Tribeca Film Festival Review “Take this Waltz”

Directed by: Sarah Polley
Producers: Susan Cavan, Sarah Polley
Starring: Michelle Williams, Seth Rogen, Luke Kirby
Tribeca Film Festival
Running Time: 116 minutes

Our Score: 2.5 out of 5 stars

In Sarah Polley’s Take This Waltz, Michelle Williams is Margot, a young married woman who is terrified to discover the hot guy she shared a seat row, and flirtatious conversation with on a homebound flight is in fact her new across-the-street neighbor David (Luke Kirby). He’s stirred something within her and she starts to question her comfortable five year marriage to cookbook author, Lou (Seth Rogen).

What follows is a very, very long string of will-they, won’t-they encounters between David and Margot. The more scenes they share, the clearer it becomes that they have more serious chemistry than Margot does with husband Lou. Married at 23, it appears that Margot and Lou have not matured past baby-talking each other. When the married couple speak in hypotheticals, it’s to play who can gross the other out more (threats include “I’m going to skin you with a potato peeler!”). When Margot and David speak in hypotheticals, it involves David describing what he would do to her body given the chance. Strong scenes like these between the illicit couple make the audience restless for Margot to either run away from Lou or completely stop David’s everything-short-of-physical advances. Her indecision is seemingly endless and the more encounters she herself arranges with David only to eventually shut him down, border on making Margot unlikeable and David weak. When Margot does make her decision, the film goes into an unexpected overtime exploring all the implications of it when the audience was really just waiting for her to make a choice.

There also are many leaps of faith one has to take when watching this film. Obviously, the odds of neighbors David and Margot’s meeting on the plane seem very slight but it’s necessary for the whole setup. However, there’s many other elements about these characters’ lives that come off as unrealistic and they pile up. Everyone seems to live impossibly outside of their means given their occupations (Margot, a wannabe writer. David, secret artist/rickshaw driver. Both, occupying large, quirky, suburban homes). For such young characters it is also odd that outside their immediate families, we don’t see them with any friends. Are Lou and Margot so repellant they can’t hang out with other couples? David especially seems to exist purely to interact with Margot and if he weren’t so perfect really, you’d call him a stalker.

If their lives seem improbable, fortunately the actors bring authentic emotion to their characters. As proven in last year’s 50/50, Seth Rogen can be amazing in more dramatic roles. Lou really has no reason to suspect anything is wrong in his marriage, so when Margot combusts in front of him while he’s cooking, his plea of “I was just trying to make chicken” is strong and heartbreaking. Michelle Williams continues to do amazing work especially so when she’s left to her own devices as on a carnival scrambler ride with David where we see her go from joyous to terrified and back. And set to The Buggles “Video Killed the Radio Star” of all songs. As David, Luke Kirby is suitably sexy and so appealing it’s hard not to root for him. If only there was more to David than an object of Margot, and this film’s, fantasy life.

Upcoming TFF Screenings of Take this Waltz
Mon. 4/23 – 7:00pm, AMC Loews Village 7-2
Thu. 4/26 – 1:00pm, AMC Loews Village 7-2

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Filed Under: Movies Tagged With: festival, film, review, tribeca, waltz

Tribeca Film Festival Review “Downeast”

Directed by: David Redmon and Ashley Sabin
Tribeca Film Festival
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Running time: 76 minutes

Our Score: 2.5 out of 5 stars

Downeast tells the story of the aftermath of the closing of the United States’ last sardine canning factory in Gouldsboro, Maine. With the factory’s workforce unemployed–and because of many of their advanced ages, unemployable– an Italian immigrant arrives with the goal of turning the old facility into a lobster processing plant and putting them back to work.

There’s a lot at stake in David Redmon and Ashley Sabin’s documentary for these Maine townspeople and yet unfortunately they are oddly lost in the shuffle. Instead the focus is on Italian businessman, Antonio Bussone’s fight against the town elders (would-be lobster competitors) and the red tape preventing him from access to federal funding to keep his factory afloat. This often times translates to many scenes of him doing deals over the phone in his office or scrolling through bank accounts on his computer. This is not very interesting to watch and even confusing as he laments negative balances while the factory is still up and operating. One wonders if he ever clued his rehired employees into how badly off he was.

