300 Blows So Turn To Some New Release DVD Relief

So I made it out to see the #1 movie in the US of A earlier tonight. I knew going in that it wasn't really my genre (so keep that in mind - obviously I'm in the minority as the box office indicates) but I gave it a whirl. Now I'll take a stab at a review :

300 (Dir. Zach Snyder, 2006)

"This isn't going to be over quickly and you will not enjoy it."
- Theron (Dominic West)

My sentiments exactly. The Battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C. is told in tortuously tedious terms here. Based on Frank Miller's graphic novel, 300 is relentlessly stylised beyond any level of actual human connection. Much of the time it resembles a vacous video game or a glib expensive TV or historically themed magazine ad with it's artificial gold or silver-hued grainy surface. A passionless sex scene early in the film is shot just like a Calvin Klein Obsession commercial. King Leonidas (a mightily melodramatic Gerald Butler) leads the obsessively dedicated but small army of 300 Spartans, who with their red capes and bare chiseled chests march through the hills looking like the scariest Chippendales review ever.

In this gallant Kamikaze mission they take on waves of thousands of attacking Persians in stop/start MATRIX-ish methods like frozen in mid-air assault positions and slo-mo floating droplets of blood all done as CGI composition on top of blue-screen backgrounds. None of it feels or looks real, and I know that's precisely the point but I never felt anything for any of the characters and none of the countless deaths - many by spear - pierced through my bored indifference. With none of the soul of the best action war epics 300 dies just as dreary a death as the heroes it depicts.

Now some more new Release DVD reviews. Enjoy!

TIDELAND (Dir. Terry Gilliam, 2006) Only film fans who haven't been paying attention would be unaware of Terry Gilliam's near complete ostracisation from the world of commercial film. The ex-Monty Python member is notorious for ferociously fighting major studio heads, plentiful production problems, and wildly going over budget leaving numerous projects stalled in development hell and making him ineligible to direct movies he would be perfect for - like one or two of the HARRY POTTER movies for example. If one were to put on the DVD for TIDELAND having not read anything about it (and with little to no promotion that's very possible) they may be surprised to see Gilliam at the beginning of the film giving a disclaimer/introduction. In a shadowy grainy black and white headshot that's almost as scary an image as anything in TIDELAND Gilliam states :

"Many of you are not going to like this film. Many of you luckily are going to love it. And then there are many of you who won't know what to think when the film finishes but hopefully you will be thinking."

He goes on to explain that the film is seen through the eyes of an innocent child and that while viewing it one should forget what they know as a cynical adult. Easier said than done but once TIDELAND gets going it casts a long lasting spell as potent as one's most fantastical child-hood day dream (or nightmare). The child in question in this adaptation of Mitch Cullin's 2000 novel is Jeliza-Rose (10 year old Jodelle Ferland) who has a SHINING-like habit of talking to her index finger alternately wearing 5 different doll-heads who each have bitchy personalities and voices of their own only heard by her. When her junkie mother Queen Gunhilda (a typically crazy Jennifer Tilly) dies early on from a heroin overdose, Jeliza -Rose's father Noah (Jeff Bridges doing what appears to be a Kris Kristofferson impression to ward off comparisons with Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski) buses them out to the middle of nowhere (actually Saskatchewan) to hide out in his long deceased Mother's abandoned farmhouse. Then things start to get weird.

Before long Jeliza-Rose meets her neighbors - the one-eyed witchy Dell (Janet McTeer) and the epileptic Dickens (Brendan Fletcher)who excitedely plots destruction by way of dynamite derailing a passing passenger train that he thinks is a monster shark. Noah also dies of an overdose, from a fix prepared by his dutiful daughter no less and Dell performs taxidermy on his corpse so it can still join them at a place at the dinner table come mealtimes - "he looks like a burrito" Jeliza-Rose exclaims. It's all seen in tilted camera angles and wide panoramic shots that enhance the orange wheat field landscape. The stark reality that originally grounds the film continually threatens to escape into Jeliza-Rose's Alice In Wonderland-influenced dementia. The scenes between Fletcher and Ferland come close to having inappropriate sexual overtones but remembering Gilliam's warning and sensing the true tone should eliminate any uncomfortable tension.

TIDELAND appears to be the worst reviewed movie Gilliam has ever made. It has a 26% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.com (the site that tailies up the major critic's ratings) and the words "ugly", "pointless", "murky" and especially "unwatchable" come up in just about every review. Well I'm going against the tide here - this is a moving and darkly beautiful masterpiece. Ferland wonderfully carries the movie with even her doll’s head’s (and one squirrel) voices playing the right heartbreaking notes and every scene is perversely perfect in it’s construction. So as Giliam predicted I am luckily among the few who loved it.

