SAVAGE CINEMA'S COMING ATTRACTIONS FOR DECEMBER 2013

Today, December 1, 2013, marks the 78th birthday of Writer/Director Woody Allen and in discovering this bit of news, I feel that I must take stock in that milestone, especially as I will soon hit a new milestone with Savage Cinema.

Last month, life certainly pulled the proverbial rug out from underneath me as my home computer crashed and died, due to an ancient Motherboard. This event certainly took the wind out of my sails, and truth be told, painfully so as I do try to obtain and maintain a certain personal momentum, which I desperately hate to have disturbed for any reasons, be it through sickness, obligations through work, the basic responsibilities of life and most certainly, those pesky technological difficulties which do have their way of seemingly stopping one's life dead in its tracks in the 21st century.

Having this blog and my musically themed sister blogsite of Synesthesia on a hiatus made me feel somewhat adrift and unpleasantly so. Over these past two weeks or so, I even briefly questioned whether I could or even should try to continue these blogs if unforeseen events could stop me so suddenly and without any sense of mercy or care to what I wished to be doing with myself. It may seem to be a drastic measure to consider, but that is indeed how my mind and spirit work, for better or for worse.

The significance of Woody Allen's birthday for me is quite simple as he is a filmmaker of seemingly unstoppable productivity. Here he is, in advancing age, still cranking out one film after another at nearly the same pace of one film a year as he always has. It doesn't seem to matter if the previous film was artistically or financially successful or not. It doesn't seem to matter to him if the critics loved it or not or if it was bestowed with awards or ignored altogether. Woody Allen continuously writes and makes films because that is indeed what he does. And so, for me, writing about films and music is what I do as well and if technology would spontaneously fail me, then I do still have my mind, my hands and my heart...and technology can catch up to me again. Words I need to remember when those nagging thoughts of doubt and disappointment creep up again...as they always seem to do.

And so, life did indeed move forwards for me. I dusted myself off and I did continue to see movies and feel the inspiration to write about them--which I did--in longhand on a yellow legal pad. Now, that I am officially back on-line with a new home computer, I am slowly trying to get both blogs back to their active statuses, so please bear with me if new postings should arrive at either a slower pace or if they are featuring films that have been playing in your theaters for a spell already. I do have some catching up to do...

1. As of this time, I have new reviews of "Thor: The Dark World," Spike Lee's remake of the cult Korean thriller "Oldboy" and "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" all on deck in a flurry of scribbled notes and thoughts and I hope to be able to type them up within a week or so and have them ready for you shortly thereafter.

2. Now that our theaters will soon be flooded with new films, I know very well that I will be slowly viewing new films all the way through January 2014! But as of right now, I know for certain that I will get myself to Director Martin Scorsese's latest collaboration with Leonardo DiCaprio, the three hour epic "The Wolf Of Wall Street."  

3. I am extremely anxious to see "Her," Director Spike Jonze's first film since the groundbreaking and breathtakingly beautiful "Where The Wild Things Are" (2009).

4. My curiosity is also very high for Director Alexander Payne's "Nebraska" and Director Jason Reitman's "Labor Day" and most certainly, there is no way possible to keep me from any new film by The Coen Brothers, in this case, the folk music themed "Inside Llewyn Davis."

5. And yes...I am going to head back to Middle Earth for "The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug," Director Peter Jackson's second installment in his new trilogy.

Certainly, that is more than enough to keep me busy and I will try my very best, as always, to keep pace, remain focused and to never forget how much this site means to me as that aforementioned milestone will arrive in a few short weeks and just before 2014 makes its official arrival.

Thank you for being here with me and as always, I'll see you when the house lights go down...

THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA: a review of "All Is Lost"

"ALL IS LOST"
Written and Directed by J.C. Chandor
** (two stars)

It will never cease to confound me about the hows and whens of some films, especially ones that are completely similar in tone, concepts and themes, will either work or not work, reach me or leave me wholly dispassionate.

In the space of one month, I have seen two visually ambitious, creatively and thematically complex survival drama films. Yet, where one film, in this case Director Alfonso Cuaron's "Gravity," has sailed to being one of the finest films of 2013, the other film, "All Is Lost," the second film from Writer/Director J.C. Chandor, has somehow left me feeling uninvolved and empty. Simply an odd feeling to have as there is truly nothing wrong with the film (aside from perhaps the final moments). Like "Gravity," this film places you in the terrifying company of one character desperately attempting to survive in an un-survivable locale in increasingly desperate circumstances. It is also a challenging piece of filmmaking that features Robert Redford as the film's sole actor as an unnamed character in a movie which contains virtually no dialogue at all. And yet, I found my mind wandering often, unable to connect to what I was viewing in any sense of a white knuckle fashion. Oddly enough, I do not wish for you to take my words as a means to stay away from this film because, and please do believe me, this film may quite possibly reach you in a way and with a power that it did not reach for me. And besides that, I strongly feel that films like this, which are a tad left of center should be experienced and supported That said, and for me and my sensibilities, "All Is Lost" was not nearly as compelling for me as I truly believe that J.C. Chandor and Robert Redford wished for it to be.   

Known in the film's credits only as "Our Man," Robert Redford stars in "All Is Lost," as an amateur sailor adrift in the waters somewhere in the Indian Ocean. As the film opens, our unnamed hero is awakened by the harsh sound of the hull of his boat, named the "Virginia Jean," being punctured open by a wayward shipping container. Finding water pouring into his boat, he springs into action to re-seal the hull and excise the rising water from the inside of the boat. While embarking upon his repairs, Our Man discovers that his navigational and communication equipment have been severely damaged from the crash and soon thereafter, he in plunged into an eight day nautical nightmare where he is forced to fight for his life within two storms, the loss of the Virginia Jean (where he is then additionally forced to sail in a tiny lifeboat), a school of sharks, a contaminated water supply, and no signs of life anywhere at all.    

