Criticwire Question 20 May 2013

What movie does every film lover need to see at least once on the big screen before they die?

There are many movies that should be seen on a big screen such as “Days of Heaven” and “Lawrence of Arabia,” but every film lover needs to see “Singin’ in the Rain” on a big screen. Until last year, I only seen the 1952 classic movie about a silent film production company making the transition into sound on TV–butchered in order to make room for commercials. Directors Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly were both dancers, accounting for the attention to detail in the dance scenes. Doner would become known as King of the Musicals.

The dance numbers need to be seen large. Many people will have seen dance numbers inspired by the “Singin’ in the Rain” dance routine, but one needs to see the original. In the movie, we see a young Debbie Reynolds becoming a dancer as she holds her own against Kelly and Donald O’Connor in the number “Good Morning” and Donald O’Connor performing “Make ‘em Laugh.” There’s also Cyd Charisse in a duet with Kelly.  Without seeing this film, how can you truly understand the recent “Silver Linings Playbook” and “The Artist,” or even  ”A  Clockwork Orange,” “Legal Eagles” or “Wall-E”?  Or on a small scale,  there’s also the 2005 VW Golf commercial and episodes of “The Simpsons,” “Family Guy,” and “Glee.”

Criticwire Question for 13 May 2013

What beloved movie from your childhood holds up just as well today? And which one doesn’t?

We (my family) were animal lovers, something encouraged by living in San Diego where we frequently visited the world class San Diego Zoo and the San Diego Safari Park. I also grew up in a household ruled by Disney. As a family, we also loved cartoons.

The beloved movies from my childhood would be “Old Yeller” and the 1942 “Bambi.” I still tear up during the last moments of “Old Yeller” despite the acting that marks the movie as family entertainment. “Old Yeller” was based on a 1956 novel by Fred Gipson.

The animators on “Bambi” studied the structure and movement of animals and used Tyrus Wong’s impressionistic backgrounds which had more detail in the center to draw attention to the center of the action. “Bambi” lost money during its original release, but when it was re-released in 1947, it found its audience. This animated feature showed that cartoons can bring to life stories and portray tragedy with such emotional impact that I still ache when I think of the death of Bambi’s mother.

After seeing “Bambi,” I went on to read the 1923 book  (first published in English in 1928) “Bambi, A Life in the Woods” which is more heartbreaking than the animated movie.  I went on to read other books about deer and other animals.

The movie that doesn’t hold up as well would be Disney’s 1950 animated feature “Cinderella.”  As a child the thought of a magic fairy godmother who could sweep away your problems and find you a husband to solve all your problems seems ideal when you’re under 10 and still think marriage is about dressing up, playing house and a chaste kiss. It would be wonderful if I could train house mice to make me ballroom gowns, too, and if I could ride in a coach that was once a pumpkin. While I still have affection for pumpkins, I no longer have the same affection for Cinderella.

Since I was a child, I learned that the Cinderella syndrome is a term used to refer to parasites, the Cinderella effect refers to the theory that stepparents tend to be more abusive toward their step offspring and and Cinderella complex refers to women who is afraid of independence and wants to be taken care of by others, particularly a man. Attempting to embrace meritocracy, I find the concepts of aristocracy and better by merit of birth as part of social Darwinism. Now that the Disney princess has become a commercial brand, I find Cinderella part of a crass and less than magical movement.

Here’s a different type of Cinderella Complex:

Baz Luhrmann drags ‘Gatsby’ into the Jazz Age and beyond

Do you love grand spectacle, color and great style. That’s what Baz Luhrmann brings to the movies, and I looked forward to the opening of his “The Great Gatsby.” I love the styles, the music and  the fashion of that time period. Luhrmann gives it to us in vibrant excess as the art deco meets Hollywood CGI.

The movie features terrific performances by Leonardo DiCaprio as the titular character and Tobey Maguire as the narrator. Maguire’s character is still a witness to the horrors of callousness and immorality polished by good manners and lots of money but on more levels than just white trash versus white upper class.

Luhrmann quickly establishes Nick Carraway (Maguire) as an unreliable narrator. He’s in an institution, diagnosed as being “morbidly alcoholic” with “fits of rage” among other things. His doctor, Walter Perkins (Jack Thompson), suggests that he write. In the actual novel, F. Scott Fitzgerald suggests has Nick remembering the distant past. Both this movie and the 1974 Robert Redford version as well set us up with a much wiser Nick recalling:

In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since.

“Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,” he told me, “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.”

In Luhrmann’s movie, Nick’s unreliability is underlined in several ways–he writes he has only been drunk twice, although we see that in his writing he originally said once. We later see this isn’t true and knowing that he’s an alcoholic, we know that he’s been drunk enough for other people to notice in a public way. He’s not a quiet drunk; he’s not a full-functioning alcoholic who can hide his drinking.

The main story is the same in Luhrmann’s version as with the novel and the Robert Redford vehicle. In Long Island in 1922, Nick is based in a small cottage next to an almost impossibly large mansion owned by a mysterious man called Gatsby. Nick’s cousin, Daisy (Carey Mulligan) lives across the water, and at night Nick and later Gatsby can see the green light at the end of the pier on Daisy’s estate. Daisy is married to old money in a polo player Tom Buchanan (Joel Edgerton).

