Trauma and Denial

SPIDER (2002)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

David Cronenberg's "Spider" is not your usual Cronenberg fare, whatever that might mean because in some ways, it is as heavy-going and as morose as his other films. He has occasionally stepped away from his body-modifying tropes and slimy bodily fluids emanating from unimaginable orifices to make films like "M. Butterfly" or perhaps "Dead Ringers" (in latter years, he directed one of the phenomenally great films of the 2000 decade, "A History of Violence"). "Spider" exists on some other level of consciousness, one about parental abuse and neglect and how that can shape a child into a misshapen mess of a broken man. It is also how the perception of reality can be altered through denial. It is also one of his most eye-opening films in years.

The opening sequence is a stunner as we watch passengers exiting a London train as the camera swoops by them at a low-angle, eventually arriving at Spider Cleg (Ralph Fiennes) who can't walk straight, has yellowish fingernails, grabs a bag from inside his pants, and mutters to himself while carrying a briefcase. He has a destination and it is at some English boarding house which looks about as inviting as a rundown shed in the middle of the woods. He stays in a bare, ugly room with a rug where he can hide his notebook. Spider keeps writing in his notebook (and it looks like pure gibberish) and revisits the places of his troubling youth, whether it was a local pub his father (Gabriel Byrne) attended nightly, or his own house. Spider, in an Ingmar Bergmanesque touch (that Woody Allen later borrowed), sees himself and his family from the early years, often repeating phrases his father or mother used before they utter them. It is essentially as if Spider is stepping back in time, only slowly do we realize that the basis of his trauma is not what we thought it was.

Some reviewers felt as if the ending was nothing special. I disagree, though it is not without its obviousness. The difference is that Fiennes, despite his stuttering and his emotional indifference, still makes us feel sympathetic for him and for the loss of his mother at an early age. The predicament that his mother (Oscar-caliber performance by Miranda Richardson) faces when she loses her life is presented twice, both alternately different scenarios. One is presented in a slightly garish, almost Hammer Horror-like manner, and the other is far too eerily realistic. Clues are presented early on about Spider's affection to his mother, was it unhealthy or did he just love her so much that he could not stand to see her go? When the boarding house landlady (Lynn Redgrave) suddenly becomes the visage of Spider's mother, it begins to overtake him, psychologically and physically. . Spider also imagines his mother as a blonde prostitute whom his father picks up at the bar. Fiennes often shows a man who can barely stand on his own two feet, always disheveled and disoriented. Are there separate realities or is it all the same trauma that began with his mother's death?

Based on a novel by Gothic novelist Patrick McGrath, "Spider" is a grimy, relentlessly bleak movie that will make you feel uncomfortable and uneasy. In that sense, it is typical Cronenberg yet it also has a dark heart at its center where we never lose focus on Spider. This is a broken man and we feel emotionally broke by the end. 

Welles Displacing Air

FILMING OTHELLO (1978)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia 

A friend of mine once told me about a painter who decided to self-promote, literally filming herself as she divulged detailed information about every painting of hers. To my friend, that seemed like unimaginable hubris. Watching "Filming Othello" reminded me of that. After all, it is Orson Welles himself as he discusses the trials and tribulations of making his Shakespearean film adaptation of "Othello." However, since it is Orson Welles with his trombonish, larger-than-life voice that could make ocean waves crash and Iago quake in his boots, this can hardly be called unimaginable hubris. Welles himself even thought he was out of his league to narrate his own inside stories on making "Othello," so there you have it. 

Sitting by a moviola where clips from 1952' "Othello" (a stunning film) are shown, Welles expounds on the making of "Othello" where the budget was so restrictive that reverse shots from certain scenes were sometimes shot years later and in other countries! An Italian producer named Montatori Scalera agreed to finance, though he thought he was initially financing a film version of Verdi's opera "Otello" as opposed to the Shakespeare tragedy. To keep up the financing of the film, Welles took acting jobs (this has been pervasive in his directorial career) and certain key roles, like Desdemona, were recast due to lengthy delays. As an interesting side note, Welles had originally sought financing to do a film version of "Cyrano de Bergerac," which Jose Ferrer later made. Finally, financing came through though no sets were built, only found. Costumes were sometimes borrowed from other productions without permission, and the description of how the famous Turkish Bath sequence was shot (a setting not to be found in the play) is simply remarkable.

