Review: "Iraq in Fragments" Gives Voice to the Voiceless

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 80 (of 2007) by Leroy Douresseaux

Iraq in Fragments (2006)
Running time:  94 minutes (1 hour, 34 minutes)
MPAA – Not rated
DIRECTOR:  James Longley
COMPOSER/CINEMATOGRAPHER:  James Longley
PRODUCERS:  James Longley and John Sinno
EDITORS:  James Longley, Billy McMillin, and Fiona Otway
2007 Academy Award nominee

DOCUMENTARY – War, Politics, Religion

Starring:  Mohammed Haithem and Suleiman Mahmoud

The subject of this movie review is Iraq in Fragments, a 2006 documentary from filmmaker James Longley.  The film offers stories from modern day Iraq, as told by Iraqis living in a time of war, occupation and ethnic tension.

Iraq in Fragments earned an Academy Award nomination.  The film also won 3 awards at the 2006 Sundance Festival:  “Cinematography Award,” “Directing Award,” and “Documentary Film Editing Award,” as well as being nominated for the “Grand Jury Price."

In his Oscar-nominated documentary, Iraq in Fragments, director James Longley presents a portrait of Iraq, a nation divided, one at war with itself after the United States invaded the country won Operation: Iraqi Freedom.  Through a collage of images and commentary from ordinary Iraqis, Longley illuminates post-invasion Iraq in three acts focusing on different regions of the country.

In Part One, entitled “Mohammed of Baghdad,” Mohammed, a fatherless 11-year old boy is apprenticed to a dictatorial garage owner, who is outraged that after several years of schooling Mohammed cannot read.  In, “Sadr’s South,” the followers of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr rally for regional elections, but also enforce Islamic law at the point of a gun, which some residents see as similar to things Saddam Hussein did and the American are doing.  In the final act, “Kurdish Spring,” a family of farmers welcome the American presence because it brings them a measure of freedom Kurdistan never knew, but one boy, Suleiman, will still see his dreams of an education dashed as he remains trapped in his elderly father’s meager occupations as a sheepherder and brick maker.

Through these interviews with Iraqis (although neither his nor his translators’ voices are ever heard), Longley, via words and images, captures the discord in the war-torn country – both in the abstract and in the literal that give the effects of war, political unrest, religious feuds deeper meaning.  In this way, Longley helps the audience to understand how living in uncertainty and deepening poverty drags on the people physically and spiritually.

Sometimes, the film seems to hunger for a historical context (especially when an Iraqi subject mentions distant historical events), and the near-absence of Americans in this documentary is noticeable.  That doesn’t really hurt Iraq in Fragment, for it remains a riveting film in which the images and subjects stick with you in an insistent fashion.  Besides, with this documentary, Longley forces us (at least the ones who do bother to see Iraq in Fragments) to do something more Americans should – see things from the ordinary Iraqi’s perspective.

8 of 10
A

NOTES:
2007 Academy Awards:  1 nomination for “Best Documentary, Features,” (James Longley and John Sinno)

Monday, May 21, 2007

Updated, Wednesday, September 11, 2013

The text is copyright © 2013 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

2013 Reaper Awards for Scary Movies Opens Voting

Voting Opens for the 2013 Reaper Awards

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Online voting is underway for the fifth annual Reaper Awards and will run through Oct. 13. The ballot can be accessed through HomeMediaMagazine.com/ReaperVote, HomeMediaAwards.com or ReaperAwards.com.

The Reaper Awards, honoring the best horror and thriller titles of the past year on DVD and Blu-ray Disc, are presented by Home Media Magazine and DreadCentral.com. Eligible titles were released between Aug. 1, 2012, and July 31, 2013. Winners will be announced Oct. 21.

Fans can select their favorites from the past year in several categories, as well as vote on which title they are most looking forward to in the coming months. Titles were submitted by participating studios.

Results of the consumer vote will be combined with the selections of a judging panel of horror experts and home entertainment reviewers. The panel of judges will also select a Title of the Year.

For a complete list of nominees, visit HomeMediaMagazine.com/ReaperVote. To view the box art nominees, visit homemediamagazine.com/awards/2013-reaper-award-box-art-nominees.

Home Media Magazine is the premier home entertainment business publication designed to inform, educate and facilitate communication among all parties and industries involved in the home entertainment marketplace. Through its weekly magazine, website (www.homemediamagazine.com) and daily electronic newsletter, Home Media Magazine delivers news, analysis, market research, product reviews and marketing updates to give studio executives, retailers, distributors, marketers and suppliers a one-stop resource to help grow their businesses and increase profits.

