My Favorite Movies

When Harmony Korine's "Gummo" crept into SF film fest midnight showing I was lucky to have a ticket and see Harmony talk about his film.

he was like a scabby thief in the night, it was greeted with the sort of critical violence that always makes me want to see the movie for myself. Sometimes a universally hated film is universally hated for a reason, and I've gotten stung at such movies as "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues" and "North." But other such despised movies, like "Crash" and "A Life Less Ordinary," made me wonder if the entirety of American critics had seen the same film I saw. We say we want something different, and yet when a film actually gives us that, we punish it, mock it, call it pretentious and pointless.

My honest opinion? I loved Gummo. That surprised me, since I'm not a big fan of Kids, the overhyped 1995 film that Harmony Korine wrote (Larry Clark directed it). Kids tried to be an old-fashioned cautionary tale dressed up in new-shit hipster clothes; the result was a shrewdly posturing work -- a film that young urban moviegoers could attend and pretend they'd walked on the wild side. Gummo, which Korine wrote and directed, is closer to the real thing. If it were a documentary, Korine would be hoisted up there alongside Errol Morris and Terry Zwigoff as a filmmaker who captured the chaos of inner life. Because it's fiction, Korine is denounced as an exploitative brat with a camera.

What's really going on here? Seems to me a lot of urban baby-boomer critics have a knee-jerk aversion to any work that shows poverty-stricken rural people but doesn't serve up a clearcut uplifting message (banks are bad, farms are good, the community will always pull together, etc.). Gummo is set in Xenia, Ohio, a town that never recovered from a tornado. (It was shot in Nashville, though.) The two main characters are Tummler (Nick Sutton) and Solomon (Jacob Reynolds), two aimless kids who kill cats so they can sell them for meat and buy glue to huff. Korine regards them neutrally, without comment, and he treats everyone else onscreen the same way. That this is condemned as condescension, and not merely depiction, shows the condescension of the critics -- the same well-to-do critics who hate Jerry Springer because its guests are supposedly too ignorant (i.e., too small-town) to know they're being exploited.

Working with cinematographer Jean-Yves Escoffier (Good Will Hunting), Korine sustains a depressive mood, a world of muted colors and no expectations, a place where entertainment consists of watching two men beat up a kitchen chair. Some may ask why we'd want to watch such things. Me, I think it's a relief. When a film like Crash or Gummo comes along that's so not Hollywood, so not about cute people with cute flaws and happy endings, we Americans, who claim to be sick of the same action movies and romantic comedies, have the gall to complain that movies like Gummo have no story. Well, the non-story in Gummo interested me a hell of a lot more than the non-stories that Hollywood passes off as stories.

And Korine is a far more inventive visual filmmaker than his one-time director (and photographer) Larry Clark ever was. That famous shot of Jacob Reynolds eating spaghetti in a tub full of gray bathwater puts a slippery finger on a part of your brain that usually isn't touched. The movie is full of such bothersome, elusive images (a kid with pink bunny ears strolling across a bleak landscape; a retarded woman shaving her eyebrows; two skinheads pummeling each other -- for real; the sight of Out of the Blue's Linda Manz as Solomon's weird, tap-dancing mom). Directors have been hailed as visionaries for less. In fact, if Gummo had subtitles and came from, say, the Netherlands or Spain, some of the same critics who shat all over it might have embraced it.

There's also a hidden compassion in Gummo -- the movie's dirty little secret is that it's not as coldly hip as it lets on. The notorious scene in which Solomon shoots the comatose old woman in the foot is actually rather ambiguous: this is their hapless attempt to wake her up. Another scene that drew critical fire -- Korine's cameo as a drunk guy who comes on to an encephalitic black dwarf after talking about how lonely he is -- struck me as oddly moving. Can we just not deal with movies that don't express emotions the same old way? Can't we, for just 90 minutes, rise to the challenge of genuinely difficult art?

Your reaction to the people in Gummo says more about you than it does about them or Korine. If you recoil or laugh or scoff, you should ask yourself why. Perhaps the comatose old woman is Korine's metaphor for the lazy, narrow-minded, unadventurous American audience that he hopes to wake up. Most critics have rewarded him with a kick in the ass, but they should be thanking him. Better he should make X-Men 4?

I'm reminded of a great quote by Spike Lee: when an interviewer said that Spike's use of different styles in the same movie isn't what some people are used to, Lee retorted, "Most of the movies that people are used to suck anyway!" A sentiment with which, I think, Harmony Korine would heartily agre

One of my fav Woody films - above read the opening page of script were woody under texts the opening act of Annie Hall.

One of my Fav films. and fav scripts.

It was approximately a decade ago when a noted film director -- I believe it was Paul Verhoeven -- stated that in American cinema, it was OK to chop off a female breast but not acceptable to caress one. Of course, that quote still applies today, and if anything, American cinema has become more timid -- not in matters of violence or scatology, mind you, just in s-e-x -- since the early to mid-1990s, a period when the controversy surrounding the NC-17 rating was at its peak.

You may recall that the NC-17 designation was created to replace the X rating for the purposes of mainstream cinema. The X became solely the domain of porno flicks; the NC-17 was supposed to allow moviemakers to create raw, uncompromised features made exclusively for the eyes of adult audiences, mature films that didn't need to tone anything down for the sake of the kids. Of course, it didn't quite work out that way. The United States is nothing if not a puritanical nation, and the forces of repression and prudery made sure that the NC-17 would fare no better than the X rating. With many mainstream newspapers refusing to even carry ads for films that were rated NC-17, the designation died a swift death. Today, it's barely ever used, and the few films not aimed at tots, teens or easy-to-please adults are simply released unrated.

