ABOUT DFD

Founded and operated by film buff and filmmaker, Alan Bacchus, Daily Film Dose is a daily film appreciation website. Featuring a new review everyday, the site features reviews of great classics, in theatre new releases, and DVD new releases. The films can be old or new, indie or popular, experimental or mainstream – like shuffle in your I-POD, anything goes.

Contact me at: albacchus(at)hotmail.com


Alan Bacchus is a Toronto-based filmmaker, and writer. He has produced and directed several short films and also writes for EXCLAIM!, a Canadian national entertainment mag. Alan also works in the Canadian film industry at Astral Media The Harold Greenberg Fund, which provides development and production financing to Canadian feature films.









CONTRIBUTORS:

Greg Klymkiw is a Toronto-based writer, filmmaker and teacher from Winnipeg. He has produced the work of Guy Maddin, Cynthia Roberts, Nik Sheehan, Alan Zweig and many others. Since 1998, he has been the Producer-in-Residence at the Canadian Film Centre.Click HERE for Greg's postings

Blair Stewart works in film post-production in Canada, Europe and New Zealand and as a technician for a number of international film festivals. He lives in London, England with his fiance and bombards Alan with constant cinema chatter.Click HERE for Blair's postings.

Reece Crothers is a Toronto-based screenwriter. Reece recently wrote the screenplays for The Cello, and The Morning Party - two multi-award winning short films. Click HERE for Reece's postings.

Matt McUsic is a New York/Los Angeles based filmmaker. After graduating from USC Cinema School he wrote/directed Shamelove (2006) and produced/photographed Sweet Thing (2008). He currently works as a segment producer in reality television on such shows as Dating In The Dark and Survivor. Click HERE for Matt's postings.

Public Enemies

Public Enemies (2009) dir. Michael Mann
Starring: Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Stephen Dorff, Marion Cotillard, Billy Crudup

***

Nobody plays cops and robbers better than Michael Mann, and his new opus allows the director to venture back to the golden era of sensationalized crime — the Depression Era of John Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd, Baby Face Nelson et al. But after the disaster of Miami Vice, it's not quite the return to form we all desperately hoped for. While Mann sets the same unique tone of stone cold procedural action mixed with elegant melodramatic melancholy, surprisingly it's the technical elements that let him down.

It's the 1930s and when we meet the film's anti-hero, John Dillinger (Johnny Depp), the charismatic bank robber extraordinaire, he's already public enemy #1 and a household name in America. The opening sequence establishes Dillinger's forthright attitude and skills with a Tommy Gun, as the moment he sets foot in the prison, he breaks out in a hail of bullets and is back robbing banks. The man on his tail, assigned by J. Edgar Hoover (a laughable impression by Billy Crudup), is another intensely focused man of action, Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale), who becomes the Al Pacino to Johnny Depp's Robert De Niro. It's a cat and mouse chase from beginning to end with many bank robberies in between. Dillinger's relationship with his main squeeze Billie Frechette (Marion Cotillard) provides the film its heart, and in the final moments that connection of respect between the cops and robbers Mann's so eloquently explored in Heat.

The elephant in the room throughout the entire film is Mann's awful visual design. Under the high-speed movements and the rapid flashing of gunfire the high definition image breaks up revealing a dreaded "video" look. Mann's lighting is god-awful as well, in what appears to be an extreme minimalist philosophy the character's faces are often in complete darkness — a curiously uncinematic treatment from a man often accused of over stylization.

It's a shame because the film leans so heavily on the cinematic legacy of the genre, from the characters' self-awareness of their actions to the importance of cinema and public opinion of this story. Dillinger acts like a movie gangster; his courtship of Billie has the same "me take" attitude of Jimmy Cagney. Women are objects for the taking, and vulnerable to the allure of danger. In the film's best scene Dillinger even sits down to watch a gangster film in the cinema, as if watching his life lived out on the big screen.

It's all part of the Hollywood romanticism of crime, a world Mann unabashedly lives and breathes in. Mann's imposition of non-style to a genre that is entirely based on style is a contradiction that threatens to drown the film. Thankfully, it doesn't. The film gains a steady momentum increasing in intensity all the way until the end. There are mondo gunfights, and masculine tough guy bravado, satisfying all those playful boyhood urges. If only those gunfights were lit properly, then perhaps Mann would have another crime masterpiece.

This review was first published on Exclaim.ca

Buy the DFD Annuals

Buy the year end compilation books available on Blurb.com

Daily Film Dose 2008:The Year in Reviews

Daily Film Dos...

The Year in Reviews

By Alan Bacchus

Book Preview

Daily Film Dose 2007: The Complete Reviews

Daily Film Dos...

The Complete Reviews

By Alan Bacchus

Book Preview

Canadian Cinema in Revue

Curated by yours truly Canadian Cinema in Revue, is a screening series devoted to bringing back great Canadian films to the big screen, celebrating features, shorts and filmmakers who made them. Once a month at Toronto's historic Revue Cinema (400 Roncesvalles Ave), a cool Canadian feature preceded by a short film of similar theme is screened along with Q&As with the filmmakers.

