Tribeca Film Festival 4/29 - Dennis Hopper Makes Surprise Appearance at Premiere of Restored Night Tide

Day 1 - 1:17 pm - I arrived into LaGuardia half an hour late, picked up my bags at baggage claim, where a locust-like group of hustlers start trying to convince me why I should skip the taxi line and pay more to share their cab with another passenger. SCAMMERS!!! Welcome to New York... I MISSED YOU SO MUCH!!!

1:24 pm - My much cooler cab driver, Fariq, drove me into the city through scenic Spanish Harlem. I'm staying in the Upper East side, at lovely Amy Coward's apartment (thank you so much), with a nice view of Roosevelt Island. I order a Ham sandwich from Hot and Crusty (1201 Second Ave, 212-753-2614), which is delivered to my door (did I tell you how much I miss this place?), and off to work it is.

3:46 pm - Right about the time I finished sending a lot of you readers my promotional email, I realized I hadn't showered, and I was going to have to take the 4 train down to Tribeca to catch the first film, Curtis Harrington's restored Night Tide(1961), which starts at 5pm. Did I tell you how much I hate New York?

4:33 pm -Made it to the platform, just as the train arrived, so I hop in. I have a few minutes to relax and get my bearings, except... I'm on the wrong train, the W headed towards Whitehall.

4:56 pm - Jumped off at Canal St. and walked through Chinatown for 45 minutes (now I know what my wife must have felt like the first time she was in Little Havana) trying to find the small screening room at Pace University.



5:41 pm - Boy, am I late. Luckily, I only missed the short film preceding the feature (or unluckily, some would say, as this was Harrington's little seen early experimental film, Picnic). But what a wonderful surprise. Last minute arrangements were made to have a Q&A with Night Tide's lead actor, Dennis Hopper. 72 years old, and the man still emanates cool as he assuredly strolls down to the podium to speak.

Night Tide is about a young sailor (Hopper) on liberty in Venice Beach, California. He meets a young lady named Mora who works as an amusement park "mermaid," sitting in a tank that appears to be full of water, wearing a fish tail. But with two former boyfriends now dead, she may actually be a mythological siren, luring men to their demise with her beauty and feminine wiles. The surreal film is interesting in its collision of the film noir genre with a touch of the horror genre. Hopper's performance appears improvised, and demonstrates some of the ability to carry a movie that allowed him to go on to a legendary career. The Academy-restored print was bright and clean, and apparently had just been brought over from the lab.

As if the movie wasn't odd enough, someone had accidentally transposed the second and third reels, leading to some unintended surreal, and humorous, moments.

Some interesting points Hopper spoke of:

• This was Harrington's first feature film, and it was a non-union film, preventing it from being shown in theaters for close to 3 years.


• Hopper had been released from his contract with Warner Bros. where he had already been in movies such as Rebel Without a Cause, Giant, and Gunfight at the OK Corral.


• This was Dennis Hopper's first lead role.


• Hopper was and is a strong supporter of nascent filmmakers, having supported not only Harrington, but notable underground filmmakers Andy Warhol and Kenneth Anger.


• Luana Anders, who costars, was later cast by Hopper as Peter Fonda's girlfriend in his own directorial debut, Easy Rider. She also wrote some things for Francis Coppola and appeared in his first studio film, The Rain People.


• Among Hopper's performing influences were Marlon Brando and James Dean, but this performance was influenced greatly by Montgomery Clift's acting.

7:36 pm - Stopped by Nobu Tribeca (105 Hudson St, 212-219-0500) where I ate some of the best and freshest sushi I had in a long time (Atlanta being quite a ways inland, it is not really known for its fresh fish). I highly recommend the Tiraditos, delicate thinly-sliced whitefish with a pinhead-size drop of spicy red chile sauce and cilantro leaves. There is also the Yellowtail sashimi with a slice of jalapeño on top. If raw food is not your thing, try the miso-glazed black cod, or the beef tenderloin in teriyaki sauce, which was prepared perfectly at the medium temperature I asked for, and served with a variety of mushrooms on the side. The service was excellent too, as I was in a hurry to catch my next film, and made it out in less than an hour.

9:00 pm - Four short films, directed by Isabella Rossellini for the Sundance Channel, showing the mating habits of insects, are shown before the feature, Toby Dammit. The films, called Green Porno, were meant to be shown on cell phones, but I can't see how they'll be tossed away like that. They are educational, strange, and some of the funniest viral video out there. All 8 videos will be available at http://www.sundancechannel.com/greenporno?go=watch and on all Helio mobile devices on May 5th.

Toby Dammit is a short film that was originally part of a troika of Edgar Allan Poe adaptations released as Spirits of the Dead. This one, based on Poe's Never Bet the Devil Your Head, was directed by Federico Fellini, and stars Terence Stamp. It was just restored by the film's original cinematographer Giuseppe Rotunno in conjunction with the Cineteca Nazionale de Italia for the Ornella Muti Network. Ornella Muti is an Italian actress best known stateside for playing Princess Aura in Flash Gordon (1980). But she is also one of the leading contributors to film restoration in Italy. What we saw last night was essentially a sneak preview, as Toby Dammit is actually the opening film of the 2008 Taormina Film Fest in Sicily.


The film was Rotunno's first with Fellini, but he went on to become the cinematographer on all of his subsequent films. It's easy to see why, with the restoration finished. The film's color and contrast is brilliant, and well-defined. This is one of my favorite movies, and I owned the original DVD by Image, which was atrocious, just because I liked it so much. When Janus Films (the people behind the Criterion Collection) released a much improved version, I quickly ran out to purchase it. But it looks like I may have to do it one more time (no plans for a DVD yet) because this restoration borders on the revelatory. And what a movie to choose to restore.

Terence Stamp, a powerful British actor in the 1960's (now know primarily for his campy General Zod in Superman and Superman II), plays an alcoholic actor on a downward spiral. He keeps encountering the devil as he declines further and further, personified as a strange white-haired little girl bouncing a ball. The movie captures an uncomfortable feeling of suspension in time that I've never seen done to such great effect as I have here. If you have the opportunity, seek this one out once it becomes available, or just rent the current version on Netflix.
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DVD Review: The Great Debaters - Stirring Film Transcends the Usual Cliches of Uplifting Cinema

Inpired by a true story, The Great Debaters, Denzel Washington’s assured directorial follow-up to Antwone Fisher, is a fascinating look at a group of 1930s-era African-American college students, and how their professor, Melvin Tolson (Washington), shaped them into one of the strongest college debate teams in the U. S. while struggling to overcome the obstacles they faced in the Jim-Crow South.

