SCENES OF A SEXUAL NATURE

I came across this delightful quintessentially English movie from 2006 that is a series of vignettes of some gentle romantic encounters that is a perfect alternative to the overblown commercialism of ‘THE Wedding’ today.  Set on one sunny day on glorious Hampstead Heath (London’s ‘Central Park') it follows the minute detail of seven very different couples whose single stories really don’t link or overlap, but who share the recurring theme of trying to establish what makes a relationship work in their pursuit of love. Some seek it, some need it, some spurn it & some pay for it, but we're all involved in it.

OK, so the eye catching title is ‘borrowed’ from the warning shown before an ‘adult’ movie trailer and is a misnomer as there is in fact no-sex at all.  But there is a lot of joy, laughter, wonderful wry Brit humor, almost some tears, and even a bit of lust.  However what makes it a compelling treat is the superb writing and a first rate big name cast that such wee indie films never ever attract.   So intriguing in fact that for once I actually sat through the whole Extras section on the DVD to discover the fascinating story behind the movie.

This first time director and first time screenwriter came up with the initial idea and planned it so that all the action took place in one day, in one outside location which would need no set build whatsoever, and could be shot over 10 days so that any actor could do their part in 2 days without disrupting their usual high powered schedules. And all to be done with THE tiniest budget in the world. With extraordinary luck they secured a stellar cast of award winning actors such as Ewan McGregor, Eileen Atkins, Hugh Bonneville, Sophie Okinedo, Adrian Lester, Mark Strong, Catherine Tate, Douglas Hodge, Benjamin Whitrow etc who all did it for Equity Minimum and a sheer love of the project itself.   The Producers turned it into the most successful self-distributed movie of the year, before Sony brought out the DVD.  All fascinating stuff.

It never made it the US BUT it is now available on Netflix.

Woof Woof

I will fess up that it wasn’t just my anti-wedding mood that led me to this delightful discovery, but the fact that the cast included Tom Hardy, who’s fan club I am desperate to join for all the wrong reasons. I first really noticed him in his breakthrough role in 'Inception'  …. a movie that I watched but never blogged as it literally bored me to sleep …. but amongst this over-hyped over-produced monster of a movie, there was Mr. Hardy shining so bright.  I checked him out on IMDB and I must say that if I knew it was him in the leading role in the horrifically violent prison-drama/biopic  'Bronson’ I would have never had missed it.  It's now firmly  next on my list.  Be warned: the next several blogs will most likely be on the collected works on Mr. H.

Meanwhile enjoy this wonderfully subtle movie where nothing really happens BUT everything that really matters, does.

★★★★★★★
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A SCREAMING MAN

Adam, a former National Swimming Champion, is the proud manger of the pool at a smart hotel in N’Djamena, the capital of Chad, where he has worked for the past 30 years.  Known by all simply as’ Champ’, he now has his grown up son Abdel working as he Assistant so all is right in his wee world, until the new Chinese Owners of the Hotel demote him to a lowly Gatekeeper and promote his son to now take charge.   The country is in the throes of yet another civil war and the Authorities demand that the population contribute to the ‘war effort’ one way or another and so Champ, now desperately broke and depressed, allows the army to forcibly conscript his son instead.  At the same time his 17-year-old pregnant girlfriend that Adel had been secretly dating turns up at the family home, and Champ knows he must try and undo the harm that he has inflicted on them all.

This gentle but quite profound movie is by Chadian filmmaker Mahamat-Saleh Haroun who has lived through decades of political violence, numerous attempted coupe d’etat and several civil wars since the country gained its independence in 1960. I’m assuming that this very personal film‘s story that focuses on all the repercussions of the upheaval at the Pool is actually a metaphor of the tragedy that is facing Chad.  It took me some time and some prodding to reach that conclusion as I was intrigued to research why this particular title was chosen when no body was actually screaming out loud at all.  Now I can see Mr. Haroun's thinking it is Champ who is screaming much louder inside.

It is in fact one of those films that do resonate with you some time after viewing.  As a piece of fine story telling, it is wonderfully sad.  As a comment of one the poorest and most corrupt countries in the world, it is a great deal more than that.

