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bill_farrell
Reviews
John Q (2002)
James Woods - the Norman Fell of our generation
Twenty years from now, I expect to be viewing some late 20th century movie on the late show and seeing James Woods in (yet another) small bit part.
"Wait! Wait! Hold it! He's...he's.... Oh, what's the name of that character actor?"
Thank god for IMDB.
The Virgin Suicides (1999)
James Woods - the Norman Fell of our generation
Twenty years from now, I expect to be viewing some late 20th century movie on the late show and seeing James Woods in (yet another) small bit part.
"Wait! Wait! Hold it! He's...he's.... Oh, what's the name of that character actor?"
Thank god for IMDB.
Contact (1997)
James Woods - the Norman Fell of our generation
Twenty years from now, I expect to be viewing some late 20th century movie on the late show and seeing James Woods in (yet another) small bit part.
"Wait! Wait! Hold it! He's...he's.... Oh, what's the name of that character actor?"
Thank god for IMDB.
Wonder Boys (2000)
A stellar movie from a lackluster year
This gem stands out in a year in which "Gladiator" was Hollywood's idea of a great movie. With such exquisite (and fun) cinematography, characters, acting, storyline, dialog, pacing, and soundtrack, it boggles the mind that this faithful adaptation of Michael Chabon's novel was overlooked.
Pollock (2000)
Like watching paint dry
This tediously long and pointless film is derivative of countless bio films of tortured artists, struggling for sanity and success, who finally get recognition just before their ultimate act of self-destruction. Director/Producer Ed Harris has merely cut out the faces of Van Gogh, Jack Kerouac, Jim Morrison, and Janice Joplin and pasted in Jackson Pollock's, moving his cardboard character from set to set. As true with most bio treatments (with the notable and questionable exception of Oliver Stone), the director and writer are limited in their own artistic license, hamstrung by actual events in the subject's life. The more closely accurate the film, the more its tendency to devolve into a repetitive litany of desperate acts in a depressing downward spiral of a life. After these, the inevitable conclusion strikes the audience more of a relief than a tragedy.
And yet for all of his PAINstaking attempt to be accurate and complete, Harris misses the larger story. Given such a dull, detailed depiction of Pollock, we leave the theater knowing only that he dribbled, drank, drove, and died. Any clues to his self-destruction are omitted entirely. Did his behavior result from a clinical condition, drugs and alcohol, or personal demons?
Pollock biographers provide much more insight, suggesting that he was severely conflicted by his sexuality and, like his contemporary Jack Kerouac, was wracked with guilt and confusion over his affairs with men. Not only does Harris skip this central issue entirely, he even fabricates a tryst between Pollock and his sponsor Peggy Guggenheim. Guggenheim, who was well known for having no sexual interest in men and for being gracious and personable, gets unfavorable and undeserved treatment throughout the film.
The artistic motivation of Pollock is principally ignored, as well. The real story of his art arises out of the self-consciousness he felt next to other artists. Unlike Van Gogh, Picasso, Benton, and even his own brother, for whom formal training provided a springboard into revolutionary forms, Pollock never mastered classical technique. Abstract expressionism was virtually the only avenue available for an artist who, like Salieri in "Amadeus", recognized creative genius but lacked the usual tools and technique to pull it off. Neglecting this central point, Harris paints himself into a corner. Instead of portraying Pollock's development of dribble art as an act of artistic necessity and ingenuity, he shows it as an accidental act of aesthetic serendipity. The scene brings to mind the ape in "2001" idling playing with the bone before suddenly comprehending it as a tool.
Another weakness of "Pollock" is its failure to capture an era, relying soley on subtitled text, references by the characters, and much-to-clear radio broadcasts to place it in time. The automobiles are all typically in showroom condition, making Long Island of the Fifties look more like Mainstreet USA in Disneyland. By contrast, the faded issues of Life magazine appear as if they were found in grandma's attic and dusted off.
A bright spot is the cameo of Bud Cort as Howard Putzel, Guggenheim's agent, but he disappears early in this long, long film about very little. In one defining scene, a Life reporter asks Pollock how he knows when to stop painting. Harris should be asked the same question about filming.
