Review: "The Weather Underground" is Interesting, but a Little Dry

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 158 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Weather Underground (2002)
(film received its U.S. theatrical release in June 2003)
Running time: 92 minutes (1 hour, 32 minutes)
Not rated by the MPAA
DIRECTORS: Sam Green with Bill Siegel
PRODUCERS: Carrie Lazono, Marc Smolowitz, Sam Green, and Bill Siegel
EDITORS: Dawn Logsdon and Sam Green
PHOTOGRAPHERS: Andy Black and Federico Salsano
Academy Award nominee

DOCUMENTARY

Starring: Bill Ayers, Kathleen Cleaver, Bernadine Dohrn, Brian Flanagan, David Gilbert, Todd Gitlin, Naomi Jaffe, Mark Rudd, Don Strickland, and (narrator) Lili Taylor

Some people believe that not acting against violence is itself violence, and from this belief sprang the Weathermen. Their group, The Weather Underground, was a radical offshoot of the 1960’s anti-war student group, Students for a Democratic Society. The Weather Underground not only marched in protest, but they also rioted and bombed the offices of government organizations in an attempt to bring about a revolution in America. It was not about changing the American political landscape; it was about destroying it.

The Weather Underground is a 2002 documentary about the rise and fall of The Weathermen. The film earned an Oscar® nomination in the category “Best Documentary, Features” for directors Sam Green and Bill Siegel. The filmmakers interviewed former Weathermen and compiled those interviews with archival film footage of the Vietnam War, news broadcasts, and anti-war demonstrations. They also included readings of Weathermen letters, footage of 60’s and 70’s era interviews of the Weathermen, and photographic images of the original group and related subject matter.

The film is a sobering account of the group and its members, but the Weathermen, at least now, don’t make compelling characters, either in the present or in old film footage of the group. They’re certainly not as intriguing as, say, the subjects in fellow 2004 Oscar® feature documentary nominee, Capturing the Friedmans. The Weathermen (and Weatherwomen) actually don’t go into the kind of detail that would have really brought their story to life and given the film more life, likely because some of what they might say about their activities could still be used against them in a court of law. They are understandable secretive, but no matter how coy they may be, their hints aren’t really enough to pique interest in their former activities, and even less in what they’re now doing.

In fact, the most interesting things in this film are the accounts of the Vietnam conflict and The Weather Undergrounds quasi-spiritual and philosophical connection to The Black Panthers. When the film deals with the destruction of lives on both sides of the Vietnam conflict and the FBI’s murderous war against the Panthers, that’s when The Weather Underground is most passionate, a fatal flaw in the film, actually. Every time the filmmakers and editors move from the war and the Panthers to the privileged middle class whites who made up The Weather Underground, I found myself eagerly anticipating when the filmmakers would return to the war and the Panthers. Those parts of the film are great. Of course, the Weathermen’s story is very interesting, but it is ultimately told a little too dryly here for this documentary’s own good.

7 of 10
B+

NOTES:
2004 Academy Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Documentary, Features” (Sam Green and Bill Siegel)

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San Francisco Film Critics Choose "The Tree of Life"

The San Francisco Film Critics Circle (SFFCC) was founded in 2002 and is comprised of critics from Bay Area publications. Its membership includes film journalists from the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Jose Mercury News, the Oakland Tribune, the Contra Costa Times, the San Francisco Bay Guardian, SF Weekly, the East Bay Express, KRON-TV, Variety, and RottenTomatoes.com, among others.

2011 San Francisco Film Critics Circle Awards winners:

Best Picture
“The Tree of Life”

Best Director
Terrence Malick for “The Tree of Life”

Best Original Screenplay
J.C. Chandor for “Margin Call”

Best Adapted Screenplay
Bridget O’Connor & Peter Straughan for “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”

Best Actor
Gary Oldman for “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”

Best Actress
Tilda Swinton for “We Need to Talk About Kevin”

Best Supporting Actor
Albert Brooks for “Drive”

Best Supporting Actress
Vanessa Redgrave for “Coriolanus”

Best Animated Feature
“Rango”

Best Foreign Language Film
“Certified Copy”

Best Documentary
“Tabloid”

Best Cinematography
Emmanuel Lubezki for “The Tree of Life”

Marlon Riggs Award (for courage & vision in the Bay Area film community)
National Film Preservation Foundation, in recognition of for its work in the preservation and dissemination of endangered, culturally significant films

Special Citation for under-appreciated independent cinema:
“The Mill and the Cross”

http://sffcc.org/main/

"Capturing the Friedmans" Seems Eternally Timely

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 151 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux


Capturing the Friedmans (2003)
Running time: 107 minutes (1 hour, 47 minutes)
Not rated by the MPAA
DIRECTOR: Andrew Jarecki
PRODUCERS: Andrew Jarecki and Marc Smerling
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Adolfo Doring
EDITOR: Richard Hankin
COMPOSER: Andrea Morricone
Academy Award nominee

DOCUMENTARY/CRIME

Starring: Arnold Friedman, Elaine Friedman, David Friedman, Seth Friedman, Jesse Friedman, Howard Friedman, John McDermott, and Debbie Nathan

Producers Andrew Jarecki and Mark Smerling earned an Oscar® nomination for “Best Documentaries, Feature” and won several critics “Best Documentary” awards for Jarecki’s directorial effort, Capturing the Friedmans. The controversial film about a controversial child molestation case was arguably, with Errol Morris’ The Fog of War, the best film of 2003.

