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Reviews
Hotel New York (1984)
Unexpected Shift by this Director
I saw this film in I think San Francisco or Los Angeles in 1984 at a film festival and was quite surprised at its dopey comedic attempt from a filmmaker trained in the New Wave French cinema of Rohmer, Goddard and Rivette. The film is semi-autobiographical and tells the story of a French film editor Loulou, who comes to New York and has trouble adapting to the culture. It is amusing to see cameos from Gary Indiana as the gay son, who was an art critic for the Village Voice, Sid Geffen (who died in 1988) the owner of Bleecker Street and Carnegie Hall Cinema's who plays the wealthy father who hires Loulou and then seduces her and, of all people, Errol Morris before he became the famed filmmaker who redefined documentary film for his generation.
But the film is totally DOPEY and of no particular consequence and you wonder which writer could script these lines and scenes but ultimately this is Raynal's film. Raynal had been and editor for Eric Rohmer (Sign of Leo) and had connection to the East Village scene of Jonas Mekas and was heralded in the late 60s as a groundbreaking feminist filmmaker. But, "Hotel New York" is no better blocked, visualized, and directed than a beginning undergraduate student film. It struggles to be a French farce or a Woody Allenish tableaux of New York life. And it succeeds at neither.
King of the Corner (2004)
Low Trajectory
I saw KING OF THE CORNER in an old neighborhood first-ring suburb cinema in Minneapolis -- probably the best setting for this death of a salesman story of low-simmering frustrations and expectations. Primarily a father-son tale, Peter Reigert stars and Eli Wallach pares back the assemblage of male emotional complexion of life and work what defines and makes the unambitious yet trapped male crazy.
Reigert's strength as a actor turn director is letting his ensemble acting troupe do their thing. While many European directors, for example Mike Leigh and Ken Loach, have a particular flare for giving actors their reign, too many America films and filmmakers are more into exercising their prowess
Eric Bogosian delivers a particularly funny performance when he arrives two-thirds into this film and it may be a needed gust of air blown into the story but even his eye deeks and silent pauses carry humorous weight. I would have liked to see a bit more character arch and a slightly more weighted dimension to the predicament of supporting characters like daughter Betsy (played by Beverly D'Angelo) and Rachael Spivak (played by Isabella Rossellini) as a conscience to the story. I understand Reigert's desire to deliver a story of cistern melancholy -- that is freaking ambitious in the modern cinema of blunt sensationalist tripe -- but Reigert and Shapior could have pinched, pickled and smoked this film with humor and contrast that lacking the appropriate season cure you find in Isaac Bashevis Singer or Woody Allen at the height of his abilities that speaks in this film to the first-time effort of the screen writing collaboration. However, we need more efforts that reach toward the sublime rather than the obvious and this Minneapolis (Edina) audience really did enjoy Reigert's film.
Reigert's film will be noted for the actors from Wallach to Rossellini to Dustin Hoffman's son Jake's appearance. Reigert's fan club going back to AMINAL HOUSE appreciate his salty fore- lorn comedic talents and the comic actor needs to find written material that can tap and challenge his range. It is always interesting to watch a low-budget film where actors reign and mid-western writer Gerald Shapiro should learn his lessons and be very grateful to get such a major staged reading of his stories (KING OF THE CORNER is based on BAD JEWS AND OTHER STORIES).
I recommend this film as an alternative to all the hyped crap in the commercial pipeline but for the irony and comic droll that really delivers this summer see indie filmmakers Jim Jarmusch's BROKEN FLOWERS or Miranda July's YOU AND ME AND EVERYONE WE KNOW. Cudos to Reigert for this charming and droll debut feature.
Zina (1985)
McMullen credits
ZINA is one of McMullen's best films because of Domiziana Giordano's acting and Loftus' photography. McMullen has a terrible habit of not giving credit to his crew members and that is completely unprofessional in the business. He makes the same mistake on the film GHOST DANCE. It is an oversight that the filmmaker needs to sit down with his psycho-analyst and figure out what his problem is... the oversight is unforgivable.
Obviously influenced by one of the greatest filmmakers in the history of cinema and brilliant transcendental visualist Andrei Tarkovsky and borrowing Giordano after the Russian's (Belarus) striking Italian internal landscape film NOSTALGHIA where Giordano puts in a fierce and commanding performance, McMullen hoped to capture the internal emotional and psychological state of Trotksy's daughter. What McMullen lacks in narrative abilities, he makes up for with a strong sense of visual juxtaposition
Million Dollar Baby (2004)
Conservative mythologies
MILLION DOLLAR BABY is Clint Eastwood's bode and homage to the world of traditional conservative values of the poor pulling themselves up by their bootstraps, the tough-love authoritarian father figure, and the stereotype hatred of poor white trash welfare chiselers. In many of Eastwood's films, the former mayor of Carmel puts forward a world of simplistic virtue and moralistic black and white that you often see old men in diners declaim as lost to sophistry and complexity.
In MDB Eastwood's characters all verge on flat one-dimensional stereotypes, Morgan Freeman (puts in a good performance that defies its shallowness on paper) plays the washed-up boxer who lives in the storage closet of the gym. Hillary Swank is a desperate waitress who tries to escape grinding poverty and trailer trash ignorance by looking for a strong father-like authoritarian who, at first, attempts to disabuse her of foolish ambitions. The worse one-dimensional stereotypes come from Eastwoods depiction of Maggies family of crooks and overweight baby-producing welfare cheats.
The cartoon-like script treatment of the characters throws you out of the film's narrative and do not serve the excellent acting by Swank and Freeman. This is carefully contrived political ideology that ends with the well-worn emotional manipulation verging on melodrama. Eastwood would do better if he stuck to good storytelling and avoid broad swipes at political characterization.