Happy Birthday Today; James Newton Howard, Robert Cummings (1910–1990), David Koepp, Keesha Sharp, Josh Hamilton, Danielle Chuchran, Gloria Reuben, Aaron Sorkin, Michaela Conlin, Michael J. Fox, Johnny Depp, Natalie Portman, Mae Whitman
CHEVALIER (Greece 2015) ***
Directed by Athina Rachel Tsangari
Starring: Efthymis Filippou, Athina Rachel Tsangari
Review by Gilbert Seah
Greek director Athina Rachel Tsangari broke into the art-house cinema circuit in 2010 with her feminine study in ATTENBERG. Like ATTENBERG, CHEVALIER is a deadpan comedy of manners, so deadpan that much of the humour may be missed. However, the females in her previous films are now replaced by six males – all stuck on a yacht in the Aegean Sea, playing an absurd game in which the winner gets to wear the CHEVALIER ring as a reward. What the game requires is each member to grade every other on personal mental and physical challenges, that are determined by the grader himself. So, hilariously, each go about with a notebook taking notes on every other. The winner is the ‘Best in General’.
CHEVALIER has a good premise judging from the popularity of reality shows like BIG BROTHER these days. The difference is that CHEVALIER is a fictionalized reality show but one in which the director allows her assemble cast to react with each other. The fact that all the participants are constantly being scrutinized on what they don’t know makes it all the more hilarious. The difference between this and Big Brother is that no one gets voted out, they cannot form alliances and the prize is one of ego.
Tsangari’s last two features were about women. Her decision to make a film on men instead of women as well as to include a gay couple makes her film even more relevant. The chevalier game is proposed by the men out of boredom. One immediately wonders what would come to mind if the participants were female. Men have been known always to be competitive and the film shows males in their extreme. When watching the film, it should be borne in mind that the film is a look at men from a feminine perspective.
The Aegean sea and the rocky landscape of the surrounding islands make stunning cinematography. The modern yacht with all the amenities is also gorgeous to be on.
Tsangari’s ATTENBERG was really slow, artsy and about women. I could not get into that feature and was not looking forward to CHEVALIER. CHEVALIER took me my surprise. Absurd, hilarious, relevant and absorbing, Tsangari has proven herself apt at films dealing with the nature of human beings.
A contest among males would inevitably lead to a segment with a contest of cock size. This truth occurs in one funny segment ins which a contender argues that his non-erection that morning could be a result of a bad dream in which his accuser was murdered, and that accuser could have vouched for his big dick in another instance when he had screwed someone in front of him.
All the characters are equally interesting. It takes a while for the audience to be able to identify each character as being different from another. As far as who will win the contest or which character is the most interesting, viewers will likely not pick the same person. The film does not give any real reason for the six assembling in the yacht except for a few like one older bullying brother, Yannis (Yorgos Pirpassopoulos) allowing his younger brother Dimitris (Makis Papadimitriou) out of feeling sorry for him.
Like the other Greek film auteur Yorgos Lanthimos’ THE LOBSTER, Tsangari offers audiences another society within our living one. Perhaps this is a reflection of what is desired as a result of what’s happening with the Greeks current economic crisis. CHEVALIER won Best Film at the London Film Festival.
THE STEPS (Canada 2015) **
Directed by Andrew Currie
Starring: Emmanuelle Chriqui, James Brolin, Jason Ritter, Christine Lahti, Kate Corbett
Review by Gilbert Seah
THE STEPS of the movie title to the members of a step-family. There is every variation from stepmother, stepfather to stepmothers and stepsisters in this comedy about a dysfunctional step-family.
The setting is the family’s reunion at a lake house in picturesque Parry Sound, a small town in Northern Ontario. The patriarch, wealthy publishing magnate, Ed (James Brolin) has married the love of his life, a lovely, bubbly good-berated Sherry (Christine Lahti) and wants everyone over in order to convince a social worker that the happy family is perfect for the adoption of a Chinese girl.
