http://blogcritics.org/ A sinister cabal of superior bloggers on music, books, film, popular culture, politics, and technology - updated continuously. en Copyright 2005-2007 by the authors Thu, 6 Oct 2005 18:00:02 EDT http://backend.userland.com/rss Blogcritics.org custom software http://blogcritics.org/ Phillip WinnSunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding. Administration0@blogcritics.org Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/10/06/180002.php Film Cynic Manderlay written and directed by Lars von Trier Lars von Trier doesn't care what people think of him, and he probably doesn't care who sees his new film. I expect that most of those who hated Dogville, his previous work, won't bother since the filmmaker serves up more of the same dauntless style and spirit that turned them off. This should be fine. It makes no more sense for people to see a type of movie they dislike than to eat liver and onions when they haven't the taste for it. Von Trier doesn't normally make the same type of movie. Altogether his work has a distinctive, congruous voice, but individually his films are produced with very dissimilar methods and motives. He is credited with starting Dogme 95, a stylistic movement in which at least fifty titles have been crafted by adhering to strict, natural guidelines, and yet he made only one in this manner. The latest could be considered his first repeat. He has worked in groups of three before, but this being his first continual trilogy, the director is keeping things the same. Nevertheless the decision not to reinvent himself throughout is, for von Trier, still a form of reinvention. He's changed his pattern anyway. Manderlay is the second part of this series, begun with Dogville and eventually ending with Washington, which tells about three American places visited by an idealistic young woman during the 1930s. Continued is the combination of elements from theatre, literature and cinema that gives the story a transcendent range for opportunities and depths: the artificial structure, the narration and chapter breaks and the multiple cameras remain with their advantages and challenges compared with more confined media, and are now even more acceptable, useful tools in their familiarity. The only surface difference from Dogville to Manderlay is that the floor of the sound studio in which it's filmed is now white with black outlines instead of the other way around. And I think the location has decreased in size, set now on one property rather than a whole town. Directly following the events of its predecessor, Manderlay opens with Grace and her father (Bryce Dallas Howard and Willem Dafoe in place of Nicole Kidman and James Caan) driving cross-country, gangster entourage in tow, from Colorado to a plantation in Alabama (the only state in which to properly pay tribute to Brecht) on which slavery is still being practiced 70 years past its abolition. As appalling or humorous as this may seem, indentured servitude was common in the south for many years following the civil war, and was usually indistinguishable from actual enslavement. Grace's father explains this harsh reality as if reading from Howard Zinn, arguing that it should be of no concern to himself or his party. Grace, however, is compelled to intervene, and leaves Dad to go on without her. She is allotted - or given and traded as if no more free themselves -a few armed men for backup and a lawyer to oversee new contracts between the whites and the blacks. Her meddling begins with the death of the manor's ruling matriarch, referred to only as Mam (Lauren Bacall), as if she was the Wicked Witch of the West and Grace was Dorothy. Yet the freed men, women and children do not celebrate her death so much as fear for their sudden loss of direction. The response is understandable and was historically beneficial to the south in its illegal continuation of exploiting people unfamiliar with such voluntary discretion. The story therefore becomes a philosophical debate on the issue of free will. Danny Glover, playing an elder black named Wilhelm asks, "What time do you take supper when you're free?" The natural answer to that question is biological according to hunger, but what he's really asking is rhetorical. Every other action in his life quickly loses meaning and relevance, the daily chores and workings of the plantation abandoned for sloth and merriment. The film is full of philosophical characters from the enigmatic Mark (Joseph Mydell) to the chameleonic survivalist Timothy (the amazing Isaach de Bankolé). There are plenty of other ideas going on in Manderlay. Obviously von Trier is making a statement critical of America's past as well as its continuing race problems. The director claims that his recent films are not primarily about America, but that he will keep setting them here as long as people have a problem with it. We can probably expect many more, then, especially if von Trier never visits the states (he's afraid of flying), since many will keep taking offense by limiting their interpretations as personal attacks. This is precisely why it isn't actually fine for disparagers of Dogville to ignore Manderlay. The story is more central and defined, but it also is open to more analysis. Some might see a political discourse on the flaws or difficulties with democracy or even an allegory for the involvement in Iraq. Maybe the guidebook used to manage the slaves, entitled Mam's Law, could be considered God's commandments. Perhaps von Trier is even making fun of his own dependency on self-governing rules like those in the Dogme 95 manifesto. Because von Trier is never narrow in his intent, and his films provoke much discussion, even