NY1 reviews some of the films that made their debut in July.
July 31, 2008
"Frozen River" Entertainment Weekly Review
In “Frozen River,” the veteran actress Melissa Leo has one of those faces that is all creases and hollows and weather-roughened valleys. As Ray, who lives in a dingy, broken-down trailer home in upstate New York along with her two sons, Leo looks as if life has been beating her up from almost the moment she was born. She's desolate, all right, yet she isn't weak. Her don't-mess-with-me glare is the look of a woman who can't afford femininity, whose existence has been melted down to pure survival. She's like a Bonnie Raitt who's been around the block more times than the real one.
Every moment of Leo's performance feels torn from experience, and so does the movie, which finds suspense in broken lives that are hanging in the balance. Written and directed by Courtney Hunt, Frozen River takes the form of a thriller you can believe in. Ray's husband, a gambling addict, has run off to Atlantic City with the down payment Ray had planned to use for a new double-wide trailer home. When Lila, a Mohawk Indian from a local reservation, tries to steal her car, Ray discovers a moneymaking scheme. Lila smuggles illegal immigrants at $600 a pop, driving them across a nearby frozen river that's an unchecked U.S./Canadian border. Ray, weary of slaving away as a dollar-store cashier, agrees to be Lila's driver. For everyone involved, their trips are perilous potential death rides of hunger and fear.
Ray couldn't care less about the people she's transporting. Her lack of piety makes the movie sting and gives it life. “Frozen River” is a tale of ordinary Americans scraping bottom, yet there's redemption in that. The film asks: If you were this desperate, wouldn't you do the same?
– Owen Gleiberman
Entertainment Weekly
July 30, 2008
"Swing Vote" Neil Rosen Review
"Swing Vote" takes its lead from the contested 2000 presidential election, which came down to a few votes in Florida, and Obama and Clinton's recent fight for electoral votes. This new movie starring Kevin Costner takes the “every vote counts” concept one step further.
The premise is there's a virtual tie between the two candidates running for President, but one vote accidentally didn't get counted due to a technical snafu.
The man who it all comes down to is Bud, played by Costner. He's a beer-drinking, irresponsible, unemployed loser who doesn't care about anything but his bright, twelve-year-old daughter Molly.
So when the country finds out the presidency lies in Bud's hands, the media descends on Bud's trailer home in the small town of Texaco, New Mexico and things begin to spin out of control fast.
The candidates are played by Kelsey Grammer, who's the right-wing incumbent, and Dennis Hopper, who's the liberal challenger. Along with their handlers, Stanely Tucci and Nathan Lane, they launch all-out campaigns that are aimed at only one person -- Bud -- and his likes and dislikes. Plus they personally court him in any way they can think of, like a visit aboard Air Force One.
Costner, who's usually excellent playing intelligent guys, isn't very believable playing an idiot.
Newcomer Madeline Carroll is quite good as the smart, responsible, legal-minded Molly. But she's so opposite from her dad, or her mom who makes a brief appearance, that's it's hard to believe that she's even related to this family.
As far-fetched as the overall concept is, the first twenty minutes of “Swing Vote” are kind of fun. But after that, it all becomes very redundant. Writer-director Joshua Michael Stern is trying to make a Capra-esque film: one-part comedy, one-part serious civics lesson. It's a tough balancing act, and he comes up short. There are a few laughs, but the sentimental stuff is too syrupy, unmoving emotionally and ultimately you won't really buy it.
Neil Rosen’s Big Apple Rating: 1.5 Apples
July 29, 2008
"American The Beautiful" Neil Rosen Review
The new documentary “America The Beautiful” is not a movie about patriotism. Instead, it takes a look at America's obsession with beauty, being thin and getting plastic surgery and how Madison Avenue reinforces it.
"Stop fixing your body, it was never broken," says playwright Eve Ensler in the film. If only more people in this country felt that way.
But as this film tries to show you, there's a multi-million dollar business in products that make women think they can be thin and gorgeous. It's a concept that's drummed into their heads everywhere they turn - from billboards, to TV and magazines.
Filmaker Darryl Roberts takes a look at a number of topics surrounding the need to look sensational. He examines plastic surgery and shows how many doctors who perform it are not board-certified and wind up botching the procedures.
