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March 22, 2007
By Damian Penny
ESPN's Bill Simmons came up with the idea of the "Tyson Zone" - the point at which any story, no matter how outrageous, can be perfectly believable and unsurprising if it's about certain celebrities. (Britney Spears entered the Tyson Zone earlier this year.) The late Stanley Kubrick is rarely mentioned in the same breath as Britney or Mike Tyson, but his reclusiveness and eccentricities made it easy for people to expect the most unusual behavior from the great film director - and Color Me Kubrick shows how a con man took advantage of this in the late 1990s.
Around the time the real Kubrick was working on Eyes Wide Shut, a fellow named Alan Conway convinced many a Londoner into believing he was Stanley Kubrick - and that he was ready to give them work on his next film. He had a bad habit of, er, forgetting his wallet, but his star-struck new friends were more than willing to buy him dinner and vodka (lots of vodka), especially if it could get them lucrative gigs designing costumes or composing heavy-metal songs for Kubrick's next project.
In Color Me Kubrick, directed by Kubrick's longtime assistant Brian Cook, John Malkovich plays Conway as a shameless huckster who put remarkably little effort into impersonating one of the world's most famous filmmakers. (He even takes credit for making Judgment at Nuremberg - directed by Stanley Kramer.)
Maybe some of his victims were suspicious of his thrift-shop wardrobe, unusual "projects" like a "science-fiction drama-comedy-love affair caper movie set in the future" called All Night Prescriptions, an exaggerated "American" accent, or his none-too-subtle homosexuality. But the real Kubrick was so mysterious, and his films so open to interpretation, that people bought it. (After an encounter with Conway, one aspiring actor assures a friend that HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey was gay - a hidden clue about Kubrick's sexuality, of course.)
When they finally found out they'd been had, most of his victims were too embarrassed to pursue the matter further. Only when "Kubrick" ran into New York Times theater critic Frank Rich, and complained about the way that paper had portrayed him as a "recluse," did things begin to fall apart.
Color Me Kubrick is a very entertaining look at Conway's con, thanks to a flurry of in-jokes and references to the real Kubrick's movies (especially the music) and another stellar performance by John Malkovich. Malkovich is American, but when he plays Conway trying to pass himself off as Kubrick, he really sounds like a British actor trying desperately to play an American. Pulling that off is much harder than it sounds.
This film is the latest subject of Mark Cuban's experiment in releasing films in theaters, on cable TV, and DVD almost simultaneously. Color Me Kubrick opens in some art-house cinemas this weekend, will be shown on the HDNet movie channel this Friday, and comes out on DVD on March 27. I recommend seeing it either way.
To comment on this and more reviews go to Blogcritics.org.
Posted by lmckay at
09:56 PM
March 22, 2007
By Ray Wong
I really wanted to like Premonition, a mystery-thriller with the über-likable Sandra Bullock, because I enjoyed The Lake House a lot. Actually, I am split about the film, and I will tell you why later.
The story opens on a Thursday. Linda Hanson (Bullock) is a housewife with two beautiful girls, Bridgette (Courtney Taylor Burness) and Megan (Shyann McClure). Her husband, Jim (Julian McMahon) is on a business trip. Later during the day, she notices a strange voicemail from her husband; just then, a sheriff knocks on her door and tells her that Jim was killed in an auto accident the day before. But how could Jim have died if she just got his voicemail today? Shocked, Linda asks her mother Joanne (Kate Nelligan) to come and help take care of the girls and deal with the tragedy. Exhausted, she falls asleep on the couch.
When Linda wakes up, she finds Jim alive and well. Confused, she goes about her day thinking maybe she's had a bad dream. But it feels too real to her, and she's seeing people she's never met before (such as the sheriff). Then, Linda wakes up again, and it's now Saturday, the day of the funeral. But Linda has no idea what is happening. She has no memory of anything, including another accident that happened. One bad thing leads to another, sending her into a psychiatric ward.
