L'Chaim, To Life: Adventures in the Holy Land Pt 1

Well, according to a certain "friend" I would be amiss if I didn't come to Israel and the Holy Land for the 10th anniversary of "Gay Pride" there in Tel-Aviv. 

And Pride in Tel-Aviv is certainly an "event". Not one to spend 4 hours in the prime afternoon heat on the beach, I will say the parade itself was festive, manageable and a gregarious mix! In fact, it brought back pleasant memories of what the 10th annual parade was like here in NYC.

Otherwise, Tel-Aviv being a cosmopolitan seaside center, it's not even spitting distance from its sister city, New York where attitude and circuit sisters are concerned! 

But if you are resourceful and curious there were plenty of things to take in without being caught in Pride Fever!

I can't say how happy I was to take an afternoon off and checked out the Tel-Aviv Museum of Art. This mid-sized institution has enough room to provide a derivative history of Israeli art. However, the pleasant surprise here is the strong engaging collection of late-19th and early-to-mid-20th century art. Strong impressionist works are provided by two major donations that combined include important works in Fauvism, Cubism and Abstract Impressionism. 

The great surprise was an excellent survey show of the Berlin-based, Scottish artist Douglas Gordon. The museum dedicated a great amount of space to display an intriguing collection of video installations. It was nice to see some of this artist's major video works played in context to each other. Personal favorites were "24 Hour Psycho" and "Play Dead; Real Time". They also dedicated a large amount of space to large, text-based installations. 

It was also a delight to encounter some queers who weren't in leather and tweaked out of their gourd at the Tel-Aviv LGBT Film Festival. We took in two late night screenings at the beautiful and well-appointed Tel-Aviv Cinemateque; James Franco & Travis Matthews "Interior. Leather Bar." and the fabulous bio-doc "I Am Divine". 

Let's start with the latter which is a charming sensitive biography of Divine (October 19, 1945 – March 7, 1988), born Harris Glenn Milstead, an American actor, singer and drag queen. An appropriate 90 minutes is dedicated to the subject and the film-makers are able to provide some great early material along with intriguing bits and pieces that remind us of what a diverse career "Little Glennie" had! The original soundtrack is also a lot of fun!!

The Franco/Matthews project is much more troubling. Proposing to "reimagine" a lost 40-minute leather bar sequence from William Friedkin's 1980's "Cruising" with Al Pacino, the film dips its toe into the deep-end of the fetish pool, but in typical Aptow-era homophobia dares you to jump in while pointing rudely at you and snickering. Each man, less gay than the next, "opens up" about their heterosexuality and their discomfort with homosexuality. After a while you have to question the sincerity of anything or anyone involved in this film, except for a brief pornographic scene between a genuine gay couple (ooo shocking). Does toeing the homosexual line really make straight men feel more "complete"? Did anyone really think James Franco was going to take off his clothes for this film? Does anyone really care??

On The Road Again

So what was one to do over a week in Boca Raton, Florida?

Especially since I had to miss Second Saturday Staten Island this month. Deep Tanks features an amazing exhibit until June 4th; a retrospective of Island artist Arthur Williams. 

Arthur Williams at Deep Tanks, Installation View

Highly graphic, slightly hallucinogenic, this densely packed mini-retrospective includes over 100 works in painting and ceramics. Williams has a Pop sensibility, sometimes crossed with the retro checkerboard styling of the 80s. 

Arthur Williams at Deep Tanks, Installation View

The numerous canvases range from adept to truly surprising. I found myself oddly drawn to the objects over the two dimensional work, but all the works are infused with humor and compassion. 

Arthur Williams at Deep Tanks, Installation View

It will undoubtedly put a smile on your face. The show is up until June 3rd and if this doesn't get you up and off your ass and over here, well.......

