Mark Jenkins

'Bidder 70,' Still Raising His Hand To Be Heard

Mark Jenkins — Thu, 16 May 2013 21:03:00 +0000

In its final months, the George W. Bush administration hastily organized a mineral-rights auction for federal land in Utah, much of it near national parks. Environmentalist and economics student Tim DeChristopher attended the sale and — impulsively, he says — bid on and won 22,000 acres he had no intention of exploiting.

The feds came down on him like a ton of oil derricks.

'Augustine' And Her Diagnosis Get Another Look

Mark Jenkins — Thu, 16 May 2013 21:03:00 +0000

Onstage, in front of an audience, the young woman seemingly goes into a trance, overcome by a power that shakes and contorts her. The commotion appears profoundly sexual; she grabs at her crotch as she writhes. When the woman reaches some kind of release, the spell is broken, and she becomes calm. She leaves the stage to enthusiastic applause.

This isn't one of those New Vaudeville acts; it's what passed for medicine in 1870s France.

'In The Air,' A Sense Of Stakes For A '70s Youth

Mark Jenkins — Thu, 02 May 2013 21:03:00 +0000

In the opening minutes of Something in the Air, the protagonist carves an "A" (for anarchy) into his school desk, and participates in a street demonstration that ends in a punishing flurry of police billy clubs.

Building A Home For A Client Who Can't Live In It

Mark Jenkins — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 21:03:00 +0000

The off-screen protagonist of Herman's House, Herman Wallace, already has a dwelling for his body: a 6-foot-by-8-foot cell at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, aka Angola. But the documentary's on-screen protagonist, Jackie Sumell, wants him also to have a place for his soul: a dream house for a man who desperately needs dreams.

Sumell's project, like the movie that recounts it, mingles art and politics. The Brooklyn-based conceptual artist first contacted Wallace in 2001, after hearing a talk by Robert King, Wallace's friend and colleague.

A Hazy Ode 'To The Wonder' Of Hidden Worlds

Mark Jenkins — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 21:03:00 +0000

Pretty but inert, To the Wonder is a vaporous mystery wrapped in a gauzy enigma — a cinematic riddle that'll appeal principally to those eager for another piece, however tiny, of the puzzle that is Terrence Malick.

To the Wonder continues in the lyrical-to-a-fault mode of the writer-director's The Tree of Life; in fact, this film includes some footage originally shot for that one.

Robert Redford Keeps Revolutionary'Company'

Mark Jenkins — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 21:03:00 +0000

Crisp in execution and classic in ambiance, The Company You Keep is star Robert Redford's most persuasive directorial work since 1994's Quiz Show. It's a pleasure to watch, even if the payoff is rather less substantial than the backstory.

The latter is established by an opening flurry of real and simulated TV news clips about the Weather Underground, the early-1970s leftist group. In this fictionalization, three former members are still wanted for a Michigan bank robbery.

'The Place Beyond The Pines': It's A Far Piece

Mark Jenkins — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 21:03:00 +0000

There are moments, as Derek Cianfrance's Blue Valentine informed us, when the barely controlled rage that is masculinity can be tempered by feelings for woman and child. But eventually the male Id will erupt, and everything will go to hell.

That happens more than once in Cianfrance's new The Place Beyond the Pines, a would-be epic that shifts from character to character and story to story to show how fury passes from fathers to sons.

'Retaliation': Harsh Payback For Poor G.I. Joe

Mark Jenkins — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 21:03:00 +0000

What's the difference between an action figure and an action star? Very little in G.I. Joe: Retaliation, which features no performances of note, even from such combat-tested thespians as Bruce Willis, Jonathan Pryce and Dwayne Johnson.

The sequel to 2009's G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, the latest Joe is a near-surrealistic mashup of serious themes and juvenile humor, realistic locations and cheesy CGI.

'No Place On Earth': Underground, A Story Of Survival

Mark Jenkins — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 21:03:00 +0000

Christopher Nicola, the avid spelunker who introduces No Place on Earth, has an appetite for the dramatic.

"Every cave I enter has a secret," he intones, as the documentary cuts between Nicola's New York City home and his progress through tight underground passages.

In 1993, while exploring a 77-mile-long gypsum cave in Ukraine, Nicola found a secret that had nothing to do with geology: a chamber where 20th-century people had clearly lived for some time. The locals Nicola asked about the discovery had little to say.

A 'Devil' In The Details Of A Brotherly Rivalry

Mark Jenkins — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 21:03:00 +0000

Shot entirely in Hackney — a mostly ungentrified London borough — My Brother the Devil has a strong odor of authenticity. The main characters are of Egyptian origin, but their friends include people rooted in West Africa and the Caribbean. All are linked by poverty, alienation and a gangsta worldview popularized by American movies and hip-hop.

Egyptian-Welsh writer-director Sally El Hosaini lives in Hackney and spent several years researching the characters she's scripted.

