What's in the box?

Sucker Punch: Ali

Biopics are usually, to coin a phrase from Will Hunting, paint by numba. It all depends on what the director and actor brings to the material. & that's the thing. Finding a right matchup. Ali stands as continuation of the pure drama based characterizations Mann used in The Insider. It's a sucker punch to the gut. & no, this sucker punch will not be thrown in slow motion with an on-the-nose soundtrack. Some familiar faces briefly pop up- Ted Levine, Bruce McGill & a new one that will be trading in his advising for taxi driving lessons.

Ali opens up with a fantastic montage that shows Mann in the zone. Intercutting Ali's early life with his present life all backed by a nightclub performance from Sam Cooke. The boxing scenes deftly reveal Ali's magnitude in the ring. The in close camera shots even keep us on our toes. For the most part however, the filmmaking is in the background while Ali's life takes center stage. Whose larger than life personality is personified by Smith's performance. To be sure, Mann's expressionism is based around a broader scope that preaches as much on prejudice than just funneling it out to look at a the portrait of a single athlete. The problem with this is, had he chose to go that route it would have gotten higher marks. It more than likely could have been his third masterpiece in a row. It's a fascinating time, story & portrait of a life. I just wish it could have been more than what I was left with after the bell sounded.


One thing that should be noted: this is all based around the Director's Cut. Some of the best scenes- the opening, the Zaire pre-fight scene- are given more weight. It's not exactly a James Cameron Director's Cut, where entire subplots are put back in. But the 8 extra minutes add to the story as they should. We'll get to another (yes, Mann loves them scissors) director's cut soon. B+

Safe From Harm: The Insider

Grains of hyper-realized truth embedded within the framework of a film are sometimes easy to pluck at. The end card tells us some of these events were exaggerated for dramatic effect. Yet, it's able to get away with it. In terms of truth telling, this is a film that bats in the 90's. Chronicling a crucial turning point in American journalism but more importantly painting a picture of a man whose integrity is at stake. It's a murky sea of moral dilemmas that pervade the frames & will wipe the smirk off your face faster than a Bruce McGill outburst.

Mann has always had a penchant for realism and this is by far the best example of that. Not to mention the use of surrealism in the night time golf & mural transformation scenes. Employing wide shots, intense close ups and indirect focus. Razor sharp cutting that isn't showy- it moves the scenes along to a certain rhythm that never feels forced. The bullets that once hummed along L.A. city streets are now being placed in mailboxes. The dialogue cascading from a red screen on Wigand's computer to faxes, right up to to the corporate news offices of 60 Minutes. This film is porn for people who love smart dialogue. Unrelenting in its delivery of intelligent material and morality plays. The soundtrack adds a whole other dimension to the proceedings and is the decor of this sound structure. There is a certain point at the ending that has plucked at my heartstrings with somber rhythms. Rhythms rarely felt. Lisa Gerrard has a hand in it. Her soothing voice stirring up honest emotions. I feel like I am a better person for having watched it. There's not too many works of art I can say that about. Top 10 worthy. A+

[r]evolution

That Windy City

Event: Typeforce Gallery Exhibit (Closing Day)

Event: Agalloch concert
Place: Reggie's Rock Club

Event: Black Angels/Black Mountain concert
Place: The Metro

All the malls are closed

Let me just point out one thing before diving into this fresh slab of cartilage. This observation is based on the zombie film as horror. So it should be judged as such. Therein lies the dilemma. Dawn for some odd reason, tops both Night & Day as the scariest of the bunch in online polls. & while I would agree that out of all three, Night is the scariest, that still leaves the under appreciated Day of the Dead. I'm just going to pretend the last three Romero zombie movies don't exist. They shouldn't anyway.

There's a previous blog entry I made about Alien 3 which suffers from the same lashings that this film does. People expected it to follow in the tradition of Aliens. The same way Dawn had cast a cloud over all fututre zombie films that were released in its wake.

A blogger once said "Sometimes I don't want a comedy. I want a zombie movie." Don't get me wrong. I love Dawn. It's been ingrained into my psyche like a tick burrowed underneath the skin. Though to this day I am wondering why the hell that one biker had to have his blood pressure taken while zombies were surrounding him. But I'll save that for my "common sense gone to shit" rant.

Dawn has always been considered the most epic of the two in terms of scope. But scaling the zombie outbreak down and adding in an ingenious premise allows this grimy bag o' ghoulish glee to exceed Dawn in story. Not to mention the fact that it is the bleakest film the director has worked on.

The cooky (but disorientingly logical) doctor's old "400,000 to 1" quote gives the film a deeper apocalyptic tone moreso than previous. There's not gonna be any bikers breaking into the compound any time soon. For all we know, these could be the last remaining survivors. They don't do a good job of holding our sympathy. Rhodes becomes as villianous as the zombies by the end & the duo of Steel/Rickles doesn't help things along any further either. The moral compass is not only off center, it's thrown in the river along with a heaping dose of sanity. Which is exactly the way it should be.

To any doubters, I point to the opening scene that establishes the tone. Money flying about the desolate streets. That one newspaper being blown up against a trash can- The Dead Walk! Fuckin' A they do. & one of them greets us with its tongue permanently hanging out. Savini does some of his finest work here. The zombies look like, well, zombies! Filthy, mucky & rotting. Speaking of zombies, let's just pull the cat out of the bag: Howard Sherman as Bub. Out of all the countless actors who have performed as zombies in movies, no one quites nails it down as good as this guy did.

To dot the i's & cross the t's on this matter, previous Dead installments didn't have someone's vocal chords being stretched to the point of heightening their scream. Nor did they have someone laughing his ass off only to have it turn to gasping while a zombie was ripping the skin off his face with his bare hands. Vicious, bleak & horrific.

Risk Vs. Reward: Heat

Heat would represent the last time Mann would shoot in his old style of filmmaking. He would end up framing shots differently and not locking down his camera in the same way he did on previous films. One thing that is still apparent in Mann's work is his painterly visual style. The use of architecture, glass surfaces, color coding (he loves those blue filters) and introspective characters mimic the paintings of Edward Hopper. Both artists paint lonely characters against visual motifs. Even looking at the work of David Hockney, one is bound to draw connections on how Mann was influenced by the architecture and how it informed the "dead tech post modern houses" that overlook the city.

The most striking thing about Heat, moreso than the gun battle which set a new standard in bank heist scenes, is the way in which the ensemble cast go about in making choices that will either diminish them or move them further along a path of hopefulness. & that's the thing with the characters- so few of them have taken that route by the end of the film. Moral and causal relativity amongst characters was something Mann was interested in and has always been interested in. It's not so much good or bad but that grey area between that is defined by behavior. With a cast this large, each character is given nuance and depth that play into that factor. Right down to the getaway driver who was recently released from prison.

Neil's "30 seconds flat" philosophy that he discusses with Vincent in the now famous coffee shop scene between the two screen legends is something he abides by up until the very end.That one decision made ultimately determines Neil's fate. One could say everything led up to that moment which climaxes into another scene between both leads. But the ending is neither triumphant or cathartic for Hannah. Capturing the duality of the professional thief & the cop is something Mann has always excelled at more than any other director. Here he shows the full potential of his abilities in that respect.

People claim this to be Mann's opus. His defining work. While it's not my favorite of his, it is the first of his works I would see and a constant reminder of why I love his aesthetic. A+