He then focuses on the modeling industry through the eyes of a 12-year-old named Gerren who became the country's youngest supermodel. She's sort of a mess, being thrust into a world that's she's clearly not old enough for yet. Other older models are interviewed as well and they talk about the horrifying realities of the business.
Another character is a middle-aged woman who gets fired from her job for her refusal to wear makeup.
While these are all fascinating topics worthy of exploration, Roberts tackles too much stuff here. He abruptly bounces from one aspect to the next. Just when you get interested in something, he moves onto something else. Basically, he's all over the map.
Also, the film is shot badly, the sound quality is poor and for a film that's all about looking good, it's kind of ironic that the movie looks so poorly.
Roberts also puts himself in the film as the key interviewer and narrator and he frequently falls short in those areas as well.
I applaud his well-intentioned efforts for trying to shine a light on this topic. But it's often a misfire. This subject matter is lightning in a bottle, but Roberts shows us nothing really new here, edits what he does have badly and fails to make it as engrossing as it should be.
Neil Rosen’s Big Apple Rating: 1.5 Apples
July 24, 2008
"American Teen" Entertainment Weekly Review
“American Teen” is a sensationally engrossing portrait of a half-dozen seniors at an Indiana high school. That may sound like something you've seen before, but “American Teen” is also something new. It's one of the first movies in which the familiar tropes of reality TV have invaded the realm of so-called serious documentary filmmaking.
“American Teen” has jocks, nerds, rebels and blonde snub-nosed mean girls, and it's so full of suspense, romance and adolescent intrigue that it wouldn't be wrong to describe it as a more sober, deep-dish version of “The Hills.”
The director, Nanette Burstein, followed these kids around for ten months, and she tells their stories in privileged snippets intercut with interviews in which they comment on the action we've just seen.
At moments, you may wonder how Burstein had all her cameras in the right place. She admits that she arranged to film certain phone calls ahead of time.
Yet she digs deep into her subjects' emotional lives, and what she has captured so escapes the consumerist clichés of 21st-century teen culture that the movie has the feel not of a soap opera but of a richly packed novel.
The characters keep surprising us. The jock, a basketball star whose ability to go to college depends on his getting a scholarship, lives with as much anxiety as the loser, who's actually a good-looking kid who doesn't believe in himself. The catty class princess has everything you want in a villainess, yet the movie shows you how and why she turned out that way.
The teenagers in “American Teen” are such full, eager, vulnerable human beings that watching the movie makes you quietly gasp at what they're up against -- not just the usual popularity contest, but the odds for and against making it in the real world.
- Owen Gleiberman
Entertainment Weekly
July 23, 2008
"Man On Wire" Neil Rosen Review
The new documentary, “Man On Wire,” is a different type of World Trade Center movie. It has nothing to do with the tragedy of September 11th. In fact, this incredible and uplifting true story took place back in 1974.
If you’re old enough to remember it, a Frenchman named Philippe Petit walked back and forth on a tightrope between the Twin Towers one morning in early August 1974. The illegal stunt took six years to plan, and in fact, Petit dreamed of accomplishing this remarkable feat before the towers were even fully built.
“It’s in construction, and I can sneak in,” said Petit.
The idea of wire-walking between the tops of the two Towers, which were 200 feet apart and 1,350 feet high, is at first, in Petit’s own words, “Impossible, impossible”
But as a member of Petit’s crew said, “If you want something, nothing is impossible.”
Petit wanted to accomplish this death-defying feat more than anything else in the world, despite the many obstacles.
Filmmaker James Marsh blends archival footage, with newly-filmed reenactments, along with fascinating interviews with Petite and his offbeat accomplices who helped him pull this elaborate high wire act off.
By the end, when we watch Petite entertain the crowd from high above, we've been made aware of the elaborate planning that went into this, including getting past World Trade Center security, smuggling heavy steel cable into the building and passing the wire between the two rooftops. During the almost unbelievable execution, the whole thing plays out like a wild bank caper.
Petit, who shares his recollections extensively in the film, is an engaging, larger-than-life character to listen to as he takes us step by step through the process of achieving his crazy goal.
