CONTROL

Biography

BACKGROUND
Ian Kevin Curtis (b. July 1956 in Manchester, England) from a young age exhibited talent as a poet. Although he was awarded a scholarship to attend The King’s School in Macclesfield he never pursued academic endeavours. He got a job as a civil servant at the Labour Exchange but his real interest was the pursuit of art and literature, eventually culminating in music.

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Sam Riley: Ian Curtis, lyricist and vocalist of the punk band Joy Division
Samantha Morton: his wife Deborah (Debbie)
Craig Parkinson: Tony Wilson, Manchester television personality
Toby Kebbell: Rob Gretton, the band’s manager
Alexandra Maria Lara: Annik Honoré, an employee with the Belgian Embassy

REVIEW
It is so unusual to see a movie in black and white but it is absolutely the best choice: it feels like it was made years ago, it best depicts the dreary inner city of Manchester, it perfectly suits the languorous pace of the movie.

Complementing that is another great choice, that of the actors. Particularly outstanding is Sam Riley. Although I’ve never seen the performance of Ian Curtis, the way he is portrayed looks and feels so authentic I have to believe it really was how he acted both on and off stage. In addition, Morton and Lara both put in excellent performances.

One caveat though: it is long, just over two hours, so it requires a fair amount of patience. But it is well worth the effort.

CLASSIFICATION
for language and brief sexuality.

P.S.
The title comes from one of the band’s best known songs, She Lost Control.

According to the press releases the movie constiutes the first for several people:
 Anton Corbijn: an acclaimed still photographer, this is his directorial debut
 Sam Riley: his first role in a film
 Deborah Curtis: her first book, Touching From a Distance, being the principal source of material

WELL DONE

Original title: Durs à cuire
Documentary
In French with English subtitles

BACKGROUND
Restaurant Toqué
900, Place Jean-Paul-Riopelle, Montréal
According to the owners Christine Lamarche and Chef Normand Laprise “Fourteen years ago, when we created Toqué!, we wanted to showcase Québec products and the people who worked to supply us with them.”
Since then the restaurant has been presented with the prestigious 5 Diamond Award from the CAA and AAA. This rating – the highest there is – highlights the quality of the cuisine, service, décor and facilities of the selected establishments.

Restaturant Au Pied de Cochon
536 East Duluth, Montreal (Quebec)
As the name -- "The Pig's Foot" -- suggests, this is all about slabs of beef, pork, lamb, venison, and duck. Meats are roasted to a falling-off-the-bone turn in the brick oven surviving from a previous pizza joint. Chef Martin Picard prides himself in serving dishes having only four or five easily identifiable ingredients, in balanced proportions.

REVIEW
This could have been a really interesting documentary - but it isn’t.

Rarely do we get the opportunity to learn something interesting about first class restaurants, how they are run, the problems the owners encounter, the fascinating behind-the-scene activities, the amusing incidents, and not so amusing. That kind of thing.

Instead we get a very amateurish hour and half “fly-on-the-wall” perspective as two well-known chefs go about doing things like fishing. Half the time it is by way of shaky hand held shots taken from the back seat of the car as these two friends travel to somewhere. It is very disjointed and a overall a big disappointment.

CLASSIFICATION


P.S.
When they are in Spain on their way to see how the famous dried ham is made I suggest you take a short walkabout outside the theatre. I did not and regret it. With my hands clasped tightly over my ears and humming to myself to block out the sound of the terrified squealing pig I kept my eyes squinted closed as they killed and slaughtered him. Should be mandatory viewing for anyone who wants to become a butcher. For the rest of us, it is disgusting.

