REVIEW: Three Monkeys (2008)

See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. The title of Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Turkish film, Three Monkeys (2008), evokes the proverbial three wise monkeys by focusing on the dangers of a dysfunctional family that fails to communicate and, instead, avoids, represses, and internalizes the evil right in front of them. One fateful night Servet, an ambitious politician, kills a pedestrian with his car and enlists a destitute employee, Eyüp, to serve his time in exchange for a hefty bounty. During his sentence, his wife, Hacer, becomes embroiled in an affair with Servet, and Eyüp and his son, Ismael, are wracked with guilt and betrayal to discover her infidelity. When Servet winds up dead, they must decide whether to confront the truth or perpetuate this cycle of treachery and exploitation. Winner of the best director prize at Cannes and a master of ambience, Ceylan proves himself an auteur reminiscent of Antonioni who has crafted a stark, minimalist, and nuanced portrait of sexual and class conflict in modern-day Turkey. (Liesl Swanbeck)

Opens at Sundance Kabuki Cinemas on Friday, June 26th

REVIEW: My Sister's Keeper (2009)

Emotional manipulation runs rampant in Nick Cassavetes’ unabashedly maudlin, My Sister’s Keeper, about the Fitzgerald family’s struggle with their daughter Kate’s leukemia. To save her life, Sara (Cameron Diaz) and Brian (Jason Patric) Fitzgerald genetically engineer another daughter, Anna (the ever-precocious Abigail Breslin), to serve as a donor for Kate (Sofia Vassilieva). However, Anna throws a wrench into their carefully laid plans when she sues for medical emancipation. While this sets the stage for a complicated and intriguing ethical debate, Cassavetes, director of 2004’s schmaltz-fest, The Notebook, seems to prefer all things saccharine to anything remotely cerebral or sincere. Rather than tackle this moral minefield, he relies heavily on extended voiceovers and music montages to try to tug our heartstrings. While much of the cast, including Diaz, Breslin, and Alec Baldwin (as Anna’s lawyer), lacks credibility, Vassilieva, as the remarkably resilient Kate, embodies the perfect blend of sweet and sardonic, tempering the over-sentimentalizing and moralizing with humor and grace. (Liesl Swanbeck)

Opens Nationwide Friday, June 26th

REVIEW: The Proposal (2009)

Striding onto the scene as boss-from-hell, Margaret Tate, in The Proposal, Sandra Bullock looks as though she would like nothing better than to take that suffocating America’s Sweetheart label and crush it beneath her sky-high stilettos. Alas, if only Disney would let her. As fate would have it, or, rather, as mandated by romcom conventions, this shrew must be tamed. Facing the prospect of deportation to Canada after some paperwork falls through, Margaret blackmails her weak-willed assistant, Andrew Paxton (Ryan Reynolds), into marrying her. Forced to travel to Andrew’s home in Alaska with an immigration officer hot on their trail, they must maintain the charade in front of his friends and family despite their disdain for each other.

Rounding out the cast are the usual suspects — Mary Steenburgen as Andrew’s sweet and supportive mom, Craig T. Nelson as his demanding dad, and Betty White as his kooky Grandma Annie. Newcomers include Malin Akerman as Andrew’s former childhood sweetheart in a thankless, lackluster role and Oscar Nuñez as one of those ever-present, small town fixtures (read: comic relief) who moonlights as an exotic dancer for Margaret’s impromptu bachelorette party.

Of course, it’s only a matter of time before Bullock’s ice queen, more affectionately known as “Satan’s Mistress,” melts and Reynold’s pushover inevitably grows a spine. Predictable premise aside, The Proposal knows its target audience and makes the most of its stars’ knack for screwball comedy. While Bullock is definitely the bigger box office draw, Reynolds gives as good as he gets. He’s been floundering in frat-boy movie purgatory for much of his career, but with last year’s underrated Definitely, Maybe (2008), and now The Proposal, he proves that he has more to offer as that rare star who isn’t intimidated to play second fiddle to some of Hollywood’s funniest leading ladies.

Bullock and Reynolds are certainly no Tracy and Hepburn, but they’re a winsome pair with lively banter, endearing chemistry, and uncanny comedic timing. Now if only they had a vehicle worthy of their talents, one with a little subtlety that wouldn’t have to literally throw them together (in a naked collision no less) to manufacture a happily-ever-after. (Liesl Swanbeck)

Opens Nationwide on Friday, June 19th

REVIEW: American Artifact: The Rise of American Rock Poster Art (2009)

Synonymous with ‘60s counterculture, the plethora of rock posters adorning the walls of The Fillmore once served a more modest purpose. Concert promoter, Bill Graham, used to pass them out to the first 500 people out the door. If you love San Francisco’s role in rock and roll history or the very mention of Wolfgang’s Vault sends you scrambling for your collection of vintage vinyl, you will probably enjoy Merle Becker’s American Artifact: The Rise of American Rock Poster Art. Abandoning her corporate TV job, Becker traces rock poster art from its birth in the 1960s to its modern resurgence with burgeoning online communities such as gigposters.com. The subject matter might be inspiring, but the documentary’s execution is ultimately unsatisfying. While Becker reflects how Vietnam and the hippie era shaped the art form in the ‘60s, she lacks the conviction to dive headfirst into modern influences, glossing over the palpable imprint of pop culture, advanced technology and the Iraq war. Although the film provides a few entertaining diversions with eccentric rock poster artists recalling how they gleefully flouted art school conventions to create their own psychedelic styles, Becker, providing the film’s monotonous voiceover, fails to captivate. For a passion project, she sounds surprisingly dispassionate, not to mention disingenuous as she extols the virtues of nonconformity and independent art while ultimately returning to the corporate fold. (Liesl Swanbeck)

Opens at the Redvic Saturday, June 20th.

