Movie Review: The Eyes of Tammy Faye

The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2021) 

Directed by Michael Showalter 

Written by Abe Sylvia 

Starring Jessica Chastain, Andrew Garfield, Vincent D'Onofrio, Cherry Jones 

Release Date September 17th, 2021 

Published December 24th, 2021 

A trope that has become overused in biopics is the necessity to provide a literal explanation for something that becomes part of the life of a famous person after they become famous. With that in mind, I was prepared with a heavy sigh and an eye roll while watching the biopic, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, all about the life of Tammy Faye Bakker, played by Jessica Chastain. As I started the movie, I girded myself for a very literal explanation of why Tammy Faye began wearing garish clown-like makeup. 

What a surprise then to see that the main explanation of Tammy’s love for makeup was simply because she liked makeup. The backstory of Tammy Faye’s makeup gets a very brief scene at the very start of the movie and is mostly left behind as Tammy’s true obsession is revealed to be religion and being completely oblivious. Credit goes to director Michael Showalter who makes many smart choices in how to bring the unusual life of Tammy Faye Bakker to the big screen. 

The Eyes of Tammy Faye stars Jessica Chastain in the role of Tammy Faye Bakker and Andrew Garfield as her husband, con-man conservative Christian talk show host, Jim Bakker. The two met at a bible college in Minnesota. Here, Jim preached prosperity gospel, much to the dismay of his professors but to the great delight of his classmate, Tammy Faye. It was, and likely remains, Jim Bakker’s belief that God wants certain people to have great wealth and anyone with great wealth is therefore blessed by God. 

Never mind all of that stuff Jesus said about the poor, Jim Bakker was not one who believed that there was divinity in poverty. Thus he set out to be rich by any means necessary. After marrying Tammy Faye, Jim took Tammy Faye on the road where they preached the gospel and Jim took out loans and raised money for their personal needs via the many church congregations that accepted him as a guest preacher. 

Meanwhile, Tammy Faye also had her eyes on the horizon, searching for her big break. That break comes when Tammy Faye incorporates a puppet show into their preaching and singing and it gets seen by leaders of the Christian Broadcast Network, owned and operated by Pat Robertson (Gabriel Olds) and Jerry Falwell (Vincent D’Onofrio). They jump at the chance to bring the young and talented Jim and Tammy Faye aboard for a kids show but Jim has bigger plans. 

After finding success with children, Jim pitches himself as the host of a late night religious talk show that would be called The 700 Club. This comes at a cost however, to his marriage as a pregnant Tammy Faye is left off of the show and sulks at home. Before long Tammy Faye is demanding that Jim spend time with her while also getting in his ear about how they should be making more money. It’s Tammy Faye who plants the seeds that would become their crowning achievement, PTL, Praise the Lord the cable channel. 

Here is where Jim and Tammy Faye would find multi-million dollar success but also eventually find their grave downfall. As successful as the PTL was, Jim’s dedication to prosperity gospel drove him to constantly spending more than the PTL was bringing, especially spending it on himself while allowing Tammy Faye to shop to her heart’s content. While Jim desperately chases every dollar, Tammy Faye quickly comes to recognize the emptiness of their lives and the conflict between Jim and Tammy Faye eventually spills into their very public downfall. 

It’s a good story but not one that translates easily to a film narrative. Despite what The Eyes of Tammy Faye might want you to believe, Tammy Faye is not an entirely sympathetic character. Some might be able to buy Tammy Faye as a naïve innocent, as Jessica Chastain plays her, but reality also indicates that Tammy Faye was as or even more ambitious than her husband. Even as she may have been a victim of her husband's duplicitousness, she very much indulged and enjoyed the lifestyle trappings that his scheming made possible. 

The Eyes of Tammy Faye quite often tips into hagiography, as if the filmmakers and star Jessica Chastain were striving to make Tammy Faye a martyr and a counterpoint to her con-man husband. I say that but I don't say it with a great deal of confidence, especially after a final scene that appears to push the film into an area of camp that seems to both deify and deflate the legacy the film had been building for Tammy Faye. The final moments highlight a problem with The Eyes of Tammy Faye that's difficult to explain. 

For most of the movie, it doesn't appear that the film has a sense of humor regarding Tammy Faye, she's not being pitied or parodied. The final act, and especially the final scene of the movie, are the first time we get a sense of what I know I was looking for in the film, a slightly more savage and unrelenting look at Tammy Faye. In the final scene, the film reaches a remarkable climax that is both high camp and genuinely emotional. It's a moment where the potential of The Eyes of Tammy Faye emerges. Sadly, it emerges to late to rescue the movie and instead serves to highlight the tone that was missing from the first two acts of The Eyes of Tammy Faye. 

Ultimately, I am mixed on The Eyes of Tammy Faye. I adored the ending and I loved elements of Jessica Chastain's full bodied performance as Tammy Faye. The problem, for me, appears to be that Chastain started to like Tammy Faye and feel protective of her. That appears at times to be at odds with the tone that director Michael Showalter is going for. The disconnect between her desire to do justice to Tammy Faye and Showalter's high wire act attempt to bridge Chastain's performance into his more savage send up of Tammy Faye, ultimately short circuits both Chastain and Showalter's efforts. 

Movie Review The Help

The Help (2011) 

Directed by Tate Taylor

Written by Tate Taylor 

Starring Viola Davis, Emma Stone, Octavia Spencer, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jessica Chastain

Release Date August 10th, 2011 

Published August 9th

"The Help" catches you off guard with warmth and humor in the midst of great turmoil. A tremendous cast of extraordinary women will move you to laugh and to cry within the space of moments. This story of racism, civil rights and dignity in the face of undignified circumstances finds glorious moments of grace and humor amidst a story that invites anger and sadness.

Emma Stone stands at the center of "The Help" as Eugenia 'Skeeter' Phelan, a budding journalist who returns to her family home in Jackson, Mississippi in 1963. Things haven't changed much since she left but they are about to. Skeeter's writing career is about to take off after she gets the idea to write a scathing novel that exposes the ugly, racist side of Jackson's high society.

Bryce Dallas Howard plays Hilly, a high strung ex-classmate who touches off Skeeter's controversial idea by angrily insisting that her African American maid, Mini (Octavia Spencer), not use her bathroom. Hilly is convinced that Black people carry different diseases than white people and she intends to start a trend in Jackson of building separate bathrooms in everyone's home for the Help.

Mini is soon fired after she refuses to use the outdoor bathroom in the midst of a hurricane. Eventually, Mini will tell her stories about Hilly to Skeeter for her book which will for the first time tell a story from the perspective of The Help. First to aid Skeeter however, is Aibileen (Viola Davis) who decides that telling her story is necessary after seeing another maid arrested for doing something desperate to take care of her kids.

Soon other maids are talking and Skeeter has a remarkable book that is more than just juicy gossip; it may be an article for change. In the time of the story of The Help Medgar Evers and President Kennedy are assassinated and Dr. Martin Luther King is risking his life to lead the fight for Civil Rights. This historic context lends seriousness to The Help that underlines the film's poignancies.

This remarkable cast has the power to move audiences with just a word or a glance. The emotional strength of Viola Davis is matched by the fearlessness and attitude of Octavia Spencer and each creates a bond with Emma Stone that allows the book writing scenes to crackle with unexpected life and wit.

Bryce Dallas Howard has the most difficult role in The Help and pulls it off with remarkable ease. Howard is the focus of our hatred as the virulently racist Hilly and while it would have been easy to make Hilly a racist punch line, Howard invests Hilly with truth and life.

The revelation of "The Help," however, is not Stone or Davis or Howard but Jessica Chastain. In a role that really doesn't need to be in this movie in terms of plot, Jessica Chastain plays Celia Foote, a reputed gold digger who is desperate to be accepted into high society. Celia begins as a caricature of Southern flightiness but as the film goes on her pluck and spirit become so delightful that you wish she had a movie of her own to show off in.

This is Jessica Chastain's second Oscar worthy performance of 2011 following her stunning turn in the Terence Malick epic "Tree of Life." Chastain's work in "The Help" is such a transformation from "Tree of Life" that I didn't know it was her until I checked the credits after the movie; a demonstration of Chastain's amazing range.

"The Help" is one of my favorite movies of 2011; a smart, moving, funny and warm movie that features one of the most talented casts we've seen assembled in a long while. Emma Stone is about to be a huge star and Jessica Chastain is the next big thing while Viola Davis is the pillar of strength on whom the performances of others are built and find firm foundation.

Movie Review The Debt

The Debt (2011) 

Directed by John Madden 

Written by Matthew Vaughn, Jane Goldman, Peter Straughan 

Starring Jessica Chastain, Helen Mirren, Sam Worthington, Martin Csokas, Ciaran Hinds, Tom Wilkinson

Release Date August 31st, 2011 

Published August 30th, 2011 

"The Debt" is one of the bigger disappointments of 2010. A phenomenal cast, including Helen Mirren, Tom Wilkinson and Jessica Chastain, led by Oscar nominated director John Madden deliver a movie that is truly riveting until the final 15 minutes when the film flies so far off the rails that it trashes all that came before it.

