Wolves see humans as gods

 WHITE FANG (1991)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

You can't go wrong with turning Jack London's fiercely (and justifiably) violent and human story, "White Fang," into a decent cinematic effort. This 1991 adaptation has the tropes of wilderness life in a log cabin and the customary dog fighting but it is not told from the wolf's point-of-view. There is a new character created out of whole cloth known as Jack Conroy (Ethan Hawke) and therein lies the limitations of London's anti-violence text in favor of a young man's journey into continuing his late father's dreams. 

Not to say that "White Fang" is not fine, richly scenic entertainment - it is - but its only partially in keeping with the roughly hewn themes of Jack London's book. Here, Jack Conroy has come to the brutal cold winter season in the Yukon territory to stake his father's claim in the Gold Rush. He desperately needs help to get there and insists on traveling with two prospectors, Clarence "Skunker" Thurston (Seymour Cassel) and Alex Larson (Klaus Maria Brandauer), both of whom are carrying a coffin! Yes, the coffin holds a corpse and they all travel with sled dogs to bury the coffin at a remote site through the dangerous territory. Unfortunately, snarling ravenous wolves are on their tail. There's also James Remar himself, the villain du jour during the 80's and 90's of cinematic offerings, as the vicious Beauty Smith who buys and uses White Fang, the half-wolf/half dog, in illegal dog fights. White Fang runs into Jack twice and Jack recognizes him as an older wolf dog when he only glanced at the animal as a former pup for two minutes (how, I can't say).

"White Fang" has some truly marvelous, captivating scenic shots (all shot in Haines and Skagway, Alaska) - you want to be in that icy cold, inviting environment and have your own log cabin facing a lake. It certainly feels lived-in and lends to its wholly realistic setting, especially the harshness of the cold and the mountainous regions and ice. "White Fang" does swing unevenly between Jack and White Fang and Alex Larson, the latter who turns out to be an illiterate prospector who learns to read thanks to Jack. I would have preferred more scenes of White Fang and his survival against mean, violent men and his developing relationship and trust with Jack. Still, it is a solid adventure and a genteel enough family picture that all kids above the age of 8 can enjoy. The classic book is essential as well.   

New low in annals of comedy

DEUCE BIGALOW: MALE GIGOLO (1999)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Original review from 2002

To describe "Deuce Bigalow" as childish, immature and an affront to all sensibilities is to lose sight of its intent. If it had succeeded in being all the above, it might have been a minor comedy hit. The problem with "Deuce Bigalow" is that it assumes tastelessness by its own virtue is funny. It is not.

Rob Schneider is Deuce, a fish tank cleaner who wants to score with some babelicious babes. He tries a female employee at a pet fish store but only in succeeds in getting a glimpse of her cleavage, unbeknownst to her. One fine day, while cleaning some gigolo's pool, he gets a job keeping watch of the gigolo's house and his prized fish. Deuce eventually finds himself in the enviable (or unenviable) position of being a gigolo, sometimes for a fee as low as ten dollars! The only major joke in this debacle is that he can barely afford a drink at a high-class bar with ten dollars. Hold the presses.

Meanwhile, we are subjected to jokes of rampant stupidity. Obesity, Tourette Syndrome, eating food in chlorine water, urinating in pools, cleaning feces in bathrooms are but a few samples of what passes for
humor. All these subjects could be funny if any humor was injected into them - they are not automatically funny by definition. I suspect many will determine the outcome of this movie within the first few minutes. What I didn't expect was to see a highly uncharismatic star like Schneider trying to one-up his mannerisms and incessant mugging. He is so grating that he gives new meaning to the phrase "a new low in the annals of comedy." To be fair, he has one solidly funny moment, just one. He has a moment where he gapes when he finds that the new love of his life has an artificial leg. This pretty much sums up the dreadful movie experience known as "Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo."

Dehumanizing class distinction

 SALTBURN (2023)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

It is tempting to call the off-kilter, blackly humorous, sexually frank and deeply unsettling "Saltburn" a great movie. After all, it has a humongous final twist you don't see coming and it scoffs at the rich and powerful, showcasing them as nothing more than vain, cold-hearted people who just happen to possess a literal heartbeat. The latter may be the film's deep flaw, however, as it doesn't give us much of a chance to see the humanity of the rich or those who come from working class origins either. Everyone is dehumanized and the filmmaker chooses a dehumanizing approach. 

"Saltburn" begins as a fish-out-of-water semi-comedy of manners as we are introduced to new Oxford student, Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan, exceptional in every way), who is mocked for his student jacket as he begins a semester at the most prestigious of U.K.'s universities. Oliver has a hard time fitting in and is angrily shouted at by another student whom Oliver refuses to ask a math question! Sure glad I am not that smart because I would not have lasted beyond a day at Oxford. Oliver is deeply smitten with a popular student, Felix (Jacob Elordi), and through apparent sheer intervention, they become friends as they drink merrily and spend time together. Oliver's father dies and Felix comforts him, little knowing the more troubling truths about this fish-out-of-water who came from Prescot, a small town close to Liverpool. 

