The Lookout

With recent roles in flawless indies such as Brick and Mysterious Skin, former “3rd Rock from the Sun” kid star Joseph Gordon-Levitt has redefined himself as one of the most captivating and compelling performers of his generation. While he’s been winning over critics for years, it’s likely that The Lookout, a sleepy sad-eyed thriller that’s something like Elmore Leonard reinterpreting Memento, will be the first film in which many viewers discover Gordon-Levitt in his new incarnation. The film is in a solid number of theaters (nearly a thousand this opening weekend) and has enough violence and crime conventions to lure in the masses. Be forewarned, though, that this is not a fast-paced, instant gratification shoot ‘em up thriller but rather a moody, pensive feature centered on a crime narrative but dedicated primarily to the characters at its core.

The most important of those characters is Chris Pratt, (Gordon-Levitt) a once great prom king, high school athlete whose life was devastated by a car crash that caused 2 deaths and substantial injuries of his own, including a severe impairment of his memory skills and other basic mental functions. Though he was once “most likely to succeed,” he now works a menial janitor job at a local bank while trying to strengthen his mind enough to take on a more demanding occupation. It’s in this sad state that a wannabe thug named Gary (Matthew Goode) lures Chris into a bank heist scheme with promises that this will restore his power and give him back the life he once had.

There’s a general stiltedness to some of the story and a mild case of overshooting (both in its ambitions and in the somewhat incredible way it renders its skulking leading man a gun toting action hero within milliseconds), but mostly this is top-notch material with a remarkably strong cast. Gordon-Levitt plays the wounded, pitiful nice guy Pratt to perfection and supporting players like the obnoxious but alluring Goode and the perpetually underrated Jeff Daniels (in a small role as Chris’s blind but wily roommate, Lewis) make this an ensemble to remember. You want at times for the film to bust loose of its methodical pace and intensely perfected dialogue, but its adherence is also a great sign of writer/director Scott Frank’s mastery. He really designs this film from top to bottom without ever allowing it to feel muddled or messy in any way. He neglects some seemingly significant subplots while tying up loose ends, but delivers a solid, almost too perfect conclusion nonetheless. I wish there had been something really bizarre and twisty at the heart of the film’s heist climax. As it is, it’s mostly by the book and though it’s definitely exciting, it still leaves something to be desired. It’s almost a little too borrowed, a little too efficient to really grab your attention. Regardless, this is a strongly plotted thriller with involving characters and a new age troubled hero in the vein of some of film’s most prickly protagonists.

Grade: A-

DVD of the Week: Children Of Men

My DVD pick this week is Alfonso Cuarón's sci-fi masterpiece Children of Men, which portrays the human race at a cynical juncture in time during which female infertility has all but ensured the world's end within the century. This a gripping, relentless, and utterly majestic cinematic voyage into a future world constructed in frighteningly believable detail with foreboding social overtones permeating ever frame. It's as much about the present as it is the future since the consequences of our actions are the inherited circumstances of these thinly hopeful characters. Clive Owen gives a fine performance as a true antihero who merely plans to wait around for his chance to die, but instead finds himself caught up in rebellious movements wishing to get the world back on track. Michael Caine also delivers a golden performance as a delightfully obscene old kook with a passion for telling stories while puffing away on post-apocalyptic pot. The movie sadly got lost in the shuffle of last December's mad dash for Oscar glory, but I think it's as good as any film I saw last year.

I also want to mention the release of a small Australian drama called Candy starring Heath Ledger and newcomer Abbie Cornish. It's a relatively unknown junkie love story that's actually quite a fascinating film to behold. At times it's as hazy and idealistic as the dreamy lovers and its core while other moments are marked by a fierce and unforgiving realism that's as ruthlessly intense as the most commanding drug films in recent memory. Its diabolical contrast and the extraordinary performances by Ledger and Cornish make it absolutely mesmerizing.

First Snow

First Snow is a first-rate psychological thriller that mixes the wintry bleakness of Fargo, the twisty instability of Memento, and the philosophical fatalism of Donnie Darko to create an extraordinary film. My comparisons are not meant to be belittling. This is, as I see it, an exceptionally creative and original feature. The sad truth, though, is that you’ve probably never even heard of it. The 3 aforementioned films should at least give you a decent impression of the film’s tone and provide a hint as to whether this film is for you or not. It hasn’t been promoted at all and its current theater count is painfully small (just 3 sites nationwide). The Yari Film Group has had luck lately taking sophisticate think-piece thrillers like The Illusionist nationwide for profit. I can’t imagine why they’ve shafted this one so badly.

Mark Fergus (hot off an Oscar nod for adapting last year’s viciously overlooked Children of Men) makes his directorial debut here and proves himself wholly adept at supernatural human drama. Much like Children of Men (another good reference to measure interest) this film is motivated by an unreal catalyst but truly about the characters occupying the sci-fi mania. The eternally awesome Guy Pearce stars as a fast talking charlatan named Jimmy Starks who casually visits a fortune teller while waiting for his car to get fixed at an isolated mechanic shop. He’s told, after some theatrics, that his death is approaching and that he should beware winter’s first snow. The film proceeds as both a preemptive whodunit in search of the identity of Jimmy’s not yet guilty murderer and a portrait of one man’s mounting paranoia. As winter presses forward, each snowflake is an omen of Jimmy’s demise and his once self-confident swagger dies at the mercy of impending peril. His internal deterioration and constant attempts to outrun his own fate lead to many a metaphysical puzzle here and there: can you alter destiny if you know it’s coming? It’s a time honored sci-fi question and this film does as good a job putting together the confusing pieces as any that I’ve seen. It’s an able minded mystery, but more importantly a meditation on humanity’s pathetic egocentrism in the face of greater universal machinations, the unexpected ties that bind us to our futures whether we like it or not.

