Animal Kingdom

A teen whose mother has died of drug overdose goes to live with his grandmother and uncles, who are involved in bank robberies and other crimes. They are not strangers to him although he hasn’t seen them for a long time. Josh (James Frecheville), who prefers to be known as “J,” re-meets his grandmother (Jacki Weaver), and uncles Darren who is just a few years older than himself, Craig, and the currently hiding Pope (Ben Mendelsohn) who seems to suffer from bipolarity or ADHD or something that involves meds he is not taking. It is Pope who is the wild card in the family, creating problems and conflicts among the others for his own benefit (which none of the others seem to see). Also in the group is Barry Brown (Joel Edgerton), a cohort who hangs out often at the house.

The Box

Based on a short story by noted scifi writer Richard Matheson and taking place in the 70s, this is a story with suggested futuristic, time/space continuum and alien elements. This was also previously adapted into a Twlight Zone episode. The movie though is directed by the guy who wrote and directed Donnie Darko, Richard Kelly.

A couple, Norma and Arthur Lewis (Cameron Diaz, James Marsden) live a comfortable life but pretty much paycheck to paycheck. She is a teacher and suffers from a childhood accident and her foot is malformed. He works at the FBI's Langley research division where he has been using their new age materials to try to make an orthopedic foot to make his wife’s life more comfortable. Out of the blue one day a box is left for them, a curious contraption with a big push button. A mystery man, Mr. Steward (Frank Langella) tempts them to push the button for a million dollars, with the condition that someone they don’t know will die as a result. The couple struggle with the decision, which must be made in 24 hours. Their troubles and the knowledge that it will affect someone they don't know, convince them to push the button, or more correctly she pushes it, and they immediately have regrets.

The Pentagon Papers

I found this film on Netflix while browsing for films Paul Giamatti is in. It’s a biopic starring James Spader as Daniel Ellsberg, a military analyst who came to realize he was unwittingly contributing to the continuing war in Vietnam with his information, while American politicians lied about the war's importance and necessity. Ellsberg first tries to convince them to end things on moral grounds once he finds out about the lying, but when politicians and others disagree, or are too scared to act, he leaks confidential files to the New York Times. He is tried for distribution of confidential information.

Dogville

Using a minimalist stage set, Lars von Trier tells the story of the mysterious runaway Grace (Nicole Kidman), whose fate is decided by the inhabitants of a Colorado town on a dead end street at the foot of the Rocky Mountains.

Tom (Paul Bettany) convinces the others to give Grace a chance, despite some gangsters looking for her. At first the town is wary, then more welcoming--even the sole citizen who is openly antagonostic to Grace, Chuck (Stellan Skarsgard). As Grace's hunters come closer to catching up to her, the town exploits her vulnerability, basically making this a morality play; they use and abuse her in the name of taking risks on her behalf.

sex, lies, and videotape

This was Steven Soderbergh's first film, which he wrote and directed, and put him on the map. A couple, John and Ann (Peter Gallagher, Andie MacDowell) gets a visit from his old friend, Graham (James Spader). Also part of this story is Cynthia (Laura San Giacomo), Ann's freewheeling sister.

Past seven days

I didn't finish one of this week's movies, Sucker Punch, which was just a mess of a film.  It's exploitative and the plot is there to only serve as a way to pretend the revenge fantasies of the young female characters have any importance amongst the erotic dancing (which the film flubs by not showing but only alluding to) and the action sequences masquerading as some self-important quest the main character has to get through in order to free herself from the oppression she suffers.

I did finally get to The Social Network, and rewatched Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, a modern film noir.

Flash of Genius
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Leave Her to Heaven
My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done
The Social Network
Sucker Punch

Spring Summer Fall Winter...and Spring

As the title of this Korean film denotes, it is about the continuance of life and also about how cyclical it is.  Stories are told for each season and involve the inhabitants of a monastery floating on a mountainside lake, not much bigger than my living room.

In the first segment, Spring, an old monk and young boy live a simple life. They row to land and the boy picks herbs. Another day, he ties rocks to small animals and gleefully watches them struggle to navigate. When the monk sees this, he punishes the boy in a non-traditional (at least by Western standards) but meaningful way, ultimately to teach him a lesson and not as true punishment.

