Review: "Sunshine State" is Another Great John Sayles Ensemble Drama (Happy B'day, Edie Falco)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 53 (of 2003) by Leroy Douresseaux

Sunshine State (2002)
Running time: 141 minutes (2 hours, 21 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for brief strong language, a sexual reference, and thematic elements
EDITOR/WRITER/DIRECTOR: John Sayles
PRODUCER: Maggie Renzi
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Patrick Cady

DRAMA

Starring: Angela Bassett, Edie Falco, James McDaniel, Timothy Hutton, Bill Cobbs, Miguel Ferrer, Ralph Waite, Jane Alexander, Mary Alice, Gordon Clapp, Mary Steenburgen, Alex Lewis, and Tom Wright

The subject of this movie review is Sunshine State, a 2002 drama (with humorous undertones) from director John Sayles. An ensemble character drama, the film has subplots about family secrets, race relations, romance, and commercial property development.

Watching a John Sayles movie is to observe the work of a genius. Of course the word is often misused and overused, but not in John’s case. He is a genius film director. Very few directors could write the kind of dense character pieces that he does with so many players and still make the resulting film visually absorbing. That is what the master does yet again in his 2002 film, Sunshine State.

As usual, when a Sayles film begins, there is already a lot of backstory. The characters have highly involved lives before we fade in to the first scene, so we essentially come into a story that’s already begun. In a northern Florida coastal town, encroaching land developers force the separate lives of the town’s residents to intersect as the developers make a hard sell, by hook or by crook, the buy the land which they intend to transform into a swanky residential and resort area.

Old family business also rears its head for the two female leads. Desiree Perry (Angela Bassett) returns to visit her mother, Eunice Stokes (Mary Alice). Desiree left decades earlier because of an unwanted pregnancy and because she had a hard time living up to the public legacy of her father. She returns with her husband, Reggie, to find her mother now responsible for a troubled young relative (Alex Lewis) and seemingly nursing a grudge against her daughter.

Meanwhile, Marly Temple (Edie Falco) manages her father Furman’s (Ralph Waite) restaurant and hotel, but she’s ready to give it up. She listens to the slick and deceptive deals of the land developers and falls for one of their employees, a wandering landscape architect (Timothy Hutton).

Sayles’s film is a complex, but yet straightforward story, that details the complicated issues of business and of family business. You almost need a scorecard to keep up with all the characters, but Sayles creates a rhythm with his plot and story that a patient and savvy viewer will eventually catch. Visually, it’s like a shell game, but once you catch onto who is who, who is connected to whom, who wants what, you get a grasp on the film. After a while, you even have a good idea of the motivation of even the bit players. Sayles’s films are verbose, but not like those pretentious uppity foreign films, especially those high-falutin’ British period pieces. The spoken accentuates the visual. The better you understand the dialogue and that it’s communicating the story to you, the easier it is to watch the movie.

The acting is quite good all around. Many viewers are already aware of Angela Bassett’s dramatic prowess, but Ms. Falco, mainly known for “The Sopranos” is a revelation here. Her Marly Temple is one of the best performances by an actress, lead or supporting, in 2002, and one of the best in last few years. Like many of those earlier excellent performances, Oscar passed Ms. Falco by even for a nomination.

For many complex business and socio-political reasons, not excluding his talent, Sayles continues to create some of the best ethnic characters currently seen in popular cinema, especially African-Americans. Many black directors and writers show less affinity than Sayles in creating complex, three-dimensional black characters. Many black filmmakers are content to churn out the same drivel as the rest of the film industry except they populate their movies with cardboard, stereotypical Negroes.

As usual, a Sayles film ends before the story is “over.” He’s given us a small slice in the long rich lives of his characters who are so seemingly alive that they might just live on past the end credits. Sunshine State is John Sayles best film since Lone Star, in which he also takes the same lovingly novelistic approach to the story. It’s a career highlight from the oldest and the strongest maverick filmmaker in America. He’s the last great independent spirit, and by remaining so, every few years, he gives us a work of simple brilliance.

9 of 10
A+

NOTES:
2003 Black Reel Awards: 1 win: “Theatrical - Best Actress” (Angela Bassett)

2003 Image Awards: 1 win: “Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture” (Angela Bassett)

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Review: 'The Widowmaker" is a Cool Cold War Film (Happy B'day, Liam Neeson)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 82 (of 2007) by Leroy Douresseaux

K-19: The Widowmaker (2002)
Running time: 138 minutes (2 hours, 18 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for disturbing images
DIRECTOR: Kathryn Bigelow
WRITERS: Christopher Kyle; from a story by Louis Nowra
PRODUCERS: Kathryn Bigelow, Edward S. Feldman, Sigurjon Sighvatsson, and Christine Whitaker
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Jeff Cronenweth
EDITOR: Walter Murch

DRAMA/ADVENTURE/THRILLER/HISTORICAL

Starring: Harrison Ford, Liam Neeson, Peter Sarsgaard, Sam Spruell, Christian Camargo, Sam Redford, and Ravil Isyanov

Based upon actual events, K-19: The Widowmaker is the dramatization of the inaugural voyage of the Russia’s first nuclear ballistic submarine, which suffered a nuclear reactor malfunction during its maiden voyage in the North Atlantic in 1961. The film begins in the midst of the nuclear arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union. K-19, called “the Widowmaker,” because of the number of men who have died working on the sub before it even launched, is the Soviet Union’s attempt to catch up to the U.S., which already has nuclear-powered (and armed) submarines.

The film fictionalizes the relationship between the unyielding Captain Alexei Vostrikov (Harrison Ford) and his second in command, Captain Mikhail Polenin (Liam Neeson), who was K-19’s Captain until politics unseated him. The two men and their gallant crew must race against time to prevent a nuclear explosion that would destroy them and inadvertently ignite a world war between the Soviets and the Americans, but the crew also finds itself caught between the two captain’s test of wills.

Kathryn Bigelow’s K-19: The Widowmaker does the fine old genre of submarine movies proud by telling an astonishing true story as an engaging and riveting dramatic tale of survival, grace under fire, and solidarity among military men. This absorbing and scary flick is a testament to Bigelow’s technical skill as a filmmaker. One would think that as a woman, she would focus primarily on character and relationships, but Bigelow is a whiz at staging big action sequences, thrilling chases, and the kind of violent confrontations for which male action movie directors are known.

When this film was first released, some critics took issue with Harrison Ford’s weak Russian accent, which comes and goes (but is quite strong in the movie’s closing sequences), but the way Ford plays the character hits the right note. Ford finds a way to balance his Vostrikov for the way Liam Neeson plays Polenin, and Ford clearly understood the role both characters played in the larger narrative. Ford and Neeson fit their characters neatly into the context of the other characters and the setting. Together they sell K-19: The Widowmaker’s central conflict – Polenin versus Vostrikov, while making neither man a villain, because Christopher Kyle’s excellent screenplay gives both men ample opportunity to be heroic.

A winning adventure at sea and (Cold) war movie, K-19: The Widowmaker respects its audience, and the smart viewer who is willing to engage this film will find a treasure beneath the waves.

7 of 10
A-

Friday, May 25, 2007

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Review: Men in Black II

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 20 (of 2003) by Leroy Douresseaux


Men in Black II (2002)
Running time: 88 minutes (1 hour, 28 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for sci-fi action violence and some provocative humor
DIRECTOR: Barry Sonnenfeld
WRITER: Robert Gordon and Barry Fanaro, from a story by Robert Gordon (based upon the comic book by Lowell Cunningham)
PRODUCERS: Laurie MacDonald and Walter F. Parkes
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Greg Gardiner (D.o.P.)
EDITORS: Richard Pearson and Steven Weisberg
COMPOSER: Danny Elfman

SCI-FI/FANTASY/COMEDY/ACTION

Starring: Tommy Lee Jones, Will Smith, Rip Torn, Lara Flynn Boyle, Johnny Knoxville, Rosario Dawson, Tony Shalhoub, and Patrick Warburton

The subject of this movie review is Men in Black II, the 2002 science fiction comedy that is a sequel to the 1997 film, Men in Black. Both movies are based upon the comic book, Men in Black, created by Lowell Cunningham. As he was with the first film, Steven Spielberg is also the executive producer.

It was a long time in coming, and some thought it would be too expensive to make because of star salaries and production company profit participation, but Men in Black II finally arrived. Although not as fresh as the first film, MiBII is somewhat close to the original in that it is still imaginative and wacky, and Will Smith is still very funny.

When Serleena (Lara Flynn Boyle), a villain from MiB’s past threatens the planet, Agent J (Will Smith) has to convince former agent and his mentor Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones) to return to the agency. Complicating matters is the fact that Agent K is having a difficult time regaining his memory of his time as an MiB agent, and his memory is crucial to defeating Serleena. Meanwhile, Agent J has fallen for Laura Vasquez (Rosario Dawson), an attractive witness to a murder committed by Serleena.