those who don't enjoy the film are not likely to walk away empty-handed. Unfortunately the only breed of man who endures something he or she does not like is the critic, and that is mainly because caviling reviews are always more fun to write than favorable. Often the presumptuous critics' doubts are concluded as warranted; they continually eat the liver and onions to reassure readers that they don't like it. Otherwise, their nay saying, like von Trier's supposed anti-American views (he denies having them), is just unfair prejudice. Currently the filmmaker is responsible for the most public polarization of movie critics (many publications print both opinions), though it seems to be hipper to pan him these days, and though Rotten Tomatoes shows a slight majority for praises. Nitpicking quibbles can be made about Manderlay, as they can with any movie. I could probably write a pan based solely on Howard's powerless performance, disappointing when compared to the great actresses von Trier has used before, if I saw that to be the most important aspect of the picture. The undebatable fact with von Trier, though, is that his films are the work of a daring artist, a significance that rises above anyone's take. And like any great expressive masterpiece open to opinions, Manderlay deserves the respect of being seen. The film opens in the U.S. on February 3, 2006. Video37530@blogcritics.org Thu, 6 Oct 2005 18:00:02 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/10/02/130556.php Film Cynic bad news: casting - Keith Moon Rather than pick an unknown British young male (they might all be busy auditioning for 007) to play the reckless drummer for The Who, producers for the untitled film are going with Mike Myers, a Canadian who is already ten years Moon's senior at his age of death. Myers, who has already screwed with one famous character (The Cat in the Hat) will be laughable, likely made up for better resemblance and doing an accent that we will only associate with Austin Powers. If they want to make this a joke, they should just have cast "MADtv" actor Michael McDonald, who looks more like Moon, and was also in the Austin Powers films. The Who's singer Roger Daltrey is producing, so I hope he knows what he's doing. (Variety) bad news: remake - The Eye Renée Zellweger is in the casting news for a second day in a row. She is set to star in Paramount's remake of Oxide and Danny Pang's Asian horror film The Eye, about a girl with creepy visions after receiving new eyes from a murdered donor. I've seen the original and can not imagine anything worse from Hollywood, but I find it a little ridiculous that Hideo Nakata has been hired to direct. After starting the whole Asian horror hype with Ringu and its sequels and the remake sequel, he's now doing remakes of other Asian horror? The poor guy needs to go back and take some time off, think of something new, and maybe come back to us when he's ready. Especially with a script co-written by Sebastian Gutierrez (Gothika), this just isn't going to do wonders for his career. (Variety) bad news: biopic - Miss Potter The clever biopics of authors never fail in their attempts to be creative, intertwining elements or characters of their work into the film. I'm not sure if Dreamland was the first to do it, probably not, but it is the one I think of every time. The Potter film is being directed by Chris Noonan (Babe) and will be live-action with some animation (talking animals!). Renée Zellweger is set to play the creator of Peter Rabbit and Ewan McGregor has been cast as her lover, Norman Warne, who died of leukemia a month after proposing to her. Thank goodness. I thought for once they'd make a happy movie out someone's life. (Variety) bad news: remake - 36 Another remake of a French film is on its way. This time the source material is Olivier Marchal's 36 Quai des Orfevres, a 2004 crime drama starring Gérard Depardieu and Daniel Auteuil. The title refers to the address of Paris' "PJ" (Police Judiciaire) and the plot focuses on two detectives on the case of armored car robberies. I'm only looking forward to seeing what the Americanized title will refer to and whether or not No matter how thrilling the end result appears, with Marc Forster (Monster's Ball; Finding Neverland) directing, remember to bring a hanky. Actually, with Dean Georgaris (Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Lif; Paycheck), writing, remember to avoid it in the first place. (Variety) bad news: tv adaptation - Gilligan's Island Shipwreck indeed! This might just be a rumor or nothing more than shits and giggles from Rob Schneider, but supposedly he and Adam Sandler have been talking about a film version of the hit show "Gilligan's Island", in which Sandler would be the title character. No clue who Schneider is thinking of playing (couldn't be the Professor) but he wants Michael Caton as the Millionaire, Brian Dennehy as the Skipper and former Miss Universe Jennifer Hawkins as Ginger. I wonder if Schneider and Sandler ever saw this. (Dark Horizons) bad news: conspiracy - Live 2 Tell Since his death nine years ago, Tupac Shakur has made a plethora of albums, leading many to think he is still alive. Now it turns out that he's written a screenplay, too? His mother, Afeni, has just sold and will produce the script, supposedly written in 1995 as a vehicle for the rapper, himself. You know, since he's not actually dead (I mean, come on, with a title like Live 2 Tell?), he can still star in the film and they can claim that computer effects are just that good these days. (The Hollywood Reporter) bad news: book adaptation - Bridge to Terabithia Disney and Walden Media can't get enough of trying to find