In Summer, several years later, the boy is now a young man. He escorts a woman and her sickly daughter to the monastery, where the monk nurses her back to health. But, being a randy youth, he and the girl do what young people do and the monk acknowledges that nature has taken its course. When the girl, now healthy, leaves, the young monk does so too.

In Fall, again several years later, the old monk sees a tragic newspaper story about the young man, now 30 years old, and knowingly expects him to return. The young man does so, and has to face his demons and future when some policemen chase him down. The old monk once again tries to help guide him and turn him toward the right path. When the young man leaves, the old monk realizes that he too must face his own final lifepath.

In Winter, a new monk arrives, walking across the iced over lake to get to the monastery. A despondent woman comes with a baby, intending to leave it there.

In Spring again, several years later, the baby is now a young boy (I think it's even the same actor), and the circle of life continues.


A beautiful, well-made film, simple yet deep. It probably would be more meaningful if you knew more about Buddhism and its rituals, but as a Western viewer I could still get some of the meaning (for instance, the theme about carrying one's own burdens is throughout). The only thng bad about it was the animatronic baby they had to use in one scene, no doubt for the safety of the real baby. There's not a lot of dialogue; Fall is the only segment where there is much of a conversation. In Winter the film spent six minutes showing the new monk stuggle to get up a hill but this scene was not dull or boring.

Harvey

Sometimes I feel as if there are so many movies and so little time to watch them all! Getting back to the classics is so hard when new movies are coming out every week. One such movie I have never watched before is Harvey, starring James Stewart as Elwood P. Dowd and his imaginary friend, the six and a half foot tall rabbit Harvey. This film is based on a Pulitzer Prize winning play.

Mao's Last Dancer

This film chronicles the real story of Li Cunxin, a male ballet dancer from Communist China who came to the U.S.  Mao's Last Dancer was directed by Bruce Beresford and costars Bruce Greenwood, Joan Chen, Kyle MacLachlan, and dancer Chi Cao in the lead role.

Past seven days

Heading into the final countdown til Christmas! Are you watching any holiday movies?

How to Train Your Dragon
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protyocol
Poetry
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

Meet Monica Velour

Although this movie stars Sex and the City's Kim Cattrall in a major role, I believe its destiny was straight-to-video as I have not seen it listed anywhere despite my having seen it several months ago at a preview.

Dustin Ingram plays a goofy teen Tobe, who is enamored of 80s porn star Monica Velour (real name Linda, played by Cattrall) and collects her memorabilia and videos. His fantasy is less about sex and more about romance, so when he hears she will be in Indiana for a strip show at the same time he has a buyer there for his hot dog van, he thinks the stars are aligned and drives there to meet her. Of course reality hits him (although he seems a little dense and needs to be told time and again) when he finds out she has real life problems--she's an aging divorcee trying to find a decent job and fighting her ex for custody of her daughter.

L'Ours (The Bear)

It was disheartening to hear a young woman in the audience ask "Do the bears talk?" and then promptly walk out when she was told "no." I'm sure I will NOT be meeting her at a film festival anytime soon.

This is a film told mostly from the aspect of the bears in the film. It takes place in the late 1800s in British Columbia. A bear cub is orphaned when its mother is killed in a landslide. The cub goes along on his way. Meanwhile, hunters are on the trail of bear skins. They already have a few and are on the trail of a large male in the area. The male is spotted and is shot by one of the hunters (Tcheky Karyo, the other hunter is played by Jack Wallace) but the wound doesn't stop the bear. It runs away and tries to find comfort in a mudhole, where the cub sees it and they ally themselves to each other.

The two bears continue travelling together, while the hunters continue on their trail. The film shows the cub dreaming of bearlike things, watching as the male bear has sex, and imitates behaviors like knocking down a tree to find food. The hunters are joined by a third man with a pack of hunting dogs, who do a better job of finding the bear.

