Three Per Week

Paper Dolls (2006)

2008-06-20T13:59:00.002-04:00

This documentary tells the story of Filipino transsexuals in Israel who work days at caregivers and nights as drag performers. It is at times extremely powerful, but more typically struggles from a lack of context/narration. A subplot concerning the film's director is also a distraction.

And the filmmakers missed the real story, that of Haim, one of the old men cared for by one of the leading characters. Haim cannot speak. He is a precious character who deserves his own film.

Arresting image: Depends on your tolerance for transsexuals.
Judgment: Mediocre. Would have been better in a shorter form and with some narration.

Gates of Heaven (1978)

2008-06-20T13:16:00.003-04:00

Wife: "The most intelligent thing I would recommend...when the dog is about 2 or 3 years old, that is the time to make the decision to have them--"
"Neutered." - Husband

Conveniently, my introduction to Errol Morris was with his first work: Gates of Heaven. The documentary represents the major figures involved in the demise of a pet cemetery in Napa Valley, California. But really, the film is about the handful of interested parties -- pet owners, pet lovers, the owner of the "glue factory," and another family team heading up what they hope will be the new, and best, pet cemetery in the world.

Each interview is blunt and honest and presented without narration. The cinematography tends to be stark and simple with interesting compositions. I wouldn't be surprised to find subsequent documentarians (This American Life) taking cues from it.

The film is also disturbingly hilarious. Morris injects some sort of odd, layered irony by allowing subjects to hang upon their own words. He also lets the camera linger. A viewer would be hard-pressed to point out Morris's own take on the situation. Rogert Ebert has tried, noting that he watched the film 30 times. It's on his list of top ten films ever made and his review is excellent.

Look for: Masterful environmental portraits as backdrop to interviews.
Unforgettable imagery: Prolonged image of guitar amplifier on a hill blaring a riff with the pet cemetery down the hill in the background.
Judgment: Superlative. It's a more interviewed-based documentary than a lot of new such projects, but stick with it for some unforgettable people and really surprising humor

Slacker (1991)

2008-01-27T11:49:00.000-05:00

"The thing most feared in secret always happens" - Old Man

Linklater spits it all out in this one, but it's a gentle spit. Caustic, snappy arguments about anarchy, gun giveaways, anti-artists, and humanitarian giving are tempered by long takes.

The DVD box cover will continue to improve in subsequent releases, but tampering with the film would be worthless.

Cool idea: Man surrrounded by TVs, trying to work them into an ideal environment.
Cool idea: Pixelvision camera.
Unforgettable imagery: The hypothetical footage from a thrown camera.
Judgment: Superlative. Don't approach it any way; don't get uptight.

Go (1999)

2008-01-25T22:59:00.000-05:00

"My mother's mother's mother was black." - Tiny

I watched Go about six years too late (I used to breakdance to the Nancy Sinatra remix song that plays in the opening moments). All I can really say are snide things, but the film is overall fairly enjoyable in a low-brow way. And, for at least a moment, I thought it clever how all the various stories began to be interconnected.

Ultimately forgettable, I've forgotten even my snide remarks in the four days since I watched it.

Here's one:
Katie Holmes plays Katie Holmes, doing a shy girl thing, then a fast-talker-Tarantino-indie-wannabe thing while twisting her shoulders (hair dangling in front of face).

I also wondered how the movie was ever pitched to a studio. Drugs, British accent, and car chase was my guess, but the IMDB trailer makes sense too.

Judgment: Mediocre.

Flowers of Shanghai (1998)

2008-01-25T22:40:00.000-05:00

When we studied Hou Hsiao-hsien and Flowers of Shanghai in Asian Cinema seminar, it was distinguished as one of the most beautiful films ever made, by one of the world's best living directors.

Ashamedly, I don't get it.

Senses of Cinema, of course, has a lot to say here. I agree with their analysis - in short that style rises to a shaping force on the film.

Unforgettable imagery: Lanterns.
Judgment: Frustrating. I don't get it, yet.

Taxi Driver (1976)

2008-01-25T22:25:00.000-05:00

"Do you want to go out for some coffee and pie?" - Travis

Taxi Driver may be a film that encourages more discussion of acting performance than it does style. More importantly, it's so elusively good that I'll refrain from saying anything at all. Senses of Cinema has some intense analysis here.

Unforgettable imagery: Scorsese effectively steals the "city night driving" thing, much to the chagrin of my filmmaking ambitions.
Judgment: Superlative. Incredible control of style wallops viewers.

