A GOOD WEEK: Animal Kingdom, Scott Pilgrim VS the World, Despicable Me

A growing sense of menace and dread keeps the new Australian crime thriller ANIMAL KINGDOM fascinating. A teen age boy's mother has committed suicide as the film begins, and he has no one to turn to except his estranged grandmother, who has several sons involved in various criminal activities. His uncles naturally start to involve him in their activities, until the death of two police men puts an intense focus on the shrinking crime family. (The police seem to have no qualms blowing off the occasional family member, probably due to their frustration at not being able to pin anything definite on them.) The police begin to close in on the young, newest member of the family, hoping his naivety will give them info they can use against the uncles. There is a lot of tension as the teen realizes that he doesn't have a friend in his family or with the police and the grandmother turns out to be full of horrifying contradictions. It's a very well made film with an especially chilling ending.
GRADE-----B+

Micheal Cera has the perfect role as a young 20 something wanna be rock musician who gets mixed up with a wild girl with seven evil ex-boyfriends in the comedy/fantasy film SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD. The film moves fast, has a lot of rock music, much witty dialogue, clever editing and special effects and a lot of sight gags, most of which work very well. To win over the girl, he must defeat her seven evil ex boyfriends. My only complaint to what is an original and clever film, is that it seems like about 3 boyfriends too many--and the confrontation/fight scenes seemed a bit too repetitious by the end. Still, any film that includes hilarious scenes of three gay men and one straight man sharing a bed, and mixes violent video games with "real" time fighting for great slapstick gags, deserves a lot of credit. GRADE----B+

Finally caught up with DESPICABLE ME in a totally unnecessary 3-D format, and despite the extra $4 paid for the 3-D glasses, I found the film to be quite delightful and witty, and like the best animation, the film has a lot of heart amid the mayhem. Steve Carell voices Gru, a self proclaimed evil mastermind who wants of shrink and steal the moon, and adopts three orphan girls to help him in his plan. Of course he hates children, but that changes everything. There are a lot of complicated sight gags that work very well. GRADE-----B+

From the John Wayne TCM collection, watched REAP THE WILD WIND (1942) directed by Cecil B. DeMille and featuring Ray Milland, Raymond Massey, Paulette Goddard, Robert Preston, Susan Hayward and Charles Bickford. Wayne and Milland fight for the affections of Southern Belle Goddard in this period piece set in 1840's and involving pirate ships affecting seafaring trade. It is enjoyable hokum with a strong plot and interesting characters, and the underwater scenes won a special effects Oscar--quite advanced for their time.
GRADE-----B

Saw two Elizabeth Taylor/Richard Burton films this week, and both had their strengths and weaknesses. First up was THE SANDPIPER (1965) with Taylor as a free-spirited painter (who paints in high fashion pant suits and sweaters, then throws her brushes aside across the table when a guest enters her home--shouldn't she store them in water or oil????) who falls in love with the president of a private religious school (Burton) who is married to Eva Marie Saint....You get the picture, but the affair is carefully introduced without much flamboyance, and the music is lovely if overdone--The Shadow of Your Smile won the Oscar for best song that year. Charles Bronson and Robert Webber have small but important roles when both were very young, and the film is filmed and set on the California Big Sur coast, which is beautifully filmed. I must admit I really got into this soapy drama--it's easy to see why Taylor and Burton created so much publicity--they both have charisma to burn. The second film was THE COMEDIANS from 1967 with an excellent cast including Alec Guiness, Peter Ustinov, Paul Ford, Lillian Gish, James Earl Jones (recognized his voice before his young face), Roscoe Lee Brown and Cicely Tyson. The film is set in Haiti during the reign of cruel dictator Duvalier, and there's a feeling of dread that covers the film. In fact, in retrospect, this feels very real and sad--even the recent devastating earthquake in Haiti seemed telegraphed as the only way this country can be jolted out of corruption into the mainstream of world wide awareness. Burton and Taylor are OK as adulterous lovers amid the political corruption, and Alec Guiness has great moments as a slightly daffy retired World War II commander in over his head, and the rest of the cast has their moments, but the Graham Greene novel this is based on seems uninspired compared to other filmizations of his work (OUR MAN IN HAVANA, THE THIRD MAN, etc). Still, if you are patient, this film is admirable, curious and watchable. GRADE for THE SANDPIPER------B-and GRADE for THE COMEDIANS------B-

