Posted By Fargo Reviews / 29th April 2009
Now showing at the Fargo, a French offering, “The Class.”
This is an interesting movie about a French high school, and one class in particular as it navigates through the school year. The story, if it is one as opposed to real life drama, which it may well be, as far as I’m concerned, focuses on a French class. The high school is apparently not one with many upper middle class students. If we think our educational system has a diverse bunch of students, just remember that the French Colonial empire once rivaled the British in magnitude. So, we have moslem students, not only black students, but some from Africa and some from the Caribbean, and of course ordinary Franks.
Most of the scenes are set in the French classroom with the teacher trying his best to deal with unruly, disinterested and aggressive students. There are also shots of faculty meetings whee the less than perfect situation. Some of the teachers just want to give up entirely, and sometime I was tempted to agree with them.
I don’t think there’s any real message here, such as Th. fundamentally good or bad nature of adolescents or mankind in general. It’s as though someone just set a camera in a classroom and let it run. I found the depiction of the different student personalities and ethnic groups interesting, although I didn’t particularly enjoy the movie.
If you enjoyed “Blackboard Jungle” or would enjoy “Fast Times at Ridgemont HIgh” only without the humor, then you might like this. If you require any action or dramatic script, it isn’t here(except for brief shoving matches.”
Cinematography: B
Relevance: B*
Storyline: N/A
Posted By Fargo Reviews / 21st April 2009
The Fargo Theatre, as it often does after an awards ceremony, recently had a limited showing of the latest Batman installment, “Dark Knight.” The recent awards ceremony was, of course the Golden Globes.
In this installment Ethan Hawke plays The Batman(how he’s referred to in this movie) and Michael Caine plays his ever present butler. There is no Robin. And, as everyone except those that skip anything to do with movies, the Joker is played by the late Heath Ledger.
I found the movie an action and explosion filled version of a combination of “A Clockwork Orange” and “The Devil and Daniel Webster.” The Clockwork Orange connection is that in both movies, law and order are broken down. There are several instances in Dark Knight where citizens will not call the police or go to a court or police station since it is not safe. Of course, since in the movie Gotham has become Chicago, the fear may niot be far from wrong.
Even The Batman is being sought as a criminal(he certainly does not always stay within the strict confines of the law, but this is Chicago, er, Gotham, so who does?)
In to this crime infested mess enters The Joker, whose agenda is to simply to destroy everything, and District Attorney Harvey Dent, played by Aaron Ekhardt, a white knight, or Daniel Webster if you get my drift. You’ll just have to see the movie to see if you agree with me on this.
The movie consists mainly with a special police task force(presumably honest), Dent, and The Batman pursuing The Joker as he blows up buildings, cars, busses, people, in what is almost a psycho-drama. In the last third of the movie, which some have said is weak, Ledger’s performance is so compelling that I think he deserves the Oscar he most surely he posthumously will get. Lots of chase scenes, The Batman flying down from the tops of buildings, so the movie should be great fun for those that like that sort of thing. Of course, all Batman movies are about the struggle between good and evil, but there are some attempts in this movie to introduce thought producing ideas, involving this eternal struggle as well as raising issues about what motivates some of these characters. I won’t divulge exactly what I mean here: I think if you see the movie, you should think for yourself.
I found the movie a bit boring(once I’ve seen one horrendous explosion, I don’t really feel enthralled by a dozen more) and the psycho drama aspect a bit thin, but I certainly enjoyed myself.
The movie will certainly appeal to Batman fans, fans of chase scenes, and those that like action with a little thought provoking material thrown in. Outside the Batman genre, I think this movie compares somewhat with “The French Connection.”
Acting: A
Screenplay: B
Action: B
Special Effects/CGI: B+
Posted By Fargo Reviews / 12th April 2009
The last two showings on Thursday, March 5th, of the Fargo Film Festival were Native American Voices entries.
This segment was hosted by Prairie Rose, the Director of the Native American Voices competition. Prairie pointed out that while the Fargo Film Festival is 9 years old, the Native American Voices competition has been around for the last eight of them. She then opened the proceedings by singing a Native American blessing after pointing out that story telling in Native American culture is considered a sacred undertaking
The first offering, which received an Honorable Mention in Native American was a short called “Good Looking,” a short about a young, well I’m going to say Native Canadian, since it was a Canadian production, and when I lived in Canada(almost thirty years ago) that was the proper term. Now there’s something about First Nations. but I’m unsure of the details so I’ll stick with what I’m used to.
