, most of her admirers feel like they own her and own their own interpretation of her. And many critics have objected to this fanciful portrayal of her life, stating that Arbus herself was the ultimate realist and not some piece of modern art to be interpreted at will.

But I think this film will survive the initial shock to the senses and develop a cult following. Because all art takes a while to “settle in” with the eye.

The film is extremely well acted and boasts a stellar cast. Robert Downey Jr. and Nicole Kidman have a lot of chemistry together; they work equally well as pals and as lovers. Screenwriter Erin Cressida Wilson (using Patricia Bosworth’s biography of Diane Arbus as inspiration) had written a sophisticated and fanciful script. And Shainberg has told his story of compulsion in a masterful way; it is a story of magnets and iron and their inevitable collision.

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Nicholas Hytner's
The History Boys
Opens Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Reviewed by Frank J. Avella

Nicholas Hytner's impressively faithful adaptation of Alan Bennett's smash West End and Broadway hit play, The History Boys, retains the spirit of the stage production but loses some of the bite. Still, it's smart, sassy and insightful and how terrific is it that the entire original cast has been retained for movie (as well as the director)!

The stage version was directed quite cinematically at a dazzling, dizzying pace. The film is surprisingly less visually exciting but the dialogue crackles with sardonic wit and the performances are uniformly superb.

The setting is a Yorkshire school in the early 1980's. Eight boys are being prepped for their applications to the most elite of English universities. The character-driven plot revolves around the three different teachers who are in charge of guiding these boys towards their respective futures.

Richard Griffiths, outstanding in the stage play, delivers a wonderful performance here as the eccentric and grabby Hector, but seems more a supporting player. Stephen Campbell Moore is perfect as Irwin, the less artistic, more pragmatic educator who not-so-secretly lusts after one of the boys.

Rounding out the teacher trio is the incomparable Frances de la Tour (tired of teaching about "centuries of masculine ineptitude!"), who was fabulous onstage and is even better onscreen. Give this woman a Supporting Oscar nomination now! And give her more films! She is bloody brilliant!

As for the boys, Samuel Barnett, arguably the standout onstage, is perfectly fine but two other lads seem made for the big screen. The hyper-sexy Dominic Cooper charms as Dakin. This boy has movie star looks and the talent to back it up. Also showing major screen charisma is Jamie Parker as Scripps.

I think the film would have benefited from a longer running time since it feels abridged. And, as with the stage production, I was never keen on the seemingly contrived tragedy that ends the piece. But I was impressed with the way Bennett and Hytner handled the ending.

All in all, The History Boys is worthy effort, for fans of the play and for newbies alike.

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Douglas McGrath’s
Infamous
Opens Friday, October 13, 2006

Starring: Sandra Bullock; Peter Bogdanovich; Daniel Craig; Jeff Daniels; Hope Davis; Toby Jones; Gwyneth Paltrow; Michael Panes; Lee Pace; Isabella Rosselini; and Sigourney Weaver.

Reviewed by Wendy R. Williams

Douglas McGrath has pulled off a stunning feat. He “remade” last year’s critically acclaimed hit Capote and has quite impossibly made it better.

The story is still the same: An effete Capote (played by Toby Jones) leaves his sophisticated-supper-club-Manhattan-lifestyle to travel to Holcomb, Kansas to write a piece for The New Yorker magazine on how the savage murder of an innocent farm family, the Clutters, has changed the town. This visit to the heartland morphed into a six year trek into the heart of darkness and produced Capote’s masterpiece, the nonfiction novel "In Cold Blood.” And the writing of “In Cold Blood” so changed Capote that he never completed another novel.

Infamous is based on George Plimpton’s oral biography, "Truman Capote: In Which Various Friends, Enemies, Acquaintances and Detractors Recall His Turbulent Career." So we see Truman through interviews with his glitterati friends: Babe Paley (Sigourney Weaver); Bennett Cerf (Peter Bogdanovich); Dianna Vreeland (Juliet Stevenson); Gore Vidal (Michael Panes); Marella Agnelli (Isabella Rosselini); Slim Keith (Hope Davis).

