Recently Viewed - June 2013

Turn Me On Dammit! (2011)✭✭✭✭

Turn Me On Dammit! is a Norwegian teen sex comedy and I’ll give you a moment to absorb that idea. The film is set in a tiny town so remote it’s not just in the middle of nowhere, it’s on top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere. Here we meet 15 year-old Alma (Helene Bergsholm), her body under assault by raging hormones and her heart consumed with hunky young Artur (Matias Myren) who plays guitar in the church choir. After an awkward sexual interlude at a party, Alma is ostracized at school and given a comical nickname by the community. The film is rich with eccentric characters, charming quirkiness and that deadpan, subtle humor the Scandinavians do better than just about anybody. The script won Best Screenplay at the Tribeca Film Festival and director Jannicke Systad Jacobsen is clearly a talent to watch. Think Northern Exposure re-imagined by John Hughes.

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Roman de Gare (2007)✭✭✭

Claude Lelouche’s twisty thriller pays homage to Hitchcock and Chabrol. It has an excellent first couple of acts, but eventually falls flat by getting too clever for its own good. The film plays around a lot with audience perception, then tricks us again by failing to deliver any sort of really meaningful denouement. The bulk of the film is devoted to constructing a mystery that unfortunately becomes less interesting with every revelation. Fanny Ardant, Dominque Pinon and Audrey Dana star and their great work is better than the script deserves.

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Casa de mi Padre (2012) ✭✭✭1/2

   

This wacked out comedy tries to be the Anchorman of Mexican telenovelas with spotty success. Will Ferrell produces and stars as the dim-wit son of a prominent Mexican rancher (Pedro Armendáriz Jr.). When his younger brother Raul (Diego Luna) returns home, Ferrell is drawn into a turf war with muy malo drug lord Onza (Gael García Bernal) and a love triangle with muy caliente Sonia (Genesis Rodriguez). As you might imagine with this slate of scene-stealers, the movie proceeds to get over the top pretty quickly, with all manner of visual puns, genre in-jokes, intentional continuity goofs, cornball production techniques and lots of slow motion exploding blood packets. Some of the jokes hit the mark, but many wildly miss. The bonus material reveals the movie was pretty much directed by committee and it shows. Still, it’s a worthwhile diversion if your in the mood for light and silly..

Summer With Julie - 2013

It's time for our annual celebration of summer with a few pics of the great Julie Newmar. Enjoy!

To purchase Julie's wonderful book The Conscious Catwoman Explains Life on Earth CLICK HERE

Many of these photos are available signed by Julie CLICK HERE

Wild Strawberries (1957) on Blu-ray ✭✭✭✭✭

Produced fifty-six years ago, Ingmar Bergman’s Wild Strawberries remains a venerable warhorse in the hallowed halls of Arthouse. But unlike this reviewer, who shares a similar vintage, the film shows no loss of vitality or any sign of imminent creakiness. Despite its strengths, Wild Strawberries often gets a bit lost within the contrasty folds of Bergman’s legendary filmography. Sight and Sound’s vaunted list of The Greatest Films of All Time pegs Wild Strawberries at sixty-three; not exactly a diss but way far behind Persona. The film doesn’t even appear on Roger Ebert’s lengthy List of Great Movies, although the late critic partially compensated by including Bergman’s equally underrated Winter Light.

The inherent silliness of film ranking aside, Wild Strawberries is a stunning cinematic experience. Filled with mystical beauty and chewy philosophical constructs in a tidy, perfectly tailored ninety-two minute package, the film is a mandatory part of the syllabus for any serious cineaste. And even if you’ve experienced this recondite road movie in the distant past, it’s high time for a revisit thanks to Criterion’s sublime new blu-ray edition. With this disc, viewers will discover boundless new textures and detail, leaving that dreary 16mm print from college film class in the magical dust of Swedish high summer.

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A Single Man (2009) ✭✭✭

A Single Man comes very close to being an astoundingly good movie, but it peaks too early and then wobbles its way to the end credits. Colin Firth is brilliant as George Falconer, a gay middle age college professor who has just learned of the death of Jim (Matthew Goode), his partner of 16 years, in a car accident. The film follows George as he attempts to go about his day, despite the stunning news and his immeasurable grief.

We also see George attending to a number of practical details, as though he is preparing for a long voyage. And indeed he is, for behind the cleared out desk and emptied safe deposit box lurks a grim and solemn purpose: this will be George’s last day on Earth.

Through flashbacks, we get a few glimpses of George and Jim’s romantic past and get a sense of their deep connection and emotional intimacy. George’s revelries are frequently interrupted by an earnest young student (Nicolas Hoult), who seems infatuated with George and seeks to take his student-teacher crush to its logical conclusion.

George visits with his neighbor Charley (Julianne Moore), and it's revealed that the two London natives share a long and difficult past. Former lovers, the two reminisce about their youthful affair, and Moore viciously scolds George for cheating her out of a happy life due to his sexual preferences. Moore is quite good in this long and mesmerizing scene, and her drunken, giggling dance to a Booker & the MGs record is the highlight of the film.

