Movies Dearz

Circus movies are a tough thing to pull off. The Greatest Show on Earth was widely considered the worst Best Picture Oscar-winner of all time (at least until Crash crushed Brokeback Mountain). Tod Browning’s Freaks was so disturbing for its time that it was banned for thirty years in England. Joan Crawford’s Berserk! was disturbing for a host of other reasons. And don’t forget Big Top Pee-Wee… oh, you already did. While Water for Elephants isn’t likely to spur a generation of kids to run away and join the circus, it is a handsomely-made, pleasingly old-fashioned love story set against the backdrop of a struggling circus during the Great Depression.

Robert Pattinson gives a strong, impassioned performance as young Jacob Jankowski, but to be honest, he gets a huge boost by being introduced as an older man played by Hal Holbrook. Holbrook’s haunted eyes do more heartbreaking acting than most young actors do with their whole performance, and it can’t have been easy playing a lonely widower so soon after losing his wife Dixie Carter last year. The older Jacob is found soaking in the rain by the manager of the Circus Vargas, apparently having been left behind by his nursing home bus. Charlie (Paul Schneider), the circus manager, gets into a discussion of big top disasters and discovers that Jacob was there in 1931 for the infamous Benzini Brothers catastrophe.


Caught off guard by a faded picture of a beautiful woman on an elephant, Jacob reveals that she was Marlena (Reese Witherspoon) and that the ringmaster in the photo was her husband August (Christophe Waltz, in a brilliant, violent performance). In 1931, Jacob was a Cornell veterinary student with a bright future, but his parents were tragically killed in a car accident, leaving Jacob bereft, and as it turns out, without a home. His parents had spent everything and gone into debt to send Jacob to college, and the realization is more than he can handle.

Jumping a passing train, he finds that he has inadvertently “run away to join the circus.” The Benzini Brothers Circus is run by the dedicated but ruthless August, who rules his people as harshly as he does his poor animals. Despite its PG-13 rating, you may find it hard to watch his brutal attack on Rosie the elephant, August’s latest “star attraction”. Jacob and Marlena bond over their love of animals, first her prized show horses and later Rosie, and Jacob’s veterinary skills prove invaluable to the circus. It doesn’t take long before August’s violent outbursts drive Marlena and Jacob together, but getting away from August may prove deadly. Anyone whom he deems a threat or a financial liability is routinely “red-lighted”, tossed from the fast-moving train by August’s goons.


Witherspoon plays against her natural alpha personality to play the passive Marlena, but she demonstrates strength when needed as Marlena finds her independence. She effortlessly evokes Jean Harlow. Waltz proves that his terrifying Col. Hans Landa in Inglourious Basterds wasn’t a fluke. He mines complex depths from his villainous character, showing the scared and insecure man beneath the monster. Pattinson is a better actor than he’s given credit for, and he makes Jacob a fully-rounded hero.

Water for Elephants is gorgeously-rendered and emotionally satisfying, apparently streamlining Sara Gruen’s best-selling novel for the screen without losing any of its power. Screenwriter Richard LaGravenese and director Francis Lawrence do a masterful job showing the hardships of the Depression against the tattered magic of the circus. Tai the elephant also deserves special mention, since Rosie is a vital part of the film’s success. Water for Elephants is not a film full of surprises, although what Marlena’s fate was and how Jacob ended up forgotten in a nursing home are questions you want to see answered. Sometimes, a well-made, romantic classic is just what the veterinary student ordered.

UPDATE: Water for Elephants is now available on DVD and Blu-rayfrom Amazon.com.

Review by Neil Cohen, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and Phoenix's Echo Magazine.

Most of us — gay and straight — would agree that bags under one's eyes are not a good thing. Turns out, though, that we should be much more worried about the damage being done to our environment and, subsequently, to ourselves by plastic grocery bags. This isn't news to the "green" among us but a new documentary, Bag It, is trying to reach those who haven't yet heard the message. It is currently airing on most local PBS stations and via nationwide theatrical screenings in honor of Earth Day (visit the film's official website for information about screenings in your area).

