Hey, folks. Capone in Chicago here, with a couple of films that are making their way into art houses around America this week or at least expanding to more theaters (maybe even taking up one whole screen at a multiplex near you). Enjoy…
GENTLEMEN BRONCOS
Somewhere out there is a small segment of the population that is going to truly love the new film from Jared Hess, the writer-director of NAPOLEON DYNAMITE and NACHO LIBRE. Now, I'm not talking about the random sampling of every bad movie's audience that has no taste and simply enjoys a crappy film like All About Steve (first film that popped into my mind). But GENTLEMEN BRONCOS has the potential to be a favorite among the small segment of the population that is intimately familiar with the world of bad science-fiction literature. I'm talking about the type of novels where a modicum of success with an author's first book guarantees a 10-part series will follow.
To be clear, GENTLEMEN BRONCOS would be a failure from beginning to end without two very key factors. The first is Sam Rockwell performance as Bronco, the hero in the sci-fi novel “Yeast Wars,” written by young Benjamin (Michael Angarano). Any time the unpublished work gets read by someone, the extremely funny and game Rockwell is shown in Bronco's otherworldly universe (which looks a lot like the Utah desert). But the finest character to arise from this film is Dr. Chevalier, played by Jemaine Clement of "Flight of the Conchords." Everything about this man is off, yet it's very clear that he is the single most pompous, self-congratulatory ass on the face of this or any other planet. His theories on naming characters are legendary (if you've seen the trailer for Broncos, you've only gotten a sampling of this lecture), but his career is fading fast as his publisher has flat out rejected his latest work.
Benjamin and Chevalier meet at a writers' camp at which Benjamin submits Yeast Wars for a writing competition. Chevalier reads the novel, loves what he sees, and decides to steal the material (changing all the names, of course; the manly Bronco become the tranny Brutus, still played by Rockwell) for his next work. While all of this is happening, Benjamin returns home to his depressive fashion designer mother (Jennifer Coolidge), her weird boyfriend Dusty (Mike White), and Benjamin's two new friends from the camp, Tabatha (Halley Feiffer) and Lonnie (Hector Jimenez from NACHO LIBRE). With these new companions, Benjamin makes ultra-low-budget film version of his story. When the film actually manages to get a premiere screening, the publishers of Chevalier's book catch wind of it, you can probably guess where things go from there.
But is the film funny? Well, if you believe most critics (as many people are prone to do), then the answer is no. But I recall laughing consistently as was the audience with whom I first saw it. But that particular crowd was made up largely by folks I believe would be in the small sliver of the population I mentioned at the beginning of this review--sci-fi lovers who would get where a lot of this humor was coming from. That doesn't make the film better or more palatable for the general population, but there is a specified audience that I believe will dig this movie. There's no getting around the fact that Angarano, Coolidge and many of the other characters are too quirky to be considered believable or interesting enough to be the focal point of a 90-minute movie. This is a mixed review to be sure, but I do want to encourage those of you who perhaps fit the description of the ideal viewer for this movie to give it a shot. I thought most of GENTLEMEN BRONCOS was funny, but I wouldn't pick a fight with someone who hated it either.
SKIN
In what might be one of the more unusual but still modestly effective films in recent memory about the rise and fall of South Africa's apartheid practices, the based-on-a-true-story SKIN tells the story of Sandra Laing (played as a young woman and adult by Sophie Okonedo (HOTEL RWANDA, THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES), whose unique "affliction" was that she was very clearly a light-skinned black woman whose parents were about as white as you can get. Sam Neill and Alice Krige play Sandra's parents, one of whom clearly has black ancestry they are unaware of (it is quite clear later in the film when Krige gives birth to another black child that she is not cheating on Neill). Although she is initially legally classified as white, Sandra's color still makes life very difficult for her when she attends an all-white school or even uses facilities designated for white South Africans only. When the government has her reclassified as black, the Laings take their case to court, the result of which was a landmark decision that parentage, and not physical appearance, would be the primary determination of race. Yay for us.
But this part of the story is on a slice of what made Sandra's life so interesting and beyond complicated. She fell in love with a black man (technically she was sleeping with a man of another race, which was a crime in her country), and then she got pregnant by him. Her parents (in particular, her stubborn and clearly racist father) were furious at her for jeopardizing all their hard work at getting her declared white, and effectively cast her out when the affair and pregnancy is discovered. In order not to get put in jail, Sandra must again have herself reclassified back to black. Talk about an identity crisis. And at its core, that's really what this film is about--a 30-year question of self. The fact that Okonedo is 40 years old and playing the same character from ages 18 to upper 40s or late 50s is kind of incredible, but she absolutely pulls it off. There are some really tough scenes in SKIN, including a succession of dates with white boys who all have various and ugly ulterior motives for wanting to date Sandra. Life with the father of her two children turns awful on top of everything, leaving Sandra no choice but to leave home with the kids with no clear destination in mind.
