DVD Review: Ten Thousand Maniacs (B-)

Two Thousand Maniacs! (1964)
Directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis
Starring William Kerwin, Connie Mason, Jeffrey Allen, Ben Moore, Gary Bakeman, Shelby Livingston
MPAA: UR
Grade: B-

Review by Bobby Nashville

An entire town bathed in pulsating blood! Well, not exactly. The godfather of gore did his best to make Two Thousand Maniacs! scary, but like it's predecessor Blood Feast, the shock factor comes off more as camp than as true terror. However if you are interested in the classic horror films of Herschell Gordon Lewis, Two Thousand Maniacs! is a decent B-movie classic that deserves your attention.

Outside of Atlanta is tiny town called Pleasant Valley and six visitors to the town (all Yankees) are forced to be the guests of honor for the town's Centennial Celebration. Little do they know that they are also on the menu. The two thousand maniacs of Two Thousand Maniacs! are the town's occupants, all set on the idea of torturing these poor souls from the north. Reportedly the plot from the movie came from the musical Brigadoon.

I have to admit that this film has some very strange aspects, especially the bizarre hillbilly manner of speech that the Southerners try to affect. Like all Herschell Gordon Lewis films, the acting is atrocious. The star of the film, Connie Mason, was Playboy Playmate of the Month for June 1963, for whatever that's worth. There is some insane banjo music throughout that sticks in your head like Devo muzak. Despite these positive elements, Two Thousand Maniacs! does not, in my book compare to the strange but mesmerizing Blood Feast.

Two Thousand Maniacs! is still a darn good horror B movie and it is worthy of your perusal.

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DVD Review: Secretary (B)

Secretary (2002)
Directed by Steven Shainberg
Starring Maggie Gyllenhaal, James Spader and Jeremy Davies
MPAA: R
Grade: B

Review by Scott Standish

Secretary has received a ton of attention for its unapologetic pro-SM stance, but at it's heart, its really just a love story. Winner of the Special Jury Prize at Sundance, this is a pretty quirky black comedy. Secretary is probably not for those with a prudish sensibility (I wouldn't watch it with my parents) but at the same time, I have seen movies that are way more over the top (Piano Teacher comes to mind). The comedy surrounding the establishment of the characters dominant-submissive relationship gives this film it's comedic juice. Maggie Gyllenhaal (Donnie Darko, Cecil B. Demented) plays Lee Holloway, a girl recently released from a mental institution. She's been hospitalized for her obsession for self-mutilation but other than that, she seems fairly normal.

Upon her release, she takes a job as a secretary for Mr. Grey (James Spader), a demanding attorney with some obsessive issues of his own (what's up with the red markers?). Their work environment becomes a shell for their SM experiments and it all seems like harmless fun until the relationship spills outside of the workplace.

Can a SM relationship based in an office environment be the basis for true love? Lee seems convinced that it can. Spader's character is scared that it can't. He tells her: "Look, we can't do this 24 hours a day, seven days a week". Lee looks at him, smiles for a moment and then purrs "Why not?".

They work alone in their office. It's not really bothering anybody, so why not indeed? But does sexual obsession translate perfectly into love? This area of the film is not explored as fully as I would have liked, but I guess that's another movie (a sequel would actually be interesting here).

James Spader (Crash, Less Than Zero, Sex Lies and Videotape, just to name a few) is truly one of the underrated actors in Hollywood today. His characters always seem to have a detached confidence about them with a simmering evil side hidden just under the surface.

Gyllenhaal is obviously an emerging star and she's one to keep a close eye on. She has garnered numerous critical awards for her performance in Secretary. The role of Lee Holloway was definitely a tough one, and she pulled it off with style. You will be seeing a lot more of her in the coming year, she has three new films in the works.

A decent black comedy that doubles as a love story, Secretary is good clean fun. Or should I say good dirty fun? I guess it depends on your point of view.

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DVD Review: Punch Drunk Love (C)

Punch-Drunk Love (2002)
Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
Starring Adam Sandler, Emily Watson, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Luis Guzman
MPAA: R
Grade: C

Review by Scott Standish

I had a feeling that I was going to be let down by this one but frankly I expected the problem to be Adam Sandler. But surprise, surprise: Sandler is pretty darn good in this. Strangely enough it is P.T. Anderson's rather heavy handed direction that sabotages Punch-Drunk Love. Written and directed by Anderson, the man behind the fantastic Hard Eight, the mesmerizing Boogie Nights and the over the top Magnolia, this latest comedy-drama, like the main character, just doesn't seem to fit.

Sandler gives a very good performance in Punch-Drunk Love as Barry Egan, a successful businessman with some social interaction problems: mainly shyness and anger management (never a good combo). Barry calls a phone sex line and gives the person on the other end way too much personal information which leads to them blackmailing him. Meanwhile, Barry is trying to woo the lovely and surprisingly interested Lena Leonard. We don't learn much about Lena (one of the main faults of the movie) other than she's pretty, smart, and for some reason, attracted to dorky weird guys with anger management issues (?).

