sdl-2 Reviews

Waiting for Guffman (1996)

Waiting for something funny to happen

[4/10 · 21 August 2003]

Was this a comedy? If so, why didn't I laugh once throughout this boring endurance test of a non-movie? Guest et al. seem to think it terribly clever to lampoon small-minded, minimally talented Midwesterners, which is kind of like shooting fish in a barrel, and is equally unentertaining. When this sort of gag actually does work, as it often did on the old Second City Television show, it can be hilarious; here, however, SCTV's Catherine O'Hara and Eugene Levy do the best they can with a garbage script, and we end up with silly cross-eye faces, an insultingly portrayed "funny gay man" character, and a weak reference to the hair-gel joke from Something About Mary.

Has Hollywood really become so lame that this sort of tripe passes for brilliant satire?

The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)

The most powerful movie I've ever seen

[10/10 · 17 August 2003]

There is really nothing I can say about this movie other than to tell you to get a hold of a copy as soon as you can, and keep a few boxes of tissues nearby. I've never seen any film, let alone another silent film, that sustains this level of emotional intensity for its entire duration. The first ten seconds of this movie will show you why some directors chose to end their careers when talking-pictures became popular. The expressions on the face of the incredible Maria Falconetti carry the drama in a way that no dialogue ever could hope to do. My only warning is that this film is not entertainment; it is an overpowering work of artistic genius that could make a stone weep. So make sure you are in the right frame of mind before watching it.

Personal Velocity (2002)

Moving, Well-Made Character Studies

[8/10 · 2 August 2003]

Given all the negative comments on IMDB about this wonderful film, I had to weigh in with something positive. In short, there's nothing wrong with this film, and whole lot that's right. The acting is thoroughly convincing, the directing masterful, the score moving but not intrusive, and the unifying theme -- a wrenching transition in the life of a young woman -- ties the three stories together seamlessly. Miller evens seems to have saved the best for last; the third vignette, with Fairuza Balk (a shamefully underrated actress), ends in a single gesture that changes the whole picture, without being a "Hollywood Ending".

Why can't there be more American movies like Personal Velocity?

Daddy and Papa (2002)

Sick!

[4 February 2003]

This movie made me sick! Why? In at least three states in this country, perfectly decent and loving gay men and women are prohibited from adopting children. Many of these children end up languishing in orphanages or foster care for years, when they could have a perfectly happy and healthy homes with the kind of wonderful gay parents portrayed in this movie. Laws prohibiting gays from adoption, or de facto discrimination against them in the adoption process, are especially shameful in light of the well-established fact that the majority of child abusers are in fact self-identified heterosexuals, unlike the terrific gay moms and dads in this beautiful movie.

So, see "Daddy and Papa", and then make sure to support gay adoption rights in your state!

Changing Lanes (2002)

Beautiful character study masquerading as revenge drama

[9/10 · 4 December 2002]

WARNING: POSSIBLE SPOILERS

I rented this movie thinking that it was going to be some kind of adventure about a vendetta between two tough characters, when (for me, at least), it ended up being a compelling portrayal of how two seemingly very different people (wealthy white man, working-class black man) can both end up ruining their lives because of fatal flaws in their character. The acting was terrific throughout, especially in the relatively minor roles played by Kim Staunton and William Hurt. The only downside was a completely ad-hoc, tacked-on Hollywood ending that nearly destroyed the bitter but realistic conclusion; you can almost see some smug producer telling the director that no American audience is going to tolerate that sort of thing, making me hope for a director's cut that leaves off the ridiculous, 180-degree turnaround of the last minute. Still, Changing Lanes was well worth seeing.

Lantana (2001)

Wake me up when it's over

[6/10 · 14 July 2002]

A foreign-film-hater's stereotype come to life, Lantana is a well-made but painfully boring soap opera that avoids the Hollywood cliche's at the price of zero entertainment value. It's a shame to see great actors like Geoffrey Rush waste their time on an uninspired yawn-fest like this. Rent Quills, Shine, or anything else with Rush and see what he's capable of given a halfway inspired script.

