Guru

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

First shown in 1997 but never seen on American television nor available on video until now, A Dance To The Music Of Time offers what seem to me the most effortlessly entertaining characters, conversations and story that may ever have appeared in a miniseries. Lavish praise, but these four discs--totaling around 7 hours of time--scale the heights in terms of providing a literate, ironic view of upper-class England over several decades. That this is due to the series of novels by Anthony Powell, from which Hugh Whitemore adapted his simply amazing script, is beyond question. But putting it all together as elegantly, speedily and bracingly as Whitmore manages is a major accomplishment. Over the decades this journeyman writer has given us many fine pieces, winning BAFTA, WGA and Emmy awards in the process. Remember 84 Charing Cross Road, Return of the Soldier, Utz, Pack of Lies, Breaking the Code (he wrote the play), The Gathering Storm, My House in Umbria--to name but a few? This prolific gentleman is pretty much the "adapter" nonpareil for our time.

Film Crew series
Review by Craig Phillips

I was in college when Mystery Science Theater 3000, which aired on Comedy Central for several years before moving to the Sci-Fi Channel, was in its heyday and still pine for those Saturday nights spent with friends watching the Satellite of Love get us through one bad movie after another with the sheer brilliance of their writing (and the extent of their bravery). For fans needing a fix, the Film Crew - which features former MST3K writer and host Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy (Tom Servo on MST) and Bill Corbett (the second voice of Crow T Robot) - make as good a fill-in as a "mystie" could hope for. While I still miss the robots and the more strongly differentiated characterizations on Mystery Science Theater (and, heck, I miss their silhouettes too, which, especially in the Joel Hodgson years, were often used for some great gags), these new DVDs are a welcome addition.

The linking bits aren't up to the highest of MST standards, but they get better with each subsequent DVD, offer a few laughs, and are quite short. Each disc begins with a brief intro, in which the Film Crew, characterized as blue collar guys just doin' a job, are given their assignment by The Boss, a nod to Charlie's Angels (we just see his picture on the desk as he talks on speakerphone). Then the Crew gets a lunch break - which they need more than we do - but these segments are generally pretty amusing. I do wish there were more chapter stops - they provide them for before and after the lunch breaks about halfway through - but I suppose with the commentary being the star here and the films themselves decidedly not, adding more chapters probably didn't seem worth the effort. [Watch the first two minutes of each movie here]

Now then, the films:

Reviewer: Walt Opie
Rating (out of 5): ****

Sansho the Bailiff is one of those rare films so superbly crafted there don't seem to be honorable enough words to describe it. It will make you feel grateful for your own life. This heart-wrenching masterwork, beautifully restored in its black and white glory by Criterion, won Japanese director Kenji Mizoguchi his second Silver Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival in 1954. (Incidentally, that's the same year Akira Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai came out--a stellar year for Japanese cinema.)

The film is set in 11th century feudal Japan, where the family of a certain provincial governor suddenly goes from being on top of society to having their lives turned upside down (and kicked while they're down). It all starts when the father, a benevolent ruler by all accounts, is forcibly removed from office and taken away, leaving the mother, Tamaki (played with conviction by Kinuyo Tanaka, who went on to become the first woman director in Japan), and her two children, Zushio and Anju, to fend for themselves. Things go wrong almost immediately when they encounter bandits out in the countryside who split up mother and children, eventually selling the mother into prostitution and the brother and sister into slave labor.

In theatres October 19th, Rendition stars Reese Witherspoon, Jake Gyllenhaal (yep, those two on again, off again items), Meryl Streep, Peter Sarsgaard and Alan Arkin. Witherspoon plays the American wife of an Egyptian-born chemical engineer who disappears on a flight from South Africa to Washington. The woman desperately tries to track her husband down, while a CIA analyst (Gyllenhaal) at a secret detention facility outside the U.S. is forced to question his assignment as he becomes party to the man's unorthodox interrogation.