Nick is invited to Daisy’s estate, where we first see Daisy only as a bejeweled hand floating up from the other side of a couch with white transparent curtains blowing in the wind around it like veils or great shrouds. Daisy’s friend Jordan Baker (Elizabeth Debicki) is also there, dressed and made up beautifully and lounging on a couch.

At dinner, Tom spouts racist views, asking about a particular book, “The Rise of the Colored Empires,” while surrounded by black servants.  That’s a cringe-worthy moment. Then the phone rings. Baker lets Nick in on a barely kept secret: Tom has a mistress who calls at dinnertime.

Tom quickly involves Nick in this intrigue by taking him to New York where Tom passes a message to his flamboyant mistress, Myrtle Wilson (Isla Fisher),  at the local gas station in the Valley of Ashes. Tom tells her to meet him at their love nest in New York City. Myrtle is married to George (Jason Clarke) who runs the gas station and George has been promised an old car by Tom. George is a dirty, greasy  lunk of a man. Myrtle is a loud, brassy woman with gaudy tastes. Tom probably could have called Myrtle, but how much more fun it must be to ask your mistress out when her husband’s in the other room. That’s the kind of man Tom is.

Myrtle and Tom’s love nest has red wallpaper and is in a neighborhood where African Americans live in neighboring buildings. Nick waits in the living room as the couple make loud and lustful afternoon delight. That’s soon followed by the influx of friends. Myrtle and Tom’s party is drunken and violent with probably lots of embarrassing incidents if one could remember, but Nick doesn’t even know how he returns home.

In due time, Gatsby invites Nick to one of his parties and Gatsby, or Luhrmann, knows how to throw a party (Please send me an invitation next time, Baz). Here, Luhrmann puts the jazz and Jay-Z into the Jazz Age. In the 1974 movie, perhaps the most daring thing at the Gatsby party was two ladies dancing together and a bit of tango. Luhrmann has entertainers, both black and white. Men and women are drunk beyond elegance and slumping into slatternly sloppiness. Contrast that to Tom’s party as a post-coital relaxation. Jay Gatsby’s parties are his grand foreplay because wealth and glamour excite Daisy whereas his poverty frightened her away.

This Gatsby, DiCaprio’s Gatsby, has various mental issues that we’re not sure Nick recognizes. Today, we might call Gatsby a stalker. He’s been obsessing about Daisy since the moment he kissed her in Louisville when his poverty was disguised by his uniform. He loves her when they had little in common except they were two beautiful people.  His obsession with Daisy prevents him from seeing her as a woman, a shallow woman without courage or morals. His insistence on re-writing history indicates a brittle rigidity that Daisy can easily shatter.

Gatsby has ambition and has taken opportunity, but all with one very romantic aim–to have Daisy as a wife. With his illegally gained fortune, Gatsby rubs shoulders with the politicians, singers and actors. He’s on both sides of the color line, taking Nick to a club where African American dancers and singers entertain because where else did jazz come from?

In the 1974 film, Tom Buchanan racist comments mark him as man to be held in contempt (since both Gatsby and Tom commit adultery). In the book, Scott has Tom say, ”Civilization’s going to pieces. I’ve gotten to be a terrible pessimist about things… The idea is if we don’t look out the white race will be–will be utterly submerged… It’s up to us, who are the dominant race, to watch out or these other races will have control of things.” In the 1974 movie, we don’t see that many black people except for the witnesses to Myrtle’s fatal accident.  They are good credible people and the police seem to treat them with respect. Is this what Tom was worried about? Bruce Dern’s Tom doesn’t show it.

Luhrmann gives something for Tom to worry about: a white chauffeur driving rich black people in a fine car. Black entertainers in the shady club. Black people living near his illicit love nest. He’s in a neighborhood where his social set won’t see him, but also where there might be some mixing between blacks and whites.

There’s been a quibble over the casting of Amitabh Bachchan as the Jewish Meyer Wolfsheim. The 70-year-old Asian Indian Bachchan is part Hindi and part Sikh. I’m not sure what the problem is. Do people believe that he can’t pass as Jewish? There are Jews in India–five native Jewish communities and others arrived during various migrations. Does he look Jewish to you?

In the 1974 Robert Redford-Mia Farrow version, Howard Da Silva played Meyer Wolfsheim. Howard Da Silva was born Silverblatt, the son of Russian Yiddish-speaking Jews who was born in Cleveland, Ohio and changed his name to the Portuguese-sounding Da Silva. Was it to seem less Jewish? There are Jewish people who could pass for white. Think of a young Kirk Douglas. Bachchan’s Wolfsheim has a swarthy complexion and puts him distinctly on the other side of the color line drawn here. Nick and Gatsby could cross, they could pass into the social set of Nick and Daisy if they watch their language and have the right clothes, but as Tom says, there’s something in the blood that defines them that makes the old rich family different. Social Darwinism is dressed up in fine clothes and manners.

Did Scott believe that? Some of his writing would be considered racist by today’s standards. His relationship with his wife, Zelda, who was from a well-to-do family didn’t end well. They had fights, drank too much and, according to one person, needed drama. Scott was also an alcoholic and based Daisy on another rich girl who he didn’t marry. He might not have been bitter, but he like Nick isn’t probably the most reliable narrator.

