Movie Review: She Said (2022)

Genre: Investigative Journalism Drama

Director: Maria Schrader

Starring: Zoe Kazan, Carey Mulligan, Patricia Clarkson, Jennifer Ehle, Ashley Judd, Andre Braugher, Samantha Morton

Running Time: 129 minutes

Synopsis: In 2016, New York Times reporters Jodi Kantor (Zoe Kazan) and Megan Twohey (Carey Mulligan) start to investigate decades-long allegations of abusive behaviour by Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein. They hear from actresses Ashley Judd (as herself) and Rose McGowan as well as ex-employees, who all claim to have been sexually assaulted. But Weinstein's influence and the chilling effect of non-disclosure agreements discourage the victims from speaking on the record. Prodded by their editor Rebecca Corbett (Patricia Clarkson), Jodi and Megan doggedly pursue the story while juggling young family responsibilities.

What Works Well: Based on actual events chronicled in Kantor and Twohey's book, She Said provides an eloquent voice for women exploited, suppressed, then ignored by powerful men, their lawyers, and a system eager to sweep away inconvenient stories. Writer Rebecca Lenkiewicz and director Maria Schrader keep the tone low-key by studiously avoiding sensationalistic incident recreations, and instead build the drama by focusing on the victims' harrowing stories in their own simple words. The reporters' ordinarily messy personal lives allow Zoe Kazan and Carey Mulligan to round them into real women.

What Does Not Work As Well: The film is essentially a series of meetings and conversations, and the many testimonials at times threaten to merge into an unwieldy bundle.

Conclusion: Courage and words can topple malevolent mountains.

All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.

Movie Review: The Bookshop (2017)

A low-key drama, The Bookshop tries for subtle quirkiness, but succumbs to triteness despite a willing cast.

The setting is the late 1950s in the small English seaside village of Hardborough. Widow Florence Green (Emily Mortimer) lost her husband during the war. Now she moves back into her matrimonial home, a heritage building known as Old House, and turns it into the town's first bookshop. She immediately runs afoul of the wealthy Violet Gamart (Patricia Clarkson), who had plans to buy Old House and convert it into an arts centre.

Young Christine (Honor Kneafsey) becomes Florence's helper at the bookshop, and learns to love books. The town's wealthy recluse Edmund Brundish (Bill Nighy) develops a friendship with Florence, initially through correspondence and later in person. She introduces him to the books of Ray Bradbury and he helps her navigate the controversy surrounding the scandalous new book Lolita. But Violet is determined to shut Florence down, and has an ally in good-for-nothing James Lance (Milo North), a small-time media personality.

Based on the book by Penelope Fitzgerald and directed by Isabel Coixet, The Bookshop establishes a scenic milieu of a small but rugged and windswept English waterfront community. While the place looks appealing, the people are much less engaging, an insurmountable fault in what is supposed to be a character-driven drama. 

Not even lead protagonist Florence Green is elevated much beyond the broadest definition of a war widow, vague dreamy flashbacks to a happy married life falling well short despite Emily Mortimer's animated efforts. The rest of the Hardborough residents fare worse. Violet is evil because she is evil (or maybe just because she is wealthy), Mr. Brundish is a misunderstood recluse because, well, he never talks to anyone and never leaves his house. Lance is a slime-ball because he has connections with the big city.

The core conflict between the bookshop and an arts centre creates a misguided culture-versus-culture skirmish that could have been resolved over a civilised cup of tea (perhaps a bookstore as part of the arts centre?). The rest of the core message about the value of books is too broad. The slow pacing deadens any momentum, and at 112 minutes the film is a good 20 minutes longer than the content can support. The narration is unnecessary, but does contribute to a decent denouement that avoids the easy way out.

The Bookshop is charming on the outside, but dull where it matters.



All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.

Movie Review: Far From Heaven (2002)

A drama about turmoil beneath the veneer of suburban normalcy, Far From Heaven is too busy with theatrical stylistic overtures to register the necessary emotional tones.

The setting is Hartford, Connecticut in the late 1950s. Cathy and Frank Whitaker (Julianne Moore and Dennis Quaid) are superficially the ideal and successful married couple with two young children. She is a full-time homemaker, while he is a hardworking executive with an electronics firm. Cathy has a circle of close friends, including Eleanor (Patricia Clarkson).

