Long Overdue, Part One
It's been so long since I've sat down to do one of these things (no, I didn't used to do them standing up!), and I've accumulated so many films, that even after carefully selecting a few titles I've seen but won't review (don't worry that you'll miss a "Dukes Of Hazzard" review... haven't seen it, not going to), there are still too many to do in one column. So I'm going to TRY to do reviews three nights in a row, with five films in each column, and see if that works. Here goes...
1. "Yes". Some people... including movie critics... just don't know how to deal with films that present them with something they really haven't seen before, and they can actually become hostile and trash the film as a result. That's the only way I can account for the negative responses that have been received by Sally Potter's film "Yes", which I found to be one of the most original, passionate and fascinating films I've seen in a long time.
This is the story of a woman (played by Joan Allen) whose marriage to a respectable but dull man (played by Sam Neill) is falling apart. In the midst of this crisis, she meets and falls in love with a Lebanese chef (Simon Abkarian) who also happens to be a Muslim. All of the differences between the two cultures, and the hostilities too many in the West instinctively feel towards all Muslims, come into play... not only regarding their relationship, but the attitudes of others towards them. And, by the way, the entire script is written in Shakespearean-like Iambic Pentameter and rhyming couplets.
The story does NOT come across as phony or artificial at all. Seriously, folks... the average common person did NOT actually talk like that during Shakespeare's time, and people don't say HE was artificial! This is actually a stunningly effective way to communicate the heightened feelings and tensions that Potter is dealing with in her story. These characters make their passion and pain felt all the more deeply and artfully through this stylized dialogue than they ever could have with lines like "Hey, what's up?"
And then there's the powerfully direct insights into the Muslim/Western world. As Abkarian is filled with so much pain and rage he is barely able to speak lines like "You hear our children's screams, but you do not cry, because they are not yours", you get a very different look at who Muslims are and what they feel than George W. Bush will ever show you. But the film is not anti-Western any more than it's anti-Muslim (which it clearly is not). It's very pro-understanding, and argues that we need to become aware that what we have in common is more important than what separates us.
"Yes" is an incredible film that deserves more respect and attention than it's gotten. You can do your part by checking it out if you get the opportunity, and then spread the word. This film deserves it.
2. "Heights". I saw this film later the same day I saw "Yes". Maybe that accounts for my lukewarm reaction to it, because few films wouldn't seem inferior after seeing "Yes". MAYBE that's the reason, but I doubt it.
"Heights" is pretty much art-house soap opera. A photographer (Elizabeth Banks) has a fiancee (James Marsden) who has secrets from his past he's trying to conceal, secrets that seem to involve a neighbor in the apartment above theirs. Her mother (Glenn Close), a broadway diva starring in a production of "MacBeth", hates the fiancee and is willing to do anything she can to dissolve the relationship. And so on and so forth and blah blah blah...
Every line of dialogue and every plot twist is milked for its maximum melodrama, and the actors do their overwrought best to keep the performances on the same level. This might not seem so surprising from someone like Marsden, best known as Cyclops in the "X-Men" movies, but it's strange to see a performer as expert as Close resort to such tired hackwork... at least she's much better as one of the few highlights of "Chumscrubber", which you'll be reading about in Part II of this series.
With all of that, and plot twists that telegraph themselves from miles away, you wouldn't expect anything to get very excited about. And guess what... you'd be completely right. You can definitely afford to skip "Heights".
3. "The Island." Michael Bay strikes again. And you know what that means... a couple of ciphers as central characters, running, jumping, riding vehicles that explode as they leap out of them, firing exotic weapons... all this plus Steve Buscemi as the one element that keeps the film from putting you to sleep in spite of all the noise. Bay isn't the kind of guy who likes to surprise his audience, so that's exactly what you get in "The Island."
The story? Huh? Oh,yeah... I guess now that I think back, there was a kind of story. Sort of. In a sterile, futuristic, overpolluted society in which the only pure spot left is a place called "The Island", a lucky few are occasionally selected to leave the scummy world behind and go to The Island as the prize in a lottery. But there really is no Island, and those who "win" the chance to go there are never seen again. When a young woman played by Scarlett Johannson wins the lottery, she and her friend (Ewan McGregor) find out why, and go on the run... and run... and run... and very exhausting, repetitive run... from the authorities who try to keep them from letting their secret get out.
