Month: May 2012

Sacha Baron Cohen brazenly flaunts politically correct sacred cows en route to a stirring political statement of his own in the often hilarious The Dictator. Cohen’s third film is nominally about a racist, sexist and egomaniacal dictator from Wadiya (a fictional Northern African nation) who becomes a fish out of water after taking up with a New York City radical feminist health co-op manager, Zooey (Anna Faris). Cohen and director Larry Charles attempt to pack a serious punch in its conclusion when Admiral General Aladeen (Cohen) addresses a roomful of dignitaries and bemoans his country’s policies of “the one percent” controlling the wealth and starting wars “with the wrong country,” etc. America’s own hypocritical power structure is jarringly held up to a mirror and whether you agree with the polemic or not, Cohen’s boldness offers a fine exclamation point to a film that plunges into yet more rarefied rough-and-tumble, blunt offensiveness.

In no particular order there’s a side-splitting scene in a helicopter where a couple of tourists become terrified as they listen to what they believe is Almadeen and a pal talk about a terrorist plot, a scene where Almadeen delivers a baby that is meant to stretch your ability to be shocked, recurring slapstick involving a dismembered head, a scene on a high wire reminiscent of the silent film era, numerous Zooey hairy armpit references, and a few scenes where Cohen’s clueless body double (Cohen) is held up to high ridicule, including a preposterously amusing scene with Wadiyan female soldier prostitutes. Sir Ben Kingsley is aboard as Aladeen’s plotting brother, and the rightful heir to the throne, John C. Reilly as a unique bodyguard, and Megan Fox makes a cameo where she’s the target of a post-coital cuddling joke.

Cohen and Charles’ first scripted film abandons the faux documentary style of Borat and Bruno and thus sacrifices Cohen’s trademark technique of going after gullible innocent bystanders, or, in the case of his TV character Ali G, celebrities. The script has a few soft spots. When Almadeen goes to New York’s “Little Wadiya” he’s confronted by a roomful of expatriates he thought he’d already murdered in the old country (a running joke has Almadeen ordering executions at the drop of a hat, including his mom). The scene’s funny at first but goes on far too long. Editing is often choppy. Yet comparisons that Cohen has veered off into Adam Sandler territory with this film are far too myopic. Its highly commendable 83-minute length keeps its sizzle from going stolid.

If you’re unwilling to laugh at stuff we normally keep on an off-limits pedestal, Cohen’s probably not for you. Shame, you’d be missing a razor-sharp if imperfect satirist who recalls Lenny Bruce albeit through a Howard Stern prism. Cohen’s one sick dude, does uncanny voices, and now has nicely upped his political ante.

8 Appalling, Gross Brutes (Out of 10)

The true measure of a kids competition movie is how much do the little buggers stick to your craw? In the documentary First Position there are more than a couple standout aspiring ballet dancers, ages 10 – 17, as they prepare for the Youth American Grand Prix, a gala event that annually awards hundreds of thousand dollars in scholarships and contracts with dance companies.

Eleven-year-old Aran, blond and serious as a heart attack, possesses talent that needs to be seen to be believed. Living in Italy, where his father’s an American army doctor, is no handicap whatsoever to the kid, who commutes two hours for lessons from an instructor who dubs Aran a once-in-a-lifetime find.

Twelve-year-old Miko is as innocently compelling as her Japanese mother is obsessively focused on her success. Sixteen-year-old Joan Sebastian moves to America from Colombia without his parents. We follow his progress all the way to becoming the first Colombian accepted into the British Royal School of Ballet, including a side trip as he reunites with his parents back home before the Grand Prix finals. Fourteen-year-old Michaela is an adopted war orphan from Sierra Leone whose fearlessness and verve are matched by her her Jewish mom’s enthusiasm, which includes dyeing Michaela’s flesh-colored tutus brown to match her skin. Being both black and muscular seem to feed her desire to be a ballet dancer rather than dampen it.

As in the equally astute and entertaining spelling bee competition film, Spellbound, kids in First Position seem to have an other worldly knack for their artistic pursuit whatever the degree of parental pushiness.
Miko and Michaela’s moms are at opposite ends of the bossy scale yet both children seem to have an equal inner drive. Michaela’s African experience of surviving her parents’ murder and that of her teachers both reflects and reinforces a great core strength, and she seems to need less steering and guidance. Conversely, Miko’s mom’s almost wacked-out domineering holds its own ironic charm given Miko’s far more laid back personality. There’s even a Philly angle in the film. Michaela trains at the Rock School for Dance Education in the city, and lives in Cherry Hill.

The performances leave you wanting more. Lotsa Swan Lake and flying, spinning tulles. Nothing like a tight, solid documentary profiling irresistible future professionals to offset the amateur stews of reality TV competitions we’re bombarded with like insincere parlor trick pests. In First Position these are real kids doing extraordinary things. Where does it come from? As the mom of Israeli competitor Gaya, who’s nicely captured as a normal kid chumming around offstage with Aran, puts it, “when she goes on stage , her face and mannerisms totally change into that of an adult.” Genius at any age transforms not just the artist but the audience as well.

8 Enthralling, No-Nonsense Kids Stuff (Out Of 10)

In Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows, newly awakened vampire Barnabas Collins (Johnny Depp) pines not only for blood but for the good old days of the 1770s. The film’s finest moments cast the mod, earthy 1970s in stark relief against Collins’ steely aplomb as an 18th century gentleman who suddenly finds himself a stranger in a strange land.

