Robot and Frank (Brockway)

Tropic Sprockets by Ian Brockway

Robot and Frank

Here is a film that is easy to make fun of concerning an aging jewel thief and a robot. What will independent Hollywood think up next?

Just wait.

"Robot and Frank" stars Frank Langella in the title role who gets a robot to keep an eye on him. The robot is a nurse or a maid of sorts. Frank is an old school Libertarian, a career criminal who laments technology, automation, the extinction of bound books and the passage of time. Frank is a curmudgeon to be sure, but he is easier for me to believe than anything dreamed up by Clint Eastwood. Frank's frustration is never overdone. He is a grouch with heart.
At first I did think of "The Odd Couple" mixed with Kubrick's "2001" but the solidity of Langella together with the spacey believability of the robot, voiced by Peter Sarsgaard, pushes away any overt silliness.

Granted it is corny to see the robot cloaked in a black cape during attempted robberies and the film does have its madcap moments, but just when you think the film enters the cornball world of Woody Allen's "Sleepers" or a Mel Brooks comical farce, Frank Langella, a spaced out man himself, has enough haunt and poignance to pull the film back to earth, on human feet where it belongs.
There are some wonderful touches here, notably the local library which is converted into a narcissistic Pier One bistro before your eyes, a scene that contains almost enough creepiness to rival Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. Books are shelved in mahogany cabinets, but no one knows quite where such resources are located. In some scenes the library looks like a hospital or a walk in closet.

And the yuppie Villain with a capital V, Jake, (Jeremy Strong)  is so annoying that you want him to be victimized or at least vaporized immediately.
Susan Sarandon appears as a librarian along with Liv Tyler as Frank's daughter. We know almost instantly that Frank is a somewhat quixotic figure, lamenting automated ease and championing a personal cause for the intimacy of the human finger, the sensual play between the paper laid in an actual book and mortal touch.

But the real thrill of the story for me was the projection of human feelings onto the robot by Frank and the existential surface connections shared between them. Both Frank and the machine become isolated intimates that briefly touch for a few fleeting moments, an imaginary bond made stronger by Frank's will alone.

If this doesn't grab you, there is a final scene which rivals anything by Spielberg or Kubrick and echoes the painter George Tooker. 
This one last scene makes the entire film.

Write Ian at redtv_2005@yahoo.com

Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present (Brockway)

Tropic Sprockets by Ian Brockway 

Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present

Matthew Akers has done a documentary on the legendary performance-artist Marina Abramovic, that is as confrontational as it is insightful. Staying neutral, Akers shows   Abramovic as she really is: an explorer who is part Kafka, part martyr and  part dominatrix. She is known as the grandmother of performance art.

Marina Abramovic was born in Belgrade Yugoslavia in 1946. Her parents stifled her creativity and attempted to mold her into a female soldier. She began to sneak away from home and engage in body explorations that tested the limits of martyrdom. She flogged herself, she cut herself and gouged a fiery pentagram into her abdomen. If that wasn't enough she once encircled herself within an arc of petroleum and did not move, letting the smoke almost obliterate her consciousness. 

The film does a wonderful job of showing Marina's progression, from a nomadic traveller in a pitch black army truck that resembles a hard shelled insect to a fearless and obstinate performer who specializes in physical immobility.

Throughout the film, Abramovic seems to be propelled by rejection and sadness, most notably in her twelve year romance and collaboration with artist Ulay. Together  Abramovic and Ulay (who handsomely resembles Klaus Kinski) make out, slap and violently attack each other, all executed in the nude. Their collaboration and romance climaxed in 1988, after a three month trek to walk separately, at opposite ends of The Great Wall of China and promptly sever the ties of Amor.

Rather than bask in a forlorn state, Abramovic chooses to go to Paris and cloak herself in the sable layers of Haute  Couture, transforming herself into a kind of spiritual Domme. Living for envy, Abramovic  is energized and begins to join stage plays for money, positioning herself into a Christ-figure or Virgin Mary decades before pop star Madonna.  Marina's eyes are whirlpools of lava. Her expression both attracts and repels. She appears as a magnet and a monster, reveling, revealing, and rebelling against her usual ascetic works by wearing satanic horns, just as she did as a child.  

The film builds in intensity with a frequency of buzzing montages that are akin to a Brian DePalma thriller in showing the artist as a dictator as she conducts a retreat where technology is forbidden with a strict adherence.

