Out of the Past: The Week in Film

Cess Pool Cinema:
1. The Goods: Live Hard. Sell Hard. (2009) Dir. Neal Brennan - US

The Banal, the Blah, the Banausic:
1. Carriers (2009) Dir. Alex & David Pastor - US
2. Impact (1949) Dir. Arthur Lubin - US

Guilty Pleasure Cinema:
1. House (1977) Dir. Nobuhiko Obayashi - Japan

Astounding Cinema:
5. The Collector (1965) Dir. William Wyler – UK
4. Lilies of the Field (1963) Dir. Ralph Nelson – US
3. Downloading Nancy (2008) Dir. Johan Renck – US
2. The Beat That My Heart Skipped (2005) Dir. Jacques Audiard - France
1. Brother to Brother (2004) Dir. Rodney Evans – US


Theatrical Screenings:
2. It’s Complicated (2009) Dir. Nancy Meyers – US 5/10
1. Crazy Heart (2009) Dir. Scott Cooper – US 7/10

Rewatched Goodies:
1. Gorillas In The Mist (1988) Dir. Michael Apted – US 10/10
2. Nothing But Trouble (1991) Dir. Dan Aykroyd – US 8/10
3. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) Dir. Steven Spielberg – US 8/10

The Goods (2009): There’s not much good to say about the goods, a bleak, insipid film about used car salesmen (and one crass uber sexed lady played by Kathryn Hahn) travelling around the west coast to help save floundering dealerships. The best news about the dismal box office failure of this film is that shamelessly smug lead, Jeremy Piven, will most likely never snag a leading role in a mainstream film again. James Brolin stars as the owner of a dealership in need while also being a flagrant, latent homosexual that openly flirts with Piven’s partner played by David Koechner, who is portraying fear, disgust and disdain for the Brolin character in every other scene. Sadly, talented support from the likes of Ving Rhames, Ed Helms, and Wendie Malick is wasted in this drudge.

Carriers (2009): A whiny Chris Pine headlines this abysmal apocalyptic thriller as the butch persona in a carful of what we’re lead to believe are high school and college age student, heading to some vague destination while on the run from a viral pandemic. Indie darling Lou Taylor Pucci stars as his more intelligent younger brother and Piper Perabo as his girlfriend. Oh, yeah. There’s some other nondescript actress playing the other female that the film takes great pains to explains is not the girlfriend of the Pucci character. Obviously done before and better multiple times in various arenas, you’ll forget it as the reel unspools.

Impact (1949): Initially, I rented Impact due to my interest in Anna May Wong’s supporting role (the first Chinese American star from the 1930’s) but she’s reduced to an extremely supporting role here as the maid of Helen Walker’s character. What starts off as a shady noir (wife convinces boyfriend to murder her rich husband) turns into soap opera/courtroom melodrama and loses any verve it had in the second half. Noir regular Brian Donlevy is our protagonist, who is usually more interesting when he’s cast as the baddie. Ella Raines gets the task of his new love interest when they meet in the car garage she owns (well, at least that’s being a bit more progressive) but the best part of Impact is maligned actress Helen Walker as the viperous wife. Walker’s career hit a brick wall when she gave a lift to three World War II vets and killed one when she wrecked the car (the other two accused her of drunk driving). Due to this country’s overzealous championing of boys with stripes, Walker had trouble finding work that wasn’t the role of hard, bitter women we love to hate in B films.

House (1977): Guaranteed this is definitely one of the strangest and most confounding films you may ever see. Watch it with a group of people. Director Obayashi’s mind fuck centers around a young Japanese girl who brings her girlfriends for a slumber party to her mysterious aunt’s house in the countryside---except her aunt is ravenous spirit that feeds off of young, virginal girls---but that’s about all I could gather as every scene veers off into a strange direction while you mostly see the girls being attacked by some of the most bizarre set pieces I’ve ever seen. Not quite horrific, but more of a black comedy fantasy, if you revel in finding strange cinematic artifacts, then House (Hausu) is for you.

