Monday 28 February 2011

Prestige
(2006)

RATING: 60%
TECHNICAL QUALITY: DVD

Fairly-interesting companion piece to The Illusionist (2005) in that the desire to make magic tricks as close to the non-existent real thing leads to great personal danger for the performers.

There are far too many characters and themes jostling for position in this movie to make it cohere effectively. Unlike other performers, the very best magicians have to live their act offstage as well as on it to be entirely convincing. This makes personal relationships difficult because the performance becomes much more important than the relationship.

The rivalry between competing magicians is compared to the rivalry between Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla as the lesser man tries to compete with the better to solace his mediocrity. This film tries to be about the sacrifice necessary to succeed, compared to the mediocrity of those who can only copy and/or steal other men's ideas. Yet, as in Amadeus (1984), the latter still feel bitter and resentful at the end of all their attempts to thwart others because they know that such feelings are all they can actually achieve.

Here there are no revelations about how magicians traditionally fool audiences in ways that have never changed: Misdirection, not saying what is going to happen before it does, pretending that the magic is real and the sheer showmanship and self-sacrifice required for greatness on the stage. As with the electric car or claims about the unhealthiness of smoking, competition for profitable business is so intense that there is a strong desire to quash progress in the interests of those profits, much like the similarly-themed movie The Man in the White Suit (1951).

The promise of this film is that science could be like magic, if only we were equal to the task. Here, the scientific breakthrough alluded to is so great that it has to be disguised as magic in order to avoid the inevitable cultural shock and claims of scientists playing God. If only the filmmakers' grasp could have exceeded their reach, this could have been a clever exploration of Mankind's potential for greatness. However, it is merely about performance - on stage and in movies – and not even about the whys and wherefores of genuine drama.

A film about the false faith in the impossible that science denies, but which so many humans seek because reality is so prosaic. It is only by telling stories that we ever - temporarily and enjoyably - escape reality and indulge our most fantastic whims.

This overly-intellectual film cannot – for that very reason - create empathetic characters for the audience to root for. No matter what, the actors are working against the script - rather than with it - and only the fabulous Rebecca HALL emerges with anything like acting prestige from it.

Copyright © 2011 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com/) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.

KILL BILL: Volume 1
(2003)

RATING: 60%
TECHNICAL QUALITY: DVD

(www.hotflick.net)

Rather a glorious mess of a film that combines Quentin Tarantino's cinephile obsession with quoting from the genres and films he likes, with a complete absence of any real wit or thematic content. Here, the form and the content are one - as in a tv commercial - and the so-called themes of betrayal and revenge merely catalysts for the stylish mayhem that ensues.

Although brilliantly-filmed, there is no underlying cinematic sense at work here. The set-pieces are superbly staged but do not progress the characterization, theme(s) nor the plot in any meaningful way: One could project each reel of film in any order and achieve the same undramatic affect. The plotting is arbitrary and contrived around the set-pieces, the characterization thin and the themes unexplored in favor of style, dash and good looks - especially the beautiful Julie DREYFUS.

The emptiness of Western culture is revealed here since the director clearly only feels at home taking elements from other cultures and appropriating them without understanding their cultural value. This superficial tourism in the culture of others makes the acting difficult to criticize since the performers behave like people one would often like to be but could not because that would render one ridiculous; eg, "You've seen too many movies, haven't you?"

The director's choice of music is the real giveaway here in that it is right for individual scenes but its very eclecticism makes most of his choices dramatically- and inconsistently-wrong. The music does not evoke emotions so much as the feelings one had when one first heard the music in question, in a different context; usually another, better movie. The score does little to enhance story, there isn't one - only the mood. This is the classic example of the empty vessel making the most noise which, although enjoyable while it lasts, is like a McDonald's hamburger (when compared to prime steak) - pleasant, but forgettable.

The director's only originality lies in the way he employs the various cliches he has stolen cliches from the movies he admires. Like Brian De Palma before him, the present filmmaker needs to get his own tropes that come from his own ideas - or simply act as producer/mentor to better filmmakers.

Technically outstanding; dramatically and philosophically-empty: This director’s movies are nothing more than extended trailers for better films. It is storytelling for people who do not like stories, or characters or themes. He is the greatest master of formalism working in the film world today (2003). The only person you can compare this director to is himself; thereby finding that all his films are just as good – or as bad – as each other.

