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Film Review: "The Grand Budapest Hotel"

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Wednesday, 19 March 2014 00:57; Written by Matt Oakes

"The Grand Budapest Hotel"
Directed by Wes Anderson
Starring Ralph Fiennes, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum, Bill Murray, Jude Law, Tilda Swinton, Saoirse Ronan, Edward Norton, Harvey Keitel, Jason Schwartzman, Lea Seydoux, Owen Wilson, Bob Balaban, Mathieu Amalric, Tom Wilkinson
Comedy, Drama
100 Mins
R

Fiennes, Brody, Dafoe, Goldblum, Murray, Law, Swinton, Ronan, Norton, Keitel, Schwartzman, Seydoux, Wilson, Balaban, Amalric, Wilkinson. Wes Anderson's latest may have more big names working for it than ever before but their characters are more paper thin than they've been, more fizzle than tonic, more Frankenstein's creations than humans. His company of regulars - joined by a vast scattering of newbies - are relegated to playing furniure-chomping bit roles, filling the shoes of cartoonish sketches, slinking in long shadows of characters. From Willem Dafoe's brutish, brass-knuckled Jopling to a caked-up and aged Tilda Swinton, gone are the brooding and calculated, flawed and angsty but always relatable characters of Wes yore. In their place, a series of dusty cardboard cutouts; fun but irrevocably inhuman.

Here in 2014, Anderson's ability to attract such a gathering of marquee names to his eccentric scripts has never been as potent. He's a talent magnet and his tractor beam is set to high. It's just too bad that this gathering of the juggalos is as caricaturesque as they are (arguable even more than the animated Fantastic Mr. Fox). But what can you expect when your face is painted up and you're dressed like a Slovenian underground fashion show. Upon dissecting what he's got to offer, the seemingly indelible Wes Anderson appeal is as clear as day.

In the jungle of Hollywood, roles are mostly relegated one of two ways: the tentpole blockbusters, where characters are written like ham steaks - vessels for plot diversions, jukeboxes for one-liners, sarcophagi for the next action scene - and the smaller budgeted "independent" movie, wherein the tone is usually somber, the scenery is left unchewed, and emotional preparation ought to be through the roof. Anderson's films flirt a very thin middle ground, a Bermuda triangle between indie cred and mainstream. To his credit, it looks like a blast.

Inside his pictures, Anderson's stars are afforded a chance to play dress up in the midst of gorgeous sets at exciting locales. What's not to love? Plus, this particular project had an added advantage: European travel. For these thespians, being a part of Anderson's playground is like being a kid again. However, their childishness is more apparent here than in any of Anderson's finest work (save for maybe Moonrise Kingdom). But through the haze of these colorful yet superficial oddities shines Ralph Fiennes' Monsieur Gustave, a beacon of complexity in an otherwise skin-deep cast of characters.

Gustave is a relic of the past. He's an icon of chivalry, a servant dedicated to his craft, a well-groomed pet for his adoring clientele. He sluts it up for the elderly ladies who pass through his hotel (but he enjoys it too, so he tells us), making him a bit of a tourist attraction in himself. A hot springs for wilting feminine physiques, Gustave becomes the recipient of a pricy artifact (an ironic art piece called "Boy with Apple" - the customary brand of wry Anderson platitudes) when one of his doting golden-agers (Swinton) bites the dust. With her family trying to discredit him and blame the murder his way, Gustave must go on the run.

The cat and mouse, European romp to follow is as much an episode of Tom and Jerry as it is The Great Escape. Fiennes' soulful gravitas brings immeasurable life to what is otherwise a series of cartoonish escape plots and hijinks. Anderson's offerings are easy to consume and his persnickety eye for detail and Fiennes' brilliant performance brings life by the pound to the otherwise far-fetched proceedings.

In this recent turn in his career, Wes Anderson has almost becoming a mockery of Wes Anderson. Though I thoroughly enjoyed The Grand Budapest Hotel it lacks the rounded emotional honesty of his pre-Fox efforts. He's lost the intellectual intensity he had going in Rushmore, The Royal Tenanbaums and (I know I'm in the minority here) Darjeeling Limited, largely replaced by quirk by the bucket and enough billable names to make your head spin. Nevertheless, Fiennes is magical; a perfect vessel for Andersonisms, the savior of the show.

B+

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March '14 Digital Week III

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Tuesday, 18 March 2014 03:22; Written by Kevin Filipski

Blu-rays of the Week

Beyond Outrage

(Magnet)

By now, we know what to expect from Japanese filmmaker Takeshi Kitano’s modern yakuza crime dramas: sporadic outbursts of operatic ultra-violence compensating for a lethargic grasp of characterization and plotting.

