While the City Sleeps (Fritz Lang, 1956) - B-
As noir it's convoluted and all over the place; as a treatise on the downfall of good old-fashioned public-interest newspaper reporting in favor of profit-seeking, frenzied competition, and (most heretically) other news formats it's as best charmingly quaint. Would have been stronger if it were more credible; I just didn't buy that Andrews would set his fiance up as bait without even telling her, for example, or how the villain is ultimately caught; and John Barrymore Jr. is simply ridiculous as the serial killer. All of this is, however, very entertaining and at times hilarious, revealing a droll, deadpan sense of humor I didn't know Fritz Lang possessed; look out for a wonderfully unctuous performance by Vincent Price as an unscrupulous newspaper heir.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Scandal Sheet; Notorious
Scandal Sheet (Phil Karlson, 1952) - B+
A fantastically entertaining "newspaper noir" -- my first film at Noir City 2009, which has a newspaper theme this year. The central irony -- shameless tabloid journalist kills a woman and watches as his sensationalist rag brings about his own downfall -- is probably a bit too immaculate for me, especially with that groaner of a final shot, but it plays out in a way that's sly, suspenseful, and often hilarious. Subtly stylized, taking place mostly in an insular little four-character universe, with a wonderful contrast between Broderick Crawford's hard-bitten editor and John Derek's ultra-suave reporter; has moments of brilliant wit (the drunk who starts singing loudly as Henry O'Neill's Charlie Barnes attempts to make an important phone call; "a very rare item, a picture of a dame with her mouth shut") and striking beauty (the Hudson river peering out from the end of an alley as the villain does a dastardly deed). Just a straightforward, satisfying, non-guilty pleasure.
Notorious (George Tillman, Jr., 2009) - C+
Not very good at all, but it sort of won me over. First of all there are some towering performances: Jamal Woolard's perfectly convincing title turn, for one, but also Naturi Naughton, dead-on as Lil' Kim, and the incredible Anthony Mackie as Tupac; even the normally bland Derek Luke finds his groove as Puffy. Second, I liked the film's vision of these guys as basically good-hearted but tragically immature, not sufficiently weaned from the streets to handle the money and the power that comes their way; only Puffy, the consummate businessman, had his head on straight, and look at him now. Ultimately it's needlessly sappy and overstated, with atrocious use of voiceover and a style that tries to be propulsive but never finds a rhythm. Might be worth a matinee.
A fantastically entertaining "newspaper noir" -- my first film at Noir City 2009, which has a newspaper theme this year. The central irony -- shameless tabloid journalist kills a woman and watches as his sensationalist rag brings about his own downfall -- is probably a bit too immaculate for me, especially with that groaner of a final shot, but it plays out in a way that's sly, suspenseful, and often hilarious. Subtly stylized, taking place mostly in an insular little four-character universe, with a wonderful contrast between Broderick Crawford's hard-bitten editor and John Derek's ultra-suave reporter; has moments of brilliant wit (the drunk who starts singing loudly as Henry O'Neill's Charlie Barnes attempts to make an important phone call; "a very rare item, a picture of a dame with her mouth shut") and striking beauty (the Hudson river peering out from the end of an alley as the villain does a dastardly deed). Just a straightforward, satisfying, non-guilty pleasure.
Notorious (George Tillman, Jr., 2009) - C+
Not very good at all, but it sort of won me over. First of all there are some towering performances: Jamal Woolard's perfectly convincing title turn, for one, but also Naturi Naughton, dead-on as Lil' Kim, and the incredible Anthony Mackie as Tupac; even the normally bland Derek Luke finds his groove as Puffy. Second, I liked the film's vision of these guys as basically good-hearted but tragically immature, not sufficiently weaned from the streets to handle the money and the power that comes their way; only Puffy, the consummate businessman, had his head on straight, and look at him now. Ultimately it's needlessly sappy and overstated, with atrocious use of voiceover and a style that tries to be propulsive but never finds a rhythm. Might be worth a matinee.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
My Bloody Valentine; Ballast
My Bloody Valentine (Patrick Lussier, 2009) [3-D] - B-
Never thought "charming" would be the best word to describe My Bloody Valentine 3-D, but here we are. Pretty much knew I would enjoy it when I saw the first shot: a blaring (and three-dimensional!) newspaper headline reading "BURIED ALIVE!" -- precisely the sort of silly grand gesture that makes me sit up and pay attention. What follows is an exuberant throwback to slasher flicks of old, set in a small mining town where everyone knows one another, with a goofy soap opera storyline stringing together the pickax impalements. Not remotely scary, ending is a not-terribly-clever cheat, and the 3-D doesn't really work (the background is flat and the foreground looms, which is the worst possible use of the technology; there's a scene where someone gets impaled through the head from the back, and it looks like the pole goes at a 45-degree angle), but I was willing to forgive all that for the sake of (for example) a scene where the female lead attacks the masked killer with frozen poultry.
Ballast (Lance Hammer, 2008) - B-
Went back and forth on the grade, but ultimately I think this is a bit affected, with Hammer's determination to disrupt conventional storytelling and screenwriting rhythms having the effect of making the characters (and the film) weirdly catatonic (and stupid: did those thugs pull over the woman and her son just to punch them in the face? I thought they'd at least take the car). It is otherwise an engaging, bleak, hopeful slice-of-life, three ordinary characters in a plausibly unremarkable situation, arriving at a simple, unobtrusive we-can-help-each-other message.
