Film Review - Operation Filmmaker

Operation Filmmaker (2007)

Director: Nina Davenport
Featuring: Muthana Mohmed, Liev Schreiber

When Iraqi film student Muthana Mohmed is featured on an MTV special discussing his lost dream of becoming a film maker after his film school was bombed in Baghdad, actor Liev Schreiber, who happened to be watching the program was moved enough to get in contact with Mohmed and offer him a production assistant's job on his directorial debut, Everything is Illuminated, filming in Prague. It soon becomes clear that Mohmed's expectations are more than Schreiber and his producers were willing and able to offer, and after Illuminated wraps, director Davenport continues to follow Mohmed on a journey that includes immigration and money problems, PA work on another film starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and ultimately, a year of film school in London.

While watching Operation Filmmaker, I ran the gamut of emotions; at first I found the experience interesting, but the more Mohmed acted up, the more irritated I became, and therefore the less concerned I became for his eventual success. Schreiber and Co. gave him a chance, but instead of stepping up and trying to learn as much as he could about the film making process, he deemed that much of the gofer work was "beneath him" and even blew his opportunity to edit the gag reel that would have been shown at the film's wrap party for the cast and crew. When they finally called him on his B.S. and refused to fund him further, he went looking for another patron in Prague and received one in the form of several ex-pats who gave him free lodging while he worked as a production assistant on Doom, starring The Rock. This is where Mohmed really lost me, because at this point he had proven that he wanted the world but wanted it handed to him while someone is peeling grapes for him, yet he somehow snookered The Rock into funding him for a year at a film school in London. While there, he drops all pretense of charm, mainly because he doesn't have to be charming anymore, and is continually verbally abusive to those around him, especially the documentary's intrepid director, who has bailed him out with money and support throughout the process.

I'm not sure if Operation Filmmaker is supposed to be a thematic comparison to Iraq-US relationships, or if it's simply just a slightly scattered documentary that wildly veers off from its original premise, but Muthana Mohmed is such an entitled jackass that I found it difficult to stay on board. The film doesn't become a train wreck - that would have been easier and more entertaining to watch - it just becomes bitter, not enjoyable and ultimately somewhat pointless.

2 out of 5 stars

Film Review - The September Issue

The September Issue (2009)

Director: R.J. Cutler
Featuring: Anna Wintour, Andre Leon Talley

The September issue of Vogue magazine has long been revered by fashionistas (and wannabees) for years as the bible for the coming year's fashion trends. The September Issue is a documentary that goes behind the scenes of the creation of Vogue's 2007 fall fashion issue and features all of the top brass at Vogue and its publisher, Conde Nast, including the notorious Anna Wintour, Editor-in-Chief.

Considering my idea of fashion is whatever matches, is clean and is comfortable, I am not the key demographic for Vogue's September issue. However, I never missed it when I was a teenager, so my long-latent interest in accessorizing combined with my adult-hewn interest in marketing and visual creativity found a perfect marriage with this interesting documentary. The September Issue shows the internal struggles that occur when strong personalities who have the best talent and eyes in the business disagree on themes and content, and how the product becomes all the better for it. Wintour and Grace Coddington, Vogue's Creative Editor started at the same time and butt heads every month, but clearly respect one another and come back to do it all over again the following month.

Though Wintour is probably the most well known of the figures at Vogue (who can forget her characterization by Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada?) it is Coddington who comes out the heroine of the film, due to her talent, hard work and dedication, and outspokenness. Wintour is not afraid to show her icy personality and ability to kill an entire spread in ten seconds flat, but again, she has the talent and chops to back up her difficult reputation.

The September Issue is comprehensive and well rounded; we not only see the creation of the issue itself, but meet designers who are inspiring the trends Vogue will feature and photographers who shoot the extensive layouts. Famed photographer Mario Testino, who shot the cover and main layout with actress Sienna Miller actually drops the ball a bit, which I found interesting and "real".

