Movie/TV Reviews

Susan Granger’s review of “The Grandmaster” (The Weinstein Company)

 

While martial arts movies rarely intrigue me, this is made by Wong Kar-Wai (“In the Mood for Love”), who adds an erotic touch of poetic, romantic yearning to the real-life story of Ip Man (Tony Leung Chiu-wai from “Hero”), the wing chun legend who trained Bruce Lee.

“Kung fu: two words. One horizontal, one vertical,” he intones in the opening sequence. “The one lying down is out; only the last man standing counts.”

In 1936, as an innovative fighter from a wealthy Foshan family in the South, Ip Man is chosen to demonstrate his fluid skill for Gong Baosen (Wang Qingxiang), the retiring ‘bagua’ master from the snowy North. But Gong Baosen’s daughter Gong Er (Zhang Ziyi from “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”) worries that father might lose for the first time ever. As various warriors cleverly maneuver for superiority, their competition seems to foreshadow China’s upcoming civil war. In linear chronology, the rest of the film follows Ip Man’s relocation to Hong Kong after the Japanese invasion and Gong Er’s eventual showdown with her father’s defiant former protégé, Ma San (Zhang Jin).

Five years in the making and, reportedly, 16 years in gestation, this is Hong Kong auteur Wong Kar-Wai’s 10^th feature. Although Philippe Le Sourd’s cinematography is spectacular, William Chang Shuk-Ping’s production design impeccable and the fight scenes, choreographed by stunt coordinator Yuen Woo Ping (“The Matrix”), exquisitely mesmerizing in slow-motion, the transitions seem sluggish and the editing is choppy. Perhaps that’s because Wong Kar-wai’s original cut was longer; probably, some of the connective tissue and character development was left on the cutting-room floor. Instead, there are voice-overs and explanatory titles.

Martin Scorsese is lending his name for promotion purposes, just as Quentin Tarantino sponsored Wong Kar-wai’s “Chungking Express” on its DVD release. Problem too: since the narrative stops in the 1950s, this sweeping, action epic, regrettably, never gets to Ip Man’s most famous pupil, Bruce Lee.

On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Grandmaster” is a somber, visually stunning, stylized 7 – in Mandarin/Japanese with English subtitles.

 

 

 

Susan Granger’s review of “Dark Tourist” (Phrase 4 Films)

 

Sitting on the shelf since its debut at the Munich Film Festival last year, Suri Krishnamma’s
psycho-sexual drama delves into thrill-seekers who engage in grief tourism – traveling with the intent to visit places of tragedy or disaster.

Yonkers security guard Jim Tahna (Michael Cudlitz, familiar from TV’s “Southland”) is a dark
tourist.  Every year, his week-long vacations from work are spent exploring the haunts of various serial killers on whom he’s become fixated. This year’s macabre obsession is Carl Marzap (Pruitt
Taylor Vince, familiar from TV’s “True Blood”/”The Mentalist”), a 1960s mass murderer in Ventura County, California. Arriving in the tiny town of Hetacomb, Jim settles into a sleazy motel; his room is situated right next that of Iris (Suzanne Quast), a busy prostitute.  At nearby Cadillac Jack’s Diner, he’s befriended by Betsy (Melanie Griffith), a widowed waitress who is desperately lonely. They connect but that doesn’t work out too well.

During this entire
sojourn, Jim is haunted by memories of a cruel childhood that was filled with
torture and sexual abuse, something he has in common with Carl Marzap, who
appears to him in hallucinations. In the past, Jim has obviously undergone
psychiatric treatment which did little or no good, since he’s determined not
only to re-enact the gruesome brutality but also to become a copy-cat,
snarling, “This is what it’s like to be a victim.”

Aside from writer Frank John Hughes’s grisly plot, perhaps what’s most appalling is what’s
happened to once-beautiful Melanie Griffith. She’s had so much plastic surgery that her face is not only unrecognizable but immobile above the mouth. Despite what looks like multiple procedures – face-lift, eye job, Botox and chemical peel – she looks haggard.

Plus – everyone on-camera smokes cigarettes: Jim, Carl, Iris and Betsy. Perhaps that somehow
connects with a vendetta against trans-sexual prostitutes but I’m not exactly sure how or why.

On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Dark Tourist” is a degenerate, depraved 2, concluding
with the enigmatic phrase: “From this void, no one returns.”

