Category: 2014

LABEL (2014, Jaschar L Marktanner)

It’s impossible not to crack a smile at the end of LABEL, which dares the viewer not to laugh at it. Two women–Mary Krasnoperova and Kira Mathis–sit around and complain about the world and the amount of time it takes to drink coffee versus smoking a cigarette.

At first, the acting from Krasnoperova and Mathis carry it. Marktanner’s direction helps, he and cinematographer Julian Rosenkranz take the shots seriously, even though he’s alternating between three or maybe four. The conversation’s okay enough for a while. Frankly, the colored subtitles are way too distracting and lead to examining the crispness of the video.

Things start getting a little draining–the conversation’s just funny, not deep at all and not related to linguistics (though I don’t speak German, so who knows)–but the epilogue brings it all together.

LABEL’s short, obscene, amusing. Marktanner knows how to tell a joke.

2/3Recommended

CREDITS

Written, directed, edited and produced by Jaschar L Marktanner; director of photography, Julian Rosenkranz; music by Lukas Grepel.

Starring Mary Krasnoperova (Pansen) and Kira Mathis (Schluppe).

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Into the Grizzly Maze (2014, David Hackl)

Should Into the Grizzly Maze be any good? It’s the story of two bickering brothers who have to hunt a giant killer bear. In Alaska. With the deaf wife of one brother–the cop–and the ex-girlfriend of the other brother. And the other brother is an ex-con. Their father’s former bear hunting protege also figures into the mix.

It sounds like a really lame soap opera, not a movie about a giant monster bear. And when you consider the actors–Thomas Jane as the cop, James Marsden as the ex-con, Piper Perabo as the deaf wife, Billy Bob Thornton as the protege (and, yes, TV supporting player Michaela McManus as the ex-girlfriend). These actors used to be movie stars. If they’re going to be in a movie about a killer grizzly bear, shouldn’t it be somehow awesome?

Yes, it should. But director Hackl’s atrocious. He can’t make Maze scary, can’t do the gore–and he wastes a few really good gore possibilities because the whole thing has awful CG in awful day for night digital shooting. Occasionally, it seems like James Liston’s photography is good, but then it’s obvious he just knows how to give that impression. It’s still better than anything Hackl does.

The whole reason Perabo is deaf is so she can be hunted and the audience can know what’s coming (and maybe to pay her less) and Hackl can’t even sell that moment.

Bad acting. Bad movie. Except Scott Glenn, of course.

0/4ⓏⒺⓇⓄ

CREDITS

Directed by David Hackl; screenplay by Guy Moshe and J.R. Reher, based on a story by Reher; director of photography, James Liston; edited by Andrew Coutts, Michael N. Knue and Sara Mineo; music by Marcus Trumpp; production designer, Tink; produced by Paul Schiff, Tai Duncan and Hadeel Reda; released by Vertical Entertainment.

Starring James Marsden (Rowan), Thomas Jane (Beckett), Piper Perabo (Michelle), Billy Bob Thornton (Douglass), Scott Glenn (Sully), Michaela McManus (Kaley), Kelly Curran (Amber) and Adam Beach (Johnny Cadillac).

Birdman: Or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014, Alejandro González Iñárritu)

The funniest thing in Birdman is, surprisingly, not when Michael Keaton and Edward Norton get into fisticuffs and Norton’s in nothing but speedos. The funniest thing in Birdman, which is about former superhero movie megastar Keaton staging a pseudo-intellectual comeback stage production of a Raymond Carver adaptation, is–after Norton makes fun of Keaton’s character’s overly wordy adaptation (Carver wasn’t a wordy writer, as published)–how pointlessly wordiness of director Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris and Armando Bo’s script.

There’s also a huge gaffe when Emma Stone talks about Carver’s story being sixty years old (unless Birdman takes place in 2041 and, given the constant references to social media networks, it isn’t).

Birdman is a pretentious, Hollywood “indie” melodrama. Iñárritu’s fake single shot style, expertly manipulated by cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, brings nothing to the film except a distance from the audience. Iñárritu uses the style–and Antonio Sanchez’s drum score–to keep up the film’s energy, because otherwise, there’s nothing but Batman references, superhero movie jabs, New York condescension of Hollywood, trite father-daughter problems and expository dialogue.

Oh, and Keaton being haunted by Birdman, the superhero his character played to great financial success.

