The Experiment 2010

The Experiment 2010

Two fantastic actors together in one small underground movie? With a supporting cast that includes Maggie Grace of Lost and the bad actor, pretty boy Cam Gigandet (Never Back Down)?  How could such a project not be good?  The rest is all bad news.  It was bad.  So bad that this review will be very short.  The Director was Paul Scheuring who worked on like 80 episodes of Prison Break and A Man Apart.  I can't fault the entire movie on him.  Technically it was an adequate, even if low budget, film.

Mostly the movie falls apart on the acting of Forest Whitaker.  Which is sad since I really loved him before this movie and the new Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior.  His role in Platoon (1986) or possibly one of the best examples of modern acting in his portrayal of Ida Amin in The Last King of Scotland in 2006.  He was totally abysmal as a nice, quiet man corrupted by power in the 'experiment' about prisons.  His side kicks are equally bad, most notable being Cam Gigandet.  He was truly awful.  Adrien Brody (Splice, The Brothers Bloom, and The Pianist) does a good job portraying a character that seems designed to be totally moronic, but even the wonderfully talented Brody can't overcome the rest of the cast.

I rarely dislike movies as utterly as I did The Experiment.  This is not my usual rant about a few points on an otherwise good film.  I am totally surprised by how bad it was.  I would not recommend this film to anyone but a die-hard Adrien Brody fan.  Now that is a quick review!

Brick 2005

Brick 2005

Along my recent splurge of the great missed movies of the last 10 years, I came across this absolute gem.  It stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt and once again the goofy kid from 3rd Rock from the Sun proves he is a serious actor.  Brick is a modern play at film-noir set in a sunny, bright Southern California high school.  It was written and directed by Rian Johnson and was made for under $500,000.

Rian Johnson drew heavily from pulp crime novels and film-noir to create Brick, but the setting and light hearted plays on the serious nature of its own dialogue sets this film apart from other neo-noir films and the 'hard-boiled' noir classics.  The film is set in a generic So-Cal suburban neighborhood, with most of the scenes shot at an equally unnamed high school.  The script uses film-noir dialogue and pacing with modern culture and high school references.  Classic noir terms like 'sap', 'pin' for kingpin, and 'bulls' for police, pepper the dialogue to the point where I kept forgetting what decade the story was residing in.  Usually such discontinuity and juxtaposition would pull the audience away from the experience, but the fast paced, witty Chinatown banter kept me drawn in and excited for the next conversation.

The limited effects and cinematography play out well considering the setting.  There are many rough transitions, especially in the action and chase scenes, but the overall camerawork by Steve Yedlin is solid.  It incorporates some simple camera tricks and framing to make for a few dynamic shots and flashback scenes.  The scenes shot at the mouth of the cement culvert look stellar in their absolute ordinariness.

  The costumes are another area where the film stands out.  In a modern setting most everyone is dressed in the standard of jeans and t-shirts, but a few of the characters stand out and play back to the noir roots.  The character of Laura, played by Nora Zehetner, has a distinctly 1920-30s style.  At times she looks like a high class lounge singer and other like a skanky flopper, but throughout the film the costume designer has her done up with feathers in her hair, brooches, furs, and a wonderful nostalgic flair.

The Pin, Lukas Haas, dresses up like the film-noir villian he plays and his right hand man's muscle car is a perfect character choice.  The last character costume of note is the drama queen/drug dealer Kara, a potentially cross-dressed play actress portrayed by the capable Meagan Good,  who has that flair for the dramatic that fits both the film-noir homage and the fashion of a modern drama student.

The acting throughout is intentionally flat and serious, another film-noir standard, but Joseph Gordon-Levitt carries his character Brendan through a journey of violence, death, and intrigue with his stoic and quick witted delivery of perfectly antiquated lines.  Nora Zehetner's character has a few floundering moments where her intentions are unclear, but this may have been part of the deliberate mystery surrounding her character.  The rest of the cast plays out their roles in the mystery with the flat lines and deep stares expected in any noir film, but the support characters are truly what keeps the story grounded back at a modern high school.  Particular nods go out to Noah Fleiss for playing the dumb muscle perfectly and to Matt O'Leary as 'The Brain' who is Brendan's researcher and sidekick.

