wonderdawg Reviews

You Kill Me (2007)

Latest Dahl Pic Is Not Exactly a Killer Thriller But It's No Joy Ride Either

[7/10 · 7 January 2010]

Writer/director John Dahl reinvented film noir for modern audiences with "Red Rock West" and "The Last Seduction" and although "You Kill Me" isn't up there with those spiky gems this droll macabre comedy/romance is a welcome return to form after forgettable flicks like "Unforgettable" and "Joy Ride". Sir Ben Kingsley gives a deliciously deadpan performance as an alcoholic Polish-American killer for hire named Frank Falenczyk. "Every time we send you out I have to make a call to find out if they're dead," moans mob boss Roman Krzeminski (Phillip Baker Hall). "I can't trust you anymore, Frank. Even if you are my nephew." Sent to Los Angeles to dry out the lonely hit-man finds unlikely redemption when he gets a job in a mortuary and meets a melancholy misfit played by Tea Leoni at her tart twisted best. Jeff Daniels has some funny lines as, well, let's have him tell us in his own words: "In a town with a ten percent vacancy rate a real estate agent is god, and that's what I am, a real estate agent."

Ginger Snaps (2000)

A teen horror film with subtext? What a concept!

[10/10 · 17 November 2009]

"I had a lot of problems with horror films in general, especially the portrayal of women" Karen Walton confesses on the Writer's Commentary track, " ... lots of screaming and bouncing ... violence for the sake of violence .... I really hated the genre."

So why did she spend four years writing and polishing her script to razor sharp perfection? Simple. Director John Fawcett offered her a chance to rewrite the rules.

Gothy, antisocial and obsessed with images of death, twisted sisters Ginger (Katherine Isabelle) and Bridget (Emily Perkins) are toughing out their teens in high school hell in deepest darkest Canadian suburbia. Harassed by the popular girls and hustled by the jocks, the pair huddles together for protection. All that changes when Ginger is bitten one night by a savage wolf like creature. Once shy and quiet, she becomes assertive, self-confident and sexually provocative. Her body is going through changes as well. I mean, what's up with those silver hairs on her Lady Schick? Bridget begins to suspect her sister has been infected by the bite and may be turning into a monster. "Thank you for taking my nightmare so seriously, " Ginger scowls. Her tone is sarcastic. Yet it is precisely the film's serious treatment of her predicament that sets it apart from all those self- referential satires that followed in the wake of Wes Craven's Scream trilogy. Ginger's slow and terrifying transformation into a werewolf is meant to be a metaphor for the emotional upheaval, confusion and terror of adolescence with all its attendant physical and psychological changes.

"It's really important to go for emotional honesty, " Walton stresses. She gets it from Isabelle and Perkins. These two talented and intuitive young performers know and understand their characters intimately and are able to reach deep inside and come up with intense, unsettling, often poignant feelings and emotions. The premise may be "out there" but the portrayals ring true and it is that reality which grounds the story and makes the fantastical elements believable. The focus of the film is on the bond between the two girls and it is intriguing to watch the shifting dynamics in the relationship as Ginger begins to lose control of her mind and body. To save her sister's life, timid Bridget must finally take charge of her own.

Although the subject matter is treated seriously, the film is laced with deliciously dark humor. The dialogue crackles with sharp, sardonic wit, Mimi Rogers plays the girls' clueless suburban mom to poker-faced perfection and director Fawcett has a clever way of using visual cues as a wry counterpoint to action unfolding on screen.

Operating on a lo-fi budget, the director relies on sly camera-work, atmospheric lighting and canny editing rather than an arsenal of special effects to create tension and drama. He has a keen eye for little details and a shrewd sense of pacing. Check out the deleted scenes (15 in all) to fully appreciate his discipline as a film-maker.

There are two commentary tracks, Fawcett's is full of breezy chatter about the actors and shooting details but it is Walton's track that I found intriguing. Thoughtful and analytical, it is recommended listening for any budding screenwriter looking for tips on story structure and characterization. The extras include behind the scenes footage of Isabelle and Perkins auditioning and rehearsing their roles.

JCVD (2008)

Jean Claude Van Damme Delivers Oscar Worthy Performance! (Seriously)

[8/10 · 8 November 2009]

The blurb on the dust jacket made this veteran action fan do a double take – "Van Damme deserves not a Black Belt, but an Oscar" – TIME.

That's right, TIME Magazine.

Obviously, this isn't your average direct to video body slammer.

Sure, it's business as usual at the beginning of the pic with the Belgian beefcake kickboxing his way through a bunch of bad guys in a single take.

When the bored young Asian kid behind the camera yells "Cut!" and the star walks off the set the real movie begins.

Because in this surprising French language film from maverick Algerian filmmaker Mabrouk el Mechri, Van Damme plays himself (or at least a version of himself.)

Cut to a courtroom in Los Angeles where "Van Damme" is involved in a bitter custody battle with one of his ex-wives. His little daughter (Saskia Flanders) would rather stay with her mom because, as she tells the judge, "everytime my dad's on a TV show my friends make fun of me. And I don't want them to make fun of me anymore." Ouch! That's gotta hurt.

Broke, dispirited and suffering from jet lag, the actor returns to Belgium.

The predominant theme of the film is the tension between the illusion of celebrity and the grim reality of life offscreen.

Everywhere "Van Damme" goes he is treated like a national hero and yet with his credit cards maxed out and cheques bouncing like rubber bullets the actor has to phone his Hollywood agent (Jesse Joe Walsh) to ask for an advance on his next picture ... only to learn that Steven Seagal has replaced him in the lead. ("He promised to cut off his ponytail".)

Like the real Van Damme, the character here is trapped in an endless cycle of direct to video clunkers. Even his agent can't keep track of them.

JCVD: So what's next

AGENT: What's next? 'No Limit Injury'. It's about a Viet vet ....

JCVD: I've done this movie six months ago.

AGENT: We did?

JCVD: What's next?

AGENT: 'No Limit Injury 2' It's about a Gulf War vet who tries to pay for his son's education ...

Just when you think things couldn't get any worse for our beleaguered star, he walks into the local post office ("I'm here for a transfer. The name's Jean Claude van Varenberg, not my stage name Van Damme", he snaps at the cashier) and finds himself in the middle of a robbery/hostage drama. The robbers force him at gunpoint to negotiate with the police on the phone and the cops (and the media) assume he has had some sort of breakdown and is masterminding the heist.

Director (and co-writer) El-Mechri and his star use the situation to take some wicked potshots at the action movie biz and the people who work in it.

One of the gunmen, Arthur (Karim Belkhadra), turns out to be an avid and knowledgeable action movie fan.

Trapped in the bank with the other hostages "Van Damme" is as fearful for his life as any of them and yet Arthur persists in relating to him as the action hero he has seen and worshipped in countless films.

"He's the one who brought John Woo to the US," the gunman tells the frightened hostages. "Without him (Woo) would still be filming pigeons in Hong Kong. And then what? He drops you."

JCVD: "At least he did Face-Off".

ARTHUR: "So what? He could have picked you. On the other hand, when you see 'Windtalkers', there's a justice."

Speaking in his native French, Van Damme achieves an eloquence and an artistic freedom that his English language bust-em-ups never even hinted at.

