Class Clown

‘American Gangster’ – One of the Many Great Films from Ridley Scott

Posted on by The Ultimate Rabbit

What is it about gangsters which makes them so inescapably attractive? We have had so many movies about them over the years, and they just keep on coming at us like those greatest hits albums Aerosmith keeps releasing over and over again. Is it because they have such great power and generate such intense fear around everyone, even those they love the most? I think these characters tap into our darkest desires, the ones we would never openly admit to. We would love to have people look up to us and fear us. Seriously, let’s be honest. But if only we did not have to pay the consequences for such devious actions…

Gangster movies are among some of the best to watch. “The Godfather” trilogy is one of the most enthralling gangster sagas ever and, yes, I do include the third one. Michael Corleone’s descent from innocent family member to a vicious and cold-hearted crime lord is a grand tragedy. “Scarface” came out back in the early 1980’s, and now it is more popular than ever. And then there is “Goodfellas,” the penultimate Martin Scorsese film on which remains my all-time favorite, and which opened me up to the many things motion pictures can do.

And then there is “American Gangster” which comes to us from director Ridley Scott. This film proves to be a cross between “The Godfather” and “The French Connection” as it follows the rise of Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington) who becomes New York’s biggest supplier of heroin, and Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe), the cop who is doggedly on Frank’s tail. The events portrayed here takes us back to the 1960’s and the 1970’s as these men go about their business, and it looks at how they eventually collided with one another.

“American Gangster” doesn’t really bring anything new to the gangster genre as we can see the trajectory the film is going to take as soon as the words “based on a true story” appear. But what it does offer is another brilliant piece of filmmaking from Scott who keeps his eye focused on his two main characters and the world around them with tremendous detail. As a result, he takes what could have been an average gangster movie and turns it into a character study of two men living in an utterly corrupt world.

The two main characters are interesting stories in contradictions. Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington) is, on the surface, a devoted family man. He ends up buying a huge house for his mother, Mahalee (Ruby Dee), and takes her to church every Sunday, and he gets all his brothers involved in his business. The brilliance of Washington’s performance is how he almost makes you forget what his business is: drug dealing. There are some scenes where we see the effects of his product and how it ruthlessly destroys the lives of others. It is enough of a reminder to remind us of just how dangerous Frank is. While he goes to church to worship in the name of God, this not prevent him from performing such heinous deeds.

Then you have Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe), whose name seems to spell out law-abiding police officer in capital letters. Richie’s first act we see is him turning in a million dollars of drug money to the police department. While Richie does the right thing, his co-workers end up wanting nothing to do with him as a result. He says he is a cop bound by a strong moral code, and yet he cannot resist cheating on his wife, Laurie (Carla Gugino), and jeopardizing the custody battle for his young boy by sleeping with a dozen women in the New York area. While he is married to the law, he is not married as much to his family as he thinks.

We follow these two alpha males as they go on their separate journeys through a world which has seemingly lost all sense of law and order. We see how complicit the police department is in drug dealing. Through Frank’s character, we see how drugs are a big money-making business for the Army as he travels to Saigon to get his product from the vast fields of vegetation. What Scott accomplishes here is what Steven Soderbergh accomplished with “Traffic;” he shows how the drug trade, however illegal, is such an integral business in everyone’s lives to where it can never simply disappear. Watching “American Gangster,” you have to wonder where the center between right and wrong is. Beyond that, you come to wonder if there is any center at all.

This all reminds me of a George Carlin routine from his “Class Clown” album:

“Keep it in the black! Show a profit! Keep it in the black! Keep it in the black! Never mind your soul! Never mind your bank account! Keep it in the black! BUSINESS AS USUAL GOING ON!”

Scott sucks us completely into the look and sounds of past decades as we go from the urban jungles of New York to the trenches of Southeast Asia in a way we have only read about. I love watching movies which suck you into a time and place to where you are not watching a movie as much as you are experiencing one. To quote Walter Cronkite, you are there.

The screenplay was written by Steven Zallian, and he remains one of the very best screenwriters working in movies Steven Spielberg has credited him for taking the unfilmable stories and making them possible to bring to cinematic life. “American Gangster” was based on the article “The Return of Superfly” by Marc Jacobson, and Zallian succeeds in taking elements which could have been utterly predictable and has made them feel fresh here.

