Iron Man 2

Iron Man 2 picks up right after the first Iron Man, where Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) has admitted to his adoring public his true identity, while Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke), Russian physicist watches in plotting fashion. So kicks off Jon Favreau's second installment, which has a few of likable touches that made the first film so popular, but feels like a film of diminishing returns, and ultimately just a teaser for the tasks ahead at Marvel Studios. So yes, Samuel L. Jackson returns as Nick Fury and a flurry of other nuggets prelude an inevitable big-budget spectacle a few years from now. All of this is well and good, if the film felt like it stood alone in any real, substantial way. Instead the entire last section of the film feels a blueprint for a business model, not an enticing story. There doesn't seem a whole lot at stake in Iron Man 2, but a whole lot of exposition taking place. And I'm not quite sure whom to blame for this: I don't blame the actors, most of whom are competent, even quite good, nor do I really blame Favreau, whose easy-going film rhythm seems disjointed perhaps by a production more concerned about said big-budget spectacle a few years from now, instead of the big-budget spectacle here and now. All of which seems ridiculous for a film that requires a least two more films to be completed beforehand (Thor and Captain America), and not to sound skeptical, but what if those films suck? And what if the un-proven chemistry between monster Marvel superheroes lacks any firepower? Just throwing that out there: let's not count our eggs before the chickens hatched.

But at the same time I can't detest Iron Man 2, and that's because the spirit of performance is alive in well in Mr. Robert Downey, Jr., who can't be anything but watchable. His playboy narcissist billionaire has charm in spades, and the contortion of his line readings are irresistible; I still think the casting of him as a superhero in a big-budget film is one of the smartest risks that a major studio has taken in years. Unfortunately, this time around Mr. Stark is in a bit of plot hole with a bum ticker that prevents him from kicking ass throughout half the film-- nobody's particularly interesting in a sore superhero, am I right? And let's be perfectly honest-- Iron Man isn't exactly the most complicated or compeling crime-fighter, he's a jovial ass, and that's what we want from him.

There's isn't a whole lot on plot here, just the entrance of a slew of characters, and a stepping stone for the next Marvel film: Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), Stark's loyal girl friday becomes CEO of Stark Industries, while the entrance of mysterious Natalie Rushman aka Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) allures Tony. Meanwhile, the government wants the Iron Man suit, as does rival company CEO Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell), and Russian baddie Vanko wants to kill Stark for all the horrors his family did his father. Add a little tension between Col. Rhodes (now played by Don Cheadle, replacing Terrence Howard), and a slight mid-life crisis for Stark, spin and add a couple of noisy and disjointed action sequences, that's the movie in a nutshell. And while the story feels far too overbloated, yet under nourished, the acting is always interesting.

Rourke, playing Whiplash, is a menacing villian and does a wonderful job-- it's hard not feels the imposing prominence of Mr. Rourke. Even if it feels only like he's posing for long stretches, it's still a bit chilling. His stance is leaps and bounds more interesting than Jeff Bridges' villian in the first Iron Man, and Hammer, as played by Rockwell is compelling on another turn. Playing Stark's rival and contemporary, his smug aura and reek of desperation make him, if not a worthy adversary physically, than at the very least an enjoyable irritation. The problem is that neither Rourke or Rockwell seem to be the same movie-- they're tonally opposite of one another, and the writer Justin Theroux (Tropic Thunder) and Favreau never seemed to fully connect them together with they're manically divergent acting styles. The same goes for Johansson, whose Black Widow is amusing enough, but her covert superspy status feels a couple of decades too late. On a tangent, it would be really nice if Ms. Johansson went back into the serious acting that started her career-- it's been a tad too long since this gifted actress as had to do much aside from being a fanboy's sextoy.

And what's left of nice chemistry between Downey, Jr. and Paltrow played so effectively in the first film: it's somehow dimenished. It doesn't help that Paltrow is saddled with the thankless direction of icy businesswoman, while her knight and shining armor is battling his own heart. The breezy, effortless, rat-a-tat screwball comedy that both were delightful with is evaporated, which is unfortunate. But then again-- hopefully all of this will lead to the most awesome experience ever in 2011. C

Los Angeles Film Festival Line-up

Opening Night Film:

• The Kids Are All Right, Lisa Cholodenko (Focus Features)

Closing Night Film:

• Despicable Me, Chris Renaud, Pierre Coffin (Universal Pictures) – WORLD PREMIERE

Bonus By Invitation Screening:

• The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, David Slade (Summit Entertainment) – WORLD PREMIERE

Gala Screenings (5):

• Animal Kingdom, David Michod – Australia (Sony Pictures Classics)
• Cyrus, Jay & Mark Duplass (Fox Searchlight)
• Mahler on the Couch, Percy & Felix Adlon – WORLD PREMIERE
• Revolución, Mariana Chenillo, Fernando Eimbcke, Amat Escalante, Gael García Bernal, Rodrigo García, Diego Luna, Gerardo Naranjo, Rodrigo Piá, Carlos Reygadas & Patricia Riggen – Mexico – NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
• Waiting for Superman, Davis Guggenheim (Paramount Vantage)

Narrative Competition (9): The Narrative Competition is comprised of films made by talented emerging filmmakers that compete for the Filmmaker Award. The winner is determined by a panel of jurors, and films in this section are also eligible for the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature.

