Movies

The Cheshire Murders: beyond the police procedural

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THE CHESHIRE MURDERS

The Cheshire Murders, another in HBO’s fine summer documentary series, takes us beyond the familiar police procedural.  This is not a whodunit – we immediately know what happened and who committed the crimes.  Three murders were committed in a home invasion, and the two perpetrators were caught red-handed – their guilt confirmed by confessions and DNA and other forensic  evidence.

Instead, as The Cheshire Murders peels back the onion, we hear about the crime’s impact on a quiet Connecticut suburb and on the families of the victims and the perpetrators. We trace the unanswered questions on the police response.  We follow the life journeys of the murderers which culminate in this horrific crime.  We see how the case affected the political debate over capital punishment in Connecticut, and test our own views on capital punishment with the facts of  a heinous crime, certain guilt and monstrous offenders.

The Cheshire Murders is all the more effective because the filmmakers refused to sensationalize the case.  The facts, speaking for themselves, are compelling enough.

The Cheshire Murders is currently playing on HBO.  Note: Some of the victims of this wanton, senseless and disgusting crime were children; although there are no grisly images, the facts of the case are disturbing.

DVD/Stream of the Week: Troll 2 and Best Worst Movie

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I love movies that are unintentionally hilarious – at once both undeniably bad and entertaining.  Troll 2 has recently gotten some buzz as the worst movie of all time”, largely because of Best Worst Movie, a 2009 documentary about how horrible and funny Troll 2 is.  It may not be the worst, but Troll 2 belongs in the conversation and has earned a place in my Bad Movie Festival.

A white bread suburban family vacations in the mountain village of Nilbog (“Goblin” spelled backwards, get it?) in which all the locals are vegetarian predator goblins who can take the form of regular humans.  The goblins are able to turn humans into vegetative matter (a green slime) that the goblins can ingest.

The movie was made with very primitive production values by a non-English speaking Italian crew and a non-Italian speaking Z-list American cast.  Inept acting and directing aside, the screenplay is probably the source of the most laughs.  There’s the dead grandpa Seth who keeps appearing to the boy, the boy’s saving his family by urinating on the family dinner, the make out scene so “hot” that it pops popcorn and so much more. Another of the funny aspects of Troll 2 is that it is completely unrelated to the movie Troll and has no trolls in it.

Troll 2 is available on Netflix Streaming.  You can see some of the finer bits of Troll 2 by doing a YouTube search for “You can’t piss on hospitality” and “Troll 2 O my God”.  Here’s the trailer.

 

As to Best Worst Movie, it’s very entertaining.  There are some squirmy scenes with cast members whose mental health issues have since worsened.  The Italian director is a jerk who, although happy to bask in Troll 2‘s new found cult status,  is narcissistically unwilling to acknowledge its badness.  But the goodhearted goofiness of star George Hardy, a cast of good sports and Troll 2‘s cult following dominates, and Best Worst Movie is fun to watch.  Best Worst Move is available on DVD.

The hilariously bad movie Troll 2 is available streaming on Amazon, iTunes and Vudu.  The documentary Best Worst Movie is available on DVD from Netflix and streaming on Amazon, iTunes and Vudu.

The Way, Way Back: when parents are no help whatsoever

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THE WAY WAY BACK

In the appealing coming of age story The Way, Way Back,  a betrodden teen (Liam James) gains confidence when mentored at his summer job by a lowlife (Sam Rockwell).  The kid’s mom (Toni Collette) has been rocked by a divorce (hubby found a young thing), and has rediscovered some self esteem in the attentions of a creep (Steve Carrell).  Now the kid, his mom, her insufferable boyfriend and the boyfriend’s bratty daughter are off to his summer home on the Atlantic shore.  The kid finds a job at a cheesy local water park, and funny stuff happens.

In depicting the ways that parents make their teen kids miserable, The Way, Way Back is spot on.  I’m not talking about the uncool cluelessness that makes all teens embarrassed about the even most perfect parents.  The Way, Way Back focuses on children from broken marriages who are made to feel unvalued or whose weaknesses are picked at or whose parents become too involved with their own issues.  Indeed all the kids in The Way, Way Back come from divorced families.  Even one childless marriage (Rob Corddry from Warm Bodies and Amanda Peet) is very imperfect.

