Guru

Reviewer: James van Maanen
Rating (out of 5):
Under consideration
Liliom   (Disc 8 of 12): ***
Bad Girl   (Disc 10) ****
After Tomorrow  ***½
Young America   ***½ (Both Disc 11)

 
If you think the catch-phrase "So many movies, so little time" has meaning when you're young, I can only advise you: Just wait.  With this in mind, I decided to tackle only four of the thirteen films in the new Murnau, Borzage and Fox Box Set from Fox--which offers several from each director plus a documentary about the two men and their history with the Fox studio.

Oddly enough, the least of the four is probably the best-known property in the series: Liliom (1930) -- from the Ferenc Molnár stage play, which has been filmed a half dozen times (two of these for TV and once as Rodgers & Hammerstein musical Carousel).  Liliom is the title character, a carnival
barker/ladies' man (Charles Farrell) who falls in sort-of love with a young serving girl, Julie (Rose Hobart).  The story is simple in the extreme, and for all of director Frank Borzage's vaunted skills in serving up tasty melodrama while drawing good performances from his cast, the film has a stagy look and feel.  The dialog is slow and the filmmaking obvious,
although it is interesting to see what kind of "special effects" were available back in the day, and there is one choice political line about the name of a particular train.  Farrell and Hobart do what they can, as does the supporting cast, and the cinematography is good (Fox and its collaborators have done a wonderful job of obtaining and then burnishing the best remaining prints, so these four transfers are pretty spectacular).

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

Alan Ball has an axe to grind, possibly several axes to grind. After many years toiling as a sitcom writer for shows like Cybil and Grace Under Fire, he won an Academy award for writing the suburban exegesis American Beauty, created the HBO series Six Feet Under, an at times cruelly bleak dramedy about a family-run funeral home, and has now developed True Blood, a Southern Gothic melodrama television series wherein vampires and humans reside in strained coexistence. So it makes a certain kind of sense that Towelhead, his feature film debut as a director, would contain elements of racism, child rape, pornography, interracial dating, teen sex and militarism -- all under the umbrella of comedy.

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

With his second feature, Jonathan Levine, New York native and once an assistant to writer-director Paul Schrader, captures his home town's vibe expertly in the uneven but ultimately winning little coming of age dramedy The Wackness. The film takes a bit of time to find its stride - but it does when Levine lets go of some of his filmic pretenses and lets the characters take hold.

Reviewer: Walker Koppelman-Brown
Rating (out of 5): ****

It is rare when a film can spill out of traditional cinematic borders and into more ambiguous artistic territory and still succeed. A primary example of this is Dream of Life, Steven Sebring's documentary on Patti Smith. While people will know her name first and foremost in the music world, they will be surprised at her other accomplishments in the arts. This concept of well-roundedness, interdisciplinary artistic ambitions, is what makes Dream of Life such an enjoyable experience.

Reviewer: James van Maanen

The Good Life
Rating (out of 5): ***

Netherbeast Incorporated
Rating (out of 5): **-½

All movies are a gamble but straight-to-videos (STVs) seem even more so. There are few places to look for reviews and the often paltry (and sometimes dead wrong) descriptions available will either give too much plot away or leave you thinking, "Huh…?" Two STVs that made their debut last week might jostle your movie viewing a bit -- if you're inclined toward an update/rethinking of the vampire legend, handled in a comic/corporate vein, or are in the mood for a quiet, sad and often strangely beautiful slice-of-life in a downtrodden Nebraska small-town.

The latter is what you'll find in writer/director Stephen Berra's oddly gripping The Good Life, which tells the tale of a young man who works in a gas station by day and moonlights in a movie theatre, while coming to terms with first love, family and the town bully. As played by the sweet-faced Mark Webber (The Hottest State), who's nearing 30 but looks more like 17, the character (who also has a surprising physical impairment not immediately obvious) commands the movie, winning our sympathy and maintaining it throughout.

Aaron Hillis reviews a real sleeper on DVD, over at GC Daily:

Trying to stay a hop ahead of the cultural curve, my Friday column has been designated for shiny new releases or retrospectives each week, but considering my best options were a humdrum biopic on Biggie Smalls, a 3-D remake of an '80s slasher flick (don't get me wrong, I'll see this year's Snakes on a Plane, but how commendable could it possibly be?), and a shallow Ozu homage from Germany, I've decided to dip into the GreenCine DVD catalog and pull out a recent-ish, little-seen gem that is NOT AVAILABLE ON NETFLIX. Film of the Week, case closed.

Read Aaron's full review on GreenCine Daily >>

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

The Spanish film King of the Hill (El Rey de la montaña), which I originally reviewed on GreenCine Daily from the Spanish Cinema Now festival, is one of the most disturbing thrillers that I can recall. Because the SCN is rather heavy on genre films (thriller, horror, apocalypse, sci-fi - not to mention prison and terrorism), most of which seem to offer a massive dose of hopelessness, it is difficult not to take this as a comment on the Spanish (maybe European, maybe the whole of western culture) experience at the moment. If not, then coincidence is very heavily at play.

Directed and co-written (with Javier Gullón) by Gonzalo López-Gallego, this is the kind of film that demands to be seen before it is read about (and spoiled). It is bleak. Very bleak.

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

When Eric Lartigau did his Q&A, after the debut screening of I Do during the FSLC's Rendez-vous with French Cinema in 2007, a viewer asked when his film might be released in the USA. Don't hold your breath, M. Lartigau told us, because instead, negotiations were afoot for an American remake. A collective groan of displeasure went up from the audience, and Lartigau seemed taken aback. We had to explain to the French filmmaker that film buffs of the sort who frequent a festival like this, want to see their movies in their original language rather than remade into what generally comes out a poor second to the original. The filmmaker appeared surprised but pleased at this news. Two years later, we've still seen no remake, and now, thanks to Lionsgate, we've got that original on DVD.

An enormous popular and critical success in France, I Do (Prête-Moi Ta Main) stars two of that country's popular performers: Alain Chabat (he'll soon be seen here in the Night at the Museum sequel) and Charlotte Gainsbourg (Golden Door, Lemming, Science of Sleep). The story – which was Chabat's idea, as well, with a screenplay by Philippe Mechelen – involves one of those pretend-to-be-my-fiancée-so-my-family-will-leave-me-alone plots that, when done well, can rise to dizzyingly fizzy heights.