The Reel Deal

"This Is It"

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 01:17:58 -0800

Best thing about "It"?
It's not a rip-off.
"Michael Jackson's This Is It" offers a good, heaping helping of what anyone who goes to the movie is going for: the late superstar's fantastic dancing and spine-tingling vocals, both incredibly strong for a 50-year-old whom many of us were convinced had weirded himself out of his youthful vigor.
It's also a finely crafted concert film, made up though it is from hi-def rehearsal video for the blowout show Jackson died before ever actually staging. "It" even boasts some very nice movies-within-the-movie, productions Jackson commissioned to accompany the live performances. They're quality stuff - MJ inserted into classic black & white film noir footage for a "Smooth Criminal" fantasy, a whole new "Thriller" monster mash, sappy rainforest-and-butterflies "Earth Song" business that grows nicely apocalyptic - and they add welcome variety and pizzazz to what could have become a string of song-and-dance practices that, despite their uniform quality, could have become monotonous.
"It" didn't need to have any of these good things, of course. Pre-sold to a grieving mass market, it could have been two hours of Michael standing still while roadies moved amps behind him and still have made a fortune.
So let's give props to Kenny Ortega, who was directing the mega-concert, for putting a lot of concentration and effort into turning what was left behind into something approximating what that show would have been. "It" effectively builds in intensity and accomplishment from early songs to Jackson's best performance on the penultimate "Billie Jean" - his every step an emotional IED, all muscles working and flowing in electric harmony. Ortega also does a masterful job of intercutting several different rehearsals of the same songs without losing a beat; you wouldn't know they were separate takes if Michael's pants weren't constantly hopping from vivid orange to sparkly gold and back.
All the cinematic craft in the world wouldn't carry the show, however, if the main subject wasn't up to the job. As mentioned earlier, Jackson certainly is impressive at all he used to do best, even if the younger backup dancers sometimes, inevitably, appear more energetic and athletic. What turned out to be just as crucial a factor for this movie he never intended to make, though, was how watchable Jackson is when he's not singing and dancing.
And he mostly succeeds in that department, too. MJ does look pretty thin, but not unhealthy, thank God. There was only one sequence, shot in blue light, where that overworked face of his creeped me out. And while we hardly get a rounded or deep view of either the very complicated man or the painstaking artist (don't believe the hype that this is a thorough examination of the creative process), he does come across as likable, accessible and dedicated both to his craft and the simplistic but heartfelt messages he wanted to impart.
So, good show, Michael, may you rest in peace.
But Ortega and company could have made a better, more complete movie by acknowledging the profound troubles that dogged Jackson's life (and couldn't have helped but fuel his art). But, um, have we acknowledged that "It" is the state-of-the-industry definition of a commercial project, and therefore could not have been expected to make a single honest move that would potentially bum a paying customer out?
Perhaps we should all just be grateful that "It's" a good movie with, often, great music and choreography. It'd be safe to bet that that's what Michael would have wanted.
But I liked what I felt from the main film's last musical sequence (like a good hagiography should, "It" has maybe four extra endings after the closing credits roll, in case pretty much every dancer, musician and key grip in the movie telling us how wonderful Michael was didn't make the point). It's an incomplete "Man in the Mirror," a song that never seemed as profound to me as it did to the singer. But the fact that we don't hear the whole thing and Jackson sounds a bit unsure made me wonder how much he ever took his own call for self-examination to heart.
It's not the most sentimental or melancholy way to remember Michael Jackson. But it seems kind of necessary to keep in mind.

Film of the Week: 35 Shots of Rum

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:20:48 -0800

French director Claire Denis ("Beau Travail," "Friday Night") keeps distilling her insights into intimate relationships to finer and finer purity.
This one, about a Paris commuter train engineer and his college student daughter, is a collection of behavioral moments that seem deceptively banal initially, but lay the groundwork for rich character relationships and deep but never overemphasized emotional epiphanies. A marvelous exrtended family - of Lionel's (Alex Descas) co-workers, lovestruck neighbors (Nicole Dogue, Grégoire Colin), the mixed-race daughter Josephine's (Mati Diop) German aunt (Fassbinder stalwart - and ex-missus - Ingrid Caven), even a very tubby cat - brings out all kinds of conflicts to the supportive nuclear pair, and both forces them to reaffirm some bonds and locate those that they need to sever.
Working in a more straigthtforward visual style than usual with her poetic cinematographer Agnes Godard, Denis here does no less than update and Westernize (not to mention Africanize) Yasujiro Ozu's 1949 masterpiece "Late Spring." While "Rum" certainly has its own story and sensibility, it's almost breathtaking to watch the correlatives to "Spring" pile up, from the father-daughter road trip to the replacement of Ozu's lapping waves motif with oncoming train tracks to the father's final, solitary return home. Denis makes these moments and many others all her own, and with a filmmaker this formidable that's high homage indeed.
But that just shows how smart Denis is. Her artistic brilliance, which is something else again, comes across in a heart-stoppingly loaded sequence in a small bistro on a rainy night, in which all the main characters dance to The Commodores' "Nightshift" and reveal their preferences and hesitations through psychologically choreographed moves. It may be the best movie scene of the year - and though in its revalingly complete simplicity probably owes something to Ozu, great as the Japanese master, he never pulled off anything like this.

Film of the Week: Amreeka

Sat, 05 Sep 2009 14:51:24 -0800

It is like most immigrant sitcoms, but then it isn't.
Cherien Dabis' feature debut is often persuasive about the wacky and sometimes soul-withering culture shock a Palestinian single mom and her adolescent son experience upon moving to a small town near Chicago. That's clearly because Dabis drew on her own background as the child of Arab expatriates in Ohio.
Sure, there's prejudice and fear, but Muna (Nisreen Faour) is indomitably optimistic about everything from assuming her equal status with all - something she definitely didn't enjoy back in the occupied West Bank - to the effectiveness of her marvelous American weight-loss treatment. The character could have used another shade or two of depression, but Faour keeps her realistic enough, and she earns our respect rather than just our sympathy.
"Amreeka" derives even more strength from the characters around Muna; her increasingly trouble-prone boy Fadi (Melkar Muallem) and the in-laws who take the new arrivals in. Few films have woven the problems faced by a suspected ethnic minority as seamlessly as this does with universal conflicts both generational and conjugal.
Though it hardly operates on the shocking, hilarious and insightfully multifaceted scale of last year's brilliant "Towelhead," "Amreeka" is at least as smart as it is sweet, and tough and dirty when it needs to be. You may even come to love it, and won't have to feel like a sap for doing so.

