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February '13 Digital Week IV
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Sunday, 24 February 2013 05:00
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Blu-rays of the Week
Atlas Shrugged, Part II
(Fox)
The second part of this interminable adaptation of Ayn Rand’s bloated novel at least does away with her turgid prose, replacing it with mediocrity in front of and behind the camera. It’s infantile pro-“job creator” propaganda that even fans of Sean Hannity (who appears briefly—and badly—as himself) can understand.
If you enjoy seeing trains crash, then this is the movie for you: and there’s a reward for those who make it through all 112 minutes…the cliff-hanger introduction of the one and only John Galt. The hi-def transfer is first-rate; extras are deleted scenes, making-of featurette, extended Hannity segment.
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This gritty thriller, set in war-torn Afghanistan, follows a French journalist (a strong Diane Kruger) kidnaped by the Taliban who’s rescued by an elite group of special forces (led by Djimon Hounsou and Benoit Magimel).
While it goes on too long, Stephane Rybojadx’s drama is a real nail-biter, and the desert locales go a long way toward giving it an authenticity of time and place. The movie looks terrific on Blu-ray; extras include a making-of documentary as long as the actual movie and deleted scenes.
The Thief of Bagdad
(Cohen Media)
In this epic “Arabian Nights” fantasy, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. stars as Ahmed, the dashing thief who becomes a hero to the princess whom he sweeps off her feet.
Although Raoul Walsh’s 1924 silent has its share of dramatic longeurs amidst its 124 minutes, there’s never a dull visual moment, thanks to William Cameron Menzies’ amazing sets. And on Blu-ray, in a restored edition, it looks about as good as an 89-year-old movie is ever going to look. Extras include a commentary and featurette.
(PBS)
PBS’s Nova series takes a behind-the-scenes look at the grueling and difficult path to Curiosity, which is the latest attempt by NASA scientists to build a probe that will be sent to Mars and discover whether or not life has ever existed there.
Through a series of detailed experiments, we are shown how the probe—by far the most sophisticated robotic system ever sent to the Red Planet—is given a landing system that includes a massive parachute and crane whose jobs are to slow and touch down a probe coming in at 13,000 MPH. The Blu-ray image is ravishing.
(Weinstein/Anchor Bay)
Dan Lindsay and TJ Martin’s inspirational documentary (and last year’s Oscar winner) follows coach Bill Courtney, whose arrival at sad-sack Manassas High in North Carolina—where he found a pervasive losing mentality and culture—transforms the team after six difficult seasons into a winner, both on and off the field.
There are manipulative moments, but mainly this is an uplifting look at teenagers doing positive things when they set their minds to it. The Blu-ray image is good; extras include deleted scenes, directors’ commentary and making-of featurette.
Bestiaire
(Zeitgeist/KimStim)
Quebecois director Denis Cote’s fascinating glimpse at a safari park outside Montreal is 70 minutes filled with wondrous shots of workers and visitors interacting with and being mesmerized by the vast park’s animal inhabitants.
Bookended by evocative images—a young woman’s face in close-up and an elephant walking through a tree-filled landscape in long shot—the movie is, in a broad sense, reminiscent of Frederick Wiseman’s great documentaries. The lone extra is a Cote interview.
(Sony)
It’s not surprising that the directors of the animated Persepolis (Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud) made a live-action romantic/tragic fantasy that resembles a cartoon: characterizations are secondary to the lively atmosphere in this story of a noted violinist who recounts his rich life while awaiting death.
Mathieu Amalric is his usual solid self in the lead, Golshifteh Farahani is a ravishing specter of missed love, but the movie bumpily moves from seriousness to frivolity without melding them together. Extras include directors’ commentary and Tribeca Film festival Q&A.
(PBS)
In this hard-hitting PBS American Experience documentary, the innovative auto giant is profiled with two hours of insights into his achievements and embarrassments.
In addition to creating the automobile industry that ruled American labor for decades, Ford was also deeply racist and anti-Semitic, which might or might not disallow him from the annals of great Americans. Either way, this deeply flawed but fascinating man is worthy of this biography.
(Sundance Selects)
This devastating piece of cinematic advocacy powerfully documents AIDS activists getting the deadly epidemic into the sights of an inattentive government band and enabling themselves to survive despite the death sentence the disease gave them.
Director David France extensively—and adroitly—intercuts vintage footage with new interviews with the MVPs in the fight by ACT UP (the most prominent AIDS victims’ group) over so many years of fighting disease and government. Extras include commentary with France and ACT UP activists, along with deleted scenes.
