AFI FEST 2009: NORTH BY NORTHWEST

AFI Fest screens Hitchcock classic

By Ed Rampell

When I was attending Hunter College film school, classmates criticized me for stating that the ending of 1959’s North by Northwest symbolized Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint having sexual intercourse. The next class I brought in Francois Truffaut’s book of interviews with Hitchcock (Hitchcock/Truffaut), wherein the "Master of Suspense" confirmed my suspicions.

Part of this year's Special Presentations program this tongue-in-cheek espionage thriller is fraught with symbolism, including what is arguably screendom’s greatest chase sequence: a relentless crop duster in hot pursuit of Grant at a cornfield, hellbent on turning the pre-Don Draper (m)ad man into dust. The Mount Rushmore sequence is also immortal. Hitchcock also built replicas of the U.N., a Frank Lloyd Wright house, etc., for this classic with its quintessentially Hitchcockian theme of a wrong man being pursued. (As Hitch vacationed frequently at the Swiss Alps’ swankiest five star hotel, Badrutt’s Palace, at idyllic St. Moritz, it’s hard to comprehend how the director could have such a pessimistic outlook.)

A cinematic gem featuring one of those unforgettable Bernard Herrmann scores, AFI has a film preservation and historical mission it richly lives up to by screening North by Northwest. Don’t miss this good fun, sit-on-the-edge-of-your-seat movie masterpiece – and that cheeky final shot.

(North by Northwest is scheduled to screen Nov. 2, 6:30 p.m., at Mann Chinese Theater 1, 6801 Hollywood Blvd. For more info: 866/I-FEST; www.afi.com)

AFI FEST 2009: PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL "PUSH" BY SAPPHIRE

A gaze of abuse: Gabourey Sidibe stars in Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire.

A bearable darkness of being

By Don Simpson

Set in Harlem, Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire is the heart-wrenching tale of Clareece “Precious” Jones (Gabourey Sidibe), an obese, illiterate, abused and molested 16-year-old African-American girl.

Impregnated for the second time by her father, Precious is expelled from high school; but her principal, who recognizes Precious’ true potential, refers her to an alternative school with an intimate student-to-teacher ratio and teachers and counselors who work well with troubled students.

As things improve at school, matters at home spin out of control. Precious’ welfare queen mother (Mo’Nique) has always treated her as a slave and a human punching bag; but the abuse escalates ten-fold once Precious brings her second baby home from the hospital. Despite her blank expression, Precious is an intelligent and curious young woman with an amazing desire to break out of her predicament.

Still buzzing from scoring the Audience Award and the Grand Jury Prize for best drama at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and the People's Choice award at Toronto International Film Festival, Precious is being featured as a Gala Screening at AFI Fest 2009.

Should we believe the hype? The brutally honest performances by Sidibe and Mo'Nique (many critics are already predicting that both women will be strong contenders during the awards season) are juxtaposed with hyper-real images dripping with oversaturated yellows, oranges and reds. Precious is an emotional roller coaster and true Hollywood fodder; and with Oprah Winfrey's support, the possibilities are endless. (Highly Recommended)

(Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire is scheduled to screen Nov. 1, 7 p.m., Grauman's Chinese Theatre, 6925 Hollywood Blvd. For more information: 866/AFI-FEST; www.afi.com)

AFI FEST 2009: WOMAN WITHOUT PIANO

A Spanish Woman without Piano fading to gray.

Nights in Madrid

By Don Simpson

In this New Lights Competition selection, director Javier Rebollo and his regular co-writer Lola Mayo tell the story of a bored housewife (Carmen Machi) who, upon bedtime, dons heavy makeup and a black wig as she heads outside to wander the streets of Madrid with suitcase in hand – she cannot sleep because there is a constant buzz buzz buzz in the drum of her ear.

Reminiscent of Jacques Tati’s Monsieur Hulot, we observe her aimlessly walking for a majority of the film (in high heels, no less) as she witnesses the most mundane facets of Madrid’s nocturnal activities to its most absurd. Adding another layer to the aimlessness, the story coincides with the commencement of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

(Woman without Piano is scheduled to screen Nov. 1, 4 p.m., at Mann Chinese Theater, 6801 Hollywood Blvd. For more information: 866/AFI Fest; www.afi.com)

AFI FEST 2009: GUY AND MADELINE ON A PARK BENCH

Jason Palmer and Desiree Garcia star in Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench. Photograph by W.A.W. Parker.

Nouvelle Vague novelties

By John Esther

If you are heading to AFI Fest 2009 this weekend with a companion who generally refers to non-Hollywood movies as "weird," you may find some middle ground with Damien Chazelle's Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench.

With all the dumbed-down narrative virtuosity of Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, Chazelle's film apes superior Nouvelle Vague directors and their films of the early 1960s (Jean-Luc Godard, in particular) and sets it to a bourgeois jazz score -- performed by the Bratislava Symphony Orchestra -- so non-threatening one could imagine Sen. Joe Lieberman tapping his toes. And like the most overrated film of the 1990s, Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench pretty much ends and starts in the same place, only to move the narrative just a bit into the future for its optimistic conclusion.

Before the 83rd minute of the film Guy (Jason Palmer) meets, mistreats, seeks and tweaks for girl, Madeline (Desiree Garcia). He is a trumpeter working his way up the jazz ladder. She is an unambitious, barely employable gal breaking into noxious song and dance. They miss each other in many ways, but cannot find the courage or coincidence to bring them back together. Fortunately, these shortcoming are nothing a feel-good goody goodness film cannot overcome.