Collette’s performance nails the desperation of a woman, once abandoned, for a relationship that will meet at least some of her needs.  Alison Janney is hilarious as the neighboring divorcee who is embracing her alcoholism.  The rest of the cast, including Maya Rudolph, is good, too.  Give credit to Carrell for taking on a very unsympathetic role, something not every bankable star will do.

It may not be a Must See, but The Way, Way Back is sweet, perceptive and pretty funny.

Bert and Arnie’s Guide to Friendship: why watch these guys?

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BERT AND ARNIE'S GUIDE TO FRIENDSHIP

Now out on VOD, Bert and Arnie’s Guide to Friendship is an odd couple comedy with the promising premise that the two main characters become entangled when one has an affair with the other’s wife. The good news is that the comedy is driven by the characters, one an abrasive womanizer and the other a pretentious and self-involved minor novelist.  The bad news is that the broad characters are neither textured or interesting or sympathetic enough to sustain a movie of longer than 49 minutes (which is when I stopped watching).  And worse, Bert and Arnie wastes a supporting performance by the delightful Anna Chlumsky.

Bert and Arnie’s Guide to Friendship is available  streaming from Amazon and iTunes.

Dead Man’s Burden: times are hard and the women are harder

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DEAD MAN'S BURDEN

I always welcome a new Western, and writer-director Jared Moshe’s impressive debut Dead Man’s Burden takes us to a darkly realistic Old West.  The dry New Mexico landscape is beautiful but unforgiving, and the law is three days ride away.  The times are hard and the women are harder.  The Civil War ended five years before, but families are still reeling from losing a generation of young men.

As the film opens, a man rides away on horseback.  A petite woman, young but worn, hoists an 1853 Enfield rifle to her shoulder, takes aim and fires.  We later learn the identity of the man, his relationship to the woman and her reason for firing.  It’s not what you might guess.  And the villain is not who you expect it to be.

Moshe’s story reveals some characters to be bound by duty and others to be opportunistic.  They are caught in the same web of circumstance, which funnels inevitably them to conflict.  The movie’s final two shots echo an earlier moment, and neatly (if grimly) wrap up the tale.

The cast – Barlow Jacobs, Clare Bowen (Scarlet in ABC’s Nashville), David Call and veteran Richard Riehle – is uniformly good.  Jacobs (Kid in Shotgun Stories) is especially well suited for a Western hero, with expressive eyes that narrow like Eastwood’s or Van Cleef’s.

There’s a gunfight that is more historically typical than the usual cinematic facedown in the street.  These men, hunters and former soldiers, chase each other through the brush, firing from cover.  It ain’t heroic.  And Dead Man’s Burden is remarkably unsentimental.

DEAD MAN'S BURDEN

Dead Man’s Burden was shot on 35mm by Robert Hauer, and the look of the film brings out the isolating vastness of the land.  Sadly, the sound is substandard, and I had difficulty comprehending some of the dialogue.

Dead Man’s Burden is available on DVD from Netflix and streaming from Amazon, Vudu and other VOD outlets.

DVD/Stream: you gotta see The Imposter

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The Imposter

I’m repeating last week’s DVD/Stream of the Week because you just shouldn’t miss The Imposter.  Life is at times stranger than fiction, and The Imposter is one of the most jaw-dropping documentaries I have seen. Nicholas Barclay, a 13-year-old Texas boy, vanished in 1994. Three years later, a young man surfaced in Spain, claiming to be an American boy kidnapped for sexual exploitation; he was identified by Spanish police as Nicholas Barclay. In fact, he was a serial impersonator named Frédéric Bourdin who had contrived the ruse to escape getting busted for his own petty misdeeds.

That’s not a spoiler, because The Imposter’s audience learns this framework right away. Here’s the first real shocker: the imposter is accepted by Nicholas’ family. This is more amazing because Frédéric is seven years older than Nicholas, is not a native English speaker and looks nothing like him. Of course, Frédéric is surprised that the family is embracing him as Nicholas – and then he begins to suspect why…

Filmmaker Bart Layton expertly spins the story, We meet the actual Frédéric Bourdin, members of the Barclay family, and the detectives who broke the case.

