Smile Politely.com / Arts

DVD Prices 'Stay the Course'

2008-08-27T16:00:00Z

An interesting thing I noticed while going through this week's DVD releases: although this last TV season was shortened by the writer's strike, television on DVD is as expensive as it ever was. Thus you can own 10 episodes of The Shield for $59.95 or 18 episodes of the resurrected One Tree Hill for the same price. Considering the addictive nature of television, it's not surprising that the studios would try to crank up these prices as high as they can, but $6 for one episode?

Those are crack prices.

Heroes' abbreviated second season is also out on DVD today, as Producer Jeph Loeb continues his quest to make traditional cult material into the stuff of boring prime time soap operas. There is something about Heroes that is unappealing to the full-time nerd, or at least this one, in the same way that Loeb's Smallville show has always been. Here's looking forward to Joss Whedon's return to cult television with Dollhouse, which will surely be canceled after a season and a half but will live forever in our hearts and hotel convention rooms.

]]> If you're not interested in television but are interested in failed romantic comedies, this week should also be a boon for you. Not content with making minimal profit on remakes of Asian horror films, Hollywood has now started adapting mediocre romantic comedy-dramas from across the Pacific with the release of My Sassy Girl. If you're upset because you think there hasn't been enough Ashton Kutcher on your video store shelves in recent months, you can be relieved by What Happens in Vegas, an entire movie inspired by a State of Nevada advertising campaign.

Two early-summer "arthouse" films are out on DVD today, both of which might save the prospective video-renter from referring to their constantly expanding Excel spreadsheet of films to see. Garth Jennings's Son of Rambow is a charming British comedy about two youths who are inspired by the Stallone film First Blood and attempt to make their own sequel to it. Like the American Be Kind Rewind, Son of Rambow is a nostalgia trip celebrating the artistic merit of amateur video production. Homemade productions, the argument of these films goes, are not only funny and charming, they are worthy artistic productions because they remove the pretense and artifice of Hollywood. The poorly built sets, amateurish acting and haphazard costuming are love letters to Hollywood with which an audience can relate at the same time that they expose Hollywood productions for the irrelevant fabrications they are.

The problem into which both Son of Rambow and Be Kind Rewind run, however, is that they are Hollywood productions and are themselves irrelevant fabrications. The amateur, bootleg art created in the film is not truly amateur or bootleg: instead, paid professionals act in licensed recreations of studio films. Furthermore, the film must please a wide audience. Constructing a compelling story around low budget films-on-video is challenging, so the truly interesting elements of Be Kind Rewind were written into a trite "preserve the values of yesteryear" plot. Son of Rambow runs into similar problems, tripping over its own sentimentality and nostalgia on its way to the end.

Almost more interesting than the film itself is the short on which it is based, Jennings's own childhood action film. Getting a grasp on what exactly is going on in the film is rather difficult, but his editing skills notwithstanding, Jennings was a very talented eleven-year-old filmmaker. He works around his small budget (consisting of one match and a can of gas) with a flare of brilliance and daring children often show without second thought or pretense. If Jennings had seized on this idea of a pure, prepubescent art in making Son of Rambow instead of filtering his childhood memories through a nostalgic remembrance, it might have been a much better film.

The best film out on DVD this week is David Mamet's Redbelt . Once America's foremost playwright, over the past twenty years Mamet has turned himself into one of our foremost filmmakers, quietly reinvigorating genres like the spy thriller with Spartan or noir with films like House of Games. His films often concern themself with that traditional film noir set-up of the individual besieged by a convoluted conspiracy or maelstrom of unfortunate events, and Redbelt is no exception. Mark Terry (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a ju jitsu teacher and Army veteran finds himself caught up in the tangled web of Hollywood and professional mixed martial arts fighting, and while this may sound like one of those "high concept" pitches for a new Jean-Claude Van Damme movie, remember that Mamet's excellent Spartan was an international spy thriller starring Val Kilmer.

The reinvigorated genre this time around is what Mamet calls "the fight film," comparing it to classic films in which one virtuous man (often Humphrey Bogart) amongst a sea of the corrupted must fight to restore morality. In this way it is also related to the classic samurai film, but Redbelt is neither a straightforward noir nor an Asian-philiac martial arts film a la Bloodsport. Its morals are familiar and even derived from these genres, but its characters are not. Each of Mamet's characters have motivations that are only hinted at in his films, through snippets of dialogue, facial expressions on his well-chosen actors, and even body language. He avoids the kind of expository dialogue that can drive a critic crazy, insisting that his viewers get to know his characters and the story instead of simply the plot. Mamet's writing is aided by Ejiofor, an excellent actor with, as Mamet observes, an evocative stillness comparable to that of Henry Fonda. Redbelt is not necessarily a great film, but it is a significant contribution to the genre of "the fight film," and may someday be considered a classic of sorts, as I expect several of Mamet's films to be.

When Did August Become the Funniest Month of the Year?

2008-08-22T18:00:00Z

August has been described as wearing a “golden crown,” has been said to “rush by like desert rainfall” and “create as she slumbers.” Superstition holds that if the first week of the month is a scorcher, the winter will be long and cold. On a personal note, my father used to refer to the month as “a blistering ballbreaker.” For the eighth month of the year 2008, I would describe it as the funniest month of the year, at least as far as movies are concerned. Having been entertained (bludgeoned) by the big budget Hollywood blockbusters, a series of sidesplitting comedies have been released in the past three weeks that have proven to be a welcome respite.