The veneer of perfection cracks when Cathy catches Frank with a male lover. He starts therapy sessions to try and treat his homosexuality, and their relationship suffers. She embarks on a friendship with her Black gardener Raymond Deagan (Dennis Haysbert), a well-educated small business owner and the widowed father of a young daughter. But suburban Hartford is not ready for interracial friendship, and Cathy is soon the subject of vicious community gossip.

Despite poking at important social topics and enjoying a shiny aesthetic, Far From Heaven is burdened with an off-putting self-aware artificiality. Director and writer Todd Haynes is less interested in recreating the actual 1950s but rather presents a nostalgia-tinted view filtered through the flicker of dramatic movies from the era. The result lands somewhere between mocking and mimicking the cinematic creations of the Eisenhower years, Far From Heaven carrying stiff and unrealistic dialogue, exaggerated acting, indulgently coordinated women's outfits, and over-zealously saturated colours.

The phony facade overwhelms the attempts at viable social commentary. Haynes takes aim at two obvious targets in the form of painfully outdated attitudes towards homosexuality and racism lurking beneath liberal pretense. The themes compete for screen time and neither gains meaningful traction. Frank's sexuality fades in and out of the film, Haynes choosing not to enter the therapy room. And the tentative romance between Cathy and Raymond does not earn the attempts at a poignant resolution, flailing instead in over-torqued territory.

Julianne Moore and Dennis Quaid struggle against the material but buckle under the strain of bewildering mannerisms and stiff conversations, their performances distinctly derivative. Far From Heaven overinvests in flair, and strays far from substance.



All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here

Movie Review: October Gale (2014)

A drama and thriller about grief and loss, October Gale sinks under the flimsy weight of incomplete ideas.

In Ontario, Helen (Patricia Clarkson) is a doctor still grieving the death of her husband, killed in a lake boating accident during a storm. She heads out to their isolated lakefront cottage, where memories of her marriage continue to haunt her. A power outage, no phone service and an impending storm heighten the sense of isolation.

Her solitude is shattered when a stranger with bullet in his shoulder washes up on her pier. His name is Will (Scott Speedman), and Helen nurses him back to health. Will reveals he served time in prison for accidentally killing a man, and the victim's father Tom (Tim Roth) is now tracking him down and wants him dead. Helen agrees to help and together they fortify the lakehouse, waiting for Tom's arrival.

A Canadian production written and directed by Ruba Nadda, October Gale suffers from a feathery script and unconvincing characters. The entire opening act is occupied with Helen cleaning the cottage and flashing back to intimate moments of cuddling with her deceased husband of 30 years. The middle third features the arrival of the wounded Will, an expert at running down the clock by revealing his story in micro-snippets.

And by the time the climax arrives, Helen's decision to get involved in the conflict of others only makes sense on the greasy napkin of bad movie ideas, and Tom's arrival and subsequent showdown exists in a void of rationality.

Patricia Clarkson frequently stops and stares into the middle distance, gradually realizing she deserved much better material. Scott Speedman enhances the narrative blankness, while Tim Roth gate-crashes proceedings, arriving straight from Quentin Tarantino mindspace.

October Gale anticipates a storm, but drowns in still waters.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.

Movie Review: No Reservations (2007)

A romance set in the world of chefs, No Reservations features plenty of quail and saffron sauce but the portions are meager.

In New York City, Kate (Catherine Zeta-Jones) is a highly-strung perfectionist chef running her own kitchen at a classy restaurant owned by Paula (Patricia Clarkson). Kate is very much single, obsessive about recipes, runs her life according to a strict set of rules, and her sessions with a therapist (Bob Balaban) are not helping.

Tragedy strikes when Kate's sister perishes in a car crash, and Kate is tasked with looking after her young niece Zoe (Abigail Breslin). At the same time Paula hires opera-loving Nick (Aaron Eckhart) as a new sous-chef, disrupting Kate's kitchen dynamics. Kate has to deal with sudden parental responsibilities, look after Zoe's fragile emotions and learn to deal with Nick's expansive style and his romantic overtures.

Directed by Scott Hicks, No Reservations is as bland and predictable as a boring meal at an unfashionable suburban family restaurant. Despite decent production values, a scenic New York City, plenty of talk about exotic food and endless visuals featuring sumptuous dinners under preparation in Kate's kitchen, when it comes to the actual story, the film falls flat.

