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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could not be published into the situation in Kansas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.
Tony Brill’s
Flyboys
MGM
Opens Friday, September 22, 2006
Starring: James
Franco; Jean Reno; Martin Henderson; Jennifer
Decker; Philip Winchester; Absul Salis; Tyler
Labine; David Ellison; and Martin Henderson.
Reviewed by Wendy
R. Williams
Tony Brill’s
Flyboys tells the story of the legendary
Lafayette Escadrille, a company of volunteer American
pilots who fought for the French in the dark days
of World War I before America entered the battle.
Here is a quote
from the movie’s website:www.mgm.com/flyboys/home.html.
"Their motivations for enlisting may have
been different: Blaine Rawlings (James Franco)
is searching for his purpose following the bank’s
foreclosure of his family ranch, Briggs Lowry
(Tyler Labine) is shamed into joining by his disciplinarian
father, while African-American expatriate boxer
Eugene Skinner (Abdul Salis) vows to repay his
debt to his adopted, racially-tolerant country.
But under the command of French Captain Thenault
(Jean Reno) and the leadership of American veteran
Reed Cassidy (Martin Henderson), these young American
men took to the air with honor everyday as they
risked their lives, not just in facing the formidable
German aggressors, but also in boarding their
newly-invented, mechanically-imperfect aircraft,
which were being used in combat for the first
time.”
There had not been
much practical use of aviation before World War
I; airplanes (which were invented by the Wright
brothers in 1903) had pretty much been regarded
as novelties up until then. And planes were still
primitive, made of canvas and wire and featuring
open-air cockpits. It was a time when pilots were
seemingly still listening to the advice of Colonel
Prescott during the American Revolution, “Don’t
shoot until you can see the whites of their eyes.”
It was almost a sky based “hand to hand”
combat and the complete opposite of today’s
warfare with our smart bombs shot from distant
aircraft carriers.
These pilots were
definitely heroes. Regardless of what their motivations
was for coming to France, when they got their
they quickly learned that they had a life expectancy
of three weeks and they still stayed to train
and fight. They quickly learned that the seasoned
pilots on the base did not want to get to know
them, a self protective mechanism on their part
so they would be less devastated when the “new
guys” were killed. And killed they would
be; World War I fighter pilots literally flew
through the sky in not much more than a motorized
kite, with one hand on the controls, one hand
on their gun and the snow, wind and rain on their
faces. One “tell’ of their bravery
is the fact that they carried a hand gun so they
could kill themselves if their plane caught on
fire and so not have to burn to death on the long
way down.
Flyboys
aerial battles are utterly thrilling and this
film is sure to be a hit with aviation and history
buffs. There is also a bit of a romance between
James Franco’s character and a winsome french
girl played by Jenniefer Decker. And there is
a lot of eye candy in this film, the stars (James
Franco, Jean Reno, Martin Henderson, Jennifer
Decker, Philip Winchester, Absul Salis, Tyler
Labine, David Ellison, and Martin Henderson) are
all hot in their own ways. James Franco (TV movie
James Dean) and Martin Henderson should both
be poised for future stardom; Henderson brooding
portrayl of Reed Cassidy is particularly mesmerizing.
And Jean Reno is always a joy to watch, he is
the kind of actor who can bring gravitas to the
act of crossing a street.
Allen Coulter’s
Hollywoodland
Reviewed by Frank
J. Avella
On June 16, 1959,
television’s Superman was found dead in
his Hollywood home,
an apparent suicide, or so it was ruled. Surges
of conspiratorial speculation has
surrounded George Reeves demise ever since. Did
he off himself? Or was it the mob-connected MGM
studio exec Eddie Mannix that ordered the hit?
Was Reeves’
mistress, Mrs. Mannix, involved? Or perhaps he
was clipped by his lunatic galpal,
Lenore Lemon.
More than just
a tinseltown murder mystery, Reeves’ death
severed an American
nerve that would never heal--especially among
young boys who were forced to grow up and realize
that Superman was just a man--not a man of steel.