★★★★★★★

THE TILLMAN STORY

Soon after the events of 9/11, newly-wed Pat Tillman and his brother Kevin signed up to fight for his country  like so many other Americans at the time. Pat however was no ordinary recruit, but a major NFL football player who had turned down a multi-million contract so he could enlist and the  Bush Administration made a point of welcoming this new high profile soldier as they were determined to use his celebrity to help promote a deeply unpopular war.

After one ‘tour’ in Iraq Tillman had grave doubts about the validity of the war that he was now a part of, but despite this he turned down a secret deal that the US Government and the NFL proposed to allow him to return to football early and forego the rest of his service.  It was in his second tour, this time in Afghanistan, that he was killed in the field.

The Military Authorities immediately declared he had died whilst saving his own men’s lives, and weeks later George W eulogized Tillman as a great war Hero.  However some weeks later the Army acknowledged that Tillman had in fact been killed by stray bullet in friendly fire, known as ‘the fog of war’. Confused by this new turnabout and all the subsequent conflicting accounts, Tillman’s family demanded, and eventually received, the full report of the Investigation into the whole affair. The Authorities  assumed that the heavily redacted 3000 odd documents would simply swamp and confuse them, but they not accounted for his ferociously determined mother who studied them in  minute detail uncovering the wholesale whitewashing of the whole incident.

Frustrated and angry at the cover-up, Tillman’s lawyer father sent a detailed letter of complaint about the Military’s fraud to the White House, which he signed off with a simple ‘Fuck You’. Obviously these are words that George W could understand as suddenly there was a Congressional Hearing to investigate the investigation. It subpoenaed all the Top Military Brass to testify, but ineffectual Congressmen let all the witnesses off the hook as they just sat and stated ‘I don’t recall’ some 81 times, and then they closed the Session achieving absolutely nothing.  Seeing ex. Defense Secretary Rumsfeld openly smirking as they left the Committee room knowing that they had all lied their way out yet once again, makes one angry as hell.

Through this superb documentary we learn that despite being a Football Player, Tillman was hardly a classic brawny  jack, but an intelligent, articulate and hugely private man.  An avowed atheist who loved reading books  like the works of Noam Chomsky, he had taken great pains not to ever publicly reveal  why he had joined up. Fearful of the fact that the Administration may use his celebrity for their own political ends, he had written a note refusing any military or religious funeral if anything should happen to him, something that the Army tried to browbeat his widow to disregard ‘for the sake he nation’ the very minute after they told her he had died.   

All Tillman wanted was to serve his country just like any other soldier, and instead of being allowed to quietly and privately grief their loss, his family … who proved to be fine, moral and extremely likeable folks …. had to deal with an endless bunch of lying, hypocritical and manipulative  figures in Authority. All his family wanted was the truth.

It’s a devastating film that will enrage  you.  Totally unmissable.

★★★★★★★★★
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SQUARE GROUPER

If I had caught sight of the ‘Cocaine Cowboys’ movie before I moved to Miami, I don’t think that I would have ever dared settle here.  Billy Corbin’s 2006 Documentary told the true story of the local drug wars in the 1980’s when ruthless Columbian cocaine barons invaded Miami and bought a level of violence that made the antics of the old time gangsters like Al Capone look quite tame.  Corbin’s movie traced how my future hometown became the drug, murder and laundered cash capital of the US, something that was strangely missing from all the Welcome to Miami literature I picked up from my Real Estate Broker back then.

Corben's new movie traces the much gentler trade of marijuana smuggling/dealing that evidently was also big business locally in the 1970’s and 1980’s.  He divides his story into 3 segments, the first focuses on the colorful Coptic Church whose members lived in a millionaire’s mansion turned into a commune on exclusive Star Island and openly smoked ganja and claimed it was legal because God created it. 

The second part covers two local Miami business men called the Black Tune Gang who ran their marijuana smuggling operation out of the Penthouse Suite of The Fontainebleau the city’s biggest and most luxurious hotel, and their majorly successful operation really pissed the Authorities big time and so they framed them with more serious crimes invoking the Judge to give them ridiculously long and unjustified sentences.

The third chapter involved practically the entire population of Everglades City, a very small isolated coastal town which was struggling to survive after federal red-tape decimated their fishing industry, and they all turned to smuggling dope and along the way getting standards of living beyond their wildest dreams.

