che59 Reviews

Audition (1999)

Fantastic

[10/10 · 4 May 2001]

There has never been a film like Audition. The best way to describe this breathtaking new horror flick from Japanese director Miike Takashi would be: Sixth Sense as directed by David Cronenberg only better. Takashi's film starts as a simple family drama about a lonely widower's search for a new wife but quickly descends into the kind of surreal terror that leaves its audience unsure as whether to laugh or scream. Indeed, so effective is Takashi at lulling his audience into a false sense of security that you'll almost definitely end up doing both and sometimes at the same time. At it's most basic core Audition tells the story of a father played with exceptional skill by Ryo Ishibashi who is left alone to raise his twelve year old son after the slow and painful death of his wife. The relationship between the two is undeniably close and when seven years on is son innocently suggests that it is time he found a new wife the father whole-heartedly takes the advice. Feeling it might be hard to find the perfect woman in modern Japanese society the Ishibashi character enlists the help of a producer friend who immediately offers to stage a fake movie audition in which Ishibashi can take his pick from dozens of young women.

So far, so good. The audition takes place, humour ensues and the audience is treated to a veritable array of beautiful, talented young ladies some of whom seem perfect while others simple prove comedic in their feeble attempts to land the fictitious lead role. There is one woman in particular who catches the eye of Ishibashi. Dressed in white she appears to be everything that the widower is looking for in a woman: beautiful, modest, obedient and strangely melancholy. Like Ishibashi she has experienced a ‘death' of sorts and her understanding of its necessity in life appeals to him in a way that can only be described as obsession. All goes well. They date and he even decides to ask for her hand in marriage during a weekend away at the seaside. However, before he has a chance to propose they make love and when he awakens later that evening he finds she's vanished without a trace. At this moment Audition changes beyond all recognition, no longer is it a charming tale of loneliness and repression but it becomes one of the most graphically disturbing, harrowing films you'll ever likely to see.

Through fear of ruining the film let me just say that there is much, mush more to Takashi's masterpiece. Ishibashi's frantic search for his young beau not only leads him to uncover a whole lot more than a web of lies, disturbing hobbies and an abusive childhood, it also forces him to confront fears that neither he or the audience ever knew existed. What's worse it begs the audience to question whether all they have just seen is really what happened or simply a twisted vision of a repressive, male orientated society as seen through the eyes of one lonely man. Audition is flawless in all that it does. The direction seems effortless and the acting is far beyond the reach of most Hollywood stars making it a must see for anyone with a true love of cinema. A word to the wise, however, Audition is not for the weak hearted and some of its brutal imagery may leave you changed forever.

The Ladykillers (1955)

Fantastic

[10/10 · 30 April 2001]

Perhaps Ealing Studio's greatest comedy, The Ladykillers is a morality tale of darkly hilarious proportions. Shot by cinematographer Otto Heller in muted Technicolor and expressionistic shadow it combines actuality with neo-fantasy, successfully creating a dreamlike climate in which a grotesque series of murders can still appear to be funny. Literally dreamt up by American William Rose and directed by Alexander Mackendrick, who although raised in Scotland was also born in America, The Ladykillers is a clear crystallisation of the foreigner's perspective of ‘Englishness'. This manifests itself in the creation of a world inhabited by a gang of colourful criminal caricatures. Danny Green is a moronic heavyweight, Cecil Parker an ex-officer/confidence trickster, Peter Sellers a teddy boy crook, Herbert Lom a ruthless Soho-foreign gangster and master comic Alec Guinness offers a tour de force as the professor, the insane mastermind behind the whole thing. From the moment Guinness makes his entrance, parodying the German Expressionism of Fritz Lang, it is obvious that this will be another of his British classics. However, it is Katie Johnson who steals the show as Mrs Wilberforce, treating the gang of criminals as if they were naughty children, filling them with tea whilst they plot to kill her. Jim Morahan, who also worked with Mackendrick and Guinness in The Man in the White Suit, does superb in his art direction. His lop-sided house oozes faded Victorian charm, complete with crooked pictures, a portrait of the departed Captain Wilberforce and a parrot named General Gordon. The real credit for The Ladykillers, however, must go to Rose for his fresh and innovative script that avoids the laboured formulaic plotting of many of the era's other comedies. Refusing to rely solely on witty one-liners and sterile satire, Rose keeps the pace quick, shocking his audience with twist after hilarious twist. His characters may all be stereotypes, but there is nothing stereotypical about his script. A razor sharp black comedy, this British classic goes much deeper than conventional capers. By contrasting crooks with old ladies, The Ladykillers slyly highlights the long lasting effects of Britain's illustrious Victorian past. Throughout the film numerous references to the past are made, all hinting that the times before the `Old Queen had past away' were a lot better. `We seem so terribly overcrowded already, don't we?' Mrs Wilberforce says, `It was different when I was a girl, quite different.' Though no where is this difference made more obvious than when she stops to smile at a baby in the street, who then begins to cry. The baby, symbolically representing the future, cries when it sees Mrs Wilberforce for it is reminded of Britain's past glory. In a similar way One Round, with his child's perspective on life, calls Mrs Wilberforce `Mum', wanting to protect her from the others he also sees something better in her. This also accounts for his constant bickering with Louis. `I tell you I don't like old ladies, I don't like having them around,' complains Louis `I can't stand them.' As the only foreigner in the gang, Louis hates Mrs Wilberforce more than anyone else because he has the most to lose through the survival of what she represents. For those who have accused British cinema of being parochial, insipid, self-satisfied rubbish The Ladykillers compels them to reconsider.