The film is devoid of humour and any serious drama, so this is neither a romantic comedy nor a tragedy of any sort. No Reservations features a peripheral romance between Kate and Nick, but Catherine Zeta-Jones and Aaron Eckhart fail to generate much chemistry. Eckhart is particularly challenged to portray a romantic leading man in a role more suitable for the likes of Owen Wilson. Zeta-Jones swings too far towards the harried professional aspects of Kate's life, and forgets to let her hair down and slip into something more playful to spark the romance.

The film finds a marginally more appealing focus in Zoe's story, the young girl creating a sudden new domestic focus for Kate, and allowing Nick to display his empathy through acts of kindness towards the child.

The answer to the question of whether Kate will make space for some randomness and disorganization in her life is never in doubt. No Reservations purposefully heads to its predictable conclusion, Kate and Nick almost mechanically navigating around the typical obstacles and misunderstanding thrown at their burgeoning relationship. The film talks the high cuisine talk, but delivers entertainment as fresh as last week's fish.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.

Movie Review: Jumanji (1995)

A fantasy adventure comedy aimed at the pre-teen market, Jumanji stays true to its simple objective of providing basic thrills and some laughs packaged into a straightforward life lesson.

In 1869 two frightened boys bury a mysterious board game deep into the ground in rural New England. One hundred years later the local town has expanded, the Parrish shoe company is the major employer, and at a construction site 12 year old Alan Parrish digs up the board game, called Jumanji, and takes it home. Alan gets into an argument with his stern dad Sam (Jonathan Hyde) about boarding school, before unpacking the game to play with his friend Sarah. The game has magical powers and in each round unleashes dangerous, jungle-themed challenges including rampaging animals. After an early dice throw Alan is consumed by the game and disappears into the virtual jungle world. Sarah is horrified and runs away, abandoning the game and leaving Alan to his unknown fate.

26 years later, orphans Judy and Peter Shepherd (Kirsten Dunst and Bradley Pierce) move into the abandoned Parrish house with their Aunt Nora (Bebe Neuwirth). They soon learn of the legend of the missing Alan Parrish, now rumoured to have been killed by his father. Judy and Peter find the Jumanji board and start to play, not knowing that they are actually continuing the game started by Alan and Sarah. Soon a dice throw frees Alan (Robin Williams) from the jungle. Realizing that the game needs to be played to its conclusion to roll back the chaos being unleashed, Alan goes looking for the grown up Sarah (Bonnie Hunt) to join him, Judy and Peter and finish the game.

Jumanji does not stray far from the simple message that life's journey is full of challenges to be confronted, quitting is not a good idea, and while some things are scary all can be overcome with dedication and persistence. It's an old-fashioned film which avoids irony and sarcasm, and instead offers up an engaging enough multi-generational story.

Director Joe Johnston, adapting the Chris Van Allsburg book, keeps the jungle-themed action and thrills on just the right side of not-too-scary for the intended audience, and although the wild animals and wilder plants unleashed by the game are menacing, no one ever seems to get seriously hurt. Humour is deployed in measured doses to regularly lighten the mood. David Alan Grier, as a former employee at the old Parrish shoe factory who has become a veteran police officer by the time Alan is freed from the game, is a main source of levity.

While the premise is fresh, as an adventure the film loses momentum rather quickly. It is soon predictably apparent that every throw of the dice will result in another calamity and another round of running around, until the dice is thrown again and the process is repeated. The special effects are from the early CGI era and have not aged particularly well. The images of rampaging animals are clunkily superimposed onto the live action, and to all but the youngest eyes, the rather inept outcome is a distraction.

Robin Williams is restrained by his standards but still offers plenty of dynamism. In one her earliest prominent roles, Kirsten Dunst as Judy offers the unruffled assurance of a young teen beginning to gain the sometimes useful courage of youth.

Jumanji is a safari-lite, a harmless romp with the wild animals to gain wisdom in suburbia.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.

Movie Review: The Pledge (2001)

A thoughtful psychological crime drama, The Pledge plays with a patient mood while grappling with a brutal murder and the search for the mysterious predator.

