St. Anna not nearly as captivating as it tries to be

One of the reasons that Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing works so well, is that it is a film that doesn’t necessarily require the type of dialogue that constantly preaches at us. Lee can implement great stretches of dialogue in which the African-American character can go to great lengths to question the Italian American character for his hypocritical view of race relations. Lee uses scenes like this not as much to heighten the tension (the film brilliantly does that without always requiring dialogue), as much as to push the story along. While it may be unfair to compare a film like Miracle at St. Anna with a film like Do the Right Thing, given the nature and history of Lee’s work it seems inevitable. Maybe that’s why in the back of my mind I thought that St. Anna had a lot to live up to, and why ultimately I was disappointed that it didn’t.

St. Anna opens up with enough deep-seeded intensity to rival any crime thriller in recent memory. A black postal employee whom the audience has met only a few frames before, unhesitatingly shoots a man standing in his line. It’s a scene that the film arguably doesn’t need and will soon get lost under the sea of far too many plot lines in the minutes to come. Nonetheless, it sets up the media’s investigation of this reclusive old man, the vastly expensive ancient Italian artifact hidden in his closet, and his story of the second world war told through the eyes of the group with whom he experienced it with: The all-black 92nd infantry division. The group soon finds themselves trapped near a small Tuscan village when one of the soldiers risks his own life to save a young Italian boy. From here the story texts many different turns, going round and round in countless directions before it finally falls haphazardly at the audience’s feet nearly 2 ½ hours later.

The biggest crime Lee commits is that the story’s central characters are much too uninteresting to spend such a significant amount of time with. The multiple plot lines meander every which way, never offering even a remotely satisfying pay-off. To be sure, the film has several great scenes to boast as well. The action sequences employ the stark realism we have come to expect in war films since Saving Private Ryan first “unglamorized” war 10 years ago. The sequences involving race issues are often-poignantly yet prophetically displayed. In the first glimpses we get of the film’s leading character he is watching an old John Wayne war film in which the Hollywood cast is predictably all white. He can be heard muttering to himself, “we fought that war too”. The film is so uneven however, that most of the messages that could speak volumes get shuffled under the mixture of over-blown plot and poor execution. St. Anna tries to be important, and while at times it calls us to change, it lacks the prophetic element that truly causes us to question.

2.5/5

Black is White….Coen Brothers Marathon pt. 3: Miller’s Crossing

Look into your heart…that’s the advice that Bernie (played by John Turturro) pleads his executioner (Gabriel Byrne) to heed, in the deep fog-laden woods of Miller’s Crossing. The heart-stopping scene in which the whole film revolves around is more or less alluded to as each of the film’s central players all at one point or another are forced to look inward into their own hearts and battle the blackness that stares back. Unfortunately, at Miller’s Crossing, the blackness wins out most of the time.

The Coens have quite an affinity for genre. This may come as no surprise seeing as how most of their films are a “smash-up” of many well-known genres, with a Coen brothers’ twist that allows them to follow the rules for a little while, only to break them by picture’s end. Miller’s Crossing is a sleek, and handsome film noir drama that captures the icy haze of 30’s gangster pictures. It’s a gangster picture however that relies more on substance and it’s wormy characters than actual “whacks” and shoot-outs. It’s a stylized world that the Coens’ pull us into it, but it’s one that as Caspar says, raises age-old questions of ethics.

Tom Regan (Byrnne) plays advisor to a Prohibition-era crime boss played by Albert Finney. When Tom gets caught up in the crossfire between neighboring crime rings, his loyalties quickly become divided. His relationship with the boss’ dame (Marcia Gay Harden) makes the situation all the more sticky when the double, triple crosses, and back-stabs begin to pile up. The film is beautifully photographed by Barry Sonnenfeld, who shot the first three Coen brothers pictures. His work here is much more subdued than it is on Blood Simple, and Raising Arizona, and it’s probably for the better. The narrower scope of the lenses, the light shading all of the brimmed-hat gangsters at one point or another don’t allow us a full glimpse into the souls of these men until we realize too late what their true motives are. The techniques work without forcing us to think a certain way, because after all, nothing is what it seems at Miller’s Crossing.

