Preview

From National Geographic Films, the producers that brought you MARCH OF THE PENGUINS and Paramount Vantage, the studio that brought you AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, ARTIC TALE is an epic adventure that explores the vast world of the Great North.

The film follows the walrus, Seela and the polar bear, Nanu, on their journey from birth to adolescence to maturity and parenthood in the frozen Arctic wilderness. Once a perpetual winter wonderland of snow and ice, the walrus and the polar bear are losing their beautiful icebound world as it melts from underneath them.

 Narrated by Queen Latifah, the film features music from Cat Stevens, Ben Harper, Aimee Mann, and The Shins.

Stardust
 

Stardust is an utterly charming romantic film that incorporates plenty of comedy and magical fantasy elements. 

It is superbly cast with familiar faces such as Michelle Pfeiffer and Robert De Niro playing quirky supporting roles (De Niro has not been used this well in years), while the lesser known Charlie Cox is decent in the lead. As always, Claire Danes shines as his romantic interest, and she adds some star power to the film. 

The film was directed by Mathew Vaughn, who also did the very different Indy hit, Layer Cake. Vaughn is scheduled to also do the big budget, superhero/fantasy film, Thor, which is based on a comic series about a god of thunder. 

Stardust, the film, is based on an entertaining and whimsical graphic novel by Neil Gaiman, who is considered by many to be one of the greatest-ever comic book writers. He is best known for writing the gorgeous Sandman series as well as “Miracleman.” 

The fairy tale-like plot of Stardust begins when a good-hearted young man named Tristran (Charlie Cox) tries to win the affection of the beautiful but snobby Victoria (Sienna Miller). He is completely smitten with her, but she is selfish, shallow, and unworthy of his affection. She is engaged to a rich twit, but she agrees to marry Tristran if he brings her part of a fallen star (she only agrees because she thinks it can’t be done). 

Tristran goes on a quest to find a fallen star, which takes him to a nearby magical kingdom. On his quest, he has to get past many obstacles, including a wall protected by an ancient sentry, and a trio of witches that are working against him. 

Unbeknownst to him, the star has taken the shape of a comely and clever woman named Yvaine (Claire Danes). When they meet, she instantly thinks he’s a jerk, but some romantic tension eventually develops between them.  He soon learns the truth about her. 

The star has magical powers, and some sinister villains are also seeking it out, including an evil witch who periodically ages (perfectly played by Michelle Pfeiffer), and three rival princes who are competing for the crown. One at a time, the princes kill each other for the crown, and they appear in the afterlife as an amusing chorus—commenting on the action. 

Along the way Tristran meets other eccentric characters, such as tough-guy-with-a-heart-of-gold sky pirate, Captain Shakespeare (De Niro). Of course, the romantically inexperienced Tristran learns the meaning of true love as a result of his travails. 

Stardust compares fairly well with the Harry Potter films and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Fantasy fans and romantic movie buffs will not be disappointed. 

 Halloween

From acclaimed musician and filmmaker Rob Zombie (“The Devil's Rejects,” “House of 1000 Corpses”) comes an entirely new take on the highly successful and terrifying Halloween legacy that began in 1978.

While revealing a new chapter in the established Michael Myers saga, the film will surprise both classic and modern horror fans with a departure from prior films in the Halloween franchise. Audiences should brace themselves for unprecedented fear as Zombie turns back time to uncover the making of a pathologically disturbed, even cursed child, named Michael Myers.

Broken English

Nora Wilder (Parker Posey) is thirty-something, single, and a woman who appears to have a great job in customer service at small, chic Manhattan hotel. Her mother (Gena Rowlands) is pushing her to find a man, to the point that she chides her daughter for introducing her best friend Audrey (Drea De Matteo) to her new husband when Nora should have kept him for herself. 

When a guest at the hotel asks Nora out to dinner, we know that her pledge of no sex on the first date is an empty promise when we observe her downing the drinks one after the other, and babbling nervously. At her intensity level, Nora will soon move from the prey to the attacker. 

What she illogically thinks could become a long term relationship is a one night stand that leads to an embarrassing situation among her friends and mother. Other dates aren’t much better, until she meets Julien (Melvil Poupaud) at a party given by a co-worker. Julian is from Paris, and has been dumped by his girlfriend after coming to NYC to work with her. He is persistent and even though Nora should not have sex with him that night, she does. 

Although Julien invites her to come to Paris with him on his return in a few days, Nora declines. That would be far too impulsive for her. After some time, however, she begins to think that maybe she should have gone with Julien. She remains in a funk regarding men in general and her job in particular. She quits. 

