Film

Indie Films Get ND Screenings

2009-07-10T03:24:43+00:00

Moviegoers weary of the formulaic and over-produced Hollywood blockbusters that glut theatres during the summer don’t necessarily have to resort to home video for an alternative. North Dakota fans of independent movies can see regional premieres of two very different pictures made in 2008 – a sobering documentary and an alternately wild and insightful coming-of-age comedy over this next week.

Opening Friday, July 10 for a run at the Fargo Theatre is recent festival favorite “Food, Inc.,” filmmaker Robert Kenner’s probing look into the American food industry.

Playing at Minot’s Oak Park Theatre on July 14 and 15 only is “The Graduates,” an award-winning teen comedy produced by actress and former Minot resident Holly Ellis, who also has a role in the film and will speak after the screenings.

“Food, Inc.” is a thought-provoking exposé of the relationship between America’s growing health problems with the exponential growth in mass-production-oriented food conglomerates and government subsidies. Journalist and author Eric Schlosser (“Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All American Meal”) co-produced the film with director Kenner and several other noted producers of documentaries.

Scientific advances have permitted American farmers to grow larger crops and bigger animals in shorter periods of time at lower costs. At the same time, the film shows, they have also led to corporate consolidation, with fewer but larger and more mechanized food processing facilities designed for a more efficient – but less healthy – conversion of plants and animals into consumer products.

The film notes how chickens and cattle have been scientifically bred to provide the meat that consumers desire, yet hidden cameras reveal how mistreatment in the final step of the process creates bruises and can introduce bacteria that often taint that very meat. Many farmers are required by their corporate customers to raise their animals according to specific requirements, yet they have no control once those animals are shipped to the now very few and massive slaughterhouses in the country.

Other farmers are required by laws to grow only certain crops purchased from certain suppliers. The film depicts government subsidies making it impossible for foreign farmers to compete and driving them to become the illegal immigrants that fuel the American food-processing factories, even in collusion with immigration authorities.

Tellingly, several major food corporations refused to respond to interview requests to present their side of the story, and some farmers agreed to speak only if their faces were not revealed.

A few instances are shown of food suppliers or farmers who try to work within the system to provide healthy alternatives in the mass-market and to help educate consumers to what they are actually eating.

The film asks questions, presents facts and interviews people who work in or deal with the food industry. It obviously sets out with a specific agenda and might benefit from a deeper exploration of benefits achieved by science in food research.

Nevertheless, “Food, Inc.” remains a highly persuasive argument that corporate and government regulations are directly responsible for the unhealthy food purchasing decisions made by most consumers. It can be a wake-up call for viewers to monitor and possibly alter their food purchases since corporate policy is motivated by what is profitable and what is not.

“The Graduates” is a low-budget ($95,000) feature shot with an HDCAM in Ocean City, Md., written, produced and directed by Maryland native Ryan Gielen. It follows the adventures of four friends who want to celebrate their high school graduation at the beach, but their experiences over the next week lead them to realize there might be more to life than having a good time.

Gielen’s script starts as a typical teen comedy with four buddies heading off to a nearby resort town after finishing their senior year of high school, planning to do as much partying with alcohol, drugs and sex as they can before the summer’s over and they must split up for college or jobs.

The first part of the movie is much like many hit teen comedies from Hollywood, but about half way through a more serious undercurrent starts to dominate. Giesen said, “I made ‘The Graduates’ for everyone who wants coming-of-age comedies to be more than just a series of empty gags.”

The strength of “The Graduates” is in its characters, both in Giesen’s original script and his assured direction of the no-name but very talented cast, who should all have good careers ahead of them. The actors are able to present the expected stereotypes and gradually give their characters a sense of self-realization and depth usually missing from generic teen sex comedies. They come off as recognizable types not difficult to associate with the friends and acquaintances one may recall from real life high school and college parties.

Minot N.D. native Holly Lynn Ellis plays the bit part of Meredith Snarky and served as one of the movie’s producers. Zak Williams, son of actor Robin Williams makes his acting debut in a small role. “The Graduates” has won several festival awards including best comedy in Seattle and the Director Discovery Award in Rhode Island.

