Review: "Gosford Park" is Full of Intrigue and Thrills (Happy B'day, Robert Altman)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 12 (of 2002) by Leroy Douresseaux

Gosford Park (2001)
Running time: 137 minutes (2 hours, 17 minutes)
MPAA – R for some language and brief sexuality
DIRECTOR: Robert Altman
WRITER: Julian Fellowes (from an idea by Robert Altman and Bob Balaban)
PRODUCERS: Robert Altman, Bob Balaban, and David Levy
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Andrew Dunn (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Tim Squyres
COMPOSER: Patrick Doyle
Academy Award winner

DRAMA/MYSTERY

Starring: Maggie Smith, Michael Gambon, Kristin Scott Thomas, Camilla Rutherford, Charles Dance, Geraldine Somerville, Tom Hollander, Natasha Wightman, Jeremy Northam, Bob Balaban, James Wilby, Ryan Phillippe, Stephen Fry, Ron Webster, Clive Owen, Helen Mirren, Eileen Atkins, Emily Watson, Alan Bates, Derek Jacobi, Richard E. Grant, and Sophie Thompson

Sir William McCordle (Michael Gambon, The Insider) and Lady Sylvia McCordle (Kristin Scott Thomas) invite many family and friends to their old style, English country estate for a weekend shooting party. Sir William has been the financial benefactor for many of his guests, some needing him more than others and him rejecting the needs of some. When Sir William is discovered dead in his study, everyone: family, guests, and their servants are suspects.

Directed by Robert Altman (The Player, Short Cuts, Nashville), Gosford Park is written in the fashion of an Agatha Christie whodunit, her brand of mystery story that was sometimes set in an old country manor. Altman, a master of the ensemble cast, uses this large cast of British thespians with the flair of a wizard and the skill of great director. Altman creates a pace for Gosford Park that is as still and as measured as a Merchant Ivory production, but underneath the stiff veneer is a film that is as sharp and as full of wit as the best comedies. Every time that Altman seems to start to slip in his craft, he unleashes something that is so rare in films this day: a movie in which the story, setting, and cast are so well played that the audience is knocked off its collective feet. With each marvelous comeback, we believe in him even more. Gosford Park has the kind of execution that brought us to our feet in The Player.

The script by actor Julian Fellowes from an idea by Altman and cast member Bob Balaban is, too say the least, excellent. To use such a large cast in which each and every actors plays what amounts to a major part in the film, even on small screen time, is rarely seen, and is usually reserved for the stage. To write a script that does this in a movie that is barely over two hours long is to understand quality over quantity. There are no big named stars here waiting to chew up scenery and to have their Oscar soliloquies. Fellowes creates a story that has the density and plot lines of a novel, but the brevity of a short story. He does not waste words and scenes, and Altman ably directs the script with the same efficiency. Fellowes wry take on class and social status is uncanny; he sums up British society in the time it would take most writers to begin their introduction to the topic.

Gosford Park is a movie of good performances. Maggie Smith as Constance, Countess of Trentham and Helen Mirren as the housekeeper, Mrs. Wilson earned well-deserved Oscar nominations. Ms. Smith sets the stage and creates the atmosphere for this drama, comedy, and mystery. She embodies British reserve, attitude, and wit, but it is in those moments when she surprises with some unexpected line or sudden glance that she really defines the chameleonic nature of this film. Ms. Mirren well represents the hurt, the lies, and the secrets of Gosford Park; she is want and fulfillment so held in check that when it burst forth, someone must die.

Ryan Phillippe, Stephen Fry, Clive Owen, Ron Webster, Emily Watson, Kelly Macdonald, and Alan Bates among others of this fine cast all do wonderful work. It boggles the mind what these actors do with a great script and one of the great directors.

Gosford Park has as its foundation a well know genre, and it does not refute the trappings of this genre. While a mystery novel must play to its conventions, Gosford Park allows the human dramas to tell the story. Each character’s story and motivation underlies the story, and every character has at least one moment in the spotlight. As motives come forth, the film casts off its whodunit costume and becomes a real drama and witty satire on class. Like life, it is a comedy and mystery, and, like life, the story and its characters remains intriguing even as it ends.

It’s one of those special films that waits for a viewer hungry for some meat to go with the sugary plate most films offer as their sole course.

9 of 10
A+

NOTES:
2002 Academy Awards: 1 win: “Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen” (Julian Fellowes); 6 nominations: “Best Picture” (Robert Altman, Bob Balaban, and David Levy), “Best Director” (Robert Altman), “Best Actress in a Supporting Role” (Helen Mirren), “Best Actress in a Supporting Role” (Maggie Smith), “Best Art Direction-Set Decoration” (Stephen Altman-art director and Anna Pinnock-set decorator), and “Best Costume Design” (Jenny Beavan)

2002 BAFTA Awards: 2 wins: “Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film” (Robert Altman, Bob Balaban, and David Levy) and “Best Costume Design” (Jenny Beavan); 7 nominations: “Best Make Up/Hair” (Sallie Jaye and Jan Archibald), “Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role” (Helen Mirren), “Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role” (Maggie Smith), “Best Production Design” (Stephen Altman), “Best Screenplay – Original” (Julian Fellowes), “Carl Foreman Award for the Most Promising Newcomer” (Julian Fellowes-writer), and “David Lean Award for Direction” (Robert Altman)

2002 Golden Globes: 1 win: “Best Director - Motion Picture” (Robert Altman); 4 nominations: “Best Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical,” “Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture” (Helen Mirren), “Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture” (Maggie Smith), and “Best Screenplay - Motion Picture” (Julian Fellowes)

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Review: "Ghost World" is Very Different and Very Good (Happy B'day, Scarlett Johansson)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 14 (of 2002) by Leroy Douresseaux

Ghost World (2001)
Running time: 111 minutes (1 hour, 51 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong language and some sexual content
DIRECTOR: Terry Zwigoff
WRITERS: Terry Zwigoff and Daniel Clowes (based upon the graphic novel by Daniel Clowes)
PRODUCERS: Lianne Halfon, John Malkovich, and Russell Smith
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Affonso Beato (D.o.P.)
EDITORS: Carole Kravetz-Aykanian and Michael R. Miller
Academy Award nominee

COMEDY/DRAMA

Starring: Thora Birch, Scarlett Johansson, Steve Buscemi, Brad Renfro, Illeana Douglas, Bob Balaban, and Stacey Travis

After graduating from high school, two friends watch as their relationship and plans change over the course of the following summer. Enid (Thora Birch, American Beauty) is disdainful of current pop culture and of conformity. Rebecca (Scarlett Johansson) usually follows her friend’s lead, but she isn’t quite as critical of all things popular.

As the movie begins, both girls are aimless. They enjoy following people and spying on them and enjoying a laugh at the expense of others. However, Rebecca begins to gather herself, anxious to get on with her life. The girls had made plans to get an apartment together, and Rebecca soon has a job to pay for her adult expenses. Enid, on the other hands, lives day to day, aimless and chasing one infatuation after another.

She becomes attracted to the victim of one of her snide jokes, Seymour (Steve Buscemi), a collector of obscure jazz and blues vinyl records. As her interest in Seymour’s live becomes deeper, Enid drifts from Rebecca. Rebecca, in turn, grows closer to her and Enid’s friend Josh (Brad Renfro), a convenience store clerk. When Seymour begins to date another woman and Enid’s Dad (Bob Balaban) invites his girlfriend to move in with him, Enid’s life begins to fall apart.

Directed by Terry Zwigoff, who directed the documentary on underground cartoonist and legend Robert Crumb, Crumb, Ghost World is a teen comedy for really, smart and intelligent people. Sans corny jokes, gross humor, and juvenile depictions of sex, Zwigoff relies on the acting talent of his cast, an excellent script, simple, evocative photography, and a unique soundtrack to tell his film story.

The script, co-written by Zwigoff and Daniel Clowes, is the tent pole that supports this film. The movie is based upon Clowes’s graphic novel, Ghost World, which was serialized in issues of Eightball, Clowes long-running comic book series published by Fantagraphics Books. Fantagraphics eventually published a very popular hardcover and soft cover editions of the collected story. Clowes expanded his original story and added elements from his other comic book stories for the screenplay.

The screenplay trusts the ability of the characters to portray their own dramas. Enid is a complex character. Although sympathetic and likeable, she is maddeningly stubborn. An iconoclast, she is determined to go her own way and have her own way. When she meets obstacles of which she cannot move, she stands her ground even at the cost of great mental duress to herself. Her intelligence and originality add some unexplainable quality to her physical appearance and makes her physically attractive. You can’t help but root for her. You wish the best for her, and you’re angry when she spites herself just to maintain one of her eclectic standards.

Seymour is painfully real. Unable to connect with people, he readily connects with objects and things, especially things from a bygone era – the good old days. He seemingly cannot help but love a golden age despite there being more rust than gild on the precious metal of his olden days. He and Enid develop a relationship that seems peculiar on the surface, but is in fact quite simple; they can meet each other half way even when at odds. In the end, it is outside interests that dictate the evolution of their friendship.