(Sony)
In writer-director Jonas Akerlund’s black comedy, several non-descript—but oh so edgy—people interact with one another in a rundown apartment complex, including unexpected deaths.
A non-all-star cast—comprising Matt Lucas, Juno Temple, James Caan, Saffron Burrows, Rosie Perez, Billy Crystal and even Dolph Lundgren—is game but can’t overcome the interchangeable weirdness that fails to distinguish these characters. Extras include a behind the scenes featurette.
Peter Maxwell Davies—Concertos
(Naxos)
Peter Maxwell Davies’ concertos for trumpet, piccolo and piano—composed in 1988, 1996 and 1997, respectively—are ably conducted by the composer himself on these re-releases. His soloists—trumpeter John Wallace, piccolo player Stewart McIlwham and pianist Kathryn Scott—play splendidly; the trumpet concerto is certainly more astringent than the the lively piccolo concerto and the dense, dazzling piano concerto.
The other pieces on these discs (like Five Klee Pictures and his motet for orchestra, Worldes Blis) round out a compelling snapshot of this accomplished British composer.
"You Will Be My Son": A Full-bodied Concoction
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Saturday, 23 February 2013 11:31
- Written by David Gurevich
The latest vintage of Rendez-Vous with French Cinema (February 28 to March 10, 2013), the annual harvest of contemporary French film from the Film Society of Lincoln Center and Unifrance Films, gives cause to clink glasses. A particularly heady offering is Gilles Legrand's new father-son drama You Will Be My Son (Tu seras mon fils), set in the world of Bordeaux terroirs.
Picture formations of sunshine-caressed vines climbing up and down the hill, with the medieval fortress in the background. Picture a world where wine is taken more seriously than anything else.
Endless reds and whites are tasted throughout the movie; few are drunk; most are spat out, as befits professionals. In one scene,
a winemaker who is visiting his dying father in the hospital attempts to pour the doctor and nurse some of that ambrosia (“not on the job, monsieur”). The latter wrinkles her nose and delivers a spot-on analysis of all the 999 components. I melted. A rare US nurse who speaks English would know the difference between Diet Coke and Coke Classic, at best.
The mood here is anything but playful à la California comedy Sideways. Wine is serious business. It's the maker and breaker of relationships among the characters, sometimes even the killer. The plot and characters are as old-fashioned as a 19th-century family novel: there is formidable vineyard owner Paul de Marseul; his weak son Martin (Lorànt Deutsch) and his dying estate manager (Patrick Chesnais) who, it seems, can only be replaced by his own son Philippe (Nicolas Bridet), who is everything de Marseul fils is not. And the reigning element is ze palate - it’s all about ze palate!
Actually, it’s more than that – it’s about being professional against being paternal. Should de Marseul have his business inherited by his son, whom he disdains, or by Philippe, who's in a better position to save the brand? It's blood vs. wine, and de Marseul comes up with an ingenuous legal way to solve the problem: did you know that in France you may adopt an adult, even one whose parent is still alive?
This maneuver comes atop one scene after another where de Marseul thoroughly humiliates his son for everything under the Saint-Émilion sun, from jogging US-style to failing to supply a grandson. With most actors, resentment of the old man would have already forced me out of the theater; but de Marseul is played with remarkable precision and panache by Nils Arestrup (recently in Spielberg’s War Horse, and especially fabulous as a Corsican godfather in A Prophet). Arestrup's de Marseul doesn’t just dump on his son gratuitously; we see what’s behind each humiliation, and this knowledge makes us pause and not dismiss de Marseul out of hand. Everyone and everything in this movie, from the rest of the cast to the beautiful landscapes and even wines and $3,000 shoes (that’s a story unto itself), is a supporting character to Arestrup’s.
With the exception of a final twist in the plot –- which only seems surprising but on balance is a perfectly logical denouement –- You Will Be My Son is a solid and intelligent discourse on life and life’s work, made seriously and respectfully without falling back on one-liners and “teachable moments” that derail so many Hollywood movies. People who don’t care for this sort of thing should stick to jug wine and leave Pétrus alone.
