In Theaters: Inglourious Basterds (2009)

Directed By: Quentin Tarantino

Starring:
Brad Pitt as Lt. Aldo Rain
Mélanie Laurent as Shosanna
Christoph Waltz as Col. Landa

For those familiar with the work of Quentin Tarantino, you will recall that he admires the use of chapters for dividing a film’s narrative into more easily-digestible parts. He employs the technique once again with Inglourious Basterds, and titles the first of these chapters in a most appropriate way: “Once Upon a Time in Nazi Occupied France…” Some might look at this just as a catchy slogan, used for stylistic purposes exclusively. But, Tarantino means it quite literally; this is not World War II as history books would describe it, but rather a fairy tale of the war that ends with a drastically-different and far more appropriate conclusion. I shall put it this way: for those of you who believe in karma, this is how you probably believe World War II should have ended. But, really, this movie is not even about World War II…it is about, as Brad Pitt’s character so elegantly states, the “killin’ Nazi business.” And yes, business is a-boomin’ here.

The aforementioned Brad Pitt character, played by the actor with just the right amounts of flamboyancy and satire, is named Lieutenant Aldo Rain, the leader of a group known as the “Basterds.” They are a ragtag bunch of individuals who sweep across France, killing Nazis and plotting the permanent downfall of the Third Reich. But, even this colorful clan, including a member nicknamed “The Bear Jew” (played with gusto by acclaimed horror director Eli Roth) who becomes legendary for his brutal baseball skills, is overshadowed by Shosanna Dreyfus (Laurent), a young Jewish girl thirsty for revenge following the murder of her family. She now runs a movie theater and strategically allows it to be used for the premiere of a Nazi propaganda film, an event that will play host to both the man that killed her family, Colonel Hans Landa (Waltz), and Adolph Hitler himself.

Tarantino effortlessly weaves these two storylines together, both leading up to a stunning and rather awe-inspiring climax. Some may fault the film for its perceived excessive use of dialog. But I implore you to remember that Quentin Tarantino wrote the screenplay and, therefore, it can be correctly assumed that the conversations his characters have are far more interesting than most of the action sequences you have seen this summer. They are foul-mouthed and yet poetic, rugged and yet brilliant. That Tarantino has assembled a top-notch cast to speak this dialog is another reason for its overwhelming success. Brad Pitt is exceptionally good as the film’s primary source of dark humor; he clearly loves the art of acting and his overwhelming devotion to the craft is vividly apparent in this performance. But the highest honors must go to Mélanie Laurent and Christoph Waltz, both of whom are so electric in their respective roles that they practically leap off of the screen.

Though this is my first review for The Cinema Issue, one of the things you will quickly learn about me is that, if nothing else, I crave innovation in cinema. I desire to see new material or old material presented in a new way. If you were skeptical before, Inglourious Basterds proves without a shadow of a doubt that Quentin Tarantino is a master innovator. Very few screenwriters or directors would dare to drastically alter such well-known history in favor of a more satisfying film; even fewer would venture to present World War II in such a satirical manner. That all of the risk pays off and makes Inglourious Basterds one of the best and most fascinating films of the year is a testament to the skill and precision of Tarantino and his cast. It might be too early to make predictions for the upcoming Oscar competition, but I imagine it will be difficult for the Academy, having shut Tarantino out ever since Pulp Fiction in 1994, to completely ignore a film like Inglourious Basterds.

In Theaters: Post Grad (2009)

Directed By: Vicky Jenson

Starring:
Alexis Bledel as Ryden
Michael Keaton as Walter
Zach Gilford as Adam

Post Grad is the kind of movie that depends on its main character to be a complete moron for the first hour and then to become a suddenly enlightened individual in the last act. This time around, a casket, a soap box derby, and an Eskimo Pie bring about the character’s contrived enlightenment. The character is Ryden Malby (Bledel), a college student who has elaborate plans for her post-graduation life. We meet her as she prepares to accept her diploma, smiling and giddy with excitement. Then, a string of terrible things happen all at once: she wrecks her car, doesn’t get her dream job, is denied for her dream apartment, and is forced to move back in with her borderline psychotic family. Yes, it would seem that it sucks to be Ryden Malby…but I would happily wager that her life sucks a little less than the experience of having to watch it all happen.

