Grandfathers (orig. Abuelos) [2010]

Fr. Dennis (3 1/2 Stars)

IMDb listing -
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1815579/

Grandfathers (orig. Abuelos) written and directed by Ecuadorian film-maker Carla Valencia Dávila is a documentary that played recently at the 28th Chicago Latino Film Festival, about the filmmaker's two grandfathers: Remo, Ecuadorian and Juan, Chilean.  It makes for a compelling story.

Remo was a pharmacist, who in his 40s contracted a brain tumor.  Given little chance for survival, he decided to hit the books on his own and, experimenting on himself, he eventually came up with a pharmaceutical cocktail that defeated the tumor allowing him to live for decades more.  Indeed, Carla narrates that he was convinced that Carla and her generation could, in fact, through the various cocktails that he became adept at making, become immortal.   And he did come to have a rather extensive and international following.  People from all over the world, given no hope for survival would write him for help, and (according to the documentary) he did have his successes.  A good number of the people who wrote him came to be cured by the medicines that he sent them.

Juan on the other hand, was a political activist living in a desert provincial town in northern Chile where he had grown-up, working for Salvador Allende's coalition, the Unidad Popular, prior to the 1973 military coup led by Agusto Pinochet against Allende's government.  Shortly after the coup, Juan was arrested, taken to a notorious concentration camp in northern Chile and a month later was one of the first to be executed there.

How did  Carla Valencia Dávila's parents meet?  Well, this in itself becomes fascinating to a Westerner: they met in 1970 in Soviet Russia, both being Soviet sponsored foreign exchange students there.  They were still living in Moscow where Carla was born when the 1973 coup in Chile occurred, presumably returning eventually to Ecuador rather than Chile after their studies were finished.

Thus the film becomes a window in the life of the young Latin American Left of the late Cold War era (1970s-).  Playing some of the old Chilean left-wing LP-records that her father either brought with him to Moscow or bought there, Carla notes that on them were songs of a Chile that no longer exists.

For someone fascinated in both history and people, it all makes for a very fascinating film.


<< NOTE - Do you like what you've been reading here?  If you do then consider giving a small donation to this Blog (sugg. $6 _non-recurring_) _every so often_ to continue/further its operation.  To donate just CLICK HERE.  Thank you! :-) >>

100 Cuban "Sones" (orig. Los 100 Sones Cubanos) [2010]

Fr. Dennis (3 1/2 Stars)

IMDb listing -
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2355701/

100 Cuban "Sones" (orig. Los 100 Sones Cubanos) directed by Edesio Alejandro and Rubén Consuegra
is an excellent Spanish language-English subtitled documentary about the Cuban musical style called "Son," which played recently at the 28th Chicago Latino Film Festival and I do believe would enchant both music and history buffs. 

I first formally encountered this musical style through buying a number of musical anthologies, including Congo to Cuba and Putumayo Presents Cuba produced by the Putumayo World Music.  That company dedicates itself to "indroducing people to the music of the world's cultures."  I had been mourning my impending departure from a parish, St. Catherine of Siena in Kissimmee, FL that I deeply loved.  So I wished to buy a number of albums of music that I heard in and around the parish on a daily basis.  Actually, the parish was mostly Puertorican, Colombian and Haitian with also a fair number of Anglo-American retirees, mostly from the northeastern United States, rather than Cuban.  Cuban Americans tended remain centered in southeastern Florida / Miami.  However, that Putumayo title Congo to Cuba intrigued me and so I bought it and upon listening to it was hooked, soon purchasing besides Putumayo Presents Cuba, also Putomayo Presents Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Colombia and the French Caribbean. So I wept listening to these albums for a number of months after coming to Chicago, before discovering the Mexican-American station WLEY ("En Chicago manda La Ley ..." ;-), which of course plays a totally different style of music but then while I do like the rhythms in various styles of music, I mostly like the interplay of a song's rhythms with its lyrics.  As such, I've loved both Blues and Country music all my life.  And I've found that Cuban Son and Mexican Norteña music to have similarities to Blues and Country music respectively.

So when I found that there was going to be a documentary about Cuban Son music playing at the Chicago Latino Film Festival this year, I made sure to attend.

Okay, what is Son music?  According to both the documentary and the wikipedia article on Cuban Son, it is a style of music with African roots that originated in the mountains and countryside of far eastern Cuba and eventually made its way west to Santiago de Cuba and from there eventually to Havana and New York.  The instruments used in a Son ensemble often appear simple but combined produce, of course, a remarkable a rhythm and sound.

