Reviews from various films at the Venice Film Festival and the Telluride Film Festival — both currently in progress are….ok, not flying in fast and furious like we expected, but more like trickling in at a moderate pace (maybe it’s the economy and less writers to carpetbag the events).
Variety weighs in on Todd Solodnz’s “Life During Wartime,” and are surprisingly positive after shellacking almost anything in sight lately that hasn’t appeared to be accessible or commercial (“The Road,” Herzog’s “Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans“). They even say this quasi-sequel to “Happiness” might be his best film to date.
Variety: “The distinctive, boundary-pushing writer-director has had the eccentric inspiration to resurrect the same central characters a decade later, but using entirely different actors. Winning result, which reels off one riveting scene after another, stands as both a unique sort-of sequel and a film that requires no prior reference points; it’s entirely satisfying either way, though even richer if you recall the antecedent.”
THR seems to be in the tank as well: “[The film is] a heady mix of deadpan humor that boldly uses such topics as pedophilia, race and terrorism to plead the need for forgiveness at a personal and national level.”
A major feat. Can anyone remember the last time Solondz got positive thumbs up reviews from the two mainstream trades? Forget negative reviews, 2004’s “Palindromes” was just basically overlooked and forgotten.
Herzog’s bizarro horror/serial killer film, “My Son My Son What Have Ye Done,” however has been met with a much less warmer reception. However, and this definitely a good thing, it seems like it will appeal to Herzog constituents. And honestly, we’re getting slightly tired of the trades leading off their reviews with whether the film has commercial prospects or not — it’s a Werner Herzog/David Lynch film for fuck’s sake, do you really think it’s going to light up the box-office like “Transformers 2?” How does commercial appeal even merit much consideration when reviewing indie niche films like this?
Nevertheless, Variety says: “Teeming with quirky references to Herzog’s oeuvre, ‘My Son’ will feel like familiar territory for the helmer’s fans, but that doesn’t make it a good film. Though fitfully fascinating, this account of a deranged matricide never gels and will struggle even harder than ‘Rescue Dawn’ to find an audience.”
However, this is certainly the best line in the review. “If My Son were an album it would be a concert of Herzog singing a collection of his reworked B-sides, live and slightly off-key.” Heh, that’s good stuff.
However, here’s two good reason to not just dismiss a film from one bad review (like Jeff Wells unfortunately just did with the one ‘My Son’ review out there so far).
THR, who are visibly struggling to keep up with the pace of Variety, however are all for the supposed wackiness of Herzog’s other film playing in Venice (despite the pan that Variety gave it). “Filled with unexpected turns and subversive humor, Werner Herzog’s “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans” is a jazzy, entertaining riff on the theme of a cop who spends too much time in a sewer of criminality and corruption.” They also say the film is a “far cry” from Abel Ferrara’s NC17 original starring Harvey Keitel, so that should probably kill any comparisons.
The Independent calls is ‘Lieutenant,’ “a chaotic clash of art-house sensibilities and cop movie clichés.”
Likewise, the first “The Road”‘ review out of the gate by Variety was thumbs down, but folks like The Independent and Glenn Kenny found much like us that it was bleak, but moving and deeply tragic.
Variety also gives a mediocre review to Giuseppe Tornatore’s (“Cinema Paradiso”) new picture, “Baaria,” calling it “overblown.” You would think both the trades would have more reports in so far, but to be fair, Venice only started three days ago so surely there’s more to come. IFC’s North American debut of the British TV’s “Red Riding” trilogy, directed by Juian Jarrold, James Marsh and Anand Tucker is seemingly getting really strong reviews too and we’ll have one from Telluride for you soon enough.
More reports should trickle in tonight and tomorrow including thoughts on Jason Reitman’s “Up In The Air” playing in Telluride tonight and Michael Moore’s “Capitalism: A Love Story” screening today (we believe) in Venice.