The Vacation Film Festival Blowout

OK, so this vacation I decided to really relax and take it easy, get some exercise, travel, and watch a crap load of movies that have been stacked up for ages. I made some progress, so here is a quick review of everything I watched. Starting with the Documentaries:



Confessions of a Superhero
Great documentary about the crazies that dress up as super heroes or celebrities in front of Mann's Chinese Theater in Hollywood. It mostly focuses on four people who dress as Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, and the Hulk. Some of them are struggling actors and some of them are just plain mental patients. Highly recommended.



Cocaine Cowboys:
Another terrific documentary that will captivate you from second one. This doc chronicles the late 70's and early 80's drug wars in Miami. This is the real deal and not Crocket and Tubbs. The characters are real and very dangerous and maybe someday they can make a movie based on this and not something like Scarface, who one of the murderers says was not accurate. He said they were more insane than that!

Sicko:
I used to dig Michael Moore, but his shtick has grown very very tired. His docs are less and less like docs now but more like comedy routines that try to make him look like Mr. Funny and Gee how great am I for showing people these things. Roger and Me and Columbine were great docs, and parts of Fahrenheit 911 were too, but its getting old dude.

Autism: The Musical
This is about a mother of an adopted kid with Autism and her class of autistic kids that decide to put on a musical to show off their talents. Through the course you learn about each kids problems and plights. Some of the mothers are a bit on the crazy side and things begin to melt down hours before the performance as egos begin take over. I had heard some good things about this doc, but nothing really captured my attention.

The Road to Guantanamo:
A 2006 doc about three guys arrested for being part of Al Queda when in fact they were on their way to a wedding for a good friend. Upon arriving he went missing and in the search in finding him they get thrown into the 911 throw down and are mistaken for terrorists and spend several years in prison and wind up in Guantanamo. I liked the story of this movie, but since they had no footage of any of this , they went back and tried to recreate it intermixed with the real guys interviews. The reacted stuff bothered me so much that I had a hard time really feeling this. But like I said the story itself is very good.




Harlan County USA:
This is an older doc on Criterion disc from Barbara Kopple that I've always heard about but could never find. It details the efforts of coal miners strikes in Harlan County against "The Man". These strikes go on for a year or so and get quite intense. The greatest thing about this doc is the way its done. You can tell this director went all out and became of these minors. Every aspect is detailed from the strike to family life. It is literally like being a fly on the wall. Highly recommended.



Baraka
8K transfer bitches! This is the sharpest Blu-ray disc on the Earth. Ron Frickes 92 film is much like Cronos the Imax movie and Koyanskatsi. The images are breathtaking and mind blowing in 1080p. This film was shot in 65mm, and transferred frame by frame at 8K res. Most films are done in 4K. There is also a great documentary on the disc about the making of not just the movie but the restoration as well. Amazing stuff that can only be seen with the best Blu-ray tech.

I watched a few more that were not worth mentioning, so let's move on to some narratives:




The Promotion:
Starring Sean Williams Scott and John C. Reilly I really fell for this comedy. Scott plays a guy who works as a grocery store manager who is hoping to get a big promotion from corporate, when John C. Reilly is brought in from Canada to help run the store, and he too is up for the same promotion. The rest may seem predictable and formulaic but this is different in that takes some really interesting dramatic turns but is still really funny while remaining true to life. Which is probably why it pretty much went straight to video. Check this one out for sure. I usually hate anything with Scott in it, but he administered the shocker to me on this one.




Talk to Me:
A Biopic of DJ Petey Greene. This movie tells the story of convict Greene played nicely by Don Cheadle who upon getting out of prison attempts to or insists on being a disc jockey. Music soon takes a backseat to his ability to talk to the people of Detroit and once the assassination of Martin Luther King happens he finds himself as a person who can bring people together. However Green just wants to BS on the air and a TV show and Johnny Carson appearance begin to reveal that Green is not comfortable in his hero role at all and begins a path so self destruction that leaves his manager played by Chiwetel Ejiofor to become a famous DJ when Green leaves the game. I liked this movie as I learned a few more things about Green I didn't know. Most of my knowledge of him comes from his association with Howard Stern. Stern cites him as an inspiration for his own show. Recommended.




Last King of Scotland:
Forrest Whitaker has come a long way since Fast Times. And newcomer James McAvoy was equally great in this amazing film about Ugandan dictator Idi Amin. I even think the movie could of been even longer and better has it expanded upon some of Amin's crimes. This one is a keeper for those of you who have not seen it.

Paranoid Park:
Gus Van Sant returns to his native Portand, OR roots to make another experimental film this time incorporating some thriller/noir elements in a movie that left me pretty empty. I appreciate what he was going for with he realistic treatment of characters and stuff. But I didn't really learn much from this that I didn't already know. Skater kids are depressed and it rains a lot in Oregon, which makes them pine for the return of grunge music so everyone can be sad together. Not Van's worst movie by far but not his greatest. Hey at least its not Gerry! I will give props to the cinematography by my hero Christopher Doyle who does some really pretty work on a no budget.




Perhaps Love:
This is a blu-ray i picked up on import because the director Peter Chan made a really oool movie called Comrades Almost a Love Story a few years back I really dug. So this one won a crap load of HK awards, and its a musical. What could go wrong? And while make no mistake the imagery in this is breathtaking especially in 1080p on Blu, but in the end I found the film to be overly sentimental and I had checked out at about half time.




