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

If you're already a fan of the films of Henry Jaglom, you'll need no further encouragement to see his latest arrival on DVD. If not, or if you're lukewarm, or know nothing of this fellow's rather "special" oeuvre, then Hollywood Dreams is probably as good a place as any to begin. Unlike some of his earlier work—Eating, Babyfever, Going Shopping (which deal with pretty much exactly what their titles suggest), or other films like Someone to Love, Déjà Vu and Always, in which love and relationships are front and center (whatever else they're about, Jaglom's movies are all always about love and relationships)--his latest is perfectly conceived and calibrated to demonstrate his "take" on the film's title.

We're in that territory where dreams of stardom collide with dreams of love and a lasting relationship. But nobody covers this territory in quite the manner of Mr. Jaglom. Once again, he overdoes just about everything, as well as allowing his cast to do the same. (If you've ever experienced the feeling of wanting to equip Karen Black with a good set of emotional and verbal brakes, you'll feel it doubly here.) Funny thing is, in going overboard, both he and his cast manage to wrest odd truth from this collision of ambition, romance, humor, coincidence and silliness.

Continue reading "Hollywood Dreams" »

Posted by at 12:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Reviewer: Maria Komodore
Rating (out of 5): ***

Starring French actor extraordinaire Daniel Auteuil (probably most known to American audiences for his extraordinary performance in Michael Haneke’s Caché, among many other diverse films), Aprés Vous is an entertaining romantic comedy by Tunisia-born filmmaker Pierre Salvadori.

Autueil plays Antoine who, while on his way to meet his girlfriend Christine (Marilyne Canto), runs into a stranger, Louis (José Garcia), who’s trying to commit suicide. Affected by Louis’ unstable emotional state, Antoine decides to take him in, much to Christine’s dismay, demonstrating an unusual amount of kind-heartedness and generosity. Showing a suspiciously big interest in Louis’ well-being Antoine not only lets him stay at his apartment, but also manages to get him a job as a sommelier in the fancy restaurant where he works as a waiter, and fabricates intricate conspiracies to get him back together with Blanche (Sandrine Kiberlain)—the woman who Louis almost took away his own life for. Of course things take a very different turn when, despite his seemingly pure intentions, Antoine finds himself falling for Blanche.

Continue reading "Apres Vous" »

Posted by at 2:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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

As a writer/director, Marshall Lewy had made only three short films before his full-length debut with the remarkable Blue State, about as timely and daring a movie as you are likely to see. It's not perfect, and it probably bites off more than it can properly chew, let alone digest. Yet, after all the documentaries we've viewed over the past eight years, during which has occurred the steepest, most noticeable--from without and within--decline in the reputation of the good ol' USA, someone has at last had the balls to make a narrative feature about this. It almost seems beside the point that Lewy has turned out a good movie--funny, decent, political, romantic, humane. The fact that he's managed to address pointedly and honestly what so many of us felt after the 2004 election is wonderful. But there's more to it than that.

Continue reading "Blue State" »

Posted by at 5:57 PM | Permalink

As a Shakespearean literature and film scholar (it was one of my areas of concentration in getting my Ph.D.), I love to see films that update the Bard's plays cleverly, such as Scotland, PA, 10 Things I Hate About You and O. So I really looked forward to seeing what I think is Shakespeare’s worst play revamped again (Baz Luhrmann's version is genius, but not for the plot or the acting). But Romeo and Juliet Get Married gives us middle-aged co-stars acting out a world football fantasy ridiculous in nature.

Continue reading "Romeo and Juliet Get Married: Wherefore Art Thou, Film?" »

Posted by at 1:43 PM | Permalink

Reviewer: Monica Peck
Rating (out of 5): ***½

This 22 minute animated short based on Mike Mignola's award winning comic book has quickly ascended the 'steampunk' cult classic ladder. Ripe with 19th century banter, mystical artifacts, and technological anachronyms, The Amazing Screw-On Head takes viewers back, then sideways, to a time when the world was simpler, and yet, more bizarre.

