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Love Exposure: jmag review
Despite my usual demands that every film should be 87 minutes long at most, I enjoyed the hell out of Sion Sono’s truly epic Love Exposure, coming out soon on DVD. Here’s my quick review from this month’s jmag – though I must admit that fitting four hours of oddness into a couple of paragraphs might’ve been beyond me.
LOVE EXPOSURE
(AI NO MUKIDASHI)
Directed by: Sion Sono
Starring: Takahiro Nishijima, Hikari Mitsushima, Sakura Ando
Country: Japan
Love Exposure is a four-hour movie about an expert upskirt photographer – so saying it’s Japanese is probably redundant, isn’t it?
It begins with Yu being forced into confession by his Catholic father. At first he invents his sins, but soon decides to actually commit them. After he’s told that everything he seeks can be found “between a woman’s legs”, he becomes an urban ninja of voyeur photography.
That’d be enough insanity for most films, but Love Exposure is more ambitious. It’s also a family farce, redemptive love story, cross-dressing kung fu comedy, and hysterical psychodrama. Its relentless exploration of how religion and sex combine gives it unexpected depth among the erection jokes. (It uses the word “pervert” so often that somewhere John Waters’ ears are burning.)
Could it’ve been shorter? Sure. But I have no idea what could’ve been cut. I just pretended it was a TV miniseries and watched it in three chunks. When you watch it – and you should – I suggest you do the same.
Other reviews this month: the less-painful-than-expected Shrek Forever After in cinemas; Tom Ford’s A Single Man and Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland on DVD.
Issue #41 is on sale now.
Bad Lieutenant: jmag review
Here’s my quick jmag review of Werner Herzog’s non-remake of Bad Lieutenant, now out on DVD. Since writing it, I discovered that Nicolas Cage may have implied his acting style is the result of Miles Davis once winking at him. It’s not quite a radioactive spider-bite, but it’ll do.
BAD LIEUTENANT – PORT OF CALL – NEW ORLEANS
Directed by: Werner Herzog
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendes, Val Kilmer
Country: USA
I’ve always had the sneaking suspicion that Nicolas Cage was developing a new kind of acting that will only be properly understood by future generations. Kooky cop drama Bad Lieutenant – Port Of Call – New Orleans suggests maybe I was right.
Director Werner Herzog (of Grizzly Man fame) says it’s not a remake of the infamous Harvey Keitel film Bad Lieutenant; he says he hasn’t even seen it. It’s just another story about an out-of-control, drug-snorting cop. This one is set in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, although it looks like it was filmed on leftover porn sets sometime in the mid-1980s.
The script – from a writer of TV cop shows like NYPD Blue – is nothing special, but the movie’s offbeat style makes it oddly fascinating. It’s like Herzog created an entire film from his lead actor’s DNA. After phoning in so many performances, Nicolas Cage gives this one everything he has. Even if you think his acting is laughable, this is a movie that gets the joke.
Other reviews this month: anthology film New York, I Love You, The White Ribbon, and The French Kissers.
Issue #39 on sale now.
The Men Who Stare At Goats: jmag review
Here’s my quick review of The Men Who Stare At Goats from the latest issue of jmag. With this source material and calibre of cast, I had such high hopes…
THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS
Directed by: Grant Heslov
Starring: Ewan McGregor, George Clooney, Jeff Bridges
Country: USA
The Men Who Stare At Goats starts with the statement: “More of this is true than you would believe.” And that’s both what’s wrong and what’s right with the movie.
It works best when it’s showing the secret history of the US Army’s unit of psychic spies, trained in paranormal abilities by a Lebowskiesque guru played by Jeff Bridges. These flashbacks, though, are intercut with a tacked-on storyline in the present about a journalist (Ewan McGregor) stumbling across a man who claims to be a member of “Project Jedi” on a secret mission in Iraq (George Clooney).
Sounds awesome? It’s inspired by Jon Ronson’s wildly entertaining book, but it misses the point that the book’s fascinating precisely because it’s non-fiction. (I mean, the soldiers are trained in something called the “sparkly eyes technique”!)
While The Men Who Stare At Goats is intermittently entertaining, it turns everything into farcical comedy. It should’ve realised that when your source material is this batshit, you play it straight.
Just one other review this month: the bizarre Twilight Zone-inspired Pontypool.
Issue #37 on sale now.
Directed by: Grant Heslov
Starring: Ewan McGregor, George Clooney, Jeff Bridges
Country: USA
Stars: 2
The Men Who Stare At Goats starts with the statement: “More of this is true than you would believe.” And that’s both what’s wrong and what’s right with the movie.
It works best when it’s showing the secret history of the US Army’s unit of psychic spies, trained in paranormal abilities by a Lebowskiesque guru played by Jeff Bridges. These flashbacks, though, are intercut with a tacked-on storyline in the present about a journalist (Ewan McGregor) stumbling across a man who claims to be a member of “Project Jedi” on a secret mission in Iraq (George Clooney).
Sounds awesome? It’s inspired by Jon Ronson’s wildly entertaining book, but it misses the point that the book’s fascinating precisely because it’s non-fiction. (I mean, the soldiers are trained in something called the “sparkly eyes technique”!)
The Men Who Stare At Goats is intermittently entertaining, but it turns everything into farcical comedy. It should’ve realised that when your source material is this entertainingly batshit, you play it straight.
Antichrist: jmag review
Here’s my quick review of Lars von Trier’s Antichrist, just out on DVD, from the latest jmag. Warning: the following fails to grasp the whole ‘authorial intent is meaningless’ thing that’s hammered into every first year arts student.
ANTICHRIST
Directed by: Lars von Trier
Starring: Willem Dafoe, Charlotte Gainsbourg
Country: USA / Denmark
After watching Antichrist, all I wanted to do was get Lars von Trier drunk and ask him: “Really?”
He has Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg give incredibly raw, honest performances as a couple dealing with the death of their young child; but he puts them in a film so over-the-top it often seems like a Flying High-style parody of art cinema. And that’s before a talking fox arrives to announce that “chaos reigns!”If you were too squeamish to see Antichrist on the big screen, don’t worry. Once things turn violent, it’s still not that bad – well, except for the bit with scissors, anyway. (Shudder.) It’s just the way he’s mixed violence with explicit sex that makes it shocking.
Antichrist is full of beautiful, nightmarish imagery: you could freeze it at random and create a perfect oil painting. Sometimes the movie seems like it’s inching close to saying something profound… only to run away giggling again.
So, Lars: should we take this psychodrama seriously? And how about that drink?
Other reviews this month: Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker, Hillcoat’s The Road – more on that here – and Final Destination 3D.
Issue #36 on sale now.