Where the film shines is when it focuses on the lifelong employees of the Stinson sardine cannery. You sense a real camaraderie between, for example, three ladies sitting together comparing how many years each worked there (all thirty years or more). There’s a wonderful scene where three elderly ladies, adjusting from the shift of canning already-dead sardines to starting with live lobsters, debate whether or not the lobsters feel much pain in the process. It’s charming, if slightly macabre. We also get to meet a salty old lobster fisherman named Sherman who doesn’t care for town politics and only cares who will pay him the most for his catch. These are all great personalities I wish the film would have stayed with longer instead of the businessman.

It is also often in these scenes where the film is most interesting visually. The seemingly endless supply of shiny red lobster shells is shuffled through the plant hypnotically while the workers go at an amazing pace. It’s a great contrast from Bussone’s sterile office dealings. Unfortunately that office is really where the success of this factory project lives or dies and in the end the fate of the workers is left sadly unresolved.

Upcoming TFF Screenings of “Downeast”:
Sat. 4/21 – 1pm, AMC Loews Village 7-2
Tues. 4/24 – 7:30pm, Clearview Cinemas Chelsea 9
Sat. 4/28 – 9:45pm, Clearview Cinemas Chelsea 8

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Tribeca Film Festival Review “As Luck Would Have It”

Directed by: Alex de la Iglesia
Producers: Andrés Vicente Gomez, Ximo Perez
Starring: José Mota, Salma Hayek, Blanca Portillo, Juan Luis Galiardo, Fernando Tejero
Tribeca Film Festival
Running time: 93 minutes

Our Score: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Alex de la Iglesia’s As Luck Would Have It follows Roberto (José Mota), a struggling former ad executive, as his day goes from bad to much worse. Or it would seem to everyone else but Roberto. Having failed at a job interview where he literally begged for a position from an old friend, a despondent Roberto feels nostalgic for the hotel where he and his wife (Salma Hayek) honeymooned and decides it’s time for a visit. Unfortunately the hotel is gone in lieu of a restricted excavation site and Roberto soon has a freak accident that traps him in an ancient coliseum. Savvy businessman that he is, Roberto recruits an agent to his cause in order to milk the most media money out of his predicament.

As far as the satire goes, it’s a little bit two dimensional. The agent Roberto hires, Johnny (Fernando Tejero), is perfectly weaselly and the people he deals with are also stereotypical money grubbing slimeballs who would profit from Roberto’s demise. The point that the media is predatory and disposable is reached quickly and not really expanded upon. Having Roberto trapped in the center of a coliseum too for this media frenzy does seem a bit too on the nose, but it’s undeniably a beautiful set to look at. If two thirds of the film must take place in the same setting, they could do worse.

Really then the strength of the film lies in the central performances of Roberto and his family. Mota infuses Roberto with a kind of infectious optimism regarding his financial prospects despite his terrible position and is especially impressive given the restrictions on his physical performance after his accident. Salma Hayek is wonderful as Roberto’s more grounded wife Luisa who understandably is more concerned with getting her husband back than making a profit. When Roberto slips into unsympathetic territory, it’s their relationship, and the performances of Eduardo Casanova and Nerea Camacho as their children, that keeps us invested in his fate. De la Iglesia’s well drawn protagonists are bound to keep audiences rooting for Roberto.

Upcoming TFF Screenings of As Luck Would Have It:
Tue. 4/24 – 6:30pm, SVA Theater 1 Silas
Wed. 4/25 – 3:00pm, AMC Loews Village 7-1
Thu. 4/26 – 8:30pm, AMC Loews Village 7-3
Fri. 4/27 – 3:45pm, Clearview Cinemas Chelsea 8

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Tribeca Film Festival Review “Side by Side”

Directed by: Chris Keneally
Producers: Chris Keneally, Keanu Reeves
Featuring: Keanu Reeves, Martin Scorsese, Christopher Nolan, David Fincher, James Cameron, George Lucas
Tribeca Film Festival
Running time: 99 minutes

Our Score: 4 out of 5 stars

Film lovers may or may not know that as of October 2011 the major manufacturers of cameras for motion pictures–Arri, Panavision, Aaton– stopped making new film cameras. In January of this year Eastman Kodak filed for bankruptcy in the face of insurmountable digital competitors. So is celluloid film dead?