A 20/20 selection for AFI Fest 2009, Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench is the kind of film you would expect to see from Hollywood yesteryear: shot in black and white (by Chazelle); bad boy and troubled girl coming together in the big city; people breaking into song; flagrant sentimentality; and finding security in the future.

Of course, old golden Hollywood would never cast someone like Palmer or Garcia as the leads in a romantic film. Yet that hardly makes for social progress or independent cinema (beyond budget). A reactionary film, Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench just uses a few certain challenging tropes, which are hardly radical today, and makes it more palatable to less adventurous audiences.

(Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench is scheduled to screen Oct. 31, 2 p.m., at Mann Chinese Theater 6, 6801 Hollywood Blvd. For more information: 866/AFI-FEST; www.afi.com)

AFI FEST 2009: FIRST OF ALL, FELICIA

Mother-daughter dynamics are explored in First of All, Felicia.

(S)mothering, Romanian style

By Miranda Inganni

This New Lights Competition film opens with Felicia (Ozana Oancea) waking up on her final day of her annual visit with her parents in Romania. When her driver to the airport cancels, 40-year-old Felicia is left taking a cab. If that were not bad enough, her mother (Ileana Cernat) insists on joining her for the ride. When Felicia misses her flight back to The Netherlands, she frantically calls her ex-husband, Maarten, to arrange for their son’s pick up from camp. While Felicia deals with her parents and sister in Romania, she also has to take care of her family in The Netherlands.

The majority of the film takes place in the airport while Felicia tries to reschedule her flight. Her mother’s “help” seems more of an hindrance than anything, and it doesn’t make matters better that both her father and sister keep calling her with his or her own suggestions of what she can do to expedite her return. As Felicia’s frustration at trying to find a flight increases, so does the friction between mother and daughter. Felicia finally speaks her mind, letting her emotions lose.

Filmed in sunny yellows – almost sepia tones – the warmth of the visuals betray the tension between mother and daughter.

Directed by Melissa de Raaf and Razvan Radulescu, First of All, Felicia feels more like a play than a film with its minimal locations and considerable dialogue. Moreover, the story offers little new in the way of mother-daughter dynamics. However Oancea and Cernat offer powerful performances, perhaps drawing from their own experiences?

On another note, First of All, Felicia is in Romanian and Dutch. The Romanian dialogue is accompanied with subtitles; the Dutch, for some odd reason, is not.

(First of All, Felicia is scheduled to screen Oct. 31 at 1 p.m., at the Mann Chinese Theater 1, 6801 Hollywood Blvd. For more information: 866/AFI-FEST; www.afi.com)

AFI FEST 2009: IN THE ATTIC

Other worlds move in Jiří Barta's In the Attic.

By Don Simpson

Jiří Barta, along with fellow Czech Jan Švankmajer, is one of the foremost stop-motion animation directors in the history of cinema.

In the Attic (Na pude aneb Kdo má dneska narozeniny) marks Barta’s long-awaited return to animation after 20 years (he encountered difficulties releasing films after the communist government in Czechoslovakia fell).

Screening in the World Cinema category, In the Attic is an intricately designed fairy tale about friendship and standing up to tyranny. When the female doll Buttercup is kidnapped by the evil henchmen of the Head, her best friends – Teddy (a bear), Sir Handsome (a wooden stick figure), and Schubert (a ball of clay) – undertake an epic quest to save her.

Barta’s stunning surrealist creation turns linens and plastic bags into treacherous water obstacles, pillows into fluffy clouds, and vacuums into airplanes. (Recommended)

(In the Attic is scheduled to screen Oct. 31, 10 a.m., at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, 6801 Hollywood Blvd; and Nov. 6, 3:15 p.m. at Santa Monica Laemmle Theater 4, 1332 2nd St
Santa Monica. For more information: 866/AFI-FEST or www.afi.com)

AFI FEST 2009: BEST WORST MOVIE

Art for the sake of something? A scene from Best Worst Movie.

Camp cult celebrity

By Don Simpson

Directed by Claudio Fragasso (under the pseudonym Drake Floyd), Troll 2 bears absolutely no relation to Troll. In fact it has nothing to do with trolls at all; it’s about vegetarian goblins who turn people into plants in order to eat them. The goblin costumes consist of burlap clothes stuffed with foam rubber and latex masks (only one with a movable mouth) and the acting and dialogue exceeds even what some might consider “camp value.”

Featured in the ALT_Cinema category, Best Worst Movie explores the theory that bad movies can still be fun to watch. Director Michael Paul Stephenson (who starred as Joshua Waits in Troll 2) investigates the unsuspected rise to cult status of a film that was once deemed the worst film of all time by IMDB.com, primarily focusing on the newfound struggles with cult celebrity status faced by his on-screen father (George Hardy).

AFI FEST 2009: MODUS OPERANDI

Screw your eyes into Frankie Latina's Modus Operandi.

Grindhouse action at AFI

By John Esther

During an extensively long roll of the opening credits, writer-director-editor-set designer Frankie Latina sets the tone and texture of Modus Operandi. Worshiping the most vulgar aspects of independent cinema circa early 1970s, the film adheres, deconstructs, and reworks those iconographic signs of exploitation, politics, motifs and hardcore of the times while maintaining a joyous feeling of collaborative filmmaking.

Once an international legend of his own making, former CIA agent, Stanley Cashay (Randy Russell), downs his days in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with booze and thoughts of avenging his wife's death. On the verge of suicide, Stanley receives an offer from his former boss (Danny Trejo) that he will not refuse: recover a few caches belonging to a conservative presidential candidate, Squire Parks (Michael Sottile), and he can have his wife's killers. Why they have been withholding this information from their their top assassin is one of the many miscues (and questions) of the movie's convoluted plot. Or is it just missing reel or two?