In latter segments that divide up the documentary rather fluidly, Welles meets with Micheal MacLiammoir (who definitively played the treacherous, power-hungry Iago) and Hilton Edwards (who played Brabantio) at a Paris hotel as they discuss the film, the characters' motives and a fair amount of time talking about envy and jealousy, specifically Othello's jealousy of his wife Desdemona. Finally, the film ends with a Cambridge, Massachusetts audience who had just seen "Othello" and they ask detailed questions. As Welles makes clear time and again to the college-age audience, films are about unintentional accidents and whatever mistakes occur can sometimes help a film. In accordance with how "Othello" was randomly shot out of necessity, Welles shot his reverse shot reactions to Edwards and MacLiammor separately in his Beverly Hills home, two years later. Astounding.

I found "Filming Othello" enthralling as a conversation piece about the difficulties of making a film, and the exploration of what ended up on the screen versus the original text (the 3 hour play was shrunk to 90 minutes). Welles favors the written play by Shakespeare, although calling it a monumental work of art or more appropriately "one of the great monuments of Western Civilization" is pushing it a bit far for me (I prefer "King Lear," an epic family tragedy). But Welles doesn't inhabit or exhibit any arrogance - he realizes his own limitations and how he was too young to play the Moor from Venice. By the end of the film, it is clear that Welles might have done even more justice to Shakespeare's play had he filmed it later. Listening to Welles talk about "Othello" and, on a couple of instances, act out scenes with the same panache as he had back in the day is truly awe-inspiring and powerful to witness. "Othello" is not one of the great monuments of Western Civilization, Orson Welles is. 

No Pain, No Gain

ACTION POINT (2018)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

I am not familiar with Johnny Knoxville's "Jackass" stunts except with various short clips I have seen. I have heard of Action Park, which is the setting of Knoxville's latest film, and the dangerous, unsupervised shenanigans that went on (and that is putting it mildly). "Action Point" is not nearly as raucous or as anarchic as the actual park itself, it is mostly pratfalls and Knoxville falling, tripping or getting shot with a water cannon. I found the film to be a modest, innocent little trifle but I suppose I expected a lot more anarchy, especially since it is rated R. It is not a hard R, just a slight curve above a PG-13 with the usual four letter words.

Knoxville is D.C., the clumsy owner of Action Point, a park with an underaged staff that includes a guy who likes to beat up customers; another one in a bear costume who keeps tripping and occasionally gets lucky with some female customers, and Boogie (Eleanor Worthington-Cox), D.C.'s 13-year-old daughter who is visiting her dad and has a secret she can't bear to share with him. Boogie wants quality time with her dad and is impressed by his inventively dangerous ride ideas, but she would be just as comfortable if he accompanied her to a Clash concert. There are other park employees including Chris Pontius (former "Jackass" stunt performer), the bearded employee who helps himself to random pills, smoking pot, and likes seeing Boogie blossoming into a young woman (don't worry, D.C. cuts that infatuation real short).

Part of the slim plot of "Action Point" deals with a real-estate baddie (typical comical buffonery by Dan Bakkedah) who threatens to close the park because, you know, bad loans, low attendance. After D.C. pushes to close the park on live TV incognito (which he surmises correctly will boost attendance), he decides to create more rides that could result in broken bones and much more.

The real Action Park was a glorious mess of an amusement park that resulted in a few tragic deaths. "Action Point" does not go that extra mile - it is more reserved and nothing here will make you wince (close-ups of yellow, crusty toenails might make you gag, not to mention one cringe-worthy shot of bodily fluids). The movie is closer in spirit to the laid-back mentality of "Meatballs" with a little "Up the Creek" thrown in, that is for all you 80's nerds who even remember those movies. I wish the young Action Point staff was colored with more memorable personalities - you might forget most of them by the time the movie is over. Still, "Action Point" has its heart in the right place, using a framing device of an older D.C. (also played by Knoxville in old-age makeup) telling the legendary stories of Action Point to Boogie's daughter. It is sweet without getting too sentimental. I just wish it wasn't so harmless. 

