Gomorra

There's nothing subtle about Gomorra a sweeping epic of crime and corruption based on actual mob operations in the Italian provinces of Naples and Caserta. The opening sequence hits you over the head like brick dropped from on high. We witness three men shooting as many victims in a gym, the colors of sweat are mixed with the solid blues of tanning booths. The three hitmen calmly stroll out the front door, each placing their weapon in a bag carried and disposed of by a fourth (female) accomplice. Gommora is a movie where justice is swift and unblinking.
Comparisons to The Godfather and Goodfellas are apt but Gomorrah features a singular narrative that makes it the equal of those mob films not a carbon copy. A series of characters are tangled in the web of their own tragic upbringing. A young boy who wants to join the mob, two teens who use their newfound gang mentality to run amok, a tailor who works in a clothing factory that makes knock-offs of designer wear, a mob boss who speaks softly yet carries out his threats to the letter.
Director Matteo Garrone shot in the actual area depicted in Roberto Saviano's novel. Press notes state that Saviano was put under protective custody in 2006 when the book came out although it's unclear if he still remains in that state. Garrone makes good use of the architecture of a series of apartments that when seen from a distance look like an oblong pyramid. Another striking location revolves around a deep quarry that's being used to dump toxic waste, another profitable venture for the mob that's (according to the book) led to increased cancer related deaths in the area. In the book one character watches Angelina Jolie accepting her Academy Award on television and recognizing her dress as one from the mob operated shop. In the movie this character sees Scarlett Johansson in a similar dress being feted at the Cannes film festival. Another haunting scene shows a line of pubescent boys ready to audition for the gang. The task is being shot in the chest while wearing a bullet proof vest.
The end result is a film that examines the consequences and efficiency of the mob's operation. Nobody is seen hunting down the badguys, in fact the badguys take care of their own. There are so many shots of people counting money in the first reel you may subconsciously feel for your wallet. The end effect washes over the viewer in a mesmerizing way. The Camorra mob exists and are so powerful they buy their way to legitimacy. Gomorrah doesn't judge so much as tell the story with a sly emphasis on the corporate aspect of the various illegal operations.

Woodstock Redux

It's the 40th anniversary of the Woodstock music festival. Three days of peace, love and music that set the tone for concerts held ever since. Below is a clip from the original documentary Woodstock, which if there's any justice in the world Warner Brothers would theatrically re-release (not just on DVD).





And later this year Ang Lee's Taking Woodstock uses the festival as a launch pad for his own peculiar brand of human comedy.

Crossing Over

Wayne Kramer's third film Crossing Over combines an ensemble cast with illegal immigration subplots to mixed effect. Personally I prefer the character dynamics of The Cooler and the hyper cinematic excess of Running Scared to Kramer's latest. A superb cast keeps the intertwining story afloat and your final reaction may have to do with how one personally feels about immigration.
For instance do you side with the Harrison Ford character Max Brogran, an immigration officer who really cares (even though it earns him the jests of his fellow workers)? Or are you in the camp of another officer with the immigration division (Ray Liotta) who uses his ability to stamp a green card to coerce an Australian actress (Alice Eve) who wants to gain citizen status into a sexual tryst? This may be the first film I've seen where homeland security uses imdb.com as a background resource.
Sean Penn's role was edited out, probably due to time constraints rather than other reasons. There's a lot of person A meets person B who later interacts with person C going on, an effective narrative style that didn't start with Crash or Traffic or even The Player or Slacker. Brogan suspects fellow agent Hamid Baraheri (Cliff Curtis) of being involved in the honor killing of Baraheri's sister. Gavin Kossef (Jim Sturgess) also wants citizen status but can't fathom why his potential Aussie g.f. is giving it up to the immigration agent. Mireya Sanchez (Alice Braga) awaits deportation while Brogran tries to find her toddler son separated in the aftermath of a raid. Ashley Judd is married to Liotta, has no idea of his affairs, and is herself an immigration lawyer currently working on a case where the FBI arrested a high school student because she made anti-American remarks in class.
There's a lot on the plate and events resolve with the emphasis on reality rather than fantasy. Scenes range from intimate and personal to action packed, like a convenience store shootout where Curtis shows great emotional range.
After the initial characters are introduced the story rolls regularly. Occasional poignant moments give Crossing Over a passing grade.