Hirokazu Kore-Eda

2008-01-15T13:12:00.000-05:00

Hirokazu Kore-Eda's cinematic style is one of the most easily identifiable that I know. Natural lighting, a subdued, non-musical soundtrack, and juxtaposition of static setting shots and handheld moving shots mark Maborosi (1995) and After Life (1998).

Kore-eda, in this interview, said:

I constructed every scene in this film not for the purpose of telling her story, but to invite the audience to feel the light, the sound and the darkness that Yumiko was feeling at that moment...I had no intention of using obvious lighting devices such as bluish light to evoke suspense.

Kore-Eda's compositions are blatantly and overwhelmingly beautiful. The pacing of editing and consistency of imagery make the films meditative. He's not flashy or arbitrary.

I delighted most in the following two images:

1) Two children run along a reflective pond (Maborosi)
2) Sugie stomps and sloshes and falls through wet rooftop snow in a handheld scene (After Life)

Great idea: It only takes Kore-Eda two images (spaced far apart in the film) to convey the following idea: The after life has no moon. But the janitor is armed with false moon shapes. He takes those moon shapes to the roof, lays them over the skylight, and the film's characters look up the skylight to comment on the moon.
Unforgettable imagery: The red dress. (Maborosi) Silent Nishimura. (After Life)
Judgment: Engaging. I liked Maborosi best, but make it a night and let Kore-Eda gently stamp his style into your mind. Watch for his ability to unite meditative thought with meditative cinematography.

Grindhouse, 2007

2008-01-09T20:12:00.000-05:00

"I've never seen a one-legged stripper, and I've been to Morocco" - Tarantino in Planet Terror

It's all about texture and it's excellent. Planet Terror makes Death Proof look like Tarantino was slacking off with C+ effort. So Planet Terror earns the mention here (although Grindhouse as a double feature is recommendable for viewing with friends).

No matter if it's Rose McGowan's lips and skin, the puss of a zombie's boil, or the rust of Wray's Wrecking machine, partners Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez make sure every texture jumps from the screen. (Apparently partnered on Planet Terror while Tarantino was more solo on Death Proof, says this article.) There's barbecue, sliced glasses, needles, and asphalt.

Stylistically, the film goes beyond typical zombie fair. Content-wise, it seems to indulge in all the things I've always wanted zombie films to indulge in. Example: using the giant wrecking truck to plow through zombies on the road. The special effects are superb.

Now we know what Tarantino and Rodriguez would do in a zombie attack. As for yourself, keep scheming your heroics.

And Death Proof is flashy, sexy, and sinister. See it second, if you've still got time.

Arresting images: Wrist stabs and melting balls (Planet Terror).
Unforgettable images: Legs! (Death Proof), and McGowan's curve and Tarantino's intestines (Planet Terror).
Extra quote: "I'm gonna eat your brains and gain your knowledge" - Tony (Planet Terror)
Judgment: Raucus, fun, and self-aware schlock horror. See with friends.

Being John Malkovich, 1999

2008-01-08T03:58:00.000-05:00

"She has her doctorate in speech impedimentology from Case Western" - Dr. Lester

Being John Malkovich is a unique dream and it knows it. Its unrelenting and deadpan surrealism is an oddly comfy oddness.

Nothing about its style or acting strikes me as superlative, so I assume the writing is just that strong. Only awkward, understated, and confused praise and can do a review of this film justice.

Judgment: Superlative. See it.

The Fountain, 2006

2008-01-03T19:08:00.000-05:00

I reject director Darren Aronofsky’s vision of the star-studded, computer graphic-laden future, but nonetheless found the film fun to follow through its split and disordered narratives.

I also cringe, just a little, at the presence of the Spanish Inquisition and various swashbuckling soldier-types.

But for every seemingly ill-advised shot, like the repeated bird’s-eye-view framings, there was a nice image, like Hugh Jackman flicking through patches of light or whispering close to Weiss’s neck hairs.

Perhaps one style element can summarize what I see as a marred film. More than once, Aronofsky uses a shot which I assume was pioneered in The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928). The shot begins with the camera upside down, filming an approaching object. As the object passes below the camera, the camera follows it 180 degrees, eventually ending in the normal orientation as the object moves into the distance. It’s a great style element, and probably a nice religious hook connecting the films, but Aronofsky clogs it with computer graphics in uninspired settings.

Unforgettable imagery: Sprouting Flowers.
Judgment: Mediocre. I won't return to The Fountain. But once is enough for it to sustain, right?

