Hollywood Dreams - 2007 - Film

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Oh my, Henry Jaglom. Director. Of American Dreams. It's my first Jaglom film, and let me say, I'm not eager for the next. It's a small story about an Iowa girl emotionally and financially beat in L.A. Margie (Tanna Frederick) is dying to be a famous actress--not just an "actress," but "famous." That's the primary distinction to be made with this character, who has no life of her own, no friends, or real sense of self, so naturally her push for fame is understandable. Fame is her permanent escape from reality.

After I saw the movie I asked a friend if he'd ever seen any Jaglom before. He answered no, but that he has heard him referred to as the Woody Allen of the west coast. And for a minute, Hollywood Dreams made a bit of sense: one of the film's main features are the near aerial views of L.A. from the Hollywood hills, or along the city's cafe neighborhoods--the ones that Margie and teams of other struggling actors inhabit.

But that interest is superficial. I can't stop thinking of Tanna's horribly annoying character, written with too much hyperbole to make any sense of. If the comparison between Jaglom and Allen holds true, at least Woody makes us fall in love with his city, and often with the help of some pretty witty characters; Jaglom makes us want to sprint as fast as we can away from L.A., from the endless, manic auditioning process.

Fay Grim - 2007 - Film

Thursday, May 3, 2007

Watch for my review in Four Magazine in the next few days!

Dropped into the middle of Hal Hartley's career never having seen any of his previous films, it might be difficult to assess the virtues and vices of Fay Grim, especially considering it's a sequel to his last picture, Henry Fool. Though, my instincts are intact and they tell me that Fay falls a little flat. The primary issue was the camera technique that for the first half of the film (and more) was so closely zoomed in on the characters that they could have been shot in front of a blank wall. We would never know the difference, which is a major demerit for a film that takes place in Queens, New York, where scenery acts as much as its characters. As the story ventures into European territory in the latter half of the film this changes, and that's where the story's momentum picks up, but by that point it's almost too late.

Stay tuned for my final thoughts...

Tropical Malady - 2005 - DVD

Sunday, April 29, 2007

I meant to see Tropical Malady two years ago when it screened at the New York Film Festival, delays ensued, but I have finally seen it. I need to state upfront that I was slightly underwhelmed, which I'm afraid has a lot to do with the fact that everyone I spoke to said it was utterly great. Not to say they're wrong, but I was bound to be a little bit disappointed after not hearing anything negative about it. The screening was also on DVD and that must have taken something away from the picture's vividness and grace.

I have a few shots from the film that have been running in a continual loop in my mind, one is near the start when the camera tracks through the tall grass leading into the forest, practially drifting independently above the ground; another is in the second half of the story when the man stands behind a fan of palms disguised from the man-tiger that stalks him. But probably the most obvious aspect of the film that deserves consideration is the dynamic of the two lead males, both of whom give one of the gentlest portrayals of a gay relationship that I've ever seen in the movies. There doesn't seem to be a conscious fuss about their sexaul orientation. Or more precisely, there's no shame in their overt relationship and it doesn't grapple with societal restrictions put upon them. The relationship simply is, and that's rather progressive.

Diggers - 2007 - Film

Monday, April 16, 2007 (released last Friday, April 27)

Diggers is a small, intimate movie that captures a snap-shot of life in South Shore, Long Island in 1976. There's a golden, harvest hue to the interiors, and faded plaids and feathered hairstyles donned by the characters that give the film a subtle seventies look. There's no glitz and mirrored disco balls, in fact, I don't think there's even a disco hit on the soundtrack. In other words, the decoration is authentically the 1970s, but without manufactured plasticity or nostalgia...

Read the whole review on Scarlett Cinema!

