Category: Reviews

  • You will love ‘All The Boys Love Mandy Lane’

    You will love ‘All The Boys Love Mandy Lane’

    Amber Heard is the object of desire in 'All the Boys Love Mandy Lane'
    Amber Heard is the object of desire in ‘All the Boys Love Mandy Lane’

    When a movie sits on the shelf for more than seven years you have to wonder why.  In the case of All The Boys Love Mandy Lane, the reasons are complex.  Suffice it to say there was a sale followed by a company’s collapse.  Now it is finally on the big screen and it was worth waiting for.

    Amber Heard is “Mandy Lane”, a student at a high school in Texas.  She’s attractive, somewhat popular, but she isn’t part of the “in-crowd”.  She is very close with “Emmet” (Michael Welch) and insists that he be allowed to attend a party she is invited to.  “Dylan” (Adam Powell) is the host of the party and he is interested in Mandy.  Emmet is shunned, as he is definitely on the outs with the in-crowd and he goes up on the roof.  Dylan goes up to talk to him about how to improve his chances with Mandy.  Emmet convinces him to do something to try to ingratiate himself with her and that act has a tragic consequence.  Everyone blames Emmet for Dylan’s death.

    Amber Heard and Michael Welch star in 'All The Boys Love Mandy Lane'
    Amber Heard and Michael Welch star in ‘All The Boys Love Mandy Lane’

    Months later, during which Mandy refuses to have anything to do with Emmet, she is invited to a party by Red.  All the “best people” are going to be at this party, to be held on a ranch owned by Red’s father.  This is a horror film and a bunch of teens are going to a somewhat remote location.  You can guess what will begin to happen upon their arrival.

    This is typical teen horror fare but what makes it better than average is that the violence and gore isn’t cartoonish.  When such things are obviously faked it detracts from the viewing experience.  Heard and the rest of the cast does a good job with an intricate story that contains a few excellent twists.  The relationship between Mandy and Emmet is one of those very complicated situations between boys and girls during their formative years.

    Amber Heard in 'All the Boys Love Mandy Lane'
    Amber Heard in ‘All the Boys Love Mandy Lane’

    If we were to view this movie as having come after Jonathan Levine’s outstanding Warm Bodies, it might seem to be a step in the wrong direction.  That isn’t the case.  Viewing Levine’s other efforts in the order of their creation, The Wackness, then 50/50 and finally this year’s Warm Bodies, we can easily discern that he gets better as he goes along.

    The knowledge that All The Boys Love Mandy Lane came before those other fine films makes it definitely worth seeing in a theater.

  • ‘Don Jon’ is blunt, brutal and brilliant

    ‘Don Jon’ is blunt, brutal and brilliant

    Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Scarlett Johansson in 'Don Jon'
    Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Scarlett Johansson in ‘Don Jon’

    “Don Martello” (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a chip off of the old block in a number of ways.  He is grounded.  He cares about his family, his car, his apartment, his male friends, his church, the women he sleeps with and most importantly, his internet porn.  This is a story of a man obsessed and how he chooses to deal with that obsession will shape his future.

    He and his buddies frequent nightclubs in search of women and if they aren’t at least an eight on their rating scale, Don isn’t interested.  Nor is he interested in anything more than a one night experience, especially since he finds masturbating to internet porn so much more satisfying than he does having sex with a woman.  Except of course, as he explains in narration, whenever he’s close to the moment of climax and the porn clip he is using as inspiration cuts to a shot of the male actor doing it to the female that is the object of Don’s desire.  Then he loses interest.

    Scarlett Johansson in 'Don Jon'
    Scarlett Johansson in ‘Don Jon’

    All is well until he meets “Barbara” (Scarlett Johansson) one night.  She’s a solid 10 and for her, Don is willing to do things differently.  Take it slow, go by her schedule.  Of course once he’s nailed her he will move on, or so he thinks.  But he’s fascinated by her as she slowly wraps him around her little finger.  Eventually they begin having sex.  Then she discovers him doing his porn thing and she makes him promise to never do it again.  A promise he can’t keep; however, he rationalizes that lying to her about it is okay.  As we see her exerting more and more influence over his life it is obvious that he’s going to get busted and soon.

