the traveler's resource guide to festivals & films
a FestivalTravelNetwork.com site
part of Insider Media llc.
Reviews
April '12 Digital Week II
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Saturday, 14 April 2012 10:00
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Blu-rays of the Week
(Raro)
Luchino Visconti--the Italian director whose best films (Bellissima, La Terra Trema) were smaller-scaled than his more celebrated, but less good, operatic ones (Rocco and His Brothers, Death in Venice, The Damned)--made this 1974 chamber drama, his penultimate film. In this clash between a strident Italian family and a retired American professor living in Rome, Burt Lancasterlooks lost throughout, and the relationships are strictly soap-opera.
The movie’s intimacy is served well on Blu-ray, with pleasingly muted colors. There’s an option to watch in English (with Lancaster’s real voice) or dubbed in Italian. The lone extra is an interview with critic Alessandro Bencivenni.
The Darkest Ho
ur
(Summit)
Director Chris Gorak’s alien invasion thriller interests if only due to its insane premise and superb locations. The lethal invaders can vaporize any living being quickly, so the only hope is to get behind glass (because the monsters can’t see through it). Moscow is a wonderfully photogenic city, and Gorak makes the most of it, using the Kremlin, St. Basil’s Cathedral and the massive Gum department store as backdrops for the grisly goings-on.
The splendid effects and settings look spectacular on Blu-ray; extras include a new short, Survivors, making-of featurette, deleted/extended scenes and commentary.
Into the Abyss
(MPI/Sundance Selects)
Werner Herzog’s evenhanded, relentlessly probing documentary about prisoners on death row isn’t a cut-and-dried anti-capital punishment screed; instead, Herzog--as always in his non-fiction films--digs deeply by bringing in everyone affected by a triple murder in Texas: the killers and their families, the victims’ families, even a priest and executioner who have attended many state-sanctioned killings.
Since the movie is mainly interviews (Herzog’s inimitable voice asks the gently probing questions), the hi-def transfer is adequate, nothing more. No extras, but four episodes of On Death Row (a program on the Investigation Discovery network) are brilliant pendants to this full-length exploration.
The Iron La
dy
(Weinstein/Anchor Bay)
Meryl Streep’s tour de force (and Oscar-winning) portrayal of Margaret Thatcher dominates Phyllida Lloyd’s Cliff Notes summary of the former British prime minister as the most polarizing politician of her time. Lloyd and screenwriter Ari Morgan fumble the strands of their protagonist’s controversial life, but their star brings them to forceful, purposeful life.
Streep even overcomes the urge to engage in her usual self-indulgences: the harrowing close-ups of an elderly Thatcher--beaten down, tired and lonely--are unusually intimate, rather than a way for the actress to show off her formidable technique. The Blu-ray image is as flawless as Streep; extras include on-set featurettes.
A Streetcar Named Desire 
(Warners)
Marlon Brando's incendiary Stanley Kowalski is best remembered in Elia Kazan's blistering adaptation of Tennessee Williams' play, but he's really just one-quarter of a sublime ensemble: Karl Malden is a terrific Mitch, Kim Hunter an enchanting Stella and Oscar winner Vivien Leigh a sad and sympathetic Blanche DuBois.
Despite censorship constraints, Williams' classic stage work retains its power, abetted by stunning B&W photography and Alex North's jazz-inflected score. On Blu-ray, the scrubbed-clean film loses none of its clarity and power; extras include featurettes on Brando, Kazan, Williams and North, and a commentary featuring Malden and two film historians.
DVDs of the W
eek
The Commander, Series 2
(Acorn Media)
Hoping that lightning would strike again, Prime Suspect creator Lynda LaPlante created another strong female detective, but—on the evidence of the four 90-minute mysteries in this set—misses this time.
Amanda Burton is a persuasive Clare Blake, whose willingness to try unusual methods to crack cases is controversial, and there’s a crack supporting cast, but these people and their investigations rarely engage on an emotional level, a far cry from LaPlante’s earlier hit, when Helen Mirren shook things up as Jane Tennyson.
