Home » Feb22
Movies
'DIARY OF THE DEAD'
DEAD CRAWL
By Sean Chavel
A particular genre can disappear for a decade and then return with a vengeance - just look at the western. The zombie picture in particular has had a serious resurrection this decade. Some of them were gooey splatterfests. Some of them were scary. Some of them were funny. George Romero's latest zombie film Diary of the Dead is none of those things. Beyond the basic requirements for entertainment, the movie has some serious problems.
The film follows a bunch of film students from a university. The zombie epidemic is spreading rapidly and the college crew wants to do a home movie on the events taking place. The entire movie is a playback video blog, so terribly shot that it makes the video recording hero of "Cloverfield" look like the work of a film genius in comparison.
The characters themselves are uninteresting, listless, and argue endlessly about whether they should be filming. The repeatedly look shocked every time they enter a new location and find zombies. Their reaction time to surrounding events is sluggish and flaccid. You wonder how this group is managing to survive longer than the rest of America.
The film is pathetically low budget. By the time we reach the hospital scene, an unsafe spot certain to be flooded by the walking dead, the scenes carry on and on until we realize that production money was spent renting out the facility and the film wants to use up screen time to justify its 95-minute length. The new dead keep rising, and the cast of dim-witted college kids just stay there shooting down each fresh zombie. Get out of there already!
Horror fanatics might advocate the film by saying that it has a fresh hook: That the crew's camera recording and downloaded video blogs on the internet are more useful and truthful than the limited reporting on broadcast television. The idea here is that the YouTube generation is doing more responsible recording than our filtered media that restricts full disclosure of what's happening in the world. But these ideas are expressed in about two minutes, and the rest of the movie is merely a series of duck, cover and run. Plus, clumsily inserted documentary footage of the Hurricane Katrina disaster is meant to substitute for panicked citizens evacuating from zombie infested cities. It is offensive watching documentary footage so real juxtaposed with zombie drama so fake.
Romero is the father of the zombie movie, having achieved legendary status for his 1968 black & white classic "Night of the Living Dead." But it was his next sequel, the wildly gruesome and satire of mall consumerism "Dawn of the Dead" in 1978 that is perhaps the best entry of the genre. Romero made more sequels with diminishing results with "Day of the Dead" (1985), the color remake "Night of the Living Dead" (1990), "Land of the Dead" (2005) and now this anemic "Diary."
Meanwhile this decade has already seen enough better zombie movies, in particular the scary and eerily post-apocalyptic "28 Days Later" (2003) by director Danny Boyle, the feverishly fast-paced modern update "Dawn of the Dead" (2004) by director Zack Snyder, and the grossly funny splatterfest "Planet Terror" (2007) by Robert Rodriguez (also known as the first segment in "Grindhouse.") One essential thing that these pictures have that "Diary" doesn't is genuine scares. That's the most fundamental problem of all. Not one good scare the entire movie. Romero has pathetically fallen out of touch.
'DEFINITELY, MAYBE'
MAYBE YOU SHOULDN'T
By Sean Chavel
From 1992 to 2007, Definitely, Maybe is a romantic comedy chronicle of William Hayes (Ryan Reynolds), an advertising exec and former office worker of the Bill Clinton presidential campaign who is on the verge of divorce in the tail end of the timeline. After school one day, William's ten year old daughter Maya (Abigail Breslin) urges him to tell the story of his love life. The flashback structure is interrupted by Maya's questions and suggestion comments - she's coaching dad through his own past. As it turns out, there were three women in William's life.
The love life of William Hayes begins its traverse path at the dawn of the 1992 campaign for Bill Clinton. The former president is revered in discussions in the early scenes and then mocked later (as demonstrated by chucked noodles at the TV set) Is this movie pro or anti-Clinton? Whatever it's saying, William has a change of heart towards Clinton in the same way he has a change of heart with plot's integral three women.
Leading man Reynolds has sporting frat-boy features but enough alpha manliness to make you believe he can succeed in a suit-and-tie job. In other words, he's a handsome guy and thus a viable movie star. I mention this because I could not believe for one moment that he is tied down to the choice of only three ladies played by Elizabeth Banks, Isla Fisher and Rachel Weisz. Wouldn't Reynolds' character date outside the preliminary female cast over the course of a 15-year period? With such good looks it shouldn't be such a problem for him.
