Water For Elephants

Posted on April 22, 2011 at 10:02 am

Lowest Recommended Age:	High School
MPAA Rating:	Rated PG-13 for moments of intense violence and sexual content
Profanity:	Some strong language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Drinking, smoking
Violence/ Scariness:	Some peril and violence, sad deaths
Diversity Issues:	Diverse characters
Date Released to Theaters:	April 22, 2011
Date Released to DVD:	2011
Amazon.com ASIN:	B0041KKYHE

According to the ringmaster of the Benzini Brothers Traveling Circus, “a circus survives on blood, sweat, pain and .” In “Water for Elephants” we experience all of these, along with romance, danger, laughter and even a little bit of poetry. This ambitious, colorful story of the travels of a second rate depression era circus is filled with metaphors about life and love—some more successful than others—but it is consistently engaging and a treat for the eyes.

Jacob Jankowski (“Twilight” idol Robert Pattinson) is a young veterinary student on the verge of graduating from Cornell when his world is suddenly turned upside down. Jacob was never wildly enthusiastic about his plans to join his father’s small town veterinary practice but when his parents are killed in a car crash and all of their material possessions are seized by the bank, Jacob ends up with no money, no job, no food, and no place to live, so he sets off on foot down the road.

Tired of walking one night, he abandons his suitcase containing his last few possessions from his old life and jumps a passing freight train. What seems like an anonymous gray train in the dark turns out to be a tumble through the looking glass. As Jacob makes his way through the length of the train, we encounter the different surrealistic worlds of the circus. There is the noisy clown car with its jostling, slap-happy world, the car carrying all the coochie dancers reaches out to him like the sirens reached out to Odysseus (As he makes his way through their car, one of them envelops him in her arms, cooing “I saw you during my act. Want a ride?”). The roustabouts live a grim, desperate life in sparse cars with none of the glamor and glitter of the other cars. Before Jacob joins the roustabouts, one grizzled old timer warns him, “If you have any kind of life to go back to, that’s what you should do.” At the end of the journey is the jewel in the crown, the luxurious train car reserved for ringmaster August Rosenblum (Christoph Waltz of “Inglourious Basterds“) and his beautiful wife (and star attraction) Marlena (Reese Witherspoon).

The Benzini Brothers circus is always on the verge of bankruptcy and as they make their way from town to town they encounter the remains of other small circuses who have died by the side of the road, and whose carcasses are being scavenged for props and talents by the survivors. From one of these failed circuses August purchases a beautiful speckled elephant named Rosie. He acknowledges he won’t be able to pay the men for two weeks but he hopes that Rosie will bring in enough “rubes” so that the circus will be able to survive a while longer.

The care, feeding and training of Rosie becomes a battle of wills between the cruel, pragmatic August and the idealistic, empathetic Jacob. The battle expands to include a struggle for the affections of the beautiful Marlena and the treatment of the roustabouts, climaxing in “The Great Circus Disaster of 1931.”

This film has some visually gorgeous moments, such as the scene with Jacob and August sitting on top of the moving train under the starlit sky talking about life as the beautiful countryside winds by, or the scene with the beautiful and petite Marlena tending to the immense Rosie by lantern light. Like the circus itself, these moments illuminate the poetic grace around us.

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Dumbstruck

Posted on April 21, 2011 at 6:00 pm

B+

Lowest Recommended Age:	4th - 6th Grades
MPAA Rating:	Rated PG for brief suggestive humor
Profanity:	None
Alcohol/ Drugs:	References to substance abuse

Once a year, there is a gathering in Kentucky for people who “talk to themselves and play with dolls for a living” — ventriloquists. “Dumbstruck” is a documentary from Lindsay and Mark Goffman that follows five of them for the year between two of these Vent Haven ConVENTions in what turned out to be the biggest year in history for the tiny little community. One of its members unexpectedly hit the biggest of the big time when Terry Fator went from performing at county fairs to a $100 million headliner contract in Las Vegas after he won “America’s Got Talent.”

For an enduringly popular style of performance, there’s a lot of hating on ventriloquists. Many people think of them as corny or annoying, just above mimes or strange, like the murderous ventriloquist characters played by Anthony Hopkins in “Magic” or Michael Redgrave in “Dead of Night.” When Fator walked on stage for the first time in “America’s Got Talent,” judge David Hasselhoff said, “Oh, no, a ventriloquist.”

