Magic Mike (***)

Steven Soderbergh has made dull movies, but never cheesy ones, and his drama about male strippers isn’t either. His star, Channing Tatum, may have gotten his big break in a dance movie, but this is a step up from Step Up, whose story was mostly a prelude to a big dance off. In fact, for those looking for something entirely fluffy with some male eye candy, this may not be not even be cheesy enough.

The eye candy is there, of course. Besides Tatum, the major characters include the head cheese and master of ceremonies at the Tampa establishment, Matthew McConaughey, in a showy, tailor-made role, and “the Kid” (Alex Pettyfer), a new recruit that Tatum’s character takes under his wing. The Kid has a sister (Cody Horn). You can tell she’ll be a love interest because she wears a scowl, is smart, and doesn’t have casual sex like the other characters. The stripping scenes are there, too—no full monty, though—and they’re kind of funny, with different themes.

Soderbergh depicts Mike’s world as not really glamorous (odd, dark lighting effects contribute), perhaps a bit sleazy (with casual sex and drug use), but in most ways just another workplace in post-recession Florida. Mike (Tatum) has a couple of jobs and is saving his money. He’s kind of a stripper with a heart of gold, facing the usual fork in the road. He’s a believable character, maybe too realistic for those seeking fantasy. The crucial scenes that establish the rapport between Mike and the Kid’s sister really work, though, and the stripping stuff seems realistic enough, other than the absence of any gay men either among the strippers or in the audience. (No black folks either.) The realism might be explained by the fact that Tatum’s real-life experiences in the business were a basis for the screenplay (credited to Reid Carolin, whose prior credit was a documentary about the Rwandan genocide). In any case, the premise alone might draw a certain crowd, but the actual product is a little better than it needs to be.
 

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viewed 7/12/12 7:30 at Roxy and reviewed 7/13/12 and 7/17/12 and 7/18/12

Seven Days in Utopia (**1/4)

I’m always suspicious of titles wherein one of the words is both the name of something and also means something else. Utopia is the name of the tiny Texas town where frustrated golfer Luke (Lucas Black) finds himself after blowing the chance to win his first big tournament, crashing his car, and tossing his cell phone in frustration. That’s another thing I’m suspicious of. Who besides characters in movies like Wild Hogs intentionally chucks a cell phone? Anyway, first person that lucky Luke runs into is also a once-promising golfer (Robert Duvall, Black’s Get Low costar) who just so happens to have settled in this town of under 400. Not quite the second person he meets is the waitress at the improbably bustling local diner, who appears to be the only pre-menopausal woman in town. (Melissa Leo plays one on the other side of that divide.) She’s got an obnoxious quasi-boyfriend, but by about the third day, she saying things to Luke like, “Sometimes I think you might be hopeless.” Seriously, who thinks anything “sometimes” about a person she met two days ago?

It’s nearly the same setup as comedies like Doc Hollywood or the animated Cars, only it plays out like the Karate Kid, if the hero had been a little older, his crush object prayed a bit more, and Mr. Miyagi was an old white guy who taught sport by making his student paint pictures instead of fences. And, inside of a week…well, nothing surprising happens. Duvall, playing basically the only interesting character, comes close to rescuing the movie. When he tells Luke about having “a purpose and calling that went beyond any scorecard,” it only sounds a little corny. Mainly though, the movie suffers from blandness. Even the fish-out-of-water element is pretty mild. Luke’s neither a big-city slicker—he’s from nearby Waco—nor an egotistical big shot. You’d think there’d be more humor given the title and the premise, but about the only funny thing in the movie is the name of Luke’s golfing nemesis, a Korean (or maybe Korean-American—he never speaks) called T. K. Oh.

Those with a taste for a certain sort of old-fashioned wholesomeness (the movie’s rated G and extols faith) may enjoy this, but they’ll likely forget it in about seven days.

