WILD TALES: 6 Stories Viciously Satirizing Human Behavior

<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3011894/"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>WILD TALES</b></span></a> <b><span style="font-size: small;">(Dir. Damián Szifrón, 2014)</span></b></span><br /><br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_R1Be_WEn1Y6pNvz7FgDRso0HpvJoj_vqR2OtABy9HIGwHkFB5ZdcUnT-zsLlITmGJG6iUNpAnMsRjz_FTsVVEdgqgOuu8dd7OXCFH7ZEM30kcTEKTp6lVjKG8SybdOpwhKRLLTvtBdQ/s1600/0000000000000000WildTales.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_R1Be_WEn1Y6pNvz7FgDRso0HpvJoj_vqR2OtABy9HIGwHkFB5ZdcUnT-zsLlITmGJG6iUNpAnMsRjz_FTsVVEdgqgOuu8dd7OXCFH7ZEM30kcTEKTp6lVjKG8SybdOpwhKRLLTvtBdQ/s1600/0000000000000000WildTales.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">I loved IDA, and was glad it won the Best Foreign Picture Oscar, but I totally would've been cool if Argentina's selection, Damián Szifrón's WILD TALES, opening today at an indie arthouse near me, had gotten the gold instead for 2014.</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">A protégé of Pedro Almodóvar, who co-produced with his brother Agustin, Szifrón has concocted an epic collection of six stories of bloody vengeance, that had me from the get go with an airplane-set pre-credits vignette.</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">In it, a couple of passengers, a model and a music critic, aboard a flight mid-air while flirting discover that they both knew a man by the name of Gabriel Pastemak. The model (Maria Marull) used to date Pastemak, but they broke up on bad terms; the critic (Dario Grandinetti) had ripped apart one of the Pastemak's classical compositions, which ended the guy's musical career.</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">A woman overhearing their conversation reveals that she was Pastemak’s elementary school teacher; another his former best friend. One by one, it turns out that everybody on the plane has a uneasy connection to Pastemak, and here’s the kicker: Pastemak is the pilot flying the plane.</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The second story concerns a waitress (Julieta Zylberberg) at a roadside diner that recognizes a customer (Cesar Bordon) as being the crooked politician who ruined her family, and drove her father to suicide. The cook (Rita Cortese) suggests adding rat poison to his food, and Zylerberg is very tempted, but reluctant.</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The third and most thrilling chapter depicts an extreme case of road rage with a premise that plays like a mini-version of DUEL. Leonardo Sbaraglia plays a slick corporate-type tooling across the countryside in his brand new sports car, who gets in a violent battle with a lower class workman (Walter Donado) in a beat-up old pick-up truck.</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Next up, Ricardo Darín as an explosives expert in Buenos Aires who faces off against the city’s civic bureaucrats who keep towing his car. Darín, a superstar in Argentina best known here for his work in the 2009 Best Foreign Picture winner THE SECRET IN THEIR EYES, is superb as the beleaguered man who has reached his breaking point, FALLING DOWN-style.<br /><br />Following that, Oscar Martinez portrays a rich man whose son is guilty of a hit and run accident that caused the death of a pregnant woman. Wanting to keep his son out of prison, Martinez and his lawyer (Osmar Núñez) plot to have his gardener (Germán de Silva) take the fall by claiming he was behind the wheel. This plan will be extremely expensive because Martinez will have to pay off his lawyer, the prosecutor, the cops, as well as the gardener to make it fly. Exasperated by these “vultures,” as he calls them, Martinez loses patience with the negotiations, and that’s where I’ll leave this well played out premise.</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The concluding and lengthiest episode, “Until Death Do Us Part,” depicts a wedding reception that goes to hell and back again. The bride (Érica Rivas) finds out that her husband (Diego Gentile, who looks a bit Bradley Cooper-ish) had cheated on her with one of their guests, and, well, you know what they say about a woman scorned?</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Each piece of this anthology film puzzle is viciously effective, as well as visually pleasing (kudos to cinematographer Javier Julia). It’s a sharp-witted, savage satire of human behavior, that while very dark, even allows for at least one feel-good ending in the batch (maybe two, but that’s debatable).</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">WILD TALES is in turns, exciting, wickedly funny, poetically powerful, and, yes, very wild indeed. I enjoyed all six tales individually immensely, maybe “Little Bomb” the best, and really loved how they worked together both tonally and thematically. It may not have won the Oscar (it did sweep the Argentinian Academy Awards however), but it repeatedly won me over as it kept topping itself up until and including the very end.</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">More later... </span></span>

WILD TALES (Dir. Damián Szifrón, 2014)I loved IDA, and was glad it won the Best Foreign Picture Oscar, but I totally would've been cool if Argentina's selection, Damián Szifrón's WILD TALES, opening today at an indie arthouse near me, had gotten the gold instead for 2014.A protégé of Pedro Almodóvar…

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The Pixies’ Frank Black Blabs About BRAZIL For Film Acoustic