If you can’t find this in a theater near you, keep vigilant. It should be expanding soon. Realistically, its longest life will be on DVD. I see this getting passed around dorm rooms somewhere down the line, becoming a must-list facebook title like its cult hit predecessors. This is a film that certainly deserves such lauding and more.

Grade: A

Trailers: Stephanie Daley

This drama earned rave reviews when it first premiered back at last year's Sundance film festival. It's a talk heavy conversation film that charts the investigation of a teenage girl accused of killing her baby by a forensic psychologist who has had difficulty conceiving and recently lost a child of her own. The remarkable Tild Swinton stars along with burgeoning young star Amber Tamblyn ("Joan of Arcadia") whose performance here was nominated by Film Independent for an Indie Spirit Award earlier this year. It goes into limited release starting April 20th and will hopefully expand from there.

Trailer:

QuickTime, Hi-Res

QuickTime, Lo-Res

Shooter

Shooter is the latest logic challenged conspiracy theory thriller to hit the big screen. It’s preposterous and often laughable, but it’s also sort of fun. You have to embrace the idea that what you’re seeing is a near farce to get any joy out of it. Either that, or you simply need to be as logic challenged as the film itself. There’s stuff here that is so silly, it’s hilarious, but is laughter sometimes the point? I can’t really tell. For example, there’s one moronic scene where a police dog attacks its commanding officer. The reason? Wahlberg’s character, the campily named Bob Lee Swagger, is a dog man with a pup of his own that he treats like a son. It seems dogs can tell who likes dogs and will save them from arrest if necessary. Is it a horrible contrivance? Does the film simply want this to be a joke? I think any film that names its macho leading man “swagger” has to have a sense of humor, right?

Swagger comes straight from the John Rambo school of antiheroes. He’s the kind of character that can resourcefully solve any conundrum with some old army trick and take out a whole fleet of soldiers with just one gun. He is enlisted by some shady contractors to spot a shooter supposedly aiming to kill the president at an upcoming public speaking event, and ends up getting framed for the murder of an Ethiopian ambassador instead. He proceeds to flee custody and shoot people all around the nation in order to prove his innocence. It’s a straightforward concept, but there’s also some weirdly heavy handed politics involved. In an intellect free thriller like this one, you think you know what to expect. As soon as the sadly misused Kate Mara gets kidnapped in the middle of undressing and spends a significant chunk of the film being held hostage, handcuffed and half-naked, it clicks: this is macho buffoon exploitation thriller. Then the macho buffoons go and flip the script on you. They start loading all kinds of politically minded critiques into what was once a carefree shoot ‘em up spectacle. Mark Wahlberg goes from pummeling FBI investigators to spouting lines about Abu Graib and the government’s mishandling of the Iraq war. Films about government corruption are usually vague enough to keep their criticisms soft and irrelevant, but this delivers a somewhat self-important string of on the nose political complaints. Subject matter that is timely and relevant is uncommon in something so clearly aimed at broad audiences that need not be offended by any political opinion. It’s admirable that the movie had the audacity to inject some true life issues into its story, but it’s also somewhat unwelcome since no one seeing this film has any interest in political commentary. It’s heavy and obvious and strange. I think the film believes that it is important in some way, but having so many goofy, exploitative elements really destroys its credibility as a beacon for cultural assessment.

I really have no clue how to grade this movie. I had fun watching it. I had some laughs too. Maybe I was supposed to laugh. Maybe I wasn’t. Either way, it was enjoyable in its own low brow sort of way. There is somewhat of a solid story being told here albeit by means of less than an original variety. It’s predictable and cliché. But does anyone seeing a film called “shooter” really care? For its target audience, it’s actually pretty perfect. It has lots of action and lots of attitude. It celebrates the ability of Swagger to be a killing machine and elevates his cool factor with various slow motion sequences in which he “swaggers” away from the piles of bodies he’s stacked up in his battles, preferably he also blows something up causing a massive awesome looking fire behind him. I can see this working really well for people who just want to see something casual and maybe a teensy bit credible. There’s a shred of plausibility in the initial setup of the film and there isn’t too much ludicrous behavior (at least compared to other films of this type). The political material also at least makes you feel as though you’re watching something intellectual. I just have no idea where to go on this one. Make up your own minds.

Grade: C

Reign Over Me

Writer/director Mike Binder’s previous theatrical film was 2005’s highly underrated The Upside of Anger featuring a blazing performance by Joan Allen. Now he’s back with yet another great film of similar stock featuring exceptional work from both Adam Sandler and Don Cheadle. Cheadle is a notoriously gifted actor, but Sandler is often overlooked. Anyone who saw Punch-Drunk Love knows that he has acting talents beyond what he has shown in his slapstick mainstays, but this realization has yet to soak into the cultural consciousness of general film audiences. This puts this film in a very dangerous position. It comes from a large studio and features famous faces, but may not have the commercial draw of the bigger studio projects seeing release this weekend. It’s a shame. I actually think Binder is a very important voice for contemporary film. He makes movies that seem somewhat old-fashioned, not because they are lackluster but simply because their wilting genre – that is, of course, the mainstream studio melodrama – is a dying breed in modern film. Stories like this one, about a 9/11 widower reeling from psychological stasis and post-traumatic stress disorder, only ever seem to play out in low budget indie films. As more and more Oscar contenders come from the indie pool and major studios continue to pitch to niche, genre audiences, finding simple emotional stories like this one in theaters across the nation is becoming harder and harder. Action flicks, historical epics, romantic comedies, horror scarefests, and even ultra famous celeb biopics might fly within the studio system, but what place do simple, gimmick-free character dramas have in the modern film era? Are they only meant to play at 2 theaters in New York and L.A.? I certainly hope not.