the next successful LOTR/Harry Potter-copying fantasy franchise. Aside from the first Chronicles of Narnia title coming this Christmas, they have no bought rights to Kathine Paterson's Bridge to Terabithia, which won the Newberry Medal when published in 1977. The story involves an imaginary kingdom with the usual mythological creatures of British lore. Gabor Csupo, a producer/animator with a history on NickToons, will direct despite having no proven capability working with actors. Jeff Stockwell (The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys) is writing. (Variety) bad news: remake - Kiki's Delivery Service A glance at screenwriter Jeff Stockwell's credits show that he's working on a assumably live-action remake of Miyazaki's anime film Kiki's Delivery Service, which was bad enough to include Kirsten Dunst as the lead in the American dub. Maybe they can get Melissa Joan Hart, who could probably use the typecasted work. (IMDB) bad news: casting - The Pleasure of Your Company Jason Biggs is only good for fucking pies, and that just isn't close enough to fondling sweaters or bottles of dick cream. What I'm saying is that I'm disappointed with the casting of the talentless American Pie star in Michael Ian Black's directorial debut. It is true that the film's announcement did not mention whether or not Black's usual gang (including Stella partners David Wain and Michael Showalter) will have any part, however, and my assumption that it will have similarities with Wet Hot American Summer are premature. Nobody should give Jason Biggs work regardless. Just because Woody Allen does something, that does not make it okay. He practically married his daughter, too, remember. (Production Weekly) bad news: r.i.p. -Don Adams (1923-2005) Maxwell Smart is dead...and...loving it. Well, I hope that Adams is in a better place and indeed loving it. "Get Smart" is one of the funniest shows ever written but it was Adams who made the pages even funnier. As hilarious as Steve Carrell can be, he won't come close to the original Agent 86 in next year's planned movie version. For a wonderful tribute, read the obituary written by his son-in-law, Jim Beaver. (Google Groups) bad news: comic book adaptation - Courtney Crumrin and the Night Things Killing two birds with one stone, this movie fills the fashion of comic book movies and Harry Potter copycats, telling of a little girl who moves to her uncle's magic-filled house. Graham Tallman, an assistant director for Bulletproof Monk is writing the script. (Variety) bad news: novel adaptation - Headhunters Nicole Kidman needs at least one or two unfunny Hollywood comedies a year and she just picked next years. Jules Bass's badly reviewed Headhunters tells of four New Jersey women who fly to Monte Carlo to snag rich husbands. There is some subplot with some jewel theives, too. Sounds like something that would have been passable by Disney about 40 years ago, but today will be unbelievable and obnoxious. (Variety) bad news: golf biopic - Dance the Green Hockey great Wayne Gretzky is producing movies? About golf pros? Not that any golf drama has ever had an audience (I think golfers even find them a bore), Hugh Wilson (Dudley Do-Right) is directing a film, produced by Gretzky, and written by Barry Morrow (Race the Sun) about Moe Norman. (Production Weekly) bad news: Hard Candy, one of my favorites from Sundance has been pushed back until the spring, which crushes all hopes of Ellen Page becoming nominated for best actress. Video37251@blogcritics.org Sun, 2 Oct 2005 13:05:56 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/09/28/180922.php Film CynicFirst of all, anybody in the tri-state area who hasn't seen Oldboy yet, should do so immediately. It would be great for you to see it in a theater, and The ImaginAsian had been showing midnight screenings the past few months, but tonight at 9:10pm at that very theater, is the last showing for awhile. Otherwise, pick up a DVD and have it signed tomorrow, Sepetember 29, from 6-7pm (get on line much earlier), by the extraordinary Korean filmmaker. Other films of his include Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, one part of the shorts trilogy Three...Extremes and the upcoming Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, which screens at the NY Film Festival this Friday at 6pm or Sunday at 2pm, and then is officially released in February. The signing is at Tower Records on W.4th Street and Broadway. Check out the event's flyer here: Park Chan-Wook NYC Appearance Video37027@blogcritics.org Wed, 28 Sep 2005 18:09:22 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/09/25/173319.php Film Cynic 2005 new york film festival week 1 After the first week of press screenings for the 43rd NY Film Festival, I am ready for something funny or fantastic. All the films have been so damn serious. There are a few worth checking out, though, and thanks to the press' ability to preview, you still may have time to get tickets to some of the following: Beyond the Rocks A Sam Wood silent from 1922 that was thought lost but is now restored for only the cinema completionists. The cheesy soap opera of a story concerns a young woman (the creepy-looking Gloria Swanson) married off to an old tycoon, yet is truly in love with a heroic Lord (Rudolph Valentino). If you must, avoid the soundtrack score that includes every Foley effect possible, and see it with a live orchestra instead. Screening: Oct. 5, 8:30 pm, Walter Reade Theatre The Hidden Blade One of the highlights of this year's special sidebar The Beauty of the Everyday: Japan's Shochiku Company at 110, showing selections from the company's century of cinema from 1921's Souls on the Road up