    One of his classmates at the local community college that Barbara convinced him to attend in order to improve his lot in life also catches him watching porn, on his smartphone.  “Esther” (Julianne Moore) has no problem with it and the two begin to communicate just a bit. When Barbara discovers that Don has been lying about breaking his promise, she dumps him.  The best part of the film is the journey of self-discovery that he goes on from this point, with some help from Esther.

    Julianne Moore and Joseph Gordon-Levitt are classmates in 'Don Jon'
    Julianne Moore and Joseph Gordon-Levitt are classmates in ‘Don Jon’

    It’s a solid debut for a first-time writer/director, even more worthy of note when you add in the fact he was in charge both in front of and behind the lens.  Most actors can direct others but don’t do so well at directing themselves.  The exceptions, like Clint Eastwood and Kenneth Branagh (there are others) tend to stand out and it looks like Gordon-Levitt may belong on that short list.  Johansson is solid, Tony Danza memorable as Don’s father and Julianne Moore is exception in the most layered character in the film.  A very promising initial effort from Gordon-Levitt and hopefully he will only improve.

  • ‘Prisoners’ will captivate you

    ‘Prisoners’ will captivate you

    Hugh Jackman as "Kelly Dover" in 'Prisoners'
    Hugh Jackman as “Keller Dover” in ‘Prisoners’

    It may be the worst moment in a parent’s entire life.  When it becomes clear that their young child who is missing has probably been taken, the emotions are off the scale.  That is what makes Prisoners such an excellent film.  The writer and director have given the four actors who deal with this situation an almost ideal setting to display the range of feelings they are experiencing.

    “Keller Dover” (Jackman) and his wife “Grace” (Bello) are taking their kids “Ralph” (Minnette) and “Anna” (Gerasimovich) to Thanksgiving dinner at the home of their neighbors, “Franklin Birch” (Howard) and his wife “Nancy” (Davis) and their two kids, “Joy” (Simmons) and “Eliza” (Borde).  It’s a nice evening, a relief for Keller whose construction business is struggling.  Anna and Joy want to go out and play and when they don’t return, panic sets in.

    prisoners1
    Viola Davis, Jake Gyllenhaal and Terrence Howard in ‘Prisoners’

    That’s when Ralph remembers the two girls were playing next to and on a RV that was parked right outside the house.  Keller and Franklin go looking for it but it is nowhere to be found.  “Detective Loki” (Gyllenhaal) responds and soon the RV is located.  “Alex Jones” (Dano) tries to flee but is caught.  It turns out that he has a very limited IQ and in spite of looking like a prime suspect, he is released.  Unconvinced of his innocence, Keller Dover decides he will do whatever he must to get Alex to confess and disclose where the girls are being held.  Alex lives with his aunt, “Holly Jones” and Keller visits her in an attempt to coerce her into making Alex talk.  She is less than helpful.

    While Detective Loki is pursuing each and every lead, obsessed with not ruining his record of solving every case he is assigned, Keller kidnaps Alex and begins torturing him to obtain the information he is desperate to get.  Things take stranger and stranger turns after that.

    Hugh Jackman and Paul Dano in 'Prisoners'
    Hugh Jackman and Paul Dano in ‘Prisoners’

    The writing is terrific here.  So is the acting.  You can see every feeling that Keller, Franklin and their wives are going through in both verbal and nonverbal communication from the moment the girls disappear.  Fans of “the Wolverine” will recognize the same kind of commitment to achieve a goal in Keller, but otherwise this is a new and very different character for Jackman.  The issue of how to deal with the rights and wrongs of doing whatever needs to be done to save your child is handled deftly here.

    Prisoners is a movie that holds its audience captive throughout and there’s no point in even attempting to escape the auditorium.  Sit back, relax and enjoy.

  • ‘The Family’ is a little bit of this and a little bit of that

    ‘The Family’ is a little bit of this and a little bit of that

    John D'Leo, Robert DeNiro, Michelle Pfeiffer and Dianna Agron are 'The Family'
    John D’Leo, Robert DeNiro, Michelle Pfeiffer and Dianna Agron are ‘The Family’

    Let’s be clear.  There are movies that feature a plot device about protecting a witness before they testify.  Bad Boys, Eraser, Bulletproof and Snakes on a Plane just to mention a few.  Then there are movies about what happens to the people who disappear into the Witness Protection Program.  The Family is one of the better attempts in this specific genre, but being better than mostly mediocre movies isn’t great praise.