This is the central question up for debate in Side by Side, an in depth documentary produced by Keanu Reeves and directed by Chris Keneally, which takes a look at the digital revolution which has been picking up steam in Hollywood since the turn of the millennium. The doc is making its stateside debut at this week’s Tribeca Film Fest with a planned release in August.

Reeves and Keneally have rounded up an impressive roster of interviewees who fall on all sides of the digital-versus-film argument and come from every step in the production and post-production process. In this corner we have director Christopher Nolan and his cinematographer Wally Pfister maintaining they’ll be the last people shooting on film, and in this corner we have digital proponents such as George Lucas and Robert Rodriguez swearing off celluloid for good. Occupying the middle ground are heavy hitters like David Fincher, David Lynch, Steven Soderbergh and Martin Scorsese (fresh off the digitally-shot “Hugo”).

The documentary itself never takes a side which makes the debate that much more engaging and I found myself shifting allegiance throughout. Additionally, on-screen interviewer Reeves is great at getting honest, candid reactions from his insider interviewees. Furthermore Keneally takes the time to explain the mechanics behind much of the debate’s technical aspects, a step which may cause digital-saavy folk to become a little bored, but it certainly makes the doc more accessible to the average movie goer.

In the end the most startling thing about Side by Side is how rapidly this technological change is occurring. In 1999, for the debut of The Phantom Menace, only four theatres in the country had digital projectors, four years later–in time for Attack of the Clones–there were 150. Statistics like this made me grateful that these filmmakers have been there to record, in whatever form they choose, this massive shift in cinema.

Upcoming TFF Screenings of Side by Side:
Tues. 4/24 – 8:30pm, SVA Theater 2 Beatrice
Thu. 4/26 – 7:00pm, AMC Loews Village 7-2
Fri. 4/27 – 2:30pm, AMC Loews Village 7-3
Sat. 4/28 – 4:00pm, AMC Loews Village 7-2
Sun. 4/29 – 2:30pm, SVA Theater 2 Beatrice

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Film Review “Bully”

Directed by: Lee Hirsch
Distributed by: The Weinstein Company
MPAA Rating: Unrated
Running time: 90 minutes

Our Score: 4 out of 5 stars

Bully is an eye opening and heartfelt doc from Lee Hirsch taking an extremely close look at the victims of bullying in America’s schools. Through the eyes of a select few subjects, Hirsch exposes larger problems in the handling of a growing epidemic.

Bullying is not a new problem in American schools and perhaps, as this film shows, that is at the heart of the ambivalence with which it can often be dealt. If something is viewed as a rite of passage, there is a heavy level of acceptance associated with it that must be overcome. Hirsch has chosen his subjects to show the diverse range the impact of bullying can have. From two sets of parents whose boys committed suicide, to a girl in juvenile detention for wielding–but not firing– a gun at her tormentors. Ultimately, the film is a call to action for students and teachers to find the tools and support needed to cope with and prevent abuse.

At the heart of the film and given the most screen time as far as I could tell was Alex, a sweet, if awkward, 12 year old from Iowa. He’s been branded “fish face” by his bullies and is additionally physically tormented on a daily basis. Disturbingly Alex doesn’t raise a fuss about it because he’s accepted it as the other boys “messing around.” Despite this, the filmmakers deem some of the physical abuse Alex endures on the bus–sometimes he’s jabbed with pencils– to be too dangerous to ignore and bring the footage Alex’s parents.

When I was in elementary school the bus was rowdy to a point. If it reached critical volume, our iron lady driver hollered us into quiet submission. The bus was definitely ruled over by a supervising adult. So why does a film director need to intervene? Hirsch literally captures physical abuse of Alex in the same frame as a young driver nonchalantly glancing into her rear view mirror. When shown the footage, a principal assures his infuriated parents that when she rode that bus route the children were “as good as gold.” Of course they were. This is just one of several moments Hirsch captures of school staff being shockingly out of touch. When seeing this film in theaters, expect your audience to get vocal, mine certainly did.

