films42 Reviews

Split (II) (2016)

Stunning!

[8/10 · 28 August 2015]

This stunning new film uses familiar images from prior Kampmeier films (e.g., the naked women in the lake in VIRGIN, the snakes in HOUNDDOG, etc) to go in daring new directions that are even deeper, darker & more rewarding.

Amy Ferguson is very good as "Inanna" (an actress piecing together a career in New York's Indie Theatre scene), but Morgan Spector is a revelation as "Derek" (a tormented artist who makes brilliant theatrical masks which seem to have been born in Julie Taymor's worst nightmares).

SPLIT is not for the faint of heart & I have no doubt it will prove to be just as controversial as VIRGIN and HOUNDDOG. But remember this: no one knew Elizabeth Moss before Kampmeier cast her as the lead in VIRGIN, and Dakota Fanning had only played kid roles before Kampmeier cast her as the lead in HOUNDDOG. She also cast Robin Wright in key supporting roles in both films. So if actresses of this stature have put their trust in Deborah Kampmeier, then so should you!

The Muses of Bashevis Singer (2014)

SPOILER ALERT: "Our goal was to investigate how a creator creates."

[8/10 · 2 February 2015]

What fascinated me most about "The Muses of Isaac Bashevis Singer" was the filmmakers' deep examination of the process of translation itself.

Singer was extremely hands-on. Again and again in "The Muses of Isaac Bashevis Singer," a young woman spends hours and hours alone in a room with Singer while they transform a source text from Yiddish into English word-by-word, sentence-by sentence, paragraph-by-paragraph, and page-by-page until Singer decides they are done. As a writer myself, I was mesmerized...

Only one woman seems to have escaped Singer's controlling grasp and that woman was Barbra Streisand. Although Galay and Betser do devote a couple of minutes to Streisand's film "Yentl," this is the one subject on which "The Muses of Isaac Bashevis Singer" falls short. Hopefully the filmmakers will tackle this next!

This Is Sodom (2010)

Chgo POV: Knee-Slapping Fun

[14 September 2011]

To Harry: Maybe it was funnier for me, stuck here in the Chicago diaspora without knowing anything about the TV version. I truly enjoyed all the silly stuff for its own sake, & for the rest of the day, every time I snuggled up to hubby & sang the sugar-sweet "Ha Echad," we both cracked up.

Dov Navon and Tal Friedman (who were so funny together in "The Schwartz Dynasty") have wonderful chemistry again as "Mr and Mrs Lot;" sad-sack Navon providing the perfect counter-weight as Friedman flies ever-higher over the top. You're probably right in suggesting that I missed some of the "local jokes," but I think anyone with a Jewish funny-bone will know more than enough.

Sita Sings the Blues (2008)

Terrific Film!!!

[10/10 · 31 October 2008]

I saw 32 films in just under 2 weeks at this year's Chicago International Film Festival & SITA SINGS THE BLUES was one of the very best on the entire schedule (& believe me, there were lots of contenders). Paley uses great technique (including four diverse styles of animation) to tell a poignant story that every woman who has ever been in love will certainly understand.

This is a great artistic accomplishment: creatively distilling intense personal pain into great art! BRAVO, Nina!!!

For more on this year's CIFF, see my blog: http://www.thehotpinkpen.com/?p=725

Paradise Lost (I) (2003)

Excellent Doc!!!

[9/10 · 11 September 2008]

PARADISE LOST is an excellent addition to a set of recent films by women dealing with exile & the search for home. The difference is that PARADISE LOST is an extremely personal doc told entirely in the first person, whereas these films are more typically narrative features that allow filmmaker to hide her own emotions within the story (e.g., BRICK LANE, FRAULEIN, THE NAMESAKE, etc).

Furthermore, primary location is a Palestinian village that is located somewhere along the Israeli coast (within the Haifa/Tel Aviv corridor), so emotions are very raw. Contrast this to the characters in FRAULEIN who meet in Zurich after the Bosnian War is long over.

Highly recommended film is available on VHS from Manhattan distributor Women Make Movies (www.wmm.com).

Signed: Jan Lisa Huttner

Novia que te vea (1994)

Coming Back to Chgo on 9/17/08

[9/10 · 19 August 2008]

As part of Cinema/Chgo's annual Summer Screening Series @ the Chgo Cultural Center. Also available from Amazon. Note that characters in this film speak FOUR different languages (depending on content): Hebrew, Ladino, Spanish & Yiddish. Rifke (one of the 2 leads) is also studying indigenous languages in college.

