The Walker

Some films arrive in December with a big stick marketing campaign while others, like The Walker, quietly stroll onto select screens. The Walker returns to familiar Paul Schrader territory, examining why a man (Woody Harrelson in gay mode) sets himself up for a fall by protecting a lady friend. Schrader bills it as the third part of a trilogy of loner movies that began with American Gigolo and Light Sleeper. Like Gigolo and also like in Robert Bresson’s Pickpocket the protagonist finds himself a suspect for a crime he didn’t commit.
Unlike some other Schrader films (directed or scripted) the finale doesn’t end in a bloodbath (think Light Sleeper whose star Willem Dafoe makes a brief appearance), but rather a series of demands and hoops to jump through that regular people undergo in their dealing with upper crust society. Carter (Harrelson) watches his friends start to avoid him as he moves from a trusted confidant and companion to a kind of Washington D.C. pariah.
A mood of mystery dominates after Kristin Scott Thomas finds a friend dead. She gets Carter to mop up the scene further eroding their relation. The Walker reminds one of a Claude Chabrol film where the circumstances of a crime eat away at the characters. Some really convincing support from Lauren Bacall, Thomas and Lily Tomlin give The Walker an ensemble of strength while Schrader’s methodical approach reveals the solitude of people with supposed friends in high places. The Walker is currently playing exclusively at the downtown Angelika.

I Am Legend

The movie I Am Legend is based on the titular novel by Richard Matheson, who as you may or may not know is the premiere living sci-fi writer along with Ray Bradbury. Matheson’s book has been filmed twice before. Hundreds of years ago the films The Last Man on Earth and The Omega Man did the novel some kind of justice. The latter in fact belongs in the category of true cult sci-fi films.
The newest spin on the last man on Earth theme fails on a couple of important levels while still delivering a modicum of genre entertainment. Will Smith finds himself alone in Manhattan in the year 2012, the inference being that a cure for cancer mutated into a deadly airborne pathogen that killed off the majority of the world’s population. I Am Legend find yet another way for Smith to phrase the words “Oh Hell No.” Here Smith utters oh hell a couple of times then yells no to express his dismay at being outmanned by mutant creatures – not really, but once human - who come out at night.
If you have no idea about the previous films and you think movies like 28 Days Later are cool, then this re-imagined I Am Legend should rock your boat. However, the way director Francis Lawrence (Constantine) plays the scenario the creatures have no voice, no leader, and no personality. Big mistake, just recall Anthony Zerbe in Omega Man, or even recently Danny Huston in 30 Days of Night. I Am Legend resembles nothing more than 30 Days of Night as opposed to the old school Omega Man. There’s also some questionable CGI effects, in particular a family of lions that seem to prance rather, ah, digitally.
Not to ignore I Am Legend’s good points, there are moments when the film feels like it may slide into a higher gear only to downshift into cliche. One such moment has Smith coming to terms with his only friend, his dog, as the Alsatian turns into a zombie dog. The moment has a Night of the Living Dead vibe that works because Lawrence keeps the camera on Smith’s face the entire time as he strangles the dog. Another George Romero reference has Smith capturing a zombie and strapping it in his lab to experiment on a cure, a scene right out of Day of the Dead. I Am Legend needed more scenes like that, some zombies you could identify with, and less CGI manipulation.
On another note is seems one of the filming locations, a residence near New York City’s Washington Square arch also pops up in another current Warner Brothers release, August Rush.

Romance and Cigarettes

The title says it all, steamy romance with fire and smoke. John Turturro directs but does not appear in this full-on musical. That's okay because he uses the kind of actors who make this tuner work including Kate Winslet, Mandy Moore, Chris Walken, Susan Sarandon, James Gandolfini, Steve Buscemi, sister Aida, Bobby Cannavale, Mary-Louise Parker, there are others.
Set among East Coast working class houses, some of them on fire, this amazing cast belts out standards like Delilah or A Man Without Love, in this case with Gandolfini or Walken singing along on the soundtrack with Tom Jones or Englebert Humperdinck. In the case of I Want Candy the song is voiced by Mandy, Aida and Mary-Louise. Romance and Cigarettes sits firmly between less adult musical fare like Hairspray and more conceptualized works like Across the Universe. Oddly Romance and Cigarettes has been on the shelf for a couple of years and is only now getting a small release.
Winslet in particular embodies the heat and passion in the film's spine. There are randy provocative scenes on display here, this is a film that shows a lot of love. It needs some in return in the way of adventurous audiences ready for something worthwhile and different.