The Big White

The Big White ***

I refuse to make it a habit to give reviews to DVD's, but if I didn't the very few people that read this will not be able to hear about "The Big White," a film that has a sad history. "The Big White" was released in one single theatre in Los Angeles in December of 2005 for exactly one week, and never anywhere else. Now, it comes out on DVD, and after watching it, I was confused as to why it was never shown anywhere else.

First of all, it has a cast to die for. Robin Williams, Holly Hunter, Woody Harrelson, Giovanni Ribisi, Alison Lohman, and Tim Blake Nelson. Williams plays Paul Barnell, a down on his luck travel agent, whose wife is suffering from a form of Torette's Syndrome, and his business is closer to hitting chapter eleven then a fast paced detective novel. Not to mention that his brother Raymond has been unheard of for the last five years. So, in order to get a little money, Paul decides to take advantage of his brother's absence, by cashing in on his insurance policy. However, in Alaska, a person must be missing for seven years before being declared legally dead, and even then there is a period of investigation and search. So, Paul is screwed, and doesn't know what to do, until his luck picks up. Two hitman dump a frozen body into the dumpster in front of his office, which he decides to pass off as his brother. He leaves the body in the middle of the frozen tundra with steaks in his coat. A bear comes, takes the steaks, distorting the corpse's face until it could be anybody. An accidental death would come to a cool one million dollars, and Paul wants it. However, now the two hit men want the body back because their boss wants visual conformation that they killed the man, an insurance investigator smells something fishy with the whole business, and the real Raymond read about his death in the paper, and now wants to see whats going on.

"The Big White" will be ineveitably compared to "Fargo." Not only because of it's black comedy antics, but also because it takes place in the snow. It's not nearly as good as that masterpiece, but "The Big White" is entertaining. Williams is a great choice as Paul, and the love that him and his wife have for each other is quite sweet. The entire cast is well-done, but the love story between man and wife is very endearing. It's a good escape film, and my kind of story, to be honest. One other thing I must mention is the music by Mark Mothersbaugh, which is so beautiful and fitting that it can't go unsaid. "The Big White" should have been released, even in a limited run. It deserves to be seen, and there is no reason why it wasn't seen more. It's a shame that it'll probably end up on the cheap racks in DVD stores soon. See it, and try to spread the word. It's a very good modern noir.

Land of the Blind

Land of the Blind ***

"Land of the Blind" is a political satire that seems like a mix of "Brazil" and "V for Vendetta," yet not nearly as wonderful as either of those films are. However, it still paints a haunting picture, with two terrific preformances by Ralph Fiennes, a favorite of mine, and Donald Sutherland.

It shows an unsaid country, at an unsaid time in life, where of course, life is in turmoil. This place is run by a horrible, dictator, known as The President. Married to the First Lady, played in an odd choice by Lara Flynn Boyle, the pencil, he has odd fetishes, often involving diapers, and his wife dressed up with giant, plastic breasts on her chest. In jail however, there is some hope, in the form of Jim Throne, a playwright who became a terrorist when the world took the turn that it did. He is in jail for thirteen years, where he begins to befriend Joe, one of the guards. After having a couple of heartfelt talks involving freedom, Joe begins to see that maybe he is on the wrong side, and perhaps he should help Thorne get out of jail, and help him take a stand against the awful government which rules them. And so he does, but over time, Thorne begins to be ruined by power, and his claim that democracy is the best form of government begins to disappear, as he becomes the very thing that he set out of destroy.

"Land of the Blind" has many faults, especially in the middle, but in the end it left me satisfied, and slightly haunted. It tries to say some kind of new and profound statement, but it really doesn't come through. Yet, I enjoyed watching this world that writer/director Robert Edwards created. The music fit perfectly as well. I would have liked to see a little more detail as to how Thorne, played by Sutherland, become obsessed with power. Towards the end the time jumps are so frequent and so far into the future that it even becomes a bit confusing. Whatever point Edwards tried to make was lost to me, but it was still alot of fun to watch. It's a very strange film. Doesn't score points for originality, but remember, "if you have to steal, steal from the best," and "Land of the Blind" does.