When I say that the instruments _appear simple_, I mean that among the instruments talked about in the documentary was, for instance, the role of the botija (a clay jug) played (blown into) like a bass wind instrument.  One would think that this, a clay jug after all, would be as simple an instrument as one could be.  Yet, the botija shown and discussed in the documentary was 300 years old and was originally made (from a particular mud) found only in Spain.  Rhe musician owning the botija in question talked of it with exactly the same fondness as the owner of  a Stradivarius violin.  Tapping its ceramic shell, he proudly told the interviewer: "You simply wouldn't be able to find or make a botija today that would make the same sounds as this one."  Remarkable and I do love it!

Remarkable also to Son and then to Latin music is that it can only be produced by an ensemble, again not necessarily by an ensemble playing rarified instruments (though the often humble instruments used are, as the botija, in their own ways special), but necessarily by an ensemble.  It's a style of music where the sum of the whole clearly exceeds the individual parts.

Thus it perhaps would not be surprising that the still-Communist regime in Cuba would happily allow the filmmakers access to make this documentary because Son music does, in fact, provide an example where community action (the ensemble) produces a result greater than that which would be possible by the individuals alone.   And the regime here would be right.  Is is always right?  Of course not!  (As plenty of Cuban-American refugees/immigrants in Miami, most of them Catholic would testify)  But here at least, when it comes to Latin music, they do have a point.

Anyway, I found the documentary to be remarkable and thought provoking.  One day, probably fairly soon, the Castro brothers will have gone to meet their Maker.  On the other hand, Cuba and its music and culture will go on.


<< NOTE - Do you like what you've been reading here?  If you do then consider giving a small donation to this Blog (sugg. $6 _non-recurring_) _every so often_ to continue/further its operation.  To donate just CLICK HERE.  Thank you! :-) >>

Captive Beauty (orig. Belleza Cautiva) [2011]

Fr. Dennis (3 1/2 Stars for concept/technical merit - 0-1 Star for fundamental morality/appropriateness)

IMDb listing -
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1329321/

Captive Beauty (orig. Belleza Cautiva) is a rather unsettling documentary directed by Jared Goodman about a beauty pageant held in recent years as a morale booster for the (female) inmates at a woman's prison named Buen Pastor in Mendellin, Colombia.

The explanation given for the very idea of holding a beauty pageant among the inmates of a woman's prison in Colombia was that beauty pageants are part and parcel of Colombian society: "There isn't a neighborhood event held in Colombia which does not include some kind of beauty pageant."   One of the female guards at the prison was taking modeling classes.  So the idea apparently came-up in prison staff discussion of holding a beauty pageant with women prisoners competing on behalf of their cell blocks and that it could serve as a moral booster for the prisoners themselves.  By appearances, it would seem that the prison staff was right, the women prisoners, even those not selected to represent the various cell blocks, did apparently "got into it."

If this begins to sound to you like a "somewhat distant cousin of The Hunger Games" actually playing out in reality, well ... I agree with you.  I found this film rather unsettling and on all kinds of levels.

First, the reader here would probably be surprised that six "beauty pageant worthy" contestants from the various cell blocks could be found at all.  (The contestants had been selected by the inmates from their respective cell blocks).

Second, as good looking as these prisoner "contestants" were, objectively, they REALLY DESERVED to be in prison.  In interviews with them, most of the women admitted that they understood why they were in jail often with sentences of many years.  At least one, however, maintained her innocence saying that she was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.  An interview with the American "Gringo" male that her group had kidnapped however would probably set most viewers straight.  He told the interviewer that she had been tossing a live hand grenade between her hands threatening him with blowing them both up, and that he had been completely convinced that she was going to waste him (along with herself and the others in her group) unless his friends came-up with whatever the ransom was.

Another one of the contestants had been kidnapped from her uncle's "finca" (farm) in the countryside by one of Colombia's left-wing guerrilla groups as a 14 year-old, and had spent years then fighting on behalf of the guerrillas before getting captured and then put in prison.  A third had been raped by a relative as a 10-12 year old, and that sent her on a violent path.  She started hanging-out with right-wing paramilitary groups saying that she liked their slogan "Death to Rapists."  In an interview with a sister of hers, the sister said that this woman must have killed at least 15 people before finally being arrested.  "She kept coming home with blood on her clothes."