Review: "Gun Crazy" is Crazy Cool (Remembering Dalton Trumbo)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 151 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux

Gun Crazy (1950) – B&W
Deadly is the Female (1949) – original title
Running time: 86 minutes (1 hour, 26 minutes)
DIRECTOR:  Joseph H. Lewis
WRITERS:  MacKinlay Kantor, Millard Kaufman, and Dalton Trumbo (based upon the short story by MacKinlay Kantor)
PRODUCERS:  Frank King and Maurice King
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Russell Harlan (director of photography)
EDITOR:  Harry Gerstad
COMPOSER:  Victor Young

FILM-NOIR/CRIME/DRAMA

Starring:  Peggy Cummings, John Dall, Barry Kroeger, Morris Carnovsky, Anabel Shaw, Harry Lewis, Nedrick Young, and Rusty Tamblyn with (cast that received no screen credit) David Bair, Paul Frison, and Trevor Bardette

The subject of this movie review is Gun Crazy, a 1950 film noir crime drama directed by Joseph H. Lewis.  The film was originally released under the title, Deadly is the Female, apparently sometime in 1949.  Gun Crazy is based on a short story written by MacKinlay Kantor, one of the film’s screenwriters.  Although Millard Kaufman is also credited as a screenwriter on Gun Crazy, he is not.  Kaufman was a “front writer,” meaning he allowed another screenwriter to use his name in order to work on the project.  The writer who used Kaufman’s name was Dalton Trumbo.

Trumbo was one of the “Hollywood 10.”  They were cited for contempt of Congress for refusing to give testimony to the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) concerning Communist activity in Hollywood in the 1930s and early 1940s.  Trumbo and others were blacklisted from working on Hollywood film productions, or, if they did work on a production, their names were omitted from the film.  Trumbo is credited as the writer who reworked MacKinlay Kantor’s Gun Crazy story into a tale of a doomed love affair, but he could not receive a screen credit for his work on the film.

Gun Crazy the movie introduces Bart Tare (Rusty Tamblyn).  As a boy, Tare was obsessed with guns, although he was loathed to kill anything.  His obsession lands him in a reform school, but he retains the support of his family and especially of his friends, Dave Allister (Paul Frison) and Clyde Boston (Trevor Bardette).  After leaving the reform school and doing a stint in the army, adult Bart (John Dall) returns home to find that the adult Dave Allister (Nedrick Young) is now the editor of their hometown paper and that Clyde is now Sheriff Clyde Boston (Harry Lewis).

The trio attends a traveling carnival where Bart meets the love of his life, Annie Laurie Starr (Peggy Cummings), a carnie trick pistol shooter, who, like Bart, is gun-obsessed.  The two run off and get married, but Laurie is a dangerous girl who wants the high life.  The legitimate jobs that poor Bart can get won’t pay enough to buy her all the things she wants.  He’s too in love to be without her, so it’s easy for her to talk him into a life of crime.  They commit a string of daring robberies across the country that eventually cause them to kill.  Hunted and desperate, Laurie and Bart head back home to Bart’s sister, Ruby (Anabel Shaw), and her family, but Sheriff Clyde and Dave are waiting for them.

Experts and students of the film genre known as Film-Noir consider Gun Crazy to be classic noir.  The film, released initially under the title, Deadly is the Female, is based upon novelist MacKinlay Kantor’s short story that was originally published in The Saturday Evening Post.  Gun Crazy was mostly forgotten until it fell into favor in France with film critics, especially the group of critics who would themselves one day become filmmakers and also become tied to a movement called French New Wave – the most famous of the lot being François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard.  Godard’s 1960 film, Breathless, apparently references Gun Crazy.

Although many critics and reviewers have praised director Joseph H. Lewis for the film’s documentary feel, used especially during the robbery sequences, Lewis’ film is actually very stylized and expressionistic from a visual point of view.  Everything that is important for the audience to know about Laurie and Bart:  their roles, identities, thoughts, and feelings, as well as the roles of the people around them, Lewis tells through visual cues.  From the titled camera shots early in the film that suggest the mental state of young Bart to the sexualized first encounter of Bart and Laurie – all are stylish.  In fact, Lewis really pushes the idea of sex and the duo’s obsession with guns being interrelated.

