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Reviews
Colour Me Kubrick: A True...ish Story (2005)
Not as entertaining as the real story
Much of this story is fictionalized and over-stated. Alan Conway was a real person who did impersonate Stanley Kubrick during the 1990s. However, the real Conway ran a travel agency and had a son, who lived with him for a while.
Conway definitely left his wife and pursued gay relationships, but the way this film portrayed him was as a continually lying and compulsive character, who lived off the gullibility of others. The real Conway seemed to have paid at least some of his own way.
Conway did attend a rehab clinic run by the Priory group, but he attended one of 200 centres in Britain, not a boutique clinic for up and outers, as portrayed in the film. According to an article on him by The Guardian, the treatment was successful and he joined AA afterwards.
The film contains much that Kubrick lovers can enjoy - the music, a signature of all of Kubrick's films, appears during ironic and amusing episodes. Around the corner of Conway's house is a sex shop called "The Blue Danube" - a reference to the music played during the spaceship / space station dance in 2001; When Conway is assaulted by friends who discover his true identity, the tunes from "Clockwork Orange" play; The music at the clinic evokes memories of the Overlook Hotel, as does the interior design of the clinic.
John Malkovich is the star of the film. His Conway/Kubrick changes accents and mannerisms all the time according to who he is with. He is American in one scene, Cockney in another, even South African at one stage (the real Conway lived in South Africa for a while).
There's also a "Malkovich" moment in the film when Conway (played by John Malkovich and impersonating Stanley Kubrick) tells friends at his dinner table that he is casting "John Malkovich" for a role in his new film. "Who's he?" asks one of his guests.
But for me the film fell flat. It ended too abruptly for my taste. I wanted to see how Conway lived the rest of his life. I wanted to see a scene in which the "real" Stanley Kubrick is informed of the imposter (Peter Jackson would have been great playing Stanley Kubrick). I wanted to see him on television (the real Conway did appear on TV).
I also wanted to see bit actors from Kubrick films make an appearance. Warren Clark, Dalziel from "Dalziel & Pascoe", played Dim in "Clockwork Orange". Couldn't the producers have invited him in for a scene? What about letting Lia Beldam appear briefly nude as she did in "The Shining"? The film yearned for in-jokes like these to be played for Kubrick fans, but they avoided them.
One last thing - for some reason I had believed that Conway actually made it onto the set of "Eyes Wide Shut" and had confused some of those involved in it. This was definitely not the case either in real life or in the film.
And spare a thought for Joe Longthorne, the real British singer who fell for Conway's tricks and who was given another name in the film. Poor bloke. Must be terribly embarrassed.
Kurt & Courtney (1998)
The "Plan Nine From Outer Space" of Documentaries
About halfway through this "documentary" I suddenly realized that the film may, in fact, have been a "mockumentary". Consider the following:
* The director/interviewer kept saying to the audience "I wanted to play such-and-such a song by Kurt/Nirvana, but the record label wouldn't give me permission, so here is another song by some band you've never heard of"
* The complete ineptitude of the celebrity stalkers, whose digital camera runs out of battery power just as they get close to the studio that Courtney Love is recording in... and later are so nervous at an official function (where they are pretending to be the media) that they actually fail to ask Courtney Love the required questions.
* The appearance of El Duce and his band "The Mentors" singing songs about sex slaves while dressed in leather executioner's gear - and then discovering that HE'S the guy who claims Courtney Love asked him to knock off Kurt.
* In-depth Interviews with drug addicts and other "low-life" who claim to have met Kurt.
* Courtney Love's father interpreting certain Nirvana lyrics as being a reference to LSD (a questionable complaint coming from someone who used to work as a roadie for the Grateful Dead).
* The interviewer/director getting up at an official ACLU function and speaking directly AFTER Courtney Love's speech. (didn't anyone actually notice?) As all these things came together, I honestly felt that the documentary was SO bad that it could not be anything else but deliberate. Armed with the theory that this was actually a mockumentary I was surprised to learn from a cursory internet search that the film is actually a real attempt at a documentary.
Given the complete disaster that this documentary is, the only film that it could therefore be compared to is Ed Wood's "Plan Nine From Outer Space". The aimlessness and ineptitude of the documentary is so pronounced that it actually becomes quite entertaining after a while. As soon as El Duce and The Mentors came into the equation I was almost howling on the floor laughing. The conspiracies surrounding Cobain's death should have been treated seriously - but they are examined in such a way as to almost be an insult to those who made the conspiracies up, let alone the memory of Cobain.
Neither Dave Grohl nor Krist Novoselic (the other two members of Nirvana) are interviewed or even seen throughout the film. Other major figures, such as Kurt's immediate family, the band's manager and other record company execs are also missing from the film. Instead we are treated to a cavalcade of background figures (most of whom are drug addicts) who claim to have met and influenced Cobain way before he was a star and who all, for some reason, think that it is possible that Kurt had been murdered.
Actual important leads - such as evidence that Kurt's credit card was used a few days after his death - are mentioned but never followed up and are eventually forgotten in favour of tracking down the mysterious (and ultimately hilarious) El Duce and spending time with clueless celebrity stalkers who spend more time on camera talking about what they do rather than actually doing anything.
In summary, the documentary itself is far more entertaining than the subject it purports to be investigating - but entertaining only because of its chaotic and misguided interviewer who interviews all the wrong people and investigates all the wrong theories. It is about as compelling as driving past a flaming car wreck that had run over and killed a circus clown.
Jin-Rô (1999)
Not for Anime lovers but great for the rest of us
Jin-Roh is a complex, brooding and dark film, and is probably not suitable for those who love Japanese Anime. For those of us who prefer quality films and who aren't fussed about Anime, the film is brilliant.
The film is neither science fiction nor fantasy. It is set in an "alternative history" post-war Japan during the 1960s - but a Japan that is increasingly fracturing between leftist terrorists and the brutal tactics of a secretive and powerful police force.
In the midst of this is Fuse, a member of the elite "Kerberos" Special Unit - a heavily armed counter-terrorist force that is feared by terrorists and hated by ordinary citizens. Fuse, humiliated by a mistake made in the line of duty, begins a strange yet alluring relationship with Kei. Their relationship intertwines with forces that seek to destroy the Special Unit and those that are trying to protect it.
The most recognizable visual element of the film are the faceless members of the Special Unit. Protected by armour plating, these men wear Nazi-style helmets with breathing apparatus and glowing red night vision goggles. They are armed with MG42 belt-fed machine guns that can rip human beings to shreds. They are like walking tanks.
Like a lot of Japanese Anime, there are occasionally moments of brutal, bloody violence but these are never gratuitous. It is not an action film, but rather a drama in which action plays a vital, but not dominant, role.
One warning though - the film has an unexpected ending that will not please many viewers, but one which, when the film is taken as a whole, is entirely appropriate.