Luhrmann’s version of Nick as an alcoholic cautions us to consider Scott’s version of the events–from his assessment of Daisy and Tom to his version of Gatsby. In Luhrmann’s version both Clarke’s George and Edgerton’s Tom are bigger men and more physically threatening just as his estate is more castle like (Don’t bother looking for the house that stands in for Jay Gatsby’s estate. The exterior is the college of International College of Management in Sydney, Australia.) than the stately beauty that Redford’s Gatsby live in.  You can complain about Luhrmann’s beating your over the head with some imagery, but the repetition was also present in the Robert Redford version (of the oculist sign) and the image of those eyes linger after you leave the movie.

DiCaprio is both dangerous and pathetically lovelorn. You might shudder when you see him anywhere near the water if you’ve seen “Titanic.” The movie is gaudy and gorgeous.It drags F. Scott Fitzgerald into the real Jazz Age  while adding a modern touch thanks to both CGI and a bit of hip hop.  You won’t see me drinking myself into a black out, but let’s get some fringed dresses and Charleston until the band stops playing.

Robert Redford’s ‘The Great Gatsby’ is how white people hope they look

As preparation for the much anticipated Baz Luhrmann’s “The Great Gatsby,” I took to Netflix and watched the 1974 version which starred Robert Redford.

• Review of 2013 “The Great Gatsby”

Law & Order fans might gasp at the sight of a young Sam Waterston as Nick Carraway. Carraway is the story’s narrator. His Nick is out-of-place, somber, almost passive bystander to the life that he both envies and eventually reviles. Nick is in a low-rent cottage on Long Island in 1922, next to the mysterious Jay Gatsby, a rich man who hosts lavish parties, but doesn’t seem to be a party boy. Nick’s distant cousin, Daisy Buchanan (Mia Farrow), is directly across the water, living in a beautiful house with her loutish rich husband Tom (Bruce Dern).  Gatsby is in love with Daisy and continues to pursue her despite her marriage. Nick witnesses both Gatsby and Daisy’s adulterous affair as well as Tom’s relationship with Myrtle Wilson (Karen Black) the wife of an auto mechanic, George (Scott Wilson). Tom has been promising to sell one of his old car’s to George who needs the money.

The screenplay by Francis Ford Coppola (based on the 1925 book by F. Scott Fitzgerald of the same name) and the direction by Jack Clayton provide a nostalgic look at how white people would like to see the 1920s. The people at the parties are respectable looking enough. The British-born Clayton had received an Oscar nomination for directing the 1959 “Room at the Top,” a criticism of the British class system. Yet perhaps with this version of “The Great Gatsby,” it wasn’t the right time and Clayton didn’t understand the American class system.

Martin Luther King Jr. had just been assassinated in 1968.  The race riots of the 1960s–the Harlem Riot of 1964, the Watts Riot of 1965 and the King riots of 1968 in several cities–were still part of an uneasy national consciousness. In 1974, Hank Aaron became the all-time MLB home run king. He had played in the Negro American League (for the Indianapolis Clowns) before becoming a an Atlanta Brave. Aaron received death threats and hate mail from people who didn’t want to see an African American break Babe Ruth’s home run record.

Many audience members might cringe at the Tom’s racist rants, but in the movie, the presence of African Americans doesn’t seem enough to merit the remarks except to set up Tom as an boorish man. The book is supposed to represent the Jazz Age, but jazz wasn’t born in the homes of the East Coast rich and wealthy–old money or new money.

The movie is lovely. The poor aren’t so much downtrodden as poorly dressed and in smaller houses. Nick’s cottage is like one of those TV show New York apartments–impossibly big for someone supposedly working class.

Redford’s Nick is less ambiguously immoral. He’s a steady guy in love with an unsteady girl, but no one doubts his love and that purifies all the measures he has taken to get the girl. Farrow’s Daisy is sweet but unstable, her voice often tremulous in that way Mia Farrow has that suggests both mental and moral weakness. Her Daisy lights up the screen when she is well-dressed and rubbing shoulders with the rich and famous, but lost in her own home. She is also a woman without much maternal instinct. As Daisy’s counter-part, the mistress of Tom, Black is just a girl looking for a good time and a good opportunity, but she’s not necessarily a gold digger.

Dern’s Tom is repellant, but not particularly a physical threat. Do you believe him as a former football player? As George, Wilson is a clean, decent white man with a weak will. His crime of passion comes with much more deliberation than the George of the more recent movie.

• Review of 2013 “The Great Gatsby”
  

This version of “The Great Gatsby” was praised by Truman Capote, but found to be bland by others. As a story about beautiful people having a beautiful time and one beautiful poor boy who finds tragedy when he tried to join them, “The Great Gatsby” is a fairly faithful though sanitized version. If you have a nostalgia for the flappers, and want to see some fine flapper fashion and have a taste of the Jazz Age without the people who created jazz, this is the movie for you.

‘Awake’ to the reality of therapy

Netflix is the graveyard of canceled TV shows. On the recommendation of someone I sat next to on the airplane back from Chicago, I checked out the NBC police procedural fantasy drama, “Awake.”

The premise of the TV series, is a Los Angeles Police Department detective, Michael Britten (Jason Isaacs) has survived a catastrophic car accident. He was the driver. In the car witih him were his teenaged son Rex (Dylan Minnette) and his wife Hannah (Laura Allen). Only two people survived the accident. The question is which one.

Michael has two different realities. In one, his wife has survived the car crash and they are dealing with the loss of their son. In this reality, he’s seeking therapy with Dr. Jonathan Lee (BD Wong).  In the other reality, he is trying to raise his guilt-ridden son and get past the death of his wife who held the family together. In this reality, he’s seeking Dr. Judith Evans (Cherry Jones).