This sequel to the tightly-wound Outrage has moments of marvelously delirious mayhem—best is the slow death of a traitor by a baseball pitching machine—yet it seems too familiar and, at times, lazy. The movie does look superb on Blray; lone extra is an hour-long making-of.

Dark House

(Flatiron/Cinedigm)

Here Comes the Devil

(Magnet)

For its first half, Dark House sets up an interesting tale of a young man searching his sordid family history only to find outright horror; too bad the second half—full of ridiculous decisions like the hero head-scratchingly allowing his pregnant girlfriend near the malevolent doings—completely falls apart.

No such luck with Here Comes the Devil, which is ludicrous from the start, despite setting up its situation as matter of factly as possible; however artfully done, this devil children flick is risible throughout. Both hi-def transfers look great; extras include making-of featurettes.

Frozen

(Disney)

This formulaic animated feature, from Hans Christian Andersen The Snow Queen, was one of Disney’s biggest hits ever, despite (or because of) its bland “be yourself” mantra: too bad its characterizations and comic relief compare badly with earlier and better flicks from the Disney vault.

I’ve never been a fan of computerized animation, and the clunky visuals didn’t change my mind, while the songs, especially the annoyingly anthemic Oscar-winner “Let It Go,” are no better. Oh well: at least the Blu-ray looks top-notch; extras include a cutesy making-of, deleted scenes, music videos and Andersen featurette.

Kill Your Darlings

(Sony)

This intriguing investigation into the Beat writers before they became the Beats is not only a first-rate character study but also a thoughtful précis of America’s postwar literary scene, before Allen Ginsberg, Williams S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac became famous (or infamous).

John Krokidas’s assured direction and the unshowy acting by Daniel Radcliffe (as Ginsberg), Ben Foster (as Burroughs) and the rest of the cast give the film an authenticity that makes the killing at its center more than a mere plot twist. The Blu-ray transfer is excellent; extras comprise an audio commentary, deleted scenes and interviews with Krokidas, Radcliffe and others.

Mandela—Long Walk to Freedom

(Anchor Bay/Weinstein Co)

This biopic of one of the 20^th century’s great men is earnest to a fault, but perhaps director Justin Chadwick and writer William Nicholson cannot be faulted for being so reverent to Nelson Mandela’s eventful life, although there are nods toward the complexities of a man who was no saint and his equally human wife Winnie.

What is unequivocal is Idris Elba’s towering portrayal of Mandela, which is a performance for the ages; Naomie Harris is nearly his equal in the smaller but pivotal role of Winnie. The Blu-ray looks splendid; extras include a Chadwick commentary and featurettes.

Saving Mr. Banks

(Disney)

Director John Lee Hancock’s handsome-looking biopic details the squabbling between Mary Poppinscreator PL Travers and Walt Disney himself over how her beloved nanny would be transformed into a movie: with songs and animation, to her eternal chagrin.

This sturdy if sentimental recounting is halfway between a warts-and-all portrait and a Disney whitewash, with Tom Hanks an OK Walt and Emma Thompson a deviously prickly Travers, making for an unfair fight. The hi-def transfer looks quite good; extras are deleted scenes and featurettes.

Swerve

(Cohen Media)

Set in the picturesque Australian outback, this inferior thriller from the Body Heat school of Hitchcock knockoffs follows a loner who finds himself embroiled with a lonely wife and her dangerously unbalanced (and crooked) husband.

Director Craig Lahiff, despite the right sordid atmosphere, omits plausible (or, at least, not risible) plot points, limping to a fizzled-out conclusion; Emma Booth, an Aussie Jennifer Lawrence, makes the wife more complicated (and sizzling) than she is on paper. The Blu-ray image is stellar; extras comprise several interviews.

DVDs of the Week
Above Suspicion—Set 3

(Acorn)

Kelly Reilly—who got her big break stateside in Flight, and who stars in a new TV series Black Box, in April—again lends her unique presence to another gripping mystery as a DI who teams with her former boss (an always terrific Ciaran Hinds) to solve the murders of a promiscuous young actress and her drug buddies.

Reilly and Hinds’s offbeat chemistry is delicious to watch, so it’s too bad that this well-scripted, superbly-acted series of mysteries has now run its course. Maybe one day we’ll get a follow-up feature film—or another series—with these two characters.

Girl Rising

(Cinedigm)

Nine touchingly humane stories of remarkable young women from around the world demonstrate how important it is to educate females in such countries as Afghanistan, Egypt, Napal and Pakistan, which contributes to ending poverty and illiteracy.

