DAILY FILM DOSE: A Daily Film Appreciation and Review Blog

Armored Car Robbery

2012-02-08T13:51:00.002-05:00

Armored Car Robbery (1950) dir. Richard Fleischer
Starring: Charles McGraw, William Talman, Adele Jergens, Douglas Fowley

**½

By Alan Bacchus

Old Hollywood b-movies were never shy about using extremely literal titles to tell audiences exactly what to expect. This one is perhaps the most literal of noir pictures I’ve seen.

Indeed Armed Car Robbery is about an armed car robbery. William Talman is Walter Purvis the mastermind of a new heist job which, if all goes right, will make he and his buddies rich. Purvis is tough as nails and clockwork in his method, but the job doesn’t go quite right, and one of the gunmans, Benny, is shot and injured. Despite Benny’s pleas he can’t go to a hospital, and after a confrontation is shot and killed.

With Benny found for dead it gives the cops the one lead to track down Purvis and the money. A cat and mouse chase between cops and robbers ensues with a buxom stripper named Yvonne Le Doux at the centre of it all.

Armored Car Robbery works best as an iron clad procedural in the traditional of the crime work of Michael Mann. In fact the rhythm and construction of the police investigation with the perps' escape recalls the Pacino/De Niro dynamic in Heat. On the side of the cops is the equally ruthless hardliner Lt. Cordell (Charles McGraw) who, like Pacino’s character, commands his troops and analyzes the evidence with workmanlike efficiency.

But let’s not aggrandize this film too much though, Heat this is not, nor is it M, or High and Low, the two essential classics of the procedural genre. In Robbery we never quite sure who to root for. Most often in heist films we cheer for the robber, who often steals for a purpose other than just money, or for the fact that they are charming or charasmatic. Purvis is no hero, not even an anti-hero, and thus we never really feel any warmth or attraction to him. Is it the cops? Do we want the cops to catch the thief? Unfortunatly Lt. Cordell is thinly drawn, not much deeper than a mere characterization of a cop instead of a hero with a journey.

As such this noir is simply an exercise in style – a series of crafty set pieces choreographed and directed with considerable flare by director Richard Fleischer, who is certainly no hack – a director who would go onto a successful career of populist entertaining classics such as the Fantastic Voyage, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Soylent Green and even all the way up to 1984’s Conan the Destroyer.

Armored Car Robbery is available in the Film Noir Collection Vol 5. from Warner Bros Home Video.

A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas

2012-02-07T09:25:00.009-05:00

A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas (2011) dir. Todd Strauss-Schulson
Starring: Kal Penn, John Cho, Elias Koteas, Neil Patrick Harris

***

By Alan Bacchus

We're into the third entry in this series, a time when characters are usually farmed out to cheaper actors to accommodate lower budgets and the straight-to-video market. But this series seems to be improving with each new film proving that Harold and Kumar is one of the more surprisingly venerable comic franchises.

This film justly satisfies the requirements established in the previous two films. Returning are the two buddies and former roommates that form an odd couple scenario – Harold (Cho) is the conservative one, a Korean-American family man who is at odds with his pot smoking, med school drop-out, Indo-American friend, Kumar (Penn).

The film revels in shocking us with outrageous behaviour. Drug use is, of course, front and centre, and it’s not just weed and bongs. Even cocaine is featured with fun-loving humour. There are fewer cultural jokes than usual, the kind that play into the stereotypes of Koreans and Indians as overachieving academic math and tech wizzes. And we don't really miss those jokes, as it seems the franchise has successfully 'matured' from its slight concept into a series anchored by its likeable characters and perfectly cast comic duo.

This was a 3D film in theatres, and on Blu-ray, of course, it's 2D. But we can still laugh at the self-acknowledgement of the technology and all those sticks, eggs, candy canes, cocks and other debris shamelessly shoved in our faces for an exaggerated 3D effect.

As for the 'story', Harold and Kumar's new adventure has them gallivanting around town on Christmas Eve looking for the perfect tree to replace Harold's valued family tree, which they destroyed in a fire. A couple of tag-along characters, Kumar's douche bag buddy and Harold’s ultra-conservative neighbour, add some freshness. Along the way the neighbour's baby gets doused in cocaine and spends the rest of the film on a twitchy coke high. Ukrainian gangsters also come into play, as do Harold and Kumar's respective wife and girlfriend, who provide the requisite closure to their personal journey of self-realization.

A surprisingly enjoyable raunchy comedy, the Harold and Kumar franchise continues to satisfy and provide dumb laughs through its unintentionally endearing characters.

A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas is available on Blu-ray from Warner Home Entertainment.

Restless

2012-02-06T16:00:00.004-05:00

Restless (2011) dir. Gus Van Sant
Starring: Henry Hopper, Mia Wasikowska, Ryo Kase

**½

By Alan Bacchus

Annabelle and Enoch are a couple of social oddballs who find each other through their mutual fascination with death. In fact, they meet when Enoch crashes a funeral attended by Annie, and they later crash other people's funerals just for fun.

Their burgeoning relationship takes us from one whimsical romantic scene to the next, from etching chalk outlines of themselves on the pavement to attending a Halloween party dressed as a Japanese pilot and Geisha girl. Enoch also has an imaginary friend, Hiroshi, who is a downed kamikaze pilot from WWII. Annabelle, in addition to working with cancer-stricken children, reveals that she also has cancer and has three months to live. Yes, the theme here is death, which provides the only connective tissue between these overly idiosyncratic story elements.

But this is a Gus Van Sant film, and he rarely plays it safe, constantly testing himself and the audience and never resting on his laurels. Restless falls between his traditional melodramas, such as Good Will Hunting and Finding Forrester, and his aesthetically adventurous efforts like Paranoid Park, Last Days and Gerry.

While overly sappy in tone, including the oh-so-tender musical choices, Restless is also rigorously bizarre. Even the lead character's name, Enoch, is ridiculous, and the same goes for the anachronistic costumes and the staid tone in which he speaks with his kamikaze best friend. Annie also inexplicably draws water birds, writes plays about her own death and, like Enoch, dresses in impossibly quirky outfits fresh out of the Nouvelle Vague.

The best part of the release is the Blu-ray special features, which contain a completely silent version of the same film. During production, after every shot, Van Sant would do a silent take with the actors using their expressions to convey the drama of the scene without dialogue, or in post-production he would use dialogue insert cards like in old fashioned silent cinema (or The Artist). The final result isn't really watchable, but it's an innovative experiment that speaks to Van Sant's creativity and desire to show us something we've never seen before - brownie points and an extra half-star for that.

Restless is available on Blu-ray from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

Rebecca

2012-02-05T15:58:00.014-05:00

Rebecca (1940) dir. Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Joan Fontaine, Laurence Olivier, Judith Anderson, Florence Bates

****

By Alan Bacchus

This is one of the landmark films in Hollywood and Alfred Hitchcock’s first American picture after he was ‘brought over’ by David O Selznick, super producer of Gone with the Wind. Selznick’s deal with Hitch wasn’t exactly RKO’s carte blanche deal with Orson Welles, but it was significant nonetheless considering the tremendous body of work he created in Hollywood, which established an influential legacy of cinema.

Like Citizen Kane, Hitchcock's first work in Hollywood is an undisputed masterpiece and his only Best Picture winner. Ironically, it’s also the one picture on his resume with the least amount of cinematic authorship. The fact is, Rebecca is perceived as a Selznick picture in the same way as Gone with the Wind.

This perception should not temper the fact that Rebecca is a masterful slice of gothic mystery, a tragic romance and brooding tale of obsession and a terrific film.

