Friday 29 July 2011

Movie Review: Excalibur (1981)


There have been many screen versions of the King Arthur legend: none as grand as Excalibur. An epic re-telling of the story, director, producer and co-writer John Boorman creates a lush yet brutal fantasy world, and sets within it an ambitious tale that is as much about love and betrayal as it is about the birth of the modern age.

The story begins with the ambitious and aggressive knight Uther (Gabriel Byrne) battling for control of the land against rival warlords. Successful in battle, Uther enlists the help of Merlin the wizard (Nicol Williamson) to obtain control of the magical sword Excalibur. Uther agrees to a peace deal with the Duke of Cornwall (Colin Redgrave), but when Uther lays his eyes on the Duke's wife Igrayne (Katrine Boorman), he is willing to reignite the war for the pleasure of ravishing her. Uther asks for Merlin's help to find a way to spend a night with Igrayne; Merlin has but one condition: any offspring from the night of passion belongs to Merlin.

The Duke is killed; Merlin arranges for Uther to appear in the guise of the Duke and spend the night with Igrayne; their passion is witnessed by Morgana, the young daughter of the Duke and Igrayne. Nine months later, Arthur is born and Merlin shows up on cue and whisks the young child away. Uther is ambushed and killed, and Excalibur is wedged into a stone, with no knight able to loosen it.

Years later, Arthur (Nigel Terry), now a young and unassuming man, effortlessly removes Excalibur from the stone. He is immediately proclaimed King by some knights, but others are not too sure: he is too young and inexperienced, and battles break out. But Arthur's skills and generous attitude win over his doubters and he is acclaimed as King and leader of the land; indeed, Arthur's miracle is that he is "one with the land", and prosperity reigns over his Kingdom. He marries Guenevere (Cherie Lunghi), builds his elegant castle Camelot and forms the Knights of the Round Table to maintain peace and order, always with Merlin's help.

A mysterious, superlatively skilled warrior named Lancelot (Nicholas Clay) makes his way to Arthur's Kingdom, and he joins the knights, although his attitude is more mercenary. The young and resourceful Perceval (Paul Geoffrey) starts out as Lancelot's assistant, but ends up a knight in his own right, while Lancelot and Guenevere are helplessly attracted to each other. Darkness begins to descend on the land. Another threat emerges in the form of the all-grown Morgana (Helen Mirren), a sorceress and Arthur's half-sister, harbouring thoughts of avenging her parents whose lives were destroyed by Arthur's father and Merlin.

Morgana sharpens her magical skills with Merlin's help, and then turns against him. She also arranges revenge against Arthur, and conceives the unholy son Mordred. As pestilence takes over the kingdom, Arthur dispatches his knights on a desperate quest to find the Holy Grail, believing that this ancient artifact will save his Kingdom. But peace will not be easy to find, as Arthur has to carve out an alliance to save the land.

The central theme of Excalibur is the passing of the fantastic age of sorcery, with humanity transitioning to a less mystical, more accountable time of people being responsible for their actions. King Arthur is Merlin's final creation and contribution, a final hurrah for magicians to meddle in day-to-day affairs. With the passing of Arthur's kingdom and Merlin's dis-empowerment, it is now up to mere mortals like Perceval to find ways to serve the cause of society. With the entire legend of Arthur being shrouded in mystery and folklore, Excalibur draws a loving line between pseudo-history built on the supernatural according to imagination and legend, and actual subsequent events, where magicians are not welcome.

Filmed in Ireland with a mostly Irish cast and crew, Excalibur's set designs are monumental and create a setting that is enticingly attractive and horrifically dangerous. Boorman moves his cameras effortlessly from ancient castles to mist-shrouded plains and dense forests: gorgeous waterfalls, moats, rivers, lakes and scenic bridges provide the backdrop for scenes ranging from tender romance to barbarous, limb-hacking close-quarters combat.


The cast of Irish and British actors fit perfectly into Excalibur's world, and the lack of high-wattage star power is a definite plus. The movie is about legendary events and a suite of memorable characters rather than an overpowering central presence. Boorman purposefully used the name of the sword as the title of his movie, signifying the symbolism of the legend as more important than any of its participants.

The music, by Trevor Jones and using chillingly epic extracts from Orff and Wagner, adds to the monumental atmosphere, as do the heavy duty, heavily metallic knight costumes designed by Bob Ringwood.

Excalibur is 140 minutes of grand storytelling, entertaining mythology on a luxurious scale, and an unforgettable journey into the glorious mists of legend.






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Saturday 23 July 2011

Movie Review: Vertigo (1958)


An Alfred Hitchcock journey of doomed romance and tragedy, Vertigo is convoluted and meandering, with perplexing puzzles hidden within a maze. Stars James Stewart and Kim Novak are suitably cold, navigating a plot spiralling into a tightening loop of weirdness with San Francisco serving as a stirring backdrop. Hitchcock never claimed any hidden meanings behind Vertigo, but this is one film that works better when interpreted beyond its surface storyline.

John "Scottie" Ferguson (Stewart), a San Francisco police detective, suffers from acrophobia (fear of heights) that triggers vertigo. Involved in a rooftop chase, Scottie is left hanging from a ledge and witnesses a fellow police officer fall to his death. Now retired from active duty, Scottie is good friends with Midge (Barbara Bel Geddes), a painter and advertising artist. Scottie and Midge were once briefly engaged, a relationship that Midge broke off. Gavin Elster, a long lost college friend, resurfaces and offers Scottie an unusual private investigative opportunity: trail Elster's wife Madeleine (Novak) to find out why she is suddenly entering trance-like states. Elster believes his wife is possessed by a dead spirit; Scottie is sceptical, but accepts the assignment.

