Reverend’s Reviews: Hearts & Brains

‘Twas the week before Valentine’s Day and all through the Cineplex, several scary creatures were stirring: zombies, giant spiders and, perhaps most terrifying of all, Julianne Hough!

Zombies have replaced vampires as the monsters du jour on movie and TV screens, largely due to the massive success of AMC’s The Walking Dead.  Adding welcome doses of romance (yes, really) and humor to the genre is the current Warm Bodies.  Clearly targeted at the tween fans of the recently concluded Twilight Saga (and released by the same studio), it depicts the blossoming love of an undead boy for the ex-girlfriend of the guy whose brain he just ate.  Brains have been zombies’ chief dietary staple since at least 1985’s Return of the Living Dead, and Warm Bodies proposes a novel hypothesis that zombies inherit the memories of the living.

British actor Nicholas Hoult plays R., a bored “walker” who spends his days wandering the remains of a decimated airport and collecting mementoes from the pre-apocalyptic world.  Hoult is memorable as the sexually-questioning student who befriends Colin Firth’s gay professor in A Single Man and also headlines next month’s big-budget Jack the Giant Slayer, by gay director Bryan Singer.  Here he gives his most endearing performance to date as the fine young cannibal suddenly smitten by Julie (Teresa Palmer, vet of I Am Number Four and The Sorcerer’s Apprentice).  Unbeknownst to R., Julie is the daughter of the living’s leader (a game and very good John Malkovich), who has walled off their city from the zombie-infested world and has a zero-tolerance policy toward brain-munchers.

The initial, uneasy alliance between R. and Julie grows into a Shakespeare-lite love story complete with a balcony scene.  In the process, R. regains his heartbeat and starts to become human again, as do those fellow zombies who witness his and Julie’s romance.  Unfortunately, this marks them all as menu items for the Boneys, ghastly skeletal creatures (brought to pseudo-life by so-so digital effects) who have completed their zombie transformation and, we’re told, will eat anything with a heartbeat.

Jonathan Levine, who adapted the screenplay from a young adult novel by Isaac Marion and directs, has a definite knack for stories about young people facing life or death situations.  His last film was 2011’s acclaimed 50/50, in which Joseph Gordon-Levitt deals with a cancer diagnosis.  Warm Bodies takes place on a grander scale but is in essence a similar story about a 20-ish guy who steps back from the brink and learns to live, and love, again in the process.  Despite being slow in spots, it has enough gore (albeit minimal given the film’s PG-13 rating) and scares to keep the guys interested while being the rare female-skewing horror movie thanks to its genuinely moving — not to mention beating — heart.

Spiders, which premieres this Friday in numerous L.A.-area theaters and premium Video on Demand, certainly lives up to its title.  Chock-full of supersized arachnids infused with alien DNA who fall to Earth from a crippled, Cold War-era Soviet space station, it evoked for me pleasant childhood memories of watching such "giant monsters on the loose" B-movies as Them!, Tarantula and The Giant Spider Invasion.

When the station crash lands without warning in a New York City subway tunnel, Transit Supervisor Jason Cole (Patrick Muldoon, who previously battled giant bugs in Starship Troopers) understandably suspects a terrorist attack.  The truth soon becomes known once a worker he sends to investigate is killed and military scientists descend on the site.  Most inconveniently, the situation causes Cole to be late for his daughter’s birthday dinner, infuriating his already estranged wife, Rachel (Christa Campbell).  Conveniently, though, Rachel is a city health inspector and she becomes convinced Jason is telling the truth about his excuse for being tardy when dead bodies filled with spider eggs start turning up.  Jason and Rachel find themselves thrust into the major responsibility of not only saving their daughter but everyone else in the Big Apple from the eight-legged horde and their monstrous queen.

Several elements raise Spiders a notch above what could otherwise have been cheap Saturday night programming on the SyFy channel.  Most critical perhaps are the excellent special effects, which make the spiders appear more organic than most digitally-created critters (note how the real parked cars move up and down when the spiders crawl on them).  Another merit is Lorenzo Senatore’s hi-def cinematography.  Finally, the film’s NYC setting looks and feels completely authentic despite the fact that most of it was shot in Bulgaria.

