Cinema Junkie by Beth Accomando

Transsiberian

2008-08-29T10:07:00Z

Emily Mortimer is an American abroad in Transsiberian (First Look International)

Transsiberian (opening August 29 at Landmark's Hillcrest Cinemas) is a kindred spirit to the recent Tell No One (still playing at Landmark's La Jolla Village Cinemas). Both films present themselves as thrillers with crimes, cops, deceit, and innocent victims fueling their tense and occasionally violent narratives. But the real and somewhat disguised core of both films is the marital relationship of the main characters. Tell No One was an obsessed love story dressed up as a thriller about murder and deception while Transsiberian is a film about a marriage under pressure despite its trappings as a tale of drug trafficking and international intrigue.

We find the young American couple, Roy (Woody Harrelson) and Jessie (Emily Mortimer) at a banquet celebrating the work of a religious group in China. Roy was one of the Americans participating and Jessie took photos of the children whose lives have benefited from the group's efforts. Rather than fly home, the couple opts for an adventure. They decide to take the long way home on the legendary Trans-Siberian Express train from Beijing to Moscow. Their first encounter with a passenger on the train leads to a warning about not messing with the Russian police. That sets the stage for what's to come.

Edouardo Noriega in Transsiberian (First Look International)

The couple is soon joined in their cramped sleeping quarters by another couple. The gregarious Roy quickly warms up to Carlos (Eduardo Noriega) and Abby (Kate Mara), and embraces them as fellow travelers far from home. But Jessie is slower to warm to them although she seems reluctantly attracted to the sexy Carlos. As the trip progresses, we begin to suspect Carlos and Abby of smuggling drugs. We also discover that Jessie has had a somewhat wild past. When Roy accidentally gets left behind at a stopover, Jessie ends up spending the night at a hotel with Carlos and Jessie, and that's when things start to spiral out of control. Throw into the mix a Russian detective (Sir Ben Kingsley) whose allegiances are difficult to ascertain and you have the makings for a tense thriller.

Brad Anderson, the film's co-writer and director, made a splash about ten years ago when he was honored by Variety as one of the Ten Leading New Independent Directors to Watch in 1997. Since then he has delivered the vastly different Next Stop Wonderland (with Hope Davis and Phillip Seymour Hoffman) and The Machinist (with an emaciated Christian Bale). With Transsiberian, Anderson crafts half an excellent film. The first half of the film builds the dynamics of the two couples well. First, Anderson sets up Roy's naiveté and his sense that as Americans traveling abroad they are entitled to a kind of privileged status. In contrast to his innocence and outgoing nature is his wife's reticence. Jessie, who reveals that she used to drink hard and sleep around, is more wary of the world and less trustful. Then you have the charming but conniving Carlos who seems quite at ease using people, and Abby who seems like a decent kid gone wrong. The interaction of these characters pulls us in and leads us to build a certain set of expectations based on the conventions of the thriller genre. But what's refreshing is how these expectations are cleverly denied - at least initially.

Woody Harrelson in Transsiberian (First Look International)

The plot twists and turns actually hinge less on the drug smuggling that Carlos engages in and more on the personal dynamics of these four people. I don't want to spoil the film - and hopefully I haven't revealed too much - but let me just add that complications arise and deceits are maintained for very intimate reasons. Jessie finds telling the truth is difficult not so much out of a desire for self-preservation but because of what the truth might do to Roy and her marriage.

This initial emphasis on character makes Transsiberian more complex and compelling than your standard by-the-book thriller. But the film falters badly in the final stages as it tries desperately to tie everything up in a pretty little package. There is a twisted sort of morality and justice that the film insists on at the final fade out, and that tidy conclusion leaves you with a bad aftertaste. It's too bad because for a while Transsiberian chugs along with steady assurance. Tell No One, the French thriller I mentioned earlier, faltered at the end as well but it didn't stumble as badly and its contrived resolution at least played to the heart and soul of its story.

Anchoring the film with a quietly intense performance is Emily Mortimer. Her Jessie doesn't reveal much at the beginning. She's reserved and you initially think the cause is shyness. But as the film progresses that reticence seems to spring more from a wariness about people. You sense that Jessie is suspicious of others because she knows first hand that someone can appear quite different from who they really are. Mortimer drives the film and provides something of a twist to the Hictchcockian notion of the wrong or wronged man thriller. Noriega is a perfect match for her as an actor. His easy charm playing effectively off of her chilly tense surface.

Anderson works well within the cramped quarters of the train. The restricted space forces these strangers in close proximity to each other and gives a charge to the interaction of the characters. But Anderson doesn't succeed as well in conveying the local atmosphere and the extreme cold of the region. This summer we've actually had two films that have captured icy conditions well - Frozen River and The X-Files: I Want to Believe. Both of those films could make you shiver with cold even on the hottest summer day. You could also feel the cold in the visual texture of those films. But in Transsiberian, Anderson gives us some nice snowy scenes but we never really feel the cold and we need to. A numbing sense of cold would have helped us understand what drives characters like the Russian cop because it would suggest some of what he's trying to escape from.

Transsiberian (rated R some violence, including torture, and language) is ultimately frustrating because it builds so well for more than half its running time. Maybe if you walk out 15-20 minutes before the end and imagine something clever happens at the climax, you'll feel more satisfied. Mortimer and Noriega, however, do provide considerable compensation. So I would still recommend Transsiberian and maybe if you go in with lowered expectations about the ending, you'll feel less disappointed.

Companion viewing: Tell No One, Murder on the Orient Express, Redbelt, Frozen River, Gorky Park

The Nightmare Before Christmas Digitally Remastered for DVD and BluRay

2008-08-29T04:45:00Z

The Nightmare Before Christmas gets a digital makeover for a new DVD and BluRay Collector's Edition (Disney)

Tim Burton, the darkly demented and wickedly inspired creator of Pee Wee's Big Adventure, Edward Scissorhands and Beetlejuice, began his career in the unlikely setting of Walt Disney's bright and sunny G rated studios. And their improbable alliance continued when Disney's Touchstone Pictures produced the animated adaptation of Tim Burton's children's book The Nightmare Before Christmas in 1993. Once again, Burton displayed a delightfully sick and twisted perspective that's not often seen in adult films let alone children's pictures. This past Tuesday, Walt Disney Home Entertainment re-issued The Nightmare Before Christmas in a digitally restored version for DVD and BluRay.

