The Orange County Screenwriters Association
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movie review (25)
From imdb:
Set on an island off the coast of New England in the 1960s, as a young boy and girl fall in love they are moved to run away together. Various factions of the town mobilize to search for them and the town is turned upside down -- which might not be such a bad thing.
Let me start by admitting that I'm a Wes Anderson fan. I'll stop short of saying that he can do no wrong, but he hasn't done wrong yet.
Moonrise Kingdom comes close.
Let's agree that Anderson is a genre unto itself and as soon as you see the poster or the trailer or the TV commercial (have their even been any TV commercials?) you probably know if you'll be going to see this movie.
Follow that instict.
This is Wes Anderson's most Wes Anderson-y movie yet. If you find his work overly precious, this is certainly in that category.
Too conspicuous? Talking about zooms and dolly shots here, folks. This has 'em in spades. I think the first 10 minutes is all done on track going left, right, in, out. It was like they had that elevator from Willy Wonka and strapped a camera to it. Measured dialogue? check! Universally detached characters? check!
And perhaps, the fact that I was really aware of the checklist should be a clue that this was a lesser offering. Maybe it was, I still enjoyed it thouroughly. I appreciate the entire package of a Wes Anderson film.
Bill Murray's role is a smaller character, less compelling than usual and most of Anderson's stock company do not appear. Edward Norton, Bruce Willis, Frances McDormand and Jason Schwartzman (yes, I looked it up) deliver nuanced but underwhelming performances. Tilda Swinton and Harvey Keitel have glorified cameos that only served to draw attention to how little reason there was to have those characters in the film at all, but hey, I'm Wes Anderson and I can just call these people and ask them to come to Rhode Island for a week of Arnold Palmers and those little sandwiches where they cut off the crusts. Bob Balaban is wonderful as the Narrator, and I think the film might've been better with more of him and zero of Tilda and Harvey. The two young actors, Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward, deliver strong performances and are, by far, the main characters of the film. However I think that "consistently earnest 12-year-old" will be mistaken for breakout performance. The gag wore thin quickly.
Clearly, not a glowing review, but now for the twist, I liked it.
Not that it all works, or that it rises above the sum of the parts. It doesn't and it doesn't.
Like I said, I'm a fan. If you aren't a fan, or not anymore, this will do nothing to change your mind.
"People who like this sort of thing will find this the sort of thing they like."
Abraham Lincoln
Kick-Ass may not be your archetypical blockbuster superhero movie, but don’t think that director Matthew Vaughn (Layer Cake, Stardust) is simply doing a goof on the genre--because he’s not fooling around. Kick-Ass is a gleeful deconstruction and reinvention of everything that has gone down before it. All the audacious violence interspersed with coming-of-age protagonists backed by a killer comedic script guarantees that Kick-Ass will be a classic cult hit for the fan boys and girls even if it doesn’t clean up at the box office.
Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson) had come to terms with his anonymity long ago, but now he’s 16 and his reality has shifted. His hormones are raging, his mother dropped dead of a brain aneurysm during a discussion regarding Count Chocula and he’s wondering if there’s something more to life. He fantasizes about his teacher’s cleavage and ponders why “nobody ever tried to be a superhero.” Dave orders a green wet suit online, transforms from bespectacled comic book geek to his vigilante alter ego Kick-Ass and then quickly finds out why: because it hurts.
Kick-Ass’s first outing ends up with Dave broken and bleeding on a gurney. His back is reinforced with metal plates and his nerve endings are dulled--this is as close as he’s going to get to an actual super power. Kick-Ass is back patrolling the streets as soon as Dave’s released from the hospital and thwarts an attempted mugging before a cheering crowd. His heroics are caught on video, uploaded on YouTube and overnight Kick-Ass becomes an instant phenomenon with a million Facebook friends seeking him out. Dave is keen to keep his secret identity just that, but otherwise things are going well self-confidence wise and he even gets the girl, sweet and pretty Katie (Lyndsy Fonseca). Okay, so she actually thinks he’s her new gay BFF, but it’s just another alter ego he has to hide.
Meanwhile, on the other side of town, Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage) and Hit Girl (Chloë Grace Moretz), the otherwise mild mannered father Damon Macready and his daughter Mindy, share a cup of hot chocolate with extra marshmallows and plot the annihilation of drug lord Frank D’Amico’s (Mark Strong) evil empire. Mindy has been expertly trained in the fine art of assassination by her doting father; as Hit Girl, the petite 11-year-old dons a purple Clara Bow wig, cusses like a sailor, flourishes a butterfly knife and stings like a bee as she eviscerates a gang of grown men in record time.