An Inconvenient Truth, 2006

2008-01-03T18:58:00.000-05:00

Get past the Gore-on-his-MAC moments, the Gore-in-the-stage-wings (repeated) shots, the Gore-answers-important-call occasion, and Gore-as-youth flashbacks, and the fact that this Oscar-winner is just a glorified slideshow, and the information included is convincing.

His work probably isn’t even the most fear-inducing document since The Population Bomb in 1968, which economist Julian Simon literally bet against and won when Earth and humankind survived beyond that book’s predictions.

Quotable: Gore pronouncing "caterpillar."
Judgment: Meat and Potatoes for conversation points these days, and a good introduction to the global warming mudslinging, but skip it if already knowledgeable on the subject and if you’re unwilling to stroke Gore in addition to his own self-stroking.

Volver, 2006

2007-12-27T10:56:00.000-05:00

"Oodles" - Sole

No transvestites or cross-dressers here. Just Almovodar's women.

It's a seeming departure, as Almovodar goes for realism (only teasing viewers with the ghosts his characters believe in). Not that there aren't twists...

The film may not be representative of the Almovodar canon, but does include much of his characteristic style. The man knows how to leave a scene hanging; he knows when to cut.

Unforgettable image: Penelope Cruz wears a lot of knee-length skirts, but the quantity doesn't decrease their effective hold on my memory.
Unforgettable image: Almodovar-style dish washing.
Unforgettable image: Cruz goes to the bathroom, in a film.
Judgment: Engaging. If tame, see it, if in pursuit of the Almovodar genius, see Talk to Her.

Who Killed The Electric Car? 2006

2007-12-27T10:44:00.000-05:00

The celebrities are effective, the timeline clear, and the tone non-omnipotent. Who Killed the Electric Car is as non-partisan and full of context as its director claimed in TV interviews. For that, it stands out among politically charged documentaries.

The best thing going for this documentary is its smart structure: take all the suspected murderers of the electric car and and weigh their guilt (instead of picking one to hammer).

And the reporting is there, whether by chance (at the car crusher) or by persistence (when chasing down the destroyed cars in the desert). And how the filmmakers ever got that one image of the smashed cars from inside the junkyard - not up in their helicopter - beats me. They must have had an inside source, yet another sign of a vigorous and lengthy reporting process.

Follow up: Read more on Stan Ovshinksy, the surprising invent-don't-fight star of the film.
Judgment: Engaging. See this before you see most other things.

Intacto, 2001

2007-12-27T04:55:00.001-05:00

Intacto picked a nice gimmick.

Luck, you see, can be collected by people with "the gift." They collect luck by touching or photographing people. Then the luck gatherers get together to gamble, high-stakes style, in skill-free games.

The film's strength is its ability to keep secrets and spawn ah-ha moments. The film's weakness is that when my friend gave me examples of the no-skill games two years ago it was too easy for him to list them all and too easy for me to remember them all. I suppose that's my fault, not the film's...

Cool points: Use of Polaroid photos.
Judgment: Engaging, but only escapes mediocre because the mysterious revelations and foreshadowings are subtle and effective in an otherwise gimmicky flick. Maybe mediocre.

Time And Tide, 2000

2007-12-27T04:55:00.000-05:00

In Introduction to Film, we saw director Tsui Hark send his camera out the window of an apartment high rise to follow a man rappelling toward the street below. You can catch a glimpse here, but I'd recommend finding your nearest (good) public library and strapping in for a raucus shoot-'em-up which tries to offer more than bullets.

I'm skeptical of its thematic power, but Time and Tide presents an indescribable and unique vision of fighting and shooting. Factor in the ludicrous, baby-included climax, and an adept handling of otherwise cliche action motifs, and the film stands out to me as a one-of-a-kind work.

Watch twice: The apartment complex shootout. Note the work-of-prose-like control of foreshadowing, beginning, middle, end, and rising action.
Judgment: An engaging glimpse at the tough-to-pin-down style of Asian directors, which in Hark's case, includes an uncanny ability to control tempo.

Murderball, 2005

2007-12-27T02:52:00.000-05:00

"We're going for a fucking gold medal" - Scott Hogsett

Simple enough, Murderball documents about one year in the lives of the 2004 United States Paralympic Wheelchair Rugby team. Increasingly intriguing, the documentary also profiles Joe Soares, the former gold medalist and team leader for USA, now coaching the rival Canadian team.

The film benefits from its candid honesty. Players display cursing and coarseness, sexual frankness, and tearful dejection. The subjects do not come across as protagonists or antagonists, as most reveal blemishes (callous parenting, depression). Consequently, the film does not elicit much sympathy for the quadraplegics. And that seems OK with the players, who reiterate that they're not fragile. The team creates emotion by their performance, not with their condition.