King of Devil’s Island 
(Film Movement)
Stellan Skarsgard’s typically intense portrayal as the cruel head of a Norwegian reform school dominates director Marius Holst’s dramatic reenactment of a true story about a group of young men who are pushed to the brink of rebellion by a series of horrible mistreatments.
Holst’s film builds to an emotionally stirring climax, and its excellent young actors--mostly amateurs, but all unfamiliar to these eyes--heighten its authenticity. Holst’s eye is unerringly true throughout; the lone extra is Al Mackay’s short, Bale.
Logan’s Run: The
Complete Series
(Warners)
The 1976 futuristic movie with Michael York and Jenny Agutter is now a cult item, but the 1977 TV series it spawned was a bomb: only 11 episodes ever aired. But with this DVD release, all 14 episodes—the final three have never before been seen--can be reappraised by discriminating (or even undiscriminating) fans.
Gregory Harrison broods handsomely, Heather Menzies is his adorable sidekick and Donald Moffat appropriately bemused as the smarter-than-everyone android. The laughably miniscule special effects budget is a big reason why the show approaches campiness. But is that its intention?
Sleeping Beauty
(IFC)
Emily Browning is a nubile actress: that’s the take-away from Julia Leigh's plodding, pretentious and unsexy character study about an intelligent young woman who works for an agency where she sleeps naked in bed as brutish men paw her, slap her around, even burning her with a cigarette.
The movie is ravishing to look at (like its star), but this knock-off of Eyes Wide Shut’s orgy sequences is so misconceived that viewers may wish they were asleep like the leading lady, blissfully unaware of what’s happening.
CD of the Week
Martin, Honegger, Schoeck: Cello Concertos
(BIS)
Although the three enticing concertos by Swiss masters Frank Martin, Arthur Honegger and Othmar Schoeck are too infrequently heard to make lists of the best 20th century concertos, this disc’s performances by Swiss soloist Christian Poltera and the Malmo Symphony Orchestra under the subtle direction of conductor Tuomas Hannikainen may, one hopes, change minds.
The combination of Martin’s supremely melodic and dramatic work, Honegger’s elegant, concise style and Schoeck’s huge emotional range is a joy to hear on an intelligently-programmed disc that deserves many repeat playings.
Theater Roundup: "Newsies from Screen to Stage; Simon's "Lost" Found
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Thursday, 12 April 2012 10:00
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Newsies
Music by Alan Menken; lyrics by Jack Feldman; book by Harvey Fierstein
Directed by Jeff Calhoun; choreographed by Christopher Gattelli
Starring Alec Beard, Dominic Comperatore, Stephanie Cozart, Matthew Gumley, Cynthia Harris, Russell Posner, Finnerty Steeves
Written by Neil Simon; directed by Jenn Thompson
The cast of Newsies (photo by Deen van Meer)
Disney’s latest Broadway endeavor is Newsies, based on Kenny Ortega’s 1992 movie musical about an 1899 newsboys’ strike in New York City that pitted poor, young newspaper sellers against publishing titans like Joseph Pulitzer, who raised prices under the assumption that the kids would simply capitulate. Needless to say, they don’t.
The entertaining movie, which flopped 20 years ago, features Christian Bale years before he hit stardom as Batman--but no one wanted to see an old-fashioned Hollywood musical about paperboys on strike. The Broadway show has the same hurdles to clear, but between Disney’s PR machinery and family-friendly subject matter, it will surely perform better onstage than onscreen.
Actually, this Newsies is pretty much irresistible, starting with Jeremy Jordan as Jack Kelly, the leader of the striking--and ultimately triumphant--“boys” (most of the actors are much older than their characters, of course). Jordan (who was a racy Clyde Barrow in the recent flop musical, Bonnie and Clyde, on Broadway) has star quality in his veins, leading-man good looks and a strong singing voice. The rest of the “kids” are mostly indistinguishable, excepting little Lewis Grosso as an adorable Les, younger brother of reluctant new newsie Davey.
The major difference between movie and musical is Jack’s love interest. In the movie, she’s Davey and Les’s sister, who never appears in the show; instead, a convoluted subplot introduces Katherine (sweet-voiced Kara Lindsay), a budding reporter who turns out to be--oh, the humanity!--bad guy Pulitzer’s daughter.