R.T.V. Corbin’s immensely interesting and entertaining movie takes a strongly partisan view that is so sympathetic to those involved in giving us all some weed, and along the way enjoying an extravagant lifestyle in return.  And if we are to believe him, there was never even a hint of any of the violence like with ‘hard drug’ trafficking.  And the only reason they all got caught in the end was because their very success embittered FBI and DEA Agents and all the other Authorities. And if you appreciate a good toke, then I think you would want to believe Mr Corbin’s spin on this fascinating chapter in our local history here in South Florida.

P.S. The title of the movie is slang for the bales of pot thrown off boats or planes into the ocean.

★★★★★★★
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WASTE LAND

Vik Muniz is a Brazilian born visual artist based in New York and renowned for his art which is constructed using a variety of ready recognizable non-art materials including trash.  Conscious of his own success that life had accorded him he set about wanting to help bring about change for group of needy people using the materials of the every day life.  He chose to go back to Brazil and to the outskirts of Rio to Jardim Gramacho (Garbage Garden) the world’s largest landfill, which was surrounded, by one of the worst favelas in the country. 

The daily unceasing parade of trucks unloaded all of Rio’s trash, which is sifted through by unofficial recycled material pickers, known as 'catadores’ who scavenge a basic living for all their efforts.  Despite the hardships, the nature of the work and the poverty and the overwhelming smell, there is a real sense of community with the formation of a Pickers Association which supports them in their desperate daily struggle.  In the midst of these people, Vik Muniz sets about to show them how art can change their lives for the better.  He photographs some of the more colorful workers, enlarges these pictures to enormous proportions, and encourages to decorate them with whatever garbage they want to make a work of art.  He then photographs these and one is chosen to be auctioned in London, whilst the others are printed off to raise funds. 

Working with Vik on this extraordinary project made these people not only realize that they were in denial of what their lifestyles had been, but it gave them the will to change.  And change they did.  They had an appetite for life, which was invigorating, and their sheer joy with what they achieved was so infectious.  The money raised (some $250000) helped some leave completely, and also for the Association to establish a library and computers and learning as well as being able to give workers some basic support. The success of the project greatly effected Vik too, and there was a noticeable difference in his attitude to his own life once it was over.

It is a compelling movie of an inspiring and selfless idea that from a remarkable generous man and an extremely talented artist.  Short-listed for an Oscar: and one that you will not want to miss.

P.S. This has also made me commit more seriously to my own recycling efforts.  Guess I was reluctant before cos I had a compulsive b.f. who wanted to recycle every bit of trash, including all his 'issues'.

★★★★★★★★★
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THE GREATEST MOVIE EVER SOLD

Morgan Spurlock who picked up an Oscar Nomination for his tongue-in-cheek documentary on fast food ‘Supersize Me’, is back on form with his take on the thorny subject of product placement, marketing and advertising in movies.  He naturally takes it one step further by getting this whole movie financed entirely by the subject he is examining.  A madcap but kind of very shrewd idea which when he explains it, all makes perfect sense.  In his steady hands, his very quick wit and more than a dash of his scathing humor he succeeds in not only getting the film made, but it is a superbly entertaining one too.

P.S. Look out for the Owner/CEO of Pom International who eventually decides to take star billing, as  there is more than touch of Imelda Marcus about that one

★★★★★★★★ 

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(this Review was originally published in my Sundance 11 Blog and is reprinted here as the movie is now in theaters.)

WIN WIN

After seeing the trailer, I had dismissed this movie as just another feel-good sitcom until I spotted its pedigree. It being the third feature film from writer/director Tom McCarthy who scored sleeper hits with ‘The Last Station Agent’ and ‘The Visitor’ which I both really enjoyed and admired.  Hence I found myself in the movie theater watching Paul Giamatti play yet anther version of his scruffy disheveled unlikely ‘hero’ at the end of his tether and on the brink of a life change that he excels at, and that we love to root for, or sometimes just get annoyed with. (Think ‘Barney’s Version’ for the latter).

This time Mr. G plays Mike a mediocre lawyer struggling to make ends meet when he hits upon a scheme to become the legal guardian of Leo an elderly wealthy client in the early stages of dementia just so that he can pocket the generous monthly carers fee. His passion in life, besides his own family, is volunteering as the Wrestling Coach for local high school team  which is having as little success as his legal practice.  Out of the blue Leo’s teenage grandson Kyle, who has run away from his druggie mother, turns up on the doorstep of the  Seniors Home that Leo has been dumped into.  Although it throws a spanner in the works of his cosy money making scheme, Mike nevertheless takes the withdrawn and sullen Kyle welcomes into his home and family until they can sort out what’s best for them all.