The film opens in a supper club with Truman sitting with his good friend Babe Paley (Sigourney Weaver), the wife of the head of CBS, Bill Paley. They are listening to Peggy Lee (Gwyneth Paltrow in a stunning bit part) sing Cole Porter’s "What Is This Thing Called Love?" Lee falters during the singing (seemingly overcome by some private emotion), and Truman is mesmerized, setting the tone for the story to come.

The opulence of the opening scene is in stark contrast to what we see next as Truman, accompanied by his childhood friend Nelle Harper Lee (Sandra Bullock) of the just-about-to-be-published "To Kill a Mocking Bird" fame, travels by train to Kansas to conduct his interviews. Taking Lee with him to Kansas was a brilliant move on Capote’s part because Lee (unlike Capote) has retained her small town Alabama ways and her “just folks” manner helps introduce Capote (who might as well have arrived from outer space) to the people of the town. And the contrast between Holcomb and Manhattan is beautifully depicted in Infamous. Dark and dreary scenes from Holcomb are juxtaposed with Truman’s return trips to Manhattan, where he gleefully regales his sophisticated friends with his “stories from the road.”

When Capote arrived in Holcomb he famously told the Alvin Dewey (Jeff Daniels), of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation (who later became Capote’s friend and source) that he did not care if he solved the crime, he (Capote) was just there to tell the story of how the murders affected the town. Dewey, of course, desperately wanted to solve the crime (the Clutters were his friends) and he did. And when he did, Capote’s mission changed. What had started out as a brief visit to the heartland to write a small story, became his life’s mission ending six years later when the killers, David Hickock (Lee Pace) and Perry Smith (Daniel Craig), were executed by hanging.

Infamous delves deeply into Capote’s relationship with Perry Smith. Much has been written about how Capote was in love with Smith and how he exploited this love to get his story. Daniel Craig’s portrayal of Perry is dangerously sexual and the polar opposite of Jones’s effete Capote. To get Smith to trust him and tell him what happened that night, Capote exposes his heart to Smith They both suffered from the same abandonment issue:their mothers had committed suicide. But emotional attachment or not, Capote had a book to sell and this book could not be published into the situation in Kansas was “resolved.” So having made this emotional connection with Smith, Capote's book and his life could not progress until Smith was hanged. And hanged he was in a gruesomely compelling scene.

The cast for Infamous is stellar. All the actors give compelling performances especially Jones’s Truman Capote and Craig’s Perry Smith (Craig is the new James Bond). Sandra Bullock is a complete surprise as Nelle Harper Lee. She gives such a quietly grave performance she is almost unrecognizable. And the sets and costumes are incredible. It is such a treat to see upper class 1959 Manhattan; the Metropolitan Museum should really consider a retrospective.

 

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Little Children premiered at the New York Film Festival and opened Friday, October 6th

The less written about Little Children, the long-awaited follow-up to Todd Field’s riveting In The Bedroom, the better. Not because it isn’t a good film. Quite the contrary, Little Children is, by far, one of the best film’s of 2006.

Based on the novel by Tom Perrotta, the pic has been admirably adapted by Mr. Perrotta and Mr. Field to tell a startling and penetrating story. Field masterfully directs his actors, all of whom deliver rich and nuanced performances, some of the most intrusive you’ll see onscreen this year.

To give away too much about Little Children or discuss key scenes would be to rob the audiences of one of the most rewarding filmgoing experiences. Suffice to synopsize that the plot focuses on a gaggle of suburbanites whose lives intersect (mostly around a playground) in surprising, exciting, uncomfortable and, ultimately, profound ways.

But realize, Little Children is no contrived bevvy of manipulations along the lines of last years ridiculously overrated Crash.The film is filled with fascinating themes rarely explored onscreen so intelligently. And the tone is somewhere between where realism and melodrama meet.

The brilliant ensemble is flawless, beginning with a magically transformed Kate Winslet. Always mesmerizing, this is her finest hour (which is saying a great deal when you stack up her work in Sense and Sensibility, Titanic, Iris and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) and solidifies her standing as the most outstanding actress of her generation.

Patrick Wilson, terrific in Hard Candy earlier in the year, delivers a career-making turn. It would be too easy to overlook the importance of his potent portrayal of a perfect looking, all-American jock who has never grown up.

Jackie Earle Haley is to be commended for taking on a difficult role and fearlessly diving into it with his entire being. It’s remarkable work from an actor who hasn’t been seen in movies in a few decades.

