Dogs Bark

Magic Act - - Beasts Of The Southern Wild (2012) - - 26 January 2013

Strongly recommended I’ve written before about the South and the ways how the history of that tortured region has enriched American culture. Suffering does that. To pseudo-paraphrase Harry Lyme, there’s no magic realism in Switzerland. Now we have sea level rise and an African-American president to further bubble the cauldron. Post-racial America notwithstanding, high water’s what worries the denizens of The Bathtub, a soggy acreage in the Mississippi birdfoot.  Beasts Of The Southern Wild depicts Hushpuppy (Quvenzhané Wallis), her daddy, Wink (Dwight Henry) and assorted other Cajuns and Creoles struggling to save their post-Katrina homeland, despite knowledge that the end is nigh. We talk about bettering our future but in this zip code one can only hope to win the day and maybe - - if they’re very lucky - - one more. Brand-new writer/director Benh Zeitlin and co-writer Lucy Alibar have taken a mostly unknown, untrained cast and completed a similar, Oscar-approved, miracle.

Two Left Feet - - Take This Waltz (2011) - - 16 January 2011

Not recommended. Moral ambiguity is tricky business in the storytelling trade. If one shows, or just suggests, the consequences of poor judgment, the tale does its job; however, if the just desserts are obscured, either though ineptitude or cowardice, the narrative is worse than inadequate. Sarah Polley (Away From Her), after hitting a home run in her first directing job, lunges at an easier pitch and strikes out with Take This Waltz. While Michelle Williams (My Week With Marilyn) puts another notch in her acting belt as a conflicted wife contemplating adultery, the role is written weak and unconvincing. Much stronger is Sarah Silverman (Wreck-It Ralph), who's brilliant as Michelle’s alcoholic sister-in-law. I think Polley actually meant to show that chasing one’s idle lust does end in dissatisfaction . . . but in a culture that subverts self-control at every turn, she needed to greatly limit the ambiguity of the plot.

 

Do We Have A Problem Here? - - Zero Dark Thirty (2012) - - 13 January 2013

Recommended. There’s an argument being made that Zero Dark Thirty, Kathryn Bigelow’s (The Hurt Locker) latest description of the US in the Middle East is just glossy propaganda, even calling Bigelow the Leni Riefenstahl of our era.  I think that’s way unfair, although see Rachel Shabi in The Guardian. I dispute that Zero Dark Theory defends torture, I think it’s just expository, but the ethics of assassination and violation of Pakistani sovereignty in the hunt for Bin Laden is never even mildly questioned. Despite that message, there’s no disputing the brilliance of the medium. Right now, Bigelow is THE creator of the modern war movie, although this is more of a spy movie. Contrast the boring idiocy of the average Cruise/Damon nonsense, throw in the entirely believable, richly nuanced CIA agent played by Jessica Chastain (everything) and you have total Oscar bait. But how should we feel about that?

It’s Always Weird - - Silver Lining Playbook (2012) - - 6 January 2013

Strongly recommended.  Hollywood gets scolded for sanitizing mental illness, a preponderance of Elwood P. Dowd over the actual spittle and rage. God forbid they try a romantic comedy! But they did . . . and the result is the clumsily named but acrobatic Silver Lining Playbook. It’s testimony to David O. Russell’s (The Fighter) direction and Bradley Cooper’s (The Hangover) heretofore un-displayed acting chops that sympathy goes to his severely bipolar and obsessively abusive protagonist. Jennifer Lawrence’s (Winter’s Bone) severely bipolar, part-time nymphomaniac is a little easier to befriend. They’re surrounded by a great cast, including an equally nutty Robert DeNiro and Jacki Weaver from Animal Kingdom, all trapezing to a wonderful Danny Elfman (Beetlejuice) score. The choppy editing and Steadycam loop-de-loops are a bit distracting but add an out-of-control atmosphere to Cooper’s world. Judgment requires more suspension in the second half but the ending returns you softly - -and sweetly - - to solid ground.

Lethal Lily - - Criss Cross (1949) - - 2 January 2013

Recommended. In my opinion - - never humble - - anything you need to know about film noir is contained in the You Tube clip tagged below. Burt Lancaster (Elmer Gantry, Field Of Dreams) has returned to LA to find his ex-wife, Yvonne De Carlo (Munster, Go Home!). She’s at his old haunt, dancing the rhumba to “Jungle Fantasy” by the Esy Morales Band. Lancaster, running a slow boil, watches her go at it with a young, very horny-looking and uncredited someday superstar who I’ll let you identify. Hint: He’s Sugar Kane’s best girlfriend forever. The cast includes other brilliant character actors like Dan Duryea, (Winchester ‘73), Percy Helton (Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid) and Alfred Napier (Batman). Director and German Expressionist Robert Siodmak (The Killers), who contributed much to the noir vernacular, and cameraman Franz Planer (Roman Holiday) untangle a confusing story thread (Daniel Fuchs, Panic in the Streets) and spin gold.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYBeVquZJEg