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Sunday, March 30, 2008 - 10:54:49
Mark Harris, the author of "Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood," appears on Elvis Mitchell's radio program "The Treatment." Also, you can read an excerpt of Harris's book in Entertainment Weekly. The books traces the evolution of the five films that were nominated for Best Picture in 1967: "Bonnie and Clyde," "The Graduate," "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," "In the Heat of the Night" and "Dr. Doolitte." I'm about halfway through it, and it's certainly one of the best books on film I've read in many years.
Saturday, March 29, 2008 - 16:01:53
MOVIEGOER REVIEW: "Stop-Loss"The past year has brought a wrath of films dedicated to aspects of the war in Iraq. "No End in Sight" and "Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience," two Oscar nominated documentaries; "Redacted," Brian DePalma's challenging and controversial portrayal of the Mahmudiyah killings; and "In the Valley of Elah," the subtle and underappreciated effort by Paul Haggis about a father searching for his son's killer, a role that earned Tommy Lee Jones an Academy Award nomination. The latest film to contemplate issues surrounding the war is "Stop-Loss," a gripping and difficult drama about patriotism and duty from Kimberly Peirce ("Boys Don't Cry").
Set in Texas, a group of U.S. Army soldiers return home after a tour of duty that resulted in the loss of several men in their company. The crew of friends include Brandon King (Ryan Phillipe), Steve Shriver (newcomer Channing Tatum), Tommy Burgess (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Isaac Butler (Rob Brown). The tour was scheduled to be the last for King, but because of a loop-hole in the system, he is yanked back for another tour, a practice known as "stop-loss." Furious about the thought of returning to Iraq, King, aided by Shriver's fiancee Michelle (Abbie Cornish), flees to Washington, D.C. in hope that a U.S. Senator can help him.
But higher forces intervene and King is left out on his own, avoiding law enforcement while his friends back at home succumb to challenges life after war presents. As it seems, the men can't function outside the combat zone evidenced, hauntingly, by Shriver digging a hole in his front yard because he thinks he's still in Iraq. Burgess turns to the booze, registering two DUI's in as many days before throwing a bottle through a jewelry store window for no reason than to let off some more steam.
The challenge for Ms. Peirce is how to present this frustration without preaching or turning viewers off completely to the greater issues (post traumatic stress disorder, depression) portrayed in her film. She also discuss the issue of desertion (or, going AWOL) without celebrating it. In the hands of a lesser filmmaker the task would be impossible, but Ms. Peirce manages it well due in large part to an exceptional young cast led by Mr. Phillipe and Ms. Cornish.
Around this time last year, Mr. Phillipe, known for dramatic supporting roles in "Crash" and "Gosford Park," proved he could carry hefty baggage in "Breach" alongside Laura Linney and Chris Cooper. But "Stop-Loss" is his finest performance to date, a blend of the coming-of-age temperment found in Eric O'Neill with Mr. Parker, the short-fused criminal he played in "The Way of the Gun." And his performance is accentuated by Ms. Cornish who, in 2006, caught the attention of audiences opposite the late Heath Ledger in "Candy." She has an uncompromising and virtuous nature about her. The choices she makes are hers alone, and she sticks by them. She owns this movie.
At a time when Americans have grown weary of the war, venturing to the theater to watch a movie about Iraq may not qualify as entertainment. But "Stop-Loss" isn't a bitch-fest. It's an enthralling account of young men dealing with the harshness of war. It's honest. It's fair. And while it's a work of fiction, it feels absolutely real.
Matt Zoller Seitz, a contributing critic for the New York Times (he reviewed "Shotgun Stories" this week in the Times) writes on his blog,
"It's clear that the newspaper business no longer considers it necessary or even desirable to employ enough critics to really cover a local big-city film scene, or even to provide a locally-anchored voice on movies. The thinking seems to be, "Well, movies are an international medium, so why do we need local critics? Let's just run wire copy." . . . One could argue, I suppose, that the explosion of web-based criticism will pick up the slack -- and speaking only for myself, I find these days that I'm more likely to find lively writing and original viewpoints on blogs than in print outlets.
"At the same time, though, it's important to acknowledge that the idea of criticism-as-profession (as opposed to vocation or hobby) has a lot of merit. There's no way that a blogger who isn't independently wealthy can cover the full spectrum of current releases as diligently as somebody who's getting paid to do it, much less be able to get newsworthy film people on the phone for thinkpieces, features, obituaries and the like, or cover local, regional, national or international film festivals, as film critics for large and even medium-sized papers have traditionally been encouraged to do (depending on the outlet).