Director and co-writer Tibor Takacs (best known for the pretty bad but beloved-in-some-circles 1987 horror movie The Gate) dispenses with much of a set up to the plot and continue to keep things moving along throughout. There are worse ways to spend 90 minutes than watching Spiders; just wait ‘til Julianne Hough arrives next week in the sure-to-be-sappy Safe Haven.

Reverend’s Ratings:

Warm Bodies: B

Spiders: B-

Review by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest, Rage Monthly Magazine and Echo Magazine.

Reverend’s Reviews: Skinny, Wise & Out

This time of year is generally regarded as the doldrums at local movie theaters, Oscar contenders aside.  Fortunately, there are several new DVD releases of interest to gay viewers, if of mixed quality:

The Skinny
From Breaking Glass Pictures/QC Cinema
Reverend’s Rating: B-
The latest from Noah’s Arc creator Patrik-Ian Polk is a dramedy centered on five college friends (four gay men and a lesbian) who reunite in NYC over Pride weekend.  Their host, Magnus (former child star Jussie Smollett from The Mighty Ducks, all grown up and cuter than ever), uncovers secrets about his boyfriend’s behavior while Sebastian (Blake Young-Fountain) plots to lose his virginity to the promiscuous Kyle (Anthony Burrell) before their time together is over.  The film is more explicit than previous Polk productions but also more heavy-handed than usual, especially when it comes to talk about STDs and bottom-training/-cleansing.  Welcome cameo appearances are made by Noah’s Arc alumni Darryl Stephens and Wilson Cruz.

The Wise Kids
From Wolfe Video
Reverend’s Rating: B+
This thoughtful coming-of-age drama with a religious bent racked up numerous awards on the LGBT film festival circuit over the last two years.  A trio of high school seniors, including gay Tim (the talented Tyler Ross, who has more recently starred in the indie hit Nate & Margaret), experience tensions and revelations while working on their Southern Baptist church’s Christmas program.  Refreshingly humane and non-hysterical, the movie was written and directed by Stephen Cone (In Memoriam), who also plays the students’ closeted pastor.

Luna Park
From Ariztical Entertainment
Reverend’s Rating: C
An unusual plot entailing a successful, female producer of erotica, her many secrets, and the stable of hot gay porn actors in her employ.  Although Alexia (Laura Reilly) and her company are based in New York, her younger brother Christi (who is gay, mute and played by Taylor Caldwell) has essentially been banished to the title apartment community in Fullerton, California.  When Christi gets into trouble with some other tenants, Alexia dispatches her trusted assistant Maxwell (former Calvin Klein model Michael Brent) to keep an eye on him.  It isn’t long before a decidedly non-professional relationship develops between Maxwell and Christi.  Writer-director Steven Vasquez employs considerable full-frontal nudity as well as some stylish touches that are all the more impressive given the film’s obviously low budget.  On the negative side, the acting quality is inconsistent, there are some continuity gaffes regarding clothing/costumes, and a distasteful incest subplot eventually figures in.  Still, a unique film all in all.

Out in the Open
From Breaking Glass Pictures/QC Cinema
Reverend’s Rating: D
A disappointingly dated and tedious documentary about the coming out process of various gay celebs, despite the promising participation of Carson Kressley, Greg Louganis, Eric Roberts and his wife (who aren’t gay but apparently have a briefly-mentioned lesbian daughter), and American Idol/Tarzan on Broadway star Josh Strickland.  They reveal little that we didn’t already know, and the movie is hampered by a faux 1950’s framing device about “the horrors of the homosexual lifestyle.”  Director Matthew Smith, who doubles as one of the film’s subjects, may have broken ground with this approach 10-15 years ago but now it just seems embarrassingly retro. To top it all off, the film’s music score is repetitive and irritating.

Review by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest, Rage Monthly Magazine and Echo Magazine.