]]> Pineapple Express was an effective buddy flick that ended up being far smarter than its Cheech and Chong roots, while Tropic Thunder proved to be not only one of the funniest movies of the year, but also one of the smartest with its post modern take on modern cinema and its makers. In the offing is Hamlet 2, a madcap farce about a desperate drama teacher’s attempt to save his own program and reconnect with the arts, driven by a tour de force performance from British comic Steve Coogan. In the meantime, there’s The Rocker, a film that, to my surprise, fills a comedic niche not covered by the other features, as it proves to a sweet ode to hanging on to your dreams at all cost.

Yeah, the theme is far from original — but the execution is enthusiastic as Rainn Wilson, from The Office, gives the title role a certain bounce that reels you in. He’s Robert “Fish” Fishman, drummer for the Cleveland based band Vesuvius who are on the verge of signing a deal with a major record label in the mid 80s. However, the band only gets the deal if they dump Fish. Before you can say “sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll” — they’ve left the drummer high and dry, which sends him into a tailspin that lasts 20 years.

Fate is not kind to Fish, particularly on the day he finds out that Vesuvius is being inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and loses his job and girlfriend. Forced to live in his sister’s attic, he is rescued when Matt (Josh Gad), his nephew, asks him to fill in for their recently suspended drummer, as his band is going to play their senior prom. His fellow musicians, soulful songwriter and lead singer Curtis (Teddy Geiger) and rocker chick with an attitude Amelia (Emma Stone) are less than thrilled — but give in once they realize they have no choice.

What follows is a comedic odyssey of clashing rock cultures. Fish convinces Curtis that his talent can take them all to the top and soon their band ADD, is on their way to stardom, playing small gigs and working their way up the arena ladder. Whereas the dazzled teens are concerned about making music that matters, Fish wants “to party until my nuts catch fire.” While he’s pitching TVs out of hotel windows, they’re wallowing in their angst, unable to fully grasp where their lives are heading.

The film is hardly a classic — but it does a fine job of tapping into the human elements of its characters in a genuine way. Matt’s lack of confidence and the unspoken affection that exists between Curtis and Amelia are handled with a degree of tact that isn’t often found in films like this. The humor that is generated by these three is very sweet and is perfectly balanced by Wilson’s work which is as broad as the Grand Canyon. His face, contorted to grotesque proportions during his drum work, is a source of constant fascination and as Fish’s body slowly disintegrates because his 40 year old joints can’t support his 20 year old party style, Wilson proves to be a gifted physical comic.

The Rocker will probably not make anyone’s best of list for 2008, but it’s a serviceable comedy that doesn’t have to offend its audience in its quest for laughs. As a bonus, the songs by Chad Fischer are serviceable as well particularly “I’m not Bitter” which is a real toe tapper. More than anything, the film implores us to rock on in pursuit of your dream, even though your knees might give out along the way.

The Rocker is now playing at the Beverly and Savoy Theatres.
Runtime: 1h 42min — Rated PG-13 — Drama

Tropic Thunder Unexpectedly Good

2008-08-19T18:00:00Z

Seatbelts securely fastened. Tray tables in their upright positions. Yet the turbulence of Tropic Thunder doesn’t phase.

Thunder is the most refreshing, brave and entertaining comedy of the year, and it didn’t come from an independent studio or an up-and-coming filmmaker.

Ben Stiller perfectly assembles pieces of pop culture, satire and humanity to present a much-needed comedy that really was either going to be a hit or a miserable miss.

Clear skies ahead for Thunder. You are now free to roam about this review.

]]> Thunder isn’t about classifying itself into a specific genre of movie. It doesn’t try to hard to be a war movie, or an action movie, or a comedy. It lets its content and characters perform limitlessly, and the unrestrained flow of it all makes us, in turn, not care to control our laughter. The potentials of stars like Jack Black, Ben Stiller and even Robert Downey Jr. have been masked by some of their former film roles in which they were typecast (Black a clumsy loser, Stiller a vulnerable idiot, and Downey Jr. an arrogant aristocrat). But Thunder allows them to reintroduce themselves as comedic threats, and they consequently deliver some of the top-ranking performances of the year, and their careers.

The way Thunder does this, ironically, is by typecasting. Kirk Lazarus (Downey Jr.) is a tabloid screw-up who completely submerges himself in his roles. (As he says in the movie, he’ll only stop once he’s done the DVD commentary). Tugg Speedman (Stiller) is an insecure action star who’s haunted by his former failed role as a mentally challenged hillbilly. And Jeff Portnoy (Black) is a comedian who hides the fact that his comedy is based solely on fart jokes by dousing himself in drugs. But we witness how the characters evolve. They are powerless in the fake, yet real, yet fake jungles of Vietnam. Complications in the guerrilla-style filming of the “Tropic Thunder” movie leave the actors without their make-up artists, five-star services, and TiVos. Portnoy has run out of drugs, Speedman mistakes jungle locals as actors, and Lazarus is feuding with his African-American co-star. They don’t know how to cope with a life outside of their self-centered filmmaking universe, which is one of the many stereotypes that the film successfully attempts to break.

But the movie doesn’t become too preachy or overdone. It limits its messages about mainstream pop culture by subduing it with mainstream pop culture. Yup, you read that right. The Tropic Thunder billboards and advertisements don’t tell us that both Tom Cruise and Matthew McConaughey are in the film — in fairly big roles, might I add. Their appearances act as a leash to drag us from being blinded by stardom to viewing celebrities as human. Like us, celebrities have addictions, or hold past embarrassments, or (in the twisted case of Downey Jr.’s character) just try to fit in with culture. The brilliance of it all is that it didn’t take a groundbreaking documentary or an Academy Award-winning movie (like the ones Kirk Lazarus stars in) to effectively deliver this message. We got it from a big-budget August comedy written and directed by Ben Stiller.

