The Fall (2006)

☆ ☆ ½

The Fall (2006) – Tarsem Singh

Strangely unaffecting, despite the fact that it was reportedly shot in 28 countries with the express goal of making a pictorial marvel.  To be honest, I thought this was all digitally created imagery until I read otherwise (and I have very mixed feelings about CGI anyway) – but even knowing that it is “real” doesn’t change the fact that the film is boring.  (And, as a fan of the Ron Fricke cinematic travelogues, I do think that a film based on images alone can be successful).  Director Tarsem Singh (or just Tarsem) apparently paid millions of his own money to finance the four-year project that sees an injured (and suicidal) stuntman telling a fantasy story to a 5-year old immigrant girl with a broken arm and a tragic past when both are recuperating in a sanatorium in 1920s California.  The fantasy story becomes interwoven with the realities of both teller and listener – and transpires in various locales across the globe (naturally).  At times this seems pitched for children, at other times it is too dark in content (suicide, violence) to show it to them.  Give it a miss.      

Miles Ahead (2015)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Miles Ahead (2015) – D. Cheadle

Not really a bio-pic of Miles Davis – but what is it?  Some kind of bizarre buddy-action-comedy starring Don Cheadle as Miles and Ewen McGregor as a Rolling Stone reporter-wannabe trying to get a story.  Davis is in his burnt-out period (1975-1980), not happy, not friendly, high on coke most of the time, holed up in his NY bachelor pad/home studio, not making music.  The plot involves some stolen session tapes and the impression a young up-and-coming trumpeter has on evil Miles.  There are flashbacks to earlier happier times (but still Davis rarely smiles).  He’s acerbic even then but he’d found love (Emayatzy Corinealdi as Frances Davis née Taylor) and then threw it all away (drugs, cheating, etc.).  The world of jazz looks pretty messed up and then there is also racism with which to contend.  Cheadle directs with a certain flair but it’s hard not to see that this fiction is a bit overcooked.  Still, there is enough music by the real Miles floating across the soundtrack to make things enjoyable from a sonic perspective.  The inevitable glowing interviews on the DVD feature Davis family members singing the trumpeter’s praises – but what movie were they watching?  

A Prairie Home Companion (2006)

☆ ☆ ☆

A Prairie Home Companion (2006) – R. Altman

When I lived in Minnesota, I never paid too much attention to Garrison Keillor out at Lake Wobegon and his Prairie Home Companion radio show.  I watched this film primarily because it was directed by Robert Altman, his last film, and it certainly bears his stamp (overlapping dialogue, large cast, indirect focus, camera zoom, meandering non-plot).  The material is genial enough (written by Keillor) and well-suited to Altman’s style.  The age-old radio show is going to be shut down and the Fitzgerald Theatre demolished – we watch the last performance front-stage and back-stage.  There’s some folksy country music (sung by the likes of Meryl Streep, Lily Tomlin, Woody Harrelson, and John C. O’Reilly), some folksy stories and witticisms by Keillor, some informal friendly banter among old friends, and then some bits of plot thrown in to move the film along.  Lindsay Lohan is here doing not much.  Don’t start here with Altman but he does elevate the totally non-offensive material here.  There’s a place for this way back yonder in your parents’ day, I think.

Predator (1987)

☆ ☆ ☆

Predator (1987) – J. McTiernan

There’s something odd about watching Predator 30 years after its release (for the first time).  The soundtrack feels wrong – it is all symphonic, an old-school Hollywood score (by Alan Silvestri) – no rock music or blaring guitars or screeching crashing exploding “percussion”.  This somehow makes Predator a bit dreamier and more unworldly than your modern action film.  It also feels a lot more “low budget” – although in reality the special effects probably cost millions more than today’s digital contributions.  A lot of things blow up.  The plot is simple:  Arnold and his band of commandos are dropped off in the jungle (Mexico playing South America) to rescue some hostages but instead meet a virtually indestructible, nearly invisible, humanoid alien with high tech weaponry hell-bent on destroying (and eating?) them.  By the end, it is Arnold vs. Predator mano a mano as you knew it would be.  Arnold has his schtick down pat by this point in his career, letting one-liners rip and giving a surprisingly thoughtful performance (as far as he could).  His super-stardom and comedic turns were just a year or two away.  In the end, Predator didn’t exactly wow me but it held together fine.  ImDB proudly announces that this is one of a few films with two future US Governors (Jesse Ventura is the other) – how’s them apples? 