GONE BABY GONE

Crime drama

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Amy Ryan: Helene, a single mother
Madeline O'Brien: her four-year-old daughter Amanda
Casey Affleck: Private Investigator Patrick Kenzie
Michelle Monaghan: his girlfriend and partner Angie Gennaro
Titus Welliver: Amanda’s uncle Lionel McCready
Amy Madigan: Amanda’s aunt Beatrice (Bea)
Morgan Freeman: Boston Police Captain Jack Doyle
Ed Harris: Detective Remy Bressant
John Ashton: his partner Nick Poole
Edi Gathegi: local Haitian drug lord Cheese

REVIEW
An intelligent well-written crime thriller that relies more on a good story line than lots of gore and much noise to make its point. If you pay attention there are clues (but no thunderclaps or zoom-in close-ups to tip you off) but like all good thrillers, not all of them lead anywhere. As it turns out, not everything is straightforward and there are moral issues that need to be dealt with.

Beautifully acted throughout but several people stand out in terms of their performance: Amy Ryan and surprisingly, Ed Harris who we’ve not seen do this well in years.

CLASSIFICATION
for violence, drug content and pervasive language.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
Patrick’s car would not meet the Department of Transport highway code anywhere because it lacks a rear-view mirror. On the other hand, nothing intrudes when viewing the passengers from the front of the automobile as they ride to meet someone.

P.S.
The decision by Ben Affleck to take up a role behind the camera as Director in my mind is a smart one because I never felt he was very good as an actor. His younger brother Casey continues to show us who is the real thespian in the family.

Definitions:
Banging down rails is street-talk, American slang for someone snorting “lines” of cocaine
A key is a kilo of drugs such as heroin or cocaine

THINGS WE LOST IN THE FIRE

Drama

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
David Duchovny: Brian Burke, a successful architectural designer
Halle Berry: his wife Audrey
Alexis Llewellyn: their 10-year-old daughter Harper (aka Harp)
Micah Berry: their 6-year-old son Dony
Benicio Del Toro: Jerry Sunborne, Brian’s oldest friend
John Carroll Lynch: Howard Glassman, Brian’s neighbour
Omar Benson Miller: Audrey’s younger brother Neal

REVIEW
Embracing several of life’s tribulations this film is geared for the mature audience. Due to the nature of the subject material, it is not a light-hearted outing. Although a tad too long (despite two people being credited with the editing) there is not a lot that could be eliminated without some loss to the story.

Halle Berry gives a fine performance but is outdone by Benicio Del Toro who turns in perhaps his best effort ever.

Couple points of contention: the frequent extreme close-ups get to be a bit annoying after a while and the situation with Jerry helping Audrey deal with her insomnia does not ring true and detracts somewhat from the overall sense of reality.


CLASSIFICATION
for drug content and language.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
Jerry reaches over to turn out the bedside lamp but it goes out before he even gets a good grip of the pull chain.

When Audrey calls on apartment 33 we hear the knock a fraction of a second before her knuckle actually strikes the door.

Brian and Audrey embrace while she is working on a window frame and her white gloves are smeared with paint. When Brian leaves she waves goodbye but now her gloves are hardly smudged.

P.S.
Apparently Micah Berry is no relation to the female lead. Could have fooled me.

THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES

Western
Based on a true story

BACKGROUND
Alexander Franklin (Frank) James (b. January 1843) and his brother Jesse (b. September 1847) joined the Cole Younger gang and participated in the robbing of their first bank in 1868. A year later the two brothers formed their own gang and added stagecoaches and trains to their list of victims. Train robberies were typically limited to stealing the contents of the express safe while leaving the passengers untouched. The newspaper accounts fostered their Robin Hood image and soon their escapades were published in comic book novels attracting a huge following.

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Brad Pitt: Jesse James
Sam Shepard: his older brother Frank
Casey Affleck: nineteen-year-old Robert Ford, a "wannabe" of the James Gang
Sam Rockwell: Robert’s older brother Charley and gang member
Jeremy Renner: Wood Hite, gang member and Jesse’s cousin
Paul Schneider: gang member Dick Liddil
Garret Dillahunt : another gang member Ed Miller
Mary-Louise Parker: Jesse’s wife Zee

REVIEW
I’m not a fan of long movies. But once in a while one comes along that warrants spending a couple of hours watching it: this is one of them. The unhurried pace allows time for character development and moments for the camera to take in some stunning views of the west.

