Classic Review: SATANTANGO (Béla Tarr, 1994)

By all accounts, Satantango is a recipe for disaster. The vast majority of the population would turn the movie down, but if you're like me and embrace movies for everything they are then you jump at the chance to watch a movie like this. For starters, Satantango is a black and white film. It's in Hungarian. It runs 7 hours and 12 minutes. And there's only 150 cuts in the entire flick. Damn. That's an average shot length of a little over 145 seconds. With that in mind, I said to myself... "Let's do this thing."

After sitting through those 7 hours and 12 minutes (make fun of me, I dare ya), I came to the simple and utter conclusion: Satantango is an unheralded masterpiece. Béla Tarr basically does whatever the hell he wants when he makes a movie, going so far as having some shots run well over ten minutes and feature almost nothing thrilling while the camera remains static. For instance the dance scene, which is just drunken townspeople dancing in a pub for ten minutes. I know, it sounds boring, but it's fascinating to watch. Even the opening shot, running almost eight minutes, is just a herd of cattle wandering around on a muddy mass of land while it gloomily rains. For some reason, Tarr makes this extremely riveting. I don't know how he does it!

For those of you concerned with a plot, Satantango deals with a group of people in a farm at the collapse of communism in Hungary. It is the onset of the rainy season, and they are all about to be paid and skip town to make another living. However, a former resident of the town, the smooth-talking Irimias (Mihály Vig), thought to be dead, returns to the town with plans for the citizens.

But, honestly, who cares about the plot. The sheer brilliance in the way the film was put together almost overshadows that. I say almost because of the unique structure that the movie displays. the title, literally meaning Satan's Tango, is structured like a tango dance (one step forward, one step back, six steps forward, six steps back, etc., etc.). That means the flick goes back and forth in time in its twelve broken-up parts.

I really cannot praise Satantango enough. This being my first Béla Tarr flick, I was awe-inspired. I really look forward to watching more of his incredibly unique movies. Touché, Mr. Tarr... touché...

BOTTOM LINE: While Satantango is certainly not for everyone, anyone who respects movies and moviemaking should assuredly watch this understated masterpiece. This is filmmaking at its simplistic best.
Buy Satantango on DVD.

GREENBERG (Noah Baumbach, 2010)

Roger Greenberg (Ben Stiller), a neurotic New Yorker, moves to Los Angeles for six weeks to look after his brother's place while he and his family vacation in Vietnam (where else?!). Through these six revelatory weeks, Greenberg confronts the troubles in his life with meeting old friends and girlfriends, while getting romantically close with his brother's assistant Florence (Greta Gerwig).

While this film may sound like one of the Woody Allen/Wes Anderson type flicks... well, it is, and it isn't. Noah Baumbach is a regular collaborator with Anderson, yet his movies have a distinction on their own. Baumbach has just one shortcoming with his movies: since his characters are almost always have an I-hate-the-world attitude, it makes them so unlikable. That's what his last flick, Margot At The Wedding, suffered from. But the one before that, The Squid And The Whale, made it art.

Baumbach still holds onto those trademarks with Greenberg, but like The Squid And The Whale, these unlikable character become lovable. And that really is due to Ben Stiller's awesome job tackling the lead role. It is a hard character to play, don't get me wrong. Stiller plays Roger Greenberg as being this fun-loving guy on the inside, but has no idea how to convey that without giving away the brutally honest truth. And with that, Stiller makes Greenberg capable of redemption, making him three-dimensional.

I was also pleased to see members of the mumblecore filmmaking scene present here. Greta Gerwig plays Greenberg's love interest, and the totally awesome Mark Duplass plays one of Greenberg's friends. If you haven't seen the Duplass Brothers' movie The Puffy Chair, well, then, go do that RIGHT NOW, don't even read the rest of this thing, c'mon, do it, I dare ya, I know it's hard.

Baumbach does a good job here. The movie gets a lot more interesting as it goes along, and it seems like a return to form for him after the overly-neurotic Margot At The Wedding.

BOTTOM LINE: Noah Baumbach goes back to what made The Squid And The Whale so charming and creates a sympathetic portrait of a man at a crossroads, played so deftly and professionally by Ben Stiller. It will have you thinking long after the flick has ended.

HOT TUB TIME MACHINE (Steve Pink, 2010)

With a title so blunt and to the point as Hot Tub Time Machine there's really no need to ask what the hell the movie is about, but for you noobs out there the film concerns four friends (John Cusack, Craig Robinson, Rob Corddry and Clark Duke) who take a little trip to their old favorite ski resort and are unwittingly sent back to 1986 after their, you guessed it, hot tub goes haywire. It sounds stupid, I know. But the movie is not.

