Joe Wright’s
Atonement
Opens Friday, December 7, 2007
Starring: Keira
Knightley (Cecilia Turner) ; James McAvoy (Robbie
Turner); Saoirse Ronan (young Briony Tallis);
Romola Garai (Briony Tallis at 18); Harriet Walter
(Emily Tallis); Brenda Blethlyn (Grace Turner);
and Vanessa Redgrave (present day Briony). Based
on the novel by Ian McEwen
Reviewed
by Wendy R. Williams
British director
Joe Wright has fulfilled the promise he exhibited
with 2005’s Pride and Prejudice
with his helming of the lushly gorgeous Atonement.
Set in 1935 during the start of World War II,
the story is awash in class struggle, jealousy,
repression and sexuality.
Thirteen year old
Briony (Saoirse Ronan) is an aspiring writer and
a child of privilege. Born into the upper class
of England, Briony lives with her parents and
older sister Cecilia (Keira Knightley) in a story
book country house. And in what should have been
one glorious day spent in the beautiful English
countryside, Briony misinterprets a series of
events and ruins the lives of her sister and her
sister’s secret lover, the house keeper’s
son Robbie (James McAvoy).
The English class
caste system was in a state of flux in 1935 and
Robbie’s aspiring to romance Cecilia was
emblematic of the coming changes in class structure.
Robbie had been sent to Cambridge as a scholarship
student at the same time that Cecelia had been
away at Cambridge.
On that fateful day, the hottest day of the year,
Robbie accidentally breaks a vase, a piece of
which falls into a fountain. Cecelia is furious
about the loss of the vase and strips to her underwear
and dives into the fountain to retrieve the missing
piece and emerges sopping wet and for all purposes
naked. The stripping, diving and emerging are
observed by the jealous and naive Briony who misinterprets
both this and a series of other overheated events
that occur that same day.
The next part of
the film is set during World War II. Robbie, whose
prospects for professional success and love have
been ruined by Briony’s lies, is in France
fighting the Germans. The English have been routed
and are waiting at Dunkirk to be rescued in a
scene that echoes Dante’s Inferno.
Both Cecelia and Briony are working as nurses
in London. Briony has come to her senses and realized
what a horrible sin she committed when she was
a naïve, class-conscious, thirteen-year-old,
know-it-all. Briony desperately wants her sister
and Robbie to forgive her, but the lives she ruined
have become Humpty Dumpties and nothing she can
do can put them back together again.
In the last segment
we see the now dying Briony (Vanessa Redgrave),
a successful novelist at the end of her life,
being interviewed for a television show. And we
learn that Briony’s entire life has been
spent wishing for a forgiveness/atonement that
has never come.
And as for the
cast:The multi-talented Keira Knightly (the Pirate
movies and Wright's Pride and Predjudice)
is stunningly beautiful as Cecelia. Her scenes
with James McAvoy explode with eroticism. McAvoy
(The Last King of Scotland) has definitely
proven to be one of the (if not the) most talented
young English actor of his generation. And young
Saoirse Ronan does a brilliant job of portraying
the multi-faceted young Briony as a basically
good young woman who is so confused by her emerging
sexuality that she commits a monstrous act of
evil. And Romola Garai as the eighteen year old
Briony is heart breaking as she strives for forgiveness
by submerging her soul in the quest to help wounded
British soldiers. And what can I say about the
incomparable Vanessa Redgrave that has not already
been said except to say “Ditto.”
Joe Wright did a beautiful job putting together
this multi-layered story of love, war, jealousy
and grief. Atonement is destined to be
a classic; it is definitely a movie I will not
soon forget.
12/13/2007:
According to this article on MSNBC.com,
Atonement received seven nominations
for the Golden Globes, the largest number of nominations
for any film.
Roger Donaldson’s
The Bank Job
Opens Friday, March 7, 2008
Starring: Jason
Statham (War, Crank, The
Italian Job) and Saffron Burrows (Reign
Over Me, Enigma)
Reviewed by John
Janusz
The Bank Job,
an action thriller about a bank heist set in early
1970s London, is inspired by a true story. This
film has all the makings of a real man’s
movie with sex, scandals, mystery, espionage,
graphic violence, corruption, profanity and the
gratuitous nudity of beautiful women.
In a welcome change from some recent super-action
roles, in this film, the hero (played by Jason
Statham) is an anti-hero. Terry is a luxury automobile
dealer with an unstable past. He is married with
two children and he owes a large debt to some
wrong people. Terry is approached by an old flame
with a golden opportunity, a chance to rob a bank
vault of its safety deposit boxes. Terry sees
this as his last chance for the one big score
that will finally put the life of small time thievery
behind him, letting him live happily ever after
with his wife and family. He and his most trusted
mates form a gang and go for the gold. What they
do not realize is that the contents of these boxes
belong to some very prominent and dangerous individuals,
individuals who will stop at nothing to regain
their possessions. But escaping the police becomes
the least of Terry’s and his gang’s
worries. In this story the bank thieves turn out
to be the most innocent among all of the parties
involved.
If you enjoyed
Ronin, Payback or The Italian
Job you will love The Bank Job.
The Bank Job
is directed by veteran filmmaker Roger Donaldson
(No Way Out, Thirteen Days,
The Recruit). It is written by Dick Clement
and Ian La Frenais (Across the Universe,
Flushed Away, Still Crazy and
Tracey Ullman: A Class Act)
Jon Poll’s
Charlie Bartlett
Opens Friday, February 22, 2008
Starring: Robert
Downey; Anton Yelchin: Hope Davis: Kat Dennings:
Murphey Bivens
Reviewed at the
2007 Tribeca Film Festival by Wendy R. Williams
Charlie Barlett
is a quirky charming saga that tells the
story of the new guy at a suburban a high school,
a charismatic misfit who parlays his unassuming
wit and charm to become the most popular kid on
campus. And along his route to becoming “prom
king,” he falls in love with the principal’s
quasi-Goth daughter Susan (a charming Kat Dennings
with lots of red lipstick) and finds his nemesis
in person of the manically-depressed-alcoholic-high-school-principal,
Mr. Gardner (Robert Downey, Jr.).
Here is a quote from the Tribeca Film Festival
press release, “Failing to fit in at a high
school run by a disenchanted principal (Robert
Downey, Jr.), awkward Charlie Bartlett (Anton
Yelchin) is running out of options for making
friends--until he names himself the school "psychiatrist."