D’Amico is not at all amused by the current crop of would-be superheroes in town. Like any criminal mastermind worth his salt he is determined to destroy the enemy, specifically Kick-Ass, whom he holds responsible for bringing down his evil lair and all henchmen in residence. D’Amico’s teenage son Chris (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) is desperate to prove himself and contribute to his dad’s business. He hits the streets in the souped-up Mist Mobile as Red Mist, a stylish neo-punk rival for Kick-Ass’s claim to fame. Red Mist gains Kick-Ass’s trust with the ulterior motive to betray him along with Big Daddy and Hit Girl. Dave/Kick-Ass learns during his darkest moment that “with no power comes no responsibility:” if he flees does it even matter? If he stays, will it make a difference?
Kick-Ass is based on a graphic novel by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr. Millar, who also wrote the source material for Wanted, pitched the undeveloped concept of a teenage wannabe superhero teaming with a father and daughter dynamic duo to director Vaughn; the comic book was created and released in tandem with the production of the movie. Vaughn co-wrote the script with Jane Goldman (Stardust) giving Kick-Ass its backbone, a pitch perfect story high on humor, comic book references and satisfying characters.
Then there’s the hard-core violence that is, well, comical, but consider the source. Whenever an opportunity presents itself, Vaughn does not hold back. There will be blood. Death and destruction hits hard and as often as possible, but rather than gratuitous it almost always serves to propel the story forward. Kick-Ass just wouldn’t be Kick-Ass without it.
Kick-Ass has many super strengths, but is truly invincible due to inspired casting for each and every role. Johnson’s Dave/Kick-Ass is not a stereotypical meek geek who struggles to stand up for himself; his earnest drive to find courage is always sincere and never pathetic. Mintz-Plasse will be forever recognized as Superbad’s McLovin; his facial expressions and voice are unmistakable but work perfectly for Chris/Red Mist as comic relief and menace. Mark Strong’s villain is simultaneously utterly detestable and deliciously enjoyable. And Cage does a crack up Adam West impersonation when clad in his Big Daddy get up. He is absolutely terrific here: a manic mix of Father Knows Best meets Rambo.
But the single character that could have meant the ultimate end of Kick-Ass is Mindy/Hit Girl. It’s tough to swallow an 11-year-old girl who prefers heavy artillery over Bratz dolls, can completely annihilate a heavily armed team of thugs and uses cringeworthy language, let alone like her. Moretz has the chutzpa, charm and smarts to pull it off, though. Never overly cute or contrived and fortified with a relatable backstory, Hit Girl saves the day in more ways than one.
Will Kick-Ass make the world a better place? Hard to say. But the film is definitely an escape from the inevitable burn out of the ongoing onslaught of comic contrived superhero flicks. Plus it’s a lot more fun.
They don’t make ‘em like they used to, especially when it comes to stylish, edgy film noir flicks that defined the Forties and have inspired more misses than hits as time slinks on. Perhaps the powers that be don’t trust the intelligence of today’s filmgoing audience and have to slap on the inevitable happy ending. Or perhaps it’s getting trickier to keep an audience on their toes. The fact that it’s been a long time since contemporary genre classics such as Chinatown, Body Heat and Blood Simple is not due to a lack of trying.
Aussie director Nash Edgerton and his brother, screenwriter and actor Joel, know that it takes more than a femme fatale, a vulnerable lovesick gent, cigarette smoke and bullets to get the job done. The Square is your basic story of boy meets girl, boy commits crime for girl and someone loses big time but is so cleverly maneuvered through a twisted road of dead ends and turnouts that it feels like nouveau film noir.
Raymond (David Roberts) is a successful contractor having a passionate affair with Carla (Claire van der Boom), a hairdresser who literally lives on the other side of the tracks--in this case, an allegedly shark-infested river. Both are married to other people; there’s no love lost between Ray and the seemingly perfect Martha (Lucy Bell) while Carla tiptoes in fear around Smithy (Anthony Hayes), a smalltime thug. They dream, as illicit lovers do, of one day running away to live happily ever after. When Carla discovers a duffel bag stuffed with cash and a bloody towel hidden in the ceiling tiles, knowing that Smithy won’t wave good-bye as she trots off into the sunset with his dough, she proposes a simple plan to Ray: they take the money, burn her house down to cover their tracks and fall off the face of the earth.
Ray wants to be with Carla, but not enough to commit a major felon. Carla hedges her bets and breaks off all contact with Ray, taking his refusal to accept her plan as a lack of commitment. Love, boredom and Carla’s lost dog lead Ray to her doorstep and he’s in. Ray meets with a professional arsonist, Billy (Joel Edgerton), and his timid girlfriend Lily (Hanna Mangan Lawrence) to settle the details. Billy demands a payment upfront, so Ray works out an under-the-table deal to award a fellow contractor a job on the luxury hotel he’s constructing in exchange for a kickback.
