Lessons of Darkness

1-4

Of the four films I saw last week - including a pre-summer wannabe blockbuster, a French dramedy, and a ghost story from Japanese auteur Takeshi Miike - only one gets a passing grade. For those unwilling to guess which one I liked, here's a hint: it's the LAST film listed below.

Sahara (Slant magazine)
Happily Ever After (Slant magazine)
One Missed Call (Slant magazine)
Tell Them Who You Are (Slant magazine)

And for those looking for some more positive reviews, check out my two preceding reviews (both posted below) of To Be and to Have and Fever Pitch.

Fever Pitch

(Originally published in Rocky Mountain Bullhorn)

Even considering the insufferable self-absorption of Boston baseball fans, Bobby and Peter Farrelly’s Red Sox-obsessed Fever Pitch proves an amusing and affecting ode to professional sports fandom. Ben Wrightman (Jimmy Fallon) is a math teacher who falls for high-powered corporate exec Lindsey Meeks (Drew Barrymore), and their courtship proceeds smoothly until Ben reveals his deep, dark secret: he’s an insane Sox devotee. His apartment walls adorned with murals of Fenway Park and his wardrobe mainly consisting of Sox t-shirts and jerseys, Ben’s interest in the team has long since become an addiction, and the Farrelly’s sentimental comedy charts their romantic tug-of-war as Meeks – a rookie when it comes to following balls and strikes – attempts to deal with her lover’s extreme passion for the national pastime.

Though uncharacteristically working from a script they didn’t write (this loose adaptation of Nick Hornby’s novel is by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel), the Farrelly’s imbue their latest with the same unabashed warmth and sweetness that typified Shallow Hal and Stuck on You while simultaneously dispensing with their once-trademark gross-out gags. The filmmakers’ palpable affection for their characters – as well as the captivating lead performances from an enchanting Barrymore and the surprisingly charming Fallon – helps to compensate for their often-clunky direction. Yet Fever Pitch’s home run swing is the Farrelly’s astute depiction of the camaraderie, kinship and sense of escape that comes from enthusiastically following one’s favorite team – even if it is those unbearable World Series champion Red Sox.

To Be and to Have (2002): A-

The most unvarnished cinematic portrait of childhood I’ve ever seen, Nicolas Philibert’s To Be and to Have (Être et avoir) documents with intimacy, grace and candor the daily goings-on at a one-room school in rural France. The school’s student body consists of a handful of older and younger children who are taught, in alternating shifts, by a kind, caring teacher named Georges Lopez, and Philibert’s eavesdropping camera presents these kids without judgment and without over-sentimentalization, allowing their hilarious, touching and unpleasant everyday antics to speak for themselves. From pint-sized JoJo struggling to remember that the number seven comes after six, to a family trying to help their math-challenged son finish his homework, the documentary captures virtually every aspect of being a kid (and being an adult around kids): the awkward and painful process of making friends, the discomfort of being reprimanded for misbehaving, the immature squabbling and jealousy found in peer interaction, the grown-up fear of accidentally neglecting or harming a child, and the awe-inspiring wonder of experiencing the world for the first time. Philibert likely could have done without his brief symbolic interludes – involving a herd of cattle and slow-crawling turtles (both stand-ins for the kids and their early development) – but by and large, his film (imbued with a spirit similar to that of Truffaut’s Small Change) is breathtakingly authentic, affecting, and alive.

Running the Gamut

Today's post features a kung fu comedy, an earnest family drama, an anthology of shorts about love from three acclaimed directors, and a DVD review of a collection of haunted house films.

Kung Fu Hustle (filmcritic.com)
Winter Solstice (Slant magazine)
Eros (Slant magazine)
The Amityville Horror Collection - DVD (Slant magazine)