Maxime De Winter (Olivier) is a widower aristocrat on vacation trying to get his mind off the tragic death of his wife, Rebecca. Joan Fontaine, whose character is unnamed, is introduced as a meek, paid companion to a snobby spinster, Edythe Van Hopper. When Edith finds out the famous Mr. De Winter is also staying at her hotel, she desperately tries to engage him on her level of upper-class snobbery. But it’s the shy naivety of Fontaine that captures De Winter’s attention, so much so that he proposes to her.

With his new bride in tow, Maxime returns to his extravagant home, 'Manderley', spoken about in grandiose terms as Xanadu is to Citizen Kane. The new Mrs. De Winter desperately tries to fit into privileged life, but she experiences the toughest opponent in Mrs. Danvers (Anderson), the grumpy housekeeper who idolizes Rebecca’s memory. As clues of the true cause of Rebecca’s death get revealed Maxime’s lustre as an innocent widower comes into question, information which would eventually lead Mrs. De Winter to deceit and corruption in order to save her marriage.

Dramatic reveals and story twists come fast and furious once the authorities become involved in superbly melodramatic fashion. It’s a momentum that leads to the fiery finale incited by the now completely deranged and maniacal Mrs. Danvers.

Rebecca is as handsome and controlled a film as Hitchcock has ever made. His B&W cinematography (by George Barnes) was never more breathtaking and elegant as it is here. But it’s the evolution of Joan Fontaine’s character that sets the film apart from most of Hitchcock’s other films. Specifically, De Winter’s courtship of Fontaine is particularly delightful, a triumph of the working class over the snobby upper-crust exemplified by Van Hopper. Through the period set in Manderley, the three lead anchors, Olivier, Fontaine and Anderson, give engaging and revelatory performances.

Other than the emblazoned finale, Rebecca is without Hitchcock’s familiar set pieces of suspense. But it’s the blanketed tone of mystery that hides the details of Rebecca’s sordid past. And few other filmmakers have made better use of a dead character never seen on screen. Even without the overt supernatural presence of Rebecca, both Danvers and De Winter’s memories of her carry the intrigue and suspense.

Rebecca is available on Blu-ray from MGM Home Entertainment.

Baraka

2012-02-05T15:58:00.013-05:00

Baraka (1992) dir. Ron Fricke
Documentary

***½

By Alan Bacchus

Ron Fricke was known as the cinematographer and key collaborator of Godfrey Reggio on his seminal 1983 film, Koyaanisqatsi. His time-lapse imagery was an innovative milestone in cinematography, and almost 10 years later Fricke went out on his own and pushed the technology of time-lapse cinematography even further by shooting his own version of Koyaanisqatsi, which became Baraka.

Baraka was shot entirely on 70mm film, the experience of which on the big screen becomes an all-enveloping immersion into Fricke's earthly spiritual journey. On the small screen, the filmmakers have attempted make the Blu-ray edition of the film a comparatively grand experience. Never-before-used 8k resolution scanning and the complete digital restoration of Baraka are billed as the best High Definition transfer of any film on Blu-ray.

Unfortunately, Koyaanisqatsi continually casts a shadow on Baraka. It's difficult not to compare the two. Similar themes of environmental irresponsibility, urban decay and mass consumption are conveyed using many of the same images and juxtaposition featured in the earlier film. But based on Fricke's evolution with his own techniques and the stunningly crisp and detailed 70mm images, Baraka has every right to stand on its own.

With the environment currently in vogue, Baraka seems even more relevant and contemporary today. Unlike the BBC's Planet Earth, Baraka is not only about landscapes, nature and the environment, but also the people who inhabit the earth. It's told without narration or subtitles indicating the location or area of the world we're in, as the imagery is meant to wash over our senses like an abstract painting.

The opening intercuts a number of different cultures' specific rituals of worship. The unifying images are the faces of the individuals deep in spiritual thought – all have the same expression. Fricke finds the right faces to draw us in. However banal they might be, without any movement, expression or emotion an unknowingly observed face seems as fascinating as any of the complicated motion controlled time-lapse shots.

The scene that jumpstarts the film into high gear is the beguiling Southeast Asian hand waving tribe. Whether it's dance or some kind of ritual or worship, we are never told which country or tribe they’re from or exactly what purpose the ritual serves. The elaborate ceremony is a beautifully choreographed movement of hands and bodies, punctuated by an intense chanting accompaniment.

Though we had seen many of the images already in Koyaanisqatsi, it’s still a wondrous way of looking at our planet. Clouds floating across mountains become animate living beings, while the mass consumption of our lifestyle appears lifeless and sanitary.

The one missing element needed to take the film to the level of Reggio's films is a musical accompaniment as big as Fricke's cinematography. Michael Sterns' atmospheric moody music doesn’t come close to the grandeur of Philip Glass.

For years Baraka was revered by pot smokers as a film to get high to and let wash over them like gentle rain. Watching the film high or not produces the same effect, a marvelous visual essay imploring its audience to get out of our bubbles and reconnect with the planet like our ancient ancestors. Enjoy.

DFD Fifth Anniversary

2012-02-03T12:24:00.007-05:00

It's been five years since Feb 3, 2007, the day after my 32nd birthday and the day I decided to mark my place in the burgeoning era of the Web 2.0 with my film review blog, Daily Film Dose.

DFD began with an annual 'year-end' report email I used to send to my friends. It was a compilation of the best films of the year, as well as other highlights worthy of note. The emails were popular and were forwarded beyond my reach. So I thought, “Why not do this throughout the year? And hell, why not do it every day?”

It was a bold experiment – post a film review every day – but there's no challenge I'm more stubborn to achieve than the one I imposed on myself. The very first post, Carrie, was a mere 155 words. But I quickly learned I had more than that to say in subsequent entries. From then on, it was full-length reviews.

And so, it's five years later with 1,952 posts written and still going strong. That said, I'll be the first to admit I cheat on occasion. Initially I used 'guest reviewers', who then became full-fledged recurring contributors. And sometimes I repost older reviews from the archives.

I'm not a robot, and with a family, work and other obligations, it's hard. I won't deny that. And I can even admit that I’ve missed a few days here and there for various reasons. The first instance was my move in the Fall of 2007, when I had no access to the Internet, and frankly, I was too exhausted to write or post anything. The site did go down for a couple of weeks in 2010 when I tried to rejig my URL and DNS settings. That resulted in near heart failure for me, but I eventually got it back up and back-posted for those days on which the site was down.

And now, there’s a weekend or two when I simply get lazy. But I can count all these missed days on both hands, a consistency I'm proud of.

As for my most popular post, there's no doubt it has always been The Long Take, a compendium of some of the best long, unbroken shots in cinema history. It’s received more than 200,000 unique page visits since I posted it in May 2007. Even today, almost five years later, it's consistently my most popular post.

Thanks for reading!

Alan

Fellini's 8½

2012-02-02T11:23:00.011-05:00

Fellini's 8½ (1963) dir. Federico Fellini
Starring: Marcello Mastroianni, Claudia Cardinale, Anouk Aimée, Sandra Milo

****

By Alan Bacchus

Okay, clearly I haven’t unearthed a diamond in the rough, nor am I writing about anything that any reasonably knowledgeable filmgoer doesn’t know, but Fellini’s 8½ is a great film and should be watched by everyone who wants to be a filmmaker.

Made in 1963, the film is surprisingly relevant now. Italian film director Guido Anselmi (Marcello Mastroianni) is on the verge of a nervous breakdown prior to shooting his next big film. The expectations of him are high. His every word has importance, and everyone around him, from his family to his working colleagues, is clamouring for his attention. His writer and producer eagerly want his input on script and production issues, but creatively he’s broken down and has “filmmaker’s block”. As a result, Guido retreats like a turtle into his shell via his fantastical dreams and memories.