Award-winning director Suzan Beraza focuses on Jeb Berrier, a Colorado-based expectant father and "everyman" citizen concerned about the damage done by the proliferation of non-biodegradable plastic products since the 1950's. The statistics they report are startling. For example, Americans use 1 million plastic bags per minute, and 500 billion plastic bags are used worldwide each year. Most of these end up not recycled but as trash dumped in the sea, where they are frequently mistaken by sea life as edible jellyfish. There is a growing epidemic of turtles, sharks and other marine animals necessary to the global food chain dying as the result of eating a diet primarily made up of plastic. The colony of albatross birds who call the Pacific's Midway Atoll home are also dying of plastic consumption.


In light of such dire findings, the United Nations called for a global examination of plastic shopping bags and ultimately condemned their use. US grocer Whole Foods Markets eliminated them in 2008, and Ireland imposed a 22-cent fee on each bag. As a result of the latter, consumption of plastic bags on the Emerald Island has dropped 90%. While most items made of plastic are recyclable, too many people still toss them in the trash instead of the recycle bin.

At a brisk, informative 79 minutes, Bag It easily holds one's attention. Berrier isn't the most attractive spokesperson and his anti-plastic enthusiasm can be grating, but he is balanced by the film's incorporation of expert interviews and commentary by other professionals. Many take what might be considered an extreme view of buying less in general and overcoming our consumerist, disposable mentality. Better to start with small steps, I think, and first start recycling our plastic bags and other items or purchasing the re-usable bags now sold by many stores.

Also of note: one study cited in the film found that exposure to a common component in plastic, Bisphenol A (also known as BPA), can result in "gender neutrality" in developing children. Could this also potentially result in homosexuality? Bag It doesn't go that far, but I find it interesting to consider. While I don't place the blame on anything or anyone for "making" me gay, what if my mother's or grandparents' plastic goods were at least partly at fault? No more Tupperware parties for me!

Reverend's Rating: B

Review by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and the Blade California.

The tag line for the 1970 film adaptation of Mart Crowley's pioneering play The Boys in the Band jokingly declared, "It's not a musical." Be that as it may, an original cast album was released in 1968 based on the strength of the show's memorable dialogue. This is but one of many interesting facts recounted in Making the Boys, a fine new documentary about the evolution of the controversial play and subsequent movie. It opens this Friday in Los Angeles and will unspool in other cities this summer.

Produced and directed by Crayton Robey, Making the Boys incorporates interviews with Crowley, surviving cast members Laurence Luckinbill and Peter White, and archival footage from the play's first New York production as well as commentary by such luminaries as director William Friedkin (who helmed the film version); gay playwrights Edward Albee, Paul Rudnick, Larry Kramer, Terrence McNally and Tony Kushner; and actors Robert Wagner (whose late wife, Natalie Wood, was a close friend of Crowley) and Cheyenne Jackson. Judy Garland, Rock Hudson, Julie Andrews and Sal Mineo also appear in vintage scenes from home movies Crowley shot in the 1960's. If all this isn't enough gay "star power," out Oscar winning screenwriter-director Bill Condon serves as the doc's executive producer.


The Boys in the Band, for those younger readers who may be unaware, is set at a Manhattan birthday party celebrated by several gay men that quickly goes from happy to volatile. The birthday boy, Harold (a riveting performance by Leonard Frey), provokes his friends into revealing long-dormant secrets and jealousies. Alternately hilarious and uncomfortable (sometimes both at once), the play was embraced by many upon its 1968 premiere as an unflinchingly honest glimpse into gay lives, but it also angered many theatergoers for presenting what they felt were a number of gay stereotypes.

