Sex, Drugs and rock and roll document

 COCKSUCKER BLUES (1972)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

If you want to see an out-of-control orgy in an airplane, watch this film. If you want to see the Rolling Stones engage in coke-sniffing, watch this film. If you want to see Stones' groupies injecting heroin in their veins, albeit in black-and-white, watch this film.  

"Cocksucker Blues" exists as an occasionally sluggish yet often compelling fly-on-the-wall approach  on the Stones 1972 tour (though the band allegedly stated that some of the scenes were staged). The band didn't want this film screened at all, though what did they expect unless they had no memory of such hedonistic, practically sexualzed moments. Banal also comes to mind when I see Keith Richard slumped over and laying on a woman's lap after ingesting heroin. Banal are Mick Jagger's comments about Southern diners - it is nothing too memorable to chew on other than their diners' superiority to British food. In fact, not much goes on in "Cocksucker Blues" which is likely the point of its own sluggishness - the life of a rock star band is all it is purported to be. Maybe the late director Robert Frank (a photographer noted for his work in "The Americans," not to mention the famous photo album collage on the Stones' own "Exile on Main St." album) is making the point that rock bands may indulge in excesses that result in nothing but stages of endless, perpetual boredom. Their lives are spent in hotel rooms where they watch the political shenanigans of the day, such as George Wallace running for office. 

Still, I was fascinated by the whole film despite finding some of it wearying. Frank does a fine job of assembling possibly hours and hours of footage into something relatively concise at 90 minutes. The director does get to show off the Stones on stage, particularly an electrifying concert with Stevie Wonder singing "Uptight, Everything's All Right" segueing to the Stone's own "Satisfaction" (a song I always prefered on their album, rather than the live recordings). Jagger on the harmonica during the "Midnight Rambler" performance is energetic and exciting. And you do get quick moments of celebrities visiting the Stones backstage such as Andy Warhol, Truman Capote and interviewer Dick Cavett. There is a far too brief moment with Tina Turner which I wish led to some concert footage of them performing. And there is a singular moment with a fan, a mother who lost custody of her children due to her being on acid, that is truly a time capsule moment of the movie and of the times.

Lastly, if you want to see Keith Richards throw a television out the window in his hotel room, watch this film. Charles Fleischer once had a quote that if you remembered the 60's, you weren't there. Keith Richards might not have remembered ever touring with the Stones in the 60's and early 70's so, perhaps, he wasn't really ever there. 

When Sequels Collide

 HOME ALONE 3 (1997)
Endured by Jerry Saravia

In-name sequels bother me (Leonard Maltin calls them follow-ups but the brand name is still used with a number attached to it). None of the characters return from the first two "Home Alone" flicks so it begs the question (other than being a financial one), why bother making a third? Why hoodwink people with a new sequel if Kevin McCallister doesn't return? No Macaulay Culkin, no reason.

There is some semblance of a story about international thieves seeking a missile cloaking microchip placed inside a racing car toy! The toy is inside a plastic bag that is mistakenly taken by an older lady at a Chicago airport! The thieves follow the lady in a taxi to a suburban part of Chicago, the kind writer John Hughes has shown us innumerable times. You know, the houses are enormous and look unaffordable but if you have two working parents... The new kid is eight-year-old Alex Pruitt (Alex D. Linz) who has chicken pox and stays home from school alone because, you know, two working parents and two siblings (one played by Scarlet Johansson!) at school and nobody is ever home in Chicago during daylight hours. Nobody's home except for Alex and the mean old lady from the start of the film. When Alex spots one of these thieves at a nearby house, he calls 911! I'll give the movie credit for that since the first two films never showed Kevin calling the cops!

Other than a very funny bit involving a parrot on a phone's answering machine, nothing else in "Home Alone 3" elicits much of a chuckle or a smile. This Alex is just as good at developing booby traps as Kevin was, but he doesn't have much charm - he is just vanilla. So is the cast which includes Haviland Morris as Alex's mother who is too charismatic to just be a worrying mother. Comic pratfalls and multiple hits to the heads of these clumsy thieves with objects thrown at them that should kill them, "Home Alone 3" is unmemorable, unwarranted and inexplicably dull.   

Your smile and face are never in the same place, at the same time

 NIXON (1995)

An Appreciation by Jerry Saravia

"They will never love you Dick, no matter how many elections you win, they never will." - Pat Nixon

Truer words could not have been spoken in Oliver Stone's bewildering, seismic tragedy of almost Shakespearean proportions, "Nixon." Who would have thought of any 20th century U.S. President evoking anything tragic worthy of our most famous playwright. Stone's "Nixon" is not a sentimental treatise nor a loving tribute but it is an empathetic and layered look at a man who was rightly condemned for his actions while in the Oval Office. Some may agree, some will disagree yet Stone points out a man who had the defects of his own virtues.

