The Film Junkie

This is the (pretty much) true stoy of the birth of skateboarding culture in America.  Anyone who have ever read anything about those days in Dogtown have most certainly heard the names Stacy Peralta, Jay Adams and Tony Alva.  Personally, I had read a lot about Peralta, being that he is a filmmaker now, and I knew that he was involved in this moment in history, but I didn’t know this much about those days.

The film follows these three boys from their early days in Venice Beach through becoming ‘Z Boyz’ to the quickly aquired fame that they each found.  It takes place from 1975-1978 and was written by Peralta, thus offering a certain bias, and directed by Catherine Hardwicke (2003’s ‘Thirteen’).

The film has an interesting story, certainly, but it too often gets caught up in the fairly dull personal lives of the boys.  Yet despite the seeming fixation on their troubled home lives, etc, you never really find a connection with any of the characters.  Emile Hirsch plays Adams like the young Brando he wishes he was, but instead of seeming macho and hell-bent he comes across as a teenager trying on his big brother’s badass clothing.  John Robinson plays Stacy with the same still blandness he brought to his debut in 2003’s ‘Elephant’, however where it was intended and needed there, here he proves himself to be nowhere near the actor we all wish he was.  Finally Victor Rasuk (2002’s ‘Raising Victor Vargas’) does well enough with an underwritten part that calls for him to play an over-sexed ego maniac.

The smaller roles make the film a bit more tolerable.  Rebecca De Mornay uglies up to play Adams’ trashy mom and she has some nice moments, she also looks like the most realistic character to the era.  Where the boys are tied down with silly hair extensions, she fits the decade nicely.  ‘Sky High’ (2005) star Michael Angarano does a good turn as Sid, a lesser talented Z-Boy who ties the three estranged stars back together.  He may be a little too sweet and innocent, but it a nice change with all the macho bravado going on here.

Without a doubt, the performance of the film goes to Heath Ledger as Skip the surfer guru who creates the Z-Boyz and is always down for a party.  Ledger is almost unrecognizable under a mop of hair and strange false teeth, but he totally captures the essence of the culture that the rest of the film tends to gloss over.  He is the rebellion personified and it is a great chance for Ledger to step outside of the roles he is normally offered.

All in all, it is an all right film that is certainly interesting to reflect upon the revolution, but perhaps you are better off viewing ‘Dogtown and Z-Boys’ (2001), the documentary as that would give you a better and more realistic look.  This film never really connects with the subjects, which is especially sad considering it was written by one of them.

Oh, and may I end by saying, I really could have done without the stupid and badly acted cameo by Tony Hawk.  Does that dude really need to be everywhere?

Grade: B-

I have never really been a fan of artsy movies, especially the pretentious self-involved films of, say, a Vincent Gallo.  Luckily, this film by performance artist Miranda July is certainly artsy, but it is also pulsating with heart.

The film follows July playing a performance artist that becomes interested in a shoe salesman (John Hawkes, ‘Deadwood’s Mr. Star) who is recovering from a divorce while dealing with his two sons who are exploring their own sexuality.

This is a film about human connection, about trying to start a life with someone else and waiting for them to see you standing there.  It is a film about appreciating moments and respecting someone else’s experiences.

This is not a film for everyone.  You might find it aggravating, frustrating and dull.  But in the right mood, this film is like a sweet little song that returns to your mind just before you go to sleep.  This movie is a poem, at times angry, disturbing and raw, but with a distinct sense of innocence that remains with you long after the credits roll.

(I must give a shout out to Matthew Kistenmacher, a friend of mine from film school who was an electrician on this film.  Great job, Matt!)

Grade: B+

This is a sweet enough little film about single life in your 40’s.  Diane Lane and John Cusack are reliably charming as two divorces trying to find their way to one another.  Cusack looks a little less lean and mean than he has in recent years, but he has not lost any of that classic personality and charm that he has been wooing us with since ‘Say Anything’.

Yet this film is carried by Lane, a more than capable actress who gives us a woman who is on the verge of either a nervous breakdown or finding her one true love.  She has none of the annoying tics of, say, Meg Ryan, instead she is a real and mature woman.

The supporting players of Christopher Plummer (can we say slumming it?), Stockard Channing (see previous note), Elizabeth Perkins ( I miss ‘Weeds’) and Dermot Mulroney (damn, he just gets sexier as he gets greyer, doesn’t he?) are all good in their small roles. 

However the fault of this film is a meandering and weirdly constructed plot where Lane goes from dating two men to none, to the wrong one, back to none again, to begging, etc.  It is terribly frustrating to see this well drawn character make choices that are so obviously wrong.  I just didn’t buy that she would give up so easy and then make a big silly realization.