At one point the actor floats right out of the set and talks directly to the camera in a Shakespearean-style soliloquy which – to quote the venerable show biz trade paper VARIETY - "must be seen to be believed. "

During the course of a six minute monologue (call it an out-of-movie experience) the actor goes from stoic to teary-eyed as he comes clean about his many marriages ("I've always believed in love"), his drug addiction ("I tried something and I got hooked ... I was wasted mentally and physically") and apologizes to his fans for failing to live up to his early promise ("You made my dream come true ... I promised you something in return and I haven't delivered yet. ")

Looking tired, haggard and desperate this is definitely not the confident young kickbutt star of 1993's "Nowhere To Run", 1994's "Timecop" and 1996's "Maximum Risk". (I am such a longtime fan I can still remember when Van Damme flicks opened in theatres rather than video shelves.)

Like Mickey Rourke in "The Wrestler" (another fictional tale with real life roots) Van Damme goes through a startling and poignant character transformation in this film.

Okay, maybe an Oscar nomination was wishful thinking. But a Golden Globe would have been nice.

SIDEBAR: Hyperkinetic Hong Kong thrillers like "The Killer" (1989) and "Hard-Boiled" (1992) made John Woo a buzzworthy name in U.S. film circles but it was a Van Damme movie, "Hard Target" (1993) that first brought the filmmaker to Hollywood. Although Woo went on to make hits like "Broken Arrow" (1996) and "Face-Off" (1997) with John Travolta he never worked with Van Damme again. His Stateside career tapered off after "Windtalkers" took a critical and box office beating in 2002.

Wendy and Lucy (2008)

Low Budget Drama Embodies the Best in Independent Film-Making

[10/10 · 7 November 2009]

If you are looking for an escape from our challenging economic times you won't find it in this modestly budgeted mood piece from independent filmmaker Kelly Reichardt. In fact, looking at the homeless young people sprawled on the streets during a recent visit to Victoria BC reminded me of Wendy, the character played with resolute conviction by Michelle Williams.

The film opens with Wendy playing fetch with her yellow Lab, Lucy. There is an easy familiarity between them. Any dog owner can relate. Enjoy it while it lasts.

Wendy has the look of someone who has spent a lot of her life (to quote a Bob Seger lyric) running against the wind. But even she is unprepared for the run of bad luck she experiences when she drives into a nondescript section of Portland on her way to Alaska to work in the canneries. Her car breaks down, she is busted for shoplifting and when she is sprung from jail her dog is gone.

The film follows Wendy as she does her best to survive in this unsympathetic suburban landscape while trying to find her dog. As in the best independent films it is not so much the story that grabs and holds your attention as it is the manner in which it is told.

Director/editor Reichardt (who adapted her screenplay from a short story by co-screenwriter Jonathan Raymond) isn't much for exposition. Rather than being a passive observer the viewer is invited to participate in the process.

Wendy has a strained telephone conversation with relatives back in Indiana. We get it. She can't go home again. But why? There is a brief shot of a baby picture in her wallet. Is it Wendy's child? Is that why things are tense on the homefront? Reichardt leaves it up to us to sketch in the details.

Yes, the film moves slowly. Yes, it can be a bit of a culture shock to viewers accustomed to the smash and grab style of mainstream movies.

There is one thing you can count on, though, in a truly independent film like this one. The truth of the filmmaker's vision shines through unfiltered by test screenings, focus groups and meddling studio suits safeguarding their investment in the editing room.

"I teach for a living so for me making films is not a matter of money," she says on reverseshot.com (There is no audio commentary on the DVD).

Williams doesn't have a lot of dialogue in this film. She doesn't need it. The expression on her face as she walks through the pound looking for her dog tells us a lot about her without saying a word. Like the dogs looking back at her from their cages, she is a stray: forlorn, lost, confused and looking for a friendly face to help her out of an existential dilemma.

There are some sympathetic characters here, like the aging security guard (Walter Dalton) who, like the town he lives in, has seen better days.

"Not a lotta jobs around, " Wendy observes.

"Used to be a mill, that closed a long time now," the guard replies heavily. "Now I don't know what people do all day."

Although she earned her initial fame as a TV hottie on "Dawson's Creek" Williams seems to favour deglammed roles in which she can totally lose herself in the character. She won an Academy Award nomination for her role as the mousy betrayed wife in "Brokeback Mountain" and was nominated for Best Female Lead for "Wendy and Lucy" at the Independent Spirit Awards. (The film was also nominated for Best Picture at the Spirit Awards.) From a film-making standpoint there is much to admire here. Like the wide shot of Wendy walking through the down-on-its-luck neighbourhood, a figure in a landscape framed against the side of an anonymous building. The muddy brown wall is bare except for a piece of graffiti. Someone has scrawled the word "Goner" in white paint.

Kudos to the film-makers as well for the striking visual imagery (boxcars in a train yard, birds on a wire framed against the blue sky) and ambient sound (the whistle of a train, the motorized whoosh of traffic.)

You could look at the film as an intimate and personal piece of minimalist art best appreciated by film students and reviewers with English majors. I think it is more accessible than that. I hitchhiked from Calgary to Toronto following graduation from university light years ago. Naturally my parents did not share in my sense of adventure. Going home was not an option. Reichardt and Williams presents Williams' plight with such spare unsentimental authenticity that the film brought back all those feelings of rootlessness I experienced myself in my misspent youth.

Sleeping in the park, changing your clothes in a service station washroom while someone pounds on the door, its all here in rigorously realistic detail.

If you are a parent with a son and daughter lost in transit this could be the reality of their everyday life.

Cruel and Unusual (2001)

Vancouver Island Locations the Real Star of So-Called "Erotic Thriller"

[6/10 · 5 November 2009]

"You should see this place I'm going to. It's one in a million," Professor Adam Durrell (Eli Gabay) tells his passenger (Tom Berenger). The prof doesn't know it yet but he is never going to see his favorite getaway. You see, the hitch-hiker he picked up is a serial killer who assumes the identities of his victims. Posing as the now deceased Durrell the charming psycho pulls into a little coastal community in search of fresh prey. He targets lonely vulnerable Kate (Rachel Hayward) and her troubled kid brother Mike (Tygh Runyon) for a violent death. However, this time he may have met his match. Although the cast delivers competent performances the picturesque Cowichan Valley locations (doubling for Oregon) are the real stars in an otherwise routine entry in the tired 'erotic thriller' genre.

Protection (2000)

Canadian Film-Maker Turns Real Life Experience Into Reel Life Film

[8/10 · 3 November 2009]

"God I hate Surrey, it's like the entire city is stuck in a time warp, " complains Amy (Jennifer Copping) the rookie caseworker assigned to the area. Lines like this and scenes which depict the municipality as the West Coast Canadian equivalent of South Central L.A. won't endear writer/director Bruce Spangler to the local Chamber of Commerce. Call "Protection" the anti-tourism movie. There is a documentary like realism to scenes where a stressed out social worker (Nancy Sivak) struggles to make a decision after talking with a drug addicted welfare mom (Jillian Fargey) and her ex-con boyfriend (William McDonald) about the possibility of child abuse. Spangler drew on his own experiences as a caseworker with the B.C. Ministry of Children and Families for this gritty yet absorbing look at the brutal realities of the job.

Brick (2005)

Dashiell Hammett in High School: Fresh take on traditional "noir" wakes up tired genre

[9/10 · 31 October 2009]

3I year old writer/director Rian Johnson admits to an obsession with the works of Dashiell Hammett and the terse pulpy style of the 1930s novelist is stamped all over his debut feature film.

But how do you put a fresh spin on a genre that has been done to death?

