Mister Lonely

There's a similarity in review proof films, movies that inhabit opposite sides of the cinematic divide. On one hand you have tent pole studio summer releases with advertising budgets in excess of $50-million. Nothing anybody writes or says will really affect the opening. On another planet you have small independently produced films whose directors encourage devotion through a singular inaccessible vision. Case in point Mister Lonely. I've had fans of Harmony Korine asking me about his latest film for months so that has to account to some degree on a lingering sense of anticipation to see the film.
The first images of Mister Lonely had me convinced it was the second coming. The opening moment is a slow motion long take telephoto shot that follows a Michael Jackson impersonator on a mini-cycle towing a kite of a monkey while the titular song warbles. This one-take credit sequence cuts to a nun, in a pleasant light blue habit, holding a spider monkey. Mister Lonely had me enthralled, and then the drugs wore off.
In addition to Diego Luna as Jackson the film's characters imitate famous celebs like Marilyn Monroe (Samantha Morton), Charlie Chaplin, Sammy Davis, Jr. as well as fictional characters like all Three Stooges, Little Red Riding Hood and Buckwheat. This is basically stunt casting, for instance the Queen and the Pope are played by Anita Pallenberg and James Fox. For film insiders roles are played by Leos Carax and Werner Herzog.
Mister Lonely goes off the rails before too much time has elapsed. Indie filmmakers like Jim Jarmusch or Gregg Araki can mix hip images and absurd situations without delving into undecipherable montage. The other side of the coin dictates a narrow, singular vision unhampered by mere logic. The celeb impersonators hang out at Charlie's house, one of them eventually commits suicide and the Stooges shoot a bunch of diseased sheep (at least one is black). A different narrative string has a group of nuns who fly. Rather than a magical moment where all these elements congeal for a tasty treat it seems that Korine has instead created a new millennium Six Characters in Search of a Auteur. Sadly Korine is no Pirandello.
There are thematic parallels to Korine's twin Mr. Lonely stories and they deal with life and death. When one of the nuns falls out of an airplane accidentally she prays to fly and not die. It's a miracle when she gets up off the ground without even dusting off and walks away unharmed. Korine seems especially eager to be transcendental. Soon the other nuns skydive without parachutes en masse with the express purpose of, well, flying. The cinematography and stunt work is amazing. In the back of my mind I found myself admiring how the stunt performers were hiding their parachutes in the nun clothing. Likewise the slo-mo fetishistic intensity of Marcel Zyskind's photography (he works a lot with Michael Winterbottom) brought a sense of purpose to what should've been a mess.
The word on Harmony Korine is that his films are shocking. Maybe the early ones, like Gummo, but the only thing shocking about Mister Lonely was how old Pallenberg looked.

Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson

There's a cornucopia of information contained in Gonzo. A floating sense of the casual anarchy that defined 60s, the 70s that saw the rise of a certain style of political reportage, the events that led up to Hunter Thompson's suicide are all the fodder for this documentary from Alex Gibney, previously known for hard hitting docus like Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room and Taxi to the Darkside. Gonzo's not quite a political riposte in the manner of his other films but there's a kind of social insight that could've only come from living through that turbulent time. In fact, after watching Gonzo you may suspect that Thompson contributed some of the turbulence.
The film follows Thompson at the Chicago riots at the 1968 Democratic convention but also notes that the same year Thompson rode for over an hour in the back seat of a car with Richard Nixon and all they talked about was football. Thompson's sharp enough to take a Mark Twain glee after a rumor he starts that 1972 presidential candidate Muskie was ingesting a strange jungle drug gets picked up by the media. Gibney has enough of his own journalistic cred to have everyone from Pat Buchanan and Jimmy Carter to Sonny Barger and Johnny Depp chime in on Thompson, not always for the good. There's also Depp reading some Thompson's prose and clips from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Where the Buffalo Roam. Thompson had feature films made about his lifestyle spanning over two generations - Buffalo Roam is def Baby Boomers while Fear and Loathing is def Gen X - and yet he's a kind of patron saint of drug abuse. He died so that we don't have to party into unconscious oblivion. Thompson had nearly as many guns as Charlton Heston, and they were loaded.
Many of the events in the film are based on historical records and will seem familiar to devotees of counter culture as the clips of music heard throughout. What I found most surprising were interviews with Dr. Duke's first wife, his widow, and his son that puts his suicide in a new light. This last part of the film veers into more personal matters like family as opposed to the wider canvas of society in change that frames the beginning and middle. Of the many visions he had, Thompson had foreseen his death right down to a monument he designed that now stands on his acreage in Colorado. Gonzo opens July 4 at the River Oaks Three.

