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Reviews
Here Is What Is (2007)
One of the least insightful documentaries I've ever seen
What a wasted opportunity! I know you're not supposed to review the movie that could have been, that you should stick to the movie that "is", but here is what is -- this just plain sucks. I expected this doc to offer some insights on the music production process, and contain some intriguing interviews on the give and take between artist and producer. And also, since Lanois is so attuned to mixing, to show something of the give and take between studio engineer and producer.
Aside from a soundbite that Lanois interprets a mixer as a whole other instrument, and a brief dissertation on how the song takes shape not merely from what the musicians play but from the extra materials you have at your disposal and the "feel" and vibe in the studio -- this film's 90 minutes is better spent listening to 'Oh Mercy' or one of the many other fine albums Lanois has produced or co-produced.
The look of the film is very disturbing and, at times, intolerable and unwatchable -- an attempted avant garde look that is so behind the times it could have been chopped together mid-70s. The longest interview segments are with Brian Eno, who at one point esoterically conveys some statement about the colours of a tapestry -- colours the film audience cannot even see, because they are either bleached or diluted or non-existent due to the film's look.
The co-directors should feel ashamed that they weren't able to cull together better material, especially from this calibre of subjects. Also, the extended music sequences are so self-indulgent they give new meaning to "art for art's sake". The opening 4 minute shot of a piano piece being played (by Garth Hudson), from one angle -- a piece that is not even that complex or a display Hudson's obvious talent -- is indicative of the rest of the movie's musical sequences. Embark at your own risk.
La terza madre (2007)
Argento's best since 'Suspiria'........seriously!
Who would think that, almost 40 years later, Argento has perfected his craft! Never has one of his films had acting so solid, storytelling so cohesive. It's also one of his scariest films, and the effects have never been better.
Upon the opening of a long-buried urn containing several ancient artifacts, a terror and chaos is unleashed upon Rome that soon becomes referred to as "the second fall". Asia Argento plays Sarah, a woman who works in a museum who is very skeptical of the occult, even after she discovers she has some exceptional powers. After witnessing a grizzly murder, the ominous kidnapping of a friend's son, and a group of witches that seem intent on killing her, she goes on a quest to find the cause behind the madness and discover the extent of the powers she has. Along the way she is aided by historians and priests, most notably Udo Kier who turns in a short but fun performance.
Meanwhile, in Rome and the Italian countryside, people are inexplicably committing suicide in large numbers, committing random acts of vandalism, or killing their friends and even children, as if guided by a malevolent invisible hand.
Although there is a bit of hammy dialog and a couple weaker characters (the detective, for one), most of the characters and dialog are believable, and the pacing is perfect. Still giving an artistic touch to the violence but employing a bit more realism, there are two kill scenes in particular that rival anything Argento has previously put on the screen. Along with 'Suspiria', 'Deep Red' and 'Opera', undoubtedly one of Argento's best.
Scoop (2006)
Ick....
This is the first Woody Allen movie I ever walked out on, even though I reasonably should have walked out during Jade Scorpion or Hollywood Ending. I couldn't believe when I saw the rating was at 6.7, so I thought I'd better bring it down a bit.
Woody plays a magician named after an artificial sweetener (I think it's Splendini) who should be giving out refunds after the show, based on the hackneyed routines. Scarlett gets the scoop of a lifetime when she participates in one of the routines and sees a ghost in the trunk. Turns out the guy jumped out of the boat on the river Styx to swim back and give her the scoop on his murder. Honestly, when he jumped out of the boat, I thought he was just trying to escape this movie.
All I can say is, wow, Woody must have pulled quite the Jade Scorpion style hypnosis on Scarlett to get her into this one. Thank God Woody is turning back to drama -- 3 funny lines do not a comedy make.
The Quiet American (2002)
A Greene adaptation worthy of accolades
A finer adaptation you won't see of Graham Greene's "The Quiet American", a novel set in 1952 about a journalist named Thomas Fowler (Michael Caine) who meets Pyle (Brendan Fraser), an American who idealistically arrives in Vietnam to aid a Third Force which will allow the U.S. a method of infiltrating the government and assert their influence in Vietnam.
The film is not only a faithful rendering of the literary material, ingenious in the manner it constructs and combines scenes and uses quite a bit of Greene's actual dialogue; it is a visual splendor, using evocative scenery and taking advantage of on-sight locations (it was actually filmed in Vietnam!) to provide a gaze into both the tranquil, the corrupted, and the soon-to-be disturbed (the scene in the square is very effectively staged).
But one of the most essential elements in the film is the pitch-perfect performances of the two leads, who have both (no hyperbole here) never been better. Michael Caine inhabits the body, mind and temporal neutrality of Fowler like he was always meant to step into this character, and Brendan Fraser, to my great surprise, was entirely effective as Pyle, a clean-cut York Harding ideologist who is completely deluded to the Third Force and as a result develops apathy towards any innocent victims that might be sacrificed to assert the U.S. influence in Vietnam.
At the moment I can't find an American release date (I saw it in Toronto), but this is certainly one of the best films I've seen this year and cannot recommend it more highly. The director, Phillip Noyce, has achieved a great triumph (simultaneously with another gem of a film, Rabbit-Proof Fence).