The Girl: Putty in Hitch’s hands
“The Girl” premieres on HBO at 9:00pm (8:00pm Central) on Saturday, Oct. 20. It will also be available on HBO GO.
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There’s Something About Cherry
“About Cherry” (102 minutes) is available now on demand at IFC, iTunes, Amazon Instant and SundanceNow. Opens theatrically September 21, 2012 in New York.
After reading the synopsis for “About Cherry,” I figured I had it pegged. Here’s a movie about a fresh-faced, clean-cut American girl named Angelina who goes the photographic Full Monty before graduating to porn. “Oh brother,” I thought. “Another cautionary tale.” In American cinema, you just can’t enjoy sex. There has to be some consequence for all the ejaculations of “oh god!” and “yes I said yes I will Yes.” If you’re a man, you tend to get off scot free. But a woman who enjoys the same activity might as well be struck by lightning onscreen. So I expected poor Angelina to run afoul of drugs, sexual abuse and possibly fatal violence. The press materials seemed to support my supposition: “But Angelina’s newfound ideal lifestyle soon comes apart at the seams,” it ominously states. I braced myself for the worst.
Eighteen-year old Angelina (Ashley Hinshaw) lives in Southern California with her younger sister (Maya Raines), her alcoholic mother (Lili Taylor) and Mama’s latest man. Angelina yearns to escape her dismal home life, so with a little coaxing from her rock band boyfriend (Johnny Weston), she visits his photographer buddy Vaughn (Ernest Waddell). Vaughn shoots erotic photos, and Angelina is both erotic and photogenic. The photo shoot is such a rousing success that Weston demands Angelina avoid Vaughn for future shoots. Angelina dumps the rocker.
Black history written with lightning
“The Black Power Mixtape: 1967-1975” plays on PBS’s “Independent Lens” Thursday, February 9, 2012. Check local listings. It is also available on DVD, Netflix Instant and Amazon Instant.
After viewing “The Black Power Mixtape: 1967-1975,” I stumbled out of the theater and into a blinding, mid-afternoon New York City sun, every nerve in my body ablaze. All my neurons seemed to be firing at once, and my brain was so full of thought I sought some way to collect myself. I started to walk, focusing more on reconciling my thoughts than a navigational direction. With no destination in mind, I walked for what seemed an eternity, trying to put my emotional responses together. I was jolted from my mental process by an old woman standing next to me on a Manhattan street corner. I must have looked shell-shocked, because she touched my arm as we waited for a Lower East Side traffic light to change. “Honey, are you alright?” she asked, genuine concern on her face.
Fully back in reality, I said “I’m fine, ma’am. Thank you for asking.”
My reaction requires an explanation. Swedish journalist and filmmaker Göran Hugo Olsson’s documentary took me back to the days when I came to a mature understanding of the implications of being Black, male, and broke. My adolescence was full of reading the speeches and works of Black leaders besides Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I chose to do this after my uncle took me to a Black-owned bookstore and suggested several books I should read. He avoided MLK not out of some form of militant stance, but because footage and information about King were everywhere. He was the star of every Black History Month on TV, and those who rejected the message of non-violence were either marginalized, demonized or ignored. I devoured works by people whose messages were downright terrifying to mainstream America: Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael, Eldridge Cleaver, and Huey P. Newton.
On “The Rack” with Paul Newman and Stewart Stern
• “The Rack” (1956)
• “Until They Sail” (1957)
• “The Prize” (1963)
• “Tales of Tomorrow: Ice From Space” (1953)”The Rack,” “Until They Sail” and “The Prize” are now available on made-to-order DVD from the Warner Archive Collection for $19.95 each. “Tales of Tomorrow” can be viewed on Hulu Plus and Amazon Instant Video.
by Jeff Shannon
You would think that every film Paul Newman ever appeared in would be readily available on home video, right? Guess again. One of the best films from Newman’s early career has managed to slip through the cracks of home-video distribution for decades, and unless you’re old enough to have seen it in theaters or on TV over the years, it’s possible you’ve never even heard of it.
So when I heard that “The Rack” (1956) was available on home video for the very first time, I couldn’t wait to break the news to Stewart Stern.
For anyone who’s wondering “Stewart who?” there’s a convenient shortcut you can use when discussing the impressive life and career of Stewart Stern. All you have to say is, “He wrote ‘Rebel Without a Cause.'”