Ms. Birch’s performance as Enid is a revelation, while the overrated American Beauty only hinted at her talent. She totally buys into Zwigoff and Clowes’s script, wholly and completely creating Enid. Ms. Birch engages us; we get so into her character that we cannot help but love and care for Enid, when we might become bored with her eccentricities. Only the best performances demand that much attention and sympathy.

Ms. Johansson’s Rebecca is also quite good. In Enid’s shadow, she slowly emerges as her own woman, different and free of Enid’s belief system. Rebecca is the audience gone cold on Enid’s quirks, but still loving her; she mirrors our occasional impatience with Enid. Like Ms. Birch’s performance, Ms. Johansson’s performance has surprising depth from one so young, but she had good writing from which to work.

Seymour is one of Buscemi’s most human characters to date; as usual, his performance reveals how deep he understands the goals of the storytellers. Brad Renfro isn’t left behind. His Josh seethes boredom with existence. One look at him and you know that he wants to tell the world where to get off. He regards most anything and most anyone with a smoldering annoyance worthy of a classic screen rebel.

Ghost World can occasionally seem cold. The scriptwriters hope that we are patient during the dry moments as the story unfolds. The movie doesn’t only develop; it slow opens itself to us. We are simultaneously annoyed, angered, bored, confused, hopeful, joyous, and sad.

Confusing? No. Quite engaging, very thoughtful, some damn fine performances, and some really good character writing. Ghost World is a different and very good movie.

7 of 10
A-

NOTES:
2002 Academy Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published” (Daniel Clowes and Terry Zwigoff)

2002 Golden Globes: 2 nominations: “Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture” (Steve Buscemi), and “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy” (Thora Birch)

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Review: A Bag of "Bones" (Happy B'day, Snoop Dogg)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 151 (of 2003) by Leroy Douresseaux

Bones (2001)
Running time: 96 minutes (1 hour, 36 minutes)
MPAA – R for violence/gore, language, sexuality and drugs
DIRECTOR: Ernest Dickerson
WRITERS: Adam Simon and Tim Metcalfe
PRODUCERS: Rupert Harvey, Peter Heller, and Lloyd Segan
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Flavio Labiano (D.o.P.)
EDITORS: Michael N. Knue and Stephen Lovejoy
COMPOSER: Elia Cmiral
Black Reel Awards nominee

HORROR with elements of fantasy

Starring: Snoop Dogg, Pam Grier, Michael T. Weiss, Clifton Powell, Ricky Harris, Bianca Lawson, and Khalil Kain

I held out no hope for rapper Snoop Dogg’s horror film vehicle, Bones. It was released in 2001, but I didn’t see it until two years later. When I finally saw it, I found Bones surprisingly entertaining, if a bit hokey and poorly written.

I also learned that Ernest Dickerson directed the film. Dickerson came to prominence in the late 80’s and 90’s as Spike Lee’s cinematographer on Lee’s first five full-length features including Do The Right Thing and Malcolm X. He made his directorial debut with the fairly well received urban drama Juice, about a group of friends and their trouble with a pistol. Dickerson later showed a deft touch for horror films with the delightful Demon Knight, a film version of the HBO series “Tales from the Crypt.” Sadly, Bones, although mildly entertaining, lacks Demon Knight’s sense of mad glee and hilariously evil hijinx.

Snoop plays Jimmy Bones, a low-key gangster, pimp type, and godfather of an inner city neighborhood in 1979. When he refuses an offer to join the drug trade, the dealers shoot him and force his associates and baby mama to participate in the killing. 22 years later, his angry spirit returns after some suburban kids buy his playa mansion and turn it into a club.

Bones isn’t that bad, but it isn’t too good. It’s lost somewhere in the middle of mediocrity. The characters all have potential, especially in regards to their socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds, but the filmmakers sacrifice them to violence and trite special effects, many of the effects old when Clive Barker used that kind of SFX in his early Hellraiser films.

Snoop does most of acting with a perpetual scowl etched across his face. Still, he has excellent screen presence, and makes a good bad guy when he’s given (I don’t know, maybe) depth and subtext. It really would have been nice had Dickerson approached this film with the same sense of fun and funny mayhem that made Demon Knight such a charmingly trashy fright flick.

4 of 10
C

NOTES:
2002 Black Reel Awards: 1 nomination: “Theatrical - Best Actress” (Pam Grier)

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Review: Young Casts Makes "THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE" Work (Happy B'day, Guillermo del Toro)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 150 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

El Espinazo del Diablo (2001)
The Devil’s Backbone – U.S.
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Mexico and Spain
Running time: 106 minutes (1 hour, 46 minutes)
MPAA – R for violence, language and some sexuality
DIRECTOR: Guillermo del Toro
WRITERS: Antonio Trashorras, David Muñoz, and Guillermo del Toro
PRODUCERS: Agustín Almodóvar and Bertha Navarro
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Pedro Almodóvar and Guillermo del Toro
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Guillermo Navarro
EDITOR: Luis de la Madrid
COMPOSER: Javier Navarrete

DRAMA/THRILLER with elements of mystery and fantasy

Starring: Fernando Tielve, Iñigo Garcés, Eduardo Noriega, Marisa Paredes, Federico Luppi, Irene Visedo, and Junio Valverde

Set during the waning days of the Spanish Civil War, The Devil’s Backbone is the story of Carlos (Fernando Tielve), a 12-year-old orphan who is the latest arrival at Santa Lucia School. The School is an imposing stone building that shelters orphans of the Republican militia and Red politicians and also children left behind by their parents because of the civil war. There are, of course, dark doings at the school, involving the usual suspects of sexual intrigue, secret murder, and hidden gold. It is Santi (Junio Valverde), the ghost of that secret murder victim, who holds the key to the story’s resolution and to justice.

Directed by Guillermo del Toro, who has had movie hits in the United States with such fantasy comic book adaptations as Blade II and Hellboy, The Devil’s Backbone is in the fine tradition of Spanish and Latin American storytelling that allows for ghosts and the spirits to play an active part in real world drama. The film is an expertly crafted thriller and poignant drama that is as scary and as intense as traditional horror films and manages this while being a quiet character drama.

In a way, The Devil’s Backbone is very difficult to categorize, it could be classified as a drama, thriller, mystery, or horror film. The characters are important to the film, but the school’s haunted atmosphere (even more so than the ghost) and its aura of misery are as important. The film would clearly fit into the fantasy genre, but it is firmly grounded in characters with real world needs, feelings, desires, and thoughts. In the end, the most important thing about the film is that it is simply a good story.

Early in the movie, the adult characters seem as if they’re going to control the show, but in the end, it is the young actors who shine. And it’s not so much that one juvenile actor dominates (although individual young characters have the larger parts than others), it’s the youthful cast as a whole that makes this story work on so many levels, as everything from a crime drama to haunted campfire tale.

8 of 10
A

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Review: Original "Spy Kids" a Family Action Flick

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 135 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux

Spy Kids (2001)
Running time: 88 minutes (1 hour, 28 minutes)
MPAA – PG for action sequences
EDITOR/WRITER/DIRECTOR: Robert Rodriguez
PRODUCERS: Elizabeth Avellan and Robert Rodriguez
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Guillermo Navarro
COMPOSERS:  John Debney, Danny Elfman, Los Lobos, and Robert Rodriguez

ACTION/COMEDY/FAMILY

Starring: Antonio Banderas, Carla Gugino, Alexa Vega, Daryl Sabara, Alan Cumming, Tony Shalhoub, Teri Hatcher, Cheech Marin, Robert Patrick, and Danny Trejo

Robert Rodriguez is a low-budget filmmaker even when he gets a big budget to make a film. His breakthrough work, El Mariachi, was an effort of gathering money from wherever he could, including selling his body for medical experiments. Even as his budgets grew larger, his films still had a low cost, B-movie feel to them including such entertaining movies as From Dusk Till Dawn (which was actually a low-budget film) and The Faculty. When he turned his eye towards making a kid-friendly film, he retained his charming visual style, and used a bigger budget to create imaginative and novel backdrops and characters – all of which are seen in Spy Kids.

In Spy Kids, Gregorio and Ingrid Cortez (Antonio Banderas and Carla Gugino) are retired spies with two precocious children, Carmen (Alexa Vega) and Juni (Daryl Sabara), but Gregorio has a secret. He’s still doing spy work, and a project he worked on, named the Third Brain, is the object of desire of a bad spy, Mr. Lisp (Robert Patrick). When Lisp and his cohorts capture Gregorio and Ingrid, their spunky, resourceful children, Carmen and Juni, decides that it’s up to them to find their parents and save the world from the threat of Lisp and his band of nefarious Spy Kids.

