Inglourious Basterds

Take an art house talky film and mix in raw exploitation devices and you have the new Quentin Tarantino film, purposefully misspelled, Inglourious Basterds. If you notice more than usual press surrounding this film that's because QT always gives people something to talk about. A WWII story that rewrites history, the film also offers some of the most righteous acting seen in a film this year, not to mention QT's penchant for rediscovering forgotten actors (look for '60s action star Rod Taylor in a brief cameo as Winston Churchill).
Divided into five different chapters IB weaves the story over a multitude of characters converging in Nazi-occupied France. The script was posted on the internet last year so those who want to know the full details have no doubt had that chance. For the less informed the less you know about the convoluted narrative the more fun and explosive it will actually be. I had read the script and was still blown away by QT's stylistic decisions at every turn. The color red, whether on drapes in Nazi or Allied offices, the thickly lacquered fingernail polish of the day or the seductive tone of a dress, or just the sight of blood, flashes in strong contrast to the stiff grays of uniforms or the verdant green of farm fields. For a war film there's very little actual gunplay or violence, but when it erupts the lasting memory is of the carnage and not the clever dialogue.
Some of the best parts of IB have to do with 19th century literary references that suggest that Tarantino shares an allegiance with Karl May (his novels have been made into over 20 films, most of them German or French) and his fictional Apache chief Winnetou. Another conceit that provides a main plot point concerns German propaganda cinema under the Reich as well as the mountain climbing genre of German silent films.
If the film is being sold as a Brad Pitt film fine, but he's just part of the spaghetti recipe. Exceptional performances from Mélanie Laurent as the films heroine and Christoph Waltz as a Gestapo badass will provide most of the post-screening conversation. QT holds an exalted place in film history and with every new film he further cements his reputation as one of the most idiosyncratic and iconic figures the current cinema has to offer.

Lorna's Silence

Audiences have already shown they will accept a film where important characters die off-screen and with endings that are ambiguous but what if we're not talking No Country For Old Men but rather the stylish Lorna's Silence from Belgian brothers Luc Dardenne and Jean-Pierre Dardenne?
Lorna makes a Faustian bargain to gain Belgian citizenship, but the guilt causes her to experience a sense of false pregnancy. Then the same mobsters that paid her for the first deal want her to participate in another citizenship scam.
Lorna's Silence lets us see the story through the eyes and feelings of Arta Dobroshi (Lorna). It's a virtuoso performance going from weak to strong and then maybe a little out of her mind. Dobroshi may be petite but she houses a great deal of energy. Much of how you feel about Lorna's SIlence will depend on your reaction to Dobroshi's moral center. You're never quite sure where her loyalties lie.
The Dardenne Brothers keep the viewer guessing as to how collaborative Lorna is in the mobsters plan. All this goes on around Lorna's day to day life so that when events reach a boiling point there's no place to go but into the red. Lorna's Silence opens this weekend in an exclusive engagement at the Landmark River Oaks.

Adam

It isn't Young Adam but rather Adam. A cross between a heartfelt romancer and a disease movie of the week, Adam confounds you even when you want to like it. Don't worry the disease isn't terminal. It's asperger syndrome. As a result we have a slightly more lucid Rainman male lead (Hugh Dancy) contending with the independent minded, educated, and always mesmerizing Rose Byrne. Just an aside, I really liked Byrne in a movie that most people dogged earlier this year, Knowing. People are going to dog Adam too, but this time they'll be right.
Dancy's affliction at first worries Byrne since she has a crush on him. She studies up on the disease and finds ways to initiate a relationship. Complicating matters are her father who's involved in a court case due to his mishandling of money matters. There's no kind way to say it but Adam just lies there, derivative at every turn and just begging to be put down. The main fault of Adam is how the director just expects the audience to go with a scene because it's a park scene or a bedroom scene or a courtroom scene. There's never any reality to the reality. For instance, Byrne's dad turns out to to be up on big time charges requiring at least a few years in prison but we never actually know the actual crime he's committed. All the scenes that aren't just Bryne and Dancy are clumsy, whether it's Dancy's workplace dramas or the one-on-one conversations he was with what is apparently his only friend (Frankie Faison as Harlan).
Just because Dancy has a disease doesn't mean he has to break things in a rage. Although the way I understand it every actor has a clause in their contract that guarantees them a scene smashing up objects in the room.

American Harmony

American Harmony is a straight forward documentary on barbershop quartet competitions. Before you warm up your vocal chords in response realize that the contests are national and international and that the groups you will see in this film are beyond amazing in their a cappella abilities.
While this is an instant choice of anyone who can sing a roulade and fans of trained singers everywhere, American Harmony presents its story rather prosaically. Yes the film is a piece and interesting more often than not but the execution is standard for what you would see on half a dozen themed cable channels and not really cinematic in scope. There are plenty of egos involved but their battle of wills never becomes an issue to the narrative, not like the rivalry in something like The King of Kong. The contests themselves aren't suspenseful in the American Idol sense, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.
American Harmony, opening this weekend exclusively at the Angelika, shines the spotlight on quartets like Real Time, OC Times, Reveille, and Max Q. If this subject had been a 30-minute short it would be award winning. As a feature length docu it is merely singing to the choir.




On Friday, August 21 and Saturday, August 22 prior to the 7:20 showtimes of American Harmoony, local Houston barbershop quartets Ringside and Initial Sound will sing a few songs for the guests at the Angelika. Ringside will be the featured performers on Friday and Initial Sound will sing on Saturday. Both quartets will be there to answer questions and sing a few tunes in the lobby at 6:50pm and will do a short performance in advance of the 7:20pm showtime for the patrons of American Harmony.