So, if nothing else folks, the film reminds viewers that just because a young woman could be "really really good looking" doesn't mean that she's necessarily "kind" as well.  Like _anybody else_, until you get to know her, she really could end-up being ... evil, crazy or both. 

The "Death to Rapists" vigilante seemed to have found some peace in prison, having a prominent picture of Mary in her cell and (I believe) was shown going to Mass in the prison.  Still, one gets the idea above of the true reality of these people's past crimes.  And aside from the one American interviewed, one can only imagine what the victims of these women's crimes would have thought upon finding reference to them in the news of competing in a prison beauty pageant, this because the pageant made and was apparently followed avidly by Colombia's tabloid television press at the time.

Now don't get me wrong, I do wish that prisons were kept in greater order so that prisoners would only be punished through time served rather than through the near constant threat of prison violence / rape (which often makes prison time a tragically disproportionate sentence for the crime committed).

But I do find it quite disturbing to find prisoners or ex-cons made into arguably heroes (as in the gang intervention documentary The Interrupters [2011] filmed in all places, my current Chicago, IL) or into quasi-celebrities (as in the case here).

Yes, I do believe in forgiveness and redemption. The case of St. John of God (on whom Robert DeNiro's role in The Mission [1986] was probably based) offers a great example of this.  Yet, I do believe that an ex-con / redeemed sinner ought to go about one's redeemed life _modestly_ and thus certainly out of the lime-light.

So as strange and arguably fascinating as the concept of this film was, I can't help but think that it's just a step or two from the "reality TV" horror condemned recently in the fictionalized Hunger Games.  Still, exactly like a train-wreck, the film is certainly provocative even as it is disconcerting.


<< NOTE - Do you like what you've been reading here?  If you do then consider giving a small donation to this Blog (sugg. $6 _non-recurring_) _every so often_ to continue/further its operation.  To donate just CLICK HERE.  Thank you! :-) >>

The Craft (orig. Riscado) [2010]

Fr. Dennis (4 Stars)

IMDb listing -
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1667333/
AdoroCinema listing -
http://www.adorocinema.com/filmes/filme-202595/

The Craft (orig. Riscado) directed and cowritten by Gustavo Pizzi along with Karine Telez (who plays the film's leading role) is a well-written, well-acted, well-crafted small budget film from Brazil which played recently at the 28th Annual Chicago Latino Film Festival.  It's about Bianca (played by Karine Telez) a young actress right at the edge of becoming "not so young anymore" still trying to find her big break in contemporary Rio de Janeiro.

Thus anyone who's ever been a "struggling actor/actress" (or known one or two) could probably relate to this story quite well.  A foreign viewer (like myself) gets the added bonus of watching this story play out with the amidst the particular color and rhythms of Rio one of the most storied/enchanting cities in the world.

As a struggling actress, Bianca gets her odd jobs/gigs -- as a costumed/singing balloon delivery person that any non-descript Rio office staff would call to "surprise" a boss or co-worker on a significant birthday or anniversary (just like any non-descript office staff would do pretty much anywhere); as part of a "zombie" troupe run by two-bit "agent" (hey, at least he's not an outright pimp ...) Mauricio (played by Camilo Pellegrini) plugging random clubs or catering at random "zombie themed dinners" across Rio de Janeiro; singing in full 18-19th century colonial dress complete with "parasol in hand" backed-up by samba band playing behind her ... all standing in front of a new _neighborhood_ beauty salon whose owner apparently wanted to "open with splash" ;-).  Again, anyone who's ever known (or been) a struggling actor/actress could probably relate.

Indeed, the inevitable scene where Bianca is (once again...) finding herself paying her landlady only 1/2 the rent is certainly priceless.  The good natured landlady, takes the money and is presumably willing to 'wait for the rest,' but not without the inevitable lecture.  So she tells Bianca: "You know, when you're young it's good to dream.  In fact, you have to dream.  But then you have to wake-up ..." ;-) ;-)  How can one _not_ like a movie so well written and acted as this? ;-)

But Bianca does appear to stumble into a break.  At a seemingly random audition, like so many before, after going through the requisite posing in front of the camera (turn left, now turn right ...), she's asked by the film's production assistant (the audition is considered by the director so run-of-the-mill at this point, that he leaves the initial interviewing to his production assistant) to perform to those present "something from her life."  Others, ahead of her said a few words, perhaps tried to sing, etc.  Bianca, asks the production assistant "for a prop," specifically for a lighter.  With the lighter in hand, she flicks it on, and still with perhaps a thick Brazilian accent sings Marylin Monroe's famous "Happy Birthday, Mr. President."  The production assistant is floored.  "Where'd you learn to do this?"  "Well, I deliver balloons to a lot of middle aged bosses in the offices outside ..."  It turns out that the audition was for someone to play a now-famous Brazilian actress (who's since moved to France) "in her early years."

