Never Cry Wolf

Oh, the weather outside is frightful!  Keep warm indoors but still get into this winter weather!

Never Cry Wolf is based on Canadian writer Farlew Mowat's autobiographical novel of the same name.  The film starts with a written intro about wolves suspected of killing off the caribou population in the arctic.  Since no scientist has verified that wolves are the culprits, the government sends Tyler (Charles Martin Smith) to track wolves and monitor their impact on the environment.

Tyler opens the film with narration in a diary style (which he does for most of the film), observing the people he meets, including a brash bush pilot (Brian Dennehy, although he's not in the film for long).  Tyler is unsure of his assignment and he is a fish out of water in this environment, he's frightened and is intimidated by the first wolves he encounters.

At first he just sits and watches for signs like tracks, but as the weather warms he decides to go out in the open and make himself visible, thus inviting curious wolves to come up to him and making it easier for him to observe.  As time goes on, Tyler learns to be more savvy to nature's way of doing things.

He eventually observes a family of wolves and makes assumptions about their behavior.  He gets a visit from some Eskimos, one who has traditional ways (Zachary Ittimangnaq) and the adopted son who has more modern values.

The Book Thief

The new film The Book Thief doesn't focus too much on the war and Nazi stuff, although World War 2 is its setting.  Instead the main character is a young girl whose life is disrupted by the war, bringing her to a new community where she finds acceptance.  

In 1938, Liesel (Sophie Nelisse) is adopted out to a couple, Hans and Rosa (Geoffrey Rush, Emily Watson).  It seems that her mother cannot afford to take care of her and her brother anymore.  During the train ride to her new home, her brother dies, which perturbs Rosa as she doesn't consider Liesel very valuable on her own (that is my impression although the film doesn't really say).  The couple are poor--Rosa takes in washing and Hans does sign painting when there is some.

Liesel, who is illiterate, is picked on at her new school but befriended by her schoolmate/neighbor Rudy.  He instantly falls for her.  Liesel insists that being illiterate does not mean she is dumb and we can see she is canny about what she says and observes a lot.  Rosa is a bit prickly with Liesel at first, but as the film goes on, warms up to her as the girl lives with them for several years, calling them mama and papa.  Hans is more nurturing and gentle, and sees that Liesel cannot read, so takes a roundabout approach to help her without making her feel embarrassed.  This awakens in Liesel a desire to read as much as she can.

Elsewhere, a young Jewish man Max (Ben Schnetzer) escapes being rounded up by German soldiers, as his mother sacrifices so he can escape.  Because Hans owes Max's family a great moral debt, he hides Max in Liesel's room, then in the basement, where Hans has painted alphabets on the walls to encourage Liesel's education.  She and Max share an affinity for the poetry of words.

A local politician's wife sees Liesel steal a book and when Rosa sends some laundry via Liesel to this customer, instead of being outed by her as a book thief, the woman invites Liesel to read in her private library whenever she likes.

The Oscar Nominated Short Films (2012)

This compilation of Oscar-winning short films was put together by Shorts International, which also has a cable tv channel. They are the group who in the past few years have theatrically screened Oscar short film programs a few weeks just prior to the Oscar telecast, a few of which I've been able to attend. I have additionally seen a few of these at the Chicago International Film Festival or in other places. At one time cable tv channels such as HBO used shorts to either fill up an hour after the end of a film, or an established program such as Exposure, a science fiction and fantasy-based short film program hosted by Lisa Marie, would appear on the Sci Fi Channel. Now we get a whole channel devoted to shorts, in addition to many online portals one can find shorts on! Overall the films on this DVD are pretty good, a selection of live action and animated shorts from about the last ten years, and I can see why they were chosen as winners.

Films include:

God of Love (2010, U.S)
The New Tenants (2009, Denmark)
Toyland (2007, Germany)
West Bank Story (2005, U.S.)
The Lost Thing (2010, Australia)
Logorama (2009, France)
The Danish Poet (2006, Norway/Canada)
Ryan (2004, Canada)
Harvie Krumpet (2004, Australia)

Synopses and reviews after the jump!

All the Pretty Horses

Despite a pretty good cast and crew, All the Pretty Horses is kind of derivative. Matt Damon stars as a rancher's hand leaving to strike out on his own around the 1950s. Directed by Billy Bob Thornton from a book by Cormac McCarthy.

