MOVIE REVIEW
American Swing (2009)
Magnolia Pictures
Jon Hart and Matthew Kaufman have chosen a fertile subject for a documentary in Plato’s Retreat, the famed late 1970s New York swingers' club that emerged towards the end of the era of sexual innocence and couldn’t survive its downfall. More than a haven for the erotically minded, Plato’s captured the zeitgeist in no uncertain terms. It translated the downtrodden distrust rampant in the post-Vietnam, post-Watergate period into a hopeful vision of a sort of communal utopia.
Continue reading “Dives for Swingin’ Lovers” »
Eniac Martinez/Focus Features
Making a first feature film is guaranteed to be an enormous challenge, but there are ways to alleviate the burden. One such method is to bring aboard creative talent with whom you’ve had a history, be it in short films, film school or some other outlet. Another is to keep the film small and personal, writing and directing what you know without having to worry about big budgets and the attendant complications.
Instead of making things easier on himself, Cary Joji Fukunaga made them harder. For his debut, the New York University MFA student and native of Oakland, Calif. traveled to Honduras and Mexico, learned a foreign language and directed non-professional actors in a complicated world with which he hadn’t the slightest personal familiarity, with a crew bereft of prior creative partners.
Continue reading “Que viva México” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Carmen and Geoffrey (2009)
First Run Features
No couple has shaped modern dance as wholly as Carmen de Lavallade and Geoffrey Holder. Over the course of their five decades of marriage, they have ascended to the upper reaches of their shared profession as both dancers and choreographers. Ms. de Lavallade, who worked closely with Alvin Ailey and served as her husband’s principal muse, and Mr. Holder, Tony winner for “The Wiz,” are indelible cultural icons and worthy subjects for the documentary “Carmen and Geoffrey” by Linda Atkinson and Nick Doob.
Continue reading “It Takes Two Choreographers to Tango for Life” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Duplicity (2009)
Andrew Schwartz/Universal Pictures
“Duplicity” crams into its two-hour running time enough outwitting, outplaying and outlasting for a season of “Survivor,” just as many international destinations as a season of “The Amazing Race,” and more corporate intrigue than five years of “The Apprentice.” Of course, writer-director Tony Gilroy’s follow-up to “Michael Clayton” is by no means a response to reality television, but it does make apparent why so many casual viewers have jilted the dramatic form altogether during the past decade. You simply haven’t had this much fun at the multiplex in a long, long time.
Continue reading “An Infernal Affair to Remember” »
MOVIE REVIEW
I Love You, Man (2009)
Scott Garfield/Paramount Pictures
Paul Rudd and Jason Segel grace the cover of the April issue of Vanity Fair, where they join Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill as the faces of a group the magazine calls “Comedy’s New Legends.” It’d be hard to argue about the pronouncement or, really, about the choices of cover stars, although Will Ferrell and Steve Carell might have something to say about that.
Continue reading “The Object of His Disaffection” »
MOVIE REVIEW
The Great Buck Howard (2009)
Magnolia Pictures
“The Great Buck Howard” works because writer-director Sean McGinly had the good sense to cast John Malkovich as the title character, and because Mr. Malkovich knew he could do wonders with the role and said yes. Although the screenplay adopts the perspective of Troy (Colin Hanks), assistant to the past-his-prime mentalist Buck Howard, this movie belongs to its star. A cauldron of limitless energy, maniacal narcissism and full-throttle passion for his art, the character casts such a giant shadow over the production that the picture lives or dies based on the success of his portrayal. Thankfully, Mr. Malkovich makes him one of the standout characters in a unique, prestigious career.
Continue reading “Has-Been Mentalist Draws More Tricks From His Sleeve” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Sin Nombre (2009)
Eniac Martinez/Focus Features
Most filmmakers keep things on a small, personal scale when making their first feature. Such isn't the case for Cary Joji Fukunaga, the Oakland-born writer-director of “Sin Nombre.” He immersed himself in an unfamiliar culture, shot his film in a foreign language, and came away with a work of great raw power. An immigration drama in the grand tradition of movies like “El Norte,” the movie is alternately brutal and affecting, filled with big dreams and crushing realities.
Continue reading “Amores perros de hecho” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Cold Souls (2009)
2009 Sundance Film Festival
“Cold Souls” is a film made with such confidence and such a trained eye for nuanced storytelling, that one would be forgiven for mistaking first-time filmmaker Sophie Barthes for a seasoned pro. Deftly balancing its symbolic and philosophical underpinnings with deadpan human comedy, the movie successfully operates on multiple levels.
Continue reading “Being Paul Giamatti in the City of Lost Souls” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Tokyo Sonata (2008)
Regent Releasing
"So·na·ta (n.): a musical composition of three or four movements of contrasting forms." – Dictionary.com.
In a curious exercise, Kiyoshi Kurosawa quite literally applies the musical definition of a sonata to his visual study of modern-day life in Tokyo. The subject is family, the unifying theme dysfunction. His characters are the instruments that play out his contradictions in style and form, juxtaposing the director's various genre practices against each other in one cumulative whole. The result: "Tokyo Sonata," a collection of narrative movements that feels as grand – and yet concise – as any musical sonata piece by Beethoven or Mozart.
Continue reading “When Bright Future Eludes, a Family Unites” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Sunshine Cleaning (2009)
Lacey Terrell/Overture Films
“Sunshine Cleaning” often adheres to Sundance archetypes, particularly those featured in another recent Sundance hit with “Sunshine” in its title. A happy-sad, quirky story of a dysfunctional family, the movie features wide shots of the main characters framed against off-kilter backdrops, close-ups on cathartic moments, Alan Arkin as a kooky grandpa and an oversized van.
However, the comparisons stop there, as “Sunshine Cleaning” quickly establishes itself as a work of more meaning and substance than its better know predecessor. It benefits greatly from the inspired casting by director Christine Jeffs and her team, and the insights into loss and motherhood professed by Megan Holley’s screenplay.
Continue reading “Sister Act Mops Up Blood and Tears” »