Turns out that this awkward young boy is actually a budding wrestling champ and by joining Mike’s team, every one’s future starts looking brighter, although not until after they have all been made to face up to deal with a few obstacles/problems that could wreck their cozy lives.

It’s a joyous gentle intelligent movie that follows the themes McCarthy’s previous movies where the protagonists lives were also turned on their heads with the arrival of total strangers. The perceptive screenplay is  well written and provides some well-rounded characters for the talented crew of actors that include Bobby Cannavale (also in 'The Last Station Agent') as Mike’s best friend Terry, Amy Ryan (who wowed us all in ‘Gone Baby Gone’) and Mike’s wife, Jeffery Tambor dryer than ever as the droll Assistant Coach.  And then there is young Kyle played by newcomer Alex Shaffer who was cast for his wresting skills but I think gave a great acting debut too.

A wonderful grown up pleasurable movie that I am so glad I saw after all.

★★★★★★★★
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BILL CUNNINGHAM NEW YORK

The reason that I sit in a movie theater as often as I do is my eternal hope that every movie I watch will be so near perfect that it will just blow me away.  In reality it’s a rarity, but tonight was one such occasion.  Watching ‘Bill Cunningham New York’, a wonderful moving and intimate portrait of the 82 year old famed street fashion photographer and style arbiter/observer/commentator and seeing his singular passion for fashion and his wonderfully focused and uncluttered approach to life you could not help but be drawn in and be intoxicated by the infectious enthusiasm of the man.  But like many of the society grand dames Bill has photographed for years, and who consider him a friend, after over 2 hours we actually learn sparingly few personal details about this enigmatic man.

You don’t have to be a follower of fashion to appreciate Bill’s legendary style columns in the New York Times each Sunday, which consist of whole series of photographs he has randomly taken on the streets of the city, and which show his enormous talent for spotting something that is both fascinating and interesting.  Anna Wintour, Editor of American Vogue, credits Bill with often picking up on a street fashion trend that none of her enormous team of top fashion experts have noticed.  And as Bill is a habitué at all the major Fashion Shows snapping both on and off the catwalk, Ms. Wintour often a subject added, ‘we all get dressed up for Bill’.  And so they all do, from the rich and famous to the wild and wacky eccentrics that so love the cache of being featured in one of Bills columns, although to him it's not the celebrities (‘in their free clothes’ he disparagingly comments) that interest him at all but the fabrics, the shapes, the textures …. he just loves fashion and has a brilliant eye in spotting it.

The behind the scenes look we do get, show Bill’s home in the one of the very last tiny Studios in Carnegie Hall where the filing cabinets that store a lifetime of negatives take up all the room.  Visiting his neighbor 98 year old Editta Sherman a wonderful totally eccentric but stunningly talented photographer reminds us that like the apartments they are being evicted from, their way of life is from a bygone age, and one that will never be repeated again in the future.

This compelling movie about such an intriguing and exceptionally likable man with his singular obsession and a real joie de vivre was a real delight to watch, and full credit to first-time filmmaker for Richard Press for following Bill around for two years and then editing so creatively by interspersing it with interviews from such an array of fascinating and so diverse characters …. too many to mention here.

Tomorrow I’m off to see ‘Square Grouper’ a movie about that all the pot-heads have been raving about.  But for me there could be no better high, than watching Bill Cunningham.  It needs seeing at least once.

★★★★★★★★★★
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SMASH HIS CAMERA

When this movie surfaced in Sundance in 2010 it caused such a buzz that I was somewhat annoyed that we couldn’t fit it into our viewing schedule.  It went on to win the Best Documentary Directing Award for filmmaker Leon Gast. So it was with heightened eager anticipation when I finally got the chance this week, and I was so disappointed to discover what a mediocre movie it in fact was.

This is the story of the infamous Ron Galella the most loathed paparazzi photographer who for the past 40+ years has stalked some of the U.S’s biggest celebrities.  He was sued by Jacqueline Onassis , and Marlon Brando broke his jaw but that never put him off.  He obsessively trailed the rich and famous 24/7 and if nothing else, he needs to be admired for his sheer dogged persistency.

