Tag: review

film

Reversion- A Film Review

Becca

Reversion

 

The unknown future and the forgotten past are inherent parts of the human life. What would happen, however, if the past, present and future could be lived at the same time?

 

Mia Trachinger’s latest project attempts to mess with the concepts of memory, morality and destiny to create a real thinker of a film. But jam-packed with such complicated concepts, “Reversion,” falls short in execution as the story is stifled under the pressure of such heavy theory.

 

“Reversion,” which premiered this year at Sundance, tells the tale of lean, listless Eva (Leslie Silva), one of the many mutants with the ability to see the past, present and future simultaneously. Basically, she’s part psychic, but also can’t differentiate between what has already happened and what is yet to come. She spends her time car-jacking and searching for a way to stop herself from fulfilling her destiny to kill her semi-boyfriend, Marcus (Jason Olive). Marcus is along for the ride, and is at first apathetic about his imminent death, but becomes increasingly agitated as time progresses.

 

Los Angeles is not a pretty city in the near-future. Car-jacking, robberies and even murder are so common that the citizens don’t even blink as it happens right before their eyes. Even more disturbing is the fact that Eva and her housemates are completely comfortable participating in criminal activity. Their mutual understanding seems to be that because they already know their future, there’s no use trying to fight it.

 

Silva is magnetic enough to carry the plotline. She instills into Eva a satisfying mix of tormented, hopeful and indifferent. She is also a step above most of the other actors in the film, who are only memorable for the strange, vacant looks on their faces.

 

The main story, however, is interrupted by two distracting sub-plots. The first involves two babbling stoners who provide an explanation of the mutants’ problem (they are lacking a “time gene”), and the other, ominous commentary on child-rearing, is an awkward attempt to make this twisted tale even more surreal.

 

Regardless of the distractions, the main plotline has problems of its own. The mutation is never really explained, so there’s no way to really tell what it means to the characters. They are endlessly removed from their own lives, making it pretty hard for anyone to be sympathetic to their plight. There’s a mysterious beach, which has a colony of people who are somehow different from Eva, but who they are is never clarified. Are they also mutants? Or do they view time in a linear fashion?

 

Making it worse, the relationship between Eva and Marcus feels more like a tryst than a serious love connection. They don’t seem to really care much for each other, so Eva’s determination to resist killing Marcus is also a little hard to care about or even believe.

 

So without love between Eva and Marcus, fate steps in. If they can already see their future, and see it as inevitable, then Eva’s journey is null and void. And because of that fact alone, the fate of this film can also be determined—forgettable as the past.

film

Film Review- Bigger, Stronger, Faster*

Becca

Nearly a year ago, Canadian pro wrestler Chris Benoit killed his wife and seven-year-old son before taking his own life. When it was implied that steroids may have caused Benoit’s outburst, most people probably accepted that reasoning without any questioning. Of course.

But a new documentary, “Bigger, Stronger, Faster*,” raises all sorts of questions about performance enhancing drugs. Actually, the film succeeds in creating questions that the average non-juicer, non-pro-athlete probably never even thought about. The well-researched, thorough documentary which premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival never answers most of its own questions, but it is a powerful catalyst into a discussion of what steroids mean to America.

Chris Bell, who is the narrator, director and co-writer of the documentary, presents his own family as a microcosm of the steroid addiction. Both his older and younger brother use steroids, with dreams of becoming famous bodybuilders and pro wrestlers.

Bell grew up with muscles and manliness at the center of his universe. He cites Arnold Schwarzenegger, Hulk Hogan, and Sylvester Stallone as his heroes of youth. He and his brothers would train and wrestle in the basement in hopes of someday becoming wrestlers as we see through the use of home-video footage.

But, years later, the brothers have fallen short of their championship belt dreams and their childhood realities have been crushed: their idols were doping up, wrestling may be fake, and the American dream to be the best may mean cheating.

Bell’s storytelling is in fine form, as he interviews politicians, ex-wrestlers, weightlifters, Olympic athletes, doctors and activists. Every angle of the steroid debate is discussed from the use of Olympic athletes to high school players.

From the producers of “Bowling for Columbine” and “Fahrenheit 911,” the editing is crisp, clean and succeeds in presenting the irony and contradictions of the characters without forcing it.

There are several surprising arguments that Bell is able to bring to the table. Many of his sources argue that steroids are far less dangerous than many legal substances, especially tobacco and alcohol. There were only 3 steroid-related deaths in the U.S. last year, compared to the over 400,000 due to tobacco, according to their research.

