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Reviews
Kevin's August '11 Digital Week II
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Monday, 15 August 2011 11:00
- Written by Kevin Filipski
B
lu-rays of the Week
The Battle of Algiers (Criterion)
Gillo Pontecorvo's masterly recreation of the Algerian war--where rebels' terrorist tactics finally convinced the stubborn French to grant independence--is as timely now as upon its 1966 release. This influential cinematic textbook of a failed counterinsurgency (which the U.S. aped in Iraq) is, despite its polemics, a superbly delineated exploration of impossibly different sides in a raging conflict.
On Blu-ray, Pontecorvo's striking black and white imagery is grainier and more documentary-like than ever; hours of extras include documentaries on its making, legacy, use as a case study, and historical worth. Too bad Bertrand Tavernier's extraordinary four-hour The Undeclared War 
(1992) is missing from the supplements, since it's as valuable a document as Pontecorvo's classic.
Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff (Strand)
This account of the career of cinematographer Jack Cardiff is a blissful time machine back to the golden age of cinema, when visuals were faked by artists, not computers. Cardiff spent his entire life in movies, acting at age four and directing and photographing until he died in 2009 at age 95.
There's a lengthy interview with Cardiff and footage from countless movies he was involved in (Black Narcissus, The Red Shoes, even Rambo: First Blood Part II) and admiring mentions by colleagues Kirk Douglas, Martin Scorsese, Charlton Heston, Lauren Bacall and cinematographer Freddie Francis. The most pleasurable film at last year's New York Film Festival looks gorgeous on Blu-ray, with some enticing extras: Cardiff featurettes and an interview with director Craig McCall.
David Holzman's Diary (Kino)
Jim McBride's groundbreaking 1967 pseudo cinema-verite chronicle of a narcissistic young filmmaker who documents his own exploits is more of a curio today, but it's a snapshot of New York City in a specific time and place, with a good-natured humor about itself that keeps it palatable.
Recently preserved, the scratchy B&W film looks spotlessly new on Blu-ray; the extras are additional McBride films: 1969's My Girlfriend's Wedding (62 minutes); 1971's Pictures from Life's Other Side (45 minutes); and 2008's My Son's Wedding to My Sister-in-Law (8 minutes).
Donnie Darko (Fox)
Richard Kelly's bizarre 2001 psychological thriller about a disturbed teenager who sees an oversized rabbit warning him of a dire future has risible dialogue and pathetic attempts at depth and insight that are humanized by actors Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal, Katharine Ross, Jena Malone and Mary McDowell.
Kelly's later Southland Tales and The Box show him as unhinged and superficial as ever, so--especially in the longer director's cut--Donnie Darko only began what became an eye-rolling career. The moody photography comes across interestingly on Blu-ray; the four-disc set includes the original and director's cuts and extras including a 
commentary by Kelly and Kevin Smith.
The Fox and the Hound/Fox and the Hound II (Disney)
The 30th anniversary edition of the original The Fox and the Hound also includes its inferior 2006 sequel on Blu-ray: the difference between the two films is very obvious, not only in their worth (the original is far more memorable, even if it's not up to the best of Disney's similar animated features like The Lady and the Tramp) but in their "look."
The original has a richness to its color palette, while the sequel is bright but shallow, which is particularly noticeable while watching it on Blu-ray. 
Extras include a few featurettes.
The Perfect Game (Image)
This family-friendly crowd pleaser is based on the true story of a ragtag team from south of the border that achieved the impossible dream of playing in the 1957 Little League World Series.
Director William Dear gets small details right along with larger emotions, and with a solid cast of familiar faces like Lou Gossett and Cheech Marin, The Perfect Game is a clean single for anyone who played ball as a child or still enjoys watching them play. Extras include Dear's commentary, interviews and behind-the-scenes featurettes.
Super (IFC)
James Gunn's wrongheaded satire about a loser in a superhero suit who apprehends criminals
to win back his estranged wife never finds a proper tone, while his script is strictly amateur hour. At least Rainn Wilson (hero), Kevin Bacon (gangster), Liv Tyler (wife) and Ellen Page (comic book expert turned superhero sidekick) provide gravitas, with Page hilariously on the money in a role that, as written, is mere window dressing.
Too bad the misfiring Gunn can't carve biting comedy out of material that has potential. The hi-def transfer is excellent; extras include Gunn and 
Wilson's commentary, a making-of featurette and deleted scene.
Tekken (Anchor Bay)
The popular fighting video game has become a movie, and if the scenes outside the ring that, which tell a semblance of a futuristic story, are so dull they can't even be called routine, the fight sequences are good enough, especially when gorgeous Kelly Overton is in action.
The hero, barely portrayed by John Foo, doesn't even register as a video-game character, but the visuals (rendered well on Blu-ray) and the fighting showdowns, which is what we're all here for, deliver in spades. The lone extra: a substantial 50-minute behind-the-scenes look at the dangerous 
stuntwork.
