Factotum
"Factotum", written and directed by Bent Hamer, and Matt Dillon's tour-de-force performance as Henry Chinaski, scores a B...
As anyone who has pursued a career in any of the arts knows, it can and will be tough. The old saying that if it was easy, everyone would be doing it, certainly holds true. I was reminded of my aspirations and pursuit of a career in film production. If it wasn't for the fact that I was young and full of ambition and not knowing what I know now, I might have been detoured from the pursuit of a dream that seemed totally stacked against succeeding.
Charles Bukowski published in 1976 bases "Factotum" on the 2nd novel, and it is widely said that the character of Henry Chinaski is his alter ego. If that's the case, how much is conjecture and how much is real...
It's said that Charles Bukowski was all of the things that Henry Chinaski is in "Factotum", which means "somebody employed to do a variety of jobs for somebody else". Henry (Matt Dillon) is a heavy drinker, has casual sex whenever he can, a gambler, and takes on low-level jobs when he needs money to buy his next alcoholic binge. The one thing that Henry is, is truly committed to writing. Above all else Henry believes in himself as a writer and nothing else takes precedence. He uses his good looks and charm to get what he needs and what he wants.
Henry meets Jan (Lili Taylor in a stellar performance) who is almost a mirror image of Henry in that she has a fondness for alcohol, loves sex, and has the same attitude for working as Henry. Henry and Jan hit it off, and Henry moves in with Jan. And it works, for a while. His being a struggling writer enamors her. There are many days and nights of drunken sex and lofty ambitions. As time goes on, what starts out as camaraderie turns into antagonistic confrontations. All the while Henry is writing and mailing his writings to publishers. Henry finally calls it quits with Jan and moves out of her apartment. As is Henry's way, he finds another low-level job to make enough money to get a cheap place. As usual, Henry goes to his local bar and picks out his next sexual encounter.
This time, Henry picks up Laura (Marisa Tomei) who's different from Jan. Laura is more upscale and introduces Henry to a more glamorous world. And of course, Henry is Henry and the relationship with Laura just doesn't work. A chance meeting with Jan happens and they try it again, to no avail. The fire doesn't ignite as brightly as the first time, and they both know it. And Henry, being Henry, goes looking for that next job that takes no commitment that will let him continue to write, to continue to be Henry.
"Factotum" is an engaging film with a top-notch performance by Matt Dillon that takes one into the world of a struggling writer who, above all else, believes in himself as a writer. Does Henry succeed? Well, if Henry is Charles Bukowski's alter ego, we know the answer to that question...
Grade: B
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"Invincible", takes us back to that magical moment in history, in 1976, when the recession was on, the nation needed a hero, and one man rises to the challenge and scores a B...
"Little Miss Sunshine", rich with characters working hard to get through their issues as a family and individuals, scores a B...
"World Trade Center", the latest from director Oliver Stone, is devoid of politics and partisan innuendo and scores an A...
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Each time I try and write about Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring the cheesy Circle of Life song from The Lion King starts playing in my head. Not because this movie is cheesy, but because it does tell a circular parable for a young Buddhist boy (and it doesn't help that The Lion King was once a very popular movie in my house). Set primarily in an isolated monastery built in the middle of a lake, Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring the story of a young boy's journey to manhood told in five distinct acts. In each of the five parts a lesson is learned and the boy learns something of life, guided by his teacher and his own interactions with the world. Each act contains an element of surprise; the conflict of the sequence, that must be overcome in order for the boy to move to the next stage in his life. While the movie is best described as a drama, it defies any genre at times, delivering moments of humor, dark comedy and tragedy before arriving at it's conclusion. Director Ki-Duk Kim, who also plays one of the more moving characters in the story, uses the changing of the seasons metaphorically to move through life's emergence, growth, decay, death and rebirth, carefully coloring each scene to match the tone. The film is Korean with English or French subtitles, but I found the subtitles almost more distracting than watching the story unfold, relying more on the visualization than dialogue to convey meaning.
During one sequence of Steven Spielberg's Munich, an Israeli assassination squad storms a building where three Palestinian terrorists live. The first is killed with no problem. The second man's wife must be pulled out of the way before being shot. By the time they get to the third, they must riddle both the terrorist and his wife with machine gun fire.
