Movie Review: City of God

City of God (2002) 

Directed by Fernando Meirelles 

Written by Fernando Meirelles 

Starring Alexandre Rodriguez, Seu Jorge 

Release Date May 18th, 2002 

Published November 22nd, 2003

At the end of 2002, while most critics were debating the historical accuracy of Scorsese's Gangs Of New York or making comic asides about Nicole Kidman's prosthetic nose in The Hours, Roger Ebert was proclaiming a little seen Brazilian gang movie the best film of the year. City of God is a brutally realistic tale of poverty, crime ,and community in a Brazilian ghetto told with an immediacy and power that most Hollywood films could only dream of.

Directed by Fernando Meirelles and shot on digital video, City Of God tells the story of youth gangs in the real Brazilian ghetto known as the City of God. In the city's existence, it has known only gang rule and violence. For Rocket (Alexandre Rodrigues), hope of getting out of the ghetto lies in choosing which gang will protect him until he can find his way out. As a teen he finds a stolen camera and finds his calling as a photographer, earning a protected place in the ghetto as the official photographer of both warring factions who don't mind being on the front page.

While the story is told from Rocket's perspective the story is really that of the colorful and dangerous ghetto and its unique violent history. In one terrific series of scenes, Rocket recounts the history of one apartment, which over the course of a decade passed from one powerful drug dealer to the next. Then there is the story of Knockout Ned (Seu Jorge). Ned tried to stay out of the war but was forced into it by drug dealers suspicious of a guy who didn't want to fight.

The greatest tragedy of the film however is the story of Benny (Phillipe Haagensen), a bright charismatic kid and protege of the violent leader Lil Ze (Firmino Da Hora). Benny had grown up with Ze as his right-hand man. As they grew older and more powerful, Benny saw that power as a way to get out. When Benny fell in love, he was finally ready to leave the city. His fate seems predictable but the performance by Haagensen is absolutely magnetic and director Meirelles has a way of staging the story that builds the tension to a point that the tragic events feel almost cathartic.

City of God is a tremendous piece of work from a director who is making his feature film debut. Until City Of God, Fernando Meirelles was a commercial director. After this impressive debut, it's likely that commercials will be an afterthought for Meirelles, who is destined for greater things.

Because of some snafu with it's release, City Of God was not eligible for the Oscars and won't be this year either. I understand that we must have rules but how can an award for artistry be so restrictive that one of it's most deserving be left out because of some minor rule? Regardless of the Oscar, we don't need an award to tell us that City Of God is a magnificent film. See it for yourself. 

Movie Review: Chasing Holden

Chasing Holden (2001) 

Directed by Malcolm Clarke

Written by Sean Kanan

Starring D.J Qualls, Rachel Blanchard

Release Date October 11th, 2001 

Published June 3rd, 2002 

I have never read "The Catcher In the Rye". When I was a kid I thought it was about Yankee's catcher Yogi Berra, because I thought it was set in the 50's and Yogi was a catcher in the 50's. I still don't know the story fully though from seeing the straight-to-video feature Chasing Holden starring DJ Qualls I now have a good sense for the story and I may check it out. Maybe, if I find the time.

Holden is the story of Neil (Qualls), the son of the Governor of New York. Neil has just been released from a mental hospital after his father suspected he was contemplating suicide. Neil is troubled by his father’s distance that is covered by his father’s high-profile job but has more to do with a brother we never see.

Neil is enrolled at a private school where he meets the equally messed up T.J (Rachel Blanchard). They bond over Neil's dog-eared copy of “Catcher in the Rye” and their coupling in drama class. After following her home and having dinner with her parents, Neil is convinced she is a kindred spirit and invites her on his spiritual journey to meet the author of “Catcher in The Rye”, JD Salinger.

As Neil hides his past from TJ, she too has a secret health problem that she doesn't want to reveal in fear of scaring him off. As the journey goes on we begin to see that Neil's obsession with Salinger may not be a healthy one. An obsession that is well documented in a rather creepy scene where Neil explains to TJ why Mark Chapman killed John Lennon and how Chapman's motivation was linked to Salinger's book.

Qualls is a very unlikely romantic lead, but then with his gawky frame and goofy manner he is an unlikely actor. In Chasing Holden, Qualls's strange look works, giving the character an edginess that is unsettling from beginning to end. Blanchard on the other and isn't as successful. Her TJ isn't quirky enough to match Qualls's weirdness and her character's motivations are a little thin. In the end she seems more like a plot device in service of Qualls' Neil and his journey, rather than being a character in her own right.

Director Malcolm Clarke gives the feeling of a director still feeling his way around a camera. He has an idea of what he wants to do with each shot but isn't entirely sure how to make it work. In the end, Clarke's Chasing Holden is an interesting film. A little dull at times, but saved moderately by Qualls’ interesting performance.

Movie Review: Catwoman

Catwoman (2004) 

Directed by Pitof 

Written by John Brancato, Roger Ferris, John Rogers 

Starring Halle Berry, Sharon Stone, Frances Conroy, Benjamin Bratt 

Release Date July 23rd, 2004 

Published July 23rd, 2004 

I don’t know what your opinion is, but for my money Michele Pfeiffer’s Catwoman in Batman Returns rocked. She was sexy, she was funny, and she and Michael Keaton’s Batman had a fiery chemistry. If ever there was a chance for Catwoman to be made into a stand-alone film character, it was with Pfeiffer and director Tim Burton about 12 years ago.

Of course, timing and good buzz do not mean much to dunderheaded studio execs whose arrogance tells them they can sell anything at any time. That arrogance is what gives us this new Catwoman movie without Pfeiffer and Burton and without any connection to Batman. Halle Berry and someone called Pitof are behind this Catwoman and while Berry fits the costume that is about all that fits in this lame repackaged comic book misfire.

Patience Phillips (Berry) is a mousy wannabe artist who works in advertising because she’s too scared to be a real artist. While working on a big project for a new cosmetics line, Patience comes across a chilling secret; the company’s newest product is an addictive face-destroying disaster. Before she can do anything about it she is found by the evil cosmetic company henchman and killed.

Yes indeed, Patience died, but is reborn when a gaggle of Cat’s discovers her body and one special cat delivers some kitty CPR. The strange cat called Midnight is owned by an even stranger woman, a crazy cat lady played by Six Feet Under star Frances Conroy. The crazy cat lady explains how Patience was brought back to life as a Catwoman and that she will now have all sorts of new powers and odd cravings.

Before Patience became Catwoman she met a guy, a cop named Tom Lone (Benjamin Bratt). Tom happens to be the cop on the case when Catwoman is accused of robbing a jewelry store and eventually multiple homicides. The idea that Tom doesn’t recognize Patience is Catwoman is suspension of disbelief stretched to its breaking point. Catwoman must prove her innocence and stop the evil cosmetics company led by Laurel Hedare (Sharon Stone). If your thinking catfight, well duh.

Here is the amazing thing. Most, if not all of this mindblowingly-ridiculous plot is played straight. Anyone with half a brain could sense the camp potential of this material. Anyone that is, except for director Pitof who thinks he’s making a straight action movie. Pitof also convinced his star Halle Berry to play this material with a straight face which sinks any chance she had of succeeding in this role.

Halle’s Patience is a female Steve Urkel who, when she becomes Catwoman, is never believable. Delivering awful cat puns and mimicking cat behaviors, Berry comes off as something akin to a furry, minus the proper furry costume. She's got the cat cosplay down but any trace of anti-hero turned superhero is distinctly lacking. Part of the joy of Catwoman is her villainous side that softens ever so slightly via the tempting attraction to Batman. Since there is no Batman in this universe, Catwoman is forced to rely entirely on a badly contrived plot and the aforementioned and awful cat puns. 

There is the romance aspect, yeesh! Halle Berry and Benjamin Bratt spark the chemistry of two good friends or perhaps cousins who are a bit too close for comfort. But they never connect as potential bedmates. Benjamin Bratt has never been this bland on screen even on TV's Law & Order which didn't require much personality to begin with. Bratt is almost catatonic in Catwoman, his expressions rarely change. It doesn’t help that he’s saddled with a detective character more clueless than Clouseau.

