Gareth Edwards' "Monsters" Not Like Other Monster Flicks

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 108 (of 2011) by Leroy Douresseaux


Monsters (2010)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: United Kingdom
Running time: 94 minutes (1 hour, 34 minutes)
MPAA – R for language
CINEMATOGRAPHER/WRITER/DIRECTOR: Gareth Edwards
PRODUCERS: Allan Niblo and James Richardson
EDITORS: Colin Goudie
COMPOSER: Jon Hopkins
BAFTA nominee

SCI-FI/DRAMA

Starring: Scoot McNairy Whitney Able, and Mario Zuniga Benavides

Monsters is a 2011 British science fiction film and quasi-monster movie. It is the debut feature film of Gareth Edwards, who wrote, directed, and shot Monsters. A cinematic one-man-army and DIY filmmaker, Edwards also created the film’s special effects.

Monsters opens six years after NASA discovered the possibility of alien life within our solar system. The agency sent a probe to collect samples, but upon re-entry, the probe crashed in Mexico. Now, a huge swath of northern Mexico near the border of the United States is quarantined as the “INFECTED ZONE” because a new alien life form began to appear in this region. The U.S. and Mexican militaries struggle to contain the tentacled creatures in the infected zone.

The film focuses on Andrew Kaulder (Scoot McNairy), a young American photojournalist, who travels about Mexico taking pictures of the creatures and the aftermath of their appearances. Kaulder’s employers send him to a Mexican hospital to find Samantha “Sam” Wynden (Whitney Able), an American injured during a creature attack. Sam turns out to be the daughter of Kaulder’s boss, a wealthy media mogul, and Sam’s father insists that Kaulder escort her back to the United States. However, circumstances force the couple into a more dangerous trip than either imagined.

Monsters looks like a low-budget movie compared to most sci-fi alien invasion movies, but Monsters is not competing with movies like Independence Day (1996) or even with classic black and white B-movie monster flicks. Monsters is essentially an allegorical road movie about the state of the environment and about First World nations waging war on Third World nations. Without preaching, writer/director Gareth Edwards uses clean imagery which conveys potent symbolism concerning our current state of affairs.

Actors Scoot McNairy and Whitney Able were dating at the time they were shooting Monsters, which likely contributed to the absorbing screen chemistry they show here. [They are now married.] Their naturalistic performances are pitch perfect for this movie’s message about mankind’s current situation.

Edwards presents some potent images and effective scenes throughout this film, especially in the last act when Kaulder and Sam enter a post-disaster American small town. In the film, the area was damaged by a creature, but I’m guessing that in the real world, this is an American neighborhood, post-hurricane or other natural disaster. This point in the narrative affirms that for a science fiction monster movie, Monsters is a surprisingly human story.

7 of 10
B+

NOTE:
2011 BAFTA Awards: 1 nomination: “Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer” (Gareth Edwards – Director/Writer)

Friday, December 30, 2011

Review: "Client 9" Digs into Eliot Spitzer Scandal

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 51 (of 2011) by Leroy Douresseaux

Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer (2010)
Running time: 117 minutes (1 hour, 57 minutes)
MPAA – R some sexual material, nudity and language
WRITER/DIRECTOR: Alex Gibney
PRODUCERS: Maiken Baird, Alex Gibney, Jedd Wider, and Todd Wider
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Maryse Alberti
EDITORS: Plummy Tucker with Alison Amron
COMPOSER: Peter Nashel

DOCUMENTARY – Politics

Starring: Eliot Spitzer, Wayne Barrett, Joe Bruno, David Brown, Darren Dopp, Peter Elkind, Maurice “Hank” Greenberg, Noreen Harrington, Ken Langone, Roger Stone, Cecil Suwal, Hulbert Waldroup, and Wrenn Schmidt

Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer is a 2010 documentary film from Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker, Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side). Client 9 takes an in-depth look at the rise and fall of Eliot Spitzer, former State Attorney General and Governor of New York. The film includes an interview with Spitzer, who was elected as the 54th governor of New York in 2006 and later resigned when he was exposed as being involved in a high-priced prostitution ring.

