It’s been a while. I’ve seen plenty of films lately, but I just haven’t had the desire to write about any of them. Until I do, here are some mini reviews that have been sitting on my hard drive collecting dust.
Paper Heart
2009. Directed by Nicholas Jasenovec
Charlyne Yi is a performance artists of sorts. A geeky, gawky Asian twenty-something, she plays extremely loud on her electric guitar and sings passionately about silly things. You wouldn’t expect her to do this, and that, coupled with her awkward persona makes for a Kaufman-esque experience that leaves her audiences both laughing and confused. Enter Michael Cera, a young actor who has capitalized on an equally awkward persona. Together the two embark on a quest across the states to discover the true meaning of love. They interview all manner of couples about love, they hang out, they write and perform some silly songs, and something develops between them. What starts out as a real-life documentary becomes an obviously staged, faux-documudrama about awkward, twenty-something love. Charlyne Yi’s abrupt, incoherent exclamations of her feelings get really annoying really fast, and Cera, though enjoyable to watch, is a bit too cloying here. That said, Paper Heart is an interesting film with an unique approach to storytelling. It doesn’t really say much about love past worn-out truisms, but it delivers these truisms in a novel way, which makes for a fun, if unenlightening viewing.
The Living Wake
2007. Directed by Sol Tryon
This film is both profoundly silly and profoundly sad. K. Roth Binew, a raving eccentric and megalomaniac who lives in a timeless, almost fairy tale-like New England town, believes he is dying and decides to hold a living wake for himself a mere hour before his forecast death. The film follows his nonsensical “last day” as he travels around in a rickshaw drawn by his servant and biographer Mills, played with a lovely innocence and wit by Jesse Eisenberg, inviting his various friends and enemies to his wake, which no one believes to be a serious affair. Mike O’Connell’s energetic and pathos-filled performance as the mad K. Roth Binew is the reason to watch this film. He reminds me of a young Richard Dreyfuss, and his performance is full of genius line delivery and wonderfully physical capering. The script is also quite enjoyable, full of clever pun and parody and almost reading like Shakespeare, and the cinematography, capturing a late New England autumn is both warm and haunting. At the end of the day and the film, a bizarre musical wake occurs with a bit of a tragic twist. A sad and funny, if slightly indecent and strange affair indeed.
The Karate Kid
1984. Directed by John G. Avildsen
They call The Karate Kid the best Rocky film. I’m not sure if I agree, but it’s still up there in the annals of man/kid-against-the-odds sports fighting films. I really liked the re-make, but this film is pretty good too. Daniel, a fast-talking east coast kid in the vein of Stallone’s Rocky, moves to California, and finds that his old street smarts don’t do him much good in a new town full of spoiled kids with lots of money and cool cars. Next thing you know, the cool kids, who also happen to be disciples of a fanatic martial arts cult (convenient) have chosen Daniel as their arch-enemy and are taking every chance they can to beat the snot out of him. Enter Mr. Miyagi, Daniel’s apartment janitor who happens to also be a martial arts expert from Japan (also incredibly convenient.) After much deliberation, he chooses to train Daniel in the true way of martial arts, and after some truly well-crafted cheesy montages and revelatory character moments, we get to the grand, Rocky-esque finale. The premise is a bit silly, but it’s the acting that really shines here. The dialog direction is top notch. Ralph Macchio as Daniel delivers fast, quick-witted banter that feels believable and makes him instantly likable, and the supporting cast: Pat Morita as the mysterious yet lovable Miyagi, Randee Heller as Daniel’s kind, supportive yet constantly exasperated mother, and Elisabeth Shue as Daniel’s shy high school love interest, all do a bang-up job and really lend an air of sophistication to the proceedings. The only weakness is the villains. As I said in my review of the re-make, the stakes here are too low. The great thing about the re-make is that it’s believable that the new Karate Kid, played by Jaden Smith, would be seriously threatened by a group of Chinese boys who view him as an outsider and train in martial arts as part of their heritage. Here it’s harder to believe that a bunch of rich white kids would be so violently obsessed with fighting and so bent on severely beating up Daniel. But if you can take this story element with a grain of salt, Karate Kid is a really enjoyable film and much deserving of it’s status as a 1980’s classic.