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Friday, March 18, 2005
THE SINUS SHOW PRESENTS: XANADU
The Sinus crew showed up at South by Southwest in full force
with the absolutely awful roller-skating musical, Xanadu.
Now called The Sinus Show (formerly Mr. Sinus Theatre 3000 before
some… *ahem*… legal issues), it’s a live comedy show in which
three very talented comedians—Owen, Jerm, and
John—do a live performance and rip and provide running
commentary for a chosen stinker movie, from Top Gun to
Crossroads. The program includes hilarious skits which
usually involve cross-dressing and side-splitting parody songs.
Hmm… sounds similar to another show that was on cable television
for a decade with robot puppets.
The first time I ever saw the Sinus crew perform was in June
2003 at the grand opening of Alamo Drafthouse Houston, where they
did Terminator, and I nearly choked to death on my delicious
Alamo burger. That’s how great and funny these guys are; they
will make you choke on your food. So eating while you watch these
entertainers is somewhat of a hazard. In my three years of experience
attending South by Southwest, Sinus has never performed during
the film festival, so the show was a real treat, and the guys
never fail to deliver… except the one time that Jerm showed up
at BNAT 4 in 2002—but that’s another story. Only the Sinus crew
can make a movie as awful as Xanadu (starring Olivia
Newton John, Gene Kelly, and Michael Beck)
worth watching. Hats off boys, and may Tom Servo kiss your collective
arses.
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Max And Grace is a dark, morbid comedy written, produced,
and directed by Michael Parness and starring
David Krumholtz as the titular Max, who is institutionalized
after his latest suicide attempt. Max, who lives in a “distorted”
reality, falls for the schizoid, depressive, and suicidal Grace
(Natasha Lyonne) so I guess that makes them more
than a good match. Max is determined to get Grace out of the institution
and help make her life and state of mind better, but of course
that’s not going to be easy. I’d say this movie has a very solid
cast save for Lyonne. Lorraine Bracco and
David Paymer play Max’s parents, and Tim Blake
Nelson is fantastic as usual and plays several different
characters including Max and Grace’s doctor. Guillermo
Diaz, Rosanna Arquette, and Ralf Moeller
all play the rather wacky and interesting characters at the loony
bin. While the movie has some funny bits and intriguing characters,
it all didn’t come together for me in the end. Maybe it was the
rather disturbing subject matter and Lyonne’s lack of ability,
but the movie left me feeling somewhat… empty.
Like Layer Cake, this was the second time Kung Fu
Hustle was screened in Austin, the first time being last
year at the Alamo Drafthouse downtown for BNAT 6. This time they
showed it on the big screen at the Paramount Theatre, as per the
request of Sony Pictures Classic. Kung Fu Hustle is an
absolutely manic, hilarious, and fantastic post-modern, ultimate,
martial-arts movie extravaganza. Writer, director, and producer
Stephen Chow stars as Sing. Sing is a loser who is tired
of being a nice guy and decides to be bad and join the top gang,
the Axes. The Axes are a merciless group that likes to chop people
up while doing the Hustle and keep the cities and town under siege.
They end up in Pig Sty alley which is actually home to retired
Kung Fu masters. Humiliated, the Axe gang decides to send in their
own masters. Sing, who appears conflicted, eventually has to find
his strength and become “The One.” This movie just has great energy
and pacing. It’s also probably one of the best comedies you will
see all year. Some of the things you see in Kung Fu Hustle
are just absolutely ridiculous, but it totally works. The versatile
Chow never lets up and totally delivers with just about every
scene. In short, the movie makes the also-fantastic Shaolin
Soccer look like The Phantom Menace in comparison.
Monday, March 14, 2005
Stagedoor, directed by Alexandra Shiva
is a wonderful documentary about the elite Stagedoor
Manor theatre camp located in the Catskill Mountains in upstate
New York. For three weeks each year, theatre junkies of all ages
attend the camp and perform 12 shows and a traveling cabaret as
well. Stagedoor excellenty portrays the perception and
attitudes of theatre students. It shows how many of them are considered
social outcasts or ostracized by the cool and popular kids. Stagedoor
Manor is a camp where the talent and gifts of theatre lovers are
respected, where they can all be together in a place that encourages
and further develops their craft. Speaking as a life-long theatre
student, I was shocked to see how closely many of the experiences
filmed and presented in this doc so closely mirrored things I
went through in high school AND college theatre—the intensity
and seriousness of the instructors; the cliquey nature of the
top performers; the politics; and, of course grueling rehearsal
schedules. Stagedoor Manor represents a haven for a lot of children
in the doc. It gives them a release from their normal lives, that
thing inside of them that makes them want to perform, or for hyper-active
kids like Taylor Ranbow, the camp provides a
strong mental focus to overcome their disabilities. What I appreciated
the most about this documentary was that it wasn’t exploitive
or incendiary. The film showed theatre life as it truly is.