Half Nelson:
This is not The Wrestler Part 2. Ryan Gosling plays this high school history teacher in the ghetto in what we think might be Dangerous Minds or some shit, but ends up being Bad Lieutenant goes to High School. It seems our inspirational teacher has a really bad drug problem. Heck he even gets high in the girls locker room! All fin aside this is a really good movie and shows that in the hood black, white, green whatever, all have struggles. And every day is a fight to find something left to fight for. The movie never comes out and says that, you have to find it. Check this one out.

Hancock:
Great first half and really unfocused second half. I wonder if there is a mystery cut of this film floating around somewhere... Recommended for fun.




The Proposition:
This is an intense Western that pulls no punches when it comes to violence. Guy Pierce stars in a Australian western that would kill Baz Luhrman then Skull F his Australia movie for fun. Its that crazy. This is about a lawman that captures the younger brother of a notorious outlaw and threatens to kill him unless he kills his even more notorious older brother outlaw. This is a great movie that must have been overlooked which is too bad. Seek it.

Redbelt:
A David Mamet movie about Mixed Martial Arts. Well mediocre Mamet is better than Grade A other stuff I guess, but I have high expectations with things saying Mamet, so I was slightly disappointed. And please dude stop putting your wife in your movies. Does she have some sex video of you and a small animal?




Diving Bell and the Butterfly:
OK hands down this was the best film I saw over vacation marathon. This is the amazing story of Elle magazine editor, Jean-Do in a staggering performance by Mathieu Amalric who had a stroke that left him paralyzed to the point where he only had the use of one eye to blink. He along with a nurse developed a communication system based on winking that enabled him to write a book about his life before he passed on. Flashbacks aside this film is told mainly from the POV of his one eye which puts the viewer in situations beyond their control much like he was. The cinematography here by Spielberg DP Janusz Kaminski is amazing. I hope this comes out on Blu really soon. This is a story about a life of regret and a man unable to express it to the ones he loves. But somehow he finds that way. REALLY RECOMMENDED!



In Bruges:
Great thriller with Colin Farrel as an assassin who has a hit go horrible wrong hiding out in Bruges with a fellow assassin. Things get a bit crazy, midgets get involved and fat Americans provide a lot of laughs in this great little thriller, that I would like to watch again. Farrel is very good here, and the film within the film being shot in Bruges is also a neat device that works in well with the plot. Check it out!




Boarding Gate
Ah. Asia Argento. You had me at A. This is a story about Asia who kills her crazy ass criminal businessman boyfriend Michael Madson, (who actually acts in this one) and is on the run in Hong Kong the rest of the time trying to not get knocked off by her other criminal boyfriend. This is pretty much a arty chase film with amazing photography by French director Oliver Assias who did Irma Vep with Maggie Chueng. Asia does a great job here and this film is a good one for a rainy day that is really just a bunch of amazing images intersected with boring dialog scenes.

Fatal Contact:
Abysmal Hong Kong fighting movie. Really bad. Bad.




Trafic:
Very entertaining Jacque Tati movie that suffers from a bit of being too long. This time Tati takes his act on the road mixing up all sorts of madcap sight gags while trying to get from one place to another for a car show. If you are into Tati, this one is quite fun.

Dog Bites Dog:
Another Hong Kong action movie that tries to eliminate dialog and create a visual tour de force action movie with limited speaking. Unfortunately the story is a bit of a leap of faith, and if you don't buy in it won't grab you much. And I'm in that category here. Skip.

Star Wars: Clone Wars
F Lucas.




Snow Angels:
Very depressing character drama from Director David Gordon Green. Sam Rockwell and Kate Beckinsale are divorced with a little girl who one day goes missing, setting off a series of unfortunate events in a sleepy little town of sleepy characters looking for some purpose in a very sad limited universe. Both Rockwell and Beckinsale give great performances. The very ending is quite a shocker, and really took me off guard. I don't know if it was the perfect ending, but it did make me think. So I guess it worked.

The Notebook:
I'm not going to review this because I'm the last one on Earth who has not seen it. Suffice to say I liked it, but thought the core story could of done without the current day sentimental overkill.




Wanted:
This movie really took me off guard. I liked both Nightwatch and Daywatch, Timur Bekmambetovthe's previous Russian films, but at the end of the day I found them both pretty empty. Wanted however is really fun. I'm not familiar with the comic book its based on, but it had a great comic feel to it, so I hope its a faithful adaptation. Jolie and McAvoy make a good team and the rest of the cast are equally fun. Its a totally insane premise but for whatever reason it works and its a very entertaining film, that for once they make a sequel, cause I "wanted" more.




The Protector:
Tony Jaa stars as a dude who wants his stolen elephant back. He goes to Australia and kicks some serious ass. I watched the US cut of this, and I should of watched the international cut instead, because the editing is horrendous and the music is god awful. This is no Ong Bak folks. In fact it could be Rumble in the Bronx 2. Do all the punks in Australia and Vancouver seem stuck in an 80's Michael Jackson video? Fights are good in spots and if you like Tony Jaa, you will dig it.