When he starts doling out advice, and the occasional
pill, to classmates, his popularity soars in this
witty take on teenage insecurity.”
This movie is funny on so many levels. Charlie
lives in gothic mansion with his eccentric mother
Marilyn (played by the mega talented Hope Davis),
with whom he has a Hansel-and-Gretel-in-the-woods
relationship. The family obviously has money (there
is a chauffeured Bentley), but are also obviously
over come by some mysterious melancholy. There
are so many hysterical scenes: (1) Charlie looking
up psychiatric drugs in pharmacological texts
and then surfing psychiatric couches describing
the exact symptoms that can be cured by the pill-of
–the-month (2) Charlie setting up his psychiatric
office in the men’s room (he in one stall
the supplicant in the other – Catholic anyone?).
This movie has an amazing tone and the credit
can only be given to the director, John Poll.
He kept his symphony under tight control.
And now about Robert Downey in his role as the
principal, Mr. Gardner. Downey plays Gardner as
a total whack job, but as the scariest kind of
whacko – the one where all of the rage is
tamped down so far you can only “see”
it when the hairs stand up on the back of your
neck. The scene where Downey is drunkenly shooting
mechanized toy boats in his swimming pool should
be taught in acting class. He is terrifying but
he also seems trustworthy??? He is enraged by
Charlie; but who doesn’t become enraged
when forced to watch someone else walk on water?
Ramin Bahrani’s
Chop Shop
Opened February 22, 2008
Reviewed by Mindy Hyman
“A Whole New View of
Making It In New York”
The amount of care
and planning that Ramin Bahrani put into the production
of his latest film, Chop Shop is evident
throughout every single scene. The characters
are so intricately portrayed that the viewer slides
right into the story, losing oneself in the plot
and forgetting that he/she is in a movie theater.
CHOP SHOP redefines the meaning of independent
filmmaking through the director’s ability
to create a rawness, which only occurs, in real
life.
Bahrani and his
cinematographer, Michael Simmonds, spent months
in the Queens neighborhood where the film takes
place in order to get a feel for the community.
The result was a natural script.
The storyline depicts
the life of a twelve-year-old boy and his sixteen-year-old
sister one summer in New York City. Alejandro
and his sister Isamar (these are their real names)
are orphans who live and work in an area called
Willet’s Point, Queens, also known as the
“Iron Triangle.” Willet’s Point
is a twenty-block stretch of auto body repair
shops. The businesses are called “chop shops”
because they use parts from stolen cars, which
are stripped, or chopped up, for their parts.
Alejandro plays
the part of one of the workers that steers passing
cars into the shop that pays him. Alejandro and
his sister Isamar dream of having their own business
and so they set off to make this a reality. The
two hustle to save money throughout the summer
to make their dream of buying a food cart come
true. The film reveals the passion and love that
these kids have for each other and their perpetual
determination to create a better life for themselves.
Chop Shop
takes us on an intimate journey into the harsh
world of what “making it in New York”
can encompass to some New Yorkers. Moreover, the
film teaches us that love can get us through any
type of struggle.
If you enjoy movies
that depict real-life New York scenarios not often
seen, then this is a film for you.
Paulo Morelli’s
City of Men
Starring: Douglas Silva,
Darlan Cunha, Jonathan Hassgensen, Rodrigo Dos
Santos, Camila Monteiro, Naima Silva, Eduardo
“BR” Piranha, Luciando Vidigal, and
Pedro Henrique.
Reviewed by Marguerite Daniels
20 years ago a
green Dan Quayle drew comparison between himself
and John F. Kennedy and received the famed verbal
smack-down response from Lloyd Bentsen who uttered:
“Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy. I
knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of
mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy.”
Sadly, the same can be said of Paulo Morelli’s
City of Men, a film which is being billed
as a companion piece to the Oscar®-nominated
City of God, directed by Fernando Meirelles.
City of Men is no City of God.
There are
obvious similarities: the names of the films are
similar, both films are shot in the favelas of
Rio, both are coming of age stories, and both
films share the same young actors, but unfortunately
for City of Men it lacks the searing
direction found in the original film and the matching-monikered
television series. The film borrows the frantic
action-filled high adrenalin rush of City
of God but doesn’t deliver the poignant
desperation of the original film, and without
perilous anxiety the film falls flat.
This isn’t
to say that I didn’t like City of Men,
I liked it fine, but I really wanted to love City
of Men as much as I loved City of God
and City of Men, the television series.
In City of Men we are reintroduced to
Acerola “Ace” (played beautifully
by Douglas Silva) and Laranjinha “Wallace”
(the endearing Darlan Cunha). Those familiar with
the television series (and it does pay to have
familiarity with the television series before
seeing this film) will be pleased to see Ace and
Wallace fully grown at eighteen. Both are enduring
personal hardships: Ace has become a father, and
Wallace is searching for the father he never knew.
While they seek to understand themselves, a secret
from the past threatens to destroy both of them,
and the two young men are thrust into opposing
sides of a gang war. And what a scary gang war
it is. Everyone’s lives are altered in the
favelas as the ruling drug dealer is challenged.
Innocent people die, families are torn apart.
None of this is new territory for the series.
The new theme in City of Men deals with
how the lack of fathers in the favelas affects
the young people. Alas, the long-lost father theme
isn’t subtly executed. Viewers of the film
are repeatedly told that Ace shouldn’t be
like his father and abandon his son. When Wallace
finally locates his father (played masterfully
by the ruggedly handsome Rodrigo Santos) the audience
is told over and over again that he’s a
bad father for not caring for his son.
Of course,
we already know all of this. The boys have grown
up in dangerous, gun-infested shantytown, after
all. What’s of greater concern in this film
is a theme that is never explored: even with present
and available paternal units, how could our fair
heroes find safe-havens in such squalor? The same
economic divide that creates the environment still
exists, and the missing daddy issue just seems
pat. Without real social change in Brazil, criminal
enterprises will continue to prosper.
So, ok,
City of Men isn’t a great film,
but the art direction presented by Adriano Goldman
(Director of Photography) and Rafael Ronconi (Art
Director) is equally picturesque and haunting,
and I’ll be purchasing the soundtrack (kudos
to composer Antonio Pinto) as soon as it is available.
