08th Aug2014

Welcome to New York – Film

by timbaros

cca2856d8c5027d8c230987ee0d6ac3e62d29064eaf32614b1d700b66d2e61f1Welcome to New York is the story about a very powerful French businessman who allegedly rapes a maid in a New York City hotel room, is arrested, but is spared jail after his wife pays the maid off.

Yes, this plots sounds just like the Dominique Strauss-Kahn scandal, where the former Director of the International Monetary Fund was arrested and charged with the rape of a maid at New York’s Sofitel Hotel in 2011. But we’re told at the beginning of the film that Welcome To New York was inspired by a court case, however, the public stages of which have been filmed, broadcast, reported and commented on throughout the media worldwide. Nonetheless, we’re told, the characters and all sequences depicting their private lives remain entirely fictional.
Gerard Depardieu, in a role like you’ve never seen him play before, naked and in the throws of constant sex, plays Mr. Devereaux. Old, fat, and ugly, yet he’s able to have more than his fair share of women, some paid for and some not. He’s a powerful executive, and even employs women to satisfy his (and his business associates) every need and whim.
Mr. Devereaux flies to New York to spend some time with his daughter Sophie (Marie Moute) and her new boyfriend. He checks into a mid-town hotel, and being the confident and cocky man that he is, he invites a very attractive hotel employee into his room. She politely declines. Waiting for him in his room are male work colleagues, plus three very beautiful scantily-clad female prostitutes. So what takes place that evening is a night of sexual debauchery, Devereaux and the men having their way with the women. And Depardieu fully commands the role in these scenes, uninhibited, and enjoying what looks like real sexual encounters.
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The next day, alone his his hotel room, Devereaux is in the shower when a maid (played by Pamela Afesi) comes into the room to clean up. He proceeds to force himself on her, while she’s screaming to let her go. She manages to break away from him and run out of the room. And this selfish sexual act sets in motion the downfall of Devereaux. He’s able to get to the airport and board his plane. But what he doesn’t realize is that in seconds he’s going to be taken off the plane and arrested, where he’s humiliated at the police station as he’s asked by two New York City policemen to strip naked and bend over, put in a cell with threatening prisoners, and made to do the ‘perp walk,’ – where the police walk prisoners past the media to their cells.
Meanwhile, Mr. Devereaux’s wife, the rich and beautiful Simone (played by a very good Jacqueline Bissett), is in her Paris flat, entertaining guests at a dinner party, when she gets a phone call that her husband has been arrested in New York. She immediately flies to New York to be with him. In the meanwhile, Mr. Devereaux’s photo and story is splashed across newspapers and television worldwide.
The rest of Welcome to New York takes place in the luxurious Soho rental house that Simone has rented for her and her husband while they endure the aftermath of the alleged rape accusation, and the tension in their marriage. And just like in the Dominique Strauss-Kahn scandal, Devereaux’s been granted bail and ordered under house arrest, all costs to be paid by him (or in his case his wife). The scenes between Depardieu and Bisset in the house are electric. She is clearly angry at him for what he’s done. She is fully aware of the reputation he has, she is sure that he tried to rape the maid, but she is even more furious at him in that he’s ruined her reputation, she says that everything she’s worked and struggled for he’s ruined in the blink of an eye. Mr. Devereaux takes his wife’s verbal ranting with puppy dog eyes, like he’s a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar. He doesn’t feign innocence, only a lackadaisical attitude to what’s he’s done. He thinks he’s not done anything wrong, that his behavior was normal for him. Even his daughter is disgusted by him, visiting him in his home jail, but she still stands by him. Charges against Mr. Devereaux are eventually dropped after Mrs. Devereaux pays off his victim.
The Dominique Strauss-Kahn scandal didn’t end quite this way, the prosecutors dropped all charges against Strauss-Kahn saying that they were not convinced of his culpability beyond a reasonable doubt due to serious issues in the complainant’s credibility and inconclusive physical evidence. However, Strauss-Kahn later reached a financial settlement with the maid for an undisclosed sum over the civil suit that she filed against him.
So Welcome to New York is not supposed to be story of the Dominique Strauss-Kahn scandal, but either way it’s an intense and gripping movie with excellent performances. Depardieu has never been better, literally exposing himself, warts and all, and Bisset ups him in the acting department as the spurned angry wife. She is angry, explosive, and a bit hurt – and it shows. It’s a welcome return to the big screen for Bisset. Director Abel Ferrara (Bad Lieutenant) writes and directs a film that, while he claims is fiction, is more about the actor (Depardieu) and less about the character. He says that he made this as a movie and not as a documentary on a news story. Welcome to New York has NOT been picked up for theatrical distribution in France, and Dominique Strauss-Kahn has said that he plans to sue the makers of this film. Nonetheless, try to see it, either in theatres (it opens in the UK on August 8th), or on Video On Demand. It’s a gripping film with excellent performances.
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08th Aug2014

Planes 2: Fire and Rescue – Film

by timbaros

images-217Planes 2: Fire and Rescue, is a sequel to 2013’s Planes – an animated Walt Disney movie about a small plane called Dusty Crophopper and his fellow transportation friends.

In the first Planes, Crophopper was a successful racer. But’s now he’s run into trouble in this second film. His gearbox is damaged, and unfortunately for him, it is out of production, so it looks like Dusty’s (voiced again by Dane Cook) career as a racer is over. So he needs to think about a new career. He decides to become a plane firefighter and travels to Piston Peak (a lookalike for California’s Yosemite National Park). It’s there where he meets all sorts of characters, including the manager Cad Spinner (John Michael Higgins). He’s also introduced to the commander of the fire and rescue crew Blade Ranger (Ed Harris). And just like in Planes where one of the characters was a veteran with a past, in Fire and Rescue it’s Blade with a history – he was formerly an actor and played a police helicopter on a TV series called CHoPs!
So Blade assists Dusty in his training, and together they fight fires in the forest, including one that gets out of control leading both of them to get trapped in a mine. They escape, slightly shaken and damaged. But it’s Lil’ Dipper (Julie Bowen) who takes a liking to Dusty, and supports him in his training, every step of the way. Also supporting Dusty is Fighter Aircraft Skipper Riley (Stacy Keach), forklift Sparky (Danny Mann), fuel truck Chug (Brad Garrett), forklift Dottie (Terry Hatcher, reprising her role from the first movie), and in a great casting coup, real-life married couple Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara play/voice Harvey and Winnie, an RV couple who go to Piston Peak to relive their first kiss, oh so many many years ago.
A massive forest fire breaks out at the same time the lodge is having it’s major opening. But it’s the team of vehicles and planes that save the day to put out the fire, helping out the trapped attendees, and it’s Dusty who saves Harvey and Winnie from a burning bridge that is about to collapse.
Planes 2: Fire and Rescue does not break new ground in the world of animation, and it’s story is simple and predictable. But it’s still a cute film with a cute lead character (Dusty), and while its not in any original, little kids should love it with it’s colorful cast of characters, story and visuals. Adults, however, may struggle to enjoy it……especially if the kid behind you is kicking your chair.
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08th Aug2014