The film reveals Spitzer’s beginnings as a crusading state’s Attorney General who went after Wall Street, big banks, and big insurance companies for fraud, predatory lending, price fixing, etc. Then, Client 9 chronicles his downfall by interviewing the key players, including Spitzer’s Wall Street adversaries (such as Hank Greenberg and Ken Lagone) and political enemies, (like Joe Bruno). Gibney also talks to some of the people behind Emperors Club VIP, the high-priced escort service from which Spitzer obtained call girls. The film also looks the crusade that defined Spitzer’s public and professional life – fighting corruption on Wall Street and in New York state politics. This film also suggests that shadowy and powerful figures from Wall Street and Albany (the state capitol) likely played a part in revealing Spitzer’s patronization of high-priced prostitutes.

In some ways, Client 9 is less about Spitzer than about the corruption against which he crusaded, particularly corruption on Wall Street. Even the Emperors Club, which provided Spitzer with call girls, is connected to Wall Street because it services some of the financial industry’s big players. Although Spitzer does participate in this documentary, the former governor turned cable television pundit is careful, even guarded about what he says, which is understandable, but this reticence ends up making him an ensemble player in what should be a starring role in his melodrama.

The film does offer startling insight into the way the U.S. Justice Department prosecutes crimes involving politicians. Also, the press and news media, which is obsessed with sex and scandal and overly reliant (by my estimation) on tips and leaks that offer salacious details, doesn’t come out looking too good.

Compared to Gibney’s other films, Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer isn’t great, but it is good. Ultimately, it barely skims the surface of the darkness behind Spitzer and the institutions and people behind his rise and especially his fall.

7 of 10
B+

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

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Review: "Night Catches Us" Captures Mackie, Washington, and Hamilton in Fine Form

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 12 (of 2010) by Leroy Douresseaux

Night Catches Us (2010)
Running time: 90 minutes (1 hour, 30 minutes)
MPAA – R for language, some sexuality and violence
WRITER/DIRECTOR: Tanya Hamilton
PRODUCERS: Sean Costello, Jason Orans, and Ron Simons
CINEMATOGRAPHER: David Tumblety
EDITORS: John Chimples and Affonso Gonçalves
COMPOSERS/SONGS: The Roots

DRAMA

Starring: Kerry Washington, Anthony Mackie, Wendell Pierce, Jamie Hector, Tariq Trotter, Ron Simons, Amari Cheatom, Tariq Rasheed, and Jamara Griffin

Films set in the past can be timely or relevant to the times in which they are released. For instance the 1970 film, MASH, is set during the Korean War (1950-53), but the film was relevant in the Vietnam era and can be viewed as being about the Vietnam War.

Released in 2010, Night Catches Us, an independent film drama from writer/director Tonya Hamilton, is set in 1976. Not only is it timely in addressing current social ills, but the film is also timeless in the way it depicts an oppressed group’s inability to move on from past hurts and persistent bitterness. Plus, Night Catches Us is an extra damn fine movie and dramatic piece of work.

The film focuses on Marcus Washington (Anthony Mackie), a former Black Panther who returns to his Philadelphia neighborhood in 1976 for his father’s funeral. Marcus immediately clashes with his brother, Bostic (Tariq Trotter), and also with much of the rest of this race-torn Philly neighborhood that is not so happy to see the return of a prodigal son. Marcus is still blamed for the death of a revered Panther, Neil Wilson (Tariq Rasheed), at the hands of the hated police years earlier.

