Month: January 2012

By Joe Bendel. It is easier to get a job in Vegas messengering about large sums of gambling money than a gig as a cocktail waitress. Fortunately, Beth Raymer has a knack with numbers, leading to a checkered career in the betting business. Raymer’s memoir becomes the stuff of light-hearted dramedy in Stephen Frears’ Lay the Favorite (clip here), which screens during this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

“Lay the Favorite” is one of those old school gambler’s expressions Raymer’s new boss Dink Heimowitz uses. Dink, Inc. is not a bookmaker, it is a betting establishment. Every day Dink and his employees work the phones, placing legal bets around town. As long as he wins fifty-five percent of the time, it’s all good. With Raymer’s arrival, Dink comes out of a losing slump, leading him to conclude the ditz-savant is his good luck charm. This does not sit well with Tulip, Dink’s Bravo reality show worthy wife.

Dink once did time for bookmaking, so now he keep things strictly legit. The emotionally needy Tulip also keeps him on a tight leash, which means the openly flirtatious Raymer has to go. However, Dink becomes increasingly concerned when Raymer gets involved with an outright bookie so sleazy he has to be played by Vince Vaughn.

In a way, Favorite seems an odd fit for Sundance. It is a very commercial but rather pleasant film that ought to be better suited for a studio release than an art house run. It offers some interesting Damon Runyon-esque peaks into the world of legal and illicit sports betting, but this is definitely a women’s film. Breezy with a periodic outburst of angst, it is probably a lot like what One for the Money should have been but most likely isn’t.

However, it is the supporting characters and slightly sleazy milieu that really make Favorite work. Vaughn does his usual shtick well enough, but Bruce Willis really stands out, perfectly suited for Dink. Like his character, he seems to comfortably fit somewhere in between a romantic lead and a father figure. Nearly unrecognizable, Catherine Zeta-Jones plays Tulip to the hilt, with relish. So does Rebecca Hall, but her Raymer often comes across too Erin Brockovichy, which is never good, in any context. At least she isn’t shy.

Favorite is hardly what we would expect from Frears either, but the Dangerous Liaisons helmer has a nice touch with the material, never letting Raymer’s melodrama overwhelm the upbeat vibe. It is not a big important film, but Favorite is an entertaining diversion, featuring some of Willis’s best work in a while. Recommended in that modest spirit, but not an ultra-high priority at Sundance, it screens again this Saturday (1/28) and Sunday (1/29) in Park City.

SUNDANCE GRADE: B

Posted on January 25th, 2012 at 10:25am.

By Joe Bendel. Sigourney Weaver has gone from ghost-busting to ghost debunking. However, she may have met her match in Simon Silver, a notorious television psychic from the 1970’s, who comes out of retirement for nefarious purposes in Rodrigo Cortés’ Red Lights (trailer here), which screens during the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.

Dr. Margaret Matheson (a Richard Matheson hat tip perhaps?) is the chair of the department of skepticism. Her rival Dr. Paul Shackleton is the chair of the department of believing any spooky thing that might bring in funding. She and her colleague Dr. Tom Buckley expose psychic frauds, while Shackleton plays with his flash cards. Simon Silver was the one that got away. Supposedly vindicated by a flawed laboratory study Matheson refused to sign off on, Silver’s triumph has always been a blot on her reputation.

With the Uri Geller inspired villain back in the public eye, Buckley is spoiling for a fight, but Matheson is gun shy. Even if he does not have psychic powers, Silver is a master of finding his critics’ weak spots and exploiting them. Yet, with all the stuff suddenly going bump in the night, we are led to wonder whether or not the psychic really does command dark forces after all.

The first half of Red is a rather nifty little paranormal investigation procedural, but once Weaver’s Matheson is out of the equation, the film completely craters. Logic is treated with contempt and the indie breakout sensation Elizabeth Olsen is stuck standing around with nothing to do, besides sleep with her T.A. To make matters worse, Buckley’s closing monologue and subsequent voiceover narration invite open mockery. They are so over-the-top, they make the newly rediscovered Ed Wood film sound sharp and focused by comparison.

Weaver brings a reliably smart and mature presence to the film as Matheson and she develops a likable and realistic chemistry with Cillian Murphy’s Buckley. Frankly, the female mentor-male protégé relationship is not often seen in films and it is quite nicely turned here. Unfortunately, all the woo-woo effects get awfully sour very quickly. It is also another depressing reminder of the fall of Robert De Niro, once again playing an icily impassive villain in a dark suit.

Red really can be divided into two distinct parts. One is pretty engaging. The other is ridiculous and utterly clichéd. Sadly, the latter is the somewhat longer concluding piece, which essentially sinks the entire film. Recommended for a severe return trip to the editing bay, Red is ultimately a disappointment at this year’s Sundance, where it screens this Wednesday (1/25) and Saturday (1/25) in Park City and tomorrow (1/24) in Ogden.