This new family comedy directed by Raymond De Felitta
was written by Paul Reiser, who was live in attendance
at the premiere of The Thing About My Folks at the Alamo
Drafthouse, South Lamar. Reiser stars as Ben Kleinman, who’s going
to upstate New York to check on buying a country home for his
family. Recently, Ben’s mother left his father, Sam (my main man
Columbo, Peter Falk), so Ben decides to bring
Sam along on the trip to the country. After a mishap or two, Ben
and Sam seize the opportunity to bond on a road trip. But Ben
is still adamant about setting the blame on the state of his parents’
marriage on his father. I will say I’m glad I decided to see this
one instead of something more depressing. The film was a relevant,
entertaining, and touching comedy about things common to all families
or marriages. It seemed to speak to me even more since the Kleinman
family doesn’t seem very much different from my own at times.
I had to tell Paul Reiser, who was nice enough to stick around
and sign autographs and take pictures, that the movie gave me
flashbacks. Falk and Reiser are great in this movie, though the
material and characters are not really far off from Reiser’s sitcom
“Mad About You.”
Sunday, March 13, 2005
I’m not exactly sure I’d call Unleashed (titled Danny
The Dog in Europe, from Transporter director, Louis
Leterrier, written and produced by Luc Besson),
a return to form for Jet Li. However, it is probably
Jet Li’s finest recent performance. Li portrays Danny—a near mindless,
subservient attack dog for his master or “uncle” Bart (Bob
Hoskins). Bart makes Danny wear a collar, and whenever
he takes the collar off, Danny becomes a mindless, formidable
killing machine. Danny eventually escapes and is taken in by a
kind, blind piano player, Sam (Morgan Freeman)
and his step-daughter, Victoria (Kerry Condon).
Trouble brews when Bart reappears and wants his “dog” back. Unleashed
is a great, yet dramatic action picture. However, the fim emphasizes
characters rather than action, such as the focus on Danny and
his relationship with others. Li delivers a truly amazing performance,
and plays Danny with a sort of innocence and naivete quite beautifully—a
grown man who is really still a tortured, young boy at heart.
Naturally Danny does not want to hurt people, but that’s what
Bart has forced him to do. If there is a return to form in this
picture, I’d say it appears with Hoskins’ Bart, who could quite
possibly be one of the greatest cinematic antagonists or on-screen
villains of the year. This is really the type of role you wanted
to see Hoskins do for a long time, and he does not disappoint.
The action and fight choreography in the movie by Yuen
Woo Ping is brilliant as always, but also different and
bit of a departure from his usual work. Almost similar to Hooligans,
the violence is a bit uglier and real. You hear the crunches and
see the impact. It’s the sort of fighting that will make you cringe
and go “ouch,” yet the film does retain the beauty and pacing
typical of Ping’s work.
Somersault is the first narrative feature by Australian
television and short feature director, Cate Shortland.
Abbie Cornish portrays Heidi, a young woman who runs
away from home when her mother becomes irate after catching Heidi
making out with her mother’s boyfriend. Heidi runs to a remote
mountain town where she uses sex to get into a relationship with
local farm boy, Joe (Sam Worthington). I’ve been
attending film festivals for three years. While a lot of good
movies get shown, a lot of crappy, pretentious, excessively artsy
films are featured as well. This is definitely one of them. Heidi
is an immature girl who thinks she can use sex to find love, and
ultimately I just don’t care. None of the subplots, such as Joe’s
relationship with a homosexual man, or Heidi’s with a co-worker
at a local gas station, came together. The film seemed ultimately
pointless, and the best thing about the flick was when the lights
finally came on.
Mutual Appreciation is a somewhat humorous, yet dull
and monotonous movie about a group of 20-something friends who
live in New York City. Writer, director, and actor Andrew
Bujalski portrays Lawrence, a TA who dates Ellie (Rachel
Clift). The film also features Alan (Justin Rice),
an aspiring rock star who has moved out to the big city to make
a name for himself. Alan’s father is supportive but wants Alan
to make it on his own. It appears that Alan and Ellie are also
attracted to each other. The black-and-white movie was shot entirely
on film in New York. The film depicts a realistic, naturalistic
tone, and while it does allow for some naturally comedic moments,
much of the narrative and scenes go on for quite a long time.
Conversations and key moments seem to linger forever. While there
is a bit of a story about relationships in the narrative, in the
end I just didn’t care, nor did I like any of the characters.
Matthew Vaughn gets in the director’s chair
for the first time with Layer Cake after producing such
gritty, cult British gangster films as Lock, Stock, And Two
Smoking Barrels, Snatch, and Swept Away. Wait a
minute… that wasn’t a gangster film. Gangsters just use it to
torture their victims. Vaughn, who will soon replace Bryan
Singer as the director of the next X-Men movie,
presents an interesting but rather typical movie about the drug
trade. However, the film contains some cool and interesting characters
and sharp dialogue. This actually was not the first time Layer
Cake has screened in Austin, since the film was previously
shown last December for Butt-Numb-A-Thon
6.