He was vulnerable. And now he was dead. The faux-ideal
fifties were over. Gangbangway for the 1960’s--but
that’s another movie...
The curious story
of Reeves is the stuff of exciting filmmaking,
yet the new Noir-esque Hollywoodland
disappoints as much as it captivates, mostly because
it’s focus is skewed and it too-often, ironically,
gives in to the clichés of Hollywood filmmaking
as well as the stereotype movieworld characters
we’ve come to expect.
The latter can
be forgiven since Hollywood creme-de-la creme
were powermad and decadent--who wouldn’t
be? One can also appreciate the noir-fidelity
of the story, even if it sometimes replaces meat
with melodrama.
The chief problem
with this admirable endeavor is in it’s
creation of the fictional
detective--a semi-anti-hero--Louis Simo (Adrien
Brody). In choosing to force filmic focus on a
down-and-out, dull Hollywood dick who seems to
be the only one crying foul, the real-reel compelling
saga is zapped of a lot of its power. Blame not
Brody’s since the character is written with
nary a nuance. It’s a who-cares role.
On the plus side
the terrific score, the gritty and grimy photography
and lush
period-perfect art direction and costumes could
not be better.
The film is worth
seeing mostly for it’s dynamic performances
(Brody notwithstanding). Ben Affleck, in particular,
is shockingly good and manages to convey an extraordinary
range of emotions as the tormented Reeves. Affleck
takes us deep inside a man who craves truly honing
his craft, yet is stuck in the muck of commercial
entertainment.
The gorgeous Diane
Lane, always fascinating to watch, dazzles as
Toni Mannix. Even when the screenplay (by Paul
Bernbaum) forces the final barrage of paint-by-numbers
b-movie breakup dialogue on them, Lane and Affleck
transcend the
gobbledygook they speak and show the audience
what they are really feeling...with their faces,
their bodies...
Bob Hoskins is
nicely menacing as the brute, Mannix and Robin
Tunney delightfully rips through her role as the
nasty spitfire bitch-girlfriend.
Ultimately, Hollywoodland
refuses to choose a death hypothesis--although
it does lean towards one scenario more than the
others, indicative of the overall tentative feeling
of the picture.
Neil Burger’s
The Illusionist
Opens Friday, August 18, 2006
Starring: Edward
Norton; Paul Giamatti; Jessica Biel; and Rufus
Sewell
Reviewed by Wendy
R. Williams
Neil Burger’s
The Illusionist asks the question: Did
we see it or did we not? Set in
nineteenth century Vienna, the film takes us on
a trip to a land of magicians, evil
princes and swooning damsels-in-distress.
Here is a quote from their press release: "Director
Neil Burger's screen adaptation
of Steven Millhauser's short story 'Eisenheim
the Illusionist'. Eisenheim (Edward
Norton) is a magician in early 1900's Vienna,
who falls in love with a woman well
above his social standing. When she becomes engaged
to a Crown Prince, Eisenheim uses his powers to
win her back and undermine the stability of the
royal house of Vienna.”
Edward Norton
plays Eisenheim, a magician who entrances Vienna
with his magic
shows, quickly developing a reputation as a sorcerer
who posseses other-wordly
powers. He becomes wildly popular and attracts
the jealous attention of the despot Crown Prince
Leopold, played in smarmy magnificence by Rufus
Sewell. Eisenheim also attracts the attention
of Leopold’s fiancée, Sophie von
Teschen (the before-mentioned damsel-in-distress),
who soon recognizes Eisenheim as her
childhood love. Sensing Sophie’s attraction
to Eisenheim, Leopold becomes even
more enraged and instructs Chief Inspector Uhl,
played by Paul Giamatti, to either
expose Eisenheim as a fraud or arrest him.
We are then treated to a battle of mind and will,
between Leopold and Eisenheim.
Chief Inspector Uhl manfully tries to make his
problem go away but he certainly
possesses no magical powers. The plot thickens
and evil rules the land, or does it?