The plan is in motion, but due to an unforeseen complication, Ray contacts Billy at the last minute to call it off. Billy doesn’t get the message and follows through with tragic results. Ray and Carla have the money, but are wracked with guilt and fear of becoming discovered. They agree to go on as normal until the time is right. That plan is also doomed to fail when Ray receives the first blackmail note and finds himself plunged into a dark nightmarish existence. Was he too big of a fool for love?
The Square was shot entirely in Sydney, Australia and while there are the typical “it was a dark and stormy night” set-ups, the fact that many scenes are staged in daylight during Christmas holiday activities gives the film a sense of normalcy that director Edgerton skillfully blows away when least expected. The viewer never sees it coming and is left stunned. There are always several possible twists looming on the horizon; the one that hits is never obvious.
Roberts plays Ray with a permanent scowl, but he’s a classic everyman who made one life-changing decision that leads to a series of bad choices and therefore is relatable and sympathetic. Regardless of what he is facing, his love and devotion to Carla is never in question. As Carla, van der Boom’s role runs a bit more into the gray area. There’s always a nagging doubt if she is the personification of the classic film noir leading lady: heartless and mercenary. She’s skilled at pulling a swift double cross and her refusal to see Ray until he concedes to her will seems manipulative and selfish. She’s difficult for the audience to trust and it’s a head-scratcher as to why Ray can easily give up his hard-earned lifestyle for her. This leads to some inconsistencies in the character which may not have been intentional.
But typical black-and-white characters with simple agendas don’t quite cut it in The Square; almost everyone is capable of nefarious ulterior motives, and they could be any one of us in a similar situation. Considering that Nash’s previous directorial experience has been with shorts and music videos and the script was Joel’s first attempt at writing a feature film, The Square is an inspired genre success.
The theatrical release of The Square is preceded by “Spider,” a nine-minute dark comedic short that Nash wrote, directed and starred in which garnered much praise and awards during the 2007/2008 film festival circuit. Joel is also featured in a small role as a paramedic. “It’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye,” their mum always said. It’s a perfect opening to The Square and broadcasts what the brothers Edgerton are capable of. Watch out!
Late is probably the deepest student film I've ever seen in my entire life. The story begins as a well-dressed family scrambles to get ready to leave. They rush out of the door and drive off to their destination. While driving, they see a scruffy man walking down the road. The father and mother tell their son to never become like such a man.
The family drives to a crossroad and see a mother begging for help. Next to the mother is the unconscious body of her injured daughter. The family drives off giving priority to their previous engagement over helping others in need.
The film leads to a climax that can never be forgotten. The film shows us the dark side of human beings and how we treat each other.
Brett Meyer's direction brought out the grit of 16mm film and he showedt the ugliness of luxury homes and cars. I was very touched by his film and gave it a standing ovation. I look forward to seeing more work from this pioneer on the horizon.
At the opening of Held, we find a man held prisoner in a small room. He wakes up from being knocked out and discovers several sharp nails protruding through the wall. Each day, A cloaked captor slips photographs under the door showing a mysterious woman. This was a great film. It got me watching until the end and gripping the chair arms. A bit fearing at times but I kept seeking the end. All in all bravo editing,filming and Believable acting. ***** five stars! Bravo! Wanting to see more of the actor's work!
Spoiler Alert, I'll probably spoil something about this movie for you only if you're the type of person who goes to a romantic comedy wondering if the main characters will get their happy ending together.
As jaded as a woman today can sometimes be scoffing at romantic comedies and condemning them for putting unrealistic ideas into girls' heads, I did enjoy Leap Year. How could I not with such charmers as Amy Adams and Matthew Goode playing the title characters? Despite the fact that this textbook romantic comedy never had me wondering what would happen next, I was able to relax in the capable hands of the actors, writers and director. The story is not that much different than any other romantic comedy out there, but still enjoyable.
Adams plays Anna, a control freak in need of some tall dark and handsome man to spin her world out of control. Goode (who I've personally loved since Chasing Liberty) plays Declan, the man spurned by past love who needs an annoyingly cute woman to open up his world again.
What makes this movie fun is the setting and the premise. Anna goes to Ireland to propose to her boyfriend on leap day and after several mishaps and pitfalls discovers that Declan is the one for her.
Personally, I wasn't that impressed with the stellar writing, but I was charmed by a few moments within the film. I felt that the writers really came on to something with the complication of the question Declan asks Anna about what she would take with her if her house was burning and she had sixty seconds. This idea was utilized well within the film, as were the beats of comedy throughout. Each idea, though not the most brilliant or hilarious, was used to it's fullest potential. All the loose ends were tied, nothing was forgotten or left out and (here's the spolier) there was a happy ending.