The only member of the cast with any awareness of the camp material they’ve been given is Frances Conroy who tosses her dignity to the wind as the crazy cat lady. Conroy has to deliver the films most laughable dialogue as she explains what a Catwoman is and how it came to be. She deserves some kind of award for delivering her monologue with a straight face, though it likely took a few takes.

Pitof a former visual effects supervisor on films like Alien Resurrection and Luc Besson’s Joan Of Arc flick Messenger, he learned a little on those films as he does show some visual flare. However as a novice director he also has an unhealthy obsession with closeups and flashy unnecessary camera movement. The guy has some talent and with time he could round into a pretty good director but he is very raw and much too raw for such a high-profile project.

Though his background is reportedly in special effects, director Pitof comes off like an amateur when it comes to CGI. The Computer Generated Images in Catwoman are absolutely abysmal. Part of the problem could be that many of us have recently seen great CGI work in Spider-Man 2 and or I, Robot, two tremendously accomplished special effects spectaculars. But, the real problem is the seeming lack of care and ability behind the CGI in Catwoman. Just look at the way Halle Berry's Catwoman glistens when she becomes a special effect. She becomes shiny and rubbery and obviously not a person. She could be a character in a Pixar movie, that's how damningly obvious the special effects of Catwoman are, it's as if a Toy Story character emerged in real life but remained animated. 

The problem with Catwoman is the fact that it was made at all. There was a clamor for a female Superhero franchise but not this one. Wonder Woman has been gestating for awhile with a number of actresses and directors attached and unattached at various times. Catwoman had its moment in time back in the nineties on the heels of the success of Batman but that time has passed,

This Catwoman was doomed from the moment it was greenlighted. Doomed by executive overkill, businessmen whose only concern is printing money off of well-known properties. They put this film on the fast track, rushed the production, went cheap on a young, inexperienced director and maybe thought casting one of Hollywood’s hottest actresses would guarantee box office even if the quality film wasn’t there.

They were wrong. Very, Very Wrong!

Movie Review Buffalo Soldiers

Buffalo Soldiers (2001) 

Directed by Gregor Jordan

Written by Gregor Jordan, Eric Weiss, Nora Maccoby 

Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Ed Harris, Scott Glenn, Anna Paquin 

Release Date July 18th, 2003 

Published November 11th, 2003 

We have been waiting for quite awhile now for film adaptation of Robert O'Connor's caustic military novel Buffalo Soldiers. The film version is one of the last films delayed by the tragedy of September 11th.

It gathered dust on the shelves of Miramax because of its decidedly unpatriotic look at military life. The soldiers of Buffalo Soldiers are not the patriotic stick figures trotted out for numerous war movies dating back through all of Hollywood history. These soldiers are drug dealers, murderers, racists and pimps. So it's not surprising that after September 11th and subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that the film stirred enough controversy to be dumped into limited release and essentially disowned by it's studio.

This decidedly nihilistic look at military life on a German base in peacetime stars Joaquin Phoenix as PFC. Ray Elwood. From his smirking demeanor, he looks like any other acerbic rebel of a number of different military movies. However, on closer inspection, Ray Elwood is no one liner spouting caricature but rather an amoral drug-dealing, wheeler dealer with few if any redeeming qualities. Bill Murray-lovable loser type this is not. 

Ray runs the military base from the office of Colonel Berman (Ed Harris). As Berman's assistant, Ray can requisition any and all material goods and what he can't get he can trade for on the black market. Ray is also the best drug cook in the military, a skill that landed him in the military when a judge offered him the choice of the army or jail. Ray acquires and prepares heroin for the base's top drug dealer, a military police officer played by Sheik Mahmoud Bey.

Elwood's operation is thrown into jeopardy when a new top Sergeant (Scott Glenn) decides to put Elwood out of business. A former Vietnam veteran, the top sergeant has a reputation as a killer. This doesn't stop Elwood from pressing the Sergeant's buttons, even going as far as dating his daughter Robyn (Anna Paquin), a wild child in her own right, who introduces Elwood to ecstasy. The rivalry between Elwood and the Sergeant is the crux of the film.

From a story standpoint, it's interesting to consider what it must have been like for our military for the number of years between Vietnam and the first war in Iraq. Aside from the minor skirmish here and there, our military guys had a lot of time on their hands, and you know what they say about idle hands. Try idle hands with access to a lot of weapons and drugs.

The problem with Buffalo Soldiers however, is that it never establishes a rooting interest. Phoenix's Elwood is nearly charming enough for us to buy into his anti-hero bit. However, he just doesn't quite have the offhand charm of a good movie scoundrel. The performance is all too earnestly nihilistic to care about.

Director Gregor Jordan seems to go out of his way to separate Buffalo Soldiers from obvious genre movies. He isn't making straight drama or comedy but he seems to go out of his way, especially to avoid comedy. The film’s funniest moments come from Ed Harris playing against type as the bumbling Colonel Berman.

Imagine Stripes as envisioned by Chuck Pahlaniuk and directed by David Fincher and you get an idea what Buffalo Soldiers is going for. It's a take it or leave it portrait of questionable behavior, death, machismo, and murder. No one liners, no forced perspectives or lessons to be learned. Buffalo Soldiers is more of an interesting concept than it is a great movie.

Movie Review Buffalo 66

Buffalo 66 

Directed by Vincent Gallo 

Written by Vincent Gallo, Allison Bagnall 

Starring Vincent Gallo, Christina Ricci, Ben Gazzara, Mickey Rourke, Anjelica Huston 

Release Date June 26th, 1998 

Published August 11th, 2003 

Actor Vincent Gallo courted controversy at the 2003 Cannes Film festival with his latest film, The Brown Bunny. It was called the worst film in the festival’s history and was roundly trashed by Roger Ebert amongst others. Gallo didn't take the rebukes lightly, lashing out at journalists at the film’s press conference and later chastising Ebert and calling him a fat pig. This is not the intelligent discourse one attributes to a great artist. Despite Gallo's horrible attitude and childish behavior at Cannes, he is undeniably an artist, as he showed with his most famous directorial outing, 1997's fresh oddball love story Buffalo 66.

The Buffalo of the title is Buffalo New York where our pseudo hero Billy Brown (Gallo) was born and raised until he went to prison. As we meet him Billy is leaving prison and headed home to Buffalo. Poor Billy desperately needs to use the restroom after his long bus ride, but finds every bathroom either out of service or locked until finally he wanders into a dance studio. Even then, an odd encounter with a male student causes Billy the inability to go. Instead, he uses a payphone to call his mother to tell her he's coming home.

Billy never told his parents he went to jail, his Byzantine excuse for his disappearance includes working for the government and a fictional wife. Desperate to appease his mother Billy decides to kidnap Layla (Christina Ricci), a dance student who just happened to overhear Billy's conversation with his mother. The abduction isn't very violent or frightening for Layla who seems to take this odd occurrence and even Billy's raging hostility in stride.

Once arriving at Billy's home, Layla is told that her new name is Wendy and that her only job is to make him look good to his parents, a task she takes to with relish.

Billy's parents Jan (Angelica Huston) and Jimmy (Ben Gazzara) are quite the odd couple. Mom is an obsessive Bills football fan whose photo albums contain only photos of Bills players and the one picture of her son is difficult to find. Billy's Dad is a former lounge singer who even serenades Layla in a strange almost dreamlike sequence. Angelica Huston has the film’s most telling and dramatic moment when she off handedly explains the film’s title.

Layla/Wendy does everything she can to make Billy look good to Mom and Dad, telling them about Billy's job with the CIA and his covert activities in the spy world. It isn't until she tells them that she’s pregnant that she gets their attention away from the Bills game.

While at the parent’s house, Billy calls his best friend Goon (Kevin Corrigan) and we learn the details of how Billy went to jail and his plans now that he is out. Billy it seems lost a great deal of money on the Bills Super Bowl loss to the Giants. He paid his debt to his bookie (played in a small cameo by Mickey Rourke) by confessing to a crime committed by one of the bookie's associates. Now that he's out Billy is going to get revenge, not on the bookie but on the Bills kicker who missed the game winning field goal.

