Movies

DVD of the Week: Road to Nowhere

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Road to Nowhere could be subtitled Monte Hellman’s Jigsaw Puzzle.  It’s the first film in twenty years from 79-year-old cult director Hellman, and he has delivered a multi-layered riddle that challenges the audience.  There is the story of a crime as it was originally understood, the story of what really happened and the story of a film being made about the crime.  The same actors play the characters in all three stories.  One of the actors in the movie may actually be one of the participants in the original crime.

It’s not a film for everyone.  You must be willing to accept that the story is not going to make sense for a while, and some issues are never going to be resolved.  If you can engage in the puzzle, there’s enough of a payoff.

My guilty pleasures include Hellman’s 1974 Cockfighter with Warrren Oates and his 1971 Two-Lane Blacktop with Oates and James Taylor (yes, the singer-songwriter James Taylor).  Road to Nowhere is far more stylish and ambitious than those films, but far more baffling.

In Road to Nowhere, the director of the film within the film discovers and becomes besotted, even obsessed, with his leading lady – and things do not turn out happily.  I had to think of the female lead in Two Lane Blacktop, Laurie Bird;  Hellman had a relationship with Bird, who later became Art Garfunkle’s companion and committed suicide in Garfunkle’s apartment.

 

Other recent DVD picks have been Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy, Poetry, Queen to Play, Kill the Irishman and The Music Never Stopped.

DVD of the Week: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

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In this 1979 miniseries version of the classic John le Carre spy novel, there is a Soviet mole in the highest echelon of British intelligence.  It could be anyone except George Smiley, whom the other top spies have pushed out to pasture.  Smiley, in one of Alec Guinness’ greatest performances, begins a deliberate hunt to unmask the double agent.  Guinness is joined by a superb cast that includes Ian Richardson, Patrick Stewart, Ian Bannen and Sian Phillips.  It’s 290 minutes of pressure-packed whodunit.

The Labor Day weekend is a great opportunity to watch the old master spy drilling down through the characters of his former peers to expose the mole – one of the best mysteries ever on film.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy has been remade into a much shorter theatrical version that will open in the US on November 18.  This new film version will also feature a top tier cast – Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Ralph Fiennes, Michael Fassbender, Ciaran Hinds, Benedict Cumberbatch, Toby Jones and Stephen Rea.   The trailer is at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.

Other recent DVD picks have been Poetry, Queen to Play, Kill the Irishman and The Music Never Stopped.

The Debt: What is the cost of truth? And of untruth?

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A team of three Mossad agents are charged with kidnapping a Nazi war criminal out of 1964’s East Berlin.  One aspect of the mission remains incomplete, and the three must address it 30 years later.   It’s a ripping yarn with some serious comments on the costs of both truth and untruth.  Helen Mirren is brilliant as one of the team, as is Jessica Chastain, playing her younger self.  Directed by John Madden (Shakespeare in Love).

Amigo: Every character counts, making for gripping drama and sound history

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The master writer-director John Sayles delivers a first-class historical drama with Amigo, set in 1900 amid the US occupation of the Phillipines.  One of Sayles’ specialties is intertwining the stories of a large ensemble cast while keeping each character recognizable, distinct and textured.  As in City of Joy and Lone Star, the audience sees events unfold from the perspective of various characters, none of whom know enough to fully understand the others.

Veteran Filipino actor Joel Torre (over 200 acting credits) plays the village headman, who recognizes that he is doomed to disappoint the contradictory expectations of the Filipino rebels and the US occupiers.  Garret Dillahunt plays the well-meaning American lieutenant who is charged to both protect and fight a people that he is not equipped to understand.  Oscar-winner Chris Cooper, DJ Qualls, Dane DeHaan, Spanky Manikan and Ronnie Lazaro also excel among the fine cast.  