The film was kind of cutesy in how it showed the bear behavior, overly anthromorphizing them and I think even the bear cub made sounds that were done by human voices (whimpering, grunting, etc.) That aspect of I didn't really like; it probably would be fine for a junior audience, but I would have preferred more natural "acting" by the bears.

The ending where one of the hunters changes his mind was also a bit unbelieveable for an old audience member like me, although I guess it offers a moral for a young audience. This particular hunter throughout the film did things like tie up the cub and taunt it, notched his bullets so they would cause more severe injury, too eager to shoot soon--so his change of thinking was not supported by his previous behavior. Also at the end, which seems tacked on, is an encounter with a cougar.

Although there is of course violence due to the hunting aspect, this is an okay family film for slightly older children.

Behind the Burly Q

This documentary traces some history about the burlesque theatre, which evolved from vaudeville. Vaudeville shows included lots of different acts, from magicians to animal performers to pretty dancers. Burlesque didn't begin quite as seedily as it sounds. Historians are interviewed. Actor Alan Alda is also interviewed, as his father, Robert, worked in vaudeville. Alantold some stories about, for instance, his father using a pig in the act, which got the pig the privilege to ride in the car with them, leaving Alan behind instead with some aunts who took care of him. There are many anecdotes and photographs. It's another one opening a bit of American culture to me.

Lipstick & Dynamite

I was in a documentary kick recently and watched a few on DVD all at once. I like the ones about interesting human characters more than those that are promoting a social agenda. This one certainly falls in the former camp.

Lipstick & Dynamite tells the history of professional female wrestlers from the 1930s and beyond. Many of the ones who were interviewed for this documentary still have big egos and are braggarts about their past exploits, as well as their romantic rivals among the other women. Many even still have pretty foul mouths at 80 or 90 years old.

Some mentioned abuse by families or managers, and the really low paychecks they got despite being equal box office draws than men. These ladies are still characters and have very strong memories about events that took place fifty years ago.

Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo

I had heard about this previously and it was sort of posed as a documentary about insects in Japan, but it is more about the love by the Japanese of insects.

From what I saw it seems like the Japanese are exploiting insects for their beauty and as an unusual pet, and not, as the director is posing, for its traditional culture of revering insects as part of folklore and nature. Schoolchildren, professional insect sellers, scientists capture insects, and it does not even seem like they care about ecology or destroying habitats, and more about collecting and buying/selling them because they are beautiful, which I find distasteful. Although I often see how the Japanese revere aesthetics and art, this depiction seemed very different to what I know of Japanese culture (which is admittedly very little).

There is also not much in the way of history or narration, letting the visuals and the behavior of the human subjects speak for themselves.

A Piece of Work

This documentary follows the longtime comic Joan Rivers through her working hours. She is a workaholic who understands that she needs to really work it to maintain her career and public profile, especially at this stage in her life. You can tell she is afraid to be considered a dinosaur in an age of youth (but when has that never been the case in Hollywood?) Seeing her cohorts pass away or relationships disintegrating, she is losing her circle/network which is depressing her. Joan also still expects to be treated like royalty due to her tenure and place in history as one of the very first breakout female comics, but she is realistic enough to realize that is not always going to happen. Yet it still disappoints her when it doesn't happen, even in small comedy clubs.

Joan seems like she is still living in the past, particularly her breakup with the late Johnny Carson. This breakup looks like it is still very hurtful, as supposedly she was blacklisted from NBC and has not appeared on that network since then (except once recently I think on some interview). The doc touches a bit on her relationship with daughter Melissa as they appear on a reality show together, but this relationship to me doesn't seem to be reciprocated very well (what is her daughter known for other than being the daughter of a famous celebrity?) Although I've herad her late husband Edgar was a big part of her life, very little of this documentary talks about him.

Joan certainly looks like a survivor though.

The Adventures of Tintin

When I first heard that Tintin was being made and that Jamie Bell was being cast, I thought he might be a little old for the role. After learning it was animated, I felt better. This film is directed by Steven Spielberg. I believe Peter Jackson was the secondary director (as well as a co-producer), working again with actor Andy Serkis who is quickly becoming the go-to actor for animated film characters.

