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Film and the Arts
August '12 Digital Week III
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Sunday, 19 August 2012 10:00
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Breathless
(Anchor Bay)
(Anchor Bay)
Director/co-writer Jesse Baget tries copying a Coen brothers movie like their debut Blood Simple with this bloody, double-crossing crime drama about two women who must get rid of one’s husband’s body after the wife offs him. The unsurprising twists keep coming, and close-ups of body parts and other gore are part of the jokey, bad-taste milieu.
To add insult to injury— and I’m no Coen fan—a game cast dives headfirst into the kind of overdone but undercooked performances typical of Coen movies: Gina Gershon, Ray Liotta, Val Kilmer and Kelly Giddish keep it watchable, however tawdry. The Blu-ray image is very good; extras include a commentary and making-of featurette.
(IFC)
Director Ben Wheatley tries too hard to shock with his hard-hitting drama about a hot-headed hit man with personal problems: the film is marred by gleeful visualizations of the man’s anger—in which he beats victims to a literal pulp—and a ridiculous final subplot that’s positively giggle-inducing (with shades of better films like Eyes Wide Shut and The Wicker Man).
That twist is so insanely loopy that it’s actually interesting to watch the movie go off the cliff right before one’s eyes: blame Wheatley and co-writer Amy Jump. The image is flawless; extras are commentaries, interviews and making-of featurettes.
(Synapse)
Mladen Djorojevic’s blackly comic drama, while not as nasty as the infamous A Serbian Film, critiques a destroyed Yugoslavia’s scattered shards by showing a group of burned-out playwrights and actors becoming a traveling porno carnival, which soon morphs into “snuff” shows (actual killings).
Theoretically, this theme fits the mentally dead people of a shattered nation following a murderous civil war, but watching it enacted may incense or bore most viewers. The Blu-ray image is fine; extras are a 101-minute film about porn makers, Made in Serbia, making-of featurette and deleted scenes.
(Breaking Glass)
Margo Martindale bulldozes her way through this unsubtle, crass study of a strained relationship between a brain-damaged young man, his overprotective mother and the female college student who’s his caretaker. Reining it in would help Martindale’s performance immeasurably—contrarily, Adam Scarimbolo and Hanna Hall are nicely understated as her son and the student.
Director Zack Parker’s conscientious drama is too melodramatic to be much more than a shallow thriller. The hi-def image is first-rate; extras include a 3-1/2 hour making-of documentary (!) and featurettes.
(History)
A century after its sinking by an iceberg—or, if you believe James Cameron, because Leo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet kissed on the deck—stories of the Titanic show no sign of abating, and this 45-minute documentary chronicles a recent diving expedition to the wreckage, displaying found artifacts as actors narrate survivors’ tales.
Such stories of struggle and survival are compelling; needless to say, the 3-D footage is spectacular.
Art Is the Permanent Revolution
and The Callers
(First Run)
and The Callers
(First Run)
These documentaries provide windows into worlds most people don’t know: Manfred Kirchheimer’s Art Is recounts the fascinating history of draftsmen and women who draw the B&W artworks that geniuses like Rembrandt, Goya and Picasso made famous; Susan Sfarra’s The Callers profiles several auctioneers whose fast talking is their singular achievement.
Despite their brevity, both films feel padded by slow sections, yet are eye-openers anyway. Extras include deleted scenes (Callers) and additional interviews (Art).
(MVD)
Yet another Fab Four sentimental journey, this hour-long documentary comprises cobbled-together footage and interviews, strung together by producer-narrator Les Krantz’s narration (which includes such howlers as “comprised of”).
Beatles completists will be enthralled by rarely-seen footage set to a score that riffs on—but doesn’t outright plagiarize—Beatles songs, but overall this is another cash grab in a cycle of never-ending, unauthorized Beatles cash grabs. Extras include additional footage.
(Film Movement)
Ela Thier’s sensitive memoir of herself as a pre-teen moving with her Israeli family to the U.S. chronicles her struggles to learn the language, fit in and gain an unlikely best friend: Thuy, daughter of a Vietnamese refugee. Their’s story is told with minimal sappiness and maximum emotion, thanks to young Noa Rotstein and Dalena Thuy-Anh Le’s formidable acting and Thier’s marvelous insights into young people.
Extras include an interview with Thier and her real-life best friend; two deleted scenes; and A Summer Rain, a short that led to Their’s splendid feature.
(Industrial)
Director Kevin Smith and sidekick Jason Mewes head to the British Isles for live shows in front of their raucous fans, and this two DVD set contains their London, Manchester and Edinburgh appearances in their entirety.