Recharged with a purpose, Cashay sobers up and calls on a few hit-persons he knew before the hitting-the-bottle days. Quickly the blood starts flowing, heads start exploding, double agents are double crossed and sadistic torture is the death du jour. Oh, but not to worry, dear hippies, there is probably more nudity, sex and camaraderie than killing -- although the two frequently collide.

Many of the murders are extremely violent (a head is blown off; another head is dragged off by a horse; snuff films) while a few are downright silly (a playing card to the forehead; a sheik takes a nunchucka to the noggin). The violent special effects work to various effect -- no doubt sometimes deliberately.

As far as tapping into the massive misogyny of its predecessors, unlike the vast array of movies of exploitative ilk, Modus Operandi has its share of miscegenation, sex with multiple partners of different sexes, and plenty of nudity from different genders (something those two primary prudes behind Grindhouse geek-ly avoided while going gaga for gore).

Latina and his large multicultural cast and crew are clearly enjoying the collaborative effort of making a cheesy, low budget movie set in their town. A lot of the actors here have no more to do than show up for a scene, strip, play party, kill and die. Independent cinema will never die with as long as there is artistic collaboration (thus, supposing, the long opening credits giving them their due).

Part of the Alt_Cinema at this year's AFI Fest, Modus Operandi offers grinds out a little more than what one expected. If you like this kind of content in general, you are in for some fun.

(Modus Operandi is scheduled to screen Oct. 31, 12:15 a.m. at Mann Chinese Theater, 6801 Hollywood Blvd. For more information: 866/AFI FEST or www.afi.com)

AUSTIN FILM FESTIVAL 2009: PART TWO

Dream stops, drummer poor, kidney bingos, needs D Tour.

Part Two: October 25-27

By Don Simpson


Alabama Moon – Moon (Jimmy Bennett) and his Pap (J.D. Evermore) are living the Libertarian dream – homesteading in the backcountry of rural Alabama. Pap raises Moon to never trust anyone, especially the government. That’s all well and good, until Pap dies and leaves eleven-year-old Moon alone in the wilderness. It’s not long before the local constable (Clint Howard) – who obviously learned everything he knows from Roscoe P. Coltrane – and his hound dog are hot on Moon’s trail. Director Tim McCanlies turns what could have been a hokey children’s movie into a rich (and sometimes very sad) philosophical essay on human existence a la Into the Wild. Assuming the worst after McCanlies’ disappointing Secondhand Lions, this was actually one of the most pleasant surprises at AFF.

D Tour – Pat Spurgeon is a musician whose lifelong dream of being in a successful rock band is coming true with his band, Rogue Wave. Unfortunately, just as Rogue Wave starts to take off, Spurgeon’s kidney (a transplant he received 13 years prior) begins to show signs of failing. As a career musician, Spurgeon is uninsured and has no back-up plan. Faced with twice-a-day dialysis and a search for a new kidney, Spurgeon simultaneously prepares to embark on a grueling tour with Rogue Wave (he does not want to forfeit his lifelong dream). D Tour follows Spurgeon on his rocky and emotional quest for a matching kidney. Produced, directed, shot and co-edited by Jim Granato, D Tour deals with two seminal issues for the health and well-being of the world: the need for adequate and affordable health care for everyone and the importance of being an organ donor. We are reminded that most musicians, evenly the successful ones, are barely making ends meet financially – they can barely afford to eat healthy diets, let alone afford health care on their own. Needless to say this story is a real tearjerker.

How I Got Lost – Cleverly book-ended by two significantly traumatic dates for New Yorkers in the aughts (September 11, 2001 and August 14, 2003), How I Got Lost tells the story of two friends who are caught in a downward spiral into the depths of depression. Andrew has developed a taste for booze, which he hopelessly attempts to balance with his career as a trader on Wall Street. Andrew’s best friend, Jake, is a broken-hearted sports writer – he was recently dumped by the love of his life, Sarah (Nicole Vicius). Andrew loses his Wall Street job and Jake opts to assist Andrew recoup as a distraction from all that is wrong in his own life. Andrew convinces Jake that they need to hit the road. During the road trip, Jake encounters multiple people who help him find direction in his life. However, the trip does not have the same outcome for Andrew. Written and directed by Joe Leonard, How I Got Lost is a bittersweet and intimate drama about discovering happiness and meaning in the midst of turmoil.

Stoner – The premise: four housemates who are perpetually stoned. Michael (Michael Greene – also the writer and director) is soon to be a college graduate. His mother (Cyndi Williams) is always on his back about taking responsibility and getting a real job, but Michael would rather get high. Eventually Michael realizes that he could make some mad cash if he started dealing…drugs that is. Unfortunately, everything that can go wrong for Michael does. Something Michael was never taught in dealer school: You should always know your clients. (Just like clients should always know their dealer.) Mark (Eddie Mathis) is a womanizer and seems to attract some fine ladies. Unfortunately, Mark makes some poor choices and winds up getting a hefty punishment for not keeping his wiener in his trousers. Kirun (Kerem Sanga) is the book-smart, antisocial one of the house. He discovers weed and comes out of his shell…maybe a little too far out of his shell. Dan (Dan Bui) is a kick-ass banjo player – man can he riff on that thing. He seems like a good kid. Unfortunately, some psycho self-help freak-a-zoid named Kuldeep (Aravindh Ragunathan) takes a liking to him. All in all, Stoner is fun.