First time director Tom Ford, a successful men’s wear designer, helms with the same refined sensibilities he brings to his clothing line. A Single Man is a wonderful film to look at; its design imbued with a marvelous 1960s aesthetic. The palette in Moore’s house, or example, is all color-cued to her massive bee-hive hairdo, and those exact shades of orange and black are found in every bit of set dressing.

But good looks will get a movie only so far, and A Single Man has a few narrative liabilities. We get little sense of the societal challenges faced by openly gay men in the early 20th century. While it’s clear that Jim’s family doesn’t want George at the funeral (thanks to a voice-over phone call by Jon Hamm), the rest of the world seems just fine with their unorthodox living arrangement. And apparently in 1946 lonely Naval officers felt free to don their dress whites and cruise Santa Monica’s beachfront bars.

Ford seems unsure as to how to depict gay sexuality, so he generally avoids it altogether. His one attempt, a scene where George meets a gay prostitute outside of a shop, is surprisingly prudish and judgmental. Handled as a series of gauzy extreme close-ups, the sequence has an air of tacky tawdriness, as if Ford holds gay men to a higher moral standard.

The ending manages to be surprising despite heavy foreshadowing, but it’s questionable if audiences will really care by then. The film’s focus and energy lags significantly in the final third, as Moore’s departure shifts a heavy dramatic load onto Firth. When he encounters the young, wide-eyed Hoult one more time, their interaction is so laden with murky sexual tension that instead of eroticism, we have to settle for a disappointing awkwardness.

A Single Man builds beautifully, but never fully delivers on its early promises. It’s still a highly recommended film, as its strengths ultimately outweigh its puzzling weaknesses. But it’s hard to escape the gnawing feeling that, despite its artistic trappings, despite all the tremendous craft on display, a great film shouldn’t leave you feeling this empty.

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Paris (2009) ✭✭✭✭1/2

Cedric Klapish’s jazzy aggregation is an unabashed love letter to the French capital. There’s nothing new here in terms of storytelling - we are presented with voyeuristic peeks into the everyday lives of a cross-section of Parisians, like a dozen other films - but Klapish and his cameraman Christophe Beaucarne do a truly amazing job of capturing the glorious light that bathes the city in sensual beauty.


Klapish misses no opportunity to stage his scenes on high rooftops or lofty perches in Montmartre, and the resulting vistas will leave you weak-kneed and seriously considering a call to your travel agent. The central story concerns Klapish stock player Roman Duris, here a professional dancer at the Moulin Rouge, who is suffering from heart failure and faced with not only losing his career, but his Earthly existence. He reaches out to his estranged sister, Juliette Binoche, for help and support, and before long she has taken up residency in Duris’ flat; her 3 adorable kids in tow.


Duris and Binoche, two gifted talents, do masterful work in these scenes, and their subtle yet explosive chemistry utterly convince us that we are seeing damaged siblings reconnect. But there’s no shortage of acting talent in Paris. The chief subplot details the humorous mid-life crisis of a college professor (Fabrice Luchini) whose infatuation with a young student nearly drags his unwitting architect brother (Francois Cluzot) into a rather goofy emotional abyss.


We also meet a network of produce sellers with particular emphasis on the tortured relationship between recently divorced Jean (Albert Dupontel) and his free-spirited ex Caroline (Julie Ferrier). And, to add a bit of balance and perspective, Klapish introduces us to a young African immigrant (Farida Kelfa) whose one deluded dream in life is to cross the Mediterranean, at great physical peril, and reconnect with a flighty French socialite who used him sexually during her vacation.


All of these stories are well conceived and richly developed, and eventually we discover they are all, at least tangentially, related. But it is Binoche and Duris who provide a solid anchor, with Binoche continuing her recent hot streak of playing single women facing middle-age with strength tempered by fear. Here she seems to float through every scene with a gritty kind of charisma, despite spending much of the film clad in a plain-Jane Army surplus parka (This is the second movie in a row where Juliette has had to wear some sort of hideous jacket. The parka is an improvement over the safety orange hoodie from Summer Hours, but not by much).


Still, the impressive acting ensemble assembled here is merely supportive to the film’s real star. The city of Paris has the most affecting scenes and, without uttering a word, all the best lines.

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Miracle of the White Stallions (1963) ✭✭✭ 1/2

Miracle of the White Stallions (1963) is a Disney production with all the classic elements of the studio’s early forays into live action adventure. Set in Vienna during the waning days of WWII, the film chronicles the city’s Spanish Riding School, home of the famed dancing Lippizaner horses. With Vienna enduring nightly bombing raids, the school’s director Colonel Podhajsky (Robert Taylor) desperately seeks to transport the prized beasts to safety in the countryside, but the Nazi authorities are equally determined to keep the performances going to maintain a veneer of normalcy. To these German functionaries, allowing the riding school to leave would be tantamount to admitting defeat, while the Russians and Americans press ever closer to the Austrian capital.