As usual with Smith, the shows are crude, sometimes hilarious and mostly redundant, but since Smith and Mewes have real chemistry and the crowd is obviously into every single word they say, there’s an “event” quality despite the specter of Smith’s hi-or-miss movies. Extras include bonus footage.
(TLA)
This self-indulgent 75-minute feature by director-writer Alexandra Roxo and writer Alana Kearns-Green (both of whom play the leads) shallowly explores two sisters who, after the death of their mother, discover intimate feelings for each other.
There’s plentiful nudity but the relationship remains superficial, as neither actress conveys the needed depth of this difficult emotional situation. Extras include deleted scenes, making-of featurette.
Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory
(Docurama)
(Docurama)
A remarkable study of human culpability, stupidity and redemption, Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky’s latest documentary follows the West Memphis 3 from their trumped-up trial for killing three young boys to their recent prison release despite proclaiming guilt in exchange for time served.
The film ties together narrative strands from the previous two, creating a landmark study of American justice and religious obsession. It also raises a troubling question: if these men (mere teens when jailed) are innocent, then who’s the killer? Tantalizingly, signs point to a dead boy’s stepfather, but it doesn’t reach Thin Blue Line chillingness. Does anyone still care? Extras include deleted scenes and interviews.
Birtwistle: The Triumph of Time
and Stockhausen: Gruppen
(Decca)
and Stockhausen: Gruppen
(Decca)
Karlheinz Stockhausen’s seminal 1958 Gruppen is better seen than heard—as the New York Philharmonic’s great performance in June proved—but hearing the Berlin Philharmonic and three conductors (Friedrich Goldmann, Claudio Abbado, Marcus Creed) play this unyielding and daunting score so brilliantly is also revelatory. But at only 22 minutes, Gruppen is padded by three Gyorgy Kurtag works, when another Stockhausen piece would make more sense.
Harrison Birtwistle’s equally difficult Triumph of Time (1972)—well performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Ensemble Modern Orchestra under conductors Pierre Boulez and Andrew Davis—is the composer’s defining musical moment, alongside his later opera The Mask of Orpheus.
(CPO)
Austrian composer Franz Schreker was known for his luscious, Straussian operas; this valuable recording presents another of his criminally neglected stage works (from 1932), whose typically fantastical story revolves around a blacksmith, fairies, angels, hell and heaven.
The plot is as ludicrous as they come, but the glorious music’s wide-ranging melodic lines give ample opportunities for the singers and a chorus worth their salt. The fine-sounding Robert Schumann Philharmonic is ably conducted by Frank Beermann.
NYC Theater Roundup: Vidal's "Man" Revisited; Foote's "TX"; Harrelson's "Bullet"
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Saturday, 18 August 2012 05:00
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Gore Vidal’s The Best Man
Starring James Earl Jones, John Larroquette, Cybill Shepherd, John Stamos, Jefferson Mays, Mark Blum, Angela Lansbury, Kristin Davis
Written by Gore Vidal; directed by Michael Wilson
Harrison, TX
Starring Hallie Foote, Jayne Houdyshell, Devon Abner, Mary Bacon, Jeremy Bobb, Alexander Cendense, Andrea Lynn Green, Evan Jonigkeit, Jenny Dare Paulin
Written by Horton Foote; directed by Pam Mackinnon
Bullet for Adolf
Starring Marsha Stephanie Blake, Brandon Coffey, David Coomber, Shamika Cotton, Shannon Garland, Lee Osorio, Tyler Jacob Rollinson, Nick Wyman
Written by Woody Harrelson and Frankie Hyman; directed by Woody Harrelson
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| Shepherd, Larroquette in The Best Man (photo: Joan Marcus) |
Gore Vidal’s recent death makes seeing his best play, The Best Man, a must during the last weeks of its Broadway run. Despite his reputation as a sardonic, unapologetic liberal (which drove opponents like Norman Mailer and William Buckley batty), The Best Man is a remarkably evenhanded, hilarious and still-relevant political expose that shows how little American electioneering has changed since 1960.
But that’s not the only reason to see Michael Wilson’s superlative staging, which I caught when it opened in the spring. Many of the main roles have new actors who are as good as if not better than the originals. John Stamos, as conservative candidate Senator Joseph Cantwell, has the perfect mix of cocksure smugness to go up against his opponent, John Laroquette’s impeccably decent Secretary of State William Russell. Both candidates’ wives are new: Kristin Davis capably shows that Cantwell’s wife Mabel can be as amusingly bimboish as a brunette as Kerry Butler was as a blonde; Cybill Shepherd has taken over Alice, Russell’s wife, from Candice Bergen, and the result is a wash, the part snugly fitting both of their personas.