As he explains on the DVD the iconography of noir (guys in trenchcoats, seductive blondes with icepick smiles, shadowy streets, cigarette smoke drifting in the night air) has been satirized so often that it is hard to take the genre seriously. Johnson's solution is an intriguing exercise in style set in a modern day suburban California high school ("to give it a different set of visual cues") with students that talk and act like characters straight out of a Hammett thriller.

If Sam Spade had a grandson, he would probably behave like Brendan Frye (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a brooding loner obsessed with solving the mystery surrounding the disappearance of troubled ex- girlfriend Emily (Emilie de Ravin).

"Keep your specs on, find me if she shows," he instructs his sidekick, a savvy fellow student nicknamed The Brain (Matt O'Leary).

Gordon-Levitt, a former sitcom star (TV's Third Rock from the Sun) now carving out a rep in edgy indies (Mysterious Skin, The Lookout) handles the tricky retro cool dialogue with deadpan aplomb and onetime child star Lukas Haas (Witness) is terrific as the gothy drug-lord who operates from a den in the basement of his mother's home. (The Brain: "He's supposed to be old, like 26.")

Of course, any self-respecting noir has to have a femme fatale. Brick has two of them: enigmatic rich girl Laura (Nora Zehetner) and vampy drama student Kara (Meagan Good). (Laura: "You think nobody sees you. Eating lunch behind the portables … I've always seen you. Or maybe I liked Emily. Maybe I see what you're trying to do for her, trying to help her, and I don't know anybody who would do that for me." Brendan: "Now you are dangerous.")

In classic noir the private eye is grilled by a hard-nosed police chief. Here Brendan is called in for questioning by the vice principal, played by 70s blaxploitation icon Richard (Shaft) Roundtree. (Brendan: "I don't want you to come kicking in my homeroom door because of something I didn't do.")

Shot on a budget of $500,000 at Johnson's former high school in San Clemente (halfway between LA and San Diego) the settings look authentic and the lo-fi production values add grit to the film's neo noir atmosphere.

Johnson has a keen visual eye. Suitable-for-freeze framing figure-in-a-landscape longshots effectively symbolize that teenage feeling of isolation.

Obviously it is an acquired taste but if you're a fan of film noir and/or have a sense of cinematic adventure Brick is a one of a kind diamond in the rough.

Mayor of the Sunset Strip (2003)

Call him the Rodney Dangerfield of rock 'n'roll: legendary DJ Rodney Bingenheimer just can't get no respect

[8/10 · 28 October 2009]

Back in 1965 Rodney Bingenheimer was hired as a stand-in for Davy Jones on The Monkees TV show and soon ingratiated himself into the hip inner circles of LA showbiz. In a world filled with phonies Rodney was the real deal: the ultimate fan, a geeky unassuming little guy reflecting the stars back at themselves the way they wanted to be seen. In return they gave him a form of love and acceptance he had never received as a youngster growing up lonely in a sleepy little California town.

Now in his late 50s Rodney is still living his life like a rock and roll song only now it's playing on the B-side of the American Dream. Unlike Dick Clark it never occurred to him to use his insider status to build up his bankroll. Cut back to Sundays from midnight – 3am on L.A.'s KROQ-FM (where he has hosted a weekly show since the 70s) he lives in a small apartment overflowing with souvenirs from his glory days. There are photos of Rodney in the 60s with Elvis, Andy Warhol, Jimi Hendrix and John Lennon; Led Zep and the Who hanging out at his rock club, Rodney's English Disco, the epicenter of the early 70s Sunset Strip "scene"; Rodney on the air (he was the first to play records by Blondie, Ramones, Sex Pistols and Nirvana, among others, practically inventing alternative rock radio in the process.)

Soundbites from David Bowie; Cher; Joan Jett; Brooke Shields, Gwen Stefani; Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek; Johnny Marr of the Smiths and Chris Martin of Coldplay testify to his widespread popularity within the industry.

In his hometown, however, Rodney still can't get any respect. His father and stepmom are clearly baffled by his success and a boyhood acquaintance wonders aloud why "celebrities glom onto this guy that around here people just made fun of."

Writer/director George Hickenlooper (Hearts of Darkness: A Film-Maker's Apocalypse) is more interested in emotional truth than technical polish. He's got a sharp eye for "one-shot-is-worth-a-thousand-words" imagery (the scene in which Rodney walks past a wall of gold records and into a grubby little kitchen littered with empty pop bottles speaks volumes about the rock and roll fantasy he has spent his whole life pursuing and the humbling reality of the consequences.)

I also like the way the film contrasts the innocence of Rodney's fanboy obsession with the reptilian charm of Kim Fowley, a fabled LA music biz hustler with so many hidden agendas he could run for political office. (Call him the anti-Rodney.)

This film aims to be more than just a feature length version of one of those Behind The Music documentaries. Hickenlooper wants to use Rodney's curious "career" to get at some larger truth about our celebrity-obsessed society. And if he isn't completely successful, well, Mayor of Sunset Strip still works as an intriguingly intimate and deeply poignant portrait of the most famous person you may have never heard of.

The Life and Hard Times of Guy Terrifico (2005)

Late Canadian country star was a legend in director's mind

[7/10 · 22 October 2009]

In the early 1970s Canadian country/rock legend Guy Terrifico was gunned down at a concert and vanished on his way to the hospital.

Recently some unreleased tapes have surfaced sparking a new recording project and prompting rumors he may still be alive.

Why would Kris Kristofferson, Merle Haggard, Colin Linden and other musical luminaries appear on an album of duets with a man who supposedly died 30 years ago?

"I loved Guy Terrifico," Kristofferson says with a craggy grin. "He was the only guy back in the early 70s who drank more than I did. He made me look like a choirboy."

Indeed the musicians interviewed for this "honky tonk-umentary" seem more interested in talking about Terrifico's excessive lifestyle than his music.

Linden recalls playing at the club Guy bought after winning the lottery.

"As soon as you'd get there for soundcheck he would start plying you with drinks and whatever else he had kicking around. By the time he'd get ready to play a lot of the bands would be too messed up to play. Normally this would be a bar owner's worst nightmare but for Terrifico it was like a dream come true. Guy just wanted to hang out with the bands, that's all."

Haggard recounts an incident at a post gig party when Terrifico got in his face once too often. ("He was an a----hole so I knocked him out.")

The film also includes reminiscences by Ronnie Hawkins, Levon Helm of The Band and Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor of Blue Rodeo.

So how come you have never heard of him? Simple. He's entirely the product of freshman filmmaker Michael Mabbott's feverish imagination.

A composite of Jerry Jeff Walker, Gordon Lightfoot and Gram Parsons, Terrifico is played with woozy verisimilitude by Halifax musician Matt Murphy.

Playing himself is Parsons' former road manager, Phil Kaufman.(Parsons' real life story was more bizarre than any fictional film.)

Simulated studio and concert footage add to the illusion. "Home movies" of late night jams at the Vancouver apartment Guy shares with wife Mary Lou (Natalie Radford) will strike a responsive chord with survivors of the era and those who are still "living the dream".

Admittedly this mock doc will be best appreciated by a niche audience. So if you're not familiar with Parsons' legacy, you don't have anything by Kris, Merle or The Band in your collection and you've never seen a boomer folk in concert you may not "get" it (or want it).

However, if you can check one of the above, the sly inside humor and musical references will have you chortling with delight like a senior at a rest home who has just realized its Saturday night and there is chocolate pudding for dessert.

