Recently in Theatrical Reviews Category

I was a bit disappointed that I didn't make it to more of the New Director's/New Films series which ended its 37th season on April 6th and all three of the films I saw were all worthy of distribution. They include Trouble The Water, a Katrina documentary co-directed by Tia Lessin and Carl Deal; XXY, Argentine director Lucía Puenzo's narrative film about a couple's struggle raising their hermaphrodite teenager; and Slingshot Hip Hop, a documentary about the Palestinian rap music scene in Israel, directed by newcomer Jackie Reem Salloum.

Trouble the Water
Directors: Tia Lessin, Carl Deal
Executive Producers: Danny Glover, Joslyn Barnes, Todd Olson, David Alcaro
Producers: Tia Lessin, Carl Deal
Cinematography: PJ Raval, Nadia Hallgren, Kimberly Roberts
Editor: T. Woody Richman (additional editing by Mary Lampson)
Music: Davidge/Del Naja, Black Kold Madina
U.S., 2007, 94 minutes

Trouble the Water is simply the best Katrina documentary I've seen to date. No disrespect to Spike Lee (When The Levees Broke) or the other noble works that have come out since the disaster (Axe in the Attic and Katrina Diary to name just two) but this movie hits every note just right. Lessin and Deal went down to New Orleans just five days after Katrina hit with no clear idea of what they were going to find. To their good fortune -and ours-- they happened to meet Kimberly Roberts and her husband, Scott, a recently homeless couple at the Superdome. Prior to Katrina, the two had been living a very difficult existence in the impoverished Ninth Ward by selling drugs, something they touch upon in a one of the film's more moving moments. The disaster, as tragic as it was, ended up affording them the opportunity to learn more about themselves than they would have otherwise; one lesson being that they were living miserable lives and were grateful to make a change.

Adding to that life-changing revelation is the fact that Kimberly, who had gotten hold of a video camera not long before the hurricane hit, ended up filming portions of her experience. Those clips, are both horrific and funny and much of it ended up incorporated into Trouble the Water. Hearing Kimberly's remarks over her often manic camera work is another of the film's amazing aspects. Her anxiety is palpable as the water rises inch by inch, engulfing their home. Though her regional dialect is at times hard to understand, the spiritual change she goes through over the ensuing days and weeks is very clear. As she and Scott confront the enormity of their situation, rather than lie down and give up, they rise above their circumstances.

Friday marked the New York City premiere of Alex Gibney's Oscar-nominated documentary, Taxi to the Dark Side, the rather grim story of a young Afghani goat herder and taxi driver named Dilawar who is mistakenly suspected of being a terrorist by our military intelligence. Brought into Bagram for interrogation, Dilawar is subsequently tortured and killed by his interrogators. The ThinkFilm release gets to the darker truths, namely that not only is the intelligence questionable in the first place but that the interrogators were, in fact, young soldiers utterly untrained and inexperienced in the ways of proper interrogation techniques.

Matters are made worse when the soldiers are encouraged by their superiors to go to any lengths to get their confessions. In addition to the now prosecuted soldiers, among the interview subjects are New York Times journalists, various academics, politicians, former military brass and, most notably, Gibney's own father who died during post-production. Frank Gibney, himself a former interrogator during World War II, best expresses the sense of outrage with the Bush Administration and as images of Bush, Cheney, Rumsefeld and Gonzalez flash across the screen it's hard not to squirm in your seat by your own sense of frustration. There doesn't seem to be any level of success when it comes to the administration's war on terrorism, itself an unforgivable reminder of those who perished on 9/11.

Gibney, who also directed the award-winning Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, recently met with journalists and described the challenges and rewards of making Taxi to the Dark Side. Here are a few of clips from that interview.