Enough to Enjoy in Easy Virtue

2009-07-10T03:22:07+00:00

Noel Coward’s play “Easy Virtue” is reinterpreted for film by Stephan Elliott, following a nine-year hiatus from moviemaking. Elliott fails to match the charm of his beloved cult hit “The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert,” but “Easy Virtue” is an entertaining enough variation on popular Jazz Age themes celebrating new attitudes about pleasure and the assertion of individuality. Between the clever insults and the pretty design, there is enough to enjoy in “Easy Virtue,” even if it is nowhere near great.

“Easy Virtue” previously made it to the screen in 1928 as one of Alfred Hitchcock’s silent features, but the version produced by the future Master of Suspense is unmemorable, despite its focus on scandal and infidelity. One imagines that a chief draw of Coward (who was in his mid-twenties at the time he wrote “Easy Virtue”) is the repartee, and in that department, Elliott’s spin, co-written by Stephen Jobbins, retains much of Coward’s one-liners and snappy retorts. While the number of brilliant lines is in shorter supply than in some of Coward’s other work, there are still several killers that hold up, including one exchange in which the heroine has a terrific response when asked if it is true whether she has had as many lovers as rumored.

“Easy Virtue” focuses on a battle of wills and wits between a bold American race car driver named Larita (Jessica Biel, holding her own against the seasoned British thespians) and her new mother-in-law Veronica Whittaker (Kristin Scott Thomas) following Larita’s impulsive marriage to the inexperienced John Whittaker (Ben Barnes). The action is typical of the drawing room comedy, and even though outright farce is kept to a minimum, several outrageous complications are thrown in the pot (including a doomed Chihuahua, a motorcycle in a fox hunt, and a saucy cancan sans culottes).

Larita is more comfortable around her new father-in-law, Colonel Whittaker (Colin Firth), a disheveled wreck whose sarcastic put-downs are the only thing keeping his nasty family members in check. Firth lends gravitas to his role as a numbed WWI veteran, which enhances his character’s ultimate payoff. Ben’s vicious sisters join Veronica in undermining and picking on Larita, and the Colonel is the only person decent enough to speak up on her behalf. Oddly, husband John fails to understand the extent of Larita’s ordeal, and if there is one dimension of “Easy Virtue” that would benefit from some additional exploration, it is the specifics of the marital relationship of Larita and John.

The theme of upper crust hypocrisy hovers in the margins of the movie, which moves along at a leisurely pace appropriate to its relatively tight 96 minute running time. Elliott does manage to have some fun tweaking the period setting, blending a handful of newer pop songs (including “Sex Bomb,” “Car Wash,” and Billy Ocean’s “When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going” in clever, jazzy arrangements) with a group of vintage tunes by Coward and Cole Porter.

Love for Sale in Soderbergh’s “Girlfriend Experience”

2009-07-02T06:07:53+00:00

Steven Soderbergh’s “The Girlfriend Experience” is as lean and brutal as its chief attraction Sasha Grey, the young starlet whose appearances in more than 150 porn videos lend the movie an air of authenticity — real or imagined — to the story of a high-priced call girl working in NYC during the midst of the current economic collapse. Adding another chapter to the tale of Soderbergh’s fascinating balancing act that alternates between big budget Hollywood fare like the “Ocean’s 11” series and the modestly priced, intimate digital features that offer a different kind of introspective artistry, “The Girlfriend Experience” is the most successful of the director’s smaller scale projects.

Covering five days in the life of Chelsea (Grey), “The Girlfriend Experience” is presented out of chronological sequence, and the editing technique parallels the fractured, revolving door nature of the central character’s rigidly compartmentalized life, especially as it relates to Chelsea’s challenging task of maintaining a relationship with her live-in boyfriend Chris (Chris Santos). The inevitability of Chelsea and Chris fighting over her profession is a foregone conclusion, despite the suggestion that an agreement has been reached some months prior to the period of time glimpsed in the movie. Soderbergh does not take full advantage of the opportunity to let us see a more vulnerable, more human side of Chelsea. Perhaps he just refuses.

Grey’s placid inscrutability might arguably be called an inability to act, but her persona and the manner in which she projects it complement Soderbergh’s considerations of a time and place in society when everything is branded and commodified. When Chelsea is not engaging her wealthy clients in the nuanced small talk of perfectly feigned interest that gives the movie its title, she is seen going over her books and meeting with web designers who might be able to help her refine the business model that she uses to sell herself as a sophisticated total package. In one clever scene, real life film critic Glenn Kenny plays the Erotic Connoisseur, a reptilian blogger whose notions of supply and demand suggest a sleazy quid pro quo.