Chocolat (2000)

Dumbed-down Disney Drivel

[6/10 · 3 September 2001]

Boring, paint-by-numbers Miramax attempt at a French movie about a "feisty" young woman with a troubled past and a heart of gold who blows into town and shows everyone how uptight they are. Every scene suffused with warm Hallmark-card hues, every character completely predictable -- the crotchety old woman with a saucy past, the timid wife whose husband beats her, the sweet old bachelor too shy to court the war widow. All the actors in this awful travesty -- Juliette Binoche, Judi Dench, Johnny Depp, even the cute little dogs -- have done far better work, which "Chocolat" is obviously trying to cash in on.

In short, a good date movie -- if your date just happened to have had a lobotomy. Do yourself a favor and rent a real French film, where, e.g., people actually have sex instead of just talking about it.

The Pledge (I) (2001)

Brilliant Acting and Directing, Ruined by Crazy Plot

[24 June 2001]

WARNING: POSSIBLE SPOILERS

This movie, featuring some the best actors alive today, held a great deal of promise, and had me riveted for about the first hour. Then it started getting implausible, changing from "An Honest Man's Lonely Quest to Find the Truth" to "How Stupid Can An Honest Man Be?" If you're willing to believe, let alone sympathize with, a man who would mortally imperil one little girl in order to capture the killer of another, and if you can swallow even more disbelief and accept that his fellow police officers would go along with this ludicrous scheme, you might be able to get through the entire movie without shaking your head in disgust. Even then, the deus-ex-machina "anti-Hollywood-ending" ending makes the whole thing so terribly bitter that all you can salvage from this flawed effort is the consistently excellent acting and Sean Penn's skilled directing. Otherwise, it's a good idea gone bad.

O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)

O Barf Bag, Where Art Thou?

[6/10 · 17 June 2001]

Oof! This terrible movie, which I regret having wasted any time on, is built around racist stereotyping of the lowest sort, except the characters are white Southerners, so I guess that makes it okay. According to "O Brother Where Art Thou", everyone in 1930's Mississippi was either a dancing Klansmen, a dumb cracker, or a generic black victim (who gets virtually no lines in the film).

I think the low point (and there were many in this horrible movie) had to be putting Ralph Stanley's sublime masterpiece "O Death" into the mouth of the Klan Grand Dragon as the prelude to a lynching. For old-time music lovers, this is roughly the equivalent of what a Catholic would feel watching a porn actor belt out "Ave Maria" right before a big sex scene.

George Clooney proves once again that he can't act, John Turturro reminds everyone how well he can, Charles Durning gets a few laughs, and Gillian Welch, Emmylou Harris, and the rest of the singers get a paycheck at the expense of their immortal artistic souls.

How could the Coen Brothers, makers of some of the best movies of the last 20 years, be responsible for this travesty?

Shadow of the Vampire (2000)

Truly Awful

[6/10 · 5 June 2001]

The five minutes that the director spent on filming what appears to be wallpaper in the beginning of this movie, should have tipped me off that it was going to be a pretentious waste of time. Which is exactly what it turned out to be. Silly fake German accents, hammy acting, and a "vampire" who managed to be both unscary and unfunny at the same time. (They would've been better off with Grampa Munster.) Do yourself a big favor and let this film rest for all eternity in its plastic coffin at your local video store.

Before Night Falls (2000)

Puts the Art back in "Art Film"

[9/10 · 29 May 2001]

Finally, a movie that lives up to all the hype it generated! "Before Night Falls" is that rare gem, a contemporary independent film that was actually made by a director who didn't just follow the Miramax or MTV visual and editing formulas. Julian Schnabel, the most successful American painter of the past two decades, has now given us two brilliant biopics, both about young, doomed artists he new personally -- first, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and now, Reinaldo Arenas. In both movies, Schnabel crafts images of such breathtaking beauty that it hardly matters what's actually going on in the plot. His musical choices are equally brilliant -- who else would have thought to use a song in Arabic as the background for a snowstorm in Times Square?

