Tracking Shots

A Town Called Panic (Stephane Aubier, Vincent Patar 2010) ***

2010-03-14T17:53:00.000-07:00

Dir. Stephane Aubier, Vincent Patar

I'm not sure what kind of narcotics one needs to be on to come up with the inspired lunacy that is A Town Called Panic, but I sure wouldn't mind a few of them to be distributed to some of the mainstream filmmakers that populate the multiplexes with bland retreads. This is one of the oddest animated films I've seen, but when it works, it is an absolutely hilarious adventure.

A Town Called Panic is a stop motion animated feature that follows the adventures of three plastic toys - an Indian, a Cowboy, and a Horse, all of whom live in the same house. Trouble starts when Cowboy and Indian throw a surprise birthday party for Horse and accidentally buy 50 million bricks. The bricks collapse and destroy their house and in the midst of rebuilding it, one of their walls gets stolen.This leads to a series of zany events in which they have to track down the stolen wall.

There is some really bizarre stuff in this movie. Horse is considered an equal to the others. He takes showers and stretches out on the couch. He's taking music lessons because he is in love with Madame Longray (also a horse, the film isn't THAT weird). The adventure to find their stolen wall takes them through a forest, down to the center of the earth and to a remote icy climate where evil scientists are traveling around in a large mechanical penguin that can throw large snowballs very long distances.

Thankfully, the movie is funny enough to keep the viewer engaged. Much of that can be attributed to the fantastic vocal work. I've never had a problem with foreign animated films being dubbed, but I'm certainly glad that was not done in this case, because the original voice cast is so incredibly good. Particularly good is filmmaker Stephane Aubier's hilarious French cowboy combo accent, which is funny every single time the character speaks. The crude animation adds to the film’s charm, as the characters awkwardly make their way around on the flat plastic bases that connect their feet.

If the film has any flaw, it's that it cannot possibly maintain the consistently funny tone for the full feature length running time. Some of the jokes get a little repetitive and others just fall completely flat, including the finale which was a bit of a letdown. Still, this is the kind of wildly original filmmaking that deserves to be appreciated and encouraged. I’d rather watch a hundred of these than see one more minute of Shrek.

Shutter Island (Martin Scorsese) - ****

2010-03-13T23:54:00.000-08:00

Dir. Martin Scorsese
Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Emily Mortimer, Patricia Clarkson, Michelle Williams

The most curious thing about the pre-release buzz for Scorsese's Shutter Island is the idea that Scorsese is somehow slumming by making a thriller. The man who has made his mark elevating the gangster/cops and robbers genres is somehow above the same genre that the legendary Alfred Hitchcock mastered. And it seems that this has led to the consensus opinion about the film being, "Nice job, Marty, now get back to what we want you to do." It's a shame, because I think this does a great disservice to what is a fantastic film.

Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a federal marshal sent to investigate the disappearance of a dangerous patient in a remote insane asylum. Assisting him is a brand new partner Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo), who may or may not be on his side. From the start, there are warning signs that not all is right; they are forced to give up their weapons, patients give ominous warnings like writing "run", and Dr. Cawley (Ben Kingsley) seems to be offering very little assistance to the investigation.

Martin Scorsese has great fun setting up an exaggerated visual theme. The noirish premise allows him to get away with pretty much whatever he wants. The island is filled with an intensely drab look that feels like it would make one go insane if they already weren't. A brutal storm bashes the island throughout the film. And there's the foreboding lighthouse (with rumors of sickening medical experiments) that seems to have an almost impossible route to enter. Scorsese does such a great job with the visual look of the island that it feel like an extra character in the story.

However, what makes Shutter Island such a wonderful experience is not just the visuals or the wonderfully creepy moments that punctuate the film, but it’s the raw emotion that Scorsese brings to the story. Yes, the same intensity that Scorsese brings to all of his other projects is still here. Where the standard thriller is generally about using forgettable cardboard characters as devices to surprise the audience with scares, this one contains fully realized people, including a hero with a painfully regretful past. The film contains two incredibly painful dramatic sequences that rank among the filmmaker's best work. It is this emotional intensity that elevates the film above your standard thriller fare and makes it work on multiple levels.

Yet the fact that Scorsese is even daring to do a thriller seems to have limited the potential for the film getting its just praise. Everyone seems to be waiting for him to get back to his next "serious” work. There seems to be such a lack of respect for genre films that one wonders why any respected filmmaker would dare attempt to make one. This is somewhat understandable given the odious quality of the average genre film (even worse when you refine it to the thriller genre), but this is exactly why great filmmakers like Scorsese should be encouraged to make films like this. Otherwise, we’re basically telling filmmakers, “Hitchcock was great, but don’t do what he did.”

Seen in the proper context, I think it is clear that Shutter Island is a great film, and a superior example of a modern thriller. It’s exactly what we should expect when a great filmmaker with seemingly unlimited resources at his disposal (including a terrific cast headlined by a DiCaprio at the top of his game) brings his considerable talent to a promising story. The ending combines a memorable final line with a closing shot that is truly the work of a master. .

2009 Awards

2010-03-09T23:43:00.000-08:00

Best Picture of the Year

500 Days of Summer
Away We Go
*Inglourious Basterds
In the Loop
Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
Moon
Observe and Report
Sugar
Up
Up in the Air

Best Achievement in Directing

Lee Daniels for Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
Pete Docter for Up
Jason Reitman for Up in the Air
*Quentin Tarantino for Inglourious Basterds
Marc Webb for 500 Days of Summer

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

*George Clooney in Up in the Air
Matt Damon in The Informant!
John Krasinski in Away We Go
Joseph Gordon Levitt in 500 Days of Summer
Sam Rockwell in Moon

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role

Amy Adams for Sunshine Cleaning
Zooey Deschanel in 500 Days of Summer
Carey Mulligan in An Education
Maya Rudolph in Away We Go
*Gabourey Sidibe in Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role

Vera Farmiga in Up in the Air
Anna Kendrick in Up in the Air
Melanie Laurent in Inglourious Basterds
*Mo'nique in Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
Paula Patton in Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role

Peter Capaldi in In the Loop
Nathan Filion in Trucker
Alfred Molina in An Education
Brad Pitt in Inglourious Basterds
*Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds

Best Screenplay Written Directly For the Screen

500 Days of Summer
Away We Go
*Inglourious Basterds
Observe and Report
Up

Best Screnplay Based on Material Previously Published or Produced

Fantastic Mr. Fox
In the Loop
Precious: Basedon the Novel Push by Sapphire
That Evening Sun
*Up in the Air

Achievement in Editing

500 Days of Summer
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
*Inglourious Basterds
Up

Achievment in Cinematography

Away We Go
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
Inglourious Basterds
*A Serious Man
That Evening Sun

Achievement in Art Direction

*Avatar
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Inglourious Basterds
Moon
Up

Achievement in Original Score

500 Days of Summer
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Moon
Summer Hours
*Up

Achievement in Costume Design

*500 Days of Summer
An Education
Away We Go
Bright Star
Inglourious Basterds

Achievement in Makeup

District 9
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
*Star Trek

Achievement in Visual Effects

*Avatar
District 9
Star Trek

Achievement in Sound

*Avatar
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek

Achievement in Sound Editing

Avatar
District 9
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
*The Hurt Locker
Star Trek

Animated Short

*Chump and Clump
French Roast
Sebastian's Voodoo
Wallace and Gromit: A Matter of Load and Death
Window Pains

Live Action Short

The Attack of the Robots from Nebula 5
*Flying Lessons
He. She. It.
Magellan
Miracle Fish

Other Awards

Best Film Moment

500 Days of Summer (Expectations vs. Reality)
Inglourious Basterds (Inferno)
Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphhire (Confrontation at the social worker's office)
Sugar (Trying to order eggs)
*Up (Carl and Ellie's montage)

Ensemble Cast

*Inglourious Basterds
In the Loop
Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
Star Trek
Up in the Air

Trailer

500 Days of Summer
Avatar
Funny People
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek

Best Piece of Film Criticism: Bryant Frazer on Inglourious Basterds
Worst Piece of Film Criticism: Armond White on Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire

Atlanta Film Festival - Day Ten

2009-05-08T06:24:00.000-07:00

Saturday, April 25th

The final day of the festival started off strong with Faded Glory (***), a documentary about a semi-pro baseball player that tries to get his old team back together so they can win the National Amateur Baseball Association World Series. The team consists of guys who have known each other for 18+ years, and many of them involved in the entertainment industry. One of them had a role in Little Big League. One of them is a network news weatherman. And one of them is poker player Chad Brown. It was directed by Richard Cohen, who is the player organizing the team, giving the film a nice first person perspective and a likeable guy to root for. Like Pip & Zastrow, I appreciate the film's willingness ot explore negative aspects of the people involved in the film, even the director's own issues are exposed. Cohen does a terrific job of showing the baseball action, making it very easy to follow and perfectly capturing the drama of the event. This works just like a really good underdog sports movie, and I wouldn't be surprised to see it made into a Hollywood movie down the line.

This was followed by another strong documentary called Neshoba (***1/2). This is about the efforts of the citizens in Philadelphia, Mississippi to get the state to proescute Edgar Ray Killen, the man largely thought to be responsible for the murders of three civil rights workers, an event that was dramatized in the film Mississippi Burning. The film includes interviews with the victim's survivors and various people in the town. What really sets this film apart is that the director gets an amazing amount access to Edgar Ray Killen, even during the trial. He is very blunt about his feelings of the events, going so far as to blaming the victim's parents for letting them go on the trip. The director also gets great footage of the trial, including some priceless reaction shots of Killen during testimony where he clearly mouths some cuss words. This is an expertly made documentary with superior editing that really delves into a frightening part of our history.