Washington has successfully executed one of the first directives of a novice director, surround yourself with talented collaborators. The story is told through the eyes of young James Farmer, Jr. (Denzel Whitaker), a gifted 14-year-old who harbors a crush for one of his teammates. She is Samantha Booke (Jurnee Smollett), the first female to make it into Wiley College’s debate team. But she has a crush of her own, the haunted Henry Lowe (Nate Parker), whose escapes into seedy juke-joints dull the rage he feels at his inability to retaliate for the era’s injustices towards blacks. The young Whitaker communicates the odd contradiction of his character, both lacking maturity in his disdain for Samantha’s attraction to their teammate, yet wise beyond his years in the way he nurtures the couple, and therefore the team, through their highs and lows. Smollett is all fiery indignation when arguing a topic at the podium, but this belies her character’s kind and sensitive nature. Parker portrays Lowe with an eerie intensity reminiscent of director Washington’s own performances. Strong supporting players, including Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland), John Heard (The Pelican Brief), Kimberly Elise (Diary of a Mad Black Woman), and Gina Ravera (The Closer), round out the cast.

Not limited to his cast, Washington’s top-notch crew also help to deliver a winning motion picture. Cinematographer Philippe Rousselot (Henry & June) captures the tangerine tones of hot Marshall, Texas without descending into the cliched, golden, nostalgia-drenched photography of other films of this type, like Dead Poets Society. All the better to contrast the optimistic world of Wiley College with the gritty harshness of the dark southern nightlife, a world replete with juke-joints, lynchings, and secretive labor union meetings. James Newton Howard and Peter Golub’s score is subtle for most of the movie, but appropriately rousing as the team heads toward prestige in the academic world.

Robert Eisele’s screenplay is smart in that its protagonists are allowed to be flawed individuals. It is only together as a team that they, and even their leader, Professor Tolson, succeed in achieving their ambitions. Great care is taken to demonstrate this as each time one of the members is not present, failure inevitably follows. The key example is midway through the film, when Lowe’s nighttime tryst with a woman he picks up, is observed by Samantha. Lowe was the first to walk out on the team to go rabble-rousing. Samantha, second, after her pride is hurt by his philandering. Farmer, preoccupied with the team’s crumbling dynamic, may be there physically, but loses focus as their upcoming debate with prestigious Howard University approaches. The lion’s share of the blame goes to Tolson, who is distracted by his attempts to organize a union for Southern sharecroppers – an extraneous subplot that ultimately leads nowhere - instead of keeping the team in line. Tolson has been oblivious to the love triangle within his own team, risking their chance to reach their ultimate goal, debating a white college.

Denzel Washington’s direction of his actors is bold, while maintaining restraint with the visuals. He does not try to impress with flashy angles until necessary. He wisely chooses to have his excellent actors carry the story. But the debates, which could easily have been the slowest parts of the film, are enlivened by Rousselot’s constantly moving camera, and the composers' judicious use of music.

The DVD has a great amount of interesting extras. If you get the single disc, you'll get deleted scenes, a documentary with the real-life debaters, and a couple of music videos. The two-disc includes all that and a couple of documentaries on the film's music, a couple of documentaries focusing on the young actors, the poetry of Melvin B. Tolson, and much more.

It is rare to find an uplifting movie that does not preach or devolve into a cliched "inspirational" tearjerker. This is an excellent one to watch, and I hope to see another of Washington's directorial efforts soon.

The Great Debaters will be available on single and two-disc standard DVD on 5/13.

Still provided courtesy of Genius Products and The Weinstein Company.
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DVD Review: Eyes Wide Shut - Revisiting Kubrick's Last Film Nine Years Later

Nine years after Stanley Kubrick left us with his final film, Eyes Wide Shut, I am surprised by my view on it. Where most of Kubrick's films are hard to appreciate upon their initial release, this one wasn't, at least for me. A decade later, the esteem lavished on any of his films usually grows. But, in my opinion, this one's hasn't. As anyone familiar with Kubrick's work knows, his films were (and still are) more often ahead, not behind the times, in their themes and state of the art of cinema. And while I initially blamed the publicity angle used to promote it, and the censorship inflicted on it, for most of its denigration, I now wonder why almost a decade later, with those problems now non-existent, the film seems out-of-step.

The VHS age had arrived in the mid to late eighties, so by the time the nineties were just about over, it was no surprise that the erotic film genre had benefited the most during that period. Americans no longer needed to be ashamed of enjoying sexually-charged cinema. They could just rent a movie and watch it at home. That movie came in many forms depending on your proclivities. The most obvious was pornography, but if you were too timid to try that out, you could rent a direct-to-video softcore film such as the ones seen on late-night Cinemax channels. For more intellectual value you could obtain an NC17-rated film, like Henry and June. More mainstream viewers could rent a movie that used to be rated R in theaters, but would have added sex scenes in a newly released unrated version, like Basic Instinct. The possibilities were limitless, and the market followed suit to a degree where it became oversaturated with such films: Wild Orchid, Showgirls, Zandalee, etc.

Back in 1999, as the hype was building regarding Stanley Kubrick's collaboration with then-husband-and-wife Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, Eyes Wide Shut's marketing contributed to all kinds of notions being thrown around, some correct and some not. The ultimate gladiator film is Spartacus, a Kubrick film. The ultimate sci-fi film is 2001: A Space Odyssey, a Kubrick film. As we go forward it becomes a little more arguable. The ultimate horror movie is regarded by many to be Kubrick's The Shining. And Full Metal Jacket has just as much right to be regarded as the ultimate Vietnam movie as Platoon. So when the trailer is released for Kubrick's latest film, and it features the hottest celebrity couple in the planet nude in front of a mirror, about to engage in lovemaking... was it any surprise that people were going to misconstrue this as Kubrick's take on the erotic film. Rumors circulated. Cruise and Kidman's relationship was straining under Kubrick's pressure to make Eyes Wide Shut the ultimate sex movie. The scenes were so pornographic the movie would have to be gutted to make it work for American cinema.

