Check Out the Trailer

Based on the true story of Elle magazine editor Jean-Dominique Bauby, this daring biopic tries to bring us into the body of a man who suffers from locked-in syndrome. After suffering from a stroke, Bauby could only move one eye. His mental state was completely in tact, but his physical abilities were completely lost. He would overcome great odds with his patient nurse and assistant to blink out this biography one letter at a time.

Director Julian Schnabel (BEFORE NIGHT FALLS) makes the bold choice of filming a great deal of the early segments of the film from the point of view of Bauby. The technique wears out its welcome from time to time, but does bring the audience into the same frustration that Bauby must have felt. If a person moves out of the view of his good eye, he can’t simply shift his head to see them, and that’s how we see things. After awhile, Schnabel moves away from this style and films the drama in more traditional ways, especially in the flashbacks and fantasy scenes where we get glimpses of Bauby’s past and desires.

Read the rest of this entry »

With the 15th anniversary edition of GROUNDHOG DAY arriving on DVD this week, the first thing that came to mind was that the film was one of the best modern comedies… and it’s smart too. So this week’s lineup is dedicated to five smart comedies. Along with Harold Ramis’ best film, we have two classics and two recent underrated comedies. Prepare to laugh without having to shut down your cerebral cortex.

Read the rest of this entry »

Check Out the Trailer

This “drugs are hell” film doesn’t blaze any new territory. However, a solid script and powerful performances makes this bleak film worth seeing. Additionally, the film will probably gain some cult recognition for featuring one of the last performances of Heath Ledger, whose recent death has been rumored to be drug-related. It’s a cautionary tale that presents the idea that a drug user doesn’t want to stop when they can and can’t stop when the want to.

Dan (Ledger) is a fledgling poet who has fallen for the promising painter Candy (Abbie Cornish, ELIZABETH: THE GOLDEN AGE). Dan comes from a turbulent family life, while Candy had a more stable upbringing, but not any better in the emotional support department. Candy has been on edge her entire life due to her demanding mother (Noni Hazlehurst). Her father Jim (Tony Martin) is a caring parent, but one who refuses to confront the problems that are right in front of him. Dan and Candy get into recreational drug use through the older Chemistry professor Casper (Geoffrey Rush, QUILLS). Before too long, the young couple has sold most of their possessions to fund their drug addiction. Later they will fall further and further into more destructive, demeaning and dangerous behavior.

Read the rest of this entry »

Check Out the Trailer

Robert Benton won an Academy Award for this film’s screenplay, which is actually the weakest element of the production. Loosely based on his own experiences, he develops a solid central story and then leaves it for a subplot that is less interesting and never connects back to the main story or themes.

Edna Spalding (Sally Field, NORMA RAE) is a widow in the Depression era South. If she doesn’t find a way to make money soon, she will lose her house and possibly lose her two children. A black, day laborer named Moze (Danny Glover, THE COLOR PURPLE) comes to her door looking for work and suggests that she plant cotton on her 40 acres of open land. Banker Albert Denby (Lane Smith, THE MIGHTY DUCKS) hounds her about her bi-yearly house payments and uses her situation to pawn off his blind brother-in-law, Will (John Malkovich, DANGEROUS LIASONS), to her as a border. In the subplot, Edna’s sister Margaret Lomax (Lindsay Crouse, THE VERDICT) works as a beautician to play the bills as her out-of-work husband Wayne (Ed Harris, THE TRUMAN SHOW) sleeps with the married schoolteacher Viola Kelsey (Amy Madigan, FIELD OF DREAMS).

Read the rest of this entry »

Check Out the Trailer

The legendary director Stanley Kubrick has several films on his resume that would be the singular achievement of almost any other director. Of all his films, DR. STRANGELOVE is my favorite. Ironically, it was a film I disliked when I first saw it in college. After seeing it a second time, with a little more life experience under my belt, the film washed over me like a revelation. When it comes to black comedy, this is one of the best and one of the subtlest.

Brig. Gen. Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden, 1956’s THE KILLING) has gone rogue, launching a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union. As Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake (Peter Sellers, LOLITA) listens to Ripper ramble on about the Ruskies plan to poison Americans’ precious bodily fluids, he tries to convince the insane general to hand over the abort code. Meanwhile, President Merkin Muffley (Sellers) is briefed on the situation by Gen. Buck Turgidson (George C. Scott, PATTON), who wants to reserve judgment on Ripper’s actions exceeding his authority until all the information is in. Baffled and astonished by the news, the President invites the Russian ambassador Alexi de Sadesky (Peter Bull, DOCTOR DOOLITTLE) to the War Room while he makes the difficult call to the Russian leader Kissoff to tell him that four bombers, one flown by Maj. T.J. “King” Kong (Slim Pickens, THE BALLAD OF CABLE HOGUE), are on their way to unleash the bomb. Then Sadesky reveals the clincher, if one of the bombers succeeds, it will automatically trigger the Russian’s Doomsday Device, which will wipe all living things off the Earth. So the President turns to former German scientist Dr. Strangelove (Sellers) to find a solution.