    “Don Luchese” (Carp) was a boss in the mob in the New York City borough of Brooklyn until he made the mistake of trying to kill “Giovanni Manzoni” (DeNiro) and his family.  Manzoni was one of the bosses working for Luchese and we never do find out what he did wrong.  What we do learn is that after the failed hit, Manzoni drops a dime on Luchese who winds up in prison. Fast forward five or six years and “Agent Stansfield” (Jones) of the FBI is being forced to relocate the Manzoni family for the umpteenth time.  Because this has happened time and again, Manzoni and his wife “Maggie” (Pfeiffer), their daughter “Belle” (Agron) and their son “Warren” (D’Leo) are being relocated to a small village in Normandy.  As in France.  They are now the “Blake” family and they have very mixed feelings about their new home. If you saw the trailer for this film you saw how Maggie reacts when she is not welcomed with open arms in the village’s grocery store.  Belle and Warren have different types of experiences when they enroll at the local school.  Worst of all is that in his new identity as “Fred Blake”, Manzoni wants to write his memoirs.   Agent Stansfield is not happy about that.

    Robert DeNiro about to "negotiate" in 'The Family'
    Robert DeNiro about to “negotiate” in ‘The Family’

    Things get even worse when through a series of coincidences, Don Luchese discovers where the Manzonis are hiding from him and he dispatches a team of goons to dispose of them once and for all.  All four of them and anyone else who gets in the way. Labeling this a comedy would be wrong.  Labeling this a drama would be wrong.  Labeling it an action film would also be wrong.  It has elements of all three and while individually they work, they don’t work as well together as one might expect.

    Dianna Agron and John D'Leo face different problems at their new school in 'The Family'
    Dianna Agron and John D’Leo face different problems at their new school in ‘The Family’

    Robert DeNiro has played the mobster so many times that unless he’s actually intense in the role as in Goodfellas, or over the top as in Analyze This and Analyze That, it just looks routine and is unexciting.   The rest of the cast is decent but this is a film that doesn’t do justice to its source material, a novel titled “Malavita” which become “Badfellas” when it was translated into English three or four years ago. Still it is an interesting take on witness protection, after the witness is in hiding and that makes it worth checking out.

  • There hasn’t been nearly enough said about ‘Enough Said’

    There hasn’t been nearly enough said about ‘Enough Said’

    James Gandolfini and Julia-Louis Dreyfuss on a movie date in 'Enough Said'
    James Gandolfini and Julia-Louis Dreyfuss on a movie date in ‘Enough Said’

    Writer/director Nicole Holofcener pursues her penchant for interesting characters in her latest effort, Enough Said.  Since it is the first film starring the late James Gandolfini after his untimely passing it has generated additional interest and it turns out the film deserves the attention.

    Julia Louis-Dreyfuss is “Eva” a massage therapist on L.A.’s Westside (can you say cliché?) who is divorced, painfully single and whose daughter “Ellen” (Fairaway) is going to be leaving for college in the fall.  She meets Gandolfini’s “Albert” at a party that she was invited to by her closest friend “Sarah” (Collette) and her husband “Will” (Falcone).  The two have a nice “meet-cute” and eventually Albert seeks a date with Eva.

    Julia-Louis Dreyfuss learns that Catherine Keener's "Marianne" is the ex-wife of James Gandolfini in 'Enough Said'
    Julia-Louis Dreyfuss learns that Catherine Keener’s “Marianne” is the ex-wife of James Gandolfini in ‘Enough Said’

    However, at that same party, Eva also meets “Marianne” (Keener).  Marianne is a fairly well-known poet and she doesn’t just take Eva’s card out of politeness.  She has an issue that a masseuse can assist with and she hires Eva.  Marianne wants more than just someone to remove the knots from her body, she seeks a friend to bare her soul to and Eva is willing.  Unfortunately, after their first session together, and after an excellent first date with Albert, Eva makes the painful discovery that Marianne is Albert’s ex-wife.  Unable to decide who to stop seeing, she continues dating Albert while spending time with Marianne outside the therapeutic arena.