I was fortunate to have picked up a copy of Alison Bechdel's "Are You My Mother?" from the New York Public Library before taking off to the sunny South. And could I have picked up a more appropriate book? This graphic memoir by the creator of "Dykes To Look Out For" follows up on her 2006 "Fun House". Where the latter dealt with her relationship to her homosexual, transvestite father, this current volume deals with her relationship with her mother, often focusing on the period of her developing "Fun House".  It is a big story contained in a slim volume, but Bechdel is a veteran of the panel concept and knows how to utilize the format to her advantage. Actually a study of the Mother-Daughter relationship at the turn of the century, the author pursues a multi-threaded approach; the story encompasses the psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott and author Virginia Wolff with "sidebars" into the worlds of Sigmund Freud and Stephen Sondheim in a masterful slight of hand.


And I read it in under a week!!


So what DOES one do in Broward County? Well I called Girls' Club in Fort Lauderdale to see if they might be able to open up for me Saturday morning (official hours 12-5 Weds-Fri) on my way down to Miami. And sure enough, they accommodated me! 

Re-Framing The Feminine at Girls' Club, Installation View

"Re-Framing The Feminine" is an exhibit curated by Dina Mitrani, a Miami curator, of almost 50 photographic works from the organization's founder's collection. And it is an impressive collection; leaning heavily in works of the past 25 years, it does pay slight homage to earlier women photographers with unsurprising works by Ruth Orkin and Helen Leavitt. The general slant is the "female" eye but a large majority of the work features the female body. 

Re-Framing The Feminine at Girls' Club, Installation View

The show has a pleasant mixture of the familiar (Tina Barney, Vera Lutter, Sally Mann) and the unfamiliar (Courtney Johnson, Delia Brown, Ania Moussawei) that plays it fairly safe but has some definite high notes that include Lucinda Devlin's interiors of "fantasy" motels, Carrie Mae Weem's charmingly elegiac Untitled photograph, and Delia Brown's sly vamp on the Becher school grid in "Some of My Clothes". 
But where were Catherine Opie, Justine Kurland and Sarah Charlesworth? This may be the downfall of dealing with just one couple's collection when curating a "big" show.


I decided to breakfast in FTL and remembered a place called the Egg and You Diner on Rte 1 in Wilton Manors. I chalk it up to my New Jersey upbringing that made me sense this was a "serious" diner and I indulged in a sinfully delicious breakfast of biscuits with sausage gravy. Sitting at the counter I met other late morning diners who had journeyed 30+ miles just for their poached eggs with cheese sauce!! Yum yum yum!!!

According to friend and curator Dan Cameron, I missed a really good show at the Miami Art Museum while I was down that afternoon, but I did get to visit Scotty's Landing for a leisurely late afternoon meal. Lousy service took some time to acknowledge us, but they did offer Magic Hat #9, a personal hot weather fave. I also experienced my first fish taco!! Featuring fried grouper in a flour tortilla, I did wish the accompanying sides of guacamole, slaw and salsa hadn't arrived in covered #6 plastic containers, but the final composed product was not unsatisfactory.



Speaking of Magic Hat Brewery, I decided to forgo my usual vodka and whatever this trip for a six-pack of their Summer Elder Betty brew. To my luck it's an American Hefeweizen beer with a lovely dark color to it; the elderberries add a dark fruitiness that balances the sharp mustiness of the wheat beer. Nicely done.


Then came Mother's Day when I accompanied my Mother to CHOPS Lobster Bar in Boca Raton so we could split the Dover Sole entree. For high end eating down there it wasn't too shabby. Considering the date, the restaurant was humming but not overwhelmed and the service was attentive without being overbearing. The initial room is a bit dark but the main dining room has a vaulted tiled ceiling reminiscent of the Oyster Bar in Grand Central Station and an ample view into the active kitchen. The bourbon ginger cocktail I had as a starter was excellent and set the bar for the rest of the meal. The Caesar salad was creamy and not overwhelmed by enormous croutons as it often is; here they were represented by thin small dark "crisps". The sole was prepared with care table-side and maintained the general level of richness the entire meal had. Sharing a slice of strawberry cheesecake for dessert, we both slowly rolled home remarkably full!!