Strigoi – Vampires are the new black these days, with multiple primetime television shows staring vampires and an onslaught of Hollywood vampire movies. What differentiates Strigoi from the other vampire fare is that there is nothing sexy or seductive about Strigoi. Written and directed by Faye Jackson, Strigoi focuses on another common trait of vampire tales – the metaphor. In Strigoi, the metaphor is purely political: bloodsucking communist landowners. Jackson also relies upon the original Romanian folklore about strigoi, rather than the much bastardized version of the vampire found in pop culture. Vlad (Catalin Paraschiv) returns home to Romania after living abroad. He stumbles upon a mysterious death that has been ruled accidental but smells of foul play – it also seems someone forged his name on the autopsy report. Curious about overt coverup, Vlad commences an investigation. The obvious bad guy is communist bully Constantin Tirescu (Constantin Barbulescu) – who we witness being buried at the opening of the film. Vlad does not know that Constantin was already killed as he interviews the undead commie bastard about the murder.

AFI FEST 2009: LONDON RIVER

Brenda Blethyn and Sotigui Kouyate star in London River.


Multiculturalism matters

By John Esther

From the opening moments of this 20/20, World Cinema selection you know which way London River flows. Protestant Elisabeth (Brenda Blethyn) listens to a sermon about loving your neighbor while Muslim Ousmane (Sotigui Kouyate) prays toward Mecca in solitude. Both are resigned to their fates, existing for the sake of existing.

On July 7, 2005, terrorists strike several veins of transport, killing dozens and sending both believers into panic mode. Where are there children? Elisabeth leaves Guernsey (a Channel Island) while Ousame leaves a forest in France, both heading to London. She is looking for her daughter, Jane, while he is looking for his son, Ali.

Because of the connection between Ali and Jane, Elisabeth and Ousmane continually encounter each other. She is full of mistrust of the Muslim; he is full of regret for leaving Ali when his son was 6. Although she raised her Jane and he did not raise his Ali, neither parent really knows her or his child. She is bedazzled by her daughter's choices while he fears for the worst with his son.

Directed and co-written by Rachid Bouchareb, London River packs quite a bit of drama for a 90-minute film. It is anyone's guess whether the children are still alive. Both parents must go through the horrors of visiting hospitals and morgues in the chance his or her child was a victim of the attacks. Do they really want to find them? Under these circumstances, ignorance may be bliss compared to knowledge.

Elizabeth is plenty ignorant to begin with, considering her husband a hero in "the war" of the Falkland Islands in 1982 (the undeclared war lasted 72 days and claimed an estimated 1000 casualties) and oblivious to people speaking Arabic ("Who speaks Arabic," she asks?), she is one of those bourgeois Britain's the other classes love to hate. At least she speaks French; but, then again, everybody (cop, butcher, Imam) speaks French in this film so Ousame does not have to try speaking English. Phew!

Thanks to the tremendous performances of Blethyn and Kouyate the drama has a greater impact. For what is at stake here, as Armand Amar's score aurally illustrates, is the wish by fanatics to kill the narrative of modernist multiculturalism and how terrorism -- in the long run, not the short -- assures that people from different cultures will eventually have a greater understanding of each other. After all, grief, guilt, and guile are universal languages and nobody can blow that away. (Recommended)

(London River screens Oct. 30, 7 p.m., at Mann Chinese Theater 1, 6801 Hollywood Blvd. For more information: 866/AFI-FEST; www.afi.com.)

AFI FEST 2009: EVERYONE ELSE

Gitti (Birgit Minichmayr) and Chris (Lars Eidinger) fight like Everyone Else.

No exit

By John Esther

Gitti (Birgit Minichmayr) and Chris (Lars Eidinger) should be having the loving time of their lives. Here the German couple are staying in his mother's lovely villa in Italy. The weather is lovely, he has a good job, she can ignore her job even more, and they have all the solitude for spontaneous sex any time. But instead, they focus most of their time bickering, fighting, and hurting each other emotionally -- just like everyone else?

Written and directed by Maren Ade (The Forest for the Trees) the first part of the New Lights Competition film focuses on what makes the couple work. They have a certain dynamic suggesting they feel extraordinarily hipper than everyone else, especially Chris' mother, who has these funny collections around the place. This tragically hip attitude loses altitude when Gitti, a flaky publicist with an unremarkable intellect, challenges everyone else on his or her opinions. Rather than stick it in for his wife, Chris sticks up for his friends, and rightfully so. (While I would not call it misogyny, Ade clearly likes the male characters more than her female ones in Everyone Else.)

A two-hour film feeling a lot longer, despite the gorgeous cinematography by Bernhard Keller and the solid performance by the two leads, Everyone Else putters like a poor play. Too much of the movements, actions and reactions have a staged feeling. This may be somewhat the point considering the last 30 minutes of the film where Gitti commits two or three actions so obnoxious and melodramatic it is hard not to root for Chris to kick her right out of this stage in his life. That he does not makes you wonder what she has to do to get him to exit the couple.

(Everyone Else is scheduled to screen Oct. 30, 9:30 p.m. at Mann Chinese Theater 6, 6801 Hollywood Blvd. For more information: 866/AFI-FEST; www.afi.com.)

AUSTIN FILM FESTIVAL 2009: PART ONE

Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire was heavily hyped at AFF 2009.


Part One: October 22-24

By Don Simpson

Running October 22-29, the 2009 Austin Film Festival has been one of the strongest years in the festival’s 16-year lifespan. Film attendance, especially of badge-holders, appears to be up significantly with sold-out screenings across the city. There has been great competition in the narrative and documentary categories, as well as several high profile “marquee” premieres (An Education, Youth in Revolt, The Road, Precious and Up in the Air just to name a few). Following is the first in a series of posts on films I’ve seen at the festival.