Uh-huh, that one. With a credit like that, any screenwriter could legitimately claim a slice of movie immortality, like James Dean did as the now-iconic star of Nicholas Ray’s 1955 teen-angst classic.
But to say that Stern only wrote “Rebel” is a bit like saying Frank Lloyd Wright designed a house. In the course of his distinguished, decades-spanning career, Stern wrote rich, psychologically perceptive scripts that were magnets for great actors and great acting: His script for “The Ugly American” (1963) gave Brando plenty to chew on; his Oscar-nominated script for “Rachel, Rachel” (1968) gave Joanne Woodward what is arguably the best role of her career (under the direction of her husband, Paul Newman; they also earned Oscar nods); and Stern’s Emmy and Peabody-winning teleplay for “Sybil” (1976) transformed cute TV actress Sally Field into an Emmy winner with a pair of Oscars in her future. A few years later, Stern left Hollywood, weary of the rat race and struggling with writer’s block, the delayed effect of post-traumatic stress from service in World War II. In the mid-’80s, Stern relocated to Seattle and never looked back.
And while Stern may have been a nephew of Paramount Pictures founder Adolph Zukor, with additional family ties to MGM moguls Arthur Loew Sr. and Jr., his closest Hollywood connection was more personal and more warmly indicative of the man’s soul and spirit: For 55 years, Stewart Stern was one of Paul Newman’s very best friends.
Hemingway & Gellhorn: Corny and canny
“Hemingway & Gellhorn (160 minutes) debuts on HBO May 28th, and will be available on HBO Go and HBO On Demand May 29th.
“If two people love each other, there can be no happy end to it.” — Ernest Hemingway
by Odie Henderson
Philip Kaufman’s epic HBO movie “Hemingway & Gellhorn” is old-fashioned, corny as hell and not above using cliché. None of these characteristics is necessarily a bad thing, especially if the filmmakers know they are employing them. This film evokes the rainy Sunday afternoon old-movie fare I grew up watching on TV, movies with a tough, macho hero, a smart, brassy dame and the undeniable chemistry between them. Kaufman updates the formula to modern times with belts of profanity and jolts of sex, but “Hemingway and Gellhorn” maintains the feeling of an era long since passed, wherein its leads could have been played by Gable and Harlow or Bogie and Betty Bacall.
The titular characters are Ernest Hemingway and his third wife, Martha Gellhorn. Gellhorn is widely considered one of the greatest war correspondents in journalism history, covering wars well into her 80’s. Yet, she was constantly overshadowed by her more famous ex-husband. Theirs was a torrid affair, started while Hemingway was married to his Catholic second wife and continuing through their coverage of several wars. “We were good at wars,” Gellhorn said, “and when there was no war, we made our own.” The screenplay, by Barbara Turner (“Georgia”) and Jerry Stahl (“Permanent Midnight”) is filled with prose like this, and I enjoyed devouring every purple morsel of it. “Hemingway and Gellhorn” even opens with the now-elderly Gellhorn telling us what a lousy lay she was.
Gnarr: Send in the clown
“Gnarr” (85 minutes) is now available via most major on-demand platforms including cable, satellite, iTunes and Amazon Instant.
by Jeff Shannon
The United States could sure use a guy like Jon Gnarr right about now. Just take a look at the sorry state of our presidential campaigns and then consider what Gnarr achieved in his native Iceland: In January 2010 Gnarr, Iceland’s most popular and controversial comedian, began to campaign for the office of Mayor of Reykjavik, Iceland’s capital and largest city. What began as a joke snowballed into a seriously funny, but still very serious, protest vote that turned the tide of history.
Earning coverage in The New York Times, Gnarr’s campaign was a referendum on the unchecked corruption, cronyism and incompetence that turned the richest country in Europe into the morally and financially bankrupt victim of a nationwide depression. Gnarr’s campaign momentum was made possible by a climate of disgust and frustration with a political system that was broken beyond repair. In the wake of financial disaster on an unprecedented scale, Gnarr rode a wave of backlash against a gridlocked establishment.
As the playful yet firmly grounded documentary “Gnarr” unfolds, Americans can easily view the film as a reflection of our current political climate. Accounting for differences in scale (Iceland’s entire population is slightly less than that of Wichita, Kansas), Gnarr’s mayoral campaign, and the media circus surrounding it, is strikingly relevant to the political and economic woes of the world’s top-ranking superpower. Watching the film, you can’t help thinking, “What if…? “
Corman’s World: Monsters, mayhem & breast nudity!