Sam Neill's father character might have been too one-dimensional in the hands of a lesser actor, but Neill pulls it off (barely) and manages to make us understand this emotionally torn man even as we hate him for what he has done to his daughter. Since the film begins in the 1950s, watching Krige's dutiful wife character follow her husband's lead shouldn't be judged too harshly. That's the unique thing about SKIN--beyond the apartheid system itself, there are no true villains on display. This is a story chronicling inner turmoil about outward appearance. I'm not entirely sure that every aspect to first-time director Anthony Fabian's film works the way it should, but when everything clicks, SKIN can be a quite powerful and tragic drama. And I have to applaud the filmmakers (particularly writer Helen Crawley) for finding a story this specialized that would seem not to have universal appeal on the surface but actually taps into some nice themes of self-awareness and identity. Overall, I'd say the film succeeds in telling this bizarre story in the best way it can, and I'd recommend you check it out if it ever makes its way to a theater near you.
ONG BAK 2
In some parts of the world, this film was released under the title ONG BAK: THE BEGINNING, which should give you some sense that we're not picking things up where they left off in the already legendary Tony Jaa vehicle ONG BAK. Far from a prequel, this ONG BAK story is a period film set in ancient times and is the story of Tien (Jaa, who also co-directed the film), who as a boy of noble birth saw his parents killed in front of him. Tien ends up being raised by criminals and slave traders who live on the streets and teach him how to fight and rob people blind. After rising through the criminals ranks, Tien has a chance to avenge his parents' murder and use all his skills as a master martial artist to seek vengeance. Other than the presence of more majestic elephants, there's really nothing connecting this tale and the first ONG BAK.
I was fortunate enough to have seen the Thai cut of ONG BAK a couple years back, long before the better-paced international cut by Luc Besson. From what I've been told, this version of ONG BAK 2 is the original cut, even though I believe a shorter version has played in certain places around the world. I kind of wish that had been the version that was circulating in the States as well, because this movie has far too much distance between what are still breath-taking fight sequences. And I wouldn't mind this at all if the story made a lick of sense and didn't toy so much in surreal filmmaking and abstract storytelling. I saw this film for the first time back in March at the SXSW Film Festival, and I had a tough time remembering the plot the day after I saw the film, let alone all these months later. What I do remember are some blazing action sequences well worth the price of admission for any fan of Jaa's or his Muay Thai abilities.
Perhaps the best way to really enjoy ONG BAK 2 is to tune out a little during the exposition, because following this story really isn't worth the effort. I feel guilty as hell recommending this movie under those circumstances, but I know from experience that trying to make sense or keep track of events in this work is a frustrating exercise. The fight scenes are top notch, so don't let your enjoyment of those moment be dampened by confusing (or worse, boring) plot. Serious reservations aside, I survived this thanks to a healthy series of ass kicking moments courtesy of Tony Jaa.
THE BOONDOCK SAINTS II: ALL SAINT'S DAY
I fully acknowledge that the original 1999 BOONDOCK SAINTS had a certain garish, loud charm and just enough hammy acting to make us laugh a great deal while being mildly entertained. But to be perfectly honest, I don't remember much about the story about two Boston-based mafia killing twin brothers (Sean Patrick Flanery and Norman Reedus) who turned into folk heroes even as the FBI (led by the fantastic Willem Dafoe) was tracking them down for multiple murders. But apparently the boys fled with their father (Billy Connolly) to Ireland to live the life of peasant farmers. The sequel to original cult favorite from writer-director Troy Duffy has the brothers finding out that a priest friend of their has been savagely murdered by mob forces, they return to Boston to avenge the killing and basically pick up where they left off in terms of killing off mobsters in the loudest and most outrageous ways imaginable.
A lot of familiar faces pop back up, including the three detectives from the first film, but I was more intrigued by some of the fresh faces Duffy recruited for this installment, in particular the always-impressive Clifton Collins, Jr. as the Hispanic addition Romeo, who joins the prayer-speaking brothers in their killing spree. Since Dafoe's character is apparently dead, the new FBI agent in charge of tracking down the Saints is played by "Dexter's" Julie Benz, who gives Special Agent Eunice Bloom an overdrawn Southern accent and apparently owns a wardrobe filled with nothing but tight-fitting clothes and 6-inch heels. Also on hand is Judd Nelson as the mobster in charge (whose volume knob is permanently stuck on 11) and Peter Fonda as a mysterious figure named The Roman.
Again, admitting freely that I don't remember the original film very well, my general impression was that it was somewhat more cohesive than this sequel, which seems to be all over the place with a story that barely holds together and far too much emphasis on making each character quirkier than the last. The biggest problem is the overwritten screenplay, which Duffy has injected with speech after cliché-ridden speech. The more disturbing issue I had with the film is Flanery's face, which seems puffy and off somehow. I remember him being a good-looking kid, so I'm not sure how he went from that to looking like a younger version of THE WRESTLER, but it was outright distracting at times.
There are certainly bits and pieces of BOONDOCK SAINTS II that are enjoyable, but most of what's here is loud, pointless, and not so much overacted as under-acted. Nobody seems to care that they're in this movie, except maybe Benz, who probably is the best thing here even with the bad accent (and least it's consistent). The film also feels overlong and just played out. And the scariest part is, Duffy has clearly set himself up to do a sequel (whether anyone will finance it or not is another discussion), which makes me sad. I bet this guy has at least one other decent story with new characters to introduce us to. I'd rather see that than another tired retread of a movie that was fairly derivative to begin with. Either way, I'm at least glad BOONDOCK SAINTS II is getting a theatrical release because I know there are folks out there eager to see it. I just wasn't one of them.
-- Capone
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