Spy Kids has a lot in it that’s worth liking. For one thing, it’s a decidedly low-wattage action movie, which is perfect for children. It lacks the violence and intensity of many action films, but it retains the spirit of action flicks with a sense of adventure and lots of high tech gadgets and vehicles. The cast of villains is a collection of oddballs, seemingly more inspired by Tim Burton films than James Cameron films. Rodriguez fills his Spy Kids with imaginative sets and creatures that seemingly come right out of a children’s fairytale book or a comic book. It all looks so unusual in the context of an action movie, but that’s what makes Spy Kids really unique.

The acting is mostly pretty good. While Banderas and Ms. Gugino are kind of wooden as the parents, young Alexa Vega and Daryl Sabara get better as the film goes along. They manage to be both serious and have a sense of fun about their work. They’re having a good time, and they manage to establish a sly, sort of winking relationship with the audience; they definitely make this picture. The cast of villains is very good, including a surprising turn by Alan Cumming as Fegan Floop, the host of Juni’s favorite TV program; he really buries himself in the character and seems inseparable from the role while on screen.

Although Rodriguez’s script belabors the point about the need for family members to have each other’s back, the film is a fine example of an action film that everyone in the family can enjoy. The plot and story are simplistic, but not simple-minded, and Spy Kids has all the things that make “real” action movies exciting – thrills, gadgets, and a sense of urgency to save the good from the bad.

6 of 10
B

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Review: John Carpenter's Night of the Living "Ghosts of Mars"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 3 (of 2001) by Leroy Douresseaux

John Carpenter’s Ghosts of Mars (2001)
Running time: 98 minutes (1 hour, 38 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong violence/gore, language and some drug content
DIRECTOR: John Carpenter
WRITERS: Larry Sulkis and John Carpenter
PRODUCER: Sandy King
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Gary B. Kibbe
EDITOR: Paul C. Warschilka
COMPOSERS: John Carpenter, Anthrax, Steve Vai, and others

SCI-FI/HORROR/ACTION

Starring: Natasha Henstridge, Ice Cube, Jason Statham, Clea DuVall, Pam Grier, Joanna Cassidy, Richard Cetrone, Rosemary Forsyth, Liam Waite, Duane Davis, Lobo Sebastian, Rodney A. Grant, Peter Jason, Wanda De Jesus, and Doug McGrath

Ghost of Mars came and went so quickly in U.S. movie theatres that few had a chance to see it (although it’s debatable that many more wanted to see it). It is a low-tech sci-fi horror movie of the type that Carpenter is so good at making, and, for some, a Carpenter movie is always a special thing. Although not his best (that could be Big Trouble in Little China or Halloween) it’s far better than some of his lesser work (Village of the Damned and In the Mouth of Madness).

Set two centuries in the future on a Mars colony, a Martian police unit led by Pam Grier (Jackie Brown) and Natasha Henstridge (Species) are dispatched to a mining outpost to transport a dangerous criminal played by Ice Cube (Boyz in the Hood, Friday) to a prison outpost. When they arrive at the mining town, most of the inhabitants are missing. Henstridge’s Melanie Bradford and Cube’s James ‘Desolation” Williams must join together with a small band of survivors to fight miners possessed by vengeful Martian spirits determined to rid the red planet of humans.

Of all the actors, Cube is particularly shaky; obviously he was hired for his name value with black audiences. Certainly, he earned the assignment in particular to play himself, but curiously he seemed to have great difficulty doing just that. Erratic and inconsistent, he was on the verge of owning this movie if he’d only relax. His performance is forced and stiff; perhaps the SF milieu was a bit much for him.

Carpenter wastes Henstridge’s character, but that may have been more the writing’s fault than her acting. Bradford’s back-story hints at interesting possibilities, but this is an action movie, and one must never spend too much time on developing a female personality in an action movie.

There are, however, many very good moments in this movie that are quite chilling and invigorating: the discovery of the fate of Grier’s Helena Braddock, the spirit trapped in the land rover, Bradford’s possession and self-exorcism, the unleashing of the ghosts, the massing of a Martian army seen through a glimpse into the past, the reunion at the end, and many more.

The film is told mostly in flashback, and this makes it an effective ghost story. As Bradford tells the tale, the audience is on pins and needles waiting for the next bump in the night. One is anxious to get on with the macabre festivities, as if the revelation of each dark secret, which comes slowly, is necessary for the viewer’s safety, as well as that of the characters.

Carpenter, as he has many times, borrows tone and plot from the original Night of the Living Dead, his first viewing of which must have been a formative moment for him. The possessed miners, a more active version of George Romero’s zombies, are a hoot, especially Richard Cestrone’s awesome and scary Big Daddy Mars.

There are better sci-fi and horror movies, but issues of art and quality aside, there is nothing else like Carpenter’s touch. When he’s at least decent, as with Ghosts of Mars, his films are still a good thing to watch.

5 of 10
B-

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Review: "The Others" is Simply a Great Scary Movie (Happy B'day, Nicole Kidman)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 35 (of 2002) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Others (2001)
Running time: 104 minutes (1 hour, 44 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for thematic elements and frightening moments
WRITER/DIRECTOR/COMPOSER: Alejandro Amenábar
PRODUCERS: Fernando Bovvaira, José Luis Cuerda, and Sunmin Park
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Javier Aguirresarobe
EDITOR: Nacho Ruiz Capillas
BAFTA Award nominee

HORROR/DRAMA/THRILLER

Starring: Nicole Kidman, Fionnula Flanagan, Christopher Eccleston, Alakina Mann, James Bentley, Eric Sykes, Elaine Cassidy, and Renée Asherson

The bump in the night, the shadows and the dark spaces, and the thrill of dark atmospherics is back in Alejandro Amenabar’s The Others. Amenabar’s 1997 Spanish language film Abres los ojos (Open Your Eyes) was remade by Cameron Crowe as Vanilla Sky, starring the ex-spouse of this film’s star.

Grace Stewart (Nicole Kidman, Moulin Rouge!) lives in a darkened old home with her two photosensitive children, Anne (Alakina Mann) and Nicholas (James Bentley). After three new servants arrive, Grace begins to suspect that her house is haunted. Ms. Bertha Mills (Fionnula Flanagan), who seems to be the leader of the three, seems at first sympathetic to Grace’s fears, but as time goes, she and the other two come to regard, at least on the surface, Grace as problematic. The atmosphere becomes increasingly one of pure dread and fear, and much of the happenings are not what they seem.

The Others recalls Henry James short novel, The Turn of the Screw, but just that little fact can throw the viewer off the scent of who “the others” are. This film is actually closer, in its sense of mystery, to one of its horror and scary movie contemporaries, which shall remain unnamed.

Eschewing high tech special effects, Amenabar summons the spirit of Hitchcock, juxtaposing light and shadow and using shadow and space, fog atmosphere, quiet and the absence of sound, and those little bumps in the other room – everything that recalls older horror films before computer-generated imagery (CGI) stole imagination. The terror doesn’t come from a madman or monster stalking the characters. It is very much about what is and isn’t there and reality and the state of mind.

The acting by the entire cast is very good. The cast makes the audience play along with the terror and suspense, and this movie is as much a drama and a thriller as it is a horror film. The film industry needs an Amenabar. As long as the human element of filmmaking, of the hands on approach, remains his hallmark, we will be in good stead. It is a rare treat, and something like it won’t come around often, at least outside of the cable channel like Turner Classic Movies (TCM) and American Movie Classics (AMC). We can, however, enjoy The Others, this movie that deals with the fantastic and the supernatural without the aid of a hundred special effects.

8 of 10
A

NOTES:
2002 BAFTA Awards: 2 nomination: “Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role” (Nicole Kidman) and “Best Screenplay – Original” (Alejandro Amenábar)

2002 Golden Globes: 1 nomination: “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama” (Nicole Kidman)

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Review: "Iris" Blooms Through Powerful Performances (Happy B'day, Jim Broadbent)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 27 (of 2002) by Leroy Douresseaux

Iris (2001)
Running time: 91 minutes (1 hour, 31 minutes)
MPAA – R
DIRECTOR: Richard Eyre
WRITERS: Charles Wood and Richard Eyre (based upon John Bayley’s books: Iris: A Memoir and Elegy for Iris)
PRODUCERS: Robert Fox and Scott Rudin
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Roger Pratt (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Martin Walsh
COMPOSER: James Horner
Academy Award winner

DRAMA/ROMANCE

Starring: Judi Dench, Jim Broadbent, Kate Winslet, Hugh Bonneville, and Penelope Wilton

Iris is the story of the real lifelong romance between novelist Iris Murdoch and her husband John Bayley. The romance begins in their school days when Bayley was a professor at Oxford and Ms. Murdoch was young academic teaching philosophy, and the story ends when Ms. Murdoch succumbs to Alzheimer’s disease.

Directed by Richard Eyre, a veteran of British television movies, Iris unveils the story of Ms. Murdoch and Bayley’s love in snippets of time through the eyes of both characters, but in particular Bayley’s. Iris is an actor’s movie, and Eyre shows great skill in preparing the way for his cast. He lingers on the faces when appropriate, especially the eyes of such a talented cast, eye that say speak volumes. In some moments, he allows body movements and body language to communicate the story. And that is what Eyre is, a natural storyteller, allowing his players all the space they need on the stage to perform.

