Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
Holy crap!! Capone’s gone movie crazy!!
Hey, Harry. Capone in Chicago here, exhausted, weary, nearly beaten, but still seeing 2 or 3 movies a day at one of the strongest editions of the Chicago International Film Festival that I’ve ever attended. I’m pleased with nearly every movie I’ve seen in the last week, and I’m excited about the ones to come. My only gripe is that the festival organizers did not ask me to be a part of their “Critic’s Choice” program, where local film critics select a film (old or new) to watch and discuss with the audience. What does Roger Ebert have that I don’t? (He handled a screening of Richard Linklater’s WAKING LIFE, for the record). Maybe next year…
Anyway, here’s what I’ve seen so far. I’ve included Chicago release date information after each film (when available); I’m assuming these dates will hold true for most secondary (non-New York & L.A.) markets. If I know what theatre in Chicago a film opens, I’ll mention that too for the benefit of the locals. Forgive my indulgence…
HEIST
If there’s one disappointment with most David Mamet-directed films is that I feel much of the material he writes for other directors is better than the stuff he keeps for himself. Which is not to say the films he directs aren’t good. Quite the contrary, since HOUSE OF GAMES right up to last year’s STATE AND MAIN, Mamet’s written and directed movies have been among my favorites. But if a story of his requires a special effect or any kind of stunt coordination, he tends to hand it off. With his latest film, HEIST, he’s finally kept his grubby little paws on a script that before he would have given away. Thank goodness. On top of that, HEIST gives Gene Hackman his best role since he started losing his hair.
Hackman is Joe Moore a master thief, who probably could have been brilliant in any profession; he just happens to enjoy stealing. His only trusted partner is Bobby (Delroy Lindo, who hasn’t been this good since GET SHORTY). Joe’s girlfriend, Fran (Rebecca Pidgeon), also plays a part in his schemes. The fourth players in Joe’s gang is Pinky (the wonderful Ricky Jay, who gets all the best lines). The film opens will another typical example of how good Mamet can also be without words, in this near-wordless jewelry store robbery, which is far from flawless in its execution. What makes Joe such a good thief is not how great his planning can be, but how fast he thinks on his feet when things don’t work out as planned.
When Joe goes to deliver the jewels to his backer (Danny DeVito), instead of the cash he was promised, he’s met with another possible job. Unlike every either movie that includes one or two dirty double crosses, HEIST is full of them, but not in a gimmicky way. Double crosses are part of the job, and Joe and his crew expect them at all times, and forgive them (in most cases) with a fair degree of ease. Referred to as “the Swiss thing,” DeVito proposes a mega-complicated airplane theft that involves the crew robbing a cargo plane while it’s on the runway. The catch is that DeVito insists that his half-witted nephew (Sam Rockwell as Jimmy Silk; great name!) go along for the job. We already know he’s going to turn on them; the fun part is seeing how the crew will rebuke the turncoat.
Needless to say, the dialogue in HEIST is terrific. Mamet has written characters who seem tailor-made for these actors, especially Hackman. He’s not the crotchety old guy who looks down on the young; he’s got more depth than that. And his relationship with Bobby was my favorite part of the film. Pidgeon is also surprisingly good here as the femme fatale; and Rockwell does his usual great job of playing dumb. If this plot sounds remarkably similar to the recent THE SCORE, don’t worry: it’s got a few of the same elements, but the execution is much different. I liked THE SCORE a lot; I liked HEIST much better. The airport job is a stroke of genius, but not surprisingly, things don’t go as planned during or after the operation. That’s all you’re getting out of me. HEIST is for those of you who liked Mamet’s SPANISH PRISONER but thought it needed a little more kick. I think this movie opens Nov. 9.
INTIMACY
There’s a lot of graphic sex in INTIMACY. I’m talking about sex on a par with that in IN THE REALM OF THE SENSES, but not quite as pornographic as ROMANCE or this year’s BAISE MOI. The difference between these last two films and INTIMACY is that Patrice Chereau’s latest work is not about shock or titillation, but about raw emotion. I don’t think that the emotion in question is love, but some more primal and immediate, without romance and affection. It’s one of the most powerful films I’ve seen on the subject of people that meet secretly for sex but try not to become too attached.