All this is startling, yet the highlight of the film occurs at the end, when Marina Abramovic begins her numbingly brutal and beautiful show at The MoMA in which she sits in a single hard chair from 10am to 4pm for three full months confronting thousands of gallery visitors who sit across from her, often without a squint or gesture. At first, she gazes impassively at each visitor, her bottomless black eyes reflecting upon the spectator like Andy Warhol's Bolex camera which once captured everything from the high to the humdrum. But as the months wear on, Marina becomes increasingly stifled by pain and inactivity and many of the visitors begin to weep. At such times, Abramovic is magically-made into a living Jezebel or Ecce Homo, rendered by the artist herself. Such moments seem a Carravaggian effort in self-carnage as Marina's supple body is stubbornly set into a single harsh and unforgiving chair. 

Beware: even you might start to cry. Each expression is hard to handle.

One last clap of surprise is the visit of actor James Franco, whose laughing eyes make a Hollywood Buddha displaying an innocence and respect that is grounded in joy.
"Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present" shows the full measure of this woman in all of her many guises and it doesn't pull any punches. Marina is as solid as a chunk of Pyroclastic rock and I wish her shadow could burn a bit longer onscreen for yet another week.

Write Ian at redtv_2005@yahoo.com

Safety Not Guaranteed (Brockway)

Tropic Sprockets by Ian Brockway
Safety Not Guaranteed

"Safety Not Guaranteed" is a new daring slice of life film by Colin Treverrow. It is an open ended story in the best sense. This film doesn't throw ideas at you, but simply allows your mind to breathe, and  you will be delighted, laughing and pondering along the way.

Mark Duplass (Your Sister's Sister) stars as Kenneth, a sloppy stock-clerk at a local grocery. Duplass has a casual likable aura that is practically trademarked by now. He is the Jason Segal of the mumblecore set. The affable easy manner that Duplass achieves in many films however, is not slapstick, as it is in Segal's repertoire, but ultimately real. Kenneth is just a guy without fanfare or goofy embellishment. Such authenticity is also the hallmark of  many of Duplass' own films, organically made, sepia and earthy, without elaborate scores, effects or color.

Kenneth takes out an ad in a weekly trade mag, advertising for a partner in an actual time-travel endeavor. The ad is written in very plain speech, the gist of it being, "This is no joke. Safety not guaranteed." 
No, this isn't a Spielberg tribute but a quirky and moving character study that will keep you guessing. 

Magazine editor Jeff (Jake M. Johnson) catches the want ad and decides to get a story on the loony-sounding Kenneth. Meanwhile the suspicious and fatalistic intern Darius, (Aubrey Plaza) who will remind you of a Kafkaesque feline, is curious about the interview and decides to go along. 

What follows is a kind of road movie  (with an underrated role by Karan Soni as an uncomfortable computer tech) that moves in such pleasing but thoughtful twists and turns that it makes a lightly caffeinated rollercoaster.  The roles mix so well together that it doesn't matter whether Kenneth is a weirdo or not. We are simply along for the ride. Not since Jonathan Demme's "Something Wild" have I heard such glib dialogue or such apparent joy in chemistry between the actors. 

On the whole, in style and tone, the film echoes the startling experiments of "Another Earth" and  "The Sound of my Voice" for its free use of the conventions of science fiction, but finally making a film more about emotion than about danger, horror or innerspace . Our interest is not in what is pictured in such homemade-looking films, but rather what might be around the corner. Objects are not presented with any theatrical drama here, but rather with a casual nonchalance and this makes our discovery all the more surprising. 

Relationships, be they intimate or isolating are the real stuff of pathos and time travel and all of us make our own provocative story. "Safety Not Guaranteed" is a poignant and arousing film that never takes a
simplistic and safe journey.

Write Ian at redtv_2005@yahoo.com

The Bourne Legacy (Brockway)

Tropic Sprockets by Ian Brockway

The Bourne Legacy

Brace yourself. "The Bourne Legacy" has arrived. The film makes a fair accessory to the beloved series and is sure to please punch drunk fans, but  midway through it becomes a déjà vu melange, a mousse and a mish-mash of the earlier films.

The initial scenes show Jeremy Renner who plays the protagonist in this outing, the deliberate Aaron Cross. Cross is in the wilds of Alaska doing various training exercises and does an exceptional job being cold.

As it turns out Jason Bourne (who makes a cameo of sorts on some paperwork) has been going rogue and acting impulsive and the agency becomes hellbent on eradicating the agent program that assumedly Bourne and Cross are a part of. The agents are deemed a security risk, although the film's explanations are a bit sketchy. 

Suffice to say that a retired Air Force Colonel played by Edward Norton sends a drone out to dispose of Cross, who narrowly escapes in a zigzagging fight to the death with a very angry wolf. 

