Miscellaneous Debris: July 2010 Edition

Our end-of-the-month wrapup of reviews, news, and observations that didn’t get a full post.

Here come the dog days of summer, but it’s not a complete loss. For as blah as the summer has been so far - and it’s been a giant yawn, by and large – the coming weeks show plenty of promise. In the meantime, last weekend’s San Diego Comic-Con and the upcoming fall television season has given probably half the Internet several weeks worth of blogging and complaining fuel.

Some of our own complaints and blogging fuel are listed below. All opinions are our own, and as always they’re presented in no particular order of importance.

1. Actually, first things first: Mad Men‘s fourth season premiere was a virtuoso bit of television, as good if not better than the series’ vaunted pilot and a jump ahead in quality from the season three debut. With its characters entering the post-JFK era – some leaping, some getting pulled along by the undertow of changing times – the show seems at once re-energized and recommitted. Jon Hamm continued to bring new range and depth to Don Draper, as Matthew Weiner’s script stood the character on his handsome head, while Pete Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser) and Peggy Olson (Elisabeth Moss) finally emerged as the confident grown-ups fans have waited for them to become.

Weiner made some comments last spring that the show would only run six seasons, and it’s not hard to see this ep as the halfway point in the story’s evolution. This coming week’s episode reveals – just in time for summer – the first-ever Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce Christmas party.

2. It’s fun to get what we want. After complaining last year that we wished some former A-list leading men deserved and were due for comebacks, two of our picks have movies opening this week and next. Kevin Kline’s indie comedy The Extra Man, co-starring Paul Dano and John C. Reilly, opens in limited release this weekend. Next week’s The Other Guys, starring Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell, co-stars Michael Keaton; we’ll mention again that The Merry Gentleman, Keaton’s directing debut, remains one of our favorite films released since this blog began a couple of years ago.

In the meantime, here’s the trailer for The Extra Man:

3. Nothing came out of the San Diego Comic-Con that really amazed us, but a few things surfaced that sort of disappointed. We’ve made the case before that Joss Whedon isn’t the best choice to write or direct the upcoming Avengers movie, but now that he’s confirmed to do both we’ll give him an even chance. Mark Ruffalo (Zodiac) is a trade-up in replacing Edward Norton as the Hulk, and it’s good to see Jeremy Renner finally confirmed as Hawkeye. All the same, it’s still a bummer to hear that Avengers founding member and mainstay Hank Pym will not appear in the film. The full cast list was revealed at the convention’s panel.

For no good reason, here’s an episode of The Avengers: United They Stand cartoon from the late 90s. Actually, it’s so painfully 90′s it might as well be sporting a pair of Doc Marten’s and a Friends haircut.

4. Better late than never: we’re happy to report that The Unusuals, the exceptional police comedy-drama that Renner headlined last year, has been available on DVD for a while now. Co-starring Terry Kinney, Amber Tamblyn, Adam Goldberg and Harold Perrineau, the show mixed black humor with sometimes surreal drama and plot twists, creating something unlike anything else on network television. Naturally, it lasted just ten episodes before ABC pulled the plug. Renner immediately went on to acclaim in The Hurt Locker, so hopefully the network regrets its cancellation. Nine episodes are available for streaming on Netflix.

5. October sees the release of The Social Network, which except for its pedigree might seem cause for suspicion; still, an Aaron Sorkin script directed by David Fincher is too good to pass up, and anyway a film that’s intelligently made about current events is seldom a bad thing, if ever.

Based on Ben Mezrich’s book The Accidental Billionaires and starring Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield and Justin Timberlake, the film chronicles the rise of Facebook. By the way, please join our Facebook group.

The film opens nationwide October 1.

6. In previous installments of Miscellaneous Debris we chastised both Rescue Me and Leverage for their egregious product placement, devoting too much time to mentioning or in some cases outright singing the praises of their commercial sponsors. Happily, both shows have toned that down quite a bit in their current runs. After a hit-or-miss second season, Leverage seems to have found its legs, with each episode by and large more entertaining than the last. Meanwhile Rescue Me, though too quick once again to fall back on the Tommy Gavin (Denis Leary)-as-human-trainwreck plotlines, has returned to ideas from earlier seasons that worked well before getting abandoned. In particular, the ace comic chemistry between firefighters Sean Garrity (Steven Pasquale) and Mike Silletti (Mike Lombardi) and the reappearance of slain firefighter Jimmy Keefe (James McCaffrey) improve every episode in which they’re used.

7. Ten years ago, Ang Lee’s martial arts epic Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon caused something of a quiet sensation, re-defining how audiences (particularly sci-fi and fantasy audiences) thought about the limits and potential of the action film genre. The  film’s luxurious cinematography and eye-googling special effects, combined with a simple but moving story of revenge and deferred love, made larger Western franchises including the then-popular Matrix and Star Wars prequel trilogy seem instantly cumbersome and outdated. Subsequent imitators and similar wuxia efforts trickled through Western multiplexes for years afterward.

A Blu-Ray edition was released this month (a previous edition was available in a three-film wuxia box set), and though we haven’t seen it yet we can only imagine how Lee’s incredible vision appears in high-definition. If you haven’t seen the film, you should. If you have, it might be time to revisit it.

8.  Criterion has officially announced the Blu-Ray and two-disc DVD release of Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red Line. Set to debut September 28, Criterion’s edition includes a new digital transfer supervised by Malick, thirteen minutes of outtakes, interviews with cast members, newsreels of the actual fighting on Guadalcanal and the Solomon Islands, and audio tracks of the Melanesian chants heard throughout the film.