Only one of the ladies is truly interesting and that's Weisz as Summer Hartley, a blue blood journalist, who has a sophisticated elegance, an ever-changing and unpredictable sexiness, and a tart vocabulary that is missing from the other two women. Weisz is so strong and compelling a character that she's worthy of a Nick Hornsby novel. Curiously enough Weisz played a Hornsby character in the film adaptation of "About a Boy" (2002) with Hugh Grant, and she proves that she can improve upon any romantic comedy she is in cast in. She is that good. (My schoolboy crush is peaking.) Weisz is fetching whether she is cocktail mingling with a glass of wine in her hand, or is engaged in deep sharing in bed with our hero William.
The one thing going for the movie is that most of the time the characters talk as if they were college graduates. In a season chockfull of mediocre romantic comedies "Definitely, Maybe" is at least halfway watchable by providing its smarter cast of characters (including comrades Derek Luke and Kevin Kline in supporting roles) with intelligible dialogue. Eva Longoria or Kate Hudson were never given a smart line in their entirety of their vehicles from this past month in "Over Her Dead Body" or "Fool's Gold" respectively.
But the film really takes a nosedive when William gets emotionally attached to April (Fisher's character), a loopy free-spirit who is politically non-partisan. We're left with drawn out scenes of William and April engaged in small talk. If audiences wanted small talk, they could stay home and ring Aunt Edna back east. Let's be absolutely blunt about this. There is nothing interesting about the character April nor the first-love Emily character whom William surprisingly reunites with late in the ballgame. There comes a point where William should give serious return consideration to Summer or find somebody new to date outside his previous circle.
Doing my best to not ruin the ending, let's just say that this becomes one of those movies where the two people who finally end up together have kept a relative distance at arm's length because they misread each other's feelings and after 15 years finally learn they are meant for each other. Let's not cheer for their final embrace of each other, let's balk at what fools they are that they took 15 years to figure out that they "should give things a try." Smart hero, ridiculous choices.
OSCAR PICKS 2007
By Sean Chavel
My annual Oscar picks. This year "No Country for Old Men" is the most deserving to win the top awards. Some categories I'll adhere that I was conflicted, particularly the Best Actress category where two nominees were exceptional. A few of the categories I decided not to comment on particularly when it came to the visual effects and make-up categories where I was not a fan of any of the nominees.
In order below: The list of nominees, my critical choice, and on most categories the most overlooked talent that should have been nominated.
Best Picture Nominees: "Atonement," "Juno," "Michael Clayton," "No Country for Old Men," "There Will Be Blood."
My Choice: "No Country for Old Men." If it wins, it will become the greatest me, at least according to me, to ever win the Best Picture Oscar. Take in account that "2001: A Space Odyssey," "GoodFellas," and "Citizen Kane" never won. Currently I believe "Schindler's List" is the worthiest Best Picture winner ever.
Who Got Snubbed: "In the Valley of Elah." Based on a true story, Paul Haggis' best work involves a father (Tommy Lee Jones) looking into the whereabouts of his son who disappeared off of a New Mexico army base. "Sunshine" and "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" also deserved better attention.
Best Actor: George Clooney, "Michael Clayton," Daniel Day-Lewis, "There Will Be Blood," Johnny Depp, "Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street," Tommy Lee Jones, "In the Valley of Elah," Viggo Mortensen, "Eastern Promises."
My Choice: Daniel Day-Lewis - "There Will Be Blood." It's a close call because Tommy Lee Jones delivered what could be the best performance of his career in a little seen movie, but Day-Lewis' howl "You're a bastard in a basket!" sends chills down your spine. Watch Day-Lewis slowly boil for two-and-a-half hours. It's steadily rising inflammation in a cold-blooded character.
Who Got Snubbed: Christian Bale - "Rescue Dawn." He's one of our most exciting actors to watch, but to see his greatness and his resilience, in both character and performance, is to see him play Dieter Dengler, a crashed fighter pilot who finds himself a POW captive in Laos during the Vietnam War.
Best Actress: Cate Blanchett, "Elizabeth: The Golden Age," Julie Christie, "Away From Her," Marion Cotillard, "La Vie en Rose," Laura Linney, "The Savages," Ellen Page, "Juno."
My Choice: Julie Christie - "Away From Her." The subject matter of Alzheimer's may steer some viewers away, but her work is heartbreaking in her declining state of fragility. Ellen Page, though, is a strong second choice.
