Month: January 2014

Amnesiac Hitmen in Love: LFM Reviews Key of Life, Now on DVD

By Joe Bendel. All movie lovers know amnesia and romance go together like fish and chips. Yakuza not so much, but they are all part of the mix in screenwriter-director Kenji Uchida’s understated rom-com, Key of Life, which releases today on DVD from Film Movement.

The mysterious Shinichiro Yamazaki (professional handle: Kondo) has just taken out an unfortunate businessman. Despite his protective garb, the hitman has a discrete dab of blood on him. He is also somewhat sweaty, so he heads for a public bath, where he promptly slips on a bar of soap and cracks his head. Seizing the opportunity, suicidal loser-actor Takeshi Sakurai grabs his keys and clothes, while an ambulance whisks him off to the hospital. When Sakurai finally resolves to face up to the well heeled Yamazaki, he finds the man has no memory of his past life. Although he still feels a tiny bit guilty, Sakurai continues impersonating Yamazaki, blissfully unaware of the man’s dangerous line of work.

Meanwhile, book publishing executive Kanae Mizushima gives herself a short deadline to find and marry a reasonably respectable man. She has her reasons. Sakurai, as Yamazaki erroneously presumes himself to be, seems like a poor prospect. Yet a chance encounter leads to possible romance for the two meticulous souls. Of course, all sorts of complications are lurking around the corner, many of them involving the Yakuza who has a rather distasteful follow-up gig for Kondo.

From "Key of Life."

On paper, Key sounds like a whizbang screwball comedy, but Uchida’s execution is surprisingly quiet, laidback, and mature. Recognizing a good thing going on, he allows plenty of time for the ambiguously romantic relationship between Mizushima and the real Yamazaki to unfold. He juggles a gracious plenty plot points, yet Key is first and foremost a rom-com that excels at the rom.

Prolific character actor Teruyuki Kagawa is absolutely pitch-perfect as Yamazaki (assuming Sakurai’s identity), conveying all his world weary soulfulness, while still springing all his character’s revelations like the crafty pro he is. Likewise, Ryoko Hirosue (sort of the Japanese Sandra Bullock, probably still best known internationally for her supporting turn in the Oscar winning Departures) is exquisitely demur and sensitive as the reserved Mizushima. Together, they develop some unusually fresh and deep screen chemistry. Unfortunately, Masato Sakai’s real Sakurai looks like quite the weak link in comparison, but at least he delivers one memorable extra-base hit late in the third act.

Even though Uchida maintains an appealingly light and easy-going vibe, Key has far more heft than the average comedy of any sub-genre. It is a film that appreciates the awkward ways people relate to each other. Witty, romantic, and greatly satisfying, Key of Life is highly recommended for general audiences. It is now available on standard DVD from Film Movement.

LFM GRADE: A

Posted on January 7th, 2014 at 8:20pm.

Jet Li Supervises: LFM Reviews Badges of Fury, Now on DVD/Blu-ray

By Joe Bendel. Jet Li’s Huang Fei Hong is sort of the Sergeant Murtaugh of the Hong Kong police. He is definitely getting too old for this sort of thing, but unlike his Lethal Weapon counterpart, he always punches out promptly at 5:00 and disappears for long stretches. That leaves most of the slapstick to his younger colleagues. Seniority has its privileges. Still, whenever Huang returns for a throw down, things perk up dramatically in Wong Tsz-ming’s Badges of Fury, which releases today on DVD and Blu-ray from Well Go USA.

Huang is a crafty old salt who is more interested in his retirement portfolio than office politics. Wang Bu-er thinks he’s all that, but has an uncanny talent for self-sabotage. Their young, insecure team leader has paired them together in the hope some of Huang’s mature risk-aversion will rub off on Wang. So far, it is not taking. Wang just keeps blundering ahead, inadvertently aiding the escape of the wanted criminal Huang nearly captures in the spectacular opening action sequence.

However, Badges is not really about the fugitive Chen Hu. Frankly, it keeps changing its mind, but the preponderance of the narrative involves the investigation of the so-called “Smile Murders.” Each of the victims died with a strange smile plastered across their faces. It turns out they were also all once engaged to low budget starlet Liu Jinshui. Quickly, Liu falls under suspicion, but her half-sister Dai Yiyi appears far more dangerous, given her obvious va-va-voom.