Most violent Hollywood action film of the 1990's

THE LAST BOY SCOUT (1991)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

In 1991, Bruce Willis was on a steady path to career decline. He played a vile, obnoxious husband in the underrated "Mortal Thoughts," which had lackluster box-office success, and followed that with the unwatchable vanity production known as "Hudson Hawk," a huge, misguided, costly flop. Later that year came a sterling supporting role in "Billy Bathgate" (I still think Willis is often at his best in
supporting parts). He did manage a lead role in "The Last Boy Scout," a 1991 action-thriller in the "Lethal Weapon" vein that was released near Christmas time. I have various reservations about it but it is often entertaining enough to make one wish it wasn't so distasteful.

Willis plays the perfect Willis role: a wisecracking, ex-Secret Service agent/detective with a consistent hangover. He is Joe Cornelius, who spends most of his time sleeping in his car or in his
office, away from his family. His family is sick of him, including his wife (Chelsea Field) who has an affair with his best friend. But hold on to your seats: the movie begins with a football player committing suicide during a game, after having shot several players! This superviolent episode is never referred to again (except by one line of dialogue) so, yes kids, it would qualify as a plot hole. Within the first ten minutes of the film, Willis's Joe punches his best friend ("Head or Gut?") after learning of the affair and there is the customary explosion! And to make matters worse, Damon Wayans plays an ex-football player, Jimmy Dix, (kicked out of the game for gambling on his team) who throws a football at another player's face who's forcing a woman to give him oral pleasure! Violence and misogyny rule in "The Last Boy Scout." And let's not forget Halle Berry in her pre-Oscar fame as a go-go dancer who is killed by gunfire not a moment too soon after those initial ten minutes. I can say with pretty safe assurance that, in retrospect, this is the most violent action film of the 1990's.

Then there is Joe's daughter (Danielle Harris), the most foul-mouthed 14 year-old girl since Linda Blair (perhaps she just needed a little exorcisizing). Joe hates her, she hates him, Jimmy Dix hates Joe - everybody in this movie hates the guy. Well, why not? He's an unshaven jerk who is even teased by neighborhood kids who come armed with dead squirrels!

The plot has to do with a corrupt team owner (Noble Willingham) who wants to make sports gambling legal. He also wants to bring the team spirit back to the game - that would be some tough PR after the televised suicide that opens the film.

"Last Boy Scout" is an obnoxious, vulgar-tempered, nasty bit of business. It assumes that violence is all that is needed to survive in this corrupt society, and women are nothing but whores, unless they
intervene in violent situations. That is not to say that there aren't some notable one-liners strewn throughout. And certainly Willis and Wayans convince us of their charisma, particularly director Tony Scott's penchant for extreme close-ups with a telephoto lens. And the film has
enough action to satisfy any trigger-happy action fan. But it also has a cartoonish villain who rises from a pool after crashing his car into it, especially after we assume he's dead. It has Wayans thrown off a bridge and only getting a minor concussion. There is a truly tasteless finale at a football game involving chopper blades and Willis dancing a jig! The movie is well-made and a solid effort but it will leave you with a very sour taste in your mouth.

Make America Idealistic Again

DAVE (1993)

Retrospective by Jerry Saravia

After an initial screening of "Dave" back in 1993, I did not know how to react. Here was a comedy by Ivan Reitman, best known for "Ghostbusters," and he made a movie that made me laugh in many places, that had its finite comic timing, engaging movie stars like Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver, had its fill of Frank Capra idealism, and yet it left me feeling cold and a little shaken up. Why was the movie making me feel that way? And so for years, I resisted seeing it again. I knew it was a definite good movie but something about it irked me. Seeing it again recently, I am still not sure what it was but I can say that "Dave" is a superb experience and its Capraesque idealism, which may have suited Bill Clinton though not the terms he served, is something we could use now. The cornball belief that a President of the United States might actually care about his citizens, residents and immigrants is something that we should hope for.