Crowley was concerned about this, according to the documentary, as well as whether his work was funny enough to be the comedy he primarily intended. In an attempt to console Crowley, the play's producer told him on opening night, "They've been laughing at gays since Aristophanes; they're not going to stop tonight." Crowley had hand-written the first draft of The Boys in the Band in five weeks and envisioned it as something of a gay version of Albee's Broadway and Hollywood smash Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Crowley needn't had worried: he became the toast of New York and the play ran for a then-unheard of five years in addition to spawning the more modestly successful movie.

In the two years between the play's debut and the film's opening, a significant GLBT milestone occurred: the Stonewall riots. Whereas the stage version of The Boys in the Band was heralded as an initial step toward making gay men and their concerns better known, by the time the movie came, out gay men were front-page news thanks to Stonewall, and Crowley's work already seemed dated.


The 41 years since have helped situate The Boys in the Band as a revelatory time capsule that made other, more compassionate gay-themed plays and movies like La Cage aux Folles, Making Love, The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me and Brokeback Mountain possible. As original cast member Peter White says in the documentary, "The legacy of The Boys in the Band is in the eye of the beholder."

Sadly, White, Luckinbill and Crowley are the only members of the original production team still living. The play's director, producer and other actors all succumbed to AIDS in the 1980's-90's. Tony Kushner, who wrote the gay theatrical masterpiece Angels in America, notes "The play and movie were long before the epidemic but not untouched by the epidemic." Friedkin, director of the movie adaptation, is still living and went on to make such classics as The French Connection and The Exorcist. He also returned to gay territory (Friedkin is straight) in 1980 with the generally-reviled Cruising, which starred Al Pacino as a sexually conflicted serial killer.

The Boys in the Band was briefly revived on Broadway in 1996 and the movie was released on DVD for the first time last year to mark its 40th anniversary. Making the Boys covers some of the same material as the supplemental shorts on the DVD, but the feature-length documentary is able to go into much more depth. They make excellent companion pieces. As Luckinbill admiringly says in Making the Boys, "Crowley made gay people ordinary" with his work. We've come even farther since.

Reverend's Rating: B+

Review by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and the Blade California.

It can be difficult even today for women to achieve equal standing in male-dominated religious settings, so imagine how tough things were in the 12th and 16th centuries! Two fact-based new releases, The Princess of Montpensier (now playing theatrically in select cities) and Vision: From the Life of Hildegard von Bingen (out today on DVD from Zeitgeist Films), explore the challenges faced by two women caught between the religious conflicts and social mores of their times.

The Princess of Montpensier, directed by the fine French filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier ('Round Midnight) and adapted from a 17th century historical novella, tells a tale of intrigue involving an innocent young heiress who becomes the apple of no less than four men's eyes during the reign of corrupt Catholic queen Catherine de Medici. The lovely Marie de Mezieres (beautifully portrayed by Melanie Thierry) is betrothed by her father against her wishes to Prince Philippe de Montpensier (played by the very cute Gregoire Leprince-Ringuet, who reminded me of a Gallic Jake Gyllenhaal and has a nude scene to boot). Marie loves Henri de Guise (Gaspard Ulliel of Hannibal Rising), who with the Prince frequently wages war against the Protestant Hugeuenots alongside Catherine's son — and the future King Henry III — the Duc d'Anjou (a charismatic turn by Raphael Personnaz).


In addition to these three men, Marie also unintentionally stirs the desire of Philippe's monk-like bodyguard, the Count of Chabannes (Lambert Wilson, most recently seen in the excellent, similarly fact-based Of Gods and Men). While the Prince is away at war, the Count empowers Marie by teaching her how to write and instructing her in science, theology, and matters of both state and the heart.