Serious Moonlight – The festival opened with a true screenwriting gem, Serious Moonlight. The film begins with Ian (Timothy Hutton) as he travels to a quaint vacation home in the country. Ian had planned on arriving a day earlier than his wife, Louise (Meg Ryan), in order to rendezvous with his mistress (Kristen Bell) for a trip to Paris; he planned on leaving a note behind for Louise to break off their marriage. Unfortunately for Ian, his charade is thwarted by Louise who also arrives early. When Louise discovers Ian’s scheme to leave her, she restrains Ian with duct tape in a last ditch attempt to convince him not to leave her. Throughout the film the audience is left uncertain of whom to be sympathetic of: the insane wife or cheating husband? Penned by the late Adrienne Shelley, the script is chock-full of clever Hitchcockian twists along with a strong (and mysterious) conclusion. Very conservatively directed by first-timer Cheryl Hines, I would have loved to see how Shelley would have casted and directed this film.

Calvin Marshall – Calvin Marshall (Alex Frost) has always dreamed of playing major league baseball, but he first needs to make the local junior college team – the Bayford Bisons. Calvin loves baseball probably more than most major league players, and definitely more than the rest of the Bayford Bisons. Coach Little (Steve Zahn) appreciates Calvin’s love for the game and his tenacity, but Calvin’s biggest hurdle in succeeding at baseball is that he is not a good player. Enter Tori Jensen (Michelle Lombardo), the gorgeous new student who also happens to be the star volleyball player. Jenson is a major league player who is slumming it in junior college in order to be close with her ailing mother. Calvin, being the sensitive and caring (and horny) young man that he is, befriends Tori. There is just one snag, Calvin tells Tori that he’s the star shortstop for the baseball team when in fact he was cut from the team for the third straight year. Feelings are hurt, hearts are broken, etc. Written and directed by Gary Lundgren, Calvin Marshall is essentially about being happy with the cards you are dealt; you just need to discover what you are good at and take it from there.

Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire – Still buzzing from scoring the Audience Award and the Grand Jury Prize for best drama at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and the People's Choice award at Toronto International Film Festival, Precious was hands-down the most hyped film at the Austin Film Festival. The question is: should we believe the hype? The story of an obese, illiterate, abused and molested teenager named Clareece "Precious" Jones (Gabourey Sidibe) is an emotional roller coaster and true Hollywood fodder. The performances by Sidibe and Mo'Nique (who plays Precious’ mother) are phenomenal – many critics are already predicting that both women will be strong contenders during the awards season.

Love and Tambourines – A self-proclaimed postmodern essay on the topics of love and tambourines, Love and Tambourines alternates between “man on the street” interviews and the story of two close friends – Stephanie (Stephanie Hunt) and Troy (Troy Gonzales) – celebrating Valentine’s Day together. It is a highly simplistic concept told in a thoughtful, yet teetering between absurd and surreal, manner. Alternating between real and fiction while reminiscing about the meaning of love is nothing new to 2009 – the tactic was also used in Paper Heart. It would be difficult not to consider Love and Tambourines the low-budget and home-grown (Love and Tambourines was shot in Austin, Texas) version of Paper Heart; but Love and Tambourines is a much different film. It is quirkier (we’ll chalk that up to the “tambourine effect”) and refuses to abide by Hollywood conventions (such as the “rom-com” element in Paper Heart). Co-produced, directed, shot, edited and co-written by Jeremy Cohen (Stephanie Hunt was the co-producer and co-writer), Love and Tambourines is unbelievably cute, irresistibly silly and irreverently nonsensical.

The Vicious Kind – Caleb (Adam Scott) is a high-volatile personality who hates and distrusts women (having just been dumped by his girlfriend). Peter (Alex Frost), Caleb’s younger brother, is the complete opposite – meek, gentle, kind and loving. Peter’s girlfriend, Emma (Brittany Snow), bears an uncanny resemblance to Caleb’s ex-girlfriend. Caleb has not been sleeping, so his personality becomes more and more manic as the film progresses; as Emma and Peter attempt to navigate the early stages of their relationship. Caleb’s character controls the film and thus the tone as well. The level of the tension is so high at times, that you expect that the film will suddenly turn into a violent bloodbath. Though the tone is unsettling to say the least, it is extremely effective – for which writer-director Lee Toland Krieger deserves much credit.

MUSIC: PAPA ROACH IN CONCERT

Rock band Papa Roach getting ready to tour.

Cutting up a Colorado crowd

By Carlin Nguyen

When it comes to having an opportunity to see your favorite band, why pass on it? Saturday Papa Roach played at the Ogden Theatre in Denver -- as co-headliners with Jet.

In a packed crowd of nearly 1,300 people, Papa Roach wasted no time showcasing the band's obvious talent.

Frontman Jacoby Shaddix went wild while singing "Lifeline." Going on-beat with bass guitarist Tobin Esperance, this by far was the highlight of the night.

During "Hollywood Whore", drummer Tony Palermo along with lead guitarist Jerry
Horton showed signs on the finality and sometimes futility of life.

At times during their play, the fans also went nuts as they decided to get themselves
involved in mosh-pits. I'm glad no one got hurt.

By end's night, Papa Roach played over a dozen tunes including, "Last Resort", "Scars", and "Forever."

With its raw flavor of rock, Papa Roach is definitely at the top of their game when it comes
to performance and songwriting abilities.

Kill Hannah was the opening act.