My only gripe is that I wish that the whole film, and not just a few segments, had been in Spanish. The heavily-accented English used in the Cuban parts (i.e., most) of the movie, made the dialogue less fluid, and it was a joy when the actors slipped into actual Spanish. This might have made the delightful cameos by Sean Penn and Jonnhy Depp a little more difficult, but it would've made for a more elegant drama.

On the whole, though, this is a beautiful, stirring picture that you really must see.

Requiem for a Dream (2000)

Traffic Part Deux, or Reefer Madness 2000

[6/10 · 28 May 2001]

WARNING: SPOILERS

God, what an overcooked, nauseating "message" movie. Until about halfway through, I was thinking "jeez, this is briliant", great acting and innovative directing and editing, but after the umpteenth bing-bang-bong toke-snort-shoot sequence, I got bored. Which must be why they had to bring on the hideous necrotic arm infection, live two-girl sex show, and electro-convulsive therapy for Mom.

Otherwise the plot hacks were directly from the "Traffic" template, with the inevitable Attractive White Junkie Girl selling herself to The Big Bad Negro Dope Dealer and The Cheezy Bald White Guy.

Who is financing these movies, anyway -- Barry McCaffrey?

Hamlet (2000)

Bravo!

[8/10 · 28 April 2001]

Nearly four hundred years after his death, Shakespeare continues to be the best screenwriter in the English language. This beautiful, moody, stylish adaptation of his greatest play is no exception. Another wonderful thing about the Bard is how his drama seems to elevate any actor willing to take on the challenge. I especially enjoyed Bill Murray as Polonius: his performance was all the more delightful because of the necessity of restraining his comic genius here; he appears always on the edge of cracking a joke, and of course doesn't, adding even more tension to an already extremely taught production.

But what I loved most about this movie was how it departed from the usual staging conventions (medieval costume, stone castles) to get at the heart of what the play is really about: a kid coming home on a college break and discovering that his uncle has murdered his father and is having sex with his mother. Ethan Hawke does a fantastic job in the role, giving us the brooding, confused, lovesick, and ultimately self-destructive adolescent that Shakespeare intended.

If I were a high-school English teacher, this is the Hamlet that I would want to show my students.

Bamboozled (2000)

Spike Lee triumphs again

[9/10 · 21 April 2001]

I have been a fan of Spike Lee since seeing his breakthrough "She's Gotta Have It" back in the 80's. So when I heard that he was making a movie with Damon Wayans and other members of "In Living Color", the best television comedy and variety show of the past few decades, and the amazing tap-dancer Savion Glover, I was doubly excited. When I read about the subject matter of the film -- a yuppie African-American TV writer who revives the repulsive old-time minstrel show as a prime-time comedy review -- I figured I was in for the same hilarious send-up that the Wayans family & co. are so good at. What I did not anticipate was the explosive synergy between Spike Lee and the comic geniuses he worked with to make this movie.

Never before have I experienced such a variety of extreme emotion in watching a film. Within the space of five minutes, Glover, Tommy Davidson, and the other actors had me laughing, crying, and feeling physically ill, as the raw evil of the minstrel show stereotypes bloomed vividly before my eyes. It's one thing to listen to a sleazy white TV producer, who thinks he's black, enthuse over the profits he's going to make by reviving Aunt Jemimah, Little Black Sambo, Steppin' Fetchit, and other characters from the bad old days; it is another thing entirely to see these characters in full, bright costume, dancing on stage, as if forty-plus years of civil rights and struggle had never happened. To see this is to experience, and understand, terrible, sickening rage.

