Year:  2008, 2011
Genre:  Drama
Countries:  Ireland, UK
Language:  English
Starring:  Michael Fassbender, Liam Cunningham, Brian Milligan, Liam McMahon, Carey Mulligan
Director:  Steve McQueen
Run time:  96 minutes, 101 minutes 

Shame (********8/10)

     On April 17^th, Alliance Films releases the Blu-Ray DVD combo package of Shame, Steve McQueen’s dark and creepy art film about sexual addiction starring the great Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan.

     There’s a lot of nudity.  There are naked women throughout the movie, which is a selling point for high definition.  But the nudity is treated so starkly, both male and female, that although a lot of it is titillating, it made me feel dirty for being titillated.  Which is quite a remarkable accomplishment in filmmaking, I think.  Shame really is a great movie, but I would be hard pressed to say I enjoyed it.  It’s like watching a really brutal  boxing match.  You appreciate the artistry, but you can’t help but cringe at the carnage.  And it’s Fassbender that makes this work.  He is so compulsive, and so depraved and lost to his own urges that it really is difficult to watch.  Carey Mulligan plays his sister, and she has some of the same personality traits, thanks to a shared trauma they went through as children.

     Shame is certainly not for everyone.  It is not the movie for people who watch movies for nudity.  It’s not a movie for people who want a happy ending or humour or fast-paced filmmaking.  But it IS a movie for people who appreciate terrific moviemaking.  Even then, I don’t expect they’ll be watching it more than once.

Hunger (*********9/10)

     There is precious little dialogue in Hunger.  Those seeking action, or talking, will have to look elsewhere for their fix.  Those seeking phenomenal movie making, however, need look no further than this story about the final days of Bobby Sands.  Sands, for those of you (like me) who were not around for his story, was an IRA prisoner in a British prison who led a hunger strike in the early 80s, leading to the death of ten inmates, including himself.  Although this is the central story in the docudrama, we don’t even meet Bobby Sands until the movie is about halfway done.

     In the meantime, director Steve McQueen (who really ought to have changed his name before getting into film, if he was going to do films this good – I mean really, that would be a fine name for the director of Buxom Bitches of the Badlands or something, but Hunger is no B-movie) sets the tone with a look inside the prison.  The utter chaos of the “troubles”, the almost incomprehensible actions of both the IRA prisoners and their British captors, and the general tone of confusion that surrounded the whole thing.  We meet a prison guard who is constantly in fear of assassination.  We meet two IRA prisoners who join with their brethren in a “no wash” strike, where they refuse to bathe or shave and they pour their urine into the hall and smear the walls with their feces and do other disgusting things.  For some reason.

     The only real dialogue in the film comes soon after Sands (Michael Fassbender) is introduced for the first time, as he sits down with a priest (Liam Cunningham) for a long, incredible, powerful talk about his impending hunger strike (among other things).  This is some of the best acting I have seen on film in a long time, as Fassbender and Cunningham sit across from each other, in one extremely long take, discussing the reasons to go on a hunger strike and the reasons not to go on a hunger strike.  The camera doesn’t move, the actors move very little, and the only action in the scene is the pair of them smoking.  And it’s one of the most riveting scenes I can remember.

     The best thing about that scene, and the movie as a whole, is that it perfectly captures the questionable motivation behind Sands’ actions.  He is certainly willing to die for his cause, and his beliefs, but he is also willing to take his fellow soldiers down with him, and I could never really understand exactly what he wanted to accomplish with the strike.  I suspect that to this day, nobody really knows.  Or at least, no one really understands.  But I believed Michael Fassbender understood, when he was sitting in that room with Liam Cunningham, and that is the best reason to watch the film.

     I watch movies in my living room, and in my living room there is a clock that ticks.  It’s not terribly loud, so I never notice it when I’m watching a movie in full surround sound cranked up to eleven.  But I certainly noticed that tick-tock while watching Hunger.  The movie is almost silent much of the time, as people sit around in prison.  I was about to take the batteries out of the clock, but I realized that it added a little something extra to the film.  It was the perfect companion to prison, and made it feel even more so like time was passing incredibly slowly.  The movie appears to be going incredibly slowly as well.  But in fact, it isn’t.  It’s slow, but it’s just incredible.

     There are five movies, comprising six discs, on the new Art of Filmmaking box set, out October 25th from First Run Features.  Think of a director, or a big-name actor, or a giant music producer, and chances are they appear in at least one, if not more of the five documentaries.  Clint Eastwood, Martin Scorcese, Steven Spielberg, Tom Cruise, Jerry Bruckhemier, Werner Herzog, Errol Morris, Susan Sarandon, the list goes on and on and then some.

     This is the ideal box set for the aspiring filmmaker – the best of the best talking about their craft in all sorts of different film genres.  Herzog, Morris, Kevin MacDonald, Scott Hicks and dozens of other documentary filmmakers talk about their craft in the 2008 movie Capturing Reality: The Art of Documentary.  To hear an interview I did with the director of this film, Pepita Ferrari, click here.  The one complaint I have here is that the initial DVD release of Capturing Reality came with an excellent second disc of bonus features, and that disc is not included in this set.

