The Irish know how to do ghost stories. Perhaps it's the heritage of pre-Christian animism that persists somehow on the Emerald Isle. As in Japanese horror films (from another animistic culture), this one's monstrous ghosts do not declare their identities, or give clear demands. They just appear, suddenly and repeatedly. This presents both an emotional and intellectual challenge for the movie's audience, identifying with the hero, while trying to decipher his haunted psyche.
Michael (Ciarán Hinds) is a widower with two children. He's a woodworking teacher in Cobh (County Cork) who's volunteered to drive authors around during a local literary festival. His father-in-law resides in a nursing home. Michael experiences a presence in the hallway of his home. Later, a scary old man appears in the car while Michael is driving. Another night, the old man pulls Michael downward, from within a hole that suddenly appears in the floor of his bedroom closet. Such apparitions may relate to Michael's guilt about neglecting his father-in-law, who complains of his alienation and then commits suicide. Or it may relate to Michael's own father, who was unfaithful to his mother. (Both died some years ago, but perhaps their ghosts were revived in Michael's mind through the recent death of his wife.) A girl ghost also appears briefly, perhaps an image of Michael's wife when she was younger. Near the end of the film, his wife appears as good ghost, touching Michael's face gently, yet leaving him weeping with loss again when she disappears.
This complex film also explores a love triangle among the living. As a driver for the literary festival, Michael meets Lena (Iben Hjeje), a best-selling author of ghost stories, and Nicholas, a more self-important, demanding, and panicky author (played by Aidan Quinn). Nicholas had an affair with Lena at a prior festival. Though he has yet to leave his wife, he wants to continue the affair, but Lena turns away from him and becomes closer to Michael instead. They connect through their personal experiences of spirits, but Nicholas's passion for Lena and imbibing of spirits prevents them from forming a full friendship. Nicholas even challenges Michael to a fistfight over Lena. The film shows this, like the ghostly visits, with a rare dose of reality: characters get bloody with one punch, are hurt more than others intend, and continue to suffer afterwards. The fistfight and Lena's subsequent return to London resolve the romantic tension. Yet Michael's psychic pain, especially as it affects his children, remains for the viewer to fathom further, while haunted by this wonderfully scenic, scary, and meaningful movie. Review by Mark Pizzato
Mark Pizzato is Professor of Theatre and Film at UNC-Charlotte. His screenplays, produced as short films, have won New York Film Festival and Minnesota Community Television awards.
This entertaining and insightful documentary, which will be shown again in Charlotte (starting Oct. 2, at the Regal Ballantyne Village Stadium 5), explores the current "collision of faith and culture" in American society. It delightfully mixes interviews of ordinary citizens, politicians, and scholars with media clips of famous voices, sometimes using cartoon figures, plus journalistic reporting and even a mock TV game show, Culture Wars, based on The Family Feud.
Dan Merchant is even better than Michael Moore at challenging people on different sides of an issue, with a seductive sense of humor as an interviewer, while also letting himself be challenged. He thus encourages the movie audience to rethink their assumptions and political positions. As an Evangelical Christian, he reflects on the worldview he received as a child. Though he maintains a loyalty to his Church, he critiques his fellow followers' frequent politics of hatred toward certain enemies as devilish—and makes that paradox into a journey of self and other discovery.
As well as giving a personal and historical context for this "culture wars" problem, Merchant creates various stunts to explore it, even making friends with various people on the other side (such as a gay man cross-dressing as a "nun" in San Francisco). He travels the country wearing a silly suit with many Christian and anti-Christian badges and bumper stickers, to get ordinary people to talk with him on camera. He makes them, and the movie audience, think in new ways about basic ideas. What are Christians? What is the Church?
Merchant gives a cartoonish, yet perceptive illustration of the "splintered" Christian Church, and thus the modern Body of Christ, as a Frankenstein's monster, swatting at enemy ideas and groups, like a paranoid King Kong at airplanes. The film also explores significant sites of the culture wars, showing how Christian animosity toward political opponents (or theirs against Christians) is, ironically, the antithesis to Christ's teachings about loving one's neighbor (and to liberal ideals of tolerance). Merchant offers key comical quips from Bill Maher and Jon Stewart, plus his own interview with Sen. Al Franken, to show the wisdom of the other side. With its mock game show, Culture Wars, the films shows that liberals sometimes know more about Christian ideas than the Christian contestants know about Darwinism or even their own political positions. Merchant even sets up a confession booth at a guy pride event in Portland, personally apologizing for the harm done by Christians through their political media, while learning more about the sufferings of those his Church has demonized.
The ideological journey that this filmmaker displays makes him an inspiring figure, like others he lauds (Nelson Mandela, John Paul II, Bono, and Rick Warren) for reaching beyond political divides toward a common cause of reconciliation and helping the poor. But Merchant is a creative entertainer, too, as well as a sensitive interviewer. The film may disturb some, or carry on too long at the end with its examples of Christ-like social work. Yet, it works as a new kind of fun, thoughtful, and emotional documentary. All "Christians" should see it and so should liberals who cringe at that term, as an enjoyable antidote to the hate media that endangers us all. Review by Mark Pizzato
Mark Pizzato is Professor of Theatre and Film at UNC-Charlotte. His screenplays, produced as short films, have won New York Film Festival and Minnesota Community Television awards.
A surreal, slow-motion fall from a skyscraper, by a young man in a business suit holding a briefcase, frames this farcical, yet nightmarish film. Bob's voiceover waxes poetically about being a cog in the universe and, not so poetically, about "letting her get to you." His girlfriend Susan left him, because he didn't have a job. So, he dressed up and tried to become a company "manager." He met a man in a Death costume at a diner and a homeless prophet in an alley. He was also given advice by two talking eggs, cooked sunny side up. He then glued his hand to an executive and met the boss of the company who told them both to jump out the window in order to get the top job (if they survived). And thus, he realized his true calling.
Great production values and witty insights make this film a delight—even if hits close to home for those seeking work during a recession, or with vertiginous temptations to become a "space explorer." Review by Mark Pizzato
Mark Pizzato is Professor of Theatre and Film at UNC-Charlotte. His screenplays, produced as short films, have won New York Film Festival and Minnesota Community Television awards.
Filmed in Charlotte, The Killing Jar is one of my favorite narrative features (that I've seen) in this year’s Charlotte Film Festival. This is ironic as I have a strong aversion to violence, but there’s no mistaking the mastery of writer/director Mark Young.
A drab diner in the small town of Silverlake, an isolated, once thriving place where the even the lake has since dried up, is the setting for this brutal drama. A man (Michael Madsen) enters the diner as the kitchen closes. The grizzled owner Jimmy (Danny Trejo) threatens the waitress Noreen (Amber Benson) to get working, but there are only a few patrons still lingering on this hot night. The sheriff Lonnie (Lew Temple), a truck driver Hank (Kevin Gage), a couple of young lovers named Starr and Billy (Lindsey Axelsson and Talan Torriero), and a salesman named Joe Dixon (Harold Perrineau) sit around listlessly.
Since they have heard about the murders of an entire family on the radio, Noreen senses that the man, whose name we never find out, is dangerous and asks Lonnie to question him. Lonnie reluctantly does so in an inept manner which angers the stranger. He leaves, but comes back and the killing spree begins. This is only the beginning of the nightmare as a man named Greene (Jake Busey) enters with a suitcase full of money to pay off a contract to “Smith.” But who is Smith?
It’s become a cliché to say that casting is 90% (or whatever) of directing, but the acting here is excellent across the board, and is a large part of the success of the film. Michael Madsen is one of those actors who seems like he’s doing nothing, but conveys so much with just a look or a gesture. He can make his icy blue eyes look like the reflections of a lifeless soul. His fellow actors keep up with him though, especially Amber Benson as the terrified waitress Noreen, Jake Busey as the smug Greene, and Harold Perrineau as the luckless salesman. This is an ensemble who works well together so all contribute in their various roles.
The opening scenes of a butterfly in a jar give hints to the title and what is to come. Murder is an ugly business, but can make for intriguing filmmaking. Review by Ann Marie Oliva
Ann Marie Oliva is the producer/editor of ARTS à la Mode. She reviews both film and theatre.
Eight student shorts from Montevideo, Uruguay, were shown, with these as the most interesting. Preamble shows a schoolboy challenged to meet another for a fight after class. The expression on his face, his attempt to ask the teacher a question after the rest of the class leaves, and the encouragement of his friends that he'll "beat" the other guy—all show his reluctance and the peer pressure shaping his fate. In Colchones a restless girl drags a walking stick on a dirt path, waters the plants at home long after her mom tells her, and intentionally drops a wineglass, cutting her foot, so that her mom's friend, a medical student, will give her attention in the bathroom.