This film is based on the Belgian artist Herge's characters and several of the comic books of Tintin's adventures. Tintin (Bell) is a young investigative journalist who has adventures with his dog Snowy. This story begins on a model ship he buys which has a secret message leading to a treasure.

The Green Room

This is a 1978 Francois Truffaut film in which he also stars, and based on a Henry James story. Costars Nathalie Baye.

In the 1930s, Truffaut plays a widower Julien who obsesses about his dead wife, having a room as a shrine, thinking he is keeping her memory alive where everyone else has moved on. His obsession with death also stems from the horrors he witnessed as a soldier in WWI. He meets a young woman who feels similarly about her dead father, just not as obsessed as he is. Julien's friend, recently widowed, remarries quickly, which stirs up Julien's anger so much he basically ends their friendship. Basically he compares his friend's lack of love for his dead wife to his own obsession.

The Whisperers

This British film from 1967 focuses on an old woman (Edith Evans) living alone. She thinks she hears voices and also imagines she is due for an inheritance and has other fantasies about her life that the local police humor her on.

Her petty criminal son comes to visit but really comes to hide some money from a criminal venture. When she finds the money, she believes it is the inheritance and is later taken advantage of when she talks too much of coming into some money. A kindly social worker locates her husband, who had abandoned her long ago, and convinces him to return but this is short lived.

Pariah

This new independent film, written and directed by Dee Rees, is about a black lesbian teen who struggles with her sexual identity and coming out to her parents, although both sense it while denying it in different ways. Alike, known as Le, has friendships with a lesbian dropout whom her mother doesn't like and a straight girl who kisses her. Le also has to deal with her mother who wants her to remain girly, and her father, a policeman, who wants to avoid the issue of his daughter's sexuality.

This was a pretty good film, the lead actress Adepero Oduye was very natural in her role and believable in her performance. Her character was complex yet we could see the many facets of her confusion caused by the social cues everyone gives her, which contributed to her anxiety and anger at not being able to express herself. Each of the supporting characters represented different views of Le's sexuality, both good and bad. The script was pretty tight and well written. It also looked pretty well put together for a small budget indie. Kim Wayans as the mom was the only actor I recognized, but otherwise it was an all black cast, and overall the acting was very good.

Newsies

This Disney musical film stars Christian Bale (around 17 years old at the time) as a parentless paperboy working for Joseph Pulitzer's paper (Pulitzer is played by Robert Duvall). Based on a real story, the paperboys strike when the big newspapers raise the prices of what they have to pay for the papers (the poor and often homeless boys would have to buy the papers to re-sell them, any they didn't sell they couldn't sell back).

Mr Nobody

This is a fururistic sci fi film starring Jared Leto. He plays the very old Nemo Nobody, the last mortal man on earth (everyone else is virtual or have life-extending medical procedures). Currently he is an old man being interviewed by a journalist as well as a doctor, reflecting on his life with his parents (Natasha Little and Rhys Ifans) in a vaguely 1950s England timeline.

The story goes back and forth in Mr. Nobody's life, but he has memory lapses so we are not sure what he remembers is real or imagined. It shows three timelines with three wives, one played by Sarah Polley who is depressive, and another by Juno Temple/Diane Kruger (she for a time is his stepsister) which is supposed to be his true love, and a third Asian wife (I felt this character and timeline was less formed).

The Dominici Affair

This is a documentary about another documentary. The original doc was done by Orson Welles. In the 1950s in southern France, a noted British scientist, his wife and young daughter were murdered as they camped by the side of the road. An old French-Italian man was accused and convicted, later commuted. At the time Orson Welles started a documentary about this mysterious case as he was doing a travelogue project and found this case very interesting. This documentary was never finished as I believed it was too volatile for television. The new documentary attempts to piece together the surviving bits of film and Welles' existing narration.

To this day the murder is still disputed in that part of France and the murderer's family maintain his innocence.

Ladies in Retirement

In the 1800s, a lady's companion Ellen (Ida Lupino) has to care for her recently evicted dotty sisters (Elsa Lanchester, Edith Barrett). She convinces the lady she works for (Isobel Elsom) to let them stay for a little while in their isolated cottage, but the sisters are very eccentric and cause problems with their hostess, leading Ellen to take drastic measures.