HALF NELSON (Dir. Ryan Fleck, 2006) A young African American female student named Drey (Shareeka Epps) at an inner-city high school walks in on her white 20-something-year old teacher Dan Dunne (Ryan Gosling) smoking crack in the girl's locker room. They form an unlikely friendship and get worrisome windows into each other's troubled lives. Epps is growing up too fast in a world of dealers and street crime while Gosling (Oscar nominated though everyone knew he wouldn't win) is in a state of stunted growth muddling his conviction for teaching Civil rights history and coaching the girl's soccer team.

More tension arrives in the form of Anthony Mackie as the impeccably smooth Frank - a pusher and family friend of Drey's that Dunne warns Drey to stay away from. A stilted confrontation between the 2 men occurs but the level of conflict is low and surprisingly speech-free. Purposely gritty and well acted HALF NELSON works as an exercise in realism with no sappy wrap-ups or enforced morals. Well acted with a sober intensity throughout makes one feel that they've spent an hour and 40-something minutes with some real people and that's very rare these days.

FAST FOOD NATION (Dir. Richard Linklater, 2006)
It would be easy to label this a brother or sister film to THANK YOU FOR SMOKING as a dramatized indictment of big corrupt corporations and their consequences on everyday people but FAST FOOD NATION contains none of that film's semi-successful sense of satire, cynicism or exaggerated allegory. Taking Eric Schlosser's best selling muckraking non-fiction book and throwing out all but the title and it's central issues, Linklater gives us several tangled narratives - unfortunately none compelling enough to really have impact. In one thread that is dropped half-way through a Mickey's (a fictional McDonald's type chain) exec. Don Anderson (Greg Kinnear) investigates claims that manure may be in the beef. In another, Mexican immigrants (Wilmer Valderrama, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Ana Claudia Talancn) work at an incredibly unsavory meat proccessing plant and have their lives compromised at every turn. Then there's also Amber (Ashley Johnson) - a teenage employee of a Mickey's that is developing activist ideals while her co-workers plot a possible robbery of their own establishment. Not to forget the pointed cameo by Bruce Willis or the pointless cameo by Linklater regular Ethan Hawke.

The strong cast (including Kris Kristofferson, Luis Guzman, Patricia Arquette, and Avril Lavigne!) and Linklater's mastery of dialogue driven scenes is what this movie has got going for it but the overall unpleasantness and lack of new insight into this material makes it unappetizing in a different way than it set out to be. Seeing the factory killing floor in action in any context is disturbing and eye-opening, here though it doesn't have the intended effect of enhancing all the loose threads. FAST FOOD NATION has its civil conscience in the right place, sad that it's cinematic heart isn't.

Correction : In a post earlier this year I listed INDIANA JONES 4 as a movie to look forward to in 2007. It's reported release date is actually May 22nd, 2008. Also I was told by a loyal film babble reader that the last time Harrison Ford portrayed Indiana Jones was not in INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE (1989) but here.

More later...

Charlie Kaufman's Curse, A Downbeat Durham, & Tenacious D Gets Dissed

“Dramatic irony - it’ll fuck you every time.”
Dr. Jules Hibbert (Dustin Hoffman) STRANGER THAN FICTION

Okay, I promised some new release DVD reviews last so here goes :

STRANGER THAN FICTION (Dir. Marc Forster, 2006) When bland by-the-book IRS auditor Harold Crick (Will Ferrell) hears a disconnected voice narrating the mundane moments of his daily routine then foretelling his death, naturally a modern movie-goer would expect a full-out Ferrell freak-out. Well despite some yelling at the Heavens what we get is a questioning rational note-taking far-from-frantic Ferrell. The voice he hears belongs to Kay Eiffel (Emma Thompson) a frazzled chain-smoking acclaimed author suffering writer’s block on how to kill off her latest main character that she is unaware actually exists. As a prisoner of an enforced narrative Ferrell enlists Literary professor Dr. Jules Hibbert’s (Dustin Hoffman) help. Hibbert breaks it down to purely a question of whether Crick is a character in a comedy or tragedy. At it’s core it’s a wake up and realize that you’re alive movie with Crick coming out of his self-created shell to declare his love for abrasive tattooed bakery shop owner Maggie Gyllenhall, shake off his dull routines, and even take up the guitar while trying to get to the heart of his daunting dilemma. Three years after David O. Russell’s I HEART HUCKABEES (that also featured Hoffman) was billed as an “existential comedy” and accused of ripping off the work of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (see below), STRANGER THAN FICTION pushes the existential envelope and the Kaufmanesque approach a little further. It’s not a case of “life imitating art” or vice versa – it’s more like life challenging art to a duel but eventually agreeing to a stalemate.