In Magic Night a sleepless Humberto, who feels empty, tries solve his existential problem by cooking, but his flan falls flat. Heavenly Covenant has a voice-over commenting on the sudden death of an 11-year-old boy, who fell to the floor while reading a comic book. The publication year (1986) and numbering of the comic book may have given the boy the secret meaning of his existence, and his heart burst at that ecstasy, or he simply had a fatal heart attack for unknown reasons. Review by Mark Pizzato
Mark Pizzato is Professor of Theatre and Film at UNC-Charlotte. His screenplays, produced as short films, have won New York Film Festival and Minnesota Community Television awards.
As a curious and comical short, this film explores the animal side of human desire. It focuses on a rational scientist who experiments with the simple behavior of pigeons but is pushed into uncharacteristic acts by the plot's ironic twists and triggers.
Joshua, the calm behavioral scientist, dissuades his brother Eric from violent vengeance against Cole, who was abusive to their sister, Miriam. Yet Joshua's voice-over confesses to the audience his guilt in making his wife pregnant while fantasizing about a student in his lab. He also relates how his mom's death, when he was seven, changed his life. Such things somehow trigger his current behavior, as he takes on his brother's desire, even after arguing against it. Joshua drives six hours to Cole's house, where he just shows him a small picture of a gun. But when Miriam enters with a black eye, this triggers a further rage in the mild-mannered scientist and he attacks Cole. He is then in prison as his wife goes into labor, so Eric takes her to the hospital, where she safely delivers.
Fine acting and production values, based on an insightful short story, make this film a delight, as it ironically counters the melodramatic code of vengeance with a behavioralist's ineptitude. Review by Mark Pizzato
Mark Pizzato is Professor of Theatre and Film at UNC-Charlotte. His screenplays, produced as short films, have won New York Film Festival and Minnesota Community Television awards.
This darkly comic romance begins with a suicide note written on toilet paper—and the writer's ghostly voice-over. But Sam has failed to complete the job, with a razor in his motel room bathtub, and his brother Burke brings him back to life. As Sam then explains, they lost their parents when he was seven. Burke became a chain-smoking bouncer with a beard and black leather jacket. Sam became an English grad with a chain of temporary jobs.
They share some drinking buddies, who are even more forlorn, including Patrick who's been putting on a Scottish accent for six years. The brothers also share Nicole, "a bitch from hell." She befriended Sam, married him, and ruined his innocent sense of love, even burning his memorabilia. Then Burke married her to get revenge for his brother, fell in love with her (as a similarly aggressive personality), and yet still burned her things. So far, this doesn't sound like a funny story. But the film presents its aftermath with almost cartoonish violence and sweet romantic dreams, despite the existential misery.
Burke frequently beats up people yet the movie doesn't dwell on their injuries. Also, Sam's note is found by a cleaning lady, young Chloe, who leaves a return note (on toilet paper). They meet on the beach and find they have much in common, including the joy of bubbles. But then, Sam gets tied up in his motel room by an enraged husband, who accuses him of being the "Other Man." (This turns comical again as the man knocks himself out with chloroform and later realizes he's got the wrong room.) Thus, the film's hopefully happy ending becomes a bit more of a struggle.
Sam must summon the courage, with Burke backing him up, to steal Chloe away from another enraged husband. While the comical misery of the drinking buddies gets somewhat tedious, as does Sam's, the actress playing Chloe brightens the screen, helping the film to surface, with sweetness distilled, despite the slow pace and otherwise moping or abusive characters.
Fortunately, this film will just got a distribution deal for 17 cities. So it may come to a theatre near you soon. It's worth finding—especially with its beautiful views of various sites along the South Carolina coast and fine work by area actors. Review by Mark Pizzato
Mark Pizzato is Professor of Theatre and Film at UNC-Charlotte. His screenplays, produced as short films, have won New York Film Festival and Minnesota Community Television awards.
