David Styburski

DVD Review: Belgian ‘Left Bank’ is Short on Suspense

BrianTT — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 10:30:23 -0600

CHICAGO – “Left Bank” centers on` a woman whose apartment appears to be above a black hole, or a pit or something dark and deep like that. The Belgian horror outing (which has gone straight to DVD in the United States after playing in Chicago at the EU Film Fest) isn’t nearly as dumb as that synopsis makes it out to be, but in the end, that’s actually more of criticism than a compliment.

DVD Rating: 2.0/5.0

The laughably bad movies in the horror genre and even the “Saw”-inspired examples of torture porn at least succeed in provoking a reaction out of people. Pieter Van Hees’s film is too tasteful to breed disgust and too thin and slow-building to nurture suspense, let alone terror. At best, watching “Left Bank” is like riding on a bus late at night next to a mumbling drunk. You feel a little uncomfortable from time to time, but there’s never a sickening sense that anyone’s safety is truly at risk.

Left Bank was released on DVD on October 27th, 2009.
Photo credit: IFC Films

The young lady with the pit problem is Marie (Eline Kuppens), a 22-year-old runner on the verge of qualifying for the European Championships. Out of stubbornness, Marie overexerts herself in a race and is ordered to take a rest. Since she can’t bear to have her mother telling her what and what not to do, she decides to spend that time with her new boyfriend in the grubby-looking title town.

Soon after she settles in with Bobby (Matthias Schoenaerts), Marie’s luck and health worsen. She can’t sleep, she can’t stop throwing up, and when she starts running again, she suffers a seriously icky knee injury, complete with ever-present blood and pus. Could these misfortunes be related to the woman who lived in Marie’s unit before vanishing? And why was that woman so interested in what’s hidden in the cellar?

There’s little point in agonizing over those questions because Van Hees (working from a script co-written with Dimitri Karakatsanis) spends the first 80 percent of the movie putting Marie in situations that aren’t especially threatening. As Marie herself mentions, her nausea might just be a sign of pregnancy, and though it’s not entirely clear how she hurt her knee, she never acts as if the injury occurred under suspicious circumstances. In fact, she’s so far from being creeped out by her new environment that she doesn’t even try to leave until it’s her day to be sacrificed to the pit, or the black hole or whatever the heck it is.

Instead of sealing the story with doom, the answers to the aforementioned questions point to how much else in the narrative is left unsettled. If Marie is being subjected to some form of devilish curse, are the powers of evil coming from her specific apartment, her specific building, or from the community at large? If she’s to be part of a cult, was she chosen from the very beginning? And if so, how did anyone from Left Bank figure she’d be lured there? Are they responsible for the physical problems that jeopardized her career and led her to follow Bobby in the first place?

No doubt, some of these dangling mysteries might be solvable by replaying the film and hunting for the subtlest of clues. But once the main riddle is unraveled, bothering with the rest of them hardly seems worth the effort.

‘Left Bank’ is released by IFC Films and it stars Eline Kuppens and Matthias Schoenaerts. It was written by Pieter Van Hees & Dimitry Karakatsanis and directed by Van Hees. It was released on October 27th, 2009. It is not rated.

By DAVID STYBURSKI
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com

DVD Review: ‘Il Divo’ Explores the Bloody Trenches of Italian Politics

BrianTT — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 22:39:25 -0600

CHICAGO – Since the totality of what I know about Italian politics could fit inside a fortune cookie, I’d normally be inclined to demand that films on the subject keep it simple by not utilizing too many characters and not bothering with a complicated plot that spans roughly fifteen years. But the slick “Il Divo” didn’t have me pleading with writer director Paolo Sorrentino to slow down so that I could catch up with its history.

DVD Rating: 3.0/5.0

Instead, I remained gripped by the movie, embarrassed at how my lack of expertise prevented me from appreciating it to the fullest extent possible. Sorrentino’s picture is brutally gritty yet mature in the manner of a Coppola or Scorsese production, and while I spent a lot of time unsure of who was who and what was actually happening to them, I never lost interest in trying to piece it all together.