The look of the film is fitting - white-washed bare backgrounds of Ferrell’s sterile hotel room-looking apartment and his fluorescent lit workplace with cubicles and filing cabinets reaching back to infinity are contrasted with the clutter of Gyllenhall’s punk bakery and Hoffman’s wood-grain ragged book-filled university office. Spoon songs fill the soundtrack with the welcome exception of Wreckless Eric’s “Whole Wide World” which Ferrell woos Gyllenhall with as the first song he learns on the guitar. The supporting cast is spot-on as well – Queen Latifah as Thompson’s assistant, Tony Hale (Arrested Development - TV-series 2003-2006), Linda Hunt, and an almost unrecognizable Tom Hulce (AMADEUS, ANIMAL HOUSE, PARENTHOOD) as Ferrell’s chubby bearded touchy-feely office counselor. STRANGER THAN FICTION is a fine film but one that never really gets airborne. It’s highly likable even as it lumbers in a state of subdued surrealism but maybe, just maybe it should have freaked out a bit.

KAUFMAN’S CURSE

Nearly every review of STRANGER THAN FICTION calls attention to the influence of writer, producer, and soon to be director Charlie Kaufman who apparently is widely acknowledged as modern cinema’s reigning meta-movie master for his films BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, ADAPTATION, and ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND. One particular phrase really stands out :

“Charlie Kaufman Lite” – Richard Corliss (TIME Magazine)

“Zach Helm's Kaufman Lite script...” - Owen Gleiberman (Entertainment Weekly)

“A cutesy, Charlie Kaufman-lite exercise in magic unrealism.” – Peter Canavese (GROUCHO Reviews)

“Charlie Kaufman-lite but enjoyable nevertheless” – Bina007 Movie Reviews

Also in the same vein :

“a charming though problematic meta-movie in Charlie Kaufman mode” – Scott Tobias (Onion AV Club)

“Zach Helm's screenplay has flagrant Charlie Kaufman ("Being John Malkovich," "Adaptation") overtones rocketing out of it that are impossible to ignore.” – Brian Ordoff (FilmJerk.com)

“Owes a considerable debt to the dual-reality-plane excursions of Charlie Kaufman” - Michael Phillips (Chicago Tribune)

And finally :

“Finally, a Charlie Kaufman movie for people who are too stupid to understand Charlie Kaufman movies.”
- Sean Burns (Philadelphia Weekly)

Congratulations Charlie Kaufman! You are now officially critical short-hand.


WELCOME TO DURHAM (Dir. Teddy Jacobs, 2006) This film isn’t listed on the IMDB (hence the lack of linkage here) and apparently Netflix doesn’t have many copies because after weeks of it being in my queue they informed me that it wasn’t available at their local shipping center and had to be sent from Worcester, MA. Funny since it’s a local interest documentary. Despite reading negative reviews I was anxious to watch this film because I lived in Durham albeit briefly. A very cheap production with harsh hissy sound and clumsy cuts, WELCOME TO DURHAM unfortunately dissolves from a history and social political lesson into hip-hop propaganda. Hard to understand interviews (a drinking game could be made out of all the times “y’know what I’m sayin’” is said) with gang members that show off their gun shot wounds as proudly as their tattoos dominate the overlong poorly structured narrative making for little balance. Only one white person is interviewed and he’s a cop.

One segment segues from recording studio footage to interviews with senior residents at the Imperial Barber Shop in the Hayti district with voice over narration by Christopher "Play" Martin* guiding us – “while the young cats in the hood are pushing ghetto music, the older cats in the hood are wondering what went wrong”. What’s wrong in this production is that the music from the preceding scene continues and the rap backing track detracts from the old timer’s facts and that’s just whacked! Sorry, all the free style in the film made me bust out that lame rhyme. An earnest effort is within and obviously Jacobs cares passionately about his subject but the implied premise that hip-hop can save Durham from itself is hardly convincing. Y’know what I’m sayin’?