Taking on jobs as couriers to deliver a couple of mysterious packages in Paris, Nora and Audrey do make the trip. Audrey has marital issues because her husband is like a teenager in that he only seems to focus on himself. Both women appear to be destined for an awakening in the city of light. Although Nora plans to find Julien, she loses his phone number and is out of luck. 

Audrey decides to return home but Nora finally begins to come out of her depression and chooses to remain in Paris. She allows herself to meet people and in general to go with the flow. Nothing in particular happens, other than she intuits that she’s not ready to return to NYC just yet. This decision eventually leads to a resolution of her issues. 

People in Paris in general and Europe in particular seem to understand more about quality of life issues than Americans. They know how to take their five week vacations because living life is more than a 10,000 square foot house with a four car garage and enough shoes to make Emelda Marcos envious. They have a score card, but it appears to be less composed of material things than US North Americans. 

Written and directed by Zoe Cassavetes, the daughter of actor/director John Cassavetes and actress Gena Rowlands, this debut feature is quite accomplished. It has the “real life” feel of her father’s films, which makes seemingly relatively small events unforgettable. 

Parker Posey remains the queen of Indie films even though she has worked in money roles in movies such as Superman Returns and Blade: Trinity.  

The film also has a sense of Before Sunset, Sideways and Lost in Translation, yet is not quite there. Those three productions had very strong endings. The ending of this film was somewhat weak, considering the emotional connection it previously evoked. The off-putting scenes were arguably the best because they had the feel of being the most unscripted. That said, the story was real enough to be insightful about finding oneself after age 30, without the silly clichés, slapstick and lame jokes we are usually presented with. This is a solid thinking person’s romantic movie. 

 No End in Sight

Arrogance is the single trait that links current wartime events with the title of the film. We are indeed trying to unscramble an egg, with regard to the huge debacle that is the war in the Middle East. The stakes are the highest ever, with a war that is now longer than WWII, the so-called “big one,” we are in uncharted waters in knowing what we should do. 

Like many documentaries, No End in Sight has its expected share of talking heads. A General who was not allowed to use his expertise for wartime strategy, for which he was hired, made the most interesting comments, along with the Chief of Staff for former Secretary of State, Colin Powell. Only one other person from the administration agreed to appear in the film and he held his ground while generating a “deer caught in the headlights” mentality.  

All one has to do is look at decisions made by our military strategists at the time ground forces landed. No plans were set in place to handle looting, the culture of Iraq was not maintained, the army of Iraq was disbanded, no planning was done for after the war, and American troops moved from being liberators to occupiers. It’s easy to see why, without a major change, the end is nowhere in sight. People want to give citizens of the United States the benefit of the doubt but sometimes the term Ugly American is well deserved. Many citizens of Iraq believe that while Saddam was a curse, Bush is worse. 

This is arguably the best film to date on Bush’s war. While it does not have the humor and biting commentary of a documentary by Michael Moore, that’s really a good thing. It’s certainly less entertaining but far more informative than a Moore film. Seeing this film is somewhat like reading a Chalmers Johnson book such as The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic. Rather than a politically biased narrative, we get a lesson in current day US foreign policy. Since Bush II has been in office for almost two full terms, one may take this as anti Republican, but we don’t believe that’s the case. It is disheartening to see the arrogance and ignorance of our leaders only prove the point in the movie, The Fog of War. 

No End in Sight provides an inside look at how decisions were made from right after 9/11 up through today. While literally everyone heaps praise on our military, often what they have to offer as advice is ignored. That deals more with being an ideologue (right or left) rather than looking at history and the facts and making changes if needed. 

Using the old cliché about the light at the end of the tunnel meaning things will soon be better, unless the US puts some truly fresh blood and ideas in the White House in 2009, like Barack Obama, that light may very well turn out to be an oncoming train. 

 
Perrot Le Fou

Godard’s Pierrot Le Fou is a rollicking, stimulating, art film classic about a murderous couple that tries to evade the mafia and the police by going on a road trip.  

The film opens at the Music Box Theater in Chicago on August 17.  A new 35mm print will be shown. 

By seeing this film, viewers can see for themselves just how much of a debt Quentin Tarantino owes to the art/trash master, Godard (The script of True Romance in particular is very derivative of this film). 

With its crazed couple on the road plot and its ironic tone, the film also seems like it might have been a huge influence on both Arthur Penn’s Bonnie and Clyde and David Lynch’s Wild at Heart.  