    The problem is that the more Eva finds herself liking and being attracted to Albert, the more she hears the harangues of Marianne about all of Albert’s flaws.  Add to this the fact both are fearing the upcoming departures of their respective daughters to college and things are naturally going to have problems.  Eva is keeping a big secret from both Albert and Marianne while trying to figure out how to resolve what seems to be a growing rift between herself and her daughter.  It isn’t helping that Ellen’s BFF “Chloe” (Gavinson) is unhappy at home and spending more time at Eva’s house.  With Eva, not Ellen.

    James Gandolfini and Julia-Louis Dreyfuss have wonderful chemistry in 'Enough Said'
    James Gandolfini and Julia-Louis Dreyfuss have wonderful chemistry in ‘Enough Said’

    The leads are wonderful and their awkward but growing relationship is a joy to behold.  Their joint trepidation leads to a number of comic moments that are enhanced by artful dialogue from Holofcener.  There are a very few moments where the pace slows just a bit too much but the film’s length is perfect.  In fact, it will leave you wanting just a bit more.

    I will refrain from my usual rant about how it seems that rom-coms in modern times seem to involve only those who live above the affluent line and instead focus on the good things here.  It is so much fun to watch the man who is indelibly etched into our collective psyches as “Tony Soprano” playing a really nice guy who wouldn’t think of ‘whacking’ someone for any reason.  The spontaneous applause that filled the auditorium at the sight of the film’s tribute to James Gandolfini in the closing credits was lovely to hear.

  • ‘Muscle Shoals’ has mud, the Swampers and some incredible music

    ‘Muscle Shoals’ has mud, the Swampers and some incredible music

    The Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin appears in 'Muscle Shoals'
    The Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin appears in ‘Muscle Shoals’

    “Now Muscle Shoals has got the Swampers.  And they’ve been known to pick a song or two.” (lyric from the Lynyrd Skynyrd song “Sweet Home Alabama”)

    Muscle Shoals is a small town of just under 13,000 people located near the Tennessee River in Alabama.  Native Americans called it the “Singing River”.  It is also the home of recording studios and musicians whose contribution to R&B, rock and pop is nothing short of amazing.  That’s how the documentary film Muscle Shoals came to pass.

    Rolling Stone senior editor David Fricke says that if you had to play only one song to “epitomize” the Muscle Shoals’ sound, it would be “I’ll Take You There” by the Staple Singers.  However, far more famous groups and solo stars came to drink in the beauty and spirit of the river and make incredible music.

    Percy Sledge hit it big at 'Muscle Shoals'
    Percy Sledge hit it big at ‘Muscle Shoals’

    Most of them came to work with Rick Hall, founder of FAME studios.  In a South that was still divided along racial lines, it was Hall who found a way to take the differing sounds of “black music” and “white music” and blend them to make something better.  FAME stands for Florence Alabama Music Enterprises and the studio was founded back in the 1950s.  In 1964 the first hit, “Steal Away” by Jimmy Hughes shot up the charts and started the parade of people coming to town to work with Hall.  It was “When a Man Loves a Woman” by Percy Sledge that brought international attention to Muscle Shoals.

    While many want to credit things about the area, like the mud that Bono mentions in one of his segments in the movie, it was a group of white men playing black music behind the recording stars that put this small town on the map.  They are the Swampers and it is telling that Lynyrd Skynyrd paid tribute to them in one of their songs, in terms of the influence of these session musicians.

    Founder of FAME Studio, Rick Hall in 'Muscle Shoals'
    Founder of FAME Studio, Rick Hall in ‘Muscle Shoals’

    The Rolling Stones, The Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynrd, Bono, Alicia Keys, Etta James, Percy Sledge and Paul Simon are just some of the musicians who came to town to record.  A number of them appear in the documentary and explain what it was that brought them there to record.  And what kept them coming back.  We learn that in the late 1960s, several members of the Swampers left to form their own recording studio, Muscle Shoals Sound.  That did not stop Rick Hall from continuing to produce music at FAME.

    Director Greg “Freddy” Camalier has put together an excellent documentary film that is similar to the incredible Sound City from earlier this year, but different.  Both films are about how amazing music was put together, but Sound City’s magic seemed to spring from the Neve analog mixing console while it is the river and the locale that inspire the Muscle Shoals sound.  Camalier mixes interviews, music and imagery to tell the story of how some of the music industries luminaries chose to come
    to this backwater location to work.  Rick Hall’s personal story is also told and it is a tale filled with origins in poverty and more than his share of tragedy along the way.