Reign Over Me (loosely named after The Who’s “Love Reign O’er Me”) has a gripping, low-key loveliness and a brooding sulk drama sensibility that is absolutely refreshing. Its cast is pitch perfect as are its nimble, tone hopping writing and directing. Binder makes tragedy as funny as it is upsetting and his efforts to fend off the indulgence of disingenuous, overly dramatic filmmaking are highly appreciated. He wonderfully balances the story’s many highs and lows in a way that keeps us from feeling like victims of an excessively depressive narrative but also never sells short the justifiably dark material. Sandler’s Charlie Fineman is at once a jester and heartbreaker. There are moments when we forget his troubled past and his dangerous psychological illness only to be reminded of them shortly after by an explosion of his riveting despair. Cheadle’s character, Alan Johnson, is likewise a humble ringleader to the madness at the same as he is also a man of his own worries. The fullness of the story, which includes wonderfully small details of interaction between Charlie and the cast of other characters, leads to new events in Alan’s life as well. Everything unfolds with great efficacy and with a seemingly natural flow. Certainly, some things comes together a bit too nicely and there is perhaps a somewhat cinematic leniency taken toward the characters, but the integrity of the performances carry us over all of these hurdles.

It’s rare that any major studio project this heartfelt sees the light of day so soon before Oscar season, but finally we have something wonderful in wide release this spring. Whereas many of the films I recommend are films that will only get to be seen by most people on DVD, this one can actually be seen by almost anyone at this very moment. It’s well worth it.

Grade: A

The Namesake

The Namesake creates a lovely, colorful, entrancing atmosphere but speeds itself along to aggressively to really set the mood. Emotionally, it connects only in its lulls, a fact that seems dictated by the dense material of its origin: Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel of the same name. Watching the film is like trying to read a book while someone else keeps flipping the pages ahead too quickly. You want to settle into the quiet moments, but the movie must press onward in order to squeeze in the decades which elapse from start to finish.

That’s not to say that it’s a bad film. It’s actually quite a strong film. It’s just so clear to me that it could have been a much better one. The gentle visual rhythms of its finale and several scenes elsewhere actually come close to matching the elegant beauty of Lahiri’s prose. There are just too many scenes that feel like Cliffs Notes approximations of the text to make this a truly outstanding adaptation. Regardless, the story remains passionate and engaging. Its narrative details the nuances of familial miscommunication as embodied by a young man named Gogol (a surprisingly tender and effective Kal Penn). Gogol’s name has deep personal relevance to his father (Irfan Khan), but Gogol does not understand this connection and wants only to abandon what he considers to be just a silly sounding name and take on a more sophisticated one, one that will also eventually be Americanized into simply “Nick.” This ethnic cleansing mentality is also a subject of the film which charts Gogol’s maturation into someone who simply wants to be an American teen into a man appreciative of his Bengali family and their heritage. It’s an emotional journey and a quest of personal discovery that plays out in a broad cross-cultural arena.

By far the most wondrous performance here is by an Indian actress named Tabu who plays Ashima, the matriarch of the family. She comes to America at a young age to marry her husband and spends her whole life adjusting and balancing her two cultural worlds. She’s the heart of this poetic film and Tabu delivers the most subtle, lovely performance anyone could envision. She breathes a soft, charismatic energy into the character that convinces you of her endless strength while expressing an inherent vulnerability. Along with the rest of the cast and director Mira Nair, Tabu brings to life Lahiri’s work with an impressive amount of spirit and grace.

Grade: B+

The Wind That Shakes The Barley

The Wind that Shakes the Barley rattles the historical epic genre with its vicious realism and unflinching depictions of war. In a modern age where history often gets mashed up and regurgitated into stylized tone dupers like 300, it’s refreshing to see something cling so tightly to the power of truth and the cruelty of unglamorized violence. There’s an argument to be made for the expressive styles of some recent true life cinema, but there’s a much simpler one to be made for a film like this: it captures as true and lifelike a representation of an era as you could hope.

The material here is not digested into softer servings, but portrayed with all its horrors and complexities. Cillian Murphy delivers yet another outstanding performance as Damien O’Donovan, a level-headed pacifist at the height of the British/Irish conflict who wants to keep his family away from the aggressively rebellious behavior they’ve been directing toward the ruthless British occupiers. Their nationalism places their lives in immediate danger and has already led to the death of many friends and relatives as well. It’s Damien’s understanding that all of their efforts are futile and probably fatal, meaning the costs outweigh the outcomes. It’s only when he finds himself pushed by the British one time too many that he becomes willing to join his brother Teddy in the Irish Republican Army. His emersion into this world of rebel fighters and the emerging militant persona it cultivates serve as the crux of this film, which is rightly a genre textured tour de force that mixes war scenes with passionate family drama and eloquently scripted political debates. It can be playful, heartwarming, and lovely at times, but it also delves into the darkest treacheries of a nation at war. Director Ken Loach crafts a gripping and utterly vicious tale that doesn’t shy away from the outright torture involved. Numerous characters will be emotionally and physically devastated by the time the film is over. Many of them will be executed. Worst of all, some will even die at the hands of former colleagues as the film stretches into the time of civil unrest that pitted Irishman against fellow Irishman. Its dark subject matter will utterly dismay many viewers, but those unafraid of graphic, dramatically potent violence will be completely enraptured.

