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“THE HELP”: Sweet potato pie with a side of Jim Crow

August 11, 2011 by butlerscinemascene

Octavia Spencer and Viola Davis in "The Help"

“THE HELP”  My rating: B+  (Now playing wide)

137 minutes | MPAA rating: PG-13

You can’t throw a rock at “The Help” without hitting an Oscar-worthy performance, making this adaptation of Kathryn Stockett’s best-seller one of the best-acted films since, well, “The King’s Speech.”

All that thespian power comes in handy in diverting our attention from some of the story’s more Hollywood-ish plotting and an unimaginative visual style.

OK, maybe I’m being too much of a critic here. There may be a few pedestrian elements in this sure-fire box office smash, but there’s no ignoring the pure emotional power of this story set in the Jim Crow South.

This is a movie that will set audiences to laughing, then bawling, then laughing and bawling all over again.

Continue Reading »

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DVD reviews: Freedom fighters, Cossacks and the addled rich

August 9, 2011 by butlerscinemascene

“OUTSIDE THE LAW” (Now available)

The latest from French/Algerian filmmaker Rachid  Bouchareb takes the same three Algerian brothers featured in his sweeping WW2 yarn “Days of Glory” and plops them down in post-war France, where they become urban terrorists on behalf of their homeland’s independence movement.

The oldest, Messaoud (Roschdy Zem), is a former French soldier who returns from the Indochina debacle missing an eye. He hopes to marry, settle down and never again raise a weapon.

Abdelkader (Sami Bouajila), the intellectual, has spent years in a jail for his opposition to French colonialism. He’s a particularly dangerous sort — an doctrinaire revolutionary (think Robespierre) who loves ideology but apparently has little use for people. He doesn’t think twice about ordering the murders of those who disagree with him politically — even family members.

Baby brother Said (Jamel Debbouze) is apolitical. He gets involved in the Parisian crime scene, runs a nightclub and wants only to be left alone to make money.

Bouchareb’s epic tale,  nominated for a foreign language Oscar, has stirred controversy in France, Continue Reading »

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Big screen, small screen, KC screen

August 9, 2011 by butlerscinemascene

On the set of CinemaKC...

If you love film you can’t afford NOT to watch”CinemaKC,” the homegrown half-hour TV program that spotlights area filmmakers.

The show’s production values are terrifically high — even though just about everyone involved is working for free — and the locally-made short films exhibited are really, REALLY impressive.

Turns out our town has cinematic talent to burn.

Problem is, “CinemaKC” is aired late on Saturday night…not exactly a primo time slot.

Worse, often it wasn’t there when it was supposed to be. Continue Reading »

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News: Local filmmaker gets good news

August 6, 2011 by butlerscinemascene

Aspiring KC auteur Paula Smith is on a roll.

This week she learned that her screenplay “Caruso and the Sword” was one of only 351  out of nearly 7,000 entries to be named a quareterfinalist of the prestigious Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting, a program of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Now her script will be read by at least two judges; if it makes the cut it will be one of 120 scripts that make it to the semifinal round.

More good news: The “Caruso” screenplay is a finalist in the “From the Heart Productions” grant competition. From the Heart  is a nonprofit organization that annually awards grants to films that are “unique and make a contribution to society.”

“Caruso and the Sword” is about a young teen taken with the sport of fencing and must deal with bullies, poor grades, parental objections and low self esteem if he’s to qualify for the Summer Nationals, the largest fencing tournament in the world.

| Robert W. Butler

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“BRIDE FLIGHT” : Suds down South

August 5, 2011 by butlerscinemascene

Waldemar Torenstra and Anna Drijver in "Bride Flight"

“BRIDE FLIGHT” My rating: C+ (Opening Aug. 5 at the Glenwood at Red Bridge)

130 minutes | MPAA rating: R

The Kiwi entry “Bride Flight” is less an art film than a romance with grand ambitions.

Unspooling over four decades, this effort from director Ben Sombogaart and writer Marieke van der Pol follows three women and one man from the Netherlands who in the years after World War II attempt to rebuild their lives as emigres to New Zealand.

In a prologue we meet Frank (Rutger Hauer), operator of one of New Zealand’s most successful vineyards. The old fellow dies of a heart attack and word goes out for his loved ones to gather for a sendoff.