Clip #1: Gibney discusses his father Frank's experiences as an interrogator during WW II:

Persepolis (Reviewed at the 44th New York Film Festival) Directed by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud Written by Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi Based on the Original Graphic Novels by Marjane Satrapi Released by Sony Pictures Classics

The Film Society of Lincoln Center wisely chose Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud's Persepolis to close its 45th Season. The French language animated film, mostly in black & white, opens in theaters in both NYC and LA today. The film feels at once nostalgic and freshly new. Even for those who don't primarily identify themselves as political, the story, adapted from a series of autobiographical graphic novels of the same name, is a universal one; that of a young woman's journey from innocence to maturity. It just so happens that the back drop of her story includes the Islamic Revolution in Iran and the country's turn from a socially progressive society to one of fundamentalism and fear.

Marjane (the voice of Chirara Mastroianni, Marcello's daughter), our young heroine, is growing up in Tehran during a most tumultuous time. When we are first introduced to her, she is your average precocious nine year old but it's not long before she experiences the loss of her beloved uncle who is executed as a war criminal. By the time she is 14, her parents, concerned for her safety, send her off to boarding school in Vienna. The scenes that follow, where young Marjane is so homesick for her parents (the voices of Catherine Deneuve and Simon Akbarian) and her grandmother (France's legendary actress Danielle Darrieux) are among the film's most gripping, where for all intents and purposes, you forget you are watching a cartoon.

El Violin (The Violin)
Produced, directed & written by Francisco Vargas

The theme of music as a means of connection is hardly an uncommon one in movies these days (Once, High Fidelity, Hustle & Flow, etc.). It's been used on so many occasions whether in documentary or narrative film, that it's impossible to account for them all. In Francisco Vargas' El Violin, shot in a grainy black & white with the appropriate feel of the indie film it is, the story is about the instrument more so than the music it makes.

Taking place within an occupied military zone in impoverished Mexico, the movie opens with a particularly brutal sequence involving the torture of captured rebels. We are then introduced to the venerable Don Plutarco (Don Ángel Tavira) who walks the local towns playing the titular violin with his guitarist son Genaro (Gerardo Taracena) and grandson Lucio (Mario Garibaldi) playing for pesos. There's more than meets the eye as we soon learn when Genaro goes into a local cantina where he has furtive plans to pick up guns and ammunition. How that contraband makes its way to the fellow rebels hiding in the mountains is the gist of the story and how the film gets its name. With his quiet frail demeanor, he is able to travel in and out of the military zone armed with his violin case and information he overhears. In one of the many authentic aspects of the film, he is able to connect with Comandante Cayetano (Silverio Palacios), a sadistic soldier who is enthusiastically loyal to his cause. Through Don Plutarco's music the soldier, like a soothed beast, becomes a human being if just for a few moments. All of the characters are fully realized and avoid the stereotypes found in so many ideologically driven films. In El Violin, it's clear its director is more interested in finding the humanity in his characters.

Originally an award-winning short, El Violin's undeniable coup is in the casting of non-professional actor Tavira who is the heart and soul of the film. The award he won in Un Certain Regard at Cannes will no doubt get him some very due attention. The movie is playing at Cinema Village in Manhattan (22 E. 12th St.) and will be available on DVD in February at Film Movement.

Top photo ©Film Movement, bottom photo (dir. Francisco Vargas) ©Adam Schartoff

The following is an excerpt of, update to and further thoughts on, a review that originally ran on September 13th, as part of our Toronto International Film Festival coverage. Needless to say, since I wrote that review fresh off the film's bow in Telluride, Fox Searchlight's Juno Juggernaut's been going full steam and I fully expect it to have a smash 5 day opening. I've since seen it a second time (and soon will a third, I am sure) and every person I mention the film to, and I mean every one, is looking forward to seeing it, ages 16-60. At AFI a table of 3 male film writers who were probably pushing 200 years old combined were all gushing about it. A typical "teen" film, this is not. That's not to say it's not appropriate for teens, it most certainly is, but it's far more than that.

From my original review:

While the tendency might be to lump Juno, the sophomore feature from director Jason Reitman (Thank You For Smoking) and first-time writer Diablo Cody into the group (new genre?) of quirky comedies, a la I *Heart* Huckabees, Napoleon Dynamite and Rushmore, don't. The thing is, while it contains elements of those oddball-laden films, Juno is its own animal in that it's smart, funny and above all, real. The film should mark the coming out of several major talents, including writer Cody and Juno herself, Ellen Page. While I won't shoot myself if Cody doesn't get an Oscar nomination, I will be gobsmacked. While we're at it, how about one for Page, too?

The New York Times' A.O. Scott writes that Juno "respects the idiosyncrasies of its characters rather than exaggerating them or holding them up for ridicule. And like Juno herself, the film outgrows its own mannerisms and defenses, evolving from a coy, knowing farce into a heartfelt, serious comedy." That hits the nail on the head just about as well as any other review out there and relates to something I wrote in my original piece. In short, there are teenagers this smart and smart-mouthed, there are parents as cool and understanding, eventually, as Juno's dad and stepmom and there are indeed teenage pregnancies that don't end in utter disaster. That said, don't think this film shies away from portraying that everything is not hunky dory in pregnant Juno land. Juno describes herself as a "cautionary whale" and while it's a clever line, it also speaks to the point behind the laughs. Being pregnant at 16 is no joke and as Scott remarks in his review "Kids, please! Heed the cautionary whale. But in the meantime, have a good time at Juno. Bring your parents, too."

Photos TM and © 2006 Fox and its related entities. All rights reserved.

The following is an excerpt of a review that originally ran in full On September 30th, as part of our New York Film Festival coverage.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Miramax, December, 2007)
directed by: Julian Schnabel, written by: Jean-Dominique Bauby (novel), Ronald Harwood (screenplay)

The life of Jean-Dominique Bauby is at once tragic and inspirational and in the very capable hands of director Julian Schnabel, his story comes to the screen in a most moving and artful way. We learn through early dialogue and flashback that Bauby has suffered a major stroke and that coming out of a coma he awakens in a state referred to as "locked in syndrome." Actor Mathieu Amalric (Munich) plays Bauby, editor of Elle magazine and a major player in 1990s Paris social circles. After his stroke, Bauby becomes all but incapable of communication, as he is unable to speak or move, with the exception of his left eyelid.

While he is naturally bitter and desperate at first, Bauby eventually learns - in some of the more beautiful moments of the film - how his imagination can set him free. In an ingenious sequence, he learns to communicate using only his one working eye. As his speech therapist reads the alphabet in the order of their frequency of use in French, Bauby blinks when she reaches the letter he wants to use, thus freeing his mind to create. Over time, Bauby receives visits from assorted friends including his young children Theophile (Theo Sampaio) and Celeste (Fiorella Campanella) and his ex-wife Celine (Emmanuelle Seigner), most of whom learn the system. The visits with his kids at the seaside hospital provide the film with a tremendous humanity, as do the flashbacks with his dying father (Max Von Sydow). Those relationships are provided as complex and rich, something many sentimental "affliction" films neglect.

Read the complete review here.

On the road again..... Yes indeedy. I am, as they say, on the road again. Or at least I will be a scant 35 hours from now, winging my way Westward towards AFI Fest and the American Film Market. After AFI comes the Starz Denver Film Festival and after that, a liver transplant, more than likely. Maybe I should call the trip the Rabbi Report's "Ruin the Liver" tour... with opening act Bacon 'n Onions? Nah, too meta and WAY too off the track.

Back on point, AFI Fest has grown in stature and size over the past several years to the point where I feel like I can't cover it adequately by myself, such is the fact at so many festivals these days. Next year I am thinking I need a 2nd reporter but this year it'll have to be solo. At any rate I figure I owe you guys a little bit of a primer on what to expect, should you choose to attend AFI Fest (and I strongly urge you to do so). I've seen several of the films on offer and am looking forward to seeing quite a few more, so without further ado, here's a look at a (very) small selection of what's on offer in Hollywood for the first 11 days of November.