A few days later, she gets a call from the director, who's similarly impressed with her.  So a few days after that, Bianca is able to return her red stained "zombie dress" to Mauricio ... Things are looking up for Bianca, but do they remain there?  Well ... go see the movie! ;-)

Movie buffs will already probably guess that this film has a definite Felini [IMDb] (La Strada [1954] / Nights of Cabiria [1957]) feel to it, the more so since like Federico Fellini [IMDb] and Giulietta Masina [IMDb], the star of those films, the director here, Pizzi, and the star, Telez, are husband and wife.  I would also add that there is a gentleness to this film reminiscent of the famed Brazilian film Central Station (orig. Central do Brasil) [1998].  Then the cinematography and editing of this film is a joy, as various (and appropriate) portions of the film are filmed using (1) standard contemporary contemporary recording equipment, (2) grainy "super 8" style film, and (3) using what one would suspect to be a cell phone.

Thus the film is both simple yet universal in theme, clearly inspired by the film-making of World Cinema's greats of the past yet executed in a thoroughly contemporary/modern way, making for a truly excellent film.

A final note: There is no nudity (or violence, drug use, etc for that matter) in this film at all, nothing that could concern a parent, even if I would not necessarily recommend it for kids as I doubt that they would "get it" yet.   However, I do believe it to be a great, well executed film with a story that anyone of young adult age and above could appreciate.


<< NOTE - Do you like what you've been reading here?  If you do then consider giving a small donation to this Blog (sugg. $6 _non-recurring_) _every so often_ to continue/further its operation.  To donate just CLICK HERE.  Thank you! :-) >>

Third World (orig. Tercer Mundo) [2009]

Fr. Dennis (3 Stars)

IMDb listing

Third World (orig. Tercer Mundo) is a low-budget indie style "sci-fi" film directed by Chilean-born, Cuban-educated Cesar Caro Cruz that played recently at the 28th Chicago Latino Film Festival.  As an "indie-style sci-fi film," stylistically it has similarities with critically well received North American indie films Another Earth [2011] and The Future [2011].  Yet since it takes place in three different locations in Latin America -- in Bolivia, Chile and Costa Rica -- it also has similarities to the much higher budget Hollywood produced Babel [2006] which involved three simple stories involving ordinary people occurring on three different continents, yet stories which interlocked in various ways.  Yet, though stylistically similar to the first two films and perhaps influenced by the third, Third World (orig. Tercer Mundo) is a story emphatically told from a Latin American and then "feet on the ground" Latin American perspective.

What do I mean?  First, the film is based in both pre-Columbian Latin American history and contemporary Latin American pop-culture.

In one of the three concurrent stories taking place at the outskirts of La Paz, Bolivia, the abuelo/grandfather Jesús (played by Hugo del Pozo) of 20-something Amaya (played by Carmen Tito) is very proud of / well versed in his Aymara heritage.  Showing a picture of a Bolivian rock-painting (according to the film) from 600 B.C. portraying someone who looks almost exactly like a contemporary astronaut, he takes it for granted that the Andean peoples had been visited by extra-terrestrials millennia ago.  Indeed, he appears rather proud of the implication - that extra-terrestrials would have found the peoples of the Andes/pre-Columbian Americas worthy of visitation.  That's the "pre-Columbian historical" aspect of the equation.

Then there's the Latin American pop-cultural aspect: when I was first sent by my Order to Mexico in 1999 to learn Spanish, I found it jaw-droppingly stunning when in the course of one of day's lessons my teacher told me that recent polls indicated that some 80% of Mexico's population believed in UFOs.  Apparently there had been some widely publicized sitings of plasma ball UFOs (ovnis in Spanish) around the famous Iztaccihuatl and Popocatepetl volcanos outside of Mexico City (YouTube) and ever since Mexican public opinion has been hooked.  (Remember, Mexico is another country with an enormously rich history of pre-Columbian civilization and that the image on the sarcophagus of one of the Mayan rulers, Pacal, buried in neighboring Guatamala could be interpreted as if he was flying a spaceship).  All this is to say that Latin America, particularly the parts of which with heritages of advanced pre-Columbian civilizations, offers fertile ground for _indigenous_ sci-fi speculation.  