With several celebrities providing voiceover narration—ranging from Kerry Washington, Meryl Streep and Frieda Pinto to Anne Hathaway and Liam Neeson—Richard E. Robbins has made a worthy film on a worthy subject. Extras include a director’s welcome, outtakes and behind the scenes and location vignettes.

Rogue—Complete 1^st Season

(e one)

This DirecTV original series follows Grace, an undercover detective who tries solving the brutal murder of her young son, looking for a traitor in the midst of the sordid underworld in which she works.

Although the drama’s 10 episodes are fast-paced and action-packed, at the center of it all is a great, gritty Thandie Newton as our complex heroine: I for one have been waiting for this kind of performance from her since she came to our attention in Australian John Duigan’s films of the ‘90s likeFlirting and The Leading Man.

Show Boat

(Warner Archive)

Frankenstein director James Whale’s 1936 film version of Jerome Kern & Oscar Hammerstein II’s legendary Broadway musical is dramatically uneven and occasionally draggy, but the songs—in strong performances by Paul Robson (“Ol’ Man River”) and Allen Jones and Irene Dunne (“You Are Love”), among others—remain indelibly stamped in one’s memory.

Overall, it’s stylish, effective entertainment which also shows that Hattie McDaniel (later immortalized in and stereotyped by Gone with the Wind) was a multi-talented actress, comedienne and singer.

Vikings

(BBC)

This isn’t the action-adventure series with a plethora of sex and violence on the History network; instead, it’s an intelligent if (mostly) unsexy documentary featuring archeologist Neil Oliver, who goes beyond the usual Norsemen clichés for a nuanced examination of their voyages of exploration and battle, as well as their complex legacy.

The three one-hour episodes—which include visits to far-flung sites as Russia, Scandinavia and Greenland—provide new insights into an unfairly maligned historical group.

CDs of the Week

Anne Akiko Meyers—The Four Seasons/The Vivaldi Album

(e one)

Violinist Anne Akiko Meyers, a dazzling virtuoso and formidable interpreter, brandishes her 1741 “Vieuxtemps” Guarneri instrument to give a dynamic take on one of the most overplayed showpieces ever written, Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons.

Along with making Seasons sound fresh and full of feeling, she also performs a richly textured account—doing all three solo parts—of Vivaldi’s Concerto for Three Violins and, as a nice throw-in, Arvo Part’s Baroque-inspired Passacaglia.

Gustav Holst/Frederick Delius

(Halle)

Francis Poulenc—Stabat Mater

(Harmonia Mundi)
Three astonishing choral/vocal works by two unheralded 20^thcentury English composers—Holst’s The Hymn of Jesus for chorus and Delius’s Sea Drift for baritone and choir and Cynarafor baritone—receive stirring performances by Halle’s orchestra and choirs, with Roderick Williams an emotive soloist, all under the baton of Sir Mark Elder.

Poulenc’s masterly religious compositions—topped by his opera Dialogues des Carmelites—also include his 1950 Stabat Mater and 1959 Sept Repons de tenebras, both given expressive readings by soprano Carolyn Sampson, Cappella Amsterdam, Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir and Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, led by conductor Daniel Reuss.

Prokofiev—Piano Concerto No. 3/Symphony No. 5

(Mariinsky)
Sergei Prokofiev is one of the few composers whose most crowd-pleasing works are also among his best—and this recording has two of his most popular masterpieces, courtesy of the indefatigable conductor Valery Gergiev and Mariinsky Orchestra.

Peerless Russian pianist Denis Matsuev scintillatingly plays the solo part in the masterly Third Piano Concerto, which combines dexterous technical workouts with those unforgettable melodies which came so easily to him. Gergiev also leads his forces through the Fifth Symphony, whose deft, light touch is anchored in brilliant orchestration. There’s a bit of a messy Fifth finale, but that’s the only slip-up here.

Mark Rivera—Common Bond

(Red River)
For his debut solo album, Mark Rivera—saxman extraordinaire best known for Foreigner and Billy Joel hits, along with being longtime music director of Ringo’s All-Starr Band—shows off his multi-instrumental prowess on guitar, percussion, flute and keyboards, and a pleasant voice that carries him through such pop-rock tunes as “Loraine” and “Turn Me Loose.”

When Rivera lets go—both singing and tooting his way through a rollicking cover of Hendrix’s “Spanish Castle Magic” (with Joel on keyboards) and crooning a piano ballad, “Rise”—it makes you wish he’d do it more often.