Jean-Luc Godard was the most radical, and one of the most important, figures to emerge from the French New Wave. He started out as a film critic, so it’s no surprise that his films are very theoretical (some of his later works seem more like dialogues on film than films.) His most important features include Breathless, Contempt and Weekend. 

Godard allegedly shot Pierrot Le Fou without a script, and much of the improvised absurdist dialog is still fresh, today. 

Jean Paul Belmonde (who worked with Godard before on Breathless) is wonderfully cool as Pierrot, a disturbed but fun loving man who takes up crime out of boredom and the need to escape social conventions. 

Godard’s ex-wife Anna Karina is irresistible in the role of Marianne, Pierrot’s impulsive lover. She is completely ordinary, totally psychotic, and the most beautiful woman in the world in the role. 

Early in the film, Pierrot leaves his wife and mundane existence behind when he runs off with his former girlfriend, Marianne, who has killed a man. They hit the road in a stolen car, and lead a completely hedonistic lifestyle—killing and robbing many people on the way.  

They are pursued by some Algerian mobsters who want to shoot Marianne. They spend some time on a deserted island, and go back to the mainland to face their destinies. 

The movie is unconventional in every way, including the love scenes. Early in the film, the still married Marianne announces that she is going to put her hand on Pierrot’s knee, and somehow it’s more erotic than 99% of the steamy sex scenes in today’s films. 

Pierrot is not a completely typical criminal. When he isn’t killing people he becomes immersed in the world of literature (perhaps he is supposed to be Godard’s id), and Marianne complains that he spends all his money on books. The film contains some marvelous quotes about literature, such as, “Poetry is a game of loser take all,” and “The language of poetry rises from the ruins.” 

Most viewers would probably despise Pierrot Le Fou, but the film is more modern and exhilarating than any crime film that is out today.  Godard’s Pierrot Le Fou ranks among the best and most accessible works in the great auteur’s oeuvre. 

 Manufacturing Dissent

Manufacturing Dissent is a hard hitting documentary that successfully demythologizes the documentary filmmaker/liberal patron saint, Michael Moore, and brings us a little closer to the real man. Not everyone will be happy with the way he is presented in the film. 

The name of the film echoes the title of another political documentary, Manufacturing Consent, which was about the great leftist intellectual, Noam Chomsky. Unlike Chomsky, Moore is as much a vaudevillian as he is a political commentator.  

Manufacturing Dissent will be playing at the Gene Siskel Center on August 31-September 6. It will show Friday at 6:15, Saturday at 4:15 and 8:15, Sunday at 3:00, Monday at 6:00, plus Tuesday and Thursday at 8:00 pm. 

The film was made by Debbie Melnyk and Rick Caine (a Canadian and an American), who were fans of Moore. They consider themselves to be progressive leftists, and they don’t appear to have an axe to grind against Moore. 

They decided to do some interviews of Moore, and ironically they found him to be even more elusive than the GM corporate head, Roger Smith, who Moore examined in Roger in Me. At one point they are even thrown out of a press conference for using phony press credentials. Moore actually did the same thing on camera himself before. 

The film doesn’t attack Moore’s conclusions, but it criticizes some of his journalistic methods and the shortcuts he takes. It also shows that Moore sometimes changed the chronology of events or recontextualizes them to make them more humorous.  But one can argue that the editing and cutting in Moore’s films are the most creative aspects of them. 

Also, in his quest for fame and social change, Moore sometimes doesn’t treat individuals well after they no longer serve his purposes. This includes not giving fellow left activists the credit they deserve. 

During the first George W. Bush election, Moore actively campaigned for Ralph Nader, and in the second one, without missing a beat, he savagely attacked Nader. The film suggests that Moore was concerned more about how he could get ahead in his career than the future of the country. 

At one point, Dave Marsh, the rock critic who started the left wing/ rock music newsletter “Rock’ N Roll Confidential” claims that of all the papers that reprinted his columns, only Moore’s publication never paid him for them. 

The filmmakers unfairly hit Michael below the belt at another turn. They present Moore’s uncomfortable interview with David Gilmour (following the release of his disastrous comedy Canadian Bacon), which amounts to character assassination.

Manufacturing Dissent didn’t invalidate Moore’s arguments or diminish his great accomplishments (although Errol Morris claims he was merely preaching to the choir), but it shows that he is not perfect and that even people who agree with him ideologically should take what he says with a grain of salt. Also, most of the criticisms of Moore can’t be applied to his new film, Sicko, which is much more restrained than his previous features. 

