Tribeca ’13: Out of Print

How can folks get up every day and go to work in book publishing?  I ask myself that very question about five times a week.  Yet despite frequent doomsday forecasts, the industry lumbers on.  Perhaps e-books will be either the deliverance or the destruction of the business, but for now they are a mid-sized Schumpeterian disruption.  Vivienne Roumani takes stock of what it all means in her documentary Out of Print (trailer here), which screened as part of the Tribeca Talks post-screening discussion series at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival.

At the heart of OOP and Ben Lewis’s thematically related Google and the World Brain lies the question whether the digitization of knowledge is a democratizing or monopolistic endeavor.  The jury is still out, but in the case of the big G, you really have to wonder.  Roumani touches on the Google settlement, but if there is a corporate bogeyman in OOP, it is Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, at least when she talks to Authors’ Guild president Scott Turow.

Is the giant e-tailer cheapening the value of e-books through its pricing and merchandizing?  Turow certainly has thoughts on the matter.  As an interview subject, Turow is an intelligent and authoritative figure.  For his part, Bezos seems to be trying to humanize his image, which is a shrewd long-term strategy, in marked contrast to the deafening silence from Google in Lewis’s doc.  Indeed, Roumani gained entrée to a number of highly influential market leaders and thinkers, even including the late great Ray Bradbury (appearing primarily as an expert on libraries, but adding unspoken significance to the discussion as the author of Fahrenheit 451).

There are a number of issues raised by the film that were largely glossed over by the post-screening experts, such as the fundamental issue of storage.  As Roumani points out, DVDs and hard drives have a life expectancy that can be measured in years, not decades.  Simply assuming someone will figure out something more lasting is not a great strategy.  Yet for the filmmaker and at least of her fellow panelists, the effect of the digital revolution on reading habits is even more significant.  Some seriously wonder whether the majority of kids today will have sufficient interest and attention to read a full book from the beginning to the end.

Roumani nicely balances prognostications of doom and gloom with optimism for the shape of things to come.  At fifty-five minutes, Out of Print is a well paced and organized overview of an industry in flux and the wider resulting social and cultural implications.  It is a handy primer, but Google and the World Brain remains a more in-depth and pointed examination of the same fundamental issues.  Given its timeliness, it should draw considerable interest on the festival circuit and merits public broadcast consideration.

Tribeca ’13: Big Bad Wolves

An Israeli officer who survived the fog of war can go to some dark places if need be.  A rogue cop and the school teacher they both suspect of being a serial killer will learn this in graphic terms throughout the course of Aharon Keshales & Navot Papushado’s Big Bad Wolves, which screened during the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival.

A sadistic murderer is preying on young girls.  A cop about to snap thinks he has caught his perp.  Unfortunately, his rough off-the-books interrogation is captured on video and posted on youtube.  Placed on wink-wink suspension, Micki intends to clean-up his mess by hook or by crook.  However, a grieving father beats him to the punch.

Gidi is a veteran of the war in Lebanon, whose daughter was one of the victims.  Although her body was recovered her head cruelly remains missing.  He hopes to recover it and thereby reach some closure.  Renting an isolated farmhouse near an Arab village, he intends to get down to business in the cellar, after coming to an agreement with the disgraced cop.  However, strange complications and interruptions keep coming up.

Keshales & Papushado, the duo behind Rabies, again demonstrate a mastery of one-gosh-darned-thing-after-another filmmaking.  Considering how unremittingly tragic the subject matter is, Big Bad is unthinkably and disturbingly funny.  Needless to say, it is humor of decidedly black variety.  They capitalize on the claustrophobic tension to build the tension and toss each successive curveball with sly dexterity.

Still, it would be nice to see the Israeli film industry occasionally produce an inspiring portrayal of Israeli society.  Yet, the fact that Israel exports films like Big Bad as well as ideologically charged documentaries critical of the government is a testament to the country’s openness.  One will not see authority figures depicted in a like manner anywhere in the popular culture of Israel’s neighbors, for fear of permanent reprisals.

Tzahi Grad is a hardnosed standout, portraying Gidi with steely gravitas, yet showing a flair for deadpan absurdist humor.  Rabies alumnus Lior Ashkenazi makes a suitable meathead foul-up as Micki.  Yet, it is the ambiguous clamminess of Rotem Keinan’s accused serial killer that makes the film so devilishly effective.

It seems appropriate Big Bad hits the festival circuit around the same time as the restoration of Fritz Lang’s M returns to revival theaters.  While there are considerable narrative differences, the two films seem to speak to each other in strange ways, particularly in terms of the social chaos wrought by such horrific crimes.  Recommended for fans of dark, subversive thrillers, Big Bad Wolves is sure to find extensive play in Israeli film showcases following its Spotlight screenings at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.

Tribeca ’13: Eastwood Directs

Clint Eastwood often argues jazz and westerns are America’s two great indigenous art forms.  Inadvertently, he thereby makes a strong case that he is one of America’s most preeminent artists.  Tribute was paid to the actor-director composer at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival yesterday with the world premiere of film critic and biographer Richard Schickel’s Eastwood Directs: The Untold Story, followed by a special Tribeca Talks interview with Eastwood conducted by Darren Aronofsky.

