Same old Stardust Memories

CELEBRITY (1998)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Woody Allen's "Celebrity" reminded me a little too much of his soporific "Stardust Memories," which was also filmed in black-and-white and concentrated on the nature of celebrities. This film is superior but suffers from the same lack of comic energy and enthusiasm. For the first time since his overrated comic segment in "New York Stories," I felt Woody's heart was not in the right place for this material.

"Celebrity" stars Kenneth Branagh as celebrity hound and interviewer Lee Simon who drives an Astor Martin to attract and have sex with all the female celebrities, while getting the scoop on their precious moments of fame and recognition. He gets oral pleasure from a famous actress (Melanie Griffith - less annoying than usual), and he gives a brief moment of orgasmic pleasure to a model (thrillingly played by Charlize Theron). What he really wants to do is write a novel about celebrities, but he lacks the self-confidence to finish it even with the help of a sexy book editor (Famke Janssen).

Lee is not a happy person, though, and lacks self-control. He regretfully divorced the shrilly Robin (Judy Davis), a schoolteacher who is afraid to deal with life after divorce. She resorts to religious retreats and superstar plastic surgeons, yet the answer may lie with a TV producer, Tony Gardella (Joe Mantegna). Robin decides to work for him at a busy TV station where she meets an assortment of talk show guests, including skinheads, overweight people, Hasidic jews, and a prostitute (Bebe Newirth). The latter shows her how to perform oral sex by using a banana (a witty take-off on Madonna's famously similar oral display in "Truth or Dare"). In the process, Robin becomes a TV celebrity host.

There are many good jokes in Woody's latest opus. My favorite is Charlize Theron's sleepy, sexually polymorphous model (a bit cribbed from "Annie Hall") who brings everything to a halt when she appears - she could be the next Sharon Stone (who appeared in "Stardust Memories"). I also loved the gala movie opening where Lee sees a famous director (Andre Gregory) who makes "arty, pretentious movies in black-and-white". There's also a vivid sequence involving Leonardo DiCaprio as a superstar actor who trashes hotel rooms and beats up his girlfriend (Gretchen Mol) - he makes such a startlingly violent 10-minute entrance that it is a real shame when he exits. And there are several quips about novelists, particularly one moment where Lee sleeps with one of DiCaprio's escorts, who insists that she writes `like Chekov'.

The central figure in "Celebrity" is the nervous chatterer Robin Simon, played with pitch-perfect precision by the indomitable Judy Davis. Her character is a wounded soul searching for meaning in her universe, and she has her reservations about getting married again. Her character is so real, so vivid, so humane that it is a shame Woody didn't invest the same interest in the other characters.

For example, there is the crucial Lee Simon role (played by Kenneth Branagh), who is miscast and obviously uncomfortable with mimicking Woody's famous tics and neurotic stutters. His role is severely underwritten, lacking any of the pathos or charm that Woody would have brought to it. Branagh is better off in Shakespeare country, or when he commands an American accent in his own work such as "Dead Again." The aforementioned Charlize Theron disappears too soon, as well as the comic fury of DiCaprio.

Still, there's an element of bewitching attitude and class to Winona Ryder as Lee's girlfriend, a promiscuous actress who can't commit to one man. The virtually unrecognizable Bebe Newirth is also exceedingly good as the soft-spoken prostitute. Joe Mantegna brings back the suave coolness that he brought to Allen's thoughtful "Alice," which also starred Judy Davis.

"Celebrity" is a good film but it doesn't have the manic, furious energy of "Deconstructing Harry" or "Husbands and Wives," one of his greatest films. It is surprisingly chaste and unscrupulous in its attack and commentary on modern-day celebrities. With its abrupt ending and uneven characterizations, "Celebrity" is simply filler until the next great Woody Allen film.