Prescot is about as far removed from wealth as one can imagine, and Oliver is made to seem even more of a fish-out-of-water in terms of class distinction when he is invited to Felix's stately gated manor. Every room is the size of the most luxurious room you would find in an elegant hotel, and Oliver is quite taken by its size and scope. Felix lives with his parents, the loopy Sir James (Richard E. Grant) and the freewheeling candor of Lady Elspeth (Rosamund Pike, manifesting rather chillingly as a still life with a pulse). There's also Felix's sister, Venetia (an invigorating Alison Oliver), a nymphomaniac whom Oliver actually seduces. Between lavish parties and gratuitous karaoke, Oliver is not dismayed by the way the rich live - he's intoxicated by it and Felix and his family so much so that when it is time for him to exit the premises, he refuses. 

"Saltburn" is a compelling story though too often it feels like a demented freak show, daring us to look at the screen when we rather not. I am no prude to sexually deviant behavior but Oliver licking a bathtub after Felix has masturbated is not quite my cup of tea. Same with Oliver's seduction of Venetia which is colored by crimson lewdness and I will leave it at that. These sexually frank moments are just that, frank but hardly colored by any true eroticism. The goal here is to shock and writer-director Emerald Fennell does just that. You want to look away but you can't help but look - that is some kind of special gift this anything-goes director is willing to pursue.

Yet despite all the open sexuality and the sublime performances that teeter on the edge of theatricality, I was less than shocked by "Saltburn" overall. The characters are keenly-drawn personalities and they stick with you yet precious little humanity is divulged. Oliver is a little loony himself as he tries to have sex with everyone, male or female yet we are never sure of his motives, at least not till the end. He is a liar and a potential sociopath yet I never gleaned much more than that from him. Felix seems like the most normal of the bunch, a party animal as it were who can have his feelings hurt. 

While watching "Saltburn," it is superficially obvious that Fennell wants to present the rich as boring, bland, uptight people yet that is such a dull cliche at this point - there is no one to gravitate to or remotely care about. Felix's parents live a solitary life and have little regard for anyone or anything that impinges it. Same with Oliver, a young man who lies about his own family and craves Felix. The movie draws you in rather creepily yet distances us at the same time. You want to rub salt on the wounds you feel while watching this knuckle sandwich of a movie, instead of rubbing the salt on the wounds of the characters.  

Time-traveling Slashery goofiness

 TOTALLY KILLER (2023)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Youtube horror movie reviewer Cody Leach got it right - there is a subgenre of slasher horror that mashes good-natured sci-fi and fantasy and whatever else. "Totally Killer" is totally that kind of spirited, goofy, pop-cultured carnival mashup of a movie - a suspenseful time-traveling "Back to the Future" mashup with slasher tendencies of the "Scream" variety. Thankfully, those tendencies are kept to a minimum. 

The Sweet Sixteen Killer might be back in Vernon, a small town where not much happens. This killer wears a smiling Max Headroom-type mask complete with an arched eyebrow and, back in 1987, had stabbed three different high-school girls sixteen times on Halloween night. The latest victim in 2023 is not a high-school teen girl but rather a protective mother (Julie Bowen) of a high-school teen girl who has problems of her own, Jamie Hughes (Kiernan Shipka). Mom is attacked and killed by the supposed Sweet Sixteen Killer. Jamie can't hold back her tears and her father tries his best to soothe the loss. For a singular moment, I was reminded a little of Scott Derrickson's "The Black Phone" as the overcast tones gave off something unsettling in the air, not to mention the fractured relationship between Jamie and her parents. Pretty soon, though, the movie dives right in to Something Goofy This Way Comes as we see an amusement park that looks abandoned and unkempt yet still in working condition. Jamie is introduced to the park's one photo booth that is actually a time machine by her genius friend, Amelia (Kelcey Mawema). That's right, Amelia is a science wiz and no doubt that this invention would nag her a top prize at the science fair. When the killer comes calling for blood at the amusement park, Jamie hides in the phone booth and inadvertently activates it traveling back to 1987!  

Once she arrives in 1987, culture shock hits Jamie like a tidal wave of a most un-woke era. The high-school kids are mean and use words like "fat" and some unprintable sexual scatalogical language. Her future mother Pam (Olivia Holt) is actually mean and bullish as well (yep, a reference to "Mean Girls" figures here) and can't begin to comprehend Jamie's wagging-finger-of-shame at these un-PC high-schoolers. These kids are rough and play dodgeball fast and loose causing Jamie to have a bloody nose (oh, poor baby). Ultimately, the 1980's is hard living and DNA is still nonexistent so fingering the killer with evidence will be complicated. Jamie aims to protect her future mother and the other three girls from getting killed but can she convince them she's from the future? Can she also convince Amelia's mother? 