As Dick Jensen, Russell’s campaign manager, Mark Blum is less subdued than Michael McKean was, which makes more sense as the tense candidates’ stand-off plays out at the convention. As the scene-stealing Sue-Ellen Gamadge, the women’s organization leader both men are courting, Elizabeth Ashley has a grand old time hamming it up even more boisterously than Angela Lansbury did. And still towering above all is holdover James Earl Jones, whose former President Hockstader shouldn’t work: it’s too oversized a portrayal to fit with what’s essentially a realistic ensemble. But Jones’ unerring instincts make this ex-president appropriately larger than life and at the same time give The Best Man its comic and human pulse.
 |
| Green, Foote in Harrison, TX (photo: James Leynse) |
Horton Foote, who died in 2009 just shy of his 93rd birthday, was a genteel gentleman, which shows in his plays: common people are given the decency and respect they deserve. The result, over a huge number of plays in an astonishingly prolific career, might be a certain sameness, but at the same time, the modesty on display has its own reward as a valid artistic purpose.
Harrison, TX, comprising three one-act Foote plays, is a case in point: with each set in the fictional title town that stands in for Foote’s own Texan hometown (Wharton), the format works well for these slight but shrewd portraits of regular folk acting a bit irregularly.
Harrison, TX opens with Blind Date, where an interfering aunt tries to get her visiting young niece to act like a lady when a gentleman caller arrives with amusingly disastrous results; The One-Armed Man is a short, tense drama about a former mill employee who lost his arm in a workplace accident who comes to call, armed with a gun, on his former boss; and The Midnight Caller combines Date’s lightness and Man’s darkness for a tragicomic soap opera about a jilted man who drunkenly screams for his ex-girl outside the boarding house where she lives every night, affecting her friendships with the other boarders and her relationship with a new beau.
Foote’s pen, as always, draws these people assuredly and humanely, resulting in an enervating visit to small-town America sans condescension. Pam Mackinnon directs with sure rhythm and pacing; Marion Williams’ set feels a little cramped, especially in the third play, which needs opening up, but overall it conveys a proper small town atmosphere. The performers are up to the task, especially Foote’s daughter Hallie, who appears in the first and last plays, as does the delightful Andrea Lynn Green. The others fill their roles well (excepting Jayne Houdyshell, who doesn’t fit place or period), and the late master would have been pleased.
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| Bullet for Adolf (photo: Carol Rosegg) |
Bullet for Adolf is one of the biggest onstage fiascos in awhile: co-writers Woody Harrelson (who also directed) and Frankie Hyman mined their own friendship to come up with this ludicrous, disjointed and episodic play that meanders to no discernible point.
The non-story introduces several people over the course of a few summer days in hot Houston in 1983, and when a luger used in a Hitler assassination attempt goes missing (don’t ask), they try to discover who did it. The problem is that the characters are so sketchy that it’s hard to care what happens to them. Although jokes are tossed out—mostly off-color, even intentionally offensive—nothing is very funny, even though Harrelson and Hyman obviously think their offbeat characters are loveable losers.
Harrelson’s chief directorial contribution is to fill time between scenes with loud early 80s pop (Prince, Michael Jackson, Phil Collins) and accompanying video footage—MTV, President Reagan, the space shuttle, Beirut—which makes no commentary on anything happening onstage. The actors, bless their hearts, give it their all, but they can’t make this 2-1/2 hour self-indulgence more than risible.
Gore Vidal’s The Best Man
Performances began March 6, 2012; closes September 9
Schoenfeld Theatre, 236 West 45th Street, New York, NY
Harrison, TX
Performances began July 24, 2012; opened August 14; closes September 15
Primary Stages @ 59 E 59 Theatre, New York, NY
Bullet for Adolf
Performances began July 19, 2012; opened August 8; closes September 9
New World Stages, 340 West 50th Street; New York, NY
Film Review: "The Campaign" -- Cheap Shots Hit Too Close To Home
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Tuesday, 14 August 2012 19:31
- Written by Marion DS Dreyfus
The Campaign
Directed by Jay Roach
Starring Will Ferrel, Zach Galifianakis and Jason Sudeikis
“War has rules. Mud wrestling has rules. Politics has no rules.”
-- Presidential Candidate Ross Perot, 1988
This little laugh-fest could not have come at a better time. The Campaign is offered as a satire, with Will Ferrell as Cam Brady, the Dem blowhard with “strong” hair, and Zach Galifianakis as weirdo nudnik Marty Huggins, a tour guide in a city with three tourists who gets shanghaied into being Cam’s Republican opponent.
