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| THE DYING GAUL |
| 10.30.05 (3:15 pm) [edit] |
THE DYING GAUL
Starring: Campbell Scott, Patricia Clarkson, and Peter Sarsgaard
Written and directed by Craig Lucas
reviewed by GABRIEL SHANKS
Craig Lucas, the award-winning playwright and director of Longtime Companion, The Secret Lives of Dentists and The Light in the Piazza, has crafted a sensational directing debut in THE DYING GAUL, a story about a peculiar love triangle of sorts that slowly and tragically becomes a circular firing squad. Adapted from his own play, Lucas' intimate drama comes across as a mannered exercise in restraint -- until the e-mails literally start flying through the air. Set against the convolutions of Hollywood at its most Babylonian, THE DYING GAUL follows Jeffrey, a studio executive (Cambell Scott) and his gorgeous if disaffected wife Elaine (Patricia Clarkson). Jeffrey, a closet bisexual, has just cozied up to Robert (Peter Sarsgaard), a novice screenwriter whose HIV-positive lover has recently died. The trio become fast friends, but as the transparent lies begin to bleed real blood, the alliances take a wholly unexpected and eviscerating turn. Rarely has a film exposed the tender and brutal line between love and cruelty so magnificently...certainly more than last year's similarly-minded Closer, and perhaps not since Bertolucci's Last Tango in Paris.
Lucas' masterful screenplay and measured direction are complemented by an impeccable production design by Vincent Jefferds; the sprawling luxury of the Hollywood Hills contrasts sharply with the starving artist studio, and makes THE DYING GAUL as much a study of class warfare as one of romantic fidelity. The performances are uniformly superb. Campbell Scott gives Jeffrey the stiff, assured swagger that comes with power...and then allows it to dissolve into a puddle of self-doubt and confusion. Peter Sarsgaard, who is quickly joining Philip Seymour Hoffman as the finest actor of his generation, is even better than Scott; his woeful indecision and limitless grief are rendered with tenderness and compassion. It is Patricia Clarkson, however, who emerges as the stunning lifeforce of THE DYING GAUL; her fans will be happy to know that the trememndous work she has delivered time and time again, in films like Far From Heaven, The Station Agent and High Art, is surpassed here in a career-topping performance. If there is a God, and if that God likes textured and unclassifable roles like that of Elaine, Clarkson will win her long overdue Oscar.
The statue which gives THE DYING GAUL its name is a famous Roman work from the 4th century BC, and the film shares its sense of classicism and emotionality. Lucas has made the most intense romantic thriller in years, wrapped in a cool veneer that disguises the little earthquakes waiting below its surface. THE DYING GAUL is mesmerizing, fiercely original, and tantalizingly entertaining, but be forewarned...its dark heart beats without compromise or, even in the end, compassion.
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| PARADISE NOW |
| 10.30.05 (3:14 pm) [edit] |
PARADISE NOW
Starring: Kais Nashef, Ali Suliman, Lubna Azabal, Amer Hlehel and Hiam Abbass
Written by Hany Abu-Assad, Bero Beyer and Pierre Hodgson
Directed by Hany Abu-Assad
reviewed by GABRIEL SHANKS
A polemic disguised as a premise -- two Palestinian youths on a suicide bombing mission in Tel Aviv -- is the studio sales pitch for PARADISE NOW, a new entry in the Foreign Film race for the Academy Awards. To market Hany Abu-Assad's thoughtful and challenging film merely as a terrorist parable, however, does it a great disservice. The film, which follows two struggling auto mechanics, Said (Kais Nashef) and Khaled (Ali Suliman), as they are enlisted in a retaliatory strike against Israel is about much more than this simple, terrible act. Family, romantic attachments, and even religious piety do not merely stop at the thought of virgins in heaven and the need for Palestinian autonomy. What PARADISE NOW unflinchingly tells us is that people, even terrorists, are driven by internal and external forces, by history, by fate, by chance, by mistakes, and by legacy. How will we be remembered? What will we be remembered for? How do we right the wrongs of our forefathers? PARADISE NOW is essential cinema not because it finds answers about the terrorist ideology, but because it discovers its questions are disturbingly similar to our own.
It should be noted that PARADISE NOW does not excuse terrorist acts, or even ask for much understanding of the terrorist mindset. The horror of the act is palpable. However, terror itself is also not what interests the filmmakers entirely; while you may think you know how the film turns out, one should know that there's a serious left turn in its second act that propels the film into unanticipated new territory. Nashef's steely-eyed performance, in particular, roots PARADISE NOW in this new chaotic tension, unsure of how the next step will turn out. (His performance, which never seeks apology or explanation, is one of the major debuts of the year.) Metaphorically, the unexpected moments make the film come alive...in a land where a "rocket might drop on us at any moment", the idea that life can be planned and measured is futile. "Better to live in heaven than in this hell," Khaled remarks. It is that sense of deliverance, the need for paradise now, right now, that drives desperate men to desperate action. A dream, to paraphrase another leader of political issurection, cannot be deferred...even if that dream is twisted in upon itself, a shattered fragment of the peace one theoretically desires.
