DocFilm Reviews

The Claim (2000)

Engaging film experience disturbed by anachronistic speech

[7/10 · 18 January 2008]

In this otherwise engaging film, the speech by the female actors is disturbingly anachronistic. Their speech sounds like generic end-of-the 20th century American: rushed, slurred, decreasing volume and clipped or swallowed at the end of their sentences. The film is set in California, but long before Valley Girl became Hollywood movie standard. Contrast this with Mullan's "accent." The interpersonal communication, especially in the more casual dialog, displays a distinctly late 20th century urban/suburban attitude. This seems like a directorial problem, an attempt to produce a natural/"naturalized" immigrant speech which only a great UK actor like Mullan can do, while the others, from their European roots, have only the accents and speech patterns they absorbed in 20th century California and environs to fall back on (another IMDb commentator half humorously suggested that this regression was due to the very cold weather during the shoot).

Twentynine Palms (2003)

Zabrieski Point meets Deliverance

[1/10 · 14 January 2007]

POSSIBLE SPOILER (If further spoilage is possible) It should take longer for directors to go into decline. A great disappointment after Pola X. He got much more out of Golubova in that film --- maybe her characterization, such as it is, and ultimate fate, in 29 Palms reflects a deterioration in their relationship.

Contrary to many comments, the dissatisfaction is not about the slow pace – we still love L'Avventura, Bergman, etc., but when there is nothing to look at in the frame, things become very boring. Narcissists are boring, and neither the director nor the actors (nor the Hummer) show us any complications of interest. It may be news to this French director that the California desert is harsh, the roadside strip malls soulless, but it shouldn't be news that sex can be soulless. No, I don't expect the director to make it erotic, but he shows nothing new about sex or violence to those of us over 10 years old.

Some have called this a horror film. Is it the horror of kitsch, of Disneyland, of TV,celebrity culture, of corporate America, of present day politics? Seen it all before. The horror of nothingness?: Been done much better before. This film telegraphs the upcoming horror leadenly --- 15 minutes into it I thought "Deliverance."

Vanilla Sky (2001)

Why bother?

[1/10 · 15 December 2006]

A remake of Alejandro Amenabar's Abre los Ojos, but this time with a living, breathing mask as a lead. For the dubious advantage of an English sound track, we endure Tom Cruise's soulless performance, as usual, with zero depth. Yes, the character is identified with his persona, but we usually are given some character underneath that to hold our interest. His empty posturing negates any erotic energy that could have been between his character and Cruz or Diaz.

There is an acting exercise that involves using masks to free the actor to enrich his presentation of character by verbal and body language means. Cruise's masking only painfully emphasizes his inadequacy as an actor. Do see the 1997 original Amenabar Open Your Eyes!

Walking and Talking (1996)

Subtly excellent, real

[7/10 · 2 July 2006]

It is a pleasure to watch such good actors. One critic had dissed a Keener stage performance as "just being herself"---- well which is that, the dominatrix of "Malkovich," the writer in "Capote," or the character in this film? Utter transformation. And Anne Heche, in "Wild Side," the mad woman in "I Know what you did last summer," (Possible spoiler): Ebert's reviews are usually so right on, I wonder how he gets some descriptive things wrong. She doesn't date her patient (which would be a grossly unethical act not in keeping with her character) but goes to see the waiter/actor's performance.

While it might seem that the characters are spiritually bereft, the film does focus on everyday life, "walking and talking" and the vicissitudes of late 20's-early 30's finding their place in life. Perhaps some of the pleasure I took in this film has to do with the familiarity of relational themes of those years, as well as the setting which is mostly within 3-4 blocks of my home (the video store, alas, is gone now).

Tunnel (2002 Video)

The most truly awful amateurish feature yet.