I suppose this is a classic example of familiarity
breeding contempt since I know the story of Ace
and Wallace well. Over the past six years I’ve
watched Ace and Wallace grow-up. I guess I simply
yearned for a more poignant vehicle for their
send-off.
Julian Schnabel's
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
French with English Subtitles
Opens November 30, 2007
Starring: Mathieu
Amalric (Jean-Dominique Bauby); Emmanuelle Seigner
(Céline Desmoulins); Marie-Josée
Croze (Henriette Durand); Anne Consigny (Claude);
and Olatz Lopez Garmendia (Marie Lopez).
Reviewed by Wendy
R. Williams
Julian Schnabel
(Basquait, Before Night Falls)
has made a gorgeous, sensual feast of a film about
the sad story of Jean Dominique Bauby, the editor
of Elle France, who at the young age
of forty-three suffered a stroke that left him
in "locked-in" condition. Unable to
move any part of his body except his left eye,
Bauby (played by Mathieu Amalric), wrote a book
(also titled The Diving Bell and the Butterfly)
about his experience.
Working from a
script by Ronald Harwood (The Pianist,
Love in the Time of Cholera, Oliver
Twist) the first half of the film is told
through the camera-eye of Bauby's left eye. As
the story opens, we as Bauby's eye, awake to see
kindly worried people hovering over our bed telling
us that we have had a stroke and now that we are
awake we should be just fine. Then one of the
doctors asks Bauby to say his name, he does and
no one hears him except us, the film audience.
Bauby then narrates
his own movie, telling us the story of his old
and new life. Bauby's affliction has not made
him into a saint. He is instead the same sardonic
hedonist that he was before the accident.
The story follows
Bauby's work with his gorgeous therapists, Henriette
(played by Marie-Josée Croze) and Marie
(Schnabel's wife Olatz Lopez Garmendia). Henriette
devises a method by which Bauby can communicate
with the world - a chart with the letters of the
French alphabet arranged in most-used order. She
painstakingly goes through the alphabet and Bauby
blinks when she reaches a letter that he wishes
to use. Bauby signals that he would like to write
the book that he had contracted to write before
the accident and the therapist make arrangements
with his publisher to have yet another beautiful
woman take dictation, Claude (played by Marie
Anne Consigny).
This film is never
maudlin; it is beautifully shot by Janusz Kaminski,
also Steven Spielberg's cinematographer. We leave
the viewpoint of Bauby's eye and see the world
around him. The hospital room is a green marvel
and the hospital itself is located by the sea;
the entire setting is lovely. And to paraphrase
Dr. Seuss, oh the things Bauby saw. Bauby receives
visitors, the gorgeous mother of his three children,
Celine (played by Emmanuelle Seigner). We see
them on the beach with Celine's skirt being lifted
by the wind. His equally gorgeous children visit
and play in the sand. And Bauby's beautiful view
of the world is not restricted to his present
"diving bell." We follow the butterfly
of his imagination as he remembers his past and
takes flights of fancy into the future. And we
follow him as he drives former girlfriend to Lourdes,
her hair beautifully blowing in the wind. Bauby
was a lustful man and the film is permeated with
Bauby's (and Schnabel's) lust for life.
Bell is
one of the best films I have seen this year and
that is quite a complement with films like Gone
Baby Gone and Before the Devil Knows
You're Dead for competition. Schnabel won
the prize for Best Director at the Cannes Film
Festival for Bell and this film will
surely be an Oscar contender for Schnabel, Harwood,
Kiminski and the talented (and gorgeous) cast.
David Moreau and Xavier
Palud’s
The Eye
Opens Friday, February 1, 2008
Starring: Jessica
Alba (Sydney Wells); Alessandro Nivola (Dr. Paul
Faulkner); Parker Posey (Helen Wells); Rade Serbedzija
(Simon McCullough); Fernanda Romero (Ana Christina
Martinez); and Chloe Moretz (Alicia Millstone).
Reviewed
by Wendy R. Williams
Read
the Interview with Jessica Alba
Directors David Moreau
and Xavier Palud took on quite a challenge when
they decided to remark the Pang Brother’s
Hong Kong based film, The Eye. The
Eye has become a bit of a cult classic with
lovers of horror films. I saw the original and
reviewed
it when it was part of the Lincoln Center
Film Society’s Hong Kong Film Series in
2002.
Both versions of
The Eye tell the story of a young woman
who has been blind since early childhood. Her
vision is restored when she receives a corneal
transplant. But with her new sight comes horrifying
images of people who dying. Our heroine then consults
a doctor (a psychiatrist in the Hong Kong film
and a neural specialist in the Moreau/Palud film).
The remake is now
set in Los Angeles and our heroine Sidney Wells
(Jessica Alba) is now a concert violinist. There
are other differences between the films. In the
Hong Kong version of the film, the heroine’s
doctor and friends are open to the possibility
of the supernatural. In the Moreau/Palud film,
everyone thinks Sidney has had a mental breakdown;
her doctor, Dr. Paul Faulkner (played by Alessandro
Nivola; her sister Helen (played by Parker Posey);
and the conductor of the symphony, Simon Mc Cullough
(played by Rade Serbedzija).
Sidney’s
mind has become a living horror house. She is
constantly visually assaulted: There are dead
people in her elevator and her hallway and every
night at 1AM she awakes to visions of people screaming
as the burn to death.
No one believes
Sidney, so she does what any seeing/thinking person
would do, she goggles transplant memories using
her Braille computer and printer. Sidney finds
information about a phenomenon known as cellular
memory. This is the supposed tranfer of a donor's
memories with transplanted body parts. Sidney
then convinces her very skeptical doctor to help
her find her donor, the woman Sidney sees when
she looks in the mirror. Sidney and Paul then
travel to a small town in Mexico to find out what
happened to her donor, Fernanda Romero (played
by Ana Christina Martinez). And when they do,
they find the source of the horror.
So, how does
everyone do? Jessica Alba played Sidney as a very
contained character who does everything that is
humanly possible to stay centered when her entire
world begins to crater into the abyss. Alessandro
Nivola gives a nuanced performance as the skeptical
doctor. Parker Posey does a fine job of playing
the part of the supportive but disbelieving sister
and she does so without any of her usual quirks.
And little Chloe Moretz was heart breaking as
the brain cancer patient who befriends Sidney
in the hospital.