Curated by blogger, critic and filmmaker Alan Bacchus, Canadian Cinema in Revue, recent winner of Best Revival Programming in NOW Toronto, is a program devoted to showcasing innovative and entertaining features, related short films and the people who made them.



NEXT SCREENING IS: PROJECT GRIZZLY - Tuesday, April 27, 2010

There’s something about grizzly bears that just make people go mad. Lynch’s doc, ‘Project Grizzly’ would make a good companion piece to Werner Herzog’s equally great though more well-known ‘Grizzly Man’. Both films tells stories of psychologically-challenged mad men, who, in the name of science, are as much in search of personal fame as they are the research they purport to be gathering. Lynch’s hero is Troy Hurtubise, after a chance meeting in the woods with a grizzly bear, which left him mesmerized with the animal took it upon himself to build a suit of armour impenetrable to bear attacks thus allowing him to study them up close. ‘Moby Dick’, this is not, but his hubris is as large as Captain Ahab, and perhaps with more perseverance. It makes for an irreverent and unintentionally hilarious peak into one man’s delusions of grandeur. After its release in 1996, it instantly gained a cult following not only in Canada but around the world.

Preceding the film will be another classic documentary from the NFB, NAILS (1979) by Philip Borsos, a Genie-Award winning short film showing the diametrically opposed effects of man and machine on the production of nails

This screenings are presented with the support of The First Weekend Club, the Toronto After Dark Film Festival, and Daily Film Dose.com.

Tickets for the screening are $8 for members of the Revue and sponsoring groups; $10 non-members.

Previous screenings:

March 17, 2010: SIX FIGURES (2005) (David Christensen) preceded by STILL LIFE (2005) (Jon Knautz)

Nov 24, 2009: OWNING MAHOWNY (2004) Richard Kwietniowksi) preceded by FLAMINGO (2005) (Cameron Groves)

Oct 28, 2009: THE DARK HOURS (2005) (Paul Fox) preceded by CENTIGRADE (2008) (Colin Cunningham)

Aug 10, 2009: ITS ALL GONE PETE TONG (Michael Dowse) preceded by IF I SEE RANDY AGAIN... (2006) (Vivieno Caldinelli)
Listen to the Q&A here:

July 13, 2009: FIDO (2006) (Andrew Currie) preceded by THE BIG CHARADE (2003) (Jesse McKeown)
Listen to the Q&A here:

June 10, 2009: CUBE (1997) (Vincenzo Natali) preceded by ELEVATED (1996) (Vincenzo Natali

Listen to Alan on CBC Radio discussing the Program:

La Haine (Hate)

La Haine (Hate) (1995) dir. Mathieu Kassovitz
Starring: Vincent Cassel, Hubert Koundé, Saïd Taghmaoui

****

Although "La Haine" feels so thoroughly relevant and modern, the film is almost 15 years old, made at the time of “Boyz in the Hood” and “Menace II Society”. “La Haine” is less a time capsule of the era, like those urban American films, and more a grand artistic statement comparable to the early work of Martin Scorsese, Spike Lee and Vincent Gallo.

Kassovitz follows the day in the life of three low level street hoods, Vinz (Vincent Cassel), Hubert (Hubert Kounde), Said (Saïd Taghmaoui). It's just after a violent riot in Paris, which saw one of the leaders of their community beaten and in the hospital. Anger, fear and frustration fills the air, and the three boys are not sure how to channel their anger.

When hotheaded Vinz (think Johnny Boy from "Mean Streets") finds a missing policeman's gun on the ground it becomes a symbol for Vinz to exercise the power and force he's always wanted. For Hubert, he seeks an escape from the ghetto so he doesn't suffer the same fate as his imprisoned brother. And for Said, he's left in between the two divergent paths of Vinz and Hubert. We just spend one day with the guys as they cruise the streets of Paris rambunctiously disturbing the peace while contemplating their futures in the Paris ghetto.

I don’t know anything about urban Parisian life other than what I see in the movies and read on the news. Between now and then it would appear that little has changed for the underprivileged youth of Paris – a mixture of races who, through their urban poverty and racial discrimination, congregate together in gangs for strength. This is the story of any major ethnically diverse urban centre be it the streets of South Central LA or Toronto. But the trio in this film are not defined by race, Hubert is black, Vinz is Jewish-White and Said is Muslim, three lost souls who have little in common culturally other than their mutual poverty. It wasn’t the first and won’t be the last film on this subject but “La Haine” is one of the powerful and accessible of these urban stories.

Though this wasn’t Mathieu Kassovitz’s first film, it certainly was his coming out party. Shot in stark high contrast wide angle black & white, “La Haine” is a beautiful piece of celluloid. Black & white captures youth so eloquently and the deep focus look in this film reminds us of Francis Coppola’s “Rumble Fish”, or Peter Bogdanovich’s “The Last Picture Show”.