In Reno, Nevada, police detective Jerry Black (Jack Nicholson) is retiring. On his last working day, the brutalized body of a young blonde girl named Ginny is discovered in a snowy field. Jerry pledges to the victims' mother (Patricia Clarkson) that no matter what, he will bring the murderer to justice. Toby (Benicio del Toro), a dimwitted vagabond aboriginal, is arrested and detective Stan Krolak (Aaron Eckhart) extracts a confession from him, declaring the case closed.

Jerry doubts that Toby is the killer, and after retirement he continues his informal investigation, interviewing Ginny's grandmother Annalise (Vanessa Redgrave); the victim's best friend at school; and the father (Mickey Rourke) of another young blonde girl who met the same fate as Ginny. He gains a vague picture of the killer's car model and colour, and a murky connection between the crimes and porcupines.

Jerry purchases a gas station along the main highway in the rural area where he believes the next murder may happen. As the months pass, he befriends single mom Lori (Robin Wright Penn), who has a young blonde daughter Chrissy (Pauline Roberts) about the same age as the previous victims. Gradually, Jerry starts to encounter men who could be suspects. But Jerry is also hearing voices in his head, and may be starting to lose his grip on reality.

Directed by Sean Penn, The Pledge is an adaptation of the Friedrich Dürrenmatt book. This is a film that takes a deep breath from the surrounding landscape, and focusses on characters, atmosphere and emotion. There is little action that takes place on screen, but plenty that goes on in the thoughts, fears, and hopes of Jerry Black as he tries to fulfill the promise he made to the distraught mother of a young victim.

Penn's pacing is deliberate, but nevertheless engrossing. Within the forgotten back road setting where time is slow, towns are small, cars are old and technology is outdated, the film is packed with tiny unsettling moments, indications that all is not well, neither in the rural community stalked by a vicious child killer, nor in Jerry's mind. Jerry could be suffering from old-age, post-retirement emotional turmoil, the stress of his pledge, or something else altogether more serious. Penn provides hints, but never any clear resolutions. What is for sure is that some danger is lurking and closing in, and Jerry is welcoming, almost eager to face his nemesis. Whether or not he is ready is another question.

While The Pledge unfolds on its own terms towards a rich and rumpled conclusion, it does suffer from almost too much silence, as the details of Jerry's deliberate actions are sacrificed in search of style and a brooding aesthetic.

Jack Nicholson provides a thankfully subdued performance, staying well within himself despite the mounting stress. Jerry Black is a stoic, calculating character, well past the days of running after suspects and now more interested in laying an elaborate trap and waiting for the right time to pounce. Nicholson conveys a man under self-imposed pressure, with his judgement increasingly clouded. He may or may not be using Lori and Chrissy as a lure; he likely does not quite know anymore whether his need for a family is in conflict with the burning desire to solve a crime.

In support, almost every one-scene role is brought to life by a prominent actor. In addition to Clarkson, del Toro, Eckhart, Wright Penn, Rourke and Redgrave, Helen Mirren makes an appearance as a psychiatrist, Harry Dean Stanton is the original owner of the gas station purchased by Jerry, and Sam Shepard is a police detective.

The Pledge weaves a spell and luxuriates in its foggy density, as much a crime mystery as a thought-provoking sojourn to the place where promises become obsessions.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.

Movie Review: Good Night, And Good Luck (2005)

The story of television reporter Edward R. Murrow taking on Senator Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s, Good  Night, And Good Luck is a reminder that unchecked power will run amok. The film stays well within itself, a relatively small slice of journalistic history used as commentary on the dangers of a nation falling asleep.

With the Soviet Union firmly established as an existential enemy, Wisconsin Senator McCarthy is on a rampage to uncover communist sympathizers in the United States. Throwing wild accusations on the congressional floor and holding hearings in which defendants are accused with the flimsiest of evidence, McCarthy is either a hero or and out-of-control egomaniac tilting at windmills.

CBS television Reporter Edward R. Murrow (David Strathairn) and his co-producer Fred Friendly (George Clooney) decide to risk the wrath of the network executives and advertisers by challenging McCarthy's methods and agenda. With the tentative support of chief executive William Palley (Frank Langella), Morrow airs several episodes of his news show that are overtly critical of McCarthy. Undeterred, the Senator fires back with personal accusations of his own against Morrow and his team.