God’s Pocket – Film

by timbaros

images-216Phillip Seymour Hoffman, in one of his last screen roles, plays a man with lots of problems, one of them includes a dead body, in God’s Pocket.

Hoffman plays Mickey Scarpato. He’s married to the sexy Jeannie (Christina Hendricks), and they live in a dreary and depressed part of Camden, New Jersey called God’s Pocket – appropriately named because it’s a pocket that God overlooked, inhabited by crooks, drunks and no one special. Jeannie has a grown-up son from a previous marriage who lives with them, Leon (Caleb Landry Jones). He is mysteriously killed at work, but Jeannie doesn’t believe that Caleb’s death was an accident, she think there’s something more to it. She begs Mickey to look into it, while he goes about making the funeral arrangements and paying for the funeral. Unfortunately he’s got no money, so the local mortician, Smilin’ Jack Moran (Eddie Marsan) who never smiles, dumps Caleb’s body outside and it is up to Mickey to deal with the body until he is able to raise money for the funeral. Mickey has to sell the ice truck he’s been given for quick cash, a truck where he’s got Caleb’s body in. Unfortunately, a potential buyer takes it for a test drive, Mickey chases him to try to get him to stop, but it crashes, with Caleb’s body thrown out of the truck and onto the street. Caleb has been killed, twice.
A second story takes place in the movie about a local newspaper columnist Richard Shelburn (Richard Jenkins). He’s getting bored of writing his column and would like to focus more on seducing women, even though he can’t get it up. He takes an interest in the death of Caleb, but he takes an ever bigger interest in Jeannie, taking her out to a picnic and forcing himself on her, two days after the death of her son.
But by the time the film is over, with both Mickey and Richard getting what’s coming to them, it’s confusing to understand what you’ve just seen – a dark comedy or a drama that is a bit silly. All the characters are such losers that it’s hard to care for any one of them, even for the deceased Caleb, who took drugs and was a racist. And most of all, with no offense to the late Seymour Hoffman, it’s hard to believe that such a beautiful and big bossomed Hendricks would fall for him. It is even harder to believe that Hendricks character has an adult son – she looks like she can’t be more than 35. Blame first-time director John Slattery (Mad Men), who also co-wrote and co-produced and perhaps took too much on, with not knowing what to do with such a good cast. John Turturro is wasted as Mickey’s friend Arthur ‘Bird’ Capezio, his character has mafia connections used to rough up the boss at the place where Caleb died. Based on the novel by Pete Dexter (Paperboy), God’s Pocket incorporates some of Dexter’s life experiences into the film. Dexter was a newspaper columnist (just like the Shelburn character), who wrote about local people, including a story about a drug deal murder. Locals didn’t like what Dexter wrote, so they savagely beat him up, causing life changing injuries. Something like that happens in God’s Pocket. Sometimes reality is better than fiction.
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08th Aug2014

Wakolda – Film

by timbaros

WakoldaWakolda: Dr. Josef Mengele was nicknamed ‘the Angel of Death’ because the atrocities he carried out as a German officer in WW II: he would select who would live or die in the concentration camps, and he would perform scientific experiments on people, including children, and twins. The new film Wakolda tells the time in his life when he spent time in Paraguay in 1960, continuing to hide to prevent him getting caught and going to trial.

Combining history with fiction, Wakolda tells the story of a family who could have lived with Mengele during his time in Paraguay. Mengele had originally fled to Argentina when WW II ended (with a false name, identity and Italian residency papers), but then went to Patagonia (a region in South America shared by both Argentina and Chile) after living in Buenos Aires, where he was almost discovered. Even way before Mengele moved for a short time to Patagonia, and before the end of WW II, Patagonia had been a settlement community for Germans. But little did people know that Mengele, one of the most infamous men associated with the death camps and the holocaust, was living amongst them.
 
The fictionalized part of Mengele’s life is the story that Wakolda tells. An Argentinean family meets a German physician who follows them a long car journey to a town called Bariloche, where the family – German speaking Eva, her husband Enzo and their three children – are going to open up a lodging house that once belonged to Eva’s family. After the car journey, the family decide to let the doctor (played by Alex Brendemuhl) stay with them as it appears he’s got nowhere else to go. There is a large German community nearby that mixes with the Argentine population, so German is a common language in that area, and they are known as sonnenmenschen (sun people).
Eva and Enzo’s 12-year old daughter – Lilith – is small for her age, and she constantly gets picked on at school. So Eva allows the doctor to give her pills to help her grow. And Eva gets pregnant, so the doctor gives her pills to help her along with her pregnancy, however little do they know about his past – a doctor who experiments on humans. Enzo, meanwhile, wants to start a company producing dolls, so the doctor mysteriously comes up with the money to help Enzo produce these dolls. However, as Lilith starts to become sick from the pills she is taking, and Eva gives birth to twins who may or may not be healthy, questions are raised about the doctor. It is up to local photographer who discovers who the doctor really is and to alert the authorities in time before he flees the area to his next hiding place.
Wakolda, so aptly named after Lilith’s doll (a metaphor for Mengele’s experimentation on children who were like dolls to him) is based on the 2011 book by it’s director – Lucia Puenzo, who also produced and wrote the script. Wakolda has the look and feel of a 1960’s film, with imagery and the soft color focus of the lens to match. But it’s dragged down by the fact that it’s not history we’re watching but a film based on a historical figure that probably didn’t happen. It is known that Mengele did live and worked on a farm in this area, but perhaps he did not continue to carry out his experimentation on people, for if he did he would’ve likely have been caught much sooner. And while the cinematography is stunning (lakes and snow-capped mountains can’t fault any film), and the acting ok if a little melodramatic, it’s the make-believe storyline that makes Wakolda not worthy of a watch. Some scenes jump around (at one point Lilith is very sick in bed, then the next scene she is up and fine, and then she is back in bed again), and Eva gives birth all too quickly to the twins, who don’t actually look new born at all. Puenzo the director is successful in making this a slick film, but I would’ve rather watched a historical take on Mengele and not a fictional one.
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31st Jul2014

The House of Magic – Film

by timbaros

images-209The House of Magic is the animated world’s version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, without the chocolate. And yes, it’s fun, charming, cute, colorful and magical.