Biking in Montana: Eat Pray Love (Mao's) Dance(r), Centurion and Patrick 1.5

I spent last week pedaling my bicycle about 420 miles around western Montana, eating lots of fried food, sleeping in (mostly) funky and marginal motels in small one street towns and frying under a hot burning sun, while enjoying the vast blue sky and seemingly endless vistas of a sparsely populated "hunting and fishing "state. In one small town, Wisdom Montana, Toni and I had two choices for dinner. The first was a tavern with buck antlers mounted above the wood sided building, and the outside lettering painted on the wall promised great pizzas and salad bar. When we walked into the dark interior, the dozen locals (all in cowboy hats and jeans and boots) ponied up to the bar suddenly stopped talking and turned our way. I felt like I was in the middle of a dangerous movie scene. We made our way toward the dozen empty tables, and finally a woman from a bar stool shuffled over. "Do you have a salad bar here?" I asked, not seeing one at all. "We don't have a salad bar anymore, and we don't serve salads at all. Only pizza and hoagies and beer." I happily grabbed Toni's elbow and steered her out of there with a relieved "Thanks, we will try somewhere else." The somewhere else was directly across the street, a little place with a couple of trucks pulled up in front of it. As we approached one truck, I looked inside the back end and noticed a deer antler sticking up. As I got closer I realized that the deer was partially gutted, with a large swath of red flesh exposed to the hot setting sun and flies. There was a dog in the back with the dead deer. A twenty something man came rushing out of the restaurant with a friend, and I asked him "Roadkill????" He just grunted and said "Nope" and then started hollering at the dog. I found out later that that was not his dog, but a hungry roaming animal who smelled his dinner in the back of the pickup.
The pedestrian burger, fries and (frozen) fish and chips were adequate but hardly worth the $10 each and the 90 minute wait for the order. (To be fair, the waitress and cook were alone and overwhelmed by the 20 or so bicyclists that had come in over the course of the evening.) As Toni will affirm, rural Montana is not the place for picky vegetarians to find a decent meal.

From May's SIFF, the new film from Bruce (DRIVING MISS DAISY) Beresford is a pleasing concoction of dance, music and melodrama called MAO'S LAST DANCER about a talented young dancer in Communist China in the 1980's who is enticed to the USA for training and to be a shining example of what China can do in the arts. Of course, he becomes Americanized (for better or worse) and tries to defect. There's not a lot of surprises here plot-wise, but the eye candy and music and dancing are easy on the eye. There is a powerful emotional scene towards the end which goes a long way towards solidifying the film's likability. It worked for me. If you like music, ballet and exotic locales, then you will love this film. GRADE-------- B

From the 2009 SIFF comes a Swedish film called PATRICK 1.5, a pleasing comedy drama about an upwardly mobile gay couple who are trying to fit into suburbia by living in a rather sterile neighbor hood, complete with the hypocrisies and stereotypes such places inspire. They are on a waiting list to adopt a baby. When their baby comes, the age 1.5 turns out to be a type-o--the misplaced decimal age is really a homophobic teenager age 15 who has issues and a troubled past. The teen has no where to go, so until the problem is solved, he lives with this couple and complicates their lives. The bonding that occurs is rather unpredictable, and the strain on the couple threatens their relationship. It was refreshing to see the warts and all complications that happen in this situation, and the film is not a fairy tale (no pun) per se, but a satisfying comment on relationships, love, commitment, and the family unit, not unlike the currently playing THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT. GRADE------- B

There's a startling sense of action and energy in the new action epic from Great Britain called CENTURION, with some brutal and bloody encounters, as it tells of a Roman soldier caught behind the enemy lines in the 2nd century as Rome is trying to conquer Britain. The plot consists of straight forward chasing and pursuing scenarios, and technically, the film will keep you awake and enthralled. However, this was filmed (as screened at SIFF) in a cheap looking video digital manner, with the action scenes looking grainy, grey, dark and herky-jerky--a technique that I really dislike watching. (Other similar movies filmed like this include QUANTUM OF SOLICE and a quarter of the recent SIFF films--a disappointing and annoying trend. I realize it's a cheaper way of filming, but it looks like shit.). GRADE--------- C+