That's the case with John Cameron Mitchell's Shortbus, but even without an officially sanctioned MPAA rating, the film pushes the envelope of what's allowed on screen further than just about any other non-porn flick that comes to mind. Perhaps not since 1980's Caligula has a non-XXX motion picture been as sexually explicit as this one (admittedly, I haven't seen Michael Winterbottom's 9 Songs). But whereas Caligula was a wallow in brutality -- the violence and gore offset any potential pleasure generated by hardcore sequences which, truth be told, weren't all that competently filmed anyway -- Shortbus is a celebration of sex that, in turn, morphs into a celebration of those most inalienable of American rights: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

A multi-layered film featuring a multi-character ensemble, Shortbus is weighty enough that it doesn't simply begin and end with the orgasm. Well, OK, it does begin with it: The opening montage, the most hardcore stretch in the film, finds the principal characters engaged in their own sessions of intercourse, masturbation or S&M. After this eye-catching intro, the film settles down and allows us to get to know its players better. Sofia (Sook-Yin Lee) is a sex therapist ("I prefer 'couples counselor,'" she states more than once) who has herself never experienced the joys of an orgasm, not even with her husband Rob (Raphael Barker). James (Paul Dawson) and Jamie (PJ DeBoy) are described as the perfect couple, though James' perpetual moodiness and Jamie's constant neediness lead them to mutually agree to seek companionship from a third party; that turns out to be a nice kid named Ceth (Jay Brannan), and the resultant ménage a trois proves to be a point of dismay for their mysterious, Peeping Tom neighbor Caleb (Peter Stickles). And Severin (Lindsay Beamish) is a dominatrix who's so burned out on her daily routine that she's searching for something -- anything -- to awaken her senses. Their paths all converge at an underground venue called Shortbus, a haven for open-minded people to discuss, watch and engage in all manner of sexual expression.

The hype and controversy surrounding the film's erotic content has been so deafening that it'd be a shame if this gets dismissed out of hand as a one-trick pony. Director Mitchell, whose previous feature was 2001's marvelous musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch (in which he also starred as the transsexual protagonist), wrote the screenplay for Shortbus along with the participation of his cast members, and such a free-flowing environment of ideas allows the picture the opportunity to mature -- to grow and deepen -- along with its characters. In many ways, this is a New York picture through and through: That's evident from the witty opening sequence, when an extreme close-up of something (Is it a sculpture? Is that a penis?) comes into focus as the camera pulls back and we realize it's the Statue of Liberty standing guard over the Big Apple. There are the usual references to 9/11, but we don't sense that Mitchell is merely paying lip service -- these are frightening times for our country, with internal threats splitting apart the nation's citizenry as much as outside ones, and Mitchell seems to be suggesting that anything that can cheer us and unite us should be wholeheartedly embraced. It's an open invitation that should reach all states Blue, Red and Zebra-Striped, though, admittedly, I'm still freaked out that this is opening this Friday at, of all theaters, the Manor. (Let's just hope the bluehairs don't accidentally wander into this auditorium at the moment when James is ejaculating on his own face, or Manor management, like Lucy to Ricky, will have some 'splainin' to do to the medics subsequently called to the scene to revive the victims.)

The cast is mostly comprised of screen novices and newcomers -- no surprise, since it's hard to imagine A-listers like Brad Pitt or Scarlett Johansson going this far for the sake of their art (though, Lord knows, their fans wouldn't object!). Their collective lack of screen polish provides the characters with a natural demeanor that works well for this setting. Sook-Yin Lee, however, is the breakthrough in the cast: Her performance -- by turns fearless, funny, frustrated and frenzied -- surely ranks as one of the year's best.

Mitchell isn't so Pollyanna that he's suggesting everyone's difficulties will be solved by one good bout of sexual acrobatics. Indeed, many of the characters' problems and hang-ups are directly hardwired into their own opinions on the subject. But what makes Shortbus unusual for an American movie is that it isn't frightened of sex, it doesn't reduce the act to insensitive frat boy gyrations, and it doesn't employ it as a bludgeoning weapon (on that latter point, see this year's execrable Basic Instinct sequel as Exhibit A). As a movie, Shortbus is a turn-on, but not in the sense readers might imagine. The picture isn't physically stimulating so much as it's mentally and emotionally arousing -- it considers the brain and the heart the true erogenous zones, a viewpoint that ultimately turns out to be the movie's most startling aspect.

1984 classic is now being made into a film featuring Sean Penn, Emile Hirsh, James Franco and Josh Brolin.



Directed buy Van Zant .. he has changed the current SF Castro District back to 1975.



This film should hit screen in fall of 2008 to mark harveys murder that happen in November of 78.



Vmedia

It?s understandable if at first you feel as though you?re not getting enough information about Eraserhead's setting. And the timing is likely to puzzle you, too ? not just the pace of conversations (of which there are few), but the sensuous, heavy-lidded rhythms of the entire movie. Then there?s the plot? Or is there? At least there?s a main character, a pasty, suited man who vibrates with something like extreme anxiety and hurries through the oily puddles of his weirdly industrial neighborhood as though someone were chasing him. The audience would read this character as a freak for a wealth of reasons, but his most conspicuous feature is his hairdo: a shock of frizz that shoots straight up off his head like the Bride of Frankenstein?s, but blunt-cut across the top, like the eraser on the end of a pencil. The film gleans its title from this distinctive look: Eraserhead. It?s one of the most thrillingly irrational films you?ll ever see.

The talent behind Eraserhead is that one truly surrealist presence in mainstream American film, David Lynch. Later Lynch would expose the subterranean evil of Capra-esque America in 1986?s Blue Velvet, recast The Wizard of Oz among the riotously criminal milieu of 1990?s Wild at Heart, and offer us a circuitous journey down Los Angeles?s famed Mulholland Drive in 2001 (although you won?t be there to admire the view). And critics and audiences will marvel at the perversity of it all.

