Ellen Page totally holds Whip It together despite the incongruity of her being dwarfed by the other distaff actors in the film's ensemble. Whip It will have you believing that the diminutive Page holds her own physically against the pushing and shoving of much taller and bigger roller derby chicks. This Fox Searchlight release knows which side of the bread is toast. Early on we see Page, as mousy Bliss Cavendar from a small town outside of Austin, mention that one of her idols is Amelia Earhart, which just happens to be Searchlight's big Oscar push film coming out in another month. Plus the film plays on Page's persona and the fact that Searchlight's Juno was her breakthrough role. Page pays off with dividends often diverting some of Whip It's smaller flaws like script logic and continuity. Bliss' parents want her to be a debutante of sorts. The performances of Marcia Gay Harden and Daniel Stern recall classic parents of John Hughes films; they're concerned about their kids but they also have lives and personalities of their own. The pair give added resonance to the film and contribute to its future cult status. The empowerment theme of a young girl accomplishing a sports oriented goal speaks for itself. First time helmer Drew Barrymore also co-stars along with Kristen Wiig, Zoe Bell and Juliette Lewis, all playing tough taking skaters. There's a constant sense of camaraderie along with the competition and Andrew Wilson (the unsung Wilson brother) adds real zest as a coach. The film was mostly lensed in Michigan according to the end credits but several establishing shots of the cast in Austin firmly give it a Texas feel.
Capitalism: A Love Story finds Michael Moore in rare form. Most of his talking points are not only apt but right on the zeitgeist of the current financial breakdown. Moore studiously avoids being an asshole as in some of his films. After watching the film you wonder why you would ever trust any politician and you can only query when the people will advance on the White House with pitchforks and torches. The heart of Moore's story centers on Congress approving the billion dollar bailout and the sneaky way it was accomplished. But not before we examine such societal realities as blue chip corporations that take out blanket death insurance policies on employees; the starting salary of airline pilots; people being evicted from their homes; workers protesting by taking over their factory after it closed and they weren't paid their final paycheck. The reaction to these events by the Catholic clergy in the form of testimonials, humorous film clips and footage of solidarity between the church and workers forms its own chapter. Capitalism: A Love Story will likely become one of Moore's top titles. It truly documents a story that will be of interest to future generations. That's in sharp contrast to parables of society and gun control or even the sad state of national health care, subjects of his previous efforts. Moore's latest plays to all concerns, right and left, since the economy affects everybody.
A Woman in Berlin (Anonyma - Eine Frau in Berlin) is based on a diary of the occupation of Berlin by the Russians, published to much controversy in Germany in the late '50s. The story takes the position that the Ruskies raped every woman in the neighborhood, every day until the war was over. The protagonist, an educated woman tired of being repeatedly raped, fucks her way up the chain of command if only because the benefits are better, learning sad truths of the human condition along the way. A Woman in Berlin tells the story with compassion and never exploits the issue of rape, rather treating it as a metaphor for the brutality of war. Despite its harsh subject the film has some eloquent points to make and even offers an epic variety of scenes with comedy, drama and believable sustained war action. Anonyma (Nina Hoss), a journalist bids farewell to her soldier husband (Inglourious Basterds' August Diehl) who departs for the Eastern Front. Before long her neighborhood feels the wrath of being caught by Russian troops advancing on Germany's capital city. Hoss has been in a few recent domestic releases (Yella, Jerichow) and could rapidly catch up with, say, Juliette Binoche in the category of Euro actresses to watch for. Anonyma eventually teams up with two alpha male officers and their relationships in all cases evolve past the initial sex for safety scenario. A Woman in Berlin spends time getting into the reality of the war situation. There are no men around, just young boys hiding in attics and old men. The women who remain in the bombed out houses all adapt to their surroundings. One elderly femme even kindly remarks how the breath of her rapist was horrible but he complimented her on her tight pussy. It's a striking subject on display and A Woman in Berlin plays the edgy parts with confidence. This is a really good film experience, and it will have profound effects on some viewers. The film made me wonder when the last American movie took on rape in war in a serious manner. Was it Casualties of War in 1989? A Woman in Berlin, in German and Russian with subtitles, unreels at the Angelika in an exclusive engagement.
