movie review

A Costly Triumph of The Truth

Dusty Wright — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 14:00:00 +0000

A Costly Triumph of The Truth Dusty Wright November 1, 2018 - 10:00

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This masterpiece is one of the finest films ever made about how individual looks at war. It's born a very micro but also a very macro examination based on the very real award-winning journalist and war correspondent Marie Colvin. This brave human ultimately lost her life in 2012 in Syria, but suffered the psyche wounds one would expect when trapped in a"private" view of man's death and destruction of fellow man. A Private War will resonate with the viewer long after the final credits have faded.

Rosamund Pike's Oscar-worthy performance shakes you to the core. We feel her pain and frustration as her heroic, but life-threatening journeys consume her every waking moment as she pursues the truth in both her actions and words. She literally lived in the middle of every conflict she covered and so afforded her the profound truths that her newspapers, periodicals, and columns covered for the rest of the world to ingest. Whether her words struck the right chord in each individual reader depended on that individual's view of the world.

As Marie Colvin once so brilliant wrote:

"Our mission is to report these horrors of war with accuracy and without prejudice. We always have to ask ourselves whether the level of risk is worth the story. What is bravery, and what is bravado? Journalists covering combat shoulder great responsibilities and face difficult choices. Sometimes they pay the ultimate price."

And for me, that quote is the essence of of the critically acclaimed documentary filmmaker Matthew Heineman's adaptation of her life. Quite a remarkable piece of filmmaking for a feature film debut. Kudos to writer Arash Amel, as well. Based on a Vanity Fair profile from 2012, where much of the writer Arash Ambel based this script, we see how her fearless and rebellious spirit cost her loving relationships, created mental health issues aka PTSD, cost her an eye, and ultimately her life. The film also depicts the journalistic relationship Miss Colvin had with renowned war photographer Paul Conroy (Jamie Dornan).

This harrowing but thoughtful movie should not be missed.

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Dance Until You Drop: High-Kicking On Celluloid

Brandon Judell — Fri, 20 Jul 2018 14:00:00 +0000

Dance Until You Drop: High-Kicking On Celluloid Brandon Judell July 20, 2018 - 10:00

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As Nietzsche noted, "We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once." The man who buried God would no doubt add, if still around, that watching a film or two on this most active of the arts a fine substitute.

And to make it easier for those of us who wish to honor Terpsichore by perching instead of pirouetting, The Film Society of Lincoln Center and Dance Films Association will for the 46^th straight year screen full-length documentaries and shorts from 17 countries within 16 joyously distinct programs.

From American tap to Mexican acrobatics, from Marcel Marceau to Spike Jonze, and from Japan to Finland, visual treasures will be unearthed that will make you rethink every aspect of dance that you were once so sure about.

For example, "Bleeding and Burning," a two-minute Canadian short directed by Guillaume Marin, in addition to causing you to ponder, supplies a pulsating finale that just might trigger a few seizures. Featuring the dancers Anabel Gagnon and Victoria Mackenzie -- one fully garbed in red fabric from head to toe, the other in black -- the duo sometimes encase each other, when not bombarding their other half. Heavily edited with a pounding accompaniment, the film, the press notes claim, is "an eerie encounter between a malleable human form and a galaxy unknown." I saw a Middle-Eastern woman fighting for survival against a specter of death. Possibly the same conclusion.

Stephen Featherstone's short, "Stopgap in Stop Motion," highlights how a company that "employs both disabled and non-disabled artists [can] find innovative ways to collaborate." Not unlike what The Apothetae brilliantly demonstrates with the current production of Teenage Dick at the Public Theater, the British Stopgap Dance Company accomplishes on both film and no doubt live.

Cleverly choreographed by Lucy Bennett, the film showcases black-and-white photographs of the troupe situated on a colorful office desk with its pens, pencil sharpener, and eraser. Suddenly the dancers come alive and let loose, eventually breaking out of the boundaries of the snapshots, an appropriate metaphor if there ever was one. Clearly, this work provides evidence that great art thrives on limitations, assumed or otherwise.

Marie Brodeur's A Man of Dance (Un homme de danse) begins with Vincent Warren noting, "I love what Agnes de Mille used to say, 'Dance is written on air.'" He might have added, noting his own career, "It's also written with blood, sweat, and tears."

Mr. Warren was born in Florida in 1938, the youngest of 14 children. At age 10, he saw The Red Shoes, and instantly became infatuated with ballet. He started a scrapbook on dance and began paying for his own lessons with an after-school job. He not unexpectedly wasthe only boy in the class. Then, in his teens, he eventually realized he did not fit into the macho culture he was born into so it was off to New York City to develop his talent and to be gay.

Warren soon became the poet Frank O'Hara’s lover, and remained so until O'Hara’s tragic death on Fire Island. With his world turned topsy-turvy, he eventually wound up with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, retired at age 40, became a renowned dance teacher, and later a highly recognized dance historian.

"Sometimes I meet people who remember me as a dancer. Maybe some old ladies It's something you have to accept." Vincent Warren

A Man of Dance, which begins with Warren packing up his home in box after box, ends with him in his new, smaller abode with the physical remnants of his life more squeezed together.

Clearly articulating the joys and frustrations that accompany one's career in dance, this biography spotlights the early aching of the joints, the lack of decent salaries, and the strains placed upon romance. It also asks why choreographers do not create pieces for older dancers.

Summing it all up, the grey-haired former star states, "We weren’t rich, but we were happy." Sadly, Mr. Warren won't be at Lincoln Center for the New York premiere of the documentary. He died in 2017, one year after the film was completed.

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Frat-Ricide

Brandon Judell — Mon, 06 Nov 2017 02:55:20 +0000

Frat-Ricide Brandon Judell November 5, 2017 - 21:55

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Who doesn't enjoy a little Euripides with their breakfast cereal or, in this case, with their unrelenting celluloid exploration of sadistic, on-campus initiations? Of course, hazing has been ceaselessly explored in the news each time there's a new frat and in previous efforts such as Todd Phillips and Andrew Gurland's documentary Frat House (1998) and John Landis' comedy Animal House (1978). Even the Lifetime channel (The Haunting of Sorority Row (2007)) and one of this year's best movies (Prof. Marston and the Wonder Women) have taken out their paddles, exploring the female side of these rituals. However, seldom has Dionysus and the Bacchae been incorporated into the subject matter.

(Please note that Tennessee Williams was inspired by the same source material for Suddenly Last Summer, a tale of lobotomies, cannibalism, and repressed homosexuality. Sounds very much like a fraternity initiation in the end, doesn't it?) Indeed, few films, if any, have gone where writer/director David Burkman has fearlessly ventured with his game cast. Urination, defecation, paddling, scavenger hunts, branding, and mistreatment of a canine are just the bonuses. There's also nonstop alcohol guzzling, heterosexual orgies, whip-cream hats, cellophane bondage, countless bare male butts, and most frightening of all, virile young men forced to scream out, "I'm a pretty, little princess." All this is autobiographical, by the way.

The praiseworthy Burkman avows in the film's press notes:

"Haze is based on my own experience pledging a fraternity in college. I knew that the late-night lineups and forced alcohol consumption, the blindfolds and secrets, the physical endurance tests, being submerged in industrial-sized trash cans filled with ice water, vomit and human refuse, being spit on, force fed undrinkable concoctions of who knows what, the psychological mind games and abuse, and my own willingness to endure it all would serve to tell a very powerful story."

Sort of sounds a bit like auditioning for Miramax.

The plot of Haze that accompanies all of these body fluids is basically simple. There are two brothers. Nick Forest (the highly cute Kirk Curran) wants to join a fraternity. His sibling, Pete (the equally attractive Mike Blejer), is anti-frat, and is helming a documentary about the evils of pledge life. Those interviewed for the doc act as sort of a Greek chorus, warning Nick and his peers of what they are going to get into if they would only bother to listen. Taylor (the rather charismatic Jeremy O'Shea) is the head of the frat, Epsilon, and acts as the Dionysus figure here, egging on all sorts of debaucheries plus about 30 minutes of binge drinking and 40 more of demeaning women. One young lass (Kristin Rogers), after a night of sexual humiliation, is told by a sorority sister that she heard "your pussy looks like a pile of roast beef."

The built-in problem with films such as Haze is that although its audience is being warned against the inhumane atrocities inherent to the pledge system, the same audience is only watching the film to get off on the abuses. The highly edited finale with its sudden shocks, to the pitch of awe and terror, definitely carry home one classic professor's warning that can be learned from the Bacchae: "Don't fuck with the Gods."

Haze has just become obtainable on DVD + BLU-RAY. It's also available on Video On Demand (e.g. Amazon Video, Google Play, Vudu) and Cable on Demand (DirecTV, Dish Network, Cox).

Little Q & A: Allison Burnett + Dusty Wright

Dusty Wright — Fri, 09 Jan 2015 15:59:31 +0000

Little Q & A: Allison Burnett + Dusty Wright Dusty Wright January 9, 2015 - 10:59

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Allison Burnett is a rarity in Hollywood. He is not just a successful Hollywood screenwriter, a respected novelist, and a published critic and poet, but also a film director. His new film, Ask Me Anything, which he wrote and directed based on his own novel Undiscovered Gyrl, was released two weeks ago in selected theaters and on all digital platforms. It stars Martin Sheen, Christian Slater, Justin Long, and, in the lead role, luminous newcomer Britt Robertson. Recently I sat down with Allison in his Los Angeles home to discuss the challenges of indie filmmaking in general, as well as the difficulties with his leading lady that has caught the attention of the national media.

Dusty Wright: You wrote and directed Red Meat in 1996 and then did not direct again until Ask Me Anything. What took you so long to tackle directing again?

Alilson Burnett: To me the great allure of directing is creative control. Something screenwriting rarely affords. Making an indie movie requires a huge exertion of time and energy to raise the independent capital or attract a production company that will secure that freedom. As much as I loved directing Red Meat, I simply wasn't prepared to go through that ordeal again. Also, as indie filmmaking pays next to nothing, I needed to make a living. So I returned to studio screenwriting. In the years that followed, whenever I craved authorial control, I achieved it not by returning to directing, but by writing novels. I published five novels between Red Meat and Ask Me Anything.

DW: Why return to directing at all then?

AB: I missed it. And I had what I felt was an important story to tell. If Mary Harron, Greg Mottola, Noah Baumbach or some other indie filmmaker I admire had wanted to direct my script, sure, I would have given it away in a heartbeat, but that wasn't about to happen. And since the script was based on my novel, Undiscovered Gyrl, I knew I was distinctly well suited to direct it.

DW: I'd like to discuss your recent problems involving your lead actress Britt Robertson's refusal to promote the film. But first give our readers some background on how the movie got made and how she landed the role.

AB: Britt was one of the first actresses I auditioned. She was ideal for Katie Kampenfelt in so many ways, but she seemed to be struggling with the lighter side of the character. Later, after I had seen dozens of actresses for the role, I learned that Britt had been offered a small role in a studio comedy whose schedule conflicted with ours. She far preferred to play Katie. If we did not cast her now, however, we would lose her forever. I was also told that she had had trouble with the humor when she auditioned for me because she had been going through a rough patch with her boyfriend, and that she was feeling much better now. So I called her back in. She blew me away. I knew we had found our Katie. I spoke at length with my producers, and we all agreed to give her the role. That should have been the happy ending. But because of a disastrous mistake by our casting director, the offer took four days to reach Britt's agent. It arrived an hour too late. Heartbroken that we did not want her, Britt had just said yes to the studio movie. It was a nightmare for us, because without a brilliant Katie, there was no point in making the movie.

DW: Was there any talk of giving up?

AB: No, but it was scary as hell. We brought in dozens of more girls. I eventually chose a newcomer with almost no meaningful acting experience. It was a risk but I thought she might have the raw talent to pull it off. I worked with her almost every day for weeks until I discovered five days before shooting that she refused, despite previous assurances to the contrary, to shoot nudity of any kind. The movie is hardly explicit, but Katie's sexual encounters had to feel real. I was forced to fire her. Now the movie was scheduled to start shooting in five days and we had no Katie.

DW: That's unbelievable--.

AB: Tell me about it. We put out an immediate SOS and auditioned and re-auditioned everyone we thought had a prayer of getting the part. In the middle of this madness, I got a letter from Britt, telling me that she had heard that I had lost my Katie, and that she was still desperate to play the part. She said she would do anything asked of her if we would work around her other movie and give her the role. The letter was so beseeching and heartfelt that I gave her the role, even though it meant shooting the movie in two installments.

DW: And costly, right?

