Film Intuition: Review Database

Movie Review: The Messenger (2009)

2009-11-20T12:40:00.003-07:00

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When you see them, you know precisely what’s coming. Likewise, when their military issued beeper goes off, they know precisely what’s coming.

Parking their nondescript vehicle far away from the NOK (Next of Kin) and impeccably clad in a non-combat uniform, they walk towards the home of a deceased soldier. Their mission is above all to follow-the-script, avoid musical doorbells in favor of a knock, forgo a standard greeting or introduction, and speak only to the NOK in delivering the news that the soldier in their lives has died somewhere on the other side of the world.

“Killed” and “died," we learn, are the only two words you should ever say since gentler terms like “passing” or “lost” leave room for uncertainty for those in denial. These are just a few of the rules that Captain Tony Stone (Woody Harrelson) shares with Ben Foster’s injured, decorated and returned Iraqi war vet Will Montgomery who has been assigned to the Army’s Casualty Notification team for his three remaining months of military service. Furthermore, Montgomery is additionally warned that hugs are prohibited even if NOKs break down and, similarly that touching is only appropriate in the event of a medical emergency.

Although they are able to share details regarding the incident that have been confirmed, Stone’s recruit is given the strictest warning to memorize their names and always get the facts right since the wrong addresses and soldier information has been given in the past. Advised not to linger but simply return later even if it means walking out on a soldier’s pregnant girlfriend since they weren’t married in time to become his official NOK, Montgomery and Stone’s duty is to get in before the relatives see it on the news and get out especially when confronted by those who react violently. Then they depart with the only reassurance they can share, swiftly telling the NOK, “I’m sorry for your loss” and that the CAO (Casualty Assistance Officer) will be visiting them in four hours to make arrangements.

And even with Captain Tony Stone’s incredibly detailed list guided both by Army procedure and his extensive on-the-job experience, as co-screenwriter Alessandro Camon explains, “It’s never going to be an exact science because the job is to break someone’s heart.” Furthermore, while the amount of rules and military acronyms used add an immediate air of coldness to the team’s “sacred” duty to those outside of the service, it’s evident from the start that the entire system including the “script” the men have to fall back on regardless of what awaits them is what has ensured that Stone’s recovering alcoholic could carry on with his extraordinarily devastating job.

Although alcohol and womanizing are still the two things he relies on—falling off the wagon occasionally and into strangers’ beds repeatedly since he’s unable to sleep after delivering the news—we also realize the morose sense-of-humor and cynical judgments he makes during his missions are part of his ongoing defense mechanism. However, it’s his attitude and the impersonality of the procedure including leaping to assumptions about the lives of those he visits that gets tested when he’s paired up with Foster’s Montgomery.

Based on the two year evolving screenplay he wrote with Alessandro Camon, acclaimed screenwriter Oren Moverman makes his feature filmmaking debut with this quietly powerful near-docudrama. A critical favorite on the film festival circuit, The Messenger not only garnered the support of the military via the Defense Department’s Hollywood liaison office but also ensured authenticity on all levels, using vets as extras who were involved in the film’s twenty-eight day Fort Dix area shoot.

Despite this, I fear that it will be simply too easy for audiences to write off the film as another Iraq movie and the second release in 2009 which is sure to receive Oscar consideration along with Kathryn Bigelow’s Iraq-set, on the battlefield effort The Hurt Locker. However those who seek out The Messenger will be surprised to uncover that it avoids every major war movie cliché and—similar to Hurt Locker—shows us a different aspect of combat than we’ve ever seen before as The Messenger takes place right here at home.

Following his career-making turn in 3:10 to Yuma by managing to steal scenes away from that title’s two marquee stars of Russell Crowe and Christian Bale, which was evident when I screened it in my movie discussion series, Ben Foster returns with another dynamic performance. Introspective, reactive, and—similar to Ryan Golsing’s turn in Half Nelson—as fascinating in his silences as he is with his sparse dialogue, his portrayal of Will, whom he named after an actual soldier he meet at Walter Reed feels heartbreakingly genuine.

While avoiding the label of a message film, the sight of Foster’s injured and emotionally conflicted combat veteran being thrust back into a different aspect of the war as it exists in the United States provides The Messenger with some subtle ironic commentary on just what is happening to our soldiers. Yet by adhering to the authentic military playbook on technique and procedure instead of speech-giving or filling his movie with too many instantly recognizable soldier movie clichés, Moverman’s work becomes far more potent especially when Will Montgomery begins to deviate from Stone’s orders.

After the men are thrown off balance by the controlled reaction of Samantha Morton’s widow Lara who, having been a longtime military wife, actually thanks the men and empathizes with their plight, Montgomery becomes haunted by her bravery in battle. He begins checking up on her, first from afar until he intervenes when he sees her struggle in the mall with gung-ho recruiters. While it’s obvious that there’s a connection between the two that you sense could easily develop into a romance despite the horrific circumstances in which they’d met, fortunately Moverman realizes that to go too far in this direction would be to lose audience respect and authenticity.

Yet, I applauded his courage and the naturalistic style of filmmaking that was particularly evident in a sequence wherein Foster and Morton’s characters actually acknowledge their sexual tension aloud, confront their nerves, fumble, and voice their opinions in the type of footage that would’ve either been left on the cutting room floor of most films or would never have been written in the first place. It’s one of the most exquisite scenes in the film as Morton is given a beautiful speech that finally allows audiences who may have been judging her character beforehand the opportunity to look past the surface and at the same time, watch as Montgomery realizes just how wrong Stone had been in one of own his judgments to gorgeous effect.

Likewise by avoiding the follow-through on an obligatory male bonding fight and refreshingly having enough faith in the intellect of his audience not to have to spell everything out concretely as the slice-of-life in the face-of-death work moves on, Moverman manages to cast quite a haunting spell over viewers. He does so by only touching on issues like the “walking dead” or the effect the war has had in bringing back individuals who’ve shared that they have nothing in common with the person they were before they left as well as the unparalleled loyalty they feel to the overall family of “the Army,” which in some cases has taken precedence over or replaced their own.

Moreover, Moverman’s film is a unique character piece that feels like it has more in common with Tom McCarthy’s The Station Agent than Kathryn Bigelow’s Hurt Locker, which makes The Messenger a wonderful companion film to Locker and also showcases Woody Harrelson, Ben Foster, and Samantha Morton’s best performances in years.

Text ©2009, Film Intuition, LLC; All Rights Reserved. http://www.filmintuition.com
Unauthorized Reproduction or Publication Elsewhere is Strictly Prohibited.

Blu-ray Review: The Open Road (2009)

2009-11-19T17:48:00.000-07:00

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As coach Ted Danson reasons, baseball players “don't say things like eluding” especially as an excuse for a poor pitching performance. However, the word choice employed by the moody minor leaguer Carlton Garrett seems even more conspicuous when you consider that the struggling hurler in The Open Road is played by the 'N Sync who aspired to "bring sexy back," Mr. Justin Timberlake.

In writer/director Michael Meredith's independent film which the actors describe as “a slice of life” genre piece in the Blu-ray's succinct featurette, musician and former Mickey Mouseketeer Timberlake takes a swing at being the dramady's protagonist as opposed to the bevy of antagonistic roles he admits he's taken on in the past.