If there’s one mystery to this film, it might be Hirsch’s choice to omit exploring the bullies themselves. Especially bullies who are so bold as to continue to lash out despite the presumed knowledge that they’re being filmed (only one boy’s face is blurred out in the footage of Alex being threatened). Also surprising is lack of a look at cyber bullying which has really expanded the borders of torment from the school yards right into targets’ homes in recent years.

Finally, adding to the outrage the film can often inspire is the recent controversy that has sprung up around the MPAA’s ruling to brand this movie with an R-rating for language. Children swear. They do it to emulate their friends, their role models, and yes, the characters in films they’re technically not supposed to even have access to (but who are we kidding?). The subjects who swear in “Bully” are none of these things, so that the MPAA is in effect stopping this doc from reaching its intended audience for probably less than $2 worth in the swear jar is ridiculous. Kudos for the Weinstein company going ahead unrated and hopefully theater chains will let students see it. If not, one can only hope teachers will have the good sense to bring the DVDs into their classrooms regardless.

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Filed Under: Film Reviews Tagged With: bully, film, review

Film Review “Mirror Mirror”

Directed by: Tarsem Singh
Starring: Julia Roberts, Lily Collins, Armie Hammer, Nathan Lane, Sean Bean
Distributed by: Relativity Media
MPAA Rating: PG
Running time: 106 minutes

Our Score: 3 out of 5 stars

Director Tarsem Singh has made a family film that is just charming. Which is fitting for a retelling of Snow White. Children will love it and adults will definitely enjoy it if a slightly offbeat, if not ground breaking, storybook tale is what they’re up for.

Julia Roberts playing the evil queen sets up the story, narrating a beautifully animated opening sequence where we learn her step daughter Snow White’s (Lily Collins) father was lost in the dark forrest and now she must raise the princess, who she keeps locked away in the castle under the pretense that she’s too naive or crazy to be out in the world. Let alone to rule the kingdom that’s rightfully hers.

At eighteen years old, Snow decides to test her stepmother’s image of her and ventures outside the castle to learn the toll the wicked Queen’s vanity is taking on her subjects. And luckily she also bumps into a charming Prince.

Roberts mostly steals the show in her villainous role with the writers lending a motivation to her quest for youth and beauty in the form of Armie Hammer’s rich and handsome Prince Alcott, whom she aims to wed despite his affection for Snow. Never before had I seen Roberts’ trademark booming laughter used for evil purposes, but she should do it more often. Adding to her impact are the gasp inducing gowns she wears by the late designer Eiko Ishioka (Bram Stoker’s Dracula).

New-comer Lily Collins definitely looks the part of Snow White, though she’s given less to work with than her co-stars. After Roberts, Hammer in particular gives a wonderfully committed performance to his princely role which calls for him to be charming but also very silly at times which many young actors might not have been able to do with the same degree of sincerely that he brings here.

After the Queen tries and fails to have Snow White killed by her servant (Nathan Lane), the young princess of course is left in the care of a troop of seven dwarves. Here they’re bandits instead of miners, but going with the Disney method, the dwarves are mostly identified by a simple character trait (Grub eats, Chuckles…chuckles, etc). Again, this all works, even if it’s not very original.

If there’s an overall flaw with Snow’s story it’s that Collins isn’t exactly fit to sell the transition she’s meant to make from meek palace dweller to strong bandit-trained fighter. Nor are the stakes very high. A tiny village serves as the whole kingdom the princess is meant to be fighting for. Though perhaps I’ll be grateful for this when Snow White and the Huntsman releases its armies on audiences this summer. We’ll see.

Still the gentle humor, dazzling costumes and sweet nature of this film are enough to recommend it to anyone who enjoys a well crafted fairy tale.

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“The Lorax” Helps Celebrate Read Across America 2012

March 2, 2012 – The New York Public Library was filled with Truffala trees this morning in celebration of the kickoff of Read Across America 2012 and the release of The Lorax on Dr. Seuss’ 108th Birthday.

