COCAINE COWBOYS / Billy Corben

October 21st, 2006 by Scott Marks

Cocaine Cowboys (2006)

Produced & Directed by: Billy Corben

Running Time: 106 min.

Genres: Documentary

Had I trusted my first impression, I probably would have bolted five minutes in after witnessing fuzzy home movies intercut with an equally fuzzy staged hit man spraying the screen with bullets. Hell, it could only get better. I stayed and it did.

It’s Miami in the 70s, a sleepy little retirement community with wide open borders. Coke, rum, pot, illegals, you name it, Miami had it all. Back then, Columbia’s Medellin cartel, controlled 80% of the cocaine trade. It got so you could hardly see the tops of glass coffee tables what with all the mounds of blow.

This shot-on-video documentary is told from the first hand accounts of three battle-scarred survivors: Convicted drug trafficker Jon Roberts, Mickey Munday, a pilot convicted of smuggling over ten tons of powder into the United States, and Jorge “Rivi” Ayala, un unrepentant contract killer currently serving four consecutive life sentences.

These boys were ingenious. Why risk transporting the contraband in their personal automobiles? Instead, they bought a towing service and stashed the dope in beaters that they hauled to their destination. If a cop pulled them over, which they never did, they had the perfect excuse: “It isn’t my car.”

Illegal drugs and violence invariably go hand in hand and it wasn’t long before Miami’s annual death rate neared 700. The police department had to lease a refrigerated truck from Burger King to house all the corpses.

Perhaps the most brutal figure in this unspeakably violent universe is Griselda Blanco, the “queen of cocaine.” Only a tough mother would dare name her youngest son Michael Corleone. Blanco’s never-ending battles with fellow drug dealers almost single-handedly brought about the bloodshed for which Miami became infamous in the 80s.

This is documentary filmmaking by the numbers. Shoot a group of interviewees with compelling stories to tell and pad them out with stock footage and news reports. Technically, it’s a nightmare. I can understand visual loss when bumping VHS up to high definition, but what’s the excuse for all the hideous contemporary interview footage? Was the director trying to make everything match?

As cinematically sloppy as it may be, the film never shies away from the hammering home the awful truth. Ironically, the drug trade helped fuel Miami’s building boom. While it never overtly crusades for drug legalization, I can’t think of a more eloquent defense.

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Griselda Blanco Jon Roberts

Jorge ‘Rivi’ Ayala Mickey Munday

Director Billy Corban

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THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS IN DISNEY DIGITAL 3-D / Henry Selick

October 21st, 2006 by Scott Marks

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The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

Directed by: Henry Selick

Written by: Tim Burton, Michael McDowell

Genres: Animation, Family, Fantasy, Musical

Cast: Danny Elfman, Chris Sarandon, Catherine O’Hara, William Hickey, Glenn Shadix, Paul Reubens, Ken Page, Edward Ivory, Susan McBride, Debi Durst, Greg Proops, Kerry Katz, Randy Crenshaw, Sherwood Ball, Carmen Twillie

Aspect Ratio: 1.66 : 1

Rod Serling didn’t known it at the time, but when he spoke about finding another dimension by turning a key and unlocking the door of imagination he was directly addressing the current state of film exhibition.

I have seen the future of movies and it is 3-D…I hope.

The depth expanding novelty process, which has been around since the twenties, saw it’s greatest rise in popularity during the fifties when it was dusted off as a means to combat the onslaught of television. With the exception of Hitchcock’s Dial ‘M’ for Murder, no other stereoscopic film bothered to utilize depth as a means of storytelling. Everybody just wanted to test the limits of those uncomfortable cardboard glasses.

Arguably, the single greatest exponents of 3-D gimmickry were the 3 Stooges. With all the pies and fingers aimed at the lenses there was little time left to stop and savor narrative and textural nuance. Continue reading THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS IN DISNEY DIGITAL 3-D / Henry Selick

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MARIE ANTIONETTE / Sofia Coppola (2006)

October 10th, 2006 by Scott Marks

Sophia Coppola directs Kirsten Dunst in MARIE ANTIONETTE (2006)

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Marie Antoinette (2006)

Directed by: Sofia Coppola

Written by: Sofia Coppola

Genres: Biography, Drama, History

Cast: Kirsten Dunst, Jason Schwartzman, Judy Davis, Rip Torn, Rose Byrne, Asia Argento, Molly Shannon, Shirley Henderson, Danny Huston, Marianne Faithfull, Mary Nighy, Sebastian Armesto, Jamie Dornan, Aurore Clément, Guillaume Gallienne

Aspect Ratio: 1.85 : 1

Gidget Goes Versailles

A lightweight attempt on the part of Sofia Coppola to let the sets and costumes tell a story while simultaneously trying to make French history digestible for the TRL generation. It’s an embarrassment to the family name in addition to being one of the dullest historical epics of recent vintage.

Like any loyal TRL viewer, Sofia’s Valley Queen likes to shop for shoes, eat candy, sport big hair, spend money, get high, utilize dogs as fashion accessories and party till the wee small hours. (I didn’t know that Ms. Antionette had a starring role in The Godfather Part III.) This kid would be equally at home in Versailles as she would the Paris Hilton.

Basically, the only thing expected from the 19-year-old Queen is a male heir. Sadly, her King appears more interested in the stable boys than his husbandly duties in the royal boudoir. It takes forever for the couple to finally conceive; well into the second act and Louis still hasn’t spilled the royal seed. The last two reels give us a Reader’s Digest condensed glimpse into the last 18 or so years of her life. (We are spared her beheading at age 38.) James Dean’s Shinola aging process in Giant is more believable.

At half the length of Barry Lyndon this packs ten times the tedium. Stanley Kubrick and Ryan O’Neal took a lot of heat for the latter’s anemic portrayal of Thackeray’s Irish rogue, but it’s Hitchcock and Stewart compared to how Coppola directs Kirsten Dunst. Ms. Dunst has already proven a flair for comedy (Drop Dead Gorgeous, Dick, Small Soldiers), in addition to her star turn as Marion Davies in Peter Bogdanovich’s overlooked period piece The Cat’s Meow. It would be unfair to heap all of the blame on her doorstep. You try giving a performance composed almost entirely of reaction shots.

In a film loaded with them, the major disappointment is Jason Schwartzman’s Louis XVI. Forget Jack Black and Will Ferrell. From Rushmore to Slackers to Shopgirl, Schwartzman best embodies the current comedic breed of anxious and unpredictable nerd. Lost under a powdered wig and period accoutrements, 90% of the time his line readings are barely audible as he appears to have been stung by a hammer. Come to think of it, most of the sparse, colorless dialogue is delivered in whispers.

If the film is crammed with anachronisms, at least Sofia comes by them honestly. Remember Michael Corleone’s haircut in The Godfather Part III? Do we really need the Kevin Shields remix of Bow Wow Wow’s I Want Candy underscoring Marie and her pals pigging out on various confections? The least they could have done was use the Strangeloves’ version.

Shocking as it may seem, the French government actually granted special permission to film in the Palace of Versailles. Didn’t they get a translation of the script? People are sure to be impressed with the sets, but do not confuse pretty pictures with screen direction. Considering the location, there’s no such thing as a bad camera angle.

Off with Sofia Coppola’s head for daring to waste the public’s time with this bubblegum biopic.

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