At the time, having already been a student of Kubrick's films, I wasn't surprised at the final result. Eyes Wide Shut is essentially a detached examination of jealousy and the dangers inherent in giving in to your sexual impulses in modern society. It is examined through the eyes of an upper-class WASP couple, Dr. Bill Harford (Cruise) and his wife, Alice (Kidman). Her name is a clue that much of the movie takes place in a languid dreamlike wonderland after Dr. Bill falls through the jealousy rabbit-hole. The world is one in which Dr. Bill can ask for a beer at a bar, and doesn't have to specify the brand. He can show his medical license and get instant access to some of the most exclusive information. Dr. Bill learns valuable lessons as he is repeatedly confronted with moral tests in this realm: Don't get involved with your patients (Marie Richardson) or you might end up with an unstable stalker. Don't have sex with a hooker (Vinessa Shaw) or you might fall prey to AIDS. Don't get involved with a minor (Leelee Sobieski) or you might be taken advantage of by her pimp (Rade Serbedzija). Don't visit a strange ritualistic costume party or you endanger the life of a call girl (Julienne Davis) trying to save your life.

In the theatrical release, there was plenty of nudity, not much sex, and the sex that did appear in the film was conveniently blocked by digital images of onlookers to preserve the story and allow the film to play in American theaters. The music in the film is beautiful and foreboding. The cinematography is impeccable. Sydney Pollack's performance as Dr. Bill's friend, Victor, is exemplary, especially considering the film was originally shot with Harvey Keitel in the role, before being replaced after he couldn't return for reshoots. And Nicole Kidman is stunning as the coy Alice who, consciously or not, uses jealousy to manipulate her husband.

The DVD has been improved by the fact that it is the first release of the film in widescreen. The images are presented beautifully as Kubrick intended. The DVD does contain a few interesting documentaries on Kubrick, and how this was to be his final film. You gain great insight into the family man he was. And theirs an interesting survey of his unproduced film ideas. Interviews with Cruise, Kidman, and Steven Spielberg are holdovers from the last DVD version of the film. While reverential, these interviews do capture the filmmaker's sensibility.

Most importantly, nine years later, the DVD allows for a fresh viewing. There is no marketing to mislead one into thinking this is a sex romp. The digital images used to censor the film have been eliminated to display Kubrick's intended shots. And the film now seems almost quaint. The lesson that Dr. Bill learns that marriage may be less exciting but at least it is safe, seems trite. The sexual peccadilloes he gets involved in seem naive, especially considering the setpieces are being proposed by a reclusive, happily-married, and elderly film director who lives on an estate in England.

What was once one of the film's selling points has now become one of its liabilities. Tom Cruise's performance seems flat and false. His line readings feel fake. Much of this may be attributed to the backlash he is now contending with in his career and personal life. It is hard to accept the couple in the film will work things out when we know that in life they broke up. The image of Cruise as a doctor is ironic given his outlandish medical claims in regards to the pitfalls of pharmaceuticals and psychological treatment he has discussed in the press recently.

This film should be revisited in the future to see if this assessment of Cruise still holds up if the spotlight on the actor's personal life ever dims.

This entry first appeared on Blogcritics on 4/23/2008.
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Movie Trailer: Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Click on the picture above for the newest trailer for this sequel. The first Hellboy was directed by Guillermo Del Toro before his big art-house hit, Pan's Labyrinth.

Now, with the contract being all but final for him to direct The Hobbit, it will be interesting to see if this sequel becomes a sleeper hit.

Let me know what you think in the comments section.
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Movie Trailer: The Spirit

Click on the picture above for the trailer to the latest comics-to-film adaptation, this one based on Will Eisner's classic landmark hero, and directed by comics great Frank Miller (Sin City, 300).

It's so hot right now, the best I could do was link to this YouTube capture, but I'll update it when I can get a direct link to the official one.

Let me know what you think in the comments section.

UPDATED: The picture now links directly to the trailer on the official website. Enjoy.
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An Apology, an Announcement and Something Pretty Funny...

I apologize for a relatively slow week here at the site. I've been working on a myspace page to promote the site. We'll hopefully be on Facebook soon. Here's what I've got so far. Go check it out, and leave any comments on any improvements you'd like to see.

Secondly, I've been working overtime to get ready for my trip to New York where I'll be covering the Tribeca Film Festival. I'll be there from 4/29 - 5/3 covering an interesting mix of films which include restorations, documentaries, Latino-themed films, and the World Premiere of a summer blockbuster. Here's the list:

Night Tide
Toby Dammit
Chevolution
Once Upon a Time in the West
Idiots and Angels
Celia the Queen
Paraíso Travel
Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon
President to Remember: In the Company of John F. Kennedy
Lou Reed's Berlin
Ball Don't Lie
Speed Racer

The coverage will probably take the form of dispatches with some more in-depth reviews, and more surprises. My aim is to give you as much of a festival experience as I can. Keep up to date on the festival with the Tribeca/Cadillac widget on this page's sidebar. And keep up to date on my coverage here!

Lastly, the great guys at The Digital Bits have a great post up today. It's about director Uwe Boll, and I'll quote them:

First, a little set-up: Doogan sent me this statement to post the other day, and for some reason it just didn't register on my radar screen. I don't know, my head just wasn't in the game or something. But here's what he sent:

"So, our good buddy Lance over at Filmdrunk is known the world over for his velvety smooth writing style, and he's quite possibly the single most badass film critic director Uwe Boll considered way too badass to fight when Boll was challenging film critics to box him a while back. Well, today Lance posted a video comment from the good Dr. Boll himself about the Anti-Boll petition going around the Internet tubes of late. Boll’s apparently not a fan of one-sided fist fights and calls for a Pro-Boll petition. Much like Lance, we wholeheartedly endorse this PRO-BOLL Petition and urge you all to sign your name with ours. Yeah, Boll may be a hack, but he deserves the right to make movies for stoners, drop outs and the elderly – just like everyone else. So click here and join the fight. And tell your friends – we need a million names!"

Okay, so that's what Doogan sends me, right? And I'm all like... WTF?! "Yeah, I'll get it up in the next day or so." And he's thinking it's just gonna get recycle binned and that's that. Now... Doogan is no particular fan of Uwe Boll that I know of. And I think Jahnke's actually laid his life on the line in a review of two of Boll's films on DVD. I can't say I've been much of a fan of the guy either... at least, that is, until I saw the following. It seems that in response to the Anti-Boll petition, which at this point has something like 200,000 signatures, Uwe has posted another video in which he claims to have investigated the petition and discovered that most of the people who signed it are really just Steven Spielberg and Michael Bay, signing it repeatedly under different false identities. Seriously, I'm not kidding. It's priceless. Boll then proceeds to critique a short film made by some of the people who started the Anti-Boll petition ("Internet nerds"), and... well, you just need to see his comments for yourself. Suffice it to say, after having enjoyed a few good giggles over it all, I am now firmly an Uwe fan. This is just self-promotion at its finest. Did we mention Boll has a movie debuting in a few weeks on the same day as Indy 4? He does. So everybody go watch his first video, then his second one, and after you stop laughing go sign the Pro-Boll petition. Doogan, what can I say? When you're right, you're right. Priceless.

