Parked: Film Review

Parked acknowledges the dangers and indignities of homelessness but is determined to look on the bright side. A very sympathetic turn by Colm Meaney both lends box-office appeal and helps Byrne pull back from the saccharine possibilities inherent in the premise. Both making their feature debuts, Byrne and screenwriter Ciaran Creagh present an Irishman (Meaney's Fred) who, after years of odd jobs in England, returns to find his native country less hospitable than he'd hoped. Unable to afford a flat or to secure public assistance in a time of cutbacks, Fred parks his car in a seaside lot and, through fastidious organization and hygiene, hides his homelessness while trying to get on his feet.

Across the lot, Cathal (Colin Morgan) isn't doing as well. His gray skin and frightful teeth mark him as a junkie, but Fred's in no position to be judgmental. The two strike up a cautious friendship, and Niall Byrne's easygoing acoustic score (when it isn't channeling Satie) colors their small adventures with playfulness instead of desperation. Things take rather predictable turns, with Fred finding a love interest (Milka Ahlroth's Juliana, a pianist taking water aerobics at the pool where Fred cleans up) and Cathal being chased by creditors, and the script can't resist using Fred's watch-repair hobby for one groaningly obvious metaphor. (He examines a broken clock, observing that it's old but has character; it just needs "a good cleaning and a nudge to spring back into life.")

But the film's prefab aspects are countered by Meaney's convincing performance as a man holding shame at bay -- maintaining his dignity by force of will, even as his spirit sinks -- and by an uningratiating supporting cast. Cinematographer John Conroy finds enough shoreline vistas to remind us there are worse places Fred could have wound up, even as we root for the welfare system to give him that one good nudge back into the workingclass world.

In the Shadow

The film opens in the style of a film noir from the '50s, with handsome, dark-toned cinematography (by Adam Sikoba) of a couple of crooks stealing a cache of jewels. When the police come in to investigate, Captain Hakl (Ivan Trojan) suspects that something more than a simple robbery is involved. Clues point to a group of Jewish immigrants as the thieves, and State Security contends that they have stolen the jewels to finance a Zionist operation aided by the United States. A German agent (Koch) is called in to help with the investigation, which makes Hakl doubly suspicious of the anti-Semitism underlying the charges. The German turns out to be more complicated than Hakl initially suspects, but the Jews are indeed being unfairly targeted. Yet they confess to the crimes and are brought to a trial that is little more than a propaganda show.

Hakl is portrayed as one honest cop fighting more insidious Communist authorities, but he’s waging an uphill battle. The film succeeds as both a good police procedural and as a biting political commentary on the era. The characterizations, however, could use more texture. It’s never quite clear why Hakl’s marriage is faltering. Trojan, who looks a bit like David Strathairn, is not a conventional leading man, but he brings a convincing sense of integrity to his portrayal. Koch finds depths in his troubled character, and Sona Norisova brings warmth to the rather unformed role of Hakl’s wife. The actors playing the Communist officials are appropriately oily and menacing. The film’s production design is impeccable, and the haunting music by Jan P. Muchow and Michal Novinski contributes to the ominous mood. A couple of scenes of graphic violence may be offputting to the arthouse audiences that support this type of film, but Shadow succeeds in bringing a disturbing period back to life

Man at War

Among the endless possibilities afforded by the medium of cinema, watching people play video games has to rank as among the least exciting. But that’s exactly what’s delivered in Man at War, Jacek Blawut’s documentary profiling various several obsessive devotees of IL-2 Sturmovik, a popular computer flight simulator recreating World War II aerial battles. You won’t be surprised to find out that they’re all men.

Other than that, they’re a fairly diverse bunch, encompassing a variety of ages, professions and ethnicities (American, Polish, German and Russian). Some of them have a more than casual interest in the subject, such the descendants of an American World War II pilot and a German Luftwaffe pilot. Others apparently just like to pretend that they’re strapped into a cockpit and have the opportunity to blow stuff up.

Looking on with reactions ranging from bemusement to eye-rolling disgust are the women in their lives, including one elderly grandmother who quite wisely voices the wish that her grandson would pull himself away from the computer already and find himself a nice girl.

After a lengthy build-up composed of alternating profiles of the various players, including a middle-aged priest/dentist who attaches Clark Gable’s face to his computer avatar, the film’s climax is a lengthy segment devoted to an actual game in which they all participate. Other than serving as a generous free advertisement for the product (which does indeed boast impressive graphics), it’s a tedious affair made notable only by the players’ fanatical passion…except, of course, when one of them embarrassedly steps away from the battle to pay for a pizza delivery.

Rise of the Guardians

From first-time director Peter Ramsey, the film is based on the Guardians of Childhood book series by William Joyce, as well as his short filmThe Man in the Moon.

Rise of the Guardians holds a 73 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, and below are what some of the critics had to say about the film.

Todd McCarthy (of The Hollywood Reporter) praised the work of Baldwin as North (Santa Clause), calling the character “perhaps the most readily amusing” of the bunch. But he noted the film's villain, Pitch (as in pitch black) isn't particularly original as he resembles Harry Potter's Voldemort.

Despite its shortcomings, McCarthy concluded: “The characters and settings are attractively designed, and the vocal performances have real color and a sense of fun that gently undercuts the treacly sincerity of certain obligatory kid-pandering moments.”

In his three-star review, Chicago Sun-Time critic Roger Ebert called the film “a hyperkinetic 3-D action comedy, with the characters forever racing on Santa's sleigh, hurtling down chutes and zooming through tunnels that rework the same 3-D illusions over and over again.”
Ebert concluded though there was an audience for the film, it wasn’t him. “Still, let it be said that director Peter Ramsey and his art team have created a crisp, colorful fantasy world, sharper-edged than many feature-length children's cartoons,” Ebert wrote.

Time’s Mary Pols said she did not envy filmmakers tackling holiday themes, because it's a genre so full of films that it's hard to come up with an original idea. Pols did have some praise for the film, writing: “The character feels fresh and new, re-imagined as someone kids can relate to and ultimately (no spoilers) proves to have a bittersweet back story.”

But ultimately she concluded the film fell short: “The narrative choice, hand-to-hand combat and a showdown in the streets in order to save children from cynicism and non-believing, is ironic but hardly surprising; like most children’s movies, Rise of the Guardians mimics the patterns of adult entertainment. Where is the magic in that?”

The Atlantic’s Christopher Orr wrote “while there are times when the plot is packed rather more densely than is strictly speaking necessary, there are moments of genuine magic scattered throughout the script. ... But what ultimately elevates the film above the ordinary is its extravagant visual imagination.”

Zero Dark Thirty

Whether you call it well-informed speculative history, docudrama re-creation or very stripped-down suspense filmmaking, Zero Dark Thirty matches form and content to pretty terrific ends. A long-arc account of the search for Osama bin Laden seen from the perspective of an almost insanely focused female CIA officer who never gives up the hunt until the prey ends up in a body bag, Kathryn Bigelow's and Mark Boal's heavily researched successor to Oscar winner The Hurt Locker will be tough for some viewers to take, not only for its early scenes of torture, including waterboarding, but due to its denial of conventional emotionalism and non-gung ho approach to cathartic revenge-taking. Films touching on 9/11, such as United 93, World Trade Center and Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, have proved commercially toxic, and while this one has a “happy” ending, its rigorous, unsparing approach will inspire genuine enthusiasm among the serious, hardcore film crowd more than with the wider public.

Its military-jargon title referring to a state of darkness as well as to the time of 12:30 a.m., Zero Dark Thirty opens with 90 seconds or so of black screen accompanied by a soundtrack collage of emergency phone calls from people trapped in the Twin Towers; no need for the familiar visuals here. Cut to two years later, when a captured nephew of Osama bin Laden undergoes a prolonged series of brutal CIA interrogations that involve beatings, waterboarding, being bound by a dog collar and ropes and getting locked in a small wooden box. It's not the most inviting way to usher a viewer into a movie. Then again, the hunt for bin Laden was no picnic either; it was an enormously frustrating endeavor that untold amounts of money, manpower and strategic thinking couldn't bring to a successful close for nearly a decade. The man who had engineered the deaths of some 4,000 people became a phantom, protected by forbidding geography, loyal followers and an already legendary auraEven though it runs more than 2 1/2 hours, Zero Dark Thirty is so pared to essentials that even politics are eliminated; there's essentially no Bush or Cheney, no Iraq War, no Obama announcing the success of the May 2, 2011, raid on bin Laden's in-plain-sight Pakistani compound. Similarly absent is any personal life for the single-minded heroine; when it's suggested at one point that she might want to have a fling, she colorfully replies that she's not a girl who does that sort of thing. The film does question whether she gives up some of her humanity to so selflessly dedicate herself to this sole professional aim but seems to answer that, for some, this is what represents the essence of life; everything else is preparation and waiting.