"Totally Killer" is a tasty confection to be sure full of refreshing surprises both comedic and horrific. The killer, an expert in karate, is truly a malevolent villain - his grinning mask is probably just as frightening as Ghostface from the "Scream" movies and the whodunit mystery resolution left me shocked. What truly stands out in all this tongue-in-cheek splendor is Kiernan Shipka who goes from dour teenager to an engaging young woman who has found herself in the dreary 80's decade - she may not appreciate the lewdness of the teenagers but she manages to help them find their humanity, including Pam. She makes them care and who would've guessed that we would find life lessons in a less gory, slightly elevated and highly entertaining slasher flick. Jamie changes history almost as often as Marty McFly did in "Back to the Future." This unusual movie almost made me want to go back in time to the 1980's. Almost. 

Careless muddled action

THE PEACEMAKER (1997)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Something was off in the first fifteen minutes of "The Peacemaker." I knew it when one lower
ranking officer survives a colliding train wreck just before a nuclear explosion is set off that he
probably would be killed. And it happens, in the first fifteen minutes. Of course, some other
Bosnian official or nationalist is eliminated in the first minute of the film, and we never learn
who he was, his purpose or his relation to the rest of the plot. It is that kind of movie, short
on logic and long on action-oriented mood.

There is Nicole Kidman as Dr. Julia Kelly, a White House expert on nuclear missiles and nuclear missile smugglers, who figures that the Russian nuclear explosion was no accident - it was a terrorist act. There is the no-nonsense, impulsive Colonel Thomas Devoe (George Clooney), an intelligence officer who interrupts her briefing to certify that the satellite photos show people jumping off a train before the fatal train collision. Hence, the collision was no accident either. So they are now in pursuit of nine nuclear bombs, including one that is inside a terrorist's knapsack! We learn some backstory about the terrorist, mainly that he lost his family to snipers in Yugoslavia. He is quite mad about that. Amazingly, we learn next to nothing about our pursuers. Kidman's Dr. Julia's only noticeable trait is that she swims. Colonel Devoe happens to know much more about world politics than the doctor and has so many connections that one might ask, why does she occasionally tag along with him around the world? What does he need her for?

"The Peacemaker" has great locations and a great sense of time and place, but it is really just an overlong, muddled action movie. Villains come and go with great ease and we get reminders of the Gulf War, and there are many shots of satellite video feeds and photos. The action scenes are well-paced and
thrilling, but so what? What is "The Peacemaker" really about and where is the sense of urgency when we can't tell one arbitrary villain from another?

For all its high octane action sequences and generic explosions, "The Peacemaker" is not much of a movie. It is occasionally diverting enough, especially during a tense climax in New York City, but we care less about the characters and more about the villain's tearful plea for the "way things were."
A careless muddle, at best.

Cheap Trick

 TAKING LIVES (2004)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Originally viewed on March 20th, 2004

Peter Bogdanovich once made a startling comment about Orson Welles's "Touch of Evil." He said that it took more than twenty viewings before he realized there was a plot. That means he was taken in by the innovative style and atmosphere of the film. Indeed, "Touch of Evil" is one of the best noir thrillers ever
made, and all the more innovative for its strong, stark photography and sublime use of overlapping sound. Amazingly, "Taking Lives" is superbly shot and tightly edited and has a strong sense of atmosphere as well. Well, at least for the first hour, until it becomes as overdone as a sirloin steak. And I do not believe there is much of a plot either, so don't ask me to watch it nineteen times.

Angelina Jolie plays Illeana Scott, a soft-spoken FBI agent assigned to a murder case in Montreal. For some reason, the French-Canadian cops do not have access to FBI agents in their own country so they get one from Washington, D.C. Perhaps FBI has no offices in Canada (though I am sure there must be some) or none of the agents look like the babelicious Angelina Jolie. Ah, a better reason. The murder involves a disfigured body, presumably with the eyes buried underneath the skin! Ms. Scott has to find the villain, and so we meet two potential suspects. One is James Costa (Ethan Hawke), a successful gallery owner who had witnessed another crime involving someone's head getting bashed
in. The other is a mystery figure played by Kiefer Sutherland, whom I can't say much about because I am still not clear what his relation is to the story. So who killed whom? What is the deal with these disfigured bodies? And how about the basement sequence where the presumed killer is hiding under a bed? Or the concerned mother (Gena Rowlands) who says her son is still alive?