The Lake House

The Lake House ***

"The Lake House" is one of those movies where you just have to leave logic at the door, and enjoy the ride. It's a perfectly satisfactory romance, that's no where near perfect, but it'll be the rub for any kind of romantic. Sure, it doesn't really make any sense when you sit down and think about it. It's a plot that pretty much impossible, but for some reason, the story works, and you really do care about these two characters.

What about the plot is so impossible? Well, it starts off in the year 2006, where Kate is moving out of a house that she bought on the lake. She leaves a letter in the mailbox, greeting the next person who moves in, and asking them to deliver any mail that didn't go to her new address. We then meet Alex, a thirtysomething year old architect who moves into the lake house, which is architect father built many years ago. He opens the mailbox, reads the letter, and then becomes confused by a few things. She mentions a box in the attic, and pawprints on the front lawn, two things that Alex doesn't find at all. That's because he's in 2004, and for some reason, the mailbox lets them communicate with one another. They know that a letter is in the box when they see the little plastic red flag move up and down. They spend hours and hours conversating. He sends her a map through the mailbox of what direction to walk in her time, and he walks that same path in his time, and they take walks. They never exchange pictures, but Alex sees Kate a few times, because she knows where she was at certain times in 2004. Over time, they want to meet one another, and she tells him to do certain things at a certain time so they could. He would have to wait two years to do it, but for her it would be very quick. However, whenever they do this, he never shows up, like when he makes a reservation at a fancy resturant in two years. She goes, but he never makes it. So, will two people from two years apart be able to life happily ever after. . . blah blah blah. . .

So call me a sucker. It's sappy, and the overall plot doesn't exactly make sense. Even if you drew a timeline, it's covered in plot holes. I even guessed the final "twist" at the end about fifteen minutes into the film. I know I'm acting like it's a bad film, but it really isn't. It's entertaining, Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves have chemistry, and it is a nice love story. The cinematography was pitch perfect, with beautiful sunny lake scenes, and dimsel, dark, snowy ones. I could have lived without many of the scenes involving Reeves and his father, played by Christopher Plummer. It was an unworthy, and often dull subplot, there to fill the time, and to make it a little more sentimental, but it was unneeded. The focus of these two people trying to connect was fine enough without advice and long talks with the parents. The films best scenes are when it's just them talking. For example, there's a party scene in 2004 where they meet. He knows who she is, but she's just meeting him. They talk, without facing each other for about five minutes, in one long take, without any edits. Hopefully it will engross you like it did me.

So, if you do go see it, you have to keep in mind that it doesn't make sense sometimes, it's full of holes, and it is impossible, but the trick is to remember that it's a movie. It doesn't have to make perfect sense. Leave your logic at the door, and let this nice romance story wash over you, and everything will be fine.

Loverboy

Loverboy **

The Kevin Bacon directed "Loverboy" is his chance to glorify his wife Kyra Sedgwick, but showcasing her in a bikini, leather pants, and even nothing at all at some point, while at the same time, getting lazy in the director's chair, and making a silly, Lifetime-esque, drama about a mother who is waaay too overprotective about her son.

Sedgwick plays Emily Stowe, whose main goal in life is to have a child, so that she could share life's immense wonders with. She doesn't want a husband, or a house, or a place to live, or even a father. So, she decides to go around the United States, sleeping with as many men as she possibly can, unprotected, so that she'll end up having a baby, and she'll never have to worry about who the father is at all. When that doesn't work, she ends up having a night with a man she meets in a hotel, and then ends up pregnant. The only shred of having a memory of him is naming her son after him, Paul, aka Loverboy, a nickname that young Paul tires of by the time he's six. Emily loves her child, and doesn't want to let him out of her sight. . . ever. She doesn't even take him to school. She homeschools him, and ends up thinking that she is the most exceptional child that anyone could have. However, he starts to grow to the age where he wants to experience life. He wants to go fishing with a friendly man he meets on vacation. He wants to take the school bus with all of the other children on the block.

All of this is intercutted with flashbacks to Emily's childhood, with her odd, self-absorbed, hippie parents, played by Bacon and Marisa Tomei. These flashbacks are shot strangely, with the camera always at a tilt, capturing exactly how strange it must've been to live in this house at the time. Emily spends alot of time with Mrs. Harker, who has two children that she spends alot of time with. The grown up Emily ends up taking on the qualities of both her father, and the real mother figure in her life, Mrs. Harker. Her real mother seems to have been discarded completely.