Judi Dench and Friends in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

What do you do on a rainy Florida afternoon with your Mum? Why not go to the movies? My Mom had been pitching for the new British import The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, so off one rainy afternoon we went to the multiplex. Effectively directed by John Madden (Her Majesty, Mrs. Brown, Shakespeare in Love), a strong ensemble cast featuring Judi Dench, Tom Wilkinson, Penelope Wilton, Bill Nighy, and Maggie Smith as a group of "older" English-folk who find themselves trying to adapt to the ways of the sub-continent in a run-down "hotel" being run by a inexperienced but enthusiastic Sonny (Dev Patel of "Slumdog Millionaire") is perfectly fine. Nothing really surprising unfolds here (the gay character dies and receives a full Hindu burial, the toxic couple separate healthfully, the "desperate" find "hope", Sonny stands up to his Mum, and old codger Maggie Smith ends up liking India!!!) but it is nice to see how competent actors deal with mediocre material. The cinematography does do a nice job of capturing the whirling kaleidoscopic of urban India. If you must.

THE VENEER OF THE ORDINARY: "Michael" at Film Forum

"Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!"

We'll never know how The Shadow knew, but these days when evil, unthinkable events unfold we desperately try to reason them out. Though we think we can "sympathize" with certain crimes perhaps, generally no one can or wants to relate to the pedophile. First-time Austrian director Markus Schleinzer makes an audacious debut with his drama Michael, the story of a timid 35-year-old insurance salesman with a dreadful secret: he's holding a 10-year-old boy, Wolfgang, captive in his basement. Schleinzer has the cold, critical eye of Hitchcock or Chabrol that produces the appropriate cringe factor for such a story, which is told through the title character over a period of five months. What unfolds is a bleak tale of ordinariness gone wrong. Michael's exterior life is a dull as his work and his office. He's closed off and tight, yet receives invitations to skiing weekends and promotions at work. When told by his pals on their trip that the barmaid has eyes for him, he almost dutifully remains behind listening to her tales of single motherhood and then, rather embarrassingly, attempts to have sex with her. 


The only times Michael opens up is when the metal window barriers go down on his bland suburban home and he ventures into the basement past the foam-covered door. Trying to create a normalcy with his victim, Michael sets the table for dinner as though his dinner guest doesn't lived locked in his basement. Turning on the lights in the boys prison is as everyday as eating and brushing his teeth. They watch TV together until Michael announces enough; the boy's straggling to watch for a few minutes more subtly covers the desire to forestall his fate of sexual slavery. Cut to the encounter being noted in Michael's diary. Though not a story of Stockholm Syndrome, the film documents the taut relationship of a victim and his kidnapper who both find themselves in a hopeless situation several months in. 

Schleinzer has done a remarkable job of creating a horror story out of the mundane. Lingering shots of fluorescent lights, office interiors, and car garages emphasize the ordinariness of Michael's life (and kept reminding me of photographs by Bernd and Hilda Becher) and he often just sets the camera down and lets the scene unfold in front of it. His years of being a casting director certainly worked to his advantage as well. Michael Fuith as Michael is an exceptional tightly-wound powder keg who, when he does go off, shows the hysteric desperation of a man who has dug himself into a deep dark hole and cannot get out. David Rauchenberger plays Wolfgang with an sullen authenticity that ups the creepiness factor of this film ten-fold. It's achingly honest and makes it well worth the price of admission. One does not want to reveal the end of this film but suffice it to say Schleinzer gives his tale enough quirky twists and splashes of dark humor to give the viewer a thoroughly satisfying cinematic experience.


Michael will have a two week engagement February 15 - 28 at Film Forum, 209 West Houston Street with daily screenings at 1:15, 3:15, 6:00, 8:00 and 10:00

FILM FRIDAY

It s a big weekend for Film Forum this weekend, the home of the new the novel and the classic. A FILM UNFINISHED has been receiving rave reviews and THE RADIANT CHILD is still held over, but for me this weekend offers the chance to see Hitchcock's DIAL m FOR MURDER in 3-D. The master visual composer, you cannot truly appreciate this film unless its seen in its original 3-D release. Hitch shrewdly and expertly understood what the depth of field that 3-D could allowed him to add to his storytelling abilities and once you see the flawless Grace Kelly 'knife' her attacker in the back you'll understand what I mean. The courtroom scenes will make much more sense to the 2-D viewer as well. WORTH EVERY PENNY!!

