Day: August 14, 2015

LFM Reviews The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

By Joe Bendel. In the 1960s, the MGM-produced Man from U.N.C.L.E. was one of the few TV shows that was successfully repackaged for American theatrical release. A little bit more action and seduction was added to two-part episodes that were then distributed in color, at a time when most televisions were in low def black-and-white. Frankly, it is rather surprising it has taken this long for the franchise to get the Hollywood reboot treatment. Happily, Guy Richie and co-screenwriter-co-producer Lionel Wigram harken back to the original first season more than the three shtickier years that followed. Nor do they attempt to update it for younger, dumber generations. The sixties are swinging and the Cold War is slowly boiling in Richie’s The Man from U.N.C.L.E., which opens today nationwide.

Napoleon Solo is a suave as it gets. The roguish CIA agent reluctantly agreed to put his talents at Uncle Sam’s disposal, when his career as an international art thief was thwarted through dumb luck. His latest mission will be smuggling Gaby Teller out of East Berlin.

Illya Kuryakin is an ardent Communist. That means he is not suave at all, but as a KGB agent, he is decidedly lethal. His latest mission will be keeping Teller in East Berlin. He will fail, but he will soon meet Solo and Teller again in Rome, ostensibly working together.

In a rare case of Cold War collaboration, the rival intelligence services will combine forces to stop a rogue element from building a super potent nuclear weapon with the help of Teller’s long estranged scientist father (Teller is indeed a credible name for a nuclear physicist, after all). Of course, it will be every spy for himself when it comes to retrieving this Teller’s research.

Like the source television show, the new U.N.C.L.E. kind of-sort of represents an idealist manifestation of détente during the height of the Cold War. However, Kuryakin’s backstory of doggedly striving to compensate for his family’s fall from grace during the Stalinist Purges would hardly earn Alexander Cockburn’s seal of approval. However, it adds a note of clear-headed historical context and makes Kuryakin’s proletarian plugger considerably more compelling.

Frankly, he needs the help, because Henry Cavill’s Solo eats Armie Hammer’s Kuryakin for lunch time and again during the film. Cavill’s scenery chewing work represents a star-establishing turn that out-Bonds James Bond, without descending into outright camp. Further upstaging Hammer, Alicia Vikander finally lives up to her hype as the next big thing smoldering up the screen as Gaby Teller.

From "The Man from U.N.C.L.E."

Unfortunately, Elizabeth Debicki and Deutschland ‘83’s Sylvester Groth are just okay as the standard issue Euro-villains, but Rome sure looks fab. Arguably, Richie is the most stylish director whom a major studio would trust with the keys to their shiny new prospective franchise reboot—and his sensibilities are perfectly attuned to the look and tenor of vintage Fellini Rome. His U.N.C.L.E. just oozes attitude and sophistication. He also has a hip ear for music (even though Les McCann & Eddie Harris’s rendition of “Compared to What” would have been even cooler for the opening titles than Roberta Flack’s).

Thanks to Richie’s disciplined flamboyance and key contributions from cinematographer John Mathieson and costume designer Joanna Johnston, U.N.C.L.E. is retro but not kitschy. Altogether, it is rather a good deal of throwback fun. Recommended for fans of the old school spy thrillers, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. opens wide today (8/14), including the AMC Empire in New York.

LFM GRADE: B+

Posted on August 14th, 2015 at 8:54pm.

LFM Reviews Tashi and the Monk on HBO

By Joe Bendel. Lobsang Phunstok is sort of the Father Flanagan of Tibetan Buddhism. At the foot of the Indian Himalayas, he founded Jamtse Gatsal, or “The Garden of Love and Compassion,” an orphanage and school for abandoned children. He might be a former Buddhist monk, but he has the patience of a saint when it comes to difficult children like Tashi Drolma. However, you have to feel for the five year old, considering how much she has already faced up to in her young life. Lobsang Phunstok and his staff will help her find her place in Jamtse Gatsal and start to heal her trauma in Andrew Hinton & Johnny Burke’s Tashi and the Monk, which premieres this coming Monday on HBO.