"The Debt" tells the story of three Mossad agents who travel to East Germany at the height of the Cold War in an attempt to capture a Nazi war criminal (Jesper Christensen). This particular criminal is hiding out as a gynecologist thus creating the need for a female agent to join a pair of male agents already in place.

Rachel Singer (Jessica Chastain) is just 25 years old and working as a translator when she is drafted for this dangerous mission. She joins mission commander Stephan Gold (Martin Csokas) and the man who will pose as her husband, David Peretz (Sam Worthington), in East Germany where she will pose as a patient for the Nazi and get close enough to render him unconscious.

The mission is undoubtedly the most exciting sequence in "The Debt." Director John Madden brings an arm rest, squeezing tension to the scene where Rachel takes down the doctor and her fellow agents sneak the doctor out the side door. What happens next I will leave you to discover.

"The Debt" employs a shifting timeline that allows us a glimpse 30 years into the future. In the future Rachel's daughter has written a book about her mother's heroic actions in the capture of the butchering Nazi criminal. Rachel, now played by Helen Mirren, however, indicates by her lack of cooperation with her own daughter's book that something happened on the mission that we aren't entirely aware of.

Tom Wilkinson and Ciaran Hinds play the elder versions of Stephan and David and while Stephan has parlayed the results of the mission into a highly successful political career, David disappeared for a very long time before emerging on the eve of the release of Rachel's daughter's book.

What drove David underground and has Rachel feeling intense guilt? I will leave that for you to discover should you decide to see "The Debt." Sadly, I don't recommend that you do see "The Debt." Despite a few terrific scenes, another terrific performance from It-Girl Jessica Chastain, brilliant in both "The Help" and "The Tree of Life" earlier this year, and a very compelling turn by Helen Mirren, "The Debt" has a massive flaw that it cannot overcome.

The massive flaw, which I will not reveal, is in the film's ending. It's one of those endings that, if you're like me, will leave you shaking your head and wanting to say to director John Madden: Really? In an apoplectic fashion reminiscent of the SNL Weekend Update snark.

I cannot stress enough how wildly disappointing this ending is. The end of "The Debt" reduces the film to a message so juvenile and parochial that you just can't believe the filmmakers wasted their time with it. More importantly, you can't believe they wasted your time and that of this brilliant cast who deserved so much more.

"The Debt" is among the biggest disappointments of the year. There is so much good in this movie that only an ending as wildly ludicrous as this could take the movie from potential Oscar contender to a movie that I cannot recommend because of its massively, wildly flawed final minutes.

Movie Review: Captain Marvel

Captain Marvel (2019) 

Directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck 

Written by Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck, Geneva Robertson Dworet 

Starring Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, Jude Law, Lashana Lynch, Gemma Chan, Annette Bening, Scarlett Johansson

Release Date March 8th, 2019 

Published November 9th, 2023

When Captain Marvel was released in 2019 it managed to beat the hype of being just the latest entry in the smoking hot Marvel Cinematic Universe. Brie Larson came into full movie star form playing Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel. Larson’s chemistry with the cast was off the charts, the direction was kinetic and exciting and as a puzzle piece in the long term planning in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it was an incredibly satisfying fit. On top of all of that, it was just a great action movie.

Now, with The Marvels debuting and Captain Marvel back on the big screen as part of her own superhero team, it's the perfect time to reflect back on Carol's unique introduction to the MCU. With the Marvel Universe in flux, a lot bad press surrounding the most recent movies in that cinematic universe, it's nice to be reminded just how good Carol's introduction to the MCU really was.

Brie Larson stars as Captain Marvel, aka Carol Danvers, aka Vers to her fellow Kree Warriors. When we meet Carol she has been training as a Kree Warrior with a mysterious and forgotten past for several years. Flashes of memory keep popping up in her dreams but the pieces don’t fit. With the aid of her mentor and commander, Yon-Rogg (Jude Law), Vers attempts to keep her memories at bay while focusing on her training and managing her remarkable abilities.

After meeting for the first time with the Kree ‘Great Intelligence,’ Vers gets her very first mission. Under the command of Yon-Rogg, Vers will go to an alien planet and rescue a Kree spy in the midst of a Skrull controlled planet. The Skrulls are a race of dangerous aliens, the greatest foes of the Kree, who have the disturbing ability to morph their features into those of anyone they see down to a DNA level of mimicry.

In her first mission, Vers is captured and her memories are accessed and she is forced to confront her past. When she eventually makes her escape, her only way out is a Skrull escape pod programmed to go to Earth. Here, Carol will be forced to confront her true identity as she battles the Skrull leader Thalos to keep him from retrieving technology created by a figure from Carol’s past, Dr Lawson (Annette Bening), tech that could change the course of the war between Kree and Skrull forever.

Along for the ride, and discovering aliens for the first time in his career is Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson). Captain Marvel may be the origin story for Carol Danvers but it also provides a little more of the origin story for the future leader of Shield and the man behind the Avengers’ initiative. Captain Marvel is set in 1996 and the picture we get of a young-ish Nick Fury is pretty great. Baby-faced rookie Agent Phil Coulson is another standout treat.

The chemistry between Brie Larson as Carol and Sam Jackson’s Nick Fury is off the charts fantastic. These two actors have a comfort, familiarity and ease that would be more expected of actors who had worked together for years rather than having never met before. Larson and Jackson have a comic connection that never fails to charm and when it comes time to fight that same natural chemistry increases the fun and excitement in that arena as well.

Captain Marvel was the first major big screen release for the indie darling director duo of Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck and they proved themselves more than ready for the spotlight. The action is exceptionally captured and exciting, the special effects are flawless, the script is tight and focused and the character work is some of the best in the MCU. Much of this can be traced to the steady creative hands of Boden and Fleck.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media 

Movie Review Iron Man 2

Iron Man 2 (2010)

Directed by Jon Favreau 

Written by Justin Theroux 

Starring Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Mickey Rourke, Don Cheadle, Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell, Samuel L. Jackson

Release Date May 7th, 2010

Published May 6th, 2010 

Star power is that intangible quality that can turn even a bad movie into a brilliant one. Imagine Pirates of the Caribbean without Johnny Depp, Independence Day without Will Smith or any of the Ocean's 11 sequels. Star power can drive any movie to brilliance without the audience ever realizing that what surrounds the star is mostly a giant mess.

Iron Man 2 is not exactly a giant mess, but imagining it working without the incalculable star power of Robert Downey Jr is impossible.

When last we saw Tony Stark he was revealing himself to be the superhero Iron Man in his usual ostentatious fashion. Since then, Tony has run about the world privatizing world peace in our time. And boy is he ever aware of his power. Called to testify before Congress, Stark has no trouble humiliating Senators with his ever present wit and tech.

Even as his pal Major Rhodes (Don Cheadle in the military garb once worn by Terrence Howard) is called to testify against him, Stark flips, dodges and eventually walks out to cheers and applause.

Watching on TV in Russia is Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke), a man that Tony Stark is not aware has a connection to his father. Vanko's own father was in business with Tony's late father, together they invented the very arc reactor that Tony now uses on a smaller scale to keep him alive. Vanko's father was banished before he could reap any rewards and Ivan wants payback.

As for Tony, while he seems to be having a great time, he is growing ever weaker. The arc reactor is slowly killing him and if he cannot find a new power source he and Iron Man are finished. Keeping this fact from his longtime assistant Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) and his new assistant Natalie (Scarlett Johannson) is only a minor subplot meant to keep the ladies busy.

Plot aside, Iron Man 2 is about attitude, it's about cool and it's about big time action. Taken on these terms it is impossible not to enjoy. Robert Downey Jr has perfected the swagger of Tony Stark and found the sweet spot between ego and hero. Arrogance is his stock and trade but Downey's ability to make us part of the joke and not the subject of his arrogance is the paper thin difference between charisma and just being a jerk.

Jon Favreau's direction is mechanical and somewhat perfunctory but he knows how to keep his massive special effects under control while allowing RDJ to carry the weight of the movie with his persona. It may not be anything remotely related to artfulness but Favreau knows how to make Iron Man 2 what it is supposed to be, Robert Downey Jr’s magnum ego opus.

Iron Man 2 is not a work of art, it's not major cinema, its hardcore popcorn entertainment in the most joyous sense. Downey and Favreau and their cohorts deliver what fans want of Iron Man's big swinging ego, massive explosions, and inside baseball allusions to the planned Avengers movie, by the way, stay through the credits.

Movie Review: The Spirit

The Spirit (2008) 

Directed by Frank Miller 

Written by Frank Miller 

Starring Gabriel Macht, Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johansson, Eva Mendes, Sarah Paulson

Release Date December 25th, 2008 

Published December 24th, 2008 

The Spirit began as an insert in the Des Moines Register newspaper. Noticing the popularity of comic book superheroes the newspaper syndicate behind the Register and several other papers across the country launched their own comic book hero. They turned to in house artist Will Eisner who quickly turned out The Spirit. Fifty some years later The Spirit has been turned into a post-modern comic book movie in the hands of comics master Frank Miller. The adaptation is nearly as slipshod as the original creation was rushed.