Based on a book that Burton wrote and illustrated, the film of The Nightmare Before Christmas remains true to the author's topsy-turvy perspective in which Halloweentown's Pumpkin King tries to usurp Santa Claus in Christmastown for the most horrifying yule time in history. Halloween has just passed and the Pumpkin King, Jack Skellington (voiced by Chris Sarandon and sung by composer Danny Elfman) is feeling a bit low. He's grown bored with horrifying rituals of Halloween and longs for something more fulfilling. Then he stumbles into Christmas town-- with it's snow, bright lights and pretty packages-and he sees the solution to his holiday doldrums. He must be a part of this cheery holiday, he must be Santa. So he sends off a trio of first class trick or treaters named Lock, Shock and Barrel to kidnap good ole St. Nick. Jack cannot see what could possible go wrong but Sally (voiced by Catherina O'Hara) , the Rag Doll, does and she tries to prevent Jack from wreaking complete havoc with the holidays.

Trick or treat? The Nightmare Before Christmas (Disney)

Burton handpicked Henry Selick, also a former Disney animator and a stop motion animator and director in his own right, to helm The Nightmare Before Christmas. Their collaboration was so successful that they would team again in 1996 for the film adaptation of Roal Dahl' James and the Giant Peach. Both films reveal the clever visual humor of Burton and Selick and their dark, innovative stop motion animation. They never "dumb" down their film for kids but rather fill the frame with layers of details, jokes and inspiration so that repeat viewing is a must. Like Chicken Run (from the inventive Aardman Studios), The Nightmare Before Christmas, has a darkness running through it but also an appealingly offbeat sense of humor that allows parents and kids to find different things to laugh at.

The Nightmare Before Christmas (Disney)

The film also benefits from Danny Elfman's music and songs. Unlike most kids' film which seem obliged to add sappy romantic songs or saccharine sweet ones, Nightmare offers lively, clever songs which are more musically and lyrically complex than most children's films allow.

The Nightmare Before Christmas is a welcome reissue since good kids' movies are so rare. And what's even rarer is a kids film that audiences of all ages can enjoy. This new version is very similar to the earlier collector's edition that was released. The studio apparently has recognized this and is offering a $10 rebate to "current owners" of any previously released Nightmare DVD. There is a new commentary by Burton on the included short Frankenweenie, and all-new audio commentary by Burton, Elfman and Selick. You also get a disk for downloading a "Disneyfile" digital copy that can be watched on your MAC or iTunes compatible device.

Companion viewing: Corpse Bride, Frankenweenie, Edward Scissorhands, Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Wererabbit

Benefit Screening of Iron Jawed Angels

2008-08-28T20:11:01Z

The San Diego Film Critics Society and the San Diego Women's History Museum present a special benefit screening of Iron Jawed Angels on Saturday August 30 at 5:00 pm at the Museum of Photographic Arts in Balboa Park. The event is part of an annual celebration of Women's Equality Day. The film, directed by Katja von Garnier, serves up a passionate tale of the amazing efforts of fierce young suffragettes fighting for a Constitutional amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote. The film stars Hilary Swank as Alice Paul, and Frances O'Connor Alice Burns - real-life women who challenged Congress. In 1912, Paul and Burns take the reins of the National American Women's Suffrage Association's (NAWSA) committee in Washington, D.C., where they organize a landmark parade on President Wilson's inauguration day. The march is violently disrupted by men on the sidelines. Anjelica Huston won a Golden Globe Award for Supporting Actress as one of the old guard in the women's movement. With the Democratic Convention concluding and a historic presidential election ahead, maybe this is exactly the kind of film we need to get people fired up about exercising their right to vote.

There will also be a raffle to raise funds for the San Diego Women's Film Festival, whose event is coming up October 2-5 at Reading Gaslamp. The raffle basket will contain DVDs of films directed by women as well as books, t-shirts and other movie goodies. I hope you will come out and show your support for these three non-profit organizations. Tickets are a $10 tax deductible donation. You can check out the trailer above.

You can reserve tickets by emailing me at filmclub@kpbs,org.

alt.pictureshows 2008

2008-08-27T22:32:00Z

Phillip Van's Come Wander with Me is one of the short works playing at this year's alt.pictureshows (Phillip Van)

The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego and the Muse Chasers present the sixth annual alt.pictureshows. A diverse collection of short films curated by Neil Kendricks will play at Sherwood Auditorium and at locations throughout the MCASD's galleries. Kendricks has designed the event as a definitive experiment in "physical channel surfing." Short films screen on a loop throughout the Museum during the one-night event, with works from filmmakers such as David Lynch, Nash Edgerton, Ari Gold, Ken Wardrop, Rob Meyer, Mads Matthieson, Justin Nowell, David Michod, Amanda Micheli, Isabel Vega, and others. You'll be able to find dark comedy, twisted romance, offbeat dramas as well as personal and experimental documentaries. Kendricks, who's a local filmmaker and artist, has a knack for finding wonderful films and always invests the event with a sense of discovery. I did not have an opportunity to preview any of the new films for this year's event but I can heartily recommend Lynch Mob, a trio of films from David Lynch (Six Men Getting Sick, The Alphabet, The Grandmother). I can attest to the fact that in the past there have always been gems to delight and challenge. I hope you'll come out for this unique experience.

Please note some films contain adult and mature subject matter. Tickets are $5 general admission and free to MCASD Members.