But it was in 1977?s cult touchstone Eraserhead that Lynch took his tense and fantastic approach to filmmaking to its furthest extreme. The theme of Eraserhead, as Pauline Kael concisely stated it, is ?a man?s worst fears of courtship and marriage and fatherhood,? and in giving voice to these fears the film succeeds unlike any other: When our hero Henry (Jack Nance) visits the home of his fiancée, for instance, he encounters a father so cowed that he?s literally gone numb, an aphasic and apparently immobile grandmother to whom lit cigarettes are given, and a harping shrew of a mother who completes the horror of hearth and home by coming on to Henry. The bed Henry subsequently shares with his wife is the site of stifling, fever-dream episodes that never end, or that end in quarrels. And the baby is a sick, sleepless monster that whimpers and coughs up its food. ?They?re still not sure it is a baby!? Henry?s wife cries at one point, and with its horse-shaped face and gauze-wrapped, oval body, it certainly doesn?t look like one.

But Lynch tells Henry?s story in warped, image-driven episodes rather than a traditional narrative, and it?s these images and their inevitable, dream-like rhythms that make Eraserhead so extraordinary. It?s driven by a kind of aesthetic intuition that all but disappeared from the screen with the experimental films of the ?20s and ?30s; Lynch doesn?t explain scenes or let his characters talk them through, but instead culls images from the subconscious that seem arbitrary but that connect with the viewer in a weirdly indefinable (and often creepily sexual) way. We watch as a baked, ?man-made? chicken begins spasmodically working its truncated legs when cut into, and although we can?t pin any objective meaning to this image, its message of genetic misconception comes through loud and clear. Ditto the gristly, sperm-shaped organic things that Henry discovers in his bed, the angelic, disfigured woman who sings on a tiny stage within Henry?s radiator, his mewing baby, and a lot more. It comes almost as an afterthought to mention that much of this is very, very funny as well. Eraserhead is a work of rare genius and real bravery; it?s a comic nightmare we all have at once and whose meanings lay just out of reach.

Lynch made Eraserhead over the course of five years. The picture previewed in 1976, and although its release the following year met with mostly hostile reviews, a cult grew up around it. The early ?80s saw a video release by Warner Brothers, but as these videos gradually fell off the shelves Eraserhead became harder and harder to see; viewers in recent years have had to settle for bootlegs with a distorted aspect and Japanese subtitles. It?s all the more a cause for celebration then that this unnatural little classic is finally available on DVD, through www.davidlynch.com, with a few nice extras and a wonderful transfer. It?s a unique, resonant fantasy of the day-to-day, and it?s been unavailable for far too long.

And a postscript to fans: Stoners love Eraserhead for its trippiness, which is a valid premise, but the picture can be taken a lot more seriously than that. If it?s the dream logic and surreal content that appeal to you here, you?re directed to Eraserhead?s forebears: Luis Buñuel?s Un Chien andalou and L?Âge d?or.

The new DVD includes a short film primarily interviewing Lynch about his memories of making the film.

What better way to celebrate the best Dorothy films in 20 years.

Great black Vrigina Film,. that eats away at every moment anyone thinks of warm bloddy love.

4 good pounds and a bag of Gummy Bears

One of the best Docs - of 2007
Chilling.. more reason not to ever buy a Ford..
or reconsider our love for Japans history

Dark need to see Doc and glad to see this film win so many awards

"Beaufort" is an Academy Award nominee for best foreign film, though it's not in the same league as Romania's "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days," which did not receive a nomination. It takes place mainly inside and around a set meticulously constructed from photos and footage of Beaufort, a fort built by Crusaders in the 12th century. The Israelis captured it from the PLO in 1982 and occupied it for the next 18 years.

Liraz (Oshri Cohen) is a young commander who would be a formidable soldier in a normal war. As things stand, he has the confused task of defending the fort until such time as the government tells him to evacuate it. At the start of the film, we see him bullying a bomb specialist (Ohad Knoller) to go on a dangerous mission to defuse a mine. For a while, the movie seems as though the bomb specialist is going to be the main focus, but the movie is more interested in the bullying commander - and how his beliefs are tested.

The last thing any government wants is a convoluted and protracted conflict that breaks the spirit of its best officers. Because the point of the film is that the soldiers here are impotent, there's not much that they can do, by definition. Thus, the narrative lurches from one incident to the next, with no sense of build.

The best that can be said for "Beaufort" is that it's a little like what it must have been like to be there - but it's not. It can't be, because the defining circumstance of ongoing fear and mortal terror is missing. The failure of the filmmaker to dramatically replicate those emotions, at least in some form, prevents "Beaufort" from being anything more than a noble gesture.

Marc Foster (finding Neverland) does well recreating this book.

Forester makes every effort to appease legions of Hosseini fans, of which I am one. ?Kite? is pleasingly faithful to its source material, weaving an enriching tapestry of dramatic ethnicity and tradition. The dread is palpable, particularly in modern-day Taliban -infested Kabul.

But a formulaic blueprint screams crowd-pleasing rather than risk-taking. ?Kite? pits good against evil in oversimplified terms, an exercise in futility for enthusiasts of dark emotional tones. Pacing is a bit rushed; a niggling feeling of something fundamental left on the cutting room floor.

Performances are sound, particularly that of the still-waters-run-deep Abdalla. Piece looks wonderful, shots of Kabul pre and post-militia as silent witness to its skewed politics.

Genuine if not exactly inspiring.

THIS ALMOST SHOT LIKE A LIVE PLAY OR IN REAL TIME

Mungiu shoots each scene in one take, the camera either remaining steady as characters pass in and out of the frame, or trailing them as they walk. At a college dorm in 1987, roommates Gabita (Laura Vasiliu) and Otilia (Anamaria Marinca) go over the necessities for the coming day. Though it's not yet clear what's making her almost paralytically nervous, Gabita remains in the room while the pragmatic Otilia buys, barters and collects soap, cigarettes, money, etc. from schoolfriends and her b.f., Adi (Alex Potocean).