In any event, the young girl is a struggling actress, unable to find a part. Finally she lands a role in a zombie film which has sexual overtones(the film) in which she is to bare part of her anatomy in a semi=rape scene. She and her boyfriend, who also struggles as a hot dog vendor wrestle with what the right and wrongs of the situation and eventually resolve both their predicaments. Kind of a sweet little 17 minutes. The movie is entitled “Good Lucking.”
The last presentation, the Native American Voices Best Picture winner was a blockbuster. In these reviews I have departed from my usual form of writing about the movie without divulging very much of the plot, since many people, me included, don’t like to be told what they’re going to see. In the case of the Fargo Film Festival, though, I am assuming that whoever might read the reviews will probably not have a chance to see the movie under discussion, so in order to properly describe the Festival, I’m free to describe the offerings in detail.
In the case of the Native American Voices winner, “Moccasin Flats: Redemption,” however, I’m going to revert to my usual style, since I hope many people have a chance to view this feature length film(another Canadian production), which is one of the best movies I’ve seen in quite some time.
The movie is about a Native Canadian named Red who returns to his old neighborhood, presumably in Saskatoon, after a five year stretch in prison. The neighborhood is called Moccasin Flats, which has a reputation of being the worst neighborhood in Canada. Red checks into a half-way house and meets his old gang members and old girl friend. Life resumes for Red, who supposedly has changed from his former drug addicted self. But he still has to deal with his culture and horrific nightmares. Now I think we all now that recovering from drug addiction is not a simple matter, and I even found myself rooting for Red not to use any drugs, even though I know that just putting down the bag is not enough. But enough of the finer details.
The movie is about Red’s life in Moccasin Flats, a murder of the leader of his gang that needs to be solved or else
a gang war will likely result, Native Canadian spirituality, and about the struggles of some relatively straight people to make Moccasin Flats a livable place.
The actors, except for the police and a do-gooder or two, are all Native Canadian, and I’m not sure that they were acting much of the time. The overlying story is what happens to Red, but as I’ve indicated, there are a few well written and interesting sub plots.
If you like movies about people, life, particularly the not so pleasant side of it, or just like well acted and scripted movies then I think you’d like this. There is very little violence, just enough to make the story(ies) make sense.
I seldom outright recommend or not recommend movies since we all have different tastes, but in the spirit of “At the Movies,” I’m going to say “See It,” if you can.
Saturday night was the final night, during which the category winners are usually shown. I will report on the Best Documentary Feature and the Best Narrative Feature.
The Best Documentary Feature award went to “Abel raises Cain,” a feature length documentary about a professional hoaxter, Alan Abel, who was present at the showing. The story is told by his daughter Jenny. Alan makes his living, such as it is, by manufacturing hoaxes to perpetrate on the media and thus the public. One of them, which is a recurring theme, is about an organization against breast feeding. Of course there is no such organization. but Alan manufactures all sorts of reasons why breast feeding is unhealthy and sexually arousing and therefore should be banned. He appears on several talk shows to promote his “organization” and make his bogus points about the ills of breast feeding.
Another of his favorites is a campaign to clothe animals, since children should not see their private parts. He also poses as the teacher in a school for beggars. He also arranges a marriage of Idi Amin to an American so that Amin can become an American Citizen. This is done in front of media cameras under the watchful eye of the CIA, FBI and State Department. All involved are actors, of course, and at this point one might get a glimpse of what makes Alan tick. Of course the government can’t expose this hoax without exposing their support of the mass murder Amin, thoch would no doubt cause a national and international uproar.
These hoaxes are filmed as they occurred and there are many, many more of them. I wondered how one makes a living like this, and he doesn’t make much of one, but he appears on many talk shows, which, according to Abel, were desperate for guests in the 70′s and 80′s. He also, it came out during the all too short Q & A that followed had a producer that funded many of the hoaxes. I think the packed house enjoyed this film to an individual.
The Best Narrative Feature was “River,” another Canadian offering. This was a slice of live drama about a young lady in a small city in Saskatchewan that cleans office buildings for a living. She meets a young man, who apparently is a writer(it isn’t clear how he supports himself, but then in Canada, you don’t have to). The movie simply shows them going about their daily affairs, which in the girl(Roz)’s case usually involves drugs. They wind up living together, but no intimacy is ever shown. They go for bikerides, have coffee, go on picnics. I’m not sure why this is supposed to be interesting. Finally, at the end of the movie, it’s clear their relationship is not a romantic and that Stan, the young man, has some sort of sexual identity crisis that involves some sort of psychological voyeurism. But nothing is resolved(mabe that’s the point) and they go their separate ways.
