BlackNLA
Movie Reviews
*****THE
REEL DEAL: Reviewz from the Street*****
by
Edwardo Jackson
BIASES:
late 20s black male; frustrated screenwriter who favors action, comedy,
and glossy, big budget movies over indie flicks, kiddie flicks, and
weepy Merchant Ivory fare
MID
FALL ROUNDUP
On and on and
on and on and...
SCHOOL
FOR SCOUNDRELS (PG-13)
Biases: The "Old School" team + "Napoleon Dynamite"
= sweeeeeeet!
Players: Jon Heder, Billy Bob Thornton, co-writer Scot Armstrong,
co-writer/director Todd Phillips
Logline: Shy and spineless New York City meter maid Roger (Heder)
joins a clandestine, Fight Club-like confidence building seminar for
wimps, emerging as the leader of the class and, of course, a threat
to no-nonsense, highly competitive instructor Dr. P (Thornton), who
sets his sights on wooing away Roger's would-be love interest Amanda
(Jacinda Barrett).
The
Deal: High concept? Check. Great (and successful) comedic writing/producing
team (Old School, Road Trip)? Check. Solid comic actors in place?
Double check. So what happened???
Amusing
but not riotously funny, "Scoundrels" features great high
concept with lowball execution, a bemused chucklefest but not a laugh-out-loud
comedy (some jokes pancake with the subtlety of an All-Pro offensive
lineman). Not only is this movie surprisingly simple in its script
in terms of characters and comedy, but also it's weighed down by a
burdensome militaristic score that overly reinforces what we
already know: that this is war. Sure, there are cute little lessons
from "School," including some guidelines on getting a woman
"From the Bar to the Bed," i.e. "no compliments EVER,"
"lie, lie, and lie some more," and "be dangerous -
it's cool." There's even some decent supporting performances
by the humorously humorless Michael Clarke Duncan as Dr. P's creepy
sidekick Lesher, balding poster boy of
punkdom Todd Louiso (Jerry Maguire), and the luminous Jacinda Barrett,
coming into her own in this film as an apple-cheeked grinning, adorably
Aussie object of Roger's desire. But Thornton's "What can Brown
do for you?"-worthy performance is sent by two-day air while
Ben Stiller has a glaringly absurd cameo that has no place in this
movie, let alone ANY movie.
How
does "Napoleon" do, you may ask? With Jon Heder's aw shucks,
doe-eyed demeanor and windswept bangs that innocently frame the way
his hair ski jumps off the sides of his face, he is, once again, at
his best doing physical comedy. But there's just not enough of the
funny here for you to spend up your money. Class dismissed.
@@ REELS (Extra medium)
INFAMOUS
(R) *opens 10/13
Biases: Could be great, but suffers from bad timing.
Players: Toby Jones, Sandra Bullock, Daniel Craig
Logline: Truman Capote (Jones), unrepentantly flamboyant (like a gay
Deion Sanders of the '50s), rampant gossip queen of the New York socialite
circle, injects himself and his high-falutin' big city ways into the
true crime case of the century, deep in the heart of smalltown Kansas,
where the resistance to his oversized ego and personality is matched
only by that of a killer in the triple homicide, the reticent, intelligent
Perry Smith (Craig).
The
Deal: Awesome. Whereas I felt last year's "Capote" was a
bit too dour and plodding - despite featuring an Oscar-winning/worthy
performance by Philip Seymour Hoffman - "Infamous" righteously
captures the bubbly, irrepressibly engaging attitude of the man who
traveled with his own inner spotlight. Jones' incarnation is far lighter
and more amusing than Hoffman's, but just as talented and
complex; it's a damn shame he won't get so much as a SAG Award for
it. His fey, wildly self-absorbed perf of a little man who gossiped
like we breathe air is wholly watchable because you never know just
how incredibly selfish the whiny little primadonna will be from scene
to scene. Yet Jones' Capote grows on you - he can be snide, he can
be endearing, and Lord knows he's "indestructible" ("When
you're tiny, you have to be tough. This world isn't kind to little
things"). Supplying ample help are Sandra Bullock (and her divine,
catfish-fried Southern accent) as Capote's equally talented but morally
supportive Harper Lee - the moon to his Earth - a hilariously dishy,
madcap Juliet Stevenson as socialite Diana Vreeland, and the very
talented, lean acting talent of Daniel Craig, layering quiet mysteries
about his
brooding, introspective killer. The story is beautifully constructed
in a linear fashion with frequent interrupts by on-camera confessionals
by those who knew Capote, either there to set the record straight
in the face of his baldfaced fabrications or to heap adulation or
befuddlement on the witty, shamelessly name-dropping writer. Writer/director
Douglas McGrath, while a victim of studio release politics, has created
a fine work of art of which he should be extremely proud.