To reiterate what we said a couple of months ago: Upon its 1998 release the film was unfairly ignored by a public that preferred the more simplistic jingoism of Saving Private Ryan (released earlier that year) or felt leery of its sorrowful, meditative tone. Nevertheless, Malick’s eye for arresting imagery didn’t dull one bit after an almost twenty year hiatus from filmmaking; the trailer alone is more picturesque than the entirety of most films, and also more moving. 

Our annual summer hiatus runs through next week. We’ll return Tuesday, August 10 with more of what you come here for. Thanks for reading.

- Michael Kabel

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DVD Review: Clash of the Titans

Often-entertaining remake of cult favorite 80s adventure debuts on DVD, Blu-Ray tomorrow.

A  moderate hit upon its theatrical relsease this past spring, director Louis Leterrier’s (The Incredible Hulk) remake of the semi-beloved 1981 adventure will at least never be accused of pretension. Crammed with enough machismo to power a rugby league and wearing its derivations of established franchises (especially Star Wars and Transformers) on its brawny sleeves, it fearlessly deploys both state of the art CGI and hammy acting chiefly for the purpose of one-upsmanship. It’s a summer blockbuster through and through, a faithful depiction of Greek Mythology about as much as Star Wars was about family dynamics or space exploration. And it’s sometimes, maybe just often enough, entertaining for just those very reasons.

The setup is at least more complicated, this time around. After centuries of servitude, the human race has taken up arms against the gods who both protect and bully them, toppling the gods’ images and launching sieges against their aerie on Mount Olympus. The gods can’t live without mankinds’ prayers fueling their immortality, even though their chieftain Zeus (Liam Neeson) favors a wait-and-see approach to his rebellious creation. Others, like his brother Hades (Ralph Fiennes) prefer a kill-’em-all retaliation; small wonder, since as ruler of the underworld he feeds on fear and terror.

Amid this, ahem, clash, an orphaned baby is found by a kindly fisherman (Pete Postlethwaite) and raised as his own child. Nineteen years and one awkward jump in time later, the adult Perseus’ (Sam Worthington) adopted family is killed as the indirect result of anti-Zeus actions committed by soldiers from the nearby city-state of Argus. He’s taken to the Argive court, where an attack by Hades reveals his true heritage – he’s actually the son of Zeus, conceived in retaliation for a rebellious king’s (Jason Flemyng) aggression. Hades threatens to destroy the city in ten days if the Argives don’t sacrifice their noble princess Andromeda (Alexa Davalos), as punishment for their defiance and as part of a larger scheme to weaken Zeus. Encouraged by fellow demi-god Io (Gemma Arterton), Perseus agrees to lead an expedition to the distant lair of the Stygian Witches, to consult their oracular advice. In turn, this sends them to murder the gorgon Medusa, to use her head against the Kraken beast Hades will send to raze Argos.

With so much plot to cover, it’s no wonder the script by Travis Beacham, Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi rarely slows down long enough to catch its breath – or even clearly identify some of its central characters. Of the four principal soldiers who accompany Perseus, only the bitter and intense Draco (Mads Mikkelsen) is given sufficient screen time to emerge as a character in his own right; the others fall into convenient war movie types: the rookie, the older veteran smartass, the carefree guy. Two additional adventurers, hunters who volunteer only until the party reaches the underworld, receive plenty of screen time but almost no characterization at all. The special effects sequences, naturally, get all the time they want under Leterrier’s  direction, including a belabored and 3-D pandering coin skipping over the river Styx.

To the extent that they’re allowed, the supporting players inhabit their parts with gusto. Mikkelsen is effective as the embittered warrior who will smile “only once I’ve spit in the gods’ eyes.” Arterton, so fetching in her brief screen time in Quantum of Solace, is an alluring figure, while Davalos uses every second to build Andromeda up as both strong and compassionate. Neeson and Fiennes thump and bellow according to their parts; Fiennes seems to enjoy himself more, wallowing in the heavy metal album cover art of costuming. As for the film’s star, lately Worthington has drawn comparisons to Russell Crowe: they’re both Australian, and well-built, with plenty of cocky swagger. But Worthington lacks both Crowe’s intensity and his sense of reserved confidence. He’s a placeholder, but to his advantage the script requires him to do nothing much besides react to the circumstances around him with little need for dramatic initiative.

Perhaps the film’s greatest strength lies in its production design. The monsters are terrifying, the costumes layered and textured in such a way as to seem glamorous while lived-in at the same time. The city-state of Argos, ringing a mountainous cove, is a terrific bit of CGI imagery, while the gorgon and its lair are chillingly atmospheric. A glaring exception is the underworld ferryman Charon, whose flat and uninspired designs recall any number of comic book monsters and again, heavy metal album art (specifically, Iron Maiden.) It’s also sort of hard to take Zeus’ glittering silver armor with complete seriousness; at times its luster ebbs a bit, and the designs inlaid in the plating – an eagle-shaped shoulder guard – seem overwrought. Leterrier keeps the action moving, sometimes faster than necessary, other times slowing down at odd moments that stall the forward momentum that the characters need.