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viewed 8/29/11 at Ritz East [PFS screening] and reviewed 9/6/11

The Extra Man (**1/2)

Time marches on, but not everyone does. Some people seem to reside in the past, even if it’s true that a disproportionate number of them are characters in arty novels and independent films. Kevin Kline essays one such character in this self-consciously quirky comedy from Robert Pulcini and Shari Springer Berman, the husband-wife duo that made the splendorous American Splendor and the dire Nanny Diaries. Like Nanny Diaries, this is another adaptation of a novel (by Jonathan Ames) that uses a naive main character as a lens into a strange subculture. Kline plays a teacher/playwright whose “opus” was “stolen by a Swiss hunchback,” whose politics are “to the right of the pope,” and whose social life revolves around his part-time employment as an escort for elderly, wealthy women.

The teacher is called is Henry Harrison, which may be a nod to Henry Higgins, who in Pygmalion/My Fair Lady educates Eliza Doolittle in the ways of society. That this sort of society barely exists anymore does not deter Henry from educating his young roommate, Louis (Paul Dano), in its ways. This works because Louis too imagines himself inhabiting an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel. Like The Royal Tennenbaums, the movie exudes a certain deliberately anachronistic feel. The world it portrays is so quaint that one can apparently get fired as a prep-school professor for merely pretending to try on a bra, as Louis does before heading to Manhattan. A movie marquee places the time as 2008, but one of the few reminders that the film is set in recent days is a single call received on a cell phone. Louis gets a job at a literary magazine that is actually flourishing. His boss, miraculously, has no computer on his desk. Harrison writes on a typewriter.

This is one of those movies that doesn’t really make you laugh but aims to keep you amused via the constant oddness of its main character, a would-be aristocrat who nonetheless can barely make ends meet, drives a clunker, and thinks himself clever for mastering the art of peeing in the street without being seen. Nor can he seem to avoid disagreements, petty and large, with ex-roommates, colleagues, and the women he escorts. In case Henry isn’t odd enough, he’s got a downstairs neighbor who looks like a homeless man but talks like a lady.

Henry is a fine role for Kline, no doubt his most eccentric since winning an Oscar for A Fish Called Wanda. Dano, of There Will Be Blood, has the mild-mannered, eager-to-please thing down. Even Katie Holmes, playing Louis’s coworker, was a surprise; her character doesn’t simply function as a love interest for Louis. But there is just too much self-conscious weirdness here for the movie to sustain the weight of its collective pretensions. You can probably get away with one character as eccentric as Kline’s, but too many schnooks spoil the froth, and that is the case here. Henry is supposed to be both a tragic hero and a figure of fun, but borders on being tedious.

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viewed 8/17/10 at Ritz 5 (PFS screening) and reviewed 9/6/10 (based on previous notes)

Mao’s Last Dancer (***)

So many American films view foreign culture through an American lens, but this one (actually Australian) is about America viewed through the lens of a young Chinese man. Li Cunxin (Chi Cao) was doubly sheltered, having not only been raised in rural China during the Cultural Revolution, but also having spent his teen years in the cloistered environment of an elite ballet school. The movie begins with his arrival in Texas in 1979 for a summer stint with the Houston Ballet, an exchange arranged by Ben Stevenson (Bruce Greenwood), the Ballet’s artistic director. Director Bruce Beresford (Driving Miss Daisy) follows a conventional flashback structure in showing Li’s early life, and these scenes are compelling. However, they’re brief and only extend back to the day Li is plucked from his classroom to audition for a chance to train as a ballet dancer. Li’s excellent memoir, on which the film is based, includes multiple chapters about his life in a small village as a boy.

Understandably for a film made for an English-speaking audience, Beresford and screenwriter Jan Sardi focus on Li’s time in America. They certainly capture the ideological and cultural gulf between Maoist China and 1980s Texas, but de-emphasize the abject poverty that was the salient feature of everyday life in rural China. It’s the kind of poverty that is alien to the vast majority of Americans, and the passages in the memoir describing the enormity of that hunger and privation are not merely sad but also among the most fascinating.

