Crum on Showbiz

This review was originally published in The Kansas City Kansan on Sept. 22, 2004.

By Steve Crum

Anyone under 30 years old seeing Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow will love the film for reasons different from the over 30 crowd. Those young will be dazzled by the cutting edge, digital look of the film. It is the first feature ever to be mostly shot using “blue screen” with computer graphics later added. 

Then there is the non-stop action including car-crunching, giant robots, outer space dinosaurs, and wing-flapping, drone airplanes. 

Writer-Director Kerry Conran’s debut film has a second hook for older viewers: their own movie memories.

There are not only quick references, but entire sequences, settings and dialogue cut and pasted within Sky Captain’s busy framework. Don’t get me wrong, this is not a collage of film clips from other movies. Instead it is a remarkable picture peppered with stream-of-consciousness, 1930s media imagery. And it is all wrapped around a corny, hero-to-the-rescue formula that works. It is also 98 percent animated.

Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow star as Joe “Sky Captain” Sullivan and reporter Polly Perkins. Along with a handful of actual human beings including Angelina Jolie’s eye-patched heroine, Captain Franky Cook, Law and Paltrow act in their real human skins. Director Conran has made sure their costumes are classic comic book correct, however.

Adding a curious blend of sepia tones with subdued colors, the overall film really nails the period look. Plot wise, the story opens as the Hindenburg III dirigible floats near the top of New York’s Empire State Building. As clouds roll in and snow starts to fall, radio broadcasts bellow that the world’s top scientists are mysteriously disappearing. Lumbering robots fly into the city and land upright, smashing everything in their pats as they march along busy streets. Lucky for the Big Apple that Chronicle reporter Polly Perkins knows Sky Captain’s private phone line. (They have had adventures together before, you see.) Soon the air ace speeds his Flying Tiger plane toward NYC and…and—continued in the movie theatre. I can’t spoil too much of this good thing.

Be aware that there are more good guys, including Giovanni Ribisi’s Dex Dearborn. Think of Dex and his relationship with Sky Captain as what Artemus Gordon was to James West in TV’s The Wild, Wild West. There is also a really bad guy called Dr. Totenkopf, “played by” the late Laurence Olivier. Yes, Olivier died 15 years ago, but his face has been digitalized onto this animated villain! Make that a very posthumous appearance by Lord Olivier. How retro can one get?

The movie’s 107 minutes manages to layer in so many fun images and action sequences that a second viewing is advised. You are bound to enjoy it just as much the second time around. Then you can savor the clever references to classics like Metropolis, Buck Rogers, and Flash Gordon. Even the Fleischer Studios’ Superman cartoons (particularly “Mechanical Monsters”) are recalled. If you are familiar with Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds radio broadcast, you are in for another treat. 

As for main characters, Sky and Polly borrow from the Indiana Jones school of relationships. It’s the love/hate thing Indie has with all his heroines. 

Surely the duo have signed for Sky Captain’s next nail biting adventure. 

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GRADE on an A-F Scale: A

[The following review was my very first published in The Kansas City Kansan on Nov. 8, 1994. Since the now long gone Kansan was a local newspaper, the editor included the fact that I was also teaching at a local high school.]

By Steve Crum

Not far into Neil Jordan’s Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles, one realizes that a more apt title would be Therapy Session with the Vampire. For here is a bloodsucker in deep depression with a number of connected problems.

Using Anne Rice’s popular novel, director Jordan and screenwriter Rice open the story in a modern day San Francisco hotel room where a newspaper reporter (Christian Slater) has been “summoned” to document the last two centuries of Louis Pointe du Lac (Brad Pitt). A plantation owner in 1791 New Orleans, Louis’ life is shattered when his wife and child die in childbirth. He then succumbs to vampirism as “a release from the pain of living” when Lestat de Lioncourt (Tom Cruise) sells him on the idea of a happier, and eternal, life. Louis becomes a team player, er, biter. 

