Category: Narrative

By Joe Bendel. Bufurd T. Pusser would appreciate the new get-tough sheriff of Banshee, PA – were the new sheriff not an ex-con, living under an assumed identity. It sounds like a clever Cornell Woolrich set-up, but Alan (True Blood) Ball’s new Cinemax series, created by Jonathan Tropper & David Schickler, is more about action than suspense. Whatever works. As it happens, the first two episodes of Banshee work pretty well. There will be plenty of mayhem for relatively grown-up audiences when Banshee premieres this Friday on Cinemax.

His name is not really Lucas Hood. That was the name of the honest loner who had accepted the position of Banshee’s sheriff sight unseen. The recently released thief on the run from a shadowy Ukrainian gangster happened to be on-hand when Hood met his untimely end. He even threw his lot in with the lawman. It was not sufficient to save the real Hood, but it means there will be no witnesses, aside from Banshee’s sympathetic barkeep and former Cruiser weight champion Sugar Bates.

The man now masquerading as Sheriff Hood came to Banshee to confront his former lover and accomplice, now known as Carrie Hopewell, the wife of the crusading district attorney. Perhaps he will stay to take down Kai Proctor, the local slaughterhouse owner and vice kingpin, who happens to be the blacksheep son of an Amish patriarch. Meanwhile, the ominous Rabbit’s henchmen are hot on the trail of the ostensive Hood and his reluctant transvestite hacker accomplice, Job. (Who knew Harry Angstrom was a super-villain?) Potentially, Hood could find himself juggling two nemesis figures, while ambiguously pursuing his ex-lover and bedding all of Banshee’s willing party girls.

As set-ups go, Banshee’s looks solid enough to sustain at least a full season. The first episode origin-smackdown is particularly well executed, although it might represent some rather unfortunate product placement for A1 steak sauce. To judge by the first two installments, there should be plenty of Walking Tall style action. Cinemax’s horny teenager demographic will also appreciate Ivana Milicevic’s nude scenes as the presumed Hopewell.

Certainly looking the part, Milicevic does a nice job in the early going serving as both femme fatale and soccer mom. In the lead, Anthony Starr is surprisingly manly and hardnosed, especially by Hollywood’s standards. He could become a go-to guy for an industry suffering from a masculinity deficit. Although Ulrich Thomsen has played plenty of heavies in his American outings, he seems to enjoy Proctor more. The Amish angle probably helps. Ben Cross is certainly on familiar territory as the malevolent Rabbit, but Hoon Lee’s shticky Job trades on some tired stereotypes.

Banshee clearly has enough violence and mature stuff to keep it going for a while, but the underlying premise also shows considerable promise. It certainly has the right tone to appeal to fans of Cinemax’s breakout hit, Strike Back. Effectively cast and nicely paced by directors Greg Yaitanes (Episode 1) and S.J. Clarkson (Episode 2) Banshee is worth taking a shot on. It premieres this Friday night (1/11) on Cinemax.

Posted on January 9th, 2012 at 12:04pm.

By Joe Bendel. Though he died early in the third century, Cao Cao continues to be a potent figure in Chinese culture. To bolster his legitimacy, Mao invited open comparisons between himself and the legendary general. In 2009, Cao Cao’s tomb was supposedly discovered, but many archaeologists have questioned its authenticity. Viewers get a glimpse inside Cao Cao’s tomb-in-progress as part of Linshan Zhao’s late Romance of the Three Kingdoms epic, The Assassins, which releases today on DVD and Blu-ray from Well Go USA.

You didn’t unify a large swath of China while protecting arguably the worst (and last) emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty without making enemies. Cao Cao has plenty, some of whom are abducting orphans, training them to become assassins. Their only target will be the Chancellor himself. Young lovers Ling Ju and Mu Shun will have the best opportunity to complete the mission. She will serve as a consort in Cao Cao’s Black Sparrow Tower, while he will be placed as a eunuch in the Imperial court. Unfortunately, the shadowy cabal is willing to do what it takes to protect Mu Shun’s cover.

Ling Ju loves a eunuch, but she also begins to admire the crafty old general she is supposed to kill. The common people’s esteem for Cao Cao and the stability he preserves is eye-opening for her. She can also appreciate his knack for thwarting assassination attempts. He seems to make all the right enemies, including the ungrateful slime-bucket of an emperor. Yet, killing him might be the only way to free herself and Mu Shun. Adding urgency, a prophecy about the four stars coming into alignment would seem to foretell the fall of the Han Dynasty and Cao Cao’s rise as their successor.