Film of the Week: World's Greatest Dad

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 16:28:12 -0800

I saw Bobcat Goldthwait's super cynical squirmedy before Michael Jackson passed away. But even then it struck me as a great satire of the emotional and electornic overkill that attends a premature death in today's melodrama-craving culture.
Now, the movie not only seems downright prescient, but essential viewing for anyone who's heard an argument about whether Jackson's art or his scandals should be the focus of his afterlife. That would be just about anybody with access to a screen by now, and the repetitious contemplation (if you can call it that) had the usual, cheapening cultural effect.
Only, you know, bigger than ever.
Anyway, the desire for recognition at any cost fuels this imaginatively icky movie. Robin Williams does one of his superb, restrained jobs as Lance, a perpetually aspiring writer with a proverbial those-who-can't-do teaching job. His repulsive and all but friendless son Kyle (Daryl Sabara, no longer the cute boy from the "Spy Kids" movies) is one of the prime problem children at Lance's school, and he's no better at home. Abusive, defensive, obsessed with porn and - worst of all for his educated single father - stupid, Kyle's a walking parent's nightmare.
Until he dies in the most mortifying way imaginable. When Lance finds the body, he uses what literary talent he has to salvage the boy's nonexistent dignity in death.
This has the (presumably) unintended effect of turning the brat into a posthumous inspiration, the secretly sensitive poet most teenagers mistakenly believe they have deep within them. Soon, all the classmates who rightly hated Kyle can't stop sentimentally remembering their best friend.
The spillover effect on Lance is mighty pleasing - sex, sympathy and increasing media attention come ever more easily his way, encouraging him to keep "discovering" more of Kyle's moving writings, which of course secretly satisfies Lance's own yen for creative success.
With his third film, former shock comedian Goldthwait explores the tricky intersection where honesty, embarrassment and yearning collide more thoughtfully and compellingly than he's ever done. And with better laughs.
Not that that makes "World's Greatest Dad" any more comfortable to watch than his "Sleeping Dogs Lie" or "Shakes the Clown." But you really wouldn't want it to feel any other way. We've already gotten our jollies overrating the King of Pop's output and wallowing once again in his pathologies; we sure could use something that jars us into thinking about why we got so involved in all of that.

Films of the Week: Thirst and Lorna's Silence

Mon, 03 Aug 2009 13:10:48 -0800

Three of the world's finest working auteurs reinvigorate much-abused
subgenres this week.
Park Chan-wook's "Thirst" may not be the first Korean vampire movie.
But I'll wager it's the first Korean Catholic vampire romance. Though
it borrows a number of plot points from Emile Zola's "Therese
Raquin," this bloody, lusty, morally contorted and madly funny
horror film brings fearsome life back to the legendary
characteristics that the teeny wooziness of "Twilight" and hipster
romanticism of "True Blood" have rendered all but toothless.
Here, hunger for blood and the flesh are all but interchangeable, as
an infected priest not only tries to seek the fluid he needs in the
most humane manner possible (he sucks the i.v. drips of terminal and
suicidal patients at the hospital where he's assigned to dispense
solace), but can't keep his horny hands off of the beaten-down wife
of a sickly childhood friend.
Song Kang-ho as the priest and Kim Ok-vin as the woman in question make for
the most combustible screen couple of the year, as his not-misplaced
guilt and her gleeful new sense of carnal empowerment lead to
superhot sex and outlandish, violent cruelty. Park, who has
mastered that peculiarly Korean style of retributive cinema with the
likes of "Oldboy" and "Lady Vengeance," finds more perverted innocence and
tragic complexity in the revenge theme than ever before, and uses the new
supernatural elements to intensify behavior and illuminate all kinds of psychological nuances. It's refreshing to see this stuff used this way, rather than for the usual task of enabling characters (and viewers) to wallow in fantasy.
To complete the package, "Thirst" is Park's best-looking film yet. The imagery is indelible (blood flowing out the Priest's flute as a precursor to his new afterlife), the compositional ideas inspired (of course people who have sudden, skin-frying health issues with sunlight would paint a shuttered room as bright white as they could).
This is truly what happens when genius goes gore.
"Thirst" has its noirish aspects as well (who knew James M. Cain
purloined so much from the 19th Century naturalist Zola?). Park
applies them with as much gruesome gusto as he does the vampire lore,
and it makes the movie even more of an extended scream.

But for a really radical take on those old hardboiled crime/femme
fatale shenanigans, "Lorna's Silence" is the place to go. This much
of a thriller isn't what you'd expect from Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne,
whose stripped-down, socially attuned minimalism makes Zola's novels
seem as Baroque as Bram Stoker's.
Indeed, some critics have complained that the Belgian brother act that has brought us such masterpieces of working class despair as "L'Enfant" and "Rosetta"
have no business messing with anything that involves . . . this . . .
much . . . plot.
Bosh. "Lorna's Silence" may be a thriller, but it's as
soul-dissecting as any of the Dardennes' other inquiries
into the decency-devastating desire for a good life.
The title character (Arta Dobroshi) is an undocumented Albanian trying to marry her way into Belgian citizenship. She's at the center of a complicated scheme in which her junkie husband Claudy (the directors' favorite screw-up, Jeremie Renier) will be purposely overdosed by her underworld handlers, freeing her to wed and make a Russian mobster EU legal in return.
Even though Lorna's relationship to Claudy is barely that of a disgusted and needy sibling, she gradually develops sympathy for the loser and a dangerous conscience for herself.
As its title suggests, "Lorna's Silence" adds a touch of Bergman to
the Dardennes' usual fealty to their great idol, Robert Bresson. It's
the study of an illegal waif's spiritual awakening in a world
far from God, and as profound a religious film as "Thirst" is in its
weird, demented way.
As much as Park finds great personal depth in erotic horror, the
Dardennes see in their most unlikely of black widows an emerging
humanist. By submitting genre expectations to their established styles and obsessions, the directors have created two of the year's most distinctive and thoughtful movies.

Film of the Week: In the Loop

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 10:34:32 -0800

Words are figuratively and almost literally used as bludgeons
throughout "In the Loop." Densely packed with dialogue, ideas and
some of the darkest humor to grace a movie screen since "Dr.
Strangelove," this scathing British satire of Machiavellian politics
and the muddleheaded media that enables seems both absurd and frighteningly revelatory in equal, intense measure.
When a minor U.K. ministry functionary (Tom Hollander from the "Pirates of
the Caribbean" films) characteristically misspeaks on camera, peacenicks and warmongers from Whitehall to Washington try to manipulate him into
supporting their position re: the proposed invasion of a never-named
Middle Eastern country. Idealists, careerists and political
opportunists of all stripes repeatedly put their petty personal
concerns ahead of the potentially calamitous international crisis
they're all trying to game in some way or another, some bumblingly and other with appalling cunning.
Most outrageous among the latter is a Scottish government spinmeister
named Malcom Tucker (Peter Capaldi). A verbal bully whose vocabulary would leave Snoop Dogg blushing and speechless, the only thing fouler than
Malcolm's demeanor is his agenda. Even worse, when he has to go put out fires in the States, his lieutenant in London turns out to be an exact spiritual (and
burr-accented!) clone.
Capaldi created Tucker for writer-director Armando Iannucci's BBC
series "The Thick of It." While he stands out as "In the Loop's"
most memorable presence, everyone in the ensemble _ James Gandolfini,
Mimi Kennedy, David Rasche, Anna Chlumsky, Steve Coogan and a good
dozen more - does some of the most demanding work of their career.
Don't expect to get everything that's going on the first time you see
"In the Loop." But don't be surprised if you come out of it
understanding far better how we managed to get enmeshed in our
current thicket of wars.
You'll also probably laugh yourself to tears if you catch even half the dialogue. And if you catch what's really being said about how thousands get killed for no discernably decent reason, tears of dismayed recognition may flow as well.