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyrD0QwJ_Zk94Mj9w0HSKVbAc9KJVJG8tFV84ff1kX_95BZNUQRIU7sBzEEifDiLhVhKXMLuXg9H_2EwmkHMVVRb9wdLD0bmoJFEnLy4vdm86SQk_U9O2_fhXN9HesK5svc3hRBvka1vA/s1600/008.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyrD0QwJ_Zk94Mj9w0HSKVbAc9KJVJG8tFV84ff1kX_95BZNUQRIU7sBzEEifDiLhVhKXMLuXg9H_2EwmkHMVVRb9wdLD0bmoJFEnLy4vdm86SQk_U9O2_fhXN9HesK5svc3hRBvka1vA/s1600/008.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">As I wrote in the Raleigh N & O, the third installment of the new series Film Acoustic was a real doozy: Frank Black of the iconic punk rock band the Pixies presenting Terry Gilliam's 1985 classic BRAZIL. The event went down last Thursday evening, March 19th, at the Carolina Theatre in Durham with a screening of the film, which I believe is the best film of the '80s, followed by a chat conducted by Modern School of Film founder and Duke graduate Robert Milazzo, a bit of audience Q & A, and solo acoustic performances of four songs (“Wave of Mutilation,” “Monkey Gone To Heaven,” “Los Angeles,” and “All Around the World”).</span><br /><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Here are some highlights from the fine evening:</span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>Milazzo's introduction:</b> “Terry Gilliam was asked ‘what was your favorite review of BRAZIL?’ from the critics because the critics loved this film. And he said ‘it was from Salmon Rushdie. Salmon said ‘we are all Brazilians. We are all strangers in a strange land.’” I offer you that bit of cultural anthropology because tonight’s guest studied for a moment or two cultural anthropology on his way to making music history. He told me last night though that the classes that he had the most fun were the cinema classes.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFlCS0yRJjcUN3DzaWQERJb1fc0K_0FvFgwtt_IDrDko8YWHRdb9s4OVzYFPFOi9WV7tiz_HYYJabo74LQKXz6iBhA9yTFuRZU4gJuWpTlhxXSAhMvB_fOU2_JhS4JbVM-O114u_5dvVQ/s1600/10321749_935642826466108_3051240550020441482_o+(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFlCS0yRJjcUN3DzaWQERJb1fc0K_0FvFgwtt_IDrDko8YWHRdb9s4OVzYFPFOi9WV7tiz_HYYJabo74LQKXz6iBhA9yTFuRZU4gJuWpTlhxXSAhMvB_fOU2_JhS4JbVM-O114u_5dvVQ/s1600/10321749_935642826466108_3051240550020441482_o+(1).jpg" width="185" /></a><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">We’ll ask him if he feels that way in about an hour. Please welcome to the Modern School of Film, Professor Charles Thompson, everybody, Frank Black.”</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">(audience applause)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>Frank Black:</b> “I should probably mention, I uh, made a bit of a popcorn mess by my seat.”</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>Milazzo:</b> “Really?”</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>Black:</b> “I tried to get, I got, I threw half of it before it even started, but thank you for the popcorn. And uh, I didn’t know what to wear tonight – ‘cause my film professor Don Levine, who taught Avant Grade Film 302-B, used to always wear a black turtleneck, and a black jacket, black pants. And he had a black carrying bag also. And I didn’t have any turtlenecks. But uh, so I wore sweatpants because I wanted to be comfortable tonight, so uh, technically, these are pajamas actually. I wore my pajamas, and figured it was black, you know?”</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>Miliazzo: </b>“The movie, as Jonathan Pryce says the movie is half real, half dreams, so its apropos that you would wear half real, half dreams…and clocks which I love, they tie the outfit together. Thank you man, thank you for being here.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>Black:</b> “It’s hard to believe that the suits at Universal would’ve seen any cut of that film and said ‘you know, we’ve got a couple of ideas we’d like to, uh…” (laughs) You know what I mean? It sort of seems like ‘really?’ How could you look at a single scene, you know, ‘we like what you’re trying to do here but…’ It’s sort of shocking but it’s not shocking, I don’t know. The artist is always right the tour manager told me and if, you know, you hire some guy to make a movie, the artist is all obviously making art. Just leave them alone, ‘cause you don’t know and they do because they’re right.</span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /><b>Milazzo:</b> “When we invited you to screen whatever film you wanted to share, why did you pick BRAZIL?”</span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>Black: </b>“Well, it really is like a knee jerk kind of a choice – I liked it! You know, when I first saw the movie, and I’ve seen it many times, and even though you could talk about this film and analyze it, intellectualize it, talk about it on a few different levels I suppose, basically I thought, I really liked it. I was really entertained by it, and I loved the film, all analysis aside. Every time I see it, I’m reminded of that. Now we can talk about it on other levels, but I liked it.”</span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>Milazzo:</b> “When did you first see it? Did you see it in ’85?”</span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>Black:</b> “I saw it when it first came out, I didn’t know what cut it was. I don’t recall it having a completely hacked ending. I believe when it was shown on television, or something, they tried to end it on a happy note. Right? They escaped to the countryside, and lived happily ever after. There was some version of that I heard about, but I think when I saw it in theaters it had the more poignant ending.”</span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>Milazzo: </b>“What were you doing in ’85?”</span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>Black:</b> “I was living in Boston, I had just dropped out of college, and I was starting a band with Kim Deal and Joey Santiago.”</span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>Milazzo:</b> “That worked out.”</span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>Black:</b> “Yeah, I was basically going to the movies. When I was in between jobs, I went to a lot of films. We rehearsed, we had our day jobs, but basically I went to the movies a lot. Sometimes we’d all go to the movies together as a band, ‘cause it would be very important to me: ‘you have to see this film that I’m really into!” You know, and I would drag them with me. They’d go along, and we had kind of a cinematic origin I suppose, you know, in at least that was what I was looking at more than music. Obviously, I loved Husker Du, and Peter, Paul and Mary, but, and I’d go see Husker Du when they came to town, but the art of film, also especially like this, you know, the way it’s supposed to be. We didn’t have computers or laptops or tablets or anything, and if you were a young broke musician you didn’t have TV or anything, so I’d go to the cinema a lot. And I always did then. As soon as I had enough money to go to the movies, I guess from my late teens or whatever, I went to the movies a lot.”</span></div><br /><div><br /><br /></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><b>Milazzo:</b> “On a script level, Tom Stoppard wrote, and Gilliam credits him as giving the guts to the movie – the Buttle/Tuttle, the bug falling into the thing – and Charles McKeown, and just a bit of trivia, this is my back-up trivia question, he’s in LIFE OF BRIAN, he’s in the Biggus Dickus scene. The script of this is pretty sophisticated in a sense of how it balances politics, the politics of every day – do you watch it on that level? Do you watch it on the sort of middle management, working in offices, I mean, it’s not been your life per say.”</span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><b>Black:</b> “I mean, it echoes the past, it echoes the present, it amplifies the future. I mean, it’s so incredibly apropos to any conversation, whether it’s today or whether it was 1985 when they made it. Or, I imagine, in the future, where it will all make a lot of sense.”</span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /><b>Milazzo: </b>“Your son is right.”</span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>Black:</b> “Without getting into any kind of specifics, you know, bombs, control, misidentification, homogenization, pasteurization, whatever, the machinery – where does one begin? It’s all there.”</span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>Milazzo: </b>“One of the cool things, and you said it so well, and it’s even a more intelligent perspective, this film does better watching it more times, maybe in a way, watching it again here – the samurai is made out of computer parts. You can only watch it if you scrutinize the movie. This whole retro-fitting thing – he admits he sort of got it from Ridley Scott and Blade Runner, but this retro-fitting was in.”