Danny Glover

Common Delivers Best Work to Date in Problematic ‘LUV’

mattmovieman — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 11:04:01 -0500

Rating: 2.5/5.0

CHICAGO – Assigned the role of World’s Worst Father Figure, Common delivers a performance so compelling that it nearly makes Sheldon Candis’ blood-soaked odyssey worth the trip. Nearly, however, is the key word. For all of it merits, this picture derails into a ditch of heavy-handed implausibility at the precise moment when it should be soaring.

One of the recurring images in “LUV,” which is memorably etched in its poster art, is the back of a child’s head as it looks off into a blurred universe that it can’t fully comprehend. Much of the tangled, murky plot is viewed from the perspective of this 11-year-old boy, Woody (Michael Rainey Jr.), who shares the audience’s confusion at the mounting danger that threatens to engulf him entirely. Candis’ vision of Baltimore is intensely claustrophobic, with houses uneasily wedged against one another, confining the desperate protagonists like rats in a maze.

With his drug-addicted mother supposedly recovering at a rehab and detox clinic in North Carolina, Woody longs for a parental substitute. It’s with great misfortune that Woody’s Uncle Vincent (Common) has finished serving an eight year prison sentence just in time to take advantage of his nephew’s naïveté. Vincent is a reprehensible man, but it’s his flawed pursuit of redemption coupled with Common’s effortless charisma that makes him so transfixing. When Woody exudes nervousness after being ogled by one of his adoring female classmates, Vincent becomes enraged and vows to make a man out of him before the day is done. And thus begins a very long day—and even longer night—for this unlikely duo, as they encounter a series of foreboding faces, many of them concealing devious intentions. All Vincent want to do is revise his shameful legacy by opening a crab shack restaurant at a foreclosed warehouse property. There’s little surprise when he’s denied the loan, thus forcing him to revert back to his illegal methods of raising the money. What’s unforgivable is how he strings the boy along on these increasingly dangerous misadventures, while giving him half-baked lessons in driving cars and firing guns. After a particularly monstrous tirade, Vincent tearfully confesses that Woody is the only person left in the world that he can trust. Word of advice to all street hustlers: if your sole trustworthy partner-in-crime is an 11-year-old with a shaky trigger finger, it’s probably time to hang it up.

Danny Glover and Common star in Sheldon Candis’ LUV.
Photo credit: Indomina Releasing

Candis’ first-rate ensemble has a ball sinking their teeth into juicy confrontations opposite Common, particularly Dennis Haysbert as Vincent’s cold-blooded boss, Mr. Fish, taking a refreshing departure from his long-running gig as Allstate’s stoic spokesperson. It’s wonderful to hear the same man who immortalized the tagline, “Are you in good hands?” bark out embittered dialogue like, “America’s not a country—it’s a company!” Danny Glover is also in fine form as a faux caregiver who refers to Woody as “Little Barack,” while Charles S. Dutton is terrific as the genial bringer of exceedingly dire news. There’s an inevitably tragic dinner meeting that begins with the characters cracking open crabs with their bare hands before swapping their utensils for guns. When Vincent teaches Woody the proper way to eat a crab, there are echoes of the “Beast It!” scene in “Beasts of the Southern Wild.”

Some touching father-son chemistry sporadically occurs between Vincent and Woody, but it doesn’t make their relationship any less abusive. Everything falls apart in the final act as Woody suddenly transforms from a scared kid into a ludicrously assured con man, finding the exact right words during a spectacularly frightening showdown, while somehow managing to drive competently through several states, despite having only received one half-lesson. Editor Jeff Wishengrad’s excessive utilization of jump cuts adds nothing to the drama, though Nuno Malo’s score succeeds in bringing an ethereal, “Crash”-like glow to the picture’s standard assortment of grit and grime.

Charles S. Dutton, Common and Michael Rainey Jr. star in Sheldon Candis’ LUV.
Photo credit: Bill Gray

It’s the self-loathing that Vincent harbors that makes him a more interesting low-life than, say, Fagin in “Oliver Twist.” Common’s performance is at its most riveting when his fearless façade crumbles, revealing a terrified soul wildly clinging to his last chance at salvation, even if it means endangering the life of an innocent child. He’s a fascinating train wreck, providing the veteran rapper with his richest screen role to date. With only one other feature credit to his name (2007’s “Young Cesar”), filmmaker Candis proves to be an exceptionally gifted director of actors. “LUV” doesn’t quite work, but it displays a great deal of potential, both in front of and behind the camera.