In what it does portray, the movie commendably sticks very close to the facts, including in portraying the international incident that occurred when Li decided not to return to China. However, what is moving on the page can be mildly clichéed when telescoped into a two-hour film. On the other hand, getting to see the ballet sequences, so beautifully performed and filmed, is something the memoir couldn’t provide. Cao was clearly chosen for his dancing skills, not his acting, but Greenwood is quite good as the English-born Stevenson. These things and the novelty of Li’s story make the drama enjoyable to watch. Indeed, it has much of the appeal of Shine, another inspirational biopic with a screenplay by Sardi.

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viewed 8/12/10 at International House and reviewed 8/13 and 8/28/10

The Karate Kid (***1/4)

I suppose the title will irritate some, given that Jackie Chan’s Mr. Han teaches the kid (Jaden Smith) kung fu, not karate. The kid’s mom (Taraji P. Henson) confuses the two, and even after watching this movie I’m not sure of the differences myself, but Chan is Chinese and the movie takes place in China, where kung fu is the reigning martial art. Even so, there’s an unmistakable fidelity to the 1984 film of which this is a remake.

Both characters feature handymen who employ repetitive tasks as ways to build strength and discipline. And both save the boy from a bully trained by a cruel master, only to train him for an inevitable showdown. In the 1984 version, Pat Morita’s Miyagi says: “Karate for defense only.” Han says that kung fu is for “making peace with your enemy.” As Han, Chan displays far less of the physicality than in his straight action (or action-comedy) roles, but is extremely likable. In the title role, Jaden Smith has very much the cocky-yet-charming persona of his dad, Will Smith. The only other prominent role, a quasi-love interest for the boy, is charmingly played by Chinese newcomer Wenwen Han.

There’s no getting around that the storyline is still completely formulaic, though that won’t bother the target audience. The message of nonviolence is nice, even if the kids will probably forget about it as the movie builds up to the inevitable revenge ass-kicking. But the novel element that most justifies the remake is the transplanted setting. While the Americans attend an English-language school, and most of the dialogue is in English, you can, more than in most Hollywood films set abroad, surmise that there are interesting places different from the United States, people who don’t speak English, and faraway places worth visiting. (The locations include both Beijing’s Forbidden City and the Great Wall.) Perhaps Chan’s participation—or the Chinese government’s—ensured that the Chinese come off as neither quaintly charming nor wisely exotic, excepting that Han seems to have magic healing powers.

Silly title or not, the new Kid’s all right.

(My rating is kind of from the point of view of a younger person, but the movie was still fairly enjoyable as an adult.)

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viewed at UA Riverview [PFS screening] and reviewed 6/2/2010

Tyson (***1/2)

I admit I only saw this because I was invited to. But James Toback’s documentary was an unexpectedly revelatory portrait of the boxer who, after taking the heavyweight world by storm, increasingly came to seem like a human cartoon. Toback, known for features like The Pick-Up Artist and Black and White, built the film around five lengthy interviews with Mike Tyson. Aside from extensive footage of Tyson’s bouts and some news footage, chronologically ordered segments of these interviews form the entire film. But while the movie is in no sense objective—and Toback is Tyson’s longtime friend—it doesn’t seem like hagiography either.

While the champ, who became the youngest heavyweight champion (aged 20) in 1986, isn’t exactly articulate—his recounting of the time he performed “fellatio” on a woman in a toilet elicited snickers—he is able to speak with a perspective on his past that he lacked at the time. He chalks up his celebrated, brief marriage to Robin Givens to mutual immaturity. He dismisses Desiree Washington, of whom he was convicted of raping in 1992, as lying “swine,” while admitting to other bad sexual behavior, such as the “extracurricular” activity during hs marriages. The infamous ear-biting incident involving Evander Holyfield is also addressed. Yet the less sensational moments, such as the worshipful way he speaks of his first manager, Cus D’Amato, are most revealing. Whatever you think of Tyson, this unexpectedly fascinating film turns the cartoon into a human being.

