2.5 Paws
Seen recently at Aksarben Cinema
I loved the Eighties. I had big hair (my bangs barely cleared the interior roof of any car), I cut the crap out of my sweatshirts, and I saw Flashdance multiple times during its 1983 run.
Judging from the Risky Business-like feel of the opening sequence, the hot pink type font of the credits and the quilted satin jacket worn by Ryan Gosling's nameless character, director Nicolas Winding Refn is also a fan. He also likes spare dialogue, gruesome violence (beware the elevator scene) and casting actors against type.
I loved seeing the always cuddly Albert Brooks (spoiler alert) stab some street garbage in a particularly sensitive body part - in a pizza joint, no less. I also loved the duality of Gosling's driver. He was both touching and creepy - a rather unsettling mix of emotions, which makes watching what he does all the more compelling.
I hope he decides to keep acting a bit longer, despite his comments to the contrary.
Bonus Bones: 0
No dogs - not even a single mutt with a brief cameo - in this Hollywood tale of woe.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Point Blank
2.5 Paws
Seen recently at Film Streams
If you have asthma, you might want to skip this one.
It's just plain hard to catch your breath from the get-go. We're barely introduced to Samuel Pierret (played with ferocity by Gilles Lellouche) before he's plunged into a bizarre scenario reminiscent of the mess Harrison Ford's Dr. Richard Kimble found himself in in the 1993 version of The Fugitive.
Paris may be the city of light, but director Fred Cavaye purposely turned it off, creating a gray and grimy city that serves as the perfect backdrop for the film's rotten apple storyline. The acting was solid across the board, especially the muted performance turned in by Roschdy Zem, the film's 'good' bad guy. And, just when you think it's over, there's a skosh more to come, which makes for a very satisfying ending.
As my husband says every time we see a good foreign film with mass market potential: "I wonder who'll be cast in the American version."
Bonus Bones: 0
No police dogs, no dogs lounging underneath tables in sidewalk cafes while their owners sip between ciggie puffs - no dogs.
Seen recently at Film Streams
If you have asthma, you might want to skip this one.
It's just plain hard to catch your breath from the get-go. We're barely introduced to Samuel Pierret (played with ferocity by Gilles Lellouche) before he's plunged into a bizarre scenario reminiscent of the mess Harrison Ford's Dr. Richard Kimble found himself in in the 1993 version of The Fugitive.
Paris may be the city of light, but director Fred Cavaye purposely turned it off, creating a gray and grimy city that serves as the perfect backdrop for the film's rotten apple storyline. The acting was solid across the board, especially the muted performance turned in by Roschdy Zem, the film's 'good' bad guy. And, just when you think it's over, there's a skosh more to come, which makes for a very satisfying ending.
As my husband says every time we see a good foreign film with mass market potential: "I wonder who'll be cast in the American version."
Bonus Bones: 0
No police dogs, no dogs lounging underneath tables in sidewalk cafes while their owners sip between ciggie puffs - no dogs.
Sunday, September 18, 2011
The Debt
1.5 Paws
Seen recently at Aksarben Cinema
The queen has no clothes.
Don't be lured, as I was, into thinking this film was going to be a top-notch thrill ride based on the acting chops of its two supposed leads (bait and switch, by the way) - Oscar winner Helen Mirren (Rachel Singer) and Oscar nominee Tom Wilkinson (Stephan Gold).
Wilkinson is a no show, and Mirren's accent flickers in and out like your car radio on a drive through western Nebraska. The only nice thing I can say about Mirren's Singer is that she wears her scar well.
There were a few bright spots - the mod squad clothing of 1960s East Berlin during the flashback sequences and the performances of Marton Csokas (young Stephan Gold) and Jesper Christensen (Doktor Bernhardt/Dieter Vogel). Csokas is intense and appealing on screen - I have a feeling we'll be seeing more of him in the future. And you can't get any creepier than Christensen's version of a Nazi war criminal - I hope his grandkids don't watch this one.
Bonus Bones: 0
No dogs, which is just as well - they probably would have been shot or stabbed.
Seen recently at Aksarben Cinema
The queen has no clothes.
Don't be lured, as I was, into thinking this film was going to be a top-notch thrill ride based on the acting chops of its two supposed leads (bait and switch, by the way) - Oscar winner Helen Mirren (Rachel Singer) and Oscar nominee Tom Wilkinson (Stephan Gold).
Wilkinson is a no show, and Mirren's accent flickers in and out like your car radio on a drive through western Nebraska. The only nice thing I can say about Mirren's Singer is that she wears her scar well.
There were a few bright spots - the mod squad clothing of 1960s East Berlin during the flashback sequences and the performances of Marton Csokas (young Stephan Gold) and Jesper Christensen (Doktor Bernhardt/Dieter Vogel). Csokas is intense and appealing on screen - I have a feeling we'll be seeing more of him in the future. And you can't get any creepier than Christensen's version of a Nazi war criminal - I hope his grandkids don't watch this one.
Bonus Bones: 0
No dogs, which is just as well - they probably would have been shot or stabbed.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life
3 Paws
Seen recently at the Film Forum, NYC
I, being the unsophisticate that I am, had no idea who French singer Serge Gainsbourg was before I took my seat in one of the musty theaters at the Film Forum, one of New York City's shrines to independent cinema (they get extra bonus points for selling T-shirts with dogs on them - I bought one, of course).
Turns out it didn't matter. I was captivated (although at times confused) from beginning to end. I normally wouldn't recommend slightly sinister muppet-like creatures as plot devices, but they worked in this case. I was immediately won over by the irrepressible charm of Kacey Mottet Klein, who played a young Lucien Ginsburg before time and circumstance changed his name.
The charm faded as the character aged on screen. By the end of the film, I felt nothing but sadness for the man the little pistol had become. If despair truly fuels the creative process, the artist had more than his fair share of raw material.
Bonus Bones: 20
Aaaaaah the French. There were four - count 'em four - dogs in this one. One of them even had his own death scene.
Turns out it didn't matter. I was captivated (although at times confused) from beginning to end. I normally wouldn't recommend slightly sinister muppet-like creatures as plot devices, but they worked in this case. I was immediately won over by the irrepressible charm of Kacey Mottet Klein, who played a young Lucien Ginsburg before time and circumstance changed his name.
The charm faded as the character aged on screen. By the end of the film, I felt nothing but sadness for the man the little pistol had become. If despair truly fuels the creative process, the artist had more than his fair share of raw material.
Bonus Bones: 20
Aaaaaah the French. There were four - count 'em four - dogs in this one. One of them even had his own death scene.
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