Thierry and the screenplay by Tavernier, Jean Cosmos and François-Olivier Rousseau imbue Marie with an intense longing for respect and equality even as she respects her father's demand that she "submit" to his plan to marry her to the similarly unwitting Philippe. Whereas the Count on one hand reinforces this with his observation of the heavens, noting, "The stars teach obedience to the laws of equilibrium and modesty," he is also a clearly conflicted man when it comes to his feelings for Marie and the raging religious conflict. As he muses in the presence of the Prince and Princess, "How can people of the same blood and faith kill each other in the name of the same God?" Marie takes respectful note of the Count's position.

Marie also confesses to the Count at one point, "This war, I don't know what it's about." Five centuries later, she may as well be echoing the thoughts of people the world over today who helplessly weather the ongoing "War on Terror" and other religion-fueled political skirmishes. The Princess of Montpensier is a potent, intimate romantic epic that satisfies yet frequently exceeds genre expectations.


Meanwhile, Mother Hildegard von Bingen endures as one of the most progressive (and criminally but tellingly non-canonized) Catholic women of all time. Claiming to receive directive, sometimes painful, visions from God, this Benedictine nun and mystic gained the favor of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, her contemporary, as well as the Archbishop of Mainz, Germany. The local abbot, her immediate superior, bristled at Hildegard's frequent challenges to his government, especially when she decided to separate herself and her sisters from his hermitage in order to establish their own convent.

In addition to her notable leadership of their religious community — she famously insisted that the sisters vote for their new mother following the death of her predecessor, also over the abbot's objections — Hildegard is remembered for her voluminous writings (including a book on human sexuality), a number of musical compositions, and for being one of the first women religious to travel and preach extensively. To Hildegard, God was first and foremost "the living light" and love was "the greatest power given by God." She accurately defined envy, jealousy and desire for power as the greatest enemies of Christians and human beings in general.

Actress Barbara Sukowa (Berlin Alexanderplatz, Romance & Cigarettes) brings Hildegard to vivid life in Margarethe von Trotta's Vision: From the Life of Hildegard von Bingen. It is an overdue and generally well-made but not entirely satisfying biopic. The script covers considerable historical ground much too quickly, and some cheesy zoom camera shots and quick-cut editing distract rather than augment. Still, Hildegard receives via von Trotta and Sukowa a greater tribute than she has to date from the Church she so remarkably served 900 years ago.

Reverend's Ratings:
The Princess of Montpensier: A-
Vision: From the Life of Hildegard Von Bingen: B

UPDATE: The Princess of Montpensier is now available on DVDfrom Amazon.com.

Review by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and the Blade California.

Gnomeo & Juliet (2011) movie trailer

Synopsis
Two garden gnomes, Gnomeo and Juliet, try to avoid tragedy and find a happy ending to their star-crossed love affair when they are caught up in a feud between neighbors.

Starring: James McAvoy, Emily Blunt, Maggie Smith, Michael Caine, Jason Statham
Directed by: Kelly Asbury
Produced by: David Furnish, Steve Hamilton-Shaw, Baker Bloodworth
Genres: Animation | Adventure
Release Date: 11 February 2011
Writers: Rob Sprackling, John R. Smith
Runtime: 84 min

Trailer for movie Gnomeo & Juliet

God of Carnage may just be the worst play ever to win the Tony Award. Having attended the April 13th Los Angeles premiere of French writer Yasmina Reza’s “comedy of manners… without the manners” (translated by Christopher Hampton), I came away fearing for the future of international theatre if this is the best we can currently do.

An A-list cast comprised of Jeff Daniels, Hope Davis, James Gandolfini and Marcia Gay Harden play two married couples meeting to resolve one’s school-age son’s beating of the other couple’s son. Whereas their discussion begins civilly, it doesn’t take long for matters to degenerate among the adults to the level of playground politics. Cell phones get doused in water by angry spouses, freshly-imported tulips are strewn angrily across the set and, in what I believe to be a theatrical first, one unfortunate actor (Davis) projectile-vomits on stage.