It starts off rocky. The flick just seems to be hurtling all these gross-out gags at the audience to test their gag reflex, and most of them fall flat, becoming just a tepid comedy. But suddenly the film finds its calling, embraces its stupidity, and the jokes become more than inspired. The rest of the flick is just a raunchy good time and the sheer number of jokes that the script and the cast come up with at such rapid speed is something to be admired.

What Hot Tub Time Machine benefits most from is its immensely likable cast. 80's poster boy John Cusack is gung-ho for this kinda thing (he's even dressed in his Lloyd Dobbler outfit at one point, wink wink), Craig Robinson delivers his hilarious deadpan perfectly, Rob Corddry seems to just be having a blast being the "asshole" friend, and Clark Duke finally gets some well-deserved recognition after the amazing web series Clark And Michael (which you should watch immediately). Chevy Chase is also here, as well as George McFly himself Crispin Glover, who's given a really fantastic subplot that is worth mentioning.

Don't get me wrong, Hot Tub Time Machine is not perfect. There are plot holes. There are unnecessary moments. But in the end, the flick just does what it wants to do, and that is to entertain. And it does.

BOTTOM LINE: After a really rocky start, Hot Tub Time Machine finds its footing and, from its incredibly likable cast and the sheer number of jokes thrown at the audience, becomes a raunchy blast.

GREEN ZONE (Paul Greengrass, 2010)

When I heard Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass, the team behind the second and third Bourne movies, were teaming up again to make a movie called Green Zone, I immediately took interest because I used to wrestle under that name.

I kid. But I did wanna see this movie since Greengrass is an explosive director and Matt Damon is just so dreamy to look at. Well what did I think of the flick? I know you got your panties in a bunch just waiting to know.

While the film was entertaining in some parts, through the majority of the film it felt really tedious and, dare I say... boring. The action is so relentless at some parts that it just beats you (HAHAHA nice pun!) over the head with it, and it just ends up becoming stale.

This movie had a similar effect on me like another recent movie, Michael Mann's Public Enemies. All the pieces are there, but something, somewhere, just didn't reach me and totally immerse me into the world that the movie presents, leaving me feeling cold and detached. It's kinda like that scene in X2 when Iceman forms that ice wall between Stryker and Wolverine in the mansion. The thing is there and I like what I see, but emotionally I couldn't be so far away.

But overall, the film is nice one. I really enjoyed the story, as it combines political elements and molds it into an entertaining docu-drama, much like what Greengrass did with and Bloody Sunday and United 93. The opening scene in the flick is phenomenal, as well as the take-down of a helicopter. Of course, Greengrass keeps his trademark shaky camera and jarring editing intact, and I didn't have a problem with that, as Greengrass is one of the only directors who knows how to handle handheld cinematography well.

Another complaint I would like to share is that the sheer attractiveness of Matt Damon really just distracted me. Sometimes he would be talking and then I would just get lost in his eyes and then something important would happen and then I would have no idea what was going on HAHAHAHAHA IS HE KIDDING?!?!?!?!?!?! I feel on a second viewing I will like this film a lot more than the first time around.

BOTTOM LINE: Green Zone has all the pieces in place, from a solid script, cast, and director (and some terrific sequences), but something got lost in translation and left me feeling cold and distant.

On DVD: ROCKET SCIENCE (Jeffrey Blitz, 2007)

Hal Hefner (Reece Thompson) is a simple high school student, just going about his life. Except for one thing. He goes about his life with a terrible stutter. And that's why Ginny Ryerson (Anna Kendrick) recruits him to be her debate team partner after the talented Ben Wekselbaum (Nicholas D'Agosto) "loses his voice." What follows is a sublime coming-of-age tale about teenage love and politics.

With Rocket Science, this continues a little trend I unwittingly had with watching little indie quirk movies, which began with Phil Morrison's Junebug (a must-see for Amy Adams's incredible performance alone) and continued with Tamara Jenkins's The Savages (reviewed below). I had listened to Jason Reitman's audio commentary during Up In The Air and said that he actually wrote the character of Natalie Keener for Anna Kendrick after seeing her in this film, and wholeheartedly recommended Rocket Science, so I just had to see it for myself.

It turns out, I really dug the flick. Director Jeffrey Blitz really does have a love for the characters, and it shows. Kendrick's Ginny Ryerson is fantastic, and she really does give it her all here, and I can really see why Reitman casted her in Up In The Air, as she truly is a fine a young talent, as well as securing a spot on my Movie Crushes list. I was sometimes reminded of Reese Witherspoon's Tracy Flick character from Alexander Payne's Election, and that's a good thing.