From "Badges of Fury."

When Badges goes for laughs, it can be painful. However, action director Corey Yuen embraces the film’s cartooniness, unleashing his inner Itchy and Scratchy for some absolutely off-the-wall fight scenes. In the big opener and closer, Jet Li shows he still has his mojo. It is too bad there isn’t more of him as the steely Huang. Unfortunately, his Ocean Heaven co-star Wen Zhang kind of stinks up the joint with his shtick. Rising star Michelle Chen (so memorable in Ripples of Desire) is also clearly out of her element as their exasperated superior. At least, Ada Liu vamps it up with gusto as the femme fatale sister.

As if Badges were not inconsistent enough, it also shoehorns in more cameos than the director’s cut of It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. Sometimes it works great, as when action star Wu Jing shows up to rumble as an insurance investigator. Other times, it can be a rather head-scratching distraction for viewers not up on their Hong Kong reality television. Still, it is always pleasant to see Lam Suet, Stephy Tang, Josie Ho, and Grace Huang on-screen.

When it clicks, Badges is a martial arts machine. When it doesn’t, it is usually dabbling in romantic comedy. Still, Jet Li and Wu Jing’s chops, Yuen’s gravity-defying fight choreography, and Liu’s sex appeal should be enough to hold HK action junkies’ interest on DVD. Recommended for fans, but not as a Jet Li entry point, Badges of Fury is now available for home viewing from Well Go USA.

LFM GRADE: C+

Posted on January 7th, 2014 at 8:18pm.

LFM Reviews Rohmer in Paris @ First Look 2014

By Joe Bendel. His professional pseudonym was derived from Sax Rohmer, but Éric Rohmer is not known for genre pictures. Aside from the occasional well regarded period piece, he remains most celebrated for work within the comedy of manners rubric and his intimately observed relationship dramas. This hardly seems the stuff to inspire obsessive analysis in the tradition of Room 237, but Richard Misek proves the Rohmer canon rewards such close critical scrutiny in his docu-essay Rohmer in Paris, which has its American premiere this Saturday as part of the Museum of the Moving Image’s annual First Look.

The epicenter of Misek’s film is the Tim Hotel in Paris. It was there the potentially adulterous lovers in Rohmer’s Rendezvous in Paris were to have their assignation, only to spy their respective spouses arriving together on a similar mission. As fate would dictate, Misek was also at the Tim Hotel that day and inadvertently found his way into a few frames of Rohmer’s film. Realizing his presence in Rendezvous years after the fact, Misek began binge viewing Rohmer’s filmography.

Obvious commonalities are immediately apparent. Rohmer’s characters are largely Parisians, either in Paris proper or on holiday in the countryside. Chance meetings are commonplace and everybody walks incessantly. As a result, Rohmer’s films document the development of modern Paris, particularly his beloved Left Bank. Considered collectively, his work becomes something of a Möbius strip of characters in motion, crossing over but not interacting with their counterparts from other films.

Eric Rohmer.

Cleverly edited by Misek, RIP largely (but not quite entirely) consists of clips from Rohmer films that vividly illustrate his points. While Misek’s commentary is clearly informed by Post-Structuralist critical theory, he never loses sight of the exquisite human dimension to Rohmer’s film. Indeed, he is absolutely brimming over with compassion for the enigmatic subject of Rohmer’s short documentary Nadja in Paris.

RIP probably sounds like indulgent film geekery and perhaps it is, but it is also unfailingly pleasant, conscientiously respectful of Rohmer (and the legacy of classic film in general), and weirdly touching. Misek even wraps things up in a Rohmer-esque ending, which is quite a trick for a documentary.

There is no getting around RIP’s scholarly roots, but it is still easily accessible to anyone interested in Eric Rohmer. It might not hold mass market appeal, but it is a very good film. Most importantly, Misek leaves viewers wanting to re/watch Rohmer’s remarkably accomplished oeuvre, which is always the acid test for a film like this. It also happens to be relatively concise (under seventy minutes), so MoMI will screen it with The Bakery Girl of Monceau, one of Rohmer’s shorts discussed in detail during RIP. Recommended rather enthusiastically to Rohmer fans and postmodernist film students, Rohmer in Paris screens this Saturday (1/11) as part of MoMI’s First Look in Astoria, Queens.