Susan Granger’s review of “Planes” (Walt Disney)

 

Given the staggering amount of money the Walt Disney Company made from their “Cars” franchise, it’s not surprising that their ‘imagineers’ have now taken flight. So buckle up!

This time, a feisty little airplane named Dusty Crophopper (voiced by Dane Cook) is determined
to escape his hum-drum life of spraying fertilizer on farm fields and enter a ‘round-the-world race intended for much more sleek, sophisticated aircraft – like egotistical Ripslinger (voiced by Roger Craig Smith), who has won the race three times and is determined to add this fourth win. (If the plot seems predictable, you probably saw “Turbo,” released earlier this summer, about a garden snail determined to race in the Indy 500.)

Plucky Dusty is reluctantly coached by Skipper (voiced by Stacy Keach), an old Navy Corsair who spins World War II stories.  Dusty’s support team includes his dimwitted fuel-truck buddy Chug (Brad Garrett) and perky Dottie (voiced by Teri Hatcher), the forklift. Keeping an eagle eye on international sales, the air-racers stop all around the globe – and there’s an amusing joke about reincarnation over India. For tiny tots, the only scary part comes when Dusty faces real danger during a turbulent storm at sea.  Because he’s afraid of heights, Dusty’s always flown low and now he’s flying frighteningly close to the roiling waves.

In addition to Dusty, there are other high-flyin’ competitors, like Mexico’s El Chupacabra (voiced by Carlos Alazraqui), who ardently woos French-Canadian Rochelle (voiced by Julia Louis-Dreyfus), and Britain’s veteran Bulldog (voiced by John Cleese) with his stiff-upper-propeller, who is enamored with the sassy Indian jet-setter Ishani (voiced by Priyanka Chopra).

Animated by DisneyToon Studios, known for their low-budget sequels to beloved Disney classics, it’s decidedly second-rate. Stereotypically scripted by Jeffrey M. Howard, based on a story by director Klay Hall, executive producer John Lasseter and Howard, it’s similar to “Cars” in that these aircraft are sentient – they think and they talk.

On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, Disney’s “Planes” barely lifts with a flimsy 5 – weighted down with an air of familiarity.

Susan Granger’s review of “Jobs” (Open Road)

 

The prologue of this cinematic biography begins with older, gray-bearded Steve Jobs (Ashton
Kutcher) unveiling the first iPod in 2001. After that, it flashes back to the 1970s, when geeky Jobs, a barefoot, drug-taking, young hippie, dropped out of Reed College in Oregon. Working with Steve Wozniak (Josh Gad) in his parents’ basement, Jobs created the first home computer. Then came the challenge of developing it and creating a profitable business. While the informative narrative delineates arrogant, perfectionistic Jobs’ rise and fall at Apple, it never comes back to the 21^st century, ignoring the invention of the iPhone and iPad and Jobs’ 2011 death from pancreatic cancer.

First-time screenwriter Matt Whiteley confuses the history of Apple Computer (now Apple Inc.)
with the life of the controversial, visionary entrepreneur who changed the concept of consumer electronics.  Whiteley offers no insight into Jobs’ obviously conflicted psyche, never delving into what made him tick nor why he bullied people, publicly berated his employees, cheated on his friends, dumped his pregnant girlfriend and denied paternity, despite tests proving otherwise. Director Joshua Michael Stern (“Swing Vote”) does a barely serviceable job, aided by Ashton Kutcher who dutifully did his impersonation homework, replicating Jobs’ facial expressions, gestures and hunched-forward walk.

Steve Wozniak recently reviewed this movie for “Gizmondo,” saying he enjoyed Kutcher’s acting but, ultimately, didn’t like it “greatly enough to recommend (it).”  He faults how Kutcher imaged Steve Jobs to be. And he felt the film left out several crucial pieces to the story – like how Woz gave his own stock back to the company to be distributed among the early contributors so they could ultimately reap the benefits. He adds that Jobs didn’t have the skills portrayed in the film until later in life, following the launch of the iPod, not before it.

On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Jobs” is an unsatisfying, superficial 6, failing to get to the core of the famed Apple CEO. Fortunately, a second film about Jobs, created by Aaron Sorkin (“West Wing,” “The Newsroom”), is in the works.

Susan Granger’s review of “Paranoia” (Relativity Media)

 

You’ve got to wonder why top-notch actors like Harrison Ford and Gary Oldman didn’t spy the credibility pitfalls and all-too-obvious loopholes in Jason Hall and Barry L. Levy’s screen adaptation of Joseph Finder’s 2004 novel.