With the help of a disgruntled Nazi general (Curt Jurgens) Podhajsky devises a clever subterfuge to smuggle the stallions out of Vienna, but soon learns he has a new problem. The Lippizaner mares, previously kept at a remote training facility, have been absconded by the Germans and taken to Czechoslovakia, where they face the very real possibility of being used for food by a starving populace. Enter the conquering General Patton (John Larch) and his assistant Major Hoffman (James Franciscus), both former Olympic riders and admirers of the legendary Lippizaners. They form an uneasy alliance with Podhajsky, and the men launch a daring rescue mission: part military maneuver, part American frontier-style roundup.

As typical of vintage Disney adventures, the story is laced with sentimentality and, despite its European setting, heavy injections of aw shucks Americana. The American dog faces and Austrian aristocrats appear to have no difficulties understanding each others’ language, although Rosetta Stone software was still some sixty years in the future. The film proudly proclaims it’s based on a true story, but viewers will strongly suspect the taking of significant narrative liberties.

However, none of these are damnable weaknesses. Also typical of Disney productions Miracle of the White Stallions displays high levels of craft in the art of moviemaking and visual storytelling. Events unfold at a well measured pace, with timely character building interactions. Directed by Arthur Hiller, a solidly competent artisan who spent the 1960s and 70s churning out a string of hits, the production meets its assorted challenges - battle scenes, exploding buildings and a stampeding remuda numbering in the hundreds - with an efficient finesse. Robert Taylor may have looked more comfortable in a cowboy hat, but he carries the fine livery of the riding school with a steely and regal bearing.

The real stars, of course, are the magnificent Stallions and their extraordinary feats of precision. Viewers are treated to two extended performance sequences, featuring the beasts’ famous diagonal trotting and stationary high jumps. The mind reels at the hours of training involved - and the high degree of trust between animal and man - to coax the giant creatures into acrobatic moves that appear so effortless. This film gave many young Americans their first exposure to this storied European tradition. A tradition which happily continues to this day, playing to sold out performances the world over. Walt Disney achieved many amazing things in his life, including helping to save the equally amazing White Stallions of Vienna.

Quickies for June 2013

The Women on the 6th Floor (2010) ✭✭✭✭

Philippe Le Guay’s film is a feel-good romantic comedy that should tick all the boxes of those looking for well-done escapism. Set in 1962, Fabrice Luchini stars as a meek stock broker and family man living in a sprawling Paris townhouse that has been in his family for generations. When his wife (Sandrine Kiberlain) hires a vivacious Spanish maid named Maria (Natalia Verbeke), Luchini’s passions are slowly stirred in new and unexpected ways. He eventually befriends Maria and in the process discovers a community of Spanish domestics with impressive work ethics and tender dreams of a better life. Luchini’s admiration of these hard working ladies causes him to become their advocate, leading to surprising role reversals that are both amusing and exhilarating. Excellent work here from Luchini, Argentinean actress Verbeke and Almodovar veteran Carmen Maura. The Women on the 6th Floor is an entertaining diversion that’s not the least bit challenging, yet it manages to restore a little bit of your faith in humanity.

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The Castle (1997) ✭✭✭✭

The Castle is a 1997 made for TV version of Franz Kafka’s last novel. Directed by Michael Haneke - then relatively unknown - the film is carefully faithful to its source, and features snippets from the text delivered in voice over. Ulrich Mühe - the sensitive Stasi officer from The Lives of Others - stars as a land surveyor who’s been dispatched to a backwater village in Austria. There, he is met with a cold and mysterious hostility by the locals. They resent his intrusion on their dingy, crumbling burg, which the villagers seem to regard as some sort of secret paradise. While the film has few of the visual flourishes that distinguish Haneke’s recent work, he does manage to create a nightmarish world of xenophobic, small minded rubes and stubborn bureaucrats in keeping with Kafka’s themes. If you’ve ever fought city hall or had a dispute with a large corporation, you’ll identify with Mühe’s attempts to jump through the endless hoops local officials put in his way. The film also has moments of comic relief, thanks mainly to Mühe’s bumbling assistants and an amusingly slutty barmaid (Susanne Lothar). Kafka died before finishing the novel and, for better or worse, the film remains true to the book’s abrupt ending. Kafka and Haneke are often referred to as artistic soulmates, and this densely surreal allegory brings out the best in each of them.

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In Another Country (2012)✭✭✭

In Another Country is an earnest little narrative experiment about comings and goings at a weekly rental beach house one quiet summer. Isabelle Huppert plays three different French tourists seeking a little fun in the South Korean sun. Not a lot happens and it’s not the type of film that stirs strong emotions, but Huppert fans will find it worthwhile. I’m going to seek out more films by director Sang-soo Hong. He’s definitely onto something but I’m not sure what.