@@@@ REELS (An urban legend/instant classic)
EXPIRATION
DATE
Biases: I'm watching this at a cemetery. Seriously.
Players: Robert Guthrie, Sascha Knopf, co-writer-director Rick Stevenson
Logline: Welcome to the curse of Charlie Silvercloud, where his predecessors
of the same name have all been killed by hit and run milk trucks on
their 25th birthday (no, SERIOUSLY). With eight days to go until his
25th birthday, Charlie begins making his very own final arrangements
(breaking up with his girlfriend, coffin shopping,
hanging out at burial plots - you know, the usual) when he meets a
bizarre, dizzy little blonde named Bessie (Knopf), who suddenly gives
him something to live for (much to the delight of his grandchild-obsessed
mother (Dee Wallace Stone). Seriously.
The
Deal: A charming dark comedy gorgeously lensed against the city-meets-the-sticks
sensibilities of my hometown of Seattle, "Expiration" relies
on the quirky offerings in its offbeat, indie-centric script and premise.
Guthrie, a handsome, quietly confident lead, sweetly underplays Charlie,
instilling a sense of resigned inevitability of a young man who's
always known what day would be his last. Sascha Knopf is a game, free-spirited
actress who makes the unnervingly forward and ignorant Bessie an eccentric
near-delight. Stone, the only real screen vet present, gives her progeny-crazed
mother (who's not shy about sizing up a potential
daughter-in-law's childbearing hips) a professional, nutty pizzazz.
This is obviously a small production but hardly a low rent one; it
all just seems to work for writer-director Stevenson. Considering
I screened this movie outdoors on a plot of UNoccupied land at the
Hollywood Forever Cemetery, where the film was projected against the
side of a MAUSOLEUM, I was in the mood for a little casket comedy.
Cemetery or not, you might be, too.
@@@ REELS (It's pretty hot - go give it a shot)
THE
BLACK DAHLIA (R)
Biases: Looks like another "LA Confidential"-lite.
Players: Josh Hartnett, Aaron Eckhart, Scarlett Johansson, based on
a novel by James Ellroy, director Brian De Palma
Logline: 1940s LAPD boxing standouts/partners Lee "Mr. Fire"
Blanchard (Eckhart) and Bucky "Mr. Ice" Bleichert (Hartnett),
both in love with Blanchard's live-in girlfriend with a shady past
Kay (Johansson), find themselves entangled in the gruesome, obsessive
murder case of a struggling actress dubbed "The Black Dahlia,"
a case that exposes them to the seedier sides of LA's underground
lesbian scene.
The
Deal: Sparked by quick-witted, fast-paced dialogue filmed in washed
out, period colors, "Dahlia" is as black as its name, a
true noir's noir. Rife with chain-smoking and authentic period detail,
De Palma's "Dahlia" is oh-so-stylishly directed with the
cool, professional hand of one of Hollywood's most dark-hearted visualists
(Scarface, Carlito's Way). De Palma translates the Josh Friedman script
into an appropriately twisty, visual novel that still, somehow, feels
briskly paced but layered nonetheless, while still eliciting fine
performances from his supremely competent cast. Hartnett, with his
long-limbed, lean, squinty-eyed all-Americanism, confidently holds
the center of this pic as our lead while Oscar-winner Hilary Swank
shows us a not-seen-before sexed up side of herself as Bucky's deliciously
erudite entree to the world of the "sisters" (re: lesbians).
Johansson doesn't have that much to do but be a '40s supportive lover,
broodingly projecting her pouty-lipped self as an object of desire
- and I am more than okay with that. Eckhart is in ragingly fine form,
sneering away his golden boy looks into a cleft chin pseudo-villainy
that puts you on edge and constantly question his good guy status.
The only detractor - and it's a biggie - is that this movie is so
Byzantine in its novel-esque aspirations that it's more
confusing than the federal budget. It's nice to get lost in a movie
that can transport you to another time and place. But sometimesgetting
lost is just...getting lost.