But it is impossible not to fall in love with the characters in this film — the human ones, anyway — because it is more than an act from someone who might have just as easily chosen juggling. It is clear that these people become ventriloquists because they have things to say that they just do not feel comfortable saying any other way. I used to think that the reason ventriloquists argued with their characters was to enhance the audience’s perception that the puppet was a real character. But this movie makes it clear that the relationship — and that is truly the word that applies — between the person and the puppet is far deeper and more complex and intriguing, and the passion it requires is profoundly moving. All of us adopt personas for different situations; they just make it more explicit. The art is less about whether the lips move or the voice sounds different than it is about the ability to take a portion of what is inside them and create a complete character from it. After all, the most successful American ventriloquist of the 20th century, Edgar Bergen, performed on the radio.

This film has a former beauty queen, Kim Yeager, whose mother wistfully dreams that her daughter will give up ventriloquism and live a normal life. But Yeager is wholeheartedly committed, performing more than 400 shows in a year, many of them safety demonstrations for schoolchildren. In one of the movie’s most intriguing scenes, she gets some advice from a consultant on her act and ends up completely re-thinking her main character. Then there’s Dan Horn, who was at what used to be considered the height of success for a ventriloquist. He spends most of his time on the lucrative cruise ship bookings. But the long separations are very hard on him and his family. We learn about Wilma Swartz from her nephew, who tells us that the rest of the family has abandoned her but that he is loyal to her because of her kindness to him when he had no one else. She is 6 feet 5 inches tall and one of her puppets is a life-size ostrich. And when she needs help, she finds that the ventriloquist community stands by her. Dylan Burdette is a white middle-schooler from rural Kentucky whose mystified parents are trying to understand why he wants to be a ventriloquist and why he insists on a dummy who is a black “pimp.” And there is Terry Fator, who as this movie was being filmed, became a superstar. He returns to Vent Haven as a homecoming hero, and the Goffmans show great sensitivity and understanding in portraying the mingled emotions of his fellow puppeteers as they share his triumph and wish some of it would rub off on them.

The Goffmans have a lot of affection for their characters, and by the end of the film, you will, too.

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For Easter: The Gospel According to St. Matthew and more

Posted on April 21, 2011 at 3:59 pm

Reposting for Easter — Have a blessed celebration, everyone!

Ben-Hur is the traditional Easter classic, but there are some other films that beautifully illuminate the themes of this holy season. I like The Gospel of John, a very reverent re-telling of the story of Jesus. The rock musicals Jesus Christ Superstar and Godspell can be very inspiring. But I have a special fondness for The Gospel According to St. Matthew, the understated, intimate re-telling of the story filmed by Pier Paolo Pasolini.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7DnjPrpc4E

For kids, the Veggie Tales have the delightful ‘Twas the Night Before Easter. And while it does not have much to do with Easter beyond the title song, Fred Astaire and Judy Garland make “Easter Parade” a family classic everyone will enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q77wqDDUDsc

List: Earth Day Movies

Posted on April 21, 2011 at 2:00 pm

In addition to previously recommended Earth Day movies, take a look at these gorgeous documentaries about the creatures with whom we share this great planet:

1. March of the Penguins This worldwide sensation takes us to Antarctica, where these elegant birds triumph over brutal cold to protect their fragile eggs and tender chicks.

2. Meerkat Manor The ultimate reality show, this meerkat community has avid followers who mourned the passing of matriarch Flower.

3. Winged Migration Soar with the birds in this breathtaking film.

4. Microcosmos The tiny creatures of the insect world are explored in mesmerizing close-up.

5. Growing Up Wild, Vol. 1: Amazing Baby Animals Even the littlest children will be captivated by these adorable baby animals.

Jennifer Merin has a great list of Earth Day documentaries, too.

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Documentary Environment/Green Lists

Interview: Morgan Spurlock of POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold

Posted on April 21, 2011 at 8:00 am

Morgan Spurlock took on fast food in “Super Size Me.” He was funny, direct, and at times outraged as he tried to live for a month on McDonald’s “supersize” portions, and I liked his even-handedness in taking on the consumers as well as the providers, calling on us to take responsibility for ourselves. His television series, “30 Days,” had people (including Spurlock himself) immersing themselves for a month in a culture outside their comfort zones. Again, despite tone that seemed highly satiric at times, the show was about the middle, the gray areas, the nuances. His new film is called “POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold.” Yes, he made a movie about product placement that is entirely financed by product placement.

Spurlock spoke to me about the movie.