One of the many things that I like about the original film was the cool opening scene, an homage to classic sci-fi B-movies. This film does something similar, but with a nod to those loopy, paranormal, conspiracy theory documentaries. The actors are all game, and with the help of some interesting cameos (including one by Michael Jackson) and some nice small roles, the film, for the most part, manages to keep us interested in what’s going to show up next on the screen. It’s a way of playing it safe, and keeping matters close to what audiences remember from the first film. Director Barry Sonnenfeld and his writers bring back all the atmospherics of the first, but add some sentimental and romantic elements. The romance actually works in a way of tying together the pasts of Agents J and K and also tightens the bond between the characters.

What this film does lack that the first one had is the intensity of the danger imposed by a rogue alien. While I found Serleena to be a viable threat as a villain, I thought that she lacked the kick of the Bug from the first film. The agents also spend a lot of time going from one location to another and each one just happens to be either the home of another alien or a secret storage bin for MiB paraphernalia and weaponry. I know that the filmmakers want to play up the idea that you never know what’s behind the façade, but each trip to another building just slows the film. The film never really kicks into high gear until its final fifteen minutes.

Still, it’s funny, and Will Smith carries the show, even through some dry moments. After the second time around, we can see that MiB is really the story of Agent J’s adventures in the organization and that Smith is very likely crucial to the success of any more Men in Black sequels. Although Men in Black II plays it rather safe, it is a pretty entertaining successor to an exceptional movie.

6 of 10
B

NOTES:
2003 Razzie Awards: 1 nomination: “Worst Supporting Actress” (Lara Flynn Boyle)

"Scooby-Doo" the Movie is Kinda Doo-Doo

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 55 (of 2003) by Leroy Douresseaux


Scooby-Doo (2002)
Running time: 88 minutes (1 hour, 28 minutes)
MPAA – PG for some rude humor, language and some scary action
DIRECTOR: Raja Gosnell
WRITERS: James Gunn; from a story Craig Titley and James Gunn (based upon the characters created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera)
PRODUCERS: Charles Roven and Richard Suckle
CINEMATOGRAPHER: David Eggby (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Kent Beyda
COMPOSER: David Newman

COMEDY/FAMILY/FANTASY/MYSTERY with elements of action

Starring: Freddie Prinze, Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar, Matthew Lillard, Linda Cardellini, Rowan Atkinson, Isla Fisher, Miguel A Nunez, Jr., Neil Fanning (voice), Scott Innes (voice), J.P. Manoux (voice)

Why does there need to be a feature-length, live action, movie based on the long running “Scooby-Doo” animated series? There are a number of reasons. It’s an exploitable “intellectual” property owned by a giant corporation. It’s a recognizable property and brand name, and frankly, only in recent years has the property owner begun to maximize the licensing potential of this property. Also, most movies from the larger film studios are notoriously expensive; “new” ideas are risky, but remakes and adaptations of stories from other media are the way film studios go when they want to play it safe. To many people, however, both young and old (after all, the Scooby-Doo cartoon concept is over 30 years old), this isn’t a property; it’s Scooby-Doo, man, so a lot of moviegoers were eagerly awaiting the 2002 “live” action debut of Scooby-Doo. And I place live in quotation marks because our favorite cartoon dog is one of many things in this film that isn’t exactly live.

As Scooby-Doo begins, the gang of Mystery Inc. disband due to internal strife. Fred “Freddie” Jones (Freddie Prinze, Jr.) is full of himself and believes that he is the group. Daphne Blake (Sarah Michelle Gellar) is tired of her teammates viewing her as a weak link, and Velma Dinkley (Linda Cardellini) wants credit for her intellectual contributions to the group. As the unhappy trio departs, Norville “Shaggy” Rogers (Matthew Lillard) and Scooby (a CGI character) inherit the Mystery Machine, that van that has carried the kids across continents to solve mysteries, and retire to live their lives eating rude junk food.

The gang inadvertently reunites when the owner of Spooky Island, Emile Mondavarious (Rowan Atkinson) invites the former teammates separately by invitation to his island to solve the mystery behind the strange behavior of his resort island’s guests. What they find test their individual skills and forces them back together, but can they solve a mystery that might involve their past?

Scooby-Doo alternates between several phases. Sometimes, it’s really dumb, while other times it’s too lame to be dumb. It’s bad, ridiculous, and doesn’t make sense, which is odd because the creators behind the original cartoon series often went to great lengths to give plausible explanations for their often surreal, bizarre, and implausible stories. Yet, there were times when I really found some of the material to be funny. I can’t kid myself. This movie is for children, and not necessarily dumb children. It’s for children and for adults who love Scooby-Doo and are thrilled by the idea of a Scooby movie. Audiences can look forward to this kind of movie now thanks to the ability to render the strangest looking characters and give them complex movements with the aid of computer software. At one time, a Scooby-Doo movie would have meant an actor playing Scooby in an awful looking costume that wouldn’t fool anyone in believing he was Scooby. Now, computers can create an animated Scooby that looks more real and has more range of motion than the original character that was created using traditional cel animation.

Audiences are consumers, and consumers are suckers for the familiar brand names. While we might see Scooby as a beloved character, he’s a product. No studio is going to risk losing hundreds of millions of dollars in sales on a film through theatrical release, home video, television, and merchandising just to make a smart and witty movie. The Scooby cartoons were never smart and witty, anyway. Except for an occasional odd, short film from an inventive animator for the Cartoon Network during the 1990’s, the filmography of Scooby has been one of simpleminded entertainment for kids. And I have to admit that I watched lots of Scooby for over two decades.

Director Raja Gosnell, a former film editor, is a perfect choice to direct this. His knowledge of how film works allows him to create a functional film out of what amounts to a poor script. The story actually has something that’s vaguely neat and interesting – an idea here or there that might work. However, the writers seem mostly to be hacks that specialize in B movies. They’re used to doing atrocious work that is “not supposed to be taken seriously.” So I don’t know if the studio wanted this to stay dumb, or that this was dumb by either the writers’ choice or ability. Either way, they couldn’t seem to hold onto what inspiration they had, and I wonder if these guys even know how to aim it when they’re in front of a urinal.

The casting of this movie is mostly wrong. Matthew Lillard seems born to play Shaggy, and Linda Cardellini is tolerable as Velma; after a while, they all sort of grow on you like fungus, and you accept them. I have to admit that despite my reservations, I grew to like the computer generated Scooby. I thought of it as Scooby the same way I would a cel-animated Doo. I really didn’t like that the film introduced adult “personality” traits to the characters: lust, envy, insecurity, hate, revenge, anger, etc.

This film is mostly trash, something light and fluffy, a curiosity piece, in a manner of speaking, so see it for Scooby and Shaggy if for no other reason. There are some really sweet moments that I can’t reveal without spoiling the film, and the sets and costumes were really nice.

5 of 10
C+

NOTES:
2003 Razzie Awards: 2 nominations: “Most Flatulent Teen-Targeted Movie” (Warner Bros.) and “Worst Supporting Actor” (Freddie Prinze, Jr.)

The Transporter: Best Chuck Norris Movie Ever

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 229 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Transporter (2002)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: France
Running time: 92 minutes (1 hour, 32 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for violent sequences and some sensuality
DIRECTORS: Louis Leterrier with Corey Yuen
WRITERS: Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen
PRODUCERS: Steve Chasman and Luc Besson
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Pierre Morel
EDITOR: Nicolas Trembasiewicz

ACTION/THRILLER/CRIME with elements of martial arts and drama

Starring: Jason Statham, Qi Shu, Matt Schulze, François Berléand, and Ric Young

The subject of this movie review is The Transporter, a 2002 French action film from writer/producer Luc Besson. The film is the first in a series starring Jason Statham as a driver-for-hire who will deliver anything, anywhere with no questions asked.

Frank Martin (Jason Statham) is a “transporter,” a man who makes deliveries in his 7-series BMW, moving either people or packages from one place to another, no questions asked. A serious of unfortunate events begins for Frank when he opens a “package” and discovers that it contains human cargo: a young Asian woman, bound and gagged. He falls for the young woman named Lai (Qi Shu) and decides to help her after she throws some lovin’ on him, but it sends him against a seemingly endless number of men who want to kill him.

The Transporter is the kind of big, splashy, American-style action movie that French filmmaker Luc Besson (The Fifth Element) loves to make, either as writer, producer, and/or director. The Transporter is big, dumb, highly entertaining and lots of fun, based entirely on the lead Jason Statham’s tough guy persona and also on several high-octane, chop-socky-on-steroids-fight sequences. After watching about half of it, I realized that The Transporter is the best Bruce Lee movie made since Lee’s untimely demise. Since the star Statham is white, that would make this the best Chuck Norris movie ever, since Norris was a clunky white version of Bruce Lee. So if you like Norris and lots of man-to-man fisticuffs, The Transporter is a hot one.

