Reverend's Reviews: Aussie Melody

Australians have a tongue-in-cheek style and tradition of musical cinema uniquely their own. Over the years, they have enjoyed such international successes as Gillian Armstrong's charming Starstruck (1982) and 2001's Oscar-nominated Moulin Rouge!, directed by Aussie Baz Luhrmann. But the Land Down Under has also sprung upon the world such travesties as 1982's Gilbert & Sullivan-derived The Pirate Movie and Welcome to Woop Woop (1997), a bizarre homage to the works of Rodgers & Hammerstein (which was directed by Stephan Elliott, falling from the heights of his prior achievement, the now classic Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert). Even though these two debacles frequently feature, respectively, the yummy Christopher Atkins and Johnathon Schaech in little more than their undies, this is hardly enough to recommend them.

Bran Nue Dae, opening today in LA and New York City, represents Australia's latest foray into movie musicals. It is a generally enjoyable but not very significant adaptation of a long-running stage production, which made its debut at the 1990 Perth Festival. Inspired by the teenage experiences of half-Aborigine musician Jimmy Chi and his band, Kuckles (who wrote the musical and the songs for the film adaptation), it subsequently toured Australia and has received a tremendous, enduring reception.

The storyline is reminiscent of, if slightly more political than, what we've seen in Grease or Hairspray: teenager Willie (Rocky McKenzie, in his first professional role), a native of the port town of Broome, Australia, is in love with Rosie (the pretty Jessica Mauboy, also making her acting debut). However, Willie's mother has dreams of her son becoming a priest, so he is abruptly sent to distant Perth and the seminary run by the imperious Father Benedictus (a fun, singing-and-dancing turn by Geoffrey Rush). Willie soon rebels in the name of freedom and love, and sets out on foot for Broome in hopes of being reunited with Rosie. Along the way, he meets up with an old, indigenous man (who may well be his father) and a well-intentioned hippie couple. Willie also confronts the racism his people have often endured, all the while with Fr. Benedictus in hot pursuit.

Needless to say, the plot of Bran Nue Dae is slight. The songs and musical numbers, though, are good — with "Nothing I Would Rather Be (Than an Aborigine)" a particular standout — despite occasionally obvious lip-synching. Director Rachel Perkins keeps the proceedings humming along nicely (the film runs a brisk 88 minutes), and Academy Award-winning cinematographer Andrew Lesnie (The Lord of the Rings trilogy) makes the barren Australian outback look gorgeous. The film's cast includes Magda Szubanski, best known in the US for playing Mrs. Hoggett (the farmer's wife) in the lovable Babe and Babe: Pig in the City, as a lonely, amusingly over-amorous roadhouse attendee.

Bran Nue Dae tries to make serious points about the historical mistreatment of Australia's indigenous people, but the film's light tone is often at odds with this. A press note states: "The Catholic Church, and in particular the German Pallottine missionaries, had an enormous influence on the lives of Aboriginal people in the Northwest." This may be true but it is barely apparent in the movie. The over-zealous attitude of Rush's priest is more indicative of caricature than character, and hard to take seriously. Bran Nue Dae is broadly drawn, but in the end is still a substantial improvement over The Pirate Movie!

Reverend's Rating: B-

UPDATE: Bran Nue Dae is now available on DVD and Blu-ray from Amazon.com.

Review by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and the Orange County and Long Beach Blade.

Reverend's Reviews: Trippin' with Leslie Jordan

Diminutive, Tennessee-bred Leslie Jordan has had quite the midlife career as an actor-comedian on stage and film (Southern Baptist Sissies, Sordid Lives) as well as TV, most notably on Will & Grace, for which he won an Emmy Award as Karen's arch-nemesis, Beverly Leslie. He also authored the well-received autobiography My Trip Down the Pink Carpet. Jordan has more recently adapted his life story into a one-man theatrical tour, which had a successful run Off-Broadway and in several other cities it has played.

If you don't live in one of those cities, though, you can now enjoy Jordan's performance in the comfort of your own living room. My Trip Down the Pink Carpet, which was recorded in Atlanta, is out on DVD this week from Breaking Glass Pictures. It further confirms Jordan's penchant for self-deprecating humor as well as his great integrity as an openly gay recovering alcoholic trying to survive in Hollywood.

