Review: "Alice" Wastes Outstanding Supporting Cast (Happy B'day, Joe Mantegna)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 156 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux

Alice (1990)
Running time:  106 minutes (1 hour, 46 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13
WRITER/DIRECTOR:  Woody Allen
PRODUCER:  Robert Greenhut
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Carlo Di Palma, A.I.C.
EDITOR:  Susan E. Morse, A.C.E.
Academy Award nominee

COMEDY/FANTASY with elements of drama and romance

Starring:  Mia Farrow, Alec Baldwin, Blythe Danner, Judy Davis, William Hurt, Keye Luke, Joe Mantegna, Bernadette Peters, Cybill Shepherd, Gwen Verdon, Julie Kavner, Bob Balaban, and James McDaniel (cameo)

The subject of this movie review is Alice, a 1990 comedy with fantastic elements from writer-director, Woody Allen.  The film tells the story of a spoiled Manhattan housewife who re-evaluates her life after visiting a healer in Chinatown.

Alice Tate (Mia Farrow) is rich and pampered New York housewife; married 16 years to Doug Tate (William Hurt) and bored, she dreams of having an affair with Joe (Joe Mantegna), a saxophone player she meets at her children’s nursery school and to whom she is surprisingly attracted.  Besides an unhappy marriage, various physical ailments beset Alice, including a bad back.

A friend suggests she visit Chinatown and see Dr. Yang (the late Keye Luke), an acupuncturist well known among her social set.  Dr. Yang quickly realizes that Alice’s back isn’t really bad, but that she’s just unhappy, so he recommends a number of mysterious herbal potions.  The magical concoctions alternately loosen her inhibitions, turn her invisible, and allows her to see and share tender moments with long, lost love ones, including a deceased lover named Ed (Alec Baldwin).  But will all this help Alice turn her superficial life into something more meaningful?

Woody Allen’s 1990 film Alice is a small and charming lost gem.  It was his final film distributed by Orion Pictures, the studio that had released most of his output of the 1980’s.  Orion filed bankruptcy, and another studio ended up releasing the last film he’d actually shot as part of his deal with Orion, Shadows and Fog.  Alice is occasionally a madcap comic fantasy adventure full of fun and mystery, and sometimes it is a whimsical fantasy that walks a thin line between broad comedy and poignant drama.

Although the film has some good performances, in particular the late Keye Luke as the movie’s philosophical center, Dr. Yang, Alice is about… well, Alice.  The narrative meanders when Alice meanders about the state of affairs in her life.  When she is overly emotional, the film becomes shrill.  When she’s happy, the film radiates vibrantly like the lush colors of the autumnal New York City in which she lives.  When Alice is sad, the film is dark and distressing, so the viewer can really share her discomfort.  Ms. Farrow’s gives a good performance, which epitomizes why Mia Farrow worked so well as a female stand in for Woody Allen in his films.

Alice will please fans of Woody Allen’s films, but people not familiar with his style will find their patience short with it.  The simply, beautiful cinematography that turns NYC in the fall season into a series of impressionist paintings.  The gorgeous Manhattan apartments, restaurants, and handsome outdoor locales are glorious eye candy for anyone who loves to look at pretty movies.  Sometimes, Alice drags, but the dialogue is smart and snarky dialogue.  There are sparkling musical numbers (Allen often chooses early to mid-century big band, jazz, and swing as the soundtrack to his movies).  The cast is all too happy to bury themselves into the character rolls for which Allen has chosen them – all the usual Woody fare.  Still, Alice is bit too much about Alice, and except for Keye Luke’s Dr. Yang, the rest of the cast is full of underutilized characters.  That’s a shame, and that leaves Alice short of being on the list Woody’s best work.

