Category: Reviews

Kumaré

“Kumaré” is a funny, touching, intellectual documentary of belief and spirituality, even if the film’s methods are questionable.

I had just finished watching “Kumaré” at Ebertfest, this quasi-documentary in which the director, Vikram Gandhi, poses as an Indian guru and dupes a small flock of disciples into believing he’s the real deal.  Surely these people were the butt of the joke for believing him, and surely he must’ve felt pretty good about making this point about phony prophets.

But then Gandhi came out on stage and discussed the film. In his presence, the message of the movie had more weight and intellectual clarity. It wasn’t a mockumentary, and it wasn’t a slam on religion. “Kumaré” was a film about belief, not God, and not even Atheism. Then Gandhi did something curious: he donned his fake Indian accent that transformed him to Kumaré, and he led the audience of 1500 people in his fake chant and meditation ritual.

Having just seen the movie and met the man, I knew it was fake, the audience knew it was fake, and yet in that moment with all those people, I had a miniature moment of spiritual enlightenment. It felt real and meaningful enough to me, and that’s the whole point. Continue reading “Kumaré”

The Place Beyond the Pines

Derek Cianfrance’s “The Place Beyond the Pines” is a moving, surprising and sprawling epic of choices, fate, family and fathers.

Three motorcycles are stunt driving in a spherical cage at a circus. It’s a sight to see, but your nose is nearly grazing the walls, and the three fly by in a powerful blur, all seemingly connected in this daredevil harmony. This little visual metaphor is a wonderful summation for the near narrative perfection found in Derek Cianfrance’s “The Place Beyond the Pines.” It’s a moving, surprising and sprawling epic of choices, fate, family and fathers.

One of those daredevils is Handsome Luke Glanton, played with a menacing blankness by Ryan Gosling. We meet Luke donning a red leather jacket and striding through a colorful carnival, the camera bobbing as it carefully follows the back of Luke’s head. We’re the thought that’s nagging in the back of his skull, the responsibility that won’t escape him.

At one of his shows, he meets Romina (Eva Mendes), who he had a fling with a year earlier. They’re about to part ways, but Luke learns that Romina’s one-year old son is his and makes a commitment to stay and care for the boy, even if he doesn’t really have a place in the family. Continue reading “The Place Beyond the Pines”

42

The Jackie Robinson biopic “42” deserves better than to be another “magical black man” movie with a cheesy script.

 

“42” isn’t yet again trying to prove to white people that racism is alive and well; it’s merely trying to depict the racial struggles of Jackie Robinson, an undisputed American hero. But it’s 2013, and we deserve better than another magical black man movie, and we definitely deserve a better, smarter film than Director and Screenwriter Brian Helgeland’s (“L.A. Confidential“) cheesy, Old Hollywood inspired script.

Robinson was one of baseball’s greatest legends. He won Rookie of the Year in his inaugural 1947 season, the pennant for the Dodgers and later in his career the World Series. But “42” paints Robinson (Chadwick Boseman) as a miracle man long before credit is due.

The movie starts with a newsreel history lesson and says that America was just waiting for someone like Robinson to come along. Then a grizzly GM played by Harrison Ford in a bad haircut looks his bumbling assistants in the eye and boldly claims he’s going to put the first black man in baseball! “Uh wahhh? You can’t! But I can!” Then he flips through a few manila folders and finds a resume with Jackie Robinson’s picture and says something close to, “Look at this guy! He’s going to be a star!”

“If it was a white baseball player, you’d say he has spirit” is what Ford actually says when his assistant claims he has a bad temper. But Robinson’s bad temper amounts to him being a little less tolerant of racism directed at him than others. His goal to be accepted is to focus on winning, not the hate, which makes for the first sports movie in which strictly focusing on being the best is the moral lesson. Continue reading “42”

Evil Dead (2013)

“Evil Dead” is a high budget remake of Sam Raimi’s classic, but it’s a dumb, gruesome blood fest without a hint of irony.