The film has some good performances, a few exceptional – especially British actress Peggy Cummings as Laurie and, in two small roles, Barry Kroeger as Laurie’s carnival boss, Packett, and Morris Carnovsky as Judge Willoughby.  The script is a good blueprint for Lewis, but is soft on the dichotomy between Bart’s two worlds – Peggy and crime and Dave and Clyde.  Ultimately this film does fit the auteur theory that Truffaut, Godard, and their contemporaries pushed – the idea that the director is the film’s author.  Joseph H. Lewis takes the best that his cast and crew give him and turn Gun Crazy into a film of notorious love, sexual tension, lust, and the kind of violence that can come from two lovers’ obsessions.  This is definitely a precursor to Bonnie and Clyde.

7 of 10
B+

Saturday, July 15, 2006

NOTES:
1998 National Film Preservation Board, USA:  National Film Registry

Updated: Tuesday, September 10, 2013

The text is copyright © 2013 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

Top Shelf Productions Massive $3 Sale 2013 Begins

If you have seen movies like From Hell, and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and The Surrogates, you may (may not) know that they were based on comic books and graphic novels.  The publishers of those books is has an annual $3 sale, in which you can get many of their publications for $3, $1, and also half-off.

The following is the press release concerning the sale from Top Shelf Productions co-publisher, Chris Staros:

The 2013 Top Shelf Massive $3 Sale

Welcome to the 2013 Top Shelf Massive $3 Graphic Novel Sale, where you can pick up the year's greatest graphic novels at incredibly low prices by ordering direct from Top Shelf!

For the next two weeks — through Friday, September 27th — Top Shelf is having our annual $3 web sale. When you visit our site, you'll find 150+ critically acclaimed graphic novels and comics on sale — with over 100 titles marked down to just $3 & $1!

Each year Top Shelf uses this sale to help spread the word about our incredible new releases, and raise funds to “kick start” a full rollout for next year. With your help, we'll keep publishing some of the most beloved graphic novels on earth — from award-winning masters and exciting new talents (and yes, even Members of Congress!). Now's your chance to support a great independent publisher and expand your graphic novel collection at the same time.

To go directly to the list of items on sale at the Top Shelf website, just click here:

Buy here or http://www.topshelfcomix.com/specialdeals

But here are a few examples to get you started:

Slashed prices on brand-new releases and beloved perennials!
-- Slashed Prices: March, A Matter of Life, Monster on the Hill, and more!
-- Slashed Prices: Nemo: Heart of Ice, God is Disappointed in You, and more!
-- Slashed Prices: Lost Girls, From Hell, League Century 1910/1969/2009, and more!
-- Slashed Prices: Blankets, The Underwater Welder, Any Empire, and more!
-- Slashed Prices: We Can Fix It, Blue, August Moon, Infinite Kung Fu, and more!
-- Slashed Prices: Unearthing (HC), Super Spy, Crater XV, Heck, and more!

Acclaimed graphic novels from world-class talents for $3!
-- $3 Titles: The From Hell Companion, Unearthing (SC), and more!
-- $3 Titles: The Lovely Horrible Stuff, Upside Down, The Ticking, and more!
-- $3 Titles: Ax, Voice of the Fire, The Homeland Directive, and more!
-- $3 Titles: Gingerbread Girl, Liar’s Kiss, Undeleted Scenes, and more!
-- $3 Titles: Incredible Change-Bots, Night Animals, Underwire, and more!
-- $3 Titles: Lucille, BB Wolf, Pirate Penguin, and more!

Discover a new favorite with these great $1 books!
-- $1 Titles: The Playwright,Tales of Woodsman Pete, Sulk (Vols 1/2/3), and more!
-- $1 Titles: Regards from Serbia, Lone Racer, Van Helsing's Night Off, and more!
-- $1 Titles: SuperF*ckers #1-#4, The Surrogates #1-#5, Beach Safari, and more!
-- $1 Titles: Hutch Owen, Hello Again, Okie Dokie Donuts, Yam, and more!
-- $1 Titles: The Octopi & the Ocean, Conversations #1 & #2, and more!
-- $1 Titles: Comic Diorama, The Man Who Loved Breasts, Hey Mister, and more!

Please note that Top Shelf accepts PayPal, as well as Visa, MasterCard, Amex, and Discover — all secure — and that this sale is good for retailers as well (and comic book shops will get their wholesale discount on top of these sale prices):

Buy here or http://www.topshelfcomix.com/specialdeals

And please feel free to share abd re-post this announcement, so your friends can find out about it as well!  