The closing night film was a Mexican feature called Rudo y Cursi (**) from director Carlos Cuaron. He's the brother of Alfonso Cuaron, who made Y Tu Mama Tambien, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and Children of Men. It features the two stars of Y Tu Mama Tambien (Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal) as brothers who play soccer in a small Mexican town. They get recruited by a talent scout who takes them both to the big city and big league club play. The story follows their ups and downs playing professional soccer and also how they struggle to adapt to big city life. This was a huge disappointment. The idea sounds good, but Cuaron is clearly not as talented as his brother. The pacing is way off, as Cuaron goes from scene to scene cutting at all the wrong moments. There is absolutely no flow to the story, and many events are randomly skipped over. What we do get to see is a bunch of cliches (seduction of gambling, sibling jealousy, financial issues). The biggest oddity is that Cuaron shows very little soccer action. One of the brothers is about to set the record for most shutouts in a row, but we hardly get to see any of that until the very end. The two leads are very strong actors, and Guillermo Francella gives a memorable character performance as the talent scout, but they cannot make up for this heavily flawed film.

Atlanta Film Festival - Day Nine

2009-05-08T06:18:00.000-07:00

Friday, April 24th

The energy of the festival is really dying down now, and so is my enthusiasm for it. They really frontloaded the schedule this year, which I think was a mistake. I usually don't see so many shorts programs, because I prefer feature length films, but the options were underwhelming in the past couple days.

Today started off with another shorts program, called Fantastical Shorts, and this was by far my least favorite of all the shorts programs.

A Peacock Feathered Blue (**) is about a kid who gets made fun of at school, but is determined to do well at the school science fair. This one has an incredibly sappy ending.

Glory At Sea (***) is about a group of people who lost loved ones during Hurricane Katrina. When one of the dead magically rise to shore, they all get together on a boat and look for the rest. This one had some really nice cinematography and a couple of interesting characters. (7/10)

Skylight (*1/2) is another incredibly sappy film. This one consists of a grandfather telling a little girl a "magical" story, which she finds out is a story from his own past. The story is anything but magical, and the ending doesn't make any sense.

The Key (*1/2) takes place in a future where people grow their own hydroponic food. A guy who lives in the sewer watches a girl who walks by every day, until drops a key and they finally meet. Again, the cinematography is good, but we barely learn anything about these characters, so why do we care if they meet?

The best of this bunch was certainly The Attack of the Robots From Nebula-5 (***1/2). It's a Mexican short shot to look like an Ed Wood film, and it's about a young man who believes robots are going to come from outer space and attack. It follows his hilarious efforts to warn his friends and family. This one is very clever, with some awesome visual cues and a hilarious performance from the lead.

The only other film I saw today was The Death of Alice Blue (*1/2), a Canadian film about a young woman who gets a job at an ad agency and soon learns that the agency is run by vampires. Sounds like a fun premise, but this one is a little too bizaare. The film is more interested in trying to be clever than telling any kind of coherent story. Everything exists in such a cold, absurdist reality that it's hard to really connect with any of the characters, so even when things start to make some kind of sense at the end, you don't really care what happens. However, I will give props to the art director and cinematographer. They both did a great job here, but it was in service of nonsense. (4/10)

Atlanta Film Festival - Day Eight

2009-05-08T06:16:00.001-07:00

Thursday, April 23rd

The first film of the day is a documentary called Heart of Stone (***1/2). It follows Prinicpal Ron Stone's efforts to revamp Weequahic High School. The Newark high school used to be one of the most successful schools in the country, but is now in one of the poorest sections of Newark. Stone's attempts are supported by the school's mostly Jewish alumni association (the demographics of the area changed after the 1967 riots following MLK's assassination), which is one of the largest in the country. One of the more controversial methods Stone uses is meeting with the students that are gang leaders and earning their trust. He starts up a conflict resolution program aimed at stopping violence. The director gets some candid interviews with the two gang leaders and you do get the sense that Stone has really been able to reach them. There was a terrific Q&A with the director afterwards, and there were a couple Weequahic alumni in the audience.

The next film was Lake Tahoe (***), from Mexican director Fernando Eimbcke. Eimbcke's previous film Duck Season premiered at the festival two years ago, and was a nice treat about two boys stuck at home all day. This film is very similar in the minimalist style that Eimbcke employs. Juan is a teenage boy who crashes his mom's car into a telegraph pole. The story follows Juan's efforts to get the car fixed. Along the way he meets some interesting characters, including a single mother who wants to be a singing star and a teenage mechanic who loves Bruce Lee films. The film doesn't dramatize anything. It takes a matter of fact approach to each event. Juan asks an old man for help, and the old man tells him which part he needs. Juan then goes to an auto parts store to order the part, where he waits with the single mother for an expert to arrive with the part he needs. While waiting, the teenage mechanic might help so he goes off with him. The film continues like this and it's a pretty refreshing style in a day and age when directors are trying to show off. Eimbcke prefers to keep the camera still and let the events do the talking.

The final film of the day was The New Twenty (**), which is a typical indie film that follows a group of college friends as they struggle with the transition to adulthood. The film explores their difficulty with both proffessional and personal relationships. This is one of the more common indie film plots that has thankfully taken a back seat at this year's festival, but this one isn't so bad. Some of the characters are pretty interesting and the director keeps things going at a decent pace. However, some of the situations they go through are pretty ridiculous and some of the characters just come across as pricks, so there's little reason for you to care about them. Also, the resolution the director comes up with is just a little too neat. I'd recommend a 1995 movie called Kicking & Screaming (not the Will Ferrel one) instead. It's the best example of this genre.

Atlanta Film Festival - Day Seven

2009-05-08T06:07:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, April 22

Today opened with a documentary about the Atlanta indie music scene. We Fun (**) follows several bands playing at different venues, talks about their history, and the obsessive fans. I didn't really care for this one. While the documentary captures the thrill of the late night indie music culture, it fails to show us why these bands are so popular. Partly at fault is the poor sound quality, but I also found little to like about the music itself. The main band that the director focuses on is the Black Lips, a band with a big following in Atlanta, but I could not stand their music at all. There were other bands, including a female band that reminded me of Heath Ledger's line in 10 Things I Hate About You about "chicks who can't play their instruments". However, there was one band where the lead singer set her vagina on fire. That was the highlight of the movie.

Los Campeones De La Lucha Libre (**1/2) is an animated film that was one of the more interesting films I saw at the festival. A village is under attack and they plead with the legendary Dragon Rojo to come save them. He refuses, but his son Dragon Rojo Jr. is determined to help out, so he recruits a team of wrestlers (Mr. Proffessional, Rayo X, Sorpesa, and Tsetse Fly) to save the town. Along the way, they decide to prepare and train against various competitors, causing the anguished villager to keep reminding them that his village is in trouble. The plot of this film is thin, even at the short 72 minute running time. However, it is filled with a fast paced animation style and plenty of jokes to keep things moving. The best joke of all is the payoff when they get to the village and find out who they're fighting for. Unfortunately, the big finale is very disappointing, spoiled by the group having several similar fights leading up to it.

Next up was the Drama Shorts program:

Wheels (***) follows a paralyzed girl who is determined to get her car back and literally drags herself to the towing company. The ending is a twist that's not too hard to predict, but still emotionally resonant.

Miracle Fish (***1/2) follows an 8 yr old boy who is an outcast at school. During one trying day, he hides in a bed at the nurse's station. When he wakes up, the school is empty and he seems relieved that all of his tormentors are gone. The director gives this one a nice sci-fi feel to it, and the payoff works amazingly well.

Flying Lessons (****) has some star power with Dana Delany playing a mother trying to cope with raising her autistic son, who keeps getting into trouble. Bill Fagerbakke (Coach) shows up as a new neighbor that takes a liking to her. This is a powerful dramatic piece, with Delany giving a wonderful performance.

Between You and Me (**) is a film that follows six different characters as they interact throughout the day. The film is show triptych-split-screen style, which is fairly interesting, but doesn't make up for the fact that what actually happens in the film isn't very interesting at all.

Magellan (***1/2) is about a boy in 7th grade who walks to school each day with one of the most popular girls in school. Their friendship lasts the length of that walk and stops once they reach school, where her friends make fun of him and she joins in. Undaunted, he tries to muster up the courage to ask her to the school dance. Very appealing performances from the leads and the bittersweet ending is nice.

The Capgras Tide (***) is about a man who has just recently recovered from a concussion, but now thinks his father may be an impostor. This one has a nice mystery element to it and features some great technical work, especially the wonderful cinematography. The ending packs a punch.

And the day ended with another shorts program. This one was called Battle of the Sexes Shorts:

Who's Good Looking? (***) is a mere 7 minutes long and consists of a man arguing with his girlfriend over her concept of beauty while they visit a cosmetics store. There is some really funny dialogue that makes this one work.

Address To Silas On The Occasion Of The Retreat At Los Angeles County (**) is about a recently broken up couple, narrated from a letter that the woman is writing to the man. As the narration talks about their differences, a civil war battle erupts int heir apartments. Interesting idea, but the conceit got old before the 7 minute running time was up.