 This is England

In a grim working class town on the coast of England in 1983, Shaun (Thomas Turgoose) is an unhappy 12-year-old, who is about to begin his summer holiday from school. He is an emotionally torn boy who faces heartache and cruelty (as only other 12-year-olds can dish it out) on a daily basis. His father was killed in the Falklands War, resources from his mother are slim and he’s bullied at school. 

Shaun is befriended by some “moderate” skinheads (which sounds like an oxy-moron to us) but, nevertheless, there they are, laying about, talking trash, smoking dope and downing beer, though not committing hate crimes. Woody (Joe Gilgun) is the guy everyone takes orders from, and included in the group is Milky (Andrew Shim), a man with dark skin whose family is from Jamaica. Things go well for Shaun with his new friends, who take him on as their young sidekick and buy him the latest gear (clothes and kick-ass boots), and shave his head.  

Yes, Shaun gets involved in a bit more adult action than we might be comfortable with (drinking, smoking and some heavy kissing) but things go well until the older, tougher Combo (Stephen Graham) rejoins his friends after serving hard time in jail. He makes his feelings about Milky known right away and the group splits in two. Shaun sides with Combo. Through this liaison Shaun advances from a minor tiff with the local Pakistani store owner to an all out hate crime and robbery.  

The intimate kissing scene between young Shaun and 20-ish punk-rocker Smell (Rosamund Hanson) is downright creepy. It really causes Shaun to think about a key aspect of his many coming of age issues. Actually, it may be the core of his ability to think clearly, because only he and Smell judge his reaction, rather than a group of pseudo-macho men. 

Combo has a ready yet fierce smile that makes you think at times that he might not be all bad. The odd thing is he probably isn’t. A pivotal scene in the film occurs when Combo warms to Milky until the young man starts talking about his Jamaican family. You can see what is going to happen before Combo realizes what he will do. 

The racism depicted in this film by the skinheads and those with the real power, who organize the meetings and orchestrate their actions, is quite insidious. We tend to fight best the enemies we understand. While the upper class (PM Margaret Thatcher) thumps their chests about colonialism, the working class often is dying fighting those battles. When they come home from battle these men and women are faced with globalization of many of the high paying, unskilled jobs that have been outsourced. At the same time immigrants have moved into the service economy, for jobs that some say those born in the country don’t want to do.   

Today in the US, many want immigrants to do our dirty work for next to slave wages. It’s reported that 70% of immigrants working on farms and in low wage factory jobs are illegal. It would appear that they are being used far more than they are using resources in their host country. Own a few retail stores, like the Pakistanis in England, and many unemployed or underemployed begin to think that they have lost more than a better paying job, perhaps their dignity and self-respect. 

Globalization has crushed the middle and working classes while lining the pockets of corporations and its shareholders. Twenty years ago, company paid pensions and health insurance were both expected and received. Look at the current environment of lack of benefits, loss of purchasing power and a Social Security System that will pay less at a later age, and the outlook for our children and grandchildren is bleak. One may save enough for day to day living, but a catastrophic illness can wipe out all but the wealthiest. If you doubt this trend, you’ve never wondered why so many homes are being built that are so far out of your price range that you could not look a realtor in the eye to say you were interested. 

Shane Meadows directed another film called Once Upon a Time in the Midlands, which takes place in Scotland, and also involves an unorthodox extended family brought together by need and caring. That film has a comedic tone, certainly not present here. 

What we took away from this film, which we liked, was a deeper understanding of the importance of feeling good about yourself, hopefully not at the expense of someone else. Although, with all that Shaun had going against him, to connect the politics of neglect to false nationalism was somewhat of a stretch for a preteen. 

There’s a lot of flag waving in This is England, and our note of caution on that is that often the hand tightly clutching the flag forms a fist, ready to strike out at anyone who questions authority or rule. Beware.  

 
Musician

Musician is an interesting fly-on-the-wall style music documentary about the jazz great, Ken Vandermark. It avoids the excessive use of many of the techniques typically associated with the documentary form such as interviews or voice overs. The film just tries to capture Vandermark’s routine in a simple, straight forward manner with no gimmicks or trick photography. 

The film does have a number of impressive musical performances in it, including sizzling versions of “Mirror Values,” “Shockalee Acid Scratch,” and “Brullt.” 

