Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman, Chalk, Crazy Love

Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman ***
Directed by Adrian Shergold
98 Minutes
Rated R for disturbing images, nudity, and brief sexuality.

I've known for quite some time that Timothy Spall is a terrific actor, and while he was able to showcase that talent into the brilliant lead performance in "All or Nothing," he continues in "Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman"-a character study of the late Albert A. Pierrepoint, the most famous of all hangmen in Britain, and maybe even the world. Pierrepoint knew exactly the proper way to hang a man-and broke records in hanging someone in under ten seconds. Pierrepoint had a little trick-never treating the people he was killing as people, just business. And this is all working for him fine until his personal life and his work life collide in ways unimaginable. This isn't exactly a biopic as aside from a marriage and the fact that his father was a hangman, we do not know much about Pierrepoints personal life. This is just the story of his career as a hangman, and Spall plays his dark and brooding period in his life with such perfection. Spall is really brilliant here as he usually is, and allows us to care for this man that we know very little about.

I will admit at times the execution scenes did become a little repetitive. I sat through so many hangings, which probably just emphasized the point that Pierrepoint killed so many and cared about so little. A little title card before the end credits states that he killed 608 men in his career. And we do not actually see a graphic hanging until Pierrepoint kills someone he knows, which is when he actually begins to "see" what he was doing-as does the audience. I really liked the visual look of the film, almost every shot had a dark hint of creepiness too it, but this is really a minor film out there at the moment-but is certainly recommended for someone looking for what will be one of the more unseen masterful performances of the year. Spall is special because we do not see him enough, but every now and then he pops up and delivers something that makes you remember all about him again. This is that film.

Chalk **
Directed by Mike Akel
85 Minutes
Rated PG-13 for some language.

Mike Akel's "Chalk" is a somewhat decent, sometimes hilarious, but often tedious look at high school teachers. Told in the format of a Christopher Guest mockumentary (none of which I like very much either) we are given a teachers perspective of their careers. Beginning with the fact that 50 percent of all high school teachers quit after three years on the job we begin to understand why. The group that is focused on is new history teacher Mr. Lowrey, Coach Webb, other history teacher and hopeful "Teacher of the Year" winner Mr. Stroope, and Mrs. Reddell, a former music teacher that was just given an A.P. job. She rues this job in the future. What begins as a year of promise ends as one that counts down, to the second, the amount of time left until summer. At the same time there are friendships ruined, romances that could possibly bloom, and lessons learns, all outside of the classroom.

This is told in similar fashion as "The Office," complete with awkward scenes of overlapping characters and dialogue. But a lot of the jokes do end up failing, and at times I felt that the mockumentary style was discarded-one of these moments is during a dream sequence that Lowrey has about Coach Webb. There are only a brief amount of talking head interviews, and I think there would have been more had this been a real documentary. But if you want realism, this is very close-with actual students being used, and many of the scenes being improvised as they went along. It's not that this is a bad film-it does have many humorous moments. It just felt like a very long eighty-five minutes. I also just don't think I'm big on the mockumentary, as I always seem to have problems with them. This is certainly a step up from the Guest films, which I detest strongly.

Crazy Love ***
Directed by Dan Klores and Fisher Stevens
92 Minutes
Rated PG-13 for language including sexual references, and mature thematic elements.

"Crazy Love" may not be a perfect documentary, but its worth seeing to see a story that is, for lack of a better phrase, stranger than any type of fiction story. When you hear the story of Burt and Linda Pugach, and the insane love triangle that they were involved in, you will certainly want to see the full thing pan out. Without revealing much about it, Burt was a millionaire that was smitten with Linda and refused to let anybody else have her. And when he hired a group of thugs to scare her into his arms, it resulted in her blindness. After getting arrested, Burt continued to harass Linda for years-sending her letters in the mail, etc. And then when he was released he popped the question yet again, and to every one's surprise she said yes. And they have been married for almost thirty years.

There is much more to it, but that'll ruin many of the surprises that go into their fractured relationship. And it's such a fascinating story to see unfold, and is finally a documentary that does not deal with a political or environmental issue. This is like watching a fictional story being laid out, because sometimes it is hard to believe that things like this actually happen. And if their marriage is just built on Linda trying to get revenge on Burt for everything he put her through, or if deep down she actually does love him, who knows. . . but it makes for a great story.