What we have here is a film full of red herrings and twists that lead nowhere. All I can say is that I guessed who the killer was from the beginning. Therefore, we lurch forward waiting for some element of surprise, something to make us guess that our initial suspicions were false. Or perhaps we can learn a
little something about Jolie's agent, whose only noticeable quirk is that she sleeps in the area where the murder victims are found. Outside of that, she is not half as interesting as Jodie Foster's Clarice Starling in "Silence of the Lambs," the model by which all female enforcers are to be judged. Ethan Hawke
is less charismatic than usual, but he does try. The French Canadian cops (two of whom are played by Jean-Hughes Anglade and Tcheky Karyo, both from "La Femme Nikita") are given little screen time except for the tough cop (Olivier Martinez) who hates Ms. Scott and even gives her a good wallop. Only Kiefer Sutherland comes across with presence and vitality. His one superb moment is done with no dialogue - he tries to get Hawke's attention by tapping a glass partition with the ring on his finger. That singular moment has more suspense and verve than almost anything else in the movie.

"Taking Lives" has a brilliant opening credits sequence (no doubt inspired by "Seven") and, as I said, the first half of the movie has the intensity of an above-average thriller. But then the movie veers into a hot lava bed of melodrama (that includes a car chase and a fiery explosion!) and closes with a
cheap trick that gives new meaning to the word "implausible." It is the sort of cheap, false, dishonest ending you might expect in an Angelina Jolie movie. Anyone care to remember "Original Sin"?

Switching faces

 FACE/OFF (1997)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Originally viewed in the spring of 1998

After seeing the implausible "Air Force One," I thought to myself - the action genre is dead and buried. Then comes "Face/Off," which is superior in every way despite having an even more ludicrous storyline.

The vibrant John Travolta plays an FBI agent, Sam Archer, whose son was killed by a colorful, psychopathic terrorist named Castor Troy (Nicolas Cage). Sam has a vendetta and wants to capture Castor. Castor is caught and wounded, and placed in a coma. Sam has a problem, though: he needs to find a bomb that is planted somewhere in the vast metropolis of Los Angeles. Despite some objections, Sam has his face surgically removed and implanted with the comatose Castor's! This way, Sam can pretend to be Castor making it easier to find where the bomb is
hidden. Problem is the real Castor has awakened from his coma, and has had his face surgically implanted with Sam's! Farfetched? You bet.

The difference between "Face/Off" and "Air Force One" is that "Face/Off" is actually great fun and it's also wickedly entertaining: it takes its inventive premise and brings it to life with imagination and fire. The tour-de-force is
John Travolta and Nicolas Cage who each cleverly play two roles: Travolta is the obsessed, quiet, compassionate Sam, and also plays the devious, evil Castor unbeknownst to Sam's family (they include Joan Allen as Sam's wife, Dominique Swain as his daughter). There's one priceless moment where Travolta as Castor gleefully announces, "Things are going to change around here."

Cage naturally plays the grandiose Castor who walks around in red and black attire complete with two gold-plated guns, and he also convincingly adopts Sam's placid nature while trying to prove to Castor's foes that he is the brutal
Castor, and simultaneously tries to prove to his wife that he is the real Sam! Both actors pull this off brilliantly (and they should be nominated for Oscars). Travolta had the best role (or roles) of his career since "Pulp Fiction," and
Nicolas Cage proves that he hasn't lost his offbeat nature (look at the hilarious scene where he dons priestly robes and sings "Hallelujah!").

"Face/Off" is that rarity: a smart, complex, humanistic, fast-moving character study draped with director John Woo's trademark slo-mo, close-up visuals and outrageous, explosive action. It's like watching a live-action comic book. The
film may have too high a body count and seem somewhat relentless, but it's always top-notch in every other department. "Air Force One" is the mediocre, senseless, exploitative action picture with little to remind us of the great
Harrison Ford films of the past. "Face/Off" shows that some imagination can still spill into your local multiplex from an accomplished director. The choice is ultimately yours.

Root for the Underdog

 MYSTERY, ALASKA (1999)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Sports movies are not my favorite genre, though I have admired movies like "Rocky," "Raging Bull," "Tin Cup" and "Hoosiers," to name a few. "Mystery, Alaska" focuses on ice hockey, which is hardly a sport I can stand watching (and I am partly Canadian) yet it won me over. This is a dramatic, offbeat kind of comedy-drama that aims high with an unusual set of characters and an uplifting enough story to rise above its cliches.

Set in the fictional town of Mystery, Russell Crowe is John Biebe, the local sheriff who is something of a local hockey hero. Unfortunately, his hockey team is letting him go and making him coach to make room for a teenage player with the right stuff. John's ego is hurt but he goes along with it. His wife, Donna (Mary McCormack), supports him yet feels his pain. And just in the nick of time comes an announcement that the NHL is sending the New York Rangers to play an exhibition game with this Alaskan team. The problem is that the team only plays on Saturdays and insist on playing in a black pond of ice! The NHL and the Rangers see it differently, as does eager promoter Charles Danner
(Hank Azaria), a former Mystery resident who gave the Mystery team glowing reviews on a Sports Illustrated issue.