We feel superior to Thunder’s actors because we’re in tune with the life they’re trying to live. We feel, as a result, comfortable laughing at them. Furthermore, we’re drawn to the film because despite the actors’ insecurities, we want to switch roles with them. We’ll try being the movie stars, and they can deal with trying to find a bill-paying job in our struggling economy. But this is also why the movie slightly stumbles…

(*Warning: Possible spoiler!)

We’re never shown the finished “Tropic Thunder” movie. We don’t get to laugh at how its scenes could get misconstrued in the editing room. We don’t get to reflect on the shot footage from a different point of view. But, most importantly, there are no feelings of resolution. Because we’re so drawn in with its characters, we count on ourselves to direct them to complete the film. The whole reason the actors were even dropped in the middle of the jungle is because the director couldn’t get them to act intense enough. And when we finally get our characters to the states we want them, we have no movie to reward ourselves with. Instead, we’re left with images of Tom Cruise dancing. Funny, yes, but also a cop-out.

Despite such flaws, however, Tropic Thunder capitalizes on humor from plot and character development. And, overall, the laughs of Tropic Thunder are anything but empty.

Cut! Print it!

Swing Vote: The Best Movie in Town That No One Wants to See

2008-08-15T18:00:00Z

It has been said that in politics, we get the candidates we deserve. The same could be said for movies. Nothing dictates more what you see at the multiplex than what has been successful at the box office and, as such, the rule is that vacuous, low-brow entertainment is what is playing on most screens. There have been some rare exceptions this year (Iron Man, The Dark Knight and Tropic Thunder) but by and large, what has cluttered nation’s screens have been made to distract or bludgeon us, and any movie that has the temerity to try to engage viewer’s minds or hearts has been brushed aside. Case in point: Kevin Costner’s fine, pointed political dramedy, Swing Vote.

]]> This film was, unfortunately, doomed to fail at the box office. (To date, it has grossed a bit over $12 million after thirteen days in release.) It suffered from the Costner backlash, a widespread abhorrence of the actor that I have never been able to figure out, and the fact that in the midst of the season devoted to blowing stuff up real good, its theme is the current state of our political system. Don’t Costner and director Joshua Michael Stern know that people don’t go to the movies to think, they go to be entertained! (I hear this far too often from filmgoers and it simply makes my blood boil.)

Had audiences taken a chance on Vote they would have discovered: an unabashedly old fashioned film, a la Frank Capra, a pointed and timely condemnation of politicians, the media and an apathetic electorate, a poignant story concerning the strained relationship between a father and his daughter, and a startling new film talent.

The premise of the film is a stretch as it posits that the fate of a presidential election can come down to the casting of one vote, which happens to be in the hands of a first hand slacker, Bud Johnson (Costner). Still, and all, the way the circumstances that make this possible are presented, it’s no more far fetched than the devices Capra used in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (an errant coin toss leads to a nobody being named to the Senate), Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (an everyman inherits a fortune from an uncle he never met) or Meet John Doe (a down on his luck baseball player is chosen at random to become a media star). I’ve read many complaints online about this plot device, which revolves around an electronic voting machine) and it seems as though critics are throwing the baby out with the bathwater where this is concerned, as the pay off in the film is one of the most emotionally satisfying I have seen this year.

As things pick up steam in the film, the two candidates for president, the clueless, republican incumbent (Kelsey Grammer) and the wishy washy democratic challenger (Dennis Hopper) come to court Bud’s vote and turn the struggling New Mexico town where he has just lost his job into a media circus. Before you know it, this voter without a clue is getting a tour of Air Force One, is having parties thrown in his honor and sees the candidates flip-flop on key issues if he happens to express an off-hand statement about a given subject. (My favorite is when the GOP quickly cuts a commercial extolling the gay rights. Grammer is wonderfully uncomfortable in the spot.)

This material is presented perfectly as it pointedly shows that the candidates as spineless buffoons, their campaign managers (Stanley Tucci and Nathan Lane) to be heartless and the system to be seriously flawed. All of these points are in dire need of being made and Stern, Costner and the rest of the crew do so with an earnestness that is genuine. However, as vital as these themes are, the true underpinning of the film lies elsewhere.

That would be in the relationship between Bud and his daughter Molly, a bright young girl who runs their household as her mother abandoned both of them years earlier. She is responsible and aware of what’s important in the world and she wants her father to be the same. She is the catalyst to Bud’s hoped for transformation and through her efforts he finds the will to try and be not only a better father, but a better friend and a better citizen. Newcomer Madeline Carroll inhabits this role like a second skin. You never see her acting — but rather, performing at an organic level that cannot be taught or analyzed. She is this soulful young girl on screen and it is impossible to overstate how honest she is here. Take a gander at a moment when she tearfully tries to explain her father’s absence at “Bring Your Dad to School” day. If you aren’t at least misty at the end of this sequence, your heart is dead.

I know that many will doubt this next statement but Costner is just as good during Bud’s big moment when he makes a statement about his own life before conducting a national debate between the two candidates. The actor digs deep here and delivers an earnest turn as he comes to terms with his failings as a human being on live television, vows to do better and implores others to do the same. There is no artifice here or overacting as the performer has done in the past. Costner has learned the power of stillness here and uses it to great effect.