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viewed 3/29/09 at Ritz East (Philadelphia Film Festival) and reviewed 3/31/09

Gran Torino (***1/4)

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viewed 12/31/08 at Ritz 5

The Rocker (**3/4)

Comfortably crafted to appeal to both classic-rock-loving baby boomers and their teen progeny, this comic vehicle for Office worker Rainn Wilson features the NBC star as a once-promising drummer who gets a second chance. Dumped by his band (think of an American Def Leppard) on the verge of stardom, Robert “Fish” Fishman doesn’t like the office, or his job, so much and winds up at his sister’s house when he loses it. Lo and behold, his nephew and a couple of high school friends have a fledgling band. The rest follows in a pattern too familiar to make the movie stand out, the central joke being that Fish is the least mature of the group, longing to trash hotel rooms and emulate rock stars of the pre-Bono era. The comedy benefits from Wilson’s physicality and some good lines given to the band’s crass manager (Jason Sudeikis). Among the kids, Emma Stone stands out as the tough-but-tender guitarist.

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reviewed 8/19/08

Kung Fu Panda (***1/4)

Yet another animated animal movie with a you-can-do-anything message, this is nonetheless fairly entertaining, with well-executed action sequences. The title character is infused with the persona—and, roughly, the physique—of the actor who voices him, Jack Black. A little bit paunchy, he mixes hapless bravado with a deeper insecurity. Being raised by a humble Chinese noodle maker who is also a bird, he fantasizes himself the venerated “dragon warrior” with enemies who “were no match for his bodacity.” But when an accident of fate—the juxtaposed emphasis on both fate and controlling one’s destiny makes no sense, but never mind—actually gives him his wish, he thinks there is a mistake. The aid of a reluctant kung fu master (Dustin Hoffman) and a multi-species posse called the Furious Five, perhaps in tribute to early rapper Grandmaster Flash, gives him the courage to face the excellently voiced villain, Ian McShane’s leopard.

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viewed 6/7/08 and 6/21/08 at Moorestown; reviewed 6/27/08

American Gangster (***1/2)

The seemingly generic title of this drama actually reflects a central fact about its subject, one Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington). This was not, as you might imagine, his race, though he was a black man who came of age during the civil rights movement. No, it’s that Lucas’s would be a quintessential American success story had his success not been based around illegal activities. Lucas had been the driver for his predecessor, a mentor of sorts, but by applying a time-tested principal—buy low, sell high—he was able to expand considerably and came to dominate New York City’s heroin trade in the early 1970s.

Racial issues do play a part in the movie, but around the edges. When Lucas wants to expand, he finds it helpful to have a white partner in the South. On the other hand, having a black-run organization, involving his younger brother (Chewetel Ejiofor) and other family members, seems to have kept him under the government’s radar for a long while. This brings us to the other primary character in the movie, the New Jersey police detective played by Russell Crowe. Despite the title, the movie is more or less equally about the gangster and the man trying to bring him down. Crowe, reuniting with his Gladiator/Good Year director, Ridley Scott, has the more intriguing character in some ways, since Lucas never really changes throughout the movie. Tapped to lead a narcotics squad while also finishing law, the detective operates among shady characters while trying to remain honest. He also has an ex-wife and a young son. Though we don’t learn much about his past, Crowe’s performance and accent betray both a working-class background and the desire to transcend it.

Steve Zaillian’s reliably intelligent script is built more around its two main personalities than its time and place. In this way it is different from Gangs of New York, the Martin Scorcese movie Zaillian wrote, or Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather, both sweeping epics. Nor is it like Goodfellas, which dwelt much more on the brutality of gangsters. As the first scene of the movie makes quite clear, Lucas was perfectly willing to deal out violence when it was useful, which is perhaps the other American thing about this story. But the suggestion is that Lucas did this, like most everything he did, with cool logic, only when necessary to make a point.

The same could be said about the movie, in fact. Compared to Scorcese’s gangster movies it’s sedate, and there is really only one action sequence of any consequence. But the storytelling is clear and tight, covering a fair span of time without feeling like it’s skipping ahead too much or becoming confusing. While I didn’t feel like I was watching something completely original, as with Godfather or Goodfellas, to be a notch below those is not bad.

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reviewed 11/13/07

The Guardian (***)

 ? Veteran Coast Guard rescuer Kevin Costner takes a gig teaching new recruits, including cocky Ashton Kutcher.