Saturday 26 February 2011

Topsy-Turvy
(1999)

RATING: 80%
FORMAT: DVD

(Image: http://filmshuffle.blogspot.com/)

Reflects on the creative process, as such, especially the frequent problems posed by running out of ideas when bills are regular but inspiration is not. The solution found here is a common one in Western culture - appropriate ideas from other cultures.

Gilbert & Sullivan’s Mikado is here created in an effort to solve the problem of the inability to ring the changes from stale plots and implausible stories that the successful duo had fallen into. This is an amusing-enough conceit, but contains few real insights into creativity, in general, nor about Gilbert & Sullivan, in particular.

This movie could have been a delightful study in contrasts between the sensual Sullivan and the emotionally-repressed Gilbert, but offers neither explanation as to why they became the way they were nor as to why two such opposites should be attracted to one another. This makes the movie the kind of comic opera they wrote, with only hints at the darkness of drug addiction, narcissism, solipsism & all-round luvviness. Much of the humor comes from the cattiness of the overgrown actors (kids, really) presented, as well as the undeniably-fine popular music and song - given as much prominence as the characterization.

It is not Cabaret nor Amadeus - because it deals with somewhat trivial issues - but it is fun and rather beautiful to look at. And the performances from Jim BROADBENT and Alan CORDUNER are as excellent as those of the rest of the cast. (The attempt is made to mimic bad acting because of the excessive vanity of so many of the performers represented. But, fortunately, since vanity is a theme here, this never tips over into actual bad acting.)

Amazing Grace Big Book
(1994)

RATING:	100%
FORMAT:	Book

(www.amazon.co.uk)

A musing look at White supremacism and sexism as experienced by the Black heroine of the title.

In keeping with the concept and practice of the extended family, the girl’s mother is angered when told her schoolmates have said she cannot be Peter Pan - in the school pantomime - because she is both female and Black.

But her Nana takes the wider view of ethnic-identity formation in her grand-daughter and demonstrates the White inconsistency-with-reality in making it a tradition in Anglo-White pantomimes that the principal boy is played by a woman; as well as the fact that Peter Pan - who never existed - is not described as being a member of any ethnic group such that his skin color is irrelevant to the ideas expressed in the play.

Nana shows Grace the example of a Black dancer as Juliet (in the ballet: Romeo & Juliet) as proof that you can be anything you want - despite the ignorance of others - given the right motivation.

Grace is shown as a resourceful child full of youthful curiosity about the world and herself - with a rich imagination. Like Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters, Blackness is not shown as something odd or fearful, but as a norm that is as valid as any other - with illustrations that accurately depict youthful exuberance.

A very useful resource for Black parents to undermine the inherent Whiteness of Western culture in its claim that skin color and gender are destiny - socially-limited ones.

Racial-identity role-modeling never came so sweet and is packaged in an easily-accessible form that will not overwhelm its Black-child audience with overt and strident politics.

Copyright © 2011 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.co.uk) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.

Friday 25 February 2011

MUFARO’S BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTERS:
An African Tale
(1987)

RATING:	100%
FORMAT:	Book

(http://www.amazon.co.uk)

Enjoyably-written and beautifully-illustrated kids' picture book that contains a moral about living fully despite the inherent materialism of the world: That what you give out to others is what you get back from them. The girls are simply and incisively characterized as rivals for their father's affections with one thinking that there can be such a thing as a quick fix.

This book would be of particular value to help in the development of non-White ethnic identities given the excessive amount of books in the Kent library system featuring exclusively-White protagonists.

Sea of Love
(1989)

RATING:	80%
FORMAT:	DVD

(Image: http://www.listal.com/)

Clever and rather unusual picture about loneliness that conveys its message through a serial killer plot.

Here the loneliness of big city life is presented as a very threat to ones life as lonely married men answer contact advertisements and wind-up getting murdered for their troubles.

Once you realize that this is a metaphor for Western cultural anomie, the strangeness of the premiss wears off and a world of dysfunctional sexual-relationships opens up: Some sad, some ridiculous and many empathetic.

The film is a little lazy in not fully exploring its own issues as it tries to keep the murder plot simmering while slowly revealing the true theme of the drama: Love in a modern, materialistic and emotionally-repressed culture. Yet it hits a few raw nerves as we watch the sometimes crazy and illegal things people do to feel some kind of emotional connection with others.