Don’t get me wrong, Swing Vote is far from perfect. It is too long, suffers from pacing problems at times and bites off a bit more than it can chew. However, I would rather a film attempt great things than simply coast as so many of them do. I am not foolish enough to think that if a wide audience saw this film and embraced it, it would lead to socially change. I would like, however, to think that it has the possibility to get people thinking and discussing the issues that drive our society at large and our personal lives. Then again, maybe I am foolish.

Swing Vote is still playing at the Savoy 16 theater.
Runtime: 1h 40min — Rated PG-13 — Comedy

Octave Chanute Air Museum: Rantoul, Ill

2008-08-13T22:00:00Z

This weekend I took a trip out to the Octave Chanute Air Museum in Rantoul, Ill. The museum contains a number of extensive indoor exhibits showcasing the history of the Chanute Air Base from when it opened in 1917 until it's closure in 1993. The air base was also original home to the Tuskegee Airmen of World War II and the museum features an exihibit on the history surrounding the squadron. In addition to the indoor exhibits, the hangar includes a vast collection of aircraft from very early gliders through modern jets.

]]> Octave Chanute Air Museum is located at 1011 Pacesetter Drive in Rantoul.

Hours:
Monday thru Saturday: 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m
Sunday: Noon - 5:00 p.m.

Admission Prices:
Adults (18+): $7.00
Seniors (62+) and Retired Military: $6.00
Children (K-12): $4.00 (Under 4 FREE)

Arts Abound in Champaign This Saturday

2008-08-13T17:55:44Z

With so much art lining the streets of downtown Champaign this Saturday for the annual Downtown Festival of the Arts, it will be easy to miss some creations, but Cindy Sampson’s art will probably grab your attention.

Sampson’s display, “Uncycled Oddities” a series of surreal sculptures portray toy baby doll heads popping out and hoisted on objects such as a coffee carafe. The creations will be on display Saturday courtesy of Wind, Water and Light during the street festival.

]]> Downtown Festival of the Arts, presented by Champaign Park District, blocks off the Neil and Main streets and features a gaggle of artists in various mediums including photography, paintings and jewelry. The park district hosts a lineup of entertainment equally as diverse as the art on the streets. The schedule features a performing arts stage with performances from Champaign Urbana Theater Company and Hideout Theater Company among others. Kilborn Alley, Nia Quartet, and Desafinado are scheduled to perform.

August DVD Releases Look Bleak

2008-08-07T22:00:00Z

August is looking to be as bleak a month for new DVDs as it traditionally is for theatrical releases. This coming week's new DVDs are, unlike our theaters, blissfully Brendan Fraser-free, but don't get excited. Mr. Fraser's participation in two of the country's top five movies means that there is a week somewhere in the near future during which we will once again be berated with family friendly one-liners from the immediate classics Journey to the Center of the Earth in 3D and The Mummy 3: Tomb of the Crystal Skulls or whatever it's called. And despite his absence from our video store shelves, not a whole lot else is happening on them.

]]> The numerous people who have recommended the HBO drama "The Wire" to me will be quick to point out that the Fifth Season of that show is due for release on August 12, the date in question. Having seen not more than three episodes of what has been described to me as a "great" and "freaking awesome" show, I can do nought but pass on these accolades. As for "Prison Break," whose Third Season also sees a release this coming Tuesday, I cannot in good conscience recommend it to you. Don't get me wrong: like so many people who hate television programs vehemently, I've never actually seen it. I do blame it, however, for forcing my beloved "Arrested Development" off the air and have refused to watch it on principle ever since.

Perhaps it would be best if we ignore this coming week's releases for now, especially since I don't seem to have seen any of them, and focus on DVDs coming later this month. For example, at the end of the month, two oft-forgotten classics of their respective national cinemas are being released on DVD in America for the first time. Vojtech Jasny's All My Good Countrymen is a flagship film of the Czech New Wave that was thought lost to Communist suppression until recent years. Originally conceived as a six-hour tribute to Jasny's home village and its struggles when Czechoslovakia joined the Eastern Bloc after World War II, somebody thankfully talked Jasny into making this two-hour masterpiece. Though produced in 1966 when the Czechs were experiencing a resurgence in personal liberty, the Russians soon invaded to quash growing democratic feelings in its satellite and the film found itself banned along with several other now-classics of 60s Czech cinema.

Beyond its interesting history, the film is actually quite good, illustrating how the laws imposed by the Communist government in the 1940s upended the lives of individuals and the society as a whole. Cooperative farms robbed hard-working farmers of their life's work and even homes, the Communists' anti-religious policy made a mockery of traditional social settings and values, and their repression of dissidents encouraged members of communities to turn on each other. Jasny illustrates these points by focusing on a group of friends in a small village whose lives and friendship are gradually shattered by World War II and its aftermath. The film delves into the realm of over-earnestness once or twice and borders on sentimentality, but overall it is an important and thoughtful piece of art.

What do you get when you take Francois Truffaut's The 400 Blows, translate it to a Scottish mining town, and replace the stylish French New Wave form with an especially bleak derivative of Italian neorealism? Why, The Bill Douglas Trilogy, of course. Like Truffaut did with his character Antoine Daniel in 400 Blows and future films, director Bill Douglas gives us his life story through his alter-ego Jamie, who lives an impoverished life in post-World War II Scotland. His mother gone mad and his father in denial of his existence, Jamie lives with his grandmother and looks for a male role model in German Prisoner of War Helmuth.