     Spielberg, Eastwood, Scorcese, Tim Burton, James Cameron, Robert Altman, Oliver Stone, Ron Howard, Terry Gilliam, Sydney Pollack, a ton of other directors and some huge-name actors (Cruise, Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Dustin Hoffman) appear in the movie Directors: Life Behind the Camera.  Both discs of this film are included in this box set, and they’re a bit of an effort to get through – you’ve got to click through on a ton of different menus – but with this incredible list of participants, it’s totally worth it.

     John Carpenter, who wrote Hallowe’en, Frank Darabont (Shawshank Redemption), and Paul Schrader (Taxi Driver, Raging Bull) are just three of the dozens of screenwriters who appear in Tales From The Script, a wonderful documentary about the art of screenwriting.  This is probably the most entertaining movie in the box set – the screenwriters are more engaging and funnier than many of the directors and actors in the other films.

     Light Keeps Me Company is more focused – a look at one man, Sven Nykvist.  Nykvist was the legendary cinematographer behind many of Ingmar Bergman’s most famous movies, and a two-time Oscar winner.  Woody Allen, Roman Polanski, Susan Sarandon and Bergman himself show up in the movie to talk about Nykvist, and the clips of Nykvist’s celebrated cinematography are still magnificent – especially when described by fellow movie legends.

     The fifth movie in the set is 1997′s Lavender Limelight, which takes a look at lesbian indie filmmakers like Cheryl Dunye, Heather MacDonald and Jennie Livingston.  This is a much different film than the others in the set, if only because nobody being interviewed is a really big name, and most of us have never seen their movies, like Watermelon Woman or Paris Is Burning. 

     That’s the best thing about this box set – every documentary is different, interviewing big-time filmmakers, little indie filmmakers, documentarians, cinematographers and writers, all in one box.  An amazing box, that you can get here, from First Run Features.

Year:  2008  
Genre:  Documentary
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Directors:  Jennifer Brooke, Beatrice Alda
Run time:  64 minutes
DVD distributor:  First Run Features

     Out Late is a documentary from 2008, out on DVD now from First Run Features.  It’s an interesting look at a bunch of interesting people – gay and lesbian men and women who didn’t “come out” until much later in life.  Some participants in the documentary are in their 80s. 

     The thing is – there’s not much more to the documentary than that.  Interesting interviews with compelling people.  At times, the movie starts delving into social issues, like the couple who live next to a lesbian couple who are fundamentalist religious people and don’t believe in gay marriage.  A lot of the gay participants are religious, and there is a lot of footage in churches.

     But every time the movie starts heading in that direction, it pulls back.  So what we’re left with is a series of interviews with likeable people.  Which is fine, but there aren’t a lot of really amazing stories. 

     I found the most interesting story to be that of Elaine, who came out when she was about 80.  For her, the most difficult thing is finding someone with whom she can have a relationship.  Which is, of course, terribly difficult for someone who is that old, and who just now revealed that she is homosexual.  And of course, now that she has finally come out, she wants to go crazy and live it up and finally be herself.  But she’s waited so long that it’s nearly impossible, and she can be a little too aggressive for some people.

     But mostly we learn about the families, how they reacted, how long these people have known they were gay.  Which is okay, and it’s interesting enough, but when the movie was over I had more questions than answers, and I wanted a lot more out of it.  What makes someone stay closeted for so many years, then what makes them decide that NOW is the time to come out?  These are questions that are touched on, never fully explored.

     With the tragedy that took place here in Ottawa last week, the suicide  of councillor Allan Hubley’s teenage son, I was looking for something more here.  And maybe I was hoping for more for the wrong reasons.  15-year-old Jamie Hubley was the only openly gay student at A.Y. Jackson, where my stepson also goes to high school.  His suicide was a direct result of the bullying he endured at that school, bullying my stepson tells me is very commonplace. 

     The message a lot of us took from Jamie’s tragic death was that although yes, it does get better, asking a 15-year-old to wait three years until college, or maybe even seven years until school ends, can be way too much.  His story told us how difficult it is to come out when you’re so young – and how sad it is that this is so often the result.

     It seems as though this would have been much worse 60 years ago – I would have liked Out Late to talk a little more about that.  The movie makes it clear that the fear of revealing one’s true self is a lifelong trepidation – and the one thing that is consistent among these older people is that they almost all say they wish they had come out much, much sooner.  It’s a nice story, these are nice people, but there’s just not a whole lot of bite to it, and almost no connection to the larger issues affecting the gay community.

Years:  2008
Genre:  TV series, Crime, Drama
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Starring:  Michael C. Hall, Julie Benz, Jennifer Carpenter, Desmond Harrington, Lauren Velez, David Zayas, James Remar
Guest stars:  Jimmy Smits, Valerie Cruz, David Ramsey
Creator:  James Manos Jr.
Run time:  10 hours, 32 minutes
DVD distributor:  Paramount Home Entertainment

     Paramount Home Entertainment is re-releasing Seasons Three and Four of Dexter on DVD August 2nd.  The reason for this is that they have added French dubbing.  It’s a lot better on Dexter than it was on say, the NCIS DVDs I watched.  Not that I spent a lot of time with the French soundtrack, but I always like to see if, when translated into another language, it remains the same show.  In this case, it does.  The guy doing Dexter’s voice is very good, and adequately creepy.