Eastwood Directs will be included in Warner Brothers’ upcoming Clint Eastwood 40-Film Collection on DVD and the similarly titled 20-Film Collection on Bluray.  It will also air on TCM.  As one might expect, it combines talking head interviews with brief film snippets from Warner’s Eastwood library.  However, it is hard to begrudge the hagiographic treatment for an icon like Eastwood.  Clearly, he is a serious figure if he attracts commentary from the likes of Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Brian Grazer, and Meryl Streep.  It is especially nice to see Gene Hackman reminiscing about the film Unforgiven.  Someone like Eastwood ought to find a part interesting enough to get him back in the game.

Directs largely focuses on Eastwood’s special talent for directing his fellow actors, giving considerable attention to his big Oscar winners, for obvious reasons.  There are some nice stories and testimonials, especially from Streep, his co-star in Bridges of Madison County.  While Schickel does not spend much time on Bird, he still covers Eastwood’s longstanding passion and support for jazz in reasonable detail.  Though not exactly a jazz film per se, Play Misty for Me gets its due, even though it is not a Warner property (the picture of Eastwood with Erroll Garner is a nice touch).

In fact, Misty provided one of the more telling anecdotes during Eastwood’s post-screening conversation with Aronofsky.  When asked about technology, Eastwood (who still prefers film but is resigned to digital’s inevitability) spoke of his brief use of “instant replay” capabilities on his directorial debut, but quickly banished it from the set when he saw the cast and crew obsessing over it.

In Eastwood Directs, Scorsese identifies Eastwood as the living link between old school Hollywood and the modern age.  It is easy to see what he’s getting at.  Unfortunately, Aronofsky’s skills as an interviewer did not match the insights of Shickel’s interview subjects.  However, Eastwood did his best to fit anecdotes to the broad, open-ended questions and generally just offered up his gravelly-voiced Zen master-blues piano player persona to the appreciative audience.

There is something truly American about self-reinvention.  Again, this is something Eastwood exemplifies.  From Rawhide through the Leone westerns and critically underappreciated Dirty Harry films to his Cannes and Oscar celebrated films as a director, Eastwood has charted an independent course, while remaining within the studio system and maintaining his popular appeal.  Recommended for his fans, Eastwood Directs will be included on Warner Brothers’ collections releasing June 3^rd and will run on TCM May 30th.  The Eastwood interview is also available for streaming for those unable to attend the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival in-person.

Tribeca ’13: The Machine

There is a second Cold War on and China is winning.  Britain’s defense establishment is convinced their only hope lies in devising killer androids enhanced with artificial intelligence.  Oh, but perhaps they succeed too well in Caradog James’ The Machine (clip here), which screens as a Midnight selection of the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival.

Vincent McCarthy could make bank in the private sector, but he has personal reasons for laboring in a subterranean government facility somewhere in Wales.  When Ava’s AI program comes darn close to passing the Turing Test, he recruits her for his double-secret research.  However, on her very first day she cannot help noticing the dodginess of the place, particularly the guards, who double as guinea pigs.  There seems to be something weirdly unspoken going on with the twitchy veterans who accepted AI implants to counteract their brain trauma.

When Ava is murdered under suspiciously suspicious circumstances, her pre-mapped brain is imprinted on “The Machine.”  McCarthy coaches her/it to be human and humane, but Thompson, the ruthless project director, orders a battery of more lethal instructions.  This leads to conflict.

It would be nice to see a film that considered the British and American military and intelligence services to be the good guys for a change, especially compared to the oppressive and increasingly militaristic Communist regime in China.  Sadly, The Machine is not that film.  There really ought to be an epilogue showing how China enslaves the world because of the resulting setbacks to the Free World’s R&D.  Instead, we just get Messianic themes warmed over from the Universal Soldier franchise, which in turn were cribbed from Metropolis, R.U.R. and a host of apocalyptically promethean science fiction morality tales.

Nonetheless, Caity Lotz earns favorable notice for her dual role as Ava and The Machine.  She presents two distinct personas, yet still credibly hints at connections between the two.  Toby Stephens works well enough as the brilliant but short sighted McCarthy.  Sadly, Star Wars alumnus Denis “Wedge” Lawson is completely wasted as the dastardly Thompson, who seems to engage in unnecessary villainy solely to precipitate McCarthy’s crisis of conscience.

Very little of The Machine makes sense, starting with the moody Miami Vice ambiance.  One would think a research laboratory ought to be well lit, but evidently this is not the case.  Despite Lotz’s interesting performances, The Machine is predictable and heavy-handed.  A disappointment, it screens again tonight (4/27) as part of this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.

Tribeca ’13: Whitewash

Remember kids, don’t drink and plow.  We’re especially talking to you up north.  It causes plenty of grief for a sadsack countryman in Emanuel Hoss-Desmarais’s Whitewash (trailer here), winner of the Best New Narrative Director Award at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival.

Bruce Landry had a pretty depressing life to begin with.  The alcoholic Canadian widower’s only source of income was the occasional freelance snowplowing gig.  One dark and snowy night, he jumps into his plow with his flask and proceeds runs down a man trudging along the side of the road.  In a drunken panic, Landry scoops up the body and drives into the woods, eventually crashing into a sturdy trunk of old growth.

While Landry stews over his predicament, we learn via flashbacks, Landry had some complicated history with the man on the business end of his plow.  After Landry convinces the soon to be late Paul Blackburn not to kill himself they sort of become friends—for a while.