It's no wonder that Mignola of Hellboy fame, won another Eisner Award (the "Oscars" of the comic book industry) in 2003 for The Amazing Screw-On Head under Best Humor Publication. And this is a rare brand of humor - surrealist, ironic, tongue so deep in cheek it hurts - coupled with campy plot-lines: a missing manuscript, a vile zombie villain, and a taste of apocalyptic horror. A wealth of talented comic performers add to the fun, including Molly Shannon, Patton Oswalt and Paul Giamatti. Built as a television pilot, the film stands very well on its own--perhaps too well for producers to see a series, hence the lack of follow-up from SciFi/Pulse. Producers Bryan Fuller and Jason Netter, with director Chris Prynoski and Mignola as art director, successfully matched the look and feel of the comic, much to the satisfaction of fans. In fact, the loudest complaint seems to be that television executives dropped the series. Still, there hasn't been an official word on the subject, so perhaps we can continue to hope for another installment.

Posted by at 4:42 PM | Permalink

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

The fiction-film debut of Spellbound director Jeffery Blitz, Rocket Science is, like its non-fiction predecessor, a finely wrought and authentic portrait of the world of unusual and gifted kids. Instead of plumbing the depths of the world of spelling bees this time around, Blitz tells a story about - among other things - high school debate teams.

The film follows one Hal Hefner, a high school outcast marked by a profound stutter, played to squirming perfection by Reece Thompson, as he tries to overcome his speech disorder by joining the competitive debate team at his New Jersey suburb's high school.

Continue reading "Rocket Science" »

Posted by at 2:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

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

The show that Simpsons creator Matt Groening followed that huge hit with, Futurama didn't have the same ratings success as its famous cousin, but developed a large and loyal cult following. Unfortunately, it was doomed as another high quality comedy that Fox shifted around confusingly for four seasons, showing less patience than it did with the Simpsons, only to, as with Family Guy (which I'm much less of a fan of, but it certainly has a huge following), realize they blew it and brought a cult favorite back. Bender's Big Score is the first of what will be several new feature-length Futurama episodes. And fans can breathe a sigh of relief: even if it stumbles about a few times -- blame it on writers rust after the four year layover (which the opening sequence cleverly references, along with a well-deserved, thinly-veiled smackback at Fox itself) -- in many ways it's as if they'd never left. Good news everyone: It has roughly the same amount of laughs as you'd find if you watched three solid episodes of the show back to back.

The film stars, yes, Bender the wise-ass robot, who becomes captive to a virus as part of a hostile takeover by scammer aliens (who use spam to fool the Planet Express company's gullible employees). After gaining access to a secret code that allows them to travel through time -- Fry has the time travel secret with the power to destroy the universe written in binary code tattooed on his ass, and don't ask, just enjoy! -- the evil scammers use Bender to do their bidding, including the theft of all the valuable objects in human history. Time travel paradox gags have been used on the show before, and they come close here to one time travel paradox too many, but they find the right pace as the show goes along, using the main plot to cleverly launch a few side stories that all end up connecting at the end. This stretched out episode does have more than its fair share of butt and dick jokes, though admittedly many of them are genuinely funny. And that's always been one of the charms of Futurama: jokes that only PhDs in math could come up with (or even understand) mix with sight gags and crude humor for the sophomoronic in all of us.

Continue reading "Futurama: Bender's Big Score" »

Posted by at 8:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

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

Michael Kang's lovely independent film The Motel is set in, yes, a motel run by a Chinese American family, but it's not a family film per se - it doesn't at all shy away from the seedy aspects of this place, with its hourly rates (and weekly rates - both with their own depressing qualities) nor from its protagonist's budding sexual curiosity.

The motel manager is a gruff woman who carries a baseball bat to bust her own place's doors down when a customer is late with hourly payment and slaps her son for the smallest transgression. She has two kids who help her out and the eldest, 13 year old son Ernest (Jeffrey Chyau, who would be right at home in an episode of Freaks and Geeks), is a pudgy bespectacled introvert - some might say, nerd - who longs for Christine, the girl who works as a waitress across the street, but is stuck scrubbing toilets for his hard-to-please mother.

Continue reading "The Motel" »

Posted by at 10:13 AM | Permalink

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.