Now, as you can see, "All Is Lost" sounds like a really good nail biter and the conceptual comparisons to the closely released "Gravity" would seem to make this an excellent companion film to view. However, the film was not what I had hoped for it to be. My issues with "All is Lost" have considerably much less to do with its presentation and considerably much more to do with my reaction to it. There is no question that J. C. Chandor has created an impressively helmed feature and that he is obviously attempting to strike for cinematic gold on his second time at bat. "All is Lost" is a crisp and cleanly told thriller that is confident in its visual storytelling. Furthermore, Robert Redford is equally impressive with this physically (reportedly the 77 year old actor performed the lion's share of his own stunts) and psychologically demanding role that proves that he is not simply going to settle for coasting upon his unquestionable film legend. In fact, any attention during awards season that Redford is bound to attract will not be disputed in any way by me as every bit of it is well deserved. It truly is a Master Class in acting as Redford shows so effortlessly how much and more impressively, how very little he has to do (especially without the power of his own voice) in conveying the film's deeply complex themes and meditations about death and our human desire and capacity to survive even when all options in doing so are rapidly running out.

And yet, I was unmoved.

Perhaps my disconnection to "All Is Lost" was due to the film's highly effective and unfortunately, spoiler ridden trailer which in indeed another symptom of film trailers being more effective movies than the actual film that it is advertising. Trust me, if you happen to view the trailer to this film on-line, you have essentially seen the entire film in a drastically truncated running time. Nearly every single beat and predicament our unnamed hero faces in the Indian Ocean is on display and as many times as I have seen the trailer over the last few months in theaters, I do have to say that white knuckle desperation has appeared again and again. But with the full, finished film however...it seemed as if I was watching a two hour version of the trailer in that I was just waiting and waiting for all of the highlights to occur. Now, this is indeed not Chandor's fault by any means but it does indeed illustrate a major problem with film advertising in the sense that too much is being shown, and therefore, no mystery remains which makes for a movie that is underwhelming through no fault of its own. The trailers for "Gravity" however showed just enough, making you salivate in anticipation just wondering what could possibly happen next and wondering just where a film like that could possibly go. But even so, I watched those trailers for "Gravity" over and over in awe and terror and even seeing those trailer so many times did not diminish the overall power of that film in the least.
  
But even if you took the trailer out of the equation, for whatever reasons, I just could not help but to keep mentally returning to "Gravity" and how emotionally exhausting and even physically draining of an experience it was in comparison to the very similarly themed and conceived "All is Lost." And besides, a film has to be able to be successful completely independent of its trailer anyway. Just what was it about Alfonso Cuaron's visual storytelling that captured that pinpoint sense of primal fear which conjured up the sensation of losing my oxygen right alongside Sandra Bullock, the panic, shock and awe with every single perilous predicament that seemed to snuff of her character's life at any given moment? Even now, I can still think of that one shot where her body is spiraling end over end further and further into the vast blackness of space and the hairs on the back of my neck rise at the mere thought of being so lost, so un-tethered, so helpless and so doomed. And yet, as I watched "All is Lost," never did I once feel any similar sense of danger or life threatening pathos.

But let's go even one step further. Let's take "Gravity" completely out of the mix also. Let's think about other films that pit human against the simultaneously breathtaking and unforgiving backdrop of the natural world and its elements like Robert Zemeckis' "Cast Away" (2000), Sean Penn's "Into The Wild" (2007), Danny Boyle's "127 Hours" (2010) or even classics like James Cameron's "The Abyss" (1989) and "Titanic" (1997) and most certainly, Steven Spielberg's "Jaws" (1975). But, truth be told, those are all the cinematic "big guns." So, how about the comparatively tiny budgeted "Open Water" (2003) from Writer/Director Chris Kentis instead? Or even the infuriatingly self-congratulatory but somehow mesmerizing "Gerry" (2002) from Gus Van Sant? In all of those films, there is just that je ne sais quoi, that certain something in the cinematic storytelling that is so aggressively powerful and palpable that I am nearly able to forget that I am sitting in a movie theater or in the comfort of my own home that transcends mere movie viewing and becomes experiences where I am able to sit within the pit of my own deepest fears and questions of survival, life and mortality directly alongside the main protagonists. With "All Is Lost," I knew that was the effect J.C. Chandor was going for. I knew those particular emotions were precisely what he hoped to elicit from viewers. And while I would not be surprised if his tactics and techniques would work for many of you, for me, it all seemed as if he had all of the notes but somehow did not understand how to play the music, so to speak.

And then, there is indeed the film's ending, of which I will, of course, not reveal but I will tell you is apparently causing some level of debate among audience members (including the very one I saw it with). It is an ending that is needlessly ambiguous and for me, felt to be a complete cop out when placed against the finality of everything we had already seen over the duration of the the film. Those final two minutes or so of "All Is Lost" felt to be so disingenuous, so shoe-horned, and so phony to say the least and it depleted everything that came before them in my eyes.

And so it goes.

Dear readers, please do not let my words deter you from seeing "All is Lost." As previously stated, you just may have the experience J.C. Chandor intended for us to have but somehow eluded me. Or maybe, you will feel as I did with my assessments and if so, perhaps you will also ponder that the only thing that was lost by the end of this film was your money.

Let me know...

TO SURVIVE, TO LIVE, TO BE FREE: a review of "12 Years A Slave"

"12 YEARS A SLAVE"
Based upon the autobiography 12 Years A Slave by Solomon Northrup
Screenplay Written by John Ridley
Directed by Steve McQueen
**** (four stars)

Dear readers, at this time I want for you to take some moments and think, really think about what it means to be free. Take as many moments as you wish and return to this posting later if need be but I do want for you to think about this concept very seriously.