Lacerating, Biting Allenisms

DECONSTRUCTING HARRY (1997)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Originally reviewed in 1997

Woody Allen's last couple of movies lacked bite and true comic spirit and I had the feeling his work was going to continue along the lighter side, as in "Everyone Says I Love You." Now with the shockingly disturbing and provocative "Deconstructing Harry," he has created one of his most lacerating, uneven yet truthful comedy-dramas ever.

Woody Allen plays a successful author named Harry Block who's currently facing writer's block on his latest novel. While he's creatively challenged, Harry loves to sleep with any woman he meets, has affairs with girlfriends and wives, and finds a kinky pleasure in sleeping with prostitutes. At one point, he asks one particular prostitute (Hazelle Goodman) to tie him up, beat him, and "give him a blow job." Harry also has a knack for pills and whiskey and little else - all there is his art that feeds his soul, or what he has left of it.

Harry's life is remarkably similar to his novel. The characters he creates are exaggerated figments of people he was once close to (As a counterpoint to his life, Woody dramatizes the real-life characters in his book by having different actors). His Jewish sister and brother-in-law (played by Caroline Aaron and Eric Bogosian) are depicted as hateful denizens in his book yet they are not that different in reality. Harry also had an affair with his ex-wife's sister (Judy Davis) who threatens to kill him after threatening to commit suicide. They are hilariously depicted in his book as lovers (played by Richard Benjamin and Julia Louis-Dreyfus) who have sex in front of his half-blind grandmother! "Deconstructing Harry" is an unusual experiment for Woody Allen because he actually dissects himself and his life through his art and through his relationships. One can argue that he has done that with every film he's made, but what is most unusual is how rough Woody is on himself - for the first time in his career, he curses, and talks about sex in graphic detail. He also curses at his ex-wives (Kirstie Alley, Amy Irving) who are always yelling at him for his numerous affairs and for how they are depicted in his novel! The only sweet relationship he has is with a lovely fan (Elisabeth Shue) who's about to marry Harry's best friend (Billy Crystal) who may be the Devil himself!

Woody also has a grand time including scenes from Harry's former novels. There is one where different kinds of Jewish stereotypes are depicted in relation to Harry's family, such as the perfectly cast Demi Moore as a psychotherapist who "sees true beauty and meaning" in Judaism. Then there are the Jewish parties where the guests are dressed as Darth Vader and the waiters as stormtroopers! How about his uncle who may killed his first wife and eaten her! And then there's Woody's greatest comic invention since "Zelig" called "The Actor," a character (Robin Williams) who is always out of focus!

"Deconstructing Harry" juggles a lot of characters and situations and throws them up in the air with great abandon. Woody Allen's visual style is more complex since there are less long takes and lots of jump cuts to emphasize Harry's own dissection of his life and the others around him. The film doesn't always succeed nor is he as deconstructive of Harry as he should be, but his theme of how an artist's work is more significant than his life is superbly realized. "Deconstructing Harry" is not as consistently hilarious as his earlier films, and maybe it isn't meant to be. It is, however, as daring, courageous, darkly comic and outrageous a self-portrait as I've seen in a long time.

An Orwellian heroine defying the odds

DIVERGENT (2014)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

"Divergent" appears at first glance to be a "Hunger Games" clone when in fact, to be fair, "Hunger Games" was a crossbreed of Orwell's "1984" and "The Most Dangerous Game" with a dash of "Rollerball" (original version, not remake) to make its points on violence as a game to entertain the audience. "Divergent" has a mask of cool detachment leading to a surprising emotional powderkeg of a finale that had me at Shailene Woodley ("The Descendants").