Your friend thru comics,
Chris Staros

Top Shelf Productions
PO Box 1282
Marietta GA 30061-1282
USA

www.topshelfcomix.com

Review: "50 First Dates" Surprisingly Works (Happy B'day, Adam Sandler)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 24 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

50 First Dates (2004)
Running time:  99 minutes (1 hour, 39 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for appeal for crude sexual humor and drug references
DIRECTOR:  Peter Segal
WRITER:  George Wing
PRODUCERS:  Jack Giarraputo, Steve Golin, Nancy Juvonen
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Jack Green (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Jeff Gourson
COMPOSER:  Teddy Castellucci

COMEDY/ROMANCE

Starring:  Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore, Rob Schneider, Sean Astin, Lusia Strus, Dan Aykroyd, Amy Hill, Blake Clark, Nephi Pomaikai Brown, and Allen Covert

The subject of this movie review is 50 First Dates, a 2004 romantic comedy starring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore.  The film focuses on a man, who is afraid of commitment, and the girl of his dreams, who has short-term memory loss and wakes up every morning not remembering who he is.

The reunion of The Wedding Singer co-stars Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore sounds like a great idea, which it is, but even better than a great idea is when the movie reunion turns out to be such a charming and hilarious romantic comedy.  Although I initially had some misgivings about it, 50 First Dates is not only flat out hilarious, it’s also a very good romantic comedy.  50 First Dates' faults are few or are minor, but it definitely felt too long.

Lothario Henry Roth (Adam Sandler) is a serial dater, loving and leaving a legion of women and assorted lovers in the wake of whirlwind, weekend romances.  He finally believes he’s find that special lady when he experiences love at first sight.  However, Lucy Whitmore (Drew Barrymore), the object of his affection, suffers from short-term memory loss (like the protagonist in Memento) as the result of a car accident a year earlier.  Every day she awakens with no memory of anything she’s learned in the time since her accident.  After gaining the grudging approval of Lucy’s father, Marlin (Blake Clark), and brother, Doug (Sean Astin), Henry concocts a plan to remind Lucy of his love for her as the first thing she discovers when she awakens each morning, but for how long will she go along with the plan?

Director Peter Segal helmed Sandler’s 2003 smash, Anger Management, which is a harder belly laugh film.  Here, Segal smartly focuses on the leads to create and sustain the star-crossed romance, and he makes the best and most appropriate use of the supporting characters.  He lets the comic relief provide silly laughs and the more “mature” characters make just enough intensity to create what little dramatic conflict and tension 50 First Dates needs.  George Wing’s script is an exercise in sustaining laughs long enough to keep the audience chuckling and not looking behind the curtain to see the credibility gaffes until the film is over and they’ve reached the parking.

For all his detractors, Sandler is truly a talented comedian, and he has become a very accomplished comic actor.  His deadpan, sarcastic, neo-slob characters are endearing and charming, and the only viewers who truly dislike simply just want to dislike him.  Drew Barrymore is quite attractive, and, in spite of her beauty, she has an everyman, make that every woman quality, which endears her characters to the audience.  Sandler and Ms. Barrymore make a winning screen pair, and hopefully they won’t wait too long before giving us another fine film.

7 of 10
B+

Updated:  Monday, September 09, 2013

The text is copyright © 2013 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

See a Brother on the "Down Low" in the Indie Film, "FOUR"

Provocative Film -- FOUR -- Sheds Light on Black Men "On The Down Low"

Film About A Black Married Man Who Steps Out For A Night With A White Teenage Boy Starts Conversation

NEW YORK, Sept. 5, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Actor Wendell Pierce (HBO's "The Wire") takes the lead in, FOUR, a new film in which he plays a closeted middle-aged man who, while away from his family on a "business trip" on the Fourth of July, is actually out on a date with a teenage boy he met online.  And while he's away, his wife and daughter are left at home to quietly deal with the reality he leaves behind.

Pierce, who was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for his performance, believes people should be uncomfortable with this movie, accurately reflecting the discomfort people can have about the life choices of others.  "I expect people to say, 'Why did Wendell participate in the emasculating of a black man?'  The real question is, 'Why do you feel as though that's emasculating?'"

The film not only challenges the cultural ideals of black masculinity, but also creates dialogue about the "in-between" existence that many middle class minorities live (i.e. being "too black" or not being "black enough"), about how people suppress their true selves in order to maintain the favor of others and about how many people keep God at arm's length.  It's also a portrayal of a black family rarely seen on film.  Wendell Pierce will be on The Tom Joyner Morning Show, on September 9, to discuss the film.

With a mostly minority cast, and helmed by first-time filmmaker, Joshua Sanchez, FOUR powerfully explores race, class and sexuality.  The cast includes Aja Naomi King (Damsels in Distress), who plays a role that any young black woman who has ever felt pressured to straighten her hair, can relate.  Emory Cohen (The Place Beyond the Pines) and E.J. Bonilla (ABC's "Revenge"), who was nominated for an Imagen Award for his performance, play powerful characters who intersect Pierce and King's lives for the night.