His cast is exquisite. Kate Winslet (Titanic), who earned an Academy Award nomination for Supporting Actress in the role of the young Iris, transforms herself into the young philosopher who has so much interest in words and in life. Although already a star, Ms. Winslet is so convincing that it is difficult to see her as the “star;” we see her instead as her character.

Academy Award winner Judi Dench (Shakespeare in Love) also earned a Best Actress nomination for playing the elder Ms. Murdoch, beset by Alzheimer’s. She magically and tragically transforms from national famous novelist to lost soul with subtlety and grace. The key moments of her losing battle with the disease are played out so carefully, you could almost miss them if not paying attention. It is not a flashy performance, but rather one that calls for talent and the skill with which to wield that talent. Ms. Dench mentally and physically decays before our eyes, so we share and understand the sad loss of Ms. Murdoch’s brilliant mind.

Not to dismiss Ms. Winslet and Ms. Dench, the most amazing work are the performances of Hugh Bonneville as the young Bayley and Jim Broadbent (Topsy-Turvy) as the elder Bayley; Broadbent won the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for his role as John Bayley. Both men have an uncanny connection with the other that makes one’s performance a mirror of the other. Bonneville’s Bayley is perfectly awkward next to Ms. Winslet’s Ms. Murdoch, who is so spirited. The story of their unlikely romance is written on Bonneville’s face. He dominates his scenes, but allows Ms. Winslet to develop and to reveal her character, upon which Bonneville plays his. Not acclaimed like his colleagues, his performance is a treasure. Broadbent must make his Bayley from the doddering old man who let his wife take care of everything to the pillar of strength in the relationship. Like Ms. Dench’s, Broadbent’s transformation is equally subtle; when he has to support her, his performance radiates power. Like Ms. Murdoch, the audience must lean on Bayley so that the story remains coherent. Through Broadbent, the unlikely love gains legitimacy.

Iris is the art of acting and stage drama brought to the screen by four powerful talents and a director who has the sense to let the talent soar. In words, Ms. Murdoch became famous, and through words from the mouths of these true actors, we get to taste some of Iris Murdoch and John Bayley’s story.

8 of 10
A

NOTES:
2002 Academy Awards: 1 win: “Best Actor in a Supporting Role” (Jim Broadbent); 2 nominations: “Best Actress in a Leading Role” (Judi Dench) and “Best Actress in a Supporting Role” (Kate Winslet)

2002 BAFTA Awards: 1 win: “Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role” (Judi Dench); 5 nominations: “Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film” (Robert Fox, Scott Rudin, and Richard Eyre), “Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role” (Jim Broadbent), “Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role” (Hugh Bonneville), “Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role” (Kate Winslet), “Best Screenplay – Adapted” (Richard Eyre and Charles Wood)

2002 Golden Globes: 1 win: “Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture” (Jim Broadbent); 2 nominations: “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama” (Judi Dench) and “Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture” (Kate Winslet)

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Review: Mediocre "The One" Has Lots of Good Jet Li (Happy 'B'day, Jet Li)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 10 (of 2001) by Leroy Douresseaux

The One (2001)
Running time: 87 minutes (1 hour, 27 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 intense action violence and some language
DIRECTOR: James Wong
WRITERS: Glen Morgan and James Wong
PRODUCERS: Steven Chasman, Glen Morgan, Charles Newirth, and James Wong
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Robert McLachlan
EDITOR: James Coblentz
COMPOSER: Trevor Rabin

SCI-FI/ACTION/MARTIAL ARTS

Starring: Jet Li, Carla Gugino, Delroy Lindo, Jason Statham, and James Morrison

Longtime television writer (“X-Files,” “Millennium,” “Space: Above and Beyond”), James Wong begins his sci-fi, action-adventure movie, The One on an alternate earth where Al Gore is President of the United States (which elicited some delighted clapping from the audience with whom I saw the film). Within minutes of that opening, an unbelievable fast and powerful villain has killed a convict who looks exactly like him. After a protracted chase, two armed men Roedecker (Delroy Lindo) and Funsch (Jason Stratham), apprehend the super criminal.

We then learn that he is Yulaw (Jet Li), a former cop like Roedecker and Funsch, who has been killing alternate versions of himself. The universe is actually a multiverse, several universes instead of one. Yulaw finds his other universe opposites and kills them, thereby absorbing some of their energies. When he kills the last one, number 124, he may become like a god.

Cut to “our” world, Yulaw’s earth-twin, number 124, is a sheriff’s deputy named Gabriel (Jet Li again) happily married to his soul mate T.K. (Carla Gugino). When Yulaw intrudes upon Gabriel’s world, he finds that Gabriel has also absorbed the power of the other 123 versions of himself that Yulaw killed. Confused and unsure of Funsch as an ally, Gabriel must stop Yulaw without killing him lest Gabriel himself become a god and endanger all of existence.

When one views a Jet Li movie, one hopes to see the man who moves like a dance artist; in his body, the martial arts are indeed a performance art, and gymnastics are a fatal, beautiful craft. Like Jackie Chan, his body bubbles with enthusiasm. Both their screen gifts are not in the craft of how an actor uses language, but in emotions, exaggerated facial expressions, and movement. They both recall the film greats from the silent era and the golden age of Hollywood, Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin. They do have a major difference.

Whereas Chan is a comedian, Li is hardcore action star. Imagine a pint sized Clint Eastwood who uses his hands and feet rather than a big, phallic pistol. Picture a Bruce Willis hero with the charmed nine lives of a cat that uses Far Eastern methods of self-defense over a pistol. Best of all, filmgoers get a fine heir to the Bruce Lee film hero.

Li, who was the wildcard in Lethal Weapon 4, doesn’t need a great script or director behind him; he is the movie. He gets neither in The One. Wong and Glen Morgan’s script is standard sci-fi claptrap, and Wong is a serviceable director who at least manages to capture dynamic movement of his star. Still, the story does occasionally get in the way of Li’s brilliance. Having to balance the nonsensical, fantastic elements draws the audience’s attention away from Li. Worm holes, black holes, and psuedo physics get in the way. We don’t need the science, but the fiction of this impossible superman played by a gifted screen actor is just what we want.

Delroy Lindo’s (Li’s co-star in Romeo Must Die) enormous talents are usually wasted or ignored in supporting roles, but it’s good to see him, even in a bad part. At least he got this job; it easily could have gone to a white actor. Stratham is an odd piece here as he was in John Carpenter’s Ghosts of Mars. So far he has only really seemed a good fit in Guy Ritchie’s Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, but like Lindo, it’s fun to watch him most anytime.

See The One for its star, and forget the phony plot and sci-fi trappings, watching Li is a privilege.

5 of 10
C+

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"Bridget Jones's Diary" Has Fun with Words

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 236 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux


Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: UK/France
Running time: 97 minutes (1 hour, 37 minutes)
MPAA – R for language and some strong sexuality
DIRECTOR: Sharon Maguire
WRITERS: Helen Fielding, Andrew Davies, and Richard Curtis (based upon the novel by Helen Fielding)
PRODUCERS: Tim Bevan, Jonathan Cavendish, and Eric Fellner
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Stuart Dryburgh
EDITOR: Martin Walsh
Academy Award nominee

COMEDY/ROMANCE with elements of drama

Starring: Renée Zellweger, Colin Firth, Hugh Grant, Gemma Jones, Celia Imrie, James Faulkner, Jim Broadbent, Felicity Montagu, Shirley Henderson, Sally Phillips, and James Callis, Salman Rushdie, Embeth Davidtz, and Honor Blackman with Julian Barnes

Renée Zellweger earned an Oscar® nomination in the category of “Best Actress in a Leading Role” for her performance in Bridget Jones’s Diary. Bridget Jones (Ms. Zellweger) is a 30-something, single British girl who decides to improve herself (i.e. lose weight) while seeking to find Mr. Right before she becomes an old maid (if she isn’t already that in her own estimation), so Bridget decides to keep a diary of her progress and her trials and travails. Her romantic endeavors eventually focuses on two men

There’s her boss, Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant), at a publishing firm, and Mark Darcy (Colin Firth), who was childhood neighbor. Cleaver is a cad who lays ‘em and leaves ‘em, and Darcy is a sharp-tongue, embittered divorcee, who claims to have bad memories of Bridget as a child. Who will finish the film as Bridget’s beau, and will she make an ass of herself before she finds her man?

Although the film story doesn’t amount to much, Bridget Jones’s Diary’s script is witty and bawdy enough to cause blushing. Ms. Zellweger expertly plays the fumbling Bridget Jones, who has a penchant for running off at the mouth and saying the worst things at the worst times. Like her co-stars (especially Grant and Firth), she makes the most of the film’s dialogue; ultimately, it’s what the actors say that defines their characters. If they’d delivered their lines badly, they would have ruined the film; luckily the cast verbally dances around each other like Olympic fencers.