From the dorm Otilia heads to the hotel where Gabita booked a room, but the unfriendly receptionist claims to have no reservation and she's forced to look elsewhere. Once that's arranged, she goes to the rendezvous point to meet Mr. Bebe (Vlad Ivanov), a stone-faced illegal abortionist who's not pleased that his precise instructions have not been met.

Bebe is a bully, using criticism as a way of overcoming any resistance. Discovering that Gabita is further along in her pregnancy than she claimed, he exacts a high price: not just money, but the sexual favors of both women before he'll proceed. Panicked negotiations follow, but they submit.

With the rapes quickly over, Bebe assumes an almost solicitous bedside manner and commences with the abortion. The camera is fixed in another long take, Gabita's stretched-out body, knees up, extending across the entire widescreen. Mungiu has a masterly ability to remain discreet while ratcheting up the discomfort level: the trust between the camera and the characters, and the respect Mungiu has for these women, never falters. After inserting a probe and injecting some fluid, Bebe tells them what to do when the fetus is rejected, and leaves.

When you expect cinematic time to pass more quickly, it's something of a shock to realize it's still light out when Otilia reluctantly leaves the hotel to attend Adi's mother's birthday party. With the camera centered on Otilia, tightly hemmed in by the other guests at table, a sense of discomfort takes hold, the young woman silently forcing down a maelstrom of emotions until they nearly burst through the surface. It's a remarkable, sustained scene with an extraordinary performance at its center. She escapes as soon as possible, back to the hotel room, and Gabita.

Obviously, this is no "Vera Drake" knock-off, though there is more than a superficial similarity between Mike Leigh's and Mungiu's intense concentration on character. Here the style is even more stripped down, though the rigidity of form is so naturally achieved that the complexities are practically hidden from view. So careful at focusing only on what's essential, Mungiu makes only one misstep when he lingers on a fetus -- it's a moment completely out of keeping with the rest of the film and serves only as wasted shock value.

Foremost among the many revelations is Marinca's stellar turn as Otilia. It's not just the way she transforms scripted dialogue into real-speak (a quality shared by the rest of the stellar cast), but her ability to convey all her inner struggles in silence. Vasiliu is equally fine, a frightened young woman desperate to end her ordeal.

Just as he proved with "Mr. Lazarescu," d.p. Mutu (also producing) achieves miraculous effects with his observational camera, capturing all the necessities without ever feeling voyeuristic. His spaces, even when outside, remain claustrophobic -- doors never provide escape, and night, with its sudden, unknown sounds, is especially menacing. Colors are all muted cement tones, capturing the crushing ugliness of life in the Eastern bloc.

One of the many great musical films of 2007.. The year Once won the best song.

But no one can miss that fact that Soundhiem is a genius and this films only supports that.

Depp was so good, far exceeding his past roles. I was very happy to see his nominations during the award season.

Depp has a zombie?s stare. Most effective, though, is the actor?s resolute focus. Todd is consumed by his desire to enact revenge upon those who destroyed the happy life he shared with his wife and daughter 15 years before. Falsely charged and imprisoned, the cruel life Todd led has made this once good man irretrievably bad.

The film version of Sweeney Todd emphasizes Todd?s relationship with the accomplice he finds upon his return to mid-19th century London. Mrs. Lovett owns an understandably unpopular meat pie restaurant beneath the barber shop Todd operated before the corrupt Judge Turpin ruined his life. Mrs. Lovett, played by Helena Bonham Carter (a.k.a. Mrs. Tim Burton), is the ideal partner for Todd. But however much this Gothic fright of a woman resembles death, Mrs. Lovett?s unrequited love for Todd stays stubbornly alive.

Recognizing the long-gone Todd despite his deathly transformation, Mrs. Lovett instantly agrees to rent her upstairs flat to him so he can re-open his barbering business. He does so, adding a severe twist to his business plan.

Depp, who sang in a rock band in the 1980s, does a surprisingly good job of singing Sondheim?s songs. Having absolutely found his singing voice for the role, he shows impressive power in even the music?s more operatic places. Bonham Carter?s voice is thin, but her acting chops and humor (she drives the film?s most amusing sequence) make her a splendid Mrs. Lovett.

Meanwhile, Sondheim?s music and clever lyrics illuminate characters and always, as any songs in a musical should, advance the plot.
Alan Rickman, co-starring as the devious and hypocritical Judge Turpin, isn?t just slimy. He sings in an even pleasant baritone. Another British actor, Timothy Spall, is appropriately loathsome as Turpin?s executioner of dirty deeds, but the normally scene-stealing Sacha Baron Cohen is disappointing as Todd?s flamboyant rival in the barbering business.

If the movie?s profusion of spraying, gushing, splattering blood sounds dreadful, well, it is dreadful fun. The film may not be for the squeamish, but it?s a rare choice for cinema and Broadway musical fans and it?s among Depp and Burton?s richest work.

Martin is so good at these type of music Docs and the Stones get their due..



Saw an early cut and this film should do well - AND RUN FOR A FEW MONTHS its not the Last Waltz but its close to be a classic.



Vmedia

New Director Ash Christian, makes good creating a new Dorothy code phrase.

"Fat Girls" becomes the new Icon next to Dorothy her herself.

A modestly impressive debut -- especially considering that writer/director Ash Christian was 21 when he made it -- this poignant comedy will appeal to anyone who vividly remembers what it's like to be a high school outcast

BIG-HEARTED and often quite funny if crudely made, "Fat Girls" cleverly subverts the clichés of high school comedies to serve an autobiographical story about an overweight gay teen in a small Texas town.

Ash Christian, is appealing (if somewhat mature) in the main role. He hangs out with an enormous girl (Ashley Fink) while his sex life is limited to furtively groping his ostensibly straight co-star in the school's production of "The Odd Couple."

This a cute freshman director picture and I look forward to Ashes' next film Mangus!

Vmedia
Berkeley Calif.

Even thou I worked on this project and I am close to its soul. I still have the gut feeling we will bomb this weekend.