In the beginning of the film we see a cat who has fallen from a car packed to the rafters with possessions. It looks like the family the cat was travelling with is moving away, but unfortunately for the cat after falling out of the car he’s left alone. He encounters a Mexican Chihuahua, whose a bit stuck up and won’t help the cat find a new home. So the cat is left to roam around the neighborhood until he stumbles into an old large house. He enters and encounters Maggie the mouse and Jack the rabbit. They aren’t too keen with a cat taking over their territory as they know their owner, Lawrence the magician, loves cats. So they tell him to go away and don’t come back. But what does the cat do? Well, he needs a home really bad so he goes back to the house later in the day, climbs up a tree, and see Lawrence in a room surrounded by all of his gizmos and gadgets. The cat jumps into the room, and immediately Lawrence loves what he sees, and names the cat Thunder. So now the cat has a name and is part of a family and finally has a home! But Maggie and Jack don’t want Thunder to stay, so they devise ways to get him out of the house. Meanwhile, Lawrence’s scheming nephew Daniel wants uncle Lawrence out of his house so that he can sell it to make a lot of money. Unfortunately, Lawrence ends up in the hospital after a mishap and this gives Daniel the chance to start showing the house to potential buyers. But Jack, Maggie and Thunder will have none of that. They will do anything to deter anyone from entering the house, including Daniel, who is highly allergic to cats!
So all the gizmos, gadgets and other pets of house band together to save their home. This includes the lovebirds Carla and Carlo, lightbulb Edison, ballerina doll Clara, mustached toy Gunther, and then there’s Chef, Bubble Tom, and the Gizmos – who are all sorts of gadgets. And there are a whole load of other characters that magician Lawrence has made that all come to life!
While Lawrence is in the hospital recuperating and entertaining the sick kids with his magic, Daniel shows the house to potential buyers, including a very rich couple. But before they can walk in the house, the lovebirds poop all over them. Other buyers show up, including a rich artsy fartsy couple, and the gang do their best to deter them as well, trapping the wife in the kitchen while subjecting her to a cooking frenzy that she will never forget. Will the inhabitants of the house deter Daniel from selling their home? And what about magician Lawrence, will he ever come back home from the hospital or will Daniel succeed in putting him in an old folks home? And what about the pets, gizmo’s and gadgets of the house? What will happen to them?
There are actually 50 characters in The House of Magic, all very unique and entertaining. And they are what make this Belgian animated movie stand out from other animated movies. Sure this is not the creation of Pixar or Disney, but Director and Producer Ben Stassen, who also co-wrote the screenplay with James Flynn and Dominic Paris, have created a unique film experience, not just for children but for adults as well. Each of the 50 characters are unique to themselves. Who would’ve thought of a dancing camera (Cronien), or a Handy hand, or a water bottle called Sprinkly who waters the plants in the house and gets up to no good as well. At 85 minutes, The House of Magic is a bit short, but believe me you will get your money’s worth with a great movie that may be the best animated film of the year.

 

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13th Jul2014

Boyhood – Film

by timbaros

images-199Boyhood was filmed over the span of 12 years (one week per year) to capture the story of a young boy, who right before your eyes, turns into a young man. But that’s the only revelation this film brings us.

Clocking in at two hours and forty-five minutes, Boyhood is a bit of a struggle to sit through. It’s an ingenuous idea, getting the same actors to commit to taking part in the filming of Boyhood over the course of 12 years of their careers, but it’s epic length destroys any sense of realness the film is trying to convey and you’ll find yourself looking at your watch several times, and when you think it is over, another year in their lives is tacked on. Even The Wolf of Wall Street, which was three hours long, didn’t feel as long as Boyhood.
Directed by Richard Linklater, he started shooting Boyhood in 2002, with Ellar Coltrane as Mason Jr., Lorelei Linklater (his daughter) as Samantha – Mason’s sister, and as their parents Olivia (Patricia Arquette) and Mason Sr. (Ethan Hawke). Every year Linklater would gather the cast and crew together to capture another year in their lives, and especially Mason’s life. As very young children, Mason and Samantha are adorable, especially Samantha as she teases Mason and hits him but then turns the tables on him and tells their mom that it was Mason who had started it. Of course their mom believes her. The kids grow up through the divorce of their parents and the ups and downs of adolescence. They also endure their mother’s second marriage to an aggressive controlling alcoholic, fleeing from their home after he becomes violent and hits Olivia, not for the first time. But as Boyhood continues, and the older Mason and Lorelei get, the less adorable and fun they are, and they are complete bores when they reach puberty, with very little personality to match. There is nothing interesting going on with them as they get older, and they less confident and less adorable on screen, whether they were forced to take part as they got older and didin’t want to, it appears this way on the screen. Luckily for them, and us, Hawke appears every so often to take the kids out, whether it be bowling, or to sit around in a cafe and talk about grown up stuff, Hawke easily steals every scene he is in. But it’s near the end of the film where where Olivia breaks down as Mason is about to leave for college and proclaims to him “what have I done to my life, why am I here.” It’s a strange moment that I didn’t quite understand, made even more strange when Coltrane looks into the camera. We wonder why she’s saying this at the moment that her son is leaving the nest and going off to college.
And as Boyhood winds down, Mason meets his college roommate in their dormitory and off they go, with two girls, to explore the local mountains. And as Mason and one of the girls sit on a rock and talk and then kiss, we immediately know that this is the girl for him.
Boyhood is an ambitious project. Director Linklater has been successful in the past with his Before Sunrise and it’s sequel films, also starring Ethan Hawke – Before Sunrise was released in 1995 with Before Sunset coming out in 2004 and then Before Midnight in 2013, all to very good reviews. At least these three films had superb acting and plots that made sense. In Boyhood, nothing really happens. The screenwriter, Linklater, seems to have decided to let the scenes in each year of their lives play out without achieving much, and that’s what the whole film feels like. Not much of an achievement for sitting through two hours and forty five minutes.
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29th Jun2014

Chef – Film

by timbaros

images-194Chef, now playing in cinemas, is a real treat, from start to finish.