Don't Walk Away In Silence (**) is about a man with radical political views who is offered a well paying office job that goes against everything he believes in. This one is a little preachy, but it is well acted and has a nice ending. (6/10)

Happy Hour (***) features a depressed girl who is wallowing in misery after catching her boyfriend cheating on her. Her friends come up with an idea that she should get back at him by sleeping with someone, and they bring a guy over for that purpose. Some pretty funny farcical situations here make the silly idea work. (7/10)

Thinking... (***) is about a young woman on a meditation retreat who is distracted by a young man who begins flirting with her, and this sends her mind running wild with imagination. Pretty funny, with an appealing lead performance from the director. (7/10)

He. She. It (***1/2) is about an aging teacher about to retire who tries to start a romance between the only two pupils in his class, but he must race to fix a problem when the romance is threatened. This Australian film was only 17 minuts, but featured three very strong characterizations. (8/10)

Rendezvous (*1/2) is the weakest of the films in this group. It's about a male hitmen talking to his female hitman friend about a botched job where he missed the target. The ending to his one is telegraphed from the very beginning, which took away from some decent dialogue. (4/10)

Atlanta Film Festival - Day Six

2009-05-08T06:00:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, April 21

Today started off with a major disappointment. I Am the Bluebird (*) had a very interesting story idea, but was poorly executed in every possible way. Ethan Galloway awakens in a hospital with temporary memory loss. He slowly begins remembering things, but one thing that remains is a mystery is a photograph of a beautiful girl, and no one will tell him who it is. As he begins following, he starts to uncover the missing pirces from his memory and why he had memory loss in the first place. This seemed like it could have been really interesting, like a more serious version of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. However, the movie is just flat out terrible. You'll often find bad acting in indie films, but rarely is an entire cast as wooden and blank as the people in this film. That makes it impossible to care about the story, but the story isn't worth caring about anyways. It's a mystery that unfolds at a deadly slow pace and falls flat when you finally get there. What a terrible way to start the day.

The next one was a surprise. Naturally Obsessed: The Making of a Scientist (***) is a documentary that follows several grad students as they struggle with advanced experiments while attempting to get their PHD's. From that description, it sure doesn't sound like a fun movie, but the director did a terrific job making this accessible and humorous to keep the audience interested. The story is almost framed in a sports underdog format, focusing mainly on one older grad student named Rob who has struggled for 4 years (dropping out several times) on one specific experiment involving the protein that controls appetite. It follows his struggle to develop crystals so data can be extracted and analyzed. This may not sound like exciting subject matter, but I found myself deeply immersed in this world, rooting for Rob to complete his experiment. Rob is an ingratiating person, who really fits the "obsessed" part of the title, and his idioisyncrasies add alot of humor to the film. This one really caught me off guard, but it was fun and rewarding.

And here we go! Every year at the festival, there is at least one movie that truly stands out from everything else and this year it is 500 Days of Summer (****). This is a fucking fantastic film that succeeds in every single way. It follows Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a man who dreams to be an architect but instead ends up writing for a greeting card company. He instantly falls for Summer (Zooey Deschanel, looking better than ever), a new employee at the company. The structure is really interesting. It follows 500 days of their relationship, but keeps shifting back and forth to different days within that 500, mixing happy moments with sad ones. And there is plenty of both in this bittersweet film. There are numerous laugh out loud comic moments, including a hilarious dance sequence performed to Hall & Oates' "You Make My Dreams". Levitt (who is building a nice movie resume) is completely winning as the everyman who is hopelessly in love with a girl that says she doesn't want commitment, and Deschanel gets one of her best roles to date, her stunning screen presence is a given but the offbeat personality that Deschanel injects makes the character even more appealing. The narrator warns at the beginning that this is not a love story, but I would argue that it is actually one of the most truthful love stories ever made.

The night concluded with That Evening Sun (***1/2), which had been given an additional screening because it won the festival's grand jury prize (note: not all films are in competition, so 500 Days was not eligible for this award). This film follows Abner Meecham (Hal Holbrook), an elderly man who leaves his nursing home and goes back to the farm where he spent most of his life. When he gets there, he finds it occupied by the detestable Lonzo Choat and his family. Abner is determined to get his farm back, and begins a war of wills with Lonzo that slowly escalates into danger. This film captures the feel of the rural south very well, and the patient way it moves throught he plot allows the actors (especially Holbrook) to create fascinating characters. It's the type of carefully studied role that could get Holbrook an Oscar nomination. The screenplay by writer-director Scott Teems contains precise, mature dialogue and fully developed characters. I don't know what to make of the ending, which doesn't really tie things up the way I would've liked, but this is still an extremely well made film told in an old-fashioned style.

Atlanta Film Festival - Day Five

2009-05-07T06:45:00.000-07:00

Monday, April 20th

The day opens with an interesting documentary called Kassim the Dream (***). It's about light middleweight boxer Kassim "the Dream" Ouma, who was kidnapped at a very young age and forced to be a child soldier for Uganda. While in the military, he took up boxing and took advantage of a chance to defect to the USA. He would later become a very good boxer and win the IBF title. The film follows his boxing exploits as he simultaneously tries to win a pardon so he can return home ot Uganda and see his family. Kassim is an interesting figure in that he doesn't seem to be too concerned with the human rights aspect of what happened to him, and is willing to keep quiet on that front so he doesn't ruffle feathers with the Ugandan president and gets a chance to go home. He is a fairly aloof figure for most of the film, except for some very emotional moments near the end of the film. Kassim is a fascinating person and the doc does a good job of exploring different facets of his life, including the Irish-American family who takes him in as one of their own.

Then it was time for Animation Extravagazna 1, and this one was far less successful, although there were a few standouts.

Garbage Angels (**) shows several objects in a trash heap coming to life. It was cute, but felt very derivative of Toy Story.

French Roast (***1/2) was a very funny short following a businessman in a Paris cafe who finds that he forgot his wallet and cannot pay for the cup of coffee, so he keeps ordering more cups until he can figure out what to do. The humor escalates in this one nicely and has a clever payoff.

Crew 54 (**1/2) is a Bulgarian film following an elderly veteran's recollection of the war he fought in. This one is a little too clever for it's own good. There's only so many times you can go into slow motion and blast a Radiohead song before there's diminishing returns.

Articles of War (***) is an emotional tale of a WW2 bomber pilot who starts to feel regret for bombing civilian locations, told in a letter to his father. The narration is moving, and it avoids being overly preachy by including multiple dimensions in the pilot's monologue.

I Am So Proud of You (*1/2) is a biographical short drawn mostly in stick figures. It's not without funny moments, but most of it is absurdist Adult Swim-style humor that honestly goes right over my head. Might be better if you get baked beforehand.

Bill Plympton presents Hot Dog (***), the third film in his Dog series. I haven't seen the first two, but this one is really funny. It follows an oddly shaped dog struggling to find a place where he belongs. Here he attempts to be a fire dog but fails in hilarious fashion. (8/10)

Chump and Clump (****) is so far the most fun I've had at the festival. The two odd looking title characters meet at a bus station, waiting for a bus that only shows once a week. Slowly they start to bond over alcohol and this eventually escalates to more alcohol and on to weed and shrooms. The two are so stoned that when the bus finally arrives, they have a Herculean struggle in trying to make it to the door before the driver leaves. Very inventive and absolutely hilarious.

Back to more serious subject matter with the next film, another sports oriented documentary. Living is Winning (***) tells the story of Andrew Johnston, a triathlete whose career was derailed by being diagnosed with Leukemia. This is the kind of documentary that really stands out above others because it takes a serious subject and injects a good dose of humor. You'll really enjoy getting to hear Drew and his family and friends talk about these events. The film is pretty candid about the relationship with Drew and his wife, including their sparring over Drew's involvement in dangerous high speed cycling races, which ended with him finally agreeing to switch to Triathlons. Drew is a compelling person who doesn't want to give up, and his battle to get back on the course is very inspirational, especially for someone like me whose been sitting on his ass all week watching films. Drew and his wife were both in attendance for the Q&A.

Last year's festival featured a couple of fun low budget horror film called Make Out With Violence and Dance of the Dead. That spurred me to check out the late screening of Killer Movie (*1/2), a horror film about a serial killer loose in a small North Dakota town while a reality show is being made. The reality conceit has been played out by now, but this one still had some potential. Kaley Cuoco has some really funny moments as a fictional Paris Hilton clone, but the rest of the cast fails to be engaging or create any characters worth caring about. The suspense moments are boring and unimaginative, and most of the humor falls flat. The director has clearly seen lots of horror films in his day because this one is filled with every cliche in the book, but he's clueless about how to retain the success of any of them.

Atlanta Film Festival - Day Four

2009-05-07T06:33:00.000-07:00

Sunday, April 19th

The first one today was a nice treat. The film is called Rain (***) , which came from the Bahamas. It follows a young girl named Rain whose caretaker grandmother dies, so she travels to see her mother, who now goes by the name of Glory. Glory is a sad, poor, desperate woman who is into prostitution and drugs. As Rain watches her mother's sad daily life, she is encouraged by a track coach (CCH Pounder, one of only two Americans in the whole film) who thinks she might be able to get a college scholarship and make a better way for her life. This was a really good film with a terrific performanced in the title role by Renel Brown, who was a local Bahamian actress making her film debut. What's really interesting is the film shows a different side of the Bahamas than the paradise that we usually see portrayed in films. The area where Glory lives is a run down slum that no one would want to take a vacation to, and is populated by criminals and other malcontents. It's perhaps not the most original story. There have been tons of coming of age stories where a child tries to use sports to better their situation, and the wise coach is a staple in these types of movies, but the earnest performances make this one stand out.

This was followed up by an incredibly depressing film called Mississippi Damned (***). It follows an extended family as they cope with a seemingly unending cycle of drug addiction and abuse. It's clear that this is a very personal story from writer-director Tina Mabry. The film's main focus is on three children caught up in this mess, presumably different incarnations of the director's own childhood. This is an uncomfortable film that doesn't pull any punches. It explores some really dark aspects of the human condition, and shows how hard it can be for the young people growing up in that situation to escape their circumstances. There are some veteran character actors (my fellow geeks will recognize DB Woodside from the final season of Buffy), but I was especially impressed with the younger actors, who give very mature performance. This certainly isn't a fun movie, but it is made with alot of passion and talent and has a rewarding ending.