Music Review: Berg & Strauss Operas at Carnegie Hall

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Friday, 14 March 2014 18:27; Written by Kevin Filipski

Vienna: City of Dreams

Through March 16, 2014

Carnegie Hall, 7^th Avenue & 57^th Street, New York, NY

carnegiehall.org

Barkmin (left) as Salome (photo: Chris Lee)

Highlighting Vienna: City of Dreams—Carnegie Hall’s celebration of the Austrian capital’s vast artistic and cultural heritage, which included many events in other New York City institutions—were concert performances of two one-act operatic masterpieces, both associated with the Vienna State Opera and Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra: Alban Berg’s Wozzeck and Richard Strauss’s Salome.

Admittedly, these were safe choices as far as 20^th century operas go—if someone had asked me (no one did for some reason), I would have chosen a lesser-known Strauss work like Daphne and Berg’s unfinished Lulu—but they were obviously picked for their relative brevity (each under two hours, perfect for a concert) and, perhaps most importantly, their ability to show off the Vienna Philharmonic as the finely-tuned instrument it is. And both evenings did just that.

Wozzeck might sound earsplittingly atonal to those used to more soothingly melodic Mozart or Puccini, but Berg’s gripping musical version of Georg Buchner’s tragedy about an ordinary man driven to murder and suicide by an uncaring world tautly tightens its dramatic noose until the haunting—and downright draining—final notes. Credit the orchestra, and Franz Welser-Möst’s sensitive conducting, for bringing out the opera’s contrasting brutality and beauty.

Matthias Goerne, who has made Wozzeck a specialty—stepping in recently at the Met for Thomas Hampson—sang the title role with emotive power, while Evelyn Herlitzius made his promiscuous girlfriend Marie compelling and sympathetic. If there was a blemish, it was the orchestra overpowering some singers, also a problem during Salome.

Of course, Salome is much more raucous, so an onstage orchestra drowning out singers isn’t surprising. But even if conductor Andris Nelsons didn’t always control the racket, big-voiced soprano Gun-Brit Barkmin never had any trouble—hers was a volatile, deeply unsettling Salome, which is what Strauss (and playwright Oscar Wilde) surely wanted for their teenage anti-heroine. And Nelsons did drive the orchestra through this brilliantly bombastic score for all it was worth, right up until its soul-shattering final chords.

Vienna: City of Dreams concludes with Vienna Philharmonic concerts on the 15^th and 16^th, the festival’s closing night. Schubert and Mahler make up the first concert, followed by a celebratory program encompassing the wide variety of styles (including Korngold's golden Violin Concerto played by Gil Shaham) in this most glitteringly musical of cities.

March '14 Digital Week II

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Tuesday, 11 March 2014 20:21; Written by Kevin Filipski

Blu-rays of the Week

Big History

(Lionsgate)

Bryan Cranston narrates this immersively offbeat mini-series on nature and civilization’s inexorable linkage that shows, through an innovative blend of science and history, how events on our earth billions of years ago still marks our present-day survival. Each half-hour episode uncovers relationships among historical events like the sinking of the Titanic and today’s ubiquitous cell phones, or explores mysteries like ancient empires, with nothing in common, built shrines in the shape of pyramids.

Dazzling special effects and animation give the programs cutting-edge visuals to complement the heady ideas. The Blu-ray imagery looks fantastic; extras include bonus footage. (Release date: March 11)

Eugene Onegin

(Deutsche Grammophon)
Peter Tchaikovsky’s 1879 masterpiece remains the greatest Russian opera ever—elegant and emotive without being shamelessly sentimental—and Russian conductor Valery Gergiev leads the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus in a splendidly romantic reading of the glorious score.

Deborah Warner’s mediocre but not disastrous staging is sparklingly sung by its stars, Polish baritone Mariusz Kwiecien (Onegin) and Russian soprano Anna Netrebko (Tatiana, his lost love). The Blu-ray has a high-quality sheen and the music sounds amazingly clear; extras include between-acts interviews. (Release date: March 11)

In Fear

(Anchor Bay)

A couple driving through the rural Irish countryside is terrorized by a merciless and shadowy specter in Jeremy Lovering’s tightly-constructed but increasingly preposterous horror movie.

Despite good use of cramped quarters and eerie darkness, Lovering loses control when the story spirals away from him: if you have no qualms with the silly, copout ending, then you may enjoy the whole thing. The Blu-ray image looks sharp; lone extra is a behind the scenes featurette.(Release date: March 11)

Iron Sky—Director’s Cut

(e one)

This lunatic sci-fi fantasy—which imagines a Sarah Palin-alike in the Oval Office who starts a war with Nazis living on the moon since WWII—is even more demented now that it’s longer via director Timo Vuorensola’s extended cut.