That may seem like an actual plot but Buffalo 66 never settles into a conventional narrative. Instead, Gallo, who also wrote and directed the film, prefers to simply observe his characters and their reactions to the strange circumstances surrounding them. He employs a unique visual style, very gritty at times then straying into dream sequences that include musical interludes and a tap dance by Ricci. These flights of visual and narrative fancy are a welcome change from the downer story. Not that it's a bad story, it's very unique.

It is Ricci who carries much of the film with her sympathetic eyes and endearing sweetness, not to mention a weird quality that makes her character’s willingness to stick with Billy and even fall in love with seem perfectly natural. Characters thrust into the situation her character is in are supposed to be frightened and attempting to escape and other very correct and conventional reactions. Then again, there is nothing conventional about Buffalo 66

Movie Review: Bubba Ho-Tep

Bubba Ho-Tep (2002) 

Directed by Don Coscarelli 

Written by Don Coscarelli 

Starring Bruce Campbell, Ossie Davis

Release Date June 9th, 2002 

Published April 20th, 2004

Bruce Campbell made his name with arguably the best B-movie horror films series in history, Evil Dead. Army Of Darkness cemented his legend but since that film’s 1993 release, Campbell has not been able to rise to that level of genius.

Until now that is.

With the release of Bubba Ho-tep (it was released in late 2002 and just reached my small hole in the universe in April 2004), Campbell has recaptured that vibe that made Ash a legend. Playing an aged King of Rock N Roll fighting a mummy, Campbell reaches a level that flies well past camp and into a realm that only a Bruce Campbell B-movie could reach.

Just before Elvis Presley was found dead in his Graceland mansion, the real Elvis visited a man that was believed to be the best Elvis impersonator in the world. His name is Sebastian Haff and the deal he made was to become Elvis, allowing the real King to go into hiding, pretending to be an Elvis impersonator. Part of the deal the two men made was that Elvis could switch back whenever he wanted. Before he could though, Sebastian Haff died and the real Elvis fell off a stage during a performance and landed himself in a Texas old folk’s home where he's been laid up for more than 20 years.

Elvis fell into a drab, depressing routine of watching roommates pass away and unexciting sponge baths from the bitchy nursing staff. All the while lamenting the loss of his fame and fortune. Elvis's only friend and the only man who believes he really is Elvis is a man who is convinced that he himself is John F. Kennedy. This despite being a black man (Ossie Davis plays the unusual role). According to Jack, they dyed him after they shot him.

It is Jack that first becomes aware of a peculiar series of deaths in the home. Peculiar because they are precipitated by the appearance a huge cockroach-looking thing and electrical surges. Soon the two friends discover that the real peculiar thing is that there is a mummy in a cowboy hat that is sucking the life out of old people to keep itself alive. Now these two legends must find away to save their home and themselves from a creature that Elvis dubs Bubba Ho-tep.

Just the concept alone, Elvis and JFK vs. a mummy, is brilliant enough. Then, as directed by Don Coscarelli, the man who directed Phantasm, it reaches another level of cheesy brilliance. Coscarelli only knows one way to direct a film and that is with as minimalist a palette as possible. He’s a veteran director but he can never be confused for an artist. However, it is exactly that lack of precision and skill that so perfectly captures such a strange weird movie. It is my honest opinion that in this case, it takes a bad director to make a bad movie transcend its badness into something wholly brilliant.

Campy, kooky, over the top ridiculousness abounds in Bubba Ho-tep. From the gutter mouth dialogue to the cheeseball look to a mummy in a cowboy hat, Bubba is an ingenious B-movie that returns Bruce Campbell to his so-bad-it's-good brilliance. This is a film that has to be seen to be believed. 

Movie Review Tape

Tape (2001) 

Directed by Richard Linklater

Written by Stephen Belber 

Starring Uma Thurman, Robert Sean Leonard, Ethan Hawke 

Release Date November 2nd, 2001 

Published April 16th, 2002 

Someone once said that there are three sides to every story: Yours, mine, and the truth. This is the central theme of Richard Linklater's film Tape starring Ethan Hawke, Robert Sean Leonard, and Uma Thurman.

Hawke is Vince, a low level drug dealer and a world-class fuckup. Vince is in Lansing, Michigan for the Lansing Film Festival where his friend John (Leonard) is debuting his first film. The two meet at Vince's rundown hotel room with John expecting to go to dinner, but Vince has another agenda. Thus begins a game of verbal cat and mouse with Vince attempting lead John to the conclusion that best fits what Vince wants to hear.

The disagreement is over Vince's high school girlfriend Amy and an incident between John and Amy that each remembers differently. Vince has a surprise for John in that Amy is in Lansing and on her way to the hotel as they speak. Amy (Uma) is surprised to see John and is obviously unnerved at seeing him again. Vince quickly steers the conversation to high school and the thing that happened between John and Amy.

What happened between John and Amy? Well that’s interesting you see, they aren't quite sure. Each character remembers it differently which leads to amazing bouts of verbal warfare, shifting alliances and childish name-calling.

Linklater, the man behind Dazed and Confused and Slacker, here crafts a story that would easily translate to a play. A single set three actors and a lot of very good dialogue. The actors are up to the challenge. With each line of dialogue they make their point while their faces and actions give the audience insight into who they are. There is some obvious improvisation going on and the improv makes the dialogue feel real.

Linklater shot the film on digital video, which allows him to use the room’s natural lighting and adds to the feeling of intimacy, of being there, witnessing this conversational warfare. As the film progresses, Linklater uses the DV camera to visually shrink the room with tight, claustrophobic, close-ups, magnifying the tension in each characters face.

Tape is a small but powerful film that, like Changing Lanes, is an insightful look at human nature and how right and wrong can at times be decided by what is perceived instead of what is true. Emotions, instincts, anger and self-preservation are all part of being human; it's how you deal with them that define you as a person. I may be over-intellectualizing this film, maybe it's just about three people and a misunderstanding. This review may be more of an insight into this reviewer than this film, but these are honestly all the things that went through my mind as I watched this magnificent film. 

I highly recommend Tape. 

Movie Review Knocked Up

Knocked Up (2007) 

Directed by Judd Apatow

Written by Judd Apatow 

Starring Seth Rogen, Katherine Heigl, Jonah Hill, Paul Rudd, Leslie Mann, Jason Segal 

Release Date June 1st, 2007 

Published May 30th, 2007 

Television's loss has become the film world's gain. Just think, had either of Judd Apatow's television ventures, Freaks & Geeks or Undeclared become the hit they deserved to be, we might have had to wait for The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up. Thankfully, and yet sadly, both shows were mistreated by hasty network execs seeking quick hit programming, and thus Apatow was pushed to create two of the best comedies of this decade.

The 40 Year Old Virgin is a masterwork in the comedy of discomfort. For all of its lowbrow elements, Virgin thrived on delivering characters with great heart as well as great humor. Judd Apatow's new film Knocked Up shares Virgin's heart and humor but also manages to go a little deeper in analyzing its characters and their flaws. That said, for fans of the off-color humor, there are plenty of dick jokes, vomit jokes, and a birthing scene like nothing you have seen outside of a medical documentary.

Seth Rogan stars in Knocked Up as Ben, a true loser. He lives in a run down house with several of his loser friends. He smokes pot all day and is waiting while his stoner pals try and launch a website dedicated to nude scenes of Hollywood movies. He lives off the profits of a personal injury lawsuit he won several years earlier.

How Ben (Seth Rogan) managed to hook up with a woman like Allison (Katherine Heigl) is entirely about the alcohol. Without a little help from Jose Cuervo there was no way Allison and Ben would end up in bed together. Allison is a gorgeous, highly ambitious, entertainment reporter who, while celebrating her promotion at E! Entertainment television, meets Ben and somehow ends up in bed with him.

The meeting of Ben and Allison should have been for just one alcohol fueled night. However, thanks to condom troubles, Allison ends up pregnant and now she and Ben are tied for good. She has to try and find a way to make things work for the sake of her baby and he must find some way to grow up and become a father.

Written and directed by Judd Apatow, Knocked Up is a foul mouthed yet thoughtful examination of real life issues, parenthood and marriage, and the fears that many people share about growing up and becoming a real adult. The Peter Pan syndrome of many child adults has been a trend in comedies of this decade. Where Knocked Up is different from films like Grandma's Boy, Benchwarmers or Failure To Launch is that Knocked Up is smarter, funnier and features a far more talented group of performers.  