The only documentary I saw today was Training Rules (**1/2), which exposes Penn State women's basketball coach Rene Portland's guideline that prohibits lesbian players on her team. Portland was coach of Penn State for almost three decades and had a very successful run over that time. The film interviews past players, some of whom were dismissed or decided to quit after Portland explained the rules to them. The central focus is a lawsuit filed by Jennifer Harris, who claims Portland dismissed her from the team after her sophomore season solely because she's a lesbian. While much of what is talked about is anecdotal, Portland actually was quoted in a news article, saying she wouldn't have it in her program and a PSU internal investigation found she had created a hostile environment for her players. Unfortunately, the documentary is pretty straightforward and feels more like a news story than a film. Still, the interviews do capture the emotional turmoil that Portland's policies caused for her players.

The Atlanta Film Festival seems to have a love affair with films about poor teenagers with sick mothers, and their attempts to use athletic skills to help their mother and themselves (Saint Ralph is the best example of this). We've already seen Rain earlier today, and the next film Playing for Charlie (**) fits that bill. Tony Hobbs is a 16 yr old who is great at Australian Rules Football, and hopes to get selected on the national team one day. His quest is complicated by the need to take care of his baby brother while his mother (who has MS) works nights as a telemarketer. This one is filled with all of the cliches of the genre, including the wise old coach trying to help the boy through. Unlike Rain, this film is unable to rise above the cliches. Part of the problem is a stupid subplot about Tony's half-brother trying to get him involved in crime and a romantic subplot that seemed tacked on at the last minute. The actors do an adequate job, but the direction is uneven, particularly failing at really showing how good Tony is at football.

The night closed out with my first shorts program of the evening, Animation Extravaganza 2 (Animation 1 comes tomorrow). This is always one of the most popular programs of the festival, and I've seen some great shorts in the past. There were 12 shorts in this program, but I missed the first two due to overlap with the previous film. Most of the films included in this program were strong.

The Greatest Moment in the History of the Universe... Ever (***) is the humorous history of the Earth told from the perspective of a little girl.

One of the strongest is Sebastian's Voodoo (***1/2), which is about a tortured voodoo doll that tries to rescue his friends. This is a very clever film with a surprisingly moving ending.

Unbeleivable 4 (***)is a funny 80s style MTV music video with animated versions of Bush, Cheney, Rice, and Rumsfeld performing "The Final Countdown".

Symphony (**1/2) is a pretty simple film that follows a little inkblot as it moves to the sounds of Vivaldi.

The funniest was certainly Window Pains (***1/2), which follows the exploits of a man trying to figure out what is wrong with his computer and dealing with useless tech support. The guy only talks in mumbled language, but anyone who's ever had PC issues will certainly understand every hilarious word he says.

The program concluded with the latest from Nick Park, Wallace and Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death (***1/2). The latest adventure finds the two trying to dodge a serial killer and both getting caught up in romantic possibilities. This fits right in with the fast paced, hilarious work that Park has delivered in the past with these characters. The only drawback is that the mystery is completely obvious, but that's where most of the humor comes from so it's not really a problem.

Atlanta Film Festival - Day Three

2009-05-07T05:37:00.000-07:00

Saturday, April 19th

Today started off with a documentary. For the Loves of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism (**1/2) is pretty much exactly what it says. The film starts off pretty interesting by exploring the very early years of film criticism when critics were still trying to figure out how to approach this new art form. It goes on to explore the first famous critic, Bosley Crowther, who wrote for the NY Times for 27 years. The most entertaining section of the film is when it talks about the film critics that rose up in the 60s, such as Andrew Sarris and PAuline Kael, who battled pretty fiercely over the auteur theory, which Kael detested. Kael's biting wit is on full display in several interviews and press clippings included int he film. After this, it moves on to the rise of television, but this is where the film stumbles a bit in my opinion, While including several interviews with Roger Ebert, the filmmaker only spends about 3 minutes discussing the impact Siskel and Ebert had on film criticism, not even touching on the "Thumbs Up" system they developed. It seemed like an odd choice, especially when the film rushes by that to talk about the rise of the internet and actually spends more time on Harry Knowles and other internet critics. I'd consider the film a moderate success for the interesting exploration of early film criticism, but the choices made in discussing modern criticism are puzzling and hamper the film's credibility.

The next film was another documentary called Pip & Zastrow: An American Friendship (***). Pip Moyer and Zastrow Simms were two of the top athletes in their segregated Annapolis schools. They quickly became friends, despite the racial prejudices of the time, and the film explores their friendship over the years. Their lives took two different directions, as Pip went to college while Zastrow went to jail numerous times. Pip later came back to Annapolis and got alot of attention for joining an all-black amateur basketball team. Pip later on became Mayor of Annapolis, while Zastrow still found himself in legal trouble. To Pip's credit, he never turned his back on Zastrow, even stepping in to let him out of jail so he could attend his mother's funeral. The most interesting part of the film dealt with the aftermath of Martin Luther King's assassination and the civil unrest that it caused. This time Pip called on Zastrow, got him out of jail again, and they walked the streets together to help diffuse the situation. The film follows their lives up until present day, as Pip deals with struggling health conditions and Zastrow attempts to rehabilitate himself. This movie is a success because it doesn't portray these two men as pure saints, but talks about some dark areas of their lives as well. This makes the two men even more interesting and human. There was a Q&A afterwards, with 71 year old Zastrow Simms in attendance.

I don't have much to say about the next film, called It Was Great, but I Was Ready to Come Home (**). It was the first narrative feature of the day, but had much less to say than the two documentaries. It follows two women who go on a vacation in Costa Rica. There's not much of a plot. The film just follows the two women from town to town. You gets bits and pieces here and ther through the conversations they have together, suggesting that they're trying to get over painful failed relationships, but this never really comes together. They just keep on moving to the next town and then the next town, and then it's over. There's really no ending here. I don't mind movies that are a bit ambiguous and this one does have some nice scenery and two appealing leads, but it ultimately feels pointless. The director Kris Swanberg seems like she has some talent, as the overall look of the film is really nice and it moves along at a decent pace. It'll be interesting to see what happens when she actually has something to say.

This film was preceded by a short called Love, Sadie (***), which is about a quiet girl who we learn is abused by her father. She has many people that write her notes asking for advice or telling her thay have a crush on her, but she has trouble responding and articulating what is going on in her life. This was only 12 minutes, but it packed a pretty good punch.

The next film was one of the big events of the festival, since it had already premiered to much success at Sundance. It is called Moon (***1/2), and stars Sam Rockwell in a splendid performance. Rockwell plays Sam Bell, an astronaut who lives on the moon, working for an energy corporation that is responsible for providing all of the Earth's energy. He is aided by a robot named GERTY (voiced by Kevin Spacey with deadpan perfection). Sam's 3 year contract is about to end, and he awaits returning to his wife and daughter, but Sam starts to get sick and get sin a serious accident with the land rover. As he recuperates back at base, he sees a younger version of himself who says he's there to fulfill the same 3 year contract. The two Sam's struggle to make sense of the situation, as representatives from the company are due to arrive in just a few hours. This is a really strong sci-fi film, which includes enough humor to keep it light, but never strays too far into silliness. There's not much action here, but Rockwell's compelling performance and the unravelling mystery are more than enough to keep you interested throughout, and the film builds to a very satisfying conclusion. This one is a winner.

The final film of the night was not a winner. It is called Deadland (*), and is about the future of the United States after a nuclear strike almost completely demolishes it. The country is now called the United Provinces, and is run by the Officers of the Province, who hold on to a secret cure for the radiation poisoning that is slowly killing people. The main character is Sean Kalos, who is on a quest to find his missing wife, a quest that puts him in the middle of underground revolutionaries fighting the new government. This is an example of a bad sci-fi movie. In fact, it is every bit the quality of one of those bad made for sci-fi movies. This one is terrible across the board: acting, directing, story, dialogue, editing. This was a major disappointment following Moon.

Atlanta Film Festival - Day Two

2009-05-04T06:33:00.000-07:00

Friday, April 17th

The rest of the festival takes place at the Midtown Art Theatre, which is a really cool place that is almost solely dedicated to indie films. It has good access to nearby bars/restaurants, so I can grab something to eat in between and don't have to rely on the terrible movie theatre food. I was only able to make 1 film tonight (most other days will be 4-5 films), but it was a good one. Blood River (***) is about a young couple on a long road trip to tell her parents that she's pregnant. They break down on a long stretch of highway in the middle of the desert and have to hike to the next town to look for help. The name of the town is Blood River and it turns out to be a ghost town. A mysterious stranger eventually joins them in town and starts to cause trouble. This is a pretty good psychological horror film that is smart enough to understand that what is unexplained is often creepier than what is explained. The on location Nevada setting helps to build the tension as the pervasive heat begins to send the characters over the edge. The female lead was in attendance for an informative Q&A session afterwards.

Atlanta Film Festival - Opening Night

2009-05-04T06:30:00.000-07:00

Opening Night
Thursday, Aptil 16th

Opening night has really changed over the years I've been going to the festival. They'd usually schedule an interesting film and have a slight upcharge for the ticket price. However, they have recently started making a huge event out of opening night. The price is now $50 and there is a after party. They rent out the Rialto Center for Performing Arts and turn it into a huge celebration.

This year's opening film was The People Speak (***), which is based on Howard Zinn's writings. Zinn is clearly a controversial figure and if you don't like him, then you won't like the movie. The opening monologue sets that tone as Zinn gives his views on modern politics. I thought this was a poor decision since it will alienate potential viewers that may have found the rest of the film interesting. After Zinn's monologue, he begins giving his own perspective on American politics, decrying the "safe" history that is taught in schools. This is interspersed with some well known actors/singers (Morgan Freeman, Matt Damon, Danny Glover, Josh Brolin, Marisa Tomei Eddie Vedder) performing monologues from historical figures. The best was verteran indie actor David Strathairn's reading of a famous courtroom speech by John Brown. Overall it was a pretty interesting film after the rocky start, and gives a fresh perspective on historical events.