Gotta love these guys. Have a great weekend.
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DVD Review: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street - Depp and Burton's Finest Collaboration Yet

Johnny Depp stars in his sixth movie for director Tim Burton, as the titular Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. His other films with Burton include Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. When surveying Burton's work it is evident that his collaborations with Depp are often his most artistically successful ventures. Sweeney Todd, a musical, is no different. It is a fine addition to Burton's oeuvre. And there is no doubt that Depp gets the childlike sensibility that his director is seeking.

In Todd , Benjamin Barker, once a promising young barber with a wife and daughter, was sent to prison unjustly by evil Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman). Though he was an innocent, Turpin had designs on stealing Barker's family for his own. Apparently, Barker's wife died while he was away. Now, the insidious Turpin seeks to make Barker's daughter Johanna (Jayne Wisener) his young bride. Returning from prison in the guise of Sweeney Todd, he seeks revenge on Turpin - and London society, for their complicity in sending him to prison. Mrs. Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter), a local pie-maker, conspires with Todd in his quest for revenge, selling pies made out of all the victims of Todd's chair.

Sweeney Todd is a master barber, of course... the better to lure his prey into the chair. Like Todd, Depp's characters in Burton's films are frequently childlike outcasts with some distinctive talent. The eponymous Ed Wood is a second-rate film director that nonetheless has the ability to bring all sorts of freaks and misfits together to turn his vision into a film. Willy Wonka is adept at his work as a chocolatier. Edward Scissorhands can style hair AND shrubbery with ease. It is easy to see why the odd-looking Burton may identify with his protagonists as portrayed by Depp.

Perhaps the most obvious component of Depp's characters that resemble Burton is their appearance. Burton's sullen demeanor, wild hair, pallor, and dark-pitted eyes are depicted in most of Depp's personifications. Hollow's Ichabod Crane is pale, while Willy Wonka is so white he's blue. Edward Scissorhands has an exaggerated reimagination of all of the director's physical characteristics. And Sweeney Todd, his shock of gray hair notwithstanding, is an idealized version of Burton himself... gothically handsome, but still wild-haired, pale, and sullen with sunken eyes.

Each of Depp's performances bear a resemblance to Burton in a much more important way than in their physical traits. Each is a stunted man-child delineated much more clearly by Depp than any of Burton's other alter egos. Ewan McGregor in Big Fish is obviously immature, but we don't get the tilted Burton sensibility in his portrayal. His performance has more in common with those of any number of film characters nostalgically reliving their pasts through tall tales like Terry Gilliam's Baron Munchausen. Michael Keaton, who has played Beetlejuice and Batman for Burton, has a darker more cynical take on Burton's protagonists. His performances eliminate Depp's capacity for childlike expressiveness so evident in Depp's eyes. Keaton's Beetlejuice is a hard-living (or unliving, as the case may be) wisecracker. Keaton's Batman is about stoic non-expressiveness. His Bruce Wayne died when he was a child leaving only the vigilante Batman. Even Depp's murderous Todd still uses the bitterness only to mask the wounded child within. We finally get a glimpse of that child at the end of the film, when he realizes the futility of his revenge, and let's his defenses down in defeat.

Sweeney Todd is a high point in Depp and Burton's collaboration. The DVD has a wealth of special features about the film, Stephen Sondheim's stage musical, and even the urban myth from which Todd is historically derived. I highly recommend it.

Still provided courtesy of Paramount Home Entertainment.
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DVD Review: Aliens vs. Predator - Requiem - Once Interesting Franchises Lose Steam in Flawed Misfire

Both the Alien and Predator franchises had a reputation for spotlighting the work of some of cinema's most promising directors. Here's the list:

Alien - Ridley Scott (Gladiator, Blade Runner)
Aliens - James Cameron (Titanic, The Terminator)
Alien³ - David Fincher (Fight Club, Se7en)
Alien: Resurrection - Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amélie, The City of Lost Children)
Predator - John McTiernan (Die Hard, The Hunt for Red October)
Predator 2 - Stephen Hopkins (24 Season 1, The Ghost and the Darkness)

Predator 2 showed us an Alien skull in the Predator's trophy room. This led to a series of graphic novels that combined the mythos of both characters. They were popular and demonstrated how viable the idea was. So I was hoping that combining these two franchises on film (still a good idea) wouldn't necessarily end the trend. The first Aliens vs. Predator directed by Paul W. S. Anderson (Resident Evil) was not great, but it had some interesting ideas to build on. But the newest flick Aliens vs Predator - Requiem proves to be beyond the capabilities of the Brothers Strause in their feature film debut.

As set up in the last feature, the Predators, intelligent space-hunters, use Earth to hunt the Aliens. In that film, it's discovered that the Predators set up our civilizations by introducing their technology, in return leading to pyramids built in their honor. Humans would sacrifice themselves to breed Aliens that would provide the intergalactic hunters with their prey. However, if the Aliens proved to be too much to handle, the Predators would nuke the area to prevent infestation. Nifty idea for explaining how some of these civilizations just seemed to disappear, right?

As Requiem begins, an Alien chestburster pops out of a Predator from the last film. It grows up to be a Predalien. This one ends up in a small town in Colorado, killing the townspeople as it uses them as breeding stock, with a Predator not too far behind to clean up the mess. We get to know some of the townspeople, but not well enough for them to make a lasting impression. And that's a big problem, because if you don't identify with these victims, how can you truly be scared?

The Brothers Strause, owners of a famous visual effects house called Hydraulx, have got the blood and gore part down well. But I go to horror movies to be scared, not disgusted. When you have the disgusted part without the scared... well, what's the point? The directors fall into the trap that most novices from the vfx and gaming world fall into when making the transition to cinema. They feel they must take on the challenge of topping the last film by concentrating on the effects and gore, and not the story. For example, is it really necessary to show an alien burst through the chest of an 8-year-old boy? Or how about the Predalien (a creature which, in and of itself, is a bit over the top) stalking through the maternity ward in a hospital as babies cry in the foreground? Had enough yet? No? How about the Predalien impregnating an already pregnant woman in said maternity ward with baby Aliens? These cheap scares provide the filmmakers with some challenging visuals, but they are stomach-turning more than frightening.