It’s hard to swallow this argument. From an early age, it has been instilled in us that steroids are bad. They are cheating. And the conflicting nature of many of the character’s in the documentary make even harder to really believe that maybe steroids should be legal. First the athletes say they never did steroids. Then they say they did them, but everyone does them. Then they say they only drank herbal tea.

The steroid debate is a mess, but only because the demands of the American dream make it so. To be the best, to be the winner is asking a lot of the people of this country. In the shadows of these superhuman mortals, the fantasy of greatness is more lethal than any shot or pill could ever be.


See this article here.

In theaters Friday, May 30, 2008.

film

Film review- Recount

Becca

“Recount” creates a time and place that seems both far, far away and too close for comfort.

The film makes the year 2000 seem light years away in just one line:

“Anybody ever heard of a hanging chad?”

But at the same time, HBO’s made-for-TV-movie about the weeks surrounding the 2000 U.S. presidential election magnifies how screwed up our system may really be. And with another historical election just around the bend, this quirky film couldn’t be more timely.

The film begins when the votes were rolling in, and through a nice montage of actual news footage, we are brought through the rollercoaster as Al Gore is declared the winner. Then the news media takes it back. Then George W. Bush is declared the winner. Then the news media takes that back, too.

And then all eyes turn to Florida. Kevin Spacey plays Ron Klain, who heads up the fight for the Democrats. Klain has the underdog story in his corner, as he was taken for granted by Gore’s group in previous years, but still decides to fight for his leader because he truly believes that Gore won. For the Republicans, James Baker (Tom Wilkinson) takes the reins.

The rest, as they say, is history, so there’s no need to really go into the plot. The story goes through all the ups and downs, protests, the recounts and the fights in state and federal supreme court.

Director Jay Roach (of the Austin Powers movies) succeeds because he makes politicians and lawyers into real people through the details. They make mistakes. They take Latin classes. They spill ice cream on the kitchen counter. There are some really subtle funny moments thrown into the drama and the film is stronger for it.

One of the best characters is Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris (Laura Dern) who at first seems too exaggerated to be a real person, but then becomes one of the easiest to believe, a striking resemblance to the real thing (garish makeup and horse riding included).

Sometimes, the creators have a little too much fun with editing tricks. The parallels become a tad too obvious. When one camp says one thing and the other says the opposite, it’s funny the first time, but gets old like any hat trick.

Apparently, the real guys behind Gore’s campaign are pretty upset about the film, according to news reports. And they probably should be—they don’t come of as the smartest guys in the room. Warren Christopher (John Hurt), the former secretary of state who led the Gore campaign seems out-of-tune with the real world of politics and a little delusional.

This movie is big enough for the big screen, but will only be shown on HBO. The most striking point made by the film is that the election system of the U.S. is just a big mess. And in 2000, it resembled more of a circus than a system. Instead of being about the people’s vote, it became about how liberal a judge is, or how silly a protester can dress, or if a dimpled chad should be counted.

The tale is more twisted than any fiction writer could ever dream up. And we all know how it ended. We all know who won and who lost that year. We all know how much the world has changed since.

So what does “Recount” tell us, as the dawn of the next election grows near? Politics is screwy. And so are politicians. We can only hope that this year things do go as awry.

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Recount will debut on HBO on May 25, 2008 at 9 pm.

film, Other

In Defense Of “Cocktail”

Becca

 

A film review of 1988’s “Cocktail”
by Rebecca Ford

Brian Flanagan is—for lack of a better word—a badass. Whether throwing liquor bottles over his shoulder, lip-synching to his favorite 80’s rock song or reciting poetry in a dubious Irish accent on top of a bar, this man has somehow epitomized cool.

And because of this, “Cocktail” also succeeds in being very, very cool—in a 1988-sort of way. The music, fashion and sin-infested scenes make this film a whirlwind of ridiculous entertainment.

From the neon blue lettering of the opening credits to the dramatic beats of Starship’s “Wild Again,” the first moments of “Cocktail” make it very clear that this movie is not a fine wine, embedded with subtleties of meaning, but more like the concoctions the main characters mix—light, fun and very satisfying for the moment. Sure, there could be a “what was I thinking?” moment the next morning, as you hold your head in pain, but for those couple of hours in front of the screen, “Cocktail” is pure bliss.

Flanagan (Tom Cruise), newly released from the Army, moves to New York to “make it big.” He thinks he is destined for greatness, to make millions. But he is turned down by company after company because of his lack of higher education, and not even the Tom Cruise grin can change the minds of the Wall Street elite. So, Flanagan does what most down ‘n out dreamers do: he gets a job at a bar.