Continue reading "I'm Reed Fish: Charming little indie" »

Posted by at 5:48 PM | Permalink

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:

Continue reading "Film Crew in review: MST3K sans 'bots" »

Posted by at 1:55 PM | Permalink

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

Whatever you do, don't let Starter for 10 pass you by. Quickly in and out of theaters, this British romantic comedy set in the mid-1980s is a fine example of a small movie that gets almost every aspect right -- story, themes, characters, music, writing, direction and performances -- while rarely pushing too hard or missing a beat.

Directed by Tom Vaughan (whose resume is mostly in television), the film stars James McAvoy (Last King of Scotland; Chronicles of Narnia) alongside relative newcomers Alice Eve (so good in the unfairly neglected Big Nothing), fast-rising Rebecca Hall (daughter of famed UK theatre director Peter Hall), a real standout here, and Dominic Cooper (the hunk of The History Boys). Adapted from his own novel by David Nicholls (whose new film And When Did You Last See Your Father is getting early raves), Starter for Ten effortlessly weaves a coming of age tale in a college-level quiz show setting. University Challenge is the real life quiz that will surely cause more fits of nostalgia in Brits than in Yanks, but themes of honor, politics and - of course - love are certainly universal.

Continue reading "Starter For 10: Rom-Com Brit-Style, Done Right" »

Posted by at 1:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

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

What constitutes a "sleeper"? I'd always thought a movie required at least a short theatrical release in major cities to qualify for this overused label. After viewing The Big Bad Swim, however, I'd have to say that any film this good--and this unheralded--is a shoo-in for sleeper status. A dramedy about a group of Connecticut adults (of all ages and professions) taking a swim class, this first full-length film from director Ishai Setton and writer Daniel Schechter simply sneaks up and knocks you--sweetly, quietly--off your feet. Granted, Setton and Schechter have not broken any new ground with their movie, yet neither a visual moment nor a line of dialogue rings false, is pushed to excess or wasted. Many longtime filmmakers, even some who’ve won major awards, don’t get this close to perfection when they try to create a batch of interesting, real human beings.

Continue reading "The Big Bad Swim: Lapping it up" »

Posted by at 12:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

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

Once in a while a movie, little seen theatrically, snowballs into something approaching a classic. I would nominate Zerophilia for this category, except for the fact that I suspect its transfer to DVD was botched. When "Play Movie" is pressed, it keeps giving you the "Special Features." And since I have now rented the film twice, from two different sources, I feel confident that something went wrong. If this should happen to you, I beg you to struggle until, by pressing every button on your remote and your machine, you entice the "Play" to actually play. It's worth the effort, for this little diamond-in-the-rough--an American independent of which everyone connected should be proud--has more originality, intelligence, spunk and sass than maybe anything else released to DVD this year. (There I go, damning it with faint praise.)

Zerophilia is a teen-age sex comedy about love and gender, with emphasis on the latter. And that makes all the difference. There are so many surprises along the way that the less you know about the plot, the more you'll enjoy its clever twists. Writer/director Martin Curland has made only one other film--a short--but he has managed here to come up with an idea that is simply brilliant, and which he takes in directions witty, loopy and meaningful that no one else has attempted--let alone succeeded in so boldly and entertainingly. The very homemade quality of the movie belies its achievement and allows it to sneak up on you. And the cast, with the exception of Taylor Handley (mostly TV: "The O.C." and "Hidden Palms") and Alison Folland (All Over Me, Things Behind the Sun), are complete unknowns to me. Yet they all do a remarkable job of capturing these most unusual characters--and the bizarre hoops through which they must continually jump--with believability and charm. A special word must be said about Gina Bellman, from the Brit TV series Coupling, who moves from seducer to doctor to oh-my-goodness with beauty, aplomb and finesse.

Continue reading "Zerophilia: Change is Good" »

Posted by at 1:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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

For the record, my bar for romantic comedies is so low that all a director needs to do to eclipse my expectations is keep the camera focused and not exceed a 90 minute runtime. But by the same token, I see about three romantic comedies a year and immediately afterwards my soul begins defensively cleansing any memory of it from my mind.