     The third season, overall, is the weakest season of Dexter so far.  Oh, it’s still good.  In some cases very good.  The two climactic episodes are some of the most pulse-pounding of the show.  But otherwise, the spark seems to be missing from this season.  That spark returns in Season Four with John Lithgow as the Trinity Killer, but Jimmy Smits is just an awkward fit in Season Three as an assistant DA who forms an uneasy alliance with Dexter in tracking down and killing the bad guys. 

     Thankfully, Dexter picked back up in a big way in Season Four and Five, and it was a momentary lapse into middling territory for an otherwise superior TV show.  Paramount is releasing Season Four with French dubbing at the same time – click here for a review of season four.

Year:  2008
Genre:  Documentary
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Featuring:  Chris Brasher, Davinder Gill, Tom Krueger, Chiara Lepora
Director:  Mark N. Hopkins 
Run time:  93 minutes
DVD distributor:  First Run Features

     Living In Emergency really is hard to watch, at times.  But that’s as it should be.  This isn’t one of those informercials asking you to sponsor a child that show you kids with flies around them.  This is brutal, harsh reality in some of the worst places on Earth.  The Congo, Liberia, war-torn nations all over the globe.  This documentary, out June 21st from First Run Features, follows four doctors who work with MSF (Medicins Sans Frontieres, or Doctors Without Borders).

     We see little kids with gunshot wounds.  We see their parents shot in the head.  We see the doctors performing surgery with inadequate supplies, antiquated tools and very little time.  The job these people do is staggering, where they are pretty much the only doctors in countries with no health care whatsoever.  That means a ton of people in dire need of medical attention, and very few qualified people to provide that attention.  Which means long hours, little sleep, and enormous stress.

     As the documentary shows, not everyone is equipped to handle that stress.  It really does break some doctors.  But no matter how nuts they may seem, or how jerkish they may become, I am 100% inclined to give them a break.  They are doing something incredible, something no one else does, and if it overwhelms them at least they tried. 

     The best thing about Living In Emergency is that it isn’t just a long commercial for Doctors Without Borders.  Some of the doctors are (mildly) critical of the organization, and they do make light of other international aid outfits (like UNICEF).  But then, I am once again 100% inclined to give them a break. 

     As the doctors say in the film, there is no way to describe their jobs and the conditions to someone who hasn’t been where they are.  The smells, I guess, are the most impossible things to convey in words.  But this movie seems to be the most exposure you’re going to get to their lives, without actually going there.  And it’s fantastic.  Heroic people doing heroic things without recognition.  And without the tools of the job most doctors take for granted.  It’s graphic, but a powerful and important work that should be seen.

Years:  2008, 2009, 2010, 2007
Genre:  Short film, Gay 
Countries:  United States, Sweden
Language:  English
Run time:  104 minutes
DVD distributor:  First Run Features

     First Run Features is releasing Best Gay Shorts and Best Lesbian Shorts on DVD May 17th.  I think there should be more DVDs like this, that gather up the best short films and present them so film buffs can check them out.  Here are the movies on the Best Lesbian Shorts disc:

   25 Random Things I Did During My Big Fat Lesbian Depression (****4/10)

Starring:  Chris Russo
Director:  Chris Russo
Run time:  11 minutes

     Long, self-indulgent…just like the title!  Chris Russo basically does a one-woman show that just isn’t terribly funny.  Or gripping.  Or…anything, really.  Poor way to start the set.

     At The End Of The Street (*******7/10)

Director:  Jennifer Malmqvist
Run time:  14 minutes  

     After a breakup, a confrontation between estranged lovers lead to a fight over a table.  Which is really, it seems, just an excuse to show up at the ex-girlfriend’s house.  Then an encounter with a man that also deals with the table is eye-opening.  Polish, with English subtitles.

  Birthday (*********9/10) 

Starring:  Asa Karlin, Lotten Roos, August Lindmark
Director:  Jennifer Malmqvist
Run time:   18 minutes

     The best film on the disc.  Swedish with English subtitles.  A lesbian couple comes apart at the seams on Katrina’s 40th birthday, as she reveals to her partner Sara that she is pregnant with the baby of a mutual friend.  Their daughter becomes involved, and a canoe.  Poignant and heartfelt. 

  Parental Guidance (******6/10) 

Starring:  Rachel Nicole Hamilton, Ryan Ochoa
Director:  Meredith Scott Lynn
Run time:  4 minutes  

     Two little kids have grown-up words stuffed in their mouths as they discuss their parents’ marital woes.  The little girl has two moms, the little boy has two dads, and they are all on a camping weekend.  The parents are fighting, the kids are precocious, and it all ends very quickly. 

  Public Relations (********8/10)

Starring:  Summer Bishil, Sienna Farall, Jessica Tuck, Wendi McLendon-Covey
Director:  Gianna Sobol
Run time:   17 minutes

     A wonderful little movie starring two beautiful young women.  Both women work as assistants to horrible women (cleaning their houses, booking their appointments, getting birthday gifts for their rotten spoiled children), and have talked only over the phone from LA and New York.  Now their bosses are moving to the same city, and the girls can finally meet and fall in love.