[1/10 · 9 January 2006]

To start out with, the script is immitative and inane. The characters are shallow and formulaic. The plot has arbitrary reversals and non sequitors. Baldwin's direction is terrible -- these actors could do better on their own. The jokes and wisecracks fall flat. The shoot out scenes are clumsy and incredible. Baldwin directs himself as the wise courageous hero but spends most of his time in power struggles with women, particularly with the caricatured repressedwoman in their tunnel team who is always asking for and denying reassurance. The conductor suffer from absurd incompetence, being unable to effectively employ a pistol he has come by.Anomalies: a hooded man bristleing with guns stalks through a railroad car, startling people. The next time we see them they are going about their business sitting in their seats, talking, eating, reading, knitting.In the New York subways folks sometimes come on the train to do some musical or dramatic number --- maybe that's what they thought the "happening" was.

Qui a tué Bambi? (2003)

"Dumb blond" frozen in fear stereotyping

[3/10 · 29 October 2005]

This is a throwback to the horror and action-adventure movies in which the tension is based on the threatened woman who cannot get out of the way of danger because of her passivity, gullibility, or other gender stereotyped disability. Here we are offered a pseudo-psychological explanation having to do with her mother having died (mother-loss rendering her more vulnerable to domination by the medical patriarchy????) She fails to act or to follow through repeatedly (e.g. failing to mention the clue of the two needle holes after she goes out on a limb at the incident review conference, and we are given no clues as to her motivation in taking that risk at that point or in her failure to follow through).

Other egregious negative stereotyping in these genres (and in the crime genre) are--- screaming upon finding the corpse, and running from danger being pulled by the man (have you ever tried running holding someone's hand? Dysfunctional!!)

Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)

It IS a comedy

[10/10 · 4 May 2005]

Contrary to the comments of many critics (including the usually sagacious Ebert) the film IS a comedy, in the classic sense, as is an opera buffa, The Marriage of Figaro, A Midsummer Night's Dream, etc. One IMDb commentator here, mattijohn, describes it: "Holly got over her depression and sense of rejections, Elliot has gotten over his infatuation with Lee and finally realises how much he in fact loves Hannah and loves her, Lee is in a better relationship, in which she does not feel looked down upon etc. Similarly Mickey gets over his neurosis and gets on with living his life, not thinking and worrying all the time about happens next." Mozart, or Rossini, would write a final chorus with all of these principals voicing their joy.

Djembefola (1991)

Documentary, African drummer leaves village, makes it big in the world. Great drumming!!

[7/10 · 20 October 2004]

I saw this more than twelve years ago, but it sticks with me. The documentary follows a drummer from a francophone African country village on his world tour and through his triumphant return to his village. The complex emotions he and his friends and family express on his return are deeply moving -- he has seen the world and has had the world see his talent and the culture of his people, and the tears express both that immense journey and also that he had been so absorbed in the moment in his journey that his rapprochement with his people is a sudden shock --- as if only then does he realize that he has been away. There are ample episodes of complex, polyrhytmic drumming (the djembe) worth the viewing in themselves.

The Cell (2000)

Gorgeous visuals compromised by attempted plot

[7/10 · 12 September 2004]

The rings on the villain's back must be for a willing suspension of disbelief. The plot and dialog are contrived, intrusive, absurd. We are told that the villain's "schizophrenia" is due to the adult manifestation of symptoms of a childhood cerebral viral infection, yet we are shown the story of a compulsive reenactment, with role reversals, of childhood abuse -- perhaps another example of the popular confusion between schizophrenia and "split personality."

Even the directing and editing have their problems: the good guys are very leisurly in real-time considering that every minute counts to save the victim.

Turn off the sound, fast forward through the psycho-babble, and watch the visuals. As with "Elizabeth" with Cate Blanchett, the visual drama of this film is wonderful ("Elizabeth" was also directed by a South Asian, Shekhar Kapoor, and Tarsem Singh's "Cell" is more obviously influenced by Mughlai miniatures, decoration, and Bollywood).

Dogville (2003)

Pure Good draws the Shadow to it.