“Corman’s World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel” is available March 27 on online outlets via iTunes, Vudu, CinemaNow and Amazon. Also on DVD and Blu-ray.
For B-movie buffs, exploitation film aficionados, and midnight movie cultists, the grand finale of “Corman’s World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel,” will be every bit as exhilarating as that montage of forbidden kisses at the end of “Cinema Paradiso.” Taking its cue from the liberating, rebellious high point of the Roger Corman-produced “Rock and Roll High School,” in which P. J. Soles and the Ramones rock the hallways of Vince Lombardi High, it offers up dizzying bursts of quintessential Corman: cheesy monsters, fiery car explosions, Vincent Price, blaxploitation kickass, marauding piranhas and Mary Woronov with a gun.
Alex Stapleton’s “Corman’s World” celebrates the singular cinematic legacy of the “King of the Bs,” who has improbably and regretfully fallen into obscurity. Observes director Penelope Spheeris (“The Boys Next Door,” “The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years,” “Wayne’s World”): “If you ask a 20-25-year-old film buff, they won’t know who he is.”
This despite a career that spans almost 60 years and more than 400 films that Corman either directed or produced. But while his own name may be unfamiliar, many of the once-fledgling actors and filmmakers whom he nurtured/exploited are not: Martin Scorsese (“Boxcar Bertha”), Ron Howard (“Grand Theft Auto”), Peter Bogdanovich (“Targets”), Jonathan Demme (“Caged Heat”), Joe Dante (“Piranha”), Robert DeNiro (“Bloody Mama”), Pam Grier (“The Big Doll House”), screenwriter John Sayles (“The Lady in Red”) — all these and many more appear in “Corman’s World” in new and archival interviews.
The Captains: The Shat talks Trek
“The Captains” is available on Netflix, EpixHD.com, Amazon Instant Video, Vudu and DVD. It will screen on HBO Canada March 21.
Stardate 65630.8 (1 March 2012)
What made “Star Trek” the most “durable and profitable franchise” in entertainment history? In his documentary, writer-director-producer William Shatner makes a convincing argument that it was “The Captains” — they set the tone and they brought the theatricality and Shakespearean linguistic grace to TV.
“The Captains,” appeared in October, 2011, in Canada, had one-night screenings here and there across North America, and helped launch EpixHD.com. That all seems in keeping with Shatner’s impressive role as a new-media barnstormer. No, he’s not making political speeches, but he’s on Google+ and Facebook, and he’s traveling around North America promoting and preserving what may be his most lasting legacy, his role as Captain James T. Kirk. He’s even returned to Broadway in a one-man show covering his career before, during and beyond “Star Trek.” (Yes, “returned.”)
In Hollywood, people joke about the William Shatner School of Acting. He’s corny. He’s melodramatic. And he has a sizable ego. But he’s really not a bad actor. We forget that before “Star Trek,” Shatner seemed destined to become a fine stage actor. He first made the trip to Broadway from his native Canada in 1956 with a small part in “Tamburlaine the Great” in 1956. The production had two Tony nominations. He scored the starring role in “The World of Suzie Wong,” which ran for two years. Both he and the female lead won Theatre World Awards for their work. In 1962, he was one of the main performers in “A Shot in the Dark,” for which Walter Matthau won a featured actor Tony. All that momentum got sidetracked when he went Hollywood.
So U2 Wanna Be a Rock ‘n’ Roll Star
“Killing Bono” available On Demand (through various cable outlets — check your listings) October 5. In theaters November 4.
by Odie Henderson
“Every time a friend succeeds, I die a little.” — Gore Vidal
I was the only patron at my screening of “U2: Rattle and Hum” back in 1988. Sitting in the cavernous darkness of my old ‘hood theater, with its still-unmatched speakers and the ghosts of my childhood movies, I fell in love with the band U2. Beforehand, I had a casual familiarity with their music, and while I liked some of the songs, I wouldn’t have considered myself a fan. I went because the black and white cinematography looked gorgeous in the clips I’d seen on TV. I wasn’t disappointed. Phil Joanou’s documentary is achingly beautiful. That, along with Bono and the New Voices of Freedom gospel choir’s performance of “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” cemented my diehard fandom. Once, in a Dublin pub, armed with numerous imbibed pints of Guinness and a dare from the guitar-playing busker who’d been entertaining the crowd, I sang “All I Want Is You” to a crowd of swooning lasses standing in front of me. That evening ended well.