The story’s main focus could be any member of the family, but it chooses failed investment banker, Ed’s son, Jeff (Jason Ritter) as the one. Whether this is the correct choice makes no difference, as long as the story has an anchor that puts everyone else into perspective. Jeff arrives with his party animal sister, Marla (Emmanuelle Chriqui). They meet Sherry’s children, pot-smoking half-East Indian Samir (Vinay Virmani), David (Benjamin Arthur) and Keith (Steven McCarthy). They do not get along.
Director Andrew Currie directed the zombie comedy FIDO a decade or so back – another family based comedy in which zombies could be trained as a pet. His comedy sense seems largely muddled in THE STEPS – a pity as FIDO was a very well received and hilarious comedy.
The script by Robyn Harding contains lots of potential for comedy. The fact that half of the siblings are American (Ed’s kids) and the other half Canadian (Sherry’s kids) opens humour to be poked at the different cultures. Jeff knocks over a stuffed moose in one scene and David angrily complains that the national animal is not respected. The many siblings from different backgrounds also offer other avenues for humour. The pot smoking allows Jeff to get very high; the party animal Marla is caught giving Keith a blow-job and David blasts Jeff with 7 hits of paintballs. Still, it is a disappointment then that Currie’s film is hardly funny. The jokes are mildly funny at best and the laugh-out loud segments are very few and far between.
Performances are largely wasted. Christian Lahti, so good in her early films like HOUSEKEEPING has nothing much to do here but to smile, complement everyone and lead silly ice-breaker games. The segment on paintball, the greatest potential for humour hardly generates any laughs at all.
When Ed tells Sherry at the film’s mid-point,that his children will come through at the end, the film really dips into predictability. Jeff turns into the perfect son, bringing the family together (literally) into getting the Chinese girl adopted.
The question is whether an audience wishes to see a dysfunctional family of Americans and Canadians eventually come together with silly jokes and pointless humour? The answer is one big ‘no’. But if the film turned out as funny as Currie’s last film FIDO, all might have been forgiven.
WARCRAFT (USA 2016) ***
Directed by Duncan Jones
Starring: Travis Fimmel, Paula Patton, Ben Foster, Dominic Cooper, Toby Kebbell
Review by Gilbert Seah
The phrase ‘based on a video game’ should scare serious movie goers from this CGI blockbuster extravaganza. Based on the Blizzard Entertainment Warcraft series which consisted of 5 core games, this film is actually based just on the first one. WARCRAFT is set in the human Kingdom of Azeroth, threatened by an Orc invasion before Azeroth was expanded into new continents of Kalimdor, Northrend and Pandaria, allowing the introduction of new characters like the Night Elves.
The story in nutshell involves humans fighting against the Orcs as they invade through a portal. The battle lasts from the start to the end of the film. There are several main characters, humans and good Orcs to distract audiences from a basically non-existent story.
The Orcs come from another world called Draenor to invade Azeroth. The warrior Lothar (Travis Fimmel) fights for his king (Dominic Cooper) who relies on the suspicious Guardian, Medivh (Ben Foster) who has taken to the dark side, and is responsible for opening the dreaded portal. Meanwhile, the young warlock Khadgar (Ben Schnetzer) lands a hand. The Orcs are led by an evil Gul’dan (Daniel Wu), that a good Orc chieftain recognizes should be stopped. The characters help to liven the video game movie up several notches.
The film is best watched in IMAX 3-D – forget the small extra cost. It is difficult not to get into the action on a film in 3-D IMAX. The special and video effects, production design by Gavin Bocquet) and costume design all look the more convincing. This is director Duncan Jones blockbuster directorial debut after making small films like MOON and SOURCE CODE.
I entered the screening with the lowest expectations after all the bad hype about the movie. But truthfully, WARCRAFT is not bad. It is better watching an expensive blockbuster that is difficult to make than a well reviewed low budget film with maybe just two characters. On has to give credit for effort put in.