Continue Reading »

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“THE TRIP” : Eat. Do impression. Repeat.

August 5, 2011 by butlerscinemascene

Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon take "The Trip"

“THE TRIP” My rating: B (Opening Aug.  5 at the Tivoli and Rio)

101 minutes | No MPAA rating

“The Trip” seems a very casual, largely improvised movie — the sort of thing the British refer to as a “toss off.”

Certainly it appears a lightweight affair to bear the name of director Michael Winterbottom, whose output (“Welcome to Sarajevo,” “The Claim,” “24 Hour Party People,” “A Mighty Heart”) trends toward the heavily meaningful.

But don’t let its shaggy-dog demeanor fool you. Despite its simplistic setup, this is one extremely clever and entertaining film. Heck, it even has moments of depth. Continue Reading »

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“RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES” : Damned dirty apes

August 5, 2011 by butlerscinemascene

“RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES” My rating: C (Opens wide on Aug. 5)

105 minutes | MPAA rating: PG-13

At about the one-hour-and-20-minute mark the simian protagonists of “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” rebel against their human captors/tormentors and run amuck in San Francisco. And for a few moments this moribund movie comes to life.

Getting to that point, though, is a real slog.

This prequel, which purports to show how those chimps, gorillas and orangutans in the original “Planet of the Apes” came to rule over humans, is sort of like a rejected Dickens novel. Instead of a plucky young human protagonist we have Caesar, an animated chimp acted by Andy Serkis (Gollum of the “LOTR” franchise) and made flesh — er, pixels — through the wonders of motion capture technology. Continue Reading »

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DVD: Director Cary Fukunaga and the loneliness of “Jane Eyre”

August 1, 2011 by butlerscinemascene

“JANE EYRE”  (Available Aug. 2)

It’s an old story in Hollywood: A fresh young director makes a splash with a first movie, but loses his/her way with a followup effort.

But Cary Fukunaga has avoided the sophomore slump. His “Jane Eyre” got rave reviews when it opened in March, and despite coming out on DVD this week the latest adaptation of Emily Bronte’s Gothic romance is still playing theatrically in Kansas City (it’s more or less taken up residence at the Screenland Crown Center).

Fukunaga, 34, is a native of Oakland CA and a film graduate of NYU who wowed many of us two years ago with “Sin Nombre,” a Spanish-language yarn about a Central American banger who hops a northbound freight train to elude his murderous fellow gang members and travels right up to the U.S. border, befriending a young woman hoping for a better life in America.

“Sin Nombre” suggested a major talent; “Jane Eyre” confirmed it. Continue Reading »

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DVD review: Pounding the pavement

August 1, 2011 by butlerscinemascene

A pre-Oscar Melissa Leo in "Streetwalkin'"

“STREETWALKIN’” (Available Aug. 2)

One of the downsides to winning an Oscar is that the home video industry starts digging through the movies you made early in your career, hoping to peddle some dross as gold.

That’s pretty much the story with “Streetwalkin’,” a 1985 innocent-in-the-big-city melodrama starring the then 25-year-old Melissa Leo.

This was, of course, before Leo registered with TV audiences as a member of the “Homicide: Life on the Streets” cast and, more recently, scored an Academy Award for her supporting performance in “The Fighter.” Continue Reading »

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DVD: Don’t walk on my laugh line, Comrade

July 31, 2011 by butlerscinemascene

“EXPORTING RAYMOND” (Available Aug. 2 )

When “Everybody Loves Raymond” ended its run after nine years and 210 episodes, creator Phil Rosenthal began thinking about whether his TV show about a bickering but basically loving middle-class family might translate to other cultures.

After all, “The Nanny” became a hit in Europe with casts of various nationalities. Why not “Raymond”?

With that in mind Rosenthal agreed to help a Russian TV network develop its own version of “Raymond.” Rosenthal brought along a video crew to document the progress, and the result is “Exporting Raymond,” a fish-out-of-water real-life comedy in which the Hollywood mover and shaker gets a sobering lesson in how the rest of the world operates.

"Everybody Loves Kostya"...the Russian "Raymond"

OK, I don’t want to make Rosenthal seem like some sort of boorish Tinsel Town heavy hitter. Continue Reading »

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