SUNDANCE GRADE: C-

Posted on January 25th, 2012 at 10:05am.

By Joe Bendel. In recent years, major international filmmakers like Martin Scorsese and Agnieszka Holland have branched out into dramatic television in-between their feature work. Cult-film legend Ed Wood had a similar idea decades ago – but alas, for the cross-dressing director, it was not to be. Unseen for fifty-five years, Wood’s long lost spec pilot Final Curtain premiered two nights ago at the 2012 Slamdance Film Festival in Park City.

Conceived as the first installment of an anthology series called Portraits of Terror, Curtain starts with an appropriately hyperbolic introduction telling viewers the characters to follow are “Creatures to be pitied. Creatures to be despised . . .” We’ve been so warned. There will be no Criswell narration here. However, the protagonist’s wonderfully overwrought voiceovers are handled by Dudley Manlove, another Wood stalwart, recognizable as the snippy alien in Plan Nine From Outer Space.

Curtain chronicles an actor’s fateful night in a dark theater long after the last performance of his play. Naturally, he played a vampire, but for some reason the stage sets resemble a prairie cabin. Of course, for Ed Wood continuity errors, this is small beans. Throughout the run, something supernatural has been calling, calling to him. At last, he faces it – or perhaps we are witnessing his descent into madness.

Wood claimed Bela Lugosi died reading his Curtain treatment, which is pretty heavy, considering the general quality of the scripts that came his way. Adding yet another layer of meta-weirdness, Curtain briefly features Jenny Stevens as “The Vampire,” about whom nothing is known aside from her appearance in a previous Ed Wood film, leading some to suspect she was the director’s drag persona.

This might sound incredible, but the darkened backstage setting is actually kind of spooky. Somehow Wood and his crew gained access to a real working theater, so at least the soundboards and orchestra seats are not cardboard cut-outs, listing from side-to-side. The twenty-two minute running time also keeps Wood’s story somewhat focused, not that the actor’s decisions make much sense.

Curtain is pretty much exactly what you think it is. Knowing that it exists and has been preserved for posterity alone justified a trip to Park City. The restoration’s executive producers, Jason Insalaco and Jonathan Harris, are clearly motivated by an abiding love for the Wood canon. In fact, Insalaco’s uncle was Paul Marco, a long time Ed Wood co-conspirator, known to the faithful for his recurring character, Kelton the cop. A really strange piece of Hollywood history, Curtain should have a long life of midnight screenings in its future. Indeed, its premiere was a real event at the 2012 Slamdance Film Festival.

SLAMDANCE GRADE: A for entertainment, F for technical merit

Posted on January 25th, 2012 at 9:25am.

By Joe Bendel. Annie and her sister handle stress badly. The former just runs away, while the latter self-medicates. They are both attractive, though, so midnight movie patrons will likely forgive them their shortcomings in Nicholas McCarthy’s The Pact, which screens late nights during the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.

The two sisters had a horrible childhood, but we never really learn why. It was so bad, though, that Annie has never forgiven her mother for it. As a result, the ex-junkie sister is stuck being the responsible one when their mother passes away. Then one night (in a Grudge-like opening scene) something bad happens to her in their old house. Reluctantly, Annie finally comes to investigate her sister’s disappearance, suspecting she has simply relapsed once again. However, after spending her own harrowing night in the family casa, Annie comes to understand there is something seriously sinister afoot there.

For some seemingly out-of-character reason, biker Annie goes to the coppers to report that her house is haunted. Of course, all this really gets her is an opportunity to indignantly protest her sanity. At least Creek the good cop is willing to swing by to take a few photos or something.

To be fair, the horror movie mechanics of The Pact are pretty good, including the first (and probably last) genuinely creepy internet search. McCarthy also blends the elements of the supernatural and psycho killer sub-genres fairly effectively. Still, there is an over-reliance on unrealistically dumb flat foots and cheap scares built around sudden loud noises. The clear implication that the outward Christian piety of Annie’s family masked something profoundly hypocritical is also a tiresome cliché. Just once it would be cool to see a horror movie in which the psychopath was a loud mouth atheist jerk.

Again, it must be conceded that Caity Lotz and Agnes Bruckner have the right assets to play the haunted sisters. They truly look like twins and already have considerable scream queen cred with the fanbase. Evidently Starship Troopers’ Casper Van Dien is now taking the parts Michael Biehn passes on, but he is not terrible as the jaded but decent Creek.

You will see better horror movies than The Pact and you will see worse. Fanboys will certainly want to see more of Lotz and Bruckner. Overall it is a serviceable, but only occasionally inspired chiller, probably best seen with a large and slightly buzzed audience at this year’s Sundance. It screens again this Tuesday (1/24) and Thursday (1/26) in Park City and Saturday (1/28) in Salt Lake.

SUNDANCE GRADE: C+

Posted on January 23rd, 2012 at 1:44am.