The Tracey Fragments

Fragmented is right. The Tracey Fragments splits the screen into multiple images to view the complicated life of one teen forced into precocious adulthood. But this isn't Haskell Wexler split-screen imagery nor is it a De Palma multiple point of view division of the cinematic space. Canadian Bruce McDonald (Hardcore Logo and Highway 61 are a couple of his films that've found distribution in the States.) uses the frame to blast Tracey's experiences into temporal fragments. The few seconds the image is full frame only serves to remind the audience how divided Tracey really is.
The Tracey Fragments stars Ellen Page and she made the film between American Crime (like Tracey a film that exists at festivals but hasn't found proper U.S. distribution) and Juno. In fact her character has many of the same vocal nuances that made Juno so endearing. At times Tracey Fragments cries out to be a one-woman stage tour de force because basically the entire film reflects her damaged psyche.
That said, The Tracey Fragments demands a serious audience, one that won't get distracted by McDonald's cinematic purposeful overuse of frame separation. Tracey's life isn't cute, perky or fun and likewise the film follows a path lined with toe stubbing realities. The Tracey Fragments unreels weeknights at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston until July 6.

Bigger, Stronger, Faster

At first glance you might think this is a reality show rip-off style docu that glorifies the Hulk Hoganization of America. After the first few minutes it becomes apparent Bigger, Stronger, Faster has a much more sophisticated agenda. Filmmaker Christopher Bell uses his brothers devotion to body building to explore the use of steroids. Before this movie ends you're already making a mental list of all the people you know who use performance enhancing substances: everybody from your school friends who use Adderall to, well, does anybody know local resident Roger Clemens?
On a personal note I worked on an H.E.B. commercial a couple of years ago and was standing next to Clemens. It was like the time I met Dwayne Johnson - you're a puny human (I am six foot tall, and 165 pounds.) standing next to a specimen of physical perfection. I'm not saying Clemens uses steroids, but in Bigger, Stronger, Faster there are many athletes who are outed by Jose Canseco, the truth of which may or may not turn out to be verified in the long run.
Bell culls great newsreel footage to illustrate the Russians use of steroids to bolster their athletes during the cold war. Well you know what a pissing contest that was. A corollary to that is Air Force pilots using uppers to complete long flights. When you see the biceps of one muscle bound dude you will recoil in revulsion if not fear. His upper arms look like one of those Popeye cartoons where the muscles becomes rocks or tanks.
Bigger, Stronger, Faster points its cameras at both sides of the steroid debate. Pro and con are discussed with rationality and educated insight. There's even a steroid 101 course midway through. This film strikes a topical note, even more than the ecological warning films. We as humans are at the point in our evolution where we can now decide to become medically enhanced and society really seems to see nothing wrong.

BV for President

Mongol

Mongol is about a guy that mad dogs avoid and pigeons fear. He married his childhood sweetheart, but yes it was an arranged marriage. The character Temudjin devised war strategies that would be at home at West Point. His historical persona has been depicted in previous films by Omar Shariff and made fun of on The Simpsons. Please allow me to introduce Genghis Khan.
Mongol, a Russian film by Sergei Bodrov, unreels a 12th century story of struggle, survival and dominance. The landscapes evoke the era, and battle scenes are commanding in their scope. When the film needs a quiet two character scene the dialogue and brevity are appropriate. Perhaps the CGI bloodletting, those large sprays of digital blood that we started seeing repeatedly in the last several years, is the only clue this film wasn't actually shot in 1186.
Following his life from childhood to his initial consolidation of Mongolian tribes and territory Mongol suggests that this legendary name was a charismatic leader, a fair and judicious ruler, a devoted husband, and one tough as nails bastard. There's a give and take to his art of war that makes Mongol fascinating. At one point the film even seems to suggest that majority Asians were persecuting minority Tibetan monks, mirroring the situation in China today, and championing Temudjin as the man who saved their monastery. Mongol was nominated for an Oscar, and will surely play well with fans of Kurosawa and other thoughtful war epics.