Based on a series of books by Veronica Roth, Shailene Woodley is Beatrice "Tris" Prior, the daughter of an official (Tony Goldwyn) that runs a ruling council for the government. There are five factions in this post-apocalyptic (a common phrase in today's cinema) climate, specifically in the city of Chicago. Tris belongs to Abnegation, the selfless faction that runs the government, but she is still up for selection to a faction she desires based upon a serum-induced aptitude test  (all 16-year-olds undergo this test). Tris chooses Dauntless but her test proves she is actually compatible with three factions - she is a free thinker, a "divergent." Being divergent means trouble in an Orwellian world because it means you are an independent thinker, and who wants that in a world where mind control is the norm. Tris keeps her secret quiet and joins the arduous Dauntless, which consists of a group that runs around, jumps into trains and jumps out of them onto tenement roofs, and endures major tests of endurance. What exactly is the point of this faction is lost on me except to prove bravery and perhaps (and this is what I found most fascinating) using the best of its members as super-soldiers. This touches on a key plot point from "The Manchurian Candidate."

"Divergent" uses "Hunger Games" as its cinematic template - heroine is weak yet proves her worth and falls for someone she shouldn't (Theo James). But what makes the movie sing are the performances that prove more inspired than the setting. Woodley earns her Katniss Everdeen stripes by evoking great sympathy and vulnerability - she also has strength and determination, qualities in women we should see more often and not just in a post-apocalyptic scenario. Theo James makes a convincing Dauntless instructor named Four who keeps his eye on Tris. Jai Courtney (previously John McClane's son in the last "Die Hard" sequel) is the rigid, merciless Dauntless leader who puts Tris through a physical regiment that would make Katniss cry. Maggie Q is quietly effective as the Dauntless proctor of the aptitude tests who sees through Tris's secrets. Finally, there is Kate Winslet in an atypically insidious role as the leader of the faction Erudite whose future plans imply reducing the level of government control (I am putting it mildly but it does have to do with super-soldiers).

"Divergent" is tougher and bleaker than "The Hunger Games" but not as lean or as tightly paced (inevitable comparisons aside, there are no games played here for a bloodthirsty audience). Still, it is refreshing to see a post-apocalyptic movie that really feels post-apocalyptic. The amazing new talent of Shailene Woodley makes it tolerable. 

Beyond the Ram

THE WRESTLER (2008)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia 

My Choice for Best Film of 2008

One of the reasons I like director Darren Aronofsky's films is that they are alive and completely conscious, similar to his contemporaries such as Martin Scorsese and Oliver Stone. "The Wrestler" is more than a film - it is a firecracker of a movie that explodes and implodes with so much emotion, it leaves you burned out, exasperated and exhausted. This film quickens the pulse, radiates your nerves and leaves you with one of the greatest performances of the 21st and 20th century by the remarkable Mickey Rourke. High praise, indeed.

Rourke is the long-suffering, physically scarred and emotionally spent Randy "The Ram" Robinson, a pro-wrestler who has succumbed so heavily to the world of wrestling, he no longer feels joy from anything other than pleasing the audience. He can't please himself, though he tries with a local stripper named Cassidy (Marisa Tomei, in a truly spellbinding performance) who smiles and clearly loves the guy but she can't get involved (we know she will). There is the Ram's estranged daughter, Stephanie (Evan Rachel Wood) who wants nothing to do with him and deeply hates him, especially since he has forgotten every single birthday of hers. Meanwhile, The Ram takes punishment in the ring with a variety of defensive weapons that will make most audiences flinch. There are staple guns, barbed wire, razors hidden in wrist paddings and much more. If any of you have seen such matches in hotel lobbies or in union halls, not to mention seeing the horrifying "Beyond the Mat" documentary, you'll have a good idea of what lies ahead.

The Ram has a heart attack at one point, and decides to retire and work at a deli department at the local supermarket. He has to make enough money to pay the rent for his trailer, give a few 20's to his confidante, Cassidy, and perhaps buy a nice jacket for his daughter. The question is how long can the Ram stay away from the ring.

"The Wrestler" is greatly focused on the Ram, from one battle on the ring to the next to fighting his restrained emotions in the suburbs and nightclubs of New Jersey, specifically Rahway. He can't connect to his daughter, claiming he is nothing "but a piece of meat." She feels sorry for him but she can't forgive him. Then there is Cassidy who helps him find an appropriate gift for his daughter. They have a scene in a bar where they sing to Ratt's "Round n' Round" that proves a song can speak volumes for the characters' sake more so than just having a good song on a soundtrack.

