Entries Tagged 'Film' ↓

Perhaps director Martin Scorsese is still smarting from not winning an Academy Award in 2004 for The Aviator. Maybe he�s responding to criticism that his films are �too New York� for audiences around the rest of the country to appreciate. Perhaps it was just time for him to go back to what he seems to do best, giving us edgy, sociopathic characters in a multi-layered, pot-boiler of a story.

In his latest film, The Departed, Scorsese mixes an all-star cast of well-known mainstream actors, with a riveting tale of crime and corruption, this time set not among familiar New York Italian Mafia types but South Boston Irish gangs, and by doing so gives us one that will definitely cause Oscar voters to take notice.

This movie starts off at 100 miles per hour and only gets faster. Or maybe that was my heart beating. Not since �Goodfellas� has the combination of pacing, action and storyline been so in synch as to command your attention every step of the way. There was not a wasted scene in this movie.

Appropriately enough, the story begins in the early �70�s, around the time when Irish residents of Boston�s South End were in violent opposition to forced school bussing of Black students into neighborhood schools. Feeling themselves under siege by outsiders, they turned inward and became even more clannish. That made the community fertile ground for thugs and hoodlums like Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson) who regularly shook down local merchants in exchange for protection. Costello in turn would take a liking to a local disadvantaged youngster, Colin Sullivan and provide the means for him to grow up and get an education.

Fast forward, we are introduced to two South Boston young men as they enter and graduate from the Massachusetts State Police Academy, the grown up Sullivan (Matt Damon), and Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) the son and nephew of petty thieves associated with Costello. From there our story twists and turns on razor sharp edges, as one young man becomes the inside leak to police information for Costello�s operation, and the other the undercover police informant assigned to bring him down.

Costello wants a free hand to engage in drug trafficking, selling stolen electronic parts to potential foreign terrorists, and lots and lots of murders, and needs to know what the cops know about him. The police, in trying to disrupt his operations, are stymied by the fact that somehow Costello knows their every move.

Trust and betrayal are at the very core of this movie and the inability to know definitively who is on your side keeps the threat of danger percolating just below the surface for everyone involved. On the other hand extreme violence, in its many graphic forms, often boils over and there is no shortage of it here. The squeamish are forewarned.

Scorsese has assembled a stellar cast. Jack Nicholson steals every scene he is in. The character of Frank Costello is loosely based on real-life Boston gangster and current FBI fugitive James J. �Whitey� Bulger, and like his real-life counterpart, Costello is a dangerous snake who�d just as soon kill you as to look at you. Nicholson raises the fear level with each moment on screen.

Damon and DiCaprio disprove this reviewer�s previously held belief that they were marginally talented pretty-boys. Given meaty roles to play, they are both more than up to the task, with Damon displaying a most believable level of deception and DiCaprio conveying a street-toughness that made one forget all the charming boyish roles he�s played in the past. Martin Sheen, Alec Baldwin and real Boston native Mark Wahlberg credibly portray State Police officials with varying degrees of competence. Vera Farmiga, as psychiatrist Madolyn Madden, has the only significant female part, and while she makes the most of it, the character and her relationship with the two central figures almost seems a contrivance to move the story along rather than a necessity.

The story builds to a crescendo that will either leave you dissatisfied by its seemingly hasty resolution or trembling over the fact that it takes the tension up even one more notch. Either way, The Departed will take you on a ride you won�t soon forget.

It is being called both a �thought-provoking, powerful drama� and �irresponsible� and �disturbing.� It is a film being talked about on both sides of the Atlantic, and at this year�s Toronto International Film Festival where it is the hot ticket.

Death of a President is the controversial mock documentary, produced by the British television network Channel 4, that uses a fictionalized account of the assassination of President George W. Bush as a platform for examining how the War on Terrorism has affected and divided the United States.

Taking a retrospective approach to telling the story of the investigation into the assassination, and using a combination of archival news footage, digital special effects�including the use of super-imposed images of Bush�s head on an actor�s body�and staged scenes, the film is being described by movie critics as a well-crafted, intelligent thriller that explores the issue of just how polarized America has grown since 9/11.

The scene in the photo above (click on it to enlarge) shows the digitally-generated President Bush being gunned down just hours after driving past an anti-war demonstration while doing a talk in Chicago. The two hour drama shows the media storm that develops as Muslims are fingered as the culprits before there is any evidence. Authorities focus on a Syrian-born man in the search for the culprit.