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| MYSTERIOUS SKIN |
| 10.30.05 (3:11 pm) [edit] |
MYSTERIOUS SKIN
Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Brady Corbet, Michelle Trachtenberg, Elisabeth Shue, and Bill Sage
Written and directed by Gregg Araki
reviewed by GABRIEL SHANKS
Arguably the best American film of 2005, Gregg Araki's eloquent nostalgia trip MYSTERIOUS SKIN has recently been released on DVD, and it deserves a second look -- or at the very least, much more attention that it received during its late-spring theatrical release. A raw and unadorned look at child abuse and its idiosyncratic repercussions on two young boys molested by their baseball coach, the film has a poetic lyricism that keeps it free of didacticism. Araki has long been a chronicler of broken youth, but his films have always suffered from a candy-coated garishness that undercut its intensity. SKIN, however, switches the style/substance ratio, and ends up unquestionably Araki’s most mature and textured film to date.
With a laser-beam commitment to focus and narrative, the film plays out in both flashback and modern-day, following the sexed-up hustler Neil (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and the cowed loner Brian (Brady Corbet) as they try, separately and as an unlikely team, to piece together their experiences at the hands of Coach (Bill Sage). Like Paula Vogel's Pulitzer Prize-winning play How I Learned To Drive, MYSTERIOUS SKIN offers up a complex sense of adolscent sexuality, dropping the moral absolutism in favor of a more damaging portrait of abuse...one that has no easy answers or conclusions. Gordon-Levitt’s performance is jaw-droppingly intense and award-worthy in scope, while Corbert's less-showy work can only be described as heartbreaking. Living inside one's own skin is often mysterious; in the hands of a master like Araki, it’s also a spectacular, terrible, and unrelenting journey.
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| THE HOLE |
| 10.30.05 (3:10 pm) [edit] |
THE HOLE
Starring: Tag Eriksson, Jason Adonis, and Josh Hammer
Written and directed by Wash West
reviewed by GABRIEL SHANKS
Wash West, director of the moderately salacious 2001 arthouse hit The Fluffer, has sacrificed any credibility he may have had to make THE HOLE, an thoroughly unfunny satirical riff on the horror franchise The Ring. Shot on video, poorly lit, and terribly written, West furthers his fascination with gay porn by hiring gay porn actors to play the roles, including Tag Eriksson, Jason Adonis, and Josh Hammer. They are as terrible as you can imagine. Unsurprisingly, this premise -- a mystical videotape turns hot, already-effeminate boys gay after seven days -- allows for a bunch of silly soft-core sex of the Cinemax variety. But THE HOLE is never interesting, even when cute boys are engaging in their by-the-numbers intercourse. Maybe director West thinks it's a laugh riot. (It's not.) Maybe he thinks it's hot. (It's not.) Maybe...oh, who cares. The only question, ultimately is: why Wash, why?
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| GIDYUP!: ON THE RODEO CIRCUIT |
| 10.30.05 (2:54 pm) [edit] |
GIDYUP!: ON THE RODEO CIRCUIT
Starring: Wayne Jakino, Chuck Browning, Elodie Ann Huttner, Rob Drake, Belinda Ann Gavin, and Todd Tee Tramp
Written and directed by Mitchell Horn
reviewed by GABRIEL SHANKS
Mitchell Horn's endlessly entertaining documentary GIDYUP!: ON THE RODEO CIRCUIT is not just for fans of cowboys and horses. At its core, its subjects -- the men and women who compete on the International Gay Rodeo Circuit -- make for a warmhearted tearjerker about the difficulties of gay and lesbian life outside the queer mainstream. The iconography of Cowboy Life rears its head during the competition sequences (featuring events familiar and unfamiliar, like putting underwear on steers), but the rich personalities revealed outside of the rodeo ring give the film its more enticing moments.
Witness Chuck Browning, a rodeo champion dealing with a trifecta of issues: his farm-hewn masculinity, his HIV-positive status, and his burgeoning relationship with a city boy. (This reviewer immediately flashed on a gay-themed Green Acres, but with more depth.) Belinda, a porn actress, finds a personal exhiliration in the sport, while Rob, a construction worker with a promising rodeo career, finds himself imprisoned in self-hatred over his sexuality. (A particularly painful scene erupts when Rob confronts his mother...who ends up being more tolerant of homosexuality that Rob is himself.)
But the true star of GIDYUP!, if there is one, is Elodie, a lovely nurse whose inability to complete a ride comes with a never-say-die disposition as sunny and summery as one can imagine. When she falls off her mount (and she falls off a lot), your heart leaps into your throat. Her story, which includes battles both emotional and physical, is as touching and inspiring as documentaries get. GIDYUP! may softball issues of animal cruelty and gay individuality, but its entertainment value is unquestionable. If you're not moved by the end, I'll eat my ten-gallon Stetson.