</span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>Black:</b> “The Samurai I find particularly beautiful. When he’s defeated the first time by Sam, and the flames from the escaping gas coming out of him, something about it is really beautiful and evil and industrial…</span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">”</span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>Milazzo:</b> “And analog! You know, it’s like the movie is homemade in a sense. When you see Ian Holm with his face and those arms…”</span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>On the cast:</b></span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>Black: </b>“I love Ian Holm, his tension, his pretending his hand’s broken…the casting is so incredible in this film…Jim Broadbent as the plastic surgeon ‘cut cut, snip snip,’ with his hair and everything, just beautiful.”</span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>Milazzo:</b> “We talked about the performances a lot yesterday – Kim Griest who takes a bad rap in a way is perfect, I mean, the way the casting of that is perfect.”</span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>Black:</b> “One of the things I really liked about it, it involves her character of course, is just the idea of love. There’s this old school romantic thing where he’s just obsessed with this person. And he’s searching for this person, because he loves them…and that’s it. It’s so romantic, and he’s this dorky nervous nellie guy with all this existential ennui and he doesn’t know what he wants – ‘I want her, I think!’ And it reminds me of when I first had a romantic crush when I was young. </span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">You know, that’s what you would fantasize about, like the backdrop of this film it’s like it’s all gone wrong, the world’s gone wrong, and I wonder what would it be like if there was an apocalyptic war and the world as we know it is falling apart, ‘I’ll go to her house, to her parent’s house and I’ll go get her!’ And we’ll get on a train, or a horse (laughs). We’ll escape, we’ll get out to the countryside just like at the end there. I guess, again there, the influence of BLADE RUNNER, I don’t know. Finally escape the grimy dark urban kind of tubular life that they lived, and they finally make it out to the countryside of the green, there’s the English countryside, much like the end of BLADE RUNNER. Finally we get out of Los Angeles where we can breathe! (Takes a big breath)<br /><br /><b>On the ending:</b></span></div><br /><div><br /><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9JDdCpp7h9HXeUoblEO_QNGRyLKYbIiGerf4a2t80gADbQ4xV1pGb2qCaag6HUJeTC8zfMCOIFLVFokENx-APjqDULCmi4LWupeEKUURltswavaWodOpvcpDelzNeeaBmn9h52KyGa-E/s1600/brazil.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9JDdCpp7h9HXeUoblEO_QNGRyLKYbIiGerf4a2t80gADbQ4xV1pGb2qCaag6HUJeTC8zfMCOIFLVFokENx-APjqDULCmi4LWupeEKUURltswavaWodOpvcpDelzNeeaBmn9h52KyGa-E/s1600/brazil.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>Black: </b>“That’s the noir ending, you know it’s like ‘nope!’ It isn’t alright! Nope! Death! No, it’s over. The bad guys win. Of course, that’s the ending you want. That’s the ending that’s gonna ‘cause people to talk about it. We don’t talk about happy endings because, we forget them.”</span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>On “Debaser,” which was inspired by Luis Buñuel’s 1929 surreal silent film collaboration with Salvador Dali, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0020530/">UN CHIEN ANDALOU</a>:</b></span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /><b>Milazzo: </b>“What was the line between watching the film, </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">UN CHIEN ANDALOU,</span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> and writing ‘Debaser,’ putting it out into the world, what was the creative chronology?”</span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /><b>Black: </b>“I don’t really know, but I think the way I used to write songs at that time was that I’d use language in a kind of jabberwocky kind of way. I would find syllables and combinations of consonants and vowels that I liked the sound of them. So maybe they’d form a word I was familiar with and maybe they didn’t, but it would begin to take form that way. And then maybe I could, it would ascend into an actual intelligible word, and then maybe that intelligible word might inform the rest of the text, or the lyric, you know? So, it wasn’t like I had the need to write a song that was basically the Cliff’s Notes, sort of a pop song Cliff’s Notes version of UN CHIEN ANDALOU. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">A song is such a shrunk down thing, there’s a universe of ideas but you’ve only got (sings out a bit of melody made up of nonsense sounds) – that’s it! That’s all you’ve got, and so how are you gonna get all this information in? I just took some of the language from my interpretation of the film, and I just, I don’t want to say it’s a hack job! </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">But I kind of used something that I liked, you know, it wasn’t like I was saying anything. Other than, to quote Serge Gainsbourg: ‘I am a surrealist!’ So it was my way of saying ‘I am a surrealist too!’ and ‘I’m borrowing your movies for my song!’ That’s a French accent, right?”<br /><br /><b> On </b></span><b><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">“In Heaven,</span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">” a cover of a song from the <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074486/">ERASERHEAD</a> soundtrack:</span></b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br /><b>Milazzo:</b> “Another song, ‘The Lady in The Radiator’ song, ‘In Heaven,’ which is an ERASERHEAD draw. Talk about that, watching ERASERHEAD conjuring that song. Do you recall that process?”<br /><br /><b>Black:</b> “You brought it up, that is was the theme song to David Lynch’s ERASERHEAD, it was written, the lyric is by David Lynch actually, but the music is by a guy named Peter Ivers, and, of course, when I was a teenager I saw the film and I liked it, and we were a band playing nightclubs, we were an artsy fartsy band, so we did our loud version of that kinda simple song, and I thought we were so cool, but I found out that every metropolis on the planet has a band that has that song in their repertoire so we weren’t the only ones.” <br /><br /><b>On the use of the Pixies' </b></span><b><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">“Where Is My Mind?</span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">” </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">in David Fincher's 1999 cult classic <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0137523/">FIGHT CLUB</a>:</span></b></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>Black:</b> “It was nice that our song was in it, but I was kind of more caught up in my cinema experience so I think I was able to compartmentalize it. I didn’t jump up and go ‘that’s me!’ But I mean, you know, I got a grand out of it, but I was engaged in the film. When it happened it washed over me like everybody else. It’s a great moment in the film, because it’s a great moment in the film not because of the song. The song works, but I think a lot of songs could’ve worked in that same spot. But he picked the right kind of song, I suppose, for his montage.”<br /><br /><b>On being up for a role in Fincher's <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0443706/">ZODIAC</a>: </b><br /><br /><b>Black:</b> “You know, uh, David Fincher was making the ZODIAC movie, and he wanted me to play the Zodiac killer, because I bore a certain physical resemblance.”</span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>Milazzo:</b> “Wow! That’s cool, man.”<br /><br /><b>Black:</b> “And so he sent me part of the script and some other materials, you know so I could get all Robert De Niro and really get into my role – it was a little freaky, but, you know, I bought some combat boots that the guy was fond of, and tried to, you know, I went to an acting coach, we talked for a few minutes. And they know I’m not an actor and they weren’t trying to put a lot of pressure on me, but I sat there with him and his producer, and I was literally like, you know, Don Knotts, I was just like (makes unintelligible speech) – I was just reading off a page and I couldn’t even like, it was just so hard. It was so hard to act, to even just read, to put, to get any kind of connection to the drama, even in the most casual setting… ‘It’s okay, it’s alright , Charles’ I said, I literally couldn’t even talk. And they were ‘Thank you very much,’ and I never heard from them again.”</span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The next installment of Film Acoustic, on Monday, April 13th, looks pretty damn interesting too: Patterson Hood of the Drive By Truckers screens Sidney Lumet's 1976 classic <b><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074958/">NETWORK</a></b>. Tickets are <a href="http://www.carolinatheatre.org/events/film-acoustic-patterson-hood-drive-truckers">on sale now</a>.</span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;">More later...</span></div><br />