REVIEW: Milton Glaser: To Inform and Delight (2009)

Stroll through New York City and you can’t help but stumble onto one of Milton Glaser’s iconic designs be it a Brooklyn Brewery label, New York Magazine cover, or even the big, white nose perched above Trattoria dell'Arte across from Carnegie Hall. Of course, Glaser, one of the world’s most talented, postmodern graphic designers, has also left his stamp, quite literally, with the ubiquitous I ♥ NY insignia. Wendy Keys’ new documentary Milton Glaser: To Inform and Delight pays homage to this humble, erudite, and mirthful man who transcends traditional lines between high art and commercial design to make art accessible to the public. Keys incorporates anecdotes from students, clients, colleagues, and Glaser himself and highlights not only Glaser’s powerful aesthetic, but also his art’s implicit call for political and social responsibility. Whether encapsulating the psychotropic 60s in a Bob Dylan profile, rendering the plight of gay men in America in a print ad for Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, or embodying his pacifist beliefs in a poster condemning genocide in Darfur, Glaser informs and delights with his constant reinvention and incredible ability to capture the current zeitgeist. (Liesl Swanbeck)

Opens at The Roxie Friday, June 19^th

REVIEW: Katyn (Poland, 2007)

Unbeknownst to the rest of the world, in 1940 the Red Army single-handedly slaughtered 15,000 Polish POWs deep within Katyń forest. Katyń (2007), Andrzej Wajda’s Oscar-nominated film based on these events, is wrenching even before you discover that the director’s father was among the casualties. Incredibly, the film manages to be both intimate and objective, revealing the story largely from the perspective of the surviving family members. Katyń chronicles the life of Andrzej, a Polish Captain, who leaves behind his wife and daughter only to be executed alongside his fellow officers. Demonstrating the power of propaganda and self-delusion, Katyń reveals the Soviets’ mass cover-up (including blaming Nazi Germany) that ultimately robbed the Polish people of their history and prevented them from commemorating those who had perished. When Captain Andrzej’s journal, which documents his experiences in the internment camp, is discovered among the rubble and returned to his family, his haunting words come flooding back – “As they say, diaries don’t burn.” The Soviets may strive to rewrite history and bury past transgressions, but the truth remains etched in the minds of survivors and executioners alike, as well as the pages of a tattered old journal. (Liesl Swanbeck)

Opens at the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas Friday, June 19th

REVIEW: The Cure for Love (2008)

For years cinematic satires such as Saved! (2004) and But I’m a Cheerleader (1999), have served as send-ups of extreme orthodoxy and have mined ex-gay therapy groups with names like “True Directions” and “Mercy House” for laughs. Francine Pelletier and Christina Willings’ Cure for Love (2008), also tackles these controversial subjects, but in a very earnest and even-handed way. Love opens with the wedding of Brian and Ana, two gay Evangelists who have no delusions when it comes to their sexuality, but who simply refuse to abandon their religious beliefs. The film juxtaposes their union with the relationships of their gay friends, Jonathan and Darren, who finally manage to accept their sexuality while retaining their faith after years spent struggling and journeying to Exodus, a retreat for “same-sex addiction.” From a liberal standpoint, it is extremely difficult to watch Brian and Ana’s wedding footage without thinking that this charade is what’s unnatural, not gay marriage, especially in light of the recent upholding of Prop 8. However, Love never preaches a Gay Rights or Evangelical agenda. Instead, it keeps both sets of couples clearly in focus, presenting an intimate portrait of the myriad kinds of love humanity possesses — love of family, love of God, love of a man or a woman (regardless of your gender) — and how individuals ultimately choose to reconcile them. (Liesl Swanbeck)

Opens at the Castro Theatre's Frameline Festival on Saturday, June 20th

REVIEW: Making the Boys (2009)

Whether you adore it as a nostalgic, pre-HIV throwback or despise it for its self-loathing and slew of gay stereotypes, The Boys in the Band was revolutionary for its time as the first play to revolve around a homosexual circle of friends and to present an honest examination of the gay community.

On the eve of the 40th anniversary of the Gay Rights Movement, Crayton Robey takes us behind-the-scenes in his compelling and insightful new documentary, Making the Boys (2009). Mart Crowley, the playwright of Boys, recounts his days rubbing shoulders with the Hollywood elite as a burgeoning screenwriter only to be cast aside after a failed Bette Davis pilot and a film deal fell through. New York theater proved to be his salvation as he struggled with perceived personal and professional failure as well as alcoholism. With nothing to lose, he bravely penned Boys, secured the producer from Edward Albee’s equally controversial Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and released it off-Broadway on April 14th, 1968 to commercial acclaim.