Gray Matters opens on a montage of a loving, devoted couple who live, dance, jog and eat in Manhattan all set to Irving Berlin (Woody Allen references, anyone?) He (Tom Cavanagh) is a resident doctor at a hospital and she, Gray (Heather Graham), works at an ad agency with a wacky, dieting co-worker (Molly Shannon) and has an even wackier, new-age psychiatrist (Sissy Spacek). But surprise! This perfect couple are actually brother and sister. When they get fed up with people being so weirded out by their intimacy they come up with the solution to parlay their dysfunction into romantic relationships. He meets the ideal woman (Bridget Moynahan) in a dog park and marries her three days later. Gray is jealous, not that her brother suddenly has no time for his once best friend, but that he gets to have sex with Bridget Moynahan... because, holy smokes, Gray is gay! After a bloated, atonal plotline about her brother coming to terms with her gayness, Heather Graham's Gray awkwardly enters the lesbian dating scene. All this and Alan Cumming playing a taxi driver who is always around telling strange ethnic stories.

Continue reading "Gray Matters: the RomCom for people who hate RomComs" »

Posted by at 12:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

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

It's pretty easy to get fired up about Fired!, the short, funny and increasingly pertinent documentary from Annabelle Gurwitch, Chris Bradley and Kyle LaBrache about, yes, getting fired. Actress Gurwitch got the ax from no less a personage than Woody Allen, when he found her work wanting in one of his increasingly tiresome theatre pieces. According to Gurwitch, Allen was rather nasty in his choice of verbiage when he "let her go," and she shows us this via a scene between herself and a friend who does a very nice Woody imitation. Then she gets inspired to ask a many other people about their experiences of being fired. From this came a theatre piece, a book and, now, this film.

Our critical establishment roundly faulted the moviemakers for their choice of mostly actors as the subjects. Well, Gurwitch is an actor, so of course she's going to choose from her own field. And her choices--Tim Allen, Anne Meara, Sarah Silverman, David Cross, Fisher Stevens, Illeana Douglas, Bob Odenkirk and many more--prove generally funny and pointed. The very best is Tate Donovan with his story, told via puppets, of getting the bounce from the movie version of Torch Song Trilogy. As with this section, the film team usually finds interesting ways to vary the film, so we don’t get as bored as we might by all the talking heads.

It's when Gurwitch and company move into the larger world (specifically of General Motors and Michigan, Michael Moore territory, though Gurwitch offers her own “take�? on the situation) that her film grows even more interesting and certainly a lot sadder. Her interviewees now include economist Robert Reich and others and, suddenly, what we've been chortling over takes on a much darker hue. Unless you have absolutely no appreciation of actors (and their lot in life), Fired! should make most of its 71 minutes entertaining and thought-provoking.

Posted by at 11:58 AM | Permalink

Reviewer: James van Maanen
Eating Out Rating (out of 5): ****
Eating Out 2 Rating (out of 5): ***½

I approached the original Eating Out with some reservations -- not the kind you make for dinner but the sort you get from reading very nasty critical reviews. What a happy surprise, then, to discover a gay movie that tackles thorny questions (sexual identity, the bi-guy syndrome and women who are just too attracted to gay men) but does it all with such a devil-may-care attitude that prudes had better run for the hills. There are so many very funny lines--more, almost, than you can keep up with--and if the cast does not approach the higher reaches of sophisticated comedy that might turn this into a first-class romp, they are all so attractive, energetic and game that they manage to carry it off nonetheless. Bonus treat: one of the hottest, most intelligent and enjoyable sex scenes to grace a gay (or straight) movie, all of which is done nudity free (well, there ARE bare male chests), using just two telephones and three people--one of whom is not even present.

Continue reading "Eating Out 1 & 2: No reservations needed" »

Posted by at 3:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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

Fay Grim is a follow-up to Hal Hartley's 1997 indie hit Henry Fool, but if you haven't seen that film (and I certainly recommend that you do), don't worry. You'll be caught up with who's who rather quickly in this fairly fast-moving (for Hartley), playful and sophisticated espionage comedy, which is uneven but still one of his more enjoyable films in years.