So far I’ve referenced five great filmmakers, so there’s a palpable acknowledgement of cinema in Kassovitz’s style. He’s supremely confident with his camera and the direction of his performances. Characters are framed carefully with attention-grabbing compositions – whether it’s the back of someone’s head, or a bold macro close-up Kassovitz finds clever ways to orchestrate the characters in the spaces - an expressionism borrowing heavily from Spike Lee and Martin Scorsese.

Despite the stylish visuals, Kassovitz's compensates with a natural freeform narrative which evolves without burdening us with traditional plot devices. Using the time of day as the only narrative reference point, Kassovitz makes every scene special. And when the final scene comes only then do we realize how well his characters have been drawn and made flesh. In the final moments Hubert, Vinz and Said are tested in a dramatic confrontation which leaves the audience gasping - and with a little bit of auteur ambiguity for good measure to let us all know it's a director's film. Enjoy.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009) dir. Michael Bay
Starring: Shia Lebeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson

**

Even by Michael Bay standards, “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” is a mess. I admit being a fan of the first film and even most of Michael Bay’s lesser regarded films (ie. “The Island” and “Bad Boys 2”) so I'm more than predisposed to enjoy this movie, yet it's still mostly a bore.

It’s been two years since Megatron was defeated by the Autobots and the human saviour Sam Witwicky (Shia Lebeouf). In between now and then the surviving robots has acted as a ‘secret’ police searching out any remaining Decepticon around the world. The opening sequence has the Autobots battling a giant wheeled Decepticon attempting to takeover some kind of power plant. Despite the huge battle and destruction this is all done in secret.

Meanwhile Sam has gone off to college. Only two days into his classes he starts hallucinating about weird alien Transformers messages. It turns out a remnant of the ‘all spark’ from the first film got lodged in his shirt, thus transmitting its information to Sam. Now Sam is the target of the Decepticons who desire to harness the allspark power and free their long lost ruler, “The Fallen”.

I thought Megatron was the long lost leader? Remember, he was entombed in the Hoover Dam? Nope. There was another leader buried centuries before at the dawn of civilization, buried in another manmade wonder – I won’t spoil the surprise. Thus, adding to the hook of morphing robots is Da Vinci/National Treasure puzzling solving, globe trotting adventure.

The plot wanders around for two and a half hours charting the path of Witwicky, his girlfriend and the military heroes from the first film across the world with the Decipticons continually in pursuit and always showing up at the wrong time to go to battle.

But, really, we all could care less for the detailed machinations of the plot, it’s just one giant maguffin to get the robots to pound each other to destruction.

This sequel fails because there’s little we see in this film that wasn’t in the first film. Apparently there are more robots in this one, but when shown on the screen, they all look very similar and have pretty much the same abilities. Is a robot airplane stronger than a robot pick-up truck, or camero, or a PT Cruiser? We don’t know because whenever they fight its an incomprehensible swooshing of colour and metal on the screen. Though many people complained about this visual incomprehensibility in the first film, I could follow along, but here it’s even worse, crossing my fine line of Michael Bay visual logic. And there’s also a familiarity to the action as well, specifically the final Egyptian sequence, which looked like a carbon copy to the White Sands sequence in Part 1.

The IMAX presentation is also a disappointment, coming no where near the grandiosity of “The Dark Knight”. Despite reports of four sequences, there is only ONE full IMAX sequence – the forest fight, which admitted looked fantastic. The Egyptian battle has sporatic shots of Devastator in IMAX, but unfortunately when intercut with regular 35mm, just teased us with what we wanted to see.

Ironically the best moments in Transformers 2 were the trademark Bay-banter in between the action. Lebeouf’s interaction with his neurotic parents provide the best moments as well as the Ramon Rodriguez’s conspiracy blogger/roommate character. Everything else is a spitballed series of random and repetitive action.

South Pacific

South Pacific (1958) dir. Joshua Logan
Starring: Mitzi Gaynor, Rossano Brazzi, Ray Walston, Juanita Hall, John Kerr, Tom Laughlin, France Nuyen

****

Guest Review By Greg Klymkiw

“South Pacific” is a great movie musical. Its detractors will have you believe it’s clunky, theatrical to a fault, hampered by poor casting choices and a waste of actual locations on the Hawaiian island of Kauai because of the aforementioned. It is none of those things. In fact, it’s quite the opposite and I daresay it might well be one of the great movie musicals of all time and as thrilling and stunning a MOVIE musical as the best work of Vincente Minnelli, Rouben Mamoulian, Rene Clair and Busby Berkeley.

Based upon the huge Richard Rodgers/Oscar Hammerstein II Broadway success (first launched onstage in 1949 and recently afforded a highly acclaimed remount) and in turn taken from James Michener’s bestselling “Tales of the South Pacific” (recounting his own experiences in the Eden-like setting of the title), “South Pacific” charts the love lives of several characters who find themselves in a paradise on Earth. The main love story involves a vivacious female Navy Ensign and nurse, Nelly Forbush (Mitzi Gaynor), who is stationed, along with hundreds of other military personnel on an American island during World War II in order to prepare for an offensive upon the Empire of the Rising Sun and to keep an eye on the nearby Japanese-controlled islands.

