Movie/TV Reviews

Rachel Getting Married

Susan Granger’s review of “Rachel Getting Married” (Sony Pictures Classics)

There’s good news and bad news. The good news is that Anne Hathaway delivers a haunting performance, designed to revise her image as Hollywood’s “good-girl,” based on her success in “The Princess Diaries.” The bad news is Jonathan Demme (“The Silence of the Lambs,” “Philadelphia,” “Something Wild,” “The Manchurian Candidate”) strikes a discordant note with this sociopolitical drama disguised as a dysfunctional family comedy. When Rachel (Rosemary DeWitt), a Ph.D. candidate in psychology, planned her weekend wedding to a handsome African-American musician (Tunde Adebimpe) at her father’s rambling Stamford, Connecticut, home, she had no idea that her younger sister, Kym (Hathaway), would be able to leave rehab for the politically-correct celebration. But fragile, foul-mouthed Kym is there – babbling incessantly about festering hurts and trying to upstage the bride, pleading for recognition from her divorced parents. Her father (Bill Irwin) and stepmother (Anna Devere Smith) are seemingly oblivious but her mother (Debra Winger) is as self-involved as ever, even when Kym has sex with the best man (another recovering addict) and trashes a car in the woods. Written by Jenny Lumet (director Sidney’s daughter) and indulgently directed by Demme, it’s all about learning to forgive %u2013 and move on. Stylistically, Demme pays tribute to Robert Altman’s legacy of overlapping dialogue, erratic framing and hand-held camerawork. But cinematographer Declan Quinn’s restless, naturalistic approach in high-definition video doesn’t work. Instead of involving the audience emotionally, it becomes turbulent, edgy and irritating, particularly when the groom chants Neil Young’s “Unknown Legend” at the altar and during the festive, seemingly endless reception with dancing, sari-clad bridesmaids et al. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Rachel Getting Married” is an annoying, dreary 6. It’s an invitation you might consider declining %u2013 until the dvd.

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Changeling

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “Changeling” (Universal Pictures)

This profoundly disturbing story is based on events that actually took place in the late 1920s/early ’30s in Los Angeles. Single mother Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie), the first female supervisor at the Pacific Telephone and Telegraphic Company, is plunged into a sinister nightmare when her nine year-old son Walter disappears without a trace. Several months later, when authorities locate a boy (Devon Conti) in DeKalb, Illinois, claiming to be Walter and send him back, she realizes there’s been a mistake. This child is three inches shorter than Walter %u2013 and circumcised. But Police Capt. J.J. Jones (Jeffrey Donovan) doesn’t believe Collins’ quiet insistence, “This is not my son.” Collins’ only ally is Rev. Gustav Briegleb (John Malkovich), a Presbyterian community activist battling the notoriously corrupt city bureaucracy. Under pressure from LAPD Chief (Colm Feore) when courageously indefatigable Ms. Collins refuses to abandon the search for her real son, Capt. Jones orders her committed to a psychiatric ward, where she’s befriended by another inmate (Amy Ryan). Meanwhile, Det. Lester Ybarra (Michael Kelly) arrests an illegal Canadian immigrant, teenage Sanford Clark (Eddie Anderson), who leads him to a grisly graveyard at a remote farm belonging to his psychotic uncle, twitchy Gordon Northcott (Jason Butler Harner). J. Michael Straczynski’s episodic screenplay pivots around the vulnerability of women, embodied by Angelina Jolie’s subdued yet heartbreakingly powerful performance. Director/producer Clint Eastwood’s disciplined, straightforward approach, deeply affecting in its dignity, is evidenced as the construction and pace of every scene pulsates with truth. Eastwood re-creates that socio-cultural context in the fabled City of Angels, even having Collins efficiently maneuver around the immense switchboard on roller-skates. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to10, “Changeling” is an elusive 8. Exploring oppression and corruption, Eastwood is a cinematic storyteller of extraordinary eloquence.

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DVD Update

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s DVD Update for week of Friday, October 17:

Director Terrence Malick’s acclaimed, Oscar-nominated epic “The New World,” starring Colin Farrell, Christian Bale and Christopher Plummer, is now available in an extended version, adding 30 minutes of never-before-seen footage with more battles and more visual splendor as the Powhatan tribal people encounter the Jamestown settlement.
The seven-disc “The Ultimate Matrix Collection” debuts on Blu-ray Hi-Def with a bonus, “The Animatrix,” a nine-part anime film, for the first time in Hi-Def, and three additional discs with more than 35 hours of the Wachowski brothers’ Matrix experience.
From Argentina, in Spanish with English subtitles, “XXY” is an award-winning drama about sexuality, identity and coming of age, revolving around 15 year-old Alex (Ines Efron), who was born an intersex child with both male and female genitalia.
For sports fans, “The Greatest Stories of Michigan Football” includes defining moments with Heisman winners Charles Woodson and Desmond Howard, a look at NFL MVP Tom Brady and rare footage of Coach Bo Schembechler on the sidelines.
And there’s lots of fun for children with “Sing a Song of Wiggles,” “Care Bears Flurries of Fun,” “Strawberry Shortcake Holiday Dreams Collection,” “Barney’s I Love You Gift Set,” “Bob the Builder: BIG Build Collection,” and “Thomas & Friends Whistle Express Collection,” packaged with a train whistle.
PICK OF THE WEEK: Harrison Ford stars in “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” reuniting with Karen Allen in Peru and teaming up with hotshot Shia LaBeouf to race villainous Cate Blanchett as they search for the mysterious Crystal Skull. It’s available on a single-disc DVD (just the film) or a two-disc DVD and Blue-ray with segments on how this latest installment evolved, glimpses of the location shoots and segments on makeup, visual effects and the mythical crystal skulls.

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What Just Happened

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “What Just Happened” (Magnolia Pictures)

I was born in Hollywood and raised in the motion picture industry. My father was a producer/director at M.G.M.; when he died, he was in charge of production at Columbia Pictures. My step-father was a producer at M.G.M. %u2013 and my brother and son both work in movie production. Since I’ve often been asked about the social hierarchy of TinselTown, here’s an insider’s glimpse into that treacherous industry. As he jockeys for a prominent place at a Vanity Fair photo shoot, Ben (Robert DeNiro) realizes the precariousness of his position in the Hollywood firmament. He’s battling a whiny, contentious, pill-popping British director (Michael Wincott) during post-production of “Fiercely,” an arty Sean Penn thriller scheduled to debut at Cannes within a week, and preparing to shoot a new Bruce Willis project as the volatile star goes temperamental. Fielding persistent phone calls, Ben’s trying to reconcile with his estranged second wife (Robin Wright Penn) and tend his two youngsters and a nubile teenage daughter from a previous marriage. Under the direction of cynical Barry Levinson (“Wag the Dog,” “Jimmy Hollywood”), DeNiro wryly exudes perturbation and frustration, coping with the savvy, shrewd studio chief (Catherine Keener), Willis’ neurotic agent (John Turturro) and a duplicitous screenwriter acquaintance (Stanley Tucci), as Penn and Wills gamely mock themselves. Based on his bestselling 2002 memoir, recalling his travails with director Lee Tamahori while making “The Edge” with Alec Baldwin and Anthony Hopkins, Art Linson’s screenplay is caustic, incisive – and a bit unfocused. Particularly when compared with previous behind-the-scenes classics like “The Bad and the Beautiful,” “Sullivan’s Travels,” “SOB” and “The Player.” Yet on the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “What Just Happened” is a snappy, satirical 7, a wryly amusing tale that rings all too true.

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City of Ember

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “City of Ember” (Fox Walden)

Since when did post-apocalyptic themes become family fare? While “WALL-E” was charming, this adaptation of Jeanne DuPrau’s young adult novel is downright grim. Built as a self-contained refuge, the subterranean City of Ember was designed to sustain mankind for 200 years after the Earth’s surface became uninhabitable. In the interim, however, instructions for ending the exile have been lost %u2013 and the massive, aging generator is failing. Two intelligent, resourceful teenagers, Lina Mayfleet (Saoirse Ronan) and Doon Harrow (Harry Treadway), are acutely aware of their metropolis’ impending doom as power outages become more frequent and gigantic bugs proliferate in the ever-increasing darkness. Darting about as a red-caped Messenger, Lina discovers a mysterious metal box with a cryptic code that once belonged to her great-great-grandfather, a former Mayor of Ember. But when she goes to the current Mayor (Bill Murray), she realizes he’s corrupt to his corpulent core. So she works with her friend, the pipe-worker Doon, to devise a way to break into the ailing generator and unleash the Splash Mountain-like escape pods. Adapted by Caroline Thompson (“Edward Scissorhands”) and directed by Gil Kenan (“Monster House”), it’s a muddled, blandly uneven, depressing dystopian fantasy with a bleak, pervasively claustrophobic atmosphere. Most intriguing are the inventive sound and visual effects, including many Rube Goldberg-like contraptions reminiscent of German Expressionism and Machine Age design, despite DuPrau’s essentially anti-technology theme. Among the least effective ideas is a hideous, red-tentacled mole, which is far too frightening for tiny tots. Tim Robbins, Martin Landau, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Mackenzie Crook, and Mary Kay Place lend supportive maturity, while Amy and Catherine Quinn are cute as Lina’s mute little sister Poppy. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “City of Ember” is a flickering, faltering 4. Fade out.

