James Marsh's MAN ON WIRE

First things first: Man on Wire is one of the best films of the year. This humble documentary about Philippe Petit's unbelievable high-wire feat between the Twin Towers gives us a glimpse at just how big and magical life can be. The gift that is given to those who live their lives to the fullest and who dare to dream is written all over the face of not only Petit, but also everyone involved in the project. Inspiring and moving, Man on Wire goes so far to expand the definition of beauty.

Philippe Petit's amazing story starts in 1968 when he first sees an article about the two towers of the World Trade Center being built in New York City. Already an accomplished high-wire walker, Petit recounts how he simply draw a line between an artists drawing of the Twin Towers. Perhaps vacillating on the notion of a grand feat, the film chronicles his momentum as he first walks between the two spires of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris in 1971 and then between the Northern pylons of the Harbour Bridge in Sydney, Australia in 1973. Petit's preparations for stringing a wire between the two towers was nothing if not fastidious, taking into account every aspect of the project. Being able to get into the WTC with the equipment needed to string a wire was no easy job even in 1974. Watching the preparation through interviews, archive footage and re-enactments is riveting. Four people, two on one tower and two on the other, defied all the odds of getting caught and rigging the wire. Despite the detail, nothing prepares you for the actuality and seeming impossibility of the event.

I'm probably a couple years shy of being able to remember this event, as friends just a few years older than me can recall hearing what seemed like a fairytale story of a man walking in between two buildings 1300 feet in the air. And for people who saw the event, it is evident that Philippe Petit's realization of his dream was a gift. The emotive experience is alive in the people interviewed in the film, and especially within Petit, as he talks about his walk as if it was yesterday. There is one photo of Petit walking the wire between the Towers with a grin on his face (or is he laughing) that totally embodies the joy he describes thirty-four years later. While the event was joyful for Petit, it was, and is, overwhelming for his good friend Jean-Louise who loses composure recollecting the moment. Stock news footage shows a policemen stating, "I personally figured I was watching something somebody else would never see again in the world."

Who knew that the greatest homage to to those towers would come 27 years before their collapse. I'm thankful that Marsh made a conscious decision to omit any literal reference of September 11th, leaving the tragedy for a place where it is better suited. The Towers nonetheless lurk like ghosts hovering just at the edge of the film. Seeing photos of the construction and the top of the Towers prior to any observation decks is thrilling as an archive of the structure.

"Man on wire" is the simplistic but poetic description scribed on his police report. But how else do you describe it? Words fail, but James Marsh's documentary does the man and the achievement great justice.

Paul W.S. Anderson's DEATH RACE

Probably the most disappointing aspect of Paul W.S. Anderson's remake of Death Race 2000 (and there are many disappointing aspects to account for) is the absolute failure to reach any of the potential that this action film had. I'm probably doing more of a service than most to admit that there was any potential, but as the original Death Race has simply gotten campier with age, our society has gotten more severe. As a result, the set up (economic collapse, corporate penal colonies, brutal reality television) is even more appropriate today than it was in 1975. However, it is pretty obvious that most of the brains behind this film came from below the (male) belt, leaving any social commentary on the sidelines. Death Race wishes to do more than what summer movies are supposed to do: earn cash from the young men.

Starring underrated action stud Jason Statham, a pursed lipped Joan Allen, and a subdued Swearengen (aka Ian McShane) who are all dropped into the most ridiculous situations, it is hard to take any of the performances seriously. Statham is Jensen Ames, set up for the murder of his wife which is all a part of some master plan by Hennessey (Allen) who is not only the active CEO of Terminal Island, but also the Death Race. Ames is sent to Terminal Island where he is roped into driving as the now deceased but very lucrative driver Frankenstein. The Death Race is run in three stages and people can subscribe to one are all stages of the race which is less reality TV than reality video game. The drivers are all convicts from Terminal Island (completely expendable) and the co-pilots are all from the women's prison. The whole thing is rigged for maximum suspense and bloodshed which equals maximum viewership.