Guido ventures into his subconscious to visit himself and relive his adventures as a young child. He fantasizes about a beautiful and elusive siren/goddess played by Claudia Cardinale – the perfect uncritical respite from his chaotic world.

The fantasy sequences are celebrated and continue to mesmerize for their choreography and design. They are technically amazing, and at that time the film compared only with Citizen Kane for its visual inventiveness. Fellini’s use of actors and camera movement mimics the movement of the rides at a circus. Things just never stop going ‘round – people pop up in places around the frame, constantly surprising us.

Of course, 8½ was named after the 8½th film Fellini had made (he co-directed Variety Lights). And so referencing his own work in the title was just one unsubtle way of informing the audience that the film is autobiographical, based on his experiences after making La Dolce Vita.

The film should be seen by anyone who has questioned his or her talent in any shape or form. Almost everyone questions his or her ability to continue the upward trend of success. If the film was made today, perhaps Guido would have taken drugs to cope, and instead we would have had Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. And who knows? Maybe Fellini dabbled in some pre-swinging ‘60s-era hallucinogens. Either way, the film is timeless.

Notorious

2012-02-01T10:03:00.009-05:00

Notorious (1946) dir. Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains

****

By Alan Bacchus

How can you pick a Hitchcock favourite from such an enormous body of work featuring such great pictures? Well, I can surely narrow it down and identify Notorious as one of his best, or at least one of my favourites.

It was part of the David O. Selznick contract, which brought Hitchcock to Hollywood in 1940. While the espionage plotting and set piece anchors are hallmarks of Hitch, there’s a seriousness and sense of emotional grandeur at play that points to Selznick. The love story in Notorious is a genuine romantic conflict, which resounds louder than the thriller spy games or the suspense set pieces. It’s an element that plays out as well here as in Hitchcock's later and more revered films (e.g., Vertigo).

It’s post-WWII, and Ingrid Bergman plays Alicia, the daughter of an American traitor who spied for the Nazis during the War. With her family name dishonoured she's ripe for recruitment by the handsome government agent, Devlin (Grant), to be a double-agent of her own. Her mission is to spy on a group of Nazi sympathizers plotting world domination in Brazil. Alicia accepts the challenge and travels to Brazil with Devlin to begin their elaborate spy games.

She ingratiates herself to Sebastien (Rains), one of the Nazi leaders, and seduces him into marrying her. Unfortunately, she’s also fallen in love with Devlin, which heightens the stakes for both characters to complete their mission safe and sound. But when Sebastien catches on that Alicia's working for the Americans, he turns the tables and conspires to murder her under cover of his even more diabolical and murderous Nazi compatriots.

The celebrated set pieces in this picture involve the tactics used by Alicia and Devlin to source out Sebastien’s evil scheme. A single key to his wine cellar becomes the object of desire – a frequent motif of Hitchcock's that is also used memorably in Dial M for Murder. The most famous shot in the picture, of course, is the monumental crane shot, which starts on a balcony at Sebastien’s party and pushes down into a close-up of the key clasped within Alicia’s hand. It’s one of Hitchcock’s great shots, not only for its superlative technical achievement, but also because of Hitch’s ability to place the drama of a scene in one inanimate but significant object, which, under normal circumstances, would be insignificant.

After the exchange of the key, Devlin’s search in the wine cellar for the smoking gun evidence continues the sequence. As he reaches for the logging sheets between the bottles of wine, Hitch cuts frequently to one of the bottles leaning precariously over the edge. As the tension mounts and the bottle falls we expect Devlin’s cover to be blown. Instead, the moment reverses and reveals the illegal uranium ore located inside the bottle. What a great sequence!

But Notorious is a masterpiece for equally weighing these great moments of tension and suspense with the agonizing love triangle between Alicia, Devlin and Sebastien. Despite being the antagonist, as played by Claude Rains, we sympathize deeply with Sebastien. Although he’s a Nazi, we recognize he’s genuinely in love with Alicia, and when he realizes she’s a spy the ramifications for their relationship are sad and tragic. And through his diabolical mother, we can see that the decision to attempt to murder Alicia is painful.

Cary Grant’s rescue of Alicia in the final act is the ideal climax, a masterpiece of composition and editing. After Devlin makes the decision to take the ill Alicia out of the house, he’s confronted by Sebastien, who can’t fight back for fear of blowing his own cover with his colleagues. Their journey down the curved gallery steps is drawn out magnificently by Hitchcock’s exclusive use of close-ups of his characters, amplifying the nail-biting tension of Devlin’s tense bluffing game.

The scene caps off one of Hitchcock’s most serious films, mostly devoid of his trademark British wit. The genuine three-way romance and the strong themes of patriotism and trust are as complex and memorable as the love triangle politics in Casablanca.

Spellbound

2012-01-31T10:04:00.002-05:00

Spellbound (1945) dir. Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Ingrid Bergman, Gregory Peck, Leo G. Carroll, Rhonda Fleming, Michael Chekhov

****

By Greg Klymkiw

Of the four official collaborations between producer David O. Selznick and director Alfred Hitchcock, I've always considered The Paradine Case the worst, Notorious the most romantic, Rebecca the best and Spellbound the most utterly insane. The latter description of the latter film is entirely appropriate since it's a murder mystery set in an asylum wherein psychoanalysis is utilized to discover deep meaning in a recurring dream (designed, no less, by surrealist Salvador Dali) in order to find out exactly whodunit.

If this isn't insane, then I don't know what is.

Spellbound also has the distinction of being wildly, deliciously melodramatic, almost crazily romantic and when it needs to be, thanks to the genius of the Master himself, nail-bitingly suspenseful.

Selznick was responsible for bringing Hitchcock to America and signing him to a longterm talent contract. For much of their association, Hitchcock was lent out to other studios, which suited him just fine as he was able to do his own thing without having to tolerate (what Hitchcock perceived to be) the constant interference of the famous auteur producer of Gone With The Wind. Of the four aforementioned collaborations, Notorious was eventually sold outright to RKO in the midst of production while the other three proved to be one of the most dynamic producer-director battlefields in movie history.

Hitchcock and Selznick detested each other. Hitch thought of Selznick as a meddling vulgarian whilst Selznick viewed the portly Brit as a mad genius who needed his sure and steady hand (or psychoanalysis, if you will). To this day, Rebecca, a virtually flawless film that more than ably sets the stage for Hitchcock's extremely mature latter work (notably Rear Window and Vertigo) is casually (and sadly) dismissed by the Master of Suspense in the famous interviews with Francois Truffaut as not really being "a Hitchcock film", but rather, "a David O. Selznick film".

In many ways, it seems to me that Spellbound might well have been the most ideal collaboration between the two men. Selznick wanted desperately to make a film that extolled the virtues of psychoanalysis (which he felt had been an enormous help to himself - though there appears to be no proof he ever really "got better" as Selznick's maniacal megalomania followed him to the grave). Hitchcock wanted to make a great suspense film and was certainly drawn to the notion of psychoanalysis being used to unravel a mystery.

Add to this mix, the magnificent talent of Hollywood's best screenwriter Ben Hecht (The Twentieth Century, Nothing Sacred, Gunga Din, The Front Page, Scarface and among many others Wuthering Heights) and Salvador Dali to design the dream sequences and you've got a picture that guaranteed success. (And yes, it was a multi-Oscar-nominee/winner and a huge hit at the box office.)

Hitchcock, purportedly refused to have anything to do with Dali's dream sequences (other than adhering to their imagery as scripted for purposes of the plot) and they were ultimately directed by the ace production designer/director William Cameron Menzies (Gone With The Wind, Things to Come). The hearty cinematic stew that is Spellbound also features a most flavourful ingredient, a great over-the-top score by the legendary Miklos Rozsa - replete with plenty o' theremin usage.

