Films I Watched - August, 2006
Submitted by lbangs on Fri, 08/04/2006 - 05:34
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- 8/19 - Little Miss Sunshine - For starters, let me launch one gripe to lighten my load. Stop it with mocking self-help programs. Unless you have something especially insightful or hilarious, realize it has been the pet whipping boy for the last few years and lay off. After Donnie Darko, the horse is dead. Other than this odd lapse in judgment and perhaps a wee too simplistic conclusion, Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris’ quirky creation soars, mining the dysfunctional family vein without lapsing into the self-serious swamp that drowns most post-American Beauty flicks of this nature. In fact, in tone this film more closely resembles Monsoon Wedding, and it is all the better for it. Steve Carell confirms my belief that many crazy comedians have a special knack for emoting with the volume turned down, and Greg Kinnear makes an admirable jump from smirking hunk to bewildered clan head. Toni Collette and Alan Arkin are as awesome as they always are, and both of the children actors are terrific. The laughs are frequent enough to qualify as a comedy, yet honest enough to strike dramatic gold, and the resulting film is a strong addition to the resurgent road movie genre. *** 1/2
- 8/15 - The Descent - Nevermind the bollocks Snakes on a Plane; here’s Golems in a Cave! Neil Marshall knows his horror films, folding in an opening nicely lifted from The Changeling, elements of Alien and the original The Thing, and even touches from Carrie while stirring the pot enough never to let the waters stagnate and settle into blatant theft. The homages here are alive and fresh. The unknown cast of woman strikes the viewer as realistic characters, not half-naked coed bimbos, and this realism adds to the stellar soundscape of dripping caverns and echoes and the shadowy visuals to inject this fantastic story with a muggy atmosphere of cold realism that make the threats hit home with a visceral validity. Sure, the director often telegraphs the well-done scares too clearly, the psychological touches play as forced attempts at unearned depth, and the film sags under lapses of even its own believable realism toward the end, but for the first time in a while, watching a horror film did not seem like a deadly dull déjà vu experience. This has enough life (and dark death) to stand proudly as a rare effective modern scary movie. ***
- 8/13 - Toy Story - I forgot how much nice touches at character and detail exist in this first installment. Over a decade later, it is still a unique, delightful ride. ****
- 8/10 - Rude Boy - The Clash's personal Purple Rain, and if you are sadly not in that know, I'll tell you straight up that means this movie is rather rotten but contains some incredible concert footage of an artist at the peak. Somebody is trying here, working threads of social commentary and protest, but the strands are tied up into knots. Worse yet, you'll be bored stiff by the narrative, making the DVD's novel feature entitled Just Play the Clash a godsend. Suspect the disc's creators agree with my assessment? **
- 8/8 - Scoop - After the rich, heavy morality explorations of Match Point, Woody Allen opts for lighter fare here, whipping up a comic mystery with delicious zest. He hasn’t worked up such a delightful meringue since Manhattan Murder Mystery, the cast (Ian McShane without a dirty mouth, Hugh Jackman without claws but certainly not declawed, Scarlett Johansson, and the Director Man himself) sells the confection, and this delicious dessert is the perfect sweet for a breezy summer evening. When his day comes (and God I hope it never does), this won’t stand among his ten best films ever, but take a bite, lighten up, and enjoy yourself some fun fluff! ***
- 8/7 - Awesome: I F*ckin’ Shot That! - This film is an impotent tease, a concept lacking the conviction to follow through. Crews handed out fifty video cameras to fans for a Beastie Boys concert in Madison Square Garden, and the editors cut the footage into a film. Well, that is not really true, because professionals were also covering the show, and their footage still makes up the lion’s share of the movie. The editing does use the raw fan shots to spice up the decent gig with a bit of an in the crowd immediacy, but it isn’t enough to raise this above average. ** 1/2
- 8/3 - Miami Vice - The rule is nobody should remake old television shows into movies. The results are rarely worth an hour and a half of anybody’s time, and usually do distasteful disservice to theater audiences, hard-working Hollywood crew people, and the original show alike. Two interesting quirky facts make Miami Vice different. The original creator of the serial actually wrote and directed the film, and, oh yeah, that creator is Michael Mann, a man who has proven his big screen talent with films such as Thief, Manhunter, The Last of the Mohicans, Heat, and The Insider. He knows what made the show work, the grit and bottled emotions that put the pressure behind the style and the menace under Miami, and he damn sure knows better than to shove a tongue through his cheek while working this material. He dives right in here, shunning any hint of opening credits or exposition and thrusting the viewer smack dab into the middle of the action. With a confidence bordering on arrogance, he then refuses to backpedal or to couch the entire film with oodles of awkward exposition; he simply trusts viewers to work it out from the ample clues the screenplay provides. It is an adult film made for grownups, and one of the few stylish American films in recent years aimed at that demographic. The actors are terrific, even if a few major roles are denied development, and hey, Mann is even cool enough to use Gong Li in a major role. As with most of his film, the violence is infrequent but powerful, and the various exotic locales are employed with the perfect light touch. It updates the original without ever feeling revamped, and that’s no easy trick to pull off. This is hardly Mann’s best film, but it is several kilos heavier than the average summer blockbuster. So there’s a third quirky fact for you - this television remake is actually good. ***
I'm rating the films on a zero to four star basis. ** 1/2 is average.