As Petit performs for the crowd, high in the sky, a moment of New York City history and its back story are fully captured by the filmmaker.
“Man On Wire” opens in theaters this week.
Neil Rosen’s Big Apple Rating: 3.5 Apples
July 22, 2008
"Step Brothers" Neil Rosen Interview
Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly, who last teamed up in “Talledega Nights,” are back together again in a hilarious new comedy called "Step Brothers." They play 39-year-olds who still live at home with their parents and act like children. At first they hate each other, but then they become pals.
NY1’s Neil Rosen spoke with Ferrell and Reilly about creating the film.
Click the Real Video links above to view the complete report.
The uproarious “Step Brothers” opens in theatres this week.
July 17, 2008
"The Dark Knight" Entertainment Weekly Review
Our comic book-movie culture is 30 years old, and kicked off in 1978 Christopher Reeve’s “Superman.” In those three decades, comic-book films have given us more than their share of spectacle and thrills, yet almost nothing in the way of mystery.
But in “The Dark Knight,” Christopher Nolan's ominously twisty and exciting sequel to the 2005 film “Batman Begins,” good and evil are not just separate forces. At times, they're a whisper away from each other.
The movie has an intense, predatory glamour that makes the comic-book films that have come before look all the more like kids’ stuff.
Batman, Christian Bale's snake-hiss-voiced vigilante, plays out the vengeful fantasies that alter ego Bruce Wayne can only dream about. Batman has had some success cleaning up Gotham City, and into the resulting void steps the Joker, a sick puppy in smeary clown makeup who wants to make the world feel his pain.
Heath Ledger's mesmerizing Joker begins with the creepiness of his image -- the greasy long hair, the makeup that looks as if he'd drawn it on with crayons, then messed it with tears. It's his voice, though, that gets you. This Joker may be a vicious torture freak, but he sounds like Al Franken crossed with a nerdish pedophile.
In Ledger’s last performance he completed before his death, he had a maniacal gusto inspired enough to suggest that he might have lived to be as audacious an actor as Marlon Brando -- and maybe as great. The Joker organizes the riffraff mobsters of Gotham City, but only to use them as bait. He creates a whirlpool of corruption that sucks everyone down.
“The Dark Knight” is jammed with thorny underworld conspiracies and action scenes that teeter madly out of control. At two-and-a-half hours, it's almost too much movie, and its center doesn't always hold. Yet it's a haunting vision of good versus anarchy, with a malicious, careening zest all its own.
- Owen Gleiberman
Entertainment Weekly
July 16, 2008
"Mamma Mia" Neil Rosen Review
The hit Boadway musical “Mamma Mia,” based on the songs of the 1970s top-selling pop band ABBA, been made into a movie -- named, of course, “Mamma Mia.”
If you're not familiar with the show, roughly twenty ABBA songs have been woven into a storyline about a middle-aged single woman, played by Meryl Streep, who lives on a remote Greek island with her daughter who's about to get married.
The daughter wants her father to give her away at the wedding -- but it's not that easy. The daughter reads her mother’s diary and sees that she has three possible fathers.
So, without her mom's consent, she invites all three perspective dads to the big event and figures that over the course of a few days she'll find out the truth.
The three possible fathers are played by Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgard and throughout the film, ABBA tunes pop up out of nowhere and only occasionally do they advance the action.
What worked on stage doesn't work well here, with what seems like a camera placed two inches from an actors face.
In a Broadway theater an audience can accept actors suddenly bursting into song for no apparent reason. But in a film, it's just hard to buy into. This approach might have worked in the 1940s and '50s, but today it's tough to accept.
"Mamma Mia" director Phyllida Loyd who also directed the stage musical, can't seem to capture the spirit of the show on film.
Streep has a decent voice and sang much better than I than I expected. But Brosnan received unintentional laughs at the screening I attended whenever he burst into a tune.
The scenery was beautiful and the cinematography is lush. But the choreography is too stagy and I was embarrarred for supporting players like Christine Baranski.
The makers of "Mamma Mia" try to be campy one moment and serious the next, but they can't have it both ways.
So why did the talented cast agree to do this? Maybe the answer can be found in an ABBA song -- “Money Money Money.”
If you like ABBA, skip the movie and see the show.