The most important difference however is creator Judd Apatow whose witty insightful writing, leavened by copious amounts of lowbrow jokes, creates characters and situations that are funnier and more believable than those in supposedly similar films. As he did on his terrific, but sadly short lived TV shows, Apatow shows in Knocked Up a level of understanding and good heartedness that often feels crass in lesser talented hands.

His comic timing, the way he mixes the lowbrow humor with the insightful character stuff is a near perfect mixture. Teaming with Seth Rogan, his longtime friend and producing partner, Apatow creates a quick, witty shorthand that never plays like two friends and an inside joke. The shorthand they have together is apparent but they keep all of the humor open and accessible.

If I have any complaint about Knocked Up it comes from a not so surprising lack of depth in the Allison character. It has long been a difficult road for male writers attempting to write fully fleshed out female characters and even a writer as talented as Judd Apatow can't avoid the pitfalls. While Katherine Heigl brings a wonderful inner life to Allison, Apatow fails to flesh out a back story and motivation for her prior to hooking up with Ben.

Why does she live in her sister's guest house? Where are her friends? We meet all of Ben's stoner buddies, but not one of Allison's friends. What about other men? Certainly a woman as beautiful as Allison has had other boyfriends or would attract other men even as she is trying things with Ben. We never learn anything about Allison other than how she reacts to Ben and to becoming a parent with him.

One reason Allison gets the short end of the stick is that this is really Ben's journey told from Ben's perspective and what an interesting perspective that is. Seth Rogan makes Ben so charming and funny that you only question how a schlub like him could win over a goddess like Allison for maybe... half the movie's runtime. But, once we are comfortable with Ben you can't help but be won over. His quick wit, his willingness to make himself the subject of the joke and his relaxed easy going charisma make him a real winner even as his lifestyle and some of his actions betray a loser.

This is the fifth time Rogan has worked with his good friend Judd Apatow, he was on both of Apatow's TV series, had a small role in Anchorman, where Apatow was an executive producer, and co-starred and earned a producer's credit on The 40 Year Old Virgin. The breezy way in which these two work together likely comes from a long honed shorthand.

Paul Rudd is the secret weapon of Knocked Up. Once seen as just another handsome actor, Rudd has in the past 3 years established himself as a tremendously funny supporting player. In Anchorman as Will Ferrell's go to guy and in The 40 Year Old Virgin Rudd showed a terrific flair for self-deprecating humor, a willingness to make jokes about him and a pitch perfect ear  for the one liner.

In Knocked Up Rudd crafts a very human and very funny character that is both self deprecating and confident. His Pete is at first the least complicated character in the film and you feel you know where his secondary storyline is heading. Thankfully, Apatow and Rudd have a number of surprises in store and Pete is much more interesting than he initially appears.

Throughout the middle portion of Knocked Up, as we are getting close with Ben and Allison, we get some very interesting and insightful moments with Pete and his wife, Allison's sister, Debbie played by Leslie Mann. The marriage of Pete and Debbie is counterpoint to Ben and Allison's burgeoning romance and the two relationships are a commentary on one another in a very unique way.

Finally, in a tiny, almost insignificant role, Saturday Night Live star Kristin Wiig is a terrific scene stealer. Playing one of Allison's bosses at the E! Network, Wiig plays a variation on one of her SNL characters, one who feels she must top any story with one of her own. The subtle brilliance of Wiig's performance is almost so low key you could miss it. Pay attention when she is on, you are guaranteed some big laughs.

Yes, Knocked Up is often foul and features a good deal of low humor. However, mixed within the lowest common denominator stuff is a true heart and a great head. The film is warmer and truer than most of the films Hollywood releases in any year, not just comedies. Knocked Up is a terrifically funny movie packed with talented performers and a creator who is a star on the rise for many years to come. As good as both The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up are, I feel Judd Apatow will only get more interesting as he matures. His best work may be yet to come. 

Movie Review The Bourne Supremacy

The Bourne Supremacy (2004) 

Directed by Paul Greengrass

Written by Tony Gilroy

Starring Matt Damon, Brian Cox, Franke Potente, Julia Stiles, Karl Urban, Joan Allen 

Release Date July 23rd, 2004 

Published July 22nd, 2004 

What I have always loved about action movies, or more specifically spy movies, is the idea that while we live our everyday mundane lives, secret forces are out there creating and covering up chaos. Just think of all those times the world has been in peril or (at least the lives of normal civilians like ourselves) and we have never known it. 

We have wandered into city squares unaware that they are teeming with secret agents and surrounded by SWAT team snipers. What about all of those times you have been cut off by some nut in traffic unaware that he is fleeing for his life with the fate of the nation hanging in the balance.  The Bourne Supremacy doesn’t get caught up with saving the world but it does have a few of those moments where everyday civilians unknowingly cross paths with danger -- all of it cleverly staged and playing into a smart, action-packed plot, heavy on spycraft and low on dialogue. 

Matt Damon returns as Jason Bourne the amnesiac hero of 2002’s The Bourne Identity. As we rejoin Jason Bourne, he is hiding out in India with his on the lam girlfriend Marie (Franke Potente) whom he kidnapped and fell in love with in the first film. The couple has an idyllic life of leisure aside from Jason’s occasional flashes of memories that he can’t fully recover. Jason knows he did something horrible but can’t remember what it is.

Not surprisingly, his memory will become important as Jason is drawn back into the spy game by the arrival of an assassin (Karl Urban) who has just framed Jason for murder in Munich, Germany, and has now come to India to tie up his loose ends. Jason doesn’t know about the Munich setup; he assumes the CIA has resumed pursuit of him despite his warning of reprisal.

Joan Allen is Pamela Landy, CIA field director, who stumbles on to Bourne through the assassin’s setup in Munich. Landy was in Munich when two of her CIA squad were killed and the evidence points to Bourne. Searching for Bourne leads her to Bourne’s former boss Ward Abbott (Brian Cox) who has something big to hide. Whether it’s criminal or merely a CIA operation is one of many tantalizing mysteries. From the outset, the only character to trust is Bourne; everyone else is suspect. 

Director Paul Greengrass’s previous film was the visceral pseudo-documentary Bloody Sunday about terrorist strife in Ireland. That film employed a grainy look that dated the film to its 1980s setting. There is no need for such tricks in this film but that does not preclude Greengrass from being innovative with the film’s look. Its color palette, sun-soaked yellows in India, subtle grays and cold exteriors in Europe follow closely the film’s tone. 

The action scenes are where The Bourne Supremacy sets itself apart from other action movies. Especially good is a hand-to-hand fight scene that Greengrass shot with a handheld camera that follows the action much like Michael Mann’s camera in the boxing ring in Ali, the difference being that Mann shot that on Digital and Greengrass does this on film. 

The Bourne Supremacy also has one of the best chase scenes ever. This is on par with John Frankenheimer’s Ronin and William Friedkin’s The French Connection, with Bourne chased by Urban’s unknown assassin and a number of Russian police. Bourne is driving with one arm after being shot and while being chased he must stop the bleeding. And did I mention the car is a stick shift.

The most essential element of The Bourne Supremacy is the performance of Damon. This film, like its progenitor, turns on whether or not Damon is a believable action hero and once again Damon is a revelation. Damon brings an actor’s chops to a role that most actors throw away, hoping the special effects will carry them. He has the serious manner of Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible but with a grittier, more realistic approach.

Though I would like stronger dialogue and the plot could stand to be a little more fleshed out, there is very little to complain about. Screenwriter Tony Gilroy has an efficient writing style reminiscent of David Mamet’s Spartan but with less wit and far fewer four-letter words. It resembles Mamet in efficiency, if not wordiness, both films don't writers are not wasting time. 

The Bourne Supremacy, like The Bourne Identity, is based on a novel by the late Robert Ludlum who has many more Bourne thrillers already on bookshelves guaranteeing more of this smart, efficient spy thriller. Hopefully the next film is as kinetic and inventive as The Bourne Supremacy is; a terrific summer action movie.