Not surprisingly, Death of a President has been the target of criticism by Bush supporters in this country and in England. Eric Staal of Republicans Abroad in London told the website This Is London, �We’ve seen from early in his presidency the extremes that the political Left are willing to go to vilify him. This takes this vilification to a new and disturbing level. It is an appalling way to treat the head of state of another country.� A White House spokesman said, �This does not dignify a comment.�

But a private screening for press and film industry reps at the Toronto International Film Festival ended with applause from the audience, who were able to look beyond the central theme to judge it on its cinematic merits. According to a report in the Toronto Globe & Mail, the consensus of the crowd was highly favorable, and the movie stayed on the lips of viewers as they talked it up during the rest of the festival.

The film, written and directed by Gabriel Range who previously created two docudramas for the BBC, will have a UK showing on satellite television in October, and just this week producers announced a US theatrical distribution deal with Newmarket Films, distributors of Mel Gibson�s The Passion of the Christ. They hope for a November release, just in time for the fall elections.

So what do you think? Will you go to see this film if it plays in your city? Take this poll then come back and leave a comment.
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MSNBC�s Keith Olbermann took the occasion of the fifth anniversary of 9/11 to give perhaps the most candid and pointed criticism of President Bush�s handing of the War on Terrorism ever seen on television. In a more than 8 minute editorial, seen here, he faults Bush for squandering an opportunity to capitalize on the goodwill shown our nation in the aftermath of the attacks. It is must see tv.

The Tribeca Film Festival opened tonight here in New York City. Created in 2002 by Jane Rosenthal and Robert De Niro, the mission of the festival is to �enable the international film community and the general public to experience the power of film by redefining the film festival experience.� The Tribeca Film Festival was founded in the wake of the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001 to celebrate New York City as a major filmmaking center and to contribute to the long-term recovery of lower Manhattan.

The major highlight of opening night festivities is the premiere of United 93, the controversial new film written, directed and produced by Paul Greengrass (Bloody Sunday, The Bourne Supremacy), that tells the story of the fourth highjacked airliner on 9/11, which unlike three earlier flights that were deliberately crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington, DC, crash landed in a field in Pennsylvania, presumably by passengers who overtook their captors.

The film has been both much anticipated and in some quarters considered premature in retelling the story of events occurring on that date. Almost five years after the tragedy, some people are not quite ready to see any depictions, as evidenced by audience reaction in some theatres here in New York when trailers were shown. Movie-goers were visibly disturbed, some leaving theatres upset, complaining that they should have been warned of the subject matter.

While undoubtedly the story of 9/11 has been one filmmakers have been chomping at the bit to tell, waiting for the right moment when emotions have healed enough to show even fictionalized images, I am not convinced that time has arrived. Critics charge that filmmakers haven�t taken into consideration the feelings of families who lost loved ones. I contend they haven�t considered the still frazzled nerves of anyone who was affected that day.

Producers are storytellers as well as businessmen and while this is a legitimate story to tell, I�m sure commercial considerations and the desire to strike while the iron is still hot was a major motivator for the timing of its release. But four and a half years is not enough time, particularly for those in the cities most closely associated with the attacks.

While I didn�t lose anyone personally, I was close enough to witness the collapse of the North Tower with my own eyes, a memory forever seared into my brain. I had professional colleagues whose offices were in the Towers who narrowly escaped. I was with the masses of New Yorkers who walked home that day in heart-palpitating fear. I breathed in the smokey fumes from the crumbled ruins that wafted across the entire city for weeks afterwards. I remember the gut wrenching �Have You Seen�� signs posted all over town by families of the missing, that as weeks and months passed, displayed the anguish of diminishing hopes.

With the recent release of audio tapes of 911 calls from people stranded in the Towers, the news media has been retelling the story. I haven�t wanted to watch or listen to those either. The images just rekindled the sorrow. I fear a full-length motion picture would be far too much to bare.

I don�t fully understand those who argue we must tell this story. It was reality tv for those in distant cities and painful reality for those in the affected ones. Immediately following the attacks, President Bush and others told us to �get back to life as normal.� Life could never be �normal� again, and we never got a proper grieving period.