One would think Landry could hole up in his plow for only so long, yet his self-imposed imprisonment never seems to end.  Whitewash vividly illustrates the old adages about how the mind can create its own Hell.  Unfortunately, the audience is condemned along with Landry.

Granted, Hoss-Desmarais masterfully sets the scene and maintains the mood of profound melancholy, but Whitewash is still agonizingly slow to watch.  The understated Thomas Haden Church nicely fits the tone of the picture and excels in the odd comic interludes without undermining the overall existential vibe.  Nevertheless, there is only so much he can do to punch-up the material while staying in character.

Whitewash bears comparison to trapped-men movies like Detour and Buried, but its claustrophobic setting makes much less dramatic sense.  THC admirably rises to the challenge of carrying the film almost single-handedly, but how long do you really want to watch him muttering to himself? 

Tribeca’s juried award winners are often head-scratchers and this year is no exception.  One can understand the recognition bestowed on Hoss-Desmarais for the atmosphere he creates, but not necessarily for his sense of pacing.  Mostly recommended for nationalistic Canadians, Whitewash screens today (4/27) and tomorrow (4/28), as an award winner at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.

Tribeca ’13: Byzantium

Evidently, vampirism is supposed to be an old boys’ club.  Eleanor and her sister Clara are certainly not boys.  At least they are old, though they hardly look it.  Immortality is a strange existence for them in Byzantium (trailer here), Neil Jordan’s return to the world of the undead, which screens as a Spotlight selection of the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival.

For two hundred years, Eleanor has been a mixed up teenager.  She routinely writes the story she is forbidden from telling, casting her words to the wind.  Eleanor also drinks human blood to survive, but she only “takes” those who are ready and willing to go.  She was whisked away from her orphanage and turned eternal by her “guardian” Clara.  Ever since, they have not-lived on the run, eluding a cabal of vampires who never sanctioned either woman joining their ranks.

Clara does not have Eleanor’s scruples.  She is a survivor, typically falling back on her old profession—the oldest one.  At least she finds a decent enough chap to shack up with in Noel.  He happens to have a vacant hotel they can use as a base of operations—the Byzantium.  Despite Clara’s insistence on secrecy, Eleanor feels increasingly compelled to share her story, which is a dangerous proposition.

Adapted by Moira Buffini from her stage play A Vampire Story, Byzantium offer some intriguing twists on the familiar vampire mythos (the hat tips to Byron and Polidori are also nice touches).  Yet, it is driven by the telling of the tale, which establishes quite a compelling fairy tale vibe.  Jordan masterfully handles the flashbacks, while maintaining the eerie mood.  He also deftly incorporates music into key scenes.  There is an elegant lushness to Byzantium, much in the tradition of Jordan’s previous supernatural films and the better Hammer Horror productions.

Somehow, Saoirse Ronan projects both teen angst and world-weary resignation.  It is a rather soulful portrayal of the soulless.  A fully committed Gemma Arterton impressively vamps it up in every way possible as Clara.  Sam Riley adds a Twilishness as the mysterious vampire Darvell (revisiting the seaside locale of Brighton Rock) with Thure Lindhardt (from Eddie the Sleepwalking Cannibal) and Uri Gavriel (the blind prisoner of the pit in Dark Knight Rises) bringing some global genre cred in supporting roles.

By supernatural genre standards, Byzantium is unusually engaging on an emotional level.  It is a stylish production, bolstered by some evocative sets and locations.  Highly recommended for those who prefer their vampire films moody and brooding rather than gory, Byzantium screens again this afternoon (4/26) and tomorrow (4/27) during this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.

Tribeca ’13: Mobius

In Russia, today’s captain of industry is tomorrow’s rogue oligarch.  Even sponsoring the next head of the FSB is not enough to protect one tycoon.  Instead, it makes him a liability.  An agent specializing in sensitive assignments will target the shadowy money man through an attractive employee, leading to all sorts of complications in Eric Rochant’s Möbius (trailer here), which screens at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.

Gregory Lioubov commands an FSB team pretending to be a Monaco police task force, attempting to turn Alice Redmund, a brilliant trader for with a scandalous past.  Redmund works for Ivan Rostovski’s multi-national firm, but she also secretly reports to an American handler.  Realizing the Russians are putting a play on Rostovski, the CIA instructs Redmund to play along with the task force she still assumes are local cops. 

When Lioubov accidentally picks up Redmund to protect his cover[s], it compromises them both.  Suddenly, Redmund is hiding their burgeoning affair from the jealous Rostovski while Moïse, as Lioubov calls himself, scrambles to keep his incompetent subordinates in the dark.  Then things really get tricky.

Möbius is pretty steamy stuff by espionage movie standards.  These spies definitely come in out of the cold.  As Lioubov (or whoever) and Redmund, co-leads Jean Dujardin and Cécile de France have real chemistry and are not afraid to go all in.  However, the rest of the cloak-and-daggering is not bad either.  While there seems to be a bit of an anti-American bias, at least it is rather muddled.  The FSB on the other hand is clearly portrayed as a nest of vipers indistinguishable from its previous incarnation as the dreaded KGB.

In a change-up from his Oscar winning turn in The Artist, Dujardin brings a dark, brooding physicality to Lioubov.  De France is a respectable femme fatale-anti-heroine, but Tim Roth nearly steals the show as the erratic British educated Rostovski.