You were right! At the screening you said that everyone there would never look at the world the same way again. We walked out of the theater and the first thing I saw was a banner on a building I had never noticed before.

And it’s going to get worse — and better at the same time!

Advertising is everywhere. Amazon has just discounted the Kindle for customers who are willing to look at ads.

And it’s such a small discount! Shouldn’t it be free if they’re going to send you ads?

I think the most disturbing thing in the movie is the school selling advertising to raise money. It’s especially sad that it is such a small amount of money and yet they can’t get it any other way.

It’s incredible. School districts are getting literally five to seven thousand dollars a year and in exchange they are letting all this advertising in.

What kind of impact does that have on kids? Does it desensitize them or do they stay susceptible to being drawn into the brands that are put in front of them?

That’s what the jury’s out on. There’s multiple layers to that one. You start to believe that these products and these brands are the ones that make things happen. They’re the ones you should trust, the ones that have solutions. That’s the question I have all the time, do we really want to live in a world where everything’s brought to you by some sponsor? That’s the way it seems to be going.

That’s right. Even at the Smithsonian, the flag that inspired “The Star Spangled Banner” is now brought to you by Ralph Lauren. Is POM happy with the results from paying to have their name in the title of the film?

Everybody seems to be. It’s gotten a great response. I think it makes all the sponsors who paid to be in the film look incredibly smart. I called 600 brands but only these 20 were brave enough to be a part of the film and want to pull back the curtain and have a real honest conversation about transparency. It’s very telling.

For me what was telling was that they basically say, “We don’t care what you say about us as long as you get our name out there.”

That’s part of what I love about it. Who was it who said, “I don’t care what you say about me as long as you spell my name right?”

Will you have product placement in your future films?

I think it really works for this one because the satire makes the whole thing work. I can’t imagine shooting an interview for another movie about Darfur or something where suddenly someone is drinking Coke in the middle of an interview. But one of the things I love is what J.J. Abrams says in the film: “I’m about story-telling, not story-selling.” We live in a world where people use products. They drive Cameros. They drink Coke. They wear Nikes. So it’s not like I think we should try to eliminate this stuff from entertainment. It would create a very unreal scenario. But what I don’t want is Ford in the writer’s room, “I want to start with a wide shot of the car and when the guy gets out of the car it would be great if he could say how well the car handled.”

You want the product to tell you something about the character.

Yes, if he drives a Mustang, he drives a Mustang. If he drives a Volvo, he drives a Volvo. But don’t make them show an extreme close-up of the logo just because they gave them a car to be in the movie.

You kept Mane and Tail shampoo in the film even though they didn’t pay.

They were the only ones where we were contractually obligated to say that they did not pay. But there were others in the film who did not pay. But what they brought to the table was not hard cash but soft money in terms of promotions. Big brands do that all the time with studios so they can have Iron Man in the store or Tony Stark wearing sunglasses in their ads. Characters appear on cereal and candy bars and potato chips and then there are lunchboxes, t-shirts, hats, and all that other stuff. I tried to get McDonald’s to be a partner on this film. I really wanted those documentary action figures. Those would have sold like hotcakes!

Many of the companies that were willing to work with you were family-owned, like POM, Sheetz, and Hyatt. They were very big, but they didn’t have the kind of bureaucracy of publicly-traded companies and were more inclined to do something off-beat.

Some of them make more than Fortune 500 companies. And MiniCooper is part of a giant corporation. Old Navy is owned by a gigantic conglomerate. But they didn’t come on until they saw the film at Sundance. Eight partners came on after Sundance. That happens all the time with big Hollywood movies, too. They wait to see how the film comes out and how audiences react and then say, “I want to be a part of this.”

What do you advocate? Better disclosure?

It’s already at the end of a movie, where it says, “promotional consideration by…” but by then you’ve stopped watching. The BBC has just started to allow product placement. Like we have TV-MA, they have P for product placement before the show.

Do you advocate different rules for children’s programming and programming intended for adults?

You have to look at them different. They’re two entirely different audiences. They consume media in very different ways. Kids recognize brands at a very young age, as young as four years old. I don’t think you should have placement in kids’ shows but it goes beyond that. The character becomes the toy, the lunchbox. The argument for that is, “I can’t have free enterprise?” The problem I have is the targeted advertising around programming. My own son said, “I want to get that wrestler set! But the pieces are sold separately.” I said, “Time to turn off the TV. We’re done.”