The scenario of Death Race is propelled by by outside forces - economic collapse, a desperate populous - that never materialize. Ames is apparently making less that $3 per hour on the outside, but his living situation looks like a better situation than mine. The scriptwriters simply keep the eye on the prize of their target audience with hackneyed low-brow jokes about homos and women. Men are not allowed much complexity either, as they are either relegated to husband or father or social ill, no other variance exists in Death Race. The action is visceral and the look is dark and apocalyptic, but no special effects or glossy production is going to save this film from itself. Ironically, Death Race ends up being not only stupid, but also heavy-handed with its lame flirtations with intellectual or emotional provocation.

Do yourself a favor and rent the original.

DVD releases for August 19

Please support you local independent video stores. I've already seen one very near and dear to me go under, and I hope not to see another.


Recount (2008) directed by Jay Roach
Although keeping Comcast out of my life forever is one of my main goals, I often regret not having those premium channels with all their clever programming. But I don't regret it for long, because inevitably those clever programs come out on DVD. But just seeing the trailer for Recount in theaters got me racking my brain to figure out if I even knew anyone who had HBO. Just seeing the very short clip of Laura Dern playing Katherine Harris was enough to give me the giggles. Has it been long enough that we can laugh about the 2000 election? Or at least have a communal laugh about how absolutely screwed up it was? Either way, this looks like a good vehicle to do just that.

Twenty-Four Eyes (1954) directed by Keisuke Kinoshita
This film is a time honor classic in Japan and first heard about this film from Japanese friends. I admit my ignorance of the film by mistakenly reading the title as 20 Four Eyes instead of 24 Eyes until I finally saw the film on a Hong Kong import DVD. Twenty-Four Eyes is a charming film film that plays on everyone's love for nostalgia and respect for determination. This is a Criterion disc that boasts a new transfer and a better translation, but not much else.

Quid Pro Quo (2008) directed by Carlos Brooks
It would be hard to sell a fictional feature about people who long to lose a limb because they feel it doesn't belong to their body. It would be hard, that is, if you haven't seen Melody Gilbert's documentary on the subject entitled Whole. Quid Pro Quo got a sneak peek at the Walker (reported on here at Getafilm) a couple months ago but then never got a wider release, even though it was scheduled to. Can we blame it on Batman?

Please Vote For Me (2007) directed by Chen Weijun
Well, all be darn. Book man Hans at Micawber's just asked me if I had heard of this documentary and here it is. I'll simply go on his recommendation that this is a fascinating documentary about the prestige involved in being school monitor in China. As a microcosm, it works to show how much pressure there is on kids to perform, and that is something you can see on the faces of everyone of the athletes at the Olympics. Looking at various reviews of the documentary, it looks like Hans' recommendation is spot on. Check it out, and then go buy a book from his store.


Enough! (2007) directed by Djamila Sahraoui
A part of the Global Lens series, this screened at the Walker last year. I can't for the life of me remember if I saw it, but I think there-in lies the major downfall of most of the films included in Global Lens: totally forgettable international films.

The Small Black Room (1949) directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
Leave it to Criterion to point out my filmic inadequacies. I did not write this: "Based on the acclaimed novel by Nigel Balchin, The Small Back Room details the professional and personal travails of troubled, alcoholic research scientist and military bomb-disposal expert Sammy Rice (David Farrar), who, while struggling with a complex relationship with secretary girlfriend Susan (Kathleen Byron), is hired by the government to advise on a dangerous new German weapon. Deftly mixing suspense and romance, The Small Back Room is an atmospheric, post-World War II gem."

Don Quixote directed by Orson Welles
Assign whatever date you would like to this film. Orson Welles started shooting the film in 1955, and, if you believe rumors, he was still mumbling the words 'must. finish. don. quixote.' on his death bead. A Spanish distributor and producer picked up the ball after Welles died and release a version at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival. Who knows how close they got to Welles dream, but it is in there somewhere. Obviously Welles himself had a hard time finding it.

Wizard of Gore (2007) directed by Jeremy Kasten
This is one for Crispin Glover fans, but I'm not sure about everyone else. Click the link about to check out the trailer...not very promising.

...and two other films that might be okay for a rainy day: The Life Before Her Eyes, and
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day.

