Category: Narrative

By Joe Bendel. The Top! Few crooners made it, because Bobby Shore pretty well had the big time teen idol racket sewn up. But from the North, there was a talented ingénue vocalist—and she had a dream. Perhaps all that didn’t make any sense to you, but it seems like a new Canadian retro sci-fi musical would dearly love to be compared to Jonathan Paizs’ Crime Wave, so there you have it. Of course, it cannot possibly match the indescribably bizarre vibe of Paizs’ cult classic, because how could it? Regardless, there ought to be more lunacy in Jeffrey St. Jules’ Bang Bang Baby, which just released on VOD.

Stepphy Holiday has the golden voice and the innocent look to go far, but she is stuck in Lonesome Pines, her nowheresville Canadian small town. She wanted to compete in a New York talent show, but her drunken codependent father wouldn’t let her leave. However, things might work out for the best when heartthrob Bobby Shore and his very German manager Helmut find themselves stranded in Lonesome Pines (but don’t count on it).

Like clockwork, Shore starts romanticizing Holiday and making her big career promises. Her embarrassing father is a bit of stumbling block, but they could probably work around him. Unfortunately, the town-wide mutations resulting from a chemical spill at the local planet will be a different matter. Rather awkwardly, Holiday will become macabrely preggers when she has no reason to be. On the other hand, it will probably be the best opportunity the torch-bearing Fabian will ever have to win her over.

BBB sounds like absolute lunacy, but St. Jules’ execution is not nearly as off-the-hook crazy as it should be. Frankly, he seems to have fallen in love with these characters, because he spends a disproportionate amount of time on their hopes, dreams, and personal relationships, while hardly ever showing us any mutants. Playing it straight is a defensible strategy, but he still needs to bring the madness. Instead, BBB just feels restrained.

Nonetheless, Jane Levy deserves credit for her lead vocals and her earnest energy. Justin Chatwin’s Shore comes across like a refugee from a 1990s John Waters movie, but that’s not necessarily wrong. As Helmut, Kristian Bruun cranks the exaggerated German accent up to eleven in a performance that is refreshingly unrepentant in its snottiness, but Peter Stormare is largely underemployed as the self-pitying George Holiday.

The songs of BBB are surprisingly polished and era-appropriate, but none of them are particularly memorable. It is still impressive St. Jules was able to stage an entirely original movie musical. Nice, but not the knockout punch you’re hoping for, Bang Bang Baby is now available on most VOD platforms, including iTunes.

LFM GRADE: C+

Posted on November 12th, 2015 at 9:25pm.

By Joe Bendel. Thailand is one of the most tolerant Southeast Asian nations of same-sex relationships. They also have a long tradition of transgender acceptance, although redlight district stereotypes remain an issue. In 2005, the government lifted the ban on LGBT soldiers in the military. That sounds progressive, but Ek would have preferred the old, unenlightened system. As the primary support of his bratty younger brother, he cannot afford the honor of conscription. Nor can he bribe his way out, like his well-heeled boyfriend. Corruption rather than discrimination is the driving issue of Texas-born Josh Kim’s How to Win at Checkers (Every Time), Thailand’s official foreign language Oscar submission, which screens during the 2015 Hawaii International Film Festival.

The checkers-playing Ek and Oat were orphaned by their father’s untimely death, but they have each other. They also have a place to stay with their Aunt and her mischievous daughter Kwan, but she depends on Ek to cover the boys’ expenses. He is in a committed long-term relationship with his former classmate Jai, but if you think that is going to last, you haven’t seen very many social issue dramas. We can tell from the confusing framing device, something tragic will befall Ek, but an embittered Oat will survive and thrive.

The impending draft lottery looks like the destabilizing event. The stealthy Oat knows Jai’s parents have bought his way out of service, which means there will be one less black card in the hat for Ek to pick. If he pulls out red, it means two years fighting insurgents. Frankly, it is a bizarre ritual they presumably stage because of its ostensive transparency, but when the fix is in, everyone can tell.

It is interesting to see a film with LGBT relationships front-and-center, in which sexuality is not an issue. Even the crooked old officers running the rigged lottery seem perfectly accepting of Ek and Jai’s transgender friend Kitty (perhaps unfortunately so). Things might not be perfect, but Thai society certainly appears healthier than fundamentalist Iran, which the Obama administration seems willing to make a nuclear power, or notoriously homophobic Cuba, which it can’t wait to normalize relations with. Yet, the administration has put the deep freeze on U.S.-Thai relations following the military coup and partial power-sharing arrangement.