James Mason at the County Museum

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 11:51:41 -0800

One of the best movie actors of all time, James Mason brought intelligent sophistication to the most extreme emotional states. Whether playing a self-denying, suburban drug addict (Nicholas Ray's astoundingly unhinged "Bigger Than Life") an Irish rebel coming undone by his own criminal missteps in the enclosing Belfast night (Carol Reed's "Odd Man Out") or a European intellectual pursuing his pedophilic urges through low-rent America (Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov's "Lolita"), Mason reliably applied British class and craftsmanship to the most extreme psychological explorations, and never shied away from daunting behavioral discoveries.

The L.A. County Museum's Mason retrospective, starting Friday, is an exceptionally well-chosen sampling of the actor's best work. Check out their series catalogue below; for more information, got to lacma.org/film.

BIGGER THAN LIFE: James Mason on Film
July 17-August 1

James Mason was born in Yorkshire on May 15, 1909. Abandoning architecture for acting, Mason got his break in 1933 when Alexander Korda invited him to join the Old Vic. His prominence as a stage actor led to a string of low-budget British movies culminating in 1946 with his acclaimed performance as a wounded Irish revolutionary in Carol Reed's Odd Man Out. Arriving in Hollywood a year later, he rapidly became one of the cinema's most unlikely and distinctive leading men. Blessed with dark good looks and a mellifluous voice, Mason possessed an uncanny ability to suggest rampant emotion beneath a demeanor of absolute calm, and he projected an other-worldliness and melancholy that allowed him to play both romantic leads and charismatic villains. With age, Mason remained in demand as a prestigious supporting actor in a wide range of roles. Though known as a man who preferred his privacy to the public life of an international star, Mason was nonetheless an indefatigable worker: the last of his astonishing 151 films and television credits came in 1985, a year after he died of a heart attack at his home in Switzerland.

This centenary tribute comprised of ten films contains many of James Mason's most memorable performances: the mysterious, haunted sailor in the ravishing Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (screened in a new restored color print); the alcoholic, suicidal actor Norman Maine in A Star is Born (for which he received one of three Oscar nominations), the loving family man Ed Avery who is transformed into a psychotic bully by the new "miracle drug" cortisone in Bigger Than Life; the tragic, despotic visionary Captain Nemo in Disney's spectacular adaptation of Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea; and, in a tailor-made role turned down by most Hollywood actors, Humbert Humbert, the erudite pedophile and sardonic narrator of Nabokov's and Kubrick's Lolita.

Bigger Than Life

July 17 | 7:30 pm and 9:30 pm | New 35mm print

Mason produced and hired Nicholas Ray to direct this striking film based on a New Yorker article about the hallucinatory side-effects of the new miracle drug cortisone. As Ed Avery, upstanding teacher, husband and father turned suburban Jekyll and Hyde, Mason gives one of his best performances, and Ray, using dramatic Rebel Without a Cause-style compositions and lighting, portrays his bedeviled hero with both horror and pathos. Released to indifferent not to say hostile reviews, the film is now acclaimed for its gothic depiction of repression and conformity in mid-century America. "Under Ray's masterful direction, James Mason is given three or four of the most beautiful close-ups I have had the chance to see since the advent of CinemaScope... An exceptional story, an excellent portrait of marriage. A film of implacable logic and sanity, Bigger than Life uses both those very qualities as targets, and scores a bull's-eye in every frame."--François Truffaut.

1956/color/95 min./Scope | Scr: Cyril Hume, Richard Maibaum; dir: Nicholas Ray; w/ James Mason, Barbara Rush, Walter Matthau.

Disney Family Matinee

20,000 Leagues under the Sea

July 18 | 4 pm | All tickets $5

Jules Verne's sci-fi fantasy is a story that reverberates for boys of all ages. It is the mid-1800s and a monstrous creature has been sinking ships off San Francisco; an expedition is dispatched to solve the mystery, but the sailors aboard soon discover that the monster is "the Nautilus," a futuristic submarine with a lush Victorian interior, owned by the brooding Captain Nemo, a brilliant messianic scientist who despises humanity and has built his own world under the sea. With its lavish production design and exciting underwater scenes--culminating in a giant squid attack--Disney's classic adaptation still moves the heart and stirs the imagination even after so many years.

1954/color/127 min./Scope | Scr: Earl Felton; dir: Richard Fleischer; w/ Kirk Douglas, James Mason, Paul Lukas, Peter Lorre.

Pandora and the Flying Dutchman
July 18 | 7:30 pm | New restored 35mm print

This sumptuous color film (shot by Jack Cardiff, the acclaimed cinematographer of The Red Shoes) is a heady mix of romance, fantasy, and poetic fatalism set in quaint Esperanza on the Mediterranean coast of Spain. As the seventeenth-century mariner doomed to sail the seas in search of a woman who will die for him, Mason is a magnificently eerie and brooding presence. Pandora, a willful chanteuse driven by strange passions (Gardner, at the height of her beauty), is his destiny.

1949/color/123 min. | Scr/dir: Albert Lewin; w/ James Mason, Ava Gardner. | Restored by George Eastman House in cooperation with Douris UK Limited. Restoration funded by The Film Foundation and the Franco-American Cultural Fund, a partnership of the Directors Guild of America, Societe des Auteurs, Compositeurs et Editeurs de Musique, the Motion Picture Association of America, and the Writers Guild of America, West.

Age of Consent
July 18 | 9:45 pm | Restored 35mm print courtesy Sony Archive

Powell and Mason, who was himself an accomplished painter and caricaturist, joined forces on this story of an aging painter who retreats to an island off Australia to replenish his creative juices. His muse and lover appears in the form of a young, voluptuous, and frequently nude Helen Mirren in her first major film. "A lovely erotic and idyllic comedy."--Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader.

1969/color/98 min. | Scr: Peter Yeldham; dir: Michael Powell; w/ James Mason, Helen Mirren.

The Reckless Moment
July 24 | 7:30 pm

A blend of character study and noir thriller, Ophüls' last American film centers on a respectable wife and mother (Bennett) whose middle-class life is shattered when she recklessly disposes of the body of her daughter's lowlife boyfriend, who has been accidentally killed in her garage. As she valiantly copes with an intrusive family and an inconvenient blackmailer (Mason at his most tortured and tender), Ophüls' circling camera further entraps his stoic heroine until she breaks down in a wrenching finale. Mason held Ophuls in high regard as he demonstrated by penning these affectionate lines: "A shot that does not call for tracks is agony for dear old Max. When separated from his dolly, he's wrapped in deepest melancholy."

