Painterly and still and stiff

GOYA EN BORDEAUX (1999)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

(Original review from 2000)

Famed Spanish painter Francisco Goya created paintings of carcasses of pigs, sheep and other animals using dark, vibrant colors (he also painted visions of death using people as well). His life must have been fascinating but you wouldn't know it from watching Carlos Saura's "Goya in Bordeaux," which reveals so little of the man and his art that it may as well be about good old King Henry VIII, if not for the time period and costuming.

The old Goya is played by Francisco Rabal, shown living in exile in France with his caring wife and his mature teenage daughter, Rosario (Daphne Fernandez). Goya reminisces about his past to Rosario, though she has heard these stories countless times before. He speaks of an affair he had with the dangerous Cayetano, Duchess of Alba (Maribel Verdu), who later opposed and was thus poisoned by the Queen Maria Luisa. There are also glimpses into his days as a court painter, his portraits of people he found both significant and otherwise, his increasing deafness, his admiration of Velazquez's "Las Meninas" and the visions of death he had that so haunted him till the end of his life. The younger, middle-aged Goya as shown in these flashbacks is played by Jose Coronado, and he is so charismatic and romantic that one wishes Saura spent more time exploring this actor. Alas, he does not.

"Goya in Bordeaux" is stunningly shot by one of our great cinematographers, Vittorio Storaro (who helmed Saura's previous "Tango," as well as some early Bertolucci), and it is beautifully crafted with various lighting color schemes and silhouettes, as if we were watching a painting unfold before our eyes. Unfortunately, there is barely much illumination into Goya's life and so we get the feeling that we are watching a series of still lifes that shed scarce insight into the man. We mostly see the older Goya fretting and arguing and feeling disoriented by his paintings but that is as far as one gets into his soul. As it is, this film may as well be about any sick old man living in exile.

Plimsouls have more edge than movie

VALLEY GIRL (1983)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

It is tough to dislike Martha Coolidge's "Valley Girl" - it is easygoing, upbeat and winsome in its attitude. And yet it is nothing more than that. Even for a teen romantic comedy that doesn't aim for sexual innuendoes or gratuitous sex scenes, it is too mild, too laid-back an affair.

Deborah Foreman is Julie, the cute blonde chick of the movie, a Valley Girl high-school student who is getting bored with her schmuck of a boyfriend (Michael Bowen). She sets her eyes on a likable punk named Randy (Nicolas Cage) who doesn't wear pink polo shirts nor does he dance to, well, generic dance music. He is a Plimsouls man, goes to clubs and gets drunk and has sex a lot. He is interested in Julie because she is, well, cute I gather. Actually I did not quite get what the attraction was aside from Foreman having maybe more of an edge than her Valley girlfriends. So Julie and Randy hookup, eat out together, go to the beach, watch Romeo and Juliet at the movies and generally have fun. Unfortunately, Julie's ex is not happy and there is the standard peer pressure about dumping Randy so Julie can reconnect with her clique and get to be Prom Queen or something.

"Valley Girl" is an ostensibly sweet little movie but it is also mediocre and has two leads who have no chemistry together (Cage has never been much of a romantic leading man). It is too simple a movie, too eager to please and ends without ever revving its engine to go somewhere we haven't gone before. The best performances are by Frederic Forrest and Colleen Camp as Julie's parents (and health food shop owners) who are more thoughtful and realistic than most other parents seen in these movies. They want Julie to be happy, to roam free, to be herself. I wish the movie was about them. 

Get Down and Boogie with the Dramatics

DARKTOWN STRUTTERS (1975)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Blaxploitation pictures were crude, humorous, abrupt and violent. "Darktown Strutters" may not be the best parody of such pictures but it does capture the zing, the crudeness and the abruptness so well that it gets a pass as one rollickingly good time at the movies.

