May 2009 - Posts

"Drag Me To Hell."
Thu, May 28 2009 4:18 PM
By the B-movie ethics of Sam Raimi's "Drag Me To Hell," the torments inflicted on poor Christine Brown are grossly (and grossly) unfair and yet, there's no denying it, also at least a little bit deserved. Christine (Alison Lohman) is the bank loan officer who makes the fateful final call to kick a zestfully unlovable old lady out of her house for failing to keep up on mortgage payments, but she's really just the last dinky cog in the machine, the one put in the disagreeable position of being the human face on a corporate decision. Eyeing a promotion to a managerial role, she chooses to toe the hardass institutional line and not to give the woman another extension, and for that, in what might be considered something of an overreaction, gets gypsy cursed to a long weekend of demonic harassment rounding off in eternal damnation. As much as, these...
by IFC.com - Indie Eye
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Cannes 2009: "Inglourious Basterds."
Wed, May 20 2009 5:08 AM
Quentin Tarantino's a great writer of dialogue, and no one's more convinced of the fact than Quentin Tarantino. The ratio of talk to action -- not gun fights or explosions, but just people doing stuff -- in "Inglourious Basterds" is, generously, nine to one. Again and again, characters sit down over drinks (whiskey, champagne, milk), and the stakes may be high, but the conversations are meandering and lengthy, and no matter how clever they may get, they end up defeated by their own pace and their writer's inability to let anything go. Even the opening scene, a confrontation between Nazi Col. Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz) and a French farmer hiding a Jewish family which is supposed to be a slow build of tension and dread, is derailed by digressions about rats and nicknames. The film's two hours and 40 minutes long, and could be shorn of an hour just by...
by IFC.com - Indie Eye
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Cannes 2009: "Vincere."
Tue, May 19 2009 5:19 AM
If Giovanna Mezzogiorno wants to be Italy's answer to Angelina Jolie, "Vincere" is her "Changeling," and how unfortunate. "Vincere," directed by Marco Bellocchio, is the story of Ida Dalser, the first wife of Benito Mussolini and mother to his first son, Benito Albino Mussolini. By World War I, Mussolini had finished with her and married Rachele Guidi, resorting to a dictator-style divorce of Dalser by taking her child, dumping her in an insane asylum and having all records of their union effaced, save for the marriage certificate she hid, never to be found. Bellocchio does neither the character nor the actress any favors in making Dalser's passion such an amour fou -- in the first few scenes, she falls instantly for the future Il Duce when, at a Socialist meeting, he gives God a five minute window to prove his divine existence by striking Mussolini down. She tracks him to...
by IFC.com - Indie Eye
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Cannes 2009: "Kinatay."
Mon, May 18 2009 6:47 PM
There are two easy types of film provocation. You can prod an audience with boundary-pushing images -- say, Chloe Sevigny painting Vincent Gallo's tree -- or by testing their tolerance for style or narrative experimentation -- say, Vincent Gallo driving, driving, driving, driving. "Kinatay" (which translates to "Butchered") tries out both, culminating in an act of gruesome violence after a patience-trying buildup of dread and boredom over a long, unlit nighttime car ride. The film's main character is a upbeat teenager who's just married the equally young mother of his baby. Short on cash, he's been dabbling in petty crime, and blithely hops in a van with a friend who's a member of a local gang for an unspecified but presumably dodgy job. It's apparent early on that something very bad is going to happen at the final destination -- the woman they pick up, bind, gag and beat into...
by IFC.com - Indie Eye
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Cannes 2009: "Vengeance."
Sun, May 17 2009 7:55 AM
We're far enough away from the golden age of Hong Kong John Woo action excess that a little nostalgia is warranted, and Johnnie To's "Vengeance" is meant to fondly recall every operatic slow-mo shoot-em-up of the era, though until that sinks in, it just looks ungainly. Singer Johnny Hallyday, who's often shorthand summed-up as France's Elvis equivalent, plays Francois Costello, a Parisian restaurant owner with a dark past and real talent for wearing a Burberry trench coat with the collar popped. He comes to Macao to avenge his daughter (played by Sylvie Testud, who despite top billing has maybe five minutes of screen time), who was severely injured in a hit on her Chinese husband that also resulted in the death of their children. "It's a miracle she survived," the doctor tells him, and it really is, as in the flashback we see her getting four shotgun blasts to the...
by IFC.com - Indie Eye
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Cannes 2009: "Thirst."
