Hard work, but powerful, based on the true story of a Catholic petty thief in 1943 who is paid by Jews to help them hide in the sewers of Lvov, Poland. It's too long by nearly an hour, gets up close and personal with atrocities, and reminds me why I used to avoid Holocaust movies. Nominated for the Best Foreign Film Oscar, it lost to A Separation (as it did at the Critics Choice Awards). Screenwriter David F. Shamoon (whose own parents fled Baghdad to escape Iraq's persecution of Jews) read in the newspaper about a book, The Righteous by Sir Martin Gilbert, about heroes who helped save Jews from the Nazis. Gilbert pointed Shamoon toward another book, In the Sewers of Lvov: A Heroic Story of Survival from the Holocaust by Robert Marshall, and Shamoon bought the movie rights to that one and spent eight years getting it to the screen. So now that I've given away that somebody survived, I can tell you that that person told the filmmakers, “You captured it. That’s how it was.” The end cards will tell you that person's name. And now you also know that it isn't all awful. But there's a whole lot of awful. Also, as I've said in the past, I'm very thankful there's no smell-o-vision. FYI: Lvov is now Lviv (pronounced le-VEE-ew), Ukraine, about 200 miles east of Krakow and 340 miles west of Kiev.
Shamoon brought in the respected Polish director Agnieska Holland (I didn't see Europa Europa (1990); I think I saw Total Eclipse (1995), with Leonardo DiCaprio as Arthur Rimbaud, and I definitely saw The Secret Garden (1993) (I loved the book when I was a child); and I'm surprised to learn that she directed episodes of The Wire and Cold Case, among others). Apparently during the test screenings the filmmakers watched the audience carefully and decided not to make it any shorter. Too bad they didn't ask Jack and me! None of the actors is familiar to me, though many have distinguished careers in Poland and Germany.
As my regular readers know, I often seek out background music from the movie I'm covering to keep me in the mood while writing. In doing so, I noticed an egregious error on imdb: the composer's name, Antoni Komasa-Lazarkiewicz' third name was misspelled (Lazarkarkiewicz) and not linked to his previous work, which was listed under Antoni Lazarkiewicz, so I have a correction in the works on that site. I did not find any tracks for us this time--my fallback is a very long playlist of instrumentals that includes soundtracks, jazz, classical, and anything else with no lyrics to confuse my wordiness.
So, if you go, try to do something fun and uplifting, preferably in the sunshine, after your two and a half hours In Darkness. Oh, and sit as far back as possible or avert your eyes from time to time, if you suffer from Motion Picture Motion Sickness.
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Thin Ice (The Convincer - 2011)
The Sprecher sisters have moved into Coen brothers territory with this dark comedy featuring Greg Kinnear as a hapless con man and Alan Arkin as his intended mark, set in snowy Wisconsin. Jack and I liked it a lot on Sunday. The Coens don't have to worry, since director/co-writer Jill Sprecher's last movie, the excellent ensemble piece Thirteen Conversations About One Thing, was released in 2001, and her only other feature was Clockwatchers (1997), with four main characters, which I also liked (she also co-produced 11 episodes of Big Love). Karen Sprecher co-wrote all three features and co-produced the same 11 episodes.
Kinnear is always reliable as the guy who doesn't get why he doesn't get what he wants, from the spurned younger brother in the remake of Sabrina (1995), the unhappy neighbor in As Good as it Gets (1997), the unnecessary boyfriend in You've Got Mail (1998), the actor in Nurse Betty (2000), the insane Bob Crane in Auto Focus (2002), the "crestfallen businessman" (that's a quote from imdb) in Matador (2005), the frustrated dad in Little Miss Sunshine (2006), the beleaguered manager in Fast Food Nation (2006), a "hopeless romantic" (imdb) in Feast of Love (2007), the boyfriend in Baby Mama (2008), and the ripped-off inventor of intermittent windshield wipers in Flash of Genius, to name my favorites. I didn't see the mini-series The Kennedys, in which he finally got to play a winner--oh well. Arkin (profiled in The Private Lives of Pippa Lee and was in Thirteen Conversations about One Thing) is a hoot as the addled old man, Billy Crudup (I wrote about him in Public Enemies) is scary as the loose cannon locksmith, Lea Thompson (best known as Lorraine Baines McFly in three Back to the Future movies (1985, 89, 90), she also played Jed's girlfriend Laura in The Beverly Hillbillies (1993) and the title character in Caroline in the City (1995-2000), among many) has transitioned well from fresh-faced girl to disillusioned wife, David Harbour (a recognizable character actor in a couple dozen projects) is great as the aw-shucks apprentice salesman, and Bob Balaban (Oscar-nominated for producing (and co-writing the story of) Gosford Park (2001) in which he also co-starred in Robert Altman's ensemble, he is indispensable in all his roles, including my faves: Captain Orr in Catch-22 (1970) which starred Arkin; the cartographer in Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977); the concerned colleague in Altered States (1980); the prosecutor in Absence of Malice (1980); part of Woody Allen's ensembles in Alice (1990) and Deconstructing Harry (1997); cousin Ed in Greedy (1994); the boss in Clockwatchers; part of Christopher Guest's ensembles of Waiting for Guffman (1996), Best in Show (2000), A Mighty Wind (2003), and For Your Consideration (2006); the unlikely mobster in The Mexican (2001); the dad in Ghost World (2001); New Yorker editor William Shawn in Capote (2005); and Judge Horn in Howl) is appropriately twitchy as the violin appraiser. A little trivia I found reading through the cast list: the bank teller is played by Sue Scott, one of the Prairie Home Companion ensemble of radio and screen.
