Dede Allen

by Tony Dayoub

We often speak of the auteurial era of the seventies that was ushered in by director Arthur Penn and actor-producer (and future direcor) Warren Beatty with their collaboration on Bonnie and Clyde. But surely one of the seminal moments in the launch of that chapter is the explosive, grim, and finally violent, finale of this "lovers-on-the-run" landmark. In honor of Dede Allen, the editor who crafted some of the most suspenseful sequences in film (the recommendations I list at the end are only the ones I've actually seen; her filmography is even more illustrious than what I give her credit for), here is the sequence she is best known for (if you've never seen it, viewer discretion is advised)...

DVD Review: The Great Debaters - Stirring Film Transcends the Usual Cliches of Uplifting Cinema

by Tony Dayoub

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.

DVD Review: Eyes Wide Shut - Revisiting Kubrick's Last Film Nine Years Later

by Tony Dayoub

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.

14 films for February 14th

by Tony Dayoub

In recognition of Valentine's Day, here are some movies that present love in unexpected ways.

¡Átame! (Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!) (1990) - Victoria Abril, Antonio Banderas; dir. Pedro Almodóvar - This Spanish language film was controversial at the time of its release for being part of a wave of films that ushered in a new era in cinematic sexual frankness. But at its heart, it is just a sweet story of a criminal who kidnaps a porn actress he adores and how she falls in love with him.