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| TRANSAMERICA and BREAKFAST ON PLUTO |
| 10.30.05 (4:18 am) [edit] |
TRANSAMERICA
Starring: Felicty Huffman, Kevin Zegers, Graham Greene, and Fionnula Flanagan
Written and directed by Duncan Tucker
BREAKFAST ON PLUTO
Starring: Cillian Murphy, Liam Neeson, Brendan Gleeson, Bryan Ferry, Gavin Friday, and Stephen Rea
Written and directed by Neil Jordan
reviewed by GABRIEL SHANKS
The 2005 Oscar season is featuring two contestants in the Gender Sweepstakes, Duncan Tucker's debut film TRANSAMERICA and Neil Jordan's whimsical BREAKFAST ON PLUTO. While that may not sound like much of a race, it's one that often has a big payoff at the finish line, as Hilary Swank (Boys Don't Cry) or William Hurt (Kiss of the Spider Woman) will tell you. Drag queens, transvestites, transgendered folk...if you hit it out of the park, you can often pass GO and go directly to the Kodak Theatre on Oscar night.
TRANSAMERICA arrives in theatres this month with buzz and momentum from a year of festival accolades. Led by recent Emmy winner Felicity Huffman (Desperate Housewives), the film has been the subject of chattering praise since last spring's Tribeca Film Festival. It is also one of the first offerings from former Miramax honcho Harvey Weinstein's new company (imaginatively called The Weinstein Company), which can't hurt the film's chances -- in the last two decades, Harvey has won more Oscars than he's lost.
The film itself is a surprise, in that it isn't very surprising at all -- a sweet, conventional road movie featuring an estranged son, Toby (Kevin Zegers), and the father he never knew...who, not incidentally, is now a woman named Bree (Huffman). With transsexuality as the zesty twist on an old Hollywood formula, there's something cozy and warm about TRANSAMERICA; once audiences adjust to the distractingly lowered voice of Huffman and her studiedly fussy hand gestures, they may wonder what it is, exactly, that is supposed to interest them beyond the spectacle of a woman playing a man playing a woman. The answer is, sadly, not much. Issues of gender differrence are employed only to reinforce less original dilemmas -- family dysfunction, dating woes (with Bree's charming leading man, Graham Greene), and meeting the grandparents. As Bree and Toby inexorably work their way toward reestablishing a loving familial bond, the story loses any vestige of originality its premise may have had. One is left with little besides Huffman's overstylized performance, Zegers' smoky eyes, and the grandmother, Fionnula Flanagan (The Others), in a performance that borders on the hysterical. Interestingly, the film features a cameo by Calpernia Addams, who was the real-life subject of Soldier's Girl, a far superior film about transgendered life on Showtime a couple of years back. It had a complexity and honesty that completely escapes the fitful, meandering TRANSAMERICA...a lost opportunity at every turn.
Neil Jordan, of course, has been a contestant in the Oscar Gender Sweepstakes before, with his classic drama The Crying Game. Perhaps all too aware of his previous effort, he does a complete about-face with BREAKFAST ON PLUTO, a tenderly-told comic drama about an Irish transvestite, Patrick "Kitty" Braden (Cillian Murphy), growing into adulthood in the 1960's and 70's. Despite the story's darker moments -- Braden was abandoned as a baby by his mother, beaten by the IRA, and the victim of a bombing in London -- Jordan is determined to keep the film light and upbeat, mixing in a summery soundtrack of pop tunes and talking birds a la Cinderella. If that sounds a bit haphazard, it is. The film is structured as a living fairy tale, replete with villains, monsters, and happy endings. Unfortunately, Kitten's life doesn't fit neatly inside the pages of Aesop or Grimm, and the style subverts the story constantly.
Still, BREAKFAST ON PLUTO has some aces up its lacy sleeve, most notably Murphy, who gives one of the best performances of the year as the indefatigable Kitten, the glamorous star of her own private universe. If Huffman's Bree in TRANSAMERICA is self-conscious to a fault, Murphy's Kitten is the exact opposite -- as free and jovial a performance as one can imagine. Effortlessly nailing coquettish mannerisms and employing a hilarious come-hither vocal quality, Murphy is as magnetizing, fascinating, and eminently likeable in the role...definitely the capper of his already-promising career. Strong supporting performances (most notably by Liam Neeson as the local Catholic priest, Brendan Gleeson as a London theme park busker, and Stephen Rea as a magician who befriends Kitten) overcome BREAKFAST ON PLUTO's stylistic weaknesses to large degree, leaving the audience on a fizzy emotional high. If you believe in fairies, Jordan would like you to skip Neverland, forget Crying Game, and head directly for Pluto. You may find yourself chatting up starlings on your walk home.
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Welcome to Mixed Reviews Single Servings. Here you'll find short reviews of current and past movies for people too busy to read a full review.
You can find full-length reviews of present and past films, from Hollywood releases to independent films to "hidden treasures" that haven't been released yet, at our main site, Mixed Reviews. Please browse our archive for links to reviews of films dating back to 1998.
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