This afternoon, I took in a screening of Director Steve McQueen's "12 Years A Slave" an adaptation of the true story of Solomon Northrup, a free African-American man in 1841 who was kidnapped and sold into slavery for the duration depicted in the title. Throughout, the concepts of freedom, slavery and all that exists in between were firmly placed front and center on screen and within my own thoughts and emotions as I looked upon my place in the world as an African-American male in the 21st century. And frankly, how could I not? Here I am, a black man, able to leave my home, drive in my car across the city in which I live, use my own money from my own wages to purchase a ticket to a movie just like my Caucasian counterparts, and sit in that theater seat to view a depiction of the very issue that still sits at the core of our country's tentative and increasingly turbulent race relations with such unblinking ferocity, sublime poetry and voluminous humanity. This undeniable fact was not the least bit lost on me. That said, I also know, only too depressingly well, that although I am a college educated man, as well as a husband, teacher, writer, tax payer, home owner, productive member of society, I could lose absolutely all that I have spent my life earning and achieving, and most frighteningly, my life itself, if I just happen to cross the wrong path of another individual who will hate and fear me upon sight solely due to my skin color. The story and film that is "12 Years A Slave" would function as the most horrifying "Twilight Zone" episode ever made or as an unrelenting Kafka-esque nightmare only if this story were not a true one. Knowing that this story is a true one makes it all the more devastating.

In a performance that should definitely earn copious amounts of attention, recognition and awards, the great Chiwetel Ejiofor stars as Solomon Northrup, a free, educated African-American man who earns his living as an accomplished violinist and lives in his Saratoga Springs, New York home with his wife and two young children.  One day, Solomon is lured by two men (played by Scoot McNairy and SNL's Taran Killam) into taking part with a highly lucrative touring job, which Solomon accepts. After an evening of fine dining and drinks, Solomon awakens the following day to discover that he has been drugged, kidnapped, chained, and soon to be sold into slavery in the Antebellum South despite his vehement protests which are met with brutal beatings and the enforced re-naming of himself as "Platt."

Solomon is first sold to the somewhat benevolent plantation owner and Baptist preacher William Ford (Benedict Cumberbatch), and consistently runs afoul of the vicious plantation overseer John Tibeats (Paul Dano) as he desperately attempts to keep the validity of his identity and his education a secret in order to survive. The bulk of the film involves the second plantation to which Solomon Northrup is sold. Run by the raging, alcoholic, abusive and reptilian Edwin Epps (an extraordinary Michael Fassbender) and his equally deplorable and enraged wife Mary Epps (Sarah Paulson), Solomon is forced to work as a cotton picker with the demands of collecting 200 pounds of cotton a day or else risk violent retribution if the daily goals are not met. Solomon befriends Patsey (an outstanding and crushing Lupita Nyong'o), a slave who out picks cotton by 300 pounds alongside the male slaves and who has also become the primary object of affection for Edwin Epps and the bottomless scorn of his wife, Mary.

As Solomon expresses to another slave early in the film, "I don't want to survive. I want to live." And therein lies the existential crux of "12 Years A Slave" for how can one live if not able to survive and how can one survive if not able to live?

While it may be presumptuous to make this sort of an announcement, especially as I will undoubtedly be seeing 2013 film releases through mid January 2014, Steve McQueen's "12 Years A Slave" is hands down the movie of the year. I know that I will see greatness again over these next couple of months, I am highly uncertain if I will see anything else that contains this level of power, grace, fury and artistry. "12 Years A Slave" is a crisply photographed, gorgeously filmed, unflinchingly written by veteran screenwriter John Ridley and sumptuously acted piece of work that demands to be seen, re-seen and re-seen again. To go perhaps even one step further, like Director Lee Daniels' "The Butler" from this summer, I feel that "12 Years A Slave" should be required viewing in all schools across the country so younger generations, and especially those in the African-American community, truly gather a sense of this undeniable and unquestionable American tragedy from which we still have not recovered from and to really begin to explore what does the concept of freedom for ALL people even means in the 21st century.

Although "12 Years A Slave" takes place in 1841, it is also film that speaks precisely to this point in time in 2013. In fact, I believe that with this film, alongside "The Butler" and Director Ryan Coogler's "Fruitvale Station," we now have three films released in one year that truly depicts the status of the African-American male over three distinctive eras in our nation's history, providing all of us with the crucial opportunity to really perform some serious self-examination and ponder how much has changed and unfortunately, how much has not changed...and how our nation is even heading backwards at this point in time.

For instance, I loved how McQueen showcased the full religious hypocrisy exhibited by the film's racists, plantation owners and members of the slavery business industry as they utilize the Bible and the perceived word of God as weapons and as forms of severe subjugation and the stomach churning process of reducing human beings to mere objects of possession to be sold, mistreated, abused and discarded. One sequence, where William Ford is leading an outdoor church service, is juxtaposed with the vindictive John Tibeats singing "Run Nigger Run" to his new slaves, including Solomon, all the while forcing them to clap out the beat in time. In several other scenes, we see how Edwin Epps consistently holds out the Bible as his religiously sanctioned "proof" validating his bigotry, violence and sense of overall superiority. And then, there are all of the other scenes where scriptures are being read while African-American children are being wrestled from their families only to be sold like cattle into bondage.

Watching this film and those sequences in particular,  how could I not think about a certain sector of our nation's current congress who proudly and sanctimoniously tout the Bible and utilize it to justify the inhuman laws they wish to pass? While we do currently have an African-American man as President of the United States (who is routinely disrespected to increasingly alarming and seemingly endless degrees), we also currently have a legal system in place, run by those very same self-righteous Bible thumping individuals, that will allow the dismantling the sanctity of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the race baiting forcing of American citizens to carry papers confirming citizenship lest be arrested, detained or deported and more disturbingly, the freedom of a child murderer who shot an unarmed teenager walking home, bothering absolutely nobody anywhere but just had the misfortune to have been born an African-American? The more things change...