Movie Review: Before Sunset

Before Sunrise (1995) 

Directed by Richard Linklater

Written by Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, Richard Linklater 

Starring Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy

Release Date January 27th 1995 

Published June 15th, 2004 

Massively moneyed blockbusters are supposed to have sequels, not tiny independent romances with cult followings. Richard Linklater however has always been one to do things differently and thus there is now a sequel to his 1995 romance Before Sunrise. With that film set for release in America in July (it's already been seen in Germany where it premiered at the Berlin), I thought it was a good time to revisit the original and I’m glad I did.

On a train traveling through Europe, two twenty-somethings meet by chance and spend one romantic night in Vienna. Jesse (Ethan Hawke) is an American who came to Europe to see his girlfriend and ends up heartbroken and wandering. Celine (Julie Delpy) is a French college student headed home from Budapest after visiting relatives.

Jesse and Celine bond over their mutual distaste with a couple loudly fighting in indecipherable German. They decide to hang out together in the dining car and what begins as a time-killing conversation becomes a series of smart, witty exchanges and real honest romance. He has to get off in Vienna to catch a plane the next morning, she is supposed to just go straight home but Jesse's charm tempts her enough to jump off the train for one romantic night in Vienna.

A more Hollywood style romance would fly off the rails at this point adding mobsters, thieves or something supernatural to the plot in order to give the characters something more to do than just walk and talk. Writer-Director Richard Linklater is more confident in his writing and especially his dialogue to need any Hollywoodized plot devices. His dialogue and his two amazing actors are all the devices he needs.

As Jesse and Celine laconically wander the streets of Vienna, their conversations twist and turn through such diverse topics as reincarnation (they both believe but Jesse has a unique theory), Feminism (Celine believes it may be a conspiracy to get woman to act more like men so they will have sex more), and the inevitable discussion of each other’s pasts which they handle in part with fake phone calls to best friends.

The conversations border on cuteness but the two actors are good at steering away from anything that might be considered cloying. Julie Delpy is a revelation. She looks like your classic French ingenue, the type of shrinking violet that could be blown away by a stiff wind. She changes that right from the start by jumping right into the heavy conversation with the sardonic and clever Hawke and matching him word for clever word. She also curses like a sailor, but an unbelievably sexy French sailor.

What a wonderfully romantic idea. Meeting a stranger on a train and falling in love in some far out foreign locale for only one night. I have always thought it would be amazing to go Europe with a backpack full of books and a laptop of my own writing and just wander until I find my muse. Before Sunrise allowed me to lose myself in that fantasy with two characters who's wit, intelligence and romance could be just the inspiration I would need.

The sequel, Before Sunset, hits theaters in July 2004 and though I haven't seen it yet, the idea of it evokes Claude Lelouche's masterpiece A Man and A Woman and it's sequel of the same title set 20 years later. Both films are romantic and smart, following strangers who fall in love only to separate soon after. Hopefully, Before Sunset will be a more successful follow up than Lelouche's follow-up, which damaged the first film’s legacy as a classic. I doubt that would happen to Linklater who has yet to make a bad film, at least from this critic’s perspective.

If Before Sunset can manage to be as witty, romantic and poetic as Before Sunrise, then those of us who enjoy movies without the aid of special effects and blaring soundtracks will have something to look forward to this summer.

Movie Review: Beat

Beat (2000) 

Directed by Gary Walkow 

Written by Gary Walkow 

Starring Norman Reedus, Kiefer Sutherland, Courtney Love, Kyle Secor, Ron Livingston 

Release Date January 29th, 2000 

Published October 29th, 2002 

Knowing little more than the names of the Beat poets of the 1950's I was intrigued to see a film that I assumed would shed some light on the work and motivation of what has been called the golden age of American poetry. Instead, with the drama, Beat, we get a very short and at times quite dull love story involving bland secondary characters who rotate around the poets one would expect the film to focus on.

Beat stars Courtney Love as Joanie Burroughs, the wife of William S. Burroughs, whose death at his hands in 1951 is said to be what launched William S. Burroughs' best work. Burroughs is played by Kiefer Sutherland, in what amounts to an extended cameo. His Burroughs spends most of the film pursuing an off camera affair with another man. In 1951, the Burroughs are living in Mexico as William ducks a heroin conviction in New York. Here, they are visited by a pair of old friends, Allen Ginsburg (Ron Livingston) and Lucien Carr (Norman Reedus). Their aim for their trip is to convince Joan to come back to New York with or without William. Lucien is in love with Joan and sees William's cheating as his opportunity to steal her away.

While one might expect a film about poets to be very talky, not much more than talking happens in Beat, though not the kind of talking you would hope for. I was hoping to hear poetry, but, for a film that features William S. Burroughs, Allan Ginsburg and alludes to a character playing Jack Kerouac, there is surprisingly little poetry. Livingston is also the film's narrator and, at times, he does riff, but those riffs are abbreviated. Most of the film consists of discussions about Lucien having been released from jail after murdering a gay friend (Homicide's Kye Secor), who tried to get a little too close. Reedus's Lucien is often referred to as the catalyst of the New York poetry scene, though he does not seem to compose much (if any) poetry. His place in history is not well known.

The film's ending, also portrayed in the Burroughs adaptation Naked Lunch, is tragic but not unexpected. Anyone familiar with Burroughs' history knows this actually happened. Whether or not the incident portrayed followed so closely after a visit by Carr and Ginsburg is unclear. Most of the film is an allusion to events as they may have happened, implying the reason and motivations.

Clocking in at a slim 67 minutes, Beat begins with little narrative momentum and runs out of it quickly. The film has no story, and what's worse, it has some of the most fascinating people of the last half-century but doesn't portray them doing what they do best. A movie about poets with little or no poetry... whose idea was this? 

Movie Review: Basic

Basic (2003)

Directed by John McTiernan 

Written by James Vanderbilt 

Starring John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Connie Nielsen, Taye Diggs, Giovanni Ribisi, Tim Daly 

Release Date March 28th, 2003 

Published March 27th, 2003 

Just over a year ago, director John McTiernan hit a career low point that made The Last Action Hero look like an Oscar winner. The 2002 remake of Rollerball was a painful cinematic experience for the audience and probably the filmmaker as well. McTiernan soldiers on, literally in fact, with his new military thriller Basic. Re-teaming Pulp Fiction partners John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson, McTiernan has improved on his last effort; then again, how could he not?

Travolta, back in military mode for the first time since 1999 trash thriller The General's Daughter, here plays another troubled outsider called into the military fold to investigate a murder. Sergeant Nathan West(Jackson) and a group of six recruits went into the jungle training grounds of Panama and only two people came back. Both men, Lieutenant Kendell(Giovanni Ribisi) and Lieutenant Dunbar (Brian Van Holt) say Sergeant West was killed, but that is where the similarities in their stories end. While Travolta's Tom Hardy--who is paired with a military investigator, Lieutenant Osborne (Connie Nielsen)--interrogates each man, two very different stories evolve as time ticks away before the FBI and military police step in and take the case over.

The camp commander, Colonel Styles (Tim Daly), needs the case cracked before the Feds get there or the camp will be shut down. Of course, his motives come into question, as do the motives of everyone in the film, as the plot begins to spin out of control with flashback on top of flashback. The film's plot is based on so many lucky guesses and well-timed confessions, that by the time it arrives at its final twist, you're too exhausted to care. Whether it was too much editing and settling for shorthand clues that the audience never sees or simply a poorly-constructed plot one is left to wonder.

If you are looking for a Pulp Fiction reunion, there isn't much to get excited about Travolta and Jackson share very little screen time. However, Travolta is well teamed with Nielsen. The two spark with flirty dialogue even while at each other's throat over who is in charge. Travolta is in full-on cool mode, much like his performance in Broken Arrow--all swagger, bravado, and charisma. Jackson, on the other hand, though he is played up as a star, really only has a cameo in the film. He's barely there. In typical Sam Jackson manner, he still manages to make an impression.

Of course, if one is to compare Basic to any of Travolta's past films, the obvious one is The General's Daughter. In both films, Travolta plays a cop on the outskirts of the military called into an investigation that could lead to a scandal. Both are murder investigations with mysterious circumstances and witnesses with conflicting accounts and there is even a soldier with a powerful general for a father who wants things to keep quiet. Thankfully, the general remains off screen. The difference between Basic and The General's Daughter is entertainment value. 