FOUR will be released, beginning September 13, at the following locations with the director, and members of the cast, participating in Q&As at each location:

    --  Atlanta - AMC Phipps Plaza 14
    --  Atlanta - AMC Southlake 24
    --  Baltimore - AMC Owings Mills 30
    --  Chicago - AMC River East 21
    --  Dallas - AMC Mesquite 30
    --  Houston - AMC Studio 30
    --  L.A. - AMC Marina Pacifica 12
    --  L.A. - AMC Ontario Mills 30
    --  L.A. - Laemmle's Playhouse 7
    --  NYC - AMC 19th St. East 6
    --  Philadelphia - AMC Cherry Hill 24

The distributor is also hosting several giveaways surrounding the film, including one on Instagram in which a winner, and three of her girlfriends, will each receive $100, manicures and pedicures, a dinner for four and tickets to see the film.

About 306 Releasing
Backed by nearly 15 years of film industry experience, 306 Releasing takes a customized approach to film distribution, never ceding to the mentality that a theatrical release is a futile proposition.

www.306releasing.com

Review: "The Chronicles of Riddick" is Epic

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 95 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Chronicles of Riddick (2004)
Running time:  119 minutes (1 hour, 59 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for intense sequences of violent action and some language
DIRECTOR:  David Twohy
WRITER:  David Twohy (based upon characters created by Jim Wheat and Ken Wheat)
PRODUCERS:  Vin Diesel and Scott Kroopf
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Hugh Johnson (D.o.P.)
EDITORS:  Martin Hunter and Dennis Virkler
COMPOSER:  Graeme Revell

SCI-FI/ACTION/ADVENTURE/FANTASY

Starring:  Vin Diesel, Colm Feore, Thandie Newton, Judi Dench, Karl Urban, Alexa Davalos, Linus Roache, Yorick van Wageningen, Nick Chinlund, and Keith David

The subject of this movie review is The Chronicles of Riddick, a 2004 science fiction and action-adventure film from writer-director David Twohy.  Starring Vin Diesel in the title role, this film is a sequel to the 2000 science fiction thriller, Pitch Black.

Five years after the incidents in the movie Pitch Black, the dark hero Riddick (Vin Diesel) is a hunted man, but mercenaries aren’t just hunting Riddick to send him back to prison.  A fellow survivor of Pitch Black, Imam (Keith David), seeks Riddick because the Imam’s home world needs Riddick’s kind of evil to fight evil.  In The Chronicles of Riddick, the title character takes on the world conquering Necromongers and their vicious, quasi-supernatural leader, the Lord Marshal (Colm Feore).  Apparently, the Lord Marshal and Riddick have a mutual past.  Riddick learns that his people were known as the Furians, and a prophecy said that the Lord Marshal would die at the hands of a Furian.  Thirty years after the Lord Marshal’s pogrom against the Furians, the most contrary and stubborn of them all, Riddick, comes looking for payback.

The Chronicles of Riddick isn’t by any means a great movie, but it’s rather a very entertaining macho movie.  Despite the sci-fi trappings, the film and its title character are basically throwbacks to the kind of action movies and muscular heroes that stomped the shit out silver screen bad guys in films like the Rambo, Die Hard, and Terminator franchises.  Visually, the production design is as dark as The Empire Strikes Back and The Crow, so TCOR is very much the work of talented artists, craftsman, and photographers and CGI artists.

Beyond that, director David Twohy has put together a fun film full of explosions and (relatively) gore free wrestling matches.  TCOR may look like a video game, but it’s futuristic fisticuffs in which the dark champion speaks with the force of muscular body and wins by guile and savvy.  Vin Diesel may not be a solid actor, but he’s game to throw testosterone around a movie set, and the lead doesn’t need to be a great actor when a fine stage actor like Colm Feore (he was the bad guy Andre Linoge in the TV mini-series Stephen King’s “Storm of the Century”) plays the villain.

I had a good (if not great) time, and when it comes down to it, The Chronicles of Riddick is a slugfest man’s movie for the guy who’ll watch any half decent action movie.  And this one is a lot better than half decent.  Some ladies might get a kick out of it, too.

7 of 10
B+

NOTES:
2005 Razzie Awards:  1 nomination: “Worst Actor” (Vin Diesel)

Updated:  Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Read the Pitch Black review and The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury review.

The text is copyright © 2013 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.