FILM REVIEW: HANNAH FREE

Ain’t free no more

By Don Simpson

Hannah (Sharon Gless) is a grumpy old curmudgeon who is trapped like a rat in a nursing home. Her best friend and lover, Rachel (Maureen Gallagher), is in a coma in the very same nursing home. However Hannah is banned from seeing Rachel by Rachel’s Christian family. Eventually, one of Rachel’s rebellious great granddaughters (Jacqui Jackson) comes to Hannah’s aid to help her see Rachel.

Most of the story is told via flashbacks as well as delusional conversations Hannah has in the nursing home with a vision of a thirty-something version of Rachel (Ann Hagemann). The gist is that Rachel lived a very traditional life staying put in their hometown (she also married a man and had children), as Hannah traveled the world in an attempt to be free; much later in their lives, Hannah finally moved home to be with Rachel.

Directed by Wendy Jo Calton, Hannah Free is as stilted and tedious as a bad, late night movie on the Lifetime Channel. The story itself is a refreshing portrayal of a lesbian relationship that spanned several decades, originating back to before the days of the Great Depression. We don’t see many films about lesbian couples dying in nursing homes, especially not on the Lifetime Channel. Maybe when we do, it will be more entertaining than Hannah Free.

FILM NEWS: SPIKE TV'S SCREAM AWARDS 2009

Winning actors Stephen Moyer and Anna Paquin in True Blood.

Twilight, True Blood top Spike TV’s Scream Awards 2009

By Carlin Nguyen

A pair of female twins were standing on a cold windy night. One girl decisively slits her own throat but the other ends up getting the worse of it. Keith Richards mentions to the audience on receiving the Rock Immortal award that “I liked the living legend…but immortal is even better.” Then William Shatner made a surprise appearance, but only to pose a question “This [Star Trek] was big…imagine how big it could have been with me in it?”

Moments like this were frequent at last night’s Spike TV’s Scream Awards 2009 as celebrities from many walks of entertainment came together to celebrate the best in horror, science fiction, and fantasy at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles.

Celebs in attendance included Jessica Alba, Taylor Lautner, Quentin Tarantino, Megan Fox, Christina Ricci, Tobey Maguire, Kate Bosworth and Harrison Ford.

The crowd gave an ovation when Johnny Depp presented the Rock Immortal award to Richards, lead guitarist of Rolling Stones. Richards himself looked a bit surprised by the award but gave plenty of thanks to the audience for the award.

On receiving the Best Sci-Fi Actress award, Megan Fox made a sincere complement to the crowd as well as mention that despite her comments on her previous movies, at least Transformers started her career.

Amongst all the highlights of the show, the biggest surprise was Shatner. When the latest movie of Star Trek was awarded the Ultimate Screen award, Shatner came up and happily accepted the award even he was not in it.

The big winners from Scream Awards 2009 were the movie, Twilight’ and current television show, True Blood.

Twilight won in four categories – Best Fantasy Film, Best Fantasy Actor (Robert Pattinson) Best Fantasy Actress (Kristen Steward), and Best Breakout Male Performance (Taylor Lautner).

True Blood also won four awards – Best TV show, Best Horror Actor Male (Stephen Moyer) and Best Horror Actor Female (Anna Paquin), and Best Villain (Alexander Skarsgård).

All awards presented at Scream Awards 2009 were decided by online voters from around the world.

The show will premiere on Spike TV on Tuesday, October 27. For more info: http://www.spike.com/event/scream2009

FILM REVIEW: WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE

A scene from Where the Wild Things Are.

Being Maurice Sendak

By Don Simpson

The original 1963 children’s book, Where the Wild Things Are, written and illustrated by Maurice Sendak, consists of a mere ten lines. It tells the story of Max, who is sent to bed without supper for "making mischief." While in his room, a wild forest and sea grows out of his imagination and Max sails away to the land of the Wild Things. Max is promptly anointed "the King of all Wild Things" but soon finds himself homesick, so he returns home where his hot supper is waiting for him.

Spike Jonze teamed up with Dave Eggers to write the film adaptation of Sendak’s much heralded book – and let’s just say that it resulted in much more than ten lines of dialogue. The film is able to dedicate significantly more back story on Max (Max Records). Max’s father is out of the picture (his parents are divorced), his older sister (Pepita Emmerichs) has outgrown him and his mother (Catherine Keener) is preoccupied with her job and new boyfriend (Mark Ruffalo). Max is lonely and frustrated. He removes himself further and further from reality, developing make-believe worlds to escape to. Max is also a bit of a brat – but that’s probably because he is bored and underappreciated.

In dire need of some loving attention, one evening Max dresses up in a wolf costume and craziness ensues. (“Arrroooooooo!”) He bites his mother and runs away to the woods where he finds a boat which takes him to the land of the Wild Things. (Jonze and Eggers opt for a more logical and conventional method to get Max to an actual place – rather than Sendak’s purely imaginary place that develops in Max’s bedroom.)

Little Max, still disguised in wolf’s clothes, comes upon the large and monstrous Wild Things (designed by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop) and renewed self-confidence convinces them that he is their new king. As their fearless leader, Max befriends Carol (voiced by James Gandolfini), KW (voiced by Lauren Ambrose), Judith (voiced by Catherine O’Hara), Ira (voiced by Forest Whitaker) and the other Wild Things…but the wild rumpus does not last very long. (Even Max’s own fantasies don’t have happy endings.) It turns out that the Wild Things, each with their own psychological idiosyncrasies and/or neuroses are even more socially inept than Max’s real life family. By donning Max as king, the Wild Things expect him to make them one big happy family again. Unfortunately, Max is merely a child in wolf’s clothing and knows nothing of psychology.