"Loverboy" has an interesting plot, but a horrible execution. The script has some of the most shoddy disalouge that I ever heard, that it sounds like something Shakespherian. The writers name is actually Hannah Shakespeare. I don't know if there is any relation, but if there is, she should stop trying to write as her famous relative would. Sedgewick is good here, and I wish she would have had something better to work with, and the ending, which could have been dark and disturbing and perfect, had an added three minutes which just make it cheesy, and silly. I guess it does make something clear, which I can't add her, but it wasn't exactly needed. It could've been much more grim, and it would've worked more, at least thats what I think. As for Kevin Bacon's feature director debut, he needs some work. He should talk to Tommy Lee Jones, whose directorial debut last year with "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada" was something special. "Loverboy" is solely made for television material.

Lower City

Lower City **

"Lower City" is the love child that was born when "Y Tu Mama Tambian" and "City of God" mixed. However, those two great films ended up birthing one that's not nearly as interesting, and almost a direct copy of the former, with the intricate style of the latter.

It has a pretty typical story. Nothing special. Two lifelong friends, Deco, and Naldinho who have known each other since the dawn of the time, own a boat together, and travel from place to place, almost as nomads. One day, in a store, they spot a beautiful young woman named Karinna, who is aiming to go to the same place that the two boys are. She is a prostitute, and after the two men pay for her services, she ends up having a great time, and sticks around with them until they end up on shore. While in a bar, she decides to go off with another man who could take her where she needs to go quicker. However, in the bar, the two men get into a fight, where Naldinho ends up stabbed in the stomach. Karinna decides to stay until he is healed, but ends up getting involved with Deco, who is instantly infatuated with her. When Naldinho is healed, he teases Deco about the fact that he wants to give his heart to a whore, but then he finds himself interested in her as well. And now the one girl that they both want to give their hearts too, even though they vowed not to ruin their friendship, ends up resulting in the downfall of the bond between the men.

There is just nothing new here. It's a tired plot, a dull love triangle, with nothing new even brought to the director's table. It takes the two films I mentioned above, and mixes them, creating a carbon copy of something that was done already. It's not even worth seeing for the preformances. I was happy in the end that not all of the loose ends were tied up, because that's not what life is about, but that can't save a lifeless story from being charged with power. Watch "Y Tu Mama Tambian," and "City of God" as a double feature instead. It's longer, but well worth the time spent.

A Prairie Home Companion

A Prairie Home Companion ****

"A Prairie Home Companion" is ironic is one fantastic way-it's a film so revolved around death, and yet it is probably one of the most joyous and fun experiences I've had in a movie theatre in a long time. Not only death of people-as you'll see while watching it-but also the death of a lifestyle. A Prairie Home Companion is the name of a real-life live radio variety show, which airs every week on NPR, for the last thirty years or so. Author Garrison Keiller, the host of the show, has achieved a kind of cult following with his characters like Guy Noir, and the two singers Dusty and Lefty.

In real life, the show continues. In the film, the radio station has been bought by a big Texas corparation, and the Fitzgerald theatre, where the show has been broadcast live in front of a hundred people or so, is going to be knocked down, and turned into a parking lot. The cast and crew try to ignore the fact that the Axeman is going to come by and tell everyone that's that, and they just try and enjoy what they know is their final show, even though nobody talks about it. There's the ring leader, GK(Garrison Keiller). There's the Johnson sisters, Rhonda and Yolanda, and Yolanda's daughter Lola, who would rather write her poems about suicide than talk about how her mother and aunt became singers. There's the very pregnant Molly, who does the backstage work, and the head of security Guy Noir, former private eye, who doesn't even realize that Molly's pregnant until she's almost seven months in. Channeling Humprey Bogart, Kevin Kline's Guy Noir has his eyes on something else, a beautiful woman in a white trench coat, known as the Dangerous Woman. She glides throughout the set and the backstage. Some notice her, and many don't, but it's quite clear that she's looking for something, even though her motives aren't clear until the second act.