Backyard

This Mexican police drama takes place in Juarez, just across the American border. A policewoman investigates who has been killing women and leaving their bodies in the desert. Many of the victims are low paid workers in American factories in Mexico. The detective also has to struggle against sexual discrimination on the job, the police's old boy network, as well as Mexico's high police and government corruption. From the victim's side of the story, the film also focuses on one such naive woman who makes some bad choices and leads her to trouble. There is also a talk radio deejay who comments on the killings and police corruption.

Past seven days

Still continuing my TV watching with the series Community, so my movie list is short this week.  I recommend Tin Tin, it's the sort of adventure the really bad Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull should have been.  It got me speculating that they should make Indiana Jones an animated franchise now, which will get around Harrison Ford's age and yet make the adventure and action even more spectacular and fun.

Watching Alfie, the original version starring Michael Caine. I thought it could be a good companion film for the currently screening Shame.

Alfie
Pariah
The Adventures of Tintin
The Cell
The Green Room

My Week With Marilyn

My Week With Marilyn hinges on the performance by Michelle Williams playing Marilyn Monroe, which at times is good and other times a bit act-y. The film is based on a 1995 book written by the other central character, Colin Clark, at the time a young gofer with the inflated title of Third Assistant Director. Colin muscles his way into working on Laurence Olivier's film production, even though he has no experience.

Flores de Otro Mundo

Lonely Spanish men organize a matchmaking festival with a busload of women from South America.  The film focuses on a couple of the matchups, as well as a couple of non-matched people.  There are two immediate matches:  Patricia, a Santo Domingan with two young kids, with Damian, a meek farmer who lives with his mother; and Marirosi, a supposed virgin, with Alfonso, a greenhouse gardener, who are both almost middle aged. There's Damian's middle aged friend Carmelo brings his sexy young girlfriend over from Cuba, Milady--she's going to see how she likes it here before she decides if she wants to marry Carmelo.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

I keep typing "Taylor" when referring to this film. My fingers just don't want to hit the I!  It is based on a John Le Carre novel of the same name.

George Smiley (Oldman), a retired spy, has been asked to return to investigate on the downlow, a long-hidden and high up mole in the Circle, the British spy ring Smiley used to work for. (They were the precursor to MI5.) The four suspects are played by Toby Jones, Colin Firth, Ciaran Hinds and David Dencik, and each seems to be hiding something.

Powwow Highway

America is such a melting pot that many cultures celebrate Christmas even if it is not part of their native faith. One such culture is the Native American. Powwow Highway depicts a few days in the the lives of some modern day Cheyenne, where during the holiday season some characters reacquaint themselves with their native traditions. The two main protagonists are played by Gary Farmer and A. Martinez.

Silent Partner

I've been going over movies I've already watched that have a holiday theme or take place during the holiday season. In Silent Partner, a nerdy bank teller discovers his bank is to be robbed. He has the bright idea to take some of the money first, hiding it in his own safe deposit box and letting the robber take full blame. But the robber finds out.

Spoken Word

This low budget indie deals with a familiar issue in film: a dying parent is a catalyst for an adult child to return home and hopefully reconcile. The main character Cruz Montoya (Kuno Becker) is a slam poet working in San Francisco. He has had some fame, and is touring the country with his poetry and heading a class for teens. He's also dating a like-minded painter, Shea. When Cruz gets a call from his sister-in-law in New Mexico, she tells him his father has been ill and thinks it is a good time for him to return home.

Bernard and the Genie

This film is only about 70 minutes long so I’m not sure if this was a feature film or a TV movie (it does have the feel of a made-for-TV holiday special since it takes place during Christmas). The plot is sort of a low grade Bedazzled. Naïve Bernard (Alan Cumming, looking like he’s eleven years old) seems to be looked down by everyone, including his greedy supercilious boss (Rowan Atkinson, looking very devil-y) who doesn’t like how nice and generous Bernard is to their clients, and his girlfriend who has been sleeping with their best friend for years. It so happens that the previous year the girlfriend gave Bernard a fancy Arabian lamp, and unbeknownst to them a magic one, inhabited by an inexperienced genie (Lenny Henry).