What is also amazing to me is that "12 Years A Slave" arrives nearly one year after Writer/Director Quentin Tarantino's highest achievement, the slavery epic "Django Unchained" (2012), and there is actually much that both films actually share that makes them work as companion pieces to each other. Like Tarantino, Steve McQueen's film never flinches, never blinks and never softens the physical, verbal and psychological brutality of slavery for even one instance. "12 Years A Slave" is not easy viewing in the least and nor should it be as it has to depict slavery as exactly it was: a holocaust. The difference, and a massive one, between "Django Unchained" and "12 Years A Slave" is that with Tarantino's film, we are indeed operating within some realms of fantasy despite his obvious and unprecedented moral outrage. With "Django Unchaned," there is superior catharsis. By contrast, there is no element of fantasy to be seen whatsoever in "12 Years A Slave," and therefore, there is no catharsis. Just endless suffering and tragedy, all with the stunning backdrop of the Southern plantations, and the glorious nature and wildlife that surrounds them.

The silence that McQueen utilizes often throughout the film is profoundly striking, especially during scenes of violence. In one section, Solomon is nearly lynched by John Tibeats yet after Tibeats is run off by other plantation workers, Solomon remains hung in the tree, his toes barely touching the ground and with soft, strangled gurgles emitting from his throat. McQueen allows this sequence, where Solomon is strung to the branch, to play out for a lengthy period and while there was this part of me just wishing that Django himself would ride onto the scene to save him, the reality is that there is no one. Life and time move onwards, without concern, care or judgement and the slaves continue on with their duties unless being strung upwards right next to him. Although one slave woman covertly arrives to provide Solomon with a quick drink of water before scurrying off again, the day journeys onwards and almost into evening before William Ford himself discovers Solomon and cuts him down. Yes, McQueen has delivered a sequence that is wrenching and unbearable but it is not gratuitous in the least and this is our history and we cannot be afraid of it if we are to move forwards.

Chiwetel Ejiofor is simply phenomenal as Solomon Northrup, a man trapped in a world he never made, never expected to find himself and forced into hiding his intelligence and pretending he is something he is not just in order to live another day and to hopefully, one day find himself back with his family again. It is incredible to me to regard the controlled and devastating power he accomplished, especially in the film;'s many scenes where he says not even one word. Late in the film, the fullness of his brutal plight is beautifully and heartbreakingly portrayed as McQueen just holds the camera on his emotionally complex and expressive eyes and face. Ejiofor says nothing. None of Composer Hans Zimmer's evocative score is heard. Just the sounds of nature and the sight of Chiwetel Ejiofor lost in existential horror and dwindling hope regarding his fate and how it is even possible that he could have ever ended up in a situation such as this. Ejiofor conveys strength, conviction, intelligence, cleverness, rage, crippling sorrow, and a world's worth of empathy and pathos, making this performance his personal best. What would thrill me once the Oscar season heats up is to see Ejiofor and Forest Whitaker from "The Butler" both nominated in the Best Actor category, an unprecedented event, too terribly long in the making, yet completely deserving for both of these fine, fine actors.        

Michael Fassbender is a beast! He takes what could be a stock cardboard villain and fills him with a fullness of life, making him a true representative from America's dark past. The character of Edwin Epps is a cauldron of wrath, fueled by racism and alcohol and this brutal mixture of forbidden love/possession for his slave Patsey and how those emotions stir the jealousy he feels once Solomon arrives upon his plantation and the scorn he feels for his wife as she grows more enraged with Patsey's presence. As Patsey, Lupita Nyong'o is fearless for all she has to endure within this role as her character is terrorized and dehumanized from one end to the other yet, Nyong'o always ensures that Patsey's dignity is never sacrificed. Once Ejiofor, Fassbender and Nyong'o are together, the movie simply erupts to an nearly unbearable degree. One extended section, involving all three actors, a whip and a bar of soap is easily the most shattering piece of film that I have seen all year long and to that end Fassbender and Nyong'o should be up for awards and large amounts of recognition as well.

As I write and remember, it has dawned upon me that 2013 will mark the 20th anniversary of Steven Spielberg's "Schindler's List." I recall how the world embraced that film. How it was upheld and awarded and sent to school across the country and discussed over and again, with the full purpose of never forgetting the atrocities humankind has endured and just barely survived. It would be my biggest wish that Steve McQueen's "12 Years A Slave" receives a similar public embrace because here is a film that shows us how nothing is for certain in this world, how that proverbial rug can be pulled out from under you so instantly and without warning that you may find yourself in a situation that you could have never fathomed yourself existing in. That the freedoms that we all may take for granted just suddenly may not exist one day. Now, I certainly do not mean for you to read that statement with any sense of hyperbole. Just take a look at what is happening politically right now and ask yourself is this is the world that you were raised in, if this is indeed the world you wish to continue living in or for those of you with children, is this the world you wish to raise your children? I have believed for several years now that we have entered a stage where what is happening in our country is not about politics anymore. That what is happening right now speaks to our collective humanity and overall sense of morality. For all of the moral grayness in life, something are simply right and some things are simply wrong and in regards to our past, there is absolutely no way we can define slavery as anything but the ultimate of wrongs, as the internal damage from that chapter resonates to this day. The only way forwards is through honest and unmerciful discussion and endless compassion.

Steve McQueen's "12 Years A Slave" forces all of us to really think about how we treat each other, how we defend each other, regard each other, and despite all of our prejudices, how do we recognize that we are all human beings deserving of tolerance, respect and dignity. For me, freedom is about being free of the need to be free...and as far as I am concerned, we have a long way to go before we truly reach the glory of freedom for all.

Even so, may none of us lose what we have already been given.

SAVAGE CINEMA'S COMING ATTRACTIONS FOR NOVEMBER 2013

As always, now it is really time to head off to the races!!

Now that we have hit November, the movie studios open the cinematic floodgates unlike at any other point during the year--including the giant Summer movie season and it is always a challenge for me to keep pace. But, as you know, and the fates willing, I will do my very best to see all that I am able to see and share my thoughts and musings with all of you.

Last month, for me, it was all about "Gravity." This month, as far as I am concerned, it is all about Director Steve McQueen's "12 Years A Slave," which I will be heading out to see this weekend hopefully. Beyond that...

1. "All Is Lost," a survivalist drama set at sea and starring Robert Redford has surprisingly not made it to my city, and even our local Sundance theatre, as of this writing. I am expecting it to arrive soon and that film is very high upon my list.