But the most wrenching moment of "Bamboozled" was also the most subtle, as the two stars of "The New Millenium Minstrel Show" are putting on their blackface makeup, and we see them holding back bitter tears as they awake to the full horror and guilt of what they are doing. This moment alone made the picture for me.

To be fair, I have a few of complaints about this film. As other IMDB reviewers have noted, Spike nearly sabotages this masterpiece with the eruption of climactic murder and violence that have characterized some of his other movies. And as unlikely as the whole TV minstrel show scenario feels, it is completely implausible that any television station would broadcast a live, pre-arranged murder. Finally, it seems beneath Spike to adopt the recent Hollywood convention of using prominent figures like Al Sharpton and Johnnie Cochran, playing themselves, to lend authenticity to the drama.

Still, let's face it: Spike Lee, and maybe John Sayles, are the only American filmmakers with any real vision these days. Spike, being black, is in the unique position of being America's most brilliant contemporary director and receiving virtually no mainstream attention, largely because of the greedy, racist, unoriginal morons who run Hollywood. In short, "Bamboozled" is a film you really must see. Fifty years from now, when all of last year's Oscar-winning drivel is completely forgotten, serious film lovers and students will be discussing Spike Lee.

Almost Famous (2000)

Almost Fell Asleep

[6/10 · 28 March 2001]

Oh, well. Another overrated, mediocre movie from a year full of overrated, mediocre movies. Cameron Crowe somehow manages to make the concert scene of the early 70's look boring, and then tries to fill in the lameness with horribly spliced clips from the great Led Zeppelin, whose fans will surely be outraged by this butchery (made even worse by the fact that Crowe toured with Zeppelin at their invitation, providing the basis for this movie).

Much of the "acting," by Kate Hudson and Patrick Fugit, seems to consist entirely of annoying brats making sleepy moon-faces at each other. As for the band, imagine America or Three Dog Night as interpreted by the Brady Bunch. If you have teenage kids and don't want to expose them to what this scene was really like, rent this dumbed-down, cutesy depiction of rock and roll.

Wonder Boys (2000)

Entertaining, disappointing

[18 March 2001]

With all the critical acclaim for this movie, I grabbed it as soon as it appeared on the shelves of the video store. Unfortunately, as is usually the case, the film did not live up to the hype.

The bottom line is, a bunch of offbeat characters and "adult" themes can't rescue this film from being a better-than-average TV sitcom -- the Sopranos as academics. If you take away the frequent pot smoking, the casual gay sex, and the cute interracial couple, you aren't left with much substance here. And please, how many movies do we have to endure with an intrepid corpse as the running gag? Unless you think that killing an old blind dog is the stuff of high comedy, most of the humor in this movie is pretty sophomoric.

Then there's the "acting." The very talented Robert Downey Jr. is once again wasted as a wise-cracking, sexually ambiguous Puck, a role whose possibilities he exhausted in "Home for the Holidays." And the likewise excellent Toby Maguire monotones his way through this film like a zombie. By the hundredth he croaks out the words "Professor Trip," you want to smack him. All this leaves you longing for more scenes between Michael Douglas and Frances McDormand, whose presence is the only really enjoyable part of Wonder Boys.

In short, I'd wait till the movie comes out on television -- which, sadly, is where it really belongs.

Joe Gould's Secret (2000)

Astonishing

[9/10 · 4 March 2001]

With all the garbage that's been coming out in the theaters recently, I've taken to staying home and renting movies that never made a big splash at the box office. With Joe Gould's Secret, I lucked out and enjoyed a movie that was better than I could have imagined.

All the performances, most notably Ian Holm's, are stellar. The scenes of 1940's New York will fill you with nostalgia, even if (like me) you were born well after that time. Occasional appearances by the always wonderful Susan Sarandon and Steve Martin only heighten the pleasure of a perfectly-acted, -filmed, and -directed gem of a movie.