7 of 10
B+

Review: Crazy White Women Put the Bloom in "White Oleander" (Happy B'day, Robin Wright)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 132 (of 2003) by Leroy Douresseaux

White Oleander (2002)
Running time: 109 minutes (1 hour, 49 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for mature thematic elements concerning dysfunctional relationships, drug content, language, sexuality and violence
DIRECTOR: Peter Kosminsky
WRITER: Mary Alice Donoghue (from the novel by Janet Fitch)
PRODUCERS: Hunt Lowry and John Wells
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Elliot Davis (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Chris Ridsdale
COMPOSER: Thomas Newman

DRAMA

Starring: Alison Lohman, Robin Wright Penn, Michelle Pfeiffer, Renee Zellweger, Amy Aquino, Patrick Fugit, Cole Hauser, Noah Wylie, Marc Donato, Billy Connolly, and Dallas McKinney

The subject of this movie review is White Oleander, a 2002 American drama film. It based upon the 1999 novel of the same name from author Janet Fitch, a novel which also has the distinction of being picked for Oprah’s Book Club in 1999.

In White Oleander, Michelle Pfeiffer is Ingrid Magnussen, a woman sentenced to prison when she murders her lover in a crime of passion. Her imprisonment sends her daughter Astrid (Alison Lohman) on a journey through the foster care system where she undergoes intense experiences of love, loss, and near death. She, however, never loses touch with her mother, maintaining contact through letters and Astrid’s brief visits to the prison. As the years past, Astrid begins to resent her mother’s insistence that she live her life as her mother wishes, and their relationship becomes a war between a controlling mother and a teenage girl determined to find her own way.

I could describe the film White Oleander (the name of a beautiful, but deadly poisonous plant) as beautiful, but I would have to add on the descriptive term, “hauntingly.” If you like chick movies, especially sad chick movies, White Oleander is one of the best I’ve seen in ages. It is unrelentingly sad, and that has put off some viewers, but the performances are monster and deserve to be seen. Ms. Pfieffer can play the shrinking violet as well as anyone (see Dangerous Liaisons), but her talents are quite sharp when she extends her razor-like claws of her talent into bad girl/misunderstood woman roles (The Fabulous Baker Boys or her voice work in the animated Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas). Young Alison Lohman shows an ability to channel pain that recalls the early work of the first lady of tragic heroines, Meryl Streep. Ms. Lohman dominates this movie, and she saves this from being a dreadful movie of the week. Director Peter Kosminsky (an award-winning television movie director) smartly lets her shine.

White Oleander is quite engaging and enthralling, unusual for a movie of such palatable sadness, but it’s rewarding. It’s a feel good movie about surviving the really rough patches in life. I fault an incoherent script for running from one sad scene to another as if the writer was trying to make a grocery list of the bad things that can happen in life. The film never really slows down to take the time and show us the process of Astrid growing up and growing independent. Still, this has to be one of the prettiest sad movies in a long time. It’s like a beautiful car wreck and if you’re not careful, you might find yourself in love with all this pain.

7 of 10
B+

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Review: "The Rules of Attraction" Breaks Rules (Happy B'day, James Van Der Beek)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 49 (of 2003) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Rules of Attraction (2002)
Running time: 100 minutes (1 hour, 40 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong sexual content, drug use, language and violent images (edited for re-rating)
DIRECTOR: Roger Avary
WRITER: Roger Avary (based upon the novel by Bret Easton Ellis)
PRODUCER: Greg Shapiro
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Robert Brinkmann
EDITOR: Sharon Rutter
COMPOSERS: tomandandy

DRAMA

Starring: James Van Der Beek, Ian Somerhalder, Shannyn Sossamon, Jessica Biel, Kate Bosworth, Jay Baruchel, Clifton Collins, Jr., Faye Dunaway, Swoosie Kurtz, Eric Stoltz, Fred Savage, and Kip Pardue

Roger Avary’s (who won an Oscar for co-writing Pulp Fiction) film The Rules of Attraction, an adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’s novel of the same name, initially received an NC-17 rating before being edited to an R, and I have to say that I’d be afraid to see the “harsher” version that was too much for the tepid appetites of the MPAA rating board. It’s an apocalyptic love story about a love triangle involving three very self-absorbed students at a small New England college. It’s not for everyone, but it’s a bracing movie that throws safe filmmaking conventions to the wind and takes the viewer on a helter-skelter ride into the lust lives of hedonistic youth.

Paul Denton (Ian Somerhalder) is in love with Sean Bateman (James Van Der Beek, Varsity Blues, “Dawson’s Creek”), while Sean is in love with Lauren Hynde (Shannyn Sossamon) who is in love with the mostly absent Victor Johnson (Kip Pardue). Sean and Lauren manage to cobble up some kind of relationship, and while Sean really starts to dig Lauren, he can’t help but screw it up. Meanwhile, the beautiful, bisexual Paul has the extreme hots for Sean, but Sean barely even notices him. So Paul pursues; Sean pursues, and Lauren kind of pursues, but she’s in sort of a zone of indecision – attracted to Sean and pining for Victor.

The novel was apparently told from several points of view, so to keep that spirit, Avary breaks linear time, shifts between varying points of view, compares and contrasts POV, and allows interior communication between character and viewer. In Sean’s case, we get a jumble and confusing mess of interior monologues that serve to establish his inability to relate to others beyond his need of them. Avary gives the film the running theme of that no one really ever knows anyone else and that maybe people don’t really want other people to know them. And to ask another for such an intimate entry is looked upon as disingenuous. Each character is so caught up in his desire for his object of attraction that he never really tries to know that person.

The Rules of Attraction is a fascinating, satiric, and darkly comic look at attraction and at obtaining the object of attraction. If it has a fault, it’s is that the film lapses into small, but periodic dry spells and moments of pointless observation that stop the movie instead of moving the story forward. However, the acting is very good, particular Van Der Beek in one of those roles that supposed to show the world that the pretty boy actor can be grim and gritty.

If there are rules of attraction, no one here seems to know them; the characters seem to play it by the seats of the pants they’re so quick to drop. I love this film. It’s a stunning visual testament to the ugliness and unbridled power of pursuit, a love story that’s different yet uncomfortably familiar.

7 of 10
B+

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Review: Characters Save Creaky "Barbershop"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 14 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

Barbershop (2002)
Running time: 102 minutes (1 hour, 42 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for language, sexual content and brief drug references
DIRECTOR: Tim Story
WRITERS: Mark Brown, Don D. Scott, and Marshall Todd, from a story by Mark Brown
PRODUCERS: Mark Brown, Robert Teitel, and George Tillman Jr.
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Tom Priestley (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: John Carter
COMPOSER: Terence Blanchard

COMEDY/DRAMA

Starring: Ice Cube, Anthony Anderson, Cedric the Entertainer, Sean Patrick Thomas, Eve, Troy Garity, Michael Ealy, Leonard Earl Howze, Lahmard Tate, Jazsmin Lewis, Tom Wright, Jason Winston, DeRay Davis, and Keith David

Barbershop, a recent co-production by Ice Cube’s film production company Cube Vision and State Street Pictures, is another in a recent spurt of so-called urban audience movies, i.e. movies for black people. However, the light-on-plot film was a huge hit that drew in a broad cross section of viewers, so even white folks can be entertained by film’s with little or no story as long as the characters are funny and engaging, as they definitely are in Barbershop.

Calvin Palmer (Ice Cube) is a barber like his father and grandfather before him, but Calvin has bigger dreams. He inherited his late father’s shop, but Calvin has also saddled himself with debt from a number of failed business ventures. Looking for cash to help him with his latest start up, he sells his barbershop to a loan shark, Lester Wallace (the wonderful, but seldom seen Keith David). After he takes that big step, he comes to regret his decision when he realizes that Wallace is going to turn the shop into a ho house. That really hurts because his father’s business always meant a lot to the local community.

I can forgive the weakness of the film’s plots (and subplots) because it is rich in funny and endearing characters. To be of quality, a film doesn’t have to have great characters, a great setting, and a great story; the finest and most artful films do. A good film can be strong and entertaining with just one of those elements. Barbershop holds our attention because the characters are so damned funny. The acting isn’t always tight, but the cast really gets into their characters and give a good show. In an odd way you can forgive Barbershop a lot of faults because you know that you’re always going to get another hilarious scene with these great characters.

Out of all the actors, Anthony Anderson captured my attention just as he has in Romeo Must Die, Big Momma’s House, and Life among others. He’s funny, hilarious in fact, in the tradition of portly funny men. Ice Cube is nowhere near being a good actor, but he has an excellent sense in choosing film projects that will appeal to a broad audience, whether it’s popular trash like Anaconda, a sleeper hit like Friday, or a daring filmmaking choice like Three Kings. He’s a movie star.