A Pair of Pages: Juno and The Tracey Fragments

Do yourself a favor and catch this double shot of "The Tiny Canadian," as she's been dubbed (according to IMDb). Maybe you've read my thoughts on upcoming Fox Searchlight release Juno (more coming, to be sure) and perhaps you've heard that Juno scribe Diablo Cody is a possible best original screenplay Oscar nominee, well let me put the "possible" to rest. She's a mortal lock and as soon as the Academy and critics groups get a load of Ellen Page's performance as the titular Juno, she's going to start pulling down kudos, too. The thing is, she's no fluke.

Photo © 2007 Twentieth Century Fox

The Other Side of the Mirror: Bob Dylan Live at the Newport Folk Festival, 1963-65
Directed by: Murray Lerner

Us hipsters living in such edgy NYC neighborhoods as the Lower East Side or Prospect Heights have sunk a lot of dough into our music collections over the years and while we periodically weed through our CDs and LPs, tossing out the odd Terence Trent D'Arby or Linda Rondstat album, you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who has loosened their grips on their copy of Sgt. Pepper's or Back in Black. And then there's the ubiquitous Dylan collection which necessarily includes Bringing it All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde. [My personal favorite is Nashville Skyline but that's getting off topic.] It's no coincidence that any serious Dylan collection includes those particular three works for it was during that seminal period when Bob Dylan folkie, became DYLAN, Spokesman of a Generation. Nowhere is that transformation more vivid than in the new documentary, Murray Lerner's The Other Side of the Mirror: Bob Dylan Live at The Newport Folk Festival, 1963-1965. All the footage --70% of which has never been seen before-- is lovingly pieced together from those three summers and Lerner, wisely, allows the footage to speak for itself. There are no talking heads, no aging rockers' waxing philosophical, mostly just Bob Dylan playing Bob Dylan songs. Oh, there are some terrific moments with Joan Baez, Johnny Cash, Pete Seeger and Peter, Paul & Mary, but mostly it's just Bobby Dylan, singing into the microphone while strumming away on his guitar.

Dylan had emerged from the NYC folk scene in the early 60's and had already caused quite a stir but not many of us aforementioned hipsters were around back in those days, or at least not old enough to remember just what a sensation this punk folk singer caused back in the day. Folk music was such a huge phenomenon at the time, its fans such die hard purists, that any modifications to their songs were often met with outrage and while Dylan was initially met with a certain amount of skepticism and even derision, it was impossible for anyone with a mind of their own to ignore the obvious: this skinny Jewish kid was the shit. As portrayed in the new Todd Haynes "biopic," I'm Not There, Dylan was all about persona and his particular brand of shape shifting left everyone enthralled. Over the course of The Other Side of The Mirror, we get to witness one of these morphings right before our eyes; that of a shy self-conscious folkie into a cocky rock star. It's worth the price of admission, I can assure you.

The Axe in the Attic
Directed by Ed Pincus & Lucia Small

After the New Orleans flood of 1965, many of those who survived would keep an axe in their attic so that, in the event the water should ever again rise to the top of their homes, they would have a way out. Interestingly, some of the survivors of Hurricane Katrina, forever immortalized in TV and still images, standing on their roofs hoping for rescue owe their lives to this practice. Now documentary makers Lucia Small and Ed Pincus bring us The Axe in the Attic, a fine contribution to the 45th New York Film Festival and one that pulls no punches. Where's the outrage you may ask; this remarkable documentary gives its subjects - both victims as well as its creators - a platform for expressing it. The results are moving.

Don't allow the blip of controversy about this movie get in the way of checking it out. While Spike Lee's When The Levees Broke, a powerful and necessary work of documentary film making itself, is planted firmly in New Orleans interviewing survivors and celebrities alike, Pincus and Small hit the road for a 60-day tour of America's back roads to find their subjects. It's no exaggeration to suggest that those displaced residents of New Orleans belong to the single largest American diaspora. They can be found in FEMA trailer parks and crashing with family, but their collective feelings of depression and hope are truly profound. The controversy - or criticism - that the film is generating has to do with the two filmmakers inserting themselves so centrally into the story. Many of said critics believe that the focus ought to be solely on the victims and that showing the film maker's own problems just intrudes on the victims' dignity and to be honest, at times their presence does have a taint of narcissism, but ultimately I found the decision to be a successful device.

