Hey folks, Harry here with our wonderful frozen spy, Memento Man - back for his third year in a row in the frozen land of agents and publicists... of course I'm talking about Park City, Utah and the Sundance Film Festival... Don't lick one of those Agentcicles up there - you don't know where its been! Anyway, the lucky rascal, MM, has seen two movies that any film geek worth his salt would rastle with a gator to see... Of course I'm talking about THE SINGING DETECTIVE and Oliver Stone's Fidel Castro documentary... COMMANDANTE! Read and weep at your own absence, as am I!!!
Hi Harry!
This is one of your chief Sundance correspondants, Memento Man, back for a third year at the greatest film festival this side of Cannes. Here's what I saw today:
THE SINGING DETECTIVE (Keith Gordon) * * * 1/2
If ADAPTATION were channeled through the love child of Humphrey Bogart and Elvis, the result would be THE SINGING DETECTIVE. This is film that smashes traditionally constructed genre boundaries as film noir, psychological drama, and musical meet in the tortured mind of Robert Downey Jr., a pulp fiction writer named Dan Dark. Dark is in a hospital bed, crippled by an agonizingly overwhelming case of psoriasis. Meanwhile, Dr. Gibbon, (played with delight by an almost-unrecognizable Mel Gibson in a bald cap and spectacles) wonders if there may be something in Dark's writing that can bring both emotional and physical relief. Dennis Potter's words (this screenplay was written before his death) sizzle in this world where shadowy film noir and glowing musical blend together as well as fiction and reality or memory and present. Harsh scenes of violence and forced sex are contrasted with bubbly musical numbers to make them even more dark. Yet, even in its blackness, THE SINGING DETECTIVE should be one of the more colorful joys of the festival this year.
PEOPLE I KNOW (Dan Algrant) * *
PEOPLE I KNOW constructs a view of New York City as if it were a level in Dante's hell. Here all sorts of people wander the streets as the walking damned. . . heading nihilistically toward ends that are sure to come. Al Pacino is Eli, a press agent who, while looking after an actress (Tea Leoni), ends up in a drug-ridden scandal that reveals not only the corruption and emptiness of celebrity and political circles, but also his own life. Although Kim Basinger, as the widow of Eli's brother holds out some hope of connection or redemption, such is not to be. And after it's all over, the spectator may wonder, who really cares anyway?
COMMANDANTE (Oliver Stone) * * *
Oliver Stone's insightful yet entertaining documentary on Fidel Castro was taken from 30 hours of interviews over the space of three days in February, 2002. It attempts–and often succeeds–in bringing a new understanding of this world leader, rather than the hardened stereotypes that are usually put forth. Here, Stone is able to ask quite pointed questions about such things the Bay of Pigs invasion, the Cuban missile crisis, the alleged torturings in Vietnam by Cubans, and the New World Order. He gets Castro's take on such figures as JFK, Nixon, Che, and Eva Peron. Yet, he's also able to ask Castro about movies he's seen (he's seen TITANIC and GLADIATOR, but only on video), and open the Cuban leader's mail (Castro says, "It's a good thing I didn't bring any secret papers.") Through it all, Castro is surprisingly forthcoming, and, well, human. As Stone said in the Q and A afterwards, Castro was quite a magnetic personality, and, like a fascinating actor, is able to carry a 90-minute film by himself. Stone said, "Castro is the ABOUT SCHMIDT of world leaders."
IT'S ALL ABOUT LOVE (Thomas Vinterberg) * * *
Danish filmmaker Thomas Vinterberg (who, last up, followed the Dogme 95 manifesto by focusing closely on characters in THE CELEBRATION), here goes as far as he can in the opposite direction to make a film that focuses on the space around the characters in IT'S ALL ABOUT LOVE. This bleak, puzzling allegory about the death that is life without love in the modern world projects human hopes and problems onto nature itself. Set in 2021, Joaquin Phoenix and Claire Daines play John and Elena, a husband and wife who are on the verge of signing divorce papers, while all around them are global disturbances (such as snow in July, or Ugandans who suddenly find themselves without gravity.) At the same time, people are dropping dead in the streets while the living just step over them. Sean Penn occasionally checks in as Joaquin's brother who must continually ride an airplane. This is a challenging film that will chill many audience members (such as several during tonight's screening) with its refusal to give many answers; yet it is also rich with haunting imagery and themes that will trouble your mind long after the film's completion.
Ebert is back in his usual chair on the far left side of the back row of the Eccles theater. This time he has a "reserved" sign to keep pesky film watchers from sitting in his seat while he grabs a sandwich. Until tomorrow... this is Memento Man, signing off!