‘LUV’ stars Common, Michael Rainey Jr., Dennis Haysbert, Danny Glover, Charles S. Dutton, Meagan Good, Lonette McKee, Michael Kenneth Williams and Russell Hornsby. It was written by Sheldon Candis and Justin Wilson and directed by Sheldon Candis. It opened January 18th at AMC River East 21. It is rated R.

By MATT FAGERHOLM
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
matt@hollywoodchicago.com

Chris Rock, Martin Lawrence Are Stiff in Tepid ‘Death at a Funeral’

PatrickMcD — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 07:38:30 -0400

Rating: 3.0/5.0

CHICAGO – When some of the funniest comedians in the business – Chris Rock, Martin Lawrence, Tracy Morgan – can’t deliver a absurdist comedy about family secrets, then there truly is “Death at a Funeral.”

When the patriarch of an African American clan dies, his real and extended family gather for the funeral. Chris Rock is the oldest son Aaron, followed by the younger brother, Ryan (Martin Lawrence). Ryan is the prodigal son, admired by his relatives in his occupation as a writer, but preferring not to participate in the day-to-day family circumstance.

The extended family includes Aaron’s cousin Elaine (Zoe Saldana), who is inviting the wrath of her father (Ron Glass), by bringing her fiancé Oscar (James Marsden) to the service. Matters are further complicated by family friend Derek (Luke Wilson), who still professes love for Elaine, and his friend Norman (Tracy Morgan), who says he is “like family” to the clan, a notion that everyone dismisses.

Tracy is as Tracy Does: Tracy Morgan as Norman and Chris Rock as Aaron in ‘Death at a Funeral’
Photo Credit: Phil Bray for © 2010 Screen Gems, Inc.

Throw in an wheelchair bound and aging Uncle Russell (Danny Glover), a misplaced bottle of the hallucinogen Mescaline (that everyone mistakes for Valium) and a mysterious stranger named Frank (Peter Dinklage), and this funeral would be better off as a closed casket ceremony when it comes to revealing secrets.

In the stage play tradition of the “slamming door” type farces, this comedy does have a lot of energy based on uncontrolled circumstances and misunderstood relationships. As one disaster after another makes itself known during the most solemn end-of-life ritual, the lid that Chris Rock’s character has to keep on the day becomes more difficult to manage.

But because of the large ensemble, everyone in the cast seems muzzled by their assigned quirk, and many of the situational laughs require high concept leaps of faith to occur. One of the funnier bits involved the misplaced Mescaline, that James Marsden imbibes thinking it is the calming Valium. He takes his hallucinations and runs with it, having a lot of fun interrupting the mourning with surreal commentary and bizarre actions. It’s unfortunate that the script took several trips too many with the drug mix-up, stretching the joke to the breaking point, because Marsden had the most of scene steals underneath its power.

It is becoming more and more apparent that Chris Rock has difficulty residing in a character. He is straitjacketed by the character of Aaron, keeping a low key in his frustrated-novelist-as-tax-accountant persona, but breaking out also at some point to deliver some Chris Rock-esque type comic observations that doesn’t quite fit with his assignment. There was either some improvisation allowed in Neil LaBute’s direction or some script padding on set. Neither scenario makes the film better.

The supporting cast never breaks out as well. They are given certain actions to accomplish, but they don’t give the appearance of being connected to each other in their randomness. Tracy Morgan gets busy playing the flustered Norman, the center of the universe in this film for all the sequences, yet it might of been more fun to reveal why he is thinks he’s connected to a family that wants no part of him, rather than a constant riffing in the Tracy-Morgan-30-Rock mode.

Keeping Cool: Zoe Saldana as Elaine in ‘Death at a Funeral’
Photo Credit: Phil Bray for © 2010 Screen Gems, Inc.

Martin Lawrence can’t shake his “Martin Lawrence” personality. Luke Wilson plays his usual unflappable below-the-radar commercial pitchman. Danny Glover is full-on in cantankerous old man land. So there either was a reliance on expected actor images or cheaper humor derived from a man sitting on a toilet and Peter Dinklage’s lack of height. There was nothing sharp about Death at a Funeral, despite its roster of heavyweight comic talent and potential for the bluntness within the reputation of director Neil LaBute.

It is the Prince from the movie “Enchanted,” James Marsden, who reigns triumphant as the film’s prime jester. That about says it all for this funeral.