The score, by Jeff Danna (brother of Mychael (Moneyball), he's done plenty on his own, including Lakeview Terrace and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus) has suspense and moodiness. You can hear a few clips on his website, but even the title of the video on the Thin Ice page is a big spoiler, so save it for later, and instead listen to clips on the amazon page, preferably without reading the track names.
The title was originally The Convincer, from a line in the script. Now I see, from a link on imdb, that after the editing phase a new producer stepped in, and without the consent of the Sprechers, fired the editor, recut the movie, fired the original composer, and added the new soundtrack (more). Jill Sprecher would have removed her name had she been contractually allowed to do so. Apparently the original cut will be included on the Blu-Ray DVD (do I have to get new hardware to see it, I wonder?). There's a strong resemblance to the Coen brothers' Fargo (1996), and though anyone privy to the above controversy (or who saw the original cut at Sundance) has been highly critical, this cut averages 73% by critics and 70% by audiences on rottentomatoes. If I find a way to see the first cut before then, I'll update this post. Anyway, the movie as it stands is still good, but you might as well wait for the DVD.
Kinnear is always reliable as the guy who doesn't get why he doesn't get what he wants, from the spurned younger brother in the remake of Sabrina (1995), the unhappy neighbor in As Good as it Gets (1997), the unnecessary boyfriend in You've Got Mail (1998), the actor in Nurse Betty (2000), the insane Bob Crane in Auto Focus (2002), the "crestfallen businessman" (that's a quote from imdb) in Matador (2005), the frustrated dad in Little Miss Sunshine (2006), the beleaguered manager in Fast Food Nation (2006), a "hopeless romantic" (imdb) in Feast of Love (2007), the boyfriend in Baby Mama (2008), and the ripped-off inventor of intermittent windshield wipers in Flash of Genius, to name my favorites. I didn't see the mini-series The Kennedys, in which he finally got to play a winner--oh well. Arkin (profiled in The Private Lives of Pippa Lee and was in Thirteen Conversations about One Thing) is a hoot as the addled old man, Billy Crudup (I wrote about him in Public Enemies) is scary as the loose cannon locksmith, Lea Thompson (best known as Lorraine Baines McFly in three Back to the Future movies (1985, 89, 90), she also played Jed's girlfriend Laura in The Beverly Hillbillies (1993) and the title character in Caroline in the City (1995-2000), among many) has transitioned well from fresh-faced girl to disillusioned wife, David Harbour (a recognizable character actor in a couple dozen projects) is great as the aw-shucks apprentice salesman, and Bob Balaban (Oscar-nominated for producing (and co-writing the story of) Gosford Park (2001) in which he also co-starred in Robert Altman's ensemble, he is indispensable in all his roles, including my faves: Captain Orr in Catch-22 (1970) which starred Arkin; the cartographer in Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977); the concerned colleague in Altered States (1980); the prosecutor in Absence of Malice (1980); part of Woody Allen's ensembles in Alice (1990) and Deconstructing Harry (1997); cousin Ed in Greedy (1994); the boss in Clockwatchers; part of Christopher Guest's ensembles of Waiting for Guffman (1996), Best in Show (2000), A Mighty Wind (2003), and For Your Consideration (2006); the unlikely mobster in The Mexican (2001); the dad in Ghost World (2001); New Yorker editor William Shawn in Capote (2005); and Judge Horn in Howl) is appropriately twitchy as the violin appraiser. A little trivia I found reading through the cast list: the bank teller is played by Sue Scott, one of the Prairie Home Companion ensemble of radio and screen.