    Swimming (*****5/10)

Starring:  Dominique Dibbell, Jamie Tolbert
Director:  P. David Ebersole
Run time:  7 minutes  

      Meh.  A lifeguard obsesses over a woman taking swimming lessons in the pool where she works.  Dreams and fantasies and so forth.  But no one in the movie compels me to more than a passing interest – and at 7 minutes, a film shouldn’t feel “long”.

   Tech Support (*******7/10)

Starring:  Carrie Barrett, Marla Caceres
Director:  Erik Gernand
Run time:  9 minutes  

     A sweet short about two women who connect over the phone when one of them calls for tech support and the other one answers.  Some pretty weak “acting” in this one, considering it’s all dialogue, but it works and has a sweet ending.  Nice.  Included above in this review.

  Tools 4 Fools (***3/10)

Starring:  Julie Goldman
Director:  Kate A. Brandt
Run time:  8 minutes  

     Even at 8 minutes, this self-indulgent, not-funny dildo infomercial is way too long.

  You Move Me (******6/10)

Starring:  Drae Campbell, Rebecca Drysdale, Lena Bouton
Director:  Gina Hirsch
Run time:  13 minutes

     A woman helps her friend move out of her old house after she breaks up with her girlfriend.  Apparently they need a massive U-Haul truck for one little trunk full of stuff…and there is some really odd (and possibly offensive) native American role-playing lesbian stuff going on.  But it works!

Years:  2008, 2009, 2010
Genre:  Short film, Gay 
Countries:  United States, Sweden
Language:  English
Run time:  104 minutes
DVD distributor:  First Run Features

     First Run Features is releasing Best Gay Shorts and Best Lesbian Shorts on DVD May 17th.  I think there should be more DVDs like this, that gather up the best short films and present them so film buffs can check them out.  Here are the movies on this disc:

   After (******6/10)

Starring:  Cole J. Alvis
Director:  Mark Pariselli
Run time:  13 minutes

     Three teenage boys sit on their front porch and watch the pickup football game in the street, each of them fantasizing about one of the players.  Well, they are all fantasizing about the same player, who comes to visit them in their daydreams (and sometimes in the bathtub).  Interesting, with a surprise ending.

  Bedfellows (********8/10)

Starring:  Paul Caiola, Bret Shuford
Director:  Pierre Stefanos
Run time:  15 minutes

     I think the best short on the disc.  Two guys hook up at a bar – one of them hopes the one-nighter will lead to more, the other appears to be more interested in a one-off hookup.  Great dialogue, good performances, and another (kinda) surprise ending.

  Curious Thing (*******7/10)

Starring:  Danny Bernardy, Matthew Wilkas
Director:  Alain Hain
Run time:  9 minutes

     Interesting look at a gay man (Bernardy) and his straight best friend (Wilkas), and the dynamics in that relationship.  No dialogue between the two stars, it’s all narration from (presumably real) interviews with gay men in New York talking about their relationships with straight men.

  Gayby (********8/10)

Starring:  Jenn Harris, Matthew Wilkas
Director:  Jonathan Lisecki
Run time:  12 minutes

     The funniest short on the disc, this time Wilkas plays the gay man, and his best friend is Jenn Harris.  She wants him to help her conceive a baby “the old-fashioned way”, and he obliges.  The awkwardness in the bedroom is palpable and hilarious, and the series of revelations along the way make this a really quick and entertaining 12 minutes.

  Gaysharktank.com (*******7/10)

Director:  Guy Shalem
Run time:  15 minutes

     Gaysharktank.com is one of those dating websites where people click through a series of chats to find someone they might want to date.  Or hook up with.  Or rob.  A woman is on there with a picture of her husband, trying to see if anyone has seen him.  Another guy is casing out peoples’ houses, presumably to hook up with someone who has stuff worth stealing.  It’s an interesting premise, with some scenes that are very funny.  It goes on a little long though.  15 minutes?  Come on!

  My Name Is Love (*****5/10)

Starring:  Adam Lundgren, Jonas Rimeika
Director:  David Fardmar
Run time:  21 minutes

     Swedish, with English subtitles.  Two guys have a chance meeting and share a deep, dangerous secret.  And then have an affair.  This could actually have been a little better if it were longer.  I was interested in the premise…and then it was over.

  Mouse’s Birthday (*****5/10)

Director:  Barry Morse
Run time:  4 minutes

     Weird.  Just plain weird.  A mouse, a cockroach, and a gay man with a massive mohawk and no shirt dance around and…well.  It’s less that 4 minutes long, and I posted it up top on the review if you want to check it out.  A note here – the Barry Morse who wrote and directed this short is NOT the same Barry Morse who played Lt. Gerard in The Fugitive fifty years ago.  That Barry Morse passed away in 2008.