In both realities, he’s still working on cases and the cases are often distantly related, giving him hunches he can’t explain to his partners. According to the therapist I met both therapists are portrayed well and it shows how easily one situation, a man coping with the death of a loved one, can result in different treatment. So sometimes getting the most out of therapy means finding the kind of treatment that helps you.

The car accident turns out to be anything but and during the first season the reasons for the accident are slowly revealed. The tone of the series is perhaps to dark and grim for TV. This production benefited greatly from the high caliber performances from Tony Award winners BD Wong (for “M. Butterfly”) and Cherry Jones (“Doubt”).  You might be more familiar with Isaacs for his role as Death Eater Lucius Malfoy from the Harry Potter movie series, but his gravely voice and steady manly presence gives this series weight.

If you enjoyed the first season of “Lost” and the whole original “Law & Order” series, give this one-season drama a try. “Awake” is currently available for instant streaming on Netflix.

The Criticwire Survey question for 29 April 2013

Criticwire asked the question (but I forgot to send the answer. D’oh): In honor of “Iron Man 3,” what’s the best comic book movie ever made?

The 1978 superhero movie “Superman” or “Superman: The Movie” is the best comic book movie ever made. The movie, directed by Richard Donner, starred the then relatively unknown Christopher Reeve. In bringing this DC Comic character to the big screen, Donner established the superhero movie as a genre that was to be taken seriously instead of falling into a campy comedy trap (and yet I still love the Adam West Batman series). It was Donner who brought in Tom Mankiewicz to re-write the script as a creative consultant.

The cast was superb. Reeve who was 26 at the time had a beautiful face with a strong jawline, a smile that produced delightful dimples, and steady blue eyes that shone with courage and sincerity. Yet his version of the man of steel was a man with physical features are sharp as his mind. That ridiculously placed curl on his Superman forehead made very woman want to rush her fingers through his hair and yet his goofy, gawky Clark Kent (or rather Superman playing Clark Kent) was a lovable puppy of a man who had yet to gain control of his long legs and arms.

Reeve held his own against the once beautiful Marlon Brando as his father Jor-El and ever reliable (and once-voted least likely to succeed by fellow actors) Gene Hackman as Superman’s nemesis, Lex Luthor. Margot Kidder as Lois Lane was gutsy and more vulnerable than Noel Neill’s had been in the TV series. Could there be a better foster father than Glenn Ford who gave us Tom Corbett in the 1963 “The Courtship of Eddie’s Father”?

A close second would be the more recent adaptation of the Marvel Comics superheroes team, the 2012 “The Avengers.”  Writer/director Joss Whedon brought humor and layered characterizations to this movie. Instead of being a team of simplistic heroes in hero mode to save the world, we had a bunch of independent, strong-willed individuals who didn’t always know how to play well with others. What Whedon couldn’t explain is why Thor (Australian actor Chris Hemsworth) and his adoptive brother Loki (British actor Tom Hiddleston) spoke with decidedly different accents.

However, I admit that my interest in “The Avengers” was largely based on my delight at Robert Downey, Jr.’s portrayal of Iron Man. I enjoyed Downey’s smart-alecky superhero reined in by Gwyneth Paltrow’s confident and competent Pepper Potts in the 2008 “Iron Man” and the 2010 “Iron Man 2,” so I eagerly await the opening of “Iron Man 3″ although I have some reservations about the arch villain in the new movie.

L.A. Asian Pacific Film Festival: See ‘Four Strings’

I was lucky to get some preview screeners for the L.A. Asian Pacific Film Festival and if you can’t get into the festival gala “Linsanity,” then be sure not to miss “Jack Shimabukuro: Life on Four Strings.”

By his name, you know Shimabukuro is part Japanese. Born and raised in Hawaii, he became familiar with the ukelele and these are the four strings that he makes his living on. This 2012 documentary was already shown on PBS in Hawaii, but has yet to broadcast here. Shimabukuro was like many teens–he formed a garage band, but he resisted the call of the guitar. Instead, he took the ukelele and brought fused it with new styles and sensibilities.

While Shimabukuro, who has also given a TED talk, took tradition and moved it forward, two documentaries look at people looking back to go forward. The 2013 “Tongues of Heaven” is about members of indigenous people who want to learn the language of their ethnic culture in Taiwan and Hawaii. With educational systems that use the majority language, and a history of governmental intervention that attempted to destroy the language and customs of the minority, this is an uphill battle. If you’re monolingual, you might wonder what’s the problem?

That question is answered in “To Weave a Name.” Directed by Christen Marquez, this documentary follows Marquez’s personal journey to re-connect with her mother and the native Hawaiian half of her ancestry. Language and culture are intertwined and especially for Marquez’s mother, language, culture and the culture of hula. There aren’t many places that teach Hawaiian. Likewise, Mandarin Chinese is the language taught in Taiwanese schools (for a time it was Japanese) but that’s not the language of the indigenous peoples.

As a nation where the majority of citizens come from somewhere else, we should encourage language skills and learning beyond English.  For Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, this month is a time to renew interest in the culture and language of our ancestors. For some, their plight is that they were indigenous peoples and learning the official language of their country also means losing some of their own culture. Once a language is lost, so is a great deal of the beauty of the culture. Can today’s generations preserve culture and perhaps, like Shimabukuro, move it forward as well?

