the traveler's resource guide to festivals & films
a FestivalTravelNetwork.com site
part of Insider Media llc.

Connect with us:
FacebookTwitterYouTubeRSS

Reviews

New Films in Brief: Invisible War, Stella Days, Collaborator

The Invisible War

Directed by Kirby Dick

Opened June 22, 2012

Stella Days

Directed by Thaddeus O’Sullivan

Opened June 22, 2012; available on demand June 19

Collaborator

Written and directed by Martin Donovan

Opens July 6, 2012; available on demand June 20

One of the most important documentaries in years, The Invisible War powerfully gives voice Invisibleto women in the U.S. military who were raped or sexually abused while serving, an outcome shockingly more possible than being shot by the enemy in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Despite our best and brightest women joining the armed forces due to patriotism or long family traditions, their lives have been unconscionably ruined by a strictly male-centered mentality that puts women under enormous added pressure just for being women. Being violated physically is just the beginning of the nightmare: what they endure afterward—if they decide to report the abuse, which many don’t for fear of reprisals—is as distressing emotionally as the rape was.

Director Kirby Dick—whose other valuable documentaries are This Film Is Not Yet Rated and Outrage—not only gets several women to recount their compelling but heartbreaking stories, showing what lies ahead for those still being abused, but also buttresses his argument with head-scratching statistics about how widespread the abuse is and how little the army has done to combat it. (Laughable examples of PSAs designed to raise awareness within the armed services do little but consolidate the “blame the victim” mentality still prevalent in wider society as well.)

The Invisible War lays bare how our otherwise estimable armed forces are tarnished by this horrific debasement of so many unfortunate victims (there are some males among them): in eye-opening interviews with senior members of the military both clued in and clueless, that disconnect remains, despite recent advances, post-screening for Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, to try and remedy some of the injustices done to those who make claims against fellow soldiers.


StellaStella Days is based on Michael Doorley’s memoir of rural Ireland in the 1950s when a country still heavily influenced by the Catholic Church is taking baby steps to modernize, despite vociferous opposition by conservative leaders to remain in the dark ages.

Into the breach steps Father Daniel Barry, a liberal-leaning priest who, with the help of new school teacher Tim, to open a small movie theater for a population that’s barely seen any. Leading the anti-movie charge is Brendan, an ultra-conservative zealot running for office, hoping to keep his constituency from entering the 20th century, even belatedly.

Although Stella Days is mainly a feel-good melodrama, director Thaddeus O’Sullivan keeps sentiment at bay by approaching the subject with humor, especially when showing the absurd convictions of Father Barry’s parishioners. However, although Father Barry is skeptical, he’s still a believer, and never does he or O’Sullivan mock such heartfelt sentiments.

With on-target performances by Martin Sheen as Father Barry and Stephen Rea as Brendan, Stella Days is worth spending time with.

 

Martin Donovan first came to attention in Hal Hartley’s romantic comedy Trust (1990), in collaboratorwhich Donovan and the late, great Adrienne Shelley traded quips in Hartley’s arch but affecting classic. So it’s no surprise that Collaborator, Donovan’s first film as writer and director, borrows from Hartley in its deadpan study of two men thrown together by unlikely circumstances.

Donovan plays Robert Longfellow, a playwright on the downside of his career and his marriage, who returns to L.A. from New York City to visit his mother. He also rekindles an affair with Emma, an actress who starred in several of his plays, and runs into Gus, a shady ex-felon from the neighborhood he’s known since they were kids: the men drink beers and kick around old times, and when Gus pulls a gun on Robert as the police surround Robert’s mother’s home, he finds his messy personal life is shown to a riveted television audience.

As writer, Donovan has created intriguingly bizarre characters of the sort Hartley did, as well as tart dialogue between the mismatched men compensating for the contrived relationships between Robert and Emma (underplayed sweetly by Olivia Williams) and his wife Alice (stiffly played by ex-Hole bassist Melissa auf der Maur).

As director, Donovan leans too heavily on the men’s absurd situation, and the title’s double entendre is too literally spelled out in the men’s final confrontation. As actor, Donovan doesn’t stretch himself as the put-upon hero, while David Morse persuasively portrays a loser grasping at anything resembling a life preserver. The actors provide the movie’s true collaboration.