Trailer Tuesday: Quantum of Solace

2008-08-26T08:00:00Z

In case you haven't heard, the latest Harry Potter film (The Half-Blood Prince) has been postponed until 2009. Since Harry vacated the highly coveted just-before-Thanksgiving November 21 open date, the eagerly anticipated vampire film Twilight moved up and so too has Bond 22. The latest Bond film will now bow on November 14. So with the change of release dates, I thought that was a perfect excuse to post up the trailer for Quantum of Solace. I can't tell you how excited I am about Quantum of Solace. I have been a Bond fan since I was a little kid. I played the Goldfinger soundtrack so many times that I drove my parents insane! But after Sean Connery left the franchise I have been sorely disappointed with the actors playing Bond -- until Daniel Craig. The 2006 Casino Royale kicked ass and Craig was a hot, sexy new Bond. Quantum of Solace supposedly picks up right where Casino Royale left off, and based on the trailer it looks to maintain the same high level of gritty action and intensity. It's so great to once again eagerly look forward to 007's next adventure, something I couldn't do for the four decades when Roger Moore and Pierce Brosnan were playing the role. So here's to Bond 22, may it be as good as it's predeccessor... or maybe even better. The only bummer is that I now have to wait an extra week to see it. The release date change also means they can't do the clever trick with the O's and 7 in the title at the end of the trailer for the release daye. Trailer is courtesy of Sony Pictures.

Elegy / Interview with Isabel Coixet

2008-08-24T06:30:00Z

Ben Kingsley and Penelope Cruz star in Elegy, the adaptation of Philip Roth's The Dying Animal (Red Envelope Entertainment)

Elegy (opened August 22 at Landmark's Hillcrest Cinemas) is based on Philip Roth's book The Dying Animal and focuses on aging academic David Kepesh and his affair with a student. The character of Kepesh has appeared in two other Roth works: The Breast and The Professor of Desire. As with most of Roth's books, the focus and the perspective are distinctly male. But what gives the new film adaptation of The Dying Animal a fresh spin is that it has been brought to the screen thanks mainly to a pair of women: actress Penelope Cruz and director Isabel Coixet.

The male focus has not been obliterated -- Nicholas Meyer has crafted the script and Ben Kingsley as Kepesh is still center stage - but it comes at us less as a first person narrative. In a sense, we are seeing Kepesh's male point of view filtered through the female perspective. So the object of Kepesh's desire, young Consuela (Penelope Cruz), is less objectified. The result is a more balanced tale of love, lust, desire and the specter of mortality.

The film is smartly designed for adults not only in terms of the direct dealings with sex but also in terms of the complexity of the characters. I was going to say maturity of the characters but then I realized that Kepesh is complex but not necessarily mature. He's intelligent and contemplates his actions yet when faced with his passion for Consuela he turns out to be anything but rational and smart. In many ways she is the more mature one. Kepesh, on the other hand, grows jealous as their relationship deepens and can't seem to accept the possibility for happiness. But director Coixet and writer Meyer allow us to see Kepesh with all his flaws and vulnerabilities.

Kingsley, of course, is perfectly suited to the role. He's an aging lion, proud even arrogant and not really willing to confront his coming loss of virility. In contrast to many of the recent professors on screen (Dennis Quaid in Smart People, Richard Jenkins in The Visitor, Jeff Daniels in The Squid and the Whale), Kingsley's Kepesh strikes one as a passionate and learned man, successful in his career. It's his knowledge and assurance in the academic world that attracts Consuela. She's not looking for some young hunk, she wants a man that she can learn from and who will appreciate her. As played by Cruz, Consuela is beguiling with a distant sadness. She's also a bit elusive. She is more than just an object of desire yet she never lets us completely inside her character.

Ben Kingsley and Dennis Hopper in Elegy (Red Envelope Entertainment)

Also noteworthy in supporting roles are Dennis Hopper and Patricia Clarkson. Clarkson, as a steady sex partner for Kepesh, gets a sharply written scenes telling Kepesh off and warning him not to take her for granted while Hopper gets cast against type as Kepesh's friend and fellow academic.

Director Isabel Coixet spoke to me about the challenge of bringing a well-known author's work to the screen.

Beth Accomando: What did you feel was the greatest challenge in bringing Philip Roth's story to the screen?
Isabel Coixet: I really think he's one of the better writers of his generation at the same time the most admired writers can be the most difficult to take it to the screen. When I read the novel when it came out six years ago I thought some day a filmmaker will do a film of this book but I never thought it was going to be me. But then almost two years ago I got the script I thought it was a really smart adaptation. I knew Penelope [Cruz] was really passionate about it and her enthusiasm was really contagious, so I said yes because it was a challenge because when you read the story of Elegy you think, "Oh my god, a college professor of sixty and a young girl from Cuba! Oh my god this is a really old story." But I think the point in Elegy is it's the same story but through a new perspective and new eyes. I think all the archetypes we are seeing are a bit different. This woman may be young, and maybe she doesn't know as much about music, painting, and poetry as him but I think she's much more intelligent and wiser than him.

Beth Accomando: I like that this film has two very strong female perspectives on a very male story.
Isabel Coixet: Yeah well half of the world are men so we better try to understand them since they are not doing a lot to understand women. But I think it is a very universal story. The whole film is this man facing the fear of dying, the fear of aging, the fear of relationships. But I think the two women in the story -- the one played by Penelope Cruz and the character played by Patricia Clarkson -- they really know what they want and I think this guy who's sixty-something, he's acting like he's fourteen and he's thinking like he's seven. That happens a lot in the world.

Ben Kingsley and Penelope Cruz as a professor and his student in Elegy (Red Envelope Entertainment)

Beth Accomando: Kingsley and Cruz play superbly off each other. Can you talk about their chemistry?
Isabel Coixet: I think chemistry is something a director can't direct. Either it clicks or it doesn't click. They met the first day that we were rehearsing and I knew Ben Kingsley was born to play Kebesh, and I knew Penelope was born to play Consuela, but I have to say that I was really anxious because it was the first time I was going to see them together. But from the first rehearsal, it was amazing. The chemistry was there. I'm telling you I was really relieved.

Beth Accomando: I also loved your casting of Dennis Hopper as Kebesh's friend. He doesn't often get to play an academic.
Isabel Coixet: It was very strange doing the casting of the movie. You know when you are casting a movie you do a list of the people you think are perfect. Dennis was at the top of my list because I knew he could portray this Pulitzer Prize poet perfectly. I know he's an artist, he's an amazing photographer, and he has this charisma. Also from the first moment Ben and he were together talking in a coffee shop, it was the first time they met on set but it was like they were best pals. I don't want to ruin the plot of the movie but Dennis' last scene in the movie, I thought I was watching a miracle. I felt blessed that I was a witness to that scene

Beth Accomando: How did you want the film to look?
Isabel Coixet: Well I'm also the camera operator of the film and on four films I worked with the same director of photography Jean-Claude Larrieu. We talked about colors and emotions, and the soul and core of every scene but we never talk about lighting. I think the film has a somber quality. I think the idea behind the camera style is that you're a witness of what's happening. You share the intimacy of those characters and we work together in a very strange harmony. Also there was something that was very important to me. I want people to watch this film in twenty years and I don't want the feeling that it was shot twenty years ago. When you put stuff in your film that's really now, that's current it sometimes makes film look dated. My hope is that in twenty years you will look at it and say this is happening now too.

