1950’S Style

Two movies on the blogoscope today, both set in the 1950’s, but worlds apart.



Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull


Let’s start with the biggie: “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.” I figure you either love Steven Spielberg’s cliffhanging archeology adventure series or you’re ambivalent. Put me in the latter group. Here’s what I liked about the latest Indy: the first half hour, with the appearance of Cate Blanchette as Col. Dr. Irina Spalko, a psychic KGB agent, sort of a cross between Lotte Lenya’s Rosa Klebb (“From Russian With Love”) and Bettie Page. It also features a nifty scene in which Indy finds himself in a picture-perfect suburban community, the kind Spielberg grew up in, only this one is populated by mannequins, and – uh oh -- there’s an atom bomb test about to go off.

Commies, cold war paranoia and nuke tests create an intriguing time-frame for Indy – but the second half of the movie sinks into the all-too familiar string of Spielbergian special effects, in which Indy and friends (Shia LaBeouf, Karen Allen and John Hurt) do the usual cobwebby tomb crawling. There’s not much else to recommend this seemingly endless series of chases and CGI. As I said, you either love this stuff or you don’t. It’s rated PG-13, which seems about right.


Honeydripper

Now to a much smaller and slower-paced picture, set in 1951 and true to its historic setting -- despite being a pure fable.

John Sayles wrote, directed and edited “Honeydripper,” another in his long line of movies featuring ensemble casts confronting personal and social issues (among others, “Return of the Secaucus Seven,” “Lone Star” and ”Eight Men Out”). In “Honeydripper,” we’re in segregated, rural Alabama, where Tyrone “Pinetop” Perkins (Danny Glover), the owner of a fading blues joint, faces financial ruin from the glitzier competition up the road. In a desperation move, Tyrone bets it all on a star, hiring New Orleans legend Guitar Sam to play the Honeydripper club for one Saturday night to try and turn things around. Will Sam show up? And how can we tell if he does, since it seems no one in the small town of Harmony has ever seen him?

Rooting for Perkins are his wife Delilah (Lisa Gay Hamilton), daughter China Doll (the sweet Yaya DaCosta) and trusty bartender Maceo (Charles S. Dutton), each of whom comes across as a likeable and memorable character. There are also some wild cards in this deck: the Sheriff (Stacy Keach), a sack of southern prejudice with particular tastes; Sonny (Gary Clark Jr.), a handsome drifter with a guitar who befriends the Perkins family and winds up in a heap of trouble; and Possum (blues musician Keb’ Mo’), a mysterious presence who seems to materialize out of nowhere and sees all that is going on despite being blind. Is he the Greek chorus, the Devil or the ghost of Robert Johnson? Who knows?

There are a good number of lesser supporting characters in this grown-up fairy tale as well, but the most resounding presence is the music itself. From beginning to end, we are treated to a variety of songs, from traditional blues to high-energy R & B, in one of the most enjoyable soundtracks since “O Brother Where Art Thou.” The movie itself takes its own sweet time – Sayles is a literary as well as a visual artist -- but builds up to a satisfying finale. It’s also rated PG-13.

YOUNG @ HEART

A group of senior citizens takes the stage. One elderly woman steps up to the mike and lets out a howl, as the group launches into the Clash’s “Should I Stay Or Should I Go.”
That’s the opening of a wonderful movie called “Young @ Heart,” a smart, heart-warming antidote to big-budget summer blockbusters.

The movie was made by director Stephen Walker and an English TV crew who spent seven weeks in Northampton, Massachusetts, documenting the rehearsals of a unique group of old people, who have dedicated themselves to covering a wide range of rock songs. And I do mean wide: through the course of this movie, you’ll hear everything from the BeeGee’s “Stayin’ Alive” to the Talking Heads’ “Life During Wartime.” You’ll also get to know some some of the 24-member Young@Heart ensemble (average age 81), and their untiring and inventive music director, Bob Cilman.

The plot, such as it is, centers around the group’s preparations for an upcoming concert. Cilman is determined to teach them three new songs: Allen Toussaint’s “Yes We Can Can,” Sonic Youth’s “Schizophrenia” and James Brown’s “I Feel Good.” (See what I mean about eclectic music choices?) But to Cilman’s dismay, the group has trouble with every one of these new numbers. Case in point: there are 71 “cans” in “Yes We Can Can,” and the singers just can’t get them all straight. Even greater obstacles loom ahead, as some group members become ill, and even die. Can the show go on?