Jon Favreau, who also wrote, produced and directed, plays Carl Casper, a chef in a popular Los Angeles restaurant. He’s in control of his kitchen, and proud of the food that he makes for his customers. However, one day a restaurant critic (Oliver Platt – who actually looks like a restaurant critic), eats in the restaurant and then proceeds to give it a bad review, lambasting Casper’s cooking, Not happy with this, Casper, at the urging of his son Percy (Emjay Anthony), opens an account on Twitter and starts tweeting bad things about the critic, picking up hundreds of followers in the meantime. Casper decides to give it another go with the critic, so via Twitter he invites him to the restaurant to eat a new menu he plans to prepare. However, this doesn’t go well with the owner of the restaurant (Dustin Hoffman), who says they will stick to the menu they’ve got and that if Casper doesn’t like it, he can walk away. Casper does walk away, much to the dismay to the rest of the restaurant staff, including Martin (a very well-cast John Leguizamo) and sous chef Tony (Bobby Cannavale). But Casper can’t stay away from the restaurant for two reasons, he’s dating the restaurant’s hostess (an unglamorous Scarlett Johannson) and he feels the needs to get even with the restaurant critic. So Casper decides to go to the restaurant the same night the critic is there, and, in front of all the customers and staff, yell at him and tells him he doesn’t know what good food is. After his rant, he is banned from the restaurant forever.
Deciding what to do next, besides spending lots of time with his son, his ex-wife Inez (an always good Sofia Vergara – who’s becoming quite the screen goddess) urges him to come with her and their son to Miami while she is on a business trip to take some time away and mellow out. She also urges him to have a business meeting with her ex-husband (a perfect Robert Downey Jr.). While there, he comes up with the idea of a new business – a food truck selling Cuban food. He buys a run down and dirty food truck, and with the help of his son, fixes it up and calls it ‘El Jefe.’  Martin flies in and wants to be a part of the new business so together they create delicious Cuban food, especially Cubanos – a Cuban Sandwich of cheese and ham. With his son, they take the food truck on a road trip back to Los Angeles, stopping in various cities along the way. Thanks to Emjay, they have quite a following on Twitter and Instagram and it’s with social media where they pick up loads of customers along with way, with queues stretching down blocks in every city. Arriving back in Los Angeles, they’re a hit and have a new business.
While the story of Chef is very predictable and could’ve been guessed without me writing about the entire plot, it’s, of course the food that plays a starring role in the film. Beginning in the restaurant to Casper making a delicious meals at his home, the food looks vibrant and succulent and delicious. And the Cuban sandwiches want to make you have one after the movie, so if anyone knows where I can get one in London, please write in! The cast is very good, and credit is due to Favreau who wore four hats in the movie (5 if you count his cooking in the film, well I presume it was him cooking) and for creating what is a simple film into such a delight. The rest of the cast is fine, with Leguizamo and Vergara bringing a va va va voom Latin spice to the movie. All in all, Chef is a pretty good movie. Please go see it, and you will definitely want to eat after.

 

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29th Jun2014

Cold in July – Film

by timbaros

images-196Two television stars, one big and one who used to be big, pair up in the new film Cold in July. It’s a film that would actually play better on the small screen then the big screen.

Dexter’s Michael C. Hall plays Richard Dane, who works as a farmer to support his pretty wife and young son in a cozy clapboard house somewhere in America. One night while they are asleep, a burglar breaks into their home and Dane, in a moment of panic, shoots and kills him. Both Richard and his wife Anne (Vinessa Shaw) are stunned and frightened by this especially as their young son was sleeping in the next room. Richard is cleared of any murder charges by the local police – they say the killing was justified. But one person in town feels like the killing was unjustified, and that is a man who thinks it was his long lost son who was killed. Enter Ben Russell (Sam Shepard). He’s a town loner living on the outskirts in a run-down shack. He wants to get even with the Dane family, and he starts stalking them, driving by their house, shooting at their house, it appears he wants revenge. But Dane is skeptical about the burglar he killed, he insists it was not Russell’s son, and it turns out that it’s not actually Russell’s son, but unfortunately we never find out who it was that Richard killed as Russell’s son appears later in the film. Another unexplained part of the movie is that the local police try to kill Russell, we don’t know why, but luckily Dane was nearby and was able to save him.
Now enter private detective (and exbig television star) Jim Bob Luke (Don Johnson – formerly of Miami Vice). He’s been sent to investigate the murder and shows up in town as you would expect a man with the name of Jim Bob Luke would look like – a true cowboy – hat, boots and a southern accent. Who’s hired him is not explained.
To make a long story (110 minutes), Jim Bob and Richard, who are now best friend’s with Russell, search for more information, not about the man who Dane killed, but about Russell’s son and his whereabouts. How or why the plot takes this turn is not explained. They discover Russell’s son is involved in the making of snuff films (where woman are killed while in the act of a sexual act). This leads, predictably, to showdown between father and son and who’s going to take the first shot to kill each other. This plot device is supposed to be somehow related to Dane and the relationship he has with his son as Dane is front row and center when this showdown takes place. And before this showdown, him and the other two men were able to fight off and shootdown lots of other men. Not believable in the very least!
The acting in Cold in July is fine. Hall neatly steps out of his television persona to be credible in this role. Shepard doesn’t have much to do as his character doesn’t have much of a personality to work with. It’s up to Don Johnson to bring excitement to the movie in an otherwise confusing film. He embraces his role as the detective, providing a spark and more. He’s an actor who plays well on both the big and small screens. For what it’s worth, Cold in July is better viewed on the small screen, where I recommend you should watch it.

 

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15th Jun2014

Battle Company: Korengal & Road (Documentaries) – Film

by timbaros

images-192Battle Company: Korengal

Sebastian Junger is a journalist who has been around and seen it all. Now he’s back with a new documentary called Battle Company: Korengal.