Kevin Kline plays Bill Mitchell, the President of the U.S., the kind of President who shakes his arms up and gets a crowd riled up followed by enthusiastic applause at his every word. When he is at charity events, he reads from a teleprompter and his upbeat messages rang false to me but not to the crowd. Discussion during closed meetings about orphanages needing money is not much of an agenda for Bill, well, as long as he doesn't look like a prick; he could care less. The Mitchell Family dogs for a photo opportunity are then left to their handlers - he is simply there as a showman but he is not really there. Behind closed doors at the White House, the frosty Ellen Mitchell, the First Lady (Sigourney Weaver), sleeps in a separate bedroom, fully aware that this man is a cheater and a charlatan. Bill has to have his little affair with a woman working the phones at the White House (played by Laura Linney, who I forgot was even in this). When President Bill gets a heart attack during coitus, a replacement is needed fast. Enter the aloof and terminally wicked White House Chief of Staff (Frank Langella) who decides not to tell the Vice President (Ben Kingsley) about the events that are transpiring - he decides to use the President's uncanny double, Dave Kovic (also played by Kline), whom they used earlier to cover for the President's hotel tryst. Will this deception work? It might, for a while, especially when Ellen barely sees Bill unless they have to make a public appearance. But the cat slowly falls out of the bag when Dave is everything Bill Mitchell is not - he is upbeat, can throw baseballs during a game with ease, speaks to young kids at an orphanage as if they mattered, wants to fix the budget by appropriating funds where they matter most (thanks to help from his accountant friend played by a hilarious Charles Grodin), and can even cook a meal while trying to get to know the top, virtually unsmiling Secret Service aide (a purposely stiff Ving Rhames). Predictably, Ellen sees through all this, knowing the President is not the same man because her husband never spoke with such sincerity.

"Dave" has a consistent breezy tone and also an added sense of urgency about how we wish the Presidency was like this. Despite Dave playing it up for the people, he genuinely believes in the ideals that he thought defined the Presidency. When things get awry and Dave has to sneak away without being discovered of the fraud he helped to perpetrate, I honestly felt emotional about it. The movie never plays up the sentimentality of its Capraesque notions, or of those that feel that the last great President was John F. Kennedy who was a known philanderer. I choked up because I bought into an average person like Dave, who works at a temp agency where he really hopes every client can get a job, and his willingness to do good and to be embraced for his goodwill towards the American people. In hindsight, 1995's "The American President" rang a little false in terms of positive, idealistic speeches made by its President played by Michael Douglas, despite a game cast and entertaining direction by Rob Reiner. Director Ivan Reitman aims deeper, to give us an America we thought we once had until corruption and greed basically nullified it. The movie gives us the solidity and finality of secrets confined to the walls and pillars of the White House, as if trickery always had the upper hand in politics - it is realistically conveyed for what is at heart a charming, humanistic comedy. Perhaps that is what I found initially offputting about "Dave" - that it was unrealistic to assume that a fearless leader would care about the little guy. Back in 1993, during the beginning of Clinton's presidency, we knew better. Now, in 2018, we are hoping that fantasy becomes real.

Bell and Grammer are a breath of sunshine

LIKE FATHER (2018)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

At the start of the newest Netflix comedy-drama, "Like Father," there is a big wedding where Kristin Bell is Rachel Hamilton, the bride whose heart really belongs to her cell phone. She is not married to it, but she is married to her job as a New York ad exec. We also get overhead shots of the city (something I really cannot stand to see in movies anymore). She is dumped at the altar because her bouquet falls and out slips her cell phone, which is almost always superglued to her hand. The groom can't stand it and walks out in the middle of the ceremony. Once these scenes are played out which, to my recollection, I have seen more often in similar movies than I can count, I almost tuned out. But a sneaky resonant joy erupts in "Like Father," the joy of watching two solid character portrayals played by two distinctive actors, Kristen Bell and Kelsey Grammer, who are largely underrated talents in movies. This one worked me over.

After Rachel is left to ponder her nonexistent marriage, she decides to take the honeymoon cruise. The problem is her dad (Kelsey Grammer) is in the Big Apple for her wedding though he hasn't seen her since she was little. Clearly, there is much ill will from Rachel and, after a night of reluctantly drinking with him, they go on to this cruise. Nope, do not let your mind go there, nothing incestual of any nature here except a dad trying to reconnect with his daughter.

It is awkward at first as people on board the cruise think they are a married couple! After a few karaoke interludes, Rachel fooling around with a male passenger (Seth Rogen, whose character is not a stoner!), a foray into the waterfalls of the Caribbean and some pot smoking, the truth comes out. It is one of two remarkable scenes between Bell and Grammer, the first about why he left the family and the other is a confession on why he came out to see Rachel. Both scenes are honestly depicted without a false note, showcasing the watchable Kelsey Grammer as an older man who has nothing left in his life except Rachel. Bell's Rachel has had two people ditch her in her life yet eventually understands that obsessive workloads are secondary to family unity. Sure, these same sad notes of torn families and father-daughter discord are nothing new yet both actors bring such sincerity and focused sensitivity to it that you can't help but cling to them.