  Steam (*******7/10)

Starring:  Scott Hislop, Julien Zeitouni
Director:  Eldar Rapaport
Run time:  15 minutes

     An award-winning short about two men stuck in a steam room who have nothing to do except talk to each other.  Eventually they explore their pasts and…talk some more.  Decent dialogue (and there better be, considering that’s all there is) and an interesting talk.  But still – it’s just 15 minutes of talking.

Year:  2008
Genre:  Drama, Thriller
Countries:  Brazil, Poland, Spain
Language:  Portugese, Spanish w/ English subtitles
Starring:  Fele Martinez, Mariana Loureiro, Seu Jorge, Mauricio Garcia, Paca Gabaldon, Rosi Campos, Norival Rizzo
Director:  Murilo Pasta
Run time:  100 minutes
DVD distributor:  First Run Features

     Carmo (Hit The Road) rests mainly on the performances of the two stars, Mariana Loureiro and Fele Martinez.  Loureiro is enchanting as Carmo, the title character who wants nothing more than to get out of town and take off to…anywhere but here.  Martinez is good as a wheelchair-bound smuggler, trying to get his truckload of stolen steroes out of Brazil.  Together, they form a sort of uneasy alliance and head out on the road. 

     The movie begins with some stylistic similarities to Tarantino-esque films (the characters are all introduced with a flourish, the words written on the screen, even if they’re a…”BANK TELLER”).  But it quickly loses the steam that comes from those quirks and becomes a pretty regular road movie with two mismatched protagonists who will learn to overcome their mutual animosity and so on and so forth.

     Carmo and Marco meet up with the kind of people everyone encounters in a road movie – gangsters and gamblers and oddball inept thugs and cops and border guards.  It’s all pretty standard, except for the one strange quirk that makes this movie different – Marco is in a wheelchair.  This makes a few scenes, which otherwise could have been stark or harsh, almost comical.  When Marco is going out to rough up the thugs who stole his truck, he brings his gun.  But he also brings his wheelchair, which means he has to set it down on the ground and go through the awkward process of lowering himself into it before he can go wreak havoc on the bad guys.

     It’s one of the stylistic touches that make Carmo interesting and a worthwhile viewing.  Much of the film falls flat, but with a certain amount of flair and two strong performances, it succeeds overall.  Carmo (Hit The Road) is on DVD now from First Run Features.

Year:  2006, 2007, 2008
Genre:  Kids, Comedy, TV series
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Starring:  Jamie Lynn Spears, Victoria Justice, Sean Flynn, Erin Sanders, Christopher Massey, Matthew Underwood, Paul Butcher
Guest stars:  Daniella Monet, Miranda Cosgrove  
Director:  Steve Hoefer
DVD distributor:  Alliance Films

     Initially, when watching Zoey 101 Season Three, out March 8th from Alliance Films, I was watching for Victoria Justice, who is a peppy, interesting actress and I’m sure will grow into a beautiful, cool young actress with a bright future.  She recently turned 18, so I’m looking forward to her doing some more adult fare – stuff I can sit through without cringing or rolling my eyes.

     And that’s all I was really doing with Zoey 101.  Because once you get past Victoria Justice, there’s not much to this program.  It was cancelled after four seasons, I suppose because the kids got too old to plausibly play 13-year-olds.  Not that they ever were.  Or maybe everyone stopped watching.  Or maybe someone, somewhere, discvovered that Jamie Lynn Spears can’t act any better than her more famous sister in Crossroads.

     Either way, this was the next-to-last season of Zoey 101, and I’ll try to encapsulate the season briefly.  Some character who was on the show last season is gone, diagnosed with Obsessive Male Gender Disorder.  This “diagnosis” is really just an excuse for a bunch of different characters to say the phrase “OMGD”.  “OMGD”?  “OMGD”!  Get it? Hilarious, huh?  And…that’s about the best they can do, humour-wise.  (The real reason the character left, apparently, was that the actress who played her fought with Jamie Lynn Spears off the set, and the producers decided to keep the one whose last name was Spears.)

     The rest of the “humour” this season comes from Zoey (Spears) and Lola (Justice) and their new roommate Quinn, who is a big nerd.  You can tell because she wears glasses and only big nerds wear glasses in shows that are too stupid to try.  Also – big nerds are also super smart at everything.  Which means Quinn is always experimenting on something – she lets a rat loose in their dorm room!  She unleashes a super-germ on the campus!  She does other insane gross things…hahaha…blurp.

     By the time the show got to the two-part episode that involved a ghost (and not one of those Scooby-Doo ghosts that was actually the old man from the amusement park and a fog machine, but a REAL ghost), I was done.  Canceled.  I still think Justice has a bright future, but even her star dulls somewhat after several episodes of Zoey 101.  I initially loved Justice in the iCarly special iFight Shelby Marx. 

     It would be pretty easy, actually, to compare Zoey 101 to iCarly.  Both are Nickelodeon shows starring young girls aimed at young girls.  But when Miranda Cosgrove showed up for a cameo in one of the Zoey 101 episodes later in Season Three, it really hammered home how different these shows are.  See, one has a star with skill.  And it appears as though the cast is having fun making the show.  And it makes me laugh.  The other is Zoey 101.