Regardless, the young cast is remarkably accomplished and utterly natural on screen. Thira Chutikul does a heck of a slow burn as Ek, while Natarat Lakha shows real star power as the protective Kitty. However, young Ingkarat Damrongsakkul really carries the dramatic load as Oat. It is his coming-of-age story, and he makes every wince-inducing moment of it all too believable.

Aside from the off-key wrap-arounds (the problem perhaps being all grown-up and jaded Oat looks like he is maybe thirteen years old), Kim’s execution is remarkably sure-footed. He clearly prefers small telling moments to big melodramatic explosions, for which we’re grateful. Kim also shrewdly employs and contrasts rural and urban settings for atmospheric effect. It is a nice film that should have more mainstream appeal than a thumbnail sketch would suggest. Recommended for those who appreciate the coming-of-age genre, How to Win at Checkers (Every Time) screens this Friday (11/13), next Friday (11/20), and the following Saturday (11/21) at this year’s HIFF.

LFM GRADE: B

Posted on November 12th, 2015 at 9:25pm.

By Joe Bendel. The great Charlton Heston played Mark Antony twice, in little seen film adaptations of Julius Caesar produced twenty years apart. That is all well and good, but Nick DeMaio is more interested in the 1953 Joe Mankiewicz version starring Marlon Brando. Not surprisingly, Brando is an icon for the blue collar Italian American actor, who specializes in extra work on mafia movies. DeMaio is determined to produce and star in a staging of Julius Caesar to broaden his acting horizons. However, along with his gangster extra cronies, he will unknowingly cast a real life Mafia boss and an undercover Fed in his very Italian-American Caesar. Complications will ensue, as they do, in Christopher Kublan’s Friends and Romans, which opens this Friday in Jersey and Long Island.

DeMaio was in Godfather III, Goodfellas, and The Sopranos, but he only had one slightly embarrassing speaking part. Nevertheless, the movie extra work has nicely supplemented his income as a wholesale produce deliveryman. Still, the broad ethnic stock characters are starting to bug him. He would like to be taken seriously as an actor, so he latches onto Shakespeare’s Caesar as the vehicle to make it happen.

As luck would have it, he rents the abandoned theater where real life mobster and aspiring actor Joey “Bananas” Bongano is hiding out. Even though he is wanted for murdering a Broadway producer (seriously, that is probably just a misdemeanor), he can’t stop himself from auditioning for DeMaio. FBI agent “Paulie” Goldberg also successfully auditions, suspecting DeMaio and his cronies are involved with the secretive Bongano, whose features and thespian pseudonym remain unknown to the Feds.

Granted, FAR is a bit sitcom-ish, but it is immensely likable. Kublan and co-screenwriters Michael Rispoli and Gregg Greenberg also incorporate a number of clever references to Shakespeare’s original text. Frankly, it is a much smarter film than one might expect, even though there are no shortage of jokes derived from Italian stereotypes.

As DeMaio, Rispoli balances goofiness and earnestness rather well, never overindulging in either. We just so get exactly who he is supposed to be, but he still wears well over the course of time, like a broken-in pair of shoes. Annabella Sciorra is grossly underemployed as Angela DeMaio, but at least she develops some pleasant chemistry with Rispoli. It is also nice to see her character support her husband’s eccentric ambitions right from the start, rather than merely serve as an emasculating dream-deflator.

Almost by necessity, most of the gangster-looking supporting cast is serving up shtick of some kind, but Paul Ben-Victor’s shtick is funnier and flashier than the rest as Dennis Socio, DeMaio’s limo driving buddy, who agreed to direct because he once did a limited run of Tony & Tina’s Wedding on the Island.

FAR is not exactly getting over-distributed this weekend, but it is destined to become a word of mouth sleeper hit on DVD and VOD. It gently spoofs gangster movie conventions, before tying everything up in a big “feel good” bow. You can be snarky all you want, but it works at the audience level. Recommended for fans of backstage comedies, the entertaining, low stress Friends and Romans opens this Friday (11/6) in the Tri-State Area.

LFM GRADE: B-

Posted on November 5th, 2015 at 3:16pm.