Most of this happens in the first half hour of this 2 and a quarter hour movie. The rest? The usual Bay fireworks. At least in "Armageddon", Buscemi has a substantial supporting role. Here, he's only on screen long enough to make you frustrated that he's on so little.
You don't even have an interesting futuristic world to distract you. "Logan's Run" is just one of tons of science-fiction movies of the past thirty or so years that are virtually cloned (hah!) to creat the society the heroes of "The Island" live in. It's not really true that if you've seen one science fiction movie you've seen them all... however, if you've ever seen even one, you've probably seen THIS one already.
So, folks, if you were wondering what kind of movie Michael Bay could make as a director without Jerry Bruckheimer as a producer any more, this is the depressing answer: one every bit as bad as the ones he made WITH him. If you were holding your breath waiting for Michael Bay to make a good film... well, actually, if you were, you aren't reading this column, because you're either dead or unconscious by now.
4. "Mail Order Wife". This is a very unusual and at times uneven film that takes a lot of risks that don't always pay off. But enough of them do to make it worthwhile.
A young man who epitomizes the classic slob loser tires of trying to find a mate in any of the usual ways, and orders a mail-order bride from Burma. But no sooner does she arrive than his inner sinister, controlling creep comes to the surface, and his new wife is forced to do degrading, depersonalizing things that send her running for comfort to the film-maker who's shooting a documentary about her and her American spose/captor. She has a few surprises regarding him, too... but everyone involved also has some major shocks coming when they find out more about the young Burmese woman they had assumed was so sweet, innocent and powerless.
"Mail Order Wife" starts out as a Christopher Guest-like mockumentary, switches abruptly into intense, harrowing and uncomfortable drama, and then turns back into a comedy... but of a somewhat different kind... about a half hour before the end of the film. You might find yourself a little uneasy at the transitions at times, laughing just minutes after some emotionally scalding sequence. But ultimately that helps the surprise factor... there are so many movies where you know exactly what's going to happen next. That certainly isn't the case with this film. And then there's also the amusing little "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" reference (you know a show has really arrived when it's being name-checked in no-budget independent films like this one).
If you like surprises around every corner, you're probably disappointed by a good many films... not only those from big studio Hollywood, but many of the ones from independent companies as well. So if the opportunity to see "Mail Order Wife" presents itself, you should take it. You'll most likely be glad you did.
5. "Murderball." "March Of The Penguins" isn't the only documentary in theatres deserving your attention. "Murderball" is such a powerful, sometimes brutal, occasionally inspiring (but never sappy) and always unique film that it even got me, notorious hater of all sports except baseball that I am, glad I went to see it.
Quad Rugby is a sport so violent it was originally called "Murderball" (but you couldn't sell that name to corporate sponsors). Quadriplegics, confined to wheelchairs through illness, accidents, and other causes and who were given no hope of achieving anything in life, took to it with a passion. Slamming into each other in motorized wheelchairs tricked out to become something more like a mechanical gladiator's chariot, they created a sport that brought them international fame and gold medals in the Paralympic games. This film looks at the American Paralympic team over a two-year period from 2002 to 2004, as the jealousy and bitterness of one team-mate causes him to leave and begin coaching the rival Canadian squad, aiming at defeating his former comrades. The American team responds to this about as well as you would expect them to.
The players are one of the most fascinating groups you've ever seen. Having been given up by society, they've determined not to let their disabilities limit them and have achieved amazing things. But if this sounds hokey and "feel-good", just wait... the movie has the same total lack of sentimentality about its subjects that they have about themselves, and not for one second does it ask you to pity them... in fact, if you told them you DID, they'd probably run over you in their chairs. These are guys who happen to BE IN wheelchairs, but they aren't defined by them... in either good or bad ways.
No matter how many "sports movies" you may have seen, you haven't seen one like "Murderball"... so any and all fans of sports movies should definitely go see it. And if you don't like sports movies at all (like I usually don't), it nonetheless tells an incredible story about a fascinating group of protagonists... just exactly what any good movie should do, so YOU should go to see it too. I'm not saying that "Murderball" is for everyone, but so many different groups who probably THINK they wouldn't like it will find themselves pleasantly surprised, that it would probably have a box office three or four times what it's gotten if everyone who would appreciate it gave it a chance. So why not you?