I won’t reveal much more, except to say that there are moments in this movie that will have you in tears, and others that will have you laughing and cheering. One such moment comes when the group gives a practice concert at the county jail – and is greeted by hugs from the hardened inmates. There’s not a dry eye in the jail (or in the movie theater) when the group performs Bob Dylan’s great blessing/anthem, “Forever Young.” These old people are full of life and their unusual musical direction has plugged them into a socket of seemingly boundless energy and merriment. As one observer notes, “I’ll never complain again about feeling too old or too tired.”

Go see this movie. Bring the family, old and young. You may never look at older people the same way again. Who knows, they may be practicing some Kinks tunes.

“Young @ Heart” is rated PG, possibly because of the sophisticated music selection.

Twin Bill

BEAUFORT

This tense, tough war movie is a modern classic. It’s about a small detachment of Israeli soldiers defending a 12th Century crusader castle in southern Lebanon in 2000. But after 18 years of bloody occupation, the Israeli army is pulling out of Lebanon – and these are the last guys left. The movie never raises the question, but the implication is clear: as the GIs said in Vietnam, who wants to be the last soldier to die here?

The Israelis have gotten used to daily barrages of mortar fire, more a nuisance than an outright threat, but when Hezbollah fighters up the ante with US-made missiles, things start to look very dicey. When an appealing young soldier is killed by a roadside bomb, the officer in charge, Liraz (Oshri Cohen) begins to crack under the pressure. The countdown begins to their ultimate withdrawal, but first they will mine the entire fortress with high explosives. Then they’re told to stay put for at least another day – and the tension ratchets even higher. We never see the enemy in this war movie, but we always know they’re out there, somewhere in that beautiful mountain landscape.

Joseph Cedar directed and co-wrote the screenplay with Ron Lesham, who wrote a novel about his real life experience in a situation very much like this one. “Beaufort” was nominated for an Academy Award for best foreign language film (it’s in Hebrew). Look, I know you’re probably not going to run down to the Movies on Exchange Street to see this one, but look for it in your next Netflix order.

It’s rated R for realistic warfare.


HAROLD AND KUMAR ESCAPE FROM GUANTANAMO BAY

Now for something completely different. I really enjoyed the rude, crude humor of the first Harold and Kumar movie. Harold Lee (John Cho) and Kumar Patel (Kal Penn) are sort of a stoner Abbott and Costello, bickering buddies who get into all sorts of hot water over the smallest issues.

In “Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle,” the two set out on a quest for burgers that seemed to go on forever. In this new one, they’re on a plane for Amsterdam when their bong is mistaken for a bomb, and before they know it they’re in orange jumpsuits at Gitmo. The humor here is pretty dark: Guantanamo is seen as a cross between a medieval dungeon and a homosexual rape camp, a broad and unfunny reference to Abu Ghraib, I suppose.

Fortunately for H & K, their sojourn in Cuba is cut short and off they go on another cross-country quest, in search of someone who will get them out of this mess. They are pursued by an implacable moron from the Department of Homeland Security (“Daily Show” alum Rob Corddry), and along the way encounter some moderately amusing characters, including a Texas madam (Beverly D’Angelo), a Ku Klux Klan Wizard (“Law and Order SVU” star Chris Meloni, using a fake name in the credits) and President Bush hisself (James Adomian).

This edition of the Harold and Kumar series was written and directed by Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, who co-wrote but did not direct the original. Maybe that’s why I felt this one was bogged down by leaden humor and slow-moving gags. Oh, it has its moments, particularly when the Rob Corddry’s character comes up against the very Americanized parents of the two fugitives and has an interpreter address Harold’s family in pidgin-Korean, even when they respond in perfect American English. In fact, the real subversive joy of the Harold and Kumar movies is not the grossout gags, but the fact that a Korean-American and an Indian-American are the new faces of American comedy.

Rated R for sexual and scatological humor.

The Visitor

If heavy metal movies like “Iron Man” or “Speed Racer” are not to your taste, may we suggest a smaller, more digestible film, perhaps? My pick in that category is “The Visitor,” a quiet, careful and compelling little movie with some noteworthy performances and a powerful message.

I am always interested in movies that were written and directed by the same person; they are usually personal statements that resonate, in contrast to the committee and focus group-helmed productions that often suffer from terminal bloat. “The Visitor” was written and directed by Thomas McCarthy, a multi-talented young fellow who has appeared in supporting roles in dozens of movies and TV shows, and also wrote and directed the delightfully offbeat 2003 movie, “The Station Agent.”