Having said that, I'm sure that there is a lot that we don't see, but I was satisfied with what did make it to camera. Though certainly not rocket science, The September Issue almost inspired me to resubscribe to Vogue after all these years - almost - until I looked down at my too baggy shorts and t-shirt with three small holes in it and realized that no latent accessorizing talent, no matter how ambitious it once was, could help me anymore. I'll stick to writing about documentaries about the subject, thank you very much.

3 out of 5 stars

Film Review - Confessions of a Porn Addict

Confessions of a Porn Addict (2008)

Director: Duncan Christie
Starring: Spencer Rice, Lindsey Connell

Mark (Spencer Rice) is a self-admitted porn addict who has lost his wife, his job and his money due to his crippling addiction. When he is arrested for masturbating at a video store, he recruits a friend to document his journey to redemption with the help of a 12-step program in order to possibly sway the judge in his favor. When he discovers a secret about his ex-wife, he embarks on a journey to find her and bring her back to Canada and the documentary becomes something completely different.

I wouldn't have given Confessions of a Porn Addict a glance if I hadn't read some overwhelmingly positive reviews about it. Plus, it kept popping up on my pesky Netflix recommendations page. This really makes me question how I rated some films, because I found this film to be completely ridiculous, boring and irredeemable. Films that are shot as "fake documentaries" have a pretty thin line to toe to begin with because they can end up being shallow and pointless. From beginning to end, Confessions of a Porn Addict was both of those and so much more.

There have been several times in my life when people told me that they didn't care about any of the characters in the film, and therefore that was a driving reason why they disliked the film itself. Some have been ridiculous, (a friend's girlfriend saying this about Citizen Kane, my own boyfriend insisting this is true about Magnolia, an argument we have revisited every couple of months for the past six years) to somewhat plausible (2001: A Space Odyssey - I can kind of see that one) but, perhaps because of my love for stories and my own failed experiments in screenplay writing, I could never jump on board that none of a film's characters had any spark of interest for me. Until this film. I realize that everyone was supposed to be quirky and depraved, but the problem lied in the fact that there was supposed to be kind of a sweet love story in there somewhere, and even if it had been there, I wouldn't have cared because I was so apathetic to these characters that I couldn't even muster up the energy to hate them.

There is nothing clever about Confessions of a Porn Addict. It's not fresh, it's not "quirky", it's just plain bad.

1.5 out of 5 stars

Film Review - Funny People

Funny People (2009)

Director: Judd Apatow
Starring: Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, Leslie Mann

George Simmons (Adam Sandler), is a successful comedian who has starred in a bunch of ridiculously stupid, but wildly popular low-brow comedies. When Simmons discovers that he has a rare blood disease that doesn't have a cure, he also realizes how empty and lonely his life is, so he goes back to the comedy club where he got his start to do random sets of stand up. There he meets Ira Wright (Seth Rogen), a struggling comedian who has flashes of genius, but whose low self-confidence and affable personality don't really equal success in this cutthroat industry. Simmons employs Wright first to write some jokes for him, then hires him as a personal assistant. Wright encourages Simmons to tell his friends about his condition, which leads to a reunion with the love of his life, Laura (Leslie Mann) who is now married with two children. When his health suddenly takes a turn for the better, he decides to try to win her back, bringing Ira with him.

Though I can be called the complete opposite of an Adam Sandler fan, I actually really loved the film Punch Drunk Love, and his performance in it, so seeing that Funny People wasn't going to only be stupid humor, I was encouraged. Indeed, the film was darker than some of Apatow's other films that I've seen (which truthfully, aren't a ton) but it still fell short of being as meaningful as I think it was trying to be. I didn't come away from the film feeling like there was a tremendous amount of character development throughout the film despite the fact that growing up and finding oneself was one of the film's purported themes. Though dark, the film was littered with juvenile humor and dick jokes - I lost count of how many times Sandler asked Rogen to take his out and show him - sometimes worked. James Taylor blurting out "Fuck Facebook!" actually made me laugh out loud, and the entire scene in the vaguely European doctor's office when Rogen and Sandler riff on the doctor's accent, "Are you mad that you died at the end of Die Hard?" was priceless. But I would say that more than half of the jokes fell totally flat, and combined with the stilted progression of the film left me pretty lukewarm.