Describing this movie may give away some genuine surprises but I'll do my best not to spoil anything. Trina Sparks (whom some may recognize as Thumper from "Diamonds are Forever") is Syreena, the leader of a black Queen motorcycle gang, and she is looking for her mother, Cinderella! Her kung-fu practicing brother has no idea where she is. The pimps don't know either, but maybe a certain Col. Sanders-lookalike chicken tycoon (Norman Bartold) might have some idea. This leads to an underground cave with prisoners, including the Dramatics band performing one of their own show-stopping tunes no less! Added to this farcical hodgepodge of blaxploitation pictures cliches, perhaps a dig at specifically Pam Grier's own films, are racist Keystone Cops that drive police cars with oversized flashing sirens; walls that come toppling down in houses and apartments; a blackface minstrel show in the tycoon's mansion that may leave some offended (oh, well, such scenes were commonplace at one time); drag queens; three kids who harass an ice-cream man by finishing each other's sentences; lots of giant-sized ribs; hilariously speeded-up and anarchic bike chases and car chases that are probably as exciting as the real thing; and a finale involving cloning and a contraption that makes babies that may just leave you in stitches.

"Darktown Strutters" (also known as "Get Down and Boogie") is not for all tastes but its histrionic level of cartoonish tomfoolery coupled with some digs at the genre and, undoubtedly, white L.A. cops left me in good spirits. Almost fifteen years later, we got the similar "I'm Gonna Git You Sucka," aimed at parodying the same genre. I'd say a double-bill would be fitting.

Bennifer can make you vomit

GIGLI (2003)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Oh, pity the movie that rhymes with "really." Pity the poor fools who thought that Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez could rate as mob enforcers or hit men. Pity the people who thought that sexually explicit jokes are funny if they are not written by Kevin Smith. Oh, and sadly, pity director Martin Brest who thought he could make something artful out of something so artless.

This wasteland of a movie has Ben Affleck as Gigli, a hit man-of-sorts whose job is to kidnap the mentally-challenged brother of a federal prosecutor so that some mafia henchman (Al Pacino) will not get a stiff sentence for whacking people. Gigli is so incompetent that Ricki (Jennifer Lopez) is sent to make sure he does his job correctly. Excuse me? Let's see if I get this right: a lesbian mob enforcer is sent to make sure a hotheaded, arrogant mob enforcer doesn't screw up holding a hostage in his own apartment? Why didn't they just give the job to Ricki? As the movie ensues for an eternity, Ricki and Gigli verbally duel on matters involving sex, sexual preference and sexual orientation. Ricki decides to sleep with Gigli on the same bed, but not make love. Gigli loves to strut and tries to prove his case that heterosexuality should be the preference for everybody. Ricki proves her case by mentioning there are two orifices from which a woman can get pleasure, rendering lesbianism as the sexual preference. It should come as no surprise that Gigli and Ricki do get it on, which proves that lesbians in Hollywood movies eventually put out.

Martin Brest directs these scenes with no flair, no energy, using mostly long lenses. A lot of films nowadays are shot with long lenses, so long in fact that actors and backgrounds often merge in a flat, two-dimensional look. The problem is that these actors are about as interesting as a piece of cardboard. Ben and Jen never convinced me they were mob enforcers. Christopher Walken does a walk-on, Al Pacino shows up and kills somebody in a "Scarface"-like rage, and that's about it. Most of the movie centers on Ben and Jen, formerly Bennifer, chattering away like annoying neighbors. It is a two-hour joke on sexuality with graphic violence thrown in for no real measure. And to think that the director once made "Going in Style," "Beverly Hills Cop," and "Midnight Run," not to mention "Scent of a Woman," is enough to make you vomit when his latest endeavor rhymes with "really."

Fake Movie vs. Real Politics

ARGO (2012)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Ben Affleck had has a wayward career as an actor, riding up and down from Kevin Smith's films to foolhardy decisions such as "Gigli" and "Surviving Christmas" (if you can stand to watch more than ten minutes of the latter, I applaud you). As a director, his career has supercharged and revitalized him, from "Gone Baby Gone" to "The Town." "Argo" is a more ambitious effort, parading around international conflicts in Iran during the 1970's which is a far cry from the Bostonian settings of his first two flicks. Does it work? Yes, but it is not a great movie. However, it is a fittingly suspenseful political thriller of sorts with enough intrigue, drama and a Hollywood satirical subplot to give it a lift. Of course, all this is based on fact, a true story that might've been concocted by a movie studio.