Galella is however a truly obnoxious opportunist who armed with good cameras seemed to get his best photographs more by luck than judgment as once he had his ‘target’ in view he shot frames fast and furiously without a moment’s consideration just hoping that one of them would be worthwhile.  The film led us to believe it often was it often was, and it never delved too deep into the quality of the other photos in his enormous Archives.

Galella is an irritating and shallow man and outside of his work is totally uninteresting: it led renowned artist Chuck Close to question why they were even making this film about him.  They were of course doing it for the times he struck gold with some rewarding pictures of such iconic figures, but it’s them we want to see, not him.

The title of the movie are the words of our elegant former First Lady (by then she was Mrs Onassis)when Galella cornered her yet once again, but this time she was simply trying to grab some down time with her two kids by cycling through Central Park one Sunday morning.   Just imagine how much bluer they would have been if it been today and he trapped a C. List Celeb. like Lindsay Lohen.  But then again, she would probably like all the irritating attention.

If you want to see Galella’s work, skip the movie, and  just get one of his books out of the Library. 

★★★★
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ORANGES AND SUNSHINE

From the late 1940’s up to 1970 the British Government surreptitiously ‘deported’ 130000 children placed in their care to Australia for  reasons I still cannot fathom.  This movie is the true story of how Margaret Humphreys, a Social Worker from Nottingham, uncovered the scandal, and almost single-handedly and against overwhelming odds and even threats against her own life, went about reuniting thousands of families.  Children as young as four had been falsely told that their parents had died, and un-wed mothers had their babies whisked away without their consent on the premise that their child would have a better life.

The children were promised that Australia was a land of oranges and sunshine, but many were subjected to hard labor and life in appalling conditions in desperate Institutions, and the boys that ended up with the Catholic Brothers where subject to widespread abuse.

This heart wrenching highly emotional story is given real strength with a powerful performance by Emily Watson in the lead. I will confess that the reason that it  ended up on my list is because being an Orphanage boy myself at that time I could easily have been a candidate for migration. I guess this fact alone gave the film a powerful personal resonance to me as I watched these adults who had been abandoned as children clutch at straws trying to locate any living blood relatives (although strangely enough that is not something that I have ever wanted to continue to do after my reunion with my birth mother that ended so very badly).

This is the feature film-directing debut of Jim Loach (son of director Ken Loach) and the fact that his past is in directing for Television speaks volumes as possibly this is where this film beings.  Having said that, as a well made record of particularly such an important and disgraceful part of recent social history that the UK hid for decades, it deserves a wide audience. Particularly one that has stocked up on Kleenex tissues so they can bawl their eyes out like I did.

★★★★★★★

ESSENTIAL KILLING

Mohammed, a Taliban Fighter, is captured by the US Military in Afghanistan and is being transported to a mysterious detention centre in an unnamed Eastern European country.  When his transport crashes he makes a dash for freedom through the forests and snow-laden terrain of a country he doesn’t know.

There are flashbacks that remind us about the war, but this story does not focus on that, or indeed on any of it’s political ramifications, as it  essentially   about the extreme lengths and measures that Mohammed must go to just simply survive this relentlessly tough isolated terrain whilst being pursued all the time by the US army. It’s a harsh violent journey that is both brutal and bloody and is explicitly filmed in such close up detail that shows the sheer desperation and determination of Mohammed clinging on to his liberty. 

A powerful and intensely physically performance by Vincent Gallo that is as stunning as the landscape itself (magnificently photographed).  Mohammed doesn't utter a single word throughout the movie, yet Gallo makes sure we feel all this man's pain.

A chillingly horrific story that Polish Director Jerzy Skolimowski has made into a spectacularly compulsive  thriller.  Unmissable.

★★★★★★★★★
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POETRY

When 66-year-old Mija learns that she is in the early stages of dementia, she goes into complete denial.  Her life in a South Korean suburb is already tough enough.  She works as a housemaid/carer to a demanding half-paralyzed old man, and also looks after her uncontrollable sullen teenage lay-about grandson Jongwok whose father has long gone, and whose mother is mysteriously absent from his life.  One day a group of fathers from Jongwok’s school pay a visit to Mija to tell her that he and his friends systematically raped a girl at school who then took her own life. To stave off any criminal prosecution the men decide to establish a fund to pay off the dead girls mother and they tell Mija that she is expected to pay an extortionate share.