There was a Q&A after the movie, which included appearances by Howard Zinn, Josh Brolin, Jasmine Guy, and Eddie Vedder. Also, Congressman John Lewis was in attendance. It was definitely an interesting start to the festival.

Atlanta Film Festival 2009

2009-05-04T06:28:00.000-07:00

I've been attending the Atlanta Film Festival every year since 1999. While it's certainly not as big or prestigious as other festivals, throughout the years there have been some great films (Lovely and Amazing, Great World of Sound, Heart of the Game, George Washington), and every once in a while you get some big names that make an appearance. It's also pretty cool to catch some people that eventually go on to make it big. For example, George Washington was directed by David Gordon Green, who went on to direct several highly regarded indies before hitting it big with Pineapple Express. Getting to Know You featured the debut performance of Zach Braff. Of course you also inevitably get some really terrible movies mixed in. This year will be the first that I bought a festival pass, which means I will catch as many films as possible. I've made a schedule of 32 films (counting the shorts programs as 1) that I will be seeing through the end of next week.

Day One (The People Speak)

Day Two (Blood River)

Day Three (For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism, Pip & Zastrow: An American Friendship, It Was Great But I Was Ready to Come Home, Moon, Deadland)

Day Four (Rain, Mississippi Damned, Training Rules, Playing For Charlie, Animation Extravaganza 2)

Day Five (Kassim the Dream, Animation Extravaganza 1, Living is Winning, Killer Movie)

Day Six (I Am the Bluebird, Naturally Obsessed: The Making of a Scientist, 500 Days of Summer, That Evening Sun)

Day Seven (Los Campeones De La Lucha Libre, Drama Shorts, Battle of the Sexes Shorts)

Day Eight (Heart of Stone, Lake Tahoe, The New Twenty)

Day Nine (Fantastical Shorts, The Death of Alice Blue)

Day Ten (Faded Glory, Neshoba, Rudo y Cursi)

Towelhead (Alan Ball, 2008) **1/2

2008-08-27T22:59:00.001-07:00

Dir. Alan Ball

Starring Summer Bishil, Peter MacDissi, Aaron Eckhart, Maria Bello, Eugene Jones III, Toni Collette

Alan Ball is one of the most interesting writers in Hollywood today. If anyone doubts that, then they simply must not have seen American Beauty or Ball’s TV series Six Feet Under. He also directed several episodes of that show, and did a good enough job to win several awards. He makes his feature length directing debut with Towelhead, an adaptation of a novel of the same name written by Alicia Erian. Unfortunately, his well-intentioned screenplay and the mostly strong ensemble performances cannot survive the uneven direction that proves Ball maybe wasn’t ready to take on a feature length film.

Towelhead is set in the early 90s, just as the US was getting ready to fight the Gulf War. Summer Bishil stars as Jasira, an Arab-American girl whose flighty mother sends her to live with her strict father (Peter MacDissi), a Lebanese man with strict moral values, but who also happens to despise Saddam Hussein and is angry when people automatically assume the opposite. He’s not afraid to strike Jasira when he doesn’t like something she’s done and is completely unprepared for handling Jasira’s sexual awakening, which the story explores through two very different relationships.

The first is with her next door neighbor, known simply to us as Mr. Vuoso (Aaron Eckhart). He’s an Army reservist who is married and has a young son that likes to spout off racial epithets directed at Jasira (see the film’s title for an example). One day he catches Jasira reading one of his pornographic magazines and begins to take an unhealthy interest in her. Alan Ball is an expert at exploring humor in the darkest of situations, and this time he pushes it so far that he closes in on territory only previously covered by Todd Solondz in Happiness. However, he is successful because of the stellar performance of Aaron Eckhart, who walks a tightrope in exploring all the dimensions of this guy and comes away with a memorable character.

Ball is much less successful in exploring the relationship between Jasira and her teenage boyfriend Thomas (Eugene Jones III). The setup is atrociously handled. Thomas insults Jasira and the next scene he apologizes to her. The next thing we see, she’s been invited to dinner with his parents. It appears that Alan Ball is in such a rush to get through the book he’s adapting that he doesn’t have time to develop this relationship. There’s very little chemistry between the two actors, and there’s little reason for the audience to root for them to stay together, although the movie clearly wants us to do that. Ball says that the character is supposed to be 14 years old, but the actor that was cast isn’t convincing at all at that age, making it all the more awkward because Bishil is certainly convincing as a 13 year old.

As a director, Ball’s pacing is off so bad that the story almost plays like a highlight reel. It’s as if Ball wanted to make sure to include all of his favorite moments from the book that he didn’t have time for little things like character development or natural story progression. The main problem is that scenes are awkwardly strung together and end at artificial points. For example, Jasira becomes friends with a girl from her school and they have a slumber party. The slumber party basically lasts barely a minute until Jasira’s friend tells her she should apologize to Thomas, and then we immediately cut to Jasira apologizing to Thomas. Most of the story is told in this format, and at times it feels as if you're playing connect the dots instead of watching a movie.

Ball also has some problems with the way he stages certain scenes. There’s a scene late in the film where Thomas walks into a room and starts talking, completely unaware that Jasira’s father is there. It’s not like the guy is hiding in a corner. He’s standing right at the door, yet we’re supposed to believe that Thomas doesn’t see him until he says something awkward. That’s when we get the “comic” payoff, sold to us when the actor turns his neck so stiffly that I looked for the puppet strings that Ball was holding from above.

Alan Ball is a man who likes to explore dark themes with comic underpinnings, and the way he deals with such themes is commendable. Towelhead certainly has the right ingredients to fit in with his best work, but it just doesn't come together. Somewhere along the way he forgot to let his story breathe and give his characters room to grow. Outside of the brilliant Aaron Eckhart portrayal of Mr. Vuoso and an appealing lead performance from newcomer Summer Bishil, this is a seriously flawed movie that could have been so much more.

Safety Last! (Fred C. Newmeyer, Sam Taylor, 1923) ****

2008-08-26T15:23:00.000-07:00

Dir. Fred C. Newmeyer and Sam Taylor

Starring Harold Lloyd, Mildred Davis, Bill Strother

Harold Lloyd is often forgotten when it comes to the great comedy stars of the silent film era. It usually boils down to a (sometimes pretty heated) debate between Buster Keaton fans and Charlie Chaplin fans, and Lloyd gets lost in the mix. Part of the reason is that he held on to the rights to his films, not rereleasing them as frequently as the best of Chaplin or Keaton, and many people just haven’t heard of most of his work. That’s a real shame, because Harold Lloyd was an incredibly gifted comedian and Safety Last is a splendid comedy that stands tall with the best work of Chaplin or Keaton.

As was often the case with silent comedies, the names aren’t important. Harold is billed here as “The Boy”, his girlfriend (Mildred Taylor) is billed as “The Girl”, and his roommate is billed as “The Pal” (Bill Strother). The story involves Harold moving from his small town to the big city, promising to bring his girlfriend along when he has become successful out there. Of course, things haven’t worked out as Harold planned. He’s stuck in what appears to be a dead end job at a department store, making a meager living and spending a great deal of energy avoiding the tyrannical floorwalker (Westcott Clarke). However, Harold write home to his girl that he’s a big success and sends her jewelry to prove it. When she decides to come to the city to visit, he must act quick to turn into the success that he’s been pretending to be all along.

This is a classic American story of an average guy trying to make it in the big city. With his big glasses, he looks like Clark Kent (and it’s been rumored that Kent’s look was based on Lloyd). Whereas Charlie Chaplin played a poor guy that inadvertently caused trouble and Buster Keaton played a range of characters with his stonefaced expression, Harold Lloyd represented the hardworking middle class. The villains are the oppressive managers that are trying to keep hard working people down, and the rich demanding customers who won’t give Harold a break. Most audiences will be able to identify with Harold’s plight. One of my favorite gags early on in the movie is when Harold and his friend are able to hide themselves inside two hanging coats when the landlord comes by looking for the rent.

Of course, Safety Last! is mostly memorable for the comedy sequence that dominates the last half of the picture. In his effort to make some money and prove his success to his girlfriend, Harold arranges for his friend (who had previously demonstrated climbing prowess) to climb the side of the high rise department store. If enough people come by to watch, Harold’s boss will give him $1000. Things don’t go as planned, because Harold’s friend is in trouble with a police officer, who has decided to show up and witness the climb. This means Harold must make the climb himself, dodging numerous obstacles along the way.

This sequence is mostly famous for the iconic image of Harold Lloyd hanging on to the hands of a clock high above the street. It’s a memorable shot, but what makes this scene so great is the real sense of danger involved. Modern audiences are so used to the cartoonish CGI effects and the work of expert stuntmen that most of the death defying action scenes we see today amount to nothing more than an impressive pyrotechnics show. There’s not necessarily anything wrong with that, but watching Harold hang high above the building is far more exciting because the shots clearly aren’t done with a fake backdrop or by superimposing Harold Lloyd against a blue screen. I won’t spoil it by telling you how it was done, except to note that it is still an extremely dangerous stunt.

I may have made this sound like nothing more than a long thrill sequence, but that is far from the case. This is one of the funniest extended gags in any film I’ve seen. Harold has to dodge tons of obstacles during his climb, all while his friend is trying to dodge the cop. Each gag builds on the next in hilarious fashion. It’s really amazing how many ideas Lloyd and his filmmakers came up with here. Just when you think they’ve run out, they come up with another one to throw at you.

The film doesn’t ride completely on this sequence alone. There are numerous gags in the first half of the picture, including a clever trick with the opening shot and Harold’s attempts at pretending to be the store manager to impress his girlfriend. Harold is a very ingratiating performer and he is ably assisted by Bill Strother, who does a terrific job in the only film he would ever make. And behind it all we have a simple, but timeless story of a hardworking man (literally) climbing to the top.

