Wasteland, Unstoppable, Morning Glory, Boys Are Back

The best documentary at SIFF last May was an amazing film that illustrates how art can affect and possibly change the lives those who make it and view it. In this case, the art can empower the people living at the bottom of society. WASTELAND chronicles Sao Paulo born artist Vic Muniz (now living in Brooklyn) as he goes back to Sao Paulo to a land fill dump, and creates some astonishing works of art out of the garbage that is collected there, with the help of some local garbage collectors and sorters. The film has great emotional power as it shows how subjects become overcome when they realize that even their humble lives can have great beauty and dignity. The film doesn't flinch or sugar coat--there are some tragic ramifications, too, as it raises that decades old question--if you offer a poor, disadvantaged person a way out of the ghetto through art (or acting or a taste of some sort of celebrity, etc.) then how responsible are you to keep them out of poverty? Indeed, how do you keep them out of poverty without supporting them totally? GRADE--------A

UNSTOPPABLE is a runaway train thriller starring Denzel Washington, and it works about as well as this situation can work itself out. Fortunately, the camera work is not as chaotic as other thrillers (the dreadfully jerking camera work drove me crazy in the recent FAIR GAME and BOURNE films) and the actors are all game. It is a popcorn movie--loud enough to drowned out the chomping of kernels, but smart and swift enough to keep most people from feeling the need to chomp in the first place. Satisfyingly and realistically grounded. GRADE-----B

The script is witty and fast, and the leads, especially Diane Keaton and Harrison Ford add some charming gravitas to the familiar story of a young naive girl (a flighty and sweet Rachel McAdams) who gets a dream job as an executive producer for a struggling early early morning TV talk show in NYC and struggles to raise it up in the ratings. The film, MORNING GLORY actually gets better at the half way mark, when she tries to convince the higher executives and her cranky co-hosts (Keaton and Ford) to try to lighten up and stop taking things so seriously, and there is a lot of humor in seeing these old pros try to be civil while acting like fools for the cameras. We do know where it is all headed, however, but it is an easy watch.
GRADE-------B-

The remaining films of the week are all from the public library's DVD collection. Released just last year, THE BOYS ARE BACK (2009)stars Clive Owen and was directed by Australian Scott Hicks who created the wonderful SHINE over 10 years ago. Based on a true story and book, the film creates a world where a widowed man must build a relationship with his young son after the death of his wife and then also with his older teen son who lives in England with his ex-wife. He does this by giving them a lot of freedom, and things don't always go very well. There is a strong sense of sadness and grieving in the early part of the film, but the film centers on the love and humanity of this damaged family, and transcends the circumstances of losing a loved one. The two sons are played with extraordinary skill by two unknowns and the film looks gorgeous, with beautiful scenery of southern Australia. The music is moving and technically this is one quality movie-- an under appreciated GEM...... GRADE-------A-

Samuel Fuller's NAKED KISS (1964) is a lucid, sometimes lurid melodrama of an ex-prostitute who is trying to go good in a new small town, but of course, many folks, especially the town cop who beds her when she first arrives, think she can never change. The opening scene is most memorable, as a bald woman pummels a drunken man unconscious with a very large and heavy purse. This is our first glimpse of the heroine, played with striking authority by Constance Towers, who reminds me a great deal in this film of the beautiful,icy cold but humane presence of Tippi Hedren (THE BIRDS and MARNIE). Towers has appeared on quite a number of TV shows over the years (including Perry Mason, Young and the Restless and Frasier just to name a few, and currently she's a regular on General Hospital) but this film and Fuller's SHOCK CORRIDOR (1963) are her most memorable films. She is so watchable and likable in this potboiler that it is a shame she hasn't made it bigger in movies. This is the performance of her life and she will mesmerize you. GRADE------B+

The British spy thriller THE QUILLER MEMORANDUM (1966) reminds me of other classy, down and dirty (and subtle) spy films from mostly the 1960's which include IPCRESS FILE, FUNERAL IN BERLIN (both with a young Michael Caine as spy Harry Palmer), and THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD and others, which were sort of an antidote from the glossy, noisy Ian Fleming/James Bond extravagances. George Segal is in Berlin trying to find the headquarters of the continuing neo-Nazi presence of this post WWII city, and a dashing Max Von Sydow is his nemesis, with Senta Berger and Alec Guiness in support. Intriguing, if a bit underwhelming, with an economical script by Harold Pinter. GRADE-----B.