Prior to viewing Post Grad, I had a theory that is as follows: no film featuring the charms of Alexis Bledel, Jane Lynch, and the great Carol Burnett could ever be bad. Needless to say, I was very wrong. In fact, these three talented ladies come off looking worse than anyone else involved in this film’s production. They are just too talented and intelligent to choose material as bad and as thoroughly boring as this. Michael Keaton, on the other hand, has become notorious for making poor decisions when selecting roles and his blatant overacting suggests that films like Post Grad are the only ones still clamoring to employ him. Perhaps his upcoming role as the voice of Ken, Barbie’s longtime plastic companion, in the highly-anticipated Toy Story 3 can remind audiences why we liked him in the beginning and, even more importantly, remind him that it is beneficial to be selective when choosing roles.

Post Grad seems to be composed of one miscalculation after another. Certainly, none of the actors should have ever dared to touch this material, and director Vicky Jenson, best known for co-directing Shrek (the first film to win the Academy Award for “Best Animated Feature”) and Shark Tale, would have done well to steer clear of making this film her second live-action project. She is able to direct Post Grad with able clarity, creating a polished-looking and solid-feeling film. The problem is not in the director or most of the cast, but in the simply sophomoric screenplay by Kelly Fremon. It relies on every cliché imaginable to pad its already scant runtime and, unfortunately, underemphasizes its main idea. I didn’t know how Ryden would cope without a job and practically without a life whatsoever, but I knew from the very first moment that the film introduced her doting best friend, Adam (Gilford), that they would end up in love. Sadly, their relationship is at the center of the entire film.

I’ll tell you exactly what would have changed my mind about Post Grad. There comes a moment in the film when Ryden must choose either Adam, the friend she always demanded was “just a friend,” or her Brazilian neighbor, David (Rodrigo Santoro, another actor who should have known better), who she actually does have intimate feelings for. Formula demands that she choose Adam; the best friend almost always ends up being the true love in disguise. In fact, I quite liked Adam as a character. Zach Gilford plays him with complete sincerity and utter dignity, lacking the over-the-top zaniness that plagued much of the rest of the cast. Still, Ryden insisted that she did not love him and only wanted to be best friends. When she chooses him, it feels as though she is solely choosing to follow formula, rather than choosing the person she really loves. Had she booked a flight to Brazil to find David, I believe this review would have gone differently.

In Theaters: Shorts (2009)

Directed By: Robert Rodriguez

Starring:
Jimmy Bennett as Toe
Jake Short as Nose
James Spader as Mr. Black

Shorts is technically far worse than the other bad movie released this week, Post Grad…and yet I am awarding them equivalent star ratings. As I mentioned in my review of Inglourious Basterds, I want to see innovation in films, and Robert Rodriguez doesn’t settle with the same old, tired routine for Shorts. He bends the rules of traditional family movies, telling a nonlinear story that is perhaps one of the strangest I have ever seen. Though it is indeed still bad, this film has the benefit of being surprisingly unique and inventive. From scenes where a monstrous booger tries to engulf a horde of children in a germaphobe’s house to scenes where a giant wasp attacks a destructive robot, I never knew exactly where Shorts was headed next. The fact that its destination is almost always repulsively silly and awfully dumb is quite unfortunate.

To describe Shorts is a bit like describing insanity or perhaps stupidity. The film’s basic plot deals with the arrival of a wishing rock in the freakish Texas community of Black Falls, home to the company that makes the “Black Box,” an invention that can turn into almost anything (as long as its batteries aren’t dead). Toe Thompson (Bennett) is the son of two of the company’s developers (Leslie Mann and Jon Cryer), who have recently learned that they will be fired if they can’t somehow make the Black Box perfect. Toe finds the wishing rock and uses it to, amongst other things, wish for friends. These friends come in the form of inch-tall martians flying in tiny spaceships. Their arrival sparks chaos and, right from the beginning, we learn that this wishing rock isn’t all its cracked up to be. Eventually, it gets passed to every member of the community in a series of short stories told, for some inexplicable reason, out of order.

