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Archive for the ‘Art house fare’ Category

“EVERYDAY SUNSHINE”: Music of the spheres

Posted in Art house fare, Documentaries, tagged , on December 2, 2011| Leave a Comment »

“EVERYDAY SUNSHINE: THE STORY OF FISHBONE” My rating: B 

107 minutes | No MPAA rating

I’m ashamed to admit that until seeing this film I knew next to nothing about the seminal black punk band Fishbone.

Now I’m a fan.

One of the best films to play at the 2010 Kansas International Film Festival, Chris Metzler and Lev Anderson’s “Everyday Sunshine” makes a strong case for Fishbone being one of the great rock ensembles.

This doc offers the usual elements: vintage performance footage, talking-head interviews withe the band members and their admirers (Ice T, Gwen Stefani, Flea).

But it also features some wildly inventive animation to follow the rise and fall of this highly unusual group which, according to narrator Laurence Fishburne,  “drew on sources too vast for the common mind.”

Indeed, the band somehow synthesized rock, soul, ska, jazz and even rap into an eclectic sound. Moreover, the players incorporated into the music social commentary and gonzo humor. The only other performer who comes close to their approach is the late Frank Zappa.

Of course, that’s a combination guaranteed to wow the critics and intellectuals, but not necessarily the common listener. And, indeed, “Everyday Sunshine” is in many ways a eulogy to musicians who were too good for the rest of us.

But check out this film. You’ll fall in love.

P.S. The filmmakers (Metzler is a Kansas City native) will attend weekend screenings of “Everyday Sunshine” at the Screenland Crossroads and discuss their work.

| Robert W. Butler

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“MELANCHOLIA”: ‘Tree of Life’ for pessimists

Posted in Art house fare, tagged , , , on November 23, 2011| 3 Comments »

Kristen Dunst in “Melancholia”

“MELANCHOLIA” My rating: A- 

136 minutes | MPAA rating: R

Achingly beautiful and fiercely nihilistic, “Melancholia” may very well be Danish director Lars von Trier’s ultimate philosophical statement.

And since von Trier (“Breaking the Waves,” “Dancer from the Dance,” “Antichrist”) is both genius and jerk, this is one of those love/hate deals.

You may despise what he has to say; you’ll be floored by the skill and artistry with which he says it.

“Melancholia” begins with a series of mysterious images, all of which will be revisited before the film’s over. These are presented as slo-mo tableaus:

A black horse stumbles and falls beneath a sky illuminated by the aurora borealis.

Electric arcs flicker from a woman’s upraised hands.

A mother struggles to carry her child across a golf putting green, but her legs sink in turf as loose as quicksand.

A bride in white runs through a forest glade, but tree roots and branches reach out to entangle her legs.

Finally the Earth collides with another planet in a cataclysmic dance of destruction. (more…)

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“MY WEEK WITH MARILYN”: Beautiful neurotic

Posted in Art house fare, tagged , , , , , , on November 23, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe

“MY WEEK WITH MARILYN” My rating: B- 

99 minutes | MPAA rating: R

An actress portraying Marilyn Monroe faces the same daunting obstacles as an actor playing Jesus.

No matter how good your performance, it pales in comparison to the real thing.

Michelle Williams, one of our finest young actresses, does a perfectly credible job as the  immortal blonde sex symbol in “My Week with Marilyn,” a melodrama unfolding during the filming of “The Prince and the Showgirl” in London in 1957.

But as good as Williams is, not once did I mistake her for Marilyn. It’s a passable impersonation, but no one will ever fill the screen the way Monroe did.

Simon Curtis’ feature directing debut  (after a long career in television)  is based on “The Prince, The Showgirl and Me” and “My Week with Marilyn,” Colin Clark’s memoirs about his experiences as a young production assistant on the film. (more…)

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“THE DESCENDANTS”: Comedy in tragedy

Posted in Art house fare, tagged , , on November 23, 2011| Leave a Comment »

“THE DESCENDANTS” My rating: B+ 

115 minutes | MPAA rating: R

Alexander Payne doesn’t make movie about big ideas.

He makes movies about small people, then makes us care about them, flaws and all.

In fact, it’s hard to name another contemporary director who has so successfully found the comedy in tragedy and the tragedy in comedy.

Matt King, the clueless Honolulu lawyer at the center of  “The Descendants,” is a near cousin of “Sideways’” Miles, “Election’s” Jim McAllister and “About Schmidt’s” Warren Schmidt. He’s a not-particularly-nice guy thrown into circumstances that force him to face himself.

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“LIKE CRAZY”: It isn’t nice to fool Uncle Sam

Posted in Art house fare, tagged , on November 18, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Anton Yelchin, Felicity Jones

“LIKE CRAZY” My rating: B- 

90 minutes | MPAA rating: PG-13

A great screen romance makes those of us in the audience feel that we’re falling in love, too.

By that criteria “Like Crazy” is a just-OK romance that dishes up two hugely attractive young performers, a frustrating dilemma and a big question mark of an ending that is a lot more honest about love than 99 percent of the romance movies you’ve ever encountered.

That was enough for Sundance audiences, who gave the film top jury honors and laid a best actress award on newcomer Felicity Jones.

Well, I can certainly get behind the green-eyed, rosebud-lipped Jones. But I’m not nearly so enthusiastic about Drake Doremus’ film. It’s fun while its young protagonists are falling in love. And then they started acting stupid and much of my sympathy waved bye-bye.