When ambitious programmer Adam Cassidy (Liam Hemsworth) and his low-level techie team (Lucas Till, Angela Sarafyan) are summarily fired after their smartphone-enhanced presentation
fails to impress head honcho Nicolas Wyatt (Oldman), they vow revenge. So Cassidy takes everyone out, drinking Ciroq on a trendy bar binge, using his company credit card. Not surprisingly, nasty billionaire Wyatt summons Cassidy to his heavily-guarded mansion to exact retribution – blackmail in the form of corporate espionage. After considerable coaching in executive culture by Wyatt’s icy confidante/psychologist, Judith Bolton (Embeth Davidz), Cassidy’s sent to work for and ingratiate
himself with Wyatt’s former mentor/now rival Jock Goddard (Ford) at Eikon (pronounced “Icahn”) Corp. and steal his sleek smartphone secrets. He keeps that illegal, immoral assignment secret from his former security-guard father (Richard Dreyfuss), who has emphysema and lives in working-class Brooklyn. He also deceives Goddard’s marketing director, snarky Emma Jennings (Amber Heard), whom he’s bedding.  Predictably, Cassidy gets caught in the billionaire tycoons’ ferocious feud, which is complicated by the intimidating appearance of an FBI agent (Josh Holoway from “Lost”), determined to uncover the duplicitous deception.

Problem is: it’s far too slick and simplistic, incongruously set in Manhattan, rather than
Seattle or California’s Silicon Valley – and the formulaic direction by Robert Luketic (“Legally Blonde,” “The Ugly Truth”) doesn’t help. Hunky 23 year-old Australian actor Liam Hemsworth has become known as Jennifer Lawrence’s co-star in the “Hunger Games” franchise and pop star Miley Cyrus’ off-screen romantic interest. But he seriously lacks the kind of compelling charisma that oozes from Harrison Ford (even with his shaved head) and Gary Oldman, or even his older brother, Chris Hemsworth, who plays Thor in “The Avengers.” And Junkie XL’s electronic score is jarring and disconcerting.

On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Paranoia” is a dumbed-down 5. It’s totally lacking in
suspense and common sense.

Susan Granger’s review of “Kick-Ass 2” (Universal Pictures)

 

Based on Mark Millar and John Romita Jr.’s comic book franchise, the “Kick-Ass” (2010) introduced Chloe Grace Moretz as feisty pre-teen Mindy Macready – a.k.a. Hit-Girl, the cleverly
cartoonish, leather-clad, purple-wigged epitome of female empowerment, spewing profanity and hurling lethal nunchuks.

Having lost her beloved father (Nicolas Cage), she’s now living with NYPD detective/guardian, Sgt. Marcus Williams (Morris Chestnut), and trying to cope with the Mean Girls and their cruel, competitive, cheerleading cliques at Millard Fillmore High School. When dopey Dave Lizewski (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) – a.k.a. Kick Ass – asks her to join him to form a dynamic duo of misfit teens, at first Mindy refuses, sneering: “I’m in the NFL. You play pee-wee.”  So Kick-Ass teams with a deluded, spandex-clad squad, called Justice Forever, that includes Dr. Gravity (Donald Faison), Mr.
Radical (Matt Steinberg), Night Bitch (Lindy Booth), Battle Guy (Clark Duke) and an older couple – Tommy’s Dad (Steven Mackintosh) & Tommy’s Mom (Monica Dolan) – whom the police refused to help when their son disappeared. Led by crook-turned-Born Again Christian, sadistic Colonel Stars and Stripes (Jim Carrey), these vigilantes patrol the streets and help at food banks. The uber-villain is Red Mist, Chris D’Amico (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), in his late mother’s bondage gear; his mob boss father was killed by Kick-Ass. He’s hired brutal bodybuilder/former-KGB agent Katharina Dombrovski (Olga Kurkulina) – a.k.a. Mother Russia – with her manservant (John Leguizamo).

Utilizing upper-corner panel captains, writer/director Jeff Wadlow recycles the same costume-wearing caricatures, same crime-fighting concept, adding even more misogynistic violence. Indeed, after last December’s shooting tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut, Jim Carrey has publicly disavowed Wadlow’s all-too-realistic depiction of brutal carnage.