Prey for Rock & Roll (2003)

Must-See DVD for wannabe rockstars (and bar wars veterans)

[8/10 · 21 October 2009]

Growing in up in LA Jacki (Gina Gershon) always knew she wanted to be a rock and roll star.

"I was this dorky 7th grader when I had my first real cool experience. Ike and Tina Turner at the Hollywood Bowl. Suddenly the idea of becoming a teacher or a nurse lost its edge. Sorry, Mom."

According to Jacki, watching punk icons X at the Whiskey A Go Go on LA's Sunset Strip was a pivotal experience

"I left that show knowing I had to have my own band. So I got an electric guitar, learned three chords and conned some chicks into starting a band with me."

Twenty years later Jacki is still toiling away in small clubs on the Strip and nursing an arena size midlife crisis.

"Don't you ever think of being 50 or 60, hauling our gear around, passing out fliers, fighting with the bookers and still sweating the rent?" she asks bandmate Faith (Lori Petty).

It's a dilemma most bar band veterans have to face sooner or later although no one wants to think about it.

Although the plot occasionally strays into melodramatic made-for-cable movie territory the dialogue has the rueful ring of actual experience. In fact, novice screenwriter Cheri Lovedog toughed it out on the LA club scene for over a decade with her own all girl punk rock band, opening for bands like Jane's Addiction, Hole and L7. There is a lot of smoke, sweat and tears in lines like " So I'm a 40 year old woman chasing a teenage dream. But you know what? It all comes down to this. These 40 or 50 minutes of playing live a few times a month." Gershon is a naturally charismatic performer and she's firing on all cylinders here. The star did all her own vocals live. This kind of hard, angry, lyrically charged rock is deceptively difficult but Gershon has the vocal moxie as well as the looks and the attitude to pull it off. (To prepare for the role she took guitar lessons from Joan Jett and played clubs with a backup band.) Lovedog wrote the songs and although not all of them work, "Every Six Minutes", a snarled warning to would-be rapists, is chillingly convincing. Musician/filmmaker Alex Steyermark lenses the proceedings like a gritty reality TV doc. "It was really important for me to capture the culture of what it is like to be in a band," he tells us on the DVD. "This is a world I'm familiar with, a world I come from and in many ways I wanted to pay homage to that, to the people who really work hard at their art even though they are never going to see any kind of material success from it."

Monkey Warfare (2006)

T.O. Film-Maker Takes Potshots at West Coast Lifestyles and Faded Hippie Ideals (But I Still Liked His Movie)

[7/10 · 20 October 2009]

"Urban guerrillas?" asks Susan (Nadia Litz).

A cute, provocative wannabe bohemian in her early 20s, Susan still hasn't found what she's looking for although she is intrigued by the funky boho lifestyle of lapsed activists Dan (Don McKellar) and Linda (Tracy Wright).

"Once upon a time there were groups of kids with guns and bombs who wanted to overthrow the government and scare the (stuff) out of them," Dan explains.

He should know. He and Linda were hot for the cause (and each other) until a botched attempt at urban sabotage in Vancouver sent them into hiding fifteen years ago.

Now they live in a rundown section of Toronto and eke out an existence in a haze of pot smoke by cruising garage sales and curbside trash looking for junk to sell on eBay.

Things begin to change when Susan enters their lives and begins borrowing Dan's vintage books on '80s radicals and listening to old records by The Fugs and MC5.

Her enthusiasm acts as a wry counterpoint to Dan's jaded perspective. (SUSAN: "Wouldn't it be great if there were revolutionary groups today!" DAN: "Yeah, I hope they make buttons I can collect.")

When Susan develops her own modern take on radicalism and starts torching SUVs with a gang recruited through the Net, Dan is horrified and when she asks the couple how to make a Molotov cocktail it's time to sit down and have a long talk.

Writer/director Reg Harkema takes ruthless delight in poking holes in faded hippie ideals in scenes such as the one in which Dan snaps at Susan for clipping photos out of one of his valuable books on '80s radicals. The lifestyle she admires so much doesn't come with a pension plan. He was saving that book for his retirement. ("When you fight the system, you can't exactly count on the system to take care of you when you're older.")

Of course, the Toronto based Harkema can't resist taking a shot at West Coast lifestyles. DAN (describing Susan to Linda): "She's from Calgary ... she split there ... to go to the Coast. She tried the hippie Commercial Drive thing at first, but couldn't get into that flaky West Coast vibe, or the rain." The relationship between Dan and Linda has the scuffed familiarity of a couple that have been together for a long time and have learned more about each other than they cared to know. Perhaps it works so well because McKellar and Wright have been a real-life couple on and off since the 1980s although they have never starred in a film together till now. That was Harkema's idea. Primarily known as a film editor, he shot the movie in two weeks in Toronto's Parkdale area on a budget including $30,000 from his CIBC line of credit. In this viewer's opinion, it was money well spent.

Last Wedding (2001)

Is Bruce Sweeney Vancouver's Answer to Woody Allen?

[13 October 2009]

"Noah! Open this (bleeping) door!" Bang! Bang! Bang! "I just want to talk!" The sound of her fists against the door echo through the courtyard like small arms fire.

Cowering inside the motel room Noah (Ben Ratner) can only hope Zipporah (Frida Betrani) will go away if he remains absolutely still. No such luck. Peering through the drapes he watches in horror as she walks back from her car with a tire jack in one hand and fire in her eye.

Obviously this marriage is in trouble. It began so well, too, with Noah, a salesman for a waterproofing company and Zipporah, an aspiring (and, unfortunately for her, supremely untalented) country singer, gazing into each other's eyes while the rabbi pronounced them man and wife. A few months later the marriage has sprung more leaks than the condo they share in metro Vancouver.

Noah's buddies are heading for problems as well. Can Lit prof Peter (Tom Scholte) is cheating on his sedate librarian wife Leslie (Nancy Sivak) with provocative young student Laurel (Marya Delver). Struggling architect Shane (Vincent Gale) feels threatened because his newly graduated girlfriend, Sarah (Molly Parker), also an architect, has landed a job with a high profile firm.

Hip, literate and darkly funny, this 2001 entry is the third film from Vancouver writer/director Bruce Sweeney.

Sweeney uses the predicaments of his characters to show how relationships among today's affluent young urbanites can crumble under the stress and pressure of modern life, especially if they are not built on a strong foundation to begin with. Lack of communication, sexual betrayal, career envy, Sweeney dissects them all with savage wit and savvy insight. The director allows his cast ample freedom to explore and develop their roles and he is repaid with characters which behave as if they were modelled on real people rather than broadly drawn stereotypes. Parker and Gale won Genie Awards (the Canadian Oscars). However, the whole cast is worthy of merit with Betrani a force of nature as frustrated country singer Zipporah. (With her temperament perhaps she should have considered a career in heavy metal instead.)

This is one of those rare movies in which Vancouver gets a chance to play itself. The dialogue is peppered with local references (the Cambie St. bridge, the old Expo 86 site, provincial politics). What Woody Allen does for New York Sweeney does for Vancouver. Twenty years in B.C. have given the Sarnia, Ontario native a feel for the quirky vibe of West Coast life (The movie also resembles an Allen film in the depiction of its male characters as vain, indecisive wimps who bend like willows in the wind while trying to hold their own with strong, purposeful women.)

Last Wedding is full of randy humour and a decidedly unromantic view of sex. The scene in which Laurel and Peter discuss Canadian authors while engaged in a dispassionate sexual act is rumoured to be a favourite in certain academic circles.