7 of 10
B+

NOTES:
1991 Academy Awards:  1 nomination for “Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen” (Woody Allen)

1991 Golden Globes:  1 nomination for “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Comedy/Musical (Mia Farrow)

Sunday, October 16, 2005

Updated:  Wednesday, November 13, 2013

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

56 Become 10 for 2013 Best Animated Short Oscar

10 Animated Shorts Advance in 2013 Oscar® Race

BEVERLY HILLS, CA —The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that 10 animated short films will advance in the voting process for the 86th Academy Awards®. Fifty-six pictures had originally qualified in the category.

The 10 films are listed below in alphabetical order by title, with their production companies:

“Feral,” Daniel Sousa, director, and Dan Golden, music and sound design (Daniel Sousa)

“Get a Horse!” Lauren MacMullan, director, and Dorothy McKim, producer (Walt Disney Feature Animation)

“Gloria Victoria,” Theodore Ushev, director (National Film Board of Canada)

“Hollow Land,” Uri Kranot and Michelle Kranot, directors (Dansk Tegnefilm, Les Films de l’Arlequin and the National Film Board of Canada)

“The Missing Scarf,” Eoin Duffy, director, and Jamie Hogan, producer (Belly Creative Inc.)

“Mr. Hublot,” Laurent Witz, director, and Alexandre Espigares, co-director (Zeilt Productions)

“Possessions,” Shuhei Morita, director (Sunrise Inc.)

“Requiem for Romance,” Jonathan Ng, director (Kungfu Romance Productions Inc.)

“Room on the Broom,” Max Lang and Jan Lachauer, directors (Magic Light Pictures)

“Subconscious Password,” Chris Landreth, director (National Film Board of Canada with the participation of Seneca College Animation Arts Centre and Copperheart Entertainment)

The Academy’s Short Films and Feature Animation Branch Reviewing Committee viewed all the eligible entries for the preliminary round of voting at screenings held in New York and Los Angeles.
Short Films and Feature Animation Branch members will now select three to five nominees from among the 10 titles on the shortlist. Branch screenings will be held in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco in December.

The 86th Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Thursday, January 16, 2014, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2013 will be presented on Oscar Sunday, March 2, 2014, at the Dolby Theatre® at Hollywood & Highland Center® and televised live on the ABC Television Network. The presentation also will be televised live in more than 225 countries and territories worldwide.

Review: "The Purge" is Thrilling and Accusing

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 76 (of 2013) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Purge (2013)
Running time:  85 minutes (1 hour, 25 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong disturbing violence and some language
WRITER/DIRECTOR:  James DeMonaco
PRODUCERS:  Michael Bay, Jason Blum, Andrew Form, Bradley Fuller, and Sebastien Lemercier
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Jacques Jouffret
EDITOR:  Peter Gvozdas
COMPOSER:  Nathan Whitehead

SCI-FI/CRIME/THRILLER

Starring:  Ethan Hawke, Lena Headey, Max Burkholder, Adelaide Kane, Edwin Hodge, Rhys Wakefield, Tony Oller, Arija Bareikis, Chris Mulkey, and Tisha French

The Purge is a 2013 science fiction film and crime-thriller from writer-director James DeMonaco.  Set in the near-future, The Purge focuses on a wealthy family whose home is under siege on a night when violent crimes like murder and rape are legal and sanctioned by the American government.

The Purge is set in the United States of America in the year 2022.  Unemployment is at one percent.  Crime is at an all-time low, and violence barely exists.  How did this come to pass?  There is an event called “The Annual Purge,” when practically all criminal activity is legal.  Over a 12-hour period, Americans can rob, assault, rape, and murder each other and they will not face legal consequences.  This event, started by what the film calls America’s “New Founding Fathers,” allows Americans to purge or vent negative emotions and repressed/violent urges.

The Purge opens on March 21, 2022.  At 7 p.m. (Eastern, I presume), the Purge begins.  James Sandin (Ethan Hawke) is a wealthy home security salesman who lives in an exclusive suburb of San Francisco, California.  After adding new security features to his house, James believes that he and his family:  wife, Mary (Lena Headey); daughter, Zoey (Adelaide Kane); and son, Charlie (Max Burkholder), can sit out this year’s edition of the Purge in the safety of their heavily fortified home.  However, a complication arises, and the Sandins end up receiving uninvited guests, and some want to kill them.