Three hundred NYC public school children, dressed in bright orange Lorax shirts and his trademark yellow mustache, were treated to a reading of the original Dr. Seuss classic by the film’s stars Danny DeVito and Zac Efron at the event hosted by the National Education Association (NEA).

Since 1998, Read Across America has motivated kids of all ages to continue reading every day as research shows those children who do so wind up becoming better students at school. DeVito, who plays the Lorax himself, spoke at the event about the importance of reading at home, “We should encourage youngsters and their parents, and their aunts, their uncles, grandfathers, to read to them. And let them read to you. It’s a really great way to broaden your horizons and it’s a stepping stone to a better life.”

In addition to a reading of The Lorax, the audience got a sneak peak at the film which opened today. In it Efron plays Ted, a 12-year old boy who sets out to impress his dream girl Audrey (played by Taylor Swift) by finding her a real live tree. There are no more where they live, and in flashbacks we learn of the Lorax who had fought to save them. DeVito recalled another one of his movies when talking about the story’s positive environmental message: “I did a movie called Death to Smoochy and Smoochy was a very big environmentalist and he used to say when they were commercializing him, ‘You can’t save the world,’ one person can’t save the world, ‘but you could make a dent!’ You know? You can really start it. So one boy or girl or adult or anybody who just clicks in and thinks, ‘I can make a difference, I can shut the lights in the house, I can plant seeds, nurture the garden. I could take care of other people…’ You take from the Earth, you take from each other, but you give back. It’s a two way street.”

The curious students at the library were also given the chance to ask questions of the two cheerful actors, such as:

Third Grader: How do you make the characters look so real?
DeVito: Okay, well the first thing we do is we read the script. Zac and I read the script…and we perform in front of a video camera the way we read the lines.
Zac Efron: Then they take all the crazy things that he does when he reads his lines–
DeVito: And he does!
Efron: He gets really crazy when he reads his lines.
DeVito: And then they use those to draw with the computer and they try to capture the movements of the actors in the movie, so it looks real.

Third Grader: How do you think Dr. Seuss came up with The Lorax?
DeVito: Well I think that Dr Seuss wrote this book forty years ago and it’s still current and going on today because he probably–I’m just guessing now–he probably was looking around at what was going on in the world and saying a lot of people are doing certain things like taking the rain forests down and wasting things…and what he was looking for was a champion. The trees can’t speak, they have no voice, so he was looking for somebody to be the speaker for the trees and a champion for the trees…I think that’s where it all comes from, The Lorax. And then he just figured it couldn’t be a Lorax going out speaking for the trees, but it needs to be a human being…who cares enough for the trees.

Third Grader: Why is the Lorax so hairy?
Devito: Well the thing about it, in the forest even though it looks like it’s always summer, sometimes it gets a little cold. And that’s why he has the mustache and all the fur on. He also does live down underground, under that stump, so it’s pretty chilly at night down there. Especially when he’s eating, he likes to keep his mouth warm!

At the conclusion of the event, all of the students recited the NEA’s Read Across America Pledge and the costumed Lorax character joined NYC’s PS 22 chorus in performing the song “Let it Grow.”

You can read more about Read Across America, including the NEA’s Lorax Student Earth Day, at their website: www.nea.org/readacross

All article photos by Mike Sonesen

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Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: 2012, america, celebrate, helps, lorax, read, ...

The Film Society & IndieWire’s Special Screening/Q&A of “Mary Last Seen” (Martha Marcy May Marlene) with Director Sean Durkin and Cast

“Mary Last Seen” was the short that Durkin wrote and directed prior to the full feature. It introduced the world of the film while also working as a standalone story. Fortunately it didn’t have to stand alone and now it makes for an eerie precursor ‘Martha’. The short screened prior to the “Martha Marcy May Marlene” Blu-ray release at New York’s Lincoln Center. In attendance for the IndieWire sponsored event were director Sean Durkin, producer Antonio Campos, cinematographer Drew Innis and actress Alexia Rasmussen (Mary).