Showdown in Little Tokyo (1991)

Dolph Lundgren and the late Brandon Lee make a dynamic duo in DVD Guilty Pleasure

[7/10 · 7 October 2009]

Whether he is battling the Soviet menace in North Africa (Red Scorpion) or tracking down interstellar drug dealers in America's inner cities (I Come in Peace), Dolph Lundgren's lunk-headed early action pix have a certain cheeseball appeal that is goofily entertaining and downright addictive. Sorta like old Grand Funk Railroad singles.

In this one our hero plays a L.A. cop named Kenner who partners up with an Asian Task Force agent, Johnny Muratta (Brandon Lee) to get the goods on a Japanese crime lord (played with slithery zeal by the one and only Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa.)

Seems the Yakuza (Japan's answer to the Mafia) is invading L.A.'s Little Tokyo and it is up to Kenner and Co. to stop them.

And here's the kicker (and a neat one it is, I gotta admit). Kenner was born in Japan (his father was a U.S. Army MP who married a Japanese woman), he speaks fluent Japanese and is steeped in the lore and customs of the Samurai warrior. Johnny is a Southern California native, born to an Asian-American woman and a Caucasian father who operates a successful dental practice. Muratta is a Valley boy through and through. He doesn't speak Japanese and has no knowledge or appreciation of his ethnic roots. He does possess a black belt, however. ("I wanted to please my mother," he explains.)

This unpretentious little chop-socky flick, directed by veteran action specialist Mark L. Lester, has lots of fancy footwork, some impressive firepower and slightly kinky nudity and violence.

Junkfood movie addicts should appreciate pic's tongue-in-cheek attitude towards the genre's larger than life heroics and the novel spin on the hoary old buddy format.

The late Brandon Lee is so likable (and agile) in his first film role that you realize once again what a shame it is that his film career (and his life) was so brief. He really shows a lot of promise here that was destined to remain unfulfilled.

As for us hardcore Lundgrenites the movie offers a rare chance to see our hero murder his dialogue in English ... and Japanese!

2046 (2004)

When Is a Sequel Not a Sequel? Who Cares When It Is This Visually Sumptuous and Intriguing!

[9/10 · 5 October 2009]

Hong Kong director Kar-Wai Wong's recent film 2046 is actually a continuation of the story he began in his 2001 art-house hit In the Mood for Love.

Well, sort of, because while In the Mood had a fairly straightforward narrative everything in this new film is open to interpretation.

Asian superstar Tony Leung is back as Chow Mo Wan but this is not the gentlemanly journalist we met in the first film. This Chow spends his days writing pulpy erotic fiction and his nights gambling, drinking and womanizing.

In a voice-over narration Chow tells us about a sci-fi story he is working on. It's about a young Japanese man (Takuya Kimura) riding a train through time to 2046 where he hopes to recapture his lost memories and achieve emotional closure. The movie toggles back and forth between the writer's real life in 1960s Hong Kong and the futuristic fictional world of his imagination. Gradually Chow realizes he is writing about himself. Like his affair with carnal next door neighbour Bai (Crouching Tiger/Flying Daggers martial arts babe Ziyi Zhang as you have never seen her before), his unspoken feelings for Jing Wen (Faye Wong), the landlord's lonely young daughter and his liaison with an inscrutable lady gambler dubbed the Black Spider (Li Gong). None of these relationships last.

"Why can't it be like it was before?" asks a heartbroken Bai and those words stay with him as he walks away because the women he meets in real life will never be able to measure up to the idealized perfection of the lost love who lives on in his memory. And so, like the character in his story, Chow will keep on travelling towards a place that only exists in his mind. If this sounds confusing you're not alone. "Actually we don't have an idea of what the story is about," Leung tells a French TV interviewer in a DVD featurette. Wong's films are not noted for their crisp linear plotting. He is all about mood, atmosphere and emotion. The camera-work is almost voyeuristic, shooting through windows, peering through peepholes, catching reflections in a mirror. The pace is languid, almost dream-like, the music on the soundtrack suffused with a gorgeous melancholy. A bittersweet sense of regret lingers in the eyes of these characters, like smoke curling lazily from a cigarette, creating an aura of sensual intrigue. Call it romantic noir.

Some reviewers has likened Wong to a modern day Asian equivalent of the late great Federico Fellini and if that sounds appealing this may be the flavor you have been missing.

But be warned: like many foreign delicacies this film can be an acquired taste.

Full Tilt Boogie (1997)

Behind the Scenes look at early Tarentino flick recommended for aspiring filmmakers and wannabe insiders

[7/10 · 3 October 2009]

Everyone wants to be an insider. A veritable cottage industry has sprung up in recent years devoted to taking us "behind the scenes" on movie sets. One of the best films of this type is FULL TILT BOOGIE. In 1997, 26 year old aspiring film-maker Sarah Kelly talked Quentin Tarentino into letting her take a camera crew onto the set to chronicle the making of his gangsters vs. vampires horror epic "From Dusk Until Dawn". Viewers expecting a DVD-style "how'd they do that" featurette obsessed with special effects will be disappointed. But if an insightful and entertaining look at the creative process of film-making, and the people who make it happen, sounds good to you and/or you're considering a career in the industry, this movie is highly recommended. There is plenty of footage of the stars at work and at play but we also get to meet the unsung heroes behind the camera: the production designer, the art director, the craft services guy, the personal assistants, the grips, the drivers. This is Kelly's first directing attempt. Previously she had worked as a production assistant on "Pulp Fiction". Because she is not a slick, seasoned filmmaker, the cast and crew relax and let down their guard. At its best, "Full Tilt Boogie" plays like a candid and engaging "home movie" of day to day life on the chaotic set of a "no frills" independent film. There are the long hours ("we started the day at five in the morning, now it's ten-thirty at night and I'm still working on my computer on time codes"), the bad food ("for lunch all I got was a piece of chicken and two pieces of bread and a melted brownie"), the on set accidents (the saloon set almost burns to the ground after a pyrotechnics shot flares out of control) and the threat of a strike (producer Lawrence Bender has hired non-union crew members, thus incurring the wrath of the powerful IATSE union). Mother Nature also gets in the act. A sandstorm shuts down production; there is a rain delay and the daily challenges of location shooting in 122 degree California desert heat. No wonder people have to blow off steam in the nearby town of Barstow. Kelly's camera catches Juliette Lewis singing karaoke, a local girl flirts with George Clooney and Quentin and his posse warble Merle Haggard tunes by the motel pool (until other guests complain about the noise). In one scene Kelly encourages the crew to dish about on set romances. "I could sleep with any woman on this set," Quentin boasts. He's kidding. (I think.) When various crew members are asked why they chose the film biz, the responses range from prosaic ("for the money") to poetic. "That moment, that 1/1000th of a second as the shutter clicks, it's immortalized on film, " says one youthful crew worker dreamily. "I get a real rush out of that. It's documenting history, history that doesn't exist, we're making it up and it comes to life and I love it." 'Nuff said.