Soderbergh takes less interest in the emotional lives of Chelsea and Chris than he does in presenting the ways in which the escort and the personal trainer both cater to a particular line of work that depends on serving a clientèle in a manner that creates an illusion of intimacy. Some viewers may find the comparisons a bit too obvious, but Soderbergh is confident enough in his filmmaking gifts to comment on a variety of issues swirling around the October 2008, pre-presidential election milieu. Soderbergh’s conflation of capitalism and prostitution is more wryly raised eyebrow than sourpuss jeremiad, and the accompanying tone prevents the viewer from becoming dispirited.

Like “Bubble,” “The Girlfriend Experience” was made available as a pay-per-view video download at the same time it was being presented theatrically, and while the tactic has made some filmmakers nervous, Soderbergh has seemingly embraced a level of flexibility that might well become more and more necessary as audiences expect to see content on their own terms and time lines. Whether you see it in the theatre or at home, “The Girlfriend Experience” is well worth a look.

Three Years of Blu-ray

2009-07-02T06:05:54+00:00

Last week I discussed the remarkable growth of the Blu-ray high-definition home video format since it was put on the market just three years ago this summer. This week I’ll go over several notable “older” films released to Blu-ray in each year the technology has been available to the public.

“The Terminator” (1984) was among the very first group of films released on Blu-ray back in 2006. James Cameron’s unexpected hit became a cultural icon of the decade, made a star of Arnold Schwarzenegger and spawned much higher budget hi-tech sequels that continue to this day. The literate script makes the most of its limited means by concentrating on its intriguing post-apocalyptic time travel premise, its central characters and memorable imagery.

Picture quality is far better than the DVD version, but not quite up to what newly mastered Blu-ray discs usually deliver. The originally mono soundtrack was effectively remixed for stereo surround. There are few bonus features on the disc, unfortunately, just a couple of featurettes and some deleted scenes, all in standard definition.

“Robocop” (1987) came to Blu-ray in 2007. Another pop cultural classic of its time, Paul Verhoeven’s sci-fi crime thriller is a darkly satiric vision of the future that holds up amazingly well on several levels. Its ambivalent depiction of the wonders of modern technology and computers, of a government-dependent populace addicted to sexually exploitive TV shows and infotainment newscasts, of corporate greed disguised as public service, of rampant crime that requires vigilante justice, remains in step with the likes of “Iron Man,” “The Dark Knight,” and “V for Vendetta.” Its implicit fear of technology malfunctions and conflicting software directives is right out of “2001: A Space Odyssey.”

Made before the days of CGI, “Robocop’s” special effects are remarkably effective, its stop-motion robot miniatures more creepily believable than today’s flashy computer-generated variety. And while the film’s “hard-R” graphic violence almost received an X rating in 1987, in today’s context it’s more of a soft R bordering on PG-13.

The Blu-ray’s picture quality is generally good, although many of its dark scenes appear to suffer from digital manipulation that distorts and softens the image with video noise. The original 1.66:1 picture is cropped here to the more common 1.85 ratio. The audio is excellent, with the original 4-channel stereo track as well as a remixed 5.1 track. Extras are almost non-existent, however, with only a trailer (in HD, at least) and trailers to a couple of other films.

In fall of 2008, the experimental documentary “Baraka” (1992), carefully restored from its original 65mm film negative with an extra-high-definition transfer, came out in a Blu-ray edition. The film itself is a mesmerizing, nonlinear and non-narrative journey around the world, presenting a vivid slice of life across numerous cultures and geographic landscapes. Only the Blu-ray format on a large full-HD screen can do justice to the film, unless you happen to have a 70mm film projector in your house.

This disc can serve as a demonstration for the format’s image sharpness and audio clarity. Even Blu-ray can’t reproduce all the detail in a 70mm film print, but this disc shows just how impressive it can be. “Baraka’s” sound is recorded in a 96-kHz uncompressed digital track with higher audio standards than most home stereo systems can reproduce (more than double the range of a CD). Extras are modest but interesting, including a behind-the-scenes documentary that runs over an hour and a seven minute featurette on the film’s restoration.

Last month Paramount released to Blu-ray the movie that made a star of John Travolta and helped make the disco craze into an emblem of the late 70s/early 80s, “Saturday Night Fever” (1977). Despite its reputation as a dance movie, however, the film is actually a relentless and surprisingly bleak slice of life in working class New York that is as much a portrait of the era as “Marty” and “Rebel Without a Cause” were for the 1950s.