4/5

Coen Bros. Marathon pt. 2: Barton Fink

A desk clerk emerges from an elevator, having ascended we assume from the depths of the underworld. A bellhop slowly mutters the words 6......6........6 as the elevator ascends into the abysmal madness of his apartment floor. A man with a machine gun screams at the top of his lungs, lunging down a hallway that is engulfed in flames. Needless to say, the Coens' view of hollywood is...well...not good.

Barton Fink is a character study, a satire, a David Lynch homage, a drama, a mystery, a black comedy, a horror film, a thriller, and (this one makes the most sense) a Coen brothers' movie. The Coens' cleverly imagined script centers around the title character, a left-wing playright (an amazing performance by John Turturro) who decides to sell out to "the pictures" in La La land. Once he moves to LA however, the pressure from the most cynical and greedy hollywood exec. known to man, the constant badgering of his spooky (and always sweaty) neighbor (John Goodman), and a murder mix-up gone wrong, all help fuel Barton's insurmountable writer's block.

The Coens' have made a living going against the system. They are arguably some of the most successful independent filmmakers in history having wirtten, produced, directed, and edited the bulk of their films without the influence of Hollywood. Their own synical and snyde view of tinseltown is comically scripted and sharply realized. Their clear knack for period pieces gracefully accent the whole movie. According to the trailer, Barton Fink was the first film to sweep all of the major awards at Cannes. While there are many great 'Coenesque" scenes in the film i.e. Barton's first encounter with Goodman's character, any of the farcical meetings with Barton and his hollywood boss, waking up to find himself sleeping next to a murdered 'dame', the film is not necessarily high on substance. What it does invoke is a mood, an ambiance if you will, that I found to be more actualized than any of the Coens' work. It's a mood that lends itself to brilliant acting, the ryhtmic timing of the Coens' dialouge, Roger Deakins' hypnotic cinemtagrophy that makes you geniuinely creeped out by Barton's apartment complex of who the lone arbitors seem to be merely Barton and his neighbor. The closest comparison I could make to a director of the same style would be David Lynch. Watch this film after you see David Lynch's Mullohaland Drive, or Eraserhead and you will know what I'm talking about.

4/5

Dead People Can Be Annoying

Why will I not see Dane Cook in My Best Friend’s Girl this week? Let me count the ways. On second thought, let me just tell you about another character that should answer the question quite nicely. I’ll leave the box-office to guys like Cook, and be content with guys like Ricky Gervais who never once try to convince me into laughing at them. Ghost Town answers the question “what do you get when you put a Hollywood screen-writer with a relative no-name in the US, a former TV actress, and a romantic comedy star in the same picture?” A formulaic mess? Not quite actually. At least not if Gervais has anything to say about it.

Bertram Pincus is a man who mostly keeps to himself, leaving his people skills nothing much to right home about. He plods about his daily routines walking from his apartment to his office where he works as a dentist, mostly trying to avoid any and everyone he should come in contact with. When Bertram goes into the hospital for a fairly routine surgery, he dies unexpectedly and is revived after seven minutes. The miraculous little event gives Bertram the ability, much to his brilliantly acted dismay, to see ghosts. As if that weren’t enough, these ghosts who are in limbo between our world and the next, endlessly follow Bertram around town asking him for his much needed help regarding their unfinished business. The worst of these is Frank Herlihy (Greg Kinnear) who pokes and prods at Bertram until he eventually concedes to help break up the soon-to-be marriage of Herlihy’s widow (Tea Leoni). This puts Bertram in the middle of a love triangle with often very funny, if not always so unpredictable results.

Ghost Town is a genuinely funny script that tries to tug at our heartstrings as well. It’s a film about forgiveness, love and regret. Most of the lessons revolve around the film’s central Ebenezer Scrooge-like player Ricky Gervais as Bertram Pincus. Gervais is just one of a few reasons why this movie might fly under your initial radar. A product of the UK, Gervais starred as Michael Scott in the BBC version of the hit series “the Office”. His dry comedic style works wonders in a formulaic Hollywood film like this one that would other wise just be an excuse to get a few comedians in front of the camera and let them be funny. What Gervais does is much better, he consistently plays frustrated to often times hilarious results. We struggle right along with him when he stumbles over his sentences and back-pedals over his curmudgeonly placed jabs at co-workers. And just when you think you don’t have sympathy for this man, his desperate attempts to flirt with Tea Leoni’s character pull him back in to your good graces. While there are no unexpected plot-turns, and the clichés make this all too familiar territory, It’s the performances that quietly raise the film slightly above mediocrity.