Cate Blanchett in
Todd Haynes’ I’m Not There
Opens November 21, 2007
Reviewed by Frank J. Avella
In a season of
ambitious filmic endeavors, Todd Haynes’
I’m Not There, which is “inspired
by the life and work of Bob Dylan” stands
as one of the most ambitious, and as such, divisive
pics of 2007.
The one and seemingly
ONLY thing most folks agree on is Cate Blanchett’s
performance. Her Dylan is simply astonishing.
But more on her later.
I’m Not
There is mock-docu-pastiche of sorts, a cinema
mosaic of various incarnations that embody the
essence of the many different Dylans, through
the years, as the man reinvented himself—funneled
through the brilliant and inventive mind of Mr.
Haynes. The notion is that one can never truly
capture a person onscreen--their essence. You
can read all the books, articles, listen to all
the music--interview all the loved (and not so
loved) ones and even talk to the subject himself,
and still not really get a good idea who that
person is. And Dylan, the icon, is even more mysterious
than most.
In I’m
Not There, Haynes has impressively created
a host of persons who, together, may give some
representation of the enigmatic artist. It’s
a fascinating premise and he has, single-handedly,
reinvented the (oh, so stale) biopic. Does it
work? Well, now that depends. The film is not
a failure, nor is it a resounding success (to
this critic, anyway). Yet it’s very much
like my perception of Dylan, flawed but extraordinary
(at times).
The six Dylans
include: an 11-year old African-American folk
singer who calls himself Woody Guthrie (the appealing
Marcus Carl Franklin); the progressive singer
on-the-verge known as Jack Rollins (the always
interesting Christian Bale); a difficult Hollywood
actor named Robbie (Heath Ledger); a reclusive
Billy the Kid (Richard Gere); an-Arthur Rimbaudish
poet (an effective Ben Whishaw) and, the Dylan
centerpiece (de resistance!) Jude (wholly embodied
by Blanchett), the curly-mopped superstar, leading
the sweet life (yes, La Dolce Vita)!
All these Dylans are presented in a maddening,
yet poetic, mosaic-like structure.
I greatly admire
the film, but that isn’t the same as loving
it. Actually, I haven’t felt so perplexed
about my own reaction to a film in a very long
time.
The Blanchett sequence
borrows generously from Fellini, specifically
Otto e’ Mezza (8 1/2),
and in there might lay my chief problem with I’m
Not There. I adore Fellini. He’s one
of my favorite auteurs. Fellini (along with Bergman)
was able to concoct his own personal vision hatched
from his lunatic/genius head, put it onscreen
and, somehow, it was miraculously accessible--most
of the time. Haynes’ film is most definitely
personal, almost too personal—somewhat impossible
to penetrate. He has distilled his own Dylan from
all his research and all his love. So it feels
like it’s exclusively Haynes’ Dylan—and
not one we can embrace or even understand. Yet,
perhaps that is the point. Perhaps it’s
okay for this film to be a trip into the mind
of Haynes via Dylan (instead of vice versa). I’m
truly not certain. Perhaps after repeated viewings
I will come to totally embrace the pic…or
loathe it.
What does work,
works supremely well. Heath Ledger is quite powerful
and his scenes with Charlotte Gainsbourg are wonderful
to watch. And there are many sequences that astound
(specifically one that involves Allen Ginsberg
and Jesus Christ—I will say no more). The
Gere scenes are less enthralling and that has
less to do with the actor than with the fact that
those moments never meld with the rest of the
film.
But as soon as
Cate Blanchett blasts onto the screen as the freaky,
androgynous Dylan the movie takes off to tremendously
joyous heights. Blanchett has proven that there
isn’t much she can’t do. From Elizabeth
onward, she has shown her versatility and her
bravery in making choices. No one else in her
peer group (with the possible exception of Kate
Winslet) can come close to her remarkable body
of work these last ten years.
Her Jude isn’t
so much an impersonation—although she is
the closest to a real Dylan that we get (whatever
that means), it’s an exhilarating immersion
into Haynes’ most richly written ‘subject.’
Blanchett’s scenes are what one remembers
most after the credits roll and the lights come
up.
I love the film’s
theme of identity, certainly something that all
artists (all people probably) struggle with. Haynes
puts forth the notion that ultimate freedom is
escaping the pigeonholing and being able to reinvent
yourself as you go through different life cycles.
(Jane Fonda is a great example of an artist who
has metamorphosed more than most and has always
fascinated with her next incarnation.) And why
not? Isn’t that what a realized life should
be? Constantly searching for answers to that eternal
‘why am I here’ question?
I came to this
film as someone who appreciates Dylan--the power
of his music. I wouldn’t call myself a fan.
The film made me crave more. So I went right out
and picked up the four-hour Scorsese documentary
and I bought a few Dylan CDs. I am very happy
I did. If the film does the same for others, then
maybe we’ll all develop our own visions/notions
of Bob Dylan and who he is…who he needs
to be…to us--individually.
Jason Reitman’s
Juno
Opens December 25, 2007
Reviewed by Corey
Shtasel-Gottlieb
There is a movie each year,
it seems, that emerges quietly and suddenly to
touch audiences with its unassuming charm. Such
a film works by repackaging the depressing and
the mundane into a product that allows us to laugh
at ourselves—to find humor where sadness
typically lives. In 2007, that movie is Juno.
Witty, ballsy writing and an endearing cast allow
Juno to function successfully as both biting and
adorable. A story of real substance emerges from
behind the curtain of the prototypical dark comedy,
producing a final product that is raw and hilarious
and true to life. It may not be the year’s
best picture, but Juno will be remembered
as the sleeper film that took 2007 by surprise.
Set on a definitively Minnesotan middle class
landscape, Juno tells the story of Juno
Macguff (Ellen Page), a high school sophomore
who finds herself pregnant after a one-night romp
with best friend Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera).
Spooked by a less than comforting trip to the
abortion clinic, Juno decides to give her baby
up for adoption. Her awkwardly evolving relationship
with the adoptive parents-to-be (played by Jennifer
Garner and Jason Bateman) is painfully humorous,
as she belly-flops gracelessly into their white-bread
lifestyle. Such is the way in which she approaches
each of pregnancy’s seemingly fragile obstacles,
trampling over maternity outfits and ultrasounds
like a bull in a china shop. At face value, Juno
may be the picture of inelegance, but in truth
she is just the opposite: super witty and free-spirited,
she exudes a depth of confidence that is admirable,
even shocking, for a person in her situation.
