FRENCH 101: ENNUI BY ANY OTHER NAME: Movie Reviews of Moka and My Journey Through French Cinema by Howard Casner
Posted: July 7, 2017 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Antonio Martin, Bertrand Tavernier, Emmanuelle Devos, Frederic Mermoud, Moka, My Journey Through French Cinema, Nathalie Baye | 3 Comments »First, a word from our sponsors: I wanted to say thank you to everyone who contributed to our Indiegogo campaign for 15 Conversations in 10 Minutes. We did very well due to you folks. For those who weren’t able to give, keep us in your thoughts. And if you are able to contribute in the future, contact me and I’ll tell you how. I will even honor the perks on the original campaign.
I am now offering a new consultation service: so much emphasis has been given lately to the importance of the opening of your screenplay, I now offer coverage for the first twenty pages at the cost of $20.00. For those who don’t want to have full coverage on their screenplay at this time, but want to know how well their script is working with the opening pages, this is perfect for you. I’ll help you not lose the reader on page one.
Ever wonder what a reader for a contest or agency thinks when he reads your screenplay? FosCheck out my new e-book published on Amazon: Rantings and Ravings of a Screenplay Reader, including my series of essays, What I Learned Reading for Contests This Year, and my film reviews of 2013. Only $2.99. http://ow.ly/xN31r
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Warning: SPOILERS
In the new film Moka, a woman’s young boy dies in a hit and run. After much time has passed, the mother Diane grows frustrated at the police making no progress on finding the driver, so she hires a private investigator who, based on a tip as to the type of car involved, leads Diane to a family in a nearby town. She insinuates her way into their lives in an attempt to be sure they are the guilty party and once she is assured, she plans to seek revenge.
It sounds like the beginnings of a tense, riveting thriller. At least it has been advertised as so. However, in spite of the subject matter, the movie’s pacing is far below the speed limit and the tension is almost non-existent. It takes a rather long time for very little to happen and you tend to feel the minutes ticking by. Read the rest of this entry »
YOU CAN’T GO HOME AGAIN: Movie Reviews of Manchester By The Sea, It’s Only the End of the World and The Commune by Howard Casner
Posted: November 29, 2016 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: C.J. Wilson, Casey Affleck, Gretchen Moll, It’s Only the End of the World, Jean-Luc Lagarce, Kenneth Lonergan, Kyle Chandler, Lea Seydoux, Lucas Hedges, Marion Cotillard, Matt Damon, Matthew Broderick, Michelle Williams, Nathalie Baye, The Commune, Thomas Vinterberg, Tobias Lindholm, Trine Dryholm, Ulrich Thomson, Vincent Cassel, Xavier Dolan | 16 Comments »For questions: hcasner@aol.com
First, a word from our sponsors: I am now offering a new service: so much emphasis has been given lately to the importance of the opening of your screenplay, I now offer coverage for the first twenty pages at the cost of $20.00. For those who don’t want to have full coverage on their screenplay at this time, but want to know how well their script is working with the opening pages, this is perfect for you. I’ll help you not lose the reader on page one.
Ever wonder what a reader for a contest or agency thinks when he reads your screenplay? Check out my new e-book published on Amazon: Rantings and Ravings of a Screenplay Reader, including my series of essays, What I Learned Reading for Contests This Year, and my film reviews of 2013. Only $2.99. http://ow.ly/xN31r
and check out my Script Consultation Services: http://ow.ly/HPxKE
Warning: SPOILERS
You Can’t Go Home Again is, of course, the title of a posthumously published novel by Thomas Wolfe, and a phrase that has entered common discourse since. I’ve seen three movies lately that are about people returning home or using memories of their early years as the basis for their stories.
The basic premise of writer/director Kenneth Lonergan’s new film Manchester by the Sea revolves around Lee Chandler (Casey Affleck), a janitor living in Boston who is very good at his job, but is a loner with a somewhat self-destructive personality. When he receives word that his older brother Joe (Kyle Chandler) has died, he returns to his home city of Manchester by the Sea, a fishing and tourist town. There he is shocked to discover that his brother in his will has requested Lee to become guardian to Joe’s sixteen year old son, Lucas. Joe has provided for Lucas’ expenses in his will and just needs Lee to return to Manchester to live.
Why Lee can’t return and the conflicts over how to handle this request make up the bulk of the movie and much of the heart breaking suspense is waiting to find out what happened that led to Lee’s present situation-you know it has something to do with his three children since they are only shown in flashback. The waiting is painfully unbearable at times. Read the rest of this entry »
CRIME DOESN’T PAY; NEITHER DOES CRIMINE: Movie reviews of The Connection, L’affaire SK1 and Black Souls by Howard Casner
Posted: May 5, 2015 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Audrey Diwan, Beast of Bastille, Black Souls, Cédric Jiminez, Dardenne Brothers, David Oelhoffen, Fabrizio Ferracane, Fabrizio Ruggirello, Francesco Munzi, Frédéric Tellier, Gilles Lellouche, Gioacchino Criaco, Giuseppe Fumo, Guy Georges, Jean Dujardin, La French, L’affaire SK1, Marco Leonardi, Maurizio Braucci, Nathalie Baye, Olivier Gourmet, Peppino Mazzotta, Pierre Michel, Raphaȅl Personnaz, The Connection, The French Connection, Zampa | 1,092 Comments »First, a word from our sponsors. Ever wonder what a reader for a contest or agency thinks when he reads your screenplay? Check out my new e-book published on Amazon: Rantings and Ravings of a Screenplay Reader, including my series of essays, What I Learned Reading for Contests This Year, and my film reviews of 2013. Only $2.99. http://ow.ly/xN31r
and check out my Script Consultation Services: http://ow.ly/HPxKE
Warning: SPOILERS
I saw three movies over the past week that dealt with, shall we say, guys of the not so good variety as well as those trying to stop them. Two were shown at COL-COA, the French film festival, and the other, from Italy, had a regular run in local theaters.