Rochant nicely juggles all the feints and double-crosses as the film alternates between romanticism and cynicism.  Cinematographer Pierre Novion gives it all a stylish noir polish that should satisfy genre fans.  Recommended for patrons of French cinema and cerebral spy thrillers, Möbius screens again tomorrow (4/27) and Sunday as part of this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.

Tribeca ’13: The Diplomat

Once described as “the most beautiful face of socialism,” she would eventually pose for Playboy.  As a back-to-back Olympic gold medalist, Katarina Witt represented the greatest success of the East German athletic program.  Yet, in light of subsequent revelations, she might be the most deeply confused former East German about the Communist era.  At least, such seems to be the case judging from Jennifer Arnold & Senain Kheshgi’s documentary profile, The Diplomat, produced as part of ESPN Films’ Nine for IX series, several of which screen during the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival.

Witt clearly had the X factor at an early age, attracting East Germany’s preeminent figure skating coach and abundant state support.  She was duly grateful for both.  As she began winning championships, Witt became an important symbol for state propaganda.  She did her part willingly.  Yet, she was always aware her opportunities to travel outside the closed country were a rare blessing.

What Witt did not realize until after the fall of the Wall was the level of surveillance the state maintained on her, despite her dutiful service.  She was also shocked to learn several friends spied on her for the dreaded Stasi, including a remorseful fellow figure skater, whom Arnold & Kheshgi interview at length.

Although she remains an important international sports figure, Witt still seems unsure how to process everything that happened post-1989.  We see how staggered she was by the outpouring of East German resentment when the size and extent of GDR state subsidies to athletes was revealed.  She argues Olympics medalists like her did something extraordinary on the world stage, thereby earning their compensation.  That is a completely reasonable position, but a far cry from “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need.”

While they are understandably reluctant to dig-in and challenge Witt, Arnold & Kheshgi thoroughly establish the oppressive nature of the GDR and the intrusive methods of the Stasi, much to their credit.  Some of their best talking head commentary comes from the post-Unification custodians of the Stasi Archives.  For further creepy context, they also scored a sit down with Moscow’s final GDR hardliner Egon Krenz, who once headed the captive nation’s athletic machine, but would eventually be convicted for crimes committed against the German people.

For many Americans watching the Olympics, Witt was always a kind of ice queen.  The Diplomat offers a fuller, more complicated picture.  It is hard to say how much she was and still is in a state of denial.  Yet, it is clear anyone born into such a system with any sort of talent would have to navigate some thorny situations.  An intriguing portrait of a gifted athlete representing a system rife with “internal contradictions,” The Diplomat screens again as part of a double bill with No Limits this Saturday (4/27) during the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival.

Tribeca ’13: Cycling with Moliere

L’Île de Ré is sort of like the French Martha’s Vineyard.  It is pretty dead during the off-season, but if you wait long enough you are sure to spot someone famous.  Gauthier Valence is such a celebrity.  He hopes to recruit a retired colleague for a production of The Misanthrope in Philippe Le Guay’s Cycling with Molière (trailer here), which screens as a Spotlight selection of the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival.

The success of his medical drama even embarrasses Valence.  Serge Tanneur’s career went in the opposite direction following a legal spat with a producer.  Retiring to his late uncle’s ramshackle house on the isle, Tanneur has given up all acting ambitions until Valence comes calling.  Of course, the TV doctor wants to play Alceste.  He is the star.  Yet, when Tanneur balks, Valence suggests they alternate between the lead role and Philinte.  Neither saying yes or no, Tanneur keeps him on the hook during a week of trial rehearsals.  Sometimes they click, just like the old days, but there will be complications.

The Misanthrope’s significance to Tanneur is so fitting, Le Guay barely gives it nodding acknowledgement.  Instead, he concentrates on the actors’ craft and the demands of the verse.  Frankly, even after watching the film it is hard to say whether Valence and Tanneur are friends, frienemies, or rivals, which is quite a rich ambiguity.  There are some exquisitely bittersweet scenes, as when the old thesps do a reading with Zoé, the island’s young aspiring porn star.  Yes, they even run lines while biking.  That is how island folk seem to roll, after all.

While Cycling is extremely accessible, it is about as French as films get.  Le Guay’s screenplay, based on an idea co-developed with co-lead Fabrice Luchini, has considerable wit, but it is defined by a sense of longing and regret.  It also rather tastefully avoids big pay-off learning moments, instead remaining true to its characters’ flaws and foibles.

Luchini (whose recent credits include Laurent Tirard’s Molière and Le Guay’s charming Women on the 6th Floor) is overdue for a major American retrospective, but Cycling would be the perfect film to build it around.  He is completely convincing as a frustrated actor doing a mostly convincing Alceste.  His facility with language and brittle insecurities all feel right.  Lambert Wilson is perfectly fine as Valence, playing off Luchini quite well in some key scenes.  Yet, Maya Sansa nearly steals the show as Francesca, the Italian divorcee who attracts the attention of both men.  Likewise, Laurie Bordesoules makes the most of her brief but charming appearances as Zoé.

Cycling never really reinvents the wheel, but it is a refreshingly elegant and literate film.  The scenery is quite pleasant, while Luchini’s work still has real bite.  Recommended for all regular patrons of French cinema, Cycling with Molière screens again tomorrow (4/25) and Sunday (4/28) during this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.

