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 Tue, 30 Dec 2003 11:03:18 EST 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/2003/12/30/110318.php Kate Tallent1. Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola) 2. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Peter Jackson) 3. The Station Agent (Thomas McCarthy I) 4. All the Real Girls (David Gordon Green) 5. Man on the Train (Patrice Leconte) 6. The School of Rock (Richard Linklater) 7. Swimming Pool (François Ozon) 8. Kill Bill Vol. 1 (Quentin Tarantino) 9. The Magdalene Sisters (Peter Mullan) 10. Capturing the Freidmans (Andrew Jarecki) Video11319@blogcritics.org Tue, 30 Dec 2003 11:03:18 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/06/19/122009.php Kate Tallent"My film is not a movie. My film is not about Vietnam. It is Vietnam. It is what it was really like. It was crazy. And the way we made it was very much like the way the Americans were in Vietnam. We were in the jungle, there were too many of us. We had access to too much money, too much equipment. And little by little we went insane."   So said Francis Ford Coppola at the 1997 Cannes Film Fest discussing the making of APOCALYPSE NOW. All the insanity and more is captured in the 1991 documentary HEARTS OF DARKNESS: A FILMMAKER'S APOCALYPSE which was created using footage shot by Coppola's wife, some of it using cassette recordings and footage shot surreptitiously. Was this a precursor to those reality t.v. shows? Oh wait - there is nothing remotely "reality" about them but I digress.   The making of HEARTS OF DARKNESS goes something like this: In Feb. 1976 Coppola took his entire family to the Philippines, including wife Eleanor and three children all under the age of 12 (a glutton for punishment if ever their was one), to begin filming of APOCALYPSE NOW. To make the film, which took 238 days to shoot in the hot and humid jungles, Coppola went through hell, as well as created it. He hocked all his assets, went $3 million over budget, his original lead actor Harvey Kietel, who was to play the pivotal role of Willard left the film (or was fired - the doc doesn't state the circumstances), his replacement Martin Sheen had a heart attack at the age of 36 in which last rites were performed. Not to mention that Brando was somewhat uncooperative (imagine that! Although he was getting paid $1 million a week and only was contracted for three weeks of filming - damn prima donna), and a fleet of helicopters on loan from then Philippine President Marcos (ya know, the guy with the wife who owned something like 1,000 plus shoes) for key scenes would on occasion just up and leave the set to fight Philippine rebels in the hillside, thus ending filming. Ahh the pleasures of filmmaking. It all came together in the end in the magnificent film that APOCALYPSE NOW is and Coppola walked home from the Academy Awards with an armful of awards but the journey was harrowing.   APOCALYPSE NOW was in Coppola's words supposed to be "a metaphor into self" and me thinks specifically the animated, manic, brilliant, at times insane, Coppola. He had attempted to make the film before the first two Godfathers were ever made but no studio would finance it. After the success of the first two Godfathers Coppola created American Zoetrope, which was Coppola's idea of a film company to be outside of the Hollywood system. APOCALYPSE NOW was to be their first project. Hats off to Coppola's DIY spirit albeit one funded by the huge proceeds from the Godfather films. Multimillionaire Coppola had George Lucas, John Milius and Coppola himself write the script. He gathered up Marlon Brando as Col. Kurtz, initially casting Harvey Keitel and later Martin Sheen as Capt. Willard, Robert Duvall as Lt. Col. Kilgore, Dennis Hopper as a whacked out photojournalist, Albert Hall as Chief Quartermaster Phillips, Frederic Forrest as "Chef," and 14 year old Laurence Fishburne as "Mr. Clean." Harrison Ford and Scott Glen also had roles. An ideal "outsiders" casting clusterfuck if their ever was one.   Fishburne as Mr. Clean was maybe Coppola's most interesting casting selection. A 14 year old boy in the middle of a Philippine jungle? Coppola was attempting to reflect the naivete of the American soldiers going to Vietnam, as well as the demographic. Mostly sons of the working class and unable to dodge the draft, many of the soldiers had never left the inner-cites in which they were born and raised in. Vietnam was a parallel universe seen only on t.v. - remote and distant - until the soldiers were unceremoniously set down in the middle of the jungle to fight. Who better than a 14-year old boy who didn't need to act necessarily to reflect the otherworld quality of Vietnam at the time? Fishburne just had to be himself. An air of surrealism surrounds Fishburne's character in the film and the footage from the doc captures this quality in him as well. "The whole thing is really fun. I mean war is fun. Shit," Fishburne comments in HEARTS OF DARKNESS, "You can do anything you want to, that's the way Vietnam was really fun." Strange and disturbing. One of the darkest and saddest moments in the documentary.   