As the title suggests, this film concerns the truth of images before us. What’s real; what isn’t real, and how do you tell the difference? The moody mystery concerns a murder-suicide. A photographer who worked with the female victim, Stephanie, presumed killed by her boyfriend, tries to find out what happened and why. Filmed to look like a documentary, the story is slowly revealed through interviews with family, friends, co-workers, police, and photos, with some quick cut video flashbacks.
The movie is helped enormously by having Melissa Leo star as the enigmatic Stephanie. (She was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar last year for Frozen River, one of ARTS à la Mode’s top movie picks of 2008.) The viewer sees photos of Stephanie from childhood, to her time as a model, to the present when she seems to have become obsessed with changes in her image. The photographer took hundreds of photos of Stephanie and wants to know if this may have affected the outcome in some way. Almost all those interviewed lie to either protect themselves, Stephanie and/or Richard, the boyfriend.
The film is well-acted, interestingly written and directed, though you must be comfortable with ambiguity to decide the final resolution for yourself. Review by Ann Marie Oliva
Ann Marie Oliva is the producer/editor of ARTS à la Mode. She reviews both film and theatre.
A young man withdraws all the money from his account while another robs the bank. The reluctant robber takes the young man hostage but notices he's in tremendous pain. They end up on the roof but there is no escape there. As they find out more about each other a twist resolves both stories. Review by Ann Marie Oliva
Ann Marie Oliva is the producer/editor of ARTS à la Mode. She reviews both film and theatre.
Attendance at this movie will depend on political ideology. Since the filmmaker is Michael Moore no guesswork will be required as to whether it will be mostly enjoyable and supportive of one’s view or found to be distasteful propaganda. Although it’s partisan, and not always balanced, its take on recent history leading up to, and the aftermath of, the recent financial debacle, makes a strong case that the “little people” are being batted about for the profit of the rich.
The joke in the title is that there is not a word of affection, let alone “love,” uttered on behalf of capitalism. At least, as it now exists. After a brief reflection on the faults of imperial Rome (by now haven’t most of us heard the comparisons of the recent decades of America and the downfall of that ancient empire), the screen switches to one of the cold, heartless home evictions that have become too often a part of present day life. Though the setting is rural (a home on a farm that had long been in the family), scenes will follow of devastated, littered, boarded, ruined houses in emptied city neighborhoods. But, not everyone is bothered by this happenstance, as typified by the guy from “Condo Vultures” who caters, as he himself admits, to the bottom feeders looking to make a profit from the pain and loss of others. How is it possible not to be angered by such a situation?
By contrast, Moore presents personal and archival film of the golden days, post war and after, when good paying jobs awaited, women didn’t need to work if they didn’t care to, children were indulged, and the American dream was not only possible, but pretty much available for the asking. Leaving aside the fact whether this ideal was or was not widespread, we get one of Moore’s generalized, sweeping, inferential claims that, of course, America was on top of the world because we had, in the course of winning the war, destroyed the industrial base of Germany and Japan so we had no competition. Here’s another, that capitalism led to the failed aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Another, unions are uniformly heroic. Wait, this is all too simple. The trouble is that by being so biased, Moore hurts his own case. As a wit once remarked, “the truth is rarely pure and never simple.”
Moore, though, makes his stand on the left. While President Carter warns Americans of the error of their ways (in a speech where he chides about the primacy of acquisition over deeds), Reagan and Bush (who seem to offer unending opportunities for buffoonery) are presented as figureheads skillfully manipulated by Wall Street. They are not alone as the list of the guilty includes Senator Dodd, in particular, and Congressional leaders. And, in the forefront, are the minions (Summers, Paulson, etc.) of the biggest arch villain of all – Goldman Sachs. And it’s hard to disagree that the American public hasn’t been taken to the cleaners.
What to do? Moore advocates rebellion, whether refusing to be forced from a foreclosed home, employees leaving a factory who have been sacked without their rightful pay and benefits, and, grandest of all, the power of the vote (which is what corporations fear most of all, because they are totally outnumbered). And again Moore dilutes his message by hailing the “change” election of President Obama while, however, not mentioning that his secretary of the treasurer is Timothy Geitner who, earlier in the film is indicted as an incompetent pawn of Wall Street corruption.
Overall, Michael, you don’t need to stack the deck. The facts are damning enough. Maybe, too, your movie came too soon. After all, we still don’t know how it will all play out.
