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La chispa de la vida (2011)
Tribeca Review: 'As Luck Would Have It' Is The Jewel Of The Fest REVIEWS
Álex de la Iglesia's "As Luck Would Have It" features, in supporting roles, Salma Hayek and Carolina Bang, two of the most ravishing and talented Spanish-language actresses to ever grace the screen. Most viewers are well aware of Ms. Hayek, who has aged gracefully into Hollywood's demeaning mother-ghetto for actresses over the age of 35. Few know of Ms. Bang, who was the centerpiece of de la Iglesia's last film, the criminally-insane "The Last Circus." Both command the screen with old school Hollywood glamour and mature sexuality, and yet neither manages to obscure the machinations of de la Iglesia's sharp media satire. This, as Queen once sang long ago, is a kind of magic.
Jose Mota is Roberto, a one-time ad exec who hasn't had success in many moons. Unbeknownst to his supportive wife, the couple are in dire financial straits, Roberto long living off the reputation gained from an old Coca Cola slogan. Reduced to begging and groveling at his former bosses' knees, Roberto soon realizes he has no job prospects. The cosmic joke of the film, unspoken, seems to be that Roberto seemingly bottomed out without a natural talent for advertising, and whatever reputation he has garnered was a fluke. The irony, of course, is that these callous suits lack what the enterprising Roberto brings to the table, courtesy of his Coke tagline: "the spark of life."
Despondent, Roberto flees to the location of his honeymoon with his wife, where one absent- minded misstep lands him on his back, seriously injured but conscious. Lying on his back, Roberto maintains his motor skills, but he cannot move. He is impaled, a sharp nail sticking out from the ground, embedded in his head. Cops descend, but none dare to pry him loose, until medics provide a diagnosis: they could remove Roberto from the nail, but if he is pried loose in the wrong direction, he will die. The story of Roberto's misfortunate circulates, now attached to the circumstances. Soon, a media circus erupts over his captive state, reports circulating that his career had been failing and that he may have attempted suicide. The location de la Iglesia picks is not unintentional: all parties involved realize he's fallen on somewhat sacred ground, a landmark of sorts where Roberto's freedom could involve desecrating ancient ground. From Roberto's perspective, as we see various onlookers and media outlets observe, the area he occupies is shaped very much like ancient Coliseum bleachers. He has become the star of his own show, the story of his death, Ancient Rome-style. Wife Luisa (Hayek) eventually descends, though she is soon swarmed by the vultures of the press (among them Ms. Bang). As Roberto moves in and out of lucidity, they fight over exclusive access both to an interview with him or her. The ghoulish lengths they'll go to procure official footage and soundbites overwhelms Luisa: one reporter openly muses on a much higher cost for an interview if he were to die.
De la Iglesia's setup hearkens back to "Ace In The Hole" but with a much more humanist bent: with his life on the line, Roberto immediately starts thinking dollar signs, knowing the cynicism of the media can be exploited to finally give he and his wife the life that will please her. But Luisa is the film's heart, and this attitude pierces her, as she fights against the reporters' obvious interest in Roberto's possible death. De la Iglesia, in the middle of what some may consider a career-long roll, continues his commitment to stark, realistic humanity in heightened, blackly comic situations. The absurdity of Roberto's predicament, while handled with good humor, is played with an entirely straight face -- his argument as to whether Brad Pitt or George Clooney in a movie adaptation is as much a product of his pop culture cynicism as it is about his hopeful recontextualization of this unlucky scenario. There may be no boogeyman in sight, but de la Iglesia uses Hitchcockian music cues and camera angles to emphasize the morbidity of Roberto constantly being moments away from death, with surrounding onlookers subtly rooting for his demise. Mordantly funny and sharp as a razor, "As Luck Would Have It" is one of the treasures of the Tribeca Film Festival.
Punking Out (1978)
Punking Out from Bad Lit by Mike Everleth
I first saw and reviewed Punking Out, directed by Ric Shore, Maggi Carson and Juliusz Kossakowski, back at the 2001 New York Underground Film Festival during a marathon night of film viewing, which included four features and a couple of shorts. You can follow that link and read what I wrote, but I'll reprint it here since it's short and sweet:
A punk rock documentary short from 1978 called Punking Out, covering specifically the hoopla surrounding legendary performance space CBGB's. Including classic live footage of Richard Hell, The Dead Boys & The Ramones, the most engaging aspect of Punking Out are interviews with music fans outside CBGB's. High on the excitement of seeing their favorite punk bands playing live, and possibly high on other substances, the fans' barely coherent ruminations on their passion are hysterical. People caught in the heat of the moment and asked the right questions are necessary fodder for a great doc.
As you can see, I loved the film then so I was thrilled to see that it's been released recently on DVD in a version newly restored by the Guggenheim Film Preservation Fund. This is too great of a film to have languished in obscurity. While a good retrospective documentary, like Kill Your Idols or The Filth and the Fury, can offer a nice flavor about a particular period of music history or a specific band by including live concert appearances, it also only allows the audience to understand the music from an intellectual perspective through cautioned reflection by the participants. In that regard, no other documentary has perfectly captured the energy and power of a musical explosion with an "You Are There" immediacy like Punking Out has.
One major mistake that most music documentaries make is that they're almost always just about the band, leaving out one of the most vital components about rock 'n' roll: The effect it has on everyday fans. This is especially tragic for docs about punk rock where much of the punk philosophy is about breaking down the barrier between band and audience.
Punk rock is as much about the people playing the music as it is about those listening to it and where both sides of the stage can easily switch back and forth. For example, the young Dead Boys groupie Lydia Lunch interviewed in Punking Out about f...ing all the band members and throwing her used tampons on stage eventually went on to be an early part of the short-lived No Wave movement with her band Teenage Jesus & The Jerks. Also interviewed in the film is Helen Wheels, who wrote lyrics for the Blue Oyster Cult and performed in her own eponymous named punk band.
While interviewing rock/punk fans in various states of intoxication is documentary film making gold (just ask Heavy Metal Parking Lot's Jeff Krulik), Punking Out also makes the brilliant move not to take the bands out of their environment for sit-down, hyper-intellectualized interviews. Instead, it grabs the performers backstage either before or after their sets while they're still pumped up about performing, giving a real sense of urgency and fun to their answers to the interviewer's questions. The real heart of the film is Dee Dee Ramone who is not only the most brutally honest, but gives the film its most memorable lines, such as: "The amps we have now they
they
they work!" And: "What do you want me to say? That I want all kids to go drink ammonia or something? No, I don't want that." Of course, in addition to the fantastic interviews, there are some phenomenal live performances from the Ramones doing "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue" and the classic "Blitzkrieg Bop;" Dead Boys covering the Sex Pistols' "Anarchy in the U.K." and Richard Hell's anthem "Blank Generation." To close on a sad note, the punk rock generation is truly dead. Just 30 years after the events of Punking Out, not only has been the music been totally co-opted and sanitized for the masses, but Joey, Dee Dee and Johnny Ramone have all passed away within the past five years; Helen Wheels died in 2000; the Dead Boys' front-man Stiv Bators died in 1990 after being hit by a car. And, perhaps most sad of all, the infamous CBGB's will close its doors for good on September 30, 2006 after being forced out by the Bowery Residents' Committee, which will turn the place into a Gap or some other nefarious chain store. CBGB's owner Hilly Kristal, who also makes an appearance in Punking Out, plans on relocating sometime in Las Vegas in the future.