And it's too bad, because they had the elements to make this one a little more relevant than previous ones. Setting it up in a small town was a winning idea. But it would be more effective if one actually got involved with the characters, like in Frank Darabont's recent The Mist. They have the beginnings of some nice subplots involving a couple of very good actors. Reiko Aylesworth (24) as a soldier returning from Iraq has some nice interaction with her young daughter (Ariel Gade), now distant because of their time apart. And the great John Ortiz (Carlito's Way) plays the town sheriff, so eager to overcome the stigma of his juvenile delinquency that he will lead his people into oblivion for fear of doing the wrong thing. Sounds great, but the Strauses spend about as much time exploring these avenues as it took you to read those sentences.

I'm sure we'll see a sequel to this film at some point. It's too valuable a pair of franchises for Fox to leave languishing on the shelf. But hopefully they will go back to using these films as a training ground for strong directors, rather than as a reward to a successful visual effects house and their founders.

Aliens vs. Predator - Requiem, is available today on single disc (rated and unrated) and two-disc (unrated) standard DVD, and Blu-ray.

Still provided courtesy of Fox Home Entertainment.

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TV Review: The Office - Melora Hardin's Wacky Jan Boosts Show's Return

(Warning: For those who still have last night's episode of The Office sitting on their Tivo, there are spoilers below)

The Office returned from it's strike-related hiatus last night for a six episode run. It was a great showcase for Melora Hardin's kooky portrayal of Jan Levinson. Since her first appearance as the then-Jan Levinson-Gould, supervisor to Michael Scott (Steve Carell) and his crew, her increasingly unhinged performance has grown from a small recurring role to an unofficial regular, as Michael's live-in girlfriend. Last night's episode revolving around a dinner party at Michael and Jan's apartment reached a new high in discomfort.

First, Michael stages a critical late assignment for Friday evening, only to cancel it so everyman Jim (John Krasinski) won't have an excuse to blow off another of Michael's invitations to dinner. Dwight (Rainn Wilson) wants to go, but alas the party is couple's only. This does clear the way for Dwight's rival, Andy (Ed Helms), to attend with Dwight's ex, Angela (Angela Kinsey), however. When Jim arrives with girlfriend Pam (Jenna Fischer), they bring a bottle of wine as any good guest does. Jan sets the tone for the rest of the night when she spirits the bottle away saying, "This will be great for cooking."

The episode truly captures the essence of the positives and negatives of being in a relationship. Jan needs to keep Michael's self-esteem low to enhance her own, now that she's unemployed. As we find out, she relegates Michael to sleeping on a bench at the foot of their bed because of her "space issues." She does cling to Michael like she would a life-vest: the truth behind the dinner party is her hope that Michael can convince his friends to invest in her fledgling candle-making business. Jim and Pam have a healthier relationship, supporting each other through the awkward party peppered with Michael and Jan's bickering. Best reaction shot: Jim's and Pam's faces as they find out the main course of Osso Bucco has three hours left to braise. Jim and Pam are excited when he comes up with a great excuse to leave the party. He claims his apartment has been flooded, and Pam and he have to leave. When Michael points out that both of them are not necessary to check out his stuff, Jim seems ready to go without her. It's only Pam's look of dismay (and possible flak for Jim later) that stops him in his tracks. Has any couple out there not experienced these situations firsthand? Well, maybe not the bench...

Jan's jealousy of Pam escalates the awkwardness. When she makes Pam aware that Michael has told her of how he used to date Pam, an outright lie, Pam is taken aback. The Osso Bucco is finally served. As Michael frets that it may be poisoned, cut to Pam talking to the camera, "I know Jan didn't poison the food. I know that. But if she was going to poison the food of someone at that table, wouldn't it be me? Michael's former lover." Michael has always had the corner on making the viewer cringe. But in this episode, it is frequently Melora Hardin's Jan that drives the discomfort. And every time the discomfort escalates, it is she that passive-aggressively initiated the escalation.

This is definitely a noteworthy return, and one of the series' best episodes if you can stand the escalating awkwardness.

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DVD Review: Juno: Two-Disc Special Edition - Irreverent Oscar-Nominated Gem Packed with Special Features

Juno is an irreverent little gem that I talked about earlier this year (for a review of the film follow this link). It amusingly follows some of the situations encountered by a high-school girl who gets pregnant and decides to offer the baby to a young couple looking to adopt. It was nominated for four Academy Awards, and Diablo Cody won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. The film will be available Tuesday, April 15, on Blu-ray and single or two-disc standard DVD. If you enjoyed the film, then you'll love the DVD. Packed with special features, I really recommend the two-disc version (Blu-ray has all of this one's features and a few extra).

The commentary by Cody and director Jason Reitman is humorous and informative. Cody gives insight about the inspiration for certain elements in the film. For example, since she is part of a blended family herself, she was determined to show that blended families could be just as great as traditional ones. Reitman concentrates more on some of the technical or casting info. But he does concede that a lot of the "expectant parents" elements were informed by his personal experience, having just become a father himself. Cody and Reitman seem to have a genuine rapport in the commentary that exemplifies the teamwork they must have brought to the production.

Their are some other standout special features. I found the documentary on Diablo Cody (not on the single disc DVD) interesting. I was skeptical of her given what a colorful background she has as a former stripper who blogged about her experiences. However, after seeing the short featurette I found her to be very charming. I hope that this is the beginning of her long career, and that she isn't a one-hit wonder. The deleted scenes are fun to watch, especially if you're a fan of Cody's dialogue. But I can understand why they were cut. A little of that goes a long way, and I feel that including these scenes would have made the movie overlong and precious. Definitely check out the scenes, "Mrs. Rancik" and "Cafe Tristé" for some more of Cody's Juno-isms. Some other fun trifles include the gag reel, and the "cast and crew jam" which shows pretty much everyone involved with the film, dancing or air-guitaring to a rocking tune (which I hate to admit I don't recognize). Also exclusive to the two-disc DVD is a digital copy of the film you can download.

All in all, a very complete package for an Oscar-nominated movie. I'm glad that the studio didn't follow the current trend of rushing out a disc only to turn around a year later and upgrade it to a collector's edition.