to this, the latest from Yoji Yamada. Taking place around the same time as Ed Zwick's The Last Samurai, but pleasantly void of Tom Cruise, the film centers on a samurai questioning his position and honor as he is forced to battle an old friend and simultaneously falls in love with his servant girl. The occasional comedic bits are too silly, but the story is compelling for anyone who prefers less action in his samurai pics. Screenings: Sept. 24, 7pm; Sept. 25, 6pm, Walter Reade Theatre. The Shochiku retrospective continues throughout the festival, ending Oct. 20. The Death of Mr. Lazarescu Extremely long but feels even longer thanks to the claustrophobic settings and mostly real-time pacing, Cristi Puiu's Cannes-winner isn't nearly as humorous as it claims to be. Though it is a dark comedy satirizing the medical world of Bucharest, I find it far too depressing to laugh at all, even with the jokes poked at TV hospital shows (notice how every doctor is a beautiful young woman). As the title-character in his last suffered night on Earth as he's passed from one unconcerned ER to the another, Ion Fiscuteanu gives one of the bravest performances of the year. Screenings: Sept. 24, 3pm; Sept. 25, 8:30pm, Alice Tully Hall Bubble Steven Soderbergh shows us what is the complete opposite of Ocean's 12 with this low-budget DV feature that barely rises to anything more than a white-trash true-crime television drama, telling of a jealous woman's rage when a young woman becomes her co-worker. If anything the filmmaker displays his talent for working with amateurs, as nobody in the movie has ever acted before. Too bad the worthy attempt at realism fails to be anything but banal. At least the preceding short, Heydar, An Afghan in Tehran, which is about Heydar, an Afghan in Tehran, is more inspired. Screenings: Sept. 25, 6pm, Sept. 26, 9pm, Alice Tully Hall L'Enfant For having won the Golden Palm at this year's Cannes festival, the Dardenne Brothers' latest is a bit trite. After Bruno makes the unbelievably dumb decision to sell his new baby on the black market and then has no clue why his girlfriend hates him, the rest of the picture is as predictably hopeless as a first-time American indie, but with less plotting. It isn't bad, just much less than expected. Come about 5 min. late to miss the horrendous short Blue Tongue. Screenings: Sept. 24, 9:15pm; Sept. 25, 12:15pm, Alice Tully Hall Avenge But One of My Two Eyes This jumbled documentary from Israel is really confusing but the statement that it makes is important enough. Commenting on the hypocrisy of Israel's treatment of Palestinians by comparing the praised story of Samson with the current fashion of suicide bombing, Avi Mograbi's film should be seen at least by everyone in that part of the world. The preceding short Your Dark Hair Ihsan isn't very memorable, as I've forgotten it entirely. Screening: Sept. 25, 3pm, Alice Tully Hall Paradise Now A good companion to the last film I saw (above), Hany Abu-Assad's controversial drama about Palestinian suicide bombers is a bit devious, but politics aside, I never did feel a better understanding of how a person can do that which I consider the most evil action possible. The accompanying short, Solidarity, about a dinner party in early 80's Poland, also eluded my concerns. Screenings: Oct. 5, 9pm; Oct. 6, 6pm, Alice Tully Hall Good Night, And Good Luck George Clooney tells us a lot about himself in his sophomore film, playing out tributes and timely protests as a movie about broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow's televised attack of McCarthyism. Read my full review. The short Stop! is an overly clever matryoshka doll of a film, but after the third level, it gets tiresome, even at 6 minutes long.Screenings: Sept. 23, 8:15pm, Alice Tully Hall; 9pm, Avery Fisher Hall I Am So far the only film of the fest that I'm crazy about. Telling the story of an abandoned boy who makes a home in a deserted river barge and befriends a beer-drinking little girl from a neighboring house, filmmaker Dorota Kedzierzawska is like the Polish equivalent of David Gordon Green, her beautiful visuals similarly descendent of Terrence Malick. Piotr Jagielski, as the boy only known as Mongrel, is equal parts young Jean-Pierre Léaud and Jamie Bell. Skip the star-studded entries, which you can see at the multiplexes, and hurry to one of the two festival screenings. Also, skip the dreadfully boring short, Lâl, which shows ahead. Screenings: Sept. 27, 6pm; Sept. 29, 9pm, Alice Tully Hall Methadonia An HBO-produced doc on struggling heroin addicts treated with methadone, a controversial drug that is just as hard to quit. Filled with colorful subjects, the DV feature is too repetitive and unfocused to make the issue more interesting than the patients' mockable characteristics. And if the subjects weren't so loud and crazed, you could fall asleep listening to Michel Negroponte's soft-spoken narration. Better is the depressing short Victoria Para Chino, a look at traveling conditions of Mexicans illegally riding into the U.S. in the back of a truck. Screening: Sept. 24, 6:30pm, Alice Tully Hall Capote Bennett Miller's film about Truman Capote's process of writing the seminal non-fiction novel In Cold Blood is an engrossing drama, but Philip Seymour Hoffman's mimicking job in the lead is just as irritating as it is delightful. In the end, I wasn't sure exactly what Capote's true intentions were throughout, but I'm not quite sure he always knew either. Screenings: Sept. 27, 9pm; Sept. 28, 6pm, Alice Tully Hall Regular Lovers If you found Bertolucci's The Dreamers too short and too commercial, you might like this three-hour homage to French New Wave