Damned United (2009)

RATING:	60%
FORMAT:	DVD

(Image: http://thefilmnest.com/)

Interesting film about Brian Clough marred by an inability to get under his skin to discover the real man. Despite the high quality acting the writing lets everyone down. It offers no insights into what motivated both Peter Taylor and Mr Clough to become such great football impresarios – with the latter easily the best (& most loudmouthed) of all British soccer managers. What little is offered is delivered by actors psycho-analyzing each other as on a stage - rather than in a movie theater; violating the old rule about show not tell in the cinema.

Clough believed the game to be 'beautiful', unlike his arch rival Don Revie who insisted on a win at all costs mentality that inevitably countenanced illegal tackles and downright cheating.

(Image: http://thefilmnest.com/)

A contemporary theme of White nostalgia is well mined here for the glory days of the British past in sharp contradistinction with the apparently uncertain present and future. However, nostalgia is always rose-tinted and finds heroes and villains where there are none. The past is shown as both strange and familiar as we are supposed to laugh at the strange seventies' haircuts and clothes while escaping from the alleged greater sophistication of the present. This loving recreation of the recent past tries to have it both ways but finds no protein rich meat for its drama – as if in depth character analysis were somehow now a dirty word for playwrights. The old proverb that truth is stranger than fiction has little meaning here since this truth is essentially a trite soccer obsessives' pub tale.

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.

Godfather Trilogy (1972-90)

Rating: 100%



(www.spotkon.com)

Also Known As:

Unknown

Year:

1972 - 1990

Country:

Predominant Genre:

Crime

Director:

Outstanding Performances:

Premiss:

Organized crime.

Themes:

Alienation | Destiny | Emotional repression | Ethnicity | Family | Humanity | Identity | Loneliness | Materialism | Narcissism | Personal change | Religion | Self-belief | Self-expression | Snobbery | Solipsism | Stereotyping | Totalitarianism | White culture

Similar (in Plot, Theme or Style) to:

Review Format:

DVD

Social Welfare for Gangsters

Summary: An offer one cannot refuse.

The only real problem with The Godfather is the overripeness of Marlon BRANDO’s performance.

BRANDO somewhat undermines the essential focus of the narrative, the sexual relationship between his youngest son and a non-Sicilian woman. His mannered acting purposely draws attention to itself and exposes the so-called great actor as the greatest ham in Hollywood history, the greatest showoff and the greatest attention-seeker.

BRANDO is at once the source of the many parodies of this film and the reason that the parodies only make what is parodied seem better than ever because no one ever parodies rubbish.

Yet, there is much here to enjoy in a deeply romantic film that repays frequent viewings. This is a serious version of the Addam’s Family especially because you are drawn into the various intra- and inter-personal family struggles and business shenanigans shown that you almost feel like a Corleone yourself. This is soap opera and melodrama at a peak of perfection; unlikely to be rivaled anytime soon as director Francis COPPOLA puts his own ethnicity into every frame. If Shakespeare had been a Hollywood screenwriter, this is what he would have produced since it relishes one of his favorite themes of character being the source and origin of ones fate. Moreover, the speech patterns employed here are as rhythmic as any verse by the great man.

Structurally, the lovely waltz theme and the fact that the end of the movie is highly reminiscent of the opening, emphasize the quintessential what-goes-around-comes-around theme. Technically, the dark cinematography by Gordon WILLIS makes the interiors appropriately dungeon like, while the shooting of intimate emotional scenes with a telephoto lens is counter-intuitive yet somehow works. Scenes play to their natural length and we are invited not just to watch but to take part. The characters are fully realized and the choice of actors spot on; this makes their behavior often highly regrettable but consistent with psychological truth.

Part II is less of a bloodbath than its predecessor and more character driven, this film fulfills the promise of the first movie; easily being the best of the three. Al PACINO’s majestic performance as the godfather is far more subtle and complex than anything BRANDO could have dreamed up. And he and Robert DE NIRO both produce some of the best acting either has ever done - helped by the mouthwatering period detail.

The characterization still rankles. Why Vito Corleone, for example, turns to crime in the first place is explained as self defense but not why he continues to pursue such a path – especially as he is clearly a loving husband and father. Yet, when all is said and done, this is still the film trilogy to end all film trilogies.

Part III ties up many loose ends while creating new ones for a potential Part IV. But it all feels a little like an affectionate parody of The Godfather rather than a meaningful extension into more modern times of this eloquent family saga since it adds little in its nearly three hours’ length. However, the plotting is still good, the characters vivid (particularly Andy GARCIA as the new godfather) and the warm glow of humanity – despite the carnage – still visible in every frame.

The central problem with the godfather movies is a psychological fuzziness. Characters sometimes behave in accordance with the needs of the plot rather than how such and such a person would behave in real life. This partly undermines a character based drama.