The Blu-ray disc reproduces the look and sound of the film admirably (its BeeGees-laden soundtrack now remixed for 5.1 stereo) and includes a director’s commentary plus a generous selection of extras, mostly in HD.

The more catalog classics the studios mine from their vaults for Blu-ray releases, the more people can realize that high-definition pictures have really been around for over a century on something called “film.” HDTV and Blu-ray have approximately the picture resolution of a good 16mm film negative or a typical 35mm film release print. If original film negatives have survived in good condition, a Blu-ray edition of any movie made over the past 85 years or so can look just as good as most movies made today and may even look better.

THE TERMINATOR (1984)

Movie: A- Video: B+ Audio: A Extras: C-

ROBOCOP (1987)

Movie: A Video: B Audio: A Extras: D

BARAKA (1992)

Movie: A Video: A+ Audio: A+ Extras: C

SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER (1977)

Movie: B+ Video: A Audio: A Extras: A

Blu Ray Boasts Birthday, Better Sales, Bigger Variety

2009-06-25T18:38:01+00:00

BluRay home video technology has been on the market for three years this month (as of June 20), but sales were unimpressive until the competing HD-DVD format was discontinued last year. Now, as high-definition TV sales gradually increase, not only are dropping prices helping BluRay to cut into standard DVD sales of recent titles, but more and more older films are finally showing up in BluRay versions. Many can now be found in the $10 to $20 range – comparable to standard DVD prices a few years ago, and causing DVD prices from major studios to plunge into the $5 and $10 range.

Unfortunately, except for the James Bond pictures, Disney cartoons, and a few westerns and war films, it is rare for any pre-1970 titles to be carried by retailers in a market this size, so local BluRay player owners must order most of them online (often at substantially lower prices than local retailers have, anyway). For example, in Grand Forks at least two stores carried the new BluRay edition of “Woodstock” (1970), yet the new BluRays of Stanley Kubrick’s “Dr. Strangelove” (1964), Ingmar Bergman’s “The Seventh Seal” (1957), or George Stevens’ multi-Oscar-winning “The Diary of Anne Frank” (1959) were nowhere to be found.

Also, other than a few token major classics (only a half-dozen or so currently available and roughly a dozen scheduled by the end of this year, including “Casablanca,” “The Wizard of Oz,” “It’s a Wonderful Life,” etc.), all of the older titles to hit BluRay are from the widescreen era of 1953 and later. One reason for this, besides a somewhat lower demand, is that many people with widescreen TV sets do not understand why there must be black bars on the sides of the picture for non-widescreen movies (the same people who don’t grasp the concept of letterboxing on standard TVs). More important, however, is that the widescreen films display the most obvious image improvement from BluRay’s hi-def capability.

A 4x3 image on a properly encoded standard DVD can look nearly as sharp as the BluRay version when played with a DVD player that upscales the resolution to simulate HD (which every BluRay player can do); but widescreen films squeezed into the standard DVD format show obvious degradation when blown up on a hi-def TV set, compared with their HD versions. Hence, studios are choosing to put out fewer of the old film rarities that DVD collectors have been enjoying the past several years, and are sticking more to pop hits from the past 55 years for BluRay.

Still, it’s nice to get the chance to revisit movies one saw while growing up (or never saw in theatres because one was too young or not yet born) with a visual clarity and audio quality equal to, and possibly better than they had in their original theatrical presentations. It’s also great to catch up with films missed due to short runs or that never made it to local theatres. Of course this has been possible to do for some 30 years on tape, laserdisc, and then DVD, but never with the potential to rival a commercial theatre’s presentation until BluRay and hi-def home projectors became affordable.

Anyone who still has only a standard-definition television or a hi-def TV that is only 720p resolution and/or is smaller than 40 inches really has no reason to upgrade to a BluRay player or replace DVDs with BluRay versions. An upconverting DVD player with component or HDMI connections will do just as well. However, people who have a 1080p (so-called “full HD”) TV that is larger than 40 inches, especially those with a 1080p projector, a wall-size screen, and a 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound system, will quickly become addicted to the theatre-quality experience they can get at home with BluRay copies of movies. They’re also more likely to devote a room to a dedicated home theatre, rather than watch movies “on TV.”

