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“TROLLHUNTER” : Trolling for drollery

July 22, 2011 by butlerscinemascene

“TROLLHUNTER” My rating: B- (Opening July 22 at the Screenland Crossroads)

90 minutes | MPAA rating: PG-13

The Norwegian “TrollHunter” purports to be footage left behind by members of a college film crew who have mysterious vanished.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.

Actually, André Øvredal’s film, an amusing mashup of elements from “The Blair Witch Project” seasoned with a bit of “Men in Black,” is a lot more entertaining than you’d expect given its by-now-cliched premise.

Maybe it’s the way the film wields its uber-dry sense of humor, presenting with a straight face thoroughly fanciful, nay, absurd notions.

Our student filmmakers are on-camera interviewer Kalle (Tomas Alf Larsen), sound girl Johanna (Johanna Morck) and cameraman Thoms (Glenn Erland Tosterud…who is heard but rarely seen for obvious reasons).

As the movie starts they are trying to do an expose about wildlife deaths in rugged fiord country. There are rumors of rapacious poachers, and the three fledgling moviemakers  think they have a suspect in a bearded, middle-aged guy who drives a beat-up all-terrain vehicle and tows a mobile home that gives off an unidentifiable reek. Continue Reading »

Posted in Art house fare, Popcorn movies | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment »

“PAGE ONE”: The Old Gray Lady ain’t what she used to be…

July 22, 2011 by butlerscinemascene

David Carr...defending the honor of the New York Times in "Page One"

“PAGE ONE”  My rating: B  (Opens July 22 at the Glenwood Arts)

88 minutes: MPAA rating: R

The recent woes of print journalism are front and center in “Page One,” a documentary for which director Alex Rossi  spent a year observing the inner workings of our greatest newspaper, The New York Times.

Although it remains America’s most successful daily, the old gray lady nevertheless is struggling to stay economically viable in an era when the internet and other free sources of news have cut badly into both her advertising revenue and her once-exclusive position as the ultimate source of information on current events.

And if things are bad for the unassailable Times, imagine what it’s like for other papers.

(I personally could tell you a few tales of woe…but, no, that’s for another day.) Continue Reading »

Posted in Art house fare, Documentaries | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Newspaper Days: Ken Paik — Bigger than life. And cruder, too.

July 19, 2011 by butlerscinemascene

For a Korean, Ken Paik was a very big guy…about six feet tall, I think.

I’m not sure about that. It’s possible that he was only, say, 5-9 and just seemed taller because of the way he filled the space around him.

Ken, who died a few years back after a long career in journalism, was one of the most outrageous personalities I’ve encountered in an industry that thrived on the outlandish.

Robert Butler and Ken Paik in Valdez, Alaska, 1974

He was already a staff photographer for the Kansas City Star when I started working there and over the years we were often teamed for big assignments. I always found these pairings…er, educational.

In those days newspaper photographers had a reputation for over-the-top behavior (it’s no coincidence that the photographer on the “Lou Grant” TV show was called “Animal”) and Ken lived up to the best traditions of his trade.

Continue Reading »

Posted in Reveries | Tagged , , , | 22 Comments »

Our indie film avatar: John Shipp

July 18, 2011 by butlerscinemascene

John Shipp: film peddler

“THE FILM PEDDLER”  (Playing at 7:30 p.m. Friday, July 22, at the Screenland Crown Center.)

I’ve known John Shipp for more than 30 years, but it took this lighthearted, utterly charming documentary for me to truly appreciate the guy.

In recent years Shipp has been known as a film booker and as a moving force in Kansas City FilmFest, the Film Society of Greater Kansas City and CinemaKC.

But this film, made by his nephews, Devin and Shannon Kelley (their first effort, and it’s a keeper), opened my eyes to Shipp’s wildly colorful backstory.

More than four decades ago, we’re informed, Shipp became the youngest MGM branch manager ever. But working for a big company wasn’t precisely what this ambitious guy was looking for.

Shipp wanted to be his own boss. And he more or less created Continue Reading »

Posted in Documentaries, KC Film Scene | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments »

DVD reviews: A kick in the zonads, no walk in the park

July 16, 2011 by butlerscinemascene

"Zonad"...it's not another "Once"

“Zonad” (Now available)

Everybody who follows pop music has heard of the one-hit wonder.

Same thing can happen in movies.

A couple of years back Irish filmmaker John Carney had an international hit with “Once,” a modest mini-musical about a Dublin street busker who falls for an immigrant girl.

They end up making beautiful music together…so beautiful that “Once” won the Oscar for best original song.

I loved “Once”; thought it may have been the year’s most satisfying film.

