THE BOOK THIEF

year: 2013 cast: Sophie Nélisse, Geoffrey Rush, Emily Watson, Ben Schnetzer, Nico Liersch rating: *** 

There have been films narrated by the deceased. AMERICAN BEAUTY first comes to mind, and some others – but to mention these by name would be a spoiler… And a few (including an obscure Western titled FIVE BLOODY GRAVES) are narrated by Death himself. And yet, in this particular case, he doesn’t sound formidable, sinister or cold. In fact, a very gentle-voiced Grim Reaper's quite taken and moved by the main character…

Well he’s onto something because Liesel, played by Sophie Nélisse, is the best thing about THE BOOK THIEF, centering on a young girl who, adopted by a common family living in a German ghetto during the throes of Nazi rule… and then the beginning stages of World War II… steals books that aren’t allowed by Hitler... Basically, anything the Furor didn’t write.

Some of the more heartfelt scenes involve Liesel with her adaptive father, Hans. Geoffrey Rush is good as always, his kindhearted character liken to the LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL dad, wielding a creative method to alter the harsh reality of Hitler's takeover, making his child feel comfortable, if oblivious, to the approaching storm. In this case, allowing Liesel to read voraciously and then to, after memorizing important words, write on the basement wall where the family's hiding a young Jewish man named Max.

Sophie Nélisse is Liesel in THE BOOK THIEF

Liesel and Max bond together through literature – mostly stuff remembered of what she’s allowed to read at a society woman’s home. More lighthearted scenes, where the friends poke fun at Hitler, seem more catered to the audience than a genuine, personal connection… Their best moments are through the stories. And the only worthy suspense relies on if and when Max will be caught by authorities, which would put the entire family in jeopardy.

On the peripheral, and taking us into the daylight, is Liesel’s friendship with a young boy her age, blond and blue-eyed, typical of the German youth of that era. With a Fascist-loving bully dogging their heals, much of the scenes play off like an AFTERSCHOOL SPECIAL or perhaps a wartime version of MY GIRL.

The more interesting parts occur indoors, relating to her parents, Hans and Rosa. As the wife, Emily Watson has the most noticeable character arc, going from a henpecking, irritated wife to a woman with passion and strength. The couple are polar opposites yet seem like they’ve been together, forever, through thick and thin.

Unfortunately, the film never centers long enough of each of Liesel’s eclectic friendships to make them matter as a whole. It’s almost like watching a collection of vignettes as opposed to a thoroughly structured story. But the emotional range of the lovely and talented Sophie Nélisse is what really matters. Like Death himself, you’ll be very impressed.

Sophie Nélisse is Liesel in THE BOOK THIEF

OUT OF THE FURNACE

year: 2013 cast: Christian Bale, Casey Affleck, Woody Harrelson, Willem Dafoe, Sam Shepard rating: **

Woody Harrelson’s Harlan DeGroat is a bad ass, but more of a bad date… At the drive-in theater with his girl, he forces a hotdog into her mouth and abuses her physically. After which, he beats up a man who felt his chivalric duty to step in… Harlan won’t have none of that.

Meanwhile, in a town close by yet worlds apart, Christian Bale is Russell Baze, a factory worker with a sick dad; a mellow uncle; and a little brother about to go to Iraq: A lean, wound-up Casey Affleck is Rodney Baze, and like cinematic icons Charles Bronson and Clint Eastwood, he takes part in illegal warehouse fights.

These quick brawls are as good as things get, for a while. The film skips around as Bale’s Russell goes in and out of jail, loses his girlfriend, and argues with his determined (war vet) brother in choppy montage sequences not only seen in the prolonged theatrical trailer, but still resembling one. The blue collar siblings do seem real, extremely real, but they aren't that interesting nor given a chance to be.

The best scenes in OUT OF THE FURNACE actually brings us closer to the fire – this involves the return of Harrelson’s sinister Harlan, who, it turns out, is a redneck meth dealing/dope shooting psychopath and, oddly enough, the most "fleshed-out" character on board… He does very bad things, one in particular, and this morphs our tough but tender anti-hero into the kind of guy to finally root for…

When Russell decides to do something, he's got his whole heart in the matter. Too bad he wasn’t pushed a lot sooner.

LYNN BORDEN ON BLACK MAMA, WHITE MAMA

LYNN BORDEN played a lusty guard in the low budget import BLACK MAMA, WHITE MAMA with Pam Grier as a woman imprisoned overseas… 

The White Mama doesn't refer to Lynn's character... She's only in the first act: bullying sexy vixens stuck in a hellish prison before Pam and a white inmate take to the road, handcuffed together like THE DEFIANT ONES... 