The songs by composer Alan Menken and lyricst Jack Feldman (most originally from the movie) are serviceable, Christopher Gattelli’s choreography--especially in the rousing dances for the newsies--is spectacular, and Jeff Calhoun’s savvy direction makes the most of Tobin Ost’s clever erector-set design, which constantly moves to and fro to keep visual interest whenever the otherwise delightful family show marks time.
Steeves, Gumley and Posner in Lost in Yonkers (photo by Stephen Kunken)
Off-Broadway, Neil Simon’s 1991 Pulitzer and Tony winner, Lost in Yonkers, is being wonderfully revived by the enterprising theater company TACT, and whatever’s lost in the transition from the Broadway stage to TACT’s tiny space is compensated for by an intimacy heretofore unseen in Simon’s most autobiographical work.
On the heels of his acclaimed ‘80s trilogy--comprising Brighton Beach Memoirs, Biloxi Blues and Broadway Bound--Lost in Yonkers is Simon’s most fully rounded and satisfying play. It’s hard to fathom that, a mere two decades ago, Simon was a box-office sensation, and today he’s remembered for his superficial comedies with one-liners strewn throughout, like Barefoot in the Park and The Odd Couple.
The usual one-liners also make their way to Yonkers, as 15-year-old Jay and 13-year-old Artie--who in 1942 are made to live with their stern Grandma Kurnitz when dad Eddie must leave town to find work to pay off a loan shark--muster enough zingers for a top comic’s stand-up routine. Yet such verbal virtuosity is the boys’ defense mechanism to steel themselves against the adults in their lives: in addition their father and grandmother, there’s flighty Aunt Bella and crooked Uncle Louie.
Simon’s sentimental and schematic play is essentially Death of a Salesman with jokes, but his flawed characters are warmer and more plausibly human than Arthur Miller’s. In Jenn Thompson’s beautifully paced staging, it’s well worth spending two-plus hours with this family, brought to life by a cast which flawlessly combines sitcom jokiness and touching vulnerability.
The boys, Matthew Gumley (Jay) and Russell Posner (Arty), are pitch-perfect. Even more impressive while stepping into the formidable (and Tony-winning) shoes of Mercedes Ruehl and Irene Worth, respectively, are Finnerty Steeves (Bella) and Cynthia Harris (Grandma), who triumph by avoiding the strong pull of caricature. Getting Lost in Yonkers is time well-spent.
April '12 Digital Week I
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Sunday, 08 April 2012 11:00
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Blu-rays of the Week
Angels Crest
(Magnolia)
Strong performances distinguish Gaby Dellal’s relentlessly downbeat drama, based on Catherine Treischmann’s novel about the accidental death of a toddler thanks to his young father’s carelessness. But despite its cast (Lynn Collins as the boy’s distraught, alcoholic mother, Thomas Dekker as the unfortunate dad and Kate Walsh and Elizabeth McGovern as a pair of lovers), the movie can’t escape the melodramatic trappings.
The stunning mountain landscapes--shot in the Canadian Rockies--are equally so on Blu-ray; extras include deleted scenes, an alternate ending (much stronger than what we ended up with), interviews with Dekker and Mira Sorvino, and a brief making-of.
Chasing Madoff
(Cohen Media Group)
When the hero of Jeff Prosserman’s documentary about the Bernie Madoff scandal, Harry Markopolos, discusses being worried that Madoff might come after him, there’s a palpable sense of fear. But Prosserman jazzes up his story of criminal behavior of historic proportions with unnecessarily silly reenactments like those seen on the History Channel.
Still, this cautionary tale of government indifference and personal malfeasance (another symptom of the 2008 global economic collapse) is important viewing. The movie--mainly comprising talking-head interviews--looks decent on Blu-ray; extras include deleted scenes, alternate ending and filmmaker commentary.
Great Expectations 
(PBS)
Charles Dickens’ beloved novel gets the Masterpiece treatment via the BBC and PBS: while his three-hour adaptation is sumptuous and more thorough than David Lean’s now-classic 1945 version (a mere two hours long), director Brian Kirk bogs down in sundry characters and plot threads, losing focus at crucial times.