One person who is welcoming to Marcus is Patricia Wilson (Kerry Washington), a local attorney and Neil’s widow. Marcus has deep feelings for her, and he quickly befriends Patricia and Neil’s daughter, an intelligent and inquisitive 9-year-old named Iris (Jamara Griffin). However, the police, mainly in the form a shady detective named David Gordon (Wendell Pierce), and “DoRight” Miller (Jamie Hector), a former minor Panther turned local boss, have targeted Marcus for their own benefit.

In Night Catches Us, Anthony Mackie and Kerry Washington give performances that are not only stunning, but also affirm their places as two of the best American actors. Generally, audiences don’t have a chance to see them since both are underutilized by the major American film studios. In this film, both actors give layered, textured performances that bring to the surface the thoughts and feelings of the characters. With subtly and grace, Washington reveals that which ultimately holds back Patricia, while Mackie bares Marcus’ steadfast believe in hope and change. (Yeah, he’s like President Obama, but with a touch of Clint Eastwood.)

Although they are exceptionally talented, one of the reasons both actors are so good in Night Catches Us is because the material is so good. Writer/director Tonya Hamilton reportedly spent a decade writing the script, and the extensive development shows in the writing’s intricacy It has the depth, complexity, philosophical underpinnings, and social themes of a great American novel.

Night Catches Us is timely because it speaks to the same ills that plague African-Americans living in poor neighborhoods, such as a lack of good jobs and the presence of police that are intolerant of the very people they are supposed to help. The screenplay’s timeless quality is the story’s ability to grapple with issues that have plagued African-Americans nearly for the entirety of our presence in America. Like many Black folk (generally speaking), most of the characters cannot escape to better because they fight with the bitterness of past hurts instead of trying to leave some of that past behind them. We can’t find happiness here, Kerry Washington’s Patricia Wilson declares at one point, but the film asks a more pointed question. Why won’t they and we leave?

What testifies to Hamilton’s skill as a director in Night Catches Us is the fact that she gets topnotch performances from her entire cast. It takes cinematic talent to get a multifaceted performance even from a child actor the way Hamilton does with Jamara Griffin as Iris Wilson. Night Catches Us is not just a great Black movie (which it is); it is also simply a superb American film.

9 of 10
A+

Monday, February 07, 2011

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42nd Image Awards Motion Picture Nominations

The nominees for the 42nd Annual NAACP Image Awards were recently announced. The press release is long, so I’m breaking it up over several posts:

MOTION PICTURE

Outstanding Motion Picture
• "For Colored Girls" (Lionsgate/34th Street Films)
• "Just Wright" (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
• "The Book of Eli" (Warner Bros. Pictures)
• "The Kids Are All Right" (Focus Features)
• "Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married Too?" (Lionsgate)

Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture
• Anthony Mackie - "Night Catches Us" (Magnolia Pictures)
• Common - "Just Wright" (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
• Denzel Washington - "The Book of Eli" (Warner Bros. Pictures)
• Jaden Smith - "The Karate Kid" (Columbia Pictures)
• Morgan Freeman - "Red" (Summit Entertainment)

Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture
• Halle Berry - "Frankie & Alice" (Freestyle Releasing)
• Janet Jackson - "Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married Too?" (Lionsgate)
• Kerry Washington - "Night Catches Us" (Magnolia Pictures)
• Queen Latifah - "Just Wright" (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
• Zoë Saldana - "The Losers" (Warner Bros. Pictures)

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture
• Don Cheadle - "Brooklyn's Finest" (Overture Films)
• Idris Elba - "Takers" (Screen Gems)
• Justin Timberlake - "The Social Network" (Columbia Pictures)
• Michael Ealy - "For Colored Girls" (Lionsgate/34th Street Films)
• Samuel L. Jackson - "Mother and Child" (Sony Pictures Classics)

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture
• Anika Noni Rose - "For Colored Girls" (Lionsgate/34th Street Films)
• Kimberly Elise - "For Colored Girls" (Lionsgate/34th Street Films)
• Phylicia Rashad - "For Colored Girls" (Lionsgate/34th Street Films)
• Jill Scott - "Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married Too?" (Lionsgate)
• Whoopi Goldberg - "For Colored Girls" (Lionsgate/34th Street Films)