What this ultimately yielded was a wonky, intense, romantic and thoroughly engaging murder mystery wherein the director of an asylum in Vermont, Dr. Murchison (Leo G. Carroll), is being forced into an early retirement to make way for a younger, more vibrant head head-shrinker Dr. Anthony Edwardes (the handsome, sexy, stalwart Gregory Peck). The asylum's ace psychoanalyst, Dr. Constance Peterson (the mouth-wateringly gorgeous Ingrid Bergman) is so committed to her work, that most of her colleagues view her as an impenetrable Ice Goddess. This chilly demeanour, however, stands her in good stead in the results department and she's probably the only person who can adequately handle the asylum's most over-the-top nymphomaniac (Rhonda - "hubba hubba" - Fleming).

But even ice is susceptible to eventually melting and soon, Constance gets definitely hot and bothered and drippingly wet as she succumbs to the rugged, manly charms of Dr. Edwardes. Even more tempting is that on the surface, this stiff rod of manhood is the sort of gentle pansy-boy Constance needs.

Deep down, he is sensitive and most importantly, he is… wait for it - in pain.

Yes, pain!

He needs a good woman for more than amorous attention, he needs her to PSYCHOANALYZE him.

When it becomes plain he's not all he's cracked up to be and might, in fact, be a murderer and impostor, it's up to the head-over-heels healer of heads to solve the mystery lodged in Dr. Edwardes's mind.

This is all, of course handled with Hitchcock's trademark semi-expressionistic aplomb and untouchable knack for rendering suspense of the highest order. There isn't a single performance in the film that isn't spot-on (Leo G. Carroll is suitably and alternately sympathetic and malevolent, whilst Peck acquits himself admirably as the troubled leading man), but it's Ingrid Bergman who really carries the picture. Her transformation from Ice Queen to a sex-drenched psychiatrist with a delightful blend of matronly and whorish qualities is phenomenal. She's mother, lover and doctor - all rolled into one magnificently package. And she's never looked more beautiful. Selznick knew this better than anyone and Hitchcock himself knew all too well how to compose and light for beauty.

In one of Selznick's delightful memos from when he first brought Ingrid Bergman to America he wrote:

"...the difference between a great photographic beauty and an ordinary girl with Miss Bergman lies in proper photography of her – and that this in turn depends not simply on avoiding the bad side of her face; keeping her head down as much as possible; giving her the proper hairdress, giving her the proper mouth make-up, avoiding long shots, so as not to make her look too big, and, even more importantly, but for the same reason, avoiding low cameras on her...but most important of all, on shading her face and invariably going for effect lightings on her."

Damn!

They don't make movies like this anymore!

How Bergman was nominated the same year for an Oscar for her luminous, but limp-in-comparison performance in The Bells of St. Mary's over Spellbound is yet another mystery of the Oscars we all must put up with.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but Spellbound is, indeed, spellbinding and it's easily one of the great pictures by both Masters - Selznick and Hitchcock.

"Spellbound" is now available on Blu-Ray via 20th Century Fox/MGM. The copious extras are a mixed bag. A commentary with film historians Thomas Schatz and Charles Ramirez Berg is a real disappointment compared to the great Marian Keane commentary on the Criterion DVD. These guys are all over the place with spotty info and critical analysis bordering on the, shall we be charitable and say, rudimentary. There are a series of docs including one on the film's place as the first to deal with psychoanalysis, a backgrounder on the Salvador Dali sequences, a cool interview with Hitchcock conducted by Peter Bogdanovich and a really delightful doc on Rhonda Fleming. There's a Lux Radio play version of the movie with Joseph Cotten and Alida Valli and a trailer. The movie looks wonderful on Blu-ray, but I have to admit to preferring the care taken with the Criterion DVD transfer which ultimately has a better grain structure and seems closer to 35mm without all the over-crisp qualities that high definition adds/detracts when it comes to older films.

War of the Worlds (1953)

2012-01-30T11:17:00.006-05:00

The War of the Worlds (1953) dir. Byron Haskin
Starring: Gene Barry, Ann Robinson, Lewis Martin, Les Tremayne, Bob Cornthwaite

****

By Alan Bacchus

Based on the famed H.G. Wells 1898 novel, which told the story of a Victorian town overrun by alien ‘tripods’ with advanced weaponry, the 1953 George Pal-produced sprawling epic is a violent, destructive, balls-out action picture that holds its ground even today as one of the greatest science-fiction pictures ever made.

It’s been over 50 years since the release of this film, and the special effects, tension and suspense render the b-movie material so immersive it’s almost invisible to its age. Sure, it’s low tech by today’s standards, but Pal and director Byron Haskin manage to create a film with such unrelenting force and destruction, it feels even more violent and vicious than any disaster movie made today.

Of course, the story was famously adapted by Orson Welles’ Mercury Theatre radio program in 1938 as a real event (perhaps the first-ever mockumentary), and based on legend it caused mass panic in many cities and towns across America. With the bar set as high as it was by Welles, Hungarian-born puppeteer-animator turned sci-fi movie producer, George Pal, had to reach higher than Hollywood sci-fi had ever gone before.

The marvel is in its simplicity – Martians land on Earth and attack. But it has a sense of epic scale that’s executed to perfection. The setup is simple: in the peaceful Southern California town of Linda Rosa, physicist Clayton Forrester (Gene Barry), along with most of the town’s citizens, watch a meteorite crash to the ground. Later that day the meteorite uncorks and reveals giant alien warship lifepods inside. Attempts at appeasement are deadly, as the powerful ray guns make for an easy kill and much destruction. When the American government discovers that these pods have landed in another area on Earth, they know the planet is under attack.

Send in the Marines!

Southern California soon becomes a battle ground for an Army vs. Aliens battle with buildings, tanks and most of the landscape scorched to flames. We watch the movements of Forrester as his girlfriend, Sylvia, flees the warzone only to have her plane crash behind enemy lines. With the couple split up, Forrester has to navigate his way through the warzone back into town to find his beloved.

War of the Worlds is mean, tough and merciless. The aliens are faceless, and they go about their mission of mass destruction without any remorse or pause. The mere sounds of the alien’s cannons are so loud and ear-piercing they imply a level of violence equal to that in any Roland Emmerich disaster movie. And the violence seems even more destructive than in the films of today. There’s nothing sanitized or restricted for the audience.

Steven Spielberg's 2005 version was surprisingly literal to Pal's film. The introduction of the pods in the ground is built up with the same kind of tension. The humanist struggle from Forrester's point of view is attempted but made too sappy and on-the-nose preachy lacking the violent nihilistic edge of Pal's penchant for destruction. Spielberg smartly kept the home invasion scene intact from the ‘53 version. A suspenseful moment when Forrester and Sylvia fight off the prying eye of a pod tentacle while holed up in a vacant home is choreographed and shot almost identically to Haskin's version.

I'm sure Mr. Spielberg is proud of his own film, but I'm sure even he will admit that it doesn’t come close to the power and resilience of the original.

Drive

2012-01-29T09:34:00.002-05:00

Drive (2011) dir. Nicholas Winding Refn
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Albert Brooks

***½

By Alan Bacchus

There should be a caveat at the beginning of this film, or maybe on the poster or the trailer, that says, "This is NOT a car chase movie." Instead, it’s an oddball mix of neo-noir plotting and retro pop '80s aesthetic forming a bizarre but unique and invigorating genre film.

I suspect this project started with a rather rudimentary crime script featuring a stunt car driver who moonlights as a getaway man in Los Angeles and becomes a protector of sorts to his motherly but attractive neighbour and her young child. But under the stylized lensing of hip Danish director, Nicholas Winding Refn (Bronson, The Pusher Trilogy), it becomes a bold statement much greater than what was on the page.