Iron Man took the ball and ran hard its first weekend out and no matter how fast the racer is - we won't catch that crowd.

Well we may have a good first weekend - but then have engine probs for the rest of the run.

The picture I agree looks great - seems great - and I love Emile (even thou he was not in love with this script)

None the less I wish the Racer a good first weekend out of the pit and you guys tell me what you thing of this cartoon color maze version from the matrix boys.

Maybe million will sing the theme song this weekend - who knows?

Vince
Berkeley Ca - Vmedia

'Snow Angels' is a film that may be the first 08 picture that will be Oscar friendly, based on a book by Stewart O'Nan. It is directed by David Gordon Green, and stars Sam Rockwell, Kate Beckinsale, and Michael Angarano.

The story follows the lives of several people, including Annie and Glenn (Rockwell), Arthur (Angrano) and his parents, and others as some relationships are built and others are destroyed.

The film has a strong real life feeling to it, based on some amazing writing by Green and great acting skills by the cast. There are scenes where Annie yells at her child that may seem to be out of place at first glance, but are actually amazing true-to-life ways to express how sometimes parents lose their tempers with their kids, how sometimes kids can try to push their parents' buttons, or play their parents against each other without even knowing it.

The acting is Oscar nods, the cast shows a wide range. . There are times when you love and sympathize with the characters, and there are times when you hate them so much your blood boils . By the end of the film, you feel drained, as if you just watched someone you love die.

The script is chock full of wit, life at its best and worst, The movie left me wishing I could watch it again.

The only problem I found i saw was in the detail of time set, from the use of cell phones vs 70's turntables. The mix of what time zone this story sometimes gets confusing.

Beckinsale is at her best here, This is one of her best movies.

This film is on screens now as I post this, and will be in wider release this spring.

I highly recommend this film.

Vmedia
Berkeley Ca UCB

Adam Corollas first feature film "The Hammer" might come the closest to matching the tone of the original "Rocky."

I never would have guessed that Adam Carolla, the politically incorrect radio and TV Man show goof, could hold his own in a movie, but here's "The Hammer" to prove me wrong. the picture is a funny and unpretentious example of the aging-ex-boxer-steps-back-in-the-ring genre, and Carolla is good as a sad-sack regular joe who goes for a second shot in life.

The film hardly could be credited with breaking any "rocky" ground, but it has a charm, much like its leading actor. Adam Carolla, who also provided the original story, stars as Jerry Ferro, a construction worker who has just turned 40 and feels his life slipping away.

The movie, which has made the rounds on the festival circuit, thats were i saw a screening .. this will never become a blockbuster, but it will please Carolla fans an audiences who manage to catch it.

The script by Kevin Hench actually has a lot of snappy dialogue. Jerry is more of a wit than Rocky Balboa, and he enjoys trading barbs with his co-worker Ozzie (Oswaldo Castillo), as well as his fellow boxers. Director Charles Herman-Wurmfeld ("Kissing Jessica Stein") isn't much of a visual stylist, but he keeps the action moving swiftly, and he works smoothly with the actors.

Like the original "Rocky," the movie ends with a defeat that is really a victory, and this low-key finale proves to be a lot more satisfying than the bombast that infects most sports movies. If "Hammer" doesn't quite pack a wallop, it's a funny, engaging, loping journey along the sidelines of the sporting life.

And that worked for me. Hope you have time to see it this weekend

Vmedia UCB

This one of the best from late in 07.

One wouldn't expect Shakespeare, O'Neill and Francis Ford Coppola to be echoing around the ramshackle hillsides of Rio de Janeiro, but then one doesn't really expect "City of Men" either. The ostensible, sort-of sequel to 2002's "City of God" tells a multilayered story coherently, with propulsive action and a naturalistic nod to the fact that so much of the world is a violent place.
The world created by director Paolo Morelli (taking the reins from "City of God" director, and "City of Men's" co-producer, Fernando Meirelles) may in fact be more benign than reality, but it's harrowing enough. Guns are everywhere, as is a blithe resignation to death. Elena Soarez's screenplay deftly balances the moral chaos of the gang life with two boys desiring to do the right thing, either by reuniting with a father or by being a good one.

The epic battle waiting to erupt will do so between the forces of Midnight and those of Fasto (rapper Eduardo BR), who has his own issues with patriarchy. As in any successful epic, the action is shored up by frail humanity, misunderstanding, inadvertent betrayal and pride: Ace becomes a target of Fasto's wrath, not by his own action, but by Wallace's; Wallace, in turn, discovers a mutual fact about their respective fathers.

So much emotional traffic streams through this "City of Men" that it's easy to miss a narrative turnoff. You won't get lost, but your sense of direction might be profoundly changed.

This is great story telling and film making.

I know most of you have seen this film. But I took a second look at this amazing film, with new insight.

Yes I have just worked with Emile on MILK so i know him now, and his buddy Sean as well. I know now why Sean asked to have Emile have a lead in MILK.

Emile is an amazing young actor who you don't cast to get that standard young actor MO. You cast emile because he can transcend and not just play himself.

So many casting directors cast 17 - 27 yo actors on who the are - Mike Ceara comes to mind and others. Paul Dano is also in the league of playing out side his line.

I am suggesting a second look at "wild" based on the Graduate type films. Being Mike Nichols take on that time of peoples life. Sean Penn and Mike Nichols both capturing the Graduate post years to the T.

Into the Wild - is easily the modern version of the The Graduate. Mrs Robinson being the Wild in Penns version. Where he very clearly shows how raw nature is rarely in films to exist on its own account without an overt dramatic function. It exists in horror films and thrillers as the amoral or deceptively sweet-looking habitat of supernatural beasts or malevolent hillbillies. Solitude, likewise, is loaded with assumptions: the solitary character is a loser, a loner, a creep or a serial killer. But this picture lets nature simply be; it lets nothing happen, and does not insist on a dramatic storyline of depression or anger leading to McCandless's death. This is an event that just happens, and is desperately sad, but does not have a narrative inevitability that you might expect in another sort of movie. And McCandless is certainly not represented as suicidal in any way.

