BLU-REVIEW: DO THE RIGHT THING

Written and Directed by Spike Lee


If I had done the right thing, I would have seen this film back when it was released in 1989. Fortunately for me, it has now been restored and released in a 20th anniversary edition BD and it has been so with great care. I have never been a huge Spike Lee enthusiast but DO THE RIGHT THING is perhaps his most inspired work, especially when watching it now and comparing it to his more contemporary offerings, which are tame and conventional by comparison. As Mister Senor Love Daddy (Samuel L. Jackson), the local radio host announces right at the start of the film, it is hot, damn hot on this one block in the Bed-Stuy area of Brooklyn. It is so hot on this one day that the people who call this block their home or conduct their business here can no longer contain their mounting frustrations with each other and the strained race relations in New York City. Despite the heat, Lee plays it cool and crafts what is his most balanced and honest work on the subject of racism.

There is something almost whimsical about it all. People gather on porch stoops, watch from their windowsills and dance in the street while the water from a nearby hydrant cools them down temporarily. There are even three older guys sitting at the corner and griping all day long about what they see, like a repurposed Greek chorus. Lee is both the leader and the center of the picture as he takes on the role of writer/director and star of the film. It is certainly an ensemble but Lee’s Mookie, who delivers pizza for Sal’s Famous Pizzeria, ties the film’s series of events and characters together. The rest of the cast is a delight to behold – from Danny Aiello as Sal (for which he earned an Oscar nod) to Ozzie Davis as Da Mayor and Rosie Perez, in her first film appearance as Mookie’s girlfriend, Tina. Each character is a hybrid of theatrical cliché and hard reality and, thanks to Lee’s presentation of these characters in such a classical fashion, each is sympathetic despite their imperfections.

The central racial conflict revolves around Sal’s refusal to post a picture of an African-American hero or celebrity on his wall of fame. His logic is that is his wall and he can do whatever he likes with it and the opposing view is that he may own the wall but the African-American clientele is what keeps his wall up. It is simple enough a conflict and arguably, also a simple solution but it ends in the most violent and cathartic of resolutions, all of which are explored in the extensive extras included on this disc. A new documentary, put together by Lee himself, looks back at the reaction to the film while an hour-long documentary made at the time puts you right on the block as if you were there as one of the extras. Lee also recorded a new commentary for this edition but, admittedly, it has been some time since he last saw the film so he does not have a lot new to offer. With the amount of extras on this disc though, this is hardly a problem.

The title of the film is casually dropped shortly in when Mookie stops to speak with Da Mayor on his way to work. Da Mayor offers it up as the advisory ramblings of a drunk, old man and Mookie absorbs it with the attention of a young man with better places to be. Yet it resonates throughout the film and up and down the street where most of the people are trying to do just that.

FILM & BD

Black Sheep presents The Funny People Contest

Ha, ha! The jokes on you! This contest has absolutely nothing to do with Judd Apatow's upcoming FUNNY PEOPLE, starring Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen. It is still a contest at least and I've got lots of passes to give away to this year's JUST FOR LAUGHS FILM FESTIVAL in Montreal. This year's lineup is its most impressive yet, including PAPER HEARTS (with Charlene Yi & Michael Cera), Margaret Cho's latest, BEAUTIFUL, and yes, a special advance screening to the aforementioned, FUNNY PEOPLE. You definitely need to check out the full schedule at the official JUST FOR LAUGHS website.

In the meantime, let's give some tickets away. I have four double passes to each of the following films:
(You can click any of the titles for more information and trailers.)

HUMPDAY - Friday, July 17 @ 7 PM
Two college friends (Marc Duplass and Joshua Leonard) reconnect after ten years and decide to push themselves by entering an amateur porn contest. This would mean they would have to sleep together. Can they do it? HUMPDAY kicked some serious limited box office ass this weekend so this will be a hot ticket! Also, Leonard (from THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT) will be on hand to present the film.

SLAMMIN' SALMON - Wednesday, July 22 @ 9:30
Do you like the Broken Lizard people? These are the guys who brought you SUPER TROOPERS and BEERFEST. They're back and they're working it hard in a hot Miami restaurant in a film that is being called a hilarious GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS. A good chunk of the Broken Lizard will be on hand for a Q&A after the film.

WORLD'S GREATEST DAD - Thursday, July 23 @ 9:30
When you think funny, Robin Williams has to be somewhere near the top of your list. Under the direction of Bobcat Goldthwait, Williams takes on coming to terms with his life as he sees it and how it actually is. Goldthwait will be on hand at this screening to present the film so that's a definite added bonus.

