TONY PORCO’S MOVIE REVIEW NEWSLETTER–FALL/WINTER 2007 EDITION

Hey, folks–I haven’t had as much time to watch movies as I’d like, so this issue is mostly older reviews that have been around for a while. Recently, I’ve had more free time, so the next issue (which will be out sometime early next year) will be longer and more substantial. In the meantime, you can enjoy this newsletter, along with a ton of mini-reviews– Gray Matters, Hear No Evil, The Idolmaker, Straight Out of Brooklyn, When We Were Kings, and Wizards--that I added to the mini-review page recently.

SUPERBAD: Superbad is the movie that American Pie wishes it was--a teen sex romp, to be sure, but made with tons of verve, wit, and heart, not to mention tons of laughs. Its story is pretty straightforward--two nerdy high school friends, fat, bombastic Seth (Jonah Hill) and thinner, more subtle Evan (Michael Cera), are coming up fast on their graduation and subsequent trip off to college. They have (or think they have) one last chance to get it on with their respective crushes (Martha McIsaac and the exquisitely gorgeous Emma Stone) by getting alcohol for the Big, Rad Party that Stone's character is putting on this weekend. Unfortunately, that mission makes them dependent on an even more popularity-challenged friend who happens to have a fake I. D. (Christopher Mintz-Plasse). Needless to say, hilarious hijinks ensue. Granted, it's not the world's most original plot, but terrific acting and comic timing (especially from Hill), and two also-nerdy cops who seem to be the one strand holding all the big events together (Bill Hader and Seth Rogen), keep it all fresh and entertaining. Meanwhile, the script manages to be both more true-to-life and funnier than the average teen-movie hackery, helped along by female leads who aren't forced to be mere sex objects, and who have comic sensibilities all their own (I was particularly impressed by Stone, who brings real wit and charm to her character; when combined with her astonishing attractiveness, it makes it very believable that Seth would fall for her). Even the direction and camera work are good, especially in some frenetic action sequences set to compelling 1960's and 70's-era funk music. (One of my few complaints is that there are one too many of those action sequences, and they contain a bit too much violence and grossness for the kind of goofy comedy the movie wants to be. I also wish movies like this didn’t have to be so raunchy, although I don’t object as much to raunch in a movie that actually makes me laugh.) On a side note, I should mention that as a frequent bus rider, I was amused to see the main characters riding city buses for so much of the movie! As of this writing, Superbad has just come out on DVD, and it's well worth renting. RATING: 8.

SMOKE SIGNALS: Smoke Signals centers around two young men who grow up together on the Coeur D'Alene Indian reservation in Idaho, Victor (Adam Beach) and Thomas (Evan Adams). The two aren't lifelong friends, but are instead attached against their will by an event early in their lives: Victor's abusive, alcoholic father (Gary Farmer) saves the infant Thomas's life by hurling him out of a house fire that killed the boy's parents. Thomas grows up an interesting and caring (if somewhat nerdy) person, perhaps under the influence of the grandmother who adopts him and seems to share his warmth. Victor, on the other hand, ends up stoic and distant, until the death of his father in Arizona makes him reluctantly dependent on Thomas and his piggy bank full of change for bus fare. There's quite a lot to recommend in this film, including the great road-movie feel, the gorgeous Irene Bedard as a sympathetic person the two men meet along the way, and two young Coeur D'Alene women who seem like matches for Jay and Silent Bob from the Kevin Smith movies (they even drive a car that can't be shifted out of reverse!) The best thing about it, however, is Adams' exemplary characterization of Thomas. I've met people like Thomas before--people who seem naive and foolishly optimistic at first, but whose cheeriness is really a kind of open-minded fascination and wisdom about people that more cynical folks fear, even though it's something that they, and perhaps all of us, need more than they realize. When this movie was first released ten years ago, much was made of the fact that it was the first widely-released feature that was written, directed, and performed by Native Americans. That said, the strength of the acting, especially Adams' performance as Thomas, provides the story with a joyously transcending universality, which helps it overcome the occasional over-didactic or preachy line in the script. Those of us who have known someone like Thomas are lucky, and the movie is a good reminder of that. RATING: 8.

DREAMS: I’ve always heard that Rashomon and The Seven Samurai (the basis for the Western movie Magnificent Seven, which I reviewed in the last issue) were the best two movies by the legendary Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, not to mention among the best movies ever made by anybody. I haven’t seen either of them, but they must really be out-of-this-world incredible, because Dreams, a more recent Kurosawa work, is incredible all on its own. Its title is a perfect description of its content; it’s not a feature film so much as a collection of short films, each of which depicts a particular dream at a particular stage in life. At first, each dream seems to stand alone, but as the movie goes on, common themes of guilt, endurance, and finally social responsibility emerge. The first one, “Sunshine Through the Rain,” sets the tone in many ways. It’s about a young boy who is told by his mother not to go out on a day when the sun is visible during a rain, because legend has it that that is when the foxes have their wedding procession. Of course, he’s too curious to stay home–and the procession is rendered by mime actors in the same kabuki-theater style that Kurosawa must have seen growing up. Soon after, he has to face the consequences–and the dream thus becomes the same kind of guilty vision about the hazards of curiosity that I would have had when I was a child (although its ending, just as in a real dream, is more enigmatic and unpredictable than one might expect). From that point on, each dream is rendered in a different style that matches its content beautifully; Kurosawa veers from realism to fantasy to Felliniesque surrealism with remarkable ease, depending on the story he is trying to tell. (By the way, those of you who are chuckling to themselves “I wonder how long Tony was waiting to use the word ‘Felliniesque’ in a review” can keep chuckling, but I want you to know that I waited to do so until I could find a context in which it applied, and it does apply in this case, thank you very much. In any event, I wonder if Kurosawa actually was inspired by Fellini, since the famous Italian director was known for his ability to reproduce his dreams on screen with all their eeriness and wonder intact.) A sequence in which a visitor to an art gallery dreams of entering a work by Vincent Van Gogh and meeting him there (played surprisingly well by American director Martin Scorsese, who must be a Kurosawa fan), and another one in which a war veteran struggles with the implications of his survival, are particularly moving and stirring. Not all of the sequences are equally good; near the end, two with ecological themes come off as nihilistic and preachy, even though they’re as well-directed as the others. That said, even those sequences work well with the others to create a fascinating and moving whole. RATING: 9.

Have a great holiday, and see you at the movies in 2008...

TONY %)