Neil McCormick, the protagonist of “Killing Bono” would hate that I started this piece fawning over the murder victim of the film’s title. After all, he feels trapped in Bono’s shadow and decides he has to kill him. “Killing Bono” opens in 1987, with a stalkerish Neil (Ben Barnes) driving his car to Bono’s latest Dublin appearance. Rambling to the camera that he was originally entitled to everything Bono has, Neil crashes his car before exiting with his gun drawn and pointed at his prey. “I always knew I’d be famous,” he tells us.
Cue the flashback machine! Suddenly, it’s 1976, and McCormick stands in a high school hallway reading a billboard notice. His classmate, Paul Hewson (Martin McCann), is holding auditions for his new band, The Hype. Despite being in Neil’s band, The Undertakers, Neil’s brother Ivan (Robert Sheehan) tries out for second guitar. Much to Neil’s chagrin, Hewson loves Ivan’s work and wants him for his band. Neil objects–Ivan’s really good and essential to Neil’s success–so he tells Paul no deal.
Larry Sanders: The show behind the show
August, 2012, marks the 20th anniversary of the debut of “The Larry Sanders Show,” episodes of which are available on Netflix Instant, Amazon Instant, iTunes, and DVD. This is Part 2 of Edward Copeland’s extensive tribute to the show, including interviews with many of those involved in creating one of the best-loved comedies in television history. Part 1 (Ten Best Episodes) is here.
“Unethical? Jesus, Larry. Don’t start pulling at that thread; our whole world will unravel.”
— Artie (Rip Torn)
by Edward Copeland
Unravel those threads did — and often — in the world of fictional late night talk show host Larry Sanders. On “The Larry Sanders Show,” the brilliant and groundbreaking HBO comedy that paid attention to the men and women behind the curtain of Sanders’ fictional show, the ethics of showbiz were hilariously skewered.
War of the Arrows: Deadly targets
“War of the Arrows” is currently available on Netflix Instant, Vudu, iTunes and Blu-ray/DVD.
By Jana J. Monji
A sudden crush of movies is bringing the sport of archery back into the limelight, and the timing couldn’t be better for the 2011 costume drama “War of the Arrows” from South Korea. This is like a Western movie damsel in distress scenario transported to 17th century Korea with archery instead of gun sharpshooting. The good guys don’t wear white hats, but you’ll easily be able to tell the good guys from the bad guys in this morality tale.
European tradition has William Tell and Robin Hood to tantalize young boys into archery. In America, if children still play cowboys and injuns, then one supposes that the Native Americans still use bows, but that’s usually just the braves according to old stereotypes that places the squaws in the wigwams. More recently, we’ve had “The Avengers” with Clinton Barton’s Hawkeye.
For girls, “The Hunger Games” have given us an alternative reality with arrow-slinging Katniss who like Annie Oakley learned to shoot in order to feed her family. Disney’s newest princess, Merida in “Brave,” performs archery on horseback. Has there ever been a better time for archery?
Terrorism is stupid
Marshall Curry’s “If a Tree Falls” premieres on PBS’s “POV” series Tuesday, September 13, 2011.
by Steven Boone
Terrorism is plain stupid. I reaffirmed this belief halfway into “If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front”, a documentary chronicling the titular organization’s rise and fall. It’s one thing to protest in the streets, sit down in front of bulldozers and stage direct “actions” to draw media attention to a particular issue; it’s another thing entirely to commit violent crimes with the same ends in mind. But did the Earth Liberation Front actually perpetrate any terrorism? Their 1200 or so “incidents,” as a lawyer representing some members calls them, resulted in zero deaths or injuries (other than maybe a booboo sustained while vaulting a fence before the cops came). The violence was restricted to private property.
But the crimes covered in this film were prosecuted in the wake of 9/11, when its principal subject, radical environmental activist-arsonist Daniel McGowan, found himself branded a terrorist in the media and on trial. “I think people look at my case and think, ‘What if that motherf**ker burned down my house?'” he says in the film. “They think it’s just a bunch of young crazies walking around with gas cans, lighting shit on fire and that pisses them off.”