In the film, Jordan shares accounts of his unbridled upbringing, the most shockingly hilarious of which is when he details the long-term phone sex relationship he had with the town "pervert" while posing as a teenaged girl. He also shares stories about numerous celebrity encounters he's had since his arrival in California, including a young George Clooney, Mark Harmon, Faye Dunaway, the late Robert Urich and the reportedly well-endowed Paul Hogan of Crocodile Dundee fame. Jordan also recounts such surreal experiences as playing a monkey in a Japanese commercial alongside a camel-riding Boy George, and going on a panties-shopping excursion for actress Beverly D'Angelo.

My Trip Down the Pink Carpet is directed by Amanda Bearse, an actress-director perhaps best known for the 1985 horror film Fright Night and for playing Marcy D'Arcy on Married ... with Children. She came out as a lesbian in 1993. The film is only so-so technically, with apparent dubbing of Jordan's lines at a couple of points. As long as Bearse, though, keeps the camera firmly focused on her star's remembrances — by turns rambunctious and poignant — she and the film don't go wrong.

Reverend's Rating: B+

Review by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and the Orange County and Long Beach Blade.

Reel Thoughts: 2010 Fall Movie Preview

From Facebook to gay poets, the new season of films is getting some buzz. The end of summer brings prestige pictures and big budget blockbusters to movie screens, with the beginning of the end of Harry Potter sure to draw the most attention.

Also coming this fall: Wall Street’s Gordon Gecko sprung from jail, a preteen vampire and Ryan Reynolds in a box, plus the return of Cher in Burlesque. Will it be the Showgirls of the new millennium?

It’s going to be an interesting season. Here are the films we’re excited to see.

September:
Going the Distance (now playing): As onscreen/off-screen couples go, for every Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn, there’s also a Sean Penn and Madonna. We’ll see how Justin Long and Drew Barrymore fare in this story about a long-distance love affair.

The Tillman Story (now playing): Pat Tillman’s life was inspiring enough – the Arizona Cardinal football star gave up his athletic career after September 11 to join the military and fight overseas. That’s before the Bush Administration got its hands on his death-by-friendly-fire. This searing documentary exposes how Tillman’s death was abused, and the struggles his family endured finding and publicizing the truth.

Machete (now playing): Grindhouse, by Roberto Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino, was an inspired homage to trashy B-movies of the ’70s, complete with fake movie trailers between the double feature. Machete, starring Danny Trejo, fleshes (and bloods) out one of the trailers, a Mexploitation flick about a man with a big grudge ... and a bigger blade.

I'm Still Here (September 10): No, it’s not Barbara Cook saluting Stephen Sondheim with a medley from Follies. This is Casey Affleck’s film following Joaquin Phoenix’s bizarre quest to become a rap star while wearing a Grizzly Adams beard.

Devil (September 17): Maybe that guy with burrito breath isn’t the worst person you could get stuck with in an elevator. That would be the devil himself, who torments a group of lift takers. The scariest part? The script comes “from the mind of M. Night Shyamalan.”

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (September 24): Gordon Gecko (Michael Douglas) is out of jail and pushing a new book, while Shia LeBeouf is the young moneymaker who has lessons to learn in the new economy.

You Again (September 24): Kristin Bell plays a former nerd appalled to find that her brother is marrying her high school nemesis (Odette Justman). Add to that the rivalry between Bell’s mom Jamie Lee Curtis and Justman’s aunt Sigourney Weaver, toss in Betty White and Kristin Chenoweth (as a perky wedding planner), and you’ve got a lot more potential than When in Rome.

Buried (September 24): Ryan Reynolds re-enacts the end of The Vanishing as an American contractor captured and buried alive by Iraqi insurgents. Claustrophobics, beware!

A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop (September 24): Turnabout is fair play as Chinese director Yimou Zhang remakes an American film, the Coen Brothers’ Blood Simple, about a man whose plan to murder his cheating wife goes horribly awry.

Howl (September 24) is the most eagerly awaited GLBT film of the fall. James Franco (Milk) stars as gay Beat poet Allen Ginsberg, who was put on trial for obscenity due to the frankness of his poem, "Howl". Directors Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman (The Celluloid Closet) explore the influential poet’s significance with scenes from the trial and Ginsburg’s life and relationships. The film also includes black and white scenes of the real Ginsberg performing "Howl" in a coffeehouse.

October:
Never Let Me Go (October 1): Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley and Andrew Garfield (the next Spider-Man) play British boarding school kids raised for one very dark purpose.

Let Me In (October 1): It girl “Hit Girl” Chloe Grace Moretz plays the little vampire next door, a 12-year-old bloodsucker who befriends and protects a bullied little boy. This remake of Let the Right One In moves the action to 1983 New Mexico.