I find no faults and sense no underhanded filmmaking motives and the DVD release includes some of the most relevant extras I've ever seen.

Don't miss: Bob Lujano and the follow-up interview with Soares.
Judgment: Engaging.

Born Into Brothels, 2004

2007-12-26T01:55:00.000-05:00

"We are nine bodies, one soul" - Avijit

The juxtaposition of stark and lively still images punctuate this bare bones documentary. It's not the pampered and organized work of a nerd documentary, but rather a labor of love for the filmmaker/photographers who changed the lives of eight red light-district youths in Calcutta and launced the Kids with Cameras project.

I could go for additional structure and context, as well as filmmaking transparency. Zana Briski's love and ambition are transparent, but come scene selection time, I'm critical. I'm just not sold with the two mother cursing scenes, one father-smoking-hash scene, and interlude Calcutta montages as giving each person a fair shake.

But see it for the children's photography. And perhaps try to think beyond their plight, to their captivating smiles seemingly innate ability to tell stories in single frames.

Arresting moment: Reading the foul subtitles of angry prostitute mothers.
Unforgettable images: Photos by Suchitra and Avijit.
Judgment: Engaging. Far superior to rival 2004 documentary Supersize Me, but could fall into desensitized blind spot for viewers who see it as cliche.

Historical fiction

2007-12-24T04:57:00.001-05:00

Stylistically, I hated everything about Iron Jawed Angels. The fast motion and slow motion, the brief frames of historical footage, and the one black and white moment all seem haphazardly employed in a frenetic (lack of) style that is anything but early-1900s American.

Somehow, the film duped Ebert and Roper into the following tagging: "Iron Jawed Angels" is an important history lesson told in a fresh, and blazing fashion. Two thumbs up!"

No, it's not fresh. It's stylistically cliche, and that's without even discussing the abhorrent digital music trumpeted in at inopportune moments, serving only to remind viewers of the disconnect between the time period being depicted and the director.

In this case, I cannot separate the style from the content. First, a disclaimer: I always struggle with works of historical fiction, like The Hoax (2007), which usually only serve to encourage me to look up the straight, non-embellished story. It's my journalist instinct that challenges me even when I watch documentaries. Transparent reporting - whether admittedly arguing a point or aiming for objectivity - is a constant measuring stick. I need to know what the director is doing.

I take issue with Iron Jawed Angels because the details (if they are accurate) seem strong enough to stand on their own. Why amp up the emotion and drama? AND MORE. Incidentally, showing images of newspapers rolling off the presses doesn't add historical credibility. I can't speak to the historical accuracy, which in some reports seems reputable, but I can say that the directors were sufficiently manipulative to make me question their story.

Understated, straight storytelling would benefit a suffrage story.

I took similar issue with The Hoax, which apparently fell into the same trap as its main character, Clifford Irving, by fabricating much of the man's story. One reviewer concludes that the screenplay writer, "was impatient with the reality."

The Hoax is less frustrating than Iron Jawed Angels, but together they just about prepare me to disown the historical fiction genre.

Judgment: Frustrating. Read about the Iron Jawed Angels and Clifford Irving and skip the films.

Mario Bava

2007-12-24T04:55:00.006-05:00

"Perhaps it is the female beauty that makes him kill." - Police detective

Perhaps no director has ever combined looking good and dying horrifically like Mario Bava. My dad's on a Bava kick after finally receiving the director's biography by Tim Lucas, a book 30 years in the making. I joined him in watching The Whip and the Body and Blood and Black Lace.

Each gives a good sampling of the Bava style that fueled the name of the biography, All the Colors of the Dark. Every dark Bava stairwell is at once purple, yellow, green, and blue. Stunning how the mannequins of a couture fashion design mansion can come in such lush and diverse colors. Bava basically made a new color red and he called it red bleeding red. I would have guessed David Lynch learned a thing or two from Bava, and so does this article.

All in all, Bava is meat and potatoes; he should be tried at least once. There's magic and wonderment in his films, with an emphasis on mystery and fetish, not gore. As Senses of Cinema concludes: "If Bava manages, more often than not, to transcend the limitations of his material it is because of the strength of his imagery..."

View a Blood and Black Lace trailer.

Arresting image: Blue criss-crossed patterned pillow suffocating Greta in foreground while her bare legs kick then stop kicking in the distance. (Blood and Black Lace)
Unforgettable imagery: Peggy, filmmed via a round mirror, staggering in high heels and a torn blue dress, eventually approaching and clawing that mirrored image of herself. (Blood and Black Lace)
Judgment: Meat and Potatoes. See one if you get the chance because they're an 88-minute drop in the bucket.

