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

The miracle managed by Out of The Blue -- a New Zealand movie about a mass murder that took place there in the early 1990s -- is simply that it is not exploitative. While the film offers violence, suspense and shock, along with a bit of humor, it never "plays" its audience nor gives in to the sleazier impulses of so many current filmmakers to spin ugly thrills out of human misery. Yet, under Robert Sarkies' precise direction (he also co-adapted, with Graeme Tetley, the book on which the film is based), there is not an uninteresting moment in the whole endeavor. This is due to the documentary-like feel and the tight look of the film, but also to something more.

Continue reading "Out of the Blue" »

Posted by at 12:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Reviewer: Craig Phillips
Rating (out of 5):
Dirty Harry ****
Magnum Force ***
The Enforcer **½
Sudden Impact ***
The Dead Pool **½

If you watch enough Dirty Harry movies consecutively -- say, all five of them, as I did this past week, in viewing the newly remastered Dirty Harry Deluxe Collector's Edition from Warner Brothers -- you either go mad, or you start to spot a number of interesting patterns. Such as:

Reviewer: You (as played by Craig Phillips)
Rating (out of 5): ***½ (film); **** (DVD).

The lost noir classic Blast of Silence starts off a bit dubiously, with enough voice over narration to give Robert McKee an aneurysm after ten minutes, and even with some tedious moments early on, but wait, that scalding and scolding, pulp-ish voice over is in the second person, and the increasingly sleazy, realistic atmosphere begins to take hold of you, until you're fairly well rapt. You dig that nightclub scene, the same kind of scene you remember from older noir, but here the beatnik singer's playing bongos, and as the editing gets quicker in pace, and the tension mounts, you can't stop watching. Add to that character actors you've probably never seen before, even if you know the type -- the fat, shady gun smuggler who tries to play all the angles, the one with the collection of pet rats, and the slimy two-timing mobster with a heart of granite. Then there's the dame from the past, she fills a longing in your lonely heart, so much so you can't keep your mitts off her and she boots you out. You've got to focus on the gig at hand, bumping off a mobster, whom you grow to loathe more and more with each day. Everyone's against you, and there's only one thing you can do - pick off anyone in your path. You (as played by Allan Baron, director and co-screenwriter) ain't such a bad guy, but you've had some hard knocks in life. That's just life in the Big Apple, circa 1962.

You know you're a part of something when it feels like both the last "real" noir, a kiss of death to that movement as we knew it, while also one of the first true neo-realist American independents.

That's Blast of Silence, and thanks to Criterion, you're back.

And, as always in a Criterion joint, this little baby comes with some special gifts, most special being an engaging 60 minute documentary, "Requiem for a Killer: The Making of Blast of Silence", which was put together from a 1990 German film on the production. It's, well, a blast.

Posted by at 4:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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

Jean-Luc Godard's tenth film Pierrot Le Fou, one of the last he made before going full-tilt Marxist, has been restored and reissued in the extraordinary fashion we've all come to know and respect from Criterion. The Technicolor/Cinemascope print has been cleaned up from sad, past versions and a second disc of supplemental materials offers new insights into the film's genesis, production and lasting impact.

After attending a painfully buji party where the men only talk about cars and the women only talk about perfumes, Pierrot (Jean-Paul Belmondo) decides he's had enough of his wife, children and other middle class trappings. He runs off with Marianne (Anna Karina) his children's babysitter, with whom he had an affair years prior. They hit the road, fleeing a group of gangsters her brother had been involved with, take up in abandoned mansions by the riviera, begging for money from tourists and murdering anyone who gets in their way. Eventually romantic idealism gives way to monotonous expectation and obligation and Pierrot and Marianne break up, get back together, declare their love and hate for each other and eventually die.