2. "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire," the second part of the film quartet series and now with Director Francis Lawrence taking over from the first film's helmer Gary Ross will be arriving just in time for Thanksgiving and you KNOW that I'll be there...along with the rest of you I am most certain.

3. Also arriving this Thanksgiving is the American remake of "Oldboy" starring Josh Brolin and directed by Spike Lee. That is all I need to get myself to the theater. 

4. I have to say that while I am indeed growing wearier and wearier with the seemingly endless onslaught of superhero costumed adventures and frankly, I could use a break from them, the Marvel Comics movies have surprisingly continued to set a high standard for high quality entertainment. Therefore, be expected to see a posting about "Thor: The Dark World" sometime this month.

5. And then, there's the new romantic comedy/drama time travel tale "About Time" from Writer/Director Richard Curtis who already gave us the wonderful "Love Actually" (2003), who also wrote the equally entertaining "Four Weddings And A Funeral" (1994) and "Notting Hill" (1999) as well as directed the well intentioned but flawed "Pirate Radio" (2009). Curtis has announced that this new film will be his last as a director and if that is indeed his intention, I hope that he will go out with the most heartfelt bang. 

With life, family, work, holidays, and even a companion blogsite all jockeying for my attention, I will try as I might to find the balance so I can achieve all that I wish to achieve. Stay tuned...

...and I'll see you when the house lights go down!

DENY: a review of "Admission"

"ADMISSION"
Based upon the novel by Jean Hanff Korelitz
Screenplay Written by Karen Croner
Directed by Paul Weitz
* (one star)

If Tina Fey is going to continue to act in feature films, then she seriously needs to just step up to the plate and just develop her own projects and write her own films to ensure that she will at long last be in a movie that is worthy of her immense talents.

In my previous review of Writer/Director Nicole Holofcener's lovely "Enough Said," I remarked how that film' star, the great comedic actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus has seemed to habitually exuded a fierce sense of quality control with the projects she chose to associate herself with. I truly an unable to think of a time when the character she played felt to be beneath the actual human being that I am perceiving Louis-Dreyfus to be. With Tina Fey, on the other hand, her choices have fallen far shorter by comparison and in my mind, I cannot see why this is happening at all.

Tina Fey has proven over and over again that she is easily one of the sharpest comedic and satirical minds working today. Her years as Head Writer and performer on "Saturday Night Live," which even includes her subsequent guest appearances where her brilliant evisceration of a certain half term Alaskian Governor who shall remain nameless have become legendary, would be proof enough of her unquestionable skills. But let's also throw in her Emmy Award winning television series "30 Rock," her best selling autobiographical book Bossypants, and her 2010 award of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor to boot and Fey's talents and smarts are blindingly evident!

Yet, when it comes to Fey's movie choices, from "Baby Mama" (2008) to "Date Night" (2010) and now "Admission," Director Paul Weitz's anemic and plastic romantic comedy-drama, Fey once again is subjected to portraying a character that is obviously not written towards her strengths or is operating anywhere near her level. Everything again feels so bubble headed and dumbed down that these films all feel like the very things that Fey would satirize rather than star in straight faced as I just cannot believe that the characters she portrays and the movies in which they appear are anywhere near as smart as I am perceiving her to be in real life. Let's face it, the only film in Tina Fey's short filmography that even represents her fierce talents is Director Mark Waters' "Mean Girls" (2004), the one film that she wrote and brilliantly adapted from Author Rosalind Wiseman's non-fiction social critique Queen Bees And Wannabees. Dear readers, I love Tina Fey! I adore Tina Fey! I just wish for her to be in a film that is her equal. Unfortunately, "Admission" is barely worth the viewing I gave and even less worthy of the time I am taking to write this review.   

Tina Fey stars in "Admission" as Princeton Admissions Officer Portia Nathan who, along with her colleagues, is deep in the throes of the annual college application onslaught, complete with campus tours, campus visits and recruiting speeches, and the seemingly bottomless reading of essays, transcripts and standardized testing scores. Portia is soon contacted by the affable John Pressman (Paul Rudd), a former college classmate and now, a teacher and one of the heads of Quest, a rural, alternative high school in New Hampshire, who requests that Portia visit his school as this year will mark the school very first graduating class. John also asks of Portia to please take special attention with 18 year old Jeremiah Balakian (Nat Wolff), an auto-didactic who may or may not also be the child Portia gave up for adoption during her college days. This revelation forces Portia to fully re-examine her life choices from her college days, to her long term relationship with the stuffy poetry scholar Mark (Michael Sheen), to her strained relationship with her unrepentantly militant feminist Mother, Susannah (Lily Tomlin), to her budding feelings towards John and the responsibilities she feels she must carry towards Jeremiah all the way to re-thinking her overall career.

From that plot description, it would seem that "Admission" would not only be a compelling film that could handsomely encapsulate the college admissions process with romance, comedy and probing drama, the film could also be the one to play entirely towards Tina Fey's strengths, possibly even elevating her game and broadening her acting chops. In fact, the film does indeed start off fairly well by establishing the rigorous detail of Portia's life and juxtaposing the unfair and arbitrary competition teenagers are forced into just to go to school against the competition the admissions officers experience as they are faced against each other. An early sequence set at Quest, where Portia is challenged by the students as to the validity of a college experience and education at Princeton, and even the futility of obtaining a college education at all, is easily the film's strongest scene as it exhibits the very sharp, smart, and even savage humor and dialogue that matches Fey's creative aesthetics. At this early stage, everything seems to point "Admission" squarely in the right direction. But not so fast, as sharpness quickly transforms to dullness, smartness becomes empty headed-ness and "Admission" quickly nose-dives into a film that becomes completely toothless.

Now, just so you know, my reaction towards this film has nothing to do with my reaction towards the novel, which I have read. Truth be told, I was rather lukewarm to the book as I found it to be strongly written with a enjoyable literary palate yet it was also a book that I felt was badly plotted, where revelations are discovered looooooong before Portia and we just have to wait and wait and wait and wait for her to catch up, a quality which made for torpid reading. That said, there was never a moment within the book that felt false, where characters were betrayed by the plot and forced to engage in behavior and dialogue that was beneath what Author Jean Hanff Korelitz had set up.