Year:  2008
Genre:  Drama, Action, Crime
Countries:  France, Belgium
Language:  English, French, and Serbian w/ English subtitles
Starring:  Tomer Sisley, Kristin Scott Thomas, Miki Manojlovic, Melanie Thierry, Karel Roden, Gilbert Melki
Eye candy:  Thierry (terrifically hot, some great boobs)
Director:  Jerome Salle
Run time:  109 minutes
DVD distributor:  Alliance Films

      Largo Winch reminds me a lot of other movies.  For example, it’s a lot like Michael Clayton – it’s about international finance, intrigue, murder and one guy who knows the truth.  Also, Kristin Scott Thomas in Largo Winch reminds me a lot of Tilda Swinton’s character in Michael Clayton.  The efforts she makes to seem self-assured, confident and strong while really being out of her depth, in the end.  There are other movies I could reference.  But who cares?

     The fact is, although there are many similar films, all that means here is that Largo Winch feels familiar.  Not a rip-off, not a tribute, not a hackneyed melting pot of a thousand other ideas.  Just familiar.  Like homemade apple pie.  Or something.  It’s just comforable, and good.  Tomer Sisley is fantastic as the title character (yes, this movie is about a guy named Largo Winch.  Maybe it’s as common a name as Michael Clayton over there in France.)

     Largo is seduced by a woman in South America, framed for drug possession, and thrown in prison.  At the same time, his adoptive father, Nerio Winch, is murdered in Hong Kong.  This leaves Largo the sole heir of his father’s $20 billion fortune, and his company, the W Group.  Although Largo never wanted anything to do with his father’s company or his money, he’s now drawn into this game of international intrigue.

     What follows is a series of chase scenes and double-crosses that span the globe, while we learn a little more about Largo and his personal history – his adopted brother, his family as a child and so forth.  All the while, the board of the W Group is trying to come to terms with the death of their president and CEO while trying to fend off a hostile takeover bid from a rival corporation.

     What makes Largo Winch terrific is the cast.  Kristen Scott-Thomas is likely the most recognizable actor in the film to most of us, and most of her scenes are in English.  Anne Consigny and Radivoje Bukvic are terrific as Largo’s foster family, their scenes are in Serbian.  The incredibly sexy Melanie Thierry is magnificent as the femme fatale Naomi, her scenes are in French.  And some (of the best ones) are in the nude.  Sisley is the star of the film and the best part – holding things together competently and smoothly in all three languages.

     The constant switching from one language to another means you’ve got to wade through a lot of subtitles – the English ones run even when the scene is in English.  But the switching between languages, combined with the taut action and wonderful scenery, really gives Largo Winch an amazing feel that it’s truly “international”. 

     The DVD case has a quote from some critic saying the film is “worthy of Hollywood!” as though that’s a compliment or something.  Something made in France appears to be as slick and shiny as something made in Hollywood!  Would you believe?  Not saying Hollywood doesn’t make good movies.  Hollywood made Michael Clayton, which was terrific (and better than this).  But I, for one, wish that Hollywood made movies as good as Largo Winch.  It comes out October 5th from Alliance Films.

Years:  2008
Genre:  Comedy, Drama
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Starring:  DB Sweeney, John C McGinley, Paul Hipp, Moira Kelly, Ed Harris, Janet Jones, Ned Bellamy, Pat Hingle
Eye candy:  Kelly, Jones, Vanna White, Jenn Brown, Mandy Brown, Nina Kaczorowski, Tanya Mayeux
Interesting cameos:  Tristan Gretzky, Vanna White
Director:  DB Sweeney
Run time:  91 minutes
DVD distributor:  Paramount Home Entertainment

     I feel for Paul Hipp.  There are three stars in Two Tickets To Paradise.  D.B. Sweeney, who also directed.  John C. McGinley, who is a recognizeable character actor with a long and successful career.  And Hipp.  Who doesn’t get mentioned on the cover of the DVD or in the credits on the back.  There are other actors in the movie too – Moira Kelly, who plays Sweeney’s wife.  Ed Harris, who plays a one-armed carnival worker.  They are in the movie for about six minutes each.  They get top billing.  Based on the cover, I thought it was a McGinley – Sweeney – Ed Harris road trip where someone likely met and banged Moira Kelly.  It wasn’t, but I spent the first twenty minutes of the movie wondering where Ed Harris was, and who the hell was this other guy?  False advertising, I say.

     The three lifelong buddies decide to embark on a road trip to Florida for the NCAA championship because they have a couple of tickets.  McGinley is on the run after having run up a massive gambling debt with some local tough-guy bookies.  Sweeney is a failed musician with a lousy wife (Kelly).  And the other guy is just a total loser.  All three are, of course, total losers.  They’ve never made anything of their lives, after showing so much initial promise, and blah blah blah the plot of every road trip movie with actors over thirty ever.  I wonder if they will bond once again, and take charge of their own lives, and improve themselves upon their return?  Let’s wait and see.