1. "Yes". Some people... including movie critics... just don't know how to deal with films that present them with something they really haven't seen before, and they can actually become hostile and trash the film as a result. That's the only way I can account for the negative responses that have been received by Sally Potter's film "Yes", which I found to be one of the most original, passionate and fascinating films I've seen in a long time.
This is the story of a woman (played by Joan Allen) whose marriage to a respectable but dull man (played by Sam Neill) is falling apart. In the midst of this crisis, she meets and falls in love with a Lebanese chef (Simon Abkarian) who also happens to be a Muslim. All of the differences between the two cultures, and the hostilities too many in the West instinctively feel towards all Muslims, come into play... not only regarding their relationship, but the attitudes of others towards them. And, by the way, the entire script is written in Shakespearean-like Iambic Pentameter and rhyming couplets.
The story does NOT come across as phony or artificial at all. Seriously, folks... the average common person did NOT actually talk like that during Shakespeare's time, and people don't say HE was artificial! This is actually a stunningly effective way to communicate the heightened feelings and tensions that Potter is dealing with in her story. These characters make their passion and pain felt all the more deeply and artfully through this stylized dialogue than they ever could have with lines like "Hey, what's up?"
And then there's the powerfully direct insights into the Muslim/Western world. As Abkarian is filled with so much pain and rage he is barely able to speak lines like "You hear our children's screams, but you do not cry, because they are not yours", you get a very different look at who Muslims are and what they feel than George W. Bush will ever show you. But the film is not anti-Western any more than it's anti-Muslim (which it clearly is not). It's very pro-understanding, and argues that we need to become aware that what we have in common is more important than what separates us.
"Yes" is an incredible film that deserves more respect and attention than it's gotten. You can do your part by checking it out if you get the opportunity, and then spread the word. This film deserves it.
2. "Heights". I saw this film later the same day I saw "Yes". Maybe that accounts for my lukewarm reaction to it, because few films wouldn't seem inferior after seeing "Yes". MAYBE that's the reason, but I doubt it.
"Heights" is pretty much art-house soap opera. A photographer (Elizabeth Banks) has a fiancee (James Marsden) who has secrets from his past he's trying to conceal, secrets that seem to involve a neighbor in the apartment above theirs. Her mother (Glenn Close), a broadway diva starring in a production of "MacBeth", hates the fiancee and is willing to do anything she can to dissolve the relationship. And so on and so forth and blah blah blah...
Every line of dialogue and every plot twist is milked for its maximum melodrama, and the actors do their overwrought best to keep the performances on the same level. This might not seem so surprising from someone like Marsden, best known as Cyclops in the "X-Men" movies, but it's strange to see a performer as expert as Close resort to such tired hackwork... at least she's much better as one of the few highlights of "Chumscrubber", which you'll be reading about in Part II of this series.
With all of that, and plot twists that telegraph themselves from miles away, you wouldn't expect anything to get very excited about. And guess what... you'd be completely right. You can definitely afford to skip "Heights".
3. "The Island." Michael Bay strikes again. And you know what that means... a couple of ciphers as central characters, running, jumping, riding vehicles that explode as they leap out of them, firing exotic weapons... all this plus Steve Buscemi as the one element that keeps the film from putting you to sleep in spite of all the noise. Bay isn't the kind of guy who likes to surprise his audience, so that's exactly what you get in "The Island."
The story? Huh? Oh,yeah... I guess now that I think back, there was a kind of story. Sort of. In a sterile, futuristic, overpolluted society in which the only pure spot left is a place called "The Island", a lucky few are occasionally selected to leave the scummy world behind and go to The Island as the prize in a lottery. But there really is no Island, and those who "win" the chance to go there are never seen again. When a young woman played by Scarlett Johannson wins the lottery, she and her friend (Ewan McGregor) find out why, and go on the run... and run... and run... and very exhausting, repetitive run... from the authorities who try to keep them from letting their secret get out.