1949/b&w/82 min. | Scr: Robert W. Soderberg, Henry Garson; dir: Max Ophuls; w/ Joan Bennett, James Mason.

Odd Man Out

July 24 | 9 pm
Mason achieved international leading-man status in this harrowing story of an Irish rebel who stumbles through the streets of Belfast until midnight, the object of a citywide manhunt. In the words of critic Pauline Kael: "The tormented, delirious Johnny, bleeding to death, seeks but does not find refuge on his way to the grave... those he encounters see him as a man beyond help; his final denunciation of a world without charity is one of the most memorable scenes on film. Carol Reed has always been at his best when dealing with outsiders--in Odd Man Out, he gives you an experience you can't shrug off."

1946/b&w/116 min. | Scr: F.L. Green, R.C. Sherriff; dir: Carol Reed; w/ James Mason, Robert Newton, Cyril Cusack.

A Star is Born

July 25 | 7:30 pm | Restored 35mm print

The part of Norman Maine, an alcoholic actor whose Hollywood star is falling as fast as his young wife's is rising, provided Mason with one of his signature roles, an Oscar nomination, and trivia fame thanks to the last line of the picture when Vickie Lester declares: "This is Mrs. Norman Maine." This sweeping musical comedy/drama, Cukor's first in color and CinemaScope, is ravishing to look at, fascinating to listen to, and heartbreaking to experience. At the film's core is Judy Garland who, despite problems that slowed down production--the shoot lasted ten months!--was at the height of her powers as an actress and singer. As for Mason, "I was having a wonderful time. Judy was a witty, lively, talented, touching, adorable woman. She had a quality which can only be compared to Charlie Chaplin's: always optimistic, always gay, always inventive."

1954/color/176 min./Scope | Scr: Moss Hart; dir: George Cukor; w/ Judy Garland, James Mason, Jack Carson.

5 Fingers

July 31 | 7:30 pm

Based loosely on a true story, this elegant espionage film set in Ankara in 1944 stars Mason as an Albanian-born valet working at the British embassy who teams up with an unscrupulous countess (Darrieux) to sell secret Allied documents to the Germans. An excellent screenplay made even better by the witty embellishments of Mankiewicz, "The tale becomes an irresistibly cynical comedy of manners in which the crafty gentleman's gentleman (a marvelous performance from Mason), scheming to promote himself as a member of the leisure classes, falls victim to his own pretensions. An irresistible treat."-- Time Out.

1952/b&w/108 min. | Scr: Michael Wilson; dir: Joseph Mankiewicz; w/ James Mason, Danielle Darrieux, Michael Rennie.

The Deadly Affair
July 31 | 9:30 pm

This sophisticated, adult spy thriller, based on a novel by John le Carré, stars Mason as a burnt-out security inspector in the Foreign Office who finds himself threatened by an espionage ring while investigating a colleague's suicide. On display are the genre's standard ingredients--intrigue, betrayal, and violent death--but Lumet's primary focus is on a fascinating group of characters brought vividly to life by a stellar international cast including Signoret, who gives gut-wrenching performance as a Holocaust survivor. Master cinematographer Freddie Young, of Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago fame, pre-exposed the film to give the images a psychological realism unique to the mid-sixties Cold War era. "Thematically it was a film about life's disappointments. I wanted to get that dreary, lifeless feeling London has in winter. I wanted to desaturate the colors."--Sidney Lumet.

1966/color/107 min. | Scr: Paul Dehn; dir: Sidney Lumet; w/ James Mason, Harriet Andersson, Simone Signoret, Maximilian Schell.

Lolita
August 1 | 7:30 pm

If ever an actor was born to play a fictional character it was James Mason as Humbert Humbert, the pedophile narrator of Nabokov's controversial best-selling novel. Hiding his dark and twisted desires behind the façade of a suave European academic, Humbert insinuates himself into the life of fourteen-year-old Lolita by marrying her sexually frustrated mother, a strident and suspicious presence conveniently silenced by a speeding car. Disguised as father and daughter, Humbert and his self-centered nymphet embark on a cross-country car trip closely shadowed by the chameleon-like Clare Quilty, Lolita's "true love." A visually striking adaptation of a novel that many felt could not be filmed, Kubrick's Lolita is a black comedy set in a vulgar America of shabby motels and fast-food stands, and a postmodern version of Pandora's Box in which the predator is destroyed by his own obsession. "A simple, lucid film, precisely written, which reveals America and American sex better than Melville."--Jean-Luc Godard.

1962/b&w/152 min. | Scr: Vladimir Nabokov, Kubrick; dir: Stanley Kubrick; w/ James Mason, Shelley Winters, Sue Lyon, Peter Sellers.

L.A. Film Festival Winners

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 10:21:26 -0800

Below is the official list of award-winners from this year's just-completed edition of the Los Angeles Film Festival.
Can't comment on their worthiness; I didn't see any of 'em.
But I did find merit, if not greatness, in the half-dozen or so movies that I got to.
The scabrous British satire "In the Loop" was probably the best, a foul-mouthed, media-spinning marvel that, I'll wager, reveals more about how we really got into the Iraq War than any official, non-fictional account ever will. Smart, merciless and very densely packed.
Right after that I saw "Bronson," and boy, did that evening leave me thinking that British people must be the nastiest folks on Earth. This one is a very impressionistic, often Kubrickian (Larry Smith, an old collaborator of Stanley's, did the cinematography) take on a real-life English criminal who's made something of a celebrity out of himself with his sociopathic violence and jailhouse performance/installation art. Not quite up to the standards of the recent, truly brilliant "Hunger," but Tom Hardy's acting is as full-bodied - in every sense of the term - as anything to hit our screens this year.
"I Sell the Dead" is a shaggy Irish horror comedy in which a pair of 19th Century graverobbers (Dominic Monaghan and a perfectly cast Larry Fessenden) get themselves into increasingly absurd supernatural predicaments. Director Glenn McQuaid makes the most of a minuscule budget in this rollicking tribute to the Hammer films of the 1960s.
"Amreeka" is a better-observed-than-average immigrant warmedy, which writer-director Cherien Dabis based on her own Palestinian mother's experiences in the wilds of suburban Ohio (though the film is set in Illinois).
And across the state border, there are "The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia." It's a documentary about the semi-legendary, hell-raisin'est clan of pot-smoking, pharmaceutical-snortin' and occasionally tap dancing outlaws in the state. Johnny Knoxville and Hank Williams III had something to do with it, but the movie didn't turn out to be quite as crazy as you'd expect from all that. Nevertheless, a nice record of some proud screw-ups that neither romanticizes nor judges them too harshly.
Oh, and I saw "Public Enemies." In the context of a mostly indie film festival, Michael Mann's gloss on John Dillinger's eventful last year made its Hollywood slickness seem even less authentic than it might have otherwise. The film really could have used a couple members of the White family.

