OCEANS- Movie Review

OCEANS- Long before The Cove or March Of The Penguins, Disney’s “True-Life Adventures” series presented stunning visions of the wonder and fragility of nature that encouraged audiences to embrace and preserve the world’s natural beauty. Produced between 1948 and 1960, that award-winning series was clearly the inspiration behind Disneynature, the independent Mouse House production arm responsible for last year’s excellent eco-themed documentary, Earth. 

The imprint’s second film, which was co-directed by Jacques Perrin and Jacques Cluzaud (Winged Migration), takes a similar approach, balancing jaw-dropping visuals with sober musings on the underwater world’s future. “Wow!” is the operative word here, perfect for responding to everything from otherworldly pods of glowing jellyfish and beach-bound orcas gobbling seals for supper to massive schools of leaping dolphins and epic stone crab battles that look like lost scenes from The Lord Of The Rings. 

Keeping it’s core kiddie audience in mind, the film is careful not to get too heavy-handed with its lecturing on the importance of saving our oceans from the threats of pollution, over-fishing and global warming. But at times you may find yourself wishing Pierce Brosnan’s narration had a bit more consciousness-raising substance to match Perrin and Cluzaud’s remarkable visual style. 

Still, there are enough moments of wide-eyed wonder here to dazzle audiences of all ages, making up for a lack of storytelling with some of the most exquisite undersea images ever filmed. It may not win any Oscars, but Oceans would almost certainly make the legendary Jacques Costeau proud. (B) –Bret Love

PRODIGAL SONS- Movie Review

PRODIGAL SONS- This thought-provoking documentary is all about identity and choices: Who we choose to be as individuals, how we choose to live our lives, who we choose to love, and how we deal with situations in which it seems we have no choice. Paul McKerrow grew up the golden child of a loving family in small town Montana, the middle of three sons born 3 years apart. Handsome, smart and strong, he graduated as class President and valedictorian, captain of the football team, and the object of every cheerleader’s affection. Twenty years later, Paul is now Kimberly Reed, a transgendered film director returning to her hometown for the first time for a high school reunion. The trip also marks her reunion with adopted older brother Marc, who has had a hard-knock life: held back in preschool, failed to graduate high school, suffered a serious head injury at age 21, and has never gotten over the feeling that he’s been cheated out of the life he deserves. The film pulls a rope-a-dope sucker punch, feigning the audience into believing the drama will come from the community’s lack of acceptance of Kimberly’s transition, when in fact the emotional dynamics largely come from Marc’s mental breakdown. What begins as an almost endearing social awkwardness quickly turns vicious and ugly, as Marc hurls insults at Kimberly and her girlfriend, physically assaults their younger brother (who is gay), and eventually pulls a knife during a holiday celebration. He’s a train wreck of a man desperate to control his own life, but he clearly can’t even control his own emotional impulses despite an obvious love for his family. It’s a fascinating, heartbreaking portrait of familial dysfunction and mental illness, more complex and profoundly revelatory than anything most Hollywood screenwriters could dare to dream up. Sometimes, truth really is stranger—and more intriguing– than fiction. (A)  

SHE'S OUT OF MY LEAGUE- Movie Review

SHE’S OUT OF MY LEAGUE- Expectations can be a bitch. Going into a film with high expectations can lead to disappointment and, in the worst cases, feelings that you’ve wasted two hours of your life. Going into relationships with expectations set too high? Well, that’s simply a recipe for disaster. 

She’s Out Of My League– much like its central character, Kirk, a nerdy airport security agent pining for an abusive ex-girlfriend who still hangs out with his abusive family– benefits greatly from lowered expectations. It’s got a no-name director (Jim Field Smith), a star (Jay Baruchel) who would barely qualify for the Hollywood C-list, and about as much hype as a new Starbucks. But in the end it delivers both laughs and emotion, balancing absurdist comedy and genuine drama with a deft, nimble touch. 