Emile Hirsch is a revelation as Alex, managing to capture the passion, stubbornness, idealism and magnetism that seems to have driven the real McCandless and left such an indelible mark on the people who knew him. The rest of the cast offer superb back-up, with fleeting but beautifully nuanced performances from William Hurt and Marcia Gay Harden as a father and mother slowly being consumed by despair; a charismatic turn from Vince Vaughan as a renegade farm manager; and a superb study in vulnerability and yearning from Hal Holbrook as a lonely old man whose life is transformed by meeting Alex.

If you have seen this once, take a second look on DVD its worth the journey.

Vmedia
Berk Ca.

Another very, very solid crime drama from Johnnie To and Wai Ka-fai. One of my favorite asian director.

The titular mad detective is Bun (Lau Ching-wan), who has some very unconventional means of solving some very big crimes. His quirks are enough to earn the respect of rookie inspector Ho (Andy On), but when Bun cuts off his own ear as a gift for a retiring boss, the oddball is forced into early retirement. Flash-forward five years, where Ho is now the top gun in the homicide department, and gets in touch with Bun to help him solve a case involving a missing cop and his gun, which has been used in a string of armed robberies. Bun is nuttier than ever, professing to see both an invisible wife and the "inner personalities" of anyone he encounters. Also, he looks like an Asian version of Kenny Hotz. But is Bun crazy, or crazy like a fox?

I think this can only been seen of IFC but will have a limited run in bigger markets and have a DVD release later this year.

Its worth the 90 minutes.

Vince
Vmedia UCB

This was a Winner - Best Canadian Film
at the 2007 Toronto Film Festival.

Have you ever wanted to relive your childhood and do things differently? Guy Maddin (THE SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD) casts B-movie icon Ann Savage and his domineering mother in attempt to answer that question in MY WINNPEG, a hilariously wacky and profoundly touching goodbye letter to his childhood hometown.

I can say with absolute authority that you've never seen a film like Guy Maddin's love/hate/goodbye letter to his hometown of Winnipeg, Manitoba. Part real documentary and part drop-dead hysterical farce, Maddin's narration leads you through traumatic re-enactments of his childhood, the city's loss of iconic institutions like Eatons and the Jets, and bizarre facts about its citizens being much more likely to sleepwalk than those of any other city on the planet. All over humorously ominous music. It's almost more performance art than a movie -- a distinction that will be made even clearer when Maddin narrated this live during the festival's official premiere in 07 at the T fest. But to call it that shortchanges Maddin's unique ability to cobble together images in a distinctive way that makes his films immediately recognizable.

This is sure to be a classic, A must see.

Vince
Vmedia UCB Berkeley Ca

"Shotgun Stories" manages to stand out from the crowd. It's a good low-budget debut film that offers both a director, Jeff Nichols, and an actor, Michael Shannon, who are worth keeping an eye on.

This story of an Arkansas blood feud begins with the reported death of the patriarch of two cotton-country families. In his early, roustabout days, he fathered three boys, then abandoned them and their mother. He didn't bother to give these youngsters names. As adults, they are still known as Son (Shannon), Boy (Douglas Ligon) and Kid (Barlow Jacobs). They despise their father's memory. At his funeral, the three show up in T-shirts and jeans, and Son, the big-dog sibling, delivers a bitter insult to his dad's other family - a decent woman, and four more boys the old man fathered after he sobered up and found Jesus.

Director Nichols, who attended the North Carolina School of the Arts (along with the film's producer, David Gordon Green, and cinematographer, Adam Stone), knows the setting: He was born and raised in Little Rock and has a feel for rendering landscape as fate.

Shannon, who has a substantial filmography (including "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead"), is a revelation here and seems destined for bigger things. He has a face made for Westerns - you can picture him in Peckinpah's movies - and when he's on-screen, the other actors might as well just grab a chair, sit and wait till he's finished.

Try to see this on a screen or its soon to land on DVD -

Vince
Vmedia, berkeley Ca.

Reminder to avoid this film this weekend, and no I am not Asian yet i am still pissed this script is the ultimate Hollywood white wash of the year. So very disappointing. I know I always tell folks a movie is only based on the book, and the writers have artistic rights to ver from the original or true story.

Mainly as a marketing program to steer Tweens and repeat movie goer's.. But this time i have to bash the producers for veering so far from the book, that it actually made me angry and has provoked some angry Asian American film fans,.

The book Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezrich, a wildly entertaining true-life account of a group of Asian MIT students who, led by a rogue professor, devised and implemented a complicated -- and somewhat dangerous -- blackjack card-counting plan that let them rip off a series of Vegas contrivances, inject it with a dose of Hollywood formula, and throw it on the screen with endless, relentless gloss and flash. 21 is big, loud, and ultimately stupid -- and and an insult to asian Americans.

The lead character Ben Campbell played by Ben Sturgess (across the Universe) is actually supposed to be an Asian lead - the MIT brain buy the real scheme to win at the tables.. and all his supporting cast should be Asian American cast.

But we all know Asians don't sell tickets - so the producers cast white actors to pull off this sorry screen play.

the director Luketic is so busy crafting 21's overstuffed, basically artless look and sound that he forgets most of what's actually interesting about this story. -- but those less familiar with blackjack will be at a loss to figure out what it is our heroes our doing and how they're getting rich. And, because the movie doesn't have time to explore the fascinating details, it makes its genius characters out to be idiots another slam for this white washed script --

There are dozens of other necessary elements of a plan like this that the script simply ignores.