    Muscle Shoals is an outstanding documentary and I plan to see it again.

  • Rich getting richer faster, so says ‘Inequality for All’

    Rich getting richer faster, so says ‘Inequality for All’

    Robert Reich in his element, teaching, in 'Inequality For All'
    Robert Reich in his element, teaching, in ‘Inequality For All’

    Robert Reich may stand only 4’10” tall in terms of physical stature but in the field of economics he’s one of the giants of our era.  A.B. summa cum laude from Dartmouth, Rhodes Scholar who studied Economics at Oxford (along with Philosophy and Politics), and a J.D. from Yale Law.  Then there’s his experience in government, assistant to Robert Bork when Bork was Solicitor General of the U.S. and Secretary of Labor during the Clinton Administration.

    All of this needs to be considered because the documentary in which he is front and center for the majority of the time, Inequality for All, is about the growing rift in terms of both wealth and income in the United States.  The rich aren’t just getting richer, they’re accumulating wealth faster and faster in an economy that still hasn’t fully recovered.

    Reich opines that this is because the “middle class” is being forced to work for lower wages as shareholders demand CEOs of corporations generate higher profits without regard for what needs to be done to achieve this.  Using his acerbic wit and strong skills as an educator, Reich is entertaining and informative as he gives cold hard facts to the audience.  In the U.S. 42% of those born into poverty will never escape it, a much higher rate than in other “developed” nations.  Those 400 people on that annual list from Forbes Magazine have as much wealth between then as do the 150 million poorest Americans.

    Considering that Reich has spoken out this week that the growing minimum wage protests may indicate serious problems ahead for the nation, this film has a very important message.  Sadly, sometimes such messages get lost in documentaries that take what are dry subjects (did anyone really enjoy Econ in college, aside from mutants like me and those who became economists?) that tell the tale but fail to engage the viewer.  That isn’t a problem here as director Jacob Kornbluth has done a marvelous job of making this film interesting and intriguing.

    Reich contends this may get worse as the income gap grows in 'Inequality For All'
    Reich contends this may get worse as the income gap grows in ‘Inequality For All’

    Mr. Reich challenges the base argument for cutting taxes on the wealthiest people because they are the “job-creators”, providing evidence that consumers are the ones who create jobs by spending their earnings in the marketplace.  We’re also educated that outsourcing and technology have done more to cut wages in the U.S. rather than simply eliminate jobs.

    One of the most interesting facets of Reich’s thesis is that while the Occupy Wall Street movement and the Tea Party appear to be polar opposites, in fact there are strong parallels when it comes to the gap in the inequity of income.

    Inequality for All is a quick but very informative 89 minutes and is definitely worth a view.

    Critic’s note:  One of the other contentions of Robert Reich is that the rich are actually paying lower taxes than the poor and middle class and anyone who has seen the discussions about the income tax returns of Mitt Romney, or read Warren Buffett’s statement he doesn’t pay enough tax; knows this is a serious issue.  If you want to learn more about this, check out any of the books on the subject of income taxes by the multiple Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalists Donald Bartlett and James Steele.

  • ‘Salinger’ documentary opens more of the book on the late J.D. Salinger

    ‘Salinger’ documentary opens more of the book on the late J.D. Salinger

    A photo of a pensive J. D. Salinger
    A photo of a pensive J. D. Salinger

    Jerome David Salinger had one novel published in his lifetime.  It was titled “The Catcher in the Rye” (just in case you were one of the rare few never exposed to it) and it has sold over 65 million copies since being published in 1951.  It continues to sell over 250,000 copies annually and since the release of Shane Salerno’s documentary about the book’s author, it has leapt from 125th to 76th on the USA Today list of best-selling books.

    Salingeris a lengthy, very detailed documentary that sometimes wanders too far afield in its attempt to create visceral visual images of J.D. Salinger.  It challenges the notion that he was a recluse to avoid people by claiming that he was very carefully gaining greater publicity by pretending to be reclusive while making carefully planned public appearances.

    Author Joyce Maynard in 1973, after her relationship with J.D. Salinger had ended
    Author Joyce Maynard in 1973, after her relationship with J.D. Salinger had ended

    Put together by the director over a protracted period; and somehow they kept the project secret for five years.  That there was a painstaking, incredibly deep level of research involved is obvious.  One cannot ignore the photographs of the author never seen before in public, or the recollections of people who knew the man.  Among the luminaries interviewed for and appearing in Salinger are Salinger’s former girlfriend and author Joyce Maynard, Martin Sheen, E. L. Doctorow, John Cusack, Robert Towne, Philip Seymour Hoffman and many, many more.