* Of rap duo Kid N Play

TENACIOUS D THE PICK OF DESTINY (Dir. Liam Lynch, 2006) A friend of mine years ago (I believe upon the release of their first full length self titled album in 2001) said that he had determined that Tenacious D is funny "for about 11 minutes". Certainly the case here the first 11 minutes including a mini rock opera in which Jables (Jack Black) escapes the rule of his oppressive father (Meat Loaf singing for the first time on film since ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW) and journeys to Hollywood to chase his musical dreams is pretty funny. After that we pretty much go through the movie motions with material that was better covered in their short sketch-films that aired in the late 90's on HBO - indifferent open mic-night crowds, Sasquatch, the devotion of their only fan Lee (Jason Reed), and a never ending slew of bombastic though acoustic mock anthems.

Almost immediately after getting off the bus in LA Black meets Kyle Gass a long haired street musician with similar delusions of rock-star grandeur whom Black mistakes him for a guitar God. After being beaten up by the droogs from A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (played by a few of the Mr. Show guys - yep, it's that kind of movie) on his first night in town Black is taken under Gass's wing to be schooled in the ways of rock. Gass's cover story of previous rock glory that Black worships at the altar at is soon blown and the narrative becomes a quest involving a sacred guitar pick made from one of Satan's teeth.

The stoner slacker road-trip comedy genre is pretty cashed and so are the modern comedy conventions - obligatory supposedly surprise cameos (Ben Stiller, Tim Robbins, Dave Grohl as Satan), scatological gross-out humor, and even a car chase just for the sake of having a car chase proven by the soundtrack song "Car Chase City" blaring along. There will be hardcore fans of "the D" (as their fans call them) that will consider this a crude comic masterpiece that will become a cult classic in years to come but for the rest of us this is just a mediocre mix of BILL AND TED'S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE and THIS IS SPINAL TAP. So as Spinal Tap lead guitarist Nigel Tufnel might say on the how-many-laughs meter this "goes to eleven".

More later...

ZODIAC - A New Film Babble Blog Favorite

“No good movie is too long and no bad movie is short enough.”
- Roger Ebert

I fully agree with Mr. Ebert. Many are grumbling about the length and density of the movie in question below but you won't find any grumbling here :

ZODIAC (Dir. David Fincher, 2007) A murderer clothed in darkness or with a black hood exterminating make-out parking or picnicking young couples, police and press continuously taunted by letters and cards sent by a serial killer at large, and an obsession with solving a perplexing nightmare of a mystery that derails the lives and careers of investigators and reporters and alienates the ones closest to them – these are all thriller genre elements that have been arguably done to death. David Fincher’s ZODIAC though beautifully builds upon those frameworks with excruciating attention to detail and a sense of personal purpose that can be felt long after the film is over.

The film is based upon the infamous string of Northern Californian murders in the late 60’s and early 70’s by a man who indentified himself as Zodiac and who was never caught. Our protagonist and guide through this is Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhall) a ex-Eagle Scout turned San Fransisco Chronicle editorial cartoonist who while not assigned to the story immerses himself in the chilling codes and cryptic pronouncements that his paper and the authorities receive from the Zodiac. The Inspectors on the case David Toshi (Mark Ruffalo) and William Armstrong (Anthony Edwards) follow every possible lead, dissect every single angle, and interview every single suspect but still come up severely short on the crucial conclusive evidence needed. As time goes on with a long silence by the Zodiac – the trail grows cold leaving our heroes spiritually stumped and forever floored by the lack of closure.

With few of the stylistic flashy touches of Fincher’s previous work (SE7EN, THE GAME, FIGHT CLUB, PANIC ROOM) ZODIAC is a meticulously mesmerizing masterpiece. Despite it’s over 2 and half hour running time not a scene is wasted and it’s admirable that 70’s period piece cliches aren’t exploited. Couldn’t be any better cast – joining the principles are Robert Downey Jr, Brian Cox, Chloë Sevigny, Phillip Baker Hall, Dermot Mulroney, and John Carroll Lynch who all play the right notes with even incidental characters given sharp memorable turns by reliable bit-players (Donal Logue, Charles Fleisher, Ione Skye *, John Ennis, Adam Goldberg). Eerily effective and extremely absorbing with its “histories of ages past” and “unenlightened shadows cast” as Donovan's * "Hurdy Gurdy Man" (the song that book-ends the film) playfully but darkly suggests, ZODIAC deserves the oft quoted critic line this season never lives without – it’s truly the first great movie of the year.

* Donovan has both a song and a daughter in this film. Good for him.

New release DVD reviews and more next time on film babble.

More later...