Once again TCM's SUMMER UNDER THE STARS has boffled up its programming schedule; Katherine Hepburn is featured today but nothing of real substance and fun is scheduled until after midnight tonight: BRINGING UP BABY, THE PHILADELPHIA STORY & SUMMERTIME in a row. The last, David Lean's gorgeous ode to Venice and lost love is truly lost to most viewers at 4AM.
Paul Newman is featured on Saturday and they have a nice string of films at a reasonable hour; CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF at 1:45 PM is a watered down version of Tennessee William's stage play but feature A+ performances by Liz Taylor, Burl Ives, Judith Anderson and the always oily Jack Carson. This is followed by HUD (in glorious Black & White by James Wong Howe), HARPER, and THE STING. Once again in the 4AM slot another gem SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH with Geraldine Page!
John Mills is featured Sunday with one of my all-time favorite films HOBSON'S CHOICE at 8AM. Another early David Lean under-appreciated classic features Charles Laughton in the title role of Henry Horatio Hobson. Mills is delightfully naive as his talented boot hand, William Mossop and Brenda DeBanzie as Hobson's eldest daughter Maggie, determined not to remain a spinster. It also features a young Prunella Scales (of Fawlty Towers fame) as the youngest of Hobon';s daughters, Vicky.
Not to put down John Mills but why isnt Elizabeth Taylor, featured on Monday with a great list of films, scheduled on a weekend when most people have time to enjoy them? Hmmmmmm?

FILM FRIDAY

Since I don't get out to see first run films as much as I once did and I want to keep this blog active and alive, so I've decided I'll share some screening info and thoughts on some interesting films of note this weekend:

Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. (1999) Errol Morris' fascinating study of American Hubris is available on demand from Cinemax. Morris' distance and restraint allow us to follow this "high speed car crash" of a life. You can see it happening and you can't quite take your eyes off of it. Morris is clever enough to blink for us occasionally with quick flashes of black screen. Leuchter displays a classic case of American "naiveté" gone horribly horribly wrong. A beautifully photographed moral lesson I can watch over and over.

9 (2009) This post-apocalyptic animated film written (with Pamela Pettler) and directed by Shane Acker is ruuning in the current airing schedule of Cinemax (also on-demand). Grizzly but not grotesque, the struggle of nine fabric-beings surviving in a world devoid of humans and menaced by techno-nature that becomes more and more horrific certainly provides us with all the usual spills and chills of a fantasy-adventure. I felt the film has some "issues" with its conclusion, but the beauty of this creepy dark parable keeps you watching.Beautifully render.

Summer Under the Stars on TCM will be featuring the films of Gene Tierney and Margaret O'Brien this weekend. I've never considered myself a huge fan of either lady but at 1PM on Tierney Saturday they are airing "The Shanghai Gesture" (1941) a Von Sternberg kitsch potboiler too silly for words. If you can make it up until 3:30AM (shouldn't that be Margaret's day already?) they will air "Advise and Consent" (1962) Otto Preminger's all-star DC intrigue feature Charles Laughton's final screen appearance as an oily Southern Senator. It is also renown for having one of the first cinematic scenes in a gay bar!

Regarding Ms. O'Brien Sunday, TCM has scheduled an nice stretch of films from 12:30PM until 8PM, including her first film "Journey for Margaret" (1942), followed by "The Canterville Ghost" (1944) with Charles Laughton (did I miss Laughton Day?) at 2PM, "Meet Me in St. Louis"(1944) with Judy Garland and a wonderfully taciturn Margaret at 3:45. "Little Women" and "The Secret Garden" (both from 1949) follow but after Judy well......

Once more to CineMax, to Women's CineMax Channel who will be showing Hitchcock's "Shadow of a Doubt" early Monday at 1:15AM. This portrait of evil festering in the bosom of his naive family, features a wonderfully unctuous Joseph Cotten as visiting Uncle Charlie, the Merry Widow Killer, a wonderful cast of character actors and a screenplay by Thorton Wilder. But it's Teresa Wright's performance as Young Charlie, her uncle's namesake, who delivers a wonderfully realized portrait of a girl becoming a woman, dragged into adulthood with the realization of her uncle's heinous crimes. Take a nap, have some coffee and enjoy.