Read the rest of this entry »

With Brad Renfro’s death last week and Heath Ledger’s surprise death this week, I thought the latest This Weekend’s Film Festival would be a good time to look back on the work of actors who died too young. Two of the actors died in tragic accidents. Reckless actions played a role in the deaths of at least two of the performers. With wild young stars in the papers on a daily basis, I wonder if these tragedies open any eyes to how living on the edge is an unbalancing act.

Read the rest of this entry »

Check Out the Trailer

Before this film Brandon Lee was being cast as his father Bruce Lee or was given parts in third rate Steven Seagal rejects. This iconic role would have made him a star, if it hadn’t killed him first. Shot down on the set in a reckless tragedy. Before comics were a go-to property in Hollywood, James O’Barr’s dark comic was made into one of the best comic adaptations in screen history and, because it was released after his death, allowed Lee to return from the dead just as his character does.

On Halloween eve, a gang murders Eric Draven (Lee) and his fiancée Shelley (Sofia Shinas). But as the legend goes, if a soul is not at rest, a crow can bring the person back to settle his unfinished business. Eric gets this chance to comeback from the dead to seek revenge. As Eric picks off his murderers one by one, the gang leader Top Dollar (Michael Wincott, ROBIN HOOD: PRINCE OF THIEVES) wants to know who this avenging angel really is. Helping Eric along the way is his teenage friend Sarah (Rochelle Davis) and Sergeant Albrecht (Ernie Hudson, GHOSTBUSTERS), who has been working the rough part of town for years and has seen a great deal of ugliness.

Read the rest of this entry »

Check Out the Trailer

James Dean is best known for his role in REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE, but his breakout performance was in Elia Kazan’s adaptation of John Steinbeck’s novel, EAST OF EDEN. He received his first of two posthumous Oscar nominations for his performance as the tormented young man Cal Trask. This searing family drama captures the complexity of the child/parent relationship.

Cal wants to know why he’s been bad all his life. At the start of the film, he follows a madam named Kate (Jo Van Fleet, THE ROSE TATTOO) to just look at her. Turns out, the woman is the mother that Cal was told had died. Cal feels like an outcast in his family, never measuring up to his holier-than-thou father Adam (Raymond Massey, ARSENIC AND OLD LACE) and his straight-laced, pacifist brother Aron (Richard Davalos, COOL HAND LUKE). Cal acts out to gain any kind of attention from his father. His behavior amuses his brother, but scares his brother’s girl Abra (Julie Harris, THE HAUNTING). After his mother rejects him, Cal becomes determined to make good and prove himself to Adam.

Read the rest of this entry »

Check Out Clips

This modern adaptation of Sergei Prokofiev’s musical created using details puppets captures the perfect tone for the famed work, mixing heart with darkness. This tale has been done in animation before, but it has always been softened for the smaller tykes in the audience. Director Suzie Templeton respectfully keeps true to the original, making the difficult life lessons that the title character learns all the more complex and powerful.

Peter is a sad young man, who lives in a makeshift fortress on the outskirts of a rundown city in Russia. His paranoid grandfather has them walled off from the forest, forbidding the boy from playing near the frozen lake behind their home. Peter’s only friend is a goose, and during a trip to town, he is bullied by a duo of hunters. Upon his return home, Peter encounters a crow that has a bum wing and wants to use the boy’s balloon to get a little lift. This leads to Peter and the goose making it to the other side of the fence and getting a chance to have some fun. However, a hungry wolf has other plans for Peter and his feathered friends.

Read the rest of this entry »

Check Out Clips

Aleksandr Petrov previously won the Oscar for his adaptation of Hemingway’s THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA. Now he uses Ivan Shmelyov’s story A LOVE STORY to create his latest short epic. For animation fans, they will already now the beauty of Petrov’s work, which is like a 19th-century Impressionist painting come to life. His technique is to paint on glass, shoot the painting and then altering the paint to form the next frame. Each exquisite frame is a work of gorgeous art and it is destroyed to move onto the next frame. I spent the first 13 of the 26 minutes of this film simply riveted to its unparalleled beauty.

Set in Moscow in the 1890s, the story follows the wealthy 16-year-old Anton as he becomes sexually aware. He has a crush on his house’s servant girl Pasha, who loves the young man too. Then one day, Anton meets a mysterious older woman, named Seraphina, who wears blue-tinted spectacles. Though his attentions have been averted, he is still jealous when Pasha reveals that she has been arranged to marry the local footman. The intensity of Anton’s passion for the two women is echoed in the dramas of the town and later his fever-infested dreams.

The grand scope of the drama emotionally captures the power of first love. Anton makes grand gestures and then the results of his actions have grand consequences. There is a great irony that is revealed in the end that poetically reveals the shallowness of Anton’s affections for the mysterious woman over the sweet poor Pasha. The beauty of the visuals match the setting, tone and story perfectly. Petrov’s style calls out for melodrama and this story fits him perfectly.