There are two particularily good performances, one by Brad Pitt (his best effort ever?) and the other by Casey Affleck (so much better than his more famous brother).

CLASSIFICATION
for some strong violence and brief sexual references.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
Try as I might, sometimes nothing pans out. There were four potential nitpicks:
1. Is one person a safe load on blue ice only 3 to 4 inches thick?
2. Was the Penny Farthing bike invented prior to 1881?
3. Was April 3, 1882 a Monday?
4. When was the song “Oh! Susanna” written?

In each instance the producers have done their homework and there were no inaccuracies. Woe is me.

P.S.
The great cinemaphotography is not all that surprising given the fact that the film’s Director of Photography, Roger Deakins, has been granted membership both in the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) and the British version (BSC). That says a lot about his talent.

Torquay, Devon is a town of about 100, 000 on the eastern coast of England yet Roger Deakins, Agatha Christie and 16 other well-known people in the arts were born here: must be something in the water.

LUST, CAUTION

Original title: Se jie
In Mandarin with English subtitles

BACKGROUND
Imperial Japan invaded China in July 1937. The Japanese had neither the intention nor the capability to directly administer China. Their goal was to create a friendly puppet government favourable to Japanese interests. From these actions Japan would obtain a secured supply of raw materials and a market to ensure the prosperity of the Japanese home islands. However, the atrocities committed by the Japanese army made the governments that were set up very unpopular.

In conjunction with its military campaign in World War II, Japan invaded Hong Kong the day after the Pearl Harbour attack of December 7, 1941. The Battle of Hong Kong ended with the British and Canadian defenders surrendering control of the colony to Japan on Christmas day, December 25. During the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong civilians suffered from widespread food shortages caused by imposed rations and hyperinflation due to the forced exchange of their Chinese currency for military notes.

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Tang Wei: Wang Jiazhi, the wife of Mr. Mak, a wealthy Hong Kong businessman
Tony Leung: Mr. Yee, security head of the puppet Chinese government Wang Leehom: Kuang Yumin, young leader of a resistance group

REVIEW
The one thing you need to see this one through is patience. It is long, way too long at 2 hours and 40 minutes. Case in point: the first half-hour is devoted primarily to watching four ladies play mah-jongg while they rattle on about the world around them at such a rate it’s hard to keep up with the subtitles flashing by. Good editing would cut this down to a couple of minutes to include the telling glance Wang Jiazhi gives Mr. Lee. That’s the essence of it. There is no need to drag it out for 30 minutes, when 3 minutes will suffice.

Having set the pace, it continues to advance ever so slowly including lengthy scenes from a student play and a couple of musical interludes that really have nothing to do with the plot. They serve no purpose other than to showcase the talent of these people. But that’s not what we came to see.

Buried in all this is some fine acting, a lot of which is non-verbal. But the overall impression is one of being too long and too weighty.

CLASSIFICATION
for several explicit, graphic, prolonged sexual encounters, the hallmark of hardcore pornography.

P.S.
Some viewers will find it difficult to watch the extended sequence of the knifing about three-quarters of the way through.

THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB

Drama

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Maria Bello: Jocelyn, a spinster who breeds dogs
Kathy Baker: Bernadette, the founder of the group
Amy Brenneman: Sylvia, recently seperated
Jimmy Smits: her ex-husband Daniel
Maggie Grace: their daughter Allegra
Emily Blunt: Prudie, a young high school French teacher
Marc Blucas: her husband Dean
Hugh Dancy: a sci-fi fan Grigg

REVIEW
It is pretty heavy going having to deal with pithy excerpts such as “Is not general incivility the very essence of love?” and then try to keep up with the rapid-fire views of the six club members as they express their divergent opinions about the quote. It makes my head hurt.

There’s nothing exceptional about the acting nor the story line in general but it does seem to go on forever (just short of two hours) and comes across very much like a soap opera.

CLASSIFICATION
for mature thematic material, sexual content, brief strong language and some drug use.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
Shots from directly in front of Bernadette sitting with the others on the porch have a strong shadow behind her right shoulder. Side-angle shots do not.