A local French landowner and man of mystery, Emile De Becque (Rossano Brazzi), is courted by the U.S. navy to assist them with gaining access to one of these islands, the enchanting Bali Ha’i. The island, bearing two volcanoes and a bevy of beauties (male and female) and fresh fruits (edible, I would argue, in more ways than one) acts as a magnet for all these sailors, but is, alas, off-limits to them.

When a Hawaiian Earth Mother named Bloody Mary (the brilliant Juanita Hall) beckoningly sings of the island’s virtues to the young Lt. Cable (John Kerr) he, not unlike the other American seamen and women, is drawn to the “special island [where] the sky meets the sea”. And of course, before you can sing “Cockeyed Optimist” (one of the immortal Rodgers-Hammerstein songs in this musical), love begins to blossom between Nelly and Emile as well as Lt. Cable and Bloody Mary’s gorgeous daughter Liat (France Nuyen).

Bring on the bare-chested hunks and grass-skirted babes, please.

Volcanoes were made for erupting, mais non?

And eruption of the most pleasurable kind is what happens to me whenever I see this musical. Aside from the fact that it’s a pretty agreeable narrative with great characters and terrific tunes, what really get my juices flowing are Joshua Logan’s stunning and brave visual choices as a director.

Logan gets a bad rap from most film critics. Originally a stage director (and yes, he mounted the original Broadway production of “South Pacific”), Logan is often criticized for not using the medium of film in a “cinematic” fashion and that his attempts to do so are mistakenly labeled as clunky. Here’s where I really have to disagree with my colleagues on the matter. In fact, the knee-jerk negative reaction to utilizing a proscenium-styled frame in film adaptations always gets this fella’s yarbles in a wringer. I love the use of proscenium, the tableaux approach if you will, as much as I love the dipping, whirling shots of Mamoulian and Clair, the kaleidoscopic, only-in-a-film stylings of Berkeley, the stunning splashes of colour in Minnelli (and most of the pictures out of Arthur Freed’s unit at MGM). The proscenium is only wrong if it’s done without passion and imagination. That’s not Logan’s problem at all. Using the stunning 65-millimeter TODD-AO widescreen process he manages to create one of the strangest and I daresay imaginative visual hybrids ever created for a motion picture. Perhaps it’s the hybrid effect that stymies critics, but for many viewers, myself obviously included, the effect is always a treat – more so because it is rooted in the emotion of the narrative, the characters and the truly magical settings.

First of all, you get the intense clarity of the huge 65mm negative that delivers a truly widescreen image without anamorphic compression. Shooting on location, one gets all the real-thing backdrops instead of theatrical backdrops or, for that matter, the studio-bound backdrops of other musicals. Then, utilizing a variety of coloured filters, Logan brings movie magic to the proceedings wherein we can feel the filmmaker’s hand applying a wash of colour to transport us to a realm of Never-Never-Land so that we ALWAYS feel we’re watching a movie, and most importantly, a world within the movie that feels like a world unto itself. Blending this with stationary chorus line compositions, we get to see the beauty of the choreography and enjoy the various bits of business without a barrage of cuts and cutaways that purportedly move us emotionally through the action using a variety of shots at different lengths. We get to experience all the action in as pure a form as the dance numbers in the RKO Astaire-Rogers musicals. Logan lets the action occur WITHIN his frames. He uses theatrical convention as one piece of his extremely rich visual palette. Logan makes us feel like we’re watching something we’ve NEVER seen before. Ultimately though, we have. By distorting the reality of the on-location settings with both cinematic and theatrical techniques, Logan ventures boldly into the world of expressionism that, frankly, feels perfectly apt for a tale that examines love and magic against the backdrop of war.

This directorial decision is a stunner. Then again, for anyone who loves Logan, it makes perfect sense. His occasional forays into the world of movies almost always yielded strange, uncompromising work. “Picnic”, his film adaptation of William Inge’s play still has the power to move and provoke while “Bus Stop”, also from Inge, is as funny and heartbreaking as any of Marilyn Monroe’s great work and “Sayonara”, a straight-ahead examination of American-Japanese relations and racism taken from writing by James Michener is one of the great dramas on these themes. Even his tremendous flop, “Paint Your Wagon”, is not without the expressionistic qualities of his best work – the mere thought of juxtaposing Harve Presnell’s outstanding vocal rendition of “They Call The Wind Maria” and Clint (I kid you not!) Eastwood half-singing, half-whispering, semi-rasping out “I Talk To The Tress” delivers the kind of satisfying gooseflesh very few movies are capable of.

The new Blu-Ray release of “South Pacific” is a mixed bag. It features both the theatrical and Roadshow versions of the picture. Alas, the Roadshow version is presented from a solid, but definitely standard definition transfer – which is a real shame, since it adds footage that is not in any way, shape or form extraneous. That said, the shorter theatrical version is still a mind-blower and to see it in a high definition transfer is to experience a lifetime of orgasmic pleasure in one huge dollop. Also, the extra-features – including a terrific feature length documentary – are magnificent supplementary materials to an already magnificent motion picture.