All came to the same conclusion, though, which is somewhat reassuring. Crime is a very dicey way to live one’s life. Of course, being the good guys doesn’t always run that smoothly either.
The Connection (aka La French), the new based on true events crime thriller from France, would be fun to see on a double feature with American’s own The French Connection since the Gallic film is about the efforts of the Marseilles police to take down the villain played by Fernando Rey in the Gene Hackman film and covers events both before and after Popeye Doyle let that wily, bumbershoot totting criminal mastermind slip through his fingers in New York. Read the rest of this entry »
Movie Review of LAURENCE ANYWAYS by Howard Casner
Posted: November 13, 2012 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Laurence Anyways, Melvil Poupaud, Nathalie Baye, Suzanne Clement, Xavier Dolan | 1 Comment »Near the beginning of the movie Laurence Anyways, the central character (appropriately enough called Laurence; isn’t it nice when that happens) who teaches literature, tells his students, to paraphrase, that Proust writes very long books in which almost nothing happens (which actually is very true), but that Proust’s prose covers up this fact (which actually is just as very true). I think that something like this could also be said of Laurence Anyways, but not quite to the same success as A Remembrance of Things Past, I’m afraid.
Laurence Anyways is a visual stunner. Exploding with pop colors reminiscent of the Crayola crayon mod world of the early sixties; sets crammed with hip, post modern retro furniture and props; and characters often stuffed into costumes of the over the top variety (though the Joan Crawford shoulders Laurence displays at the beginning and end may be a bit much even for being a bit much). It’s all topped off with a camera style that jerks around in that roller coaster approach so popular now, often filming actors from behind, or blocked by something, or their faces partially cut off. It’s like Frederico Fellinni at times (especially in a group of somewhat outrageous women who befriend Laurence), but without the badly dubbed sound.
The movie is directed by that French Canadian cinematic Doogie Houser, Xavier Dolan, whose first film, I Killed My mother, a somewhat autobiographical story about a boy and his mom (but quite different than Psycho, believe me), was a riveting coming of age story. It’s only real fault was that Dolan was still in his nappies (well, a mere 18 years old) when he made it. Talk about rubbing it in.
He next made Heartbeats, which was again a visual feast, but the story was a tad underwhelming. It concerned a gay man and his bestest female friend who are both attracted to the same man, but don’t know if he’s homo or hetero. If the plot sounds a bit familiar, that’s because the TV show Will & Grace had a similar story line. The difference is that those two resolved the conflict in fifteen minutes. Dolan took more than an hour and a half with a plot that never quite convinced. Now with the addition of his new movie, I feel that, at least for me, Dolan is fast becoming more like Tim Burton, James Cameron and Terry Gilliam. Their movies are ravishing to look at, even brilliantly directed perhaps, but a bit more than weak in the writing department.
I have two issues with the plot and structure of Dolan’s film. The basic premise is that Laurence (pursed lip Melvil Poupaud) and Fred (Suzanne Clement–Fred is female, which I assume is supposed to be ironic) are deeply in love. Then Laurence lobs the grenade: he’s actually a woman in a man’s body.
At this point, the focus of the story gets more and more wobbly as it can’t seem to settle on what it wants to be about. Is it driven by the difficulties a person in Laurence’s situation goes through and the conflicts that come up in his life because of it, as more than half of the story seems to be? Or is it driven by the plotline of a man and a woman deeply in love, but due to circumstances somewhat beyond their control, will always be some sort of metaphorical ships in the night and never end up together as the finale and the rest of the film suggests?
Because of this uncertainty, the movie feels like it’s constantly bouncing back and forth between these two ideas until it seriously flounders for energy in the second half. At that point, to be honest, I was just waiting for it to be over.
Connected to this is that when it comes to the idea of whether love will conquer all and whether these two people will manage to work past their differences and create a life with each other, there is no suspense. Their love is doomed. Dooooooooomed. And for a very obvious and simple reason: Fred cannot make herself into a lesbian. Laurence can make himself into a woman because that’s what he’s always been. He’s not changing, he’s becoming his true self. But Fred can’t will herself to be attracted to someone of the same sex. It just doesn’t work that way no matter how many tantrums Laurence throws in order to get Fred to.
But there is perhaps an even more serious issue that overshadows those aforementioned. Have you ever been in a coffee shop or restaurant and there’s a couple near by who are just a little too loud, a little too boisterous? They think they’re the most interesting people in the world whereas you, and everybody else in the place, would just wish they’d shut up? That’s what Laurence and Fred are like to me. In fact, when Laurence said he was going to become a woman, all I could think was, well, it’s a better choice than the drama queen you are now.
So not only is the relationship of these two somewhat immature people doomed from the start, I found I didn’t like them or find them interesting enough to want them to end up together. In the end, the only actor who really makes her mark is Nathalie Baye, the wonderful French actress who plays Laurence’s long suffering mother. Her quite approach to interpreting her character is a welcome relief from all the self-centered chaos Laurence brings with him.