Parker Posey's Fay married the titular philosopher Henry (the underused Thomas Jay Ryan) in the last film, sired a child (now 14), then disappeared. Fay Grim, picking up seven years later, opens with Fay discovering via two CIA agents (Jeff Goldblum, who should be in more Hartley movies; The Wire's Leo Fitzpatrick) that Henry is dead. Or so they tell her. Believing Henry's entire literary work was in fact a secretly encoded history of international atrocities committed by multiple governments, they want Fay to find his notebooks (don't ask why, just go with it); in exchange, she wants her brother, Simon Grim (perfect Hartley abettor James Urbaniak) to be sprung from prison. Of course, that's only the beginning, and while the plotting may seem overly complicated it is likely that way on purpose.

Continue reading "Fay Grim: Hartley being neither grim nor foolish" »

Posted by at 12:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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

The kind of tiny independent movie that really does seem independent, despite two stars such as Morgan Freeman and Paz Vega in the leads, 10 Items or Less works just about perfectly because of their performances and because it sticks to what it knows: the actor's life and craft, and the relationships that might develop from them. Writer/director Brad Silberling (of whose earlier City of Angels I was not enamored) bites off exactly the right amount of theme and events for his movie's 80-odd minutes and, together with an ace cast, fills them up with rough-hewn charm and grace. How and why good actors care about their craft comes through beautifully, and Freeman's deliciously sly take on the lesser moments of his generally splendid career comes through with nary a trace of pomposity or exploitation. Paz Vega again shows why she's so popular (Sex and Lucia, Solo Mia, The Other Side of the Bed) in her native Spain. Eventually she'll hit on an American film that will be both good but also appreciated by the masses and there will be no stopping her. Meanwhile, queue up for this sweet treat; a light supper rather than a full-course meal, it'll still leave you surprisingly satisfied.

Posted by at 2:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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

The title of the new film written by Gen-X novelist Douglas Coupland and directed by Paul Cox, Everything's Gone Green [trailer] may disappoint those looking for a film about environmentalism but it does have a double-meaning, to amusing effect. The story centers around a self-described "loser" named Ryan (played by Paulo Costanzo) who, in typical Coupland style, struggles to become a real adult and discover meaning in his life. While a few of the set-ups seem lifted straight from Coupland's novel "jpod", to its credit Green is more cinematically inclined than Coupland's often plotless, talky novels and director Cox has a keen eye for the Vancouver surroundings while letting scenes build naturally.

Continue reading "Everything's Gone Green" »

Posted by at 12:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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

The fun, low-budget Color Me Kubrick snuck into a few theatres (and the following week onto DVD--let's have more of these near-simultaneous releases!), a mere fortnight prior to this week's relatively big-budget The Hoax. Both films deal with a scam artist who uses as his centerpiece to snare victims a well-known recluse--Stanley Kubrick, in the former film, Howard Hughes in the latter. Evidently, celebrity has its price whether you court it or shun it. (Not having seen The Hoax, I still must mention the lame-brained print ad in which some cretinous art director, with approval from Miramax executives, has seen to it that the ad appears to read verbatim, "The Richard Gere Hoax." This caused my partner to ask, quite understandably, "Is it about that gerbil thing?")

Color Me Kubrick, though it offers no rodents, is gay as a goose and twice as entertaining. John Malkovich is in fine form as an absolutely unrepentant con man posing as the famous film director and taking everyone from a fledgling architect and a rock group to a pharmacist (Henry Goodman) and a would-be restaurateur (Richard E. Grant) for very bumpy rides.

Continue reading "Color Me Kubrick: Putting the recluse to good use" »

Posted by at 12:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

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

Live Free or Die is not only New Hampshire's cranky state motto but the name of a new independent film [trailer; currently only playing in a handful of theaters] set in that cinematically neglected New England state (it's also close in name to the latest Bruce Willis disasterpalooza - Live Free or Die Hard). This decidely un-Hollywood film stars Tadpole's likable Aaron Stanford as Rudgate, a.k.a., "Rugged," a former juvenile delinquient turned overconfident but mostly incompetent petty thief who aims to make a big score, but can't seem to get anything right. Along the way he picks up an old acquaintance, the slow-witted Lagrand, played by favorite David Gordon Green actor Paul Schneider, doing a 180 from the romantic lead in Green's All the Real Girls. Nothing goes quite according to plan, of course, and while much of the proceedings are watchable and even - on a few occasions - quite funny, the mistaken belief plot that takes center stage becomes enervating before the end.

