Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on June 1st, 2007
Synopsis
Most people don’t know where to place Puerto Ricans. Some would like to think they are Hispanic, some would like to think that they are African. To treat them as anything beside their own culture would be a mistake. They are Puerto Rican, proud and have been in the United States for almost a century. Puerto Ricans have been for the most part unfairly discriminated against and put into groups that they simply do not belong in. From Pedro Albizu Campos to Jennifer Lopez, there has ...een famous Puerto Ricans we have come to know and appreciate. Rosie Perez (White Men Can’t Jump, Do the Right Thing) decided to direct a documentary in 2006 that would talk how it was to grow up Puerto Rican but also explore the culture and the history of Puerto Ricans in relation to the United States. This is a side of Puerto Rico that few get to see.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 14th, 2007
A young woman leaves her small town and intensely religious family to study at University. Even as she experiences the new freedom of campus life, her epileptic seizures become much worse, and she gradually comes to the conclusion that she is possessed. Her friends try to help her as her suffering becomes intolerable, but she eventually turns to a priest who wants to perform an exorcism.
If the above synopsis sounds familiar, that’s because this film is based on the same case that inspired The Exorcism of Emily Rose. Requiem makes that other effort look utterly ridiculous. The case misleadingly promotes the film as a gothic horror flick, which it is not, though its story is undeniably horrific. There are no special effects, and the presentation of the symptoms comes down to Sandra Hüller’s remarkable performance as the unfortunate Michaela. By the time her symptoms are at their peak, we don’t need any CGI or tricked-up sound design to recoil in horror and pity from the tortured woman. Director Hans-Christian Schmid and writer Bernd Lange shy away from a supernatural explanation (while maintaining a certain degree of ambiguity), but this in no way lessens the horror of the proceedings. In fact, the cause of Michaela’s suffering is almost beside the point – the reality of that suffering is the true focus of the film. Though it must be said that the possibility lurks that religious belief is a contributing factor to the unfolding tragedy. Despite all the movies dealing with demonic possession, The Exorcist has really been the only one definitive exorcism film. Now, at last, there is a second, and Requiem succeeds so harrowingly because of its restraint, its utterly believable portrayal of characters and events, and its refusal to imitate William Friedkin’s film. It charts is own path, and does so with enormous assurance.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 4th, 2007
On its surface, Coastlines is a modestly produced film that was written and directed by Victor Nunez (Ulee's Gold), telling the story about a guy who was just released from prison for dealing drugs, but bites the prison bullet for the favor of a friend. He comes out and is looking for the financial windfall promised him, but also tries to get back in touch with his roots. On a deeper level, Coastlines, well, doesn't go that much deeper I guess.
The ex-con in question is Sonny (Timothy Olyphant, Deadwood), who quickly reunites with the criminal element of his past in Eddie and Fred Vance (played by Josh Lucas, Hulk, and William Forsythe, The Rock, respectively), who also give him the opportunity to get back into business for himself. He finds a bit of a conflict in this, because he is close friends with Dave (Josh Brolin, Into the Blue), who happens to be a Sheriff in town. Sonny also has feelings for Dave's wife Ann (Sarah Wynter, Species II).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 19th, 2007
Back in 1979 (that's a whole generation ago, kids!) Matt Dillon was appearing in films that would make the average reader of Tiger Beat swoon. He was in plenty of material like Little Darlings, Rumble Fish and The Outsiders that didn't help that idea too much in the eyes of his female fans (of which there are scores). But since the early '80s, he's gone through a bit of a rediscovery, and in the film Factotum, based on the works of author Charles Bukowski, he may have hit his best stride to date.
In the film, Dillon plays Henry, a guy who takes many jobs and loses all of them rather quickly, but still finds enough time to drink while providing dramatic voiceover on his life as an aspiring writer he's always wanted to be. The stories he periodically sends to publishers to read without success is part of his life too. He meets Jan (Lili Taylor, Say Anything) who helps him in a time where he's lonely, but he leaves her and finds another woman in Laura (Marisa Tomei, My Cousin Vinny). In Laura he thinks he's found love, but as it turns out, Laura is one of several barflys that a wealthy Frenchman houses and beds with great frequency. Of note, one of the women is played by Adrienne Shelly (Sleep With Me) in her last film role before her murder in late 2006. Anyway, side notes aside, Henry and Laura eventually split up, and in a stroke of luck, he manages to bump into Jan again, who helps to get him on his feet.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 20th, 2006
Some films never achieve greatness, but still manage to leave their viewers with a wry smile, and a “that wasn’t so bad, I’m glad I watched it” mentality. Lonesome Jim from IFC Films is one such motion picture. Starring Casey Affleck and Liv Tyler and directed by Steve Buscemi, this is one mood-swinging comedy that will lull you into complacency, then occasionally drop large hilarious bombs into the experience when least expected. Centered on a depressing, tight-lipped, tell-it-like-it-is, loner, who is for...ed back into the misery of his parents’ house when he runs out of money, Lonesome Jim dramatizes a dreary journey from stark hopelessness to undying optimism. The laughs don’t come easy, but hang around, and you’ll reap the rewards.