Gabriel Macht plays The Spirit, a dead cop returned to life by his arch enemy as an experiment. The Octopus (Samuel L. Jackson) invented a potion and used the dead cop's body as a guinea pig. It worked, turning the cop into an unkillable but still human, crime fighting hero. Of course the Octopus dosed himself with his creation as well and as we join the story the two are in a futile, unwinnable battle of knives, guns and other such murderous implements that only serve to slow each other down. The Octopus however, has a plan.

He seeks an ancient vase that contains the blood of a human god. That blood will make him all powerful and finally able to kill the Spirit. Complicating his plan is a woman from The Spirit's past named Sand Serif (Eva Mendes). She is seeking a different ancient box with a different treasure when she comes to possess the vase. Will she give it to the Octopus or will she reunite with the Spirit? It's not as dramatic question as you might think.

The Spirit is filmed in the exact same black and white with color elements style as Sin City. In fact, it is fair to say that The Spirit is entirely derivative of Sin City. From the look to the hard-boiled dialogue to the timeless setting, The Spirit apes almost every aspect of Sin City minus the skilled direction of Robert Rodriguez. Before you try and correct me comment section, I am aware that Frank Miller's comics work inspired the look of Sin City, but that doesn't change how Miller brings nothing new or fresh to The Spirit.

Frank Miller learned direction at the side of Robert Rodriguez and you can definitely see Rodriguez's influence in The Spirit. Unfortunately, that's all you see. Miller brings no innovation, no new wrinkles whatsoever to The Spirit. Miller phones in the look of The Spirit, copying every aspect of Sin City. Without the cool of Sin City we are left with a pretty lame story of a bland undead cop and an over-acting Sam Jackson that wears through the camp appeal really quick. Gabriel Macht is so non-descript that his name is nearly forgotten before the credits roll.

The sight of Sam Jackson in ninja garb and a Nazi uniform loses its humor fast, choking under the weight of Jackson's scene chewing. Jackson has chewed the furniture before but never with such vigor as this. It could be campy fun but Jackson is far too earnestly snarling that the camp factor goes out the window and the just plain bad quickly takes over.

If you can figure out why Scarlett Johannson is in this movie you are a better man than I. Johannson is the biggest star in the cast and yet she is at best the fourth lead in the movie; playing second fiddle Jackson and his bellowing and gesticulating. Johannson remains the most appealing element of The Spirit but her choice of roles is monumentally puzzling.

The Spirit is a lame knockoff of Sin City with all of the style and none of the appeal of that modern classic.

Movie Review He's Just Not That Into You

He's Just Not That Into You (2009) 

Directed by Ken Kwapis 

Written by Abby Kohn, Marc Silverstein 

Starring Ben Affleck, Jennifer Aniston, Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Connelly Bradley Cooper, Justin Long 

Release Date February 6th, 2009 

Published February 5th, 2009

A book based on a line of dialogue from a TV show goes on to become a massive bestseller and adapted into a major motion picture. Shouldn't the TV writer get the credit? After all, Michael Patrick King, the Sex and the City writer and his staff, were the ones who came up with this bit of mini insight. Comedian 

Greg Behrendt merely filled in the margins around that line with banal generalizations, a few John Gray Mars and Venus cribs, and humor aimed at the lifeless Lifetime TV movie crowd. It was that episode of Sex and the City about Berger telling Miranda what men really think that had the 'He's Just Not That Into You' epiphany.

And let's be real here. There was more insight into relationships in that one 22 minute Sex and the City episode than there are in the 300 some pages of Greg Behrendt's book and the nearly 2 hour movie based on it. Skip the movie and the book, let's watch Sex and the City. Unfortunately, I had to see the movie and what a chore it is. Despite one of the most impressive casts this side of a Love Boat-Fantasy Island crossover episode, He's Just Not That Into is a brutal exercise in monotonous, whiny neuroses. If I wanted that I would tape my therapy sessions.

Ginnifer Goodwin is the ostensible lead of He's Just Not That Into You and the poor girl makes a sad, sad spectacle of herself as Gigi the whiniest and most neurotic of a cast full of whiny neurotics. Her Gigi can barely read street signs, forget the subtle signals of human interaction. When she goes out on a semi-decent date with Conor (Kevin Connelly) she seems normal, just a little clueless about the signs that he isn't really that into her. Later, as she waits for him to call for another date she spends endless, ear splitting minutes detailing exactly why she is certain he will call again, including a mind numbing dissertation on the banal phrase 'Nice meeting you'.

Needless to say, Conor doesn't call back. That however may or may not have anything to do with the supremely needy vibe that Gigi puts out, but because he is obsessed with Anna (Scarlett Johansson) a girl he slept with once and now hangs out with while not getting any anymore. He cannot understand why they aren't sleeping together anymore even though they still hang out. Anyone else want to wack this guy with a baseball bat? With his pal Alex (Justin Long) he rehashes a brief conversation he had with Anna over the phone, who he called right after his date with Gigi, and how she said she would call him right back but didn't.

Anna, you see, was at a grocery store and struck up a flirtation with Ben (Bradley Cooper) just as Conor was calling. She jumped off the phone with Conor despite the wedding ring on Ben's finger. Further, despite that ring, she pushes the flirting, getting his card ostensibly so he can pass it along to an agent friend of his, she's a singer. Ben is able to control himself for a little while though he and his wife Janine (Jennifer Connelly) have been arguing throughout the massive redecoration of their new home. She wants to talk tile patterns and whether he has actually quit smoking and he just wants to have sex with Anna.

All of these various troubled relationships are presented in the most general fashion with little character development and no really interesting dialogue. Director Ken Kwapis and writers Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein definitely do justice to Greg Behrendt's book but in so doing, they are left with the same lackluster, limp dating advice that populates that absurdly popular book. Kwapis is a terrific television director, he's done some fine work with The Office but in features, yeesh. His resume includes Beautician and the Beast and, ugh, License To Wed.

Then again, he also directed the original Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants which is a movie of great warmth, humor and empathy, all of which is absent from He's Just Not That Into You. Then again, Sisterhood is based on a much better book than He's Just Not That Into You. Not that I have read Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, I have read He's Just Not That Into You and I feel very comfortable making the assumption. Ken Kwapis has some talent, how he has made such terrible films, and one pretty good one, remains a mystery to me.

Ben Affleck, Jennifer Aniston and Drew Barrymore round out the all star cast of He's Just Not That Into You and they seem like they may be in entirely different movies. Affleck and Aniston actually escape the dreary humor free children mincing their way through this abyss of stupidity that is He's Just Not That Into You. As a couple who've been together for seven years without getting married they are saddled with the same mindless problems of the rest of the cast but they are onscreen so little and neither allows for any real whining about their problems, they miss out on the sad fates of the rest of the cast.

Poor Drew Barrymore arguably gets it the worst of anyone in arguably the smallest role in the movie. Shoehorned into the plot as Anna's best friend, Drew has a technology problem. With her MySpace page, her cellphone, her home phone, her work phone, her home email, her work email, she has to check every one every few minutes to get updates on her latest relationship. It's exhausting to be rejected in so many forms and she longs for the days of an answering machine. Ugh! Can someone just get this girl a blackberry? An IPhone? Something! Honestly, if modern tech is this hard for you, just give up. Go live in a cave somewhere.

And Drew's role is minuscule compared to Ginnifer Goodwin's Gigi who, if she were a real person, would likely have died from forgetting how to breathe. This is one of the most dull witted characters ever brought to the screen. I like Goodwin, she's an attractive girl who I know is not this mentally challenged. The character she is saddled with in He's Just Not That Into You is a flibbertigibbet moron who could barely read traffic signals, forget body language or even a direct answer from a guy telling her he is never going to call her.

Ladies, this movie is meant for you and the people who made it think that Gigi represents you. They think all of these ludicrous, brain-dead morons stand in for a type that you can relate to. This is what Hollywood thinks of you. If that is not a massive insult I don't know what is. Granted, the men in this movie don't get off easy, Kevin Connelly's Conor is pathetic beyond words, Bradley Cooper's Ben is pathetic and a jerk and Justin Long's Alex is arguably more clueless than anyone else in the film, likely because he is the stand in for Author Behrendt, as the advice giver of the group.

It is Alex who advises Gigi, regarding Conor, that 'He's Just Not That Into You' and fails to communicate that to her because he wasn't writing it on a brick and clubbing her with it repeatedly. His banal generalities about why men do what they do and why women don't get it are the thesis statement of He's Just Not That Into You and they boil down to nothing more insightful than that simpleminded title.

Movie Review The Black Dahlia

The Black Dahlia (2006) 

Directed by Brian De Palma 

Written by Josh Friedman 

Starring Josh Hartnett, Aaron Eckhart, Scarlett Johansson, Hilary Swank, Mia Kirschner, Fiona Shaw 

Release Date September 15, 2006 

Published September 14th, 2006 

Director Brian De Palma is one of the bravest filmmakers in the business. Each of his films are perilous high wire acts deftly treading the line between masterpiece and utter disaster. His last film, 2002's Femme Fatale, was a disaster of lurid exploitation in which the director became more enamored of his scenery than even his often nude starlet. On the flipside, his Untouchables, Dressed To Kill and Raising Cain are masterpieces, by De Palma standards, of trashy, entertaining, style.