Who Got Snubbed: Ashley Judd - "Bug." Hysterical madness expertly depicted by Judd, whose character is fueled by the loss of her child, spousal abuse, alcohol, and excess reclusion. Her control of character earns the tripped-out freaky finale.
Best Supporting Actor: Casey Affleck, "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford," Javier Bardem, "No Country for Old Men," Hal Holbrook, "Into the Wild," Philip Seymour Hoffman, "Charlie Wilson's War," Tom Wilkinson, "Michael Clayton."
My Choice: Javier Bardem - "No Country for Old Men." Anton Chigurh is the most fascinating psychopath in the movies this side of Hannibal Lechter and Norman Bates. Actually, in truth, I find Chigurh more fascinating than either one of those comparisons.
Who Got Snubbed: Tommy Lee Jones - "No Country for Old Men." The heart and soul of the movie, his character Sheriff Bell preserves a sense of dignity when no one else possesses any. God forbid, I guess it would have been too much to nominate two actors from the film.
Best Supporting Actress: Cate Blanchett, "I'm Not There," Ruby Dee, "American Gangster," Saoirse Ronan, "Atonement," Amy Ryan, "Gone Baby Gone," Tilda Swinton, "Michael Clayton."
My Choice: Tilda Swinton - "Michael Clayton." Her cold dispassionate performance is far more fascinating than any other nominee in her field. Outstanding to the point that she's the best part in a very complicated, very intricately plotted movie.
Who Got Snubbed: Charlize Theron - "In the Valley of Elah." Her character covers the same territory as her Oscar nominated performance in "North Country" from a couple years ago as a sexually harassed woman in the workplace not given her due, but I think her work is even stronger here.
Best Director: Julian Schnabel, "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," Jason Reitman, "Juno," Tony Gilroy, "Michael Clayton," Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, "No Country for Old Men," Paul Thomas Anderson, "There Will Be Blood."
My Choice: Joel Coen and Ethan Coen - "No Country for Old Men." Perfect camerawork. Check. Perfect suspense timing. Check. Perfect backdrops in every shot. Perfect deadpan style. Check. And the most perfect thing of all is how they've preserved author Cormac McCarthy's ideas without overstating them.
Who Got Snubbed: Danny Boyle - "Sunshine." He provided one of the most visually eye-popping and visceral experience at the movies last year. Sci-fi is brainy, imaginative and wildly inventive once again.
Best Adapted Screenplay: Christopher Hampton, "Atonement," Sarah Polley, "Away from Her," Ronald Harwood, "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, "No Country for Old Men," Paul Thomas Anderson, "There Will Be Blood."
My Choice: Joel Coen and Ethan Coen - "No Country for Old Men." A perfect adaptation. Read the final two chapters of the book to catch the poetry of the message.
Who Got Snubbed: Andrew Dominik and Ron Hansen - "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford." The language so evocative that we feel we are eavesdropping on real people from 1800's Midwest America.
Best Original Screenplay: Diablo Cody, "Juno," Nancy Oliver, "Lars and the Real Girl," Tony Gilroy, "Michael Clayton," Brad Bird, Jan Pinkava and Jim Capobianco, "Ratatouille," Tamara Jenkins, "The Savages."
My Choice: Diablo Cody - "Juno." For all its unpredictable situations and for all its shenanigans. The Pixar team for the animated rat comedy "Ratatouille" deserves honorable accolades, too.
Who Got Snubbed: Adrienne Shelly - "Waitress." Shelly revived the chick flick with honest and real situations that both men and women can recognize.
Best Animated Feature Film: "Persepolis," "Ratatouille," "Surf's Up."
My Choice: "Ratatouille." Never would I have thought that an animated rat could steal my heart.
Who Got Snubbed: "The Simpsons Movie." Damn funny, but it's still no "Ratatouille."
Best Art Direction: "American Gangster," "Atonement," "The Golden Compass," "Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street," "There Will Be Blood."
My Choice: "American Gangster." The New York '70's is impeccably resurrected.
Who Got Snubbed: "Sunshine." For starters, the oxygen plant room is amazing.
Best Cinematography: "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford," "Atonement," "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," "No Country for Old Men," "There Will Be Blood."
My Choice: "No Country for Old Men." Perfect camerawork. But "The Assassination of Jesse James" with its crystal-ball effects and painterly images is near perfect and a close second.
Who Got Snubbed: "Sunshine." Vertiginous free-falling camerawork is dizzying and exhilarating.