And surely it's intriguing to watch Timberlake explore his range as an actor since he does have an appealing onscreen presence. Yet in Meredith's aptly named Open Road movie, he's incredibly outmatched when sharing scenes with veteran award-winning performers that include Danson's real-life wife Mary Steenburgen as Timberlake's dying mom, Jeff Bridges as his baseball Hall of Famer estranged dad, and Harry Dean Stanton as his protective granddad. Furthermore, because a bulk of Timberlake's performance is trying to not simply play catch but fire the ball back like it's on fire when Jeff Bridges' convention circuit, glory day reliving booze-hound throws him a curveball, Timberlake strikes out before he even he steps up to the plate.

Prior to Jeff Bridges' introduction, Timberlake proves to be a capable sport, even though we sense that infield goes way in during some genuinely tender moments where Mary Steenburgen gently eases authentic sweetness in Timberlake that makes their tight mother/son bond quite believable which is vital in ensuring he's going to be a player or protagonist for whom we can root. Making the most of her role as Carter's gravely ill mother Katherine, Steenburgen essentially serves as the movie's inciting incident and/or home plate to send Carter around the bases and well into The Open Road.

Announcing that she refuses to sign the consent form for a serious operation unless she can see and speak with Carter's wandering man-of-the-road father--the iconic and beloved athlete Kyle “Lonestar” Garrett-- Carter reluctantly agrees to her terms, with the reminder that the clock is ticking from his granddad Harry Dean Stanton who also tosses Timberlake some light softballs in the opening act.

Luckily before he's overpowered by Bridges, Timberlake's Carter is given the most valuable teammate via Kate Mara's strong ex-girlfriend Lucy who agrees to make the trip with Carter. As inevitably the trip suffers a number of setbacks, misunderstandings, confrontations, and arguments about the past between the self-involved father and his James Dean-esque sensitive and bitter son, the movie benefits from adding more layers to these scenes with the romantic subplot.

Normally a love story would be the last thing a small indie would need to divert focus, considering that Road is trying to be so many different things throughout since it deals with the need to find yourself, forgive those who've harmed you and come to terms with your family to get where you are going. Yet, because Timberlake's skill as a performer is so unequal to that of the mesmerizing Jeff Bridges who-- like Steenburgen-- adds extra layers to what could've been an interchangeable ego-maniacal rock star/actor/athlete/writer role, it's precisely the right play by Meredith.

Acting as a nice buffer to help prevent us from immediately seeing through the little chemistry and acting mismatch in the movie, Mara brings a much needed mixture of female strength and loveliness to her role that makes me eager to see her in future films including Iron Man 2 (the first of which ironically starred Bridges).

With the immediate understated sexual tension between Lucy and Carter that echoes his own parents' relationship (adding a next generation cathartic layer to bring the men closer together), we realize that there's several innings left in their relationship and that the platonic and flirtatious signals will ensure Meredith switch-hits in tone from comedic to dramatic.

Uneven throughout mostly because of Timberlake and also some too-on-the-nose lines and plot threads that are introduced and dropped, it's nonetheless a solid indie that moves into above average territory because of the great Jeff Bridges and a wonderful supporting cast including cameos by Lyle Lovett among others.

Essentially it's a mostly male version of Bonneville or a young adult road movie without the American Pie antics as it's a largely wholesome venture. And while you may end up with more questions than Meredith has answers such as why Timberlake seems to be the only one without a continuous Texan accent, the film is bound to do well on cable networks like Anchor Bay's associated Starz Channel.

Historically it's the first film on Blu-ray that I've ever received in studio screener form, thereby making Anchor Bay miles ahead of the rest in ensuring anti-piracy of high-definition titles if they should fall into another's hands. And although I'm not sure if this happened because it was a screener, there seemed to be a few second delay after you clicked a menu option before anything happened. Despite this flaw, admittedly overall the sound balance and picture were of superb quality.

However, since it was no doubt a low budget work and it is very well a "road movie," that largely takes place in hotels, restaurants, bars, hospitals, and inside cars, the Blu-ray never has a moment to really shine or give you the added reason you'd need to purchase it in high definition since Anchor Bay DVD quality has always been excellent. Therefore, for fans of Timberlake or Jeff Bridges' "The Dude" Big Lebowski, you should be your own umpire on this one to judge whether it's in or out and/or which format feels home safe.

Text ©2009, Film Intuition, LLC; All Rights Reserved. http://www.filmintuition.com
Unauthorized Reproduction or Publication Elsewhere is Strictly Prohibited.

DVD Review: Brüno (2009)

2009-11-19T17:45:00.000-07:00

Now Available on DVD & Blu-ray

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Much like landing on that square in "Monopoly" that sends you to jail without passing go or collecting $200, as Brüno, the flamboyantly gay host of Vienna's popular TV show Funkyzeit discovers shortly into this mockumentary, a fashion risk can go past a fashion don't and right into a full-blown fashion disaster instantly.

Instead of being merely passed off as "no big deal, whatever," to use one of Brüno's favorite phrases, it turns out that wearing a one-off suit made entirely out of Velcro to a European Fashion Week event is possibly the worst career move a fashionista could make after Brüno gets captured by security on the catwalk when a curtain and couture get caught on his garment.

And as if a fashion faux pas wasn't bad enough, further humiliation ensues when Brüno gets blacklisted. Banished from the trendiest clubs by bouncers he'd bounced with privately in the past and fired from interviewing vapid models who announce that "autism" is in "because it's so funny" on Funkyzeit, Sacha Baron Cohen's Brüno realizes that the fashion world is much more superficial and vacuous than he'd realized. So instead of a future empathizing with catwalk veterans about the difficulty of putting one leg in front of the other and turning as everybody stares, the self-proclaimed “nineteen year old” decides the answer to his instant lack of fame is "über-fame."

Heading to Los Angeles to become a major movie star, Brüno embarks on the second unlikely Homeric journey from Cohen and director Larry Charles, following the smash success of their previous mockumentary Borat. The former film, which went from instant cult classic to box office gold garnered Cohen a real-life Golden Globe along with hundreds of lawsuits.

Although it's more outlandish and extreme than its predecessor, overall Brüno is extremely similar to Borat in terms of both structure as well as its attempt to squeeze an endless amount of issues into the running time of a feature-length film.

Fortunately, this time around, the final cut feels much more polished and professional in each successive stage of the production since no doubt they learned a lot from the first movie including how to avoid the police and legal scrapes. Yet once again, Cohen balances on that perilous tightrope of masquerading as a 100% real individual to catch the prejudices, culture clashes, and hypocrisies in western vs. eastern relations and attitudes.

In doing so, Cohen and the crew risk jail, deportation, dismemberment and death which is all chronicled in Cohen and Charles' enhanced feature length commentary track wherein the men insert side-by-side making-of clips and pictures as the movie plays. And in the film itself, Brüno's increasingly outrageous quest to become “the biggest Austrian superstar since Hitler” ultimately ends up analyzing various levels of our own fame hungry society.

Whether celebrities invited to Brüno's place for TV interviews freely sit on the backs of Latino migrant workers used as benches or parents agree to liposuction to rid ten pounds of pesky baby fat from their children, the lust for fame is insatiable and runs throughout.