Most of this happens in the first half hour of this 2 and a quarter hour movie. The rest? The usual Bay fireworks. At least in "Armageddon", Buscemi has a substantial supporting role. Here, he's only on screen long enough to make you frustrated that he's on so little.
You don't even have an interesting futuristic world to distract you. "Logan's Run" is just one of tons of science-fiction movies of the past thirty or so years that are virtually cloned (hah!) to creat the society the heroes of "The Island" live in. It's not really true that if you've seen one science fiction movie you've seen them all... however, if you've ever seen even one, you've probably seen THIS one already.
So, folks, if you were wondering what kind of movie Michael Bay could make as a director without Jerry Bruckheimer as a producer any more, this is the depressing answer: one every bit as bad as the ones he made WITH him. If you were holding your breath waiting for Michael Bay to make a good film... well, actually, if you were, you aren't reading this column, because you're either dead or unconscious by now.
4. "Mail Order Wife". This is a very unusual and at times uneven film that takes a lot of risks that don't always pay off. But enough of them do to make it worthwhile.
A young man who epitomizes the classic slob loser tires of trying to find a mate in any of the usual ways, and orders a mail-order bride from Burma. But no sooner does she arrive than his inner sinister, controlling creep comes to the surface, and his new wife is forced to do degrading, depersonalizing things that send her running for comfort to the film-maker who's shooting a documentary about her and her American spose/captor. She has a few surprises regarding him, too... but everyone involved also has some major shocks coming when they find out more about the young Burmese woman they had assumed was so sweet, innocent and powerless.
"Mail Order Wife" starts out as a Christopher Guest-like mockumentary, switches abruptly into intense, harrowing and uncomfortable drama, and then turns back into a comedy... but of a somewhat different kind... about a half hour before the end of the film. You might find yourself a little uneasy at the transitions at times, laughing just minutes after some emotionally scalding sequence. But ultimately that helps the surprise factor... there are so many movies where you know exactly what's going to happen next. That certainly isn't the case with this film. And then there's also the amusing little "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" reference (you know a show has really arrived when it's being name-checked in no-budget independent films like this one).
If you like surprises around every corner, you're probably disappointed by a good many films... not only those from big studio Hollywood, but many of the ones from independent companies as well. So if the opportunity to see "Mail Order Wife" presents itself, you should take it. You'll most likely be glad you did.
5. "Murderball." "March Of The Penguins" isn't the only documentary in theatres deserving your attention. "Murderball" is such a powerful, sometimes brutal, occasionally inspiring (but never sappy) and always unique film that it even got me, notorious hater of all sports except baseball that I am, glad I went to see it.
Quad Rugby is a sport so violent it was originally called "Murderball" (but you couldn't sell that name to corporate sponsors). Quadriplegics, confined to wheelchairs through illness, accidents, and other causes and who were given no hope of achieving anything in life, took to it with a passion. Slamming into each other in motorized wheelchairs tricked out to become something more like a mechanical gladiator's chariot, they created a sport that brought them international fame and gold medals in the Paralympic games. This film looks at the American Paralympic team over a two-year period from 2002 to 2004, as the jealousy and bitterness of one team-mate causes him to leave and begin coaching the rival Canadian squad, aiming at defeating his former comrades. The American team responds to this about as well as you would expect them to.
The players are one of the most fascinating groups you've ever seen. Having been given up by society, they've determined not to let their disabilities limit them and have achieved amazing things. But if this sounds hokey and "feel-good", just wait... the movie has the same total lack of sentimentality about its subjects that they have about themselves, and not for one second does it ask you to pity them... in fact, if you told them you DID, they'd probably run over you in their chairs. These are guys who happen to BE IN wheelchairs, but they aren't defined by them... in either good or bad ways.
No matter how many "sports movies" you may have seen, you haven't seen one like "Murderball"... so any and all fans of sports movies should definitely go see it. And if you don't like sports movies at all (like I usually don't), it nonetheless tells an incredible story about a fascinating group of protagonists... just exactly what any good movie should do, so YOU should go to see it too. I'm not saying that "Murderball" is for everyone, but so many different groups who probably THINK they wouldn't like it will find themselves pleasantly surprised, that it would probably have a box office three or four times what it's gotten if everyone who would appreciate it gave it a chance. So why not you?
posted by Joe Bunce at
8:10 AM
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