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'BODY OF LIES'
C.I.A. THRILLER OVERPLOT
By Sean Chavel
Body of Lies is a big, sprawling, convoluted film that is so hard to follow that its audience has to work to keep things connected. Leonardo DiCaprio is Roger Ferris, a CIA intelligence operative trac-king through the Middle East in search of a terrorist implicated with a Man-chester, England bombing that took down an entire public street. Russell Crowe is the pudgy-gut boss back in Langley, Virginia who acts as Ferris' armchair director. There are a lot of scenes cross-cutting between DiCaprio in the Middle East and Crowe in his bathrobe on cell phone correspondence with each other.
Islamist extremist Al-Saleem (Alon Aboutboul) is the target, and he's given weightier character development as opposed to other Al Qaeda terrorists in the movies these days. Al-Saleem has a democracy-hating rhetoric, but it's a more hushed and subdued decree of terrorism. His outfit has a number of sacrificial lambs and Ferris is able to get his hands on a couple of them throughout the pic - plugging for information.
The problem is that William Monahan's script is a never-ending maze of deception, loose ends and scant information that even the occasional RPG-rocket and mac-hine gun blasts can't stir the audience out of the haze of apathy. As the film bounces back (thank god for title cards) between Manchester, Virginia, Iraq, Jordan, Syria the mission objectives, while clear to DiCaprio and Crowe, is muddled to the audience. "Body of Lies" covers so much ground and territory that it stretches its cohesiveness rather thin.
Sure, it's less pretentious than "Syriana" but just as talky, with occasional interruptions of short-lived excitement to liven the proceedings. The film does have visual grandeur whether it's desert photography, busy urban marketplaces, or eagle eye surveillance shots from the sky. The film is directed by Ridley Scott who used the same infra-red sensor telescopes as he did in "Black Hawk Down." CIA advisors watch the action on a tower size monitor, and it's good for them (and for us) to see the scope of spy games from a high vantage point.
The performances are good enough by DiCaprio and Crowe that it serves as a welcome distraction when you don't know what's going on. DiCaprio is believable as a CIA operative but not believable as a super-operative. When he takes over a command post from a senior director to inform him that it is his mission now, DiCaprio looks too much like, uh, a junior. Crowe is commanding is his senior role as the veteran making calls from his own domestic backyard, sometimes helping his kids with their backpacks or accompanying them to soccer games while he yaks (discreetly) about espionage with DiCaprio on the other end of the call. And in case you're wondering, yes, DiCaprio and Crowe eventually share screen time together in the same shot.
"Body of Lies" though, even with its occasional gripping moments, never holds your attention in the long stretch. Plus, this film is simply not going to age well. It doesn't have significant enough meaning to make a lasting impression. The lack of streamlined coherency is a drawback. Nothing truly momentous takes place in the film that is discernibly noteworthy. And the commercialized climax is bogus. (Spoiler alert) It requires a key character to be endangered to the point of facing extermination, but through story manipulation is spared thanks to just-in-time infiltration rescue squad.
In regards to director Ridley Scott's track record, the film doesn't come close to his career highs of "Black Hawk Down" and "Blade Runner" nor does it stink of lows like "Kingdom of Heaven" and "1492." "Body of Lies" is simply a disappointment. The actors are game and the visual direction is sometimes impressive, but a simpler more compact story needed to be done. A different story.
The Secret Life of Bees
By Theodore Ott
If you don't like sweet gentle love, the beauty of an adult soul nurturing a wounded child, the warmth of a fully human and humane environment overseen by a wonderful universal mother figure, then you're not going to like The Secret Life of Bees either.
This is easily one of the most life-affirming films I've seen in many, many years. If you can remember how you felt after seeing Sleepless in Seattle, Moonlighting, To Kill A Mockingbird or Roseanna's Grave and you liked it, you'll be ecstatic following The Secret Life of Bees.
Set in the rural south in 1964 this is story of an early teenaged Caucasian girl, played by Dakota Fanning, whose emotionally crippled father, Paul Bettany, finally and unintentionally drives her away. The child leaves his peach orchard home in the company of an African American housekeeper played by Jennifer Hudson who proves once and for all, as if it were necessary, that her turn in Chicago was no accident. Queen Latifah plays August Boatwright the matriarch of a family of women who lovingly and gently with an uncanny wisdom, guides her charges as they negotiate life's sandmires and pitfalls. As you watch her, you can feel the protection and warmth she exudes. You are not to be blamed if you find yourself wishing that Latifah's August was a part of your life, too.
