Some Quick Ones...

Time of the Wolf (2003)


Add a star if you're a paranoid schizophrenic. This contemptible production is a sadistic exercise in unrelenting grimness. Huppert pukes, a horse is shot and sliced open, a child dies from dehydration, middle-age women exchange sex for a drink of water, little Benny's nose bleeds incessantly...sheesh, enough already. The apocalypse will be really bad. I get it.

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Mamma Mia! (2008)


Bad beyond mortal endurance. Pierce Brosnan sings. Middle age women pretend to be disco stars. The horror, the horror. The turkeys are hitting the ground like bags of wet cement. Oh the humanity.

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Father Ted, Series 3 (1997)


Greatest moments in TV comedy: Lucy stomping grapes, Ed Ames' hatchet throw with Johnny Carson, Python's Spanish Inquisition, Seinfeld's Master of My Domain, and "Speed 3" from this disc. Just watch the fecking thing. Now.

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Tout Va Bien (1972)


Jane Fonda further established her art house bona fides in this tale of rebellions great and small. Godard, when not tripping over Marxist boilerplate, displays his considerable technical chops as a filmmaker. There are a number of innovative visual ideas here: the obvious staginess of the factory environment, the amazingly choreographed long tracking shots and the workers march with it's holocaust overtones, to name a few.

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Rohmer in Retrospect: La Collectionneuse (1967)

Director, writer and critic Eric Rohmer passed away on January 11, 2010, at the age of 89. In this series, we will be examining some of his lesser known films.


La Collectionneuse is best viewed as a transitional work, and Rohmer’s first attempt at adapting his patented talky romance format to feature length. The two previous entries in the Moral Tales series, La Boulangère de Monceau and Suzanne’s Career, both produced in 1963, were B/W shorts, shot in Paris in a gritty, documentary style. La Collectionneuse was filmed in color by the great Nestor Almendros (who would go on to win an Oscar for Days of Heaven) and takes place in the rural south of France, in one of those stone farmhouses that make American tourists swoon.


A Parisian named Adrian (Patrick Bauchau), who has taken navel-gazing to an art form, has come to the villa for one of those interminable French holidays. He shares the house with his friend Daniel (Daniel Pommereulle) and a free-sprited – to put it mildy - young woman named Haydee (Haydee Politoff). Haydee’s vacation plans consist almost entirely of having sex with, well, everyone. Everyone except Adrian, that is.


In an interesting reversal of the usual sexual politics, it is Haydee who views sex as a series of one night conquests, and she ‘collects’ trysts with men the way others collect stamps or rare coins. All of this throws the handsome, and quite spoiled, Adrian into a blasé sort of tizzy, as he finds himself unable to seduce the unselective Haydee, and his self esteem, which is basically his entire raison d’être, is mortally threatened.


Despite having a loyal fanbase, La Collectionneuse is not one of this reviewer’s favorite Rohmer films. There are issues with the casting – usually Rohmer’s strong suit – that prevent the film from fully capitalizing on its intriguing premise. Patrick Bachau (who has gone on to have a long and successful career, including the wonderful HBO series Carnivale) seems generally too ambivalent considering he's supposedly The Worlds Most Self Absorbed Man, and Haydee Politoff (who went on to do a couple of low budget vampire movies) simply isn't very interesting.


The slightly tomboy-ish ingénue is a Rohmer archetype, serving as the narrative lynchpin in much of his future work, and here, through Politoff’s shortcomings, we gain a deeper appreciation of the many times the director would get this character exactly right. Politoff was 20 years old when the film was made, but she photographs much younger, giving the film an accidental unattractive edge; it’s as if we’re watching the story of an older man obsessed with a bit of slutty jailbait. This is an idea Rohmer would explore with much more finesse a few years later in Clare’s Knee, and there he pulls it off thoughtfully and with a minimum of ickyness.


La Collectionneuse is a bumpy ride that will appeal mainly to hard-core Rohmer fans and completists. But we do get a peek at the evolution of the director’s unique brand of insightful humanism.

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Lemon Tree (2008)

This film reduces the complexities of the Israeli-Palestinian struggle to a simple story about values, and makes us feel the full measure of the conflict in a way no CNN documentary ever could. To a Palestinian widow named Salma (Hiam Abbas, who you may remember from “The Visitor”), her grove of lemon trees represent a meager livelihood and a connection to her dead father, who planted and nurtured the orchard from twigs.