As I wrote in the Raleigh N & O, the third installment of the new series Film Acoustic was a real doozy: Frank Black of the iconic punk rock band the Pixies presenting Terry Gilliam's 1985 classic BRAZIL. The event went down last Thursday evening, March 19th, at the Carolina Theatre in Durham with a…

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THE DIVERGENT SERIES : INSURGENT (2015) REVIEW : Bigger Visual, Sacrificing Other Element

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig2zZ5IgjIovTuNqWwLjiesckHxQTQ2LNS7b39lFROdtezSda1ID0MpzDZ9lKOQAIyzjpIw0vlWf0HMviD-WFvwTnPI32zzVt2HNkNtiII881xHGd34p4tQS5zGeoR_M70vSLsAAa_ZHU/s1600/Insurgent+Wallpaper.jpg" width="640" /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Tak perlu khawatir, film dengan embel-embel adaptasi buku best seller tahun ini akan semakin banyak. Terutama pada buku dengan genre young-adult yang sebenarnya memiliki formula yang sama dari satu buku ke buku yang lain. Seri penutup <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Hunger Games</i>, babak kedua dari <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Maze Runner</i>, dan masih banyak lagi buku-buku <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">young adult</i>meski bukan tema dystopian yang diangkat ke dalam sebuah gambar bergerak. </div><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">Maka, di bulan Maret ini adalah giliran untuk babak kedua dari buku karangan Veronica Roth. Insurgent, lanjutan dari Divergent ini memiliki kesempatan untuk menunjukkan diri terlebih dahulu ketimbang buku-buku best seller lainnya. Setelah Divergent yang berhasil memikat penonton dan pendapatan yang luar biasa, tentu <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Summit Entertainment</i> tak akan segan-segan untuk memberikan lampu hijau kepada seri keduanya.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb1Vj_BsUF7MZHUgjChjbw1L3YbMb7eaQ_DMQjGxCrFsJrPMzkPRHxXaZqNtYmKNd7XZsel0jWcb6PxVyL5NKqJQlCxYdik3QzfTIPo5lhpVeNvQxJlC_IQAMiNZGNhL_uRqkxWf3JGHY/s1600/insurgent+4.jpg" width="640" /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">Insurgent kali ini mengalami perubahan di departemen penyutradaraan. Neil Burger tak kembali mengarahkan filmnya, tetapi mengawasi babak kedua dari Divergent. Tongkat kekuasaannya diberikan kepad Robert Schwantke. Di dalam departemen penulisan naskah pun, harusnya Insurgent memiliki sesuatu yang lebih dibandingkan dengan Divergent. Adanya nama seperti Akiva Goldsman yang sudah memiliki jam terbang tinggi meskipun dia bekerja di dalam tim bersama dengan Brian Duffield dan Mark Bomback. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">Sayangnya, meskipun ada nama Akiva Goldsman di dalam filmnya, Insurgent memiliki narasi yang sangat terbatas di dalam efek visualnya yang semakin megah. Perjalanan Insurgent dalam bertutur melewati perjalanan panjang yang berbatu. Tak seperti Divergent yang setidaknya menghibur penontonnya dengan jalan cerita dan bertutur yang masih menyenangkan meski di dalam durasi yang lebih panjang ketimbang Insurgent. 120 menit milik Insurgent memiliki ritme yang tak menentu dan adegan yang hambar. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBapij2lJa4_QWINpQ_dQ2Nr3BCR0jKJnWlwy8K4GoYSW_HgKRFoZ04tl1GLNPHzpRJkZGpnwxEhS7bjNAntV3_-PTnrU0h67LEpnu6aNmVthPDoiCK3LlhVD6nXYL1hzz8V-xzFZKjbM/s1600/insurgent+5.jpg" width="640" /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">Insurgent pun menceritakan bagaimana Tris (Shailene Woodley) dan Four (Theo James) yang kabur dari serangan para dauntless. Mereka bersama Caleb (Ansel Elgort) dan Peter (Miles Teller) bersembunyi di markas milik Amity dengan berbagai syarat. Tetapi tak lama, para Dauntless yang sudah bersekongkol dengan Erudite datang dan mencari Tris, Four, dan kawanannya tersebut. Mereka kembali kabur dan bersembunyi di tempat Para Non-Faksi (Factionless)</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">Di sana mereka mulai mencoba untuk membangun sebuah pasukan besar untuk melawan Erudite, terutama untuk melawan Jeanine (Kate Winslet). Tetapi, Jeanine sedang melakukan pencarian besar-besaran terhadap Divergent yang kuat untuk membuka suatu kotak rahasia yang berisikan sesuatu. Tris berusaha keras agar dapat menghindar atas rencana jahat dari Jeanine. Karena, sesuatu di dalam kotak tersebut akan mengubah sesuatu yang sangat besar. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="418" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzRBnbJrxyoPH1H6MbfbBIksry3NGVJJwuWosyfmtfJZesPxQOCU-CymxDQkUioupuc9Mn49-gW_4pXqEDat8icutV7cJ16M0B8sEFbzCj-15QGxMsCJeLz7NUxc0zNXPioe9rnYLOVd0/s1600/Insurgent+2.jpg" width="640" /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">Poin pertama yang tetap menjadi luka di dalam seri Divergent adalah bagaimana karakter-karakter di dalam film ini tak memiliki penggalian karakter yang lebih dalam. Semua karakter hadir hanya untuk sekedar formalitas adaptasi dari buku ke sebuah gambar. Hanya sekedar tampil beberapa detik sehingga di dalam beberapa poin penting karakter tersebut tak memiliki relevansi dengan subplot cerita yang seharusnya bisa tampil lebih kuat. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">Tak hanya memiliki keterbatasan dalam mengembangkan latar belakang karakternya saja, tetapi bagaimana Robert Schwantke belum bisa menyampaikan cerita di dalam filmnya dengan baik. Beberapa akan terlihat sangat mentah dalam menyajikan setiap konflik yang sebenarnya akan bisa tampil kuat. Sayangnya, emosi yang sepertinya sudah tertuang di dalam <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">screenplay</i> milik Akiva Goldsman bersama dua orang temannya tak dapat tergambarkan ke dalam gambar bergerak. Akhirnya, beberapa poin akan terasa sangat hambar. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">Beruntunglah, Insurgent memiliki efek visual yang jauh lebih megah ketimbang seri pertamanya, Divergent. Mungkin karena sudah tahu bahwa Insurgent sudah memiliki <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">crowd</i> yang besar, maka dari itu <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Summit Entertainment</i>, selaku <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Production House</i> yang menaungi seri ini, tak segan dalam memberikan dukungan untuk menyokong film ini dalam segi teknis. Hasilnya, beberapa cerita yang menggunakan <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">visual effect</i>, berhasil menangkap momen-momen indahnya. Robert Schwantke tahu benar bagaimana memperlakukan filmnya agar terlihat lebih megah meski haru mengorbankan narasi.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoRhXMLyKBCAxMYBWdrNOXyZL2OhJutz7SkUKFU3A1nE4-SMuJ8w8_CetpXdf0AaVOMD4_e9LYwjFHU9bnYELgnEeU5PZaSg1ayumvtlG3qFR_6guPpDk1FjJ67sTubPDN-gIwolK41gM/s1600/a88ba8597ca2777d288bd4eeb6117593b749dd29.jpg" width="640" /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">Pun juga dengan Shailene Woodley yang berusaha memberikan performa akting yang totalitas. Tetapi, apa gunanya jika totalitas dalam berlakon itu ternyata hanya diberikan oleh performa Shailene Woodley semata. Ya, dia adalah karakter sentral di film ini, tetapi masih ada Ansel Elgort, Miles Teller, yang tak memiliki kesempatan untuk menunjukkan performa gemilangnya di dalam film ini. Begitu pun dengan Theo James yang juga karakter utama, performanya terasa hampa. Untungnya ada beberapa nama besar seperti Kate Winslet dan Naomi Watts yang mampu menaikkan tensi filmnya. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">Maka, Divergent yang sudah membuat penontonnya memberikan patokan tinggi harus siap untuk dikecewakan. Insurgent adalah sebuah penurunan presentasi meskipun tak semua bagiannya tak bisa dinikmati. Insurgent memiliki keterbatasan luar biasa di dalam narasinya yang harusnya dapat memberikan drama <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">thought-provoking</i> dengan balutan aksi dan visual effect yang tampil megah. Tetapi, Robert Schwantke pun tak dapat menyampaikan pesan-pesan yang sepertinya sudah tertulis baik di dalam naskah milik Akiva Goldsman dan timnya. Maka, tak urungkan niat untuk terlalu menantikan seri terakhirnya, Allegiant, yang akan terbagi dua bagian.<br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="155" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwnHiNWE-5pLVhBn0odOS1oyKr4mfU26uULT2hMo2djJ4mpWzZZTHR5wBcGgUovNsgGfp2JojMIkavKYvC-RxkeI6R8ursTcmpdgEqOwB0TRRTfIy6YdhPucDxwAJd86gW3Tl7OuGtVd4/s1600/3-5+new.png" width="400" /> </div>

Tak perlu khawatir, film dengan embel-embel adaptasi buku best seller tahun ini akan semakin banyak. Terutama pada buku dengan genre young-adult yang sebenarnya memiliki formula yang sama dari satu buku ke buku yang lain. Seri penutup The Hunger Games, babak kedua dari The Maze Runner, dan masih ban…

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THE SPONGEBOB MOVIE : SPONGE OUT OF WATER (2015) REVIEW : Act Dumb, Think Smart [With 3D Review]