So, that was my festival. Now, without further ado, the official announcement:

FILM INDEPENDENT ANNOUNCES AWARD WINNERS

OF 2009 LOS ANGELES FILM FESTIVAL

Film Independent, the non-profit arts organization that produces the Spirit Awards and the Los Angeles Film Festival, announced its 2009 Los Angeles Film Festival award winners at a special event, presented by Target. The Los Angeles Film Festival ran from Thursday, June 18 to Sunday, June 28.

"One of our goals at Film Independent is to help filmmakers build an audience for their work, and the Los Angeles Film Festival does just that," said Film Independent Executive Director Dawn Hudson. "We hope recognition at the Festival will allow these filmmakers to continue to find broad audiences for their terrific films."

The two top juried awards of the Los Angeles Film Festival are the Target Filmmaker Award and Target Documentary Award, each carrying an unrestricted $50,000 cash prize for the winning film's director. The awards were established by the Festival and Target to encourage independent filmmakers to pursue their artistic ambitions.

The Target Filmmaker Award recognizes the finest narrative film in competition at the Festival and went to Sam Fleischner and Ben Chace for Wah Do Dem (What They Do). The Target Documentary Award recognizes the finest documentary film in competition at the Festival and went to Juan Carlos Rulfo and Carlos Hagerman for Those Who Remain (Los Que se Quedan).

New this year, the Festival and Target established the Target Dream in Color Award to recognize a short film in the Festival's Future Filmmaker Showcase for high school students that inspires audiences to dream without boundaries and share culture in a unique and positive way. The prize includes a Target Gift card for the winning director and a desktop editing system for the winner's school media arts program. The Target Dream in Color Award was presented by Elizabeth Pena and given to Sam Rubin for Lipstick.

The Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature went to The Stoning of Soraya M., directed by Cyrus Nowrasteh and the Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature went to Soul Power, directed by Jeffrey Levy-Hinte. Eva Norvind's Born Without (Nacido Sin) won the Audience Award for Best International Feature.

The award for Outstanding Performance in the Narrative Competition went to Shayne Topp for his performance in Suzi Yoonessi's Dear Lemon Lima,. Given to an actor or actors from an official selection in the Narrative Competition, this is the sixth year the award has been given at the Festival.

The award for Best Narrative Short Film went to Antonio Mendez Esparza's Time and Again. The award for Best Documentary Short Film went to Anna Gaskell's Replayground. Jérémy Clapin's Skhizein won the award for Best Animated Short Film.

The Audience Award for Best Short Film went to Instead of Abracadabra, directed by Patrick Eklund. Grapevine Fires, directed by Walter Robot won the Audience Award for Best Music Video for Death Cab for Cutie.

Awards were given out in the following categories:

Target Filmmaker Award (for Best Narrative Feature)

Winner: Wah Do Dem (What They Do) written and directed by Sam Fleischner & Ben Chace

Producers: Sam Fleischner, Katina Hubbard, Ben Chace, Martha Lapham, Henry Kasdon

Cast: Sean Bones, Norah Jones, Kevin Bewersdorf, Carl Bradshaw

Film Description: Max's dream Caribbean cruise becomes a solitary odyssey after his girlfriend dumps him days before their departure. Now, he'll have to go with the Jamaican flow in this disarming and incisive debut feature.

The Target Filmmaker Award carries an unrestricted cash prize of $50,000 funded by Target, offering the financial means to help filmmakers transfer their vision to the screen. The award recognizes the finest narrative film in competition, and is given to the director. A special jury selects the winner, and all narrative feature-length films screening in the Narrative Competition section were eligible.

In bestowing Sam Fleischner and Ben Chace with the Target Filmmaker Award, the Jury stated:

"A film that could feel anecdotal but through its musical shifts and tone, and its vision of the world as a newly optimistic place, Wah Do Dem (What They Do) creates a strong and profound emotional narrative."

****

Target Documentary Award (for Best Documentary Feature)

Winner: Those Who Remain (Los Que se Quedan) directed by Juan Carlos Rulfo and Carlos Hagerman

Producers: Juan Carlos Rulfo, Carlos Hagerman, Martha Sosa Elizondo, Nicolas Vale

Film Description: (Mexico) This intimate and discerning depiction of the impact of migration on families left behind by loved ones who travel north emerges as a nuanced portrait of "the other side" of the immigration story.

The Target Documentary Award carries an unrestricted cash prize of $50,000 funded by Target, offering the financial means to help filmmakers transfer their vision to the screen. The award recognizes the finest documentary film in competition, and is given to the director. A special jury selects the winner, and all documentary feature-length films screening in the Documentary Competition section were eligible.

In bestowing Juan Carlos Rulfo and Carlos Hagerman with the Target Documentary Award, the Jury stated:

"With its generosity of spirit and lyrical grace that illuminates a human landscape with fresh eyes, Those Who Remain reminds us that documentaries can be both journalism and poetry."

****

Target Dream in Color Award (for Best Short in the Future Filmmaker Showcase)

Winner: Lipstick directed by Sam Rubin

Producer: The Film Workshop of SF Art & Film

Cast: Sam Rubin

Film Description: A boy locks himself in a bathroom. His mother wants to know if he is OK.

The Target Dream in Color Award was given to Sam Rubin for Lipstick and recognizes a film that inspires audiences to dream without boundaries and share culture in a unique and positive way. This award is the first time a cash grant was given to a participant in the Los Angeles Film Festival's Future Filmmaker Showcase, a short film program targeted to young and talented emerging filmmakers in high school.

In bestowing Sam Rubin with the Target Dream in Color Award, the Jury stated:

"We congratulate all the filmmakers on their extraordinary work. While we were impressed with the scope and diversity of all the high school shorts, we select Lipstick, a simple and powerful film, which can inspire other future filmmakers to make movies with very little. Using just two props, one location, and two actors, the filmmaker creates a compelling story about a character dealing with personal yet universal issues of identity and communication. It is a visual film with a strong point of view. In Lipstick, we see both a present and future filmmaker."

****

Outstanding Performance in the Narrative Competition

Winner: Shayne Topp in Suzi Yoonessi's Dear Lemon Lima,

Film Description: "As sweet and colorful as a snow cone, this delightful happy-sad confection follows an awkward Alaskan teen as she discovers her Yup'ik heritage while rallying her fellow misfits to compete in her school's Snow-storm Survivor competition."

In bestowing Shayne Topp with Outstanding Performance recognition, the Jury stated:

"For his sophisticated and nuanced comic performance in a role that is often played in less subtle ways by more experienced actors, the award goes to Shayne Topp from Dear Lemon Lima,."