However, there is a second, far more "hardnosed" / "feet on the ground" / "down to earth" aspect to this film because it does challenge the viewer to ask:  From the point of view of someone living in what's called (often derisively) "The Third World," would not visitors from "The First World," ("Gringos") seem like  "extra-terrestrials?"  That's the hard-edge of the movie.  Remember here that this movie was made by a director from Chile but one who got his film-school education in Cuba, hence someone who would not be particularly afraid to force that question of whether a "Gringo" would seem to someone from the Third World to be something of an "extra-terrestrial" (not of this/their world).

All three the stories in this film carry that hard-nosed edge:  Richi (played by Luis Miguel Sanchez) a young, hardworking auto-mechanic is dumped by his girlfriend Anita (played by Carolina Bello May) for a "Gringo" named Arnold.  The angry, crest-fallen, jilted Richi keeps calling him "Schwarzenegger" even though Arnold doesn't look anything like Arnold Schwarzenegger.  Instead, he appears to be simply a reasonably amiable American "surfer-dude" who came down to Costa Rica meeting Anita on the beach one day.  When Richi asks Anita why she dumped him for Arnold even though he had been working his butt-off in that garage to hopefully build a good life for the two of them, she tells him quite sincerely: "I know that you're a good hardworking guy, but you're also a bit boring."  To make himself "more exciting"/"less predictable" therefore, Richi decides to go to a Costa Rican lake with his much lazier friend (and "onvi"/UFO buff) to see if they could spot one of those "onvis"/"UFOs" during a passing solar eclipse.  

Then while Amaya's grandfather would like to teach Amaya all sorts of things about the ways of their ancestors, for most of the film, Amaya's just interested in finally discovering who her actual father was.  Eventually, she's told by her mother that he was a Costa Rican tourist who had passed through some 23-24 years ago.  To Amaya he might as well have been from Mars...

Finally, soft-spoken Chilean pilot Juan (played by Juan Pablo Garuti) is training to be an astronaut and told that he'll be "the only Latin American" on a particular NASA space mission.  He's told by his Chilean commanders that he'll both be representing all of Latin America as a result AND since it's NOT necessarily "a go" yet with regards to the mission THAT HE CAN'T TELL ANYONE that he's going to be on this mission.  The poor guy is lonely and, as a technician, kind of a nerd.  Between the dual weights of the responsibility and the secrecy that his mission entails, he simply has no idea what to tell the cute and similarly shy Paloma (played by Bibiana Alvarez) at the Santiago, Chile coffee-bar/tabacco-stand who he's desperately trying to impress.  Finally, he tells her "I can't tell you much, but one day soon you'll see me on TV." (Oh boy, what girl would want to hear that?  Is he gonna turn out to be a mass murderer or something...?)  But yes, she does come to see him "on TV."  It's just that by that time, he's in Space, having been launched presumably from Cape Canaveral in North America, thousands of miles from Santiago, Chile ...

So do we become our own "space aliens" to each other?  A simple but fascinating movie ;-)


<< NOTE - Do you like what you've been reading here?  If you do then consider giving a small donation to this Blog (sugg. $6 _non-recurring_) _every so often_ to continue/further its operation.  To donate just CLICK HERE.  Thank you! :-) >>

The Cabin in the Woods [2011]

MPAA (R)  CNS/USCCB (O)  Roger Ebert (3 Stars)  Fr. Dennis (3 Stars)

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB review
Roger Ebert's review

By most accounts, The Cabin in the Woods (directed and cowritten by Drew Goddard along with Joss Whedon) is more than your average mad-slasher film released on a Friday the 13th a date, which along with Halloween offers Hollywood producers ready-made opportunity to release a new "scary movie" (or a spoof of one) each time it comes around.  Indeed, all three -- Friday the 13th [IMDb], Halloween [IMDb] and Scary Movie [IMDb] -- have spawned entire series of films built around their names.

So what could possibly make The Cabin in the Woods different?  Well, quite literally (and quite honestly IMHO rather disturbingly) it "digs deeper."