Flower & Garnet (2002)

Big emotions in a small town setting make for impressive feature film debut

[8/10 · 2 October 2009]

Vancouver writer/director Keith Behrman has a feel for small town life. It's there in every frame of this finely crafted drama about a dysfunctional family living in Cache Creek, in the British Columbia interior. That's right, dysfunctional, it's a five dollar word meaning these folks have a lot of problems. The father, Ed (Callum Keith Rennie) has been having an empty affair with a local woman (Kristin Thomsen) who deserves better. The man has kept his emotions in cold storage since his wife died eight years ago while giving birth to Garnet (Colin Roberts). Deep down inside he blames his son for the tragedy. That's a heavy burden for a kid to bear and it shows in his sad eyes. Garnet may not talk much but he's thinking all the time. He's especially curious about nature, the whole cycle of birth and death going on around him. (Reminds me of young Brian in W.O. Mitchell's classic Canadian novel "Who Has Seen the Wind") Garnet's sister, Flower (Jane McGregor), who is eight years older, has been like a mom to him. Now, after a fling with an irresponsible local Romeo, she's about to have a child of her own. Naturally, Ed flips out, afraid history is gonna repeat itself. There's a bitter argument. Flower moves out. Left to his own devices Garnet begins to "act out" in increasingly creepy ways. I could picture this kid showing up at school with a rifle in a few years. The movie shows the circumstances that can lead up to it. I'm not saying he will. In fact, the people in this film rarely do what you expect them to do. The movie takes its time about revealing its mysteries. The clues come in looks and gestures, bits of dialogue, an accumulation of seemingly unremarkable details. (This movie is not for short attention spans.) It's like being in a strange town. It takes awhile to get the lay of the land and meet the neighbours. Behrman proves to be an astute observer of human behaviour and he has pulled some wonderfully restrained performances from his cast. This may be Rennie's best work to date. And that's saying a lot. If you've seen Hard Core Logo or Suspicious River you already know his range. Roberts is a real find and based on her work here McGregor should really stop wasting her talent in piffle like 2002's Slap Her … She's French.

Behrman makes good use of landscape to define character and sustain mood. The remoteness of the rural BC locations echoes the emotional isolation of the central characters. Growing up in the small Saskatchewan farming community of Shaunavon has obviously given him a special appreciation for the stark visual poetry in those wide open spaces. Judging from his feature film debut the sky is the limit.

The Operative (2000)

Victoria BC doubles for Russia AND Boston? Incredible but true!

[5/10 · 30 September 2009]

You have to give direct to video vet Robert Lee credit for resourcefulness. This 2000 low budget opus hopscotches from Russia to Boston and yet the movie was shot entirely in Victoria British Columbia. Footballer turned action hero Brian Bosworth (Stone Cold) plays a CIA agent who busts out of an asylum in Kiev and escapes to Boston, only to be kidnapped by the local branch of the Russian Mafia. Viewed as a low budget local production The Operative has an engagingly amateurish quality, like a home movie on steroids. The dialogue is howlingly awful unless you regard it as a sloppy satire on Z grade action pics, in which case lines like " "They say danger is the ultimate aphrodisiac. Personally I don't think you need danger to be horny" make a weird kind of sense. Recommended to would be producers looking for tips on how to get a lot of bang for very few bucks and/or action fans who think Dolph Lundgren movies are too cerebral.

Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden? (2008)

American documentary filmmaker discovers most Middle Easterners are just folks, like us (except they speak in subtitles)

[28 September 2009]

Whaddya do when your last pic made $11 mil at the box office (not bad for a $300, 000 investment) and earned an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary?

Well, if you are Morgan Spurlock, writer and director of Supersize Me!, you put down your burger, get your shots and head to the Middle East to shoot a documentary about your mock serious search for the world's most wanted terrorist.

After all, with his wife expecting the couple's first child the future father figures he's gotta do something: "If the CIA and FBI can't find him and I'm going to make the world safe for my kid it's time for a new plan. If I've learned anything from big budget action movies it's that complicated global problems are best solved by one lonely guy crazy enough to think he can fix everything before the credits roll."

Spurlock begins his quest for OBL (as he calls him) with his tongue firmly in his cheek but as he travels through Egypt, Israel, Afghanistan, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the Palestinian West Bank and realizes the depth of anti-American feeling the tone of the film becomes sombre and introspective. ("It's hard for me to see how damaged the image of the country that I love and care about has become.")

Don't expect any startling insights into the Middle East conflict. Spurlock films the trip from the viewpoint of an average American coping with culture shock and trying to make sense out of a complex situation. Whether he is thinking out loud on a voice-over or addressing the audience straight to camera Spurlock invites us along to share his discoveries. And who better for a tour guide? Riding with a Jerusalem bomb squad to check out a suspicious-looking package, heading into "hard core Taliban country" with a US military patrol or approaching total strangers in a crowded Arab marketplace and asking them if they can put him in touch with Osama bin Laden Spurlock is witty, smart, observant and unflappable.

The majority of soundbites are from everyday men and women interviewed on the street, around the dinner table or in a desert village. (A young man in Tel Aviv compares the Israeli-Palestinian stalemate to a game of musical chairs. "Somebody is left without a chair ... but everybody needs to sit somewhere.")

In the end Spurlock does not find OBL. What he does discover, however, is that whether they live in big cities or small mountain villages "there are a lot more people out there who are just like us then there are who are just like him."

Emile (2003)

Sir Ian McKellen turns in a masterful performance in modestly budgeted Canadian indie pic

[7/10 · 26 September 2009]

The title character, a retired professor played by Sir Ian McKellen, must come to terms with his past when he returns to Canada for a visit. Emile grew up with two brothers on a farm in Saskatchewan. He left to study in Britain 40 years earlier and never looked back. Until now. Invited to Victoria (British Columbia) to accept an honorary degree from UVic, he stays at the home of his troubled niece, Nadia (Deborah Kara Unger). Recently divorced and living with her rebellious ten year old daughter, Maria (Theo Crane), Nadia still smolders with resentment because Uncle Emile failed to adopt her following the sudden death of her parents. She spent her girlhood in an orphanage and the experience has left a permanent scar on her psyche.

"You seem like a pretty nice guy and I'm going to try to like you. But I don't trust people and you did that to me," she tells him quietly. "Now I'm sure you had your reasons but I just want you to know there was a little girl waiting for you a long time ago. And you left her. Waiting."

That's a haunting image to deal with but Emile also has to confront his feelings of guilt over deserting his two brothers, now deceased, both of whom we meet in flashback scenes: Freddy (Chris William Smith), fragile, artistic, a bit of a dreamer, slowly withering under cruel, insensitive treatment at the hands of older brother, Carl (Tygh Runyan).

Writer/director Carl Bessai (Lola) has McKellen as Emile relive these memories as the old man he is rather than cast an actor to play a younger version of the character in flashback scenes. "I think that's important because the past for him is subjective," Bessai explains on the DVD commentary track. "It is a memory that is infused with who he is right now." Although this may prove confusing for some viewers I thought it was a bold move and well presented visually through artful use of transition shots and doctored cinematography.

The film makes effective use of Victoria locations to add atmosphere, mood and emotional context to key scenes: Emile and Maria chatting on a bench in the Inner Harbour with the Empress Hotel in the background; a blustery walk along Dallas Road; Emile receiving his honorary degree at University of Victoria's Convocation Hall (with 200 extras in attendance.) McKellen turns in a masterful performance, Ms. Unger (Crash) is hypnotically watchable as always and the complex emotional dynamic between their two characters is well worked out. Young Miss Crane, in only her second film, displays a wonderfully natural screen presence. Fans of traditional Hollywood dramas should be warned. As Bessai explains on the DVD, this is not a movie about big dramatic moments, "it's the little things that create the tensions between people, that make them recognizably human." Works for me.

When Will I Be Loved (2004)

James Toback proves once again why he is one of the most unconventional filmmakers in Hollywood

[24 September 2009]

Watching wily old writer/director James Toback chatting up dewy-eyed Neve Campbell in WHEN WILL I BE LOVED is to witness a veteran Hollywood player at the top of his game.