NYC Theater Roundup: 'Laramie Project' and "All in the Timing" Return
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Thursday, 21 February 2013 10:00
- Written by Kevin Filipski
The Laramie Project Cycle
Directed by Moises Kaufman and Leigh Fondakowski
Performances February 12-24, 2013
All in the Timing
Written by David Ives; directed by John Rando
Performances through April 14, 2013
The Laramie Project, which played off-Broadway in 2000, was an emotionally devastating experience. Director Moises Kaufman’s Tectonic Theatre Company—comprising several talented performer-writers—drew upon dozens of their interviews with citizens of Laramie (the Wyoming town where Matthew Shepard was brutally murdered in 1998 by two gay-bashers) to piece together an honest account of how such a heinous crime affected those who lived through it.
In 2008, Kaufman and company returned to Laramie for a follow-up, and The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later makes its New York premiere at BAM alongside the original, which remains a touchstone of theatrical journalism. So it’s almost inevitable that the sequel falls somewhat short of the high standards the company set for itself. But humane, intelligent and necessary viewing describes Ten Years Later to a T.
Using the same unadorned “style” of the original—the performers take turns directly addressing the audience while speaking in either their own or the locals’ voices and words—Ten Years Later deftly dismantles the dishonest “20/20” segment by Elizabeth Vargas from 2004, which trumpeted that Shepherd was murdered in a robbery and drug deal gone wrong. Those lazy untruths insinuated themselves into the very psyche of Laramie, as the Tectonics found when they returned to town: many people wanted to sweep the “hate crime” stigma under the rug.
Exploring what Shepherd’s murder means to Laramie a decade on—from anger to resignation to indifference— Ten Years Later also builds tension in separate interviews with killers Russell Henderson, whose appearance climaxes Act I, and Aaron McKinney, who dominates Act II. Henderson comes off as vaguely sympathetic and McKinney as an unrepentant dirtbag, but their dual presence doesn’t overwhelm the care and the craft that have gone into this searing—and must-see—play.
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| Liv Rooth and Carson Ellrod in All in the Timing (photo: James Leynse) |
All in the Timing, David Ives’ delightful series of six one-acts, returns to Primary Stages, the theater which premiered it 20 years ago: it won’t run for 600 performances again, but its cleverness and humor permeate all two hours of John Rando’s winning new production. Although little more than glorified sketches, the playlets of All in the Timing have much to say about how we use and abuse language and one another.
The opener, “Sure Thing,” introduces Ives’ method, which has anything but madness in it: Bill and Betty meet in a Manhattan café and run through various permutations of how their conversation proceeds—or doesn’t—based on whether he, she or both respond in ways to further their discussion or to stop it dead in its tracks. Here’s a witty sample:
Bill: What’s the book?
Betty: The Sound and the Fury
Bill: Oh. Faulkner.
Betty: Have you read it?
Bill: I’m a Mets fan, myself.
In some ways, this rapid-fire two-hander is the best of the lot; other skits belabor their jokes (“The Universal Language,” about a new tongue dreamt up by a man to meet women), while others hammer their jokes into the ground (Philip Glass’s dully repetitive music is rightfully skewered in “Philip Glass Buys a Loaf of Bread,” although at ten minutes it wears out its welcome—like Glass’s music, which may be the point).
Better are “Words, Words, Words,” which smartly satirizes science telling us that a monkey at a typewriter can eventually write Hamlet; “The Philadelphia,” which snappily turns alternate reality on its head; and “Variations on the Death of Trotsky,” which transforms the Russian revolutionary’s murder into a wildly surreal voyage.
Rando’s irresistible staging whisks us from one skit to the next, while his adroit quintet—led by the comedically and histrionically agile Carson Elrod—effortlessly keep Ives’ amusing balls floating in the air.
The Laramie Project Cycle
Brooklyn Academy of Music, 651 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, NY
All in the Timing
Primary Stages @ 59 E 59 Theatres, 59 East 59th Street, New York, NY
February '13 Digital Week III
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Friday, 15 February 2013 05:00
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Blu-rays of the Week
Argo
(Warners)
Director-star Ben Affleck dramatizes the so-strange-it-must-be-true story of U.S. embassy workers in Tehran during the 1979-80 hostage crisis holed up in the Canadian ambassador’s house while the CIA concocted an elaborate rescue plan. This is solid Hollywood moviemaking: Affleck smartly surrounds himself with top-notch actors and films it straightforwardly.
The tension remains even though we know the outcome: it’s just too bad that Affleck can’t resist adding a phony “skin of their teeth” climax. On Blu-ray, it looks superb; extras include Affleck and writer Chris Terrio’s commentary, several featurettes and a documentary about the hostages on the 25th anniversary of their rescue.