Reverend’s Reviews: Around the World with the Fab Five

It is hard to imagine Jules Verne’s classic 1873 novel Around the World in 80 Days, with its globe-trotting storyline and cast of thousands, being effectively adapted for the stage.  It’s even harder to imagine a meager cast of five actors assaying all the adventure tale’s characters.  Playwright Mark Brown and Long Beach’s International City Theatre (ICT) haven’t only taken both of these unexpected routes but have succeeded near-brilliantly with them.

The plot is fairly well-known, if not from actually reading Verne’s novel than from one of several movie or TV versions, most notably Mike Todd’s Oscar-winning 1956 production.  Punctuality-obsessed British gentleman Phileas Fogg accepts a wager that he can travel completely around the globe in 1,920 hours — if not less — following his departure from London.  He takes with him his newly-hired manservant Passepartout, and together they navigate a route utilizing a combination of trains, steamer ships and even elephants (though not hot air balloon, which Todd’s film added).  The pair encounter a detective who suspects Fogg of being a thief, religious cultists, a pretty Indian princess with whom the impenetrable Fogg becomes semi-smitten, a rootin’-tootin’ cowboy and marauding Apaches in the prairies of the US, and a variety of other residents of the countries through which they travel.

ICT’s fantastically talented cast of five brings approximately 40 of these characters to vivid life during the play’s 135-minute running time.  Jud V. Williford is appropriately taciturn throughout as Fogg, whereas Michael Uribes primarily plays Passepartout but also a number of supporting roles.  As the lone female, Melinda Porto naturally plays Princess Aouda while also portraying a comical variety of other female and male parts.  Mark Gagliardi, who is well-known in southern California as the current Genie in Aladdin: A Musical Spectacular at Disney's California Adventure, proves himself an accomplished master not only of physical comedy but of a diversity of international accents.  Rounding out the cast is Brian Stanton, very funny as the wily-in-his-own-mind detective tracking Fogg and any number of other roles.  On opening night, Stanton and Gagliardi brought the house down with hilarious improv when one of Stanton's mutton chops fell off mid-scene.

This Los Angeles area production was directed by Allison Bibicoff, who served as Assistant Choreographer and Associate Producer of Broadway's Tony-nominated Xanadu.  Her playful spirit gives the production a decidedly tongue-in-cheek approach; it would seem the script could be performed most seriously as well.  Bibicoff and set designer Staci Walters here employ an ingenious wall depicting Fogg's trip route that also contains hidden drawers and a series of Laugh In-like windows through which props appear and characters speak.  The period-perfect costumes were designed by ICT resident Kim DeShazo.

Splendid entertainment for adults, teens and school-age children, Around the World in 80 Days runs in Long Beach through February 17th.  To purchase tickets or for more information, visit the International City Theatre website.

Meanwhile, another, real-life “Fab Five” is currently making an appearance on the considerably larger stage of LA’s Ahmanson Theatre, where Backbeat is having its US premiere through March 1st.  Based on Iain Softley’s 1994 movie about the formational years of The Beatles, it is an uneven, occasionally inert production (especially during the first act) but not without its merits.  These are primarily the excellent quintet of young actor-musicians who play the five founding members of what would become one of the world’s greatest bands: Andrew Knott, as domineering ringmaster John Lennon; Daniel Healy, possessed of a lovely singing voice, as Paul McCartney; Daniel Westwick as George Harrison; Oliver Bennett as drummer Pete Best, who would find himself dumped in favor of Ringo Starr; and Nick Blood (cool, toned and shirtless as often as possible) as Stuart Sutcliffe, an aspiring painter who left The Beatles just as the band's fame was exploding in 1962 and tragically died shortly after of a brain hemorrhage.

Backbeat is essentially constructed around a speculative love triangle between Sutcliffe, Lennon and Astrid Kirchherr, a German photographer with whom Sutcliffe did become romantically involved.  The more speculative part is the depth of Lennon's feelings for his longtime best friend, although Lennon's widow Yoko Ono would remark that "hardly a day went by that John did not talk about (Sutcliffe)."  Leanne Best, as Kirchherr, has little to do in the role other than be the camera-toting woman who came between the two erstwhile artist-friends, but then character development isn't this show's strong suit when it comes to virtually all the pop-culture figures portrayed.  Any younger viewers with little advance knowledge of The Beatles' members will likely wonder what all the fuss was about.