This is a complex, well-rounded film that explores the difficulties of war and stresses the intellectual certainties that can collapse a union upon itself. There aren’t good guys and bad guys. It’s simply two halves of the same nation fighting assuredly for what they each believe to be the greater good. This kind of moral struggle deflates the often pompous, obnoxious tendency of war films to become bloated glory pieces. This is an unpadded film that captures the nuances of human struggle amidst a national backdrop at a very difficult time in history. The weight of it all is not lost in the molding of a dramatic narrative or the staging of exciting battle scenes. Bloodshed and tragedy are at the forefront of this film. It both begins and ends in ugly death. The hope seems to be that watching people shatter the lives of their friends and colleagues will bruise the deeply held conviction in its audience that they’re opinions are always the right ones. It’s when communication and negotiation stop that brothers are literally forced to face one another at opposite ends of a firing squad. As darkly poetic as the downfall of Damien and his counterparts might seem, it’s also rendered in strikingly uncompromised detail. This is not a sugarcoated tale of lovely war, but rather a harshly crafted depiction of how good men fall and how even those with the best of intentions can get trapped in their own ideologies.

Grade: A

DVD of the Week: Come Early Morning

My DVD pick for this week is Come Early Morning, the directorial debut of 90s rom-com sweetheart Joey Lauren Adams. Be forewarned that the packaging on this film is a ghastly attempt to sugarcoat is contents. You'll think I've gone insane when you see it. It reimagines the film as a glowing Ashley Judd romantic comedy and boasts the painful tagline "Before you fall in love, you need to love yourself." Please don't let any of that scare you. It's just a vicious marketing scheme gone awry. This film, a theatrical dud, (a probable cause for the advertising overhaul) actually embodies a gritty low-key indie spirit more than any sort of typical Judd-esque fluff. It's her first serious film role in some time and an absolute reminder of why she became a star in the first place. Here she plays Lucy Fowler, a self destructive woman with an unfortunate tendency to indulge in men and alcohol. The film is about Lucy's personal renovations, including (though, not exclusively) a wonderfully earnest romance with local nice guy Cal (Jeffrey Donovan). It's a nicely realized drama about defensive, terse Southern folk living in self-appointed shadows. It's their own stubbornness that destroys them and watching their internal struggle makes for great cinema.

Also new on DVD this week is the Oscar nominated Sierra Leone conflict diamond thriller Blood Diamond starring Leonard DiCaprio, Djimon Hounsou, and Jennifer Connelly. It's a tough mix of action adventure themes sandwiched between speeches on the failures of humanity. The moralizing and speechifying leads to a handful of rough patches, but overall it's an incendiary portrait of a fascinating subject in recent history. You can also pick up Rocky Balboa this week. For anyone who is a fan of the franchise's early installments or simply a sucker underdog films, it's a solid viewing opportunity.

News: Hot Fuzztivals

I know a lot of people are very excited about the upcoming action comedy Hot Fuzz (I certainly am). For those who don't know, it's from all the same people who brought you Shaun of the Dead and more or less gives the same brilliantly satiric treatment to the buddy cop genre that Shaun gave to the horror genre. I personally had a chance to see Hot Fuzz and absolutely loved it. I think you guys will too. It's due out on April 20th, 2007. I'll have my complete review up closer to opening day. In the meantime, here are some cool looking publicity events courtesy of Rogue Pictures and the Hot Fuzz trailer to refresh your memory.

Trailer:
QuickTime High
http://www.roguepictures.com/viewer.php?f=hotFuzz&c=trailer&ext=mov&w=480&h=202
QuickTime Low
http://www.roguepictures.com/viewer.php?f=hotFuzz&c=trailer&ext=mov&w=320&h=134
Windows Media High
http://www.roguepictures.com/viewer.php?f=hotFuzz&c=trailer&ext=wmv&w=480&h=202
Windows Media Low
http://www.roguepictures.com/viewer.php?f=hotFuzz&c=trailer&ext=wmv&w=320&h=240240

HOT FUZZ, the hit action comedy from the U.K., is headed your way! Director/writer Edgar Wright, writer/star Simon Pegg, and star Nick Frost (the whole team from SHAUN OF THE DEAD) are coming to the U.S. -- armed with rare theatrical prints and showings of some Cop Movie classics, plus a sneak peek at their own HOT FUZZ (weeks in advance of its April 20th release in the U.S. from Rogue Pictures). Hot Fuzztivals will be held in select cities (see below), with the HOT FUZZ gang on hand for Q&As. Here come the FUZZ!