The opening sequence is thrilling. It's a quiet but suspenseful heist, which introduces us to the unnamed getaway driver (Gosling), who goes about his job with exacting precision and professionalism. After that we get a retro-style credit sequence featuring hot pink script-like font (Forte-like for font nerds), like something fresh out of Miami Vice, To Live and Die in LA or Something Wild. This oddball duality colours the entire film.

After introducing the neighbour, the driver’s mentor and a gang of nefarious criminals that surrounds them, the criminal plotting gets ratcheted up when the neighbour’s husband, freshly released from prison, moves back in. The driver, who now sees himself as protector for the young gal’s son, teams up with the husband to complete ‘one last job’ in order to repay an outstanding debt. Of course, things don’t go as planned and the driver finds himself on the run and targeted for death.

Refn shifts us between these familiar noir story beats and a self-consciously syrupy love story punctuated by synthesized retro-cheese love ballads. The mix of blood curdling violence and this overly sweet tenderness generates the same feelings as David Lynch’s emotional extremes in Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive, and even the Hitchcockian thrillers of Brian De Palma.

Drive aspires to achieve the same results by turning familiar melodrama into something unfamiliar and fresh. These aesthetic choices might turn off a lot of viewers, especially those expecting a stone cold Walter Hill, but for a fan of stylish experimentation Drive burns some serious rubber.

And once again, thank you Cliff Martinez for another delicious electronic score, just like his work on Contagion, and for helping to subvert all those forgettable copycat music scores heard in most other action films. Regretfully, the Academy not only snubbed Gosling and Refn, but even worse, they ignored Cliff Martinez's work in a category that, considering John Williams' two nominations this year, is lacking in credibility.

Drive is available on Blu-Ray and DVD from Alliance Films in Canada

SUNDANCE 2012: Keep the Lights On

2012-01-28T13:57:00.004-05:00

Keep the Lights On (2012) dir. Ira Sachs
Starring: Thure Lindhardt, Zachary Booth, Julianne Nicholson, Paprika Steen

***

By Alan Bacchus

This emotionally explicit odyssey of two gay men and the ups and downs of their relationship over the course of 10 years could just be a landmark film for queer cinema. With the amount of coverage and praise this 'gay' film made without any semblance of 'straight' sensibilities, it could be the first of its kind to crack the mainstream. Unfortunately, when all is said and done there's more to admire than truly fall in love with.

Erik (Lindhardt) is a documentary filmmaker living in New York, introduced calling some kind of phone sex hook-up line. Though he desires the pleasures of sex, his soulful eyes want more, a lasting and loving relationship. He finds this in Paul (Booth), whom he meets in one of those one night stand encounters. But Paul's in a straight relationship and not fully out of the closet. Despite the challenge, Erik can't abandon his heart and chases after him. Paul finally commits to switching sides and enters into a relationship with Erik.

It doesn't take long before cracks start to show, as Paul's drug addiction taints their sex life, and his demands as a workaholic lawyer conflicts with Erik's more flexible freelance lifestyle. Over the course of the 10 years Paul moves in and out of Erik's life, sometimes just disappearing without a word of notice. And yet Erik continues to want his affection, something he continually refuses to give. At several points in the relationship ultimatums are given, eventually forcing Paul and Erik to make a full-stop decision to be with each other or not.

Despite the intertitle cards that signify the change in time, we never get the feeling of time passing. Their haircuts certainly don't change, but neither do the characters. And apart from the graphic sex they engage in frequently there's not much chemistry. Erik, the documentarian, is the more passionate of the two, constantly evaluating the relationship and looking to express his feelings. Paul, whom we see less of, is conservative, mostly aloof and independent.

Their conflicts over the period seem to be a continuous struggle between Erik's emotional needs and Paul's independence. Their descent is as tragic and frustrating as the doomed love story in Blue Valentine.

More subtly, we notice time pass through the gradual change in visual palette. Early in the film, Sachs filters his world through a grainy verite look, a wonderfully textured cinematography, though unpolished and rough, but still artful and rich. Gradually, the graininess disappears over time and, by the end, without being noticeable, the film is clean and spotless.

But the honesty in Sach's storytelling breaks through the narrative deficiencies, achieving a mood and feeling of heartbreaking sadness without the bleakness of Blue Valentine.

SUNDANCE 2012: Where Do We Go Now?

2012-01-27T11:56:00.008-05:00

Where Do We Go Now (2012) dir. Nadine Labacki
Starring: Claude Baz Moussawbaa, Layla Hakim, Nadine Labaki, Yvonne Maalouf, Antoinette Noufaily, Julien Farhat

***½

By Alan Bacchus

When the peaceful cohabitation of Christians and Muslims in a small Lebanese town becomes threatened by bigger-picture political conflicts it takes a group of like-minded village women from both sides of the religious divide to stem the tide of violence.

The TIFF Audience Award winner from last year's festival slipped under everyone’s radar prior to its surprise win. But playing under the Spotlight Program here at Sundance it's a great chance for rediscovery. Indeed, it's a clever yet profound microcosm of those entrenched centuries-long religious conflicts that have been the cause of so many unnecessary wars. In this case it's Christians and Muslims, both living in a small Lebanese village, and though their churches sit side by side, they've lived peacefully for years. But when news of a newly sparked conflict in the outside world trickles in, Amale (Labaki), Takla (Moussawbaa), Afaf (Hakim), Yvonne (Maalouf) and Saydeh (Noufaily) band together to plug the leaks of information.

While the threats are dangerous, the methods of the women are comical, a duality in tone controlled masterfully by Labaki. The ruses range from burning newspapers, disrupting television reception, hiring a troupe of Russian showgirls to distract the men, and even holding a town meeting and serving hash-brownies for snacks.

Labaki also peppers some unexpected musical sequences into the narrative. Some proponents have latched onto these scenes and called the film a musical, but if anything they are so few and far between and not integral to the narrative that they are actually distracting.

The ingenuity to praise here is Labaki's artful ability to mix cinematic whimsy with the bleak backdrop of Middle Eastern politics. She populates her village with warmth and flavour – the kind we would see in those small town British comedies like Local Hero and Waking Ned Devine. And Labaki's trump card that she holds in her back pocket is the final scene, which explains the reason for the film's title. Just when we think the women have successfully solved their problem, one last choice to be made could set them back to the beginning. It's a delightful open-ended final frame, which speaks to the never-ending saga of the conflicts in that part of the world.

SUNDANCE 2012: The House I Live In

2012-01-26T12:04:00.000-05:00

The House I Live In (2012) dir. Eugene Jarecki
Documentary

**½

By Alan Bacchus

It's been over 40 years since the term 'War on Drugs' was coined by Richard Nixon, and the fight has still not been won. Very little has changed, and according to Eugene Jarecki and the participants in his film it's even worse now than it was then. Considering Jarecki's success with political films, such as Why We Fight and Reagan, one would think he would be capable of handling such a broad topic. Unfortunately, like the authorities who can't seem to make any headway in their struggle, such is the result of this film. With the greatest of intentions, Jarecki's film is just too broad and unfocused to make its point dramatically.

To tackle the War on Drugs, Jarecki starts off with one of the best personalities to share his experiences, David Simon, the former investigative journalist and creator of The Wire, the last word on crime on television. He provides the most articulate insights, specifically related to the police’s culpability and their internal incentive policies toward arrest stats.

Jarecki also finds some very poignant reflections from his former nanny, a black woman whose family succumbed to the damaging effects of drugs after Jarecki’s family moved away from the city. Jarecki also puts his camera in cop cars that patrol America's streets, the courtrooms that lay down the sentences and the jails that keep drug dealers locked up for life.