LFM GRADE: A-

Posted on January 7th, 2014 at 8:15pm.

A Gritty Noir for Bryan Cranston: LFM Reviews Cold Comes the Night

By Joe Bendel. The Russian mob does not have much in terms of pension and disability plans, so an aging courier slowly losing his eyesight does not have many options. He just carries on, relying on trusted accomplices. Unfortunately, when a shipment of cash goes awry, he will force a single mother to help him retrieve it in Tze Chun’s Cold Comes the Night, which opens this Friday in New York.

Topo can count on his partner to cover for him, but he has little confidence in the younger man’s judgment. His lack of faith is vindicated when they stop for a few hours’ shut-eye at Chloe’s no-tell motel in upstate New York. When a lurid misadventure leads to the death of Topo’s associate and a local girl, the more discrete older thug forces Chloe to serve as his eyes. Initially, Chloe does so to protect her young daughter, Sophia. However, as she grows somewhat used to the grizzled Topo, she tries to forge a temporary alliance. After all, he seems to be a better bet than Billy, the corrupt married cop she has reluctantly been carrying on with, who also becomes their leading suspect.

Although Cold starts out as a mother-and-child in jeopardy thriller (sort of the reverse of Wait Until Dark), it soon develops its own distinctive identity. Wisely, it largely removes Sophia from the line of fire, focusing instead on Chloe’s uneasy give-and-take with Topo. There are no cheap rehabilitations in Cold, either. Topo essentially remains who he always was, even though he develops a subtle regard for Chloe.

Alice Eve in "Cold Comes the Night."

Admittedly, he never breaks a sweat, but it is still fun to watch Bryan Cranston do his thing as Topo. He seethes like a champion and nicely projects an air of world weary existential resignation. Despite all his instant hardnose credibility, the name Topo still automatically brings to mind images of Topol singing “If I were a Rich Man,” which clashes rather badly with the mood the film is going for.

As Chloe, Alice Eve holds her own against Cranston’s Topo surprisingly well. At least she is not a shrinking violet/Lifetime movie heroine. Young Ursula Parker is also relatively down-to-earth and endurable as Sophia. In contrast, as greasy Billy, Logan Marshall-Green annoyingly acts like he is channeling Bill Paxton.

Perhaps the film’s biggest surprise is that such a gritty noir comes from director-co-writer Tze Chun, as the follow-up to his emotionally wrenching coming of age story, Children of Invention. It turns out he has a good handle on the double-crossing machinations of the Simple Plan-style thriller. Cold moves along at a healthy clip and delivers plenty of Cranston (this is no glorified cameo, but a legitimate featured role). It definitely comes from a B-movie place, but the elements come together rather effectively. Recommended for fans of slightly grungy noirs, Cold Comes the Night opens this Friday (1/10) in New York at the Quad Cinema.

LFM GRADE: B+

Posted on January 6th, 2014th at 11:20pm.

LFM Reviews Ain’t Misbehavin’ @ The 2014 New York Jewish Film Festival

By Joe Bendel. You might not expect Fats Waller to provide the theme song for the docu-memoir of Marcel Ophüls, the director of The Sorrow and the Pity. However, those who closely followed the filmmaker’s career know he had already used Waller’s rendition of Irving Berlin’s “Waiting at the End of the Road” as the opening music for his Northern Ireland documentary, A Sense of Loss. Ophüls just liked Waller. Viewers will learn a few more things about Ophüls when he turns the camera on himself in Ain’t Misbehavin,’ which screens during the 2014 New York Jewish Film Festival.

As the son of Max Ophuls, filmmaking is in Marcel Ophüls’ blood. It also meant he was born Jewish in Weimar Germany. In Misbehavin,’ his most dramatic recollections chronicle the family’s life in exile, spanning France, Switzerland, Spain, and eventually America. While Ophüls generally hopscotches from subject to subject as the mood strikes him, he gives his formative war years the focus they merit.