Neil Rosen’s Big Apple Rating: 1.5 Apples
July 15, 2008
"Felon" Neil Rosen Interview
Val Kilmer in his latest movie “Felon” plays a hardened criminal convicted of multiple murders. His cell mate in the maximum security prison, played by Stephen Dorff, is serving three years for killing an intruder who tried to harm his family.
NY1’s Neil Rosen spoke with Kilmer about the role.
Click the Real Video links above to view the complete report.
“Felon” opens in theaters this week.
July 10, 2008
"Hellboy II" Entertainment Weekly Review
The director Guillermo del Toro loves creatures. Big, squishy mutants and dreamy monsters; otherworldly tentacled zomboid beasties. He's a master at creating them, a gift well-suited to our era. Del Toro can win awards for a highbrow Night Gallery episode like “Pan's Labyrinth,” then turn around and make a hard-driving psychedelic action-movie fantasia like “Hellboy II: The Golden Army,” about a domesticated devil hulk and his super-freak comrades.
In “Hellboy II,” del Toro pushes his fetish for all things weird and shape-shifty to the extreme. He makes the audience feel childlike, too. Hellboy, the cigar-chomping demon-of-a-crime fighter, with his sawed-off underworld horns and mighty stone edifice of a giant right fist, is now plunged into conflict with a scoundrel prince who's declared war on all of humanity. The plot is really a fancy excuse for del Toro to keep staging his close encounters of the squirmy kind. His creatures don't just have attitude, they have temperament. Their personalities seem to emerge right out of their skewed, fairy-tale-on-acid physiognomies. That's true of the movie's heroes as well. Hellboy, with his skin the color of tandoori chicken, has a red-hot temper to match, and Ron Perlman is even funnier, more grumpily assured, than he was in the first Hellboy. If you can forget how he looks, he sounds like George Clooney after a rough night. Hellboy and his comrades are basically a kinkier version of the X-Men crew or the Fantastic Four. The movie's plot is mostly comic-book boilerplate, yet del Toro stages the action with eye-popping imagination. To make a superhero fantasy this derivative, yet this dazzling requires more than technique. It takes a director in touch with his inner hellboy.
– Owen Gleiberman
Entertainment Weekly
July 9, 2008
"The Wackness" Neil Rosen Review
New York City in 1994 was a different type of place than it is today. Rudolph Giuliani had recently taken over as mayor and launched a major crackdown on crime. And a new film called “The Wackness” is set in this era.
Luke Shapiro has just graduated high school and is a pot dealer. One customer in particular is Luke's shrink, Dr. Jeffrey Squires, played by Ben Kingsley. Luke unethically barters time with Squires for pot.
Squires has a bad marriage and is sort of a mess. Luke is going through typical teenage trauma. He's looking for a first time sexual experience and maybe love and thinks he's found it with Squires’s more experienced stepdaughter Stephanie.
As Luke and Stephanie's relationship starts to heat up, Squires and Luke take their relationship off the couch and out into the real world.
As the movie progresses, Squires and Luke go on series of wacky adventures, one in particular where they sell pot together. Then there's the love story, where Luke might be coming on a bit too strong.
The film tries to capture the flavor of New York at that time and the soundtrack is loaded with rap and hip hop songs from the era.
Josh Peck, who audiences may know from the Disney TV series “Drake and Josh,” does a terrific job as Luke. He displays good emotional range and I look forward to seeing him in upcoming projects.
There's also a cameo by Mary Kate Olsen, who lends little to the film.
Ben Kinglsley turns in another fine performance, playing a very strange character to say the least. As written, Squires isn't as fully fleshed-out as one might have liked, but Kingsley is always mesmerizing to watch.
Writer-director Jonathan Levine has made a movie that can't quite decide what it wants to be -- it's one-part love story, one-part off-beat buddy film. Both are interesting, but like Kingsley's character, needed to be more developed.
"The Wackness" will hold your interest while watching it, it's a fun glimpse into New York's recent past, but after it's over doesn't really stick.