Barbershop is a good comedy with many funny characters. It’s warm and homespun like Soul Food, with a good down home message about family and having sense of community, at its heart. Besides who could miss a film when Cedric the Entertainer is really on his game as a funny man and an actor, especially since you get to hear him say “F*ck Jesse Jackson.”

5 of 10
B-

NOTES:
2003 Black Reel Awards: 6 nominations: “Best Film” (Robert Teitel, George Tillman Jr.), “Best Film Soundtrack, “Theatrical - Best Actor” (Ice Cube), “Theatrical - Best Director” (Tim Story), “Theatrical - Best Screenplay-Original or Adapted” (Mark Brown and Don D. Scott), “Theatrical - Best Supporting Actor” (Cedric the Entertainer)

2003 Image Awards: 5 nominations: “Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture” (Ice Cube), “Outstanding Motion Picture,” “Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture” (Anthony Anderson), “Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture” (Cedric the Entertainer), and “Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture” (Eve)

Review: "Full Frontal" is a Frontal Assault on Hollywood Sameness

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 134 (of 2003) by Leroy Douresseaux

Full Frontal (2002)
Running time: 101 minutes (1 hour, 41 minutes)
MPAA – R for language and some sexual content
DIRECTOR: Steven Soderbergh
WRITER: Coleman Hough
PRODUCERS: Gregory Jacobs and Scott Kramer
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Peter Andrews (Steven Soderbergh)
EDITOR: Sarah Flack
COMPOSER: Jacques Davidovici

COMEDY/DRAMA/ROMANCE

Starring: Julia Roberts, Blair Underwood, David Duchovny, Nicky Katt, Catherine Keener, David Hyde Pierce, Tracey Vilar, Mary McCormack, Jeff Garlin, Erika Alexander, Enrico Colantoni with Terrence Stamp, David Fincher, and Brad Pitt

Steven Soderbergh laid down the law to his large cast of stars for his low budget ($2 million) film, Full Frontal, denying them the amenities that movie stars have come to expect on the sets of films in which they appear (star). Apparently, he really wanted the focus to be on actually making a film and less on the celebrity politics of Hollywood filmmaking. Full Frontal is one of those “meta” films like Spike Jonze’s two films, Being John Malkovich and Adaptation, in which there is a film within a film within a film, a story within a story, and a play within a play. All the elements: filmmakers, actors, characters, settings, story and script blend together to create some kind of hyper fictional/documentary movie hybrid.

Full Frontal follows a day in the life of a group of men and women in Hollywood as they approach an evening birthday party for their friend Gus/Bill (David Duchovny). If you’re wondering why Duchovny’s character has two names it’s because this is a movie within a movie, and some of the film’s characters have dual identities: one is a “real person” and the other is a fictional character. If this is confusing, it is because Full Frontal can be very hard to follow, unlike the aforementioned Spike Jonze films which were both written by Charlie Kaufman and which were both very easy to follow.

Julia Roberts and Blair Underwood (an under appreciated and underutilized actor likely because he is Africa-American) play dual parts and it’s a doozy to separate the lives of four characters that are so alike both professionally and personally. The script by Coleman Hough has that thing we all look for in a story that’s supposed to engage us – pathos. It is a fine dramatic presentation of several slices of several lives ably put to words, and Soderbergh expertly captures the sometimes-farcical nature of life and the sometimes quiet, sometimes manic nature of the beast that is romance.

Full Frontal is a movie within a movie and a film about filmmaking for people who really like movies. Yes, it’s sometimes confusing and following it is occasionally arduous, but numerous excellent performances, sharp film editing, and some neat star cameos make it worth the effort. Steven Soderbergh is a gifted, imaginative and inventive director who really loves to play around with the process of making movies, so anything he makes is not just interesting; it’s damn interesting. Plus, Full Frontal is such an absolute pleasure to watch, even if it bends the mind one too many times.

8 of 10
A

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"Bend it Like Beckham" is Something Different and Nice

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 131 (of 2003) by Leroy Douresseaux


Bend it Like Beckham (2002)
U.S. release: 2003
Running time: 112 minutes (1 hour, 52 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for language and sexual content
DIRECTOR: Gurinder Chadha
WRITERS: Paul Mayeda Berges, Guljit Bindra, and Gurinder Chadha
PRODUCERS: Gurinder Chadha and Deepak Nayar
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Lin Jong (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Justin Krish

COMEDY/DRAMA/SPORTS

Starring: Parminder K. Nagra, Keira Knightley, Jonathan Rhys-Myers, Anupam Kher, Archie Punjabi, Shaznay Lewis, Frank Harper, Juliet Stevenson, Shaheen Kahn, Ameet Chana, and Shaznay Lewis

Bend it Like Beckham is a 2002 comedy/drama and sports movie from director Gurinder Chadha. The film is set in West London and focuses on a young woman who rebels against her orthodox Sikh parents to join a football (soccer) team.

If you’ve never heard of David Beckham, the “Beckham” in Bend it Like Beckham, that’s okay. He’s currently the world’s most famous soccer player or footballer, and soccer still has a long way to go in the States. Still, Beckham, the movie about a young woman who battles her parents Old World ways to forge her own future is not only a really good “feel good” film, but also unique because it’s Asian/Sikh cast makes it very different from the all-white family films that we usually get.

Jesminder Bhamra or Jess (Parminder K. Nagra), who has loved soccer since she was a little girl, gets an offer from her new friend Juliette Paxton (Keira Knightley) to join an girls soccer team that is part of an all-female team. Jess’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Bhamra (Anupam Kher and Shaheen Kahn) detest their daughter’s interest in soccer although she excels at it, seeing it as an affront to their orthodox Sikh ways, especially as their daughter Pinky’s (Archie Punjabi) wedding day approaches. Jess, however, rebels against them; she concocts elaborate lies that usually fall apart, but her biggest sin is when she joins her team for a big tournament in Germany.

Although the story touches on a number of family issues, including obligation and tradition, the script approaches ideas as frivolously as a sitcom. There is a serious clash of cultures going on here, and although the film is a laundry list of conflicts, the screenwriters never treat any of it seriously. For instance, during a soccer match, an opponent throws Jess to the ground and calls her a “paki,” which is a sadly popular ethnic slur against many Asians in England. When Jess retaliates, the referee throws her out of the game, but not the bigoted ho. This directly ties into the experiences Mr. Bhamra had when he moved to England, but the director brushes past the trauma of racism and just moves onto the next funny scene.

Bend it Like Beckham is light, frothy entertainment. It is funny, and though a bit of a chill tempers its warmth, I credit it for being quite entertaining in spite of a few warts.

6 of 10
B

NOTES:
2003 BAFTA Awards: 1 nomination: “Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film” (Deepak Nayar and Gurinder Chadha)

2004 Golden Globes: 1 nomination: “Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy)

2004 Image Awards: 1 nomination: “Outstanding Motion Picture”

Review: DiCaprio, Hanks Catch Fire in "Catch Me if You Can" (Happy B'day, Steven Spielberg)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 96 (of 2003) by Leroy Douresseaux

Catch Me if You Can (2002)
Running time: 141 minutes (2 hours, 21 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for some sexual content and brief language
DIRECTOR: Steven Spielberg
WRITER: Jeff Nathanson (based upon the book Catch Me If You Can: The Amazing True Story of the Youngest and Most Daring Con Man in the History of Fun and Profit by Frank W. Abagnale and Stan Redding
PRODUCERS: Walter F. Parkes and Steven Spielberg
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Janusz Kaminski
EDITOR: Michael Kahn
COMPOSER: John Williams
Academy Award nominee

COMEDY/CRIME/DRAMA

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks, Christopher Walken, Martin Sheen, Nathalie Baye, James Brolin, Amy Adams, Nancy Lenehan, Ellen Pompeo, and Jennifer Garner

Steven Spielberg had two directorial works theatrically released in 2002. The first was the fantastic Minority Report (ahead of its time, perhaps), and the second was a box office smash that didn’t really feature any obvious directorial flourishes, Catch Me if You Can. It was as if Spielberg backed off a little (he wasn’t even among the top choices to direct this film), and let the film take a life of its own. Though plagued by a few scenes that could have been excluded (including one by the overrated and unattractive Jennifer Garner), it’s a very good film that relies not so much on the director or even on the intriguing tale (which is based upon a true story), but rather on the talents of its cast, in particular Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks, and Christopher Walken.

When his parents’ financial security evaporates and causes their marriage to go kaput, 17-year old Frank Abagnale, Jr. (Leonardo DiCaprio) comes up with a way to get his father Frank, Sr. (Christopher Walken) flush in paper again. He becomes a successful con artist, managing to pass himself off as several identities, in particular as an airline pilot, a physician, and an attorney. However, it is his ingenious check fraud schemes that draw the attention of a relentless FBI agent, Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks), who begins a cross-country and trans-Atlantic chase to catch Frank, Jr.

