Seattle Film Guide: Sept 3-9

Opening This Week

Cairo Time    Movies this bad are  rare as comets.   The script reads like something  written by a  chronic soap opera addict under hypnosis.  Each  line comes from a pre-conscious wasteland of clichés.  Listening to the actors tick them off, one by one, is cause for universal befuddlement with the future of language, thought, and expression.  Patricia Clarkson does her job as an actress with solemn dignity, her careful elucidation clarifying each bombastic triviality with the precision of a clockmaker. Canadian writer/director Ruba Nadda  offers the viewer  touristy views of Cairo while imposing upon them the most inane non-love story of the decade.  A woman waits for her UN-employed husband to join her for their vacation, but conditions on the Gaza Strip delay his arrival, leaving her in the hands of a former colleague  with whom she becomes dangerously over-familiar. ... (more)

Mamma Roma (NWFF, Sept. 3-9)

Although a remark that a job can only be found in Rome through the intercession of a priest is the sole  anti-clerical insinuation in Pier Paolo Pasolini’s “Mamma Roma,” the film is every bit as blasphemous as Luis Bunuel’s less subtle “Viridiana,” beginning with  visual references to Da Vinci’s “Last Supper” in the opening scene,  the wedding party of a pimp.

Mamma Roma is the Holy Mother of Sin, the Black Madonna of the Streets,  the Holy Whore of a False Church. When she brays to the universe that she exists,  it is the cry of the city itself after the fallen promises of Mussolini have been  broken in the dust.   Mamma Roma would suffer crucifixion itself for her pathetic, hoodlum son, a wretch borne from generations of scoundrels, but all her sacrifices only bring the boy a step closer to his own ignoble death, portrayed by Pasolini in imitation of Andrea Mantegna’s painting,... (more)

Seattle Film Guide" Aug 27- Sept 2

Opening This Week

Animal Kingdom Bill White Reviews it for Seattle PostGlobe

Mesrine: Killer Instinct   "In this first serving of his two part profile on (French gangster/showman Jacques Mesrine) director Jean-Francoise Richet proves maddeningly loath to edit his material."  Nicolas Rapold, Seattle Weekly

The Last Exorcism "a welcome twist to the demonic-possession movie" Nick Pinkerton, Seattle Weekly

Takers i don't think there will be many, not for this one. 

Limited Runs 

Across a Small Mountain (NWFF, Aug 27-Sept 2)   

Bill White Reviews it for Seattle PostGlobe

Looking for Eric (NWFF, Aug 27-Sept 2)  Bill White Reviews it for Seattle PostGlobe

Centurion (Varsity, Aug 27-Sept 2) "An extended chase across snowy Scottish peaks and through misty forests (a literal fog of war).  The genre? Lost platoon."  Brian Miller, Seattle Weekly

Compare to Disney  (Grand Illusion, Aug... (more)

From the first scene, in which he awkwardly watches television while  medics try to revive his heroin-overdosed mother,  Joshua “J” Cody (James Frecheville)  fits the classic mold of the passive protagonist.  Building a story around a  passive character  can be a tricky business, especially in the movies, which demand endearing action figures on the prows of their storylines.  When it fails, the  audience is likely to drool off into a disengaged fugue state.  When it works, the world of the movie is clarified by the individuation of its ensemble players,  not  dulled by their relative  usefulness to the cause of  an  active protagonist.

In his first film role, Frecheville is a fascinating nobody.  He never telegraphs his moves, perhaps because he has not yet learned such bad practices.  His performance is naked.  If he tried to dress it, he would probably button his shirt wrong and put his underwear on backwards.... (more)

Around A Small Mountain (NWFF, Aug 27-Sept 2)

Jacques Rivette’s “Around a Small Mountain”  explores the division of  natural space  into performance areas, following Shakespeare’s dictum that “all the world’s a stage.” The first image is that of a mountain, reminiscent of Monument Valley’s sandstone buttes, through the use of   which director John Ford transformed the deserts of Southern Utah into an outdoor soundstage for many of his Western films. The second mountain is a circus tent, under which every square foot of sawdust can be used as a performance space, whether the scene is played  in the presence of an audience   or exclusively  for the benefit of its performers. The tent stands as a monument to the artifice of human congress, while the mountain proclaims  that nature itself has become little more than a backdrop for  graveside monologues.