The score, by Jeff Danna (brother of Mychael (Moneyball), he's done plenty on his own, including Lakeview Terrace and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus) has suspense and moodiness. You can hear a few clips on his website, but even the title of the video on the Thin Ice page is a big spoiler, so save it for later, and instead listen to clips on the amazon page, preferably without reading the track names.
The title was originally The Convincer, from a line in the script. Now I see, from a link on imdb, that after the editing phase a new producer stepped in, and without the consent of the Sprechers, fired the editor, recut the movie, fired the original composer, and added the new soundtrack (more). Jill Sprecher would have removed her name had she been contractually allowed to do so. Apparently the original cut will be included on the Blu-Ray DVD (do I have to get new hardware to see it, I wonder?). There's a strong resemblance to the Coen brothers' Fargo (1996), and though anyone privy to the above controversy (or who saw the original cut at Sundance) has been highly critical, this cut averages 73% by critics and 70% by audiences on rottentomatoes. If I find a way to see the first cut before then, I'll update this post. Anyway, the movie as it stands is still good, but you might as well wait for the DVD.
Casa di Mi Padre (2012)
Once again Will Ferrell plays a man-child, this time speaking subtitled Spanish in the story of two Mexican brothers trying to save their father's property--it's so bad it's laughable, with amateurish effects and a silly story. Mannequins are used as extras and stand-ins, and a stuffed white tiger (credited to Jim Henson's company) has lines. Ferrell last appeared in these pages in Everything Must Go, and his Armando Alvarez is dumb and lucky. Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna (both profiled in Rudo and Cursi) play a drug lord and Armando's brother, respectively. Everyone is playing it straight in this movie, even the beautiful Sonia (Genesis Rodriguez, who had a short series arc on Entourage). All of the cast except Ferrell and Nick Offernan (Parks & Recreation) are native Spanish speakers and recognizable character actors.
Matt Piedmont, an Emmy-winning writer for Saturday Night Live (1996-2002) (he also co-wrote two volumes of Saturday Night Live: The Best of Will Ferrell, among others), makes his feature directing debut with the script written by Andrew Steele, an Emmy-winning SNL writer from 1995-2008, and a writer on 10 episodes of Jon Stewart, and more. They both also worked on the series Funny or Die Presents... Ferrell and his usual comedy partner Adam McKay (father of baby Pearl in those silly landlady videos) are among the producers of this project (the ads say, "From the gringos who brought you Anchorman").
You can preview the soundtrack on this link. The opening credits feature a close-up on Christina Aguilera's lips as she sings a the title song (sounding quite James Bond-like). Other tracks include a Latin cover of Whiter Shade of Pale and, my favorite, a bouncy campfire song called Yo no se (that link gives you the whole song in a clip from the movie). The composers are Andrew Feltenstein (his feature debut) and John Nau (only a few credits). I counted 22 songs in the credits and the album has 20.
The critics agree with the first part of my assessment "so bad it's laughable:" on rottentomatoes it averages 45% (audiences have weighed in at 62). When it opened three weeks ago, it was playing all over town. We saw it last week, and now it has only two shows a day on one screen. A must-see for fans of Ferrell, it will probably have a longer life as a cult video. We're not sorry we saw it, but it's for a limited audience.
Matt Piedmont, an Emmy-winning writer for Saturday Night Live (1996-2002) (he also co-wrote two volumes of Saturday Night Live: The Best of Will Ferrell, among others), makes his feature directing debut with the script written by Andrew Steele, an Emmy-winning SNL writer from 1995-2008, and a writer on 10 episodes of Jon Stewart, and more. They both also worked on the series Funny or Die Presents... Ferrell and his usual comedy partner Adam McKay (father of baby Pearl in those silly landlady videos) are among the producers of this project (the ads say, "From the gringos who brought you Anchorman").
You can preview the soundtrack on this link. The opening credits feature a close-up on Christina Aguilera's lips as she sings a the title song (sounding quite James Bond-like). Other tracks include a Latin cover of Whiter Shade of Pale and, my favorite, a bouncy campfire song called Yo no se (that link gives you the whole song in a clip from the movie). The composers are Andrew Feltenstein (his feature debut) and John Nau (only a few credits). I counted 22 songs in the credits and the album has 20.