Still provided courtesy of Fox Home Entertainment.
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Film Review: The Ruins - Young Cast and Director Freshen Up Peculiar Chiller

The Ruins opened this past Friday in theatres. The screenplay by Scott Smith is based on his own bestselling horror novel. In the story, a group of friends vacationing in Mexico venture out to a remote Mayan ruin to try to fit in some culture in between their otherwise alcohol-soaked escapades. There's a reason the ancient temple they find is not on any maps, they soon find out. It is a place of foreboding and death, one that not even the surrounding flora and fauna get near... except for a creeping vine covering the structure. Smith's screenplay is not as impressive as his earlier one for Sam Raimi's A Simple Plan. But The Ruins is enlivened by an excellent young cast and director.

A horror movie is most effective when you come to identify with the intended victims in it. In the current crop of such movies, it is difficult to relate to the largely anonymous cast of novice actors. This film casts extremely talented actors that draw you in. Not unlike Brian De Palma's Carrie, I believe in years to come this movie will be revisited by those curious to see the cast of young actors, who will no doubt be in demand in the future. That film had such up-and-comers as John Travolta, Sissy Spacek, and Amy Irving. This film stars Shawn Ashmore (the X-Men films), Jena Malone (Donnie Darko), Laura Ramsey (She's the Man) and Jonathan Tucker (Texas Chainsaw Massacre), all relative unknowns. Tucker (so effective in the neo-noir The Deep End) is capable of letting his teary eyes speak volumes of fear while he tries to keep the group focused on escaping their plight. Ashmore buries his preppie good-looks behind frizzy hair and full beard to get us to connect with his regular-joe. Malone's frown belies her determination in surviving their predicament.

Special praise goes to Ramsey. I'm rarely caught off guard when seeing an actor. I usually recognize them from somewhere. Ramsey, though relatively new, has done some noteworthy films. But she is extremely sympathetic in a role that could have easily been, for various reasons, the most annoying in the film. I see big things for her pretty soon. All the young actors give distinct voices to characters that could have been ciphers, making the movie even more chilling.

Director Carter Smith conjures up some genuine shocks by leaning on traditional elements of fear rather than gory violence. It looks especially challenging considering much of the film takes place in bright daylight. But by concentrating on sound effects, judicious - instead of generous -use of blood, and the dynamic cinematography of Darius Khondji (Se7en), Smith is able to muster up some horrific moments. Even more impressive is his assuredness given that this is the former fashion photographer's first feature-length film (check out his disturbing, gay-themed, horror short Bugcrush).

Encourage filmmakers to turn away from the current trend of torture-porn cinema, and go see this small old-fashioned chiller instead.
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DVD Review: There Will Be Blood - From Altman to Malick: The Naturalist Influence on Anderson's Film

There Will Be Blood is the best film of 2007. It is a character study focusing on Daniel Plainview, played by Daniel Day-Lewis in a performance that fiercely crystallizes the epic vision of the movie's director. Paul Thomas Anderson has given us some noteworthy films already, like Boogie Nights (1997), and Magnolia (1999). His films' ensemble casts inevitably led to comparisons with Robert Altman (M*A*S*H, Nashville), another director known for working with large casts. And in fact, the reason we haven't seen a film from Anderson since 2003's Punch-Drunk Love is because he was serving as back-up director for Altman's last film A Prairie Home Companion, as Altman's health was already failing. With an eye towards one of Altman's more intimate films, Blood is distinctly influenced by other great directors.

The film opens over a vast desolate landscape, seemingly silent. But Jonny Greenwood's score rises to an almost deafening pitch in a piece inspired by the composer György Ligeti's work. Ligeti is best known for music that appears in Stanley Kubrick's films, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and The Shining. Here we get a sense of what this film will be about, because just as this music is used to evoke a certain alienation of Kubrick's protagonist from the world he finds himself in, Blood's Plainview is also an outsider, a misanthrope. It is his ambition to build an impregnable wall around himself that drives him to seek oil in this wasteland.

As the opening sequence continues, Plainview, in a moment of weakness, takes in a boy orphaned by the death of his father, one of Plainview's oil riggers. He names him H.W., and conspiratorially makes him an accomplice in pursuit of his goal. His relationship is where we see him at his most vulnerable. They are led to Little Boston, a poor community, where they were tipped off by Paul Sunday (Paul Dano) that there is oil to be had. Plainview convinces the community to sell him their land, and in return he'll employ the lot of them in helping him fulfill his vision. These scenes are reminiscent of Altman's McCabe and Mrs. Miller. That film's McCabe (Warren Beatty) mysteriously comes to the old mining community of Presbyterian Church where he has dreams of getting rich opening a brothel to serve the miners. Like McCabe, Plainview must appease the community [in the person of Eli Sunday (Dano again), Paul's twin brother] by promising to build a church.

In Blood, however, the schism between capitalism and religion is given a much more central focus. Plainview's greed may be a sign of his corruption, but he hardly hides it. He despises the hypocrisy he gleans from Eli Sunday's sermons, and is disgusted by Sunday's attempt to use faith to disguise his own ambitions. A disastrous explosion of an oil derrick comes at a crucial turning point in the story. The effect of the pillar of oil-fueled fire, and Anderson's attempt to confine the film's lighting to the natural light of the blaze, recalls Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven. In that film's key turning point, when sharecroppers try to smoke out locusts that biblically descend on a farm, it also catches fire. Malick chose to use the eerie light of the flames to emphasize the supernatural quality of this moment. Anderson's burning oil derrick spotlights Plainview's naked greed as the flames shoot into the night.

As Plainview grows old and achieves his goal of retreat from the human race, he becomes a Howard Hughes-type figure. Hermit-like, he never leaves his mansion, and becomes estranged even from H.W. But curiously, as he descends into this madness, the shots become more formal, and symmetrical. The wide-angle shots in his mansion remind me of Kubrick's depiction of The Shining's Overlook Hotel; vast, isolated, yet allowing us to detachedly observe Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) from a safe distance.

Anderson successfully stirs the pot with this soup he concocted to come up with one of the most unique and satisfying movies in the last ten years. Run don't walk to get the DVD, out today on single and 2-disc standard DVD.

Still provided courtesy of Paramount Home Entertainment.

This entry first appeared on Blogcritics on 4/7/2008.
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Charlton Heston

I've seen Charlton Heston in parts great and small. I've seen him keenly underplay a line, and also play so over-the-top that you wonder if he's even in the same movie as his fellow actors. Not only was Heston, the actor, a man of contradictions, but so was Heston, the activist. He courageously supported the civil rights cause in the 60s, while being an outspoken member, and eventual president, of the NRA in his later life. But personally, as well as to many film buffs of my generation, he will always be one of the seminal figures in my own entry into the world of cinema.