Continue reading "Live Free or Die: A New Hamsphire caper comedy" »

Posted by at 12:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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

To watch the original School For Scoundrels (1960), particularly after viewing last year's atrocious "remake" with Billy Bob Thornton and Jon Heder, is to rediscover the glories of good old British comedy at very near the top of its form. The story in both films is basically the same: put-upon milquetoast turns the tables by becoming nastier than his nemeses. Yet there is simply no point to comparing the two films in terms of writing and directing because the original is so incredibly superior in every tiny facet. (Interestingly, the performances in the remake are good, even though the actors group had almost nothing to work with.) The British penchant for understatement and irony, especially in matters sexual, is put to delicious use here. Situations that generally turn silly, shrill or nasty in modern renditions remain funny, sexy and sweet in this plum of a film that also manages, by the finale, to seem surprisingly ahead of its time.

Continue reading "School for Scoundrels: The original, superior British version." »

Posted by at 6:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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

A word of praise is in order for the much-maligned Man of the Year, the Barry Levinson/Robin Williams collaboration that critics (certainly) and audiences (perhaps) were expecting to be something along the lines of Wag the Dog in its satire and bashing of our current administration. Well, it ain't. What it is, however--a comedy about politics and the media, along with some thrills and romance--is still very much worth a watch. To begin with, the Prez pictured here is a Democrat, so we know right off we're in fiction-land. The TV host/commentator, a nicely restrained Williams, may be modeled on Jon Stewart (he's mentioned in the film) but remains an original: Imagine Robin having his own comic-takes-on-the-news show, and you'll probably come close to what appears here. The election in question, with all ballots being handled electronically, hits close enough to home to give us pause, and with the always wonderful Laura Linney playing a top-level software specialist in the Diebold-like firm responsible for the voting machines, we're off and running.

Continue reading "Man of the Year: Shift your expectations" »

Posted by at 4:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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

While the reviews for the abysmal School For Scoundrels upon the film's theatrical release generally disapproved, us movie hounds could not help but notice certain names: Billy Bob Thornton, Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite, Just Like Heaven), Jacinda Barrett (who's almost always better than the bad movies she graces) and Sarah Silverman. Sure enough, the film actually begins rather promisingly, with low-key charm and the wit to try for a grin rather than a belly laugh. But then stupidity creeps in, gloms on and does not let go--right up to and including the atrocious climax, at which point there is not one iota of reality or belief left. It's as though the filmmakers suddenly said to themselves, about half way along, "Oh, now we need this character to change and do this." And so they just do it, with little or no further thought about consistency or veracity, again and again, until nothing and no one makes sense. This is perhaps THE film against which you can rightly measure all other bad comedies with big names and (relatively) big budgets, starting now and continuing through judgment day.

Posted by at 4:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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

Red Doors, Georgia Lee's undeservedly obscure independent film about an Asian American family looks even better after seeing the coming attraction for another Asian family-themed drama previewed on the DVD, Close Call, which looks entirely overwrought and muddled.

The story, such as it is, centers on three sisters in a Chinese American family, the parents being first generation immigrants, with the oldest daughter (Jacqueline Kim) in an emotionally distant relationship with a white man but soon to be married to him, and the youngest, teenage Katie, a completely American-cultured riot girl (Kathy Shao-lin Lee, wearing homemade tshirts and multicolored hair) participates in a flirty battle of pranks with a boy in her class (an amusing running story though it begins to overstay its welcome). Believably, the middle daughter, a winning Elaine Kao, is caught in between everyone's needs and neuroses. She attempts to please her parents - getting a medical degree and going out on blah dates with Asian men, while secretly discovering she may lean another way sexually. The father (Tzi Ma, a familiar face to American TV-watchers, and The General in The Ladykillers remake), depressed middle aged Ed, only finds happiness in the culture and place he misses dearly, in nostalgia for the past. He contemplates suicide, only to be interrupted each time by the nonchalant Katie. Ed's attempts to find some meaning in his life, rooted in his culture's traditions, form the main spine of the story, though part of the problem with the film - or charm, depending on your attention span - is its episodic structure, with all the family members' stories getting nearly equal weight.