• · Dog Sweat, Hossein Keshavarz – Iran – WORLD PREMIERE
• · A Family, Pernille Fischer Christensen – Denmark – NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
• · Hello Lonesome, Adam Reid – WORLD PREMIERE
• · The New Year, Brett Haley
• · Of Love and Other Demons, Hilda Hidalgo – Costa Rica/Colombia – NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
• · Orly, Angela Schanelec – Germany/France – NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
• · Parade, Isao Yukisada – Japan – NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
• · Upstate, Katherine Nolfi, Andrew Luis – WORLD PREMIERE
• · The Wolf Knife, Laurel Nakadate – WORLD PREMIERE

Documentary Competition (9): The Documentary Competition is comprised of films made by talented emerging filmmakers that compete for the Documentary Award. The winner is determined by a panel of jurors, and films in this section are also eligible for the Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature.

• · Camera, Camera, Malcolm Murray – WORLD PREMIERE
• · Circo, Aaron Schock – USA/Mexico – WORLD PREMIERE
• · One Lucky Elephant, Lisa Leeman – WORLD PREMIERE
• · Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone, Lev Anderson, Chris Metzler – WORLD PREMIERE
• · Farewell, Ditteke Mensink – Netherlands – US PREMIERE
• · Life with Murder, John Kastner – Canada – US PREMIERE
• · Make Believe, J. Clay Tweel – WORLD PREMIERE
• · Vlast, Cathryn Collins
• · Where Are You Taking Me?, Kimi Takesue – NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE

International Showcase (20): The International Showcase highlights innovative independent narrative and documentary features from outside of the United States. Films in this section are eligible for Audience Awards for Best International Feature, Best Narrative Feature, or Best Documentary Feature.

• · 1428, Du Hai-bin – China
• · Army of Crime, Robert Guédiguian – France (Kino)
• · Bibliotheque Pascal, Szabolcs Hajdu – Germany/Hungary/England – NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
• · Café Noir, Jung Sung-il – South Korea – NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
• · Disco & Atomic War, Jaak Kilmi, Kiur Aarma – Estonia/Finland
• · Down Terrace, Ben Wheatley – England (Magnolia Pictures)
• · Eastern Plays, Kamen Kalev – Bulgaria
• · Eyes Wide Open, Haim Tabakman – Israel/Germany/France (New American Vision)
• · Family Tree, Olivier Ducastel, Jacques Martineau – France
• · Golden Slumber, Yoshihiro Nakamura – Japan – NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
• · Judge, Liu Jie – China
• · La Pivellina, Rainer Frimmel, Tizza Covi – Austria/Italy
• · Lebanon, Samuel Maoz – Israel (Sony Pictures Classics)
• · The Peddler, Eduardo de la Serna, Lucas Marcheggiano, Adriana Yurcovich – Argentina
• · R, Tobias Lindholm, Michael Noer – Denmark
• · The Red Chapel, Mads Brugger – Denmark
• · Secrets of the Tribe, José Padilha – England/Brazil
• · Space Tourists, Christian Frei – Switzerland
• · Street Days, Levan Koguashvili – Georgia
• · Woman on Fire Looks For Water, Woo Ming Jin – Malaysia/South Korea

Summer Screenings (12): The Summer Screenings section offers an advance look at this summer’s most talked about independent film releases from the festival circuit. Films in this section are eligible for Audience Awards for Best International Feature, Best Narrative Feature, or Best Documentary Feature.

• · Ain’t In It for My Health: A Film About Levon Helm, Jacob Hatley
• · Cane Toads: The Conquest, Mark Lewis – Australia/US
• · Cold Weather, Aaron Katz
• · Four Lions, Christopher Morris – England
• · Kings of Pastry, D.A. Pennebaker, Chris Hegedus (First Run Features)
• · Marwencol, Jeff Malmberg
• · Monsters, Gareth Edwards (Magnolia Pictures)
• · Night Catches Us, Tanya Hamilton (Magnolia Pictures)
• · The Tillman Story, Amir Bar-Lev (The Weinstein Company)
• · Tiny Furniture, Lena Dunham (IFC Films)
• · Welcome to the Rileys, Jake Scott (Apparition, Destination Films)
• · White Material, Claire Denis – France (IFC Films)

Outdoor Screenings at the Ford Amphitheatre (4): These official Los Angeles Film Festival selections, sponsored by Brand X and American Airlines, are included as part of the 2010 Ford Amphitheatre Summer Season; a multi-disciplinary arts series produced by the Los Angeles County Arts Commission in cooperation with Los Angeles County-based arts organizations. Films in this section are eligible for Audience Awards for Best International Feature, Best Narrative Feature, or Best Documentary Feature.