 

The Invisible War

http://invisiblewarmovie.com

Stella Days

http://tribecafilm.com

Collaborator

http://tribecafilm.com

June '12 Digital Week IV

Blu-rays of the Week
A Bag of Hammers
(MPI)
This indifferent comedy is another “who-cares” look at annoying people who act unlike anyone in the real world (at least I hope so, for our sake). They insult and cajole one another and other innocent people, but when the chips are down, director Brian Crano and co-writer Jake Sandvig desperately attempt to inject humanity to gain sympathy from viewers. However, I can’t see how any viewer cannot be left unmoved.
The lone interest comes from Rebecca Hall, who creates a lovely character with no help from Crano and Sandvig. There’s a first-rate hi-def transfer; the lone extra is a making-of featurette.
Eugene Onegin (Opus Arte)
and Lakme (Opera Australia)
A pair of 19th century operatic masterpieces gets the hi-def treatment: Tchaikovsky’s greatest stage work Eugene Onegin and Hector Delibes’ lone hit Lakme. Onegin, from 2011 in Amsterdam, is hampered by director Stefan Herheim’s goofy concept, but the glorious music—conducted by Mariss Jansons—compensates.

Lakme—filmed at Opera Australia last year—is more traditionally exotic, in keeping with the work’s mysticism, and sung beautifully by Emma and Dominica Matthews, who sing a duet on the famous “Flower Song.” The operas look and sound splendid on Blu-ray.
My Afternoons with Margueritte
(Cohen Media Group)
At age 77 in 2010, director Jean Becker created this affecting portrait of enduring friendship in this sweetly sentimental tale of two lonely people—middle-aged, barely literate laborer and elderly but vigorous woman—who bond over the glories of discovering new worlds through reading.
As the mismatched pair, Gerard Depardieu (appropriately downtrodden) and Gisele Casadesus are wonderful, with a radiant assist by Maurane as Depardieu’s loving but confused girlfriend. The unassuming drama is matched by its subdued photography, which gets a first-rate hi-def transfer.
Nature: The White Lions
and Nova: Hunting the Elements
(PBS)
Another stunning PBS Nature program, Lions sympathetically chronicles the difficulties of two lionesses to survive in the wild with tell-tale white fur; Nova’s equally superb Elements provocatively shows the world of science harnessing elements from inert gold to malevolent phosphorus.
Both programs utilize hi-def visuals to their full: Lions’ superlative nature photography and Elements’ engrossing breakdown of minute particles.
Project X
(Warners)
I know I’m not the target audience for this empty-headed flick about high school losers whose popularity rises when one of them hosts a huge party while his parents are away. Is there a shred of redeeming value to a movie that simply shows brainless teens doing what brainless teens have done since time immemorial?
That hack director Todd Phillips produced this unwatchable mess is unsurprising; that several comely young women consented to take their clothes off for it is saddening: it’s a paycheck, I guess. Undoubtedly, Projects Y and Z are next. Extras comprise three featurettes with interviews.
Red Scorpion
(Synapse)
Dolph Lundgren became an action star in this mindless 1985 flick about a dirty rotten Commie who sees the light and helps defeat the pesky Russians (the same year he was as the ultimate Russian fighting machine in Rocky IV).
While the movie is negligible, the Blu-ray is excellent: a terrific new hi-def transfer, new interviews with Lundgren and make-up ace Tom Saviani, on-set footage and a behind-the-scenes featurette.
Seeking Justice
(Anchor Bay)
Old pro Roger Donaldson directed this flimsy thriller with welcome verve, despite its silly story about a mild-mannered teacher (Nicolas Cage, of all people) who consents to have his wife’s rapist be offed in exchange for “future payment,” which comes when he must kill someone he doesn’t know.
Cage is surprisingly subdued, January Jones (the wife) is gorgeous, and the action competently done; but it falls apart at the end. The Blu-ray image is fine; the lone extra is a making-of featurette.
Stone Temple Pilots: Alive in the Windy City
(Eagle Vision)
This 2010 reunion concert on the heels of the band’s lackluster eponymous CD shows off STP at its hard-rocking best, with Dean DeLeo’s charged guitar stylings, brother Robert’s booming bottom end on bass and Eric Kretz’s blistering drums. Vocalist Scott Weiland is agile physically—his non-stop movement is on display—and vocally, hitting every note and then some.
New tunes “Between the Lines” and “Huckleberry Crumble” stand alongside classics like “Big Empty,” Plush” and “Interstate Love Song,” which has one of the all-time great hooks. The hi-def image is good; a 15-minute interview is included.
DVDs of the Week
Attenberg
(Strand)
Athina Rachel Tsangari’s deadpan study of a young woman’s sexual inexperience gets much right about the terrifying world of adulthood.
But despite the artistry of her rigorous compositions and the strikingly natural performances by Ariane Labed in the lead and Evangelia Randou as her best friend, Tsangari’s film hits an artistic dead end after making its points early, then recycles them for 97 minutes to mute their power.
How Much Does That Building Weigh, Mr. Foster?
(First Run)
The cantankerously inventive British architect Norman Foster’s artsy profile by directors Norberto Lopez Amado and Carlos Carcas does the job in a succinct 80 minutes.
Many of Foster’s brilliantly original designs—like the Hearst Tower in midtown Manhattan and the stunning, towering Millau Viaduct in France—are shown with spectacular aerial photography, while we get to know what makes such a unique artist tick. (Shockingly, the DVD’s back cover notes that the movie is “honing,” not “homing,” in on Foster’s works.)