The book by Softley and Stephen Jeffreys covers the three-year period during which the boys groomed their sound and, eventually, themselves between Liverpool, London and "decadent" nightclubs in Hamburg.  The second of these German clubs provides the show with some needed style and diversity, populated as it is with drag queens and kings, a leather-suited gay dancer, and a tuxedoed, Cabaret-esque MC.  Five-time Tony Award nominee David Leveaux directs the proceedings with some visual flair, high decibels during the songs and, in Act II, some heavy-handed but nonetheless welcome emotional wallops that the first act sorely lacks.

Songs from The Beatles catalog comprise the show's score, including such classics as "Love Me Do", "She Loves You", "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "Twist and Shout".  If the volume is more often than not excessive, I appreciated the free-wheeling feel and lack of obvious choreography during the musical moments.  Those who go to see Backbeat expecting an upbeat "Jukebox musical" crafted on Beatles songs will likely be disappointed.  There's some "dark night of the soul" stuff going on here when it comes to the conflicts that can arise among friends/lovers who are simultaneously heeding the call to be artists, all played out against a frequently seedy backdrop.  By the time band manager Brian Epstein and producer George Martin enter the picture in Act II, one may understandably conclude that The Beatles sold their souls to the devil.  Thankfully, this show's talented cast members don't have to do so.

For more information about Backbeat or to purchase tickets for the LA production, visit the Center Theatre Group website.

Reverend’s Ratings:

Around the World in 80 Days: A-

Backbeat: B-

Review by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest, Rage Monthly Magazine and Echo Magazine.

Awards Watch: Short Stories

For the seventh year, Shorts HD will be presenting in theaters special short film programs collecting this year's Academy Award nominated animated, live action and documentary shorts. As in the past few years, this is a great opportunity for movie fans and Oscar watchers to see these small, often overlooked gems not only on the big screen, but also before the Big Night, therefore possibly giving you a leg up in your office Oscar pool. The Oscar Nominated Short Films 2013 opens today with the separate animated and live action programs, with the documentary program premiering next Friday.

Unlike in recent years when the Animated Short category has often been populated -- and won by -- cynical and/or esoteric fare (Logorama, The Lost Thing), this year's batch of toons are all accessible and lighthearted (but not light weight). And there is none of that fancy-schmancy computer animation either; two are animated via old school stop motion, while the other three are traditionally hand-drawn. And all five are dialogue-free, not as uncommon in this category as one might think.

You may have actually seen one or two of the nominees already, as Disney's Paperman and Fox's Maggie Simpson in "The Longest Daycare" were paired theatrically with, respectively, Wreck-It-Ralph and Ice Age: Continental Drift. The former is a an almost all black-and-white tale (directed by John Kahrs) of a lovelorn office drone desperately trying to connect, via paper airplanes, with the pretty secretary in the office building directly across the street from his. It is sweet and sharply animated, in typical Disney style, however anyone who has seen the popular internet short Signs may feel a strong sense of déjà vu while viewing it.  As for the latter, it is a little ironic that, where The Simpsons Movie failed to get nominated for Best Animated Feature a few years back, little Maggie Simpson got a nod all on her own (actually, the nomination goes to director David Silverman). As the title suggests, our favorite pacifier-sucking yellow toddler finds herself in the "Ayn Rand School for Tots", where she faces off against a unibrowed brat intent on smashing her new butterfly friend. Fast-paced and lively, this one is as cute as its leading lady.

Fresh Guacamole, the only non-narrative short among the animated block, is a stop motion fiesta by the animator known only as PES, wherein viewers are treated to the preparations of the tasty title dish, but with a twist.  At a mere 105 seconds, this is by far the shortest -- and thus slightest -- of the lot, but still a mouth-watering delight.  The other stop motion entry, Timothy Reckart and Fodhla Cronin O'Relly's Head Over Heels, takes place in a topsy-turvy house where an old married couple live, one on the ceiling, the other on the floor. Often at odds with each other, the two eventually find a way to share a common ground in a charming resolution.