SHALLOW GRAVE’s Kerry Fox plays Claire, a woman that shows up at the house of Jay (Mark Rylance of ANGELS AND INSECTS) every Wednesday. They chit chat for a minute or two, but pretty soon, they start ripping their clothes off and have sex devoid of any sense of tenderness. It’s an aggressive act, a way to blow off steam from their frustrating other lives. When they finish, they lie there, talking very little. This is not about getting to know someone; if anything, the distance between them is part of the appeal of the meetings. They don’t have to answer for who they are. They don’t even have sex in bed; usually they just fall on the cold carpeted floor or on some scattered pillows. When they part, we see what kind of lives they lead outside the bedroom. Jay is the head bartender at a successful club; Claire is a frustrated actress who teaching acting to people in her town.
Being recently separated from his wife, Jay is something of a control freak, and it frustrates him that he is not in control of his relationship with Claire. Because she comes to his house and sees where he lives, he feels she knows more about him that he knows of her. There is no spoken agreement to meet on Wednesdays; she just shows up at about the same time each week until she doesn’t feel like doing so anymore. This burns him to no end, and one day he follows her to the basement of a local pub, where she is in a production of “The Glass Menagerie.” Once he’s seen her act for a few minutes he, slips back up to the pub and meets Andy (the always reliable Timothy Spall, recently seen in ROCK STAR), who turns out to be Claire’s husband. The two have a son, and apparently a very happy marriage.
The affair continues, but Jay’s curiosity gets to better of him. He wants to know why she is cheating on her husband, but he can’t reveal that he knows about her life without risking he relationship entirely. This makes him even more angry and aggressive, and eventually he goes to the pub again and confronts her right after a performance. The simplicity of their involvement goes out the window, and the INTIMACY’s story gets darker. The complexity of the affair is almost beyond words. They were never in love, but both needed the weekly encounters to make it through their lives. Kerry Fox is called upon to do some pretty risque stuff on screen, but she’s better just as bold with her clothes on. I will never forget the look on her face when she is scream at Jay in the dressing room after the play. He has ruined the balance of her life, and she hates him for it (which doesn’t necessarily mean she’s done having sex with him). INTIMACY is brash, powerful, abrasive, and meaningful at its ugly best; cold and distancing at times; but always captivating. I believe this film opens in Chicago at the Landmark Theatre on Oct. 19.
THE IRON LADIES
I’m not going to lie: this feel-good gay comedy from Thailand bugged the crap out of me. It’s the true story of a group of mostly transvestites who formed a powerful volleyball team in 1996 and ended up making it to the national finals. The film has won awards from various gay and lesbian film festival across this country, and I’m guessing it’s one of the first (if not the first) film made in Thailand that deals explicitly with gay characters and issues. For it’s historical value, I’ll give in points, but outside of that, the film is annoying. Despite being a film with a very positive message about being gay, the characters in the film fall into every gay stereotype imaginable. Every player flits around the screen flapping their arms like a hummingbird and screaming with glee at every point scored. They cry when they break a fingernail, and substitute dialogue for a laundry list of gay pride slogans. Perhaps the only thing worse than the gay stereotypes is the straight stereotypes. According to this film, the world is made up of two groups: gay people, or people who hate gay people.
According to the press notes I received for this film, THE IRON LADIES is the second largest grossing film in Thailand’s history (I’m guessing the biggest grosser is TITANIC), and for a country that is only now coming to grips with its gay population, that makes some degree of sense. But for me, someone who has seen dozens of well-crafted and much more mature films on gay subjects, it feels dated and childish. The other bothersome thing about this film is that the one scene in the movie where we actually get to see the transvestites perform their act in full drag, the set is lit so poorly that we can’t even see their faces. What a let down. The only character I could deal with was the lesbian coach, who at least acted like a real person.
I should add as a footnote that there is some video footage of the real “Iron Ladies” during the end credits, and in fact, they do kind of have the same mannerisms as the characters in the movie. Alright, so maybe the portrayals were more accurate than I at first thought, but that didn’t make my ears hurt any less from all the screeching. This film also opens in Chicago at the Landmark on Oct. 19.