What were the virtues? Nixon was born in the poorest lemon ranch in the United States, specifically in Whittier, California. His Quaker mother was born of virtue (Mary Steenburgen), a "living saint," and his father (Tom Bower) was a hard working grocer who believed in virtue and any disobedience would lead to a trip to the woodshed. Richard Nixon had two brothers who died of TB, a heartbreaking loss which infected the rest of his life. Yet the film doesn't play out like a regular, linear biography of the rise and fall of a powerful man. The film unspools based on Nixon's private moments of listening to his reel-to-reel recordings of conversations between him and his staff that includes the publicity-seeking National Security Advisor and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (Paul Sorvino); H. R. Haldeman, the Chief of Staff (James Woods), who protected the President and his decisions including odd discussions of coded phrases such as "that whole Bay of Pigs thing"; David Hyde Pierce as the White House Counsel, John Dean, who later testified in court during the Watergate hearings, and others including J.T. Walsh as John Ehrlichman, Domestic Affairs Advisor, who can clearly see Nixon is going off the rails. Nixon was known back in the 1950's for going after Communists and yet "McCarthy never did much for him." Once he is in office for the second elected term, the war in Vietnam gets worse with more bombings than one can count. After he ends the war, the press doesn't clap for any sort of victory (though they love him for opening China during Chairman Mao's reign). 

This all brings us to Anthony Hopkins who inhabits the soul, not the appearance, of the former late President (no crooked nose either, other than in pointed flashbacks to the 1950's Red Scare). Hopkins brings out the pathos, thanks to an intricate, complex and literate script by Stone, Stephen J. Rivele and Christopher Wilkinson. There are powerful, practically soul-searching scenes played out with subtlety and infinite grace such as Nixon's late-night visit to the Lincoln Memorial with dozens of anti-war protesters surrounding him and asking tough questions; Kissinger and Nixon praying by the fireplace after he signed his resignation letter (that scene alone will raise the hairs on your arms); Nixon regretfully (it's in his pained eyes) renouncing ever running for office again to his no-nonsense wife Pat (brilliantly played by Joan Allen), and the vivid memories of his Whittier days which are as harsh and unsentimental as anything in Tricky Dick's presidency. 

Then we get the backgroom intrigue - the alleged and some recorded conversational moments between Nixon and his aides. The increasing bombing of Cambodia is discussed, Kent State, the triangular diplomacy with communist nations like China and Russia and what works for his campaign for a second term instead of what works for the people (especially the silent majority). Watergate details are also revealed and most thrillingly with ex-CIA agent and one of the White House Plumbers, E. Howard Hunt (Ed Harris), who gives us one of the great lines of 1990's cinema, "Your graves have already been dug." 

Oliver Stone pushes the empathy and compassion he has for Nixon in heavy strokes - Hopkins himself can't help but make Nixon look and feel more human than the televised president of his day with his customary line, "I am not a crook." The film suggests that Nixon could have been a great President if people only liked him. He had great powers that could have been used for good and he misused his presidency to keep us fighting a war presumably nobody wanted. His hubris takes a hold of him since he knows he could never be a Kennedy, and he unapologetically shows no compassion for others or his enemies of enemies (Nixon never called Bobby Kennedy after his brother was assassinated, and makes no statement over the tragic Kent State killings). 

"Nixon" rises and falls in its towering treatment of this President, unfolding past and present seamlessly with amazingly potent lensing by cinematographer Bobby Richardson, stretching from black-and-white to color just like he did with "Natural Born Killers" and "JFK.". One sequence involving Nixon recording over 18 1/2 minutes of secret tapes leading to him being rushed to the hospital is some of the most tantalizing sequences Oliver Stone ever cooked up. Of course, there are conspiracy-laden moments where eyebrows will be raised when Nixon visits some businessmen in some secret meetings in the middle of nowhere (the initial meeting with these men suggests they had a hand in Kennedy's demise). It is not a perfect film (the longer Director's cut is more icing on the cake featuring a curious meeting with Edgar G. Hoover in the Oval Office, and Richard Helms who may foster deeper knowledge of Bay of Pigs) but it is one of the best Presidential biographical films of the 1990's. It may get less respect than Stone's other films but that would be in keeping with Tricky Dick himself.  

No Way Out of this Train

ZENTROPA (1992)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

I first viewed "Zentropa" in 1992 in the Jean Cocteau cinema in Santa Fe, New Mexico (the same theater where I saw another black-and-white oddity, "Shadows and Fog.") "Zentropa" is both frustrating, horrific, absorbing, infrequently comical and consistently pure spectacle. It also works, as most great films do, as a slow-moving, almost death-like trance and nobody is better at putting you in that out-of-body state than Max von Sydow who does the stirring narration.

