Movie Review Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer

Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer 

Directed by Joseph Cedar 

Written by Joseph Cedar 

Starring Richard Gere, Lior Ashkenazi, Hank Azaria, Steve Buscemi, Michael Sheen, Dan Stevens 

Release Date April 14th, 2017 

As a critic, it’s hard not to get tired of seeing the same kind of movie over and over again. Conventional three-act stories with stock heroes and predictable villains or simple romances with happy endings get tiresome after a while. It’s really nice to experience a movie with a different style, even if that movie isn’t entirely satisfying. The new movie Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer is, at the very least, a nice departure from the norm.

Norman Oppenheimer is rather strange and kind of pathetic. He is the type of man who insinuates himself into the business of others. When we meet Norman, he is accosting the assistant of a high-powered New York financier and attempting to finagle a meeting that he hopes might make him some money. Norman’s business isn’t much of a business, you see; he considers himself a consultant whose job is to connect one person to another person in hopes that each will give him something for making the connection between the two.

We get no sense of how successful Norman is as a ‘consultant’ but he has a nice suit, and when he meets an Israeli politician who he sees as a business opportunity, he’s able to drop a big bucks present on him, though not without wincing at the price. Norman hopes to get the politician, Micha Eshel (Lior Ashknazi) to attend a dinner being held by another New York big shot in hopes that making the connection will create opportunities for himself.

Three years after this scheme fails, we find that Norman and Micha have remained friends and for once Norman’s schmoozing has paid off. Micha is now the Israeli Prime Minister and when he spies Norman at a New York fundraiser, he welcomes him as if he were family — family he doesn’t speak to regularly and does not return phone calls to, but still family. Norman’s new connection, no matter how tenuous, remains lucrative to him as the financiers who would not meet with him before are suddenly eager to do business.

Find my full length review in the Geeks Community 

Movie Review The Listener

The Listener (2024) 

Directed by Steve Buscemi 

Written by Alessandro Camon 

Starring Tessa Thompson, Rebecca Hall 

Release Date March 29th, 2024

Published March 26th, 2024

The Listener stars Tessa Thompson as the employee of a suicide hotline. A former drug addict, a few years removed from a prison sentence 'Beth,' as she calls herself on the calls she takes, uses her personal experience to relate to the numerous people who call her for a listening ear. Beth works the overnight shift, the busiest time of the day for potential suicides. The calls she takes take a toll on her, but she stays at it because she knows what it is like to be at the lowest of lows. 

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media 

Horror in the 90s Tales from the Darkside

Tales from the Darkside: The Movie (1990) 

Directed by John Harrison

Written by Michael McDowell, George A. Romero 

Starring Debbie Harry, Steve Buscemi, Julianne Moore, Christian Slater, James Remar, Rae Dawn Chong

Release Date May 4th, 1990 

Box Office Gross $16.3 million

Why don't more people talk about how great Tales from the Darkside The Movie is? I've seen Tales from the Darkside The Movie a few times but somehow, it wasn't until this viewing that it really clicked for me. This anthology of three horror movies, and one wraparound segment, combines the talents of Stephen King, George Romero and a powerhouse cast, across four stories, to deliver one of the most consistently entertaining horror movies of the 1990s. 

Let's begin with our wrap-around story. Tales from the Darkside: The Movie opens on a peaceful suburban milieu. A lovely looking woman has purchased groceries and is returning home to start dinner for a dinner party. This is classic horror movie stuff as perverting the pristine perfection of suburban life is a classic trope. The first signs of such perversions of norms only arrives once we are inside the home of that plain Jane woman and her groceries. 

We arrive in the home of Betty, played by rock icon Debbie Harry, before she does. While she's getting her groceries, the camera takes us into her home and a strange looking broom is propped against a wall. While we puzzle over the broom, which brings to mind a witches broom, we begin to hear a noise. The camera slowly reveals a door in the kitchen and someone struggling to open the door before fearfully retreating when Betty comes inside. The skillful visual filmmaking tells us everything we need to know, Betty is a witch and whoever is in that locked pantry, is her prisoner. 

Perverting things even further, Betty soon reveals her victim, tiny moppet with floppy hair and a crooked grin. This is Timmy (Matthew Lawrence) and we soon learn that Timmy is set to be that night's main course as Betty is bringing her witch friends over for a Timmy casserole. In a desperate attempt to keep himself alive, Timmy grabs a story book called Tales from the Darkside and offers to tell Betty a scary story as a reason to keep him alive. She agrees and we proceed with our first terrific story. 

The most star-studded of our three stories was not quite so star-studded at the time of release. Lot 249 stars a pair of stars before they became big stars. Steve Buscemi and Julianne Moore were at the beginning of what would be lengthy and critically acclaimed careers when they played academic rivals in Lot 249, the story of a man and his mummy. Christian Slater, already having become a leading man by 1990, is the best known of the cast which is rounded out by lesser known character actor Robert Sedgwick. 

Lot 249 is a tale of revenge as Edward Bellingham (Buscemi) is convinced that a rich idiot, Lee (Robert Sedgwick), has used his influence, and his equally rich and duplicitous girlfriend, Susan (Moore), to steal a lucrative scholarship from him. The loss may force Bellingham to have to leave school just as he is on the verge of an astonishing breakthrough in his research on ancient Egypt. Through nefarious circumstance, Bellingham has secured Lot 249, an ancient Egyptian sarcophagus that could be worth millions, depending on what he finds inside. 