Both visually (lensed by Lance Acord) and audibly stunning (soundtrack by Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs), the film adaptation (directed by Jonze) remains honest to Sendak’s mantras: it is amazing how children can develop resilience when faced with adversity; children have the capacity to transform traumatic circumstances into their very own means of survival, growth, and maturation. What doesn't kill the child can indeed make them stronger. Where the Wild Things Are (film and book) is a sensitive masterpiece about the pain of being a highly creative, yet lonely child; and that child’s unyielding desire for acceptance, love and stability. It is grim (or is that Grimm?) and heartwrenching tale at times, but it’s a wonderful and amazing cinematic experience nonetheless.

THEATER REVIEW: THE FOREIGNER

What does it take to see Jay Bingham and Jack Kennedy perform? Photo by John Johnson.


Beneath the hoods, this comedy has some serious things to say

By Ed Rampell

I usually don’t review theaters per se, however the premiere of Larry Shue’s The Foreigner was not only my first time in the Sierra Madre Playhouse, but my first visit to the eponymous town itself. Although it was dark,. from what I could see of Sierra Madre and its main drag, it was like stepping out of Los Angeles and into small town Americana, like something Norman Rockwell might have painted for a Saturday Evening Post cover.

As things turn out, this is a perfect setting for The Foreigner, which takes place in the Deep South (no, not San Diego -- in Dixie, and I don’t mean the cup). A British demolitions expert named Froggy (the amiable, understated Mark Rainey) arrives at a lodge in the backwoods of Georgia with his socially awkward and much-cuckolded -- 23 times, we’re told -- friend Charlie (the versatile Jon Powell). Somehow, through a plot contrivance and for reasons I’ll let you find out for yourself, Charlie, who is apparently also a Brit, is fobbed off as a non-English speaking foreigner. (I hate reviewers/critics who reveal plot spoilers without warnings. In an August Village Voice interview with Quentin Tarantino, in her very first question, without any warning, an interviewer blew a huge plot point in Inglourious Basterds before its release, depriving thousands of the joy of discovery for themselves.)

Innkeeper Betty Meeks (scene stealing Joanie Marx, who appears in Judd Apatow’s Funny People with Adam Sandler, proves that the “meeks” shall inherit the play) takes a shining to the foreigner, who becomes ensnared in the lives of the lodge’s inhabitants. They include J.R. Mangels (who manages not to mangle his role as dullard Ellard Simms, the not-so-village-idiot), the knocked-up Catherine (the comely Southern belle Lindsay Ballew, who reminded me of Cat Ballou, Jane Fonda’s kittenish cowgirl in the 1965 Western spoof of the same name) and her beau, Reverend David Lee (Jay Bingham), a Tartuffe-like phony preacher man with an insidious hidden agenda.

This not-so-holy man is the tip off playwright Shue has something more than mere tomfoolery in mind in The Foreigner. Cut from the same mold as religious right hypocrites such as Jimmy Swaggert and Ted Haggard, Lee is acting in league with the rather sinister Owen Musser (appropriately played by ex-Army officer-turned-thespian Jack Kennedy), who looks like a skinhead. It turns out that this is apropos, as Owen and Lee belong to a secret neo-fascist group plotting a “white power” takeover of America. (Reverend Lee is a distant relative of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, who helped crush abolitionist John Brown’s heroic attempt at a slave revolt in Harpers Ferry, Virginia, exactly 150 years ago on Oct. 16, 1859. Brown’s son – also ironically named Owen – managed to escape and lived out the rest of his life as a shepherd in the mountains near Sierra Madre.)

Unlike the others at the lodge who bask in Charlie’s exoticness as a foreigner, Owen is deeply suspicious of him, as he is of Jews, Blacks, the foreign-born in general, etc., who he fears are impinging on white male privilege and patriarchy. The two groups are pitted against one another, as the humor of the farce is joined by a dramatic struggle between good and evil. Along the way, and even in the final dialogue, are lots of laughs, as well as fine ensemble acting deftly directed by Stan Kelly, plus mood-enhancing sound effects designed by Barry Schwam.

Shue, a Vietnam vet who died in a plane crash, apparently wrote The Foreigner in the 1980s (its off-Broadway premiere was in 1984), when the play is set. My only quibble with this enjoyable and meaningful drama is that it could have benefited from being updated to 2009. Owen would have made an excellent “teabagger”; alas, the neo-fascists, with their inglorious dreams of white power and ever fearful of the “other,” are still among us. In any case, how fitting that during the sesquicentennial of John Brown’s Harpers Ferry uprising, an anti-fascist, anti-Southern bigotry play is being performed beneath the mountains where Owen Brown lived.

Now, back to the Sierra Madre Playhouse itself: David Calhoun’s cozy set of the lodge’s interior complements the quaint theater itself. The Playhouse served both a filling buffet before the curtain lifted and a champagne reception during intermission at The Foreigner’s Oct. 9 debut – at no extra ticket price, I might add. The idea of a neighborhood stage for live theatre is quite appealing. Nevertheless, I regret to say that this premiere was not sold out in a space with probably less than 99 seats. What does it take to bring out theatergoers? The Foreigner deserves better, and a bigger audience. And those who enjoy a good laugh coupled with food for thought owe it to themselves to see this recommended dramedy.

The Foreigner runs through Nov. 14 at the Sierra Madre Playhouse, 87 W. Sierra Madre Blvd., Sierra Madre, CA 91024, on Fridays and Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2:30 p.m. For more info: call 626/355-4318 or visit www.sierramadreplayhouse.org.