‘R XMAS
This is not one of director Abel Ferarra’s best works, but since the guy has to turn to France just to get funding for his movies these days, anything is better than nothing. ‘R XMAS is as close to a family film as Ferarra is likely to get in his career. It centers on a very loving hispanic couple played by Italian-American actors Drea de Matteo and Lillo Brancato (both from “The Sopranos”). They have an adorable little girl, a beautiful home on the upper east side of Manhattan, and present galore for their entire extended family at Christmastime. And a massive heroin business to finance it all. During a last-minute toy run for their daughter, the husband is kidnapped, apparently by a rival drug ring headed by Ice-T. He wants as much money as de Matteo can get her hands on to save her husband’s life, but it becomes clear that Ice-T has a twisted sense of justice when dealing with the couple. He also wants their drugs off the street once the husband is released. ‘R XMAS (the title is a play on the legal drug trade’s use of the term Rx) does a good job in showing us the bond that the family has with each other; and de Matteo’s scenes with Ice-T take enough unpredictable turns to keep things interesting, but the entire film is just too low key and unfocused. The wife’s reaction to the kidnapping doesn’t feel real and what happens to them after she pays the money is so understated as to almost be uncaring. I like Ferarra’s blending of the traditional holiday scenes of New York City with the ugliness of the street drug business. This is his element and it’s what he does best, but my interest in the film faded about 20 minutes before the end credits. No word on a release date in the U.S.
THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE
I already know that THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE is going to be one of my favorites of 2001. Mexican director Guillermo del Toro working with a cast of top-notch Spanish actors has fashioned one of the finest ghost stories ever made, and done so with cheapening the genre. In fact, he treats horror as an art form here, spending as much time developing his characters and his mythology as he does seducing us with his misty atmosphere. Set at an orphanage during the final days of the Spanish Civil War, THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE introduces us to a fearless child known as Carlos (Fernando Tielve). The orphanage is used by many communist sympathizers as a hiding place for their children in case they die in battle. The matriarch of the establishment is the sweet Carmen (ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER’s Marisa Paredes). She runs things with the science teacher and staff doctor Prof. Casares (MEN WITH GUNS’ Federico Luppi). As soon as we enter the courtyard of the orphanage Carlos (and we) notice two things: an unexploded bomb slammed nose-deep into the ground (we are told it has been disabled but it literally breathes with life nonetheless); and the ghost of a dead and child, whose hazy appearance indicates that he is underwater, gushing blood from his forehead. It turns out the boy is Santi, a former resident of the orphanage who mysteriously disappeared the day the bomb was dropped into the courtyard by fascist planes.
After much torment delivered upon him by the other boys, Carlos is eventually accepted and embraced by the other motherless children. Eventually, he starts asking questions about the spirit he keeps seeing. Carlos even reaches out for the ghost in an effort to find out why he walks the earth. The image of the dead child still in pajamas may be too much to handle for some. You may not notice it at first but you are actually able to see through Santi’s pale white skin at times straight through to his bones. Also working at the orphanage is Jacinth (Eduardo Noriega from OPEN YOUR EYES; in VANILLA SKY, Tom Cruise plays his part), a former resident who is now the caretaker. He has his eye on a stash of gold hidden away somewhere on the property by Carmen.
What works so well in THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE is the early acceptance of ghosts as a part of life. There’s no obligatory scene(s) where everyone doubts this crazy child who sees things. The supernatural is possible as the natural. The opening line of the film deliver by the Professor is “What is a ghost?” One of the answers is “Something that appears living that we know is dead.” This message carries a lot of weight in this film, and does not just apply to the ghost child. Instead of running in terror from the ghost, Carlos wants to help set its spirit free. Thus begins the unravelling of the mystery behind Santi’s death and the secret goings on in the orphanage. Del Toro masterfully manages to keep his audience in a constant state of dis-ease. We’re not scared most of the time, just uncomfortable and at times distraught as he weaves his all-too human story of greed and revenge.
A film like this could never be made using American money. The images of dead children (not just Santi) and children seeking violent vengeance on those that would harm them just wouldn’t fly. Too “Lord of the Flies” maybe. But if films like THE OTHERS got under your skin (I loved it), you have an idea at how ghost stories can be taken to another level. I’m partly excited, partly sad to see that del Toro’s next project is the BLADE sequel. I can’t imagine he’ll have the freedom he so deserves to have his vision come to life, but I hope he at least tries. THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE is a master stroke. This film opens in Chicago just before Christmas at the Landmark Theatre.