The film’s motif is a comic routine involving a gun,... (more)

Seattle Film Guide" Aug 20-26

Opening This Week

Vampires Suck  Before dismissing this "Twilight" parody as the world's worst vampire comedy,  wait until you see  "I Kissed a Vampire," surely the world's worst vampire musical.

Mao's Last Dancer  "nothing in driving miss daisy throws light on mao's last summer - and the same holds true the other way around" Charles Mudede, The Stranger

Piranha 3D

The Switch  "(jennifer) aniston, looking every bit the the flawless yoga goddess with lush hair the same golden  tone as her tanned skln"  Karina Longworth, Seattle Weekly

Peopli Live  Bollywood.  It's in Queen Anne now. Watch out.  Your neighborhood theater may be next.

Lottery Ticket  "works best when it uses the housing project to orchestrate zany collisions of broad comic types "Dan Kois, Seattle Weekly

Nancy McPhee Returns

Limited Runs 

Patrik, Age 1.5 (Varsity, Aug 20-26)  Here’s one for... (more)

Seattle Film Guide" Aug 13-19

Opening This Week

Tales from Earthsea   The  Disney-language  version of Goro Miyazaki’s  “Tales From Earthsea”  arrives  four years after the original opened in Japan.  This is the first film from the son of the acclaimed master Hayao Miyazaki, and he proves worthy of his father’s name.  The script, adapted from the books of Ursula L. La Guin, takes place in a time  in which the world is losing balance, and  two wizards become rivals in their exclusive quests for eternal life.  More sympathetic than the big fantasy themes is the simple love story between two sad little orphans, Arren, who has killed his father, and Theru, the half-human, half dragon girl who has been abandoned to the care of the  lovely  witch Tenar.  Most of the English-speaking cast does a decent job.  Timothy Dalton’s Sparrowhawk, the apparently good wizard, speaks with a powerful refinement,... (more)

“I don’t care about freedom and democracy.  I just want my father.”

The last line of “Life During Wartime,” Todd Solondz’s sequel to 1999’s “Happiness,” protests  the human cost of  spreading the American gospel throughout the world.  It  is spoken by young Timmy, whose mother has  lied to him about his father’s death. Bill is not dead at all, but is serving a prison sentence   for raping two boys.  After learning the truth about him, Timmy still contends that his father is not a pedophile, Part of this is denial, but there  is a literal truth to his assertion, as a pedophile is strictly defined as one who loves children, and there is no love in what this man does to children.

“In the end, China will take over and none of this will matter.”

Timmy is  responding  to Mark’s blanket dismissal of any purpose or meaning in  contemporary American life.  The son of a recently... (more)

Everyone is telling Felix Bush (Robert Duvall) to ask Jesus for forgiveness, but Felix doesn’t see the point, as he has never wronged Jesus. The old hermit  does have something he wants to get off his chest, though, and decides to hold his own funeral party to  confess  what he did forty years earlier that  drove him from the company of his fellow man. To ensure an audience for his self-revelations, Felix sells $5 raffle tickets for a chance at winning his property when he dies for real, and encourages all attendees to come with their own favorite ‘Felix Bush’ story.

 “Get Low” is an exquisitely old-fashioned movie that is neatly written, smartly acted, and impeccably photographed.  If the plotting sometimes errs on the side of predictability, Aaron Schneider’s direction maintains audience interest in the events that unfold in  preamble to Felix’s public confession.