When you take that into consideration along with those wacked-out trailers plugging this com-dom (dumb comedy; dictionary MDSD, 2012 edition) you really shouldn’t expect Ingmar Bergman.
Director Roach (Meet the Parents, Austin Powers, Recount, Game Change -- all films notable for their impeccable liberal mindsets) says that he thinks “comedy is the best response to politics these days.” Sure. Except that comedy is usually relief, while politics hangs around for four deadly years of unemployment, turmoil, bailouts, spills, unholy debt, and all-around craziness that does not go away after you guzzle your Slurpee.
But despite the fact that this raunchy (with periodic nudity and sewer verbiage; this is by no means a kid’s movie) comedy has you on a hilarity tripwire that goes off every few minutes, the two politicos and their wranglers (an excellent Dylan McDermott as a more feral and arguably more intelligent David Axelrod doppelganger; and SNL’s Jason Sudeikis as Cam Brady’s somewhat ineffectual wingman) are almost not satirical.
Our actual live political ads and theatrics, popping off daily, almost beggar the film. Galifianakis surprises in keeping in character as a mannered, dufus-sy bumpkin with decent instincts and all-American heart. Ferrell is lunatic throughout.
The town of 'Hammond, S. Carolina,' is used to great effect, as the well-meaning schmendrik Marty is dragooned into being a cardboard candidate by Machiavellian makhers played by John Lithgow and Dan Aykroyd—these two skullduggish types playing the Motch brothers, a less than subtle parody of the the real-life Koch Brothers. I found this satirization un-funny as the Koch Brothers are undoubtedly successful self-starters and risk-takers.
We are always aware that the dirty tricks and antics in this film are just a skootch over the line, while the mindset is firmly the same as that which informs so many productions, like the new TV series by veteran prize-winning but bilious Aaron Sorkin, Newsroom, gaggingly unwatchable, so nauseatingly and infuriatingly smugly partisan.
Also making solid appearances are Brian Cox, as the mogul Huggins father who can’t stand his prissy, disappointing simpleton of a son. Cox earns his many awards, and was recently named by the UK Film Council as one of the Top 10 powerful British actors in film today.
Sarah Baker is hilarious, as Mitzi, the sweet-as-pie Huggins wife who strays when tempted by the scheming Cam Brady. Katherine LaNasa, as Rose Brady, is a pic-perfect political-statuette candidate wife in camera range only as long as the money is around.
After back to back viewings of The Bourne Legacy, then The Dark Knight Rises, then yummy tummy Colin Farrell with evil but gorgeous Kate Beckinsale in Total Recall--it was a relief to laugh for a couple of hours, even if the underpinnings were not what will put this country to rights come another four months.
Funny that all the grown-up adventurous high-flying flicks have fewer naughty segments than the comedy does. The three barnburners are, pretty much, as chaste as pre-Code TV, while the giggler-howler has offensive language, considerable nudity, and bad taste everywhere your eyes land.
Ironically, funny as this "Campaign" is, it’s almost dull compared to what’s going on in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida and the rest of the ‘swing’ set.
Onstage: 'Bring It On' Leaps Off the Screen; 'Into the Woods' in the Park; Irish Rep's "New Girl'
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Monday, 13 August 2012 10:00
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Bring It On
Starring Taylor Louderman, Adrienne Warren, Ryann Redmond, Elle McLemore, Kate Rockwell
Music by Tom Kitt & Lin-Manuel Miranda; lyrics by Miranda & Amanda Green
Book by Chris Whitty; choreographed and directed by Andy Blankenbuehler
Into the Woods
Starring Amy Adams, Jamie Mueller, Donna Murphy, Denis O’Hare, Chip Zien
Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim; book by James Lupine
Directed by Timothy Sheader, co-directed by Liam Steel
New Girl in Town
Starring Cliff Bemis, Patrick Cummings, Danielle Ferland, Margaret Loesser Robinson
Music and lyrics by Bob Merrill; book by George Abbott
Choreographed by Barry McNabb; directed by Charlotte Moore
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| Bring It On (photo: Chris Schwartz) |
Loosely based on the 2000 cheerleading movie, Bring It On is leaps and bounds (and tumbles and backflips) ahead of its cinematic predecessor, and the result is a rare show that thrills its target audience of young women and teens at the same time it’s a fun two-plus hours for everybody else.
Jeff Whitty’s book smartly dispenses with most of the movie’s plot, even if the story still turns on the battle royal between Truman High’s snooty upper-class squad against Jackson High’s inner-city street crew. Whitty has also written clusters of funny lines which happily eschew the rancid campiness that crushed that other recent gymnasium musical, the gimcrack Lysistrata Jones.
