Month: June 2014

By Joe Bendel. You know whenever a movie cop takes on one last case before retirement it is bound to get complicated. It becomes especially uncomfortable for Inspector Adriano Monaco when he investigates the lurid murder of a highly connected contractor, while trying to repair his relationship with his daughter in Bruno Oliviero’s The Human Factor, which screens during the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s annual series, Open Roads: New Italian Cinema.

As a cop and as a parent, Monaco goes strictly by the book. That has made it difficult to bond with his daughter Linda, even after the untimely death of his wife three years ago. Since then, Monaco has buried himself in desk work, but his captain insists his tact and insight are needed for the murder of Mirko Ullrich. A good friend of Milan’s political power-brokers, Ullrich was discovered by his wife in a highly compromising and most certainly deceased condition.

Initially, suspicion falls on the not-too-terribly-broken-up Mrs. Ullrich, but Monaco and his junior partner Carlo Levi soon follow a trail of clues to Milan’s underworld of drugs and under-aged procurement. Meanwhile, Monaco continues to neglect and inadvertently push away the oversensitive Linda, until her rebellion precipitates a family crisis.

Essentially, Oliviero employs the elements of film noir to tell an acutely personal family drama, but the Ullrich case is still as serious as a heart attack. One cannot help wonder what levels of tragic gravitas Toni Servillo might have brought to Monaco, but Silvio Orlando rather deftly takes him in the completely opposite direction. His Monaco is just a haggard shell of man, who barely has sufficient force of will remaining to walk across the room.

There is indeed something undeniably compelling about Orlando’s emotionally desiccated performance. In contrast, Alice Raffaelli’s petulant Linda can be tough to take, but that is probably rather true to the reality of late adolescence. For some welcome added color, Giuseppe Battiston brings to mind a young, salty Depardieu as the more pragmatic Levi, which is a good thing.

Oliviero and cinematographer Renaud Personnaz maximize the seedy nocturnal vibe for all its worth. Even though most viewers will probably guess exactly the general direction it is headed, the stylish execution and distinctive performances still make Factor a trip worth watching. Recommended for fans of film noir and Italian cinema, The Human Factor screens today (6/6) at the Walter Reade, as part of Open Roads 2014.

LFM GRADE: B+

Posted on June 6th, 2014 at 10:59am.

By Joe Bendel. Barbara Polk was once the Susan Sontag of Brazil, but it has been a long time since her last book. It is fair to say she has had issues during the intervening time. Viewers will learn them in dramatic detail when Polk reluctantly sits for an interview with a journalist neighbor in Rafael Primot’s Never Too Old to Meow, which screened during the 2014 Brazilian Film Festival in New York.

Polk is still a recognizable name in literary circles, but she no longer has the same cache as a public intellectual. With the expected publication of a long awaited follow-up novel looming, she agrees to an interview for a hipster magazine. Like a bitter old Lillian Hellman, Polk seems to do everything she can to make Carol uncomfortable. There is a reason for her icy hospitality. The two women are linked in extremely intimate ways. Let’s just say Polk used to live in the penthouse instead of Carol.

Nonetheless, Polk starts to warm to her guileless guest as the vino flows. Perhaps they can form some sort of alliance as fellow women of letters. And then the film turns into a completely different animal—one that makes more sense to be covered here. It is hard to avoid spoilery terms (although the ominous opening credit sequence foreshadows the big twist), but one might say Meow starts in the vein of a Mary McCarthy novel and then takes a detour into Joyce Carol Oates’ darker terrain.

Frankly, Meow just doesn’t know when to quit. There is an obvious concluding place that would serve as a much darker but more powerful exclamation point to their strange evening. Regardless, there is no question Primot pulls the audience into what is essentially a one-set two-hander. His disciplined approach is not overly showy, yet it is open enough to avoid staginess, much in the tradition of some of Polanski’s more grounded work.

It is also pretty clear Meow was intended as a showcase for Regina Duarte, who marked her fiftieth anniversary as a multiple-screen actor last year. She is ferocious as Polk, especially when chewing on her early acerbic one-liners. The entire film is stacked against Bárbara Paz’s Carol, but she holds on and guts it out admirably well, all things considered.

This is not the sort of Jill Clayburgh movie Meow originally presents itself to be. Frankly, you do not see such radical gear-shifting in film or television very often, which makes it quite cool, in a rude sort of way. Recommended for patient fans of sinister psychological thrillers (but not the cat lovers who might be accidentally drawn to it), Never Too Old to Meow screened this week as part of this year’s Brazilian Film Festival in New York at the Tribeca Cinemas.

LFM GRADE: B

Posted on June 6th, 2014 at 10:51am.

By Joe Bendel. As a family of academics, it is not surprising the Whytes are prone to depression and dysfunctional insecurities. At least they have a good reason. While still a young boy, Erol’s father mysteriously vanishes while attending a theoretical physics conference. His absence continues to haunt Erol and his mother, but the son might be able to fix his broken family by reconstructing his father’s time travel research in Richie Mehta’s I’ll Follow You Down, which opens this Friday in the Tri-State Area.

Gabe Whyte’s luggage remained in his Princeton hotel room, but no trace could be found of the Toronto scholar. His wife Marika never really recovered from the loss. Arguably though, some good came out of the misfortune, from Erol’s perspective. While his mother was away searching for his father, the young boy forged a deep bond with Grace, his childhood sweetheart. In fact, they are poised to get married after their undergrad studies, until his mother finally succumbs to her depression.

As he mourns his mother, Whyte starts to reconsider his Grandpa Sal’s crazy claims. The good professor is convinced Gabe developed a method of time travel, journeying through a wormhole to have a discussion with Einstein, presumably meeting with misadventure somewhere along the way. However, it will take more than a garden variety genius like Prof. Gramps to replicate his work. Only an exceptional mind like Erol’s is equal to the task. The upside for his family will be profound if Whyte can save his father, but what will happen to his relationship with Grace?

Follow definitely has its cerebral side, which is a good thing, but it is also unusually emotionally mature for science fiction. Instead of speculating about the Butterfly Effect and how it might alter macro history and technology, Mehta focuses on how it could transform the Whyte family. As a result, it is not nearly as intricately constructed and gleefully mind-blowing as Nacho Vigalondo’s Timecrimes or Hugh Sullivan’s The Infinite Man, but its time shifting business still holds together pretty well.

As a misfit genius, The Sixth Sense’s Haley Joel Osment makes a convincing misfit. The genius part requires a bit more willful suspension of disbelief. He more or less keeps his head above water, but it is far from certain whether Follow will herald a major career comeback. Wisely, he is surrounding by a quality supporting cast with serious genre cred. Alias’s Victor Garber is on familiar turf as the decent mentoring grandfather, but he is still a reassuring presence. Rufus Sewell makes intelligence charismatic as the temporally misplaced Whyte, while The X-Files’ Gillian Anderson is surprisingly compelling as miserable mother Marika.

Like Infinite Man and Darren Paul Fisher’s Frequencies, Follow is the sort of cleverly conceived science fiction that does not require extensive special effects. A dose of Einstein (not a character) beats an explosion any day. Recommended with enthusiasm for time travel fans, I’ll Follow You Down opens this Friday (6/13) at the AMC Jersey Gardens in Elizabeth, via Well Go USA.

LFM GRADE: B+

Posted on June 6th, 2014 at 10:39am.