In one of the more amusing segments of the documentary Coppola muses over the making of APOCALYPSE NOW and describes the writing process as "idiocy," and predicts that "the film will not be good. A 20 million dollar disaster. I am thinking of shooting myself." Glad he didn't. He made a great film. The documentary is stunning, funny, and difficult at times to watch as Coppola teeters on edge of a breakdown. Watch it drinking a bottle of Heart of Darkness wine (with a killer label designed by Ralph Steadman) or better yet a fine diamond series syrah from Coppola's vineyard - no doubt funded in part by the proceeds from APOCALYPSE NOW. Video6318@blogcritics.org Thu, 19 Jun 2003 12:20:09 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/06/05/120057.php Kate Tallent"We lost. We always lose." says Yul Brynner in the last line of one of the last great "classic" western tales. A great line from a great film that will stick in the gray matter long after watching it. Sandwiched in-between the fantastic THE SEARCHERS and THE WILD BUNCH, this 1960 American remake of the classic film THE SEVEN SAMURAI launched the careers of a number of Hollywood action stars including Steve McQueen, Robert Vaughn, James Coburn, and Charles Bronson. Director John Sturges' film about seven men who kill for hire, battling banditos to protect a helpless Mexican village, is a study in economy of words and movement. It is also an exploration of the hero's code, alienation, male bonding, and evil. Apparently Sturges took Kurosawa's script, had it modified by William Roberts, and moved it to a and matched it scene for scene basing the film in a peasant Mexican village. As a director Sturges was taking a great risk, setting himself up for critics' derision, but it all coalesces into an entertaining, intelligent and moving film enhanced by an incredible score by Elmer Bernstein. Some may argue that this version of the story is not as good as Kurosawa's but The Magnificent Seven is well worth the trek to the video store- especially in light of the onslaught of the crap coming our way this summer at multiplex theaters. Also, having Elmer Bernstein score the music wasn't a bad idea either. Perhaps the magic of this film is the superlative casting of virtual unknowns. Like later films such as M*A*S*H, THE DIRTY DOZEN, THE OUTSIDERS, and PLATOON this film was a great career start for relatively unknown actors. At the time McQueen had done THE BLOB (1958) and Vaughn THE TEENAGE CAVEMAN the same year. Yul Brynner, clean shaven even then and dressed all in black, stands out as Chris, the leader of the group. Other highlights of the cast are McQueen as laconic side-kick Vin, Vaughn as Lee, Bronson as Bernardo O'Reilly, and, especially, James Coburn as Britt the Knifethrower, perhaps the most compelling of the Seven. Britt is a character with no conscience, no sentimentality, who displays no romance about killing- he is a brutal killing machine. He accepts death and deals with it, as my friend Micah commented to me with "an honesty that some could be described as evil." I see him as an attractive menace- Coburn was born for this role. His physicality is such that every angle of his lean, colt-like body punctuates any utterance or action he makes--most notably when he kills. Another great casting decision was Eli Wallach as Calvera, leader of the bandits. An exchange between Vin and Calvera yielded another classic line: "We deal in lead, friend," says Vin menacingly when Calvera offers to make them all partners. So, the point is go rent this film and soon. And, by the way, a tip for when you venture out to the multiplex to see the sequels this summer (and we all know how unruly and loud multiplex audiences can be): my mom and her best friend Sister Pat (a Sister of Mercy nun) went to see some film a while back. During the film someone behind them was talking non-stop. So my mom, being the lovely lady she is, politely turned around a few times indicating her annoyance and to no avail--the folks would not stop talking. Well Sister Pat (who is a force of nature as nuns can be) stood up in front of the annoying talker saying to them with arms akimbo, "If I can't hear, you can't see." It shut them up quick. Try it next time you are at the multiplex. Video5927@blogcritics.org Thu, 5 Jun 2003 12:00:57 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/05/16/144742.php Kate TallentWriter-director Neil LaBute's new film THE SHAPE OF THINGS adapted from a play is his latest misanthropic take on relationships and a meditation on what is art. Rachel Weisz is outstanding as Evelyn the beautiful, controlling M.F.A student at Mercy College who dates undergrad Adam played by the adequate Paul Rudd. Evelyn manipulates and molds Adam, transforming him from a meek, overweight nerd to confident, cute hipster. Out goes the brown corduroy blazer Adam has had for years and in comes the cool nuevo-retro looking jacket. His nose undergoes a little snip as does his hair and his cuteness emerges, as does a newfound confidence. Edgy, disturbing and provocative the film will most likely elicit quite a bit of discomfort as you watch Evelyn (Eve) reshape the hapless Adam who is like a lamb led to slaughter. She devours him in every way- spiritually, psychologically and physically