Find my full length review at Horror.Media 

Movie Review The Death of Stalin

The Death of Stalin (2018) 

Directed by Armando Iannucci 

Written by Armando Iannucci 

Starring Steve Buscemi, Simon Russell, Michael Palin, Jeffrey Tambor 

Release Date March 9th, 2018 

Published November 5th, 2018 

The Death of Stalin is the latest work from the genius of Armando Iannucci. The man who brought us the brilliant absurdity of HBO’s Veep has crafted a truly daft history of Russian leadership in the wake of the passing of legendary monster Josef Stalin in 1953. The Machiavellian machinations of Stalin’s cabinet, including future Russian leader Nikita Khrushchev have both an authenticity and an absurdity that only a master of form and tone such as Iannucci can deliver. 

The Death of Stalin features a cast stuffed with some of the most talented English actors in the world. First there is Adrian McLoughlin as Josef Stalin in his final days. McLoughlan isn’t around long, as the title would indicate, but his Stalin is nevertheless a figure of benign menace, signing off on hundreds of deaths a day of dissidents and potential dissidents while forcing his cabinet members to jockey for position in his favor. 

Most prominently, there is Nikita Khrushchev (Steve Buscemi) who is in deep competition with Lavrenti Beria (Simon Russell Beale) for Stalin’s affections. Both of them are somehow behind the sniveling Georgi Malenkov (Jeffrey Tambor) in the leadership line, though each assumes they can take control of Georgi as needed to get their way. Also weighing in is Vyacheslav Molotov (Michael Palin) whose support both Beria and Khrushchev covet. 

The casting is impeccable and extends to the brilliant Jason Isaacs as the head of the military, Rupert Friend as Stalin’s drunken, moronic son, Vasily, and Olga Kurylenko as a dissident pianist who plays a key role in the plotting between Khrushchev and Beria. Her role isn’t large but Kurylenko invests it with passion. She, along with Andrea Riseborough, playing Stalin's daughter, are the only women in the movie and both are inspired choices for their roles. 

The trick of The Death of Stalin is the tricky tone of the script which feels at once authentic and absurd. The key is finding the absurd within the authentic and Iannucci does that brilliantly, especially with an opening gag involving another brilliant character actor, Paddy Considine. As the film opens, Comrade Stalin is listening to a live performance on Moscow radio of a live band. Stalin decides he wants a recording of the performance but the performance has not been recorded. 

Immediately we sense how dangerous this moment is for Considine. It’s all in structure. We’ve seen Stalin’s death lists being signed and death squads being spread across the city. Considine’s producer has been told without it being said that if he can’t reproduce the broadcast he will be killed. So, he kidnaps what’s left of the audience and the band and sets about having the concert performed again under the threat of death for everyone from the band to the ignorant citizens Considine wrangles off the streets to fill in for missing audience members. 

It’s a masterfully dark gag and one that sets the darkly humorous tone for what is to come in The Death of Stalin. Iannucci appears to take many parts of this story quite seriously and allows the absurdity to arise from the bizarrely dire circumstances. Take Palin’s Molotov, a brilliantly doddering character, Molotov praised Stalin for seeming to have murdered his wife only to have her returned to him alive by Beria who has kept her under wraps just in case he needed her to bargain. 

The scene where she is returned is a Noises Off style gag wherein Khrushchev arrives at his home to scheme against Beria only to have Beria show up and just as Molotov is talking about how his wife deserved to die for criticizing Stalin, she is brought in the door and he welcomes her home, only to then make a running gag about how she deserved the fate that Stalin had assigned her even as he’s happy she’s home. 

My description doesn’t do justice to Pailin’s brilliantly absurd performance. He along with Buscemi are truly stand outs in this ridiculously talented ensemble. The two of them appear to have been ready built for Iannucci’s ingeniously dark and hysterical style of storytelling. Buscemi is particularly adept at switching from comedy to seriousness at the drop of a hat and without losing the complex rhythm of the story. 

Movie Review I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry

I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry (2007) 

Directed by Dennis Dugan 

Written by Barry Fanaro, Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor 

Starring Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Jessica Biel, Ving Rhames, Steve Buscemi, Dan Akroyd

Release Date July 20th, 2007

Published July 20th, 2007

For every little bit of progress Adam Sandler makes as an actor; he seems to take one step back. His performance earlier this year in the 9/11 drama Reign Over Me was a tremendous step forward for Sandler as an actor, if a bit of a step down from his usual box office stature. Like his very impressive turn in P.T Anderson's Punch Drunk Love which Sandler followed with the juvenile animated effort 8 Crazy Nights and the dull, unfunny rage of Anger Management, Sandler chooses to follow Reign Over Me with the childish attempt at P.C laughs in stereotypical clothes, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry.

Larry Valentine has a big problem. As a firefighter who rushes into the blaze to save lives, his life is often on the line. His work is very dangerous and with two kids at home to take care of, Larry wants to make sure they get his pension should something happen to him. Unfortunately, a paperwork snafu, in the wake of his wife's untimely death, has left Larry in a real bind. Should he be killed in action, his kids won't get his pension unless he gets married.

Unfortunately for Larry, there is only one person he would trust enough to make sure his kids were taken care of. his lifelong pal, Chuck Levine. This is where Larry crafts a real hairbrained scheme. Seeing a story in the paper about how the city of New York has legalized domestic partnerships for gay couples, Larry gets the idea to marry his pal Chuck.