Beth Accomando: So you feel it taps into something universal and timeless?
Isabel Coixet: (1230) Yes. Life is short. I think all those fears we have, it doesn't make any sense. I think is probably one of the messages of the film.

Beth Accomando: Roth has been described as a very masculine and American writer. Did you feel that you brought a fresh perspective being a woman and not American?
Isabel Coixet: I think when the material is good it doesn't matter where are you from. I was in college and I began to read Philip Roth, and that was many, many years ago. For me he is not a foreign writer. My next film is in Japan. I mean you put me in Alaska and I'll do a movie there. I'm not someone very attached to my roots or anything. I need some kind of distance to tell the story. For me for instance, I live in Barcelona but it is very difficult for me to make a film there because the daily life is too present and I need some distance. I always need that kind of distance to really feel excited about a film and a story. I'm a strange outsider so you put me in Mongolia and I'll do a film there. But I feel I really understand Roth as much as someone born in the Upper West Side. Also, there's a moment when you can respect a writer too much. When I think it's dangerous for the film. So there was a moment when I thought this is a book where I really know his world but now I have to forget that. We're working from his book but what's important is the film. I was very conscious to understand Roth's work but also at some point I felt, let's get rid of it. I spoke with Philip Roth. He was very clear about some things that were crucial part in the book, all those comments about Woodstock and America in the 60s. At that moment I didn't think that they were really relevant for the plot and for the film that we were doing. Also the end of the movie is different from the end of the book. I am really proud of the end of the film. It gives the characters an opportunity. It gives the audience a hope.

Companion viewing: Volver, Sexy Beast, My Life Without Me

Death Race

2008-08-23T05:15:00Z

Jason Statham gets behind the wheel of the remake Death Race (Universal)

For a moment it seemed like the off screen drama surrounding Death Race (opening August 22 throughout San Diego) might be more interesting than the onscreen action. The Hollywood remake of the 70s B-movie Death Race 2000 was hit with a copyright infringement lawsuit from writer Adam Stone claiming that the upcoming redo of the 1975 Roger Corman production is based on a script he pitched to director Paul W.S. Anderson and producer Jeremy Bolt. Stone was attempting to prevent the film's release only days before it was meant to hit theaters. The tension and build up around whether the film could open or not may prove more compelling than the story we end up with on the screen. But if I was Stone I might want to distance myself from this new Death Race and its lame script.

Death Race 2000 was directed with wit and campy energy by Paul Bartel (who also did Eating Raoul), and it was a classic Corman B-movie made for about $300,000. It also boasted David Carradine and a young Sylvester Stallone. The very low budgetness of the film gave it much of its appeal as you marvel at what can be done with so little, and sometime laugh at the results. But Death Race 2008 with a budget probably 100 times that original amount can't hide its flaws behind B-movie charms. I mean this film has Tom Cruise as one of its producers and a major Hollywood studio - Universal - behind it. So no points for being an underdog, or a David among Goliaths. Director Paul W.S. Anderson (not to be confused with There Will Be Blood's Paul Thomas Anderson or Rushmore's Wes Anderson) gets to blow up lots of things on a big scale. But Anderson (who also gets the solo writing credit) can disguise the fact that his film is essentially about a bunch of guys driving in circles.

Tyrese Gibson, Jason Statham and Ian McShane in Death Race (Universal)

The meager attempt at plot involves Jensen (Jason Statham) getting framed for his wife's murder so he can be placed in the prison of Warden Hennessey (Joan Allen with what looks like a bad facelift or maybe its just the bad dialogue that's making her look so strained). Hennessey wants Jensen, who's a skilled driver, to help her boast the ratings of her reality TV prison show Death Race. All this is set in the future when the U.S. economy is down, crime is up, prisons are not run by corporations, and people escape through the violence of reality shows like Death Race. The action is big and noisy but lacks real tension or flair. The races are handled with workman like craft but are shot with such in-close shakycam style that you can barely tell what the action is all about and who's beating whom on the track.

Anderson directs with dry seriousness, and he lacks the skill to make the action really kick ass. He could have used some of Mad Max director George Miller's savvy with cars to spice things up. Miller always seemed to know where to put the camera for maximum effect. In the Mad Max films we felt the speed, the intensity of the drivers, the closeness of the cars, and the potential danger of any maneuvers. Anderson has worked in but not excelled at action in films such as Mortal Kombat, Resident Evil, AVP and his British debut Shopping. So he doesn't seem fully invested in the action here, it's as if he's painting by numbers. You don't get the sense of kinetic joy that so many Asian action films revel in or the emotional investment found in well-made action thrillers like the recent The Bourne Identity or Inside Man. So if you don't care that much about the characters and the action is by the book, the film can only marginally hold your interest.

Jason Statham as Jensen in Death Race (Universal)

Statham could do this role in his sleep and that's what he essentially does here. He plays the laconic anti-hero with tight-assed solemnity. His Jensen is cool under pressure and hardly ever cracks a smile. He obviously doesn't have time for such crap. This is a role he's performed much better in films such as The Transporter series (number three coming out later this year). (One funny side note: check out the police photo they take of Jensen which places his height at 6 feet, a cheat of about three or four inches for Statham.) Ian McShane (of Deadwood fame) is wasted as the prison old-timer who teaches Jensen the ropes. And Tyrese Gibson is oddly cast as a supposedly gay inmate driver whose navigator keeps getting killed. But it's unclear if he's really supposed to be gay or if that's a joke. Either way the part is ill conceived. Natalie Martinez is the hot young thing and she offers formula sexiness. She's presented to us as a kind of Michelle Rodriguez but without the attitude. And this film is just cryin gout for a clever cameo by Carradine or Stallone.