WASHINGTON DC
Date: Friday, March 23
Details: A screening of Die Hard followed by HOT FUZZ with Q & A featuring Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.
Location: Arlington Cinema N Drafthouse, 2903 Columbia Pike, Arlington VA
For more information or to get tickets, please contact: Mike Jesson at mjesson@alliedadvpub.com

BOSTON
Date: Friday, March 16 - Thursday, March 29
Details: Hot Fuzztival Boston will run over the course of 10 days, with the highlight being HOT FUZZ (3/25) with Q & A to follow featuring Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. Additional screenings include The French Connection and Dirty Harry (3/16 & 3/17), Lethal Weapon (3/18), Hard-Boiled (3/19 & 3/20), The Super Cops (3/21), Electra Glide In Blue (3/26), Bullitt (3/27), Dead and Buried & The Hidden (3/28), and Infernal Affairs (3/29).
Location: The Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle Street, Cambridge, MA
For more information or to get tickets, please contact: Phyllis Mercurio at pmercurio@alliedadvpub.com

CHICAGO
Date: Sunday, March 25 - Monday, March 26
Details: Hot Fuzztival Chicago will run over the course of two days with screenings of To Live & Die in L.A., Infernal Affairs, and Point Break on Sunday, March 25 at the Brew & View theatre.
On Monday, March 26th HOT FUZZ will screen at the AMC River East followed by Q&A with Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.
Locations: Brew & View theatre, 3145 N. Sheffield in Chicago; AMC River East, 322 East Illinois, Chicago 60611
For more information or to get tickets, please contact: Lara Golubowski at lara@thaweb.com

ATLANTA
Date: Monday, March 26 - Wednesday, March 28
Details: Hot Fuzztival Atlanta will run over the course of three evenings with screenings of LA Confidential (3/26), Bad Boys II (3/27) followed by HOT FUZZ (3/28) with Q & A to follow featuring Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.
Locations: Palace Theatre, 1049 Ponce de Leon Avenue, Atlanta, GA 30306
For more information or to get tickets, please contact: Marci Miller mmiller@alliedadvpub.com

SAN FRANCISCO
Date: Tuesday, March 27 - Tuesday, April 3
Details: Hot Fuzztival San Francisco will run over the course of four evenings with screenings of Point Break (3/27), Training Day (3/28), L.A. Confidential (3/29) followed by HOT FUZZ (4/3) with Q & A featuring Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.
Locations: Landmark Lumiere Theater, 1572 California Street, San Francisco; Landmark Embarcadero Center Cinemas, One Embarcadero Center, San Francisco; Landmark Clay Theater, 2261 Fillmore Street, San Francisco
For more information or to get tickets, please contact: John Weaver at jweaver@thaweb.com

DALLAS
Date: Thursday, March 29
Details: A screening of Bad Boys II followed by HOT FUZZ with Q & A to follow featuring Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.
Location: AMC Northpark 15, 8687 N. Central Expressway, Dallas
For more information or to get tickets, please contact: Sally Smolenski at ssmolensi@moroch.com

AUSTIN
Date: Saturday, March 31
Details: Screenings of Police Story 2, Freebie & The Bean, Sudden Impact and Electra Glide In Blue followed by HOT FUZZ with Q & A to follow featuring Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.
Location: Alamo Drafthouse Downtown, 409 Colorado Street, Austin
For more information or to get tickets, please contact: Lawrence Wilczewski at lwilczewski@moroch.com

SEATTLE
Date: Monday, April 2
Details: A screening of Bullitt followed by HOT FUZZ with Q & A to follow with Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.
Location: Landmark Varsity Theater, 4329 University Way N.E., Seattle
For more information or to get tickets, please contact: Amanda Bedell at abedell@thaweb.com

LOS ANGELES
Date: Saturday, April 7 - Series starts at 6:00 PM
Details: A screening of HOT FUZZ followed by a Q&A featuring Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost; as well as screenings of Hard Boiled and Point Break.
Location: The Aero Theater, 1328 Montana Avenue (at 14th Street), Santa Monica, CA.
Tickets are $10 general, $8 Student/Senior, $7 AC members and will be on sale at Fandango.com, for more information visit http://www.americancinematheque.com/

NEW YORK
Date: Tuesday, April 10
Details: A screening of Electra Glide in Blue introduced by Edgar Wright followed by HOT FUZZ with Q & A featuring with Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.
Location: Film Society of Lincoln Center/Walter Reade Theater - 70 Lincoln Center Plaza
For more information or to get tickets, please visit: http://www.filmlinc.com/

Trailers: The Savages

The Savages is one of the fall films that I'm most excited about seeing. Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney (two of my very favorite actors) star together in a heavenly screen pairing that's already got Oscar buzz brewing for next season. Tamara Jenkins (Slums of Beverly Hills) directs the duo in a whimsical drama that earned raved reviews at Sundance. Hoffman and Linney play screwy, juvenile siblings a la the Tennebaums who are forced to care for their ailing father. The film will be released on September 7th, 2007.

Trailer:

http://video.msn.com/v/us/v.htm?g=91374b19-d24f-4c80-8b48-9494c72a04a7&f=msnmovies/64&fg

DVD of the Week: Casino Royale

Believe it or not, Casino Royale is the 21st 007 feature and thankfully it is also one of the franchise's most inviting and original entries. Unlike past Bond films which existed in an obnoxious, campy, and wholly ridiculous world of their own (invisible cars? laser beams from space?), this one operates with at least a modicum of sincerity at its core. It also reinvents the already done to death Bond character as a young brute (played brilliantly by a stoic yet captivating Daniel Craig). The Bond of this film is fresh off receiving his license to kill and as unjaded about his situation as the momentous blockbuster he occupies. Of all the jumbo sized epics this past summer, this was the one that least annoyed me. Craig and costar Eva Green have both authentic chemistry and a tangible emotional connection. The violence they encounter is explosive and vaguely surreal but it counts when it matters most and often has the ability to be unnerving in ways big budget thrillers never allow. There's an entirely unsexy shower scene here that is probably my favorite moment in the entire Bond franchise. Kudos to the cast as well as scribe Paul Haggis and director Martin Campbell for making a solid film where others had merely gone through the motions.