Douglas repeatedly refutes the idea of an optimistic story about poverty, as each development that could lead to a happy ending or at the very least a smile is canceled by inevitable circumstance. In the first film, My Childhood, the German POW must return to der Vaterland just as his relationship with Jamie is progressing. Jamie goes to see his mother only to find her unresponsive on a bed in the insane asylum. The father of Jamie's half-brother Tommy begins to make an effort only to be chased away by their demented grandmother. The second film in the trilogy, My Ain Folk, begins with a beautiful Technicolor shot which turns out to be from a Lassie film Tommy is watching; reality is still in harsh black and white. Jamie's paternal grandmother, to whom he flees to avoid the orphanage after his maternal grandmother dies, is an abusive old alcoholic who is no more accepting of him than is his father. Life, as Douglas or "Jamie" lived it, is a series of events which is completely out of one's own hands. Poverty and misery are not just inescapable but irreversible states of being.

The three films are short but each is slightly longer than the last. The weak link is the third film, My Way Home, which is by far the longest at an hour and fifteen minutes and abandons the dirty streets industrial Scotland for a military base in Egypt where Douglas spent his teen years. It is not a bad film, but Douglas abandons the great illustrative fiction of the previous two films in favor of a more straightforward Bill Douglas autobiography. As a whole, the trilogy might accurately be described as a masterpiece, but it would be so with or without My Way Home. Douglas would go on to direct just one more film, the epic-length drama Comrades, before his untimely death at the age of 57 in 1991.

All My Good Countrymen and The Bill Douglas trilogy will be available on August 26, 2008. Until then, you and I are going to have to catch up on "The Wire" and the numerous other TV-on-DVD releases the coming weeks hold.

IUB Shows Iron Man Tomorrow Night

2008-08-06T15:08:42Z

Tomorrow night, Illini Union Board hauls their big screen out to the Quad for the last time this summer to present the Marvel super hero flick, Iron Man. The movie explodes at 9 p.m., and the view — under the stars, of course — won't cost you a thing, save a few mosquito bites.
]]> Iron Man, one of the best super hero films of the year, finds Tony Stark, a wealthy weapons manufacturer captured during an ambush in the Middle East, imprisoned by a group of terrorists. To free himself from the guerrilla group, he constructs an iron suit equipped with guns and ammo. When freed, Tony abandons his quest for high-tech weapons and goes to work on a real suit that would help him save lives. But, money is a powerful thing, and some people on Team Tony don't like the tycoon's benevolent new outlook. Iron Man-type action ensues. Robert Downey Jr. stars.

Bring along some lawn chairs to watch the final installment of IUB's Summer Quad Cinema Series.

The X-Files 2: The Truth is in There

2008-08-05T16:00:00Z

It comes as no surprise that the latest, and probably final, chapter of the X-Files saga is failing at the box office. Not only is it going up against the box office juggernaut that is Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight — but it also is based on a television show whose popularity peaked a decade ago and went off the air in 2002. However, I think there’s another element at play here that is keeping away crowds in droves: it’s too damn smart for the average American film goer.
]]> That’s not to say that you need an extensive background in film studies to appreciate writer/director Chris Carter’s latest effort or that the movie rivals The Grand Illusion in terms of depth. However, it does challenge viewers in a way that many are not used to, which is a sad reflection on the state of audiences in this country. Yeah, I know, they’re mostly teens — and that depresses me even more.

The show’s stars, David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, return in the roles that made them famous and it’s plain to see from the start that a great deal of water has passed under the bridge between Mulder and Scully since last we saw them. Their relationship has taken a predictable turn — but produced unpredictable results. Professionally, Mulder is in hiding from the FBI, convinced that he has been wronged by the agency he gave so many years to, as he has been left out to dry for adhering to his crackpot conspiracy theories. Meanwhile, Scully has moved on, having become a surgeon and she has become far too involved in a case involving a pre-teen boy who is suffering from a terminal illness that she cannot combat.

Obviously, it wouldn’t be an X-Files movie without some creepy goings-on and they are provided by disgraced priest, Father Joseph Crissman (Billy Connelly) — a pedophile who has been excommunicated and he claims to have visions of young women being kidnapped and held in a mysterious location. This gets the FBI’s attention as one of those that were abducted happens to be an agent. Mulder is convinced to let bygones be bygones and lend his expertise to the case.

What follows is standard order for the series — but nonetheless creepy — as illegal organ donation, experiments Dr. Frankenstein would blanch at and two headed dogs all play key roles. While these elements, as ridiculous as they are, are rendered in an effective manner, the meat of the film comes from the renewed debate between its two leads that was the backbone of the series. Always the pragmatist, Scully doubts Crissman’s abilities as well as Mulder’s faith in him and his theories concerning the kidnapped victims. Grounded and relying only on facts, her resistance to take a leap of faith of any sort runs counter to Mulder who longs to find some solid proof for the beliefs his faith and optimism enable him to embrace.

This has been covered before in the series — but Duchovny and Anderson lend a conviction to the argument here that may be bolstered by the fact that they have gotten older and the experience each of the characters have gone through lend a degree of weight and poignancy to their positions. Even more satisfying is the fact that Carter allows one of them to change and come to the realization that the flipside of the coin they’ve adhered to may be valid.

With the exception of The Dark Knight, the summer movie season has been filled with the usual vacuous fodder that audiences cling to. While I am all for a well-produced piece of escapist entertainment, a steady diet of such product makes one dull, unimaginative and, frankly, a bit stupid. The X-Files 2: I Want to Believe isn’t a groundbreaking film by any stretch — but that it challenges the viewer to consider certain moral imperatives in a season devoted to films revolving around explosions and fart jokes makes it a daring piece of work that deserves to be salvaged from the scrap heap of indifference.