Online columnist Matthew Belinkie recently wondered in an excellent analysis if, thanks to the proliferation of online video and ecommerce, the time of the cult movie has ended. The original Clash of the Titans has become something of a cult perennial if not exactly a classic, well-liked but perhaps not widely adored. This remake shares with its predecessor the hammy acting and endearing special effects, yet its shortcomings of script and story keep it from developing as a complete work in its own right. Still, IMDB shows a sequel already announced, so it’s exceeded its inspiration in one respect.

- Michael Kabel

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(Note: An earlier version of this review originally appeared for the film’s theatrical release.)

Review: Inception

Christopher Nolan’s intriguing thriller is a dream come true, for better and for worse.

Inception will amaze you as long as you want to be amazed. If you’re skeptical, you’ll likely feel less so. If you start to think about its mechanics and workings for too long, it might even disappoint. It’s not a film that ages well in the days after viewing, needing your more or less unqualified complicity to really work while you’re viewing it. And like the dreams at the center of its story, logic and internal cohesion sometimes break down, and not everyone within is convincing.

Visually gorgeous and packed with suspense throughout its hefty 2 1/2 hour runtime, Christopher Nolan’s follow-up to The Dark Knight arrives in multiplexes as probably the most anticipated movie of the summer, and most people will likely be indeed wowed. Nolan reportedly worked for a decade on the script, moving it through horror and heist movie genres and refining the dream logic and its trip-wired narrative implications. The final product, as with so many of his films, is a combination of several styles and forms, and he makes them fit together seamlessly. Still, a succession of colorless performances and murky internal logic keep the film from gaining the narrative momentum of The Dark Knight or even The Prestige, Nolan’s 2006 similar examination of reality’s slippery surface. Ultimately, the new film is neither a misstep nor a leap forward.

Dominic Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) works in a vaguely suggested near-future as an “extractor,” pulling information out of his targets’ unconscious minds by invading and manipulating their dreams. When he and his cohort Arthur (Joseph Gordon Levitt) fail to extract information by Saito (Ken Watanabe), one of their assignments, they’re compelled to work for him or face the wrath of their previous employer, who its said severely punish unsuccessful operatives. Except Saito doesn’t want information withdrawn from a mind but rather planted into the head of the son (Cillian Murphy) of his business rival, the better to prevent his competitor’s incipient monopoly. This act of imbuing information – the inception of an idea - is much trickier, and one with which Cobb has a complicated and haunting history. Meanwhile, Cobb doesn’t travel into dreams alone: he carries the spectre of his dead wife Mal (Marion Cotillard), a presence that actively works against his efforts in the dreamscapes.

Cobb agrees to the assignment, in part because of Saito’s promise to help him return to the United States, where the children whose faces he literally can’t bear to imagine reside. Cobb is wanted, it seems, as a suspect in Mal’s death. Journeying instead to Paris and elsewhere, he recruits a new team consisting of a forger (Tom Hardy), a chemist (Dileep Rao), and Saito. Cobb also employs a neophyte dream “architect” named Ariadne upon the recommendation of his ex-father-in-law (Michael Caine.) Despite Arthur’s misgivings that Cobb’s guilt and fear will sabotage the mission, the team embarks into the scion’s mind, invading multiple levels of his subconscious to reach the heavily guarded area where Cobb can implant the spore of an idea.

The levels are for the most part exquisitely staged set pieces, with the final level – a snow-capped, mountaintop fortress worthy of a James Bond villain – offering particularly impressive visuals. The crumbling, tide-battered metropolis that represents the underbelly of Cobb’s own consciousness is also specatacular, as much if not more so than the folding streets profiled in the film’s marketing campaign. If only everything worked as well, or with such imagination. For as lovely as they are to look at, there’s a depressing literalism to the elements of the dreams presented: safe places in the mind are castles and fortresses, inner turmoil is depicted as roiling surf, protectors and defenses are presented as soldiers and military hardware. It’s not a bad creative strategy, per se, but it’s not a complicated or original one, either, and serves to lend an air of predictability to the film that it doesn’t deserve. Perhaps that was Nolan’s intention.

More troubling is an in media res approach to the dreamscape idea and to the explanation of its mechanics. The script offers an explanation that the technology was originally developed by the military, and its various drawbacks and pitfalls are explained and at times – such as Arthur’s weightless jaunt through a hotel – imaginatively staged. At other times, the method of presenting information as it becomes necessary for a given character to know gives the impression, somewhat inaccurately, that the script is making up the rules as it goes along. Nolan surely had all his ideas thought out in the decade leading up to the script’s completion; the invitation to wonder otherwise is distracting, and unfortunate. For the film’s many intelligent ideas to work, every idea and every detail has to make sense. This happens most of the time, but not all, and the one’s that don’t work, such as the collapsing bridges and mirrored walls, seem especially conspicuous in contrast.

The production design is nothing short of breathtaking, with interior and exterior spaces alike having a lived-in realism that contributes miles of authenticity to even the most fantastical story elements. As an example of Nolan and his production team’s persuasive savvy: Cobb and his accomplices are attached to their target’s conscious via wires that connect to the wrist, eschewing the visual need for the complicated and often unconvincing headgear featured in similar movies like Brainstorm and Strange Days. It’s a small choice, but a compelling one nevertheless.