'Burt Wonderstone': Vegas, When The Magic Stops

Mark Jenkins — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 21:03:00 +0000

There are some funny bits and characters around the edges of The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, but its core is empty of humor.

Friendship Fades To Bleak 'Beyond The Hills'

Mark Jenkins — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 22:00:00 +0000

The opening shot of Cristian Mungiu's Beyond the Hills may look somewhat familiar. As in the Romanian writer-director's previous film, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, a young woman strides purposefully while a handheld camera follows mere inches behind. She's on a mission to help a close friend, her resolve demonstrated by the way she marches against two lines of travelers who've just disembarked from a train.

But the setup turns out to be a sly one; the woman who moves against the flow is not a maverick at all.

'Dead Man Down': A Gang-War Drama That's Practically D.O.A.

Mark Jenkins — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 23:02:00 +0000

Dead Man Down is the first American film from Niels Arden Oplev, director of the original Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, but it's not very American. This twisty existential thriller is set in a New York City that's as sun-deprived as Stockholm in January — and one in which nearly everyone speaks English as a second language.

The principal players are Victor, a ruthless thug portrayed by Irish actor Colin Farrell, and Beatrice, a scarred beautician embodied by Hispano-Swedish actress Noomi Rapace, the original dragon-tattoo girl.

Soviet Ghosts Resurface In Soggy 'Phantom'

Mark Jenkins — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 22:03:00 +0000

Explosions rattle the crew. The air is turning fetid. And the captain has ordered a descent toward "crush depth." Yet everything is on course in Phantom, the newest model of the old submarine-from-hell picture.

But the predictability of writer-director Todd Robinson's film is, well, predictable. There are only so many things that can happen in the close quarters of an imperiled sub. What Robinson purports to do is show those familiar undersea events from a different vantage point.

Kiarostami Eyes Tokyo 'Like Someone In Love'

Mark Jenkins — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 22:03:00 +0000

Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami's Like Someone in Love opens far from Tehran, in a noisy Tokyo bar.

"When did I lie to you?" asks an unseen woman, ensnarled in a difficult cellphone exchange. The viewer is already trying to decipher this person, without even glimpsing her.

Eventually, the camera locates Akiko (Rin Takanashi), and a series of conversations reveals something of her life. She's a college student, originally from a rural village, who moonlights as a call girl.

A Sorcerer, A White Snake, And Lots Of CGI Magic

Mark Jenkins — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 22:04:00 +0000

In the opening sequence of The Sorcerer and the White Snake, two monks step through a giant gate and find themselves in a new world — one made entirely of computer-generated images. Only Fahai (Jet Li) and his disciple Neng Ren (Zhang Wen) are human.

"Don't believe everything you see," the older man warns.

It's an apt prologue for a movie that's based on a venerable Chinese folk tale and packed with unreal creatures and impossible scenery. For decades, Chinese-language fantasy flicks were known for realistic fight sequences and laughable special effects.

Warning: 'Side Effects' May Include Eye-Rolling

Mark Jenkins — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 22:04:00 +0000

It's the drug's fault, man. That's the defense offered by the perpetrator brought to trial in Side Effects, a stylish, vaguely Hitchcockian dud. But what excuse does this fatally silly movie have?

The film, reportedly the final big-screen effort for prolific director Steven Soderbergh, begins in a New York apartment where something bad has happened. Blood on the floor, smeared and tracked by footprints, suggests murder, suicide or extreme clumsiness.

It's not the last option, of course.

'Bullet To The Head': No-Brainer Bubblegum

Mark Jenkins — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 22:03:00 +0000

Adapted from a French graphic novel and outfitted with an ethnically diverse cast, Bullet to the Head is an artifact of a newly internationalized Hollywood. But that doesn't mean it feels especially new.

In fact, this Sylvester Stallone vehicle regularly overlaps the season's other cops-and-mobsters retreads. It features a creaky veteran actor — as do The Last Stand and Stand Up Guys.

A Poignant Voyage On 'The Pirogue'

Mark Jenkins — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 22:03:00 +0000

The journey from Senegal and poverty to Europe and supposed prosperity takes seven days by fishing boat. The Pirogue spends only about an hour on open water, but that's enough to convey the risks that make the trip foolish, and the desperation that makes it inevitable.

The movie, the third fiction feature by Senegalese director Moussa Toure, doesn't offer many surprises. What distinguishes it is not the depiction of danger and loss at sea, but a deep understanding of West African culture.

'Broken City,' Broken Movie: An Undernourished Noir

Mark Jenkins — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 22:03:00 +0000

As an investigation into American municipal corruption, Broken City is, well, damaged. But as an opportunity for hard-boiled types to trade threats, blows and caustic banter, this modern-day noir works reasonably well.

The story begins in a New York housing project, where scruffy undercover cop Billy Taggart (Mark Wahlberg) has just dispatched a felon.