“These facilities” were the offices of park rangers, loggers, an SUV dealership and a horse slaughterhouse. In the ’90s and ’00s, the E.L.F. targeted a range of businesses and organizations it saw as powerful agents of environmental destruction. The members were mostly very young protestors radicalized by brutal police response. Footage of cops beating and pepper-spraying non-violent activists who refuse to disperse does resemble classic civil rights/counterculture tumult. (Scenes of confrontation with loggers, from an E. L.F.-made documentary ostensibly shot in the mid-90s, look as if they could have been shot in the late ’60s.) This was a classic, bright-eyed, idealistic strain of the environmental movement, led by resourceful twenty-somethings.
Forget it Ji, it’s Kolkata
“The Bengali Detective” plays HBO On Demand, beginning November 16th.
The first thing you need to know about “The Bengali Detective is that Fox Searchlight purchased the remake rights ten months before the general public laid eyes on it. Director Philip Cox’s documentary features a charming leading man, adultery, triple homicide, mystery and suspense, a cute little kid, a dying spouse, corrupt officials and unbridled dancing. What studio could resist any of that, let alone be faithful to the darker, sadder grace notes that underscore the source material? The fiction version, due in 2014, will probably replace the casual matter-of-factness of “The Bengali Detective” with overdone “Slumdog Millionaire”-style schadenfreude. Unlike Danny Boyle’s popular Oscar winner, this film reminds the viewer that those who cannot afford much should still be afforded dignity without the gaze of pity. Save yourself the three-year wait and watch “The Bengali Detective” now.
According to the film, 70 percent of the crimes in the East Indian city of Kolkata are unsolved. The authorities are either incompetent, corrupt or both. So the citizens turn to one of their own, the local detective who takes their cases. The titular Bengali detective is Rajesh Ji, head of the Always Detective Agency. He takes numerous cases, sometimes more than he can comfortably handle, and his motley crew of assistant detectives conduct surveillance, interview suspects, and shoulder their share of the legwork. During “The Bengali Detective, ” Ji investigates three cases: One has a predictable outcome, one is a deceptively trivial crime, and the last is the harrowing triple murder of three best friends. The film gives each case a title so we know which one we’re following with the detectives.
“Deepti” follows a middle-aged woman who comes to Ji with the suspicion that her husband of 24 years is cheating on her. Cox interviews her, and she talks of arranged marriage and her spouse’s incredible cruelty toward her over the course of their relationship. “Just because he’s a man doesn’t make him lord and master,” Deepti tells the camera. Later, after two of Ji’s assistants tail the husband to the expected results, Deepti issues a statement to Ji that is devastating in its descriptive simplicity. “My heart is blank,” she tells him, “but at least I know the truth.” Cox leaves her story with a quiet long shot of the saddened wife staring at the bright green folder containing Ji’s case documentation.
From Seattle, with free refills
“The Off Hours” is now available on most on-demand platforms including Comcast, Verizon, AT&T and most major-cable services. NOTE: The film is not available through DirecTV. It will be released on DVD in January and will premiere on Hulu and Netflix later in 2012.
by Jeff Shannon
There’s never been a better time for filmmaking in the Pacific Northwest. Running the entire spectrum from filmgoers and critics to actors, writers and production talent aplenty, the Seattle film community has always been close-knit and cooperative, and its D.I.Y. resourcefulness has resulted in a slow but steady rise of intermingling talent. (Full disclosure: Several of the creative people mentioned below are casual Facebook acquaintances of mine.) Ten years ago and earlier, you were lucky if your micro-budgeted project got finished and accepted by festivals, and for several years it seemed like the Native American drama “Smoke Signals” (written by Northwest author Sherman Alexie and distributed by Miramax in 1998) would be Seattle’s only claim to a locally-produced breakout success.
Undeterred, Seattle’s film community continued to percolate like the coffee that stereotypically defines “The Emerald City” for most of the outside world. Abundant indie-film projects, and the passions that fueled their creation, have led to a natural progression of experience and expertise, and this year alone the Sundance film festival hosted four films shot in Washington state. When you consider the local history that led us from “Gas City” (an obscure, no-budget 1978 slacker drama shot among the aging motels and nightspots of Seattle’s Aurora Avenue) to the international success of director Lynn Shelton’s “Humpday” (2009), it’s no wonder that Seattle has become the Northwest’s answer to Austin, Texas: A film- and music-loving city (per capita, Seattleites are still the nation’s #1 moviegoers) where independent filmmakers can find the talent, resources, and community support to foster their projects from start to finish. Indeed, “Start-to-Finish” is the name of an innovative program, introduced by the Northwest Film Forum in 1998, designed to select and co-produce films with the goal of national and global exposure. Canadian alt-auteur Guy Maddin found NWFF so appealing that he came here to shoot his 2006 film “Brand Upon the Brain!,” now available on DVD from the Criterion Collection (and photographed by the gifted Benjamin Kasulke — see below).