Scottie spends long hours trailing Madeleine. She demonstrates an obsession with her great grandmother Carlotta Valdes. Scottie eventually saves Madeleine's life and gradually they are attracted to each other. Madeleine confesses to experiencing nightmares set in the San Juan Bautista Mission ranch, south of the city. Scottie drives her there to confront her fears; instead she climbs the bell tower and Scottie is unable to prevent tragedy. 

Scottie is devastated and spends time at a mental hospital. Upon his release he imagines sightings of Madeleine all over the city, but finally spots Judy (also Novak), a woman who looks incredibly similar to Madeleine. Scottie insists on getting to know Judy, and she agrees, although Judy is in fact hiding a terrible secret. Scottie and Judy anyway fall in love, but eventually Scottie appears to lose his grip on reality and starts to insist that she change her appearance to exactly resemble his recollection of Madeleine.

The script by Alec Coppel and Samuel Taylor is full of teasers and tests the outer limits of human behaviour. Setting aside the age difference between Judy and Scottie, what exactly is it that attracts Judy to Scottie? And what woman will tolerate being molded into the image of another woman, and worse still for Judy, being sculpted into the form of a dead woman?

Other conundrums in the form of sudden disappearances and appearances contribute to Vertigo's cerebral obstacle course. Where does Midge disappear to after Scottie's hospital stay? Central to his character in the first two thirds of the film, she drops out suddenly. Madeleine's disappearing act from her hotel room is never explained. Elster also disappears from the film. Would Elster be careless enough to allow Judy and Scottie, the only two people who can cause him trouble, to reconnect with each other? And finally, where exactly did that miraculously silent nun appear from?

Vertigo is fascinating as an exploration of a debilitated mind. In one alternative interpretation, Scottie's afflictions include a deeply broken heart due to Midge abandoning him, his emotional state in a fearsome downward spiral. His hanging from the ledge is a precarious hold on reality, and most events are occurring in his devastated mind, while he is incarcerated in the hospital.

There are some delicious clues to Midge as the real love of Scottie's life. His experiences with Madeleine and then Judy become elaborate creations in his deeply grieving psyche, the image of Madeleine being Scottie's imagination of a perfect Midge, his mind endlessly repeating the same painful arc: an impossible love heroically found and tragically lost in his helpless presence. The only real scene in the movie may be his close-to-catatonic stay in the hospital, imagining Midge hovering around him, neatly tucked between the Madeleine and Judy episodes created by his conscience.

Vertigo's shattered pieces are never intended to fall into place, but rather form an intentionally dizzying series of loops with more questions than answers, a psychological tour-de-force about the devastating, everlasting and disorienting anguish of loss.






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Thursday 21 July 2011

Movie Review: Blue Velvet (1986)


A delectable combination of the weird, the disturbing and the stylish, Blue Velvet is an unforgettable film experience. Director and screenwriter David Lynch dreams up a nightmare of utter human evil lurking just below the surface of normalcy, and ensures that every small quaint town will forever be viewed with suspicion:  heinous people may be hiding in every shadow.

College student Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan) returns to his hometown of Lumberton to visit his ailing Dad, who has suffered a stroke. Out on a walk, Jeffrey makes a gruesome discovery: a discarded, severed human ear. Jeffrey alerts Detective Williams, who starts to investigate, while Jeffrey re-connects with Sandy (Laura Dern), the detective's daughter. Sandy informs Jeffrey that sultry local nightclub singer Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rossellini), whose signature song is Blue Velvet, is in some kind of trouble and is being investigated by the police.

With Sandy's help, Jeffrey breaks into Dorothy's apartment, but has to hide in the closet and watch in horror as a brute of man called Frank (Dennis Hopper), who inhales an unknown substance through a gas mask, arrives and sexually humiliates and violently abuses Dorothy. Jeffrey surmises that Frank and his men are holding Dorothy's husband Don, the former owner of the severed ear, and her child Donny hostage while Frank regularly forces her to cater to his deviant sexual whims.

Despite all the warning signs, Jeffrey can't stop himself getting involved. He dives into an affair with Dorothy and starts tailing and photographing Frank and his men, uncovering their illegal activities. Frank is soon onto Jeffrey, who gets beaten up after being introduced to Frank's drug and prostitution den, where the beyond creepy Ben (Dean Stockwell) holds court. With the police moving in, Jeffrey finds himself in way over his head, as he tries to save Dorothy from Frank's insanity while the bodies pile up.

The plot of Blue Velvet matters little, and on close examination, makes even less sense. The film is an artistic canvass for Lynch to intricately paint several intertwining themes about the human and societal experience, the most prominent of which is the inevitable transition to adulthood. Jeffrey's insistence on continuously meddling with the criminal underworld appears infuriating: he ignores every opportunity to walk away from trouble. Through Jeffrey's actions, Lynch is emphasizing that there is no choice about growing up and dealing with the difficult and sometimes dangerous problems of adulthood.

A second theme is what lies beneath the surface. Life in Lumberton appears as idyllic as the American dream can get, white picket fences, smiling firemen, and lazy summer days lounging in the yard. It is so surreal that Lynch infuses Lumberton with many 1950s shadings, a decade perceived as more innocent, optimistic and hopeful. Co-existing just below this veneer of perfection are the sordid criminals, and throughout his movie Lynch scatters parallels between Frank and his gang and the ugly insects just below the surface of the manicured lawn introduced in the opening sequence.

A related and more complex theme that Lynch plays with is the contradiction between outward appearance and actual behaviour. Not only does society have inner secrets, every individual may harbour confounding hidden behaviours and motivations. Sandy is the daughter of a police officer, blonde, wholesome and seemingly all good. Yet she doesn't hesitate to tell Jeffrey classified police information that starts him on the road to trouble; she helps him to break into Dorothy's apartment; and she repeatedly ignores her boyfriend Michael as she enjoys the ride that Jeffrey's adventure furnishes for her.