Capitalism: A Love Story – Surprise, the rich get rich, and the poor get poorer. Review by Charles Zio
Charles Zio is a graduate of New York University Film School and a freelance writer.
With backstage and onstage revelations about the covert business of a New York City dominatrix dungeon, this film focuses on a young lesbian, Natalie, as she tries to find true love and get her screenplay produced. It also shows Natalie at the family dinner table, with her controlling mom and competitive sister. But the reason for her father's absence, or his effect on Natalie's psyche, is not. Likewise, the film barely suggests the stress of Natalie's profession, or its performative dangers, while idealizing the power she finds in making men submit and the supportive hugs of her fellow sex workers.
And yet, with its Sex in the City escapades of beautiful, young, adventurous women trying to find a meaningful life, while stretching ideas of the "normal," this becomes a surprisingly sweet, funny, and insightful, as well as seductive film. Natalie meets Jasmine at a lesbian bar and they fall in love. But they can't continue together, because Jasmine has nightmares about her dominatrix lover. Natalie also writes a bio-pic with a charming male friend (a weed dealer), then gets it made into something like the current film, by helping a sadistic director find his hidden masochistic desires and by using the money offered by another regular client who claims he "loves" her. Well produced, with fine acting, witty dialog, and some very sexy scenes, this self-reflective feature makes its origins seem like a rose garden, while showing some of the thorns. Review by Mark Pizzato
Mark Pizzato is Professor of Theatre and Film at UNC-Charlotte. His screenplays, produced as short films, have won New York Film Festival and Minnesota Community Television awards.
This film explores the Ramayana story, an ancient Indian myth, as prominent as the Bible's tales, through four intertwining animations, while also parodying Bollywood musicals. In one series of animations, the ancient story is shown directly. (Sita is kidnapped, causing a war between monkeys and demons. Then Rama rejects her as impure, but she sacrifices herself to prove she was not unfaithful with the kidnapper. Yet, Rama rejects her again when she becomes pregnant.)
A sillier version is shown with Sita singing blues music. Also, shadow puppets with modern voices narrate it critically (like Mysterious Science Theatre commentators). And a modern New York couple becomes divided, like Rama and Sita, in a parallel story. Elaborate animations of the celestial gods also frame the film at its beginning and end.
I found the blues version a bit tedious, but thoroughly enjoyed the shadow puppet commentators, whose struggle to recall details and interpret the myth through modern views become hilarious and very insightful. This traditional story about ideal love, despite its pre-feminist slant, has many modern meanings, as the film beautifully shows. Review by Mark Pizzato
Mark Pizzato is Professor of Theatre and Film at UNC-Charlotte. His screenplays, produced as short films, have won New York Film Festival and Minnesota Community Television awards.
As a middle-aged heterosexual man, I may be the wrong person to review this film. It displays the "boycrazy" confusion of young homosexual men, in a fanciful, well-produced, and (I must say) repetitive musical form. Corey enjoys playing the field, yet wants to get a bit more serious with one of the boys he dates and can't decide whom to pick. There are various songs about this pickle, with refrains about being boycrazy, about finding fun in the chat room (with online faces and a dancing bare butt shown), about dating both men "platonically," or "I'll play with any man, why stop with two?" There's youthful energy and silliness throughout the film, with a dancing chorus in their underwear during "intermission," and with two lesbians wondering why they're in a film about gay men. Despite some CFF technical problems with the DVD (it happens every year), this film ends happily, too, with Corey making up his mind. What a relief. Review by Mark Pizzato
Mark Pizzato is Professor of Theatre and Film at UNC-Charlotte. His screenplays, produced as short films, have won New York Film Festival and Minnesota Community Television awards.
In this strangely realistic, yet absurd short, a gynecologist is pressured by her bosses to examine a boy, who claims to be a girl, despite the erection he shows while in the stirrups. The doctor performs an explicit Freudian slip of vengeance, producing a mixed effect upon the movie's audience—both laughter and sympathetic pain at some levels. Review by Mark Pizzato
Mark Pizzato is Professor of Theatre and Film at UNC-Charlotte. His screenplays, produced as short films, have won New York Film Festival and Minnesota Community Television awards.
Like Latin American immigrants in the USA, Turkish "guest workers" have taken menial jobs in Germany for decades. This film presents a love triangle that plays upon that context, turning stereotypes into complex, tragic figures.