<div style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="336" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7qaTz0OFKYYCwuKuSWfYCFWAGNqVFpfWteC41XRCHyVz4J_Q20fOHk4CSJ80M6FnDXUVfSwMnA7U-9E_2ERmSkEi5E3OSrsN_bBmcFY81GJrDpyV3Ea8qqorjZRAtSrKobMVg8ufW-Fk/s1600/The-SpongeBob-Movie-Sponge-Out-of-Water-Desktop-Background-Wallpaper.jpg" width="640" /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Sponge Bob Square Pants, makhluk dari spons yang hidup di Bikini Bottom lebih dulu hadir lewat serial kartunnya dari tahun 1999. Sponge Bob pun semakin diidolakan oleh anak-anak pada masa itu dan masih menyapa hingga sekarang di suatu stasiun televisi. Tak salah, jika Sponge Bob menjadi satu ikon anak-anak yang sebenarnya memiliki selera humor yang berbeda dari serial animasi lainnya. Pun pernah hadir dalam format layar lebar di tahun 2004. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"></div><a name='more'></a><br /><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">The SpongeBob Square Pants Movie, film pertama dari makhluk spons yang humoris ini cukup mendapat sambutan hangat dari para kritkus dan sambutan riuh dari para fans. Maka, selang 11 tahun, SpongeBob kembali hadir menyapa penontonnya lewat film layar lebar terbarunya. The SpongeBob Movie : Sponge Out of Water, fitur film kedua milik makhluk spons dan teman-teman lautnya diarahkan oleh Paul Tibbit yang sering kali mengarahkan episode-episode SpongeBob di Televisi. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="396" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoxL_9-N8Mg9E3d7DNA4PALGE45NRxoXBwmLcxd0_1kypoLl06WswWJKvPheiXIFKSCNiKx3XRLaKYEmFenAaaen_iaTro15h6Bby-PcmOZcjRElB6QN85jKKlXKqqLKcZUaHE0EuYy54/s1600/1017177-watch-first-trailer-spongebob-movie-sponge-out-water.jpg" width="640" /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">SpongeBob Square Pants memang terkenal dengan jokes-nya yang aneh, hal itu terlihat pula di trailer Sponge Out of Water. Terlihat benar Paul Tibbit mencoba memindahkan segala bentuk canda tawa liar dan imajinasi tingkat tinggi –bahkan sudah hampir gila –ke dalam fitur film keduanya. Pun, formula cerita pun sebenarnya masih memiliki satu poin besar tentang formula krabby patty yang hilang. Dan disinilah tugas SpongeBob (Tom Kenny) untuk menemukan formula krabby patty yang hilang. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">Tetapi, ada yang berbeda dengan hilangnya formula krabby patty kali ini. Memang, pada awalnya Plankton (Mr. Lawrence) yang berusaha mencuri dari Mr. Krabs (). Tetapi, tiba-tiba formula itu hilang tanpa sisa. Bikini Bottom pun sangat kacau karena Krabby Patty tak lagi produksi dan para penduduk Bikini Bottom menginginkannya. SpongeBob mencium bau Krabby Patty yang hilang itu, bersama teman-temannya mereka mengemban misi untuk menemukan Krabby Patty. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="328" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDXPHxjow5I7MU4QdSGgOl0zFe0NVDWdzGvTr2DRwpjmkzk6tYvtNePnEzSx0jJwvdIHDIzqiVCXA_ueSo0Kv9H1kw12a96L9xolLRhxQzIQ35m9bn7aa1nYTT3y-IJuPBiq-ElRr0h_Y/s1600/spongebob-sd4.png" width="640" /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">Masalah terbesar dari SpongeBob Square Pants, mulai dari serial animasinya hingga fitur film pertamanya, adalah formula Krabby Patty yang entah hilang atau dicuri oleh Plankton. Dan, di film keduanya pun, tetap menggunakan formula cerita yang sama tetapi dengan kemasan yang berbeda. Jokes SpongeBob memang terkesan lebih aneh daripada film-film animasi pada umumnya. Begitupun dengan Sponge Out of Water. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">Jelas, film ini tak akan bisa memenangkan perhatian penonton awam yang baru saja mengenal SpongeBob lewat fitur film keduanya. Apalagi, penonton anak-anak yang tiba-tiba akan jatuh cinta dengan karakter SpongeBob. Meskipun ini film animasi, tetapi Sponge Out of Water ini memiliki candaan yang lebih dewasa. Akan banyak beberapa bagian yang sebenarnya tak compatible untuk disaksikan oleh anak di bawah usia 13 tahun. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">Sponge Out of Water memang tak seperti The SpongeBob Square Pants Movie yang lebih adventurous dan lebih menyenangkan. Juga, Fitur film pertamanya akan lebih memiliki straight point plot yang lebih jelas ketimbang film fitur keduanya kali ini. Tetapi, Sponge Out of Water ini memiliki treatment yang berbeda dan menjadi salah satu film animasi paling aneh tapi sangat menyenangkan yang pernah kalian rasakan dan pernah kalian tonton. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="342" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7T2RjCIVJN5K_N-y9mKXAmaYuZNvoXlDGqkcQdiD_b_dPcNntSHWy9SyrgLlDpHsfJNeMjOv_Up6sn67h3iyr_jjhhMmRRE7S6v-_dwHQHVGc62clnBLhiXgA_RMAiqA6Owt_sEVd5hM/s1600/screen-shot-2014-08-03-at-1-10-59-pm.png" width="640" /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">Di mana lagi kalian akan menyaksikan petualangan paling liar dan paling aneh di dalam film animasi. Di mana lagi kalian akan melihat para makhluk laut di film ini berada di luar angkasa, bertemu dengan lumba-lumba dengan lambang iluminati di dalam filmnya. Oh, tak perlu diambil serius tentang penggunaan lambang iluminati itu. Tak perlu sangkut pautkan dengan hal-hal lain, jelas Sponge Out of Water menyuruh kita untuk mematikan otak dan lihat saja kelakuan bodoh dan liar dari makhluk spons ini. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">Sebenarnya, Sponge Out of Water pun memiliki beberapa referensi pop yang sangat menyenangkan dan membuat tawa renyah. Tetapi, Bagaimana para Glenn Burgers menuliskan naskah yang berasal dari otak Paul Tibbit dan Stephen Hillenburg ini dengan pintar. Sponge Out of Water menyelipkan komedi-komedi sarkastik yang disembunyikan lewat tingkah-tingkah bodoh para karakternya. Tak perlu berlebihan berusaha untuk menjadi pintar, malah film ini berusaha untuk kelihatan bodoh untuk mengejek orang-orang yang terlalu serius mengikuti filmnya. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="330" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinFqAXeLn9grLT7p2AgfXHjRx1P-5Rj4KIk87Ce0W_OkHnO7PJdTXhp7mDgAVIBNb4Y2I9VTG1lMJF3qKq0NRgPYYr7MR_dUPcGYIWu9T79yTHkgXk2XBwO08Q69NC8U0EqIxth80x95U/s1600/SpongeBob-Movie-Sponge-Out-of-Water-Trailer.jpg" width="640" /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">Sponge Out of Water memberikan humor tentang orang-orang yang tak tahu ataupun berusaha tak ingin tahu. Semua disampaikan lewat adegan-adegan dan petualangan yang penuh liku-liku dengan simbol-simbol aneh yang tak dapat semua orang nikmati seluruhnya. Bercampur dengan Live-action movie, tetapi sayangnya hal tersebut hanya seperti tempelan untuk memperlihatkan bagaimana Sponge Out of Water bisa memaksimalkan teknologi canggih yang sudah ada. Oh, SpongeBob dan teman-temannya terlihat lebih menggemaskan di sana. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">Pada akhirnya, orang yang memutuskan untuk menonton The Spongebob Movie : Sponge Out of Water harus mengambil resiko untuk menikmati setiap keanehannya. Karena begitulah SpongeBob mulai di setiap episode serialnya atau fitur film pertamanya. Meskipun, tingkat keanehan di film Sponge Out of Water mengalami peningkatan dua kali lipat daripada fitur film pertamanya. Tetapi, Sponge Out of Water adalah film animasi yang cerdas tetapi tak perlu sombong memperlihatkan kepintarannya dan terlihat apa adanya. Dan ya, begitulah sifat SpongeBob di setiap animasinya. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="155" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvF_G1oevERARpR0Yji9vnDfnDzddsOvFwGcfYNo3O4Ou6Hq5LFHgP9yCjfMmxdATaBLAs1Mj7Y1QzESw_Q3R8vMcwBCDC5I2S8SzflQ8YnKZssuwlG07fRxJ0UDiDrnwE5z5ySaXq9qE/s1600/3.5-5+new.png" width="400" /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">The SpongeBob Movie : Sponge Out of Water pun ikut dirilis dalam format tiga dimensi untuk memaksimalkan animasinya. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><b>DEPTH </b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="77" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6bc743aDddzNIxh7k0z1Rn_ZYOPGpYISwKMAFOCkKe2EW9kC-egaE4thHhohGqBiBTV631u-XTNvg5rao2r8YGIqUkKKNFFIfpe-r4mHd7XLI9IiXjcDb5BTyvx87UD0iTB8W-UhnCws/s1600/4-5+new.png" width="200" /></div>Efek Depth yang sangat terasa jelas ketika film ini masih belum memasuki babak live-action movie. Tetapi ke animasinya yang dua dimensi tetapi menyenangkan. Bikini Bottom terasa begitu dekat <br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><b>POP OUT </b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="77" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6bc743aDddzNIxh7k0z1Rn_ZYOPGpYISwKMAFOCkKe2EW9kC-egaE4thHhohGqBiBTV631u-XTNvg5rao2r8YGIqUkKKNFFIfpe-r4mHd7XLI9IiXjcDb5BTyvx87UD0iTB8W-UhnCws/s1600/4-5+new.png" width="200" /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">Saksikan Spongebob, Patrick, Squidward, Mr. Krabs, dan Sandy di depan matamu. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="125" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGYM132g1e_DKeyNC0fgNV0mdgXk-XpF738F6lioImqe0YHBpb_xkioYieHqVGWtiFyo3PorHZkuw4Us7k_EoBARBpitgQ2hL64eQvX5kgRRRtNQ93XnPRqSuDmo2AW8RY4JxnqRgw1D8/s1600/YES+3D.PNG" width="320" /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">Jelas, film The SpongeBob Movie : Sponge Out of Water akan lebih menyenangkan disaksikan dalam format tiga dimensi. Bukan hanya animasi filmnya saja yang ter-upgrade menjadi tiga dimensi. Tetapi, format filmnya juga dimaksimalkan untuk menyapa penontonnya. </div>

