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Film Review: "Crystal Fairy"

"Crystal Fairy"
Directed by Sebastián Silva
Starring Michael Cera, Gaby Hoffmann, Juan Andrés Silva, José Miguel Silva, Agustín Silva
Adventure, Comedy

98 Mins
R

Michael Cera is on a tear. He absolutely ripped up the screen in his raunchy, self-caricaturing bit part in This is The End, he was one of the best parts of the new season of Arrested Development and here he goes to bat with a new persona - a jagged narcissist with acid wit and a penchant for substance-induced mood swings. His largely unlikeable character is hung with the reactive humor Cera has always brought to the table but instead of his familiar coy and breathless delivery, here he is affronting, biting and plain old mean.

We meet Cera's Jaime at a party in Chile, chomping through brews, slugging down lines of blow and making a general ass of himself. He's got the charm of a cactus and his prickly nature drives him from one engagement to the next, offending and putting off the mostly Chilean crowd with his brash Americano ways. As for why exactly he's plopped down in Chile, he's not a student or even a teacher working abroad, he's just another reason Americans get a bad name internationally. Jaime reveals the  true intention of his international journey boils down to a special plant called San Pedro, better known as peyote. 




In the grasp of an alcohol and cocaine cocktail, Jaime meets Crystal (Gaby Hoffmann) dancing with arm-slinky, air-grabbing moves, looking like a stoned fool, another American making an ass of herself. But her's is a different jackassery: she's an exemplar of the unshaven granola clump, proud of her pit hair and open spiritual convictions. Mocking her in the wings of the dance floor, Jaime's bitter persona seems to skip a beat and he winds up inviting her along for his quest. Exchanging numbers, Jaime gives Crystal the low down on their arrangements and tells her to meet them the next morning.

After a late night spent making beans and rice for transsexual prostitutes (don't ask), Jaime wakes with a brooding hangover, being called up to by Chilean friend Champa (Juan Andrés Silva) awaiting in the street below. Gathering Champa's brothers, they embark on a ride up north to hunt down the mystical cactus, but a phone call from Crystal confirms Jaime's suspicions that he was a little too faded the night prior. Although Jaime totally wants to blow her off, Champa's good guy sensibilities insist that Jaime swallow his pride and follow up on his promise to include the eponymous Crystal Fairy. What follows is a clash of sly-tongued titans.



In one corner, Jaime wants what he wants. He's the caliber of fella who will steal his beloved cactus from an kindly older woman if need be. He'll mock Crystal's abundant body hair, slowly degrading her with his sandpaper snide comments. Crystal is all about sharing, caring and opening up. As she tries to get to the root of Jaime's cutting animosity towards her, she runs into brick wall after brick wall, dismissed and degraded by his nonchalant dismissal of everything she stands for.

Preparing to launch into a full blown, 14-hour drug trip together, relations between Crystal and Jaime couldn't be more strained. Jaime can't even handle sharing a task as simple as cutting thorns off the cactus with the frumpy Crystal nor will he participate in her yoga sessions and even dumps the "spirit stone" she provides him. He won't buy her new age philosophy, a fact he's glad to throw in her face. 

As harsh and callous as he is, Cera is as hysterical as he is committed to his character. Out in left field, this version of the funnyman shows a diversity that has escaped him for a majority of his career. Ditching traditional Hollywood comedy and going on a limb like this shows that Cera has broken the box and is now reforming it into something new and far more interesting.

As Crystal, Hoffman is perfection. We've all met this new-age spirit in all their mumbo-jumbo slinging glory and we've all been irritated by their condensing manner and fax-spiritual jive. And while Crystal's act is off-putting, it's also dipped in truth and topped with character. She's more than another version of a hippie-dippy cloaked in flowy clothing, dipped in flowery patterns and a late stage reveal gives us all a reason to sympathize with her boggled outlook. 

Director Sebastián Silva has based this story on an experience of his own and tells it with riotous but compassionate understanding. It's funny for much of the same reasons that hanging out with your friends is funny. The laughs come naturally, and don't feel like jokes are retrofitted one-liners hashed out by a team of writers in some remote room. Why? Because they were largely unscripted, with most of Jaime's swings and dings straight from the twisted mind of Cera.