Perhaps the biggest problem comes from a cast that most often isn’t up to the material, with DiCaprio especially lacking the dramatic muscle to bring Cobb’s character to its complete potential. Playing a man that’s a fugitive from himself, his country, and his family and who can find solace only in his nightmares, DiCaprio summons only lukewarm pathos, never letting his own box office persona become submerged within his character. Page, too, seems out of her depth as Ariadne, and somewhat lost without the zingy, snark-flavored dialogue of her earlier films. By contrast Cotillard, lovely and fragile without ever seeming weak, gives the film’s best performance. You understand why Cobb couldn’t stand her absence, even if DiCaprio can’t convey as much on his own. Murphy, Levitt, Watanabe, and Hardy are all good, if underused in favor of more face time for DiCaprio and Page.

(A smaller note about the cast: Tom Berenger makes a brief but welcome appearance as the scion’s advisor, marking something of a trend in Nolan’s films: he seems to enjoy hiring 1980s-era leading men for supporting parts, having used Rutger Hauer and Eric Roberts in earlier films. With a third Batman film in pre-production, Michael Pare and Steven Bauer should start polishing their resumes.)

Ultimately, Inception is a triumph of ambition but not of achievement; it’s unlikely that it would have been made at all had The Dark Knight not made a bazillion dollars, but it speaks to Nolan’s artistic integrity that for his next effort he set his artistic bar even higher. It’s too simple, and unfair, to say he couldn’t have topped The Dark Knight because his whole body of work suggests that he can and that he will. Inception, the epitome of a three-star film, is a narrow miss on the way to that eventual realization. And like any dream if you want it to amaze you it will, but its impact will fade as it recedes into memory.

- Michael Kabel

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James Gammon: 1940 – 2010

Prolific character actor passes away at age 70.

James Gammon, the gravel-voiced character actor perhaps best known for his role as Coach Lou Brown in Major League and Major League II, died Friday after a battle with adrenal gland and liver cancer. He was 70 years old.

A ubiquitous if often unsung presence in dozens of tough-guy and Western films, Gammon’s other credits include Cool Hand Luke, A Man Called Horse, Silverado, Wyatt Earp, Conagher,  Natural Born Killers, Streets of Laredo, and Appaloosa. For five years he played Nick Bridges, the father of Don Johnson’s character Nash, on the CBS television series Nash Bridges.

Also an accomplished stage actor, Gammon co-founded Los Angeles’ MET Theatre, and won several Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle awards for both acting and directing. He was also frequently cast in the plays of Sam Shepard, beginning with 1978′s Curse of the Starving Class. In 1996 he received a Tony nomination for his sole Broadway appearance, a revival of Shepard’s Buried Child.  

A native of Newman, Illinois, Gammon made his first screen appearance in a 1966 episode of The Wild Wild West. His film debut came two years later, with a part opposite James Caan and Harrison Ford, in the Civil War adventure Journey To Shiloh. His most recent appearance was in the little-released, Kevin Costner-starring thriller The New Daughter.

A consummate actor’s actor, Gammon’s presence always brought more to a production than it would have possessed otherwise, and he was better than the project in which he appeared more than once. Our sincerest condolences to his family and friends.

DVD Review: The Losers

Surprisingly enjoyable spy revenge adventure debuts on DVD and Blu-Ray tomorrow.

The Losers is a popcorn movie for people who enjoy their movie popcorn with beer and jello shots. Gleefully colorful and painstakingly broad in its characters and story, it never wants to do anything but entertain on a level of “dude, look at that.” It’s a summer movie with no apologies about itself and no delusions of grandeur or introspection. If strictly seen as a summer indulgence, it’s good fun if you’re willing to go along for its dopey ride, though the constant derivations and sometimes-muddled plot might sometimes distract you if you think about them. Which isn’t necessary , anyway.

The Losers themselves are a company of special forces operatives sent to reconnaissance a terrorist training camp in the Bolivian jungle. When they spot a group of child hostages led into the camp minutes before an air strike, the team intercedes despite the warnings of an unknown voice on their radio. They succeed in getting the kids out, even foregoing an airlift in their extraction helicopter, only to see the children shot down immediately after takeoff. Realizing the missile was meant to kill them, the soldiers stay in country, taking menial jobs and somewhat wallowing in defeat until a mysterious woman (Zoe Saldana) offers them passage back to America and a chance at revenge.

The revenge is against Max (Jason Patric), the voice on the radio and the sociopathic manipulator of several U.S. intelligence agencies. Max and his henchmen Wade (Holt McCallany) are developing “next generation” weapons to push the U.S. into another war (two isn’t enough, apparently), all for the sake of restoring the country to Max’s vision of greatness. The two villains criss-cross the world, bullying a group of arab scientists into building a sonic-based weapon that, for lack of a better explanation, causes whole islands to break apart and disappear beneath the ocean. “For the 21st Century ec0-terrorist,” Max explains. Patric and McCallany (whom you’ll likely recognize from any cop show of the last decade) have some of the film’s best dialogue, all snarled fangs and acid-etched wisecracks. Given any more screen time, they’d steal the show.

Upon returning to the states, the Losers stage a series of thefts and hijackings, the better to get closer to Max’s operation. In particular, the set piece involving the helicopter theft of an armored car is particularly thrilling, unfolding with Ocean’s Eleven-like precision that shows the Loser’s tactical abilities. It’s the highlight of the film, each step of the multi-angled scenario playing out with the right speed, tension, and humor. Less compelling is the protracted final sequence in Los Angeles harbor, where several plot details jockey for camera time but none really reach their potential payoff.