Neil Rosen’s Big Apple Rating: 2.5 Apples
July 8, 2008
"Journey to the Center of the Earth" Neil Rosen Interview
In the new 3D film, “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” Brendan Fraser stars in the latest version of the Jules Verne's classic 19th century novel. It's about an explorer who goes on a wild expedition to the core of the planet and the 3D experience puts you right in the center of the action. Click on the video link above to watch NY1 Film Critic Neil Rosen’s interview with the star. “Journey to the Center of the Earth” opens in select theatres this week.
July 4, 2008
"Hancock" Entertainment Weekly Review
In "Hancock," Will Smith plays a Los Angeles superhero who's a drunk, a slob, and a not-very-nice guy. And that's not even the worst thing about him. Hancock is such a slovenly mess of a crime fighter that when he shows up on a freeway, or in the middle of a crowded downtown intersection, he has a way of causing even more damage than he staves off.
As presented, the character doesn't quite make sense. If Hancock really wants to save people, then why is he so blithe about trashing cars and trains? But if he's just selfish and depressed, then why does he bother showing up in the first place? I guess what I'm really asking is: Is Hancock a darkly offbeat, subversive idea of a superhero, or is he just the Hollywood machine deciding that it's the right moment for Will Smith to go edgy? The answer is, a little bit of both.
Hancock rescues a PR executive, played by Jason Bateman, and the PR guy decides to repay him by reshaping his image, teaching Hancock how to be as gracious as he is strong. To atone for his sins, Hancock even goes to jail, and he suffers the ultimate indignity of putting on a skintight superhero suit.
I haven't mentioned the really big twist in Hancock – don't worry, I won't give it away, though it's got something to do with Bateman's wife, played by Charlize Theron. The director, Peter Berg, is a talented filmmaker, but he shoots Hancock in the nervous, close-up, quick-cut style of a prestige TV medical series. It's a style that doesn't really fit with what is basically an episode of Lois and Clark on steroids. Or, put another way, a movie that keeps making up its rules as it goes along.
"Hancock" hits theaters this week.
– Owen Gleiberman
July 3, 2008
"Full Grown Men" Neil Rosen Review
“Full Grown Men” is the name of a new independent film, which deals with a grown man trying to retreat into the simpler times of his childhood. Alby is a 35-year-old husband and father who just can't seem to cut it anymore as a grownup. He decides to meet up with his childhood best friend, Elias and together they take a road trip to a popular theme park in Florida. Alby has a prized collection of action figures, which he's kept since he was a little kid. His scheme is to sell them, makes tons of money and show his wife that he truly is a breadwinner.
Along the way, the two men run into a weird assortment of characters. Alan Cumming plays an ex-theme park worker with a grudge whom they pick up hitchhiking. Amy Sedaris is a bartender who also works part time as a clown. Then there's Deborah Harry, of Blondie fame, who plays a delusional woman who thinks she's a mermaid. As the story unfolds, Alby goes on a voyage of self-discovery and tries to decide if he wants to grow up. Matt McGrath who plays Alby isn't very convincing in the role.
It's not entirely his fault that the movie fails. Co-writer and director David Munro has built a movie around a person that you have very little to connect to. He doesn't make Alby's Peter Pan character interesting, funny, or even mildly likable. Plus he offers up little explanation for Alby's motivations. There's nothing to root for here, so even with its short running time, the movie drags.
What's more interesting are the supporting characters. Judah Freidlander, as the best friend, who audiences may recognize from television's “30 Rock,” turns in a nice performance. The film would have been infinitely more interesting had it been built around him. For that matter, Cumming, Sedaris and Harry's characters would have also been more captivating anchors. But unfortunately, some of their appearances are way too brief and what were left with isn't all that appealing. “Full Grown Men” is playing in theatres.
Neil Rosen’s Big Apple Rating: 1.5 Apples
July 2, 2008
"Hancock" Neil Rosen Interview
In Will Smith's latest movie “Hancock,” the rap star turned actor plays a different kind of superhero: a hard drinking, tough talking crime fighter who’s not exactly popular with the public. But a savvy public relations agent wants to change his image. Oscar winning actress Charlize Theron also stars in the film. Click on the video clip above to watch NY1’s Neil Rosen interview the stars. “Hancock” is in theatres now.
Neil Rosen NY1's Neil Rosen reviews the latest films throughout the week.
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