Info provided in prior comment is correct: Oshi is from a Sephardic family that immigrated to Mexico from Turkey right after WWI. Her "family language" is Ladino. Rifke is from an Ashkenazi family that moved to Mexico from Poland right before WWII (altho her uncle survives the Holocaust & joins them after WWII). Her "family language" is Yiddish. Most of the time though, with each other, with school friends, etc, the girls speak Spanish, but there's also lots of Hebrew too -- in the synagogue, Hashomer Hatzair (the Zionist youth group), etc.

For more on this topic, see A KISS TO THIS LAND.

Sallah Shabati (1964)

Errors in Prior Comments

[9/10 · 15 August 2008]

One comment above refers to "Eastern-European Arabs," & I'm not sure what part of the world such folks are thought to come from, but the main characters in "Sallah Shabati" are Mizrachim (in the English subtitles, that's translated as "Oriental"). The author of the IMDb summary says family is from Yemen, so I'll go with that unless/until I learn more... but European? No, not at all! Also, Gila Almagor plays "Batsheva," one of the young kibbutzniks. She does NOT play Topol's wife! Amazing film with extremely important role to play in current Middle East dialogue!

Jan Lisa Huttner aka "Second City Tzivi" Arts & Culture Critic for JUF News in Chicago

The Tunnel (2001)

Too Melodramatic

[6/10 · 1 July 2005]

I think this is an important story & I wanted to like the film, but I found it excessively melodramatic. While I know a film can never deal with the full range of historical details, this was just too unbelievable, & all the convenient coincidences kept intruding as I watched, keeping me from becoming fully engrossed in the story. By the end, I was hunkered down in my seat muttering "yeah, sure!" to myself.

If you are interested in this theme, I recommend Margarethe von Trotta's Das Versprechen (The Promise) from 1995. Das Versprechen had me completely engrossed in the plight of families separated by the Berlin Wall, & by the end, I was crying like a baby!

The Spectator (2004)

Quietly Surprising Film

[9/10 · 13 October 2004]

We saw La Spettatrice last night @ the Chicago International Film Festival & we were both immensely moved by it. This is a haunting tale of loneliness & missed connection in which the longing for intimacy conflicts with our fear of revealing too much about ourselves to another. The three leads (Barbora Bobulova as Valeria, Brigitte Catillon as Flavia, Andrea Renzi as Massimo) are all excellent and the dynamic between them is very surprising.

After all the movies which devalue older women, it's wonderful to see Flavia (who is a law professor at a university in Rome) presented as beautiful & sensual as well as seductive & powerful. We're conditioned to believe that when a younger woman enters 'the mix,' the older woman will become jealous of the younger woman, the man will leave the older woman for the younger woman, etc, etc. In this film, however, emotional truth is considerably more complex. Highly recommended.

Rosenstrasse (2003)

Lena Does NOT Sleep with Goebbels!!!

[9/10 · 26 August 2004]

Here is the explanation screenwriter Pamela Katz gave me for why MvT introduced JG as a specific character in the film:

"...the historical record is very clear: Joseph Goebbels was directly responsible for the release of the Rosenstrasse prisoners, so we needed a way to get Goebbels himself into our film... For a woman like Lena, a woman from an aristocratic family with connections, it wasn't unthinkable that she would make an attempt to go to the top. The idea of getting to Goebbels wasn't impossible for her, so that became our hook."

Those of you who insist on seeing an actual sex act here can read my new thread below & then fire away.

Jan Lisa Huttner FILMS FOR TWO

Broken Wings (2002)

Brilliant Film: Extremely Moving & Highly Significant

[10/10 · 9 March 2004]

Great works of art enable us to grasp the universal thru exquisite presentation of the particular.

In this astonishing first feature, precocious young director Nir Bergman presents the story of an `ordinary' Israeli family. But once we understand that the missing father is actually Yitzhak Rabin (the Israeli Prime Minister assassinated by a right-wing Jewish zealot in 1995), it's also a brilliant metaphorical examination of the national psyche. I know of no film that better explains both who the Israelis are today & who they want to be.

The whole world needs to listen!