A Film Unfinished (October 1): An unflinching documentary about the infamous Nazi propaganda film that romanticized the Warsaw Ghetto, complete with lost footage.

The Social Network (October 1): Seven director David Fincher cast Jesse Eisenberg (Zombieland) as Mark Zuckerberg, the billionaire creator of Facebook. Forget your Farmville and find out how it all began.

Hereafter (October 22): Clint Eastwood treads in to Shyamalan territory with tales of people affected by disasters (the Indian Ocean tsunami, the London Underground bombing) and a psychic (Matt Damon) who can communicate with dead people.

November:
Morning Glory (November 12): Broadcast News 2010? Rachel McAdams plays the put-upon producer of a terrible morning show (hosted by Diane Keaton) who spices things up by adding Harrison Ford’s seasoned newsman to the mix.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I (November 19): Harry’s Hogwarts saga draws to a close as he, Hermoine, Ron and the forces of good battle the evil Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes, last seen releasing his Kraken in Clash of the Titans).

Burlesque (November 24): Christina Aguilera is a small town girl who heads to LA to become a burlesque star, tutored by a former showgirl played by Cher. Will she be “all pelvic thrust” like Nomi in Showgirls? Somewhere, Elizabeth Berkley is nodding knowingly.

December:
Black Swan (December 1): Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis play rival ballet dancers in Darren Aronofsky’s All About Eve-esque thriller. Expect some sexy fireworks between the women as they fight to be the last Swan standing … on pointe.

Review by Neil Cohen, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and Phoenix's Echo Magazine.

Reel Thoughts: Blubbers & Sniffles

If you’re the type who mists up watching those AT&T ads where the couple fortuitously meets on a train, leading them to marry and have the future President of the United States, then you better bring a crate of Kleenex with you as you pop Brothers & Sisters: The Complete Fourth Season into the DVD player. What with Kitty’s ongoing cancer trauma, Rebecca’s unexpected pregnancy, and the horrifying car pileup that ends the season, you’ll be sobbing for days.

Of course, the brilliant thing about Brothers & Sisters is how it combines humor, intrigue, drama, heartbreak and romance into a thoroughly engrossing program with one of the best ensembles on television. Sally Field, as matriarch Nora Walker, is the heart of the show, while Calista Flockhart’s Kitty is the brain. Rachel Griffith as pragmatic daughter Sarah, Dave Annable as sweet screw-up Justin, Balthazar Getty as not-so-sweet, even more screwed up Tommy, Ron Rifkin as gruff Uncle Sol and Matthew Rhys as gay control freak Kevin are the soul. Patricia Wettig, Emily Van Camp, Rob Lowe, Luke MacFarlane and sexy Gilles Marini add depth to the core family.

Season Four spends a lot of time on Kitty’s lymphoma and treatment, although she herself says several times, “I don’t want to think about cancer.” There are plenty of other exciting plots happening as well. Kevin and Scotty decide to have a child through surrogacy, leading to fights about how workaholic Kevin will make time for a child. Justin struggles with medical school and trouble in his relationship with Rebecca, who not so long ago he thought was his half sister. In the most welcome casting all year, Sarah meets hunky artist Luc (Marini) in France, and he follows her home, allowing for great scenes of the French stud swimming and running around shirtless.

Meanwhile, Nora finds sex, if not love, in the arms of a smooth oncologist with a secret. Ojai Foods hits even harder times, even with the addition of a winery, but there might be one more William Walker secret that could save the day. By far the least interesting storyline involves Ryan (Luke Grimes), William Walker’s illegitimate son, and his quest for revenge against the Walkers. Not surprisingly, Grimes has been written out, and actually disappears without explanation toward the end of the season (much like the missing Cunningham brother on Happy Days or Bobby Martin on All My Children, who went up to the attic with his skis and was never seen again).

Brothers & Sisters has always been GLBT-friendly, tackling stories like gay marriage and Sol’s late-in-life coming out story, and Season Four is no exception. All of the Walkers are flawed, recognizable people you want to spend time with ... or at least share of bottle of wine. DVD extras include deleted scenes, bloopers and other off-screen features. Some family reunions aren’t worth attending, but Brothers & Sisters Season Four is definitely more fun than being stuck in the corner hearing about your Aunt Flossie’s Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

Review by Neil Cohen, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and Phoenix's Echo Magazine.