As a serial-killer movie, this is somewhat implausible, but as a love story, it closely follows the ups and downs in sexual relationships in a modern, alienated culture.

The lovely Ellen BARKIN and the gifted Al PACINO do very well with their under-written roles in both conveying a strong sense of having been hurt by lovers in the past. And there is a palpable sexual chemistry between the two in this love story with a difference: A sex-comedy with a more serious edge than So I Married an Axe Murderer.

Wednesday 23 February 2011

Brassed Off
(1996)

RATING:	100%
FORMAT:	DVD

(Image: http://thecia.com.au/)

Amazing and rather excellent companion-piece to The Full Monty in being an end-of-an-era job-redundancy movie. Although the political context is not sketched-out as fully as it could have been, the emotional response to the closing of most UK coal mines in the 1990s is extremely well-dramatized. That these closures were inevitable is far less important than their affect on shattered lower-class communities and, more than this, the cynical way in which they were undertaken.

(Image: http://thecia.com.au/)

The basic issue here is one of forming an identity through belonging to a community. The self-respect, the sense of identity and the social-class loyalties this brings with it are carefully balanced by the lack of individual identity that this causes when the happiness of the individual takes a back seat to the success of the community. This is especially so when this is defined as solidarity - even regarding issues (as here) that are lost causes. Does one sacrifice ones personal relationships for the interests and benefits of the group? or is the group defined by its individual members? This is a conversation that has gone on in all places and at all times.

(Image: http://thecia.com.au/)

The performances are sterling - particularly the very fetching Tara FITZGERALD and also the prodigiously-talented Pete POSTLETHWAITE. They successfully breathe life into their characters and make-up for any shortfall in their characterizations as scripted. But here it is really the music (provided by the Grimethorpe Colliery Band) that is the true star of this incredible movie; music that is both intellectually and emotionally rousing.

(Image: http://thecia.com.au/)

Red
(2010)

RATING:	40%
FORMAT:	DVD

(https://schlockfootage.wordpress.com)

A movie desperately looking for an excuse to exist. The characters make no sense as people - neither do their relationships to others nor themselves.

The plot is purest hokum and tries hard to be an over-the-top parody of the Manchurian Candidate-type films it mimics. But excess is not the essence of parody; a knowing and loving sense of what one is parodying is. More proof that comics rarely make good movies.

The impressive actors cast here are only doing it for the money, such that the story of a bunch of bored, aging Cold Warriors is matched by the implied theme of a bunch of bored, aging Hollywood stars needing something to do before they drop off the perch.

Copyright © 2011 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.co.uk) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.

Illusionist
(2006)

RATING: 60%
FORMAT: DVD

(http://ajo.pl)

Clever love story coupled with political revenge that would have worked better if there had been any palpable on-screen chemistry between the two leads. The implications of the supernatural are not played-up enough despite the eerie cinematography and the depiction of a political scene marred by a morally-corrupt crown prince is not explored in any real depth. The characterization is reasonable, but leaves too many questions unanswered and - therefore - renders audience identification harder than it could otherwise have been.

A pleasing enough thriller, but this movie really cannot decide what it wants to be and so ends up being less than the sum of its many sumptuous, stylish and overly-plotted parts. This is a pity because although an intriguing period mystery, with supernatural leanings, it ultimately affirms the primacy of reality - as the illusionism of cinema itself does. About on a par with The Prestige.

Copyright © 2011 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.

Tuesday 22 February 2011

Red
(2008)

RATING: 80%
FORMAT: DVD

(www.filmweb.no)

Although not quite Last Train from Gun Hill, this is an emotionally-involving revenge drama that endeavors to dramatize the costs of personal revenge more than the revenge itself - a nice change from the staple fare of US cinema. Building from a simple premiss, we move toward a stirring climax.

A tad sentimental about pets, but Brian COX, Kim DICKENS and Tom SIZEMORE make this under-written character-driven drama eminently-watchable.

Copyright © 2011 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.co.uk) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.

Sunday 20 February 2011

“Why are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?”:
And Other Conversations About Race
(2003)

RATING:	100%
FORMAT:	Book

(Image: http://www.amazon.co.uk/)

Cleverly-titled book that also looks at why White kids are sitting together in the cafeteria, as well, and for exactly the same reason - White supremacy.