Only Vladamir Nabokov could spin a tale that would make the world of competitive chess actually seem exciting. It's not that I don't have great respect for anyone truly gifted at playing chess, it's just that watching it is right up there with watching golf on my list of boring ways to spend an afternoon. John Turturro, as Russian chess master Alexander Luzhin, is brilliant, capturing the all-consuming passion of Luzhin's obsession with chess. Emily Watson, as Luzhin love interest Natalia, plays well against Turturro, creating a chemistry that leaves you believing the two are actually involved. When Luzhin first sees Natalia on an Italian island, during a tournament to determine the world champion of chess, the two fall instantly in love, despite Natalia's mother's wishes for her to marry a man of society. Part story of love, part story of madness, Luzhin's life turns into something of a mental chess match when his old mentor returns to try and thwart his chance at victory. The DVD contains commentary by director Marleen Gorris and a pathetically short "making of" that should have been labeled an extended trailer. The movie is brilliant, not to mention being one of the better book adaptations I've seen, and warrants multiple viewings. If you like good cinema, you'll appreciate adding this title to your collection.
Based on one of my favorite novels, The Rules of Attraction stays reasonably close to the storyline from the book by Brett Easton Ellis, venturing away only when necessary to modernize the story for a target audience much younger than the 1980's setting of the book. Some liberties were taken with the soundtrack, leaving some sections of the movie in a sonic time warp. In fact, the soundtrack, combined with some clever cinematic effects, helps the movie along through a storyline that is otherwise fairly depressing and hopeless. Throughout the film, the story exposes the hollow emptiness of a group of affluent college students, all lacking in direction and desperate for meaningful interpersonal relationships. As they flounder through disengaged attempts to connect on a superficial level, we come to discover how confused the kids really are. While many of the pop-culture references specific to the eighties that made the book so engaging are missing, I found myself entertained throughout the movie in spite of myself. The movie is definitely aimed at teens, with a cast of teen-idol regulars, although I'm not sure I'd recommend The Rules of Attraction to anyone still living under their parent's roof. The book demonstrates the brilliant prose Ellis expanded on through several more novels, culminating in American Psycho, before taking a bizarre detour with The Informers. Special features are lacking from the DVD - this movie is probably a renter, unless you are a Brett Easton Ellis fan.
Without my morning coffee my world always seems a little off. Coffee and Cigarettes examines the culture surrounding two of the world's unifying vices, through a series of short conversations across the tables of several diners. The segments were shot over several years, collecting odd conversations of an eclectic group of Hollywood names like Roberto Begigni, Steven Wright, Bill Murray, Steve Buscemi, Cate Blanchett, Alfred Molina, Steve Coogan, Jack and Meg White, Iggy Pop, Tom Waits, and a closing sequence to die for with Taylor Mead and Bill Rice. These sometimes clever, mostly awkward encounters tie the central theme of coffee and cigarettes into a brilliant series of encounters set in carefully patterned settings with repeated themes. Director Jim Jarmusch, who released the first installment back in 1986, doesn't necessarily get the perfect story with every scene, but the mood is absolute. Aside from limited screenings throughout the United States, DVD is the only way to see this movie. An extra featuring Taylor Mead is almost worth the price of the DVD by itself and the soundtrack deserves further examination.
A combination of the high ragweed pollen count in Iowa and a flashback interview with Roger Corman on NPR coupled with poetically perfect product positioning in Best Buy resulted in the Roger Corman/Maury Dexter double feature, The Wild Angels and Hell's Belles, making its way into my DVD collection over the weekend. Easy Rider fans should definitely consider The Wild Angels a must include piece of counterculture movie history, with Peter Fonda starring as the president of a Hells Angels chapter bent on a life of self-destructive hedonism. Inspired by stories from the Venice Beach Hells Angels who played some of the bikers, this movie predates the more famous Easy Rider with the gritty story playing out like a Greek tragedy for Fonda's character, as his world crumbles around him even as he tries to do the right thing. The soundtrack features some amazing 1960's fuzzed-out guitar tracks that set the tone for an edgy ride across Southern California. The Wild Angels even managed to be the only American showing at the 1966 Venice Film Festival. Hell's Belles, despite the movie poster tagline, "The Bikes were Fast! She was Faster!" is a classic western with motorcycles standing in for the horses. After a cowboy (played by Jeremy Slate) wins a new bike in a motocross it's subsequently stolen from him and the adventure begins. The acting was remarkably better than I expected and overall I found the story in Hell's Belles to be a much quicker pace than The Wild Angels, even if the story is more formulaic. Sadly, this DVD double feature doesn't warrant a director commentary or any of the other features we've come to expect from more recent releases.