7 of 10
B+

NOTES:
2002 Academy Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Actress in a Leading Role” (Renée Zellweger)

2002 BAFTA Awards: 4 nominations: “Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film” (Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, and Jonathan Cavendish), “Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role” (Colin Firth), “Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role” (Renée Zellweger), “Best Screenplay – Adapted” (Helen Fielding, Andrew Davies, and Richard Curtis)

2002 Golden Globes: 2 nominations: “Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy” and “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy” (Renée Zellweger)

Review: "Planet of the Apes" is the "Razzie Award" Winner for Worst Remake, But It's Not So Bad

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 2 (of 2002) by Leroy Douresseaux

Planet of the Apes (2001)
Running time:  119 minutes (1 hour, 59 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for some sequences of action/violence
DIRECTOR: Tim Burton
WRITERS: William Broyles, Jr., Lawrence Konner, and Mark D. Rosenthal (based upon the novel by Pierre Boulle)
PRODUCER: Richard D. Zanuck
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Philippe Rousselot (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Chris Lebenzon
COMPOSER: Danny Elfman
BAFTA Award nominee

SCI-FI/FANTASY/ACTION/THRILLER with elements of adventure

Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Tim Roth, Helena Bonham Carter, Michael Clarke Duncan, Paul Giamatti, Estella Warren, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, David Warner, Kris Kristofferson, Erick Avari, and (uncredited) Charlton Heston

When Captain Leo Davidson (Mark Wahlberg) leaves the safety of a United States Air Force space station, he is on an unauthorized mission to save his favorite chimp. He enters some kind of electro-magnetic storm, and his space pod crashes on an uncharted planet.

Before long, he is running through the jungle with a back of wild humans, chased by half glimpsed pursuers. A group of talking apes led by General Thade (Tim Roth) capture Davidson and the humans. Ari (Helena Bonham-Carter) buys Davidson because his intelligence and demeanor piques her interest. He convinces her to follow him on a quest to find his shipmates whom he believes are on the planet in search of him. However, a deeper mystery resides in the desert heart of their destination.

Directed by one of cinema’s finest visual stylists, Tim Burton, Planet of the Apes, the 2001 remake of the 1968 classic is noisy spectacle that is not without some nice moments. Burton has admitted to not knowing a good script when he sees one, but when he inadvertently gets one, he makes good movies (Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, and Sleepy Hollow). When he gets a troubled piece of writing, the audience writhes in pain at the cinematic potential clumsily handled before their eyes (Batman Returns); this one falls somewhere in the middle.

The script is a simple cat and mouse chase story with a battle scene thrown late into the movie for a faux epic aura. Here and there are smatterings of issues of freedom, slavery, intelligence, friendship and betrayal, but the smart stuff doesn’t get in the way of the fun, dumb stuff – fist fights, gunfire and explosions. Burton expertly wields the story and creates a nearly two-hour movie that feels much shorter. It is a “lite” affair meant to entertain by keeping the protagonists in a constant state of discomfort and definite sense of entertainment.

The acting is mostly adequate professional work. Ms. Bonham-Carter creates the illusion that her character Ari has quite a bit of depth, more so than with which the action movie script can deal; there’s not too much time for character in many action movies. Michael Clarke Duncan as Thade’s right hand man-ape, Colonel Attar, is wonderfully convincing as an officer and as a leader of soldiers. Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as Krull, the disgraced soldier, is equally compelling; between Attar and Krull is some interesting back-story that would have greatly embellished the movie had that story been give a chance. But this is a summer bang-bang.

Planet of the Apes wastes the talented Roth, who can portray layered, multi-dimensional villains (such as the vile Archibald Cunningham in Rob Roy, which earned him an Oscar nomination) behind a heavy costume. Here, the mask hides that which truly makes Roth’s gifts work, his face of a thousand expressions – exaggerated and otherwise. This is no criticism of the fantastic work of makeup effects artist Rick Baker. Once again, he uncannily delivers brilliant work. However, the glare from Baker’s skills dim the light of Roth’s thespian talents.

Light fare for sure, Planet of the Apes’ massive box office success is a surprise. But it’s clear and linear movie and it properly strings the audience along until it’s pitiable ending. By then, one gets the feeling that this entire exercise was merely the testing ground for a long lasting franchise similar to the franchise birthed from the original.

Still, the magic is in what Burton does. This is a very entertaining movie and remains so even as one tries to poke holes in it. One can hold the same light up to Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, and Sleepy Hollow and find all manner of ridiculousness, but they remain fun films, always ready to be popped into a VCR or DVD player and become a filling midnight video snack.

Planet of the Apes is like that and it pretty much delivers on being the vacuous treat it started out to be. Not much of a goal, but a goal attained, more or less.

6 of 10
B

NOTES:
2002 BAFTA Awards: 2 nominations: “Best Costume Design” (Colleen Atwood) and “Best Make Up/Hair” (Rick Baker, Toni G, and Kazuhiro Tsuji)

2002 Razzie Awards: 3 wins: “Worst Remake or Sequel,” “Worst Supporting Actor” (Charlton Heston), and “Worst Supporting Actress” (Estella Warren)

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Review: "A Beautiful Mind" is Beautiful

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 24 (of 2002) by Leroy Douresseaux

A Beautiful Mind (2001)
Running time: 135 minutes (2 hours, 15 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for intense thematic material, sexual content and a scene of violence
DIRECTOR: Ron Howard
WRITER: Akiva Goldsman (based upon the book by Sylvia Nasar)
PRODUCERS: Brian Glazer and Ron Howard
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Roger Deakins
EDITORS: Dan Hanley and Mike Hill
Academy Award winner

DRAMA with elements of mystery and romance

Starring: Russell Crowe, Ed Harris, Jennifer Connelly, Christopher Plummer, Paul Bettany, Adam Goldberg, Josh Lucas, Anthony Rapp, Jason Gray-Stanford, and Judd Hirsch

A Beautiful Mind is based upon the real life story of John Forbes Nash, Jr. (Russell Crowe), a math prodigy, who goes on to win the Nobel Prize after years of struggling with schizophrenia. The handsome and arrogant Nash made an astonishing discovery early in his career and also meets his wife Alicia (Jennifer Connelly). On the brink of international fame, his world falls apart when he succumbs to mental illness. With the help of his wife, he struggles to regain his career and his social life and to be a husband and father to his wife and child.

Directed by Ron Howard, A Beautiful Mind is an engaging and riveting biopic that runs the gamut of emotions from elation to revulsion and from despair to hope. It is earnest and intense, playful and romantic, heartbreaking and life affirming. Not a biography in the art house mold, but a wonderful sort of middlebrow picture with a feel-good resolution for the masses, or at least those who are interested in Hollywood product that doesn’t involve SFX and titillation.

The artistry here is the performance of Russell Crowe. Increasingly a controversial figure hounded by the tabloids and infotainment news organizations, he has replaced Kevin Spacey as the actor of the moment. Here, he combines the best of his performances in The Insider (for which he earned an Academy Award nomination) and in Gladiator (for which he won an Academy Award) to portray John Nash – the paranoid hero of the former and the never-say-die leader of the latter. Since Romper Stomper, Crowe has been a mesmerizing screen presence, and he is at full wattage here.

He sells us on this movie, and we buy asking for more. When Nash is the shy boy, we yearn for him to get a woman. We thrill and laugh at Nash’s clumsy arrogance, and we enjoy his success. We cringe at his illness and hope against hope for his recovery. And who couldn’t, at least, almost shed tears when Nash’s peers and the Nobel committee honor him.

Ron Howard does good work here, and Ms. Connelly is pretty good as Alicia Nash, but this is Russell’s show, he can win the audience over. Since the twilight so-called Golden Age of studio pictures in Hollywood, there have been so few real, masculine men in movies. Some of them, post Golden Age are not great actors, and some that are, don’t have the box office draw. Crowe is all man, a fine actor, and a box office draw.

He’s an artist. He attracts the audience to Nash using every part of himself – in his gestures and the way he moves his body. We can believe Crowe is Nash in the way it seems that Crowe really loves mathematics. His face is a tapestry of emotions that are so convincing and so important to selling the scene, so layered and three-dimensional that were transported into the movie. We live and suffer vicariously with Crowe’s Nash.

For the haters out there, the best is yet to come. Things about the real Nash’s past that were left out of this film don’t matter one wit in respect to Crowe’s amazing performance. No disrespect to his collaborators, but A Beautiful Mind is all his.

