Dogs Bark

Unlock This Door - - Midnight In Paris (2011) - - 23 December 2011

Strongly recommended. Did you ever want to see Woody Allen do a Twilight Zone episode? Me neither. In fact, before Midnight In Paris arrived, I couldn’t even imagine Alvy Singer writing a time-traveling, fantasy story. Yet here we have it. And it’s grand. Witty, wise and warm, like a Cole Porter (Yves Heck) song, with a spirited cast having the best of times in old Par-ee, i.e. Kathy Bates as Gertrude, Alison Pil as Zelda, Adrien Brody as Dali.  Best among these is the Second Lady of France, Marion Cotillard, whose breathtaking smile outradiates her hometown lights. Actually the First Lady also shows up and does fine as a museum guide. I still have a problem with Owen Wilson but his gawkiness somehow fits here. And what Woody did artistically for Manhattan, he repeats here, with camera setups of painterly composition (art direction: Anne Seibel, Munich, cinematography: Darius Khondji, Evita, Se7en). Enchanté!

Sold Short - - Margin Call (2011) - - 22 December 2011

Not recommended. Although it’s a well-made and acted movie, there’s a fundamental dishonesty about Margin Call. At one point Jeremy Irons, playing the thinly disguised CEO of Lehman Brothers, says, “There are three ways to make a living in this business: be first, be smarter, or cheat. And we don’t cheat.” Ummm, yes you do. You were supposedly told by both Demi Moore and Kevin Spacey a year before that your short term gains were exposing your investors to unacceptable, in hindsight, Krakatoan, risk. Ignoring a warning is cheating. Unfortunately, the real Lehman CEO never went to jail, but the plot of Margin Call makes it seems like these 1% guys are pall bearers instead of the real murderers.  Given the director’s Wall Street pedigree, I think this is no oversight. But not to fault Spacey, Irons and Moore, who play their parts with more honesty than the script provides.

You’ll Laugh! You’ll Cry! - - The Descendents (2011) - - 17 December 2011

Strongly recommended.  When a story hits ‘close to home’ one is always distrustful of enthusiasm. Is it all just about me? But oft as not, a self-critical step backwards allows a better and more distanced appraisal. This done, The Descendents is one of the best and Oscar-worthiest movies I’ve seen this year. Alexander Payne (Election, Sideways), Nat Faxon and Jim Rash have translated Kaui Hart Hemmings’ applauded novel into a near perfect representation of modern Hawaiian culture. Compounding that is George Clooney’s warmly funny take on the titular, Punahou-schooled, hapa-haole royal, with a brilliant Shailene Woodley (The Secret Life of the American Teenager) as his eye-rolling Kaiulani. There are such pitch-perfect performances scattered herein that the credit must go to Payne’s direction. Like Sideways, he gives us a story so interwoven with comedy and sadness that it becomes the cloth of life. Check the Globe nominations; it’s not just me.

Hello Kitty! - - Blind Woman’s Curse [Kaidan Nobori Ryu] (1970) - - 15 December 2011

Recommended. Blind Woman’s Curse (aka The Tattooed Swordswoman, Black Cat's Revenge) is another Japloitation classic from the helm of acclaimed 'erotic-grotesque' auteur Teruo Ishii (Horrors Of Malformed Men). We have Uma Thurman’s role supermodel, Meiko Kaji (Lady Snowblood), as a vengeful yakuza chick and like Horrors, Ishii employs to full effect Butoh founder, Tatsumi Hijikata. This time he's a shape-shifting hunchback, appearing in either feline or human form, who, après carnage, laps up the blood. At one point, because of the lack of nudity to that point, the characters fight their way through an opium den of topless prostitutes. Are you following? This is a gorgeous, gory, Guignol of a car wreck, subverting both the kaidon and yakuza genres. Perhaps most incredible is the only appearance - - brilliant actually - - of Hiroko "Hoki" Tokuda, Henry Miller’s last ex-wife, as the titular blind woman. In 1970, she was 28, he was 75. Sweet.

Cold Supper - - In a Better World [Hævnen] (2010) - - 11 December 2011

Recommended. This is a borderline recommendation.  The fact that the film won the Foreign Film Oscar back in April probably swayed me but Biutiful was the clearly superior film.  The Danish title actually means ‘revenge,’ which, theme-wise, might have been the road better taken; In A Better World begs a question not answered by the plot and absent that, I have problems with the - -  literal - - cheek turning in this preferred existence. Too much Josey Wales in me, I reckon. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, the acting works hard to convince us. Foremost is the brilliant effort of William Jøhnk Nielsen as the vengeful kid, radiating a cold energy that overwhelms the adult actors, although Mikael Persbrandt is also strong. Intercutting the Danish plot with an African interlude on tribal retribution seems condescending, as does the ending . . . all this unrepresentative of director Susanne Bier’s obvious talent, but never boring.

Space Dementia - - Melancholia (2011) - - 4 December 2011

Not recommended. According to an interview, Lars von Trier started thinking about Melancholia when he was told by his therapist that depressive people handle hopeless situations better than rational folk.  So in order to explore that dubious proposition he (spoiler alert) smashes Earth and Kirsten Dunst’s naked body into another planet. Talk about acting out! I’ve never really understood clinical depression and Melancholia just confuses me more.  The story starts inexplicably with the worst wedding . . . ever . . . self-sabotaged by the bride and her neurotic parents. Jeez Kirsten, I know you’re depressed but it’s not the end of the world. Oh. But seriously, there are LOTS of reasons to be bummed nowadays, including the destruction of our habitat, culture, Republican presidential candidates, even the death of film.  But this dull ax never cuts that deep.  Melancholia is a triumph of beautiful imagery, pretty faces, even Wagnerian opera, over ideas - - content confused with creation.

Sweetening The Snatch Of The Sunrise - - Howl (2010) - - 3 December 2011

Recommended.  When Howl debuted, the mixed reviews worried me. I unreservedly love the poem and Allen Ginsburg and feared for them.  But I think many reviewers measured the movie as biography . . . a serious error, for Howl is not.  It was the intention - - successfully executed - - of director/writers Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman (The Times of Harvey Milk) to (re)create a cultural nursery, a mirror ball of breaking vision, a uniquely poetic documentary. James Franco’s excellent impression of a Ginsburg interview, his premier reading of Howl at the Six Gallery in San Francisco and the local obscenity trial that followed is montaged into a lissome daisy chain of pop authenticity. Least effective is Eric Drooker’s animation intercut into Franco’s recitation, heartfelt, but unfortunately reminiscent of an anti-depressant drug commercial. The dénouement comes with the trial when Jon Hamm, David Strathairn and Bob Balaban calmly and respectfully replay the censorship attitudes of 1957.