Whilst this is going on, by chance Mija spots a notice for a Poetry Class in the local community centre and remembering what enjoyment it gave her when she was a schoolgirl, she immediately enrolls.  The quest to write one full poem before the term is over becomes the one joy in Mija’s rather despondent declining life.

This sublime wee movie is as calm and understated as Mija herself.  Always turned out well in her smart flowery outfit she stoically handles her lot inscrutably and betrays nothing beyond her own determination.  This is very much her story and it succeeds so well thanks to Yun Jung-hee who came out of her retirement to give such a sensitive and exquisite performance.   The superb (award-winning) screenplay leaves much to the imagination which is perfect as it is as much about the telling, than the story itself.

I so loved this refreshingly honest movie which despite its rather dark plot was actually a real treat.  Sheer poetry in fact.

★★★★★★★★★
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SUBMARINE

Fifteen-year-old Oliver Tate is decidedly weird and extremely delusional which is all part of his charm.   When he’s not day dreaming at school about the imagined outburst of nationwide grief that would occur if he died, he has two big ambitions.  He is desperate to lose his virginity before his next birthday, and he also wants to save his parents’ marriage when he thinks his strait-laced mother is having an affair with their New Age weirdo neighbor.   He aggressively pursues Jordana a self-professed pyromaniac to be his girlfriend, and after they ‘consummate’ the relationship his idea of romancing her is discussing where Nietzhe got it all wrong.

This wonderfully quirky comedy from Wales of all places is an absolute gem.  The two young leads turn in performances that hint at real stardom ahead for them, and alongside them as the mother is Sally Hawkins who I initially really loathed in ‘Happy Go Lucky’ and has now become one of my favorite actors, (don’t miss Made in Dagenham).

I first saw  ‘Submarine’  at Sundance and immediately fell in love with it, and so did others and hence this  wee independent very accessible movie that would normally have otherwise fallen under the radar is in some UK theaters now.  It more than holds up to a second viewing and re-affirms how the Brits  are masters at really funny quirky comedy.  It's unmissable, even for non-Brits.

★★★★★★★★

THE ARBOR

This depressingly grim and sadly true story of the life of troubled Brit playwright Andrea Dunbar which had very little joy, has been made into a powerfully mesmerizing movie by artist and film maker Clio Bernard who has merged documentary with performances that makes it such a compelling view.  Ms Dunbar, one of nine children, grew up in The Arbor, a rough Housing Estate (Projects) in Bradford, a working class city in the north of England, and at the ripe age of 15 had written a Play about her own life as a pregnant teenager living with an abusive drunk father.  Thanks to an alert teacher it ended up with Max Stafford-Clark’s, the Artistic Director London’s famed cutting edge Theatre, The Royal Court.  In 1980 he produced the play which was such a critical hit that it ended up also being performed in New York, and it got Andrea a commission to write her second piece.  Called ‘Rita Sue and Bob Too’, it exposed her life further by focusing on two teenagers both having an affair with the same married man. … another smash, which was also filmed.

Her life off the stage continued at a scary manic but joyless pace as she had three children by three different fathers, and unhappy with her lot resorted to heavy drinking, and then physically weakened by her alcoholism died of a brain hemorrhage alone in a Pub at the age of 29.

The filmmaker interviewed all the children (now in their 20's) and many of the friends and relatives in Dunbar’s life, and then had actors lip sync their words.   A stunningly effective concept,  which heightened the intensity of all the pain of her life, and the very  real tragic way  that Lorraine, the oldest one daughter, replicated it.  Lorraine, neglected by both parents and suffered domestic violence and racism as a young adult also took refuge in alcohol before becoming a very heavy crack cocaine and heroine user, which in turn led to her totally spirally out of control and actually  harming one of her own chidden : a pivotal point in the story which will stun you into total disbelief.

Ms Bernard interspersed the performances of the interviews with live re-enactments  of Dunbar’s plays actually in the open air right on the green space in the middle of The Arbor surrounded by onlookers who one presumes are the current tenants of the Estate.  It was an inspired touch.

One very noticeably point is that the two daughters take centre stage in this film, albeit always separately, and they both have mutually sympathetic yet drastically different accounts of their upbringing.  I guess when you own a past that is so unrelentingly ghastly and without even a mere glimmer of hope, you remember what you want, or cannot avoid.