Under the direction of Sylvain White (Stomp The Yard), the film works best when it doesn’t have to function as a story so much as look good and go bang as loud as possible. The cast is game, especially Chris Evans as a nerdish computer expert and Jeffrey Dean Morgan as the embittered group leader who’s become “lost” without the military to give him meaning. The script, by Peter Berg and James Vanderbilt and based on writer Andy Diggle’s Vertigo comics series, mentions character traits and personalities but never dwells on them. It’s as if the film knows that it’s derivative, and counts on you to understand as much, providing only thumbnails that point you to the character types you already know. It’s an efficient shorthand, albeit a kind of cheap way to build character.

Meanwhile White goes to the action movie style store quite a lot, but it’s usually hard to fault his taste. He borrows or pays homage – and sometimes steals – images and beats from early John Woo, Robert Rodriguez, John McTiernan, Joe Carnahan, and even Peter Berg. The total, unfortunately, isn’t more than the sum of its parts so much as a kind of collage of styles. To his credit, White usually borrows the right style or image for the story beat or action sequence at hand. He’s not an original voice, but he’s shrewd enough to know what works and to take advantage of it. For their part, the production team was smart to incorporate comic series’ artist Jock’s dynamic, minimalist style into the credits and other graphics. They have enough energy to carry a film all by themselves.

Luckily for the audience, they don’t have to, even if the final result doesn’t quite become the movie you sometimes get the idea it could be. Besides the aforementioned Ocean’s Eleven, jaded movie fans will have snarky fun identifying the derivations – a Die Hard nod here, a Firefly swipe there – while taking in Idris Elba’s menacing cool and Saldana’s lithesome body. The only serious problems come towards the end, with two denouement that manage thanks to some flat comedy and broad sentimentality to go opposite the rest of the film’s whole purpose. For the best results, turn it off as soon as the first ending credits start to roll. Up until then you’ll have a good time.

- Michael Kabel

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(Note: An earlier version of this review previously appeared for the film’s theatrical release.)

Night Flights, July 2010 Edition

Reviews of seven films we watched by staying up too late at night.  

You probably haven't seen this film. You should.

Here come the dog days of summer. With the second half of the season only beginning to arrive this weekend, there’s been a lot of time to catch up on films that either previously escaped our attention or that we finally managed to track down and watch. A couple of them we were lucky to find. Once we started looking for off the beaten path and little-remembered films on the cable movie channels, we quickly came to appreciate how lucky we are that some of them get aired at all. Staying up all night to see them was just the enabling excuse.  

The following seven films are presented, as always, in no particular order of importance. Wherever possible we’ve included trailers or excerpts.  

Black Dynamite (2009) – You’re forgiven if this rowdy, knowing homage to and parody of the blaxploitation genre escaped your notice. Given a microscopic two week theatrical release last year, it’s now a can’t-miss on DVD. When the brother of kung fu master Black Dynamite (Michael Jai White) is killed by the mob, the former CIA operative and Vietnam veteran vows to clean drugs off the streets. Along the way he foils a government plot and confronts his nemesis The Fiendish Mr. Wu on Kung Fu Island, culminating in a White House showdown that’s too crazy to spoil here. Proudly dumb and giddily cheap, it’s the best kind of satire – the kind that loves its source material enough to know how to laugh at it and celebrate it at the same time.    

The following trailer is NSFW, and hilarious:  

  

Zombieland (2009) -  After a vaguely explained contagion turns most of the world into flesh-eating zombies, a band of survivors including a redneck warrior (Woody Harrelson), a nebbishy college student (Jesse Eisenberg), and a pair of con artist sisters (Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin) make the most of their post-apocalyptic existence, including taking over Bill Murray’s house, spending a dream day at an amusement park, and trashing a cheesy souvenir shop.  It is the gory end of the world as they know it, and they feel… fine, at least.

Eisenberg is the main character but Harrelson  is the star, elevating the script’s already manic, cynical edge a step further: it’s a blast to see Mickey Knox kill zombies, and Harrelson knows it, all but cackling through every scene. As for Stone, if she’s not a major star within the next two years we’ll probably never forgive the industry. Except for some minor plot holes the film is nasty, cathartic fun all the way around, and a neat sabotaging of the too-popular zombie trend.  

  

Adventureland (2009) – The biggest problem with Adventureland is trying not to think of it as Zombieland but without the zombies (but with Ryan Reynolds and Kristen Stewart). Like that other film, this one stars Eisenberg as a sensitive soul haltingly  falling in love with a girl out of his depth (Stewart) with an amusement park for the backdrop.  

Except that’s about where the similarities end. Writer-director Greg Mottola’s follow-up to Superbad is smarter and more melancholy than that exercise in snark, with better performances from the cast and a more considered worldview. In part this is helped by the bittersweet nostalgia for its 1987 setting, even if like Steven Soderbergh’s recent The Informant! that setting isn’t ever completely realized. Eisenberg’s performance is perhaps too similar, but Reynolds and Stewart both stretch themselves somewhat in their weary turns; Bill Heder and Kristen Wiig emit their usual low-key charm as the park’s managers.  

  

Nothing about this poster does the movie any justice.

Better Off Dead (1985) – A film Gen X’ers probably ought to revisit at least once every couple of years, Savage Steve Holland’s surreal, brazen spoof of teenage angst and self-loathing has actually aged a lot better than some of John Hughes’ work from the same period. That Holland accomplishes this with demented cartoon vignettes, musical numbers featuring claymation hamburgers and copious drug humor only makes the film that much funnier.  