Rourke has always been a fascinating presence in films ranging from "Rumble Fish" and "Pope of Greenwich Village" to his very underrated work in "White Sands" and his superb cameo in "The Pledge." He has had his own personal demons to fight, reducing his beatific visage to a squished rubber mat due to his boxing days and alleged plastic surgery. It is as if he hated his matinee idol look, turning away from it and crushing it because he was an actor first and foremost.

Such a parallel to Rourke's own life and career leads director Darren Aronofsky and Mickey Rourke to never shy away from the Ram's personal hell, a man who is bent on self-destruction without knowing it. He has the wrestling ring - it is his playground of emotion where he can feel loved by his peers and his fans. He just can't feel love from anyone else. Rourke shows such a depth and range of emotions that it will burn a hole through your heart. "The Wrestler" is not just powerful cinema - it is transcendental and contains quite possibly the most unforgettable and deeply personal performance of any actor since, dare I say, Harvey Keitel in "Bad Lieutenant." A unique and hellish masterpiece.

The Web-Crawler does Queens proud

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 (2014)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

It is unusual for a mainstream Hollywood movie to surprise me, to take me away from the comforts of the expected and the conventional. Sequels surprise me less, not to mention sequels to the endless barrage of comic-book movies in our cinematic landscape. The first "Amazing Spider-Man," a 2012 remake of the Sam Raimi 2002 blockbuster was not just unnecessary, it was the kind of a movie where a sedative was also unnecessary - the movie practically put me in sleep mode. Not one frame of that movie felt genuine or inspired - same old, same old. Andrew Garfield was the web-crawler but with an unconvincing touch of post-Christopher Nolan grit. Emma Stone was always fun to watch yet, overall, mediocrity in the land of spider webs. So, to my incredible amazement, I have to pause for a second, okay, there it is, and say that "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" is a vast improvement in all departments. This is pretty much the best Spider-Man flick since the 2002 dazzler - emotionally enriching, wonderfully acted, surprising and enlightening at every turn with special-effects, used sparingly enough in this day and age of overstuffed CGI, that wow us and show the most agile web-crawler ever. I am in shock and awe all at the same time, and Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone make their Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy the sweetest young couple you could ever hope for in this franchise.

Talk about surprises, this sequel begins with a flashback sequence involving Peter Parker's parents (Campbell Scott, Embeth Davidtz). All you need to know is the cryptic video message left for Peter by his dad, some equally cryptic information in a laptop, and a out-of-control plane that will leave you spooked. Flash forward to high-school graduate Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) who still tries to save the day as our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man involving a chase with a thief who stole some plutonium vials. This will make Peter late for Gwen Stacy's valedictorian speech (Gwen once again played by Emma Stone), though he gets his diploma in the nick of time. Confusion sets in when Peter keeps thinking about Gwen's late father police Captain George Stacy (played in a series of long stares by Denis Leary, one of the few false notes in this movie), who had asked Peter to promise to keep Gwen out of his Spidey business (she knows his secret identity after all). Peter dumps her (or does she), then they become friends again and the romance still blooms. It is all complicated for Peter, and that is what we expect for the good old Parker boy - his relationships with Gwen and Mary Jane were always fraught with tension and unease. Meanwhile, there are some funny asides about Peter's Aunt May (Sally Field, far more alive than in the last installment) who washes his nephew's laundry and wonders why the colors of his laundry run red and blue colors (time to use color-safe bleach).

But, hey, this is not just a cutesy romantic soap-opera or a domestic family drama. We got villains here, including Jamie Foxx as a clumsy electrical engineer who gets into an electrical accident at Oscorp Corp. The accident results in a mutation where he glows (almost as brightly as Taimak in "The Last Dragon") and thus becomes Electro, a supercharged villain who triggers one of two blackouts in New York City. There is also Harry Osborn (played by the creepy Dane DeeHan with a steely, unsettling presence), Peter's childhood friend, who is in town to see his dying father (an equally creepy Chris Cooper). Osborn's father dies from a hereditary disease that has now affected his son, and the search is on for a cure that involves Spider-Man's blood (some of this links to Peter Parker's father).