”Death at a Funeral” opens everywhere April 16th. Featuring Chris Rock, Martin Lawrence, Tracy Morgan, Luke Wilson, Danny Glover, James Marsden, Zoe Salanda and Peter Dinklage, directed by Neil LaBute. Rated “R”

By PATRICK McDONALD
Senior Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
pat@hollywoodchicago.com

Gondry’s Cinematic Breakthrough ‘Be Kind Rewind’ Proves Again He’s an Artistic Goliath

HollywoodChicago.com — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 04:05:03 -0500

CHICAGO – Michel Gondry’s latest cinematic breakthrough “Be Kind Rewind” grants passage into his magical imagination and proves yet again he’s one of today’s artistic giants.

Whimsicality, childlike humor and unforgettable imagery line the palette of this film, which is a heartfelt yet hilarious tale of two friends saving a VHS rental shop (itself named Be Kind Rewind) from technology by instigating a passion for film in their neighborhood.

Jack Black in “Be Kind Rewind”.
Photo credit: IMDb

Set in tired Passaic, N.J., the shop is located in a building that’s rumored to be the birthplace of jazz icon Fats Waller. It’s owned by Mr. Fletcher (Danny Glover), who is faced with the inevitable gentrification of condominiums and DVD rental stores.

Trying to earn his praise, Mike (Mos Def) works and lives at the shop and respects Mr. Fletcher as a father. Mike is visited daily if not hourly by mechanic pal Jerry (Jack Black), who lives in a trailer on the junkyard next to the power plant across the street.

When Mr. Fletcher goes out of town, he asks Miss Falewicz (Mia Farrow) to check on Mike, whom he has left in charge of the store with strict orders to “keep Jerry out”. That’s when Gondry’s wild imagination ignites and the mischievous eccentricities begin.

Things go amiss when Jerry’s quirky paranoia feeds the idea that the government is controlling (“paranizing”) his brain through the power plant. When wearing foil and metal colanders on his head are no longer enough protection, he decides to sabotage the plant and ends up magnetized by an enormous surge of power.

Next, Jerry accidentally demagnetizes all the tapes and causes the duo to have to shoot “Ghostbusters” in four hours, which is earlier requested for rental by the scrutinizing Miss Falewicz. “Ghostbusters” is just the beginning of the hysterical filmmaking, which is followed by “Rush Hour 2,” “Driving Miss Daisy,” “Carrie,” “Robocop” and many more.

Jack Black (left) and Mos Def in “Be Kind Rewind”.
Photo credit: IMDb

Their technique of “Sweding” films becomes immensely popular in the neighborhood and their inflated rental pricing gives them hope of saving Mr. Fletcher’s shop.

By bringing the neighborhood together through their imaginative filmmaking techniques, they create a film about legendary native Fats Waller to make a final attempt at saving Be Kind Rewind and wrap our hearts around the story in the process.

Gondry harnesses Black’s often-unruly screen energy and creates a feeling of playful yet controlled improvisation between the two main stars. Black brings his usual display of lyrical antics to Jerry and carries the majority of laughs throughout the film.

His outlandish idiosyncrasies mesh with the even-more-improbable storyline and Mike compliments Jerry through his levelheaded and patient tendencies. Performances by Mia Farrow, Danny Glover and Sigourney Weaver bring balance to the overly energetic filmmakers and frame the story with a traditional start-to-finish plotline.

Jack Black (left) and Melonie Diaz in “Be Kind Rewind”.
Photo credit: IMDb

This makes it much more commercial than Gondry’s “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” and “The Science of Sleep”. Creative props dress every scene of the Sweded films and childhood flashbacks of playing dress-up and acting out skits of your favorite movies are nearly impossible to evade.

Instead of animating inanimate objects (“The Science of Sleep”) or looking through the eyes of a toddler (“Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”), Gondry – a master of projecting the inner child – chooses this time to animate his characters through youthful and inventive creativity.

This Gondrian feature makes for a very colorful visual and emotional experience. A passion and appreciation of movies and moviemaking give this film a thematic backbone reminiscent of Federico Fellini’s “8½”and Giuseppe Tornatore’s “Nuovo Cinema Paradiso”. Its animated set design and comedic stars, however, allow it to have a more fantastical quality.

While the hilarious film references and guerilla filmmaking tactics are impressive to movie buffs, they could easily be lost to the tenderfoot. Gondry’s unique style can be an acquired taste to some, but for those who have cultivated their imaginations since childhood, this is an ingenious must see.

“Be Kind Rewind” opened on Feb. 22, 2008.

Click here for our full “Be Kind Rewind” image gallery!

By ALLISON PITACCIO
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
allee@hollywoodchicago.com