Thomas, a veteran of the Afghan conflict, is robbed by friends once he returns home. He can only find work as a cucumber picker, until he gets hired by a neighbor, Ali Ozkan, who operated 45 snack bars in the area. Thomas saves the alcoholic Ali several times: when the drunk drives his car into a ditch, when he punches a snack bar employee who's cheating him and another attacks him with a knife, and when he slips at the edge of a cliff. Yet, as an obedient, handsomely muscled worker (and trained fighter), Thomas also catches the eye of Ali's German wife, Laura. Ali bought the love of Laura, like the loyalty of Thomas, when she was broke, after getting out of prison. But they betray him together—after he encourages them to dance intimately on the beach. Laura fears that "you can't love without money." So she plots with Thomas to kill Ali, get his riches, and live happily ever after. Then she learns that Ali has a terminal illness. And Ali realizes how his wife and friend are betraying him, in a country "that doesn't want him," where he's lived since he was two years old.
Oddly, Ali becomes a Freudian father figure to the socially despised Germans, who grasp at primal bliss beyond his watching eyes (like an incestuous child and mother). Yet, when Ali discovers their plot against him, at the film's end, he finds an ironic revenge to haunt their wealth and happiness. Review by Mark Pizzato
Mark Pizzato is Professor of Theatre and Film at UNC-Charlotte. His screenplays, produced as short films, have won New York Film Festival and Minnesota Community Television awards.
A domino-effect of ordinary incidents leads to a caught-in-the-act surprise. That scene is shown first, as the film begins. But what we thought was happening becomes much funnier, and more insightful about projected suspicions, when we see, in this clever French farce, what really caused an apparent affair. Review by Mark Pizzato
Mark Pizzato is Professor of Theatre and Film at UNC-Charlotte. His screenplays, produced as short films, have won New York Film Festival and Minnesota Community Television awards.
This film packs some horrifying intensity into a small space of time. Like the twist at the end of The Others, a woman realizes here that the ghosts haunting her—and her mother—may be due to something she barely remembers, placing her between worlds. Review by Mark Pizzato
Mark Pizzato is Professor of Theatre and Film at UNC-Charlotte. His screenplays, produced as short films, have won New York Film Festival and Minnesota Community Television awards.
Bloody boxing shots begin this short film—as if we've jumped into the Raging Bull ring, with de Niro and Scorsese, but in color. Then the story gets a distinctive device. After being told his career is over, the "old man" boxer, Bobby, meets a mystical janitor in the locker room, who gives him killer gloves. Bobby becomes a "name" again because he not only wins fights but sends his opponents to the grave. So he burns the gloves, out of guilt, yet meets them again through the "business" he's chosen. In a brief, surprising way, this film critiques the violence of boxing, and its appeal onscreen, while luring the audience into that pleasure. Review by Mark Pizzato
Mark Pizzato is Professor of Theatre and Film at UNC-Charlotte. His screenplays, produced as short films, have won New York Film Festival and Minnesota Community Television awards.
This very dark comedy is so disgusting that it's barely watchable. And yet, it has an intriguing charm. We see Casper, a perennial lottery loser, on the job as a toilet cleaner. We see him return, day after day, to a very shit-covered toilet, digging out various items that clog it. He becomes philosophical about his drudge work, sharing his ritual routine with us as he jokes about the hallway outside the john as his "cathedral" and muses that we are all just "collateral damage in humanity's war." But then a hand appears from the black hole—and more—with a primal twist that makes his persistence and our revulsion pay off. Review by Mark Pizzato
Mark Pizzato is Professor of Theatre and Film at UNC-Charlotte. His screenplays, produced as short films, have won New York Film Festival and Minnesota Community Television awards.
Many of us know about the assassination of Martin Luther King in Memphis in 1968. But that event overshadowed a sanitation workers strike in the city at the same time. This moving documentary allows us to meet some of the blacks who collectively protested their harsh working conditions and low pay, demanding respect while picketing and holding signs stating: "I am a man."
We also meet their family members, historians giving a further context to the events, and today's sanitation workers, including Elmore Nickleberry, who was one of the 1,300 strikers in 1968 and is still on the job. He also goes to schools, inspiring young people with his story—and now many others through this film. (It will be screened again on Sun, Sept 27, at 3:30pm, at Queens University.) Review by Mark Pizzato
Mark Pizzato is Professor of Theatre and Film at UNC-Charlotte. His screenplays, produced as short films, have won New York Film Festival and Minnesota Community Television awards.
