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“THE RUM DIARY”: Dissipation in paradise

October 28, 2011 by butlerscinemascene

“THE RUM DIARY” My rating: C- (Opening wide on Oct. 28)

120 minutes | MPAA rating: R

“The Rum Diary” is such a drab affair it  bears mentioning only as an example of how great movies stars can squander their popularity.

“Rum” marks the second time actor Johnny Depp has played famed gonzo journalist Hunter M. Thompson (actually here he plays a Thompson-like character). One can only assume that Depp finds inspiration or at the very least an acting challenge in portraying the chemically-addled, terminally sardonic writer/wastrel.

His first outing as Thompson was 1998’s “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” a surreal pigout that was fairly faithful to the book but still unremarkable.

“Rum”  is based on Thompson’s autobiographical novel about his early career as a newspaperman in the Caribbean.

The trailers make it look like a laugh-heavy dip into debauchery beneath the palms — all drink, drugs and beautiful women.

In truth, this is a sour, joyless tale of idealism run aground. And that would be acceptable if the film were better made.

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DVD: Kevin Smith’s “RED STATE”

October 27, 2011 by butlerscinemascene

Michael Parks, a gay-bashing preacher in "Red State"

Iconic indy filmmaker Kevin Smith gets serious — well, sort of — with “Red State,” his self-distributed melding of political/religious satire, action film and slasher/horror gruesomeness.

Think Fred Phelps meets the Waco standoff by way of a “Hostel” flick.

The movie is several things at once, some elements more successful than others. But for all of its borderline naive satire and paranoia it cannot be easily dismissed, if only because Smith is working here with some very talented actors who elevate the material into something quite watchable.

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“MY AFTERNOONS WITH MARGUERITTE”: Small-town romance

October 21, 2011 by butlerscinemascene

Gerarde Depardieu and Gisele Casadesus

“MY AFTERNOONS WITH MARGUERITTE” My rating: B- (Opening Oct. 21 at the Rio and Glenwood at Red Bridge)

82 minutes | No MPAA rating

“My Afternoons with Margueritte” is the sort of enterprise calculated to warm cockles, tug heartstrings and evoke dry retching among cynics.

In this Gallic equivalent of a Hallmark Hall of Fame production, a none-too-bright oaf has a sort of chaste romance with a 96-year-old woman who encourages him to open up his narrowly proscribed world through books.

It’s a shameless manipulative setup that director Jean Becker and cowriter Jean-Loup Dabadie have cooked up, and by all rights it should land with a thud.

That it doesn’t is entirely due to the film’s two stars, Gerard Depardieu (huge in every sense of the word) and Gisele Casadesus (who, incredibly, began her screen career in 1934). This couple could sell space heaters to Amazonian aborigines.

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“THE INTERRUPTERS”: The audacity of hope

October 21, 2011 by butlerscinemascene

Armeena Matthews...one of "The Interrupters"

“THE INTERRUPTORS” My rating: A- (Opens Oct. 21 at the Tivoli)

125 minutes | No MPAA rating

Heart wrenching and gut twisting, “The Interrupters” spends a year in Chicago’s meanest neighborhoods following three individuals committed to stopping the cycle of violence in the inner city.

The protagonists of Steve James’ exhaustive and deeply moving documentary — Ameena Matthews, Cobe Williams and Eddie Bocanegra– are employed by the not-for-profit organization CeaseFire as “violence interrupters.”

Their unenviable job is to leap into confrontational situations — invariably involving young people who have grown up with guns and violence — and defuse them before things turn ugly…and deadly.

James, the co-director of the legendary “Hoop Dreams,” has an astounding ability to be in the right place at the right time while adapting a fly-on-the-wall invisibility — he captures intense moments way beyond the imagination of a Hollywood screenwriter. The results will leave audiences dazed, in tears and torn between hope and despair.

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“HIGHER GROUND”: Ye of little faith

October 14, 2011 by butlerscinemascene

Vera Farmiga in "Higher Ground"

“HIGHER GROUND” My rating: B- (Opens Oct. 14 at the Tivoli and Glenwood at Red Bridge)

109 minutes | Audience rating: R

The loss of religious faith is a challenging, hot-button topic for a filmmaker’s directing debut.

So much could go wrong.

“Higher Ground,” from actress Vera Farmiga, doesn’t go wrong, exactly, but it never really adds up.

Working from a screenplay by Carolyn S. Briggs (adapting her memoir This Dark World), the film chronicles the gradual falling away from Christianity of Corinne (Farmiga), a young wife and mother.

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“THE THING”: Who goes there? And why bother?