There you have it, folks. As I like to keep things simple, let's do just that. You drop me an e-mail and tell me two things. The first is which of the three films you want tickets for and the second is just for my own personal benefit ... Tell me a joke. Make me laugh people. The funniest entries I get will get the tickets. My Black Sheep e-mail is currently down so please contact me at joseph.belanger@gmail.com

As HUMPDAY is screening this Friday, the deadline for entries is Wednesday, July 15 @ noon. Winners will be notified that afternoon. For SLAMMIN' SALMON and WORLD'S GREATEST DAD, you have until Monday, July 20 @ noon. The winners' names will be put on a guest list and can collect their tickets at the door before the screening. All of the screenings will be held at the Imperial Theatre on Bleury.

Life is funny ... I leave Montreal for Toronto and the next day I get a big contest for my Montreal readers. Good luck!

Black Sheep @ The Box Office: BRUNO Ist Fabulous!

Well, maybe fabulous is used too loosely here but it is still appropriate considering loose is a fabulous word to describe Bruno too. BRUNO was expected to capture the top of the box office this weekend and the $14 million Friday take seemed to have sealed the deal. The 39% drop from Friday to Saturday put it all into question though. In was very tight in the end between BRUNO and the latest ICE AGE but BRUNO ultimately came out on top – puns fully intended.


BRUNO finished the weekend just north of $30 million, with a per screen average of over $11K. Universal rolled BRUNO out in a much more aggressive fashion than BORAT was unleashed back in the day. Star Sasha Baron Cohen was unproven at the time and therefore the film was released on under 1000 screens. It sold out nearly all weekend and scored somewhere just below $30 million total before the theatre count was tripled the following weekend. BRUNO made slightly more but did so on over 2700 screens with a per screen average that came in at less than half what BORAT did. Reviews are mixed and the general consensus is that BRUNO is not BORAT (or maybe that is just how I feel) so it isn’t likely that BRUNO will go on to match BORAT’s success. In a summer where THE HANGOVER, another R-rated comedy, can make over $200 million, BRUNO should have been bigger. Maybe America did not want to watch a particularly flaming homosexual for an hour and a half or perhaps the film just isn’t amazing. I cannot say for certain but I would not be surprised.


This week’s only other wide release was teen comedy, I LOVE YOU BETH COOPER. The film was completely dismissed by both critics and audiences alike, as it landed in 7th place with just $5 million. The bigger winners can be found below the Top 10. Iraq war films are infamously hard sells by Kathryn Bigelow’s THE HURT LOCKER is now a dark horse Oscar contender and it saw its gross expand by almost 375% as it added another 51 screens. I saw it last night, thoroughly enjoyed it and will be reviewing it later this week. The week’s biggest per screen average belonged to a quirky comedy about two guy friends who are making a porn that calls for them to have sex at some point. At least that’s what I got from the preview for HUMPDAY. The film opened on just two screens and pulled in an average of $14.5K. Check back on Black Sheep tomorrow for tickets to the Montreal premiere!


NEXT WEEK: HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF BLOOD PRINCE finally hits theatres after being delayed from last November. The film hits 4250 screens on Wednesday and will add a bunch more IMAX screens in a couple of weeks when TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN finishes its minimum four-week run. And this year’s summer hopeful from the folks at Fox Searchlight is the Sundance pleaser, 500 DAYS OF SUMMER. The modern romantic comedy starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel opens on 27 screens and expands in the weeks to follow.

Source: Box Office Mojo

BRUNO

Written by Sasha Baron Cohen, Anthony Hines, Dan Mazar and Jeff Schaffer
Directed by Larry Charles
Starring Sasha Baron Cohen and Gustaf Hammarstein


Brüno: Put your shoulders back. This is a fashion show, not a slave auction.

The camera bulbs flash and the incessant club beat bangs. This is excitement; this is glamour; this is BRUNO, the new film from the creative team of star, Sasha Baron Cohen and director, Larry Charles (RELIGULOUS), the people who brought you BORAT: CULTURAL LEARNINGS OF AMERICA FOR MAKE BENEFIT GLORIOUS NATION OF KAZAKHSTAN. In BORAT, Baron Cohen embodied a TV journalist from Kazakhstan transported to the USA to learn just how the Americans make this thing we call life work so well. In BRUNO, he is completely unrecognizable as a gay Austrian fashion television host, who again travels to the United States, this time in hopes of finding international fame. And, just like in BORAT, Brüno finds just as much ignorance and stupidity in his unsuspecting interview subjects. Unfortunately, he does not find as much scandal nor as much insight into human nature. Subsequently, the laughs are fewer to be found as well.