Affleck and Tyler are familiar with one another, albeit in a six-degrees-of-Kevin Bacon sort of way, as Tyler previously played opposite the other Affleck in two films - Armageddon and Jersey Girl. Now she’s changing out for the younger brother, and I think the result is a better romance than Jersey Girl, but a lesser film than Armageddon. Holding it all together is Buscemi’s increasingly competent direction. (If you’ve seen his previous effort Trees’ Lounge you’ll know the kind of quirky comedy to expect here.) It’s a refreshing film, but not an uproarious one. Mary Kay Place, Seymour Cassel, and Mark Boone Junior, also star.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 11th, 2006
Synopsis
About to be married for what he hopes will be the final time, Caveh Zahedi turns to us and reveals his long battle with sex addiction. His story is a difficult one for him to tell, not only for the (very, very funny) personal humiliation it entails, but because he keeps interrupting himself and jumping from one moment in his life to another, but also because he gets tangled up with explaining how the recreations were done in the movie we are now watching. Thus, having just said that he could...’t afford to shoot any scenes in Paris, suddenly, Zahedi sheepishly addresses us from Paris.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 4th, 2006
One of the nice things about I Am A Sex Addict is that it is both a comedy and a documentary. I am thrilled that at some point somebody figured out that documentaries can be entertaining as well as informative. Filmmakers have certainly turned the camera on themselves before, but I don't recall seeing one be quite as intimately honest as Zahedi is here. This is a film that is just what the title suggests... an examination of the life of a sexaholic. The document is sometimes funny, but frequently uncomfortable... While the film presents itself as an examination of the view of a heightened sex drive as an addition, it spends much more time illustrating the fact that the subject has the addition than the causes and effects of it. It is a documentary that presents a story without any exposition. The fundamental question of “why?” is never really addressed.
The truly interesting part of this film is not the subject matter, but the way in which the story is told. The filmmaker tells his personal tale through speaking directly to the audience, reenactments, and even some actual photographs and personal archival footage. In one scene, the writer/director/star/autobiographical subject tells of how he cast the role of one of the prostitutes, then compares her casting photo to his on-screen wife and a picture of his actual wife at the time. The subject mater may be a little off-putting, but the execution is really quite unique and interesting.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 22nd, 2006
Fortunately, American Gun does not appear to be about the debate on owning guns. It’s a trap, and I doubt there will be much movement on either side of the issue. The film instead mostly deals with members of a community where three years earlier a Columbine-like school shooting occurred. The story slowly plods through the lives of several families, most notably the mother and brother of one of the deceased gunmen. This is where the title and its advertised premise confuse me. The story is more about the emotional toll any tragedy takes on a small town. Except for a paranoid obsession of a principal trying to keep the school free of guns, the weapons have less to do with the stories than one would expect. The most confusing factor in the film is the B story of a girl who works in her grandfather’s gun shop. This sidetrack takes place across the country and seems unrelated to the main plot. We never get a satisfying answer as to the connection. She has supposedly moved there from the West coast, and while it is never explained, one might guess she was at the school during the shooting. The film tries to stay away from the hit you over the head emotional plea to ditch all guns… that is, until a shocking and quite unnecessary convenience mart scene at the film’s end.
There are a ton of speaking parts in the film. It’s estimated at over 50 in the making of feature. The cast is quite good. I don’t only mean the obvious heavy hitters in Forest Whitaker and Donald Sutherland. Chris Warren, Jr. is marvelous as a kid who doesn’t really like guns but feels forced to carry because of his neighborhood. He considers walking around without a gun as being “naked”. Chris Marquette also has a strong role as the brother of one of the killers. I can’t even imagine what it must be like to be forced to attend a school where your brother killed students and teachers three years prior.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 17th, 2006
Synopsis
Marnderlay is part two of the trilogy that began with Dogville. Picking up where that film left off, we see Grace (Bryce Dallas Howard replacing Nicole Kidman) and her gangster father (Willem Dafoe taking over from James Caan) arriving at Manderlay, a plantation where slavery never ended. Grace, horrified by this state of affairs, orders slavery abolished, but her attempts to bring freedom to the slaves lead inexorably to disaster.