However, ultimately this movie is about the rise and fall of a US family that mirrors the rise and fall of the US as a major world power; dragged down by its inevitable tendency to live in a made up past. What disturbs – like seeing oneself in the mirror for the first time – is that the romantic style does not reflect reality but the characters own rosy tinted views of their own lives.

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Copyright © 2014 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute this posting in any format; provided mention of the author’s Weblog (Esthetics) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.

Eighteen (2005)

RATING:	40%
TECHNICAL QUALITY:	DVD

(http://www.sho.com)

Uninsightful

An interesting and stylish calling card film that should get the director more work in Hollywood, but not a great movie in itself. The writer lacks insight into human nature leaving the audience with a string of arbitrary plot movements that do not illuminate character while simply presenting rather superficial and wishful thinking ideas about human communication. He is also unable to write idiomatic English such that English characters use Americanisms and swearing comes out of their mouths no matter what the characters' emotional states.

Once again we get a very effective film about the destructive capabilities of the nuclear family – as opposed to the extended one – but this theme is never developed. All we have here is a gay drama that just happens to include some heterosexuals for exotic colour.

The acting here is variable with only Clarence SPONAGLE and Paul ANTHONY out against the general grayness and sheer naiveté of the plot, themes and basic premise. They are likely well known actor names of the future. The sleaziness is no more than a pose since we are offered no rationale for it; not to mention ideas and dialogue stolen from other, better movies. There is a strong sense that this is not a story that results from any lived truth: A rehearsal for a better drama.

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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.

In the Loop (2008)

RATING:	60%
FORMAT:	DVD

(Image: http://www.screenscribe.tv/)

More comic wordplay than genuine social satire here in this simplistic anti-war comedy.

A Western political class depicted here regularly in meltdown is all good fun, but the film is as self-contained as the political elite satirized - and neither really understands the implications of its own actions. "Yes Minister" or "Dr. Strangelove" it is certainly not.

The relentless swearing is a good way of showing the political class in a state of continual panic over how they think the public perceives them, but the overt sex-references are rather too obvious. Both distract from the ostensible storyline; while offering no insights into the reason for their use by the characters: Sexual sublimation. The film simply uses them to attract the single entendre, gross-out crowd who would not normally attend such a would-be political satire. The documentary style adds nothing to the proceedings since the content is somewhat overblown and melodramatic – the two thereby conflict and cancel each other out. Moreover, the relentless Tarantinoesque cine-referenciality and trivial cultural references reveal the true lack of political substance here.

Some performances stand out. Gina McKEE, Peter CAPALDI, Zach WOODS & James GANDOLFINI. These are not trying too hard to make you laugh and so are correspondingly funnier than the rest. Yet, the most damning indictment of this movie is that there is no character differentiation since they all appear to have exactly the same sense of humor!

This movie is more busy than funny and is indicative of the fact that comedy produced by Whites is in deep crisis following the enervating effects of political correctness. Actually saying something potentially offensive (ie, true) is stridently avoided so that nothing of substance is actually being said; resulting either in clever wordplay – as here – or, worse, arrant surrealism.

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.

Il y a Longtemps que Je T’aime (2007)

RATING:	100%
FORMAT:	DVD

(http://www.reelingreviews.com)

[I’ve Loved You So Long]

Excellent homily to the family and the things that can go both wrong and right with them.

The playing of Kristin Scott THOMAS has to be seen to be believed: Easily the best British actress for decades.

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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.

Hotel Rwanda (2004)

RATING:	100%
FORMAT:	DVD

(Image: http://hollywoodjesus.com/)

Superlative movie about how Whites messed up Africa.

By creating the Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups, the former colonial power sets about dividing and conquering.

(Image: http://hollywoodjesus.com/)

Instead of turning on their oppressors, Blacks turn on each other; doing the racists job for them. The resulting genocide is exacerbated by the refusal of the West to intervene - in a situation it largely created - because the victims are not White.

(Image: http://hollywoodjesus.com/)

A movie that openly confronts the political distinction between appearance and essence that does not exist in ethics.

A Black learns the lesson that Whites still think his skin makes him expendable; making this a commercial film unusually pleading against racial integration, since Whites do not really believe in any such thing. (A marriage can never work if only one side of the partnership makes the necessary effort.)

Well played by all concerned and proof that a serious political movie can be made that is also an entertaining thriller.

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.

Hurricane (1999)

RATING:	80%
FORMAT:	DVD

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

An unusually honest look at the subtleties of institutional racism (ie, low racism in high places) and the warrior scholars Blacks need to become to make the best of Themselves. Ruben Carter realises he must ensure he needs nothing from Whites if he is to escape their endemic racism: He can, therefore, expect nothing positive from them and so will never be disappointed.

Whites are shown as well-meaning fools who remain the problem and not the solution; hiding behind racist bromides such as: Not all White People are racist! By his example, Carter encourages a young man to excel despite his weak parenting.