Junger first popped into the national conscious with his book The Perfect Storm, a true story about a group of fishermen who encountered a massive storm in the North Atlantic ocean. It was turned into a hit movie starring George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg. Junger then turned his focus into covering war zones and became more famous for being in the trenches with soldiers in Afghanistan. In 2009, Junger, along with Tim Hetherington, made a documentary called Restrepo. They both spent a year with one platoon in the Korengal Valley and turned their footage into this documentary, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary.
Some of the footage, left over from Restrepo, now makes it into the new documentary Battle Company: Korengal. Just like Restrepo, the story is about U.S. Military platoons stationed in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley, also known as the valley of death. It’s a valley of mountains, cliffs, trees, hilltops – enough camoflauge to disguise the enemy they were sent there to fight against – the Taliban. The Korengal Valley was a highway for Taliban activity, so thus it was important for the U.S. Military to prevent the Taliban from supplying their networks with weapons and supplies.
In this 90-minute documentary we meet the soldiers. Not one soldier stands out, they are all what you would expect from a military team facing almost certain death at their doorstep, which is a makeshift small military compound with very cramped quarters containing bunk beds, with running water and electricity (important for computer use). They are young, mostly white guys sent their to fulfill a mission. They live in a camp called Restrepo, which was named after a combat medic, Juan Restrepo, after he was killed in action.
The men, belonging both to the Second Platoon, B Company, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment and the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team of the U.S. Army have been assigned this post for over one year, and they’re there in four seasons. For ten months, both Junger and Hetherington embedded themselves with them at Restrepo to capture their lives and activities. The soldiers have lots of down time, and during this time they are extremely bored. The only highlights for them are when they get to actually shoot against the enemy, as well as their occasional trips into the villages to meet the village elders, who they are skeptical whether they can or cannot trust, meanwhile the Taliban could be hiding anywhere.
One soldier memorably says that in Korengal – “bad guys come to you, you don’t go to them.” Another soldier tells the camera that his mother told him to join the army, yet he still questions why he’s there. Another soldier, one of the few black men, says that being black is still not acceptable in the military, he says that he feels some of the guys still don’t accept him as one of their own because of the color of his skin. but what is said the most throughout the documentary is how they all watch out for each other, they consider each other like brothers. And alas, this is all we get from the documentary. There are no new revelations, nothing that we’ve not seen before, and fortunately none of the soldiers were killed or hurt during the making of Battle Company: Korengal. So what was the point of making this in the first place? Because the filmmakers had leftover footage from Restrepo that they felt could be used to make another documentary, exploring more the soldiers lives at Restrepo and focusing less (if not at all) on the war side of the story. Unfortunately, this makes for not very interesting documentary. Sadly, Hetherington, who shot a lot of this footage, was killed in 2011 while covering the Libyan War. Battle Company: Korengal is a last tribute to the work that he produced in his short life. He died at the age of 40.

 

 

Road

images-193The lives and careers of two generations of Road Racers is explored in the new documentary Road.

The sport of Road Racing is in effect racing motorcycles on the open roads. And the Dunlop family of Ireland have dominated this sport for over three decades. Road weaves the story of two generations of the Dunlops into a riveting documentary, even for those who know nothing about Road Racing, or even sports in general.
In the 1970’s, Robert and Joey Dunlop started racing motorcycles for fun in their hometown in Northern Ireland. They were young men who spent every minute they could on their motorcycles. They were in their late teens when they started Road Racing, racing on Ireland’s country roads where on any other day there would be traffic. This was part of the thrill, and the risk, of Road Racing. The roads in Ireland are not long stretches of road but they twist and turn, past forests and rock cliffs. So imagine racing these roads on a motorcycle going over 100 miles per hour, and it can be quite dangerous. But this is what Robert and Joey loved. Robert was a few years older than Joey, and they would compete against each other, and against the road itself.
In the late 1970’s, Joey was one of the top road racers in Ireland. But the dangers of the sport came to the forefront when in 1979 three racers died in the North West 200 – an annual race in Northern Ireland made up of public roads and one of the fastest races in the world, with the racers hitting speeds as fast at 200 mph. 100,000 spectators were on hand that year to watch the race.
Still, the Dunlops continued to race, in Ireland as well as on the Isle of Man. Throughout the 1980’s and 90’s Joey won or placed in the top 6 in almost all of the races he was in, he was just one of the best, or if not the best road racer of his time.
The second generation to take up road racing is Robert’s two sons Michael and William. The Road intersperses footage of the older Dunlop’s with the younger Dunlop’s, uncanny in their appearances and love of the sport. But Joey and Robert’s journeys in the sport turn tragic, and this is where the documentary picks up speed, in both content and emotion.
Robert was actually the first of the two brothers to be in a bad accident. In May 1994, Robert crashed into into a rock wall in a race he was expected to win and he was told that he would never walk again. Meanwhile, Joey continued to race, even  into his 40’s, and winning lots of races, even though he was an older man in a young man’s sport. Joey also was less known for his charity work. He would, on his own, pack a van full of food and supplies and drive to the orphanages of Romania in Eastern Europe, however, a few years later it would be in Eastern Europe where Joey would ride his final race.
Robert, in the meanwhile, wanted to return to racing in 1996 but was banned due to his previous injuries, but in 1998 he came back strong and actually won a major race. The Dunlop family continued their dominance of the sport. By the late 1990’s when most men who have been racing after 30 years would retire, the Dunlops would not. In 2000, Joey would go on to win the TT race, 23 years after he first had won it. Robert came in third in the same race.
But it was a few years later when Joey was in a minor race in Estonia that he crashed his bike into a tree in a heavy thunderstorm. He died on impact. The outpouring of grief in Northern Ireland was so big that 50,000 people attended his funeral.
In 2004, William and Michael took up road racing, just like their father and uncle over 25 years before. Four years later, Robert Dunlop, at the age of 47, still in competition, was in a practice session for the NW200, a race his two sons were also in. Joey was traveling 150 MPH, and was going perhaps a little too fast for a practice session, when his tire buckled and came loose, throwing his body into the air, which went crashing to the ground, and then got run over by another bike. The unimaginable crash is shown in the documentary, taken from a camera in a helicopter, and we see his body fly off the bike and get hit by a motorcycle. It’s horrific and shocking, and also extremely gut-wrenching. And the course was just a few miles from his home.
Two days later, with the race was still scheduled to go on, and both William and Michael agreed that they would race in it in honor of their father. Race officials ruled that they both were too emotional and distraught and a harm to the other races and deemed them ineligible. But they both insisted to race, and got on their bikes. At the last minute, they were given the green light to race, but for some strange reason WIlliam’s bike wouldn’t work so it would be up to Michael to race in honor of their father. Miraculously Michael wins the race, and he breaks down, not only on his bike but also on the winner’s podium, winning one of the greatest (and most memorable) road races ever raced. And this gives the documentary it’s ending that no script writer could ever write – Michael winning a race, two days after his father had died on the same course.
Road is a bit slow to build, but it accelerates into an astonishing and extremely emotional documentary, with a story that I would’ve thought would not have interested me, but it did. The journey of Robert and Joey and how they lived their lives for the sport they loved, which in the end took their lives, is very powerful and moving. And the score, by Mark Gordon and Richard Hill, is haunting and memorable and emotional, and is perfectly suited for the ups and down you will experience watching this film. It is a superb score. Road is excellently narrated by Liam Neeson, who mentions during the film that ‘for a road racer, success and tragedy are separated by the narrowest of margins. Danger is ever present, death is a split second away’. Joey and Robert are buried next to each other in their hometown of Ballymoney, Northern Ireland, while Robert’s two sons continue to race.