Oscar Postpartum

"Could you double-check the envelope?"
- Martin Scorsese 02/25/07

Last night Martin Scorsese won Best Director for THE DEPARTED and today the word in all the papers, TV coverage, and online wrap-ups is "finally". Minutes later backstage he looked like he was in a state of shock when it was announced that THE DEPARTED won for Best Picture as well. I am truly happy to be wrong about that one. I had predicted BABEL and was even going to change the name of this blog to film babel for a day if it won (glad I don't have to do that). Out of the 24 categories I got 13 right. More than half but still a failing grade. Let's look over my predictions highlighting the ones I got wrong :

1.BEST PICTURE : BABEL WRONG! THE DEPARTED
2. BEST DIRECTOR : Martin Scorsese THE DEPARTED
3.BEST ACTOR : Forest Whitaker (THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND)
4. BEST ACTRESS : Helen Mirren (THE QUEEN)
5. BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR : Alan Arkin (LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE)
6. BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS : Jennifer Hudson (DREAMGIRLS)
7. ART DIRECTION – THE PRESTIGE WRONG! – PAN’S LABYRINTH
8. CINEMATOGRAPHY – CHILDREN OF MEN WRONG! – PAN’S LABYRINTH
9. COSTUME DESIGN – DREAMGIRLS – WRONG! – MARIE ANTOINETTE
10. DOCUMENTARY FEATURE – AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH
11. DOCUMENTARY SHORT – REHEARSING A DREAM WRONG! –THE BLOOD OF YINGZHOU DISTRICT
12. FILM EDITING – BABEL WRONG! – THE DEPARTED
13. MAKEUP – PAN’S LABYRINTH
14. VISUAL EFFECTS – SUPERMAN RETURNS WRONG! – PIRATES OF THE CARRIBEAN : DEAD MAN’S CHEST
15. ORIGINAL SCORE – BABEL
16. ORIGINAL SONG – “Listen” (DREAMGIRLS) – WRONG! – Melissa Etheridge for "I Need To Wake Up" THE INCONVENIENT TRUTH
17. ANIMATED SHORT – THE LITTLE MATCHGIRL WRONG! - THE DANISH POET
18. LIVE ACTION SHORT – WEST BANK STORY
19. SOUND EDITING – LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA
20. SOUND MIXING – DREAMGIRLS
21. ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY – LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE
22. ADAPTED SCREENPLAY – THE DEPARTED
23. ANIMATED FEATURE FILM – CARS WRONG! – HAPPY FEET
24. FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM – PAN’S LABYRINTH – WRONG! – THE LIVES OF OTHERS

I was very surprised I was right about Alan Arkin winning. Also the other attendees of the Oscar party I wathced the Awards at all gasped when Melissa Etheridge won for best song - in your face DREAM GIRLS!

More later...

Hey Kids, Filmbabble's Funtime Oscar Picks 2007!

This is the first time Film Babble Blog has made Academy Award predictions so I'm a bit nervous about it. I mean I haven't seen all of the nominated movies and I'm going in with a certain percentage of guts, wild guessing, and a bit of internet research (but not too much 'cause that takes the fun out of it, doncha think?) so we'll see how it plays out. It ought to be fun though so here goes -

1. BEST PICTURE : BABEL - My personal choice would be THE DEPARTED but the buzz seems to be going for this 'everybody suffers' epic. Does seem pretty likely to win after last year's 1 word suffer epic CRASH won.

2. BEST DIRECTOR : Martin Scorsese (THE DEPARTED) - It does seem like it's Marty's year but then I've thought that before. Many times before. Anyway this is very much a personal and maybe not realistic choice but I'm still going to go with him because it would be such sweet justice if it occured. If it doesn't I hope whoever wins will look his way and give Scorcese a 'sorry nod' before going on with their speech.


3. BEST ACTOR : Forest Whitaker (THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND) - I haven't seen it but have liked the trailers and most critics are pulling for him. My guess is the Academy members will too. Again this is very much a personal choice - I've liked Whitaker since seeing him in bit parts in FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH and PLATOON. His work as Charlie Parker in Clint Eastwood's BIRD is criminally underrated and solid performances in PANIC ROOM, GHOST DOG, SMOKE, and THE CRYING GAME all deserve more notice than they originally got. For surviving BATTLESHIP EARTH alone he should get some kind of special award - just sayin'.

4. BEST ACTRESS : Helen Mirren (THE QUEEN) - This seems like a shoe-in. Mirren was excellent in the royal role so I'll be very surprised if she doesn't bag this one.

5. BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR : Alan Arkin (LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE) - This is a gut choice. Many are predicting Eddie Murphy will take this for DREAMGIRLS but something makes me think otherwise. I mean every Awards has a few such surprises and this would definitely qualify as one. This may be my most unrealistic pick - while writing this I'm thinking Murphy's still gonna get it.

6. BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS : Jennifer Hudson (DREAMGIRLS) - Another I regettably haven't seen but the word on the internet streets seems to be that she's going home with the gold.

And the rest :

7. ART DIRECTION – THE PRESTIGE
8. CINEMATOGRAPHY – CHILDREN OF MEN
9. COSTUME DESIGN – DREAMGIRLS
10. DOCUMENTARY FEATURE – AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH
11. DOCUMENTARY SHORT – REHEARSING A DREAM
12. FILM EDITING – BABEL
13. MAKEUP – PAN’S LABYRINTH
14. VISUAL EFFECTS – SUPERMAN RETURNS
15. ORIGINAL SCORE – BABEL
16. ORIGINAL SONG – “Listen” (DREAMGIRLS)
17. ANIMATED SHORT – THE LITTLE MATCHGIRL
18. LIVE ACTION SHORT – WEST BANK STORY
19. SOUND EDITING – LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA
20. SOUND MIXING – DREAMGIRLS
21. ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY – LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE
22. ADAPTED SCREENPLAY – THE DEPARTED
23. ANIMATED FEATURE FILM – CARS
24. FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM – PAN’S LABYRINTH

Whew! Okay, enough with Oscar for now. I'll post after the show Sunday and we'll see how many I got wrong.

Now here's some New Release DVD reviews:

THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA (Dir. David Frankel, 2006)

"Perhaps the next Hollywood 'genius' will be the man who can design the whole movie to look like a high-powered ad." – Noted New Yorker film critic Pauline Kael (1919-2001)

In the 40-something years since Kael made that comment there have been many many movies that have looked like whole-sale high-powered ads but while watching THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA I thought of that quote quite a few times. Based on the best selling novel by Lauren Weisberger, TDWP has slick glossy direction by David Frankel (Sex and the City, Entourage), a world class wardrobe (Oscar nominated costume design, mind you) and an earnest Anne Hathaway as an aspiring journalist who gets schooled in professionalism when she suffers a stint as fashion magazine mogul Miranda Priestly’s (Meryl Streep) assistant.

Streep’s Oscar nominated performance is as acidic as it is measured and Stanley Tucci comes on acutely as a cynical clothes horse Yoda. Actually there are a number of Yodas in this movie – Hathaway gets lectured by nearly every character – Tucci, her live-in boyfriend Adrian Grenier, rival assistant Emily Blunt, and her hip friends - Tracie Thomas and Rich Sommer. This should have stayed more in a fluffy fashion world spoof mode than to pretend at all to be a statement making cautionary tale. An obvious take would be ‘it’s all style and no substance’ but it’s more apt to conclude that it’s style lusting after substance. High-powered ad nauseum. As Streep’s Miranda would say “that’s all”.

THE U.S. VS. JOHN LENNON (Dir. David Leaf & John Scheinfeld, 2006) As both hardcore and casual Beatles fans know in the eyes of the media and popular public perception there are 2 John Lennons. The 1st is quite bluntly – the rock and roll Jesus. A saint who spread nothing but words of love and peace through radical protests like bed-ins and generational anthems like “Give Peace A Chance”. A genius icon who inspired millions and whose songs are among the greatest classics ever written. And then there’s the 2nd Lennon - who quite bluntly was an asshole pop star. A huckster who put on a man-for-all-causes front while cheating on his wife, doing smack, and even harassing waitresses. The actual human being was a wicked mixture of some of those exaggerated extremes - not perfect obviously but not as fatally flawed as some perspectives claim. Well which Lennon do you think this doc gives us? Of course Lennon #1 full force who here faces off with the Nixon administration as the Vietnam War rages.

Lennon and wife Yoko Ono were undoubtedly under government scrutiny after relocating from Britain to New York in the early 70’s with deportation threatened. Talking heads Gore Vidal, Walter Cronkite, G. Gordy Liddy, Mario Cuomo, and even Geraldo Riveria tell some tasty tales about the politics, protest stunts and “power to the the people” posturing of Lennon’s self described radical period. It’s just that with the exception of a few new insights this ground has been well covered before especially by VH1 who co-produced this film. As a teaching tool perhaps – that is if one really feels that kids today have to know who Jerry Rubin, Bobby Seale, or John Sinclair are – this film may have value but as Ono approved-docs go you’re better off with IMAGINE : JOHN LENNON (Dir. Andrew Solt, 1988).