AB: Very, but not as expensive as what happened next. Several days into shooting, they announced Hurricane Sandy was on its way to smash New York City. Britt's other movie was shooting in New York City. So the other producers decided to yank Britt off our set and fly her to Atlanta, where she was to sit in a hotel room until Sandy had blown over. It didn't make a whole lot of sense of many levels, and it was devastating to our schedule, but they had the muscle and used it. Well, we all know the chaos wrought by Sandy, almost as bad as could be imagined. To make a long story short, the next months were absolute insanity. The other movie's schedule was blown to pieces, changing every day, and somehow we had to cobble our movie together in Britt's little chunks of free time. In the end, we shot five days in October, six in November, five in December, and six in January. If anyone watching the movie wonders how a small indie managed to capture real Halloween and real Christmas in the same movie it's because we actually shot at both times. Sheer lunacy. And, as you correctly pointed out, very, very expensive. But worth it because Britt's attitude and work ethic were exemplary, and her performance is undeniably once of the best any young actress has pulled off in years.

DW: Okay, so let's flash forward. You finally finish the movie and...?

AB: Britt won Best Actress at the Nashville Film Festival. The movie also won Best Music there. We received a rave review from the LA Times. It's streaming everywhere and doing well. But Britt refuses to help us promote the film.

DW: Why go AWOL?

AB: The short answer is "I have not the faintest idea." Here's the long answer. When Britt saw the completed movie for the first time, she wrote me an email. She said that she had never been more proud of anything she had ever done and that she would do anything to help promote the film. She was, to put it mildly, over the moon. We sold the film to the first distributor who saw it. Naturally, Britt's total commitment to promoting the movie was intrinsic to the deal. But something had occurred between the time I gave her the role and the movie's moving toward its release: Britt had landed the leads in two giant movies -- Disney's Tomorrowland, starring George Clooney, and the new Nicholas Sparks film, The Longest Ride.

DW: You think the fact that she is about to become famous is the reason she has disappeared?

AB: Where facts are absent, rumors fill the void. The first thing I heard was that Disney, not too keen on their leading lady promoting a movie in which her character gets drunk, smokes pot, and has sex with three different men, had put a gag on Britt. It seemed far-fetched but what did I know? Then I heard the same thing about the producers of The Longest Ride. And now I am hearing that there is a jealous boyfriend in the mix. Which I suppose is possible, as Britt's boyfriend Dylan O'Brien, star of The Maze Runner, is quite close with teen idol Max Carver, one of the three men Katie sleeps with in the movie. This sort of speculation in the end is a dead end, though, because what really matters is that a brilliant young artist has given a breathtaking performance of which she is deeply proud, and for some reason she has been advised to keep her mouth shut about it. Maybe I'll never know the real reason. Maybe it's a combination of all of the above. Maybe Britt is simply too valuable a commodity right now to risk her brand by pushing a movie this raw and honest. All I know is, after a long expensive ordeal to use Britt, we have been repaid with total betrayal. It stinks. A planned press junket was canceled. TV show appearances scuttled. In a marketplace cluttered with choices, this sort of media exposure would have launched the movie in an incredible way. Instead, we are almost solely reliant on social media.

DW: Any chance Britt will have second thoughts?

AB: No. She hasn't written back to me in months. And her agent is claiming that no one from our movie ever contacted her about publicity -- which is of course laughable. What indie movie would not approach its lead actress to do publicity? Plus, her reps have been fighting tooth and nail to have the "best-faith efforts to promote" clause expunged from her contract. If we never approached her to promote, why bother with that? No, the ship is sailed. Britt is gone. And her beautiful performance is now being treated as a dirty little secret. I just hope that in years to comes when she is reminded by fans how incredible she was in the part, it occurs to her that maybe what she did was not just unethical but foolish.

DW: What's your take away from all of this?

AB: Don't ever cast anyone in a small movie without iron-clad assurances of marketing support. And that in Hollywood no good deed goes unpunished.

DW: Sadly nothing surprises me in this business we call show. Any new projects looming on the horizon you'd like to share with our readers?

AB: I want to direct my own adaptation of Tish Cohen's brilliant novel Inside Out Girl. It's about a parenting expert, single mother of two, who falls in love with a wonderful man. The only impediment to their being together is his special-needs daughter, who forces her to confront her buried issues as a woman and a mother