The general consensus about “Evil Dead” is that Fede Alvarez’s film is mightily gory but hardly the corny schlock fest that was Sam Raimi’s cult original “The Evil Dead.” Well sadly, I haven’t seen “The Evil Dead” quite yet (I know, hate on me in the comments), but that’s all the best because I’d rather judge “Evil Dead” on what’s actually to be found here, a dumb, gruesome, blood fest without a hint of irony.

I guess it’s clear Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard had the original in mind when they made “The Cabin in the Woods,” as “Evil Dead” follows that set up to a tea. The five soon-to-be victims are all conveniently under lock and key thanks to Mia’s (Jane Levy) cocaine addiction. The foursome will do anything to keep her from leaving and falling back off the wagon, even when she starts projectile vomiting blood on her housemates. Continue reading “Evil Dead (2013)”

Spring Breakers

“Spring Breakers” is a grotesque monster movie of excess and vapidness, but it shows that these feelings of release are ugly, horrific and human.

The babes, the bros, the booze, the beaches, even the boobs; they all start to look the same after a while. In party after party, they’re all such identical cookie cutouts that you begin to wonder if anyone who rages this hard and this nonstop could even be called human.

That’s the premise of Harmony Korine’s “Spring Breakers,” a grotesque monster movie that slows these celebratory, MTV montages to a lurching, ugly snail’s pace and repeats them ad infinitum. Korine didn’t make this film to shock and desensitize kids, but he didn’t make it for parents to get a horrific peek behind the curtain either. It’s the idea that after so long, being showered in beer doesn’t look too different from being showered in cocaine and hundred dollar bills.

I don’t think Korine means to indemnify any actual spring breakers by labeling them all monstrous criminals. He did after all have to throw this dream party in order to film it into a nightmare. It’s the mindset that goes along with it that is the problem. Spring break is treated by most as an escape from the doldrums of reality, and Korine brands it further as a scary way for teenagers to “find themselves.” Continue reading “Spring Breakers”

Somebody Up There Likes Me

The indie “Somebody Up There Likes Me” is a deadpan comedy that doesn’t get points for feeling and looking insincere.

Bob Byington’s indie film “Somebody Up There Likes Me” doesn’t look like a student film on accident. His characters never age, with decades and major life events going by as though they’re stuck in a moment of youthful absent-mindedness.

It’s a snide commentary about the human condition and a clever way to save a buck on makeup, new actors and expensive cameras. But it doesn’t give the movie a pass to both look and feel insincere.

Consider Max (Keith Poulson), an awkward 20-something who has gone through a failed marriage, is so cheap he steals conciliatory flowers from a grave, and is a difficult, condescending waiter at an overpriced steakhouse. He’s insouciant, cracks wise, is generally clueless and refuses to mature until it’s much too late. He has a wife he gets along with (Jess Weixler), a younger babysitter willing to have an affair with him (Stephanie Hunt) and a best friend with whom he’s built an empire of pizza and ice cream shops (Nick Offerman).

But what does he care about? Why is he always deadpan? Why is every response that comes from his mouth punctuated by an awkward silence and a sneer? Is being immature the same as being a jerk?

It’s this mentality that separates Byington from his equally deadpan and droll counterpart Wes Anderson. Although it goes without saying that Byington is not the stylist Anderson is, Byington’s film lacks the pathos that would make his characters endearing.

At no point do they seem to notice their not quite dreamlike but not quite realistic world is full of bright lights, colors and cartoon clouds. They even seem to forget a magic, “Pulp Fiction” style suitcase that might otherwise make their lives a whole lot sunnier.

What will you learn from “Somebody Up There Likes Me?” The world is pretty, you’ll have sex and make a lot of money, but someday quickly you die. At least you’ll have a few laughs in between.

2 ½ stars

Side Effects

Steven Soderbergh’s movie “Side Effects” may just be his last film. Hopefully that’s not true, as this coldly clinical, but limp conspiracy thriller would be a disappointing way to end a great career.