Tropic Thunder (Ben Stiller, 2008) ***

2008-08-14T15:37:00.000-07:00

Dir. Ben Stiller
Starring Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr., Jack Black, Jay Baruchel, Brandon T. Jackson, Steve Coogan, Nick Nolte, Danny McBride

A little over a decade ago, Ben Stiller directed a film called THE CABLE GUY. It was a daring move considering it starred the biggest box office star at the time, Jim Carrey, and put him in a dark comedy that many of his fans didn't get. The movie wasn't without flaws, but it showed plenty of promise for Stiller as a director willing to take chances. It was unfortunate then to see Stiller mired in a bunch of predictably boring choices such as MEET THE PARENTS, STARSKY & HUTCH, NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM, and ZOOLANDER. That's why Stiller’s latest effort TROPIC THUNDER is so refreshing, because it recalls the Stiller that was willing to take chances and risk offending his audience.

TROPIC THUNDER is about the making of a war movie set during the Vietnam war. The production is running through several problems, mainly because the big name stars are not getting along on the set. They include the big action movie star Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller), whose career has been dwindling of late; serious Australian thespian Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.), who has undergone a procedure so he can play an African-American sergeant; and lowbrow comedy star Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black), who battles a serious drug problem. These egos cause major disruption on the set, so the frustrated director decides to send them into the jungle so they can experience firsthand what combat was like. The actors get more than they bargained for when they accidentally find themselves in a very real war with a drug kingpin.

Stiller quickly introduces us to the characters by showing the trailers for some of their most notable films. This is cleverly done without any notice that the movie has started. The trailers are a little too over the top and not quite as funny as the ones seen in GRINDHOUSE or THE HOLIDAY, but they’re funny enough to open the movie to a good start. It’s an early sign that Stiller isn’t interested in keeping things realistic. The whole film exists in a kind of exaggerated reality that is close enough to be recognizable but far away enough to prevent a real connection with the characters. In a satire, that isn’t too bad, as long as it still makes incisive points and does so in a funny way.

Thankfully, unlike the surprisingly impotent satire that Hollywood has delivered of late (THANK YOU FOR SMOKING and AMERICAN DREAMZ), Stiller is willing to push the boundaries of taste and offend just about anyone. TOPIC THUNDER includes among other things: a young boy being tossed off a bridge for comedic effect, Robert Downey Jr. in black makeup, a spoof of movies about mentally disabled people, and an extended Jack Black comedic riff where he offers some disgusting things if his co-stars will untie him from a tree. Of course, Stiller avoids being considered completely mean-spirited because he’s really attacking the same Hollywood system that has made him a success, and many of the jabs could be considered jokes at Stiller’s expense as much as anyone else.

TROPIC THUNDER owes a lot to the films of Judd Apatow, whose works have brought adult comedy back to life. It’s not a surprise then that several Apatow regulars show up here. Jay Baruchel (UNDECLARED, KNOCKED UP) plays perhaps the only sensible person in the entire film, and is incredulous that none of the other actors have read the novel the movie is based on, or even read their script. (Downey’s hilarious nonsensical retort: “I don’t read the script. The script reads me.”) Danny McBride hops on over from a hilarious performance in the very recent Pineapple Express and is very funny once again as the overly enthusiastic special effects coordinator. Finally, Bill Hader (SUPERBAD, KNOCKED UP, FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL) appears as the studio chief’s assistant, whose boss tells him that his job could be done by a trained monkey.

However, the performance that really deserves to be talked about is Robert Downey Jr. He’s had an inconsistent career, but when he’s on his game (SOAPDISH, NATURAL BORN KILLERS, TWO GIRLS AND A GUY) he proves to be one of the most talented actors in Hollywood. He already started his comeback earlier this year with a stellar turn in IRON MAN, and his brilliant performance here completes the turnaround. Downey’s not doing blackface, as some people have erroneously reported. He’s playing an ultra-serious Australian method actor (think Russell Crowe) who has undergone a procedure to play an African-American character. Downey’s performance is pitch perfect, hilariously lampooning the Hollywood view of what a black character should look and sound like. Everything Spike Lee was trying to say in Bamboozled was said in a much more incisive (and funny) way here. In an era where Hollywood pats itself on the back for the ludicrously simplistic examination of racial affairs in the Oscar winning CRASH, Downey’s character is a welcome wake up call.

Stiller’s movie isn’t without flaws. It runs into several problems during the third act that really slow down the proceedings. The revelation of the leader of the drug gang is a joke that falls completely flat, as the character is incessantly annoying, sapping much of the comic momentum created by the rest of the cast. Also, the third act relies too much on conventional plot elements to find an ending. There’s still some good stuff there, but not quite as funny as the more loosely structured middle act. Despite the flaws, TROPIC THUNDER is a very funny movie that proves Stiller still has talent as a director and Downey is one of the best modern actors.

Pineapple Express (David Gordon Green, 2008) ***

2008-08-09T22:01:00.000-07:00

Dir. David Gordon Green
Starring Seth Rogen, James Franco, Danny McBride, Rosie Perez, Gary Cole

Judd Apatow is certainly the best thing that has happened to adult oriented comedy in a long time. Not only did his previous films (40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up) prove that you could make money without resorting to cutting everything possible to get a PG-13 rating, but he also proved that you could combine lowbrow humor with sharp, observational character development. Many of his protege's have now taken his lead and have been extremely successful, although recent outings have unfortunately amped up the raunchy elements and disposed with much of the strong character work that was evident in films directed by Apatow. Pineapple Express mostly falls into this trap, although it is still an extremely funny film.

The film follows Dale Denton (Seth Rogen), a process server who likes pot very, very much. One day while getting ready to serve someone, he witnesses a murder. He gets spotted by the killer because it's not that easy to make a smooth getaway when you're high. This sends both Dale and his pot dealer Saul (James Franco) on the run. Going to the cops is out of the question, because one of the people involved in the murder was a policewoman (Rosie Perez). Their day gets worse and worse as it goes along, including a double crossing friend, a car that won't start, a furious girlfriend, her even more furious parents, and a warehouse gunfight.

David Gordon Green is an interesting choice to direct this material. He's a well respected indie auteur who made a memorable debut with the small town drama George Washington. At first, he seems like an odd choice for the material, because none of his previous films have had a hint of humor in them. However, those films were all about disaffected people that didn't really fit in with the rest of society, and that's exactly the case with the characters in Pineapple Express. There's never a hint that he doesn't know how mine humor from a situation, and he seems right at home with even the most outlandish comic moments. The part that eludes him is the final warehouse gunfight. It's an elaborate action sequence with three different sets of people all trying to kill one another, but Green doesn't really know how to stage it properly. There are several cuts at awkward moments and he too often relies on the bad guys taking illogical actions.

Still, the lack of an effective action sequence wouldn't really doom a movie like this, which isn't meant to be taken seriously in the first place. However, that's kind of the problem. Seth Rogen and his writing partner Evan Handler wrote this script, and it runs into the same problems as their earlier collaboration in Superbad. Dale and Saul are likable guys and we want to root for them, but their screenplay would rather tell as many (admittedly funny) lowbrow jokes as possible instead of taking some more time to develop the rest of the characters. Almost all of the supporting characters – the policewoman, the killer, the hitmen, the girlfriend, her parents – are decidedly one dimensional.

This is much different than the films directed by Apatow himself. Both Knocked Up and 40 Year Old Virgin contained a deep cast of characters that were both funny and real. For example, Knocked Up had time to develop a realistic marital subplot in the midst of all the craziness and didn't sacrifice the humor one bit. Another Apatow vet, Jason Segel, got into the game earlier this year with the wonderful Forgetting Sarah Marshall. The differences in the approach between Segel and Rogen are very noticeable. Like Apatow, Segel's crazy comic moments co-exist with warm, human moments and a deep cast of fully realized characters.

Of course, it would be wrong to deny that this is a very funny movie. Rogen and Franco are both terrific in their roles and have a wonderful comic chemistry. It's especially refreshing to see Franco back in a comedic role, as his mumbling dramatic performances have become increasingly interminable to watch. Rogen and Handler's screenplay is littered with one hilarious joke after another, but it is simply missing that extra depth that Apatow and Segel have brought to their films.

American Teen (Nanette Burstein, 2008) ***1/2

2008-08-08T14:54:00.000-07:00

Dir. Nanette Burstein

Nanette Burstein’s American Teen is an interesting documentary because of the style it uses to tell the story of five real high school teenagers. People view most documentaries as completely detached form their subject, offering an objective view of the events they are documenting. This is very rarely the case. Even in the documentaries that appear to be completely authentic, you can bet that parts of it were manipulated to get to the end result. With American Teen, Nanette Burstein has disposed with any pretensions of authenticity by clearly staging many elements of her documentary. The result is a surprisingly rewarding film that still manages to capture essence of the lives of her subjects.

American Teen specifically focuses on the lives of four teenagers at a midwestern high school. Each of the fills a specific type, although we learn that they are each far more interesting than that. Hannah is the liberal artist who feels out of place in this town and dreams of going to the big city for college. Colin is the popular basketball player, who wants to earn a scholarship so he can get out of town. Megan is the spoiled rich girl, hoping to please her family by getting accepted at Notre Dame. Jake is the band geek who is very awkward in social situations.

The best documentaries capture real life events that are more interesting than what we'd see in a fictional film on the same subject. For example, Jeffrey Blitz's wonderful Spellbound followed eight students as they competed in the national spelling bee. It was far more exciting and interesting than the fictional Akeelah and the Bee, which was mired in cliche's that had nothing to do with real life. American Teen is an interesting case, because it arrived at the Atlanta Film Festival with an ad campaign comparing itself directly to the popular 80s film The Breakfast Club (although that has curiously been dropped for the theatrical release). The clever poster even shows each of the characters in the same poses as the well known poster from the earlier film. It’s easy to see why Burstein chose this comparison as the underlying themes are similar, particularly the exploration of stereotypes and their effect on high school life.