Jason Statham and Natalie Martinez in Death Race (Universal)

Death Race (R for strong violence and language) does nothing to improve on the original except perhaps to raise the production values. This is bland formula all the way. But you do get to see Jason Statham naked and for some people at the screening, that seemed to compensate for the film's shortcomings.

Companion viewing: The Transporter, Death Race 2000, Escape From New York

A Man Named Pearl

2008-08-23T01:49:00Z

A Man Named Pearl (Shadow Distribution)

Last week I wrote about Reading Gaslamp wanting to bring more indie, foreign and art house films to San Diego on a regular basis. They continue to make good on their word with the opening of A Man Named Pearl on August 22. The documentary portrait of self-taught South Carolina topiary artist Pearl Fryar comes on the heels of Reading Gaslamp's engagement of another documentary portrait, Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired. A Man Named Pearl is a more lightweight film both in terms of its subject matter and its style. But while the Polanski doc left you frustrated by the legal system and angry at the media, A Man Named Pearl offers a thoroughly feel-good experience.

Pearl tells us, "There's always gonna be obstacles. The thing is, you don't let those obstacles determine where you go." So Fryar is a man who's chosen his own eccentric path. The tiny rural community of Bishopville, South Carolina, provides the unlikely setting for Pearl Fryar's inspired topiary garden. With no formal training, Fryar picked up plants dumped by the local nursery and just started creating an elaborate garden. He began trimming and sculpting tress and shrubbery that horticulturalists said he couldn't, and the results are often spectacular - some of the abstract shapes looking like they came right off the page of a Dr. Seuss book. Fryar soon won local fame for transforming a field where cows used to graze into a garden to rival almost any in the world. The son of a sharecropper, Fryar didn't let any stereotypes or social expectations keep him from pursuing not just a big dream but a unique one as well.

Scott Galloway and Brent Piersen's documentary takes delight in Fryar's creativity and admires his dedication to his craft. They talk to other admirers as well - from neighbors to museum curators to little kids inspired to try and follow in Fryar's footsteps. Fryar's ability to transform discarded plants and trash into art is amazing. And it serves as encouragement to local kids and to the community as a whole. In fact his garden seems to give the community a sense of pride and identity as it becomes the town's majot tourist attraction.

But as a film, A Man Named Pearl doesn't go much beyond the surface feel-good story. We get a lot of talking head describing how inspiring Fryar is but we don't really get into his craft. There are some lovely shots of Fryar working in his garden in the darkness of night - apparently one of the best times for him to work - that hint at the relationship he has with his plants and garden. But I wanted to see more of his process, more about how he developed his skills, more of him starting on a new tree or shrub and seeing how he tackles the project. Galloway and Piersen take their subject at face value and don't try to find added depths or an innovative way to present their story.

A Man Named Pearl (rated G for all audiences) feels more like a news magazine feature than a feature documentary. But despite some shortcomings, the film captures Fryar's buoyant spirit and natural talent. You don't often see feel good docs, but this is definitely one that will leave you smiling and ready to take on any challenge. In fact there's a tree in my yard that I've been meaning to trim...

Companion viewing:Edward Scissorhands; Fast, Cheap and Out of Control; Junebug

Boy A

2008-08-22T15:17:00Z

Peter Mullan and Andrew Garfield in Boy A (The Weinstein Company)

It's too bad Boy A (opening August 22 at Landmark's Ken Cinema) is opening with so little fanfare and no press screening. The film is the second feature by Irish-born John Crowley, his first being the darkly comic Intermission (with Colin Farrell). His sophomore feature, Boy A explores bleak territory but its insistence on not tying everything up in neat little bows is to be commended. It serves up a compelling story and asks viewers to connect all the dots rather than telling how it all fits together.

Boy A opens with two men at a table. The older man, Terry (Peter Mullan) seems to be a mentor of some kind and the younger man (Andrew Garfield) seems ready to embark on a new start. But we're not sure about the circumstances. The young man is told to pick a name and he decides on Jack. As the story plays out we discover that Jack had been tried along with another young boy for the murder of a girl. Jack, whose real name is Eric, had been imprisoned at the age of ten and now at 24 he has been given a new identity and released. As Jack, this twentysomething young man tries to re-enter the world but finds himself mostly at a loss.

Jack lacks social skills, doesn't get any of the pop culture references, and doesn't know how to become intimate with someone when he can never reveal who he really is (his caseworker explains that there's an internet bounty on his head and that he must keep his real identity a permanent secret). Jack is also haunted by memories. The past comes to him in flashes and nightmares. He may be moving forward but his past is clinging onto him no matter how hard he tries to shake it off.

Andrew Garfield in Boy A (The Weinstein Company)

Garfield (recently seen as the young student in Lions for Lambs) captures Jack's awkwardness as well as his cautious eagerness to try and fit in. In some ways he may be too freshly scrubbed and too well reformed to be believable but his performance has an honesty that wins us over and makes us care. Mullan (a director in his own right on such fine films as The Magdalene Sisters) exudes compassion as Jack's caseworker but he also basks in bit of pride over the makeover he has helped orchestrate. Since the film emphasizes the moving forward in Jack's life, we feel a little shortchanged on their relationship. We'd like to know a little more about their earlier encounters and what Jack was like when he was initially incarcerated.

Adapted by Mark O'Rowe from Jonathan Trigell's novel, the film maintains a quiet understatement as it explores questions about guilt and redemption, as well as responsibility (both in personal terms and in regards to society). Crowley and O'Rowe make their film a puzzle in which we have to collect all the pieces and try to fit them together in order to get the bigger picture. Initially Jack finds success in his new life and even love in the attractive form of co-worker Michelle (Katie Lyons), who seems to have both the sensitivity and the forwardness to bring Jack out of his shell. Jack even feels like fate has afforded him a second chance when he helps rescue someone from a car crash. All this builds a sense of hope as it suggests that people can change and can move on.