But Carney’s followup, just out on DVD, suggests that “Once” was indeed a one-time-only deal.

Continue Reading »

Posted in New on DVD | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment »

A modest proposal…

July 14, 2011 by butlerscinemascene

…to open the Emmy logjam

Bryan Cranston won’t pick up a fourth Emmy this year for “Breaking Bad,”  but only because he wasn’t eligible. The show was on hiatus this season.

Hey, I like Cranston. Great performance in a great role.

But I hate the whole Emmy dynasty thing where a performer wins year after year.

I especially hate it because unlike films, where an actor plays a totally different character with each new project, TV actors find themselves winning Emmys for characters they may have created years earlier.

Granted, characters on TV can grow and change over time, but most of the hard work was done that first season.

Here’s my proposal:  Once an actor wins an Emmy for playing a particular character, he/she cannot be nominated for that same character for, say, three years.

It will open up the process, it will put fresh faces and characters into the running, it will spread around the honors and prevent the whole awards thing from becoming an excercise in deja vu.

Thank you for your consideration.

| Robert W. Butler

Posted in Reveries | Tagged , | 2 Comments »

“HARRY POTTER AND THE DEADLY HALLOWS: PART 2” : Last piece of the puzzle

July 14, 2011 by butlerscinemascene

“HARRY POTTER AND THE  DEADLY HALLOWS: PART 2” My rating: B (Opening wide at 11:55 p.m. July 14)

130 minutes | PG-13

Imagine that you’ve been in a coma for the last 15 years and missed the whole Harry Potter thing.

You’ve no knowledge of the real-life rags-to-riches story of creator J.K. Rowling. Of the long lines of readers awaiting midnight sales of the latest installment. Of the worldwide mania. Of the rise in childhood literacy. The theme park.

Imagine that the slate has been wiped clean. You’re a total Harry virgin.

Under those circumstances, if you were taken to a theater and shown one of the “Harry Potter” movies, what would you make of it?

Be honest, now. Continue Reading »

Posted in Popcorn movies | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

“PHASE 7”: Quarantined in Rio

July 13, 2011 by butlerscinemascene

Jazmin Stuart and Daniel Hendler in “Phase 7”

“PHASE 7” My rating: C 

98 minutes | MPAA rating: R

Urbanites imprisoned in their own apartments are nothing new (see “Quarantine” and plenty of zombie movies), but the low-budget Argentine effort “Phase 7” tries to spice the genre up with droll humor.

Actually, “spice” is the wrong word to use here, since Nicolas Goldbart’s film is so laid back and casual that you can practically see it evaporating off the screen.

Coco (Daniel Hendler) and his wife Pipi (Jazmin Stuart) are city dwellers expecting their first baby. We encounter them in a supermarket where they seem not to notice that other shoppers are running around madly and grabbing items off the shelves as if the end of the world had just been announced. Continue Reading »

Posted in Cinema Espanol, Popcorn movies | Tagged , , | Leave a Comment »

NEWSPAPER DAYS: First assignment

July 11, 2011 by butlerscinemascene

The Kansas City Star, 18th and Grand, KCMO

On a sunny June day in 1969 I climbed the steps of the Kansas City Star building, passed the bronze relief portrait of founder William Rockhill Nelson that still watches over the front door, and began my career as a newspaperman.

Actually it was only a summer internship, but those three months at The Star provided a crash course in practical journalism, allowed me to show what I could do and paved the way for a full-time gig when I graduated from college a year later.

Up in the second floor newsroom I reported to Don T. Jones, the daytime assignment editor of The Times, then The Star’s morning edition (the two papers merged many years ago).

Don T., as he was universally known, is best described as a chain-smoking bantam rooster. Continue Reading »

Posted in Reveries, Uncategorized | Tagged , | 18 Comments »

“BEGINNERS” : Getting started

July 8, 2011 by butlerscinemascene

Ewan McGregor, Melanie Laurant and friend

“BEGINNERS” My rating: B  (Opens July 8 at the Glenwood Arts and Tivoli)

105 minutes | MPAA rating:  R

We inherit more from our parents than DNA. Without realizing exactly how or why, we inherit a way of looking at life.

“Beginners” is about a man looking back on his parents’ marriage and finally coming to terms with the often uncomfortable emotional baggage they bequeathed him.

That may sound like a heavy slog. Happily, much of “Beginners” is a hoot — bizarrely funny, sweet, sexy and quite moving.

If with his second feature the film’s writer/director — modern-day Renaissance man Mike Mills — can’t always keep all those balls perfectly suspended in the air, he comes close enough to make this film a must-see event.

Continue Reading »

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