spitting him out in a surprise ending that was pretty darn hard to sit through. LaBute's reference to Medea in the film isn't coincidental. Evelyn is a powerful sorceress who although doesn't murder any kids in the film but is at times a scary woman who eventually in the name of art does something pretty horrific.Good acting all around including Gretchen Mol as Adam's friend Jenny and Frederick Weller as Phil, Jenny's boyfriend. Video5363@blogcritics.org Fri, 16 May 2003 14:47:42 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/05/01/135437.php Kate TallentBETTER LUCK TOMORROW, directed by 31-year-old Justin Lin and written by Mr. Lin, Ernesto M. Foronda and Fabian Marquez, is the darkest portrayal of Asian Americans on screen to date. Talk about controversy. The film is stirring up a lot of that, particularly at its 2002 Sundance screening where Roger Ebert stood on a chair and defended its portrayal of Orange County Asian American high school students who are over achievers with a penchant for guns, drugs and sex. The film chronicles high school senior Ben Manibag played by Parry Shen, and his three partners in crime; Virgil Hu, Han, and Daric Loo, as they sell cheat sheets, drugs and eventually commit murder and whose primary motivation is teenage boredom. A little coke sniffing helps alleviate the pressure of SAT scores and Ivy League college applications. The film smashes the stereotype of Asian Americans as squeaky-clean overachievers and apparently Lin has been criticized for this unflattering, yet authentic representation of his community. The film is based on a true story that happened at an Orange County Highschool a few years ago. One criticism is that the actors look more like grad students than highschool students. Made on a tiny budget of $250,000 or $500,000 (I have read both figures) it has been picked up by MTV Films and hopefully people will come out to see a film with Asian characters that aren't delivering Chinese food or involved in some kind of martial arts. It is one of the only films that presents three-dimensional Asian American characters and is worth viewing for that reason alone. Video5004@blogcritics.org Thu, 1 May 2003 13:54:37 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/04/17/133136.php Kate TallentDirected by Caroline Link (Beyond Silence) who also wrote the screenplay based on a novel by Stefanie Zweig, Nowhere In Africa is about a Jewish family fleeing Nazi Germany for Kenya in 1938. Although a bit slow going at times, it is overall a compelling tale of outsiders trying to survive in a foreign land. Leaving their comfortable life in Frankfurt, the Redlich family tries to adjust - some of them better than others. Wife Jettel (Juliane Köhler) likes the finer things in life and has difficulty adjusting to her new status, while her husband Walter (Merab Ninidze), who has been in Kenya longer than the rest of the family, was once a lawyer. He is trying to manage a farm and failing miserably at it. When Walter requests Jettel pack a refrigerator to bring to Kenya when she joins him there she brings an evening gown instead - perhaps for the tea dance in the bush? Meanwhile, daughter Regina (Lea Kurka as a child and Karoline Eckertz as a teenager) immediately adapts; befriending the Redlich's Masai cook Owuor (Sidede Onyulo) who adores her. The story is actually told through her teenage eyes. Displacement is the liet motif of this film. Ever present is the feeling of being an outsider. For instance, when Regina goes to boarding school in Nairobi on her first day the Headmaster insists that all Jewish students stand aside so the rest of the student body can recite the "Lord's Prayer." After that, they are ostracized in that cruel way that children can be to each other. Regina and her one friend Ilse are forced to sit at their own lunch table with another student. It's moments like this the wounded nerd in all of us cringe. The Africans group all whites together, not making distinctions between German or British, Jewish or Gentile. It's interesting that only the whites in the film make these distinctions.The Redlich's marriage doesn't fare that well either at first. Walters accuses Jettel of only sleeping with him when he was a lawyer. After all the Germans living in Kenya are interned in Nairobi, Jettel sleeps with a German speaking British officer in order to arrange another farm for Walter to manage. By the end of the war, the dynamics have changed among the family members as well as their feelings toward Kenya. Jettel wants to stay in Kenya and Walter wants to go back to Germany to be a judge. The strains on their relationship that adapting to Kenya have created contribute to a palpable disconnectedness between the couple. But as sometimes happens in a relationship, overcoming difficulties together creates a stronger bond and the performances create a feeling of authenticity. Regina is the glue that seems to hold the family together. Standouts: the cinematography by Gernot Roll which captures the countryside of Kenya. It is breath-taking and the cinematography has a lyrical quality that reinforces the manner in which this tale is told. Also the performance by Juliane Köhler. Not since Hanna Schygulla (The