Including the policing incentives and the corporate prison industry, Jarecki's thesis hits a number of culprits, but none more damning than the judicial system, including the minimum sentences and the shameful bias against crack cocaine used by the urban poor vs. powdered cocaine used primarily by the middle- and upper-classes. As such, Jarecki claims the drug war is a class and race war in disguise, consciously targeting the poorest Americans.

In the final act Jarecki overextends himself by making specific comparisons to the Holocaust and its five stages of genocide – identification, ostracism, confiscation, concentration and annihilation. While the topic and themes are of grave importance, Jarecki's ambitiousness is his undoing, as he tries to cover all the bases without the sufficient connections to make a precise, powerful and effective statement.

SUNDANCE 2012: Bones Brigade: An Autobiography

2012-01-25T15:40:00.007-05:00

Bones Brigade: An Autobiography (2012) dir. Stacy Peralta
Documentary

***

By Alan Bacchus

Just how many documentaries can Stacy Peralta make about skateboarding? Well, there's plenty of material and stories within the sport to tell. This new picture serves as the ideal continuation of Dogtown and Z-Boys, Peralta's personal chronicling of the sport of skateboarding into the ‘80s and his move from athlete to entrepreneur as manager, mentor and sponsor of a new crop of skating kids, including megastar Tony Hawk.

After Peralta's Zephyr teammates split up in the late ‘70s, he was the only one able to monetize his talents and turn skateboarding into a career profession. Along with skateboard designer George Powell, Peralta formed one of the sport's most successful boarding enterprises, Powell-Peralta. After watching the negative effect of success on his friends, Peralta decided to form a new team of unknown but talented skaters from around the country to compete and promote themselves as professional athletes. From this came the Bones Brigade, which encompassed 40 or so members but featured a core group of five skaters that were influential to the sport in their own unique ways.

First, there's Tony Hawk, the Wayne Gretzky of skateboarding, who, because of his success, became intensely disliked by his competitors; Steve Cabellero, the small but talented acrobatic skater; Mike McGill, the inventor of the McTwist manoeuvre; Lance Mountain, the joker of the bunch, who became a celebrity after starring in Powell-Peralta's first skating video; and Rodney Mullan, the freestyle extraordinaire, whose skills with the board on the ground were unrivaled, but a guy who also suffered from the repression of his disapproving parents.

Peralta admirably tones down the cinematic language compared to his flashy technique in Dogtown and uses a more formal, restrained style reflective of his new position as mentor in this phase of his career, as well as his growing maturity as a filmmaker. Each of his interviews is shot in the same location – a well art-directed skateboard workshop with boards filling the frame from top to bottom. Again, the ingrained culture of self-documentation of skaters means there's a wealth of footage and stills to help visualize his story. Stills, video footage and super-8 footage are combined for a fun time capsule of ‘80s aesthetic.

The prevailing theme that emerges here is the sense of family that Peralta infuses in the kids, which manifests itself in their supremely innovative athletic feats. This contrasts sharply with the painful destruction of compatriots in Dogtown.

As in Dogtown, The Bones Brigade treads on self-aggrandizement, as Peralta himself is a key character in this story - he even interviews himself. But this time he adds the subtitle 'An Autobiography', which kind of prevents us from criticizing the film for any bias. But we should look at these films as personal filmmaking at its best, a superbly entertaining diary of sorts, with maximum flare, energy and exuberance in the prevailing art form of our generation. I also doubt that this is the end of the story, as there are two more decades of skateboarding to examine, something I will certainly welcome with open arms.

SUNDANCE 2012: Searching For Sugarman

2012-01-24T02:47:00.004-05:00

Searching For Sugarman (2012) dir. Malik Bendjelloul
Documentary

***½

By Alan Bacchus

Ever heard of the artist Rodriguez, a Detroit area folk singer from the early '70s? Didn't think so. After two unsuccessful albums he faded into obscurity. But to South Africans, through luck and circumstance, his albums became as popular as Elvis's, and part of the counterculture anthems that helped spark the anti-Apartheid movement. But no one knew anything about him other than that he was dead, a victim of a horrific on-stage suicide.

This is the starting point for Malik Bendjelloul's fascinating documentary about the myth and aura of this strange but immensely talented artist, who, according to the producers he worked with, was as talented and poetic as Bob Dylan.

Bendjelloul follows a pair of obsessed fans, who sleuth their way back in time in the hopes of shedding light on this decades-long mystery.

Bendjelloul establishes a teasing procedural narrative as the South Africans describe their analysis of the evidence available to them, including the album credits, the lyrics, the record label and the trail of money that would hopefully lead to answers.

The twists and reveals in this story are fascinating and help piece together a character of an artist whose integrity trumped his perceived failure. At the same time they give us a deafening history lesson in South African Apartheid.

Looking back there perhaps wasnt much of a mystery to tell, but the director expertly includes the point of view of the fans, who, with little knowledge and information, had to solve the case with determination, dedication and perseverance.

And what a pleasure to discover the music of Rodriguez, whose melodies and lyrics are as haunting and moving as described in the film. Searching For Sugarman is superb storytelling and a perfect example of the power of the documentary form.

SUNDANCE 2012: Father's Chair

2012-01-23T13:44:00.004-05:00

Father's Chair (2012) dir. Luciano Moura
Starring: Wagner Moura, Mariana Lima, Lima Duarte, Brás Antunes

***

By Alan Bacchus

Father’s Chair is a well intentioned family reconciliation drama in which a self-absorbed dictatorial father needs to embark on a life-changing road trip in order to find his missing son and find himself in the process. The real attraction here is seeing the fine Brazilian actor Wagner Moura (Elite Squad) at work. He's considered Brazil's most famous actor, and indeed he holds the picture down even when it threatens to over-indulge in its own self-importance.

Theo (Moura) is a middle- to upper-class workaholic who has recently separated from his wife and has become more angry and controlling of his son. He also has his own father issues having been estranged from his dad for most of his life. The shoe drops for Theo when his son receives a chair for his birthday from the mysterious grandfather. This sets Theo off into an angry rage, which causes his son to run away from home. Theo’s subsequent frantic search for his son takes him through the salt of the earth countryside and poverty stricken slums giving him an eye-opening and cathartic experience.

We can sympathize with Theo and the devastating fear of having a son go missing. Indeed, Moura plays out Theo's franticness with a strong sense of suspense and danger. Theo's road trip sleuthing unfortunately seems to come too easily for him. One step leads conveniently to another lead, resulting in a rather comfortable and conflict-free journey. We also know where this film is headed from the start, and Moura never deviates from its telegraphed trajectory.

By the end Theo learns the necessary lesson to be a better man with a predictable meeting of reconciliation. This film wears its heart on its sleeve, but just a bit too loudly and proudly to elevate itself over the conventionality of the melodramatic contrivances.

SUNDANCE 2012: Me @ the Zoo

2012-01-22T22:40:00.005-05:00

Me @ the Zoo (2012) dir. Chris Moukarbel, Valerie Veatch
Documentary

***

By Alan Bacchus

A decent cinematic essay about the YouTube effect, that is the new millennium speaker's corner of sorts, which has become the influential platform for online personal expression.
Few people have expressed themselves more dramatically than Chris Crocker, a celebrity-chasing Britney Spears addict, but also a repressed gay teen living in the bigoted hillbilly world of small town Tennessee. Being an outsider is an understatement for Crocker, who, with the creation of YouTube, found his mechanism for expression. His self-produced video rants have made him a sensation of sorts for the 15-minute famers that YouTube creates - specifically his Britney rant, which went viral in 2007.

Somehow Chris lasted longer than most, but as per Moukarbel and Veatch's thesis, he gets spit out and demolished just like his idol Britney Spears.