BRUNO had incredible potential. At a time when the rights of gays and lesbians are at the forefront of debate in America and around the globe, BRUNO could have exposed the harshness behind the opinions of those who fight hard to make sure that gay men and women continue to exist as second class citizens. On the other hand, BRUNO also had the potential to fuel their fire by shoving an oversexualized stereotype in their faces. We could have scowled at the haters or laughed heartily at the gays. Both luckily and unluckily, BRUNO musters neither reaction. It isn’t to say that Baron Cohen plays it safe; one could hardly say that when he makes out with another man in an Arkansas Ultimate Fighting challenge as the spectators hurl their beers and chairs over the cage that thankfully separates them. That said, we aren’t always laughing at Brüno; sometimes we are laughing at just how gay he is. Baron Cohen makes Brüno human, which makes his character’s direction forgivable, but the damage is done.


Personally, I didn’t find BRUNO to be offensive but isn’t that supposed to be the game? This is not your ordinary gay guy at Starbucks serving you your grande soy vanilla latte (Yes, I’m talking about you.); this is a German homosexual, who at one point is dressed in traditional African clothing taking a baby out of a box from the airport baggage claim. This is practically the definition of excess, a concept the gays are supposedly famous for. Yet, somehow it doesn’t seem to be shocking anyone at all. Sure, the psychic looked noticeably uncomfortable when Brüno pretended to give the dead guy from Milli Vanilli oral sex in front of him, but I already knew that overt homosexuality made people feel uncomfortable. I wanted BRUNO to show me why they felt that way and that never happened. It often seemed like more of a commentary on celebrity and chasing fame, making the whole seem unfocused.


Off the top of my head, I cannot think of anything funnier than a singing penis head and BRUNO has that and a whole lot more to keep you laughing. It lacks the depth of BORAT though, a film that explored the American experience, from patriotism to religious obsession and homeless despair. BRUNO feels less spontaneous, more orchestrated and exaggerated for comedic effect and little else. The visceral nature of Baron Cohen’s humour is what lends to his genius but his Brüno persona just feels like its been walked down the runway one time too many. Maybe no one would have cared if he played the gay guy at Starbucks but maybe in every day life, we might have caught a glimpse of what America can’t seem to get over when it comes to being gay. Instead, Brüno is so flighty that the film suffers the same fate.

Black Sheep is moving!

Well, to be precise, Black Sheep's Joseph is moving. And I would be Joseph so there is really no need for me to speak in the third person. This coming Sunday, I will be relocating from Montreal, the place I have called home for 32 years, to Toronto, Canada's film capital. What does this mean for Black Sheep? Nothing really in the long run. It does mean though that right now, I will not be publishing any new posts for the next week or so. I will return next Friday with a brand new review of BRUNO. As you can imagine, I have a few things to do to make this move happen so hopefully you'll forgive my lack of presence in the next week.

See you in Toronto!

(Eek)

PUBLIC ENEMIES

Written by Ronan Bennett, Michael Mann and Ann Biderman
Directed by Michael Mann
Starring: Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Marion Cotillard and Billy Crudup


John Dillinger: We’re here for the bank’s money, not yours. Put it away.

Though John Dillinger’s story took place over 70 years ago, the manner in which the media and government branded him “Public Enemy #1” is not so dissimilar to the way modern lawbreakers are vilified today. And in many ways, Michael Mann’s PUBLIC ENEMIES is not so dissimilar to his highly regarded modern cops and robbers movie, HEAT (1995). Robert Deniro and Al Pacino have been replaced by Johnny Depp and Christian Bale; semi-automatics have been replaced by tommy guns; and flat out fiction has been replaced by a fictionalized account of true events. Mann may be telling a familiar story (the Deniro character actually has the exact same line of dialogue quoted above in HEAT), but his experience with the topic, coupled with the rich nostalgia he creates for simpler times, make PUBLIC ENEMIES all the more engaging and gripping. And just because Dillinger and his boys walked around in suits and fedoras, it didn’t mean they were any less raucous than the guys in HEAT.


While I never truly felt that PUBLIC ENEMIES exploded off the screen with excitement and tension, I was consistently floored with how impressive nearly every element of the film was. Mann’s direction is concise and assured. He takes us from Dillinger’s first jail bust in 1933 through a barrage of different bank robberies and past his arrest and second seemingly inevitable jail bust that followed. He does so as though on a mission but never in any hurried fashion and though we may or may not know how it is all going to end depending on our familiarity with the subject, every new sequence is entirely unexpected while still completely logical. PUBLIC ENEMIES is a technical triumph. Between Dante Spinotti’s cinematography (incidentally, he also lensed HEAT), Jeffrey Ford & Paul Rubell’s editing and Patrick Lump & William Ladd Skinner’s art direction, I don’t know which is most impressive. I do know that they all culminate to create a tone that is seamlessly mesmerizing. The image is constantly moving and cutting and yet it is never so dizzying that we cannot appreciate how meticulously detailed it all is.