By Joe Bendel. Sofia, Bulgaria looks like a great city for night life, but not so hot for finding a job. That is why Neli is supposed to marry her rich American fiancée. However, her lingering feelings for her reckless Bulgarian ex threaten to derail the plan in Kristina Nikolova’s Faith Love + Whiskey (trailer here), which screens during the 2012 Slamdance Film Festival in snowy Park City.

Neli’s grandmother might be losing her eyesight, but she still has that twinkle in her eye. She is delighted her granddaughter will be marrying the wealthy and attentive Scott. As far as she is concerned, there is no future for her in Bulgaria. Frankly, Scott might be a bit too nice. Stifled by it all, Neli precipitously returns to Bulgaria and launches into a bender of booze and passion with her former lover, the slightly Rutger Hauer looking Val. It is uncertain just how long they can maintain this flight from responsibility, but those dead soldiers sure do pile up fast on the balcony of their motel room.

Whiskey is a relatively simple story that takes a major New Wave-art-house turn in the third act, but it vividly evokes a sense of the Eastern European after hours vibe. It will make viewers (particularly festive Park City patrons) want to visit Sofia. Indeed, quite a bit of the Bulgarian club music heard throughout the film is surprisingly catchy and distinctive.

It would be perilously easy to lose patience with a character like Neli, but the Macedonian Ana Stojanovska projects a sense of emotional confusion more than mere self-indulgence, which is honestly quite human and relatable. Poor John Keabler does not have much to work with as the terminally nice Scott, but Ljuba Alexieva is quite charming and appealingly grounded as her silver-haired grandmother. As for Valeri Yordanov’s Val, even though he is a bit stiff on-screen, at least he is definitely a credible barroom brawler.

Although it was clearly shot on a shoe-string budget, Whiskey is quite an interesting looking movie. Alexander Stanishev’s grungy, gauzy cinematography seems perfectly suited to Bulgaria. Nikolova also capitalizes on her cinematic locales, while maintaining an intimate focus on her characters.

Whiskey is a cerebral and sensual film, which is actually a rather cool combination. It should definitely resonate deeply with former expats. Recommended for serious festivalers, it screens again this coming Wednesday (1/25) during the 2012 Slamdance Film Festival.

SLAMDANCE GRADE: B+

Posted on January 23rd, 2012 at 1:43am.

By Joe Bendel. Ambassadors are generally addressed as “your Excellency,” which is nice. They can also carry briefcases loaded with diamonds through customs, no questions asked. That is even cooler. It is definitely what mad Mads Brügger had in mind when he set out to buy a diplomatic post. His resulting misadventures are documented in The Ambassador (trailer here), Brügger’s latest gutsy cinematic provocation screening at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.

If you have seen Brügger’s Red Chapel (and I really hope you have), you will be familiar with his fearless brand of documentary filmmaking. The plan this time is to buy an ambassadorship representing Liberia in the Central African Republic (CAR) through a “diplomatic broker.” Once credentialed, Brügger will establish a match factory as a cover for his illegal diamond smuggling operation. The shocking thing is that he pretty much goes about doing exactly that, but there are complications.

For the record, these are very definitely blood diamonds he is talking about. There just aren’t any other kind in the CAR. That means the politically connected mine owner Brügger starts negotiating with is a pretty scary character. Indeed, there are real stakes for Brügger in this masquerade, including life and limb.

Frankly, Ambassador would be hilarious if it was a feature narrative, but as a documentary, it is rather staggering. The wholesale government corruption Brügger captures on film is widespread and pervasive. While some blame for the country’s lawlessness and desperate poverty is laid at the feet of their former colonial power, the good old French, there is truly no excuse for such dire conditions to exist in a country so richly blessed with mineral resources. Clearly, something is rotten in the failed state of CAR, and Liberia is hardly any better.

Looking like a character from a Graham Greene novel, Brügger plays his part to the hilt. Unlike Red Chapel, where the director was in a constant on-screen dialogue with the viewers and his co-conspirators in his attempt to punk the North Korean regime, Brügger largely stays in character throughout Ambassador. His neck is also on the line when things get dodgy.

Had a conventional Michael Moore-inspired doc-grinder tackled this subject, they simply would have ambushed the receptionist at Liberia’s UN mission and claimed a great moral victim when the low level employee could not discuss their countries diplomatic personnel in the CAR chapter and verse. Brügger puts them to shame. (This specifically includes the Yes Men.) Until they start challenging the kind of people who can make them disappear, on their home turf, they are not worthy of carrying Brügger’s cigarette holder. Another have-to-see-it-to-believe-it film from the muckraking provocateur, The Ambassador is very highly recommended when it screens at this year’s Sundance in Park City on Tuesday (1/24), Thursday (1/26), and Friday (1/27), as well as next Saturday (1/28) in Salt Lake.

SUNDANCE GRADE: A

Posted on January 22nd, 2012 at 11:12am.