In discussing the short, the filmmakers emphasized that if ‘Martha’ was a feature about exiting a cult, ‘Mary’ was about entering it. The connective character between the short and the feature is Brady Corbet’s Watts. Here we get to see how he goes about luring the cult women onto the isolated farm, cutting them off from the world. It’s disconcerting just how much damage the loss of a cell phone can do. “It’s the numbers” Mary laments, accentuating the modern reliance on automated contact lists. If nothing else, the short serves to help understand how Martha in the eventual feature film could have fallen off the face of the Earth to her family.

Click here for our DVD review of “Martha Marcy May Marlene”

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Blu-ray Review “Martha Marcy May Marlene”

Directed by: Sean Durkin
Starring: Elizabeth Olsen, Hugh Dancy, Brady Corbet, Christopher Abbott
MPAA Rating: R
Distributed by: 20th Century Fox
Run Time: 102 minutes

Film: 4 out of 5 stars
Extras: 4 out of 5 stars

“Martha Marcy May Marlene” is the powerful and at times disturbing debut feature for both director Sean Durkin and star Elizabeth Olsen that is now available to own.

Olsen plays the eponymous Martha who, having just escaped a cult commune isolated in the Catskills, takes shelter in the Connecticut lake house of her sister (Sarah Paulson) and brother-in-law (Hugh Dancy) whom she hasn’t seen in over two years. Martha struggles to fit back into her sister’s upper middle-class world and Durkin cuts seamlessly between her life at the lakehouse and flashbacks to the cult’s farm. The pacing of the flashbacks is incredibly effective and helps to build the rising tension that Martha feels as she clashes with resuming normal life.

At the forefront of the flashbacks is cult leader Patrick, played by an equal parts seductive and sinister John Hawkes. At first an appealing father figure to Martha, he evolves into a rapist (though his followers would disagree) and worse. The most fascinating aspect of Martha’s escape is perhaps how believably conflicted she still feels about leaving. It is evident Martha’s relationship with her sister is not a warm one and so we can only conclude that it was some immovable survival instinct, rather than an act of rebellion, that would finally send Martha from the the cult. For all the abuse, Martha still yearns to share a bed with Patrick. In some of Olsen’s most powerful scenes she quotes his indoctrinations verbatim at her relatives with a steely chilling confidence that tells us she’s not out of the woods yet.

Durkin doesn’t offer a clear resolution to Martha’s story, but that’s fitting for a character who is so deeply damaged. As it is, this is a fascinating character study that warrants revisiting on Blu-ray.

The main special feature on this Blu-ray include ‘Mary Last Seen’, the short that Durkin wrote and directed prior to the full feature. It introduced the world of the film while also working as a standalone story. Fortunately it didn’t have to stand alone and now it makes for an eerie precursor ‘Martha’. In addition to the short, the Blu-ray offers insightful featurettes on the making of the film, including the filmmakers’ views on cults, and John Hawke’s hauntingly beautiful full rendition of Jackson C. Frank’s “Marcy’s Song”.

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Film Review “Re:Generation Music Project”

Directed By: Amir Bar-Lev
Starring: Skrillex, DJ Premier, The Crystal Method, Pretty Lights, Mark Ronson, Erykah Badu, Mos Def, LeAnn Rimes, Dr. Ralph Stanley
Distributed by: D & E
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Running Time: 90 minutes

Our Score: 4 out of 5 stars

In “Re:Generation”, acclaimed director Amir Bar-Lev (“The Tillman Story”, “My Kid Could Paint That”), has gathered an incredible amount of musical talent for a documentary that is well suited for the iPod era.

The main concept of this film is a simple one. Five popular DJs are partnered with musical genres they rarely if ever work with and each is expected to create a whole new track in a matter of days. This leads to pairings as unusual as electronic music artist Skrillex with the remaining members of The Doors and Pretty Lights with country legend Dr Ralph Stanley. The set up could be the conceit of a reality show to exploit the differences between generations but both the artists and filmmakers smartly recognize that this is not the goal here. Instead we see professionals getting honestly inspired by their collaborators. Taking on classical music, New York-based DJ Premier is especially fun to watch as he’s taught how to conduct the Berklee Symphony Orchestra. His piece stitches together rapper Nas with eleven classical works from Mozart to Brahms to wonderful effect.

