Latest Reviews May 15-21, 2008

The Babysitters

Writer David Ross (The Woods) makes his directing debut with this Heathers-like story of Shirley (Katherine Waterston, daughter of Sam), a college-bound, cash-strapped high school senior, who segues from innocent babysitting to full-blown prostitution after word gets around that she’s had an affair with one of her employers (John Leguizamo). Pretty soon, his buddies come a-runnin’, begging Shirley’s help in hooking them up with their own “babysitters.”

Conceptually, this really isn’t all that far removed from a ’60s-era sexploitation flick though Ross refuses to cave to the obvious. It would have been easy to spin it all like some kind of facile morality play – titillation with a conscience, as such films are typically constructed. Here, however, it’s the psychological rather than the physiological that takes center stage, at times striking some very salient and provocative points. It’s far from perfect – Leguizamo and Cynthia Nixon have absolutely no chemistry whatsoever as a couple, even an unhappy one, and the pacing often lags, but Waterston is so exceptionally good and the film’s better moments sufficiently strong that the shortcomings don’t overly detract. (Wade Major) (Laemmle’s Regency South Coast)

Bloodline

Dan Brown’s bestselling The Da Vinci Code popularized, in discussion if not belief, the theory that Jesus Christ escaped his crucifixion, married Mary Magdalene, and had a child, and that the Catholic Church and others have engaged in a conspiracy to suppress this fact. The ample, worldwide commercial shadow of that book and its subsequent film adaptation provide the necessary cover for mushroom cinema like this documentary, which includes interviews with a mysterious, finger-tenting, alleged Priory of Sion member and investigates archaeological proof of said theory in southwest France via amateur English adventurer Ben Hammott.

Directed by Bruce Burgess – whose other credits, it turns out, include movies about Bigfoot, the Ark of the Covenant, and the Bermuda Triangle – Bloodline is unfortunately the type of film that confuses investment of time with insight and evidence. Burgess’s refusal to put Hammott and his many discoveries through the wringer (despite, say, the mostly empty bottle of vodka lingering in the corner of a frame during one morning interview) at first comes across as curious and then just increasingly negligent, finally culminating in a passage which confirms a piece of Hammott’s evidence using ... other pieces of Hammott’s own evidence. It’s shoddy filmmaking like this that makes Bloodline ridiculous, no matter how much one may want to believe what it’s peddling. (Brent Simon) (Culver Plaza, Laemmle’s Sunset 5)

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

A year after their first remarkable adventure in Narnia, the four Pevensie siblings (William Moseley, Anna Popplewell, Skandar Keynes, Georgie Henley) are suddenly recalled to that magical world only to find that several hundred years have transpired in Narnia time. The Narnia they once knew is now in ruins and a mortal race known as Telmarines – who dress like Conquistadors and speak with Italian accents – rules the land. But there is royal treachery afoot among the Telmarines; fleeing an assassination attempt by his evil Uncle Miraz (Sergio Castillitto), the rightful Telmarine heir, Prince Caspian (Ben Barnes), is rescued by some leftover Narnians just as a toot into an ancient horn summons the Pevensies – the “Kings and Queens of old” – in fulfillment of yet another prophecy. At this point the film switches into battle mode, steadily working its way up to the climactic confrontation between the Telmarines and a resurgent Narnian army, once again presaging yet another return for that messianic talking lion, Aslan.

Despite essentially repeating the same story as the previous film, albeit with a different villain, in most respects this is a superior sequel. A more subtle religious subtext, brisker pacing, improved special effects, and more confident direction from Andrew Adamson combine to make for a surprisingly fleet-footed fantasy epic that breezes through its nearly two-and-a-half hour running time with scarcely a lull or a letup. (Wade Major) (Citywide)

Noise

Outspoken leftie Tim Robbins has carved a career out of balancing politics and entertainment – he filmed his staged indictment of the Iraq War, Embedded, for DVD release the same year he appeared in Zathura: A Space Adventure. Last seen in the Tenacious D movie, Robbins gets serious again and skewers the critical issue of ... noise pollution?

Aurally assaulted by traffic, sirens, and construction, white-collar Manhattanite David Owens (Robbins) decides to take matters into his own hands and goes vigilante on the city’s worst offenders – the car alarms that don’t even stave off vehicle theft. Dubbing himself “The Rectifier,” he starts small – letting air out of tires and stealing windshield wipers – but graduates to dismantling alarms in cars and eventually buildings. His one-man movement consumes his life, costing him his job and his wife (Bridget Moynahan).

Even David admits his pet issue is “not as important as global warming,” and Henry Bean, directing his first film since the controversial The Believer, doesn’t do the film any favors by playing it straight or, worse, veering off-topic into weird sexual politics. The only one laughing seems to be William Hurt as a hilariously smarmy mayor. Plug your ears. (Annlee Ellingson) (Laemmle’s Sunset 5)

Turn the River

A thuggish Famke Janssen stars in writer-director Chris Eigeman’s grey-toned, overcast debut drama about a gambling tough named Kailey determined to rescue her sixth-grader son Gulley (a strong Jaymie Dornan) from the pious jerk (Matt Ross) she boned and briefly married 11 years ago. We’re encouraged to root for their Canada-or-bust escape, though Gulley’s tortured life smiling through church and cotillions seems a hell of a lot better for him than sleeping on pool tables with his mom. Janssen tries to play tomboy, because the story hinges on the fact that no one but the audience ever seems to notice she’s smokin’ hot; in every scene, fellow drunks (like Rip Torn) insist she looks like shit. But no matter how brutishly she smokes a cigarette, this still reads as pure Hollywood nonsense – a great-looking dame who’s earned every cent of her income from the poker or billiards table, despite showing little love for either game.

