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“PEACE, LOVE AND MISUNDERSTANDING”: Old hippies never die…they just smell that way

June 8, 2012 by butlerscinemascene

Elizabeth Olsen, Jane Fonda

“PEACE, LOVE AND MISUNDERSTANDING”  My rating:  C+ (Opens June 8 at the Tivoli and Glenwood Arts)

96 minutes | MPAA rating: R

Gotta hand it to Jane Fonda…at 77 she looks fabulous, especially when dolled down in torn jeans, tie-died tops and sporting a long, gray-streaked frizzy ‘do.

That’s how she appears in “Peace, Love and Misunderstanding,” a modest comedy about generational conflict and the good old days of hippie-dom.

At the outset of Bruce Beresford’s latest effort, straightlaced lawyer Diane (Catherine Keener) is told by her husband of many year (Kyle MacLaughlin) that  he wants a divorce. Her world upended, she flees with daughter Zoe (Elizabeth Olsen) and son Jake (Nat Wolff) to her mother’s rural home in upstate New York.

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“SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN”: Grimm indeed

June 1, 2012 by butlerscinemascene

Kristen Stewart…a different sort of Snow White

“SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN”  My rating: B- (Opens wide June 1)

127 minutes | MPAA rating: PG-13

Woody Allen once said of his childhood viewing of  Disney’s “Snow White” that the titular heroine was a  a drag but that he found the evil queen to be incredibly hot.

One might say the same of “Snow White and the Huntsman.”

It’s not that Kristen Stewart’s Snow White is bland, exactly (heck, she ends the film encased in steel and leading an army like Joan of Arc), but rather that Charlize Theron’s evil queen provides the most formidable competition imaginable.  Theron is hands down the most compelling thing in sight.

And given the wildly imaginative art direction on display here, that’s saying something.

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“MONSIEUR LAZHAR”: The Good Teacher

June 1, 2012 by butlerscinemascene

“MONSIEUR LAZHAR”  My rating: B (Opening June 1 at the Tivoli and Glenwood at Red Bridge)

99 minutes | MPAA rating

In the hands of an American movie studio the setup of of the French-Canadian “Monsieur Lazhar” would undoubtedly result in a bathetic wallow.

But writer/director Philippe Falardeau obviously is a very subtle  fellow, for this classroom slice-of-life (a nominee for the Oscar for foreign language film) is quiet, thoughtful and gently moving without dipping into histrionics.

Certainly the subject matter invites big gestures. In the opening moments a grade school boy named Simon (Emilien Neron) discovers that while he and his fellow students were on the playground, their young teacher hanged herself from an overhead pipe in the classroom.

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“UNDEFEATED”: Hope among the football helmets

May 25, 2012 by butlerscinemascene

“UNDEFEATED” My rating: A (Opening May 25 at the Glewood at Red Bridge)

113 minutes | MPAA rating: PG

Already I can hear you groaning over the Internet.

“A sports movie? An inspirational sports movie? Doncha got something with car wrecks?”

Your loss.  “Undefeated” (not the similarly entitled turkey about Sarah Palin) isn’t just a terrific documentary. Simply put, it’s one of the year’s best movies, a real-life “The Blind Side” times 20.

The subject of this devastatingly emotional experience is a middle-aged suburban father with a big gut and jowls. Bill Courtney is the football coach for Memphis’ Manassass High School. Not that he’s an educator by training. He runs a lumber business and volunteers to coach an inner city team that hasn’t won a playoff game in the school’s 110-year-history.

In the course of “Undefeated” Courtney coaches his demoralized and underprivileged players to a winning season.  That would miracle enough.

But T.J. Martin and Daniel Lindsay’s film makes all too clear, Courtney’s most daunting task is to instill hope, sensitivity, discipline and dedication in young men who are circling the drain.

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“DARLING COMPANION”: And a mutt shall lead them…

May 25, 2012 by butlerscinemascene

“DARLING COMPANION”  My rating: B (Opening May 25 at the Glenwood at Red Bridge)

103 minutes | MPAA Rating: PG-13

Diane Keaton, Kevin Kline…looking for a dog

“Darling Companion” has been undergoing a trashing from many of the nation’s film critics, who apparently deem it insipid and boring.

Sorry, guys. The wife and I (and the handful of other critics in the theater) found the latest from Lawrence Kasdan to be a funny, warm, well-acted story about aging and relationships (and aging relationships).

It’s not earth-shaking, no. Nor is it terribly original.

But I’m damned if it didn’t leave me feeling very, very good.

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“THE SOUND OF MY VOICE”: Message from the future

May 25, 2012 by butlerscinemascene

Christopher Denham and Brit Marling

“THE SOUND OF MY VOICE” My rating: B (Opening May 25 at the Tivoli)

85 minutes | MPAA rating: R

“Another Earth” was not a fluke.