Trailers: Waitress

Most of you probably already know the story fo Waitress, the sweet looking indie comedy that made its debut at Sundance earlier this year. Writer/director/star Adrienne Shelly never got to see her film debut and make it to theaters as she was brutally murdered in New York City last year. It's a tragic story, but she leaves behind a film that's been heralded by many publications as one of the warmest, most sincere films of the festival. Waitress will hit theaters on April 27th, 2007. It stars Keri Russell ("Felicity") and Nathan Fillion ("Firefly") as a waitress and doctor who cross paths under strange circumstances and form a budding relationship.

Quicktime:

http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox_searchlight/waitress/trailer/

300

300, Zack Snyder’s rigidly loyal adaptation of Frank Miller’s graphic novel of the same name, comes with its own inherent hurdles and setbacks. In many ways, it is a visionary film but it also feels as though it is perpetually channeling some else’s vision (mainly Miller’s). There’s a forceful sense that the whole production, an epic of arduously planned out style and tone, lacks a life of its own. This conundrum plagues some of 300, but ultimately loses credence as the film reveals its own ruthless passion and escapes the prison of perfected style that diminishes its opening moments. Somewhere amid a sea of corpses, it finds the sort of misplaced humanity that can make something as ceremoniously vulgar as this come alive. For quite some time it seems that this is merely a lifeless testament to just how cool it can be to slaughter thousands, but there’s a strange morally puritanical core that confused yet fascinated me.

Gerard Butler growls somewhat obnoxiously through the role of Leonidas, the legendary Spartan king. His battle is to be waged against Xerxes, (Rodrigo Santoro) the Persian emperor claiming to be a god amongst mortals. Xerxes offers the Spartans a submissive role in the Persian Empire, but in the process offends Spartan pride. Submission and in particularly kneeling seem to be behaviors Spartans are willing to die to avoid. On the surface, we are told it is because Xerxes is a cruel tyrant and a coward, but subtextually he is also an object of distaste because he is unconventional, effeminate, ethnic, and associates with disfigured humans. In short, he is the leader of outcasts and therefore must be slaughtered by conservative macho white men. Attacking political or social overtones seems sort of pointless in this arena, though, since the film appears mostly designed to elicit yelps of glee from young males thirsty for hypothetical blood splatter.

However low brow the reception might be, this is definitely a visually if not conceptually ambitious film. Snyder creates a painterly CGI background of lush, darkly beautiful atmosphere that brings a fresh look to this ancient story. This is not a traditional action film nor a traditional swords and sandals epic. It is a modernist melding of both genres more akin to visually lucid fantasy flicks like The Matrix than old fashioned battle films. The core battle scenes are rendered in manic, speed changing visuals that capture a strangely beautiful aspect to the choreography of slaughter. It’s somewhat of a bloody ballet of swords, spears, and obscenely muscled warriors. There’s some redundancy in the constant fight scenes and some stiffness in attempts to create authentically dramatic characters, but for the most part this film delivers some of the most interesting battle photography in years and unleashes its own, twisted yet compelling convictions on its audience. It’s about more than just looking cool, but it certainly does that best of all.

Grade: B+

The Host

The Host is a creature feature of unexpected wit and poignancy. It tells the strange tale of the Parks, an ordinary family who become pseudowarriors after an attack on their home near the Han River in South Korea devastates the area and leads to unforeseen personal complications. Gang-du, (Song Kang-ho) the oldest and seemingly dimmest of three siblings becomes a particular interest to world governments after coming into close contact with the “creature” and surviving, making him patient zero for a supposed virus that the beast transmits.

The details here are not worth discussing in depth as the kooky contrivances of the mutant monster storyline are really just a template for a much bigger dramatic work. The film’s greatest asset is its self aware, genre-busting attitude. It lilts you into a soft melodrama or gets you lost in hilarious silliness only to snatch you back up with a vicious, unexpected kill. The sheer ruthlessness of the movie exceeds the intensity of most American thrillers within minutes. No character, however likable, is safe from threats both monstrous and sadistically human in nature. This is, after all, as much of a cautionary tale as it is a thriller, as it is a drama, as it is a comedy, etc. The mutant sea monster tale actually serves as a reflection on the price of beastly modern politics and social carelessness. Extrapolated from a real incident that took place in 2000 in which a Korean subordinate was forced to dump excess formaldehyde directly into the Han River, The Host tells of the dangers of a science obsessed, chemical age and champions a dwindling fervor for belief in the human spirit and the family bond.

This is a film so gripping and torturous that it can become painful to endure. From start to finish, it is an absolute terror and yet it is also a subtle delight. There’s a wonderful family drama at its core and a quest to save an endangered youth. It actually reminded me quite strangely of deranged reinterpretation of Little Miss Sunshine. It has that level of dysfunctional family goodness and gentle warmth, but also an added dimension of horror that defies expectations and shakes up your comfort level with the usually tired genre. It is a rare thing in the modern movie world when any sort of CGI monster takes on enough life to actually scare us and even rarer when its victims are compelling enough for us to agonize over their safety. This film delivers both of those things and much more.