Dorothy is the dark cabaret singer that seemingly represents nothing but trouble. Yet of all the characters in the film she is the one most victimized and in most need of rescuing. Detective Williams is supposed to help but is always giving Jeffrey a suspicious look; and his partner Detective Gordon certainly proves to be much more dangerous than he first appears. Lynch is providing a reminder that for grown-ups, the game of life becomes much more complex, and both people and places are often not what they seem.

Helping Lynch to deliver this kaleidoscope are four actors who have rarely been better. Kyle MacLachlan's movie career never flourished, but as Jeffrey he was perfect, combining innocence with an eagerness to pursue danger to its darkest corners. Laura Dern projects nothing but fresh-faced chastity while she effortlessly behaves in much naughtier ways. Her performance is a magician's sleight of hand, dazzling with a diversionary look while pulling off entirely unexpected actions: in many ways, Sandy is the most interesting and complex character in the movie.

Isabella Rossellini takes on the role of Dorothy with gusto, and her performance is certainly brave: abused, victimized, yet demanding more of the same because that is all she knows, she lives in a world so black that absolute mental darkness is her only comfort zone. And finally, Dennis Hopper brings Frank to life, one of the most vile characters ever placed on the screen. Vicious, abusive, manipulative, intimidating, foul-mouthed, addicted to something through that inhaler, and without a single redeeming feature, Frank is just plain scary. In a career with several highlights, Frank is one of Hopper's stand-out roles.

Blue Velvet is a one-of-a-kind searing bolt of originality that leaves a permanent and most memorable mark.






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Tuesday 19 July 2011

Movie Review: The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets' Nest (2009)


A reasonably satisfying conclusion to the movie adaptation of Stieg Larsson's book trilogy, The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets' Nest ties up most of the loose ends. That it requires almost 150 minutes to do so illustrates just how many plot threads needed to be picked up, and some remain scattered at the end regardless (remember the human trafficking and prostitution sub-plot from The Girl Who Played With Fire? It's nowhere to be found).

After the bloody conclusion of the previous episode, The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets' Nest opens with both Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) and her father Zalachenko being rushed to hospital. Lisbeth is suffering from three bullet wounds, one to her skull, while Zalachenko is dealing with the nasty effects of an axe swing, courtesy of Lisbeth.

The existence of a secretive pseudo government group called The Section is soon revealed. Formed in the 1970s, The Section was responsible for protecting Zalachenko, the most high level Soviet spy to defect to Sweden. Subsequent governments lost track of The Section and Zalachenko: he became a master criminal, with The Section protecting him from any scrutiny or prosecution. But from his hospital bed, Zalachenko pushes his luck with The Section: they in turn dispatch him once and for all with a bullet to the head. An attempt on Lisbeth's life fails, but with the help of the slimy Dr. Teleborian, a plot is set in motion to put her on trial, declare her insane, and lock her up for good.

Meanwhile investigative reporter Mikael Blomqvist (Michael Nyqvist) has pieced together the story of Lisbeth and Zalachenko, and prepares a major expose of the whole sordid affair, to be published in Millennium magazine. Mikael also remotely helps Lisbeth to document her story from her hospital bed, and he secures the services of his sister Annika as Lisbeth's lawyer.

With both The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets' Nest and The Girl Who Played With Fire, the aftertaste is that of movies stumbling by trying to capture all the book details, the same flaw that so hampered the adaptation of The Da Vinci Code. The reading experience can afford a multitude of characters and interesting sub-quests; the movie experience demands more focus and a much more streamlined narrative, and the screenplay needs to be brave enough to compact the story down to a suitable screen experience, as Angels And Demons more successfully demonstrated.

The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets' Nest is the least action-oriented and most talkative of the three movies. This is not a bad thing: it brings the story of Lisbeth down to a real nitty-gritty of hospitalization, treatment, and law courts, and a bit away from any further dramatic rapes, tortures and murders for the poor girl to suffer through.

But with so much plot to chew and digest, director Daniel Alfredson has no time for anything else. The stylish coolness and tension of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is long gone, replaced by the most straightforward of narrative driven films, hacking away at the intertwined overgrowth of characters in a sweaty rush to reach the conclusion.






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Sunday 17 July 2011

Movie Review: The Girl Who Played With Fire (2009)


Too much plot and too many loose ends, The Girl Who Played With Fire suffers from the Middle Chapter of the Trilogy Syndrome. Not as fresh as the original and unable to arrive at any conclusions, it's a rickety bridge between the crisp opening and the decisive ending of Stieg Larsson's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo series.

Young and enthusiastic reporter Dag Svensson and his girlfriend Mia are investigating human smuggling and the European prostitution trade. They have an explosive story on their hands, exposing corruption at the highest levels. Dag joins the staff of the investigative Millennium magazine, where the legendary Mikael Blomqvist (Michael Nyqvist) works, to polish off the story and prepare it for publication.

Meanwhile Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) returns to Stockholm from some globe-trotting to reconnect with her lover Miriam Wu (Yasmine Garbi), and to intimidate her state-appointed guardian and former torturer Bjurman. To scare him into promptly filing his reports about her good behaviour, Lisbeth threatens Bjurman with his own gun. But Bjurman is tired of Salander controlling him (she has a blackmail tape), and contacts shady associates to solve his Lisbeth problem.

Before long, Mikael finds both Dag and Mia shot dead; the murder gun belongs to Bjurman and carries Lisbeth's fingerprints, making her the prime suspect in a double murder. She stays hidden, disguised and beyond the clutches of the law, but her case isn't helped when Bjurman also shows up dead. Mikael is convinced that Lisbeth is being set up, and launches his own investigation to help clear her name.