The narration is not a conventional voice-over - it is more of a set of instructions for our most peculiar protagonist (and in a way, for us, the audience). The mild-mannered, polite protagonist is Leopold Kessler (Jean-Marc Barr), an American brought to Germany in 1945 after the war is over. He is assigned to work as a sleeping car conductor and is related to his Uncle Kessler, a strict, impatient, by-the-book German (Ernst-Hugo Jaregard), who nonetheless expects his nephew to follow rules. The train is named Zentropa only though this is no ordinary train - this was a doomed mode of transportation to send Jews to the deadly concentration camps. There is an alluring heiress, Katharina (Barbara Sukowa), who is riding the train and is the daughter of Max Hartmann (Jørgen Reenberg), who owns the train. Max is no saint since his very own train company was complicit in war crimes. He's saddled with guilt to the point that he commits suicide in the bathtub after being falsely cleared by a Jew he saved. 

"Zentropa" is not for average audiences or even for, a term I loathe, "art film" enthusiasts. "Zentropa" is too strange, too melodic, too otherworldly from a narration standpoint, and far too European in its leisurely paced story though it briefly harks back to 1950's melodramatic romances with lyrical musical notes. Directed with visual brush strokes using rear-screen projection and black-and-white with splashes of occasional color, "Zentropa" is never less than mesmerizing. Almost every shot is layered with complex focal length shots that are quite unique (though not nearly as thickly layered as "Prospero's Books," released the same year), from an isolated yellow telegram with a man in the bathtub in black-and-white. It is exemplary filmmaking, especially in the opening scenes where we witness the emergence of the Zentropa train car being pulled with ropes by adults and children. 

Ultimately, the movie serves to function Leopold as some sort of powerless antihero who is given a  reluctant mission - to blow up the train! The war is never really over in Trier's "Zentropa" as the heiress turns out to be a Werwolf and an assassination even takes place on board the train involving a child shooting an older man! Perhaps Trier is saying that no matter who you were in Germany during the worst genocide of the 20th century, you were guilty by association. We are in submerged in the film's hypnotic final scenes and Leopold has no way out. Neither does the audience.

Blow by Blow with Serpico

 AMERICAN GANGSTER (2007)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Frank Lucas is one savvy, smart businessman who clearly would've done well for himself conducting any business. The business in "American Gangster," adapted from a true story, is the illegal shipment of an illegal, highly sought after drug, heroin. Only this heroin is not the street-level type - this is high-grade, uncut heroin from Vietnam! How the heck does Lucas manage to bring in top quality heroin to the United States and cut out the middle man? Using military coffins of course.

"American Gangster" has the subdued talents of Denzel Washington as Frank Lucas who rises fast in the selling of such pure heroin. Nobody can stop this guy and all the police detectives initially have trouble finding the man responsible - they don't even know his name. How do you cut out the middle man - the Italian Mafia and the cops on the take - and keep the dough for yourself and spread it around buying real estate and a North Carolina home for your mother (Ruby Dee)? Lucas keeps a low-profile up to a point, sharing his wealth with his brothers from back home. One brother (the excellent Chiwetel Ejiofor) thinks it is cool to dress like a guy the cops could easily target and nab ("You're wearing a clown suit.") Lucas corrects that situation and, of course, love finds itself in his sights in the form of a Puerto Rican woman (Lymari Nadal) who appears at one of Lucas's parties. Still, you can't keep crooked cops and the mob away forever. 

Russell Crowe is the honest-to-the-bone, Serpico-like police detective, Richie Roberts, who is vying to catch criminals and pass the bar. Roberts also has complications with his ex-wife (Carla Gugino) and custody of his son. This guy think nothing of boinking his fetching lawyer and other women entering in an out of his apartment. Meanwhile, there is Roberts' partner, Javy (John Ortiz, who looks exactly like a late 60's early 70's detective), who OD's on heroin. Roberts is ready to make arrests and sets up a task force to combat this heroin through the big-time suppliers, distributors and the big honcho.  

"American Gangster" is at its best when evoking the brutally difficult detective work Roberts has to contend with. The details of finding the merchandise and discovering how it is imported into the U.S. are almost staggering to witness - you wonder just how he will nab Lucas. It is also fascinating to see Lucas at work and Denzel does a fabulous job of evoking much without dialogue - it is his silence and his observation of supposedly trivial touches (like placing a coaster for a rival's drink) that show a man who doesn't leave anything to chance. He wants to be in charge of this product and it comes at the expense of almost everything else, including his wife and even his chinchilla coat. There are too many forces to be reckoned including a crooked cop with a hint of slime in his mustache played with scary precision by Josh Brolin. Still, the movie doesn't sugarcoat Lucas - this guy is prone to killing someone without much provocation.