Crystal Fairy is Silva's answer to indie comedy. Rather than getting wound up in dramatic, Silva lets his talented stars loose to dust comedy in generous handfuls. Mixed against broken English and a foreign landscape, Jaime and Crystal's battle of wits is extremely digestible indie fare that exits on top with a wistful note.

B

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Film Review: "The To Do List"

"The To Do List"
Directed by Maggie Carrey
Starring Aubrey Plaza, Bill Hader, Johnny Simmons, Alia Shawkat, Sarah Steele, Scott Porter, Rachel Bilson, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Andy Samberg, Donald Glover, Connie Britton, Clark Gregg

Comedy, Romance
104 Mins
R
 
A little slow on the upkeep, The To-Do List is Aubrey Plaza and Maggie Carey's answer to the strain of 90s comedies probing sexual exploration. This time around, the placeholders are flipped on their heads, as this enterprise of intimacy is from the perspective of a real, live 21st century woman.

Subverting the framework by having the female protagonist on the hunt for man-bod (rather than the boilerplate convention of bumbling dudes trying to shake off their v-cards) frames the film in a new kind of light - a post-sexual, pro-Planned Parenthood brand of soft light that gently makes you look better than you are. Going so far as to demarcate it as a feminist effort though feels juvenile and a distinction that only the most staunch of conservatives would bother discerning. There just isn't that sort of agenda at play here. It's meant for simpleton, oafish fun and in that regard and that regard alone, it works.  Plaza and Carrey do run aground issues, and let their film flop flaccid, when they expect us to acknowledge this familiar mold for something that it's not: fresh.

Read more: Film Review: "The To Do List"

Film Review: "The Wolverine"

"The Wolverine"
Directed by James Mangold
Starring Hugh Jackman, Rila Fukushima, Hiroyuki Sanada, Svetlana Khodchenkova, Brian Tee, Hal Yamanouchi, Will Yun Lee, Ken Yamamura, Famke Janssen

Action, Adventure, Fantasy
126 Mins
PG-13

The Wolverine is as good a movie about Wolverine that audiences will probably ever get. While that sentiment comes saddled with a huge qualifier, I'd go so far as to claim that it's a pretty good movie on its own terms. I dare say it might have been a great movie if directed by Darren Aronofsky.

As you may already know, Aronofsky was originally designed to direct this sixth Hugh Jackman-led X-Men film but when the devastating 2011 Tōhoku tsunami hit Japan, he backed out due to a projected major production delay (ironically enough moving onto a movie about impending giant waves: Noah). Even without his physical presence on set, the film carries on with his signature fingerprints. Displaying themes of isolation and madness amidst a particularly genre-defying and soul-rummaging performance from Hugh Jackman, this is (until late in the third act) the least cartoonish superhero movie to date.

Read more: Film Review: "The Wolverine"

July '13 Digital Week III


Blu-rays of the Week
An Affair of the Heart
(Breaking Glass)
Three decades after his biggest hit, “Jessie’s Girl,” Aussie singer-soap opera star Rick Springfield is still going strong, performing concerts for his rabid fan base which, as this engaging documentary shows, comprises mostly middle-aged married moms.
 
We see several of them, some with perspective on their celebrity crush, but others who seemingly choose Springfield over their families. Springfield himself comes off as a genuinely likeable guy who is humble about his fame. The Blu-ray image is good; extras include deleted scenes and interviews.
 
Death in Venice
(Dynamic)
Benjamin Britten’s final operatic masterpiece sublimely sums up his artistic convictions (it premiered in 1973, three years before his death) while also providing a riveting live experience.
 
In his 2008 Venice staging, director Pier Luigi Pizzi superbly stages the central Apollo/Dionysus conflict, American tenor Marlin Miller toweringly plays the punishing lead role of the dying writer Ausenbach, in love with a young Venetian boy, and conductor Bruno Bartoletti leads the Venice Opera Orchestra and Chorus in an emotionally direct reading of Britten’s gorgeous score. The Blu-ray image and sound are top-notch.
 
Endeavour—Series 1
(PBS)
Based on stories by Colin Dexter, Endeavour follows young constable Endeavour Morse, whose brusque methods don’t make him friends among his superiors. Needless to say, his instincts prove correct again and again, and part of the fun is watching him cross the line but end up being right anyway.
 