EAT PRAY LOVE was not awful, but it isn't very good, either. The main character is a self-centered, annoying, insecure woman, who walks out on her marriage at the start of the story for what seemed to me a trivial, potentially workable problem, and then seeks to "find" herself by eating (and gaining weight) in Italy, "praying" in an ashram in India, and then relaxing and finally finding love in Bali--all over the course of one year. Julia Roberts was easy to watch--she has an infectious laugh and as she ages (in real life) her horsey face and annoying mannerisms have mellowed into something more thoughtful and introspective. Of course, it was beautifully photographed--it's a good sign when even poorest India looks worth visiting, and some of the supporting players (Billy Crudup, Viola Davis, Richard Jenkins, James Franco and especially Javier Bardem) add some much appreciated gravitas. Unfortunately, the character's progression seemed unconvincing, and the three sections of the story don't tie into anything more that a lovely, dreamy travelogue. GRADE--------C

A very clever idea gets derailed by lazy execution and a lack luster story line in the comedy MY SUPER EX-GIRLFRIEND (2006), which is a surprising disappointment from director Ivan Rietman and players Luke Wilson, Uma Thurman, Rainn Wilson and Eddie Izzard. After the thrill has warn off from dating and bedding a neurotic female superhero, an architect must live with the consequences when he breaks it off with her--she feels scorned and seeks revenge. I wanted to enjoy this more than I did. After all, who hasn't fantasized about sex with a super-hero type partner, and there are some amusing moments of a bed that pounds the wall, or mile-high sex, or the one-up-manship of bragging. And there's a funny, outrageous scene which includes a shark in a high rise apartment (!) which ends way too soon. Unfortunately, the film doesn't deliver all it promises. Hope someone else tries again soon with a lighter, funnier touch. GRADE-------- C

Inception, The Extra Man, Five Easy Pieces

Director Christopher Nolan (THE DARK KNIGHT, MEMENTO) should be a happy man, for he has realized his dream 10 years in the making, and made a fascinatingly intricate dream film which while much like a labyrinth, has clear and lucid flow and intensely dramatic plotting. Even though we might not understand the why or the how, we understand the action and the danger and the wonder. INCEPTION is basically a heist film, where a team of dream specialists enter the dream of a newly appointed (due to his father's demise) corporate executive to plant some ideas which will hopefully in turn benefit their client's company. Leonardo Di Caprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tom Hardy and Ellen Page are the main dream specialists, and Ken Watanabe their client. Things get complicated when Di Caprio becomes distracted (in his dreams) with the appearance of his dead wife. To make matters more involved, the team must infiltrate to a second and third dream state (a dream within a dream within a dream...!!!...) Oddly, much of the drama in each dream level plays out like a scene from a James Bond spy thriller or some other action-type film, though I didn't really mind. The cross cutting between all the simultaneous dreams really gets the blood boiling, even when the action becomes a bit preposterous. Still you have to admire the shear complexity and vision of the world Nolan has created, where a dream architect can create a Paris folding over into (onto?) itself, or where decaying high rise buildings crumble into an encroaching ocean just a few yards from stylish glass skyscrapers intermixed with country homes and stately mansions. I didn't find the film cold or soulless, either, as some critics and viewers have suggested, for DiCaprio's relationship with his winsome wife, played by the fascinating Marion Cotillard (LA VIE EN ROSE) is passionate and full of emotional yearning. (Is it a coincidence that the key musical "mark" for the dream team is from her Oscar winning film? I think not.) And even though Cillian Murphy plays the sting, he is so distraught over the unresolved feelings from the death of his father that his performance alone triggers great sympathy. The fantasy film is peppered with other great players including Tom Berenger, Michael Caine and Pete Postlethwaite, all to subtle and emotional effect. The special effects are thoughtfully and intelligently interspersed--and not too gratuitous. It really is a mind bender to watch a fight in a revolving hallway, which in turn is inspired from several other similar fantastic dream level actions. This is science fiction/fantasy of the highest order, created with meticulous care in plotting, music, photography, acting and editing, and with an eye for tickling the intellectual as well as the popcorn movie goer. I found it to be smart, stimulating, fascinating fun.
GRADE----- A