All in all Leap Year was satisfying without being condescending to it's viewers as so many romantic comedies can be today. And when it comes on the movie channels, I'm sure I'll watch it several more times.
The Knight of Shorts Film Festival 2009 screened The Engagement, a film by a group of young filmakers who were set out to develop, write, shoot and edit a movie all in 48 hours. This thrilling 5 minute short about a kidnapping whodunit, is jam packed with twists that will leave you guessing until the credits roll; with an ending you will never see coming.
Final Warning, which premiered at the Knight of Shorts Film Festival in 2009, is a very thrilling short film by up and coming French Director Marie Sanyas. It’s the chilling story of a man who goes on a rampage after being affected by watching too much violence on the web. Through great imagery and compelling story telling, Ms Sanyas keeps you entertained until the very end, and shows that hers is a name to keep and eye on.
December 7, 2009
“Harvey the Monster Racist” premiered on Saturday, December 5, 2009 at the Regency South Coast Village Theater as part of the Orange County Screenwriters Association event featuring actor Kevin Sorbo.
The cooperative production between OCSWA and Lennex Productions had many instant fans as the appreciative audience gave it thumbs way up for its fun tone and clever writing. The eight minute short had people laughing from the opening images to the closing credits and afterward the gathered filmmakers took a much deserved bow talking a bit about the making of the short.
How hard is it to make a movie? “Monstrously” difficult would be the correct answer
here. Just in talking to the people surrounding the making of this very funny short film made it clear that the journey is long, hard and fraught with enough setbacks to make one want to do anything but make a movie - but more on that later.
The basis of this sharp satire penned by comedian Brandon Tyra (with additional material by Eric Hensman of Lennexe and Mark Sevi of OCSWA) is that the old Universal Studios monsters: Frankenstein (Jeff Michaels), Werewolf ( Victor Phan), Mummy, Bride of Frankenstein
, Vampira (Anna Huang) and Dracula (David Mendez) can no longer get work in Hollywood because all the old archetypes are changing.
Vampires aren’t from Transylvania these days - they’re from Portland; the Mummy isn’t bandaged, he’s a CGI skeleton who grows muscular flesh as he completes his evil plans. The Wolfman is a hunky 17-yr-old who fights for the affections of a pretty high school student against glittering, brooding vamps. So, these traditional monsters, unable to get work, are being mainstreamed into the offices of corporate America - sort of like a halfway house for recovering acting hams.
Harvey (Rob Kent,) Mr. Anyman, struggles with the wacky things that monsters necessarily do - like scratching fleas and howling in the office (Wolfman), stealing all the toilet paper to fix up his look (Mummy), shorting out the entire office to get her 3:00pm energy jolt (Bride of Frankenstein), and asking for charitable blood donations when all he really did was forget his lunch (Dracula.) Frankenstein (Jeff Michaels) has no clue what a copier does and is frightened when the copy lamps come on (“Fire, bad!”) Site gags and clever, sly moments fill this movie.
Harvey’s epiphany comes when he’s fired by Mr. Klein (the elastic-faced Larry Porricelli) for monster racism - unacceptable in today’s PC workplace. He ends up drinking with a bum (Al Medina) in an alley. There the bum tells him about being saved by a werewolf in Vietnam. Harvey now understands that Monsters are just like us and he gets his old job back when he apologizes to Werewolf. The fun-loving monsters and Harvey go arm-in-arm back to work.
Afterschool Specials have nothing on this film.
I really expected Harvey and Werewolf to pop up after the credits and talk about “teachable moments.” Maybe that part should be added to the “director’s cut.”
This production, from what I was able to gather, had its ups and down including last minute fall outs by actors, equipment problems, and the loss of the location for the shoot the night before principal photography was to start. It’s a tribute to the skill and professionalism of director/producer Hensman that he was not only able to recover and complete the shoot but make it one of the lighter and funnier shorts I’ve seen recently.
The filmmakers asked me to include a special nod to producer Itai Levin who secured the location for the shoot at the last minute from Dean Tanji at Abracadba Presentation Graphics who made his facility available at the last moment. Also to all the volunteers who made Harvey the joy it is, a big thanks from all the producers.
The makeup, camera work and setups were especially amazing considering the lack of budget and tight shooting schedule.
Harvey was a cooperative production between the Orange County 
Screenwriters Association and Lennexe Production through the Make It Reel Script to Screen contest.
“Harvey The Monster Racist” will be coming to a video site near you soon - see it.