October 14, 2011 by butlerscinemascene

Mary Elizabeth Winstead battles "The Thing"

“THE THING” My rating: C (Opening wide Oct. 14)

103 minutes | MPAA rating: R

We’ve already seen two very good versions of “The Thing” (based on the classic sci-fi/horror story “Who Goes There?”), so anyone making yet a third “Thing” had better bring some new ideas to the table.

In the case of the film opening today, first-time feature director Matthijs van Heijningen and writer Bill Lancaster attempt to stir things up by making our protagonist a woman.

That’s it?  That’s the big twist?

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“CIRCUMSTANCE”: Sex is a human right

October 14, 2011 by butlerscinemascene

Nikohl Boosheri, Sarah Kazemy in "Circumstance"

“CIRCUMSTANCE” My rating: B- (Opening Oct. 14 at the Tivoli)

107 minutes | MPAA rating: R

Best friends Atifeh and Shireen (Nikohl Boosheri, Sarah Kazemy) are like lots of other teenage girls.

They like to glam up, go to wild parties, drink, dance, rave over popular music and flirt with boys.

Problem is, Atifeh and Shireen live in Iran, where all of these activities are illegal and likely to get them arrested by the so-called morality police who enforce the mullah’s stranglehold on all aspects of society.

The gal pals engage in anti-social behavior of yet another, potentially even more disastrous form:  They are lovers.

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“eMANNzipation” / “LESSON PLAN” / “BEAUTIFUL DARLING”: KIFF favorites opening

October 14, 2011 by butlerscinemascene

The two best films of the recent Kansas International Film Festival — at least in the opinion of festival goers who voted on their favorites — open today (Oct. 14) at the Glenwood Arts. Plus a KIFF doc about a transgender icon gets a run at the Rio.

“eMANNzipation” My rating: B- (Opens Oct. 14 at the Glenwood Arts)

115 minutes | No MPAA rating

“eMANNcipation” would be the perfect movie for the Lifetime cable channel. It’s about a spousal abuse and how the victim overcomes many obstacles to achieve true emancipation.

Yeah, we’ve been there and done that.

Urs Stampfli and Frances Heller in better days

But this German effort from writer/director Philipp Muller-Dorn pulls a switcheroo. It’s not about an abused woman. Its protagonist is a man…a man whose wife beats the crap out of him.

When we first meet Dominik (Urs Stampfli) he’s living with a married friends, having been beaten up (he’s got a patch over one eye) and kicked out of the house…this in addition to losing his job.

The mopey, unassertive Dominik is soon asked to leave and winds up in a shelter for abused men.

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“THE IDES OF MARCH”: Waist deep in the Big Muddy

October 7, 2011 by butlerscinemascene

“THE IDES OF MARCH” My rating: B+ (Opening wide on Oct. 7)

101 minutes | MPAA rating: R

George Clooney, viewed by many as a liberal white knight who really ought to run for office, sends an answer of sorts with “The Ides of March.”

In this political thriller — directed and co-written by Clooney — the charismatic movie star plays a charismatic state governor who has thrown himself into Ohio’s presidential primary in a bid for the Democratic nomination.

Watching Clooney’s Mike Morris gracefully glide through debates, press conferences and stump speeches is a bit weird…it’s like a preview of what a genuine Clooney candidacy would be like. The Morris campaign even has a poster depicting the candidate in the same pop art/street graffiti visual language of that famous Obama image from ’08. Lefties will be swooning.

But this candy apple has a razor blade hidden inside.

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“THE WAY”: A pilgrim’s progress

October 7, 2011 by butlerscinemascene

“THE WAY” My rating: B (Opening wide Oct. 7)

115 minutes | MPAA rating: PG-13

Emilio Estevez’s “The Way” is old fashioned filmmaking.

By which I mean that it takes its time, lets its story and its characters breathe, and slowly gets under your skin until it becomes a part of you.

It’s not perfect, but this variation on the road movie — or “Canterbury Tales,” if you’re a classicist — is terrifically satisfying.

Widower and LA area opthamologist Tom Avery (Martin Sheen) is enjoying a game of golf when the cell phone call comes through. His only child, his son Daniel, has died while traveling in France.

Tom has no choice but to catch a flight to Paris. A train trip brings him to a small town in the Pyrennes where a police officer (French film stalwart Tcheky Karyo) informs him that Daniel died in a mountain storm while attempting to walk the Camino de Santiago, or Way of St. James, a 500-mile pilgrimage from Southern France into Spain and on to a cathedral in the city of Galacia where the bones of St. James reportedly rest.

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