AND AWAY WE GO: Disney/Pixar's "Up"

It occurred to me more than halfway through the latest film from the brainchildren of Pixar, "Up", written and directed by Pete Docter & Bob Peterson, that our unlikely 'hero', Carl Fergusson, retired balloon salesman (and given voice by the talented Ed Asner) had quietly acquired a nice face full of stubble. To most of us, an old man with a face full of stubble wouldn't be a big deal. Because Carl is digitally composed like everything in the movie, it once again shows Pixar's attention to 'the little' stuff' in these modern day fairy tales. Seeing "Monsters, Inc." for the first time on a digital hi-def monitor, I suddenly was possessed by the flow and bounce of James P. Sullivan's blue hairy body. It is these small details that push this production company's fare beyond mere family films.
Don't misunderstand; I believe a lot of the success of the Disney/Pixar collaboration had to do with the writers, who are able to balance their new moral tales between sophisticated humor an adult can enjoy with simpler, silly humor (a mean doberman pincher who 'speaks' in a high, almost pre-pubescent voice) that kids delight in.
Carl's story begins with him as a child at the movies, watching a newsreel about Charles Muntz, a Lindbergh-like famed adventurer and explorer, who disappeared after doubt is cast on his discovery of a large flightless bird in the wilds of South America. As young Carl wanders home afterwards he encounters a brash, energetic young girl named Ellie, a fellow "adventurer". Carl and Ellie's fate is sealed soon after and the film provides a lovely wordless montage of the life together.
Carl has grown old and cantankerous , watching the neighborhood around his house disappear to some alien-looking developer. When Carl gets angry at a construction worker's disregard for his property, he hits him in the head. That's when things go truly bad for Carl. On the day he is to be shipped off to some retirement home, Carl decides he must keep the promise to his late wife and take their house to the top of a huge waterfall in the South American wilds. Carl makes his escape with the help of innumerable helium-filled balloons. Sitting to enjoy the peace and quiet he find in his air born state, the silence is broken by a knocking at the door! Carl quickly discovers there is a stow-away on board, young Russell (voice by Jordon Nagai), a Roley-poly wilderness scout determined to get his merit badge for helping the elderly. As his house finally comes down after a storm, Carl discovers himself in the vicinity of the Falls he and Ellie dreamed about. Determined to get his house to the top of the falls, he and Russell walk the house to its destination. Lost in the wild forests, the two go astray only to stumble upon the explorer Muntz, determined to located and capture his mysterious bird, a large colorful creation with a weakness for chocolate. Admiration turns to fear as he discover that Muntz is determined to let NO one obstruct his pursuit.
The film a real charmer, providing laughs for everyone, as well as some nice thoughts about old age and extended families. Well worth seeing, but if you can catch it in 3-D, do. Seeing Carl's house float above your head, balloons gleaming in the sun, is wondrous to see and a dark brooding storm reminiscent of "The Wizard of Oz" is magnificently rendered.
Take the kids. Or don't. But go.

REVIEW: WHAT HAPPENED? WHO CARES!: The Hangover

Let's keep this brief.

This film makes "My Life in Ruins" look like Oscar material.

If you need me to go on further I will simply say that this "comedy" tries desperately to bank on the quirkiness of the neo-buddy flick that has been manufactured with steady regularity by the Rogen/Apatow machine. A bachelor party to Vegas goes terribly wrong when 3/4s of the party losses the groom in a drugged out, drunken debauchery of one evening in Sin City. A dentist with a missing incisor, a probable pedophile with a Rain Man-like ability to count cards, and a naked Chinese sissy man with a crowbar are all here trying desperately to try and arouse a laugh, but alas, it is not to be. This pathetic piece of 'entertainment' wallows in mediocrity, misogyny and homophobia.

SAVE YOUR MONEY!!

