for December 2006
Frenzy (1972) – Grosse Point Blank – The Lake House – Passenger 57 – The Sentinel (2006) – Shopgirl (2005) – Tenacious D in: The Pick of Destiny
Frenzy (1972, 116 min, R) *** - Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Jon Finch, Barry Foster, Anna Massey, and Alec McCowen. Hitchcock comes back from Hollywood to his boyhood haunts as the son of a London green-grocer. “Frenzy” is like “North by Northwest,” except instead of that H-bomb of charm Cary Grant, the man-on-the-run is a delightfully detestable jerk named Dick (Finch). He punches walls, blows up over nothing, crushes drinking glasses with his bare hands, and is always angry. He’s ALWAYS angry. Consider who dies in the film and little his reaction is. While Cary Grant got to roam cross-country on his flight, “Frenzy’s” dead-end hero does circles in the same working class neighborhood. The location exteriors are grimy and squalid, and the sets have been designed to look the same way. Equal time is devoted to the killer (Foster) – his first murder is at once brutal, campy, kinky, and disturbing. “Frenzy” is from Hitchcock’s late period, like “Topaz” and “The Birds,” which may be his consummate picture, in which a sexually-charged universe turns inexplicably violent. Unlike those two pictures, “Frenzy” is not so obsessed with creating a hermetic world of strangely-moving figures in odd spaces.
Grosse Pointe Blank (1997, 107 min, R) ** – Directed by George Armitage, starring John Cusack, Minnie Driver, Alan Arkin, and Dan Akroyd. In preparation for our 10-year reunion my friends and I sat ourselves down for the reunion-themed assassin comedy “Grosse Pointe Blank.” It was appropriate because the movie is about 10-years-old and revels in the subject matter of 10 years ago – that is to say, it’s derivative of “Pulp Fiction.” It’s a one-joke movie about chatty, jokey hitmen – they have feelings too! – and 10 years ago I would have certainly found it the cat’s meow. People discuss their feelings while shooting at each other or a target. Hilarious, right? Now it’s too clever by half. Too much of the movie is a guy roaming around the suburbs for an afternoon having conversations (and being observed by guys having conversations) that at the time must have seemed very pithy. Cusack is reliable as ever and the film’s absurd gun fights are diverting. The girl (Driver) falls for him because that’s what the movie needs her to do. Not a bad experience – the movie strains to be offbeat, witty, quirky, and cynical, but just comes out straining.
The Lake House (2006, 105 min, PG13) *** – Directed by Alejandro Agresti, starring Keanu Reeves, Sandra Bullock, and Christopher Plummer. The set-up is an implausible piece of sci-fi nonsense that you either accept or don’t, in which Reeves and Bullock, two years apart, share a magical mailbox that allows them to communicate with each other and eventually fall in love. I got this movie in the head but not in the heart like I think it wanted me to. But that’s okay; what I really appreciate is how leisurely “The Lake House” is, how long we linger on people sitting, talking, thinking, how conversations are paced so much slower, more cautiously than in most movies. The couple sits for the first time together on a porch and have a conversation of pauses and nervous questioning. The only strike against “The Lake House” is that conversations and some of the music are a little expository, but that’s forgivable. Christopher Plummer shows up as Reeves’s dad, connecting this movie to another timewarp romance, “Somewhere in Time.” Neither Reeves nor Bullock is an actor of enormous range, but they are sincere and do well (Reeves especially) in making us believe what they believe. It’s fitting that the movie that plays briefly on their TVs stars Cary Grant – he was another actor who basically played the same character every time (although not so much in “Notorious”) but no one complained.
The Sentinel (2006, 108 min, PG13) **1/2 – Directed by Clark Johnson, starring Michael Douglas, Keifer Sutherland, Eva Longoria, Martin Donovan, and Kim Basinger. A framed Secret Service agent on the run (Douglas) must clear his name and catch the real killer-conspirator-whatevers. There’s nothing I can really hold against this film, but there’s not much I can say for it, either, except that it gets the job done and is a perfectly respectable “political” thriller if that’s what you’re in the mood for. Some of the twists and turns are soapy and improbable but that comes with the territory. Director Johnson (“S.W.A.T.”) makes the cinematic equivalent of a trash novel’s style – serious but not TOO serious, that is to say mostly humorless but not dour. The novel is by Gerald Petievich (“To Live and Die in L.A.”). Douglas does his usual thing well and Keifer plays a toned-down version of his “24” persona. Good PG13 shoot-outs, especially the systematic pistols-vs.-submachine guns at the film’s climax.
Shopgirl (2005, 104 min, R) **1/2 – Directed by Anaud Tucker, starring Steve Martin, Claire Danes, and Jason Schwartzman. A beautifully shot and evocative piece that I wish had moved me more than it did. Everything is beautiful, delicate, and precise, but something’s missing. It doesn’t so much feel hollow as it feels like it must mean something to someone else who’s not me. A girl at an upscale cash register (Danes) becomes involved first with a struggling artist, then with a man of means (Martin). We’re never sure if the shopgirl is whoring herself or really in love. Martin is tragic as a man incapable of love. He wrote the novel; I read and enjoyed his next novel “The Pleasure of My Company.” As the goofball boyfriend, Jason Schwartzman is very good.
Tenacious D in: The Pick of Destiny (2006, 93 min, R) **1/2 – Directed by Liam Lynch, starring Jack Black and Kyle Gass. Needs to be faster, louder, and more obscene. Real-life band Tenacious D, comprised of J.B. and K.G., got its start in fictional comic sketches – fast-paced, funny, intensely vulgar, and sporting songs that went on to become the first Tenacious D album. Jack Black’s allure is his complete and utter screaming intensity about his deeply important inner craving to ROCK!! His greatest success with the gag was that we never see behind the curtain; he never seems to be acting. Kyle’s gag is that he’s a gawking dope. Anyway, the Tenacious D feature film is a prequel-style origin story, basically a clothesline for more gleeful obscenities and curse-laden songs. As expected, the cinematic prowess is not exactly high, some of the sketches are good, some are not. Less expected is that the film has slowed things down a bit, which is a mistake – the original sketches have “pop!” to them, an undeniable “zing!” that comes from quickness. And few of the songs come close to the sheer idiotic power of Tenacious D’s first album. Exceptions include “Pick of Destiny’s” opening number, in which a young J.B. (portrayed by a child actor with chilling accuracy) performs a song composed almost entirely of the f-word, and the final showdown with Satan. K.G. begins the movie cool and long-haired, but when the wig is pulled off he spends the rest of his time gawking. I also like the rock is never rehabilitated – it DOES come from the Devil – and that the movie’s opening lyric is “a long-ass fucking time ago.”
Reviews in a Hurry for December 2006.