Along the way, we encounter charity PR consultants who look like ex-Vegas showgirls and can't form a complete sentence let alone pronounce “Darfur” correctly as they provide Brüno with the creepy albeit quickly dismissed idea of making bracelets out of extinct animals to raise issue awareness. Soon after, the audience meets a psychic who helps Brüno get in touch with long lost brief love Milli (as in Vanilli). Afterward, in a particularly great "get" for the production team, Brüno mistakes Ron Paul for Ru-Paul in a staged seduction with the hope of ensnaring the politician into a sex-scandal to gain infamous instant fame.

Whereas Borat would simply go off on tangents and sometimes stay with subplots a bit too long, because Brüno has a far more international focus and scope, the movie suffers a bit from its ambition despite brilliant plans to achieve comic gold. Cohen's Brüno may be a single character in his depiction of a fame seeking former fashionista but through this one persona, the incredibly gifted chameleon tries to don far too many hats. Therefore, instead of a solid through-line, often I felt that the filmmakers repeatedly stumbled into enough potential in endless subplots that they could've developed them into thirty to forty minute short films in their own right.

One major example of my belief that the filmmakers had far too many mini-movies they were attempting to edit together can be found in a particularly dangerous segment set in Israel and Palestine wherein Brüno ventures to “middle earth” to try to and broker peace. While this results in a hilariously awkward conversation wherein Cohen uses his charisma and gift for intellectual humor to a terrific result, sadly this sequence has nothing to do with Brüno as he is originally introduced in the beginning of the film. Moreover, aside from its emphasis on the most disgustingly tasteless of sight gags to play to the extreme lowbrow, overall, Brüno can't hide its IQ in scatological sequences as the film demands more political awareness than the previous one did and similarly, the mix of lowbrow and highbrow feels forced.

Likewise, in another timely gag that is introduced, dropped, and then boomerangs back out of nowhere with a few obvious sequences we sense have been left on the cutting room floor, Baron Cohen pokes fun at celebrities who use adopted foreign children as "fashion accessories." However, since his character is a gay fashionista who uncovers enormous prejudice in our “land of the free,” overall Brüno's main plight concerns civil rights for gay individuals in the United States.

However, before he reaches this issue, his sexuality is introduced with some truly revolting visual gags including one back in Vienna with Brüno's former very young looking boyfriend that is sure to send some people hitting eject, which may do more harm than good in gaining mainstream, middle-of-the-road support. However, soon intellect takes over as the filmmakers lead into some urgent, startling, and hilariously frank footage involving religious groups who propose to turn one straight via Jesus along with the laughably overlooked yet obvious homoeroticism of UFC style cage fighting.

Impressed by the level of subtle sophistication and multi-layered jokes utilized throughout, I felt that Brüno plays even better the second time when you can move beyond surface level hilarity to appreciate the message behind the madness. Unfortunately, I wish the juvenile obsessions on display in a few gratuitous sequences would've been abandoned in favor of making us laugh uproariously while also encouraging our analysis regarding just why something is funny and what it means in the scheme of things.

Again, ultimately I hope that these Homeric odyssey films will continue to use the natural shock value of human behavior by holding up a much needed mirror to our respective cultures rather than inserting foreign objects into the human body, should these films continue into a trilogy. Still, despite this, I'm grateful that Cohen is at least one of the few comedians out there who understands that the truest form of comedy is human comedy and that the medium can be used to educate and inspire as well as simply entertain.

Text ©2009, Film Intuition, LLC; All Rights Reserved. http://www.filmintuition.com
Unauthorized Reproduction or Publication Elsewhere is Strictly Prohibited.

Blu-ray Review: Up (2009)

2009-11-19T13:50:00.000-07:00

Now Available on DVD & Blu-ray

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Both onscreen as well as offscreen and via animation instead of live action-- for Pixar more than any other company-- it's all about the journey. With the home entertainment boom finding films doing far better financially on DVD and Blu-ray than when released theatrically, it's become standard operating procedure to include even the most perfunctory behind-the-scenes disc featurette about the making of a film.

Usually such cursory extras are filled with electronic press kit fluff that was circulated to the media before its theatrical release to use as soundbytes in the form of REM worthy “Shiny Happy People” describing any given role, coworker, and film as though it were the “lost ark” of cinematic history that's in the same league as Orson Welles' Citizen Kane.

Luckily, most of the time you can easily see right through the obligatory behind-the-scenes DVD or Blu-ray inclusions, which reveal a lack of commitment by the manufacturers in the hopes of just garnering the revenue. Yet since I began primarily focusing on releases on disc, I've discovered that animation is the one genre that never fakes their enthusiasm and indeed offers the most infectiously creative and life affirming anecdotes along with examples of truly thinking outside every single traditional box during their filmmaking process.

And perhaps because Pixar's offbeat character constructions consistently comprise an ensemble of unlikely outsiders that embark on the most original adventures, it's no wonder that the quality and fascination of their productions translates offscreen to extraordinary making-of endeavors and escapades worthy of a Pixar project.

Having been mentored by the same legends who collaborated on classics like Snow White, Pinocchio, Dumbo and more, and now under the Disney studio banner, the former CalTech classmates who created Pixar took what they leaned and ventured into the unknown of computer animation. And with this emerging medium they officially jump-started CGI boom in a series of Oscar winning modern classic shorts which led to Toy Story, changing animation forever. And although Pixar proved unafraid of risks by continually trying to top themselves with the scope of their latest opus, overall, they remained true to their Disney education.

Of course, this dictates their understanding that character creates plot and the journey at its core is more vital than the end result. Thereby breaking their projects down to pathos, sweetness, humor, and more that gave Disney the confidence to create the first ever full length animated film, Pixar has delivered an enviable success rate of ten blockbuster films in the company's history.

Despite this, there have been shortcomings as personally, I felt that Incredibles was overrated and suffered from an overly long running time and likewise failed to become hooked past the inciting incidents of Ratatouille and Cars. Furthermore in my mind, the risk-taking studio is at its best when applying the same traditionally Disney style emphasis on storytelling concepts and the idea that authenticity of scale, texture, and character source (eg: if animating an animal, study them) ensured their films would be even greater for having undergone those incredible multiple years-in-the-making journeys.

Unafraid to make us weep like their Disney predecessor did in Bambi by daring to do just that with a heartbreaking song included in Toy Story 2 or a Bambi like death at the start of their brilliant Finding Nemo, Pixar has also dared to ask us to root for inanimate objects and machinery such as that adorable lamp from their first short film that's become part of their logo. They've achieved this feat of love at first sight since in their ten film oeuvre by watching us fall in love with a lonely musical loving garbage collecting robot in Wall-E's brilliant first half, the abandoned toys of Andy's room, and monsters who collect children's screams in Monsters, Inc. but Pixar goes for broke with its most gorgeous sequence yet at the beginning of Up.

Reminiscent of the Charlie Chaplin style homage of unabashed sentimentality in the opening of Wall-E, just moments into Up, we're introduced to a young boy who fell in love with adventure and a girl who felt the exact same way as they span seventy years in a musical sequence. Using "Ellie's Theme" which would be reworked endlessly throughout the film, we see their wordless married life together which would include happiness, heartbreak, bad luck, good luck, and then no luck when at last the couple becomes just one in the form of a sad, widower Carl (Ed Asner) who yearns for his true, lifelong love Ellie who has recently passed away in a retirement home.