Punch-Drunk Love is one of those films that leaves you with more questions than answers. Why not include more background info on Lena? Why does she fall for this violent, mumbling fellow who wears the same suit every day? What does the phone sex blackmail have to do with the main love story here?

The audio in Punch-Drunk Love is surprisingly bad. The film has bongo music blasting in the background of several key scenes and its so loud that you can barely hear the dialogue. To make matters worse, Barry Egan character is a low talking mumbler and Emily Watson has a peculiar accent that does not rise above the background sound mix.

I think P.T. Anderson is a fantastic director, but obviously this one just didn't work for me.

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DVD Review: Noi (B)

Nói albinói (2003)
Directed by Dagur Kári
MPAA: PG-13
Grade: B

Review by Scott Standish

This first feature from Icelandic director Dagur Kari is bold and satisfying. Winner of 10 festival film awards, this is an excellent movie.

17 year old Noi is intensely smart yet bored with his school, his surroundings and his lonely life. The fjords are cut off from the outside world in the winter, so he feels isolated in this slow moving world with no personality. He dreams of escaping with his girlfriend Iris. But can he make the move, and will Iris go with him?

Noi is a very unusual film with a very nice visual style. The eclectic style of actor Tómas Lemarquis lends itself to the mise en scen well. This is a very good film and highly recommended.

DVD Review: Shadows and Fog (C+)

Shadows and Fog (1992)
Directed by Woody Allen
Starring Woody Allen, Mia Farrow, John Cusack, John Malkovitch, Madonna, Jodie Foster, Lily Tomlin and Donald Pleasance
MPAA: PG-13
Grade: C+

Review by Scott Standish

Woody Allen churns out a lot of movies (about one a year) and one of the pitfalls of being so prolific is that its hard to continually produce groundbreaking work. The man behind such American classics as Manhattan and Annie Hall stumbled a bit with the Bergman-esque Shadows and Fog back in 1992, but it's still worth checking out on a cold rainy evening.

Woody plays Max Kleinman, a neurotic (surprise!) book keeper that is roused from bed late one night by a group of men in search of a killer on the loose. They want Max to help them find the strangler but refuse to give him the instructions he needs to really do anything. Kleinman stumbles through the shadows and fog (of course), meeting up with strange characters thoughout the evening.

Mia Farrow co-stars as Irmy, a sword swallower that has left the circus to get away from her philandering clown boyfriend (John Malkovitch). Madonna has a short (thank god) yet sweet appearance as a Marlene Dietrich wanna-be, and John Cusack puts in a nice performance as a rich student that falls for Irmy. Donald Pleasance, David Ogden-Steirs, Jodie Foster and Lily Tomlin round out the usual star-studded Woody Allen cast.

Shadows and Fog is an entertaining black and white drama with some interesting ideas but it certainly ranks somewhere in the middle of Mr. Allen's best. For the Woodman's fans only.

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DVD Review: Mothman Prophecies (C-)

Mothman Prophecies (2002)
Directed by Mark Pellington
Starring Richard Gere and Laura Linney
MPAA: PG-13
Review By Scott Standish
Grade: C-

Based on true events that happened in Virginia, this film created an initial buzz at the box office but didn't create the long standing word of mouth to make it an actual hit. I remember being psyched to see this movie based on it's cool movie poster, it had letters that were blurred out, making your vision seem out of focus. Unfortunately, the DVD is not as cool as the poster, folks.

Its easy to see why this film didn't take off as they probably hoped. Not scary enough to merit itself as a true horror film but not tight enough to be a great mystery movie, The Mothman Prophecies comes up a bit short no matter how you approach it.

Feeling like a story lifted right out of an old X-Files episode, Mothman Prophecies tells the story of Washington Post reporter John Klein, played by Richard Gere. Klein's wife dies from complications arising out of a mysterious car accident. Before her death she draws weird pictures of evil mothmen. Two years later, Klein finds himself drawn to a small town in Virginia where people are experiencing strange "mothman" influenced hallucinations and premonitions.

Laura Linney plays the local cop that has seen too much to let this all slide, she knows there is something to all of this. Plus, she might be a little interested in Gere, you never really can tell. Their chemistry is good, and the acting is fairly decent.

But what drags this film down is the made for TV like script. The film doesn't really push the envelope in any direction and frankly, even though it was rated PG-13, it really could have gotten away with a PG (I think they stuffed the movie with a couple swear words just to avoid the PG rating).

If you like old X-Files episodes (and hey those were pretty good actually), then you might want to give this one a shot, but don't get your hopes up too high.

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DVD Review: Basquiat (A-)

Basquiat (1996) (A-)
Directed by Julian Schnabel
Starring Jeffrey Wright, Claire Forlani, Benecio Del Toro and David Bowie
MPAA: R
Grade: A-

Review by Scott Standish

Acclaimed artist Julian Schnabel chose familiar territory for his directorial debut: the life of painter Jean-Michel Basquiat. Perhaps no one exploded onto the New York City art world like the talented but troubled Jean-Michel.