     There is some snappy dialogue, and McGinley is pretty good as the desperate, unkempt gambling addict.  With the exception of a few painfully overacted scenes (the one where he tries to bully his friends into finding someone who lives in Vegas who can make a huge bet for him is a glaring example of Just Too Much).  Sweeney is pretty good too, as a guy who seems cool at times but at heart is as big a loser as his two buddies.  With the exception of a couple of painful scenes (like the one where he is pissing and ends up surrounded by alligators.  Haha – get it?  He’s scared!)

     There isn’t much interesting about Two Tickets To Paradise, except for a few stretches of funny smart dialogue (one conversation about music and the placement of tracks on CDs will seem extremely familiar to many of my contemporaries).  The most interesting thing about the film might be the supporting cast.  Vanna White appears as herself, for some reason, totally seperate from the actual film.  Janet Jones (Wayne Gretzky’s wife going by her actor-name) plays McGinley’s wife.  Tristan Gretzky (Wayne and Janet’s son) plays McGinley’s kid.  Their names, of course, are far more interesting than they are.

     And there is some nice eye candy along the way, including Jenn Brown as a Hooters girl and a few strippers here and there (no nudity, however.  This movie is apparently rated R for the occasional crude sexual comment and allusions to drug use.  But no violence, no nudity, and not a heck of a lot of swearing.  This is one of the more unusual R ratings I have ever seen.)  Oh yeah.  And Paul Hipp.  Since the first paragraph, bemoaning Hipp’s exclusion from the marquee here, I haven’t even mentioned him myself.  That’s because he sucks.

Year:  2008
Genre:  Documentary
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Starring:  Holocaust survivors
Director:  Andrew Jacobs
Run time:  97 minutes
DVD distributor:  First Run Features

     Not a lot of the participants in Four Seasons Lodge tell detailed stories about the Holocaust.  Of course, they don’t have to.  Just imagining what survivors of that event had to go through is scary and sad enough on its own without hearing it directly.  Four Seasons Lodge is a documentary about a number of senior citizens, Holocaust survivors all, who meet every summer to party together at an idyllic retreat in the Catskills.  And by party, I mean senior-citizen style (cards, dancing, a little bit of drinking, laughing and more cards.  Maybe some shuffleboard, although I didn’t see any.)  This isn’t the documentary version of Cocoon.

     Oh, some of the old folks tell stories.  Some of them briefly mention what they went through at the hands of the Nazis, they reminisce about family members who were killed, and they talk about some of the horrible events.  But I get the feeling they’re holding back and not telling everything, and some aren’t willing to talk about it at all.  But then, Four Seasons Lodge is not about the Holocaust.  It’s about old people having fun and enjoying their remaining years.  They just happen to be enjoying those remaining years with the few remeaining people who have shared the same horrific experiences that shaped their lives up to this point.

     What you get, then, is a film about a wonderful, charming group of elderly people who are having a really good time, at least for a few months every summer.  And it’s a life-affirming, sweet and moving movie that makes me happy just as much as it makes me think.  Four Seasons Lodge is out August 17th from First Run Features.

Year:  2007, 2008
Genre:  Kids, Cartoon, TV series
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Starring:  Dannah Phirman, Chris Parnell, Patton Oswalt, Fred Stoller, Jack D. Ferraiolo, Cree Summer, Pamela Adlon, Ned Bellamy, James Adomian, Jeffrey Tambor, John C. McGinley, Peter Graves
Creator:  Dorothea Gillim
Run time:  100 minutes
DVD distributor:  Paramount Home Entertainment

     I really like Word Girl.  This is the best PBS kids show I’ve seen yet (although that’s faint praise – what I’m really saying is that at least this one isn’t Martha Speaks or Dinosaur Train).  What I like most about the show is that it doesn’t talk down to kids.  Although every now and then they’ll focus on a particular vocabulary word, like articulate, Word Girl usually talks eloquently and properly without preaching.  The show is also remarkably self-aware, for a kids show.  When something ludicrous happens (and it’s a show about superheroes, so the ludicrous is the everyday), Word Girl has no problem calling attention to the leaps in logic created by its own plot.

     Word Girl does battle with a series of super-villains (who, really, are not terribly “super” – they’re just particularly villainous).  She has a monkey sidekick who doesn’t do much, but does have the fantastic superhero sidekick nickname Captain Huggy Face.  Much better than Robin don’t you think?  In Tricks And Treats, out August 24th from Paramount Home Entertainment, Word Girl and Captain Huggy Face do battle with Birthday Girl, The Butcher, Tobey (hilariously voiced by Patton Oswalt), Chuck the Evil Sandwich Making Guy (Fred Stoller), and The Coach (Ned Bellamy).  All of it works, all of it makes me laugh, and I was willing to keep watching this DVD even after the kids went to bed.

     One complaint – the constant use of the phrase “worrrd up!” was irritating.  I get that Word Girl needs a catchphrase, and it must have to do with grammar or vocabulary.  And I understand that “iammmmbic pentameter!” might be a little bit cumbersome, or that “dannnnngling paaaarticiple!” might go over the heads of some of the kids in the intended audience.  But “worrrd up!” makes me feel like I’m watching a cheesy late-80s rap video.  Like in the next scene, DJ E-Z Rock is going to show up.  This show is bonkers enough, though, that an appearance by DJ E-Z Rock wouldn’t come as a big shock.  And that’s why it’s great.