“South Pacific” is available in a special Blu-Ray release on the 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment label.

JCVD

JCVD (2008) dir. Mabrouk El Mechri
Starring: Jean-Claude Van Damme, François Damiens, Zinedine Soualem, Karim Belkhadra

***

Good on Van Damme and good on Mabrouk El Mechri for humanizing and generating genuine sympathy for a laughable former action star. What makes Jean-Claude Van Damme worthy of cinematic exaltation? Why not Steven Seagal? Why not Dolph Lundgren? Even in roles like “Bloodsport” and “Sudden Death", in between his high kicks and splits, every once in a while there would be a glimmer of sadness in his eyes, a moment of truth and vulnerability behind those muscles from Brussels. Seagal never had it, Dolph never had it, not even Arnold. Chuck Norris had it, Charles Bronson had it, and so does Van Damme.

And so, what brilliant casting and screenwriting to produce an entire film devoted to deconstructing the celebrity of Van Damme, and saving him from the need to go on “I’m a Celebrity Get Me Outta Here”.

We’re in Brussels , Van Damme is broke and on the verge of losing a custody battle for his daughter who disowns him. All he needs is some money to pay his lawyer to get him back on the case. When he walks into a post office to withdraw some funds he finds it’s been taken over by a group of bank robbers. When they find out they have none other than Jean-Claude Van Damme as a hostage they convince the police that Van Damme is the perp as a rouse for their escape.

As the press gathers around the post office in a ‘Dog Day Afternoon’-like situation Van Damme is thrown back into the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. The event forces him to come to grips with the mistakes of his past and tests his ability to be a hero in real life.

JCVD succeeds solely because of Mr. Van Damme. He delivers an honest Mickey Rourke-like performance as a beaten down pathetic has-been with so much baggage behind him he just can’t escape from. Unfortunately director El Mechri doesn’t know how good a thing he has with his lead, as he continually imposes that Luc Besson-influenced French hyper styling.Van Damme is that good, and if told with a gentle and honest directorial hand, JCVD could have been as powerful as “The Wrestler.”

The cinematography is away overlit, highlights are blown way out of proportion, in what would be distracting even for a 5mins music video. So at 90mins, it had me shouting at the screen – “You dummy, turn the lights down!”

El Mechri is also unnecessarily clever with the narrative, establishing Van Damme as the perp, then doubling back on itself to reveal him as the victim. Unfortunately not enough comedy, or drama is revealed from this tactic and seems only to announce his presence as a director. This is no surprise though, it’s a first feature from the man, and it has the familiar markings of an immature rookie trying to make a name for himself. Even the showcase confession scene for Van Damme is dramatized with Spike Lee styling, as Van Damme breaks the fourth wall and begins talking directly to the audience while the camera and the man elevate into the air above the movie set lights. It’s a bold expression, which, I’d rather have seen told through regular dialogue, say, with his mother or ex-wife on the phone.

Unfortunately, despite the success of the film, I don’t see Van Damme returning to cinema in anything other than his usual brainless action vehicles. They may now get theatrical releases for a brief period of time, but we should consider “JCVD” as a one-off expression of himself as a legitimate actor. And that’s all we really need. Enjoy.

Home

Home (2009) dir. Yann Arthus-Bertrand
Documentary

***

Piggybacking on the popularity of enviro-films like “Planet Earth”, and “An Inconvenient Truth” arrives another nature doc showing us pretty pictures while scolding us for our naughty behaviour destroying the natural order of the earth. It’s a heavily preachy affair making us feel very guilty for our irresponsible mass consumption, but the stunning high definition visuals is a wonder to behold and more than worth the rental.

Glenn Close narrates this doc about ‘home’, aka ‘the earth’, aka ‘our planet’, which is shot primarily from air. The beautiful aerial view of earth allows us to see the miracle of nature and the stunning landscapes it has built over millions of years, as well as the mass destruction we have done to it over the last 100 years.

The filmmakers start with a history lesson explaining with clarity the formation of the earth, its gases, the water and eventually the life which was birthed from these unique environmental conditions. We’ve never quite seen these elements – rock, water, gas, ice – in this way before. Sure we’ve seen the National Geographic and the Discovery Channel, but director Yann Arthus-Betrand shoots the world with a grand cinematic scope it's often breathtaking.

The French seem to be the best at these types of films. Listing some of the recent documentary achievements of the last 10 years or so, “Microcosmos”, “March of the Penguins”, “Winged Migration” it’s clear the French have a panache with this material. Luc Besson even lends his name to this production, though I'm not sure what kind of creative hand he had in this, we know for certain, he wouldn't put his name to it if it wasn't a highly stylish visual presentation.

The visuals are superlative showing us the beauty of the planet. From the wondrous vantage point of the sky, the earth appears to us like a canvas of art, organic patterns created by the centuries and centuries of ecological evolution. And so the effects of our own man made patterns of deforestation, or river diversion in such a short period of time is alarming enough.