The story follows Kirk’s budding relationship with Molly (Alice Kim), the upscale event planner referenced in the title. Nobody can believe these two opposites belong together, least of all Kirk, and the film derives huge laughs from watching their disparate worlds collide.  But as crazy as Kirk’s friends and family are, Baruchel and Kim keep the film grounded by playing the emotions of their love for real, even when the circumstances surrounding them border on ridiculous. 

In the end, this heartwarming coming-of-age comedy about nice guys finishing first plays like a Judd Apatow film without Judd Apatow… or big stars… or hype. And yes, that is a VERY good thing. (B) –Bret Love

(originally appeared in INsite)

ALICE IN WONDERLAND- Movie Review

ALICE IN WONDERLAND- Watching Tim Burton’s reinvention of Lewis Carroll’s literary masterpiece, it’s impossible not to imagine its dazzling Technicolor imagery as a video game or theme park ride. Whether that’s a good thing or not depends entirely on your viewpoint. 

Burton’s flamboyant gothic humor makes him the perfect match for Carroll’s sly, sadistic fable, and the film wisely updates the classic tale by introducing us to Alice (Mia Wasikowska) as a rebellious 19-year-old resentful of being told what to do or who to marry. Once she falls down the rabbit hole the story seems a bit too familiar, relying on Burton’s brilliant visuals to drive the pacing. 

For the most part he succeeds, providing a hallucinogenic kaleidoscope of colors and gleefully twisted characters voiced by killer thespians (Alan Rickman as the Caterpillar, Stephen Fry as as the Cheshire Cat and Michael Sheen as the White Rabbit). Perfect casting has always been one of Burton’s trademarks and, from Helena Bonham Carter as the huge-headed Red Queen and Crispin Glover as her malevolent henchman to Anne Hathaway as the ridiculously regal White Queen, Wonderland is no exception. The lynchpin (as usual) is Johnny Depp, whose Mad Hatter looks like the bastard offspring of Bozo the Clown and Madonna. Once again hiding his leading man looks behind the bizarre visage of a quirky crackpot one small step from utter insanity, Depp’s tightrope walk along the thin line dividing “just enough” from “over the top” proves the film’s most fascinating element. 

Unfortunately, things go completely off the rails in an action-centered third act that feels entirely unnecessary, almost as if the powers-that-be couldn’t believe that a well-told fable full of colorful characters and spectacular scenery would hold our attention for 90 minutes. Ultimately, it proves a disappointing end for an idea that begins with remarkable promise. (C+) –Bret Love

DISTRICT 13: ULTIMATUM- movie review

DISTRICT 13: ULTIMATUM- When District 13 was released in 2004, it seemed to come out of nowhere, introducing American audiences to the French sport of parkour and establishing Pierre Morel (Taken) as one of the best action film directors in the business. Written by Luc Besson (The Professional, The Fifth Element), the story wasn’t the most original, following an undercover cop (Cyril Raffaelli) and an ex-thug (David Belle) attempting to infiltrate a gang in the ghettos of Paris in order to defuse a neutron bomb. But the action was spectacular, with scenes of Belle leaping from balcony to balcony to descend a high-rise building setting the stage for the sport’s mainstream exposure in the James Bond films. 

The sequel? Unfortunately, not so much. Besson’s script, which reunites Belle’s Lëito and Raffaelli’s Capt. Tomaso for a mission to bring peace among five rival gangs before a corrupt Secret Service leader convinces the President to nuke the whole district, seems outdated in its sociopolitical skewering. There’s virtually no parkour action to speak of, which puts all of the emphasis on plot and performance, which was never the original’s strong suit. Patrick Alessandrin isn’t quite the director Morel is: his editing lacks punch, his cinematography lacks style, and his storytelling lacks dramatic tension. 