Hot on the heels of that mini-masterpiece from Brit Marling comes “The Sound of My Voice,” a brain-knotting  thriller in which Marling once again serves as co-writer and star. If there was any doubt about her being independent film’s new golden girl, it’s now a done deal.

Marling plays Maggie, the leader of a religious cult in modern Los Angeles.

Maggie claims to be from the future. She’s been sent back, “Terminator”-style, to collect followers. Those deemed worthy will accompany Maggie to a remote camp where they will hunker down while America is wracked by a civil war so devastating that it will plunge the survivors into 19th-century Luddism.

Her  story sounds like total b.s., but Maggie is nothing if not compelling. To every objection she seems to have a more-or-less convincing answer. Moreover, she’s so beautiful and charismatic (and, surprisingly, easy going) that the disaffected types who gravitate toward her are quickly swept into the fantasy.

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“FIRST POSITION”: Eyes on the prize

May 25, 2012 by butlerscinemascene

“FIRST POSITION” My rating: B+ (Opening May 25 at the Rio)

90 minutes | No MPAA rating

“First Position” should be filed on your DVD shelf right next to “Spellbound” and “Mad Hot Ballroom,” two other documentaries about youngsters striving for excellence.

Like those pictures, Bess Kargman’s debut feature offers a compelling competitive situation, adorable young subjects and plenty of insights into an arcane world most of us know little about.

The kids ages 9 to 17 featured here are dancers preparing for the Youth America Grand Prix, which invites the best young dancers from all over the planet to compete.

Since the event is attended by representatives of the world’s best dance companies, it also serves as a showcase. A promising youngster may leave with an internship to study under the greats of the art form.

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“CORPORATE FM”: Nobody’s home

May 25, 2012 by butlerscinemascene

“CORPORATE FM”  My rating: B (Opening May 25 at the Screenland Crown Center)

73 minutes | No MPAA rating

I almost never listen to my car radio (when I do it’s an NPR station) and “Corporate FM” nicely explains why.

Made over seven years by KC filmmaker Kevin McKinney, this documentary takes in the big picture of corporate consolidation of the radio industry.

And while the film exposes no smoking gun (most of its revelations are familiar enough to people concerned with the issues), it’s an extremely effective summation of how we got into this mess and how we might get out of it.

The doc’s long gestation period actually proves beneficial, for McKinney is able to observe over the long haul the evolution of radio from a public service (that’s the FCC’s definition, not mine) to a corporate cash cow.

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“BERNIE”: Texan with a vengeance

May 25, 2012 by butlerscinemascene

“BERNIE” My rating:  B (Opening wide on May 25)

104 minutes | MPAA rating: PG-13

We so often see Jack Black going “big” in broad comic performances that it’s easy to forget that this is an actor capable of great subtlety.

Certainly it’s hard to imagine anyone doing a better job than he does in “Bernie,”  Richard Linklater’s based-on-fact study of a small-town eccentric now serving a life sentence in a Texas prison.

Bernie Tiede (Black) is a church-going, giving, glad-handing funeral director who comes to tiny  Carthage, Texas, in the late 1980s and quickly became one of the town’s most visible and beloved citizens.

The sort of guy who goes  the extra mile for his fellows, Bernie befriends local dowager and recent widow Marjorie Nugent (Shirley MacLaine), a rich witch so disagreeable that one local describes her as capable of “ripping you a two-bedroom, double-wide asshole.”

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“HOT FLASH HAVOC”: The change that depresses

May 25, 2012 by butlerscinemascene

“HOT FLASH HAVOC” My rating: C  (Opening May 25 at the Screenland Crossroads)

87 minutes | No MPAA rating

“Hot Flash Havoc” is about an important health issue. But don’t mistake it for entertainment.

This doc from direcdtor Marc Bennett and writer Marnie Inskip delivers just about all the information you could want about “the change.” But for most of its running time it feels more like a public health lecture.

It starts out trying to soften us up with man-in-the-street interviews with woman and the men who love them.

One woman calls menopause “ one of the biggest tests a woman goes through to find out how positivie she is in life.”

Another notes that nobody likes the onset of menopause, but “if  you don’t reach it, you’ve really got troubles” (i.e. , you’re dead).

Opines another subject: “If this were happening to males, They’d fix it.”

“This” is theusual litany ofcomplaints: mood swings, hot flashes, memory loss, decreased sex drive.

The main thrust of “Hot Flash Havoc” is to undo the harm done by a deeply flawed study which a few years ago suggested that the hormone therapy used to treat the symptoms of menopause led to heart disease.

Through the testimony of a score of medical experts, the film argues that getting off hormones was precisely what should not have happened.

There’s valuable information here. But while director Bennett employs animation, bouncy music and fast-cut editing in an effort to rev up the proceedings, “Hot Flash Havoc” is very slow going.

| Robert W. Butler

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