Next week I’ll review a few notable BluRay releases of older “catalog” titles from the past three years (all now available in the $10-$20 range), including “The Terminator,” Robocop,” “Baraka,” and “Saturday Night Fever.”

They Hope They Get It: Documentary Looks at “A Chorus Line”

2009-06-25T18:36:27+00:00

“Every Little Step,” a documentary chronicling the grueling audition process for the 2006 revival of “A Chorus Line,” achieves some of its lofty goals while leaving just as many stories of the venerable musical frustratingly unexplored. Directors Adam Del Deo and James D. Stern are clearly more interested in the macrocosmic, shaping their movie around the ineffable desire that sees so many hopefuls compete for so few jobs. The movie conveys the strange unity that binds together the affectionately-monikered “gypsies” who bleed, perspire and weep as they face nearly insurmountable odds to find work in their chosen profession. For anyone interested in the workings of Broadway theatre, “Every Little Step” should not be missed.

“Every Little Step” squeezes in a great deal of drama during its 96-minute running time, including previously unheard material from the original 1974 audiotape sessions that evolved into the workshops that would eventually bring “A Chorus Line” to a whopping run of 6,137 performances. Alternating between brief sketches of the show’s origins (though mostly ignoring some key contributors like Ed Kleban and James Kirkwood) and the rounds of monologues and dance combinations at the revival auditions, the documentary engages the same “And Then There Were None” strategy put to good use in Jeffrey Blitz’s “Spellbound.”

Given the popularity of talent shows like “American Idol,” the elimination format of “Every Little Step” is a built-in intrigue generator that keeps most viewers engaged as the casting process moves ever closer to the final decisions. “A Chorus Line,” with its inward-directed gaze, is the perfect meta-musical test case for a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the parameters of its creation. At various times, the movie begins to reflect and refract images like a hall of mirrors (such as the scenes in which Baayork Lee, the original Connie Wong, helps to cast an actor playing an actor in a part based largely on Lee’s own life).

“Every Little Step” contains several gripping scenes, most notably a section of Jason Tam’s stunning audition for the role of Paul. Tam’s heartfelt line readings reduce the grizzled decision makers to tears, and the sequence leaves one yearning for more detail about the actor. Unfortunately, this is a common deficiency of “Every Little Step,” as the moviemakers never fully connect with any of the people trying out for roles. Instead, the interviews contain a multitude of show business chestnuts that ironically shield the performers from revealing anything specific about their own journeys to the stage.

Viewers of “Every Little Step” will not see any content addressing the controversies aroused by choreographer/director Michael Bennett during and after the original production of “A Chorus Line.” Bennett is deified by every talking head in the movie, particularly Donna McKechnie, whose closeness – and onetime marriage to Bennett – affords her a special authority. Surely the documentary would have been more involving had it opened up to a comprehensive accounting of the history of “A Chorus Line,” but given the fact that Bennett estate executor John Breglio is one of the film’s executive producers, “Every Little Step” predictably remains a respectful tribute.

Crazy Train: Third Version of “Pelham” Gets the Red Light

2009-06-18T21:56:53+00:00

It should go without saying that the freshly released Tony Scott remake of the 1974 Joseph Sargent version of “The Taking of Pelham One Two Three” is utterly unnecessary. Most remakes, reinterpretations, and re-imaginings are. Blasting off with a thumping remix of Jay-Z’s “99 Problems,” the new “Pelham” honors the original hijack/caper movie at least as far as painting a portrait of life in and around the NYC subway system. While the original movie’s tough, gritty New York attained a cult following (with members including the Beastie Boys and Quentin Tarantino), Scott’s version of the city emphasizes a post-Giuliani metropolis understandably concerned with the safety of its metro transit customers and inevitably oriented toward the possibility of terrorism.

Despite his unsavory, headache-inducing predilection for swooping camera movements and jumpy, hyperactive editing, Tony Scott manages to inadvertently get a few things right in his retelling. The supporting cast members, including John Turturro, James Gandolfini, Luis Guzman, and Michael Rispoli, often transcend the boilerplate dialogue offered to their characters. Denzel Washington’s self-effacing transit official provides the star with another opportunity to skillfully project grace under pressure (even if one misses the grumpiness of Walter Matthau). And despite considerable gaps in logic, the pacing is confidently speedy.