Cecil B. Demented (2000)
Back to the demented future
John Waters pulls together historical themes from both the news headlines and his own filmography to create a twisted (what else?) and oddly familiar new work. Rather than a continuation of his post-Divine, post-Edith Massey respectability ("Hairspray," "Cry Baby," "Serial Mom," and "Pecker"), he blatantly and deftly steals his own material from earlier edgy classics such as "Pink Flamingoes," "Female Trouble," and "Polyester." Renegade fringe folk committing guerilla art. Crime as beauty. Baltimore's arthouse drive-in's and decaying porno theaters. Violent suburban moms agitating against all that is unwholesome. Straight men cursing the fates who made them heterosexual. Dying for art. Strict celibacy for the sake of the aesthetic. It's all back!
"Cecil B. Demented" updates these themes with a fictional redux of the abduction and conversion of Patty Hearst (catch her cameo!), exquisitely casting Melanie Griffith as a petulant, aging film starlet who bears more than a passing resemblance to Nora Desmond. Waters spoofs his own low budget origins and the more recent Dogma movement. (Dogma is the European independent film crusade that eschews Hollywood movies, opting instead for cheap, fast schedule filmmaking with handheld cameras, no props, location shooting using only available lighting and sound, no special effects, and natural staging with real-life action.)
The film drags a bit during Cecil's professions of faith, and the Ricki Lake scenes are typically pointless, but watch how far Mink stole has come since Mondo Trasho. And Kevin Nealon in "Forrest Gump 2" is not to be missed.
The Wrong Trousers (1993)
A cheeeeesy masterpiece
Is it any wonder that this short is in the IMDB user's top rated 50 films of all time? If you justifiably believe that "Chicken Run" was among the best films of 2000, this earlier work by Nick Parker and Bob Baker should be just your cup of tea.
This has everything. Technically amazing plasticene claymation. A storyline that is a brilliant send-up of well-worn Hollywood themes. An ingeniuous but addled Rube Goldberg-esqeue inventor of such gadgets as the Knit-o-matic, the Techno-trousers, and a pot-iron and plywood moonrocket, and whose mouth just wraps around the word "cheeeese." A dog with no visible mouth who solves crimes and reads newspapers. An evil penguin boarder disguised as a chicken. And lots and lots of cheese (including Wensleydale!).
Bruno (2000)
If you liked Matilda, Christmas Story, and Gilbert Grape...
This funny, quirky, and touching story of individuality and tolerance makes it one of 2000's best films.
David Ciminello's film writing debut and Shirley Maclaine's second directorial opus populates the screen with the most memorable characters since "Matilda," "Gilbert Grape," and "Christmas Story." Bruno Battaglia (expertly played by Alex D. Linz) is an eight-year-old prodigy who aspires to win the National Catholic School Spelling Competition and its grand prize, an all expense paid trip to Rome for a private audience with the Pope. After a near-death experience and encounter with angels, he resolves to compete wearing various dresses (which he insists are "holy vestments"), much to the distress of the Long Island school's nuns (Kathy Bates as Mother Superior, Lainie Kazan and Brett Butler as his teachers) and the ridicule of his classmates.
Bruno's morbidly obese mother (Stacey Halprin), his estranged father who is ashamed of his son (Gary Sinese), his hyper-masculine grandmother (Shirley Maclaine), and his Annie Oakleyesque best friend (Kiami Davael) round out the cast with stellar performances. Watch for cameos by Gwen Verdon and Jennifer Tilly.
Freeway II: Confessions of a Trickbaby (1999)
A wreck!
You need only see ten or fifteen minutes of this mess to realize how brilliant Bright's original Freeway was. His sequel is virtually unwatchable.
The stellar quality of Reese Witherspoon's previous performance is sharply contrasted by the typically annoying and stony mumbling of Natasha Lyonne. After seeing this chubby, distaff Sylvester Stallone miscast as a bulimic, will we next see Divine in the role of Karen Carpenter? Martin Short as Hercules?
Sisters (1972)
A breach birth
Although not De Palma's first work, it certainly rates as his worst. Perhaps he was clearing his throat before "Carrie."
The production quality makes its television contemporaries "Streets of San Francisco" and "Police Woman" look and sound utterly slick by comparison. Margot Kidder's attempt at a French Canadian accent is laughably bad. The plot twists are implausible. (How do you clean gallons of blood from a snow-white carpet and couch in 5 minutes?) The "shocking" ending is trite and predictable from the first ten minutes of this mess. And De Palma must have been the ONLY person in this country still describing people as "colored" in 1973, a full two years after "Shaft."