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Body of Lies

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “Body of Lies” (Warner Bros.)

This debacle of an action-adventure proves that even teaming heavyweight actors like Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe with stylish, big-budget “Black Hawk Down” director Ridley Scott doesn’t pay off when William Monahan’s espionage screenplay, based on a David Ignatius novel, goes AWOL. Roger Ferris (DiCaprio) is the Pentagon’s top spy in the Middle East. He speaks fluent Arabic and is such a personable fellow that even the most suspicious of our alleged allies seem to trust him. He’s an ‘operative’ of Langley-based Ed Hoffman (Russell Crowe), who tracks his every movement, via computer, and communicates constantly with him, using an always-reliable cell phone that never suffers the ‘out-of-range’ frustrations of Sprint, AT&T or Verizon. Ferris’s mission is to entrap the elusive jihadist leader Al-Saleem (Alon Aboutboul) %u2013 think Osama Bin Laden %u2013 who is masterminding seemingly random terrorist bombings. To do this, he must work with Jordan’s sophisticated Intelligence chief, Hani Salaam (Mark Strong), enlist a network of informers and invent a clever sting operation to smoke Al-Saleem out of his ‘safe house’ hideout. There are huge explosions, of course, as black SUVs careen through Third World bazaars. There are even awesome, high-tech sky-track surveillance shots that show how the CIA can monitor anything, everywhere, even your backyard barbecue. Problem is: nothing is emotionally convincing, even DiCaprio’s brief romantic involvement with the Iranian nurse (Golshifteh Farahani) who administers his weekly anti-rabies injections. Having sprouted a few mossy, unkempt whiskers to mask his still-baby face, DiCaprio flounders with the lack of subtext, while Crowe recites his lines by rote with a soft Southern drawl. Only Mark Strong’s performance is memorable. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Body of Lies” is a bloated, far-fetched 5, filled with two-and-a-half hours of meandering meaninglessness.

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The Secret Life of Bees

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “The Secret Life of Bees” (Fox Searchlight)

When one of your favorite novels becomes a movie, it’s always a gamble whether the filmmaker’s vision will match the one that’s firmly embedded in your imagination. Fear not with Gina Prince-Bythewood’s entertaining, enlightening adaptation of Sue Monk Kidd’s award-winning best-seller. In rural South Carolina in the summer of 1964, just after President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law, troubled 14 year-old Lily Owens (Dakota Fanning) runs away from her coldly abusive, widower father (Paul Bettany), dragging along her caretaker, Rosaleen (Jennifer Hudson), who has been assaulted by rednecks. Haunted by guilty memories of her mother, who died in a tragic accident when she was only four, Lily desperately tries to connect with the few maternal fragments she can piece together, seeking safety and shelter in Tiburon at the 28-acre farm of the cultured, honey-making Boatwright sisters. “Liftin’ someone’s heart, now that matters. The whole problem with people is they know what matters, but they don’t choose it,” muses nurturing August Boatwright (Queen Latifah), who makes sensitive Lily her bee-keeping apprentice in the Pepto-Bismol pink house she shares with her sisters: the warily independent cellist, June (Alicia Keys) and the vulnerable, simple-minded May (Sophie Okonedo). Lily’s also befriended by August’s earnest godson (Tristan Wilds) who yearns to be a lawyer. Screenwriter/director Gina Prince-Blythewood (“Love & Basketball”) retains all the gentle lyricism of the complex narrative and achieves a near-miracle of casting. Dakota Fanning exudes the subtle, emotion-stretching mastery and limber spontaneity that mark superb screen acting, while Sophie Okenedo and Paul Bettany give strong support. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Secret Life of Bees” is a life-affirming 8, an inspirational story about family, hope and love that tugs at your heartstrings.

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dvd update

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s dvd update for week of Friday, October 10th:

M. Night Shayamalan’s “The Happening” wants to be a cautionary eco-thriller based on an apocalyptic premise. Early one morning in Central Park, everyone suddenly becomes disoriented and suicidal. Panic spreads, so a Philadelphia science teacher (Mark Wahlberg) flees into the countryside with his wife (Zooey Deschanel) and friend (John Leguizamo). They’re on the run – but from what?
Stephen Rea stars in “The Devil’s Mercy,” a suspenseful, psychological thriller about a couple who move into a beautifully renovated apartment in an old, suburban Connecticut house, only to discover that evil can lie hidden behind a white picket fence.
TV writer Peter Tolan (“The Larry Sanders Show,” “Rescue Me”) strikes out with “Finding Amanda,” featuring Matthew Broderick as a once-successful writer whose marriage is floundering when he’s dispatched by his wife to Vegas to ‘rescue’ his 20 year-old niece (Brittany Snow).
Kids can travel without passports, spending time with “Families of Costa Rica,” the latest title in the award-winning “Families of the World” series, exploring the lives and cultures of children around the world. And “You’re Not Elected, Charlie Brown,” a Peanuts classic about running for student body president, is now packaged with a bonus episode, “He’s a Bully, Charlie Brown.”
PICKS OF THE WEEK: “The Visitor” is Tom McCarthy’s sophisticated, compelling drama revolving around a 62 year-old Connecticut widower (Richard Jenkins) who finds a young couple has moved into his seldom-used Manhattan apartment; surprisingly, he allows them to stay and his consciousness is changed by this chance encounter. In a lighter vein, Adam Sandler’s “You Don’t Mess With the Zohan” is a subversively silly political satire about a legendary Israeli commando who flees to the United States with an old Paul Mitchell stylebook under his arm, hoping to become a hairdresser.

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Religulous

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “Religulous” (Lionsgate Pictures)

“Politically Incorrect” humorist Bill Maher tackles the incendiary subject of God and religion, traveling around the world and interviewing people about their beliefs. Admittedly skeptical about a higher power, he incites incredulity and indignation.
His journey begins and ends at Megiddo, Israel, where believers say Armageddon will be waged, as Maher delves into his own childhood travails, having been raised with a Jewish mother and Catholic father, chatting with his mom, Julie, and sister, Kathy, about why his father left the Church, apparently over the issue of birth control.
Leaving his personal story behind, Maher questions a few figureheads of contemporary faith, like John Westcott of Exchange Ministries, who believes he can “convert” gay men, about why homosexuality is such a ?hot button’ issue since Jesus never mentions it in the New Testament. Maher then probes devoted truck drivers in North Carolina for ?proof’ that Jesus Christ ever lived and asks evangelical Senator Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), “Why is faith good?”
Televangelism takes a hypocritical hit, along with a Christian amusement park in Florida that re-enacts the crucifixion several times a day. Along with Judaism, Islam and mainstream Christianity, Maher also examines the basic tenets of Mormonism and Scientology and finds a senior Vatican priest who acknowledges the absurdity of some fundamental Catholic doctrines.
Some of Maher’s statistics are amazing: like, 16% of all Americans are adamantly non-religious. He cites this group as this country’s last great, untapped minority.
Directed by Larry Charles (“Borat”), the edgy, contentious, if over-long, put-down is punctuated with movie clips, newsreel footage and flippant subtitles. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Religulous” is a spiritually irreverent, sardonic 7, as Maher, the exasperated, agnostic prankster, makes the point that organized religion has caused more harm than good.

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dvd update

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s dvd update for week of Friday, October 3rd:

Judd Apatow’s gleefully raunchy “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” is an uproarious sex comedy about a struggling musician (Jason Segel) whose actress girlfriend (Kristen Bell) dumps him for an egotistical British rocker (Russell Brand). Courting emotional disaster, they all wind up at the Turtle Bay Resort in Hawaii, tweaking romantic comedy clichés.
Jodie Hill’s off-kilter comedy “The Foot Fist Way” features Danny McBride as a swaggering-but-clueless tae kwon do teacher who discovers that his wife (Mary Jane Bostic) has been fooling around with his chief rival (Ben Best).
“Bigger, Stronger, Faster” is a new documentary that takes a wide-ranging look at steroid abuse, featuring interviews with gym junkies, medical experts and U.S. lawmakers, suggesting that part of the problem is the penchant for making scapegoats out of athletes like Carl Lewis, Ben Johnson and Floyd Landis when, in fact, steroids can be traced back to the American Olympic teams in the 1950s and 1960s.
“Deception” will deceive very few, as an all-too-obvious set-up leads to a forgone conclusion. It begins as an accountant (Ewan McGregor) is introduced to a mysterious sex club by his lawyer friend (Hugh Jackson), only to find himself the prime suspect in a multi-million dollar heist.
Optimistically positioned as the first in a series of kid-friendly supernatural mysteries, “Sarah Landon and The Paranormal Hour” features an inquisitive 17 year-old (Rissa Walters) who turns detective when visiting her late friend’s grandmother. Problem is: the acting is barely mediocre, the tone is often inappropriate and the cinematography is obviously amateurish.
PICK OF THE WEEK: Robert Downey Jr.’s performance is what elevates “Iron Man” above this summer’s other superhero movies. As arrogant billionaire playboy/weapons manufacturer Tony Stark, Downey demonstrates that there’s really a man with a soul propelling that special-effects suit.

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