Amazingly, this new Spider-Man flick doesn't overdo the action quotient - the emphasis here is on Peter and Gwen, Peter's slow realization about what his father was up to, and Peter's acceptance of his Aunt May as more than just a family relative. It left me choked up, thanks to Sally Field's strong performance, but mostly thanks to my years of reading Spidey comics back in the day that reminded me why I loved those comics - the characters were first, the action second. And it is hardly a surprise to anyone concerning Gwen Stacy's predicament - [SPOILER FROM 1973] if you have read "Amazing Spider-Man" comic issue #121 then you'll see what I mean.

I do have some reservations about this sequel, namely that I was not crazy about Electro's insatiable need to destroy Spider-Man - just because Spidey stole his clout in the news? In the comics, Daily Bugle editor J. Jonah Jameson (a wonderful character not to be found in the new movies) wanted Electro to defeat Spider-Man and that would have made more dramatic sense. Also, I quibble regarding the Rhino character who appears in a cameo (although there are hints here of a possible Sinister Six in future Spidey installments) - too brief and used as a teaser for what's to come.

But these are such minor quibbles. "Amazing Spider-Man 2" coasts along at furious speeds, slowing down on occasion just enough to make sure we catch our breath. It is relentlessly and breathlessly entertaining and the shots of Spider-Man swinging around NYC are just as thrillingly staged as ever before. Kudos must also go to Andrew Garfield who brings a sense of joy and fun to Peter Parker and to the Web Crawler - the grit is replaced by genuine pathos and solemnity during the film's stirring finale. Emma Stone's bright angel on Peter's shoulders made my heart break - that it supersedes any love interest we have seen in previous Spidey flicks is definitely something to write home about. Garfield and Stone already proved they had chemistry before - now it burns and intoxicates thanks to writers Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci and Jeff Pinkner. The villains snarl and place just enough chaos and urgency to make Spidey sweat. In short, "Amazing Spider-Man 2" is an awesome sight to behold.

Go with God my troubled antiheroes

HARLEY DAVIDSON AND THE MARLBORO MAN (1991)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Some movies are meant to be enjoyed with beer and pizza. These movies are ostensibly junky, fast-food entertainments that provide no value other than watching antiheroes joking with each other, shooting at bad guys, cavorting women or lost loves, and a decent soundtrack with songs that remind you of being out on the road to nowhere. "Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man" is one of those movies. It is unpretentious and devotedly and stringently buddy-buddy in a genre that was on the way out in the early 90's.

Mickey Rourke is Harley, the biker who lives for nothing other than the thrill of the chase, I gather. He is seen cavorting with women in some hotel room, late at night. When he sees thieves attempting to rob a convenience store, Harley tackles them single handedly, reminding us of the cliche line: "You know this is not the first time that a gun was pointed at my head."

Don Johnson is the Marlboro Man, a former rodeo star who duct tapes his worn-out boots. He pines for a female cop named Virginia Slim (I shat you not!), played by Chelsea Field, who can't endure his absence much longer from her lonely bed.

The bare minimum of a plot has Harley and Marlboro Man robbing an armored truck carrying 2.5 million dollars that will help save a friend's biker bar (this bar still has the body of a cargo plane trapped in it). The bar apparently owes to the very bank Harley and Marlboro are robbing. Only problem is that our less than dynamic duo has robbed the wrong truck since all they acquire are bags of a new synthetic drug hitting the streets. This corrupt bank headed by a young Tom Sizemore leads to his minions, dressed in black and bulletproof trenchcoats, to try to whack the smoking duo. Yep, Harley and Marlboro Man smoke a lot in this movie. And everyone's name is a cigarette brand. You can thank screenwriter Don Michael Paul for all the cigarette references.