It’s clear that many of the sequences are manufactured. For example, Burstein will have a shot of someone staring out a window, and it’s doubtful that she just sat there waiting all day for that moment to come up. A relationship between Jake and a cute girl that he likes seems to have been pushed along by Burstein. Colin’s basketball skills seem to have been exaggerated. He’s presented as a big star, but there is little evidence on film to support that fact. A fifth character, popular basketball player Mitch, seems to have been added as a main character after the fact and we never really get to know him well.

However, none of this really hurts the film. Despite all of the interference by the director, American Teen still captures an authentic look at high school life. It’s hard not to root for Hannah as she navigates some major highs and lows throughout the school year. She’s a winning personality, and it’s easy to see why she becomes the emotional center of the documentary. It says a lot about how things have changed since the 80s that the Molly Ringwald character was the central focus of The Breakfast Club, and now it’s the Ally Sheedy character that takes center stage.

Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of American Teen are the very real moments that it manages to capture amidst all the staged situations. At one point, a character treats his girlfriend so poorly at a party, and breaks up with her in such a humiliatingly mean fashion that he must have forgot the cameras were there. However, what will stay with me for a long time is the startlingly cruel behavior displayed by Megan throughout the film. I think only Daniel Waters could conceive (screenwriter of Heathers) could dream up a character so mean. Burstein may have staged many of her shots, but her film manages to capture a truth that few other documentaries have been able to approach.

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (Rob Cohen, 2008) *

2008-08-05T07:33:00.000-07:00

Dir. Rob Cohen
Starring Brendan Fraser, Maria Bello, Jet Li, Michelle Yeoh, Luke Ford, Isabelle Leong

The first Mummy film was hardly great cinema, but it was easy to see what people liked about it. It told a classic adventure story right out of Hollywood's golden age. Leads Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz knew not to take things seriously and delivered fun, tongue in cheek performances. Now here we are with the third film in the series. We have a new director and a new leading lady and it's a complete disaster in almost every possible way.

Rick and Evelyn O'Connell (Brendan Fraser, Maria Bello) are taking a peaceful break from mummy killing. However, their son Alex (Luke Ford) decides he wants to follow in his father's footsteps and starts exploring himself. Unfortunately, he manages to awaken China's Dragon Emperor (Jet Li), who calls forth his terra cotta army to bring destruction upon the world. This brings his parents back into the game, and they are aided by the ageless sorceress Zi Juan (Michelle Yeoh) who had originally cursed the Emperor, and her daughter Lin (Isabella Leong), who has been the guardian of the Emperor's tomb.

The plot is of course extremely silly and doesn't even bother to pretend to attempt anything remotely resembling historical accuracy. That certainly doesn't matter in a movie like this. The back story is good enough to set up an exciting adventure for our characters. The problem is that the rest of the story was very poorly developed, featuring an unnecessary romantic subplot and mostly unimaginative action scenes that fail to liven things up.

One of the biggest mistakes was recasting the character of Evelyn. Maria Bello is a very talented actress, and if you don't believe me, then see her performances in A History of Violence and The Cooler. Unfortunately, she was all wrong for this role. She spends the whole movie seemingly distracted by trying to imitate Rachel Weisz, and her attempts to play things for laughs make her seem heavily medicated more than anything else. It's a disastrous performance that hampers the film throughout the entire running time. If they couldn't get Weisz back, then they should have created a new character instead of trying to force another actress into a role she clearly wasn't prepared to inhabit.

Another serious error is the attempt to draw a romance between Alex and Lin. There is never any chemistry established, and when Alex's mom talks to him about his feelings for the girl, it feels like it comes out of nowhere. There is little evidence of chemistry or attraction between the two characters, and the dialogue written for the pair is just abysmal. This is a badly forced story point and is not helped by the screenwriter's constant stream of unfunny old age jokes directed at Lin.

The special effects are good enough on a technical sense, but not much is done with them to create excitement. The only memorable scene from the movie involves two Yetis who are actually called to protect the heroes. Everything else is pretty much a complete misfire. You'd think a movie where Michelle Yeoh battles Jet Li, it'd be hard to make it dull, but director Rob Cohen has achieved the seemingly impossible. The inevitable fight scene between the two at the end is a disappointingly pedestrian affair.

The problem with a movie like this is when it fails to deliver on its promise to create excitement or campy humor, there's nothing left to fall back on. It becomes an interminable exercise in waiting for the end credits to roll. The film is only 112 minutes long, but as the events of this story slowly worked their way to the conclusion, I couldn't help but think that mummification seemed like a pretty good idea.

The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan, 2008) ****

2008-08-03T09:56:00.001-07:00

Dir. Christopher Nolan
Starring Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Gary Oldman, Maggie Gyllenhaal

This has been a good year for superhero movies. Films like Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk were solid examples of the genre, and even Hancock was a fun, if not entirely successful, departure from the standard formula. However, nothing prepared us for what Christopher Nolan had in store for The Dark Knight. Even Batman Begins feels like it was made in a different decade, much less the same film series. Christopher Nolan's complex examination of morality in the world of Gotham city is a stunningly original achievement, and qualifies as one of the best big budget films ever made.

In the year since the events of Batman Begins took place, crime is still rampant in Gotham City. Batman (Christian Bale) is determined to finally take out organized crime for good, and his faithful ally Lt. Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) is there to help him. Also arriving on the scene is new District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), who makes a splash by putting hundreds of criminals in jail by linking them all to one person. Meanwhile, a new criminal called the Joker (Heath Ledger) is starting to make a name for himself, and is soon hired by the mob to kill Batman.

What's so fascinating about The Dark Knight is how Nolan directs it without the slightest hint that he knows he's supposed to be making a superhero movie. This is a bleak and moody story of what a criminal mastermind can do to a city, and it bears more relation to a Martin Scorcese crime pic than the Batman films directed by Tim Burton. This is quickly evident during the opening sequence, which features a precisely edited bank heist that devolves into a classic gunfight. This scene sets the mood so well that you almost expect James Cagney to show up at some point.

Of all the superheroes, it does make sense that this style would work so well with Batman. After all, he doesn't really have any powers. He's just an ordinary guy with superb physical skills and superior technological gadgets, so he's a natural fit for a movie set under more realistic circumstances. The most surprising thing is that Nolan was able to get away with it. There's not one minute of this film that hints of studio interference, particularly in a key sequence midway through the film where a brutally uncompromising plot development occurs that becomes a major turning point for each of the characters.

By setting the movie under these circumstances, Nolan is able to fully explore the complex ethical questions that he raises. Harvey Dent's ability to strike a blow against the criminal underworld becomes an inspiration to the people of Gotham City, and provides hope to Batman that he may no longer be needed. However, the Joker's machinations put a quick end to that, and Batman and his allies are forced to pull out all the stops in an effort to stop him. This includes the use of a high tech surveillance system and an interrogation scene that definitely fits the description of torture.

There have been attempts to link these events to supporting a conservative political message. However, a careful examination of the events shows that such discussion is clearly misguided. If anything, the eventual result of the interrogation scene proves the opposite point. Also, it is a complete disservice to the film to frame the events in such a simplistic manner. This is a movie where difficult decisions are made and easy answers are not found. Batman goes down paths that he would rather not take, and his ultimate goal is not to invade privacy or beat suspects, but it is to protect the image of Harvey Dent, who he feels is Gotham's true hero because he doesn't have to resort to the same tactics.

The only way Nolan could pose such difficult moral questions was to have a villain so terrifying that he forced our heroes to ask them. In Heath Ledger, he found an actor that was on top of his game (having just turned in a brilliant performance in Brokeback Mountain) and completely willing to throw everything he had into his portrayal of the Joker. What we come away with is an inspired take on the Joker as an absolutely demented sociopath devoted to nothing more than causing pain and chaos at every turn. It's a landmark portrayal that will not be forgotten for a long time.

The other key piece to the puzzle is Aaron Eckhart's portrayal of Harvey Dent. Eckhart is an actor that has been around the block, turning in a memorable performance as a cruel chauvinist in Neil LaBute's In the Company of Men. He's turned in solid work since then, but has usually been limited by poorly written roles in bigger budget films. This is where he finally gets to shine, delivering a nuanced portrayal of Gotham's righteous legal crusader. He completely sells the idea that the public would begin to revere him, which is very crucial for Nolan's story to work. As played by Eckhart with an ingratiating eagerness to do the right thing, it is impossible to not believe in Harvey Dent.

The Dark Knight is a long movie, but not one moment of it feels unnecessary. There are several superb action set pieces, including an extended chase sequence involving helicopters and a semi, and numerous fascinating plot developments that keep the movie alive throughout the 152 minute running time. This is an incredible achievement in film making, and should serve as a shining example to all directors and studio heads that dedication to providing original, uncompromising storytelling does not scare audiences away.

Wanted (Timur Bekmambetov, 2008) **

2008-08-03T06:07:00.000-07:00

Dir. Timur Bekmambetov
Starring James McAvoy, Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman, Terrence Stamp, Common

Wanted is a movie with outrageous action scenes that defy any sense of logic or understanding of physics. The filmmakers are clearly interested in freeing themselves from such constraints when devising these sequences. There's certainly nothing wrong with this. At it's best, Wanted is an exhilerating ride, filled with so many spectacular feats that go so far over the top, you're not sure whether to laugh or applaud. That's why it's so strange that the film takes a big detour in the second act and focuses on a series of sequences filled with nothing but unpleasant brutality.

James McAvoy's main character is named Wesley, but he might as well have been named CC Baxter. Not only is he stuck in a dead end cubicle job, but the only sex going on in his apartment is between his girlfriend and best friend. Things change instantly when he meets a beautiful woman who goes by the name of Fox (Angelina Jolie). Suddenly he finds himself in the middle of a gunfight, as Fox tries to protect him from a would be assassin. The extended gunfight and frenetic car chase is an exciting action set piece and gets the movie off to a promising start. Unfortunately, that promise would quickly dissipate.