@@@ REELS (It's pretty hot - go give it a shot)
BABEL
(R) *opens 10/27
Biases: Same guys who did "21 Grams." Pre-sold.
Players: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, writer Guillermo Arriaga, director
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
Logline: A random, accidental shooting of an American tourist (Blanchett)
on a tense Moroccan vacation with her distant husband (Pitt) has far-reaching
global implications in Mexico, the U.S., and Japan.
The
Deal: Clearly Oscar-candy for all involved, "Babel" is complex
- but is it too complex for its own good? Deliberate, methodical,
and so well-acted in stretches that it's heartwrenching, Inarritu's
dramatized thinkpiece on international situations of isolation borne
out of our cultural and language barriers spotlights a series of
intriguing yet sparsely connected stories, supported by an informative,
acoustic score. Inarritu mixes talented, international stars like
Gael Garcia Bernal (as quirky, crazy, and indie-rrific as ever), Brad
Pitt (back in glammed down scruff mode, this time grizzled beard and
performance tinged with moody gray), and Cate Blanchett
(effective, but not given much to do but lie there and bleed) with
lesser known ones (or at least to this American moviegoer). Especially
moving is the story/performance of Chieko (Rinko Kikuchi), that of
a rich deaf-mute, sexually frustrated Tokyo teenage girl, isolated
by her sensory deficiencies and "lookin' pa nub" in all
the wrong places.
In
short, this movie is good. It's good, but I don't understand all of
it. Is that the movie's fault...or mine? Anyone who sees it, feel
free to holla back with an explanation of the ending. If I could've
figured it out the first time, then I would've been far more fluent
in "Babel."
@@@ REELS (It's pretty hot - go give it a shot)
ALL
THE KING'S MEN (PG-13)
Biases: Has a great cast, great pedigree.
Players: Jude Law, Sean Penn, Kate Winslet, writer-director Steve
Zaillian
Logline: Fire and brimstone speechifying Willie Stark (Penn) unifies
"the hicks" into propelling him to the governorship of late
'40s to early '50s Louisiana on a decidedly anti-big business platform.
But what's that saying about power? Oh yeah - it corrupts.
The
Deal: "If you don't vote, you don't matter!" Hear, hear,
Willie! Armed with a sweeping, heroic, James Horner (Titanic) score
that lifts events to operatic heights, Zaillian's "King's"
hones in on the nature of class warfare in the South, how big business
has an inherent disdain for its most loyal customers, the poor. It's
fun watching a cast full of non-Louisianans affect and/or struggle
with their gumbo-soaked Cajun accents, like Gandolfini's Southern-by-way-of-Jersey
grizzly bear voice. Everyone is professional and dependable, but pale
in comparison to the sexy centerfold of Sean Penn's Willie Stark.
Consistently charismatic, even in the face of his character's histrionic
gesticulations, Penn, once again, disappears into another role, as
the orange pop-drinking (with two straws), poor-pandering Stark hoots
and hollers, stomps and emotes his way to the governor's office. To
show how solid an actor Penn is, contrast this performance against
his depressed, slow burn as a grieving father in (the wildly overrated)
"Mystic River;" the man's got range. So does, for the most
part, Zaillian's script-rich, performance-heavy "King's."
@@@ REELS (It's pretty hot - go give it a shot)
GRIDIRON
GANG (PG-13)
Biases: I love The Rock but I hate cheese.
Players: The Rock, Xzibit
Logline: Correctional officer Sean Porter (Rock) takes a ragtag group
of largely gang-affiliated juvie inmates and molds them into a high
school football team (the Mustangs of California's Camino Real League)
in order to channel their authority, teamwork, and rage issues. Based
on a true story.
The
Deal: Opening with a horrifically tragic example of gang warfare yet
backpedaling from there, "Gridiron Gang" is just the latest,
by-the-numbers "empowering" sports flick to trickle down
the studio assembly line. Ah, the time-honored tradition of the sports
training montage! Haven't seen one of those in, what, three weeks?
Bathe in the treacly, feelgood music (disturbingly cranked out by
the usually reliable Trevor Rabin (Remember the Titans, Armageddon))
swelling at
convenient times to tell you how to feel! Observe the generous product
placement ("Gridiron Gang"...brought to you by Under Armour)!