Daniel Craig portrays a nameless drug dealer
getting ready for retirement, who supplies product to guys such
as Jimmy Price (Kenneth Cranham). After some
mishaps, it seems that every drug dealer in London and Amsterdam
wants his head. Craig’s character, who wants to quit while he’s
ahead and now must outwit opponents who know nearly every move
he is about to make, clearly doesn’t understand that retiring
as a drug dealer is not as simple as retiring as a stock trader
or doctor. While Vaughn doesn’t break any new ground here, the
film possesses a cool style, and Sienna Miller
(another future Mrs. Vile One, but that’s a little delayed because
of a loser named Jude Law) makes anything worth
watching. However, if Vaughn screws up X-Men, I will
never forgive him… ever.
Saturday, March 12, 2005
Lexi Alexander, a world middle weight karate
champion and director of the Academy Award-nominated short Johnny
Flynton, directs her first feature about soccer… excuse me…
football violence. Elijah Wood stars as Matthew
Buckner, a Harvard student who takes the fall for his roommate’s
drug possession and runs away to England to stay with his sister
(Claire Forlani) and her husband Steve (Marc
Warren). Through them he meets Pete (Charlie
Hunnam), leader of West Ham United’s football firm (or
gang), a group of young, adult men who really take their love
of football too far. Matt gets caught up in the lifestyle and
violence and begins to enjoy the high of the fighting. Steve is
displeased since he used to be a part of it and wants Matt to
stop before things get out of control.
This movie is dark, brutal, gritty, and violent. The violence
is not hyper-stylized but very ugly and realistic. When someone
gets hit, they bleed and bruise. The scars always show. Alexander
did a great job with the intent to present the violence in a graphic
way. She grew up around this lifestyle and wondered about how
schizophrenic it appeared. Her friends and family, normal everyday
people, transition into different people when they attend the
football matches and get into fights. The performances are great,
especially Hunham’s Pete. And it’s always a good thing for movies
to depict that when you foolishly hit a person, there are consequences.
DUST TO GLORY
Dust To Glory is a new documentary by Step Into
Liquid director Dana Brown about the Baja
1000 race. Dana Brown narrates the story following the treacherous
off-road 1000-mile race in Baja Mexico in November of 2003. This
was a really well done, beautifully shot documentary (DP: Kevin
Ward) with some great, original music composed by Nathan
Furst. While the race looks and certainly has a big,
epic feel, it’s juxtaposed by the people, the racers that the
documentary follows. What Brown does a great job of showing is
how much these guys love what they do, and how dedicated they
are to compete in such a dangerous race. What struck me the most
about the show was not just the characters of the racers and how
down to earth they seemed, but how the race is really more about
just finishing it rather than beating someone else. That’s in
essence, the real competition, they are competing with the Baja
desert, not with each other.
Friday, March 11, 2005
THE WENDELL BAKER STORY
Co-directors and brothers, Andrew and Luke
Wilson (also screenwriter of the film), make their directorial
debut in this funny, surprisingly touching and poignant comedy.
Luke Wilson stars as Wendell Baker, a nice, sociable, and talkative
guy. His girlfriend, Doreen (future Mrs. The Vile One, Eva
Mendes) is head over heels for Wendell despite his shortcomings…
mainly that Wendell is a criminal who sells fraudulent Texas IDs
to illegal immigrants. After Wendell gets caught and put in the
slammer, Doreen feels that Wendell no longer cares for her and
moves on. Despondent about the loss of Doreen, Wendell finally
decides to clean up his act, get paroled, and win back Doreen.
He’s sent to work at a retirement home run by slimy and entertaining
scumbags in the form of Neil King (Owen Wilson)
and MacTeague (Eddie Griffin). King and MacTeague
are actually running a ridiculous scam at the retirement home
which entails giving the elderly the “Greyhound treatment.” When
Wendell gets used to this he finally decides to put his ambition
to better use. I really enjoyed this movie. The acting and cast
were fantastic.
The story, which involves Wendell trying to find redemption and
reunite with the woman he loves, is very well done. Harry
Dean Stanton and Seymour Cassel are
great as Wendell’s retired friends, Summers and Fulbright. Also,
the reclusive aviator, played by Kris Kristofferson,
with whom Wendell ingratiates himself, does good work. Ferrell
has a small but effective role as Doreen’s new boyfriend, and
his scenes are among the funniest in the movie, which was beautifully
shot in Austin. The Wilson brothers make an impressive debut as
a directing duo… even if Andrew is a UT drop-out.
 Talk
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