jcappy5's Reviews

One True Thing (1998)

4/10

9 September 2004

Apart from the DA (James Eckhouse), and a brief appearing woman who is convincingly sympathetic to Ellen Gulden's (Renee Zellweger)plight, Ellen herself is the only convincing character--and likable character in the movie. She is the one, not her dying mother, who should be and is--the one true thing. it's not only in the role, in Zellweger's acting, but also in the plot itself.... Until, the plot turns against itself--and makes the mother the "one true thing" in the eyes of her weak willed, shallow husband who can do nothing right for his wife or daughter. The daughter perceives what the viewer perceives, but such intelligent perceptions must give way to the shallow sentiment of the husband who is blanked out on both the realities of his wife and daughter.

To boot, the one powerful scene in this whole movie, when Ellen confronts her father's cruelty, is given the lie at the end. Ellen is just another young strong woman who must be tamed into conformity by a crybaby father. A very flawed movie--so flawed as to be called a bore and not worth the time.

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Dollar Mambo (1993)

9/10

Needs Distribution!

5 July 2004

Warning: Spoilers

(contains spoiler)

This is a movie 'about nothing.' Perhaps because it's too explosive and therefore secret, or censored. And therefore must proceed in dance and music and mime and gesture--in anyway but through words.

It appears to take place on a barge, in and around a waterfront cabaret club which serves also as hideout and brothel. Mambo and Afro-Cubano (?) music is the pulse of the place, but this embodied world is undermined by commercial transaction. Bodies are for sale and subject to force. The club seems to symbolize Panama itself--marginalized and colonized.

In the foreground is the US invasion of the Panama Canal (1983) and the masculinized violence which Big Powers depend on to assert their control over a conquered people. As the troops swarm into the club, various indirect forms of resistance are used by its denizens, but none work because the masked troops up the ante of violence. In response, resistance becomes more direct--the performers stick out their tongues, give the audience the finger, and refuse to back down from attacks on their person. The worse victims of the troops are either female or feminized. In the pivotal rape attempt, the lead female dancer, uses every psychological mechanism to at least distract her attackers and hang onto some part of herself, but in the end commits suicide. The soldiers, deprived of rape, fire their guns and rifles into her dead body. One pulls off his gasmask (the only soldier face we see) and stares in shock at her action, her body, and his part in the raping scene. This is overwhelming and brings the viewer into the film's persistent theme of voyeurism (who has the power of looking, and how does a person (a man) look--diverse examples in the film).

This short (75 minutes) film is rich in art and meaning--which, ironically, invites a lot of discussion. LeDuc is a thinking director--and he comes down on the side of the oppressed. He invites his viewers to do the same.

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Fear of Fear (1975 TV Movie)

"The Yellow Wallpaper" revisited

28 April 2004

Gilman's classic short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" seems to be the model for this Fassbinder TV movie (not American TV--that's obvious). As in the original story, post-partum depression is only the immediate cause of the heroine's depressed, anxious and eventual insane state. In the story, the narrator's crisis is certainly located in patriarchy. I do not know Fassbinder or his work well enough to know whether Margo (Margit Carstensen) is suffering from straight up alienation or the patriarchal blues but most of the indicators point to the latter. There is far more focus on marriage here and male disinterest in or mis-readings of Margo's suffering than on social dislocation per se. Both the husband and the sincere, sympathetic brother-in-law fail, like the physician husband in the story, to grasp, to one degree or another, the nature of Margo's pain, which lead in both pieces, to deeper isolation and madness.

Perhaps Margit Carstensen's performance determines how one likes or dislikes this film. I thought it was as convincing as her ill looks, her ill eyes, her ill expressions, but I'm sure some viewers will disagree. For them, perhaps the film's restraint, honesty, and intelligence can be the difference maker.

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The Hand in the Trap (1961)

7/10

Jane Eyre Re-visited

23 April 2004

Warning: Spoilers

(contains spoilers) "The Hand in the Trap" is much like "Jane Eyre." Laura Lavigne (Elsa Daniel) is Jane and Ines Lavigne is Bertha Mason. Francisco Rabal plays the Mr. Rochester character. Both young women need to know about a mysterious figure dwelling an in an attic. Both learn that the inmate is female and both sense a sisterly alliance which provokes a deeper investigation. What each learns is that Bertha and Ines have been imprisoned and driven mad by their male `lovers." Also, Jane and Laura are each `in love' with the man who put away these older women. The one key difference is that Mr. Rochester suffers for his act and does, in the end, change, while the Francisco Rabal character does not. In fact the latter, a more realistic and modern version of the same Mr Rochester, manages to imprison Elsa too. So, what we have in `The Hand in the Trap,' is a modern and perhaps more realistic version of the Jane/Rochester/Mason relationship in Jane Eyre.

The film's strength is its anarchic development, honesty, and restraint. The acting is superb--no weak links. But Elsa Daniel is very special--her presence centers the film--making it so much more compelling. Yet her inner strength does not seem to match Jane Eyre's more worldly resources, because unlike Jane, she fails to hold out on her deadly "lover." Some might prefer a different ending, given the inward power she sometimes seems to display in the film.

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The Ladykillers (2004)

Better if British

13 April 2004

I think the British must be better at this type of movie, because they don't need to cater to Hollywood taste. And isn't it strange that a movie that seems to challenge Hollywood sensibility, ends up being considerably diminished by its very use. What I mean is that a movie which promises to go with intelligence, too often gives in to stupidity, offensiveness, and yes, more of the f-word crap. Most of the latter is courtesy of the Marlon Wayans character and to a lesser extent, to the JK Simmons role. It's as if smart, good comedy has to be balanced with dumb, bad comedy. The movie also suffers from a kind of flatness because the roles are too stereotypical. What the movie needs is more of Irma Hall (perhaps a more aware character) to match up with the exceptional performance of Tom Hanks. I would love to see this whole project re-done in a more realistic and human vein with an entirely different ending and with convincing roles assigned to all of these very good actors.