I found this about as interesting as an hour and a half episode of One Tree Hill. And to think, I could have spent this time out in the lobby listening to Alan Abel. In my opinion, Moccasin Flats: Redemption would have been a far better choice for Best Narrative Feature, but then, I don’t get a vote.
Now that the Festival is history, I’d like t write my usual overview. I think this years Fargo Film Festival was much stronger than any of the previous ones. With the exception of the last movie presented, I though every offering was at least worthwhile, and many of the offerings worthy of viewing on their own.
The daytime showings were stronger than in previous years(I remember one year watching what turned out to be a long film commercial for a drug and alcohol treatment center: we’ve moved way beyond that). In general, I felt the quality of film at every level much stronger than in the past. Congratulations to Margie Bailey and Prairie Rose and the rest of the directors of Fargo Film Festival 9.
Posted By Fargo Reviews / 9th April 2009
One remarkable thing about this movie is that when it was released It received an X rating. I’m not sure what it’s rated now. The movie rating system we use now was new in the early 70′s. The nudity and sexual violence in the movie I don’t think is even approached in current movies.
I must confess that I saw the film when it first came out. In fact, I saw it at the Fargo, which was a different type of theater then. Everything was different then, and I think those under the age of 25 or so won’t understand much of what the movie is about.
The movie, when first released, I thought at the time was about fear: fear of the future, fear of society, fear of ourselves. The Viet Nam war was at it’s height, the civil rights movement was just getting started, the Miranda ruling was recent and still under much debate. Police brutality was still pretty much the law of the land. In the midst of all this change, there was the usual far right element opposing all of it. Not to say that the liberals, whatever they are, weren’t extreme too.
On the one side we had J Edgar Hoover saying the Miranda decision left him powerless to prosecute criminals. As an aside, the Miranda decision gave no one any more rights than they already had, it just required that upon arrest, they be advised of them. Law enforcement was able to obtain many convictions due to most people’s ignorance of these rights, while organized crime, which Hoover insisted didn’t exist, knew these rights cold and were therefore hard to convict.
On the other hand the “liberals” were in favor of rehabilitation through counseling, psycho therapy and the like.
When “A Clockwork Orange” was first released, it was billed as taking place in London sometime in the future, when Law and Order had broken down. I saw the movie, and didn’t believe it. I’ll return to that point later.
The main character in the movie is an adolescent named Alex, played magnificently by Malcom McDowell, who is basically a young hoodlum with a small hoodlum following. They like to steal things, beat people up, fight with other youth gangs, etc. Nothing new here. This has been going on as long as I can remember. In fact, one of his gang’s first victims in the movie, a helpless old wino the beat up with their walking sticks, complains first that there is no law and order anymore. They also commit two violent crimes by breaking and entering houses of people who won’t open the door for strangers, even for someone apparently mortally wounded. If you’ve ever lived in New York or Chicago, for example, nothing new there either. During the second of these, the victim dies accidentally during a sexual assault. She has, however, called 911 previously, and Alex gets arrested and sentenced to 14 years in Dartmoor. So Law and Order hasn’t broken down completely.
While in Dartmoor, Alex is a model prisoner, and is selected for an experimental program run by the British Home Office which uses some psychological methods to change the personalities of dangerous criminals. Without going into detail, its instills in the would be criminal a reaction to violence similar to what the drug antibuse does in an alcoholic’s reaction to alcohol. As one would expect, one issue is that the Home Office has used its power to change a human’s personality without really changing anything else. Removed his freedom of choice, as it were. Antabuse does the same thing, and I’m against that, too.
So, what we have here is a first rate film with excellent acting and a poignant but often humorous script that really is about several issues which at the time were as important as say multi-billion dollar rescue packages are today. The issues raised in the movie have mostly been resolve, or at least, rendered irrelevent.
Lots of violence, foul language, and it is interesting to see how we compare to where the movie thought society was headed. It is not a romantic comedy, but I think anyone who seriously wants to think about how we got where we are should see this movie.
Script: B+
Acting: A-
Relevance: B+
Posted By Fargo Reviews / 23rd January 2009
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