That fact that even whilst Ms Dunbar could articulate her predicament she never seem to possessed the smallest aspirations to change her destiny, and that seems to be the fate that her children have inherited. Some way through this gripping piece I had qualms at being such a voyeur especially as it was easy to tell that that  there would not be a happy ending, but I blame Ms Bernard for the fact I that sat riveted right  though to the end of this continuing tragedy as I simply was hooked by her innovative and her ingenuous creative approach to filmmaking.  This is Realism as Real as it gets.

P.S. I was tipped off about this movie by one of the Film's Producers I sat next at a Sundance Screening, and I am so pleased that I found it here in the UK on DVD, if you live elsewhere demand your local Art-house put it on, EVERY cineaste should see this one.  

★★★★★★★★★
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UNCLE BOONME WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES

I will need to re-incarnated as a Buddhist in my next life if I am ever to fully understand and really appreciate this movie.  As beautiful as it was to watch it is a tad to esoteric and possibly even pretentious for me to ‘get it’ in this life.

It goes like this. Uncle Boonme an ex-solder in the Thai army turned farmer has come home from the hospital as he is dying of kidney failure. He is having dinner on his porch one night with his bigoted sister-in-law Auntie Jen, his nephew Tong and his Laotian Housekeeper/Nurse Jai when he is visited by the ghost of his late wife Huay who chats to them all.  Even more strange is that they are joined by the Boonme’s son who has been transformed into a ‘ghost monkey’ after running away years ago and mating with a simian female. 

Actually not much happens after that, but there is strange scene where an ugly old Princess sees the reflection of herself in the pool of water as a beautiful young woman, and when she floats in the water she is serenaded by a catfish who tries to convince her it’s not an illusion, and that she’s the soma woman he loved in the past, as he devours her and she disappears. I’m thinking that somehow that’s to do with Uncle Boonme needing to know that his life is an illusion, and maybe to accept death without fighting it, but I’m not totally sure.

The lack of a cohesive narrative didn’t help this meandering story, nor did the fact that Uncle Boonme was played by someone who’s never acted before (allegedly he was a Roof Contractor before, but this is one job he didn’t nail down!)   But my main issue was that the movie’s mystical edge has been misinterpreted as something much more profound than it is, even to the point of winning the Palme D’Or at Cannes.  (Although Tim Burton chaired the fact the Jury that year, which in itself is telling).   It is a visually stunning piece that has several long overdrawn patches that don’t necessarily deter one from enjoying the whole experience but certainly are another factor that make it impossible for me to agree with all the critics who hail this rather odd film, a masterpiece.

★★★★★★
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THE PARKING LOT MOVIE

The surprisingly intriguing quirky documentary is exactly what its title states: a movie about a parking lot.  A very scruffy triangular one in the centre of Charlottesville, Virginia behind a motley line up of late night bars and restaurants and smack opposite the University Campus.  Filmmaker Meghan Eckman focuses on interviewing a rather large cast of parking attendants and former parking attendants all of whom are so over qualified for the job.  This motley crew of graduate students and budding musicians articulate their over intellectualized ideas on the power struggle between often obnoxious customers and themselves which makes hilarious viewing. In attempting to explain their disdain for the superior attitudes and sense of entitlement that seems to automatically come with drivers of the giant SUV’s that crowd the lot, their quick witted remarks sometimes carry more than a tinge of inverted snobbery.

There are moments in the movie when it feels like real time and you are actually there in the Lot and nothing much happens, but that said, it is a refreshingly original and bizarre wee film, thanks mainly to the wonderful odd crew of charismatic and eccentrics who run the place.  And take note you simply cannot just apply for one of these jobs, which are evidently much sought after, as you have to know some on the inside track to make the grade. But be aware that it is not a lifetime career as the burn-out rate is pretty high.

If you share my taste for oddball outré films then this off-the-wall gem is for you.  The night after I viewed it I watched the much-lauded INCEPTION sci-fi movie with stupendous special effects and a very starry cast led by Leonardo Di Caprio.  Completely brilliant, but it left me totally cold.  All I could think was that I so wished I was back in the Parking Lot.  So BE WARNED if you follow my blogging fastidiously, I am moving closer to the edge every day!  LOL.