• · Centurion, Neil Marshall – England (Magnolia Pictures)
• · The Last Exorcism, Daniel Stamm (Lionsgate) – WORLD PREMIERE
• · The People vs. George Lucas, Alexandre O. Philippe
• · Thunder Soul, Mark Landsman

International Spotlight (4): A tribute to a forgotten giant of South American cinema, Argentina’s Leopoldo Torre Nilsson, sponsored by Academy Foundation of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

• The Fall (1959)
• The Hand in the Trap (1961)
• The House of the Angel (1957)
• The Seven Madmen (1973)

Selections from the Ambulante Film Festival (3): Sponsored by Hoy, and returning for a second year, Ambulante is a traveling documentary film festival produced by the non-profit organization Documental Ambulante A.C., in collaboration with Canana, Cinepolis, and the Morelia International Film Festival. It was created in 2005 by Gael García Bernal, Diego Luna, and Pablo Cruz to promote documentary culture across Mexico. Films in this section are eligible for Audience Awards for Best International Feature or Best Documentary Feature.

• One Day Less, Dariela Ludlow – Mexico – US PREMIERE
• Presumed Guilty, Roberto Hernández, Geoffrey Smith – Mexico
• The Toledo Report, Albino Álvarez Gomez – Mexico

Community Screenings (4): These films will be presented free to the public. Films in this section are eligible for Audience Awards for Best Narrative Feature or Best Documentary Feature.

• · Climate Refugees, Michael P. Nash – Grand Performances Screening
• · Gasland, Josh Fox
• · Lost Angels, Thomas Napper – WORLD PREMEIRE
• · A Small Act, Jennifer Arnold – Project:Involve Screening

The Beyond (4): The Beyond offers films that dare to be different. Films in this section are eligible for Audience Awards for Best International Feature, Best Narrative Feature, or Best Documentary Feature.

• All About Evil, Joshua Grannell
• Bitter Feast, Joe Maggio – WORLD PREMIERE
• Mandrill, Ernesto Diaz Espinoza – Chile
• Separado!, Gruff Rhys, Dylan Goch – Wales – US PREMIERE

Special Screenings (3):

• The Life of Richard Wagner (1913), Carl Froelich
• The Wheeler Boys, Philip G. Flores – WORLD PREMIERE – Netflix FIND Your Voice Winner
• Utopia in Four Movements, David Cerf, Sam Green

UCLA Film & T.V. Archive Collaborations

L.A. Film Critics: The Films That Got Away (2): Co-presented by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the UCLA Film & Television Archive.

• The Happiest Girl in the World (2009), Radu Jude – Romania
• Katalin Varga (2009), Peter Strickland – Romania/England

Downtown Confidential (2): Co-presented by the UCLA Film & Television Archive

• Hickey and Boggs (1972), Robert Culp
• The Driver (1978), Walter Hill

The Film Foundation Screening Program (2):

• The Leopard (1963), Luchino Visconti – Presented by The Film Foundation and Gucci as part of “Cinema Visionaries.”
• The Music Room (1958), Satyajit Ray – Presented by The Film Foundation and American Express as part of “20 Years/20 Films.”

Please Give

Nicole Holofcener has made a name for herself as the writer\director of small, piercing independent films centered around very neurotic women. In films like Walking & Talking, Lovely & Amazing and Friends with Money, she has shown a perspective and thoughtful voice that unique and relatable. Call her an estrogenized Woody Allen (valid-- she was an apprentice film editor on Allen's Hannah & Her Sisters), but there's always a trademark to her films-- astute writing, sharp acting, and a penchant for never embracing sentiment, even when the films plots seem to go there. She's always been a better writer than director, but the plain understated look to her films suit her subjects-- these are tiny chamber pieces, not big arias. She returns again with Please Give, one of her sharpest, and perhaps her strongest thesis to date. Returning with her muse, the glorious Catherine Keener, the star of all of her films, Holofcener again showcases her immense gifts for writing fully drawn, interesting, bracing characters, and yet there's a melancholy her that's been missing from her previous films-- it's a far more somber film, but harder a downer, since it's enshrined with her quick wit that earns deserved guffaws, if not laugh-out-loud hysterics. That would be unwelcomed in Please Give, as it centers around a group of characters all trying to restore civility in some way, if not in others, than in themselves.