With film adaptations, like I have always expressed, books are books and movies are movies and Admission the novel, while not without humor or even a sense of satire, is indeed pitched at a more serious, dramatic and therefore more realistic level whereas this film version is decidedly more comedic. This tonal change would be just fine if Paul Weitz had just allowed the events to unfold as organically as possible. Returning to "Enough Said" for a moment, I just cannot stress greater just how important and invigorating it was to regard a film that just allowed its characters and situations to unfold as naturally as possible, affording the comedy, the drama, the heartache and the beautiful chemistry between Julia Louis-Dreyfus and the late James Gandolfini to coalesce so richly. Conversely with "Admission," Weitz sacrificed the story's inherent intelligence, integrity, comedy, romance and more difficult and painful dramatic sections for prefabricated likability designed solely to ensure mass appeal and potential box office results and rendering everything about "Admission" down to being bland and bloodless.

This was a terrible technique Weitz utilized with his adaptation of Nick Hornby's About A Boy, a film that was critically acclaimed and well loved by audiences, yet for my sense and sensibilities completely derailed the story by entirely stripping its rawness, resulting in a film that was unbearably soulless. "Admission"' suffers the exact same fate as Weitz elevates the comedic and romantic comedy elements so awkwardly and forcefully that any emotion between characters feels sadly manufactured and the humor feels desperate, thus completely betraying who these characters really are. A scene with a cow giving birth provides the requisite bathroom humor which then leads to the shamelessly forced "nudge-nudge-wink-wink" pseudo sexual tension between Fey and Rudd's characters, for instance. Additionally, an invented sequence where Portia, desiring to check in on the Princeton visiting Jeremiah, sneaks into a college party, uncomfortably wearing a hoodie and woodenly speaking that "teen lingo" felt desperate, just like another invented scene where Portai's Mother brandishes a shotgun. Portia relationship with Mark, explored with appropriate heartbreak in the novel is just treated for uneventful throwaway laughs in the film. And if my memory about the novel is serving me correctly, I am almost 100% positive that with this film, even the truth of whether Jeremiah is Portia's long abandoned child has been altered. If so, it would only have been for no apparent reason other than, I guess, to ensure that the potential film audience will not judge Portia too harshly and still find her completely "likable."
  
Did Weitz just not have any trust in his source material or even Tina Fey and Paul Rudd, two of our most likable actors, who are each also very attractive leads to regard, with just having the story unfold naturally and to also have Fey and Rudd naturally embody these characters? Nearly every moment within "Admission" feels so false and none of what Weitz is trying to achieve is ever earned. "Admission" is a film that falls face first into the same tired old Hollywood traps of canned situations and emotions that have long grown tiresome and regrettable. With regards to Tina Fey, you just do not buy her in these situations as they are displayed throughout the film and it just made me realize once again that possibly speaking to Tina Fey in person or over-hearing her in public at a restaurant perhaps would be much funnier, more sophisticated and profoundly more insightful than almost everything in this movie, which has shown to be another waste of her considerable talents. If I were able, I would take Tina Fey by the shoulders and shake her from side to side for continuing to squander herself on roles and projects that are far beneath her when she truly does not have to and she knows better!

"He likes me because I'm boring," explains Tina Fey as Portia to Paul Rudd's character regarding his son. Maybe so. But "boring" is not how any of us would even begin to describe Tina Fey, and that description is not why we all love her. Where is that wit, that spark, that fearless bite in Fey's film roles that she so desperately needs? Wherever it is, I sincerely hopes that she finds it and utilizes it soon. But for now, "Admission" is yet another underachieving effort that is not worth your time and energy whatsoever.

Ms. Fey, with all due respect, you really need to begin applying yourself!!

SAVAGE POSTSCRIPT
If you would rather see a much better film that details the anxieties of the college application process, for both teenagers and the admissions officers, and is handled with much more warmth, humor, satire, and romance then please allow me to point you towards Director Savage Steve Holland's barely seen "How I Got Into College" (1989). While it won't shift the planet's axis or anything and aspects about it may have become somewhat dated, it remains a light, charming, entertaining film that for me, has held up very gently after all of these years.

A LOVELY DOSE OF ROMANTIC REALITY: a review of "Enough Said"

"ENOUGH SAID"
Written and Directed by Nicole Holofcener
***1/2 (three and a half stars)

My distaste for the current status of movie love stories and romantic comedies due to convoluted plots and downright unrealistic characters and even moreso, un-romantic behavior, has been no secret to any of you dear readers who have ever followed my postings. That said, 2012 displayed several features that seemed to suggest that the tide of cinematic love stories just may be turning for the better as convoluted plotting was eschewed for the shocking novelty of creating characters that not only felt to exist in the same universe as the audience but ones who experienced the same emotions. This year, this trend has continued with one of the year's very best films, Writer/Director Richard Linklater's "Before Midnight" and it continues with the high quality of "Enough Said," the latest film from the terrific Writer/Director Nicole Holofcener, a filmmaker of unquestionable honesty, razor sharp humor, probing insightfulness and fearlessness with having her characters confront their own, at times, worst impulses, faults and fears. Do not let the blandly generic and pitifully uninformative title steer you away as "Enough Said" is an adult romantic comedy made by adults for adults that places the realities of romance front and center with class, grace, truth and loveliness.

The great Julia Louis-Dreyfus stars as Eva, a middle aged, divorced, masseuse who is also Mother to her 18 year old daughter Ellen (played by Tracey Fairaway) who is just about to leave home for college, much to Eva's dread. While accompanying her married friends Sarah and Will (played by Toni Colette and Ben Falcone) to a social gathering, Eva finds herself making two fateful connections. The first is with Marianne (Catherine Keener), a poet and divorcee who will soon become Eva's new masseuse client and close confidant and the second is Albert (the late James Gandolfini), a lonely, divorced Father, also harboring his own trepidation with sending his daughter off to college, and who may soon become the new great romance in Eva's life.