He is at first a terrible bartender as proven with a nice montage of screw-ups, but with the help of his mentor, veteran bartender Doug Coughlin (Australian Bryan Brown), our hero soon becomes one of the best flair bartenders in town. Nevermind that it takes him about five minutes to make one drink (and why does he only make one drink at a time?)—at least he looks good doing it. For the flair bartending tricks in the film, Cruise and Brown were trained by J.B. Bandy, who was a T.G.I. Friday’s World Bartender Champion.

Flanagan attempts to take business classes during the day, but soon the pressure of work becomes too much, and he accepts life as full-time bartender, accumulating advice in the form of “Coughlin’s Laws” from his boss. (Examples range from “Never tell tales about a woman. No matter how far away she is, she’ll always hear you.” to “Bury the dead, they stink up the place.”)

Women come and go, but Flanagan and Coughlin are the strongest of onscreen duos. They’re back-and-forth ego battle makes for some pretty decent tension, and since every hero needs a nemesis, Coughlin fills out that role with ease. Brown is adequate in finding a balance between being a jerk and a friend, and has some of the best lines in the film.

For a while, bartending looks like a pretty sweet gig: adoring fans, an endless supply of women and all the alcohol you can drink. Yet, the dark underbelly of the business is also exposed: the manipulating coworkers, the suffocating hours and the gritty truth that really it’s all about the money.

And that mess is exactly why Flanagan wants to get out from behind the bar, no matter how intoxicating this lifestyle may be. Flanagan still hopes to make it big by opening his own franchise of bars called “Cocktails and Dreams.” Says Coughlin of his protégé, “Flanagan is a believer. He always will be.”

That’s precisely what makes Flanagan such a likable hero—his unrelenting pursuit of his goals. He’s a timeless character of the actor-slash-bartender or the model-slash-waitress formula. As he says, “You get a bar job to keep your days free for your real gig.” We want him to get a real gig because everyone roots for a dreamer.

Cruise is funny and entertaining as Flanagan. “Cocktail” was lucky to have him as the leading man. At the time, it seemed that Cruise was destined to play the same “Top Gun” ambitious hot-shot over and over again. Just take out the planes and put in the bottles. But, as we all know, he gets over that eventually, and for the time being he’s pretty good at playing those boasting men with too much bravado, so why don’t we all just enjoy it while it lasts?

While not instilled with as much Irish gusto as Joseph Donnelly from “Far And Away” or as passionate as in “Jerry McGuire,” Cruise brings a naïve charm to his character. It is clear that this role does not display Cruise’s full talents as an actor. He knows this will not be his shining glory on his laundry list of films, but he sure does have some fun. In one memorable behind-the-bar scene, keep a look-out for Cruise’s chicken dance. Much more fitting here than on Oprah’s couch.

After life gets too messy in the big city, Flanagan heads out to Jamaica to make money to open his bar and finally become that millionaire.

And Jamaica is where it really gets good—reggae music and floral print shirts abound. Don’t worry—“Don’t Worry, Be Happy” is on the playlist. Notably, the Beach Boy’s hit “Kokomo” débuted in “Cocktail,” and led to the film’s subsequent nominations for a Grammy and Golden Globe for the song.

After Flanagan joins the island life, he of course meets a girl (Elisabeth Shue), and an old friend returns to his life. Things go wrong, and it seems that poor Flanagan may never reach his goals. So, he jets out of there and returns to New York to hopefully rectify his professional and personal life.

While most of Flanagan’s women in this film are dismissible, Shue (who was nominated for an Oscar in 1996 for Leaving Las Vegas) is memorable as a young artist-slash-waitress visiting Jamaica who quickly falls for the cocky bartender. She gets to throw some decent tantrums, as she flip-flops from in love to pissed-off for most of her time onscreen.

Director Roger Donaldson, who has gone on to direct “Dante’s Peak” and “The Bank Job,” keeps the story afloat through some eye-candy bar scenes, and plenty of changes in scenery. It’s not every day that we get to visit New York and Jamaica in the span of one hour and forty minutes.

“Cocktail” succeeds because it really is an escape. Besides feeling like we’re on some sort of vacation, this is also the quintessential hero’s journey, but blended with spandex jazzercise, sweaty nightclub patrons and steamy make-out sessions.

In the end, “Cocktail” is able to throw in a few valuable—albeit hidden—lessons of life: Money isn’t everything, greed will ruin you, hold fast to dreams, and having sex under a waterfall will get you pregnant. But that’s really not the point. Like any fun-filled night on the town, there is no point.

Musing over his life, our hero says of his time as a bartender, “before you know it your life is just one long night with a few comatose daylight hours.” But if night time is as much fun as “Cocktail,” then cheers to that.