The film boldly depicts the fierce political life of Giulio Andreotti, a center-right Italian senator who served in many posts during his 50-plus years in government, including several stints as the country’s prime minister. We Americans may believe we’ve had our share of survivors (the Clintons, the Kennedys), people who have managed to retain their hold on power long after a juicy scandal. Well, we’ve never had a national figure like this guy, and if the events dramatized in the film are close to the truth, here’s hoping we never do.

Il Divo will be released on Blu-Ray and DVD on October 27th, 2009.
Photo credit: MPI Home Video

For years, rumors swirled around Andreotti and his connections to murders of rival lawmakers, unsympathetic journalists and others who stood between him and his love of a neatly ordered society. Though he may not have authorized anyone’s death, he definitely knew some sinful dudes and certainly didn’t do everything in his power to protect his foes from physical harm.

The action in “Il Divo” takes place in the early ‘90s, when those accusations became too big for courts to ignore and when the floor beneath him and his cronies began to crumble.

All the stress that comes with being a ruthless political warrior had left Andreotti with a seemingly permanent migraine, but Toni Servillo plays him here as someone for whom displays of emotion were treated like a weakness. In spite of a monstrous reputation, Andreotti barely even raises his voice during the film’s first 75 minutes. In place of devious smiles and gruesome snarls, he communicates his approval or displeasure through a series of subtle hand gestures near his lap.

With its parliamentary votes and back-room deals among party factions, there’s enough inside baseball in the story to make an uninformed audience’s head spin. Nearly everyone in the film is obsessed with politics without uttering a word about policy, and there are few hints at what an Andreotti government meant for the average citizen or what sorts of accomplishments or opportunities allowed this uncharismatic figure to become such an unbeatable beast. Every now and then, I’d cross my fingers and hope that Robert DeNiro would appear as a young Andreotti to detail the man’s rise to power. At the very least, a straightforward documentary on the rest of Andreotti’s early life would’ve been a valuable addition to the American DVD.

However, for all the minutiae that’s lost in translation, the movie oozes dark energy. In the absence of verbal outbursts, we get a soundtrack of threatening drum solos, gunshots and rock and roll. And although the action often moves too quickly to catch the name of every Andreotti ally, there’s always a sense that these people are doing shady deals and half-expecting to be sleeping with the fishes at any moment.

If you’re looking for an excuse to brush up on the history of foreign governments, here’s your chance.

‘Il Divo’ is released by MPI Home Video and it stars Toni Servillo Anna and Bonaiuto Guilio Bosetti. It was written and directed by Paolo Sorrentino. It will be released on October 27th, 2009. It is not rated.

By DAVID STYBURSKI
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com

DVD Review: ‘Cheri’ Knows Love Isn’t Love if It’s All About You

BrianTT — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 14:57:59 -0600

CHICAGO – “Cheri” could be confused with an updated adaptation of a Jane Austen novel if its characters weren’t so comfortable with what goes on between the sheets. Like players in many stuffy costume dramas, they wear the best clothes, live in lavishly decorated homes and speak their perfect grammar in posh accents. But since they aren’t sexually repressed, they do it all with a little bounce in their step.

DVD Rating: 3.5/5.0

The story, taken from a few novels by Colette, takes place in early-twentieth century France, and it would appear that even in those days, people in that part of the world made members of other cultures look like a bunch of prudes. A woman like Michelle Pfeiffer’s Lea de Lonval, for example, could not only make a career out of prostitution without seeming the least bit trashy. She could come home to a tasteful estate where maids and butlers refer to her as “Madame” without so much as a hint of irony.

Madame Peloux (Kathy Bates) lives in even grander style and used to compete with Lea for business among horny dukes and other dignitaries. But she’s retired now and has tuned her attention to her pretty-boy brat of a son (Rupert Friend in the title role). “I can’t criticize his character,” one of Peloux’s friends says of the ever-pouting Cheri, “because he doesn’t seem to have one.”

