Dogs Bark

Above Average Tragedy - - Wisconsin Death Trip (1999) - - 13 March 2013

Recommended.  Long before Scott Walker showed up, Wisconsin was an odd corner of the Universe. Suffice it to say, the peculiarities of Lake Woebegon aren’t confined to Minnesota. Back in the 1890’s a diphtheria epidemic and economic depression conspired to produce in the residents of Black River Falls, Wisconsin a flurry of outré behavior rivaling the worst of Garrison Keillor’s nightmares. Random thrill kills, suicides and demonic possession stalked the Old Northwest. The story was first told in 1973 by author Michael Lesy and later filmed as a documentary by Oscar-winning director James Marsh (Man On A Wire).  Brit-born Marsh tells the tale with gratuitous irony, robbing the drama and BAFTA-blessed photography (Eigil Bryld, In Bruges). The current residents dispute some of the original book’s claims. A more interesting and compassionate study, ala, Jim White’s  Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus, seems not his objective. Nevertheless, Wisconsin Death Trip is fascinating.

There Will Be Bloodless - - The Master (2012) - - 2 March 2013

Not recommended. It seems like ever since his remarkable debut film, Hard Eight, Paul Thomas Anderson has been struggling with issues of mentorship and religion and in The Master, he attempts to combine these themes. The story involves a very repugnant, very disturbed Navy vet (Joaquin Phoenix, Walk The Line) who inexplicably becomes the protégé of a cult leader (Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Capote); however, Anderson’s religious understanding is tainted by a childish overindulgence in ridicule. In the end, The Master offers pointlessness, both as a statement and emotion. Phoenix is good but his tangle of tics and grunts is feckless without a deeper message to convey. Hoffman and Amy Adams (Doubt), similarly bust their thespian moves . . . to no avail. A languid Jonny Greenwood (Radiohead) score drapes everything as two hours and 24 minutes creep by. Be prepared to slap yourself every so often; I found this film difficult to endure.   

Unzeitgemässe Betrachtungen - - Baby Face (1933) - - 28 February 2013

Recommended. In the early 1930’s Hollywood instituted a self-censorship system that has become known as the Motion Picture Production Code or just ‘the Code.’ Prior to that, accelerated upon the introduction of sound, movies had become increasingly candid about sex, crime and other subjects considered risqué. One of the story genres of pre-Code Hollywood was the ‘bad girl’ tale and Baby Face is a great example. The story centers on a poor girl (Barbara Stanwyck, Double Indemnity) who basically sleeps her way to the top of a big city bank. Her initiation into her sexual powers is given by old man who quotes Nietzsche and recommends she “must use men, not let them use you.” Ms. Stanwyck pretty much showed us how to use men for the remainder of her long career. Unfortunately, the movie ends with the girl regretting her evil ways in a disappointingly false change of heart.