Best Documentary Feature: "No End in Sight," "Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience," "Sicko," "Taxi to the Dark Side," "War/Dance."
My Choice: "No End in Sight." Bumbled miscalculations in America's war strategy in Iraq are what propelled Charles Ferguson's brilliant documentary, easily the best. But "Sicko" too is also very good and might lead to positive change in the health care system in this country.
Best Sound Mixing: "The Bourne Ultimatum," "No Country for Old Men," "Ratatouille," "3:10 to Yuma," "Transformers."
My Choice: "The Bourne Ultimatum." Consider how many sound effects are employed in the train station cat and mouse chase. A clear winner.
Best Sound Editing: "The Bourne Ultimatum," "No Country for Old Men," "Ratatouille," "There Will Be Blood," "Transformers."
My Choice: "There Will Be Blood." Manufactured sounds are created for busting oil wells.
Best Original Score: "Atonement," by Dario Marianelli; "The Kite Runner," by Alberto Iglesias; "Michael Clayton," by James Newton Howard; "Ratatouille," by Michael Giacchino; "3:10 to Yuma," by Marco Beltrami.
My Choice: Michael Giacchino - "Ratatouille." I feel Paris when I'm solely listening to the music, one of many great delights of the film.
Best Film Editing: "The Bourne Ultimatum," "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," "Into the Wild," "No Country for Old Men," "There Will Be Blood."
My Choice: "No Country for Old Men." Sure, "The Bourne Ultimatum" in another year would be a hands-down winner for its hair-trigger jolts but also for its clarity control, but the suspense timing for "No Country" is…perfect.
Valley Village's Own Lovely LAINIE KAZAN...Live!!
By Richard Gordon
LAINIE KAZAN is the embodiment of the word entertainer -- and artist who has reached the pinnacle in virtually every area of performance. She has come a long way since she was Barbra Streisand's Broadway understudy in "Funny Girl." Once she was able to display her electrifying talent in two shows, she became the "Chanteuse" of her native New York, with nightclub stints and guest appearances on virtually every top variety and talk show in network television, including an unparalleled 26 appearances on "The Dean Martin Show." She even hosted her own variety special for NBC and opened the popular "Lainie's Room" and "Lainie's Room East" at the Los Angeles and New York Playboy Clubs.
The sensual magnetism Lainie exuded in her variety shows and nightclubs attracted film directors and producers, leading her quickly into acting on both the gold and silver screens. After watching her coo through ballads and belt like a sassy blues woman at San Francisco's Fairmont Hotel, an astonished Francis Ford Coppola offered her a plum role on "One from the Heart." In 1983, Lainie received a Golden Globe nomination for her performance in Richard Benjamin's "My Favorite Year," starring Peter O'Toole. Other films include "Lust in the Dust" with Tab Hunter & Divine, "Delta Force" with Chuck Norris, "Beaches" with Better Midler and Barbara Hershey and "Harry and the Hendersons" directed by Steven Spielberg. Additional movies include "The Cemetery Club," "29th Street" with Danny Aiello, "The Associate" with Whoopi Goldberg, "Love is All There Is" with Angelina Jolie and Paul Sorvino; "The Big Hit" with Mark Wahlberg, "The Crew" with Burt Reynolds & Richard Dreyfuss "What's Cooking" with Mercedes Ruehl, & Kyra Sedgwick ; and "Gigli" with Ben Affleck & Jennifer Lopez.
Lainie has received critical acclaim for her role in the blockbuster comedy "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," which has grossed over $600 million worldwide and won the People's Choice Award. Other TV roles include: "St. Elsewhere" (Emmy nomination) "Paper Chase" (Ace Award) "Will & Grace", "Beverly Hills 90210" & her most popular appearances on "The Nanny". Plus numerous other TV movies and independent feature films. Broadway, stage and concerts, all around out Lainie's vast career.
The most important and favorite part of Lainie's career is SINGING, and she has three CD's available. This month she is returning to the nightclub stages here in Hollywood at the Catalina Jazz Club on Sunset Blvd - Feb 21-23. There are only four performances and tickets are selling fast for this Valley Village resident. Singer, Actress, Mom, and Grandmother to Isabella Blue, Lainie is one star you have to experience in person.
Catalina Jazz Club 6725 Sunset Blvd
(323) 466-2210 $20 to $30 pp with minimum
Glistening Beaches & Starry Nights
The 2008 Santa Barbara International Film Festival
By Tim Wassberg
Santa Barbara is a place in the sun. Neither rainstorms nor wind could quell the thirst for cool films, interesting parties, and award-winning stars. The 2008 Santa Barbara International Film Festival (www.sbfilmfestival.org/) again brought the energy.