GREECE OR BUST: "My Life in Ruins"

With any luck, the new Nia Vardalos comedy "My Life in Ruins" has already left your cineplex to journey forth to fulfill its natural function as DVD fodder for your local 7-11.

It seems to be another one of those situation where pedigree doesn't amount to a hill of beans. It looked good on paper. The charming, funny Nia Vardalos, the big, fat movie star from her first film "My Big Fat Greek Wedding". Donald Petrie, a fine director of many comedies such as "Miss Congeniality" and "Grumpy Old Men" was at the helm. A more than capable supporting cast, topped off by Oscar-winner Richard Dreyfuss. But somewhere, somehow the whole thing didn't add up. Not even with the help of visual eye candy like the Greek Islands and Alexis Georgoulis. As Irv, Mr. Dreyfuss' on-screen character might proclaim, "It's a shanda!"

I guess the powers that be thought it would be a good idea to play off Ms Vardalos' success. But then its not often that lightening strikes twice. That movie was a charming, family comedy which was a re-telling of the Cinderella story. Trying to bank on another modern fairy tale, this twisted take on Beauty & the Beast makes us wonder: who's Belle? This visually obvious beast is the stunning Mr Georgoulis, who arrives early on the scene as a hairy mop of a bus driver for the tour the that Georgia (Ms Vardalos) is 'forced' to lead. A smart knowledgeable academic of ancient history, Georgia finds misery everywhere. Her international group is a set of stereotypical tourists, her bus has no air conditioning and no one is interested in hearing her prattle on about Greek history. Any iota of charm is devoid in her character. So we have the Beast & the Beast.
Of course as this predictable tale chugs along towards it happy ending (Georgia gets her groove, or 'kefi' back. This is done by having sex. Big surprise.) Georgia is faced with the monumental decision; stay in Greece leading tours with her new hunky lover of a bus driver or go teach in Michigan?
In the immortal words of the Divine Miss M: what kind of asshole question is that?
Stay away and save your money!

Report from the North Country: or how your intrepid reporter went wireless and learned to love his blackberry.

With the informal kick-off of summer we started ours off with an official visit to the Sunshine Drive-In to catch up on some commercial cinema. First up, Star Trek. This "prequel" mega-movie seems to strike the right balance between satisfying hardcore fans and creating enough dark Batman-like moodiness to attract a new audience. Everyone turns up on cue and young Spock even gets to pontificate with his older, future self (played by the original Spock, Leonard Nimoy, with a set of dentures you can't take your eyes off of). Large, loud and digitally enhanced, we found a lot of the action/fight scenes blurry and unfocused. But when Uhuru is such a hottie who cares! Ah-woo-woo-woo!!
As for the 2nd feature, "I Love You Man" pity poor Paul Rudd! A talented guy who has been in many a Rogen/Aptow production, he is finally given a chance to star in this sad comedy about a heterosexual man with no male friends. A good cast is lost in this pathetic chick-flick disguised as a buddy movie. Avoid at all costs!!

FILM REPORT FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY or What you see in Vermont should stay in Vermont

Trying to beat the holiday crowds on the road this Labor Day Weekend, we decided to take off this past weekend for an extended one in the mild wilds of Burlington, VT. Summoned by the siren call of the annual Montpelier Used Instrument Sale, one cannot visit Burlington in the summertime and not pay a visit to the Sunset Drive-In, a four screen outdoor film screening extravaganza (now with a rather mediocre mini putt-putt golf course) where you cannot fail to be entertained. Our recent visit allowed us to see two of this summer's male bonding comedies, Pineapple Express and Step Brothers!!