Never thought "charming" would be the best word to describe My Bloody Valentine 3-D, but here we are. Pretty much knew I would enjoy it when I saw the first shot: a blaring (and three-dimensional!) newspaper headline reading "BURIED ALIVE!" -- precisely the sort of silly grand gesture that makes me sit up and pay attention. What follows is an exuberant throwback to slasher flicks of old, set in a small mining town where everyone knows one another, with a goofy soap opera storyline stringing together the pickax impalements. Not remotely scary, ending is a not-terribly-clever cheat, and the 3-D doesn't really work (the background is flat and the foreground looms, which is the worst possible use of the technology; there's a scene where someone gets impaled through the head from the back, and it looks like the pole goes at a 45-degree angle), but I was willing to forgive all that for the sake of (for example) a scene where the female lead attacks the masked killer with frozen poultry.
Ballast (Lance Hammer, 2008) - B-
Went back and forth on the grade, but ultimately I think this is a bit affected, with Hammer's determination to disrupt conventional storytelling and screenwriting rhythms having the effect of making the characters (and the film) weirdly catatonic (and stupid: did those thugs pull over the woman and her son just to punch them in the face? I thought they'd at least take the car). It is otherwise an engaging, bleak, hopeful slice-of-life, three ordinary characters in a plausibly unremarkable situation, arriving at a simple, unobtrusive we-can-help-each-other message.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Charly
Charly (Ralph Nelson, 1968) - C+
So there I was, admiring the movie's straightforward, unadorned feel -- which, oddly enough, makes Cliff Robertson in "full retard" mode a less grating presence by not drawing attention to it -- when it went off the deep end on me. I suppose the stylistic fireworks that ultimately dominate were necessary to obfuscate the fact that the movie doesn't really have time to tell this story properly. The last 40 minutes are a mad dash to the finish, with the central romance essentially confined to a brief abstract montage, the big diatribe against modernity coming out of nowhere, and the nightmarish (and frankly ridiculous) fantasy "chase" sequence evaporating as abruptly as it begins. The ending does work, and the whole thing can be read as a metaphor for humanity in general (the human species emerges from the ooze and gets to the point where it can consider its own consciousness and intelligence, only its technological progress threatens to send it back to the stone age), but this called for a more patient, less emphatic approach.
So there I was, admiring the movie's straightforward, unadorned feel -- which, oddly enough, makes Cliff Robertson in "full retard" mode a less grating presence by not drawing attention to it -- when it went off the deep end on me. I suppose the stylistic fireworks that ultimately dominate were necessary to obfuscate the fact that the movie doesn't really have time to tell this story properly. The last 40 minutes are a mad dash to the finish, with the central romance essentially confined to a brief abstract montage, the big diatribe against modernity coming out of nowhere, and the nightmarish (and frankly ridiculous) fantasy "chase" sequence evaporating as abruptly as it begins. The ending does work, and the whole thing can be read as a metaphor for humanity in general (the human species emerges from the ooze and gets to the point where it can consider its own consciousness and intelligence, only its technological progress threatens to send it back to the stone age), but this called for a more patient, less emphatic approach.
Bride Wars
Gonna make an honest effort to get back into posting capsules here regularly. God help me.
Bride Wars (Gary Winick, 2009) - C
30 minutes in: "I actually kind of like this." 60 minutes in: "Uhhhhh..." 80 minutes: "Fuuuuuuuuuuuck." Offers some nice moments, which is more than I ever expect from these utilitarian rom-coms, e.g. Chris Pratt's proposal to Hathaway, with him explaining why he decided to propose on their couch rather than somewhere more glamorous; the lovely, fleeting pay-off to Hathaway's fretting about wearing her mom's wedding dress. And much of the cast is so charming that the movie's never too painful, although when I realized why Bryan Greenberg was in the movie despite having like seven minutes of screentime I kind of wanted to walk out (it might be the clearest illustration of the Law of Economy of Characters that I've ever seen). The movie gets clumsier and (even) less interesting as the central rivalry intensifies, and the resolution is just embarrassingly shoddy, desperate as it is to leave everything neat and squeaky clean. Not remotely worthwhile, but I've seen worse, and Kate Hudson as a Ropes & Gray "associate" is kind of a hoot.
Bride Wars (Gary Winick, 2009) - C
30 minutes in: "I actually kind of like this." 60 minutes in: "Uhhhhh..." 80 minutes: "Fuuuuuuuuuuuck." Offers some nice moments, which is more than I ever expect from these utilitarian rom-coms, e.g. Chris Pratt's proposal to Hathaway, with him explaining why he decided to propose on their couch rather than somewhere more glamorous; the lovely, fleeting pay-off to Hathaway's fretting about wearing her mom's wedding dress. And much of the cast is so charming that the movie's never too painful, although when I realized why Bryan Greenberg was in the movie despite having like seven minutes of screentime I kind of wanted to walk out (it might be the clearest illustration of the Law of Economy of Characters that I've ever seen). The movie gets clumsier and (even) less interesting as the central rivalry intensifies, and the resolution is just embarrassingly shoddy, desperate as it is to leave everything neat and squeaky clean. Not remotely worthwhile, but I've seen worse, and Kate Hudson as a Ropes & Gray "associate" is kind of a hoot.
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