Opening night was a study in logistics. When the original open air shindig was rained out, the courtyard of the Arlington Theater came alive in the night with a live rock band, hot dogs, wine, salad and spicy food to raise the
spirits from such locals
establishments as Albuquerque (www.leftatalb.com/), Elements (www.elementsrestaurantandbar.com/) and Lettuce B. Frank (www.lettucebfrank.com/). The risers of the red carpet gave way to communities listening to music and wandering the haunted house-like corridors. The film of the evening was "Definitely Maybe," a new romantic comedy about the ups-and-downs of love starring Ryan Reynolds and Oscar winner Rachel Weisz. Ryan's response of the night to getting out and enjoying the world: "I think as an actor you have to experience life to portray it accurately. It is a pitfall for some people. You can get into a situation where you're cocooning it. You have to live life to act it." And the celebration continued.
The films were edgy as usual and the Asian films took the lead sizzling the competition. "Death Note" has a young man with the power to kill with a word. A CGI demon taunts and plays both sides for his own amusement. Fun to watch to be sure. "My Way" from Spain has overtones of "Scarface" from a reverse angle about a dealer on his way down. The synth heavy score wretches your insides as a man loses everything close to him. On another end, "Triangle" is a film of a heist from three different Asian auteurs (Tsui Hark, Ringo Lam and Johnnie To) integrated throughout the same movie. There are elements of each to be sure. Their styles, however, are not specific enough despite the fact of a killer ending finale in a tall grass field that plays like Russian Roulette on speed. "Bluff" is a Canadian entry of interweaving stories surrounding a dark secret. The comedy is quick and skilled despite skewing a little light. The real highlight of the films viewed however was "Vexille," a visually splendid, hardcore anime masterpiece that is the first to take advantage of new digital techniques. It is about the isolation of Japan in the year 2077. The views of metallic debris monsters that look like wretched worms on a desert landscape chasing souped-up rocket-powered vehicles towards a portal like something out of a desolate "Star Wars" is stellar.
The chameleons of the screen graced the Arlington with their presence this year. Cate Blanchett, fresh off shooting a part as a Russian baddie in the new Indiana Jones movie and visibly pregnant, worked the crowd in a silky green strapped dress that perfectly accented her curves before she headed inside to receive an award as a "Modern Master" (whose past recipients have included Will Smith and George Clooney). When asked about her journey, Cate was quick to respond: "You start out with a journey but it is a product of which direction you turn in the forks in the road. I have no grand plan of heading anywhere in particular. I just think it is important as an actor to be engaged at the moment you're in the job rather than using it as a stepping stone to get to somewhere else." As a woman poised to win the Oscar for playing the ultimate chameleon, Bob Dylan, the best is still to come.
And evil arrived. Javier Bardem, chilling and unbeatable as the unstoppable Anton in the Coen Brothers' "No Country For Old Men", was honored with the Montecito Award for his accomplishments. Every role for him is about finding the right way to see it even if it might not be conventional: "The answers [for me] are always answered by more questions," he explains. "There is no way to get to the unique answer. That is a tricky point. You have to decide that the question is already being answered so you don't go farther. Otherwise it is going to take forever." His reminiscence on stage about playing love as well as being so nervous that he had to hit the bathroom while clips were running was classic. But it was Woody Harrelson, busting Javier's chops and calling him "Antonio" before giving him the award, that capped the evening with a bit of frivolity.
The parties were in the house as well. The Modern Master after-party at Bambu was accented by girls dancing around poles on top of the inside bar. Outside, the dance floor, glistening with water and short skirts while the wind made the hanging glass chandeliers overhead swing from side-to-side, kept pace as Chopin vodka was poured. The Montecito Award after-party, held inside Saks Fifth Avenue (after hours), was bathed in modern furniture and blood red as the DJ spun in the low light.
The American Riviera once again provided a backstage to Hollywood. Whether sipping wine over a delicious lunch at the Roblar Vineyard (http://www.roblarwinery.com/) on a gorgeous afternoon or listening to Independent Award winner Ryan Gosling, brushing off the screams of adoring girls, speaking in full character about one of his drivers who supposedly saved Milla Jovovich's life, there was no lack of tales to be told; only great places to tell them.