8 of 10
A

NOTES:
2002 Academy Awards: 4 wins: “Best Picture” (Brian Grazer and Ron Howard), “Best Actress in a Supporting Role” (Jennifer Connelly), “Best Director” (Ron Howard), and “Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published” (Akiva Goldsman); 4 nominations: “Best Actor in a Leading Role” (Russell Crowe), “Best Editing” (Mike Hill and Daniel P. Hanley), “Best Makeup” (Greg Cannom and Colleen Callaghan), and “Best Music, Original Score” (James Horner)

2002 BAFTA Awards: 2 wins: “Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role” (Russell Crowe) and “Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role” (Jennifer Connelly); 3 nominations: “Best Film” (Brian Grazer and Ron Howard), “Best Screenplay – Adapted” (Akiva Goldsman) and “David Lean Award for Direction” (Ron Howard)

2002 Golden Globes: 4 wins: “Best Motion Picture – Drama,” “Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama” (Russell Crowe), “Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture” (Jennifer Connelly), and “Best Screenplay - Motion Picture” (Akiva Goldsman); 2 nominations: “Best Director - Motion Picture” (Ron Howard) and “Best Original Score - Motion Picture” (James Horner)

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Review: "Vanilla Sky" is a Crazier Cruise-Diaz Team-Up

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 20 (of 2001) by Leroy Douresseaux

Vanilla Sky (2001)
Running time: 136 minutes (2 hours, 16 minutes)
MPAA – R for sexuality and strong language
DIRECTOR: Cameron Crowe
WRITER: Cameron Crowe (based upon the film Abre los Ojos (Open Your Eyes) by Alejandro Amenábor and Mateo Gil Rodreguez)
PRODUCERS: Cameron Crowe, Tom Cruise, and Paula Wagner
CINEMATOGRAPHER: John Toll (D.o.P.)
EDITORS: Joe Hutshing and Mark Livolsi
COMPOSER: Nancy Wilson
Academy Award nominee

DRAMA/FANTASY/ROMANCE/SCI-FI/THRILLER

Starring: Tom Cruise, Penélope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, Kurt Russell, Jason Lee, Noah Taylor, Timothy Spall, Johnny Galecki, Michael Shannon, and Tilda Swinton

David Aames (Tom Cruise) is the wealthy scion of a publishing empire who lives only for himself and his pleasures. He treats his novelist friend Brian Shelby (Jason Lee, Chasing Amy) as a possession to be admitted or dismissed as needed, though Aames often professes deep love for Shelby. He has recreational sex with another friend, Julie Gianni (Cameron Diaz), a girl who practically admits to being around the block quite a few times. At a party that he hosts, David sees a stunning beauty that Brian has brought to the party with him. The looker, Sofia Serrano (Penelope Cruz, who was in the Spanish film upon which Vanilla Sky is based), throws David for a loop and he falls very hard for her.

Aww, but Julie is jealous; she follows David and is waiting for him after he spends the night (a sex free night) with Sofia. In an insane rage, Julie, with David a passenger, runs her car off the road, killing herself. David survives, but his body is damaged and his face is badly scarred. From that point, David’s life is a series of time shifts; past, present, and future loose their meanings.

Directed by Cameron Crowe, who also directed Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire, Vanilla Sky is a mind numbing and genre bending film that mixes elements of romance, romantic thriller, mystery, suspense, and science fiction. It demands the viewers’ complete attention, while it careens across the screen like the out of control car that changes David Aames life.

Vanilla Sky is also a movie that can test an audience’s patience. It has ideas and messages, and most people do not want their movies to preach to them, at least not preach smart ideas. They want a loud, vivid, cinematic experience – special effects and movie magic. “Entertain me” is the mantra, and Crowe adds only the thinnest of candy coatings to his film.

The movie begins with a beautiful scene in which David discovers that he is alone in Times Square; he runs down the street for a few minutes totally afraid of being alone before we learn that this is a dream. There are also voiceovers while we follow David’s privileged life. There is the accident, and then we find David in a dark room wearing a mask, while a psychologist (Kurt Russell) prods him for answers regarding a murder of which David has been accused. From then, we’re bouncing back and forth through time, through illusions, dreams, fantasies, flashbacks. It can be disconcerting, but the film is so alluring that you want to soldier on.

Cruise has always been a good actor in the hands of good director, and Crowe is good. Over his career, Cruise has learned to open himself up to the possibilities of using his handsome face to express a variety of feelings and emotions, where once he simply lit up that million dollar smile and that was that. He is good here and quite believable. It’s no trick to play a spoiled, wealthy brat, but he convincingly transforms himself into the tortured package of damaged goods.

The supporting cast in nice, but while Penelope Cruz got all the attention, Diaz is the surprise. Some may believe her looks carry her career, but she can act. She plays the wild, vulnerable, hurt, and angry Julie Gianni to the hilt while also playing it down low and subtle. She creates a three-dimensional villain of sly evil and of terrible sadness.

Vanilla Sky is rife with musical references, most of which are quite annoying, but the Jeff Blakely reference is dead on appropriate for its scene. There are lots of visual references from pop culture to fine art, and they mean something, but you have to catch them, as they fly by so quickly.

Vanilla Sky is a good film, especially because it asks for the viewer to get involved where most movies only want to yell at you. At its heart are good messages about responsibility for the choices one makes, selfishness, love, and sacrifice. It stumbles and rushes to it fantastical, sci-fi ending that almost destroys film, but the movie is a worthy effort by ambitious talents. By no means perfect, it is still a grand entertainment and a wonderful puzzle with which to struggle, and it doesn’t mind trying to be smart even when it over reaches its ambitions.

7 of 10
B+

NOTES:
2002 Academy Awards: 1 nominations: “Best Music, Original Song” (Paul McCartney for the song "Vanilla Sky")

2002 Golden Globes: 1 nomination: “Best Original Song - Motion Picture” (Paul McCartney for the song "Vanilla Sky") and “Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture” (Cameron Diaz)

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Review: Baz Luhrmann's "Moulin Rouge!" is Half Brilliant, Half Ridiculous

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 19 (of 2002) by Leroy Douresseaux

Moulin Rouge! (2001)
Running time: 127 minutes (2 hours, 7 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for sexual content
DIRECTOR: Baz Luhrmann
WRITERS: Craig Pearce and Baz Luhrmann
PRODUCERS: Fred Baron, Martin Brown, and Baz Luhrmann
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Donald M. McAlpine (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Jill Bilcock
Academy Award winner

MUSICAL/ROMANCE

Starring: Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor, John Leguizamo, Jim Broadbent, Richard Roxburgh, Garry McDonald, Jacek Koman, Matthew Whittet, and Kerry Walker

Christian (Ewan McGregor), an impoverished young poet from Scotland, arrives in Montmarte, France and falls in with a group of Bohemians led by Henri Ramone de Toulouse-Lautrec (John Leguizamo), against the wishes of his father. Like the young poet, the Bohemians believe in freedom, truth, beauty, and most of all love, and they want to stage a show in the legendary Moulin Rouge, the home of the Paris’s colorful and diverse underworld where the wealthy rub shoulders with the working class, artists, bohemians, actresses, and courtesans.

Harold Zidler (Jim Broadbent, Iris), the impresario of the Moulin Rouge, wants a backer so that he could turn his haven of sex and drugs into a proper theatre. His wealthy quarry is The Duke of Monroth (Richard Roxburgh) who is willing to give the money for the renovation, but, in return, he wants for his possession the Moulin Rouge’s most popular attraction, the beautiful courtesan and the stuff of which dreams are made, Satine (Nicole Kidman). The stop in Zidler’s plans and in the Duke's desires comes in the form of Christian. He becomes the playwright of the show that would transform the Moulin Rouge, and he falls hopelessly in love with Satine, much the chagrin of the vindictive Duke.

Directed by Baz Luhrmann (William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet), Moulin Rouge! is an extravaganza of modern popular music, flashing lights, sumptuous sets, colorful costumes, and dazzling production numbers. Like the title of the Bohemians’ play that Christian composes, Moulin Rouge! is a “spectacular spectacular.” As beautiful and as breathtaking as everything is, Moulin is more about visual noise than it is about visual storytelling.

At some moments, the cacophony of music and songs intertwined like drunken snakes is quite nice, at other moments, it is a melding of pretension, misfires, and nonsense. However, even in those moments excess, Moulin Rouge! remains engaging and beautiful. Even when you’re bored, you can’t take your eyes away from the gorgeous sights, nor can your ear not seek out the secrets of the sonic mélange. The cinematography (Donald McAlpine who also worked on Luhrmann’s Romeo) captures the rich palette with the flare of a romantic classical painter. Production design (Catherine Martin), art direction (Ann-Marie Beauchamp), and set decoration (Brigitte Broch) are not only some of the best of the year, but some of the best ever.

Kudos to the actors for maintaining their crafts amidst the energy of Luhrmann’s film. Ms. Kidman has never been more beautiful (and she is always beautiful), her face a luminous globe in Moulin Rouge!’s dance of colors. She is a swooning siren, an intoxicating temptress, and gorgeous martyr. Ewan McGregor is the young poet eager to teach the world his overriding belief in truth, beauty, freedom, and love, but he is able to turn jealous and angry at a moment’s notice. It is in his face that we can see the overwhelming optimism of “love conquerors all: that seems to be a theme of this film. Even in sadness, there remains in young Christian’s face, the strength of love.