YELLOW SKY (1948) @ the Parkway

The Parkway Theater
Monday August 18, 7:30pm

If you missed the first three films in the "Richard Widmark: Playing the Villain" series at the Parkway, you still have two more that you can catch. Specifically, tonight is William Wellman's Yellow Sky, the only Western in the series. I could recap how popular the ol' Western has gotten recently, but instead I will entice you with highlights from the last three films:

• With Kiss of Death, Widmark might have had a small role, but by far the most villain-like with a sneer and a laugh that would send anyone to the other side of the street and with the ability to push an old lady in a wheelchair down the stairs.
• Slattery's Hurricane might have made Widmark's character into a war hero, but he was still willing to kick his heartbroken girlfriend out in the rain along the way. (Of course, she forgave him for that.)
  
• Panic in the Streets (my favorite so far) not only gives Widmark an interesting character (genuinely likable and dislikable), but also places him alongside the amazing "Walter" Jack Palance - young and incredibly unusual looking. Ethan Coen also seemed to enjoy the film.

Yellow Sky sounds like it will be the best yet:

"A fine Western, harshly shot by Joe McDonald in Death Valley locations, inevitably conjuring comparisons with Greed and The Treasures of the Sierra Madre as six bankrobbers on the run all but die in the desert salt flats before stumbling on a ghost town where a lone prospector (James Barton) guards twin secrets: his rich gold strike and his fiercely tomboyish granddaughter (Anne Baxter). Like a pack of wolves, the strangers are soon snarling lustfully after gold and/or the girl, with their leader (Gregory Peck) gradually detaching himself as his presence causes the girl to discover her femininity, and hers revives in him something of the man he was before Quantrill's Raiders descended on his home. Intriguingly, Lamar Trotti's screenplay develops WR Burnett's source story with The Tempest in mind, the subtler analogies serving to provide resonances. The situation again harks back to fraternal conflict (the year is 1867, in the aftermath of the Civil War); Yellow Sky also has its malign spirits, a band of renegade Apaches under the uneasy control of the prospector; and the conflict similarly resolves strangely, at its violent climax, into a sense of conciliation. Beautifully cast and characterised, this is one of Wellman's best." (Tom Milne, Time Out)

All this goodness is presented by Take Up Productions.

Mark Pellington's HENRY POOLE IS HERE

Check out my capsule review of Henry Poole Is Here in the Star Tribune today.

Luke Wilson does the best he can with what is a pretty serious role for him. He never achieves the miserable drunk that the story wants him to be - he's as likable as any other character he has played, but just slightly more pained. The superficial nature of the film should be distasteful for Christians and non-Christians alike, pandering to an assumed ignorance about religion and faith.

Mark Pellington also has quite a career in music videos and concert videos. This is evident in the polished look of the film and in the interesting (although heavily used) soundtrack. Almost anything can look good if you slow it down a little bit and add a song.

Although I did not care for the film due to its preachy nature, I did not hate it nearly as much as I thought I would.

FANTASTIC VOYAGE (1966) @ the Bell Museum

Bell Museum of Natural History
August 14, dusk

Kicking off their second annual outdoor Summer Sci-Fi Series: Research to the Rescue!, the Bell Museum and Take Up Productions presents the timeless classic Fantastic Voyage. More action and cold war politics than you are likely to ever see inside a human body.

Films are free and start at dusk—popcorn and soda will be available for purchase. In the event of rain, films will be moved indoors to the Bell Museum Auditorium and begin at 8:30 p.m.

"Very Nearly a corking sci-fi lark, kicking off from the premise that when a top scientist defecting to the West suffers brain damage in an assassination attempt, the only answer is to inject a miniaturised submarine and medical team through his bloodstream to deal with the clot on his brain. The voyage through the fantastic landscapes of the body is brilliantly imagined, with the heart a cavernous vault, tidal waves menacing the canals of the inner ear (caused when a nurse drops an instrument in the operating theater), cyclonic winds tossing the sub hopelessly about as the lungs are reached. The script, alas, is pretty basic, expending half its energies on delivering a gee-whiz medical lecture, the other whipping up suspense around the mysterious saboteur who lurks aboard (and is so sweatily shifty-eyed that there isn't much mystery). An opportunity missed, therefore—especial as the imaginative sets are slightly tackily realised—but fun all the same." (Tom Milne, Time Out)