"American Gangster" does find a subtle nod of nobility in Frank Lucas which is largely due to Denzel Washington's casting - the real gangster himself doesn't seem to hint at anything noble. The relationships Roberts and Lucas have with the women in their lives do lack depth and one wishes that Lymari Nadal had been given more to do than the customary packing-suitcases-and-splitting scene. It is only the forthright Lucas and the righteous Roberts who seem to find common ground in naming names of rotten cops on the take. Regardless of its flaws, Ridley Scott has fashioned an entertaining and sometimes thrilling look at cops and criminals. It may seem like business as usual with gangsters but rarely is it this compelling. 

Smooth cop, smooth criminal

 HEAT (1995)

An Appreciation by Jerry Saravia

I have looked at Michael Mann's "Heat" several times throughout the years and there is plenty to wade through in its 2 hour and 50 minute run time. It has an amazing bank heist scene followed by an incredible shootout in the streets, it has a dank look at the underworld that exists in nightclubs and fenced-in areas off the beaten path where few tread except criminals, and even the occasional green screen effects of L.A. at night is dreamy and noirish in ways we had not seen again till David Lynch's "Mulholland Dr." More significantly, "Heat" is not content to be solely a high-stakes action thriller - it focuses on the personal lives of the professional thieves and the one police lieutenant who needs the chase to fuel his mojo.

Al Pacino is the high-strung yet completely in control lieutenant Hanna. This guy lives to root out scores and find and possibly kill crews if they kill innocent lives. One particularly brutal crew is masterminded by McCauley (Robert De Niro), an icy thief who is unwilling to have a woman in his life since he lives by a ruthless code - as soon as the heat is around the corner, he's disciplined enough to know to walk away from any woman no matter what. It is the only true code he lives by. Lieutenant Hanna lives by finding and arresting crews - it raises his temperature and keeps him focused. Hanna is married (again) and can't seem to hold down a relationship with his neglected wife, Justine (Diane Venora), or his troubled stepdaughter (Natalie Portman, in what appears to be a heavily truncated role). Hanna is always on the move and "where he needs to be" but that doesn't include being home or partaking in cleaning dirty dishes. In contrast, McCauley lives in a lonely Malibu home where you hear the waves of the ocean in the background - he has no furniture, only a phone and a coffee maker. In one of many tantalizing scenes, McCauley visits his usual bookshop looking for a book on metals and is questioned what he is reading by a graphic designer, Eady (Amy Brenneman). McCauley feels threatened and then slowly asks various questions about Eady's life, thus eliminating any need to reveal anything about himself. This sequence alone leads to intimacy at her apartment and is almost as revealing and powerful as Hanna and McCauley's impromptu visit to a coffee shop.

Nothing in "Heat" is truly original other than its focus on complicated relationships and complicated high-tech heists. This is what makes "Heat" rise above most other heist movies and its cat-and-mouse game between cops and criminals - its very influence is felt in "Infernal Affairs," another dynamic thriller. Here, we also venture into Val Kilmer as Chris Shiherlis, a McCauley crew member who can bulldoze through security alarms. Chris's wife, Charlene (Ashley Judd), is well aware of Chris's criminal activities, often goading him for more cash for his work. Chris gets temperamental, in fact most of the males in this movie holler and get physical with the women. Worst offender is the serial rapist and murderous Waingro (Kevin Gage) who is along for the opening scene's armored truck heist where he spontaneously kills a guard without much provocation. Kevin Gage's chilling performance showcases a dangerous man with an increasingly volatile nature that is scary to watch. Other actors appear in "Heat" as restrained, cool and controlling such as Jon Voight as McCauley's business contractor, Henry Rollins (!), Dennis Haysbert as a paroled convict and Tom Noonan as an expert with inside information on banks. Even Bud Cort is along for the ride as a rigid diner manager. Danny Trejo and the colorful character actor Tom Sizemore appear as crew members and they seem less threatening than the others, which is saying a lot.

"Heat" still falls a little short of developing the three central female characters, Eady, Justine and Charlene. They just barely appear as nothing more than troubling pawns - trophies for the insecure men. True, Charlene has her way with Chris and McCauley who catches her having an affair but she is inconsolable. Same with Eady who eventually finds out McCauley's true nature as a career criminal and decides to go along with it, though we can't imagine why when she feels cheated and betrayed. Brenneman's final scene where she realizes that McCauley will not be part of her life is this actress's strongest moment in the film, other than the original meeting. And there's Justine who has an affair without blinking an eye, leading to a hilarious verbal assault by Hanna.

"Heat" is smooth in its jazzy rhythms that are director Michael Mann's trademark - his movies are textured with a coolness that is intensely watchable. The characters speak with a clarity and a slight detachment that seem utterly real and authentic. Along with Mann's "Thief" and "Manhunter," few action thrillers can deliver such ample style and strong characters and it puts most other similar flicks to shame. The whole movie is an unusual crime picture in retrospect - it is as smooth as silk.