Eigeman’s made a film about pool and motherhood that feels bored by both. Dornan’s optimistic child is the only character with a notion of emotional complexity, as he aches to run away with his mom, but gives his flatly cruel father and snide Christian grandma (Lois Smith) more empathy than the script does. As all the grownups are boneheads – except Marin Hinkle as Gulley’s naive stepmom and Torn’s poolhall owner – we’re left after this terse and anxious film having learned only that Janssen looks cool bending over and glaring at the eight ball. (Amy Nicholson) (Laemmle’s Regent Showcase)

Unsettled

“In what country does the army uproot its own people?” the aggrieved Jew asks. The answer, of course, is Israel, who withdrew from the West Bank and Gaza in 2005 – requiring the Israeli army to remove (sometimes forcibly) 8,500 countrymen from their homes. Director Adam Hootnick documents the heartbreak as only a former MTV News producer can: by profiling a group of attractive twentysomethings, including Ye’ela, whose sister was killed in a mall bombing, and Lior, a shaggy-haired lifeguard. But Hootnick’s powerfully simple documentary ain’t Real World: Gaza. Unlike Joel Blasberg and Oreet Rees’s anger-inducing Withdrawal from Gaza, Unsettled is a quietly observant film with no political agenda. When the army marches down the street as grief-stricken Gazans yell “Heil, Hitler” and accuse the soldiers of betrayal, Hootnick smartly lets events unfold in long takes that crystallize Israel’s troubled identity. Less effective are the unfocused personal stories, but that flaw becomes irrelevant. Hootnick knows he’s capturing historic footage of Jew against Jew for what then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon sold as a major step toward peace with the Palestinians. (Mark Keizer) (Laemmle’s Music Hall 3)

Up the Yangtze

Director Yang Chang’s documentary is a “reality TV”-like story of two Chinese youngsters, working on one of the fancy tourist cruise ships that sail up and down the Yangtze River. Teenage girl Yu Shui comes from an almost unbearably poor farm family, living in a fetid shack with no electricity or heat. She dreams of going to school, but is instead forced by her parents to work as a dishwasher and menial servant aboard the cruise ship, where none of the bloated and smug white “foreign devil” tourist passengers notice her barely repressed rage and resentment. By contrast, cocky young Chen Bo Yu, the only male child of middle class parents, almost instantly takes to the entitled life of a tip-hungry capitalist bellboy. Both kids loathe their customers – you can bet they want to shove that steam-fried dumpling up your Yangtze – and they resent the hoops they’re forced to jump through for the money. Still, Chang’s film is unusually effective at depicting the almost terrifying cultural divide between the folks on the cruise and their servants. It’s also striking in its depiction of the equally jarring gulf separating the “Ancient” China of those who live on the Yangtze, from the “New” China, with its technology and tourist trade. The result is a powerful meditation on the nature of the Chinese personality – and of the looming might of their hunger for modernization and power. (Paul Birchall) (Laemmle’s Royal, Laemmle’s Playhouse 7, Laemmle’s Town Center 5)

Water Lilies

It’s summertime in a suburb of Paris, and the local girls are hanging out at the pool. Immediately, one thinks of nubile bodies barely clothed, and there are some – particularly Floriane (Adele Haenel), who is hated by her synchronized-swimming teammates but adored by the water polo-playing boys for her curves and saucy reputation. Through Floriane, first-time writer-director Céline Sciamma laments the tragedy of being a beautiful girl. But there’s also Anne (Louise Blachère), a chubby girl who waits for her fellow swimmers to leave the locker room before changing out of her suit. And at the center is Marie (Pauline Acquart), long-limbed and awkward even in street clothes, drawn to the beauty and strength of Floriane and her sport. With François (Warren Jacquin), the girls form a love quadrangle that tests Marie and Anne’s friendship.

This poetic snapshot of adolescent love and angst relies on images – Marie practicing choreography in the bathtub as her pet turtle swims nearby – and actions – in a fit of desire, she rummages through Floriane’s trash – rather than dialogue to express what Harper Lee observed in To Kill a Mockingbird: “... by watching her I began to think there was some skill involved in being a girl.” (Annlee Ellingson) (Landmark’s Nuart)

Also Opening This Week:

How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer. Elizabeth Peña, America Ferrera, and Lucy Gallardo represent three generations of a Mexican-American family, in Georgina Garcia Riedel’s comedy about a hot, dusty summer of play and passion. (AK) (Citywide)

Indestructible. First-time filmmaker Ben Byer documents his life on video, after being diagnosed with the neurodegenerative ailment ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease). (AK) (Laemmle’s Grande 4)