Movie/TV Reviews

Susan Granger’s review of “Elegy” (Samuel Goldwyn Films)

How ironic that it took a woman, Spanish director Isabel Coixet, to capture the inherently male agony about facing mortality that the ultimately misogynistic intellectual Philip Roth infused in his 2001 novella “The Dying Animal.”
University professor and celebrated NPR talk-show host David Kepesh (Ben Kingsley) is totally self-absorbed and cynical to his core. He considers his one-and-only marriage a ‘mistake’ and is estranged from his understandably embittered grown son, Kenneth (Peter Sarsgaard), now a physician. His only confidante is a philandering Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, George O’Hearn (Dennis Hopper). While David enjoys seducing attractive female students – wisely refraining until after grades come out – he maintains a casual, emotionally uninvolved sexual relationship with Carolyn (Patricia Clarkson), a successful traveling businesswoman.
That all changes when he meets Consuela Castillo (Penelope Cruz), an impressionable graduate student who is dazzled by his worldly knowledge and considerable charm. For David, his passionate obsession with Consuela – and her enticing physical beauty – is the closest he’s ever come to the elusive emotion called love, but she is 30 years younger than he. When they’re not together, his fertile imagination runs rampant and he’s filled with jealousy. Realizing this, he wonders: what kind of future could they have together?
“Stop worrying about growing old,” his friend advises. “And think about growing up.”
Adapted by Nicholas Meyer and directed by Coixet, the sophisticated story of the fragile liaison between David and Consuela unfolds at a richly textured, leisurely pace – with unexpected twists and turns as the optimism of youth confronts the wisdom of age. Ben Kingsley and Penelope Cruz are magnificent, as are Dennis Hopper and Patricia Clarkson. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Elegy” is an insightful 9, an evocative meditation on lust and death.

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

In 2012, with the collapse of the U.S. economy, crime and unemployment run rampant and violent spectator sports have turned savage. So now there’s ‘Death Race,’ a gladiator-like, three-day challenge involving maximum-security convicts smashing each other up in heavily armed vehicles. The rules are simple: win five events and you’re set free. Lose and you’re pay-per-view road-kill.
Frankenstein, who wears a mask because he’s so hideously disfigured, is the most popular driver in his weaponized 2006 Ford Mustang GT, known as The Monster, rivaled only by Machine Gun Joe (Tyrese Gibson) in an armor-plated 2004 Dodge Ram 1500 Quad Cab 4WD truck and Slovo “Angel Wings” Pachenko (Max Ryan) in a 1966 Buick Riviera chop top. As the movie begins, there’s a horrific crash.
Then – right on cue – wrongly imprisoned former speedway champion-turned-steelworker Jensen Ames (Jason Statham) arrives on Terminal Island, where sociopathic, stiletto-heeled Warden Hennessey (Joan Allen) forces him to enter the competition, wearing the mask of the recently deceased Frankenstein, working with his mechanic Coach (Ian McShane) and sexy, tough navigator (Natalie Martinez), shipped in from the women’s prison.
Inspired by Roger Corman’s exploitive “Death Race 2000” (1975), writer/director Paul W.S. Anderson (“Alien vs. Predator”) – not to be confused with the brilliant Paul Thomas Anderson (“There Will Be Blood”) – specializes in the zoom-in-and-out school of wobbly camerawork, utilizing an inane, effects-driven script. Gamers should recall he did the video-game adaptations of “Mortal Combat” and “Resident Evil.”
And it’s a curious coincidence that thrillers starring fearsome Jason Statham have dominated late August-early September time-period for the past five years, including “War,” “Crank,” “Transporter 2” and “Cellular.” On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Death Race” crashes in with an ultra-violent, fast-and-furious 4, filled with brutal, blood-splattered vehicular mayhem.

Susan Granger’s dvd update for week of Friday, August 22:

The ’30s and ’40s were the heydays of romantic screwball comedies, a sparkly genre that’s revived in “Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day,” starring Frances McDormand as a sensible, middle-aged British governess who becomes the social secretary for a reckless American actress/cabaret singer (Amy Adams).
“Nim’s Island” is a children’s fantasy, featuring Abigail Breslin as a resourceful 11 year-old who lives with her scientist/writer father (Gerard Butler) on a remote volcanic island in the South Pacific. When he disappears at sea, she summons her hero, Alex Rover, the fictional creation of an agoraphobic writer (Jodie Foster), based in San Francisco; it’s family-friendly fare, complete with flying lizards and a flatulent sea lion.
Keanu Reeves and Forest Whitaker team up in “Street Kings,” an action crime thriller about an LAPD cop who finds life difficult after the death of his wife when evidence implicates him in the murder of another officer.
In “Deal,” Burt Reynolds plays a retired poker legend who invests his hopes in a rookie (Bret Harison) headed to the World Poker Championships. Directed by Gil Cates Jr. (son of the longtime producer of the Oscar telecast), its antecedents go back to “The Color of Money” but this one falls far short.
The boring remake of the slasher thriller “Prom Night” follows a Bridgeport High School senior (Brittany Snow) who is stalked by a psychopathic teacher (Johnathon Schaech). The only memorable line of dialogue is delivered by a nasty teen who dismisses her prom date, noting, “If he were any dumber, I’d have to water him.”
PICK OF THE WEEK: Fans of the hugely popular “Hannah Montana” TV show can experience the excitement of a front-row seat to see “Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert.”

Susan Granger’s review of “Bottle Shock” (Freestyle Releasing)

While the world acclaimed Michael Phelps as he won an astounding eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics and gaped in awe when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, one momentous occasion in American history never got the attention it deserved: in 1976, a small American winery won over the French cru in a blind tasting, putting California grapes on the gastronomic map. It became known as the “Judgment of Paris.”
Director Randall Miller (“Marilyn Hotchkiss’ Ballroom Dancing & Charm School”), who wrote the screenplay with his wife, Jody Savin, and Ross Schwartz, views this occasion from both sides of the Atlantic, lightly fictionalizing it into a caper comedy.
In Paris, a struggling British wine merchant Steven Spurrier (Alan Rickman) comes up with the idea of pitting pedigreed French wines against those from around the world, cajoling (and bribing) well-known critics to serve as judges. An American expatriate, Maurice Cantavale (Dennis Farina), urges him to consider visiting California’s Napa Valley vineyards.
Meanwhile, at Chateau Montelena, vintner Bill Barrett (Bill Pullman), a lapsed lawyer from San Francisco, is struggling; he has two mortgages and his lazy, long-haired, hippie son Bo (Chris Pine) prefers booty to bottling. Bill’s knowledgeable best friend/employee, Gustavo Brambila (Freddy Rodriguez), is gifted with the grapes but, being Mexican, no one takes his skill seriously. Then there’s the requisite blonde intern (Rachael Taylor) who stirs up jealousy.
Superbly photographed by Michael J. Ozier, it’s an easygoing, crowd-pleasing underdog story assembled on a low-budget and self-distributed by the moviemakers, who add an epilogue explaining that the bottle that beat the French now rests at the Smithsonian Institution.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Bottle Shock” uncorks a smooth 7. It’s the most amusing wine aficionado film since “Sideways.”

Susan Granger’s review of “American Teen” (Paramount Vantage)

Documentary filmmaker Nanette Burstein spent 10 months following five high-school seniors in the small Indiana town of Warsaw, plotting and planning a new look at the teenage movie genre, using real kids and focusing on their conflicts about feeling judged, not fitting in and not being good enough. While her naturalistic approach is admirable, the results are, nevertheless, stereotypical, featuring the popular girl, the jock, the artist and the geek.
Pretty Megan Krizmanich is the pampered teen princess whose superiority masks a guilty secret about a sibling. Colin Clemens knows that if he doesn’t win a college basketball scholarship he’ll end up in the Army. Heartthrob Mitch Reinholt is a Varsity basketball jock who puts his social status on the line to date artsy Hannah Bailey, who yearns to break away from this Christian, conservative community move to San Francisco but is terrified that she may have inherited her mother’s bipolar disorder. And nerdy, lonely Jake Tusing’s yearning for a girl-friend is cursed by his self-doubt and plague of acne.
There’s a timeless quality and universality about the emotional immaturity of the high school experience but these young people seem to be able to analyze themselves and articulate their pressures, while animation sequences illustrate each student’s hopes and fears. Filmmaker Nanette Burstein was co-director, with Brett Morgan, of the Oscar-nominated documentary “On the Ropes,” about three young boxers, and “The Kid Stays in the Picture,” adapted from the book by Hollywood producer Robert Evans.
Aimed specifically at an adolescent PG-13 audience, “American Teen” is a predictably slick 6, capturing a feeling of authenticity despite some obvious staging. You can see Burstein’s initial interviews with the four students she chose on the movie’s Facebook site, and an epilogue tells what they’re doing today.

