Dogs Bark

One Bride for Two - - Brothers (2009) - - 28 September 2010

Recommended. It’s apparently the Season To Remake Scandinavian Films (c.f., Let The Right One In, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) that apparently started with this well-intentioned but flawed effort, a do-over of the Suzanne Bier’s Brødre (which I have not seen). I will, just to be fair. Irishman Jim Sheridan is the remodeler this time and he does a good job with a splendid cast. Jake Gyllenhaal and Toby McGuire play the brothers, the former, a jailbird, the latter, a Marine. Gyllenhaal gives one of his best performances, a skittery, sketchy man who is painfully constructing his mature identity. Natalie Portman, as McGuire’ wife, once again turns over her soft and sad underbelly. McGuire could use much more under-something as a crazed Afghanistan vet. Compounding this is a very sloppy script (David Benioff, Troy), rife with factual errors and short cuts . . . not unlike our national policy in Afghanistan.

Angel And Insect - - The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2009) - - 22 September 2010

Recommended. I must disclose that I haven’t read Stieg Larsson’s popular novel and some of my issues may originate therein; however, filmmakers make choices. One choice is to let faith in your character avoid narrative tautology. In a movie, this faith can be realized in a talented actress and a fleeting glance. Such is the case in Noomi Rapace’s very accomplished presentation of the titular tattooed girl, despite her vague resemblance to a waxed Prince. She is undercut, unfortunately, by a ham-fisted script that keeps little mystery in Lisbeth Salander’s weird, violent character. When a movie overexposes misogyny, I wonder whether a female director would have done it different (c.f. Hard Candy).  A woman might feel less need to hammer home Salander’s backstory of abuse and let Ms. Rapace just act it out. Whatever. I liked this slightly over long movie.  It will be interesting also to see David Fincher’s remake

Life Will Be Peaches And Cream - - The King Of Marvin Gardens (1971) - - 14 September 2010

Recommended. While it may not be a DVD you want to run out and buy, The King Of Marvin Gardens clearly has its place in film history. The movie followed the break-out classic of 70’s director Bob Rafelson, Five Easy Pieces, which also premiered the serious dramatic capabilities of Jack Nicholson. It also demonstrates the deep debt of the American New Wave to its European predecessor. It's all here.  Neo-realist, framed shots abounds in this picture, assisted by the wide camera work of the legendary László Kovács and cryptic dialogue by Rafelson and Jacob Brackman. The sound track, whispering wind and rain behind the languid clatter of the Atlantic City Boardwalk, compliments the cloudy mood of the action. And then there’s the great ensemble acting. Nicholson, Bruce Dern and Ellen Burstyn, hot, young things of the 70’s, condense a perfect fog of self-delusion. Burstyn’s crackpot charms were never more endearing than this.

The Purest Of Filth - - The Killer Inside Me (2010) - - 10 September 2010

Recommended. Last year, I was intrigued upon learning that Michael Winterbottom had cast Casey Affleck as Deputy Lou Ford in the latest version of Jim Thompson’s classic pulp, The Killer Within Me.  It seemed that Affleck’s diffident style was perfect for the passive-aggressive sadism of Thompson’s character. I didn’t even consider Jessica Alba. However, her part is key and her acting is flawless; it’s her dirty but healthy sexuality that makes her and Ford’s entwined souls so awful . . . so treacherous. We feel deliciously prurient sharing Ford’s desire until the sudden sucker punch (literally) of Alba’s fate. Look, there’s nothing but sex and violence and misogyny in this movie - -  saturated enough to keep me from recommending it to everyone and to horrify both the libertine and the prude. But the intelligence of The Killer Inside Me is Mr. Winterbottom’s realization that Mr. Thompson wanted all sides of our skin to crawl.

Is David Hyde Pierce The New Tony Randall? - - The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009) - - 8 September 2010

Recommended. I'm sort of on the fence here. On the one hand, I feel like George Pal already made this movie back in the 60’s, aka The 7 Faces Of Dr. Lao, on a much tighter budget and pretense. The earlier movie was subtler, too - - slipping a dark and demented subtext past the studio bosses. Granted, Terry Gilliam, who helmed Dr. Parnassus, had a harder time of it losing his star, Heath Ledger, halfway through the shoot and replacing him with Depp, Law and Ferrell, Esq. But that bizarre hypostasis and the loopy plot conspire to rob the flick of any narrative sense, which is optional anyway in Gilliamica. Tom Waits as Scratch is an inspired bit of casting and the fluttery Lily Cole as the Daughter of Parnassus is all by herself worth a slack-jawed drool. So don’t expect to be overwhelmed; this ain’t brain food.

Who Would Jesus Deport? - - Machete (2010) - - 5 September 2010

Recommended. So how long has it been since Grindhouse and the promise of Mexploitation making it to the screen? Well, I’ll tell you. It’s been three years and during that time reality has insanely overtaken art. This is my only issue with Machete, the fact that we have an exploitation film about something that upsets me. I really believe that American right-wing politicians are in collusion with Mexican drug cartels to distract people from the real problems along the border, which are not about illegal immigration. It’s very curious because the black exploitation movies that Machete channels were made, without irony, in a time of serious cop on Black violence. John Shaft and Sweet Sweetback were not jokes.  But aside from my picky politics, we have Tito and Tarantula’s music, Lindsey Lohan as Sister .44 Mag, and Danny Trejo suspended on a rope of intestines - - what’s not to like?

Maiden Fight - - The Crimson Mask (2009) - - 28 August 2010

Not recommended. Other commitments allowed me only one movie at the last weekend’s Albuquerque Film Festival. This was it, The Crimson Mask, by newby director Elias Plagianos. The Cannes exhibited film was also produced, written and edited by the multi-talented Mr. Plagianos, possibly for economic reasons. The modest budget of this effort shows but it is overall a brave attempt to tell a complicated story, including a sword fight, with little backing.  A washed-up boxer (Robert Clohassy) and a failed investment banker (Joshua Burrow) are manipulated by their betters - - the titular crimson maskers - - to fight to the death, with debt relief as the prize. Clearly, Plagianos has an agenda and I generally eschew such a heavy one. I also advise youngsters to try a simple story before they start writing Gravity’s Rainbow.  Nice try here, but let's see what comes next.

I Am The Grass - - Katyn (2007) - - 26 August 2010

Strongly recommended. Hard to believe it's been eleven years since the beginning of the Third Polish Republic, the one that should last until countries and borders no longer have any meaning.  Until then the world has a story of a country that has earned its place among nations at an unmatched price. Within that brutal balance sheet was the terrible episode of Katyn, the story of a mad man’s attempt to decapitate a beaten culture. If you don’t already know the story, during its Soviet-Nazi partition, Stalin ordered about 22,000 of Poland’s officers, intellectuals and politicians executed, many in a forest near the village of Katyn.   It is very cool that the story is created by one of Poland’s greatest directors, Andrzej Wajda (Man of Iron). This Oscar-nominated film tells this story simply, without invented drama but wonderful acting. And in the end, the dead tell their story best.