Guru

Character actor countdown continues after a bit of a holiday (and ailment) delay.

7.

It took me awhile to stop associating the tall actor with the early TV comedy appearances that were my introduction to him (Hill Street Blues, Family Ties, and God help us, Diff'rent Strokes) and small roles in mediocre moves. Later, he'd appear in several Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes (as Jaglom Shrek, and once as a Prime Minister), as well as one of the STTNG movies (First Contact), and later on as George in Six Feet Under. But it wasn't until he played Farmer Hoggett in the hugely popular Babe that Cromwell himself became more popular in respectable films. Cromwell was Charles Keating (for whom he's a dead ringer) in The People vs. Larry Flynt, and would appear as generals (General's Daughter), judges (Snow Falling on Cedars), corrupt police captains (L.A. Confidential), wardens (The Green Mile, The Longest Yard), as William Randolph Hearst (RKO 281), a Senator (the bizarro Species II), and an ex-President (The West Wing's D. Wire Newman in one episode).

But it wasn't until this past year that Cromwell played a prince - Prince Philip to be precise - in Stephen Frears' excellent The Queen. He certainly doesn't make him the most likable of royalty, but it's a fair portrayal of a traditional man at a loss as times change, and he makes a good match with Helen Mirren. She'll get the awards, and deservedly so, but Cromwell's presence is crucial to the film's creation of the royal family's dynamics. Look for him soon as a young Jane Austen's father in Becoming Jane, and in Spider-Man 3, in which he'll presumably play a warden, general, judge, father or police captain.

Reviewer: James van Maanen
Rating (out of 5): ***½

Sleeper pick of the week:

Once in awhile you encounter a small movie to which the adjective "dear" is applicable, and Dreamland is one of this increasingly rare breed. An ensemble piece heavy on character and short on plot, it is beautifully directed by first timer Jason Matzner. Screenwriter Tom Willett's dialog is real, funny and moving, while the location -- a trailer park in the American southwest -- seems just offbeat enough to entice. The filmmakers treat these quirky individuals as worthy of our time and attention, rather than as the film trailer-trash we so often encounter.

Lili Taylor is the enormously talented and always eminently likable actress who was brilliant at the center of I Shot Andy Warhol, as the deranged Valerie Solanas.

Taylor's already had a long career, spanning 20 years and nearly 40 films, in addition to numerous stage appearances, but because she tends to become absorbed by her characters, and rarely gives interviews or press, she's not - nor probably cares to be - a household name. (The number of people who confuse her with Liv Tyler, with whom she has nothing in common besides similar name, still surprises me.)

In 2006, you may have missed her in two independent films: In The Notorious Bettie Page, she portrayed Paula Klaw, who, along with brother Irving Klaw, formed a sweet middle-aged team of... mild S&M and bondage photographers; in Bent Hamer's underseen, episodic Bukowski adaptation Factotum, Taylor was more front and center as an alcoholic and love for the Bukowski stand-in character. Taylor and Matt Dillon both give stellar performances in Factotum, creating sparks and making us care about these often repugnant characters. In both these films and in most of her filmography - as neurotic, messy, alive, smart, sweet characters -Taylor leaves an indellible impression.

Other favorite Taylor performances, besides I Shot Andy Warhol:

5.

What better day to honor the next character actor on our countdown then on her birthday: Imelda Staunton, born on this day in London, England in 1956.

Staunton actually had a fairly quiet 2006 - with an appearance in a British TV adaptation of The Wind in the Willows and a forgettable Steven Seagal movie that will go unmentioned, but she's in the new film Freedom Writers, as an obstinate school administrator opposite Hilary Swank's energetic teacher, and will soon be seen in the next Harry Potter film, taking umbrage at Harry as his new nemesis Dolores Umbridge.

While Staunton is most familiar to movie audiences in fine supporting roles as maids, nurses and various "Mrs."s and Ladies, she gained worldwide critical acclaim - and an Oscar nomination - as the titular character in Mike Leigh's Vera Drake. The real-life Drake was a selfless caretaker who became an abortionist, finding her beliefs and practices clashing with the morals of 1950s Britain. Staunton was key to the film's success, so effortlessly does she fall into this role - at turns, lovely and heartbreaking, it's an utterly captivating performance.

Some other highlights:

This week I marked off one of my New Year's resolutions by getting rid of a beat up old couch. It was torn in a few places, scratched on one arm by years of active cat claws, and had a couple of stains on it (again, I blame the cats). Still, we'd had a lot of times together, the sofa and I, and a good number of important rumps sat on it at one time or another. Although it's just a couch, we do tend to anthropomorphize objects that have nostalgic value to us, as if they were part of the family. All this made me think of a beautiful piece of Canadian animation from years back called Crac!, which is probably one of the few cartoons that have ever made me cry - and it makes me cry every time I watch it.