De Palma's latest picture The Black Dahlia, based on the Elmore Leonard novel, again walks that razor's edge between masterpiece and disaster and finds De Palma once again on the side of the masterpiece. The Black Dahlia is a lurid, shocking, exciting noir mystery that uses real life brutality to tell a stunner of a fictional detective story, one worthy of the 30's and 40's noir that inspired it.

For anyone going into The Black Dahlia with ideas about learning more about the famed death of Elizabeth Short; be prepared, this is not her story. This story, based on Elmore Leonard's fictional take on Hollywood's most notorious unsolved murder, is more about the fictional L.A cops created by Leonard and the various shocking and devastating twists that Leonard smartly crafted and now De Palma and screenwriter Josh Friedman adapt.

Josh Hartnett leads an exceptional cast in The Black Dahlia as detective Dwight 'Bucky' Bleichert, a former boxing star turned L.A flatfoot. Bucky's partner is a fellow former boxer Leland 'Lee' Blanchard. Rising through the ranks together, using their boxing star status to impress superiors, the two end up partners in the robbery homicide division.

When the nude, bisected body of young Elizabeth Short is found, it is Bucky and Lee's celebrity that gets them on the Dahlia case, over Bucky's objections; he's concerned about a murder case they were already working and were nearly killed while investigating. The Black Dahlia case however is the department's top priority and they want their most high profile cops out front cracking the case.

On January 15th 1947 the body of Elizabeth Short (Mia Kirschner) was discovered on a side street by a woman with a stroller. Short was nude and her body bisected, cut at the waist. Her blood was drained and internal organs removed. There are other more gruesome details that even Elmore Leornard left out of his account of this real life murder that the papers called The Black Dahlia for the victims penchant for black clothes and flowers in her hair.

Who was Elizabeth Short? In the movie she is a wannabe starlet from a small town in Massachusetts who came to L.A, like so many young girls, with stars in her eyes. She was said, by friends, to have a number of gentlemen callers and was welcome in local lesbian bars as well. It is at one of these bars where Bucky follows a lead to a woman named Madeleine Linscott (Hillary Swank). A dead ringer for Dahlia, Madeleine was seen talking to Elizabeth and another woman not long before she disappeared.

Rather than arrest and interrogate Ms. Linscott, Bucky begins a dangerous affair with her and promises to keep her name out of the papers. The Linscott name is quite well known; Madeleine's father built much of the town. Finding daddy's little girl in a lesbian hangout and linking her to the Dahlia murder would be a media frenzy.

In parallel plot, Bucky and Lee share the attention of a beautiful former prostitute, Kay Lake (Scarlett Johansson). Kay is Lee's girl, he rescued her from a violent pimp, but it's clear she and Bucky have an attraction. When Lee becomes engrossed in the Dahlia case, Kay and Bucky come dangerously close to crossing a line.

Josh Hartnett continues to grow into one of the most interesting actors working today. His style is shy and understated but it's the inner strength that he reveals just when the character needs it that makes him so interesting. His reticence as Bucky belies the toughness of a character that is shown to be quite a good boxer. He is gentle even as he is an invasive interrogator and by the end of the film his horror at all he's seen brings his character around to being a classic noir character. Hartnett has alot to play in The Black Dahlia and he pulls it all off extremely well.

As good as Hartnett is, the true showstopper performance in The Black Dahlia is that of Fiona Shaw. To give any details of who her character is or reveal anything about her is to give away a little more than I want to of this clever plot. Nevertheless, I can tell you that Ms. Shaw delivers an Oscar worthy turn with a speech near the end of the film that would make Norma Desmond blush.

Brian De Palma's style could be called classy trash. Look closely at his resume and you can find a number of movies that fit that description or atleast have moments that fit that description. In Femme Fatale, De Palma crafts a number of gorgeous visuals, classy architecture and the like. It's a great looking film even when it dips into trashy lesbian trysts and gratuitous displays of flesh. And Femme Fatale is one De Palma's lesser works.

Applying his style to material he actually seems invested in, De Palma is invigorated and his excitement translates to the screen with great enthusiasm. The macabre fascination that the public had with the Black Dahlia murder is a subject that suits Brian De Palma's dark, lurid, some would say trashy personality. Indeed he is quite fond of the darker side and expresses that dark side with glee in The Black Dahlia.

And yet for all of its ghastly fascination with the lurid details of not only the life of Elizabeth Short but for those of the cop characters, the rich family and the prostitute, The Black Dahlia manages to be both engrossing and highly entertaining. De Palma invites you down the path of the lurid back streets and somehow; you willingly and wantonly follow him to the movie equivalent of the red light district known as The Black Dahlia.

When he's on his game Brian De Palma is one of the most skillful and talented directors in the business and The Black Dahlia is his best work in nearly a decade. Stylish, mysterious, trashy yet kinda classy, The Black Dahlia is a cinematic smorgasbord that offers something for all audiences, true crime, mystery, sex, graphic violence and great performances. The Black Dahlia will, no doubt, divide many and unite many others. For my money, it's one of the best films of the year.

Movie Review Empire Records

Empire Records (1995)

Directed by Allan Moyle 

Written by Carol Heikkinen 

Starring Liv Tyler, Renee Zellweger, Robin Tunney, Debi Mazar, Anthony LaPaglia, Rory Cochrane 

Release Date September 22nd, 1995 

Published September 21st, 2015

Sugar High

Sometimes you love a movie beyond any rational reasoning. This movie speaks to you in a way that it does not speak to anyone else. The film speaks to something personal for you and regardless of objective viewers that find flaw the film is strangely perfect in your mind. “Empire Records” is one of those movies for me; I love it beyond my ability to weigh its quality objectively.

“Empire Records” tells the story of nearly a dozen characters over one truly eventful day. We begin the night before the big day. Lucas (Rory Cochrane) has been given the rare honor of closing Empire Records for the day. It’s a simple task, count the money and don’t touch any of the boss’s beer, cigars or his drum kit. Lucas will violate each of these rules before absconding with the day’s take of more than 9 grand and heading off to Atlantic City.

Record Town

Lucas’s heart was in the right place. You see, Joe (Anthony La Paglia)  is being forced to give up the store and let it become a ‘Record Town;’ a lame chain store with rules that will likely mean the firing of all of Lucas’s friends and co-workers. He’d hoped that a good night in A.C would earn the money to buy the store and save everybody’s job. Instead, he loses everything and sets the table for a very long day.

The following morning Joe arrives at Empire to confused calls from his bank and an angry call from his boss Mitchell (Ben Bode) wondering where the money is. Meanwhile, Lucas has disappeared and A.J (Johnny Whitworth) is pestering Joe for advice about telling Corey (Liv Tyler) that, after 5 years working together, he’s in love with her.

Rex Manning Day

Corey meanwhile has other things on her mind than poor, heartsick A.J. Today is ‘Rex Manning Day’ at Empire Records and Corey intends on giving her virginity to the washed up pop star, played with oozing smarmy charisma by “Grease 2” star Maxwell Caulfield. Corey is egged on by her best friend Gina (Renee Zellweger) a girl who knows a little something about throwing herself at boys. Gina is the smutty yin to Corey’s innocent yang.

In another of the film’s subplots Robin Tunney plays goth goddess Debra who makes a splashy first impression arriving at work with a full head of hair before shaving herself bald in the bathroom. She also has a bandage on her wrist from a failed suicide attempt that may or may not have something to do with her relationship with Berko (Coyote Shivers) a fellow employee and wannabe rock star.

Special Appearance by 'Warren Beatty' 

Rounding out the cast is Debi Mazar as Rex Manning’s unhappy assistant, Ethan Embry as the gregarious metal head Mark, Kimo Willis as vinyl connoisseur Eddie and Brendon Sexton, now one of the stars of the stellar AMC mystery series “The Killing,” as a shoplifter who claims the name Warren Beatty after getting caught stealing. None of these characters has much of a character arc but each is given a moment and each takes full, entertaining advantage of it.

This wonderful ensemble gels perfectly under the direction of Allen Moyle who’s best remembered for the 1990 teen angst drama “Pump up the Volume” and the 1980 teen comedy “Times Square.” Moyle never had a real hit movie but his contribution in the world of movie soundtracks cannot be diminished.

Pump up the Volume

Moyle’s soundtrack for “Pump up the Volume” introduced a generation to the odd qualities of Leonard Cohen on the same soundtrack as Richard Hell, Bad Brains with Henry Rollins, the Beastie Boys and Sonic Youth. The soundtrack to Moyle’s “Times Square” may have been the reason that film was made at all. That soundtrack included Joe Jackson, The Cars and, most notably, the first U.S appearance by The Cure.

Naturally, the “Empire Records” soundtrack is also packed with great music. The Cranberries, Evan Dando, Gin Blossoms, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Edwin Collins and Cracker each contributed a song as did star Coyote Shivers whose song “Sugar High” is also performed in the film with additional vocals by Renee Zellweger.

A Musical Interlude

Not included on the soundtrack but in the film itself is music from The The, Dire Straits, Throwing Muses and AC/DC. There are times when Empire Records stops for a momentary musical interlude. The cast dances and sings along for a moment and then we are back into the story. It’s awkward at times but also appropriate, this is a record store after all, there had better be some great tunes.