DVD releases for August 12

This week is full of movies that seem to have come out of nowhere: The Secret (David Duchovny, Lili Taylor), Smart People (Sarah Jessica Parker, Ellen Page) The Search for John Gissing (Alan Rickman, Janeane Garofalo), and Watching the Detectives (Lucy Liu, Cillian Murphy). You can watch those at your own risk, but here is what I would suggest:


Branded Upon the Brain! (2006) directed by Guy Maddin
Branded Upon the Brain! was originally more of a theatrical event than film that included live narrators and Foley artists when it premiered at Toronto in 2006. So when in came to town as a plain ol' theatrical run, I was initially disappointed. My regret faded as soon as I say the film. Branded Upon the Brain! is simply one of Maddin's best films with or without the live element. Full of brilliant dark humor and creative black and white wonderment, Branded retreats ever-so-slightly from The Saddest Music in the World into more surreal territory. This DVD release from Criterion (cool!) looks to add some of the elements from the live event with narration tracks by Isabella Rossellini, Laurie Anderson, John Ashbery, Guy Maddin, Louis Negin, and Eli Wallach. (The theatrical had only on narrator as I remember, which I think was Maddin.) Fans of Maddin will know that his shorts are equally as interesting, and the disc includes two shorts "exclusively for this release:" It's My Mother’s Birthday Today and Footsteps.

Larisa Shepitko from Eclipse: Wings (1966) and The Ascent (1976)
Here's a nice two disc set from a director I claim total ignorance of. As a result, I will use their pitch: "The career of Larisa Shepitko, an icon of sixties and seventies Soviet cinema, was tragically cut short when she was killed in a car crash at age forty, just as she was emerging on the international scene. The body of work she left behind, though small, is masterful, and her genius for visually evoking characters' interior worlds is never more striking than in her two greatest works." I'm sold.

Irina Palm (2007) directed by Sam Garbarski
I missed this film at MSPIFF merely due to scheduling conflicts. Both screenings were up against other films that won out, and I regret not seeing it. Starring the one and only Marianne Faithfull as a 50-year-old woman who naively takes a job as a 'hostess' at 'Sexy World' to earn extra money.


Poisoned by Polonium (2007) directed by Andrei Nekrasov
Here is a doc that was MSPIFF that I did see and was absolutely mesmerised by this web of Russian intrigue. (Read my brief take here.)

CJ7 (2008) directed by Stephen Chow
Maybe not Stephen Chow's best film, but it is okay-la. More of a kids film that would be cool for those old enough to read subtitles. Yes, it is a sci-fi comedy that is set in Mainland China. By far the best part of the film is young actress Jiao Xu as the young boy Dicky.

Kiss of Death (1973)directed by Ho Meng Hua
Here's a Hong Kong sexploitation revenge flick from the Shaw Brothers. Staring Lo Lieh and Chen Ping in her debut.

Ryuhei Kitamura's THE MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN

You can't blame Ryuhei Kitamura of being a slouch. After being launched from a fanboy rocket for his audacious zombie/samurai/yakuza actioneer Versus in 2000, he has made eight features, one short film for the omnibus film Jam, and two TV episodes. However, I think there is enough evidence to blame Kitamura for occasionally falling short of the mark. In retrospect, Versus maybe wasn't all it was cracked up to be, but the communal swell of enthusiasm for this low-budget raw film was undeniably contagious to those of us interested in such things. I was even pleasantly entertained by the polished and lighthearted Azumi. But, nothing, I repeat, nothing can redeem him from the atrocity that was Godzilla: Final Wars: a film and concept (the death of Godzilla) that had so much potential was completely sold down the river for nothing more than cheeky spectacle.

Kitamura has always had aspirations to do Hollywood films and saw it as an eventual goal. So when Lionsgate, smitten with the bloody cash Saw, The Grudge, and Hostel turned out for them, signed on Kitamura to direct a film based on a short story, "The Midnight Meat Train," by none other than Clive Barker, this seemed to be his ticket. Not so fast. Working in the mysterious marketing ways the movie business does, Lionsgate changed gears, Peter Block, president of acquisitions, was shown the door, and all of Block's projects (which included The Midnight Meat Train) were cast to the dogs. In this case, they had an obligation to open the film on 100 screens. And that it did. Very quietly with no press. In the Twin Cities, it opened at our favorite Bollywood budget theater, Brookdale 8.