In an Oscar-worthy performance, Duvall does a fabulous job of capturing... (more)

The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle (NWFF, Aug 13-19)

“The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle” is the most imaginative, disturbing, hilarious, and transcendent  underground movie since “Eraserhead.” Three male janitors are impregnated with phosphorous blue fishes through the ingestion of self-heating cookies. The experience of pregnancy and act of giving birth takes them through mind-warping changes that result in their transformation  from angry young men to  sweet, forgiving mothers.  It is a breakthrough film for Seattle, which has been struggling through this last decade  towards securing a regional identity in the indie-film community.  Writer/director David Russo is the first to succeed in capturing the crazy beauty that crackles through the Puget Sound people, those angelic derelicts who scour the filth of toilets with stardust in their hair. The movie throws its satirical stones at everything from the absurd use of art grants money to the... (more)

Seattle Film Guide: Aug 6-12

Opening this Week

Waking Sleeping Beauty "filled with enough bloodletting and male bitchiness to be endlessly entertaining" Ernest Hardy, Seattle Weekly

The Other Guys "somebody didn't pack enough comedy for this long trip" Nick Pinkerton, Seattle Weekly

Farewell  "a generally pleasing film" Charles Mudede, The Stranger

The Concert  "may appeal to those who delight in stereotypes" Aaron Hillis, Seattle Weekly

Twelve  Does the director know his  film is being released this week?Step Up  Is it really the hottest 3D movie of the summer?

Middle Men  "lumpy and uneven and often dull.  you know, like a baby's skull"  Lindy West, The Stranger

 The Wildest Dream: Conquest of Everest   Read Bill White's Seattle PostGlobe Review

Winnebago Man Read Bill White's Seattle PostGlobe Review

Limited Runs 

Great Directors (Varsity, Aug 6-12) Read Bill White's Seattle PostGlobe Review

Hausu<... (more)

Behind the Burly Q (Grand Illusion, Aug 6-12)

 One of the unwritten chapters of American history is remembered by those who lived it in “Behind the Burly Q,” a documentary that sets the record  straight on the world of Burlesque. Actor Alan Alda, whose father worked as a straight  man in these huge, gaudy theatrical shows, describes the performers as “a bunch of people who loved trouping around together.” We get to meet a lot of them in this film, from stripper Tempest Storm, who talks of her affair with President Kennedy, to musician John Perelli, who derides Blaze Starr for her lack of rhythm.  Clips of their acts are intercut with current interviews, and the contrast between the limber days of   athletic vivacity and their calcific old age is sometimes difficult to reconcile,  We feel a mounting sadness as we realize how long it has been since the passing of this era, and it strikes us that this might be the last chance for some of these people to... (more)

Seattle Film Guide: July 23-29

Opening this Week

 Dinner For Schmucks "francis veber's original was fundamentally on the side of the idiots, Not so Dinner, which turns the original's snobbish cruel editor into paul rudd" Dan Kois, The Weekly

South of the Border  Read Bill White's Seattle PostGlobe Review

Countdown to Zero  "at any moment, the human world could go up in smoke" Charles Mudude, The Stranger

 Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore  "the bloody race war between cats and dog reaches a temporary truce" Lindy West, The Stranger

Charlie St. Cloud  "zac efron plays baseball in a cemetery with his dead brother's ghost" Lindy West, The Stranger

Limited Runs 

Stonewall Uprising (Metro, July 30-Aug 5) "laid out with the simplistic certainty of the best propaganda" David Schmader, The Stranger

Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo (Grand Illusion, July 30-Aug 5) Read Bill White's Seattle PostGlobe Review

Dog Star Man (NWFF,... (more)

Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo (Grand Illusion, July 30- Aug 5)

Is it true that putting a hornet into a jar of sake will increase its strength from fourteen to fifty proof? Are the fireflies gathering on the willow tree the spirits of recently deceased ancestors? “Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo,”  a documentary taking a view of insects that is closer to “The Secret Life of Plants” than “Starship Troopers,” is more intent upon free-floating supposition than scientific evidence,  Director Jessica Oreck  discovers the  relationships between insects and the Japanese people  in this curious  exploration of  science, folklore religion, and, perhaps above all, collecting.   She begins by profiling the  people who collect beetles and other bugs to sell to city-bound people who can’t go bug-picking themselves. Later, we see the customers in the insect stores selecting their future beloved pets. We Westerners, with our cultivation of... (more)

