Searching for Sugar Man

Deb 10      Me 10

I read about this in a magazine and it looked pretty great. It is. The slight problem for me was that I read about it in a magazine, so I knew what was going on. The film is designed in a way that assumes you know nothing and they slowly reveal the story to you. It sucks when you know the punch line so I won't wreck it for you. I can't really review it either (I guess I never really do) but I'll suggest you watch it if you like documentaries about people who affect a positive change in one way or another. There's been a few of these lately, Marley, Saint Misbehaivin', Ai Weiwei, they're outstanding and out there and this is among the best of them, kicking ass in both in film making and offering a unique story. Some of the people interviewed are among the most articulate people I've seen in any documentary; and they're construction workers and bricklayers.

Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry

Deb 8     Me 9

Here's a straightforward documentary about a Chinese artist/political activist. The film concentrates mostly on Ai Weiwei's political side but offers an intro to his art, and his art rocks. As an activist I am amazed. Amazed he gets away with as much as he does in light of others who have suffered under the fucked-up Chinese government. This is a pretty riveting story, well told with lots of interviews with the artist and his family. We have a real behind the scenes you are there footage with the feeling of complete access. I did get the feeling that this is a fairly biased piece, that there is some artistic support from the Chinese government and they allow him a longer leash because of the prestige that he brings the country. One of his jobs was creating the"birdsnest" for the '08 Olympics. This is a very interesting story and I'm happy to have some insights to this creative and dynamic character.

Neil Young Journeys

Deb 8    Me 2

I'm a fan. We go see Neil whenever he's in town. I like his willingness to experiment and stretch and grow. He has stayed valid in his themes, able to cross all kinds of cultural lines and stayed a consistent and reliable talent. The story of he and Jimi stealing a truck together is icing on the Neil cake. There have been several movies made featuring Young performances and they're all pretty weak. Not the performances, but the movies. That's a big distinction here, separating the subject from the movie, my score reflects that, Deb's doesn't. The last one I remember was a quickly put together affair at the Grand 'Ol Opry which featured out of sync footage, weird angles and a hat shadow hiding the performer's face most of the film. It was done by Jonathan Demme, who directed the outstanding Stop Making Sense and a total of four Neil Young performance movies. It looks like they reviewed the failures at the Opry and made some adjustments. The scenes shot in the car were now done in HD instead of HandiCam; it appears they actually did rehearsals and planned some shots and lit Neil so you could see his face even with his battered hat on. But they made some new mistakes. There were some useless camera angles, one was a "mic cam" that was appalling, offering way too much information about Neil's bridge work (no relation to the Bridge school). Even when the view is distorted by the singer's slobber they stick with the shot WAY too long. Where's the editor when you need him?

In the movie Neil drives around and revisits his hometown with his brother. This is a highlight of the movie. Here he shows some personality and almost grins a couple times. Everything sort of leads to the performance at Massey Hall in his beloved Canada. Nowhere do they mention that this a revisiting of the Hall, that he played a pivotal concert there in 1971. It seemed like an important point, the point of the whole movie, yet they never mentioned it or about anything else that would have added a story element to the film. A little context of who, what, where, why and when would have made this a much better experience.

Then there's the performance. Except for an occasional and faint sound of applause you'd think this was a sound check. There's no contact or interaction with an audience (either in the concert theater or the movie house) and no shots of the room to let you know this is a real concert. Near the end they let you in on it, but by then the entertainment ship had sailed. It is mostly new songs, I liked that, and the few oldies were appropriate. "Ohio" got special treatment with bold graphics and nice tributes to the victims; maybe other songs could've used this punctuation for consistency. I really liked the tonal range created by processors and he has developed Jimi's idea of turning feedback into a musical component and run with it. 

Another opportunity lost. I'd like to see the 1972 Neil Young directed "Journey Through the Past" reissued, I liked it.

To Rome With Love

Deb 2       Me 4

After the success of Midnight in Paris I couldn't help but be optimistic about this one. I'd sworn off Woody Allen movies for a long time, then I got to thinking this might be a new niche for the old boy, travelogues. I've never been to modern Rome or had much desire to go there (unless it was with a historian). I hoped this might stir the travel pot a bit. There were a few landmark shots, some of them in the background and a bit out of focus. It really could have been shot on any sound stage in the world. Woody can still generate some funny and his insights to the social traits of metropolitan Americans is uncanny. There's some promising casting here, the ubiquitous Alec Baldwin plays a weird Twilight Zone conscience for the guy from the Social Network. Roberto Benigni can be a treat, but here his character is very unsatisfying. It was more of a train wreck than I'd hoped, but the fact that I rated it higher than Deb and the folks we went with helped convince me that I'm pretty done with Woody for a while.

Peace, Love and Misunderstanding

Deb 5         Me 4

Its a weird phenomenon that sometimes two or more movies come out within a few weeks or months of each other which are strikingly similar. This is one of those times. PL&M is extremely similar in story line to Wanderlust, in that they both deal with city people being introduced to the stereotypical hippie commune lifestyle. Its kind of a tough line to walk, portraying or even making fun of a lifestyle that people pursue in earnest, with deepest philosophic resolve, can turn ugly if not handled well. Wanderlust was a comedy and all the fun that was poked at the communal lifestyle was very very funny. In PL&M there wasn't very much fun, it wasn't worst case but it was pretty bad. It's just a chick flick in a different setting, with all the traps that lightweight movies fall into. There's a bit of pseudo-intellectual banter and lightning like personality transformations, it tries to be nice but ultimately is about as deep as a birdbath and very unsatisfying.

Moonrise Kingdom

Deb 10                Me 8

Funny movie. It was top of list to go see because it features Bill Murray. It’s not a Bill Murray movie, but he’s in it and he’s excitingly listless as usual. There are other actors too. Frances McDormand seems to gravitate towards off center projects and Harvey Kietel is here in a family friendly role. Bruce Willis is another big star here who usually plays either a warrior or a wuss and here he ably plays a simple nice guy. I had no idea about this movie, didn’t see trailers or read anything about it so I was surprised to see it’s a movie filled with kids. Two main players are young folks, early teens I’d guess and they’re fine.

The movie is quirky. It tries to be quirky and succeeds despite trying too hard at times. There are some nice background oddities, ala Harold and Maude, but the main thing seems to be emotional detachment, dry and somber most of the time with a few punctuation marks thrown in for contrast. There’s an odd little man from Seinfeld who adds nice touches here and there.

It’s a comedy with a few holes in the storyline that need to be overlooked and some formulaic tedium that film-makers seem compelled to include; but I liked it.

First Position

Deb 7           Me 8

It seems like we've sen a lot of dance movies in the last few years and a whole lot of these competition films. This is another one that follows the successful formula laid down several years back. And its good. Charming and talented young people trying to do the best they can, either to satisfy an inner passion or fulfill the dreams of a crazed and inadequate parent. I've really come to appreciate the strength, dedication and physical power of dancers, really amazing. Their strength is such that they can toss each other around like rag dolls and done without the bulk of wrestlemania. 

This film follows the paths of a diverse cast of dancers through to an international contest where they compete in their age category. Their stories are varied and interesting and of course they're all good looking. My only gripe is that the footage of the actual competition is just horrible. I mean BAD. All the action has a digital strobe going on, so a kids arm might be in two places in the same frame. The director went with dissolves instead of cuts from camera to camera so you get the feeling time has passed between angles, only to find its confusingly real time. There's no excuse for it and turns a top flight effort into the look of a Jr. High class project. 

But I liked it fine.