If you don’t already know the plot: Morose teenager Lane Meyer (John Cusack) pines for the girl who dumped him (Amanda Wyss) while engaging in a tentative romance with a French foreign exchange student (Diane Franklin) and preparing to ski race their high school’s uber jock bully (Aaron Dozier). But really, that’s only the tip of the iceberg for Meyer and his weird family, as Holland’s script goes ten funny directions at once. Probably required viewing for anyone between the ages of thirty five and forty, it’s a bona fide cult favorite.  

  

Slattery’s Hurricane (1949) – Meant partly as a comeback vehicle for Veronica Lake (that didn’t happen) and based on a story by Herman Wouk (The Winds of War), this undercooked melodrama tells the story of a WWII fighter pilot (Richard Widmark) recounting his life’s mistakes while flying into the eye of a hurricane off the coast of Miami, mistakes that include any number of indiscretions including adultery and drug smuggling. Director Andre De Toth (Crime Wave) handles the potentially confusing structure easily, and Widmark is excellent as always.  

Still, the film never really amounts to much, lacking suspense as much as depth of characterization. The drug smuggling elements, which all but sit up and bark for attention, get particularly short shrift. Finally, fans of the period will likely enjoy the balmy cinematography that handsomely shows Florida just before its takeover by the tourism industry.  

  

Call Northside 777 (1948) – Based on actual events, a jaded Chicago newspaper reporter (James Stewart) writes a puff piece about a charwoman’s eleven-year struggle to free her son (Richard Conte) from prison, following his conviction for murdering a police officer. The public goes wild for the story, encouraging the paper’s editor (Lee J. Cobb, who may have been born chewing the end of a cigar) to assign the reporter to dig deeper into the case. The son maintains his innocence, which in time the reporter first comes to believe and then champions to the state pardon board.  

Though not entirely a film noir (as its inclusion in Fox’s Film Noir DVD library suggests), under Henry Hathaway’s (Kiss of Death) direction the  film makes for completely arresting viewing until its last few minutes, with Stewart in particular but Cobb and Conte (who would face off, one year later, in the sublime Thieves Highway) all giving rock solid performances. The conclusion, however, almost sinks everything, thanks to a fringe worth of dangling plot threads and a voice-over apologia to the Establishment.  

 

Shadow of a Doubt (1948) – Hitchcock’s unique perspective is a taste we’ve never acquired. So this film, sometimes considered his best, nevertheless left us somewhat cold, despite its unmistakable power and depth. A sociopathic killer of rich widows returns, one step ahead of two dogged cops, to the suburban California home of his sister (Patricia Collinge) and niece (Teresa Wright), and their ostensibly perfect family.  At first adoring and devoted, in time - and thanks to a very proper wooing by one of the cops (Macdonald Carey) – the niece comes to resist and finally oppose her uncle’s growing malice, risking her life as a consequence. 

For as good as Cotten and Wright are – and they’re virtually flawless – the script drags, due in part to an overstuffed cast (the two younger children are largely superfluous) and an at times mawkish depiction of middle class American life. An explanation for the elder Charlie’s profound evil, given as a sweet reminiscence, seems half-hearted and a little unsophisticated. Nevertheless, the menace that lingers around the corners of every scene is never less than palpable, and Cotten’s control of his performance is masterful, as the scene below demonstrates. 

 

With the exception of Slattery’s Hurricane, all of the above films are available on DVD. We’ll be back next week. 

- Michael Kabel

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Noir Cinema: Moontide

Gabin and Lupino shine as star-crossed lovers in an imperfect masterpiece.

Jean Gabin and Ida Lupino built careers for themselves playing haunted, tormented individuals, not least of which their starring turns in prototype film noirs including, respectively, Port of Shadows and High Sierra. The two teamed in 1942 for the downbeat romantic drama Moontide, another precursor to the genre that even its DVD making-of featurette diplomatically calls “ill-starred.” With a script that underwent intense sanitizing to meet the era’s rigid censorship standards and a switch in directors, along with friction between Gabin and the studio, it’s a wonder anything coherent resulted at all.

Yet the final film, though problematic and troubled in many ways, builds such pathos and depth that ultimately it becomes an unforgettable, if not entirely perfect (and sometimes frustrating) viewing experience. By no means a classic film, it’s so close you may be tempted to think more of it than it truly deserves, even though it deserves a lot.

The premise is tailor-made for late night viewing: Bobo (Gabin) a longshoreman and blackout drunk, prepares to leave the ramshackle California harbor town of San Pablo in search of more lucrative work. Bobo’s friend Tiny (Thomas Mitchell) has something lined up in San Francisco, apparently another job in which Bobo does all the work and the venal, lazy Tiny collects part of his wages as a “fee.” Bobo is blase and nonchalant, and spends their last night in town cavorting with a prostitute before embarking on an epic drunk that leaves him, the next morning, absent his memory and working on the dilapidated bait barge run by one of his fellow partiers (Chester Gan.) Bobo learns a local drunk was choked to death the night before, and that for reasons unremembered he’s wearing the victim’s hat.

Abandoning the job almost at once, while walking along the beach with drinking buddy Nutsy (Claude Rains), Bobo saves waitress Anna (Lupino) from drowning herself in the surf, even lying to the police to prevent her arrest. The two take the girl back to the bait barge, where she and Bobo begin a tenuous romance, full of hesitation and self-doubt. Locked in the tiny quarters, the two literally circle one another, their different kinds of cynicism flashing out whenever they feel threatened by the other. In time they begin running the bait shop together, slowly fixing it up and making a home for themselves, of sorts, away from the rest of the world.