The rest of the film is a mixed bag, but there is plenty of interesting bits for film lovers to chew on. Ophüls’ encounter with the sixty year old (but apparently still sultry) Marlene Dietrich turns out to be everything you would hope. There is also plenty of good Hollywood dish on Preston Sturges and Howard Hughes, from the perspective of the senior Ophüls. Strangely, he only revisits his own films obliquely, rather than in-depth. Nonetheless, Misbehavin’ helps put his controversial war crimes film The Memory of Justice into perspective. Commissioned by German television, it is controversial for equating American military operations in Viet Nam with National Socialist genocide. According to the director, he tried to avoid such “relativism,” but control of the picture became contested and a version not authorized by Ophüls aired in Germany.

From "Ain’t Misbehavin’."

Ophüls often acknowledges his tribulations in passing asides that leave inevitable questions dangling in mind air (like, “what did he just say about his suicide attempts?”). Yet, perhaps the strangest sequences involve a suspected affair between his wife, Régine (still living, but not talking) and his dear friend, François Truffaut. Ophüls even puts the question to Jeanne Moreau, in an interview she seems to find just as baffling as the audience.

There is probably more of Ophüls sauntering about in Misbehavin’ than anyone really needs and it starts slower than molasses. Nonetheless, the documentary provides a unique first-hand perspective on Golden Age Hollywood, the Nouvelle Vague, and WWII. It also proves he has good taste in music. Recommended for fans of either Ophüls, Ain’t Misbehavin’ screens twice this coming Wednesday (1/8) at the Walter Reade Theater, as part of this year’s NYJFF, co-presented by the Jewish Museum and the Film Society of Lincoln Center.

LFM GRADE: B

Posted on January 6th, 2014 at 11:12pm.

LFM Reviews Lonely Planet @ The 2014 New York Jewish Film Festival

By Joe Bendel. It is easy to see why banishment to Siberia was a favorite method of punishment under the old Communist regime. It still seems like a cold, isolated, economically depressed region, at least judging from the footage shot by an Israeli film crew. Ostensibly, they are looking for Mishka Zilberstein, who as young Jewish boy reportedly took refuge from the National Socialists with the wolves in the Belarus forest. Oddly enough, Zilberstein’s urban legend might be the only thing that is true in Edan Zeira’s docu-drama hybrid, Lonely Planet, which screens during the 2014 New York Jewish Film Festival.

Zeira and his Israeli-French crew are determined to find the mythical Mishka, but each lead turns out to be a dead-end. Supposedly, the real life Zilberstein eventually settled in a remote corner of Siberia. Everyone seems to know his story, but the locals are not exactly welcoming. At least all the trouble Zeira and his colleagues got into was presumably fictional, unless Zeira really did agree to a shotgun wedding to a provincial police chief’s pretty daughter, in which case, Mazel tov.

From "Lonely Planet."

This is a very strange film, for obvious reasons. Yet, despite its postmodern gamesmanship, it is worth listening-up when the real Zilberstein finally enters the picture. Indeed, Zilberstein is a fairly well documented historical figure and viewers have no reason to doubt it is really him consenting to tell his story (aside from all the meta-meta business that came before). It is a powerful tale, involving torture at the hands of both the National Socialists and the Soviets. Essentially, Zilberstein was reduced to an animal state, at a time when animals were more humane than humans.

Zeira illustrates Zilberstein’s story with highly stylized black-and-white re-enactments. Clearly, they had a terrific handler for the wolves. While his (presumed) humor is sometimes questionable, it always comes at his own expense. Some might understandably take issue with his mash-up approach in a film that directly addresses the Jewish experience during WWII, but Zeira is unfailingly respectful in his treatment of Zilberstein. Fans of Guy Maddin will probably enjoy his deconstructive and surreal inclinations, whereas general audiences will appreciate Zilberstein’s testimony. Recommended for the somewhat adventurous, Lonely Planet screens twice this coming Thursday (1/9) at the Walter Reade Theater, as part of this year’s NYJFF.

LFM GRADE: B-

Posted on January 6th, 2014 at 11:08pm.