Dogs Bark

But You Can't Come In - - Hereafter (2010) - - 28 April 2011

Recommended.  I don’t know if screenwriter Peter Morgan (The Queen, Frost/Nixon) or director Clint Eastwood is the sly boots here. Maybe it’s executive director Steven Spielburg. Whatever the case, Hereafter is one of the most deftly under-the-radar movies of the last year. Most other critics never got the joke and my epiphany arrived in the last reel. To set the table, the movie starts with a tsunami, violently tearing one of the three, Babel-like, protagonists away from her lover. And it ends with a first date. In between are a lot of lonely people looking for lost love, another great Matt Damon performance as a wandering psychic and a little boy minus his dead twin. They may all long for a heaven, to various degrees of uncertainty, as do many people but, in the end, Hereafter says nothing about death. It’s about the here and now, the you and me.

White Pazuzu - - Coup de Torchon (1981) - - 26 April 2011

Recommended.  I guess this is the movie that gave director Bertrand Tavernier the courage to try and adapt Louisiana pulper James Lee Burke two years ago (In The Electric Mist), a highly underwhelming film. But Tavernier, does much better with big Jim Thompson’s short novel, Pop. 1280, shape-shifted from the American South to French West Africa. In fact, this is one of the better versions of the Thompson dystopia. There is no writer as perverse as Thompson, worse even than Cain. His pulp quivers crimson, the copper taste choking your nose. The affability of Lucien Cordier (Philippe Noiret) as with Lou Ford of The Killer Within Me, spotlights the perversion of modern life, all its cruelty in sharp contrast. Everyone in this village is venal. The frequent religious references suggest that they aren’t acting alone.  I hope I never know how a psychopath really thinks; Thompson watched the video.

Midnight's Orphans - - A Mighty Heart (2007) - - 18 April 2011

Recommended. I’m happy I waited a few years to see this. Back when it came out, this was very raw. The beheading of Daniel Pearl was, all alone, such a barbaric act that it was difficult to comprehend. It still is . . . making A Mighty Heart that much more dramatically stronge. And Mariane Pearl is less of a public figure now, allowing a fairer evaluation of Angelina Jolie’s skillful characterization. Jolie draws a highly satisfying and complex portrait of a woman so close to the edge that when she does finally collapse, there is near-perfect plausibility. In fact, director Michael Winterbottom quite intelligently spends his effort not on Pearl and his captors, who remain incomprehensible, but on the anticipation of an evolving horror. Strong performances are added by the current universal Indian, Irrfan Khan (Slumdog Millionaire, The Namesake) and Will Patton (Armageddon, Wendy And Lucy), as an ominous State Department spook.

Watch Your Hat And Coat - - Night Club (2011) - - 7 April 2011

Not recommended. Because it’s not a good movie. Tyro helmer Sam Borowski’s Night Club is poorly made with a weak story and a weaker pair of romantic leads, Zachary Abel and Madison Liddy. All that out of the way, you still may want to see it. In lieu of all that silly production and screenwriting (also supplied by Borowski), the movie offers a cast that includes Ernest Borgnine, Mr. and Mrs. Mickey Rooney, Sally Kellerman, Rance Howard, Clint Howard and Maynard from the pawn shop in Pulp Fiction (Duane Whitaker). Did I mention a completely non-sequitor singing appearence by Paul Sorvino? All of these children of Cocoon seem to have a ball; however, a line-up doth not a World Champion make. Ask the Yankees. But despite the mayham, Borgnine and Kellerman give us a solid nine innings. Ernie’s 95 and it’s been 30 years since he made Escape From New York. Amazing!

Note: Night Club premiered at the 2011 Phoenix Film Festival. Ms Kellerman was present and lovely so don’t be concerned by her old woman make-up in the movie.

Engine Needs Work - - The Adjustment Bureau (2011) - - 3 April 2011

Not recommended. The first lesson in critic’s class: review what they brought you, not what you wanted. But what if they brought you a movie that strums your most personal heartstrings for the first two movements, then veers off into an implausible and trite final crescendo. For The Adjustment Bureau, Matt Damon plucks another perfect note performance and the music between his character and Emily Blunt's heroine seems totally unforced. I was actually getting choked up as their romance started to culminate.  John Slattery is delightful as the sort of smarmy archangel I’ve always wanted to bitch slap.  But just as you think scribbler-turned-helmer George Nolfi story is about to say something real about love, destiny and sacrifice, he starts theologically soiling himself, evincing all the depth of a Dan Brown novel and zero PK Dick. The much wiser Inception never cast God as the dumbass splashing coffee on your shirt. 

The Albee Of Riverdale - - Bone (1972) - - 29 March 2011

Recommended. Cult director Larry Cohen (God Told Me To, It’s Alive!) is one of those small mammals dodging the big lizards in Jurassic Park. He has consistently - - stubbornly - - toiled over a portfolio of movies that define the zero-budget auteur. With enough luck, or the enormous talent to overcome bad luck, he’d be placed between Jim Jarmisch and David Lynch at the Big Feed. He won't be . . . but we have his string of quirky movies to gnaw on. They're all interesting; Bone was his first. Using the under-valued talents of Yaphet Kotto (Live And Let Die, Alien) as the mysterious hard one and the TVLand familiarity of Andrew Duggan (Seven Days in May) and Joyce Van Patten (The Falcon and the Snowman), he creates a still-true, thoughtful little fable of race and fear in America. His DVD commentary details the sadly un-thoughful way Hollywood butchered the distribution of Bone, dooming it to obscurity.