Soak up all the fundamental life lessons: Don't quit! Be a team! Respect
yourself! Could I please, PUH-LEEZE get more than two plays in a row
at full speed (waaaaaay too many slo-mos to artificially amplify "the
drama" of sports - we get it, thanks). Even though it's good
to see The Rock embrace his big screen blackness with an ailing black
mama
(L. Scott Caldwell) in the hospital (Win won for the Gipper! We've
got all your cliches covered!), that storyline is pretty anemic, obvious,
and wholly superfluous.
When
"Gridiron" works it's purely through the charisma and commitment
of The Rock. Just through sheer stature alone, The Rock cuts an impressive
figure with his gametime energy alone. The Rock comes off far more
genuine than his dialogue does, with his intensity, not the words,
of his monologues making ME want to be a Mustang. Of course, his Sean
Porter's a "maverick" who "bucks the system" and
The Rock gets absolutely zero help from rapper-actor Xzibit, who's
just there being, ahem, an "athletic supporter." But The
Rock's as appealing as he has ever been, earnestly battling the 75
percent recidivism rate with muscled up willpower and starpower. Unfortunately,
there's no "I" in "team." Nor is there a good
movie in "Gang".
@@ REELS (Extra medium)
JET
LI'S FEARLESS (R)
Biases: Jet Li's last martial arts flick? Say it ain't so!
Players: Jet Li, director Ronny Yu
Logline: After undefeated fighter Huo Yuanjia (Li) beats a master
from another martial arts house, attracting legions of fans but also
the retaliation of the master's disciples, resulting in the death
of his family, Huo wanders the countryside heartbroken, until the
kindness of mountain village women restores him back to health, but
this time with the aim of sportsmanship, founding the Jingwu Sports
Federation.
The
Deal: Set in Shanghai 1910, "Fearless" lives up to its name
- a frantic, exciting piece of balletic movement art, with plenty
of gravity-defying moves and camera tricks to heighten the adrenalized
experience. With most of the fighting taking place in steeply elevatedrings
requiring "death waivers" in order for the combatants to
proceed, "Fearless" is imbued with legendary Yuen Wo Ping's
(The Matrix) stunning fight choreography and disdain for traditional,
unimaginative martial arts. More than just a chopsocky, "Fearless"
is surprisingly emotional, with Li's relationship with his REEL DEAL
Crushworthy daughter - a gorgeous, charismatic young delight - comingoff
very playful and real. Although steeped with sentiment (but not overly
so), this movie is also just flat-out FUN, filled with plenty of humor
and good cheer. Jet Li paints a whole rainbow of emotions yet still
has the energy to casually take on a regiment of attackers with the
dry efficiency and bemusement of grading papers. If this is Li's last
martial arts role - and let's hope it's not - then he couldn't have
gone out with any more style.
@@@@ REELS (An urban legend/instant classic)
THE
WAR TAPES (unrated)
Biases: Uh, I didn't vote for this war.
Players: Zack Bazzi, Mike Moriarty, Steve Pink, director Deborah Scranton
Logline: Out of some 160,000 U.S. troops sent to Iraq under Operation
Iraqi Freedom, 64,000 are National Guard. Three New Hampshire National
Guardsmen, Bazzi, Moriarty, and Pink, are armed with their own handheld
cameras, taking us along on an uncensored tour of duty to the war
in Iraq.
The
Deal: "I'm not supposed to talk to the media," grunts an
onscreen...grunt. Cameraman-soldier Steve Pink: "I'm not the
media, dammit." And this is what makes "War Tapes"
that much more powerful, and disheartening - they're just regular
guys (carpenter, college student, father) who are plunged into hell
on Earth: the most volatile section of Iraq, the all-too dangerous
Sunni triangle. After awhile,
you almost get numb to the casual violence, the daily explosions of
IEDs (carbombs) and sniper fire on caravans of contractor convoys.
Speaking of contractors, the hypocrisy and blatant war profiteering
is especially disturbing, namely the culprits at (Vice President Dick
Cheney's) Halliburton and KBR ("KBR annoys me...They run everything,"
complains Pink). "The priority of KBR making money outweighs
the priority of safety," says another soldier. Whereas the soldiers
start off optimistic if not cautiously enthusiastic about serving
their country, "War Tapes" chronicles their steady, uninterrupted
descent into battle fatigue, pessimism, and patriotic cynicism ("We
made the news. I feel exploited and proud at the same time,"
says Pink over CNN coverage of the latest carbomb massacre they witness).