Depp shines. His perverse, meticulous accent and brash, commanding presence are strangely intensified rather than offset by his preposterous long fingernails, lofty fangs, and waistcoat finery. Unalloyed Burtonesque art design and costuming prevail, a care-laden ode to an innocent yet befuddling era. When the film suddenly shifts from an opening 18th century scene depicting a curse put on Collins by a scorned maid (Eva Green), to the 1970s and his escape from his coffin, we’re abruptly treated to a tranquil Carpenters track as jarring as a dive into a cold ocean. A later scene of Collins’ hanging out with drugged-out hippies right before he matter-of-factly decides to murder the whole lot, contains just the right amount of lightness. As Collins tries to impress the girl he’s stuck on (a convenient reincarnation of an old girlfriend whose rescue cost him his mortality) by throwing a “ball” here comes the live entertainment, a real Alice Cooper (looking at least 80), lip-synching like there’s no tomorrow. Collins asserts Cooper’s “the ugliest woman I’ve sever seen.”

While I never caught the original, far more serious TV soap Burton based his film on (the Three Stooges were on simultaneously in the same time slot in the Philly market and VCRs were years away), I certainly felt at no disadvantage with this film. It’s a real kick to marvel at Depp’s ability to blend the cocky with the curious. He’s genuinely an outsider as he attempts to restore his family’s position as fishing industry titans while also foiling Green’s nastiness as a business rival who’s also a reincarnated version of the same witch who doomed him 200 years earlier. Their scenes together click. The supporting cast is sharp–Michelle Pfeiffer as the 1970s Collins matriarch, Helen Bonham Carter as a live-in shrink for Pfeiffer’s young nephew (Gully McGrath), and especially Chloe Grace Moretz as Carolyn, Pfeiffer’s disgruntled daughter. As in any Burton film the cast competes with the sets for star billing. Dark Shadows main star, the kind of creepy mansion familiar to even casual movie buffs, towers over Burton’s quirky send-up like a constant, creaky snarl.

Screenwriter Seth Grahame-Smith is the author of Abraham Lincoln–Vampire Killer, which comes to the screen next month in a production produced by Burton. As for Depp, no slouch to challenging projects, he’s redoing The Thin Man, playing Tonto in The Lone Ranger, and planning a Dr. Seuss biopic. As far as Dark Shadows goes, don’t hurt yourself seeking out the 1200-plus episodes of its TV forerunner. Embrace this film’s escapism, ignore its stumbles, glom onto Burton’s endearing craftsmanship and Depp’s puffed-up antihero for a leadpipe cinch good time bound not to stretch your brain.

7 — 18th Century Know-It-All’s (Out of 10)

If the notion of retirement-age Brits heading off to sunny India to decamp at a professed luxury retreat “for the elderly and beautiful” sounds a little worrisome, you may want to beware. Fraught with forays into only the most surface-level of India’s many complex wonders and ambiguities, John Madden’s The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is on slightly-above-average TV sitcom territory while often cloyingly presenting itself as a more top-shelf variety of the witty British Comedy.

Self-congratulatory gags abound. Ginned up conflicts are kept simple. Madden pretends to bask in India’s rejuvenating powers while at best he basks in his good fortune to have the likes of Bill Nighy, Judi Dench, Maggie Smith and Tom Wilkinson to carry him and a screenplay adapted from Deborah Maggoch’s novel. Which isn’t to say we’re dealing with total vacuity here. When actors this good are around, redemption looms right around the corner.

Nighy especially rings true and soars as a henpecked yet resilient good soul who manages to both keep his scenes’ comedy honest and also elevate the proceedings above the merely chirpy. His rough-and-tumble wife (Penelope Wilton), who treats him with utter scorn, refuses to leave the hotel. Even worse, racist and xenophobic Maggie Smith, wheelchair-bound and waiting for a cheaper-in-India hip transplant, won’t eat anything she “can’t pronounce.” Judi Dench’s character, who never held a job in her life while her recently deceased husband was still alive, takes a job in an Indian call center. Soon she’s called upon to give the staff instructions on how to humanize their phone encounters. No, thankfully, she doesn’t try to subsequently convert everyone to Christianity and a British diet. She does, however, work with a gorgeous young woman (Tena Desae) who happens to be the forbidden girlfriend of the young hotel owner who hosts the group. Dev Patel, fresh off his starring performance in Slumdog Millionaire, evokes hyper, overwrought enthusiasm for his broken down hotel where phones don’t work and some rooms don’t have doors. His mom is always around as she wants him to sell the hotel and follow her wish of an arranged marriage. His cranked up manner comes to a complete halt once she utters a word.

Meanwhile the hokiness can’t help but offset the film’s occasional poignancies. When Wilkinson reunites with a former lover he hasn’t seen in 30 years we can’t help but be moved. When Nighy finally tells off his wife we’re again caught up in marvelous, affect-free acting. Trouble is these too few scenes usually give way to strolls right back into banality. A pair of older singles on the trip (Celia Indie, and the appropriately named Ronald Pickup) seek the nearest available hook-ups, although Imrie’s stereotypically differs from Pickup’s in that her interest is primarily golddigging as opposed to Pickup’s largely physical interest. As is many films with this many characters, there always seems to be an excuse for cutting away to a different character as soon as things get a little interesting. Also, be prepared for a major character switching from intolerant and vile to rigorous and compassionate so suddenly it’s as if it were caused by a bolt of lightning rather than any plot or character development.

5.5 Good Actors Can’t Save A Gauzy, Discursive Script (Out of 10)