The characters are at least lively caricatures, and the unknown youthful cast comes up aces: Taylor Louderman as the gangly, likeable heroine, Campbell; Kate Rockwell, a scintillating find as Skylar, the beautiful, Barbie-perfect cheerleader; Elle McLemore, as the evil Eva, with formidable pipes inside her Kristin Chenoweth-petite frame; Ryann Redmond as the amusingly frumpy wanna-be cheerleader relegated to mascot; Adrienne Warren as the foxy head of the Jackson High crew; and Gregory Haney in a bravura performance as the cross-dressing student named La Cieniega.
The rather schizophrenic score welds Tom Kitt’s standard-issue big ballads and belters to Lin-Manuel Miranda’s more with-it soulful rap tunes; but, coupled to Miranda and Amanda Green’s clever lyrics, the songs mirror how these kids blow up petty issues to tragically Shakespearean heights. David Korins’ fluidly mobile set and Jason Lyons’ flashy lighting abet Andrew Blankenbeuer’s brisk direction and outstanding choreography, which keeps Bring It On moving, onward and upward: the athleticism on display, coupled with the unrivaled artistry, may win him another Tony.
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| O'Hare and Adams in Into the Woods (photo: Joan Marcus) |
For this summer’s second Central Park entry, the Public Theater chose another foliage show: Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Into the Woods, the 1987 musical that’s been on Broadway twice already, which returns in a satisfying staging that takes advantage of the natural beauty of the Delacorte Theater surrounding than As You Like It did.
Into the Woods problematically combines several fairy tales, both on their own terms and as a psychologically “modern” look at characters like Rapunzel, Jack and the Beanstalk, Cinderella, the Baker and the Baker’s Wife, among others. If Sondheim’s songs—which are not up to his considerable best—have their bright moments, most notably the final “Children Will Listen,” Lapine’s less-clever-than-it-thinks-it-is book dominates the longish show.
Co-directed by Timothy Sheader and Liam Steel, the visually arresting Central Park staging includes changes (the narrator is a young boy rather than an older man, for instance) that don’t make complete sense. John Lee Beatty and Soutra Gilmour’s set design delightfully complements the park’s real “woods,” while Rachael Canning’s uneven puppetry effects reach their zenith when the splendidly-wrought giantess (voiced menacingly by Glenn Close) suddenly appears. Sondheim’s always elegant score is adroitly performed, in Jonathan Tunick’s orchestrations, under Paul Gemignani’s direction.
In a capable cast, only Donna Murphy, who’s having a blast playing the Witch, is totally in her element with a vocally ravishing performance. Amy Adams’s pleasing singing voice and comedic adeptness auger well for a light-touch Baker’s Wife, but Denis O’Hare’s meager vocal resources and dour tone trip up the Baker. Jessie Mueller is a bewitchingly sung Cinderella, Ivan Hernandez and Paris Remillard are a stentorian pair of Princes and Tess Soltau a sweet-voiced Rapunzel. But it’s too bad that Sarah Stiles is mordant to the point of irritation as Little Red Riding Hood—so of course she’s an audience favorite.
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| New Girl in Town (photo: Carol Rosegg) |
Turning Eugene O’Neill’s Anna Christie into a frothy musical took daring by composer-lyricist Bob Merrill and book writer George Abbott, who collaborated on 1957 Broadway hit New Girl in Town. Originally a vehicle for Gwen Vernon—with choreography by an up-and-comer named Bob Fosse—the show has been revived,amiably if undistinguishedly, by the Irish Rep, whose artistic director, Charlotte Moore, directed.
O’Neill’s melodrama—interesting but not the equal of masterworks The Iceman Cometh and Long Day’s Journey into Night—has become a romantic comedy with some of O’Neill’s tragic touches remaining; but in the flimsy context, they make less sense. Luckily for Moore and her cast, the tuneful songs are taken by leads who sing better than they act. Margaret Loesser Robinson’s Anna has a marvelous voice and musical bearing making up for her shortfall in the acting department, while Patrick Cummings’ Matt—more than a handsome face—equals her in the pipes department, but he’s otherwise too robotic.
If New Girl in Town founders in the no-man’s-land between O’Neill’s tragic inclination and Merrill and Abbott’s Broadway sensibility, it’s worth seeing all the same.
Bring It On
Performances began July 12; opened August 1
St. James theatre, 246 West 44th Street, New York, NY
Into the Woods
Performances began July 24; opened August 9; closes September 1
Delacorte Theater, Central Park, New York, NY
New Girl in Town
Performances began July 18; opened July 26; closes September 14
Irish Repertory Theatre, 132 West 22nd Street, New York, NY
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