And it's about a chair.

Frédéric Back's exceptional short, drawn in beautifully active colored pencil on frosted acetate, tells the story of a family but also of many decades of history and development in Quebec - which in most respects could also stand in for any part of the Western world. Tracing generations in this family, beginning with a young father in 19th Century Quebec, who carves a chair from wood he chopped himself, and on up to the modern age, Crac is beautiful, absorbing and remarkably touching.

[For further reading, there's a great piece about Crac! and Back on FilmJourney.]

Crac! is on The World's Greatest Animation DVD, which has been out for quite some time and is now, alas, out of print - but GreenCine has it for rent, at least. Pull up a favorite old chair, watch it, have a good cry. -- Craig Phillips

Reviewer: Erin Donovan
Rating (out of 5): ****

In a recent interview Yves Béhar, chief designer on the $100 laptop project, told Wired magazine, "There's a criticism that comes up. I think it's the stupidest argument: Send kids food, send them water." These critics, he says, imagine all the developing world to be a famine-stricken village in Africa. "This is the typical ignorance of the West. There are different conditions in different places," he says. "And there are a lot of places where kids are not starving, where kids want to learn more than anything else."

The Beauty Academy of Kabul documents a team of British and American women from an NGO called Beauty Without Borders setting up the first teaching salon in Kabul since the 70s. It seems a bit deranged at first - are people really worrying about split ends with bombs still falling on their city? As it turns out, even during the oppressive rule of the Taliban women were running secret salons out of their homes and apparently making more money than any deputy minister of their Parliament.

Reviewer: James van Maanen
Rating (out of 5): ***

Looking for a gratifying romantic comedy that will do the trick without making you feel stupid for enjoying it? Try Love for Rent. Combining immigration, aspiration, surrogate child-bearing, foster parenting, parenting your parents and - oh, yes - love (all these themes, by the way, are handled with surprising kindness), this sweet little time-waster should leave you with a smile on your face and that warm gut feeling that says, "It worked." This is thanks to a first-rate cast of mostly lesser-known or second-rung performers who consistently ring the bell.

4.

A prolific actor, Alan Arkin's been in his share of uncomfortably bad films over the course of his forty year career, but when he's on, and the role's perfect for him - as in this past year's Little Miss Sunshine in which he played the foul-mouthed grandpa - Arkin kills.

He started out on the stage in LA and the Midwest - both as an actor and a folk singer - worked with the Second City theater in Chicago and New York, and hit Broadway in the 60s, before first making an impact in film in Norman Jewison's once-hilarious, now slightly dated satire The Russians are Coming... (in which Arkin played Lt. Rozanov, a Russian sub captain and early malapropistic forebear of Borat).

Arkin's played his share of leads (Yossarian in Catch-22, Freud in The Seven Per Cent Solution) and co-leads - one of my favorite examples of the latter being in the original, superior In-Laws, in which Arkin used his knack for playing anxiety-ridden everymen on the edge of either a breakdown or a breakthrough. He's played policemen - including in the often darkly funny Jules Pfeiffer adaptation Little Murders, which he also directed, inspectors (unexpectedly playing Clouseau in Inspector Clouseau) and detectives (Gattaca), kidnapped ambassadors (Four Days in September), and killers (a dark turn in Wait Until Dark), but more often he's graduated to - or aged into - playing more patriarchal characters. In Slums of Beverly Hills, Arkin was hilarious as Murray Abramovitz, a 65-year-old car salesman and head of a clan of a brood of three kids, a piss-poor provider but a caring father, who moves his poor kids around multiple times. Even if the character is flawed, Arkin is flawless here and his reactions are priceless.

In the multi-character film 13 Conversations About One Thing, Arkin, in a change of pace, played a sour, irritable but decent actuary named Gene with the incapacity to enjoy life. It's a much more subtle performance than we're used to from Arkin, but as good as he's ever done.

And then there's his lewd grandpa in Little Miss Sunshine, for which he may (and should) get an Oscar nomination, as Arkin chews the scenery with relish, getting laughs out of every line and look. He explains his unedited mouth thusly: "I can say what I want - I still got Nazi bullets in my ass." And we believe it. And we like it.

Reviewer: Erin Donovan
Rating (out of 5): ****

Yet another little gem of a film squandered by infights, ego clashes and studio turnover. After three years of being shelved (allegedly in part because M. Night Shyamalan demanded first rights to the name for what later was released as The Village) Lucky McKee's (May, Sick Girl) The Woods is out of the film festival ghetto and available DVD.