Vandermark is an intriguing experimental jazz band leader, and a master clarinet and sax player. He has put out over 100 recordings with more than 40 ensembles. He even won a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship in 1990. His performance was also one of the highlights at the 2007 Pitchfork Festival.  Despite his tremendous critical acclaim, he has never sold an enormous number of recordings.  

There was a successful preview screening last week at the Gene Siskel Center and the film will show at New York’s Pioneer Theater in New York for an extended run on September 5-11. 

The film was shot entirely in Chicago (we can clearly see the sign for the legendary Green Mill Lounge in one scene). It captures Vandermark’s daily routines, and it gives us an idea of the sacrifices he made to be a musician.  

In one of the most stunning images in the film, a dog goes berserk listening to Vandermark’s music and he throws his head savagely to and fro as if it were doing a crazed dance. Somehow it seemed like a fitting response to Vandermark’s harsh but exciting work. It reminded me of another scene from the film (Sound?) in which birds at the zoo joined in and sang along with Rahsaan Roland Kirk’s chaotic flute playing.   

Musician was directed by Daniel Kraus, who was influenced by the cinema verite works of Frederick (High School) Wiseman. It is part of a series of minimalistic documentaries called the Work Series. Other entries in the series include Sheriff (2002), about a North Carolina lawman, and Truck Driver, which is scheduled to come out in 2008.  

The Work Series (see http://www.workseries.com/musician) films will all focus on different and interesting working men and women across the United States. The series even has a My Space page at http://myspace.com/workseries. 

Musician does not offer any deep psychosocial insights into Vandermark, but jazz aficionados should find much to admire in the film. Unfortunately, it will have no extended run in Chicago, but it will be available on DVD some time next year from Facets Multimedia (they already carry Sheriff). 

 Death Sentence

Director James Wan’s terrific new rush of a vigilante thriller, Death Sentence, stars Kevin Bacon as a low-key father whose teenaged son is mercilessly slaughtered by skinhead thugs, and who shocks himself by beginning a gang war that takes down his family, world and a dozen lives in the process. The film is a prime example of the genre done well, with its intricately staged mayhem and top-notch performances that cut to the heart of a shattered family.  

A tour-de-force Kevin Bacon is brilliant as happy family man Nick Hume, a risk-assessment executive at an insurance company, with a loving wife (Kelly Preston, touching) and two opposite teenaged sons (Stuart Lafferty, Jordan Garrett). A chance stop at a gas station leads to a wrong place, wrong time encounter with a vicious band of skinhead, human garbage led by sadistic Billy Darley (Garrett Hedlund), who orders Hume’s elder, favorite son executed as a rite-of-passage for a fledgling gang recruit. When a legal technicality leads to a jailed perpetrator going free, Hume takes the law into his own hands, to the rising suspicions of a police detective (Aisha Tyler) and his family. After murdering the accused killer, the gang retaliates resulting in a chain reaction, urban war. 

Bacon, the dependable American actor now in a risk-taking career space (The Woodsman), reaches into depths of feeling he has never displayed onscreen, wordlessly etching out Nick’s pain; whether howling with his dying son cradled, reacting incredulously to taking a life, crying in the shower as he reconciles his actions or clutching desperately at wife Helen’s waist for support. It is a supremely invested performance and worthy of an Oscar nomination, a real triumph for a genre picture.

There are action sequences here that are simply jaw-dropping, carefully built by director Wan (Saw) who clearly loves film violence but in this film knows the consequences. Consider the extended chase with Bacon being pursued down a city street by a hail of bullets and the angry gang. Wan uses impressive, disorienting long takes and a mobile camera up and down throughout a parking garage, ending the sequence with a spectacular stunt. Ditto the scene when thugs burst into Hume's home and a showdown leads to a shattered staircase. And then there is the climax, where a three-way gunfight is shot and choreographed with such visceral elegance it deserves to be deconstructed. 

Death Sentence has no axe to grind and no issue to peddle, and is not as contemplative as In the Bedroom or as simplistic as Death Wish. It is, foremost, a major growth from young director Wan, stretching the emotional legwork to deliver characters we care about rather than simply going for violence. Here, the director has finally found a vehicle that integrates his taste for violence with a compelling story and characters, whereas Saw was simply torture-porn hung on fourth-rate material. Death Sentence allows Wan to show off his confident action set-ups and fluid camera, a combination that produces some of the year's best thrills this side of Jason Bourne. Shot in washed out, grainy grindhouse glee, it looks worn and gritty.  

Death Sentence is a critic-proof audience movie, and a satisfying thrill machine that takes Bacon and Wan right over the edge.