HYDE PARK ON HUDSON: FDR MEETS ROYALS, BAGS DISTANT COUSIN

Roger Michell's Hyde Park on Hudson suffers from being a single film that operates as if it were three separate stories built around a single historical event.  Or rather, the audience is made to slog through having their affinities for the characters in Michell's movie abused as the narrative unpredictably flits from one character's perspective to another and then back again in a messy and incoherent fashion, abandoning Daisy (Laura Linney), the film's established protagonist, for so long that it's easy to forget that it's her story that's being relayed.  Daisy's modeled after Margaret Suckley, a distant relation of President Franklin Roosevelt, who had a love affair with FDR that went undiscovered until after her death.

The historical event in question is the 1939 private summit between King George VI (Samuel West) and Queen Elizabeth (the always great Olivia Colman) with FDR (Bill Murray) and Eleanor Roosevelt (Olivia Williams) at President Roosevelt's mother's (Elizabeth Wilson) estate in Hyde Park, New York.  The royals are there to ask for Roosevelt's support against the axis powers in war effort.  Each side knows the purpose of their assembly and, yet, the dictates of etiquette force a calculated dance around the issue.  The meeting presents many interesting possibilities and, on its own, may have made for a fine enough film; the obvious, but accentuated differences between American and English cultural mores constitute most of the better observations that the film has to offer.

Were this the only ambition of Hyde Park on Hudson, to move back and forth between each parties ruffled sensibilities as each endures the other for a higher purpose, it just might have worked as a picture.  Instead, the filmmakers seem to think that they can have its cake and eat it, too, attempting to have the film filtered through Daisy's recollections before jumping into sections that not only don't involve her, but also depict events that she couldn't possibly have witnessed.  The effect of these departures is that, when the story does finally slam back to acknowledging Daisy as its teller, the viewer no longer identifies enough with her to care about the major conflict that develops when she learns an uneasy truth about her president/lover.

Hyde Park on Hudson is an undeniably weirdly structured film.  Everything about it suggests that Bill Murray as FDR is meant to be the focal point of the story, but there's little access to that character, even when the script forces the film to embrace what feels like Roosevelt's objective viewpoint.  It operates as a love story, but with little apparent spark between Murray and Linney, not that it's their fault; the problems are all present in the script, not the performances. Beyond that, the pacing is unhurried to the degree that, although it's barely over 90 minutes, it's a movie that ends up feeling like it has an overly padded running time.  Even though there are several sequences that do work (the interactions between King George and Queen Elizabeth, in particular), it's hard to imagine anyone becoming too enthusiastic over this clumsily told, flat, and unromantic film.

Hyde Park on Hudson opens at the Regal Fox Tower on Friday, December 14th.  More info available here.

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HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY RUSHMORE CHRISTMAS WITH A WES ANDERSON HOLIDAY TRIPLE FEATURE

Cinema 21's still in the midst of A Bit of the Old Ultra-Kubrick, their four film Stanley Kubrick series, which comes to a close on Thursday.  I was thrilled to see last night's DCP screening of the digitally restored Dr. Strangelove last night and still hope to make it a 35mm showing of 2001: A Space Odyssey after catching an advance screening of Hyde Park on Hudson tomorrow night.  And while news of their upcoming bookings of the 4K digital restoration of David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia as well as Sergio Corbucci's spaghetti-western classic Django (nicely timed to take advantage of the holiday release of Q.T.'s Nero-indebted latest film, Django Unchained) are bound to thrill film fanatics, it's pretty likely that a whole bunch more excitement is going to be generated when folks hear that there's a Wes Anderson series a comin' to Cinema 21 this holiday season.

The announcement certainly comes at an interesting moment in Anderson's career.  His latest, Moonrise Kingdom, has done much to illustrate a critical and popular divide between those who revile his style and the fans who lap it up.  Personally, I liked Moonrise Kingdom quite a bit and really don't agree with the all-too-often cited issue that some have with Anderson's work--the notion that he's just making the same film over and over again.  Still, I'm not as enamored with some of his films (The Life Aquatic, though it has its fervent defenders, felt pretty flat to me) as I am with what I feel are the true highlights of his career.