She embraces her role as the elephant-in-the-room
with a self-deprecating sincerity that renders
her deeply lovable. The core of the film’s
success resides in screenwriter Diablo Cody’s
development of such a character.
Embedded within the story of Juno’s pregnancy
is her relationship with Paulie Bleeker, the film’s
ultimate boy-next-door. Bleeker is Juno’s
soft spot. A goofy gold headband and tiny track
shorts uniform his innocent dorkiness; his quiet
sensitivity clashes with typical depictions of
teenage fathers. Like Juno, he appears to appreciate
his own awkwardness for what it is, though his
admission at the film’s end that “Actually,
I try really hard” makes clear that he is
a bit less secure. Nevertheless, his lack of cynicism
is disarming, and melds almost seamlessly with
Juno’s no-bullshit approach. The love story
into which the film ultimately evolves is a product
of this dynamic—it is untraditional, perhaps
unrealistic, but mostly just, well, sweet.
The strength of Juno’s storyline
is complemented by first-rate acting on all cylinders.
Ellen Page makes the movie. She is so fully entrenched
in this role, so believable, that I find it difficult
to believe that she is not Juno Macguff in real
life. This is, without question, her coming out
party, a performance that should be awarded with
her first Oscar nomination. Cera is good, too.
Although he doesn’t deviate much from his
soft-spoken Superbad shtick, he is perfect for
the part. It is the supporting acting, though,
that elevates Juno to next-level quality. J.K.
Simmons and Allison Janney are excellent as Juno’s
father and stepmother, and not merely from a comedic
perspective; both portray a depth of emotion that
gives credence to the notion of parents as actual
people. The same is true of Jason Bateman and
Jennifer Garner, whose stereotypical yuppyness
melts to reveal a real, struggling couple at movie’s
end. These are the types of performances that
will provide Juno the same warm reception
that made Little Miss Sunshine a hit
in 2006.
In one of the strongest years for film in recent
memory, Juno stands out among 2007’s
brightest. Smart, funny, and original, it infuses
something dark and taboo with genuine warmth.
It is a must-see.
Bharat Nalluri’s
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
Opens Friday, March 7, 2008
Starring: Amy
Adams as Delysia Lafosse; Shirley Henderson as
Edythe Dubarry; Ciarán Hinds as Joe; Frances
McDormand as Miss Pettigrew; Lee Pace as Michael;
Tom Payne as Phil Goldman; Mark Strong as Nick.
Reviewed by Wendy
R. Williams
Miss Pettigrew
Lives for a Day is a frothy confection of
a film; farcical and fun, it is the perfect chick
flick. The film is advertised as a fairy tale
for grown ups and it certaunly fulfills its advertised
promise.
Here is a quote
from the press release: “In 1939 London,
Miss Guinevere Pettigrew (Frances McDormand) is
a middle-aged governess who finds herself once
again unfairly dismissed from her job. Without
so much as severance pay, Miss Pettigrew realizes
that she must – for the first time in two
decades – seize the day. This she does,
by intercepting an employment assignment outside
of her comfort level – as “social
secretary.” Arriving at a penthouse apartment
for the interview, Miss Pettigrew is catapulted
into the glamorous world and dizzying social whirl
of an American actress and singer, Delysia Lafosse
(Amy Adams).”
Delysia has a
complicated love life, three love lifes to be
precise. When Miss Pettigrew arrives at Delysia’s
stunning penthouse apartment, one of the love
lifes is still asleep upstairs, Phil Goldman (Tom
Payne). Phil is the son of a theatrical producer
and has the power (maybe) to cast Delysia in his
father’s new musical. But career benefits
aside, he must get out of bed because Delysia
is late for a lingerie show. And as a further
complication, Delysia's boss at the nightclub
where she sings, Nick (Mark Strong), is about
to arrive and Nick would also like to spend some
time in the presently occupied upstairs bed.
So Delysia is
desperately in need of the services of a sensible
English governess. And Miss Pettigrew, in all
her frumpy glory, jumps right in. She removes
lingerie from the chandelier, stuffs clothing
under the bear skin rug and dispenses sensible
advice. And advice is needed for it seems that
Delysia has yet another love interest, Nick (Lee
Pace), the piano player at the nightclubs where
Delysia works. Delysia truly loves Nick, but of
all three men, Nick can do the least for her career.
Miss Pettigrew quickly dispenses with all three
men and Delysia and Miss Pettirgrew leave for
the lingerie show.
The lingerie show is a frothy delight, a pink
bonbon for the eyes. At the lingerie show, Miss
Pettigrew is introduced to Delysia’s friend,
Edythe (Shirley Henderson), a brittle and sophisticated
shop owner. Miss Pettigrew also meets Edythe cuckolded
fiancée, Joe (Ciarán Hinds), an
honest wholesome sort of man who was drawn into
the smart set when he left the sock business to
become a lingerie designer. Miss Pettigrew is
attracted to Joe because she can see beneath his
worldly exterior to view the decent man Joe really
is.
So the die is
cast, the players are on the stage. Just who will
Delysia choose? Will Edythe be able to draw Joe
back into her web? Will Miss Pettigrew ever get
something to eat and will someone please do something
about her hair?
Miss Pettigrew is set in a world that
is about to drastically change. Indeed, we see
the outlines of the first German bombers flying
over the English sky. And in the world, all is
not exactly as it seems for Miss Pettigrew and
Delysia have one secret in common – what
they do in any one day can truly throw them into
the poor house the next day.
The cast in Miss
Pettigrew all give wonderful performances:
Amy Adams is utterly "Enchanting" as
Delysia; Frances McDormand embodies goodness under
extreme stress; Shirley Henderson delights as
Edythe Dubarry, the evil witch of this fairy tale;
Ciarán Hinds as Joe delivers the same rock-solid
performance that has made him Ciarán Hinds.
And the male love interests are all delightful
in their own ways: Tom Payne plays an adorably
vain Phil; Mark Strong is sexually exciting as
the venal and menacing Nick; and Lee Pace, with
his soulful eyes, makes the audience totally forget
what our mothers told us about not dating musicians.