The performances of Rapace and Nyqvist are the main positives in an otherwise overcrowded and clumsy film. Rapace is all delightful darkness, a woman who long since abandoned trust in the system and invented her rules for survival. Nyqvist as Mikael Blomqvist balances some conformance to society's rules with a natural tendency to do his own thing in his own world weary way.

Beyond these two performances, The Girl Who Played With Fire suffers from a multitude of characters introduced in a hurry and never properly fleshed out, and a runaway plot that features numerous developments trickling in all directions, most of which are left hanging. There is no satisfying resolution to the three murders that propel the action, and the entire human trafficking and prostitution plot is introduced with great enthusiasm and then simply abandoned. Director Daniel Alfredson is unable to even pretend that this episode is anything other than a pass-through to what should be a much better ending to the story.

The movie is also hampered by extremely limited interaction between Lisbeth and Mikael. They exchange a few e-mails and share a single non-communicative scene at the very end: their complex relationship is at the heart of the drama, and the Ulf Ryberg screenplay basically puts it on ice for over two hours.

The Girl Who Played With Fire is an overstuffed meal, too many ingredients competing for attention, and delivering an unsatisfying, bloated and burp inducing experience.






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Saturday 16 July 2011

Movie Review: The American (2010)


Self-important and pretty enough to look at, The American layers on the superficialities at a languid pace but cannot hide a cavernous hole that was supposed to be occupied by the plot.

In a remote Swedish forest, the mysterious Jack (George Clooney) and his lover Ingrid take a walk, and immediately become the target for a mysterious sniper. Jack kills the sniper, and for good measure drops Ingrid with a bullet to the head at close range. He then makes his way to Rome, and contacts his mysterious handler Pavel, whose instructions are for Jack to hide out in the countryside and wait for further instructions.

Jack drives to the town of Castel del Monte and pretends to be a photographer. He meets the local priest, Father Benedetto (Paolo Bonacelli), and gets cozy with Carla (Violante Placido), a local prostitute. The instructions for his next mission soon arrive: he is to manufacture a sniper's weapon and bullets for the mysterious Mathilde (Thekla Reuten), an assassin whose target is a mystery. Jack sets up a workshop in his room and goes to work manufacturing the high-tech weapon, while fending off assassination attempts from other mysterious hit-men. As Jack gets close to finishing the rifle for Mathilde, his relationship with Carla gets serious, and he gets a mysterious feeling that his enemies are closing in on him.

An ironic title for a film seeking a most European flavour, The American hides all the relevant details of its main character then desperately pleads for sympathy. It doesn't work, and Jack (and we're not even sure what the man's real name is) can take as many scenic but seemingly dangerous walks and drives through medieval Italian towns as he likes; unless he reveals something about himself, whether he lives, loves, kills, or dies is quite irrelevant.

Clooney has a relatively easy time portraying the stone-faced Jack, looking determined and just slightly pissed-off throughout, although he never shares quite why. Is he angry at himself? at his boss? is he fed up with his job? what is exactly is his job? do organizations that arrange assassinations in this day and age really require home-made, hand-crafted guns and bullets? Jack never reveals what is behind his stare, let alone why he is acting the way he does, and without any sort of openness, he becomes just another shady character living at the edge.

Violante Placido gets to play the most honest character as Clara the prostitute, but maybe she just appears sincere because she is naked most of the time. Regardless, other than Jack's suspicions of her motives, her behaviour is at least easy to fathom: a whore who spots in Jack's lust an opportunity to move up in the world.

Paolo Bonacelli as Father Benedetto has the pleasure of spouting what are supposed to be profound statements, mostly to assure Jack that he is fooling no one by pretending to be a photographer. Benedetto joins Mathilde and Pavel as fragments of characters whose backstory and relative importance can be found in other films, but not this one.

The American makes use of attractive Italian countryside locations, and eventually it settles down to being a long, sluggish tourism advertisement. When the characters are abandoned, the countryside has to fill in the colour.






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Movie Review: Arthur (1981)


A perpetually drunk ultra rich playboy who never grew up has to decide, through the fog of alcohol, whether to follow love or money. Arthur is funny and poignant, with memorable performances by Dudley Moore and John Gielgud, and it makes no apologies for a central message promoting drunken oblivion as an alternative that is just a bit better than stuffy conformity.

New York-based playboy Arthur Bach (Moore) has all the money in the world, but his only friend is his butler Hobson (Gielgud). Arthur squanders his time on continuous drinking and picking up prostitutes, as he escapes from the inevitable demands of his family: his father and grandmother insist that he marry the sweet, rich but uninteresting Susan (Jill Eikenberry), otherwise they will cut him off from his fortune.

While shopping for clothes at a ritzy store, Arthur notices a shoplifter: Linda Marolla (Liza Minnelli) is a poor waitress who lives with her Dad, and Arthur is immediately attracted to her, saving her from being prosecuted. Arthur's marriage plans to Susan are proceeding as he is falling in love with Linda, while Hobson is serving his master while battling an increasingly serious illness. Choosing Linda over Susan means that Arthur will alienate his family and be forever poor, but with alcohol fuelling his decision making, everything will surely work out.

Dudley Moore had a few good years of stardom in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and Arthur was his defining role, and certainly his most celebrated. He goes though most of the movie acting intoxicated, speech slurred, walk askew, laughing hysterically and spewing jokes that are funny only to him. Arthur is an endearing character in a way that a helpless, lost pet evokes sympathy, and it is to Moore's credit that both Susan and Linda's attraction to Arthur is believable.