As I said then and many times since, I think those of us who were there were affected in ways we won�t realize for years to come.

I respect the producers right to make the film, but I for one have no plans to see it.

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A film I will look forward to seeing, when it is released, hopefully by Christmas, is Dirty Laundry, the second feature film written and directed by Maurice Jamal (The Ski Trip). He recently wrapped a four week shoot with stars Loretta Devine, Jenifer Lewis and Rockmond Dunbar. While the budget was modest, sources say the performances and production values will leave us impressed. Fingers are crossed for a distribution deal soon.

There was sweltering heat and humidity in New York Saturday, with temperatures in the 90�s. While I own an air conditioner and it has been going practically nonstop all season, I didn�t want to stay cooped up in the apartment all day. So where can you find something fun to do and stay cool at the same time? The movies! I treated myself to a double feature.

Stop me if you�ve heard this one. A comedian and a magician set out to make a documentary about a dirty old joke but wind up creating a controversial, extremely raunchy yet wildly amusing commentary on the ever-changing standards of public decency.

That�s the back story behind The Aristocrats, directed by comedian Paul Provenza and produced by comedian-magician Penn Jillette (Penn & Teller).

When comedians get together they try to amuse one another. Like jazz musicians holding their own after hours jam session, comics can go all night swapping stories, telling jokes and trying to one-up each other. They often save some of their funniest, if not in fact, dirtiest material for these private performances.

�The Aristocrats� is the punch line to an ages-old joke comedians have all learned and passed down over generations. Much like a secret handshake or an initiation ritual, the successful telling of this joke signifies that one is a member of the fraternity.

How the joke is told, is what makes this tradition so special, and what also makes this film one of the most vulgar 90 minutes in cinematic history. A joke consists of a setup (what the joke is about), and a punch line, the payoff that usually turns the setup in an offbeat direction.

The setup to this joke begins innocently enough. �A man goes into a talent agent�s office and says, �Have I got a show for you. You�re gonna love it; it�s a family act.� The agent says, �Alright, tell me about the act�.� What follows is left to the interpretation of the joke teller, with an infinite number of variations and riffs on the description of the act, almost always scatological or sexual in nature, sometimes going on literally for 30 minutes or more, incorporating any manner of acts of bestiality or incest too vivid to repeat even on the Internet.

Provenza interviews 100 comics, comedy writers and show business executives including Phyllis Diller, Robin Williams, Paul Reiser, Whoopi Goldberg, George Carlin, Chris Rock, Shelly Berman and the editorial staff of The Onion. In addition to sharing their own versions of the joke, which reportedly dates back to Vaudeville, the interviews highlight how the direction it takes often depends on the comedic style of the teller.

Male comics almost always take the joke down a sexual path, while some of the women, like Rita Rudner and Cathy Ladman found more restrained ways of getting a laugh. Older comedians, like Diller, used to working in clean material were able to find less offensive ways of telling the same joke. But everyone stretched the boundaries of good taste.

And that is the interesting sidebar to this very simple film. What is offensive? What is considered vulgar or in bad taste? Those answers are left to individual listeners. Humor that made us uncomfortable 30 or 40 years ago can now be found every evening on network television. These are just words, and it is a joke, so what is it about blue material that causes some to laugh while others get up and leave (and several people did walk out on the screening I attended)?

This film does not attempt to answer any of those questions, it merely raises them. It is interesting to note that the 3,500 screen AMC Theatres chain has refused to show this picture and that the producers deliberately did not seek a rating from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). It would have undoubtedly received an NC-17. Knowing the subject matter, movie-goers are advised to see it at their own risk.

Four Brothers also failed to address deeper questions, but it never failed to entertain. The latest film from director John Singleton–who since his debut Boyz n the Hood, seems to be having an up and down career–is weak on story and plausibility, but strong on action, male bonding, gun play and chase scenes. For this particular subject, that seems to be enough to hold audience attention.

The brothers are Bobby, Angel, Jeremiah and Jack Mercer, (Mark Wahlberg, Tyrese Gibson, Andre Benjamin, and Garrett Hedlund respectively), the adopted sons of Evelyn Mercer (Fionnula Flanagan), a salt of the earth who took many an at-risk foster child off the tough streets of inner city Detroit, but raised these four herself because they were so far beyond hope no one would permanently adopt them.