****

Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature

Winner: The Stoning of Soraya M. written by Betsy Giffen Nowrasteh and Cyrus Nowrasteh and directed by Cyrus Nowrasteh

Producers: Stephen McEveety, John Shepherd

Cast: Shohreh Aghdashloo, Mozhan Marnò, Jim Caviezel

Film Description: Based on Freidoune Sahebjam's international bestseller, this visceral drama, which tells the true story of a tragic incident of oppression, conspiracy and betrayal, gathers tension and outrage as it builds to its inevitable conclusion.

This award is given to the narrative feature audiences liked most as voted by a tabulated rating system. Select narrative feature-length films screening in the following sections were eligible for the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature: Narrative Competition, International Showcase, International Spotlight, Summer Showcase, Outdoor Screenings at the Ford Amphitheatre, Dark Wave, Guilty Pleasures, and Special Screenings.

****

Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature

Winner: Soul Power directed by Jeffrey Levy-Hinte

Producers: Leon Gast, Jeffrey Levy-Hinte, David Sonenberg

Featuring: James Brown, Bill Withers, B.B. King, The Spinners, Celia Cruz and the Fania All-Stars, Muhammad Ali, Don King, Stewart Levine

Film Description: This blazing concert film documents "Zaire '74," the sister event to the famed Ali/Foreman "Rumbling in the Jungle," featuring previously unseen performances by James Brown, B.B. King, Bill Withers, Celia Cruz and others.

This award is given to the documentary feature audiences liked most as voted on by a tabulated rating system. Select documentary feature-length films screening in the following sections were eligible for the Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature: Documentary Competition, International Showcase, International Spotlight, Summer Showcase, Outdoor Screenings at the Ford Amphitheatre, and Special Screenings.

****

Audience Award for Best International Feature

Winner: Born Without (Nacido Sin) written & directed by Eva Norvind

Producers: Eva Norvind, Nailea Norvind, Donald K. Ranvaud

Featuring: José Flores, Graciela Flores, Alejandro Jodorowsky

Film Description: (Mexico) A remarkably frank portrait of the lives and loves of José Flores - a street musician, actor, father of six, and Romeo who was born without arms and stands only three feet tall.

This award is given to the international feature audiences liked most as voted on by a tabulated rating system. Select international feature-length films, both narrative and documentary, in the Narrative Competition, Documentary Competition, International Showcase, International Spotlight, Summer Showcase, Outdoor Screenings at the Ford Amphitheatre, Dark Wave, and Special Screenings were eligible for the Audience Award for Best International Feature.

****

Best Narrative Short Film

Winner: Time and Again written & directed by Antonio Mendez Esparza

Producers: Florin Serban, Diana Wade

Cast: Pedro Santos, Erica Heras

Description: Pedro's dreams about his future are challenged by an unforeseen turn of events.

In bestowing Antonio Mendez Esparza with Best Narrative Short Film, the Jury stated:

"For its raw and atmospheric visual palette, bold use of real and rarely seen locations, and cast which brought a refreshing realism, the award goes to Time and Again, an ambitious portrait of an immigrant's struggle to find love in a new land."

****

Best Documentary Short Film

Winner: Replayground by Anna Gaskell

Producers: Anna Gaskell

Featuring: Brookti Berne, Harris Rosenberg, James Gray

Description: Roles are reversed in this hilarious reenactment of a children's quarrel.

In bestowing Anna Gaskell with Best Documentary Short Film, the Jury stated:

"The award goes to Replayground. The concept was so fresh and unexpected in its use of children's visions of their playground actions as content for a play that they would then be entrusted to cast and direct. A case of a brilliant premise carrying a film."

****

Best Animated Short Film

Winner: Skhizein by Jérémy Clapin

Producers: Wendy Griffiths, Stéphane Piera

Cast: Julien Boisseller, Theo Grimmelsen, Mado Debrus

Description: (France) After a 150-ton meteorite strikes, Henry's physical existence is forever altered.

In bestowing Jérémy Clapin with Best Animated Short Film, the Jury stated:

"The award goes to Skhizein, for its use of animation to tell a story no other medium could, that of a character who finds himself literally beside himself, creating an elegant interlocking of story animation and character."

****

Audience Award for Best Short Film

Winner: Instead of Abracadabra by Patrik Eklund

Producer: Mathias Fjellström

Cast: Simon J. Berger, Jacob Nordenson, Anki Larsson, Saga Gärde

Description: Tomas attempts to impress his family and the beautiful Monica with his dazzling feats of magic.

Awarded to the short film audiences liked most as voted on by a tabulated rating system. Short films screening in the Shorts Programs or before Narrative Competition, Documentary Competition, or International Showcase feature-length screenings were eligible for the Audience Award for Best Short Film.

****

Audience Award for Best Music Video

Winner: Grapevine Fires by Walter Robot

Music: Death Cab For Cutie

Description: When a wildfire rages through a small suburb, a boy must save his older brother, and in the process finds what is really important in life.

This award is given to the music video audiences liked most as voted on by a tabulated rating system.

Film of the Week: End of the Line

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 13:43:32 -0800

Environmental calamity documentaries have pretty much settled into a post-"Inconvenient Truth" pattern: some horrible human abuse of nature is going to wreck the planet if we don't change our ways soon; visual evidence and talking heads reinforce the premise; then a laundry list of what people can do to stave off disaster gets optimistically - and not a little hectoringly - proposed in the last 10 minutes.
"End of the Line" doesn't deviate from this formula. But maybe because its subject, the industrialized overfishing of our oceans that could lead to the end of seafood as we know it just a few decades from now, lends itself to marvelous underwater photography and fascinating sociological complexity. Whether it's making fun of a pretentious London sushi restaurateur, pointing out the starvation potentiel for traditional African and Asian fishing communities or plunging us in among thinning but still beautiful schools of tuna and cod, Rupert Murray's film is as engaging as it is alarming.
And unlike most docs of this ilk (and our future fish-eating options), it always seems fresh.

Film of the Week - Seraphine

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 12:47:47 -0800

The multiple Cesar Award-winner "Seraphine" doesn't go too far outside of the French tortured artist bio tradition. It differs from a lot of them, though, in that the film looks like it could have been painted by a master. Cinematographer Laurent Brunet and astounding lead actress Yolande Moreau make the movie an exceptional experience, whatever else may be conventional about it.
Moreau's lumpen intensity as the naive, somewhat nutty nature interpreter Seraphine Louis is a primal force in itself. Clomping around in noisy shoes, muttering in religious delirium and literally hugging trees, Moreau's Seraphine is unmistakably as addled as all of her neighbors and dismissive employers in the town of Senlis assume. But her single-minded urge to paint, often with colors she makes herself from crushed flowers, chicken blood and church candle wax, is a shrewd and disciplined endeavor. Moreau magnificently avoids presenting the frumpy, middle aged oddball as some kind of savant; she carefully reveals facets of Seraphine's personality and intellect even as she chart's the troubled woman's mental deterioration.
The film takes place in two basic acts. One in 1914 as the visiting German art collector Wilhelm Uhde (Ulrich Tukur) discovers his cleaning lady's extraordinary gift, gives her hope of fame and fortune, and then disappears as World War I brings an occupying army in from his Fatherland. The second half commences in the 1930s, when Uhde hooks back up with Seraphine, is even more impressed by her increasingly vivid flora canvases, lays more money on her than she's ever seen and . . . gets whacked by The Great Depression before he can mount her first major Paris exhibition, sending the fragile artist into a deeper emotional tailspin than ever before.
In Martin Provost's film, Uhde seems like a better-intentioned guy than the historical record of his actions may imply. And Provost's script apparently suggests too strongly that the artist was a raw, intuitive talent, when the many amazing paintings seen in the film unmistakably scream some degree of formal training. Clueless bourgeoisie, French snob and mad artist cliches pop up here and there, but the film's central virtues - especially Brunet's dark country nights and barely candlelit interiors - make a bracing, absorbing sit out of "Seraphine." And Moreau's the best actress I've seen in a movie all year.