of the late 60s. In fact, if you didn't know the film was new and if you didn't recognize Louis Garrel from Bertolucci's film, you would swear that Phillippe Garrel (yes, the actor's father) had made this 35 years ago and is just now unleashing it, having forgotten to edit it down in all that time. I much prefer a short and sweet Godard from the period any day, but I couldn't seem to walk out of Regular Lovers, even at its slowest. Screening: Sept. 24, 11am, Alice Tully Hall Video36797@blogcritics.org Sun, 25 Sep 2005 17:33:19 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/09/25/023332.php Film Cynic A History of Violence directed by David Cronenberg screenplay by Josh Olson based on the graphic novel by John Wagner and Vince Locke David Cronenberg has made so many movies about duplicity that I'm surprised he hasn't yet been recruited for the current superhero trend. Perhaps he can direct a Batman Begins sequel where the villain is Two-face, or I hear that Ant-Man is currently in need. At least now the Canadian filmmaker is on the right track with A History of Violence, his most commercial film yet and one based on a graphic novel, which is only half a step above comic books. If you're like me and never cared much for his films, you should be surprised at how enjoyable this new one is. Some have compared it to David Lynch and the Coen brothers, and I doubt that I will concur more with other critics this year. Not that I never associate Cronenberg with Lynch. Usually I consider them the two most overrated filmmakers working today. They both also deliver weird, inaccessible movies, though the confusion felt while watching Lynch often leads to an absorbing curiosity whereas Cronenberg's strangeness is more creepy and uncomfortable. The Coens are typically too amusing to compare. Maybe I laughed during Naked Lunch, but only because it caught me so off guard. The prologue for A History of Violence introduces two homicidal drifters that could easily continue their journey into the world of Mulholland Dr. or Raising Arizona if they weren't to meet their demise in the small town of Millbrook, Indiana, home of Tom Stall (Viggo Mortensen) and his wholesome midwestern family (Maria Bello; Ashton Holmes; Heidi Hayes). It is Stall who kills them while defending his diner from being held up, his quick, skilled actions so intrinsic that you might wonder if he's an amnesiac super-soldier. His background becomes more of a mystery after his heroics receive national attention and a few gangsters (including Ed Harris) arrive claiming that he is Joey Cusack, an associate of theirs who went missing twenty years prior. It doesn't matter if Stall is Cusack or a super-soldier or a secret agent. What matters is how capable he is of committing the severity, even in self-defense. The prologue sets up just how evil the two drifters are to ensure the necessity of Stall's terminal response, and what transpires with the relentless mobsters is further argument for desperate measures. While some might see political undertones or even the commonplace of yet another vengeance piece for this wrathful decade, the movie is far more timeless and it brings up far too many ideas to be disrespectfully pinpointed that way. Combining the marital deception of Mr. and Mrs. Smith, the identity crisis of Batman Begins and the survival compulsion of War of the Worlds, A History of Violence is the best non-summer action movie and makes the transition from blockbuster season to Oscar time (not that I believe this to be award-worthy) a smooth passage. If there were a statue for casting, though, this would be a shoo-in. Mortensen is perfectly believable as the innocent, rural patriarch or the alleged professional as is Bello taken equally for painfully ordinary or exceptionally sexy. And as the son, Holmes is the perfect median between geek and heartthrob, the type that gets picked on but still has a cute girlfriend. Plus, who would have known that William Hurt could be such a hilarious badass in the mob boss role? His performance is so exciting that, even though it's almost out of place within the tone of the film (his is the most Coen-esque of all), I'm willing to finally forgive him for Lost in Space, among other duds of his last twenty years. Loyal Cronenberg fans may find the movie less cult-worthy for their tastes but could probably do with something above ground for a change. After Spider, I'd have settled for something as quirky as eXistenZ, myself. Instead Cronenberg was given a bigger budget than normal and still kept things interesting. So far every indie filmmaker turned superhero director has been made a disappointment, obviously giving into too much bureaucratic decisions. Yes, even Christopher Nolan. After seeing A History of Violence, I await Cronenberg's eventual attempt as long as he sticks to this new style that works so well. Film Cynic recommended: Video36768@blogcritics.org Sun, 25 Sep 2005 02:33:32 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/09/22/075856.php Film Cynic Good Night. And, Good Luck directed by George Clooney written by George Clooney and Grant Heslov The New York Film Festival opens Friday, September 23 with the U.S. premiere of Good Night, and Good Luck, a film enacting broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow's televised criticisms of the McCarthy hearings of 1953-54. Directed by George Clooney, the historical drama is more than a labor of love for the filmmaking actor, who also co-wrote the screenplay and appears in a major supporting role. David Straithairn won best actor honors at the Venice Film Festival for his immersed portrayal of Murrow, a man often credited with inventing television