It is 1979 and a cancer-striken Shah of Iran, who wanted to Westernize his country, is ousted. The Ayatollah Khomeini is now in power and many Iranians are sympathetic to his cause and deplore the Westernization of anything, perhaps because it is a reminder of America. Things are awry in Iran - flags are burnt on the streets and the American Embassy is coming apart at the seams when the people decide to break down the fence and windows of the building. 52 Americans are taken hostage while six U.S. State Department officials from the Embassy escape to a Canadian ambassador's house. Then we see Iranian soldiers and children piecing together shredded documents and pictures with the hopes of identifying those six missing Americans.

The international situation is a scandal for the Carter administration and it has to be fixed, but how? CIA officials suggest the Americans flee in bikes but winter is nigh. An experienced CIA operative, Antonio J. Mendez (Ben Affleck), suggests an undercover operation where he can pose as a Hollywood scout seeking Iranian locations for a fictitious sci-fi project called "Argo." The six Americans will pose as a Canadian film crew. It sounds too good to be true but, hey, this is based on a true story.

Director Affleck and writer Chris Terrio have fun with the dynamics of Hollywood meetings in trying to drum up interest in a film that does not exist. Alan Arkin plays a no-nonsense Hollywood producer and the underrated John Goodman is a Hollywood makeup artist, John Chambers, who makes sly comments on the truth of Hollywood moviemaking. Most of these scenes are far more entertaining and involving than the Iranian incident. To be fair, Affleck builds up the tension towards the inevitable climax where the six Americans have to flee by plane (the actual incident did not end up as a chase scene) but it is the middle section involving Iran that doesn't quite jell. It has no real immediacy and no sense of real political strife - to be fair (with the exception of the realistic crowd protest scenes), it could have been set in any country. And when you cast an actress like Clea DuVall and leave her and the other Americans in the dark, you are risking losing interest in a situation that drives the movie. Interest doesn't wane and you want them out of the country, but did all the Iranian soldiers have to be so cartoonish?

Aside from the Hollywood backstory, the scenes that truly work are the CIA briefings and the incredible ignorance of some CIA officials. Bryan Cranston does solid work as the sympathetic but tough CIA chief who gives the dubious mission a go. Victor Garber (a fascinating actor since I first saw him in Atom Egoyan's "Exotica") is the kind Canadian ambassador who keeps calm in a crisis. Ben Affleck is clearly a better director than an actor but he is not bad as the bearded Mendez (charges from critics that an Anglo-Saxon played a Hispanic man are futile - I am Spanish and look as white as snow and the real Mendez is only partly Hispanic). My issue with Affleck is that he is not a charismatic actor and hardly exudes much personality. Of course, you have to keep calm in Iran and not stick out like a sore thumb. That could easily describe the film "Argo" - pleasant and fitfully entertaining time-filler that doesn't try to stand out like a sore thumb or a polemic. Just imagine, though, what someone like Costa-Gravas could have done with this.

Tony says Kubrick's Epic Horror tale is better than ever

THE SHINING (1980)

An interpretation and re-evaluation by Jerry Saravia

Many years back I wrote this about Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining": There are horror films that come with expectations, namely to spook and scare us with the unknown. And then there is Stanley Kubrick's misguided though definitely spooky "The Shining," a horror film that is unaware of what it wants to say or how to say it. I admire Kubrick greatly, he is one of the finest directors in the history of cinema, but this film is definitely on a lower standard than some of his other works. Lower standard? Baloney. "The Shining" is one frustrating Kubrick film I had the most trouble with since I first saw it in 1982 on VHS. My father hated the film and said it was not scary, but the ending left him angry and perplexed. I didn't care for the film at all, upon first glance, and it was something I had steadily avoided looking at again until 10 years later. I suppose this is a cliche when it comes to repeated viewings of Kubrick films but the second time, I truly admired it and found it more eerie than initially. More eerie than scary, more hyped-up and uncomfortable and agitated than jumping out of my seat every two seconds. Seeing the film again and again since, I have come to the realization that Kubrick's "Shining" is not a horror film at all - it is about using elements of horror to show moral decay and madness in everyday life and especially in a family unit. 