Some films are made with mathematical precision - A intersects with B and that equals C, which meets D in as askance manner. Paris, helmed by Cedric Klapisch who did the significantly better L'Auberge Espagnole, plays like an American studio paycheck film. The kind where familiar actors go through the paces of telling a sometimes interesting story. Only this is a French film and all the actors are thesps who you've enjoyed in much better films. Performers like Juliette Binoche, Fabrice Luchini and my new favorite actress Melanie Laurent (Inglourious Basterds) do their schtick and little else. The storyline rotates the cast and sometimes they meet or sometimes we see the next character out the car window and the movie then picks up on that thread. There's a little bit of interest for Francophiles and certainly the city itself is a main character; just marvel at that shot of the newly arrived immigrant standing across the moat from Notre Dame. But all things being equal Paris is the flavor du jour and won't stand the test of time.
The Secret Policeman Rocks combines music and footage from the totally great and much longer The Secret Policeman's Balls box set release earlier this year. In that sense it's like a greatest hits DVD. The line-up features Pete Townsend, Jeff Beck, Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel, many more. There are six films in all documenting the Amnesty International inspired benefit concerts held under the Secret Policeman moniker and this DVD certainly gets the core musical highlights. Only thing is that the original films additionally have the comedy of the best comics of that era, and while this set flows well enough it makes me want to experience the bigger picture. In other words I need me some Rowan Atkinson along with the David Gilmour. There's an extra with previously unseen footage of celebs/activists behind the scenes at various 80s era benefits.
The Least of These plays Wednesday night, September 30 at 7, at the Rice Media Center. This one-hour documentary reveals what happens to immigrant families who are detained and/or deported. The screening is funded in collaboration with Houston Indy Media and the ACLU. Most striking are the examination of family detention centers that, unfortunately for those who have to stay there, appear in hospitality to be between a prison and a dorm. The film's producer Marcy Garriott, in an email interview, discussed the film's distribution rollout after its world premiere at SXSW last spring. "Our distribution is three-fold: (1) SnagFilms for web streaming, (2) Indiepix for DVD, and (3) Cinema Guild for educational. The on-line component, SnagFilms, was important to us not for financial reasons, but for marketing and outreach. Having the film available for free online raised the profile of the film immediately, and allowed us to reach a much broader audience than we would have in any other way. "This overall approach has been a huge home run for the film and for the issues that it portrays. The film has been watched by thousands of people online, in parallel with festival and special screenings across the country, including three critical screenings in Washington D.C. "In August, the Obama administration announced that they will no longer send families to the detention facility portrayed in the film, which is housed in a former medium security prison. This is a huge victory for the advocates who fought to improve conditions for children there. We feel that the film and its distribution partners contributed strongly to this dialogue and outcome."
24 City blurs the line between narrative and documentary. In Chinese (Mandarin) with subtitles, 24 City examines through testimonials the workers at a munitions factory. Director Zhang Ke Jia interviewed over 100 workers from said factory then stitched together the film using some of the workers as well as actors (like Joan Chen) reciting some of the interviewees' words. 24 City has a unique look and feel. Sometimes music swells around the visual, other times we stare at tableaux settings with the factory workers staring back at us. The stories told take place over a number of years, and no story seems set after the 1990s. The factory was closed down eventually. I don't understand enough about Chinese culture to truly have been illuminated about what's being said, or to comprehend the use of songs or other cultural references. Still 24 City makes perfect sense. People who work for a living are always at the mercy of the state.