news reporting with his CBS program See It Now. He leads a talented ensemble that includes Clooney as the show's co-producer Fred Friendly plus Robert Downey, Jr., Patricia Clarkson, Jeff Daniels and Frank Langella. Joseph McCarthy is only featured through archival footage. p> The movie is no more a biopic, however, than The Crucible is about the life of John Proctor and just as that play debuted as a professed allegory for McCarthy's "witch-hunt" of communists, the senator's hearings now serve as an undisguised parallel to the Patriot Act and other encroachments of constitutional civil liberties as well as the complacency of today's broadcast media. During one scene recreating a segment from March 9, 1954, Murrow's pledge that, "we will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason," hits most pointedly at the present. Clooney's intention to anchor his film and his stance on current affairs with this moment is evident in the full quotation's reprinting in the press notes. In addition to representing his politics, Clooney's film works as homage to many personal influences, the most obvious being his newscaster father Nick Clooney. Even before making the connections between then and now, there were plans to do something with Murrow and the dawn of broadcast journalism, a subject that he got into while literally growing up in a TV studio. Another family tribute is made with the soundtrack of songs performed by Diane Reeves including standards previously recorded by the director's aunt Rosemary Clooney and accompanied by musicians who had worked with the legendary singer. Good Night, and Good Luck easily fits with Network and The Insider to create a trilogy of films focused on the difficulty of communicating the truth, let alone editorial, via commercial television. This film also bookends the other two by taking place before each of them while being produced after. Many scenes are so similar to aspects of Network and therefore predictable at every turn that if not completely based on true events, it might be thought too influenced by Sidney Lumet's 1976 picture. Clooney's film, he says, is so factual that each scene is "double-sourced", meaning that unlike many of todays true stories, every bit of Good Night, and Good Luck happened. Perhaps a dialogue here or there was written but none of it could be considered made up, every moment crafted through testimonials, memoirs and extensive research into everyone's notes. Just as Murrow made certain that McCarthy could not find an iota of error in his program, Clooney seems to want the same accuracy in the film. Critics might attack his motivation but not his veracity. As writer-director-actor of Good Night, and Good Luck, a film that lays out his familial and political devotions, George Clooney has created something more reflective of himself than the literal subjects, leaving most of the characters and scenes as merely incidentals, the story told lacking its own powerful worth. Whether perceived as a personal expression or egotistical vanity project, an important film or insignificant yet overstated association, Clooney's sophomore effort is a simply accomplished piece of cinema on its own terms. Good Night, and Good Luck plays two shows Friday as part of the festival before opening in limited release on October 7. Video36622@blogcritics.org Thu, 22 Sep 2005 07:58:56 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/09/21/203918.php Film Cynic The Selecter - Live From London Bad Manners - Don't Knock the Bald Heads English Beat - In Concert at the Royal Festival Hall Most ska bands aren't even that enjoyable in person; often the experiences that come with their shows have little to do with entertainment and more to do with fun. Part of a music scene that flourishes through its fans' dancing, mingling and devout loyalty, ska bands easily get away with music that is written and performed by amateurs. Unless a group of people has a video-watching party, there isn't much use for a DVD presenting any band that falls within the 99% of ska acts who aren't any good. As for the other 1%, a series of new videos from the unimaginatively named Music Video Distributors is evidence that even those with talent can make for lackluster viewing. These three discs showcase recent concerts by Bad Manners, The English Beat, and The Selecter, each twenty years beyond their peak. The best of the DVDs is The Selecter - Live from London. The performance is lively and tight, led by singer Pauline Black, who hasn't lost any of the energy she had when chart-topping in 1980. She also remains one of the most intelligent and dignified personalities in her field, demonstrated in an interview included as a bonus feature. The interview featured on Bad Manners - Don't Knock the Baldheads is worth seeing, for it shows that the band's front man Buster Bloodvessel is a very interesting personality. Telling of his political office pursuits and other effects of being in the public eye, the big, bald singer surprises those American fans unfamiliar with the extent of his British fame. Too bad the current lineup for Bad Manners seems made up of recruits who were likely not born when the band made its debut. The horn section's lack of expertise fails to make up for the aging Buster's apparent loss of vocal skills. As for English Beat - In Concert at the Royal Festival Hall, the concert is disappointingly dull; the performance is sluggishly slow-tempo and the audio on the supplemental interview is out of sync. This collection of discs is a good argument against the excess of live music DVDs currently detracting from the idea of quality docuconcerts. Companies like Music Video Distributors are able