Juxtaposing their wartime travails are those of the loved ones left
behind. Particularly galling/moving are that of Zaher "Zack"
Bazzi's mother, Sana, a chatty, emotional woman who fears for her
son every day, giving a heartfelt testimonial of a mother's love.
Her son, a Lebanese-American and the only Arab speaker of the outfit,
is the snarky voice of reason amid much of this unwatchable horror.
Easily the most educated and socially cognizant of the crew, Bazzi
observes the cultural disconnects resulting from no training on the
Iraqi culture, noting "Occupation doesn't come naturally for
an infantry outfit." Equally sobering is Steve Pink's realization
"If I play the odds, one of us will die before the tour is over;"
Iraq is just that much of a shooting gallery for our troops - where
they're as much a
target as insurgents.
Turning
out to be the best piece of anti-war propaganda you may ever see,
"The War Tapes" is a salty, lightly edited look at human
nature during the most trying of all times: a time of war. How they
survive, how their loved ones survive without them, and how the military-industrial
complex rages, cavalierly exchanging blood for
oil. Without so much as a musical score or an editorial presence,
director Deborah Scranton pretty much lets their cameras tell their
story, shaping it only for coherence, chronology, and clarity. When
the facts speak for themselves, why use a shotgun when a hammer will
do?
@@@@ REELS (An urban legend/instant classic)
JESUS
CAMP (PG-13)
Biases: None.
Players: Becky Fischer, directors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady
Logline: An inside look at the Christian Kids on Fire summer camp
in North Dakota (ironically held at Devil's Lake, ND), the mentality
behind America's Christian fundamentalist fervor, and the Evangelical
affect on blurring the lines between church and state.
The
Deal: Here is the definition of scary: a woman preaching fire and
brimstone indoctrination to impressionable five year old children,
in effect creating her own little army of Christian soldiers. Becky
Fischer is just such a woman, determined to fight Islamic fundamentalism
with Christian fundamentalism, and doing it through the
kids. She's got the little tykes "praying in tongues," crying
out for "righteous judges," decrying abortion rights, pledging
allegiance "to the Christian flag," and proselytizing at
bowling alleys. Bowling alleys, I say! "Bush has brought some
real credibility" to Christianity in America, Fischer posits,
a credibility that defies
science while promoting creationism, is backed by the National Association
of Evangelicals (a group with whom President Bush consults once a
week), and has used to smudge our founding fathers' Constitutional
intent to keep religion out of our government.
Does
it sound like I'm preaching? Good, because this is nothing compared
to Fischer and her grade school disciples in action. Ewing and Grady
follow tots like Rachael, a fervent little ten year old who's fine
with "being trained to be warriors" alongside another camper
named Levi, who believes that "a lot of people in this world
are sick." This may be true, but the audacity of instructing
children in the ways of "you're either with us or against us"-vism
is borderline irresponsible. To Ewing and Grady's credit, they largely
let these little Jesus freaks hang themselves with their intolerant
dogmas and provincial musings without so much as a single voiceover
or comment - just the occasional, sterile chyron-scripted fact onscreen.
With characters like Fischer - a portly, imposing woman who scares
the kids into tears of what she feels are repentance and salvation
but are mostly byproducts of fear that eventually gel into belief
just through sheer repetition - you have to laugh in disbelief to
keep from crying from all the belligerence towards anyone not like
themselves. A saving grace that's representative of the more rational,
less fanatical
minded Christians out there (re: Christians that I know) is Air America
talk show radio host Mike Papantonio, who himself is scared witless
by the fanaticism but doesn't let it disrupt his democratic and spiritual
beliefs - which he keeps separate. Sounds like a concept Fischer and
her little white terrorists might have a problem with.
@@@@ REELS (An urban legend/instant classic)
Like
what you read? Agree/disagree with The Reel Deal? Think he's talkin'
out his...HUSH YO' MOUF! (I'm only talkin' about The Reel Deal!) Email
him at ReelReviewz@aol.com!
Edwardo
Jackson is the author of the novels EVER AFTER and NEVA HAFTA, (Villard/Random
House), a writer for UrbanFilmPremiere.com, and an LA-based screenwriter.
Visit his website at www.edwardojackson.com
©
2004, Edwardo Jackson