Cheri will be released on DVD on October 20th, 2009.
Photo credit: Buena Vista Home Video

Aiming to whip him into a more gentlemanly shape, Peloux gently pushes Cheri toward Lea, and the two have an extended, informal affair in spite of a 30-year age difference. Neither one seems to invest much emotion into the relationship. It’s just a little harmless sex until Cheri agrees to marry a younger woman for money, causing him and Lea to take turns fighting back jealousy and neediness.

Lea and Cheri aren’t soul mates in the most romantic sense, but they’re the kind of hopelessly flawed people whose brand of selfishness makes them deserve each other. They each view sex as power, and for lack of experience, they’ve mistaken their love of that power for love of another person. If the chemistry between Pfeiffer and Friend feels temperate at best, it’s because this is a movie about possession rather than passion.

Friend probably has the more straightforward of the two central roles, that of a spoiled man-child who has been treated like God’s gift to women and believes his own press. He may not want Lea forever, but he’ll be damned if anyone else is going to be considered worthy of her.

Pfeiffer’s job is trickier, requiring her to play someone who ought to be somewhat self-aware at her age yet is still struggling to identify what she feels and why. Lea’s experiences with high-brow clients have given her the demeanor of a worldly lady, but her profession has left her out of touch with matters of the heart. Lust is not love, but because she has trained herself to avoid acknowledging them for so long, she can’t tell the difference. When she claims to yearn for Cheri, she is really pining for the way she was able to dominate him and the way his youthful beauty made her feel young and pretty by association.

Director Stephen Frears and screenwriter Christopher Hampton (who collaborated with Pfeiffer years ago on “Dangerous Liaisons”) respect their audience enough not to stretch the scenario into a sappy love story, in which Lea and Cheri are Romeo and Juliet or even Harold and Maude. At a lean 93 minutes and with Bates popping in with a somewhat larger-than-life performance, their film is paced almost like a comedy. It’s the right tone for characters who are interesting enough to observe but a tad too shallow to warrant pity.

The DVD includes two deleted scenes and ten minutes of interviews with the cast and crew.

‘Cheri’ is released by Miramax Home Video and stars Michelle Pfeiffer, Rupert Friend, and Kathy Bates. It was written by Christopher Hampton and directed by Stephen Frears. The film will be released on DVD on October 20th, 2009. It is rated R.

By DAVID STYBURSKI
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com

DVD Review: ‘Lymelife’ is the Same Old Story

BrianTT — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 11:27:39 -0600

CHICAGO – Only a few short weeks ago, I sat through the two-hour shrug-fest that is Ang Lee’s “Taking Woodstock” and lamented how so many of the film’s interactions between parents and the younger generation were played for cartoonish laughs instead of striving for the haunting poignancy of the director’s 1997 family drama “The Ice Storm.” Well, upon viewing Derick Martini’s “Lymelife,” I determined that the cliché is true: Be careful what you wish for.

DVD Rating: 2.0/5.0

Look at Lee’s film and Martini’s back to back, and you’ll note that their basic outlines are practically one and the same: In the 1970s, somewhere in the eastern United States, two married people have an affair, while the teenage son of one adulterer and the teenage daughter of the other begin to explore their own sexuality and indulge in the occasional drug. Mom and Dad probably have a good idea of what their kids are up to, but they don’t bother with any disciplinary actions. After all, how can a man chastise a boy when what the man is doing is much worse by comparison?

Lymelife was released on DVD on September 22nd, 2009.
Photo credit: Screen Media

Both films also give the cheating husband two children; one who is older and spends most of his time away from the unhappy household, and a younger child who will probably remain stuck in the dysfunctional environment until college provides an escape.

In the case of “Lymelife”, the younger sibling is Scott (Rory Culkin), a sad and awkward kid whose misfortunes include getting beaten up in front of the girl he can’t stop thinking about. Scott still worships his father, a big-shot real estate developer who spends more time at the office than at home. But older brother Jim (Kieran Culkin) has been off in the Army and developed an outsider’s take on his family that doesn’t disregard his pop’s faults. Their father (a reliably slimy and charming Alec Baldwin) isn’t doing much to hide his philandering with the mother of Scott’s female friend (Cynthia Nixon) and acts as if the material wealth he provides for his wife somehow makes up for neglecting and embarrassing his long-suffering spouse.

