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MidwestMike
Reviews
Akumu no erebêtâ (2009)
Quirky, low-budget black comedy
"Elevator Trap" is a goofy, enjoyable movie that reminded me of "Pulp Fiction". Some oddball characters are thrown together in a preposterous, non-linear narrative that mostly plays for laughs even though it has its share of gore, suspense and plot twists. Yes, most of the movie takes place inside an elevator, but don't let that scare you away.
I admit, the baseball framing device confused me (maybe you have to be Japanese to understand). And some of the elevator conversation is tedious, mainly because you don't know its significance til the end of the movie. It's still worth a look if you don't mind subtitles.
And stick around to the end of the credits for one last scene, even though it really isn't necessary if you've been paying attention to the story.
Fat Head (2009)
A reasonable rebuttal to "Super Size Me"
When I saw Super Size Me a couple years ago, I thought it was hilarious, even though I didn't totally buy its anti-McDonalds agenda. Morgan Spurlock pigged out at McDonalds, 3 meals-a-day for 30 days, resulting in a weight gain of 25 pounds and an overall decline in his mental and physical health. This hardly comes as a surprise - I suspect he would have had similar results no matter what restaurant he had chosen to gorge himself in. Gluttony is bad, m'kay? .
Fat Head is a counterargument that's interesting but not quite as entertaining. In this movie, Tom Naughton eats fast food for 28 days and actually loses 12 pounds and lowers his cholesterol. This isn't surprising, either, as he follows a disciplined, moderate-carb approach instead of all-you-can-eat. The fairly obvious conclusion is that what matters isn't where you eat, but the choices you make after you've walked in the door.
Initially, Fat Head does some point-by-point rebuttals of Spurlock's documentary, but then it morphs into a general discussion of what exactly constitutes an unhealthy diet. Yep, it's the perennial low-fat vs. low-carb argument, with Naughton and the experts he interviews coming down solidly in the low-carb camp. There are zealots on both sides of that issue, so I imagine many will give this movie a 1-star or 10-star rating automatically on ideological grounds alone. For the rest of us, it's a good, sometimes funny introduction to low-carb philosophy.
Combover: The Movie (2005)
Unnecessary roughness
From the title alone, I figured this documentary would be a lighthearted take on the odd phenomenon of the combover. What I didn't expect was that the filmmakers would choose to spice it up with "ambush journalism" tactics that are much more mean-spirited than the subject warrants. There are many scenes of director/writer Marino stalking men on the street, aiming his camera down at their combovers before even asking for their consent to be interviewed. When he gets a hostile response (a frequent occurrence which doesn't surprise me at all), he walks away cackling. Clearly this guy enjoys embarrassing strangers - I'm glad he didn't choose acne or obesity as his subject matter.
Anybody with a conscience will cringe at these moments of cruelty. As goofy-looking as combovers can be, this is still a touchy subject of male self-esteem and midlife insecurity. The documentary is redeemed somewhat by thoughtful commentary from academics, barbers and other cooperating interview subjects. Especially engaging are interviews with a few good-natured combover-ers who are surprisingly willing to talk about their odd hairstyles. These guys show a basic decency and humility that the filmmakers sorely lacked.
Park Row (1952)
Excruciatingly preachy
When the phrase "written, produced and directed by" appears in a movie's credits, watch out. In some cases, the result is a masterpiece, created by a visionary whose work is undiluted by lesser minds' tinkering. But too often this phrase means you're seeing the narrow-minded indulgence of an unchecked ego. Unfortunately, "Park Row" falls in the latter category. The flimsy plot and improbable romance are just vehicles to carry Fuller's pontifications on the nobility of the journalism profession.
The film is not without its merits. You get an interesting introduction to the mechanics of newspaper publishing and the technical / marketing innovations that characterized the business in the late 19th century. And the camera work is often striking (although like Welles and Scorcese, sometimes it seems the director is just showing off). Maybe the biggest plus of this movie is that it's mercifully short. The sermon is over in 83 minutes, then the preacher lets us go home.