As with “Smart People,” “The Visitor’s” central character is a disenchanted college professor. Walter Vale (Richard Jenkins) is a quiet man, a widower as solitary in the campus cafeteria as in his empty suburban home. When circumstances require him to attend a conference in New York City, he returns to the small apartment he and his wife shared there, only to find it occupied by a young immigrant couple. Tarak (Haaz Sleiman) is Syrian, his girlfriend Zainab (Danai Gurira) is Senegalese. At first, Walter wants to throw the squatters out on the street, but he soon relents and before long is sharing the apartment with them.

Tarak plays the Tabl, a Syrian drum, with a jazz trio in the Village. Charming and gregarious, he begins to instruct the reserved professor in drumming and starts to thaw this frozen personality. Zainab, who makes jewelry and sells it on the street, is wary of the older American now living in the apartment, but is willing to go along with Tarak. There is a wonderful drum session in Central Park. Then a sudden twist of fate turns this movie into a very different story, one that soon involves Tarak’s mother, played by the elegant Israeli Palestinian actress Hiam Abbass.

I won’t give away what happens, but I can tell you that you won’t soon forget the outcome of this movie. There are many quiet pleasures to be had in “The Visitor,” not the least of which is the New York backdrop. The characters are believable and human, beautifully underplayed by a strong cast. There are moments of great joy and a powerful undercurrent of sadness. Life is like that.

“The Visitor” is a perfect little movie for an imperfect world. It’s rated PG-13 for adult language and situations.

Iron Man

Better get this one posted quickly, because the entire country will have seen this movie by next weekend. It already did $100-million in its first two days, and guess what: your movie ticket is money well spent.

That's because with only a few missteps, this movie is everything a summer blockbuster should be. It's action-packed, has terrific special effects and most of all it's a ton of fun to watch, thanks to a hip director (John Favreau, of "Swingers" fame) and a top-drawer cast. Heading that A-list is Robert Downey Jr., the coolest cat ever to play a super hero.

Downey has so much fun as playboy arms billionaire Tony Stark that I almost hated to see him become all grim and determined when he donned his Iron Man armor. We first see him, Scotch in hand, riding in a Humvee in Afghanistan, flirting with a woman soldier and joking with other GI's. Then all hell breaks loose, with some very realistic combat scenes.

Stark is captured by a shadowy group of terrorists (although they sure looked like Mujahadeen to me. Mistake number one.). They waterboard him. (I'm not sure why they adopted this all-American form of torture, since their leader comes up with a much nastier idea later in the movie. Mistake number two.) When they force him to replicate his deadliest weaponry, Tony comes up with a plan of his own -- and the movie is off and flying.

Backing up Downey's terrific performance is a strong supporting cast: Jeff Bridges (the Dude!) now sports a shaved head and a full beard, but still shows off a sly acting style. Terrence Howard ("Crash") is Downey's sidekick, apparently on loan from the Pentagon. And Gwyneth Paltrow is a smart, perky office manager back at Stark Enterprises. They all perform their functions admirably, as does a wonderfully sarcastic software program, which seems to do most of Tony Stark's gruntwork, including helping him fly that suit of armor around.

I won't give away too many of the movie's surprises -- you've already seen one of them if you saw the trailer. It's a great scene where Downey tries out some of the powers of his Iron Man armor and does a sudden backspin right into the wall. Throughout scenes like this, Downey keeps the hip patter going, providing his own hilarious narration. You've seen CGI stuff before, but never with the ironic voice of Tony Stark explaining what's going on.

What sets the comic book character of Iron Man apart from so many other superheroes is that there is no element of tragedy in his creation. Superman was sent out from a doomed planet, Spiderman can't catch a break, The Hulk is a scientist trapped in a monstrous body. Iron Man is simply the creation of a gifted tinkerer, who goes from taking apart vintage sports cars to assembling a flying, fireball-shooting suit of armor. That's it: no super powers, no tragic past, just a hep cat who sets out to rectify his ill-gotten gains with a little firepower.

This summer is sure to bring some ham-handed box office bombast in the guise of a comic book movie. Enjoy the first such entry of the season for what it is -- one very cool thrill ride.

This one's rated PG-13 for some comic book violence, and a soupcon of sex.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall

ON THE AISLE
Peter Weyl

It’s only been a week or two, and already I’m forgetting “Forgetting Sarah Marshall.”