Damon plays John Cole, a ranch hand who leaves his home in Texas with his friend Lacey Rawlins (Henry Thomas). The death of Cole's father means his estranged mother has taken control of the ranch, leaving Cole pretty penniless. From Texas they head for Mexico to find work, and on the way they meet young runaway Jimmy Blevins (Lucas Black) whose braggadocio leads them to believe his horse is stolen. They want nothing of him and leave him behind, but he comes along anyway, and his horse is lost in a storm. Blevins sees the horse in a Mexican town and aims to steal it back, splitting up the group, and this begins some serious trouble for all the guys.

Cole and Rawlins do find some work on the ranch of a rich Mexican (Ruben Blades), with Cole catching the eye of his lovely daughter Alejandra (Penelope Cruz). Although Cole impresses the father, her aunt frowns on their relationship, doing what she can to warn him off as well as trying to reason with him to leave Alejandra's reputation unsoiled, especially by a manual laborer such as himself. The two guys get arrested later as accomplices to murder and horse thieving with Blevins. Cole does his utmost to defend himself as well as the others, while trying to stay alive in the seedy and bleak prison setting.

Free event: William Friedkin: The Friedkin Connection

Chicago's Harold Washington Library Center ends their short program celebrating director William Friedman. Previously this month they screened The French Connection and The Exorcist, two classic and influential films.

This event sounds like a talk with some Q&A and is hosted by Filmspotting's Adam Kempenaar. Friedkin's book The Friedkin Connection will also be available for purchase and signing.

I also encourage you to check out Filmspotting, a locally produced film podcast, which broadcasts on local NPR station, WBEZ, and also available online.

William Friedkin: The Friedkin Connection
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
6:00 p.m.
Harold Washington Library Center
Cindy Pritzker Auditorium
400 S. State Street

The American Friend

Suspense author Patricia Highsmith's character of Tom Ripley has been played by several actors in several films, even in a French movie.  In this version, Dennis Hopper is Ripley, in Germany pretending to be an art expert and selling paintings of a dead artist that are in fact forgeries he had created. He befriends an artists' framer Zimmerman (Bruno Ganz) and uses the man's illness to convince him to commit some killings.

He dupes Zimmerman that his illness is terminal, and allows him to accept the hits for money to provide for his wife and son after he dies. At first Zimmerman is nervous, and although he becomes more bold, he still is depressed about his fate and botches his second hit, causing an innocent man to be killed. When suspicions arise over this last crime, he and Ripley wait in a country house for the men who will be coming after them.

Free event: The Exorcist

April continues to be a good month for free screenings. Chicago's Harold Washington Library Center is hosting another film directed by William Friedkin. The Exorcist was the first movie that really scared me, to the point that I couldn't sleep! And this was the tv version which was probably cut down somewhat for broadcast, although I am not sure if back then the tv channels would cut out all the graphic visuals like they would do nowadays for broadcast, non-cable tv. You can't deny that many modern day horror movies owe something if not a lot to The Exorcist and how horror was visually depicted in the movies.

The last event in this series takes place on April 16, when Mr. Friedkin speaks and will sign his new book. Mark your calendars!

The Exorcist
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
6:00 p.m.
Harold Washington Library Center
Cindy Pritzker Auditorium
400 S. State Street

Free event: The French Connection

April looks like a good month for free screenings.  Another good pick this month is being hosted by Chicago's Harold Washington Library Center. The French Connection, starring Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider, is part of a program celebrating director William Friedman. The story is a police action/thriller based on a true story.

Related events include a screening of The Exorcist on April 9, and the director himself speaks at the library on April 16. Mark your calendars!

The French Connection.
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
6:00 p.m.
Harold Washington Library Center
Cindy Pritzker Auditorium
400 S. State Street

Free event: Pal Joey

The Northbrook Public Library continues their film screenings with a run of Frank Sinatra films. First up for April is Pal Joey, where a night club singer has to choose between two women--a chorus girl or a rich widow. I will leave it up to you to guess which of the two costars, Rita Hayworth and Kim Novak, play which role.  The film also includes a song made pretty famous by Sinatra, The Lady is a Tramp.

Pal Joey
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
1:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
Northbrook Public Library
1201 Cedar Lane
Northbrook, IL 60062

The Host (2013)

Stop the insanity! I thought after the Twilight series was over we would be through with the combination platter of Stephenie Meyers and the movies. Unfortunately this is not the case.