3.5/5

“Burn after Reading Destined to Become Cult Classic”

While there don’t seem to be many redeeming qualities found within the Coen brothers on screen universe, their new film Burn After Reading argues that there’s still plenty to laugh at. Their history of award-winning and often puzzling films are notorious for morally reprehensible characters often motivated by greed and a sort of misanthropic bent. True to their form, the Coen brothers here deliver a wildly entertaining, star-studded romp.

The intricately designed plot opens with the firing of CIA agent Osborne Cox(John Malkovich) for his alcoholism ("Drinking problem?! You're a Mormon! Next to you everyone's got a drinking problem!"). Cox’s wife, played by Oscar-winning Tilda Swinton, boasts the record for the shrewdest pediatrician known to man. Through a series of coincidences, a disc containing the memoirs of Cox’s life as a CIA agent finds its way into the hands of two unscrupulous gym employees played by Brad Pitt and Frances McDormand. The odd-ball pair try to blackmail Cox for the information soon finding themselves in way over their heads. But wait, there’s more. Enter Harry Pfarrer (George Clooney), a sleazy on-line dater who also happens to be married. When Harry meets Linda Litzke (McDormand) he eventually finds himself in the midst of a web of espionage, murder, and deceit. Did I mention he is also having an affair with Tilda Swinton’s character? The plot is so dizzying that its anti-climactic and abrupt payoff is deliberately laughable.

Brad Pitt is a treat to watch against type as a dim-witted gym employee who has little knack for spy games. Despite the humor, the performances do feel a bit contrived at times. Mcdormand more than once seems to be channeling Marge Gunderson from her oscar-winning performance in Fargo. Malkovich and Swinton are perhaps the most fun to watch because unlike most of the rest of the A-list cast, they both play the straight man with humorous consequences. There is a certain kind of exhausting quality to the Coen brothers’ work though. Their characters are always outlandish and detestable, and the Coens seem to take sick pleasure in torturing not only them, but the characters that are truly innocent as well. Think Fargo. The whole plot revolves around the innocent wife who is the ultimate plot device for the rest of the casts’ mayhem. (Let the record show that I happen to love Fargo should anyone deem this a major criticism) This isn’t as much a criticism of their over exaggerated style as it is a commentary on the nuisance it is for anyone with a moral compass to watch their films.

Burn finished the weekend atop the box-office but divided many of the nations top critics. It’s no surprise really. Raizing Arizona followed Blood Simple, The Hudsucker Proxy followed Barton Fink, and The Big Lebowski followed Fargo. What proof do you need aside from this to believe that the Coens make their own rules and consistently play by them too? Burn After Reading was entertaining, but it was a far cry from a lot of movies in their catalogue. But like “The Dude” from Lebowski, something tells me that Burn will abide long after it has left theaters if for no other reason than this: It's at best another genuinely interesting entry into the Coen brothers' history.

3.5/5

"You know..for kids" Coen bros. marathon pt. 1

When Roger Ebert reviewed Joel and Ethan Coens' The Hudsucker Proxy back in 1994, he playfully told his readers that his review stemmed directly from two differing opinions. One was from a little devil holding a pitchfork, and the other from an angel. As the two entities "whisper" their resepctive opinions into Ebert's ear, we soon realize the conundrum he is in; this is truly a divisive film. 14 years later, I feel his pain. So how do you offer up words of insight about a film of which there is so much to love, and yet so much to scratch your head about as well? In my most "ebertesque" of attempts, I shall do my best.

First the good: The art direction is utterly fantastic. The 1950's New York time period is masterfully characterized in every one of the film's decorative set pieces. The camera captures all of the sets' bleak, gray tones, whether shot indoors or out, without managing to be gloomy in nature. The Capra style fast-moving dialogue and delivery is spot-on, and delivered with such a rhythm that many of the movies key scenes are entertaining to listen to, if not always to watch. The performances are deliberately angled towards satire, genuinely consistent, and mostly watchable. Tim Robbins and Paul Newman both play their respective parts with a kind of dim-witted gusto, and sinister bravado.