In addition to existing as yet another most welcome breath of fresh air into the romantic comedy film genre, Nicole Holofcener's "Enough Said" extends itself from its main plot line by also featuring a subtle yet perceptive take on class consciousness (a regular Holofcener theme) and mostly, the presentation of a small constellation of characters who are all involved in the turbulent push/pull of relationships which are all on the verge of natural change. In addition to the love story between Eva and Albert, we are witness to the occasional prickliness between the married Sarah and Will, the tentative friendship between Eva and Marianne and most poignantly, the relationships between Albert, Eva and their respective daughters, as well as the budding relationship between Eva and her daughter's best friend Chloe (played by Tavi Gevinson), which causes jealousy on Ellen's part even though she is trying to find her own feet away from her Mother for the first time. Within all of those relationships, Holofcener never overplays her hand, wisely and humorously finds one kernel of truth after another and just allows the characters and material to flow along in an unforced, matter-of-fact fashion.

In regards to Holofcener's writing, "Enough Said" like "Your Sister's Sister" (2012) from Writer/Director Lynn Shelton, the film contains a plot development (which I will not reveal) that would not feel remotely out of place on a sitcom or better yet, a typical wacky romantic comedy. But, what Holofcener does so smartly is to treat this plot development as realistically as possible and with all of the emotional warts firmly and unapologetically in place, making what could have been ridiculous contrivances uncomfortably believable. And it is indeed that certain awkwardness and even squeamishness that is indeed a uniquely powerful staple of Holofcener's films.

With all of her past films, which include "Walking And Talking" (1996), "Lovely And Amazing" (2001), "Friends With Money" (2006) and "Please Give" (2010),  I have always loved how she allows her characters to talk and talk themselves into precarious emotional situations and in the moments of silence, allow us to see the exquisite pain that arrives. With "Enough Said," Holofcener's moments of silence are filled with the exquisite pain that arrives with middle age, as the letting go of children combined with the difficult acceptance and/or rejection of past and current foibles and failures are all stepping stones for the characters to again perform some serious soul searching-the type of which can easily translate to the members in the movie theater audience. Are we in the station of life that we had once hoped for ourselves? Are we with the person we are meant to be with? Is true love forever elusive or even obtainable and should we even try especially if we have already experiences disappointment or failure? Does romance ever get easier as we age and are supposedly wiser than we were when younger? Nicole Holofcener is provocatively in tune with all of those questions as she is sympathetic, understanding and wisely critical of her characters as their sense of self-preservation and emotional protectiveness sometimes serves towards another character's undoing. While the character of Eva is presented as an "every-woman" for us to root for, she indeed makes some serious errors in nearly all of her relationships and I appreciated how Holofcener was unafraid in allowing us to see Eva's imperfections.

Furthermore, and on a more cosmetic level, I have also always appreciated how Nicole Holofcener tries to circumvent audience's perceived standards of women's physical beauty within her films and "Enough Said" is no exception. I loved how Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, Catherine Keener and Toni Colette (to a lesser degree) all appeared with little to no makeup in the film, and Holofcener places the camera closely to their faces, allowing us to regard the lines and creases on their faces, as well as and other visual signs of advancing age, yet also showing us that these women, especially Louis-Dreyfus have only grown more and more luminous.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus has been an actress who has habitually shown audiences the high quality of her career choices, and frankly, it has always been a wonder to me why she has not appeared in more feature films over the years. Perhaps, it is because the quality of women's roles on television are exponentially higher than those in film but whatever the reason, she is a gift to any creative visual storyteller, whether in film or television, wise enough to snap up her immense talents. In "Enough Said" Julia Louis-Dreyfus, once again, shows that she is completely the real deal. While there has never been any question as to her ability to be funny as her long television history from "Saturday Night Live" to "Seinfeld" to "The New Adventures Of Old Christine" to HBO's ferociously profane "Veep" and her myriad of guest appearances can attest. What she really proved to me with this film is that aside from being a comedic actress of the highest order, she is a strong, perceptive actress period. With the character of Eva, she truly creates a full three dimensional figure that is instantly and knowingly familiar, occasionally maddening, quick with a quip, certainly flirtatious and sexy, smothering, frustrating, short-sighted, and capable of making devastating errors in judgement, not through some ridiculous plot convention but because she is so recognizably human. Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Nicole Holofcener make for a perfect creative pairing which I hope collaborate again in the future.

And then, there is the unlikely yet surprisingly beautiful chemistry between Dreyfus and the late James Gandolfini.

"Enough Said" is a bittersweet testament to the titanic talent we have all lost with the passing of James Gandolfini, and I feel it to be a blessing that we are able to see yet another side of this voluminously talented actor one more time. Once "The Sopranos" concluded, I truly felt that he would have been forever tied to the character of the psychologically tormented mobster Tony Soprano as his miraculous performance was so complete and executed from the inside out. Man, did he prove me wrong again and again (especially with his work in Director Spike Jonze's gloriously melancholy "Where The Wild Things Are" from 2009) and in "Enough Said," the massive persona of Tony Soprano is completely erased. The character of Albert, reportedly much closer to the real world individual Gandolfini actually was, is a gentle, sensitive, frisky, soulful gentleman nursing past wounds and current fears while attempting to forge ahead in his advancing middle age and hopefully with Eva. While I am gently pushing all of you to seek out this film for its high quality, I also urge you to head out and see this film in tribute to an actor who, after already accomplishing so much, was really only beginning to stretch his acting wings and soar even higher. It is a lovely, lovely performance and James Gandolfini will be tremendously missed!

Now that we have all seen "Gravity" (perhaps even more than once) and before more major releases barrel their way into our theaters, please, please,please make some time to go and see "Enough Said." While this is not an earth shaking film or even one of the year's very best offerings, it is a film that is just nipping at the heels of 2013's best. It is a heartfelt film that further cements Nicole Holofcener's talents as a terrifically idiosyncratic filmmaker and storyteller as well as proves without question that quality films with adult sensibilities and love stories that bloom and ache are still being made and released.