In a film with so many wonderfully rich performances, it is impossible to pick out only one to laud. For sure, Academy® voters will find themselves in one hell of a conundrum when they try to pick out only one or even two from this film this year.
On a strictly personal level, I have had a thing for Queen Latifah for some time now since Living Out Loud and through the more recent Chicago, Beauty Shop, and Last Holiday even if the movies were uneven, the Queen reigned for me!
And, while the Queen ought to be enough, she was not alone. The delicate performance of Sophie Okonedo is like one of those fragile flowers that threaten to disappear in a puff leaving just their memory and scent behind them. Okonedo's May Boatwright calls forth understanding smiles and a deep seated desire to protect her from the uglies that life can suddenly throw up at a person.
If the only thing you know about the lovely Alicia Keys is the supersexy sultry singer, you are about to get blown right out of your socks! The sexyness is certainly still there, but there is also an intelligence and drive that informs and forms her June Boatwright, thereby giving her audience a vested interest in the welfare and success of her character.
Nate Parker, who electrified the screen in Denzel Washington's The Great Debaters, brings just the right mix of ardent youth and compassion to his portrayal of Neil, Keys' suitor. And, what can be said of Dakota Fanning that hasn't already been said?
Director/Screenwriter Gina Prince-Bythewood doesn't so much direct as she conducts this formidable cast. There is nothing that needs or could admit of improvement in this beautiful film. It is a glowing example of all that a movie could and should be and none of the things a movie shouldn't be.
The Express: The Ernie Davis Story
OUR ANNUAL AUTUMN FOOTBALL MOVIE
By Sean Chavel
The thing about football movies is that they're sold to the audience that wants to see a lot of bone-crunching field action. But in order to look different from last autumn's pigskin movie each new feature has to be repackaged to encompass some kind of all-new message. The Express: The Ernie Davis Story is definitely field-obsessed so it can contain as many running back sprints and nosebleed tackling scenes as it can possibly cram in. The pretense concerns an Africa-American athlete in the late 1950's trying to find acceptance into a white-dominated university. That would be Ernie Davis, the first black Heisman Trophy winner.
The setting is Syracuse Univ-ersity and the objective is for the school to take their first national championship. Rob Brown plays the lightening fast Ernie Davis, and Dennis Quaid plays Coach Ben Schwartzwalder. The first season for Davis is 1959. Former alma mater Jim Brown was an Orangeman at Syracuse, but denied the Heisman (racial politics-prejudice) before being drafted by the Cleveland Browns. Seeking validation, Ernie Davis set out to equal or surpass Brown's yard stats. Within the film, Jim Brown is a substantial character and he's played by a very All-American looking actor Darrin Dewitt Hensen.
The best performance of the film belongs to Omar Bensen Miller (as Jack Buckley) whose best position is as an offensive lineman. Miller is also currently seen in the dismal "Miracle at St. Anna" and featured previously in "Things We Lost in the Fire." He's a gentle big guy with all the sly humor and charisma. He undercuts the apprehension within others and consolidates unity in the locker room. Of course, he's Ernie's best college friend and only true peer confidante on campus.
Ernie and Jack are forbidden by their coach, as well as by social conventions, to date white women or to even look at them. Black people on campus are outsiders, and anyway, there's only about three black guys on campus and they all play for the football team (we hardly get to know the third guy). Black women on campus are rare, but Ernie and Jack finally meet a couple of them. Bound by limited options, Ernie and Jack date these two girls seriously for the next couple of years. Sarah Ward is the brainy, academically high-achieving black girl on campus, and she's nicely played by Nicole Behaire for the few minutes she actually exists on-screen.
Yes, the character of Sarah Ward remains in Ernie's life for the next several years, but she's hardly present as a character beyond the initial introduction and maybe two subsequent fundamental scenes. She never attends Ernie's games but does listen in on the radio. Other script problems: Ernie wants to be known as an achiever outside of football but we never see him attend one class the entire film. Ernie is never seen studying. Ernie is never seen mingling with dorm mates.