Despite such a trailblazing moment, God of Carnage is a thoroughly predictable critique of post-9/11 American foreign policy. Reza is merciless in her allegorical condemnation, aided and abetted by British director Matthew Warchus. “Subtlety” is a word that doesn’t appear to exist in Reza’s and Warchus’s vocabulary. But maybe it’s just me, as many other audience members howled with laughter at the heavy-handed shenanigans, including recollections of the abandonment of a pet hamster on the street by Gandolfini’s rodent-phobic wholesaler. I hardly cracked a smile let alone laughed during the 90-minute, intermission-less running time.

The characters get inexplicably intoxicated by sharing no more than two-thirds of a bottle of rum. They revert to humankind’s Neanderthal roots and periodically pose ashamedly in front of the cave wall-esque backdrop to drive the comparison home. Their uninhibited, alcohol-and-vomit-fueled banter reminds one of Edward Albee’s similarly four-player but far superior Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? What God of Carnage lacks, however, is any sense of catharsis or redemption.

By play’s end, Africans have been referred to as “coons” and a child is called “faggot.” Such language is supposed to be shocking, and is, but even more disturbing is Reza’s and/or Hampton’s decision to include such dated, offensive terminology. The author(s) cross the lines of good taste and artistic license, and should be fined at least $100,000 as Kobe Bryant recently was for public use of the second term alone.


The actors’ performances can’t be faulted here, although one wonders what such respectable players saw in the material. They are all reprising their original, Tony-nominated Broadway turns for the LA run (Harden won the Tony for her performance). Davis is a lovely actress forced to demean herself during the play’s first half, but she is able to regain some dignity by its closing. The reverse is the case for poor Harden, one of my favorite contemporary performers on stage and screen. As the character deemed early on by the rest to have the most “integrity,” Harden is ultimately reduced to a crumpled, whimpering mess. It is painful to watch and (unlike many in the audience) I didn’t find it amusing in the least.

Gandolfini fits his “contemporary Neanderthal” role well from a physical perspective, and makes the easiest transition from initially-civilized father and businessman to raging, wife-hating xenophobe. I found Daniels, whom I would have thought the least interesting actor in the bunch, drawing my attention the most with his more understated performance. His character is also the most consistent in the play, if the least moral.


Since its cast members have significant film and TV followings, God of Carnage looks to be a huge hit in Los Angeles, having already extended its run by several weeks (through to May 29) thanks to robust ticket sales. I hope local audiences look beyond the superficial and see the play for what it really is: an anti-American diatribe that, like its characters, isn’t truly interested in dialogue about how to change things for the better. If you’ve seen the play and disagree with me, please do weigh in here.

Moisés Kaufman's 33 Variations, which just had a mounting at the Ahmanson with original star Jane Fonda, was nominated for the 2009 Tony Award but lost to God of Carnage. While 33 Variations is flawed, it is the better play, with a more interesting plot, relatable characters and considerably more significant things to say.

Moviegoers can also prepare for Roman Polanski’s upcoming movie version, starring Oscar winners Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet and Christoph Waltz and Oscar nominee John C. Reilly. Hopefully, all involved will take a more sensitive and/or restrained approach to the text and yet uncover some true wisdom in it. In its present state, God of Carnage is messy and unpleasant as an unruly child’s graffiti, writ large in permanent marker on one’s living room wall.

Review by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and the Blade California.

Lynda Carter may live outside of our nation’s capitol, but Arizona is never far from her heart. The Arcadia High School alum grew up in Globe and Phoenix, and started her career as a singer. Touring the state in a band before she was fifteen, the statuesque beauty gained national attention when she was crowned Miss World USA in 1972. Just four years later, she beat out scores of other actress in Hollywood to become TV’s Wonder Woman, the role that made her a household name and inspired many a schoolboy (and schoolgirl) crush. Carter was honored to be asked to be the Celebrity Grand Marshall of the 2011 Phoenix Pride parade, and she will be signing CDs and autographs in a VIP booth at the festival, which takes place today.

