Deceptive Practice: The Mysteries And Mentors Of Ricky Jay - 2012 - 3 Stars

Subject:  Sleight-of-hand master Ricky Jay and his development as an artist
Director:  Molly Bernstein

I hate the term 'magic' - indeed, this documentary prefers the term sleight-of-hand - but Ricky Jay is a magician.  The thing about magic, memorably spoofed on Arrested Development, is that 'effects' (as they're called here) are secrets.  They're all the magician has - once he's told you the trick, it's useless.  So naturally this is a documentary about the fact that Ricky Jay has been told many secrets by many different prestidigitators, but none of those secrets are shared here.  It appears therefore that the defining characteristic of these people is delight in knowing things that others don't know, and it takes years of getting to know these people and earning their respect before they'll share anything with you.  That's a bit of a thin premise to hang a documentary on, and without archival film of Ricky Jay's act, there wouldn't be much to this at all.  But there's archival film of Ricky Jay's act.

Kontroll - 2005 - 3½ Stars

Actors:  Sandor Csanyi, Zoltan Musci
Director:  Nimrod Antal

One can go through an easy list of Kontroll's influences - it's the director's first movie and it feels like it.  'I've always wanted to do this - let's do it!' seems like the attitude on some of the odd digressions the movie takes.  What's strange about this film is that even though it has a shambling quality to it - it doesn't really seem to conform to 3-act conventions - the characters are almost all stock Hollywood action-comedy film characters.  Nor does the plot quite move in the way that some action films do, where the entire film gobbles itself up, leaving no space for the viewer to imagine anything about its characters.

The movie begins with a warning from a Hungarian functionary who evidently approved the shooting locations - he claims that the characters depicted don't represent real people. This is a good reminder of how ballsy it has to be to be a filmmaker in a country like Hungary.

Smashed - 2012 - 3½ Stars

Actors:  Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Aaron Paul
Director:  James Ponsoldt

One of the temptations of film is to jump through time.  We might be shown a relationship, then later on in the film, we might see its beginning.  It's tempting because stories are fun and it's a little thrill for the audience to see what the characters don't know, that this is going somewhere they can't imagine.  But life is always going somewhere people can't imagine.  One of the strengths of Smashed is that it lets us imagine what happened off-screen, because a lot of what goes on happens off-screen.

There's a few stock 'movie' things in here - conflicts resolve in ways that are telegraphed ahead of time.  And the film is so small-scale that sometimes it doesn't feel lived in - there's so few actors used that it feels like we're not getting the full picture of who these people are.  Still, it has strong performances and solid writing, and certainly does not outstay its welcome.

Drug War - 2012 - 3½ Stars

Actors:  Honglei Sun, Louis Koo
Director:  Johnnie To

Drug War almost seems propagandistic in its opening moments, as hordes of police and surveillance converge on outmatched drug traffickers.  Considering the penalty for drug trafficking in China is death (and this is explicitly mentioned in the first ten minutes of the film), it seems like it might be a good idea to make a film where drug trafficking is shown as an impossible endeavor.  This tone shifts somewhere in the film, and that's what elevates this from a basic action/thriller type film into something quite a lot better.  It's still a genre film, but a high point of said genre.  I wish sometimes that American films could come unmoored in the way that this one does.

Ted - 2012 - 3 Stars

Actors:  Mark Wahlberg, Seth MacFarlane
Director:  Seth MacFarlane

I will defend seasons 1-3 of Family Guy to anyone willing to listen.  Indeed, even as the show was canceled, my friends and I watched pirated episodes on RealPlayer, and it was likely my generation that saved the show from the ashbin of TV history.  It's now one of the longest-running shows of all time, and I have absolutely no interest in watching another episode of it.  Still, the point is, I will defend the first 3 seasons as being quite funny, even as Family Guy's sense of humor failed to evolve over the years (and, indeed, regressed).

So what could I expect out of Seth MacFarlane's whacked-out, demented mind when freed of the shackles of television?  Well, I got pretty much what I expected - a few solid jokes, some racism and misogyny that should've likely ended up on the cutting room floor (somehow it's worse in live action), but overall a watchable film.  Of course the film is about a man-child who cannot grow up and has to be dragged into adulthood by a woman, but the real triumph of the film is making Mila Kunis's character not a shrew or a buzzkill.

Under The Skin - 2014 - 3 Stars

Actors:  Scarlett Johanssen, Jeremy McWilliams
Director:  Jonathan Glazer

Under The Skin is a zero-exposition movie.  Anything that happens in this film is left up to the viewer to figure out.  This often leads the viewer to question - 'What is happening here?  What is going on?'.  Left without much help from the film, the next question quickly becomes 'Why am I watching this?'  Well, Under The Skin does pay off to some degree, but it's the kind of film that's more fun to think about after seeing than actually watching.  There's one scene where I thought the film might move towards something amazing, but it just veers more into inscrutability.  No-exposition films are tricky - I don't think this one quite did it, though I could foresee a future where I like this film much more six months from now without having seen it.  It's certainly memorable even if the overall experience may not be.

Rush - 2013 - 3 Stars

Actors:  Chris Hemsworth, Daniel Bruhl
Director:  Ron Howard

Rush suffers from what I like to call the Oracle of Knowledge problem.  This is where a character in a film has an outrageously deep and nuanced view of a thing, but we the viewer have no real reason to believe him or her except for their force of character.  It's a small issue as the film goes on, but I've never been a fan of portrayals of genius that make it seem utterly effortless.  Genius may look effortless, but often is not.

I'm no fan of Ron Howard films - I feel like he turns good scripts into mediocre ones and mediocre scripts into bad ones - but here I think he fares quite well.  Of course we get a trademark Howard shot - that's a camera looking at a camera - and another plot point that hinges on The Importance Of Television (this subplot of Apollo 13 is its most regrettable).  Still, there's some interesting shots here that elevate the film beyond its script, and I'm not sure there's another Howard film I'd say that about.