Chloe Grace Moretz retorts: “If you believe and are affected by an action movie, you shouldn’t see
‘Pocahontas’ because you’ll think you’re a Disney princess…if you see ‘Silence of the Lambs,’ you’ll think you’re a serial killer…If anything, these movies teach you what not to do.”

On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Kick-Ass 2” is a flimsy, floundering 4, one of the
stupidest sequels ever – with an additional mid-credits scene.

Susan Granger’s review of “The World’s End” (Focus Features)

 

In advance of the nationwide opening of the newest installment in this trilogy of British comedies,
several theaters have booked marathon back-to-back showings of “Shaun of the Dead” (2004) and “Hot Fuzz” (2007). Known as the “Three Flavours: Cornetto,” all three were directed by Edgar Wright, starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, and each has an ice cream cone cameo.

In this newest episode, five former high-school friends decide to reunite and complete an epic pub
crawl that they first attempted 20 years ago. Wearing the exactly the same trench coat and black Sisters of Mercy T-shirt and driving the same car, middle-aged yet still immature man/child Gary King (Simon Pegg) is the instigator. He recruits sensible, now-sober for 16 years, corporate lawyer Andy (Nick Frost), whose friendship he’d lost in an accident; pretentious real-estate agent Oliver
(Martin Freeman); mild-mannered, married Peter (Eddie Marsan); and fun-loving, divorced architect Steven (Paddy Considine) to quaff a pint in all 12 pubs on what’s called the Golden Mile of Newton Haven, finishing their marathon at the aptly named The World’s End. But there are unexpectedly sinister, sci-fi complications lurking in their hometown. All the pubs are now identical – with fake ale/lagers on tap. And the usual residents have been replaced by ink-blooded, alien robots.  Have these “five musketeers” become the human race’s only and last chance for survival?

Written by Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg, it’s fast-paced fun, filled with rapid-fire editing, IF
you’re familiar with the previous two movies. If not, it’s, admittedly, a bit bewildering, particularly a discordant flash-forward. While “Shaun” riffed on zombie movies and “Hot Fuzz” parodied buddy-cop movies, this is more of an ensemble “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” effort – with a surprise cameo.  On the distaff side, Rosamund Pike (“Jack Reacher”) turns up as Oliver’s sister, a love interest for Gary and Steve, but she vanishes far too quickly.

On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The World’s End” is a silly, stylized, slapstick 6. For aficionados, I suppose the apocalyptic British romp is ridiculously amusing.

Susan Granger’s review of “Short Term 12” (Cinedigm)

 

Written and directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, this poignant psychological drama about
troubled teens has been receiving accolades at SXSW and film festivals in Little Rock, Nantucket, Maui, Los Angeles and Locarno, Switzerland.

Twentysomething Grace (Brie Larson) is a group supervisor at a live-in foster-care facility for
at-risk kids. She works with her supportive, long-time boyfriend Mason (John Gallagher Jr.) and new employee Nate (Rami Malek), trying to comfort troubled residents like about-to-turn 18 Marcus (Keith Stanfield), who is terrified about living on his own for the first time, yet can only express his fear and fury in a rap song. But it’s the arrival of violently angry Jayden (Kaitlyn Dever), who writes and illustrates a revelatory fable about an octopus and a shark that pressures Grace not only to acknowledge her own difficult past but come to terms with her unanticipated future.  Grace, Mason and Nate aren’t therapists; as counselors, their job is to create a safe environment and keep the damaged adolescents in their protection from hurting themselves and others. But sometimes they perceive more than the mental health professionals, and tension escalates when their
evaluations and suggested treatments don’t align with the observations of the ever-vigilant
staffers.

Basing the poignant story on his own experience working at a similar institution, Destin Daniel Cretton’s direction is realistic and unsentimental in its earnest depiction of the place and the people who inhabit it, enhanced by Brett Pawlak’s handheld camerawork and Joel P. West’s score.  In interviews, Cretton says he was inspired by “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and “Hoop Dreams.”

John Gallagher Jr., who won a 2007 Tony in the Broadway production of “Spring Awakening” and plays the lovelorn senior producer on HBO’s “The Newsroom,” oozes sheepish likeability, while Brie Larson (“21 Jump Street”) is captivating, convincingly inhabiting her conflicted character.

On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Short Term 12” is a sensitive, distressing 7. This is a banner year for Brie Larson who also appears in the upcoming “The Spectacular Now” and “Don Jon.”