"Mystery, Alaska" juggles a few characters around such as Charles Danners' pining for John's wife; the local attorney (Maury Chaykin) who deals with a big shot retail owner (Michael McKean, always a
pleasure to see); Burt Reynolds as the local Judge Burns who hates the game and hates his son for playing it; another hotshot player (Ron Eldard) who has nothing better to do than to play hockey and have sex, including having an affair with the mayor's wife (Lolita Davidovich), and Mystery's mayor (Colm Meaney) who wants nothing more than to expose their little town to the big hockey leagues.

"Mystery, Alaska" is a charming, inoffensive picture with enough humor and pathos to make it special. All these actors are some of my favorites so to see them on screen is a pure delight. Russell Crowe
plays one of the looser characters of his career, not the glum variety of post-"Gladiator" period, and he has a special chemistry with McCormack. Also worth noting is Hank Azaria who is so full of life
playing a sports promoter that you are ready to play along with whatever he pitches. And what a pleasure to see Burt Reynolds at his understated best, throwing asides with the ease of a real actor who
doesn't have to do much to sell a scene. If he had more colorful roles like this one, Burt might have really recharged his career in this post-"Boogie Nights" period. Only Maury Chaykin's attorney character leaves something to be desired, and I would've like more screen time for my favorite Spinal Tap member but that is just me.

"Mystery, Alaska" waxes on praise and pride for the underdogs, and resentment and pure vitriol for anything too commercial or mainstream that intrudes on small-town values. When the big game arrives at the climax (and I will not dare spoil who the winner is), the town's residents on the bleachers read the newspapers as the Rangers make their entrance on the ice. The Mystery residents welcome the chance to play with a national team and yet detest them at the same time. Same with the retail chain that almost opens in their town - anything commercial is outlawed. It's that kind of old-fashioned small-town
movie that may leave you feeling very satisfied.

Billions and Billions of calories

SUPER SIZE ME (2004)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia  

It is obvious that feeding yourself nothing but McDonald's hamburgers for one month would make one sick - it would me make quite sick. Try consuming such meals three times a day and watch how it affects your diet. Documentarian Morgan Spurlock attempts just that and his results are unsurprising and entertaining.

So Morgan Spurlock checks himself with doctors and fitness trainers to be sure he is in fine health before embarking on a junk food diet. It turns out his health is fine, his blood pressure is normal and he can now disavow his vegan ways. So the first day, Spurlock eats a Super Size meal for breakfast, and let us say that the results are not surprising - he starts to vomit outside his car window. Super
Size french fries, Super Size soda drink, Super Size cheeseburger and much more follow, leading to a gain in weight, headaches, more vomiting, lack of sex drive, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, lethargy, etc. Along the way, we learn about the high calorie content in these processed foods, salt content, saturated fats and that these nutritional contents are hidden in almost every McDonald's
restaurant. We also learn that ordering a smaller size of fries or burger value meals is still more food than should be consumed for the same size (unless you order a one-dollar cheeseburger). So here's the outstanding shocker of Spurlock's fast food diet - he consumes as much as 5,000 calories a day! As the doctors and nutritionists tell him, you keep punishing your body as such and you'll die.

So the corporations do not reveal the calorie, sodium and saturated fat amount of a typical McDonald's menu, unlike other restaurants - they obscure those details. What is the reason? To be sure there is a fat population out there? Well, does one believe that a person on an Atkins diet will frequent McDonald's? And for those who love their junk food, do you think they only go to McDonald's? What about Kentucky Fried Chicken, Burger King, Wendy's and a host of others? And does one forget that there are Gourmet McDonald's stores out there that serve fresh Bucks County Coffee?

I enjoyed "Super Size Me" overall but I felt it was wanting. The suggestion is that eating three meals a day of McDonald's is unhealthy - it may be but how many people do you know that do such a thing? Spurlock proves it is a disaster waiting to happen. Curiously, he grows addicted to the food to the point that he becomes immune to the initial indigestion - like any addiction.

It is certainly a step down from his vegetarian ways. What is the point Spurlock is trying to make with "Super Size Me"? I believe he is saying that people should eat responsibly, educate themselves and become health-conscious and learn the meaning of the following term: moderation. Spurlock
could've done likewise. 

Russell's Snowbanks of tragedy

THE SWEET HEREAFTER (1997)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Original Review from 1997

 Canadian director Atom Egoyan is one of the few true visionaries in the film world today. He consistently deals in themes of forbidden desires, melancholy loss, murder, and mourning. "The Adjuster" and the excellent "Exotica" are rare examples of films that break through the facade of cheap sentimentality and aim to reveal our innermost secrets and desires. Egoyan's new film "The
Sweet Hereafter," an adaptation of a Russell Banks novel, is a hauntingly expressive work about a school bus accident that leaves a small town in despair.

