brownfrichard Reviews

Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)

Really, Just Everything

[9/10 · 17 April 2022]

You would have to be a secret shifu to foresee that Evelyn, the middle-aged laundry woman, was about to be launched on a hero's journey arc in this kung fu-magical realism comedy. Everything, et.al. Is genius in defying expectations. Evelyn's is a journey of constant time leaps, martial arts spectacles, tasteless comedy, characters with alternating personalities, and uncountable weird planes of reality where our hero discovers and hones her unknown ability to master the multi-verse. Merging multi-genres, this unique movie has something for EVERYbody, sometimes to the point of exhaustion. By the end what glues the whole frantic mosaic together is its unexpectedly poignant message on the need to prioritize relationships and family.

Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory (2011)

Things Will Never Be Right

[20 February 2012]

It's been 16 years and two sequels since I saw the first Paradise Lost documentary at the Film Forum in New York City. I'm glad the wrongfully accused are set free but I still feel the truth rots a in dark, incarcerated place. I remember that the first documentary, a compelling story of wrong compounded by wrong, was also a frustratingly unthorough piece of journalism. The synopsis is that in 1993 three eight year old boys were murdered and thrown in a ditch in West Memphis, Arkansas. Three teenage boys, to be nicknamed the West Memphis 3, were convicted of the murders under highly questionable investigatory and judicial procedures. The first film fell well short for me in providing a sufficient account of the prosecution's so called case. A year after seeing the first PL the friend I went to see it with called me up and said, "I heard those documentary guys made it all up to make the teenagers look good. When you hear the whole story they are totally guilty." Really? What's your source? None, really. Is there a whole story? I have always been convinced that the teenagers were railroaded. But after years of sequels, cult-like public outrage, websites, Eddie Vedder and Johnny Depp I still have no idea what happened back in 1993. If the WM3 were not murdering cub scouts that night in 1993, where were they? None of these films have ever discussed an alibi. If a documentary is presenting itself as the balanced account of its subject matter and one side of the argument is being left out, there must be a reason. I can't speculate the reason because facts in this case have always been overshadowed by emotions, self-righteousness on behalf of the WM3 supporters, stubborn obfuscation by law enforcement, and repeated attempts by the filmmakers to offer alternative accusations that frankly are as shoddy and irresponsible as the lousy case against the teenagers. There is another feature documentary ,West Of Memphis, in circulation as well as many TV magazine pieces which may provide more information. I'd like to know if there is more to know about what happened the night those young boys were murdered, and I'd like to know more about what the police actually had on the WM3. In Purgatory the defense has gone to all the trouble of pulling together world renown criminal profilers and DNA experts. Yet the new documentary doesn't reveal one thing we didn't already know. These films succeeded in calling attention to injustice perpetrated on the accused and the fact that the real killer will never be brought to justice. The Arkansas court system created an outcome in which the case will never be reopened. The whole story is fascinating and sad, but these movies aren't very good either.

The Grey (2011)

What An Unwonderful World

[7/10 · 20 February 2012]

An airplane transporting ruffian oil workers crashes in barren Alaska. The men must try to survive arctic conditions, interpersonal conflicts, and attacks by an aggressive pack of wolves. The wolves are of course metaphor for the organizational behavior of a pack of men on the brink as well as the haunting pasts that brought each man to this frozen Purgatory. The challenge includes lots of tense survival action and man-chewing wolves, but what keeps the film interesting are the metaphysical elements, both in the blurry camera-work and the cryptic storytelling. Is this situation real or are we in the self-exiled imagination of the central character? Not brilliant but an experience, however harrowing.

Chronicle (2012)

Good, Boring, Bad, Worse

[4/10 · 8 February 2012]

There's a quote attributed to Will Rogers, a very practical guy: When you find yourself stuck in a hole, stop digging. I offer this aphorism for consideration to the lead character Andrew in Chronicle and to the filmmakers behind Chronicle as well. Andrew, a shy teenager, finds himself part of a trio of boys who discover a strange crystal artifact in an underground cavern. The crystal, for some reason, gives the boys telekinetic powers. They can move objects with their minds and even figure out how to fly above the clouds. The external benefits of Andrew's new physical power include making new friends, becoming popular at school and even attracting the interest of girls. But ultimately Andrew's damaged ego and personal problems at home are more powerful than his abilities his father is an abusive drunk and his mother has a terminal illness. As Andrew's telekinetic powers strengthen, his emotional self-control weakens. Instead of being a hero, he becomes a menace of violence and destruction. The "chronicle" part of this is that the whole movie is shot in so called "found footage" style. I call it faux-verite. Andrew carries a video camera and his recording of everything that happens is our viewpoint into his rise and fall. There are a lot of movies using faux-verite but experimenting with the form, Chronicle ventures into original territory. I like the special effects work of the suspended objects and flying teenagers. I also like the story in the first two thirds a lot. Is all this really happening to Andrew or are we a voyeur into his fantasy life? Is this an origin story of Andrew as a comic book style hero, or super villain? There are probably a hundred interesting places Chronicle could have taken us but it doesn't go to any of them. Instead the story runs out of gas creatively and begins to get boring, even at under 85 minutes. In the desperate feeling last act, Andrew goes on an I-can-destroy-you-all-if-I-chose power binge. The filmmakers have no idea what to do with their own character. So they drag Andrew into a hole of explosions, nihilism, and waste. Unfortunately, Andrew lacks the ability to think of any better solution than to just keep making things worse. In the same manner Chronicle goes from good, to boring, to bad, to worse. I should mention that I saw a strong homoerotic subtext here as Andrew's fantasy-come-to life seems to be finding a phallic object in a cave and using its secret power to convince attractive, popular boys to runaway with him- just something I was thinking about as I watched this movie go to pieces.