Although The Midnight Meat Train is not good, it's not all bad. As a matter of fact, I think Kitamira has turned in a decent genre film. If you don't go in looking for a love story, you will probably be pleasantly surprised. It is tasteless in all the right places with floors syrupy slick with blood and women slipping on eyeballs and a killer using what might be the largest meat tenderizer ever. However, it is well made production with sets that reminded me of a Kienholz installation and a character that looks like he just stepped out of Madmen in that dapper military kind of way. The film employs great shots of shallow focus where everything flattens out and things on the same plain have a wierd fuzzy/sharp thing going on (ala poster.) You can watch the trailer and get the gist of the plot without me reiterating it, but I will say there is enough fantastical mystery to keep you engaged. The cast does their part effectively with a cold Vinny Jones as a convincing psychopath and a surprising Brooke Shields as an art dealer. Everyone else including Bradley Cooper (who I just can't disassociate from Alias) falls predictably where they should.

In the end, I feel a little bad for Kitamura who definitely got screwed on this deal. Kitamura no doubt saw the writing on the wall about a month ago when he announced that he is working on an American version of Versus, piercing the heart of every Versus fan out there. The Midnight Meat Train is in its second week at Brookdale, and given decent crowd at the showing I was at, it may endure a third week. For horror fans, it is well worth your 3 bucks.

Ba Ba Ba and Olympic Fever

It is the start of the Summer Olympics in Beijing on what might be the most auspicious day ever: 8/8/08 (or in Chinese ba ba ba, which is basically goo fortune times three.) No doubt, much of the spin on the Olympics is that the Chinese are bad and, by default, we (that would be the US) are the beacons of morality. Whatever. Let's just say there are human rights problems in other countries as well.

For the time being though, I'm with Liu Huan and Na Ying: One World One Dream!

Personally I am very excited about the Olympics if for no other reason than every star within what China sees as its boarders is involved. Case and point: Here is Gillian Chung, as the "FIBA Diamond Ball Ambassador," ready to get the smack down from Lisa Leslie.

"Please don't hit me."

And yet another mega-stars spectacle in this music video that was championed as the 100 Stars 100 Days countdown theme song, with entertainers from Taiwan, Hong Kong and the Mainland personally welcoming us to Beijing, over and over again.

Here is Zhang Yimou, director of the opening ceremonies that will be televised tonight on NBC, carrying the torch through Beijing. (Of coarse, Steven Spielberg was invited to help direct, but due to pressure from his 'genocide olympics' friends, he bowed out like a ninny.)

"I didn't like the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull anyway."

I see China as my surrogate country and am willing to say that I love it very much. I understand the pride for their country, as imperfect as it is, that has seen more changes in the last ten years than anyone else is likely to see in a lifetime. 恭喜中国！

Bring on the ping pong and the badminton!

DVD releases for August 5

Before I get blamed for promoting porn, here are some very interesting releases that have the possibility of being anything but:


Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis (2006) directed by Mary Jordan
If you didn't make it to the parking lot of Patrick's Theater last week, don't despair: here is the exact same documentary on DVD. For fans of Jack Smith, this is a must see. Jack Smith was a man that the world benefit from having. Endlessly creative and probably equally as mad, Smith was committed to his life as art and art as life. Do yourself a favor and check out the website (linked above) with an unlimited amount of curiosities.

Pete Seeger: The Power of Song (2007) directed by Jim Brown
The original protest singer who long enough to build a legacy certainly deserves a documentary. This doc had a short run at the Bell about six months back.

The Counterfeiters (2007) directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky
From the director of Anatomy, the German Best Foreign Film Nominee and eventual winner arrives on DVD.

My Brother is an Only Child (2007) directed by Daniele Luchetti
I actually wanted to see this film, but it either never materialized or I wasn't paying attention. (Both very possible.) From what I had read My Brother is an Only Child was anything from predictable in the very predictable set-up of bother vs. brother in Italian 60s. Maybe a better option than Step Brothers.

Choking Man (2006) directed by Steve Barron
Another release from my friends at Film Movement who were kind enough to send me the DVD, but I have yet to watch. (I'm a subscriber, don't cha know.) I don't expect much from this film, but the mostly amateur cast has gotten kudos across the board.