Monday at the Movies - March 9, 2015

Welcome to another installment of “Monday at the Movies.”  Daylight Savings Time sprung our review forward an hour – it’s a joke, ha ha.

I Know That Voice (2013) – I’ve been wanting to review more documentaries on here, but here is one that I worry might appeal only to a very select number of people.  For me, I Know That Voice is a very interesting look at one of my favorite subsections of Hollywood, the voice actors who bring life to cartoons, commercials, and animated movies.  For as long as I can remember, this has been a favorite guessing game of mine; identifying the same voice across multiple media and through celebrity impressions has always been fun for an amateur impressionist myself, and I Know That Voice gives viewers like me the thrill of seeing the artists perform on camera (rather than behind the safety of an animated character).  The greatest laugh of all comes when John DiMaggio, a heavyset white man, does his impression of a middle-aged black man lamenting how “frustrating” white people are “with they dogs and they yoga.” It’s a different kind of stepping into character than most of us are used to seeing, but there’s real talent here on display.  I’m also glad that the film isn’t just a series of nickels placed into voiceover jukeboxes as the performers give their greatest hits (you do get to see Mark Hamill slip into a little Joker dialogue); I Know That Voice gives a pretty strong look into the business side of the industry, showing how the performers get their gigs, how the recording process works, and the delightful fan culture surrounding them at conventions.  The striking omission here is the absence of Frank Welker, though I understand he declined to appear, but otherwise I Know That Voice is a strikingly definitive presentation of one of show business’s not-so-quiet secrets.

That does it for this week’s edition of “Monday at the Movies.” We’ll see you here next week! 

Monday at the Movies - September 29, 2014

Welcome to another edition of “Monday at the Movies.”  I don’t review as many documentaries on here as I should, so I’ll work on rectifying that over the coming months. 

The Woman Who Wasn’t There (2012) – As if the events of September 11 weren’t horrifying enough, this documentary trots out the most grotesque of all the sideshow freaks in the traveling circus of terrorism’s aftermath.  I don’t know how much readers are aware of the story of Tania Head, but whether you know the horrid “twist” (reality mimicking art, in this sense) or not the documentary unfolds with all the building dread and slow-burn anxiety of a well-done psychological horror flick.  In a nutshell (spoilers?) Tania Head lied about being in the World Trade Center on 9/11 and rose to a prominent role in a survivor’s support group, even ousting legitimate survivors in what seems to have been a mad grab for power.  Head herself is only featured in archival footage, having obviously avoided the filmmakers, though as Louis Brandeis said, “Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.”  While the film never provides a rationale for Head’s actions, it does a meticulous job tracing out her web of lies and the inevitable collapse of the charade as more of her friends realize just how severely they had been duped.  This is a very well-made documentary, avoiding the dry recitation of a History Channel special and instead giving Head’s victims – themselves doubly injured, having already survived 9/11 – the floor in a fascinating exposé that has more in common with Hitchcock than Ken Burns.  Unfortunately, as I’ve mentioned, the film never answers why someone would fabricate a story like Tania Head did, but perhaps that makes the documentary more effective as a narrative about an ineffably monstrous person.

That does it for this week’s edition of “Monday at the Movies.” We’ll see you here next week!

Monday at the Movies - September 30, 2013

Welcome to another edition of “Monday at the Movies.”  With Halloween fast approaching, it’s time to get into a spookier mood, so today a sequel of sorts to last October’s haunted Halloween.

Room 237 (2012) – On paper, at least, I make my living by interpreting, at best observing significant patterns and at worst “reading into” things.  So for someone like me, Room 237 is a spellbinding documentary about what Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining really means.  The Shining is a film on which I had to do a complete 180 regarding my opinion, due in large part to the hermeneutical depth one can plumb with this film.  The theories put forth in this film range from the plausible to the endearingly absurd; one credible theorist posits that the film is about the nature of evil (sure), while another points to the prevalence of Native American imagery as a commentary on genocide (well, now that you mention it...).  Sidebar:  My favorite is the one about how Kubrick faked the moon landing while filming 2001: A Space Odyssey, with The Shining as his covert confession.  While some of the interpretations are quite clearly out there – and this documentary obviously knows it (one dubious theory is followed by a clip of Jack Nicholson intoning, “Whatever you say, Lloyd”) – the real fun of the film is in seeing the enthusiasm these interpreters have for their pet theories and in the way that Room 237 returns frequently to its source material to show the audience what the interpreters are seeing (highlighting, for example, the native iconography in the freezer).  But at the end of the day, what I really enjoyed about Room 237 is how similar it is to watching The Shining with a group of friends, each as invested in the act of interpretation as I am.

That does it for this week’s edition of “Monday at the Movies.” We won't see you here next week, since next Monday is the Double-Oh-Seventh of the month, and I happen to have a date with The Spy Who Loved Me...

Monday at the Movies - January 23, 2012

Welcome to the fourth weekly installment of “Monday at the Movies,” in which we find ourselves once more pigeonholed into reviewing movies that begin with the same letter. This edition of “Monday at the Movies” is brought to you by the letter “A.”