Jean-Michel Basquiat got his start writing street art (some would call it graffiti) throughout lower Manhattan. As his style become well known, he began showing in galleries, and soon became close friends with pop superstar Andy Warhol. His career took off, soared to new heights and crashed at a remarkable rate, even for a New York city painter. His sense of humor, his intelligence and his naive trust in others ultimately led to his downfall.

Jeffrey Wright is absolutely amazing as the genius painter, and David Bowie gives a surprisingly well performance as Warhol. Benicio Del Toro plays Wright's best buddy Benny Dalmau and Michael Wincott does a stunning job as the art critic Rene Ricard. Toss in small appearances by Dennis Hopper, Parker Posey, Christopher Walken and Willem Dafoe, and this is one star studded picture.

Basquiat has a great pace, allowing the story to unravel in a non-hurried pace. It keeps its distance from the characters as they make mistakes, and does not judge them. At the same time, Schnabel artfully frames the story with a great visual sense. The movie looks fantastic, but Schnabel wisely does not try and compete with the characters on the screen. Schnabel completely captures the energy, the back biting, and the creative force of the 1980's east village art scene in Basquiat.

Basquiat is a highly underrated film that continues to hold up well as time goes by. If you aren't familiar with Basquiat's work, you will still find this story fascinating. If you are a fan of Basquiat, you will not be disappointed in this excellent portrait of an artist ahead of his time.

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DVD Review: About Schmidt (B+)

About Schmidt (2002)
Directed by Alexander Payne
Starring Jack Nicholson, Hope Davis, Kathy Bates and Dermot Mulrooney
MPAA: R
Grade: B+

Review by Scott Standish

Warren Schmidt is having a tough time. After a long and rather boring life as a sales rep he finds himself pushed into retirement. Then his wife passes away. Last and certainly not least, his daughter (played by Hope Davis) is engaged to a total loser of a slacker of a dork.

Stunned into the grave reality of the situation, Warren concludes that his life is empty and meaningless. His house full of dirty dishes and unwashed laundry, he decides to hit the road in a last ditch attempt to save his daughter before its too late. Warren meets up with his son-in-law's family, headed by the quirky new age freak Roberta Hertzel (Kathy Bates). Kathy Bates is fantastic for this part and the pairing of Bates and Nicholson is classic.

About Schmidt was directed by Alexander Payne, the man behind the hilarious comedy Election (starring Reese Witherspoon and Matthew Broderick). A bit darker than Election, and certainly a lot more serious in tone, About Schmidt is a smart script with a fantastic performance by one of our generation's best actors, Jack Nicholson.

A thoughtful drama with some dark comedic undertones, About Schmidt is highly recommended.

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DVD Review: All The Real Girls (D)

All The Real Girls (2003)
Directed by David Gordon Green
Starring Paul Schneider, Zooey Deschanel, Patricia Clarkson and Shea Whigham
MPAA: R
Grade: D

Review by Scott Standish

All the Real Girls has landed some mighty praise from highly regarded critics. They must have a higher tolerance for mediocre acting than I do.

This small film (in about every way) is a simple love triangle: Paul (Paul Schneider) has slept with just about every girl in his small town. He's kind of a jerk, but when he falls for his best friend's sister Noel, he decides to "clean up his act" and be a good man for once. No cheating, no lying, this time he's going to be a decent man. However, his best friend doesn't fall for his line and doesn't want his friend, the king of all users, seeing his sister. Noel (Zooey Deschanel) falls for him (of course), but she's too young to know better and before long, she cheats on him anyway.

The acting is barely tolerable in All The Real Girls (is everyone on ludes in this picture?) and the script plods along at a frustrating pace. Maybe I missed something here, but All The Real Girls is a boring independent film with zero juice.

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DVD Review: Discreet Charm of the Bourgeosie, The (A-)

The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeosie (1972)
Directed by Luis Bunuel
Starring Fernando Rey, Paul Frankeur and Delphine Seyrig
MPAA: PG
Grade: A-

Review by Scott Standish

Six rich friends have an informal supper club going, rotating the location for each occasion. However, in the Discreet Charm of the Bourgeosie they actually never get to eat as something unexpected always prevents them. Directed by the master of surrealist cinema Luis Bunuel, this one is a classic that one must not miss.

A subtle mix of comedy and surreal drama, the Discreet Charm of the Bourgeosie opens with a group arriving at a rich young couple's house for dinner. Unfortunately there has been a scheduling mistake as the couple is not expecting the group until the following evening. The group decides to go out for dinner instead. However in the room adjoining the restaurant, the group can hear people weeping. They inspect the other room only to find a funeral underway for the owner as he has just passed away. Finding the scene a bit too morbid, they decide to abandon their dinner altogether.

These type of dining disasters continue to occur yet the group finds the non-stop absurdity completely normal. As the film progresses the reasons for the failures become more and more absurd (visiting soldiers, terrorist assassins, etc). However, despite this insanity the bourgeois friends continue to be gracious to each other.

Winner of the 1973 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, the Discreet Charm of the Bourgeosie is truly a delight to behold. Highly recommended.

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