Continue reading "Red Doors: Asian family comes undone" »

Posted by at 10:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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.

Continue reading "Love for Rent" »

Posted by at 4:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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

Australian filmmaker Sarah Watt has heretofore made only short films, most of these animated. To call her full-length, live-action debut Look Both Ways auspicious is an understatement. This ensemble "dramedy" about how we come to terms with death is ever so light on its feet: witty, elliptical and full of odd charms. Especially odd and charming are its fast and funny animated moments, often given to ruminations about one's own death as a kind of awful -- though humorous -- fantasy of ghastly things that could happen but won't because we've first imagined them and thus staved off their arrival. Watt's heroine Meryl (winningly played by Justine Clarke) is a talented artist, and her hero is a photographer (brought to fine life by William McInnes) who also does thoughtful, professional work. Both brush up against the Grim Reaper, as do their friends, co-workers and family, and we viewers follow gladly along.

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

[Note: See Van Maanen's entire Best Gay Films on DVD 2006 list, now up on GreenCine.]

You've got to give Spanish director Manuel Gomez-Pereira credit (or maybe blame) for beginning his movie Queens with the most obvious and laborious few minutes you're likely to watch all year. No matter. Slowly and delightfully he and his oft-times writer Yolanda Serrano wrap you up in this story of a multiple gay wedding ceremony during the year that Spain -- still a Catholic country, so far as I know -- made such a thing legal. As different and amusing as are the several gay grooms (the "butch-est" of whom is played by Daniel Hendler, star of Daniel Burman's popular Argentine movies), it is really the young men's parents who interest the moviemakers most, and rightly so. None of them really approve of their offspring's sexuality or marital plans, and so we watch -- surprised, amused and occasionally moved -- as the "old folk" learn some lessons. Fortunately, the teaching route that Gomez-Pereira and Serrano choose to travel is full of twists that, more often than not, stand stereotypes wittily on their heads.

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

The beauty of Wah-Wah - actor Richard E. Grant's first go at writing/directing is based on the story of his boyhood in Swaziland, Africa - is that the movie manages to honor everything it touches: family love, first love, estrangement, coming of age, death, theatre, puppetry, "Camelot," the British Royal Family, and most surprisingly of all, Africa itself. Grant (Withnail and I; How to Get Ahead in Advertising) accomplishes his task by simply being truthful, letting events speak for themselves instead of underscoring or politicizing them. He's assembled a crack cast, every one of whom nails the character that s/he is playing and has fun with it, to boot. This is not a deep film, skimming surfaces like a stone skipping the water, but that is also its strength. There is plenty of skill here - in the acting, directing, writing, editing, photography, sets and costume design - so that a fast pace, succinct build-up of events and characterization, and a lightness of touch carry us effortlessly over well-tread territory. The difference in Wah-Wah is the setting: the African of Grant's boyhood remains beautiful amidst a coming political transition that appears more peaceful and measured than many during the past century.

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

For obvious reasons, Go for Zucker, a German Jewish comedy (three words not often linked over the last half century), is something of a landmark. This very funny dysfunctional-families farce appeals by setting a number of people and plots in motion and then spinning them nearly (but not quite) out of control.

Headed by a performer new to me but evidently quite popular in Germany - ex-East German Henry Huebchen - the cast is particularly well-chosen. Each member comes through with a fine performance that captures the humor and the humanity of his/her character. Director/co-writer (and sometimes actor: La Repetition) Dani Levy does a commendable job of balancing the rollicking comedy with bits of reality that keep cropping up to catch us - and his characters - off guard. Indeed, while this movie qualifies as "feel-good," it reaches its goal in a sometimes surprising and circuitous path. And since it keeps you laughing consistently along the way, you should enjoy the trek.