John Gielgud, at 77 years old, won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Hobson, the butler who is quite certain that he in fact runs the life of his master. As stiff and proper as Arthur is lubricated, the prickly friendship between Arthur and Hobson is at the core of the film. That Hobson is the only person in the world that Arthur can communicate with summarizes Arthur's sad state, and as illness takes Hobson away, it is only natural that Arthur is attracted to the down-to-earth Linda (a waitress) to fill the vacuum.

Liza Minnelli as Linda gets somewhat lost in the acting shuffle, unable to move too far away from just being a slightly subdued Liza Minnelli.

Arthur contributed a terrific song to the cultural landscape, Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do) by Christopher Cross easily entering the hall of classic movie contributions to music, with it's catch line "when you get caught between the Moon and New York City" perfectly capturing Arthur's dilemma.

Arthur may not be a practically helpful guide for how to go about achieving success in life, but if being in the company of a drunk is necessary, he may as well be lovable.



 

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Wednesday 13 July 2011

Movie Review: It's Complicated (2009)


A romantic comedy for adults, It's Complicated proves that love, lust and laughs can live on well past age 40. Brightened by sparkling performances from Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin, creating what must be one of the oldest love triangles in Hollywood history, It's Complicated is breezy, funny and remarkably fresh.

Jane (Streep) and Jack (Baldwin) divorced a decade ago. Now both in their late fifties with their three children all grown up, they maintain a civilized relationship. Jack is married to the much younger Agness (Lake Bell), with whom he cheated while married to Jane, although Agness also managed bring into her marriage to Jack a brat of a boy from another short-lived relationship.

Jane is over the divorce, still single and moving on with her life, helping to run the bakery that she owns, and planning home renovations with the help of Adam (Steve Martin), a more recently divorced architect. But when Jane and Jack (without Agness) meet in New York to attend the college graduation of their youngest son, they have dinner, drink a lot, dance like teens and end up in bed. This sparks a passionate desire in Jack to get back together with Jane, all the more so since his relationship with Agness has deteriorated into fertility clinic visits and scheduled sex to maximize the likelihood of conception.

Jane is not so sure that getting back with her ex-husband is a good idea, but she decides to enjoy the courtship and the suddenly enjoyable sex with Jack, as he tries to convince her that the second time can be a charm. In the meantime their children, who were traumatized by the divorce, are very confused, and Adam is getting all sorts of mixed signals about the potential for a serious relationship with Jane.

It's Complicated sometimes dips into swampy self-help territory, although it never gets bogged down. There is also a sequence with Jane and Adam getting stoned that crosses from funny to contrived. But otherwise, the film is a joyous celebration of the fun and turmoil of relationships later in life.

Meryl Streep, at age 60, gives one of her most alluring performances, conveying the courage, confidence and calm but not quite carefree attitude that only comes with the wisdom of age. Alec Baldwin is a bit more brash as Jack, but he does succeed in capturing a man looking for an anchor in his life and naturally drifting to the safety of the familiar harbour.

Both Streep and Baldwin demonstrate a deft comic touch, familiar territory to Martin, who subdues his natural scenery-eating tendencies and instead infuses Adam with effectively comic pathos. John Krasinki, as the fiance of Jack and Jane's eldest daughter, provides fine comic support as the first family member to stumble upon the weirdly re-emerging relationship between the formerly married couple.

Nancy Meyers herself around 60, directed, wrote and co-produced It's Complicated. She finds the right mix of comedy and sharp observations about divorce, growing old, and eternal insecurities, and maintains an agile pace.

It's Complicated is a strange and rare Hollywood experience: intelligent fun with adults.




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Tuesday 12 July 2011

Movie Review: Blow (2001)


Based on a true story, Blow recounts the life of George Jung, an American who finagled his way into the burgeoning cocaine importing industry at the height of the Medellin Cartel's infamy. Despite what he may have thought, Jung himself was a small-scale player in a global business, and he was relatively quickly shuffled out of the deck of drug kingpins, landing repeatedly in jail. Blow relies on style and flair to make up for the limited talents of its central character, and Johnny Depp emits irresistible star magnetism.

George Jung (Depp) was born and raised in a working class Massachusetts family, and he has a strong attachment to his dad Fred (Ray Liotta). Fred's strong work ethic does not compensate for the lack of good business skills, and the family ends up bankrupt. In the mid 1960s George moves to California and vows to never be poor or want for anything. He establishes himself as the local beach marijuana supplier for local distributor Derek (Paul Reubens), and quickly graduates to supplying weed to New England campuses, transporting it from California in the unscrutinized luggage of airline stewardesses, including Barbara (Franka Potente), whom he married.

But the law is onto George, and he soon lands in prison, and Barbara succumbs to cancer. George meets Diego behind bars, who convinces him to graduate to cocaine trafficking. Upon his release George travels to Colombia where Diego arranges a meeting with Pablo Escobar, the brutal leader of the Medellin Cartel, emerging as the most powerful drug syndicate in the world. George becomes an importer funnelling Escobar's drugs into the hands of Derek for distribution in the US. But his downfall is already in the works.

Despite a central character who is more a go-between than an instigator, Blow is never less than interesting thanks to Depp's icy but engagingly charismatic performance, and solid support work from the rest of the cast.

Director Ted Demme, working from a script by Nick Cassavetes and David McKenna, amps up the flash factor but also keeps an eye on the human drama by maintaining a running interest in the evolving relationship between George and his father Fred. The massive wealth that George accumulates from the drug trade appears at first to be the son exceeding the father's achievements, only to become a harsh lesson emphasizing the values that Fred tried to impart to his son at an early age, values that George contrived to understand way too late in life.

The film is lacking even a passing reference to the victims of drug addiction who are the end users of George's cocaine business. Blow treats illegal drugs as any other commodity except with a more complex supply chain. If George ever gave a second thought to the misery that he was helping to create in the world, Blow isn't interested to know.