The upcoming holiday series at Cinema 21 nicely sidesteps this debate, which mostly seems centered on his post-Tenenbaums work, by programming Anderson's initial three releases.  Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, and The Royal Tenenbaums are, in my opinion, truly solid films that even the most miserly of film goers would have to concede as having sprung from the imagination of a creative and talented original.  There might be plenty of films out there approximating Wes Anderson's moves (Thumbsucker, Rocket Science, Boy, Submarine, etc.), but few sport the authenticity suggested by his considerable influence.

Here's what Cinema 21 owner Tom Ranieri has to say about the Anderson triple feature:

He is the origin of several parodies and even more copy-cats.  He is an oeuvre unto himself.  He is, according to Martin Scorsese, "the Next Martin Scorsese." 

Cinema 21 is exceedingly proud to announce: 

A VERY WES ANDERSON CHRISTMAS His first three feature films on vibrant 35mm prints. 
-Bottle Rocket (1996, 91 mins.) 
-Rushmore (1998, 93 mins.) 
-The Royal Tenenbaums (2001, 110 mins.) 

Starting Christmas Day! Don't take this for granted! In a very dark room, on a big, bright screen. The colors, the music, the charm, the humor, the nostalgia, the dysfunction, the obsession, the outright joy! It will bowl you over. This is the perfect opportunity to re-discover the birth of the most unique voice in American cinema over the last two decades. 

-$6 for one film, $9 for two, or $12 for a triple feature! 
Celebrate the holidays watching relationships even more dysfunctional than your own.


Now on to the trailers:

As a bonus, here's the original 1994 Bottle Rocket short that Anderson made prior to his feature debut:

And here's Anderson in conversation with director Noah Baumbach (The Squid and the Whale, Margot at the Wedding) on the subject of how Bottle Rocket was seen as a failure on its initial release:

A Very Wes Anderson Christmas begins on Tuesday, December 25th and runs through Sunday, December 30th.  Keep an eye on the Cinema 21 webpage for soon to be announced showtimes (TBA) and more.

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CINEMA PROJECT presents SOUND, SOUND, SOUND, SOUND, SCREEN!

Cinema Project closes out their Fall 2012 season on Tuesday and Wednesday night with Sound, Sound, Sound, Sound, Screen!, a selection of short films focusing on the relationship that sound has to image.  Curated by Andrew Ritchey, the program incorporates new works by Sarah RaRa and Robert Todd alongside films reaching as far back as Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray's 1926 collaborative experiment Anémíc Cinéma.

Here's what Cinema Project has to say about their final screening at Yale Union until Spring 2013:

Sound, Sound, Sound, Screen! Curated by Andrew Ritchey Cinema Project at Yale Union (YU) At the cinema, sound is all part of the screen. Or is it? What happens between the sounds and screen? It takes time to work it out. From sound to screen, you'll see and hear all of what there is. But what is it? Do you think you know what you're seeing? Is this the cinema as you see it? Sometimes the sound sounds something before you, and you haven't even heard it. And then the screen screens something from you. Do you see it? Is this cinema? In every case it's cinema, because the cinema is all there is. It's all the sounds on screen! When you make sense of it you'll see and hear all of what we were all just pretending to be missing. 

ARSENIC gives you words before images. Do these words make sense? I don't think so. KINO DA! is a bit of Marxist propaganda. Is the poet just an epiphenomenon of film's material base? I guess so! Then, FOUR SHADOWS, each shadow cast from sound and image: a text by Wordsworth, a diagram after Cézanne, a family of Gibbon apes... like constellations wheeling round, a double chain of sight and sound in sixteen permutations. (That's what Larry Gottheim said, anyway.) 