On the surface, The Cabin in the Woods is yet another film about a group of obnoxious and quite stereotypically cast college students going out into the woods for a weekend (the original Friday the 13th [1980] arguably established that formula).  In this case, the requisite ensemble is composed of:

Jules (played by Anna Hutchinson) plays "the popular girl" usually because she's both good looking and portrayed as being sexually promiscuous, hence often identified as "The Slut" by followers of these films and is one who generally "gets what is coming to her" by getting killed usually quite early in the film and in a particularly awful way;

Curt (played by Chris Hemsworth), plays the "popular guy," usually the boyfriend of the "popular girl," generally identified as "The Jock," in these films.  He doesn't do much better than the "popular girl," again usually getting killed quite early in the film though generally after the popular girl.

Dana (played by Kristen Connolly), plays the quieter "good girl" in the film.  Sometimes as in this film, she's simply a quieter friend of the of the "popular girl," sometimes she's even presented as something of an "outcast" from the "popular group."  In any case, she's usually quite quickly identified by viewers as the film's "Virgin."

Around "The Virgin," there's usually a sensitive guy, in this case named Holden (played by Jesse Williams) who's something of an "angelic figure," but often (in these films) does not prove completely capable of protecting "The Virgin," from whatever evil menace is at hand.  In the end, it's generally left to "The Virgin," yes, sometimes even using her foot as in Genesis 3:15, to fend off the "Monster" who killed the rest of the ensemble.  (Think of the original Terminator [1984] where Sarah (Biblical name) mother of the future Savior of the World, in the film named John Conner (initials J.C.) defeats the Terminator (a product of human arrogance, that is, sin, every bit as scary as the Dragon of the 12th Chapter of the Book of Revelation) by kick-starting a hydraulic press that crushes his head.  Alternatively, in the more recent Shark Night [2011], Sara (again a variant on the Biblical name) initially fends off her first boyfriend/turned archfiend (though IMHO tragically named "Dennis" ;-) by pushing his head into a propeller blade of a motor boat even as he tries to drown her (apparently because she was going to leave him to go to college). 

More recently, a fifth character has started to take a more important role in the ensemble (in the past simply relegated to the second tier).  This character in this movie named Marty (and played by Fran Kranz) is "the Fool."  Previously, he played "comic relief" in these pictures.  Yet, typical of Court Jesters appearing in countless comedies over the centuries, though utterly marginalized (and in these slasher flicks, generally portrayed as perpetually drunk or stoned) he's the one "who's figured it out."  Emblematically, the perpetually stoned "Shorty Meeks" (played by Marlon Wayans) in the first Scary Movie [2000] is so stoned that at one point he declares to the others "I see dead people!" (no doubt in reference to the famous mystery/horror film The Sixth Sense [1999] released a year earlier, but being "so stoned" all the time "who knows? ;-).   Marty, though perpetually stoned and hence largely discounted by even the other characters in the film (and certainly a source of some irritation to people in my "line of work" and the good folks who write CNS/USCCB's reviews) comes to play a rather significant role in this film.

And Marty comes to play a rather significant role in this film because though the stock characters are all present, "things are not what they seem."  Indeed, we learn from very early on that though those 5 characters are going to that Cabin in the Woods for the weekend ... actually everything's being manipulated by a GIGANTIC laboratory underground; that is, the "5 kids" are being setup.

Why are those "kids" being setup and by whom?  Well that's the rest of the movie ... ;-) and open to multiple, indeed multiple levels of interpretations, and Marty the marginalized "stoner" is really the only one of the characters in the film who at least partially figures it out.

The CNS/USCCB (and myself honestly) don't particularly like that the "stoner" is being shown here as something of a wisdom figure.  And I would emphatically say here that drugs definitely don't give anyone "added wisdom" (So young people,. please don't go that way.  A brother of a friend of mine from the seminary completely fried his brains on drugs, destroying his life and making him a ward of his parents until they eventually die.  Do you want to end up like that...?).

Yet all this being true, however, if one takes the symbol of "stoner" to represent someone "marginalized," then I'd certainly be willing to buy that kind of interpretation, as often those on the edges see more clearly than those in the "center of things" / "in charge."  That's why both the Church and, indeed, humanity truly need everybody, and not just those near the center / "at the top."  The Prophets in the Bible, for instance, almost always came from the edges of God's people.

