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The Last Exorcism: Ruined in the third act

Tue, 7 Sep 2010 22:24:00 -0400

“Found footage” is still a relatively new technique, and works especially well for horror movies. Part of its style is the fact that none of the actors are known, which makes it feel more real (and thus, be more scary), and keeps production costs down. The Blair Witch Project, of course, was the first of this style. It wasn’t a great film, but its marketing was arguably the most brilliantly innovative in the entire history of cinema. Then came Cloverfield, which applied the technique to something other than horror, and did so with a pretty heft special effects budget. Then came Paranormal Activity, a far superior horror film to Blair Witch made on a similar budget.

And now there’s The Last Exorcism. It’s impossible at this point for it not to be derivative of its predecessors, and how screenwriters Huck Botko and Andrew Gurland have chosen a very clever framing (a southern minister who is a notorious rabble-rouser and healer has lost his faith and is setting out to make a documentary that debunks the common practice of exorcisms) that transcends these inevitable comparisons. To structure the story from this angle is clever, and despite its recycling of the found footage technique, it does so with a fresh perspective.

The acting is very good. Everyone - from the preacher himself (Patrick Fabian) to the possessed girl (Ashley Bell) to her tormented father and brother (Louis Herthum and Caleb Landry Jones, respectively) really sell the difficult roles they have to play.

But the problem isn’t the acting; it’s the third act - which is a hot mess. The story that’s been unfolding before a baffled audience veers completely off-track and what was moments ago haunting and affecting is now just ludicrous. And when the credits roll, you’re left feeling manipulated and betrayed by this B.S. ending.

The Last Exorcism ultimate mistake is that it sets itself up to ultimately be a story about faith. But in the end, it becomes so concerned with being a horror film (to satisfy its teenage target audience, no doubt) that it loses focus on this (most interesting) aspect of itself.

Machete: A naked fun bloodbath (with a point)

Tue, 7 Sep 2010 22:08:38 -0400

Anyone who saw Grindhouse - the double feature that Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino teamed up for a few years ago - likely remembers the fake trailer that filled in the “commercials” between the two movies. It advertized a revenge film about a bad-ass Mexican hitman whose weapon of choice was a machete. Like Grindhouse itself, this fake commercial was made in the style of 70s exploitation films...except the MPAA (and modern technology) allows more in 2010 than was possible in the 70s. It looks like Rodriguez had so much fun making the commercial for Machete that he decided to flesh it out into a full story. Machete is the result.

“What’s 70s exploitation?,” you ask. Sex. Violence. Cheesy on purpose. Oh, and more sex. And Rodriguez follows suit. That said, don’t go in expecting characters with psychological depth or great performances. What you should expect is Danny Trejo cutting limbs and everything else off anyone in his way, Lindsay Lohan making out with her naked mother, Michelle Rodriguez in form-fitting clothes and toting a big gun, and Jessica Alba kicking ass in stilettos. Rodriguez even sprinkles in some hot gun-handling girls that have nothing to do with the plot, including the two teenage girls from his Grindhouse feature (Planet Terror). So those bases are covered: Blood, boobs and Cheech Marin delivering some hilariously-sacrilegious lines.

What’s surprising about Machete, however, is its political agenda - and its clever satire. Robert De Niro (God knows how Rodriguez convinced De Niro to take this role, but more power to him for doing so) plays a Senator who wants to put an electric fence around the southern border of the United States. When not on the Senate floor, this guy kills time by shooting unarmed, pregnant border-crossing women in an attempt to protect the United States from “parasite” immigrants. Through the course of the film, Rodriguez hits a few of his political agenda items a little too square on the nose, and dwells on one or two a bit longer than he should; he could have shaved ten minutes off the film and tightened it up a bit for sure. Still, despite these flaws, this is trashy fun that actually has some clever satire at its core.

The American: A snore for most audiences

Fri, 3 Sep 2010 22:41:16 -0400

American audiences can be disgustingly predictable. Stick a famous face in a movie and throw a big marketing budget at it and America pours into the theater... Meanwhile, films that audiences would actually like never get seen.

The American is a bit eccentric for mainstream tastes. Or should I say, a bit slower than American audiences are used to (but it’s got Clooney, so that won’t stop Americans themselves from seeing it). Most of the film is just people walking and looking around. This is actually part of its genius, though. Despite telling us very little about its protagonist, despite very little actually happening, and despite there being minimal action, the film maintains an edge-of-seat constant tension. These glances and long scenes of people brooding or moving through the streets of Italy are all pregnant with a constant paranoia.

Clooney turns in a very different kind of performance, sans the usual broad smiles and charisma he is known for. Aside from Clooney himself, there are a few other actors, but they have very little time to flesh their characters out onscreen. And “flesh” certainly gets its due attention; the beautiful and voluptuous Violante Placido (Clara, the film’s love interest) spends half her scenes nude or engaged in very graphic depictions of sex. Thekla Reuten, another beautiful woman, plays the mysterious and sympathizing assassin Mathilde, and also works well with the silence given her.

Music video director Anton Corbijn’s pace is well-woven, albeit on the slow side (the story calls for that; it’s about paranoia, not James Bond action). Rowan Joffe’s screenplay adaptation is probably only about thirty pages long, but such restraint is rare.

All in all, The American is a well-crafted film, but most audiences will find it boring in its snail’s pace. If you’re a viewer with more indie-friendly taste, you’re likely to find its structure rather thought-provoking.

Eat Pray Love: As flat as its trailer

Wed, 1 Sep 2010 22:05:21 -0400

Eat Pray Love’s mediocrity is no real surprise; it matches its marketing with precision. Perhaps the greatest offense to the movie is the fact that its most interesting characters are actually the men in the story (Richard Jenkins and Javier Bardem). Even Roberts’ charm isn’t enough to save this dull and manipulative series of vignettes with little to tie it together but some amazingly cultural backdrops.

Despicable Me: Way overrated

Wed, 1 Sep 2010 08:58:40 -0400

Everyone I know who saw this raved about how good it was, and the advertisements were very appealing. Perhaps I was in a mood when I saw it, because it was just flat to me. Gru was dull, Vector was totally uninteresting, and the Minions, which audiences report “made the movie,” weren’t as funny as most seem to think. I laughed out loud maybe once the entire film, and was actually bored / looking at my watch less than 20 minutes into the film.

The little girls were the best part of the film. Animated toddlers are about the most adorable thing ever, and each of the sisters had a very distinct, likable personality. Still, it wasn’t enough.

God help us, though; they’ve already queued up a sequel...

The Time Traveler’s Wife: Missing an audience

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 03:14:06 -0400

The problem about a film like this is the lack of an audience. Even if completely successful, the market for such a story is too narrow to succeed financially.

The Time Traveler’s Wife is, at its core, a sappy romance. But the time travel / sci-fi aspect of the story (even in the title) will turn off the majority of that target audience. And yet, it’s obvious from the movie poster and the casting that this is a romance - so sci-fi fans will steer clear as well. The sci-fi geek who loves a good romance is a rare breed, unfortunately.

The Time Traveler’s Wife is by no means perfect; it likely made a much better book than a film. And critics of the film who call its narrative structure “illogical” simply didn’t have the brights to follow along, because the narrative makes perfect sense. The problem is, it’s complex. And in playing with time, it falls into the usual quagmire of potholes that every time travel film is subject to.

While the script could have been a bit stronger, and while the film as a whole isn’t anything ground-breaking, Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana are strong actors that do the best with what they’ve got. And the real meat here is in the scenarios themselves. Just considering the reality of seeing your mother on the subway twenty years after her death... Touching stuff.