The Friedmans: the husband Arnold, the wife Elaine, and the three sons David, Seth, and Jesse were a seemingly average upper-middle class Jewish family in Great Neck, New York until disaster struck. Arnold was an award-winning high school teacher in the 1980’s. He taught elementary school children computer classes in his home where his wife operated a toddler childcare group, and that made Arnold Friedman one of the first instructors of computer courses for children that young. However, the U.S. Postal Service began investigating Arnold for possession and dissemination of child pornography. After the local law enforcement became involved, they began an investigation that led to eventual criminal charges against Friedman and his youngest son Jesse for allegedly committing dozens of sexual acts with children during the computer classes. The arrest of Arnold and Jesse and the charges for the horrible crimes destroyed the family.

Although the case became a media sensation in 1987-88 and news organizations saturated the airwaves and newspaper pages with coverage of the investigation and trial, the best footage of what happened to the family was shot by the family members themselves, especially the footage shot by the three brothers. Jarecki composed his film with interviews of many of the event’s participants: the Friedmans, relatives, friends, attorney’s, investigators, and victims and with the footage the brothers shot, footage that was not publicly shown until this film.

Although the film presents compelling evidence that Arnold Friedman was indeed a pedophile, the film makes the argument that what really happened concerning Arnold, Jesse, and the sexual abuse charges during the computer classes may never be known. It also throws a harsh light on the reality that the police investigators (pigs) were overzealous in their investigation and that they may have coerced or encouraged children to declare that Arnold and Jesse molested them. The filmmakers also actually found and recorded on film participants who claimed that they made statements about being abused that weren’t true, as well as participants who refused to cooperate because they did not know of abuse, did not see it, or were not abused.

Beyond the meat and potatoes of the case, Capturing the Friedmans is compelling because the participants and events – both past and present are so intriguing. Fiction writers would kill or sell their souls to get material so good and so damn interesting. I can’t help but be amazed by how frank and honest the Friedmans were in the video footage they shot in the late 80’s. They spoke and acted on videotape as if they never expected anyone to see them being themselves, letting the real Friedmans that are behind closed doors come out. By the end of the film, the Friedmans have revealed themselves to have been a dysfunctional family from the moment the parents married.

Even the present day interviews are as compelling as the old footage. In fact, through present interviews, David, a highly paid party clown in New York, is the best character in the film. He’s so forceful, adamant, angry, and bitter that it borders on being laughable and poignant. You can’t take your eyes away from this film for one moment. Jarecki is a storyteller who makes every moment of his film riveting and a must-see. Would that more fiction films could be like Capturing the Friedmans.

10 of 10

NOTES:
2004 Academy Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Documentary, Features” (Andrew Jarecki and Marc Smerling)

February 2012: Negromancer History Month?

Welcome to Negromancer, the rebirth of my former movie review website as a movie review and movie news blog.  February is Oscar month (for the time being, as AMPAS is considering moving the Oscars to January).  I have a lot of movie reviews from the old version of the site that I have not reposted here, so many of the Oscar nominees and winners among them will appear this month.

I’m Leroy Douresseaux, and I also blog at http://ireadsyou.blogspot.com/ and write for the Comic Book Bin (which has smart phones apps and comics).

All images and text appearing on this blog are © copyright and/or trademark their respective owners.

"Abduction" is a Broken Star Vehicle for Taylor Lautner

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 9 (of 2012) by Leroy Douresseaux


Abduction (2011)
Running time: 106 minutes (1 hour, 46 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for sequences of intense violence and action, brief language, some sexual content and teen partying
DIRECTOR: John Singleton
WRITERS: Shawn Christensen
PRODUCERS: Doug Davison, Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Dan Lautner, Roy Lee, and Lee Stollman
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Peter Menzies Jr. (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Bruce Cannon
COMPOSER: Edward Shearmur

ACTION/DRAMA/MYSTERY/THRILLER

Starring: Taylor Lautner, Lily Collins, Alfred Molina, Michael Nyqvist, Denzel Whitaker, Sigourney Weaver, Antonique Smith, Jason Isaacs, Maria Bello, Roger Guenveur Smith, and Dermot Mulroney

Abduction is a 2011 action thriller starring Taylor Lautner, currently best known for his portrayal of Jacob Black in The Twilight Saga film series. The film is about a teenager who sets out to discover who he really is after discovering a baby picture of himself on a missing persons website. Abduction is also the first feature film that John Singleton has directed in six years.

Nathan Harper (Taylor Lautner) is an ordinary teenager who lives with his parents, Kevin (Jason Isaacs) and Maria (Maria Bello). Nathan partners with longtime friend, Karen Murphy (Lily Collins), for a high school sociology project. One night while doing research on the Internet, Nathan and Karen discover a baby photo that resembles Nathan on a missing persons website.