A Jury of Her Peers (1980)

Extremely Powerful Short Film

[10/10 · 17 May 2003]

This is an extremely powerful, Oscar-nominated, short film (30 minutes long) which works beautifully on a variety of levels. On the surface, it tells a fairly simple story about rural life at the start of the 20th century, but look deeper & it becomes a metaphor about the difference between male & female communication styles. At its deepest level, intended by both the author of the short story & the filmmaker, it becomes a feminist statement about the importance of including women as full participants in public life (in the arts as well as in politics).

Note the title: the film is set in a world in which women can not participate on juries, they can't even vote (yet). So the title itself is a clue to the multiple layers intended.

The filmmaker does an excellent job of visualizing the story but it does require patience -- you have to look carefully at the clues set before you in order to draw your own conclusions. This film will not simply tell you what to think about right & wrong.

Excellent for use in a book club or film club where you can watch together & then discuss. Only the stone-hearted will be ready to leave the room when the credits roll.

Sunshine State (2002)

A Moral Wake-Up Call from Sayles & Renzi

[9/10 · 8 July 2002]

With all due respect to Sujit R. Varma (who wrote the summary), when you say... "A comedy drama set in modern day Florida concerning two vibrant women who find themselves, after their big time dreams have not panned out, back in their small neighboring hometowns..." you're implying that everyone else in town succeeded in achieving their "big time dreams" EXCEPT Marly (Edie Falco) and Desiree (Angela Bassett).

But Marly and Desiree aren't the only ones who return home "older & wiser," so do Marly's ex-husband (the former Rock musician) and Desiree's ex-boyfriend (the former college football star). So I think the point is about growing-up more generally. Many of us, if we're lucky, have "big time dreams" as teenagers. Then life happens: we make various choices, some of our dreams come true, some of our dreams change, and one day, we find we've become adults. At that point, do we accept responsibility for our choices? Do we shrug off our disappointments and say "Hey, that's life?" Or do we wallow in self-pity, thinking of ourselves as powerless victims?

I find this film very optimistic and life-affirming. At the end, both Marly and Desiree take full ownership of their own lives, and you can sense that their specific families and their community in general will be better as a result.

When Sayles & Renzi made this new film, both were on the cusp of turning 50. (Sayles was born in 1950 & Renzi was born in 1951.) 50 is a milestone year. I know. I just turned 50 myself. I think Sayles and Renzi are saying you must decide: will you live your life as a morally awake individual... or just sit on the sidelines and complain?

Change is going to happen. Development is going to happen. In and of itself, that's not a bad thing. It's only bad if individuals abdicate their personal and civic responsibilities, don't stay informed, don't act, don't vote, don't care... just sit on the sidelines and complain. Bill Cobbs as Dr. Lloyd is the conscience of this film. Alan King as Murray Silver is the poet of this film. These are wonderful roles for two wonderful actors: two feisty old codgers who can teach everyone of us a thing or two. Add in Jane Alexander, Mary Alice, and Ralph Waite and you have a range of role models for growing old with dignity. When was the last time you had THOSE kind of options in an American film?

Thank you. John Sayles! Thank you, Maggie Renzi!

The Man Who Cried (2000)

Highly Recommended!

[9/10 · 5 June 2002]

This is one of the most beautiful films I've ever seen & it is on our Highly Recommended list. The first reviewer got it right: it is a poetic, lyrical experience making exquisite use of its soundtrack & visual imagery. Potter was obviously working on a shoe-string budget, which makes the accomplishment all the more incredible.

It breaks my heart to think that mature women filmmakers like Potter go begging (for audiences as well as for funds) while smart-ass guys like Wes Anderson & Christoper Nolan get too much of both.

Insomnia (1997)

No Comparison!!!

[8/10 · 5 June 2002]

We saw this film when it first came out & we loved it. Last Sunday (5/26/02) we saw the new remake, & Monday we watched this version again on video. Wow! If you ever need an example of how Hollywood can take a classic & really trash it up, here's your case study. Everything about the new Christoper Nolan film looks totally cheesy when compared to Skjoldbjaerg's spare and completely original vision.

The Invisible Circus (2001)

Well I AM "the target market"...

[8/10 · 29 May 2002]

Well, I AM "the target market" & I loved it. Furthermore my husband, also a Boomer with strong memories of the '60s, liked it a lot too. I haven't read the book, so I went into it neutral & I was very pleasantly surprised. It's now on our "Highly Recommended" video list.