Jack Nicholson is the wild-eyed, seemingly mischievous Jack Torrance. He has been hired as the caretaker of the Overlook Hotel, stationed in a highly remote, isolated area of Colorado. There is definitely something wrong with Jack from the start since he rolls his eyes and hardly flinches when hearing a past story of a graphic murder that took place at the hotel from the hotel manager, Stuart Ullman (Barry Nelson). His wife, Wendy (a frail and purposely fragile-looking Shelley Duvall) and their son, Danny (Danny Lloyd) who talks to his finger referred to as "Tony," come to stay with Jack at the Overlook for several months so of course, something will go wrong. There are several hints of this at the beginning of the film, most telling example is when Jack is driving the family to the hotel and mentions a cannibalism that occurred in the area. Wendy looks at him in disbelief and Danny, seated behind them, says "it's okay Mom. I saw it on television." Jack replies, "You see. He saw it on the television." The reference is to the infamous, real-life Donner Party, a story as gruesome and disheartening as any you might ever read about

"The Shining" is essentially about those long, wintry months spent at the Overlook, and the isolation is clearly felt from frame to frame. Most the months are broken up by intertitles that indicate the days of the week. Jack's madness begins to settle in, as he screams at Wendy for intruding while he is at work on a novel. Then he begins to see ghosts, such as a beautiful naked woman in a tub in one of the rooms of the hotel (237 to be precise) and a bartender from the 1920's (the fantastic Joe Turkel) whom Jack confides in about his fears and insecurities with his family, casually mentioning his wife as the "sperm bank upstairs." Then something grows wild within Jack, an animal is let loose and before you know it, the ax comes out and he is ready to kill his family.

"The Shining" could be a conventional horror film much like Stephen King's scary novel but there is something unsettling and unnatural from the start of the film. We see hypnotic wide-angle views of the Colorado mountains that certainly rivet the attention. Danny already sees a vision of the blood from the hotel elevator (a shot that perhaps is shown far too soon in the film, especially after becoming an iconic shot from the infamous teaser) and the Torrance family hasn't even settled in at the hotel yet. The labyrinthian hedge maze that is seen in one impossible trick shot from overhead, as if it was seen from Jack's point-of-view since he stares at a mock-up of the maze in the hotel lobby, is enough to make for a heart-stopping moment in time - you can already feel a little anxious at this point. Jack stares at his family a lot, sometimes from the famously low-angle Kubrick stare that creeps one out.

The over-the-top performances may seemingly undermine credibility and cause us to lose sympathy with the characters but it is a theatrical, progressive hysteria. Jack is typical Jack, wild and insolent, seeming like an insane madman from the very start rather than a character study of a man slowly losing his sanity, yet he is really an average dad who is consumed by his typewriter and the hotel's past - he is rather restrained at the start with some typical Jack mannerisms (let's say that the Jack at the start of the film and at the end are two different personalities to be sure). I initially thought Shelley Duvall's screams and gaping looks were grating and cumbersome but I also understood that Wendy was starting to lose her sanity considering her husband attacks her and her son becomes catatonic - you feel bad for her and she actually becomes the emotional center of the film. Danny Lloyd can be a tough endurance test for first-time viewers, especially when he simply stares into oblivion during his "shinings" and makes rather offputting gestures with his finger, mimicking the voice of "Tony" (an actual improvisation by the tyke). Still, despite repeated catatonia and various screams defining the character, Danny is a watchable presence but his character still leaves me feeling a little unsatisfied. His scene with Jack where Danny sits on his lap as they discuss what is going on is, however, positively chilling.