The critics agree with the first part of my assessment "so bad it's laughable:" on rottentomatoes it averages 45% (audiences have weighed in at 62). When it opened three weeks ago, it was playing all over town. We saw it last week, and now it has only two shows a day on one screen. A must-see for fans of Ferrell, it will probably have a longer life as a cult video. We're not sorry we saw it, but it's for a limited audience.
Monday, April 2, 2012
Chico & Rita (2010)
Jack and I loved this sexy animated musical in Spanish with subtitles, about a Cuban jazz piano player and his paramour, a luscious vocalist with green eyes. This isn't a cartoon for kids! The story is sweet, the characters volatile, and the artwork is outstanding. We particularly liked the busy street scenes, the carefully inked signs, and the old cars--most of it is set in the late 1940s and 1950s. You can see many examples on the official website, which has no spoilers, although there's one illustration of Rita topless. Co-director/co-writer/producer Fernando Trueba, whose Belle Epoque (1992--I didn't see it) won the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in 1994, seems well-suited for animation, as he has a whopping case of strabismus (his eyes point outwards--here's his photo), and a common side effect of that condition is lack of depth perception. My mother had that and I knew which eye to look at, based on where she sat at the dinner table, but it can be disconcerting. I wanted to see Trueba's Latin jazz documentary Calle 54 (2000) but somehow didn't get around to it. He is joined on this project by co-directors (and brothers of each other) Tono Errando and Javier Mariscal (the latter's design website is worth a look, the former doesn't even make it onto the movie's site).
One of the benefits of animating a story such as this is that the protagonist can watch or sit in with deceased jazz greats like Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Charlie "Bird" Parker, and Nat King Cole with no problem. Old recordings of Dizzy and Monk are used, a new one is created for Bird, and Freddy Cole subs for his brother Nat. But most of the music is written and performed by pianist Bebo Valdés, whose career was revived by Calle 54, as the fingers of Chico, and Idania Valdés (no relation) as the singing voice of Rita. Bebo is now 93, and then became the subject of the documentary Old Man Bebo (2008), which I haven't yet seen, but am enjoying its website. As a lover of jazz since the 1970s, I'm familiar with the sight of Dizzy's cheeks and neck puffing out when he blows his trumpet (here he is in 1985). This phenomenon is minimized, perhaps because it wasn't so pronounced in those days (here's a photo from 1947, and a still from the movie). It's not that important, but we both noticed.
I like to assign the release date chosen by imdb, which in this case is from the 2010 Telluride Film Festival. In fact, the movie was released in L.A. at the end of 2011, which qualified it for its Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature Film (it won that award at the Gaudí Awards in Barcelona, the Goya Awards in Madrid, the European Film Academy Awards in Berlin, and won Best Spanish Film at the Sant Jordi Awards in Barcelona; but Rango won the Oscar).
You won't be surprised that the soundtrack is outstanding. You can hear several entire tracks from it on this link. I bought the whole thing before writing this. Imdb has a listing of 32 tracks, which don't perfectly match the 30 tracks on my purchased album, but may give you an idea of some of the bebop and Latin jazz that's on there.
Critics agree with us: rottentomatoes' critics scored 85% and audiences 78%. Sorry it's taken me a week to post this--I know it'll be in my city for a few more days, but if you have a decent sized screen and sound system you can enjoy it at home. The DVD has been released in the U.K. so ours shouldn't be too far behind. If you hate jazz/bebop, skip it, but otherwise you will have fun.
One of the benefits of animating a story such as this is that the protagonist can watch or sit in with deceased jazz greats like Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Charlie "Bird" Parker, and Nat King Cole with no problem. Old recordings of Dizzy and Monk are used, a new one is created for Bird, and Freddy Cole subs for his brother Nat. But most of the music is written and performed by pianist Bebo Valdés, whose career was revived by Calle 54, as the fingers of Chico, and Idania Valdés (no relation) as the singing voice of Rita. Bebo is now 93, and then became the subject of the documentary Old Man Bebo (2008), which I haven't yet seen, but am enjoying its website. As a lover of jazz since the 1970s, I'm familiar with the sight of Dizzy's cheeks and neck puffing out when he blows his trumpet (here he is in 1985). This phenomenon is minimized, perhaps because it wasn't so pronounced in those days (here's a photo from 1947, and a still from the movie). It's not that important, but we both noticed.
I like to assign the release date chosen by imdb, which in this case is from the 2010 Telluride Film Festival. In fact, the movie was released in L.A. at the end of 2011, which qualified it for its Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature Film (it won that award at the Gaudí Awards in Barcelona, the Goya Awards in Madrid, the European Film Academy Awards in Berlin, and won Best Spanish Film at the Sant Jordi Awards in Barcelona; but Rango won the Oscar).