[8/10 · 31 May 2004]

Grace does not exist in a state of grace, but rejects the evil which is her legacy (her right of inheritance of power from her gangster father). She is the mythic transformational stranger who arrives on the scene -- we expect her to be a catalyst.

However she denies her Shadow (the evil in herself) and the Shadow of the townsfolk by being all good and all forgiving, respectively. Thus she draws out the evil all too ready to emerge from the townsfolk. With repression, without consciousness of their Shadows, their evils overwhelm them, transforming the townsfolk into arrogant evil doers. It is as though in the Christian story Christ's goodness and forgiveness transformed his opponents and attracted his persecution.

Her stance is an arrogant one, as explicated in the dialog between Grace and her father. Likewise, the townsfolk are arrogant in their denial of their Shadows and the projection of their Shadows on to Grace. The final scene leaves the protagonists acting out their evil: the arrogance of pure evil (without mercy) is no better than the arrogance of pure good. Only the audience has the consciousness which can contain the tragedy of both.

This film has a mythological flavor, like a Greek tragedy, like von Trier's earlier Medea, hence the archetypal, non-complex nature of the characters and the directing, the minimalist staging, and the narration, which is comic in its fairy-tale just-so style interspersed with choric comments on the tragedy, but in the same style. C

Polish Wedding (1998)

It's the character, stupid (not the plot)

[10 December 2003]

Maybe I just have a crush on Lena Olin, but this film shines (rather glows) with slightly larger than life characterizations of a sentiment that is distinctly European. There is, for instance, none of the hideous preciousness of the depiction of children in American films. Adults interact with children with authority and a tragic sensitivity. The children have their wisdom and their fate, which will be no more nor less than that of their parents. Anger is sparked, but humane compassion prevails.

Above all, there is a zest for life which coexists with a recognition of life's tragedies -- in contrast with Disney, the Hollywood family drama or comedy film, and especially the offensively polyanna-ish 'Life is Beautiful" (Italian, but Hollywood loved it and Oscared it).

The critics panned this film. Each of them praises the Lena Olin character, but reject it as not fitting a priori standards of credibility (it is after all an immigrant and first generation family in a Polish neighborhood, the confluence of two cultures. Why did we not hear criticism of the glaring anachronisms in the young man's 1950's dialog in 'Gods and Monsters?'). But maybe I just have a crush on Lena Olin, and yield to it, while the critics are reserved.

Frogs for Snakes (1998)

Not plot, not "film," it's about acting.

[8/10 · 12 November 2002]

Yes, it's on film, it is around 90 minutes like a feature, it's got something that resembles a plot that provides and excuse for the performances, and it seems to participate in a genre marked by "Pulp Fiction." But take this for what it is, some very good actors jamming. Barbara Hershey's characterization is superb -- hers and the other performances had me mesmerized (like a frog by a snake?)-- it's that thing that actors do, that transformation that gives a shiver of the uncanny.

The House of Mirth (2000)

Painfully over-acted, self-conscious articulation of lines.

[1/10 · 25 December 2000]

This is a painfully self-conscious film. The director has allowed the actors to over-articulate their lines and movements as if they were in the initial stages of learning. The visuals are similarly amateurish --a scene/season transition in which the camera pans to a mirror above a mantel just for that purpose; the intrusive self-conscious focus on Lilly's breathing (and yes, on cigarette smoke) almost destroys the effectiveness of the final image. The Scottish and Provencal settings are pretty, as are the set decoration and costumes.

At Play in the Fields of the Lord (1991)

The non-actor rainforest people are superb, as is their direction

[8/10 · 15 October 2000]

This film is a must-see for the engaging natural acting of the non-actor natives of the rainforest who appear in many scenes. The director has placed his audience in the midst people whose range and depth effortlessly exceeds that of the actors. Yes, the white-man characters are pretty shallow (Washington Post) and the scenery is beautiful (Ebert), but the indians carry the soul of this film.