+ This is just like all of those military films in which a young private faces off against tough drill sergeant who seems to have it in for him. However, that these are Coast Guard rescue swimmers being trained in unusual skills like holding their breath and swimming in icy water gives the movie a novelty aspect that makes it more interesting. Most interesting is an offhand comment about how other branches of the military don’t respect the Coast Guard because they save lives rather than take them.

- Other elements, like the younger man’s obligatory romance and the older one’s foundering marriage, still feel overfamiliar. The ending is needlessly protracted and overly melodramatic.

= *** If you like military films, you’ll like this one.

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The Devil Waters Prada (***1/2)

Fine actors, fine clothes, and a fine script make for an entertainingly comic adaptation of Lauren Weisberger’s bestselling novel about a dowdy girl (Anne Hathaway) who lands a job working for a dragon lady (Meryl Streep) running a New York fashion mag.

In The Usual Suspects, Kevin Spacey says that the devil’s greatest trick was convincing the world he didn’t exist. So maybe the second greatest is getting someone to sell her soul yet think she still has it. Anne Hathaway plays Satan’s would-be victim in this comic adaptation of Lauren Weisberger's bestselling novel. A frumpy would-be writer who almost accidentally lands a job as an assistant to New York fashion magazine editor Miranda Priestley, she becomes a fashion victim in more ways than one. Priestly, who may or may not be based on Weisberger’s former boss, Anna Wintour of Vogue, is played to a monogrammed T by Meryl Streep. She’s not so much nasty as exacting, exhausting, and without time for niceties. Hathaway showed that she could be surprisingly un-adorable in Brokeback Mountain, but here plays, quite capably, what could be a grown-up version of her Princess Diaries character. (Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci also stand out as her snobbish coworkers.)

The early part of the movie gets some fun digs in at the fashion industry. Yet, given that the film is practically a rag-trade magazine come to life, it also celebrates it. Streep as Priestly delivers up a defense of her trade that may nearly convince you that buying a designer label is performing a public service. The withering looks the fashionistas give Hathaway’s dowdy duds is nearly worth the price of admission. But high-level cattiness is hard to sustain for two hours. The story flags slightly as it becomes about work versus personal life, dueling boyfriends, and becoming the kind of person you once detested. (There’s the devil part.) However, the ending, significantly different from the book, redeems the movie. And another nice thing is that you wind up empathizing with each of the characters, even the one who’s sold her soul knowingly.

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viewed at PFS screening; reviewed 6/29/06; posted online and rating revised slightly upward 8/14/13

Memoirs of a Geisha (***)

With softly lit sensuality, this beautiful version of Arthur Golden’s novel outlines the place and function, only partly sexual, of the geisha in Japanese culture and builds a decent plot around their conflicting desires, jealousies, and fears.

I’d kind of expected this adaptation of Arthur Golden’s novel to play on the stereotype of a stoic, selfless Asian, with the heroine bravely rebelling and trying to assert her individualism against a conformist culture. Happily, it’s not so. Directed by Chicago’s Rob Marshall, it replaces that film’s kinetics and quick cutting with softly lit sensuality, set to a quiet John Williams score. It begins with the tale of a girl sold by her father, and the people she came to know as her new family in prewar Kyoto. Zhang Ziyi plays the girl as an adult; her Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon costar, Michelle Yeoh, plays a mentor, and China’s biggest star, Gong Li, a nemesis. Though missing the ritualistic detail of the book, the film outlines the place and function, only partly sexual, of the geisha in Japanese culture. While the people in the story are not particularly deep, they are more than types, and they are different. Their conflicting desires, jealousies, and fears are the basis of the plot. You may not even notice that this plot is built around the thin edifice of a single meeting of a girl and a man (Ken Watanabe).

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circulated via email 12/29/05 and posted online 9/20/13

Heat (*3/4)

Burt tries to make this action flick interesting, and in the film’s premise is some possibility (a guy comes to Burt, who is a professional tough guy, to teach him a few tricks). Burt try some psychology on his young tutor charge, but that plot falls by the wayside in favor of a dull revenge against some thugs who beat up an ex-girlfriend. Burt’s on a bad streak.

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