But off-screen, Lynn had her own melodrama when she fell upon bad luck, weeks before she would appear in WALKING TALL back home...

You were in BLACK MAMA, WHITE MAMA, which was shot in the Philippines…

Oh was it ever… It was shot in the Philippines and they were having an uproar over there, and they declared Marshall Law while we were making the movie. We had a bulletproof car, bulletproof glass and all that. Every time we went anywhere… when we went to shoot something or whatever… we had to have that, and we were guarded and everything else. And we’d just go through – they would be shooting in some certain place, and we would go by and say, “We’re making a film,” and we’d just go right on. It was amazing.

And then we’d finish… We’d get back to the hotel and we were really careful what we ate – because they had typhoid fever. And of course I got it. I didn’t know I had it. I didn’t know because I didn’t know what… I just didn’t know I had it. But I knew that I was gonna start WALKING TALL [with Joe Don Baker] in another couple weeks, and I had to get out of there. I had to finish the film and get back to the U.S., and then get to Tennessee to do WALKING TALL.

And I remember when they finally said, “Okay you can…” You know… They can send me home. And they said there aren’t going to be any planes going back to the U.S. And I’m going, “Oh my God, I’ve just lost this great part in WALKING TALL, and I’m sick and all of this.” So finally there was one plane that was leaving, and first they were gonna go to Australia, and then go from Australia to LA, but luckily I got out.

And I saved all the newspapers with all these little, you know… about what kind of typhoid and what was going on. And when I got home I went to the doctor and said, “This is what was going on and I gotta get well.” So he saw the test, and said, “Thank you for keeping these records because this helps me tell what…” I guess there’re different types of it. So he told me what kind I had and said, “You’re not gonna give this to anybody, you’re past that.” So he said, “Don’t tell anyone you have it, just keep your mouth closed. And no one will know, but everybody will be fine.”

You played a bullying prison guard in this movie…

I also played a lesbian… That was so far from me, so I thought… I called a friend of mine, who’s a writer, and said, “You gotta help me understand this role.” So we went to a few bars… And things like that, he took me… So I did a lot of research on that kind of thing [laughs]. So it was fun to do because it was different for me. It was a challenge.

And your character sets her sites on Pam Grier…

At one point I slap her. And I didn’t slap her; it was just a few inches away… But it sure looks that way. We were intense and she’s a great gal to work with. She’s got the longest legs I think I’ve ever known. And she said that she had a kid in her neighborhood... And on the way home from school she would have to run from boys. So she would run – and just run so fast... And I thought that’s really interesting because she was this beautiful girl and had these long legs and could run like a leopard, just really amazing.

LYNN BORDEN INTERVIEW BY JAMES TATE AND FOR THE ENTIRE PODCAST (WHERE THEY DISCUSS OTHER FILMS LIKE "FROGS" AND "WALKING TALL") CLICK THIS LINK AND SEARCH AND TAKE A LISTEN...

SHARKS AND WORD SALADS ON BAYWATCH

title: BAYWATCH: SHARK'S COVE year: 1992 cast: Blake Gibbons, Billy Warlock, Belinda Balaski rating: ****

“Are we gonna walk with the Cowardly Lion, and we can get some snow, maybe, and angle ourselves at the moon?”

Beware of the first season of BAYWATCH on DVD… it’s really the second season… Under the steady eye of David Hasselhoff’s Mitch are still, from the actual original season, Erika Eleniak as Shauni McClain and Billy Warlock as Eddie Kramer...

Only Parker Stevenson, who co-starred in a legitimately good lifeguard movie aptly titled LIFEGUARD in the seventies, is missing – there needed only one chief on the beach and that was Mitch Buchannan!

Blake Gibbons as Bobby Kramer reaching out to an invisible victim

“Jack and the Beanstalk might eat Peter Rabbit before the kidney beans open up and slide off the curb to play golf…”

This particular revisited episode is from the second season (although you can find it on the first season DVD), and centers on… no, not Mitch but… junior lifeguard Eddie, who reunites with his older brother, Bobby, a schizophrenic who speaks "word salads," a term explained by his doctor as randomly spouting confusing sentences out of the blue, like:

“The inch of the curve lets you see the praying mantis, Eddie.” 

"This is only the beginning of your career, and merely a guest spot... You'll move on... Or not..."

On the peripheral is a mystery involving a shark attack… Straight out of JAWS with a ripped-off John Williams theme playing from a Casio keyboard, a pretty girl and her boyfriend take a midnight away-from-the-beach-party swim, and she's attacked and pulled under water… Later on, Shauni investigates and finds out a thing or two.