For the most part, the acting is just as impressive as the technical aspects. I have never found Depp to carry a lot of depth in his performances (pardon my pun). He is always solid and easy to look at but when he isn’t cookying it up for Tim Burton or donning his pirate gear, I find that what we get is a lot more Depp than it is character. As Dillinger though, you can see in his eyes that he is always thinking; you can feel that Depp is taking care to balance Dillinger’s thin interpretation of what is lawful and what is unacceptable. He does so with an assured control that I find is lacking when he is playing so naked a character. His chemistry with 2007’s Oscar winner for Best Actress, Marion Cotillard (MA VIE EN ROSE), as his romantic interest, Billie Frechette, is seductive without ever slipping into oversimplified sap. Frankly, Cotillard could not have asked for a better role to mark her English language debut. The whole supporting cast is solid, including an amusing turn by Billy Crudup as J. Edgar Hoover. It is in fact only Christian Bale, as Melvin Purvis, the FBI agent responsible for hunting Dillinger, that disappointed some, luckily with no major impact on the film. He wears a permanent sternness on his face but I never once bought his conviction.


Albeit a serious film, and a potentially serious awards season contender, PUBLIC ENEMIES is inherently playful, thanks to the very nature of Dillinger’s story. Technically, he is the bad guy here. He may have no interest in robbing from the common people but he is still a thief and yet he is our hero after all. We are led to side with him and how could we not when Depp is so easy to admire? He was the most wanted man in all of America and yet he would just walk the streets as though he knew nothing of it. Depp nails Dillinger’s disdain for authority and we love him for it because we all hate the “man”… with Michael’s exception, of course.

Black Sheep Previews: DO THE RIGHT THING

The 20th Anniversary edition of Spike Lee's first major success, DO THE RIGHT THING, is available on DVD and BD today and the good people at Universal have asked me to tell you a little bit about it in hopes that you get out there and pick it up. The reissue contains over four hours of bonus features and they go a little something like this:

20th Anniversary Edition Feature Commentary with Director Spike Lee
Feature Commentary with Director Spike Lee, Director of Photography Ernest Dickerson, Production Designer Wynn Thomas and Actor Joie Lee
Do The Right Thing: 20 Years Later – New retrospective documentary with the cast and crew
Deleted & Extended Scenes – 11 newly discovered scenes cut from the final version of the film
Behind the Scenes – Spike Lee’s personal video footage from the set of the film
Making Do The Right Thing – In-depth documentary on the making of the film
Editor Berry Brown – Interview with the editor of Do The Right Thing
The Riot Sequence – Storyboard gallery of the climatic riot sequence
Cannes, 1989 – Press conference footage from the 1989 Cannes Film Festival


I personally have never seen this classic so I am very excited about this new edition and there may very likely be a Black Sheep review of the film next month. In the meantime, I have included the original trailer for the film's initial release to get you excited.

Black Sheep @ The Box Office: Transformers More Than Bleeds Us Dry

Earlier this week, Michael Bay was quoted in the press as saying he was disappointed with Paramount and Dreamworks’ promotion of his highly anticipate sequel, TRANFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN. He felt that there wasn’t enough of it; that his film was being treated as some plain old sequel and not the event film he believed it to be. After pulling in over $200 million in just five days, subsequently tying THE DARK KNIGHT for fastest film to reach $200 million and far surpassing SPIDER-MAN 2 ($152 million) as the highest five day-opening in history, it would seem to me that any more money spent on promotion would have been completely unnecessary.


TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN opened on Wednesday to the tune of $60 million, more than double what the TRANSFORMERS did in its opening day in 2007. This would have included over $16 million in midnight screenings the night before, second only to THE DARK KNIGHT. And with it’s near $30 million Thursday take, the film had already banked approximately $90 million before the weekend even began. As the first installment was a general crowd pleaser, it was expected that a lot of more casual filmgoers would have waited to catch the film on the weekend but the fanatics came out in droves during the week to ensure this mammoth success. Whereas critics were pretty much unanimous about not enjoying either film, fans were passionate about the last. This is not the case this time out. Fans of the first are split on the new one so a steeper than expected decline may follow next week. Still, the film captured one of the best global debuts of all time with a combined total of $387 million.