Little Miss Sunshine - 2006 - DVD

Thursday, February 15, 2007



I struggled to figure out why Little Miss Sunshine was lauded by so many and consequently nominated for awards left and right (and finally winning Best Screenplay at the Oscar's on Sunday). For me, it was a bit too much calculated quirkiness. I like the idea of a parody road-trip movie, that's funny in itself, and intriguing with the dark twist Little Miss was advertised to have. But the idea alone isn't enough to sustain a feature-length film. Depth to characters, for one, needs to be there. The people in Little Miss Sunshine are more like ornaments. Alan Arkin as Grandpa is hooked on heroin; mom and dad (Toni Collette and Greg Kinnear) fight incessantly; big brother is mute (and reads Frederick Nietzsche); and his uncle Frank (Steve Carell) is a suicidal Proust scholar. Besides the fact that I, too, would be suicidal were I a career Proust authority, his is the character that made the least sense to me. It sounded like literary name-dropping rather than real dimension. It's very easy to reference high-art, but to match it is difficult without looking like an imitation.

Out of that murk came the little sister, Olive (Abigail Breslin), who was a genuine beam of light when she was happy, the inverse when she was sad. Breslin's character (and Breslin herself) was inspired; the rest were cardboard facsimiles of an archetype. Individually there were fun moments. Steve Carell can deliver a joke with panache, even if it's just okay material. The same can be said for Greg Kinnear, who recurs more and more as a dramatic actor (But how I loved him from the Talk Soup days!) Toni Collette is enthralling in anything she does, always transcending her real persona (I particularly like her in About A Boy (2002)). Alan Arkin is an undeniable force.

Yet with all of that, and to my utter dismay, I was bored.

Maxed Out - 2007 - Film

Thursday, February 15, 2007



New review! Read it now in Four Magazine!

Puccini For Beginners - 2007 - Film

Tuesday, January 30, 2007



Check out my review of Puccini For Beginners over at Four Magazine now!

INLAND EMPIRE - 2006 - Film

Saturday, January 27, 2007



On January 27th David Lynch appeared in person at The Music Box Theatre to introduce INLAND EMPIRE, and to an audience with an almost perverted enthusiasm for him and his work. He offered patrons a free cup of his own brand of coffee, and otherwise provided an abstract mix of answers to questions asked at the post-show Q&A session. Needless to say, it was one of the greatest Saturday nights in months.

Read the full review of the evening and INLAND EMPIRE in Four Magazine.

Romantico - 2007 - Film

Tuesday, January 9, 2007



The following review will be published in the upcoming print issue of Four Magazine. Release date, TBD.

Romántico is a story about a man, Mexican immigrant Carmelo Muñiz Sánchez. He is a musician who serenades passers-by with his melodies that alternate between bright and melancholy. He is in a “trio” of two men, a keen marketing device for him and his partner, Arturo, who can pick up $50 to $100 per night, probably based on the texture of their character and charm alone.

Carmelo sends his profits home to Mexico where his family, a wife and two daughters subsist on his illegal income. In this strained, and practically estranged, familial structure, Carmelo redefines what it means to be a breadwinner.

In a cramped closet of an apartment that looks more like a garage with painted walls, Carmelo emerges from his sleeping quarters—itself a structure of found items, a kiddie fort of comfort and privacy canopied in bed sheets. This is his home in San Francisco’s Mission District. By day he guards his space from thieving neighbors who steal the milk from his fridge—the door of which is ajar, roaches skittering in and about, and calls home on a corner pay phone, listening to the daily workings of a family that he raises, but cannot see.

In Salvatierra, Mexico, “858” are the numbers of his address on an unidentified street. Here, upon his return from the States, he has a designated place of ownership. Now he is in his family’s presence, but his pride as a father shrinks with his income. $6 a day, or a handful of pesos from the sale of handmade nieves, or snow cones, is scarcely enough to cover the cost of his family’s food, school, and healthcare.

Carmelo sings one lyric, volver, which in translation means “to return.” He is a father and a man in search of a home that strikes a joyful balance among family, work, and community, but seems eternally separated from the spaces he inhabits. Reflections in windows and the traffic against a static background are the things that cross his path constantly, almost imperceptibly; they are fragile symbols that pull him out of space and transient between worlds, always in search of home.

Things To Do - 2007 - DVD

Friday, January 5, 2007



Check out my review of Things To Do in Four Magazine!