Moulin Rouge! is in its execution meant to be a cinematic experience like no other. That it is. It seeks to overwhelm the viewer with sound and images, though the images and sounds are often static and junk. It looks so good on the screen, and the movie moves madly about the screen. It loses the story amidst the sound and the spectacle, so sometimes it seems nonsensical. Moulin Rouge! tries the patience of the viewer, and the film hints that it could have been something more. Better luck next time.

6 of 10
B

NOTES:
2002 Academy Awards: 2 wins: “Art Direction-Set Decoration” (Catherine Martin-art director and Brigitte Broch-set decorator) and “Best Costume Design” (Catherine Martin, Angus Strathie); 6 nominations: “Best Actress in a Leading Role” (Nicole Kidman), “Best Cinematography” (Donald McAlpine), “Best Editing” (Jill Bilcock), “Best Makeup” (Maurizio Silvi and Aldo Signoretti” “Best Picture” (Fred Baron, Martin Brown, and Baz Luhrmann), “Best Sound” (Andy Nelson, Anna Behlmer, Roger Savage, and Guntis Sics)

2002 BAFTA Awards: 3 wins: “Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music” (Craig Armstrong and Marius De Vries), “BAFTA Film Award Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role” (Jim Broadbent), and “Best Sound” (Andy Nelson, Anna Behlmer, Roger Savage, Guntis Sics, Gareth Vanderhope, and Antony Gray); 9 nominations: “Best Achievement in Special Visual Effects” (Chris Godfrey, Andy Brown, Nathan McGuinness, and Brian Cox), “Best Cinematography” (Donald McAlpine), “Best Costume Design” (Catherine Martin and Angus Strathie), “Best Editing” (Jill Bilcock), “Best Film” (Martin Brown, Baz Luhrmann, and Fred Baron), “Best Make Up/Hair” (Maurizio Silvi and Aldo Signoretti), “Best Production Design” (Catherine Martin), “Best Screenplay – Original” (Baz Luhrmann and Craig Pearce) and “David Lean Award for Direction” (Baz Luhrmann)

2002 Golden Globes: 3 wins: “Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy,” “Best Original Score - Motion Picture” (Craig Armstrong), and “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy” (Nicole Kidman); 3 nominations: “Best Director - Motion Picture” (Baz Luhrmann) and “Best Original Song - Motion Picture” (David Baerwald for the song "Come What May") and “Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy” (Ewan McGregor)

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"Kingdom Come" is Tyler Perry-Like

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 14 (of 2001) by Leroy Douresseaux


Kingdom Come (2001)
Running time: 91 minutes (1 hour, 31 minutes)
MPAA – PG for thematic elements, language and sensuality
DIRECTOR: Doug McHenry
WRITERS: David Dean Bottrell and Jessie Jones (based upon their play Dearly Departed)
PRODUCERS: Edward Bates and John Morrissey
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Francis Kenny
EDITOR: Richard Halsey
(NAACP) Image Awards nominee

COMEDY/DRAMA

Starring: LL Cool J, Jada Pinkett Smith, Vivica A. Fox, Loretta Devine, Anthony Anderson, Toni Braxton, Cedric the Entertainer, Darius McCrary, and Whoopi Goldberg

When the despicable head of a black family dies, family and close friends band together for a few tumultuous days to bury the old turd.

His long-suffering wife, Raynelle Slocum (Whoppi Goldberg), must bear the presence of her fractious clan. Her oldest and most reliable son, Ray Bud (LL Cool J) deals with burying a father he wasn’t particularly fond of, while he and his wife Lucille (Vivica A. Fox) struggle over their difficulty to conceive a child. Ray Bud’s brother Junior (Anthony Anderson) arrives broke and unemployed with his shrewish wife Charisse (Jada Pinkett Smith) and their brood of noisy boys. And there are many more mini-dramas in this huge cast of characters.

Kingdom Come is wholly and unabashedly a black movie. The cast is all black, and the writers created a cast of characters who are black rural and black Southern archetypes and stereotypes. If movies can revolve around story, setting, and/or characters, this one complete hangs upon its large cast. The plot is sparse: bury the old bastard as fast as we can so we don’t have to stay around each other too long.

Based upon a stage play, the movie, adapted by the playwrights, is very talky. Many of the actors spend much of their screen time screaming at their screen partners or just plain talking and explaining. The movie obviously has a message about families sticking together that it repeatedly pounds into our heads. Like many stage plays aimed at African-Americans, this one aims to both entertain and to teach. Its message is both obvious and familiar and geared towards black folks. African-Americans can nod their heads in agreement at the play’s message and vicariously gobble down huge servings of soul food with the cast.

Director Doug McHenry, a prolific producer and director (House Party 2 and Jason’s Lyric) chooses bluntness over subtlety, but he wisely follows each cast member’s every move, as this film could not hang upon its story. To understand Kingdom Come, one must come to understand the characters’ motivations. The film is average goods that does have some very funny and touching moments.

Kingdom Come’s importance is that it exists at all, and it is much needed in a Hollywood landscape that mostly ignores the audience that wants films like Kingdom Come. The cast also includes R&B vocalist Toni Braxton, Loretta Devine (Waiting to Exhale and What Women Want), and Cedric the Entertainer. The quality of the acting ranges from surprising to really good, and the actors overcome the average script and directing in making their characters fun to watch.

In the end, anyone with an extended family, regardless of ethnic background, will recognize the family template upon which this family is based. It’s a universal story with universal themes set in one particular group. Its family dynamics are as similar as “Everybody Loves Raymond,” or Parenthood. While it is not great, or even very good, for that matter, it is a good choice on home video and for family viewing.

5 of 10
B-

Review: Denzel Washington Blew Minds with "Training Day"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 12 (of 2001) by Leroy Douresseaux

Training Day (2001)
Running time: 122 minutes (2 hours, 2 minutes)
MPAA – R for brutal violence, pervasive language, drug content and brief nudity
DIRECTOR: Antoine Fuqua
WRITER: David Ayer
PRODUCERS: Bobby Newmyer and Jeffrey Silver
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Mauro Fiore (director of photography)
EDITOR: Conrad Buff
Academy Award winner

DRAMA/CRIME/THRILLER

Starring: Denzel Washington, Ethan Hawke, Scott Glenn, Tom Berenger, Harris Yulin, Raymond J. Barry, Cliff Curtis, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Macy Gray, Charlotte Ayanna, and Eva Mendes

After not winning the Oscar for Best Actor 1999 for his portrayal of the noble but controversial Rubin “Hurricane” Carter (to the worthy Kevin Spacey), Denzel Washington may likely not earn even an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of the thoroughly evil and corrupted L.A. cop Alonzo Harris in Training Day. [Actually, after I wrote this, Washington did earn both an Oscar nomination and a win for his portrayal of Harris – Leroy 2010/7/10.]

Training Day begins with Jake Hoyt (Ethan Hawke), a young cop of 19 months, earns an assignment to the narcotics division under the tutelage of Harris. From the get go, Harris is rude and crude to Hoyt, and before long Harris takes Hoyt on a whirlwind tour of the seamy underbelly of L.A. County: gang neighborhoods, slums, drug dealing, and police corruption. But a recent miscue haunts Harris, and his attempt to get from under the cloud his carelessness has earned him brings the movie to its abrupt, brutal, and violent end. All the while, Hoyt struggles to maintain his law-abiding nature.

Washington is shocking, brilliant and intense as the dirty cop Harris. Known for playing clean policemen, upright detectives, and uplifting African-American heroes, Washington’s turn as a villain will wake people up to this artistic diverse resume. That he is one of the great actors of the last 15 years in not debatable. The passion that he brought to his role in The Hurricane, he brings here, and one can see passion in his eyes, in his gestures, and in the way he carries himself. It is the most invigorating character Washington has played since The Hurricane.

Hawke remains a player of mostly melancholy characters for which one can feel the deepest sympathy. He is an everyman with matinee idol good looks and charm, although it’s hard to accept his character late in the movie as Hoyt vengefully stalks Harris. He isn’t miscast; the movie just goes slightly awry, focusing on Harris’s evil rather than Hoyt’s coming of age as a policeman.

Antoine Fuqua (the director of the clumsy The Replacement Killers) brings the eye he used as a director of music videos to the film, but with the sensibility to follow a longer, more coherent story than is usually found in videos. Training Day’s pace is steady and breezy, and doesn’t start to stumble until the last quarter.

This isn’t entirely his fault. David Ayer, a rising screen writing star (U-571, The Fast and the Furious) convinces us until the last fifteen minutes or so of this film that Harris will get away with it. Harris’s ideology isn’t entirely unacceptable to mainstream audiences. If his believe system works and keeps the streets clean, most citizens would be happy as long as the could keep their hands clean and the truth buried so that they never have to deal with him and look the other way. It must be Ayers’s goody-two shoes nature that resolves things in the direction in which he does. It is sometimes nice when a movie eschews a happy ending, and the happy ending is usually positive, even when negative would have been more believable. This time the happy ending would have been the ugly truth, and this movie deserved a happy ending.