Sat, May 16 2009 2:32 PM
"Thirst," Park Chan-wook's plague-vampire-priest-black-comedy-gothic-family-drama-noir, has enough going on for at least an entire other movie, if not two. Its developments are impossible to predict, but that's because half are unnecessary -- by the time clergyman-turned-secular-bloodsucker Sang-hyun (Song Kang-ho) and his lover Tae-joo (Kim Ok-bin) are hiding a body in the closet before hosting their weekly mahjong game, I could barely remember how everything started (Sang-hyun volunteers to be part of an experiment to cure a virus killing celibate male missionaries in Africa, and is unknowingly given a transfusion of vampire plasma that staves off the sickness). The disinterest in the wherefore of Sang-hyun's vampirism is played for laughs -- he's more troubled by the ethical dilemmas of drinking blood, which he rationalizes his way around by claiming one comatose victim had been dedicated in consciousness to feeding the hungry, and by planning on preying upon already suicidal targets he'll find...
by IFC.com - Indie Eye
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Cannes 2009: "Taking Woodstock."
Fri, May 15 2009 3:43 PM
Some many questions for such a straightforward comedy! Why would the apparently grown-up Elliot spend himself broke supporting his parents' run-down Catskills resort in the first place? Why is his mother so crazy? What's up with the money hoarding? Where did the mafia end up? Did the town actually manage to do anything to fight the concert's arrival? "Taking Woodstock," which was directed by Ang Lee from a screenplay written by James Schamus, is based on the autobiography of Elliot Tiber, which explains some of this messiness -- real life rarely includes conveniently tied-up narrative ends. But when part of such a middling, conventional overall package, those hanging plot threads just look more like mistakes. Elliot, played ably but unexceptionally in the film by comedian Demetri Martin, was instrumental in bringing Woodstock to the town of Bethel, NY when it was kicked out of Wallkill. He happened to hold a...
by IFC.com - Indie Eye
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Cannes 2009: "Spring Fever."
Fri, May 15 2009 1:29 PM
Lou Ye was banned from making films for five years by the Chinese government after "Summer Palace" screened at Cannes in 2006 without their approval. Which means it's some sort of act of defiance and bravery, sure, for him to have since then made "Spring Fever," which this year premieres in competition. But the film is pure soap opera under the scarcest sheen of something higher, a love pentagon set in neon-and-concrete Nanjing. Jiang Cheng (Qin Hao) is its central tragic gay, subject to various emotional and physical beatings, who when things begin is traveling with his married lover to a rural trysting spot. The man's wife suspects him of cheating and hires the aimless Luo Haitao (Chen Sicheng) to spy on the two. When the situation unavoidably implodes, Jiang Cheng tries to heal his broken heart by moving on to a whole new ill-advised relationship with a man already...
by IFC.com - Indie Eye
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Cannes 2009: "Up."
Thu, May 14 2009 5:00 AM
Pixar's proven, again and again, a miraculous ability to spin cinematic gold out of almost perversely unlikely scenarios, but the beginning of "Up," the opening night film at this year's Cannes, is something else entirely. A boy, Carl, watches a newsreel in a '30s theater about larger-than-life adventurer Charles Muntz, and when making his way home, enraptured with his hero's exploits, he encounters Ellie, a gap-toothed girl who's taken over an abandoned house to play out her own Muntz-inspired imaginings. One minor mishap later, they're fast friends, and from there "Up" cuts to the two, quiet Carl and exuberant Ellie, as young adults getting married. In the marvelous, wordless montage that follows, the pair have a whole life together, one with joys and disappointments and, of course, certain dreams left to gather dust. Carl sells balloons for a living and Ellie plans for children that don't appear, and they never...
by IFC.com - Indie Eye
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Up on the roof.
Fri, May 8 2009 9:30 AM
Rooftop Films has announced the first half of their ridiculously cool summer outdoor series -- their 13th, and always one of the best things about being in New York for the season. They're kicking off with a short film showcase on May 15th on the roof of the New Design High School. Among the features they have planned: Zachary Levy's doc "Strongman" on May 30th, Cory McAbee's musical-western space comedy "Stingray Sam" on June 6th, Ben Steinbauer's Sarasota prize-winner "Winnebago Man " and Lynn Shelton's "Humpday." You can find the full line-up so far here.
by IFC.com - Indie Eye
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The folks flock to "City Island."
Mon, May 4 2009 9:58 AM
Raymond De Felitta's "City Island," a comedy starring Andy Garcia set in the little-known New York neighborhood of its title, turned out to tbe the crowd favorite at this year's Tribeca Film Festival, winning the Heineken Audience Award. Marshall Curry's "Racing Dreams" and mockumentary "Midgets Vs. Mascots" were the runners-up. "Racing Dreams" was already lauded with a jury prize for Best Documentary -- the rest of the awards, which were announced on Thursday, are listed below. World Narrative Competition Best Narrative Feature: "About Elly" Best New Narrative Filmmaker: Rune Denstad Langlo for "North" Best Actor in a Narrative Feature Film: Ciarán Hinds in "The Eclipse" Best Actress in a Narrative Feature Film: Zoe Kazan in "The Exploding Girl" Best Documentary Feature: "Racing Dreams" Special Jury Mention: "Defamation" Best New Documentary Filmmaker: Ian Olds for "Fixer: The Taking of Ajmal Naqshbandi" New York Competition Best New York Narrative: "Here and There"...
by IFC.com - Indie Eye
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