Marriage of Maria Braun) has a German actress made such an impression on me. Köhler's transformation from uptight, pampered bourgeois wife to a farmer supporting her family is terrific. One pivotal scene where Jettel is faced with a plague of locusts attacking her crops is where she really shines. The winner of this year's Foreign Film Oscar is well deserved. For once the Academy got it right. Video4680@blogcritics.org Thu, 17 Apr 2003 13:31:36 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/04/10/100602.php Kate TallentJust wait until it comes out on video.In theory this movie could have been watchable given that director Jonas Åkerlund is a music video/commercial director and a film about speed freaks on a three-day drug binge could lend itself to the frenetic type of editing the Swedish Åkerlund has used in his videos. Unfortunately this story about a collection of addicts is not worth editing, atleast not this by script by Will De Los Santos and Creighton Vero. Rarely has a film relied more on caricatures than character development. Additionally it borrows so heavily from other films about drug use, in particular "Requiem for a Dream," it crosses the line of paying homage to, or being influenced by other films about drug culture, and winds up being completely derivative. At times I thought I was having a flashback (no pun intended) to "Requiem"-- especially the scenes of the pupil dilating when one of the addicts got high. The film is a two-hour exercises in gratuitous freakishness without the originality of Harmony Korine's "Gummo" (which it is very derivative of) or any of John Waters' films.The fault does not lie solely on Akerland's shoulders given the material he had to work with, which unlike "Requiem" had the talents of the great Hubert Selby Jr., writing the script. Despite a decent cast which includes John Leguizamo as Spider the dealer and Jason Schwartzman as Ross the college dropout/speed freak the performances are wasted. The only redeeming thing about this film is Mickey Rourke-- yep tis true. He plays "the Cook" and spends his days in motel rooms cooking up methamphetamine for Spider. In a one scene where the Cook is recounting his childhood Rourke's story is simultaneously funny and painful and has an authenticity the rest of the film lacks. If only their were more moments like this in the film. Not even Eric Roberts in a wig, which is extremely funny, can save this film. Video4482@blogcritics.org Thu, 10 Apr 2003 10:06:02 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/04/03/100114.php Kate TallentA thorough disappointment and why? This "documentary" smacked of propaganda like I don't know what. Staggeringly one-sided and manipulative it is a puff piece if there ever was one. No matter what I think of his politics, or what you do -- this film is so one-sided it is insulting. Director Estela Bravo is to Fidel what some may say Leni Riefenstahl was to Hitler. Some serious hyperbole going on but keep reading... Old Edward R. Murrow interviews of Fidel with his son and his dog... come on...! Crowd says, "ooh how cute!" Manipulation. The ever-fantastic, nay brilliant, Sydney Pollack asking us why we can't forgive this guy if we've forgiven other enemies? Crowd goes: "Yea! Sydney is respected so how wrong can he be?" Manipulation. Footage of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who claims that Castro reads and edits his manuscripts before they're published speaking about Fidel's generosity and kindness. More manipulation. Go ahead and trot out footage of Muhammad Ali and Jack Nicholson with Castro - yea we all like both but intellectual heavy hitters they ain't and neither makes any particularly insightful comments on Fidel. More manipulation... and why the parade of celebrities? Bravo knows Americans have a fascination, nay worship, of any and all celebrities and credit them with far more intelligence and respect than they deserve. On that note this film is clearly tailored towards Americans. Bravo wrongly assumes Americans will buy what Hollywood types have to say about political figures rather than folks like David Corn, Eric Alterman or even William F. Buckley Jr. and it is an assumption that is clearly wrong. Where are the dissenting voices? The ever irascible and yet endearing journalist Mike Wallace and Jesse Helms, which in totality on screen last about five minutes, make the only non-flattering comments about Castro in the film. On a positive note the footage of Che and Fidel is historically accurate - one senses that the connection politically and personally between these two men was profound. Somewhere in the middle of what our government tells us about Castro and what Bravo portrays in this film is the truth. Video4326@blogcritics.org Thu, 3 Apr 2003 10:01:14 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/03/27/162609.php Kate TallentDirected by German filmmaker Thomas Riedelsheimer, Rivers and Tides is a documentary about 47-year-old Scottish environmental artist Andy Goldsworthy. Shot over the course of a year it details his numerous pieces which basically are comprised of things he finds in nature such as ice, rocks, flowers, leaves, even wool, that he rearranges and that are transformed