The week’s other major release did little to capitalize on counterprogramming. MY SISTER’S KEEPER, the movie that makes me teary during the trailers starring Cameron Diaz, opened in fifth place to a total of $12 million and an average of under $5K. Less than stellar reviews will likely urge many interested parties to wait for the rental. Meanwhile, a decidedly more upbeat romantic comedy, AWAY WE GO, has finally squeaked its way into the Top 10 this week. After adding over 360 screens, the Sam Mendes directed indie saw its earnings increase by over 93% over last week with an average of over $3K in its fourth week in theatres. Distributer, Focus Features, has been smart about its expansion technique and AWAY WE GO is now sitting comfortably as this summer’s light indie must see.


While the $26K per screen average of TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN is certainly impressive for such a wide release, it is not the highest per screen average this weekend. That would belong to Kathryn Bigelow’s highly regarded THE HURT LOCKER. This may be one of the first Iraq war films to register with filmgoers, as is evident with its $36K per screen average coming from just 4 sites in all of North America. In other limited release news, the Stephen Frears directed CHERI, starring Michelle Pfeiffer, opened to a solid but not spectacular total gross of $400K on just 76 screens. And finally, Woody Allen's WHATEVER WORKS maintained a healthy $11K per screen average as it expanded to 35 screens, suggesting the reaction to the film is a good one.

NEXT WEEK: TRANSFORMERS will face serious competition next weekend, making its expected tumble all the more inevitable. Families will be packing the seats for ICE AGE: DAWN OF THE DINOSAURS (4000 screens) and will have the added bonus of higher ticket prices for the 3D screenings. And Michael Mann’s much anticipated Jon Dillinger biopic, PUBLIC ENEMIES, starring Johnny Depp, rolls out onto 3200 screens. Be sure to catch the Black Sheep review for PUBLIC ENEMIES coming mid week.

Source: Box Office Mojo

TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN

Written by Ehren Kruger, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman
Directed by Michael Bay
Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel and John Turturro


Optimus Prime: Fate rarely calls upon us at a moment of our choosing.

I am having a difficult time figuring out how to express my feelings about TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN. Upon seeing the first TRANSFORMERS, it was simple; I hated it. It angered me, in fact. I had been a big fan of the toys themselves as a kid and so had high hopes for a big screen adaptation. In my mind, it was an easy update but somehow director, Michael Bay, managed to find a way to take my childhood nostalgia and transform those memories into the kind of mind numbing garbage that he insists on forcing upon the film going public time and time again. This time out though, I knew what to expect, so the threshold of disappointment was exponentially smaller. And so I’m not nearly as angry as I was in 2007 but I got exactly what I was expecting, which is essentially just more of the same. By that logic, I should dislike it just as much. Instead, I’m more apathetic than anything else. At least it didn’t get any worse.


Fans of the first TRANFORMERS may actually be disappointed this time around. To go back and watch the first installment now, after the novelty factor has worn off on the superb special effects behind the Transformers themselves, would likely be disappointing for most fans. Without the wow-factor of the heavy metal to weigh it down, the film’s inconsistencies and banalities float to the surface. The same can be said about this sequel. We’ve all seen these majestic creatures before so what is there to be excited about this time out? The story? The acting? This is a Michael Bay picture; if it isn’t about the explosions and the girls, then it isn’t about anything at all. A special effects driven sequel has one goal only – to be bigger and, when it comes to Bay’s films, more bombastic than its predecessor. When the climax of your film amounts to countless explosions and shots of Megan Fox running in slow motion though, the approach is far too transparent to be appreciated. At least it was easier to tell who was fighting whom this time.


People often criticize me for expecting a decent story in blockbuster entertainment. We all know its possible … SPIDER-MAN? THE DARK KNIGHT? IRON MAN? Yet still, the general population is much more apt to forgive story holes in bigger movies because it isn’t the most important element of these pictures. Knowing that it is possible only infuriates me when I see films that don’t even seem interested in trying to flesh out a plausible story. The premise for REVENGE OF THE FALLEN is triggered when Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) finds a small chunk of the cube the Decepticons (bad guys) wanted to take control of in the first film in the pocket of his sweater he was wearing back on that fateful day. Upon touching it, it gets real hot, falls through the floor and lands in the Witwicky kitchen, subsequently transforming all the appliances into menacing little robots. So for two inexplicable years, the cube fragment lied dormant in a cotton sweater – cotton apparently being the cube’s kryptonite equivalent. When the start of your premise has holes, I just feel it’s pretty lazy to not come up with a stronger one. As for the rest of the plot, the Transformers rumble around the globe pretty much and humanity isn’t sure how comfortable they are with that.