In his documentary, Robey interviews both Broadway and Hollywood mainstays such as Albee, Terrence McNally, Robert Wagner, and Dominick Dunne who reflect on the impact of Boys, for better and for worse, and its role in challenging mainstream opinions of homosexuality as a mental illness and in jumpstarting the Gay Rights Movement.

In the middle of the film, I started wishing that Robey had interviewed more of the cast of Boys. After all, they were the ones who experienced the highs of being in an exciting and subversive new play as well as the lows of later being essentially blacklisted from Hollywood. Then it dawned on me that five of the nine original cast members of Boys have since died from AIDS. Ultimately, their cause to validate the gay community’s presence in society is forever immortalized with the legacy of Boys, the play that Vincent Canby hailed “a landslide of truths.” (Liesl Swanbeck)

Opens at the Castro Theatre's Frameline Festival on Friday, June 19th

REVIEW: The Window (2009)

Doubling as the eyes of a young child, an old-fashioned camera sputters to life and resurrects an age-old memory from an ailing man’s past in Carlos Sorin’s wistful and lyrical The Window (2009). While the film conjures up Citizen Kane (1941) with its use of nostalgia to frame the story, it remains firmly rooted in the present as it captures the last day of 80-year old Don Antonio’s life. The film may not earn points in subtlety with the clanging of clocks ticking away the fleeting hours, but it realistically coveys the banality and claustrophobia of being cooped up. In the end, Sorin succeeds at painting a stirring portrait of an old man (Antonio Larreta) struggling to retain his dignity while awaiting a visit from his estranged son. As the camera winds down and the kino-eye that unearthed the precious memory flickers to black, you realize that Sorin’s brilliance lies in portraying not only the striking Patagonian landscape, but also manifesting landscapes of the mind. (Liesl Swanbeck)

Opens at the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas on Wednesday, June 17th

REVIEW: Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (2009)

Terrorists take to the subway, not to the skies, in Tony Scott’s The Taking of Pelham 123, a reimagining of the 1974 cult classic starring Walter Matthau and Robert Shaw. Denzel Washington plays Walter Garber, a demoted New York City subway dispatcher, who faces off with Ryder (John Travolta), a reckless madman demanding a hefty ransom after he hijacks a subway car and holds its passengers hostage. Decked out in dark shades, a Fu Manchu mustache, and a matching don’t-fuck-with-me attitude, Travolta plays the ridiculously conspicuous villain with a hidden vendetta to the hilt. Pelham only manages to transcend its superficial trappings in the verbal sparring matches between Ryder and his MTA counterpart. Theft starts doubling as therapy as both men share past transgressions, drawing an unmistakable link between the two. Adrenaline junkies can expect the usual Tony Scott pyrotechnics in full force, but the film’s moral ambiguity and the teaming of Travolta and Washington are what’s truly incendiary. (Liesl Swanbeck)

Opens Nationwide Friday, June 12th

REVIEW: Munyurangabo (Rwanda, 2007)

Don’t be deceived by the serene, pastoral setting of Lee Isaac Chung’s Munyurangabo (2007), a neorealist drama that follows unlikely friends, Sangwa (a Hutu) and Ngabo (a Tutsi) as they journey home nearly a decade after the Rwandan Genocide. This hauntingly peaceful veneer and desolate beauty speaks to the hundreds of thousands killed on Rwandan soil and belies Sangwa and Ngabo’s simmering resentment and shame. Refusing to fixate on the war’s carnage, the film focuses on the psychological repercussions instead. As the pair arrives home to tend to the decimated farmland and to each other, Sangwa struggles with the prejudices that his estranged family still harbors while Ngabo wrestles with his duty to avenge his father’s murder. Delving into Rwanda’s tragic past, this provocative film that befittingly ends on National Liberation Day wonders if Rwandans can forge new identities unburdened by guilt or vengeance to ultimately find freedom. (Liesl Swanbeck)

Opens at the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas Friday, June 12^th.

REVIEW: A Snowmobile for George (2008)

Confounded after Bush (the “George” in question here) allows manufacturers to reintroduce a discontinued snowmobile engine that pollutes 100 times more than a car, director, Todd Darling, sets out across America looking for answers. With Sindy, his snowmobile in tow, he documents the devastating impact of deregulation on the environment, including wildlife endangerment in California, water depletion in Wyoming, and asbestos contamination in post-9/11 New York City. Refreshingly unpretentious and even-keeled, Darling interviews everyday ranchers, fishermen, and firemen, listening to opponents and proponents of Bush’s policies alike. He truly hits his stride by exposing Federal conflicts of interest and illuminating the political power play behind-the scenes. In the end, the film finally answers its original query, but asks other lingering questions like, “Does less regulation really mean more freedom… and at what price?” Sure, Snowmobile’s humor can be a bit hokey, but the sentiment is spot-on. (Liesl Swanbeck)

Opens at The Roxie's Burning Fuse Film Festival from June 7th-8th.