Past seven days

With the holidays coming on I have so many things to do!  So movie watching has been light.  I have also been checking out the TV comedy series, Community.

My Week With Marilyn
Newsies
The Sitter
The Whisperers

Past seven days

Hope you had a happy Thanksgiving with your family and friends!  The "friends" I spent time with were Muppets, Jason Bourne, and a really ugly woman.

Bourne Identity
Bourne Supremacy
Bourne Ultimatum
Carancho
Jack and Jill
The Immortals
The Muppets
Oceans 13
We Bought a Zoo

Past seven days

A variety of movies this week on DVD, but still got to see some new movies in theatres.  This holiday weekend I hope to catch a re-release of Raiders of the Lost Ark and the new Muppets film.  Nostalgia rules!

Hugo
Ladies in Retirement
Matinee
Mr. Nobody
The Descendants
The Dominici Affair
The Hour (BBC)
The Spirit
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (2011)

Lady on a Train

Here's another old movie that takes place during the Christmas holidays.  It is based on a novel by Leslie Charteris, noted for being the author of the Simon Templar aka The Saint stories.  Lady on a Train stars actress/snger Deanna Durbin in one of her adult roles.  During Christmastime, Durbin is a train passenger Nikki, and while her train is stopped, she looks inside a building and sees a murder. She tries to convince the police what she saw was real, but they don't because she reads a lot of crime novels and they think she's making it up. It is a typical amateur detective movie.  She decides to investigate on her own, finds out who the dead man is, sneaks into his house, and--being mistaken for his mistress, a nightclub singer--is told she inherits his estate.

Nikki tries to get a mystery writer (David Bruce) to help her. Ralph Bellamy plays the nice nephew of the dead man who could care less about the money. There's also another ne'er do well nephew and a disapproving aunt. At the same time Nikki's trying to evade another member of the family who is after some evidence.

Every now and again she breaks into song (Night and Day by Cole Porter is the one I remember from watching this on TV years ago), even taking time for a costume change and new hairstyle even though the bad guys are still after her.

The film is more screwball comedy than murder mystery. It even has Edward Everett Horton, who played Fred Astaire's comical second fiddle in a lot of the early Astaire & Rogers films. William Frawley has a small part as a desk sergeant at the police station.

It manages to keep you guessing who the murder is and the contrivances are not too major--modern romantic comedies are just as fluffy. This is a light comedy with some good singing by Durbin.

Felicidades

Many Christmas stories deal with loneliness, with characters finding it difficult to come to terms with their life situations. In Felicidades, a film from Argentina, several unrelated people on Christmas Eve try to reach their goals of connecting with certain people in their lives.

Four Christmases

I think it's pretty hard to make a bad holiday movie. At the most it might be too sappy or sentimental but usually inoffensive, something you could leave playing on the TV while baking the holiday cookies. Four Christmases seems to go out of its way to show some really offensive people, I suppose in an attempt to show how the main characters played by Vince Vaughan and Reese Witherspoon have legitimate reasons for abandoning their respective families during the holiday season.

Brad and Kate (Vaughan and Witherspoon, who also were some of the co-producers of this film), both of divorced parents, lie to their families that they cannot join them for the Christmas holidays due to job commitments. They actually have an exotic vacation planned for themselves. But when they are seen on TV during a news segment about airports being snowed in, their families insist they visit all four of them at their respective homes.

We see the broad comedic hijinks that take place at each of the homes, filled with precocious and bullying kids, and parents (Robert Duvall, Mary Steenburgen, Sissy Spacek, Jon Voight) who insist on having things their own way, of course making it a pretty miserable four visits for the couple. Along the way, Brad and Kate learn things about each other that at first damage their relationship then bring them closer.