Robert Shaw’s cagey Mr. Blue is replaced by a jittery, twitchy John Travolta seemingly fashioned after a Tom of Finland leatherman illustration. Travolta’s aptly named Ryder is an anarchic bundle of nerves whose seductive aural courtship of Denzel Washington’s Walter Garber infuses the film with a homoerotic subtext that closely parallels the “Top Gun” speech delivered by Tarantino in “Sleep With Me.” Scott’s hyper-masculine world – which predictably has little use for women – does make time for plenty of sadism and suggestions of prison rape.

Many of the director’s worst tendencies manifest prominently throughout the movie. Vehicular mayhem occurs much more than necessary. Characters repeatedly point out painfully obvious information that the audience has just seen. The product placement is as shameless as the musical score is manipulative. In addition, all the modernizing updates fail to enhance the narrative, especially the villain’s intense interest in online stock market updates and an undernourished subplot in which a hostage maintains an open video chat with his girlfriend (open question to screenwriter Brian Helgeland: why does the girlfriend have to be depicted as stupid and emotionally needy?).

Finally, “The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3” stumbles down the stretch, cutting between a silly runaway train straight out of D.W. Griffith and a good guy/bad guy standoff with only one possible outcome. While the 1974 version depended on a nearly farfetched detail to sew up the story, it worked within the particular world that had been created and kept faith with the film’s dark humor. Scott’s universe, on the other hand, is much less clever and much more predictable. Where the 1974 version showed considerable smarts, the 2009 attempt swaps in action. The difference between the two movies (purposefully ignoring the made-for-television version of 1998) is simple: one leaves the latest version feeling like one of the subway car hostages, relieved to be free of the ordeal.

“Bat Boy” Bloody Entertaining

2009-06-18T18:34:14+00:00

Musicals produced by regional theatre groups are usually titles drawn from the standard list of Broadway hits from the 1940s through 1960s, and maybe the 1970s. This week and next, however, Grand Forks area audiences have the chance to see the North Dakota premiere of the 1997 musical satire, “Bat Boy: The Musical,” which ran for over eight months off-Broadway in New York in 2001.

The Crimson Creek Players are now performing this unashamedly peculiar cult hit at 8 pm weeknights Tuesday through Friday at the Fire Hall Theatre in downtown Grand Forks. The final performance will be June 26. Tickets are $15, or $12 for students and senior citizens.

“Bat Boy: The Musical” is a lively amalgamation of musical styles by Laurence O’Keefe, which may call to mind various Broadway hits and pop songs from 20s jazz to tango to rock, country, gospel, and hip-hop. The story was inspired by a 1992 supermarket tabloid feature about a half-boy, half-bat supposedly discovered living in a cave.

Playwrights Keythe Farley and Brian Flemming had originally planned to do a campy parody of all sorts of tabloid news stories, but eventually settled on sort of a “South Park” style treatment that’s more like “Nosferatu” meets “My Fair Lady,” with more than a touch of “The Elephant Man” and the controversial 17th century melodrama “Tis Pity She’s a Whore” thrown in, among numerous other literary allusions.

The plot, in brief, has three pot-smoking West Virginia teenagers finding the Bat Boy in a cave. After he bites the girl on the neck, her two brothers capture the Bat Boy and turn him over to the redneck sheriff, who leaves him in a cage at the home of the local veterinarian, who is on vacation.

Both fascinated and repelled, the vet’s daughter Shelley and her mother Meredith eventually name him Edgar and tutor him in language and manners, while the outraged and narrow-minded local citizens meanwhile blame him for a recent cattle plague, and the alcoholic vet is horrified to see him when he gets home (for reasons only gradually made known). Of course Shelley and Edgar fall in love, but there are a lot more twists in store that are more surprising and potentially disturbing.

The show is basically a wickedly comic indictment of intolerance and hypocrisy. It can easily be seen as condemning homophobia and racism, but analysts can have a field day trying to identify and interpret all the socio-political-religious subtext going on and various, possibly conflicting, implications. A film version is reputedly in development for director John Landis, but it’s material one would more likely expect of Tim Burton (animated or live-action, with Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter, no doubt), or possibly David Lynch or the Coen brothers.

Crimson Creek has staged the show with ten actors doing the 19 different characters, five of the cast members handling two, three or four roles. A show like this needs constant energy and strong voices, and this cast has them to spare. Cody Oss plays the title role with a creepy sympathy and alternate bursts of energy and lethargy that fit the part. Kathy Tingum does a good job as the impetuous Shelley, who first wants to keep Bat Boy as a pet, then is disgusted by him, then falls in love with him.