The Imposter is available on DVD from Netflix and streaming from Netflix, Amazon, iTunes and many other VOD providers.

The Heat: worth seeing for Melissa McCarthy

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THE HEAT

We’ve all seen cop buddy comedies before (Lethal Weapon, 48 Hours and scores of copycats).   In the The Heat, the odd couple is Sandra Bullock (as the arrogant and fastidious FBI agent) and Melissa McCarthy (as the earthy and streetwise Boston cop).  There are some especially well-written bits in The Heat, especially when Bullock’s prig finally explodes into a completely inept torrent of profanity and when McCarthy’s cop belittles her commander’s manhood for what must be the zillionth time.

But here’s why you will enjoy The Heat.  Melissa McCarthy’s line readings are brilliantly hilarious.  Her gift for dialogue makes everything and everyone in this movie much funnier.  Her performance elevates the entire movie.  In fact, every person who has talked to me about The Heat has laughed when describing it.  It may not be that original, but it’s sufficiently well made and McCarthy is sublime.

This Is the End: grossing out The Rapture

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THIS IS THE END

As gross-out comedies go, This Is the End is adequately entertaining. Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, James Franco and other movie comedy stars play themselves – all partying at Franco’s over-the-top Hollywood mansion when the Apocalypse and The Rapture intrude.

The cast does a good job with the very broad material.  Franco, Hill, Harry Potter’s Emma Watson and especially Michael Cera all poke fun at their own images.  And, just when you think you’re watching a low brow comedy, Danny McBride arrives and takes that brow even further into the gutter.

It’s co-written and co-directed by best friends Rogen and Evan Goldberg, who co-wrote Superbad as teenagers.  Jay Baruchel plays a character based on Goldberg, down from Canada to visit his boyhood chum and distrusting Rogen’s Hollywood posse.  It’s a solid send-up of the apocalyptic movie genre, with a nice little homage to The Exorcist.  The guys will enjoy This Is the End more than will the gals.

20 Feet from Stardom: essential for music fans

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Lisa Fisher in 20 FEET FROM STARDOM

The documentary 20 Feet from Stardom delves into the careers of rock music’s backup singers – so close to the celebrity spotlight, yet so obscure and under appreciated.  Some prefer the background (the Walkers and the electrifyingly talented Lisa Fischer), and some aspire to major solo careers (Judith Hill).  Others have been disappointed in the quest for stardom (Merry Clayton and Claudia Linnear) – or stardom has been delayed (Darlene Love).  We meet all of these very talented and appealing women, and hear from Mick Jagger, Bruce Springsteen and Sting.

The best parts are hearing Darlene Love’s story (which adds to the body of evidence that Phil Spector is a terrible human being), the inside glimpse into Merry Clayton’s iconic solo in the Rolling Stones’ Gimme Shelter and experiencing the magical voice of Lisa Fischer.  It’s a little slow in places, but 20 Feet from Stardom is a pretty good choice for any viewer and essential for music fans.

Here’s a description from the director.

 

 

 

Augustine: obsession, passion and the birth of a science

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AUGUSTINE

The absorbing French drama Augustine is based on the real work of 19th century medical research pioneer Jean-Martin Charcot, known as the father of neurology.  A young kitchen maid begins suffering wild seizures and is brought to Charcot’s research hospital.  He ascertains the triggers for the seizures, and begins to close in on cure.  Needing funding for his research, he triggers her seizures before groups of his peers; he is showing off his research, but it’s clear that his affluent male audience is titillated by the comely girl’s orgasmic thrashes.

She is drawn to this man whose kindness to her belies their class difference and whose brilliance is the key to her recovery.  The good doctor intends to cure her – but not until she has performed for his potential funders.  She is unexpectedly cured just before Charcot’s most important demonstration, and she gets to decide whether to continue her exploitation.  In the stunning conclusion, she gets the upper hand and her simmering feelings erupt.

The fine French actor Vincent Lindon (Mademoiselle Chambon) excels at playing very contained and reserved characters, and here he nails Charcot’s clash of decency and professional ambition. The French pop singer Soko is captivating as his patient.

It’s an auspicious first feature film for writer-director Alice Winocour.  She has constructed a story that about two sympathetic characters whose interests converge, then diverge and then…