Spike Lee's Cathartic Statement on Hate

BLACK KKKLANSMAN (2018)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Those of you who wish not to spend 2 hours watching a Spike Lee polemic about how racism in the turbulent 1970's is no different than today's are advised to steer clear of "Black KkKlansman." Of course that would mean missing one of Spike Lee's finest films ever, a crackerjack detective story told through the lens of the 1970's era of the Black Panther party and the intensely fiery language of David Duke's KKK party.

The opening title of the film reads along the lines of "This shit's fo real." Real to some degree since Lee has taken dramatic license from the actual events but, then again, what filmmaker hasn't. So we got Ron Stallworth (John David Washington, Denzel's son) with an Afro that stands out in only that 1970's style. The guy wants to be a police officer in the town of Colorado Springs which doesn't see many blacks (and never had a black officer), nor many speakers like Civil Rights organizer Stokely Carmichael. Stallworth's hopes is to become an undercover detective and get out of the records room where the cops always ask for files on "toads." After being granted an investigation into Stokely Carmichael's speech at a nightclub, Stallworth takes things much further. He notices a newspaper recruitment ad for the Ku Klux Klan. Stallworth makes a call and pretends to be a white supremacist who is eager to join the "Organization" (a member must never call them the KKK). The fellow detectives are nonplussed by their stalwart new member, yet the investigation into this KKK must continue. Naturally Stallworth can't show up in person to meet these KKK members so a Jewish detective named Flip Zimmerman (a very nuanced Adam Driver) pretends to be Stallworth.

While Ron makes his heated telephone calls to the members for meetings and a couple to the Grand Imperial Wizard himself, David Duke (a purposely bland Topher Grace), Flip discovers a world where the KKK hang out in bars, play pool, are armed and ready when necessary and have a heck of a lot of issues with anyone non-white. Their ranting and raving could lead to violence, including a scheduled bombing of the Black Student Union at Colorado College! Meanwhile, Flip has to hear hateful racist tirades about blacks and Jews, including that one howler we have heard for far too long - the Holocaust was a hoax! As Ron hangs back making calls requesting a KKK member card, spies on Flip going undercover and incredulously serves as security detail for David Duke, Flip has to contend with hearing members of both genders spouting how they can't wait to exterminate all the blacks (they all proudly hoot and holler at a "Birth of a Nation" screening after being inducted into the KKK). Can Flip keep up the charade, and can Ron keep up his own charade of not telling his Black Power activist girlfriend, Patrice Dumas (Laura Herrier) the president of the black student union at Colorado College, that he is undercover?

"Black KkKlansman" unfolds from the start with the incendiary tone we come to expect from Spike Lee, and he has still got it but he does not sling it left and right like he used to. Whether it is the famous shot of wounded Confederate soldiers from "Gone With the Wind" or disgustingly disturbing clips from D.W. Griffiths' "Birth of a Nation" or Alec Baldwin as a PSA propaganda speaker who advocates for white-only neighborhoods, the movie definitely runs on heat at well above 425 degrees. This is Lee at his angriest yet these moments are brief as they are delivered in the opening and closing scenes that are sure to cause many to fidget who support President Trump (Charlottesville, anyone?) Forget fidgeting, Lee wants to make us all angry, to punch us in the gut about the vehement racism in our society and how it was always there at the core.

More importantly, "Black KkKlansman" is not just provocative but also one hell of a supercharged police thriller with some terrifically timed comic relief (Ron's telephone calls alone are hilarious). Through and through the police procedural mechanics of infiltrating the KKK, Lee suggests that racism in the 1970's where the KKK advocates for "America First" is a chilling reminder of where we are now. As I mentioned above, the anger is not delivered with Spike Lee's fist as much but rather through its two main characters, Ron and Flip. When we see how they react to a world they only previously heard about, "Black KkKlansman" achieves its storytelling thrust that burns up the screen right up until the last shot of an upside down U.S. flag that turns into black and white. That final image shakes us up but not in the same way as the flag that literally burned up in the opening moments of Lee's "Malcolm X." No, now we are seeing a different world that perhaps Lee has accepted - it will always be black and white.

Sinfully Silly Shocks

GUILTY AS SIN (1993)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

When Sidney Lumet attempts to fashion a suspense thriller that aims for psychological complexity, excitement runs at a fever pitch. But that is only partially true because "Guilty as Sin" has shards of complexity about it until they are abandoned in favor of overdone psycho thriller theatrics you have seen a million times.