Washington continues to be one of the very best actors working, and you can tell he is having a blast playing bad guys as much as he does portraying good guys (if not more). As Frank Lucas, he creates a character who is in many ways noble in how he holds family so close to where you can see how seductive he is in bringing them all into a realm of immorality. He makes you never doubt how dangerous Frank is, and there are moments where he is so unpredictable in his actions to where he becomes infinitely frightening. This is especially the case when he confronts another character played by Idris Elba, and it results in once of the most unforgettable, let alone brutal, scenes this film has to offer.

Crowe gives us a character in Richie Roberts who is not entirely brave, but also not altogether cowardly either. While Richie may not always be the bravest of cops, he is certainly the most morally strong one to be found here. And this is even though he constantly fails to be a faithful husband. I never ever see Crowe coasting through any of his roles, and he certainly doesn’t do that here.

There are other great performances to be found here as well. Ruby Dee plays Frank’s mother, Mahalee, and she is the moral force Franks needs to listen to here. Mahalee is not blind to what Frank is really doing, but she makes it abundantly clear there is a line he cannot cross. Another great performance is given by Josh Brolin who plays the corrupt and threatening Detective Nick Trupo, a man who seems to have no problem with drug trafficking as long as he can profit from it. His character threatens to become as bad as Frank and in the last half of this film, he looks to have no soul left for salvation.

The climatic scene comes when Frank and Richie are face to face in an interrogation room, and it is a great scene which reminded of when Al Pacino and Robert De Niro faced off against one another in Michael Mann’s “Heat.” They both communicate the realities of the world they are in as they see it, and neither is willing to give up on what they intend to accomplish. The fact Richie gets the upper hand almost seems amazing, considering how just about everyone around him is complicit in drug trade. So many cops and judges look to be so easily bought, and this case ended up bringing down an insanely high number of law enforcement officers. And when we watch Frank in the film’s final scene, we wonder if anything has changed at all.

“American Gangster” proves to be one of the many great movies directed by Ridley Scott. And yes, I do include “Prometheus.”

My man!

* * * * out of * * * *

James Cameron’s ‘Avatar’ – A Cinematic Spectacle Like Few Others

Posted on by The Ultimate Rabbit

WRITER’S NOTE: This review was written back in 2009.

“That is our (USA) job around the world; run in, free some people, and whip a little industry on them. So they can enjoy the benefits of industry that we have come to enjoy (cough).”

-George Carlin from “Class Clown”

“Some of the darkest chapters in the history of my world involve the forced relocation of a small group of people to satisfy the demands of a large one. I’d hoped that we had learned from our mistakes but it seems that some of us haven’t.”

“Jean-Luc, we’re only moving 600 people.”

“How many people does it take, Admiral before it becomes wrong? A thousand? Fifty thousand? A million? HOW MANY PEOPLE DOES IT TAKE, ADMIRAL?!”

-Patrick Stewart and Anthony Zerbe from “Star Trek: Insurrection”

We waited for this one almost as long as we waited for the release of Guns ‘n’ Roses’ “Chinese Democracy,” and now it is here. James Cameron has been at it again, making the most expensive movie ever, but this is nothing new and I am so burned out from hearing all the gossip about his movie budgets. The naysayers were out in full force proclaiming this would be a disaster as its release was delayed a number of times. But “Avatar” once again shows there is no one more equipped than Cameron to change the way we look at movies. With his latest epic, he has achieved the impossible and completely blurred the line between what is real and what is a special effect, and I could never tell the difference from start to finish.

You have to give a lot of credit to this ambitious director for being ever so patient. Cameron waited years for the technology to catch up to where he could tell this story most effectively, and he even invented a new camera with his brother to make the most convincing 3D movie we could ever hope to see. So many others would be in a hurry to get a movie up on the screen to where nothing but shortcuts are taken, but “Avatar” had a two year post production period (the longest ever) to get every little detail covered. This movie needs to be seen on the big screen as it was made for it. Waiting for a physical or digital release to watch it on would be tragic.

