buddy movie

DVD/Stream of the Week: SMOKE SIGNALS – Native American roadtrip to laughs and a long-buried secret

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Evan Adams and Adam Beach in SMOKE SIGNALS

The smart and bitingly funny dramedy Smoke Signals is a film about Native Americans written and directed by Native Americans.  Evans Adams plays Thomas Builds-the-Fire, an Indian nerd, a character type almost certainly unique in cinema.  Adam Beach plays his oft-surly friend Victor.  The two had contrasting relationships with Victor’s father, who has recently died.  Thomas and Victor embark on a road trip to unearth a family secret.

Smoke Signals was written with an acerbic wit and is often downright uproarious. The laugh lines are as funny as in any screwball comedy: Sometimes it’s a good day to die, and sometimes it’s a good day to have breakfast. One of the high points is a rendition of the original song John Wayne’s Teeth.

As Thomas and Victor banter, we get to glimpse inside both Indian Country and mainstream culture from the Indian point of view. Smoke Signals unflinchingly takes on alcoholism and other issues within the Native American community, as well as resentment of how Native Americans are treated by the dominant American culture.

Adam Beach and Evan Adams in SMOKE SIGNALS

Smoke Signals’s screenplay was written by Sherman Alexie, based on his own novel. Alexie set the core of the story on the Coeur d’Alene Reservation on which he grew up. It was directed in 1997 by then 28-year-old Chris Eyre. Eyre, a Cheyenne-Arapaho, has since directed the Native American-themed Skins and Edge of America, along with episode of Friday Night Lights and American Experience.

Adams is hysterically funny as Thomas, and Beach is a capable straight man. Smoke Signals also features the fine Native Canadian actor and actress Gary Farmer and Tantoo Cardinal and the Native American actress Irene Bedard. Michele St. John and Elaine Miles are very funny as Victor and Thomas’ reservation friends Velma and Lucy.

The film won the Audience Award and the Filmmakers Trophy at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival. Smoke Signals is available on DVD from Netflix and to stream from Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.

DVD of the Week: End of Watch

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End of Watch is a top notch thriller of a cop movie, and it made my list of Best Movies of 2012.   Two cops, played by Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña, patrol a hell hole beat in South Central LA.  They are well-intentioned cops, but they are testosterone-fueled young guys. They are always looking for action, and this neighborhood has plenty of action.  They ultimately bite off more than they should try to chew.

Writer-director David Ayer (Training Day) has made a movie that rises above the genre because of the well-written main characters and their relationship.  We watch them chiefly from a camera on the dashboard of their squad car.  We learn that they are both decent guys and both adrenaline junkies, but one is more aspirational and one is more settled.  They are both funny, and the multiracial theater audience at my screening was howling at the ethnic ball-breaking.

There are also some impressive chases, often filmed with the dashboard camera facing forward.  It’s thrilling stuff.  There’s a lot of shaky cam (which I usually hate), but here it works well to enhance the chaos of the setting as well as the action.

The rest of the cast is excellent, most notably Natalie Martinez and Anna Kendrick (Up in the Air) as the love interests, David Harbour, America Ferrera and Frank Grillo as fellow cops, and Diamonique as a fierce gangbanger.

And here’s a shout out to Michael Peña.  In End of Watch, Peña nails both the humor and the action; he’s on-screen almost the whole movie and has an engaging presence.  He has played so many Latino cops, and he really deserves a chance to show what he can do with a different type of role.

End of Watch: thrilling cop drama rises above the genre

by

End of Watch is a top notch thriller of a cop movie.  Two cops, played by Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña, patrol a hell hole beat in South Central LA.  They are well-intentioned cops, but they are testosterone-fueled young guys. They are always looking for action, and this neighborhood has plenty of action.  They ultimately bite off more than they should try to chew.

Writer-director David Ayer (Training Day) has made a movie that rises above the genre because of the well-written main characters and their relationship.  We watch them chiefly from a camera on the dashboard of their squad car.  We learn that they are both decent guys and both adrenaline junkies, but one is more aspirational and one is more settled.  They are both funny, and the multiracial theater audience at my screening was howling at the ethnic ball-breaking.

There are also some impressive chases, often filmed with the dashboard camera facing forward.  It’s thrilling stuff.  There’s a lot of shaky cam (which I usually hate), but here it works well to enhance the chaos of the setting as well as the action.

The rest of the cast is excellent, most notably Natalie Martinez and Anna Kendrick (Up in the Air) as the love interests, David Harbour, America Ferrera and Frank Grillo as fellow cops, and Diamonique as a fierce gangbanger.

And here’s a shout out to Michael Peña.  In End of Watch, Peña nails both the humor and the action; he’s on-screen almost the whole movie and has an engaging presence.  He has played so many Latino cops, and he really deserves a chance to show what he can do with a different type of role.