The Host bases its story on a science fiction precept that aliens have invaded earth and taken over human bodies. The aliens, tentacled glowworms, are inserted into humans and take over the bodies, destroying the personalities of the human host (the film doesn’t say who performed the first surgery, since the glowworms obviously have no opposable thumbs). Some human citizens have become rebel factions, hiding out in the desert against these new invaders. Even a few who have been overtaken don’t take kindly to their new way of life, with their minds still active but trapped by the invading being called "souls" in the movie (ugh). One of these soon-to-be-disgruntled humans is Melanie (Saoirse Ronan), who is living a nomadic life with her young brother when she is chanced upon by another survivor, Jared (Max Irons). For a time they live in the lonely outback away from civilization and the film doesn’t say how, but Melanie is soon captured and invaded by a being who is closemouthed and wants to be called the Wanderer. Be sure to remember that--it is Wanderer with a capital W.

Wanderer is interrogated by a Seeker (Diane Kruger, another Capital Letter Alien), who wants to find out where the other rebels are hiding. Since at this point in the story, Wanderer/Melanie only knows of the existence of two other rebels, the importance the Seeker puts into her interrogation seems inflated to me. We the audience see that Melanie’s personality has not disappeared, and in fact still exists in her body, trying to coerce Wanderer not to give away the location of where her brother and lover might be. This internal struggle causes Wanderer to escape, fighting with Melanie's personality to save Melanie’s human friends and family, yet also maintain both Melanie and Wanderer’s own survival. She locates the desert caverns where her brother and, she finds, others are hiding: her uncle Jeb (William Hurt) and a few hot guys who alternately want her blood or her bod--Melanie’s lover Jared who distrusts her now that she has been overtaken by Wanderer, and Ian (Jake Abel) who also is distrustful but I guess becomes aroused enough to eventually defend and fall in love with the personality of Wanderer.

Wanderer lives with the rebels, with some defending her and others wary of her, but hot on her heels is Seeker. Seeker and the other aliens eventually track her down and Wanderer gives up a lot to save her friends.

On the Road

The new film On the Road depicts the early life influences on beat writer Jack Kerouac, and generally speaks to the lives of 20-somethings trying to find their way in the world. The main character Sal Paradise (standing in for Kerouac) is played by Sam Riley. Among his circle of friends are Dean (Garrett Hedlund), who seems to have no desire except to have sex, take drugs, and drink; Carlo (Tom Sturridge) a beat poet; and Marylou (Kristen Stewart), Dean’s ex-wife but still on again/off again girlfriend. They often meet to drink, take drugs and talk about beat society stuff and although Sal is writing a lot, the film doesn’t show him as pursuing or succeeding with writing as a real career. Sal, who lives in the East Coast, goes to visit Carlo and Dean currently living in the West, where he finds out Dean has divorced Marylou and taken up with Camille (Kirsten Dunst). The film’s central relationship is between Sal and Dean, although overall the movie takes the “On the Road” aspect as Sal travels across America to visit his friends in the West.

Sal admires the charismatic Dean, whose confidence is something Sal doesn’t yet possess. But Dean asks Sal for writing advice which pleases him. We see that Dean though is pretty directionless and lives for the moment, even if the moment is pretty meaningless. He often throws over the woman he is with to spend time with his friends, something Marylou sees and accepts and joins along with, and something Camille comes to realize she cannot. What exactly is Dean looking for in life? IS he looking?

Sal continues to traverse back and forth over the three years or so this movie takes place in, visiting Dean and evening going down for a time to Mexico with him. Other characters include those played by Terrence Howard (a jazz musician), Viggo Mortensen, Amy Adams (characters based on William S. Burroughs and his wife), Elisabeth Moss (wife of one of their circle), Steve Buscemi (a man who picks up the hitchhiking Sal and Dean), and Alice Braga (a migrant farmhand).

Cloudburst

This is a gay themed film about two older lesbians going to Canada to get married when one's family tries to separate them. Based on a play.

The two women, Stella (Olympia Dukakis) the butchy one, and Dot (Brenda Fricker) the gentler female, live together in Maine. Stella is brassy, drinks and swears. Dot is more of a homebody and is slowly losing her vision, making her pretty dependent on Stella although they are both in their 70s. Dot's granddaughter doesn't like that her grandmother's quality of life is not good (she apparently has no real knowledge of what a real lesbian is like and doesn't see the signs that her grandmother is one; she believes the pair are just good friends). The granddaughter tricks Dot into signing over power of attorney, then puts her into a senior home.

Stella is incensed and breaks Dot out of the home, then remembers she read somewhere that gays can get married in Canada. They go on the road and, suspecting the police are after them, pick up a young hitchhiker to change their M.O., even taking him home to see his sickly mother, and eventually he helps Stella and Dot also.