Go Go Tales
Written and directed by Abel Ferrara
NYFF public screenings: Friday, October 5th: midnight and Sunday, October 7th: 4:15pm

Abel Ferrara's new film Go Go Tales takes place almost entirely in a seedy New York City strip club called Ruby's Paradise and will likely be cause for some controversy due to a scene involving a dancer who compensates for her lack of talent with an act involving her affectionate Rottweiler. While the look of Ferrara's film is reminiscent of the Cassavettes 1976 cult classic, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (both involve strip club owners who must come to terms with their gambling addictions) the comparisons end there. While the cast of misfits in both pictures have created makeshift families where they work, Bookie is far darker in both look and tone (Go Go Tales is apparently a comedy) and the former film is... well... better.

Photo: Willem Dafoe (middle) as Ray Ruby in Go Go Tales
Directed by Abel Ferrara, US, 2007; Photo Credit: Wild Bunch

With a colorful cast, including Willem Dafoe as club owner Ray Ruby, Matthew Modine as his silent partner & brother Johnie, Bob Hoskins, Sylvia Miles in yet another memorable role, and various dancers, bouncers and club patrons, a mostly entertaining 96 minutes transpires but the film is far from great. Bad Lieutenant or The Funeral are two far superior Ferrara films. However, whatever the film lacks was more than made up for by the press conference which followed. Here are a few of the highlights.

Jimmy Carter Man From Plains (Sony Pictures Classics, October 26, 2007-selected cities)
Dir. Jonathan Demme

Let me start right off the bat by saying that Jimmy Carter is a personal hero of mine. He is a deeply soulful, peaceful and intelligent man who manages to exist and flourish in this, the most complex and potentially dangerous of all possible worlds. Not only that, but he leads his life as an exemplar of modern man. How so? He has just tuned 83 years of age and is spending his birthday in the Sudan, trying to help end the crisis in Darfur. That's what he does when he's not helping run the not-for-profit Carter Center, leading sermons, writing books (21 and counting), building houses, monitoring elections and oh yeah, being married to one of the strongest, most interesting women of the last hundred years, his wife Rosalynn. He is a religious man whose faith inspires him to continue his good works both within and outside of the political arena. A steadfastly devout born again Christian, he firmly believes in the separation of church and state and in this sense is the very picture of integrity.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Miramax, December, 2007)
directed by: Julian Schnabel, written by: Jean-Dominique Bauby (novel), Ronald Harwood (screenplay)

The life of Jean-Dominique Bauby is at once tragic and inspirational and in the very capable hands of director Julian Schnabel, his story comes to the screen in a most moving and artful way. We learn through early dialogue and flashback that Bauby has suffered a major stroke and that coming out of a coma he awakens in a state referred to as "locked in syndrome." Actor Mathieu Amalric (Munich) plays Bauby, editor of Elle magazine and a major player in 1990s Paris social circles. After his stroke, Bauby becomes all but incapable of communication, as he is unable to speak or move, with the exception of his left eyelid.

In the film's first 20 minutes or so we are Bauby, the camera playing the role of his functioning eye. Seeing that Bauby's entire world has been internalized, it's an inspired device, executed perfectly by Schnabel and his DP Janusz Kaminski (Saving Private Ryan, Schindler's List). Initially overwhelmed by a feeling of claustrophobia - imagine wearing a neck brace and an eye patch while lying motionless in a hospital bed, unable, even, to swallow - we quickly appreciate having Bauby's thoughts as voiceover. In what some might see as a cruel stroke, his mental acuity is left intact, but many of his early thoughts are sarcastic and witty, providing some relief from the tension.