But in essence this film has already been made before, as "Koyaanisqatsi" in 1983, except Godfrey Reggio’s film didn’t need expository voiceover telling us what we’re seeing. Most of the words spoken to us by the husky voice of Glenn Close is unnecessary and often insulting to our ability to derive our own conclusions from the visuals. Towards the latter half of the film when the science and history makes way for the finger-wagging environmental agenda we feel like we've been duped. Close’s written narration even resorts to the first person, saying “you” and “we” in describing our culpability for our predicament.

It’s not all entirely pessimistic though, the filmmakers actually cite the positive actions by some of our nations to repair the environment - housing communities fueled by solar power in Frieberg Germany, governments who make renewable energy a priority, eco-friendly coal-fire plants in Denmark – an act of cheerleading which is missing in many of the previous enviro-cautionary films.

To spread the word about the film and its causes the filmmakers have made the film available in reasonably decent quality on youtube. See below. But I strongly advise finding a DVD, or preferably Blu-Ray version from Fox Home Entertainment for the maximum experience.

The Big Sleep

The Big Sleep (1946) dir. Howard Hawks
Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall

****

One Hollywood’s classic products, highly influential, a landmark film of the noir genre is still a beguiling and elusive picture.

Whether by design or not, part of the fun of "The Big Sleep" is attempting to follow along with the byzantine plotting. I admit, I can get about half way through following along clearly and at a certain point always get lost.

Cool and confident private detective Philip Marlowe (Humphrey Bogart) is called in by rich tycoon General Sternwood (Charles Waldron) to investigate an extortion scheme against her daughter Carmen (Martha Vickers) for her gambling debts by local bookie Arthur Gwynn Geiger. Marlowe is led to Geiger’s bookstore where he tails him to his home, only to discover he’s been killed. Carmen's (Lauren Bacall) sister joins the fray and attempts to secure her own ransom money further complicating the predicament. Nefarious figures pocket every corner of the seedy Los Angeles underworld Marlowe uncovers.

It’s fun to watch The Big Sleep as a template for Curtis Hanson’s “L.A. Confidential”, while the lude and nasty sexual elements were put into the subtext of the Faulkner/Brackett/Furthman screenplay, all the elements of the seedy Los Angeles milieu of porno, gambling, drugs, prostitution are there. Bogart’s discovery of Carmen confused and stammering in Geiger's house after the murder suggest influence of hallucinogenic drugs, and her oriental outfit as a sexual fetish for Geiger’s porno racket. None of this is told to us, but inferred through subtle clues which enhance the richness of multiple viewings.

Marlowe only scratches the surface of this grim underbelly. Many of the key characters are discussed but never seen or turn up dead before we ever get to meet them. The most famous is the Owen Taylor character who is killed in a car crash, a murder or perhaps suicide which is never solved in the film, nor, according to some sources, in the mind of it’s original author Raymond Chandler. Same goes with Sternwood’s former heavy Sean Regan who had disappeared prior to Marlowe entering the picture. Regan is discussed as the reason for Sternwood's hiring of Marlowe, but someone we never meet. Even Geiger himself, who is only glimpsed from afar yet remains key to the motivation and plotting.

Bogart and Bacall, a legendary Hollywood couple, sear the screen, not so much because of sexual chemistry or sparks, but as equally cunning adversaries. Bacall’s dialogue is line-for-line delivered with as much snarky conviction and confidence as Bogart’s - a female match for his swaggering cocky persona.

As a Jack Warner (Warner Bros) production, his stamp of tough hardboiled attitude is there, putting the film beside some of his toughest crime films with Cagney and Edward G. Robinson. Max Steiner, Warner's #1 composer, delivers a glorious and grand score, as always, heightening all the melodramatic suspense and tension of the picture.

Like Bogey's "Casablanca", the experience of "The Big Sleep" improves on each successive viewing. The initial occasion will certainly cause much confusion and even frustration, and though the confusion remains time and again, frustration soon gives way to gleeful delight. Enjoy.

The Diary of Anne Frank

The Diary of Anne Frank (1959) dir. George Stevens
Starring: Millie Perkins, Joseph Schildkraut, Richard Beymer, Shelley Winters, Ed Winn, Gusti Huber

***1/2

George Stevens’ version of the Anne Frank, adapted from the stage play “Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl”, tells the story of the many months of hiding by the Dutch 13-year old and her family from the Nazis during WWII. The Hollywood touch is certainly applied to this story, mostly for the better than worse, but without sacrifice to an inspired directorial stamp of authorship from a great director.

Most of us know the story of Anne Frank by now, perhaps not so much in 1959. In a flashforward we see Otto Frank returning to his hiding place in Amsterdam after the War – the only survivor of his family and friends who lived there during Nazi occupation of Amsterdam. Flashing back we see group taken in by the courageous Khaler family to live hidden away in the attic of their spice factory. There’s father and mother, Otto and Edith, daughters Anne and Margot, and four members of the Van Daan family and their cat. Later old curmudgeon Mr. Dussell would join the group.