Gillian Anderson plays the immortal Miss Havisham to the hilt, but her fatal self-immolation scene--which plays out differently in the novel--comes off as mere melodrama. On Blu-ray, Dickens looks super.
Macbeth
(Opus Arte)
The least of Giuseppe Verdi’s three Shakespearean operas--the masterly Otello and Falstaff came much later--is dramatically and musically middling, although the composer rises to the occasion for the weird sisters’ and Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking scenes.
In Phyllida Lloyd’s sharp staging, Simon Keenlyside is a formidable Macbeth, and Liudmyla Monastyrska a mordant Lady Macbeth. Visually, Lloyd’s production has fine sets and costumes; under Antonio Pappano’s baton, the Royal Opera House orchestra and chorus sound flawless.
Madonna: Truth or Dare 
(Lionsgate/Miramax)
In 1991, in another example of prizing commerce above artistry, Madonna and her acolyte director Alek Keshishian made this self-serving documentary about the pop star backstage and onstage during her 1990 world tour.
If you ever wanted to see the Material Girl curse like a sailor or mock then-boyfriend Warren Beatty (another perfect opportunist who directed her in Dick Tracy, as they made the perfect couple--for a little while), here’s your chance. Much of the footage is intentionally grainy, so the Blu-ray transfer isn’t particularly eye-popping; no extras.
That 70s Show: Season One
(Mill Creek)
The first sitcom originally shown on TV in standard-definition and the boxy 4x3 aspect ratio to be released on Blu-ray in 16x9 widescreen is this funny but frivolous show with soon-to-be-stars Ashton Kutcher, Topher Grace and Mila Kunis.
It’s initially weird to watch it in widescreen, especially since what’s on the left and right of the screen is mostly empty space, but since it looks good in hi-def, who’s to complain? All 22 episodes are included; extras include short interviews and on-set clips.
War Horse 
(Dreamworks)
Steven Spielberg’s unabashedly sentimental drama foregoes the conceit that made the play of Michael Morpurgo’s children’s book a visceral rush: the wondrous puppets that became living, breathing horses onstage. Contrarily, real horses make the movie pretty pedestrian.
That said, it’s beautifully directed, photographed (by Janusz Kaminski), edited (by Michael Kahn) and acted (by Peter Mullan, Emily Watson and Niels Arestrup, among others): but can Spielberg stop using John Williams’ nauseating, omnipresent music? On Blu-ray, the film looks exquisite; there are excellent--and plentiful--on-set extras, including interviews with Spielberg, his cast and crew.
We Bought a Zoo
(Fox)
Based on Benjamin Mee’s book about events in his own life, Cameron Crowe has made a cute movie that often stumbles into cutesiness. That’s almost a given considering there are children and animals, but even Crowe--who shows welcome restraint at times--can’t resist rubbing our noses in the adorableness on display.
Too bad, for Matt Damon acts as if he’s in a serious character study about a widower rebuilding his and his kids’ lives. The hi-def image is clear and clean; extras include a long making-of featurette, on-set interviews, 37 minutes of deleted/extended scenes, music videos and other featurettes.
DVDs of the Week
Jeff Healey Band Live in Belgium
(Eagle Rock North)
Canada’s Jeff Healey--who died too young at age 41 from cancer in 2008--headlines a barnstorming performance of his band during its 1993 European tour.
Healey (blind from age one due to a rare eye cancer) plays his instrument uniquely, almost like a slide guitar, and its personal stamp is heard on his radio hit “Angel Eyes” and excellent covers of “Roadhouse Blues” and “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” There’s also a CD included of the show.
Tyrannosaur
(Strand)
At the start of actor Paddy Considine’s writing/directing debut, the hero kicks a dog to death: can we sympathize with this monster? Yes, since he’s played by the great Peter Mullan, owner of cinema’s craggiest, well-worn face. Never stooping to caricature, Mullan creates a credible portrait of a lonely man flailing out at a world that left him behind.