He generally played larger-than-life heroes in films by some of Hollywood's greats: Brad Braden in Cecil B. DeMille's The Greatest Show on Earth (1952); Moses in DeMille's The Ten Commandments (1956); Mike Vargas in Orson Welles' Touch of Evil (1958); Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar in Anthony Mann's El Cid (1961); John the Baptist in George Stevens' The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965); the title character in Sam Peckinpah's Major Dundee (1965); and Michelangelo in Carol Reed's The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965). He won his only Oscar for the part of Judah Ben-Hur in William Wyler's Ben-Hur (1959).

The first film that I remember him from was Franklin J. Schaffner's Planet of the Apes (1968), where he played the misanthropic astronaut, Taylor. He was arrogant, tough, wily, and the perfect foil to Kim Hunter, Roddy McDowall, and Maurice Evans as the apes. He also brought some of his own activism to the subtext of the part. The cynical loner Taylor, who spends the first half of the film asserting mankind's flaws to his fellow astronauts, must spend the second half of the film defending mankind's virtues to their ape oppressors. His tragic, utter defeat, when he realizes mankind ultimately brought their fate down upon themselves, helps to create one of the most memorable finales in all of cinema.

He would go on to play some memorable parts in the remainder of his career: the eponymous Will Penny (1968); an older, defeated Taylor in Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970); Robert Neville in The Omega Man (1971); Detective Robert Thorn in Richard Fleischer's Soylent Green (1973); evil Cardinal Richelieu in Richard Lester's The Three Musketeers (1973), and it's sequel (1974).

He died Saturday night at the age of 83.

Recommended Films: Touch of Evil, Ben-Hur, El Cid, Major Dundee, Planet of the Apes, Will Penny, The Omega Man
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TV Review: Battlestar Galactica - Final Season Premieres Tonight

New episodes of beloved shows are starting to trickle in now that the writer's strike is over. One with a rabid cult and critical following premieres its final season tonight. Ten years from now when Battlestar Galactica is being revisited by masses, don't say we didn't told you so. Critics from publications as diverse as Entertainment Weekly to The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker to Time, have all singled out this series as one of the best in TV history. Not just one of the best science fiction series, mind you, but one of the best dramatic series of all time. And why shouldn't they? This is not a retread of the cheesy 70s series that starred Lorne Greene and Dirk Benedict. This is an engaging allegory to our current "war on terror" that will be reexamined in the future the same way classics like M*A*S*H still are today.

Start with the man who first developed this incarnation, Ronald D. Moore. He took the original's premise - a small group of human survivors trying to escape the genocide being committed on them by their former robotic servants, the Cylons - beyond the previous show's limited narrative concept. While the first incarnation used that premise as an excuse for Star Wars-like adventures in space, Moore (who originally wrote for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, another wartime sci-fi gem), used the horrific annihilation of the humans to explore the nature of war, fear, and responsibility towards the atrocities faced in humanity's fight for survival. After Deep Space Nine's series finale he transferred to Star Trek: Voyager. Frustrated with his time writing for Voyager because of what he deemed at failure to capitalize on that show's similar premise - a ship of humans stranded in a faraway galaxy - he left to begin writing for other shows like Roswell, and Carnivale. But he never forgot the lessons he learned writing for those shows, and used them to enhance the new show he was to shepherd. Healthy doses of religion, politics, and sexuality helped the show transcend its silly origins. Torture, child abuse, suicide bombings, rape... issues seldom explored in the sci-fi arena made their way onto Galactica, and propelled it to critical acclaim even though mainstream popularity eluded it.

Now in tonight's episode, the premiere for its final season, will all of our questions start getting answered? Let's work our way backwards through some of last season's mysterious revelations.

Starbuck lives?! - Hotshot fighter pilot, Starbuck (Katee Sackhoff), had died earlier last season. However in the season finale's climax, she flew out to meet her former commander and lover, Apollo (Jamie Bamber), to reveal her discovery of Earth, the long-sought homeworld of humanity's thirteenth tribe. But where'd she get the new, unmarked fighter she was flying? And is she really a Cylon in disguise?

The Final Five Cylons - We've known for some time now that there are 12 models of Cylons that resemble humans. Throughout the series, we've gotten to know seven of them. But in last season's finale, we discovered that four of the final five (whose appearance is a mystery even to the rest of the Cylons) are characters among the survivors we've grown to love. Three of these - Colonel Tigh (Michael Hogan), Chief Tyrol (Aaron Douglas), and Sam Anders (Michael Trucco) - were Cylon resistance leaders under the Cylon occupation. And the fourth - Tory Foster (Rekha Sharma) - is a member of the Colonial President's (Mary McDonnell) staff. Who is the final Cylon?

Gaius Baltar - Baltar (James Callis) helped the Cylons obliterate humanity's first twelve colonies. After surprisingly being acquitted of his crime, he has gathered a cult following. Will he be humanity's unlikely messiah?

Lee "Apollo" Adama - After struggling to meet his father's expectations in the military, has he found his calling, following in his grandfather's footsteps as an attorney?

President Laura Roslin - Prophecy says that she will lead her people to a new home called Earth. Will the return of her cancer cause her to fail to meet her destiny?

Admiral William Adama - Adama (Edward James Olmos) has never failed his people. But as one of the Cylons foretold to Starbuck back in the first season, "Adama is a Cylon." Was it just a dirty trick? Is the Admiral the final Cylon? Or could it have been he was referring to Lee or even his new wife, Dualla?

Hopefully this season will finally answer all of these questions. Any speculation from you readers? Please comment below.

The season premiere, "He That Believeth In Me", will be broadcast at 10 p.m. tonight on the Sci-Fi Channel.
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DVD Review: Bonnie and Clyde - Beatty's Contributions Sparked the Fuse of the 70s Film Explosion

It is number 42 on the American Film Institute's top 100 movies. It is notable for bringing Faye Dunaway and Gene Hackman to the attention of moviegoers around the world. It was Gene Wilder's film debut. It was the first film Warren Beatty produced. And above all, it is arguably the film that ushered in the era of "auteur cinema" that was so dominant in the 1970s, even though the film was released in 1967, and the film was hardly the solitary vision of its director, Arthur Penn. Bonnie and Clyde is all these things and more, and it was finally released last week on Blu-ray and standard DVD in a version much improved over its first DVD release in 1999.