Outstanding Independent Motion Picture
• "Conviction" (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
• "Frankie & Alice" (Freestyle Releasing)
• "La Mission" (Screen Media Ventures)
• "Mother and Child" (Sony Pictures Classics)
• "Night Catches Us" (Magnolia Pictures)

Outstanding Foreign Motion Picture
• "A Barefoot Dream" (Showbox/Mediaplex)
• "Biutiful" (Roadside Attractions)
• "Four Lions" (Drafthouse Films)
• "Mother" (Magnolia Pictures)
• "Outside the Law" (Tessalit Productions)

DOCUMENTARY

Outstanding Documentary (Theatrical or Television)• "For Love of Liberty: The Story of America's Black Patriots" (PBS)
• "Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel" (Metaphor Films)
• "If God is Willing and the Creek Don't Rise" (HBO)
• “Waiting for "Superman" (Paramount Vantage)
• "William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe" (POV)

Alex Gibney Hits the Jackpot with "Casino Jack" Documentary

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 81 (of 2010) by Leroy Douresseaux

Casino Jack and the United States of Money (2010)
Running time: 118 minutes (1 hour, 58 minutes)
MPAA – R for some language
WRITER/DIRECTOR: Alex Gibney
PRODUCER: Zena Barakat, Alison Ellwood, and Alex Gibney
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Maryse Alberti
EDITOR: Alison Ellwood

DOCUMENTARY – Politics

Starring: Tom DeLay, Thomas Frank, Adam Kidan, Bob Ney, Ron Platt, Sue Schmidt, Melanie Sloan, Neil Volz with Stanley Tucci and Paul Rudd

For almost 20 years, Jack Abramoff was an American lobbyist. He was also a businessman, film producer, and political figure. His ascendancy as an influential and powerful man, both as a lobbyist and within the Republican Party, began when the Republicans seized control of both houses of Congress in 1994. Over the next 12 years, Abramoff lobbied Congress for Indian casinos, sweatshop owners in Saipan, and even shadowy Russian interests. He eventually went to prison for defrauding his Native American clients and corruption of public officials.

Written and directed by Alex Gibney, Casino Jack and the United States of Money is a documentary film about Jack Abramoff, his career, his lobbying activities, and the people around him – including Congressmen, congressional staffers, fellow lobbyists, and assorted figures within conservative and right-wing Christian politics. Gibney won an Oscar for his 2007 documentary, Taxi to the Dark Side, but Gibney deftly plumbed the depths of economic and political scandal in the Oscar-nominated documentary, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room.

However, Casino Jack and the United States of Money is not just about Abramoff. It is really about the buying and selling of the American government with lobbyists as the go-betweens for the buyers (powerful business interests) and the sellers (Congress). Gibney dazzles with stories of Indian tribal councils spending millions of dollars to keep their casinos and to keep other tribes from having casinos. There is the sex slave industry in Saipan and a murdered Greek casino tycoon. Cold War intrigue mixes with African revolutionaries. Congressmen take lavish, overseas golf trips – transportation by private, corporate jet. But the real story is about the looting of the American government, our broken system of government, and the perilous state of our democracy.

Jack Abramoff was in prison while Gibney was making Casino Jack and the United States of Money, and although he was able to interview Abramoff in prison, Gibney was unable to film the former lobbyist for inclusion in the film. Not having Abramoff is a glaring omission, but this film is really about Casino Jack Abramoff AND the United States of Money. For all that the film covers Abramoff, his career, activities, associates, and business partners, the underlying theme of this documentary is the legalized bribery and influence peddling that has basically turned the American government over to people who can afford to buy it.