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Reviewer: Julie Newcomb
Rating (out of 5): ***½

In its earnest and slightly romanticized treatment of teens, Take Care of My Cat may at first remind you of a Korean Say Anything, but delves even further into the question of what happens just after high school graduation - do you escape your home town, or start settling down there, follow your dreams or earn a living, stay in touch with your high school friends or let them go? The film's core is the shifting relationship between Hae-joo, determined to succeed in the business world of Seoul, Tae-hee, already at work for the family business, and Ji-young, a talented outsider who seems just about to slip through the cracks. Buoyed by some beautifully saturated photography and something of a happy ending, the film nevertheless keeps an eye on the social and economic realities the girls face (it also boasts one of the more poignant Dance Dance Revolution scenes you're likely to see on film). Winner of several festival awards and anchored by a terrific performance by Du-na Bae as Tae-hee, Take Care of My Cat is an undiscovered gem.

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Reviewer: Alex Brinkman
Rating (out of 5): ****

If there were to be established a genre of movies involving the angst-mongering nature of post-college malaise (ignoramus that I am, there may well be), Kicking And Screaming would easily shoot to the top of the list, alongside The Graduate and possibly Garden State. The old Lit. 101 term for this type of story is a Bildungsroman, or, for the unpretentious non-Germanophile, a maturation story. Noah Baumbach�s (The Squid and the Whale) debut effort (as a writer and director) perfectly captures the "Now what?" feeling of life after college, both through his sharp writing and a very solid ensemble cast. Criterion's new DVD for the film is a welcome, quirky addition to their library.

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

When the president of a floundering Madison Avenue advertising agency keels over and dies on the conference table during a meeting, the board calls for a vote to designate a new president. Each of the men are so disappointed that the bylaws prohibit voting for themselves that they all abstain by voting for the only black man on the board. And this is how Putney Swope becomes the president of the advertising agency. He decides that since the company is already doomed he might as well go down in flames. "Rockin' the boat's a drag," he says, "Whatcha do is sink the boat!" He immediately fires all the white people, renames the agency "Truth and Soul, Inc.", and puts all the clients who make war toys and cigarettes on notice.

The satire Putney Swope is a bit less cutting than it undoubtedly was in the late sixties but the film's earnest weirdness rewards multiple viewings and perhaps demonstrates that LSD was not all bad. The television spots created by the new agency include: a psychedelic montage of topless girls jumping on a trampoline before deciding to have an orgy with a random passerby (to sell Lucky Airline travel, of course), a redneck beauty queen getting pied in the face with chicken pot pies, and a double amputee hocking life insurance by proclaiming "they charge an arm and a leg, but it's worth every penny!" And then there's director Robert Downey's decision to dub in all of Swope's dialogue with his own gravelley, white voice - a decision necessitated by the actor's inability to remember his lines and the low-budget shooting schedule - that now reads like a brilliant stylistic choice.

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

It often seems as if Australian filmmakers do something pretty odd for our digitalized, high-concept times: They put people first. The best Aussie writers and directors stock their films with characters who are rich and complex, funny and moving, and above all, real. Recent examples have included Two Hands, Little Fish, Peaches and Somersault. Now arrives Oyster Farmer as another--maybe the best--case in point. This first full-length movie from writer/director Anna Reeves is chock-a-block with wonderful characters (lusty and unembarrassed, among other traits), an exotic locale (the Hawkesbury River, outside of Sydney, where the locals farm oysters) and a surprisingly good story that combines a bit of crime and adventure with coming of age and romance. You may guess where things are going but the lovely time you have getting there more than makes up for a whiff of déjà vu.

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

My Family and Other Animals is a delightful made-for-British telly movie based on Gerald Durrell's memoirs that can only be faulted for being too short. Starring the always resplendent Imelda Staunton as the matriarch of an eccentric brood, the youngest of which (Gerald, played by Eugene Simon) has a passion bordering on obsession for critters - setting up his future as a famed biologist. Set mostly in Corfu during WWII, where the family holes up in various ramshackle mansions, the film is charming and full of unexpected pleasures, as well as a fine cast both human and animal.

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