As for the other aspects of the movie, Reece Thompson also give a great stuttering performance as the insecure Hal Hefner, and the soundtrack, from the original compositions to the symphonic Violent Femmes, is also great. And freakin' catchy. Christ. I can't get the goddamn main theme outta my head.

Of course, this being a "quirk" flick, there are those moments of quirk. And we really have seen it all before. But that really shouldn't detract from the overall judgment of the film. Also, I'd like the point out the use of third-person narration. I'll let ya in on a little secret here, but I am a SUCKER for a third-person narrator, and that's what added to my enjoyment of this movie, along with Todd Field's Little Children and Andrew Dominik's The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Oscar Winner Sandra Bullock, I mean, By The Coward Robert Ford.

BOTTOM LINE: Rocket Science is a highly enjoyable little coming-of-age flick, which is only boosted by Anna Kendrick's searing performance and Reece Thompson's stutter, as well as clever writing. It also runs at a nice, brisk pace.
Buy Rocket Science on DVD.

On DVD: THE SAVAGES (Tamara Jenkins, 2007)

Well, well, well, dear readers, it's been a while since I wrote here, but that's because I've been a little busy making some short videos. But fear not, I return with a run-down of Tamara Jenkins's little film The Savages.

We've all seen this movie before. It's one of those dysfunctional family films, with walking index card description characters, and an overabundance of quirk thrown in for cheap laughs. But that's what it appears on the surface. Oh, The Savages is much, much more than that.

With Juno, I firmly believe that it was Jason Reitman and his actors that saved that flick from the god-awful script that it had. Diablo Cody is, like, way overrated and totally for shiz, like, out of whack up the sprout, homeskillet. Honestly, I really don't know/give a shit what her characters are saying half the time.

Now, before I Hulk out with gamma rage on Diablo Cody, I'll really get to The Savages. The script in itself is interesting, and what benefits it is the complex characters it presents. These would be a challenge to the actors portraying them, making sure that in real life these are unlikable people but making them ultimately likable. Get me? Well, Laura Linney, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Philip Bosco (playing sister, brother, and father Savage, respectively) pull it off and then some. Linney's Wendy Savage could have been so hokey and annoying, but since Linney is the great actress that she is, she can turn it into a great, Academy Award nominated character.

That's where the real strength in The Savages lies. The actors have full faith in this above-average quirk-script and the performances are phenomenal all around. There are those quirk moments, of course, but they are very subversive quirk moments, so if you're very anti-quirk I'm giving the nonexistent Wes Greene Seal Of Approval for all you quirk-haters out there. If you're lonely out there on this St. Patrick's Day, a little game you could play is to drink every time I say quirk in this article.

If I had one think to complain about the flick it would be the pacing. It seems like it's going fast, but it really isn't. I really don't know how to put it, but it really gets slow at some parts. 'Nuff said.

BOTTOM LINE: The Savages may look like another two-dimensional dysfunctional family flick, but the above-average script and the full commitment and greatness of its actors benefits it greatly, making it worth your time.
Buy The Savages on DVD.

On DVD: RELIGULOUS (Larry Charles, 2008)

Well since the viewing of Capitalism: A Love Story got me so fired up, I realized that I had yet to see another documentary I had on my nonexistent list. That documentary was the Larry Charles directed Religulous, which was the brainchild of writer and star (and, in my humble opinion, the best political comedian/satirist working today) Bill Maher. In it, he tackles the state of religion today all around the world. No one is left unscathed here: Christians, Catholic, Muslims, Jews... you name it, he debunks the myths.

Religulous is a really funny movie. Bill Maher proves he is really the only sane voice to be heard if you want your fix on the state of the world. He doesn't mince words, he tells it like it is, and leaves no one unhurt. On top of that, the film was directed by Larry Charles, he who directed the Borat and Brüno films, does the same guerrilla approach here, which basically tricks people into giving interviews with Maher.

Maher handles the content well. Some of the people who he interviews are sometimes so visibly uncomfortable that I really hope they take in what Maher says to him, which basically is that their religion is phony and a fairy tale. While I really didn't wanna give away my beliefs on here, it really is true what Maher is saying. There is honestly no other way to say it, and that's what makes this documentary so good.

Apart from the content, the film is just chock full of awesome little video clips and music, which only heightens the comedic element. Some of the interviews are also just knee-slappin' hilarious, and Maher just makes it better with his wit.

Let me level with ya, it's really hard to review this movie without giving away personal beliefs, so I'll just leave the review at that. My only criticism would be that is a little too one-sided, but, whatever, that's why you go out and do your own research.

BOTTOM LINE: Religulous may be a little one-sided, but Bill Maher and co. make a genuinely hilariously true documentary that everyone MUST SEE.
Buy Religulous on DVD.