LOVE COME DOWN
This piece from Canada is a disjointed mix of overly inflated, tough guy cliches that drove me nuts trying to watch it. Larenz Tate is Neville, a mixed-race aspiring stand-up comic; his all-white older brother Matthew (same mother different father) is an amateur boxer. Neville has a drug problem and goes into a rehab center run by nuns. His overseer is Sister Sarah (the greatly underused Sarah Polley). He comes out clean, gets a job as a shoe salesman, and meets a lovely singer played by R&B singer Deborah Cox. And we are forced to suffer through him falling off the drug wagon, excruciating flashbacks of him and Matthew as children being tormented by their father and loved unconditionally by their mother, and countless fights that are resolved the next day with a simple “Sorry about….” This is a television melodrama masquerading as art. Neville has taken his pain and turned into the meat of his wholly unfunny comedy act. I like Tate, I suppose, and I adore Sarah Polley, but nothing can save the heavy-handed approach to every scene in LOVE COME DOWN. No word on a U.S. release date.
FAT GIRL
FAT GIRL is the real deal. Uncompromising from the first frame, it is clear that provocative French director Catherine Breillat (ROMANCE; 36 FILLETTE) is prepared to unload a double-barreled look at the ruin of adolescence. FAT GIRL tells the tale of two sisters: Elena, a stunning 15 year old; Anais is the withdrawn, 12-year-old title character. Both talk endlessly about men. Elena wants to save her virginity for a man she loves; Anais wants to sleep with someone she barely knows so when she does sleep with someone she loves, it won’t be an awkward first experience. Elena meets an Italian student named Fernando while Elena’s family is on a holiday. Fernando immediately sets his sights on Elena’s virginity, and we witness very lengthy and graphic sequences of his slow and deliberate seduction of her. In her immaturity, she reveals all of the emotional buttons that need pushing for him to achieve his goals, and he takes advantage of her inexperience.
But Elena is only half of this story. Anais is so distanced from her family, she barely flinches as they mercilessly pick her apart about her weight and eating habits. She stares at her body in the mirror and calls herself despicable names just to add to her punishment. She spends a lot of time in the pool, where she fantasizes about having many men interested in her. The two sisters look out for each other as often as they rip each other apart.
Breillat is so good at never shying away from showing you what makes these girls both victims and cunning orchestrators of their own fates. Elena lies naked next to Fernando completely vulnerable and frightened about taking her first steps in womanhood, with her sister pretending to be asleep in the same room. The girls’ absent and uncaring parents only enter the picture to stop these events from happening when it runs the risk of embarrassing them in the vacation community. And prepare yourself for one of the most jarring and unexpected endings I’ve seen all year. Yes, Breillat is trying to shock us, and she usually succeeds, but she doesn’t sacrifice raw and real emotion for explicitness; the two complement each other beautifully. FAT GIRL is strong stuff. Opening in Chicago at the Landmark Theatre Nov. 23
FINAL This film is part of the INDIGENT (INdependent DIGital ENTertainment) project that is being spearheaded by Bravo and the Independent Film Channel. The idea is to make 10 digital films for $1 million. I know that Richard Linklater’s TAPE (which I reviewed a couple days ago) is part of this series, but I don’t know what the other eight are. According to FINAL director Campbell Scott (yes, THAT Campbell Scott), six of the ten films have been selected by Lions Gate for distribution; presumably all ten will air on one or both of these cable channels in the near future, and I, for one, am looking forward to them. FINAL is a much different animal than TAPE. TAPE is pretty much a Dogme95-type film, whereas FINAL looks like it cost more than it did. Denis Leary is Bill, a man who wakes up from a coma in a mental hospital raving about final injections that will kill him, organ transplants, and being cryogenically frozen. His memory before the coma is sketchy, but he does remember the death of his father followed immediately by his dis-engagement from his girlfriend. Soon after these events he went on a bender and was in a fairly horrible accident. His therapist is Ann (Hope Davis, doing her usual note-perfect job of appearing placid and cool, while letting us catch glimpses of more emotional side). She patiently works with Bill to find out why his mind has taken on the belief that biotech experiments are going to be performed on him. The back-and-forth nature of their sessions is practically sex with clothes on, but the end result appears to be achieving Bill’s healing. Most of the film takes place in Bill’s strangely painted room, but the more the camera ventures outside the room, the more we realize that things are not what they appear. Scott (who co-directed BIG NIGHT and his own version of HAMLET last year) does a great job of generating fire between his leads and creating a slow-building anxiety in Bill’s mind and our’s. For those fortunate few that were able to see HAPPY ACCIDENTS, you may have some idea of where this film is leading to, but for the rest, I believe the shocks that come in rapid succession in the film’s final minutes will be genuine. Beyond the festival circuit, I’m not sure what the future holds for FINAL, but Scott did tell us that this was one of the six INDIGENT films picked up by Lions Gate.