Since no doubt very young children may fail to catch the nuances in their relationship biography as the two realized they were unable to have children and were never able to make that wondrous trip in the manner of their Indiana Jones like adventurous explorer hero Charles Muntz, it's a heart wrenching way to open Pixar's tenth film and it's very first in 3-D.

However, just when the nearly life-defeated Carl loses his house and is ordered to go into a retirement home himself, he proves to viewers that even in his late '70s he's still that awestruck adventurous boy at heart. For, instead of parting with the house (aka his “Ellie surrogate”), he attaches an endless amount of balloons to the building and simply flies "up" like a literally “home-made” hot-air balloon.

With the South American destination of Paradise Falls in his sights, Carl is ready to live out his heart-crossed promise to Ellie before realizing that Russell, the young, eager scout who'd showed up at his door eager to assist the elderly for a badge has accidentally managed to hitch a ride on the "Carl Express." Their dynamic in the beginning employs an almost a sweeter version of a Dennis the Menace and Mr. Wilson or a multi-generational version of The Odd Couple as a surrogate grandparent/grandson duo. And this definitely feels justified when you uncover that indeed, the Grumpy Old Men, live-action Dennis the Menace, and Odd Couple star Walter Matthau was one of the inspirations utilized by the film's three hundred and seventy plus animators.

Additionally, it also feels a bit like Up director Pete Docter's previous film and newly released Blu-ray Monster's Inc. which found John Goodman humanized by his relationship with a young girl when she too is temporarily orphaned into his care by accident into the city of Monstropolis.

Having seen Up theatrically in 3-D in a year that was over-crowded with studios employing the technique, I still feel that it's the most impressive '09 film released in that format because the story was so strong and the animation was so breathtaking it didn't depend on the number of dimensions used to succeed. Therefore, I'm pleased to say it holds up just as well in a gorgeous 2-D transfer to Blu-ray.

Filled with heart and Pixar's now trademark final act of a chaotic chase sequence, Up-- which even surpasses WALL-E-- boasts adventure and surprising revelations about both characters as well which makes their emotionally enriching journey as compelling as the one in the air. Likewise, the Blu-ray offers you an additional short film that almost feels like it was an alternate or deleted introduction to one of its memorable ensemble players because it dealt too much with a new character as opposed to the ones we were following.

Yet you'll want to seek it out right away since it's just as strong as the movie-related short included in last year's WALL-E set, since it centers on the film's immediately irresistible version of Finding Nemo's Dory and Snow White's Dopey in the form of a loyal golden retriever named Dug.

Released in another bestselling budget friendly four disc combo pack consisting of the film in Blu-ray, DVD, digital copy (for your portable devices), Up surpasses the typical bonus feature tradition of Pixar with another disc of fascinating extras that chronicles the epic and life threatening adventures the crew went on to bring us such an epic adventure.

Since their history has involved finding inspiration in Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai (and it's American remake, The Magnificent Seven), Homer's The Iliad and The Odyssey, Gulliver's Travels, and/or Joseph Campbell's Heroes Journey paradigm that was famously adapted for screenwriters by Christopher Vogler, you know the Pixar adventure will go far beyond the feature presentation.

Far beyond just filming in the grass for Bug's Life, by climbing steep terrain and awaiting helicopter rescue in Venezuela, Up's behind-the-scenes is the most intense offering yet. Likewise, it contains fascinating insights into the dedication of their craft which consisted of studying of dog behaviorists and dogs in action, screening The Station Agent and working with Tom McCarthy in the writing stage, and figuring out how to help a young newcomer play opposite Ed Asner, or the countless variations "Ellie's Theme" that are used musically throughout the feature-length work. The extra information compiled on another Disney master edition again makes the film both more enjoyable and also makes you wish they could've strung the featurettes together as a single documentary since Pixar's inspiring commitment to their style of filmmaking is extraordinary.

Yet for Blu-ray novices, I'd suggest skipping the technical home theatre set-up feature since you may just mess up your TV and player's settings and it's such great quality as it is that there's no need. Regardless of that, it's great to see Disney add on help style menus for that as well as how to use a digital copy since no doubt Up may inspire some new first time purchases of the HD technology.

Text ©2009, Film Intuition, LLC; All Rights Reserved. http://www.filmintuition.com
Unauthorized Reproduction or Publication Elsewhere is Strictly Prohibited.

Blu-ray Review: Monster's, Inc. (2001)

2009-11-19T13:20:00.002-07:00

New On Blu-ray
(DVD Already Available)

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Children's songs warned that we should “never smile at a crocodile,” and reassured those of us terrified of the tub that we'd “never go down the drain.” But one of the other popular pieces of advice dished out to us growing up that didn't come from those vinyl keepsakes called records was that-- when it comes to creepy crawlies-- the best thing to remember is that, “they're more scared of us than we are of them.”

And although you can't convince me otherwise in real life when it comes to snakes, monsters designed by Pete Docter and the imaginative geniuses at Pixar are an entirely different story altogether. Shortly into one of the company's most infectiously cheerful and briskly paced releases in their ten film history, they turn that adage into fact when a monster creeps out of a closet, sneaks over to a child sleeping in the night and goes against the horror movie mandate. After the startled youth springs up screaming, the monster mimics the action and engages in a full blown panic instead of an attack.

Screaming its lungs out before being flooded with injuries by the toys in the child's room, the monster is defeated by the all-powerful and irrational four letter “f word” of fear. Despite the fact that the children are often less than half their height, the monsters handle their mission of collecting screams by trying not to scream themselves. As explained in the film, today's kids are getting jaded earlier than ever before to the point that-- desensitized by movies, society and logic-- scaring them via the old monster in the closet trick just doesn't do it anymore.

The "fear factor" is quite a problem indeed since the city of Monstropolis depends on the screams to light, fuel, and power their community (thereby making Inc. the first subtly “alternative fuel” based kid's movie). Yet luckily, the biggest factory in town boasts a solid retention rate for the "most valuable scarers," including John Goodman's James Sullivan and his nemesis Randall played by Steve Buscemi who haven't lost their magical touch to terrorize.

Fortunately for Goodman's hero, his best friend, roommate and coworker at Monsters Incorporated, Mike Wazowski (voiced by Billy Crystal) ensures the monster he calls Sulley remains at the top of his game by running pre-shift exercise drills to keep him sharp. And with Mike's hilarious commands, we learn that Sulley can't be outdone even when Mike throws him several curves a la the “Twins! In a bunk bed!” trick or the “scary feet, scary feet, scary feet, stop" scenario that Mike takes as seriously as his mission for Sulley to "fight that plaque" as well.

On the verge of breaking the all-time scare record in ensuring Monstropolis doesn't suffer too frequent of power shortages by bursting through numerous doors in any given shift, Sulley, Randall and the guys go about their jobs with the same heroic fanfare and reverence on display in Kaufman's The Right Stuff in just one of Pixar's many usages of cinematic homage.