This is mostly a broad comedy, with nothing too new in the way of jokes. Out of all the actors, Vince Vaughan was actually not bad, I always think of him as an SOB but he made Brad pretty likeable. But that was contrasted to the rest of the characters. Some the actors playing parents, Duvall and Spacek, had such bad roles that I don't know why they didn't insist on some rewriting. Steenburgen played a pretty common role for herself, a "cougar." Voight, as the last visited parent, of course had the emotional heart that Brad and Kate were supposed to relate to.

The kid characters were monstrous, vulgar and ill-mannered, these are not the types of child actors' careers that turn into the Lindsay Lohans of tomorrow. Brad's family had a violent and foulmouthed kid who was into cage fighting (like the rest of the men in the family) and Kate had a niece who taunted another aunt, basicaly a mean girl in the making.

With the families being such bad characters, the film really needed to show how each of the four families had a heart or soul for the audience to sympathize with, and to make Brad and Kate realize that even with their families' flaws, they are "Family" that one cannot abandon or disown. I didn't find this at all in the story, or it wasn't done realistically enough for me to care (even if it is just a comedy). As expected, there is a happy ending. I did laugh a couple times, when the brother and his wife were playing a board game. But there was little holiday joy in this movie.

Past seven days

A couple of fun events this past week.  The 50th Anniversay screening of West Side Story that was sponsored by Turner Movie Classics cable channel, an entity that continues to revitalize old movies for a new audience.  Also, The Artist, getting a lot of Oscar buzz.

A Town Called Panic
Backyard
Clash of the Titans
The Artist
The Music Never Stopped
Tower Heist
West Side Story

Last Holiday (1950)

I don't know what it is about holiday stories that get made and remade year after year. Certainly Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol has had many incarnations, I'm willing to bet that is the most remade holiday story.

One remake of Last Holiday starred the entertainer Queen Latifah. But the earlier version starred a gentle Alec Guinness. He plays an agricultural machinery salesman, George Bird, who has just been told he has an incurable disease. In a daze, he cashes out his savings and life insurance and takes a last holiday, hoping to spend his last days in a happy state. He decides to spend time in the posh Pinebourne Hotel, where the clientele is select.

West Side Story Pt. 2

Turner Movie Classics re-released this to theatres last week since it was the film's 50th Anniversary.  It was part of their film festival of earlier this year, where they go around the country and screen old classics on the big screen.  Here in Chicago we were treated to Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.  Last year we got North by Northwest.  Both are great films to watch for the first, or the hundredth, time in the theatre, and it was great to see how these classics still attract new, younger audiences.

This was the case as well for West Side Story.  It truly is one to watch on a big screen.  There were trivia clips during the preview, then a recorded Q&A by TCM host Robert Osborne that took place during their film fest.  The guests were co-writer Arthur Laurents, Oscar-winning supporting actor George Chakiris, and voice artist Marni Nixon, who subbed for Natalie Wood in the singing.  Each talked about their experiences and enjoyment in working on the film, as well as the history of how each of them came to be involved in this iconic work.

This screening was one that really captured the audience's attention as well as what I could tell were their fond memories.  Throughout the film, their was a collective feeling of nostalgia among the audience, and if you know the film it is not hard to understand why for so many years its artistry has engendered such fond memories and tributes.  Its emotional ending still evoked strong feelings and tears, the songs still singable, the comedy and dancing still bringing out those old emotions time and again.

The Italian Job

Michael Caine must love a good heist. He's certainly done many heist movies, mostly in the 1960s and 70s. He's still doing them, in such films as Flawless and even in a way, Inception.  It is easy to see why The Italian Job was remade. The story is nearly not even about what he is stealing (I think in moviespeak it would be considered a Macguffin), but really about the heist and equally so the subsequent excellent car chase/escape. It even includes a great cliffhanging ending (literally).

Caine plays a con, Charlie, just released from prison. An old associate has just been killed and leaves him the plans for a big score, $4 million in gold in Turin, Italy. Charlie can't resist this heist, but needs help, so he asks for backing from Mr. Bridger (Noel Coward), a mobster who is conducting business as usual from prison.