Victor Phan and Torture Chamber Productions have put together some interesting short films. This joins that pantheon. Although barely 60 seconds in length (not counting the intro and ending credits) the short-short film gets to the point and delivers the message (Don't Do Drugs) in brutal brevity. Having met Victor on a few occasions in the hallways of horror, I can confidently say that he makes films the same way he walks and talks - quickly and with good humor.
The ultra, super, basement-bottom low budget effects (the zombie eats cold cuts supposed to be the young woman's stomach and intestines) have both good and bad impacts. But there is a certain joie de vive in the way the material is presented. The filmmakers exhibit real style and an obvious relish for the genre. I'd love to see Phan and Torture Chamber get a real budget and some less-trite material - they might even out-Corman Corman if they did.
"Zombie Cokeheads" won't blow you away with its awesomeness but it's a cool little anti-drug bit that kids can relate to with a smile.
Viva la cinema - this is the place where the up and coming filmmakers are coming from.
Mark
More...
“Polanski: Unauthorized” is the latest from quadrupal-threat writer/producer/director/actor Damian Chapa. Perhaps he should let one or two of those titles go and focus more on the things he does well.
The movie itself, perhaps a familiar story to some, is based in the life of director Roman Polanski told non-linearly from his childhood in war-torn Poland to this arrest and 1st trial in the United States on rape charges.
The non-linearity is perhaps the most problematic here and also at times the most compelling giving a surreal and unsettling feel to the film. Initially, it’s jarring to jump from time era to time era; once you get into the story it becomes less of a problem and contributes the nightmarish nature of Polanski’s life. But the effect is ultimately that you’re distanced from the central character a great deal because you’re only dipping into his life instead of working through chunk sequences of it. You never really get a strong sense of where he’s at emotionally at any given time.
One example is after Tate’s horrible murder. I never was able to lock onto how that impacted him except for the occasional shadowy figures who haunted him while he was having sex with the 13-yr-old girl he was accused of raping.
Another example is a scene where the young Polanski steals some bread and kicks a soldier between the legs to escape being caught. While this would have made a good point earlier in the film, the way it’s inserted (and I do mean inserted with little art,) very late in the film, has no point. We know by now that the young boy has been living on his own and his parents have been victims of death camps so why show this? What is the point? Also, a scene where Polanski’s mother spits in the face of her German tormentors, while powerful in its execution, had no real story pertinence for me.
Too many times, Chapa shows us material that we’ve either already covered or don’t need to see. This is a problem throughout. I think what was needed was for Chapa to step back and allow a screenwriter to at least tweak the material. The writer/director/producer/actor mantel in this case creates an incestuous relationship with the material and ends up weakening it.
There is no doubt that Polanksi has had an interesting and terrifying life. From his childhood as a war refugee to the Manson cult murdering his wife and unborn child, the man himself has suffered enough physical and emotional pain to make strong men cringe. I wish I had a bit more insight into the man himself, though, rather than leave it to cliches like “I am who I am.”
Chapa tries to point to a sort of “deal with the Devil” in the form of Anton LaVey - the founder of the Satanic church who was supposedly the technical advisor for the film “Rosemary’s Baby.” But there is no credible evidence that Levay had anything to do with the film and then, as detailed in this film, the subsequent Tate-Labianca murders that occurred in Hollywood while Polanski was apparently partying in London to satisfy his urge to “have a little fun” before he settled down to fatherhood. Or something like that.
I’m not saying any of this is easy to do in a film. I know from experience how difficult it is to create a fictionalized account of someone’s life. But that’s the task. Bring insight - don’t just report. Perhaps had this story been told with more linearity we could have come away with more understanding - but as it sits, it’s too hard to maintain the many story threads and come to any sort of a conclusion about the man.
The acting is credible. Chapa went for actors and actresses who looked like the famous people in Polanski’s life like Sharon Tate and Mia Farrow - he himself playing a credible Polanski - but the dude doing Sinatra was although the substitution of an actor to play Frank Sinatra in one sequence was frighteningly awful. He didn’t look, sound or act like Sinatra and it took you right out of the moment which was silly and non-essential anyway.
I would recommend “Polanski: Unauthorized” but only barely. Perhaps had Mr. Chapa managed to make the Q&A at the Regency Theater I could have asked him about some of these hesitations. Unfortunately, he was hung up on business elsewhere and had to cancel his appearance.
No doubt the film will benefit from the recent news of Polanski’s arrest in Switzerland but I question how many people actually care about this man’s story? I was but I’m a film person.
So to those who have any interest in director Polanski, this movie will fill some holes. Otherwise, it’s a decent film but not nearly as compelling as it could have been.