When Evelyn is senselessly murdered in a grocery store robbery, her boys come home to bury her. But when they find the Detroit PD indifferent, inept and corrupt, they decide to track down the killers themselves. Tossing all believability to the bitter Michigan winter wind, Singleton gets us to follow along as the boys play vigilante, engaging in shootouts and snowy car chases with suspected hit men, following up leads that trained detectives somehow can�t piece together, and getting away with murder, literally. It�s all good clean fun.

This movie doesn�t pretend to be anything more than what it is, escapist entertainment. If you sit back and just watch, it actually has some touching moments. The interaction and good natured razzing the guys give each other makes them believable as brothers. Scenes showing how they miss their mother are also effective.

Chiwetel Ejiofor (Dirty Pretty Things), Josh Charles (tv�s Sports Night) and Terrance Dashon Howard (Hustle & Flow), give fine supporting roles as cops and bad guys, involved in the investigation of the murder.

While some people walked out of The Aristocrats, I wish some at Four Brothers would have shut up so the rest of us could hear the movie. Yes, it attracts that audience. But I stayed cool anyway.

Happiness can only be faked but for so long. Eventually maintaining the elusion becomes tiresome and real feelings and needs either have to come out or they�ll eat us alive.

In writer/director John G. Young�s engaging second feature film The Reception, four people find themselves making compromises they can live with in the short-term, but which begin to strain normal levels of tolerance during one tension filled week at an upstate New York farm house.

The house belongs to Jeannette (Pamela Stewart), a single, divorced French woman, who along with her companion Martin (Wayne Lamont Sims), a Black gay painter, has escaped New York City and past negative experiences there in exchange for a bucolic life in the country. They both have enough money to live on, Martin has a converted barn for a workspace, and they have each other. Their relationship is one of genuine love and support in every way except physical intimacy.

They make it work by overlooking obvious signs of unhappiness. Jeannette has a weakness for red wine which she regularly consumes to numb hurt feelings from past failed relationships with straight men. Martin locks himself in his studio every day before tucking his drunk wife into bed at night, to avoid dealing with the absence of other Black or gay people in this town.

This daily routine gets broken up when Jeannette�s estranged daughter Sierra (Margaret Burkwith) arrives with her new husband Andrew (Darien Sills-Evans), another Black man. She has not seen her mother in years nor told her of a wedding, but Jeannette is willing to put all of that aside to have her daughter back in her life again. To celebrate, she plans a big reception, causing what was intended to be a two day visit to stretch to a whole week.

If time apart heals all wounds, perhaps time together opens new ones. Four people alone in a big farm house in the middle of the winter forces interactions that reveal true feelings and intentions. Jeannette was a teenage mother when she had Sierra and her ex-husband was not only abusive but adulterous. Her current mistrust of men was undoubtedly shaped by that experience.

Sierra stands to inherit the farm house with her life seemingly together now. Grandmother wanted it kept in the family and Jeannette will feel secure passing it on to a daughter married to a man in law school.

But being cooped up in this house has the most profound effect on Andrew and Martin and sheds light on the loneliness all four characters share. While at first keeping his distance from the openly gay Martin, Andrew forges a bond that opens a door to long untapped feelings and emotions which come to a head in one vulnerable, drunken moment. Martin�s quest to discover the cause of Andrew�s show of affection serves as the twist that unravels the self-deceptions all of them have created. From then on it is a precarious balancing act as they teeter between what they really want and what they are willing to live with.

Young has written a funny and smart script that while briskly paced at 78 minutes, still allows us to really know these characters. Issues of race, class, sex and sexual orientation are the obvious topics, but so is the true meaning of family and how people deliberately seek out those who make their lives complete. No heavy-handed sermonizing or ponderous plot devices, these are real people viewers will recognize, who have made choices of convenience. Now faced with new choices they have opportunities to get what they really want.

Seeing love expressed on screen between two Black men is rare and images of physical lovemaking rarer still but this film refreshingly captures both with realism and compassion. While Hollywood regularly offers up special-effects-heavy, poorly written crap shot on an 8 figure budget, The Reception–an independent film shot in 8 days for $5,000–eclipses all of their recent attempts.

The Reception is in limited release across the country and at Quad Cinema in New York City.