Rebecca De Mornay is an ambitious Chicago attorney, Jennifer Haines, who will take on any case, well, almost any. When she meets an admiring courtroom spectator, David Greenhill (Don Johnson), trouble has already set in. It turns out that David murdered his rich wife by throwing her out of a high-rise apartment building and he wants Jennifer to defend him because he claims he is innocent. Of course, we and Jennifer both know that he is about as innocent as the knife he whirls around when cutting a sandwich. That particular scene involving a kitchen knife, by the way, happens early enough in the film to make us think that the movie might sink or swim based on whether it decides to be excessively silly or build up to dramatic heights with two attractive actors armed with Triple A battery powered personalities. Yep, you guessed it - it goes for the excess.

Jennifer has a loving boyfriend (Stephen Lang with a perm hairdo, almost unrecognizable) who doesn't like David and wants her to drop his case. David senses this and when Jennifer (who cannot abandon her client despite him threatening her at every turn in scenes that seems ripped out of "Fatal Attraction") tries to frame David, he gets revenge by beating up Lang in a scene as pointless as you can imagine. There's also the devoted Moe (Jack Warden), a detective and long-time friend of Jennifer's who uncovers a few screws are loose in our charming David. 

What starts out as psychological head games slowly becomes overheated melodrama. The final twenty minutes of the movie are so laughably histrionic that I began to wonder if Lumet had actually directed this. There is also an abrupt plot hole involving a witness who arrives out of nowhere and disappears just as quickly (SPOILER: My guess is that the witness was paid off to say what she says but there is no cinematic payoff and thus it is nothing more than a red herring). That is not to say that "Guilty As Sin" isn't crudely entertaining - both the lead stars have magnetism and make this better than it has any right to be. But it is entertaining only in a lazily potboilerish way, and not as the sound, tightly woven psychological noir thriller it should've been.

New Yorkers need legends

HERO AT LARGE  (1980)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

"Hero at Large" is one of the most disarmingly appealing movies you will ever see, largely due to the presence of John Ritter. Ritter is a pleasant, charming presence, completely sincere and thus 100% appealing. Well, in fact, so sincere that the movie may as well be called "Sincerity at Large." That is the movie's strength and it is justified since the character Ritter plays may not be unlike himself.

Speaking of sincerity, Steve Nichols (John Ritter) is an unemployed NYC actor who occasionally drives a cab. Steve is so damn sincere that, at one point, he tells another out-of-work actor about a commercial the actor might be good for, without a shred of irony! Steve's own agent is nonplussed - no wonder Steven can't find work. Still, there is a job available, to stand-in for a costumed superhero and sign autographs for the upcoming premiere of a "Captain Avenger" movie. This would require Steve to dress up as Captain Avenger as a publicity stunt to drive up some attention. One night, while buying milk at a grocery store, a couple of thieves attempt to rob the store but not before Nichols' Captain Avenger (still dressed in the costume) stops them and beats them up. A hero is born in New York and Nichols, at first, relishes the attention though nobody is aware of the hero's identity. When Nichols gets a police scanner and drives around in his cab, he gets wind of some robbers in a getaway car and shows up, only this time Nichols is shot in the arm. Maybe this crime-fighting business is not for him.

"Hero at Large" follows a simple formula that allows one to anticipate its every move. Anne Archer is the next-door neighbor who cares for Nichols when he is thrown out of his apartment for non-payment of rent, though she mostly nurtures his gunshot wound. She is not interested in him romantically, despite a blissfully romantic evening that leads to him getting rejected yet again. We know they will end up together yet Archer plays such a mature character with a measure of complexity that is only hinted at. We know Nichols will dress up as Captain Avenger again once he is discovered by the New York City Mayor's staff that he was the crime-fighting hero. This means more publicity stunts that Nichols can't abide by, but then he does anyway. Some of his earnestness here gets a little tedious and the movie feels longer than its 97-minute running time.

Still, "Hero at Large" is reasonably entertaining with a good heart and a simple message of rewarding the ideology of a hero (which of course most of the Captain Avengers fans can't get behind) rather than the hero himself. There is a bit too much padding with Bert Convy as the slick PR guy who works for the Mayor and the rather dull business of Leonard Harris (in a role not dissimilar from his role in "Taxi Driver") as the mayor who is booed by NYC. Despite a few lulls, there are a few laughs strewn throughout and it is a kick seeing Ritter as an enthusiastic Captain Avenger wannabe. His sincerity makes it harmless, occasionally intoxicating fun. 

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.