All of the performances are pitched perfectly, with Shaun Evans’ Endeavour and Roger Allam’s Thursday leading the way. The hi-def image is excellent; no extras.
 
Hands of the Ripper
(Synapse)
In this exceptionally bloody Hammer horror entry, a young woman’s murderous impulses are traced to the killer of her mother when she was a baby: her father, Jack the Ripper. The clever scenario doesn’t entirely come off in director Peter Sasdy’s hands, but sheer chutzpah makes up for the shortcomings in the script and acting.
 
The murders themselves are a hoot to watch, while the ending is actually more resonant than one would expect from this type of movie. The Blu-ray image is terrific; extras include a 30-minute Hammer history featurette.

 
 
Orphan Black

(BBC Home Entertainment)

It’s not often I praise a TV show that such an ungainly hybrid like this weird mix of sci-fi, fantasy and crime drama, but there’s a reason Orphan Black works: Tatiana Maslany, an amazingly versatile Canadian actress.
 
Maslany plays so many roles in this convoluted clone conspiracy tale that her virtuosic ability to differentiate all of them nearly compensates for the narrative ridiculousness going on around her. The Blu-ray image is very good; extras include interviews.
 
Wild Bill
(Cinedigm)
Dexter Fletcher’s drama is a gritty but unoriginal story of a deadbeat dad making amends with his abandoned—and self-sufficient—15- and 11-year-old sons.
 
Although skillfully enacted by Charlie Creed-Miles (father) and Will Poulter and Sammy Williams (sons), everything feels overfamiliar, right down to the inevitable dragged-out barroom fight, all of whom are bested by dad (of course). The Blu-ray image looks good; extras include interviews, making-of featurette and deleted scenes.
 
DVDs of the Week
Bert Stern—Original Mad Man
(First Run)
The photographer who took the last pictures of Marilyn Monroe before her death in 1962 (including nudes), Bert Stern—who died last month at age 83—is the subject of this documentary by his younger partner Shannah Laumeister who, as Stern himself says, turns the camera on him for once.
 
In this informative if not very illuminating film (the “Mad Men” reference in the title seems more a marketing ploy than anything), his children, models, former wives and colleagues talk openly about Stern as an artist and a person, but the many enduring images seen through his lens are most memorable.
 
Brother Sun, Sister Moon
(Warner Archive)
Franco Zefferelli’s 1972 biopic about St. Francis of Assisi, covering his life as a young affluent man with rich parents who is called by God to a simple lifestyle, is a dated mess, with cornball, flower-power Donovan songs that drone on and performances that run the gamut from newcomer Graham Faulkner’s wide-eyed Francis to Alec Guinness’s zombified Pope.
 
Although Zefferelli’s eye is unerring, and physical details are impressive, the film as a whole sags under the weight of its pseudo-hipness.
 
Joanna Lumley’s Nile
(Athena)
Actress-host Joanna Lumley makes her dream trip of a lifetime, sailing down the Nile River from Alexandria, Egypt, to its source, deep in Africa, in Rwanda.
 
Her 4000-mile journey, though fraught with drama and danger, mainly shows the often startlingly different landscapes along those thousands of river miles, from small villages to bleak deserts. Lumley makes an affable guide for this stunning and even stirring journey to the heart of human civilization.
 
The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek
(Warner Archive)
Preston Sturges’ delightful wartime satire might have lost its potency over the years—in 1944, a movie about a young woman who got married and knocked up while drunk was obviously not standard fare—but it remains a comic classic of Americana.
 
Add to Sturges’ genius wonderfully over the top portrayals of Betty Hutton, Eddie Bracken, Diana Lynn and William Demarest and you have a perfect Hollywood comedy. Included are featurettes about the film and Sturges’ censorship problems.
 
Women Who Kill
(e one)
Comedienne Amy Schumer—whose own Comedy Central special and series have given her her highest profile yet—headlines this stand-up special featuring the abrasively cutting (and hilarious) Rachel Feinstein, and less original but still amusing Nikki Glaser and Marina Franklin.
 
All four women get plenty of laughs, but Feinstein’s ghetto voice routine is particularly snarky and funny, while Schumer’s blonde variation of Sarah Silverman works despite how much it strains to do so. Extras include short featurettes.

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