MAN OF THE YEAR (Dir. Barry Levinson, 2006) – Can’t say I wasn’t warned. By the time the red Netflix envelope containing this film’s DVD came to my mailbox I was well aware that the critics tore it a new one when it was released last fall with most complaining that it had been marketed drastically wrong. Indeed they were right - all the original trailers and TV ads made this movie look like a broad comedy along the lines of ‘what if a Daily Show type cable TV host (Robin Williams in full-throttle rapid random riffing mode) was elected president? – Wouldn’t wackiness ensue?' Well, yes for a bit wackiness ensues (about 8-10 min.) but then we are forced to stomach a parallel plot in which programmer Laura Linney discovers a glitch in the electronic ballot system that got the comical candidate into the White House. So it’s supposedly half political satire and half topical thriller. Too bad neither half works. Too bad this is such a wasted opportunity with a good cast but a lousy script (written by Levinson). Just too bad.

With his jokes about “weapons of mass distraction” (yep, that’s the level of wit here), breast implants, cellphones, and making Bruce Springsteen Secretary of State, Williams is just doing his same old shtick and it’s so sad to see Christopher Walken and Lewis Black (cast as his manager and chief writer) having little to do but sit around laughing at everything he says. In fact there are many shots of scores of people laughing at Williams’s tired antics throughout MAN OF THE YEAR. I bet there are more people in the movie laughing in the movie than there were laughing at the movie in it’s brief run in theaters and certainly more than will ever laugh at home in the years to come. This whole thing is just misguided on every level.

More later...

Subterranean Homesick Redux Blues

"If you want to laugh at a movie, may I recommend A DAY AT THE RACES starring the Marx Brothers, ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN starring Frankenstein, THE THIN MAN - William Powell and Myrna Loy, ARSENIC AND OLD LACE, BORN YESTERDAY - Broderick Crawford and Judy Holliday, Billy Wilder's cross dressing classic SOME LIKE IT HOT and of course we can't leave out Ben Stiller in ZOOLANDER. I hear they're making a sequel."
- Bob Dylan on his Theme Time Radio Hour - Laughter Edition (broadcast : 2/7/07)

Nice to have some comedy movie recommendations from Bob, isn't it? On the occasion of a release of a new Special Edition DVD of D.A. Pennebaker's ground breaking documentary of Dylan's UK solo tour in 1965 - DON'T LOOK BACK I thought it was a good time to pay tribute to it's immortal opening scene with a piece I call -

SUBTERRANEAN HOMESICK REDUX BLUES

Here are 5 homages/parodies/rip-offs of Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues” short film (some call the first music video ever, but I’m not going there) with it’s card dropping, back alley in the broad-daylight basking, indifferent i.e. ‘cool’ posing put-offing, and funny word playing is a major pop-point of reference as evidenced here:

1. BOB ROBERTS (Dir. Tim Robbins, 1992)

In many ways Right-wing folk-singing Senatorial candidate Bob Roberts's career obviously apes Bob's (for example albums titled "The Freewheelin' Bob Roberts" and "The Times Are Changin' Back") so it's no surprise that the "Subterranean Homesick Blues" scene is satirized. Re-casting it as a glitzy pro-80's corporate greed spectacle complete with Robert Palmer dancing girls and business men carrying bags of money is pure genius though. It's the kind of song you could imagine Gordon Gekko rocking out to.

2. WEIRD AL YANKOVIC – “Bob” (Music Video-2003 ) At first glance this is like any old parody of black & white Ginsberg-era Dylan but when you realize that every card contains a palindrome it’s quite a clever treat. Some are quite funny – “Lisa Bonet ate no basil", "a dog a panic in a pagoda", "do nine men interpret? nine men I nod" and "oozy rat in a sanitary zoo". Click on the the highlighted title and enjoy before YouTube removes it.

3. INXS – “Need You Tonight/Mediate” (Music video - 1987) In the “Mediate” bit of this double song video Michael Hutchence and fellow band members take turns tossing off stacks of cards with the mostly one-word lines to the song with the backdrop of some industrial lot on an overcast day. The ‘60’s revival of the 80’s was in full swing - witness the peace symbol t-shirt worn by Kirk Pengilly when he comes in to give a saxophone solo at the end.

4. CURIOUSITY KILLED THE CAT – “Misfit” (Music video - 1986) : Couldn’t find this on YouTube but pop-art God Andy Warhol himself fills Bob’s shoes and lends his particular brand of indifference to the card-dropping shtick. This time though in the popiest-artsiest sense the cards are blank! Maybe it’s pay-back for the time Warhol gave Dylan one of his paintings and Bob traded it for a couch. Ooops!