Bay gives us exactly what he always does in TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN because that is truly all he is capable of. Bay, who just loves critics because all they do is tear him apart, knows nothing of nuance and his approach to filmmaking is fairly childish, in a paint-by-numbers-like fashion. He thinks that people want big bombs, big boobs and big egos and arguably, judging from the money his flicks pull in most of the time, the people do want these things. Bringing nothing new to the table though only exposes how thin his direction truly is. Bay made this movie to appeal directly to the teenage male mind because he clearly still operates himself under the same principles that govern that mindset. The trouble is, some of us who remember playing with Transformers as boys fondly have actually grown up now and need just a little brain with our beauty.

WHATEVER WORKS

Written and Directed by Woody Allen
Starring Larry David, Evan Rachel Wood, Patricia Clarkson and Ed Begley Jr.


Boris Yellnikof: On paper, we’re ideal but life isn’t on paper.

WHATEVER WORKS is not just the title of Woody Allen’s 41st film. It is also clearly a philosophy that he has applied toward his own life here on earth. Like many an Allen project in the past, this one makes no apologies for mirroring his own life experiences. As Allen does not appear too often in his own films anymore, there is ordinarily an Allen replacement to speak his voice and to do so with just the right balance of neurosis and paranoia. In this case, another famously awkward neurotic, Larry David (TV’s “Curb your Enthusiasm”), has stepped into Allen’s shoes, as Boris Yellnikof. With a name like that, it is no wonder he is such fatalist. At this stage in his life, he is divorced, living alone and loving hating humanity whenever he can. After he meets a 21-year-old Southern runaway named Melodie St. Ann Celestine (Evan Rachel Wood), his life becomes unrecognizable and he must now make whatever his life was work once again.


After a jaunt around Europe, Allen has returned to the city that he is synonymously associated with, New York City. New York now, after some time apart, is no longer romanticized but rather this is the New York that houses all of those who cannot find their place anywhere else. Allen seems to be taking it even one step further to suggest that New York changes those who spend any lengthy period of time there, whether they want to or not. Melodie, who in just her name is inherently more whimsical than Boris, has come to New York to escape her repressive Southern upbringing. Unbeknownst to her though, she has found herself in an even more restricted environment, Boris’s apartment. With no place to go, she weasels her way into Boris’s life and yes, they do eventually become involved romantically. The almost 50-year difference between them is all too easily linked to Allen’s own relationship with Soon-Yi Previn, who is more than 30 years his junior. WHATEVER WORKS was written in the late 70’s though so the parallels are merely circumstantial and Allen is smart enough to never show the pair in any overtly romantic expression. Their relationship is more symbolic than romantic anyway.


In last year’s triumph, VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA, Allen had a noticeably more relaxed approach to filmmaking and he brought that back with him from what seemed like a very good vacation. He experiments with breaking the fourth wall as Boris randomly addresses the audience about the story, or more specifically his take on that story. He is the only one capable of doing so and even his onscreen colleagues seem to think he is losing his mind a little. David is strong enough to make it work though. David plays Boris with his own brand of pessimistic social discomfort rather than trying to recreate the character that Allen made famous. That said, David’s signature character may not be what it is without Allen’s influence to begin with so the nod to history is present regardless. And with Melodie, a character who wants so much to embrace the beauty of life, there to counterbalance, Allen the director takes a decidedly optimistic favouring and exposes pessimism as mistaken insight when it is nothing more than avoidance.


WHATEVER WORKS will not disappoint Allen fans but Allen detractors will find plenty to pick apart. With an open mind though, anyone can appreciate this humour. It is an advanced version of Allen’s signature wit and structure where he even revisits some of the relationship themes he explored in ANNIE HALL. No one person in a relationship knows what is better for the couple or for themselves and Allen seems finally rested enough to accept that he doesn’t know any better himself. For whatever it’s worth, WHATEVER WORKS, works.

Black Sheep @ The Box Office: Yes, Sandra Bullock! We Will Marry You.

Albeit a premise that has been done many times before and despite a recently uneven track record for star, Sandra Bullock, North America has proclaimed a resounding, “Yes!” for THE PROPOSAL, as the comedy conquered all at the box office this weekend. I guess everybody loves a June wedding!


THE PROPOSAL had its rehearsal dinner last weekend, where a sneak preview allowed audiences to see the bride before the wedding. While that would ordinarily be considered bad luck, it was the complete opposite here. Like most marriages these days though, it will be the weeks to come that will show whether this marriage will make it to the golden years or end up in divorce.