But, in the end, it is the character of Joe Gould -- brilliant, mad, heartbreaking -- that makes Joe Gould's Secret so perfect. He is the farthest thing imaginable from the "cute homeless guy" stock character of your typical insulting Hollywood script.

Do yourself a big favor and see this movie.

Winter Sleepers (1997)

Superb

[9/10 · 24 February 2001]

This movie didn't get much critical attention, which should have tipped me off that it might be worth seeing, given the complete uselessness of film criticism in the past few years. Anyway, it was outstanding, for reasons that are hard to pin down. Acting, direction, scenery, musical score -- all conspired to keep my eyes riveted to the screen for the entire two hours. Subtle, unexpected plot twists, frank, unsentimental treatment of serious issues (sex and death) -- all of these put most recent American movies to shame. (Fargo, which this movie reminded me of a lot, is the most notable exception.) Unlike other commentators, I found not one scene to be gratuitous or out of place. Everything and everyone is treated with a kind of austere gentleness that raises the film from entertainment to high art.

Run Lola Run was brilliant; Winter Sleepers is sublime.

Traffic (2000)

Ten years behind the curve

[7/10 · 29 January 2001]

Why all the fuss about this movie? Okay, it was well-made and well-acted, and it delivered a "message" that a lot of people are still stupid enough to have missed. But really, two-plus hours of this to tell us that the Drug War is bad? And that it's bad because it's unwinnable (the standard wisdom now about Vietnam), as opposed to being bad because it's no one's business what drugs you take? How far behind the curve can Hollywood be?

Then there's the covert racism. I've been to Tijuana, and it doesn't have the sickly sepia tone that Sonderbergh insists on filming it and the rest of the Mexico scenes in, making the country look like some kind of bizarre third-world hellhole. And of course, you know your precious blonde daughter has hit bottom when she has to have sex with a young black man in order to score some drugs: White people, beware!

Rent it if you must see it, but don't spend the $8.50 - $10.00 they're charging at the theater these days. I hear the BBC series they based it on was a lot better.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)

Women kick butt: so what?

[9 January 2001]

I went to see this movie with a lot of expectations, based on the great press it had received. True, it was a beautifully photographed, and perfectly-directed and -acted, as we've come to expect from Ang Lee. Unfortunately, the tired old plot (everyone has to avenge their master, father, sister, cousin, whatever) and silly supernatural effects put a huge damper on what would have otherwise been a decent adventure/love story.

It was kind of like opera, where all of a sudden two people will jump out of their conversation into a big aria; here, they literally jump off the ground and start flying around in a way that makes a complete mockery of the martial arts. The fighting in this film has been compared to the fighting in The Matrix, but the comparison isn't really fair. In The Matrix there was at least a sense of physics, even if it was an exaggerated physics, and the audience gasped with delight. In this movie, the audience I was in just laughed, repeatedly, at the silliness of it. This would have been tolerable if the actual combat was any good, but really, it's no more exciting than what we've come to expect from Jackie Chan and co., and here it ends up looking more like dancing.

The only really compelling part of the film was the romance in the desert, and even that sequence stretched out well beyond the point of interest.

This is the only Ang Lee movie where I started looking at my watch an hour before the end. I hope he'll go back to making brilliant, innovative masterpieces like The Ice Storm and Ride with the Devil, and avoid trendy set-pieces like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

Central Station (1998)

A Masterpiece

[10/10 · 12 December 2000]

I rented this movie expecting a cute story about a middle-aged spinster and the young orphan who "magically changes her life". Boy, was I in for a surprise.

Central Station is one of the most beautiful and affecting movies I have ever seen, in its own subtle way as powerful as anything that has come out in decades. Part religious allegory, part character study, altogether brilliant from start to finish, this is a movie you absolutely have to see. The final few seconds, where Fernanda Montenegro's Dora confesses her feelings of loss and anguish, are an acting triumph, her face expressing more in that short time than many actors do in an entire career. Made with brilliant direction, gorgeous scenery, and a stirring musical score, Central Station is one of the great films of all time.