There's no real story here, just a colorful array of characters, directed masterfully by Robert Altman, who is the only one that could really pull it off. I read that Paul Thomas Anderson, of Magnolia and Boogie Nights fame, was slated to direct the film if the 80 year old Altman would die, or become incapable of directing the rest. This makes sense, as Anderson's films are often ensemble driven. But this needs no plot. A Prairie Home Companion works well without the typical film structure. It has long musical numbers, overlapping conversations, and such a fantastic group of characters that you fall in love with throughout. It leaves that warm, fuzzy feeling inside the pit of your stomach, and left me grinning and tapping my foot long after the credits rolled. Yes, it's about death. Not only with people, but the fact that this radio show is everyone's life. And now that it's closing, a part of them will die forever. But, you can't focus on that. There is only here and now, and that's the perspective to watch their final moments together. It's alot of fun. The preformances are terrific. The script is hilarious. It's proof that Altman still has it, even after eight decades of life, and I hope he doesn't stop now. It's one of the year's best, and at this point is the year's best movie.

The Omen

The Omen *

Has it come to this? Has Hollywood finally copped out to the point where they greenlight and produce a movie solely because it could come out on a date that is relevant to their storyline? That's how I feel about the remake of "The Omen," which revolves it's story about the son of the devil, Damien, and the horror that he inflicts on his parents. As everyone knows, it was released on June the sixth of two thousand and six. . . or 6/6/06. . . ha ha ha.

I really believe that about two years ago a few Hollywood executives were sitting around, having coffee, when one of them had an idea, and pitched it to the other one.

"How about a remake of The Omen?"
"The Omen? You mean that thirty year old horror movie about the son of the devil?"
"Yeah, that one. People love horror movies, and the public will pretty much gobble whatever horror flick we give them. . ."
"Very true."
"And here's another idea. How about we have it come out on June sixth, in the year 2006. It'll be a marketing scam. . . six six six. . ."
"Genius! And people will all want to see it on that date, because it's a movie about the devil, on a day where people will think the devil is doing his dirty work."

Thus the birth of yet another remake. Yes, indeed, The Omen has a creepy idea. . . a mother gives birth, and the father conceals that fact that her real baby died during childbirth, so instead they adopted Damien, who turns out to be the son of the devil. And priests and various other religious figures try and prevent Damien from killing again, but the parents don't seem to want to believe anyone until the last minute, when it's too late. But, my dear friends at Hollywood, it takes more than a creepy date to base your movie around. In order to be good, a movie needs a script, and some actors that are worth a damn. A release date could only go so far. After all, what about those people that want to see the movie on 6/9/06. . . it's not as creepy for them. . .

It had one interesting part. . . or a part that was clever. The Church goes through all the various "Revalations" before this "end of the world" is supposed to come, and they all translated to the many disasters American has seen of late(September 11th, and Hurricane Katrina come to mind.) But the problem is that was in the first five minutes. . . and it was all downhill from there.

Cars

Cars ***

Cars deserves to be seen on the large screen, if only for it's stunning animation. It certainly does boggle the mind how it's done, and Pixar has created a film more beautiful than Finding Nemo and The Incredibles, which I always thought was impossible. However, it's not as magical a story as the previous Pixar films, it's still charming, cute, and whimsical, and better family fare than some of the recent animation films of late-which have all been dull, poorly animated, and cheaply made. Cars isn't something special like I wanted it to be, but it still blows all other animation out of the water.

It's also rather predictable. Cocky, racecar Lightning McQueen gets lost, and ends up in the town of Radiator Springs. A legend in it's own time, the Springs was a landmark stop on the classic Route 66, until an Interstate highway was built that saves cars ten minutes of driving. McQueen ends up ruining a road in the center of town, and can't leave until he fixes it, which he doesn't want to do because he needs to get to California in a week for a big race to win the infamous "Piston Cup." And then he falls in love, makes some friends, yada yada yada. . .

There are no humans at all here. It appears that the United States, in the near future, has been taken over by giant, talking cars. Everything is a car. . . hell even the little bugs have wheels on them. I'm sure much of the humor will go over the little ones head, but some of the jokes will go under the older ones head. And they won't catch the message, you know, the one about how we have to appriciate the old, instead of constantly trying to change things. It obviously applies to today, like when you take a walk down the streets of Manhattan and instead of seeing old, classic buildings, you see the large, and painfully expensive, condos. As usual, Pixar has crafted a story that will appeal to kids as much as adults, which is important in the animation game. And while it is their weakest film to date, it demands to be seen for the stunning animation alone. There's not doubt in my mind that Pixar really can do no wrong.