FOCUS
In the final days of our war with Germany, a strong anti-Jewish resentment cropped up in the U.S. Many blamed the Jews for our involvement in WWII, which resulted in the loss of many American lives. Many American Jews were also thought to be communists by some. Arthur Miller captured this neighbor vs. neighbor mentality that existed in this country in his novel “Focus,” which first-time director Neal Slavin has turned into a strange, almost other worldly nightmare vision. FOCUS centers on Larry Newman (William H. Macy) living in a fairly average neighborhood. He’s liked by the people in his community, he lives with his elderly mother, has a good job in the personnel department of his company, and is friends with everybody. There’s a Jewish-owned newsstand on the corner of his block run by Mr. Finkelstein (David Paymer, in extra twitchy mode), who has recently been the victim of some lost business and hateful stares and words by those in the neighborhood. Larry still buys his morning paper at the newsstand, but he has a few prejudices of his own. At the office, he turns away one potential new secretary, Gertrude (Laura Dern), because he thinks she’s Jewish. The movie makes the point that Larry isn’t necessarily anti-semitic, just weak and quick to bow to public pressure.
Larry is having a bit of a tough time seeing, and decide the time has come to buy glasses. But when he wear them, something very strange happens: everyone—even his own mother—says they make him look Jewish (he’s not, in case I forgot to mention that). His boss transfers him to another, less visible position in the company; Larry is insulted and quits, but has no luck finding a new job because all potential employers think he’s Jewish. His neighbors, led by Larry’s very scary next-door neighbor Fred (Meat Loaf Aday), start looking at him funny. Soon Larry is having trash cans turned over in his front lawn (as is Mr. Finkelstein). Amidst all this chaos, Larry runs into Gertrude again. He apologizes for his behavior and the two start dating. Apparently, Gertrude is not Jewish either but is mistaken as often as Larry is. They eventually get married (in a church, which still doesn’t clue people in for some reason), and things heat up in the neighborhood as thugs from outside of town are brought in to make the town “safe for Americans.”
Director Slavin takes an interesting approach to FOCUS. His surreal camera angles and use of color and shadows suggest a 1950’s horror film. The whole film reminded me of that “Twilight Zone” episode where a community turns against each other, and it turns out that aliens are manipulating them. None of it feels real, but I’m pretty sure it’s not supposed to. It’s metaphorical... sort of; and if you understand that going in, I think it will heighten your enjoyment of the film. The movie picks up a little steam when Laura Dern enters the picture; her character is a would-be starlet and has the legs and over-styled blonde hair to prove it. Let’s face it: FOCUS is set in the 1940s, it has William H. Macy as the nervous but likeable dweeb under attack by the world around him, he actually gets to play a romantic leading-man role. What the hell is there not to like here? It’s not TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD in its story of overcoming intolerance, but what is? It’s solid filmmaking with extremely good performances. Opens in Chicago at the Landmark Nov. 9.