The plot of the movie is a film-noir investigation into the death of Brendan's, Gordon-Levitt, ex-girlfriend who was bound up with some bad people due to her drug use.  The mystery of her death in tied to a missing 'brick' of drugs that has thrown the underworld of this suburban neighborhood into chaos.  High school parking lot brawls, emotional scenes set at the 50 yard line, and even a full-on gang war keep the story moving, but deep down this is all a murder-mystery and  Brendan is the classic detective.

Brick is one of the best movies I have seen in a long time.  I am a big fan of the film-noir and neo-noir genres, but this goes beyond being only a genre piece.  It has a unique setting which adds sharp humor to an otherwise serious genre and a mix of historical and modern jargon that I have rarely seen work so well.  I would highly recommend this movie to film-noir fans and to people looking for a witty mystery movie.

Manic 2001

Manic  2001

Recently I have been on a kick of watching a lot of indie and smaller films that have come out in the last 10 years.  Many of these I missed because I was in my 20s and entirely focused on being a expletive deleted, drinking, or trying my best to find an overly stuffed bosom to cram my head in.  Part of this kick brought me to a couple of films starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Manic (2001) and Brick (2005).  Brick will be reviewed soon, but I choose to order my chaotic mind chronologically so Manic is up first.  Manic was directed by
 Jordan Melamed and written by Micheal Bacall and Blayne Weaver.

First of all Manic has a solid cast of actors.  It stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt a face we know and love from his early work on the TV series 3rd Rock from the Sun.  More recently he has been in the hit Inception as well as rolls in movies I was not inspired by such as GI Joe and (500) Days of Summer.  This film from 2001 shows the earliest hints of his adult dramatic acting talents.  He plays the character Lyle Jensen, a teenager with severe anger issues and manic tendencies.  It is a serious and deep roll and he pulls it off brilliantly.

The rest of the cast is filled out with the award winning Don Cheadle and other recognizable faces like Elden Henson, Micheal Bacall and Zooey Deschanel.  The roles are exceptionally cast with Godron-Levitt and Deschanel pulling off teenagers with total believability.  The supporting roles look the part and turn in some great performances dealing the difficult subject matter of adolescent mental illness.

Don Cheadle plays Dr. David Monroe the councilor or therapist in charge of the juvenile psychiatric ward where Lyle is committed.  The character of Dr. Monroe is given some depth such as an addiction to smoking, but throughout most of the story he remains a foil to reflect the growth of Lyle.  Despite a limited role in depth, Dr. Monroe is given plenty of lines and on screen time.  Don Cheadle, as always, creates much more depth in the character than was written in the lines.  Cheadle's small acting choices add up throughout the film and culminate in a late movie outburst that is both jarring and moving.  Making Dr. Monroe the most memorable character in the film.

The plot revolves around Lyle, Gordon-Levitt, getting institutionalized after a violent fight where he seriously injured another boy.  Throughout his time in the juvenile psychiatric ward, Lyle's background and abuse are explored and he eventually learns valuable life lessons.  The story is one of exploration of abused adolescents and their resulting mental illnesses.  Lyle's father was abusive and violent, the exact problems that plague Lyle.  His love interest, Tracy played by Deschenal, was raped and Lyle's violence threatens to push her away.  Another character is obviously bi-polar and another appears to just suffer from deep depression due to her mother's indifference.

The plot progression is slow and lacking in serious curves or twists, but it remains interesting and moving.  The writing is sub par, but the acting saves the script.  The characters draw the audience in and helps them identify with the twin problems of being a teenager and suffering mentally illness.  The cinematography and technical aspects of the film are solid and show moments of creativity.  The most notable moment of genius is when the fourth wall is partially broken during a series of taped interviews culminating in a stellar moment by Don Cheadle.

Overall the movie is good with many of the short comings of lower budget films, but good acting and casting keeps the movie deep and engaging.  I would highly recommend this movie for teenagers and people who love dramatic character studies.