As good as all the animated nominees are this year, the final one, Adam and Dog by Minkyu Lee, stands out as the best and is my personal favorite out of all the shorts in these programs. Simply yet beautifully crafted, Adam and Dog answers the question, "what if Eve had competition for Adam's attention... and it was a dog?" Filled with subtle humor and even (gasp!) full frontal cartoon nudity, this one is my prediction for the win on Oscar Night.

Now on to more serious subjects in the Live Action category, which represent five different countries and languages yet still have a few common themes.  Three feature children in prominent roles, two take place in impoverished lands, four deal with death and all, to varying degrees, have the "twist ending" that is seemingly a surefire way to a nomination in this category.

From South Africa, Asad (Bryan Buckley and Mino Jarjoura) has the unique distinction of having a cast made up entirely of Somalian refugees. The title character is a street smart boy who, regarding his future, is torn between the adventure of being a modern day pirate or the mundane life of a fisherman. Like a lot of shorts, this one ends just when it seems to be beginning. Sam French and Ariel Nasr's Buzkashi Boys from Afghanistan fares better with a similar story, this one about two boys (one an orphaned beggar, the other the son of a blacksmith) with dreams of glory as Buzkashi riders (a polo-like sport, but with dead goats). Poignant and tragic, Boys plays as the most true-to-life of the five nominees and is a strong contender for the final prize.

From gritty realism to stark fantasy, Belgium's Death of a Shadow (a.k.a. Dood van een Schaduw) by Tom Van Avermaet and Ellen De Waele focuses on a Mr. Rijckx, a soldier slain in World War I who is given a second chance at life by a mysterious Mephistophelean "collector", who sends him out to capture the shadows of the dying for his grim galleries. With elements of steam punk and a taste of The Twilight Zone, the end result is a bit too convoluted in the confines of a short film, yet its compelling ideas would make for an interesting feature if the story were expanded. Also dealing with the theme of death and the dying is Henry, from Canadian filmmaker Yan England. A fading concert pianist, Henry's life is thrown into turmoil at the apparent disappearance of his beloved wife. As a sort-of mini Notebook, the plot's twist and turns are somewhat predictable, yet the heartbreaking lead performance of Gérard Poirier adds heft to the emotional dénouement.

In the same darkly comic vein as such recent Live Action Short winners as The New Tenants and Six Shooter, Curfew begins with our protagonist sitting in a bathtub filling with blood from his freshly slit wrists. A phone call from his estranged sister interrupts him, and he soon finds himself babysitting -- and unexpectedly bonding with -- his precocious preteen niece. Written, directed and starring (in a Ryan Gosling-esque performance) Shawn Christensen, Curfew deftly balances on a fine line, never falling into the depths of hipsterness that, say, God of Love did. Considering the recent run of "oddball" winners in this category, plus the fact that it is the only American entry, Curfew looks to be the stand out and eventual victor.

As for the Documentary Short Subjects, only one was made available for previewing, the MTV sponsored Inocente. An aspiring young artist, Inocente is also homeless, and the documentary (co-directed by Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine) follows her story as she tries to find herself through her highly imaginative, brightly colored art (think Keith Haring meets Jackson Pollock). Although "youngster triumphs over adversity" docs like Smile Pinki and Music by Prudence have triumphed in this category recently, Inocente falls a little short in that regard, especially compared to fellow nominee Open Heart, about a group of Rwandan children who leave their families behind to embark on a life-or-death journey seeking high-risk heart surgery in Sudan.

The remaining three nominees (all five will screen in the doc short program) deal with less grim subjects, such as a group of elderly people living in a Florida retirement home (Kings Point), New Yorkers who survive off the money they make cashing in recyclables (Redemption) and a Long Island beauty salon that services cancer victims (Mondays at Racine).

For more information about the Oscar nominated shorts programs, including trailers for all the nominated films and where there will be playing near you, visit the official website.