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“J. EDGAR”: Lonely at the top

Posted in Art house fare, tagged , , , , on November 11, 2011| 1 Comment »

“J. EDGAR” My rating: B (Opening wide on Nov. 11)

150 nminutes | MPAA rating: R

Clint Eastwood is the reason we have the new film “J. Edgar.”

It’s not like the moviegoing masses were begging for a biopic about longtime FBI director/pathologic paranoic J. Edgar Hoover. How many of today’s mall rats can even identify him?

The subject matter isn’t “sexy.” His story isn’t familiar to anyone under the age of 60. There are no obvious marketing hooks.

Not even the presence of one-time teen heartthrob Leonardo “Titanic” DiCaprio in the title role (an amazing performance that I, for one, didn’t see coming) can make this production anything but a money pit.

And yet here “J. Edgar” is, all because Clint Eastwood found Hoover’s story fascinating and has the track record, personal loyalties and financial clout to make movies nobody wants to see…or rather movies they think they don’t want to see.

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“MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE”: Life after a cult

Posted in Art house fare, tagged , , , on November 11, 2011| 1 Comment »

“MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE” My rating: B (Opening Nov. 11 at the )

102 minutes | MPAA rating: R

One of the great thrills of moviegoing is coming across a young performer and realizing, within the space of just a few moments, that this could be a major star.

That’s what happens with Elizabeth Olsen in “Martha Marcy May Marlene,”  writer/director Sean Durkin’s moody, almost unbearably creepy look at a survivor of a Manson-type cult.

Durkin’s tightly-wound feature debut follows our titular protagonist as she surreptitiously slips away from the farm commune where she has lived off the radar for the last couple of years. She phones her older  sister Lucy (Sarah Paulson), who drives three hours to pick her up. Soon she’s living in the guest room of the posh lakeside vacation home of Lucy and her husband Ted (Hugh Darcy).

Martha and Lucy share a troubled history. Lucy is ambitious, well-educated; Martha a  rootless drifter.

But whatever sibling issues they’ve been through, it’s clear that the last few years have done a number on Martha.

(more…)

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“NUREMBERG”: A relic that still packs a punch

Posted in Art house fare, Documentaries, tagged , , on November 11, 2011| Leave a Comment »

“NUREMBERG: ITS LESSON FOR TODAY”  My rating: B (Opening Nov. 11 at the Glenwood Arts.

76 minutes | No MPAA rating

You can’t really call it entertainment.

Instead, “Nuremberg: Its Lesson for Today” is best viewed as a vital historical document.

Produced shortly after the end of World War II by the U.S.  government and shown exclusively to German audiences, the documentary attempted nothing less than a concise summation of Nazi crimes against humanity.

Simultaneously, it provided a look at Western-style justice as embodied in the Nuremberg  tribunal where the Third Reich’s military and civilian leaders were tried for their war crimes.

Never intended for domestic audiences, the film was never publicly screened in this country.  And almost immediately after its release in Germany it was withdrawn from circulation under mysterious circumstances.

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“WEEKEND”: A gay “Brief Encounter”

Posted in Art house fare, tagged , , on November 11, 2011| Leave a Comment »

“WEEKEND”  My rating: B- (Opening Nov. 11 at the Tivoli)

97 minutes | No MPAA rating

Andrew Haigh’s “Weekend” is a sort of gay “Brief Encounter” about two British lads who hook up on a Friday night and hit it off.

The problem is that on Sunday one of them is relocating to the U.S.

Tom Cullen, Chris New in "Weekend"

There’s some sex in “Weekend,” but for the most part this is a talkfest.

Russell (Tom Cullen) is out to his friends but tends to soft-pedal his sexuality in public.

Glen (Chris New) is just the opposite. He’s not the least bit shy about being a homosexual and bitterly resents being part of a society where straight people can be affectionate anywhere, any time, but gays are expected to tone it down.

The two men’s conflicting views provide most of the dramatic heat. The film works well enough as a boy-meets-boy romance, but it’s their different approaches to being gay that generate the piece’s real substance.

Haigh takes a fly-on-the-wall approach: handheld camera, matter-of-fact dialogue, unhurried pace and low-keyed performances.

“Weekend” won a grand jury award at this year’s L.A. Outfest; it’s a serious film that embraces the differences in gay thought and feeling.

That it should appeal to thinking gay audiences is obvious. Don’t know whether it will find favor with straight viewers…it may be too much of an insider’s look. And those thick Brit accents…maybe subtitles?

| Robert W. Butler

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“ANONYMOUS”: All the world’s a stage

Posted in Art house fare, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on November 4, 2011| 2 Comments »

“ANONYMOUS”  My rating: B (Opening wide on Oct. 28)

130 minutes | MPAA rating: PG-13

Here’s a sentence I never expected to read, much less write:

Director Roland Emmerich has made a movie of ideas.

Yes, the man who gave the world high-concept, nutritionally light hits like “Stargate,” “Independence Day,” “Twister,” “Godzilla,” “The Patriot,” “The Day After Tomorrow” and “2012” has put on his thinking cap and delivered a Gordian knot of convoluted history from Elizabethan England.

And if his “Anonymous” is a largely chilly and cerebral affair, it’s positively overflowing with brain-tickling notions.

Nominally this is the story of Edward DeVere, Earl of Oxford, a member of the court of Elizabeth I who in some quarters has been credited with being the true author of Shakespeare’s plays and poems.

(more…)

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