This book unpacks the inherent racism of its title and tries to move beyond fear, anger and denial to a deep understanding of why there is so much silence in the Western world about political skin issues - apart from politically-correct gesturing. This is especially useful for those Whites, who refuse to listen to Black concerns about White racism as being nothing more than paranoid/schizophrenia - or the whining of spoiled children.

Essentially a clinical psychologist’s approach to the necessity for a racial identity in a White supremacist world, to act as a defensive bulwark against the inherent White is Beautiful nature of White culture. A self-fulfilling necessity for personal development in such an environment - as gender consciousness is to women in a sexist culture.

Oddly, White parents can become so embarrassed about discussing racism with their offspring that the issue becomes something akin to an erotophobe talking about sex or Superman holding a piece of kryptonite.

The author suggests that encouraging more diversity in formal education leads to more of the same culturally, but this is rather naïve. A little weak on substantive theory, but good on the research and personal experiences of all the witnesses involved.

Friday 18 February 2011

Desperate Romantics
(2009)

RATING:	60%
FORMAT:	DVD

(Image: http://www.guardian.co.uk/)

A fun and brisk enterprise but, lacking any insights into the nature of art or of the artistic enterprise, this formalistic work falls back on the old, weak-dramatist's standby: Sexual intercourse.

The characters are flat, the acting perfunctory and the plotting pedestrian. The female author of the novel, on which this series is based, is unable to create convincing male characters who are not either rape fantasies, emasculatees or immature milquetoast. The modern dialogue attempts to demonstrate contemporary relevance but merely reveals the dearth of imagination on offer, since we then learn little of the times shown. And the six-hour length of the piece does not increase its depth.

Human motivations are elided in favor of the obviousness of sexual lust: Whys and wherefores are skillfully unexplored. Like all mediocre drama, characters do not speak from their own point of view, but from the limited political agenda of the dramatist. This sex-obsessed lack of character differentiation is the hypocrisy of critiquing social norms while fundamentally accepting them. The conflict between wanting social acceptance, while simultaneously rebelling against that very wanting remains dramatically unexplored. Yet, interestingly, this pseudo-rebellion fits the mediocrity of the Pre-Raphaelite art shown.

The view of human sexuality on offer is essentially cynically-repressive; that is, Christian. Sexual activity is indulged in, both by the characters and by the drama itself, but hypocritically-criticized for being an end in itself, rather than as a means to an end; making this drama as erotophobic as its characters. Little is objectively explored; especially one of the inevitable results of repression: Pedophilia. White culture has difficulty exploring human sexuality – dramatically - without expressing guilt and shame; producing, instead, confused, contrived and confusing dramaturgy. Sex here is a solace and a relief that brings little pleasure and no real comfort. Moreover, there is no clear distinction presented between the sexual prostitution of so called fallen women and painting girls for money whom the artist then proceeds to have sex with.

The only people who can represent artists are artists, themselves – since it takes one to know one. Sadly, the likes of a Ken Russell are past their prime - and he was presumably not invited to undertake this directing assignment in any case. This superficial series is neither as adventurous nor as inventive as it claims on the wrapper. And a drama that describes but does not explain is "Desperate" indeed.

Let Me In
(2010)

RATING:	80%
FORMAT:	DVD

(Image: http://www.movieseer.com/)

HAMMER HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE

Gorier than the original it remakes - for no dramatic benefit - this is probably the best of all Hollywood attempts at remaking quality non-US films. This is a distilling of the essence of the first film that lacks the full implications of that better work.

The lowering of the subtlety bar and the poorer performances and characterizations are substituted with an excess of style. This makes the story somewhat less atmospheric but not less emotionally involving. The odd choice of using very shallow photography is a novel means of filling the screen with objects not clearly seen. Rather than present the audience with the fear that something shocking will suddenly appear off camera, we are presented with this right to our faces but not clearly delineated in all the murk. This gives us a greater sense of being in a suffocating trap from which we cannot rise.

This is a film about puppy love rather than friendship, yet tries hard to be more of a remake of ET than Let the Right One In. A good love story with red, beating heart and better than Twilight by a mile.