Maura Ferguson keeps things moving while pulling various characters and plot threads together as Meredith, and Matt Hippen is properly troubled as Dr. Parker. Filling out the other characters, some more memorably than others, are Teran Ferguson, Gabe Gomez, Courtney Jones, Beth Laidlaw, Margaret McDonald and Ken McGuran.

Margaret McDonald makes a strong Mayor Maggie, Courtney Jones is a bundle of energy in whatever character she’s playing, Beth Laidlaw is especially notable in her roles of Mrs. Taylor and Reverend Hightower, and everyone has a great time in costume as amorous forest creatures “doin’ what comes natcherly.”

Chris Berg directed the Grand Forks production of “Bat Boy.” There’s a well-designed set in the intimate Fire Hall Theatre space designed by Ben Klipfel, with good live musical accompaniment directed by Natalie McComas, nice choreography by Laura Dvorak, and effective lighting (some of it only candlelight) by Lindsay Escobar, and sound by John Ferguson.

For those whose taste in musicals is not limited to classic showtunes and perennial Broadway hits, and don’t shy away from controversial subject material, Crimson Creek’s “Bat Boy: The Musical” should provide a welcome alternative that is somewhat reminiscent of last year’s hit “Trailer Park,” and while even darker than “Sweeney Todd,” manages to be a bit more upbeat.

Crazy Train: Third Version of “Pelham” Gets the Red Light

2009-06-18T17:45:39+00:00

Boden and Fleck Play Ball in “Sugar”

2009-06-11T19:40:17+00:00

Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s follow-up to their excellent “Half Nelson” is called “Sugar,” and like their previous feature, the movie is a sharp-eyed examination of character and human nature that digs much deeper than the minor league baseball premise would suggest. Following the blossoming but shaky prospects of hopeful Dominican Republic pitcher Miguel “Sugar” Santos (Algenis Perez Soto), the movie travels from the D.R. to the United States, with stops in Arizona, Iowa, and finally the Bronx, where the story’s stirring conclusion is set.

“Half Nelson” flirted with the dangers inherent in movies about teachers and students, but transcended the clichés of the genre by focusing on the most telling details in the lives of its central characters. “Sugar” wisely adopts the same template, even though the movie’s many baseball scenes are handled with a strong sense of no-nonsense realism. Ultimately, “Sugar” functions effectively as a meditation on the ways in which the American Dream can fail those from poor countries who make their way to the United States. The film is even more effective as a slice of life that examines one individual seduced by a system in which the odds of winning are nearly as daunting and farfetched as the Powerball.

Boden and Fleck, who share writing and directorial credit on the movie, make the most of a modest budget and “Sugar” capitalizes on each of its sharply defined locations. Sugar’s sojourn in Bridgetown, Iowa, where he boards with an elderly couple, registers deeply, and the directors mostly avoid turning the rural baseball fans into Midwestern farm caricatures. In Iowa, Sugar’s inability to speak English isolates him just as much as his ethnicity, and the moviemakers construct several vivid vignettes – ranging from the comic motif that shows the non-English speaking ballplayers repeatedly ordering French toast at the diner to the wordless display of racism that erupts on the dance floor of a crowded bar – that bring Sugar’s experiences to life.

Because the movie is filtered through Sugar’s point of view, the audience does not get to know many of the supporting characters beyond the surface interactions they share with the protagonist. One minor subplot, involving Sugar’s attraction to his Iowa host family’s granddaughter, might have turned into a major detour in the story, but Boden and Fleck maintain a level of restraint that will leave many viewers hoping for something more. The final section of the movie, in which Sugar forges a friendship with a fellow Spanish speaker, offers no earth-shattering epiphany, but the very last shots of the film have a way of staying with you long after the film ends.

“Sugar” might be described by some as a sorrowful movie, but unlike traditional sports films, the highest peaks and the lowest valleys are left alone so that the moviemakers can plot a tale of the middle ground that applies to scores of wannabes from all kinds of places, including the United States, who dream of major league glory but settle for some professional playing time instead. A substantial portion of Sugar’s modest paycheck is always wired home to his mother in the Dominican Republic, and the young man’s loneliness is described so palpably that casual baseball fans might think twice next time they see the almost anonymous names stitched on the backs of minor league jerseys.