Chuck is not exactly the ideal choice for this scam. He has a rather legendary reputation as a ladies man. In fact, when we first meet Chuck a pair of sexy twin sisters are fighting over him after he slept with both of them. Later, when Larry goes to tell Chuck his plan, he interrupts him while he is romancing several women at the same time.

Nevertheless, Chuck owes Larry his life after a fire call went bad, so he agrees and the two head for Canada to make it legal. Things get complicated when the city challenges the authenticity of their relationship and Larry hires a sexy lawyer named Alex (Jessica Biel) who immediately strikes a chord with Chuck and puts the whole scheme on thin ice.

This being a typical, brainless Adam Sandler effort you expect and get just about every stereotype known to man thrown in as comic asides. However, surprisingly enough, the biggest problem with I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry is not insensitivity, the film actually offers a pro gay agenda. Rather, the problem is much simpler than that. It's just not a very well made movie.

Directed by Adam Sandler's pet director Dennis Dugan (Big Daddy, Happy Gilmore), I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry never establishes a solid tone or any kind of charm. The film is crude and resorts more often to dull slapstick than to anything organically plot driven. The plot should be the focus, it's a big broad topic with many opportunities for satire. That, sadly, is well beyond the intellectual scope of Dugan and Sandler.

While there will be many who will be offended by the many stereotypes at use in I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, you will be surprised how fairminded and pro gay the film really is. Though the support is shallow because of the gutless direction of Dennis Dugan and the strip mined script by Sandler and Barry Fanaro, the film's heart is in the right place.

What really stinks is that you can see the potential for something a little more thoughtful, deeper and more satisfying. Jim Taylor and Alexander Payne, the team behind Election, About Schmidt and Sideways, delivered a version of this script that, those who have read it, say is sharper and more pointed in its humor and perspective. That version was flamed in favor of a more Sandler friendly version with all of the slapstick and self serving ego indulgences that are Sandler's hallmarks.

My biggest fear was that I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry would be a series of stereotypical jokes with a liberal use of the word f****t. Watching it, that is what we get. However, a heavy dose of positivity manages to balance things out in a very surprising way. That positive feeling however, is not enough to make the film funnier than it is or more believable than it is.

I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry suffers the ego of its star Adam Sandler who compromises much of what might have worked in the film in favor of fellating his own ego. What a shame, there was a good deal of potential here.

Movie Review I Think I Love My Wife

I Think I Love My Wife (2007) 

Directed by Chris Rock 

Written by Louis C.K 

Starring Chris Rock, Kerry Washington, Gina Torres, Steve Buscemi, Orlando Jones, Wendell Pierce 

Release Date March 16th, 2007

Published March 16th, 2007

President Bill Clinton redefined infidelity in the 90's with his 'the definition of the word is' bit, but it was the great auteur Eric Rohmer who began the most thoughtful and incisive conversation about infidelity with his 1973 film Chloe In The Afternoon. That film wondered if infidelity of the mind was on par with actual infidelity and left audiences to answer that question for themselves.

Chris Rock is a big Eric Rohmer fan and has taken Rohmer's conversation about infidelity and added his own sensibilities to create the new film I Think I Love My Wife. The title is a daring, questioning, plea that I'm sure will make many married couples a little uncomfortable. This story about boring married life versus the constant excitement of what Rock has called in his stand-up routines "new pussy", is at times daring, at times touching and at times maddeningly cute.

Chris Rock is maturing as a filmmaker and this is a step forward but there is a way to go.

Richard Cooper is happily married with two kids but that doesn't mean he isn't bored out of his fucking mind. Richard and his wife Brenda (Gina Torres) have become roommates as much as they are husband and wife. They have stopped having sex and Richard is growing frustrated. It is at this crossroads that Richard gets a visit from an old friend who throws some excitement into his life.

Nikki (Kerry Washington) knew Richard before he got married, she dated a friend of his who had a nervous breakdown after she dumped him. Nikki comes to Richard for a job reference and becomes a fixture at his office, going out to lunch with him everyday so she can enlist his help in getting out of a bad relationship. Nikki can't believe Richard is married and she takes great pleasure in tweaking him about just how happy he is.

Nikki is exciting, sexy and flirtatious and Richard is very intrigued. As Nikki keeps showing up at his office Richard finds himself risking his marriage and his job for the excitement of spending time with Nikki. Will he take the chance for an exciting affair with Nikki or will he return to his comfortable but boring life as a suburban husband and father.

Written and directed by Chris Rock, I Think I Love My Wife wants to be taken seriously while still being funny. Rock nearly pulls that off. However, broad jokes involving viagra and fantasy sequences about women in their underwear on the streets of New York undercut the film's more serious purposes. Similar problems permeated Rock's last directorial effort; the political comedy Head Of State.

In Head Of State Rock played the first African American President of the United states. While much of his satire of race and politics was dead on, Rock could not resist his innate comedian's sense that the audience must laugh every ten to twenty seconds or something isn't right. As he did in Head of State and does again in I Think I Love My Wife. Rock cannot simply stand by and allow the story to be told. He forces in jokes and sight gags and an odd bit of singing that get in the way of an otherwise thoughtful and serious minded examination of marriage and infidelity.

I found an interesting correlation between this film and Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut. Both films examine betrayal, apathy and fidelity and though I Think I Love My Wife is more straightforward in terms of storytelling; Eyes Wide Shut is more true emotionally. Where Rock pulls punches Kubrick's metaphors are like body blows landing with impact, especially the ending which has just the kick needed to send audiences home reeling. Rock goes for a very similar ending in his film however, an ill-timed musical number, yes I said musical number, cuts into the truth of the moment and sells it out in favor of a bit.