While a film about scaring the daylights out of children sounds like a project perhaps more suitable for Tim Burton than the group who brought us Toy Story and Finding Nemo, Pixar manages to keep us delighted with the jazz timed editing, vividly detailed animation, bright color palette and an ingenious set-up that hearkens back to the truism regarding just who is scaring whom.

Frightened of the children whom they consider toxic, if by chance even something as minor as a sock sticks to the monster's fur, the factory goes on a code red lock-down with the CDC like CDA (or Child Detection Agency) arriving on the scene, ready to explode the item and razor off all the monster's fur before they get a Silkwood shower in the blink of an eye.

With this much fear on both sides, Sulley becomes frantic when he stumbles on a random door left out one evening. Not knowing that Randall is trying to improve his scare record by lining up the scream collection devices by the cartload to target one particular floral door, Sulley enters and gets much more than he bargained for when the young girl on the other side follows him out.

Predictably Sulley bonds with the adorable toddler he nicknames Boo when he and the far more terrified Mike hide out with the child escapee until they can try to retrieve her door and send her back in the morning. Of course nothing goes as planned when they return to the factory and discover that perhaps Monster's, Inc. wasn't the place they thought it was when they realize just how traumatic being tormented has been for Boo (whose monster is Randall). Likewise, they're stunned to uncover that there's much more to Monstropolis and their policies than they'd previously been led to believe.

Genuinely sweet and easily one of the most successful Pixar titles since Toy Story, which scores a tie right there with Finding Nemo as among their very best in terms of touching storylines and precisely the right blend of inter-generational humor, the Blu-ray is as visually impressive as the studio's earlier '09 release of A Bug's Life.

Intriguingly Inc. hits shelves on the same date as director Pete Docter's new incredibly unique Up. However, perhaps because Up was created with a more naturalistic palette and the goal to employ both 3-D and digital projection, the transfer of that film matched the exceptional theatrical quality and not nearly as noticeable of an upgrade as the Blu-ray set for Monster's, Inc.

Not only does this 4-disc set which has a DVD, Blu-ray and digital copy far surpass the original 2-Disc collector's DVD set that I'd also owned in terms of clarity but the difference is absolutely astonishing in a side by side format comparison. The incredibly vivid technological improvement is most easily witnessed during the action-packed doors chase sequence which finds the characters flying through the air on the dry-cleaning like conveyor belt that attaches the door storage to the ceiling. However, for those who watch a lot of films in both formats, honestly the upgrade can be detected right as the film begins following the retro jazz era credits and especially when the characters walk to work amidst the sharply defined, nearly 3-D buildings of Monstropolis.

Complete with an introduction from Pete Docter to explain how the discs work and what's new on the Blu-ray as well as mirroring Up's “how to make the most of your home theatre” set-up menu, Inc. thankfully retains the two adorable Oscar nominated and winning shorts along with some newly created featurettes. Giving you an international tour of the Disney Monstrpolis theme park attraction, the Inc. highlight for Pixar enthusiasts is an intimate roundtable discussion with the filmmakers that gives everyone press style access.

In a revealing conversation, four involved in the film share not only their favorite scenes but also recall creative sessions of drawing in meetings on ten foot scrolls of paper along with the impact that the 9/11 tragedy had on not just Inc. but the rest of the films scheduled by Pixar. Moreover, the filmmakers also discuss their passion for working with the voice actors including the great Billy Crystal.

As we learn in the roundtable, when the original test footage for Toy Story was created, John Lasseter animated it with some of Billy Crystal's dialogue from When Harry Met Sally. Yet while Crystal has stated that one of his biggest regrets in life was turning down the opportunity to voice Tim Allen's Buzz Lightyear who will return in the third film in 2010, it's wonderful to hear about the camaraderie between Crystal and Goodman involving improvisation that pays off in Monster's, Inc.

Also including a new version of the 100 Doors game with 100 games as well as others on a bonus disc of extras, the new edition of Monster's, Inc. is a Pixar must-own along with Up and A Bug's Life as yet another groundbreaking Blu-ray Combo Pack debut in an exceedingly impressive and crowded year of superlative Walt Disney Home Entertainment releases.

Text ©2009, Film Intuition, LLC; All Rights Reserved. http://www.filmintuition.com
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Blu-ray Review: Adoration (2009)

2009-11-14T21:20:00.001-07:00

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Now Available on DVD & Blu-ray

Despite the fact that nothing about the fascinating, flawed yet maligned Where the Truth Lies was conventional, Oscar nominated director Atom Egoyan shares that the confines of the traditional mystery paradigm didn't allow him the chance to let his storytelling unfold organically.

Yet needless to say that in addition to MPAA wars from casting high profile actors in a taboo take on Martin and Lewis, Egoyan doubled his workload even further by unraveling the incredibly complicated Sherlock Holmesian locked door mystery across two different time periods. However, even when he returns to “smaller budget” works like this mesmerizing, morally multi-layered study of individual and familial identity in the technological age, mysterious intrigue lingers from minute one.

The overwhelming beauty of his haunting visuals hits you on a sensory level while watching a young woman play a violin outdoors on an early fall evening at the edge of a dock. It's an image that we will return to and one that sets the film's events in motion as an emotionally charged recollection of the past. On another level, it appeals to your aesthetic side since it represents what may most likely be Egoyan's last work to have been shot on film stock as he laments in a candid interview included on Sony's Blu-ray release of the Cannes winner Adoration.

A stark contrast to the exploration of the thinning line between those who broadcast and those who watch online, Egoyan's opener is stunning in its clarity, dreamy sentimentality and elegant simplicity. Moreover, the idyllic image of the talented violinist seems naturally infused with love from two audiences that she isn't aware are watching. The voyeurs witnessing it remain onscreen in the form of her young son and adoring husband, as well as the rest of us offscreen basking in the cinematic gaze of the glowing photography coordinated by Egoyan and his crew and on ardent display in the Blu-ray transfer.

It's these dual audiences-- or duality in general-- that becomes the focus of Adoration. And instead of the traditions of either glorifying or demonizing technology or making oversimplifications about our dual identities on and off the web, Egoyan subtly reminds that in addition to trying to deal with our issues online, we must make a physical journey to resolve our objects of destruction or adoration. Thus the artistic irony of the movie having been shot on film verses digital further enhances the impact of the outdoor sequence of music and love before some poignantly claustrophobic moments take over. Based on experimental and improvisational labs of the way citizens respond to and perform for web cameras, Egoyan floods us with indoor shots of a main character in front of his computer screen that augment intriguing contradictions regarding the concept of alone verses "together" in cyberspace.

And although he denies that it's a straightforward mystery or as genre specific as Where the Truth Lies since Adoration evolves and demands participation since it plays with vague assumptions and red herrings throughout, Egoyan's startling achievement works on our minds as though it were a mystery. The result of the contemplative style makes nearly every plot description a spoiler risk. While the opening question in the advertising and synopsis asks "what would you do if you found out your father may have been a terrorist?" which is a timely question since news reports have revealed war on terror has moved online, essentially that query is a tease. At its heart, Adoration centers on a young man's need to uncover ironically just "where the truth lies" in terms of the accident that took the lives of his parents years earlier.