Immigration has been an explosive topic for some years now. A microcosm of that fight is seen in this documentary about Prince William County in Virginia as public officials, bloggers, long term residents, and new residents all express their passionate opinions as documented by the filmmakers about a policy where police could question people about their immigration status.
The housing boon (before the recent bust) had many legal and illegal immigrants come to the county for the plentiful construction jobs. This created not only resentment, but hate and fear among those who felt the changes were threatening their way of life. Some of the behavior is appalling, and even hostile to the filmmakers themselves as explained at a talkback after the screening.
During the course of filming this documentary also became an “interactive blog” that shows the enormous power of the internet, for better or worse. The filmmakers, Eric Byler and Annabel Park, are to be commended for their total commitment to the subject matter. Even though they certainly come down more on one side than another, they do not shortchange those with opposing views. Review by Ann Marie Oliva
Ann Marie Oliva is the producer/editor of ARTS à la Mode. She reviews both film and theatre.
Bronson has to be one of the most explosively psychotic characters ever seen on film. Based on a true story, Bronson starts life as Michael Peterson. He narrates parts of the movie telling us his parents were “normal.” He turns into a bully whose violence escalates as he gets older, as his mental health deteriorates. At 19 he commits a robbery with a handmade wooden gun and gets seven years in prison. This begins Bronson’s long incarceration where his vicious behavior assures an extended sentence with most of his time spent in solitary confinement.
There is an ugliness here that is difficult to ignore. As Michael Peterson morphs into Charlie Bronson (our film icon of violence), the prison system doesn't deal well with his out of control behavior. He has no fear of pain, in fact, he seems to relish it. So they beat him whenever he acts out. Violence for violence. This is not a man who should be let loose in society, but he’s not an animal. Or maybe that’s how they see him? Yet, in his warped way Bronson seems to think he is retaining some shred of dignity.
Those who try to help him are ultimately unsuccessful and even damaged by him. Bronson has no ability to know what the acceptable social norms are, and by the time he returns to prison after a few short months of freedom, he’s there for good.
Tom Hardy plays Bronson believably and completely. He spends the majority of the time naked and/or bloody. This is a real tour de force performance; it’s his film all the way, though the cast is good across the board.
Director Nicolas Winding Refn, who co-wrote the script with Brock Norman Brock (yes, that’s his name), presents a horrifying portrait of a violent life, but rather than glorify violence it shows the self-defeating nature of brutality. Special mention should be made of editor Matthew Newman, and cinematographer Larry Smith for their work on this film.
Review by Ann Marie Oliva
Ann Marie Oliva is the producer/editor of ARTS à la Mode. She reviews both film and theatre.
Just about everyone has heard of Sun Tzu's The Art of War which is about military strategy but used by businesses and other endeavers to plan tactics and get advantage over others. In this short film three toughs are on a street late at night and one is reading to the others from the book.
As it seems to inspire them, the leader sees two fliratious lovers heading home and decides to attack them. The tension and fear of the young couple is realistic given they are in an alley with thugs who will probably rob them, and worse. But Sun Tzu warned flexibility is needed when the unexpected occurs---as it does here. Nicely done.
Review by Ann Marie Oliva
Some movies help us to escape our mortal fears, with supernatural fantasies. Others help us to find meaning through mortality. This charming film does a little of the former and much more of the latter. Alex, a grumpy British actor who has retired to Lisbon and does travel video voice-overs in a soundproof chamber inside his home, also narrates the film (in English). He struggles to keep his spirits up, after his wife's death, while feeling alienated as a foreign resident and using spirits to forget his despair. The character's poetic, philosophical musings, eloquently performed by the actor, along with his occasional flights of fancy, keep the film initially uplifting. We even see him ride, sitting up in a moving casket and drinking, with others applauding around him, as if enjoying a party at his parting—while he tells us that others fear him in his "eternal waiting room," because his aging body shows them their future.