Gina Torres as Rock's wife Brenda in I Think I Love My Wife delivers the film's truest dramatic performance. Her measured, practical observations of Richard's behavior, belying a naivete of his actions with Nikki, are some of the most compelling moments in the film. Torres takes a character written as something of a cold fish and infuses her with a hidden passion and fire that comes out in quiet, desperate moments that are some of the films best.

Chris Rock's stand up comedy act has always been edgy and insightful. Most people remember his controversial rants on politics and race. However, it is on the topic of relationships where his most insightful work comes from. In his Bigger and Blacker special from 2000, Rock masterfully demonstrated the benefits of marriage over being single with brutal honesty.

Rock talked openly about how marriage is boring. Why don't men want to be married? How easy it is for a man to cheat. But the overarching point was still strongly made by weighing his options. You can be married and bored or single and lonely. Rock chose marriage and boredom and now he's written a movie about this very topic.

I Think I Love My Wife attacks this same topic with similar honesty and openness and though some of his more broad gags get in the way of the film's very real drama, the humor still carries the day in this loving tribute to bored married couples.

Chris Rock remaking Eric Rohmer? It's not as far-fetched as it might seem. Both are fascinated with the same topics, morality, politics, infidelity, women. One just happens to be from the French New Wave and the other is a brilliant stage comedian. I Think I Love My Wife is much more heavy handed than Rohmer's more thoughtful take, but it's also much funnier than Rohmer's Chloe In The Afternoon.

Though there really is no need to compare these two films in terms of quality. Rohmer was a far more experienced filmmaker in 1973 than Rock is today. It's unfair to expect Rock to match Rohmer in his command of the medium. Where the two cross paths well is in insightful examinations of the subject. Both are equally fascinated with the mechanics of marriage and relationships and both have something unique and interesting to say about them.

I Think I Love My Wife adds a good deal of humor to the equation and that is mostly welcome, except when it becomes a crutch. Chris Rock needs to learn to let his storytelling breath and that there is no need to shoehorn in the jokes. The humor can come from the characters and the situation. After watching I Think I Love My Wife I can see that Rock is learning these lessons and I can't wait to see him mature further.

Movie Review: Monsters, Inc.

Monsters, Inc. (2001

Directed by Pete Docter

Written by Andrew Stanton, Daniel Gerson

Starring John Goodman, Billy Crystal, Steve Buscemi, James Coburn 

Release Date November 2nd, 2001 

Published November 2nd, 2001 

What is the future of the animated film?

Many thought we would find out in Final Fantasy, but if beautiful computer graphics over the top of lame spiritual platitude and sci-fi conventions as old as time then animation is in trouble. My hope is the future of animation lies with the brilliant artists at Pixar who with Toy Story and Toy Story 2 and their latest Monsters Inc. are revolutionizing animation the way Disney did with Snow White. 

Monsters Inc. is the story of Sully and Mike a pair of workaday monsters whose job it is to scare children into screaming and thus providing electricity to the city of Monstropolis. Mike and Sully are voiced by Billy Crystal and John Goodman who are so brilliantly matched you would never guessed they have never worked together before. Steve Buscemi provides the voice of Randall the chameleon-like bad guy and Oscar winner James Coburn is there multi-legged boss. All the voicework is flawless with each actor finding exactly the right pitch for there character.

Monsters Inc. is hampered a little by a tendency toward sickening sweetness but the story is so wonderful that the sugar-shock is worth it. 

If you didn't like Toy Story 1 and 2 you don't have a soul, the same could be said if you didn't like Monsters Inc. Forget about that whole animation is for kids stigma and go see this movie and be a kid again. Monsters Inc. is one of the best movies of the year.

Movie Review: Domestic Disturbance

Domestic Disturbance (2001) 

Directed by Harold Becker 

Written by Lewis Colick 

Starring John Travolta, Vince Vaughn, Teri Polo, Steve Buscemi 

Release Date November 2nd, 2001 

Published November 2nd, 2001 

John Travolta has a history of redeeming bad movies. Look at movies like Broken Arrow, The General's Daughter and Swordfish all bad movies made better by having Travolta as the star. Through the sheer force of charisma and charm, Travolta takes bad material and makes it fun and entertaining. However, not even Travolta can save Domestic Disturbance, one of the worst films of 2001.

Domestic Disturbance is the story of a young boy who witnesses his stepfather, played by Vince Vaughn, committing a murder. Is the kid crying wolf? Only his father played by Travolta believes he's telling the truth. Of course none of this matters to the audience who are always 20 minutes ahead of the characters.

The film's marketing campaign pretty well gives away the story by touting Travolta as the good guy. If he's the good guy obviously there is a bad guy, and make no mistake you already know who that is too. 

Of course, a good movie could possibly overcome such a bad marketing campaign. Unfortunately, Domestic Disturbance is a terrible film. There are stock characters and situations seen many times before and numerous other lame thriller shortcuts. The most egregious of the cliched cheats in Domestic Disturbance is the use of the child in danger trope. 

The oldest and arguably worst trick in the suspense genre, placing a child in danger is a cheap way to involve the audience. We may not care about the adult idiot characters, but a good person may worry about a child, even in the least convincing thriller.  That's not to say that Domestic Disturbance is effective in any way. Rather, it's a baseline of involvement akin to, hey, don't hurt that small child you idiotic film director. 