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (ThinkFilm, October 26th)
Dir: Sidney Lumet; written by: Kelly Masterson
NYFF public screenings: Friday, October 12th: 6pm, Saturday, October 13th: 12:45pm
Buy Tickets

Master filmmaker Sidney Lumet latest effort, Before the Devil Knows Your Dead, is the tautest melodrama I've seen in quite some time and at 83, Lumet has lost none of his edge. While I didn't necessarily find this new picture, which stars Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Albert Finney, Marisa Tomei, and Rosemary Harris, to be on the par with, Dog Day Afternoon or The Verdict -- both among my all-time favorite films -- it certainly kept me in its grip from the moment go. The difference between this one and the other two is that this film is story driven while the others are character oriented. The story is as close to Greek or Shakespearean tragedy as one can get and at times the characters seem to be little more than vehicles propelling the storylines forward. But what storylines there are!

The opening sequence finds married couple Andy (Hoffman) and Gina Hanson (Tomei) in an exceptional moment of blissful passion while vacationing in Brazil and their post-coital dialog reveals a clearly unhappy marriage Andy is a real estate executive with a cushy office over looking Manhattan and an unhappy wife, Gina, who replaces feelings of emptiness with expensive meaningless objects and sex with her brother-in-law, Hank (Hawke). This is as much bliss as the picture is going to offer and over the course of the next 110 minutes there is just a sense of menace and dread. Tomei, naked through most of her scenes, might just get her career back on track with this role. Not sure if that's a good thing or simply a sad case of what an actress has to do get herself noticed these days. Finney plays Charles, the stoic patriarch. Whoever came up with the idea to cast Albert Finney as Hoffman's dad had a gem of an idea and the relationship between the two is a key element of this tale.

Juno
Directed by Jason Reitman
Starring: Ellen Page, Michael Cera, Allison Janney, JK Simmons, Olivia Thirlby, Rainn Wilson with Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner

While the tendency might be to lump Juno, the sophomore feature from director Jason Reitman (Thank You For Smoking) and first-time writer Diablo Cody into the group (new genre?) of quirky comedies, a la I *Heart* Huckabees, Napoleon Dynamite and Rushmore, don't. The thing is, while it contains elements of those oddball-laden films, Juno is its own animal in that it's smart, funny and above all, real. The film should mark the coming out of several major talents, including writer Cody and Juno herself, Ellen Page. While I won't shoot myself if Cody doesn't get an Oscar nomination, I will be gobsmacked. While we're at it, how about one for Page, too?

Juno MacGuff is 16 and almost too precocious. She's smart, funny, curious and so adorable that "cute as a button" might have been coined with Page in mind. (At 5' 1", according to the IMDb she was apparently given the nickname "The Tiny Canadian" by some American roommates.) Well adjusted and comfortable in her own skin, Juno is the kind of kid every parent would love to have...except that she's pregnant, the result of a one time romp with her best friend Paulie Bleeker in a living room chair. Bleeker is played perfectly in another example of deadpan wonder by comedy god of the under 30 set, Michael Cera (Superbad) as a charmingly nerdy track star with an addiction to orange tic tacs.

Ok, so a little more about Kiwi director Andrew Dominik's astonishingly good sophomore outing (after 2000's Chopper) The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. To be honest, it's 2:10am and I have to see Sean Penn's Into the Wild in 9 hours, so I am a little worried about getting sucked into a 1,500 word review of this film that I (and others) have called a masterpiece, but I have too long a history of letting things get away from me, so here we go....

The trades and mainstream press have been bemoaning the dearth of "buzz worthy" pics leading into Oscar season this year and well, they can all shut the fuck up right now, thank you very much. As I was leaving the theater, the editor in chief of one of the major trade dailies turned to me and said, and I paraphrase: "It's hard to imagine a better film coming out this year," and I fully concur. If this film gets fewer than 10 Oscar nods, I'll eat my hat (just not one of my good ones). Right now I am willing to predict nods for: picture, actor (x2-Pitt and Affleck), screenplay and director (both Dominik), cinematography (Roger Deakins), score (Nick Cave and Bad seeds bandmate Warren Ellis), editors (Dylan Tichenor and Curtiss Clayton) and at least 1 supporting actor (too many to choose). Of course many of the "smaller" categories will come along with main category nominations.

I'll be writing something more about this tomorrow, but for now, I must be brief.