Strange Love of Martha Ivers
(1946)

RATING:	80%
FORMAT:	DVD - 1st-Generation

(www.zeitgeistyreport.com)

VHS-quality transfer of a faded print that still manages to thrill with its melodramatic intensity.

A tale of guilt and redemption and the unresolved secrets of the past that still have their affect in the present. As so often in Hollywood, when the movies are female-centered, the men have feet of clay and marry women with stronger wills than their own - that, or more money than they could earn on their own.

The performances, from all concerned, are excellent and help raise this above the usual melodramatic cliché. Excellent characterization from a sometimes meandering noir screenplay shows off Barbara STANWYCK to the same great effect she displayed in Double Indemnity.

Social Network
(2010)

RATING:	60%
FORMAT:	DVD

(http://www.aceshowbiz.com)

About the creators of the Facebook Website, this film demonstrates the theoretical potential of the Internet as compared to the actuality of the sheer trivia (& emotional addictiveness) that passes for entertainment in the real world of this unfettered communication.

The Web is about people - the cooler the better. As with social networks in the real world, virtual networks can only work if the people involved are, in some way, interesting and thus worth knowing. The emptiness of the characters here is reflected in their idea and is really an attempt, like Tony Hancock's Radio Ham, to find the friends one could never obtain otherwise. This is as true for the creators as for the end-users. The truth is that there are just not that many interesting people in the world: The only difference being that ones so-called friends do not increase exponentially as each day passes.

Clearly, the intellectual property rights' issue at the heart of this drama is based on the fact that the participants did not formalize their relationship in writing before either side went live with their idea. But ideas cannot be copyrighted, as shown by the fact that the idea shown here is not original - only better implemented.

Western capitalist culture is shown as one focused on finding the next big thing, regardless of both social value or of how desperate businessmen become to turn ideas into cash cows. Attempts to exploit ideas can easily become ridiculous as this film turns to comedy halfway through to motivate us to watch a drama about frankly-uninteresting people.

The other issue successfully explored here is that of an underdog coming out on top against those born into a higher social status. The resentful social snobbery of these who believe the world owes them a living is well-presented through their mediocrity, as compared with those who actually possess ideas and execute them successfully.

Jesse EISENBERG is excellent as the socially-awkward genius computer nerd who writes the software that propels him to billionaire status. He shows how making lots of money - especially while young - attracts sexually-attractive women as candle flames attract moths. Along with those who try to parasite off his ideas. This is all so much better than working hard at a higher education when you can make far more money.

Citizen Kane for computer geeks.

WALL STREET:
Money Never Sleeps
(2010)

RATING:	80%
FORMAT:	DVD

(https://whosoeverdesires.wordpress.com)

Money Never Weeps

Fine movie explaining – albeit in simple terms - the present global economic meltdown. What it lacks in emotional involvement between the characters, and the audience, it makes up for in satire about Western (White) capitalist greed.

Also an attack on fueling an economy on the basis of credit, rather than the production of services or goods which merely serves to create a series of credit bubbles that eventually (& inevitably) lead to burstings.

Like this director’s earlier W., Oliver STONE has made this film during the time of the situation being critiqued. Therefore, it has no real ending; merely suggesting a way out of the economic mess by a process of wishful-thinking - down-sizing anyone?

Not quite as good as the first Wall Street, but good enough in presenting a quintessential villain as an expository mouthpiece for the many failings of Western capitalism.

Other Guys
(2010)

RATING:	60%
FORMAT:	DVD

(Image: http://www.moviedayatthecourt.com)

Good fun, but an example of Hollywood eating itself by producing parodies of its own lame action material. This hybrid action-comedy tries to have it both ways by appealing to action fans or to those who hunger for laughs - or both. The problem with this strategy is that it can end up with the material falling between two stools and being not much of anything - and so it proves (albeit funny in spurts, with some good running gags) here.

Here, the action is well done, but implausible; while the casting of actors who would normally appear in the kind of films being parodied is actually funnier than the dialogue. Moreover, the rather labored, humor-about-humor humor is aimed squarely at an American audience; so much so that many of the jokes may fall on deaf British ears.

Overall, the lack of a compelling theme and the limited character development makes for mildly-amusing hamburger as opposed to the steak we really crave from comedy. After all, the best comedy comes more from characters and not so much from situations.