The brilliant Ian Holm stars as Mitchell Stevens, a forlorn attorney journeying to a small town in the snowy hills of British Columbia to represent the parents of children killed in a school bus accident. He wants to represent their grief, and looks to recompense by filing a class-action suit against the
bus company. "There is no such thing as an accident," declares Mitchell. At first glance, he might seem like a cold-hearted lawyer in it for the money but we start to see a man - tortured by his own suppressed grief - coming to terms with the tragedy and its aftermath. Mitchell's grief is his loveless junkie daughter who frequently calls him for money on his cell phone.

Naturally, the townspeople's grief is of greater consequence. There's the hippie couple whose adopted son died in the accident; another parent (Bruce Greenwood) who followed the bus carrying his two children and is the only witness; the guilt-ridden bus driver (Gabrielle Rose), and, most memorably, a
teenager (Sarah Polley) who survived the accident and is confined to a wheelchair and has strong love ties to her father (droopy-eyed Tom McCamus). The Greenwood character tries to convince Mitchell and the devastated parents to drop the lawsuit, but the some of the parents need the money if they win the case.

All the characters in "The Sweet Hereafter" are flawed and despondent because of familial relations except for the surviving teenager. In many ways, she is the most mature character in the film because she sees past the facade of the lawsuit and doesn't want to be manipulated by anyone, not even her affectionate father. Mitchell sees himself as a grieving parent because he lost his own child. When
Mitchell is on the plane, he sees a former friend of his daughter's and he confides in her about his daughter's past accidents with clinics and hospitals. Mitchell is naturally empathetic when interviewing the grieving, guilty parents about certain details of the accident - he's a guilty parent, too, trying to
erase the memory of his own daughter.

"The Sweet Hereafter" is an understated, chilling film of great searing power, and the actors certainly lend it credence. Ian Holm, one of the finest actors in the world, manages to make Mitchell Stevens a sympathetic character who's eagerly trying to erase his suppressed feelings towards his daughter - the
lawsuit makes him start to care deeply about her. It is superb, finely tuned acting that should have gained him an Oscar nomination. Sarah Polley ("Exotica") is as mysterious and alluring a young actress as any other - she makes her teen character both ambiguous and benevolent (she reads "The Pied
Piper" to children) allowing us to see a gradual connection between the relationship with her father and the school bus tragedy. These are characters whom you will not likely forget.

Director Atom Egoyan and cinematographer Paul Sarossy successfully make the wintry Canadian landscape as threatening and haunting as possible. The depiction of the townspeople's dwellings is just as disturbing - we see drab candlelit houses; gloomy motel rooms, and pictures of children and families on walls that take own a life of their own. The actual school bus accident is ominously presented in one long take as it skids off the road and falls into a frozen lake - this whole sequence, shown towards the middle of the film, is as tragic and emotional as anything in "Titanic."

The writing by Egoyan cleverly and astutely takes us back and forth during the aftermath of the accident pinpointing minute details about the uneventful day, and revealing the identities of the townspeople and their fears, desires and secrets.

Perhaps "The Sweet Hereafter" is not as enveloping or as rhythmic as "Exotica," but it is a superbly realized, unsentimental, poetic and important film of how a tragedy can change a small town. By the end of the film, with its sense of emotional chaos, you might think, strangely enough, that the
townspeople are responsible for this tragedy.

Curiously remote Sarah Polley

 MY LIFE WITHOUT ME (2003)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

There is a moment in "My Life Without Me" where Sarah Polley's character makes tape recordings for her daughters. You see Polley's character, Ann, is dying of ovarian cancer and she wants to make a voice recording for each of her daughters' birthdays until they are 18. I was waiting for a moment where Ann would ditch the idea, throw the tapes and the cassette recorder into the nearest river, and admit to herself that she is dying and finally admit it to her family. Well, the whole movie makes you ask such questions about Ann and why she doesn't do this instead of that. It becomes irritating.

Let's focus on Ann's character more closely. She is a 23-year-old woman, married to her first love whom she met at a Nirvana concert, has two daughters, has a janitorial job at the local university, and lives with her family in a trailer outside her mother's house. One fine day, after fainting in her
kitchen, Ann learns at the hospital, from a doctor who makes no eye contact, that she has incurable ovarian cancer. Unfortunately, due to her age, her cells are too young to fight the disease. Instead of letting her family know of her inevitable death, she keeps it to herself, claiming she has anemia, and starts to make a list of things to do. One of the things includes making love to a man outside her husband (and making this unlucky fool fall in love with her), finding a woman for her husband and her kids (no points for those who can guess her name will also be Ann) and, among other objectives, making those damn tapes for each and every person in her life.

I could have lived with knowing more about Ann's mother (Deborah Harry), a washed-out baker, Ann's boyfriend Don (Scott Speedman) who is getting a new job and loves his wife and kids, and Lee (Mark Ruffalo), the lonely guy who lives in a house with no furniture. This would have made for a great character piece, having these three characters interact with Ann. But no, we also get the
next-door neighbor, the hairdresser with braids (Maria de Medeiros) and Ann's co-worker (Amanda Plummer) who is always talking about diets. There is also small talk revolving around Milli Vanilli and the Nirvana band. Some of this is terminally annoying, some of it is as flat as a flatline. And we keep hearing Ann talking about herself and to herself...she is a selfish woman who should be worried more about her family and their future than her own needs. A better movie would show Ann focusing on why this has happened to her, questioning her own life and her past. The movie gives a hint of this from her multiple voice-overs but not nearly enough.