The beautiful Jennifer Connelly fascinates with her role as the perfect wife. Powerhouse Phyliss Somerville impresses as a fiercely protective mother. Noah Emmerich amazes in a role that could easily have been one-dimensional. Also of note is Jane Adams who appears briefly, yet leaves quite the lasting impression.

Little Children is an incredibly smart and extraordinary piece of cinema. It is unafraid to explore its characters, warts and all, and delve into their psyches. Sometimes what is discovered isn’t very easy to watch but is worth the anguish.

See it. You will not leave the theatre unaffected.

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Sofia Coppola’s
Marie Antionette
Reviewed at the 2006 New York Film Festival

Yet another Queen has been anointed onto the New York Film Festival throne.

Reviewed by Frank J. Avella

Sofia Coppola’’s follow up to the sublimely meditative, Lost in Translation and her haunting directorial debut, The Virgin Suicides, proves that she’s a filmmaker to be reckoned with. Forget her pedigree. Okay, that’s impossible. So let’s blatantly announce that, like her genius father, she is capable of making small personal films as well as stunning, sweeping sagas. And, also like her father, her cinematic vision is distinctly her own.

Marie Antoinette is an exciting and invigorating film about France’s notorious 18th Century queen that has the power and majesty of Shekhar Kapur’s Elizabeth and mod satiric sensibility of Amy Heckerling’s Clueless.

Based on the 2002 book by Antonia Fraser, Coppola’s heroine is a lonely and confused teen thrust into an opulent, decadent world she was none too prepped for.

From the pink opening credits, set to an 80’s rock score, where Marie ‘eats cake’ and stares directly at the camera with a kind of jaded irony. to the scene where she must leave all of Austria behind and enter France naked, Coppola’s creates a sumptuous milieu, brimming over with protocol, pomp and pomposity.

Marie is quite effectively played by Kirsten Dunst, who, ironically enough, gave one of her best screen performances in Coppola’s Virgin Suicides. Dunst goes even further here etching a vivid portrait of a naive teen forced to take on ridiculous responsibilities and live under a massive and judgmental microscope. Dunst’s Marie is sometimes silly, occasionally vapid and usually perplexed. She’s alluring, but not deliberately so. And she’s naturally charismatic without being an egotist. Since the film basically hinges on the casting of the title character, Coppola can be applauded for choosing wisely.

Jason Schwartzman, nepotism notwithstanding, is an odd selection for Louis XV!, yet he brings an unexpected poignancy to the bland and usually impotent future King of France.

The divine Judy Davis plays the Contesse de Noailles and perfectly captures the court attitude of the day. The rest of the supporting cast includes Asia Argento; Shirley Henderson; Molly Shannon; Rip Torn; Marianne Faithfull and the chameleonic Steve Coogan. It’s a uniformly fine, if peculiar, ensemble.

Aiding Coppola in creating her “candy and cake” world are a splendid team led by awesome production designer KK Barrett, ace DP Lance Acord and genius costume designer Milena Canonero. Brian Reitzell is the terrific music supervisor and producer.

Coppola should also be lauded for spinning an ingenious feminist view on the story of Marie Antoinette. Scenes involving Marie being blamed by EVERYONE for her husband’s sexual inadequacies are quite off-putting.

Despite an unsatisfying ending (ten more epilogue minutes could have made the difference), Marie is one of the year’s finest film achievements.

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Ryan Murphy ‘s
Running with Scissors
Opens Friday, October 20, 2006

Starring: Annette Bening; Brian Cox; Joseph Fiennes; Evan Rachel Wood; Alec Baldwin; Alec Baldwin; Joseph Cross; Jill Clayburgh; Gwyneth Paltrow; Gabrielle Union; Patrick Wilson; and Kristin Chenoweth.

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you just didn’t do the things you are supposed to do? What would happen if put the needs of your inner wild child first and did not bother to raise your children or maintain your marriage? Or what would happen if you simply decided that the responsibilities of home ownership were “too much” and you never bothered to do the dishes, take down the Christmas tree, pay the bills, deal with the IRS or bury the cat?