Wesley learns that his father was a member of a team of assassins with special abilities like bending a bullet. Sensing that he has similar abilities as his father, they have recruited him to join their ranks. Wesley decides that his humdrum life is not worth living and takes up the challenge. The bulk of the second act focuses on Wesley's training and it is here where the film seriously falls apart. What was an exciting, if ridiculous action movie, now became a dark exercise in brutal training sequences. It's as if director Timur Bekmambetov wanted to turn a stylish action pic into his own version of Fight Club. A few moments of this would have worked for the necessary, but it was a colossal mistake to spend so much time on it and to do it in an annoyingly repetitive fashion.

That being said, the film does wake up for a fairly exciting conclusion. The promise of the beginning is finally realized with a series of creative action scenes. Particularly fascinating is an extended cat and mouse game on a passenger train that turns deadlier than you might expect. Unfortunately, there was little reason to care about the ridiculous story at this point, so what we end up with was a nice technical display of cinematic skill, but it was hard to truly care about the fate of the characters, and the hopelessly banal resolution didn't help matters.

It should be noted that the strong cast does what they can with the material. Angelina Jolie's Fox remains a mystery throughout the film, but her stunning screen presence more than makes up for that. Morgan Freeman shows up as the leader of the assassin group, and this is the kind of role that he could sleepwalk through. It's not going to be one of his most memorable performances, but he lends a certain credibility to the story that would have seemed even more ridiculous in the hands of a lesser actor.

Wanted was based on a comic book miniseries of the same name, so it's possible that some of storytelling problems remain from the original source material. That still does not excuse the filmmakers from their poor decisions. If you pick a bad story for your source material and make a film out of it, then your film still has a bad story. Whatever the reasoning, Bekmambetov took what could have been a fun, original action movie and ruined it with a thoroughly unpleasant middle section.

Movies Seen - 2008

2008-08-03T02:12:00.000-07:00

Here is a listing of releases from 2008 that I saw, sorted by rating...

****

The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan)
WALL-E (Andrew Stanton)

***1/2

American Teen (Nanette Burstein)
The Edge of Heaven (Fatih Akin)
Forgetting Sarah Marshall (Nicholas Stoller)

***

At the Death House Door (Peter Gilbert, Steve James)
Bama Girl (Rachel Goslins)
Hancock (Peter Berg)
Iron Man (Jon Favreau)
Nerdcore Rising (Negin Farsad)

Pineapple Express (David Gordon Green)

Tropic Thunder (Ben Stiller)

**1/2

Dance of the Dead (Gregg Bishop)
Get Smart (Peter Segal)
The Incredible Hulk (Louis Leterrier)

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (Steven Spielberg)
Make Out With Violence (Deagol Bros.)
Monster Camp (Cukken Hoback)
Towelhead (Alan Ball)

**

Cloverfield (Matt Reeves)
Wanted (Timur Bekmambetov)
Water Lilies (Céline Sciamma)

*1/2

Bohica (DJ Paul)

*

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (Rob Cohen)

King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (Seth Gordon, 2007) ***

2007-08-16T07:47:00.001-07:00

Dir. Seth Gordon
Starring Steve Wiebe, Billy Mitchell, Walter Day

One of the more popular formats for documentaries these days has been following a group of offbeat individuals who have a passion for some unique style of competition. The king of this genre was Jeffrey Blitz’s Spellbound, which followed teenagers competing in the national spelling bee. As the genre has expanded, the competitions followed become more and more peculiar. We’ve also recently seen documentaries about inner city kids learning ballroom dancing (Mad Hot Ballroom), and obsessive Scrabble players who travel the country to play in tournaments (Word Wars). Seth Gordon’s King of Kong is one of the most original yet; it follows the battle between two guys in achieving the highest score on the classic video game Donkey Kong.

Billy Mitchell is the all time Donkey Kong champion, achieving a score that is thought to be unbeatable. He is also an ambassador for classic video gaming and is well revered among enthusiasts in that area. In one interesting segment, he is shown offering encouragement to Doris Self, who was one of the few female players to have achieved a high score on a video game back in the 80s. Steve Wiebe is a married man and father who just got laid off from his job. During his down time (with the surprising support of his wife), he decides to make a run at Billy Mitchell’s high score on Donkey Kong.

King of Kong takes us inside the interesting world of classic video game competitors. These are guys that could care less about the latest high tech gaming system. They’d rather hang out at a place like the Funspot arcade in New Hampshire, playing old school arcade games like Pac Man, Burgertime, Centipede, and of course Donkey Kong in their original versions. One of these people, Walter Day, decided there should be a central resource that verifies the high score on all video games. In the early 80s, he created Twin Galaxies, an organization that verifies high score submissions from people around the country. This organization still exists today and is even endorsed by the Guiness Book of World Records.

Gordon does a really good job of exploring this world, and initiating the viewer in the various intricacies of classic video games. The concept of a “kill screen” (when the game stops because it has run out of memory) is introduced and shown to be the pinnacle achievement that gamers try to reach. There is also a clever use of diagrams that show the patterns in a game like Donkey Kong, and help explain how Steve Wiebe’s engineering background definitely comes in handy. The people that obsess over these games aren’t mindless idiots pushing around a joystick. Casual viewers will be surprised at the level of thought and planning that these gamers go through when attempting a new record.

The film really takes off when Steve Wiebe breaks Billy Mitchell’s legendary record and Twin Galaxies gets mixed up in the fight over the validity of that score. Up to this point, Gordon’s film had painted a very positive picture of Mitchell, but that comes to a screeching halt when Mitchell and his followers attempt to discredit Wiebe’s score. This leads to Wiebe making several attempts to prove his score in person, including direct challenges to facing off against Mitchell in head to head competition. Gordon takes a completely one-sided view of events at this point, and from here on out the film paints Steve as the hero and Billy as the enigmatic villain. Gordon piles it on a bit high to make his chosen hero to look like a saint (despite some obviously poor parenting skills exhibited at one point in the film). To be fair, he does have quite a bit of video evidence to support this viewpoint, but his inability to explore Billy’s motivations for his actions really hampers the overall story that the film presents.

Despite this flaw, King of Kong remains an entertaining film thanks to the colorful and informative presentation of an obsessive hobby not many people know still existed, at least in the format shown here. Like the best documentaries, it uses real life events and fashions them to form a very satisfying story arc that leads to a surprisingly rousing conclusion. It may not reach the heights of Spellbound, but it stands shoulder to shoulder with the other strong works in this genre.

Day Night, Day Night (Julia Loktev, 2007) ***

2007-08-16T07:47:00.000-07:00

Dir. Julia Loktev
Starring Luisa Williams

She prays to someone. She could be Christian, or Muslim, or any other religion. The prayers are kept vague so we don’t know. The specific religion is not important. It’s all about the strong conviction she has to go through with the plan. We also don’t know her name or her ethnicity (thanks to smart casting), or her specific political opinions. What’s important is she has a strong belief that she wants to do something. Julia Loktev’s interesting experimental film Day Night, Day Night follows this young woman’s journey as she prepares to be a suicide bomber. This bold idea carries the film pretty far, but the lack of narrative rhythm and a huge misstep in the third act prevent it from being completely successful.

The film starts with the unnamed woman being picked up at the airport. From that point, she is taken to a hotel room where and is told to wait. Time passes as she paces the room, looks out the window (which gets her a warning phone call not to do that), and clips her toenails. Eventually, several men (of various ethnicities) wearing ski masks show up and take her (and us) through the extensively process of preparing for the mission. This sequence is appropriately tedious. Loktev rightly has no intention of make this seem like a thrilling venture.

One of the most interesting aspects of Day Night, Day Night is how it follows the rather mundane tasks of preparing for the bombing. The camera lingers on a blinking turn signal, as the woman is mere seconds from exiting the car to go and complete her task. The people who fit her with the bomb and explain her how to use do so in the most casual manner possible. It’s like they’re teaching her how to correctly use a home appliance. There’s a disturbingly amusing scene where the planners make her try on several different outfits as if it’s an episode of America’s Next Top Suicide Bomber.

This is all very interesting to be sure, but the lack of structure does make the proceedings tedious after a while. This wouldn’t be as much of a problem if Loktev had stayed true to her vision throughout. Unfortunately, she tries to get a little too clever with a sequence in the third act, attempting to inject some unnecessary humor into the film and completely undermining her central character’s plight. This sequence is surrounded by moments of excruciating tension, which lose a bit of steam when we see our usually quiet protagonist coming up with a clever quip like she’s walked off the set of 30 Rock. This brief moment is a huge miscalculation, ruining the consistency of the film’s style, and making the repetitive earlier scenes seem rather pointless.

The film isn’t completely apolitical. While avoiding the baggage that ethnicity or religion would bring, the depiction of the main character is very telling. As played by Luisa Williams, she is a somewhat naﶥ and very nervous, and can be seen snacking up to the very moment where she is expected to carry out the plan. We are given small hints that she was drawn into this because of something that happened to someone she loves, most likely her brother. This is not the typical obviously evil person that can be spotted in a crowd. She has the presence of someone who was that clumsy girl in your sociology class one day. This is a far more upsetting depiction than someone who is confident and more capable, which is why the little comedy sequence at the end is such a big mistake.

This film deserves bonus points for even being made. Unfortunately, it has very little chance of going anywhere. In an era where Hollywood pats itself on the back for the “courage” to tackle racism in the simplistic Oscar winner Crash, there is really no room for a movie about a suicide bomber. Hopefully films like this will get more and more attention and Hollywood will have the nerve to get more daring, but until then scour your arthouse theaters if you want to see films that really challenge you, and not ones where Sandra Bullock decides not to be racist because she fell down the stairs.