Continue reading "Pierrot Le Fou" »

Posted by at 11:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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

One of the more pleasurable movie experiences I've had of late, Ladron Que Roba A Ladron (Thief Robs Thief) is so much better than Ocean's Eleven, Twelve or Thirteen--faster, funnier, shorter and infinitely more meaningful--that's it's hard not to over-praise what is basically a by-the-numbers heist film. But because it's about Latinos in the USA, immigration and its uses/misuses, labor unions and sleazebags who make millions of dollars off the backs of the poor, the movie offers a kick in the pants that its more glamorous and expensive predecessors don't come near. If you detest those lying "infomercials" (and the folk who grow rich off them) that promise everything and deliver zilch, you're gonna love what writer JoJo Henrickson and director Joe Menendez do with this so-ready-for-a-take-down subject.

As obvious as the film appears initially, it offers plenty of small, charming surprises along the way, culminating in a satisfying finale that is as compassionate as it is clever. The cast, many of whom have appeared in Hispanic tele-novelas, is good-looking and competent: While all the characters are drawn broadly, they're also performed well. Menendez will win no prizes for film technique; his movie looks like television. Yet he does his worthwhile job professionally, with plenty of zest and enough panache to carry us along. Films like this one and the upcoming La Misma Luna (due out in March) that dare to address subjects such as immigration and Latinos as both predators and prey should ring bells with mainstream audiences across color and culture lines. Grab this one--and have fun while your consciousness is being raised.

Posted by at 8:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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.)

Continue reading "Election/Triad Election: To for the price of one" »

Posted by at 12:28 PM | Permalink

Reviewer: Dylan de Thomas
Rating (out of 5): ***½

Some period pieces seem to be all about the art direction and costume design, every scene dripping with flourishes that seem to call attention to themselves - a plumed hat, say, or streams of 1947 Hudson Coupes driving by in an establishing shot. In Thieves Like Us, Robert Altman seems to be going for a different kind of verisimilitude, with dirt being more prevalent than heavily manicured and it feels like Altman could have a mere two cars on hand and he'd make it work. More than anything, the single most impressive thing about the movie is how much it feels like the Depression.

The second screen adaptation of the eponymous 1937 Edward Anderson novel (Nicholas Ray's They Live by Night from 1948 is the other, with Bonnie and Clyde and Gun Crazy clearly inspired by it as well), Thieves Like Us is about a doomed couple on the run from the law taking a desperate stab at love. The movie starts with Bowie (Keith Carradine) and Chickamaw (John Schuck, 'Painless Pole' in Altman's M*A*S*H) breaking out of the state penitentiary to join their ringleader T-Dub (Bert Remsen) on an extended crime spree. In between bank jobs, Bowie meets, and sweetly falls for, Keechie - played by 70's Altman muse Shelley Duvall.

Continue reading "Thieves Like Us: Good, not great Altman" »

Posted by at 2:58 PM | Permalink

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

The American perception of the culture of Japan and Japanese film sometimes presents the people of that island nation as somewhat inscrutable, mystical folk - as wondrously humanistic as Ozu's films are, his protagonists can feel as metaphorically far away from contemporary American life as Japan literally is. The Japanese people that fill the films of Shohei Imamura, however, are fully human, not beholden to the ancient codes of their forefathers, working their topknots and holding intricately beautiful tea ceremonies but rather as people that scrape by and curse their parents, eat and work, kill and screw.

Based on a true story of Akira Nishiguchi (named Iwao Enokizu in the movie), a sociopathic killer who went on a 78-day crime/killing spree in 1964, Vengeance Is Mine is a bracing view of Imamura's Japan. The film itself follows a novelistic structure, opening with Enokizu's capture by the police, and then flashing back to give the viewer chapters in his life. As we then follow Enokizu (Ken Ogata) through his troubled youth, the film is vibrantly prurient, foul, melodramatic and occasionally even funny.

Continue reading "Vengeance Is Mine" »

Posted by at 12:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

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

Kids gone bad and the parents who enable 'em have been movie staples probably since Reefer Madness and certainly since I was a kid gone bad (the Rebel Without a Cause era), so you can be forgiven for imagining that Alpha Dog will not add much to the canon. And at first, so it seems. The assortment on display of Southern California twinkies masquerading as raw sirloin--oh, the posturings, the potty mouths, the "acting" opportunities given this up-to-the-minute ensemble of young Hollywood!--is enough to induce you to grab that remote. I swear I reached for mine a number of times before realizing midway that I was beginning to care about what might happen.