5. LOVE ACTUALLY (Dir. Richard Curtis, 2003) - Yep, even a rom com got in on the act. Mark (Andrew Lincoln) declares his hidden feelings for Juliet (Keira Knightley) by holding up and of course dropping cards that line-by-line (with some pictures) form a love letter. Okay, so - it’s not that subterranean…

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NORBIT #1 - Okay People, Everybody Stay Calm...

I mentioned to a co-worker over the weekend that I read an article about how NORBIT (#1 in the USA right now) may hurt Eddie Murphy’s chance at an best supporting Oscar for DREAMGIRLS. She said “it’s bigger than that. NORBIT is hurting America.”


I went with some friends yesterday to my favorite home town theater to see :

PAN’S LABYRINTH (Dir. Guillermo del Toro, 2006) At the end of this film (don’t worry – no spoilers) I heard someone in the audience say “WTF?” – that’s right they said the initials as the kids today are known to do – and yeah I could see where they’re coming from. This dark grotesque gothic tale is exhausting and weirded me out to the edge of my seat many times. Seen through the eyes of a young girl - Ofeila (Ivana Baquero) in Fascist Spain in 1944 we witness the violent cruel realities mostly via an evil Captain Vidal’s (Sergi López) that she and her sick pregnant mother (Ariadna Gil) suffer daily after relocating in a remote hideout in the wooded hillside under Vidal’s rule. Ofeila slowly discovers and gets drawn into a netherworld with a faun, a few fairies and one large disgusting toad. In this world she may be a Princess and may be able to find the key to open the portal to…oh jeez – this is a bit much with the over-simplified plot description! So I admired this movie more than I actually enjoyed it. While it’s freaky and fantastical to at times exhilarating extremes it could have done with a little more fun.

Now some DVD reviews :

JESUS CAMP (Dir. Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady, 2006)

“There’s a new church like this every 2 days in America. It’s got enough growth to essentially sway every election. If the evengelists vote they determine the election. It’s a fabulous life!” - Pastor Ted Haggard

The trailers with shots of churches full of children speaking in tongues with tears in their eyes may imply an in-your-face liberal expose a-brewing, but the Best Documentary Oscar nominated JESUS CAMP simply showcases several participants and their stories with an absorbing lack of slant. No voice-over narration is provided but there are bits featuring Christian Air American talk show host Mike Papantonio criticizing the movement and confronting Pentecostal children's pastor Becky Fischer on-air that serve as book-ends. Also giving the film a time period frame are radio sound-bites of the stepping down of Sandra Day O'Connor and subsequent appointment of Samuel Alito.

The bulk of the film however follows a few kids (Levi, Rachael, and Victoria) on their pilgrimage to Devil’s Lake, North Dakota for Christ camp fun! Believing they are part of “the key generation” (as Levy stresses in one of his sermons) they learn to bash science, engage in a weird coffee cup breaking ritual, fondle tiny fetus dolls while swearing to end abortion and pray for (not to – as Becky claims) a card-board cut-out of George W. Bush. The soundtrack is a bit spooky and judgmental sounding at times (though Ewing and Grady say that’s exactly what they didn’t want it to be in the commentary) but there’s a strong and sincere attempt here to put a face on a culture that may be more statistically scary than anything else.

SUPERMAN II – THE RICHARD DONNER CUT (2006 – From footage filmed 1977-1980) The basic back-story – Donner was to make SUPERMAN : THE MOVIE and SUPERMAN 2 concurrently. He filmed material for both films then the producers (Alexander & son Ilya Salkind) replaced him with Richard Lester (A HARD DAY’S NIGHT) who took Donner’s material and interjected broad slapstick humor and a smattering of narrative contrivances that fanboys have griped about for years. Still though the released Lester-only credited movie was pretty solid, did good business and is a favorite of many. Some questions lingered though - like – why did Marlon Brando not return? Was it really just because of his wanting more money? How did Superman get his powers back? What’s the deal with the memory erasing kiss Superman gives to Lois Lane? Can he really do that? Yep, silly geeky questions – but hey I was 11 when I first saw the movie.

All those questions are answered and more in SUPERMAN 2 – THE RICHARD DONNER CUT though it really doesn’t work as a real movie on it’s own. It’s more like a glorified DVD bonus extra. The seams show like crazy – Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder screen tests fill in the gaps that look like 70’s TV soap opera and boy do they clash next to the big action sequences, CGI cleansing, with rampant inconsistencies riddled throughout. Still it’s an immensely watchable curio with the restored Brando footage taking the cake. The scene where Jor El (Brando) appears and places his hand on his son’s (Reeve) shoulder granting all and then passes on is one of the most powerful moments in the entire SUPERMAN canon. So glad I finally got to see it.

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