Wake in Fright

This is an Australian movie from the 70s, "lost" due to its depiction of the male dominated culture of Australia, which while embraced by international audiences, faded at the Australian box office. It re-screened at Cannes a few years ago (where it also won a prize in 1971) and is only one of two films to screen at Cannes twice in that festival's history. The film stars actors mostly unknown to me, except Jack Thompson in his first screen role, and Donald Pleasance, although the other actors are apparently well known in Australia.

It concerns a young British teacher, John (Gary Bond), who is kind of in servitude--teachers have to pay a sort of bond for their jobs, to prevent them from abandoning the job since the outback locations are pretty desolate and isolating. During the Christmas break from school, John tries to travel home to spend time with his girlfriend, but since he has no substantial money, ends up stranded in a small town nicknamed the Yabba, where he had planned to travel on to Sydney. In Yabba, he meets several locals here, including a policeman (Chips Rafferty) who buys him drinks then introduces him to a gambling game, an English doctor with shady methods who finds the Aussies are less discerning about his credentials (Pleasance), and a man who buys him a drink (Al Thomas) and takes him home where John and he spend time with his friends (including Thompson), and, other than John, ignores his wife (Sylvia Kay, the director's wife at the time).

At first John does try halfheartedly to get home, but his degeneration into drinking, gambling, and other male pursuits leads to a week of near-insanity. At the end of it John rejoins "civilized society" but we question what has changed in him now.

Thirst For Love

This Japanese drama is from the 1960s. It is based on a book.

Etsuko is a young widow who lives in her father-in-law's home. I'm not sure if it is due to Japanese customs or something specific to this family, but Etsuko is her father-in-law's mistress and he hopes he can produce another direct male heir to continue the family line, as his first and surviving son is impotent; another child is a daughter with a son but he is not considered a direct line male heir.

We see Etsuko is numb to her existence, not reacting when her father-in-law makes advances on her--for her it is a duty to be endured more than anything else. One day she sees their young gardener Saburo watching her, but he claims he was innocently gazing on her, and not the sexual spying she subversively accuses of him of even though she herself was gazing on a naked statue and probably having sexual thoughts.

She continues to pursue Saburo in this way, not openly saying things, but always suggestive with her words which could also be interpreted innocently. Saburo is quite indifferent (or he appears to be) but when Etsuko faints when he is killing a chicken, he tries to revive her and while he is close to her body we get a sense that he has repressed sexual feelings for her (or perhaps he is a bit randy). When the family maid comes upon him he reverts back to his innocent behavior of reviving Etsuko.

Meanwhile, the rest of the family also is becoming aware of the different facets of Etsuko's situation, although they kind of accept how things are going--they accept that Etsuko is expected to produce an heir but don't really like the importance the father places on her. It seems there is a lot unsaid in this family, like the empty seat at the family dinner table that signifies the place that would have been taken by the dead son.

Bless Me, Ultima

This Mexican-themed coming-of-age film, which also touches on religion and mysticism, is based on a book of the same name by Rudolfo Anaya, apparently banned in some schools for its pagan depictions. The story is told from the point of view of its young protagonist, Antonio (Luke Ganalon). It tells of the year or two when Ultima, an old woman and friend of the family, comes to spend her final years in New Mexico with them. The story stars an all-Hispanic cast of mostly unfamiliar (to me) actors. I believe Alfred Molina narrates as the adult Antonio.

The story takes place in 1944. Antonio and his sisters have it in their heads that Ultima is a bruja, a witch. But she says she is only a curandera, a healer, and this is borne out a few times during the film when she uses her knowledge of plant lore to save the sick and dying. But, Ultima also uses voodoo-like rituals and this witchlike behavior makes her a bit feared among the Catholic-religious Mexicans who live here.

Antonio’s father has dreams of moving from New Mexico to California where he hopes for a better life. Antonio’s mother comes from a family of farmers and is content to stay here where her father and brothers are close. Since it is in the era of World War 2, Antonio also has several older brothers, barely men themselves, who are fighting in the war, soon to return home.

We see Ultima teaching Antonio plant lore, and he witnesses both tragic and happy incidents involving his family and community. An uncle was unlucky to chance upon some local sisters in the night, who are suspected to be witches, and falls ill because of it, but Ultima cures him. This angers the sisters’ father Tenorio, a powerful man who vows vengeance on Ultima when one of his daughters dies, he believes from Ultima’s curse.

Antonio grows up and starts school, has scrapes with friends. His young uncles have wanderlust and want to migrate elsewhere to start their own lives. Summers are spent harvesting on the mother's family's farm. Antonio's father makes a stand to protect his family and Ultima, but her last days are spent with Antonio’s family as she vowed.