I love the music and the musical interludes of “Empire Records.” As ridiculously indulgent as the music moments are, I am drawn to them because the cast is drawn to them. I want to be a part of their fun. That’s why I love “Empire Records,” it’s a harmless fantasy about what you wish work could be, friends listening to music, occasionally dancing, falling in love and generally having a good time.

Rock n' Roll Fantasy

Empire Records is my fantasy workplace filled with hot babes like Liv Tyler and Renee Zellweger and mentors like Rory Cochrane’s Zen weirdo and Anthony La Paglia’s inconceivably loyal boss. I want to work with these people and love with these people and join their independent family and listen to music with them.

My love for Empire Records is irrational from a critical perspective; I could find flaw with the filmmaking and storytelling if I wanted but I choose not to. It’s just one of those movies that slips past my guard and reaches a place in my heart that is beyond rationality. I’m sure you have an “Empire Records” of your own.

Movie Review Tin Cup

Tin Cup (1996) 

Directed by Ron Shelton 

Written by John Norville 

Starring Kevin Costner, Rene Russo, Cheech Marin, Don Johnson 

Release Date August 16th, 1996

Published August 15th, 2016

The game of golf is mysterious; it honors neither will nor skill. The game affords license to the talented but even talent will on occasion be humbled by the gods of the game, Mother Nature and Lady Luck. A squirrel runs across a perfectly good lie leaving a small dent and fates are changed forever. That is golf that is life.

Such a perfect thing as well struck golf shot 

For Roy McAvoy it’s not the gods or the squirrels, though he is a little nuts, rather it’s all in his head. Roy has the talent; he has in the past had favor of the gods but he simply cannot get out of his own way. Once when attempting to qualify for the PGA Tour he went for a seemingly impossible shot, missed, tried again and eventually cost himself a tour card. 

That was decades ago. Today, Roy or ‘Tin Cup’ to his friends, is a small time golf instructor at a beyond run down East Texas driving range marked by a sign announcing ‘Last chance to hit golf balls for 540 miles.’ That anyone has ever stopped at this establishment where Roy and his menagerie of friends bide their time betting on which bug will die first in the bug zapper, seems unlikely.

Waggle it 

Then, in walks a very beautiful woman. Her name is Dr. Molly Griswold and she is the new shrink in town and for some reason she wants golf lessons. Rene Russo plays Molly and her discomfort with comedy is evident in her stilted delivery and inability to punch a punch line, something about a saddle.

Despite the struggle, she and we, through her, meet the real Tin Cup, Kevin Costner’s unendingly charming, slightly drunken rogue. Irresistible to women and admired by men who can’t quite figure out why they admire him; this is the Kevin Costner of “Bull Durham,” of “Field of Dreams” and in moments from later films like “For Love of the Game” and “The Upside of Anger.”

Like a tuning fork in your heart  

That ridiculous grin, that floppy, fading hairline and the fact that he’s rarely seen the inside of a gym are just some of the reasons that Kevin Costner became an icon, an actor who will be forever marked in the memory of film fans. Before he gave up everything in favor of an inflated ego and the notion of being a respected ‘artist,’ Kevin Costner was an everyman who loved having a good time and inviting audiences to join him.

No director understood that side of Kevin Costner quite as well as “Tin Cup” director Ron Shelton. It was Shelton’s “Bull Durham” that delivered Costner to stardom in “Bull Durham” and in “Tin Cup” nearly rescued Costner from the excesses of his artistic tripe. Sadly, only flashes of that Costner remain while Shelton himself struggled to find other stars that could enliven his work in the way Costner had.

“Tin Cup” is a movie about a golfer but it’s also a time capsule of a movie moment, one when an actor and a director came together in an absolute understanding of how to entertain an audience. The cohesiveness of Shelton and Costner’s effort is evident in each wonderful scene of “Tin Cup” as Costner strides through Shelton’s scene setting in perfect pitch, striking each line and hitting each lopsided punch line not unlike a well struck tee shot.

The Shanks

Drawing out the metaphor to its farthest reaches, Kevin Costner is “Tin Cup.” Hindsight forces the film critic in me to see that as Roy chooses to pass on the chance to win the US Open in favor of trying to land one difficult shot that repeatedly eluded him that Costner’s “Waterworld” was one of those shots that landed short of the green. So were “The Postman” and “Message” in a Bottle attempts at greatness that courted failure and failed.

Thankfully, there is “Tin Cup” which, unknown to Costner in 1996 as he was making it, was that one perfectly struck shot that you feel in your loins that lands on the green, earning the roar of the crowd. As Roy says “You define the moment or the moment defines you.” For a moment, Kevin Costner was defined by Tin Cup and it was glorious. Today, he is defined in so many other ways, far less glorious. Such is the heroic quest for that one perfect shot.

Greatness courts failure Romeo

When people talk about golf and movies they think of “Caddyshack.” Nothing could ever take away from the comic genius of Caddyshack but, as golf movies go, for me and a growing cult, “Tin Cup” is the ultimate golf movie. Roy ‘Tin Cup’ McAvoy is both a guy all of us know and a representation of something in ourselves; that always striving, often failing part that takes comfort in the little things like a drink, good friends and a good woman. 

It’s golf season again and “Tin Cup” is out there on each and every course seeking the greatness in a single shot when par would have been good enough. Such is life.

Movie Review Dumbo (1941)

Dumbo (1941) 

Directed by Ben Sharpsteen

Written by Joe Grant, Dick Huerner 

Starring Edward Brophy, Verna Felton, Cliff Edwards, Herman Bing

Release Date October 31st, 1941

Published October 30th, 2011 

A bundle of joy

On a starry night a winged courier marks the sky, a round package hanging from his beak. Gently this very important package is delivered via parachute into the cages of a group of circus animals. One by one these tiny packages unfolds to reveal baby tigers, giraffes, hippos and even hyenas. All the while Mrs. Jumbo stares out at the stars hoping her bundle will be the next to arrive.

It's astonishing the way we feel for Mrs. Jumbo in this scene. Everyone has hoped for something and knows the crushing disappointment when something hoped for does not arrive. Even though Mrs. Jumbo is an elephant and though we are well aware that her bundle will indeed arrive, a very special bundle at that, our heart still goes out to her as she waits through the night and boards the train the following morning without her baby.

E-A-R-S

When the stork finally does catch up to the train Mrs. Jumbo, though briefly detained by a cleverly funny bit of bureaucracy and ceremony, excitedly welcomes a baby show dubs Jumbo Jr. The baby will not carry that name for long sadly. Just as soon as the bundle has been revealed as gorgeous baby boy, a sneeze reveals his large secret, giant, wing-like ears. The older, nasty elephants are quick to give the boy a name that does stick Dumbo.

Our sympathies are never in question in Dumbo and it is the lack of complexity, the purity of this story that sells it. No nuance, no doubt, Dumbo is us and we identify with him and his mother, their all to brief joy and the sorrow of the moment when Dumbo's mom defends him from bullies and is taken away and caged. If these moments don't move you then you need to have your soul checked.

Timothy T. Mouse

The emergence of Timothy Mouse is one of the genius creations of Dumbo. Though he is easy to compare to Jiminy Cricket and other sidekick characters from the Disney canon, Timothy doesn't fit neatly into the role. Indeed, Timothy is a leader and a friend to Dumbo. Without Timothy there is no story; he drives every element from tricking the Master of Ceremonies to put Dumbo in the show to reuniting Dumbo with his mother to finally convincing Dumbo to fly, Timothy is a catalyst not an observer, a live wire of good humor and deep heart and a uniquely Disney creation.

It's hard to talk about Dumbo without acknowledging a few of the more uncomfortable racial stereotypes that the film trades in. Keeping in mind that the film was made in 1941, before the Civil Rights era, the ignorant stereotypes featured in The Song of the Roustabouts sequence, African American workers singing about being unable to read or write or keep track of their pay that they throw away or the outlandish caricatures Jim Crow and his crow friends, the makers of Dumbo undoubtedly blighted the film's legacy.

Mother and Son

Race however, was not the subject of Dumbo and though being a product of its time is not a great defense, it is an understandable one. Audiences can still appreciate other aspects of Dumbo especially the glorious relationship between Jumbo and Dumbo that is as moving as any parent and child relationship in a live action movie with human actors.

There is also the mindblowingly beautiful animation of Dumbo. The scenery in the train early train sequence as the Casey Jr. train is rolling into some nameless Florida town is a work of art in motion. The driving rain of The Song of the Roustabouts sequence, despite the song and the stereotypes, is a stunning visual; as striking as any bit of animation before or after Dumbo.

 The Pink Elephant Dance

And you cannot talk about the animation of Dumbo without discussing The Pink Elephant Dance. This amazing sequence that proceeds from Dumbo and Timothy accidentally drinking water mixed with Champagne is one of the finest moments in animation history. It's daring, bold and dynamic even as it seems to have little to do with the story of Dumbo. It would be fair to call The Pink Elephant Dance indulgent on the part of the Disney animation team but the sequence is so remarkable you can forgive them for it.