In one of life's many ironies, Demme died in 2002 at age 38, less than a year after Blow was released, of a heart-attack likely aggravated by the cocaine found in his system.






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Monday 11 July 2011

Movie Review: Enter The Dragon (1973)


A low budget classic, Enter The Dragon was Bruce Lee's final complete movie before his untimely death, and a milestone in Hollywood's brief flirtation with martial arts action thrillers. Enter The Dragon cost $850,000 and is estimated to have earned more than $90 Million world-wide. Lee's death would put an untimely end to any mainstreaming of a martial arts movie star until the arrival of Jackie Chan (who briefly appears in Enter The Dragon) half a generation later.

Lee (Bruce Lee) is an exceptional martial arts student at the Shaolin temple. He is selected by mysterious Hong Kong government-types to infiltrate the island base of the evil Han (Shih Kien), a former Shaolin student who has sullied the name of the temple by turning to crime: he specializes in drugs, human trafficking and prostitution. Lee is given an added incentive to seek personal revenge: in flashback it is revealed that Han and his bodyguard O'Hara (Robert Wall) were responsible for the death of Lee's sister.

Lee travels to the island pretending to be a contestant in a martial arts competition hosted by Han, and along the way he meets fellow contestants Roper (John Saxon), a gambler in trouble with loan sharks, and Williams (Jim Kelly), who is on the run from the cops. After the three are offered their choice of female companionship, Lee kills O'Hara and starts snooping around the island, Williams is killed by Han, and Roper kills Han's most fearsome fighter, Bolo.

When the prisoners on the island are released and take on Han's numerous henchmen, the hordes of chaos are unleashed and it's everyone against everyone. It is left up to Lee to chase down Han and force a final, memorable confrontation to the death.

Influential and frequently imitated in the same vein as A Fistful Of Dollars, Enter The Dragon made Bruce Lee an international star, despite his mysterious death. He dominates the film with a brooding, wiry physique made of highly-strung and finely toned muscles. Lee choreographed the fight sequences, and they are the undoubted highlights of the film, ballet with undisguised brutal power.

The rest of the performances by a cast aspiring to Grade B status, and the pedestrian directing by Robert Clouse, are fully consistent with a low budget action movie hoping for nothing better than left-over James Bond fans. Instead, the likes of John Saxon and Jim Kelly gained screen immortality by playing their role in an accidental, and ridiculously enjoyable, classic.





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Thursday 7 July 2011

Movie Review: Smokey And The Bandit (1977)


With the real United States grappling with the 1973 oil embargo, high prices at the pump, and lower speed limits on the freeways, and with Detroit down-tuning the power out of previously muscular cars, Hollywood and television hatched a sub-genre of comic highway escapism: a fantasy world where there are no traffic jams, the road is empty, winding and just waiting to be driven at top speed, the hero has no worries about the price of gas, cars and trucks have unlimited power, complete amazing stunts, and are wrecked with wild abandon -- and no one gets hurt.

Gone In 60 Seconds (1974), Smokey And The Bandit plus all its sequels; Convoy (1978); The Blues Brothers (1980); The Cannonball Run (1981) and its sequel all followed the same formula, while on television, the The Dukes of Hazzard and B.J. and the Bear made sure that the car chases continued at home.

The movies made a lot of money and established Burt Reynolds as a star of mindless action fare. Smokey And The Bandit may have been among the better examples of the relatively short-lived trend, but that is definitely not saying much. Reynolds is the Bandit, a legendary driver hired to mastermind an illegal high speed beer run across state lines in the deep South. Bandit elects to pilot a black Pontiac Trans Am with gold trim, as a "blocking" car for the cargo truck to be driven by his friend Snowman (Jerry Reed), which means that Bandit attracts the police cars and distracts them from pulling over and inspecting the illegal cargo of the speeding truck behind him.

All seems to be going well until Bandit picks up the runaway bride Carrie (Sally Field). Unfortunately, her never-to-be father-in-law is the buffoonish Texas Sheriff  Buford T. Justice (Jackie Gleason), or Smokey as all police officers are called by truckers. The chase is on, with Smokey and his idiot son driving after the Bandit and Carrie for mile after endless mile, not caring about the illegal beer shipment, just wanting to rescue the family's honour from the disgrace brought upon them by Carrie, now nicknamed Frog by Bandit and his pals on CB Radio.

Smokey And The Bandit was directed by Hal Needham, who also helped to create the story. Needham was a former Hollywood stuntman, and all of Smokey And The Bandit is an excuse to engineer and execute a variety of car and truck stunts, including a famous leap by the Trans Am across a destroyed bridge. Pontiac donated the vehicles used for the movie, knowing full well that Trans Am sales would skyrocket if the movie was a success, which it was.

The movie is undoubtedly kinetic and entertaining, and the cinematography featuring photogenic vehicles carving up highways and dirt roads is hypnotically watchable. The real stars of the movie are the cars and trucks rather than humans: Reynolds barely acts, coasting through the movie with a series of bland expressions under his cowboy hat and behind his moustache. Gleason's Sheriff Justice is a spluttering comic book character on par with the sophistication of Elmer Fudd. Sally Field is the only acting bright spot in the movie, bringing to Frog a pleasantly spunky spark that survives the careening steel and squealing tires all around her.

The soundtrack of 1970s country and western music provides immediate reminders about the worst of both the decade and the genre, although the hit song Eastbound and Down, written and performed by Reed, has an undeniable charm to it.

Smokey And The Bandit has its foot on the floor and its brain on idle. As long as that combination is acceptable, entertainment is served.





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Tuesday 5 July 2011

Movie Review: The Lost Boys (1987)


Before movie vampires were cuddly, hunky, and tragically romantic, they were pretty rotten creatures, none more so than the small colony of murderous blood suckers in The Lost Boys. These vampires have no redeeming features whatsoever, and they look fairly hideous whether in human or monster mode.