These should be signature issues in a film that supposedly wants to explore race relations on-campus in the 1950's and early 1960's. All race relations, and attempts at delivery the audience a message, takes place on the football field. Opposing school teams want to hit Ernie as hard as they can. There are lots of late hits - body blows that take place after the referee's whistle has called the play dead. Ernie takes a lot of abuse, too, by his own teammates in the locker room. Ernie's trouble on-campus? Talked about secondhand but not visibly dramatized. Quaid, as Coach Schwartzwalder, rarely interferes to stick up for Ernie because he believes the more Ernie can suck up the tougher he will get on his own defenses. By the way, Quaid appears to have taken a large paycheck just to act grouchy for its virtually entire running time. Quaid, a good actor, is seen cracking a smile at the end of a triumphant season.
Ernie Davis seemed like a good accomplished guy with a big story to tell, but his story feels like it has been miniaturized and placated solely to the football field. Granted, the film has a very good practice scrimmage montage. But the film's methods, and visual style of Ernie running in slo-mo, is repetitive. Mostly every key play in every game focuses on Ernie scoring touchdowns or getting pummeled by, ahem, racist opponents. There is one very good dramatized detail: The Orangeman score a major victory and is invited afterwards to a white man's country club. Ernie was the player of the game, but Jim Crow laws prohibit any black man from entering the club. Does the team as a whole elect to withdraw the invitation and party somewhere else? "The Express" needed more scenes like that one.
BACK IN THE SPOTLIGHT AGAIN
By Kathy Highcove
Twelve years ago Dena Diamond couldn't recognize herself - or anyone else for that matter. The aspiring director had gone blind after a debilitating attack of Churg Strauss Syndrome, a serious immune disease. In less than a month, Diamond lost her job, her boyfriend, casual friendships and her health.
Diamond always wanted to work behind the camera. Ever since she discovered MTV music videos as a pre-teen, she had focused on a career in television production. She left college to work as a Production Assistant on "The Larry Sanders Show" and then worked at a Hollywood talent agency. Diam-ond's last entertainment position was the able assistant to the Executive Producer of "Cybil" for CBS. She hoped to merge into an assistant director position and couldn't wait to call out 'Action!' but her health suddenly called 'Cut!'
Blindness doesn't mesh easily with a film career, but Diamond needed a light at the end of a very dark tunnel. And income. Rehab-ilitation counselors had few suggestions for re-employment. A determined Diamond decided, "I'll rehab myself."
In between medical tests and treatments, Diamond worked on her come-back. She learned to use Jaws, computer software that reads aloud her documents and emails. Working diligently in her home office, she regained keyboard skills and writing proficiency. Her mother began to hear the irreverent Dena Diamond humor and edgy dialogue in the mechanical voice of a male Jaws avatar. "Kind of freaky," mother Sandi Diamond remembers, "but I knew for sure that Dena was getting better when I heard her wise-cracks again."
During the past decade Diamond has written one-liners for greeting cards, short stories for magazines, stand up comedy routines, composed music, and written scripts. Working with songwriting partner Mike Himelstein, Diamond has provided more than sixty songs featured in television shows such as Jim Henson's "Animal Jam" and the new "Sid the Science Kid." She's provided music for many children's CD's: "Mickey's Party Songs" and "Swashbuckling Sea Songs" for Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean. More Diamond compositions are heard in movies and DVD's such as "Over the Hedge" and "Madagascar."
Income from her work in children's music helped fund the next step in Diamond's rehab plan: her own production company. Encour-aged by her successful partnership with Himelstein, Diamond collaborated with talented people who - like herself - looked for work in the film industry. "It's difficult to find a job but I found very talented people carrying little "will work for food" signs also known as SAG cards."
This past year Diamond wrote, produced and directed her first film short: "Blind Girl Blues". She played the lead. Her humorous tale of dating mishaps in "Blind Girl Blues" emphasized Diamond's witty narration, clever dialogue and clearly demonstrated her ability to take a pratfall for a sight gag - excuse the pun.