The pilot of “V” was like watching a compilation reel of bits of a 2 hour movie compressed into 44 minutes. Although one review I read about the way the narrative threads were complied to introduce the aliens and set up the show complimented the technique, I found the introduction of the aliens and the way the world responded to be less than engaging - like eating a sandwich made of air.
Yeah, I know - it’s an old story - especially since this is a remake of the 1983 series - but who remembers that storyline? We do, I guess since we're only really given the thumbnails of this current story: Aliens come to Earth, offer miracles of technology, and like some old-timey hippie gurus with interstellar VW busses, promise nothing but love and prosperity for all mankind. And we for the most part buy into it.
So why spend any time setting any of that up, right? I mean, why not just cut to the chase and have the pretty Anna alien actress come out on stage before the episode opens and say "Once upon a time..."
Story notes from producers:
1) 5 minutes to intro revolving cast of characters in thumbnails of who they are and their issues. Each, of course, representing a different demographic so all will bond with them.
2) 5 minutes to show the impending arrival of the alien ships shaking a lot of liquids in cups (I could have done with a lot less than this and more actual story.)
3) 5 minutes to show everyone looking up in wonderment and fear until the pretty girl alien makes an announcement that they’re not going to blast out butts back into the stoneage and...we’re out.
The people on street who were looking all pensive even clapped to signal the end of that whirlwind sequence.
Cut to: A few weeks? months? later and now we’re all buddies and taking the alien
express shuttlebus up to the mothership to take the grand tour and become indoctrinated to their wondrous technological achievements and love potions.
Thank God they set the parking brake on those ships hovering above the major cities because as fast as this story was moving, they could have slid right into next season when we’re probably going to have some alien-human hybrids or something similar who will split off and form their own series within a matter of five episodes of this one.
Nice. Cut. Got it. New deal. Moving on.
“V” isn’t horrible. It’s not great either. Like similar recent First Contact movies, I never felt like they got the setup scenario right of aliens visiting us. This one moves so quickly I really, honestly felt like someone had shot two hours and cut it back to one. Let’s not bore the audience with those tricky questions like how did these things get into our airspace without a major world alert and thousands of fighters being scrambled? Or, how did the governments of the world react to an invasion - that’s what it is, folks - an invasion, right? Or why weren’t there world-wide panics that destroyed the fabric of our societies? These are aliens, after all - creatures, no matter how pretty and charming, from another planet who posses tech that we can't even dream of. And everyone just opens their arms and says gimme a hug? Let's imagine how we'd treat an indigenous race that is far less superior to us. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Plus, you just gotta ask - hasn't anyone in this world ever seen any movies or TV? Don't they know about the thousands of shows that detail this sort of thing?
So by the end of the first 44 minutes, we know this:
- The aliens are benign.
- The aliens are not benign.
- They’ve actually been here for years and have been infiltrating our law enforcement, governments and Starbucks (probably.) Does this really make any sense that they just don’t kill us? No, but we’ll cover it by saying “they’re clever” and leave it at that.
- There is already a resistance of people trying to...what? That’s also not clear since it’s unlikely that the C4 they’ve gathered will make a major dent in those HUGE ships. Why has no one grabbed an alien, cut their skin off and posted the video on You Tube? Oh, wait - “Alien Autopsy” - they did! I get it now. No one believes the conspiracy nuts because the clever aliens probably seeded the Internet with wackos who no one could possibly believe and that has the effect of diminishing any actual conspiracy - or at least that would have been a nice sidebar to explore. Unfortunately, we had to spend the time that would have been “wasted” on story logic showing the pretty Anna alien (Morena Baccarin) casting (enigmatic) come-hither glances at the newscaster, equally pretty Scott Wolf.
- Aliens have cloned human skin over their reptilian skin and you can see it easily if you just cut them. I guess none of the V infiltrators ever got into an accident or cut their fingers slicing veggies in all the time they’ve been here. Lucky, huh? Yeah.
- There are nice aliens - ahhh - squishy lizards who like us (they really, really like us) and who will (deep breath and long exhalation) fall in deep, abiding love with hot, exotic-looking chicks and actually want to propose marriage. Gack!
I can’t say for sure that I’m going to watch any further. I’m sure there are many more fun surprises ahead as the storyline unrolls. My problem is I’m just not emotionally invested with any of these characters or their stories and there are enough holes to leave me cold toward continuing.
I always want the pilot of any series to rock. This one didn’t. When that happens, I tend not to give the series another look. But with “V” there was just enough good bits (including all the really pretty actors who did a credible job with this material) to make me ambivalent enough to perhaps give it one more shot.
Plus, did I mention all the hot alien babe eye-candy? Oohfah!
In the interim, well, let me tell the story of the American Revolution “V” style.
1) We don’t like King George.
2) We throw tea in the harbor.