Now, thanks to the generosity of New Line, five (5) lucky winners of our Rendition contest will receive a New Line DVD Pack! Titles in the gift pack include Little Children, Fracture and Prairie Home Companion. Entrants should send an email to contest@greencine.com, including your name, email address and, if you're a GreenCine member, your username in the email, and "Rendition" in the subject header. Entries without all this information will not be considered. (You will not be added to a mailing list!)

Five winners will be selected at random from all valid entries. The deadline is Monday, October 22. Winners will be notified by e-mail and announced in future editions of the GreenCine Dispatch newsletter.

Reviewer: Dylan de Thomas
Rating (out of 5): ****

Red Road, writer-Director Andrea Arnold's notably assured feature debut (and winner of a jury prize at Cannes), tells a spare and haunting mystery about a Glasgow woman's growing obsession with a shadowy figure from her past. To give more information seems frankly unfair, with the movie doling out bits of information as though a precious commodity and the growing sense of dread building to a singular climax.

We first meet the protagonist, Jackie (in a stunningly honest performance by Kate Dickie), watching a bank of video screens with feeds coming from municipal surveillance cameras that watch over the city. She's looking for people in trouble, crimes in progress, when she finds someone that she clearly recognizes, though we have no idea why. From there, the movie becomes a genuine thriller, though one that goes in directions the genre rarely sees.

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

In a recent New York Times op-ed piece, Judith Warner wrote, after attending a recent screening of the friendship/revenge/road film Thelma and Louise (a screening hosted by Sen. Susan Collins R-MN and Rep. Jane Harman D-CA... huh?) that the 1991 film's portrayal of the sexual politick already seemed incredibly dated. She noted that the interim changes haven't actually been useful evolutions, but merely the development of many, many shades of gray.

With Stephanie Daley, writer/director Hilary Brougher achieves a mighty feat of making a film about religious education, child abandonment, miscarriage, infidelity and teenage sexuality that's neither lurid nor a polemic. And even with one character fighting for her life there are no Oscar-baiting monologues of hysteria (in fact, the most powerful scene in the film is completely silent). Like Brougher's debut film, Sticky Fingers of Time, Stephanie Daley uses a fragmented narrative to show how the interactions of two people stuck in a morass of denial inspires the other to lift themselves out of their stasis.

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

If you're looking for a light romantic-comedy/coming-of-age flick, you could do worse--much, much--than renting I'm Reed Fish, which fills this bill nicely, even adding extra charm due to the movie's location: a tiny Pacific Northwest town in which everybody knows everybody (and their business). And then, once you're settled in for something sweet and happy, in a single moment of surprise, director/co-writer Zackary Adler (along with Peter Alwazzan, Rhett Wickham and, yes, Reed Fish) turns this movie into a supremely sophisticated take on "true" love, reality and the process of maturation--all without giving up any of its sweetness or charm.

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

I must admit to some shock at the mostly devastating criticism received by Evening (a 26% score on Rotten Tomatoes!), and I can't help feel that expectation has more than a little to do with this. Here is a "dream" cast by any literate moviegoer's standards: Meryl Streep, Glenn Close, Vanessa Redgrave, Claire Danes, Eileen Atkins, Toni Collette, Natasha Richardson (Redgrave's daughter), Mamie Gummer (Streep's daughter), with Patrick Wilson and Hugh Dancy holding up the male side. Add, as the director, Lajos Koltai, one of the world's great cinematographers whose first directorial job resulted in the memorable, devastating, yet strangely beautiful Holocaust tale Fateless. Finalize with a screenplay by Susan Minot (from her well-regarded novel) and Michael Cunningham (the popular novels "A Home at the End of the World" and "The Hours"). How could expectations not be sky-high? And while there is reason for disappointment in the end result, there is also much to savor in this elegiac film.

Picking up right where the Karas: The Prophecy ends, in the new beautifully animated (using 2D/3D hybrid animation) film Karas: The Revelation [official site], Otaha seeks vengeance against the yakuza that murdered his brother and almost killed him. Meanwhile the old Karas, Eko, unleashes his wrath and contempt for the pitiful humans infesting the city. Yurine, Nue, and Otahajoin forces for the final epic battle to save the city and protect the will of the people...as Prophecy becomes Revelation! "Karas the Revelation not only lives up to the amazing first volume, but exceeds it in every way," raves Play Magazine. The sequel features the voices of Jay Hernamdez, Matthew Lillard and Cree Summer.