to capitalize on hardcore enthusiasts just by having a cheap camera and a contract. If anybody at the company was right in the head, they'd make a deal to have the original 1982 film Dance Craze available on DVD as it features these three bands plus The Specials, Madness and The Bodysnatchers, all in their primes. Video36608@blogcritics.org Wed, 21 Sep 2005 20:39:18 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/09/15/105827.php Film CynicThe Thing About My Folks directed by Raymond De Felitta written by Paul Reiser starting Paul Reiser, Peter Falk, Elizabeth Perkins, Olympia DukakisThe Thing About My Folks feels like a beginner wrote it. In fact, the film's screenplay is the first from comedian Paul Reiser, though he could hardly be considered a complete novice having spent the last 20 years writing routines, books, a hit sitcom and (oddly enough) a CG-animated Popeye video. Yet there is nothing remarkable about his feature debut to attest to and fit in with his estimable career. The script follows the bonding road trip of Ben Kleinman (Reiser) and his father Sam (Falk) as they analyze each other's marriage after Sam's wife (Dukakis) abruptly leaves without reason. The jaunt begins on a rough note as the elder Kleinman ruins his son's plan of buying a dream house in the country. On the way home Ben crashes his car into a tree then sparks a heated argument about Sam's worth as a husband and father. But once they decide to extend the outing and partake in such male rituals as fishing and baseball, they clear sail through enough sociable experiences to establish a new rapport as is only possible. Except for one humorous moment where Sam talks girls with Ben, the entire second act could have been one short montage, with a sequence in which they actually double date with some new lady friends omitted, perhaps. Regardless of how conventional the story, one would think a movie written by a comedian would be quite funny, as Woody Allen and Mel Brooks made the transition quite famously. The Thing About My Folks isn't even as funny as either's worst efforts. The same old jokes and stereotypes involving a Jewish father and son seem like they've been around since the dawn of Judaism, and the fact that its three biggest laughs come from three separate instances where Sam farts should give an idea of how unfunny the film is. Reiser appears to want more heartfelt moments than comedic ones anyway, and the third act gets pretty mushy. Even the sentimentality is cliché, though, touching in such an obvious way that it's as obnoxious as being finger-poked in the sternum. Part of the emotional detachment comes with Reiser's voice-over, a literal narration of what his character has experienced with no expressive evidence of him caring about it. He might as well be ten years old giving an oral report on what he and dad did over the weekend.The disappointment of The Thing About My Folks is a big shame considering Peter Falk's effortless but still enchanting performance, which allows the film to be a tad more than marginally tolerable. Still, he's already been-there-done-that with more worthwhile paternal roles. Reiser, on the other hand, could still do better at examining his role as a son. Perhaps he could follow-up Couplehood and Babyhood with a book entitled Sonhood (Fatherhood would be too confused with Bill Cosby's book). Or maybe he has another TV show up his sleeve? ed: JH Video36220@blogcritics.org Thu, 15 Sep 2005 10:58:27 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/09/13/183322.php Film CynicThe Director's Label Vol. 4-7: The Works of Mark Romanek, Jonathan Glazer, Anton Corbijn and Stéphane Sednaoui Jonathan Glazer did not receive enough appreciation for his film Birth, an extremely dry take on the concept of love for which he suffered the result of literal-minded critics and audiences. Now with his best of DVD, one of the four new Director's Label discs from Palm Pictures, he is likely to again be the victim of masses who just don't get it. "The Work of Jonathan Glazer" features only eight music videos versus the 20-25 included on the other three, and this inadequacy will likely affect its sales comparatively. The coolest thing about the Director's Label DVDs, though, is the commercials, of which Glazer's disc has plenty. People may be familiar with his videos for Radiohead and UNKLE, but the filmmaker is rarely recognized for his amazing Guinness ads, and not just because they aren't typically seen in America. If he had been the man behind Budweiser's frog ads, that fact would still be under the radar of television viewers because unlike music videos, there is no direct artistic association with advertisements.That isn't to believe in America's supposed ignorance and despise of TV ads. The Super Bowl just wouldn't be the same without the attention given toward quality commercials. The problem is that if even Steven Spielberg directs a Levi's spot and nobody issues a press release, the public has little way of knowing, and so whether or not the ad is noteworthy, its time on the minds of viewers is likely to be short. The Internet Movie Database has been listing commercials for directors and actors in the "other works" feature, but often seeking out creative information about an ad will get you little more than the name of the song it features. Music videos, in contrast, have been glorified as an art form for the last 15 years thanks in part to MTV's addition of a director credit, which labels them more as short films than CD promos in disguise, warranting screenings at museums and film societies. It is this respectful acknowledgement that made names out of Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry even before each went on to craft excitingly clever films from Charlie Kauffman scripts. Even Jonathan Glazer got some attention for his videos before releasing his debut feature Sexy Beast. The Director's Label discs for these three (Jonze's and Gondry's were released two years ago along with one for Chris Cuningham) have the most intrigue for their showcasing of early stuff, ads included, by established feature filmmakers. Since Glazer's DVD works best as an evolutionary display of his talent, the inclusion of clips from and discussions of his two movies is more a necessity than a seemingly redundant bit of filler more appropriately featured on their respective DVDs. Mark Romanek, who also has a new disc out through the series, has also released a feature (One Hour Photo), but he lacks a distinct style that links his work in the same way that the others' do. Anton Corbijn's disc, however, full of gloomy videos for Joy Division, Echo and the Bunnymen and Depeche Mode at least makes his upcoming biopic on Ian Curtis easily imagined. Unfortunately, few will see the significant value of Glazer's disc, which is not as enjoyable as the ones for Jonze and Gondry nor is it filled with as many familiars as the ones for Romanek or Stéphane Sednaoui, each including a plethora of videos for some of the most popular recording artists of the last decade. None of Glazer's three companions in the new release (all four are available as a box set) feature commercials as a big part of their collection, either, which might make them all seem more pure in their achievements. Many of the interesting videos have been available elsewhere, such as the unedited version of Nine Inch Nails' "Closer", though most have new commentary tracks or supplemental interviews with the performers, which can get pretty repetitive (Jay-Z and Flea overuse the word "art" to describe their videos and Fiona Apple keeps stressing how the video for "Criminal" is supposed to be tongue-in-cheek) when not informative (find out how they made Jamiroquai's "Virtual Insanity" video). Romanek's even features a senseless bit called "Romanekian" where Chris Rock and Ben Stiller discuss his 'oeuvre', which is only worthwhile for Rock's honesty ("he can make you like a song that sucks"). Sednaoui's loses many points, though, by including the clip for Alanis Morrissette's erroneous song "Ironic" with or without an apologetic commentary from the singer. It is unclear how far Palm Pictures is going to go with their series considering two years ago it seemed there would be no more than the original three. Hopefully with many of today's rising filmmakers former video directors, the Director's Label can provide many more retrospective discs that are more than mere music video compilations. Some names for them to consider are Mark Pellington, David Fincher, Brett Rattner, Paul Thomas Anderson, Tarsem Singh, Roman Coppola, F. Gary Gray, McG, Marcos Siega, and Gore Verbinski, who like Glazer is shorter on videos but is in fact the creator of those Budweiser frog ads. Ed: JH Video36102@blogcritics.org Tue, 13 Sep 2005 18:33:22 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/09/08/131634.php Film CynicPeter Falk and Paul Reiser will be chatting live on MSN tonight (9/8) at 7pm EST to promote their new film The Thing About My Folks, coming out next week from Picturehouse Films. The movie is not all too remarkable but both actors give great performances and each is a standout personality in his own right. The special opportunity to witness more of their interactions should be enjoyable whether or not you are interested in what they're selling.Go here for more information and/or the feed: MSN Celebrity Chat Go here to read my low expectation of the film: LowExpectation From Picturehouse Films:Synopsis: The Thing About My Folks teams two singular talents - legendary actor Peter Falk (THE INLAWS, "Columbo") and writer/actor Paul Reiser (DINER, "Mad About You") - for a hilariously truthful look at family and marriage. Directed by Raymond De Felitta, The Thing About My Folks follows a father and son who set out on an impromptu road trip in the wake of mom's unexpected flight after 47 years of marriage. Ben Kleinman (played by Reiser) knows that his mother wrote a farewell to Sam Kleinman (Peter Falk) once before - a letter penned two weeks before his birth and never sent. When Ben, in a fit of anger, decides to show Sam the letter, he opens up a monumental can of worms - and a new chapter in his relationship with his father. Finding the past four decades of his life called into question, Sam responds in a surprisingly impulsive fashion: he buys the car of his college dreams and proposes a road trip to his incredulous son. Over the next several days and nights, Ben will have the trip with his dad that he'd always wanted as child. Through various idylls and misadventures in the small towns of upstate New York, Ben and Sam will chat, argue, get drunk, and generally get to know one another as never before. And despite generational differences, they discover they have a good deal in common - including a basic cluelessness about the women in their lives. For both men, it will be a time to take a closer look at the ties that bind - and ponder what really goes on in any marriage, and what could be changed if the chance were given. With its observational humor and sympathy for its characters' flaws and follies, Thing About My Folks speaks to a universal experience of family as both screwy and sublime. Official Website: MyFolksMovie.com Official Trailers:Quicktime high medium low Real high medium low Windows Media high medium low Video35738@blogcritics.org Thu, 8 Sep 2005 13:16:34 EDT