With Joel Schumacher directing, Richard Donner co-producing, and a cast of characters that brought together some of the better young talent of the era, The Lost Boys is a classy tongue-in-cheek horror flick with a few good moments of humour thrown in to spice up the fun.

Teenager Michael (Jason Patric) and his younger brother Sam (Corey Haim) are new arrivals to the small coastal California town of Santa Carla, where their mom Lucy (Dianne Wiest) has relocated their lives following a divorce. Beyond perpetually cheesy fairgrounds, Santa Carla has little going for it, and it loses it's minimal appeal when Michael and Sam realize that they are now in the murder capital of the country. Someone or something is committing a lot of violence in what should be a sleepy little resort community.

Things brighten up momentarily when Michael meets the flirty Star (Jami Gertz); but she turns out to be just a lure to attract Michael to a group of rowdy vampires led by David (Kiefer Sutherland). The impressionable Michael shares a drink of blood and is half-way to becoming a vampire; he just needs to kill something to complete the transformation, and Sam looks like a reasonable target. Sam enlists the help of local vampire hunters Edgar (Corey Feldman) and Alan (geddit?) to fight off Michael, destroy David and his gang, and find out whether Lucy's new friend Max (Edward Herrmann), a meek but creepy video store manager, has anything to do with the local carnage.

The Lost Boys brings together a talented young cast that sparkles, sometimes under heavy make-up, despite the Santa Clara darkness. Kiefer Sutherland has rarely had a better opportunity to growl and drip evil on the big screen, while the role of Sam is perfect for Corey Haim's screen persona of scrappy resourcefulness. His regular screen partner Corey Feldman is also a natural as Edgar, all fake bravado, surviving thanks to equal measures of dumb luck and misguided initiative.

The Lost Boys also benefits from a sultry Jami Gertz at the peak of a career that promised much but fizzled too early. Jason Patric gets the most central role, but delivers a less interesting performance, all 1980s hair and little engagement. Dianne Wiest and Edward Herrmann add a dose of classiness to the movie.

Schumacher creates an atmosphere of silly dread, never aiming to be really scary but still managing to engineer a few effectively bloody moments. The Lost Boys has no message of value, but enjoys itself all the same delivering  high quality nonsensical fun.






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Monday 4 July 2011

Movie Review: Ordinary People (1980)


A drama portraying a family tearing itself at the seams, Ordinary People slowly burrows its way through a post-tragedy crisis that is more than ordinary people can handle. The film shines thanks to a patient script that gives up its secrets at a deliciously slow pace, and a collection of terrific performances.

Conrad Jarrett (Timothy Hutton) is a withdrawn teenager from an upper middle-class family in suburban Chicago, active in choir and swimming but dealing with a failed suicide attempt and suffering through a dysfunctional relationship with his cold-hearted, emotionless mother Beth (Mary Tyler Moore).

Conrad's brother Buck, a more outgoing, vivacious personality, died in a boating accident, and Conrad could not do enough to save him. Conrad blames himself for Buck's death; Beth does not help matters by also blaming Conrad for Buck's death. Conrad's dad Calvin (Donald Sutherland) is caught trying to nurture his suicidal son back to mental health and dealing with his wife's emotional paralysis.

Conrad's fortunes start to improve thanks to therapy sessions with Dr. Berger (Judd Hirsch), who connects Conrad with the causes of his distressed emotions and encourages him to express himself. A burgeoning relationship with fellow choir singer Jeannine (Elizabeth McGovern) also helps Conrad to come out of his shell. With her son confronting the past more positively, Beth has nowhere to hide and is forced to face her own attitudes towards her family.

Ordinary People gains its impact from an emotional mystery structure, the equivalent of arriving at an accident scene and finding the survivors walking around in shock. What happened and why it happened is slowly revealed over the course of the compelling film.

Robert Redford displays remarkable maturity for a debut directorial effort, sprinkling clever little touches and interesting angles throughout the film without drawing unnecessary attention to himself. He provides the canvass for his four stars to shine, which they do thanks to an understated script by Alvin Sargent and Nancy Dowd.

Timothy Hutton makes a stunning start to his screen career as Conrad Jarrett, hollow eyes not trying to hide internal anguish as he struggles through the minefield of emotions within and surrounding him. Unfortunately for Hutton, this was a case of an acting career starting at the very top, complete with an Academy Award, and heading rather rapidly downhill, as he never found the suitable roles to build a lasting movie legacy.

In a brilliant stroke of casting, TV comedienne Mary Tyler Moore reveals herself to be a frighteningly effective dramatic actress as Beth, a woman who has wrapped her heart in several sheets of ice as she goes through the motions of being a mother and wife while internally seething about the unfairness of the loss that has befallen her. And Moore's flawless performance leaves no room for doubt that with Beth, the unfairness is all about her personal loss, and not the trauma that has befallen her family.

Sutherland and Hirsch have more straightforward yet still interesting, nuanced, and complex roles, Sutherland as the dad trying to save the functionality of his family, and Hirsch as the empathetic Dr. Berger, helping Conrad to navigate the dungeons of his mind.

There is a fifth, less prominent but still impressive role in Ordinary People, Elizabeth McGovern making her debut as Jeannine, and shining as a catalyst for positive change while avoiding most of the attractive girlfriend cliches.

Ordinary People won the Academy Award for Best Picture, but has the misfortune of being perceived as the undeserving winner from the year that Raging Bull was robbed. In truth, Ordinary People is an extraordinary film, and 1980 was a relatively rare year in which two films deserved the label of best film.