“Jake Shimabukuro: Life on Four Strings” screens on 4 May 2013 (Saturday) at 7 p.m. at the Directors Guild  of America #1, 7920 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles.

“To Weave a Name (E Haku Inao)” screens on 7 May 2013 (Tuesday) at 6:45 at CGV Cinemas #2, 621 S. Western Ave (between 6th and Wilshire), Los Angeles, CA 90005. Then again on 11 May 2013 (Saturday) at 3:00 p.m. at the Art Theatre of Long Beach, 2025 E. 4th Street, Long Beach, CA 90814.

“Tongues of Heaven” screens on 4 May 2013 (Saturday) at 2:30 p.m. at the CGV Cinemas #2, 621 S. Western Ave (between 6th and Wilshire), Los Angeles, CA 90005. Then again on 11 May 2011 at 12:30 p.m. at the Art Theatre of Long Beach, 2025 E. 4th Street, Long Beach, CA 90814.

For more info, visit the film festival’s website.

 

 

‘Paris-Manhattan’ is a dull contemplation on Woody Allen

I’m no fan of Woody Allen or his movies, but I’d guess that even some Woody Allen fans could consider any woman who takes advice from his movies very troubled, particularly if that woman is hot. Such is the case of the 2012 French movie “Paris-Manhattan.” The movie will open up on 3 May 2013 at the Pasadena Laemmle Playhouse 7.

There’s very little Manhattan here except for the presence of Woody Allen whose voice we hear giving advice to our protagonist Alice (Alice Taglioni)–taking a cue from Allen’s “Play It Again, Sam.”  The first words we hear are his, “It’s over. I’m face to face with eternity.” The lines are not from Woody Allen’s 1979 comedy, “Manhattan.”  It’s actually from Allen’s 1986 movie “Hannah and Her Sisters.”

In the movie, Hannah (Mia Farrow) is hosting a Thanksgiving dinner with her husband Eliot (Michael Caine). Hannah doesn’t know, but Elliot is having an affair with her sister, Lee (Barbara Hershey). Here, Allen plays Mickey, Hannah’s ex-husband who suffers from hypochondria and infertility. He eventually marries one of Hannah’s sisters.

Yet when Alice in the French movie “Paris-Manhattan” ponders, “Can one be so immoral as to sleep with one’s wife’s sister? Is everything permitted?” one can’t help thinking of Allen’s own life and questionable treatment of Farrow.

Alice also wonders, “ Could this kind of immorality happen to me?” Alice is a deep thinker. She reads and tromps around in trousers. She reads while her mother and sister look for dresses in a trendy upscale boutique. Her sister chides her saying, “Mom wants you to look more feminine.”

Alice’s mother buys her a red dress and Alice grabs a top without trying it on. At a party/dance in that very same red dress, Alice mopes in front to the keyboard looking glum. Her sister is chatting up two boys.

Alice meets an engineer, Pierre (Louis-Do de Lencquesaing), who loves jazz and Cole Porter just like Alice. Alice perks up, but then her sister , Helene (Marine Delterme), comes along and it’s true love, but not between Alice and the engineer who becomes her brother-in-law, but never her lover.

Alice grows up, becomes a pharmacist, dispenses advice by giving out prescriptions of movie DVDs. She continues to take advice from Woody Allen in her head and yet can’t find true love although she’s become better at dressing herself and has become a matchmaking project for her sister. Her sister already had a teenaged daughter, Laura (Margaux Chatelier), who has a boyfriend named Achilles.

Alice is matched up with the handsome Vincent (Yannick Soulier), but he has one problem: He’s married. Then there’s Victor (Patrick Bruel) who is older, not as sophisticated as Vincent. You know that Alice will find love and she will find it through Woody Allen.

This is a fluffy little piece that asks you to suspend your believe that a blonde, thin and attractive French woman would have problems finding love and sex in France and needs the advice of a balding Jewish New Yorker whose current marriage forced his previous love alliance to break up badly and his own biological son by that relationship doesn’t speak to him at all as a result. Basically, one must ignore the Mia Farrow and Soon-Yi Previn dilemma–erase it from your memory, to go along with this film. This homage to Woody Allen isn’t particularly clever and Alice is a blindly approving fan. She has no critical depth because surely even Woody Allen fans can find fault in some of his movies.

Director/writer Sophie Lellouche has given us a piece that shows us the beauty of Paris and a romance which is more comfy than compelling. In French and English with English subtitles. The movie will open up on 3 May 2013 at the Pasadena Laemmle Playhouse 7, Music Hall and Town Center.

‘Midnight’s Children’ are X-Men without a plan

Could there possibly be a worse time for the movie adaptation of the book “Midnight’s Children”? Directed by Deepa Metha with a screenplay by the book’s author, Salman Rushdie who also provides narration, the movie becomes like an alternative universe for inept X-Men. “Midnight’s Children” opens up in New York City on 26 April 2013 and then opens in Los Angeles on 3 May 2013 at the Laemmle Playhouse 7 in Pasadena as well as the Laemmle Royal and Town Center 5 and the Hollywood Arclight. (For more locations and opening dates go to the movie’s official website).

Rushdie’s novel won a Man Booker Prize for Fiction in 1981. These literary awards are given to English language novels written by citizens of the Commonweath of Nations, Ireland and Zimbabwe. It also won a James Tait Black Memorial Prize which is for English works of fiction and biographies that are first published in the United Kingdom 12 months prior to the submission date. Rushdie’s “Midnight’s Children” tied with Paul Theroux’s “The Mosquito Coast.”