And now, thanks to the generosity of Manga Video, ten (10) lucky winners of our Karas: The Revelation contest will receive a copy of the new DVD. Entrants should send an email to contest@greencine.com, including your name, email address and, if you're a GreenCine member, your username in the email, and "Karas" in the subject header. Entries without all this information will not be considered. (You will not be added to a mailing list!)

Winners will be selected at random from all valid entries. The deadline is Monday, October 29. Winners will be notified by e-mail and announced in future editions of the GreenCine Dispatch newsletter.

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

The ever-charming, always good for a jest-at-the-expense-of-the-dead Donald Rumsfeld leads off Charles Ferguson's No End in Sight, one of the best of the umpteen Iraq documentaries so far. Rummy makes a statement that, if any justice still prevails, should come back to haunt him and his "Decider" for the rest of their wanton lives. The movie--which covers the inane and terrorist-producing lack on the part of the Bush administration of any intelligent plan for what might happen once its fake "Mission Accomplished" occurred--treads relatively new ground among the Iraq docs. It speaks with people from whom we've not heard much: Jay Garner, the man originally in charge of post-invasion Iraq; Ambassador Barbara Bodine; Richard Armitage, Deputy Secretary of State; and many more. What these people tell us, without mincing words but also with more pain, shock and regret than anger (the latter has undoubtedly already been spent), results in a very nearly air-tight case for the war being run about as badly as possible.

Attention Joy Division fans and music history buffs in general: Control, the new film about Ian Curtis, the enigmatic singer of Joy Division whose personal, professional, and romantic troubles led him to commit suicide at the age of 23, is garnering terrific reviews and high praise for the star, Sam Riley, who gives a "knockout" performance, says Peter Travers of Rolling Stone. "[Director Anton] Corbijn, shooting with a poet's eye in a harshly stunning black-and-white, cuts to the soul of Ian's life and music. You don't watch this movie, you live it."

And now, thanks to the generosity of GreenCine itself and our staff full of 80s music freaks, 2 lucky winners of our Joy Division contest will receive a copy of the brand spanking new 2-disc collector's edition of the classic Joy Division set, "Closer." Entrants should send an email to contest@greencine.com, including your name, email address and, if you're a GreenCine member, your username in the email, and Joy Divisionin the subject header. Entries without all this information will not be considered. (You will not be added to a mailing list!)

Winners will be selected at random from all valid entries. The deadline is Thursday, November 8. Winners will be notified by e-mail and announced in future editions of the GreenCine Dispatch newsletter.

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

If you've not yet rented Johnnie To's Triad Election (2006), on November 6th you'll have the opportunity to watch it with To's original Election (or "Black Society," made in 2005), when the first film is released to DVD. The actual title of "Triad Election" when it was released on its Hong Kong home turf was "Black Society 2." It's a noticeably inferior sequel that could easily turn you off from watching the original, a masterful piece of filmmaking about the Hong Kong triad organization. While either movie may hold up as a entity unto itself, there is no way viewers can appreciate even the second-rate virtues of the second film without first understanding how the situation in which the characters find themselves came about.

Election tracks the process (it's relatively democratic, for a crime ring) by which a possible new leader is decided upon. His reign lasts but two years and must be solidified via the possession of a very special, beautifully carved wood "baton." Abetted by screenwriters Nai-Hoi Yau and Tin-Shing Yip, To introduces us to a rather large cast, headed by two fascinating antagonists Big D (Tony Leung Ka Fai) and Lam Lok (Simon Yam), each with his own style and sentiments. Every cast member registers as individual and interesting in his own right (there is only one major woman in each film, and her role is mostly for show, particularly in the sequel). We get some intriguing history, too, doled out in smart visual terms. The movie pulls you in via its characters and keeps you glued so that when the action finally begins, you're beyond hooked. (Much of the action, too, springs from character--unusual for this genre--which makes it all the more riveting and special.)