There is, of course, some plot-related details that separate Martini’s film from Lee’s, but the two most substantive differences pertain to the appeal of the movies’ young protagonists and the degree to which every character is likely to be forever changed by what we see onscreen.

Lymelife was released on DVD on September 22nd, 2009.
Photo credit: Screen Media

In role after role in movies like “You Can Count on Me” and “Mean Creek,” Rory Culkin showed an ability to make us believe that the boys he was portraying understood much more than would be expected at a given age. Here, though, he’s saddled with a character who can’t read situations well, rarely speaks and usually says the wrong thing when he does. It isn’t just that Scott becomes nervously tongue-tied in front of an attractive schoolmate. It’s that, rather than being capable of figuring it out for himself, he has to be told by his girlfriend that his father has had sex with someone in the next room. It’s that he brags to his mother about his father’s professional successes while being totally oblivious to her emotional discomfort. It’s not a case of denial. It’s naivete bordering on stupidity.

Granted, many of us probably weren’t the brightest of bulbs at Scott’s age, but the filmmakers don’t do him any favors by also making him dull. Unlike Jim, Scott doesn’t appear to be a charismatic person whose true identity will emerge once he gets out of that house. He’s a plain, puberty-stricken teen with a tendency to brag about sex he hasn’t had and drugs he hasn’t taken. Maybe a longer cut of the film contained scenes that could’ve proven me wrong, but the many deleted segments available on DVD certainly don’t do it.

The main character’s shortcomings might not have mattered so much if the director and screenwriters had found something new to say about marriage, parenthood or adolescence, or at least a more eloquent way of communicating old ideas. Martini and his brother Steven based some of the screenplay on their childhoods, and if they experienced the same unpleasantness as Scott, I hope they found the process of making the movie therapeutic. Still, my guess is that the lessons learned in this story (that some parents are cheaters, that some marriages are close to loveless, and that being an adult can be tough) will already be familiar to those who watch it. If not, there are plenty of better films that say the same things.

‘Lymelife’ is released by Screen Media Home Video and stars Alec Baldwin, Rory Culkin, Kieran Culkin, Jill Hennessey, Timothy Hutton, Cynthia Nixon, and Emma Roberts. It was written by Derick and Steven Martini and directed by Derick Martini. The film was released on DVD on September 22nd, 2009. It is rated R.

By DAVID STYBURSKI
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com

DVD Review: ‘O’Horten’ Tells of One Odd Fellow

BrianTT — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:27:28 -0600

CHICAGO – The problem with defining yourself by your job, as anyone in this god-awful economy might tell you, is that you probably won’t work forever. Odd Horten, the kind yet unexcitable title character in a strange, little Norwegian comedy by Bent Hamer, has steered locomotives for 40 years, and if you were to take the trains out of this simple fellow’s life, there wouldn’t be much left.

DVD Rating: 2.5/5.0

How devoted is Odd to his occupation? Well, he shuns driving cars and traveling by plane, and he loves wearing his uniform even while off duty. Heck, the guy lives in a house where railroad tracks are literally outside his living room window.

Of course, most of Odd’s friends work on trains too, and they love their jobs as much as he does. For kicks, they’ll get together, listen to recordings of locomotives and quiz one another about the number of bridges on a particular route.

O’Horten was released on DVD on September 22nd, 2009.
Photo credit: Sony Pictures Home Video

But Odd’s career has come to its final stop. At 67, he’s reached mandatory retirement age, and his colleagues have bought him a nice honorary plaque and saluted him with one final group chant of “Choo! Choo!”

Now with no obligations, no hobbies, no wife and no kids, Odd seems destined to spend the rest of his days not unlike how his elderly mother spends hers, staring unresponsively out the window for hours and eating the occasional grape.