The starriest of collaborations is the jazz work created by producer Mark Ronson in New Orleans with Erykah Badu, Mos Def, The Dap-Kings and Zigaboo Modeliste. In a piece themed to gumbo, Ronson perfectly captures the spirit of the project when he says “You mix it all up in a pot and see what works.” In an age where people walk around with entire musical libraries in their pockets, this sentiment is clearly already accepted by modern listeners. Using available technology to create actual seamless blends like these is the natural next step.

Adding to the talent on display is the fact that the doc is beautifully shot. You can feel the excitement of the working studio through Bar-Lev’s fly-on-the-wall footage. When the final products are eventually performed, the sense of accomplishment is palpable as Bar-Lev cuts between the isolated artists recording and the wild, entertained crowds. It’s remarkable to see concert goers open to artists they may never have encountered otherwise. One can only hope the DJs take the inspiration they found during this film and continue to work outside their comfort zones.

 

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Filed Under: Film Reviews Tagged With: film, music, project, regeneration, review

Film Review “Ultrasuede: In Search of Halston”

Directed by Whitney Smith
Starring Halston, Patricia Altschul and Phillip Bloch
Tribeca Films
MPAA Rating: Unrated
Running Time: 89 minutes

Our Score: 2 out of 5 stars

‘In Search of Halston’ turns out to be an apt subtitle for Whitney Smith’s muddled documentary following the rise and fall of iconic American  designer Halston. There is an exciting life story here to be sure but it is unfortunately bogged down by a filmmaker intent on romanticizing the excesses of the nineteen seventies and clumsily inserting himself into the proceedings to no meaningful end.

Halston, (born in Iowa, Roy Halston Frowick) came to fame in 1961 when he designed Jackie O’s famous pillbox hat for JFK’s inauguration. Moving onto women’s wear, he dressed such icons as Elizabeth Taylor and Liza Minelli, who won her Academy Award for Caberet in a Halston gown. Eventually Halston successfully branched out into all sorts of markets from carpeting to perfumes. However the licensing of his name to ‘down market’ corporations such as JC Penney and Playtex contributed to his professional downfall in the eighties, while excesses of the era lead to his untimely death from AIDs-related cancer in 1990.

Where Smith comes into this is irrelevant really and yet the director sets up the film with an interview from his own mother to assure the audience that Smith really liked seventies fashion because he was so fond of Smokey and the Bandit. This has zero to do with Halston and everything to do with Smith rolling up to an interview at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in a vintage Pontiac Trans Am (this car gets entirely too much screen time), aviators, and a tacky porn ‘stache. Dressed like this, Smith appears in every single featured interview.

The interviewees themselves are an impressive lineup, among them Liza Minelli, Angelica Huston and Vogue’s André Leon Talley, but the director frames their exchanges awkwardly. Why include Talley rightly scolding Smith for his cell phone going off during their talk? Or designer Ralph Pucci demanding Excedrin? Why include Billy Joel at all when seemingly his only relation to Halston is one lyric in “Big Shot”? Questions like these distract from the genuinely interesting anecdotes that do come forward when the subjects are left to speak for themselves. Likewise the footage of Halston’s work show just how timeless and elegant his designs were. They would still be stunning on today’s catwalks, a point which Smith doesn’t particularly explore while loitering around Bryant Park’s Fashion Week because that’s where “dudes like [him] go to check out models.”

Perhaps most frustrating of all is the lack of the designer himself. For all the stories his colleagues provide, we barely get a glimpse at the real Halston. In video clips he appears in archival television footage to disperse maxims such as “You’re only as good as the people you dress.” We don’t go beneath the surface of his glamorous lifestyle and in fact Smith veers into an entire portion of the film devoted to just how wild it got in Studio 54. If Smith had just listened to Liza Minelli’s advice to “find out the solid stuff, f*ck the gossip”, we may have had a more interesting film.”

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Filed Under: Film Reviews Tagged With: film, halston, review, search, ultrasuede
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