The Collector (1965): A creepy, late period William Wyler production stars a young and nubile Terence Stamp as an awkward chap that likes to collect butterflies and pretty ladies. Based on the novel by John Fowles, British actress Samantha Eggar stars as the object of Stamp’s affection, whom he kidnaps and holds against her will in a not too shabby room in the ground on a country estate he’s purchased. While their entire relationship seems overtly British (ie, polite), you’ll roll your eyes at Ms. Eggar’s futile attempts at escape. But in the end, the message seems to be that only death preserves beauty, and even then, not forever.

Lilies of the Field (1963): Sidney Poitier won his landmark Oscar for this role as a traveling handyman in rural Arizona who stumbles upon a clan of nuns recently emigrated from East Germany, who have no money and are in need of a church being built for the purposes of congregation. While the religious overtones might be offputting to some, the brilliant and captivating turn by Poitier mixed with the crusty but lovely performance from Lilia Skala as the Mother Superior is indeed heartwarming and uplifting. A definite must see for lovers of cinema and as the first film for which an African American male won Best Actor.

Downloading Nancy (2008): Swedish director Johan Renck is best known for his numerous award winning music videos (such as Madonna’s “Hung Up”) around the world. His feature film debut, Downloading Nancy, debuted at Sundance and kind of fell off the radar everywhere until Mario Bello was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for her excellent portrait of a depressed woman that hires a man from the internet to kill her. A very offputting story about an unsettling subject matter, Bello falls in love with the man she employs (Jason Patric), who also develops feelings for her. Meanwhile, her distant and oppressive husband (Rufus Sewell) wonders what happened to her when she suddenly disappears one day. While the depths of Bello’s historical make-up is only hinted at in key instances (a point which will either intrigue viewers or make them demand more of an explanation) Downloading Nancy isn’t meant to be a character study of depraved female sexuality a la Haneke’s The Piano Teacher (2001). But you might want to plan something fun after catching this very worthwhile film that captures a beautiful performance from the beautiful and talented Maria Bello.

The Beat That My Heart Skipped (2005): Jacques Audiard’s latest film, A Prophet (2009) is rocking the cinematic realm since it’s enthusiastic debut at Cannes in 2009, but his previous feature, The Beat That My Heart Skipped (2005) was a but more enjoyable to me. A remake of James Toback’s 1978 film Fingers starring Harvey Keitel and Jim Brown, the narrative concerns Tom (played here by French superstar Romain Duris) who has followed in his father’s footsteps in crimelord real estate. His dead mother was a concert pianist and a chance encounter with her instructor motivates him to take his chances at becoming a concert pianist, causing him to take lessons with Miao Lin (French star Linh Dan Pham), a young woman who has just come to France and only speaks Vietnamese and English. Attempting to leave behind his life of crime and his dead beat father (Niels Arestrup, as despicable a father figure here as he is in A Prophet) it is only when he finds his father murdered that he can truly leave the past behind him. Look for excellent support from Emmanuelle Devos (also in Audiard’s Read My Lips, 2001) and the cinema’s latest great find (thanks to Tarantino), Melanie Laurent.

Brother to Brother (2004): Director Rodney Evans’ independent feature opened to good reviews but seems to have been dismissed as too “overreaching” in scope. I disagree. Brother to Brother stars the brilliant Anthony Mackie as a gay young man in modern day New York, recently disowned from his family. The film follows Mackie as he befriends an old man named Bruce Nugent, who happens to have been a key player in the Harlem Renaissance with the likes of Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston, now living alone and destitute. We get plenty of flashbacks with a young Nugent and his experiences with writing and art alongside the likes of Hughes (Daniel Sunjata) and Hurston (Aunjanue Ellis). And Mackie’s character faces his own trials and travails as a young black male in modern day which is juxtaposed brilliantly with black gay artists like Langston Hughes and James Baldwin. To have a film reflect on the history of some of history’s most prominent African American artists that explores their orientation is relevant, important, extraordinary and extremely touching in the fact that watching it makes you realize that we couldn’t have films like Brother to Brother today if it weren’t for trailblazers like Hughes, Baldwin, and numerous others. This film is dedicated to the memory of Bruce Nugent and is recommended viewing for everyone.