"What we're seeing here is the passing of a notable and vibrant phase of movie writing. It'll be replaced by something else, yes, but something very different. I think we're fast approaching the point where criticism will become, for the most part, a devotion rather than a job." MOVIEGOER REVIEW: "21"
It wasn't long ago that I watched the young British actor Jim Sturgess grace the screen in the tantalizing musical "Across the Universe." In that film, Sturgess played an immigrant naive to the impending challenges facing America, and more particularly college-age kids, during the Vietnam War. A similar innocence masks his character in the semi-interesting and all-too-obvious gambling romp "21."
The film is based on the book "Bringing Down the House" by Ben Mezrich about six M.I.T. students who devised a system to take Las Vegas casinos for millions. The plot is formulaic: Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess), an unassuming boy genius, gives an answer in class that catches the eye of his professor Micky Rosa (Kevin Spacey, effortlessly), who happens to be running an elite card couting unit out of a basement classroom. Ben is soon recruited, and he joins in because he need money to go to medical school.
The system Rosa contrives, based on "spotters" counting the deck at blackjack tables and signaling to the "big better" when the table is hot, works. And everyone wins. But as you can imagine, Ben doesn't get out once he's won the money he needs. He falls in love with the lavish Vegas lifestyle, including sexy time with with M.I.T. hottie Jill Taylor (Kate Bosworth, underutilized). That makes him cocky, and he quits playing the system and starts gambling. He loses, big, and finds himself in more trouble than he imagined.
Rosa's elaborate scheme is enough to keep your attention over the 123-minute running time. And the lifestyle these card hustlers (counting cards isn't illegal, but casinos will ban you if you're caught) is an attractive fantasy. I'm not sure I fully comprehend their methods, but watching their minds process numbers is intriguiging, assuming that's how this game can be beat. However, the formulaic nature of Peter Steinfeld and Allen Loeb's script lends to predicable outcomes, and that ultimately renders the film nothing more than a generic studio film for which all of the actors (Ms. Bosworth, especially) were well compensated.
They may have hit blackjack!, but you won't. "Shotgun Stories" opened in New York this weekend, which prompted reviews from Matthew Zoller Seitz of the New York Times, David Edelstein of New York Magazine and Lou Leminick of the New York Post. Not surprisingly, both reviews are very favorable of Little Rock native Jeff Nichols' fine film.
Writes Seitz, "Shotgun Stories," "defines the classic western phrase “doing what a man’s got to do” as both a moral imperative and a biological compulsion."
Edelstein raves, "As a male movie critic with both liberal-humanist convictions and a hypersensitivity to injustices large and small, I seesaw between contradictory impulses: to denounce screen fantasies of vigilante vengeance as antithetical to social harmony, and to get royally pissed off when bad guys don’t die with enough gurgling and hemorrhaging. My inner divide is one of the reasons I was so moved by Jeff Nichols’s Shotgun Stories, a mournful drama in which two sets of brothers—they share a father—engage in a deadly feud."
Leminick, in his brief review, notes, "debuting director Jeff Nichols has an eye for small-town America and a sensibility that he shares with fellow North Carolina School of the Arts alumnus David Gordon Greene ("Undertow"), who served as executive producer. "Shotgun Stories" also features a riveting performance by Michael Shannon as oldest son Son. He's definitely an actor to watch."
Thursday, March 27, 2008 - 08:12:46
Little Rock moviegoers can be excited this weekend - a first for this new film year. Although "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days" is a film that premiered in 2007, it's a great get for Matt Smith at Market Street Cinema. I saw the film at Lincoln Plaza in New York. It's extraordinary. As Manohla Dargis of The New York Times wrote, "It’s a pitiless, violent story that in its telling becomes a haunting and haunted intellectual and aesthetic achievement." It was also shamelessly overlooked for a Best Foriegn Film Oscar.
"Stop Loss," from "Boys Don't Cry" director Kimberly Peirce is another Iraw war film. But as Pete Travers of Rolling Stones notes, it might be better than all the rest, "Stop-Loss has the juice to break the jinx. The emotional battlefield on which Peirce paints her canvas strikes a universal chord that transcends politics and preaching."
"21" is a film based loosely on the life of Jeff Ma, who along with some of his MIT buddies, developed a card counting system that took Vegas for millions. It stars Kevin Spacey, Kate Bosworth and Jim Sturgess from "Across the Universe," Owen Glieberman of Entertainment Weekly writes, "The fun of 21 is the way that this sharp, hyperaware star in the making, his face as readable as a mood ring, pours us into an adrenalized cocktail of fear, desire, and mental buzz."
Tuesday, March 25, 2008 - 07:55:03
Maggie Gyllenhaal, who takes over the role of Rachel Dawes in "The Dark Knight," talks to SuperHeroHype.com about the film. Nolan's film arrives in theaters on July 18th and stars Christian Bale, Morgan Freeman, Aaron Eckhart, Gary Oldman, Michael Caine, Cillian Murphy and the late Heath Ledger.
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