What did work, however, was the cast. Sandler, though not as compelling or vulnerable as he was in Punch Drunk Love, was a great choice for the role of George Simmons. I've only seen Seth Rogen in a couple of films, but every time I have found him to be completely charming and easy to relate to. Though the film is primarily about Simmons and his struggle, it is Ira Wright who I found more interesting and well rounded. The supporting cast worked really well too; Jonah Hill played the same guy he always does: clever, cocky and nerdy, Jason Schwartzman's narcissistic actor role was hilarious (I'm pretty sure I haven't seen him play a character badly) and Eric Bana looked like he was having a good time playing Laura's husband, an Aussie blowhard who borders on ridiculous. Truthfully, the only role that could have really gone to anyone was Laura's and it's not that Leslie Mann did a poor job, it just wasn't that memorable of a performance.

Though I liked Funny People less than I anticipated, it still was an entertaining film to watch, but mainly it was because of Seth Rogen's character and performance. At over two and a half hours, it's definitely a time investment, only made wise if you are fan of the actors or director, or, if like me, you are open to take a chance on a film you normally wouldn't seek out.

3 out of 5 stars

Anticipation growing....

Anticipation is starting to grow for the Milwaukee Film Festival, which begins Sept. 23rd. I don't know of all of the movies that are going to be shown yet because the program book doesn't come out for another month, but they are leaking one title a day, and so far, they ALL look good. I love having the conflict of deciding between which good looking movie to see.

Other than that, now that we're settled into the new house I'm trying to get back into a regular viewing/reviewing so hopefully even starting today I'll get a review or two posted of things I've watched in the past couple of weeks. Unfortunately I haven't seen anything overly great, but there have been a couple of interesting films I've watched.

Here I Am, Here I Am! Over Here!

Holy cow, I almost forgot how to sign in to this bad boy.

Without getting too terribly boring and personal, I found out in May that our lease was not being renewed on our beloved duplex and therefore we had to find a new place - fast. With a couple of other irritations to contribute to my general feeling of panic while our household was in stasis for nearly two months, we did find a new great place that I do love and am really pleased to say we are almost settled into. (It's amazing how much time and talent it takes to move your items from a more than 1500 square foot flat to one that is just over 1300 square feet, especially when I'm a book collector and Chris is a pack rat.) However, one of my Christmas gifts this year was an IOU for a couple of bookcases and as soon as Chris can go to Ikea I'll get them, and finally the more than 15 or so boxes of unshelved books will be put away and I'll have a real office to work in again.

Until that happens, I'm planning on watching movies when I can and writing where I can. Netflix Instant has become one of the greatest things known to mankind, and my queue has surged to more than 170 titles (so far), most of them being classic foreign films, which is a complete accident. I'll be utilizing this service until we get storage for the many DVDs we have (another thing we lost with the other place - lots of built-in storage in the living room.)

I'm trying to revive our once-again defunct Film Club that I have with a couple of friends so that I not only have the excuse and time slot to see movies, but also the forum to discuss them (as much as I have to coax it out of them anyway).

Also coming down the pike is the Milwaukee Film Festival, which will be held at the end of September. I'm very excited to attend what I believe is my fifth festival (I'll have to count all of my press passes to know for sure) and will finally be able to experience it like I've been wanting to for years now - completely work free. Normally I would go to the festival at night, see a couple of movies, drive home late, get up early to go to work, lather rinse repeat. Obviously, writing doesn't really fit into the equation too well. This year, because of circumstances and well placed paid time off at work, I'm able to have the entire festival off this year, so I'm very excited about that.

So, in conclusion, after a few months of a necessary hiatus because life got in the way, I am hoping to not only start watching movies and posting reviews again, but to re-kick start my Great Directors Project on my other blog very soon. I hope you'll come back to join me.

Blog, Interrupted

Due to some personal things occurring the last half of April and the month of May, I have to temporarily suspend my blogs. However, I hope to back better and stronger in June!