Casting himself in a small role as a university professor, Toback is pictured talking to a sophisticated young deb named Vera (Neve Campbell) about a job as a research assistant although he seems to be suggesting there are other positions she could fill as well.

Since the dialogue is largely improvised it is not unreasonable to assume Toback is fluent in this kind of doublespeak in real life. In the film-maker's 1987 opus The Pick-Up Artist Robert Downey Jr. plays a smooth-talking womanizer rumored to be based on Toback's own experiences. It is possible to see why Toback succeeded where other directors have failed in getting the comely Ms. Campbell to take it all off for her art (which she does in this film.)

Toback was nominated for a screen writing Oscar for 1991's Bugsy but it is small personal films like 1978's Fingers and 1997's Two Girls and a Guy that have earned him hipster cred among Hollywood's cool young elite.

The filmmaker encourages his actors to become involved in the creative process. In Campbell's case, "I came to her with 35 pages of script and we ended up talking for 12 hours and throwing ideas around and becoming very inspired by each other," he tells us on the DVD commentary track. (We also learn on the DVD that the film was shot in 12 days followed by 8 months of editing. Toback's tips on how to shoot fast and cheap are essential viewing for any young filmmaker with big themes and a miniscule budget.)

Campbell won the best reviews of her career for her performance but the entire cast sink their teeth into the meaty provocative dialogue with relish.

The script has Vera, described by Campbell on the DVD as "empowered, somewhat manipulative but strong ", exacting an unexpected revenge on her fast-talking hustler boyfriend (Frederick Weller) after he attempts to negotiate a tryst with an elderly billionaire (Dominic Chianese of Sopranos fame ) who has become fixated on her and willing to pay any price to indulge his obsession.

The improbable plot line serves as a vehicle for Toback to explore his "curiosity about sexuality and physicality but also human nature and what drives people to do the things they do." (Toback leaves it to his cast to improvise their own sex scenes - like a lesbian encounter between Campbell and Ashley Shelton.)

The prickly auteur has a cheerful disregard for conventional rules of film-making and it shows. The conversation between the professor and Vera probably goes on too long and there is a bizarre scene with boxer Mike Tyson that defies description. Yet Toback makes no apologies.

"With this film there is no right or wrong answer. The way that people respond or decide who Vera is has a lot to do with who they are, which I find interesting."

State of Play (2009)

Film is really a meditation on the state of print journalism in the age of the Internet disguised as a thriller

[8/10 · 23 September 2009]

They don't make a whole lot of movies with crusading newspapermen anymore.

In fact the last good one I remember is "All the President's Men".

Like the 1976 Robert Redford-Dustin Hoffman classic, "State of Play" (new on DVD and Blu-Ray) is all about an intrepid Washington newspaper and its role in uncovering high level government corruption.

One is fact and one is fiction. Both films are products of their times.

Think of Russell Crowe's character, Washington Globe reporter Cal McCaffrey, as Woodward and Bernstein rolled into one and the Globe as a thinly disguised version of the Washington Post. (The producers hired Post metro editor R.B. Brenner as a consultant to ensure the depiction of big time journalism in action is as accurate as possible.)

Like most veteran reporters he doesn't consider online bloggers to be real journalists. So he is less than civil when Della Frye (Rachel McAdams) seeks his input for a story she is writing for the paper's online edition on an alleged romance between Congressman Stephen Collins (Ben Affleck) and his comely research assistant , Sonia Baker (Maria Thayer).

"Do you think he was having an affair with that girl?" Della asks.

"Gee, Della, I'd have to read a couple of blogs before I could have an opinion, " McCaffrey replies sarcastically.

Helen Mirren plays Globe publisher Cameron Lynne. Her character may be modelled on real life Post publisher Katherine Graham but a lot has changed since Graham's heyday.

For one thing, Lynne seems to be more worried about the bottom line than responsible journalism.

She knows that a story on government corruption is a better story but the scoop on the Congressman's sexual indiscretions will sell more papers and, as she tells McCaffrey, "Our new owners have this odd idea we should be turning a profit."

"Yeah, well, I hear our online side is doing great, " he snaps." I've been here, what, 15 years? I use a 16 year old computer. She's been here 15 minutes and she could launch a Russian satellite with the gear she's got. "

Director Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland) sets up the plot with deft, sure strokes. A teenage drug dealer is killed by a mysterious gunman. A young woman falls under a subway train. (At first the deaths seem unrelated.) We meet Congressman Collins. Married to his high school sweetheart (Robin Wright Penn) and chairing a Defense Department Subcomittee investigating the Pentagon's practice of hiring mercenaries to help U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iran he is definitely a star on the rise. The revelation of an affair between the Congressman and the recently deceased Ms. Baker sends his political career into a tailspin. That's when he looks to his old college buddy McCaffrey for help in spin control.

"You've got to be proactive", McCaffrey advises his old chum, "or you're just letting the bloodsuckers and the bloggers have another free shot at you."

Obviously the film doesn't mince words when it comes to portraying how veteran print journalists feel about those upstart online types.

During one heated exchange the publisher defends Della: "She's hungry, she's cheap and she churns out copy every hour."

"Yeah, I know", McCaffrey shoots back. "I'm overfed, I'm too expensive and I take way too long."

In a way they are both right. Della tends to jump to conclusions without doing the proper research in her rush to get copy online. McCaffrey is set in his ways and slow to embrace the new technology. However, it is McCaffrey who senses the potential in Della and insists she accompany him when he realizes the story is too big for one person to handle. When the pair pool their talents they begin to connect the dots between two seemingly unrelated deaths and uncover a story much more sinister than a simple sex scandal.

"State of Play" is based on an acclaimed 2003 BBC TV series. Director McDonald, working with screenwriters Matthew Mark Carnahan (The Kingdom), Billy Ray (Breach) and Tony Gilroy (wrote Bourne pix, directed Michael Clayton) had the unenviable task of boiling down Paul Abbott's six part miniseries into a two hour feature film.

Without access to the BBC-TV miniseries I cannot compare the British original with its Americanized counterpart. However, I can report that I found the film intelligent and intriguing. There are moments of genuine suspense (the scene in the parking garage where McCaffrey is stalked by a psychotic ex Special Ops type will keep you on the edge of the couch). However the dominant theme of the film seems to be the illustrious past and uncertain future of print journalism.

"It's kind of a requiem for newspapers ... a little last hurrah for the power of the press," Macdonald says on a behind-the-scenes DVD featurette. " You start to think, 'What does society look like if we don't have reporters who are being the watchdogs for us?'"

Let's leave the last word to McCaffrey. In one of the film's most dramatic scenes, the scruffy, ink-stained warrior (played by Crowe with his customary intensity) defiantly defends the role of traditional journalism in our modern wired world.