    The film tells the story of how Salinger came to write, how his time in the U.S. Army during World War II was indelibly etched into his psyche, and about how Oona O’Neill broke his heart when she dumped him to marry the much older Charlie Chaplain.  Unfortunately there is little in the film about how his relationship with O’Neill may have been the locus for Salinger’s own predilection for pursuing women much younger than he.

    Much is made of the obsession that so many have with Salinger’s seminal work.  Mark David Chapman was captured after he murdered John Lennon with his personal copy of “The Catcher in The Rye” in his possession, a note he wrote to its protagonist “Holden Caulfield” inside of it.  John Hinckley Jr. and Robert David Bardo also cited the book as an influence on their heinous crimes (Hinckley of course tried to assassinate Ronald Reagan while Bardo murdered Rebecca Schaeffer).  The film also explores Salinger’s obsession with being published in “The New Yorker”, a feat he wasn’t able to achieve until after his service in World War II.

    J. D. Salinger and three close friends from their shared military service during WWII
    J. D. Salinger and three close friends from their shared military service during WWII

    There are other authors who published only one novel that was a gigantic success, Harper Lee immediately comes to mind.  But there is no other author who put out only one novel that was read so widely by teens, that spoke so well to their angst and that appears to be timeless.  This is a solid documentary and anyone other than a paid researcher into the life of J.D. Salinger will come away from the auditorium knowing more about the man than they did when they sat down.

  • ‘Anna Nicole’ is a Lifetime channel movie that’s better than expected

    ‘Anna Nicole’ is a Lifetime channel movie that’s better than expected

    Agnes Bruckner is Anna Nicole Smith in the Lifetime channel movie
    Agnes Bruckner is Anna Nicole Smith in the Lifetime channel movie

    Mary Harron has tackled Valerie Solanas, Bettie Page, and Patrick Bateman. Now she takes on the fractured fairy tale story of Anna Nicole Smith.

    While it doesn’t come close to Star 80 quality, Anna Nicole is better than expected and features standout work from its director and actors. Now airing on Lifetime, it has already broken the channel’s ratings record for its movies.

    Anna Nicole was born Vickie Lynn Hogan (Julia Walters as a child, Agnes Bruckner thereafter) in small town Mexia, Texas. Even with a policewoman for a mother (Virginia Madsen), her home life is made very abusive by the various stepfather-figures who flow in and out. But it’s through one of them that she discovers what will change her life. When she finds an old issue of Playboy with Marilyn Monroe on the cover, she finds her inspiration, and from that point clings to the dream of becoming just as big an icon that the whole world loves.

    Agnes Bruckner may be beautiful, but she relied on special effects to recreate Anna Nicole Smith's ample bossom
    Agnes Bruckner may be beautiful, but she relied on special effects to recreate Anna Nicole Smith’s ample bosom

    But her first steps into adulthood include making the same mistakes as her mother. With her son Daniel (played at different ages, youngest to oldest, by Jackson Walters, Luke Donaldson, Caleb Barwick, and Graham Patrick Martin), she flees from abusive husband Tommy Smith (James Allen McCune). To support them, she gets a job as a pole dancer in a strip club. She initially only wanted to be a waitress, but the increased pay for dancers convinces her.

    One day, Ben Walker (Alex Van) takes his boss, elderly billionaire J. Howard Marshall (Martin Landau), to the club. The wheelchair-bound Marshall soon hits it off with Vickie Lynn and they fall in love, with him vowing to take care of her and her son. With more financial backing to get her photographers and agents, her grander career begins to take off. Before long she’s featured in Playboy and the spokeswoman for Guess jeans.

    Cary Elwes is E. Pierce Marshall, the son of the millionaire who married Anna Nicole Smith
    Cary Elwes is E. Pierce Marshall, the son of the millionaire who married Anna Nicole Smith

    But there’s something else introduced to her during her time at the club that becomes a major part of her life: a drug habit. Taking these drugs to overcome her shyness in performing, she soon graduates to more recreational use. And as Vickie Lynn becomes Anna Nicole, when she has to do more than just dance, her use becomes more frequent and, of course, results in tragedy.