Fast forward to the bit parts played by Olympia Dukakis, Barnard Hughes, and Charles Durning and skip the rest.
The Bedford Incident (1965)
Update of Moby Dick
SPOILER HERE.
Yes, of course, this is a commentary on the Cold War and is a psychological thriller revolving around several "iron-willed" personalities. Above all, however, it is an obvious retelling of Melville's _Moby Dick_. The clues are blatantly clear:
1. The ship is the Bedford, named after the home port of the whaler Pequod.
2. The Russian submarine replaces Moby, Captain Finlander is the latter-day Ahab obsessed with hunting this monster of the deep, and the journalist Munceford is Ishmael, the outsider and narrator who recounts the tale.
3. The hell-bent fixation of the captain leads to the ultimate perdition of the ship and crew.
To simply describe "The Bedford Incident" as a Cold War drama is equivalent to reducing Moby Dick to a story about whaling.
Nuremberg (2000)
Historically accurate but dull
For anyone unfamiliar with the immediate aftermath of WWII and the development of war crime legal theory, this film is a good primer. The images of Nuremberg reduced to rubble ring true. The courtroom inclusion of actual concentration camp film footage provides a stark contrast to the sanitized depiction seen in such films as "Sophie's Choice," Schindler's List," and "Life is Beautiful." The sensibilities of the Russian allies are respectfully addressed. The portrayal of an American sergeant as the vehicle for Hermann Goering's ultimate escape is consistent with the historical record. Actual events are recounted skillfully throughout.
Still, the film is fairly dull. Despite perfunctory references, the question of how civilized people (leaders, soldiers, and citizens) could resort to such inhumanity is not explored. A group of German officers in the 1940's who merely did as they were told does not make for a very satisfying, gripping, nor generalizable story. That story ends neatly at the end of the noose. The bigger issues are left unexplored, aside from such banalities as "Evil is the lack of empathy."
"Judgment at Nuremberg" (1961) examines these more thorny human issues with far more success. Collective guilt, individual responsibility, obedience, evil, omission, and redemption converge in this taut and heartbreaking opus.
After getting the basics from Alec Baldwin's production, view this earlier classic.
The Perfect Storm (2000)
OK storm
It didn't reek, but there were absolutely no surprises. Even the Raging Waters themepark effects were only so-so, as most of them had been shown in the preview, and they weren't all that improved over "Das Boot", twenty years previous. To its credit, however, it was no "Twister." To its detriment, it was no "Das Boot."
It seemed to stretch credibility at several junctures. Mostly, the characters seemed to be partaking in a centuries old tradition without any benefits of the twentieth century.
Odd how the Andrea Gail never seemed to have its radio turned on. You'd think that a bunch of guys going out in late October into deep water might be just a teensy bit curious about the weather conditions.
Odd how the boats and helicopters were equipped with neither inflatable lifeboats nor coldwater survival suits. The Andrea Gail didn't even appear to have any lifevests.
And where did all the light inside the overturned hull of the Andrea Gail come from?
And what was with those visual references to two massive freighters, which they even bothered to name and position? Were these ships also doomed? It looked to me like a storyline was cut out completely.
On the Beach (1959)
Brilliant use of leitmotif
The simplicity of the sound track is stunning in this film, perfectly mirroring the war-torn setting of the story. The traditional Australian tune "Waltzing Matilda" is repeated in various keys and rhythms to capture the feelings of sorrow, hope, despair, joy, and defeat which ebb and flow throughout this masterpiece. (The effect is very similar to the use of "Lili Marlene" throughout Stanley Kramer's "Judgment at Nuremberg.")
Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
Brilliant use of leitmotif
The simplicity of the sound track is stunning in this film, perfectly mirroring the war-torn setting of the story. The traditional German tune "Lili Marlene" is repeated in various keys and rhythms to capture the feelings of sorrow, hope, despair, joy, and loss which ebb and flow throughout this masterpiece. (The effect is very similar to the use of "Waltzing Matilda" throughout Stanley Kramer's "On the Beach.")
The final rendition of this soulful Lied, at the denouement of the Tracy-Dietrich friendship, is heartbreaking.