Frankly, Cao Cao is the best role Chow Yun-fat has had in years. At his best, he nicely conveys the regrets and isolation of the warlord at the end of his career, while projecting an appropriate sense of badness, like a revisionist Eastwood wuxia figure. He can be a bit stiff during the quiet scenes, though. In contrast, Zhang Fengyi is far more enjoyably villainous as Cao Cao in John Woo’s Red Cliff (which Chow reportedly bailed out of at the last minute). Yet Jiang Wen’s world-weary but still Machiavellian Cao Cao in Alan Mak & Felix Chong’s The Lost Bladesman remains the richest screen interpretation of the role in recent years.

While there are a few adequately staged large scale action sequences, Assassins really is more of a romantic tragedy. Zhao exercises surprising tear-jerking restraint, but Ling Ju and Mu Shun’s stolen moments together have real bite nonetheless. (Crystal) Liu Yifei plays the former with a porcelain-like fragility, while Hiroshi Tamaki broods effectively as the emasculated Mu Shun.

Thanks to accomplished contributors like art director Yohei Taneda and cinematographer Xiaoding Zhao (whose credits include Kill Bill and House of Flying Daggers, respectively), Assassins is quite an impressive looking period production. Although action fans might get frustrated with Assassins’ stately moodiness, there is something about Ling Ju and Mu Shun’s star-crossed love that resonates deeply. Recommended for fans of historical melodrama more than swordplay, The Assassin is now available on home viewing formats from Well Go USA.

LFM GRADE: B

Posted on January 8th, 2012 at 11:14am.

By Joe Bendel. Like a put-upon Kafka character, San Bao has lost his voice. Life in go-go Beijing has not been kind to him. In relatively short succession, he lost his girlfriend, his dog, and his apartment. He really is not in the mood to talk, even as he silently forges unlikely new relationships. However, Zhang Yuan has plenty to say about the state of contemporary China in Beijing Flickers, which opens the 2013 Global Lens film series, once again launching in New York at MoMA, this Thursday.

It is hard to say whether getting dumped hurts more than his dog running away. And while it means little to him emotionally, San Bao’s eviction leads to the immediate issue of homelessness. He sort-of kind-of solves the problem short-term, by chomping down on a glass during a drunken bender. Of course, that also leads to hospital bills. Ironically, this turns out to be a good thing. The bar’s singer, You Zi, held onto his cell phone for safekeeping. When reclaiming it, he is struck by her ethereal voice and beauty. Somehow, a circle of friends develops around the two psueudo-lovers, incorporating her roommates – San Bao’s buddy from home, and the female impersonator with whom he is crashing.

Although not a musical per se, Flickers is like a Chinese version of Rent, in which dispossessed and Bohemian Beijingers band together to face the trials and tribulations of a highly stratified society. Much like his thematically similar Beijing Bastards, Zhang also includes plenty of music, including You Zi’s haunting signature number, further supporting the comparison.

It is doubtful very many Brooklyn hipsters could cut it in Zhang’s Beijing. On one hand, this is a predatory system of have’s callously exploiting the have-not’s. Yet, it is also a lawless environment, where the slightly less than stable San Bao periodically lashes out physically, with little fear of repercussions. It is like the worst of both worlds.

Granted, Flickers might sound grim (okay, it is grim), but Li Xinyun truly lights up the screen as You Zi. In addition to her distinctive look and sound, she brings dignified resiliency to the alt-torch-singer, rather than overly cute pluckiness. While she has far less screen time than the rest of the principals, Han Wenwen is also quite powerful as You Zi’s roommate Su Mo, giving the audience a bracing slap during the film’s one big jaw-dropper scene. As the more-silent-than-strong San Bao, Duan Bowen lends the film commendable cohesion, interacting with each member of the large ensemble with subtly different shades of either fierceness or sensitivity.

Although Zhang’s recent films have clearly been more pleasing to China’s popular audiences and government authorities, Flickers is very much a return to his in-your-face Bastards roots. Yet, the noir-ish style and seductive soundtrack make it a considerably more polished viewing experience. Basically, that is a win-win combo. Enthusiastically recommended for China watchers and aspiring bohemians, Beijing Flickers begins a week long run at MoMA this Thursday (1/10) as the opening selection of the year’s Global Lens (which also includes the highly notable Cairo 678).

LFM GRADE: A

Posted on January 7th, 2012 at 1:53pm.

By Joe Bendel. Musicians hate requests. Yosef Tawila is particularly disinclined, but he cannot refuse the dying wish of his former friend and band-mate. However, he will have to recruit some high caliber Mizrahi musicians to play the ambitious title symphony and time is running short in Beni Torati’s The Ballad of the Weeping Spring, which screens during the 2013 New York Jewish Film Festival, co-presented by the Jewish Museum and the Film Society of Lincoln Center.

Tawila has not touched his guitar since his glory days in the Turquoise Ensemble. Riddled with guilt, he is not a man who wants to be found. Nonetheless, Amram Mufradi tracks him down, bearing the Weeping Spring score. His father Avram is quickly succumbing to lung cancer and wishes to finally hear the extended composition he co-wrote with Tawila, as it was meant to be performed.