Very good, analyzing the movie further would require revealing various important plot twists, so I'm issuing a SPOILER ALERT with regards to EVERYTHING ELSE that follows below:

Another aspect that I find irritating in this movie is that the film-makers call the "Ancient Beings" that need to be appeased by the sacrifice of young people (like those going to "The Cabin in the Woods" in this film), "Gods" even if they're portrayed as living underground and presumably below the already subterranean laboratory, still staffed still by human beings, notably by scientists Sitterson (played by Richard Jenkins) and Hadley (played by Bradley Whitford).  Indeed, during the course of the film, the two muse "how much easier it would have been," when one could "just push a Virgin into a Volcano" to appease "the Gods."  Now, in the United States anyway, the "Bloodlust of the Gods" could only be satisfied by elaborate scenarios being played out like that of the 5 college kids going to that cabin only to find themselves being almost ritually murdered.

So a question could be asked: Who are these subterranean "Gods?"  In Christian theology, we'd call them Demons rather than "Gods."  But are "the Gods" us?  Or "shadowy demons" that inhabit our subconscious?  Do we go to movies like The Cabin in the Woods to placate our blood lust?

The film therefore becomes very interesting, if increasingly chaotic/bloody.  It's like Friday the 13th [1980] meets The Matrix [1999], From Dusk till Dawn [1996], and even Don't Be Afraid of the Dark [2011] and most recently The Hunger Games [2012].

And it does ask the disturbing question of whether films like these placate the shadowy desires within us or actually exacerbate them.  Do films like this encourage the production of a "downward spiral" of increasingly violent (or hedonistic) films?  Or do they actually help placate these desires and help keep people from acting out.

I do remember that one of my reactions to the film Mamma Mia! [2008] (which came out before I started writing this blog) was that even though its morality was quite awful -- after all it's about a young woman seeking to finally to find out which of three possible fathers was her own -- this very "European" film based music of the group ABBA (YouTube) which came from Sweden traditionally notorious for its (both climatictic and relational) iciness was actually "so much better than Hitler!" ;-) 

I also remember that during my seminary years, most of which I spent in Italy, I could not help but experience the Italians as basically a happy people that ate, drank, and well, often, played "at the edges of proper sexual morality."  In contrast, the English, particularly in the days of Queen Victoria, didn't drink, didn't smoke, and at least outwardly were very restrained sexually.  As such, what was left to them?  Conquer the world.  Now apply this to the Germans, who were even more strict on each other and the "goosestepping Nazis" (and, more positively, the modern psychology which was born in the German speaking world) become virtually inevitable.

So The Cabin in the Woods is a disturbing film on a number of levels.

PARENTS, the film's R-rating is certainly deserved for its blood and mayhem (and initial sexual promiscuity).

On the other hand, college-aged young adults -- I do think there's a whole bunch of things to ponder and reflect on.  And I do think that this would be valuable because The Cabin in the Woods is far more like The Matrix [1999] than the simple (and mindless) Friday the 13th [1980].

The Three Stooges [2012]

MPAA (PG)  CNS/USCCB (L)  Roger Ebert (2 1/2 Stars)  Fr. Dennis (3 1/2 Stars)

IMDb Listing -
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0383010/
CNS/USCCB Review -
http://www.catholicnews.com/data/movies/12mv044.htm
Roger Ebert's Review -
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120411/REVIEWS/120419999

Okay, I honestly didn't expect The Three Stooges [2012] (screenplay by Mike Cerrone along with Bobby and Peter Farrelly who directed the film) a contemporary reboot of the beloved and wildly popular (to this day!) Three Stooges of Hollywood's b&w silver-screen era to work. I did not.  I wondered why makers of the would want to risk making it.  After all, I would have bet it would have ended-up as a disaster.  And who knows, it still may end-up being a financial disaster.  HOWEVER, about 10-15 minutes into the film, shaking my head with surprise, I, a lifelong Three Stooges fan became convinced that Mike Cerrone and the Farrelly brothers were actually going to pull this thing off.

This probably shouldn't be all that surprising given that both Mike Cerrone and the Farrelly brothers had written films for comedic actors of our time like Jim Carrey and Jack Black.  And whatever else one may think of those two actors, those of us who grew-up watching reruns of The Three Stooges (YouTube) / Abbott and Costello (YouTube) / Marx Brothers (YouTube) on daytime local TV and would have seen a Jim Carrey / Jack Black movie or two would probably imagine that these writers would have been Three Stooges (YouTube) fans when they were young as well and therefore could probably do The Three Stooges some justice today.  What continues to surprise me is the amount of justice that the writers and also honestly the three actors playing Larry (Sean Hayes), Curly (Will Sasso) and Moe (Chris Diamantopoulos) were able to give the originals.  My hat off to them all.