You've seen ANÉMIC CINÉMA, I guess. Some say it goes well with the music of Ravel, played very, very softly, with all the captions translated. That's how we'll do it, and the wheeling words un-Ravel! (Some puns better left unsaid.) Then, THIS IS IT, which is really, really it. A child plays Adam in Eden's suburban housing developments. What could be more this than this? Perhaps A RAY ARRAY, which is all delay, from its beginning before the word. Is this it? All sixteen video chapters, waiting for you. How much time will it take to see it? Is this really, really it?  

Join us for this final event of the season – a program on two nights, curated by Andrew Ritchey. Featuring recent work by Robert Todd and Sarah RaRa (lucky dragons, Sumi Ink Club); and the belated Portland premiere of Larry Gottheim's masterwork of image-sound analysis, Four Shadows (1978), part three in the four-part "Elective Affinities" series.

Cinema Project presents Sound, Sound, Sound, Sound, Screen! on Tuesday, December 11th and Wednesday, December 12th at 7:30pm.  More info on the program available here.


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KUNG FU THEATER presents MARTIAL ARTS OF SHAOLIN

It's only been a few months since the nearly 50-year-old Jet Li shot his way through The Expendables 2, a series so improbably successful that a third installment is already a foregone conclusion.  Does anybody else remember when Li's martial arts prowess was the only weapon he needed?  If not, Kung Fu Theater is ready to refresh your memory with a rare 35mm screening of Martial Arts of Shaolin (aka Shaolin Temple 3), starring a young, fresh faced kid who doesn't need any firearms to make his way through this world. 

Directed by Lau Kar Leung (The Eight Diagram Pole Fighter aka Invincible Pole Fighter), the 1986 Shaw Brothers film plays Tuesday night at the Hollywood Theatre.  Here's what the folks behind Kung Fu Theater have to say about the event:

Kung Fu Theater presents an extremely rare 35mm print of the kung fu classic Martial Arts of Shaolin! 

Martial Arts of Shaolin (1986) A young Jet Li stars as a monk from the Northern Shaolin Temple who sets out on a quest of vengeance against the man who killed his parents. When his initial attempt fails, he finds himself on the run from a powerful Lord and his army, and must team up with students from the Southern Shaolin Temple to stay alive. Featuring a wide array of fighting styles, martial arts weaponry, and non-stop jaw-dropping fight choreography. No other film has ever shown off Jet Li’s incredible kung fu ability like this. Directed by master Lau Kar Leung (36th Chamber of Shaolin). Don’t miss this!

Martial Arts of Shaolin plays one-night-only at the Hollywood Theatre on Tuesday, December 11th at 7:30pm.  More info available here.

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HITCHCOCK: NO SUBSTITUTE FOR THE GENUINE ARTICLE

What happens when one of the most compelling figures in film history receives the ol' biopic treatment?  Well, there's no hard and fast rules guiding the results, but in the case of Hitchcock, the outcome is a decidedly toothless affair, something that no one bothered to tell director Sacha Gervasi (Anvil: The Story of Anvil) and his cast, who seem to believe that they're pulling back the veil on a Hollywood master when, in fact, the plodding and all-too cautious plotting of Hitchcock undermines any chance of viewers being hooked into what little scandal (seriously, Hitch ate and drank too much and he liked blondes, is that all you got?) the film offers up.

Anchoring the more gossipy aspects of the narrative, we're given a supposedly inside look into Hitch's (Anthony Hopkins) marriage to his wife Alma (Helen Mirren).  The film proposes that she inhabited a sizable role in sculpting his art, picking up at a moment when Alma is beginning to feel neglected leading to private strain within their relationship.  At the same time, Hitch is struggling to get Psycho made, bristling against studio execs and censors who won't finance or clear the production for release.

The problem is that neither of these plot arcs are particularly well orchestrated.  The romantic angle falls flat, as the characterization of Hitch and Alma's relationship is far too sketched out, and there's never a sense of danger in Alma's flirtations with writer Whitfield Cook (Danny Huston).  As for the making of Psycho, the weight of history; the glaring fact being that Psycho was completed and became a massive success, significantly reduces the pressure within Hitch's situation, since it's impossible to simply forget or set aside knowledge of the film's eventual triumph and sustained influence.