Unfortunately, Tawila cannot simply get the old band together again. Two members died in a car crash he was found responsible for. Their singer Margaret is now confined to a wheel chair, but she passed on her talent to Tamara, the daughter Tawila never knew. That is a hard recruiting stop for the absentee father to make, but Mufradi and the young singer hit it off rather well. For the rest of the band, it just a matter of haunting the right dive bars and red light districts. In one case, they will have trouble with a blind flutist’s Fagin, but people just seem to want to help the Tawila level his karma.

While not essential for cineastes, Weeping Spring could easily be the biggest hit at this year’s NYJFF. There is plenty of camaraderie, redemption, and some elegant music, but Toraty never excessively milks the sentiment. In fact, the father-daughter rapprochement is surprisingly matter-of-fact and the attraction between the second generation Turquoise musicians is mostly hinted at. Of course, it ends with a big emotional concert, but again Toraty resists overplaying his hand.

Looking like the weight of the world rests on his shoulders, Uri Gavriel (the blind prisoner of the pit in The Dark Knight Rises) has gravitas to spare as Tawila. Established Israeli pop-star Ishtar displays a warm cinematic presence as Margaret and her voice nearly steals the entire show during the big climatic concert. For the most part, the large supporting cast of actor-musicians look appropriately colorful and slightly seedy, except for Dudu Tassa (seen during last year’s festival in Iraq ‘n’ Roll), here very earnest and clean-cut as young Mufradi.

While dubbed a Mizrahi Magnificent Seven, Weeping Spring actually includes an obvious riff on Marion Ravenwood’s drinking contest from Raiders of the Lost Ark, so it has that going for it. A modest but appealing drama with a striking soundtrack, Ballad of the Weeping Spring should have a long and fruitful life on the festival circuit and in specialty distribution. Sure to be a crowd pleaser, it screens this Saturday (1/12) and Thursday (1/24) at the Walter Reade Theater as part of this year’s NYJFF.

LFM GRADE: B

Posted on January 7th, 2012 at 1:51pm.

By Joe Bendel. Jack Begosian went from cover-ups to bottom-feeding. The former CIA agent now hosts a conspiracy theory driven radio program in Toronto. He claims the new gig eases his conscience. However, he will have the opportunity to atone for past sins with more direct action in Damian Lee’s A Dark Truth, which opens in Miami today.

To be fair, Begosian is not trafficking in space alien rumors, but he gets plenty of those calls on his late night talk show. Although his backstory is never fully spelled out, Begosian left the Agency under scandalous circumstances. A Congressional hearing was involved. Trying to live quietly with his frustrated wife and emotionally withdrawn son, Begosian is not looking for freelance gigs. Nevertheless, one comes his way.

Heiress Morgan Swinton suspects Clearbec, her family’s industrial water filtration company, is up to no good in Ecuador. She needs an independent hardnose to go down there and check things out. For Begosian, it represents karma coming full circle. According to reports, environmental activist Francisco Francis has incriminating evidence on Clearbec. That would be the same Francis who served time in a rather unpleasant Latin American prison thanks to Begosian’s behind-the-scenes maneuvering. Now his assignment is to get Francis and his wife safely out of the country and into a courtroom, despite the efforts of the Ecuadoran military and Clearbec’s enforcers.

Dark Truth largely recycles Hollywood’s standard issue corporate villainy plot, but Lee’s screenplay is less morally simplistic, portraying the culpable Swinton brother in relatively sympathetic terms. Yet, it is Andy Garcia who truly dominates the film as Begosian. He still has plenty of credibility in the adequately staged action scenes and brings the appropriate gravitas for Begosian’s “that’s the way it is” radio pronouncements.

Garcia is still one bad cat and so is Kevin Durand, who is coolly hardboiled as the unpredictable hitman, Torrance “Tor” Mashinter. Unfortunately, Forest Whitaker and Eva Longoria do not fare so well as the Francises, awkwardly trying to look noble as they scramble through the jungle. In contrast, Kim Coates makes an intriguingly human villain, nicely conveying Bruce Swinton’s guilt and desperation.

Lee, whose credits including producing Death Wish V, is not exactly a distinctive visual stylist, but if you’re filming a difficult scene in the Dominican rain forest, he can probably be relied on to get it in the can quickly. He also delivers some pretty good work from his cast, most notably Garcia, Durand, and Coates. An okay diversion on a commercial flight or as a VOD time killer, A Dark Truth is really just recommended for Garcia’s biggest fans. Conveniently, it begins its theatrical run at the O Cinema in Miami (where a fair number of them probably are) today (1/4), expanding to Lake Worth the following week. For New Yorkers, it is already available on-demand.

LFM GRADE: C+

Posted on December 4th, 2012 at 12:39pm.