KPBS Film Club of the Air - Apr 25, 2007
April 25th, 2007 by Scott Marks
Appearing monthly on These Days, the Film Club of the Air features local film critics Beth Accomando and Scott Marks discussing films in San Diego theaters.
Apr 25, 2007
New films by Paul Verhoeven and the team behind “Shaun of the Dead” are currently in area theaters. We’ll talk to our film critics Beth Accomando and Scott Marks about what they think about what’s on the big screen in San Diego. We’ll also get a DVD recommendation from the film curator at the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art.
Filed Under KPBS Radio Shows
DIGGERS / Katherine Dieckman (2006)
April 23rd, 2007 by Scott Marks
Diggers (2006)
Directed by: Katherine Dieckmann
Written by: Ken Marino
Cast: Lauren Ambrose, Shannon Barry, Andrew Cherry, Richard Council, Ron Eldard, Marc Fogel, Django Gilligan, Josh Hamilton, Ken Marino, Sarah Paulson, Alex Pickett, Jonny Pickett, Paul Rudd, Scott Sowers, Maura Tierney
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Running Time: 89 min.
Genres: Comedy, Drama
Diggers feels like a pilot for a character-driven HBO comedy series.
Four friends, all second generation clam-diggers, shuck away the 70s before fate sticks out a size 12EE to trip them up. The first whirlwind of guilt nearly levels Hunt (Paul Rudd). Hung-over, Hunt arrives late for work only to find his dad slumped over the wheel of his dinghy.
His best friends are there to do whatever they can, which isn’t much when you consider the pedigree of these three reprobates. Jack is a slimy, career Casanova who, after the funeral, immediately hooks up with Hunt’s sister Gina (Maura Tierney).
Cons (Josh Hamilton) is first and foremost a drug dealer. Being his best customer takes a close second. Constantly stoned, drunk or a combination thereof, Cons is your stereotypical 70s burnout/fountain of trendy psycho-prattle.
Lozo, played with pig-gusto by screenwriter Ken Marino, makes Bing Crosby look like father of the year. Not since Bad Lieutenant Harvey Keitel’s profanity strewn diatribe in front of the kids has a father worked so hard to introduce blue material into his children’s vocabulary.
Lozo is a one-man fertility clinic. When he and his timid wife Julie (Sarah Paulson) aren’t procreating they’re doing battle over where they’ll get the money to raise all these toddlers. And she better not even think of getting an abortion. No one is going to kill Lozo’s kid!
The foursome could simply agree to lay down arms and work for the enemy. There are giant corporations eager to buy out the local diggers. These conglomerates not only add drama, they give our boys a collective sense of victimization.
Set against a still untouched swatch of the Hamptons area of Long Island, the film suffers from period overkill. Seventies product placement and paraphernalia litter both screen and soundtrack. If only the characters had as much nuance as the busy production design.
Paul Rudd, who worked with much better material in last year’s The OH in Ohio, is a very appealing actor. Lovely ginger-bird Lauren Ambrose adds spice (and Technicolor radiance) as Hunt’s big city summer fling. Having never watched an episode or E.R., I can see why people were taken by Maura Tierney, whose performance tops an overall fine ensemble cast.
There are worse ways to spend your ten bucks. That’s about all the enthusiasm Diggers brings forth.
Rating: 
Filed Under Reviews, Theatrical
YEAR OF THE DOG / Mike White (2007)
April 20th, 2007 by Scott Marks
Year of the Dog (2007)
Directed by: Mike White
Written by: Mike White
Cast: Molly Shannon, Laura Dern, Regina King, Thomas McCarthy, Josh Pais, John C. Reilly, Peter Sarsgaard, Amy Schlagel, Zoe Schlagel, Dale Godboldo, Inara George, Liza Weil, Jon Shere, Christy Moore, Audrey Wasilewski
Aspect Ratio: 1.85 : 1
Genres: Drama
Running Time: 97 min.
Timing is everything. Has there ever been a better moment in history to release a film about a pet that accidentally dies from toxic poisoning?
Repetition is the key to Mike White’s “style” in this ponderous, unfunny compilation of actors, perfectly centered in the frame, directly addressing the camera. It’s like watching an hour-and-a-half of master shots.
Skit-TV star Molly Shannon stars as a Peggy, an office secretary who spends her day in a chokingly cute cubicle. With no lovers and barely any friends to occupy her life, Peggy throws all of her affection towards her pet Pencil.
Peggy worships her beagle and his sudden “murder” throws her into a tailspin. A lifelong animal lover, even I had to grimace when Peggy smells her dead dog’s clothes.
As if trying to avenge her pooch’s death, Peggy becomes a crazed Animal Rights advocate. She buys every mutt in the pound and it isn’t long before she’s living in the type of urine soaked conditions that would make Aunt Bee gag.