    It’s really the cast who elevate this. Bruckner is fantastic and goes the extra mile with prosthetic breasts that look as though they were her own. Hats off to the crew on that one. Landau is, unsurprisingly, perfect in his part, and Madsen, while not featured that prominently, makes the most of her scenes. In a substantial but too brief part is Cary Elwes as E. Pierce Marshall, J. Howard’s son (and also older than she is) who takes it upon himself to gain control of the family’s estate and cut the Smiths out of inheritance. Rounding out the cast is Adam Goldberg, playing the other Howard in Anna Nicole’s life, K. Stern.

    Agnes Bruckner strikes a pose in gold as Anna Nicole Smith
    Agnes Bruckner strikes a pose in gold as Anna Nicole Smith

    But the TV movie format is very limiting, and many things that could really make this great are left out. For example, there is no mention of Naked Gun 33 1/3. While some might see it as a piece of trivia, it actually represents a major career coup. The prime role she had brought her into the mainstream and on the big screen just like her idol. There’s also not much of a focus on her weight gain and its effects on her. Sure we are made aware of it and see her in her Trimspa campaign, but no moments to show her really depressed by it.

    This project would probably have been best as a mini-series, but for what it is, Anna Nicole does the job admirably and is a worthy entry into Harron’s (ahem) body of work.

  • Take a really close look at who looks at us in ‘Closed Circuit’

    Take a really close look at who looks at us in ‘Closed Circuit’

    The closed circuit cameras watching everything just before the bomb goes off at the start of 'Closed Circuit'
    The closed circuit cameras watching everything just before the bomb goes off at the start of ‘Closed Circuit’

    Closed Circuit is a taut thriller that has a little of everything.  A little action, a little chasing, a little mystery and while it is certainly better than average, it is not stellar.  The film begins with a montage of ever-multiplying numbers of closed circuit cameras recording every movement and word going on in a crowded marketplace in London.  Someone drives a large truck into the center of the marketplace, and as someone is yelling that the truck can’t be parked there, it explodes.  We are spared the bulk of the horrific aftermath of such things although we do get to see the inevitable memorial at the site of the blast.

    A man named “Farroukh Erdogan” (Moschitto) is arrested and charged with masterminding the blast.  His fellow terrorists were killed when they resisted arrest.  Now the Crown must charge and convict Farroukh at trial.  But before the trial can begin, his barrister leaps from the roof of a building.  “Simon” who was to have defended Farroukh had been working with “Devlin” (Hinds) and they were both close to “Martin Rose” (Bana), the barrister who is taking over as defense barrister.

    Eric Bana in 'Closed Circuit'
    Eric Bana in ‘Closed Circuit’

    But under the system of British jurisprudence, since there is classified information that was used in the arrest of Farroukh he will actually have two barristers.  One who handles the sessions that are held in open court, and another who works only in the closed door sessions where the court can examine the classified material and determine if it should be moved to an open session to be considered.  “Claudia Simmons-Howe” (Hull) is the barrister who gets the job.

    Now this is problematic, since she had been having an affair with Martin that has ended, although not before costing him his marriage.  The rules make it clear that their affair makes them unsuitable to hold these posts, but they won’t disclose the truth.  They both want to continue on the case.

    Turns out there are many more secrets at play here, some of which some people will kill to prevent the disclosure of.  If Martin and/or Claudia wind up letting the cat out of the bag, they may be stuffed into that bag and placed in a dumpster.

    Eric Bana and Rebecca Hall in 'Closed Circuit'
    Eric Bana and Rebecca Hall in ‘Closed Circuit’

    The idea of a terrorist being something that he doesn’t appear to be isn’t an entirely original idea, nor is the notion of a conspiracy where powerful people don’t want their dirty laundry aired in public.  Nonetheless, the script is good enough to provide competent players with characters they can add depth to.  Bana seems a bit off his game.  Not bad by any stretch, but just not as good as he has shown he can be.  Hull continues to deliver excellence and while her beauty is being downplayed, the camera still has a romantic fixation on her.  The technical stuff involving intelligence fieldcraft is done well enough that it can’t be seriously criticized and the typical happy ending may or may not come to pass.  You’ll have to see it for yourself to find out and I think you will enjoy the film if you do.