Diamond is often asked: How does a blind woman produce and direct a film? To paraphrase an old Beatles song: She gets by with a little help from her friends. All films start out as one person's idea but it takes a crew of many to capture inspiration on film. "I play well with others," Diamond says with a chuckle. She writes out each shot and discusses them with her Director of Photography. A film Editor conferences with Diamond and describes the lighting differences in each take.
The finished short "Blind Girl Blues" was recently shown to an appreciative audience at Women in Film and is presently in circulation to studio executives and film festivals. More Diamond productions are in the planning stages.
Diamond has made a total commitment to her new career and she feels great satisfaction. "All projects start with inner-vision and even a blind chick has that quality." She doesn't see her disability as a hindrance but merely a different perspective. "There are many talented people with disabilities and we should have a role in Hollywood - but not just as patients on ER."
One day you may view a Dena Diamond Digipix (a term she coined) - film short - and remember the blind chick who lost her sense of sight but makes up for it with her sense of humor.
For more information on Dena Diamond visit her website at DiamondVisionProductions.Com
The 2008 Valley Film Festival
By Rei Nishimoto
Just over the Hollywood sign in the San Fernando Valley area, many of today's films are being developed and made. To highlight the talent from this area, the 2008 Valley Film Festival has brought together five days of films by upcoming filmmakers and talent alike, in front of fans who want to get a taste of what is to come.
Held at the El Portal Theatre in the North Hollywood Arts District, the 2008 edition is in its eighth year and showcases short films broken down by categories ranging from short stories to dramatic to comedy. Each genre of film is shown in blocks of three to four films, while audience viewers vote on their favorite films of that block. The films are an average 15 minutes per film.
One of the film sections that stood out was the Horror Shorts Program that was held on the Friday of the five day showing. Each of the four films showed tremendous promise and often was a shame that it ended so soon. The stories were well crafted and kept the audience on its feet within its allotted time.
The strongest film of the block was Everyday Joe, a suspense filled film by Shane Cole. This is a film that was built around a simple storyline and gradually built up into a heart pounding flick.
The story revolves around the main character named Joe (played by Jason C. Miller, also the singer/guitarist of the LA based rock band Godhead), a guy who leads a below average life. He is unable to hold down any odd jobs around town, and lacks a social life. He does not have any friends or relationships, which the film captures by showing his awkwardness in spending excess time on the internet as well as his inability to speak to Gina, a girl from his help group, (played by actress Persia White). Gina is also shy but shows interest in Joe, however his paranoia keeps him from showing his true feelings.
The suspense builds up when Joe drifts off to sleep, and awakens on a random alley. This occurrence happens again later, except he wakes up in an office building by a lawyer's office, the difference is that the second time he finds a murdered body next to him where he wakes up. This is where Joe's past takes him down a dark twisted road. The scenes build up to the suspense and are well crafted by Cole, keeping the audience on the edge of their seats.
The turning point comes when Joe is confronted by the guy who had him believing that he was losing his mind. It turns out to be Simon (played by Zack Throne), an unusually quiet guy from his self-help group who targeted Joe from the beginning, and now is ultimately trying to hurt Gina. After a struggle occurs and Simon tries to kill Gina, Joe fights back and is forced to kill Simon.
Everyday Joe is a well-crafted film that could easily be expanded into a full-length film that could be either a suspense film as well as a dark comedy (ala Falling Down). If films with larger budgets would follow this as an example, there might be more hope for the movie industry in the years to come.
Another highlight within the block of this film festival was horror/gore film Hallow Halls, a fictional story about five kids who entered a prison building they believed was abandoned. They gradually learn that the prisoners that were originally there were tortured and experimented on, but still walked the halls. The film is filled with zombies that kill, and there is a lot of blood and guts flying from the kids who become their victims. This is definitely one for fans of horror films with killer zombies.
The rest of the films include Eater, a Silence of the Lambs meets Twilight Zone style story about a rookie cop that works the nightshift at a jailhouse. During his shift, he learns that there is a cannibal on the loose, who kills and eats his victims. Much of the film is about him trying to evade the cannibal before falling victim himself. And Stuffed is a short film about a woman who finds a new man in her life. She collects stuffed animals, which are all over her apartment. But when he gets too close, her stuffed animals take matters into their hands. This film was creatively done, but it has more cuteness to it than horror.