The characters are, for no good reason, forced to operate within the confines of predictable, formulaic structures. Our protagonist, Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess) is meant to be an MIT nerd whose old friendships and allegiances wane as the allure of Vegas takes hold

What's really unforgivable, though, is what the screenplay does to the tale's last act. The resolution, which involves a three-front battle of wits among Ben, Fishburne's casino thug, and the unscrupulous Professor Rosa (Kevin Spacey), is off-the-rails ridiculous; in its desperation to deliver an action-packed suspense set piece of an ending, 21 asks the audience to suspend all disbelief, and basically begs to be laughed at. Worse, the contortions are totally unnecessary, since the plot needed neither surprise twists nor a pulse-pounding resolution.

This is a great story, and 21 is rarely boring . Jim Sturgess both manages a convincing American accent and convinces us that his character is a prodigy; of white upperclass. This should have been cast differently,
The film is more moralistic than the book -- bad things start happening precisely when Ben decides to play for more than he needs to finance med school -- but that's an acceptable concession to the new medium. What I can't get past is the waste: this is a dumb adaptation of fantastic material. Pick up the book instead. (PS i am not asian - but still this white wash film wastes your time)

Vmedia UCB

I have never been a Rambo fan, but these young actors have won me over big time.

Although hundreds upon hundreds of movies have been made about kids pre teen romps, only a select few manage to capture the spirit of youth on film. Pictures like Steven Spielberg's E.T., John Boorman's Hope and Glory and Giuseppe Tornatore's Cinema Paradiso (the first half anyway) have the power to make viewers of any age feel as if they're experiencing the story entirely through the eyes of a kid. In its best moments, Garth Jennings' Son of Rambow achieves a similar state of youthful grace. This wildly funny and unexpectedly moving coming-of-age story is an unabashed celebration of childhood and moviemaking. It's also a remarkably vivid portrait of a specific place and time, in this case the London suburbs circa the early 1980s. The production has done such a stellar job recreating that era, you can practically taste the Pop Rocks bubbling on your tongue and feel the weight of the heavy VHS tapes the film's heroes lug around while filming their homemade action epic called you guessed it, Son of Rambow.

Based loosely on Jennings own experiences growing up on the outskirts of London, Lee and Will decide to make, with the intention of submitting it to a local contest for amateur filmmakers. Trouble arises when a hipper than thou French exchange student named Didier (Jules Sitruk, whose scene-stealing turn may make him the McLovin of 2008) and his gang of worshipful cronies decide they want to be part of the production. While Will is happy to welcome more people into the Rambow fold, a jealous Lee becomes convinced that his film is going to be hijacked by these outsiders. And that's a problem that can't be solved by Rambo-style heroics.

On paper, Son of Rambow sounds an awful lot like a kid version of Michel Gondry's recent ode to DIY filmmaking Be Kind Rewind and seen together, the two films do complement each other very well. Both Gondry and Jennings come from a music video background and rocketed to hipster fame by helming inventive videos on shoestring budgets. Their respective films celebrate that outsider aesthetic, positing that any movie you make with your friends?whether it runs five minutes or 50 minutes and costs $10 or $10,000 is infinitely more rewarding than forking over your dough to see anything Hollywood might put into theatres.

What puts Rambow a notch above Rewind is that Jennings is able to hang this message on a compelling emotional hook, namely the friendship between Lee and Will. These characters aren't typical movie children who have had all their rough edges sanded away; Lee in particular can be a grade-A jerk, to the point where you wonder whether it's really wise for Will to be hanging out with him. Although Jennings' screenplay skirts the edges of cliché at times, the young actors (both of whom are making their feature film debut) make every moment ring true. As we enter a season where adults deal with their problems by dressing up as Batmen and Iron Men, it's amusing to think that the most mature characters we'll meet this summer may be two little kids from the London burbs.

Vince
Berkeley UCB
Vmedia

Indiana Jones does not compare to the character study of the same topics explores in the Spielberg epic, yet done so quietly prefect here in a real Indiana Jones film called THE VIOLIN.

Life-or-death matters are handled with compelling gravity in Francisco Vargas' "The Violin," one of the most powerful movies screened at last year's Seattle International Film Festival.

this Mexican drama takes the peasants' side in dramatizing a 1970s revolt. The script vividly explores the impact of government oppression on three generations of one rebellious family.

Plutarco, perfectly played by 81-year-old Don Ángel Tavira, is never the frail grandfather he appears to be. Managing to play the violin even though his right hand is a stump, he just gets by as a traveling musician, using his practiced performer's charm to smother guards' suspicions and get past checkpoints. (Tavira deservedly won an acting award at the 2006 Cannes festival for this performance.)

After raiding an ammunition dump in a cornfield, Plutarco supplies his son, Genaro, with handfuls of bullets. Distraught by the news that his wife has been captured, Genaro and his son, Lucio, seem increasingly helpless in a situation that only the old man can effectively manipulate.

At first, even Plutarco seems to be getting nowhere. When he discovers a guard captain who loves music and wants to take violin lessons, the ice begins to break ? just enough to allow each man's humanity to become briefly evident. But as the uncompromising finale makes clear, this film is not any kind of heart warmer.

Although it begins with a graphic torture scene that suggests more of the same is coming, "The Violin" becomes increasingly restrained in its use of violence. First-time writer-director Vargas makes a point about brutality, then refuses to dwell on it. The most shattering moment is one character's silent reading of a list of casualties; his changing expressions tell us all we need to know.

Working in black-and-white with a gifted cinematographer, Martin Boege, Vargas creates a darkened fairy-tale atmosphere, especially as campfires light up the faces of the actors and smoke drifts photogenically through forests. Glimpses of village life suggest a timeless quality, especially when the grandfather recites a legend about the origins of war.

Don't leave before the final credits of "The Violin," which briefly goes dark, apparently for emphasis, before it really ends with an expressive coda. The blank moment throws in a touch of mystery. Most likely it's meant as a tribute to Tavira, without whom the movie would be unimaginable.

Move over Indiana Jone THE VIOLIN is the read thing - look for it on DVD ,

Vince UCB
Berkeley Ca Vmedia

This is one of the best films of 2008 - foreign or domestic - its a great statement and Anti- war homage that vs the best in the area of war and home.