By Joe Bendel. In a world of human embryo cloning and Dolly the Sheep, Mary Shelley’s Modern Prometheus is no longer as outlandish as we would want it to be. Arguably, the time is ripe for contemporary take on the legend and Bernard Rose, the prolific modernizer of Tolstoy and director of Candyman, is a logical choice to do it. Transporting the monster from Geneva to Los Angeles, Rose takes intriguing liberties while remaining oddly faithful to the iconic tale in Frankenstein, which screens as part of the closing night tribute to the British filmmaker at the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Scary Movies 9.

This might shock you, but the wealthy Dr. Viktor Frankenstein and his wife Elizabeth have been trying to create a living human being (with the help of their senior staff scientist, Dr. Pretorius). Initially, they believe their latest attempt is the breakthrough they have hoped for, until cancerous lesions start appearing all over his formerly pristine body. Despite his bonding with Elizabeth Frankenstein like an infant with his mother, both Frankensteins agree to euthanize their creation for ostensive reasons of mercy. However, the increasingly disfigured creature just will not die.

Escaping from the compound, the wretched soul accepts the wider world’s name for him: “Monster.” He soon has a nasty run-in with LA’s Finest, but falls in with a homeless blind bluesman. The protective Eddie is the first person to truly treat him like a human being. Unfortunately, Eddie’s misunderstanding of the extent and nature of Monster’s blighted appearance will lead to compounded tragedy.

Rose riffs on Shelley and the original Universal films in clever ways, honoring the spirit of both. He follows the same general trajectory of his Frankenstein predecessors, but he does so within a distinctly gritty, naturalistic urban environment. The grey concrete labs and scuzzy welfare hotels are fitting backdrops for the ultimate genre morality tale, while also presumably accommodating his budget constraints.

Danny Huston (a regular Rose repertory player) is absolutely perfect as the arrogant Dr. Frankenstein and Carrie-Anne Moss plays off him well as the deceptively warm and supposedly empathetic Elizabeth Frankenstein. Despite his small stature, Xavier Samuel is still impressively expressive as the largely inarticulate Monster, especially considering the escalating layers of makeup that masks him for most of the film. However, it is Tony Todd, the Candyman himself, who really anchors the film with tragic gravitas as blind Eddie.

Rose somewhat misfires with a rogue cop subplot that seems calculated give the film further zeitgeisty urgency, but it comes across as a heavy-handed distraction. In fact, a film depicting the creation of life through, amongst other things, the use of 3D printing, without regard for the ethical implications, is already pretty timely. Regardless, Rose’s mise-en-scéne is austerely stylish and often quite visually striking. Altogether, the film is quite in keeping with cautionary essence of the original novel, while Randy Westgate’s ghoulish make-up design gives this Monster his own distinctive look. Recommended for Frankenstein fans, Rose’s Frankenstein screens this Thursday (11/5) at the Walter Reade, as part of Scary Movies 9.

LFM GRADE: B

Posted on November 3rd, 2015 at 6:43pm.

By Joe Bendel. Montse lives in 1950s Madrid, but she shares a close kinship with the sisters in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? You could say Montse has issues. Oh my, does she ever. Unfortunately, that means everyone around her also has issues. At least as a shut-in seamstress, she has a limited social circle, but she still manages to do extensive damage in Jaunfer Andrés & Esteban Roel’s Shrew’s Nest, which screens as part of the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Scary Movies 9.

It is pretty obvious Montse’s abusive father is to blame for her dysfunctional state of mind. He has been dead for years, but she is still tormented by hallucinations of the sanctimonious hypocrite. The film hints darkly at what may have transpired between them, eventually confirming everything. Montse largely shielded her younger sister, known simply as “La Niña” from their father, but she became problematically controlling and sometimes even frightening in her own way. The two grown sisters still live together in their family’s flat, but Montse’s chronic agoraphobia prevents her from stepping outside. As a result, she relies on La Niña to be her connection to the outside world.

One day, Montse discovers the playboy from the upstairs flat is lying wounded on their landing. Somehow she skootches him inside and starts nursing Carlos. Rather taken with the handsome ladies’ man, Montse decides to keep him. At first, she tries to hide his presence from her sister and their clients, but that simply is not realistic. At first, Hugo is grateful for Montse’s care and the haven she provides from his pregnant lover and her unamused father. However, as his broken leg turns black and festering, he will look to La Niña for help.