Domestic Disturbance also features the classic dumb thriller cop. A movie like Domestic Disturbance couldn't live without the dumb cop who, despite all the evidence, remains completely ignorant. A competent cop would require the screenwriters to do a little more work to make their plot believable and that would be way way more work than anyone involved in Domestic Disturbance wanted to do. 

Ignorant, brain-dead, and insulting, Domestic Disturbance will be on my list of the 10 worst films of the year.

Movie Review: Big Fish

Big Fish (2003) 

Directed by Tim Burton 

Written by John August 

Starring Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, Billy Crudup, Jessica Lange, Steve Buscemi, Alison Lohman, Marion Cotillard, Danny Devito 

Release Date December 10th, 2003 

Published December 9th, 2003 

Tim Burton is a grand storyteller with a painter’s eye for color and depth. His films are often beautifully rendered and smartly written, a very rare combination. When his talent is fully engaged, as it was on his masterpieces Edward Scissorhands and Sleepy Hollow, he is an auteur that ranks with the all time greats. 

However, there are occasions when Burton seems less than engaged with his material, such as in his blockbuster works Planet Of The Apes and Batman Returns. His latest effort, Big Fish, looks like his kind of material but has moments when Burton doesn't feel fully committed to what is onscreen.

Ewan McGregor and Albert Finney portray Edward Bloom at two very different times in the man’s life. McGregor is the upstart Edward having grand adventures on his way to being something big. Finney's Edward is an old man on his deathbed, endless recalling the exploits of his young self.  Edward's son Will (Billy Crudup) has heard all of his father’s wild tales over and over again since he was a child. Now as his father's life is coming to an end, Will longs to know the truth. Instead, all he gets are more wild stories.

These dream sequences of young Edward Bloom are the kind of wild fantasies that Burton feels perfectly at home in. These stories include a real life giant played by Matthew McGrory, a circus with an eccentric ringleader (Danny Devito) and a city lost in time where there are no streets, just grass, and no one wears shoes. All of the stories are told with a magical veneer and there is slight sheen over the picture in these scenes that add to the dream imagery.

The central story to the flashbacks is Edward's romance with his wife Sandra, played by Alison Lohman and Jessica Lange. The romance is sweet, sincere and lovingly old fashioned and easily the film’s strongest subplot. What surrounds that story however, is somewhat unsatisfying.  We in the audience are like Edward's son, looking for a little bit of the real Edward Bloom. Listening to Albert Finney wheeze through a flashback setup, its not hard to see why Will is so exasperated with his father.

For his part Tim Burton isn't all that invested in his non-flashback scenes, preferring to put his artistic focus on the fantasy elements of the film. He seems to treat the other stuff as filler that give the flashbacks just enough context to get by. This makes for half of a very satisfying film.

The dreamlike fantasy flashbacks are artfully crafted fantasy, eye candy, humor and beauty. Unfortunately the other scenes, the non-fantasy scenes, are unsatisfying melodrama and good deal of screen chewing by Albert Finney. Billy Crudup does his best to ground these scenes, doing so well that he darn near saves the film with a terrific scene that takes place in a hospital room. It's a touching scene but not enough for me to give Big Fish a full recommendation. It’s not bad but this is not Burton at his best.

Movie Review The Grey Zone

The Grey Zone (2002) 

Directed by Tim Blake Nelson

Written by Tim Blake Nelson

Starring David Arquette, Steve Buscemi, Harvey Keitel, Mira Sorvino, Natasha Lyonne 

Release Date October 18th, 2002 

Published October 15th, 2002 

It's amazing, the amount of stories there are left to tell about World War 2. So many perspectives: Survivors, saviors, agressors and evildoers, each with their own story to tell.

No stories are as poignant as those of the survivors of the Holocaust. Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List went inside the worst of the German concentration camps and now Tim Blake Nelson's The Grey Zone takes the point of view of a German camp in Poland. Although The Grey Zone isn't the masterpiece that Schindler's List was, it is a moving and shockingly visceral film experience.

Of the many untold stories of the Holocaust one of the most heartbreaking is that of Jewish people who, to prolong their own lives, worked for the German soldiers preparing other Jews to die in the gas chamber. The Grey Zone takes us inside one of these groups called Sonderkommandos, considered by the German army to be among the most coldly efficient. However no matter how well they do their job fooling other jews into thinking they are just taking a mass shower and not being gassed to death, the members of this group are aware that no one in their position has ever lasted longer than four months and time is nearly up.

Amongst this group of self preservationists are a group of familiar faces including David Arrquette and Daniel Benzali. Working with them from another camp is an industrious Polish Jew played by Steve Buscemi who trades strategic information with this group as they plan an uprising. Another subplot involves a group of women including Mira Sorvino and Natasha Lyonne, working in a German munitions plant and stealing gun powder to use as part of the uprising.

The film seems to be a shocking story of the planning of an uprise while doing anything to survive, but it takes a far more human turn when a young girl survives the gas chamber and the Sonderkommandos risk the uprising to save her.

The film is based on a book by Dr. Miklos Nyiszli called Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eye Witness Account. Dr. Nyiszli, a Jewish doctor who stayed alive by agreeing to work with the evil Dr. Josef Mengele performing horrific experiments on jewish children. Dr. Nyiszli was at Auschwitz and was under the direct supervision of a commander named Muhsfeldt (Harvey Keitel). Muhsfeldt attempted to use the doctor to spy on the Sonderkommandos, whom he suspects of plotting something, though he isn't certain what. The doctor doesn't agree to spy, but offers by Muhsfeldt to save his wife and daughter may have led him to give more information than he may have wanted.