To the Israeli Defence Minister (Doron Tavory), who has arrogantly built a palatial estate on the adjoining lot, the grove represents a security risk, since terrorists could conceivability use the canopy of trees as a hiding place. We see the Israelis’ justifiable mania for security, as Tavory orders wire fences and guard towers to be erected, and Salma’s once beautiful and peaceful oasis begins to resemble a prison camp.


The story then takes on aspects of a courtroom drama, as Salma enlists the aid of a kind-hearted Palestinian lawyer (Ali Suliman), and the pair pursues Salma’s complaints to the highest levels of the justice system. The story has a few weaknesses, most notably a lack of balance, as all the Palestinian characters are portrayed as gentle, hard working souls possessed of an attractive, ironic humor, while all the Israelis appear to be stubborn, selfish and somewhat sleazy.


The one exception is Tavory’s elegant wife Mira (Rona Lipaz-Michael), an interior designer who appears to have sympathy for Salma’s plight. There are numerous scenes where the two very different women stare wistfully at each other across the divide of Tavory’s fence, but the viewer feels a bit cheated as this potential catharsis is never realized.


Still, the film is well worth our continued attention for its devastating final scene, where the court’s Solomon-esque solution is finally enacted, at tremendous emotional and aesthetic cost to both parties.

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J.D. Salinger 1919-2010

First Rohmer, now Salinger. The icons are dropping like flies. But mark my words, in the coming years - now that his 30 years of secret writing and all the speculative work that he sued to suppress can finally be published - his legend will be even bigger than it was during his life.

Publishers...let the bidding begin.

Rohmer in Retrospect: Full Moon in Paris (1984)

Director, writer and critic Eric Rohmer passed away on January 11, 2010, at the age of 89. In this series, we will be examining some of his lesser known films.


Smack dab in the middle of his Comedies and Proverbs series, “Full Moon in Paris” is an underrated work by Eric Rohmer. Its predecessor, “Pauline at the Beach”, was wildly successful, both critically and financially, and Full Moon’s reception was second tier in comparison.


But in many ways, this is the archetypal Rohmer light romance, complete with a confused and utterly self-absorbed protagonist named Louise (Pascale Ogier); a shallow young woman with a brand new degree in interior design, beginning what she thinks will be a glamorous career in Paris. She has moved into a suburban apartment with her stogy but dependable boyfriend (Tcheky Karyo), who she considers more of a lifeboat than a lover.




Louise foolishly wants it all; a settled, stable home life when it suits her, and wild nights of partying and flirting when it doesn’t. But mainly, Louise wants whatever she doesn’t have at that second. She justifies her flightiness by allowing Karyo the same freedoms, although he is totally uninterested in an open relationship.




As is typical for this series, the story plays out as Louise interacts with her circle of young Parisian friends, who spend their nights dancing to dreadful French pop music (yes that is a redundancy) and sneaking off to terraces and alcoves for a little old fashioned necking.




A wet-behind-the-ears Fabrice Luchini is quite good as Louise’s married friend and confidant Octave, who is content with their platonic relationship for now, but thinks Louise would make a smashing mistress one day. Despite her posing, Louise’s liberated lip service will be severely tested as the film unfolds, and she will learn that getting what you wished for can be surprisingly hazardous.


The film is rendered in Rohmer’s typical light tones, so light in fact that it almost seems un-ambitious, and it is clear where the story is heading long before the dénouement, but that is the fun of Rohmer: watching the manipulative and the misguided arrive at their long-awaited date with Karma.



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Lorna's Silence (2008)

Being human, I suppose the Dardenne Brothers are capable of making a bad film, but they haven’t done so yet. With Lorna’s Silence, the talented siblings back off a bit on their raw meat documentarian style – there are a lot less violent camera swings and shots of the backs of people’s heads – but story wise, the brothers remain in their comfort zone with another tale of fringe, shadowy hustlers trying to make a quick buck off of illegal immigrants.


I would never have imagined that there are so many people desperate to live in dreary Liege, Belgium but, over the years, the Dardennes have introduced us to many of them, and their compelling, heartbreaking stories. Undocumented Lorna (Arta Dobroshi) has entered into a sham marriage with a heroin-addict (Jeremie Renier) as a way of obtaining Belgian citizenship. As soon as she gets her papers, she plans to divorce Renier so that she in turn can marry other illegals and help naturalize them, etcetera etcetera.


All of this is quite lucrative and, on the surface, fairly harmless, until Lorna’s sleazeball business partner (Fabrizio Rongione) devises a scheme to double their profits through a sinister shortcut. The Dardennes succeed brilliantly in making us feel Lorna’s dilemma, as her seemingly benign plan has been taken to a new, high stakes level.