Ryan Murphy’s Running with Scissors (based on the book Running with Scissors, by Augusten Burroughs) tells the story of a world where the inhabitants have decided that they just “can’t be bothered” with anything that does not “turn them on.” It tells the story of the turbulent adolescence of author/protagonist Burroughs (Joseph Cross) and his relationship with his narcissistic mother, the failed poet Deirdre Burroughs (Annette Bening).

At the beginning of the film, we are introduced to the young Augusten (Jack Kaeding) who is living at home with his parents, Deidre and Norman. Deidre fancies herself a poet like Anne Sexton. Deidre explodes on the screen, a frenzy of self absorbed narcissism, alternately bewildering her alcoholic professor husband Norman (Alec Baldwin) and enchanting her son Augusten. That is, she enchants Augusten until she hands him over to her equally narcissistic psychiatrist Dr. Finch (Brian Cox) to care for while she pursues her artistic vision and hides from her supposedly (justifiably?) homicidal husband Norman.

The scene where Diedre and Augusten first approach Dr. Finch’s home is blackly hysterical. Dr. Finch lives in a gothic (but pink) monstrosity of a home and absolutely no one in his extended family of head cases believes in doing house work. The windows are covered with newspaper and the lawn is filled with junk.

And once he is drooped-off like a cat at the pound, Augusten finds both the inside of the house and its inhabitants to be equally messy: Dr. Finch’s ineffective wife Agnes (Jill Clayburgh); his favorite daughter Hope (Gwyneth Paltrow); Finch’s other dropped-off and adopted daughter Natalie (Evan Rachel Wood; and a former member of the family Finch, the schizophrenic forty-year-old gay guy Neil Bookman (Joseph Fiennes). This is a household where literally anything goes and no one does anything that they don’t want to and a lot of things that they shouldn’t be doing like skipping school, playing with the electro shock machine and having sex with the forty year old schizophrenic when you are only thirteen years old yourself.

The scenes at the messy Finch household are juxtaposed against scenes of Deidre’s pretty homes where the increasingly insane prescription-drug-addicted Deidre holds poetry groups where she counsels the other women to put the “rage on the page” and conducts Lesbian relationships with suburbanite poet wannabe Fern (Kristin Chenoweth) and tough girl poet Dorothy (Gabrielle Union).

And Augusten is left to raise himself, to basically grow like Topsy in Uncle Tom’s Cabin. But grow he did and as in all good coming of age stories, he extracts himself from his ragged cocoon and becomes his own personal butterfly.

Much has been written about how this is film a revisit to the world of The Royal Tenenbaums and The Squid and the Whale and about how we have heard this story before. But I have never seen a film that so acutely diced the extreme excesses of the "if it feels good, do it" 70’s as I saw depicted in Scissors. Yes, the film is broad, but it is also excruciatingly funny and very dark.

Scissors is blessed with a great cast. Bening’s Deidre is dazzling and her performance is certain to garner an Oscar nomination. Cross is quietly believable as the bewildered adolescent Augusten and Fiennes plays his part with such an insane frenzy that I had to read the credits to realize that this was the guy from Shakespeare in Love. Jill Clayburgh is almost unrecognizable as the downtroddenslob-of-a-housewife Agnes; she give a heart-breaking performance. And I have never seen Alec Baldwin give such a reserved performance; his depiction of a man who has no clue how to be a father is dead on. Gwyneth Paltrow and Evan Rachel Wood do a fine job of playing the two polarly opposite sisters. And Brian Cox’s portrayal of Dr. Finch does a lot to explain why two decades later we were treated to the backlash of the 1994 Republican revolution .

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John Cameron Mitchell’s
Shortbus
Opened Wednesday, October 4, 2006

Reviewed by Frank J, Avella

The edgy long-awaited John Cameron Mitchell film Shortbus opens with quite a potpourri of racy moments including a cute guy urinating into a bathtub right before he contorts his body to orally please himself, ejaculating directly into his own mouth--all the while digi-taping his...frolics. Fun to watch? Definitely. Provocative for the sake of being provocative? Well, that’s the big question that surrounds the entire endeavor.

In many respects Shortbus is an experiment and, in another helmer’s hands, could have gone very wrong. Towing a fine celluloid line between docu-voyeurism and out-and-out porn, Shortbus surprisingly emerges as a filmic meditation on feeling--a rich tapestry of sexual longings and sex acts that tell us a great deal about each character’s soul.