The film gets going when the French teacher (Arsinee Khanjian) of Simon (Devon Bostwick) asks the class to translate a true account of a terrorist who packed off his unsuspecting pregnant girlfriend to the Middle East with a bomb in her luggage set to explode in the air. Listening to the piece while others scribble diligently along, Simon crumples up his assignment within moments, sits up straighter and begins to rephrase it from a report to a narrative and one that is told in first person.

Penning the piece as though he were the baby inside his mother's stomach and the bomb plot was stopped by airport security before it occurred, when Simon's disturbing tale is shared with the rest of his high school and he posts it online, it sets off a global chain of events with consequences that reach both near and far. The furthest effects are visible instantly via endless video chats and recorded messages sent to Simon from those all around the world whether they want to analyze the morality of the actions of "his parents" like amateur CNN pundits, are offended by his having shared it and tried humanizing "his father" when Holocaust survivors join the debate, or when the prejudiced and twisted come out of the woodwork.

Yet while this narrative of the events is interesting, Egoyan is astute in illustrating that after five minutes of yelling or opinion gathering, it just all becomes noise of people wanting to be heard instead of legitimate action whether it's sharing their experiences to teach or trying to change things via volunteerism. Using the technological transmissions as if they were a broken record of testimonies and confessions, Egoyan ensures they follow Simon on every single electronic device throughout the course of the film. Still the real story unfolds when a physical journey is made and he uncovers much more about the one device that may hold the key to understanding his parents and who they really were as opposed to how he wrote them when he learns more about the violin his mother played and how she met his father when she needed to get it repaired.

This is achieved as Egoyan weaves together intimate flashbacks of his blissfully in love parents (played by Rachel Blanchard and Noam Jenkins) from Simon's past with the his present life shared with his hardworking and embittered uncle (a phenomenal Scott Speedman). Easily the most fascinating character in the film, Speedman's Tom is outraged at his nephew's teacher for calling up all of the family's unfinished business with an assignment that Simon took to extremes.

Yet, soon we sense there's as much pain about the death of his sister and her husband for Tom as there is for Simon but for different reasons altogether. Additionally, in a psychologically revealing conversation Tom has with a stranger, we realize that he's completely unable to use the name of Simon's father and we grow more intrigued by his ferociously protective need to keep the young man away from his own father (Kenneth Welsh) who hated the deceased man he told Simon was a killer. And much like his nephew, Tom goes on a physical journey as well when he literally crosses paths with the teacher unexpectedly without realizing who she really is as well as her connection to their life.

Since Simon's parents were an interracial and interfaith married couple, prejudice, tolerance, and the way these views are passed on from one generation to the next obviously plays a part in the film that revisits the director's passion for studies about individual identity. However, the complete story of the relationship between all of the characters and what exactly happened in the accident that killed both parents is as compelling as any traditional mystery.

Gorgeously captured on Sony Blu-ray, the transfer boasts a wonderful sound balance to match its quiet power and stunning cinematography that's rounded out by several worthwhile making-of and film-school quality extras. Richly rewarding intelligent cinema that is anchored by a moving turn by an understated Scott Speedman, Atom Egoyan's Adoration stands as not only one of the director's best works but also one that begs to be seen twice and discussed passionately with others.

Atom Egoyan

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DVD Reviews: Walt Disney Treasures Wave IX -- Zorro: The First Complete Season; Zorro: The Second Complete Season (1957-1959)

2009-11-12T20:30:00.004-07:00

Now Available on DVD
(For a Limited Time)

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Walt Disney didn’t do pilots, focus groups or test screenings; what he did do was commit. By the late '50s and with only three networks to compete for audience attention spans, television had usurped the box office in popularity so much that over a half dozen movie studios scrambled to create new processes to try to recoup lost revenue.

Yet while logically Walt Disney Studios began to embrace widescreen as well and cut extra costs by ceasing production on all animated character shorts with the exception of Donald Duck, the head of the Mouse House decided to do the unthinkable by embracing the new medium to apply filmmaking techniques to American television.

A true home theatre pioneer in every sense of the word-- it wasn’t ego but enthusiasm that caused Walt Disney to balk at ABC’s suggestion that for his studio’s first foray into thirty minute primetime programming, he may want to produce a pilot for Zorro. Instead and thirty years before it became a catchphrase, Disney theorized that if he built it, they would come.

Eager to relay his vision for the series with the standard of excellence which his company demanded, he built the largest and most expensive set in the history of his studio and the audience kept up their half of the bargain as well. This occurred when 16.8 million viewers tuned in to see Guy Williams battle injustice as the masked swashbuckler out to conquer governmental corruption, capitalistic greed and general crime in 1880s Los Angeles. Garnering more viewers in its two season history than the number of individuals watching television in 2008-2009, Disney's action packed take on the original 1919 character benefited from the show's dynamic storytelling structure.

Similar to the reason that most cable series just feel fresher than a wide variety of network shows that deliver anywhere from twenty-two to twenty-six episodes per year, Zorro's writing team took the contemporary style cable TV approach of building a solid storyline that would typically unveil over thirteen episodes in each thirty-nine week season.

With music from the Sherman brothers who would later contribute to Mary Poppins and other Disney pictures, the premiere season of Zorro was especially popular among children who were caught up by the scale of the realistic sets with master painting backgrounds and first rate action including roof and horse dives as well as the famous swashbuckling.

Although a stuntman was used for some of the most dangerous choreographed sequences that necessitated the alteration of capes for safety sake, the authenticity of the action was heightened by the fact that the relatively unknown and charismatic leading man completed most of his own sword work.

Ironically, the former model and bit player who had been dropped by his contract at Universal because of a riding accident that left him injured had actually taken up fencing in order to mend his shoulder and strengthen his upper body. To today's audiences, this seems like a strange choice for Guy Williams to have made but most likely this decision was influenced by the fact that Errol Flynn movies were in vogue at the time which paid off immensely when Disney began casting Zorro.

While admittedly it's dated by today's standards, the epic scale of the production that delivered a mini-movie every single week still holds up well to contemporary viewers. It's further addictive thanks to that memorable theme song, which somehow begins playing on repeat in your brain after you've only watched a few episodes in this stunning collectible Walt Disney Treasures limited edition tin set.

However, I must confess that I found that this set was unfortunately lacking in the bonus feature department with several extras clocking in at less than ten minutes which was in stark contrast to last year's trio of Treasures. Still, the packaging and presentation as usual is top notch in offering the series to fans which has been broken down by season into two six-disc sets. Going against the tradition of Disney's gray film reel color boxes with a cool, series-fitting Zorro black shade, the two Treasures tins I received for review contained the studio's set staples of numbered and signed certificates along with a lithograph and collectible pin in each box.

Obviously going in more than fifty years later and having never seen the series before, I initially feared that seventy-eight episodes would become fairly monotonous. Yet fortunately, I was impressed by how watchable the series is today due to some breathtaking sequences that are sure to dazzle on a purely pop culture level when you realize how ahead of the game Disney was in presentation and style even on the small screen.

In the opening multiple week arc, our hero is called to California from academic study in Spain, wherein we discover that Don Diego de la Vega lives a life of dual identities while masquerading both with and without the mask. By using sharp-tongued wit in his pose as a slacker intellectual by day and adopting a cape, mask and employing a sword at night, Zorro takes the law into his own hands to right the wrongs for the underprivileged and mistreated residents of California.