Year:  2007, 2008
Genre:  Kids, Cartoon, TV series
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Starring:  Dannah Phirman, Chris Parnell, Patton Oswalt, Fred Stoller, Jack D. Ferraiolo, Cree Summer, Pamela Adlon, Ned Bellamy, James Adomian, Jeffrey Tambor, John C. McGinley, Peter Graves
Creator:  Dorothea Gillim
Run time:  100 minutes
DVD distributor:  Paramount Home Entertainment

     I don’t like to complain about Word Girl, because I really like the show.  But for a show that’s all about vocabulary and the correct choice of the proper word for the appropriate situation, there are sure a lot of misnomers I can point out.  First of all, Word Girl herself.  Word Girl is a superhero with super-strength and the ability to fly.  And yet she has chosen her name based on her love of vocabulary words.  Spider-Man is called Spider-Man because he has the abilities of a spider.  The Flash is so named because he is extremely fast.  But imagine if The Incredible Hulk were actually called The Numismatist, because of David Banner’s love for coin collecting.  That’s the type of nomenclature we’re expected to swallow with Word Girl.

     Second, the title of this DVD is Earth Day Girl, out August 24th from Paramount Home Entertainment.  Which leads me to believe there will be an overarching environmental message tying the episodes together.  Or at least a single episode celebrating Earth Day and involving some environmental theme.  But this is not the case.  Instead, the disc kicks off with a single episode called “Earth Day Girl”, where the super-villain Birthday Girl throws a tantrum.  See, she thinks it’s her birthday, but really people are saying Earth Day.  How perplexing.  All Birthday Girl really wants is a piece of cake.

     And that’s the third problem I had with this disc.  The theme of the eight episodes is clearly food.  Birthday Girl wants cake.  The Butcher throws meat at everyone.  Granny May causes trouble in the grocery store.  Dr. Two-Brains is interested only in absconding with enormous amounts of cheese.  Chuck The Evil Sandwich-Making Guy is self-explanatory.  Mr. Big is named after a chocolate bar.  That’s the theme here – food!  Not Earth Day or the environment or anything else.

     OK.  Enough bashing Word Girl.  This remains a really smart, really funny TV show for kids that I like very much.  An example of the humour in this show, humour which might go over the head of some kids – on the back of the DVD, all the villains Word Girl encounters are listed, along with their episodes.  Like for example, “The Butcher” in Jerky Jerk, or “Granny May” in Coupon Madness.  Then, the last episode on the disc (and one of the best), stars “Lady Redundant Woman” in Lady Redundant Woman.  Get it?  Then get Word Girl.

Year:  2008
Genre:  Drama
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Starring:  Omar Metwally, Anthony Hopkins, Laura Linney, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Hiroyuki Sanada, Alexandra Maria Lara
Director:  James Ivory
Run time:  114 minutes
DVD distributor:  Alliance Films

     I am writing this review on the heels of my review of Vicky Cristina Barcelona, and I am struck by the similarities between the two films.  The City of Your Final Destination could very easily be the sequel to Vicky Cristina Barcelona, if Javier Bardem’s character in that movie had been a writer rather than a painter.  Omar Metwally plays OmarRazaghi, a writer who travels to Uruguay in order to convince the family of a famous Hispanic writer named Jules Gund to allow him to write the late author’s biography.  While there, he discovers so much more and learns about himself and all that blah blah blah.

     What he really discovers, though, is that Jules Gund led a pretty kick-ass life.  He had a wife named Caroline (Laura Linney) and a mistress Arden (Charlotte Gainsbourg), and they all lived together in seemingly perfect harmony in the same house.  Also living there is Gund’s gay brother Adam (Anthony Hopkins) and his boyfriend.  Many movies present an idyllic vision like this one and then slowly expose the seamy underbelly beneath.  But not The City Of Your Final Destination.  There IS no seamy underbelly.  There are hurt feelings and sour grapes and a bit of bickering, but essentially what you see is what’s real.

     Linney is an icy, bitter woman with a good heart, while Gainsbourg is an almost naive innocent with a hunger for life.  Their perceptions of each other are not always accurate, but this story isn’t really about them at all.  Instead, the story is about Omar and his personal journey, as he grows closer to Arden and further from his girlfriend.  Omar’s girlfriend Dierdre (a fantastic Alexandra Maria Lara) seems like a bit of a control freak with a sense of superiority, and right away I thought he should be getting away from her.  Of course he does, and he goes to Uruguay on his own, but when he gets stung by a bee and slips into a coma, she comes to be with him (and really, to take over his project since she doesn’t believe he can get it done on his own).

     Dierdre had to come back, I suppose, into the movie so I could learn for sure that she was unpleasant and irritating.  And that made me feel better about Omar’s sudden infatuation with Arden.  It’s contrived, but it works.  As does the whole movie.  I really did feel like I was watching the Vicky Cristina sequel though.  (Although this is a better film.)  Imagine Bardem dying, and a biographer coming to write his story, and finding Rebecca Hall and Penelope Cruz still living there.  That’s the movie you’re getting here, and it really works.