So what's the film about?  Well among other things, the film seeks to explain the origins of the three characters.  Taking a page from The Blues Brothers [1980] (which used the same device to explain the origins of Jake and Elwood Blues), the Three Stooges are presented as having grown-up in an orphanage. The three are shown being tossed to the doorstep of the orphanage as infants, all three packed in a single duffle-bag, from a speeding car.  From the beginning, they prove to be a "problem" to the nuns, yet loveable enough that the nuns can never bring themselves to just give-up on them completely. Mother Superior is played by Jane Lynch.  Other nuns in the story include Sister Rosemary (played by Jennifer Hudson), Sister Bernice (played by Kate Upton) and the would be sadistic but in face of the Stooges, hapless, Sister Mary-Mangele is played by Larry David ;-).

Much of course happens.  The main situation that both the nuns and the Stooges find themselves facing is that the Orphanage finds itself in dire financial straits: the nuns have to raise $830,000 in a month's time or the Orphanage will have to close and the Orphans would have to be farmed out "foster families," something that at least one of the orphans declares would be "unbearable" as she didn't want to be sent to a family "that would be paid to love [her]."  (An interesting take on the current foster care system...).

The Three Stooges, adults now, offer to "save the day" by going "out into the world" to find/earn the $830,000 in a month's time.  The nuns are "conflicted" in letting them do this.  After all, this would be the first time that the three actually left the Orphanage on their own.  On the other hand, the nuns were desperate, and truth be told if there was a third hand, they'd also finally be able to get rid of them.  So all in all, while "conflicted," the nuns are actually kinda happy to let them go.

Well, how does one make $830,000 in a month's time if one has no discernible skills?  Well, holding-up a sign saying "Will wirk for $830,000" doesn't exactly attract a lot of takers ;-) ... except if you're a gold-digging wife (played by Sofia Vergara, I'm starting to "get her" and like her choices in roles ;-) trying to hire someone to knock-off her husband ... So again much ensues ...

Finally, Snooki from MTV's reality television series The Jersey Shore [IMDb] has already been featured in the trailer to the film.  So it's not really giving much away to say that, she/her character has a significant role in how the film turns out.

It all, of course, "ends well," and like these Hollywood Vaudeville acts of the 1920s-50s in the midst of the jokes, slapstick (and in anything associated with The Three Stooges, there's certainly going to be a lot of slapstick ;-) and general goofiness of the film, there's actually a fair amount of social commentary.

After all, what the nuns have to do to save the Orphanage ... So it's funny, nyuk, nyuk and all that ... but the film has more to say than just that.  

Would I recommend the film?  Sure.  There is exactly one shot showing the young Sr. Bernice in a tight black designer bathing suit (and a veil) serving "as a life guard" for the orphans after the nuns "come into some money' at the end.  Yes, that may offend some Catholics at first glance.  But, perhaps with caution (I do understand) please let it go.  She's serving as a lifeguard in the scene and it is a generally goofy movie.  I do believe that MPAA got this movie right.  It is appropriately rated PG (Parental Guidance Suggested).  Now go to the movie, buy some popcorn and enjoy it with the kids ;-)


ADDENDUM -

A "reboot" film like this, gives viewers an opportunity to come home and look-up all kinds of comedic acts from that bygone era which are truly worthy of "looking-up" from Charlie Chaplin (YouTube), to Laurel and Hardy (YouTube) to the Marx Brothers (YouTube) to Abbott and Costello (YouTube).

All these acts are fun and many of them are available not merely in clips on YouTube but also are rentable through NetFlix.

Neither was this kind of humor simply an "American affair."  All three of the countries that I know most about, produced their home grown acts as well.  The Italians produced Toto and Peppino de Filippo (YouTube).  In Mexico, the "little guy" Cantinflas (YouTube) found himself perpetually in trouble "with the law," even as he often outsmarted it.  And even Vlasta Burian (YouTube) enchanted Czech audiences with the same/similar style humor of the era.

Still, when it came to slapstick comedy The Three Stooges (YouTube) remained probably in a league all their own (YouTube) ;-).


<< NOTE - Do you like what you've been reading here?  If you do then consider giving a small donation to this Blog (sugg. $6 _non-recurring_) _every so often_ to continue/further its operation.  To donate just CLICK HERE.  Thank you! :-) >>