Where Basic tires you with twist after twist, The General's Daughter has the advantage of salacious subject matter and trashy novelizations to titillate the audience and distract from the formula thriller twists. Basic doesn't have that to fall back on and thus, outside of Travolta, it's just no fun. The further I get from the film, the more the cracks in the plot become big gaping holes. Unlike many critics though, I cannot lay all the blame with screenwriter James Vanderbilt because some of these ideas, especially the ending, seem to have been made up as they went along.

Basic is an improvement for John McTiernan over Rollerball. (Then again, repertory theater versions of Rollerball would improve over that film.) McTiernan is in a slump and rumors of a Die Hard sequel are out there. Maybe a return to such familiar ground is what the man needs. That or maybe just a nice long vacation.

Movie Review: Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday (2002) 

Directed by Edward Burns

Written by Edward Burns 

Starring Edward Burns, Elijah Wood, Rosario Dawson, Oliver Platt 

Release Date October 11th, 2002 

Published December 16th, 2002 

One of the holiest of Catholic holidays, Ash Wednesday is celebrated as the beginning of Lent. The ashes anointed on the head of the believer is a reminder that we are born of dust and will one day return to dust. Essentially, it's a reminder of death. The perfect metaphor for Edward Burns’ new feature Ash Wednesday. A film that is a meditation on life and death and the choices people make that lead to death. Though the filmmaking is somewhat misguided, its heart is in the right place.

Ash Wednesday, written, directed by and starring Burns is Francis, a former Irish mob thug turned reformed citizen after the supposed death of his brother Sean (Elijah Wood). It was 1980 in a part of New York known as Hell's Kitchen. Sean Sullivan was tending bar when he overheard a group of men talking over the murder of Sean's brother. Sensing the men meant business, Sean does the only thing he can think of to save his brother and murders the group. 

Conspiring with his brother, their priest Father Mahoney (James Handy), and their father’s mob partner Whitey (Malachy McCourt), Sean is smuggled out of the state and his death is faked to satisfy the families of the men he killed. Unfortunately, Sean leaves behind a wife played by Rosario Dawson, and an unborn son he does not know of. Three years pass and Francis has been spending time with Sean's wife until Sean pops up unannounced to claim her and take her away with him. Sean is unaware of his brother's actions. The rumors of Sean's return from the grave spread quickly and the family of the men Sean killed lead by Oliver Platt (in what amounts to a cameo, though he's on the poster) immediately come looking for Francis and a fight.

Once the indie wunderkind who went from intern on Entertainment Tonight to writer-director with his first feature The Brothers McMullan, Ed Burns has been on a steady decline since his charming debut. His most recent film was the highly uneven Woody Allen homage Sidewalks Of New York. Before that the unnoticed No Looking Back. The quality of Burns' work has slipped with each outing and Ash Wednesday continues the decline.

Though the film has its moments of purity and intelligence, Burns' performance, along with that of his woefully miscast co-star Elijah Wood, undoes any interesting elements the film has. Burns is excessively laid back for the character he is portraying, a killer with a conscience. To convince anyone he was a conflicted killer Burns would have to show us he has a pulse, show us that he actually cares. However, even during the few scenes of gunplay Burns maintains a disaffected air that is off-putting to the audience and undermining of the character.

As for Wood, his wistful looks make him about the least believable killer since Julia Roberts shot that guy in The Mexican. I honestly expected him to drop the gun and start crying. I'm not commenting on Wood's masculinity, I'm speaking solely of his performance which is dewy eyed, whiny, and deeply unconvincing for what the character is called upon to do. 

There are good things about Ash Wednesday, specifically the performance of Rosario Dawson who in a very limited role manages to earn audience sympathies while saddled with subpar dialogue. Also good is the film’s score, a piano driven dirge that reinforces the gloom that rises from the crime ridden streets.

The truly disappointing part of Ash Wednesday is it's ending, which is meant to be emotional and cathartic, but is instead insultingly obvious.

Movie Review: Alexander

Alexander (2004) 

Directed by Oliver Stone 

Written by Oliver Stone, Laeta Kalogridis 

Starring Colin Farrell, Angelina Jolie, Val Kilmer, Jared Leto, Rosario Dawson, Anthony Hopkins

Release Date November 24th, 2004

Published November 23rd, 2004 

If Aaron Spelling had made a movie about Alexander The Great, it might sound a lot like the one Oliver Stone has just pushed into theaters: A breathy, overcooked melodrama of hot-blooded hardbodies falling in and out of bed in between fighting wars. Oliver Stone's Alexander is a big budget bio-pic that would feel more at home as a trashy TV movie than as a potential Oscar nominee.

Some 300 years before the birth of Christ, one man ruled most of planet Earth before his 32nd birthday. Alexander the Great, the son of King Phillip of Macedonia (Val Kilmer) and Queen Olympias (Angelina Jolie), was never supposed to be king. Because of a feud between his mother and father, Alexander was caught in the midst of a power struggle that leads to his father's murder and suspicion that his mother may have arranged the killing. 

Regardless of how he rose to power, once Alexander took power, he lead his charges to the ends of the world conquering and civilizing all barbarian tribes along the way. His story is marked with the deaths of thousands, but history is written by the victors which may be why Alexander is remembered as a benevolent conqueror who maintained palaces and people in power even after defeating their military forces on the battlefield.

Watching Stone's take on the life of Alexander would leave you to believe that Alexander's bloodiest battles were with his own top advisors, none of whom shared his vision of Asia as part of the Macedonian empire. Alexander's men simply wanted the riches of Asia to take back to Greece or the kingdom of Babylon, but Alexander -- a regular 4th century Jesse Jackson -- wanted a rainbow coalition of subjects who would help him rule the world and mix all the races of man; a regular united colors of Benetton style conqueror. 

Yes, according to Stone, Alexander was a champion of civil rights who even took a Persian wife, Roxana (Rosario Dawson), to placate his new Persian subjects. Alexander was also a champion of gay rights as well often sharing a same-sex canoodle with slaves of various ethnicities and sharing an especially close relationship with one of his top generals, Hephaistos (Jared Leto). The two soldiers never consummate the relationship on screen but it's clear from the dewy-eyed gazes and quivery-voiced declarations that if it wouldn't hurt the box office they might have hopped into bed.

Colin Farrell has played sexually confused man-child before, in the indie A Home At The End Of The World. However, there is a big difference between a broken home teenager searching for a family and an identity and the man who united the kingdoms of man before his 32nd birthday. If you want to play the character gay, that's fine, but do it with more depth than whiny schoolgirl stares and grandiloquent speeches whose only weight comes from the fact that they are delivered with an accent.

What happened to the fire that Colin Farrell used to carry him through his best performance in Tigerland? The fire that made him a logical choice for mega-stardom? Somewhere in the making of Alexander, that fire was replaced by the petulant longings of a dewy-eyed manchild. With his childish mood swings, it's hard to believe that this guy could have conquered his mother’s bedroom let alone the known world. I don't need Alexander to be John Wayne but a little butching up couldn't hurt. 

As for his mother, Jolie's performance provides the film’s only entertaining moments; not for her eloquent line readings or smoldering presence but rather the campy Joan Collins-style overacting she employs. Her every scene reminded me of the behind the scenes scheming that Collins made so deliciously goofy on Dynasty. Kilmer is no John Forsythe but he can bite into the scenery with the best of them and here he's a regular Jeremy Irons, absolutely chewing the walls.

Oliver Stone has always been prone to excess, but even by his standards, Alexander is a little much. His ego is way out in front of his storytelling here and what should be an epic feels more like an exercise of Stone's ability to raise large amounts of studio capital to feed his massive ego. A true disaster, Alexander will be remembered on Oscar night only as the subject of one of Chris Rock's biting monologue punchlines. 