If you’ve ever seen a movie before, you know that kind of peaceful isolation can’t last. The investigation into the murder continues in the background, while Tiny grows increasingly anxious and belligerent in demanding Bobo abandon the barge and head north. Bobo attempts to scare Tiny away with force but finds himself trying to explain his sometimes-explosive temper to Anna. He avoids her company at night, too, ostensibly to keep their relationship proper but with hints of some greater need for evasion working on his motives. On their wedding day, he abandons her again in order to fix the engine of a rich doctor’s yacht, leaving Anna at the mercy of a vengeful Tiny. As the DVD jacket copy promises, only one will survive, and the murderer’s true identity will come to light.

For however well it’s acted and at times perfectly visualized, most of the film’s problems come from adapting Willard Robertson’s novel into something compatible with Hayes Office standards. Anna’s backstory, including years of poverty and a rape, is all but erased from the final script. Lupino, superb actress that she was, manages to communicate the grief and crushed hopes with which such troubles have burdened her, but the story still suffers for their absence. Anna’s return to vitality under Bobo’s care is heartbreaking to watch, both to think of the character’s past and to fear for her future, thanks completely to her peformance.

Elsewhere a palpable homoerotic subtext runs through Tiny’s and Bobo’s relationship, and to a lesser degree the encounters Nutsy has with the other men as well; the locker room scene, in which Tiny slaps him around with a wet towel, is particularly hard to ignore for its metaphorical freight. Much has been made in other reviews (possibly too much) about the possibly homosexual relationship Tiny and Bobo may share.  It’s a hard element to mistake, but there are other, larger themes at work that, too, get just too little exploration or development to reach their potential.

Gabin and Lupino’s natural chemistry fuels their romance onscreen, but as with Anna there isn’t enough done to explain Bobo’s restlessness. Despite Nutsy’s witty comparisons between living as a “gypsy” and a “peasant,” the script doesn’t offer much explanation besides his own carefree attitude, which seems given the stakes of the plot sometimes inadequate. Gabin has a great monologue in which he reveals the earlier mistake that allows Tiny to dictate his actions, and the scene hints at self-loathing and sorrow that Bobo possibly carries as consequence. It also hints at the violence that, in its way, unites the two, and shows Anna’s growing strength and confidence, illustrating the mutual need the two share.

If only those scenes had room to breathe, or flex their muscles. For however romantic the fog-smothered, lonely barge can seem under Charles G. Clarke’s Oscar-nominated cinematography, the setting also at times feels limiting. You want Bobo and Anna, for a variety of reasons, to simply enjoy a night on whatever town San Pablo can offer them. Partly this was a matter of logistics and staging. The onset of World War II limited the film’s production capabilities, cancelling on-location shoots for the more artificial locales of a soundstage. Yet those limitations work to amplify the gauzy artificiality of the characters’ world and intensify Clark’s moody aesthetic. Fritz Lang had originally agreed to direct the picture, but quit two weeks into shooting following friction with the recalcitrant Gabin. Veteran director Archie Mayo (The Petrified Forest) took over, but the exterior shots carry a distinct Lang sensibility, especially in the climactic scene in which a murderous Bobo stalks Tiny along the seawall. That conclusion, however, again carries the mark of the era’s standards and practices, so that it’s ultimately less than totally satisfying.

Regarding the supporting performances, Rains is excellent as always, even if his sage drunk character is somewhat stock. Mitchell, best known for his role as Scarlett O’Hara’s father in Gone With the Wind, is chilling as the barely restrained, almost reptilian petty criminal Tiny. His confrontation with Anna, itself a thinly disguised (once again for the benefit of the censors) attempt at sexual assault, is nerve-wracking.

The film’s ending, changed completely from the downbeat conclusion of the book, offers a sense of completion and happiness to Bobo and Anna’s lost souls you were hoping they’d get all along their lonely ordeal. Moontide is not a perfect movie, but for two characters this sympathetic you’ll find yourself wiling to believe all’s well that ends well.

Moontide is available on DVD as part of 20th Century Fox’s “Fox Film Noir” library of titles.

- Michael Kabel

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Our (Rest Of The) Summer Movie Guide

Quick previews of nine films premiering in July, August, and September.

How’s your summer going? Enjoying the heat wave? The first official day of summer was just a couple of weeks ago, June 21, though of course it felt like that time of year, both in the climate and in our culture, for weeks before that. The summer movie season continues to go through its ups and downs, with slam dunk hits like The Twilight Saga: Eclipse and Toy Story 3 raking in cash hand over fist, with more predictably lucrative fare like Grown Ups and The Last Airbender also making bank.  

We still believe it’s been a paltry summer for film, with not even a surprise like last year’s Moon to break up the doldrums. Still, there’s hope on the horizon. The following films all come out in the next few weeks, some in limited but most with wide release schedules planned. We’ve tried to include a range of tastes.

Salt - (July 23) When CIA covert operative Evelyn Salt (Angelina Jolie) is accused by a Soviet defector of plotting to kill the president, she goes on the run to try and clear her good name and get to the truth. Directed by Philip Noyce (The Quiet American) from a script by Kurt Wimmer (Street Kings) and Brian Helgeland (L.A. Confidential).  Our take: This is the third time in five years Jolie has played a spy/assassin, and we kind of think she could slink her way through a part like this in her sleep. Also on familiar ground are the always-welcome Liev Shreiber as Salt’s colleague and the ubiquitous Chiwetel Ejiofor as a fellow agent. We’re lukewarm at best about this one: for all our complaints about wanting more films for grown-ups, this seems like an auto-pilot effort by all involved.