Ultimately, the super-stylized production values, the obnoxiously bright color scheme, and the nonlinear storytelling are all masks trying to cover up the fact that Shorts is really quite hollow. Certainly, the film is whacky and creative, but it doesn’t really tell a truly fascinating story. All of the vicious crocodiles, flesh-eating boogers, and pea-sized aliens in the world cannot save a film, unless they are somehow strung together in a comprehensible and interesting storyline. And that is where Robert Rodriguez takes his fatal misstep. He makes the entire film about breaking the rules and being creative, instead of making the film about a story that features rule-breaking and creativity. The only reason we are ever invested in the images put on screen is because we can’t wait to see what off-the-wall thing Rodriguez is going to throw at us next. By the time a man is turned into a giant Oscar Meyer wiener, I was exhausted and ready to leave.

I would imagine that there will be many children who will thoroughly enjoy this film. To them, boogers are always funny, and so a giant one that eats children will probably be hilarious. But, they deserve better films than this, and parents will find very little to enjoy about this frantic and hyper-kinetic experiment conducted by Robert Rodriguez. Why else would he have made this movie, except for it to act as an experiment, testing just how far he could push boundaries before people finally walked out of the theater, turned off the DVD, or changed the channel? Why else would people like Leslie Mann, Jon Cryer, William H. Macy, and James Spader do a film like this, unless there was some grander scheme behind the scenes that we are not seeing? Much like the cast of Post Grad, I cannot see why anyone who starred in this film would be willing to do so. I imagine it must be because Robert Rodriguez wrote and directed it. Little did they know, this would be one of his career’s biggest mistakes.

News: This Week's Releases

Ah, I can almost smell the end of the summer movie season, a time of year riddled with big-budget action epics and light, breezy comedies. And who could possibly be better than Quentin Tarantino to begin the departure of summer 2009? His latest film, Inglourious Basterds (yes, it is spelled incorrectly on purpose), is looking to dominate this weekend’s box-office, opening on approximately 3,165 screens. The hype is huge and Tarantino could only benefit from a late summer success, especially since his last directorial effort, the Death Proof segment of Grindhouse, earned a paltry $25 million and failed to break even. Speaking of Grindhouse, Tarantino’s partner in crime, Robert Rodriguez (who directed the Planet Terror segment, as well as the Machete faux trailer) also has a movie opening this weekend: the candy-colored Shorts. Its screen count is only slightly lower than that of Inglourious Basterds, and Rodriguez has had success with these types of movies before (remember Spy Kids and its two sequels?), but the marketing for Shorts lacks any sort of inspiration and, let’s face it, one of the biggest draws for both The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl and Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over (his last two family-friendly films) was that they were both in 3-D. With the recent advancement of such technology, the real mystery is why Rodriguez didn’t shoot this in all three-dimensions. This week’s final wide release witnesses the return of Rory Gilmore…ahem, Alexis Bledel (who, to finish off the “Six Degrees of…” game this week’s collection of releases inadvertently started, starred in Sin City, which Robert Rodriguez directed and Quentin Tarantino guest directed). The film is Post Grad and is opening on just under 2,000 screens. Despite the large difference in screen count, fans of Gilmore Girls, still bitter over its perceived premature cancellation, might show up in force to support the charming Bledel. As for limited releases, The Cinema Issue will be covering four this weekend: Casi Divas, My One and Only, Fives Minutes of Heaven, and Art & Copy. Reviews of these films will arrive as soon as possible in the form of Late Reviews. Coverage of the three wide releases will appear by Friday of next week, just in time for a whole new array of films to be released.