DVDs of the Week
Masquerades and Shirley Adams (Global Film Initiative)
First in theaters, then on DVD, Global Film Initiative releases films from around the world that would otherwise stay unseen. This month, there's Lyes Salem's Masquerades, a rollicking Algerian comedy about a man who wants to marry off his beautiful but narcoleptic (Sara Reguieg) to the right man, not their next door neighbor whom she loves. Terrific acting and a light touch mark Salem's funny portrait.
Conversely, Shirley Adams is debut director Oliver Hermanus' intense but humane look at a South African mother whose paraplegic son hopes his suicide will ease her burden. Led by Denise Newman's stunning lead performance, Shirley Adams grabs viewers by the throat and doesn't let go.
Queen to Play (Zeitgeist)
Caroline Bottaro's perceptive comedic character study stars the always-revelatory Sondrine Bonnaire as a middle-aged maid whose unexpected obsession with learning chess is at odds with her working-class husband's idea of what his wife should be doing.
Kevin Kline expertly plays the crusty expatriate American who encourages her, and Jennifer Beals has a delightful cameo as an American who prompts her obsession with playing the game. Despite its slightness, this flavorful movie becomes compelling in its quiet way. The lone extra is a featurette of Bonnaire, Kline and Bottaro interviews.
CDs of the Week
Bartok: Bluebeard's Castle (Channel Classics)
Bela Bartok only composed one opera, but it's a doozy, a compact, 55-minute one-act thriller that sends shivers up the spines of even the most reluctant listeners with music alternately bludgeoning, mystifying and even, most improbably, ultra-romantic.
This recording, made by Bartok's compatriots, Hungarian conductor Ivan Fischer, the Hungarian Symphony Orchestra and two estimable Hungarian singers, the late bass Laszlo Polgár (Bluebeard) and mezzo-soprano Ildikó Komlósi (Judith), acquit themselves admirably, while the excellent surround-sound gives Bartok's masterwork more immediacy and fresh life.
Orff: Ein Sommernachtstraum/A Midsummer Night's Dream (CPO)
Carl Orff is best known for Carmina Burana, heard in movies and TV commercials for decades. This work, composed in 1964, comprises Orff's complete music for a production of Shakespeare's classic play, and so is frustrating to listen to.
The CPO disc alternates the play's dialogue in German with Orff's occasional musical underlining; there are also instances of Orff's pleasant music taking over, but those are few and far between for such a long work. As well performed as it is by the actors, singers and musicians, this work needs to be seen as well as heard, so a DVD would have been preferable to a CD.
Cinefantastique Spotlight Podcast: Final Destination 5
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Monday, 15 August 2011 01:37
- Written by Daniel Persons
Okay, so they called the previous installment THE Final Destination, as if that was going to be the last chapter of the franchise. So what? Like you never said, "This one's the last French fry," and then went on shoveling the spuds down your gullet like there was no tomorrow.
Given the success of that 2009 entry, no one really should be surprised that we're now looking at Final Destination 5 -- which may or may not be the actual, final encore/curtain call for the series -- or that at this point the producers have honed to a fine... art, let's say... the formula of twenty-somethings escaping an horrendous fate only to be subsequently stalked and dispatched by death in various, Rube Goldbergian ways. One plus: Even at this late date, a franchise that's essentially a more morbid envisioning of Road Runner cartoons (and is once again rendered in appropriately poke-your-eye-out 3D) is still pretty amusing. Come join our special guest, Cashiers du Cinemart's Mike White, as he joins Cinefantastique Online's Dan Persons in examining the delights and the demerits of one of the most formulaic, yet oddly entertaining, of film franchises.
Also in this episode: A discussion of director Rupert Wyatt's plans for the sequel to his hit film, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, plus what's coming in theatrical releases and home video.
NY Phil Substitutes Chestnuts for the Holiday
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Friday, 12 August 2011 05:00
- Written by Jack Angstreich
New York Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Alan Gilbert
Polonaise from Eugene Onegin composed by Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky
Valse Triste composed by Jean Sibelius
The Nutcracker selections composed by Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky
Concerto for Four Violins, Opus 3, No. 10 composed by by Antonio Vivaldi
Prelude to The Afternoon of a Faun composed by Claude Debussy
Boléro composed by Maurice Ravel
On December 30, 2010, the New York Philharmonic, under the direction of Alan Gilbert, presented what proved to be an utterly delightful program, revised due to the recent snowstorm, substituting a few familiar classics for some modern works originally scheduled.
The concert opened with a thrilling rendition of the exciting Polonaise from Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, played here with a superb control of orchestral dynamics.
A luminous account of the lovely Valse Triste by Jean Sibelius followed -- in recent memory surpassed for me in intensity only by the performance of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen under Paavo Järvi, at last summer's Mostly Mozart Festival.
The ravishing selections from Tchaikovsky's gorgeous score to The Nutcracker ballet which concluded the first half of the program were irresistible and typified the ability of this outstanding ensemble to enliven even the most commonly played of works.