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Rich in Love (1992)

5/10

Kathryn Erbe!

21 January 2004

`Rich in Love' is one of those unfortunate middling films. If not for Kathryn Erbe, there would be little worth writing about--unless of course one loves to see the south in film. Perhaps an expansion and toughening up of Erbe's role and that of Jill Clayburgh's would make this a much better film. As it is there is too much stereotype in every character, and too much soap to support it. It's the plot's very few dark moments that most awaken the viewer. As does, of course, the very original, likeable and snappy acting of Kathryn Erbe. It is a flaw in the film, I think, that her independent life can be questioned, with effect, by the packaged entities around her. Her conforming to them makes her role less convincing--and takes something away from her superior acting.

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A Simple Plan (1998)

5/10

characters as plot puppets?

13 January 2004

This must be among the top ten in over-rated movies. Man, it's hard to get into. Why? Well, it's not because of the locale, the cinema, the acting, or even the plot (per se). It's the damn characters--they are unconvincing, arbitrarily motivated, and disconnected. Only, the Brent Briscoe role seemed the least believable to me, and this had the disadvantage of being stereotypical. The others just fail to compel in any way, and seem apart from the movie's world (if it has one). They are just close-up faces with this or that expression which have about as much force as the film's juvenile theme. So, what the viewer gets here is a lot of ungrounded, nervous suspense--the kind that never satisfies and enrages (one feels manipulated).

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Less Than Zero (1987)

Under-rated!

27 December 2003

As I write this, about 1700 voters here have given this movie a 5.5 rating. That's hard to fathom. And yet, in some way I'm glad, because yes this is a truly different kind of movie--praise be. And maybe slipped past people unnoticed.

I think this movie is like a small volume of honest postcards. The first thing you note about it is its honesty (it never shows it off) and at no turn of the page does this volume let you down. One source for this honest texture is the trio of main characters. One is as original (in cinema terms) real, non-sentimental, and truly likable and unpretentious as the other--and yes they are like comrades (no jealousy, no violence, no loud star-type sex, almost no "f" word). Perhaps the other source is that among the accumulation of scenes none is invasive or exploitative or stereotypical--all are kind of flat and equal and old postcardy in color and never drawing attention to themselves.

So, you may think this must be one of those artsy films--and this reviewer is into this sort of thing. Well, if it is, it has less than zero pretense to such and, therefore, no one would call it that. I guess the real irony here is that such an honest little gem of a film takes place in Beverley Hills and is about cocaine.

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9½ Weeks (1986)

5/10

Mainly Hypocritical

26 December 2003

This movie has a serious message which seems to be that objectifying sexual practices are about power over-ness and, in the end, exact harm on women. The trouble is that this truth is undermined by a too explicit enaction of these mainly sadistic practices. In other words, the movie too often gets off on what it opposes--much like films that purport to be against rape, yet linger too much over a rape scene.

I don't wish to say that "Nine 1/2 Weeks" is always too explicit, but it is on enough occasions to merit the word "hypocrisy" or the term "soft porn." These instances not only make the message a lie, but the movie itself suffers as a movie on its account. This film is a hothouse of fetishization--it is almost worldless. I mean who is this John? For a half the movie we ask this but after that I mean does anyone really care about his "mystery." This said Mickey Rourke is very convincing as a controlling womanizer--his engaging eyes slowly revealing the perverse. Let's give credit to an excellent ending too--but maybe it should have started in the middle of the film and thus saved it from its central lie.

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The Sweet Hereafter (1997)

Without Holm, No Draw.

17 December 2003

Ian Holm is the movie--what more can be said? He is the only moving part--without him the movie has no appeal, no unifying force. I mean who are these other characters--providing you can sort them all out. Each seems a typecast to further some imposed grand meaning. I think the same intent is cast on Holm but he is far too big to be managed in this way, so emerges as the one actor who can draw great sympathy and attention. The trouble is he is called upon to be disparate identities which don't work for him or the viewer--in the end, I mean. Are we with his judgements, his troubles, his emotions, his principles, his wonderful crankiness or are we supposed to view him as quite fraudulent? Given his mainstream position in society, one can only view him as very special, fascinating, full of character in a world without character... so how does a creep like Billy and the vacuous Sarah Polley char. serve as his foil? And WHY do none of the characters view this man the way the viewer does? Perhaps, as types, they have empty interiors--leaving Holm isolated and worse, meaningless.

This movie is disturbing alright, but not in way we usually mean it. And please, could it be more viewer friendly--i mean these edits (could the director add one more blond girl to the cast) are often as disturbing as the movie itself. Very disappointed--quiet realism would have worked so much better.

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A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries (1998)

Less is More?

14 December 2003

I don't think less is more in this case. Generally I favor low key films, but this movie has too little drama. What tension there is seems to be too little and too late. Just as one seems to arrive at the film's point(s) it's just about over. I do praise the restraint the film exercises in drawing its characters, but i am only moved by Francis (the daughters Paris friend) and Billy (her adopted brother). These two make the movie for me--both convincing outsiders, interesting and very troubled. But neither is, of course, a main character. The principal characters are rather unlikeable and somewhat static--they are not much different than all the stylish, rather snobby, and obnoxious teachers who are shown in the Paris section of the film. This said, these main characters do seem more human and real as things progress and do seem to invite the viewer to a second viewing.

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