Grade: A

DVD of the Week: Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

Sacha Baron Cohen won a Golden Globe for his performance in Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan and also earned himself a surprising Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. It might seem odd that this low key, cultish character actor has suddenly spawned mega-success and garnered the respect of major critics nationwide, but this film is something rare: a broad appeal film with depth enough to make even Oscar coming calling. It is obscene and silly for sure, but it is also a biting, uncomfortably blunt satire of American egotism and hypocrisy, part gross out comedy and part social commentary (a rare combination). That edge has made it one of the most appreciated films of 2006 across the board. It's rare that public opinion meshes with the minds of the critics, but on this one everyone can agree. Borat is stupid in ways that are truly ingenious and smart in ways that you might not even notice. I'd also suspect that the DVD features (including deleted material and some scenes supposedly too crude for even this film) would be worth a look as well. I'm sure Cohen's scraps exceed the very best jokes of most mediocre comedies anyway.

Zodiac

David Fincher could potentially be considered this generation's foremost auteur of expressive, post-modern cinema. His manic, ultra-stylized visions of violence and obsession have defined a generation’s need for coolly sadistic thrillers with dark social overtones. Se7en and Fight Club can be found on just about every dorm room DVD shelf nationwide and are part of a well known canon of must-love films for current college kids and recent graduates (other features on the roster include Requiem for a Dream, Memento, and Pulp Fiction). Zodiac certainly stands beside those films in terms of overall quality, but the means of delivery has been shaken up here. Though Fincher can not help but add a few stylistic twists here and there, he keeps Zodiac mostly in the realm of plausible reality. Whereas the killer of Se7en was a surreally cruel and nearly superhuman suspect, the menace here has all the subtle nuances and imperfections of an actual killer. Zodiac clings tightly to facts, truths of honest horror that have the ability to unnerve us more than murky fictions. The most eerie image of the Zodiac killer in the film is not that of a monstrous man lurking in shadows, but that of a seemingly normal man walking across a field in broad daylight wearing a sort of silly looking disguise. Not even the most vicious imagination could match something so simple and so terrifying.

Fincher’s basic objective becomes clear as soon as we see the vintage Paramount logo at the film’s beginning; he is not interpreting the story but rather recreating it to the best of his ability. He is laying out all the details, shaping them neatly into cinematic form. Never is he more heavenly simplistic than at the moments of the murders. The filming of death in this movie is not a fast, messy blood sport for Fincher. It is a laborious exercise in perfectly depicting just how things happened. He wants every awkward pause and strange moment captured just right. In doing this, he smashes the “based on a true story” cliché that implies the audience should assume manipulation on the filmmaker’s behalf. He makes you trust his senses and his perspective. If there is manipulation, we are all too mesmerized to know the difference.

Jake Gyllenhaal excels at being both wholesome and neurotic as Robert Graysmith, an average joe cartoonist who gets an inside peek at the Zodiac case through his work with the San Francisco Chronicle and becomes infatuated with finding the killer. There he comes into contact with the lead reporter on the case, Tom Avery, (Robert Downy Jr. as the sort of unraveling addict he plays best) and the key San Francisco investigator, David Toschi, (a gruff-voiced Mark Ruffalo also in fine form). Despite being responsible for multiple murders and potentially linked to several other crimes, it was really the Zodiac’s publicity skills which made him a culturally pervasive figure. He convinced local papers to print specially encoded ciphers within their pages and made malicious threats via the American media that captivated the attention of the general public. Beginning with a letter in 1969, Zodiac made a point of keeping himself in exclusive contact with high profile media sources, making his ability to go unidentified for nearly 40 years even more creepy. No formal charges were ever filed against a suspect, but the film (adapted from the work of the real Zodiac-phile Graysmith) levels some serious accusations at a major player in the investigation.

The Zodiac saga remains a fascinating story and Fincher’s rendition (the latest of many) is as gripping and precise a telling as anyone could ever desire. It takes on the ordinariness of the tragic tale and treats it as a fact of terror rather than attempting to create a shadowy, mysterious and more salable envisioning for mass consumption. This is a man who killed for seemingly thin motivations and made a public spectacle of his massacre. Even by film’s end his psyche remains a mystery, but it could not possibly be more enthralling to speculate and ponder how such a human could have existed and witness just how he slipped through the cracks of the legal system. This is the first truly extraordinary film of 2007.

Grade: A

Reno 911: Miami

Reno 911: Miami, the big screen adaptation of the low key Comedy Central series, is a mixed bag of hit or miss goofy gags and bawdy physical comedy. Some of the material is genuinely funny, but a lot of it is purely defined by ridiculousness. To be gross and stupid is not always the same as being funny, and the Reno team tends to confuse the two.

Thomas Lennon (actor & co-writer) stars as Lieutenant Jim Dangle, a clueless flake in tight shorts. He heads up a ragtag group of beyond stupid misfits all of whom get fortuitously cast out of a police convention just as a mysterious biohazard leaves all of Miami’s police force in quarantine.

The plot is thin (very thin), but that’s really not the point with a movie like this. It’s mostly about stringing together various unfortunate incidents in which the Reno crew prove themselves repeatedly incompetent. Occasionally there are also some truly bizarre character stories tossed onto the heap of wicked laughs, but it's mostly about 911 calls gone awry and the repeated crashing of police cars into things (especially other police cars). The formula works really well for awhile and even bounces back once or twice near the end of the film’s brief runtime, but for the most part this is an overextended movie (even at just 82 minutes). It turns out that Reno probably should have stayed in hour half hour format. By the middle of the film, so many jokes are being recycled that the entire production feels like déjà vu. It not only fails to continue momentum, but also becomes outright unfunny. There’s a threshold here at which point the writer’s just start tossing in random obscene sight gags as if vomiting prostitutes are the cure all for all comedic woes.