In the world of illusionists, everything is not
always the way it seems and what
you think you know.....well, that is why you need
to see this film.
The Illusionist
is a vintage fairy tale and the filmmakers artfully
chose to film it in
a patina of gold and brown, resembling the daguerreotype
photographs of the
previous century. The scenes in the theaters are
particularly evocative. Magic
tricks are performed and lit with candle light;
it is truly smoke and mirror.
There are many great performances in this film
but of particular note are
Edward Norton’s brooding Eisenheim and Giamatti’s
Chief Inspector Uhl. Norton
plays the magician with a quiet fierce strength,
awing his audience as much with
his brooding stare as with his tricks. Giamatti
imbues his character with a jovial
and corrupt sophistication hiding a basic decency.
Norton and Giametti’s
performances are the heart of the film; they are
so believable, we believe in
the magic.
Heidi Ewing
and Rachel Grody’s
Jesus Camp
Opens Friday, September 22, 2006
Featuring:
Pastor Becky Fischer, Mike Papantoni
Reviewed by Wendy R. Williams
Documentary filmmakers
Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady’s (The
Boys of Baraka) Jesus Camp tells
the story of an Evangelical pastor named Becky
Fischer and her mission to train young children
to be warriors for Christ. The filmmakers follow
Fischer from her church services in Missouri through
her preparations for and hosting of a Christian
children’s camp named “Kids on Fire’
in Devil’s Lake, North Dakota.
The filmmakers
were given total access to Ms. Fischer and her
camp and the film is presented without a narrated
point of view. The only voice of dissent is from
Christian radio host Mike Papantoni. So watching
Jesus Camp is a chance to see and hear
from the Christian right in their own world.
And it is a frightening world, but one that most
Americans (including the vast majority of New
Yorkers) are most likely unaware. According to
the film, twenty percent of Americans call themselves
Evangelical Christians. These Evangelicals are
organized through their churches and determined
to change society, not because they consider themselves
political activists, but because they believe
it is God’s will for them to change his
world.
We see Becky Fischer explaining that she is just
doing what the radical Muslims do in their Madrases.
Jesus Camp is a difficult film to watch.
Pastor Fischer holds teaching sessions that last
several hours, using Christian rock music, compelled
confessions of sin and speaking in tongues to
work the children into a crying frenzy of Christian
fervor. We also see the mothers of some of the
home-schooled children explaining that creationism
and global warming are simply secular myths.
There are also some really funny moments. When
teaching the children to change the world for
Christ, she utilizes a card board cut out of President
Bush. (I know it has been done before, but it
works for me every time.) And when nine-year-old
Rachel is participating in a demonstration against
abortion in Washington DC, she approaches a group
of black (perhaps homeless) men who are sitting
on a park bench. She asks them if they are Christian
and they wisely say yes. She then walks away and
speaks into the camera and says, “I think
they are really Muslim.”
And what does Pastor Becky Fischer think about
this film? Does she feel like she was portrayed
as some sort of manipulative zealot? Well, no.
According to the filmmakers, Pastor Fischer likes
the film and is promoting it. And that is certainly
one of the most profound statements I can make
about the world of Jesus Camp.
Niall Johnson’s
Keeping Mum
Opens Friday, September 16, 2006
Reviewed by Frank
J. Avella
Grace (Dame Maggie
Smith) has just moved into the Goodfellow home,
run by a devout Vicar (Rowan Atkinson) and his
bored wife (Kristin Scott Thomas) to work as their
new housekeeper. Grace is sweet, soft-spoken,
quite proprietary, fiercely and curiously protective
of the Goodfellow family. She is also a spontaneous
and unapologetic murderess!
Keeping Mum
is a bizarre, often-hilarious and refreshingly
nonjudgmental tale of the strangest potpourri
of folk. The film slyly depicts how one person
can profoundly effect another.