The Quare Fellow

This film is based on a play by Irish playwright Brendan Behan. Often when we think of prison films, it is most likely from the prisoner's point of view. In The Quare Fellow, the story is about a young idealistic prison guard. The film appears to take place over only a few days.

Patrick McGoohan is the main character, Tommy Crimmin. On his first day at work, he is full of zeal and sees his job as one of protection, pretty much black and white as to what he is there to do. He is a little naïve, being a country boy from rolling Irish hills.

It's evident early on in the film that the story has something to do with capital punishment, as there is a man in the solitary cell having a hearty meal, and discussion that the doctor has to make sure the prisoner is healthy before he is executed.

There are two men waiting to be executed. Tommy meets the wife of one of them (Sylvia Syms, who forgets her Irish accent for most of the film), and she feels that she has somehow caused her husband to be in this position. But she is also quite hardened to her predicament.

Although McGoohan doesn't appear that young (he was 34 when he did this), his character of Tommy is naïve and gets tricked/taken advantage of by prisoners (teasing, not really malice), which gives the film a bit of humor (just a bit, it's quite depressing otherwise). Also there is no training, Tommy is just thrown into the job on his first day, although there is a helpful older guard (sympathetically acted by Walter Macken). They discuss whether each "believes in" capital punishment.

Through his witnessing the wife's behavior and guilt, whom he sympathizes too much with, and his own experiences at the prison, Tommy eventually is uneasy about the execution. Character by character, we see how others are affected too.

Free event: Monsieur Lazhar

Transistor, the record shop and art gallery, continues to offer free films. Today's offering is not music-related, but was Oscar-nominated last year as Best Foreign Film.

The film involves several cultures, as a substitute Algerian teacher in Montreal deals with his own grief after filling in for another teacherwho committed suicide.  This film is from Belgium.

Monsieur Lazhar
Monday, December 17, 2012
8:00 p.m.
Transistor
3819 N. Lincoln Avenue

The Moon-Spinners

This is one of Hayley Mills' Disney era pictures she did as a teenager. When I watched this as a kid she was the only actress I knew, despite Joan Greenwood as her aunt, Eli Wallach as the villain, Irene Papas as the inn owner, and Pola Negri as a rich woman that Mills meets late in the picture.

Mills is Nikki, who travels with her aunt (Greenwood) to the Mediterranean island of Crete. They take in the local color while her aunt records folk songs for her anthropological studies. Nikki spies an attractive young man, Mark (Peter McEnery) whom she later discovers has some kind of secret. It involves the menacing/friendly Stratos (Wallach, playing Greek) and stolen jewels. The young couple have to find proof that Stratos is a thief while also evade being kidnapped and shot.

The Killer Inside Me

Based on a book by Jim Thomson (which I've heard are hard to adapt), this film stars Casey Affleck as a small town Texas deputy, Lou Ford, who is asked by a local big wig/construction businessman (Ned Beatty) to run a prostitute Joyce (Jessica Alba, she doesn't get to do much except be a coquette) out of town.  This meeting between Ford and the woman starts a chain of events that lead to his dark side being exposed, jeopardizing not only his standing in town but also the lives of several people connected to him.

The businessman thinks Joyce is a bad influence on his son since they plan on marrying--she's not marriage material and perhaps she is a golddigger too. Ford, looked on by the town as a sympathetic lawman who takes the time to help them, initially approaches her with that in mind.  But as in film noir stories, lawmen are pretty hard and unsympathetic with used women.  Joyce refuses his "help" and a physical altercation between them turns into a sexual encounter. This incident brings out Ford's latent and long-standing sadism.

Another thorn in Ford's side is his girlfriend Amy (Kate Hudson) who is a little shrewish and possessive. When she accuses him of running around with Joyce, it forces his hand and he blurts out it is she, Amy, he wants to marry instead, something we know he really doesn't want. Other events, some of Ford's making, combine to force his hand yet again as one murder turns into two, two into another. Slowly the town gets an inkling that the mild-mannered and helpful deputy is not as he seems. Co-stars include Elias Koteas as a labor unionizer (he gets the most acting to do among the supporting cast, outside of Alba and Hudson), Bill Pullman as a loud lawyer, Simon Baker as the local lawyer.

Eat, Pray, Love

Gag, Pray for a quick death, and Hated this movie! Another self-indulgent American is dissatisfied with her life, and thinks the answer lies in things outside of herself.

This movie, based on a book, stars Julia Roberts as a woman searching for meaning in her life, and who decides to globetrot the world to find it.