The Grey Zone offers no judgement of the Sonderkommandos and indeed it is difficult to take them to task for what they did. I would venture to say that the results of their treachery were punishment enough. They did what they could to survive and the uprising they planned and executed, blowing up a pair of German crematoriums, saved lives. These men and woman weren't saints but they were human, far more human than their captors, no matter what they were responsible for.

Director Tim Blake Nelson makes it two excellent films in a row. His sophomore turn behind the camera, the slickly-produced modern take on Shakespeare's Othello called "O", was a poetic and strikingly sad movie. It is however not nearly as sad or hard hitting as The Grey Zone, which is as gritty and frightening as it is sad. Even an actor of David Arquette's calibur can't ruin this powerful and emotional film.

Movie Review: Youth in Revolt

Youth in Revolt (2010) 

Directed by Miguel Arteta

Written by Gustin Nash

Starring Michael Cera, Portia Doubleday, Jean Smart, Ray Liotta, Steve Buscemi, Fred Willard

Release Date January 8th, 2010

Published January 8th, 2010 

Michael Cera is not everyone's cup of tea. His fey, nonchalant nebbish-ness is a put off for some but not for me. From “Arrested Development” to “Superbad” to now “Youth in Revolt” and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,” Cera's persona has become a wonderful comic tool that he wields with precision. It's fair to say that “Youth in Revolt” takes the Michael Cera persona to an extreme but it worked for me and will work for anyone who counts them a Cera fan.

Michael Cera stars in Youth in Revolt as Nick Twisp a shy young man living with his slatternly mother (Jean Smart) and her loser boyfriend of the moment, Jerry (Zach Galifianakis). When Jerry gets in trouble with some local tough the 'family' has to go on the run. They take refuge in a trailer park where Nick spies the girl of his dreams, Sheeni Saunders (Portia Doubleday).

Sheeni initially has no interest in Nick but his persistence is flattering and eventually she gives him a break but only after he becomes the bad boy of her dreams. Nick is no bad boy but when he manages to tick off Sheeni's parents it begins an unintended reputation that Nick must foster in order to keep Sheeni's attention.

After Jerry disappears Nick is forced to return home. Once there and torn from his beloved Sheeni, Nick must hatch a plan, a plan that will allow him to move back. This elaborate fiasco involves getting his dad (Steve Buscemi) a job and a place to live near the trailer park. Then, he has to convince his mom to kick him out and force him to live with dad. The ways in which Nick goes about this are part of a tricky, gloriously odd series of events that make up the plot of Youth in Revolt.

Director Miguel Arteta brings wonderfully subtle rhythm to some rather outlandish scenes and the conflict between the tone and the happenings in Youth in Revolt somehow emerges charming and very funny. The ways in which the direction is passive and the action is not clash so perfectly that if pushed in a more or less active direction the movie would tumble over.

Strangely, while the role of Nick Twisp seems custom built for the Michael Cera persona; “Youth in Revolt” is actually based on a series of novels from the early 1990's from writer C.D Payne. I have never read the novels but according to those who have it is as if Nick Twisp predicted Michael Cera and waited for his arrival before he could be brought to the big screen.

There is no other actor who could bring Nick Twisp to life other than Michael Cera. The changes of persona, the ways in which Nick imagines a more confident version of himself named Francois Dillinger, these are seemingly natural shifts for Michael Cera that would seem like comic extensions for other actors. Cera makes the move organic as if creating Francois came from his own mind.

People tend to see the Michael Cera persona as an example of limited range. I however, feel that what Michael Cera does on screen is quite challenging. He's like a modern day Chaplin carrying The Tramp persona from film to film, giving him different dimensions and playing him against different backgrounds and characters to a new and wonderful comic effect.  

Watch Michael Cera in interviews and then watch Michael Cera in movies and on TV and you get the full picture of the Michael Cera character. It is as if his entire career was a performance art piece that he keeps spinning out further in role after role with different names but always the same character in a new and fascinating comic context. It's rather genius if you like what Michael Cera does.

If you aren't a fan then you will call it limited range and dismiss Cera as some one note performer. I happen to be a huge fan and I love his work more and more each time out and I feel like I am in on a wonderful running gag that never stops and grows more and more fascinating with each role. One of these days the Michael Cera persona is going to hit upon a role that will cross over from just funny to poignant and even moving and more people will begin to get it. “Youth in Revolt” likely isn't that movie but for fans it's enough for now.

Movie Review: Charlotte's Web

Charlotte's Web (2006) 

Directed by Gary Winick 

Written by Susannah Grant, Karey Kirkpatrick 

Starring Julia Roberts, Dakota Fanning, Robert Redford, Steve Buscemi, Oprah Winfrey, Kathy Bates

Release Date December 16th, 2006 

Published December 15th, 2006 

Most people of my generation, Gen-X, were exposed to E.B White's classic children's fable Charlotte's Web by the cartoon adaptation that was a television staple since its creation in 1972. Interesting fact about that adaptation, E.B White hated it. He was wary of Hollywood to begin with and found the adaptation to be lightweight and far too Hollywood.

There is no telling what he would think of the latest incarnation of Charlotte's Web; White died in 1985. However, he did once hope that the film would be given a live action treatment. Under the whimsical direction of Gary Winick (13 Going On 30) with a slightly updated script by Karey Kirkpatrick (Over The Hedge) and Susannah Grant (In her Shoes), this live action Charlotte's Web has the kind of magic that I think E.B White may have appreciated, especially as a fan of talking animals.