The opening night film at the recent SIFF was THE EXTRA MAN, and it has one very fine ace in the hole--and that would be the remarkable Kevin Kline, who plays a man who escorts (usually) older women to dinners, parties, opera, and such, and not for pay (per say) and not as a gigolo (or so he says) but for the experience. He lives very cheaply in Manhattan (!) and ends up taking in a young room mate who wants to learn the ropes. Kline has a way with the dialogue, making the silliest line nearly priceless, but alas, the film slowly meanders where it should be roaring, and some subplots (the young room mates penchant for wearing women's underwear, and a neighbor in the same building who is strange and hairy and talks like --- Dame Edna???--) especially drag the film to it's somewhat unsavory (says me) conclusion. GRADE------ C+

The classic film FIVE EASY PIECES (1970) is mostly remembered for the great restaurant scene where an angry and exasperated (and young) Jack Nicholson tells off an inflexible waitress to "hold the chicken between your knees"---but there are a number of impressive scenes before and after that really capture the frustration of a character who is very intelligent and musically talented, but has let his life slip down the social-economic ladder pretending to be an "everyman." Unfortunately, this has not made his life any easier or happier, and he finds himself in a loveless relationship with the annoying and superficial Karen Black. Black found great fame in the late '60s and early 70's playing similar characters, and was nominated for a couple of Oscars, but later became the butt of many jokes with her hysterical mannerisms and slightly crossed eyes. Still, she is a great revelation here, pathetic, yes, but vulnerable and amusing, too. The excellent cast includes Susan Anspach, Ralph Waite (The Waltons), a young Sally Struthers (All in the Family) and Lois Smith. Some of the movie takes place in the San Juan Islands. It holds up very well. GRADE----- A

FAREWELL, THE CONCERT, PLACES IN THE HEART

Recently showcased at SIFF, the Cold War spy drama FAREWELL creates a moody, personal atmosphere of paranoia and suspense as it tells the true story of how two very different men helped bring about the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1980's. A KGB spy passes crucial documents to a French engineer working in Moscow, and there's intrigue in that. But the real suspense builds as the film details the effects of spying on each respective family, and the tensions between spouses and child show the toll that the activity can have between loved ones. This is an intelligent simmering thriller. GRADE------ B+

Also from SIFF, the French/Russian fantasy/musical/comedy film THE CONCERT is a pleasure to watch. The preposterous plot has a janitor (and former conductor) for the Bolshoi orchestra intercepting an invite to preform in Paris, so he organizes a troop of black listed musicians (all of whom lost their jobs due to politics in Communist Russia) to travel to Paris pretending to be the real Bolshoi....well it's pretty silly stuff, but the film looks and sounds great, with many fine musical passages, especially the finale, which is a crowd pleaser, full of emotional grandeur. GRADE-------- B

Revisited PLACES IN THE HEART for the first time since it opened in 1984. This was written and directed by Robert Benton (BONNIE AND CLYDE) and won Oscars that year for the translucent performance by Sally Fields ("You like me, you really like me.") and the precious autobiographical script. There are some other great performances including a blind, perceptive John Malkovitch, the secret lovers played by Ed Harris and Amy Madigan, who married in real life after filming, and the proud and resourceful Danny Glover. I remembered very well the sad shocking opening scene, and the masterly final redemptive scene in the church which so movingly brings the film full circle. and it brings tears to my eyes just thinking about those moments. This is a very special film. GRADE--------- A-

One of seven or so films that Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor made together, THE V.I.P.'s (1963) is a disaster film without a disaster. A big and varied cast (including Louis Jordan, Maggie Smith, Rod Taylor, Orson Welles, and Margaret Rutherford) find themselves stranded at London's airport with all flights canceled due to fog. Each has a desperate reason to leave ASAP, and each has some personal trauma/adversity to overcome. I wish the film was juicier--instead it is glossy and turgidly watchable. Rutherford won a supporting Oscar for the film, and she is a delightful character, but her scenes are filmed and scored with such humor and whimsy that she appears to be in an entirely different film altogether. GRADE------C+