Lorna’s desperation manifests itself in surprising ways, and her lack of predictability is captured by the brothers with their trademark objective immediacy, and ultimately, we share her sense of helplessness and guilt. Lorna’s attempt to make amends using the only option available to her is both pathetic and oddly logical, and we realize the full and devastating measure of her predicament.


In typically Dardenne fashion, Lorna is neither obviously endorsed nor condemned by the storytelling, but the matter-of-fact presentation of events makes us keenly aware of the “banality of evil”, and the thin, fragile line that separates us all from a world of utter barbarism.

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In The Loop (2009)

Doctor Strangelove meets The Office in this bouncy quasi-doc that somehow makes us laugh out loud at a bit of recent history - the selling of the Iraq War - that wasn’t the least bit funny when it was happening. The film looks at the unique, and rather sordid, relationship between the US and UK governments in drumming up war fever; a relationship based on mutual exploitation and bamboozlement.


The fun gets rolling when a dim bulb of a cabinet minister (Tom Hollander) makes a casual public remark that war is “unforeseeable”, and the BBC makes the mistake of assuming that Hollander has a clue what he’s talking about. This causes frenzy on both sides of the pond as US and UK officials realize they must now redouble their efforts to sell this war to a skeptical public. Hollander and his young assistant (Chris Addison) are quickly summoned to Washington, where a thorough tongue lashing awaits them from a cold blooded State Department neo-con (well played by David Rasche), who wants this war so badly he can taste it.


Along the way we meet an array of powerful goofballs and wannabes, and all of them share the trait of ineptitude tempered by naked ambition. Mimi Kennedy (yup, Dharma’s mom) and James Gandolfini kind of steal the show as Secretary of State and a dovish 5 star general, respectively, and it’s great fun watching these two gifted talents interact.


Ultimately, the whole rush to war is nearly derailed by a livid constituent of Hollander (the hilarious Steve Coogan) whose garden wall is falling down and somehow it’s the government's fault. Then there’s Peter Capaldi as a shadowy Downing Street official whose profanity laced tirades serve as a vivid reminder that British cursing is much funnier than the American variety.


“In the Loop” is an entertaining and enjoyable romp. Just don’t think too much about the actual events the film satirizes or you may find yourself feeling a bit nauseous.



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Dequenne & Deneueve

A still from Téchiné's La fille du RER (The Girl on the Train) which is finally being released in a few highly civilized North American cities. I'm looking forward to this one.

Review From Indie Wire

An Education (2009)

Set in London in 1961, “An Education” is an intelligent and sophisticated drama that features a performance from Carey Mulligan that is nothing short of astounding. Mulligan stars as Jenny Miller, a 16 year old straight-A student who is introduced to the scary but exhilarating world of adult freedoms and responsibilities through a new and seemingly harmless friendship with a 30ish charmer named David (Peter Sarsgaard).


David’s apparent wealth and worldliness, coupled with his mild nature and self-effacing modesty make him an irresistible package both to Jenny and her squabbling and insecure parents (Albert Molina and Cara Seymour). Through David, a new and exciting world opens up for the diligent Jenny, a world that suddenly puts all of her dreams within her grasp, and with a speed and ease she never expected.


But as we learn in this well constructed story, short cuts to happiness can be treacherous and heartbreaking paths. Director Lone Scherfig works with a clarity and confidence that is reminiscent of David Lean and early Hitchcock. Editor Barney Pilling’s work is invisible and therefore nearly perfect as the film’s surprises unfold at a pace that neither rushes nor drags.


While there are elements of the story that could be considered anti-Semitic by the overly sensitive, screenwriter Nick Hornby does a fine job of finessing these aspects and makes us realize that it is really Britain’s deeply engrained and quite exhausting class warfare that can cause even the most clear-headed to pursue reckless courses of action.


Despite the strong supporting cast, it is the extraordinary work of Carey Mulligan that keeps us enthralled and riveted as this superb film proceeds, and the connection we feel with her enlarges this small scale story into a sort of parable for the way the world has changed since 1961. Jenny’s lost innocence echoes our own, as we have learned that people are not always what they seem, and that the quick and easy route is often the most perilous.

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Fraulein (2006)

Set in damp, wintry Zurich, “Fraulein” is one of those small scale, grungy melodramas that seems tailor-made for the German language. A series of coincidences unite a successful cafeteria owner named Ruza (Murjana Karanovic) and her assistant Mila (Ljubica Jovic), both émigrés from the old Yugoslavia, with young Ana, a newly arrived and emotionally scarred Bosnian refugee (Marija Skaricic).