Walken gives a very deep and heartfelt performance as Frank Sr., a man beset by the Internal Revenue Service and marital woes. Tom Hanks is dead on as the determined and stoic G-Man, Hanratty, whose dogged search belies his simple need to bring order where fraud creates chaos. Hank plays the agent as a persistent and by the book official who actually has a wry sense of humor; you have to watch carefully to catch the humor. DiCaprio’s Frank, Jr. is, on the surface, a one-note character, but the actor plays much of the young con beneath the surface. Frank succeeds as a confidence man simply because of his measured self-control. A con survives by not breaking each time he encounters something that threatens to spoil the con game. DiCaprio’s Frank is the legal opposite of Hank’s Hanratty, but, otherwise, they’re about the same in personality. Their insistence to do what they have to do keeps them going. A viewer can’t read that in the script. He has to read that in the actors’ performances: physical and facial and subtly verbal. This is the work of two artists.

Catch Me if You Can waffles between being a drama and comedy while really being neither. It’s not a great film; the set up to Frank’s life of crime is overly long and occasionally dull. Still, Catch Me if You Can is a very good and tremendously entertaining work in which the actors outplay all the other elements of the film. Nothing wrong with that – you can get a fine moving picture when great actors can get to do what they do so well and do it with relative ease.

7 of 10
A-

NOTES:
2003 Academy Awards: 2 nominations: “Best Actor in a Supporting Role” (Christopher Walken) and “Best Music, Original Score” (John Williams)

2003 BAFTA Awards: 1 win: “Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role” (Christopher Walken); 3 nominations: “Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music” (John Williams), “Best Costume Design” (Mary Zophres), and “Best Screenplay – Adapted” (Jeff Nathanson)

2003 Golden Globes: 1 nomination: “Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama” (Leonardo DiCaprio)

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Review: Anna Faris Saves "The Hot Chick" (Happy B'day, Anna Faris)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 8 (of 2003) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Hot Chick (2002)
Running time: 104 minutes (1 hour, 44 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for appeal for crude and sexual humor, language and drug references
DIRECTOR: Tom Brady
WRITERS: Rob Schneider and Tom Brady
PRODUCERS: Carr D'Angelo and John Schneider
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Tim Suhrstedt
EDITOR: Peck Prior
COMPOSER: John Debney

COMEDY/FANTASY/ROMANCE

Starring: Rob Schneider, Anna Faris, Matthew Lawrence, Eric Christian Olsen, Robert Davi, Rachel McAdams, Alexandra Holden, Maritza Murray, Tia Mowry, Tamara Mowry, Fay Hauser, and Jodi Long, Melora Hardin, Michael O’Keefe, and Dick Gregory with Adam Sandler

The Hot Chick is a 2002 American body-switching comedy starring Rob Schneider, Anna Faris, and Rachel McAdams. Adam Sandler served as one of the film’s executive producers and has a small role in the film for which he did not receive screen credit.

The Hot Chick seems to send you a warning from beyond the movie poster – Warning! This is really lowbrow trash! Luckily, movie is very funny, and Rob Schneider has that gift to make you look past the bad story material, the same kind of material upon which his career seems to thrive.

Jessica (Rachel McAdams) is the hot chick, the most beautiful girl in school, but also the cruelest, and she just can’t help herself when it comes to being full of herself. A pair of ancient, mystical earrings (please, don’t question it) causes her to switch bodies with Clive (Rob Schneider). So Clive’s body contains Jessica’s essence and personality, while Jessica’s body belongs to the soul of Clive, a low rent, dumb criminal.

Jessica reveals her new body to her close friend, April (Anna Faris), and, of course, April slowly comes to love Clive. Perhaps, the strangest thing is that so many come to easily accept Jessica’s predicament once it’s revealed to them. I guess it just makes for more characters to be in on the joke, more people to suffer the cruel fate of this movie’s pratfalls.

Schneider and co-writer/director Tom Brady pile the script with so many sight gags and so much gross humor, bodily functions, and sexual innuendo that there’s bound to be quite a few things to laugh at. Relentless, they don’t give the viewer enough time to focus on the holes in the plot. So what? It’s a cheap laugh. How many times do bad movies, especially this kind of cheap comedy, payoff and give make us laugh literally from its beginning to the its very ending?

Besides, I’m really in love with Anna Faris. I’d see this movie again just for her.

5 of 10
C+

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Review: "City of God" is a Stunner (Happy B'day, Fernando Meirelles)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 97 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

Cidade de Deus (2002)
English title: City of God (2003)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Brazil; Language: Portuguese
Running time: 130 minutes (2 hours, 10 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong brutal violence, sexuality, drug content and language
DIRECTORS: Fernando Meirelles with Kátia Lund
WRITERS: Bráulio Mantovani (from a novel by Paulo Lins)
PRODUCERS: Andrea Barata Ribeiro and Mauricio Andrade Ramos
CINEMATOGRAPHER: César Charlone
EDITOR: Daniel Rezende
COMPOSERS: Ed Cortês and Antonio Pinto
Academy Award nominee

CRIME with elements of drama and thriller

Starring: Alexandre Rodrigues, Leandro Firmino da Hora, Phellipe Haagensen, Douglas Silva, Jonathan Haagensen, Matheus Nachtergaele, Seu Jorge, Alice Braga, and Luis Otávio

At the 2003 Cannes Film Festival, Miramax picked up the American distribution rights to Brazilian filmmaker Fernando Meirelles’ blistering 2002 film Cidade de Deus. The film went on to earn four Academy Award nominations, including one for Meirelles’ direction although the Academy decided that his co-director Kátia Lund had not contributed anything substantial to the filmmaking narrative and did not also recognize her with a nomination.

Released under the English title City of God, the film covers a period of roughly 15 years from the late 1960 to the early 1980’s in the Cidade de Deus housing projects in Rio de Janeiro. A boy named Rocket (Luis Otávio) watches as his older brother and other neighborhood youths get involved in crime, especially the drug trade. Before long many of them, including Rocket’s brother are dead. Years later, an older Rocket (Alexandre Rodrigues) is struggling to become a news photographer, while an old associate, Li’l Ze (Leandro Firmino da Hora), rules the drug trade in most of Cidade de Deus, but he’s running up against an old rival, which leads to a long and bloody street war.

Brutal and unflinching, City of God may draw comparisons to Pulp Fiction, but the former is shot in a raw documentary style that mixes music video style editing and long contemplative shots. When I say brutal and unflinching, I mean it, although this film isn’t as hard to watch as the D-Day landing in Saving Private Ryan. Still, the violence, despair, horror, cynicism, selfishness, betrayal, and poverty are hard to take. The miracle of this darkness is that Meirelles often makes it so alluring, not in that sort of glossy Hollywood way, but in a way that could make you feel that this is real and not some movie fantasy. The thing that most impressed me is how Meirelles is so able to create a sense of impending, sudden, and brutal violence in even the most benign scenes and settings. That goes a long way into creating verisimilitude – in making the film’s setting seem so real, and the drama so visceral and potent.

Based upon a true story, this film is so unlike anything else. Hell, it’s a film where even the “heroes” are sociopath, or at least seem so. For lovers of cinema, this is a film not to be missed. Beyond opinions about the subject matter, director Meirelles’ effort is one of the top directorial feats of the last few years, in particular when one accounts for the fact that he used so many amateur actors and was still able to stay true to the drama.

9 of 10
A+

NOTES:
2004 Academy Awards: 4 nominations: “Best Director” (Fernando Meirelles), “Best Cinematography” (César Charlone), “Best Film Editing” (Daniel Rezende), and “Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay” (Bráulio Mantovani)

2003 BAFTA Awards: 1 win: “Best Editing” (Daniel Rezende); 1 nomination: “Best Film not in the English Language” (Andrea Barata Ribeiro, Mauricio Andrade Ramos, and Fernando Meirelles)

2003 Golden Globes: 1 nomination: “Best Foreign Language Film” (Brazil)

2004 Black Reel Awards: 1 win: “Black Reel Special Achievement - Foreign Film” (Miramax Films)

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Review: "Chicago" is Bold and Splash (Happy B'day, Rob Marshall)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 35 (of 2003) by Leroy Douresseaux

Chicago (2002)
Running time: 113 minutes (1 hour, 53 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for sexual content and dialogue, violence and thematic elements
DIRECTOR: Rob Marshall
WRITER: Bill Condon (based upon the play by Maurine Dallas Watkins and the musical by Bob Fosse and Fred Ebb)
PRODUCER: Martin Richards
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Dion Beebe (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Martin Walsh
COMPOSER: Danny Elfman
2003 Academy Award winner

MUSICAL/CRIME/DRAMA with elements of comedy

Starring: Renée Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Richard Gere, Queen Latifah, John C. Reilly, Lucy Liu, Taye Diggs, Colm Feore, Christine Baranski, Dominic West, and Mya

Adulterous Roxie Hart (Renee Zellweger) kills her lover after he boldly admits lying to her and stringing her along. Velma Kelly (Catherine Zeta-Jones) kills her song and dance partner sister and her own husband when she catches them knocking boots. Both end up in the same dark and dank prison awaiting trial, clients of William “Billy” Flynn (Richard Gere), a flamboyant lawyer who specializes in representing gals who’ve killed their husbands and lovers. Under the tutelage of Matron “Mama” Morton (Queen Latifah), the girls struggle to escape the gallows for their crimes and strive for fame in scandal laden 1920’s Chicago.