This movie is not as good as the also somewhat weak Tropic Thunder or the much better The Hard Way (& certainly cannot compare with the brilliant Naked Gun - From the Files of Police Squad!) as a send-up of run-of-the-mill policiers.

The only real revelation here is that Eva MENDES can do comedy - rather well.

Copyright © 2011 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.

Thursday 17 February 2011

White Material
(2009)

RATING:	100%
FORMAT:	DVD

(http://www.coveringmedia.com)

Exemplary euro-centric end-of-empire feature showing a French colony in Africa on the brink of collapse. After years of exploiting Blacks, most Whites realize the game is up and choose to leave rather than be massacred. But one White woman here, superbly-played by Isabelle HUPPERT, decides to cling on in the vain hope of still making a living and a life from her coffee plantation despite the retreat of the French Army back to France.

The real cleverness of this movie is the strange twilight world oppressive people live in: Their Heart of Darkness - imagining that those they exploit could ever be their friends. Like the victim frightened of being shot for not accepting White hegemony, these Whites believe that compliance with their strictures comes consensually, rather than from fear of being shot. Or like the woman who consents to being raped to avoid being hit, this allows the rapist to delude himself that he is doing nothing wrong in the hope that one threat will be enough and future sexual activity will be (pseudo-)consensual.

The “White Material” of the title refers not only to the property of the Whites - expropriated from Blacks generations before - but the Whites themselves. This forms the basis of much of the drama as the issue of which (& who) belongs to whom is at the essence of White supremacism.

The real problem for the Whites here is that their racism leaves them with nothing to bequeath to their children, except a morally-bankrupt culture that leaves their descendents with enhanced psychiatric problems concerning guilt and shame. That the White son here becomes a homicidal maniac is hardly surprising given the phenotypism of his upbringing. And, when push comes to shove, no matter the rights and wrongs of any situation, Whites are always going to be superior, Blacks worthless. They sacrifice their own children upon the altar of their own delusions: A White African born in a country that does not want him.

Shot with an accent on the visual, much happens without explanation and is abstracted from reality; leaving half the work of understanding and enjoying to an audience hungry for something more than spoon-fed stories from insubstantial minds that is Hollywood. The characterization is thin but we are here dealing with archetypes of a certain cast of mind that, like the particular country and the particular time period is never explored - only shown. Africa is presented as non-exotic and as not a sunny place - in more ways than one. Thus we do not get bogged down in stereotypes of Africans. Yet Blacks are still shown as very different from Whites; explaining why Africa became the White man's graveyard - since their could never have been any kind of rapprochement with inherent evil. Almost as if the land itself wanted Whites gone. Only a Black filmmaker could restore the balance only hinted at in this movie by telling the Black side of the story from the essentially first-person narrative brilliantly-presented here, since Whites can only ever tell their own story from their own point-of-view.

As a kind of fleshing-out of the added French scenes in Apocalypse Now Redux, this is particularly striking given that Huppert’s physignomy is similar to the latter film’s Aurore Clément.

Mike Leigh at the BBC
(1976)

RATING:	60%
FORMAT:	DVD

(http://www.amazon.co.uk)

Disc 2

Subtle comedies of White despair that are the hallmark of LEIGH’s work to date. In Leigh-world, happiness - if it exists at all - is only fleeting or comes in spurts.

Mixed in with the lower-class archetypes is the usual middle-class envy at the poor’s apparently greater capacity for enjoying themselves. The general gormlessness and fecklessness of the males here is where so much of the humor originates and is a joy to behold.

The White middle-class characters here are shown as emotionally-overwrought hippie-types who are tiresome as all get-out because they think behaving according to highly-detailed rituals is a bulwark against the chaos of an unexamined life. One is left wondering what kind of non-nurturing childhood such people are so desperately keen to run away from.

The problem with these works is that they accurately describe retarded people, yet offer no effective resolution to their problems - nor, indeed, can the characters represented ever be any more interesting than their representations. This is drama as therapy, not as exploration or as analysis, since emotional-inbreeding is described but not really understood. Ingmar Bergman for kids.

Kiss of Death

Dogma
(1999)

RATING:	60%
FORMAT:	DVD

(http://io9.gizmodo.com)

Catholic Failure

Amusing critique of Roman Catholic dogma that attempts to get a hold on the origins of the religion - a Black Jesus Christ - in contradistinction to the alleged infallibility of the church he founded.