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Saturday 2 July 2011

Movie Review: Senna (2010)


The story of one of the greatest Formula One racing drivers is captured in an exhilarating documentary. Senna is as exciting and engaging as the most dramatic motor race, British director Asif Kapdia succeeding in finding the deep humanity within a sport where hardware can easily dominate.

Starting with Senna's 1981 arrival in Europe to race in go-karts and ending with his funeral in 1994, the film remarkably has no talking heads and no on-camera retrospective interviews: the story is told through actual footage of the man, his races, and the interviews he himself gave throughout his career. The result is emotionally charged, a compact summary of an extraordinary talent as seen through the live cameras of the day.

Senna started his F1 career in 1984 with the Toleman team, which was so technologically deficient that it was expected to finish several laps behind the leading cars in every race. Instead, Senna was immediately and unbelievably challenging for race wins, demonstrating remarkable skill and wringing more performance out of the Toleman than practically possible. He quickly progressed to the storied Lotus team, winning his first race at the 1985 Portuguese Grand Prix, finishing more than a minute ahead of second place in torrential race conditions.

But it was with the then-dominant McLaren team, starting in 1988, that Senna finally had the equipment to match his talent, and he blossomed into a World Champion, battling fiercely with team-mate Alain Prost and winning the title in 1988, 1990 and 1991. The Senna / Prost battles are now legendary in F1 folklore, and included two probably intentional collisions in the 1989 and 1990 Japanese races. Senna also appeared to take on the entire F1 establishment during this period, due to the perceived bias of the king-makers towards the more politically astute Prost.

The Williams team finally caught up and surpassed McLaren. Senna found himself with inferior equipment in 1992 and 1993, but kept battling for race wins. He joined Willliams in 1994 and was a strong favourite to reclaim his world champion title, but met an untimely and tragic death at the cursed 1994 Imola Grand Prix, when a possible steering column failure sent him into the wall at the Tamburello curve. Senna was the second fatality and fourth serious crash that fateful F1 weekend in Italy.

Senna captures the essence of the man: respecting God, proud of his country, humble about his talent but not in any doubt about his superiority. His emotional vulnerability in the face of danger is apparent: Senna was not the stone-faced warrior who dismissed adversity. He openly interacted with mortality, personally visiting the scene of serious crashes on race weekends and vocally seeking ways to improve track and race safety.

Kapdia clearly understands the inherent power of Senna and the events of his life to speak for themselves. He avoids any melodrama, simplifies the structure of the film and focuses the documentary on selecting the most appropriate footage to construct the most streamlined yet rich recounting of the Senna story, never allowing the man himself, his thoughts and feelings from veering too far from the middle of the screen. The result is the equivalent of spending over 100 minutes co-living with Senna the highlights of his life, and the pain of his tragic  death is naturally amplified.

Senna the documentary is a privilege, an experience to be shared rather than a film to be watched.






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Friday 1 July 2011

Movie Review: 8 Mile (2002)


A one-against-all coming-of-age rap music drama, 8 Mile is a trip to the heart of gritty Detroit, and a vaguely semi-autobiographical account of Eminem's pre-fame life. It is also a well-made, unblinking movie, wading into the day-to-day grind of the struggling underprivileged in a distressed city. Out of the agony, the inspirational Lose Yourself won the academy award for Best Song, and may well be one of the all-time best film-inspired songs.

8 Mile Road is the commonly accepted cultural and racial dividing line between Detroit and its northern suburbs. The population south of 8 Mile is predominantly black with a high poverty rate; north of 8 Mile is where the wealthy white people live. Jimmy Smith Jr., better known by his rap nom de guerre B-Rabbit (Eminem), is white but very much on the south side of 8 Mile. He has just split with his girlfriend who may be pregnant; he is forced to live in the trailer of his white-trash mom (Kim Basinger) and her good-for nothing boyfriend; and he is barely hanging on to his job in a metal-stamping factory. And to make matters worse, Rabbit chokes during a rap contest, damaging his reputation as an up-and-coming rapper.

Rabbit does have his small circle of friends, including Future (Mekhi Phifer), who hosts the rap contests, and the aggravating Wink (Eugene Byrd), who is good at name-dropping apparent contacts in the rap world, but little else. Rabbit also meets the slutty Alex (Brittany Murphy), who is willing to have sex anywhere and with whoever may help her get out of Detroit. Most of Rabbit's life seems to be heading from bad to worse, including his ever-failing car, and he has several violent run-ins with a group of rappers called Free World. But Future insists that Rabbit participate in one more rap contest, providing him a final chance to overcome his fear of failure and turn his life around.

Director Curtis Hanson captures Detroit as a bleak city that has been chewed up and spit out by the industrial age, a crime-infested, hostile environment with abandoned homes that serve as convenient murder scenes and shuttered businesses that now stand as a painful reminder of the more prosperous past. It's a grim backdrop for a movie, and Eminem, in his acting debut as B. Rabbit, thrives in it. His performance mixes perfect doses of edginess, self-doubt, despair and gradually increasing determination.

Kim Basinger is also compelling as Rabbit's mother Stephanie, a woman struggling to breathe with her nose pressed hard into the bottom of life's barrel. It's a role that's painful to watch, and Basinger shines in it, providing a welcome blush to the middle of her career. Brittany Murphy, who tragically died in 2009, leaves behind one of her more memorable screen turns as Alex, representing the never-ending conveyor belt of desperate women who believe that a better world awaits on the coast, and who are willing to use their physical assets to get there.

The relationships in Rabbit's life all offer something different, but only one, his friendship with Future, offers hope and progress. There are no heroics in 8 Mile, just reminders that no matter how grim life is, there are always nuggets of hope that offer a way to a brighter tomorrow. Identifying the nuggets through the clutter is the biggest challenge standing in the way of those who live south of 8 Mile Road.






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