The group must adhere to strict rules in order not to be seen or heard by the workers below – during the working day, shoes must be off and words spoken only whispers. In the evening there are free to talk, sing, listen to the radio etc. But never, ever can they leave the attic. A romance develops between young Anne and Van Daan’s son Peter much to the dismay of Anne’s older sister Margot. As the years go by the tight space causes much conflict between the two families testing their perseverance.

At three hours, it’s an intimidating film to approach, yet Stevens’ sets a surprisingly brisk pace with barely a lull. A number of suburb set pieces elevate the picture to auteur-worthy cinematic art, specifically, the impeccably-crafted Nazi-search sequence. In the middle of the night, after a thief breaks into the factory office below and leaves the door wide open, the Nazi street patrol suspects some foul play. As they search the building and come within a foot of discovering the hiding spot Stevens’ intercuts to the family frozen like mannequins maintaining their silence as well as their adventurous cat which threatens to expose them all. It’s a scene as tense and stylistically assured as anything by Hitchcock.

Though by 1959 there had been films set in concentration camps and the Holocaust, Hollywood was still bound to the limitations of the production code and its studio aesthetic. By 2009, we’ve seen numerous dramatic films and documentares either about the Holocaust or set during the Holocaust told with various ranges of dramatic realism and remembrance.

Thus with today’s eyes “The Diary of Anne Frank” might appear to be a softened, Hollywoodized version of the story. Specifically the casting of newbie, Millie Perkins (aged 20) as a 13-year old and her romance with Richard Beymer’s Peter Van Daan character drastically threatens the realism and integrity of the film. As well Stevens' decision not to show the horror’s of the concentration camp. It’s a choice not made out of fear of the subject matter, but in storytelling terms, Frank’s diary is a complete and separate story than her life in the camps.

William Mellor’s stark, high contrast B&W cinematography in bold widescreen cinemascope won him an Oscar. According to Stevens’ son who also served as Associate Producer and second unit director, the widescreen process was not preferred by the director for this picture. Stevens lobbied for a then more traditional full frame aspect ratio to compliment the claustrophobic interior of the hideout. Since the wideangle scope puts much more of the set in frame, it becomes difficult to cut together shots in small spaces. Though the demands of the studio won out Stevens' blocking and visual design are stunning and his ability to maintain editorial control between his shots is miraculous.

“The Diary of Anne Frank” would be Stevens’ last great film – depending on your opinion of ‘The Greatest Story Ever Told’. On the new Blu-Ray look for the treasured 16mm color footage shot by Stevens during WWII. His dedication to documenting and preserving on film the war and the aftermath of the Holocaust clearly fed into his passion for making the Anne Frank story an important film.

“The Diary of Anne Frank: 50th Anniversary” is available on Blu-Ray from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment

2010: The Year We Make Contact

2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984) dir. Peter Hyams
Starring: Roy Scheider, Helen Mirren, John Lithgow, Bob Balaban

***

Let's just get it out of the way: Peter Hyams is not Stanley Kubrick. With that in mind you can then accept the 1984 "sequel" to Kubrick's landmark film as a surprisingly good sci-fi adventure, with Hyams both paying reverence to the original and bringing his own look and tone to the story.

With a more traditional style, "2010" jumps nine years forward from the original film, following Heywood Floyd (played this time by Roy Scheider) and a team of Russian and American astronauts on a mission to find the derelict Discovery spaceship, which was left orbiting Jupiter. Typical of the '80s, late Cold War U.S./Soviet relations provide the ticking clock drama on Earth, as a Cuban Missile Crisis-like conflict in Honduras threatens the mission. Their journey allows them to confront once again the mysterious monolith, which has become active again, and is building towards another phenomenal event.

A technical marvel in its day, with today's eyes, the film has, surprisingly, lost little of its visual power. Richard Edlund's special effects and Albert Brenner and Syd Mead's production design are some of the best of the decade. Eighties cine fan-boys will instantly recognize Hyams' distinct softly lit anamorphic cinematography. Though it's a more formal style, reference is continually paid to Kubrick, specifically in the recreation of the Discovery set, HAL's voice and Keir Dullea returning as Bowman in his red spacesuit.

Roy Scheider as Heywood Floyd is a solid anchor; his warm, amiable persona reminding us of how underrated an actor he was. Solid actors like John Lithgow and Bob Balaban also appear, as well as a young Helen Mirren doing a surprisingly good Russian accent. Hyams smartly stays away from the obtuse cinematic flourishes of Kubrick, though the lack of any discernable overriding scientific or philosophical theme is perhaps the reason why this film has largely disappeared from the pop culture consciousness.

As a result, "2010" is good but not special. The lasting emotional connection in the film is the exploration of the relationship between man and machine — another common theme of the '80s. In the end, as the monolith threatens to destroy our heroes, HAL is given a chance to redeem himself, thus completing with satisfaction his narrative arc from 2001. Enjoy.