It is a good idea for a film (with a bad title), but it could have been better.

Grade: B-

The kind of movie that just seems to hate everybody.  It is the story of a popular teenage girl, Kimberly (Evan Rachel Wood) who accuses a teacher (Ron Livingston) of sexual abuse along with two of her friends.

The film hates teenage girls, it tells us that they are nasty, over-sexualized pieces of work that are always looking for a way to manipulate everything in their path, or that they are virginal and innocent and would never do anything wrong if they were not coerced into it.  It re-states the Madonna and the whore, but in highschool terms.  There is no grey area here.

The film hates adults.  All parents are fucked up and selfish (James Woods is fantastic as Kimberly’s masturbating, drunk dad) with trophy wives (Jamie King), or strange sexual perversions.  The teacher accused of the abuse is seen fetishizing his students by making his wife dress and act as one of them, as though to questions whether he is innocent whether or not he did anything, but it really just makes you feel bad without anyone to direct your sympathy towards.  A local TV reporter (Jane Krakowski) uses her sex to get her everywhere, as though women will always use sex to their benefit.

This film hates people and so why should we like it back?  It does not challange social convention in any sort of cunning or smart way, just in a hateful and empty way that leaves us with nothing.

Wood gives a great performance and is the one highlight in this annoying film.  The potential she showed in ‘Thirteen’ (2003) is proven to be no fluke with her tragic and compelling work here.  Too bad the film doesn’t live up to her work.

Grade: C+

This remake of the 1976 original starring Walter Matthau doesn’t work quite as well in a modern setting, but still gets a few laughs off.  Billy Bob Thornton is perfectly cast the pathetic exterminator with a drinking problem who played for 3/4 of an inning in the Major Leagues and is now being paid to coach a local baseball team.  Thornton is just as unpleasant as he can be and that is what is so appealing about him.  You understand why the kids would listen to him, because there is something insanely attractive about Thornton…I totally get where Angelina Jolie was coming from.

The kids are great, but nowhere near the awesomeness of the original cast.  Marcia Gay Harden is slumming it as an over-achieving mom and Greg Kinnear is playing the same character he played in ‘Little Miss Sunshine’ (2006), but without lessons learned and all that.

The best thing about the film is that it was directed by Richard Linklater, who is starting a dual-platformed career now as kiddie-movie great (2003’s ‘The School of Rock’) as well as indie conversation movie legend (the ‘Before Sunrise/Sunset’ movies, 1993’s ‘Dazed and Confused’).  He has a way with child actors, making them seem more adult than most kids are allowed to be in modern film.  He remembers that kids are more like ‘The Goonies’ than ‘Charlotte’s Web’, that they are wayyy more ‘South Park’ than ‘Dora The Explorer’ in reality and he uses that to make actual characters out of them, instead of over-moralizing.  This is not ‘School of Rock’, but it ain’t bad either.

Grade: B

Every critic I read was telling me I would hate this movie, but when I finally gave it a shot, I found that I actually kinda liked this sweet little movie.

It follows Kat (Debra Messing) a single airline employee who hires Nick (Dermot Mulroney), a male escort, to be her date to her sister’s wedding.  Kat learns a lot about herself and her faults from Nick, while Nick learns that maybe a woman could get under his skin.

The film is a bit short, I would have liked to see more of who Nick is and where he is coming from and the adversity they have to overcome is a little watered down.  However the chemistry between Messing and Mulroney is very strong. 

It is nice to see Messing play a shy woman, I am so used to her as Grace from ‘Will & Grace’, but here she is vulnerable without being crazed, a nice change.

Amy Adams is also worth mentioning for her role as Kat’s sister who everyone puts on a pedestal.  She lets us under the veneer for just a moment, but it is a great glimpse.

Also, British actress Sarah Parish is the hilarious highlight of the film as Kat and Amy’s cousin, TJ.  She never lets it get too serious.

Grade: B+

All the reviews told me that I should hate this movie.  They said that the rom-com aspect was unrealistic and that Meryl Streep as a Jewish mom just didn’t work.  Well, this is one time I can say that the reviewers were wrong!

This movie is about a 37-year-old divorcee (Uma Thurman) who falls for a 23-year-old artist (’October Road’s Bryan Greenberg) and then discovers that he is the son of her therapist (Streep).

The movie works because you feel the chemistry between Thurman and Greenberg, but it never feels like either is playing outside of their age.  Thurman is radiant and great as the woman every man dreams of.  They work very well together.

You can also see the mother-son connection between Greenberg and Streep.  They seem related, it works.  Thurman and Streep are good together, two great actresses who have charm and presence.

It isn’t the best thing ever, but it is a charming and realistic love story.

Grade: B+/A-