Nerd Documentary Triumvirate

2007-12-24T04:54:00.001-05:00

"I'll do it in glue stick!" - Jon Stewart in Wordplay

Ask a friend who doesn't play Scrabble to watch Word Wars, a documentary on the game, and they'll decline, probably with good reason. You'd be to blame, because the key is to keep "game" out of your proposal.

More effective: "It's a documentary about the odd people who play Scrabble."

Likewise with Spellbound, on spelling bee competitors, and Wordplay, on crossword puzzle makers and solvers and The New York Times Crossword Puzzle.

Characters form the core of the films and distinguish each as a narrative documentary, as opposed to the object, fact, and history-driven features found on Discovery Channel and the Food Network. Not to disparage those features, but the human focus of these documentaries allow elements of the human condition to surface in otherwise unassuming games. Self-improvement, stress relief, the comfort of routine, and outright obsession make appearances.

I enjoyed each immensely and won't feign to rank them. Instead, comparative description:

Characters
Wordplay, 2006: Tends toward fun-to-watch celebrities and self-aware winners and losers
Word Wars, 2004: Gruff, love-them-or-hate them recluse types
Spellbound, 2002: Bizarre children

Filmmaking
Wordplay: Smooth and fresh; engaging split screens
Word Wars: Playful title screens, good game action graphics
Spellbound: Adeptly handles multiple characters, mixes behind-the-scenes content with the made-for-TV-type competition footage

Narrative
Wordplay: Hits necessary bases seemingly randomly; pulls off key dramatic competiton scene
Word Wars: Doesn't shy from showing money-hungry motivations
Spellbound: Methodical

Ultimately, I scrutinize such documentaries for two reasons: 1) I find myself in similar niche cultures, and 2) I'd try my hand at making one if I could figure out how the filmmakers are seemingly so good at choosing just the right people to track for months of their lives leading up to championship victories...

Now I just need to track down King of Kong.

Quirky detail: Merle Reagle shows deft in crossword puzzle creation. (Wordplay)
Don't miss: Jon Stewart in Wordplay
Favorite character: Robot talker boy in Spellbound
Judgment: Engaging. See them all and encourage authors and directors to keep pumping out subculture documentaries (how about something on Galaga?).

Mad Hot Ballroom, 2005

2007-12-24T04:53:00.000-05:00

"I see them turning into ladies and gentleman."

At the risk of jeopardizing the rest of the review, I'll admit it: I cried.

Teaching and learning dance is special to me, and coming just two weeks after getting a roomful of 4th and 5th graders to dance the Charleston, Mad Hot Ballroom impressed me in its ability to relay the bigger ideas behind social dance and dance education.

The documentarians are present only in their caring mix of images and interviews. When they get access to the conversations of 10 and 11-year-olds they capture humor and honesty, and when they show adults, they include the dueling spirits of mentorship and competition.

Goosebumps: Non-English speaking dancer Wilson, whom teammates worry has been slacking off, comes alive in the semi-finals.
Tears: A teacher, with her students waiting patiently behind her, explains the difficulty in choosing a select few for competition and breaks down describing her pupils turning into ladies and gentleman.
Unforgettable image: The city's dance instructors, who convened for a discussion of the rules, begin their dance in partners, in a circle, and in the dramatic (and curvacious) Tango pose - in stark contrast with the goofy and insecure children.
Judgment: An superlative documentary and creative Bildungsroman that transcends its dance documentary niche.

Fargo, Coen Brothers, 1996

2007-12-24T04:22:00.001-05:00

"Ah, hon, ya got Arby's all over me" - Marge Gunderson

Fargo, like a good George Orwell narrative, overpowers by understating. The understated style is especially effective following the film's strong opening message: "THIS IS A TRUE STORY. The events depicted in this film took place in Minnesota in 1987. At the request of the survivors, the names have been changed. Out of respect for the dead, the rest has been told exactly as it occurred."

A wealth of context and commentary is available online, and you'd be best served to avoid it all until after viewing. Then again, I'm probably the last person on Earth to see the film, so disregard my tardy advice. When you're ready for the spoiler, read about it here.

Unforgettable image: The camera captures Norm scraping his car window from above; car askew, blanketed white parking lot gridded by parking lights.
Unforgettable image: Blood on snow.
Judgment: Superlative. Ebert puts it in his Top 10 of the 1990s, and when I get around to it, I'll try to rank it in the Coen Brothers' Canon.