Sarah Polley, a gifted actress, is perfect as Ann but she doesn't play the character as someone frightened or saddened by the prospect of death - she sort of accepts it (like a middle-aged adult would) and moves on. The last thing I expect from this actress is to play a character who is so curiously remote from
her feelings. At least, her final scene with Ruffalo shows the emotion we expect from an actress with such striking eyes (to be fair, she has a couple of tearful scenes).

"My Life Without Me" is the kind of film that grates the nerves and makes you look at your watch. You keep waiting for Ann to realize that her objectives are foolhardy. After a while, you just hope she will go away. Sorry, Sarah Polley, if you read this review, remember, I love your work. I just don't love this
character.

Anything Goes

 THIRTEEN (2003)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

The opening moments of "Thirteen" may cause audience walkouts or, in this case, DVD walkouts. A close-up of a stoned girl is seen as the camera gently sways vertically. Suddenly, we realize she is sitting on her bed and is breathing in gas from a can of compressed air and sharing it with another girl. Then they ask to be slapped and punched across the face, and they enjoy it. In just those few moments, "Thirteen" encapsulates everything that we may think teenagers are about - they enjoy violence and laugh at it. Their attitude is anything goes, as long as they don't get caught, or if they get caught red-handed, they will deny it.

The leading troubled girl is Tracy (Evan Rachel Wood), a straight A-student who loves to write poetry. She lives with her mother, Melanie (Holly Hunter), and her brother. Melanie runs a beauty salon from her kitchen (!) but it is barely enough to pay for their house rent. Occasionally, Melanie's boyfriend (Jeremy Sisto) stays over if he is not at the halfway house. Home is not grand but it is not hell either. Then one day, Tracy is overwhelmed when she sees a few girls led by Evie (Nikki Reed) get ogled by guys and watches them all storm off like a locust. Tracy wants to be a part of that world, she wants to be liked and to be popular. Before you can say that we entered the high-school world of John Hughes, Tracy starts hanging out with Evie. They become best friends, they indulge in drugs, sex, robbing clothing stores, partying, etc. Eventually Evie moves in with Tracy after Evie convinces Melanie of a familial tragedy. What can a mother do but be sympathetic to a 13-year-old?

But it is Tracy who starts to come apart. Her school grades plummet and sometimes she doesn't bother showing up for class (the fact that she may have to repeat a grade surprises her). She becomes more unsatisfied with her home life particularly her father's absence and her mother's boyfriend, who is
trying to be helpful. Tracy stars to cut her arm with a razor blade, just enough to let go of the pain she feels. Meanwhile, Evie starts stealing from Tracy and her mother. The lies and deceit mount, as does the drug-taking. 

"Thirteen" is tough and uncompromising to be sure, but something is askew in the depiction of Tracy's character. For one, I understand Tracy's need to cling to something, to be part of a clique. I also understand the co-dependency of Tracy to Evie and vice-versa. But for Tracy to be unhappy of her home life when she seems to love her mother feels untrue, especially to the point of mutilating her forearms (she used to cut her wrists). Call me a naive adult who has never suffered to such an extent as a teenager, but I hardly believed that Tracy's own ill-will and lack of self-image comes from an absent father. I imagine it would realistically (the screenplay was written by Nikki Reed based on actual experiences), but consider the girl we see before this wicked transformation takes place - she never seemed mad at anyone until she met Evie. It is like Evie drove Tracy to madness.

Most of "Thirteen" is shot with a hand-held digital camera, but the director Catherine Hardwicke should have told her cameraman that not every scene needs to be as wavy as a tsunami. Though I liked the icy blue-green look of the last half of the film, some stable camera shots could have been put in place. We do not need to be disoriented every second when the main character isn't always disoriented (and make no mistake, the film is told from Tracy's subjective point-of-view).

The performances are outstanding overall. Evan Rachel Wood and Nikki Reed are completely credible as the co-dependent teenagers who look for anything wild to do as an experiment, including kissing each other. Most notable are the mothers in the film, including Holly Hunter who is mostly mortified at her daughter's behavior. Hunter does have a nude scene with her boyfriend that is likely to
cause more flinching than anything else in the film. The other mother, Brooke (Deborah Kara Unger) may or may not be Evie's real mother but she is not the best guardian for Evie - no wonder Evie leaves her. Both Hunter and Unger get credit for playing the most unglamorous female characters of their respective careers.