Tribeca ’13: Fresh Meat

Insert your own family dinner joke here.  Or don’t bother.  New Zealander Danny Mulheron’s fearless cannibal comedy will make them all for us.  Questions of good taste will entirely depend on the viewer’s palate when Fresh Meat (trailer here) screens as a Midnight selection of the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival.

Rina Crane is a very proper young Maori lady who has come home from boarding school.  She is thinking it is about time to drop the lesbian bomb with her family, but they beat her to the punch, revealing the new family diet.  In hopes of finally achieving tenure, her academic father Hemi Crane has revived an ancient mystical cannibal cult.  Eating will flesh will give them supernatural powers or so the theory goes.  His new faith is about to be put to the test when a reckless gang of fugitives invades the Crane home.

For the freaked out Rina, this sudden turn of events is not all bad, largely because of Gigi, the ringleader’s less than enthusiastic girlfriend.  She happens to bear a strong resemblance to the fetish superhero character Rina created as a focus for her fantasies.  Clearly, the two share an instant attraction, at a time when Rina’s family loyalties are somewhat fraying.

Basically, Fresh combines elements of Desperate Hours with We Are What We Are, adding all kinds of politically incorrect humor.  At one point Hemi Crane declares: “we are not Maori cannibals, we are cannibals who happen to be Maori.”  Whew, feel better everybody?  The treatment of Lesbian themes is about as sensitive, with scenes clearly included for maximum leer value.  Oh right, there’s plenty of gore too.

You have to give Briar Grace-Smith’s screenplay credit for jumping on every third rail it could find.  Likewise, Temuera Morrison embraces the gleeful mayhem wholeheartedly as Hemi Crane.  As Rina, Hanna Tevita keeps her head above water amid all the bedlam, even conveying a measure of sensitive teen alienation.

If you don’t know by now whether this blood-splattered teen lesbian cannibal comedy is your cup of tea or not, I really can’t help you.  For what it’s worth, Mulheron maintains a brisk pace, allowing little time for the wrongness of it all to sink in.  Recommended for anyone out for some good clean fun at the movies, Fresh Meat screens again this Friday (4/26) and Saturday (4/27) as part of this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.

Tribeca ’13: Taboor

It is the near future, but you will not see any flying cars.  Instead, it is a world of technological stagnation and social isolation.  For the unnamed Iranian protagonist, the future is now in Vahid Vakilifar’s Taboor (trailer here), which screens as a Viewpoints selection of the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival.

Forget the tinfoil hat.  Concerned by electromagnetic waves, the solitary man has tailored himself a tinfoil hazmat suit and lined his bedroom with aluminum.  By night he plies his trade.  He is an exterminator—not euphemistically, but in the Burroughs tradition.  At each stop, he hardly talks to his clients, despite the odd events that happen.  He seems to be a decent person, considering he always acts in a helpful manner.  However, good karma has yet to come back around to him.

Consisting of a long quiet takes with almost no dialogue, Taboor is driven more by image than plot or character.  In fact, it rather invites viewers to impose their own narrative on Vakilifar’s loose narrative structure.  Granted, that is not what most folks go to the movies for, but it can be a convenient strategy for a film produced under a rigid system of social controls.  Still, the weird developments at each stop almost echoes Léos Carax’s Holy Motors, but without the sense of playful gamesmanship.

This is definitely a film for self-selecting festival regulars.  However, they will be intrigued by Vakilifar’s visual sensibilities. The coolly detached way he films contemporary Iranian locations (tunnels, boiler rooms and the like) gives them an otherworldly vibe, not unlike some scenes in Godard’s Alphaville.

Taboor is a striking portrait of a man’s nearly absolute alienation in a dystopian world.  Hmm, one wonders where Valikifar gets his ideas.  This is unquestionably a demanding film, but there is a there there.  Recommended for the hardiest of cineastes, Taboor screens again tonight (4/23) and Saturday (4/27) as part of this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.

Tribeca ’13: Reporting on the Times (short doc)

In the 1930’s, Walter Duranty, The New York Times man in Moscow, systemically misreported or ignored Stalin’s crimes, including the notorious show trials and the Ukrainian famine.  He is considered an unfortunate but isolated case.  Yet, throughout the war, the Times consistently buried stories about the Holocaust.  Emily Harrald examines the “Paper of Record’s” questionable coverage (again as a discrete phenomenon) in the documentary short Reporting on the Times, which screens as part of the History Lessons short film program at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival.

Harrald’s opening graphics speak volumes.  From 1939 to 1945, the Times ran 23,000 front page stories—11,500 of which were about World War II.  26 were about the Holocaust.  What is most disturbing is the nature of the coverage that did run, typically relegated to the middle of the paper.  Midway through European round-up pieces, the Times would matter-of-factly report on the “liquidation” of the ghettoes, with no illusions regarding what that euphemism meant.

Rather bizarrely, Harrald spends a good portion of Reporting excusing the Times’ dubious Holocaust reportage.  Viewers will never forget publisher Arthur Hays Sulzberger was himself Jewish, but presented a fully Americanized and secularized image to readers and the press, partly out of concern over the rise of anti-Semitism.  Perhaps this explains why he would be personally reluctant to run front page stories on the plight of European Jewry.  However, he employed a full editorial staff to make sure the paper did not bury its lede.