Agnes Bruckner (Blue Car, Dreamland) plays Heather Fasulo, sent to a New England boarding school for girls after an incident vaguely described as "the fire" gets her expelled. Set in 1965, the new digs is like an airy asylum where conformity is brutally enforced and bizarre psychological tests are constantly proctored to ensure the students are never becoming too capable. The girls who fail are quickly fed to tree witches. Add in Bruce Campbell (Evil Dead, Army of Darkness) playing it straight as a beleaguered dad, lesbian subtext, a brilliant soundtrack, Patricia Clarkson's take on a maniacal stepford wife (complete with implacable hairdo) and the blond spy from Alias and one has to wonder if Sony Pictures wouldn't be better serving the customer by feeding themselves to tree witches.

The real loss here though is not seeing this gorgeous cinematagraphy on a large screen. Lensed by John Leonetti (who has been making bad movies look great since Child's Play 3) is truly at home in the light fantasy/gore arena. His images have an alluring starkness that rivals the three Mexican films none of us can stop gushing about of late. (A sidenote: Leonetti is also slated to shoot the vehicle wherein Lindsay Lohan will play a multiple amputee with split personality disorder who is out for revenge. Yes, really.)

The DVD is predictably paltry. The transfer is beautifully done but there are no outtakes, featurettes or commentaries despite reports that they were all recorded, created and ready to go. A handful of trailers are included for other straight to video titles.

See also: Picnic at Hanging Rock, Suspiria, Ginger Snaps, The Fog (original), Pan's Labyrinth, Heavenly Creatures, The Descent.

Reviewer: James van Maanen
Rating (out of 5): ***

Not to be taken lightly (or, certainly, quickly) Andrei Konchalovsky's (with Valentin Ezhow as co-writer) Siberiade runs more than 4-1/2 hours on two discs. That the DVD quality of this "special edition" is only so-so (full-screen, rather than wide-; fading colors; and a general lack of the kind of crispness DVD buffs have come to expect from our "classics") does not help one's viewing pleasure. Still, until someone undertakes to bring out the real-thing-done-right, we shall have to settle. As someone who had never seen Siberiade in any form, I am grateful. If you've not seen it, either, I'd suggest a rent.

Craig Phillips arrives in Park City and catches Weapons.

Granted, some may feel Sundance "jumped the shark" some time ago, and (as Shannon Gee notes) there are plenty of reasons to gripe about the event. It's cold, very cold, crowded (though so far not unbearably so, and I find filmgoers generally a very cordial lot), some films are a disappointment, and it's a pain in the ass to get to. But it's Sundance, and it's still damned exciting to be here.

You'd think my expectations for my first film ever at Sundance would be unfairly high, but that wasn't the case. I knew I'd see quite a few films while here, and knew very little about Weapons other than the names of a few of the young actors in the cast. Those young actors would turn out to be among the few highlights in this, yet another entry in the nihilistic suburban youths gone bad genre. I described it to one of my colleagues as "Larry Clark and Quentin Tarantino do an Afterschool Special," and while that's probably not completely fair (I'm trying to cut it some slack, knowing how sleep-deprived I already am), the number of clichéd teen "issues" ticked off the checklist in Act 3 alone - teen pregnancy, check; abuse, check; rape, check; feud over a girl, check; drug abuse, check - that the woman sitting next to me finally got up and left in exasperation, muttering to me as she walked past, "Okay, one cliché too many." (Maybe she was sleep-deprived, too.)

The Unforeseen is a mostly terrific, beautifully shot documentary that uses a microcosmic story of development in Austin, Texas, to tell another of a more cosmic environmental struggle affecting us all. The film splits focus between an ongoing battle between environmentalists and developers over Barton Springs, a longtime favorite site of sunbathers and swimmers, as well as a place where some even find religion (Baptists long used it as a spot for baptisms, while another woman interviewed in the film talked about the spiritual nature of being at the spot itself); and the way development encroaches on rapidly shrinking farmland in the area, focusing on one old-time corn farmer who sees the open space and agriculture around him disappearing.

Reviewer: Craig Phillips
Rating (out of 5): *** ½

Kirby Dick's most entertaining documentary on the mysterious Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) rating system and the board it operates in conjunction with the National Association of Theater Owners, does a smart thing fairly early on: it becomes an investigation of the organization itself rather than simply a film of interviews about how twisted the system is. (It doesn't take much to convince us of this.) Dick is more interested in how it works, or doesn't work, and who actually comprises the ratings board itself - an anonymous/secret group of "regular" folks who hold the power in their hands to make or break the life of a film before it ever sees the light of day. The villain here, such as he is, long-time MPAA president and just as interestingly, pro-copyright lobbyist Jack Valenti, wasn't interviewed directly for this film (I'm sure he refused) but is given plenty of rope to hang himself here with television interviews and other appearances. The doc even reveals him to be a fibber - denying that harsher ratings are given to films based on sex over violence, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.