A rarely-explored aspect of racism is its existence to benefit racist professionals – a legal community benefiting from keeping a man in prison for 22 years – that perpetuates its racism in order to keep it from being exposed to the light; while pretending to be against it. This makes a change from the usual Hollywoodized nonsense that only lower-class people can be racist and that a higher education is the cure. This, however, implies something the film shies away from: That racists cannot be successful without racism; hence, its popularity among them as a solace for lack of actual ability.

As usual, Denzel WASHINGTON is excellent.

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.

Genius of Photography (2007)

RATING:	40%
FORMAT:	DVD

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

craft wishing it were art

Essentially, pretentious blather about photography attempting to claim it as the art it can never be because of its limiting connection to literal reality.

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

Technologically-primitive tribes-people sometimes fear cameras because they are afraid of losing their souls. In a sense, they are right because photography – especially portrait photography - never truly captures the essence of someone - only their appearance. This failing is evaded in this series in favor of pretending photography is a source of mystical revelations about reality. This is all-too-typical of the materialistic West in believing that only appearance matters and that people are simply objects with delusions to some kind of superiority over other objects. This series ethnocentric obsession with Western photography compounds this fixation. A superficial assessment of a superficial so-called art that diminishes what it records as photography itself does.

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

None of the bland talking-heads in this series is as convincing as they are passionate about photography and so are poor ambassadors for their own work and interests. The enfeebled body-language-contradicting-their-speech strongly suggests that even they do not believe their own hogwash and are simply talentless personalities avoiding the manual labor that would normally be their due.

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

The deadendedness of photography results from the lessening of the human personality in images that can only reveal a diminished sense of what it is to be human. The fact that photography is still debated about in terms of 'Is it Art?' shows that few wish to accept that it is not - otherwise the debate would have been settled by now. Photography is simply a craft tool that is forever 'haunting the doorstep of art', so where is the genius of the title here? - it is not in evidence. Photography is an implied art because it offers only implications about the world it pretends to record. This is why painting did not die out after the invention of photography - as neither the radio nor the cinema died with the advent of tv.

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

Clearly, Western culture has run out of suitable (ie, politically correct) subjects for documentary - as evidenced in this flimsy six-part series. Photography remains the formalistic craft that lacks content; struggling to pretend it is an art. The only way to make this pretence work here is to show explicit photos, give the jaded audience a cheap thrill and then pretend they have had a meaningful experience. Here, photography reveals itself to be the ultimate dead medium lacking no content other than its technique; form and content becoming one and the same.

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

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.

Heimat (1984)

RATING:	100%
FORMAT:	DVD

(Image: http://alsolikelife.com/)

Breathtakingly-brilliant in its direction, this is probably the best tv series ever made and certainly one of the best acted. Readily reminding one of the best that tv can produce - when it really tries, but so rarely does. Totally engrossing and totally compelling, despite the avant-garde style from the maverick director Edgar REITZ, this is stunning drama.

The characterization is complete in itself and our dramatic experience grows as they grow into people we come to care for. Yet the style is that of a movie so that everything seems too big to fit the frame and is about to explode through our consciousness.

The two themes that stick out are that of the contradictory impulses to leave home and yet return, and of successful communication-through-technology compared with often-unsuccessful personal communication.

Unlike the travesty Holocaust, with its risible melodrama, this avoids the usual German crocodile tears and evasion of guilt so characteristic of any depiction of the Nazi period. Rather than indulge in the unfulfillable desire to return to the security of the womb, this story makes a very good fist at dealing with the real issues of German twentieth-century history. It fails somewhat at dealing with violent class conflicts and the general political struggles in Germany by being a little too bucolic and bourgeois for its own good. But these failings never threaten to derail (by sentimentalizing) the general brilliance on show here.

Like all former imperial powers, Germany has been unable to mourn both the loss of that power and thus to move on toward other forms of national identity. Guilt and shame means being unable to remember and to tell stories about the past - the means by which culture is transmitted to the young - because infamous historical events obstruct this necessary grieving process. The inability to talk about a past that troubles us is emotionally-stifling and is what informs much of this heavyweight drama. And few other European cultures have taken such an unflinching look at the unpleasantness of their own national histories and tried so hard to lay its past to rest.

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.

Shackleton (2002)

RATING:	80%
FORMAT:	DVD

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

No damn use anywhere else!

Deliberately P G Wodehouse-funny account of Ernest Shackleton's attempt to cross the Antarctic in 1914.

Kenneth BRANAGH is excellent in the eponymous role of leader – as, indeed, are all the other performers. But the screenplay never really addresses the age-old problem of White explorers and their rationale for doing what, at first blush, is somewhat pointless. This is why there is never any turning back for such journeys since that would reveal how truly pointless they truly are. Far more matter-of-fact than Scott of the Antarctic.

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.