Continue reading "Alpha Dog: Takes "difficult viewing" to new heights" »

Posted by at 4:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Reviewer: James van Maanen
Rating (out of 5): **½ (nostalgia and noir buffs may want to add a star)

Admiring, as I do, so many of the films of Jules Dassin, I find myself surprised that Brute Force (which I had never seen until the arrival of this new Criterion release) does not rank as highly. Though I can understand its being hailed for style, believability and originality in its time, time is the very thing that has left this film in the dust. Despite good performances and superb black-and-white cinematography, the writing and direction are so doggedly of their time and often overly didactic in terms of calling attention to class/economic differences and the dangers of unbridled power that, finally, it's hard not to snicker now and again. When, toward the end, what looks like the entire prison population is given some bad news, their reaction, I swear, sounds exactly like that of Oprah's audience when it learns something sad. (The prisoners have deeper voices, of course.) Granted, this was 1947, yet the entire penitentiary appears to house but a single black inmate. And he sings. Any hint of homosexual behavior is quite veiled, in the character of the villain, 'natch, well-played by a relatively young Hume Cronyn.

Continue reading "Brute Force: Was prison ever like this?" »

Posted by at 4:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

[Even though they essentially agree on the film, we thought it'd be fun to get two reviewers' takes on this one, two perspectives for the price of one! First Erin, and then James. -- ed.]

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

[Note: Release date changed to May 15.] A more cynical viewer could see the recent popularity of vignette storytelling as a desperate move for cash-strapped productions to attract big name talent to their films with the lure of a small time commitment and big showpiece scenes without the burden of having to carry an entire narrative. But the flipside of that coin is that to effectively tell those stories a director needs very good actors who can quickly engage our imaginations.

Writer/director Karen Moncrieff's film was inspired by her experiences as a juror on a murder trial after seeing the temporary community that had sprung up around the witnesses called to testify. The Dead Girl is the story of a murder that's become ghoulish normalcy in almost any part of the country: a drug-addicted prostitute is randomly killed, her mutilated body dumped in a field and discovered a few days later by a passerby. The discovery creates a small stir in the local media, but there is very little outrage and no one is ever arrested for the crime.

Continue reading "The Dead Girl: the slivers of universal truth" »

Posted by at 3:30 PM | Permalink

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

While it's certainly not a superb film, Xavier Beauvois's Le Petit Lieutenant got a rather scathing review in Variety and I feel compelled to defend it (after I saw it at the San Francisco International Film Fest last year). The policier stars Nathalie Baye - whom I remember most vividly from The Return of Martin Guerre ages ago, though she was also seen here in Steven Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can - and she's remarkable playing a recovering alcoholic police commandant who joins a precinct at the same time as the titular cop fresh out of the police academy (a pouty Jalil Lespert). Together they work to investigate a case involving clochards, illegal immigrants and the Russian Mafia, before things take a tragic turn. But while it may remind one a bit of Prime Suspect á la français, this is less about the mystery than it is about the characters. And even a borderline cliché turning point as Baye's temptation to return to drinking is rendered with such acute humanity by the actress that it is still profoundly moving. The film works as a procedural and as a rendering of the life of a cop. It's to the film's benefit that it is presented so matter-of-factly and acted so earnestly, and I found myself forgiving it's occasional flatness.

Beauvois has been more prolific in France as an actor than as a director - this is his fourth film, with the previous efforts well-reviewed but little seen in the States, and it's likely Le Petit Lieutenant won't break that streak. But it's well worth seeking out, because of Nathalie Baye - who won a César for Best Actress for this - and the rest of the cast, and as an example of making something fresh and authentic out of relatively common material.

Posted by at 3:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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

Set in a lakeside campground in the hot, still air of summer, Wild Camp was supposedly based on a true story, for what that's worth, and if the film's plot - an odd mix of creepy horror and romance seems fairly straightforward and predictable, it does a better job of creating the atmosphere of pending doom under the surface while leading up to a fairly shocking resolution.