Using ample YouTube videos and other footage, Moukarbel and Veatch create a unique character study of Internet celebrity. Crocker comes off as a performer at heart but also deranged and delusional - the perfect personality for this kind of success.

But they also expose the fallacy of Internet stardom and the fact that people just don't want to pay for Crocker's act, which seems to work only in the confines of his own home. His failed attempt at a reality TV shows that his kind of fame comes from the creation of unaltered truth. While Crocker's YouTube success came from a place of honesty and passion, he was simply faking it for television.

Me @ the Zoo succeeds in telling the story of the YouTube phenomenon through the voice of one of its biggest stars in an effective and innovative manner.

SUNDANCE 2012: The Other Dream Team

2012-01-22T16:53:00.012-05:00

The Other Dream Team (2012) dir. Marius Markevicius
Documentary

****

By Alan Bacchus

The Other Dream Team is an unbelievably inspiring story of freedom and liberation from repression told through the triumph of the Lithuanian basketball team, which toiled under the Soviet regime before their bronze medal victory as a sovereign nation in the 1992 Olympics.

Sports has always made for great documentaries, the drama inherent in the competition, the visual spectacle of world class athletes, and the wealth of footage and coverage devoted to sporting events are a gold mine for filmmakers.

The Other Dream Team is no exception. But with the added gravitas of the political upheaval of the Iron Curtain and the deeply emotional human story at its heart, this picture becomes a truly epic and powerful piece of cinema.

Filmmaker Marius Markevicius charts a 50-year odyssey of the small Baltic country of 3 million people from pre-war prosperity to annexation and poverty under the Soviets to their violent revolution in 1991. All the while we learn about the country's mad obsession with basketball, which birthed superstars Sarunas Marciulionis and Arvydas Sabonis. The film charts their success in the Soviet league in the 80's to their courtship by the NBA and all the political and cultural conflicts they encountered.

Interviews with Marciulionis, Sabonis and other players confirm all the preconceived notions of poverty behind the Iron Curtain. But the biggest tragedy is not the absence of bread or blue jeans, but their lack of freedom to express their culture, language and identity as Lithuanians. Even the seasoned journalist Jim Lampley tears up when recounting the pain of these players during this period.

The players’ stories are so rich that Markevicius doesn't even get to the 1992 Olympics until the final act, which feels like a bonus track on a masterpiece album.

The coda to this story comes after the liberation of the country and the fall of Communism. But once we get embroiled in the drama of the Olympics it becomes a film within a film. The involvement of The Grateful Dead in funding the basketball team's trip to the Olympics is zany enough to make up its own documentary. Same with the awesome sight of other marginalized peoples competing under new flags (e.g., South Africa and Estonia). We're also treated to some astonishing footage of the US Dream Team demolishing opponents. But the dramatic climax to the picture comes in the form of a storybook matchup between the former Soviet Union and Lithuania, which is so emotional and moving it didn't leave a dry eye in the house.

The Other Dream Team is so powerful it transcends its sport, instead serving as the representation for our instinctual desire for freedom.

SUNDANCE 2012: The Pact

2012-01-22T01:40:00.006-05:00

The Pact (2012) dir. Nicholas McCarthy
Starring: Caity Lotz, Casper Van Dien, Haley Hudson, Kathleen Rose Perkins, Sam Ball, Agnes Bruckner

***

By Alan Bacchus

The Pact is a smart, well written and genuinely scary haunted house movie with equal parts B-movie pastiche and visceral horror movie thrills.

After her sister disappears inside her own house, Annie is forced to return to her childhood home to play surrogate parent to her 8-year-old daughter. It doesn't take long before she starts hearing things in the house. A creak in the floor, closet doors opening inexplicably, broken picture frames on the ground and maddening nightmares are the stuff of horror films 101. Yet director Nicholas McCarthy is so damned resourceful and creative within his tiny spaces, it's a marvel.

There's also a heavy hand at work directing his actors with blockhead subtlety, egregiously over-killed music stings and overly lit texture-less cinematography, which is so bright it reminds us of a soft core porno film. But hell, Casper Van Dien is in the picture, which means we can't watch it with too much seriousness. It takes a while to set up the story, but there's a strong backstory established that is weighted equally with a dangerous presence in the present.

However silly and obnoxious the performances get, McCarthy absolutely floors us with his stunning horror images and nail-biting set pieces. As bad as the film is good, there is some major genre talent in this guy's bones.

SUNDANCE 2012: Simon Killer

2012-01-22T01:28:00.007-05:00

Simon Killer (2012) dir Antonio Campos
Starring: Brady Corbet, Mati Diop, Michael Abiteboul, Constance Rousseau, Lila Salet, Solo

***

By Alan Bacchus

Just like with Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, Simon Killer is a film I can admire for its intense devotion to examining a despicable character. But it’s a film I have no desire to watch again.

Here, Simon (Brady Corbet) is more Tom Ripley than Henry, a charming rogue we know only from the lies he's been telling. Simon is introduced arriving in Paris where he is subletting a friend's apartment. After a breakup with his girlfriend, presumably because of her infidelity, he's ready to relax in the city of lights. He's immediately drawn to the red light district where he meets a stripper, gets a lap dance and a little bit more off the meter, and eventually forms a genuine relationship with the girl. Unfortunately, it's not an equal give-and-take. When he's not reciting his 'canned answers' and anecdotes, he's loafing on the relationship, moving into the girl’s flat, using her money and having crazy, crazy sex.

Simon crosses the thin line of decency when he conspires to extort money from the girl’s clients. It's just the start of a long descent into the depths of despair and, eventually, violence.

Campos' directorial style is very conscious of itself, playing out many of the scenes using long, slow extended takes with untraditional coverage and trendy European-style compositions. His musical choices, which capture the hypnotic effect of Parisian club music and new wave pop, add more cinematic hipness.

But this is Brady Corbet's film as much as it is Campos'. Campos rarely takes his camera away from Corbet, who exhibits the kind of naive charm and creepiness he showed in Michael Haneke's American Funny Games.

While the title is a bit of a misnomer, it certainly casts doubt on the intentions of the character. Simon is clearly a despicable human being. But like a car crash, it’s something we just can't take our eyes off.

SUNDANCE 2012: Hello I Must Be Going

2012-01-21T02:43:00.006-05:00

Hello, I Must Be Going (2012) dir. Todd Louiso
Starring: Melanie Lynsky, Christopher Abbott, Blythe Danner, John Rubenstein

***½

By Alan Bacchus

Flashbacks to the invigorating experience of last year's Grand Jury Prize winner Like Crazy result from this finely crafted cinematic character study and treatise on love. It's a marvelous picture, which, despite the sense of a pending tragedy, doesn't sacrifice its sharp funny bone. It’s a real winner featuring an infectious performance from Melanie Lynsky.

Three months into divorce proceedings has left Amy Mynsky (Lynsky) a shell of a woman. Lounging around her parents' house in oversized sweats, out of shape and with a perpetual vacant expression on her face makes her ripe for a cinematic reincarnation. This comes in the form of Jeremy (Abbott), a nineteen-year-old actor invited to their home by her parents for a dinner party. After so much wallowing in self-pity the attraction from just a few glances across the table is palpable. And their quick movement to sexual consummation is intoxicating.

With love juices flowing it's a hardcore love affair full speed ahead. So what's the catch? The problem is that Amy's parents are in a courtship of their own with Jeremy's parents for a key business deal that could ensure the security of the family. As a mature woman with life experience this weighs heavily on Amy. For Jeremy, he wants to throw caution to the wind with the idealism of youth.

