PERFECT SENSE, ALBERT NOBBS, This Means War, Sound of Noise, Rampart

An odd science fiction romance film that played at SIFF last May and recently had a brief run at SIFF Cinema Uptown a couple weeks ago, PERFECT SENSE has haunted me for many months. Eva Green and Ewan McGregor meet just as the world is being besieged by a virus that is slowly taking away humanity's senses, one by one. First to go is the taste sense--which McGregor really despairs about, since he is an aspiring top chef. Green is a scientist trying to figure out what is happening and what can be done about it. The film is obviously low budget, but it has a thoughtful progression and doesn't back down when it comes to apocalyptic messages. GRADE-----B+

ALBERT NOBBS is another film that has lingered in my mind for several weeks. It plays like a low budget UPSTAIRS DOWNSTAIRS or DOWNTON ABBEY, with less melodrama and much slower pacing. Glenn Close plays a man servant who is really a woman, but she has suppressed her sexuality so that she can keep working--this being England in the mid-1800's. When s/he befriends another woman who is posing as a man (and married to a woman!), it rocks his world. The film is low key---there are no big revelations or shocks, but we do feel sad for Albert Nobbs because his options seems so limited in spite of his gender change. The actors are all quite good, especially Janet McNeer as the male painter who has a much better grasp on life than ALBERT NOBBS seems to have. GRADE-------B

SOUND OF NOISE played briefly last week and was first reviewed in my SIFF noes last May. It is an urban, noisy film about a group of modern day radicals in Sweden who try to disrupt contemporary life with loud doses of abstract music (think STOMP). It is actually a clever little film, with thoughtful laughs. GRADE------B

I went in with low expectations, but the film THIS MEANS WAR certainly exceeded them by being a jaunty, "cute" (if minor)comedy about a woman attracted to two different men at the same time. The men are government agents and friends, and their jealously escalates as they try to outdo each other to gain the woman's favors. Reese Witherspoon is the lucky woman, and young studs Chris Pine (STAR TREK) and Tom Hardy (INCEPTION) are the agents. Bring on the popcorn, please. GRADE-------B-

Now playing is a Woody Harrelson vehicle that was geared toward an Oscar nomination for him, but when he failed to get nominated, the film was put on the slow burner. Called RAMPART and named after that section of Los Angeles, the film tells of a loner renegade cop who has problems with his racism, sexism, and his ex and current wives. The police management don't know how to get rid of him--he's definitely a loose cannon, as well as vulgar, violent and generally unpleasant. He smokes like a chimney, and the camera features a lot of hand held photography. The cast is intriguing. Anne Heche plays his long suffering wife, Sigourney Weaver is trying to get him fired off the force, Cynthia Nixon is his still suffering ex, Robin Wright is a hard nosed lawyer/lover who may or may not be trying to help him, and Ben Foster and Ned Beatty turn up in smaller but interesting character roles. Unfortunately, with the nauseating hand held camera and the unpleasantness of the main character, RAMPART earns only a GRADE------C+

Hopefully by the time you read this, the new film starring Amanda Seyfried called GONE will be gone. It is a single minded story of a woman trying to track down her sister who has been kidnapped (by mistake?)--the police won't help her or believe her, because several years ago she was kidnapped and escaped, but they never found any evidence of that crime. It is watchable, but by the end you don't really care, and the perpetrator is not clearly identified, so you are not sure who did it after all. Grade-----C-


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The following are the DVD's (or revivals) I watched in the past couple weeks......

CASABLANCA (1943) remains a strong entertainment, with vivid turns by Peter Lorre, Ingmar Bergman, Humphrey Bogart and Claude Rains. I was surprised at how many classic lines and memorable scenes there are, all still fascinating, since I hadn't seen this for over 10 years. GRADE-------A

I had seen Otto Preminger's LAURA (1944) several years ago, but it struck me as strong a mystery as ever made, and features very entertaining supporting performances by Judith Anderson, Vincent Price, and the witty Clifton Webb. Gene Tierney and Dana Andrews are pretty smooth, too, in this classic film-noir. GRADE-----A-

Co-featured with LAURA at the FILM NOIR showings at SIFF was a film I had never seen before, but only heard about, called GILDA (1946). Glenn Ford works for a sinister casino boss in South America--then meets the boss' new wife GILDA (Rita Hayworth), with whom he was once in love. This film has become Hayworth's signature role, and it's easy to see why. She sings and vamps and tosses her luscious hair all over the place, while teasing every man that she meets. The plot gets rather ludicrous towards the end but I was fascinated by the characters, nonetheless. GRADE-----B+

I felt that MILK (2008) was a strong film at the time, and it holds up very well today, especially because of the actors which include Emile Hirsh, Josh Brolin, Diego Luna, Alison Pill and the glowing James Franco. But the real glue here is the Oscar winning turn by Sean Penn, who really climbs into the part of the first openly gay man to be elected public office, and how he fought to open doors for disaffected gays and others. Great credit must also go to director Gus Van Sant for recreating the early 1970's in San Francisco so well and so dramatically. GRADE------B+

Because he had just won the Oscar, I watched again OSS 117: CAIRO NEST OF SPIES (2006), a silly French farce of James Bond films, featuring the charming Jean (THE ARTIST) Dujardin, and found myself giggling for 90 minutes. Now I've got to track down the sequel. GRADE-----B+

I had not seen it since it came out, but OUT OF AFRICA (1985) doesn't hold up as well as I remembered. The scenic plane ride swooping over the animal reserves and open vistas were still memorable (especially in Blu Ray!) and I loved the music, photography and Meryl Streep, but the film as a whole felt prolonged, disjointed, and strangely unemotional. Interesting that Robert Redford gets top billing, but he has a rather modest supporting role (and less than half the screen time as Streep), and his character seems rather undeveloped. GRADE--------B

Another double feature shown at the FILM NOIR festival was a pairing of two films featuring Valentina Cortese, an intriguing and underused actress from Italy who never quite made it into the big time Hollywood scene. Shown first was THEIVES HIGHWAY (1949)--a rather unconvincing story of apple truckers who get taken by a corrupt fruit vendor in San Francisco. (!?!?) Handsome Richard Conte is trying to find revenge for his father, but falls into the same trap. He is befriended by the prostitute (heart of gold variety) played by Cortese, who is fascinating to watch. Lee J. Cobb chews the scenery as the corrupt vendor. Next up was HOUSE ON TELEGRAPH HILL (1951)
a Robert Wise film with an ambitious plot that has Cortese playing a concentration camp survivor who switches identity with her dead friend, moves to San Francisco to become the mother of her friends child, but then finds herself in a possibly deadly situation where someone may be trying to kill her. (!!!????!!!) It's familiar stuff (think GASLIGHT or REBECCA), but Cortese is terrific. She is a great discovery.
GRADES-------THIEVES HIGHWAY----B- and HOUSE ON TELEGRAPH HILL----B

I was very excited to find a NEW Blu Ray copy of MEET ME IN ST LOUIS (1944) for $7. The picture looks great, and there are 3 classic songs (including THE BOY NEXT DOOR, HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS and THE TROLLEY SONG) as well as other joyful standards like the title song. The cast sparkles, and Judy Garland is terrific, since her future husband Vincente Minnelli films her lovingly, but the plot is pretty treacly----it is so sweet it makes my teeth hurt. GRADE-----B-