We  in Gringolandia receive  little news regarding our friends to the South.   Unless one of the leaders down there does something to tick off one of the leaders up here, we are pretty much in the dark  as to the policies and positions of the many countries with whom we share this hemisphere. Oliver Stone, with his portraits of seven elected  South American presidents, takes  a remedial step towards bringing us Yanks up to date on  the subject.

“South of the Border”  is by no means a comprehensive essay on South American politics, but it does give presidents Hugo Chávez (Venezuela), Evo Morales (Bolivia), Lula da Silva (Brazil), Cristina Kirchner (Argentina), her husband and ex-president ex-President Néstor Kirchner, Fernando Lugo (Paraguay), Rafael Correa (Ecuador), and Raúl Castro (Cuba) an unprecedented opportunity to  present themselves and their ideas to the world media without censorship.

While the cumulative... (more)

Seattle Film Guide: July 23-29

Opening this Week

Agora  What went wrong?  Chilean born Alejandro Amenábar  has been such a reliable director, with “Open Your Eyes” and “The Sea Inside” being  two of the best Spanish pictures of the last decade.  Even his first English language film, “The Others,” was distinguished, so we can’t blame the total failure of “Agora” on  a language or cultural problem.  Even discounting the total sham and shambles of a script that attributes the discovery of elliptical orbits to a woman who lived 12 centuries before  Johannes Kepler set down the laws of planetary motion,  “Agora” is a lousy picture, with Rachel Weisz’s Hypatia being the most ludicrous historical impersonation  since John Wayne played Genghis Khan in “The Conqueror.” Everything in “Agora” is off the mark and over the top, from the thick black eyebrows that... (more)

Wild Grass (Varsity, July 23-29)

Unlike Michelangelo Antonioni, whose attempts at directing films after the age of 80 were hampered by the complications of a stroke that left him paralyzed, Alain Resnais, at 88, is still able to articulate and  realize  his ideas.  His direction remains as exquisite as ever, although his choice of recent projects has not always advanced his cause.  2003’s “Not on the Lips” came from a mediocre French operetta that had been languishing in oblivion since the 1920’s, and  Resnais’ gorgeous mounting  could not compensate for the lackluster music. 2006’s “Private Fears in Public Faces”  was adapted from  a pathetic Alan Ayckbourn play in which a whirl of six characters played tug-of-war for a playable storyline.  Resnais gave it an enchanting feel, separating each scene with the lovely fall of snow, but none of the stories was substantial enough to  sustain the drifting attention... (more)

Jean-Pierre Melville’s reputation in the states began as hearsay, as his films  were generally  distributed  here several years after their European release. 1956’s “Bob le Flambeur” came out here in 1959, but was not   widely seen  until its re-release in the early 80’s. 1967’s “Le Samourai” fared somewhat better,  its following having grown steadily since its release in  1972.  His later work, however, went  unseen for decades, 1969’s “Army of Shadows” languishing until 2006, and 1970’s “Le Cercle Rouge” until 1990.     Now, nearly forty years since it was made, we can see “Leon Morin, Priest,” a strong work from 1961 that foreshadowed some of the themes of his late masterpieces.