So here we have Jeremy Renner who is an lone agent and a man alone. 

The action is thrilling and moves along quite well. The one reservation being that it becomes all too familiar by midpoint. 

Renner is intriguing to watch mainly because he has such an interesting face. At once hard, yet also sensitive and capable of Lon Chaney, Jr's anguish, he is not always your typical faceless mercenary type ala a Schwarzenegger or Keanu Reeves. Renner faithfully guides us through both apprehension and combat and makes it seem like everything is new, even though we zoom, slide, fire and punch our way though a well worn visual scenario. 

There is one point where the other agents are assassinated with behavior modification and this is very compelling, but the eerie notions of this subplot are dropped and the film becomes rather conventional in its cat and mouse chasing. There are several scenes of running and jumping with various policemen and one ominous Bad Guy, but we have seen such crashes and high speed chases before.  The Bad Guy is so determined that his persistence will make you hoot with laughter. Such near decapitations hover wonderfully close to a mixture of parody and tribute and do make for a good show. If only The Bad Guy in the white Zoot-suit didn't crash headlong into a fruit stand, (yes a fruit stand) where he promptly loses all of his ominous credibility. 

Thank goodness for Jeremy Renner's perpetually entertaining presence. He has enough haunt to make anyone stick with him through thick and thin.

There is one homicidal gun episode which seems a bit gratuitous given current events, but all in all, the film, in the tradition of a Bronson matinee, has enough punches and predicaments to satisfy those who consider themselves to be Bourne Again.

Write Ian at redtv_2005@yahoo.com

Robot and Frank (Rhoades)

“Robot and Frank” –

Books and People

Are Not Obsolete

Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades

In a short story called “I Sing the Body Electric” acclaimed fantasy writer Ray Bradbury told of children who get an electric grandmother to take care of them. Now, in this era of aging baby boomers, we have a turn-it-around movie about an aging ex-con named Frank who gets a robot to look after him.

However, with this plot twist, our guy Frank enlists his robotic caregiver to help him pull off one last jewel heist.

In “Robot & Frank” – currently playing at the Tropic Cinema – 74-year-old Frank Langella (“Frost/Nixon”) stars as the old-timer who wants to impress the local librarian with his Geritol-infused derring-do. Susan Sarandon (“Jeff Who Lives at Home”) is that lovely librarian. James Marsden (the “X-Men” films) and Liv Tyler (“The Incredible Hulk”) are the well-meaning children who chip in for dad’s robot rather than putting him in a home. Jeremy Strong (“The Romantics”) stands out as the high-tech entrepreneur who becomes the target of Frank’s ire. And Peter Sarsgaard (“An Education”) provides the voice of Frank’s mechanistic partner in crime, a robot that looks something like a dwarf-size “Star Wars” Stormtrooper.

The précis here is that in the near future cantankerous old duffers like Frank are generally annoyed by newfangled technology. A bossy robot reminding you it’s time for your enema just doesn’t seem much of an improvement over pretty nurses.

But that’s not what really vexes Frank. He hates the idea of printed matter becoming obsolete. “What’s the point of a library if you can’t check out books?” he asks crankily.

The nice librarian named Jennifer tries to explain that “Since you can get any book, any time, any place instantly, it’s all about community now.” It’s what she describes as “the augmented library experience.”

That’s not good enough for Frank.

As a second-story man, he’s come to be fond of libraries after two stretches in prison.

So he trains his robot caregiver to pick locks, case joints, and evade security. Skills that have augmented his own life of crime. After all, didn’t the overly helpful robot suggest to him, “You need a project’?

What better project than to burglarize the home of a wealthy techie who is responsible for the conversion of the local library from books to digital?

And in the process Frank and the robot become, well, friends.

First-time director Jake Schreier and newbie screenwriter Christopher D. Ford are responsible for this whimsical conceit. Sure, there have been plenty of cute robot movies – “Short Circuit,” “WALL-E,” “The Iron Giant,” even “Real Steel” – but we have to give Schreier and Ford credit for taking this one in a fresh direction. Although quirky and funny, “Robot & Frank” has a serious side as it looks at aging and Alzheimer’s through a fresh new lens.

But let’s not fail to acknowledge my late friend Ray Bradbury. In addition to his “I Sing the Body Electric” (i.e. robot caregivers), we also see homages to “Fahrenheit 451” (i.e. the obsolescence of paper books) and a view of techies as the enemy (Bradbury said, “I’m not afraid of machines, I’m not afraid of the computer, I don’t think the robots are taking over. I think the men who play with toys have taken over…”).