The religion is shown to have lost its way and to have succumbed to formalism as a coping mechanism for its endemic failure to have the very faith in itself enjoined upon others. Only God does not make mistakes, and in the church's view that this is also true of itself, lies the source of its many failings.

This movie is not going to convince anyone to embrace the faith, but the pot-shots at contemporary Christian hypocrisy, idolatry and the refusal to think for oneself are well-made. Particularly, the desire to rewrite biblical teaching (God is a woman, a 13th apostle, etc) to offer a deeper understanding of the faith, as in Kazantzakis Last Temptation of Christ.

Where it fails is in not seeing that religion must form deep relationships with political power in order to have any effect in the world of mammon. This combination of faith and force is the true reason for the existence of dogma, but this film is too embedded in its own acontextual religious discourse to pay enough attention to its own theme.

Analyzing rather than preaching the church’s support for the Holocaust and the Atlantic slave trade, for example, is no substitute for dramatic exegesis. (It was probably inevitable that a film about Catholicism would be preachy.) This is a film of abstract ideas, not flesh-and-blood characters, and often has difficulty rising above the level of an undergraduate essay.

The other problem with this film is the acting. Many of the performers are uncertain of how to play their parts - to the detriment of the movie, as a whole. Only the enjoyably-evil Jason LEE, the hilarious Jason MEWES & the ultra-feminine Salma HAYEK play their respective roles with anything approaching the genuine commitment (& relish) needed to help the audience get under the skin of the drama. Yet, when all is said and done, it is better than something like the execrable Da Vinci Code.

Brother
(2000)

RATING:	100%
FORMAT:	DVD

(http://masters-tb.com)

Exceptional crime drama about the futility of internecine gang-war violence. At root, the gang culture shown here is a death-worshiping one in which loyalty to an idea of masculinity is more important than masculinity itself or actual masculinity. The characters are appropriately blank and the relationships less than wholesome or satisfying for any of the participants; hence, the need for increasing levels of violence in the vain hope that personal growth can be discovered thereby.

Amid all the carnage there is enough time for subtle and ironic humor - as if the Fates can laugh in between the bloodletting and let us in on what borderline personalities feel they need to do to unwind. Eschewing the car chases and fast editing of US gangster movies, the style is slower and the gore more front and center in this modern stab at a more contemporary Godfather. This time without glamorizing its subject-matter. It does this by visually abstracting its theme of people only possessing a sense of honor through sacrifice.

An existential thriller to beat the best of Jean-Pierre Melville and Walter Hill, this is matter-of-fact drama with extensive use of tableaux vivants to emphasize the sense of a still life lived in aspic.

Wednesday 16 February 2011

Perfect Mismatch
[It’s a Mismatch]
(2009)

RATING: 60%

(Image: http://www.nowrunning.com/)

Somewhat artlessly-directed romance with leads lacking the necessary sparkle to make their love convincing - despite it being central to the narrative. The enmity between vegetarian, tee-total Gujaratis and meat-eating Jack Daniels lovers is well shown but could have been funnier if more profoundly explored within the drama.

This movie deals too superficially with the drive to become ones own boss and the script is a largely by-the-numbers homage to Romeo and Juliet and, like Shakespeare, the dramatic structure and plotting is more important than characterization.

Corny but fun.

Führerprinzip:

One leader, one people, signifies one master and millions of slaves… There is no organ of conciliation or mediation interposed between the leader and the people, nothing in fact but the apparatus - in other words, the party - which is the emanation of the leader and the tool of his will to oppress. In this way the first and sole principle of this degraded form of mysticism is born, the Führerprinzip, which restores idolatry and a debased deity to the world of nihilism.

(1913-60), French-Algerian writer & philosopher. The Rebel: An Essay on Man in Revolt: New York: Vintage Books, (1984; page 182.)

Pages:

Monday 28 February 2011

Saturday 26 February 2011

Friday 25 February 2011

Wednesday 23 February 2011

Tuesday 22 February 2011

Sunday 20 February 2011

Friday 18 February 2011

HAMMER HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE

Money Never Weeps

Thursday 17 February 2011

Disc 2

Catholic Failure

Wednesday 16 February 2011

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