With the debates over the war in Iraq and the Patriot Act polarizing the "with us or against us" rhetoric in the Unites States of the 2000s, Clooney looks two generations back and finds parallels within the paranoia of the Cold War. In the name of fighting communism McCarthy created a witch-hunt that ultimately served no purpose except to turn Americans against each other. Left unchallenged, McCarthy was portraying himself as the nation's saviour, ferreting out a dangerous network of spies and Soviet agents.

The reality was that McCarthy's accusations were often unsubstantiated, his investigations uncovered no meaningful evidence, and the links to communist or socialist causes were predominantly dredged up from decades past, when the United States and the Soviet Union were allies in their fight against the Nazis.

Still, it required men like Morrow to make a courageous stand, and Good Night, And Good Luck (Morrow's standard sign-off line) leaves no doubt that this is a story of the good guys of the press against the crazed, wide-eyed politicians. With the heroic and evil sides clearly demarcated, the script by Clooney and Grant Heslov struggles to create any sort of drama. There is a bit of tension created within CBS by Morrow's stand on the high ground, but the network's chief executive William Paley has a bark stronger than his bite and is quickly supportive of Morrow's actions.

With the public applauding Morrow's expose of McCarthy's buffoonery, it is left to Don Hollonbeck (Ray Wise), another of CBS's reporters, to suffer the agony of character assassination by a McCarthy-friendly print journalist. Hollonbeck's tangential struggle is dealt with in a few broad strokes, an almost token admission that there are casualties in every fight worth fighting.

A distracting sub-plot involving Robert Downey Jr. and Patricia Clarkson as CBS staffers who keep their non-policy conforming marriage hidden from their colleagues is less than interesting and smacks of padding.

It is left to the stylistic elements of Good Night, And Good Luck to create a memorable experience around Strathairn's stoic performance, and Clooney as director does not disappoint. The film is a study in dark black and light black, rather than black and white, the studio, control room and offices of CBS, as well as the adjacent watering holes, contributing to a study in shades of gloom. And the ever present cigarette smoke, in the studio, on-air and in every scene, is seductively camera friendly but a reminder that while the reporters were taking on the politicians, they were all being collectively poisoned. And Clooney seamlessly integrates historical footage of McCarthy into the film to complete the transformation of Good Night, And Good Luck into a bygone era.

While not necessarily lifting any new weights, Good Night, And Good Luck is a timely reminder that protecting the good nights requires good vigilance.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.

 

Movie Review: Friends With Benefits (2011)

Friends With Benefits places sex at the front end of a romantic comedy, and builds a deeper relationship in spite of a commitment by the main characters to avoid one. It's a successful and agile approach to the genre, helped along by appealing leads who give the impression of having loads of fun.

New York executive recruiter Jamie (Mila Kunis) convinces blogging whiz-kid Dylan (Justin Timberlake) to accept the job of artistic director with GQ magazine, and to relocate from Los Angeles to Manhattan. Jamie and Dylan become friends, but they are both coming out of recently collapsed relationships. Lonely and unwilling to get emotionally entangled, they agree to have regular sex for pure physical pleasure with no commitments.

As they get to know each other better, Dylan meets Jamie's free-spirited mother Lorna (Patricia Clarkson), and discovers that Jamie does not know who her father was. Jamie joins Dylan on a trip to Los Angeles and meets his dad (Richard Jenkins), struggling with worsening dementia. Dylan and Jamie begin to genuinely care for each other, but this threatens the foundation of their care-free friendship-with-casual-sex relationship.

Friends With Benefits makes the bold decision to bring the sex and foul language to the forefront, and is all the better for it. Jamie and Dylan talk awkwardly about sex, share energetic but still artistic sex scenes, and Jamie's foul mouth is cleverly worked into her personality. The result is a film about relationships and sexuality that is not coy about its central subject matter.

Kunis and Timberlake make for an attractive couple, with an easy chemistry and steady spark. Jamie's flighty mother and Dylan' suffering father provide for sufficient if predictable complexity to their characters, and Jamie's unlikely career as a headhunter is a refreshing change from the typical caterers and cute corner bakery owners who have dominated rom coms for far too long.

Kunis is the more dominant screen presence, her acting a tad theatrical but never less than entertaining. Timberlake delivers an understatedly charming performance, poking some fun at his real life persona and politely allowing Kunis to hog most of the spotlight when needed. The supporting friends are rather sparse, with only Woody Harrelson as GQ's gay sports writer registering an impact. Emma Stone has a tiny role as Dylan's ex-girlfriend.

