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Reviews
Robbing Peter (2004)
More complex than you would think
I saw this film at a IFP Spirt Award screening. From the description I was not expecting much. This was not a great movie but it was well constructed. The acting was simple, like it was a documentary. It moves a little slowly. Have patience. Each of the three stories had insightful moments. How they intersect is unexpected. The realistic dialog was rich and funny. Don Epifanio's laugh is unnerving and his partner is a hoot. The low budget look does not help the film but is not distracting either. None of the actors are Hollywood beauties and I liked that. As we are suppose to, I felt sorry for Pedro and his lame attempts to accomplish his task. Worth seeing if you like indy films.
Ong-Bak (2003)
I saw him do it live. What a talent. Three standing ovations.
I saw this at an IFP screening at the Arclight in Hollywood. I wondered why the screening was in the big theater because the number of people that attend IFP screening seems to usually be under 100. The theater did get to be about a third full even though there were conflicting Spirit Award screenings across town.
The film was hokey and yet gritty. The running chase scenes had the bad guys waving their arms and grumbling like a dumb comedy. That silliness is more than made up by the tricks done by Jaa to get away from them. The grit comes in the fight scenes. The fight scenes are stunning. The moves are very fast and the choreography is very cool, like one guy lifts his leg to kick and Jaa kicks the other leg. The wireless moves were awesome (though I think a wire was used on one of the Tuktuks, but that's a car not a person).
At the end of the film I learned why we were in the big theater. RZA came out and introduced Tony Jaa. To a standing ovation, Tony came out into the large area between the front row and the screen. He and five stunt men proceed to do many of the moves I just saw in the film. He attacked them in various ways, flying and flipping without a wire. Then he ran at all five stuntmen, jumped up, and ran past them by running on their shoulders. So cool! Another standing ovation. A popcorn bucket was held three feet over his head by a stuntman standing on another's shoulder and Tony flew up and kicked it into the audience and landed on his feet. This was so much more interesting than having the director answer production questions (which is what normally happens after IFP screenings). When he was done, he got another standing ovation.
Chain (2004)
I did not find mall parking lots beautiful
This could be a compelling documentary, if it was a documentary. Most of the scenes of the characters seemed staged
because they were. I did like what I learned about the characters. We see one character struggling with homelessness and joblessness. We see the waning of the other's excitement about her corporate travel (a different kind of homelessness). I was interested in learning more about both, but the story telling is stingy. Maybe a third of the footage is of the two women. This film is very slow because there are too many shots of overweight pedestrians and too many establishing shots of parking lots, signs, and malls. Only in the credits did I realize it was not the same few malls, but since they all look the same, the bleakness added nothing but boredom.
The Woodsman (2004)
Superb exploration of shame and the struggle to be normal
This is a somewhat slow (never boring) film with several performances of the highest quality. Kyra Sedgwick has amazing scenes, and one in particular flipped around my perception of every other character's motivation. David Alan Grier's performance is, maybe for the first time, not over the top. Hannah Pilkes, in her first film, nearly steals the scene from Kevin Bacon. Eve and Benjamin Bratt both do a good job. Mos Def's lines are either beyond his range or the lines themselves are just too heavy-handed, but Kevin plays off of them in brilliant silence.
Kevin Bacon's performance is Oscar-worthy. In other films, weak effects, poor acting, awful dialog, etc., have pulled me out of the world that the film was attempting to create. Kevin's performance is so good that at one time I found myself pulled out of the experience in awe; while continuing to believe the truth of the character, I was at the same time floored by Kevin's ability to deliver such depth.
Sure, the subject matter allows actors to express strong feeling. Anger is an easy route, as is self-loathing. This script has some of that, but what makes this film great is that primarily it chooses to explore shame and the struggle to be normal. The actors (Bacon, Kira, Pilkes) that are given the opportunity to explore that, they really excel in this film.
Kinsey (2004)
A relevant film in these sexual backlash times.
This film will win awards for acting and directing. It might win for cinematography. The story is well told. It is funny and oddly romantic. It is suspenseful and surprising.
Not only is it well done, it is a story that needs to be told. "Sexual Behavior in the Human Male" came out in 1948. It showed a surprised world that most of our sexual behavior is common. When presidents get elected, in part, because of homophobia and a network gets fined because of a breast, America needs a reminder of the facts. This film shows the struggle of a man and his data as he and a generation moved beyond fear and taboos to towards understanding human sexuality.
Dead & Breakfast (2004)
If only it was funny, or scary, or something
What!? Maybe I'm not the right person to write about films in this genre because I found this to be so bad I walked out half way through. As fairly big name TV actors kept popping up I had hope that something would gel. It didn't or, at least, nothing gelled before the "Night of the Living Dead" siege started, the chainsaw was brought into play, and I left.
The overacting was at best fair. The troubadour was annoying. The comedy was for folks that still find slipping on a banana funny and also find slipping on a banana ten times to be ten times as funny; things like a severed head as a hand puppet (though funny to write) is not that funny to see. Ironically, the gory slapstick was the best thing about this film because it didn't give me nausea, as well done gore or implied violence can, and because it offered so much variety.
All and all, it is not my cup of blood. If you found the previous sentence funny then you should not miss this film.
I Heart Huckabees (2004)
Why was I mostly annoyed?
I saw this at an IFP screening in LA. The theater was packed. I convinced a friend of mine to go with me based on the list of actors. I am used to and usually like quirky films, but half way through the film I was concerned that my friend was itching to leave. We stayed and I waited for something to make me like the film, but it didn't come.
Though filled with great actors, this is a sometimes funny but mostly annoying film. The performances were good in a consistent cartoon character way so it must have been the directing and the music that were annoying. Maybe it was the script. With so much dialog, including people talking over one another, I would expect more laughs than just the few that came due to some slapstick bits.
Oh, and the issues where psychological not really existential, but that is a minor nit.
Sons of Provo (2004)
This is Spinal Tap -> A Mighty Wind -> Sons of Provo
In L.A., I went to a screening of this film (the first projection screening). I arrived just after it started and was surprised at the roars of laughter as I tried to find a seat. After I was seated and watched for a minute, I understood. The characters in this mockumentary were perfect in their innocence; you had to laugh at them. The humor in the dialog (much of it ad libbed) was honest and dry. It moves right along from one situation or gig (some of them real performances) to another, interspersed with interviews with peripheral characters. As a bonus, these guys can really sing. They even scored an interview with a member of the first boy band (at least in the opinion of Everclean).
This film was made in Utah by people raised in Mormon families. Luckily, as the director said, Mormons do know how to laugh at themselves. I could not help laughing from the moment I sat down until the last credit rolled.
First it was heavy metal, then folk, and now Mormon boy band. This is the next great music mockumentary.
If you get a chance to see it, do. Don't miss it.