Adeptly written
by Niall Johnson and Richard Russo and expertly
directed by Mr. Johnson, Mum is simultaneously
warm & fuzzy and sick & twisted.
It’s terrific cinema that mercifully avoids
any Hollywood trappings (thank God for the British
indie!) and instead is true to it’s, decidedly
quirky, characters.
The luminous Kristin
Scott Thomas etches a rich, complex portrait of
a woman who craves affection. Rowan Atkinson is
nicely subdued as the awkward and self-consciously
dull man of the cloth. Tamsin Egerton is quite
impressive as the nypho daughter, who also happens
to be a third generation loon! And Patrick Swayze
fits the role of cad to perfection!
Yet it’s
Maggie Smith who defines Mum’s spirit. She
manages to be deliciously wicked without taking
Grace too over-the-top. Always fantastic as the
prudent spinster or the craggy and complaining
snob, Smith’s decision to underplay Grace
gives her an almost saintly core (ironic if you
consider her crimes) and results in one of her
best performances in years. Oscar take notice.
From it’s
delightfully deceptive prologue to the outrageously
memorable moment when the Vicar becomes sexually
stimulated from reading a biblical passage, Keeping
Mum enjoys pushing the limits of acceptable
behavior. In doing so, though, the movie questions
traditional norms and examines how wisdom can
sometimes come from the most unexpected and unconventional
persons and places.
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
downtrodden slob-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 .
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!
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.
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
and this particular child could not help but be
over-sexualized, it was still impossible to watch
these scenes without wanting to scream, “Aren’t
there any adults in this world?”
Tideland is
a gorgeous film; the cinematography is eerily
beautiful. All the actors give splendid performances
and it is certainly some cast – Janet McTeer
AND Jeff Bridges? Brendan Fletcher's portrayal
of the lobotomized-manchild-Dickens is a Sci-Fi
wonder, so other-worldly he could have been transported
from a distant galaxy. And little Jodelle Ferland
is poised to become a major movie star; she will
compete with Dakota Fanning from now on.
www.tidelandthemovie.com
Freida Lee Mock’s
Wrestling with Angels: Playwright Tony Kushner
Opened Wednesday, October 4, 2006
Reviewed by Frank J, Avella
Tony Kushner is
arguably the most significant American playwright
alive today. If he had only written the Angels
in America saga, he would still be considered
that. But he has produced quite an eclectic and
extraordinary body of work in the new millennium
alone. Wrestling with Angels covers his
life and work from 2001 through 2004.
I would have loved
the film to have extended through 2006 so Kushner’s
Oscar nominated script of the searing Spielberg
film Munich as well as his brilliant
Brecht adaptation of Mother Courage and Her
Children starring the stunning Meryl Streep,
could have been included as well...but perhaps
there will be sequel...
Wrestling with
Angels is an engrossing chronicle of Kushner
post-9/11. We are shown glimpses into his personal
life, including his relationship with his father
and his marriage to Mark Harris, but the focus
is mosty on Kushner’s passion...his work--specifically,
the HBO film version of the landmark Angels
in America, the underrated Broadway musical
Caroline or Change and his timely stagework
Homebody Kabul. We are also given a good
taste of his liberal politics whether it be about
war, AIDS or genocide.
Along the way the
audience is privvy to a few marvelous speeches
by the man as well as moments from his work--including
an hysterical scene from his play, Only We
Who Guard the Mystery Shall Be Unhappy featuring
Marcia Gay Harden as Laura Bush as well as Meryl
Streep in a riveting reading of Kushner’s
Prayer on AIDS.
The much-appreciated
docu is a portrait of a playwright who is hyper-aware
that time is not limitless and his attempt to
spend that time trying to create work that makes
a difference. We are also given surprising insights
into the man’s desires: “I want to
succeed as a popular entertainer, ” Kushner
admits. I would not have imagined he would feel
this way, but in the end, wanting to reach as
many people as possible with your work makes great
sense and Freida Lee Mock’s loving film
will go a long way towards giving viewers a better
understanding of the artist.