Black & White (I) (1999)

Great premise, lousy film

[6/10 · 6 October 2000]

The topic of spoiled white kids crossing over into gangsta-rap culture -- to the point of hanging out with gangstas and participating in their crimes -- is an intriguing one that deserves much better treatment than this limp, directionless, thrown-together sequence of cliches. The photography was beautiful, the acting was competent, and it was great to see Staten Island treated as some kind of glamorous mecca (presumably because that's where Wu Tang Clan comes from), but otherwise this movie reminded me of Larry Clark's "Kids" -- just a bunch of reprehensible hoods and wannabes talking trash and acting out.

Kids (1995)

Kiddie porn masquerading as commentary

[5/10 · 6 October 2000]

Larry Clark, who seems to enjoy filming and photographing minors having sex, somehow managed to pass this piece of trash off as a "wake up call" (Alan Dershowitz) to America.

Now, everyone has known violent, abusive brats like these, but thankfully they are a tiny and insignificant minority who, one imagines, typically end up dead or in jail after messing with the wrong people. So what is the contribution of making a fictional movie about these little monsters? Zero, except that it (1) brings the chattering classes out of the woodwork so we can see just how stupid and out of touch they really are, and (2) helps the career of Chloe Sevigny, a terrific actress who then goes on to star in much more worthwhile productions.

If you want to see this stuff done right, rent (and/or read) A Clockwork Orange.

Magnolia (1999)

F***in' full of f***in' sound and f***in' fury, f***in' signifying f***in' nothin'

[6/10 · 24 September 2000]

Wow, what a tiresome movie! With the exception of the interesting love story between the cop and the coke addict, this film consists mainly of people screaming incoherently at each other and using the f-word more times than I've seen in any other film.

The director seems to have enjoyed Robert Altman's _Shortcuts_, and tried, unsuccessfully, to steal as much of the plot and style (and even an actor) from Altman as he possibly could. Julianne Moore embarrasses herself trying to pass off incoherent swearing as anger, and Tom Cruise soon follows suit in his own humiliating attempt at being really really angry at his dying deadbeat dad. The only truly memorable scene was the overhead view of a falling frog, who had the best line in the film: "Ribbit!"

Unless you look forward to watching people being angry and mean to each other for three hours, do yourself a favor and rent Shortcuts, or read a good book. To borrow a line repeated in Magnolia: "We may be through with pretentious cinema, but it isn't through with us."

Ride with the Devil (I) (1999)

Powerful, moving

[16 September 2000]

The U.S. Civil War and its aftermath continue to provide source material for a growing body of high-quality American movies, and Ride with the Devil is no exception. The War was miserable enough for anyone involved in it, but as the introduction to this movie describes, it was especially horrible for families caught on the borders and outlying areas of the conflict, such as western Missouri and "Bleeding Kansas," the locales in which Ride with the Devil takes place.

Toby Maguire, Skeet Ulrich, and Jewel turn in fine, occasionally outstanding performances as three Missourians caught up in the struggle, and Jonathan Rhys Meyers lends a chill throughout the story, as a sadistic Rebel who fights only for the joy of killing. But Jeffrey Wright is superb in the film's most difficult role, playing an ex-slave who fights on the side of the Rebels, for his own complicated personal reasons.

The dialog is a bit uneven, with the rebel "Bushwackers" declaiming in almost Shakespearean diction for the first part of the movie, and later lapsing into modern colloquial speech and Hollywood cliches toward the middle and end, but this change may have been a semi-successful attempt to convey the deflation of Southern pomp and bravado that the movie documents. In general, the story and direction seem to sag a little towards the end, but are redeemed by the last few scenes.

Ride with the Devil is a powerful, moving depiction of the most awful episode in our nation's history, and well worth seeing.