Wilbur (voice of Dominic Scott Kay) was a runt pig on his way to slaughter. Thankfully, young Fern (Dakota Fanning) was witness to his birth and stepped in to prevent his execution. The first few months of this spring-pigs life were spent as Fern's pampered pet. However, once school started and the holiday season grew closer, Wilbur's fate seemed to be Christmas dinner.

No longer allowed to be Fern's pet, Wilbur is banished to the barn owned by Fern's uncle, Mr. Zuckerman, where a menagerie of not so friendly neighbors await. Maybe they are just being realistic and not wanting to get close to an animal so likely to be gone by the first snow, but the animals in the Zuckerman barn are a little standoffish.

That is, except for Charlotte (Julia Roberts), a spider who befriends the lonely little pig. Charlotte can relate to being an outcast. As a spider she is not exactly on good terms with her neighbors either. Some are afraid, like Ike the horse (Robert Redford), others are disgusted by her, like Samuel the sheep (John Cleese). Wilbur becomes Charlotte's first friend. Eventually the two become close enough that Charlotte breaks the bad news to him about his likely fate but also promises to find a way to save him.

When I first began seeing trailers for this new Charlotte's Web I was concerned. The trailers featured fart jokes which to me signaled desperation and created the worry that such modern touches would all involve bathroom humor. My memories of Charlotte's Web from childhood are of a classy cartoon that even made the rat Templeton acceptable, even as he rolled in garbage.

Thankfully, my worries were unfounded. The bathroom humor in Charlotte's Web is limited to just a few scenes. What is prevalent throughout this new adaptation is a classy, old school approach to storytelling. Director Gary Winick spins a wondrous tale that is the perfect mixture of sugary sap and honest, touching emotion. The film is at times so saccharine you need to call your dentist but by the end you will find that you've spent the entire film with a smile on your face and maybe even a hint of a tear in the corner of your eye as one of the main characters passes away.

Julia Roberts provides the voice of Charlotte and her soft, honey soaked tones are so soothing you can't help but fall in love with this spider. Soft and sweet, her voice is the calming element needed to leaven the mood of the other voice actors who are either hyper or extremely put on. Roberts brought a similar vocal smoothness to the animated film The Ant Bully earlier this year, another film where her voice-work stands out.

Like the animated version of this story, this Charlotte's Web has a lovely timeless quality. Even with the CGI necessary to create the talking animals, Charlotte's Web has such a classic look and such an old school approach to storytelling that it seems like it could have existed 40 years ago. Director Gary Winick perfectly captures the innocence of E.B White's fable, his characters ,and even the slightly dark undertones of the story that give it such depth and resonance.

Charlotte's Web is at times a little cloying and at times a little too sweet but most of all, Charlott'e Web is a solidly crafted piece of G-rated children's entertainment. The nostalgia factor makes it appealing to adults as well as children but parents will likely be surprised just how much they enjoy  the feel of this film even beyond their memories of the cartoon and the classic book.

Movie Review G-Force

G-Force (2009) 

Directed by Hoyt H Yeatman Jr. 

Written by Cormac Wibberly, Marianne Wibberly 

Starring Zach Galifianakis, Nicolas Cage, Penelope Cruz, Tracy Morgan, Will Arnett, Steve Buscemi 

Release Date July 24th, 2009 

Published July 23rd, 2009 

The star of The Hangover, the foul mouthed lowbrow road comedy sensation of summer 2009, Zach Galifianakis, changes gears completely in the family adventure comedy, G-Force. Going from debauchery in Vegas to daring do alongside computer generated guinea pigs, Galifianakis may have one of the most successful and schizophrenic summer movie seasons of any actor ever.

In G-Force Zach Galifianakis plays Ben, the head scientist in a secret government lab that trains animals as spies. Ben started by training cockroaches to carry bugging devices (HA!). His greatest breakthrough however is inventing a way for guinea pigs to speak and then perform tasks. Sending them into the field for the first time, Ben has G-Force, as they come to be called, infiltrate the home of a wealthy industrialist (Bill Nighy) with alleged ambitions for taking over the world. G-Force is made up of Darwin (Sam Rockwell), Blaster (Tracy Morgan), Juarez (Penelope Cruz) and Speckles (Nicolas Cage). Speckles is a mole and a computer expert.

G-Force unfortunately fails their first mission. The evidence they thought they found was corrupted. This leads to the team being taken away from Ben and the whole operation getting shutdown by Agent Killian (Will Arnett). G-Force ends up in a pet shop but eventually their training kicks in and they are soon back on the case, even as their own government chases them down. Will they stop the tycoon from taking over the world? Do you care?

OK. You likely don't care and neither, really, will the target audience of children. What matters in G-Force are the little pleasures like a touch of the lowbrow humor, a waste of time car chase involving giant SUVs and tiny plastic hamster balls, and the sight of star Zach Galifianakis so convincingly interacting with CGI rodents.

G-Force, as most kids movies these days, is in 3D and while it adds very little to the proceedings, G-Force at least can slightly justify the use with some big time, flying at the screen action set pieces. The 3D isn't as forced as a lot of the modern 3D films and because G-Force is not a colorful or visually dynamic movie the 3D doesn't harm the experience like it did with animated films like Coraline and Up.

Is G-Force a good movie? Eh, not really. But, by the lowered standards of the kiddie flick it's not bad. Zach Galifianakis makes the most of his limited screen time and he's become a very welcome presence in movies. Bottom line is, as 3D kiddie fare goes, I can recommend G-Force even if I have already begun to forget it.