After intermission, four excellent Philharmonic players (Sheryl Staples, Michelle Kim, Marc Ginsberg, Lisa Kim) took the stage to act as soloists accompanied by a considerably scaled down version of the orchestra in a riveting, crystalline version of Antonio Vivaldi's magnificent Concerto in B minor for Four Violins from the great L'estro armonico collection.
A measured, lovely reading followed of Claude Debussy's early, revolutionary masterwork, the often-played but still stunning Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, memorably performed here, even if not the strongest version heard in New York in the past year or two.
The concert closed with an astonishing account of Ravel's arresting Boléro -- the most compelling performance of this unusual work I have yet encountered, with Gilbert and the ensemble displaying, again, a masterful command of orchestral dynamics, concluding one of the most enjoyable evenings of music this season.
Avery Fisher Hall
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
132 W. 65th St.
New York City
212-721-6500
nyphil.org
Theater Review: "Jerusalem"
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Tuesday, 09 August 2011 06:45
- Written by Lucy Komisar
Jerusalem
written by Jez Butterworth
directed by Ian Rickson
sets by Ultz
starring Mark Rylance, Charlotte Mills, Danny Kirrane, Alan David, John Gallagher Jr, Mackenzie Crook, Max Baker, Geraldine Hughes, Aimeé-Ffion Edwards, Mark Page, Barry Sloane
I hated this play by English playwright and film director Jez Butterworth.
Yes, I know it got plaudits and awards, but I thought it was pretentious drivel. The friend I took also hated it. Lest you think that was just an off night, her friend who attended at another time hated it.
Nevertheless, it was so powerfully acted by Mark Rylance and so vividly directed by Ian Rickson that we were annoyed and even angry, but never bored.
Johnny "Rooster" Byron, brilliantly performed by Rylance, is a moral and physical wreck. He limps. That is because he was a dare-devil motorcycle rider who bike-jumped over lines of buses. He didn’t always make it. Now he makes a living by painting houses.
He is gross and crude. He is self-destructive. He is a drunk barred from every bar in town. He tells tall stories. One is about a 90-foot giant Druid. Or was it 100 feet tall? Perhaps it changes with the telling. Hmm, is this egregious failure also larger than life?
He lives in the woods of Flintock, Wiltshire, South West England. We are introduced to his home with screaming loud music and a light flashing outside a silver trailer, appropriately called Waterloo. (He will meet his.) The yard is furnished with an old loveseat, a metal Coca-Cola sign, tires, dilapidated chairs and a John Deere tractor. He has lived there for 29 years.
Rooster is the leader of "the Flintock rebellion." His followers are a group of educationally subnormal outcasts, drunk teenagers such as the bland, fat Davey (Danny Kirrane); the fat Tanja (Charlotte Mills) – is being fat a cause or result of their not fitting in? – and Lee (John Gallagher Jr), who says he is chucking it all and going to Australia.
Rooster provides them with ample supplies of drugs and alcohol. He also gets visits from a retired poetry-spouting professor (Alan David) who always arrives in a beige suit and tie and finds in Rooster an audience.
The rebellion is targeted at local government officials who want to serve Rooster an eviction notice so they can build estate (public) housing on land he is squatting. A sign on a white sheet declares "Fuck the new estate."
Now we get to Jerusalem, which is supposed to be a metaphor for heaven on earth where people live in peace and in connection with the land. The notion dates to an early 19th-century verse by poet William Blake which challenged the encroachment of the Industrial Revolution with the promise:
I will not cease from Mental Fight
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England’s green and pleasant land.
It was put to music in England during WWI and became a popular hymn.
Are we supposed to believe that Rooster and his mostly dysfunctional 
hangers-on are bucolic creatures fighting the harsh incursions of the people in power who want to despoil their green and pleasant idyll? Remember that the new "estate" is not for high-priced mansions for the rich, but for houses for the working class.
Continuing the metaphor, this is the day of the annual town fair, where Rooster carried out his motorcycle tricks, but which has been ruined by corporations. A brewery is sponsoring a liquor cake. Wesley (Max Baker), a pub owner, stops by to complain that he may not go back home, because his wife keeps asking him about the washing up. The idyll of an idle man destroyed!
The hero -- or anti-hero -- Rooster also has problematic relations with women. Dawn (Geraldine Hughes) drops off their 6-year-old son Marky (Mark Page) for a visit. The idea that the apparently sensible Dawn would leave the kid with a drug and alcohol dealing reprobate is hard to fathom.
The ethereal young Phaedra (Aimeé-Ffion Edwards), who sings "Jerusalem" at the start of the play, also has a connection to Rooster. She has disappeared and is being searched for by her angry father (Barry Sloane).
The dénouement is horrific, but sorry if I can’t express sympathy. If she and Rooster symbolize some kind of ideal or idyllic state, then judgment is stood on its head.
Rylance is indeed a great actor; he deserves a better play.
Jerusalem
Music Box Theatre
239 West 45th Street
New York City
212-239-6200
www.jerusalembroadway.com
Opened April 21, 2011; closes August 21, 2011
For more by Lucy Komisar, go to http://thekomisarscoop.com.