Let's start with the latest Judd Apatow/Seth Rogen effort Pineapple Express. Along with their cohort Evan Goldberg, these three have created a new sub-category to Buddy Flicks, The Post-Modern Male Bonding Flick. In this particular instance it is Dale Denton, a pot-head Process Server played by Seth Rogen and his pot dealer Saul Silver (James Franco) who are forced to take it on the lam after Dale witnesses a gangland murder. After a hilariously paranoid evening in the woods of LA, the two run around the city, hither and yon, trying to figure out who knows what, who has killed or will kill, and basically trying to stay alive. There is a hilarious scene with a school guard officer, played by Cleo King, who takes Dale down for dealing drugs to children and lectures him face-to-face while driving him down to the station. Now that one can't have SEX and DRUGS and ROCK N ROLL, Apatow and Rogen seem to be asking us to consider which one IS worse SEX or DRUGS (Dale, who is in his early 30's, has a "relationship" with a 17 year old High School student, and no one, except her Dad (a wonderful cameo role for Ed Begley, Jr.) seems to have problem with this age discrepancy). Rogen has a corner on the market when it comes to hazy heroes; his bearish grin makes me think of Yogi Bear after a weekend in Amsterdam. As in Superbad, the film culminates in the two male protagonists saying "I Love You" to each other and NOT having sex. In fact, the less actual touching during those moments supposedly the better, and a lot is milked out of the emotional and physical effort that NOT touching causes. What made Superbad far more effective as a film was that we knew the two male protagonists, Jonah and Michael, were being torn apart by school, by distance, by social "values", and even by sexuality, whereas Dale and Saul seemed fated to survive together in the cloudy hazy of a cross-joint.

;--{ A few honest laughs and some nice cameo work; worth the $2.50 so far (Did I mention that we snuck someone in without paying?)!!

After some fries, and onion rings, and one of the cheapest burgers in town ($2.50), we settled in for our second feature Step Brothers. Directed by Adam McKay and written by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay from a story by the two along with John C. Reilly, this movie should go over big at the cineplex in Boca Raton. The meeting and mating of Nancy Huff (Mary Steenburgen) and Dr. Robert Doback (Richard Jenkins) comes fast and furious, and both bond over their deep, dark secret; they each have a middle-aged son living with them at home. Nancy's son Brennan (Will Ferrell) is a sensitive, artistic, mamma's boy, while Dale Doback (John C. Reilly) fears the a lose of the all-male dominion he shares with his dad ("We go to the bathroom with the door open!")

The "comedy" comes out of the joining of these two households as one, forcing these two middle-aged adolescents to confront and conform to each others quirks and idiosyncrasies. As opposed to laughs, we are presented a series of peculiar moments of grown men acting out like tired 10-year-olds. When the "boys" are told they can borrow anything out of dad's clothing closet to look their best for a job interview, they opt to deck themselves out in evening clothes, cut-aways, cummerbunds and bow ties. Hilarious perhaps to a 10-year-old, things don't improve for us grown-ups when the two decide to interview for a job as one. And the fight over whether Brennan had touched Dale's drum kit or not is down-right painful. After driving a wedge between mom and dad by wrecking dad's dream boat (and dream of early retirement to sail around the world) while producing their first music video together, the two boy's finally hunker down, get jobs, and ultimately get their parents back together. Fairy tales can come true!!

:-( Amazed I stayed awake for the whole thing! Silly idea, poor presentation and badly written. Skip it if at all possible!!

Finally, we attended a special wine-tasting screening of the small indie film Bottle Shock at the Roxy in downtown Burlington. A poorly planned event sponsored by a new local wine shop, mayhem preceded the screening as people crowded around to sample and vote on their preferences between three pairs of wines, one French, one Californian (we preferred the French two to one). I doubt any amount of alcohol would relieve the pain of this ridiculous dramatization of the "famous" event in 1976 which pitted the best of French wines against those of California's Napa/Sonoma Valleys. Basically an enormous advertisement for the winery Chateau Montelena (an establishment of undeniable quality; will this now allow them to jack their pricey prices up even more?), there is no plot per se, no hero to root for, and no sense to pacing to create any kind of tension. Skilled, talented actors like Dennis Farina, Bill Pullman and Alan Rickman do their best to rise about the mediocre material they have to work with, but struggle is futile and the strong gravitational pull of dullness drags down even these seasoned veterans.

:-( :-( :-( AVOID AT ALL COSTS!! THIS AIN'T NO SIDEWAYS!!!! BOTTLE SCHLOCK!!!!