Drolma’s alcoholic father abandoned her sometime after her mother died at a tragically young age. That is more than any kid should have to deal with, so it is hardly surprising her behavior tends towards the aggressive. There is no question she is disruptive, but when you hear her make-up revealing stories about little girls just like her that are haunted by ghosts, it is easy to see she is hurting. Lobsang Phunstok understands only too well. He was also abandoned during childhood. That is why he will not give up on a trouble-maker like Drolma, even while he wrestles with difficult administrative dilemmas, especially his admissions process.

Clocking in well under an hour, T&M is comparatively brief, but it pummels viewers’ heartstrings. The disarmingly innocent looking Drolma will activate every protective instinct the audience might have, so it is rewarding to see her finally settle in, thanks in large measure to Raju, her “big brother.” However, the film also makes it painfully clear the good monk simply cannot save every child in need, showing us the tragic consequences for one child he was unable to admit.

We often think of Tibetan Buddhist monasteries as exotic places of spiritual sequestration. In contrast, T&M and Frederick Marx’s Journey to Zanskar paint a dynamic portrait of Tibet Buddhism as an activist faith, very much engaged with the welfare of the young and desperately disadvantaged. Both documentaries capture deeply moving human stories, while acting as a corrective to Lost Horizon-style exoticism.

After watching T&M for forty-some minutes, you will ardently care about what happens to both Tashi and her guardian. Hinton & Burke also have a good eye for visuals, giving viewers a vivid sense of the stunning Himalayan environs. It is a truly inspirational film that never feels saccharine or manipulative. Highly recommended for those interested in Himalayan culture and faith in action, Tashi and the Monk airs this Monday (8/17) on HBO.

LFM GRADE: A

Posted on August 14th, 2015 at 8:54pm.

LFM Reviews Egg and Stone @ Cinema on the Edge

By Joe Bendel. Interrupting an intensely personal, deeply emotional film about sexual abuse with some organized thuggery would be embarrassingly crass and heavy-handed, but that is exactly what happened to Huang Ji’s film at the Beijing Independent Film Festival. Halfway through her screening, the power to the maverick-dissident fest was not so mysteriously cut. Inspired by her own unfortunate experiences, Huang Ji shines a spotlight on contemporary Chinese gender inequity in Egg and Stone, which screens as part of Cinema on the Edge, the retrospective tribute to the Beijing Independent Film Festival.

Honggui was only supposed to stay with her aunt and uncle for two years, but she has spent the last seven in their hardscrabble Hunan village. Her aunt clearly resents her continued presence, but her uncle is suspiciously fine with it. The fourteen year-old is indeed pregnant, putting her in a precarious position within the judgmental society. However, if she has a boy, it becomes a marketable commodity.

For Honggui, life is profoundly complicated by two pernicious social dynamics, the illegal urban migration caused by extreme rural poverty and an intractable cultural preference for boys over girls. Of course, the Party is not eager to discuss any of this, particularly in light of their only slightly relaxed One Child policy.

Still, Egg is far from an overtly political film, yet it is still one of the bravest films programmed during Cinema on the Edge. Huang Ji shot the film on location in the same provincial town where she herself was sexually abused by her uncle. She also has a different uncle play Honggui’s predatory guardian in Egg.

From "Egg and Stone."

There are powerful images in Egg, but the film’s preoccupation with menstrual blood becomes increasingly unsettling, in the wrong way. Frankly, it distracts from the viscerally honest performance of first-time thesp Yao Honggui as her namesake. She really looks like a barely teenaged girl who has had to grow up quicker than she should. Yet, despite everything Yao does to pull us into her heart and headspace, many of Huang Ji’s coldly severe stylistic choices push us away.

Egg and Stone is a challenging film in numerous ways. Arguably, it could very well be too oblique for its own good at times, but the film deserves an opportunity for viewers to fully process it. The Beijing Independent was precisely the right sort of venue for it, which is why it is so regrettably the festival could not indefinitely withstand the government’s pressure. At least adventurous patrons will have the opportunity to watch it uninterrupted when it screens this coming Monday (8/17) at the Made in NY Media Center, as part of Cinema on the Edge.

LFM GRADE: B-

Posted on August 14th, 2015 at 8:53pm.