 

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13th Jun2014

Soho Cigarette – Film

by timbaros

images-191Looking for a stylish, black and white film about Soho and it’s denizens? Look no further than the new film Soho Cigarette.

Showing at the East End Film Festival this Sunday, Soho Cigarette is a parable of a young, good looking, cocky Italian man, D’Angelo, whose job is to take tourists on a rock ‘n’ roll history tour through the streets of Soho. He’s doesn’t have it easy, he’s just been kicked out of the flat that he shared with his girlfriend – she was getting sick and tired of him and his laziness ways.
D’Angelo turns to friend Luc for a place to crash. Luc is a sommelier at a fancy Soho restaurant who reluctantly agrees to let D’Angelo stay with him, though it will cramp both their styles when it comes to their time with the ladies. D’Angelo replaces the love of his girlfriend with a car, a car he takes great care of until he learns that the last owner of the car died in the backseat. D’Angelo’s luck seems to be running out, he needs to sell the car to raise much needed cash, and Luc wants him out of the flat. So what does D’Angelo do? In the tradition of his mischievous and naughty personality, he sells his beloved car, and he continues to give the rock ‘n’ roll tours to tourists, with stories that may or may not be true.
Soho Cigarette is a visual feast for the eyes. Never has Soho looked so good on screen. Shot in monochrome black and white, the look and feel of Soho Cigarette is like the look of a shiny new album, dark yet glistening in the light. First time Director Jonathan Fairbairn also employs other camera tricks in the film, the most memorable being a long tracking shot from the car with the camera facing backwards, driving past the shops and pedestrians of Soho and Chinatown. It’s a long uncut tracking shot that is used to great effect to give the viewer the flavour and soul of the area. And of course Soho regulars will recognize all the locations in the film, from Old Compton Street to Frith Street. And the rest of Soho’s locations are used to great effect in the film.
As D’Angelo, Italian actor David Galea is perfect for the role. With his cheeky smile, glint in his eyes, and very flirty Italian ways, this man can sell anyone anything, even London Bridge. Jean Baptiste Fillon as Luc and Andreea Padurara as D’Angelo’s girlfriend are fine as well. And while the script doesn’t live up to the rest of the film’s production, just sit back and let Soho Cigarette take you through a ride in Soho.
To buy tickets to see Soho Cigarette on Sunday, please click here:
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06th Jun2014

Fruitvale Station – Film

by timbaros

images-180In 2009, 22 year-old Oscar Grant was shot, for no apparent reason, by a transit cop in San Francisco. He would later die of his wounds. Fruitvale Station is the movie that tells this story.

Michael B. Jordan, in a award-winning performance, plays Grant with such warmth, depth, personality and realism that it feels like we are watching Grant’s home videos. Melonie Diaz, who is stunning in her role as Grant’s fiance Sophina, is a Latina girl who is truly in love with him. They have a young daughter, Tatiana, and between them they struggle to make ends meet, especially after Grant loses his job in a supermarket. He had previously served time in prison for a drugs offense and is now trying to do everything right for his family. They still send Tatiana to day care which they can barely afford. Meanwhile, with no job on Oscar’s horizon, he calls a chum who deals in drugs in the hopes that he can some some extra cash, though he realizes this is a road he doesn’t to travel down again.
Grant’s mother Wanda still dots on him, played by Octavia Spencer, she is a very protective mother who still treats him like a young boy even though he has a family of his own. It’s an all-aroud loving family, but things are still tense between Sophina and Oscar over him losing his job. At his mother’s birthday party on New Year’s Eve, they forget their troubles and have a good time being together with all of the family. With plans to go into town later that evening to watch the fireworks, Wanda tells her son to take the BART (Metro) system into town instead of driving as it would be safer and easier for them. However, this proves to be a catastrophic decision as Oscar gets into an argument on the train with a fellow former inmate, causing a scuffle, with the police dragging Oscar and his friends (all black men) off the train and onto the platform. They tell the police that everything is cool, but Oscar, prone to being very volatile, doesn’t sit still when the officers tell him to. They pin him face down, he struggles, until one of the police officer’s guns go off, shooting Oscar in the back. He dies the next day in the hospital.
It’s hard to accept the ending of Fruitvale Station when you know that it is a true story. A young man’s life has been cut short due to one policeman’s overreacting and carelessness of his weapon. And the actors really make this film a personal experience for the viewer. Jordan is perfect as Oscar Grant, I couldn’t imagine anyone else playing this role. He’s embodies the spirit, and the struggles, of a young black man with a checkered past trying to raise a family and proving to himself and his family that he can make it. Jordan most recently co-starred with Zac Effron in That Awkward Moment, showing a funny side, in Fruitvale Station, he shows a complete opposite side, and has won several awards for his performance. Diaz is almost as good as his wife. Not too well-known as an actress, this film will raise her profile immensely. Spencer, as Oscar’s mother, is the heart and soul of the film. It’s excrutiating when she is told in the hospital that her son has died. Writer and Director Ryan Coogler has crafted a gripping, dramatic, and one of the most powerful films of the year. This is the 26 year-old Coogler’s first feature film, and what a debut it is.
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29th May2014