3) We cross the Delaware in wooden boats.
4) We kick a** and win.
5) Cue national anthem at World Series games...
"District 9" (or D9 as they call it in the movie,) is a film with moments of heart. That makes up a bit for the total lack of logic in the plot. And I do mean total. Again, I don't do spoiler alerts so read on if you don't care (yes, I know that in itself is a spoiler alert - clever me.)
Okay, so we've got interstellar aliens who manage to cross parsecs of space in a ship that's the size of a city and yet we humans have to rescue this seemingly simple-minded race from themselves. Aliens, "prawns" - they look more like roaches to me - can't seem to manage actually getting out of their ship once it sorta "lands" on Earth. No, of course they logically hover around for a few days or weeks until we have to cut into the ship and find them all milling around, malnourished, in the ballroom - or whatever they're all doing when we cut this ship open using...well, I guess it doesn't matter - that bit of logic is left out too. A ship that large that can also tolerate the enormous stresses of outer space and Earth gravity can't possibly stand up to our titanium-bladed Black and Deckers.
We take them (hundreds!) and their incredibly powerful weapons (that they can't seem to figure out how to use on a race that's basically enslaving them and treating them like scum), and put them in a open-shanty town that ends up looking a lot like the slums of South Africa. Yes, yes, it's an apartheid metaphor - clever those filmmakers. Do they have bacteria? Who cares? Can they live in our atmosphere and gravity - we can find out - toss one outside. Are they susceptible to our bacteria and parasites? Dunno and don't care. Never mind that this is an ALIEN RACE that's visiting us - all we care about are their weapons - which we can't operate anyway because they're cleverly keyed to alien DNA - obviously the aliens thought ahead to when they'd meet us. Does no one think that this is the most monumental first contact in the history of mankind? Proof that life exists outside our solar system? How about we talk to them, treat them like the ambassadors from another world that they are, and find out all kind of stuff? Naw - that wouldn't suit the idiotic story the filmmakers contrive.
So years pass, they're mixing with other humans (even having sex with us - WTF? - How does that work exactly - I never saw any alien junk hanging from anything) and they've become garbage eaters - and we, of course, also eat them because some think we can absorb their essence (I am not making this up but unfortunately someone did.) When they're really good, we give them cat food (OMG) and they devour it like some idiotic animals - which they are, of course - I mean, certainly no one is worth talking to since whoever ran the ship apparently got lost in a "command module" and there's just stupid prawns left - unless you count this one alien dude who happens to use a bunch of discarded Earth technology to make holographic control modules and a mini-space ship under his shanty with his insectoid kid who is at least genius-level because he can run everything - and I mean everything, including a convenient exo-skeleton that comes out of nowhere so our human hero, who is turning alien - is that what that song "Turning Japanese" is really about? - can somehow fit into and make it work (because his DNA is mixed with alien DNA, doncha know?) and affect a rear-action while the alien dude and his son get to the mothership and promise to come back in three years for him. Huh? All those weapons - and I mean hundreds and hundreds of them - and this prawn can only think to get into the ship, go back to the home world, get his buddies and their baseball bats then come back to teach us Earthlings a lesson? Is nothing on that ship a weapon? He just made this amazing exo-skeleton out of old appliances that looks a lot like a cross between the movable crane in "Aliens" and the ED209 from "Robocop" and he can't do anything but fly home? Holy E.T.!
Argh!
It gets dumber. The prawns mentioned above have this mini-ship, see. They're gonna use it to get to the big-ass momma ship, still hovering over Johannesburg. But a Somali warlord (or some such shit) who is trading in prawn meat and useless alien weapons hits the mini-ship with an RPG and damages it thwarting the great escape. So what to do, what to do? I know, we'll just power up the holo-controls and bring the farging ship to us! And it'll suck the mini-ship up into the mama-ship and we'll escape while the human, in his exoskeleton, gets shot over and over again thereby providing a false emotional moment. Now why didn't we think of this in the first place? Hard to figure out - we aliens actually have the controls that will interface with the mothership and control it. And it has this neat tractor beam that can draw things up to it - like all the farging prawns. Now isn't that special? My Lord - the lapses in logic in this film were bigger than anything Michael Bay ever dreamed of in Transformers I/II. Isaac Asimov and the pioneers of scifi are collectively rolling around in their graves. Zombie Golden Age SciFi Writers come back from the dead and kill everyone in Hollywood. Film at eleven.
D9 is well-shot, well-acted, and visually stunning - but this is by far one of the dumber scifi films I've seen. Even "Alien Nation" was scads better - and I never *ever* thought I'd say that.
"District 9" is Alien Nation meets The Fly meets Transformers meets National Lampoon's anything vacation - and all those movies individually were better thought out. Even video games make more sense.