'Hors Satan': A Singularly Devilish Vision

Mark Jenkins — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 22:03:00 +0000

Bruno Dumont just wasn't made for these cinematic times. Rather than cajole and flatter his viewers, the French filmmaker intentionally alienates and mystifies them. Like his five previous movies, the new Hors Satan is stark, strange and uncompromisingly personal. It's also vivid and unforgettable.

Dumont's first feature, released in 1997, was The Life of Jesus. Satan and Jesus can be hard to distinguish in the director's work, which flaunts a harsh view of life and nature — human or otherwise — in the north of France.

Old-Fashioned Crime, Newfangled Camp In 'Baytown'

Mark Jenkins — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 22:03:00 +0000

During The Baytown Outlaws prologue — a bloody massacre scene that doubles as a credit sequence — director Barry Battles interrupts the carnage with comic-book-style panels. It's a gambit he uses again later, and an appropriate one. This Deep South odyssey is a pulp fantasy and knows it.

"Baytown" is Mobile, Ala., home to the homicidal Oodie brothers: Brick (Clayne Crawford), the oldest and (marginally) smartest; Lincoln (Daniel Cudmore), a behemoth rendered speechless by a crushed windpipe; and McQueen (Travis Fimmel), who's slightly more sensitive than the other two.

Checking In Again With The '7 Up' Kids

Mark Jenkins — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 22:03:00 +0000

The participants in 56 Up, the eighth installment in a series that began in 1964, want to talk mostly about two things: family and the documentary itself.

The project, which checks in periodically with 14 kids who were once deemed representative British 7-year-olds, is "a complete fraud," says John, and based on assumptions that "were outmoded even in 1964."

And yet here they are again: the working class and the posh, the aimless and the motivated, the emigrants and the stay-at-homes, most of them now grandparents.

"It's like reading a bad book," says Suzy.

Sparks Of '60s Spirit, And Then A Slow 'Fade'

Mark Jenkins — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 22:03:00 +0000

Basically, Not Fade Away is the saga of a 1960s teenager who plans to become a rock star, but slowly realizes he won't. The movie is set mostly in the New York suburbs. So why does it open in South London, where two lads — you may know them as Mick and Keith — bond over imported blues LPs?

The answer is that writer-director David Chase, after working in TV for almost four decades, wants his first movie to be both sweeping and intimate, world historical as well as autobiographical.

A Queens Chronicle That's A Little Too Lifelike

Mark Jenkins — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 22:03:00 +0000

The O'Haras don't talk much about what's wrong, but the members of this biracial Queens family — the central characters of Yelling to the Sky -- are bedeviled by alcoholism (dad), mental illness (mom) and adolescent defiance (the two daughters). Indeed actress-turned-director Victoria Mahoney barely explains her characters' circumstances, which makes the movie obliquely intriguing. But whenever the story comes into focus, it's revealed as fairly conventional.

'Deadfall': Sibling Mischief In The Michigan Woods

Mark Jenkins — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 22:03:00 +0000

Everyone gets roughed up pretty bad in Deadfall, a pop-Freudian thriller set in Michigan's north woods. But nobody comes off worse than the out-of-towners: Australian star Eric Bana and Austrian director Stefan Ruzowitzky.

'Playing For Keeps,' But Without Much Panache

Mark Jenkins — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 22:03:00 +0000

As Hollywood movies increasingly strive for immaculate blankness, they have come to resemble Rorschach ink blots. For example, Playing for Keeps, a new movie about a divorced couple who just might reunite: Is it a heartwarming romantic drama? Or a cynical sex and sports comedy? There is no wrong answer, dear ticket buyer.

From A Rom-Com Director, A Subtle Kung Fu Flick

Mark Jenkins — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 22:03:00 +0000

The latest movie from versatile Hong Kong director Peter Ho-Sun Chan has been given not one but two generic titles: In China, it's Wu Xia, which means "martial hero" and is the overall term for kung fu films; in this country, it's called Dragon, which has similar connotations.

Rape, Race And The Press, Entangled In 'Central Park'

Mark Jenkins — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 22:03:00 +0000

A change of pace for PBS long-form documentarian Ken Burns, The Central Park Five revisits New York City's recent past to tell the story of a pack of ruthless predators.

Two packs, actually: Gotham's prosecutors and police officers, and its reporters and columnists. Both groups went feral in 1989 against five innocent Harlem teenagers accused and then convicted in a rape and assault.

If the case doesn't sound familiar, perhaps this word will help: wilding. That's what police and journalists claimed was the kids' term for what they did the night of April 19, 1989.

A Remake That Will Leave Fans Seeing 'Red'

Mark Jenkins — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 22:03:00 +0000

Released during Ronald Reagan's 1984 re-election campaign, the original Red Dawn was denounced as right-wing propaganda. But while director and co-writer John Milius' fantasy of Colorado high-school students who battle Soviet and Cuban invaders was anti-communist, it was principally pro-gun and pro-youth. In spirit, it was closer to Frank Capra than to Leni Riefenstahl.