by nature which he documents through photos.For instance "Soul of a Tree" is a piece in which he takes little bits of icicles and arranges them in a beautiful spiral around the tree, which eventually will melt, all chronicled through his photos. Transience is a key theme in Goldsworthy's work- growth and decay I suppose- which is not a novel concept in art but Goldsworthy's interpretation of this using dandelions or pigeon feathers is pretty awe-inspiring. Interestingly enough he is not only aware the object in nature such as a stone but the things around it like the sun or snow.He considers nature to be forever in a state of change and is seems keenly sensitive to that. The film is shot in Nova Scotia, New York State, France and Scotland amongst other places. Galleries are not shown that I recall, as his work is primarily all outdoors with the exception of an interior in France. Goldsworthy is a solitary, soft spoken guy who talks about his need to have a lot of time alone and that people drain him. The short segment of the film where he is with his family is pretty much the only time you see him interacting with people although he does briefly chat with some guys at a diner when he is in the States working on a commission. The film is mostly Goldsworthy and nature and his discussion of his work. It's a quiet little film. Not the most exciting film of the year but one of the most beautiful. Video4161@blogcritics.org Thu, 27 Mar 2003 16:26:09 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/03/25/130742.php Kate TallentDirected by Spike Jonze, ADAPTATION is the fascinating story of painfully insecure screenwriter Charlie Kaufman's agonizing struggle to adapt New Yorker writer Susan Orlean's nonfiction book, THE ORCHID THIEF into a screenplay as exotic and intriguing as any of the 30,000 varieties of orchids that exist (gee I hope that figure is correct - I think it is close but alas have no fact checker).It is a heady, sprawling chronicling of two stories (Kaufman's creative block and how he resolves it and the making of Orlean's book) that coalesce into a mind-blowing ending. Touching on writers block, sibling rivalry, obsession, passion (and lack thereof), as well as self-loathing, at its core ADAPTATION is a meditation about storytelling.Simultaneously funny and sad, the characters were on a rollercoaster ride at an anti-amusement park designed by Dario Argento where every twist and turn is bringing them closer and closer to an untimely and unavoidable end and they are powerless do anything to stop it. The film juxtaposes illusion and reality in such original ways that to attempt to describe it wouldn't do the film justice.   Basically the story starts with Kaufman, who wrote BEING JOHN MALKOVICH (played by a terrific Nicolas Cage - thank goodness he decided to take a break from action movies) and is intimidated and overwhelmed at the prospect of adapting Susan Orlean's book into a screenplay. Meryl Streep is fantastic as the elegant, urbane Manhattanite who psychologically unravels as she becomes involved first as a writer and eventually romantically, with the subject of her book: the mad orchid thief/con man John Laroche. Chris Cooper really nails the idiosyncratic Laroche and actually exceeds his superlative performance as Sheriff Sam Deeds in LONE STAR - which is pretty amazing. Cooper is fast becoming the new millennium character-actor equivalent of Warren Oates, and here his performance is riveting. The fact that he is missing front teeth adds a dangerous, feral quality to this man whose life has been about the pursuit of various passions: fish, orchids and as the film ends, porn. Added into this mix is Charlie's less talented twin brother Donald, also played by Cage of course, who takes a three-day film writing seminar and ends up selling his screenplay for millions. Actually there are many characters in this film - some fictional as well as real - such as John Cusak, Catherine Keener, John Malcovich who all play themselves. None of them are superfluous, fortunately they all combine to reinforce this twisting and turning narrative and keeps you leaning forward in your seat, thoroughly engaged.   Both Kaufman and Orlean are complex, bright, talented writers who also happen to be flawed in various ways. Orlean in particular is sad especially when she remarks that she desires to "want something as much as people want these plants." She essentially wants passion in her life. She finds it in Laroche and latches on to him vicariously experiencing his passion for orchids. The idea of a human going through life without an interest that captivates and drives them is tragic.This eventually sets up a whole series of events - the irony being that at the outset of the film Kaufman stated that when he adapted Orlean's book he would not make it "an orchid heist movie, or change the orchids into poppies and make it about drug running" - basically saying no to a Hollywood ending. Yet ADAPTATION the film, not Kaufman's screenplay, winds up with exactly that: guns, violence, swamps, chases... well I don't want to give it away. Hope that I haven't. It is breathtaking - kind of like an orchid. Video4067@blogcritics.org Tue, 25 Mar 2003 13:07:42 EST