Adam’s Rib (1949) – I’ll not waste much time here and begin by saying that Adam’s Rib is one of my all-time favorite movies, and it’s easily the greatest of the nine films Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn made together. It’s also an extremely progressive picture, anticipating much of the women’s lib movement as well as advancing the cause of equality of the sexes long before the country at large embraced those ideas. Hepburn and Tracy play married attorneys Amanda and Adam Bonner, who find themselves on opposite sides of a case in which a woman attempted to shoot her philandering husband. The chemistry between the two is unindictable, as usual, but the Ruth Gordon/Garson Kanin screenplay is solid, witty in all the right places but genuine and earnest in the moments when the relationship of the Bonners is tested by the case. On this latest rewatch (I’ve seen this film dozens of times since discovering it back in high school), I realized just how frequently the scene gets stolen, and surprisingly it’s not Judy Holliday who does the stealing. It’s David Wayne as Kip, the flamboyant musician who lives across the hall and harbors a strange infatuation with Amanda; the highlight scene of the whole film is easily when Kip performs his new song “Farewell, Amanda” for the Bonners, only one of whom is receptive. But it’s the relationship between Hepburn and Tracy that keeps me coming back to this film, because the way they play off each other is so pitch-perfect that it’ll make even the most embittered cynic feel romantic.

Ayn Rand and the Prophecy of Atlas Shrugged (2011) – I believe this is the first nonfiction film I’ve reviewed for this site, and it almost didn’t happen until the DVD release. While there was never any doubt that I’d be seeing this movie at some point (Atlas Shrugged being my favorite book of all time – and there go the readers), it took two free tickets to one of the very limited screenings to get there. Chris Mortensen’s documentary is music to the ears of Rand’s disciples, poison to those who despise her work, and downright antithetical to those who’ve never read her stuff yet loathe her anyway. The documentary begins with a biographical sketch, delves full-force into the composition and publication of Atlas Shrugged and the attempts to film it, and concludes with an overview of the Rand resurgence in our culture today. The title, however, is a bit misleading; I went in expecting a profile on the ways in which Atlas Shrugged anticipated today’s economic/political scene, but what I got was more of an overview. It’s a good introduction to new initiates in the Objectivist school of thought or even for those curious what all the hoopla is about, but for those who have done a fair amount of reading on the subject (as, in all honesty, I have) there isn’t much new here. Of particular interest: Scene-stealer Al Ruddy reveals just how close he came to producing an Atlas Shrugged movie after The Godfather, right down to locking in Clint Eastwood and Faye Dunaway (perfect casting). While worth a look, this documentary doesn’t introduce much to the conversation surrounding the Objectivist revival; the really good stuff is in the last fifteen minutes, leading me to hope for a “sequel” of sorts exploring those matters in greater depth.

That does it for this week’s edition of “Monday at the Movies.” We’ll see you here next week!

Superman: Doomsday (2007)

Mark it, dude - the first cartoon reviewed by The Cinema King.

2007's Superman: Doomsday, which recounts the wildly popular early-90s comic book plotline (The Death of Superman) in which Superman died. The Bruce Timm/Paul Dini partnership, which brought us those great Batman and Superman cartoons from the 1990s, is not playing their best hand here, but it's a good college try.

The basic plotline is about all the movie shares with the source material. Doomsday, an unstoppable killing machine, is unleashed by an unorthodox drilling experiment led by Superman's nemesis Lex Luthor (as voiced by James Marsters, Buffy's Spike). Superman (the voice of Adam Baldwin) confronts the creature, and the two kill each other. While the rest of the world mourns, Lois Lane (Anne Heche), who had been dating Superman, begins to piece together his secret identity as Clark Kent... until Superman returns from the grave, with a new darker look on life.

One thing the movie does really well - in prefect adherence with the comic book - is its depiction of Doomsday as a brute force of nature, every bit Superman's equal. The "slugfest" scenes (such is the official terminology in the comic book writer's world) are perfect in casting Doomsday as the one creature strong enough to kill Superman and capture beautifully the wanton destruction it took the comic books several issues to establish.

The voice acting is getting a bit of critical applaud, especially Baldwin and Marsters. Yet I felt disoriented by the voice cast, probably due to the fact that I'm inured to the voice talents of Tim Daly, Dana Delaney, and omnipresent Clancy Brown as Superman, Lois, and Luthor (respectively). Not that the voice talents on display are subpar in any way; it's just unnerving to hear the "wrong" voices coming from familiar faces.

The most unnerving element of this movie is the implied sexual relationship between Lois Lane and Superman (who has not yet revealed his secret identity to the woman he loves).

What?

In the comics, it was always the other way around, with Clark Kent in love with Lois but holding back because of his super alter ego. Yet the reversal in this movie is almost intolerable, losing the movie its credibility in my eyes by making such a huge alteration to the comic book conventions. This goes beyond replacing The Joker's acid-scarred paleness with make-up (as Heath Ledger seems to be doing) and making The Sandman Uncle Ben's killer (as in Spider-Man 3's monumental mythology retcon). This is on a par with James Bond marrying... oh wait, that happened too. This would be on a par with Troy and Sharpay hooking up in High School Musical 3 - which, as much as I would prefer that, can never happen because of strongly entrenched story archetypes. Some things you just can't change.

Perhaps more interesting than the film itself is an accompanying documentary on the DVD entitled Requiem & Rebirth: Superman Lives! This is an enlightening look at the behind-the-scenes decisions that led DC Comics to kill off their oldest and most beloved icon, as well as examining the public and media frenzy that surrounded Superman #75. This documentary affords a rare glimpse into the backroom discussions, including video (a comic book fan's dream) detailing how storylines are mapped out years in advance.

So in a lot of ways, the documentary featurette comes more highly recommended than the feature film. For diehard fans of the Man of Steel (like myself) there are worse ways to enjoy the legacy of the Big S (Superman IV, anyone?). For casual fans of comicdom, this might be one to skip. But don't miss Requiem & Rebirth, which is more than worth the price of admission.