Gibney’s gift is to take subjects like accounting, finance, government, and law and make them interesting. Like the Enron movie, this Jack Abramoff movie is about corruption, and Gibney fills the film with interviews of the people involved and the people who are reporting on the takeover. What could be a boring piece of journalism is instead a compelling narrative that will wake up the viewer to corruption about which he should and must care. Gibney convinces the viewer that the corruption matters to him because it affects him and perhaps it will make that viewer become engaged and maybe even outraged.

Gibney can even find the humor in the con game. His interview with former Republican House Majority Leader, Tom Delay, reveals a man in denial about his activities with Abramoff. It is funny to watch Delay deliver half-truths and spin with smooth-as-silk dishonesty, as if he did not unethical, let alone wrong. I don’t know if Casino Jack and the United States of Money will make people take to the streets and demand change (probably not), but it is an important documentary in the modern history of American politics. It exists as a warning, a signpost on the road to American ruin. Ignore it at your peril.

9 of 10
A+

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Oscar-Nominated Documentary "Food, Inc." Goes to the Dark Heart of Bad Food

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 19 (of 2010) by Leroy Douresseaux

 

Food, Inc. (2008)

Running time: 94 minutes (1 hour, 34 minutes) 

MPAA – PG for some thematic material and disturbing images 

DIRECTOR: Robert Kenner

WRITERS: Robert Kenner, Elise Pearlstein, and Kim Roberts

PRODUCERS: Robert Kenner and Elise Pearlstein

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Richard Pearce

EDITOR: Kim Roberts

Academy Awards nominee

 

DOCUMENTARY – Food 

 

Starring: Gary Hirshberg, Michael Pollan, Troy Roush, Joel Salatin, and Eric Schlosser

 

Drawing on the books, Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser and The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan, director Robert Kenner’s documentary, Food, Inc., lifts the veil on the food industry in the United States and explores the food industry’s detrimental effects on both our health and our environment.

 

Food, Inc. explains that a handful of corporations control our nation’s food supply, and these corporations often put their profit and bottom line ahead of their workers’ safety, their consumers’ health, the livelihood of the American farmer, and the wellbeing of our environment. Kenner also spotlights the men and women who are working to reform the industry and change the way Americans think about food. Pollan and Schlosser are among those people. Food, Inc. exposes our nation’s food industry’s dark and highly mechanized underbelly, a side of it that has largely been hidden from the American consumer. The film declares that the food industry has been able to hide its dark side from us with the consent of the regulatory agencies that are supposed to police them, the USDA and FDA. The film presents an industry rife with monopolies, with questionable interpretations of U.S. laws, and with political ties that grants substantial government subsidies to the industry. One of the consequences of the food industry’s practices has been (and continues to be) rising rates of E. coli outbreaks. As evidence of the industries strange and harmful practices and innovations, Food, Inc. offers stories of science-designed food: bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, insecticide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won't go bad (because of the gas to which these tomatoes are exposed). The film’s scariest bit of information concerns new, drug resistant strains of E coli, the harmful bacteria that causes illness in tens of thousands of Americans annually and is not only being found in meat, but also on raw vegetables sold in grocery stores. I think of Food, Inc. as an important movie, but as far as documentary filmmaking goes, it isn’t particularly remarkable. Food, Inc. is more like an overview covering a wide range of topics, many deserving their own films. For instance, Food, Inc. informs us that the meat processing industry often hires illegal immigrants as labor. That’s not surprising, but the fact that the industry coordinates with immigration officials on ICE raids is. However, Food, Inc. only covers that aspect of the food industry in passing, and when this film does that to other subjects, I can’t help but be frustrated because I want more.

 

Still, Food, Inc. nourishes our awareness of food industry issues and leaves us hungry for more. This activist documentary may be frustrating, even infuriating at times, but it is successful at grabbing our attention concerning food issues that must have our attention.

 

7 of 10 

B+ 

 

NOTES: 2010 Academy Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Documentary, Features” (Robert Kenner and Elise Pearlstein) 

 

Wednesday, April 07, 2010 

 

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