Movie Review The Jimmy Show

The Jimmy Show (2002) 

Directed by Frank Whaley 

Written by Frank Whaley, Jonathan Marc Sherman 

Starring Frank Whaley, Ethan Hawke, Carla Gugino

Release Date December 13th, 2002 

Published July 23rd, 2003 

Frank Whaley has had one of the most unique career paths in all of Hollywood. After a very brief respite in the sitcom world, Whaley moved to his true calling in independent films. He has done some small roles in big budgets flicks like, Hoffa, Born On The 4th Of July and JFK, but it was in the indies that he found his niche. 1994's Swimming With Sharks made Whaley's career. His role as a stressed-out junior agent opposite Kevin Spacey's maniacal Mike Ovitz impression gave Whaley the indie cred he needed to get to where he is today, a respected writer-director-actor. His most recent hyphenated feature is The Jimmy Show.

Though the film's settings include a comedy club, The Jimmy Show is no comedy. Whaley is Jimmy O'Brien, a shiftless New Jersey layabout who can't hold a job and dreams of being a comedian. By day he works at a supermarket stealing beer out of the back room, by night he is at the comedy club bombing miserably.

Jimmy's personal life is complicated by his love for his high school sweetheart Annie (Carla Gugino). When Annie tells him she's pregnant Jimmy, has the look of a man condemned to death as he vaguely proposes marriage. Jimmy also must take care of his invalid grandmother who he, for some reason, won't put in a nursing home despite the fact that he can't afford to care for her.

Jimmy's only solace is on stage where his act about cat food varieties soon become rambling monologues about the various indignities of his daily life. Sadly, these monologues are no funnier than his cat food bit. One night when Annie hears him going on and on about the sad state of their sex life, she decides to end the marriage and take their now-six year old daughter away to another state. It's difficult to tell whether Jimmy is unhappy that she's leaving or somewhat relieved. He halfheartedly attempts to get her back before realizing it's better to let her go.

Based on a stage play by Jonathan Marc Sherman, The Jimmy Show is structured so that the comedy club bits are the film's narration. Whenever the film jumps ahead a year or two in Jimmy's life, the time is summed up in one of Jimmy's monologues. The structure works and though the first few times Jimmy is on stage are brutal, they pick up intensity as Jimmy's anger with his station in life grows. The couple of times hecklers take Jimmy to task over his unfunny material, Jimmy's overwhelming anger and intensity seem to lead him toward something that resembles humor but instead end with Jimmy nearly getting his ass kicked.

The Jimmy Show is a difficult film to sit through for its first hour but, as Whaley's performance becomes more desperate, the performance becomes riveting. You can't help but stare at Jimmy's car wreck-like routines which never once elicit a laugh from the films club audience or those of us watching at home. The film could have used a couple of laughs, something that might keep Jimmy from seeming completely on the verge of suicide, but it's far more truthful to the story that the sadness prevails over everything.

I recommend The Jimmy Show to fans of unusual indie films and to fans of Frank Whaley's previous work such as Joe The King. The average movie watcher might want to find something else.

Movie Review Heathers

Heathers (1989) 

Directed by Michael Lehmann 

Written by Daniel Waters 

Starring Winona Ryder, Christian Slater, Shannen Doherty, Kim Walker, Lisanne Falk 

Release Date March 31st 1989 

Published March 31st 2009 

In the late 1980's, as the John Hughes boom began to wane, a film came along that exploded the teen movie genre and changed the way teen movies are seen forever. With it's twisted violence and sick humor, Heathers was a kick in the ass to any and all teen movies that came before it.Though it wasn't a huge hit in the moment, it worked to cement a budding legend in Winona Ryder while establishing Christian Slater as a heartthrob and a budding leading man in the Nicholson-Brando mold. 

The film stars Winona Ryder as Veronica, a member of the popular clique in her school, the Heathers, named for the other three girls in the group whose names were all Heather. Veronica, being the only member of the clique not named Heather, is a bit of an outcast leaving one to wonder why is she even in the group, a question she often asks herself. Veronica goes through the motions of watching her friends play cruel tricks on classmates and generally being obnoxious until she meets JD (Christian Slater).

JD is a misanthropic outcast with an intense dislike of the Heathers. Veronica falls for JD and the two set about avenging the misdeeds of the Heathers. Veronica's idea of vengeance is slightly different than JD's though. With Heather #1 (Kim Walker), Veronica just thinks they are going to make her sick with a combination of milk and orange juice, JD, however, wants to use Drano and various other household items. After eliminating Heather #1, Veronica and JD make Heather #1's death look like suicide.

Just how trendy are the Heather's, Heather 1's suicide makes the uber-bitch into a saint and makes suicide another trendy teen accessory. Veronica is horrified by what happened but equally horrified by the reaction of others to what happened. JD then convinces Veronica to undertake another staged suicide, this time it's two asshole jock football players who are dispatched as if they were a lovers suicide pact.

Once again the suicides turn the jerks into hero's and Veronica realizes JD's romantic notion of saving the school from the cliques and the jocks is actually a psychotic obsession. Winona Ryder is spectacular in what may be the best role of her career. Her delivery and timing is flawless, not to mention her chemistry with Slater who also swings for the fences and nails it. Slater's slow boil from broody boy-toy to Jack Nicholson in The Shining levels of kooky psychotic behavior is a dark comic delight. 

Heather's is cynical ironic and endlessly quotable. Nowadays, with political correctness being what it is this movie would be hard to make. That's not to say it can't be done but that it would take a great deal of savvy to find the right twisted buttons to push in this seemingly more sensitive time. Thankfully, Heathers exists as it is so who cares about whether it could be made again. The original is sharp, nasty, and completely hilarious today, yesterday and will remain so for years to come. 

Movie Review Ramona & Beezus

Ramona & Beezus (2010) 

Directed by Elizabeth Allen 

Written by Laurie Craig, Nick Pustay 

Starring Joey King, Selena Gomez, John Corbett, Bridget Moynihan, Ginnifer Goodwin, Josh Duhamel, Sandra Oh 

Release Date July 23rd, 2010 

Published July 22nd, 2010 

The movie is called “Ramona and Beezus” but it really could be called just Ramona. Beezus, played by Disney Channel star Selena Gomez, is integral to the plot, but the story is unquestionably about Ramona played by 9-year-old Joey King as whirling dervish of sweet funny chaos. That's not to speak ill of Selena Gomez, she's a charming actress, but up against young Joey King's incredible performance, it's hard for anyone to stand out. 

Ramona Quimby is a precocious kid who doesn't really go looking for trouble but certainly finds it. With her huge imagination, Ramona can turn even the most straightforward activity, like the hanging rings on the playground, into a massive adventure that ends with her nearly missing a class because she has somehow hung herself upside down. There are some who will watch Ramona daydreaming, playing and finding trouble and diagnose her with attention deficit disorder but the movie, directed by Elizabeth Allen, has no time for diagnosing its star. The movie has far more serious and true elements to examine.

In a plot twist that was not part of Beverly Cleary's sunny fun vision of life on Klickitat St. in Portland Oregon, Ramona's dad (John Corbett) loses his job just as the family is building an addition on their already sprawling home. With Mom (Bridget Moynihan) heading back to work, the stress in the house begins to affect Ramona who finds new trouble in trying to help her parents keep their house.

This dramatic plot turn however, does not get overwhelmingly dramatic and for the most part Ramona and Beezus is breezy, warmhearted and sweet. 9-year-old Joey King is wonderful as Ramona, perfectly capturing her unintentional mischievousness and the soulful look in her eyes when she inevitably makes a giant mess of things.

John Corbett is terrific as the father who stays positive, patient and caring even as he seems a little dazed being over 40 and thrust back into the job hunt. Bridget Moynihan has far less screen time but her presence is felt early on. Rounding out the cast is a sweet romantic pairing between Ramona's Aunt Bea played by Ginnifer Goodwin and Ramona's neighbor Hobart played by Josh Duhamel.

Credit Goodwin and Duhamel for putting aside star ego to take minor supporting roles - both could be taking lead roles; Duhamel is in fact hard at work on another Transformers sequel but saw quality in Ramona and Beezus and could not pass it up. “Ramona and Beezus” is wonderful family entertainment. The drama of mom and dad's marriage trouble related to his unemployment is merely the underscore to a story about a big hearted little girl who finds adventure and trouble in equal measure just by being her slightly off-kilter self.