Director John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig and the Angry inch) intensely workshopped the project with the cast of deliberate unknowns (they had quite a lot of time as it took two years for financing to actually pan out). But the nurturing of the actors and meticulous development of the script truly paid off. Shortbus is startling and audacious with eye-popping segments that includes one guy singing “The Star Spangled Banner” into his “other” boyfriend’s ass and a woman walking around with a remote-control vibrating egg in her vagina. The film is also quite penetrating (no pun intended...okay maybe a little...) and vastly appealing.

The movie follows the sexual exploits (fulfilling and otherwise) of: Sofia, a sex therapist who is unable to achieve orgasm; James and Jamie, a gay couple who are thinking of bringing a third into the mix and Severin, a an unhappy dominatrix. These characters and others meet frequently on Shortbus, a salon/sanctuary/orgyrama--that’s a utopian mix of the Roman orgies/Paris salon/60’s communes/70’s sex parties.

Shortbus delves into the sexual obsessions of these characters. The daring hypothesis put forth is that we are all sexual beings and that fact is never explored enough in our society.

The cast of newbies are a refreshing treat. Paul Dawson is particularly impressive as James, the pained artist. His is an exhilarating and honest portrayal of love and angst. Other standouts among the novice cast include Lindsay Beamish, Jay Brannan and Peter Stickles.

Ultimately, Shortbus is Mitchell’s triumph. He has made the “dirtiest” non-porn indie film to ever be commercially released. Loved or hated, it will be talked about for years. And, miraculously, its worth talking about!

 

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Barbara Kopple & Cecilia Peck’s
Shut Up & Sing
Opens Friday, October 27, 2006

Reviewed by Frank J. Avella

In March of 2003, with the Bush administration readying for war with Iraq, Dixie Chicks’ lead singer Natalie Maines had the audacity to make a comment about how ashamed the Chicks were that President Bush was from Texas. These words were spoken on foreign soil--in England during their ‘Top of the World’ tour. Ironically, the Chicks were on top of the charts with a pro-troops song titled “Travelin’ Soldier.” Maines’ seemingly harmless between-song-banter was soon picked up by the international press and would soon make the group as infamous as Jane Fonda as well as the poster ‘chicks’ for redneck & right wing traitor fodder for years to come...still, actually...

Two-time Oscar winner Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck (yes, Gregory’s daughter) have taken the last three years in the lives of the Dixie Chicks--the biggest selling female group in music history--and fashioned a documentary of the utmost political and social importance.

Shut Up & Sing unfolds in an absorbing, nonlinear style. It’s an intensely dramatic yet poignant portrait of how a singular moment can be taken and spun out of control by right wing extremists. At a time when all free speech and “unalienable rights” are in question in the once free United States of America...at a time when Homeland Security seems to govern all and questioning our leaders has become synonymous with being a traitor, Shut Up & Sing chronicles just how such insanities can happen and how, if we’re not careful, things could easily get worse

Kopple and Peck wisely choose to document the Chicks via a third-person style and, most effectively, via their music. Specifically, post-incident penned work like “The Long Way Around,” “Easy Silence” and, especially, “Not Ready to Make Nice” sear the ears with angry disbelief, sadness, pain and incredulousness. The songs speak volumes about who the gals really are vs. who certain conservative religious crackpots would have them be.

The fact that even now, with Bush’s numbers at an all-time low and the war proving catastrophic, the Chicks are still vilified by the country music community that once embraced them, is a terrifying and yet telling point about our country and the sheer lack of common sense and intelligence shared by a significant portion of the population. Call me pompous. Call me judgmental. But call me angry. And call me honest.

“We’re a sisterhood. We go through the good, the bad and the ugly all together,” states Emily Robison (the brunette). Yet the film pulls no punches in depicting the debates that went on while they were smack amidst the controversy. It also shows three mothers, wives, artists and superstars trying to cope with their lives, their music and...oh, yes...death threats and hatred from folks who were being told to crusade against them...for patriotic reasons...but, really, in the name of religion.

Shut Up and Sing should be required viewing for every citizen in these United States. It’s an urgent, powerful movie and it’s truly good filmmaking.

