Dogs Bark

Out of the African Closet - - The World Unseen (2008) - - 29 October 2010

Recommended. It’s difficult to recommend a movie that succeeds so well in some aspects but flounders in others. Extracted from her novel about Indian immigrants living in 1950’s South Africa, Shamim Sarif directs a well-made film. Sarif combines conventional, pretty, photography with powerful acting from gorgeous Indian-Canadian actress Lisa Ray, gorgeous Indian-American actress Sheetal Sheth and some other people. In other words, the movie is mostly about Ray and Sheth and in that, The World Unseen melts the acetate.  Sorry Bevis but there’s no consummation on the screen; however, this is still excellent lesbo softcore. What’s short-changed is the serious side of the racism and sexism of apartheid, particularly the story’s conclusion.  Although Sarif gives ample proof of the brutality of the dominant white culture, a tacit acceptance of the affair is suggested. This is a disservice to the girls who, in real life, did not garner a happy ending.

All I Know Is What I Feel - - The Left-Handed Gun (1958) - - 25 October 2010

Strongly recommended.  The title of this ground-breaking Western, according its director, Arthur Penn, comes from a 1920’s postcard of a famous tintype of William Bonney, Billy the Kid, awkwardly holding a rifle.  The picture was carelessly reversed on the postcard making the right-handed Bonney (Paul Newman) into his own ambidexterous body double. And so Penn began riffing on a still-true theme, taking him through Bonnie And Clyde and Little Big Man - - that the bedlam of entertainment, like a senseless child, inevitably shatters the fact. Now that Penn is gone we still have this remarkable first movement, a true claster of icons, to remember him by. Newman and the cast are wonderful, particularly Hurd Hatfield as a recently homaged (Unforgiven), Wild West journalist and lawman Denver Pyle, also soon to reprise himself for Penn in Bonnie And Clyde. Wade in Alexander Courage’s big wet score, which eventual lofted him to TV’s Final Frontier.

Reading, Writing And Razor Blades - - Un Prophète [A Prophet] (2009) - - 14 October 2010

Strongly recommended. To ensure the perpetuity of crime what better way is there then to school a subculture of criminals, released back into mainstream society only after perfecting their rage and cunning. But then I live in a country that locks down a quarter of the World’s incarcerated population and boasts a horrific violent crime rate. Don’t know where France is on that list (Sarkozy's just getting started) but Jacques Audiard’s film, A Prophet, indicates the stupidity of this trajectory. The film takes the evolution of an illiterate Franco-Arab delinquent, masterfully played by Tahar Rahim (Inside), from fresh meat to Tony Montana over a six-year sentence.  He’s tutored by a Corsican Don Corlione, also well acted by Niels Arestrup (The Beat That My Heart Skipped), who must inevitably confront his protégé. The intermittently brutal and subtle film is a little long and predictable but this does not diminish its power.

No Method In His Madness - - Shock Corridor (1963) - - 12 October 2010

Not recommended. This cult classic from the pen and helm of Sam Fuller is a difficult film to review. Although it’s a classic to many film scholars, most of them call Shock Corridor ‘wild eyed’ or ‘over the top.’ I find the movie all of the above but wish Fuller had restrained himself for once. A crazy film about madness just doesn’t work, ask Scorsese about that island in Boston Harbor. Peter Breck (The Big Valley) plays a reporter who gets himself committed in order to solve a murder. Constance Towers (The Naked Kiss) does not get much to work with here, despite playing a stripper. In fact, the acting is unconvincing throughout; the occasional foray into social commentary is equally clumsy. Still, when Breck gets jumped in the ‘nympho ward,’ the retinas get a memorable burning. See it if you suffer from Fullermania but others can skip the treatment.

City Of The Flies - - El Traspatio [Backyard] (2009) - - 2 October 2010, Scottsdale International Film Festival

Recommended. You don’t want to watch this very good movie at the end of a bad day. The recent drug cartel violence in Mexico has overshadowed it but anywhere from 400 confirmed to 5000 suspected murders of young women have occurred in Ciudad Juarez in the last twenty years. The plot of Backyard concerns, in straight procedural, split-narrative fashion, the convergent fates of a recently arrived village girl (Adriana Paz), and a new Federal investigator of the killings, played by Mexican Telenovela veteran Ana de la Reguera. De La Reguera plays her part with restraint, only occasionally displaying how the poison of the crimes is entering her soul. Jimmy Smits is her quarry and sets up a predictable catharsis. The movie seems to believe that the killings are the product of anti-normative misogyny (gang rape) acted out in a lawless environment of corruption and ineptitude. A very disturbing diagnosis, if valid.