There is a reason that decades after they first appeared on Klickitat Street, courtesy of the pen of Beverly Cleary, why “Ramona and Beezus” are still around. These are quality stories and characters that resonate through time with their radiant, fun loving spirits and big, big hearts. Joey King is wonderfully well cast and though her radiance overshadows Selena Gomez as Beezus, it speaks to Selena Gomez's generosity as an actress that she is such wonderful support to King's lead performance. 

Ramona and Beezus is a delight. 

Movie Review Shallow Hal

Shallow Hal (2001) 

Directed by The Farrelly Brothers

Written by The Farrelly Brothers 

Starring Jack Black, Gwyneth Paltrow, Tony Robbins, Jason Alexander

Release Date November 9th, 2001 

Published March 15th, 2002

The Farrelly Brothers have had an extremely hit and miss career, having created two of the best comedies of the last ten years, Kingpin and There's Something About Mary, and a couple of the worst, Dumb and Dumber, Say It Isn't So and Osmosis Jones. I'm glad to say that with their latest effort, Shallow Hal, starring Jack Black and Gwyneth Paltrow, the Farrelly's have a hit on their hands. The Hal of Shallow Hal is High Fidelity's wind up toy from hell Jack Black and he is back himself after the misfire of Saving Silverman.

Hal is an extremely self deluded jerk who believes that all that matters when it comes to women is physical beauty, neglecting the fact that he is no prize pig himself. Jason Alexander plays his best friend Mauricio who shares Hal's delusion to an even greater degree, Mauricio also has a few of those truly Farrelly Esqe physical features that payoff with big laughs. One day Hal gets locked in an elevator with self improvement guru Tony Robbins, in a surprisingly dexterous turn, who listens to Hal's life story and decides to help him by hypnotizing him into seeing people's inner beauty.

Then Hal meets Rosemary who he and we see as Gwyneth Paltrow but who is actually Gwyneth 300 hundred pounds heavier. This is where the film could have gone wrong. It could have gone very wrong with disgusting jokes at the expense of overweight people but the Farrelly's deftly turn it into an almost afterschool special like a lesson on not judging a book by its cover.

Don't get me wrong, the film is very funny and often raunchy, but the inner beauty message is laid on a little thick at times. Gwyneth Paltrow is amazingly sweet and beautiful even under 300 hundred pounds of makeup. She and Jack Black make a surprisingly fantastic pair with great chemistry and timing. Paltrow is a tad stiff with the Farrelly's brand of physical humor but she makes up for it with a go for the gusto laughter that is very endearing. 

The Farrelly Brothers, when they indulge in their sweet side as they did in both Kingpin and There's Something ABout Mary, and now in Shallow Hal, are quite good at introducing and taking care of sweet, vulnerable characters. It's the sweetness that rescues the often quite sour humor of The Farrelly Brothers whose raunchy jokes may not be for everybody but when they are delivered with earnest good nature, they can reach all audiences equally. 

Shallow Hal is the proof of concept that not all Farrelly Brothers characters have to be obnoxious or on all the time in order to draw out a laughter. The Farrelly's deploy romance like weapon and use it soften the blow from their more sophomoric style of humor. 

Movie Review Kate and Leopold

Kate & Leopold 

Directed by James Mangold 

Written by James Mangold, Steven Rogers

Starring Hugh Jackman, Meg Ryan, Liev Schreiber, Breckin Meyer, Natasha Lyonne, Bradley Whitford

Release Date December 25th, 2001 

Published January 24th, 2002 

There has been talk that romantic comedy is a dying genre. The plots and conventions of the genre have become too familiar and many filmgoers are growing more pessimistic about on-screen romance. Kate & Leopold may not be the film to breathe new life into this struggling genre but for what it is, a light little cookie of a film, it's not bad.

You know your watching a romantic comedy when Meg Ryan comes on screen wrinkling her cute button nose that screams, “Love me.” In this film she is the titular Kate, who is more concerned about getting ahead at her job in advertising than finding a meaningful relationship. Her last relationship was with a quirky scientist played by Liev Schreiber. Schreiber is trying to solve the puzzle of time travel so that he can travel through time to meet his great-great uncle Leopold (Hugh Jackman), an inventor who may hold the key to Liev's scientific writer’s block.

After accomplishing time travel he accidentally brings Leopold back to the future with him. From there Kate meets Leopold who she assumes is some method actor. Leopold is immediately drawn to Kate but she at first just thinks he's weird. There is something odd about him, he's chivalrous and well mannered and well spoken. Very unusual for the modern male, but then as we already know he's not modern at all.

The love story develops well and director James Mangold doesn't let the film’s gimmicky premise get in the way of Ryan and Jackman's wonderful chemistry. All great romantic comedies are based on the chemistry of the lead actors, as Ryan has shown with Tom Hanks and Billy Crystal previously.

In Kate & Leopold, Jackman shows himself a worthy replacement for Hanks. Jackman's best work is in his willingness to humiliate himself while holding on to his Victorian era dignity. Jackman becomes a star right in front of our eyes, breaking out of the action genre and proving he can do just about anything as an actor, as he would later demonstrate in a brilliant hosting gig on SNL.

Ryan is her natural cute self in Kate & Leopold, which isn't a bad thing. But there are moments where you can see she is beginning to tire of this kind of role. More than a couple times she looks outright bored by material that she has done more than a few times. Jackman and the very surprising comic turn by Schreiber save the film. He steals every scene he's in with a goofy energy we haven't seen from him before.

Kate & Leopold isn't anything you haven't seen before but as a Friday night rental to relax and watch with your girlfriend, it’s an enjoyable rent that will leave you smiling.

Movie Review The Majestic

The Majestic 

Directed by Frank Darabont 

Written by Michael Sloane

Starring Jim Carrey, Amanda Dettmer, Martin Landau, Hal Holbrook, Bob Balaban

Release Date December 25th, 2001

Published January 30th, 2002

The 50's are a decade easily evoked onscreen. Simply have kids with seriously greased hair, drab clothing, long dresses for women, business suits and fedoras for men, and the ubiquitous white picket fences. There you have the fifties, throw in a couple of cultural touchstones like the first decade of TV, I Like Ike buttons, and the Hollywood Communist witch-hunt and you've got a decade ready made for the movies. The decade is the easily evoked backdrop for Frank Darabont's The Majestic, the story of a Hollywood scriptwriter accused in the witch-hunts and asked to name names or be blacklisted.

The scriptwriter is Peter Appelton; played by Jim Carrey as a somewhat arrogant but affable guy who, to impress a girl, accidentally attends a communist rally and now faces the wrath of the House un-American Activities Committee. Peter is set to testify in two days but before that happens he has an accident that leaves him with amnesia and strands in the small town of Lawson, California where he is mistaken for the army hero son of the local theater owner Harry, played by Martin Landau.

Both Carrey and Landau are good but neither can overcome the screenplay, which aims at the heartstrings while ignoring the brain. Carrey does have an effective scene in front of the House un-American activities committee where he explains his attending the communist rally as simply a guy being horny.

Beyond that scene, which is smart and funny, the rest of the film is crammed with emotional set pieces so obvious that you know everything that's coming well before it comes and then are annoyed at how they are resolved. The ending is truly uninspired as if someone decided the film desperately needed a happy ending even if it was going to have to force it and compromise the little integrity the film had.

Jim Carrey is a good actor, he proved that in Man On the Moon and The Truman Show. In The Majestic he seems a little desperate as if he chose this film for the sole purpose of courting Oscar and that desperation comes through in a couple of forced scenes, one with a dying Landau and another later in a cemetery. Still, Carrey is the strongest part of The Majestic which suffers not only from its weak screenplay but also Darabont's 50's setting, chosen because of the Commie Hollywood witch-hunts. Other than that, Darabont relies on those tried and true 50's set pieces like crewcuts, fedora's and the like.

I prefer the "noirish" take on the decade as presented in films like LA Confidential with hipster lingo and the seedy underbelly. The type of setting where the witch-hunts were more meaningful because Hollywood stars would attend underground meetings in secret locations in places like the seedy smoke-filled halls of an Elmore Leonard novel. The Majestic prefers uplift to impact and that is its main failure.