Throughout Reporting, moral clarity is provided by a Holocaust survivor whose mother was convinced the world would come to their aid once they knew the magnitude of the National Socialists’ crimes.  For whatever reason, the Times obviously did not do its part.  Yet, when considered in light of Duranty’s Moscow dispatches, the under-reporting of the Holocaust appears more systemic than Reporting would like to consider.  Harrald’s film earns credit for beginning the conversation, but its interpretations of media history are far from definitive.  It screens again today (4/23), Friday (4/26), and Sunday (4/28) as part of the History Lessons short film block at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.

Tribeca ’13: Honeymoon Suite (short)

The Opposite House probably did not pay a promotional allowance, but it will get a heck of a plug at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.  That is because one of the short films commissioned by the chic Beijing boutique hotel was selected for the festival.  It is not hard to see why.  Zao Wang’s Honeymoon Suite (trailer here) is a small delight screening as part of the Deadbolt program at this year’s Tribeca.

This will be the first time Ally, the Opposite’s new guest services manager, will be on-duty while the mysterious Mr. Hirschfeld stays in his regular titular room.  He visits like clockwork once a month, for one night only. Even though his secret is revealed early in the film, it should not be spoiled ahead of time for those who do not guess. It is safe to say he is kind of a handful, in genre sort of way.

The director certainly does his job, making the Opposite look like quite the hip, elegant space. He also cast a first-rate ensemble.  As Ally, Zou Han-hong comes across like a smart professional, but she also has some rather touching moments down the stretch.  She certainly makes you want to check into the Opposite. 

Poor Cary Woodworth is largely buried under surprisingly impressive make-up effects, so give him credit for being a good sport.  Nadia Hatta and Xi-tian also make an endearing mother-daughter tandem in the room beneath Hirschfeld’s, with the latter providing some very cute reaction shots.

Man, if only all commercials were this fun, then we would be getting somewhere. Regardless of its origins, genre fans will be charmed by Honeymoon Suite.  Recommended for general audiences, it screens as part of the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival’s Deadbolt shorts block tonight (4/22), Saturday (4/27), and Sunday (4/28).

Tribeca ’13: Teenage

While the styles may vary, teenagers always like their music loud.  However, kids between thirteen and eighteen were not always teenagers, at least not as they are culturally and demographically defined today.  Based on co-screenwriter Jon Savage’s book, Matt Wolf traces the development of the distinct intermediate age group in the docu-essay Teenage, which screens as part of the World Documentary Competition at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival.

Before the Progressive Era, there were children and adults.  As soon as the former were big enough to work, they became the latter.  Eventually, the unsightly spectacle of young children toiling in factories led to sweeping reforms.  Perhaps the biggest takeaway from Teenage is the direct cause and effect relationship between the abolition of child labor and the rise of juvenile delinquency.  Maybe we owe those robber barons an apology.

Savage’s sweeping history implies early Twentieth Century teens were rather deterministic creatures who flocked out of hooliganism into the nascent scouting movement, priming themselves for service in WWI.  Of course, things started to change with flappers and the Lost Generation, but maybe not so much in Germany.  There, the back-to-nature youth groups could be seen as benign forerunners of the Hitler Youth organization.  Still, there were dissenters in Germany, such as the Swing Kids who embraced jazz as the soundtrack of rebellion and social protest, much like American jitter-buggers.

Refreshingly, Teenage almost entirely ignores the over-hyped post-war teenagers, including the Beatniks, hippies, and leather jacketed James Dean pretenders.  Primarily consisting of strategically excerpted movie clips and news reels, Teenage is more about evolving images than facts and data.  Periodically we hear from the diaries of four POV teens (two boys, two girls; two Brits, two Americans; one African American), but their words hold few revelations.  Frankly, Teenage’s more intriguing moments are the little offhand details, such as the frolicking student film proudly bearing the name of a young Oswald Mosley.

Wolf brought a shrewd eye to bear when assembling Teenage.  Unfortunately, his ear was off.  Given the film spans the mid 1900’s to 1945 (more or less), the music of choice for each era’s teens would have been jazz, but most of the film’s soundtrack has a rather generic ambient flavor.  It is like Wolf did not trust the tastes of his subjects.  Occasionally, we hear some archival Benny Goodman, but why “Sing Sing Sing” yet again, when “Flying Home” would be more appropriate?  After all, Lionel Hampton’s pioneering stint with the nation’s most popular white swing band represents the early cultural fruits of racial integration.

Even if it is dull listening, Teenage offers some telling visuals.  While Savage’s broad strokes analysis obviously glosses over entire years and substantial pop culture developments, his overall framework is quite compelling. Recommended for audiences with a taste for cerebral documentaries (and a tin ear for music), Teenage screens again tonight (4/22), Wednesday (4/24), and Saturday (4/27) during this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.

Tribeca ’13: Michael H. Profession: Director

Austrian art-house titan Michael Haneke won just about every award there was to be had for his latest film, Amour, including the Oscar and the Palme d’Or.  Yet, Haneke’s vision is so uncompromising his work is often more appreciated in retrospect than enjoyed in the moment. This makes Haneke a logical candidate for a documentary survey treatment, despite the auteur’s reluctance to answer questions that might establish definitive interpretations of his films.  Yves Montmayeur rises to the challenge with Michael H, Profession: Director (trailer here), which screens as part of the World Documentary Competition at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.

Fittingly, Montmayeur begins with Haneke’s “greatest hit,” observing the director at work on Amour.  However, he demonstrates a bit of visual flair, showing Haneke blocking out Jean-Lois Trintignant’s nightmare sequence as if it were really him in the scene.  Trintignant and his Academy Award nominated co-star Emmanuelle Riva both praise the specificity and clarity of Haneke’s direction, but suggest he is quite the demanding helmer.

