Latino movie reviews

State of Play (Movie Review)

Rated: PG-13 for some violence, language including sexual references, and brief drug content.
Release Date: 2009-04-17
Starring: Matthew Michael Carnahan, Tony Gilroy
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Country: USA
Official Website: http://www.stateofplaymovie.net/

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There is something about seeing a bloated overweight, unkempt Russell Crowe that makes one cringe – and put down that black and white cookie.  He’d have done well to follow Shelley Winters’ famous advice about playing fat roles.  However, Crowe’s weight is not what goes awry in “State of Play,†a crime thriller from helmer Kevin Macdonald (“The Last King of Scotlandâ€), although being fat does not add much to his character as Cal McAffrey, a reporter at the “Washington Globeâ€.
 
Until the final reel, “State of Play†(based on an eponymous BBC Television series), has all the makings of a well made film noire:  Bad weather, dark lighting, ominous music, more plot twists than a back road in Connecticut, and corruption in places high and low.  Why, there are even three murder attempts in the first reel, two of them successful.  Until the final reel the storyline fits together like a well crafted jigsaw puzzle.  It has an excellent cast:  Helen Mirren as foul-mouthed newspaper editor Cameron Lynne, Ben Affleck as philandering congressman Stephen Collins, Robin Wright Penn as his wife, Jeff Daniels as the House Majority Whip, and Jason Bateman as a sleazy, not too bright PR man, each playing his part to perfection. Rachel McAdams is convincing as a newspaper blogger who earns her reporting stripes solving a string of four seemingly unrelated murders in a buddy-film subplot opposite Crowe.
 
Pic opens with a drug addict running from a gunman (Michael Berresse) who catches and kills him.  He also shoots a pizza delivery man who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Then the mistress of Congressman Collins, whose committee is investigating the “mercenary†private army on duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, dies mysteriously underneath the wheels of the Washington Metro.  All roads lead to a vast conspiracy with 30 or 40 billion Dollars at stake for the company hoping to profit from the privatization of homeland security at its center.  Crowe’s McAffrey is hot on the trail as dead bodies pile up.  He is also dispensing PR advice to his college roommate, Affleck’s Collins.  Subplots appear to spin out of control but each peels a layer from pic’s onion – until the final reel, that is, when a surprise ending both confuses audiences and leaves unresolved the biggest plot element, the conspiracy and the company at its center – is it real or a red herring?
 
Blame in this case has to be shared.  Screenwriters Matthew Michael Carnahan, Tony Gilroy, and Billy Ray deserve a major chunk.  But many a bad screenplay has been fixed in the edit room.  Take that, Justine Wright.  And one has to ask just how much control Macdonald had over the final cut.  At 127 minutes, it’s not as if the picture had to be fleshed out to feature length.  It coulda been a contender….
 
“State of Play,†distributed in the US by Universal, carries a PG-13 rating, largely due to Mirren’s lines.  Other than that there is little objectionable for children.  But not even adults have a chance of making sense out of it.

Paris 36 (Movie Review)

Rated: PG-13 for some sexuality and nudity, violence and brief language.
Release Date: 2009-04-03
Starring: Christophe Barratier, Pierre Philippe
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Country: France
Official Website: http://www.faubourg36-lefilm.com/

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Mickey and Judy Put on a Show… In French
 
It is only April but “Paris 36†may be the feel-good movie of 2009.  The third feature by helmer Christophe Barratier (“Les Choristersâ€) is a stew of plots and subplots with a cast almost the size of that of “Slumdog Millionaire,†but that does not detract from its appeal.  Set in Montmartre from New Year’s Eve 1935 to New Year’s Eve 1945, pic’s action takes place against the backdrop of the short-lived Popular Front government of Leon Blum, the Jewish premier who became the focal point of French Fascist anti-Semitism.  To cram all that historical context into a two hour movie is a daunting task, but Barratier and co-writers Pierre Philippe and Julien Rappaneau are more than up to it.  Fast moving plot and crisp dialogue help.  So do compelling performances by the entire cast, Barratier’s confident direction, and no-frills editing by Yves Deschamps.
 
Despite its historical context, “Paris 36†is a comedy that morphs into a musical.  The Fascists are almost comical.

Plot centers on a music hall taken over by a greedy, Fascist real estate thug (Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu) who closes it and puts its workers, including lighting man Germain Pigiol (Gérard Jugnot), out of work.  Eventually the workers, led by Pigiol, occupy the theater and stage shows that bomb.  They are saved by the arrival of Douce (Nora Amezeder), a songstress of fine voice whose history is central to the plot.  Pic is narrated by Jojo (Maxence Perrin) who plays the roughly ten-year-old son of Pigiol.  Jojo’s theatrical ambitions provide one of two key subplots.  The other hinges on a love triangle pitting labor activist Millou (Clovis Comiac) against Donnadieu’s Gallapiat over the affections of Douce.
 
Deus ex-machina plot twists are easily overlooked.  Notable among them is the surprise un-retirement of Max (Monisieur TSF played by Pierre Richard—TSF is French for radio) a 20-year agoraphobic who sees the world through his radio.  It seems that Douce’s mother, a music hall star, was the love of his life.  He composed her songs and conducted her orchestra in the very same music hall at pic’s center some two decades earlier.  He returns to do the same for her daughter.
 
Production numbers, set in the music hall, abound during pic’s final reel.  One feels almost transported to MGM in the 1930s except that it’s all in French.  It seems that every worker at the theater, even the lighting guys, is a superb singer and dancer.  Who’d of thunk?  Barratier handles what pathos there is economically.  Auds are guaranteed not to shed a tear.  Production design by Jean Rabasse excels in evoking inter-war Paris.  Original music by Reinhardt Wagner and lensing by Tom Stern leave nothing to be desired.  The only minor quibble, easily overlooked, is its somewhat predictable ending.
 
Pic, distributed in US by Sony Pictures Classics, carries a PG-13 rating, perhaps because of a few brief violent scenes.  However, for families not averse to subtitles, “Paris 1936†makes an excellent outing.