Featuring terrific work by the main ensemble cast including Henry Calvin and Gene Sheldon, Zorro was also a landmark series in the casting of so many talented Latino actors including guest turns by Cesar Romero and Rita Moreno. Likewise, it remained fresh with the use of well-developed multiple episode arcs which again gave the series a longer, more well-planned film like feel that contemporary cable shows utilize to their great advantage.

Despite the fact that Zorro may have struggled to bridge the generational gap in creating as big of a phenomenon with adults as it did with children, it nonetheless remains a celebratory joy for the kid in all of us regardless of age, creed, race, gender or generation. Additionally its release couldn't come at a better time since right now we're especially in the mood to see the man who inspired Batman and the Lone Ranger get even with crooked authority figures and the wickedly wealthy who go after those who cannot fight back. And just as fittingly with audiences more reluctant to go to the multiplex more out of financial hardship than the TV boom of the Golden Age, once again we realize that just as he and the studio did in 1957, Walt Disney (along with Pixar) continue to release solid titles that bring the cinematic experience right to your living room... this time with even better technology.

Zorro

DVD Review: Mickey's Magical Christmas -- Snowed in at the House of Mouse (2001)

2009-11-12T20:20:00.002-07:00

Now Available on DVD

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Unless you were forced to watch Bambi’s mother die repeatedly as the cinematic children’s version of Walken and De Niro playing Russian Roulette in The Deer Hunter, there are far worse places to be Snowed In than at the House of Mouse. Regardless of that, even with nearly forty of Walt Disney Animation’s most memorable heroes and villains all enjoying the hospitality of Mickey and Minnie Mouse, you’re bound to have one guest who is having a hard time getting into the season mandated "Christmas Spirit."

Yet this time around, the attendee who cried “Humbug” is none other than Mickey’s best friend and arguably Disney’s most popular animated character in the form of Donald Duck as the one who continued appearing in shorts when budget cuts dropped the content from Disney’s roster five decades ago. Of course, the Donald decision not only guarantees our immediate interest but it also pays homage to the Scrooge McDuck character used in both Duck Tales and Mickey’s Christmas Carol, which is squeezed inside this made for DVD feature length work.

With Mickey breaking out classic Walt Disney animated favorites to cheer him up, it helps provide a greater semblance of the idea that this is a wholly original and unique project. And no doubt this wouldn’t have worked nearly as well if the holiday dissenter had been one of the most wicked queens or nefarious evil-doers ever drawn by the House of Mouse.

Although a major part of the appeal of the re-release of 2001’s holiday hit is that it attracts all generations and audiences by culling from more than seventy years of Disney characters as one can see on the box alone, the inclusion of the villains seems especially illogical as even those who perished in their feature films have miraculously survived in what feels like a self-conscious franchise celebration or movie within a movie a la Robert Altman’s The Player.

Needless to say the youngest viewers may be a bit confused to see some of the characters who tried to kill many of their favorites all sitting side by side at a banquet like the animated individuals are playing various versions of themselves. Yet those who have grown up truly devoted to the House of Mouse will find that childlike confusion has been replaced with disappointment throughout the sixty-five minute running time since over half of the content is just repackaged classic holiday bits strung together like shiny tinsel on a new tree.

It’s as fun to play Where’s Waldo by spotting such beloved heroes as the Dwarfs, Belle, and Ariel as though we saw them in the audience at the Academy Awards but their presence is merely decorative-- both on the gorgeously packaged box and in the film that gives them an obligatory line or two to say in between recycled content like Mickey’s Christmas Carol and Pluto’s Christmas Tree.

The latter short film which is easily my favorite holiday creation from Walt Disney would normally have been worth the price to own it and share with the next generation, had the same exact two holiday shorts and a few others not been released just a couple of weeks ago by the studio as part of Disney’s Animation Collection. Although the sing-along options, the insertion of Mickey and Minnie's Nutcracker into the feature, and a few bonuses help pad out the disc, it’s ultimately one of the weaker offerings by the company in a crowded year of superlative releases.

And this is a fact that's made all the more apparent by the lack of interest displayed by Disney that I witnessed as soon as I pressed play on the screener and discovered that the studio hadn't even bothered to swap out the original trailers for titles like Atlantis, Cinderella II and Return to Neverland, which precede the feature complete with their 2002 release dates.

For, in a year when Disney delivered such masterful new restorations of Pinocchio and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs along with three Pixar titles on Blu-ray including Up as well as countless other stellar offerings, the lack of attention displayed on this disc is disheartening. Rolling out the same previews in this re-release and dropping it back on shelves just weeks after more than half of the content was included on another title makes Mickey’s Magical Christmas feel lost in the snowstorm despite the fact that as always, the House of Mouse will continue to provide great comfort and warmth for those seeking escapism on the level of a rental.

DVD Review: Whatever Works (2009)

2009-11-09T20:45:00.000-07:00

Now Available on DVD & Blu-ray

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Although I would argue that in addition to luck, the real reason that filmmaker Woody Allen has consistently crafted masterpieces is because he’s just that good, as the auteur wrote in Match Point and shared again regarding Whatever Works, “it’s better to be lucky than good.”

And fittingly for a film that celebrates the randomness that guides our life to cherish "whatever works" with whomever we happen to encounter through chance, the fortune cookie cliché that the third time's a charm also proved true for Larry David’s collaboration with Woody Allen.

Despite trying to talk Allen out of giving him the role that had originally been crafted for Zero Mostel, Larry David rebounded from the debut of his "bald head," in Radio Days and another "tiny part" in Allen's segment of the Scorsese and Coppola compilation film New York Stories into portraying the monologue spouting misanthropic string theorist Boris Yellnikoff in Whatever Works.

We open on David's grumpy older man to discover that a failed suicide attempt has left Boris minus a wife and plus a limp before confessing that not only is he "not a likable guy" but that we've also begun watching what is "not the feel good movie of the year."

Yet as theorists would no doubt have calculated during the opening credits, the combination of Allen and David is mathematically sound in the humor department. Soon we learn that the former contender for the Nobel Prize in Quantum Mechanics now divides his time bullying children unlucky enough to have been placed under the former Columbia professor's tutelage as a chess professor in the park and discussing the meaninglessness of life with his best friends.

However, since even his friends find Boris far too much to bear from time to time, it's the great gift of chance when Evan Rachel Wood's beautiful but dim-witted escapee from the southern beauty pageant circuit winds up a cold, huddled mass outside his New York door. A runaway from the religious right just barely out of her teens, Wood's Melody St. Ann Celestine is the opposite of the uptight Boris in every single way. But Melody's guileless demeanor and unwillingness to judge Boris' obsessive compulsive need to sing "Happy Birthday to You" twice while washing his hands slowly charms and disarms him. While it starts out slowly, soon the irrational relationship of the two from strangers to platonic roommates evolves when her admission she's developed a crush on him prompts him to encourage her to date others.

Of course, once she does date a man other than Boris, Boris realizes how much he's grown accustomed to the sunny, supportive, and eager to please Melody who's taken to spouting his misanthropic monologues of molecular mayhem back at him. A beautiful girl who gazes in wonderment at an IQ is clearly a seductive thing to a loner like Boris so visibly baffled by the scientific improbability of it, he decides that the random chaos that led them to the same apartment may as well transfer to marriage, despite the fact that he has more interest in companionship than anything remotely carnal.