This is the latest ribald comedy from the Judd Apatow fun factory, only this time Apatow is the producer and a newcomer names Nicholas Stoller directs. You might call the movie Apatowesque, because while it contains the requisite bawdy jokes, the characters just don’t come close to the loveable losers Apatow gave us in such earlier works as “Knocked Up’ and “Superbad.” In both those movies, the main characters were unabashed horndogs, forced to do some quick growing-up. What made us enjoy their stumbling progress was the element of sweet sincerity behind the randy, rowdy dialogue.

We’ve got another sweety here in the character of Peter, played by Jason Segal, who also wrote the screenplay. But this guy is just too much of a loser for us to care what happens to him. As the title suggests, he spends most of the movie trying to forget his ex-girlfriend Sarah (Kristen Bell, from “Heroes” and “Veronica Mars”). Trouble is, he goes to Hawaii to forget, and checks into the very hotel where Sarah is shacked up with her new boyfriend, a British rock star named Aldous Snow (Russell Brand). Fortunately for our moping hero, there’s a perky hotel employee on hand to cheer him up (Mila Kunis, from “That 70’s Show”).

So we have a romantic quadrangle, set against a posh hotel and some pretty Hawaiian scenery. What’s not to like? Well, for one thing, few of the charactersare very likeable. Peter is basically a weepy shlub. Sarah Marshall comes off as a self-centered airhead. And even the attractive new girl in Peter’s life doesn’t bring much personality to the table, and her backstory as a surf-bunny whose half-naked photo still adorns a men’s room wall, seems awfully contrived. (FYI: IMDB says the photo is a fake.)

The only bright notes in this lackadaisical farce are two enormous Hawaiian hotel employees (Taylor Willy and Kalami Robb) who take poor Peter under their wing, and that Brit rocker, Aldous Snow. Hilariously underplayed by Russell Brand, he comes across as a smarter member of Spinal Tap, off the booze and drugs but seriously into shagging. This being an Apatowesque movie, we are sure to encounter some of his regulars, and there they are: Bill Hader, Jonah Hill and Paul Rudd all show up in minor roles, basically doing the same thing they do in all of Apatow’s movies. (Jason Segal was one of those second bananas himself, in “Knocked Up.”)

The most talked about scenes in “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” involve Segal’s full-frontal nudity. We are treated to that exposure twice, while the women in the movie remain mostly clothed, even during some of their friskier moments. The bottom line: despite its sexually-charged tone, this movie is flaccid.

It’s rated R, for the reasons stated above.

Smart People

We're back at the movies this week with "Smart People," a likeable little comedy set in the concrete groves of academe (Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh).

Poor old Professor Wetherhold. He's a widower who still keeps his late wife's clothes in the closet. He suffered a seizure, which means he can't drive for several months. His brilliant high school daughter is turning into a depressed mini-version of him. No one wants to publish his latest book. And his ne'er-do-well brother has suddenly dropped in to stay for a while.

You'd feel sorry for the guy if only he weren't such a jerk. You know that the first time you see him parking his car across two spaces. In fact, he does it twice. As played by Dennis Quaid, he's a pompous, pot-bellied intellectual snob, who can't hear a student's opinion without belittling it and the student.


Clearly, he's due for some humanizing, and who better to administer it than his adoptive brother Chuck (Thomas Haden Church, from "Sideways"), and the attractive Dr. Janet Hartigan (Sarah Jessica Parker), who never forgave ol' Wetherhold for giving her a C back in her freshman year. (For reasons known only to her, she still hangs on to that English paper she wrote for him.)


The fourth person in this character-driven tale is Wetherhold's daughter Vanessa, played by the appealing Ellen Page as a conservative Juno, still ready with a smart-ass quip, only with a Reagan poster on the wall. Unlike Juno, however, Vanessa doesn't have any friends -- that is, until Uncle Chuck arrives on the scene with some reefer and a pitcher of beer. He's not out to corrupt her, just loosen her up a little.

Complications, as they say, ensue.


I won't give away much more of the plot here -- you've probably figured out that the comely Dr. Hartigan will find something to salvage in the wreckage of Wetherhold. You may wonder why she bothers, but you'll still find some things to laugh at along the way.


"Smart People" was directed by a newcomer named Noam Murro, whose prior work seems to consist of TV commercials. It's not a laugh riot, but with summer movies on the way in, it offers a human-scale story with some clever lines. You could do a lot worse.