Yes, it’s good, damn good. Director/choreographer Rob Marshall’s Chicago, a film version of the famed musical, is a thoroughly enjoyable and invigorating film spectacle. If this and Moulin Rouge! represent what the return of film musicals will look like, we are in for a treat. Marshall choreographed “Annie” and “Rodger and Hammerstein’s Cinderella” for television. In his film, he creates lavish and electrical dance scenes of the musical’s songs and integrates them with the dark and gritty world of 20’s Chicago. The colorful staged renditions of the songs flit back and forth showing us the idealized worlds of the characters, juxtaposed against the brutal frankness of their real world. The dance numbers are stirring and attention grabbing, as visually attractive as anything on MTV.

Screenwriter Bill Condon, who won an Academy Award for writing his film Gods and Monsters, does an excellent job composing a story that can compete with the energy and electricity of the songs. That’s no easy feat. Condon had to structure the story so that we would be as interested in it as we were thrilled by the songs. Chicago’s central story is rife with engaging tension and conflict and with characters we can support along every step of their treacherous journey.

Can Ms. Zellweger, Ms. Zeta-Jones, and Mr. Gere sing and dance? The answer is a resounding “yes!” Seeing them in the staged numbers and in the story scenes is like watching six different performers. I had a hard time believing the actors and singer/dancers were the same people; I know these performers and to see them pull off these performances is a revelation. I didn’t know Gere had it in him. It’s simply stunning and worth every minute of your time to watch.

The supporting performances are quite nice. Queen Latifah’s presence asserts itself strongly on the film; it often seems as if Mama is the puppeteer backstage directing events. Taye Diggs adds a sense of style to the film, and John C. Reilly quietly adds a sense of innocence and moral dignity to a story of people ready to grab fame at any costs.

Chicago, like Moulin Rouge!, is not like your average film. In fact, it’s very different from most quality and “serious” films. Like a good drama, it’s thoughtful; like the best action movies, it’s quite explosive. Chicago is a dream work, a film that is as visually rambunctious as the best music videos, but with the strong story and characters that you can take to heart – a must see movie.

8 of 10
A

NOTES:
2003 Academy Awards: 6 wins: “Best Picture” (Martin Richards), “Best Actress in a Supporting Role” (Catherine Zeta-Jones), “Best Art Direction-Set Decoration” (John Myhre-art director and Gordon Sim-set decorator), “Best Costume Design” (Colleen Atwood), “Best Film Editing” (Martin Walsh), and “Best Sound” (Michael Minkler, Dominick Tavella, and David Lee); 6 nominations: “Best Actor in a Supporting Role” (John C. Reilly), “Best Actress in a Leading Role” (Renée Zellweger), “Best Actress in a Supporting Role” (Queen Latifah), “Best Cinematography” (Dion Beebe), “Best Director” (Rob Marshall), “Best Music, Original Song” (John Kander-music and Fred Ebb-lyrics for the song "I Move On"), and “Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay” (Bill Condon)

2003 BAFTA Awards: 2 wins: “Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role” (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and “Best Sound” (Michael Minkler, Dominick Tavella, David Lee, and Maurice Schell); 10 nominations: “Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music” (Danny Elfman, John Kander, and Fred Ebb), “Best Cinematography” (Dion Beebe), “Best Costume Design” (Colleen Atwood), “Best Editing” (Martin Walsh), “Best Film” (Martin Richards), “Best Make Up/Hair” (Jordan Samuel and Judi Cooper-Sealy), “Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role” (Renée Zellweger), “Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role” (Queen Latifah), “Best Production Design” (John Myhre), and “David Lean Award for Direction” (Rob Marshall)

2003 Golden Globes: 3 wins: “Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy” (Martin Richards), “Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy” (Richard Gere), and “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy” (Renée Zellweger); 5 nominations: “Best Director - Motion Picture” (Rob Marshall), “Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture” (John C. Reilly), “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy” (Catherine Zeta-Jones), “Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture” (Queen Latifah), and “Best Screenplay - Motion Picture” (Bill Condon)

2003 Black Reel Awards: 1 win: “Theatrical - Best Supporting Actress” (Queen Latifah)

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Review: Robert De Niro Leads a Cool Band of Men in "Ronin"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 7 (of 2002) by Leroy Douresseaux

Ronin (1998)
Running time: 122 minutes (2 hours, 2 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong violence and some language
DIRECTOR: John Frankenheimer
WRITER: J. D. Zeik and Richard Weisz (David Mamet), from a story by J.D. Zeik
PRODUCER: Frank Mancuso Jr.
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Robert Fraisse (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Tony Gibbs
COMPOSER: Elia Cmiral

ACTION/DRAMA/THRILLER

Starring: Robert DeNiro, Jean Reno, Natascha McElhone, Stellan Skarsgård, Sean Bean, Skipp Sudduth, Michael Lonsdale, Jan Triska, and Jonathan Pryce

Deirdre (Natascha McElhone), a mysterious Irish woman, gathers a team of freelance intelligence operatives to steal an even more mysterious metal suitcase. After her group successfully obtains the package, one of its operatives, Gregor (Stellan Skarsgard, Good Will Hunting), double crosses the others and steals the suitcase for himself. The mission goes awry, and Gregor’s treachery promptly throws the entire situation into confusion. Possible IRA (Irish Republican Army) renegades and ex-KGB (the former Soviet Union’s political police) also seek the case, and it becomes almost every man for himself.

In feudal Japan, ronin were samurai without masters, and a samurai’s purpose in life was to serve and to protect his master’s life with his own if necessary. Because of the strict Confucian caste system of the time, ronin could not get other work as merchants or as farmers, so they became hired guns. The characters in this film are, in a sense, ronin, people involved in the intelligence and espionage community who no longer serve a higher organization and are own their own. Or at least, they appear that way.

Robert De Niro is the Sam, ex-CIA, who from the moment he appears is the most savvy, the most intelligent, the straightest arrow, and the most vicious of the ronin when he has to be. De Niro is an electric presence on the screen and dominates this picture. He is the hero by which we ensure our safety, as we vicariously join this ride. Jean Reno is the sympathetic Vincent, a voice of reason and calm next to De Niro’s smoldering Sam. Vincent is a comforting presence in the rough and tumble espionage world of this movie, and he is the perfect partner for Sam.

Directed by veteran filmmaker John Frankenheimer (The Manchurian Candidate) makes Ronin a taught, adult thriller sans lots of special effects and eye candy. It’s a thinking man’s action movie – a drama and suspense thriller with action scenes. From the initial meeting of the operatives, an aborted arms deal, the staging and acquisition of the suitcase to a chase through the streets of Paris and the resolution, this is a thrill ride with both adrenaline and intelligence. The pacing of this film is a testament to the filmmaking skill of an under appreciated director.

J. D. Zeik’s story (with work by David Mamet under a pseudonym) is a gem. Smart adult action movies, thrillers, and suspense films are rare. Both writers understand the importance of plot, story, setting, and character as the lynchpins, while so many other movies hang the structure of their films on SFX and the pretty faces of new, hot, young faces.

With a veteran cast that also includes Jonathan Pryce and Sean Bean, Ronin is the joy ride that mature moviegoers need between the critical favorite dramas and the blockbuster trash. At the end the film, enough of this good cast is left alive for a sequel, one of the few times an action drama is worthy of having one.

7 of 10
A-

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Review: "Queen of the Damned" is a Mere Curiosity Piece (Remembering Aaliyah)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 175 (of 2003) by Leroy Douresseaux

Queen of the Damned (2002)
Running time: 101 minutes (1 hour, 41 minutes)
MPAA – R for vampire violence
DIRECTOR: Michael Rymer
WRITERS: Scott Abbott and Michael Petroni (based on The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice)
PRODUCER: Jorge Saralegui
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Ian Baker
EDITOR: Dany Cooper
COMPOSERS: Jonathan Davis and Richard Gibbs

HORROR/FANTASY/MUSIC

Starring: Stuart Townsend, Aaliyah, Marguerite Moreau, Vincent Perez, Paul McGann, and Lena Olin

Some may remember the furor and excitement over the unintentionally campy costume drama, quasi horror/fantasy, vampire movie, Interview with a Vampire, based upon the Anne Rice novel of the same title. Released in 1994, it featured Tom Cruise miscast as one half of a vampire duo with Brad Pitt, who wasn’t as miscast, as the other half. At the time, I liked Interview with a Vampire, but I have never been able to watch the film in its entirety since then.

Now comes a sequel of sorts – Queen of the Damned. This 2002 horror film is an adaptation of the third novel in author Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles, The Queen of the Damned, with some plot elements from the second book in the series, The Vampire Lestat. While the first film had its controversy, Queen of the Damned is mostly remembered because it is the last screen appearance of R&B singer and actress, Aaliyah Dana Haughton, best known simply as Aaliyah.

In this film, sexy Stuart Townsend replaces Cruise as the vampire Lestat. Queen of the Damned also depicts Lestat’s rebirth as a vampire (which had been hinted at in the first film) at the hands of a noble dilettante vampire named Marius (Vincent Perez). Marius also possesses the (un)earthly remains of the King and Queen of Vampires (they’re frozen like alabaster statues). Lestat arouses the Queen, Akasha (Aaliyah), from her slumber and that panics Marius. The nobleman takes the remains before Akasha is fully revived and disappears, leaving Lestat alone. This is told in flashback.

The film really begins centuries later, as the sounds of rock music awaken the despondent Lestat, who eventually joins a band of Goth rockers. Still feeling very lonely, Lestat deliberately commits one of the greatest sins a vampire can commit against his kind; he goes public with his vampirism. Marius, who had been secretly following Lestat since he’d abandoned his apprentice, reappears to warn his “child.” However, Lestat’s rock star fame has earned him a death sentence from several vampires who want to destroy him for going public. Worst of all, Akasha finally awakens completely. She has her eyes on Lestat as her royal consort, but she also wants to destroy humanity again, as she did during her first reign.

Queen of the Damned is an occasionally delightful horror film with a heavy fantasy atmosphere, but it also has an equally heavy campy atmosphere. Still, I found it to be an oddly fascinating monster movie. The script is weak, and all the characters are little more than fancy and stylish ciphers. Like its predecessor, Interview with a Vampire, Queen of the Damned manages to have a peculiar kind realism or verisimilitude, as if the world of this movie could actually exist. Director Michael Rymer does a good job grounding this film in reality, which it makes the film’s more fantastic elements really stand out.

A really nice extra from this film is that Jonathan Davis, leader singer of the rock band Korn, and film composer Richard Gibbs provide some nice music and songs for Lestat’s rock band. Davis even sings the songs in the film, but contractual difficulties forced others to sing the songs for the film’s soundtrack CD release. The music adds a nice touch to this campy movie, which is worth seeing when you’re hungry for trash and laughs. I’ll remember Queen of the Damned for Aaliyah, the singer who became an actress with potential. Her beauty radiates in this film, and that makes me think more of it than I would without her.

5 of 10
C+

NOTES:
2003 Black Reel Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Film Poster”

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Review: "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" is Still Big Fun

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 30 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux

My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002)
Running time: 95 minutes (1 hour, 35 minutes)
MPAA – PG for sensuality and language
DIRECTOR: Joel Zwick
WRITER: Nia Vardalos
PRODUCERS: Rita Wilson, Tom Hanks, and Gary Goetzman
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Jeffrey Jur
EDITOR: Mia Goldman, A.C.E.
Academy Award nominee

COMEDY/FAMILY/ROMANCE

Starring: Nia Vardalos, John Corbett, Lanie Kazan, Michael Constantine, Gia Carides, Louis Mandylor, Andrea Martin, Joey Fatone, Fiona Reed, Bruce Gray, and Ian Gomez

Toula Portokalos (Nia Vardalos) is a 30-year woman of Greek ancestry (Greek-American?); single with no prospects for marriage, she considers herself a failure, and maybe her family is only a little less hard on her. All her cousins married good Greek boys and are making lots of Greek babies.

One day, she is serving coffee in her father, Gus Portokalos’s, restaurant, Dancing Zorba’s, when she sees and is attracted to the ultimate unavailable guy, Ian Miller (John Corbett; remember him from Northern Exposure, the DJ?), but she is afraid to engage him. Later, Toula resolves to change her life. She enters college, gives herself a makeover, and drops her coke-bottle glasses for contact lenses. Eventually, Ian reenters her life and they engage to marry, but her family, in particularly her father, is not big on the idea of her marrying a non-Greek. However, when the wedding is a go and everyone has more or less accepted it, Toula is headed for a big fat Greek wedding.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding was a shocker hit starting in Spring 2002 all the way through the summer. Every weekend, its box office take was nothing spectacular, but it was large and steady. The film also reportedly appealed to older people who rarely go to the movies, and just from my experience, “those people” really liked the film. It is currently the highest-grossing film never to have hit number one at the box office.

The film is seen as a story of clashing cultures, but it’s really about Toula’s clash with her ethnic background and culture and her generational differences with her father, Gus. There is a real edge to the tension between Toula and Gus, although neither actor gives a standout performance; they are, however, good enough to make this motor go. Some of the cultural clashes and aspects of Greek or Greco-American culture on display are utterly hilarious. Some of it is not funny, and some of it is simply overkill. The script is clunky that way, and it badly short shrifts Ian’s parents, Harriet and Rodney Miller (ably played by Fiona Reid and Bruce Gray); more of them would have added balance and sharpness to the scenes in the film that deal with Anglo and Greek clashes.

Vardalos earned an Oscar nomination for her screenplay, a bit of overkill, but what Vardalos and the director get right is atmosphere and realness. There’s a truth to My Big Fat Greek Wedding that crosses ethnic and so-called racial lines, making it a universal fairy tale that anyone with a big family and nosey relatives will enjoy. You might even find yourself shaking your head in agreement.

7 of 10
B+

NOTES:
2003 Academy Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Writing, Original Screenplay” (Nia Vardalos)

2003 Golden Globes: 2 nominations: “Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy” and “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy” (Nia Vardalos)

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Spielberg Tries Visionary Take on Philip K. Dick's "Minority Report"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 24 (of 2003) by Leroy Douresseaux

Minority Report (2002)
Running time: 145 minutes (2 hours, 25 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for violence, brief language, some sexuality and drug content
DIRECTOR: Steven Spielberg
WRITERS: Scott Frank and Jon Cohen (based upon a short story by Philip K. Dick)
PRODUCERS: Jan De Bont, Bonnie Curtis, Gerald R. Molen, and Walter F. Parkes
CINEMAPHOTOGRAPHER: Janusz Kaminski
EDITOR: Michael Kahn
COMPOSER: John Williams
Academy Award nominee

SCI-FI/ACTION/MYSTERY/THRILLER with elements of drama

Starring: Tom Cruise, Colin Farrell, Samantha Morton, Max von Sydow, Lois Smith, Peter Stormare, Tim Blake Nelson, and Anna Marie Horsford

When I saw director Steven Spielberg’s film, Minority Report, I realized that I was seeing a work by the man who directed Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Raiders of the Lost Ark when he was younger. This film is fun, inventive, and quite exciting, just like the aforementioned. This isn’t the work of the oh-so-serious director of such allegedly adult fare as Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan, important films by a grown up director. In fact, Minority Report maintains it exuberance, unlike the fantastic A.I. Artificial Intelligence, which loses steam at the end.

In the year 2050, a Pre-Crime Unit arrests people for murders they will commit, but haven’t yet done so. “Precogs,” humans with the ability to see into the future predict the crime and through a series of high tech machines show it to officers in the Pre-Crime Unit. The officers sweep in and arrest the would-be murderer before he murders. One day, the precogs see a murder committed by the unit’s best officer, John Anderton (Tom Cruise). Determined to prove his innocence, John has to avoid the clutches of his comrades in arms and an ambitious federal agent (Colin Farrell) who are determined to bring him in before he murders his intended victim, a man Anderton doesn’t even know exists.

Visually, Minority Report gives you an eyeful of gadgets and future tech, and a view of a future world. At times, it’s a bit jumbled; some of the ideas about the future seem dead on – rampant, out of control, targeted advertising and public monitoring of civilians; other ideas seem a bit much – the highway system for one. However, when Spielberg puts it all together it makes for a delightful futuristic gumbo of action, thriller, and crime drama.

The script is very good. It’s an engaging story, one of those professional jobs that tie everything together because most of the major film players are related by their fictional pasts. It makes for a good murder mystery, and the execution keeps the mind humming. Although the visuals are sometimes over the top, the story is quite subtle in delivering its philosophical and social viewpoints. It’s smart eye candy.

Watching this film, I get the idea that Spielberg is absorbing some of famed director Stanley Kubrick’s style. The film occasionally has Kubrick’s cool intellectual detachment, which Spielberg showed in A.I., but Spielberg remains true to himself. He knows how to manipulate an audience. He can still control your emotions and keep the heart pumping and the mind attentive. That’s good because it means he still has the magician’s touch he’ll need for the next Indy movie.

I certainly enjoyed Minority Report. It’s an excellent science fiction film, the kind that relates not only to a probably future, but also to how humans might live in that future. And like the best sci-fi, this film makes a subtle connection to our present lives. This is good work, the most thoughtful SF since The Matrix.

8 of 10
A

NOTES:
2003 Academy Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Sound Editing” (Richard Hymns and Gary Rydstrom)

2003 BAFTA Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Achievement in Special Visual Effects” (Scott Farrar, Michael Lantieri, Nathan McGuinness, and Henry LaBounta)

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Review: "Blade II" is Still Too Legit to Quit (Happy B'day, Wesley Snipes)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 26 (of 2002) by Leroy Douresseaux

Blade II (2002)
Running time: 117 minutes (1 hour, 57 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong pervasive violence, language, some drug use and sexual content
DIRECTOR: Guillermo del Toro
WRITER: David S. Goyer (Blade based upon the character created by Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan)
PRODUCERS: Peter Frankfurt, Patrick J. Palmer, and Wesley Snipes
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Gabriel Beristain (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Peter Amundson
COMPOSER: Marco Beltrami

ACTION/FANTASY/HORROR/MARTIAL ARTS

Starring: Wesley Snipes, Kris Kristofferson, Ron Perlman, Leonor Varela, Norman Reedus, Thomas Kretschmann, Luke Goss, Matthew Schulze, Danny John-Jules, and Donnie Yen

The human/vampire warrior Blade (Wesley Snipes) returns to do his thing, which is hunt and destroy vampires. While in Prague, Czech Republic to rescue his old partner Whistler (Kris Kristofferson), Blade receives a summons from Damaskinos (Thomas Kretschmann), the overlord of vampires. A new breed of creatures, The Reapers, is loose, and they feed on both humans and vampires. Damaskinos has formed a vampire tactical unit dubbed the Bloodpack to hunt the Reapers, but he also wants Blade’s assistance and offers a truce. The Reapers, however, led by the powerful Nomak (Luke Goss), prove to be a formidable foe.

Directed by Guillermo del Toro (Mimic), Blade II is that rare sequel that not only surpasses the original in quality, but also manages to be very different than the original. This is primarily through the efforts of del Toro; his sense of visual style has a huge impact upon this movie, and the look is seemingly based on art rather than music videos. (Stephen Norrington, the director of Blade, was also a director of music videos). He plays with light (natural and artificial) and darkness to set mood and tone, but also to suggest character motivation and plot elements. del Toro works like a painter, and he makes Blade 2 a wild ride, but reveals a thoughtful composition behind the camera.

In fact, the art department played a huge role in the look of the film. Wayne D. Barlow, the head creature designer, is famous in science fiction and fantasy circles for his drawings of aliens. Mike Mignola, the concept artist, worked on Atlantis: The Lost Continent for Disney. Timothy Bradstreet, a comic book artist and illustrator like Mignola and like Blade 2 storyboard artist Leo Duranona, designed the vampires in this film. Bradstreet’s work, according to him, probably influenced the look of the Blade character in the first film.

The dark and decayed look of inner city Prague is absolutely beautiful and mesmerizing even in the dankest and dirtiest sections. Kudos to the art directors and set decorators; they manage to make Blade 2 one of the most gorgeous looking movies ever that used low rent sets.

The eclecticism of the cast also adds to the aura of this movie. Snipes is clearly more confident and more comfortable in his role. He dropped his monotone delivery from the first film for more effective banter this time around, and he portrays Blade throughout this film more as the bold warrior who finished off the original film than the one we first saw.

Kristofferson’s role is a little weightier this go round. Whistler has an air of mystery and intrigue about him, and every time he is on screen, there is something about him that makes you wonder about his motivations. His verbal jousts with his replacement Scud (Norman Reedus) brings a little humor to the film.

Although Kretschmann and Goss are good in their respective roles as Damaskinos and Nomak, the Bloodpack are the true supporting vampire stars. Leonor Varela as Nyssa, Damaskinos’s daughter, brings beauty and a hint of sexuality to these mostly male proceedings. Fight choreographer Donnie Yen also has a small role as Bloodpack member Snowman. Ron Perlman also does a nice turn as Reinhardt, Blade’s opposite in the Bloodpack.

Visually exciting, intriguing, and beautiful, Blade 2 is unique horror movie simply because of the way it looks. It is an exciting action movie filled with leather suits and high tech chop-socky. The CGI fights scenes are a little off in some instances, but for the most part are very good and only add to Blade 2’s exceptional look; it gives the movie the feel of being something other than just another violent action movie. The fight scene between Nyssa and Asad (Danny John-Jules of the British sci-fi television series “Red Dwarf”) against Blade, alone, is worth the price of admission because it tops anything in the first film. It stands with some of the good fight scenes found in Hong Kong movies (thanks to Donnie Yen).

Guillermo del Toro has created a special cinematic visual experience in Blade 2, which adds to the appeal of seeing his other work. Simply put, in popular parlance, Blade 2 rocks, and it is worth repeated viewings.

8 of 10
A

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Review: "Road to Perdition" is Powerful (Happy B'day, Tom Hanks)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 95 (of 2003) by Leroy Douresseaux

Road to Perdition (2002)
Running time: 117 minutes (1 hour, 57 minutes)
MPAA – R for violence and language
DIRECTOR: Sam Mendes
WRITER: David Self (from the graphic novel by Max Allan Collins and Richard Piers Rayner)
PRODUCERS: Sam Mendes, Dean Zanuck, and Richard D. Zanuck
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Conrad L. Hall (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Jill Bilcock
COMPOSER: Thomas Newman
Academy Award winner

CRIME/DRAMA

Starring: Tom Hanks, Paul Newman, Jude Law, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tyler Hoechlin, Daniel Craig, Liam Aiken, and Stanley Tucci

Almost everything about Road to Perdition is superfine, from the beautiful and evocative (to call it haunting seems trite) photography of Conrad L. Hall (for which he posthumously won an Academy Award) to the varied performances of the cast. In a broad sense, the film is about the relationships between men, specifically the father-son relationships that are made by birth or created by the bond of friendship. In a narrow sense, the film is about a boy coming to grips with loving his father despite his revulsion to his father’s profession.

The bonds of loyalty break when Michael Sullivan, Jr. (Tyler Hoechlin) witnesses a gangland killing perpetrated by his father Michael, Sr. (Tom Hanks) and Connor Rooney (Daniel Craig), the only son of his father’s boss. Daddy is a hitman/enforcer for John Rooney (Paul Newman), a mob boss. Connor initiated the brutal killings to cover his trail of deceit against his father. In a half-baked plan to cover himself, Connor kills Sullivan’s wife, Annie (Jennifer Jason Leigh), and younger son, Peter (Liam Aiken), and narrowly misses having Michael Sr. killed. Father and son Michaels take to the road while the elder Sullivan plots his revenge against Connor. That vendetta destroys the father-son relationship the Sr. had with John Rooney. To staunch the blood flow, the Chicago mob hires a talented hit man (Jude Law) to kill Sullivan and son.

Of the many quality elements that stood out in this film, the one that shined the most to me was Tom Hanks’ performance. No longer is he merely an actor, he is an artist: creating, communicating, and storytelling. In a way, his performance becomes symbolic of the character type for which he plays. Sullivan, Sr. isn’t a saint. He is, we must painfully admit, an evil man, who loves nevertheless loves his family and loyalty in that order. When his family is wrecked, his loyalty disintegrates, and all that he has left to love is his boy. Their time “on the run” is time best used to revealing that love to his son. This isn’t the script telling us that; it’s Hanks’ performance told through his facial expressions and in the tenor of his voice. Although the son is the film’s narrator, this is a story about his father and how the son comes to separate the man that is his father from the man who can be a cold, merciless killer.

This is a high quality Hollywood production that doesn’t break the rules. In fact, although Hanks is ostensibly a villain, the filmmakers quietly downplay his wickedness. The script is good, but relies on the audience’s familiarity with father-son relationships, stories about loyalty and betrayal, as well as viewers having an understanding how crime organizations work, at least from a Hollywood point of view. In Road to Perdition, we watch a talented director (Sam Mendes) work his actors (Paul Newman also turns in an excellent pathos-filled performance.) into making the familiar seem special, and that in itself is an accomplishment.

8 of 10
A

NOTES:
2003 Academy Awards: 1 win: “Best Cinematography” (Conrad L. Hall: Nomination and award were posthumous. His son Conrad W. Hall accepted the award on his behalf.); 5 nominations: “Best Actor in a Supporting Role” (Paul Newman), “Best Art Direction-Set Decoration” (Dennis Gassner-art director and Nancy Haigh-set decorator), “Best Music, Original Score” (Thomas Newman), “Best Sound” (Scott Millan, Bob Beemer, and John Pritchett) “Best Sound Editing” (Scott Hecker)

2003 BAFTA Awards: 2 wins: “Best Cinematography” (Conrad L. Hall: Posthumously) and “Best Production Design” (Dennis Gassner); 1 nomination: “Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role” (Paul Newman)

2003 Golden Globes: 1 nomination: “Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture” (Paul Newman)

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