A Matter of Taste
(First Run)
Paul Liebrandt, wunderkind chef, is profiled in this entertaining documentary covering nearly a decade in the career of a temperamental genius whose goal is to get three stars from the NY Times for his first restaurant venture as a co-owner. Considering her film’s only 69 minutes, director Sally Rowe covers a lot of ground, interviewing Liebrandt, other chefs and even the Times’ reviewers William Grimes and Frank Bruni.
The result is a gastronomic feast that reveals the pressure these people put themselves under in such a rarefied world. Extras include additional chef interviews and two shorts.
CD of the Week
Dmitri Shostakovich: Orango
(Deutsche Grammophon)

Dmitri Shostakovich never finished his satirical opera Orango, only getting through the prologue. In Simon McBurney’s orchestration, it’s a daffy, derivative piece of fluff by one of the 20th century’s Soviet masters. The 30 minutes of music are rarely original but always fun to listen to.

Both Orango and a compelling account of Shostakovich’s massive Fourth Symphony—written in the mid-‘30s but not premiered until 1961—are performed by the L.A. Philharmonic under conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen.

Theater Roundup: Shanley in the Bronx, Shakespeare in the Park


Storefront Church
Starring Bob Dishy, Giancarlo Esposito, Zach Grenier, Ron Cephas Jones, Jordan Lage, Tonya Pinkins
Written and directed by John Patrick Shanley

As You Like It
Starring Andre Braugher, Donna Lynne Champlin, Jon DeVries, Susannah Flood, David Furr, Renee Elise Goldsberry, Robert Joy, Oliver Platt, Lily Rabe, Will Rogers, Stephen Spinella
Written by William Shakespeare; directed by Daniel Sullivan

Storefront Church (photo: Kevin Thomas Garcia)

The final play in his “Church and State” trilogy which began with the masterly Doubt and brittle Defiance, John Patrick Shanley’s Storefront Church displays his virtues and vices in abundance. Notably, there’s Shanley’s uncanny ability to not only believably differentiate his characters from one another but allow them their dignity, whether it’s Bronx Borough President Donaldo Calderon or middle-aged neighborhood resident Jessie Cortez, losing her house to foreclosure.
They are just two of a half-dozen characters, all shot through with Shanley’s characteristic humanity. But that’s also where Shanley stumbles. He crams so many of their individual idiosyncrasies into a two-hour running time—along with other interests related to “Church and State” (both institutions interconnect more here than in the other plays)—that the drama is shortchanged.
Donaldo is asked by the intensely religious Jessie to help her and “secular Jew” husband Ethan Goldklang—whose opening-scene heart attack in the office of the local bank’s uncaring loan officer Reed Van Druyten greases the play’s creaky dramatic wheels—in their battle with the bank, but since Donaldo is also teaming with the bank’s slick CEO Tom Raidenberg on a brand new mall that will bring lots of minimum-wage jobs to a borough desperate for them following the 2008 financial meltdown, he feels there might be a conflict of interest to intervene on Jessie’s behalf.
Also as a favor to Jessie, Donaldo confronts Chester Kimmich, a Pentecostal minister from New Orleans living rent-free in a storefront that Jessie has a second mortgage on; spiritually paralyzed by Hurricane Katrina, Charles cannot bring himself to sermonize, so he hasn’t opened the storefront church whose collection money would help him pay his back rent to Jessie.
Eventually, all six characters come together in the title place one Sunday morning, and many of their secrets come out in characteristically revealing ways. Shanley (who also directs) is helped by an immaculate cast led by Giancarlo Esposito’s wounded, weary portrait of a believer and politician realizing that politics and community service may be impossible to reconcile.
If Storefront Church ends with a forced but wearily jubilant finale, there’s much to chew on from our most consistently intelligent playwright.
As You Like It (photo: Joan Marcus)