However, regardless of the fact that attraction is impossible to define and a person's physical appearance can increase or decrease as we uncover more about their personality, Allen wisely adheres to the old-fashioned feel of the film knowing full well that the potential of the "ick" factor of such a May/December coupling could derail the movie for certain factions of the audience. To this end, he leaves everything behind closed doors in a film that is tonally the opposite of the sexually charged Vicky Cristina Barcelona and by his own admission, Allen creates a "much more sentimental picture than the story would have you think."

On the surface, of course, it's easy for viewers to mistake the far more depressive curmudgeon portrayed by Larry David for a sort of distant cousin to the fictitious version of Larry David the comedian portrays on his fully improvised HBO series, Curb Your Enthusiasm. Likewise, in the same token, enthusiasts of the filmmaker's work will certainly acknowledge that Allen's humanistic obsessions, character devices, plot-lines and situations echo earlier films ranging from Annie Hall to Crimes and Misdemeanors and others since Allen's oeuvre has spanned over forty years.

However, in my mind Whatever Works has much more in common with Vicky Cristina Barcelona than one would immediately think. For unlike characters who broke apart even though they needed the eggs of relationships in Annie Hall or were separated by a continent in Manhattan, even when Melody's relatives (Patricia Clarkson and Ed Begley Jr.) show up out of the woodwork to discover their true selves in New York City and their arrival tests Melody and Boris' marriage, we're provided with an extremely different result by the time the film ends.

Perhaps it's due to age or perhaps it's because he finally gave up psychoanalysis or theorized that just because everything is fleeting it doesn't necessarily have to coincide with doom but whatever the case may be and--regardless of the quality of the films themselves-- Allen's post '80s comedies are becoming lighter and more life-affirming with each passing year. Additionally, although it was written in the past, Whatever Works may as well echo Woody Allen's own statement of "the heart wants what it wants," regarding his relationship with Soon-Yi Previn or the idea that knowing yourself fully before you can successfully be with someone else is key.

So along with Melody we find that by looking past the insults and defense mechanisms to see the real person or just giving into luck, happy accidents, or whatever makes sense for us that doesn't harm another individual is the answer in this life. Thus we realize that the misanthrope was a romantic softie all along and despite some of the familiarity of Whatever Works, it nonetheless provides comfort, solace and joyous cinematic escape from mindless summer movies, economic hardship, and increasingly bleak newscasts.

In one of the simplest yet most beautiful scenes, Melody opens Boris' eyes to the medicinal pleasure of classic Fred Astaire movies to ease his panic attacks, thereby affecting the way that the two relate to one another via cinema. And although on a purely film buff level, the entire time I felt that it was simply a more romantic version of the way a Marx Brothers movie literally saved Allen's life in Hannah in Her Sisters, upon my second viewing I realized that there's another layer to it as well.

Essentially and for several decades, Woody Allen's films have served and will continue to serve that very purpose for generations of viewers in reminding us of the impact that his unique brand of cinema has had on our lives. And as such, Whatever Works works marvelously for me as that rare movie that makes you want to reach out to strangers, call an old friend and overall, give yourself a break when you realize that all planning aside, be as good as you can be but enjoy yourself because it's all luck and lucky am I to have found Woody Allen's movies.

Movie Review: Christmas Story (2007) -- English Dubbed Version

2009-11-07T18:20:00.000-07:00

Now Available on DVD

Trailer

AKA: Joulutarina; En julberättelse

Thanks to Christmas carols and television specials, by the time children who celebrate the holiday hit grade school, they can recite the entire roster of names possessed by Santa's tiny reindeer including the red-nosed Rudolph. And while they can additionally fill in the blanks regarding how many times Santa Claus checks his "naughty or nice" list to differentiate between the lumps of coal for stockings and the toys built by the hardworking elves at his workshop in the North Pole, the one thing they can't answer is just how in the world the bearded man became jolly old St. Nick.

In this creatively ambitious and impressively original Finnish made family film, director Juha Wuolijoki and screenwriter Marko Leino (who collaborated with two others including the director on the heartwarming storyline) bravely offer a new narrative explanation that centers on the coming of age of the man Christmas revelers likewise came of age with while celebrating in their youth.

Exquisitely capturing the snow covered desolate Lapland village where the film is set thanks to first rate lensing by cinematographer Mika Orasmaa, we're presented with a Dickensian tale of tragedy and triumph centering on the evolution experienced by a boy named Nikolas as he becomes the sleigh driving gift giver who delights millions of children each and every year.

After losing his parents and sister in an icy tragedy near the start of the film, the young goodhearted Nikolas matures quickly as the residents of the humble fishing community decide that the best way to take care of the boy is to each take turns sheltering, clothing, feeding, and nurturing Nikolas for a single year. In this cooperative environment, Nikolas then finds himself with a brand new family and home every single Christmas morning.

Although the locals are stunned when the reclusive Scrooge-like carpenter Iisakki takes in Nikolas after they're hit by a perilous shortage of resources, Nikolas is the most surprised individual of all when he realizes that instead of a mere young manservant for the grump he must call "master," he becomes a far more gifted woodworker.

Whittling presents annually which he delivers for the former "brothers and sisters" with whom he'd previously resided, Nikolas' carving skills improve even more under the master's tutelage especially when he finally gains access to Iisakki's hidden workshop. Embarking on a tradition of bringing the residents their gifts-- sight unseen-- every Christmas morning as the amount of presents and their quality improves with age, eventually Nikolas makes strides. In doing so, he goes from heartbroken orphan to becoming Father Christmas by relishing in his anonymity, discovering the traveling benefit of reindeer and moving towards that famous red suit.

Initially, however you may find yourself distracted by the lack of synchronization between the audio in English and visual disconnect of mouths moving rapidly in the original Finnish audio track. Luckily, the combination of voice talent by actors including the incomparable John Turturro, Noah Emmerich and Katherine Borowitz, along with the truly involving story and high quality of the feature releasing from Lighting Media and Anchor Bay Entertainment makes it much more successful than a traditional foreign dubbed work.

While I suspect that it's only a matter of time before someone remakes the movie completely in English since foreign films are always ripe fodder for Hollywood interpretations, honestly it's one that you wouldn't need to see in a different format even as I saw it in a simple screener, minus any bells and whistles including bonus features or extra material. Unfortunately, due to its unimaginative new title of Christmas Story, I fear this Finnish film will simply blend into the scenery among other holiday releases.

However, despite its melancholic opener and general audience reluctance to foreign films, this uplifting PG-rated movie is one I urge parents to seek out to offer a new alternative to the primarily commercial approach of Santa Claus movies.

A beautiful work filled with the ingredients that make our classics including A Christmas Carol, Nutcracker and other holiday movies so endearing, director Juha Wuolijoki's Story also garnered prestigious accolades in time for its DVD debut including a seal of approval by The Dove Foundation and an All-Star honor by the well-respected Kids First! Coalition for Quality Children's Media.

Text ©2009, Film Intuition, LLC; All Rights Reserved. http://www.filmintuition.com
Unauthorized Reproduction or Publication Elsewhere is Strictly Prohibited.