Then again, maybe not. The newfound free time has to be filled somehow, so we follow Odd as he attempts some simple chores and becomes steadily more adventurous. Odd buys a new pipe. Odd sells his boat. Odd goes to the airport. Odd rides in a car with a driver whose eyes are closed.

It’s all gentle and quirky, and Bard Owe’s ready smile and graying mustache give Odd a grandfatherly appeal that keeps this solitary man from appearing the least bit icy. But upon considering the importance of work to the main character, it seems inappropriate for the film to be so lacking in dramatic heft. There are no stumbles along the way, no unexpected barriers put in place to prevent Odd from loosening up, no moment when the audience is asked to provide any strength for him. Just some sweet episodes that, for all we know, could’ve been concocted by Hamer long before he ever dreamed up this reserved retiree.

Contrast that, if you will, with Alexander Payne’s “About Schmidt,” a film that addressed a similar story in a comedic vein yet somehow managed to be so much richer in emotional content. After Warren Schmidt bid farewell to the daily grind, the family problems that he had ignored during his career started tearing his life apart. His journey was alternately depressing and uplifting and unexpectedly worthy of a good cry. And if that doesn’t sound quirky enough for you, you’ve never seen Kathy Bates in a nude scene with Jack Nicholson.

The special features on the DVD of “O’Horten” are a trailer and a 10-minute interview that’s split between Hamer and composer John Erik Kaada. Whoop de doo.

‘O’Horten’ is released by Sony Pictures Home Video and stars Bard Owe, Espen Skjonberg, and Ghita Norby. It was written and directed by Bent Hamer. The film was released on DVD on September 22nd, 2009. It is rated PG-13.

By DAVID STYBURSKI
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com

DVD Review: The Insignificance of ‘Important Things With Demetri Martin’

BrianTT — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 09:12:54 -0600

CHICAGO – The inaugural sketch in the first season of Comedy Central’s “Important Things With Demetri Martin” takes place on a movie set where an actor knows his lines but can’t summon the proper emotions to make them believable. The character calls his unfaithful girlfriend some nasty names in what is supposed to be a fit of fury, but the words coming out of his mouth are said in a nonchalant, nearly cheery tone. If you didn’t know any better, you’d assume he’s arguing with her over who forgot to pick up the dry cleaning rather than who’s been sleeping with whom.

DVD Rating: 2.5/5.0

Oddly enough, the premise of that fictional bit gets to the heart of what prevents this modestly charming series from being more than merely something to watch when nothing else is on. For all his cleverness and experience working crowds, Martin appears remarkably uncomfortable on camera, almost as if he were trying to remember his next line instead of milking the one at hand for all its giggly possibilities. Particularly in segments that allow him to do a standup routine, there’s an absence of punctuation in his voice to the point where every joke sounds like a throwaway gag from a meatier act. Martin isn’t delivering punch lines. He’s giving his audience verbal love taps.

Important Things With Demetri Martin: Season One was released on DVD on September 8th, 2009.
Photo credit: Paramount Home Video

Subdued recitations of one-liners have been successful for other comics, namely Steven Wright. But the important difference between Wright and Martin is that Wright’s extremely deadpan demeanor contrasted in every way with the extreme silliness of his material. Martin, on the other hand, doesn’t completely commit to that contrast. He’ll tell a moderately goofy joke in a calm voice and then let a moderately goofy grin form on his face. Instead of seeming the least bit subversive, his act comes across as cute.

Important Things With Demetri Martin: Season One was released on DVD on September 8th, 2009.
Photo credit: Paramount Home Video

To its credit, “Important Things” contains enough variety for viewers who might be less than impressed with Martin as a standup. Animation, musical numbers, long-form sketches, commercial parodies and oddball segues suggest that the show’s star has a solid writing staff behind him and reveal his knack for ridiculous physical comedy. For my money, 10 seconds of Martin playing a martial arts expert struggling to open a new pair of headphones is more rewarding than any of his spoken gags. A phony infomercial for rat poison involving rodent-on-rodent jihad is as naughtily absurd as anything on “Saturday Night Live” or “Real Time With Bill Maher.”