Film of thew Week: Summer Hours

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 10:33:10 -0800

Olivier Assayas' "Summer Hours" asks big questions about the future of France's great culture in an increasingly internationalized world. It could've been quite pretentious, like some of Assayas' more trippy, stylized efforts ("Demonlover, "Boarding Gate") turned out to be. But the director quite winningly grounds his issues in a simple, straightforward family drama that rings true at every turn. This is essay cinema made all the more thoughtful by its commitment to observed humanity.
Three adult siblings - academic economist Frederic (Charles Berling), designer Adrienne (Juliette Binoche) and athletic shoe company executive Jeremie (Jeremie Renier) - must decide what to do with the family's country home and its small but significant collection of art treasures after the passing of their mother (elegant Edith Scob, the muse of Georges Franju's incomparable series of 1960s psycho thrillers).
Frederic wants to keep the place, which previously belonged to Mom's uncle (and, probably, lover), a noteworthy artist, and the collection iintact for his own and Jeremie's children.
But as his tween daughter says when shown the family's two Corots, "They're nice, but not what I like."
"It's another era," adds Frederic's son, summing up the film's thesis in an offhand nutshell.
Adrienne lives and works in New York and is engaged to an American. Jeremie has just been promoted to a position in Beijing, where high, post- Olympics living costs will keep his growing family in Asia more than ever, even for vacations. Being the only one still in France, Frederic accedes to the others' desires to sell off the estate and its contents. What follows is an emotionally wrought but very civilized examination of just what beautiful objects are worth monetarily, culturally and sentimentally.
Subtly but relentlessly, Assayas' ponders whether France's patrimony is being undermined by globalization and its attendant financial pressures - or just evolving its own distinctive way of coping and enduring. Evidence that the nation's rigorous intellectual heritage is in jeopardy appears everywhere; its representative Frederic seems particularly ill-suited for trying to defend a difficult book he's written on a talk show that, like they are on U.S. TV, is really only about shouty reductionism.
Then again, the kids appear just as devoted, in their own way, to culture and nature as their ancestors. And it was Frederic's own mother who advised him to offload the family treasures once she was no longer around to preserve her beloved uncle's legacy.
Quite marvelously, "Summer Hours'" acknowledges that changing times can often coarsen life, but must be dealt with to preserve whatever can be salvaged, and to create the next generation of thought, expression and memories.

Got Yourself a Little Focker?

Tue, 19 May 2009 12:09:58 -0800

If you think your kid can embarrass Ben Stiller, you might want to check out one of these upcoming casting calls:

** MEDIA ALERT**

OPEN CASTING CALL FOR YOUNG BOYS & GIRLS FOR UPCOMING
UNIVERSAL PICTURES FEATURE FILM

WHAT: Seeking 6-8 year-old boys and girls with a Caucasian look for feature film roles.

WHO: If chosen, they will play the roles of Henry and Ashley, the son and daughter of Greg and Pam Focker. Henry is a little oversensitive and kind. Ashley is a tomboy.
They must be available for work in California from July '09 through Oct '09.
No experience is necessary. Twins & multiples welcome!

WHERE: CHOICE OF 2 LOCATIONS:

Orange County:
Newport Beach Marriott Hotel & Spa
900 Newport Center Dr.
Newport Beach, CA 92660
**Free parking at Fashion Island or $4/hr parking at hotel

North Hollywood:
Debbie Reynolds Dance Studio
6514 Lankershim Blvd.
North Hollywood, CA 91606
**Free parking at studio or free street parking

DATE: Saturday May 30, 2009

TIME: Orange County location: 11 am - 4 pm
North Hollywood location: 12 pm - 5 pm

If you and your child are unable to attend this open call, please send a recent picture of your child
(and resume, if you have) to the following mailing address:

"Fockers" Casting
606 N. Larchmont Blvd., Suite 202
Los Angeles, CA 90004

or submit your child's photo and resume (if any) to castingfockers@gmail.com

AFI Film Festival Now Free and Open for Entries

Mon, 11 May 2009 11:03:54 -0800

This fall's AFI Film Festival will be free, more or less (see explanation in press release below). Don't know how I feel about that; after all, my press pass that got me into most screenings used to be a valuable commodity, but I guess I can share the access with other film fans in the name of doing something fun without paying for it during the recession.
Gonna be harder to get seats, though, I can tell you right now.

AFI FEST 2009 presented by Audi will be held October 30 - November 7 in Hollywood, California, celebrating its 23rd year as Los Angeles' premier film festival. This year, in recognition of Audi's 100 years of automotive innovation, AFI and Audi will offer complimentary tickets to all screenings, including a limited number of seats at the evening screenings and Galas, including Opening and Closing Night.

The festival will be headquartered at the historic Mann's Chinese Theatre between October 30 and November 5th, and then move to the seaside for screenings in Santa Monica presented in association with the American Film Market (AFM). The Hollywood Roosevelt returns as the festival's host hotel.

"AFI FEST presented by Audi brings the best of global cinema to the world capital of the art form," said Bob Gazzale, AFI President & CEO. "Presenting the screenings compliments of AFI and Audi is our way of reaching out to film lovers in these challenging times and inviting them to see a movie on us."

The festival will be programmed by Rose Kuo, AFI FEST Artistic Director, in partnership with longtime film writer Robert Koehler and AFI FEST programmer Lane Kneedler. " It is a thrill to have Robert join the AFI FEST team," said Kuo. "His critical eye has long been respected in the film community, and he has been an unwavering voice on behalf of the array of international filmmakers whom AFI FEST has championed from its very beginning."

AFI FEST 2009 presented by Audi will feature domestic and international works from emerging filmmakers, global showcases of the latest offerings from established artists, and red-carpet gala premieres. In addition to complimentary seating on a "first come" basis, patron passes for guaranteed seats at evening galas and tributes will be available for purchase and will allow priority access to all regular screenings.