Scrooge & Marley

Shot in Chicago and set in the present-day, the film directed by Richard Knight Jr. and Peter Neville presents “Ben” Scrooge (David Pevsner) as the owner of a successful piano bar who abhors the spirit of Christmas and mistreats his employees, who at least are able to take out their frustrations in song.

Preparing to spend Christmas Eve in his usual misanthropic manner, he’s startled to discover the ghost of his former partner Marley (former SNL regular Tim Kazurinsky), although as in the original story he at first ascribes the appearance to the aftereffects of dinner.

“I specified no MSG!” he sputters.

He’s then, of course, visited by the Ghost of Christmas Past (Ronnie Kroell) who, with the help of poppers, spirits Scrooge away to his early years plagued by a homophobic father. Ensuing visitations by the ghosts of Christmas present (Megan Cavanagh) and future (JoJo Baby) provide predictable gay spins on the familiar tale, here frequently interrupted by musical interludes.

“Hold on, Scroogey baby, I feel a production number coming on,” says the Ghost of Christmas present by way of introduction to one MTV video-style segment.

The stagey proceedings, narrated by television/theater veteran Judith Light, have their occasional amusing moments despite the amateurish filmmaking and overly broad performances. And even with the severe tinkering on display Dickens’ tale is so sturdy that the sentimental climax remains moving. But this film, being advertised as “A Holiday Movie for All of Us,” is strictly for a niche audience.

'Twilight And 'Skyfall' Dominate Box Office....

The final entry in the Twilight series bowed to around $200 million internationally last weekend - a record for the franchise - knocking Skyfall off the No. 1 spot in virtually all of the 61 markets in which it's debuted. In the U.K., Twilight generated £15.8 million ($25.1 million) in ticket receipts, nearly £2 million ($3.1 million) more than the tally for The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 in the territory. 

It was both the highest-opening weekend for the franchise and the fourth-highest-grossing, three-day weekend of all time in the U.K., behind the last Harry Potter films and Skyfall. In Italy, the title took in $13.2 million (€10.4 million) over its first five days, the highest five-day opening in the country this year. And Breaking Dawn - Part 2 set an all-time record in Spain, where it drew $11.78 million (€9.2 million) for Alliance Films’ Spanish subsidiary Aurum Producciones, a three-day record for the territory With the final Twilight tracking 38 percent above its predecessor internationally, it looks all but inevitable that Breaking Dawn - Part 2 will out-gross the $430.9 million of Part 1. 

 

In Germany, the biggest new territory for Twilight this weekend, Breaking Dawn - Part 2 is on track to slightly out-perform Part 1 with admissions of between 1.4 million and 1.6 million, a bow that would rake in between $13 million and $15 million - which is sufficient to take the No. 1 slot from Skyfall. Not that anyone should count Bond out just yet.

 

The 23rd entry in the venerable Brit spy franchise cleared $49.5 million last weekend, enough to push it past the half-billion mark internationally and some $669 million globally. Skyfall has shown strong staying power in several territories - among them Germany, where it is predicted to add another 500,000 admissions in its fourth weekend, and the U.K., where it has earned upwards of $135 million so far and could become the top-grossing title in the territory if it can pass the $150 million high-water mark set by Avatar.

Skyfall’s global march is far from over, as it opens this weekend in Australia and New Zealand before moving to Japan in December. There will be international challengers to the twin juggernauts. DreamWorks Animation's The Rise of the Guardians could make an impact in Russia and Ukraine, as well as the Netherlands, when it opens there this weekend. Cloud Atlas, which bowed strongly in Russia and opened at No. 2 with around $3 million in Germany last weekend, rolls out in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Greece and Poland in this frame, battling for a strong third spot behind Skyfall and Twilight.

Ang Lee’s 3-D adventure Life of Pi has sensibly avoided the Twilight onslaught, with only a handful of international bows, including Hong Kong and Taiwan. The bulk will come mid- to late December, after Twilight has sucked all it can out of the international box office.