Sarah’s Key: an investigation becomes unexpectedly personal

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Kristin Scott Thomas stars in another French film, this time as a journalist tracking the story of a girl during the WWII roundup of Jews in France.  Her probe of events almost sixty years in the past becomes more and more personal, and profoundly entangles more and more people.  It’s a compelling story, and no actor can portray intensity and doggedness better than Scott Thomas.  Co-stars Niels Arestrup (A Prophet) and Aidan Quinn.

Movie shot on a cell phone

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This one-minute movie, Discovery of the Woodsprites by Jadrien Steele, was shot on a cell phone.  Sandisk was a sponsor of Cinequest 2010, and four films shot on cell phones – all less than a minute and six seconds – were shown before most features at the festival.  You can watch all four movies at 4 Movies Shot on a Cell Phone

Here is Discovery of the Woodsprites.

DVD of the Week: Queen to Play

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In the fine French drama Queen to Play, a working class woman discovers a passion for chess in midlife. It’s a film about aspiration. First, she must muster the courage and resourcefulness to learn the game. When it becomes an obsession, she and her family must adjust.

The excellent actress Sandrine Bonnaire (Intimate Strangers) is the perfect choice to play this laconic and controlled character, who reveals her thoughts and emotions to the audience almost only through her eyes. A French-speaking Kevin Kline is also very good as the crusty American widower who teaches her chess.

Other recent DVD picks have been Kill the Irishman,  The Music Never Stopped, Source Code, Potiche and Another Year.

The Whistleblower: a potentially riveting story, clumsily told

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The Whistleblower is a potentially riveting story, clumsily told.  It’s a paranoid thriller about human trafficking that was tolerated and even assisted by UN peacekeepers in Bosnia.  After seeing this movie, I was determined to debunk its claim of “inspired by real events”.  So I looked up the story and was surprised to learn that it is essentially true.  The problem is that the filmmaking caused me to think it was fictionalized.

Director Larysa Kondracki throws every Hollywood trope at the screen.   The photography is dark when the movie is supposed to be foreboding, and extra dark and jerky when things are supposed to be scary.   To keeps things dark and scary, Weisz uses a flashlight instead of flipping the light switch when entering an uninhabited room.  Several characters exist primarily to give exposition-filled speeches.  Various Eastern Europeans conveniently speak English when they encounter Rachel Weisz.   And Weisz’s character is the only person in Bosnia who drives a jeep around unaccompanied.

The Whistleblower is a vehicle for star Rachel Weisz and she does a good job.   David Straithern and Vanessa Redgrave contribute their customarily excellent performances.  Human trafficking is topical.  But this movie just isn’t up to its subject or its cast.

DVD of the Week: Kill the Irishman

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Kill the Irishman is based on the real story of Danny Greene, a 70s Irish gangster who took on the Cleveland Mafia. Ray Stevenson (Titus Pullo on Rome) stars as the ambitious hood with uncommon charm, ruthless determination and knack for survival.  All-in-all, it’s a worthy crime drama with an excellent cast of veteran “mobsters”: Christopher Walken, Vincent D’Onofrio, Tony Lo Bianco, Paul Sorvino, Steve Schirripa,Robert Davi, Vinny Vella and Mike Starr.

Other recent DVD picks have been The Music Never Stopped, Source Code, Potiche and Another Year.

The Guard: another winner for Brendan Gleeson

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This Irish dark comedy is a showpiece for Brendan Gleeson as a lowbrow cop happening upon an international drug conspiracy.  Gleeson is always very good and was especially memorable in director Martin McDonagh’s  2008 In Bruges, which was either the funniest hit man movie ever or the darkest and most violent buddy comedy ever.  This time, McDonagh’s brother John Michael McDonagh directs Gleeson as a very canny man who convincingly strives to appear much dumber than he is.   The perfect foil for Gleeson’s sloppy local cop is the refined FBI agent played by Don Cheadle.  Those familiar with Ireland will recognize the Connemara Coast.  Don’t miss The Guard.