ITALIAN FOR BEGINNERS
Apparently Dogme has taken over. This year’s Chicago Film Festival features two new Dogme movies (I’ll review the other in my second report). ITALIAN FOR BEGINNERS is the least abrasive Dogme movie I’ve seen yet; and although some are calling it a comedy, it’s one of the darkest I’ve seen. The film is also the first Dogme film to be directed by a woman, Lone Scherfig. The first half of the film introduces us to a new priest, Andreas (Anders W. Berthelsen, from my favorite Dogme film, MIFUNE) that comes to take over the church from the previous priest, who was dismissed unceremoniously. Almost as soon as he arrives, he conducts services for multiple funerals of the mothers and fathers of many of the main characters. Most of the characters work in or around a local hotel, and take Italian lessons at a local adult education center (there is a reason for this, believe me). Once the grieving over all the dead family members ends, the coupling off begins. ITALIAN FOR BEGINNERS is a wonderful, heart-warming movie that will make you laugh, think, wince, and just feel a little better for having seen it. The film loses a little of its edge when the class takes a trip to Venice, but it’s completely forgivable. For those of you who are not sold on the Dogme school of film, this film should bring you over. It doesn’t really benefit from the Dogme style, but a good script is a good script. This film has already played at a few key festivals throughout the world and will hopefully open before year’s end, if not shortly into 2002.
BETTY FISHER & OTHER STORIES
From French director Claude Miller (CLASS TRIP) comes one of his best and most structured works. Betty is a successful author raising a young son, Joseph. Carole, is a waitress and borderline prostitute raising her young son, José. Betty’s mother, Margot, who stabbed Betty in the hand when she was a girl and was sent away for many years, returns to Betty’s life in the form of an extended holiday visit. Just minutes after her arrival, Joseph accidentally falls out a window and dies. Although she is not to blame, the very selfish Margot feels bad for Betty, so she drives around the poorer parts of the city and finds the often-neglected José wandering the streets. She snatches him up and takes her to Betty, lying that the child belongs to a friend of hers and she has promised to look after him. Soon news of the missing child hits the T.V. and newspapers, but in Betty’s fragile state she’s already become attached to the child and is hesitant to turn him over to the police. Meanwhile, Carole has used the attention put on her to her advantage. She really doesn’t care that José is missing, and she’s more interested in attracting a sympathetic rich man to take her out of the slums. BETTER FISHER follows these two women, as well as a con man friend of Carole’s and the police, to a slightly odd and unexpected climax. Claude Miller has a tough time getting his films released in this country, which is a shame. His last film, OF WOMEN AND MAGIC, was one of my favorites from last year’s CIFF as was CLASS TRIP from a few year’s back. BETTY FISHER is a wonderfully plotted and executed movie with three terrific performances from the female leads. It’s slightly disturbing in the way it portrays children who are mistreated, but this abuse is probably all too common. I have no clue when or if this film will be released in the U.S.
BIG BAD LOVE
Arliss Howard should never be allowed to step in front of or behind a camera again. Mr. Debra Winger has been in a couple of good movies in his career (FULL METAL JACKET, MAP OF THE WORLD), but he’s nothing special. Here, he commits the ultimate sin of directing and writing a movie as well as starring in it. BIG BAD LOVE is the tale of Leon, a Vietnam vet and aspiring writer whose marriage (to Winger) has fallen apart and hose kids resent him for being a drunk and totally unreliable. Arliss has made a movie to prove to us and the world that he is an intellect. Leon spouts drunken poetry and stories of the old South, presumably quoting his own writings. Howard spends most of the film stumbling or lying half-passed out on the floor of his house or face down in the dirt. His acting is out of control. This is not an edgy performance; it’s one that needed to be reigned in and made sensible. The movie is so disjointed and pointless that you could have cut the film into 25 sections, rearranged them, and compiled roughly the same film with the same amount of sense. Winger doesn’t make enough movies anymore to waste her time doing crap like this. Supporting performances by Rosanna Arquette, Paul Le Mat, and Angie Dickenson are just sad. This movie will make you angry at everyone involved if you stay awake long enough to generate any feelings for it at all. BIG BAD LOVE will never open anywhere in the U.S. for longer than one day.
Still to come: AMELIE; IN THE BEDROOM; OUR LADY OF THE ASSASSINS; THE PORNOGRAPHER; BLEACHER BUMS; and the latest from John McNaughton, SPEAKING OF SEX.
Or see my collected reviews here!! Just click on Steve@theMovies
Harsh words for Mr. Arliss, Capone. I always liked the guy. Great work this week. Sounds like you’re having a blast.
"Moriarty" out.