Faces that bring their own light
“The First Grader” is streaming On Demand via Amazon and Vudu, and the DVD is on Netflix and on sale.
by Steven Boone
It doesn’t matter that “The First Grader” is as shamelessly, sappily manipulative as that TV commercial where Sarah Mclachlan wails a tune while the camera zooms in on miserable animals peering out of their rescue shelter cages. Nope. It doesn’t even matter that the musical score, which I will give the alternate title “Mother Africa Weeps,” is the World Music equivalent of an Oreo McFlurry — a real pancreas-buster. Never mind all that. The imagery in “The First Grader” places it on par with cinema’s great sentimental masterpieces, “Umberto D,” “Tokyo Story” and “Ikiru.” From the first frame, this film warns that it is working in a universe of pure emotion.
The film’s true story concerns Maruge (Oliver Litondo), a former Kenyan freedom fighter and political prisoner who has been forgotten in the post-colonial age. He walks around the countryside in rags while the new generation of power brokers benefiting from his sacrifices zip through Nairobi in Benzes. When he learns that the government is now offering free education to all, he tries to enroll in a local elementary school. He’s illiterate, it turns out, and he wants to learn how to read an important old letter for himself. Of course, the 84 year-old has a tough time convincing the overcrowded one-room schoolhouse to let him in.
Inventing David Geffen: The Art of Self-Creation
“American Masters: Inventing David Geffen” premieres Tuesday, Nov. 20th at 8:00pm on PBS. (Check local listings.) It can also be viewed, where available, via PBS On Demand.
by Jeff Shannon
It was my good fortune to be working at Microsoft when the big announcement was made in March of 1995: Microsoft was entering into a joint venture with DreamWorks SKG, the new film studio and entertainment company founded the previous year by mega-moguls Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen (the “SKG” in the company’s original moniker). At the time, Microsoft dominated the booming business of multimedia publishing, and the group I was working in, nicknamed “MMPUB,” was producing a dazzling variety of CD-ROM games and reference guides. As an independent contractor I was the assistant editor of Cinemania, a content-rich, interactive movie encyclopedia (later enhanced with a website presence) that was an elegant and in some ways superior precursor to the Internet Movie Database.
A haunting, in time and space
“The Innkeepers” is streaming online through Amazon Instant and Vudu. It is also offered on some cable systems’ On Demand channels and opens theatrically in a limited release February 3rd. The official website is here.
by Steven Boone
The trailer for “The Inkeepers” betrays a basic insecurity common in low-budget indie films nowadays: They want you to think they’re as loud and hectic as their big-budget counterparts. They’re afraid you won’t show up otherwise. And so this horror film which builds its scares slowly, stealthily and through the peculiar quirks of its characters is sold as just another clangy, generic mainstream fright flick. Mercifully, the actual film shows only a little of this poisonous “ambition.” It’s mostly just a good old-fashioned ghost story, well told.
This film’s wealth of personality is apparent early on, as director Ti West takes his time recording the subtle oddball chemistry between Claire (Sarah Paxton) and Luke (Pat Healy), the only staff on duty at the Yankee Pedlar Inn. Luke is obsessed with documenting a legendary ghost at the Pedlar for his website. He is surprised to find that Claire, his secret geek-girl crush, is just as fascinated by the subject. For a healthy stretch of the film we just watch them goofing off and pranking each other when not rendering poor service to the inn’s only two guests (one played by Kelly McGillis from “Top Gun,” appearing about 15 years older than her actual age–the biggest jolt of the movie, for a viewer over 30).
Hara-Kiri: Of courage, compassion & cowardice
In Takashi Miike’s “Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai,” power and tradition crush good people, just as they did in Masaki Kobayashi’s 1962 version. Both films are expressions of social rebellion, but where Kobayashi’s conveyed a spirit of righteous vengeance that anticipated the course of its revolutionary decade, Miike’s is more plaintive and despairing. There are struggles, but nobody wins, ever. Weak and cowardly people who happen to be tending the levers of power simply carry out meaningless rituals that destroy lives.