Katie Lyons and Andrew Garfield in Boy A (The Weinstein Company)

But Jack's act of good citizenship brings him into an unwanted spotlight. Similarly, Terry's seeming good deed of mentoring Jack proves to have unexpected consequences as well. We discover that Terry's son harbors deep bitterness over the fact that his father displayed more interest in a child murderer than his own son. In both instances, the film shows how good deeds can lead to ironic and unintended results. What's refreshing about the film is how Crowley refuses to tie everything together or explain everything that's happened. Terry conveys information that is contradicted by Jack's flashbacks but Crowley doesn't waste time trying to explain the discrepancy because sometimes there are two points of view and you can't always know the truth. Some of the characters seem capable of change and forgiveness while others are rigid in their attitudes and are quick to judge. Even in the final scene, Crowley refuses to tell us what happens and leaves us with an open-ended conclusion. But he gives us enough information so that we can deliberate for ourselves what happens - do we allow our hope to outweigh our cynicism, or do we let our pessimism prevail? And is allowing some measure of hope to survive a result of sentimentality while giving in to grimmer options a way of showing how realistic we are? Boy A leaves us wanting more but in a good way because we feel the material has a depth that can be further explored.

Boy A (rated R for language, sexuality, some disturbing content and brief drug use) is an understated work with some carefully shaded performances at its core.

Companion viewing: The Woodman, A Clockwork Orange, The Magdalene Sisters

Hamlet 2 / Interview with Steve Coogan

2008-08-21T19:59:00Z

When a high school threatens to cut drama from the curriculum, a teacher puts on a show to save the department. Unfortunately, the play involves Shakespeare and a Jesus who dances like Elvis. If that sounds politically incorrect, it is in the new comedy Hamlet 2 (opening August 22 in select San Diego theaters). You can listen to my interview with British comedian Steve Coogan and director Andrew Fleming about pushing the envelope in comedy. I spoke with them right after they presented a panel on the film at Comic-Con.

Combine Shakespeare, a 50s style greaser Jesus, and a perverse take on High School Musical and you'll get an inkling of what Hamlet 2 is like. British comedian Steve Coogan (who's also in Tropic Thunder) plays high school drama teacher Dana Marschz. With his drama department about to be cut, Marschz stages a politically incorrect musical sequel to Hamlet.

Brie: Hamlet 2? Doesn't everybody die at the end of the first one?
Dana: I have a device.
Brie: The time machine door opens revealing Hamlet, Gertrude, Polonius and Hilary Clinton appearing to have group sex...

The play's political incorrectness is staggering but Dana seems oblivious.

Dana: I think the play's going to be really good.

Steve Coogan: It satirizes clichés, and it satirizes the inspirational teacher movies but of course it comes full circle and becomes one itself at the end.

Steve Coogan praises writers Pam Brady (of South Park fame) and Eric D. Eisner for making smart comic choices.

Steve Coogan: Then what really sold it to me was that it wasn't cynical. Often smart and cynical go hand in hand. This was smart but it had real heart to it.

That heart lies in Dana's devotion to theater even though he's a horrible actor and an even worse playwright. But deep down he cares for the kids and for the power art has to improve their lives.

Dana: Theater has the power not only to transform but also the actor but also the audience do you believe that? It sounds sort of cuckoo bananas but I believe that with every fiber of my being.

Dana's a bit cuckoo bananas himself as he serves up a jaw dropping event that adds Jesus to Shakespeare's play about the melancholy Dane.

The Rock Me Sexy Jesus number in Hamlet 2 (Focus Features)

Student: What's going on here?
Dana: Jesus is sexy which leads us to the musical interlude Rock me sexy Jesus.
Song: "Rock me, rock me, rock me sexy Jesus..."

In this musical number, Dana plays a fifties rock and roll heartthrob incarnation of the son of god.

Steve Coogan: I was a little nervous about it because of course if you're going to do something like that you really have to head straight at it. You can't flinch. You have to really commit yourself to doing it otherwise you're going to look like an idiot in a non-comedy way. But if you are doing stuff that is bold and different there has to be a slight element of trepidation and discomfort. But I think I look pretty good as sexy Jesus.

Indeed he does and he's funny too. Of Dana's play filmmaker Andrew Fleming says he didn't want it to be bad, but it didn't want it to be good either.

Andrew Fleming: We wanted it to be bizarre and filled with bad ideas but have a kind of conviction to it that turns it into something better than you would expect, and that everybody is transformed in some way and that ultimately is actually what art is supposed to do even though it's offensive and strange and seems ridiculous but that it actually works.

Dana's play is so sincere yet so misguided that it somehow manages to move beyond mere offensiveness.

Steve Coogan: This movie has a generosity of spirit even though there are these things that would be very offensive in another context. That's the trick to doing comedy that takes risks.

Steve Coogan as Dana Marchz and Elisabeth Shue as Elisabeth Shue in Hamlet 2 (Focus Feature)

The film also takes risks by asking a Hollywood celebrity to make fun of herself.

Dana: You look like my favorite actress Elisabeth Shue.
Elisabeth: I am her.
Dana: No you really look like her.
Elisabeth: That's because I am her.

But in the film, Oscar-nominated Elisabeth Shue has retired from acting and has taken up nursing. Fleming says he "stalked" Shue and begged her to do the part.

Andrew Fleming: She was completely up for the humiliation of it. There was this one scene where the kids in the class don't know who she is and that was actually her idea.

What Hamlet 2 (rated R for language including sexual references, brief nudity and some drug content) lacks in good taste it makes up for in energy and audacity. Th etrick the film pulls off is that you are initially laughing at Dana for everything from his bad acting to his lame ideas. But somewhere along the way, Coogan makes us care for Dana and his loopy passions. Some are likely to be offended but the film's point is that art - be it good or bad - is meant to engage the audience and stir a reaction. Hamlet 2 does that and makes you laugh along the way.

Companion viewing: A Midwinter's Tale, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut

Ugly Me / Pretendiendo

2008-08-21T08:33:00Z

Barbara Mori, before and after in Ugly Me (Arcangelo Entertainment)

The Chilean comedy Ugly Me screened at this year's San Diego Latino Film Festival and now returns as part of the Festival's monthly film series Cinema Tu Idioma at the Ultrastar Mission Valley Theaters at Hazard Center. I passed on the film at the Festival because I had such a hefty list of titles I wanted to see that I let my bias against romantic comedies get the better of me and I crossed this one off to see something darker or more substantial. But I should have known that a romantic comedy from Chile would have more going on that the average Hollywood romantic comedy.