Her brother and sister-in-law (Thomas McCarthy and Laura Dern) are so wrapped up in their own one-dimensional suburban stereotypes they are incapable of understanding Peggy’s grief. Besides, the couple has a toddler and any talk of “d-e-a-t-h” around the house is strictly taboo.
As if the repetitive imagery wasn’t enough to turn me away, Peggy amounts to little more than a revolting cipher. She accidentally spies a co-worker’s boyfriend in mid-cheat. Instead of telling her colleague, she blackmails the beau into adopting a dog.
At a shelter, Peggy is rejected by Newt, a drippy, asexual employee (Peter Sarsgaard). After becoming a Vegan to emulate Newt, Peggy takes great comfort in the fact that she now has a label to describe her. The relationship never takes off and in order to get back at Newt, she fantasizes that he gets raped by two bull mastiffs.
After his genuinely disturbing debut screenplay Chuck and Buck, the oh-so delicate Mr. White hopped the Hollywood gravy train by writing the so-so School of Rock and the indefensible Nacho Libre. His directorial debut plays more like a Public Service Announcement for the American Veterinary Medical Association.
Never one to resist an easy out, Year of the Dog could very well become the dog of the year.
Rating:
Filed Under Reviews, Theatrical
HOT FUZZ / Edgar Wright (2007)
April 19th, 2007 by Scott Marks
Hot Fuzz (2007)
Directed by: Edgar Wright
Written by: Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg
Cast: Simon Pegg, Martin Freeman, Bill Nighy, Robert Popper, Joe Cornish, Chris Waitt, Eric Mason, Billie Whitelaw, Nick Frost, Peter Wight, Julia Deakin, Tom Strode Walton, Troy Woollan, Rory Lowings, Bill Bailey
Aspect Ratio: 
Genres: Action, Comedy, Crime, Mystery
The worst thing a satire can do is become what it is parodying. It took Hot Fuzz exactly five minutes, and some flashy sound and video editing, to become Lethal Weapon 4.
Simon Pegg, a TV writer who co-scripted with fellow TV writer-turned-director Wright, stars as one man SWAT team Sergeant Nicholas Angel. No criminal is safe in his district.
As Blazing Saddles proved, the premise of a parody need not be structurally sound. Making sense would help.
Why would Angel’s superiors want to get rid of an officer with a 400% arrest record? A quick shot of his co-workers spontaneously celebrating his departure shows their dislike, but is jealousy really a good enough reason to transfer a top cop to Nowheresville? That’s about as high as this concept gets.
The peaceful town of Sandford makes Mayberry look like Sin City. The Commissioner’s son is a DUI magnet. His punishment: treating the staff to cake and ice cream. The local newspaper misidentifies Angel an “Angle.” That’s good for seven minutes of milking. One grizzled officer communicates exclusively in grunts every time they cut away to him. Every time. Get it?
Angel is stuck with an oafish partner/comic relief (Nick Frost). Initially the Supercop is disgusted, but beware: pathos ahead. Angel’s transition from contemptuous superior to tender comrade is as ludicrous as it is unfounded. It wasn’t until spoof got serious that I finally started to chuckle.
There was one legitimate laugh. A “swear box,” constructed to monetarily penalize potty-mouthed cops, proudly lists the offensive words on its front.
Didn’t the filmmakers ever hear of Naked Gun 500 ¾’s? Cop spoofs died decades ago and even the “geniuses” behind Shaun of the Dead can’t bring these cardboard zombies to life.
The gags are achingly arthritic. Skinny and Fatty have to chase a criminal over four fences. Svelte Angel leaps all four practically in a single bound. His tubby partner crashes through the first one. This needed the weightless touch that only a cartoonist or animator could imagine.
While Shaun of the Dead turned out to be a clever spoof on George Romero’s zombie trilogy, Hot Fuzz quickly loses focus and adopts a Not Another Teen Movie scattergun approach. Before it’s done, they shit on Goodfellas, Rosemary’s Baby, The Wicker Man and even Sergio Leone. These dolts should be allowed to watch Once Upon a Time in the West let alone parody it.
After two agonizing hours it turns out there’s not one likable character in the bunch, yet the filmmakers want you to embrace all of them. Shaun was tough and cynical. This needed more hot and less warm and fuzzy.
Rating:
Filed Under Reviews, Theatrical
AWAY FROM HER / Sarah Polley (2006)
April 17th, 2007 by Scott Marks
Away from Her (2006)
Directed by: Sarah Polley
Written by: Alice Munro, Sarah Polley
Cast: Gordon Pinsent, Julie Christie, Olympia Dukakis, Deanna Dezmari, Clare Coulter, Thomas Hauff, Alberta Watson, Grace Lynn Kung, Lili Francks, Andrew Moodie, Wendy Crewson, Judy Sinclair, Tom Harvey, Carolyn Heatherington, Melanie Merkosky
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Running Time: 110 min.