Sponge Bob Square Pants, makhluk dari spons yang hidup di Bikini Bottom lebih dulu hadir lewat serial kartunnya dari tahun 1999. Sponge Bob pun semakin diidolakan oleh anak-anak pada masa itu dan masih menyapa hingga sekarang di suatu stasiun televisi. Tak salah, jika Sponge Bob menjadi satu ikon an…

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CINDERELLA (2015) REVIEW : Old-Fashioned Fairy Tale Without Lose it Magic

<div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqQl6qPLw1kLI8k1L-Vd0gpFwe98iukuepIWJJLOBbliC9xi407aMvTh-hM3uUwnKMXNZ5YKQhEuN6HVJtVnfNzzr9pPSumU7nA3nfo9CnGu394mEdqMqEVTa44OasKMG3pZUOnxUa_lg/s1600/cinderella+wallpaper.png" width="640" /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">Dongeng sebelum tidur kembali dihadirkan di zaman yang sudah serba <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">modern</i>. Sesuatu hal yang menyenangkan ketika akhirnya anak-anak di era ini kembali merasakan dan mengetahui cerita indah di negeri dongeng ini. Tetapi, sayangnya, dongeng-dongeng itu mengalami beberapa perubahan agar bisa mendapatkan pasar yang lebih besar dan lebih <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">universal</i>. Cerita-cerita usang itu entah diceritakan dengan adanya pendewasaan karakter, lebih gelap, atau ingin membuat dongeng tersebut memiliki cerita yang lebih multidimensional daripada sebelumnya. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"></div><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, </i>dan <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Alice in Wonderland</i> sudah pernah mengalami penceritaan kembali dan mengalami ekspansi di film-film mereka. Dan tak sedikit dari film-film tersebut tak bisa mendapatkan daya magisnya layaknya dongeng-dongeng yang mereka jadikan kiblat. Sekarang, giliran dongeng Cinderella yang dijadikan film <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">live-action </i>oleh Disney dan disutradarai oleh Kenneth Branagh. Uniknya, Cinderella versi baru ini tak perlu mengubah cerita dan mencoba untuk tetap setia dengan sumber aslinya. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinfYWEdtetwFoJkD17eGP9v-BgU-WoDm6BJw-JMN-qODstZ6x9ZtKW8WfChDVOcoWAm0FwiICru4wdj4GbzsD2d8jpMac2qlpqtw9riM42d8KRFlwCO83Gy81Ab32394l4KTIpNid_P94/s1600/Cinderella_THUMB-1416425294038.jpg" width="640" /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">Bagi yang sudah mengenal dongeng Cinderella, pasti sudah sangat tahu seperti apa persisnya cerita dari Cinderella ini. Bermula dari Ella (Lily James) yang hidup bahagia dengan kedua orang tuanya. Tetapi, sang Ibu harus meninggalkan Ella karena sakit yang berkepanjangan. Setelah beberapa tahun, sang Ayah bertemu dengan seseorang bernama Lady Tremaine (Cate Blanchett). Wanita yang sedang digila-gilai oleh ayah Ella memiliki dua anak, Drisella (Sophie McShera) dan Anastasia (Holliday Grainger). Mereka pun menikah dan Ella kembali memiliki sosok ibu di dalam hidupnya.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">Tetapi, ketika sang Ayah kembali merantau, berita buruk menghampiri Ella. Sang ayah meninggal saat perjalanan kembali ke rumah karena sakit yang tak kunjung sembuh. Ibu Tiri Ella dan kedua kakak tirinya menganggap Ella sebagai seorang pembantu yang harus melayaninya setiap saat. Tetapi ditengah penderitaannya, Ella malah bertemu dengan seorang pangeran tampan bernama Kit (Richard Madden) dan dia jatuh cinta padanya. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyvfpQ7br2p2qBuskQaGXu8oRcN2OplpnlqmJPg5EkDuiLre2tNP1zotwxBuVcuKO9C5KWeVUQkKLsByQ4wrxuUXaMF0pYulhJOVWSXm3rZQwEFFC_JnflmZOMUIZ3bvCOS4uVK7gvpxQ/s1600/screen-shot-2014-11-21-at-01-52-551.png" width="640" /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">Sebuah langkah yang mengejutkan dari Kenneth Branagh, ketika memutuskan untuk membuat film Cinderella miliknya ini menjadi film yang sangat setia dengan dongengnya. Mungkin akan menjadi sebuah resiko yang cukup besar juga, karena Cinderella tak menyuguhkan sesuatu yang berbeda dengan dongengnya yang sudah sering penontonnya dengar. Sehingga, penonton merasa tak memiliki alasan untuk harus menyaksikannya dalam layar besar. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">Tetapi, Disney tahu benar pangsa mereka, Cinderella pun dikemas dalam kemasan yang menarik sehingga penonton akan berbondong-bondong pergi menyaksikan filmnya. Tanpa perlu mengekspansi atau bertutur lebih dewasa dari dongengnya, Cinderella mampu merekap cerita yang sudah usang itu menjadi sajian dengan tutur yang sangat lembut tanpa meninggalkan kemagisan dongeng aslinya. Ya, 100 menit milik Cinderella ini adalah cara instan untuk mendapatkan cita rasa klasik dongengnya. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">Tanpa mengemban misi yang berlebihan, Cinderella berhasil menyajikan sesuatu yang sederhana. Malah, Cinderella garapan Kenneth Branagh ini berhasil mengeluarkan daya magisnya dan menciptakan suasana negeri dongeng yang kental. Juga disokong oleh Chris Weitz dalam departemen naskahnya yang mampu bertutur dengan sangat lembut. Juga diwarnai dialog-dialog cerdas tanpa yang masih menunjukkan kemewahan dan sikap anggun seperti karakter-karakternya. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="354" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirb5ZkrQz4Y39LAnY-I0ncAzsWkwUhH_B3aTjShTf_ybgXBKlx5ZrNmsCz7-xKixr7pmOivrnvVLCdFGxhdgv7ZzAAeZMqoFLCQnpJ4GADU0XVuqpLQOUH9xpfT7DhsIdXBY594kBa4Ik/s1600/cinderella3.jpg" width="640" /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">Memang tak melulu Cinderella milik Kenneth Branagh ini sangat setia dengan sumber aslinya. Lewat naskah milik Chris Weitz juga, Cinderella menjadi lebih kaya cerita dibandingkan dongeng sebelumnya. Terlebih, pengembangan karakternya pun tak menjadi komikal layaknya sumber aslinya. Para karakter –terutama karakter antagonis –menjadi lebih multidimensional dan berhasil memiliki yang sebenarnya bertujuan mengekspansi tetapi dalam batas yang wajar. Bukan serta merta memperluas sudut pandang, tetapi lebih kepada menunjukkan sisi vulnerable dari setiap karakternya. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">Cinderella versi Kenneth Branagh ini tak hanya menjual mimpi seorang gadis untuk mendapatkan pria idamannya. Tetapi, ada sisi emosional tentang keluarga, berbuat baik, keberanian, dan cinta yang tak hanya berasal dari pasangan, tetapi dari siapapun itu. Dan sang sutradara berhasil menyampaikan setiap detil pesan dengan sangat baik dan penonton sangat bisa memiliki relasi yang kuat karena bagaimana Kenneth Branagh sangat kuat dalam mengarahkan filmnya. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">Tak perlu diragukan masalah <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">production value</i> di dalam film Cinderella. Kostum, setting tempat, dan detil-detil lainnya tentu akan digarap dengan serius. Sehingga, segalanya nampak serasi dan menghibur mata yang memandang layaknya Cinderella yang baru mendapat gaun baru dari sang Ibu Peri. Juga, penataan kamera yang menarik sehingga terlihat memaksimalkan format IMAX yang digunakan di film ini. Tanpa efek tiga dimensi, gambar-gambar di film ini terasa dekat di mata penontonnya. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8OS0Jm5w5PCV9AvOoifAMsQJYR6Vn5r8_s1QtgCYoFS9xt1Vu3fgUOOlfQTFbKT5TBrsh9CNXA5CZQJHYRhASgAMRSDkZvX171WzsUYtDUGlMzxrjw-nOqwkz96N4ZkIWs1PA63QHJ5s/s1600/Cinderella-2015-33-HD-Image.jpg" width="640" /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">Daya magisnya pun dikuatkan oleh performa hebat dari para aktor dan aktrisnya. Lily James sangat berhasil menjadi sosok yang gampang mendapat simpati penonton saat memerankan Cinderella. Begitu pula dengan Cate Blanchett yang tak perlu diragukan lagi memerankan sosok antagonis, Lady Tremaine, tanpa kehilangan keanggunannya. Penampilan singkat tapi memikat dari Helena Bonham Carter sebagai <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fairy God Mother</i> juga dapat menarik perhatian penontonnya. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">Tanpa perlu memegang ambisi untuk menjadi lebih besar dari sumber dongeng aslinya, Cinderella garapan Kenneth Branagh ini berhasil merangkum dan mencapai segala kemagisan sumber aslinya. Bukan hanya menceritakan kembali, tetapi juga memperkaya cerita dengan menyelipkan pesan-pesan tentang mimpi dan harapan. Maka, Cinderella adalah sebuah bukti bahwa tak perlu berambisi untuk mengekspansi atau bertutur lebih dewasa dari sebuah dongeng. Cukup dengan setia dengan sumber, bertutur dengan lembut dan arahan yang kuat, akan ada sebuah keajaiban datang ke dalamnya. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"> <img border="0" height="155" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN9jEJFPTRcwhj-J49JUQJomBucfjjxr0JBGaNH-9uskJKHAX2iQXU9ZP13w0471aQXKMATI4SswAj2l950fELxsc7BnWnby5OD5yH3C2BsQ8TOEN4UKpHXDlcjM11GdMncksmFocO8Os/s1600/4.png" width="400" /></div>

Dongeng sebelum tidur kembali dihadirkan di zaman yang sudah serba modern. Sesuatu hal yang menyenangkan ketika akhirnya anak-anak di era ini kembali merasakan dan mengetahui cerita indah di negeri dongeng ini. Tetapi, sayangnya, dongeng-dongeng itu mengalami beberapa perubahan agar bisa mendapatkan…

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The Splendid Soviet Hockey Doc RED ARMY