WARCRAFT ends with the obvious set-up for a sequel. Judging from other critic reviews so far, WARCRAFT has been panned. But for video game fans, this might be the fun film summer has promised. The film has already made $45 million in China on opening day breaking all records for a weekday opening day. So it looks like a sequel will likely be in the making with Night Elves.
See WARCRAFT for what it is – guilty entertainment with super special CGI effects. And Remember – to see it in 3-D IMAX.
Mark Ruffalo’s film “Now You See Me 2” is set to hit theaters tomorrow. For tribute, here’s the best quotes from the Ruffalo about acting, life, and art.
“My belief about acting in one foot on a banana peel and the other one in the grave.”
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Happy Birthday composer James Newton Howard
Born: June 9, 1951 in Los Angeles, California, USA
Married to: Sofie Lena Barron (25 April 1992 – present) (2 children)
Nominated for 8 Academy Awards:
QUOTE:
I wish I had some great words of advice. The only advice I have ever been able to give anybody is to focus on writing music, and if you’re writing a movie score particularly, don’t worry about the picture. Just write great music and the rest will take care of itself.
Happy Birthday Robert Cummings (1910–1990)
Born: Charles Clarence Robert Orville Cummings
June 9, 1910 in Joplin, Missouri, USA
Died: December 2, 1990 (age 80) in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA
QUOTES:
[on his lifelong devotion to healthy eating] I’d love to tell all those critics how well I feel today because of my diet. But they’re all dead.
The girls have it easy, everything they wear in pictures is suppled by the studio- their dress, stockings, shoes, underwear, jewelry, hair, even their falsies. They could arrive at the studio naked, if they cared to. But the actor has to pay for everything himself. He even has to bring his own toupee, if he wears one.
I had to have a sharp wardrobe and a fancy car and foot the bill at the night clubs. And my date, who was earning 10 times as much as I was, would brag about how she borrowed her dress and furs from the studio.
[complaining that none of the actor’s wardrobe–theoretically a part of the tools of his job–is tax-deductible] Every year I used to take my clothes and still photos from my pictures to the Post Office building in Hollywood. I would explain to the income tax people how I used which suit in which picture. This year, they decided clothes weren’t deductible, even though I have to dress well in my job.
[In 1949] I figure producers are paying me a lot of money and I ought to dress well.
Happy Birthday writer/director David Koepp
Born: June 9, 1963 in Pewaukee, Wisconsin, USA
 PREMIUM RUSH dir. David Koepp Stars: Joseph Gordon-Levitt Michael Shannon |
 Ghost Town 2008 dir David Koepp Starring<br Gervais Greg Kinnear Tea Leoni |
Happy Birthday actor Keesha Sharp
Born: Keesha Ulricka Sharp
June 9, 1973 in Brooklyn, New York, USA
Married to: Brad Sharp (1997 – present) (1 child)
Attended The Boston Conservatory
Appeared in the original casts of August Wilson’s ‘Seven Guitars’ and ‘Jitney’ as well as the national tour of ‘Carousel’ directed by Nicholas Hytner.
Has worked with Terry Crews on many projects including Malibu’s Most Wanted (2003), Everybody Hates Chris (2005) and Are We There Yet? (2010).
Launched a health website with her husband.
She has a passion for healthy organic living and is often known on set as the “health nut”.
Happy Birthday actor Josh Hamilton
Born: Joshua Cole Hamilton
June 9, 1969 in New York City, New York, USA
Married to: Lily Thorne (2005 – present) (1 child)
Read reviews of the best of the actor:
 DARK SKIES2013 dir. Scott Charles Stewart Stars: Keri Russell Josh Hamilton |
 The Bourne Identity2002 dir. Doug Liman Starring Damon Franka Potente |
 J EDGAR dir. Clint Eastwood Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio Armie Hammer |
 Best of GOOD WIFE Season 3Stars: Josh Charles Matt Czuchry |