The actors do the best they can with what they’re given, making what could’ve been an unmitigated disaster into a decent direct-to-DVD flick. Still, Ultimatum winds up being more of the same… only less. (D)  –BRET LOVE

(originally appeared in INsite Magazine)

DEAR JOHN review

DEAR JOHN- Disclaimer: I am not a female, nor am I prone to embrace sappy depictions of unrequited love, so it’s safe to say that I’m probably not author Nicholas Sparks’ intended target demo. That being said, I was truly surprised by how much I enjoyed the 2004 adaptation of his novel The Notebook, significant credit for which must be given to the film’s talented stars, Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams. I might have even shed a man-tear or two, though if waterboarded I would still insist to the death that it was merely eye sweat. 

Director Lasse Hallström’s latest film, however, is not The Notebook, though it clearly aspires to tug on the very same emotional heartstrings. Based on Sparks’ novel, the story follows college student Savannah Curtis (Amanda Seyfried) and Special Forces soldier John Tyree (Channing Tatum), who fall head over heels after a bit of summer lovin’ (had me a blast!) while he’s home on leave. Of course he eventually returns to battle, and the two promise to write one another regularly, their letters practically dripping with the sort of longing that only comes from being denied that which our hearts really, really yearn for. While he’s away, she finds comfort in her friendship with a next-door neighbor (Henry Thomas), a sad-sack whose wife left him alone to care for their autistic child. When Tyree elects to re-enlist after the attack of 9/11, it doesn’t take Nostradomus to predict precisely where this story is headed. 

If you’ve seen The Notebook, it all feels a bit too familiar. Though Seyfried shows impressive dramatic range, Tatum can’t come close to matching Gosling’s dynamic charisma, and Hallström’s unwillingness to show us the hell of war leads to an odd sense of detachment from Tyree’s emotional plight. Veteran character actor Richard Jenkins (Six Feet Under) commands attention as Tyree’s socially awkward father, but ultimately even he can’t save this film from feeling like a retread of Sparks’ previous work, albeit with the added sociopolitical relevance only a soldier sacrificing his own happiness in the name of God and country can provide. The unsatisfying ending certainly doesn’t do it any favors, either. (C)  –BRET LOVE

THAT EVENING SUN- movie review

THAT EVENING SUN- We won’t hear his name called on March 7, but for my money Hal Holbrook’s performance in this gripping Southern indie is Best Actor Oscar-worthy, and arguably the most moving of his 55-year career. 

Holbrook stars as Abner Meecham, a curmudgeonly coot that escapes from the old folks home where his uppity lawyer son Paul (Walton Goggins) has stowed him and heads back to his farm to live out his twilight years. Problem is, when he gets there he finds the family of Lonzo Choat (Ray McKinnon), a good-for-nothing hooligan prone to getting drunk and abusing his wife (Carrie Preston) and daughter (Mia Wasikowska, soon starring as Alice in Tim Burton’s Wonderland). 

It appears Paul gave the Choats a lease-to-own option on the property, so the stubborn-as-a-mule Abner lays claim to his old guest house and proceeds to make life miserable for Lonzo, openly degrading his manhood and adopting an incessantly barking dog to drive him mad. "I worked too hard and too long," he reasons. "I ain't goin' down without a fight." This heated rivalry develops into a bitter inter- and intra-family feud: Paul thinks his father is mean and unreasonable, while Lonzo’s daughter Pamela would do just about anything to escape. 

Writer-director Scott Teems (a Georgia native) expertly builds the dramatic tension: You’re never quite sure how this war of iron wills will end, but you’ll have a hunch it won’t end well. All the actors, including Barry Corbin as Abner's neighbor/co-conspirator, are excellent at crafting characters that explore the thousand shades of grey dividing good from evil. Abner is old, infirm and dearly missing his departed wife (played by Holbrook’s real-life love, Dixie Carter), but he’s also a devious, ornery cuss who could make a saint swear. Lonzo is lazy, angry and obviously out of control, but he clearly struggles to do right by his wife and child. 

This is the sort of low-profile, low-budget film that indie festivals are made for, but it’s also character-based storytelling at its finest, and truly deserves to find a mainstream audience in theaters.  – BRET LOVE