Friends With Benefits is director Will Gluck's follow up to the terrific Easy A (Stone's break-out movie, and again with Clarkson as the mother), Gluck beginning to demonstrate a flair for punching up established genres. He also co-wrote the script, full of edgy one-liners and spiced with barbed inter-coastal jibes.

Friends With Benefits does not reinvent the romantic comedy, but does deliver a flirty and handsome example of how good the genre can be.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.

The Movies of Patricia Clarkson

All movies starring Patricia Clarkson and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

The Untouchables (1987)

Everybody's All-American (1988)

The Dead Pool (1988)

Jumanji (1995)

The Green Mile (1999)

The Pledge (2001)

Far From Heaven (2002)

Good Night, And Good Luck (2005)

No Reservations (2007)

Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)

Cairo Time (2009)

Easy A (2010)

Shutter Island (2010)

Friends With Benefits (2011)

October Gale (2014)

The Bookshop (2017)

She Said (2022)

All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.
The Movie Star Index is here.

Movie Review: Easy A (2010)

A high school comedy that cleverly tones down the raunchiness in favour of wit, Easy A has a lot going for it: a bright premise, a likable Emma Stone, an astute commentary on promiscuity, and lots of laughs.

Olive Penderghast  (Stone) is a generally anonymous high school student. Trying to impress her flashier friend Rhiannon (Alyson Michalka), Olive lies and pretends that she has slept with a college student. Immediately the news spreads throughout the school and she gains an unwanted reputation as a tramp. Among the horrified classmates is Marianne (Amanda Bynes), the leader of a small group of strictly religious students. Marianne condemns Olive's behaviour but takes on the mission of leading her back to the right path.

Instead of listening to anything that Marianne has to say, Olive decides to put her fake reputation to good use: at a house party she pretends to have energetic sex with the gay Brandon (Dan Byrd), to put a stop to the bullying directed his way. Her notoriety as a slut enhanced, Olive finds herself branded as an adulteress, and finds her life mimicking the classic novel The Scarlett Letter, that she happens to be studying in the English class of Mr. Griffith (Thomas Haden Church). Olive starts to dress the part, and to cash in: loser boys start paying her to spread rumours that she slept with them, to help overcome their geeky images.

Despite not actually having had sex with anyone, Olive's high school life spirals totally out of control, and she finds herself embroiled in a marital sex scandal between Mr. Griffith and his wife (Lisa Kudrow). She needs to find a way to put a stop to all the rumours and regain some normalcy.

Easy A has fun asking all sorts of questions: what's the difference between reputation and reality? Is a promiscuous reputation worth maintaining? How long can a chain of lies hold together, and what happens when one lie too many overwhelms the entire structure?

Director Will Gluck brings the script by Bert V. Royal to life with a light touch and an emphasis on humour rather than the more common over-the-top bawdiness that has come to define the genre. Easy A avoids the cliches and tones down the jokes about body fluids, and instead achieves an irreverent, self-dismissive and breezy vibe perfectly suited to the emotional chaos that often accompanies the high school experience. At times, the film tilts into choreographed operetta territory, with repeated shots of exaggerated emotions sweeping through the school and all the students stopping to stare at Olive. It's flashy technique, but not always necessary.

Emma Stone emerges from the turmoil of high school travails with a burgeoning reputation as an emerging star with a deft comic touch, capable of carrying a film through a winning combination of natural appeal and self-depreciation. With the secondary cast filled out by the likes of Malcolm McDowell as the school principal, Stanley Tucci as Olive's dad and Patricia Clarkson as her mom, Easy A has quirky performances hiding behind every corner.

By delivering a fresh and engaging course on navigating the sexual waters of high school life, Easy A is a solid B+.

All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.

Movie Review: The Dead Pool (1988)

Unfortunately leaving the worst until last, Dirty Harry comes back for one final ill-advised mission, but instead of ending the series with a bang, The Dead Pool just leaves a sour aftertaste in the mouth.

The shallow plot has someone sequentially killing famous residents of San Francisco, apparently working off a "dead pool" list that started as a harmless joke. Inspector Callahan is investigating the murders while fending off assassination attempts from the goons of a high-profile gangster that he helped to jail. Schlocky horror film director Peter Swan (Liam Neeson) appears to be a likely suspect behind the dead pool murders, but attention soon shifts to a mysterious sick psycho obsessed with Swan. Meanwhile, television reporter Samantha Walker (Patricia Clarkson) attempts to get to know Callahan better, but generally just serves to get in the way. Callahan finds his name on the dead pool list, and needs to stop the murderer before Dirty Harry becomes the next victim.