As filmmakers, Schreier and Ford have learned these lessons well.

Ray Bradbury liked to tell about meeting a carnival performer called Mr. Electro who shouted to him, “Live forever!”

“I thought that was a wonderful idea, but how did you do it?” he said.

Well, through your books. Or a movie.

srhoades@aol.com

Safety Not Guaranteed (Rhoades)

“Safety Not Guaranteed”

Is Guaranteed Funny

Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades

Time travel could be dangerous, given the paradoxes involved. And there’s a new movie on that very subject titled “Safety Not Guaranteed.”

This comedy was inspired by a 1997 classified ad that appeared in the back pages of Backwoods Home Magazine, a publication about practical rural living that’s based in Oregon. It read:

Wanted: Somebody to go back in time with me. This is not a joke. P.O. Box ... You'll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons. Safety not guaranteed. I have only done this once before.

Turns out it was just a joke ad written as a filler for the magazine’s classified section by Senior Editor John Silveira. However, it spawned a plethora of Internet memes … and eventually a movie from the producers of “Little Miss Sunshine.”

This wacky time-out-of-joint film is currently playing at the Tropic Cinema.

In this fictionalized version of the story, a writer with a Seattle magazine takes two interns on a field trip to a seaside town to investigate this strange classified ad. His secret agenda is to reconnect with a former girlfriend who lives there. Meanwhile, one of the interns finds the guy behind the ad, a stock clerk in a local grocery store. The guy says he wants to go back in time and prevent the death of his old girlfriend who was killed when someone drove a car into her house. But he explains that his mission could be dangerous because government agents are stalking him.

Remember that old saying? Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not … etc.? Well, it’s true in this case.

Comedian Jake Johnson (TV’s “New Girl”) leads the charge as the cynical magazine writer. Aubrey Plaza (TV’s “Parks and Recreation”) is the deadpan intern who makes a heart-to-heart connection with the proposed time traveler. Karan Soni is the second intern. And we have Mumblecore veteran Mark Duplass (last seen in “Your Sister’s Sister”) as the eccentric stock clerk who placed the classified ad that sets everything in motion.

The result of all this hoo-ha is a tad predictable, but funny and satisfying and poignant with a touch of magical realism. It got a standing ovation at Sundance Film Festival.

John Silveira, the real-life magazine editor who wrote the original classified ad, has a walk-on part in the movie. He’s also listed in the credits as a “Time Travel Consultant.”

I wonder what Silveira might write to fill that classified ad space if he could go back and  do it over again?

srhoades@aol.com

The Bourne Legacy (Rhoades)

“Bourne Legacy”

Creates False Memory

Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades

A fan of spy thrillers, I’ve read all three “Jason Bourne” novels by the late Robert Ludlum. All of them were adapted into wham-bam action movies featuring Matt Damon as the CIA assassin with amnesia.

Universal Pictures originally intended 2007’s “The Bourne Ultimatum” to be the final film in the series, but development of another film was under way by the end of 2008.

So what to do when you’ve run out of books and your star has decided not to reprise the role?

In Hollywood, you hire a team of writers to do a script that’s not closely based on “The Bourne Legacy,” a later book written by Eric Van Lustbader. And you audition every eligible leading man from Jake Gyllenhaal and Tobey Maguire to Michael Fassbender and Chris Evans – then hire Jeremy Renner.

Despite the film’s title, the hero here is another CIA assassin named Aaron Cross. After Bourne dismantled Operation Blackbriar in the last film, the CIA decides to close down related black ops programs such as Operation Outcome and terminate (we’re not talking about pink slips) those agents. However, Cross is too skillful to get killed and he hooks up with an Outreach scientist to expose his higher ups.

Rachel Weisz joins Renner as the scientist, and Ed Norton plays the bad guy. Joan Allen, Scott Glenn, David Straithaim, and Albert Finney reprise their roles so you’ll think there is continuity with the previous films. If that’s not enough, they flash Matt Damon’s picture and refer to Jason Bourne.

“The Bourne Legacy” is currently making pulses quicken at the Tropic.

Directed by Tony Gilroy (who wrote the screenplays for the first three Bourne films), this thriller gives a new life to the franchise. And rumor has it that Damon might return to team up with Renner in a future “Bourne” movie.

But, of course, there’s the same rumor about the “Mission: Impossible” franchise, that Tom Cruise may return to team up with Renner.

Does this make Renner the go-to boogeyman for stars getting tired of their series? Who knows, Renner may next show up in “Diary of a Wimpy Kid 4” or “Step Up 5” or “James Bond 25.”

srhoades@aol.com