Reviews

I've had Chop Shop on my watch list since 2008 and finally saw it tonight at the Museum of the Moving Image (in Queens, just 3 miles away from the film's location). Other reviews correctly describe the film's lineage from Bicycle Thieves, but I was also struck by the way several climactic plot points are not shown on camera. The director clearly indicates what's about to happen, then cuts to what happens after the plot point. In this he recalls the way the Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu would handle many plot transitions. I can recommend Goodbye, Solo; 99 Homes (great performance by Michael Shannon as villain); and The White Tiger by Ramin Bahrani.

Nope is another ambitious movie from Jordan Peele. I did not enjoy it as much as either Get Out or Us, however, because I don't think it was as well executed as it could have been. Much of the lead characters' dialogue is presented at low volume and was difficult to understand. Much of the cinematography is dark and muddied; we don't get to see really good closeup work by Daniel Kaluuya -- one of the strengths of Get Out -- until two-thirds of the way through the film. None of the lead characters' roles is written very symphathetically. At a certain point the artificiality of the special effects comes to dominate the film.

I recall seeing this movie during its initial New York City theatrical run, probably in 1986, at the Guild 50th St theater which was down the block from Radio City. After this movie, Banderas's movies directed by Almodovar began to get theatrical exhibitions is New York City. Indeed, I long misremembered this movie as being directed by Almodovar and starring Carmen Maura. Though it's not Almodovar and Maura is not present, the movie has all the comic flair of early Almodovar and is well worth seeing.

Museo (screenplay by Manuel Alcalá and Alonso Ruizpalacios; direction by Ruizpalacios) is the most cinematically stimulating movie I have seen so far this year. The film dramatizes an actual 1985 theft at the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City but then shifts to focus on the emotional impact of the theft on the two perpetrators. About ten minutes into the film I found myself thinking, "They don't make movies like this anymore." Why did I feel that way? Both the subject matter -- the anomie of the middle-class in a nation with profound social divisions -- and Ruizpalacios's wide-screen composition recall Fellini and Antonioni films of sixty years ago. So do the dramatic Saul Bass-like titles, the symphonic score and sound design. Seek this movie out!

This movie, filmed entirely on location in Brooklyn, N.Y., depicts the lives of people "we" -- we being middle- and upper-class U.S. citizens -- see everyday and who are nonetheless all but invisible to us. Both its humor and its politics are gently stated. It's reminiscent of Ramin Bahrani's series of portrayals of working-class life (Chop Shop, Man Push Cart, Goodbye Solo). My only quibble is with its distribution: In New York City you can currently see it at BAM Rose and one other arthouse, but it really deserves to be screened at a theater in the neighborhood where it was filmed -- or better yet shown outdoors on a summer night in Sunset Park!

Saw this film with two friends on 42 Street in New York City on June 11. It had been playing in NYC for several weeks, but as of that date was only playing in two theaters in Manhattan and one in Brooklyn. That's a shame, since it means that, despite some very positive reviews in the local papers, the movie didn't get the backing from its distributor (Sony Classics) that it deserved. Granted, since it bears a credit indicating backing from Showtime, I guess it will soon make its way to premium cable, but I think the film deserved a much bigger theatrical audience than it apparently got.

The other comments capture the "driven artist" and Oedipal aspects of the film very well, so I won't add to them. All I can say is: If you have a chance to see this film while it's still in theaters, please do so.

I have seen most of the highly regarded end-of-2002 movies and I recommend "Antwone Fisher" above almost all of them. I was tremendously impressed by Denzel Washington's directorial debut, particularly the restraint he chose in cinematic elements such as editing and music scoring. The sparing, deliberate use of music on the sound track, for instance, contrasts favorably with the excessive use of music in both Martin Scorcese's "Gangs of New York" and Spike Lee's "25th Hour" (both directors whom I like, by the way). Washington elicits a strong and -- once again -- restrained performance from newcomer Derek Luke.

I would also like to commend the film for the best cinematic depiction of a psychotherapeutic relationship in many years -- and I say that as someone who works with many psychiatrically damaged young men with anger management problems.

Some have criticized "Antwone Fisher" as a "male weepie." I feel that this is a movie that could have been done with over-the-top sentimentality, but that the restraint which Washington shows in all aspects prevents that from happening. Did start to shed tears at the end of the movie? You bet I did -- but those tears were very well earned.

The distributors of "Antwone Fisher" have chosen to promote it with an ad campaign which stresses its inspirational value. In the New York Times yesterday, the movie was advertised with a blurb from Martin Luther King III. While I think this campaign is probably good at reaching what, in today's political context, one would think of as "Antwone Fisher's" 'natural' audience -- the churchgoing African-American middle class -- I fear that it may turn off many people who ought to go see this film. Many of my friends have shied away from it because they are afraid they will be preached to by this movie; they don't like to see a movie because the son of a secular saint tells them it's wholesome and good for them.

So I say to all of you who are *not* in the above demographic: Go and see Antwone Fisher because it is a great motion picture! It's better than Gangs of New York. It's better than 25th Hour. It's better than About Schmidt. It's better than Catch Me If You Can. It's better than Adaptation. It's better than Chicago. The only other movie in current release which I unconditionally recommend is Pedro Almodovar's Talk to Her. So go and see Antwone Fisher.