Highlights of Batman's Cinematic Crime-Fighting Career

2008-07-31T20:00:00Z

Critically and commercially, Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight is turning out to be the biggest hit of the year, maybe of all time. Both the amount of box office records it has broken and its staggering 94 percent rating on rottentomatoes.com has surprised nearly every industry analyst; no one expected it to be so good or so successful. It is a very lengthy sequel to a moderately successful (in the world of superhero movies, anyway) reboot of a franchise based on a character who had already had six films based on him — eight if you count the 1940s serials. Everyone knew it was going to be big, but it had enough working against it that no one thought it would be this big.
]]> As Batman fever reaches heights it hasn't seen since Tim Burton's Batman (1989), still the second-highest grossing comic book film of all time when adjusted for ticket price inflation, it may be time to revisit other filmed adaptations of the exploits of the caped crusader. The Dark Knight is, by nearly unanimous opinion, the best Batman film ever made, but if it has left you with a Bat-craving that can't be satisfied with another expensive trip to the movie theater, you can find the following films on DVD at your local video store.

Batman (1943)

It didn't take long for Hollywood to realize Batman's cinematic potential, with this serial released less than five years after the character was created. Like the comics of the time, which had already drifted from Batman's rather hard-edged origins, this one's for the kids. It isn't as unconsciously goofy as the sequel, Batman and Robin (1949, not to be confused by the other disaster by the same name), but patient Bat-maniacs will enjoy this 15 part, 260 minute collection of shorts.

Batman (1966)
Actually the pilot for the TV show which would become Batman's first major foray into the realm of pop culture phenomena, this may be the perfect Batman movie. The tongue-in-cheek film can never go wrong because its purpose is to go wrong. It starts with an all too earnest salute to all crime fighters and includes a trained exploding shark, a dehydration machine that turns people into salt, and an assertion by Commissioner Gordon that Batman and Robin are fully deputized law enforcers. And yes, Shark Repellent Bat-Spray.

Batman (1989)
Tim Burton helmed this update of the character, which was an unprecedented success, quickly becoming one of the top-grossing films of all time. And despite Burton and his script doctors' numerous mistakes (Sam Hamm, the credited screenwriter, disavows the decision to have Batman kill, among other things), the film is appreciable for turning the tide toward a more adult vision of Batman. A tide which, of course, would be reversed again in the 90s.

Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993)
I loved this film as a child, but as an adult, there is perhaps even more to enjoy in this little-remembered film based on "Batman: The Animated Series." Pulling in only $5 million at the box office, this commercial dud doesn't make many "Top Ten Superhero Films" lists, but before The Dark Knight it may have been Batman's best outing on the big screen. Like the new film, it focuses on Batman's war against the mob, the Joker and a new villain, all of whom are tied together in an intricate if transparent plot which works far better than most attempts to include multiple villains in a Batman film. It is about the sacrifices Bruce Wayne has had to make in order to fight crime, the psychological effects of which are felt here more strongly than they have been in most other films.

Batman and Robin (1997)
This is the most universally reviled entry in any Batman franchise, but is a cinematic train wreck of such monumental scale that watching it crash and burn is almost as fun as watching a really great Batman film. For a bonus, turn on the audio commentary on the Warner Brothers Special Edition DVD, wherein director Joel Schumacher apologizes for the film multiple times with excuses like, "they wanted to sell action figures." Maybe, Joel, but I don't know if Warner Brothers insisted on action figures with Bat-Nipples.

Batman Begins (2005)
Chances are you've already watched this recently to warm up for the new one, but you'd be surprised how many people don't realize The Dark Knight is a sequel to anything. Some people also still insist that the new films are prequels to Tim Burton's film, which is a frustratingly stupid misconception. So let's be clear: this re-launch of the Batman franchise, which is in no way related to any Batman films made before it, attempts a realistic take on the origin of Batman. It peaks 1.5 hours in and then descends into rote comic book stuff for the last half-hour, essentially stealing the diabolical device of the film's villains from the dehydrator in Batman (1966).

Batman's cinematic legacy is longer than most other superheroes'. I would like to say his staying power is somehow related to the way people relate to his story, that he's human and sympathetic and captures something simple but emotionally profound in his quest to avenge the death of his parents. This is what DC Comics executives will tell you, but the truth is that, as these picks prove, there are several different takes on Batman, none of which are more dominant than the others. They all have their appeal and every once in a while a filmmaker finds an angle on Batman that appeals to everyone.

It is pretty safe to assume, however, that I am the only one you will ever hear recommend Batman and Robin.

Urbana Free Presents an Art Flick

2008-07-31T19:00:00Z

It’s no secret that Urbana Free Library has a great collection of films on their shelves for borrowing. But, tonight, — and this might be lesser known — the library is pulling out their projector for a showing of The Bothersome Man as the last selection of Art Flicks Film Series.
]]> The film, unspooling at 6:30 p.m., is about Andreas, an ordinary guy on a bus — his only problem is that he doesn’t remember who he is or where he is going. When he steps off the bus at a desolate station, someone who seems to know Andreas meets him. The clean and efficient town he enters is nice enough, although overtaken by frivolous talk of home décor and color schemes — so much so that although Andreas doesn’t know where he came from or where to go; he wants out. Jens Lien and stars, and Trond Fausa Aurvag directs the Norwegian film.

Film critic and fiction writer Ben Stephens introduces the film.

Urbana Free Library is located 210 W. Green St. in downtown Urbana.