Denis Lavant (Lovers on the Bridge, Very Long Engagement), who looks like a French Robert Davi, with a face that's been around the block - or smack into it - a few times, or as more than one critic noted, with a little Billy Bob Thornton mixed in, plays an ex-con trying to start a new life as a sailing instructor. He quickly falls under the spell of Isild Le Besco's Camille, a sultry, sulky teen bored by her surroundings and troubled by her family in ways the film never attempts to fully explain.

Continue reading "Wild Camp: Not So Wild or Campy" »

Posted by at 12:28 PM | Permalink

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

The British-made fake documentary Death of a President, opening in a limited theatrical release tomorrow, has a premise just built for controversy - an investigation of the assassination of President Bush - but in fact it's a well-crafted, thoughtful, even eerie piece of work, the main drawback of which is a certain lack of punch. While writer-director Gabriel Range's work here harkens back to Peter Watkins' films of the 1960s (Punishment Park, The War Game), Watkins was more of a provacateur.

The fake interviews here are much more believable than many in similar films - such as CSA: Confederate States of America (although recognizing the mom from Freaks and Geeks as the president's special advisor and James Urbaniak - well cast - as a forensics expert was momentarily jarring for me) and it seamlessly weaves in new, recreated footage with existing footage of the President - including a (perhaps too lengthy) segment of Bush's speech to the Economic Club of Chicago prior to his "assassination" - along with other real life "characters" to give the film an immediacy. Chicago makes an unsettling location for the crime, too, with the Chicago police in full riot gear and mayor Richard M. Daley, son of Richard J., reminding of the chaos that ensued at the Democratic convention in 1968.

Continue reading "Death of a President" »

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

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

If you live in San Francisco or are a fan of movies taking place here, then you're obligated to check out The Laughing Policeman. If you're a Walter Matthau fan (which means you like men with permanent grimaces; hint: the title is meant to be ironic) this is a must-see. Watching too many hard-boiled thriller-type movies after say, 1980, might cause you to lose your patience while watching Matthau doggedly chase down (this may be hyperbolizing his velocity) an unknown assailant who killed nine people on a bus (the venerable 14-Mission to be precise). The pace might be a little slow if break-neck speed is in your list of criteria for enjoying a good cop-flick, but this is easily forgiven based on the fact that reality is better reflected here (the bouquet of cynicism is delightful, especially given the period). You'll find none of the convenient plot-points that skip over the hum-drum of actually attempting to solve a case which doesn't involve fantastical and far-fetched revelations, all usually adding up to wondering why actual detective work seems so inefficient.

Continue reading "The Laughing Policeman" »

Posted by at 11:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

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

Rian Johnson's Brick is a super debut, a bravura film that pulls off the pretentious set-up: a Raymond Chandler-esque mystery, updated, and set in an adolescent world. While it stumbles here and there (comes close to going on too long somewhere in Act III), and it is occasionally hard to catch all the hyper-teen-noir slang (a glossary is provided on the official web site), the film is nonetheless a treat.

It's also, dare I say it, the best film set and shot in California's Orange County that I can recall. It certainly captures that overdeveloped, under-souled landscape perfect. Why did no one think of an OC-noir before?

Joseph Gordon Levitt - getting farther and farther away from 3rd Rock from the Sun with each time out - follows up on his fine work in Mysterious Skin with another sharp, if occasionally mumbled, performance, as the nosy teen gumshoe mixed up in some very bad stuff. His character takes a licking and keeps on ticking. And Lukas Haas, in a bit of spot-on casting, is terrific as the young drug kingpin (who does business in his cheerful mom's basement), hobbling on a cane like a Sydney Greenstreet character, while Noah Fleiss is memorably creepy as hell as his disturbed right-hand man. In fact, like any good pulp detective story, the whole film is full of indellible characters who are remembered long after the lights go back up - while also helping to keep your eyes on the screen even as the plot itself sometimes loses momentum.

Continue reading "Brick" »

Posted by at 11:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (42)