This is probably a movie that I should despise yet Rourke and Johnson have good chemistry and keep us awake in the midst of cliches you have seen a million times before. A death-defying jump into a pool from a hotel roof that is at least 70 stories high is hard to swallow, especially when they emerge unscathed from the pool. Harley can't shoot straight at all until the plot requires him to shoot straight. You also know Marlboro Man and Virginia Slim will end up together (A sentence I never imagined constructing in my life). It is also sweet to see Daniel Baldwin as a bad guy who seems geared to appear in a "Terminator" sequel (yes, Virginia Slim, he is that robotic). There is also a strange coincidence concerning Chelsea Field's Virginia who has a line that goes something like this: "You weren't around. I was lonely." This is her response to why she is getting married, which Mr. Marlboro ain't happy about. What is odd is that Chelsea Field later appeared in "The Last Boy Scout," released a few months after this movie, where she utters the same exact lines!

"Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man" is neither too trashy or exploitative, nor too serious or too unintentionally comical. It is what it is and makes no apologies. Pure junk-food entertainment.

In a 100 years, who's gonna care?

THE TERMINATOR (1984)

An Appreciation by Jerry Saravia

For relentless, exciting, edge-of-your-seat action sequences alone, "The Terminator" would fit the bill neatly as an adrenaline pumping action picture. Only James Cameron's 1984 sci-fi picture is more than that, it is a love story between two opposites who hold the key to the future, a future that is not so bright. And there just happens to be a killing machine in between them.

As with any appreciation for a film thirty years old that was extraordinarily influential (and where fantasist author Harlan Ellison rightly got his credit where it was due), there is nothing I can say about "The Terminator" that hasn't been said before. "The Terminator" led to four sequels (new sequel has Arnie back as the Terminator again), a famous catchphrase "I'll Be Back," and it put Arnold Schwarzenegger and director James Cameron on the map in a major way. When I first saw it in 1984, I approached the film as a gritty futuristic noir, namely Tech Noir (the name of a nightclub in the film), where a soldier from the future, the emotionally battered and bruised Kyle (Michael Biehn), travels to the past to prevent a cyborg killing machine (Schwarzenegger) from killing sweet waitress Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), the future mother of a resistance leader of a post-apocalyptic future. That is right, sometime in the near future, nuclear bombs are dropped and result in a world where the machines rule everything.

As relentless as "The Terminator" is, writers James Cameron and Gale Hurd also invest wisely into the developing relationship between Kyle and Sarah. Kyle and Sarah are two lost souls who have found each other through the unfortunate experience of a killing machine who makes Michael Myers look like a weak Mummy knockoff. Sarah can't get a date on a Friday night, can't balance her checkbook and has difficulty waitressing - she is not exactly prime material for the mother of a future leader. Yet that is what makes the character work so well - Linda Hamilton plays her as a soulful, caring woman who has found out her singular purpose. Kyle is a wreck of a man who has seen too much death and too little love - his world is grim and his visions of destructive machines and an array of skulls littering up roads is scary and poetic. The love story that develops lends the film weight and we root for them to survive the throes of the Terminator.

Schwarzenegger has the accurate look of a mean machine - his body language and his voice are as purposefully robotic as ever. When he kills innocent victims, as in the chilling scene where he shoots the wrong Sarah Connor, he brings fear into all of us because the murders are so realistically done. He is unstoppable and every scene of Arnie works up a feverish sweat.

Cameron's "Terminator" is not perfect but it is a lean machine of a movie, mutually scary, thrilling, poignant and quite funny (check out the two cops played by Paul Winfield and Lance Henriksen). It lead to bigger spectacles in its sequels and more epic action scenes, but nothing beats the original for its dark vision of a world where a family gathers outside in a nuclear apocalypse and watches a television that has a fire inside to keep them warm. What a vision, what a movie.