But then, she wakes up again and it's now Tuesday. Once Linda realizes what's going on, she starts to piece everything together, and she realizes that she's having premonitions, and Wednesday (or Thursday, when she heard the news) hasn't really happened yet, and that she can still stop Jim's death. But should she? Her marriage to Jim is falling apart, and she suspects that he's having an affair. She asks, "If I let Jim die, is it the same as murder?" What is she going to do?
Sandra Bullock sinks her teeth in yet another paranormal romance, but this time she shows more of her dramatic edge. She usually picks roles that fit her real-life personality, and as Linda Hanson, she displays a genuine vulnerability that makes us want to root for her. Her emotional range is excellent. As her husband, Julian McMahan (Fantastic Four) holds his own in a relatively small role. His calm and distant performance makes for a great counterpoint to Bullock's emotional turmoil. Though his role is small, his portrayal is pivotal to Bullock's character arc.
Courtney Taylor Burness (Fur) and Shyann McClure (House M.D.) are good as the daughters. Thank goodness they don't overact like other child actors, and they give the film its needed warmth and gravity. As Linda's concerned mother, Kate Nelligan (The Cider House Rules) gives a solid performance, with enough conflict to make us ache for her decisions. Nia Long (Big Mama's House) doesn't have much to do as Linda's best friend -- her role is rather peripheral and probably not even necessary. Peter Stormare (Nacho Libre) has a small role as a creepy psychiatrist. For some reason, I suspect that his role was much larger in the original script (I've heard there was as different ending).
Speaking of the script, written by Bill Kelly (Blast from the Past), it's really confusing and complicated -- at least in the beginning -- when the time line is all jumbled and we can't really tell what is real. I got confused because I thought it was a time-traveling story, until I reminded myself that it's about "premonition," as the title indicates. Still, the non-linear storytelling (as far as the real time line is concerned) can be very challenging to understand, especially when things are changed around Linda. Did she cause the changes? Can she change the future? Like The Butterfly Effect, the cause-effect plot can be mind-numbing. There are too many inconsistencies.
Even if you figure out the time line and the story arc, there still seem to be too many plot holes. And even when I understand what is real and what is premonition, I still have trouble figuring out why the order? Why Monday first instead of Sunday, if she's going to live her real life in chronological order? It's baffling, and judging from the buzz on Internet bulletin boards, I know many people feel the same way. And I think that's a detriment to the screenwriter. True, Donnie Darko has a weird time line and is challenging to understand as well, and it went on to become a cult classic. But I do think that Kelly is trying too hard to be clever and the script becomes needlessly complicated. Unfortunately, the plotting is not as tight or meticulous to compensate for the complexity.
German director Mennan Yapo (Framed) should be given kudos for weaving this jumbled plot into something that is at least entertaining. Of course, Sandra Bullock's performance contributes to that. Still, I think much of the movie plods along too slowly. There are of course intrigue and mysteries and suspense, but there were times when I looked at my watch and wished the pace would pick up. And the ending -- I think I understand the meaning of the ending, and why they want it that way. Premonition is really a philosophical meditation on love, relationships, meanings, and choices. Still, for anyone expecting some kind of real resolution, the ending is a letdown. The whole thing seems like a long revelation. I'm looking forward to seeing the alternate ending.
On top of that, just because of how the events are played out, it's very frustrating to watch Linda repeating everything she "sees" in her premonitions, and without noticing that she's doing it. I mean, hello? She's not all that bright, is she? And that's frustrating. If she knows her husband is going to die or something is going to happen to her daughter, why not try everything she can to stop it, like tying him up or something? I understand -- yes, I do -- why the events have to happen because of its philosophical theme, but as a story, the character loses her credibility. And that's one thing I find very annoying. I really wanted to love this movie, but if I had had any premonition about this before, I would have chosen to wait for it on Netflix.
To comment on this and more reviews go to Blogcritics.org.
Posted by lmckay at
09:32 PM