NOTE: Filmmaker Claudio Dabed will be present at the opening night screening on Friday, August 22. Founder and executive director of Media Arts Center San Diego and San Diego Latino Film Festival, Ethan van Thillo, states, "It's an honor to bring back Mr. Dabed and his fun film after its very successful screening at the recent 15th anniversary San Diego Latino Film Festival. The film is a great date film and Barbara Mori puts in a not-to-be-missed performance."

Barbara Mori seduces the unsuspecting Marcelo Mazzarello in Ugly Me (Arcangelo Entertainment)

The Chilean title of the film is Pretendiendo or Pretending but the American title seems to be trying to cash in on the popularity of TV's Ugly Betty with its choice of Ugly Me, and the emphasis on the notion of a pretty actress frumping up. Amanda (Mexican telenovela star Barbara Mori) is a beautiful architect who accidentally discovers that her boyfriend is having an affair with her best friend. This prompts her to lose all faith in the opposite sex as she moves to a small town and disguises herself as a plump, buck-toothed married woman with two kids. She figures if she looks unattractive, her boss will take her seriously while other men won't even notice her. Now she feels confident she can start a new life at a new job.

Barbara Mori and Marcelo Mazzarello find an unlikely connection in Ugly Me (Arcangelo Entertainment)

But at her new office she meets the chauvinistic ladies man Marcelo (Argentine actor Marcelo Mazzarello). Amanda takes offense at his smug bravado, and the way he dismisses her solely based on her appearance. As he brags about conquests and his irresistible charms, Amanda cooks up a scheme to take him down a few pegs. She creates a sexy alter ego for herself, and as the gorgeous Helena she sets out to wrap Marcelo around her little finger. But at work, Marcelo starts to confide in Amanda, which ends up giving Helena all the ammunition she needs to bring him down. But then something strange happens - Amanda starts to see a vulnerable side to Marcelo, and Marcelo starts to lose interest in Helena because he's growing fond of Amanda. Oh what fools these mortals be!

Filmmaker Claudio Dabed teams with American co-writer Franklin McDonald to create a lively script about the battle of the sexes. The film follows a satisfyingly predictable sitcom formula for most of its 100-plus minutes with Marcelo infuriating Amanda with his sexist attitudes. But then Helena mounts a surprisingly cruel revenge - involving cross-dressing humiliation for Marcelo as well as the threat of castration. Helena's extreme choices make it hard for us to believe that Amanda and Marcelo could have any kind of future together. Yet the film wants us to believe that as Amanda, she really has grown fond of Marcelo.

But Dabed navigates his rocky romantic terrain with considerable skill. He somehow manages to move from broad comedy to warm insights, from cruel revenge to touching sentiment. He's helped in large degree by his two leads. Mori dazzles as the femme fatale Helena and manages to hide her considerable beauty as the plain Amanda. In her fat suit, she displays a flair for physical comedy, and throughout she reveals a savvy sense of feminism. She delivers a smart, sexy performance and in the opening scene, a sweet sense of revenge. Mazzarello spoofs the Latin lover with great aplomb. Looking a bit like Italian comedy star Roberto Benigni, he is part sexy Latin lover and part impish clown. When he emerges in drag and lip-synching a romantic song, he surprises us with his physical comedy skills. Even when Marcelo is at his most offensively chauvinistic, Mazzarello finds a way to undercut it with a ridiculous sense of exaggeration. And in a scene with Amanda's "fake" kids, Mazzarello lets us see a sweet side of Marcelo and from that moment on we know that Amanda will not be able to maintain her disdain for him.

Ugly Me (rated R for sexual content and in Spanish with English subtitles) gives a bit of an edge to what begins as a formula romantic comedy. Dabed takes his light-hearted tale of love and duplicity and lets it grow just a little dark before he pulls it back into the sunlight. The result is a film that feels a little smarter and warmer than such recent Hollywood comic fare as Made of Honor and Baby Mama. But the main appeal of the film are the sexy charms of Barbara Mori and the comic skill of Mazzarello.

Companion viewing: He's a Woman, She's a Man (Hong Kong); She's the Man; La Mujer de Mi Hermano

9th Annual San Diego UnderSea Film Exhibition

2008-08-21T04:53:01Z

The 9th Annual San Diego UnderSea Film Exhibition

Prepare for a breathtaking view of a submerged world with the 9th Annual San Diego UnderSea Film Exhibition. The Exhibition will be held at Qualcomm Hall's big screen auditorium in San Diego on Friday and Saturday evenings, August 22 and 23. The venue boasts state of the art digital projection (what else would you expect from Qualcomm) for its showcase of digital video, including many in high definition. There will be a different program of fifteen short films each night beginning at 7:00 PM. Each work clocks in at no longer than five minutes with subjects ranging from sharks to shipwrecks to colorful marine creatures, and each shot in exotic underwater locales across the globe and in our own backyard. The films celebrate the incredible beauty and visual splendor of life in the ocean. But the films also make us aware of how fragile this world is and how important it is to protect it. The clips made available in advance of the festival didn't identify the filmmakers or titles of the works, but one involving a playful seal and another involving a mesmerizing squid were particularly impressive.

Tickets are $15 per evening and are available online at sdufex.com, and at various San Diego dive shops, dive clubs and organizations.

The Rocker

2008-08-20T17:34:01Z

Rainn Wilson's Fish -- Reliving the dream in The Rocker (Fox Atomic)

Expectation can have a lot to do with whether or not you like a film. I had low expectations for The Rocker (opening August 20 throughout San Diego) based on trailers that made it look entirely stupid. So I was surprised to find that the film is actually only partly stupid, or to paraphrase Robert Downey, Jr.'s line from Tropic Thunder, they didn't go "full" stupid - just halfway. The other surprise is that Peter Cattaneo, the man who created the sweetly charming Brit-com The Full Monty, directed the film. But the main draw for The Rocker will probably be to see Rainn Wilson stepping out of his Dwight character from the American TV show The Office to take on the role of an aging rocker getting his second chance at fame.

Robert "Fish" Fishman (Rainn Wilson) and a trio of his Cleveland buddies create a headbanging, Spinal Tap-esque band known as Vesuvius in the eighties. They are living the rock 'n' roll dream and seem on the road to fame and fortune. But if the band wants to take the next big step to a record contact they have to dump their sweaty overweight drummer Fish. It takes them about ten seconds to make their decision.