Susan Granger’s review of “Tropic Thunder” (DreamWorks Pictures)

Ben Stiller’s spoof of war movies is – without doubt – the summer’s funniest comedy.
Following the usual “Coming Attractions,” there are four bogus movie trailers, introducing washed-up action star Tugg Speedman (Stiller), grossed-out comedian Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black), rapper Alpa Chino (Brandon T. Jackson) and the five-time Oscar-winning Aussie, Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.).
Along with newcomer Kevin Sandusky (Jay Baruchel), they’ve been cast in a Vietnam War picture based on a ‘true’ story by John ‘Four Leaf’ Tayback (Nick Nolte), who serves as technical advisor. When filming bogs down and they’re reamed out by the venal studio boss, Lee Grossman (Tom Cruise), the desperate British director (Steve Coogan) decides to drop these pampered, self-indulgent celebrities deep in the jungle – without cellphones or assistants – hoping that hidden surveillance cameras will capture their terror, accentuated by a trigger-happy explosions expert (Danny McBride). But drug-dealing guerrillas are lurking nearby – and things go horribly wrong, much to the dismay of Speedman’s agent (Matthew McConaughey).
What’s hilarious are the smarmy characters. Downey’s absurdly serious Lazarus is so devoted to his craft that he darkens his skin pigment to play an African-American, which understandably riles Alpa Chino (say it aloud). Stiller’s Speedman skewers Sean Penn’s “I Am Sam” and Black’s Portnoy is a drug addict. Best of all, Cruise is almost unrecognizable as the bald, paunchy, power-crazed exec whose nasty cynicism is relieved only by his dance moves; it’s “Risky Business”-meets-“Magnolia.”
Written by Ben Stiller, Justin Theroux and Etan Coen, the acerbic script is not only politically incorrect but also relentlessly vulgar as it ridicules cinematic clichés. The only weak point is Stiller’s uneven direction, reminiscent of “Zoolander.” On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Tropic Thunder” is an audacious 8, sending up Hollywood egos.

Susan Granger’s review of “Mirrors” (20th Century-Fox)

Re-making Asian horror films has become a Hollywood B-movie staple, so this run-of-the-mill entry simply serves as a reminder that Kiefer Sutherland can be as intense, yelling “Damn it!” on the big screen as he is as Jack Bauer on TV’s “24.”
He’s Ben Carson, a boozy, troubled former New York City police officer who was forced off the job after the accidental shooting of a fellow cop. Separated from his medical examiner wife, Amy (Paula Patton), and two young kids (Erica Gluck, Cameron Boyce), he crashes in Queens with his bartender sister, Angela (Amy Smart), sleeping on her couch. In need of money, he lands a job as a security guard, spending his nights roaming the spooky, charred remains of what was once a stunning department store. While everything else seems to have crumbled since the fire five years earlier, the mirrors are mysteriously intact, holding terrifying, supernatural images that threaten his life and the lives of his estranged family.
“What if the mirrors are reflecting something that’s beyond our reality” he wonders, pondering the existence of weird, evil forces.
Adapted from South Korea’s “Into the Mirror” (2003) by Alexandre Aja and Gregory Levasseur, directed by Aja and filmed primarily in Romania, it’s simply ludicrous, a shallow disappointment after Aja’s previous work in “High Tension” and the remake of “The Hills Have Eyes.” Mirrors conjure up so much more eerie drama than Aja ever takes advantage of.  The paranormal pacing is plodding, the special effects are second-rate, the 110-minute running time is tediously long and the gory imagery is more disgusting than shocking.
Ranking far below the adaptations of “The Ring” and “The Grudge,” on the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Mirrors” is a creepy 2. It certainly needs polishing.

Susan Granger’s dvd update for week of Friday, August 15th:

In “Smart People,” a self-absorbed literature professor (Dennis Quaid) has turned his daughter (Ellen Page) into a friendless, overachieving teen. Sent to dig them out of their self-inflicted misery are his inept, irresponsible adopted brother (Thomas Hayden Church) and former student-turned-doctor (Sarah Jessica Parker). It’s a potentially provocative dysfunctional family situation that drifts into a predictable conclusion.
Paul Soter, part of the Broken Lizard comedy troupe that did “Super Troopers,” tries directing with “Watching the Detectives,” a screwball comedy starring Cillian Murphy as a repressed video store geek enticed by a mysterious woman (Lucy Liu) who delights in dangerous practical jokes.
“Confessions of a Superhero” is Matthew Ogens’ chronicle of four celebrity impersonators who spend their days dressed as superheroes, posing cheerfully for photos on Hollywood Boulevard; homelessness, addiction, humiliation and fear are their constant companions as they search for some kind of meaning in their lives.
“Brand Upon the Brain!” is a wildly imaginative, extremely peculiar concept of Canadian director Guy Maddin; it’s not only black-and-white but silent as well, narrated by Isabella Rossellini, embellishing on limited information contained on primitive title cards. And “CJ7” is Stephen Chow’s Cantonese homage to “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial,” as a construction worker gives his son a toy he finds in a landfill that turns out to be an adorable alien creature with remarkable powers.
PICK OF THE WEEK: Straight from the heart, Helen Hunt’s directorial debut, “Then She Found Me,” is the fresh, funny, feel-good emotional journey of a schoolteacher (played by Hunt). Following a separation from her unfaithful husband (Matthew Broderick) and death of her adoptive mother, she’s contacted by her birth mother (Bette Midler), a brassy TV talk-show host and comforted by the parent (Colin Firth) of one of her students.

Susan Granger’s review of “Frozen River” (Sony Pictures Classics)

The deserved winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, Courtney Hunt’s “Frozen River” tells the story of two desperately poor women – one Caucasian, one Mohawk – in dreary upstate New York who form an uneasy alliance to smuggle illegal immigrants across the frozen, yet treacherous St. Lawrence River that separates Canada from the United States.
Just before Christmas, Ray Eddy (Melissa Leo) realizes her gambling husband has run off with all the money she was saving to buy a new double-wide trailer. Abandoned with only a part-time job at the Yankee Dollar Store, she’s destitute. Her squalid trailer is falling apart, her kids (Charlie McDermott, James Reilly) have only popcorn and Tang for dinner, and there’s nothing for holiday presents. So when she spies her husband’s car at a bingo parlor on the barren Mohawk reservation, Ray follows the woman who stole it. It’s Lila Littlewolf (Misty Upham), a single mother who is trying to regain custody of her child by using the Dodge Spirit – with its pop-up trunk – to smuggle aliens from China and Pakistan. While neither woman truly trusts the other, their mutual struggle forms a bond of shared economic need. Racism is endemic with the border police, so a white woman driving is much less likely to be questioned than a Native American. Yet it’s a dangerous decision for both.
Writer/director Courtney Hunt creates a completely believable, wintry world that’s filled with suspicion and extreme anxiety, eliciting gritty, grounded performances from her entire cast, particularly Melissa Leo (“21 Grams”), who should certainly be on the short list for Oscar consideration. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Frozen River” is a compelling 9, as a compassionate, cross-cultural chronicle of humanity besieged by hard times.

Susan Granger’s dvd update for week of Friday, August 8th:

After acclaim for “Super Size Me,” Morgan Spurlock headed to the Middle East for “Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden?” a dumbed-down travelogue documentary that tries to be funny despite its serious subject matter, as Spurlock faux-quizzes ordinary folk in Egypt, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Afghanistan. The answers may surprise you.
Dublin-born Steve Barron’s quirky drama “Choking Man” is about a shy, lonely Ecuadoran immigrant, Jorge (Octavio Gomez Berrios), struggling to make a life in New York’s Jamaica, Queens, while working as a dishwasher at a diner run by Mandy Patinkin; the title comes from a Heimlich-maneuver poster hanging over Jorge’s work station.
If you’re a Paul Hogan fan, “Crocodile Dundee” and “Crocodile Dundee 2” are finally available, chronicling the adventures of the irrepressible Aussie and his reporter girl-friend, played by Linda Kozlowski.
Continuing the legend of Batman, “Birds of Prey: The Complete Series” was produced in 2002 for the WB network and is loosely based on the DC Comics series of the same name; it’s just been released with a host of special features including “Gotham Girls S1-3,” an animated series of shorts starring the “Birds of Prey” characters.
Everyone’s favorite morning-loathing, Odie-taunting, tart-tongued tabby is back in “Garfield’s Fun Fest,” a full-length computer animated feature, about the town’s annual talent show; having won every year, Garfield’s convinced he can’t lose. And “The Super Fun Show!” hosted by Shawn Brown gets kids moving and grooving, learning aerobics and burning (calories).
PICK OF THE WEEK: Winner of the Best Foreign Language Oscar, “The Counterfeiters” is a true W.W.II drama that poses a provocative moral dilemma about Jewish collaboration with the Nazis. What makes it worthwhile is its depiction of a struggle of conscience, chronicling the currency of desperation.