We just have to be there to give them a little help!

IS THAT ALL THERE IS TO A ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE?: a review of "World War Z"

"WORLD WAR Z"
Based upon the novel by Max Brooks
Screen Story by Matthew Michael Carnahan and J. Michael Straczynski
Screenplay Written by Matthew Michael Carnahan and Damon Lindelof & Drew Goddard
Directed by Marc Forster
**1/2 (two and a half stars)

About two years ago during while I was teaching one of my summer school classes, one of the children asked me if I believed in ghosts. Half facetiously and half seriously, I quipped, "I don't like to rule anything out!" My lovely young Co-Teacher at the time then said to me, "I don't believe in ghosts so I'm not afraid of ghosts. But do you know what I am afraid of?"
     "What?" I asked, very interested.
     "Zombies!" she replied, and noticeably shuddering at the mere thought.
     "Zombies?!" I asked, softly questioning her seriousness.
     "Yes!" she said. "Zombies." But then she rapidly added, "Not the slow ones but the really fast ones!"

After finally viewing "World War Z," Director Marc Forster's epic scaled, adrenaline rushed adaptation of the best selling Max Brooks novel, I would think is precisely the film that my aforementioned lovely young Co-Teacher would absolutely, positively not see as the zombies on display and prepared to end the world as we know it are a relentless, rapacious and endlessly ravenous bunch and the film itself barely takes a moment to breathe. That said, what surprised me is how after all of the carnage, the peril and the anxiety, how it didn't really add up to much, so little that the experience almost felt to be a bit disingenuous and even more consumer driven than artistically so.

"World War Z" begins without a moment to spare as the world is already careening towards a certain annihilation from an unknown virus. Early one morning as Former U.N. Investigator Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt), his wife Karin (Mireille Enos) and their two young daughters (played by Abigail Hargrove and Sterling Jerins), are stuck in Philadelphia rush hour, the streets erupt into chaos and violence as zombies rush the city. Gerry and his family narrowly escape certain death and subsequent infection and "zombification" throughout the day and night until they are all rescued by Gerry's former colleague Thierry Umutoni (Fana Mokoena), a U.N. Deputy Secretary-General, and transported to an aircraft carrier in the Atlantic Ocean.

Gerry is soon (and reluctantly) convinced to return to the field to assist a young virologist with discovering the origin of the virus but when the virologist is accidentally killed during a zombie attack, Gerry is forced to restlessly travel around the globe to complete the work that has begun, potentially saving the remainder of humankind.

From the first few images, Marc Forster paces "World War Z" as if trapped inside of a fever dream that reuses to end. It is a masterfully conceived series of cliffhangers and narrow escapes set within a visual cinematic landscape of cataclysm and terror that never slows down terribly much for you to gather your bearings, much like the characters who are fighting for survival. What I also appreciated greatly is how effectively Forster staged his large scope action set pieces (of which there are many), where they are all visually coherent, instantly involving and perilous enough where you are tricked into thinking that even Brad Pitt, the star of the film, could perish at any moment. The action sequences never felt to be bludgeoning to me as they were emotionally resonant, especially when the zombies are on the scene and on the unending attack.

Now, truth be told, I have essentially avoided all things (although I did love Director Danny Boyle excellent 2002 thriller "28 Days Later") zombie in the media, regardless of quality and entirely due to its over-saturation (like vampires and as I have also said, even superheroes are making me weary). I have to admit to having somewhat of a knee-jerk reaction in that regard, and beyond that, I have never found zombies to be terribly interesting creatures or even creatures to fear (perhaps due to their slowness in those old monster movies). What Forster has achieved so strongly with his zombies is not by only increasing their speed ferociously but how he places the zombies into the action. He rarely lingers upon these figures, preferring them to be experienced with quick shots and imagery--like their herky-jerky bodies and gnashing, chomping teeth--leaving their grotesqueness intact and the mounting fear of being eaten and dismembered by such creatures very primal. Several times during "World War Z," I could almost begin to understand why that lovely, young Co-Teacher of mined housed such a fear of zombies as Forster makes them a formidable enemy.    

Brad Pitt, on the other hand, made for a most convincing and engaging hero to follow around the world from Philadelphia to South Korea, to Jerusalem, to Wales and finally, Nova Scotia. He is intrepid, steadfast, and courageous of course, but the intense bond he forges with his family in the film gave him the sensitivity and overall humanity the character, and the film as a whole, truly needed to be worth watching at all, as far as I am concerned, especially as I have also grown terribly weary of emotionless CGI death and destruction. Pitt is so effective in the role that even though he escapes from the jaws of oblivion more times than Indiana Jones, James Bond and Jason Bourne combined, you buy the fantasy due to the gravity he gives to the role and to everything that surrounds him.

What bothered me about "World War Z" was when the film reached its final stretches and ultimate conclusion, such as it is. For a film that runs just a hair under two hours, and as effective as it is, it also felt to be so inconsequential and even incomplete. Once the film ended, it just struck me that Forster--or even the Hollywood-powers-that-be, better yet, were smelling "franchise" and ended up creating a motion picture that never really amounts to anything at all as it has no resolution, has no ending at all and apparently has no other purpose than to make another one whether it necessary or not. Really?! For everything the film places our hero and audience through (and that the source material itself is only one book), I would think that it would have behooved the filmmakers to create something that, at least, felt...complete and not like a film that essentially has an invisible "To Be Continued..." upon the screen for no other reason than to dip into our pockets for one more go-around. It just didn't feel pure and because of that feeling of blatant commerce over art and even entertainment, it left a sour taste in my mouth once everything was said and done.

Which is a shame as there is a lot to admire about "World War Z," a grim popcorn movie that is creative, inventive, involving and thrillingly entertaining. I guess the real relentless, rapacious and endlessly ravenous bunch of zombies to truly be feared are the Hollywood executives who are just itching to keep taking chomps out of our wallets!