Get Low (Limited July 30) – A notorious mountain man (Robert Duvall) plans to attend his own funeral with the help of a wily funeral director. Old secrets and grudges come to light as the event turns into a local sensation. Our take: High hopes for this one, as we suspect it could be the oddball surprise of the year given the talent both veteran and emerging involved. We’re anxious for more Murray after cracking up at his beyond-meta cameo in last year’s Zombieland, and Duvall all but owns the copyright on these kind of grizzled roles. Academy Award-winning short film director Aaron Schneider (Two Soldiers) makes his feature debut, with a script co-written by C. Gaby Mitchell (Fallen Angels) and Chris Provenzano (Mad Men) from a story by newcomer Scott Seeke. Read our full preview here.

Middle Men (August 6) Set in the far-flung past of 1995 (We were in college!), the based on a true story reveals  how an otherwise upstanding businessman (Luke Wilson) started the first online billing company to deal exclusively with the adult entertainment industry. Along the way he gets involved with porn starlets, Russian gangsters, federal agents, and any variety of con artists. Our take: We are shocked to learn that pornography is available on the Internet. Seriously, with a cast full of underseen stars – including  James Caan, Kevin Pollak, and the mighty Robert Forster – and an offbeat subject, there’s no end to the Boogie Nights-like potential of director George Gallo’s (Midnight Run) latest effort. Wilson is a natural for roles such as this, and anything to get him off those embarrassing cell phone ads is all right by us. The following trailer is redband, meaning it’s NSFW.

Eat, Pray, Love (August 13) – Based on the gargantuan best-selling memoir by Elizabeth Gilbert, the story centers on a newly divorced woman (Julia Roberts) who embarks on a journey around the world to find happiness and contentment. Our Take: We imagine August multiplexes including the twi-hards viewing Eclipse for the third time while their moms check out this sort-of comeback for Roberts one theatre over. Glee mastermind Ryan Murphy is likely exactly the right choice to adapt the material, while the supporting cast including Javier Bardem, James Franco and Billy Crudup means plenty of eye candy for its target demographic.

The Expendables (August 13) – A team of mercenaries is sent to a South America country on a mission to kill its ruthless dictator, even as other forces including a traitor in their midst conspire against them. Our take: Overkill is the name of the game for Sly Stallone’s latest trifecta effort, both in the plot and special effects and also in the tough-guy roundup casting. A good thing, too: pretty much everyone involved could use a career tune-up, and a group effort like this makes good sense. Too, it’s irresistable for anybody that grew up watching action movies on cable. One question, though: Was Chuck Norris busy?

The American (September 1) - A professional hitman and weapons maker (George Clooney) flees to the remote mountains of Italy before awaiting his next, final assignment. While holed up in a tiny village he befriends a priest and romances a local girl, either of whom might offer salvation. Our take: The flip side to The Expendables in so many ways, Anton Corbijn’s second feature effort looks to be a more deliberate and cerebral take on some familiar genre tropes. Clooney has our attention as usual, though much like Jolie it wouldn’t hurt him to lay off the spy and smooth criminal parts for a little while. Read our full preview here.

The Adjustment Bureau (September 17) – A rising politician (Matt Damon) begins a fledgling but powerful romance with a ballerina (Emily Blunt), even while shadowy and mysterious forces rearrange reality so as to keep them apart. Loosely based on a short story by Philip K. Dick, adapted and directed by George Nolfi (The Bourne Ultimatum.), and co-starring Anthony Mackie, John Slattery, Terrence Stamp, Daniel Dae Kim and Shohreh Aghdashloo. Our take: Damon has as much claim to the title  ”America’s Leading Man” as anybody else right now, Blunt is a rising star worth watching, and brainy, romantic science fiction is always a welcome sight. Nevertheless, if Inception disappoints this film could likewise fail to connect with audiences.

The Town (September 17) – The leader of a gang of thieves (Ben Affleck) struggles with feelings of responsibility and attraction for a bank manager (Rebecca Hall) traumatized by one of his heists. Meanwhile an FBI agent (Jon Hamm) pursues her as well, all the while closing in on the thieves. Our take: Has Affleck made a modern-day, grittier Tequila Sunrise? Damon’s former partner returns to their hometown of Boston for this character drama that opens the same day and also features a Mad Men star in a prominent role. Affleck’s earlier writing-directing effort Gone Baby Gone was a pleasant surprise, but for no good reason we’re less enthused about him directing himself. Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker) also co-stars as Affleck’s henchman.

Buried (September 24) –  A civilian truck driver working in Iraq (Ryan Reynolds) is taken hostage by terrorists and buried alive with only a knife, a cell phone, and a lighter. Initially suffering from amnesia, he begins to piece together his fragmented memories as his day’s worth of air slowly runs out. Our take: This effort by Spanish director Rodrigo Cortes seems an unusual choice for Reynolds, who up until now (and the upcoming Green Lantern) has stayed largely away from heavier concepts. There’s a Hitchcockian feel even to just the basic story pitch, and Cortes has reportedly followed that muse towards including plenty of innovative camera angles and perspectives to help tighten the tension. If audiences are willing to buy the former Van Wilder in such grim surroundings the film could be a surprise hit.

- Michael Kabel

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