This is the core conflict that makes for such a fascinating love story. Two lovers at different stages in life in a different world destined to be with each other. But director Louiso's cold dose of honest reality transforms the rather melodramatic romcom-style plotting into a rock solid real-world scenario.

But this is Melanie Lynsky's film, and she owns our attention from start to finish. Despite spending much of the movie in the 'blahs', Lynsky is interminably infectious and we yearn for her to find solace and reconciliation with her troubles.

Louiso directs the film smartly with little interference to the actors, perhaps a modus operandi of his when one looks back at the performance he drew out of Philip Seymour Hoffman in Love Liza. This picture proves Louiso is a major talent and Lynsky is a full-fledged leading lady. Hello I Must Be Going is one of the best new films at this festival.

SUNDANCE 2012: This Must Be The Place

2012-01-21T02:24:00.004-05:00

This Must be the Place (2011) dir. Paolo Sorrentino
Starring: Sean Penn, Judd Hirsch, Frances McDormand, Eve Hewson, Kerry Condon, Harry Dean Stanton

**

By Alan Bacchus

This Must Be the Place is a Cannes entry from last year from the director of Il Divo. Unfortunately, where there was much potential in that film to announce a cool new voice in cinema this awful, overly eclectic exercise in self-indulgence is a major disappointment.

Sean Penn is a former musician, Cheyenne, dressed in goth black, pale face powder, black mascara and lipstick, thus a spitting image of The Cure’s Robert Smith. Though he lives in a swank Irish mansion with a completely devoted wife (McDormand) something's eating him, as he spends his days wandering around Dublin speaking in whispers and meek tones.

When he meets an old Nazi hunter (Hirsch) who knew his estranged father he's inspired to embark on a quest to kill the former concentration camp comandante that tormented his father.

After a misleading and essentially useless first act set in Dublin the film settles into a kind of eccentric road movie. As such, we're never sufficiently grounded. Just as we get used to goth Sean Penn living in Ireland, for no apparent reason we're shifted to another inexplicable location – Utah.

But this seems to be the foundation of Sorrentino's comedy – unpredictability. The point of the picture seems to beat us with random quirkiness, cinematic stylishness and Sean Penn's wicked hair. Admittedly, the sight of Mr. Penn with Robert Smith-hair never really tires, but it's also not the basis for a movie.

The stylish excesses also rampant in Il Divo are almost insufferable here. Sorrentino throws in too many mismatched characters, quirks, locations, music and camera language.

The casting of McDormand as Penn's wife, a middle-class ex-hippie, is like oil and water. And considering this film takes place in Dublin and the American southwest, made by Italian filmmakers with music from David Byrne and Will Oldham, there are just too many mismatched puzzle pieces that don't fit together.

Kramer vs. Kramer

2012-01-20T04:14:00.008-05:00

Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) dir. Robert Benton
Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Justin Henry, Meryl Streep

***1/2

By Alan Bacchus

Anyone remember what the Best Picture Oscar winner was in 1979? It was Kramer vs. Kramer. Like Revolutionary Road, Benton’s film examines a domestic situation relatable to many couples. It’s the definitive film on divorce made at a time when more American couples were getting divorced than ever. The situational drama between the three family members still has first-person relevance and poignancy.

The opening of the film features the haunting and beautiful face of Meryl Streep as Joanna Kramer saying goodbye to her son, Billy (Justin Henry). For reasons not completely revealed to us Joanna is preparing to leave her husband and son. Dustin Hoffman plays Ted Kramer, a career driven ad exec whose working life moves too fast for him to notice his wife’s disillusionment. And so when Joanna suddenly announces to Ted that she’s leaving the family it’s a complete shock.

Instantly, Ted finds himself as a single dad having to raise his child and be a real parent for the first time. Hoffman and Henry form the heart of the film. It’s a tenuous relationship, as they both have to learn quickly how to support each other. A year-and-a-half later, just as Ted gets comfortable with his new life, Joanna returns wanting full custody of Billy. Ted takes Joanna to full divorce court to battle her.

Joanna Kramer has much in common with Kate Winslet’s character, April Wheeler, in Revolutionary Road. Both women have a sense of despair in their lives – an early midlife crisis and the realization that they don’t love their husbands. The emotion of their realization clouds their ability to make rational decisions. As a result, however extreme and heinous, we can believe how Joanna can do the unthinkable and leave her own son.

In the history of Hollywood Kramer vs. Kramer appears to fall in that category of middle-of-the-road conservative films that win over the riskier and arguably more memorable films of the year. Other great films from 1979 include Apocalypse Now, Manhattan, Alien and All that Jazz. Unlike any of those films, Kramer vs. Kramer is an intimate film, a small-scale drama anchored on two career defining and Oscar winning performances from Hoffman and Streep. No one can take anything away from Hoffman’s Oscar. His own real experiences helped shape his character, and according to the making-of documentary, Justin Henry’s performance as well. Hoffman’s hands-on involvement in the development and production of the film could have given him a co-director credit.

If anything, Benton lets Hoffman go over-the-top in that familiar Hoffman manner. However internal or method his process is, in some of the key scenes there is a falseness to his behaviour – specifically his reunification with Joanna over coffee. In this scene Hoffman explodes with a fury too hot and violent for a man who's supposed to have changed.

And so Kramer vs. Kramer suffers from some of the same “Hollywoodisms” as Revolutionary Road. However, unlike Road, Kramer vs. Kramer is the definitive film on this subject. Enjoy.

Kramer Vs. Kramer is available on DVD in Sony's 'Columbia Best Pictures Collection'.

Ship of Fools

2012-01-19T11:11:00.006-05:00

Ship of Fools (1965) dir. Stanley Kramer
Starring: Oskar Werner, Simone Signoret, George Segal, Lee Marvin, Jose Ferrer

***

By Alan Bacchus

There’s something about being on a boat that makes for good cinema. Perhaps it’s the seclusion from the public, the diversity of guests and characters, the theme of neutrality or even the vulnerability on the open seas. Stanley Kramer’s 1965 adaptation of Katherine Anne Porter's novel is a big ol’ glossy Hollywood production – Grand Hotel on the seas – at times a cumbersome exercise in ensemble cinema, but also an oddly infectious piece of Hollywood melodrama.

It’s 1933 and a cruise ship departs from Veracruz, Mexico bound for Germany. On board are a varied group of intellectuals, political refugees, artists and romantics. Director Stanley Kramer takes us deep into the relationships and conflicts of a dozen passengers. For 28 days the ship exists as a microcosm of political and social conflicts.

With the threat of war on the horizon and in the midst of the Depression, the petty prejudices and chauvinisms contrast the state of superior nationalism in the world. Jose Ferrer's bombastic German businessman character heads an upper-class clique that alienates the Jewish guests and provides the obvious foreshadowing of the Holocaust. Simone Signoret plays an exiled Spanish socialist looking to kick her addiction to sleeping pills. She falls in love with the equally anguished ship's doctor, Wilhelm Schulman (Oskar Werner), and their sparks provide the most interesting subplot. Some stories don't stand the test of time though, specifically Lee Marvin's washed-up and racist ballplayer suffering from alcoholism, and George Segal and Elizabeth Ashley's relationship squabbles are the stuff you fast forward through.

The wonderful dwarf actor Michael Dunn gives the warmest performance as the humble gentleman outsider who introduces us to the characters and every once in a while addresses the camera to give his own personal comments on the events we see on screen.

At 150 minutes in duration it’s a long film, and like many epics of its era it does wear out its welcome. Where Ship of Fools doesn’t succeed is during the increased stakes and conflict in the final third. As the ship gets closer to its destination, the conversations continue at the same pace as before. The resolutions of the individual plotlines are satisfactory and provide adequate closure, but considering the early Nazi-era time period there was much more room for greater hindsight perspective.