(Sony)
Despite her enormously warm presence, Rashida Jones is defeated in this irritating comedy of a couple that can’t let go despite knowing they should split up. Jones’ costar Andy Samberg’s one-note presence drags the movie down to a sophomoric level whenever he’s onscreen.
But Jones is also to blame, since she co-wrote the script with McCormack: the writer lets the actress down. In addition, the delightful Ari Graynor (who plays Jones’ best friend) also deserves better. The Blu-ray image is decent; extras include commentaries, deleted scenes and featurettes.
(Tribeca)
A lone samurai warrior arrives at his lord’s estate hoping for an honorable death in this latest retelling of the epic swashbuckler immortalized in 1962 by master director Masaki Kobayashi. For this unnecessary remake, director Takashi Miike makes it all very stylish and lush—the original was in black and white, while this version is in vivid color—but not particularly compelling.
Needless to say, the splashy visuals look amazing on Blu-ray, but since Kobayashi’s classic is available on Blu-ray from Criterion, this is an expandable release. The lone extra is Geoffrey Gilmore’s brief discussion of the film.
(MPI)
Writer-director Guillaume Canet’s heavy-handed French Big Chill is a protracted tale of friends who gather at a beach house while one of them is in the ICU seriously injured from a motorcycle accident. The movie keeps stopping dead with scenes that do nothing to further our interest in the characters, who reek of self-indulgence and insufferability for 2-1/2 hours.
Marion Cotillard, always intense, cements her rep as cinema’s best crier, while she and good actors like Francois Cluzet and Gilles Lelouche have only stick figures to play. The movie has a warm sheen in hi-def; extras include featurettes.
(Fox)
In Ben Lewin’s comic drama, John Hawkes is fantastic as Mark O’Brien, a man who’s spent most of his life in an iron lung, and who wants a sexual encounter—so he calls a sex therapist, played with astonishing tenderness by Helen Hunt, the rare American actress at ease with plentiful nudity.
Lewin’s light touch is perfect for such adult subject matter and ordinary protagonist, but it’s his actors—save William Macy, too Macy-ish as Mark’s father confessor of sorts—who save the day. The Blu-ray image is immaculate; extras include featurettes and interviews.
Diana Vreeland—The Eye Has to Travel
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Diana Vreeland—a leading fashionista long before that term gained currency—edited Vogue and transformed the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s moribund Costume Institute into something special.
Lisa Immordino Vreeland’s otherwise pedestrian documentary of a terrific subject at least includes wonderful archival footage of the woman herself, along with discussions on her career and legacy by Marisa Berenson, Twiggy, Calvin Klein and others. Extras include additional interviews.
(First Run)
The world of high fashion modeling is shown in all its smarmy non-glory in David Redmon and Ashley Sabin’s tough documentary portrait. Unblinking cameras follow 13-year-old Siberian Nadya—who goes to Japan for her big break, unable to understand the language—and Ashley, a former model who selects newbies to (possibly) become famous in Japan.
Not that it’s revelatory, but seeing how these innocent girls are treated in an industry that spits them out daily is disturbing to watch. Extras comprise deleted scenes.
(Warners)
The final season of the popular TV series about the young and beautiful on Manhattan’s Upper East Side is a lively, amusingly superficial chronicle of the one percent spending its time insulated from the rest of the world.
Still, one could do worse than watch the great Margaret Colin at her snarky best, and the vivacious Leighton Meester and Blake Lively are not to be taken lightly either. Extras include on-set featurettes and a gag reel.
(First Run)
In his first feature in several years, master documentarian Ross McElwee again trains his camera on himself—this time, he also returns to Europe to look up a long-ago girlfriend and deals with the difficulties his adult son has separating the virtual and real worlds.
As always, McElwee manages to find humor amidst heartbreak and insightfully analyzes the very mediums he uses: photography, film and digital are parsed to reveal their importance to one’s past, present and even future.
(Impulse)
These triple X movies are considered the height of “artistic porn” in the early 1980s; but although Fred Lincoln—the nominal director—was able to keep the camera focused on the correct body parts throughout, he’s no Radley Metzger or Gerard Damiano, to name two better purveyors of erotica.
The hardcore scenes are intact—so beware to anyone unfamiliar with these movies—but so are the flimsy storylines: nowadays, the “gonzo” shooting style has done away with pointless “plots.” The lone noteworthy achievement is the genuine beauty of Loni Sanders in Same Time.
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