AFI FEST presented by Audi is the only film festival in the United States to hold the prestigious FIAPF accreditation (www.FIAPF.org), assuring a high standard of quality and reliability for the international film community. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognizes AFI FEST as a qualifying festival for the Short Films category of the annual Academy Awards.

The AFI FEST presented by Audi early film submission deadline is June 19, 2009. The final deadline for shorts (under 30 minutes) is July 17, 2009. The final deadline for features (over 30 minutes) is July 31, 2009. Acceptance decisions will be announced no later than October 1, 2009. Submissions can be made at www.AFI.com/AFIFEST or by calling 1.866.AFI.FEST for more information.

The American Film Market (AFM), to be held November 4 -11, 2009, is the market partner of AFI FEST. Since its formation in 2004, this alliance has grown into the largest gathering of film professionals in North America. The association between the two events connects art and commerce, broadening the opportunities for all participants. A total of 30 films selected for last year's AFI FEST were also represented at AFM 2008.

AFI FEST 2008 presented by Audi enjoyed record attendance, as audiences turned out in force to view films and special events. Programming highlights from AFI FEST 2008 presented by Audi included the World Premiere of DOUBT with Meryl Streep and Amy Adams in attendance; a Tribute to Danny Boyle, which included the U.S. premiere of SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE with the director and cast on the red carpet; the U.S. premiere of THE WRESTLER with Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei and Darren Aronofsky in attendance; red carpet appearances by Benicio Del Toro, Dustin Hoffman, Emma Thompson, Mark Ruffalo, Joaquin Phoenix, Michelle Williams, Steven Soderbergh, Ed Zwick and Arnaud Desplechin; and access to the AFI Digital Content Lab's 2-day DigiFest conference.

Anvil Special Events Week

Mon, 11 May 2009 10:48:13 -0800

For a band that's been on the losing end for decades, cuddlty Canadian heavy metal outfit Anvil is doing all right for itself this recessionary spring. The documentary about them, "Anvil! The Story of Anvil" is hanging on tenaciously at art theaters (yes, I know, their audience and the hair contingeent usually don't cross, but it really is a sweet, interesting movie), and they've got live and TV performances scheduled in L.A. this week.

The informative press release is below:

95.5 KLOS AND LANDMARK THEATRES PRESENT

"THE ANVIL EXPERIENCE" IN LOS ANGELES ON WEDNESDAY, MAY 13TH

"Anvil! The Story Of Anvil" Screens at the Nuart, Performance by Anvil
to Follow

New York (May 11, 2009) - 95.5 KLOS and Landmark Theatres presents in
Los Angeles "The Anvil Experience," a special screening and concert of
the acclaimed documentary, "Anvil! The Story of Anvil," with a
performance by the band, Anvil. 95.5 KLOS is promoting the event on-air
and giving away 5 pairs of tickets to listeners. The event takes place
on Wednesday, May 13th and starts with the 10:30 p.m. showing of the
film at the Landmark's Nuart Theatre in West Los Angeles. To purchase
tickets for "The Anvil Experience," go to:
http://www.landmarktheatres.com/market/LosAngeles/NuartTheatre.htm.

Since debuting in theaters in April "Anvil! The Story of Anvil" has
already grossed $278,000 in only 25 theaters. Anvil band members Steve
"Lips" Kudlow and Robb Reiner were recently featured in Rolling Stone
and Newsweek, and they will make their appearance as guests on the couch
of "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" airing May 14 on ABC at 12:05 a.m. ET/PT.

"Anvil! The Story of Anvil" is the directorial debut of screenwriter
Sacha Gervasi ("The Terminal") and was produced by Rebecca Yeldham ("The
Kite Runner" and "The Motorcycle Diaries"). The film follows Steve
"Lips" Kudlow and Robb Reiner and their band, Anvil, which released one
of the heaviest albums in metal history, 1982's Metal on Metal. The
album influenced an entire musical generation of rock bands, including
Metallica, Slayer, and Anthrax, who all went on to sell millions of
records. Anvil, on the other hand, took a different path-straight to
obscurity. The film is both entertaining and touching as it follows
their last-ditch quest for the fame and fortune that has been so elusive
to them. "Anvil! The Story of Anvil" is a timeless tale of survival and
the unadulterated passion it takes to follow your dream, year after
year.

Praised as "The best documentary I've seen in years," by documentarian
Michael Moore, "Anvil! The Story of Anvil" contains appearances by an
array of heavy metal icons, including Metallica's Lars Ulrich, former
member of Guns N' Roses' Slash, Anthrax's Scott Ian, and Slayer's Tom
Araya, among others.

Celebrities unconnected to the film have rallied around it, urging their
fans to see "Anvil" in theaters. Among them are: Ryan Gosling, Dustin
Hoffman, Benji and Joel Madden of Good Charlotte, Maroon 5, John Mayer,
Mandy Moore, Keanu Reeves, Morgan Spurlock and Rob Thomas.

"Anvil! The Story of Anvil" is distributed by VH1 in association with
Abramorama. This fall, VH1 will release the film on television and DVD
under its Emmy Award-winning "VH1 Rock Docs" franchise.

Film of the Week

Sun, 10 May 2009 14:02:46 -0800

It's Star Trek, of course, but everyone already knows that that's a mostly rockin' reboot of the venerable sci fi series, whose main debit is too many convenient plot turns.
The same complaint can be made about Revanche, the Oscar-nominated Austrian thriller that opened at the Nuart this weekend. Except that its writer-director, Gotz Spielmann, uses coincidence as a kind of fateful key to exploring moral and emotional subtleties, not just to goose the action along.
Smalltime loser Alex (Johannes Krisch), in love with a Ukrainian prostitute (Irina Potapenko), cooks up a "foolproof" bank heist to get them out of their dead-end Vienna lives and, hopefully, to Ibiza. It almost goes off without a hitch - except there's one big one.
This forces Alex to lay low at his cranky grandfather's farm, which just happens to be situated next to the property owned by the village cop, Robert (Andreas Lust), who tried to stop the bank job. Eaten up with remorse about how it all played out, Robert grows distant from his friendly, church-going, desperate-to-have-a-baby wife Susanne (Ursula Strauss). She's already in the habit of stopping by the farm to look in on the old man, and can't help but notice Alex obsessively -and impressively - chopping firewood to work off his angst.
However contrived things get, Spielmann and his superb ensemble keep the resulting behavior and its implications so fresh and fascinating that this sex-charged suspenser quite convincingly evolves into an almost spiritual story. Guilt, deception and vengeance fuel much of the action, but growth, connection and taking very personal kinds of responsibility become possibilities that may just save all of these flawed and floundering characters from self-willed destruction.Gritty yet pristinely shot, unblinking toward life's ugliness yet meditative as to its possibilities, Revanche is hardly the kind of expertly tuned thrill ride Star Trek so satisfyingly is.
It runs at a to a much slower, contemplative rhythm. But it's better engineered for the kind of thing it is, and even more exciting in its insight into the soul.