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Pernille Fischer Christensen’s
Soap (En Soap)
Opens Friday, November 3, 2006

Reviewed by Frank J, Avella

Can an impossible-to-satisfy, impossible-to-like bitch find love with a self-esteemless, suicidal pre-operative transsexual?

The new Danish film, Soap (En Soap), attempts to explore the possibilities of just such an oddball connection.

In her directorial debut, Pernille Fischer Christensen displays a remarkable gift for casting and directing strong actors, allowing the camera to linger on her lead’s faces, via lengthy extreme close-ups.

Trine Dyrholm, who portrays Charlotte, is to be commended for tackling the least likable film character in any film in recent memory (one who isn’t a child molester or serial killer, that is) and forcing the viewer to accept that she’s only human. It’s a tribute to the courage of Christensen and Dyrholm that each time Charlotte shows a hint of vulnerability, she immediately does something reprehensible.

Equally good is David Dencik’s Veronica. Insufferably sad and pathetic, he/she’s also someone who has a desperate need to be loved. Someone longing to simply be touched.

Soap challenges sexual stereotypes as well as audience acceptance of fully-foibled, richly-flawed humans. In her telling of this seemingly silly love story, Christensen creates offbeat and engrossing cinema.

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Terry Gilliam’s
Tideland
Opens Friday, October 13, 2006

Starring: Jodelle Ferland; Jeff Bridges; Meg Tilly; Janet Teer; Brendan Fletcher.

Welcome to a world with no adults present

Reviewed by Wendy R. Williams

Terry Gilliam’s Tideland is a fanciful fairy tale and like most true fairly tales, it is a horrifying journey to a land of trolls and goblins. Tideland is based on Mitch Cullin’s novel of the same name and tells the story of an incredibly beautiful little girl, Jeliza-Rose (Jodelle Ferland), who loses both her parents and is forced to fend for herself in a deserted Texas farm house with only her mental-case neighbors, Dell (played by the always amazing Janet McTeer) and Dell’s brother, the lobotomized man-child Dickens (Brendan Fletcher) for company.

Here is the synopsis from IMDB.com: “After her mother dies from a heroin overdose, Jeliza-Rose is taken from the big city to a rural farmhouse by her father. As she tries to settle into a new life in a house her father had purchased for his now-deceased mother, Jeliza-Rose's attempts to deal with what's happened result in increasingly odd behavior, as she begins to communicate mainly with her bodiless Barbie doll heads and Dell, a neighborhood woman who always wears a beekeeper's veil.”

Terry Gilliam (of Monty Python fame) has always been attracted to the world of surrealism and magic, taking his audience on wild trips to the worlds of The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Brazil, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and The Fisher King. And Tideland is another spaced-out journey to a land that would best be viewed through a haze of weed.

The Tideland in the title refers to Jeliza-Rose’s failed rock star father Noah’s (the incredible Jeff Bridges) obsession with a Norse fairy tale about Vikings. He has a map on the wall of his Los Angeles home depicting this magical world and he calls his drug- addicted-sow-of-a-wife (an amazing turn by Meg Tilly in a fat suit) Queen Gunhilda. When the Queen croaks from a bad reaction to methadone, Noah and Jeliza-Rose take a bus trip to Texas to lay low in a deserted farmhouse that Noah bought for his now deceased mother.

But Noah has certainly not heeded the words of Santana and “changed his evil ways, baby” and he quickly succumbs to his vices, leaving his daughter with only her imagination, a jar of peanut butter, a trunk of her grandmother’s clothes and three Barbie doll heads for company. We are then taken on a trip into the rabbit hole of Jeliza-Rose’s imagination, which is only interrupted by occasional interactions with her bizarre neighbors who are only marginally helpful by supplying some food and a bit of taxidermy.

Tideland is a difficult film to watch. Gilliam grabs his audience’s hand and forces it into the fire. The scenes in the movie where the lonely Jeliza-Rose, dressed in her grandmother’s boas and make up, tries to seduce the thirty-year-old Dickens were so disturbing that several people walked out of the screening I attended. The movie is rated R for precisely that reason: “bizarre and disturbing content, including drug use, sexuality, and gruesome situations - all involving a child, and for some language.” No matter how much this viewer rationalized that children are interested in romance