Based on the Ken Kesey book of the same name, this movie is one of the finest examples of Hollywood transforming an outstanding novel into an outstanding movie. Jack Nicholson comes into his own with this picture, as Randle Patrick McMurphy, a con who gets himself checked in to a mental institution to avoid prison time. This is the movie that defined the Jack we came to expect as his career has evolved (in fact, the movie swept all major categories at the Oscars the year it was released). What makes the DVD a must-have, for any fan of great movies, is an outstanding restoration of the imaging, combined with a re-mastering of the audio. Bonus deleted scenes and some brilliant commentary tracks add a true special edition quality to the DVD's 2-disc compilation. Unfortunately, despite getting producer Michael Douglas, director Milos Forman, and author Ken Kesey to comment, along with several others, Jack Nicholson is conspicuously missing from the commentary (my guess is that he wasn't offered enough money).
Frank Whaley, as Guy, looks like he was born to be the naive "new guy" assistant to studio executive Buddy Ackerman (Kevin Spacey). Ackerman is every assistant's nightmare, with a constant onslaught of verbal battery, slowly grinding down Guy's will in front of the other workers in the movie studio office. Guy wants to make it in Hollywood, despite Buddy's abuse, and falls for producer Dawn Lockard (Michelle Forbes) in the process. Dawn "teaches" Guy the industry ropes, helping him survive, while furthering her own cause, but a phone call from a restaurant pay phone finds Guy at Buddy's house a little less than together. George Huang writes and directs this story loosely based on his own experiences in the movie business. Not much in the way of extras on the disk, but the film represents Spacey at his best and the story is a masterpiece of dialogue based indie cinema, and is a worthy addition to any film fanatic's collection.
While this is far from being the first time Alexandre Dumas' classic tale of revenge has been taken to the big screen, this is most definitely my favorite version. Jim Caviezel plays Edmond Dantes exceptionally well, with Guy Pearce playing a considerably more sinister version of Dantes nemesis, Fernand Mondego, than Dumas had originally written. Richard Harris, fresh from his stint as Headmaster of Hogwart's, is perfect as Dantes mentor, Abbe Faria. In fact, the whole cast pulled together one rock solid production, worthy of the novel's standing in history, despite some minor liberties with the story and the elimination of several sub-plots. Cinematography throughout the picture leaves the viewer with quite an impression; a very cool explanation of the final scene is well worth viewing in the collection of extras. A few of the deleted scenes included as extras could have been left in the movie to help tie elements of the story together, despite the director's suggestion that they would have disrupted the movie's pacing. A fine collection of Alexandre Dumas historical detail adds to the feature-rich collection of extras on the DVD. If you are a fan of good cinema, and swashbuckling films in particular, you'll most definitely want this DVD in your collection.
Fans of 60's movies will love this picture; it's filled with references and nods to 60's filmmaking, complete with much of the grandiose excess that now seems campy (and makes Mike Myers a small fortune). The story is set in Paris, circa 1969, centering around the editor, Paul (played by Jeremy Davies), of the sci-fi film Dragonfly (with plenty of Barbarella-esqe references), and set in the distant future of 2001. The young editor works on the set of the sci-fi flick by day, obsessively recording every event in his life away from the picture - exposing his own personal issues with intimacy in the process. Dragonfly goes through a series of directoral changes, as the producer quests for the blockbuster ending, resulting in Paul taking the directoral helm, blurring the lines between his life and the movie in the process. Ultimately, CQ and the two films being created inside its story become slightly confusing, but near the end, I believe Paul finds a revelation, despite what many other reviews have said to the contrary. The acting is brilliant throughout, with a cast including Gerard Depardieu and Jason Schwartzman, along with some other less well known talents. If you are seeking something out of the ordinary, this movie fits the bill very nicely.
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