★★★★★★★★

JANE EYRE

When a story has already been filmed over 21 times, its reasonable to wonder why there is any need  for yet another version.  Its been made as a Silent Movie back in 1910; Orson Welles took a stab at it in ’43 (just after Citizen Kane); Bollywood gave us its take; its been a TV mini series 7 times; and even the great Franco Zefferri committed it to film stock. 

Now that I have seen it, I can happily say that there is more than one good reason why it was worth doing again. This new Jane Eyre is the second feature movie directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga who wowed us with his debut ‘Sin Nombre’ which couldn’t have been more opposite to this.  The fact that Mr Fukunaga is an Asian/American I think adds a frisson to his take on this English literature classic.  He has made such a riveting movie and beautifully filmed that it heightens all the elements of the romantic gothic drama that it is.

Unquestionably the inspired casting of the two leads cemented the success of the movie : the Irish actor Michael Fassbinder  (‘Inglorious Bastards’ ‘Hunger’) hardly a classically handsome leading man, but he is fiercely good-looking and was a menacing Rochester, and the pale (but not plain as the story!) Mia Wasikowska (‘Alice in Wonderland’ ‘The Kids Are Alright’) an exceptionally gifted young actor as Jane Eyre.  They initially seemed a strange pair on screen, but the  chemistry between the two was electric .  Both were stunning.  And  after this success both are going to see their growing careers keeping soaring.

If you don’t know the story …. shame on you. After a bleak childhood, Jane Eyre goes out into the world to become a governess. As she lives happily in her new position at Thornfield Hall, she meet the dark, cold, and abrupt master of the house, Mr. Rochester. Jane and her employer grow close in friendship and she soon finds herself falling in love with him. Happiness seems to have found Jane at last, but could Mr. Rochester's terrible secret be about to destroy it forever?

And lest I forget there’s a wonderful array of Brit acting talent in the supporting roles led by Dame Judi Dench as the Housekeeper, and includes a grown up Jaime Bell, Sally Hawkins & Simon McBurney.

Now I haven’t seen that many of the previous Jane Eyre’s or am I a devoted Charlotte Bronte fan who may take umbrage with screenwriter Moira Buffini’s tinkering with her book, but nevertheless I think I can confidently say that this is a definitive version.  After Mr Welles, naturally.  Unmissable

★★★★★★★★★

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YOU DON'T KNOW JACK

You would have had to be living on Mars in the 1990’s if you haven’t heard of the controversial exploits of Jack Kevorkian aka Dr Death that were covered in great detail by all the Media at the time.  Dr Kevorkian, a retired Pathologist had been deeply disturbed witnessing the slow painful death of his own sick elderly mother that he became determined that others in a similar situation should not suffer with either the pain or lack of dignity ending their lives like this.  From that point on he devoted his time to developing a means to enable assisted suicides, and in the late 1980’s he started advertising his services as a ‘death counselor’ in newspapers.

Between 1990 and 1998 he assisted in the deaths of some 130 terminally ill people provoking the local D.A. to prosecute him several times. However on each occasion, Kevorkian, always the grandstanding showman, escaped without being convicted of any crime.  Thanks mainly to the highly emotional videos tapes he made of each patient as they pleaded with him to be able to end their own lives.  His behavior outraged the religious right who accused him of playing ‘God’ and provoked enormous controversy at large as to whether his methods were either legal or morally acceptable.

His undoing came about when he provocatively went beyond simply assisting a patient and actually  ‘pushed the button himself’ which resulted in a second degree murder charge being successfully levied against him.

In this immensely moving bio-pic made for HBO TV, Director Barry Levinson ('Rain Man', 'Sleeper]) walks a neat tight rope trying to remain impartial about the whole ethical question of euthanasia, but does in the end tip the scales slightly in the favor of Jack Kevorkian.  The reason that the movie succeeds in making a convincing argument is solely down to the fact Dr Kevorkian is played by the sublime Al Pacino.  No, I will correct that.  Al Pacino IS Dr Kevorkian.  He gets in his skin and in doing so gets under ours.  Plus is was so great seeing the wonderful Brenda Vaccaro (playing Jack’s sister) in her too infrequent appearances on  any screen

Whatever view we may take on the whole question of assisted deaths, there is no disputing that this movie about it is an excellent piece of work.

Now out on DVD.

★★★★★★★★
Click for Trailer