Twenty years later, Fish is a broken man in the midst of a mid-life crisis. He's stuck in a mind-numbing nine-to-five job while Vesuvius is about to be inducted into the Rock and Rock Hall of fame. Ouch! Fish can barely contain his bitterness. Then his nephew Matt (Josh Gad) suddenly needs a drummer for his garage band, A.D.D. (it stands for Attention Deficit Disorder). With no one else to turn to, Matt convinces Fish to join the band. Fish resists at first but then finds himself revived by his much younger band mates and by playing rock and roll again. The band takes off through a twist of Internet fate as a rehearsal video of the group, featuring a naked Fish, hits it big on YouTube (everyone wants to see "the naked drummer") and draws the interest of an agent and a record company. Will Fish finally get his second shot at fame or will history just repeat itself?

Josh Gad, Teddy Geiger, Emma Stone and "ancient" rocker Rainn Wilson (Fox Atomic)

The Rocker is essentially a one gag movie - place an over the hill rocker in with some kids and let him be the immature one egging them on to live out his vision of the rock and roll lifestyle. You won't find any of This is Spinal Tap's smartness or inspiration here. Instead, you get a predictable "don't give up on your dreams" formula comedy. Wilson scores well as a kind of more subdued and taller version of Jack Black's character in School of Rock. Wilson's Fish has fun imposing his rock and roll standards on everyone - there's a nice scene where he ejects a guy who uses a drum loop. Fish's insistence that the kids live up (or down depending on your point of view) to an 80s notion rock stardom provides some laughs. The story also plays on the notion that we do have a generation of adults and parents (Christina Applegate plays a single mom who was in an all-girls punk band as a teen) who grew up on rock and roll, and who may actually connect with the lure of rock and roll dreams. That may be the one somewhat fresh idea the film brokers is that a couple of the parents are actually sympathetic to their kids' dreams of life on the road in a rock band. Although Jane Lynch provides plenty of nagging and discipline, Applegate and the dad played by Jeff Garlin resist demeaning their kids or condemning rock and roll as "devil music" and instead prove unexpectedly supportive.

Christina Applegate is a single mom and former punk band member who now finds herself chaperoning her son and Rainn Willson's over the hill drummer on tour (Fox Atomic)

Wilson plays a familiar character - a man who refuses to grow up but who eventually finds a path to adulthood, but without having to completely give up his rebel spirit and goofy charm. Wilson proves likable but never moves past sketch comedy superficiality in Fish. He's fun to watch in a painful sort of way. But Wilson fails to develop much rapport with his three young co-stars Josh Gad, Teddy Geiger and Emma Stone. The film, although it tries to convince us not to label people, does its best to serve up mere character types - lovable nerd (Gad), brooding creative lead singer (Geiger), and punky-goth-rebel chick (Stone). These types are not nailed for maximum comic impact nor are they challenged for any humorous insights. They are presented at face value for modest amusement.

Cattaneo struggles with the film's tone. There are moments of absurd physical comedy (as in the opening where Fish displays Michael Meyers-like indestructibility as he tries to get revenge on his Vesuvius ex-band mates); gross out gags (like Fish vomiting in his hand and then putting the goop in his pocket for good luck); and then Cattaneo goes for sweet sentiment in the final stages. The mix proves awkward and the film feels disjointed and uneven. The songs are not as inspired as the Spinal Tap ones or as fun as those in Tenacious D but they're tolerable.

The Rocker (rated PG-13 for drug and sexual references, nudity and language) provides mild diversion and for a film about rock and roll that might be damning praise. Think of it this way, if Spinal Tap took rock and roll comedy to 11, The Rocker takes it to about a 4 or 5.

Companion viewing: This is Spinal Tap, Almost Famous, School of Rock, Tenacious D

SDWFF Fundraising Screening of The Gits

2008-08-20T04:34:00Z

The San Diego Women's Film Festival will be screening the music documentary The Gits as a fundraising event Wednesday August 20 at 9pm at the Whistle Stop Bar (2236 Fern Street, 619-284-6784). Entering its sixth year, SDWFF will kick off its 2008 festival on October 2. But the Festival, like so many non-profits this year, needs your help in raising funds so that it can continue to build on its past successes. The Gits will have its San Diego sneak preview at the Whistle Stop and will have its theatrical premiere at the Festival in October.

Directed by Kerri O'Kane, The Gits is the rousing and heartbreaking story of Seattle band The Gits, whose promising start was cut short by the tragic murder of lead singer Mia Zapata (who was rumored to have been descended from Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata).The documentary mixes musical history with murder mystery as it weaves a tale about a punk band that was beginning to distinguish itself.

Tickets are a suggested $5 donation (of course you can always give more!). I have served on the SDWFF selection committee since the Festival's inception and I value the work it has done to highlight films by women so I hope you will come out and support the festival and quality films by women by coming out to the Whistle Stop. You will also be supporting the Festival's new, dynamic curator Holly Jones whose passion for film has already been proven with her Citizen Video store. Com'on, it'll be like going to see the band play live at a bar -- you couldn't ask for a more perfect setting for a film like this.

Trailer Tuesday: Burn After Reading

2008-08-18T07:01:00Z

The Coen Brothers -- still basking in the glow of their Oscar win for No Country For Old Men -- already have another film done and ready to open on September 12. That's one of the fastest trunarounds for these meticulous filmmaking brothers. Their latest film is Burn After Reading and concerns a disc found at a gym and containing the memoirs of a CIA agent. The disc ends up in the hands of a pair of unscrupulous gym employees who attempt to sell it. Anything by the Coens is cause for celebration or at the very least eager anticipation. This latest effort looks to return Brad Pitt to some refreshing indie wackiness (think back to his vivid and highly enjoyable performances in Twelve Monkeys, True Romance and Johnny Suede). So with less than a month until it's release, here's a look at the Coens' Burn After Reading. George Clooney, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton (also fresh from an Oscar win for Michael Clayton in which Clooney was the star) and John Malkovich co-star. This one has definite potential. Trailer is courtesy of Focus Features.