FILM REVIEW: PETER AND VANDY

Peter (Jason Ritter) and Vandy (Jess Weixler) love the hard way.


Don’t try this at home

By Don Simpson

Ever since childhood, it has been a mystery to me how some romantic relationships can survive the tumultuous rollercoaster of riding from the highs of loving ecstasy to the lows of exchanging malicious verbal blows day after day after day. I am talking about the couples that go from being doe-eyed lovers to bitter enemies at the drop of a hat then seem to recover just as quickly. How can someone say (or be on the receiving end of) such statements as “I hate you!” “You are a horrible person!” or “I wish you were dead!” and then still love that other person after the dust settles?

Peter (Jason Ritter) and Vandy (Jess Weixler) are one such couple and we have the opportunity to observe the curiosities of their behavior, as if they were animals in the zoo. Writer-director Jay DiPietro opts to up the ante by shuffling the sequence of events in order to vividly highlight the juxtaposition of the highs and lows (and doing so much more effectively than (500) Days of Summer). With the aid of Geoffrey Richman’s editing, Peter and Vandy go from head-over-heels lovers to exchanging incomprehensibly hateful statements within mere seconds of celluloid; thus Peter and Vandy becomes a speeding rollercoaster jumping through wormholes in time. The end result is even more confounding to me than if I were to linearly observe this couple – how can Peter and Vandy’s love for each withstand all of this turbulence?

Something we can learn from Peter and Vandy is that it truly takes one to love one. Peter and Vandy are two proverbial peas in a pod. They approach relationships the same way. They both thrive on their arguments as well as being able to angrily air their most bitterly jaded opinions about each other – doing so actually strengthens their love for each other. All I can say is don’t try this at home, unless this style of relationship is suitable to you and your partner.

FILM REVIEW: MORE THAN A GAME

A young LeBron James leads his team in More than a Game.

Brotherhood in basketball

By John Esther

A little bit more inspiring yet simultaneously lacking than other high school basketball documentaries since Steve James' grand 1994 documentary, Hoop Dreams, director Kristopher Belman's More than a Game follows a brotherhood of basketball players as they rise from the urban streets of Akron, Ohio, to national prominence.

Back in 1997 Dru Joyce II whimsically accepts coaching the basketball team of his son, Dru Joyce III. While there a several kids on the court, the core of the Shooting Stars squad consists of Joyce IIi and three other pre-teenagers, including the LeBron James.

A spectacular player at an early age, James and his single mother are trying to find a lasting home in Akron after much relocating. Smaller than most players, the will of Joyce III to succeed is pushed to the breaking point by his father's demands; Willie McGee has left a home in Chicago to live with family in Akron; and Sian Cotton has a father with a notorious reputation right here in Akron.

Under Coach Dru’s guidance, the “Fab Four” start beating some of the best teams in the country. In 1999, they find themselves traveling to Florida to play in the AAU (11 and under) National Championship Tournament, where James begins to garner notice.

Upon high school the four enroll in the private and predominately white St. Vincent–St. Mary’s rather than the blacker, public school, Buchtel. The freshman team goes undefeated. (Watching four young protestant -- as far as I can tell -- African Americans play with "Irish" jerseys for a Catholic institution deserves a semiotic chuckle.)

Over the next couple of years a lot will happen on the court as the now fab five -- transfer student Romeo Travis joins the team, but never belongs to the brotherhood -- play some of the best high school basketball in the nation. Coach Dru becomes head coach; James becomes a darling of the media; the team believes it is invincible when it is not; and the rough neighborhood provides threats and danger.

Thanks to the countless exposes of James, a lot of the team's trials and triumphs will come as little surprise. Yet is still inspiring to watch these kids from challenging backgrounds rise, fall and rise to national prominence. They are clearly exceptional players and friends and Belman, along with his co-writer, Brad Hogan, does cover the inner circle angles.

What Belman fails to give us is any sight beyond the lives of these boys to themselves, each other and their families. There is no discernible sign of these kids actually learning in high school or doing their homework. How about a classroom shot. How much high school did they miss doing so much traveling? Did they have girlfriends or other friends outside the circle? Impressionable audience members may get the idea that growing up is just about family, friends and basketball. Sure these are important things, and you cannot include everything in a 105-minute documentary, but life does consist of more than a game.

FILM REVIEW: NOBODY'S PERFECT

Once not welcomed in her mother's church Kim poses for Nobody's Perfect.

Good people come in different packages

By John Esther

Now through Monday the Goethe-Institut Los Angeles is presenting the third annual showcase of new Germany films. Known as German Currents, screenings will be held around Los Angeles.

Tonight German Currents presents the highly charming documentary, Nobody's Perfect. Recently acquired by Lorber Films, the 82-minute documentary by Niko von Glasow and Germany's selection for 2009 Academy Award consideration for Best Documentary chronicles von Glasow as he engages with eleven people who are prepared to pose naked for a book of photos. What these people have in common, beyond their humanity, laughter, joys and pain, like anyone else, is that they were born "malformed," thanks to the horrible, and possibly avoidable, side effects of Thalidomide.

Pulling few punches and very little heart strings, NoBody’s Perfect explores some of the specific problems which these people, most of them very charming and quite insightful, have fought growing up in Germany since the 1960s.

As the film approaches the photo shoot, von Glasow continues his unsuccessful attempts to contact the chemical company, Grünenthal, the maker of Thalidomide. Perhaps he will get the "criminals who sacrificed people for profit" in the sequel?

Nobody's Perfect is slated for a December 2009 release.