On Tuesday night (10.20.09) O.C. filmmaker Regina Crosby’s film “Teenage Dirtbag” screened at the Regency South Coast Village Theater. Since Ms Crosby has sold the distribution rights to the film to Universal (congrats due for that), and Universal has decided to take it direct to video, this was one of the rare times it could be seen big.
There was a Q&A with Director Crosby and Actor Michael Bradley after the screening led by Mark Sevi of the Orange County Screenwriters Association.
Thumbnail critique - a movie and evening worth the price of admission.
While Dirtbag isn’t a masterpiece and exhibts many flaws (including a choppy and inconsistent narrative thread,) Ms Crosboy shows a depth and breath of understanding of the human condition that finds its way into the small moments of this film. This is made even more amazing by the fact that this was her first produced script, and that Ms Crosby was tapped to direct only two days before the cameras were to roll - something that came as a complete shock to her when the producers of the film
suddenly released several of the crew including the original director just days before principal photography. Since there were already too many balls in the air to reschedule the shoot, the producers convinced Crosby, with no measurable directing experience, to step in.
To her unending credit, she did a masterful job wringing out powerful performances from her actors and getting great work from her crew. The film feels professional, works on many levels and manages to surprise even while delivering on the “expected” moments.
The story is somewhat basic, told non-linearly in the form of a long flashback: Cheerleader Girl from right side of tracks finds Freaky Boy from wrong side of the tracks interesting. Girl meets Jerk, Jerk turns out to be troubled, sensitive type, girl falls in love with him through his writing (they attend the same creative writing class) but ultimately turns on boy because she can’t be in love 
with Freaky Guy from wrong clique and, more importantly, he makes her feel things she does not want to feel - like life isn’t this tidy, comfortable package for everyone - and he has the physical and emotional wounds to show it.
Crosby never goes for the easy moments - the “Hollywood” moments all too expected these days. Even the “big” moments found in every drama in Crosby’s hands are tighter, smaller and much more personal - like you’re reading someone’s diary. A knife to the throat is diffused in a confusion of shouting and an unexpected release of
tension; the central characters, although experiencing what most of us would call deep, passionate love, never really kiss and in fact The Amber character, well-played by Israeli actress Noa Hegesh, has relations with a lot of young men but never the one who captures her heart and her mind.
A real find in this film is the male lead, Scott Michael Foster. When he is on stage you are never sure which way his smoldering energy will take him. I wish he had attended the screening so some insight into his process could have been explored. But watch for him - he’s the real deal and I promise he will be seen again and again.
Michael Bradley as the creative writing teacher was another revelation. His pitch perfect performance was so infused with veracity, you could swear he was actually a teacher in a classroom who simply had a camera embedded in the ceiling to capture his real creative writing classes.
A sharp soundtrack embraces, enhances, and keeps the action rolling without feeling like a constant music video. Lines like “your face brings me death every day, and every day I can’t wait to die ” or "I plead for normal between these walls, for hell to take the night off" (recited as poems in class) keep you thinking and listening to dialogue that beats out like simple truths.
One of the nice narrative techniques used to get the couple to learn about each other was the clever use of a notebook passed between them to communicate silently in study hall. This gave the exchanges a lot more intimacy and immediacy - in today's world it would be texting each other - and that notebook's contents would have been lost to the Amber character forever. Digital memories can be very fleeting unless they are saved properly and who bothers keeping texts? An old notebook, casually tossed into a box, can yield a real treasure of memories when it's uncovered years later. This was true for Amber and formed a vital endnote to the film.
Ms Crosby’s movie is as personal as her life. Inspired by true events (a legal definition,) 
the painful “true” events play out as a paean to physical and emotional pain at a time when the world is both electrifying and terrifying - in other words, high school. Dreams are born and shattered; love is gained and lost; and sometimes life ends more abruptly than ever imagined. You turn around and you’re having kids, paying mortgages and working a job you never imagined having. But there is that...summer - or that semester...or that one teacher or boy in the hall or girl at the football game who changed you for the better and worse. This then is the movie.
An odd phenomena of this film is that it truly gets better and more accessible with each viewing. I saw it three times - twice to do the Q&A and once in the theater. Each time I
found myself more involved and engaged with these lives. I noticed subtleties in the narrative and dialogue that had escaped me before. I’d even see this again to see what new information I could glean from this film and the subtle truths it presents.
There were times when I wished for a bit more insight about the back and forth between the couple but sometimes it can be good to allow the film to just present the moments and you fill in your truth.
Dirtbag is being released to video this week and in On Demand in some markets. See it. Don’t expect it to bowl you over - just to get under your skin and stay there.