Dumbo came along at a time when Disney Animation was struggling. Pinocchio and Fantasia are remembered today as classics but in 1941 they were twin box office failures plaguing the studio and causing Dumbo to be rushed through production so fast that Walt Disney's son Roy, according to an interview on the special edition Dumbo DVD, wasn't aware the film existed until it was completed.

Shortest film in Disney history

Dumbo is the shortest Disney film of all time due to that rush through production and the notion that, at a mere 65 minutes, it could be shown more often throughout the day in theaters and thus offer a bigger payback. Indeed it did, Dumbo became, for a time, the most profitable Disney film ever.

Filled to overflow with warmth and heart, Dumbo is a flawed but still remarkable Disney classic about family, friends, acceptance and overcoming the odds. Who can honestly say they never felt like Dumbo? Everyone has had a moment where they felt left out, where something about them felt seperated from society. Dumbo reminds us all that our limitations can be exceeded if we have love in our hearts and a determined friend to help along the way.

Movie Review Scream

Scream (1996)

Directed by Wes Craven

Written by Kevin Williamson 

Starring Neve Campbell, Skeet Ulrich, Drew Barrymore, Matthew Lillard, Courtney Cox, David Arquette

Release Date December 26th, 1996

Published December 25th, 2016

“This is life, it’s not a movie” says Sidney. “Sure it is Sid, it’s all one great big movie… you just don’t get to pick your genre” says Billy. Neve Campbell and Skeet Ulrich in the 1996 horror classic "Scream."

It's a Scream, Baby 

The quote above is a nod toward what made the original "Scream" such a…. well, a scream back in 1996. Wes Craven and writer Kevin Williamson’s acute study of how much movies have become part of everyday American life; and especially aware of the horror film’s place in the lives of the teens who are it’s core audience.

Casey Becker is the picture of white, suburban safety in the unspoiled splendor of upper middle class home when she receives an increasingly disturbing series of phone calls. The calls are coming from a man who wants to play a game. Casey will answer trivia questions about horror movies and whether or not she gets them right, she will be a horror movie victim.

A nod to Hitchcock 

This is the prologue to "Scream," a 13 minute mini-movie featuring a major movie star. Director Wes Craven ingeniously cast Drew Barrymore, just on the cusp of her comeback after years of personal troubles following her too much too soon rise to fame in her childhood.

Barrymore is cast in homage to Hitchcock’s use of Janet Leigh in "Psycho." Moviegoers in 1960 were blown away when Leigh was murdered half way into "Psycho" leaving the movie bereft of its star. In a nod to our growing culture of A.D.D, Wes Craven eliminated his star before the opening credits rolled.

Big breasted bimbos who run up the stairs when they should run out the front door

That’s just the beginning of the genius of "Scream" which turn horror movie conventions on their ear by allowing characters to be hyper-aware of said conventions and then almost comically at a loss when they are unable to escape the same fate as the characters they so richly mock.

Neve Campbell takes over for Barrymore as the star of "Scream" playing Sidney Prescott who, it just so happens, lost her mother to a brutal murder almost a year to the day that Casey Becker was murdered. Now, with the anniversary approaching, Sidney finds herself the target of a killer as the same masked man who tortured and murdered Casey sets his sights on Sidney.

A cast that is a cut above 

Campbell is exceptional in the role of Sidney combining virginal innocence with Jamie Lee Curtis’s flair for dramatics. Also well cast are Courtney Cox as an uber-bitch journalist, Rose McGowan as Tatum, Sidney’s protective best friend and David Arquette as Tatum’s doofusy brother Dewey, a police officer who never really acts like much of a police officer.

The suspects in "Scream" are equally well cast. There is the ultra-creepy Skeet Ulrich as Sidney’s boyfriend whose suspect timing makes him a prime suspect early on. Matthew Lillard as Tatum’s maladjusted boyfriend with a tendency for enjoying all of the carnage a little too much and, finally, there is Jamie Kennedy as Randy, the pseudo-narrator of the film. Randy is a movie nerd who works at a video store and knows all of the rules for surviving a horror movie.

Scream is actually scary 

All of these tremendously well cast roles combine with a terrific script and Wes Craven's ingenious direction to deliver darkly humorous moments of self awareness and honest to goodness frights that honor the best of the horror genre. Yes, "Scream" is something of a send up but when things get bloody, the laughs are replaced by very strong horror movie tensions.

Movie Review Romeo and Juliet (1996)

Romeo + Juliet (1996)

Directed by Baz Luhrmann 

Written by Craig Pearce, Baz Luhrmann 

Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Claire Danes, John Leguizamo, Brian Dennehy, Paul Sorvino

Release Date November 1st, 1996 

Published November 1st, 2016 

It’s fair to call Baz Luhrmann’s modernized take on Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet a Romeo for the MTV generation. Though today such a pronouncement could seem insulting, in 1996 Luhrmann’s vision of the Bard’s work had everything that a great music video would including quick cut action, lots of colors, a pair of teen idol lead actors and an unbelievably good soundtrack.

Two Households at war 

It’s a tale told in fair Verona Beach or, in reality, Miami standing in for the Shakespearean city. Two households are at war, the Capulets lead by Fulgencio (Paul Sorvino) and the Montagues headed up by Ted (Brian Dennehy). No one seems exactly sure why there is war between them but as this story begins, thugs from both sides engage in a shootout that ends in a massive conflagration.

Captain Prince (Vondie Curtis Hall), the head of Verona law enforcement, has seen enough, he wants peace and is ready to take extreme measures. Meanwhile, young Romeo walks the beach in devastation, his beloved Rosalyne having forsaken him. Thankfully, his cousin Benvolio and best friend Mercutio (Harold Perrineau) have sport to cheer him.

What light through yonder window breaks

Mercutio has obtained tickets to a costume party at Capulet mansion and as long as everyone stays in their masks it should be a fine feast. At the party Romeo spies Juliet through the glass of a fish tank and is immediately smitten. He is already in love by the time he finds out that she is Juliet Capulet, the daughter of his family enemy. Juliet has also fallen for Romeo despite his name and the seal it with a dip in the Capulets pool and a kiss.

The following day the two decide to marry and Romeo’s friend Father Lawrence (Pete Postlethwaite thinks the wedding may be a chance to bring peace to the family and the un-civil war. He conducts the wedding but there is tragedy to come, one that will separate the young lovers and further complications involving a mislaid letter that could mean doom.

Stylistically jarring 

It’s a classic story and Baz Luhrmann’s telling it has a new, stylistically jarring life. The film begins with Shakespeare’s classic epilogue as told by a news reporter on TV. Then Pete Postlethwaite picks up the same dialogue in voice over and then in a bold move, the same words are incorporated into the film’s experimental score.

From there we are thrust down into the streets of Verona Beach where Shakespeare’s immortal words are spoken by common street thugs wielding Sword brand 9mm handguns. The Montagues and Capulets meet in combat in the urban setting of a Grand Theft Auto video game but all the while speaking with Shakespeare’s tongue.

Radiohead, Garbage and Prince 

It’s all quite jarring at first but when the music of Radiohead kicks in as we are introduced to Leonardo DiCaprio as Romeo, things begin to settle in and we are quickly invested in this highly unique retelling of a classic love story. There are times when the classic Shakespearean turns of phrase are incomprehensible to the modern ear but the meaning is well conveyed by the exemplary cast, as it would be if Luhrmann had not chosen to modernize the setting.

Leonardo DiCaprio had not yet become a global icon when he starred in Romeo +Juliet. He was less than a year from becoming ‘the King of the world’ as Jack Dawson in Titanic but his star was certainly on the rise. “Romeo + Juliet” was indeed the perfect table setter for his breakout in Titanic. Romeo offered just the right mix of serious acting and teen idol mooning needed for the establishment of global icon status.

Claire Danes has never found the stardom that DiCaprio has achieved since “Romeo + Juliet” but onscreen she is every bit the star DiCaprio is. With her wide expressive eyes, beautiful smile and delicate delivery, Danes was a marvelous Juliet and when Juliet takes hold of a gun as she does more than once during “Romeo + Juliet” it is a stunning counterpoint to her nuanced beauty.

The music of Romeo + Juliet acts as the third lead character in the film. Baz Luhrmann and his music team did yeoman’s work to mix movie score and pop songs in ways few had ever done before. While many will remember the hit song “Lovefool” by the Cardigans the stand out for me while watching the film this week was Des’ree’s haunting love theme “Kissing You.”

The hit soundtrack also includes music from popular 90’s rockers Everclear and Garbage and, as briefly mentioned earlier, experimental rockers Radiohead whose song “Talk Show Host” serves as Romeo’s theme. There are also, ever so brief, musical intrusions by Massive Attack and most famously a remix of Prince’s “When Doves Cry” sung beautifully by a church choir.

Romeo and Juliet for the MTV generation 

Yes, this was “Romeo + Juliet” for the MTV generation and as horrific as such pronouncement seems today; it was slightly less of an insult at the time. In 1996 MTV still had certain culture relevance then. In 1996 you could turn on MTV and actually watch a music video. It was before Britney and the Backstreet Boys took music back to the dark ages.

Connecting Shakespeare and the MTV generation was a stroke of genius on the part of Baz Luhrmann. He brought these two portions of world culture together in ways that no one thought possible. Baz Luhrmann made Shakespeare significant to an audience that otherwise might have thought his work was staid and dusty, something that teachers forced them to read but had no relevance to their lives.