“Avatar” stars Sam Worthington as Jake Sully. Jake is a former marine who is now paralyzed from the waist down, and he does not ask for sympathy or pity. He ends up being recruited for a mission on Pandora, a moon on the far reaches of space. This mission was originally meant for his brother, but he passed away before he could take it on. Pandora is inhabited by very tall blue creatures called the Na’vi, and avatars of them have been created so that humans can walk among them undetected so they can be studied more closely.

Of course, these avatars are also being closely observed by the military as they plan to infiltrate the Na’vi and force them off their sacred land. For what reason? So that the greedy corporation (is there any other kind these days?) can get at the mineral called unobtanium (nice play on words). This mineral represents an enormous cash cow for soulless investors back on Earth, and it also serves as a much-needed source of energy it desperately needs. In the future, it appears humanity has extended the manifest destiny policy from other countries to the far reaches of space. I mean, heaven forbid we allow other cultures to handle their precious resources without our unsolicited advice! Do we ever learn?

Anyway, the story of “Avatar” has been told many times before; a disillusioned military officer comes face to face with people he has been fighting, and soon he becomes enamored with their lifestyle and code of honor to where he is integrated into their society. This has been the basis for “Dances with Wolves” and “The Last Samurai” and even “The Emerald Forest.”. We know the setup and how it’s all going to go, but Cameron still makes it work by having us invest emotionally in these characters. By doing so, all the action and the visuals presented to us become all the more enthralling.

Seriously, Cameron has been one of the very best storytellers in movies for decades now. This at times gets lost on people because his dialogue can be quite cringe inducing. You want to go up to him and make him realize people don’t talk to each other the way he thinks they do. It constantly reminds me of what Harrison Ford told George Lucas about his script for “Star Wars”:

“You can type this shit, but you sure as hell can’t say it!”

For what’s it worth, however, Lucas makes Cameron sound like David Mamet.

Regardless, the strength of the story he has concocted makes the visuals on display all the more exhilarating. My big issue with most effects driven movies is you can tell when you are watching a CGI effect. All this does is completely take me out of the movie to where I roll my eyes and wonder why Hollywood regularly underestimates audiences.

Now at the start of “Avatar,” when Jake is looking at the creature he will be, you can definitely tell what is real and what is computer generated. But as the movie goes on, I honestly couldn’t figure out which was which. I tried, believe me I tried to see the difference, but there was just no way. Plus, the motion capture they used on the actors is astonishing. The avatars are made to look like the actors playing them, and the movements are so amazingly lifelike to where it makes every other 2009 movie see, like it was made back in 1987. That description may be stretching it a bit, but I couldn’t resist.

The art direction in this movie is incredible, and the color blue (my favorite) is used quite a lot. There are other astonishingly breathtaking visuals like the floating mountains which looked quite real…. Damn it! I am running out of words to describe what I saw. You have to see it for yourself.

As Jake Sully, Worthington keeps him from being a complete cliché and infuses him with a nobility which has served him well in life. But one of the most welcome actors here is Sigourney Weaver who is appearing in her first Cameron movie since “Aliens.” Weaver plays Dr. Grace Augustine, the head of the Avatar program. While the military wants to use her work for their own manipulative methods, she uses them to help gain the trust of the Na’vi and study their world for peaceful and scientific purposes. She is the classic Cameron female character; tough as nails, controlling, and never ever a pushover Apparently, Weaver based her character on Cameron to an extent. To steal a line from “Up in The Air,” Dr. Grace Augustine may very well be James Cameron with a vagina.

Another classic Cameron female is played by Michelle Rodriguez, still looking as hot as she did in “Fast & Furious.” Her character of helicopter pilot Trudy Chacon is somewhat similar to Jeanette Goldstein’s character of Vasquez from “Aliens”; a badass soldier who is as tough as the men, maybe even tougher. She’s certainly a lot more morally conscious than the majority of the marines in the film, and Rodriguez makes sure you never forget that.

You also have Giovanni Ribisi playing Parker Selfridge (yes, his last name rhymes with selfish), the corporate manager in charge of the mining operation on Pandora. Like Paul Reiser’s character from “Aliens,” he is only interested in making a gigantic profit which will set him up for life. I love how Ribisi plays Parker as a pragmatic ass with absolutely no moral scruples whatsoever as this character is ever so gleeful about what is in store for him once this mineral is sufficiently mined. The way he sees it, what’s the big deal?