Ruza and Mila, now middle-aged, left Yugoslavia decades earlier, before the nation was ravaged by war. When homeless Ana shows up at the cafeteria seeking employment, Ruza grudgingly agrees, but keeps a suspicious eye on Ana, who Ruza regards as inferior, and possibly uncivilized. But Ana is so full of spirit and energy that Ruza begins to respect and even admire her young employee and, despite their deep cultural differences, a bond of friendship develops.


But under Ana’s passionate zest for life is a dark and stunning secret, a secret that ultimately makes her a richer and deeper character. Culturally, there is much in this story that is Yugoslavian “inside baseball”, and most viewers will have difficulty fully appreciating the subtleties of Mila and Ana’s relationship at first, but director Andrea Staka does a fine job of filling in the blanks, and eventually we have a firm grasp of the complex view those from the former Yugoslavia have of themselves and each other.


Even comically frumpy Mila gets in on the act, as Ana inspires her to accept the fact that the homeland she knew is no more, and to begin looking forward instead of sulking over the past. But this is Marija Skaricic’s film, and her portrayal of Ana, a character whose generous, life-affirming spirit extends to everyone but herself, is a performance this reviewer won’t soon forget, and I hope we get more opportunities to see her on screen in the coming years.




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Star Trek (2009)

This prequel of what Trekkies call “TOS” (the original series) is all flash and speed and action and doesn’t have an idea in its head. We see how the famous Enterprise crew met and through skill, bravery, and despite appalling personal shallowness, forged themselves into sci-fi icons. The catalyst for this nonsensical story is a sociopathic Romulan named Nero (Eric Bana), owner of the most unfriendly looking spaceship you’ve ever seen, running around destroying planets by turning them into black holes.


He accomplishes this by… wait for it… drilling holes in them. But he’s actually from the future, and spoiling for a fight with the federation because Spock was unable to save his planet from destruction 120 years later. Confused yet? Newly minted Star Fleet Academy grad James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) is pressed into service aboard the Enterprise which is the only functional starship in the vicinity; all the others are sitting in a cornfield undergoing maintenance. Apparently, starship construction will be something of a growth industry in the Iowa of the future, and it’s nice to know that one day good paying jobs will return to the American Midwest.


Kirk finds a young Spock (Zachary Quinto) firmly ensconced as first officer aboard the Enterprise. This Spock’s personality is a mix of logic and elite snootiness and he and Kirk have a long way to go if they are ever to be BFFs. It doesn’t help that they both have eyes for the same girl, the fetching young Uhuru (Zoe Saldana) who in this version was apparently a big hit at Academy frat parties. The movie gets sillier as it proceeds, and there are phaser battles and fistfights aplenty before Kirk and Spock discover an odd whirly-gig spaceship that may be human-kind’s only hope.


The acting here is actually quite serviceable, Quinto in particular, and there will no doubt be other movies featuring this young Enterprise ensemble saving the universe. They can start by saving us from these script writers.

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Up in the Air (2009)

Here we have the typically quirky Indie Film template applied to grown-up subject matter, and the result is a movie that entertains but doesn’t involve. George Clooney stars as a freelance corporate grim reaper, a man who travels the breadth of this great nation canning middle management types with a highly professional style of faux sensitivity. Clooney relishes this life of airports, hotels and rental car kiosks, swiping his various elite status cards to break into long lines and rack up enormous frequent flier miles that he never intends to use.


He begins a liaison with a fellow road warrior, the sultry Vera Farmiga, and the two occasionally synchronize their schedules long enough to share a few witticisms in varying states of undress. The film’s best moments belong to a young business school hot shot (Anna Kendrick) whose newfangled ideas about firing people via teleconference threaten not only Clooney’s livelihood, but his beloved lifestyle of high flying solitude.


The movie seems to be most alive during Kendrick’s brief scenes, and it’s clear that director Jason Reitman is much more effective at creating 20-something characters than mature adults, as both Clooney and Farmiga seem quite bland in comparison. Clooney eventually has a slow burning epiphany sparked by his sister’s wedding and, due to some unconvincing sentimentality during a trip to Wisconsin, begins to question some of the underpinnings of his lonely existence.


But Reitman handles big revelations with the same too-cool-for-school ironic detachment that he handles everything else, and Clooney’s moment of insight seems more like a blind alley than a turning point. In fact, while the film works as a source of pleasant entertainment, it’s difficult to surmise exactly what Reitman is trying to say with the whole enterprise. The film has garnered praise and award nominations aplenty, but if this is what passes for the Great American Film these days, it’s not just our economy that’s in the crapper.

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