A place in history lost

Baz Luhrmann’s “Romeo + Juliet” somehow never gained the mainstream acceptance it so richly deserved. Though it was a worldwide hit, earning more than 140 million dollars on a budget of a paltry 14 million dollars, its place in pop culture history was quickly consumed by another re-telling of Shakespeare’s doomed lovers’ tale, James Cameron’s “Titanic.” 

Movie Review Arthur (1982)

Arthur (1981) 

Directed by Steve Gordon

Written by Steve Gordon 

Starring Dudley Moore, Liza Minnelli, Sir John Gielgud 

Release Date July 17th, 1981 

Published July 16th, 2011 

Arthur Bach has everything a man could want; millions of dollars and all of the toys it can buy. Arthur has been wasting his family money for decades but now his father is ready to insist that he grow up. The plan is for Arthur to marry a socialite named Susan Johnson and then take a grown up, responsible job with his father’s company.

If Arthur refuses to marry Susan he will be cut off from the family fortune, more than 750 million dollars. Arthur’s troubles are only increased when he meets Linda Marolla (Liza Minnelli) as she is caught shoplifting at a high end department store. Arthur steps in to rescue her and they both find that they have a terrific chemistry and attraction.

Arthur is smitten but of course he must marry Susan. Meanwhile, Arthur’s long time servant and best friend Hobson (Sir John Gielgud) is hiding a secret from Arthur while working to assure that Arthur and Linda will have some kind of connection. Can Arthur give up all of the money to be with Linda?

“Arthur” has somewhat odd charms. As written and directed by Steve Gordon, who sadly died just a year after the film was released, “Arthur” is essentially about a drunken, millionaire man-child who we are supposed to love. It’s not exactly a recipe for a sympathetic character but as played by Dudley Moore, in an Oscar nominated performance, it works. You just can’t help but like Arthur.

Dudley Moore makes you forget while you are watching “Arthur” that alcoholism is not supposed to be charming and funny. Somehow, Moore’s stumbling and slurring only make him more appealing. That is in part because we know it’s just a movie but also in part because Dudley Moore is so very funny and it’s easy to forgive funny.

Sir John Gielgud is the scene stealer of “Arthur.” Early on in the film Gielgud’s surprisingly tart tongue catches you off guard. As the film goes on Gielgud’s remarkably well timed insults and quips fall further into the background but never miss their mark. Gielgud was indeed very deserving of his 1981 Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.

“Arthur” also won an Oscar for the awful original song “Arthur’s Theme” the truly brutal pop tune written by Burt Bachrach and performed by Christopher Cross. Somehow, 30 years later, the lyric “When you get caught between the moon and New York City” remains the thing most remembered about this comedy classic. And to this day no one knows what that lyric means.

Regardless of the awful theme song “Arthur” is a comedy classic. Fans loved Dudley Moore so much in the role that we’ve all mostly forgotten about the abysmal sequel, “Arthur 2: On the Rocks.” Our collective amnesia on just how truly awful that sequel was is yet another testament to how much we love the original “Arthur.”

Movie Review Sideways

Sideways (2004) 

Directed by Alexander Payne 

Written by Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor 

Starring Paul Giamatti, Thomas Haden Church, Virginia Madsen, Sandra Oh 

Release Date October 22nd, 2004 

Published November 13th, 2004 

Wannabe novelist Miles (Paul Giamatti) is sweating the fate of his first novel as he heads off for a week long bachelor send off for his friend Jack (Thomas Haden Church), though to hear Jack tell it, Miles’ novel will be on store shelves in no time. Jack has always done little things such as this that has made Miles uncomfortable but as “Sideways” progresses it’s clear that Miles will put up with it, Jack seems to be his only friend. 

Divorced for two years, Miles cannot get over his last relationship and has more and more come to rely on his love of great wine to get him through a dreary week as an 8th grade English teacher. Is Miles an alcoholic? He would say no but the evidence seems to say otherwise. Miles’ drinking isn’t really the subject of “Sideways” but rather a sad subtext.

The text of “Sideways,” the story that drives the film, is Miles and Jack’s week long trip to California wine country in Solvang, California. On the trip Miles thinks that they are going to drink wine, play golf and get back to L.A in time for the rehearsal dinner before Jack’s wedding. Jack, on other hand, makes one thing clear; he’s getting laid on this trip one last time before he gets married.

There is an element of “Sideways” that plays like “American Pie” for the mid-life crisis crowd. Jack is an overgrown child, a slave to his sex drive and the needs of the moment in front of him. Miles is lower key but in the way that he allows himself to be dragged into Jack’s world he demonstrates that he isn’t much more mature than the friend he constantly looks down upon.

On their first night in Solvang Miles and Jack meet Maia (Virginia Madsen) that Miles had spent a little time with on previous trips but she was married then. She’s not married anymore and when Jack makes the acquaintance of a local girl named Stephanie (Sandra Oh) who happens to be friends with Maia, Jack’s plans to get himself and Miles laid kick in even as Giamatti and Madsen’s maturity plays heavy against such childishness.

This brings us to arguably, the most famous scene in “Sideways,” easily the scene that won Virginia Madsen an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress and should have one Best Actor for Giamatti. As Miles and Maia chat about wine they each reveal themselves in elegantly crafted speeches; Miles revealing parallels between himself and his favorite wine, how this particular grape used in Pinot Noir is thin skinned, temperamental and can only be cultivated by the most patient of growers.

As Miles continues the metaphor turns to lament as Miles describes the taste of a good Pinot in the same way one might have described Miles if he ever reached his potential, haunting and brilliant but only under just the right circumstance. The side references Miles makes to Cabernet and how it can thrive anywhere and that it is ‘prosaic’ in an inescapable description of Jack.

Yes, the scene is a little too self aware but it works because Giamatti is so sympathetic in this moment. Then as the scene turns to Virginia Madsen and she describes the life of wine with this look of warmth and great beauty you quickly realize that this is the woman who could coax Miles to his full potential. The scene ends as it only can as early as it is in the movie; in awkwardness as shy fumbling Miles blows the moment only to even more awkwardly attempt recapture it.

These are wonderfully human moments that draw us in and glue us to our seat for the rest of the ride that is “Sideways.” It’s a film about characters that do some awful things but are never caricatures, never merely types of characters. Paul Giamatti especially delivers a performance of deep pathos, a sympathetic portrayal of a pathetic man striving to no longer be pathetic, failing more often than he succeeds.

Wine is the life blood of “Sideways” and Miles’ love of wine is his one respite, an area of expertise that he can fairly be proud of and yet offers another layer to his character, pomposity. The oenophile Miles is arrogant and snobbish and yet his expertise in the realm of wine also gives this otherwise pathetic character an air of dignity and sophistication that no other hobby could bestow.

Did you know that the success of “Sideways” has in just a few weeks done such damage to sales of some brands of Merlot that industry insiders are calculating the potential damages to their brand? It’s just one throwaway scene, Miles vehemently refusing to drink Merlot and yet the impact was felt and is still being felt among those who produce Merlot and champion it. 

Ah, the wonderful quirks of our popular culture. 

Movie Review Death Proof

Death Proof (2007) 

Directed by Quentin Tarentino 

Written by Quentin Tarentino 

Starring Kurt Russell, Rosario Dawson, Vanessa Ferlito, Rose McGowan, Zoe Bell, Mary Elizabeth Winstead

Release Date April 6th, 2007 

Published April 5th, 2007 

Quentin Tarentino is the preeminent film artist of the modern era. A savant like talent who learned filmmaking by watching movies, Tarentino has turned applied knowledge into great art and even now in his tortured partnership with Robert Rodriguez on the twin bill Grindhouse, Tarentino takes his applied knowledge of low filmmaking and turns it into yet another masters class in filmmaking.

Death Proof is an homage to a certain kind of 1970's drive-in slasher movie that is actually still being made today on the fringes of the straight to video biz. The film stars Kurt Russell as Stuntman Mike a Hollywood stuntman well past his prime.

With the advent of CGI guys like Stuntman Mike are a dying breed and you can hear the resentment in his voice as he recounts his history in the business, back in the day, when he was a double for Lee Majors! He still works from time to time but he knows that his days are numbered. It is this resentment that may explain, in some odd way, why Mike takes his anger out on unsuspecting women. Luring them into his tricked out stunt car which he claims is death proof, Stuntman Mike intentionally crashes the car and kills his passenger. The car is only death proof if your in the drivers seat.

Setting his sights on a verbose group of women in a bar, a radio DJ and her three friends, Stuntman Mike first seems like just another creepy patron hitting on younger girls. When they end up rejecting his advances he takes it out on them in a horrifying car chase. Then the scene shifts to a diner in Tennessee where four different women; working on a film crew, are sitting around discussing movies and men. Abbie (Rosario Dawson) is the makeup girl, Lee (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and Kim (Tracie Toms) and Zoe (Zoe Bell) are stunt women.

Zoe is visiting and has heard that a local man is selling a 1970 Dodge Challenger, just like the one Barry Newman drove in the movie Vanishing Point, in pristine condition, right down to the color and the four barrel engine. Zoe wants a test drive and something more. Little do the girls know that Stuntman Mike is nearby and wants a piece of the action.