The incremental steps he takes toward connecting with others allow us to, if not forgive him, at least understand his actions. Although Mullan is the chief reason to see the film, there’s estimable support by Olivia Colman as a woman who changes his life.
CD of the Week
Ute Lemper: Paris Days Berlin Nights
(Steinway & Sons)
In a welcome addition to her already impressive catalog, German chanteuse Ute Lemper returns to the Weimar years--between the end of WWI and the rise of Hitler--for a stirring collection of songs made famous by Edith Piaf, Kurt Weill, Hans Eisler and Astor Piazzolla.
The acerbic Weill and Eisler songs set off the elegance of handful of French chansons, with the rollicking, masterly tangos of Piazzolla rounding out the slate. Lemper, in fine voice throughout, though not without unnecessary over-ornamentation, ends on a high note with Jacques Brel’s “Ne me quitte pas.” Ably accompanying are the energetic Vogler Quartet and multi-instrumentalist Stefan Malzew.
American Pie Redux?
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Saturday, 07 April 2012 11:01
- Written by Lloyd Carroll
American Reunion
Directed by Jon Hurwitz, Adam Schlossberg
Starring Jason Biggs, Alyson Hannigan, Sean William Scott
Adam Herz, the creator of the “American Pie” film series that launched in 1999, has done a remarkable job meshing relatable characters in the manner of its chief influence, George Lucas’ American Graffiti with the bawdy humor of Porky’s and Animal House.
The idea of the gang from East Great Falls, Michigan, getting together for a high school reunion is certainly an easy way for the filmmakers to come up with yet another “American Pie” sequel. I have never heard of a “13th anniversary” high school reunion but this contrivance is somewhat abated by the fact that the characters are now north of the big 3-0 which naturally causes some reexamination.
Jim (Jason Biggs) and Michelle (Alyson Hannigan) are now parents of an adorable son but “the thrill is all gone when they cut down the lights” as Jerry Lee Lewis sang in his poignant 1977 ballad, “Middle Age Crazy. Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas), the literally and figuratively anally retentive character in the original film who came off as the mature one, has his old mates believing that he has been spending the last decade globetrotting in very remote places.
Oz (Chris Klein) is a hunky LA sportscaster who has a trophy girlfriend but still pines away for Heather (Mena Suvari) who is involved with a narcissistic cardiologist. Kevin (Thomas Ian Nichols) is married to a very attractive woman in Chicago but still has a soft spot for his first love, Vicky (Tara Reid).
The attention- grabber in the group is still that perennial life of the party, Steven Stifler (Seann William Scott). In Stifler’s mind, he is still in high school. Working at a dead-end temp job with a nasty boss who enjoys humiliating him has only added to the romanticism of his glory years. It is clear that his former high school classmates have deliberately kept their distance over the years from this perennial man-child.
As expected, “American Reunion” throws in a few mild R-rated scenes and the obligatory scatological jokes to please longtime fans of this film series, but there is also a wistful poignancy as the protagonists try to balance pleasant memories from the past with a not-so-perfect present.
Co-directors Hurwitz and Schlossberg nicely work in almost every character who appeared in “American Pie” for at least a cameo the way that managers at baseball all-star games try to get every player into the game.
It is the two oldest actors here that are the most memorable. Comedy veteran Eugene Levy shines as Jim’s far-hipper-than-he-seems dad, while Jennifer Coolidge, in a homage to such 1950's buxomly starlets as Mamie Van Doren and Jayne Mansfield, reprises her role as Stifler’s mother. It’s safe to say that at this point the phrase “Stifler’s Mother” is every bit as iconic to pop culture fans as “Whistler’s Mother” is to art aficionados.
It is somewhat surprising that none of the young actors ever became breakout stars. Jason Biggs and Seann William Scott have kept busy but they are certainly not A-listers. Tara Reid has been a fixture in gossip mags for a variety of personal problems but has not done much else. Alyson Hannigan is probably the most successful of the cast but she is best known for her role on CBS’s “How I Met Your Mother” than for movies.
So you can expect the cast to reunite for future sequels. And maybe that's not such a bad thing.