Several weaknesses undermine the movie. The main villain is an unnamed, faceless bi-polar lunatic, consumed with the career of horror film director Peter Swan (Liam Neeson). We get to know the bad guy too late in the film to care, and the cardinal sin of creating a hollow centre where the focus of evil should reside is an inexcusable blunder. The Dead Pool also subjects Callahan to a couple of assassination attempts so over the top that the movie enters the realm of the farcical.  Dirty Harry was always meant to be larger than life; but this does not mean that he can survive unscathed from thousands of machine gun rounds while trapped like a sitting duck in two separate ambushes.

The one engaging scene has a small remote controlled car, hiding a powerful bomb, chasing Callahan and his partner through the scenes of San Francisco. It a clever variation on traditional car chases, but in keeping with the rest of the movie, the scene ends in disappointing thoughtlessness as Callahan gets himself trapped and then waits for the bomb to explode under his car -- getting out of the car and up some stairs would have been handy.

Jim Carrey makes a brief appearance in a supporting role as a drug-addicted rock star who is the first victim of the dead pool murders, and there is an inexplicable emphasis on Guns N' Roses throughout the movie, with the band members having walk-on roles. Director Buddy Van Horn, better known as a stuntman, appears to be out of his depth and directs with no more than minimal functionality.

The Dead Pool is the final chapter in the story of one of the most colorful police characters in the history of the movies. Unfortunately but not unexpectedly, the ideas ran out before Dirty Harry harpooned his final victim.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.

Movie Review: Cairo Time (2009)

Cairo Time is a tender, old-fashioned romance, presented at a leisurely pace and finding the right balance between two journeys of exploration, one emotional and the other cultural.

American magazine editor Juliette (Patricia Clarkson) flies into Cairo for the first time to meet her husband Mark (Tom McCamus), a United Nations worker, for a brief vacation. But Mark is held up helping to resolve a conflict in Gaza. He calls upon Tareq (Alexander Siddig), an Egyptian coffee shop owner and an old UN colleague, to meet Juliette at the airport and see her safely to her hotel. Mark's delay is extended. Knowing no one in Cairo and quickly encountering culture shock, Juliette turns to Tareq to help her tour the City. He shows her the local souks, they take a  trip on the Nile, and they travel to Alexandria to visit Yasmeen (Amina Annabi), who is Tareq's old flame, and whose daughter is getting married. Slowly Juliette and Tareq warm up to each other, despite the enormous cultural gulf between them.

Juliette and Mark had promised that they would only visit the pyramids together; but with the simmering attraction between Juliette and Tareq threatening to erupt into a full romance, Tareq escorts Juliette to the pyramids at sunrise, in what seems like a prelude to consummating their romance.

Cairo is the catalyst for the tale of unexpectedly emerging attachment, Juliette gradually falling in love with the City just as gently as she finds sparks building in her relationship with Tareq. Patricia Clarkson is steady at the core of the film, but almost too cold. Director Ruba Nadda's script rarely requires Juliette to do much more than nervously smile as she awkwardly navigates the next cultural hurdle. Alexander Siddiq is a more magnetic screen presence, and has a more interesting role as the host who needs to maintain the politeness of a generous tour guide, introducing Juliette to a foreign but welcoming culture while confronting the undeniable attraction growing between them.

Cairo Time has vague echoes of Romeo and Juliet, with its two unlikely lovers from different tribes battling against cultural barriers. The film also works as an interesting metaphor for political relationships between East and West: the unexpectedly deep involvement of the West in the affairs of the Middle East typically ending with aching hearts. When Juliette, based on the most meager of information and with little knowledge of their history, encourages Tareq to pursue a new relationship with Yasmeen, who is of a different ethnicity, it is difficult not to notice the parallels with the often ill-fated US meddling in the region, undermined by limited comprehension of local customs and intricacies.

Overtones aside, Cairo Time is a welcome throwback to old-school film-making, where characters and locations are the main focus, and romance is given the necessary time to blossom in the most unlikely places.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.