Cynthia Oliver and Her Body

2008-07-24T20:00:00Z

Cynthia Oliver's proverbial plate is piled high. In no particular order, she's a mother, professor, poet (with her body and on paper), dancer, an artist, choreographer...the list seems endless and demanding — yet she always appears calm and collected. On her website, a quote she wrote reads, "In my work I want to get dirty, acknowledge demons, hail the angels, tell secrets and celebrate conflicted, complicated, glorious lives fully lived." And oh — does she ever.

On that note, Smile Politely brings you Cynthia Oliver.

Consumed by: My passion for art, making it, performing in it, seeing it and talking about it.
]]> Age: 47 (as of July 19!)

Hometown: Christiansted, US Virgin Islands.

Occupation: Choreographer, writer and scholar.

When was your first dance class?: At the age of 5.

Where can you find a quiet space in Champaign-Urbana?: In my house. At Carle Park in Urbana. Walking the streets of my neighborhood.

How do you stay creative?: It is built into my life. I have created commitments for myself that require my creativity. I am married to a creative person. I have friends who are very creative and my conversations with them keep me on my toes. I read a lot, listen to music, go to cultural events, try to expose myself to new things.

How do you try to motivate your students?: I try to understand the world they live in and connect what I am teaching to that world. To what is important to them and discover for myself and for them how it is all connected.

Best place to take the little one on a rainy day?: The Urbana Free Library. He and his dad have this as their own special ritual. When I am on watch it is often running around a dance studio with exercise balls.

What do you think of the public school system?: I think it is a system that is fundamentally good, with both committed and engaged professionals as well as dead wood, like any institution. It needs constant attention. And I believe we should all be invested in it. It is a key component of our social contract.

What is unique to the dance program at the UIUC? The number of working professionals on faculty and in connection with faculty.

Champaign-Urbana needs to reinvent their...: You mean "our," no? I would say that our town is in constant reinvention as folks come to town leave their mark and pass through to other locales.

Champaign-Urbana needs to remain the same with...: Champaign-Urbana is great. I am happy to be here. There is always stuff to work on in a community. It is not unlike any other in that regard. But this is a place of lots of potential and good people.

Cynthia Oliver will be performing with the Bebe Miller Company and the Company will be coming to Krannert Center in November with their performance of "Necessary Beauty." Oliver will be on tour this fall and next year.

Photo by Julieta Cervantes and courtesy of the Bebe Miller Company.

The Dark Knight Triumphs

2008-07-23T22:00:00Z

The Dark Knight descended on the box office this past weekend breaking records by amassing more than $155 million and doing more than its fair share to reinvigorate a decidedly mediocre offering of summer movies. Director Christopher Nolan created a more than worthy sequel to Batman Begins, continuing the saga of Batman, the reluctant tragic hero. Evil never looked so glamorous in large part due to a hauntingly beautiful Chicago, luminescent and eerie, ably appropriating the crime besieged Gotham City.
]]> Christian Bale’s Batman is a far departure from the campy 60s television series and even other more indecisive portrayals of Batman throughout previous attempts on film. Here Batman is a tormented soul, torn between his two identities as crime fighter and millionaire playboy Bruce Wayne, not quite willing to relinquish the privileges and the pathos connected to either personality. The ensemble cast surrounding him is the ultimate dream team: Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Gary Oldman all return to reprise their roles. Newcomers include Aaron Eckhart, as the golden-boy District Attorney Harvey Dent/horrifyingly disfigured vigilante criminal Two-Face, and Maggie Gyllenhaal ups the ante by filling in for Katie Holmes as assistant D.A. Rachel Dawes.

Heath Ledger breaks from the pack and is in a category all his own as the ultimate criminal, The Joker. Nothing is scarier than a clown and while that is a personal belief/tangent of my own not worth exploring for the purpose of this review, it is amazing how Ledger disappears beneath the smears of face makeup to emerge as a true thing of evil. He makes the Joker all his own and goes so far beyond the snappy one-liners and fiendishly evil laughs associated with the character. Ledger himself described the Joker as a “psychopathic, mass-murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy.”

In this performance, Ledger embodied those characteristics as he plays a criminal with a moral compass wildly spinning out of control. Hopelessly unbalanced, The Joker is seeking neither money nor power — but instead the satisfaction of placing characters in psychological and moral dilemmas that test their courage, heart and very survival. Heath Ledger’s tragic, untimely death in 2008 only enhances the eerie quality of his portrayal.

The movie clocked in at two hours and 30 minutes — and it is amazing how the time, literally, flew by in the fast pace of the movie. Many of the more violent elements of the movie involving the Joker are blink-and-you miss it moments including the opening bank heist sequence, an interrupted funeral service, and a “pencil trick” that doesn’t have an encore. But at the same time, this is not family fun or for the faint of heart. Although the movie’s merits do not solely rest on the elaborate action sequences, they are interwoven nicely throughout, pumping adrenaline into the very heart of the film. Most breathtaking of all involves a chase sequence between Batman on his motorcycle, “The Batpod", and the Joker in an 18 wheeler circus truck speeding dizzyingly on Lower Wacker Dr. in Chicago.

The clichés of a “superhero” movie, however enjoyable they may be to watch, are not present; somehow this film aspires and becomes something far greater. It centers on humanity’s constant battle between good and evil, and the necessary struggles and sacrifices that must be made in the pursuit of that noble quest. While ultimate redemption should be the fitting reward, the movie doesn’t cheat itself and offer easy answers, poising itself instead for another installment — and yet another exploration.

