2003 Foreign, Alternative and Independent Films - Page 14

Lew Crippen · 12-12-2003, 05:26 PM

No doubt true Michael--but I'd still recommend a wee dram.

**HTF Ads**

Patrick Sun · 12-12-2003, 06:20 PM

Waugh! I wanna see a sneak peek of The Cooler!

Brook K · 12-15-2003, 11:07 PM

As Michael predicted -

The Cooler

I highly, highly recommend "The Cooler". Featuring a dual storyline, the primary portion is William H. Macy's "Cooler" character, a man with such bad luck that it rubs off on anyone he gets near, making him a perfect casino employee. But he has a hollow, nothing life of disappointment and mistakes. In meeting a cocktail waitress played by Maria Bello, he finds hope for something better. The other part of the story is about the battle between the new family theme Vegas (represented by Ron Livingston of Office Space fame) and the old school gangster Las Vegas rep'd by casino owner Alec Baldwin.

It's very much like an early 70's movie, believably brutal violence, explicit, but tender and fun adult sex (rather than glossy skinemax/MTV style), jazz/Sinatraesque type score/soundtrack. This is Alec Baldwin at his best, he has riotous high quality tough guy dialogue to work with and multiple brutally violent scenes (a couple walked out of the theater during one of them). Very well made in all respects. Also very funny at times, with lots of casino type humor that us gamblers especially appreciate. The performances by Bill Macy and Maria Bello are outstanding. Their romance is pulled off beautifully, you really believe the characters are in love.

The casino featured in the film is called the Shangri-La and there are multiple references to Lost Horizon, the casino as Baldwin's own version of paradise, that has now become endangered by progress and has driven Baldwin to a de-humanizing obsession in order to protect it. One of my favorites of the year.

But a giant disappointment that Glenfiddich was nowhere to be seen.

When I went to a Tanqueray-sponsored Down With Love preview earlier in the year, it was all you can drink with mountains of appetizers. (and it takes alcohol to get through DWL)

Patrick Sun · 12-16-2003, 01:18 AM

Where is The Cooler going to play in the Atlanta area?

Edwin Pereyra · 12-16-2003, 07:57 AM

Babi Leto (Autumn Spring)

Vladimír Michálek’s film is about an elder person who refuses to accept the inevitable and just wants to continue living by playing pranks and harmless scams on others while his wife and others are busy planning for their death. It is a funny and oftentimes warm and honest look at elders who are in this crucial stage of their lives.

It won the equivalent of the Oscars in Czech Republic in three acting categories (Actor, Actress and Supporting Actor) and Best Screenplay.

Ironically, while the film champions the celebration of life, lead Vlastimil Brodsky (age 81) tragically took his own shortly after the film was released.

~Edwin

Ben Seibert · 12-16-2003, 02:32 PM

Quote:

Where is The Cooler going to play in the Atlanta area?

I've seen its trailer at the Madstone in Sandy Springs, so it should be coming there soon.

Brook K · 12-16-2003, 03:50 PM

They also advertise a Cooler Contest at the Midtown Arts theater, but I believe I saw in Sunday's paper that it will initially open at Tara. It will probably run at Tara for 2-3 weeks and then move to Madstone which 21 Grams and In America probably will do as well.

Edwin Pereyra · 12-31-2003, 08:06 AM

KUKUSHKA

I guess this Russian anti-war film by Aleksandr Rogozhkin just failed to resonate with me. For most of its running time I was wondering with the three characters who constantly talk to each other in three different languages while at the same time unable to understand each other, why sign and body language were used so little as a form of communication. I guess practicality and common sense is out of the question in this part of the world or else, there wouldn't be a movie.

~Edwin

Edwin Pereyra · 01-01-2004, 10:05 AM

21 GRAMS

I can certainly see why Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu chose to tell the story of three characters who meet by chance in a non-chronological fragmentary manner because to do so otherwise would have required a lot more set up and running time. In its current form, while audiences are given a glimpse of what ultimately takes place, the reasons are then explored through a series of flashbacks. What is important to note is that Inarritu uses this narrative style to present why certain character motivations and actions take place rather than how it happens.

However, as it is, much of each story’s emotional content is lost, at least on this viewer. Since, for the most part, we already know the fate of each character ahead of time, we become more concerned about putting the pieces together and focusing more on the reasons behind each outcome. Here, the characters demand our attention rather than them grabbing a hold of us and gripping us with their emotional plight.

On both fronts, we become a distant observer rather than engaged as a viewer. In this case, Christopher Nolan’s Memento, which started the recent wave of non-linear storytelling, is far more effective in getting its audience into a higher plane of involvement.

Sean Penn, Naomi Watts and Benicio Del Toro all give top-notch performances. But in the end, 21 Grams is more of a sensory experience rather than an emotional one.

~Edwin

Michael Reuben · 01-01-2004, 10:42 AM

Monster

A disappointment. Charlize Theron's transformation into executed murderer Aileen Wuornos is a stunning achievement, but it's marooned in a film with little sense of how to tell a story. By the time we meet Aileen, she's already a deeply disturbed, hopelessly damaged soul from a lifetime of mistreatment and years of work as a prostitute. The action of the film, such as it is, consists of Aileen's halting efforts to form some sort of human bond with Selby Wall (an unusually subdued Christina Ricci) and her killing of several johns, most of whom are presented as either miscreants or losers. In a hint of what the film might have been, the final murder we witness is of a decent man who merely offered Aileen a ride, but ends up dead anyway because Aileen is so used to the ritual of exploitation that she naturally assumes that's how everyone will behave. Theron's portrayal of the emotions that wrack Aileen as she realizes that she's about to kill someone entirely innocent is brilliant, but it's one of the few moments where the script truly supports the performance, and it comes far too late in the film to accomplish much of anything.

The "monster" of the title is a reference to a giant ferris wheel that Aileen rode as a child. It's a mark of the script's laziness that, even when Aileen and Selby take a ride on a ferris wheel, the image doesn't connect with much of anything; it's plays as just another random incident.

M.

Brook K · 01-01-2004, 11:41 AM

Edwin, my thoughts exactly on 21 Grams.

There's a documentary coming out about the real life Aileen from Monster I think. Saw a trailer for it before 21 Grams.