Keener stars as Kate, a middle aged New Yorker (in a land where Manhattan seems fittingly real, not the romanticized Woody Allen one) who runs a furniture store with her husband Alex (Oliver Platt.) The store sells vintage, old-fashioned stuff that Kate and Alex buy off the descendants of the recently passed. Kate and Alex and also looking to expand their apartment, but are just waiting for the mean elderly next door neighbor to die first. Her name is Andra (delightfully played with real sting by Ann Guilbert, best known as Millie in The Dick Van Dyke Show, and Fran Drescher's grandma in The Nanny.) All this pillaging through the possessions of dead people for financial gain is providing quite the guilt trip for Kate. She's an upscale gal, but trying hard to be a good person, evident in her depositing of mad cash to every homeless person on the street (even one's who only look homeless), most the to chagrin of her 15-year old daughter Abby (Sarah Steele), who just wants a pair of jeans. Adding to Kate's anguish are the grand-daughters, and frequent visitors of Andra-- played by Amanda Peet and Rebecca Hall. Peet plays Mary, an icy tanning bed frequenter\alcoholic; she's inevitably inherited her grandmother's disdain for everything and shows it off. Hall plays Rebecca, provider and enabler of her grandmother's dying diatribes.

That's the general plot of Please Give, but like in all of Holofcener's work the plot isn't really the point, it's the lived-in feeling that all the actors in the film express so deeply. It's not grand histrionic filmmaking, but quiet and just right. And the subject of liberal guilt is one not really found in films ever, at least not directly. The point of the film is that all these complicated and naturally evolved characters are basically trying to be good people, and we watch them succeed and fail, and that's the point of most people's lives I would assume-- trying hard to be a good person, whatever that means. Of course, it's fun to watch them fail, and Holofcener has always specialized in making awkward, yet real moments work and sting. In Keener's Kate, for example, sometimes her greed takes over her usual business-like politeness. like when picking up furniture for a deceased person, she turns to the daughter of which as asks how much the apartment is. And yet her empathy is true as well, such as when again, trying to be a good person, she breaks down while volunteering for special needs children.

Holofcener nails it when it comes to middle aged anguish, and makes for a biting soft satire of mortality and profit far more successfully than the social class system she was satirizing in Friends with Money. And the performances are truely what always pop in her work. She's always been adept at getting terrific performances out of her cast-- most notably, aside from Keener was Emily Mortimer in Lovely & Amazing-- her nude analysis scene is classic, a tangent but a must-see. Keener, as reliable and capable as ever, gets center stage again, after being hoisted off to the sidelines for Jennifer Aniston's fame in Friends with Money, and Peet is wonderful, always enjoyable as an icy beauty-- it's easily her best performance since the underrated Igby Goes Down. Hall, the Vicky in Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona is understated and lovely. Holofcener doesn't have must interest in her male characters, all six of them that have speaking roles, but it's hardly slumming for Oliver Platt. Please Give, despite an awkward title is probably my favorite film so far in 2010. A-

"South Park" and the Censors: A Love Story

I just found this interesting, courtesy of Awards Daily:

The New York Times sums up the situation:

An episode of “South Park” that continued a story line involving the Prophet Muhammad was shown Wednesday night on Comedy Central with audio bleeps and image blocks reading “CENSORED” after a Muslim group warned the show’s creators that they could face violence for depicting that holy Islamic prophet. Revolution Muslim, a group based in New York, wrote on its Web site that the “South Park” creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker “will probably wind up like Theo Van Gogh” for an episode shown last week in which a character said to be the Prophet Muhammad was seen wearing a bear costume. Mr. Van Gogh was slain in Amsterdam in 2004 after making a film that discussed the abuse of Muslim women in some Islamic societies.

Stone and Parker had added more bleeps to the followup episode, but it seems Comedy Central went further and completely blocked the name of the character and his depiction onscreen. So there you have it. Clear advice for anybody who’s pissed about anything they see on TV. All it takes to get a network to cave to your extremist demands is to threaten violence. Great precedent to set, isn’t it?

I've never been an outright fan of South Park, aside from the hilarious movie. The show never really did anything for me-- I'd laugh for a second or two and the whole thing would be disposable and forgotten moments later, but I applaud the crew for making a show that still has the power to offend and mortify anybody and everybody. Which is the main conceit, right? It's about fourth graderers, who are by nature sneaky, immature, foul-mouthed brats-- how can that be offensive?

8: The Mormon Proposition

Perhaps this film is about two years too late! It opens in June.