Several years ago, I happened to be watching CNN during one of those sadly rare moments when a guest says something thoughtful or thought-provoking about which we should all spend time considering.  That someone (“conservative film critic,” Michael Medved, I believe) talked about how he went from being a supporter of Robert F. Kennedy to becoming a political and social conservative.  These are not his exact words, but he basically said that sometimes we (the country as a whole) has to go to war.

My question to that statement and others like it is, “But who goes to war; who is going to do the fighting?”  Over the years, I’ve run into many people who consider or call themselves Republican, conservative, libertarian, etc., who are always demanding U.S. military action/intervention, yet they themselves never volunteer for the armed services so that they can do the fighting they so vociferously demand.  During last year’s U.S. Presidential campaign, a photograph of historical footnote Mitt Romney emerged which showed a young Mitt marching in favor of the Vietnam War.  He was even carrying a sign with a pro-war slogan.  This should have been embarrassing to Romney as he had successfully used a religious exemption as a Mormon to avoid military service.  I feel safe in assuming that Mitt was not embarrassed by the revelation of the photo.

The Purge, one of the most politically astute and socially relevant science fiction films to come around in years, delves into these notions and ideals of what it means to sacrifice for one’s country and also who or what is the sacrifice.  Writer-director James DeMonaco directly and bluntly asks why the people who benefit the most from what America offers feel that they should sacrifice the least for that same country.  Why are some people expendable merely because the elites believe that they have no value?  If sacrifice is so noble and valuable, then, would a destitute nobody really be a worthy sacrifice?

I like The Purge because it can be described as the attack the wealthy, the 1 percent, the old guard families, and the moneyed elites film.  I think this film is a commentary on American warfare, both class and military.  This is science fiction that is not escapist entertainment meant to generate merchandising revenue.  This is science fiction as pertinent speculative fiction, screaming out to the cattle and herders alike.  The Purge screams out that not everyone is willing to take one for the team unless everyone is willing to take one for the team.

8 of 10
A

Sunday, November 10, 2013

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

2013 British Independent Film Award Nominations Are Announced

Prison drama "Starred Up" leads with 8 nominations.

by Amos Semien

[I must admit that I am unfamiliar with all of those nominees - editor's note]

The British Independent Film Awards were created in 1998.  This film award celebrates merit and achievement in independently funded British filmmaking, honors new film talent, and promotes British films and filmmaking to a wider public.  The awards are currently sponsored by Moët & Chandon Champagne.

The winners will be announced at the 16th awards ceremony on Sunday, December 8, 2013 at the impressive Old Billingsgate in London.

The 16th Annual Moët British Independent Film Awards nominations:

BEST BRITISH INDEPENDENT FILM
Metro Manila
Philomena
The Selfish Giant
Starred Up
Le Week-end

BEST DIRECTOR
Jon S Baird – Filth
Clio Barnard – The Selfish Giant
Sean Ellis – Metro Manila
Jonathan Glazer – Under the Skin
David Mackenzie – Starred Up

THE DOUGLAS HICKOX AWARD [BEST DEBUT DIRECTOR]
Charlie Cattrall – Titus
Tina Gharavi – I Am Nasrine
Jeremy Lovering – In Fear
Omid Nooshin – Last Passenger
Paul Wright – For Those in Peril

BEST SCREENPLAY
Jonathan Asser – Starred Up
Clio Barnard – The Selfish Giant
Steven Knight – Locke
Hanif Kureishi – Le Week-end
Jeff Pope, Steve Coogan – Philomena