The website also has an age-progression program that allows users to see what the child would look like when he is older. When he ages the photo of the baby who is named Steven Price, Nathan is shocked to see a picture of someone who looks exactly like he does. Then, an innocent call to that missing persons website leads to the end of the life Nathan knows. Now, he and Karen are on the run, as shadowy figures chase Nathan, insisting that he has information they want. And some of them are willing to kill for it.

Abduction tries to be several things: a suspenseful character drama, an action chase movie, a lost identity mystery, and an international espionage thriller. As any one of the four, the film is weak. As all of them together, Abduction is still weak. The premise: a high school boy discovers his picture on a missing persons website, is interesting and has real-world implications. However, that premise ends up being just a tease because Abduction wants to be an espionage thriller with international implications, but it mostly ends up being a middling action movie.

Taylor Lautner is not a terrible actor, but he doesn’t accomplish much here that would make people think that he is a good actor. Watching this, I could tell that Lautner is sincere and is making an effort to be good and to make people buy into his character and the obstacles and dangers Nathan faces. In the first half of the film, his efforts come across as overacting. In the second half of this film, Lautner really sells, especially when Nathan is forced to directly confront a character that is trying to kill him.

In early 1992, John Singleton earned two Oscar nominations for his debut film, Boyz n the Hood (1991). I am actually saddened that 20 years later, Singleton has directed a film that seems like nothing more than a straight-to-DVD version of The Bourne Identity. Still, I have to give Lautner credit for his efforts, which is why I’m giving Abduction what I consider to be a generous grade.

5 of 10
C+

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Happy Birthday, Ed

I know that you have had some difficult times lately, but you should still have a birthday shout out.

Review: "Runaway Jury" is Unrealistic, But Entertaining (Happy B'day, Gene Hackman)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 32 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux

Runaway Jury (2003)
Running time: 127 minutes (2 hours, 7 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for violence, language, and thematic elements
DIRECTOR: Gary Fleder
WRITERS: Brian Koppelman and David Levien, Rick Cleveland, and Matthew Chapman (based upon the novel by John Grisham)
PRODUCER: Christopher Mankiewicz, and Gary Fleder
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Robert Elswit, A.S.C.
EDITOR: William Steinkamp, A.C.E. and Jeff Williams

DRAMA/THRILLER

Starring: John Cusack, Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman, Rachel Weisz, Bruce Davison, Bruce McGill, Jeremy Piven, Nick Searcy, Joanna Going, Stanley Anderson, Cliff Curtis, Jennifer Beals, and Bill Nunn with Orlando Jones and (uncredited) Dylan McDermott

Runaway Jury is a 2003 legal drama/thriller from director Gary Fleder. The film is based on the 1996 novel, The Runaway Jury, by author John Grisham.

Set in New Orleans, Runaway Jury is the story of a mysterious man named Nicholas Easter (John Cusack), who talks his way onto the jury of a landmark civil case against a gun manufacturer and attempts to influence the verdict by manipulating the other jurors. Meanwhile, on the outside, Easter’s girlfriend, Marlee (Rachel Weisz) runs a game to swindle the two lawyers involved in the case into paying her 10 million dollars if they want the verdict friendly to their clients.

Wendell Rohr (Dustin Hoffman) is a torts lawyer who represents the plaintiff, Celeste Wood (Joanna Going), the widow of Jacob Wood (Dylan McDermott), who was killed in a shooting rampage at brokerage firm. She believes the gun manufacturer knew that the killer bought the gun from a store that was careless and ignored gun laws. Rankin Fitch (Gene Hackman) is a jury consultant for the defense. Fitch is almost superhuman in the way he is able to discover the pasts of jurors, examine their beliefs and mindsets, and find out who can be bought, bribed, or blackmailed. His war with Nick Easter and Marlee drives the trial to the brink of ruin for a breathtaking finale.

Runaway Jury is the latest film adapted from a bestseller by John Grisham, author of books such as The Firm and A Time to Kill, both of which were adapted into films. The novel’s original premise was about a civil action against big tobacco, but the gun industry, also a target of big lawsuits, may have seemed like an easier sell to moviegoers, as guns are a lightening rod and divider of the American public. However, the film really doesn’t turn on a change of litigants. The best thing this film has going for it is the trio of John Cusack, Gene Hackman, and Rachel Weisz because they put the drama and thrills in this film. Dustin Hoffman is good, but he seems like the odd man out. His one good chance to chew up the scenery with Hackman is decidedly one-sided with Hackman eating his lunch. Anyone seeing this movie will clearly understand what power Hackman radiates. His star power and acting ability is worlds better than most other actors. An actor in a film with him has got to bring serious game, or Hackman will sweep him away. I so loved Hackman’s performance here that I wanted to have a baby for him.

Parts of Runaway Jury certainly test the bounds of belief and reality, but this is a great legal drama even if stuff happens in this film that no judge would allow to go on in his courtroom. And I say that knowing that most judges ain’t worth crap and are as crooked as a devil in gambling parlor. Runaway Jury is wonderful entertainment, and if you turn your reasoning down a little, it’ll keep you on the edge of your seat.

7 of 10
B+

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