Summer Movies – Film

by timbaros

images-172Summer is here and with that brings the summer movie season. Blockbusters, special effects, big stars – all of this and more is thrown at us in an attempt to get some of our money spent going to the cinema this summer. By the likes of things, we already have been doing this in the past month.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier opened in April and has grossed over £19M at the box office. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was also an early release, in late April, and has already earned £23M. X-Men: Days of Future Past earned close to £10M in it’s opening weekend, but topping all three of them is The Lego Movie – which hit £33M last week – that kind of money will buy you lots of Legos! Godzilla 3D came out two weeks ago and made a whopping £9M in it’s first weekend but dropped by 57% in it’s second week, so it looks like this monster doesn’t have legs.
There are lots of others upcoming films to be released later in the summer to try to take your summer movie money. Here is a list of the big ones, all of them likely to gross lots of money:
The first film to be released after the Bank Holiday weekend, which is officially the start of the summer, is Maleficent, which  brings Angelina Jolie in her cartoon-debuting role in a story of the villain from Disney’s classic film Sleeping Beauty, the mistress of all evil. Will it be too dark for young children? Early buzz has been mixed, so it will be interesting to see if Disney can recoup it’s $200M production costs.
Tom Cruise’s annual summer movie hits the big screen on Friday May 30th. It’s called Edge of Tomorrow and is a film set in the near future where an alien race attacks Earth, attacking cities and killing millions of people, almost destroying Earth. Of course Cruise is the hero when he takes on one of the aliens, only to be killed within minutes. What’s different about this plot is that Cruise’s character keeps on coming back to life – and is forced to relive the same battle over and over, and in the meantime becoming smarter and tougher. It’s an interesting premise and in true Tom Cruise style, Edge of Tomorrow should be a box office hit. A Million Ways to Die in the West – Seth MacFarlane’s take on Western movies also opens on the same day. It’s got an all-star cast, including Charlize Theron, Neil Patrick Harris and Liam Neeson.
22 Jump Street hits the theaters the following weekend. This is, of course, a film of the television show which put Johnny Depp on the map, and a sequel to the 21 Jump Street movie. The film stars hot actors-of-the-moment Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill. Expect lots of laughs and action, and another sequel if this film makes lots of money, which it probably will.
For those of you craving music with your movies, Jersey Boys opens up on June 20th. It’s a musical biopic based on the hit musical charting the lives of the group The Four Seasons. Clint Eastwood was a strange choice to direct the movie (he also produced), but even stranger was to pick a cast of unknowns to star as the leads. Christopher Walken is the one big name actor in the movie, and he plays a member of the mob. The same weekend Kevin Costner’s new film 3 Days to Kill opens up where he plays a dying CIA agent trying to reconnect with his daughter, played by Hailee Steinfeld.
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Transformers: Age of Extinction opens on Thursday July 10th and looks to be a teenage boys wet dream. It’s the fourth installment of the live action Transformers film series and this one stars Mark Walhberg. Age of Extinction is a sequel to Transformers: Dark of the Moon and takes place four years after the invasion of Chicago. Michael Bay returns as the director. Expect big box office for this film, and for it to dominate the box office way into July.
On Thursday July 17th (why do films open up on a Thursday? So that their ‘weekend’ gross will appear to be higher) sees Dawn of the Planet of The Apes open – the umpteenth film based on the 1960’s classic Planet of the Apes Films. What’s so special about this one? The apes existence is threatened by human survivors of a devastating virus. Gary Oldman and Keri Russell play human to Andy Serkis’ ape.
If you are getting the picture that there is one huge movie opening up every weekend, this is no coincidence. The studios rake in the bucks on their film’s opening weekends as most of the money goes to them and not to the theatre owners. It’s only when a movie is still bringing in audiences for several weeks which is when the movie theatres start to make money.
So the big movie opening the weekend of July 25th is Hercules, starring The Rock like we’ve never seen him before, long-haired Dwayne Johnson – and directed by Brett Ratner. To be honest, this could either be a big hit or it could be a costly mistake. I predict the later. Opening up the same weekend is a film that should do much better. Channing Tatum is back again and starring in Jupiter Ascending. It’s a strange story about a woman who was born under a night sky, and so was destined for great things. But she ends up being a cleaner. Tatum, as a genetically engineered hunter, is her knight in shining armor who tracks her down and helps her realize her potential. It sounds far-fetched, but it could work as the The Wachowskis have written, produced and directed it. They previously brought us The Matrix and Cloud Atlas. Mila Kunis also stars.
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Another Sci-Fi – ish film – Guardians of the Galaxy – opens on Thursday July 31st. It is a live action film from Disney and is about an American pilot who finds himself the object of a manhunt after stealing an orb coveted by a very nasty villian. Starring an all-star cast including Zoe Saldana, Bradley Cooper, Chris Pratt, Vin Diesel, and more.
A movie for the kids this summer will be Planes: Fire and Rescue, opening on August 8th, right in the middle of summer to get their parents box office money. This one is expected to be as much of a hit as the original Planes film. Also the same weekend sees the release of The InBetweeners 2. If this is as good as the first film and the television series, we’re in again for another laugh-a-minute film.
For those of you who like your action stars a bit older, then catch The Expendables 3 the weekend of Thursday August 14th. Just like the first two Expendable films, this one also stars Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Statham and Nicolage Cage.
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The lovely Scarlett Johansson is back on the big screen with Lucy on August 22nd. She plays a woman accidentally caught in a dark deal, turns the tables on her captors, and transforms into a warrior stronger than any human. This could be a franchise in the making if this film is successful enough.
Rounding out the summer, and released on Wednesday September 3rd, is Sex Tape. Cameron Diaz and Jason Segal play a couple, who, after ten years and two kids, lose the spark in their marriage. So what do they do? Re-read the title and you’ll know how this movie plays out.
Other major UK releases in September include Sin City 2, Pride, and Monsters: Dark Continent.
Enjoy the Summer of Cinema!
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28th May2014

Fading Gigolo – Film

by timbaros

images-171Fading Gigolo is not, I repeat, not a Woody Allen film. It may have the look and feel of being a Woody Allen film, with similar dialogue and the New York City locations, but it’s not made by the famous writer and director who brought us such classics as Annie Hall, Vicky Cristina Barcelona and Hannah and Her Sisters.