BEST ACTRESS
Judi Dench – Philomena
Lindsay Duncan – Le Week-end
Scarlett Johansson – Under the Skin
Felicity Jones – The Invisible Woman
Saoirse Ronan – How I Live Now

BEST ACTOR
Jim Broadbent – Le Week-end
Steve Coogan – Philomena
Tom Hardy – Locke
Jack O'Connell – Starred Up
James McAvoy – Filth

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Siobhan Finneran – The Selfish Giant
Shirley Henderson – Filth
Imogen Poots – The Look Of Love
Kristin Scott Thomas – The Invisible Woman
Mia Wasikowska – The Double

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
John Arcilla – Metro Manila
Rupert Friend – Starred Up
Jeff Goldblum – Le Week-end
Eddie Marsan – Filth
Ben Mendelsohn – Starred Up

MOST PROMISING NEWCOMER
Harley Bird – How I Live Now
Conner Chapman / Shaun Thomas – The Selfish Giant
Caity Lotz – The Machine
Jake Macapagal – Metro Manila
Chloe Pirrie – Shell

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN PRODUCTION
Sponsored by Company3
A Field in England
Filth
Metro Manila
The Selfish Giant
Starred Up

BEST TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT
Shaheen Baig – Casting – Starred Up
Johnnie Burn – Sound Design – Under the Skin
Amy Hubbard – Casting – The Selfish Giant
Mica Levi – Music – Under the Skin
Justine Wright – Editing – Locke

BEST DOCUMENTARY
Pussy Riot - A Punk Prayer
The Great Hip Hop Hoax
The Moo Man
The Spirit of '45
The Stone Roses: Made of Stone

BEST BRITISH SHORT
L'Assenza
Dr Easy
Dylan's Room
Jonah
Z1

BEST INTERNATIONAL INDEPENDENT FILM
Blue is the Warmest Colour
Blue Jasmine
Frances Ha
The Great Beauty
Wadjda

THE RAINDANCE AWARD
Everyone’s Going to Die
The Machine
The Patrol
Sleeping Dogs
Titus


http://www.bifa.org.uk/

Review: "Flags of Our Fathers" a Haunting Look Back

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 44 (of 2007) by Leroy Douresseaux

Flags of Our Fathers (2006)
Running time:  132 minutes (2 hours, 12 minutes)
MPAA – R for sequences of graphic war violence and carnage and for language
COMPOSER/DIRECTOR:  Clint Eastwood
WRITERS:  William Broyles, Jr. and Paul Haggis (based upon the book by James Bradley with Ron Powers)
PRODUCERS:  Clint Eastwood, Steven Spielberg, and Robert Lorenz
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Tom Stern (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Joel Cox, A.C.E.
Academy Award nominee

WAR/HISTORY/DRAMA

Starring:  Ryan Phillippe, Jesse Bradford, Adam Beach, Paul Walker, Jamie Bell, Barry Pepper, John Benjamin Hickey, Robert Patrick, Neal McDonough, and Tom McCarthy

The subject of this movie review is Flags of Our Fathers, a 2006 war film from director Clint Eastwood.  The film examines the Battle of Iwo Jima during World War II and its aftermath from the point of view of American servicemen.  The film is based upon the non-fiction book, Flags of Our Fathers, from authors James Bradley and Ron Powers and first published in 2000.  Eastwood also composed the film’s score with assistance from his son, Kyle Eastwood, and Michael Stevens.

In Clint Eastwood’s film, Flags of Our Fathers, a son attempts to learn of his father’s World War II experiences by talking to the men who served with him and discovers that friendship and brotherhood meant more to the men than the war itself.

The son, James Bradley (Tom McCarthy), knows that his father, John “Doc” Bradley (Ryan Phillippe), was in the famous photograph, “Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima,” which was taken by photographer Joe Rosenthal on February 23, 1945 and which became the most memorable photograph taking during WWII (as well as winning the Pulitzer Price for photography).  The photograph depicted five Marines and one Navy Corpsman raising the American flag on Mount Suribachi on the tiny island of Iwo Jima, and “Doc” Bradley was that corpsman (medical personnel).  The battle for that tiny speck of black sand, which was barely eight square miles, would prove to be the tipping point in the Pacific campaign against the Japanese during the war.