Not even a power outage in her Potomac, Maryland home could keep Carter from giving me an exclusive interview about her music and her strong views about equality. When asked if a lot of gay men (like myself) tell her she was a boyhood crush, she laughed. “I don’t actually. I hear a lot of “I wanted to be you.” But not so much that they had a crush on me. That’s unusual and extra special. Maybe you didn’t know why you (really) had a crush on me,” she laughed.


Before talking about her music, Carter was thrilled to discuss the news that President Obama had directed the Justice Department not to defend DOMA. “Okay, enough already,” she said, voicing Obama’s thought process. “Let me figure out how I can do this without having to go through all the crap of the legal fights, the Congressional fights... I’ll just work my way around this and it’ll be done. Don’t fight it. It will be done.”

She is also happy to see DADT relegated to history. “At the time it was enacted by Clinton in his first week in office, there was such savagery, it was so homophobic, there was no restraint,” she recalled. “Just getting used to the idea of (the issue being about) human beings, it took people a long time. The generation that came after had much more understanding, or if not understanding, at least it was 'What do I care?' People in their twenties think it’s outrageous that it’s a law.”


“It’s kind of like Women’s Rights. When I did Wonder Woman, there was not a single person on the set in any capacity that was a female. There wasn’t a single woman on television who had her own show except Carol Burnett, or other comedy or music shows. Sometimes the process you have to go through (for equality), unfair as it is, takes steps to occur. Under the Constitution, women still don’t have equal rights. The Equal Rights Amendment was never ratified by the states.”

She is hopeful about the future, however. “As children grow up and they have the internet with so much more exposure to information,” she said, the issues of inequality will diminish. “I just think that a lot of people think their acting as God, and everyone else is demonized. You can’t argue with them because they aren’t interested in what you have to say. It isn’t about strong faith; I have mine. But I have never had a single person ask me what I believe in, because they don’t want to hear you. They want to tell you. That’s what bigotry and homophobia is about. I get mad at injustice.”


“I love Gay Pride,” Carter exclaimed, noting that it is great to be invited back to where she grew up. “I’m there all the time, I just don’t do it publicly.” Her parents, siblings, nieces and nephews still live here, so she tries to get back at least a few times a year. “I’m an Arizona girl through and through.”

“I think it is about the archetype of the secret self and the hero inside you,” Carter responded, when asked why she thinks her Wonder Woman persona struck such a chord with GLBT audiences. “The good person with this hidden ability to fight those injustices that you see. I’ve never understood why people stand by, why teachers stood by for so many years for bullying, whenever someone is different. It’s hard enough being a teenager and coming to grips with all these impulses.”


Carter was so eloquent about her beliefs about equality, it was almost difficult to get her to talk about her love of music. In addition to her popular cabaret show, Carter played the intimidating Mama Morton in the London production of Chicago in 2005. She definitely prefers her cabaret work. “I want to sing all the songs in my own show,” she laughed. She is very grateful for her GLBT fans, and is thrilled that her popularity extends to men and women in the community. “I’m a crossover icon,” she joked. “I am like an iPod Shuffle,” Carter said, explaining that her musical tastes run across most genres except, surprisingly, Broadway show tunes. “I sing what I want to sing, I don’t want to sing all one genre.” She is excited for her fans to hear her upcoming CD, Crazy Little Things, which will have her “iPod Shuffle” of eclectic song choices. She admits that about half of her audiences are GLBT and considers them a key to her post-Wonder Woman success.

I asked Carter how she became such a passionate supporter of GLBT rights. She responded that the Religious Right needs to open their pea brains and accept that civil rights belong to everyone. “If you believe in God, then you have to believe that he intended to make people the way that they are. It’s not just about gay people. This is about all of us. Worry about our behavior and worry about our own marriages. Work on what we need to do. It’s about equality. It’s about simple, simple rights. Period.”

Interview by Neil Cohen, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and Phoenix's Echo Magazine.