But one of the best performances comes from Stephen Lang who plays the brutal Colonel Miles Quaritch. Despite some of the ridiculous dialogue which comes out of his mouth, Lang completely makes Miles into a soldier you would be incredibly foolish to mess with. Like Tom Berenger in “Platoon,” his face is deeply scarred, and he does nothing to hide that. Miles simply sees it as an illustration of how nasty the moon of Pandora is. His flaw, however, is that he cannot see who the Na’vi really as his anger against them has long since powered by an everlasting fear which he cannot overcome.

Now let’s talk about the Na’vi, those big blue creatures who are tall enough to play for the Los Angeles Lakers or the San Antonio Spurs. They could have made or have broken “Avatar.” Cameron has said he thought about the story long before he began working on “Titanic,” and that he even thought about these characters when he was a kid. Now having an original race of people who speak their own language may work well on “Star Trek,” but in other shows and movies, it looks more comical and ridiculous than was originally intended. This is not the case here.

This brings me to the performance of Zoë Saldaña, who you may remember as Uhura in J.J. Abrams’ “Star Trek.” She plays Neytiri, Princess of the Na’vi tribe Omaticaya. Neytiri is the first real Na’vi to come in contact with Jake Sully, and she later falls in love with him. In essence, a lot of “Avatar” rests on her performance, and she succeeds in making you believe in this race of beings to where you see them as more than just an amazing series of special effects. This ends up making it easier for other actors like Wes Studi and CCH Pounder to portray their characters without having to expend too much effort in helping you buy into these extra-terrestrials. Saldana sets up the groundwork, and everyone follows her from there.

“Avatar” deals with many of the same themes Cameron has dealt with throughout his career: military intervention into a foreign land, machines versus nature, love found between beings from different worlds or societies, how scientists and those with curious minds seek to understand the aliens and make peace with them, and how corporations will do anything for a profit. The parallels between what the military forces are doing in Pandora and our wars in Vietnam and Iraq, not to mention our current escalation in Afghanistan, are clear as day, and it does make the movie feel timely.

But one of the especially interesting things here is how Cameron utilizes a lot of the technology which was on display in his previous films. Those armed walkers Colonel Quaritch uses look to be an upgrade of the driver Weaver used in the climax of “Aliens” (which the Wachowski brothers all but ripped off for “The Matrix” sequels). The mind devices used to control the avatars looks a lot like the head pieces used in “Strange Days.” The scenes of humans interacting with otherworldly creatures bring to mind similar scenes from “The Abyss.” And you have characters who go from being antagonists to becoming the good guys (“Terminator 2” was a classic example of this). With all this in mind, I thought Cameron was running out of new ideas, but I love how he combines them all up to good use in “Avatar.”

But enough of me babbling about “Avatar.” Whatever weaknesses this movie may have are undone by its well-earned achievements. Once again, see this movie in a theater! I don’t care if you hate going to the movies. “Avatar” is a great and reinvigorating reminder of how sitting in a darkened movie theater can be so thrilling.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to find an IMAX theater playing this movie that is not sold out for weeks in advance. Seeing something like this on the silver screen once is never enough, ever.

* * * * out of * * * *

Corpus Christi Fearlessly Questions Our Beliefs in Religion and Redemption

Posted on by The Ultimate Rabbit

“Corpus Christi” was one of the five films nominated at this year’s Academy Awards for Best International Feature (formerly Best Foreign Film). While it was destined to lose to “Parasite”, this does not in any way speak to its overall quality. In fact, I hope people get a chance to check out this import from Poland if and when they get the chance. While its plot might make it look like a remake of “Sister Act,” “Corpus Christi” is a deeply thoughtful look at religion and of how the road to redemption is a rough one for the average convicted felon.

We are introduced to Daniel (Bartosz Bielenia), a 20-year-old man who has spent several years in prison for a violent crime, as he serves as lookout for the guards while a fellow inmate is being assaulted. But soon after that, we see him taking part in a religious service with the prison chaplain, and we can see he has found a spiritual awakening while behind bars. He aspires to become a priest, but his criminal conviction prevents him from ever becoming one. I always find it interesting how when a convicted felon does his time and is released from prison, but for some odd reason he or she is never fully free. They always seem forever defined by a past which no one will ever let them completely atone for. Like the DMV, people never forget.