The Revenant (2015)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

The Revenant (2015) – A. G. Iñárritu

Often beautiful to look at, Iñárritu’s epic period Western is also grim and somewhat relentless.  Leonardo DiCaprio is the seasoned guide to a trapping company out in North Dakota (or further west, judging by the mountains) who gets mauled by a bear and then more-or-less left for dead by the company.  Well, asshole Tom Hardy is left to look after him and his son by a Pawnee mother and that’s as good as leaving him for dead.  Shot with natural light only and without digital effects (or so they say), The Revenant looks authentic enough.  Perhaps it is just me, however, but I can’t really buy Leo in this part – he seems to be trying too hard and isn’t quite the right type for the grizzled and tough outdoorsman he plays.  That said, I think this is a problem for Leo more generally – he seems to be acting most of the time rather than really inhabiting his characters.  So, after his gruelling challenges, crawling around on his elbows in the snow for half the movie, Leo is deadset on revenge and he eventually gets it (or allows it to happen).  That’s basically the arc of the story and I don’t think it gets any deeper than that (despite some gauzy flashbacks to his life with the Pawnee which must mean something….maybe).  It’s long but I’m recommending it for the evocative experience, if nothing else – you really do feel that you are out in the wilderness back in time.

The Heartbreak Kid (1972)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

The Heartbreak Kid (1972) – E. May

Charles Grodin plays a character to which an intensely ambivalent reaction is the only correct response.  On the one hand, he’s funny (increasingly so, as the movie progresses).  On the other hand, he’s ready to end his marriage after 5 days because he meets Cybill Shepherd and she seems better.  Of course, Jeannie Berlin (the director Elaine May’s daughter) does do a great (funny) “annoying” and you can see Grodin’s pall as he really gets to know his bride.  But he’s a lying cad; Berlin doesn’t deserve to be dumped (and we feel sympathy for her).  So, we’re almost expecting Grodin to get his comeuppance and Eddie Albert (as Shepherd’s dad) very nearly offers it (“I’m a rich brick wall”).  But somehow Grodin defies the odds, following Shepherd back to Minneapolis (with several scenes shot on Northrop Mall at the U of M – it looks the same!).  And once he succeeds, surprisingly, we’re left with an exquisite moment (scored with “Close to You”, a repeated motif) where we aren’t quite sure if Grodin is happy or not.  Neil Simon wrote the screenplay from a story by Bruce Jay Friedman.  Funny and “real-seeming” but so very wrong.   

Where to Invade Next (2015)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Where to Invade Next (2015) – M. Moore

Affectionately referred to as “Mike’s Happy Movie” by his team, it is impossible not to feel overwhelming and terrible cognitive dissonance when watching Michael Moore’s 2015 film.  Of course, Moore was/is still in the business of trying to get America to lift her game; here, by travelling the world to highlight how other countries do things better (healthcare, education, workers’ rights, and so on).  The pointed implication (for Obama at the time) was that military spending makes up too much of the budget and the money could be better spent on other priorities (as other countries successfully do).  Of course, those other countries are clearly idealized and the whole film/presentation is light-hearted and comic, with Moore playing faux-naïve at how everything is different elsewhere.  However, now that Trump and his cronies are in charge, the likelihood of any of the changes proposed actually happening seems miniscule and my get-up-and-go has got-up-and-went.  But, really we do need to resist!  If anything, I feel hope that the left has been galvanized by recent events – it just remains to be seen whether the energy that has materialized can be channelled into profitable avenues for real change.