Yes, Nest is more than a little Misery-like, except Montse might just top Annie Wilkes’ hobbling scene. Yet, we also understand the twitchy, bug-eyed, morphine-addicted Montse is the film’s original victim, who is still be victimized by her father, from beyond the grave. Frankly, it is absolutely amazing how much compassion Andrés & Roel preserve for Montse, because great gosh almighty, can she dish out the pain.

Whether you love Nest or utterly despise it, you will never forget Macarena Gomez’s performance as Montse. It is one for the ages. She manages to do acutely subtle bits of character-establishing business, as well as wildly over the top scenery chewing, often simultaneously. In contrast, Nadia de Santiago is a paragon of sensitivity and reserve as La Niña, but there is no way she can avoid the gargantuan shadow cast by Gomez’s Montse.

Nest is another fine example of the meticulous care given to set dressing and general mise-en-scène in Spanish horror films. The fact that this Grand Guignol of domestic carnage is set foursquare in the Franco era is hardly accidental either, especially with Álex de la Iglesia on board as a producer. Regardless, as a claustrophobic Iberian psycho-thriller, it is pretty darn effective. Recommended for fans of Spanish horror movies, Shrew’s Nest screens this coming Monday (11/2) at the Walter Reade, as part of Scary Movies 9.

LFM GRADE: B

Posted on October 29th, 2015 at 10:31pm.

By Joe Bendel. Floral bouquets are associated love and death. They are the tools of both courtship and mourning. That Ying and Yang can clearly be seen in Spain’s official foreign language submission to the 88th Academy Awards, Basque filmmakers Jon Garaño & Jose Mari Goenaga’s Flowers, which opens this Friday in New York.

Ane Goñi has just been diagnosed with menopause, but she takes it rather stoically. It is just one more disappointment in life, like her husband Ander, to whom she will not bother passing on the news. However, shortly thereafter a big extravagant floral arrangement is delivered—and it is not from Ander. Every week, a new bouquet arrives, vexing her suddenly jealous husband.

Then one day, they suddenly stop, simultaneously with the death of Beñat, a crane operator with the construction company, where she works in clerical support. Of course, it takes a while for Goñi to figure out the connection, but when she does, she starts leaving weekly bouquets at the site of Beñat’s auto accident, even though she hardly knew the man. Eventually, Beñat’s widow Lourdes (now remarried) and his mother Tere discover Goñi’s weekly devotion, but their resulting reactions and assumptions are drastically different.

Rarely has a film about love and loss ever been so rigorously unsentimental. Frankly, Beñat’s anonymous flower deliveries were more than a little stalkerish, yet they did bring some color into Ane’s relentlessly drab life. Indeed, all the characters are acutely human, living in a world largely indifferent to their existence. Garaño & Goenaga even mark the passage of time through the disposition of Beñat’s body, which he donated to science, without consulting with his family. While this is a rather morbid strategy at times, it still heightens the sense of grand tragedy, somewhat in the tradition of the Japanese Oscar winner, Departures.

Granted, Flowers weaves together many tentative, almost fragmentary relationships, but Nagore Aranburu’s wonderfully subtle and complex performance as Goñi helps sell most of them. (The truth is, people can become preoccupied or even obsessed on the basis of very little.) Itziar Aizpuru is also terrific—and ultimately heartbreaking—as Tere, the dreaded mother-in-law who repents too late. However, the standoffish Lourdes is never fully fleshed out, leaving only bitterness for the valiant Itziar Ituno to work with. Generally, men do not get the prime cuts in Flowers, but as Ander, Egoitz Lasa has at least one well-turned scene that challenges many audience preconceptions.

As a Basque language production, Flowers might sound exotic, but the freeway interchanges and construction sites are as hum drum as any other western urban environment. Yet, they often look arresting thanks to Garaño & Goenaga’s dramatically cinematic sense of visual composition. Cinematographer Javier Aggire’s work is also truly awards caliber, using reflections, hazy precipitation, and the colorful contrast of the many titular flowers for striking impact. This is a mature and worldly film, in a scrupulously chaste way. It is also deeply humanistic, profoundly indulgent of human foibles, and unexpectedly moving at the most unlikeliest times. Highly recommended for sophisticated viewers, Flowers opens this Friday (10/30) in New York, as a bit of counter-programming for Halloween, at the Paris Theatre.

LFM GRADE: A-

Posted on October 29th, 2015 at 2:52pm.