"You know, in the middle of all this gossip and speculation that permeates our daily lives I still think people know the difference between real news and bull****. And they're glad that someone cares enough to get things on the record and print the truth. "

Lola (2001)

Underrated Canadian indie explores issues of love, identity and loss

[9 January 2005]

Things I Liked About The Movie:

. Sabrina Grdevich as Lola brings an intriguing screen presence to the role of a woman who may only reach her true potential by becoming someone else. It is impossible to determine what an attractive complex woman is thinking at the best of times and when you consider that the title character is going through a profound transition in her life it is no wonder the men she meets on her road to a new self realization look suitably baffled. . I like the way director Carl Bessai contrasts the urban rush of Vancouver traffic with the serene beauty of the British Columbia Interior. It is only when Lola leaves the jangle and confusion of the city and heads out into those windswept wide open spaces that she begins to achieve some sort of clarity. She flashes back to her chance encounter with Sandra (Joanna Going, memorable in a small role). Lola only spent a few hours with her new friend before tragedy struck but the woman made a deep impression on her. Lola is finally able to see her life with insensitive husband Mike (played by the reliably fine Colm Feore)for the emotional dead end that it is. Like Atom Egoyan in "The Sweet Hereafter" Bessai uses landscape to put character and story development into a psychological context. (The rugged mountainous terrain of the Interior is like a Canadian equivalent of John Ford's Monument Valley westerns.) . Like all stubbornly idiosyncratic independent pictures this film moves at its only deliberate unhurried pace with Bessai giving his lead actress lots of room to explore the nuances of her character. Some readers have complained that the film moves along too slowly and nothing much happens along the way. They miss the fact that much of the action here is on an internal level. As a lifelong fan of the female mystique I find Ms. Grdevich's face fascinating to watch as her character sorts through issues of identity, love and loss and finally decides to get a life ... even if it is not her own.

Bandits (2001)

Great fun for savvy 'boomer' film buffs ....

[20 April 2002]

As the movie opens Joe Blake (Bruce Willis) and Terry Collins (Billy Bob Thornton) are holed up in a downtown LA bank. Naturally Terry is freaking out.

`One last big heist! What a great idea! Joe knows best. And what does Joe get me? Stuck in a bank called the Alamo surrounded by the entire Los Angeles police force.'

How did America's most famous bank robbers get in this mess? Reporting from the scene, tabloid TV host Darren Head (Bobby Slayton) tells viewers the pair visited his home a few nights ago and forced him at gunpoint to film their version of events.

`The result is part soap opera, part crime drama,' he intones, Geraldo-like, ` it's part 'Bonnie and Clyde', it's part Barnum and Bailey.'

Uh oh, I feel a flashback coming on. Sure enough, the movie spools back to the duo's daring escape from an Oregon prison and a subsequent string of bank robberies with Joe's cousin, Harvey (Troy Garity), a wannabe stunt man, acting as getaway driver. Nervous, timid, a hopeless hypochondriac, Terry tends to fret over small details (`I ask him to get me a good mustache and he gets me something that looks as if it came out of a Cracker Jack box.') Joe, on the other hand, is cucumber cool, whether sweet-talking a lady or stealing her car. Of course, he can be a tad impulsive. Take the way he improvises a bank robbery on the spot, disarming the guard by sticking a Magic Marker in his back and pretending it is a gun. Now, Terry, he's cautious and methodical. It's his idea to kidnap a bank manager after work, spend the night with the family and open the safe in the morning.before business hours. (As for Harvey, well, he's not the brightest light on the string but, as Joe says, "he's honest and he falls real good.")

Everything goes smoothly (more or less) until unhappy housewife Kate Wheeler (Cate Blanchett) bumps into Terry while he is attempting to hijack her car. `I'm a desperate man,' he tells her, none too convincingly. `Desperate? You don't know the meaning of the word,' she sobs, zigzagging in and out of traffic like a demented Indy driver. `Desperate is waking up every morning and wishing you hadn't.' `On second thought, why don't you just pull over and let me out,' he pleads. No such luck. Terry represents an opportunity to escape the emptiness of her life and she is not going to let him get away. Since she refuses to stop the car, the pair winds up at the motel hideout. For Joe it's lust at first sight. For Terry, well, he recognizes trouble when he sees it (`Kate is an iceberg waiting for the Titanic.') Too late. Kate becomes romantically entangled with both men and is unable to choose (`Together, you make up the perfect man.')

Director Barry Levinson gives his actors plenty of room to move and they respond with some intriguing choices. Thornton is wonderfully twitchy while Willis handles his role with straight-faced panache. Picture Abbott and Costello playing Butch and Sundance. Blanchett's Kate is the perfect female match for these characters. After seeing her as a regal young monarch in `Elizabeth', a troubled welfare mom in `The Gift' and a deliriously funny refugee housewife in this film, I'm convinced there is nothing this chameleonic actress cannot do. As for Garity, he's a natural born talent. Harvey may be a little slow on the draw but it only adds to the character's naïve goofy charm. I like the way Garity savors his dialogue. He talks like Willie Nelson sings, the line readings a little `behind the beat' and flavored with a hint of country twang.

The script (by Harley Peyton) ripples with wry movie references. The video the two teens are watching in that first home Joe and Terry break into? It's 1963's The Great Escape (that's Steve McQueen on the motorbike.) During Kate's first night at the hideout, Joe gallantly stretches a curtain across the bed he is sharing with her. `Saw it in a movie,' he explains. The reference, of course, is to the famous scene in 1934's It Happened One Night. Peyton also slips in sly nods to boomer music faves like Bonnie Tyler and a certain Canuck rock icon. `You really think you're going to fool anyone in that get up,' asks Cloe (Stacy Travis), the wife of kidnapped bank manager Darrill Miller (Brian O'Byrne). `I mean, you look like Neil Young in . what was that album . 'After the Horses'?. ` `It was 'After the Gold Rush',' Terry says. ` And, besides, that's not the one. It's the one where he's leaning against a tree in the snow or whatever. That was actually what I was going for.' (That would be 1969's `Everybody Knows This is Nowhere.') Some of the show biz satire may be a little obscure. For example, Joe likes to read Sun Tzu's The Art of War. This would seem to be a dig at fallen uberagent Mike Ovitz who reputedly used the ancient Chinese text on strategy as a guide to daily living during his Hollywood heyday. Peyton sketches his characters with a droll wit reminiscent of Elmore Leonard, not surprising when you consider that the screenwriter adapted Leonard's `Gold Coast' for a 1997 TV movie. (I looked it up in the IMDB database.)

Although it begins to run out of steam in the last half-hour `Bandits' is still great fun for savvy film buffs with its appeal skewing towards an older boomer demographic.

New Waterford Girl (1999)

Charming and funny Canadian coming of age story told from a teen female perspective ...

[2 April 2002]

Charming, low key and funny, this Canadian coming of age tale is told from the perspective of Mooney (Liane Balaban), a dreamy artistic 15 year old girl who yearns to escape from the confining environment of her small Cape Breton coal mining town (the time is the 1970s) and travel to New York to study art. The movie really picks up when the morose and inhibited Moonie makes friends with 16 year old Lou (Tara Spencer-Nairn), an outgoing and impulsive American who has moved to the town with her mother to escape a family scandal in the Bronx. Screenwriter Tricia Fish captures the little moments that make up small town life in vivid detail. The action unfolds in short, tightly edited scenes,like looking at snapshots in a family album. Just as a jazz musician leaves spaces in between notes director Allan Moyle uses pauses in between lines of dialogue to express unspoken feelings and emotions. Liane Balaban has the dark looks and watchful intelligence of a young Winona Ryder. The movie has a great sense of time and place. My favorite scene - Lou gazing at some hunky young Cape Breton hockey players with a carnivorous smile on her face while April Wine's 70s hit "I'm on Fire for You baby" plays on the soundtrack. The Bottom Line: You may suffer from culture shock at first but as you get to know and like the characters and adjust to the film's leisurely pace you should find yourself becoming emotionally involved and intrigued by the goings-on in this sleepy little town in the Canadian Maritimes.