This will probably work well for true fans of the show, but general audiences are bound to get tired of the redundant material. The number of laughs doesn’t quite compensate for the stagnant story and extended periods absent of the unsavory cleverness that makes a premise like this tick. To justify a film, the writers would have needed to dig deeper into their big bag of dirty tricks rather than merely relocate the antics. They have the bigger budget and the freedom from censorship on their side creatively, but with only a handful of new additions to the formula, there’s really still not enough to carry the film beyond the half-hour mark. It definitely has its fair share of funny moments, but it would probably be better to just rent it somewhere down the line when you can savor the best bits and ignore the moments of bleak comic stasis.

Grade: C+

Black Snake Moan

Craig Brewer’s Black Snake Moan makes its intentions known from its very opening moments. With vintage ramblings on the definition of the blues and an in your face sex scene between stars Christina Ricci and Justin Timberlake starting off the movie with a bang, he’s very clearly telling the potentially confused audience members suspecting either a safe narrative or a vacantly explicit Tarrantino pulp-fest to quietly excuse themselves from the theater. Though I doubt anyone who has seen an ad expects it to be wholesome, there will be quite a few people expecting the latter of those two potential viewer misunderstandings and they would be dead wrong. Black Snake Moan does play with elements of pulp and Southern Gothic with its kitschy narrative and nearly surreal depictions of aggressively dark lives. It’s not a hollow depiction, though, by any means. It is a vicious, raunchy rumination on the weight of emotional burdens and the afflictions of humanity. Most importantly, it is a movie about redemption, a film that for all its surface aggression boasts a tender heart. Much like its coarse characters whose obvious indelicacy makes them largely outsiders, this film will send many people running at first glance. However, if you stick around you will see that it is actually a thing of beauty underneath, a big glob of sweet honey wrapped up tightly in barbed wire.

To call it a sociopath’s love story would be harsh, but there is no doubt that this film has its sights set on the hearts of distant cynics (including the ones within the film). The best means by which to strike such a nerve is to bury all the joy under layers of complication and despite all the moments of utter hopefulness Black Snake Moan offers, the film never escapes bittersweet territory enough to fall into sheer optimism. It is part full out, unreal spectacle and part authentic, gritty heartbreaker. The characters have a cold, perfected style that makes you very aware you are watching a film, and a fairly unconventional one at that. You can see them working. You can see Brewer’s fast cuts, his colored tints, his rhythmical, musical editing. It is right before your eyes and yet the illusion remains. You still believe that somehow these people are real people even if they could live only in a world made for a movie. It is a master trick of tone and style that takes moments to sink in, but eventually becomes an expected norm throughout the film.

Christina Ricci is without a doubt that standout in this stellar cast of mostly misfits. As Rae, an emotionally scarred, self-destructive, nymphomaniac Ricci captures the sort of uninhibited, breathtakingly earnest movie magic that is often hard to find. Much like the film, she’s clearly putting on a show. She comes armed with a fabricated southern drawl and an iconic looking set of hardly existent costumes (including that well publicized chain). Yet, you can still sense the scared little girl behind her defiant expression and aggressive sexuality. There’s something deeply false about her, but also something commandingly authentic. She’s like a caricature with a hidden soul. The same could be said of Samuel L. Jackson’s Bible loving Lazarus, a lonely man in a state of dire hopelessness seeking to redeem anyone he can. He makes decisions that should imply insanity, but somehow we still like him. Society tend to frown upon the practice of chaining strange women to radiators until you can wash away their evil, but in this context it we’re willing to deal with the idea. It is Lazarus’ goodness that surprises us. You might assume the act to be malevolent, but however misguided it might be, he does intend to aid the tragic young woman. Jackson hasn’t been this solid in a long time and it is a great relief to see him inhabiting a character as boldly and convincingly as this. He actually earns his paycheck on this one.

The course of film will probably surprise you as will the softness at its core. The relationship between Lazarus and Rae is not a destructive one, but rather one of healing. They cleanse each other enough to get Laz back on his feet and Rae back into the arms of her decent boyfriend, Ronny (Timberlake in his second solid film performance). To see Ricci finally unleash a smile near the movie’s end is one of the most satisfying instances of happiness on film in recent memory. There’s such a dark cloud looming above the heads of these troubled characters that even the suggestion that happiness is possible feels more rewarding than any happy ending a far less grounded feature could offer. This is a freewheeling, excitingly original film weighted with a genuine sincerity that pierces the ruckus and makes this something special.

Grade: A

Trailers: Year of the Dog

I caught this trailer before a screening of Black Snake Moan yesterday (I'll post that review soon), and am now totally excited about this film. Mike White has penned scripts ranging from low key flicks like The Good Girl to mega hits like School of Rock and is finally making his debut as a director. Molly Shannon stars as a woman mourning the death of her dog in what looks like a remarkably restrained role for the usually excessive comedienne. Her impressive list of costars include Peter Sarsgaard, John C. Reilly, and Laura Dern. White is a modern day maestro of the quirky indie comedy and this looks like it could be one of his sweetest, funniest films to date. The official release is set for April 13th.

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