Stolen Summer (2002)

Surprise: Miracles Really CAN Happen!

[8/10 · 2 April 2002]

We saw this film last night @ a MIRAMAX-sponsored showing for members of IFC/MW & I have to say that, being Jewish, I went into this film with great skepticism (knowing only the outlines of the plot). What a surprise to find myself both crying & clapping as the credits rolled!!!

There were a million ways in which this film could have gone wrong, but the miracle is that it stays on track. I credit the 4 adult actors for this: each one of them (Dennehy, Hunt, Pollack & Quinn) is simply superb, earnestly staying in character, level-headed, grounded & thoroughly professional. I didn't see PROJECT GREENLIGHT (yet?), but I have to commend each one of them for committing to & cooperating with this novel process. They are all winners!!!

Pete Jones is to be commended for finding the way to tell a "small story" with such huge implications. He's right: the '70s were a period of enormous change (as the revolutionary fevers of the '60s permeated the national consciousness). If anyone ever tells you that the '60s didn't change anything, that's phooey. We are a better country since the '60s, & this important little movie makes the case most eloquently.

Kudos to everyone connected with PROJECT GREENLIGHT. In a land where dreams really can come true, it becomes possible to believe in miracles.

Jan @ Films for Two

Time of Favor (2000)

Love Triangle???

[9/10 · 1 April 2002]

We saw this film on Friday night @ one of Chgo's premiere "art" theaters (the Landmark @ Century Center). There were maybe a dozen people in the audience besides us. Too bad. With all the horrible things going on this weekend (Easter Weekend 2002 with Arafat surrounded by Israeli troops in Ramallah is retaliation for the terrorist murder of Passover celebrants in Netanya) few films could be more relevant!

But I think if you see a "love triangle" in this film, you are really missing the point.

SPOILER ALERT!!! (Stop reading now if you don't want to know critical plot points!!!)

Pini does not "love" Michal; Pini loves her father Rabbi Meltzer & he desperately wants the Rabbi's approval. Rabbi Meltzer intends to give Michal to Pini as a prize, signifying that Pini is his best student & probable successor. For Michal, this is just further proof that her father has no interest in her as a "person." He will easily sacrifice her to his own needs, just as he sacrificed her mother. When Michal rejects Pini, he feels humiliated in the eyes of the Rabbi & the community, & therefore he does something desperate to prove himself to the Rabbi. The model here is THE ILIAD. Achilles does not "love" Briceas (sp?) -- she is his war booty, his prize. When she is taken from him, his warrior pride is offended. It is "the wrath of Achilles" that destroys the city of Troy & Pini is filled with the same wrath.

Why is this important? Because right now we all desperately need to understand the psychology of suicide bombers. In almost every case, suicide bombers are young men who need to prove themselves to their fanatical male mentors. They don't live in societies in which women & the love of women are valued. A glorious death is more important than an ordinary human life (his own included). When Itamar freezes & wants to reach out for his wife, Pini is scornful & disgusted with him.

Menachem loves Michal & because he loves her, he is able to renounce the zealot's life, exchange it for the life of a mench (in Yiddish, a "real" >whole human being). She opens his eyes to what is actually being asked of him by Rabbi Meltzer -- Rabbi Meltzer doesn't just want Menachem to give up Michal, he wants Menachem to give up his humanity, to give his life to "the will of God" (as interpreted by Rabbi Meltzer, of course).

Bottomline: Because Menachem sees Michal AS A PERSON, he retains his humanity. Because Pini sees Michal AS AN OBJECT, he becomes an instrument of destruction.

Bye now, Jan @ Films for Two

A Stranger Among Us (1992)

We liked it too.

[7/10 · 3 March 2002]

Critics & message board participants have been very hard on this film, but it deserves a look. It starts out feeling derivative, but gains its warmth from its genuine affection for Hasidic traditions -- immeasurably aided by the soundtrack (by Jerry Bock, composer of FIDDLER ON THE ROOF).

Griffith is touching as the undercover "police-person" working overtime to protect her shell -- it's precisely because she looks and sounds so soft that her attempts to act hard work. Just like in WORKING GIRL, she's determined to defy the way we all (audience members as well as fellow characters) stereotype her, in order to be taken seriously & on her own terms. You go, girl!