Tower Heist

Tower Heist stars established comic actors Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy.  Alan Alda plays a villainous businessman who scams the employees of a luxury apartment tower in New York City, where Stiller and others work.  The story starts out by showing how Josh (Stiller), as the building's manager, has worked hard to make the lives of the affluent tenants in The Tower easy.  He knows their every little whim, but he knows all their habits and secrets too.  Without the knowledge of his co-workers he has invested their pensions with Arthur (Alda), a businessman whom he finds out later has used the money in a ponzi scheme and defrauded all the savings of the "little people" who work in the building. 

Into the Abyss

I think this is the third or fourth documentary of Werner Herzog's I've watched. As with the others his personal passion about his subject is evidently displayed.

This documentary focuses on the case of a Texan who is on death row.  Herzog interview this young man as well as his cohort in crime--who was also convicted and is in prison; the cohort's father, who has been in and out of correctional facilities all his life and contemplates how this has affected the life of his son (as well as another son who is also in prison); relatives of a couple of the murder victims; an ex-executioner who no longer could deal emotionally with his job and had to quit; a policeman who worked on this particular case; and a woman who was some sort of caseworker for the cohort and eventually married him (the film did not make clear what her initial involvement was on his case).

In the interviews Herzog asks questions about their feelings and experiences, as well as injects some of his own views about capital punishment. Although I can understand that a filmmaker can have a passion about any particular subject, I find Herzog kind of invasive and in this particular film I was not really sure what his object was. Supposedly it was to show his personal anti-death penalty views, but it felt more like he was indulging himself (as I feel he does also in other docs) by having the opportunity to support his passion by pushing people to say and do more than they want, to give people their fifteen minutes of fame whether they want it or not. The title talks about an "abyss" but the film doesn't really address this.

The Artist

This French film played at the Chicago International Film Festival this year as its Closing Night film.  It stars Jean Dujardin and Berenice Bejo, as silent film stars in Hollywood.  The story is a little bit A Star is Born, a little bit Singin' In the Rain.  Dujardin, as popular star george Valentin (no doubt a play on Rudolf Valentino) has enjoyed a successful career as a leading man in silent films.  It is now the mid-1920s.  Bejo is pretty young thing Peppy Miller, hoping to make it big in Hollywood, and they have a "meet-cute" at a premiere.  Valentin, despite being married, is taken with her.  As her star rises, his falls, due to two key events of that time.

CIFF 2011: King of Devil's Island

There are so many real stories in history that I wonder why filmmakers tread into remake territory.  The great acting in King of Devil's Island (even with its Titanic-type ending) is strong throughout, showing how the friendship of two boys can outlast the abuse they and others suffered in a prison-like reform school, in this true story from Norway in the early 1900s.

The Color of Magic

Terry Pratchett is a fantasy comedy writer with a big library of titles based on his fantastical flat-as-a-pancake creation, the Discworld. It is a place filled with inept wizards, smart witches, vampires, wolfmen and trolls, and every creature in between. Among my favorite storylines are those that involve the witch Granny Weatherwax and her friends, and Death and his adopted granddaughter Susan.

This second live action film based on Pratchett's works is a combination of the first Discworld novel, The Colour of Magic, as well as The Light Fantastic, and involves the dotty wizards at Unseen University, who do their utmost to retain tenure while shirking as much work as possible.

Past seven days

I guess I am on a documentary kick this week.  I caught the new doc by Werner Herzog, Into the Abyss, as well as several on DVD.

Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo
Behind the Burly Q
Into the Abyss
Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work
Lipstick & Dynamite
Man Hunt

Free event: The Pruitt-Igoe Myth

The Pruitt-Igoe Myth observes why this public housing project in the 1950s was not able to achieve its goal of offering affordable housing for low income, and eventually an all black, population in St. Louis.  As with many public housing projects, this complex fell in decline with lack of government maintenance and infusion of high crime.  The film points a light at this issue, but it is hard to find any answers for this or any other attempt to successfully integrate low-income housing into an uban setting.

Northwestern University's Block Museum is hosting this screening.


The Pruitt-Igoe Myth
Thursday, November 10
7:00 p.m.
Northwestern University, Block Museum of Art, Blcok Cinema
40 Arts Circle Drive, Evanston, IL