Those moments, and a few others, help explain what Conan O’Brien and Jon Stewart saw in Martin and his writers when they hired them for staff positions on “Late Night” and “The Daily Show.” O’Brien, of course, was barely a performer when he was tapped for his own show in the early ‘90s, and he spent years getting whacked by critics before finding his comfort zone. Maybe something similar will happen to Martin. He seems to be aware of what’s funny. He just hasn’t figured out the best way to present it.

For fans of “Important Things,” the DVD contains 20 minutes of deleted scenes. For aspiring comedy writers, commentary from the cast and crew hints at how difficult it is to put on a weekly comedy program, let alone a good one.

‘Important Things With Demetri Martin: Season One’ is released by Paramount Home Video and stars Demetri Martin. The DVD was released on September 8th, 2009. It is not rated.

By DAVID STYBURSKI
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com

DVD Review: ‘Silent Light’ Rewards Those With Patience

BrianTT — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 08:23:13 -0600

CHICAGO – Proving that its title is at least partially appropriate, “Silent Light” is loaded with torturous durations of quiet. The cinematographer shoots a landscape. A clock ticks and tocks. A family closes their eyes in prayer at the breakfast table. And for the first 10 minutes or so, you twist your face in bewilderment and wonder if writer-director Carlos Reygadas is playing an Andy Kaufman-esque prank on his audience, as if to say, “Go ahead. Stop watching. I dare you.”

DVD Rating: 4.5/5.0

Then a father breaks down in tears, dialogue starts trickling into the story, and it becomes clear that absolutely none of it was a joke. After a good half-hour, we understand that while the film’s characters are doing little and saying even less, their minds are always active to a strenuous degree. They dwell on their very painful problems, and thanks to the movie’s stubborn pacing, we’re forced to do the same.

Silent Light was released on DVD on September 8th, 2009.
Photo credit: Palisades/Tartan Video

It’s a joyless task but also one that reveals how respectful the film is toward people who have known a love that is equally terrifying and untamable, the kind that seems guaranteed to result in someone getting hurt. After all, when they hit, such extreme emotions don’t tend to pass easily. They can monopolize people’s thought at all times, including during the most mundane and tedious of tasks.

Silent Light was released on DVD on September 8th, 2009.
Photo credit: Palisades/Tartan Video

For Johan, a Mexican farmer in a Mennonite community, that means being helplessly focused on love while maintaining his fields. It means having it in his head as he bathes his children in a creek. It means being speechlessly lost in it while folding his hands and attempting to give thanks for a meal.

Johan (Cornelio Wall) is married to Esther (Miriam Toews) but has been having a long-term affair with Marianne (Maria Pankratz). Esther is aware of Marianne, and Marianne is aware of Esther. Yet the women swallow their anger and misgivings respectively and seem intent on having Johan decipher his true desires without much help.

Reygadas and his group of non-professional actors aren’t so bold as to request much sympathy for Johan, but they’re skilled and introspective enough to play fair with his feelings. Though giving into temptations might make him and Marianne selfish creatures, it would be inaccurate to deem them heartless human beings. The ache of their guilt is as palpable as their passion, and as they remove their shirts and simply hold their imperfect bodies close together, it’s obvious that theirs is a relationship built on something besides lust and convenience. Marianne succinctly calls their days as a couple “the saddest time of my life, but also the best,” and Johan can’t disagree.

Esther, meanwhile, is more than just a subject for her husband and his mistress to discuss in the third person. At one point, she flees into a pounding rain to weep and grabs hold of a tree as if it were her only lover. She barely utters a sentence while getting drenched by raindrops and tears. But like so many other moments in “Silent Light,” no words are required. We know she deserves better, and Johan knows it, too.

Special features on the DVD version of “Silent Light” include some seemingly aimless on-set footage and an informal interview with Wall. As a country singer, he apparently ain’t half-bad.

‘Silent Light’ is released by Palisades/Tartan Home Video and stars Cornelio Wall and Miriam Toews. It was written and directed by Carlos Reygadas. It was released on September 8th, 2009. It is not rated.

By DAVID STYBURSKI
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com