WHO'S LIFE IS IT ANYWAY? - Godard's Vivre Sa Vie @ Film Forum

You still have a few days to catch this wonderful new print of Jean-Luc's Godard early masterpiece at Film Forum (I wouldn't be surprised if it it gets held over).

I am not a big Godard fan. I find him pedantic and petulant most times. But there is something about the lyricism of this black-and-white elegy that raises it to the level of poetry.

We know were in for something different right from the first scene (the film is divided into 12 scenes, each with its dutiful Godard placard). Nana (Anna Karina) is having a conversation with her estranged husband in some nameless Parisian cafe. They talk about their child, his parents, why she has left him (to become a film actress). And the entire conversation is shot from behind; all we are seeing is the back of their heads!

Karina was concerned about her looks during the filming; she felt her deteriorating relationship with Godard and a low budget were making her look "bad". I'd have to disagree. She looks luminous and her dark pageboy haircut accentuates her keen features. She is a doomed beauty. How can you not love her as we watch her watching an interrogation scene from Dreyer's Passion of Saint Joan? Godard certainly lavished the same doting close-up time to his saintly title character as Dreyer did to his.

A masterpiece!! Catch this great new 35mm print while you can!!

MEN ARE FROM CALIFORNIA, WOMEN ARE FROM CANADA - "There Will Be Blood" & "Juno"

As the OSCARS rapidly approach, we took time to take in a couple of contenders:

A lonely silence pervades the first ten minutes or so of Paul Thomas Anderson's remarkably bleak new film "There Will Be Blood". He paints us a loving portrait of an American landscape now hard to find: dry, cold, and remote. And its these very same attributes that characterize his chief protagonist, Daniel Plainview. Played by Daniel Day-Lewis, he is a fascinatingly repugnant study of American entrepreneurship. Showing all the characteristics of American "Can Do" spirit, we watch Plainview, early in the film, break his leg while mining, then dragging himself through the desert to the assayer's office to register his claim while lying on the floor with the grin of a cat who just ate the canary. Silver becomes oil and soon Plainview and his son, HW, are traveling California, buying up land and lease rights. Visited one night by a young man named Paul Sunday (Paul Dano), Daniel is made aware of a potential vast oil field on Paul's family farm. Using the pretense of being on a quail hunting trip with his son, Daniel scopes out the Sunday farm for the veracity of Paul's claim. Soon he is not only raising up an enormous oil derrick but the ire and wrath of Paul's brother, Eli, a charismatic preacher with hopes of building a church and a god-fearing community. The centerpiece of the film is a beautifully shot scene involving the well exploding then catching fire. The explosion throws HW from the derrick, where he had been watching the pump, and causes the boy to go deaf.

The film moves forward deftly, as Plainview strives forward towards more and more money, doing whatever it takes to "succeed". By the end of the film, he is like Kane in his Xanadu, a lonely alcoholic sitting out the depression in mansion which includes a two-lane bowling alley. By the end of the film, when he sputters out to his butler "I think I'm finished!" we know he most certainly is. Day-Lewis' performance at this point is Shakespearean, an oil-mad Lear who's well has finally tapped out.

We loved this film. Poetically shot, it is a brilliant portrait of American capitalism, biblical in scope, smart but not smug, brutal but never grotesque. It is destined to become an American film classic.

Poor "Juno". That lonely comedy in the Best Picture category; the one that never wins. Like it's title character, the film is cynical but plucky. We didn't hold out much hope of enjoy it during the first two scenes. The opening scene with the convenience clerk is a bit too snarky and Juno's call to her best friend, Leah, just drips with quasi-Valley Girl -speak. But Ellen Page's performance certainly is noteworthy. She allows us to see the vulnerability beneath the sarcasm of this sixteen year old. And as Juno is supported in her decisions by her family, Ms. Page is supported by a great cast that includes J.K. Simmons and Alison Janney as Juno's father and step-mother, and Michael Cera as Paulie Bleeker, the father of her child. There are also fine performances by Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman, as prospective adoptive parents. Ms. Garner in particular gives a finely tuned performance as the want-to-be mother. It is interesting to watch the bond between these two "outsider" women forms. By the end we were totally bowled over by this charming, quirky comedy.