That scene leads to one of the greatest car chases you have ever seen in a movie. Tarentino's filmmaking skills create a visceral, emotional, physical experience. These chases are as good or better than even his dialogue which is, as usual, dense and filled to overflow with pop culture bacchanalia.

The characters in the first half of Death Proof, aside from Stuntman Mike, are a verbose and intelligent lot who have interesting, involving conversations that sound mighty familiar. Peppered with references to the Acuna Boys (Kill Bill), foot massages (Pulp Fiction) and Red Apple Cigarettes (every Tarentino film), these conversations are so inside baseball they could make Kevin Smith Blush.

I'm not saying that Death Proof is for Tarentino fans only, it just deepens the experience if you get the references. This is a terrifically smart and entertaining and exciting movie regardless of whether you are a Tarentino fan. Besides, the chases scenes are essentially wordless and are the most entertaining and invigorating part of the film.

Everything about Death Proof works. This is among the best work of Tarentino's career and one of the best movies you will see in 2007.

Movie Review Run Ronnie Run

Run Ronnie Run (2003) 

Directed by Troy Miller 

Written by David Cross, Bob Odenkirk, Scott Aukerman, B.J Porter, Brian Posehn 

Starring David Cross, Bob Odenkirk, David Koechner, Jill Talley, Ben Stiller, Jack Black 

Release Date September 16th, 2003 

Published December 15th, 2003

Being a huge fan of the HBO series “Mr. Show with Bob & David,” I have been hearing for a very long while about the film based on one of the show’s best sketches, Run Ronnie Run. The story of the most arrested man in America, one Ronnie Dobbs, Run Ronnie Run went into production in November of 2000 and premiered at the Sundance film festival in 2001. So how come you have never seen it in theaters or on video? Because New Line Cinema decided not to release the film. The cynical bastards behind Dumb and Dumberer decided not to release Run Ronnie Run???

Maybe that is for the best, because though the film has some truly inspired hysterical moments, the compromised version that has seeped out through various sources is not quite what it's creators had hoped. Based on characters created in the first season of Mr. Show, Run Ronnie Run is the story of Ronnie Dobbs (David Cross), a Georgia redneck who enjoys getting drunk and raising hell. He occasionally lives in a trailer with his three illegitimate kids, all named Ronnie Jr., and his common law wife Tammy (Mr. Show regular Jill Talley).

Ronnie gains notoriety after his numerous drunken arrests on the faux Cops show Fuzz catch the attention of a British TV producer named Terry Twillstein (Bob Odenkirk). Terry immediately heads to Georgia and, after bailing Ronnie out of jail, brings Ronnie to Hollywood. Together they pitch a TV show in which Ronnie will travel the country getting arrested while being followed by a camera crew.

The show is an immediate smash, but fame gets the better of Ronnie. Before long he is holding big celebrity parties and sleeping with the model from his favorite beer commercial, rather than drinking beer with his old friends or watching a mangy dog eat vomit. As his friends say, “Ronnie, you've changed man.” Soon Ronnie has quit drinking and can't even get arrested.

It's a smart, funny satire of the classic rags to riches, fame corrupts story told in a surprisingly straight linear story. Whereas on Mr. Show both Bob and David play multiple characters in one episode, in the movie they generally remain as one character, save for a couple of dream sequences. The film does hint at other Mr. Show sketches, including a dream sequence music video of Bob and David's pop band send up 3 times 1 minus 1. There’s also a brilliant revision of their Ronnie Dobbs sketch "Fuzz: The Musical" with Mandy Patinkin as Ronnie.

There are a number of brilliant moments in Run Ronnie Run like Ronnie's uncovering of the worldwide gay conspiracy with an excellent cameo by Kids in the Hall star Scott Thompson and Seinfeld's Patrick Warburton. Also there’s an odd but brilliant outtake with Jack Black as the Dick Van Dyke character in Mary Poppins singing a song that has to be heard to be believed. F-CKING BRILLIANT!

That said, the cut I saw seems somewhat compromised and lacks the snap of the sketch version. Ronnie is a little more sweet and sympathetic, as is the character of Tammy. What made Ronnie brilliant on the show was his complete self delusion that encapsulated every Neanderthal, shirtless redneck in the history of the show, Cops. The guys on Cops are not sympathetic characters. They are often drunken, homophobic wife beaters, which Ronnie was in the sketch. But those traits are either excised or underplayed in the film version and that tames much of the satire.

Nevertheless, the worst of Run Ronnie Run is far funnier than anything in New Line's Dumb and Dumberer, and that thing was dumped into the theaters on 2000+ screens. They could at least put Ronnie out on DVD (Ed. Note – Run Ronnie Run will be released on DVD in September 2003). It may not be everything it's genius creators had in mind but it's as good or better than most modern comedies.

Movie Review The Yellow Handkerchief

The Yellow Handkerchief (2010) 

Directed by Udayan Prasad 

Written by Erin Dignam 

Starring William Hurt, Maria Bello, Kristen Stewart, Eddie Redmayne 

Release Date February 26th, 2010 

Published August 4th, 2010 

“The Yellow Handkerchief” is a great looking movie that relies on fabulous Louisiana scenery and a strong eye for locations to distract from what is a rather dull and inert bit of storytelling. Indian director Udayan Presad and writer Erin Dignam, like so many indie minded teams, mistake characters saying and doing inappropriate things for character development.

William Hurt stars in “The Yellow Handkerchief” as Brett a fresh from prison, oil rig working lummox who finds himself on a journey through Louisiana with a pair of emotionally damaged teenagers. Eddie Redmayne is the slightly mentally handicapped Gordie and “Twilight's” Kristen Stewart is the daddy issues having Martine.

For Gordie, Brett is an obstacle and oracle. Because Martine has an obvious affinity for Brett, he stands between Gordie and his crush on Martine even as Brett attempts to offer Gordie sage council on how to deal with her. For Martine, there is a mixture of wanting a father figure and the forbidden nature of being attracted to a stange, older man.

Throughout “The Yellow Handkerchief” we flash back to Brett's life before he was released from prison. Brett was once happily married until something happened and he ended up spending the next 6 years in jail. Maria Bello plays either his wife or his victim, you'll have to see the film yourself to find out.

The characters in “The Yellow Handkerchief” work very hard to make each other and us uncomfortable. They say oddly personal things and reveal things about themselves that normal humans might not reveal to close friends. Call it the comfort of strangers if you like but if a stranger spoke to me the way these characters speak to each other, I would run away screaming.

There is a worthy bit of filmmaking skill to “The Yellow Handkerchief.” Gorgeous scenery, a well managed pace that sinks perfectly into the film's hot southern exteriors; with a better sense of character, something more believable and far less off-putting, “The Yellow Handkerchief” could be extraordinary.

Sadly, the only thing likely to come from “The Yellow Handkerchief” is a solid audition reel for director Udayan Presad and cinematographer Chris Menges.

Movie Review The Chosen One

The Chosen One (2008) 

Directed by Chris Lackey 

Written by Chad Fifer, Chris Lackey 

Starring Laura Prepon, Chris Fifer, Chris Sarandon, Tim Curry, Danielle Fishel Lance Hendrickson

Release Date Unknown 

Published December 8th, 2008 

A WOC listener friend of mine gave me a DVD a while back. It's an animated movie directed by his son. I promised I would give it look. Now several months later I have finally watched the slacker meets religion flick The Chosen One and I wish I hadn't waited so long.

This irreverent little animated flick doesn't reinvent the wheel but it's a solid 80 minute distraction with humor along the irreverent line of the good folks at Adult Swim on the Cartoon Network. Snarky, talky, low budget satire with just a hint of blasphemy.

Our hero is Lou (Voice of Chris Fifer) a loser who just got dumped by his gal pal Rachel (Voice of Laura Prepon) and was fired from his job, cleaning test tubes for some science factory where his best pal Donna (Danielle Fishel) had moved earth to get him a gig that he promptly fumbled.

After losing his girl and his job Lou's luck goes from bad to worse when a Chinese satellite falls on his car and he's attacked by a bear. All of this bad luck leads Lou to join his buddy Zeb (Chris Sarandon), a senior citizen who share's Lou's apartment, at some scam religious gathering.

There Lou finds out that he is The Chosen One and he must travel to Kansas to stand on a mountain, more of a hill really, and hear the voice of god. So, with the help of Zeb and Donna, who's the only person he knows with a car, Lou sets out for Kansas

Trailing him are a team of super religious assassins and helping out is Satan voiced with liquid loquaciousness by Tim Curry. The Chosen One has wild, irreverent sense of humor that combines outlandishness, geek culture and blasphemy for a terrifically good time.

The animation is amateur at best but the low budget aesthete is not really all that important. The Chosen One flies on its rolling sense of humor. The college crowd will eat up the robot ninjas, the hot sci fi chick ex-girlfriend, and especially Tim Curry's devilish Devil.

General audiences will have to get past the religious stuff and if you can stand the impiety you will laugh frequently at the genial, good natured slacker humor of The Chosen One.

Now, where can you find this hidden gem? Try www.TheChosenOneMovie.com