MOVIE REVIEW
The Spirit (2008)
Lionsgate/Odd Lot Entertainment
In "The Spirit," director Frank Miller takes Will Eisner's 1940s comic strip and drop-kicks it into a Wurlitzer jukebox of noise, melodrama and illogic. He also gives a clear indication of just how much the big-screen version of "Frank Miller's Sin City" came from Robert Rodriguez, since claims that the two films look the same are a long way off the mark. The green-screen method may be similar, but "The Spirit" lacks almost all of "Sin City's" detailed atmospheric backgrounds and visual tics. Instead, Mr. Miller opts for something much more archetypal, laying on his splashes of color with the broadest brush he could lay his hands on. It also lacks "Sin City's" whiff of insanity, a much more damaging loss. "The Spirit" is many things, but it is not out of control; and its biggest flaw is the air of cold calculation that hangs over it. Mr. Miller is being accused of having lost his marbles, but any sign that the director was having an actual brainstorm would have livened things up no end.
Continue reading “The Kiss of Death” »
The Times BFI 52nd London Film Festival
Film culture is strong in Bristol. The largest city in the south west of England is home to Aardman Animation and several other long-established production houses, and was traditionally an engine of BBC production; John Boorman once headed the Corporation’s mighty Documentary Unit from here. But these are uncertain times. The BBC is retreating to cheaper points of the compass, Aardman are cutting staff numbers, and on the fringes of the Encounters Short Film Festival, Chris Hopewell of Bristol music video producers Collision Films was downbeat about his trade as a traditional starting point for aspiring film makers: “Don’t bother,” he said. “Music video as a tool for film making has fallen by the wayside under the onslaught of YouTube.” The Google Goliath was to be the subject of much debate as the festival progressed.
Continue reading “Always Plenty of Brass to Go Around” »
Doralba/www.doralba.com
Soho never sleeps. At 7:30 on a Sunday morning, there’s still music and flesh in the ballroom of London’s Soho Revue Bar, the house that porn baron Paul Raymond built. Disconcertingly, the music is a sweet piano rendition of “Begin the Beguine,” and the exposed skin is down to the rehearsal gear worn by the three friendly dancers warming up with pliés and turns. The result is a long way from Soho bump and grind.
Upstairs in the Piano Bar, it is a different story. A crew from ALM Talkies and February Films is jammed into the tiny space, and there's energy in the air – not least since director Abner Pastoll and his director of photography Kathinka Minthe are discussing how best to bathe the room in a deep red light. But the real spark in the room is coming from their subject. Against one wall, a brunette in a red latex dress split way up the right side is miming to playback of a song. She does it in silhouette, then in profile, and eventually looks to camera, backlit by the color of blood to no small effect.
This musical number and the feature film which it climaxes are her brain child. The film is “Dirty Step Upstage;” the lady is 27-year-old actress Amber Moelter. And despite the high style, the fetish outfit and the blood-red wash, she's here to tell a true story. Sort of.
Continue reading “Latex Dreams” »
MOVIE REVIEW
My Winnipeg (2008)
Jody Shapiro/IFC Films
The official story is that “My Winnipeg”
is Guy Maddin’s first documentary, commissioned by the Documentary Channel as a
portrait of the director’s hometown and a memoir of his childhood roots.
Straight-faced press releases describe Mr. Maddin’s qualms that the exacting
demands of discipline and patience in the documentary form had put him off
tackling one until now. Not for the first time, Mr. Maddin is having you on.
Continue reading “Dispatches From the Capital of Sorrow” »