During the course of the “interview,” we see the perverse Lestat teach Louis the skills of vampirism. But Louis has an aversion to human targets, preferring rats, chickens, and in one very darkly comedic scene, an elderly lady’s poodles. 

When Louis finally victimizes a human, it is 12 year-old Claudia, brilliantly played by Kirsten Dunst. Her Claudia evolves into a truly tormented soul—intellectually a woman forever trapped in a child’s body. Dunst’s performance is Oscar caliber. 

So is Cruise’s. His vampire is really wacko. Always flamboyant, Lestat is way over the top…like his dancing with Claudia’s long-dead mother’s corpse in a Beetlejuice/Fred Astaire parody. He is the mentor-friend who keeps popping in and out of Louis’ life. 

Lately, much has been said about the overt sexuality with this “family”of three vampires. There are moments of near homosexual embrace (Louis and Lestat) as well as a liaison between Claudia and Louis. 

Certainly, director Jordan’s previous work in The Crying Game had similar dealings, minus vampires. Vampirism in film and literature has always included lustful implications, homoerotic and otherwise.

Interview includes great gothic sets, marvelous period costumes and chilling vampire makeup. (Check out those varicose-like veins in Cruise and Pitt’s pallid faces.)

One of several memorable fire sequences occurs during the time Louis and Claudia spend with a decadent theatrical troupe of vampires, led by Antonio Banderas. It is unforgettably surreal.

Interview with the Vampire is the film Oprah Winfrey and other celebrities bolted from the screening in shock and disgust. Be forewarned that it is deservedly rated “R” for violence and nudity.

Maybe Oprah thought that “interview” meant “talk show.”

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GRADE on an A-F Scale: B+

(Steve Crum is the journalism teacher at Washington High School.)

[The following review was published in The Kansas City Kansan on Dec. 23, 1994. Since The Kansan was a local newspaper, the editor included the fact that I was also teaching at a local high school.]

By Steve Crum

It is the innocence of Nell in Nell that will squeeze tears out of most viewers. In fact, it is sometimes a rating experience to watch Nell because we know the at any minute Nell’s world will be invaded, her private life savaged. 

Jodie Foster is Nell, and Jodie Foster will surely be nominated for an Oscar. Bank on it. Foster, who also produced, is stunning as the backwoods child-woman whose link with humans has been almost solely through her late mother. Since her mother was partially paralyzed and her speech grossly distorted, Nell’s speech is similarly impaired through exposure. Add to that the mother abusive control over Nell. (She was never permitted to leave the house in daylight.) 

So what happens when a local doctor (Liam Neeson) is called to trek the boondocks after the mother’s corpse is discovered? He finds Nell in hiding, and is obsessed with trying to communicate with her. A local psychiatrist (Natashia Richardson) is also involved. Piecing together Nell’s language and personality, the two are fearful early on of a media circus once Nell’s existence is known.

Another Oscar envelope, please, to Neeson. Neeson is a fascinating actor. As Oskar Schindler in last year’s Schindler’s List, Neeson underplayed with powerful reserve. Now he excites us about discovering what makes Nell tick. He makes us care that he cares. That he knows too well how vulnerable Nell is only frustrates us more.

1948’s Johnny Belinda is the story of a deaf-mute young woman whose innocence was corrupted. Thanks to a sensitive local doctor who teaches her sign language, Belinda is able to tell him and community her story.

The parallel to Nell is striking. The joy of communication lives in both films. Nell’s doctor is driven in similar was as Belinda’s, and once the truth is known, then what? The doctor has become the protectorate—or as Nell calls Neeson’s Lovell, her “guardian angel.” It is at this point, the last third of the film, that Nell becomes contrived. Blame

the writers, William Nicholson and Mark Handley, for tacking on an epilogue (“Five years later…”). Tack on director Michael Apted as well. 

But it is the first two-thirds, encompassing the discovery of Nell that spotlights Foster, Neeson and Richardson’s ensemble performances, that clinches. 