Warren Beatty was not an unknown at the time he decided to produce this film, but he definitely saw the opportunity to further his career with the David Newman & Robert Benton-penned script. The two former magazine staffers first presented the script, covering the exploits of gangster folk heroes Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, to François Truffaut. A leader of the French New Wave, his Jules et Jim had some influence on the story. Truffaut turned it down, but recommended it to Beatty, who was in the market for something to shepherd into production. Not only did Beatty see the chance to give it his all and launch his career as a power player in Hollywood. He saw the possibility of transcending his pretty-boy career with his portrayal of the gangster Clyde Barrow. The sometimes self-conscious Beatty has rarely seemed as dynamic as he does when wooing Dunaway's Parker into complicity at the start of the film.

He also was generous enough to offer the part of his brother Buck to the then unknown Gene Hackman. This was the beginning of a trend as Beatty has always surrounded himself with actors he has befriended in movies throughout his career, such as Reds and Dick Tracy. After costarring with him in Lilith, Beatty had said Hackman was the best thing about the movie. This and other anecdotes are referenced in the wonderful documentary, Revolution! The Making of Bonnie and Clyde included in the special features). In that doc, Hackman tells of how very close he was to quitting as an actor before this movie brought him an Academy Award nomination.

Together with director Arthur Penn, Beatty made an extraordinary effort to bring this film in line with the French New Wave films that were causing such a stir at the time. Penn contributed his speed and agility in setting up the camera from his time as a TV director. Beatty used his own frustrations with the studio system to stoke the fire fueling the cast and crew. As told in the documentary, the pair made a pact to argue about whose filmmaking approach was going to be best for that day's shooting. Whoever got tired of the discussion first would usually lose the debate.

This gave the film its fresh freewheeling flavor that contributed to the development of the "auteur cinema" that subsequently prevailed in the late 60s and 70s American film. Sexual frankness in film was largely absent at the time of its release. Yet both men pushed the envelope in scenes depicting Clyde's impotence and Bonnie's naive remedy... oral sex, a box-office taboo in the 60s. The drastic tonal changes from rollicking to comedy to jarring violence and the now famously shocking abrupt ending were further evidence that the pair were out to change the art of American film. Even though this was not the solitary vision of one director, the lunatics were clearly running the asylum, so to speak. The era of the domineering studio boss was fast approaching its apocalypse.

Gain an appreciation for one of the more entertaining and fast-paced classics by making this one a star in your movie collection. You won't be disappointed.

Still provided courtesy of Warner Home Entertainment.
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DVD Review: Lost Highway - David Lynch's Disturbing Film Finally Makes It to DVD

Lost Highway, one of my favorite David Lynch films, has just been released on DVD for the first time since its theatrical release 11 years ago. It was the last of his films that was left to be released on DVD. This effort is one of his weirder ones, but I love it because of how revelatory it is of Lynch, the artist.

With the exception of Lynch's debut film, Eraserhead, Lost Highway is probably most representative of Lynch's artistic sensibility, his influences, and his thematic concerns. That is not to say it is his most successful film. Like with any surrealist, a little Lynch goes a long way.

The film is about Fred (Bill Pullman) and Renee Madison (Patricia Arquette). Fred is a jazz musician who is concerned that his wife may be cheating on him. As his jealousy grows, so does the surreal quality of their story. In his book, Catching the Big Fish, Lynch admits that Fred and Renee's story was inspired by the O.J. Simpson trial. He didn't fully realize it at the time, and I suspect that Lynch works these themes out on an almost subconscious level. It becomes all the more eerie when you factor in Robert Blake's casting. He subsequently was arrested for the murder of his wife. The story's Hollywood Hills setting also reinforces the Simpson trial inspiration, while secondarily bringing this film into neo-noir territory.

Clearly, Robert Aldrich's Kiss Me Deadly was an influence on the look of the film. The opening credit crawl over the yellow highway divider lines is a quote from the same iconic opening shot sequence in Kiss Me Deadly, a 1955 Mike Hammer film noir. We also spend time at a garage where mechanic Pete Dayton (Balthazar Getty) works. This garage is virtually identical if not the same as Nick's garage in Aldrich's movie. And the exploding house in the desert at the climax of Highway is framed similarly to the exploding house in Deadly's denouement. But the movie veers off the gritty track laid by Kiss Me Deadly and travels a more surreal, Lynchian one instead.

Fred goes to a party with his wife where he meets the Mystery Man (Robert Blake), a man who only Fred seems to see. The Mystery Man commands Fred to call his house, telling Fred that he is there. Disbelieving, Fred dials his phone number, and sure enough, the man standing in front of him answers Fred's home phone. When Fred asks how the man was able to do that, the Mystery Man ominously answers, "You invited me in." At this point, you should be well aware that this story is not real. It is taking place in Fred's mind. Another clue that this is the case is Fred's line, "I like to remember things my own way... How I remembered them. Not necessarily the way they happened."

When given free rein, Lynch's work tends to border on the baffling and excessive. What other director would have one actress playing two characters and two actors playing one character as Lynch does in Lost Highway? Luis Buñuel, for one... who cast two actresses to play one character in That Obscure Object of Desire. He's another director that Lynch admits he has long admired in Chris Rodley's book, Lynch on Lynch. And like Buñuel, his work is much more successful when his odd stories are grounded by reality. For instance, John Merrick's ugliness in the midst of the British high society, in The Elephant Man; Jeffrey Beaumont's discovery of a severed human ear in the empty field on the way to his house, in Blue Velvet; a homecoming queen's murder in the supernatural woods of TV's Twin Peaks. There are moments like that in Lost Highway, such as when Fred and Renee receive a series of videotapes, left on their doorstep anonymously. The first seems harmless enough, just exterior shots of their home. The next one is more disturbing, tracking right into their home to the bedroom where Fred and Renee are sleeping. Moments like these make your skin crawl. And I mean that in a good way.

While I wish I could interpret its meaning for you, I think it wiser to let the film speak for itself. And if you have trouble figuring it out, I'll give you one hint: try to interpret it like you would symbols in a dream, not symbolism in a literary work. It will make sense a whole lot more if you accept that some of it won't make sense.

The DVD is a bare-bones release. I doubt if Lynch had any influence over it based on the design of the DVD (normally, he doesn't allow chapter stops). But I'm so happy to finally have this film watch again. This puzzling film holds so many insights into Lynch, his artistry, and his recurring themes that I must vigorously recommend it.

This entry first appeared on Blogcritics on 3/27/2008.

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