There are several other virtues to "The Shining." The film has an ominous, otherworldly quality that is well-suited for such a disturbing horror tale. There are the particularly ominous opening helicopter shots of the roadways leading to the Overlook. The colors of the hotel ballroom are mostly gold and pink, thereby evoking the 1920's atmosphere in great splendor. There are the point-of-view shots of Danny riding in his bike through the corridors and hallways, all accomplished with a Steadicam (one of the first films to use such a camera in great ubiquity by inventor Garrett Brown). There is one truly horrifying scene where Danny sees twin girl ghosts who ask him to come and play, immediately realizing they were the girls who were killed in the hotel by the former caretaker (there are two Gradys mentioned in the film so I am guessing the 1920's Grady, brilliantly played with poise by Philip Stone). There is a brilliantly edited and shot chase through the hedge maze outside the hotel where Jack torments poor Danny. In terms of production design, art direction, cinematography and sheer atmosphere, "The Shining" is triumphant in all departments.

Yet "The Shining" does not conveniently fit in as a simple horror film - it is a horror mystery with lots of hidden meanings in every shot (the haunting final scene justifiably asks more questions than answers though I have a keen idea on what it all means now). Its histrionic performances and purposely overdone chilling musical score  (using samples of Krysztof Penderecki, Wendy Carlos synthesizer sounds, and an uncredited sample from the ominous Berlioz's "Symphonie Fantastique") turns it into a freak show with occasional moments of terror. But Kubrick has more in mind than shock tactics and freaky ghosts performing fellatio or holding bloody glasses of champagne. He is saying that a history of violence repeats itself, generation after generation. The Overlook Hotel was built on a sacred Native American burial ground and violence was used against Native Americans who were understandably provoked by the white man ("White Man's Burden"), thinking that this sacred land was theirs. So the blood from the elevators may symbolize a genocide against the Native Americans as well as former caretakers wiping out their own families due to cabin fever and ghosts from a Great Gatsby ballroom egging them on. The only black person in this film is the cook Dick Hallorann (Scatman Crothers, another chilling performance) who is killed (the only murder in the entire film which was not in the book). The white man must do away with anyone who is not white. The white man must also control the family unit or "correct them." So it turns out that "The Shining" is far more contemplative and illuminating than first thought - a classic horror picture about the real horrors of the world that overwhelm supernatural elements. Sorry it took this Kubrick fan thirty years to figure that one out.

Patrolling through Police Academy streets

NIGHT PATROL (1984)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

"Night Patrol" is a disposable "Police Academy" clone, short on cleverness and long on vulgar, plainly brain-dead jokes that you see coming a half mile away. Clearly the makers of this so-called "film" watched a lot of the forgotten "Police Squad" TV episodes and possibly indulged in the Zucker Bros. own classic "Airplane" for starters. But whereas the Zucker Bros. found their footing by actually writing jokes and imposing several, clever background gags, not to mention their dependence on their acute knowledge of film history, the makers of this film amp up the gross-out factor and think that farts equals tickling the funny bone. Not quite.

A vastly inept police officer named Melvin (Murray Langston) is promoted to night patrol with an older partner (Pat Paulsen) who has sex with every young woman he comes in contact with. The truth is Melvin is moonlighting as the Unknown Comic (a character Langston originated on the "Gong Show"), an act where he wears a paper bag over his head so that no one knows his identity. This works for the first few minutes but, after a while, even his stale jokes can be seen coming from miles and miles. Throw in sweet Linda Blair as an officer who loves Melvin, Bill Barty as a hypocritical, angry police captain who is consistently farting, a terrific Jaye P. Morgan as a talent scout, a cringe-inducing and unfunny bit involving blackface (it shameless steals a bit from "Silver Streak" though that film was funnier in context), a little Sergio Leone homage which includes a cop performing the musical score with a guitar (that made me smile) and Pat Morita as some scared rape victim speaking with a young girl's voice (not so funny). The cockfighting bit is obvious before we actually see it (let's say it has nothing to do with actual birds).

"Night Patrol" is a relic of its time, instantly forgettable and funny only in short spurts. Sort of fun to see Andrew "Dice" Clay (billed here as Andy Clay) as a comic trying to get Jaye P. Morgan's attention, but this comedy's few pleasures are outweighed by moments of laughless stupidity. "Night Patrol" might make a decent Saturday night rental with your partner or spousal equivalent because you'll spend more time talking to each other than paying attention to the film.