Written, directed and co-starring John Turturro, in Fading Gigolo Allen plays a pimp to Turturro’s character Fioravante. It’s a strange role for Allen to play, but it actually works thanks to his characters’ witty dialogue and his upfront and honest and sarcastic personality. It’s a shame that the rest of the film is not on the same level.
Having previously worked together in Allen’s bookshop, Fioravante, now a part-time florist, needs to make some extra cash to pay the bills. He has a nice apartment and nice clothes, so it’s a bit hard to believe Fioravante needs money that bad. But Allen’s character, Murray, has a shrink – Dr. Parker (Sharon Stone) who has mentioned to him that she would like to have extra-marital sex and that if knew anyone who was available for such a task. Turturro, whose real age is 57, is hardly gigolo material. Sure, he’s a bit handsome in a sort of older man past his 40’s and-still -can-barely-pull-off-sexy kind of way, but it’s simply not believable that the hot and stunning Stone would want a guy like him – heck, she can have anyone she wants. Meanwhile, Dr. Parker’s friend Selima (the sexy vivacious Sofia Vergara) also wants a piece of Fioravante. And at one point in the film they want to share him. Throw in quiet, lonely, not very attractive grieving Hasidic widow Avigal (a blank and barely there Vanessa Paradis), who starts to fall in love with Fioravante, and Turturro the writer and director makes it appears that almost every woman in New York wants him.
There are lots of funny scenes in the film, and they all involve Woody Allen. At one point they chat to a very young woman in a restaurant, and it’s Allen’s character who charms the woman, and not Turturro’s – he just sits at the table with his hands crossed. In Fading Gigolo, it appears that Turturro is trying to copy Allen’s directorial and writing style but comes up short. While Turturro’s adept at directing scenes that are not too complicated and writing sharp dialogue for a man who is the king of sharp dialogue, it might’ve been a vain move to cast himself in the lead of a gigolo. He’s no gigolo, and he’s a bit faded.

 

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16th May2014

Two Faces of January – Film

by timbaros

images-164A tour guide in Athens meets and gets caught up in an American couple’s web of deceit and crime in the exquisite new film Two Faces of January.

Oscar Isaac (who is so unrecognizable from his previous film role, as a down and out musician in the critically acclaimed Inside Llewyn Davis) plays Rydal, a Greek American who makes a living as a tour guide in 1960’s Athens, specializing in taking tourists to the Acropolis. He is a charmer, so much so that he charms the pants off some of his female customers, including Lauren (Daisy Bevan), a pretty young American girl that Rydal takes an interest in. One day while showing Lauren and some others the Acropolis, he sees a very pretty blond woman with a well-dressed but a bit older man. Rydal, we can tell, finds her very attractive, and he watches them as they walk around. Later in the day at an outdoor cafe at the bottom of the hill of the Acropolis they happen to be seated near each other, and Rydal can’t stop looking at the beautiful blond woman, and he practically ignores Lauren. The blond woman’s husband notices him noticing them, and he thinks Rydal is looking at him. Rydal gets up to go to the restroom, the blond woman’s interest is peaked, enough so that she follows him. They start chatting in a hallway, and soon enough Rydal (and Lauren) are introduced to Mr. Chester MacFarland (a very dapper and handsome Vitto Mortensen) and his wife Collette (an alluring and grown up Kirsten Dunst, like she’s never appeared before). Rydal offers to show them around the next day, and as he does, he gets to know them better. But Rydal isn’t foolish in making a little extra cash on the side when he skims money off of Mr. MacFarland when he buys things at the markets, which include a beautiful snake bracelet for his wife. Both couples meet for dinner that evening and when the night ends, they says their goodbyes. It isn’t until a little later that Rydal finds Collette’s bracelet in the taxi. Knowing how much the bracelet meant to her, Rydal tells Lauren to go ahead and leave without him and he goes up to the MacFarland’s hotel room to give Collette the bracelet. Rydal stumbles upon Mr. MacFarland dragging a man’s (supposedly intoxicated) body into an adjoining hotel room. And thus for Rydal there is no turning back as he unwittingly gets involved in the MacFarland’s dangerous plot and agendas.
It turns out that Mr. and Mrs. MacFarland are not the lovely, innocent couple from America that they pretend to be. They are on the run, as Chester has swindled loads of money from investors. They’ve got lots of cash, and enjoying every minute of it, but they’re hoping no one is on their trail. Unfortunately the man Mr. MacFarland dragged around in the hotel was a private investigator hired to find them. Knowing they are soon to be caught out, they leave the hotel and hope to find another hiding place, and Rydal offers to help them. But Rydal’s offer to help them in any way he can gets him more and more caught up in Mr. Macfarland’s crime (and once they hear the news that a man has been found dead in an Athens hotel, their desperation escalates.) But Rydal is falling for Collette, and Chester is very aware of this. But there is no turning back for all of them, even as they continue to face bad luck every step of the way, with Chester starting to unravel, with unforeseen tragic circumstances.
Two Faces of January is a taut, stylish and lush film that was shot on location in Athens as well as in Crete and Turkey, beautifully directed and written by Hossein Amini (screenwriter of Ronin and Drive), and based on the novel of the same name by Patricia Highsmith (The Talented Mr. Ripley). The cast is first rate, and all are perfectly cast and unrecognizable from their previous performances. Davis has dark set looks which easily pass for Greek, and has hound dog eyes glossing over Collette when he’s with her. Mortensen, so unlike I’ve ever seen him before, is all cleaned up and extremely presentable as the conning Mr. MacFarland. His character is extremely charming so it’s easy to see how he conned people out of money. And Dunst very demure and stunning as Mr. MacFarland’s gorgeous wife, with her long willowy colorful dresses that any man can fall in love with. As for the title? I guess it refers to one of the characters being two-faced (not too easy to figure out), and it takes place in January, but that’s just a guess. As Two Faces of January continues to build suspense every step of the way, it’s weighed down by an implausible and unbelievable ending. But enjoy the film for what is it, a beautifully shot and acted film in the style of Alfred Hitchock.

 

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