Essentially working in reverse chronological order, Montmayeur then takes stock of White Ribbon, strongly emphasizing Haneke’s return to his German mother tongue.  It seems an important point, particularly in light of the film’s themes.  It also makes one think of Haneke in literary terms, following in the tradition of non-native language writers like Conrad and Nabokov.  Indeed, Haneke might be the right filmmaker to finally crack the Conradian adaptation nut.

Some of interviews and generous samplings of film clips will motivate viewers to catch up with some of Haneke’s past work.  On the other hand, Montmayeur basically gives away the ending of Funny Games, but if you are going to spoil a Haneke film that is probably the one to do it for.  In addition to Amour’s co-leads, Haneke regulars Juliette Binoche and Isabelle Huppert add insights in working with the distinguished director. He certainly attracts some of the best in the business, not that Haneke likes to think of filmmaking in such commercial terms.

Haneke can be very eloquent discussing his work.  His remarks at last year’s NYFF press conference were uncharacteristically helpful for those us looking to get a handle on Amour.  Even though Haneke will brusquely dismiss questions he does not wish to answer, Montmayeur gets him talking on general subjects in ways that illuminate his entire oeuvre.  That is really quite the trick.

Throughout Profession one gets a clear sense of Haneke’s pessimistic conception of human nature as well as his artistic integrity.  While he is a fascinating filmmaker to spend time with, it is hard to say how rewarding the documentary will be to viewers completely unfamiliar with his work. Respectfully recommended for Haneke’s admirers and critics alike, Michael H, Profession: Director screens again tonight (4/21), Thursday (4/25), and Saturday (4/27) during the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival.

Tribeca ’13: Mr. Jones

They might be weird, but they are rare—hence collector interest in the work of a mysterious recluse. During a short period of production, he sent unsolicited totem sculptures to people apparently selected at random, but nothing has been heard from him in recent years.  However, one couple getting away from it all suspects they have stumbled across his cabin (or maybe lair) in Karl Mueller’s Mr. Jones, which screens as a Midnight selection of this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.

Hoping to save their fraying relationship, Scott and Penny quit their rat race gigs and bought the old cabin in the woods.  Supposedly, he will make his poorly conceived nature documentary here, but do not hold your breath.  As Scott’s behavior becomes increasingly erratic, Penny pursues her photography.  Eventually, a mysterious incident leads them to a ramshackle cottage they never noticed before.  Against the audience’s better judgment, they skulk into the basement, which is fully stocked with grotesque scarecrows that Penny identifies as the work of Mr. Jones, the legendary outsider artist of all outsider artists.

Realizing they have a scoop on their hands, the couple immediately starts work on a Mr. Jones doc.  He briefly returns to New York for a few days, filming expert interviews, thereby establishing Mr. Jones’ backstory.  Meanwhile, weird things are afoot at the cabin and Mr. Jones’ role in it all is not exactly clear.  Before long, Scott and Penny are up to their necks in malevolent supernatural chaos.

The basic premise of Mr. Jones is intriguing and the gallery world details are quite intelligently written. As Scott and Penny, Jon Foster and Sarah Jones come across like a believable couple and sell the eventual bedlam reasonably well.  Yet, perhaps the most important contribution comes from scarecrow artist Pumpkinrot, whose creations totally set the right mood. Unfortunately, the nightmarish third is too murky and rather repetitive.  Still, Mueller helms the subtler early did-you-just-see-that scenes with a deft hand.

Like most horror movies, Mr. Jones kind of loses it down the stretch, but it boasts an above average set-up and a consistently eerie atmosphere.  It should at least be a break-out film for Pumkinrot and also help Mueller atone for co-writing the wildly unpleasant The Divide.  Recommended with confidence for genre fans, Mr. Jones screens again this Wednesday (4/24) during the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival.

Tribeca ’13: Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me

Elaine Stritch won the Tony and Emmy Awards along with legions of fans for her incomparable Broadway and cabaret work. 30 Rock’s twenty or thirty regular viewers were probably also grateful to her for classing up the joint with her regular guest appearance.  Even if more critics than viewers followed the show, at least Chiemi Karasawa could enlist Alec Baldwin as a co-executive producer for her documentary profile, Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me, which screens as a Spotlight selection of the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival.

Elaine Stritch appeared in a Broadway production of Dracula with Bela Lugosi and introduced the world to “The Ladies Who Lunch.”  Stritch’s brassy, acerbic performing style has made her the preeminent interpreter of the Sondheim songbook.  Without question, they are one of the truly great vocalist-lyricist tandems.  Anyone who tackles the “Ladies” stands in her long shadow. (Cassandra Wilson’s rendition was perhaps the shrewdest, cranking the tune down on Don Byron’s Fine Line album.)  However, as Stritch begins rehearsals with her supportive music director, Rob Bowman, she starts having trouble.

A documentary like Shoot Me necessarily involves a delicate balance.  Fans will want to see the wise-cracking, cosmo-swilling, “Ladies”-belting Stritch they adore from her shows. Yet, cinema patrons have an expectation of on-screen drama and a desire to peak underneath the public persona. Karasawa finds a nice balance, including plenty of Stritch’s zingers, but not ignoring the challenges she faced over the course of a difficult year.  As a result, viewers will be awed by Stritch’s sheer grit as she guts out one show after another.