This review first appeared on Exclaim.ca

The Hangover

The Hangover (2009) dir. Todd Phillips
Starring: Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Justin Bartha, Heather Graham

***

I decided to wait a week after seeing “The Hangover” before writing my review. Though it made for enjoyable night out, in relation to it’s box office success, I could not help but feel a little underwhelmed. I think this had to do with the fact the trailer, which I had only seen once, spoiled virtually every surprise in the picture. So, needless to say, don't read this review if you haven't seen the movie.

And so with this time to allow the film linger and process itself in my brain, I can write this review.

The notion of the ‘Vegas’ bachelor party weekend has been done in Hollywood. “Very Bad Things”, Doug Liman’s “Swingers”, and even his follow-up “Go” all have attempted to encapsulate the ability of the sin city to turn ordinary people into debaucherous and irresponsible children. The “Hangover” tells essentially same story as these films with the hook being that instead of the actions, we just see the ramifications.

We meet husband to be, Doug (Justin Bartha), who is embarking on a road trip from LA to Vegeas with his fellow partyiers. His compatriots include best friends, Phil (Bradley Cooper), the good looking party captain who relishes the opportunity to escape the bludgeoning boring domestic lifestyle of husband/dad, Stu (Ed Helms), the conservative prude who is constantly emasculated by his overbearing girlfriend, and Alan (Zach Galifianakis), the troubled brother-in-law to be of Doug’s.

After we see them toast their first drink on the roof of Caesar’s Palace, the film fast forwards over the good parts to the morning after. Their hotel room is sacked, a tiger is in the bathroom, a baby in the closet, Doug’s mattress on the roof, but no Doug. The hungover trio who have no memory of the night, and with only 2 days before the wedding, must piece together the evidence of the evening to find Doug with Chinese mobsters, strippers, and Mike Tyson all coming into play.

Writers Jon Lucas and Scott Moore use base characterizations to define their heroes. If the roles weren’t inhabited by any less talented comedians and actors, the film could have suffered the death of familiarity. As the boys retrace their steps the explanations don’t quite live up the absurdity of not having the information of recollection of their actions. For example when the source of the baby is revealed as well as Stu’s missing tooth, it all kinda make sense, and not as outlandish as the evidence would seem.

Where “The Hangover” triumphs is the cinematic attitude and character interactions of the three leads. Galifianakis is a revelation as a timebomb of insanity waiting to throw the group into another off the wall situation. His big beard, and unkempt personal hygiene is the showoff performance, but Cooper and Helms are distinct enough not to fall out of the picture.

Cooper has the screen presence to assume the leadership of the group, even though he doesn’t have much character development to dig into. Ed Helms’ journey from feeble yes-man to male vindication is the heart of the film. Ken Jeoung, that marvelous scene stealer from "Role Models" and "Knocked Up" again turns in another absurdly funny performance as the annoyingly mean Chinese gangster, Mr. Chow.

And if you thought Phillips made a mistake not showing us what actually happened that night, wait for the final credits, which adds a loud exclamation mark of enjoyment sending the film into the upper strata of hilarity. Enjoy.

Zombie Zombie: Driving This Road Until Death Sets You Free

Zombie Zombie: Driving This Road Until Death Sets You Free (2008) dir. Simon Gesrel and Xavier Ehretsmann

****

The geekout discovery of the year occurred this week at the Worldwide Short Film Festival in Toronto. In festival’s annual ‘Scene not Heard’ program devoted to music videos, the last film to screen was an ejaculation of 80’s fandom – a fan made video for the French electronic band Zombie Zombie, inspired by John Carpenter’s “The Thing” acted out entirely by stop motion GI Joe figures.

I kid you not, this is real.

In the opening after a neat old school movie logo, the film sets the scene, “Antarctica 1983”, an overhead shot of a group of snowsuit wearing scientists gather to extract a piece of ice from the ground. One of the scientists is ‘Snow Job’ the skiing G.I. Joe character from the early 80’s. Yes, I now know this is real.

When the group brings the ice sample back to add to their historical collection of ice pieces, little do they know a virus of some sort is embedded inside, After some melting the virus is released into the air and into vodka bottle of the Dreadnok 'Buzzer'. Buzzer starts stalking the other scientists much like the shapeshifting 'Thing'. The group fight back with all means necessary, flame throwers, shot guns and finally a self-sacrificial explosion of dynamite.

While it’s not a remake of “The Thing”, most likely for logistical reasons, the homage and reverence to Carpenter is clear. Right down to Rob Bottin’s nasty creature effects, the set design of the camp and interior art direction of the base, the digitized film scratches, even the choice of music, a monotonous electronic piece, resembles the same tone as Ennio Morricone’s great score.

The articulate ‘swivel arm battle grip’ which for serious GI Joe players back in the day allowed kids like me to create realistic scenes of battle in the sandbox, on film also makes for surprisingly realistic stop motion characters.

Co-Directors Ehretsmann and Gesrel pull some great tension out of these plastic figures, and full fledged story. They are not just geeking out entirely, their visual eye, shot selection and storytelling abilities are acutely apparent in this brief six mins of fun - which, something tells me will be more enjoyable than the Stephen Somers' GI Joe movie coming out soon.

There’s no real need to write any more, because the film is available in its entirety on youtube. Here it is: