Review: Phoenix is the Man in Woody Allen's "IRRATIONAL MAN"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 51 of 2023 (No. 1940) by Leroy Douresseaux

Irrational Man (2015)

Running time:  95 minutes (1 hour, 35 minutes)

MPAA –  R for some language and sexual content

WRITER/DIRECTOR:  Woody Allen

PRODUCERS:  Letty Aronson, Stephen Tenenbaum, and Edward Walson

CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Darius Khondji

EDITOR:  Alisa Lepselter

COMEDY/DRAMA/MYSTERY/ROMANCE

Starring:  Joaquin Phoenix, Emma Stone, Parker Posey, Joe Stapleton, Nancy Carroll, Betsy Aidem, Ethan Phillips, Jamie Blackley, Nancy Giles, and Tom Kemp

Irrational Man is a 2015 comedy-drama, romance, and mystery film written and directed by Woody Allen.  The film focuses on a college professor who finds the will to live after committing the act of murder and the young student who falls deeply in love with him.

Philosophy professor Abe Lucas (Joaquin Phoenix) arrives in Newport, Rhode Island with some acclaim.  He joins the faculty of (fictional) Braylin College where he will teach “ethical strategies.”  Abe is depressed, is experiencing an existential crisis, and sees no meaning in his life.  He drinks excessively and considers suicide.

Despite his tormented state, Abe catches the attention of two women.  The first is chemistry professor, Rita Richards (Parker Posey), and the second is Jill Pollard (Emma Stone), one of his students.  Each is crazy about him in her own way.  Abe's relationship with the two really goes nowhere … at first.

Abe hatches the idea of murdering Judge Thomas Augustus Spangler (Tom Kemp), an unethical family court judge who is plotting to take the custody of her children away from a woman.  Plotting and committing murder has given Abe's life a sense of purpose that he has not felt in ages.  For various reasons, however, both Rita and Jill suspect Abe of Judge Spangler's murder.

Coup de chance, the film Woody Allen says will likely be his final directorial effort, was released in France in September (2023).  Because of the controversies surrounding Allen the last few decades, especially the last five years, the film may not get a U.S. theatrical release.  In anticipation of seeing Coup de chance, I have decided to watch the recent Woody Allen films that I missed, beginning with the most recent that I had not seen, Irrational Man.

Some of Woody Allen's films have previously focused on a lead character who is involved in murder or commits murder.  Examples include Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) and Match Point (2005).  Having murder as subplot gives Allen's films an edge they don't normally have.  Irrational Man seems to drift with no purpose until Abe Lucas actually commits murder, and suddenly this film seems like a totally different movie from what it was during its first half.  Frankly, Irrational Man seems to be asleep for at least half its runtime.

I find myself entirely sympathetic with Phoenix's Abe Lucas.  Of course, I would feel differently if this were a real murder victim that was friends or family to me.  As it is, I find myself really liking the post-crime Abe Lucas, and I found his later, darker turn to be a bit alluring.

Phoenix gives life to a character that Allen does not develop very well.  As the narrative moves towards its conclusion, Phoenix makes Abe feel richer, and the character might have improved even more with a longer runtime, more because of what Phoenix would do rather than what Allen would not.  Emma Stone is whiny and unlikable as Jill Pollard, but Parker Posey makes the best of horny Rita Richards.  I wish Rita had more screen time.

Irrational Man is strictly for Woody Allen fans, although Phoenix is the one who saves this film and uplifts it.  So Joaquin Phoenix fans may find something in Irrational Man to like, also.

6 of 10

B

★★★ out of 4 stars

Wednesday, December 6, 2023

The text is copyright © 2023 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site or blog for syndication rights and fees.

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Amazon Studios to Release Upcoming Woody Allen Movie

Woody Allen’s Upcoming Untitled Film Acquired by Amazon Studios

The romantic comedy, starring Jeannie Berlin, Steve Carell, Jesse Eisenberg, Blake Lively, Parker Posey, Kristen Stewart, Corey Stoll and Ken Stott, will be released theatrically this summer

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--(NASDAQ:AMZN) -- Woody Allen’s latest as yet untitled feature film has been acquired for all North American rights, including theatrical and streaming, by Amazon Studios. The film, shot last summer on location in New York and Los Angeles, is a romantic comedy staged in the 1930s and stars Jeannie Berlin, Steve Carell, Jesse Eisenberg, Blake Lively, Parker Posey, Kristen Stewart, Corey Stoll, and Ken Stott.

    “We’re so proud to be in business with him for both his next film and his first ever TV series.”

Amazon will open the film this summer with a traditional, nationwide theatrical release. Following its theatrical run, it will become available exclusively to Prime members through Prime Video.

“Like all beginning relationships, there is much hope, mutual affection, and genuine goodwill -- the lawsuits come later,” said Allen.

“Woody Allen is a brilliant filmmaker,” said Roy Price, Head of Amazon Studios. “We’re so proud to be in business with him for both his next film and his first ever TV series.”

Allen is also writing and directing an untitled six-episode television series for Amazon starring himself, Elaine May, and Miley Cyrus. It is executive produced by Erika Aronson, produced by Helen Robin, and begins shooting next month.

Producers of the new film include Allen’s longtime collaborator, Letty Aronson, as well as Steve Tenenbaum and Edward Walson. Executive producers are Ronald L. Chez, Adam B. Stern, and Marc I. Stern. The deal was negotiated by John Burnham and Jessica Lacy of ICM Partners and Erika Aronson of Taborlake on behalf of the filmmakers.


About Amazon Studios
Amazon Studios launched in 2010 as a new way to develop feature films and episodic series—one that’s open to great ideas from creators and audiences around the world. Anyone can upload a script online for Amazon Studios to review, and those who choose to make their projects public can also receive feedback from the Amazon Studios community.

Amazon Studios is known for bringing Prime members the multi-Golden Globe-winning and Emmy-winning series Transparent and the multi-Golden Globe winning series Mozart in the Jungle, along with original hits like The Man in the High Castle, Red Oaks, Hand of God, Bosch and Catastrophe. Prime members also have access to a collection of Amazon Original Series for kids such as Annedroids, Gortimer Gibbon’s Life on Normal Street, Wishenpoof, and the Annecy, multi-Annie and multi-Emmy Award-winning Tumble Leaf. Coming soon will be the second seasons of Bosch and the romantic comedy Catastrophe, along with the debut season of the docu-series, The New Yorker Presents.

First announced in January 2015, Amazon Original Movies is an initiative by Amazon Studios to produce and acquire original movies for theatrical release and early window distribution exclusively for Prime members. Like Amazon Original Series, Amazon Original Movies focuses on unique stories, voices, and characters from top and up-and-coming creators. In 2015 Amazon Studios released its first film, Chi-Raq from critically acclaimed filmmaker Spike Lee. Chi-Raq is a modern day adaptation of the ancient Greek play “Lysistrata” by Aristophanes starring Nick Cannon, Wesley Snipes, Jennifer Hudson, Teyonah Parris, D.B. Sweeney, Harry Lennix, Steve Harris, Angela Bassett with John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson. Chi-Raq is now available for Prime members to stream exclusively. Next up, Amazon Studios will release director Benjamin Dickinson’s Creative Control in theaters on March 11, 2016.

Amazon Prime members have unlimited access to tens of thousands of movies and TV episodes, including Amazon Original Series and Movies at no additional cost to their membership. Prime members can instantly access the entire selection of titles available through the Amazon Video app on TVs, streaming media players, mobile devices, Amazon Fire TV, Fire TV Stick, and Fire tablets, or online at Amazon.com/amazonvideo. For a list of all Amazon Video compatible devices visit www.amazon.com/howtostream.

About Amazon
Amazon.com opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995. The company is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, and Alexa are some of the products and services pioneered by Amazon. For more information, visit www.amazon.com/about.

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Review: "A Mighty Wind" Sounds Good

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 173 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

A Mighty Wind (2003)
Running time:  91 minutes (1 hour, 31 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for sex-related humor
DIRECTOR:  Christopher Guest
WRITERS:  Eugene Levy and Christopher Guest
PRODUCER:  Karen Murphy
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Arlene-Donnelly Nelson (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Robert Leighton
Academy Award nominee

COMEDY/MUSIC

Starring:  Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, Christopher Guest, Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara, Bob Balaban, Jane Lynch, John Michael Higgins, Fred Willard, Ed Begley, Jr., Don Lake, Deborah Theaker, Larry Miller, Jennifer Coolidge, Bill Cobbs, Parker Posey, Rachael Harris, and LeShay Tomlinson

The subject of this movie review is A Mighty Wind, a 2003 comedy-drama from director Christopher Guest.  This mock documentary captures the reunion of a 1960s folk trio, as they prepare for a show to memorialize a recently deceased concert promoter.

Christopher Guest’s film A Mighty Wind is the third in his popular series of mock documentary films, or mockumentaries, as fans know them, which also include Waiting for Guffman and Best in Show.  Guest and co-stars Michael McKean and Harry Shearer were also the band in the Rob Reiner’s famous mockumentary, This is Spinal Tap.  This time the comedic trio comprises another movie group, the folk trio The Folksmen.

The neurotic and fussbudget son (the sublime Bob Balaban) of a folk music record company mogul, with some help from his siblings, organizes a reunion of three of his father’s biggest acts:  the aforementioned The Folksmen, The New Main Street Singers, and the very popular duo Mitch and Mickey.  As the groups prepare for a nationally televised show (on public TV) staged at Town Hall in New York City, old tensions and conflicts that caused breakups or hard feelings start to arise.  Will everyone have his or her act together in time to show the nation that folk music is alive and well?

Some consider this to be the least among the Guest-Levy comedies, and A Mighty Wind is often too polished and too smooth.  The documentary aspect of the film is also just window dressing; the film is better when it’s more about personal relationships and less about characters being observed by a camera.  The documentary makes the characters appear to be shallow when they’re obviously more interesting than just the surface appearance.  In the end, the players are more interesting than the film’s conceit.

However, there are times when Guest and Levy deal their wit using only the sharpest instruments of satire and farce, but the brilliance in the writing of this film is that Guest and Levy, for all the fun they poke, actually make folk music quite appealing.  The screwy, peculiar, neurotic, and sometimes wacky characters are all quite loveable.  I found myself laughing good-naturedly more than in derision at the cast.  Would that more movies were so endearing even when they skewering.

The film earned an Oscar® nomination for “Best Music, Original Song” for the fabulous and poignant “A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow,” song by Mitch and Mickey.  Guest, McKean, and Levy, however, did win a Grammy® Award in the category of “Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media” for the movie’s title track, “A Mighty Wind.”  These two songs and many others in combination with a musically talented and funny cast make A Mighty Wind a must see for viewers who want their comedy a notch above profanity and gross out.

6 of 10
B

NOTES:
2004 Academy Awards, USA:  1 nomination: “Best Music, Original Song” (Michael McKean and Annette O'Toole for the song "A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow")

Updated:  Wednesday, February 19, 2014


The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

Review: "The Sweetest Thing" is a Funny Thing (Happy B'day, Christina Applegate)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 39 (of 2002) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Sweetest Thing (2002)
Running time:  88 minutes (1 hour, 28 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong sexual content and language
DIRECTOR:  Roger Kumble
WRITER:  Nancy M. Pimental
PRODUCER:  Cathy Konrad
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Anthony B. Richmond
EDITORS:  Wendy Greene Bricmont and David Rennie
COMPOSER:  Edward Shearmur

COMEDY/ROMANCE

Starring:  Cameron Diaz, Christina Applegate, Selma Blair, Jason Bateman, Thomas Jane, James Mangold, and Parker Posey

The subject of this movie review is The Sweetest Thing, a 2002 romantic comedy and chick flick.  The film stars Cameron Diaz as a woman forced to pursue Mr. Right, after missing an opportunity the first time she meets him.  I have to say that this is one those movie that I enjoyed watching so much that it made me “feel good,” so it is a true feel good movie.

Some of her critics and embittered fellow professionals have accused Cameron Diaz of getting by on her looks.  She is a very talented actress, but I’d be lying if denied that one of the reasons I like to watch her movies because of her dazzling beauty and super fine ass.

She unleashes her talent and gorgeous body in director Roger Kumble (Cruel Intentions) and writer Nancy Pimental’s The Sweetest Thing.  Mistakenly sold has a romantic comedy, it is actually raunchy comedic romp through a fantastic vision of the millennial dating scene.  The Sweetest Thing is more in the vein of There’s Something About Mary than say Autumn in New York, and it’s easily one of the funniest movies I’ve seen since Mary.  Some of the credit has to go to Kumble’s sense of timing, important for someone who directs comedy, especially something as farcical as this, and especially Ms. Pimental, who was a series writer for television’s “South Park,” of which The Sweetest Thing shares a sense of over-the-top, gross out comedy.

Cameron Diaz plays the lead character, Christina Walker, simultaneously with bold confidence and sexual power juxtaposed with a painful lack of confidence and romantic confusion.  By doing this, Ms. Diaz makes Walker human; without that she’d merely be a raunchy boob worthy of a few belly laughs.  She can pull it off because she’s so beautiful and likeable.  The cold truth of the matter is that, while art depicts any number of topics, ideas, and subjects, it often executes that depiction in an idealized form.  Artist paint good looking people; even the ugly subjects are stylized ugly.  Pretty people look good on the big screen, and, frankly, many of us would simply think of Christina Walker as a trailer trash ‘ho if she wasn’t played by someone as attractive as Ms. Diaz.  Her looks make us give a pass to some of the unsavory aspects of Christina’s character.

Sadly, the script doesn’t do justice to Christina’s sidekicks:  divorce lawyer Courtney Rockcliffe (Christina Applegate) and the recently dumped Jane Burns (Selma Blair, Legally Blonde).  Courtney starts off with such promise.  She’s a funny partner in crime, but, by the end of the film, she’s reduced to being in scenes merely to feel sorry for her friend.  The breakup of Jane’s romance is the element that begins the film’s story.  Ms. Pimental ignores Jane’s plight and turns her into pincushion for crude sex scenes – hilarious, but still crude.

Reservations aside, The Sweetest Thing is just too funny not to see.  It would take a lot of laughs to make me ignore the fact that the filmmakers throw the story and characterization out the window in favor of raw humor, and, by Jove, the movie has that many laughs and more.

7 of 10
A-

Updated:  Monday, November 25, 2013

The text is copyright © 2013 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for syndication rights and fees.

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Review: "Blade: Trinity" is An Average End to a Special Franchise (Happy B'day, Wesley Snipes)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 240 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

Blade: Trinity (2004)
Running time: 105 minutes (1 hour, 45 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong pervasive violence and language, and some sexual content
DIRECTOR:  David S. Goyer
WRITER:  David S. Goyer (based upon characters by Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan)
PRODUCERS:  Wesley Snipes, Peter Frankfurt, Lynn Harris, and David S. Goyer
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Gabriel Beristain
EDITORS:  Conrad Smart and Howard E. Smith
COMPOSERS:  Ramin Djawadi and The RZA

ACTION/HORROR/FANTASY

Starring:  Wesley Snipes, Kris Kristofferson, Ryan Reynolds, Jessica Biel, Parker Posey, Cascy Beddow, Dominic Purcell, Triple H (Paul Michael Levesque), Natasha Lyonne, Eric Bogosian, Vitaly Kravchenko, James Remar, and Patton Oswalt

The subject of this movie review is Blade: Trinity, a 2004 vampire horror and superhero action movie from writer-director David S. Goyer.  It is the third and final movie in the Blade film series produced by New Line Cinema.  Blade: Trinity finds Blade a wanted man by the FBI and forced to unite with a band of vampire hunters called the Nightstalkers in order to battle his most challenging opponent ever, Dracula.

Early in Blade: Trinity, a group of vampires by led nasty girl vamp princess, Danica Talos (Parker Posey), awakens the original vampire, Dracula (Dominic Purcell), who is buried deep within a pyramid in Iraq.  Apparently, the vampires are desperate to rid themselves of their mortal enemy, the vampire hunter, Blade (Wesley Snipes), aka the Daywalker, and hope Dracula, who goes by the name Drake, will defeat Blade.  Meanwhile, Danica and her crew have also set Blade up so that he mistakenly kills a human he thinks is a vampire.  The murder sets the corrupt police and media against him.  The FBI track Blade to his new lair and launch an attack.  During the strike, Blade’s mentor, father figure, and weapons creator, Abraham Whistler (Kris Kristofferson), is killed, and the FBI captures Blade.

Enter The Nightstalkers, a group of human vampire hunters, Blade never knew existed.  One of them is Abigail Whistler (Jessica Biel), Abraham Whistler’s out-of-wedlock daughter, and she is an ass-kicking, bow-hunting babe who doesn’t flinch from going toe to toe with bloodsuckers.  Add a third partner to Blade and Abigail, and you have a trinity.  The third player is the buff, wise-cracking Hannibal King (Ryan Reynolds), who was once turned into a vampire, and later cured by Abigail.  Together, the trio must hunt down Drake and his vampire cabal and stop them from implementing the vampire final solution against humanity.

Blade: Trinity is the least in terms of quality of the three Blade films, but it still manages to be a thrill (sometimes).  Writer/director David S. Goyer (who also wrote the screenplays for the previous Blade films) and cinematographer Gabriel Beristain (who also shot Blade II) were also determined to make this film look different from the previous two.  Blade: Trinity looks like an extended music video, but the photography has the crystal clear quality of digital video, so much so that the film looks like a television program shot in high definition.  Goyer also dropped a lot of the muddy and murky CGI that didn’t always work in Blade II.

It’s the performances that really hamper Blade: Trinity; in fact, it wouldn’t be too mean to say that the acting is atrocious.  Wesley Snipes always played Blade as stoic, with little to say except for a few lines delivered in a thuggish monotone.  However, Snipes is often too stiff, here.  He’s is too “in character,” and that keeps Blade from interacting with the other characters.  Granted Blade is a loner, but he goes overboard this time.  There are huge segments in this film in which he hardly utters more than a few grumbles.  Thankfully, towards the end of the film, he does come to life as a badass delivering the kind of lines that would fit right into a blaxtiploitation or Quentin Tarantino movie.

Ryan Reynolds really tries to liven up this film as Hannibal King, but rarely is anybody up to his challenge.  His lines are always funny, but often fall flat or are lost in the moroseness of the rest of the cast.  Jessica Biel is almost undead herself in this film, but she’s fine and pretty and moves well; that saves her performance (a little).  Parker Posey is miscast and is made up to look like an ugly, pasty-white trash, hag vampire.  Though she has a (very) few moments, she’s simply annoying.  If Dominic Purcell gets anything out of this film, it’s that he’s one of the worst and least intriguing Dracula’s in cinema history; that would include Dracula’s that have appeared in Scooby-Doo cartoons and other Hanna-Barbera animated programs.

The stiff (non) acting is what makes Blade: Trinity seem so listless and clunky for about half the film’s running time – that and the fact that the vampires spend most of the time brooding and hiding in their tacky skyscraper/palace.  Blade: Trinity is as much a hunt as it is a waiting game, but the waiting is the hardest part.  The film is pretty to look at, and the film score (co-written by The RZA of The Wu-Tang Clan who also co-wrote music for Tarantino’s Kill Bill films) and soundtrack are killer.  But for all the credit I give Goyer, the film’s plot is… dumb and stretched thin, and falls apart to almost nonexistence.  At times, the film is lethargic and meanders, playing a waiting game until the final act.  Though I love Blade, even I have to admit that unless you’re a fan of the series, you can catch this one when it’s on home video.

5 of 10
B-

Update:  Wednesday, July 31, 2013

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Review: Brandon Routh Lifts "Superman Returns"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 142 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux

Superman Returns (2006)
Running time: 154 minutes (2 hours, 34 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for some intense action violence
DIRECTOR: Bryan Singer
WRITERS: Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris; from a story by Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris, and Bryan Singer (based upon the Superman characters created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster and published by DC Comics)
PRODUCER: Jon Peters, Bryan Singer, and Gilbert Adler
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Newton Thomas Sigel, A.S.C.
EDITORS: John Ottman and Elliot Graham
COMPOSER: John Ottman
Academy Award nominee

SUPERHERO/ACTION/DRAMA/SCI-FI with elements of romance

Starring: Brandon Routh, Kate Bosworth, James Marsden, Frank Langella, Eva Marie Saint, Parker Posey, Kal Penn, Sam Huntington, Tristan Lake Leabu, and Kevin Spacey

To the world at large, he disappeared five years ago, but Superman (Brandon Routh) was searching for the planet of his birth, Krypton. Now, he’s back and so is his secret identity, Clark Kent. Clark returns to the city of Metropolis, where he works as a reporter for the newspaper, the Daily Planet. He discovers that the love of his life, fellow reporter, Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth), has moved on with her life, but still holds a grudge against the man she passionately loved before he disappeared, Kent’s other identity, Superman.

Lois has child Jason White (Tristan Lake Leabu) and is engaged to Jason’s alleged father, Richard White (James Marsden), nephew of Daily Planet editor-in-chief, Perry White (Frank Langella). While Lois claims that Richard, the editor of the Planet’s international desk, is Jason’s father, the child is five years old… Once upon a time – five years ago – Lois knew that Clark was Superman (before he wiped her mind of that secret) and they had an intimate affair. Clark would like to reveal his secret once more and perhaps rekindle their love, but he can’t shake the feeling that she doesn’t really want a relationship with Superman anymore.

Meanwhile, Superman’s bitterest enemy, Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey), is out of prison and plotting both his conquest of the world and his revenge on Superman. Luthor invades Superman’s North Pole sanctum, the Fortress of Solitude, where he steals advanced technology and alien secrets from Krypton, which he in turn uses in a diabolical plan to recreate part of Krypton on earth. And if the Man of Steel interferes, he has a deadly Kryptonian item that will stop Superman once and for all.

Superman Returns is the first Superman film in 19 years (since 1987’s box office bomb, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace). Superman Returns takes place in the wake of the events of 1981’s Superman II (which saw Superman reveal his identity to Lois and the two have sexual relations). Director Bryan Singer (X-Men, X2: X-Men United, and The Usual Suspects) reuses parts of John Williams score for the 1978 film, Superman: The Movie. He also reuses parts of Marlon Brando’s performance from the original movie as Superman Kryptonian father, Jor-El. The two elements firmly connect Superman Returns with the franchise’s big budget cinematic beginnings.

Those touches are nice, but Superman Returns ends up feeling like the recent X-Men: The Last Stand, which was technically a well-made film, but had the fatal flaw of being a film in which the characters and situations were two dark or in which the characters seemed… oddly out of character. Superman Returns is also from a technical stand point very well made, and from a narrative point pretty good. Still, Bryan Singer, who not only directs the film, but also wrote the story upon which the screenplay is based, has two flaws. It’s too long and it is too obviously trying to be something important – something more than just being a movie based upon a comic book.

Singer stuffs the film with chick flick sensibilities – lots of romance, romantic entanglements, yearnings for lost love, etc. Some of it good, but it gets old after awhile. Actually it gets in the way of Superman in action, which is a bad thing because Superman is a superhero and superheroes do cool things with their powers. The film is also rife and ripe with mythic aspirations and religious symbolism. There are a few powerful speeches about Superman being Christ-like – the savior or the only son sent by powerful being (his Kryptonian father Jor-El) to Earth to help the tragically flawed humans. That’s nice, but it’s also overkill, just fluff in the way of the cool scenes of Superman being Superman.

That’s one of the good things about Superman Returns – which is that it occasionally remembers how cool Superman is, so Singer treats us to lots of scenes of him soaring over the city, through the sky, and into space. When Superman is using his powers or even if he’s just flexing his muscles (there’s a nice flashback of a young Clark Kent learning that he can run fast, leap to dizzying heights, and also levitate), Superman Returns springs to glorious life. The film also looks good, although some of the visual effects and CGI are so obviously fake that it’s painful to spot them. The score by John Ottman (who also co-edited the film) is a worthy successor to John Williams’ music in the original film.

The cast ranges from adequate to good. Kevin Spacey is cool, vicious, and sinister as Lex Luthor (because Spacey is evil). Sam Huntington has a youthful snappiness and genuine friendliness as Clark’s cub reporter pal, Jimmy Olsen. Kate Bosworth makes a decent love interest in the film, but she is wrong as Lois Lane; she just doesn’t capture the spunkiness and boldness that defines Lois Lane as the kind of reporter who can tackle any story. On the other hand, James Marsden makes Richard White more than just an add-on to the Superman mythos. While Parker Posey seemed out of place in Blade: Trinity, she fits in here as Luthor’s “girlfriend, Kitty Kowalski.

How well did Brandon Routh fill the late Christopher Reeve’s shoes as Clark Kent/Superman. He does a damn good job. Routh makes his Clark Kent a humble and gentle soul, but he shows us the secret and barely hidden fire that burns in Clark’s eyes – that which is Superman ready to burst out. Routh’s Superman is both mythic and godlike. Routh creates an otherness about Superman – a stoic savior who takes on any task without blinking and likely not a doubt in his mind. Not only is Routh as good as other actors who’ve given the best performances playing superheroes (Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne/Batman and Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker/Spider-Man), but Routh’s performance rings with truth. It’s as if the fictional Superman of the comics has sprung to life from the pages of a comic book.

I’ll give Superman Returns the provisional six out of 10 that I gave X-Men: The Last Stand, but Routh makes this colorful and brightly lit fantasy worth seeing. He puts the super and the hero in Superman Returns.

6 of 10
B

Saturday, July 1, 2006

NOTES:
2007 Academy Awards, USA: 1 nomination: “Best Achievement in Visual Effects” (Mark Stetson, Neil Corbould, Richard R. Hoover, and Jon Thum)

2007 BAFTA Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Achievement in Special Visual Effects” (Mark Stetson, Neil Corbould, Richard Hoover, and Jon Thum)

2007 Razzie Awards: 1 nomination: “Worst Supporting Actress” (Kate Bosworth)

Review: Likeable Characters Make "The OH in Ohio" (Happy B'day, Parker Posey)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 10 (of 2007) by Leroy Douresseaux

The OH in Ohio (2006)
Running time: 89 minutes (1 hour, 29 minutes)
MPAA – R for sexual content, language, and some drug content
DIRECTOR: Billy Kent
WRITERS: Adam Wierzbianski; from a story by Sarah Bird, Billy Kent, and Adam Wierzbianski
PRODUCERS: Miranda Bailey, Francey Grace, and Amy Salko Robertson
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Ramsey Nickell (director of photography)
EDITORS: Paul Bertino and Michael R. Miller
COMPOSER: Bruno Coon

COMEDY with elements of romance

Starring: Parker Posey, Paul Rudd, Mischa Barton, Miranda Bailey, Liza Minnelli, Keith David, Tim Russ, and Danny DeVito

The subject of this movie review is The OH in Ohio, a 2006 indie comedy from director Billy Kent. The film stars Parker Posey and Paul Rudd as a couple whose problems with the orgasm causes them marital strife.

Pricilla Chase (Parker Posey) has fashioned the perfect life for herself. She married her high school sweetheart, biology teacher Jack Chase (Paul Rudd), and she’s a high-powered advertising executive. Pricilla, however, has left something out of her life – her orgasm, and Jack claims that her inability to have an orgasm has ruined their marriage. While Jack goes off rediscovering his manhood with a smart young coed, Kristen Taylor (Mischa Barton), Pricilla sets off to discover self-pleasure and along the way falls for the unlikeliest lover, Wayne the Pool Guy (Danny DeVito).

The OH in Ohio is an entertaining indie film, one of those that appeals to a much wider audience than the small one that had a chance to see it during a limited theatrical run and film festival showings. Although the script is funny, the strength of the picture comes from the ability of the actors to make the most of their parts – another trait of indie flicks. Each actor takes his or her part, regardless of size, and gives it some zing and zest so that the character engages the viewer and sticks in his mind throughout the movie, even if the character only appears on screen once or twice.

Credit goes to director Billy Kent for allowing his actors to make use of their ability to take characters off the written page and embellish them. Although the leads are good, Mischa Barton as Kristen Taylor and Keith David as Coach Popovitch (hilariously blunt and randy) sparkle in support of the leads. The OH in Ohio is what many indie films are – movies defined by their quirky characters (think Little Miss Sunshine), and this is a movie for people who love characters.

6 of 10
B

Monday, January 15, 2007

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Review: Wes Craven Makes "Scream 3" Worth the Repetition

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 52 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

Scream 3 (2000)
Running time: 116 minutes (1 hour, 56 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong horror violence and language
DIRECTOR: Wes Craven
WRITER: Ehren Kruger (based upon characters created by Kevin Williamson)
PRODUCERS: Cathy Konrad, Marianne Maddalena, and Kevin Williamson
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Peter Deming
EDITOR: Patrick Lussier
COMPOSER: Marco Beltrami

HORROR/MYSTERY/THRILLER

Starring: David Arquette, Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Patrick Dempsey, Parker Posey, Scott Foley, Deon Richmond, Emily Mortimer, Lance Henriksen, Jenny McCarthy, Matt Keeslar, Patrick Warburton, Liev Schreiber, Kelly Rutherford, and Jamie Kennedy

When a series of murders are tied to Stab 3, a movie about the tragic events in her life, the most famous survivor of the Woodsboro massacre, Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), leaves her secluded residence in Northern California to visit Stab 3’s Hollywood film set. Of course, the remaining survivors of Woodsboro and of the other Woodsboro-related murders – hot tabloid TV reporter, Gail Weathers (Courteney Cox), and Woodsboro deputy, Dwight “Dewey” Riley (David Arquette), are also on the scene. But they all soon learn that in the third film of a trilogy, all the rules are thrown out the window. The killer could be anyone, and even heroes can die.

Scream 3 is supposedly the closing chapter of the Scream franchise, and it’s a pretty good send off. Ehren Kruger’s script is certainly in the heart and vein of Scream creator Kevin Williamson’s scripts for the first two films. Kruger ably captures the self-referential, meta-lite atmosphere of the earlier films, and Kruger’s is less a satire or homage to horror flicks and more itself a good horror movie.

The cast is good, and the actors really understand their parts. The players who are supposed to be campy murder victims play their parts with relish, while the leads are intense and skillful. But the true hero of Scream 3, as he was for the first two, is horrormeister Wes Craven, who may be the most successful director of horror films in the history of movie making. He’s also skillful and adept at making even the rough spots in this move work, because he helms slasher flicks with the verve of an auteur making art films.

Scream 3 is not great, but it’s scary and funny and hard to stop watching. It’s clever and witty, both in its smart moments and in its lesser scenes. Though it seems to fall apart in some scenes of its last act, the film is worth viewing for its many genuinely creepy moments that keep you on the edge of your seat.

6 of 10
B

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Review: "Dazed and Confused" Always a Winner

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 197 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

Dazed and Confused (1993)
Running time: 102 minutes (1 hour, 42 minutes)
MPAA – R for pervasive, continuous teen drug and alcohol use and very strong language
WRITER/DIRECTOR: Richard Linklater
PRODUCERS: Sean Daniel, James Jacks, and Richard Linklater
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Lee Daniel
EDITOR: Sandra Adair

COMEDY

Starring: Jason London, Rory Cochran, Sasha Jenson, Wiley Wiggins, Michelle Burke, Adam Goldberg, Anthony Rapp, Matthew McConaughey, Marissa Ribisi, Shawn Andrews, Cole Hauser, Milla Jovovich, Joey Lauren Adams, Christin Hinojosa, Ben Affleck, Jason O. Smith, Deena Martin, Parker Posey, Nicky Katt, Catherine Morris, Christine Harnos, Estaban Powell, Mark Vandermeulen, Jeremy Fox, Kim Krizan, and Rick Moser

Director Richard Linklater (Before Sunrise, The School of Rock) got the attention of a lot of young moviegoers in the mid-1990’s with his comic film, Dazed and Confused. Set during the last day of school, May 28, 1976, the film recounts the exploits of the incoming freshman class and the Class of ’77 at Lee High School, situated in a small Texas enclave. The male seniors-to-be beat the incoming freshmen with wooden paddles and the senior girls haze the incoming freshmen girls by pouring food and condiments all over them. The kids buy and smoke marijuana, buy and drink beer, make out and talk about having sex, plan parties, and listen to lots of classic early to mid-70’s rock music.

The film is very laid back, but very entertaining. It may be an acquired taste, likely popular with people who are nostalgic (those who lived it and those who only know it through media) about a kind of mid-70’s suburban idyllic, an almost pastoral setting that never really existed. However, Dazed and Confused is about an ideal, and it’s a very fine version of that ideal. The acting is so natural, and Linklater directs his cast and moves the film with such an alluringly lazy pace that suggest that this small town is a paradise or utopia.

Dazed and Confused is a tale about rites of passage and the relationship among a diverse student body of geeks, stoners, athletes, snobs, etc. with such facile grace that I wish it were real. I certainly think that every movie fan should see it at least once, especially because many may find it somewhat familiar.

7 of 10
B+

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Gregg Araki Went Straight for "The Doom Generation"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 134 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux


The Doom Generation (1995)
Running time: 85 minutes; Unrated
WRITER/DIRECTOR: Gregg Araki
PRODUCERS: Gregg Araki and Andrea Sperling
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Jim Fealy
EDITORS: Gregg Araki with Kate McGowan

COMEDY/DRAMA

Starring: James Duval, Rose McGowan, Johnathon Schaech, Cress Williams, Dustin Nguyen, Margaret Cho, Nicky Katt, Parker Posey, and Perry Farrell

Sex, mayhem, murder, and whatever are all in ample evidence in bad boy indie director Greg Araki’s film, The Doom Generation. Controversial and bold, the film is an apocalyptic vision of a dead end generation who live for whatever makes them feel something good (usually feeling good through sex, drugs, and giving others pain) at the moment.

A teen couple, Jordan White (James Duval) and Amy Blue (Rose McGowan), picks up Xavier Red (Johnathon Schaech), an adolescent drifter with a penchant for violence and kinky (or deviant as some call it) sex. Dimwitted Jordan and crystal method addict Amy save Xavier from some skinheads who are stomping his ass. Xavier returns the favor when he saves the kooky couple from a gun-wielding, Asian convenience store clerk (Dustin Nguyen) by killing the clerk. Thus begins a hellish road trip that finds the trio dishing out remorseless brutality and freefalling into nihilism, and it all leads to a sad and shattering ending.

The film is filled with shocking images, jaw-dropping sex, and uproariously deadpan dialogue that pricks up the ears. The film, however, is mostly flat. Fictional road trips are often a sign of a story that doesn’t know where it’s going or of a writer who is stalling for time while he figures out where his story is going. Still, The Doom Generation is bold and unflinching and is the perfect antidote for the staid, mind numbing, eye candy that the film industry churns out for the movie masses. Araki’s bold stokes and colorful decadence is a breath of fresh air even if the story is flat and the plot nonexistent. So boldness must count for something.

5 of 10
C+