Review – The Emperor Jones

Writer Eugene O’Neil and actor Paul Robeson combine to make a chilling commentary on the nature and consequence of blind ambition. Brutus Jones (Robeson) begins the picture as a Pullman porter, and by the end of the movie he’s done time on a chain gang, shoveled coal on a steamship, and become the dictator of a Caribbean island. The end of the movie – when the Emperor attempts to escape a coup by fleeing into the jungle – is not to be missed. Robeson’s emotive reactions to the ghosts and memories that haunt him are one of the great, overlooked moments of American film. Of course it’s been overlooked at least in part because the dialogue contains more uses of the N-word than a Tarantino movie. Also, it’s helpful to do some background reading before viewing this picture, as it was cut in places to avoid offending white audiences. This would make an interesting double feature with Cabin in the Sky, another predominantly African American movie that came out in 1943. Mildly amusing

Review – Cabin in the Sky

One could do an entire doctoral dissertation on the racial dynamics of this movie. This is a fascinating blend of an all-black cast, Hollywood’s 1940’s approach to black characters, theological twists in the plot and Vincente Minelli in the director’s chair (on his own for the first time). The story alone is worth a look. Little Joe (Eddie “Rochester” Anderson) has a near-death experience and ends up in the middle of a battle between angels and demons for his soul. Lucky for him, his wife Petunia (Ethyl Waters) is so devout that her prayers buy him a little more time to prove that he’s basically a good person. Enter Lena Horne as one of Lucifer’s best temptresses, out to lead our hero astray. But the main attraction here is probably the music. Waters and Horne are terrific, and they’re accompanied by Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong (who also has a supporting role as a devil) and plenty more. And although the dialects and a plot twist or two are very much creatures of their time, at least nobody in this movie picks cotton or works as a maid for white folks. Overall, then, this is a fun movie and historically at least a small step in the right direction. Mildly amusing

Review – Napoleon Dynamite

Ever wonder if those geeky kids in high school who always ate by themselves in the lunchroom actually had lives? Well, apparently they do. This is one of those movies that got so drastically over-sold that I was afraid that I’d end up hating it just because of the hype. But I didn’t hate it. Quite the opposite. The production is crammed with clever little moments, and as long as it keeps up its almost totally unselfconscious portrayal of the lives of high school outsiders it’s one of the best movies I’ve seen in awhile. Trouble arises only when it attempts to sprout a plot, particularly in the all-too-MTV-Pictures ending. A couple of scenes also involve strangely callous treatment of animals. Otherwise the show would probably have ranked at least one ratings level higher, as overall it was genuinely entertaining. Mildly amusing

Review – Cabin Fever

Once again a decent premise is ruined by squandering it on a juvenile splatter movie. Ever since reading The Hot Zone I’ve wondered if a flesh-eating virus could be spun out into a decent horror flick (and not some big-budget Robin Cook medical thriller, but a real genre piece). But if this effort is any indication then the answer is “no.” Of course by the time you’ve stirred in a handful of annoying 20-somethings, just about any premise is doomed from the start. Indeed, the acting and script here succeed only in causing me to lose interest in whether any of the characters live or die, and that makes it hard to get into the story at all. Thus I hope more skillful filmmakers will be willing to take a stab at making the premise work in the future. Flesh-eating viruses have a lot of potential, but not when they’re coupled with a run-of-the-mill slasher movie production. Oh, and the almost constant animal violence didn’t help. Wish I’d skipped it

Review – Amandla! A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony

The history of black resistance to the apartheid regime in South Africa is a fascinating subject all by itself, but it becomes even more interesting when the focus shifts to the role music played in the struggle for freedom. The thing I found most interesting was the often-sharp contrast between the sound of the music and the message it conveyed. For example, a song that might sound joyful and carefree when left untranslated takes on a whole new importance when the subtitles reveal that the lyrics are about killing people with machineguns. The production suffers from some technical difficulties – inconsistent sound quality and occasional lapses in the subtitles – that HBO’s money should have been able to correct. But overall this is a touching portrayal of artistic expression as a weapon against injustice. Worth seeing

Review – Grizzly Man

Not for the first time I found myself wondering what happened to Werner Herzog early in life that made him the way he is. Also not for the first time, the director’s obsession with grim, Germanic themes of chaos and death interferes with the movie he might otherwise have made. This time around the production could have been an interesting documentary about Timothy Treadwell, a mildly mentally ill man obsessed with grizzly bears. Treadwell produced hours and hours of video footage of himself in the wilderness observing and interacting with bears, not to mention constantly proclaiming his love for them. The Treadwell footage alone would have made an interesting movie, particularly in light of the fact that eventually one of them killed and ate him. But unfortunately Herzog felt the need to tack a bunch of interviews into the mix. Even that would have been okay, but he takes the further step of doing a lot of really dreadful narration about the wanton cruelty of the universe. We heard this already years ago in Les Blank’s Burden of Dreams, Werner. Leave it out. Mildly amusing

Review – The Kid from Brooklyn

As is typical with Danny Kaye movies, when the comedian is left alone to do physical comedy or one of his legendary musical numbers, this is an entertaining if not especially edifying production. But again as typical, the rest of the movie stinks. The story is some drivel about a ne’er-do-well milkman who accidentally helps knock out a prizefighter and thus – through the usual series of dumb twists – ends up becoming a boxer himself. Though Kaye fans will want to give it a look, this isn’t his finest moment. Indeed, even some of the funny parts keep going and going long after they’ve become completely predictable. The “Pavlova” number is also a poor relative of the Kaye solos from other movies. Overall I guess I’ve seen worse, but this isn’t one I want to watch over and over again. Mildly amusing