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GRADE on an A-F Scale: B+

(Steve Crum is the journalism teacher at Washington High School.)

By Steve Crum

The Secret Agent is a fascinating, at times confusing, historical political thriller set in Brazil during 1977. Corruption and turmoil abound with a military dictatorship in power. What a not so great time for widower Armando Solimões (well played by Wagner Moura) to return home to his young son Fernando (Enzo Nunes). 

Incidentally, much of the story confusion is attributed to the film’s Brazilian Portuguese language. Sure, it is subtitled in English, but…be aware. The plot centers on Armando, who left the country some time ago due to both the death of his wife as well as his work with anti-government resistance. His son has been staying with elderly relatives. Because the police are still searching for Armando, he uses the alias Marcelo. 

It doesn’t take long for Armando/Marcelo to encounter crooked police as he stops for gasoline on the outskirts of Recife. A man’s rotting body is partially covered by a sheet as it lies where it has been for several days. And that’s a few feet from the gas pumps! No doubt the police killed him. I won’t go into detail about all the violence in The Secret Agent, but it is plentiful—based on the facts of that time. 

Produced, written and directed by Kleber Mondonça Filho, The Secret Agent follows Armando as he reconnects with his son, becomes active once again with his dissident friends, and eludes being killed when a contract is placed on his life. The action becomes even more intense and bloody. 

Along the way, expect mini-adventures with a severed leg (which makes headlines in local news), a man-eating shark, a hungry pack of dogs, open sex on the streets, and great comradery among the dissidents. 

There is also a clever conclusion, per se epilogue, featuring Wagner Moura in another surprising role. 

A supporting cast led by Carlos Francisco, Tânia Maria and Robério Diógenes are pluses. Add Evgenia Alexandrova’s cinematography. And tack on that yellow VW Beetle! 

At the film’s beginning, 1977 Brazil is described as a “period of great mischiefs.” Indeed so. 

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GRADE on an A-F Scale: B+

By Steve Crum

A young priest is assigned to a small-town parish to assist a monsignor with a very negative reputation. What follows is a study in deception, cult behavior and eccentricity. Add to that some very dark humor. And override all of that with murder. The result is an involving ride with an internationally known private detective in quest to discover the guilty. 

The heavily layered plot makes for a riveting 144 minutes of Wake Up Dead Man, the third film of the “Knives Out Mystery” series. Once again, Rian Johnson produces, writes and directs. He reestablishes himself as the premiere movie crime-mystery creator of our time…much as his obvious mentor, Agatha Christie, was of her authored books. 

The who-done-it (once again) stars Daniel Craig as master detective Benoit Blanc. He is called to upstate New York to help local police investigate the murder of Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin), the brash and outspoken pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude. Brolin is terrific.

The list of suspects, like any stereotypical murder mystery, varies from the wild to the weird. No surprise that the guilty seems to vary from one to another, and back again—the sign of a good murder mystery. Clues overlap and disappear to the extent that Detective Blanc explodes his frustration: “I cannot solve this case!”

Nonetheless, church parishioners, including assistant priest/former boxer Jud Duplencity (Josh O’Connor), have their individual quirks and possible motives for doing in the domineering Wicks. 

Part of the enjoyment of Wake Up Dead Man are the well known actors who play suspects—referred to as a “flock of wolves.” Consider Glenn Close as the creepily devout church lady Martha Delacroix. Maybe the guilty party is Nat Sharp (Jeremy Renner), the alcoholic physician? Perhaps it is Kerry Washington’s Vera Draven. Andrew Scott’s author, Lee Ross, is suspicious. The list goes on. 

It’s also a kick to watch Jeffrey Wright as a bishop; and Thomas Haden Church as groundskeeper and Martha’s lover. 

Then there is Mila Kunis as the business-only local police chief. 

Wake Up Dead Man is an enticing journey through familiar plot structure that will pull the audience into a revealing and satisfying  epilogue. 

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GRADE on an A-F Scale: B+