<br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Opening today in the Triangle at <a href="http://www.carolinacinemas.com/raleigh/">The Raleigh Grande</a>:<br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3264102/">RED ARMY</a></b></span></span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>(Dir. Gabe Polsky, 2014)</b></span><br /><br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs1tVGRJBZI3Qi7c18wqAJvUEqSpRgwxG6fx2i1NyEaPK55zLZWokDrvdVfe9EnJVlFW1w-iqHnJDX5QJR-5FKMpq5uL2zIXiKwITJktCaKQstnSLaXlZucCEcg2RGBRP2Z4iA2GCIEss/s1600/red_army_800-600_0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs1tVGRJBZI3Qi7c18wqAJvUEqSpRgwxG6fx2i1NyEaPK55zLZWokDrvdVfe9EnJVlFW1w-iqHnJDX5QJR-5FKMpq5uL2zIXiKwITJktCaKQstnSLaXlZucCEcg2RGBRP2Z4iA2GCIEss/s1600/red_army_800-600_0.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"></span><br /><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">I’m so not a sports guy, but I do enjoy a good sports documentary every now and then. So I must point out that Gabe Polsky’s RED ARMY, the writer/director’s second feature after his not bad drama THE MOTEL LIFE, is one of the best sports docs I’ve ever seen.</span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">It tightly tells the story of the Soviet Union’s dominance of ice hockey, via their national team The Red Army Hockey Club, during the height of cold war tensions, and you don’t have to be a fan of hockey (or cold war tensions) to get swept up in its well paced narrative.</span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Largely anchored by an on camera interview with one of the key players, Slava Fetisov, multiple world championship winner and former Minister of Sport for Russia from 2002 to 2008, the film traces the history of the team, which was founded under Joseph Stalin in the '50s.</span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Through a poppy mixture of imagery that we be very familiar to fans of the FX program <i>The Americans</i>, including propaganda posters (with bright red coloring, of course), footage of oppressed Russian culture, and archival news reports, we are shown how in a demonstration of Soviet Superiority, Stalin would create athletes to dominate the West. In one bit of funny footage, a group of well groomed adolescent boys sings the chorus: “Cowards don’t play hockey.”</span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Soviet Hockey Coach Anatoly Tarasov is credited for developing the program via lifting techniques from the Bolshoi Ballet and chess which as American journalist Lawrence Martin says made their passing game “a intricate artistic tapesty which we didn't see over here.”</span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Newspaper headlines super-imposed on pertinent stock footage take us through the space and arms races and then we land in the '70s with a winning streak against Canada leading up to the team's first bout against America in two decades at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid.</span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Prior to this, Tarasov is replaced by the chief of the KGB as coach by the volatile Viktor Tikhonov, the true villain of this film. When the Russians are defeated by the U.S. Olympic hockey team at Lake Placid, Tikhonov fired the veteran players, and rebuilds the team with Festisov and four other star players (including defenseman Alexei Kasatonov), who became known as “The Russian Five.”</span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">This unit dominated international competition in the '80s, winning gold medals in the 1984 and 1988 Olympics, but it was under a harsh regiment that had its members at a training camp for 11 months a year missing their families.</span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The financial collapse of the Soviet Union in the late '80s meant the end of the cold war, which meant as Bryant Gumbel says on an excerpted broadcast that “Some of those world class atheletes that are in the Soviet Union will be allowed to come west, turn pro, and play for big rubles.”</span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">A tug of war results over the NHL and the Red Army over Festisov wanting to leave the U.S.S.R. and play for the New Jersey Devils. Festisov's wife speaks about her husband being captured by police in Kiev, handcuffed to a car battery and beaten until late into the night over this conflict.</span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">RED ARMY well illustrates the devotion of these men to the ideal of “skillful and effective hockey” that Tarasov taught them, and how powerful friendships can be, even through the testy trials of the game that Fetisov and Kasatonov endure. It also lays plain how scary it was to live through this era in which the superegos of these world powers were so pitted against each other that such showdowns on the ice could really be game changers.</span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">So again, take it from this non sports guy - this exceedingly entertaining and informative sports doc really did it for me.</span><br /><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">More later...</span></span></div><br /></div><br />

Opening today in the Triangle at The Raleigh Grande:RED ARMY (Dir. Gabe Polsky, 2014)I’m so not a sports guy, but I do enjoy a good sports documentary every now and then. So I must point out that Gabe Polsky’s RED ARMY, the writer/director’s second feature after his not bad drama THE MOTEL LIFE, is …

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Liam Neeson's Latest, The Run-Of-The-Mill RUN ALL NIGHT

<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Now playing at a multiplex near you:</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /><b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2199571/">RUN ALL NIGHT</a></span></b> <b>(Dir. Jaume Collet-Serra, 2015)</b></span><br /><br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT3ub64d95cBvqGUByQpg-9wP2NyJb1TpHsRk1enXabAo-L7KEvdwDjwD7pzXODTHzFIocZ9JzmTH-KcE2UHYD5ZbwnjCd9VhCvZj4M6lJidcLcvqPx9IPML8g7xkiIQ24xmsxmchWoLM/s1600/Run-All-Night.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT3ub64d95cBvqGUByQpg-9wP2NyJb1TpHsRk1enXabAo-L7KEvdwDjwD7pzXODTHzFIocZ9JzmTH-KcE2UHYD5ZbwnjCd9VhCvZj4M6lJidcLcvqPx9IPML8g7xkiIQ24xmsxmchWoLM/s1600/Run-All-Night.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><br /></b><span style="font-size: large;">While watching this new crime thriller, I wondered: ‘how much longer can Liam Neeson make these sort of action movies?’ The next day I had my answer as it was reported that he told an interviewer that he’d be doing them for “maybe two more years. If God spares me, and I’m healthy and stuff. But after that, I’ll stop [the action] I think.”</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">That sounds fair. I mean, he can crank out a couple more TAKENs in that time and still have time for a few more generic, run of the mill offerings like this one.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">That’s not to say there’s no fun to be had with RUN ALL NIGHT, Neeson’s latest collaboration with Spanish director Collet-Serra, their third after UNKNOWN, and last year’s airplane thriller NON-STOP. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">This time around, Neeson is a washed-up mob hit-man boozing it up in a Brooklyn club owned by his former boss (Ed Harris). Neeson has an estranged son, a limo driver played by Joel Kinnaman (<i>The Killing</i>, the ROBOCOP re-make), who wants nothing to do with his father. Harris has a son, Boyd Holbrook (WALK AMONG THE TOMBSTONES, GONE GIRL), an arrogant, entitled idiot who’s impatiently waiting to take over the family business.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">The fateful night of the title, Kinnaman witnesses Holbrook shooting down a Albanian heroin dealer which, after a gun-fire filled chase through the dark neighborhood, leads to Neeson shooting down Holbrook. “I just killed your boy, Shawn,” Neeson tells Harris on the phone. “I had to.” </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">The scenario has similarities to JOHN WICK, in that the mob boss is actually sympathetic and understands what happened, but still needs to follow through and avenge his son. The intense yet weirdly warm exchanges between Neeson and Harris, particularly in a HEAT-styled meeting in a restaurant, are the film’s highlights.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">There are some other mildly enjoyable elements in Common as a smooth dapper assassin on the trail of the father/son duo, and Vincent D'Onofrio as a frumpy cop (a guy as seemingly washed up as Neeson) set on finally busting Neeson after all these years. Sure, these characters are well worn clichés but I still enjoyed the actors’ presences.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Of course, Neeson, who amusingly is able to completely kick his alcoholism in a snap, and Kinnaman work out their differences in between shoot-outs, car chases, and brutal fist fights (my friend Fonvielle remarked that Collet-Serra and Neeson’s movies always have an intense confined-space bathroom fight), and the action moves from the city out to a house out in the country for the finale as it often does in these type things.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">The stylish choice to have swooping cameras take us from aerial shots quickly down to ground level for transitional purposes is really better suited for high tech thrillers like ENEMY OF THE STATE or LIMITLESS. It's a cool looking device, but it doesn't feel in sync with this material.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">There’s little depth in RUN ALL NIGHT, but it has more grit and less melodrama than Neeson/</span></span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Collet-Serra's previous effort NON-STOP. This entry is far from an embarrassment, and I'm certain a lot of action fans (and especially Neeson action fans) will find it quite serviceable.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">So seeya next time Neeson, when his big old end to action countdown to 2017 continues.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;">More later...</span>

Now playing at a multiplex near you:RUN ALL NIGHT (Dir. Jaume Collet-Serra, 2015)While watching this new crime thriller, I wondered: ‘how much longer can Liam Neeson make these sort of action movies?’ The next day I had my answer as it was reported that he told an interviewer that he’d be doing them…

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