You won't be surprised that the soundtrack is outstanding. You can hear several entire tracks from it on this link. I bought the whole thing before writing this. Imdb has a listing of 32 tracks, which don't perfectly match the 30 tracks on my purchased album, but may give you an idea of some of the bebop and Latin jazz that's on there.
Critics agree with us: rottentomatoes' critics scored 85% and audiences 78%. Sorry it's taken me a week to post this--I know it'll be in my city for a few more days, but if you have a decent sized screen and sound system you can enjoy it at home. The DVD has been released in the U.K. so ours shouldn't be too far behind. If you hate jazz/bebop, skip it, but otherwise you will have fun.
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (2011)
Delightful, as expected. Ewan McGregor is a Scottish fisheries expert consulting with Emily Blunt on the improbable scheme of bringing sport fishing to the middle east desert and a romantic comedy with conflict ensues. The movie lives up to its pedigree: Lasse Hallström (3 Oscar nominations) directs and Simon Beaufoy (1 win, 2 nominations) adapts Paul Torday's novel. I last wrote about McGregor in Haywire, and his Fred is quite wonderful, utilizing McGregor's native accent (perhaps thickened a bit after all this time of playing characters from this side of the pond) and giving us all the quirks and passions of the scientist. There is one single line in the middle of the movie about Asperger's Syndrome, yet Wikipedia describes his character Alfred Jones as having it. Jack and I didn't get that at all (perhaps it's that way in the novel). Lovely Emily Blunt (most recently mentioned in The Adjustment Bureau because I forgot her little part as Miss Piggy's receptionist in The Muppets) also gives us a warm and conflicted character in Harriet Chetwode-Talbot (McGregor says CHET-wood TALL-bert). Third billed is Kristin Scott Thomas (profiled in Nowhere Boy), camping it up as the frustrated press secretary Patricia Maxwell with much sarcasm and eye-rolling. The memorable quotes page on imdb has no entries, but if it did I would nominate "I'm your f***ing mother!" as hollered by Maxwell at her teenage son. She's very funny here, despite her usual roles being quite intense and serious. Amr Waked (was in Syriana (2005) and uncredited in the huge cast of Contagion, plus a fair amount of work in his native Egypt) plays the Sheik bankrolling the project as a non-threatening and trustworthy man--he's awfully good-looking, too.
Hallström is from Sweden and his first American picture was the relationship comedy Once Around (1991) with Holly Hunter and Richard Dreyfuss. I also quite liked What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993), Something to Talk About (1995), The Cider House Rules (1999 - his third nomination), Chocolat (2000), The Shipping News (2001), Casanova (2005), and The Hoax (2006) about Clifford Irving's unauthorized biography of Howard Hughes (I didn't see My Life as a Dog (Mitt liv som hund - 1985) which earned Hallström nominations for directing and adapting the screenplay). Beaufoy's Oscar was won for adapting Slumdog Millionaire, and his nominations were for writing The Full Monty (1997) and 127 Hours (he also wrote Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day), and, as his Oscar proves, he can do politically-tinged comedy that tugs at your heartstrings.
Composer Dario Marianelli (I last wrote about him in Eat Pray Love) provides a soundtrack with elements of Scotland and Yemen. I listened to clips from the amazon page while writing this. There are three other movies I have write up but I wanted to make sure you have a chance to see this one, as it's playing close by in my neighborhood. We think you'll like it.
Hallström is from Sweden and his first American picture was the relationship comedy Once Around (1991) with Holly Hunter and Richard Dreyfuss. I also quite liked What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993), Something to Talk About (1995), The Cider House Rules (1999 - his third nomination), Chocolat (2000), The Shipping News (2001), Casanova (2005), and The Hoax (2006) about Clifford Irving's unauthorized biography of Howard Hughes (I didn't see My Life as a Dog (Mitt liv som hund - 1985) which earned Hallström nominations for directing and adapting the screenplay). Beaufoy's Oscar was won for adapting Slumdog Millionaire, and his nominations were for writing The Full Monty (1997) and 127 Hours (he also wrote Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day), and, as his Oscar proves, he can do politically-tinged comedy that tugs at your heartstrings.
Composer Dario Marianelli (I last wrote about him in Eat Pray Love) provides a soundtrack with elements of Scotland and Yemen. I listened to clips from the amazon page while writing this. There are three other movies I have write up but I wanted to make sure you have a chance to see this one, as it's playing close by in my neighborhood. We think you'll like it.
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