The film then becomes a love triangle, as Irene, a young artist neighbor, insists on painting portraits and spending time with Alex, while young Bruno, who steals memorabilia from neighbors, also falls for her. Irene brings joy into Alex's life, yet also danger, with her passion for art, ideas, and wild driving. Suddenly, she disappears. Alex fights with Bruno as they both search Irene's apartment for a clue. But the two men eventually develop a father and son bond, through their quixotic quest to find Irene.
Parts of that developing relationship move rather slowly, especially for an American audience bred on Hollywood action movies. Yet, the insights offered along the way—with Alex performing bits of Beckett (as Hamm from Endgame) and shaking his cane at windmills—make it worth waiting for Irene with him and his young thief-friend. And then at the end, Alex's voice-over shares with us, like a ghost after the character's demise onscreen, what the film shows more fully: his "trick to living." Review by Mark Pizzato
Mark Pizzato is Professor of Theatre and Film at UNC-Charlotte. His screenplays, produced as short films, have won New York Film Festival and Minnesota Community Television awards.
Excerpts from interviews with musicians, actors, neuroscientists, and other folk explore the question "What is music?" in this delightful documentary. There are many answers: feeling through the body (which deaf musicians demonstrate), synesthesia, rebellion, prophecy, a shaman-like guide through life, primal heartbeats from the womb, personal brain wave echoes, or messages on a gold record sent to outer space for extraterrestrials to find.
But the film also shows, with brightly moving geometric designs, how multisensory rhythms tie into our emotions, as well as our ideas—affecting the ways that we listen and interact, whether dancing, speaking, walking, gesturing or sitting still in cinema seats. Review by Mark Pizzato
Mark Pizzato is Professor of Theatre and Film at UNC-Charlotte. His screenplays, produced as short films, have won New York Film Festival and Minnesota Community Television awards.
A little blonde girl who seems much loved by her parents finds their attention turning toward a new "love child," the pet cat, in this funny, yet insightful short film, which shows how warped the human reproductive drive can become.
Review by Mark Pizzato
It's rare to see Charlotte onscreen. But this crime melodrama by independent filmmaker John Schwert not only shows our urban environs, it also offers some excellent Charlotte performers in a mix of stand-up comedy, documentary interviews, and tragic incidents. It's an ensemble piece, touching on various stories, like the Hollywood hit, Crash (or Altman's earlier Short Cuts). Yet, the frequent insertion of character interviews with a juggled, hand-held camera (even though the video camera is shown in the film as being firmly set on a tripod) may annoy some in the audience. Others may be distanced by this technique into a further critical reflection about the significance of each life—beyond what is being shown.
Details are sketchy with this film's insistence on giving attention to many characters' stories and then interweaving them into one mystery. But it's clear from the beginning that Bruce, an Iraq/Afghanistan veteran, has come home after 26 months of "recon." His wife, Salem, told him she was raped by Conrad, the mayor's son. So Bruce takes revenge one night, murdering Conrad outside a bar where stand-up comics are performing and a public access channel documentary is being shot. Bruce tells Salem what he's done and that the gun cannot be traced, because he took it off an insurgent in the war. Salem tells her girlfriend Christina about Bruce getting revenge—and we learn that it was actually Christina who was raped. But no, we learn later that this isn't true either, and why.
Such tragic incidents become mostly melodramatic, because the film does not explore character flaws and motivations fully. Does our society's training of Bruce as a killing machine backfire despite his sense of honor—or is he just a fool, duped by his wife, who was also fooled by an evil woman, pretending to be her friend? (The film does not show the planning of the crime, any uncertainty about committing it, any guilt afterward, nor Bruce's initial confrontation with the victim, or any flashbacks of his prior experiences of killing and death in war.) It seems easy for him to kill, but how did he become that way, or is he also suffering from war trauma?
When a suicide occurs while leaving a cell message, it is difficult for the audience to empathize with any of those involved because such developments are so sudden and intercut with other subplots. Yet, the comic menace of the documentary interviewer, asking intrusive questions in various scenes, and the plight of two brothers, as stand-up comedians with financial and family problems, along with the cops' pursuit of the murderer, provides fertile ground for many compelling performances. This film is a welcome demonstration that there is significant talent here for filmmaking, even when actors are not paid and the film is made for under $250,000. The efforts of all involved should be applauded. Review by Mark Pizzato
Mark Pizzato is Professor of Theatre and Film at UNC-Charlotte. His screenplays, produced as short films, have won New York Film Festival and Minnesota Community Television awards.