Then there's the confusing. It's a movie that can't seem to figure itself out by the time the Coens have asked the audience to move from noir, political satire, to black comedy, to drama, to fantasy while still expecting us to buy everything we are seeing. But that's the question. Do they really expect us to buy these characters, or to get the same kick they do out of running them through the moral and ethical ringer until they are utterly mangled. It's the kind of thing one would assume the Coens have gained quite an affinity for after viewing much of their vast body of work. The film is chock-full of plot devices and gimicks that convince you to stay in your seat. But that's exactly the problem. The film tries desperately to make up for what it lacks in substance with style. It's a trick that may work for at least half of the film, but had run its course on me at about the 45 min. mark.

It's important to give the Coens their credit though. They have an interesting history of following up their grittiest thrillers with the most off-beat comedies (think Lebowski on the heels of Fargo and this year's Burn After Reading less than a year after the wide release of the oscar-winning No Country For Old Men. The Coens have always made films by no one's rules but their own, even when it deliberately flies in the face of Hollywood. While some of their projects are truly enigmas, in some strange anti-establishment sort of way, it helps to know they are doing what they want to do, and having fun in the process. Although I didn't necessarily like Hudsucker I didn't exactly not like it either. If the Coens truly are (as Joel Coen himself put it in last year's oscar acceptance speech) playing "in their own corner of the sandbox" then I am at least interested to see what castles they continually build. Even if some of them stand only long enough to be washed away in the sea of truly great films.

2.5/5

DVD clip of the week: Son of Rambow

Before getting the chance to see Garth Jennings' Son of Rambow I heard one critic's minor beef with the film.  The gist of his qualm was that when the main characters from Rambow (Two young boys in an unspecified English village) set out to make their own version of Rambo: First Blood , they completely miss the underlying political and anti-war tones of the 80's Sylvester Stallone action pic.  After seeing Jennings' funny and often touching film about pre-adolescence and friendship I rejoice in the innocence of a couple boys who see a movie, fall in love with the magic that such escapism possesses, and set out to interpret that awe themselves in the only medium they possess: The home movie.  The fact that such meta-narratives a Rambo film might try to parlay are completely lost to these boys is truly fine with me. (Honestly, does Sly really have that much to say..?)  I can relate to these two boys' wonder and desire to escape from the world they know for one they try to imagine because like many others, I have been there before.

Will Proudfoot comes from a strict religious home in which virtually all forms of entertainment are shunned.  Music, movies, television, even instructional videos are a form of a lesser form of evil that no young boy should subject his mind to.  When Will meets his polar opposite in Lee Carter, an unlikely friendship begins to emerge. With the help of one film, one camera, and a slew of classmates the boys set out to make the greatest movie they can.

3.5/5

'Bangkok' Leads the way for worst weekend in 5 years

With the sure-fire signs of fall all around us, hardly anyone anticipated much from the box-office for the same opening weekend as the NFL. The opening of Nicolas Cage’s Bangkok Dangerous to the tune of the worst hollywood box office weekend in 5 years however made at least two things clear: 1. Most of us would rather watch the pigskin than Cage’s frakenstein-esqe performances. 2. Thankfully, the better more anticipated fall movie season is just around the corner.
Nicolas Cage plays an anonymous hitman (Joe) sent to Bangkok for one last job before leaving his amoral line of work forever. While scouting the location, he stumbles across a young pickpocket whom he trains for use in his forthcoming hits. With the intention of disposing of the young man at the end of his job, Joe begins to train him for use in the gritty underground world of crime in Bangkok. Joe begins to break several of his profession’s key rules however when a budding love interest takes precedent over his work.
With minimal plot and mostly wooden performances all around, the film plays more like Bangkok Boring. The Chinese born Pang brothers, directing a remake of their own film from 2001 would do well to listen to some of the great filmmakers’ classic rules of “show don’t tell”. The audience is so belabored with the point that the lead character is going through a moral crisis that its effect is lost almost entirely. The film’s washed out cinematography and shoddy narration from Cage are not needed nearly as much as good acting. Still, buried within this film somewhere is a genuinely intriguing story, that in the hands of better storytellers would be able to compete for audiences’ attentions with the likes of Brett Favre’s debut as a New York Jet.

2/5

New Monthly Marathon

So in honor of the Coen brothers' new film Burn After Reading opening this month, I have decided to take the liberty to screen a few Coen bros. gems. A movie a week this month (as well as the new one) to go along with the regular new realease of the week. This little marathon will cover some of the Coens' lesser known works. Here is the line up as follows:

Barton Fink
The Hudsucker Proxy
Miller's Crossing
Blood Simple

Feel free to watch, and post your feedback as well.