Right before intermission of Daniel Sullivan’s otherwise lackluster As You Like It are five of the most memorable minutes I’ve encountered in 25 years of attending free Shakespeare in Central Park performances. Although Stephen Spinella’s sing-song recitation of the great “Seven Ages of Man” speech is awkwardly spoken, Sullivan stages the physical action with a welcome awareness of the text and an understanding of Shakespeare’s awesome humanity.
We are in a world of genius for a few fleeting moments, but such gracefulness is missing from the rest of the production, whose Forest of Arden—despite the surrounding foliage of the Delacorte Theater’s environs—is supplemented by a massive wooden fort at stage center whose lone function is to obscure the trees making up the rest of set designer John Lee Beatty’s forest.
Despite the play being nonsensically set in the Wild West (which accommodates Steve Martin’s appealing bluegrass music performed by a group of musicians including the talented Tony Trischka on banjo and vocals), the big problem is that Sullivan misses the big picture to concentrate on individual scenes.
The many comic interludes, led by a jolly Oliver Platt as the clown Touchstone and the invaluable Jon DeVries as the old shepherd Corin, receive the evening’s biggest applause—especially when supplemented by hijinks not written by Shakespeare, always a touchstone for Central Park audiences—but the main plot’s cross-dressing and comic romance featuring our heroine Rosalind, her cousin Celia and paramour Orlando are treated lackadaisically.
David Furr makes an appealing Orlando and Renee Elise Goldsberry is a decent Celia, but the show’s biggest disappointment is the Rosalind of Lily Rabe, an actress whose strident, piercing voice and bulldozing manner are all wrong for Shakespeare’s greatest female creation. Compare the one-note Rabe to Rebecca Hall at BAM in 2005, whose Rosalind I still remember for an affecting, slightly gawky quality that beautifully brought out her vulnerability while in disguise as the boy Ganymede.
At BAM, Rosalind’s audience-pleasing epilogue was spoken by Hall with a winning combination of humility and good humor, while in the Park, Rabe hammily underlines every word to ensure all “get it.” Audiences may eat it up, but the sublime As You Like It should not be treated as a mere rewrite of the crude Comedy of Errors.
Storefront Church
Performances began May 16, 2012; opened June 11; closes June 24
Atlantic Theater Company, 336 West 20th Street, New York, NY

As You Like It
Previews began June 5, 2012; opened June 21; closes June 30
Delacorte Theatre, Central Park, New York, NY

The Songwriters Hall of Fame 2012 Induction Ceremony

Bob Seger Songwriters Credit GETTY resizeAlthough it was created 17 years before the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the Songwriters Hall of Fame has never gotten the attention from the entertainment media and the public that it deserves.

Part of the problem is that the Songwriters Foundation has never gotten the funding to build a permanent home in a city (it’s currently a wing in LA’s Grammy Museum) the way Cleveland stepped up for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation.

It’s a shame because New York, with its rich music publishing and theatrical history would be a natural fit to pay tribute to the greatest tunesmiths in history.

One advantage that the Songwriters Hall of Fame has over its Rock & Roll counterpart is that it can honor composers from various musical genres. At the 43rd annual Songwriters Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, held June 14, 2012, at the Marriott Marquis in Manhattan, nearly every form of popular music was represented.

