Soul Power

Soul Power shines the light of day on a concert that took place over a weekend in 1974 at Kinshasa, Zaire. The concert coincided with the Ali-Foreman Rumble in the Jungle heavyweight fight although the concert took place weeks before the actual bout. The fight and concert were shot documentary style but until now only the only docu to see sunshine was When We Were Kings (1996).
Soul Power contains enough rock, soul and style to stand on its own. Director Jeffrey Levy-Hinte, himself a producer with a long line of credits as well as editor on When We Were Kings, assembles the film verite style from the over 100 hours of footage captured during the initial shoot. We observe the behind the scenes scramble to turn a stadium into a concert venue while also following some of the musicians first in New York, and then after they arrive in Africa. Clips of Ali reminds of his eloquence and charisma at the height of his fame.
At the mid-point Soul Power shifts gears and the momentum is startling. An eclectic mix of music unwinds with Bill Withers, Miriam Makeba, B. B. King, The Spinners, The Crusaders, along with many others. The show concludes with a powerful James Brown performance. Brown has a move where he tilts the mic on its stand causing it to sway and tip over. In the meantime Brown spins, does a perfect split and comes up catching the mic stand before it's halfway to the stage.
Soul Power moves with a swift pace and constantly keeps the viewer interested in the bigger picture of the spectacle. As concert documentaries go it's one of the best.

Cape No. 7

Cape No. 7 (Hái-kak chhit-ho) plays exclusively tonight and Friday at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston's Brown Auditorium. Made in Taiwan, locally one of the highest grossing films ever in that country, Cape No. 7 weaves two story lines and utilizes four languages (Mandarin, Taiwanese, Japanese, English). The film plays with the convention of a group of people putting on a show to great effect. Slightly more mawkish is the bracketing tale of unrequited love set in a dreamlike past.
Being a social wallflower translates with cross cultural significance as a disparate group of people come together to play in a rock band. The musicians range from a pre-teen piano prodigy to the young adult lead actors to an octogenarian (who strums a Chinese lute called a gekkin). The band's goal is to represent their picturesque town at a concert featuring bigger stars from bigger towns.
A theme that might waft over the heads of American audience concerns romantic letters from a Taiwan national and a person from Japan. (Japan occupied Taiwan in the WWII era, here brilliantly lit for a backstory that opens and closes the movie.) Other elements like the band's rehearsals and the various character's personal lives are alive with a rich comic atmosphere.

Shrink

Shrink starring Kevin Spacey plays in the sand of searing Hollywood satires, more Swimming With Sharks than The Player. The tone is caustic throughout. But for a movie where all of the characters are damaged or flawed that attitude makes sense.
Pot smoking psychiatrists must be the latest role to become stereotyped since Spacey, whose Henry Carter likes to wake and bake, mines territory explored in last year's The Wackness by Ben Kingsley. Spacey doesn't allow his characterization to wallow in cliches, he's too good an actor for that. Yet Shrink overall shows little originality in its narrative by once again introducing a series of unconnected people who over the course of the film cross paths. Unlike Crash or Crossing Over (to mention just a few films that use this template) Shrink has a bone to pick with show business.
Carter has a penchant for self destruction brought on in part by the high profile afforded his best selling book on suicide, not to add his wife recently killed herself. Other characters are like Carter in the sense that they each have something they offer to others. In the case of Shrink's most irritable yet compelling character Patrick (Dallas Roberts), the head of a powerful talent agency, that would be his ability to handle A-list talent. Less interesting but still believable if also underwritten parts are filled by Saffron Burrows, Jack Huston, Keke Palmer, Pell James and Mark Webber. (There's also a cameo from Robin Williams that's equal parts profound and hilarious.) Roberts in particular acts in scene-stealing mode throughout and his vicious turn as an agent sets a new standard for corruption of the soul. Another character sketched all too briefly by the film and played by Jesse Plemons is Carter's pot dealer who sells weed by appointment carrying his wares with such names as Northern Lights, Afghan Black, Pussy Finger and the dread Christmas in Vietnam in a fishing tackle box.
Any of these characters could play the lead in their own movie especially Patrick since he's such a bastard he makes Daniel Plainview seem like a warm guy. However Spacey owns this film and his trajectory gives Shrink depth and a rooting interest.

Humpday director Lynn Shelton

Remember the double-dog dare from A Christmas Story? It’s not a money issue like a bet; we’re talking personal pride at stake. A drunken challenge gets jacked up to even higher levels in the movie Humpday.
Two former college buddies, one now married and the other a self-professed drifter, dare each other to participate in a porn film. Only because it’s an art project they will fuck each other in celebration of their irrepressible machismo. Naturally complications ensue.
“Someone said casting the right actors is 90-percent of the movie,” Humpday writer-director Lynn Shelton tells Free Press Houston in a phone interview. “Try 99-percent.” Shelton speaks from experience, having worked both in front and behind the camera as an actress, an editor, and a director. Her approach to helming she describes as “a natural style, a method that is organic.”
Shelton shot Humpday over the period of a dozen days. “Actually we had the actors for a 12 day window but shot with the leads for ten days and used a couple days to rest. We did a few pick-ups later on.” Shelton works out situations with the actors before shooting and talks about character but doesn’t actually rehearse. “I want the electric dynamic of the actors going through the scenes for the first time.”
Using two digital cameras Shelton lensed master shots of sequences that lasted “20 to 30 minutes” in some cases. Her expertise as an editor allowed her to compose with attention to detail and continuity in the editing bay. “I always got what I needed in three or four takes,” Shelton added.
Playing the two friends are Puffy Chair and Baghead director Mark Duplass as Ben and Joshua Leonard (The Blair Witch Project) as Andrew. Ben believes there’s still a six-pack under his rapidly expanding gut and Andrew thinks he’s cool because he’s been to Machu Picchu. Both characters are flawed. Ben in particular has the inability to tell the truth to his wife (a strong debut performance by Alycia Delmore) while Andrew’s not nearly as boho as he thinks.
Humpday has a clever structure that leads to the two men’s verbal dissection of their desires and friendship in the finale in a hotel room that lasts an entire reel. There’s plenty of hilarity but also a dose of biting realism especially from Delmore’s Anna.
Even though Shelton used a small crew, sometimes as little as six people, she would ask extra members to leave the set while shooting leaving only herself, the camera and sound crew and thesps. “The actors have the most difficult job on the set,” remarks Shelton. Something about her method must have validity because Humpday pays off both as an indie comedy and a compelling drama.