A matronly grandmother wanders around a Russian army base in sun scorched Chechnya, handing out meat pies, cradling soldiers faces and providing a welcome distraction from wearying routine in Alexander Sokurov's "Alexandra."
Sounds about as appealing as month old borscht, eh. Not when "Alexandra" comes from Sokurov ("Russian Ark"), a master of visual films, and stars Russian opera legend Galina Vishnevskaya.

Vishnevskaya never sings, but "Alexandra" sure does. Director Sokurov has made a stirring anti-war movie, delivering dreamy, alien landscapes devoid of color, raw images that match the soulful force of Vishnevskaya's performance. There's not a shot fired in the film, but it pierces the heart nonetheless.
His other films "The Russian Ark" and the celebration of the military man in "Father and Son".

This is as faultless a film as Ive seen in a long time. Sokurov's concept is brilliantly simple in just seeing Galina Vishnevskaya's aged body in the midst of these young soldiers and military hardware the meaning of the film is absolutely apparent. Then, the artistry at work here is breathtaking the dusty patina layered over the whole film, the finely worked soundtrack forever slipping back and forth between human voices and snatches of orchestral music, and single moments, the close ups on the young Chechen's face during his walk with Alexandra back to the camp, that are amazing in their beauty.

A must see - Try to see it on screen or for sure get the DVD.

Vince
UCB Vmedia

I saw a screening this past weekend .. and this is sure to make some fans pleased.

Heath Ledger's final performance is one to remember him by. Los Angeles-area critics got an early press screening Thursday night (luckies), and the best-supporting-actor campaign has already begun.

Batman Begins told audiences and film critics it is possible to root a comic book generated superhero in reality. Earlier this year Iron Man set out to do the same but lost its balance in the final act. The Dark Knight manages to exceed expectation with a villain so maniacal, his desire for destruction begins to make sense to the point you understand his desire for all out anarchy while you are cheering for the opposition in a war that basically boils down to one side against individual terrorism.

The sound track alone stands on its own as an amazing score.
In terms of comic book film adaptations this is the pinnacle. The argument saying this is the Godfather Part II of comic book movies would insinuate that Batman Begins is on equal terms with the original Godfather, which is far from true. However, if we could call this The Godfather of comic book movies I wait anxiously for what may/will become the film that caps off the trilogy.

A MUST SEE
Vmedia
Berkeley Calif.

This great film is now on DVD and was missed by most good film goers - so Rent this film:

The Band?s Visit is so satisfying that it might be better not to talk too much about its poetic cinematography and precisely calibrated palette - the Carolina blue uniforms of the titular band?s members, the hammering white of the Sinai, the industrial dun of the nowhere town where the hapless brigade winds up. While the colors are hardly the point of this droll fish-out-of-water comedy, they?re probably the strongest evidence of the film?s extraordinarily intelligent design. Its a portrait of perfect, kindness and respect.

See this film
Vince
Vmedia berkeley Ca

With a quietly insinuating filmmaking style, Argentine writer director Puenzo invests this tricky story with real soul, bringing the characters and their situation to vivid life.

This vs any other coming of age film in 2008 is the best in the serious teen anxed scripts.

what makes the film so deeply important, mainly because Puenzo never preaches at us; she reveals the story gradually, knowing there's only one conclusion any fair minded person can possibly reach. And she assembles the film with an amazing DP and an earthy group of actors who let us see and feel their emotional responses to each other. The story is told by scenes of raw power that are short and very sharp, offering us startling insight and jarring us out of any simple-minded solutions we might be considering. This is bold, unflinching filmmaking that provokes a response.

Its still on screens this summer and soon to DVD since the box office this film wasn't good here in the states.

Vince
Vmedia UCB

This great new Indi opens this weekend in NY LA and SF and its a great new take on Midsummers Nigh Dream - with a new company of actors.

This far surpassed HSM3 in any form. Tom Gustafson finally made his short "Fairies" into a full-scale musical in "Were the World Mine," the script is clever as it is based in an all boys prep HS.

Tanner Cohen has an amazing singing voice, so it isn't hard to believe that he would captivate the school's star rugby player, the handsome Nathaniel David Becker. And Cohen, like Shakespeare's puckish sprite, explodes all stereotypes, managing to be at once masculine and fey. Robie brings the right note of sardonic humor to her witchlike role. Zelda Williams (Robin's daughter) adds considerable spunk as Timothy's best friend. Christian Stolte makes a perfect Shakespearean fool as the macho coach turned into a lovesick ass.

The rich full cinematography belies the modest budget. Lots of movies take no chances and still manage to fail. This picture dares to summon the spirit of the Bard as well as the ghost of Arthur Freed and succeeds as a rousing, warm-hearted feeling.

Take a chance on this film and see it on the big screen. It was a hit at the Frameline film fest in SF and held many honors as the audience fav in other film fests earlier this year.

Vince
Vmedia Berkeley
*THR

Top 3 amazing films of 2008 -- we will see this on most all the top 10 lists and I would guess that includes many of you out their in Flixter land.

Danny Bolye has out done himself with this picture - story - music - casting and direction.

Boyle's technique is flat-out brilliant, a crazy kaleidoscope of craft and color that's a matchless homage to India's limitless favelas: vibrant with revulsion yet pulsating with principled promise. Boyle claims India's slums are less about value judgment and more about geographic statement; his respect for the hard-working people cheerfully existing in these dense and dismal conditions is evident in every frame.

Patel, Mittal and Pinto nail their adult roles, but their child and teen counterparts deserve enormous credit for their enchanting turns as bright-eyed poppet prophets of the ghettos.

The Bollywood finale adds a touch of whimsy, intermittent cliches so beautifully crafted they ultimately become truth.

This is a must see on a screen - if you can - and you won't be disappointed.

Vince
Vmedia
Berk Ca.