“Leon Morin,”Priest”  is essentially a dialogue between a radical priest and a faith-stricken atheist taking place in a provincial village ... (more)

Seattle Film Guide: July 16-22

Opening this Week

Inception  "director nolan either can't articulate or doesn't believe in a distinction between living feelings and dreams"  Nick Pinkerton, Seattle Weekly

Standing Ovation

The Kids Are All Right "serious comedy, powered by an enthusiastic cast and full of good-natured innuendo" J. Hoberman, Seattle Weekly

The Sorcerer's Apprentice "we love magic" Ernie Piper IV, The Stranger

Restrepo "who can be expected to stand up with a video camera in the middle of a firefight?" Brian Miller, Seattle Weekly

La Mission  "nobly continues a neccessary conversation about homophobia, but paves the way to hell with its good intentions" Melissa Anderson, Seattle Weekly 

Limited Runs 

Perrier's Bounty (Varsity, July 16-22) Read Bill White's Seattle PostGlobe Review

Pink Flamingos (Grand Illusion, July 16-22)  Read Bill White's Seattle PostGlobe Review

 Killing Kasztner (NWFF, July 16-22) Read Bill White's Seattle Postglobe Review<... (more)

Killing Kasztner  (NWFF, July 16-22)

In “Killing Kasztner,” director Gaylen Ross explores the case of the Hungarian Jew who negotiated  with Adolf Eichmann for the rescue of 1,684 Jews from Budapest. Was he a saint or a Nazi collaborator?  Ross isn’t enough of an investigative journalist to solve a case that has divided a country for over sixty years, but she does a credible job of presenting the available evidence on both sides of the controversy. Unfortunately, there are no tapes of the meetings between Kasztner and Eichmann to support the accusation that part of the deal was that Kasztner, in exchange for the transport of the 1,684 to Switzerland, would remain silent about Eichmann’s “final solution,” keeping hundreds of thousands ignorant of the fate that awaited them at Auschwitz.  There are, however,  survivors from “Kasztner’s train,” as well as the generation that have sprung from them, who revere the man who saved their lives.... (more)

From the Land of the Midnight Sun NWFF, JULY 16-18

From the Land of the Midnight Sun gives us three of Finland’s finest film exports of the last year, plus a Seattle remake of a Finnish classic. We start with a new package of short films from Finland, then move onto Peter von Bagh’s ode to the capital city, Helsinki Forever, and conclude with Jukka Kärkkäinen’s poetic, portrait-like view into six Finnish living rooms, Living Room of the Nation. These films collectively display the Finn’s enduring ability to surprise and please audiences.

Seattle Film Guide: July 9-15

The Girl Who Played With Fire (Harvard Exit, Open-Ended Run)

"The Girl With The Dragon Tatoo" has an assured place among my list of   2010's best  movies.  Its sequel, "The Girl Who Played With Fire" is sure to place among the year's  biggest bombs.  The second in Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy possesses none of the qualities of the first film, likely because the excellent directing/writing team of Niels Arden Opley and Nikilas Arcel/Rasmus Heisterberg has been replaced by hacks Daniel Alfredson and Jonas Frykberg who, to my dismay, have also penned and directed the third and final film in the series, "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest," which does not yet have a U.S.  release date. Their reduction of the second novel to a wrong man/whodunit caper is the biggest disappointment so far of this film-going year.

Here are ten reasons why it is such an excrutiating failure:

1) It will make no sense to those unfamiliar  with the first movie.

2) There... (more)

Seattle Film Guide: June 25-July 1

Cyrus

With “Cyrus,” the Duplass Brothers enter the mainstream, but not in any conventional way.  Their approach to romantic comedy is neither a sell-out nor a re-invention.  Instead, they develop a big-budget idea with an independent soul,  forsaking the gloss to let the scars show.  “Cyrus” is to “It’s Complicated” as   “Annie Hall” was to “ A Touch of Class,” an honest, personal film in a nefarious genre.

After several years, John’s (John C. Reilly)    ex-wife Jamie (Catherine Keener) is getting remarried.  Facing the unpleasant fact that his emotional support gal is about to disappear from his life, John takes up with Molly (Marisa Tomei), who  would be the perfect  heaven-sent dream babe  were it not for her 21-year old son, Cyrus (Jonah Hill). John and Cyrus seem to hit it off at first, but soon lock horns in an underhanded battle for the woman’s sole attention.... (more)