Upon his release, Daniel is sent to a remote village where a job as a day laborer awaits him, but he sees a church in the distance and decides to walk over to it. Once there, a quick lie allows him to be mistaken as the church’s new priest, and it is a role he jumps into with little, if any, hesitation. But while he proves to have a strong and positive effect  to where the church seats are filled up more than they were previously, we know his past will eventually catch up with him. Moreover, he knows it will as well, and a scene where we hear a clock ticking loudly alerts us to how his time is running out.

For a time, “Corpus Christi” plays like a comedy as Daniel seems ill-equipped to be a priest. During a confession where a mother talks about the troubles she is having with her teenage son, he furiously looks at the internet on his cell phone to get an answer, any answer. In one of his sermons, he repeats the words the priest in prison spoke to him and his fellow convicts such as “I’m not here to pray to you mechanically” and “each of you is the priest of Christ.” Clearly, he is stumbling about, but he eventually inspires the local community to where the church finds its attendance increasing to an astonishing degree.

Director Jan Komasa, working from a screenplay by Mateusz Pacewicz, is never quick to reveal every aspect of this small-town Daniel resides in. We eventually come to discover how a tragedy has long since engulfed the town in a never ending state of grief, and we are with Daniel every step of the way as he uncovers the devastation which has left the residents in such an infinitely mournful state. While he is essentially doing a “fake it till you make it” act a, the efforts Daniel makes to heal the town of its deep emotional wounds is truly moving, and I found myself rooting for him to have a positive effect.

Bartosz Bielenia gives a powerful performance as Daniel, and he inhabits this character with a truly fierce passion for his newfound calling. While Daniel is in lying about being qualified to be a priest, he quickly proves to us how his spiritual awakening is no joke. His methods may not always be sound, but his willingness to help those in his parish comes from the heart. Even when he is eventually exposed, and this is really not spoiling anything, I was left enthralled by Bielenia’s portrayal as Daniel because his religious calling is never in doubt to him or those who have flocked to his church.

At the heart of “Corpus Christi” comes a number of questions: What does it mean to have faith? What does it mean to be a religious person? Does redemption ever get fully realized by the society which surrounds the sinner? Does any individual deserve to recognized by their past more than their present? While this church, or any other church, may have rules about who can and cannot a priest or a nun, one wonders if those rules should be so stringent after watching this movie. Daniel’s spiritual awakening is no joke, and I personally would rather converse with a priest who was a sinner than one who has a “holier than thou” attitude.

Seriously, the more I think about “Corpus Christi,” the more I am reminded of a routine from George Carlin’s classic comedy album “Class Clown” entitled “The Confessional:”

“I wanted to get into Father Byrne’s confessional one Saturday maybe a half hour before he showed up and get in there and hear a few confessions, you know? Because I knew according to my faith and religion that if anyone came in there and really thought I was Father Byrne and really wanted to be forgiven…and perform the penance I had assigned…they would have been forgiven, man! ‘Cause that’s what they taught us; it’s what’s in your mind that counts; your intentions, that’s how we’ll judge you. What you want to do. Mortal sin had to be a grievous offense, sufficient reflection and full consent of the will. You had to WANNA! In fact, WANNA was a sin all by itself. “Thou Shalt Not WANNA”. If you woke up in the morning and said, ‘I’m going down to 42nd street and commit a mortal sin!’ Save your car fare; you did it, man!”

When it comes to Daniel, he may not be a priest, but he is willing to hear you and help you out. While he may be breaking sacred rules, at least he is making an effort to get you past your sins.

“Corpus Christi” ends on an ambiguous note as Daniel may have found a salvation he may not have expected to find in the direst of circumstances. Unlike the average faith-based movie, this one is not out to prove or disprove the existence of Jesus Christ. All that matters is Daniel believes such a person exists, and this may have very well saved him from a horrific fate. Some questions deserve an answer, but others deserve to be pondered on for a long time.

* * * ½ out of * * * *

CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT MY EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH JAN KOMASA AND BARTOSZ BIELENIA ABOUT “CORPUS CHRISTI”