Day: November 8, 2013

By Joe Bendel. As a sake-brewing apprentice about to succeed his master, Naoto relates to the potent potable on a deep level. It is almost sacrilegious to ask him to drink a sake-bomb (the old sake shot submerged in a beer). Nonetheless, he acquits himself fairly well when he hits the California party scene with his snarky cousin (better than the churlish vlogger, in fact). Eventually, everyone will learn a thing or two in Junya Sakino’s extended family road comedy, Sake-Bomb, which opens today in Los Angeles.

Naoto could not possibly be more earnest. When he agrees to take over his master’s brewery, he also follows the old man’s advice, taking a week’s vacation to finish working through any lingering regrets he might have in his personal life. His pursuit of Olivia, his long lost summer lover, brings him to the Moritas’ apartment in Los Angeles.

Sebastian is crashing there with his father, because he is unemployed and has just been dumped by his girlfriend. He is not exactly keen to shuttle Naoto up to Petaluma in hopes of finding the elusive Olivia, but his father insists. Naturally, they first take a detour to a party in Irvine, so Sebastian can make a complete clown of himself in front of his ex. At least they meet a few interesting types there, including Joslyn, the naughty graphic novelist who catches Sebastian’s eye.

Pound for pound, there might be more identity jokes in S-B than any other film this year, largely taking the form of Sebastian’s video posts. He is angry with Asian women who date white guys. He is angry with white women who do not date Asian men. He is angry with white people who cannot distinguish between Asian nationalities. He is not too thrilled with the Chinese either, so buckle up. On one hand, some of this material pushes the envelope of politeness. On the other hand, it is pretty funny sometimes.

As Sebastian, Eugene Kim never holds back on the attitude. He is almost too abrasive, considering the audience obviously is supposed to embrace him during the third act. However, likability is not a problem for Gaku Hamada, the popular Japanese star of Potechi (Chips), who subtly but surely conveys the strength of character beneath Naoto’s naivety. Together, their over-the-top and understated personas play off each other quite nicely. Future star-in-the-making Jessika Van also scores in her scene as a friend of Sebastian’s girlfriend, giving him what-for. Yet, for a certain demographic, former porn star and California gubernatorial candidate Mary Carey upstages everyone as, you know, a porn star.

Sake-Bomb never reinvents the buddy movie-wheel, but it has an edge and a good deal of heart. Better than the typical Phillips and Apatow grind ‘em outs, Sake-Bomb is recommended for fans of slightly raucous but well-intentioned rom-coms when it opens today (11/8) in Los Angeles at the Downtown Independent.

LFM GRADE: B

Posted on November 8th, 2013 at 3:09pm.

By Joe Bendel. Bob Guccione hired a lot of science and science fiction writers for Omni Magazine. He published other stuff, too. Of course, that is what built his publishing empire and it is why he is now getting the documentary profile treatment in Barry Avrich’s Filthy Gorgeous: the Bob Guccione Story (trailer here), a selection of this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, which premieres tonight on EPIX.

Originally, painting was Guccione’s calling. He was more or less content to live the hand-to-mouth life of a struggling artist in Europe, but his first wife—not so much. Moving to fill a void, Guccione originally conceived Penthouse as the domestic British answer to Playboy, but he quickly recognized that the American circulation titan was vulnerable to upstart competition and moved in on its turf. Guccione initially served as the staff photographer, because he could not afford anyone else, but obviously those duties agreed with him. Readers (or whatever the correct term might be) seemed to agree, until things started to turn in the 1990s.

Frankly, Filthy is much more interesting when analyzing the collapse of the Guccione empire than celebrating its rise. An entire film could probably be made on the tempestuous production of Caligula and it would be far more watchable than the train wreck resulting from Guccione’s battles with Tinto Brass. There were also cash-draining misadventures with a cold fusion reactor scam and an aborted Atlantic City casino. More costly in the long term, Guccione fundamentally lacked a vision for the whole internet thing, just like his archrival, Hugh Hefner.

There is some fascinating, honest to goodness publishing history in Filthy. There are also plenty of reminisces about what a progressive gentleman Guccione was in his business dealings and how shy he was in private. That is all very nice, but it gets repetitive quickly. Likewise, attempts to position Guccione as yet another First Amendment crusader fall flat, notwithstanding the efforts of Alan Dershowitz. In fact, the lack of critical voices in Filthy is a serious flaw. There really should be someone somehow associated with Vanessa Williams tearing into him for the nude photo scandal.

Naturally, Avrich periodically gives viewers peaks behind the magazine covers, because duh. Yet, the sequence that resonates the strongest describes attempts by Guccione, Jr. (a rather candid interview subject) and several of his father’s loyalists to take the magazine in a more demur Men’s Health or Maxim direction. There is something to their arguments that might have been explored in greater length. Needless to say, Guccione, Sr. went in the opposite direction, with dire financial consequences.

The magnitude of Guccione’s downfall is almost worthy of classical tragedy. As a posthumous profile, there is no escaping the inevitable, but the closing fifteen minutes or so are surprisingly sad. Still, there are some worthy object lessons for budding media moguls in Filthy regarding the importance of seizing opportunities and acknowledging seismic shifts in the marketplace. There are also pictures of naked women, scrupulously selected for their comparative tastefulness. Conspicuously one-sided but still consistently interesting, Filthy Gorgeous is recommended to mature viewers for the documentary equivalent of its articles when it airs on EPIX tonight (11/8).

LFM GRADE: C+

Posted on November 8th, 2013 at 3:06pm.