The week’s other big release generated about as much interest as a high school history lesson. YEAR ONE starring Jack Black and Michael Cera as some of the first people to ever grace this good earth, pulled in a modest average of just under $7K per screen. I would call that historic and I’m fairly certain, it will soon be forgotten.


Meanwhile, the rest of the Top 10 continued to separate the men from the boys as THE HANGOVER, UP!, NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM 2 and STAR TREK all posted declines of 30% or lower. UP! is now in the perfect position to not only become this summer’s biggest hit (so far) but it will also most likely finish its run as the second most successful animated film of all time, behind another Pixar classic, FINDING NEMO.


Below the Top 10, summertime independent, AWAY WE GO continued its successful expansion, with a potential Top 10 appearance likely in the next couple of weeks. FOOD INC and MOON held up solidly, if not spectacularly, in their second weeks. It was Woody Allen though that made the big splash this weekend. After the summer success of his last film, VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA, Allen returns this summer with his first New York City based film in years, WHATEVER WORKS, starring Larry David. WHATEVER WORKS, which will be reviewed by Black Sheep this week, opened on just nine screens (vs. almost 700 screens for VCB) but pulled in an average of over $31K on those screens for a total of $281K. The film expands next week and will try to match VCB’s $23 million domestic tally, the most for an Allen film is years.

NEXT WEEK: TRANSFORMERS 2 is expected to be the biggest thing this summer and it hits this Wednesday on more than 4000 screens. And you know you’re in trouble when the trailer almost makes you cry; Cameron Diaz returns to screens in MY SISTER’S KEEPER (2600 screens).

Source: Box Office Mojo

Remembering the year 2002

2002 is not a year that I often like to recall. I was 25 years old and there was so much going on in my life at the time that it all ended up falling down on top of me. I had just graduated from university but I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life so I just went on going to work day after day at my pointless retail job. As if that weren’t daunting enough, my relationship of three years was coming to a particularly dramatic end. We would fight about everything. It got so bad at one point that one night, after coming home from having seen THE HOURS and CHICAGO back to back, we argued extensively over which was better as if that actually mattered. I was in THE HOURS camp. The manner in which Stephen Daldry brought depression to the forefront was shockingly palpable. Paul was adamantly pro-CHICAGO. I suppose escaping harsh reality for musical exuberance was where his head was at. With a little perspective and a heck of a lot of healing, I think I can finally admit that he may have been right after all … maybe … at least about that anyway.


I should clarify; I always loved CHICAGO. I felt that Bill Condon, the screenwriter who would go on much later to direct DREAMGIRLS, had found the most seamless way to adapt a stage musical to the screen. He borrowed the concept from the stage production itself but he brought it to such new heights that it made CHICAGO into a triumphant return for a genre that had long been suffering. The musical numbers that would ordinarily disrupt the story were all worked in as a means of escape in the mind of the star, Roxie Hart (Renee Zellweger). Having just been arrested for the capital murder of her lover, Roxie desperately needed a way to cope with her new reality. First time feature filmmaker and veteran theatre director, Rob Marshall, took Condon’s sharp script and made sure that every nuance was not only handled delicately but honoured so that CHICAGO could do more than just be an excellent film experience. Marshall infused an energy to a show that is so stark on stage by keeping the pacing fast and the lighting always theatrical and richly colorful. Suddenly, you had a musical that didn’t have numbers that stopped the story but rather commented on it at all times and made it that much more exhilarating. After winning the Oscar for Best Picture that year and taking in roughly $170 million at the box office, it was clear that Marshall’s CHICAGO had saved the musical itself from certain death.


I should also clarify that I was depressed when I first saw THE HOURS. Perhaps, as I am now not depressed, I can look back on the two works and have an easier time delighting in the musical while feeling a degree of hesitation going back to darker times. At the time though, I distinctly remember feeling that the isolation of depression was captured not only so succinctly but in a fashion that was intricately complex and beautifully executed. THE HOURS is all about the actresses. A trio of incredible women, Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore and Meryl Streep, play variations on the same woman throughout the eras to show the timeliness of depression and how it is seen and dealt with differently depending on the period and the surroundings. It does run the risk of being seen as a distinctly female experience but clearly that isn’t so. One day around the time of the film’s release, a woman came in to the record store I was working at and asked for the brilliant score by Philip Glass. I immediately began talking to her about how profoundly the film had affected me, even going so far as to cite specific scenes in detail. She had just come from the film and you could see she had been crying. This woman was bewildered that I was able to connect with this film coming from a male perspective. I simply told her straight up, as she left the store with the score in hand, that depression has no gender, that it is universal.