The plethora of easy Hitler and Palin jokes is partly offset by a relatively restrained performance by blonde bombshell Julia Dietze as an idealistic Nazi. The Blu-ray transfer looks tremendous; lone extra is a making-of featurette. (Release date: March 11)

Mademoiselle C

(Cohen Media)

Watching Carine Roitfeld quit FrenchVogue to start her own fashion magazine isn’t exactly scintillating drama, but the engaging 57-year-old editor has none of the egotistic self-love of, say, Anna Wintour, so Fabien Constant’s fly-on-the-wall documentary is never less than entertaining.

Among the so-called beautiful people of New York, Paris and London, Roitfeld comes off self-aware, intelligent and unpretentious; an end title tells us that she’s back in the fashion world, now working at Harper’s Bazaar. The hi-def transfer is stunning; lone extra is Paris premiere footage. (Release date: March 11)

The Who—Sensation: The Story of ‘Tommy’

(Eagle Rock)

Pete Townshend, always engagingly chatty, pulls no punches discussing the genesis of and reaction to the Who’s seminal 1969 double-album rock opera in this straightforward look back at a true rock classic.

There’s input from Roger Daltrey, producers Kit Lambert and Glyn Johns, and—via archival footage—John Entwistle and Keith Moon, but Townshend’s integrity and honesty is at this documentary’s core. Bonus footage of a 1969 performance of Tommy songs is included; the Blu-ray image and sound are first-rate. (Release date: March 11)

DVDs of the Week

Crimes of Passion

(MHz Networks)

Based on crime novels by popular Swedish author Maria Lang, this engrossing mini-series follows a literature student, her fiancée and their detective friend embroiled in mysterious murder plots in what seems to be bucolic small-town Sweden.

Set in a beautiful postwar countryside, these six 90-minute films comprise flavorful characterizations and simmering, Ellery Queen-type mysteries. Tuva Novotny, Linus Wahlgren and Ola Rapace make a formidable investigative trio. (Release date: February 25)

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young—Fifty by Four

(Pride)

Eric Clapton—the 1970s Review

(Sexy Intellectual)

These unauthorized biographies, combining vintage footage and new interviews with (mainly) peripheral players, present solid 2-1/2 hour overviews of these rock legends’ careers.

The CSNY doc covers the several decades-long, off-and-on musical reunions of the legendary harmony trio (and occasional quartet); the Clapton one—examining his solo career after stints in supergroups Cream, Blind Faith and Derek and the Dominos—chronicles a superstar’s nearly fatal slide into drugs and irrelevance. (Release date: March 11)

The FBI—Complete 7^th Season

(Warner Archive)

The 1971-72 season of this popular TV drama (comprising 26 episodes) follows Bureau agents Efram Zimbalist Jr., William Reynolds and Philip Abbott pursuing criminals of all stripes, from robbers and kidnappers to attempted assassins.

As always with such “classic” series, the guest-star roster is even more impressive than the shows themselves: everyone from then-unknowns like Lindsay Wagner, Meg Foster and Martin Sheen to established veterans like Bradford Dillman, Dabney Coleman and Vic Tayback show up. (Release date: February 25)

Inside Llewyn Davis

(Sony)

Unerring recreation of the early ‘60s folk scene notwithstanding, the Coens’ comedy-drama about a cynical, anti-social singer who may or may not change how he lives his life—he’s beaten up at the beginning and end of the film—is another crudely constructed bit of obviousness that fails to find any complexity in its typical Coen anti-hero.

Bruno Delbonnel’s burnished photography, the finely-detailed set design and a delightful cat far outweigh 100 minutes of cleverness posing as insight. The lone extra is a 50-minute making-of. (Release date: March 11)

The Patience Stone

(Sony Classics)

As she says in the making-of featurette, the excellent actress Golshifteh Farahani endured her own psychological hardship enacting the difficult role of a young Middle Eastern woman, standing watch over her comatose older husband, who confesses to hidden secrets—including one that makes us reexamine their relationship—in front of his prone body.

Director Atiq Rahimi (who adapted his own novel with Jean-Claude Carriere) subtly transforms the story’s confined spaces into a powerful metaphor for his heroine’s mental anguish. (Release date: March 18)

Reviews

Film Review: "The Grand Budapest Hotel"

B+

March '14 Digital Week III

Music Review: Berg & Strauss Operas at Carnegie Hall

March '14 Digital Week II

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