As presented by Karasawa, Stritch might be one of the coolest show business figures ever.  There is absolutely no pretense with her.  She will tell people exactly what she thinks and make them laugh even when the truth hurts.  It also seems like she treats her musicians well, which is always telling. 

Karasawa takes a pretty traditional observational-talking head approach, but she gives the audience what it wants, letting Stritch have her full say.  Wickedly tart but at times also surprisingly touching, Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me is highly recommended for Stritch, Broadway, and cabaret fans when it screens again tomorrow (4/22) and Tuesday (4/23) during this year’s Tribeca Film festival.

Tribeca ’13: Just a Sigh

Given the rainy climate and the subject matter, performing a regional production of Ibsen in Calais must be depressing.  It is a gig, but Alix has yet to be paid for it.  Her career is not going so well and her personal life is rather rocky too, so when she meets a handsome stranger she cannot help wondering “what if” in Jérôme Bonnel’s Just a Sigh (trailer here), which screens during this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.

Alix and a quiet, sensitive looking man are both taking the train from Calais to Paris.  She hopes to re-establish some order in her finances and have a long talk with her partner.  Maddeningly, he just does not seem to be around.  Yet, as fate would have it, she again crosses paths with the man with the sad eyes.  Douglas has come from Britain for the funeral of a Parisian college friend.  Despite his very real grief, he is undeniably attracted to Alix.  Things do indeed run their course, but both are reluctant to let go of the moment.

Granted, Sigh revisits the familiar terrain of Brief Encounter and other short but sweet cinematic trysts.  However, Bonnel’s mostly French language film is unusually mature, sophisticated, and frankly kind of hot, in a middle aged way.  The on-screen chemistry between co-leads Emmanuelle Devos and Gabriel Byrne is quite powerful.  Devos shows considerable flexibility, segueing from Alix’s scatter-brained rushing about to her massively smoldering scenes with Byrne.  For his part, the Irish actor radiates tragic dignity as her temporary lover.

Sigh is a deceptively simple story, implying years of frustration and regret with a glance.  Gorgeously lensed by Pascal Lagriffoul, it is seamlessly elegant package.  Paris never looked better on film and every love scene should be so tastefully staged as those found here.  Bonnel only errs giving too much screen time to Alix’s condescending family, because they break his intoxicating spell.

Deeply romantic but never sentimental, Just a Sigh is exactly the sort of French film French cinema connoisseurs love to love, harkening back to the cross-over appeal of A Man and a Woman.  Featuring Byrne, arguably a bigger star today as result of his TV work on In Treatment and Vikings, it should be a no-brainer acquisition candidate.  Enthusiastically recommended, Just a Sigh screens again this Sunday (4/21), Thursday (4/25), and next Sunday (4/28) during the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival.

Tribeca ’13: Deep Powder

Prepare to go back to the 1980’s to get your Bret Easton Ellis on again.  The privileged kids of a New England prep school consume conspicuously and do mountains of blow.  They even do a spot of smuggling, which predictably leads to trouble in Mo Ogrodnik’s Deep Powder (trailer here), a Viewpoints selection of the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival.

Eight years ago the Deep Powder secret society was formed on campus by the elite of the elite.  Ostensibly a ski club, every Christmas vacation a member is chosen to score a load of cocaine in Paraguay for the group to distribute over the coming year.  Reckless senior Natasha Tabor conspires to take the place of her risk-averse middle class roommate because she just doesn’t care.  Or at least she didn’t until she met the dirt-poor brooding ski-lift operator Danny.

A promising high school hockey player, his college career was derailed by an accident.  However, a Division I coach has promised him a three year scholarship if he can cover the first year.  Has anyone ever heard of a college making this kind of an offer, because it smells like a clumsy plot contrivance from here, but maybe that’s how NCAA Hockey rolls.  Regardless, he needs money and his girlfriend just so happens to be making a drug run.

The good news is Deep Powder is possibly the funniest movie screening at Tribeca this year.  The bad news is it probably isn’t supposed to be.  The word “comedy” never appears in the film’s description, but if it was intended as a parody of overwrought indies, Ogrodnik nails it.

Unfortunately, the design team is rather wide of the mark recreating the 1980’s.  Aside from a nostalgic appearance of a handheld video game, everything feels wrong here, including the wardrobe and figures of speech.  In one scene, Danny Ski Lift woos Tabor with a vintage soul 45 that sounds very cool, but is totally era inappropriate.  Still, Deep Powder captures the vibe of cheesy 1980’s melodramas.  Throughout the film, audiences will constantly expect a John Parr video to erupt.  Perhaps “hope” is a more accurate term than “expect.”

In truth, St. Elmo’s Fire seems to be the standard on which the cast based their performances, getting about the same tepid results.  Still, Haley Bennett brings an interesting presence to the film.  It might not be a great star turn, but we certainly believe she is a messed up kid.

One can imagine the pitch for this film as Donna Tartt with a pinch of Miami Vice.  If only that were on the screen.  Instead, Deep Powder offers a surfeit of unintentional comedy.  It is hard to recommend a film on that basis, but sometimes we have to take our entertainment where we find it. For those who are strangely intrigued, it screens again tomorrow (4/21), Monday (4/22), and Friday (4/26) as part of this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.