The truth is that neither Paul now I was right. Film appreciation, as I’ve said time and time again, is inherently subjective. The way we see film, the manner in which it moves or excites us, is directly affected by what we bring to the screen as viewers – whether that be because we are in the middle of a painful breakup or because we woke up with a musical bounce in our step. What matters more is that these films worked their way into our hearts and not at all how they got there in the first place. Of course, we weren’t actually arguing about the movies; we were arguing about much harder, much more complicated issues. Our passion for the films allowed us to use them as our swords and shields. The films themselves helped us each move on.

Regardless, both films get ...


2002 Top 10

ADAPTATION, Directed by Spike Jonze
BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE, Michael Moore
CHICAGO, Rob Marshall
FAR FROM HEAVEN, Todd Haynes
FRIDA, Julie Taymor
THE HOURS, Stephen Daldry
THE PIANIST, Roman Polanski
PUNCH DRUNK LOVE, Paul Thomas Anderson
SECRETARY, Steven Shainberg
Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN, Alfonso Cuaron

YEAR ONE

Written by Harold Ramis, Gene Stupnitsky and Eisenberg
Directed by Harold Ramis
Starring: Jack Black, Michael Cera, Oliver Platt, David Cross and Hank Azaria


Zed: I’m sorry; I wasn’t listening. All my brain blood was in my boner.

I can’t be certain whether YEAR ONE refers to the first year in history in which this Harold Ramis directed film takes place or if it refers to the year of film schooling that was finished by this staff behind the cameras on this film. YEAR ONE, in which Jack Black and Michael Cera wander from one biblical story to the next for no apparent reason other than that being what is written and therefore what is so, is occasionally amusing but only really because of how amateurish it all plays out. Logic was apparently not discovered in our first year here, as it makes no appearance in this film at any point. With Black and Cera leading the way though, the buffoonery with which every presence carries itself is enough to get us through the year. How humanity survived with these idiots in charge is beyond me though.


Zed (Black) is a hunter and Oh (Cera) is a gatherer. Zed isn’t any good at his job and Oh shouldn’t be any good at his job as that’s really woman’s work when you think about it long enough. Personally, I feel that both of these jobs should be genderless but this was the first year of history; women didn’t have Madonna or Oprah or Miley Cyrus to show them that they could do anything yet. Zed’s ignorant bumbling and lack of respect for authority get him booted out of the tribe and he goes Jerry Maguire on them, asking who will go with him to start a new tribe. You will never guess who goes with. OK, it’s Oh. Big shock. They never quite realize their dreams of a new utopia as they constantly just run into meddlesome biblical characters, from Cain and Abel (David Cross and Paul Rudd) to Abraham and Isaac (Hank Azaria and Christopher Mintz-Plasse). They all look absolutely ridiculous with their long wigs and loincloths; it makes it hard to take any of it seriously but it is a comedy, I guess. Maybe if I had been laughing more, I would have been able to see that.

YEAR ONE feels unfinished at times. One moment, Oh is being strangled by a snake and then, cut. Oh is back at camp, safe and sound. There is not even a mention of how he evaded what seemed like certain death seconds earlier. He’s safe now and that’s what matters. Poor Oh though – before long he ends up in another perilous situation, this time involving a cougar. Just when you think he is going to be mauled to death, he is suddenly back at camp again. He’s got a few scratches though so at least we know something went down, but what? Did Ramis think that we wouldn’t care how he got out of these scenarios or was that part of the joke? It would fall in line with the film’s random and oblivious sense of humour though. This would be the same irrational approach that doesn’t explain how Oh manages that perfectly smooth shave when everyone else is scruffy or how a couple of the ladies managed to find tinted contact lenses back then. Did I mention that everyone talks as though they grew up watching television?


While sometimes funny, YEAR ONE is more uneven and odd above anything else. Black plays it cool and takes a strong lead but Cera, while still unavoidably adorable, is beginning to wear his awkwardness a little thin. They make for an amusing enough pair though and it is their combined charisma that gives us the strength to look away from the ludicrously excessive performances from the supporting players (with the exception of Oliver Platt – hilarious). If this really were as introductory as the first year of existence would have it be, I would be more inclined to be more forgiving but these are all seasoned players. This is not amateur night at the caveman improv after all; this is a major Hollywood production. Perhaps had Ramis drawn some parallels between then and now to show how little progress has actually been made in the many years since the first, it might have felt somewhat more purposeful. Instead, it will just be forgotten like history itself.