A Perfect Getaway

A Perfect Getaway is a perfect genre movie. Three couples are backpacking in the jungles of Hawaii, only one of the pair are psycho killers and the other two duos are the bait. A Perfect Getaway takes great care to set up its premise and under the watchful gaze of writer/director David Twohy (The Arrival, Pitch Black) we get more than meets the eye.
Chris Hemsworth and Marley Shelton are the most likely suspects, a sleazy couple you can immediately count as trouble. Steve Zahn and Milla Jovovich are newlyweds who wear their insecurity on their sleeve. Timothy Olyphant and Kiele Sanchez are the the most trained in survival but Olyphant's military training makes him a loose cannon.
The gorgeous locations, suspenseful pacing and actors playing their cards with cupped hands keep the audience guessing who the killer (or killers) really is. Olyphant especially has fun with his character while also giving him rooting points. Zahn always excels in movies where he's a dweeb being stalked (think Joy Ride) while Jovovich has an undeniable screen presence.
When the movie switches to overdrive in the third act, and actually offers up some violence and thrills, Twohy adds some touches like split screen and that night vision look where people's eyes have an eerie solid look. A Perfect Getaway isn't exactly film of the year material yet its go-for-broke narrative provided momentum for the requisite thrills.

Tetro

Francis Ford Coppola is not exactly a household name but practically everyone knows about The Godfather and hopefully a few have seen Rumblefish. Truth is Coppola hasn't directed big studio pictures in years and he prefers it that way. Tetro, like his previous film from last year Youth Without Youth, exists in a world of a small scale production mixed with huge visionary ideas. Tetro certainly succeeds as cinema although its true fans will be audiences versed in classic drama and enthralled at immaculate black-and-white composition.
Tetro thrusts its protagonists into uncomfortable family memories. The film belongs to debut actor Alden Ehrenreich as much as it does Coppola. Ehrenreich, who resembles a younger Leo DiCaprio era Gilbert Grape, comes to Argentina to find his older brother Tetro (Vincent Gallo working serious acting mojo to the brim) who abandoned him years before. Both brothers share a dysfunctional relationship with their father (Klaus Maria Brandauer) and different mothers. Tetro lives with his common law girlfriend Miranda (Maribel Verdú channelling intelligence) and tries to disassociate himself with past efforts at being a writer. When we see pages of his writing later in the movie it's like decoding cypher.
Tetro revels in its arthouse pedigree. The scenes are so carefully lit you feel the painterly aspect of the frame. Coppola knows he's not directing Apocalypse Now but we still get powerful imagery on par with anything in his closet. There are layers of human emotion that we spend the first part of the film building up and the last half of the film tearing apart. At times during the film I got a positive 50s/60s Italian cinema neo-realism vibe from Tetro.
Tetro has a slight advantage in the world of indie film. Even though it has very little promotion and is distributed by Coppola's own company American Zoetrope it has managed to snag a coveted spot at a local theater, on a single screen at the Landmark River Oaks. There's more than one cool indie film that's been nixed from Houston this year because the infrastructure will not support it, may I point to Downloading Nancy as just one example?
Tetro takes you to places you didn't know you wanted to go. Tetro is an important if not mandatory work from a great director.

Weekend Update

Funny People comes down to the cat scene. Early in the film we see Leo's (Jonah Hill) Youtube kitten video which he uses as viral marketing to draw viewers to his other work. Later this scene is mirrored at Leslie Mann's house when she and Rogen and Sandler are watching the video of her daughter singing "Memories" from the play Cats. Rogen (and the audience) is visibly affected however Sandler is checking his cell phone for messages. Everything about Sandler's character and why he won't end up with Mann is stated in that scene.
Back in the real world someone mentioned that films like Halloween 2 and Final Destination 3D would not be screened for critics. Frankly that is like a favor to critics to not screen these films, however I am sure that reviewers who actually dig horror flicks will be allowed some kind of access. That being said, old Halloween good, new Halloween bad. Does anybody really think that Rob Zombie holds a candle compared to the cinema of John Carpenter? FD 3D is like when they made the sequel to the Omen with Lee Grant and Bill Holden in the '70s. Damien: Omen II was a snuff film where you got to see a person cut in half in an elevator accident and lots of other gore. Final Destination 3D promises such vicarious thrills and in 3D. Personally I want to see it with a real audience just like I did for the My Bloody Valentine 3D remake.
I am more miffed at the Avatar preview (approximately 15 minutes) screenings this coming Friday being held at the faux IMAX theaters in the suburbs rather than the original regulation size IMAX theater over at the Edwards Marq*e. But so what, I'd rather be at the opening night of the Italian retrospective at the MFA anyway.
Look I am not on the pipe, I have the swine flu. This is clarity talking. Last night at work it was kind of slow and I walked over to listen to the women in the office and they were talking about guys trying to suck their own dick. I walked away, and when I came back a minute later they were talking about this dude's ass crack cleavage. I want to see that movie.
I was actually going to bring up the movie Shortbus into the conversation at work last night but technically the guy at the beginning of that film is jacking off in his mouth while in an inverted yoga position and not actually sucking his own wood. But you don't talk about just any movie at work. Earlier in the evening people were talking about Woodstock. Tiffany actually had a copy of the recent deluxe DVD release that she got for making a donation to KPFT but she hadn't watched it nor ever seen the film; Amy C thought that Woodstock was in California. And so it goes. The only films that are acceptable for discussion at work are Taken, District 9 and evidently Inglourious Basterds, which the owner's mother wants to see.