Movie Review The Island

The Island (2005) 

Directed by Michael Bay 

Written by Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, Caspian Tredwell-Owen 

Starring Ewan McGregor, Scarlett Johansson, Djimon Hounsou, Sean Bean, Steve Buscemi 

Release Date July 22nd, 2005 

Published July 21st, 2005 

If you cannot appreciate the exquisite irony of director Michael Bay remaking a film, Parts: The Clonus Horror, that was a feature attraction on the cult TV classic "Mystery Science Theater 3000", then clearly we are not on the same page. Here you have the single most hackneyed director of all big budget directors taking on material that is already bad with the chance to actually make it worse. That is just beautiful.

(Note: According to recent litigation, Michael Bay and Dreamworks are fighting a copyright lawsuit from the Director of Parts: The Clonus Horror)

My enjoyment however is short lived. Because, though I still despise the work of Mr. Bay, I cannot hate his new film The Island, a film that inspires admiration for being the rare remake of a bad film into a moderately watchable film. There is something praiseworthy about not remaking a good film and instead making a bad film better. That doesn't mean The Island is a great film but it is at least much better than I had expected.

Ewan McGregor stars in The Island as Lincoln Six Echo, one of only thousands of survivors of some sort of plague that has contaminated the earth. Forced to live in an underground facility, Lincoln and his fellow white-jump suited neighbors have their every whim catered to and every action monitored. After surviving the plague, with the help of Dr. Merrick (Sean Bean), each of the survivors had to relearn how to read, write and do generally anything that may have come easily to them before.

This is not exactly the most exciting way to live. In between being re-educated, Lincoln cannot eat what he wants, a computer monitors his every action, and he cannot interact with the opposite sex for fear of.... well we aren't sure. It is just forbidden by the powers that be that the survivors cannot be involved with one another. This is hard on poor Lincoln whose best friend is the beautiful Jordan Two Delta (Scarlett Johannsson) who seems to share Lincoln's forbidden attraction.

The only real excitement in the facility is a nightly lottery where one person is selected to leave for the final unspoiled place in the world, The Island. It's a dreamlike paradise in place to keep people doing their jobs and not rocking the boat out of fear they will never be allowed into paradise. Lincoln, however, seems unconcerned about the island.  That is not to say he is not interested in the outside world, but he prefers the earthy meanderings of one of the facilities utility workers, McCord (played by Steve Buscemi), the rare person with a good memory of the world before the plague

It is while visiting McCord that Lincoln stumbles upon a frightening secret:  there is no island and his life and the lives of everyone he knows are not at all what they believe. The film's commercials give away what should have been a surprise twist.  There was no plague.  Lincoln, Jordan, and everyone they know, aside from Dr. Merrick and his staff, are clones. Lincoln and everyone he knows have been created as spare parts for rich people just in case they find themselves needing a kidney or liver or other body part. A trip to the Island is really a trip to execution after whatever necessary body parts are harvested.

The Island has a very intriguing sci-fi setup that establishes a classic sci-fi story in just the first third of the film. It's unfortunate that Bay abandons this direction after only 40 minutes or so. From there the film reverts to the classic Michael Bay formula: run, scream, boom! Lincoln is able to rescue Jordan right before she is to be shipped to the island and once they escape it's all explosions and chase scenes as Dr. Merrick hires ex-military mercenaries lead by Djimon Hounsou to track them down and kill them before they can reveal the secrets of the facility.

What I cannot deny is that much of The Island is very entertaining even after its most interesting scenes are long forgotten. Bay's explosions and chases are bigger and louder than ever. Stylistically, Mr. Bay has never evolved from his days directing commercials and music videos, however he has become more professional.  His work is tighter and better executed than it ever has been before. Now if he could only evolve past the need to stuff his film with product placement, maybe more of his films would be as watchable as The Island.

Mr. Bay's work on The Island is greatly aided by a story that is better than any Bay has ever attempted to tell. The sci-fi premise is intriguing and though it is too quickly abandoned, the two stars, Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johannsson deliver winning performances that carry the audience through Bay's usual special effects bonanzas. There has been a little buzz about the film having a message involving cloning but this is still a Michael Bay movie and messages or morals are really not welcome.

Working with Bay for the first time on The Island is Cinematographer Mauro Fiore and the teaming is a strong one. Deep cold blues and darkness fill the indoor scenes but it is when the characters leave the sci-fi prison that Mr. Fiore really shines.  Mr. Fiore's sun baked visuals mimic the feeling of the protagonists who have never seen the sun before.  At first it is bright, almost blinding, and then slightly burned but focused.  

Fiore was perfectly prepared to work with Bay after working twice with another music video veteran Antoine Fuqua, first on Training Day and then on Tears of the Sun. Both of those films featured a similar slightly washed out or burned look that played well against the stories being told. As strong as Mr. Fiore's work is Bay's visual style still tends toward the facile perfection of music videos, though that likely owes more to his quick-cut editing style and lemming-like loyalty to slow motion under and up camera moves.

The Island is not a great film but by the standards set by Michael Bay's previous films, it is a regular magnum opus.  I still don't hold a great deal of optimism for Bay's future career, so I might be inclined to even say this is his Citizen Kane.  About as close as he'll get at least.  By realistic standards, The Island is an entertaining but flawed sci-fi action piece with two terrific stars who make the film better by the force of their charisma and star power. For Mr. Bay, hopefully it's a sign that his next movie, an adaptation of the kids cartoon "Transformers", might not completely suck.