The Vertical Ray of the Sun (2000)

Important Question

[8/10 · 25 February 2002]

We saw this film yesterday on video & we were mesmerized by its beauty. A wise man once said that the plot summary of a good film is like the plot summary of a good opera -- you'll never "get it" unless you experience it for yourself. This film is certainly a case in point. As others have noted, the plot alone makes it sound like Peyton Place. But that does not even begin to describe...

Here's our question: can anyone tell us the name of the family? We would like to post it in the "Buried Treasures" section our website (Films for Two: The online Guide for Busy Couples = www.films42.com) in the "Family" category. If you know the name of the family, please send it to us by e-mail to [e-mail] OK. IMDB only lists the first names of each of the characters.

Thanks! Jan

Fever Pitch (1997)

Very Enjoyable

[7/10 · 21 February 2002]

I stumbled upon this film playing on cable one afternoon & much to my own surprise, I was hooked. It's very well done & very enjoyable, even for those of us who have no clue about sports in general, much less the details of British soccer championships. Only when the credits came up @ the end, did I know that Nick Hornsby of HIGH FIDELITY fame was behind it. I patted myself on the back for letting my own good judgment overcome any snobbish preconceptions. (Of course the initial hook was seeing Colin Firth's face on the screen. The guy definitely has under-used leading man potential!!!) Jan

Iris (I) (2001)

Insufficient Inner Life

[7/10 · 18 February 2002]

We eagerly went to see IRIS as soon as it opened here in Chicago expecting to like it a great deal, but alas, we did not. In spite of the uniformly terrific performances by the four principals, we felt the filmmakers didn't provide enough substance for the actors to truly excel. Kate Winslet, in particular, was surely capable of presenting the dynamic inner life of this great author, but she's never given the chance. Imagine how poignant it would have been to see Judi Dench slip into darkness if we'd really felt her life force in "the young Iris."

It's impossible not to compare IRIS to A BEAUTIFUL MIND. Although we know others disagree, we both feel strongly that Goldsman & Howard found impressive ways to dramatize John Nash's inner reality. They focused on this because the most crucial aspects of this man's life happened in his mind, for better & for worse. IRIS should have been the same. What was important about this woman happened in her mind. Swimming in the muddy river is fine, just like Nash looking at the stars, but it is not sufficient.

Why was this film only 90 minutes long? We felt robbed of all the (missing) scenes that could have helped us appreciate Iris Murdock's profound inner life.

Virgil Bliss (2001)

Very Touching Film!

[8/10 · 18 February 2002]

Like the series OZ at its very best, this is a film about the deep humanity of people trapped by the combination of temperament & circumstance. Virgil struggles heroically against the forces dragging him down, & you can't help rooting for him no matter how slim his chances are. Few of "us" (the constituency of IMDb) are losers, but most of us probably know people who are. It's important to remember how thin the line can be between success & failure, how hard it is to keep trying when the deck looks stacked against you.

Virgil's story is grim and gritty, but Maggio & Jordan make him a man who touches our hearts. Virgil, wherever you are, may the Force be with you! We'll both be sending good thoughts your way on 3/23/02 (the night the Independent Spirit Awards are announced).

Maze (2000)

When Bad Titles Happen to Good Films

[8/10 · 13 November 2001]

We also liked this film very much. Morrow works hard, as an actor AND as a director, to help you see the world thru Lyle Maze's eyes. It's fascinating to watch him work -- when he's sketching, he becomes totally engrossed as an artist & his spasms stop. Then the "real world" intervenes. & his behavior gets worse & worse the more he tries to control it.

But the name of this film is totally wrong. Maybe it's based on a true story (the credits have a reference to National Public Radio but don't provide any detail), nevertheless, calling it MAZE is very misleading & won't help people find it. So if YOU saw it & YOU liked it, do your part to spread the word!

My First Mister (2001)

Gutsy Moves

[13 November 2001]

Director Christine Lahti has a problem: she wants her misfit teenager (Sobieski) & her middle-aged salesman (Brooks) to have a genuinely transformative relationship, but she knows making their relationship sexual would only make it a male fantasy (for that, see GHOST WORLD). So she throws a wicked curve ball right through the middle, just when you think you've got the second half figured out.

It's a gutsy move & it's only partly successful, but all the performances (major & minor) ring true (especially the two leads), putting this film as a whole in the plus column.

Jan films42.com