Rushdie’s novel is an example of postcolonial literature and Rushdie takes historical events and adds a liberal dose of magical realism. The movie is a British-Canadian production that was shown at the Toronto International Film Festival and the BFI London Film Festival.  In Canada, the film was given a limited release in November 2012 and is already available on DVD.

If you haven’t read the novel, you might need to check a map and the Wikipedia entry on the book. Our press notes included a map of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh as well as a family tree, a short synopsis and a long synopsis along with a list of the main characters.

Rushdie narrates as an older Saleem looking back at his life; he begins the movie by describing how Saleem’s grandfather, a European-educated doctor with a large nose, Aadam Aziz (Rajat Kapoor) came to meet Saleem’s grandmother, Naseem (Shabana Azmi) in 1917. Naseem turns out to be a woman with a strong will and she provides the doctor with three daughters: Alia, Emerald and Mumtaz.

Mumtaz becomes involved with a political fugitive who has taken refuge in the Aziz home. They marry, but are divorced. Mumtaz then marries the controlling Ahmed (Ronit Roy) who renames her Amina and takes her to Bombay. Sister Emerald (Anita Majumdar) marries Major Zulfikar (Rahul Bose).

The movie follows Amina and Ahmed to Bombay. Ahmed is buying a Victorian house–the Buckingham Villa–from a British citizen, William Methwold (Charles Dance),  who will leave India when it becomes an independent nation on 15 August 1947. William Methwold (c 1590- 1653) is the name of an historical figure who planned the city of Bombay. This Methwold is, in the novel, a direct descendant of the earlier Methwold and has two people whom he nominally supports, a street performer named Wee Willie Winkie (Samrat Chakrabarti), and Winkie’s wife, Vanita.

Vanita is also pregnant with Methwold’s child. Vanita and Amina give birth at the same time, on midnight just as the rest of the nation is celebrating independence on 15 August 1947. On a whim, the nurse for both mothers in the hospital switches the two baby boys so the rich boy becomes the poor street entertainer Shiva and the poor boy becomes the rich man’s son Saleem.

We see them as children and youths–Saleem is awkward and Shiva is angry. Both eventually grow up to be young men adrift. Shiva (as an adult played by Siddharth) will eventually rise to be rich and Saleem (played as an adult by Satya Bhabha) will meander through life into poverty. They discover that each child born in India at midnight when their nation became independent has supernatural powers and they are linked to India’s fate. The most powerful of these children were born closest to midnight–Saleem, Shiva and a girl, Pavarti (Shriya Saran).

If you’re not up on India’s history, India would fall into a civil war (the India-Pakistan Wars) and that will result in the secession of territory into first Pakistan and then Bangladesh. The movie explains this as a natural consequence of the presence of Muslims in those areas.

Saleem drifts where his parents,  history and his fate take him. He seems unworthy of such power. Shiva, bitter from having his birthright stolen from him, becomes a fighter who is both cruel and materialistic. Pavarti doesn’t seem to know how to best use her gift. She makes Saleem invisible in order to “carry” him in her basket to take him back from Pakistan into India. She casts a spell on Shiva who becomes her lover. Yet none of these Midnight’s Children are able to find greater uses for their powers. Unified action is an impossibility. They are X-Men with a cause, but without a plan.

Of course, the deconstruction of the emergence of Bangladesh and Pakistan is simplified. Some might feel that its treatment of  Indira Gandhi is harsh, but according to the press material the excesses of the declared state of emergency included “forces sterilization, the razing of slums, the incarceration of opponents, and the torture of detainees.” This movie isn’t a history course although it might appear to be one. If you believe in a meritocracy and disapprove of India’s old caste system, then you might feel uncomfortable with the fall of Saleem and the rise of Shiva.

If you’re looking for answers or an understanding of India, this movie can provide an interesting point of view, but it is one of many. Not everyone believes in fate and the hard boundaries of the caste system. A fatalistic approach isn’t going to resolve the fear, hatred and prejudice that the recent Boston Marathon bombing has inflamed. If Muslims and Hindus can’t get along, then is it possible to believe that Muslims and Christians can ever live together in this global community in peace?

Although Satya Bhabha’s Saleem is the main character, Siddharth’s Shiva attracts our eyes with his boiling resentment. One wonders about the incidents of indignation that drove Siddharth’s Shiva to such ambition, especially if one doesn’t accept caste as fate. His suffering would seem to be a more compelling , revealing story. The press material calls Saleem our hero, but he’s more of a spectator and witness to history. He’s almost a tourist in life. Seema Biswas’ guilt-ridden nurse Mary has a more interesting story as does Shriya Saran’s Parvati the witch. Is this because director Mehta wanted Bhabha’s Saleem to be just a spectator and didn’t ask for more depth?

The script has some moments of lyrical language and this movie shows the expansive beauty and desperation of what was once a conquered empire and later became three different nations. I haven’t read any of Rushdie’s books and that has nothing to do with the fatwa against him. Note that Rushdie was born in Bombay to a Muslim family but is an atheist. It might be enlightening see an interpretation of Indian or Pakistan history from the views of someone who is either Hindu or Muslim and neither hard-liner nor fair weather faithful. Such as person might not make the Booker Prize shortlist or be knighted, but would likely give us a better understanding of Islam and Muslims in a world that stereotypes them as Arab and terrorists. Such a person would be a superhero even without mutant powers of an X-Man or X-Woman.