The Harvey Girls (1946)

Harvey Girls Do It With A Smile

[7/10 · 8 February 2012]

Not everybody knows who Johnny Mercer was but everybody knows a Johnny Mercer song: "MOON RIVER", "JEEPERS CREEPERS", or "YOU MUST HAVE BEEN A BEAUTIFUL BABY." Mercer wrote lyrics for and recorded hundreds of songs in the Great American Songbook including "ON THE ATCHISON, TOPEKA AND THE SANTA FE" for the movie musical The Harvey Girls (music: Harry Warren). That song is used in a grand Hollywood production number at the beginning. What happens after that are some less fantastic numbers and a thin story. Judy Garland plays a 19th Century mail order bride from Ohio whose train stops in an old Western American town. Garland takes a job as a Harvey Girl. That's an ebullient, hard working server in a friendly whistle stop restaurant called Harvey's. It's a respectable opportunity for a young, unmarried woman, especially compared to the girls who "entertain" men more provocatively across the street at the local casino and dance hall. A cultural conflict is set up here between the two kinds of girls in town, a conflict repeated in the battle of affections over the same man by both Garland and the leader of the showgirls. There is a longer discussion to be had about how these microcosmic conflicts attempt to play out familiar value themes in musicals: work versus leisure and chastity versus sexual promiscuity. But the case is well summarized at the end when all of the town drunks and gamblers come over to Harvey's to learn how to waltz. As the town parson says, "For the first time the men in this town chose having a good time over having a wild time." This movie is a good but not wild time and there are some great, less recognizable Mercer/Warren tunes as well as an amazing tap dance specialty number by Ray Bolger

The Innkeepers (2011)

Good Acting, Bad Ghost Story

[5/10 · 23 January 2012]

"Let's go to the basement and find out what that f*cking ghost's problem is." That's a funny line from this horror movie that is playful in its script without ever degrading to farce and stupidity. It is the lobby level of Innkeepers where the movie works, at least for the first three quarters. Two slacker clerks in a New England hotel kill time on their long shifts by trying to record proof the old place in haunted. Besides the funny banter between the clerks there is the role of the horror movie "last girl" presented here as quirky, nerdy, and on time with her slap stick. You don't see girl characters like this in any kind of movie except for maybe one with Drew Barrymore. Kelly McGillis also makes a strong appearance as a psychic guest in the hotel who warns the clerks against waking up spirits. Yep, Kelly McGillis was the sex object in Witness and Top Gun back in the 80s who never did anything again except come out of the closet. I don't know if I can say McGillis is slumming now in indy horror. The cast is the best part of The Innkeepers. The worst part is the proposed ghost story. That fourth quarter is fairly suspenseful, scary and bloody but the back story on why the place is haunted never comes together.

We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011)

More Horror

[8/10 · 21 January 2012]

I lived in Colorado at the time of the Columbine High School murders and I've thought a lot about what life must be like for a parent whose kid has does something so awful. It's an intriguing script idea but it doesn't happen to be what Kevin is actually about. The high school mass murders here are a sort of foregone conclusion to the story of a mother who is emotionally terrorized by her son, beginning when he is an infant. This is a unique piece in that the story is told in non-linear flashbacks and the cinematography is experimental. Yet the story to me plays closer in genre to horror than to a psychological drama you might see at the art-house. I can recommend this movie if it's only on the multiplex at the mall level. Otherwise we're looking at something that it is on the edge of camp. Witness the scene where the mother tries to explain reproduction to her little boy via the Mama Bear and Papa Bear and the boy interrupts, "Is this about f*ckin'?" If it isn't highbrow horror Kevin is just Mommy Dearest with the abuse roles switched around. Did you want the gays to love your movie like that?

Afterschool (2008)

Deliberate Brilliance

[10/10 · 21 January 2012]

Ezra Miller is great actor in addition to have grown up to be pretty hot. Anyway, in Afterschool, Miller is a nobody kid at a prep school who accidentally videotapes two popular girls die overdosing on tainted cocaine. As the school goes into damage control trying to shake out all the drugs, Miller starts to act erratically believing he is under surveillance. Surveillance, public image and acts of watching are huge themes in movie. Apparently a lot of people don't care for the slow pace of the story and static camera scenes. I could write a book on why every shot matters. Not for everybody's taste but film students and cinephiles will love it. I think it's brilliant.