Susan Granger’s review of “The Patience Stone” (Sony Pictures Classics)

 

In an urban war zone in an unspecified Middle Eastern country, a Muslim woman (Golshifteh
Farahani) dutifully cares for her domineering, much older husband (Hamid Djavadan), who lies comatose. He was shot in the neck defending mother’s honor. The mullah said that after two weeks he would recover, but it’s been longer – and he’s still unresponsive. The water-bearer hasn’t come, and she has no money to buy medicine from the pharmacist. When bombs explode, she and her two young daughters retreat into an underground shelter. Desperate, she then evades marauding soldiers to seek help from her aunt (Hassina Burgan), a prostitute who observes, “Those who don’t know how to make love make war.”

Based on the Afghan-born, France-based writer Aliq Rahimi’s 2008 novel, which won the Prix
Goncourt, France’s highest literary prize, this story vividly depicts the grim realities about the oppression women endure under the Taliban regime. The title comes from a legend about a magical rock, The Patience Stone, which absorbs the misery of those who confide in it – until it eventually shatters.

So the distraught woman returns – day after day – to pour out the painful secrets of her heart to
her injured, unresponsive husband. Hesitantly at first, then candidly, she unburdens her soul in long soliloquies of self-discovery, detailing in repeated flashbacks the harrowing abuses she has suffered, her deceits, and her yearning for romantic love. The psychological freedom generated by this confidence-inspiring confessional transforms her from victim to warrior.

With screenwriter Jean-Claude Carriere, writer/director Atiq Rahimi has fashioned a harrowing, horrifying film, which was selected as Afghanistan’s entry for the 2013 Academy Awards. At its core is the compelling performance by Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani, a real-life rebel, exiled from the Islamic Republic which condemned her for playing opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in “Body of Lies” and posing for provocative photographs.

In Farsi (a.k.a. Dari), the Persian dialect spoken in Afghanistan, with English subtitles, on
the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Patience Stone” is a profoundly disturbing 7 – because of Golshifteh Farahani’s enthralling performance.

Susan Granger’s review of “Lee Daniels’ The Butler” (The Weinstein Company)

 

To make a good movie, you must start with a compelling story – and that describes Danny Strong’s “Forrest Gump”-like adaptation of Wil Haygood’s 2008 “Washington Post” article about Eugene Allen, the White House steward who had served eight U.S. Presidents.  Soft-spoken Cecil Gaines (Forest Whitaker) is an engaging amalgamation of several butlers who worked at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

As a sharecropping youngster in Macon, Georgia, Gaines saw his mother (Mariah Carey) raped and father (David Banner) shot.  He was subsequently trained as a domestic servant by the cotton plantation’s elderly matriarch (Vanessa Redgrave), who observed: “The room should feel empty when you’re in it.” Leaving the rigidly segregated South, Gaines perfected his dignified, white-gloved
skills at posh hotels until he was recruited to join the prestigious White House staff.  The day he was hired, gentle, unassuming Gaines was told: “We have no tolerance for politics at the White House.” As a silent, first-hand witness to history, he dutifully served each First Family from 1957 to 1986. His steadfast devotion infuriated his frustrated, alcoholic wife Gloria (Oprah Winfrey) and alienated his rebellious elder son (David Oyelowo), who joined the Civil Rights Movement, became a Freedom Rider, then a Black Panther, while his younger son was killed in Vietnam. Gaines’ intergenerational,
domestic conflict parallels African-Americans’ turbulent struggle for equality during the 20^th century.

Director Lee Daniels (“Precious,” “The Paperboy”) astutely cast savvy Forest Whitaker as the resilient, richly-nuanced, Oscar-contending lead, paired with powerful Oprah Winfrey. Cuba Gooding Jr. and Lenny Kravitz score as Gaines’ co-workers, as does Terrence Howard as a nefarious neighbor.  Jane Fonda’s Nancy Reagan cameo is superb, but Robin Williams, John Cusack, Liev Schreiber and Alan Rickman fare less well as Eisenhower, Nixon, Johnson and Reagan, while James Marsden and Minka Kelly impersonate the Kennedys. Problem is: famous faces can be distracting.

On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Lee Daniels’ The Butler” is an ambitious, affecting 9,
a challenging, haunting, historical epic, hoping to follow the success of the similar, late-summer 2011 release “The Help.”