The choice we are faced with is to “die as the hero or live long enough to be the villain.” Although this quote is the movie’s central theme and can apply to the moral dilemmas of more than one character, it is the fitting paradox to encapsulate Heath Ledger. His death at 28 years old cut his life, full of promise and unfulfilled potential, tragically short and yet his legacy will always be his last performance as a villain that escapes caricature and becomes a force of true evil. His performance alone makes the film a worthwhile outing. The Dark Knight emerges on the horizon like the sun and in a summer of discontent and disappointment at the box office, it is a welcome relief.

The Dark Knight is playing in every theatre in Champaign-Urbana
Runtime: ‎2h 30min‎ — ‎Rated PG-13‎ — ‎Action/Adventure‎

Illinois Moments on the Silver Screen

2008-07-22T18:00:00Z

Watching Wanted a few weeks ago, I was amused and surprised to see a bar I have passed every day on the train during my summer in Chicago featured prominently. I chuckled aloud in the theater, only to see heads turn my way, the faces expressing their disdain for someone so easily excited by familiar sights on the big screen. I realized that people from Chicago must see stuff they recognize all the time in films and that it was totally not cool of me to think anything of it.

I can't help it, though: I'm from Champaign-Urbana, which somehow ranks below Peoria and Decatur on the "Illinois towns people recognize" rankings. On the rare occasion we get mentioned in a film, we throw parties, like the birthday party for the HAL 9000 that kicked off Ebertfest ten years ago. So here I present a list, albeit a short one, of films that make me go, "Hey! I'm from there!"
]]>
The Beginning of the End
This film, whose title gives no indication that it's about Peter Graves rescuing Illinois from giant grasshoppers, was featured on an episode of "Mystery Science Theater 3000" about ten years ago. What it lacks in quality it makes up for in references to our beloved towns.

When you think about it, allusions to Champaign-Urbana were inevitable in a film like this. There are only so many urban areas for grasshoppers to destroy in Illinois, so C-U follows on a logical sequence of increasingly large destruction areas. After all, you couldn't exactly start the film by having Peter Graves proclaim, "The grasshoppers have destroyed Chicago! I hope they don't make it to Ludlow!"

The coolest bit of this film for me, as a Champaign native, is the opening shot, which is of a sign that says "Ludlow 1 Rantoul 5 Champaign 25." Whoever shot the film apparently didn't do enough research to realize that the terrain of central Illinois in no way resembles that of southern California, but at least they got our towns right.

Some Like It Hot
In Billy Wilder's classic comedy, Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis play freelance musicians in 1920s Chicago who barely escape a police raid of the speakeasy in which they work. Freezing cold and penniless, they have only one place to turn: Urbana. There's a gig at the University of Illinois that will give them a small amount of cash, but Jack Lemmon's character doesn't like the idea of coming to our two cities. His reluctance might have something to do with the absence of a highway system, the terrible weather, and the strange lack of heating in most autos manufactured in the 1920s, but it still hurts to hear the future Oscar winner yell incredulously, "Urbana?"

No matter, however, as the pair soon witness the St. Valentine's Day Massacre in a garage, preventing their trek to Urbana and setting the mob after them. The only sensible alternative to driving to Urbana with the mob on your tail? Why, gender swapping, of course. The two dress as women and join a touring "girl band" in Florida, forgetting all about the C-U.

2001: A Space Odyssey
Well, if Champaign-Urbana isn't being trampled by giant insects or disparaged by poor Chicagoans, it is the birthplace of murderous artificial life forms like HAL 9000, the onboard computer that tries to do away with the crew of the first manned flight to Jupiter. While it's certainly not pleasant to consider the prospect of our friends at the supercomputing center on campus inventing an evil robot, this depiction of Urbana might be the most accurate on the list.

C-U, after all, has been known neither for its speakeasies nor for the fact that its population was decimated by oversized grasshoppers, but it is notable for its work in computing. We're now more than 16 years past HAL's supposed birth day, which was Jan. 12, 1992, and there is no such thing as a "HAL computing lab" in Urbana, but it's possible that someday Urbana will be known for creating the world's first evil robot. It's at least more likely than anybody buying Tony Curtis as a woman.

I am well aware that our part of Central Illinois has an independent film "industry" that regularly sets films in C-U, but I think you'll agree that the words "Champaign" and "Urbana" are much more exciting when they're coming out of the mouth of a psychopathic robot, an Oscar winner or the future host of "A&E Biography." Our towns don't usually get featured roles, but it is nice to know that at least a few screenwriters in Hollywood have heard of us. Just don't get me started on Risky Business.

Baby Mama Unspools on The Quad

2008-07-17T18:00:15Z

The history of female comedic duos is a mighty short list: Ethel and Lucy, Laverne and Shirley, and now, one for the 21st century, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. Reared in the school of belly laughs — Chicago’s famed Second City — the Saturday Night Live players (Fey as alum), put forth their first offering on the big screen as a team.

The film, Baby Mama, unspools under the stars tonight on the Quad as part of the Summer Quad Cinema Series hosted by the Illini Union Board.
]]> Playing the part of a modern day Odd Couple, Kate (Fey), a successful and infertile career woman looks to Angie (Poehler), a working class girl from Philadelphia to carry her baby. Kate prepares for the arrival of her bundle of joy, only to find Angie, homeless and knocking on her door for a place to crash. Kate and Angie find themselves in a clash of lifestyles in preparation for the baby’s birth.

Baby Mama starts at 9 p.m. (or dusk). IUB hosts the third film of the series, Iron Man, on Aug. 7 at 9 p.m. If it rains, the film will be moved into the Illini Union Ballroom. The film is free.