4 Reviews
July 30, 3006
Here are four mini-reviews of some films I’ve seen recently, two still in theaters, and two just out on DVD for the first time. Just some suggestions if you find yourself with nothing to do one night during the hot dog days of summer.
Monster House: Quite arguably the best film, that I’ve seen anyway, in theaters right now is this wonderfully funny, visually stunning computer animated horror tale about three adolescent kids and a very mean old house that terrorizes them on one particularly strange Halloween night. The movie, filmed with the same motion capture process that looked so weird in “The Polar Express”, but looks oddly appropriate here, revolves around DJ, Chowder, and Jenny, three neighborhood kids who begin to notice, when the local crotchety old man dies, that his ancient, rickety house is taking on a mind, and a form, of its own, literally coming to life (windows = eyes, door = mouth, carpet runner = tongue; endlessly clever) to eat anybody, especially Halloween trick-or-treaters, who dares invade on its territory. The animation of the house in motion is amazing, and director Gil Kenan, a wunderkind at 29, utilizes inventive, almost claymation-esque camera motions and framing to capture the house, and the kid’s terror, in all it’s frightening glory, lending a realistic filmmaking quality to the totally computer generated story. What makes “Monster House” such a great film, besides the terrific animation, is the story, and the warm, funny characters that bring it to life, from the child heroes, who worry that they’re getting too old for Halloween, to the bumbling cops (with hilarious readings by Kevin James and Nick Cannon), and the house’s old owner Mr. Nebbercracker (Steve Buscemi), whose back story is surprisingly touching and unexpectedly deep, this is a film that takes the proper time out from the comedy and spectacle of the house to build characters that you like, and can root for. In a year that has already seen such memorable animated films as “Cars” and “Over the Hedge”, “Monster House” may be the best one yet. I wasn’t going to resort to this, but what the heck; this house is a very, very, very fine house.
An Inconvenient Truth: Nobody would have thought that watching a two hour documentary about Al Gore giving a lecture on global warming would be as exciting as David Guggenheim’s “An Inconvenient Truth”, but the surprise art house hit of the summer is a real eye opener that painstakingly informs us about a global crisis as it presents a former presidential candidate in an entirely new public light. With an impressive video display, and an oral presentation that is witty, charming, and direct, Gore delivers a sermon on the increasing dangers of global warming that highlights the effects human beings have had on Earth’s climate (including ever decreasing polar ice caps, and a thickening of the ozone layer), while painting a grim picture of the future if nothing gets done. The film takes a few appropriate shots at the Bush administration, and Gore is self effacing when discussing the 2000 election, but this is primarily a lesson in prevention, not a political diatribe, and it ultimately serves as a scary reminder that we should never take for granted the land we live on. A bonus, during his lecture Gore shows a 2-minute satirical film clip from the “Futurama” episode that dealt with global warming (in the show the cause was robot exhaust fumes), a nice nod to the show his daughter used to write for, and which he appeared numerous times as a guest voice.
Harlan County, U.S.A.: Recently released by the Criterion Collection with a wealth of extras and a beautiful new print, this 1976 Oscar winner for Best Documentary is one of those films that continues to amaze every time you see it simply because of the basic human drama involved in it’s remarkable storytelling. Director Barbara Kopple and a bare bones crew took their equipment to rural Eastern Kentucky in 1973 to assemble footage of a bitter strike between underpaid coal miners and the Eastover Mining Company, owned by the powerful Duke Power Corporation, and what they got was a story of David vs. Goliath, poor against rich, proletariat vs. capitalist, and what amounts, in the end, to the basic structure of the American Dream, when the underdog can fight, and prevail, after a messy, difficult, and sometimes bloody battle, for their right to proper wages and safe working conditions. In telling the story of the strike, Kopple weaves together a history of the mining union, the history of the poor in Appalachian working communities, highlights a women’s liberation stronghold in the miner’s devoted mothers, sisters, daughters, and wives, who take no crap from anybody, especially the company’s strikebreakers and scabs, and weaves it all together with gut wrenching interviews, scenes of pure joy and horror (as when the company “gun thugs” bust up the picket line), and a soundtrack filled with the kinds of folk songs Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan would come to idolize for their raw symbolic working class power. I try to watch this masterpiece every two years or so, and every time I wrap my mind around it’s stunning images and basic human emotions, I come away with a profound feeling that I’ve just witnessed humanity at it’s core, something fiction filmmaking just can’t compete with. Quite simply, this is the best non-fiction film of all time.
The Matador: Also, if you can’t find “Harlan County, U.S.A.” at your local Blockbuster, and I’m pretty sure you can’t, stop by the New Releases section and pick up a copy of Pierce Brosnan and Greg Kinear’s likable buddy comedy-drama “The Matador”, one of the better overlooked films to come out near the end of last year. Brosnan stars as a professional hit man who has lost his zest for the game, and Kinear is a bored businessman who meets the killer on the road in Mexico while staying at the same hotel, and the two seemingly hit it off with mutual admiration for each other’s lifestyles, Brosnan respecting Kinear’s safe family life in Denver, and Kinear living vicariously through Brosnan’s risk taking adventures around the globe as an “executive eliminator”. Not your typical buddy comedy, “The Matador” has heart to spare, especially when examining the marriage of Kinear and the always astounding Hope Davis, who are still reeling from the death of their son, and features a bawdy, hilarious performance from Brosnan, eager to get away from the crisp perfectionism of 007. This may wrap up too tidy for some, and the filmmaking isn’t especially remarkable, but it’s a nice little film, with three strong performances, and an alternately funny and touching storyline.
by Adam Suraf