The evening opened with Bob Seger, already a Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, commemorating being honored by the SHOF with a performance of a relatively minor hit for him, “Turn The Page.” It would have been easy for him to sing any of his big hits such as “Night Moves,” “We’ve Got Tonight,” “Hollywood Nights” and the like, but “Turn The Page,” with its lyrics that strip away the perceived glamor of the road life of a rock musician on the road, was clearly autobiographical and downright personal for him.

Gordon Lightfoot Resize Getty Larry BusaccaCanadian troubadour Gordon Lightfoot still tours around the world at age 73 and although his voice, has frayed a bit from his 1970s hit-making days, he still sounds great. It’s not shocking that the snooty and arbitrary Rock & Roll Hall of Fame has ignored Lightfoot.

But it is also surprising however that it has taken this long for the Songwriters Hall executive committee to honor this great storyteller whose works include: “The Early Morning Rain,” “Rainy Day People,” “Beautiful,” “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” “Carefree Highway,” and “Sundown” -- which was performed on this night by blues rocker Steve Miller.

Although it wasn’t his biggest hit, “If You Could Read My Mind,” with its irresistible string section and acoustic guitar interludes -- punctuated by Gordon’s ruminations over the regrets of a failed relationship -- was the record that put him on the map. Lightfoot performed the song that night with all of the freshness and enthusiasm that he did back in 1971.

Don Schlitz is not a household name for most pop music fans, and no, he is not related to the family that made Schlitz Beer. He is, however, highly respected in Nashville and understandably so.

Among the songs in his portfolio are hit songs for Randy Travis (“Forever and Ever, Amen” and “On The Other Hand”), the late Keith Whitley (“When You Say Nothing At All”) and Alabama (“Forty Hour Week”).

In terms of recognition, those aforementioned songs pale in comparison to “The Gambler,” a gigantic 1978 hit for Kenny Rogers who sang it again on this night.

Interestingly when I met Schlitz on a Manhattan street years ago he told me that he knew nothing about poker or any kind of card games. Indeed, a close lis

Constantine Maroulis Meat Loaf Resize Getty Larry Busacca

ten to the lyrics show that the poker terminology is merely a metaphor for the vicissitudes of life.

Just as Kenny Rogers came to show appreciation to the composer who gave him one of his signature hits, so did Marvin Lee Aday, better known to most as Meat Loaf, who came to honor Jim Steinman, the man behind his multi-platinum 1977 Bat Out Of Hell album. In his speech for Steinman, Meat Loaf talked about how his songs were all mini-plays and the lyrics were often tongue-in-cheek. “Fortunately our fans were in on the joke,” he said.

The late Yankees broadcaster Phil Rizzuto always claimed that he wasn’t in on the humor when he recorded a bit for that album that had a player trying to steal bases including home as a metaphor for a passionate evening. “He could go all the way!” said the Scooter in the song.I have a feeling that Rizzuto was protesting with a wink of the eye.

Steinman grew up in Hewlett and his over-the-top bombastic production made him rock’s answer to the German classical composer Richard Wagner. While he is most identified with Meat Loaf, Steinman composed hits for Celine Dion (“It’s All Coming Back To Me”), Barry Manilow (“Read ‘Em And Weep”), Bonnie Tyler (“Total Eclipse Of The Heart”), and Air Supply (“Making Love Out Of Nothing At All”). 

Broadway was not forgotten as the composing tandem of Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones (not the Welsh singer) were honored for their contributions to musical theater. They are responsible for the longest running play in showbiz history -- The Fantasticks.

Cheyenne Jackson, one of the hottest actors working in New York today sang “Try To Remember” whose lyric of “without the hurt, the heart is hollow,” is, for my money, one of the best one-line philosophical observations ever put into a song. Jackson did not put the passion that the late Jerry Orbach or the Brothers Four, who had a pop hit with it did, but he got the job done.

But that's what made this evening, and the annual Songwriters Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony such an important event -- because it gives all of us a chance to remember who were the core creators of some of the greatest songs we've ever heard.

The 43rd annual Songwriters Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony
June 14, 2012
the Marriott Marquis
Manhattan

Newsletter Sign Up

Upcoming Events

No Calendar Events Found or Calendar not set to Public.

Tweets!