A series of films inspired by or related to the Moon will unroll over the next several weeks at the MFAH in conjunction with the museum’s exhibit The Moon: Houston, Tranquility Base Here, The Eagle Has Landed. The entire project, described on the museum website as a celebration of the ”40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing, explores 500 years of mankind's fascination with the moon, from early telescopes, to romantic paintings, to NASA photographs.” One aspect of the show includes paintings from several eras that reference the moon, not the least of which include contemporary paintings from astronaut Alan Bean. But it’s the antiquities that sparkle like stars, like a 200-year old selenographic globe of the moon that was never unpacked from its original manufacture until 1985 and looks like it was made yesterday. Galileo Galilei’s personal copy of The Starry Messenger (Sidereus Nuncius) first published in 1610 was the basis for modern views of the moon having a mountainous surface and not being a perfect orb. The book sits propped open, to pages that show text and illustrations, under glass. Also mesmerizing are classic paintings that in one way or another depict moonlight. Take a look at the moon peaking around the corner in Fredrich Nerly’s 1842 The Piazzetta in Venice in Moonlight and you feel like you’re bathed in nightlight. A couple of the films in the Cosmic Celluloid series are significance in the sense that they offer profound moon sequences. The documentary For All Mankind (1989) was the first time anyone had taken the effort of going through hundreds of hours of 16mm footage shot by the astronauts during the various missions to the moon. Director Al Reinert previously worked for The Houston Chronicle as well as Texas Monthly. For All Mankind works so well because the footage of men on the moon hopping up and down like Texas jackrabbits kind of puts our civilization into sharp perspective. For All Mankind truly is the greatest home movie from another world ever shot. Music by Eno only gives the whole enterprise a soothing vibe. For All Mankind offers such a definitive portrait on America’s 60s and 70s moon exploration that in some ways I am surprised the film doesn’t have a bigger reputation. Reinert spent most of the 80s working on the film, taking the time needed to view portions of the millions of feet of special Kodak space stock film that NASA has stored in vaults, as well as interviewing the astronauts associated with the missions. Perhaps it’s not ironic that in the time since For All Mankind came out (the festival circuit in 1989, general release in 1990) the space program has gotten further from going back to the moon than ever. Current NASA predictions have us back on the moon in 2019. For All Mankind will be screened the first weekend in October, on Friday and Saturday at 7 pm. and Sunday at 5 pm.
2001: A Space Odyssey posits that the moon contains a hidden monolith that when excavated sends a piercing signal to a similar monolith floating in space around Jupiter. This kind of advanced alarm system would theoretically be used by alien civilizations as a signal that Earth had advanced to the level of interstellar travel. Somehow that astronaut getting sent back as a star baby only gets better every time. 2001 unwinds in a pristine 35mm print on Thanksgiving weekend, November 27-29. Other space films, playing as part of the museum’s Family Matinee series, include A Trip to the Moon (a 12-minute silent film shown in a loop in a darkened room at the exhibit) and E.T. (Sunday October 4, 2 p.m.). Get ready to launch.
Sci fi always hinges on an improbability and succeeds when the creative forces make the contemporary merge with the future. Surrogates aptly takes the sci fi challenge and passes with flying colors. As directed by Jonathan Mostow Surrogates offers the conceit that robotics will not only improve our life but allow us to grow old while we continue to project youth and vitality with surrogate robot bodies. Kind of like the picture of Dorian Gray only with software and mechanical props rather than oils and canvas. Bruce Willis is truly in his element - this is a film that calls for movie star looks and action. At home, aged and in some cases decrepit characters lay in padded comfort with headgear devices attached via electrodes to their brains. On the street they look airbrushed beautiful, like, er, movie stars. The small segments of society that refuse to jack in are referred to as "meatbags." Willis and Radha Mitchell are FBI agents investigating a crime when they stumble on a bigger conspiracy to undermine the worldwide system that keeps the robotics in check. Mitchell and Rosamund Pike interact with Willis and the manner in which they appear goes a long way in defining Surrogates look and feel. Whenever the audience is in the corporeal world everything looks perfect, with Mostow adding clever dutch tilt camera angles to the majority of the shots. Just to keep things in check, there are plenty of surrogate or avatar themed movies coming out. They all have been in development for years or based on works that are themselves ancient. Surrogates won't replace Blade Runner but it's a hell of a science fiction thrillride.