“Side Effects” is supposed to look like a Zoloft commercial, correct? Steven Soderbergh’s film, which I hope is not his last despite his hints, sustains a flat, picturesque aesthetic resembling a medicine ad in a magazine or on TV. It’s designed to make the characters appear phony or untrustworthy, but the unfortunate side effect, for lack of a better term, is that the whole film falls limp in the process.

That you can’t trust these people or their actions is about all the hint I can give you without treading in spoiler territory. It involves the months after Martin (Channing Tatum) has just been released from a white-collar prison to his wife Emily (Rooney Mara). His presence, though loving and supportive, causes her to try and commit suicide shortly thereafter. A doctor named Jonathan (Jude Law) agrees to release her from the hospital on the condition that she come in for treatment and therapy, both of which will eventually lead to Emily’s mental breakdown, a lawsuit, some jail time and a conspiracy.

“Side Effects” is a film about the unexpected consequences of trying to do good. We look for a fix, or a cure, and more problems are borne out of it. Jonathan will drive himself insane trying to mend this problem he’s created in Emily, and he’ll eventually become a slave to his own medicine. Continue reading “Side Effects”

Beyond the Hills

“Beyond the Hills,” which opens in limited release this Friday, March 8, and then is available on VOD on March 14, is a humanistic character study about the impossibly deep commitments of faith, but it becomes a torturous exorcism movie in its third act.

“Beyond the Hills,” which opens in limited release this Friday, March 8, and then is available on VOD on March 14, is a humanistic character study about the impossibly deep commitments of faith, but it becomes a torturous exorcism movie in its third act.
This is a repost of my review of the film from the Chicago International Film Festival back in October.

Sound City

“Sound City” is Dave Grohl’s nostalgia soaked love letter to classic analog rock told through a unique documentary form.

If there’s one thing the documentary “Sound City” proved to me about the music industry, it’s that Dave Grohl can do anything. Yes, outside of the long haired drummer for Nirvana and the sometimes tender, sometimes quirky and always intense front man of Foo Fighters, is a director who knows how to put an entertaining and thought provoking movie together.

Even if “Sound City” devolves into a making-of movie for his latest album in its last half hour, Grohl has made a nostalgia soaked love letter to classic, analog rock where doing the same through music has only gotten him so far.

The film starts with a man going through the long process of setting up analog recording equipment the old-fashioned way, and then Grohl hastily proceeds to constructing a throwback style movie as well. “Sound City’s” wishful opening comes complete with a brat pack era voiceover, a 90’s driving montage in a hazy filter and a “Real World” typeface; it confidently wears on its chest, “These were the good ‘ol days.”

Grohl’s purpose for making this film was to document the stories behind a recently shuttered but legendary recording studio in Van Nuys, California called Sound City. This dumpy palace that should’ve never had as good of equipment or as good of sound as it did opened in the ‘70s and became home to some of rock’s greatest albums and stars. Tom Petty recorded “Damn the Torpedoes” here. Mick Fleetwood met Lindsey Buckingham and Steve Nicks in Studio A. Continue reading “Sound City”

Amour

Michael Haneke’s “Amour” is a film that requires no sentiment or tears shed on its behalf. That’s because for films about mortality, few are as quiet, observant, simple and without incident as “Amour.” And yet Haneke, known for his solemn, chilling art films like “Cache” and “The White Ribbon,” has made a bleak masterpiece that does away with big, philosophical ideas and focuses in on the beautiful love story at its core.

“Your concern is no use to me.” That’s Georges’s (Jean-Louis Trintignant) message to his daughter Eva (Isabelle Huppert) as his wife Anne (Emmanuelle Riva) lies on her deathbed. What use does it serve, he asks his daughter, for Eva to worry when her only solutions are more unsuccessful surgeries, more time under life support in a nursing home and more pain?

Haneke’s film skillfully observes that death is a part of life, but it’s the general agony that disturbs the most, not the absence of transparency into this woman’s suffering, and not the lack of drama. “Amour” is a love story, one about the sheer burden of keeping a love or marriage together, but it’s a far stretch from the sappy tearjerkers of the world. This art film unsympathetically challenges this romance and remains a distant observer to their tireless passion. Continue reading “Amour”