There’s nothing in the script for Keaton to do. He does it all pretty well, but his part’s exceptionally shallow. The “deep” scenes with ex-wife Amy Ryan suggest Keaton and Ryan could make a good film. Not this one.

Norton’s great, Stone’s awful. Nice supporting work from Naomi Watts.

Birdman’s gallingly light stuff.

1/4★

CREDITS

Directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu; written by Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris and Armando Bo; director of photography, Emmanuel Lubezki; edited by Douglas Crise and Stephen Mirrione; music by Antonio Sanchez; production designer, Kevin Thompson; produced by Arnon Milchan, John Lesher, James W. Skotchdopole and Iñárritu; released by Fox Searchlight Pictures.

Starring Michael Keaton (Riggan), Edward Norton (Mike), Emma Stone (Sam), Naomi Watts (Lesley), Zach Galifianakis (Jake), Andrea Riseborough (Laura), Amy Ryan (Sylvia), Lindsay Duncan (Tabitha), Jeremy Shamos (Ralph) and Merritt Wever (Annie).

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Guardians of the Galaxy (2014, James Gunn)

Guardians of the Galaxy does something splendid and director Gunn never really acknowledges it, which just makes it more splendid. The Rocket Raccoon character–beautifully voice acted by Bradley Cooper–is easily the most successful CG film creation to date. And Cooper gives the film’s best performance; whoever directed Cooper in the sound booth, be it Gunn, Cooper himself, someone else, does a great job.

Gunn directing the actual actors? Not a great job. Not great enough to notice Chris Pratt’s vanishing accent, Pratt and Zoe Saldana’s shocking lack of chemistry, Saldana’s more shocking lack of presence or the not even soap opera nefarious villainy of Lee Pace. So not a good job.

The less said about Glenn Close, Djimon Hounsou, Karen Gillan, John C. Reilly and Benicio Del Toro the better.

Tyler Bates’s musical score combines plagiarism and ineptness (like much of the film’s visual design, actually).

Guardians is mean-spirited “fun,” with the audience always asked to laugh at someone or other’s suffering. The scenes where Gunn and co-writer Nicole Perlman try to confront it–usually between Pratt and Saldana–stop the film cold. Then the raccoon or his walking tree (who gets all the wonderment, which is silly) come along and save things.

Or even Dave Bautista, who’s not exactly good, but he’s sincere. And sincerity goes a long way in Guardians because there’s so little of it.

Gunn exhibits apathy, cruelty and an utter lack of imagination. Guardians is far better than it should be.

Blue Dream (2014, Gergö Elekes)

Blue Dream runs just under five minutes. Until the end, I didn’t realize the protagonist isn’t a protagonist in a fictional story; rather Blue Dream is a very stylish documentary short.

Elekes’s direction is fantastic; great Panavision-aspect composition. Great photography, great editing. And music. Elekes does almost all of it and the stuff he doesn’t do on his own, József Gallai helps with.

The short follows swimmer Kinga Galambos, who’s actually a real person. It makes a difference. It changes how Blue Dream plays; it goes from a short where the narration is way, way, way too much to a short where the narration is a little off, but can’t hurt the whole product.

It’s really impressive filmmaking from Elekes. It’s a little inaccessible if you’re not from Hungary, since familiarity with Galambos would help a lot. Or maybe you just have to watch it twice, which isn’t bad.

2/3Recommended

CREDITS

Photographed and directed by Gergö Elekes; screenplay by József Gallai, based on a story by Elekes, Kinga Galambos and Kitti Galambos; edited by Elekes and Gallai; music by Elekes; produced by Elekes and Kinga Galambos.

Aftermath (2014, Tofiq Rzayev)

Aftermath goes too far. Director Rzayev operates without taking the benefits of reduction and constraint into account. The short would work a lot better if he just cut out a couple money moments. It’s a short with one scene–Gizem Aybike Sahin argues with her brother, played by Berkan Uygun; most of that scene is exposition. Aftermath has room to be muted.

Technically, a lot of the short is fantastic. Rzayev’s composition is outstanding. However, he uses a Panavision aspect ratio with shaky DV. DV can be shaky in 16:9, but that added crop just breaks some of the reality.

Great music from Gergö Elekes. And Rzayev’s lighting is fantastic too.

Sahin’s okay as the sister. She’s trying. Uygun’s bad. His one big moment flops because it’s not believable Sahin’s in the room; the shot’s off.