Not to reveal too many things, but with a deadline looming to save his life, Harris wouldn’t have stopped for a dalliance.

An entertaining cop flick, Training Day is good look at excellent work from a very talented actor, Washington. It may come across as harsh for those who like him as a romantic, good guy leading man, but it’s great for those who want a tour de force from a screen artist.

7 of 10
A-

NOTES:
2002 Academy Awards: 1 win: “Best Actor in a Leading Role” (Denzel Washington); 1 nomination: “Best Actor in a Supporting Role” (Ethan Hawke)
2002 Golden Globes: 1 nomination: “Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama” (Denzel Washington)
2002 Black Reel Awards: 3 wins: “Black Reel Theatrical - Best Actor” (Denzel Washington), “Theatrical - Best Director” (Antoine Fuqua), and “Theatrical - Best Film;” 1 nominations: “Best Song” (Nelly for the song "#1")

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Review: Before "Inception," Chris Nolan Did Trippy with "Memento"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 13 (of 2002) by Leroy Douresseaux

Memento (2000)
OPENING DATE: March 16, 2001
Running time: 113 minutes
MPAA – R for violence, language, and some drug content
DIRECTOR: Christopher Nolan
WRITER: Christopher Nolan (based upon a short story “Memento Mori” by Jonathan Nolan)
PRODUCERS: Jennifer Todd and Suzanne Todd
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Wally Pfister
EDITOR: Dody Dorn
Academy Award nominee

DRAMA/THRILLER/MYSTERY

Starring: Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano, Stephen Tobolowsky, Mark Boone Junior, Jorja Fox, and Harriet Samson Harris

Leonard “Lenny” Shelby (Guy Pearce, L.A. Confidential) was an insurance investigator. While intervening in the murder of his wife Catherine (Jorja Fox), Lenny receives a blow to his head. The resulting brain damage causes Lenny to suffer from Anterograde Amnesia, a condition in which Lenny cannot create new memories. Everyday he wakes up knowing who he is, but not remembering anything that happened since the injury. From that day on, he awakes every day, his mind a virtual blank slate. He compensates by taking pictures with a Polaroid camera, tattooing information on all over his body, and annotating pictures and pages of notes as a way to remember important information from previous days.

His current associates are a cheeky friend, Teddy (Joe Pantoliano, The Matrix) and a friendly bar waitress, Natalie (Carrie-Anne Moss, The Matrix). They’re either assistance or hindrance as Lenny searches for the man who killed his wife, a search he remembers began the night of his wife’s murder and his injury.

Memento is a combination mystery, thriller, crime drama, and like most of them, the answer comes at the end of the film. However, a twist that can confuse viewers, the movie begins with what is the conclusion of the story. The movie works backwards in time with each succeeding scene taking place earlier in the story than its predecessor. By the time the movie ends, the answer to the puzzle is actually the beginning of the story. If this sounds confusing, it isn’t. Memento is one of the most engaging mystery thrillers in quite a while.

Writer/director Christopher Nolan plays with time the way that Quentin Tarantino does, and he dresses his film in hardboiled film noir in the tradition of Los Angeles crime dramas. Memento’s execution is a mental exercise of the kind found in European cinema. Once you learn that the story works in reverse, you are drawn in and you can’t quit the film until its end. As you watch the story, you see a result of an action, so you must continue to watch to see what caused the action. To the bitter end, or beginning as it is, you want to know how Lenny’s suffering, how his search began, and each scene you watch only makes it more imperative that you see what happened get closer to the beginning of Lenny’s odyssey.

The performances by Pearce, Pantoliano, and Ms. Moss are excellent. Pearce makes an excellent everyman hero, and Pantoliano is the perfect sly trickster. However, Ms. Moss’s character turns are a revelation of her latent talent. Known for playing sexy heroines in sci-fi movies, to see her play a low-end bar hop is shocking.

The most brilliant work comes from Nolan, his brother Jonathan (whose original short story, upon which this movie is based, was published after the film’s release), and film editor, Dody Dorn (the special edition of Terminator 2: Judgment Day). These three creators, in particular Dody and Christopher Nolan, compose a beautiful piece of work that easily could have fallen apart upon its central conceit. They turn a gimmick on its ear. You’re impatient to learn what’s going on, and the film is so beautifully put together that you can never abandon it, lest you never learn the how it all began.

Like the tattoos that cover Lenny’s body, Memento will leave its own mark on your film viewing memory. Words in praise of Memento don’t do it just. Its impact is purely in what you see. Some film lovers see sound as a corruption of the pure visual magic of film, and Memento’s stock in trade is images and memories. The experience of seeing this film is itself a cherished memento.

9 of 10
A+

NOTES:
2002 Academy Awards: 2 nominations: “Best Editing” (Dody Dorn) and “Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen” (Christopher Nolan and Jonathan Nolan-story)

2002 Golden Globes: 1 nominations: “Best Screenplay - Motion Picture” (Christopher Nolan)

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"Monsters, Inc." a Fantastic Monster Movie

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 18 (of 2001) by Leroy Douresseaux


Monsters, Inc. (2001)
Running time: 92 minutes (1 hour, 32 minutes)
DIRECTORS: Peter Docter with David Silverman and Lee Unkrich
WRITERS: Andrew Stanton and Dan Gerson with additional screenplay material from Robert Baird, Rhett Reese and Jonathan Roberts, from a story by Peter Docter, Jill Culton, Ralph Eggleston, and Jeff Pidgeon
PRODUCER: Darla K. Anderson
EDITORS: Robert Grahamjones and Jim Stewart
COMPOSER: Randy Newman
Academy Award winner

ANIMATION/COMEDY/FANTASY/FAMILY

Starring: (voice) John Goodman, Billy Crystal, Mary Gibbs, Steve Buscemi, James Coburn, Jennifer Tilly, Bob Peterson, John Ratzenberger, Frank Oz, Dan Gerson, Steve Susskind, and Bonnie Hunt

Monsters, Inc. is the fourth collaboration between computer animation studio Pixar and Walt Disney, a match made in heaven that has already produced three brilliant films: Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, and Toy Story 2. Monsters was a safe bet to be a hit, which it is, and it was also a safe bet to be a darned good movie, which it certainly is.

Monsters, Inc. is a utility company that generates its power from the screams of children. James P. “Sulley” Sullivan (John Goodman) is the company’s top scream maker, but during an attempt to help his partner Michael “Mike” Wazowski (Billy Crystal), Sully accidentally lets a human child into the building and all heck breaks loose. Although they depend on children for the power to run their world, monsters are afraid of children. The child, whom Sulley names “Boo” (Mary Gibbs) touches Sulley’s heart, and he’s determined to return her to her bedroom before harm comes to her in the form of Sulley’s chief rival, Randall Boggs (Steve Buscemi).

Monsters employs the same formula that made the previous Disney/Pixar films huge successes. The personable voice talent comes in the form of Goodman and Crystal, who are capable, but are not as engaging as Tom Hands and Tim Allen in the Toy Story films; their performances are closer to the work of Dave Foley in A Bug’s Life. Buscemi, as Boggs, brings a venom filled performance that drips menace much in the manner Kevin Spacey did in A Bug’s Life.

The animation is nice, but the pastel-like tones are often dull in the film. The design of the citizens of Monstropolis, the home city of Monsters, Inc. is, at times, inventive, and at other times, rather ordinary. Most of the creatures seemed to have come straight out of cheap Saturday morning animation.

Where the film really scores is its script and direction. The film is a bit slow in its setup of the story, but the slowness does allow the story to indulge in the idiosyncrasies of its characters. The writers and directors build the tension with a slow burn, the film explodes into an old-fashioned barnburner with a rousing chases that rivals the best of cinema. The movie has the kind of action movie adrenaline hit that you’d get when Indiana Jones chased the trucks in Raiders of the Lost Ark or the pod race in Star Wars Episode One: the Phantom Menace. Pixar gave is previous films the same edge of the seat chase and rescue, which made the film a thrill ride for all ages.

With its sentimental and beautiful ending, Monsters, Inc. easily overcomes any reservations that anyone might have about it. Once again Disney/Pixar has produced a picture worthy of end of year best film lists. Awards usually ignore such films because they’re only animation, and, after all, cartoons are for kids. But the truth is in the result; don’t cheat yourself of this fine movie.

8 of 10
A

NOTES:
2002 Academy Awards: 1 win: “Best Music, Original Song” (Randy Newman for the song "If I Didn't Have You"); 3 nominations: “Best Animated Feature” (Pete Docter and John Lasseter), “Best Music, Original Score” (Randy Newman), and “Best Sound Editing” (Gary Rydstrom and Michael Silvers)
2002 BAFTA Awards: 1 win: “BAFTA Children's Award Best Feature Film” (Darla K. Anderson, Pete Docter, Andrew Stanton, and Daniel Gerson)