Vincent Paronnaud and
Marjane Satrapi's
Persepolis
Opens Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Reviewed by Julia
Sirmons
A film about angst
and rebellion under the thumb of an oppressive
Islamist regime may, at first glance, seem like
unlikely holiday movie-going fare. Nevertheless,
tales of the resiliency of the human spirit and
the triumph of rebellion and dignity in the most
of trying of political circumstances are very
much in keeping with the greatest story every
told. With that in mind, there's no better way
to keep the seasonal joie de vivre going than
by checking out Persepolis, the visually
arresting, earthy and affecting animated film
adapted form Iranian author Marjane Satrapi's
intensely personal graphic novels.
The film's narrative
spans the course of both books; beginning with
the young Marjane witnessing the fall of the Shah
and the rise of the Islamist revolution, following
her to school in Vienna then back home to Tehran
and finally off to Paris to begin a new life as
an artist.
As graphically
striking as Satrapi's print illustrations are,
the live animation gives the story a new vitality
and depth. Shaded entirely in blacks, whites,
and greys, the illustrations and images manage
to convey a wide variety of emotions: the warm
and homey feel of Marjane's close-knit family,
the eerie and magical depictions of young Marjane's
fantasy world, the traditional Persian aesthetic
of the segments that explain Iranian history,
the neo-noir punk feel of Marjane's sojourn in
Vienna, and the bleak, ominous look of the scenes
of political protest and rebellion. The visual
complexity of Persepolis is truly dazzling;
it looks unlike any film you've ever seen.
As much as the
narrative of Persepolis is inexorably
entwined with the history of modern Iran, it really
is a much more universal story – that of
a smart, tough, rebellious girl struggling to
come into her own when all the weight of circumstance
and society are fighting against her. One of the
great delights of seeing the story on celluloid
is that the character of Marjane (voiced by Gabrielle
Lopes Benites as a girl and by Chiara Mastroianni
as a teenager and adult) really comes to life.
To see the character develop from a fearless kung-fu-loving
young badass to a moody and an outraged teen and
finally a defiant, self-confident woman is heartrendingly
real. The superb cast of powerful, memorable characters
is rounded off by Marjane's formidable and supportive
parents (voiced Simon Akbarian and Mastroianni's
real-life mother, Catherine Deneuve), and her
doting but gutsy grandma (the incomparable Danielle
Darrieux).
In this day and
age, when oppressive regimes stamp out personal
freedoms across the globe, Persepolis
is an empowering call to arms; a strong reminder
that the human desire for liberty can thrive under
the most difficult circumstances. A more inspiring
Christmas message would be difficult to find.
Sylvester Stallone's
Rambo
Opens Friday January 25, 2008
Rambo Returns With a Republican
Starring: Sylvester
Stallone; Julie Benz (Dexter); Paul Schulze
(The Sopranos); Matthew Marsden (Resident
Evil: Extinction, Black Hawk Down);
Graham McTavish (HBO's Rome); Rey Gallegos
(American Wedding); Tim Kang (Third
Watch); Jake LaBotz (Ghost World);
Maung Maung Khin and Ken Howard.
Reviewed by Francesca
C. Simon
The presidential
campaign is a battleground with a cast of Democratic
and Republican hopefuls tossing insult grenades,
spitting out accusations at machine gun speed
and looking for ways to launch surprise attacks
that will catch their enemies off guard. Legislative
voting record body parts flying through the airwaves,
mouth to mouth combat on the campaign trail and
midnight hour strategizing under the cover of
media darkness makes a bloody setting for the
final scenes of the 2008 Presidential Election
in November. It sort of sounds like a Rambo
movie, right?!
We who watch
the action always wait for the hero to arrive
in the final hour to ensure victory. Republican
John McCain’s hero may have just arrived
armed with a movie to add additional ammunition
to McCain’s war hero arsenal! Sylvester
Stallone – the embodiment of the war veteran
Rambo – has endorsed McCain. In New York
to promote his new movie Rambo, which
will blast into theatres today, Stallone told
Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade that typecasting
McCain as President would be the right maneuver.
“I like McCain a lot. A lot,” Stallone
tells Kilmeade on Fox News’ morning show
“Fox and Friends" which aired today,
Friday, January 25, 2008. “And you know,
things may change along the way, but there’s
something about matching the character with the
script. And right now, the script that’s
being written and reality is pretty brutal and
pretty hard-edged like a rough action film, and
you need somebody who’s been in that to
deal with it.”
That sums
up Stallone in the new Rambo movie which he helped
write and directed single handedly. This film
comes almost twenty years after the last film
in the series and this time the setting is northern
Thailand. John Rambo is running a longboat on
the Salween River near the Thai-Burma (Myanmar)
border where the Burmese-Karen conflict, continues
to rage after six decades. The film setting is
based on fact. The Burmese-Karen conflict is the
world's longest-running civil war and is currently
raging in real life into its 60th year. It is
a brutal saga of genocide.
"I thought
the Burmese setting would be ideal because it's
a story that's not just about Rambo. It's actually
happening. It's true," says Stallone. "From
the time I heard about it and began researching
it, I thought, 'If I could just combine the two
– raising “awareness of the Karen-Burmese
civil war and giving the audience a good adventure
story – that would be perfect.” It
seems he has succeeded.
Rambo is a bloody reminder of the reality
of war that shoots through the heart and mind
the painful images of young American men and women
in military uniforms falling on foreign soil wounded,
bleeding and breathing their dying breath with
the hope that their sacrifice will not be in vain.
This movie punches you in the gut with the horrific
bloody sights and high caliber blasting sounds
of real war. This is ninety minutes of war –
not a ten second news clip.
We first
see Rambo (who is living a solitary, simple life
in the mountains and jungles of Thailand) face
to fang with a gigantic poisonous snake, which
he captures and sells. No noble career here. Two
human rights missionaries Sarah (Julie Benz) and
Michael (Paul Schulze), plead with him to carry
them up the Salween River, so they can deliver
medical supplies and food to the Karen tribe,
who are victims of genocide at the hands of the
Burmese military junta.
Rambo first refuses but finally responds to Sarah,
who is the only female in the missionary group.
She speaks softly and imploring him to help them.