Duplicity versus I Love You, Man

Duplicity by its very definition means a double cross, a two-fold meaning. A tale of industrial espionage told in the style of 60s caper films (think the split screen aesthetic of The Thomas Crown Affair) Duplicity marks the sophomore outing from director/writer Tony Gilroy (Michael Clayton) and shows his knack for creating subterfuge and witty character banter.
Clive Owen and Julia Roberts are a couple of spooks (CIA, MI5) who bump ships in the night a decade ago in Dubai. In the present day they work as the heads of security for billion dollar corporations (one run by nasty Tom Wilkinson and the other headed by sly fox Paul Giamatti). If you're familiar with Michael Clayton you'll note that the characters who got screwed over in that film are in Duplicity the characters that wield the upper hand. Gilroy unfolds scenes in a chronologically non-linear fashion, so different motivations are subtly revealed. In fact, Duplicity takes the viewer down to the wire only revealing the key to understanding the film in the last scene.
Owen and Roberts click with the snappy dialogue and while they hardly eclipse, say Cary Grant and Rosiland Russell in His Girl Friday, they definitely conjure up screwball comedy ghost images. The attempt at comedy in I Love You, Man has the low bar of situation comedy best regulated to television sit-coms. Oddball buddies Paul Rudd and Jason Segal grapple over issues like masturbation and marriage. Rudd doesn't have any real friends and needs to secure a best man for his upcoming nuptials with Rashida Jones. The jokes mainly consist of salacious gossip from Jones' girlfriends and Rudd trying to be cool by combining hip phrases. This isn't even second-tier comedy like Stepbrothers or Role Models. Rudd in particular seems miscast while supporting turns from Jamie Pressly, Jon Favreau and Jane Curtin are cringeworthy. Russ was such an awesome talent, albeit a while ago, in small indie style films like The Shape of Things and The Chateau that one hopes he tires of stock parts in lowbrow comedies and regains his sealegs.

Sunshine Cleaning

There are film you remember because they were good all the way through. Then there are films you forget about because they were good only in places. Sunshine Cleaning gets by on its good looks, but it's a film that will fall through the cracks.
Amy Adams and Emily Blunt get the good lines and developed characters in Christine Jeffs' Sunshine Cleaning, a fuzzy follow-up to her more intimate Sylvia from a few years back. The misleading advertising mentions Little Miss Sunshine because three of the four film's producers were associated with that chipper tale. If I was handling the ads for Sunshine Cleaning it would be linked to film's like Curdled (a 1996 film that continues the character of the taxi driving Gabriela from Pulp Fiction) that deal with people obsessed with violent crime who become cleanup engineers (they mop up blood).
Only Amy Adams (Rose Lorkowski) and her constantly out-of-work sister Emily Blunt (Norah) don't get into postmortem cleanup due to curiosity so much as because they're broke. The usual movie cliches abound; single mom needs money for private school, sis find a box of photos that she sits on the bed thumbing through.
Supporting characters are built up but then portrayed as eccentric rather than etched nicely like Adams ad Blunt. For instance Steven Zahn (miscast) was Rose's high school boyfriend who's having a affair with her; Alan Arkin plays their father who has scenes that depict his eccentricity (he buys a tub full of shrimp hoping to sell them to restaurants below price); while Mary Lynn Rajskub and Clifton Collins Jr. actually look like they might bring the film full circle as romantic interests to Rose and Norah only be rendered as cyphers.
Sunshine Cleaning sticks with me because of the scene where Norah's cleaning up a house where a person's died and the candle she' lit in a fit of peace catches the place on fire because Norah has run after a kitty who bolted outside. There's also the disturbing notion that chocolate flavored pooh is served at baby showers. Director Jeffs want to establish a dark comic mood with an opening scene that depicts a suicide in a gun store. But the characters just aren't that dark, so the movie often seems at odds with its tone.