"Thirteen" has moments of raw honesty and paints a fairly bleak picture of teen life. The ending is a powerhouse delivering an emotional catharsis unlike any seen in any teen film in recent memory. I just wish Tracy had been a more rounded, full bodied character so we could understand the pain she feels. But if this is what it is like to be thirteen in the 21st century, then I suppose I should be counting my blessings.

You'll feel born-again!

 SAVED! (2004)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Viewed on June 23rd, 2004

"Saved!" is quite a miracle in many ways and, in other ways, it is your standard teen comedy. But the twain shall meet since it is full of laughs and comical yet truthful insights. It's not a huge success at what it does but, in the summer of Hollywood's more-bang-for-your-buck, you can say "Hallelujah!"
just once.

"Saved!" takes place in one of the rarest of institutions seen in the movies - a Christian high school. Jena Malone is Mary, a senior at this prestigious school named American Eagle who is facing a conflict of religious interests. Her boyfriend Dean (Chad Faust), a fellow student, has discovered he is a
homosexual. Mary finds out when they share their secrets in the pool and underwater to boot! She is so outraged that she bumps her head and sees a vision of Jesus (not played by James Caviezel) telling her to help Dean. Nope, this is not an episode of TV's "Joan of Arcadia." Mary accepts this as a vision
but it may be anything but, and it spells a drastic change in her Christian attitude. You see Mary is now pregnant, thanks to Dean who has been expunged to the Mercy House (a place for sinners). She thought she could save Dean by having sex with him and still be a virgin (are Christian high-school girls that
dense?)

There are a couple of girls at the school lead by the-ever-dense Hilary Faye (Mandy Moore), and this triad is trying to save any high-school student who needs saving. The principal, Pastor Skip (Hal Hartley regular Martin Donovan), leads his audience of students as if he was a game-show host. Skip's son, Patrick (Patrick Fugit, from "Almost Famous"), has just enrolled and is a member of the Christian Skateboarding team and is, naturally, interested in Mary. This offends Hilary who notices Mary is not herself and has the audacity to question Hilary's beliefs. The Pastor sees the problem and asks Hilary and her two minions to help Mary ("Just don't do anything gangsta.") Instead, the born-again girls try to exorcise her (with a nice touch of adding "Tubular Bells" on the soundtrack).

Mary is not dismayed by Hilary. She makes friends with Cassandra (Eva Amurri), the only Jewish student at the school and the most rebellious. Cassandra can see past Hilary, aware that no young girl just goes to Planned Parenthood for the heck of it. And to really make Hilary steamed, Cassandra is going out with Hillary's wheelchair-bound brother, Roland (Macaulay Culkin), who isn't really
Christian.

"Saved!" has a lot to say about high schools, young unwed mothers-to-be, homosexuality, acceptance, morally ambiguous issues, and so on. In other words, it brings up questions of faith that "The Passion of the Christ" avoided. This is a rare achievement these days where preference seems to center on the
typical teenage dilemmas about romance and sex. "Saved!" hardly cares about such issues, though there is a bit of both. Its concern is about Mary's own dilemma of becoming a mother, and about being expunged and sent to the godforsaken Mercy House. Mary starts to see the hypocrisies inherent in
Hilary's triad and incessant praying and in Pastor Skip's refusal in accepting sinners unless they attend Mercy House. Cassandra, Hilary's brother, even Mary's mother are more open-minded in their thinking, seeing that morality is not always definable according to the holiest of Christian texts, the Bible.

As satire, "Saved!" is hellishly funny and criticizes the foundation of Christianity in today's world more effectively and humorously than Kevin Smith's "Dogma." There are superb digs at Santa (which, when scrambled, spells Satan), Christian rock music, exorcisms, Lifetime movies, and who can resist
this movie when Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus" plays on the soundtrack? And gradually through the writing, layers of vulnerability start to come to the surface. No person in this movie is what they initially seem, especially Hilary. I'll take issue with some critics who regard Hilary as a
one-dimensional monster. I'd say that her need to help others is a mark of the goodness in her, and I do believe that she believes it is all for Jesus. How can you hate a girl who wears a pair of white wings on Halloween? Even the crude shenanigans of Cassandra mask a girl who wants to be loved by someone she can relate to - how this girl ever ended up at this school remains a mystery. But the most crucial character is Mary, faced with a future she is not prepared for. Jena Malone has the appropriate moods of a girl waiting to be born again from her own born-again beliefs. Though the ending doesn't do her character justice, there is a great deal of sympathy for her plight. Yes, it all involves Hilary's cruel intervention (who is treated cruelly as well) and a prom nightmare involving a statue of Jesus. But you do wish Mary would leave that school and not be so suffocated with it all.

The teenage movie genre gets a real voltage charge from "Saved!" The movie has smart, sympathetic teenagers who, despite their individual beliefs, stick by their own rules and live by them. This is not a movie about Christianity as much as about the Christian ideals of faith and morality wrapped around some satirical barbs. You'll feel born-again!