As in the ’62 film, through flashbacks we get a good, long look at the lives an inflexible Samurai code has destroyed. With the elegance and shyness of an Ozu domestic drama, Miike renders a family formed under bittersweet circumstances: A poor Samurai dies, leaving his son in the care of his old war buddy, a fellow widower with a daughter of his own. Raising these children in early 15th Century peacetime means drawing from meager earnings as an umbrella maker rather than as a soldier of fortune. Hanshiro Tsugumo (Ebizo Ichikawa) might have been tough on the battlefield, but he imparts a gentle nature, not a warrior’s stoicism, to the boy, Motome Chiziiwa (Eita). Motome becomes a schoolteacher and, inevitably, marries Hanshiro’s daughter Miho (played as an adult by Hikari Mitsushima, the radiant star of Sion Sono’s Miike-like masterpiece, “Love Exposure”). He fulfills both obligations with his father’s patient, nurturing ways.
Raccoon Nation: The hep cats of the ‘hood
“Raccoon Nation” premieres on PBS’s Nature series Wednesday, Feb. 8, at 8 p.m., 7 p.m. Central. Coming on DVD/Blu-ray March 13.
Let’s be frank: People watch nature documentaries because they want to see wild animals doing the Wild Thing. This can be shown on regular TV because, as Bea Arthur’s Maude famously said, “animals making love is rated G. People making love like animals–that’s R ” An animal documentary serves to showcase how its subjects survive, hunt, eat, play, and yes, get their freak on. There’s a reason the sexiest piece of music Elmer Bernstein ever wrote used to play over footage of animals gettin’ bizzy on “National Geographic.” A Barry White soundtrack would have been way too hot for TV.
Alas, “Raccoon Nation” is a relatively chaste animal documentary, which is unusual but no less interesting. Its focus is on another popular topic of nature non-fiction: man’s effect on the animal kingdom. Our species is usually depicted as destructive, and rightfully so. Forests and wooded areas are disappearing, leaving animals homeless and upsetting the natural balance by misplacing both predator and prey. “Raccoon Nation” takes a different approach, however, suggesting that humans may be responsible for the continued survival of the misplaced animal. The more we try to get rid of raccoons, the smarter they get. It’s side hustle disguised as adaptation.
As more and more development occurs, the animals start living closer to us. The urban jungle is now literally a jungle. Deer have been spotted in my hometown, and 10 miles away, Irvington, New Jersey saw an episode of “Bearz N The Hood” when a city block’s trashcans were set upon by ursine visitors. My current neighborhood is overrun with rabbits, foxes, possums, squirrels and birds who are decidedly NOT pigeons. I walked out of my house this summer, and there were so many animals in my yard I thought I was in “Song of the South.”
Walk Away Renee: You’re not to blame
“Walk Away Renee” is available on SundanceNow’s new Subscriber Video-on-Demand Program Doc Club from June 27, 2012.
When you were young didn’t you think your parents were crazy? Did you swear you wouldn’t turn out like them? For filmmaker Jonathan Caouette, those two worries have defined his life because his mother suffers from bipolar personality and schizoaffective disorders, something that he focused on in his award-winning 2003 documentary “Tarnation.” In his new film, “Walk Away Renee,” Caouette brings us up to 2010 with the focus on Caouette driving his mother, Renee LeBlanc, in a U-Haul from Houston to New York.
For a dysfunctional family, road trips can be filled with emotional landmines. For Caouette, this bonding experience starts out well, but early on, they lose Renee’s 30-day supply of lithium. Without her mood stabilizing meds, you know that things can only get worse. For people who have bipolar relatives, this story might seem heartbreakingly familiar.
Caouette’s “Tarnation” begins with overexposed grainy images. The highlights are blown out to white; this isn’t a technical problem, but an expression of panic. His mother has overdosed and the documentary then shows the events building up to this emergency. Caouette began filming his family in 1984 and in “Tarnation” we see him as a young troubled boy, starved for attention and trying to make sense of his world, his sexual orientation and the mother he loves while being raised by his overwhelmed though well-meaning grandparents, Adolph and Rosemary Davis.