"Like Father" is a nuanced emotional experience, with Grammer never overplaying his hand and Kristen Bell showing the true colors of an extraordinary actress (watch episodes of TV's "The Good Place" for further proof), particularly one moment where she slowly sobs after listening to her dad's reasons for abandoning the family. Every time she is on screen, she sparkles and there is never a wasted moment. Visually, the movie has the splendor of the colorful Caribbean and the enormity of the cruise itself, which looks like it is more than fifty stories high. But it is finely detailed moments, such as Bell walking in the streets of New York as a big bubble passes and bursts behind her or the darkly cavernous look of the New York bar, where we also get insights into her transfixed mood - there is texture there but you have to look closer. Writer-director Laura Miller Rogen (no free Carribean cruises to those who can't guess who she is married to) infuses this oft-told tale with simplicity and warmth, aided enormously by Bell and Grammer. I'd like to see these two actors together again - they are a breath of sunshine.

A Mission You Need to Accept

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - GHOST PROTOCOL (2011)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Usually the fourth chapter in a movie series is not supposed to be better than all the sequels that preceded it. Sequels are often inferior rehashes, never coming close to the spirit of the original. The "Mission: Impossible" movies are a curious case because the original was so-so, the first sequel was worse and the third was better than expected. Now comes "Ghost Protocol" which is the best by far, a a hair-raising, nerve-pinching, absolutely smashing movie that is quadruple the excitement of past installments and far superior to the "Bourne" movies. Yes, Virginia, this is one hell of an entertainment.

As the movie starts, superheroic IMF agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is sprung from a Russian prison by IMF agents, including the luminous fighting machine, Jane Carter (Paula Patton) and a Q-like tech expert named Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg). Benji has all sorts of technical equipment that would make James Bond quiver at their very inventiveness, including a hologram that induces the virtual replica of a hallway (originally seen in early "M:I" TV series episode) and some sort of metal suit that would be at home in an Iron Man flick. Anyways, there is a plot here dealing with a villain known as Hendricks (Michael Nyqvist) who demolishes the Kremlin building so it can be blamed on the U.S. thus starting some sort of nuclear war! Hendricks' plan is to destroy this world and start anew, bringing peace back. His plan makes about as much sense as any Bond villain's world domination plan. The trick is for Ethan Hunt and his small team, including an IMF analyst (Jeremy Renner), to infiltrate Hendricks who is carrying around nuclear arm codes in a suitcase! Well, of course.

To its credit, "Ghost Protocol" is not as labyrinthian as other "M:I" efforts - this is an elongated chase picture full of razzle-dazzle effects and amazing stunts that will leave you breathless though it still has an intricately layered plot. Still whether it is Ethan Hunt dangling with a super-suction glove of some kind outside of the tallest skyscraper in the world, Dubai's own Burj Khalifa, or Ethan running from the Kremlin explosion, or Ethan racing around in a futuristic-looking car that is as cool as a DeLorean or running from an emerging sandstorm, the movie never quits throwing one spectacle after another at you in elegant fashion thanks to director Brad Bird and brisk editing by Paul Hirsch. It also works at evoking suspense, particularly the nifty sequence where a meeting occurs that requires Hunt and Benji to not wear masks and somehow fool a dangerous assassin with the passing of nuclear codes and an electronic eye that takes pictures! This needs to be seen to be believed. Added to that is an elegant seduction sequence involving Paula Patton that would make Brian De Palma (who helmed the original "M:I" film) envious.

Tom Cruise is laser-focused here, showcasing a true hero who makes snap judgments and has no time to waste. If he has to ram a car down a few stories at a parking garage, doggone it, he will do it. Paula Patton far surpasses any female characters we might remember from past installments - a standalone movie with her would be kickass entertainment. The comic relief from Simon Pegg comes in short spurts and yet they work - they make us laugh after seeing so many death-defying stunts in full IMAX glory. And it is a kick to see the brief cameo of Tom Wilkinson as an IMF Secretary. Let me put it this way: this is one "Mission: Impossible" movie I would love to own on Blu-Ray.