We’re not quite sure what makes Rambo change
his mind, but he lets everyone know that he’s
only making the trip for Sarah. Rambo makes the
run up the river, drops them off and returns to
his solitude. But less than two weeks later, pastor
Arthur Marsh (Ken
Howard) finds Rambo and tells him the missionaries
have been captured by the Burmese army. He knows
that Sarah will suffer abuse in the hands of the
brutal military and so he agrees to take a group
of mercenaries up river to rescue the missionaries.
The adventurous effort begins and the action moves
into full gear.
“I
think Sarah stirs something in Rambo, his innate
sense of good versus evil,” explains Stallone.
“He sees this beautiful young woman, and
her doctor boyfriend, who are willing to risk
their safe and comfortable lives to help people
they don't even know who live on the other side
of the world. That awakens something in him. By
saving Sarah, and trying to save the missionaries,
he's also saving part of himself.”
Don't look for deep character development in this
movie. There's no deep passion between the missionaries
Sarah and Paul although they're engaged. The mercenaries
fuss, cuss and spit – but none of them really
move you. There's no insight into the vicious
Burmese Major Tint, epitome of evil, effectively
played by Muang Muang Khin. This man was, in real
life, a resistance fighter for the Karen rebels.
There is no back story of village families or
idealistic soldiers. But the feel of the film
is fiercely authentic. Stallone urged the casting
of native Karen/Burmese who were from the region
and knew about the factual Karen/Burmese conflict.
So real Karen refugees, amputees, land mine victims
and former Burmese soldiers were hired and this
indeed adds a depth of horror and desperation
to their performances. The familiar frames of
rice paddies, dense jungle and the splattering
of blood and guts will bring back many bad memories
of Vietnam for many viewers. The acting is, well,
action-oriented. But Julie Benz should get a special
award from somebody for all the mud, blood, running,
rain, and noise she had to endure.
Stallone
says he never intended to write and direct Rambo
but says he didn’t want to face any
regrets. “When someone else does it, you
have regrets and it doesn’t have your personality.”
This movie is pure Stallone from start to finish.
This is not the oiled-up, slick and righteously
vicious Rambo. He walks with the weight of weariness
on his broad shoulders. This is a man weathered
by war, steeped in self-reflection and wondering
whether he can face the world again. His performance
as Rambo mirrors the reality of the human experience
of maturity; how we all slow down, weigh our options,
and sometimes, somehow manage to come out of the
past to live in the future. The lines and scars
on the face of sixty-60-year-old Stallone relay
the message that war is always hell and it never
changes – except for the equipment and the
location. And yet we must always survive despite
our suffering and find our way back into an ever
evolving world to bear witness to the value of
life.
Sylvester Stallone directs and stars as Rambo,
filmed on location in and around Chiang Mai, Thailand.
RAMBO is based on the characters created by David
Morrell. Written by Art Monterastelli and Sylvester
Stallone. Rambo is produced by Avi Lerner,
Kevin King -Templeton and John Thompson. Executive
Producers Jon Feltheimer, Peter Block, Harvey
Weinstein , Bob Weinstein. Executive Producers
Danny Dimbort, Boaz Davidson, Trevor Short. Executive
Producers Andreas Thiesmeyer, Florian Lechner
Randall Emmett, George Furla.
Channing Tatum and Ryan
Phillippe in Stop-Loss
Kimberly Peirce’s
Stop-Loss
Opens Friday, March 28, 2008
Starring: Ryan
Phillippe; Abbie Cornish; Channing Tatum; Joseph
Gordon-Levitt; Victor Rasuk; Linda Emond; and
Mamie Gummer.
Reviewed by Frank
J. Avella
“With
all due respect, sir, fuck the president!”
These audacious
yet cathartic words are spoken by battle-scarred
Staff Sgt. Brandon King (Ryan Phillippe) after
he is told by his superior that he’s being
‘stop-lossed’—ordered to return
to Iraq for another tour even though his term
of service is over. This ‘back door draft’
was first used by George Bush, Sr. during the
Gulf War and has been widely used during the Iraq
conflict.
Through extensive
research and interviews with returning soldiers,
director Kimberly Peirce (along with co-writer
Mark Richard) have fashioned a powerful and deeply
affecting film that examines the effect of war
on a trio of soldiers, during combat, and later,
at home.
Peirce has not
made a film since her 1999 stunner debut,
Boys Don’t Cry, which justly won Hilary
Swank her first Best Actress Oscar. Stop-Loss
more than proves she’s a picturemaking force
to be reckoned with. Passionate and ballsy, Peirce
has the filmic talents to back up her polemics.
And while Stop-Loss brings to mind some
of the best Vietnam-themed war films including:
Oliver Stone’s Platoon and Born
on the Fourth of July; Hal Ashby’s
Coming Home; Francis Coppola’s
Apocalypse Now and Michael Cimino’s
The Deer Hunter, it is in the vein of
homage, not hybridization.
The opening sequence
is filled with blood, guts, mayhem…enough
carnage to make anyone squeamish (my guest almost
had to leave, he was grateful he stayed) and sets
the bar pretty high for the events to come. Eventually,
the soldiers return home and attempt to re-assimilate
into their old lives, which is difficult for some
and near-impossible for others.
Phillippe’s
Brandon is the hub that holds his buddy-spokes
together. They include: his best friend Steve
(Channing Tatum), the tortured Tommy (Joseph Gordon-Levitt)
and Steve’s fiancée, Michelle (Abbie
Cornish).
The film is uncompromising
in it’s portrait of these Texans, how their
patriotism led to their enlisting, but how the
atrocities they witnessed and took part in overseas
have forever scarred them.
More often than
not, Peirce opts to investigate the grey areas—not
just with insights about a soldier’s duty
but when it comes to moral and ethical questions
as well. There’s a terrific scene involving
Brandon chasing a group of thieves that have just
broken into his car. We sense his outrage comes
from how he has just returned from defending his
country FOR these boys and here they are stealing
from him. As audience members we are quick to
want a certain type of justice from this scene,
but immediately find ourselves questioning that
vengeful nature in ourselves. Why it’s there.
And how far we are willing to take it.
Too many critics
have charge Stop-Loss with melodramatic
excessiveness. I don’t see it that way.
The subject matter demands that the stakes be
higher than the norm. And while the film sometimes
goes slightly over the edge—especially when
depicting Tommy’s anguish (his shooting
his wedding gift and his predictable fate)-- much
like with the work of Oliver Stone, we can forgive
the excesses. They’re almost required.