Duets (2000)

Disappointingly Hollow

[6/10 · 24 April 2001]

Given Karaoke's worldwide popularity over the last ten years it is more than a little surprising that it has taken Hollywood Executives so long to cash in on the phenomena. It is perhaps doubly disappointing then that after more than five years in pre-production all they have managed to come up with is this relatively mediocre road-trip movie which exalts Karaoke's power to change people's lives for the better. Directed by Gwyneth Paltrow's father Duets tells the story of six desperately unhappy individuals who decide to cast off the shackles of their pre-determined lives and look for something better. The metaphor for all this we are assured is Karaoke: the courage to stand up, sing up and be heard.

Taking a big leaf out of the Robert Altman book of filmmaking Bruce Paltrow has chosen to split Duets into three separate storylines: There's the story of Liz (Gwyneth Paltrow) an unbelievably naive Vegas showgirl who has to learn to build a relationship with her long-lost hustler father Ricky (Huey Lewis) after meeting him for the first time at her mother's funeral. Then there's the tale of Suzi (Maria Bello), a streetwise hussy who will do anything to make it big and Billy (Scott Speedman) a down-on-his-luck taxi driver she convinces to drive her halfway across the country in search of stardom at any cost. And last, but by no means least, there's the hilarious story of Todd (Paul Giamatti) a burned out travelling salesman on the edge of a nervous breakdown and his unlikely friendship with Reggie (Andre Braugher) an escaped convict with the voice of an angel and a chip on his shoulder the size of Texas. Inevitably all involved wind up crossing paths in Omaha, where a big Karaoke Contest is offering a Grand Prize. The question is who will win and unlike many films of this elk one is never really sure.

All six principle actors turn in better than average performances and all except Braugher, who couldn't reach some of the higher notes, sing unaided. The chemistry between Paltrow and 80s pop star Lewis works well with Paltrow more than holding her own on the musical front. Relative newcomers Bello and Speedman also do well, both showing signs that suggest we'll be seeing a lot more of them in the future. But the film's spotlight is taken by the fantastic pairing of Giamatti and Braugher. At first their characters appear to be too at odds to ever really hit it off, but as the movie progresses it soon becomes clear that they share a deep affinity, they both know what it is like to have lived in a cage, Braugher in prison and Giamatti in middle-class suburbia. Places neither of them ever want to return.

Considering this is Bruce Paltrow's first major film Duets has turned out surprisingly well. The direction is relatively unobtrusive and the stories that unfold are often amusing, sometimes compelling and always entertaining. Indeed, the one scene in which Giamatti and Braugher offer their rendition of Ottis Reading's Try a Little Tenderness is truly spell bounding and well worth the price of admission alone.

However, Paltrow's clear favouritism for certain characters over others and the fact that the performances of Giamatti and Braugher are light years ahead of the rest means that the film often seems unbalanced and a little disjointed, kind of like a duet between Jane MacDonald and Madonna. And like so much American cinema today Duets suffers badly from an overly sentimental ending. One leaves Duets feeling more than a little betrayed and thankful that this kind of world exists far outside the realms of possibility, at least in England.

One Night at McCool's (2001)

A crazy mix between There's Something About Mary and To Die For

[18 April 2001]

The feature debut of the acclaimed commercials director Harald Zwart and the first movie from Michael Douglas' new production company Furthur Films One Night at McCools is a hilarious and extremely stylish black comedy.

A crazy mix between There's Something About Mary and To Die For, Zwart's film stars Liv Tyler as beautiful drifter Jewel and is told from the viewpoints of the three very different men who soon become a part of her life. There's Randy (Matt Dillon) a docile bartender who dreams of stardom whilst still living in his mother's old run down house, his cousin Carl (Paul Reiser) a disillusioned lawyer with a fetish for S&M and a cocky arrogance that even Muhammad Ali would be ashamed of and Dehling (John Goodman) a lonely widowed detective who believes that he's on a mission from God. Each man meets the irresistible Jewel on one very hectic night at McCools, the two-bit bar where Randy works, and soon each of the three is convinced that he is the only one for her. Part femme fatale, part desperately insecure Jewel has a dream all of her own and she'll do anything to fulfil it, even if that means playing along with each mans warped fantasy. All three men are missing something in their lives and Jewel fulfils that for them. For Randy she's domestic bliss, for Carl she's sex on tap and for Detective Dehling she's innocence incarnate. Before long she moves in with one man, regularly whips another's leather clad body and encourages the third to forget all about his dead wife and job. That alone would make for a pretty good movie, but throw into the mix four dead bodies, cat burglary, the Village People, bingo, an assassin, a midget lawyer, a DVD Player and numerous tips in the finer points of DIY and you've got one of the funniest films you'll see this year. One Night at McCools is positively hilarious. The direction is both inventive and innovative with Zwart cleverly manipulating a number of cinematic techniques and special fx to achieve a unique look and feel to his movie. The script is often painfully sharp and all the cast are on top form. In particular, Liv Tyler is absolutely brilliant in her role and is the key to the films success. She effortlessly switches from Madonna to Whore leaving the three men and the audience confused as to who the real Jewel is. Matt Dillon is as reliable as ever and both Goodman and Reiser do more than enough to warrant their pay cheques. But it's Douglas who steals the limelight, and most of the best lines, as the wig wearing, bingo playing, aging hitman Mr Burmeister who Randy reluctantly hires to put an end to all his problems. If this is a prime example of the sort of film that Michael Douglas plans to produce with his new company then it looks like we're all in for a treat. One Night at McCools is probably the best comedy since American Pie, but if you're of a more serious disposition then you'd best heed the words of Randy: `The sex and the violence, all in one night - it's a little too much.' Brilliant.