The Kids Are Alright, Inshallah - - The Taqwacores (2010) - - 2 October 2010, Scottsdale International Film Festival

Strongly recommended.  Eyad Zahra’s first feature, The Taqwacores, is a rare movie in which the heart-felt power of the film makes any complaint seem mean-spirited. If you remember Spike Lee at the beginning, this is what I’m talking about. Like Lee, Zahra also has a talent for finding young actors to pull it off. The movie hinges on Iranian newcomer Bobby Naderi, who plays Yusif, a naïve engineering student who rooms in the Muslim punk community of Buffalo, NY (Yes. It exists.). He fronts a brilliant ensemble, all excellent, but led by Dominic Rains as a Mohawked mad prophet and the ravishing Noureen DeWulf as Rabeya, a head-to-toe Burka’d, stand-up funny, radical Islamic feminist and cohabitant of Yusif’s house. What emerges from the veil is Islam 180 degrees from Bin Laden, an Islam that only could be made in America, an Islam that just could lead to world peace. As-Salamu Alaykum!

Hallyday On Ice - - Vengeance (2009) - - 2 October 2010, Scottsdale International Film Festival

Recommended. The latest neo-noir from Hong Kong action auteur, Johnnie To, Vengeance has a lot going for it . . . and going on. First is the strange replacement of French actor Alain Delon, who the lead was written for, with French 60’s pop star Johnny Hallyday. His character, Francis Costello (yeah, I know), a maybe retired hit man, is seeking reparation for a murdered family, dredging up Charlie Bronson, who Hallyday now resembles. He hires three Hong Kong killers led by a wonderfully laconic Anthony Wong (Infernal Affairs), who reminds one a bit of Takashi Shimura. Yeah, this is a strange combination of Seven Samurai, Death Wish, and even a little Memento. That sounds like a mess, I know, but Vengeance works splendidly.  The very violent story is sutured together by family meals, beginning and ending so. And it confirms that vengeance is a dish best left out in the cold.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99phlP_e2Rw

Homage Des Homage - - Mesrine: The Killer Instinct (2008) - - 2 October 2010, Scottsdale International Film Festival

Recommended. Although not well known in the US, Jacques Mesrine was one of France’s most notorious bank criminals. He wrote his own legend in the 70’s - - literally - - with the memoir that inspired this movie. In this workman-like rendition, Vincent Cassel (Eastern Promises) does a powerful job as Mesrine, broadcasting brutality through his frame and determined jaw. Gérard Depardieu (The Last Metro) plays Mesrine’s godfather/mentor with snarling charm. Cécile De France is attractive as Bonnie to Mesrine’s Clyde. Much of this movie concerns the celebrity of crime and it follows, without pretense, Mesrine’s rise to criminal superstardom. Despite this, the camera tricks it up a few times for reasons unclear to me. I also found the music (Eloi Painchaud) a bit over the top, often building towards . . . nothing. Part two, Mesrine, Public Enemy # 1 was also at the festival but I’ll wait for Netflix.

Like Riding A Bicycle - - Protektor (2009) - - 2 October 2010, Scottsdale International Film Festival

Strongly recommended. The test of a great movie is when it gives you a brand new trip on a well-worn road. So it goes with Protektor, a visually stunning film (2010 Czech Republic foreign language Oscar nominee) that approaches its tale with a subtle grace and astonishing maturity from its tyro director, Marek Najbrt. The story concerns a beautiful Jewish film actress (the stunning Jana Plodková ) married to a Gentile radio announcer (Marek Daniel, Kolya) who desperately attempts to save her from the Holocaust. It's the slowly pressured evolution of the relationship between Plodková and Daniel that sets this movie apart from other Holocaust stories. I won’t spoil it but, suffice to say, the teeter-totter of survival and collaboration, with a predictable climax, is a central theme. I’d be remiss not complimenting production director Ondrej Nekvasil's support for the narrative, aided by Miloslav Holman's excellent photography.