Aftermath has a more is less problem. But Rzayev’s direction has definite strengths.

1/3Not Recommended

CREDITS

Photographed and directed by Tofiq Rzayev; written by Rzayev and Erdogan Ulgur; music by Gergö Elekes.

Starring Gizem Aybike Sahin (Sister) and Berkan Uygun (Brother).

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To Be Takei (2014, Jennifer M. Kroot)

To Be Takei is unexpected, even though everything it presents about its subject’s life is somewhere between common knowledge and readily accessible knowledge. Even though director Kroot opens the film on a jovial note–George Takei (the titular Takei) and his husband, Brad Takei (sort of also the titular Takei), taking their morning walk and bickering about whether they’re walking faster for the benefit of the camera–Takei is serious. Kroot has a lot of fun, but her thesis is it’s serious.

Of course, she also opens the film with Howard Stern introducing it, so she has to work uphill to get to serious. And George Takei’s life certainly has a lot of serious in it. Kroot often saves clips (and discussions) of William Shatner for when she needs to relieve some of the stress in the film.

The film does have a somewhat set narrative; it tracks Takei as he opens his first musical, based on his experiences in internment camps. Along the way, Kroot covers everything else Takei’s famous for–“Star Trek”, Facebook, being gay. The Facebook stuff is almost an aside, ditto the “Star Trek” stuff. Takei’s experiences–both as a gay man in the mid-to-late twentieth century and in Hollywood at that time–are exceptional. Kroot never draws attention it, but Takei’s life is uncommon on almost every level. Except maybe the bickering married stuff.

To Be Takei is surprisingly good. Sure, the protagonists are engaging, but Kroot’s presentation and conclusions make it work.

The Honest Date (2014, Jonah Feingold)

The first seventy percent of The Honest Date is reasonably amusing. Director Feingold has his stars–Allyn Morse and David Lowe–bantering, rapid-fire, back and forth, usually about dating mores or pop culture and it works. Lowe is excellent, Morse has maybe one questionable delivery but she’s otherwise really good. They handle all the dialogue and make themselves distinct in body language.

Mind you, it’s in a couple two shots and some close-ups. Feingold has a filter on the short, a very rich black and white, and it’s all effective. There’s old timey music playing. Date succeeds at trying just hard enough to look like it’s trying too hard.

Then Feingold makes a very strange decision for the conclusion and he loses his hold on the film. Sure, it’s only three and a half minutes, but the last third of Date is a complete misfire.

Nice acting though.

1/3Not Recommended

CREDITS

Written and directed by Jonah Feingold; produced by Emily Wolfe.

Starring Allyn Morse (Honest Girl) and David Lowe (Honest Boy).

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Nailbiter (2014) #8

Nailbiter 8

Williamson and Henderson deliver a lot more in the mood of the issue than anything else. Between Williamson’s eerie town history and Henderson’s eerier art, Nailbiter succeeds in creating a wondrous setting. It also ends up hurting the reading experience because Williamson’s writing often feels like it doesn’t take full advantage of that setting.

This issue has a bunch of subplots brewing. The sheriff has trouble on a couple fronts, the titular serial killer is under more scrutiny than usual, and then the FBI guy is doing his investigating thing. And that investigating thing leads to a very unlikely stand-off with a civilian.

But Nailbiter often isn’t about being reasonable. It’s about well-written characters and good art. This issue delivers some of the former and a lot of the latter. Williamson just can’t hide he’s doing a bridging issue and spinning his wheels for time.

It’s mostly fine.

War Stories (2014) #4

Ws04

Garth Ennis goes somewhat modern with the latest War Stories arc, jumping to the late sixties and the story of an Israeli tank commander. He’s got a flashback to WWII, with the same tank commander getting a tour of a Panzer from a German tankie.

There’s a lot of narration, all third person and really close, going over this guy’s life. And a long dialogue exchange where Ennis has to go over the history of Israel, the guy’s career and then the current circumstances. Wait, maybe it takes place in the early seventies. I could check, but won’t.

The art, from Tomas Aira, is all right. It’s not great. The characters’ faces lack enough personality and the detail Aira puts into tanks doesn’t go into the people. Of course, Ennis emphasizes the people over the tanks so it doesn’t exactly match.

It’s ambitious, but too soon to really tell.