Genres: Drama, Romance
As soon as Fiona (Julie Christie) put the freshly washed frying pan in the freezer the Lifetime Channel alarm went off: did I detect a big screen blowup of that disease-of-the-week made-for-cable staple, Alzheimer’s?
From the moment they first met in college, Grant (Gordon Pinsent) didn’t want to be away from her. At 18, Icelandic Fiona surprised her Norse Mythology professor by popping the question.
Almost half of their 44 years together were harmoniously spent in a rustic Canadian cabin his grandparents left them. Minor memory blips were one thing, forgetting where she lived after a routine ski hike another. There was only one thing Fiona was certain of: Grant could no longer be her primary caregiver.
Everything changes, including the lighting and camerawork, when Grant arrives at Meadowlake. The administrator (Wendy Crewson) is as warm and congenial as any well programmed automaton. A giant plasma screen plays to no one in particularand oldsters take their teacups for a walk. It’s hell with an overabundance of sunshine.
Does Fiona really need a place like Meadowlake? She was always a bit of a flake, what if she’s pretending? When reminded that she’s going to visit to the facility, Fiona plays dumb for a moment before surprising Grant with a “Just kidding!”
Most disheartening is a thirty-day acclimation period before new arrivals can receive visitors. The loneliness is only slightly less debilitating than Grant’s constant state of cheery denial. Their reunion is heartbreaking: not only is Grant a faded memory, but Fiona has replaced him with Aubrey (Michael Murphy), a near catatonic fellow patient.
To say that this functions quite well as a training film for loved ones of Alzheimer’s victims may scare off some readers. It shouldn’t, if for no other reason than Away from Her marks the directorial debut of talented Canadian actress Sarah Polley (The Sweet Hereafter, The Claim, Don’t Come Knocking).
One would automatically assume that a 27-year-old filmmaker would only tackle this material as a form of personal therapy. On a plane back from Iceland Ms. Polley discovered Alice Munro’s short story, The Bear Came Over the Mountain in the New Yorker. This flight occurred during the filming of Hal Hartley’s, No Such Thing in which Ms. Polley starred opposite Julie Christie.
Almost by way of appreciation, Ms. Polley handed Ms. Christie the role of her career. Comedy is not something readily associated with the story of a couple coming to terms with the onset of memory loss, but Ms. Christie constantly surprises us with flashes of humor.
Even more difficult to play is the husband whose eternal optimism is tested and battered on a near hourly basis. Mr. Pisent is never out of the moment and his performance is so honest and heartbreaking that Academy voters are bound to forget both he and Ms. Christie come next February.
As Aubrey’s angry wife Marian, Olympia Dukakis more than makes up for In the Land of Women’s unbearable grandma Phyllis. She also adds her own unique piece to the puzzle. When Grant leaves her house after requesting that Aubrey be brought back to Meadowlake to keep Fiona company, she mutters, “what a jerk.” Whether that’s in reference to Grant or Marian remains ambiguous.
At times, Ms. Polley can’t hide her freshman status. With the exception of a lovely dance to Neil Young’s Harvest Moon, her use of music is overbearing. The same can be said for her inclusion of W. H. Auden’s Letters from Iceland. It’s okay to leave a copy conspicuously placed on a coffee table, but the constant voiceovers become oppressive.
Judging by some of the camerawork, the vessel in the freezer wasn’t the only misplaced pan. These complaints are minor when compared to her overall handling of the actors and steadicam.
You’ll cry for about twenty of the film’s 110 minutes. You’ll also laugh in addition to being extraordinarily moved. Alzheimer’s disease may not be the subject d’jour for a date night movie. Catch a Monday late show by yourself.
Rating:
Filed Under Reviews, Theatrical
GRINDHOUSE / Robert Rodriguez & Quentin Tarantino (2007)
April 9th, 2007 by Scott Marks
Grindhouse (2007)
Planet Terror
Written & Directed by: Robert Rodriguez
Cast: Rose McGowan, Marley Shelton, Freddy Rodriguez & Josh Brolin
Death Proof
Written & Directed by: Quentin Tarantino
Cast: Kurt Russell, Sydney Tamiia Poitier, Vanessa Ferlito & Jordan Ladd
Aspect Ratio:
Nowhere in the press notes does the normally verbose Quentin Tarantino properly define the term “grindhouse.” True, they were run down neighborhood picture palaces equipped with antique projectors that literally “grinded out” the prints.As soon as one film ended, the grindhouse would go straight to trailers and/or short subjects followed immediately by the second (or third, or forth) feature. The lack of an intermission is what put the grind in grindhouses.
The majority of the schlock that inspired Grindhouse is better than anything in the film If the goal of Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino was to make a couple of bad movies, they win. If you spend three-plus hours watching this bore fest, you lose.
Continue reading GRINDHOUSE / Robert Rodriguez & Quentin Tarantino (2007)
Filed Under Reviews, Theatrical
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Everything that's wrong with contemporary cinema can be traced back to three people: steve spielberg, george lucas and john hughes.
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