Through the recollections of the WWII vets, the son hears harrowing tales of Iwo Jima, and for the first time learns what his father went through there.  The military later returns “Doc” Bradley and the two other surviving flag-raisers, Rene Gagnon (Jesse Bradford) and Ira Hayes (Adam Beach) to the U.S. and where they trio becomes props in the governments’ Seventh War Bond Drive.  This particular bond drive is an attempt to raise desperately needed cash to finish fighting the war.  However, Bradley, Gagnon, and Hayes are uncomfortable with their celebrity and find themselves at odds with being America’s new heroes.

Flags of Our Fathers is the first of Clint Eastwood’s unique two-film take on the war movie.  The second film, Letters from Iwo Jima, depicts the Japanese side of the war.  Flags runs hot and cool – hot when Eastwood keeps the film on Iwo Jima and cool when the flag-raisers are back in America and dealing with public situations that make them uncomfortable.  The narrative, like Billy Pilgrim, the hero of Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Slaughterhouse-Five, becomes unstuck in time, dancing back in forth in the wartime and post-war past, with an occasional foray into the present.

Flags of Our Fathers is at its best when Eastwood focuses on Iwo Jima and the veterans nightmarish flashbacks, in particularly “Doc” Bradley’s flashbacks while he’s on the bond drive tour.  He transforms the horrors of war into a taut thriller, in which the monster of violent death stalks the Marines on the battlefield.  Eastwood also makes his point at certain times with beautiful subtlety.  In one scene, Ira Hayes (played by Adam Beach who is, like Hayes, a Native American) is refused service at a restaurant because the owner “doesn’t serve Indians.”  After all of Hayes’ dedication, the routine bigotry he faces is stinging and heart-rending, and Eastwood captures that moment (and so many others where bigotry is as common as air) in an understated fashion that turns that quiet scene into a blunt object he slams into the viewer.

Flags is by no means perfect.  It lacks any great performances, and Jesse Bradford and Beach can only deliver soft performances since their characters are so thin.  “Doc” Bradley isn’t a stronger character, but Ryan Phillippe jumps between that haunted look or playing stoic, which gives Bradley more traction in the narrative.  Still, Flags of Our Fathers proves that Clint Eastwood is truly a great movie director, and that even his missteps here can’t hide this engaging look at brotherhood on the battlefield and surviving after war.

7 of 10
A-

NOTES:
2007 Academy Awards:  2 nominations: “Best achievement in sound editing” (Alan Robert Murray, Bub Asman) and “Best achievement in sound mixing” (John T. Reitz, David E. Campbell, Gregg Rudloff, and Walt Martin)

2007 Golden Globes:  1 nomination: “Best Director-Motion Picture” (Clint Eastwood)

Saturday, March 3, 2007

Updated:  Monday, November 11, 2013

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

Veterans Day 2013

Negromancer says "Thank you!"

Also, thinking about the Red Tails and the men and women of color who fought and need to hear our praise.

New "Anchorman 2" Poster Revealed

With the 70's behind him, San Diego's top rated newsman, Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell), returns to the news desk in Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues. Also back for more are Ron’s co-anchor and wife, Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate), weather man Brick Tamland (Steve Carell), man on the street Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd) and sports guy Champ Kind (David Koechner) - All of whom won’t make it easy to stay classy…while taking the country's first 24-hour news channel by storm.

Watch the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VdGI5-z_hg&feature=share&list=PLVjwdZylAT2nJXngIdTOyyg-Kvm41fime

In theaters December 20th:
Official site: http://www.anchormanmovie.com/
Official Twitter: https://twitter.com/ronburgundy
Official Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/anchormanmovie