Hitchcock ends up being less a disappointment than an unnecessary bit of nonsense.  It's entertaining enough, all of the actors (with the glaring exception of the poorly cast Scarlett Johansson as Janet Leigh) offering up serviceable performances.  Hopkins disappears the most into his role, although I found myself being hopelessly distracted at times by trying to figure out where the prosthetic chins ended and the real Anthony Hopkins began.  And maybe that's the best way to characterize the film, it works as a reasonable distraction while falling considerably short as a worthy substitute for the genuine article. 

Hitchcock opens at the Regal Fox Tower on Friday, December 7th.  More info available here.

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GRINDHOUSE FILM FESTIVAL presents XTRO

 

Portland's Grindhouse Film Festival rises once again for yet another monthly dip into the waters of b-movie exhibition.  This month's offering is the 1982 British, sci-fi horror flick Xtro from director Harry Bromley Davenport (Mockingbird Don't Sing).  What's it about?  Well, it all begins when young Tony sees his dad get hijacked by alien visitors.  Several years later, his pop reappears and then things truly begin to shift towards the unthinkable.

It all goes down tonight at the Hollywood Theatre at 7:30p.m.  Here's what the good folks at Grindhouse central have to say about tonight's feature:

On Tuesday November 27th at 7:30pm, the Grindhouse Film Festival presents the only known 35mm print of the batshit-crazy 80′s sci-fi/horror film Xtro! 

Xtro (1983) How to describe Xtro? A young boy witnesses his father being abducted by a light in the sky. Three years later, that light returns and plants a seed in the ground. That seed grows into a horrible creature. That creature impregnates a woman. That woman gives birth to a fully-formed version of the father, just as we last saw him. The father returns home and gives his son telekinetic powers. The son uses his telekinetic powers to make his toys come to life and do his bidding. And then things start to get WEIRD!

 

Xtro plays one-night-only at the Hollywood Theatre on Tuesday, November 27th at 7:30pm.  More info available here.

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CINEMA PROJECT presents ALL DIVIDED SELVES

Switching things up a bit this month, Cinema Project hosts All Divided Selves, the new feature-length, experimental documentary on infamous psychiatrist R.D. Laing, blending his life and impressions concerning mental illness into a simultaneously riveting and sometimes alienating piece that at teeters towards evoking the psychosis on which the film's subject was a self-proclaimed expert.

Watching director Luke Fowler's work on Laing doesn't so much invite one into a easily digestible knowledge of the man and his work as much as it conveys the reeling sensation of entering into a position located somewhere between Laing's ideas and the basis for his theories.  All Selves Divided is a fascinating and uniquely discombobulating piece.  By refusing to go the easy route of relaying Laing's story simply, Fowler has arrived at far more impressionistic, intoxicating, and, quite often, more troubling result.

Here's what Cinema Project has to say about the film:

All Divided Selves is a sensorially rich and intellectually engaging visual biography of the charismatic and controversial Scottish psychiatrist, R.D. Laing, and his contemporaries. Luke Fowler's feature-length experimental documentary is constructed from countless hours of historical film and video recordings of interviews, television appearances, and instructional documentation. The video loosely follows a historical arc that details Laing’s media-captured transition from popular professional practitioner into something like a cult hero. Scene after scene features Laing explaining the experiential dimension of psychosis in language that is mesmerizing and lucid. The low fidelity archival film footage also provides a gritty, dusty, and anarchic rendering of Laing’s post-war Glasgow punctuated by Fowler’s original and highly personal visual refrains depicting colorful, textured abstract landscapes and poetic, subtle imagery. Fowler further galvanizes the visual dimensions of his high-definition video work with a surround-sound score that features original field recordings and music by Éric La Casa, Jean-Luc Guionnet and Alasdair Roberts. The result is a psycho-phenomenological viewing and listening experience that will emotionally envelop, transport and haunt viewers.

Cinema Project presents All Divided Selves on Tuesday, November 27th and Wednesday, November 28th at 7:30pm.  More info on the program available here.


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