“Midnight’s Children” opens in New York City on 26 April 2013 and then opens in Los Angeles on 3 May 2013 at the Laemmle Playhouse 7 in Pasadena as well as the Laemmle Royal and Town Center 5 and the Hollywood Arclight. (For more locations and opening dates go to the movie’s official website).

Remember our favorite beach bunny Annette on video

How could I not love Annette Funicello? Funicello died Monday, 8 April 2013, at age 70 in Bakersfield, California. While you might associate her with Southern California beaches, her last years were spent on an inland ranch with her harness racing horse owner/breeder husband Glen Holt.

Funicello was not a native Californian; she was born in New York state, but Walt Disney saw her in a 1955 when she was performing the role of the Swan Queen in a recital at the Starlight Bowl in Burbank. From “Swan Lake,” she became one of the original Mickey Mouse Club Mouseketeers.  You can rent “The Best of the Mickey Mouse Club” DVD from Netflix.

Having been born and raised in San Diego, I remembers days when attendance would be low in school and high at the beach. Surf was up and many of the swim team and divers would take off for the beach to hang out or hang ten.  I wasn’t there, even on senior ditch day. I was too square, too grade-conscious and too much under my mother’s watchful eyes, but that’s a totally different story.

That relative good-girl innocence I had is echoed in Annette Funicello’s character in her post-Mickey Mouse Club role as Dolores, the love interest of Frankie (Frankie Avalon). But I think I got my love of fringe and dance costumes from the dance sequences featuring Candy Johnson.

Funicello was told by her mentor Walt Disney not to show her belly button. We do get to see it but considering her cleavage, her bathing suits are very modest.

“Beach Party”: This 1963 movie was the first beach party movie and introduced Frankie and Dolores. Frankie has rented a beach cottage, hoping to seduce Dolores ut Dolores has invited their whole gang. It’s a pajama party at night and a beach party by day. A cultural anthropologist (Bob Cummings) is studying the behavior and rituals of teenagers on the beach. Dolores develops a crush on the scientist who is able to use pre-Mr. Spock techniques to neutralize biker touch guy wanna-be Eric Von Zipper (Harvey Lembeck). Music by Dick Dale as well as Annette and Frankie. “Beach Party” is streaming until 1 May 2013 on Netflix. It is also available on Amazon Instant Video.

“Muscle Beach Party” (1964):  ”Muscle Beach” is available to stream on Amazon.com. Frankie and Dee Dee get their gang together and find that muscle builders (led by their coach who is played by Don Rickles) have taken over their favorite surfing spot (Paradise Cove in Malibu). Then Frankie gets distracted by an Italian countess (Luciana Paluzzi) who says she’ll make him a star. Isn’t that usually a Hollywood producer? The movie features Dick Dale and the Del-Tones and a 13-year-old Little Stevie Wonder. This movie is available on Amazon.com for instant streaming.

“Bikini Beach” (1964):  It’s summer yet again and Frankie and Dee Dee are at the beach, but their beloved beach is threatened by a rich dude Harvey Huntington Honeywagon III (Keenan Wynn) who wants to turn the beach into a retirement home. That sounds more like the pricey La Jolla, not Malibu. Honeywagon has a chimp who surfs, drives and dances a mean watusi. This time, it’s Dee Dee decides to flirt with a British rocker and drag racer, Potato Bug (also played by Avalon). This movie is available as a double feature on Amazon Instant video (with “Beach Party”).

“Pajama Party” (1964): This movie is Funicello without Avalon (well almost), but it does have a beach. A martian (Tommy Kirk) lands on earth and is taken in by a quirky widow (Elsa Lanchester) who sends him off to the beach where her nephew (Jody McCrea) and his girlfriend Connie (Funicello) spend their days. Eric Von Zipper is plotting revenge against the beach gang while a sinister villain, J. Sinister Hulk (Jesse White) wants to steal the widow’s money. Connie falls for the alien and her boyfriend gets friendly with the sexy Helga  (Bobbi Shaw) who is part of the villain’s gang.  Features an appearance by Buster Keaton. “Pajama Party” is streaming on Netflix until 1 May 2013. The movie is also available on Amazon.com for instant streaming.

Beach Blanket Bingo (1965): Frankie is back and Dee Dee has to fight off a singer, Sugar Kane (Linda Evans). Sugar Kane has an agent (Paul Lynde) and a stunt double Bonnie (Deborah Walley). Bonnie wants to make her boyfriend Steve (John Ashley) jealous. Both Frankie and Dee Dee take up sky diving and Eric Von Zipper falls for Sugar Head. Then there’s that mermaid Lorelei (Marta Kristen). Featuring Don Rickles, Buster Keaton”Beach Blanket Bingo” is available on Amazon Instant video.

“Ski Party” (1965): Craig (Hickman) and Todd (Avalon) are spying on Freddie (Aron Kincaid) who has a way with women that they want to learn. Following him to a ski resort, they dress up as British women on vacation. Funicello has a cameo appearance.

How to Stuff a Wild Bikini (1965) Frankie doesn’t appear much in this one because he’s stationed in Tahiti with the naval reserve. Dwayne Hickman is the romantic lead as the man back home, Ricky,  who’s wooing Dee Dee. Frankie pays a witch doctor (Buster Keaton) to get a lovely girl in a wild bikini to lure Ricky away. “How to Stuff a Wild Bikini” is streaming on Netflix until 1 May 2013. Features a cameo by Elizabeth Montgomery and an appearance by The Kingsmen.  The movie is also available on Amazon Instant Video.

“Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine” (1965): Mad scientist (Vincent Price) dispatches female robots to seduce rich men, but Craig (Avalon) and Todd (Dwayne Hickman) thwart his plans but not necessarily on purpose. Funicello has a cameo appearance.

“Back to the Beach” (1987): A husband (Avalon) and wife (Funicello) return to the Southern California beaches from Ohio when they learn their daughter Sandi (Lori Loughlin) is making time with a surfer (Tommy Hinkley). Frankie must show that he is still the Big Kahuna and then there’s Connie Francis. Appearances by a lot of popular stars (L.A. rock band Fishbone, Don Adams (“Get Smart”), Bob Denver (“Gilligan’s Island”), Alan Hale, Jr.(“Gilligan’s Island”), Edd Byrnes (“77 Sunset Strip”), Jerry Mathers (“Leave It to Beaver”), Tony Dow (“Leave It to Beaver”),Barbara Billingsley (“Leave It to Beaver”), surf rock guitarist Dick Dale, rocker Stevie Ray Vaughan, O.J. Simpson, and Pee-wee Herman).  Siskel and Ebert gave this movie two thumbs up. Ebert wrote: “a quirky little gem filled with good music, a lot of laughs and proof that Annette still knows how to make a polka-dot dress seem ageless.” This DVD is not available on Netflix, but it is available to stream on Amazon.com.

You can buy the “Frankie & Annette MGM Movie Legends Collection on Amazon.com. The set includes: “Beach Blanket Bingo,” “How to Stuff a Wild Bikini,” “Beach Party,” “Bikini Beach,” “Fireball 500,” “Thunder Alley,” “Muscle Beach Party” and “Ski Party.”

Non-Beach Party movies

“The Shaggy Dog” (1959) In this black and white movie, a magic ring turns the wearer into an Old English Sheepdog. Unfortunately, Wilby Daniels (Tommy Kirk) has a father who is a postman and doesn’t like dogs. But as a dog, Wilby hears spies plotting to steal a government secret and has to thwart them as both a dog and a person. Funicello appears.  ”The Shaggy Dog” is available on Netflix as a DVD rental.The movie is also available on Amazon Instant Video.

“Babes in Toyland” (1961) The title if stolen from a popular 1903 opera, but the songs are different. Mother Goose (Mary McCarty) tells the story of Mary, Mary Quite Contrary (Funicello) who is about to be married to Tom the Piper’s Son (Tommy Sands). But a villain (Ray Bolger) who wants Mary for himself attempts to prevent the marriage. An army of toy soldiers help fight off the bad guys (and you’ll see them in Disney parades). “Babes in Toyland” is available on Netflix as a DVD rental. The movie is also available on Amazon Instant Video.

“The Misadventures of Merlin Jones” (1964): A college student (Tommy Kirk) develops a helmet that helps him read minds and that leads to what seems to be a crime. A crime is indeed committed when the student uses hypnosis on a judge (Leon Ames). Funicello plays the girlfriend.  ”The Misadventures of Merlin Jones” is available on Netflix as a DVD rental. The movie is also available on Amazon Instant video.

“The Monkey’s Uncle” (1965): This movie is the sequel to “Merlin Jones” and finds Merlin (Kirk) and his girlfriend Jennifer (Funicello) with a new invention–a man-powered airplane. He also develops a sleep-learning system. Merlin is the legal uncle of a chimpanzee (I know, a chimp is not a monkey, but what can I say?!) in order to use the chimp in humane experiments (PETA wasn’t knocking at Disney’s door for this one).  The Beach Boys make an appearance. This DVD can be purchased on Amazon.com.

“Fireball 500 (1966) Avalon is “Fireball” Owens, a stock car racer who must run moonshine. Funicello is his loyal girlfriend Jane. Fabian appears in this movie. “Fireball 500” is streaming on Netflix until 1 May 2013. The movie is also available on Amazon Instant Video.

“Thunder Alley” (1967) Race car driver Tommy Callahan (Fabian) has an accident on the track and after retiring, he begins to train Eddie (Warren Berlinger) to drive. As Eddie begins to win, his ex-girlfriend Annie (Diane McBain) attempts to steal back Eddie from his current girl (Funicello) “Thunder Alley” is currently available on Netflix as a DVD rental with “Fireball 500.” The movie is also available on Amazon Instant Video.

“Head” (1968): Do you remember the Monkees? This psychedelic comedy is about a group  (Peter Tork, David Jones, Micky Dolenz and Michael Nesmith) who finds they do not have free will. Their actions are all pre-determined by a script.  Funicello has a cameo. This movie is available for purchase on Amazon.com.

“Troop Beverly Hills” (1989): A rich shopaholic (Shelley Long) attempts to prove her husband (Craig T. Nelson) wrong by following through and becoming the den mother to her daughter’s Wilderness Girls group and teach them survival skills by inventing new merit badges.  Funicello and Avalon appear as themselves in a cameo appearance. What do you expect? If you’re in Beverly Hills you need to meet celebrities (like Robin Leach, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Ted McGinley, Cheech Marin and Dr. Joyce Brothers).

Rest in peace, Annette Funicello. You brought sweet charm and grace to the movies and a lot of good clean fun. If only the more recent Mouseketeers could have used you as an example.