And Peirce and
Richard are savvy enough to avoid most of the
Hollywood-by-numbers script trappings. I applaud
the filmmakers for never taking the Phillippe/Cornish
relationship to that oh-so-predictable level.
They also manage to end the film on a strong and
true note. I have read a few negative reviews
from respected right-wing critics that completely
missed the point of the ending. This is not surprising
since supporters of Bush and the war usually see
ONLY what they want to see anyway--or what they're
told they should be seeing.
Ryan Phillippe,
so effective in Clint Eastwood’s Flags
of Our Fathers last year, does his best work
to date as the beleaguered Brandon, at first content
to do his duty, but slowly waking to certain realities.
It’s a bracing and complex performance.
Newcomer Channing
Tatum makes good on the promise he showed in A
Guide to Recognizing Your Saints. Tatum takes
some great acting risks and they pay off resoundingly
while Joseph Gordon-Levitt adds another terrific
performance to an ever-growing resume’ of
impressive turns. Victor Rasuk is heartbreaking
as Rico, a wounded soldier who’s spirits
have not yet diminished.
Atypical for any
type of war-oriented film, women are allowed some
great moments as well. Abbie Cornish (who resembles
a young Nicole Kidman) is perfectly understated
as the confused Michele. Linda Emond embodies
everymom with a quiet power that is breathtaking.
And Mamie Gummer leaves her mark in a smallish
role and proves spookily reminiscent of her mother’s
(Meryl Streep) Deer Hunter performance
thirty years ago.
Production values
are excellent throughout with the great Chris
Mendes doing stunning camerawork. John Powell’s
score is potent and appropriately haunting.
At one point Peirce
uses a song by country superstar and resident
war-monger, Toby Keith to highlight just how misguided
so many of our young men were post-September 11th.
The ditty, “Courtesy of the Red, White and
Blue (The Angry American),” was written
to inspire our boys to want to seek revenge for
that tragedy. The problem was it also asked us
to blindly trust a President with his own agenda.
And while Keith never had to take responsibility
for the blood on his hands, true Americans like
the Dixie Chicks were vilified and demonized for
speaking out against an unjust war and a horrific
President.
If you haven’t
guessed, I do not support the evil that is George
W. Bush. And I do not understand how so many Americans
were blinded into believing he was invading Iraq
because of 9/11 when one thing had NOTHING to
do with the other. Finally, I will never understand
the mindset that says we are not allowed to be
critical of our President—especially when
he blunders big time. I state all this so all
my biases are up front.
Stop-Loss has
the guts to say certain things that desperately
need to be said. It is not only the best film
of 2008 to date, it happens to be the first relevant
film to deal with the Iraq War.
It was recently
reported that, in the five years since we invaded
Iraq, over 4,000 Americans are now dead. And,
as far as Bush is concerned, we are staying put.
Even the promise of a new President may not make
a withdrawal possible for a while to come since
there are many political factors to take into
account. Leaving, at this stage, might be more
detrimental for us. It’s all terribly frightening
and no one seems to care as much any more. Call
it Iraq War-fatigue, but Americans seem disinterested.
Stop-Loss is
an important reminder that our boys are still
dying AND is an accurate account of just one of
the legion of ways the Bush Administration has
turned our country into a borderline fascist regime
where the Commander-in-Chief can ride roughshot
over laws that have existed for over two hundred
years—laws that are supposed to protect
us as a democracy.
I urge everyone
to see this remarkable film; it has something
important to say and does so in a damned entertaining
and inspiring way.
Alex Gibney’s
Taxi to the Dark Side
Opens Friday, January 18, 2008
Reviewed at the
2007 Tribeca Film Festival by Julia Sirmons
“Americans
want to believe that we’re more moral than
the rest of the world,” says a military
interrogator interviewed in Taxi to the Dark
Side, a gripping new documentary about the
US military’s torture policy. The comment
provokes the film’s director, Alex Gibney,
to ask the man if he shares that belief. He pauses
for a moment. “I think that’s bullshit,”
he replies.
It’s a sentiment
that will doubtless be shared by everyone who
sees Taxi, a powerful and well executed film that
boils over with an infectious outrage, and that
establishes Gibney (who also directed 2005’s
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room)
as a powerful and confident voice in contemporary
documentary filmmaking.
While it shares
many of the attributes that made Enron so powerful,
Taxi is more of a mirror image than a
carbon copy of Gibney’s previous film. Enron
started with a story of corruption in the highest
echelons of power (the malfeasance of company
bigwigs Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling) and
argued that it was indicative of a much larger
culture of corporate greed and recklessness that
pervaded an entire institution. Conversely, Taxi
starts with a single incident perpetrated by interrogators
at Bagram prison in Afghanistan (many of whom
were later transferred to Abu Ghraib) and makes
a persuasive case that this and other examples
of detainee torture and homicide were not, as
high-ranking military personnel maintained, the
work of “a few bad apples,” but rather
the result of willful obfuscation and vagueness
from the top of the military chain of command,
perpetrated with the intention of tacitly condoning
violations of the Geneva Conventions.
The result, Gibney
maintains, was that military personnel –
particularly interrogators – never knew
what protocol to follow when dealing with detainees.
(He repeatedly stresses the fact that, despite
numerous requests, staff at Bagram and Abu Ghraib
never received written directives on what they
could and could not do in interrogations.) This
uncertainty, coupled with constant reminders of
the threat of terrorism and an immense pressure
for “results” (which generally meant
extracting confessions, whatever the cost) led
to abuse of power on a wide scale. In the end,
it was the soldiers who were punished, while none
of the superior officers (or government officials)
who deliberately failed to guide or correct them
have been charged, tried or disciplined.
Gibney starts off
with the story of Dilawar, an Afghan taxi driver
from a remote village arrested (on no evidence
and the word of corrupt Northern Alliance troops)
and detained in Bagram prison, where he died as
the result of injuries sustained from brutal beatings.
After the autopsy, the military coroner ruled
his death a homicide. New York Times
reporters Carlotta Gall and Tim Golden pursued
the story, alerting the public to the issue of
detainee torture.
From here, Gibney
travels to Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, effectively
arguing that the chilling accounts and photos
of prisoner torture at Abu Ghraib were part of
a more widespread use of psychological manipulation
– including humiliation, sensory and sleep
deprivation, and intimidation – in prisoner
interrogations by military personnel. He convincingly