This story pales to the real one, and although the title of the episode is SHARK’S COVE, the real stuff centers on the oddball dialogue of Billy’s big brother Bobby, played by character-actor Blake Gibbons – it took some creative writers (or perhaps actor improvisation) to come up with these lines, including this pop culture laden diatribe: 

“I guess in Chimichanga Mesa there was a massive explosion to the ovaries, and you damn well better know that Mr. Ed knows who shot Liberty Valance… But I don’t know.”

Belinda Balaski, Cult Film Freak's second interview ever, plays a worried mother

At one point, Eddie leaves his brother Bobby alone on the beach… Bobby, wanting to be a lifeguard and, after stealing his brother’s garb and orange floaty, is given his first task – to find the missing son of a panicked woman, played by one of Cult Film Freak’s favorite actresses, Belinda Balaski, who became cinematic fish lunch in PIRANHA and wolf supper in THE HOWLING…

When she desperately asks the “lifeguard” for help, Bobby replies: “Maybe grasshoppers are on operating tables and mom ran away with the tin man."

After which, Belinda’s shocked reaction is priceless.

Bobby Kramer (Blake Gibbons) stressed about his new "job" on the beach

All joking aside, playing the part of a rambling skitzo, Blake Gibbons does a realistic acting job in one of the all-time great pre Pamela Anderson BAYWATCH episodes… Blake is a character actor who still turns up on the big and small screen, and is best known for his reoccuring role as Coleman Ratcliffe on GENERAL HOSPITAL...

And if you haven’t guessed already, this entire write-up is merely an excuse to transcribe those wonderfully strange word salads, appearing here on the web for the first (and probably last) time ever…

So always remember: “The points meet, and there are too many hamburgers.”

Billy Warlock with Blake Gibbons

Blake Gibbons looking like a jock version of Jack Black

Hasselhoff, do you take this Jaekel to be your lawfully wedded lifeguard?

INTO THE BLUE W/ PAUL WALKER

year: 2005 cast: Paul Walker, Jessica Alba, Scott Caan, Ashley Scott, Josh Brolin, Tyson Beckford rating: ***1/2

A combination of THE DEEP, centering on an American skin-diving couple living in the Bahamas, and JAWS, for obvious reasons, INTO THE BLUE has steamy Noir elements and, putting the gorgeous location, daring stunts and real killer fish aside, it’s a completely worthwhile character-driven vehicle.

Paul Walker’s lean, resilient Jared is built for the sea… With his girlfriend Sam, played by Jessica Alba, they’re the perfect match. Honest and hardworking, Jared’s constantly on the verge of going broke yet still wants nothing to do with his former boss, Josh Brolin’s Bates, a big money treasure hunter so charming and shifty you know he’s hiding something for later on.

Scott Caan as Bryce in INTO THE SEA

The real instigator is one of the good guys… Scott Caan as Bryce, a young slick lawyer, lights a spark right off the bat, supplying not only one of his client’s mansions but a boat that, unlike Jared’s vessel, actually floats.

Along with his brand new girlfriend Amanda, Bryce is the character who could make enough vapid mistakes, or perhaps just one, to put the group’s lives in jeopardy, but only after a fleshed-out first half replete with beautiful free-diving scenes involving a sunken pirate ship and, close by, an sunken airplane loaded with bags of cocaine.

Paul Walker as Jared and Scott Caan as Bryce

Bryce, despite his knee-jerk decisions and a stubborn drive for a fast buck, still comes around to Jared’s logical way of thinking… It would be crazy to sell the cocaine for enough money to figure a way to legally dig up the pirate ship… Or would it?

Some of Paul Walker’s best moments occur when he's arguing with Caan... Both actors, friends in real life, have terrific chemistry and keep the story rolling, especially during the first hour. The late FAST AND FURIOUS actor wields an energetic passion that feels both intense and genuine. But for the story’s sake, it takes our sexy femme fatalle to really get things rolling…

Ashley Scott adds spice and intrigue as Amanda

While Jessica Alba is stalwart and daring, Ashley Scott’s Amanda is the unpredictable wild card of the group… Since you never quite know where she stands or what she's thinking, Scott injects an edgy Noir vibe into this otherwise mainstream thriller. Her flirtatious double-dealing with local drug traffickers becomes the real game changer...

The cocaine belongs to a not-so-surprising lead villain, and the third act gets a bit convoluted as the surviving cast, trying to dig up the gold in time, are fully masked and, no longer free-diving, it’s hard to tell the characters apart. Like the finale of the Bond classic THUNDERBALL, there are simply too many unrecognizable cooks in the soup for the audience to keep score.

Jessica Alba and Paul Walker comfortably donning swimwear

According to BLUE CRUSH director John Stockwell, who began as an actor in films like CHRISTINE and TOP GUN and is partial to making sea-set, bikini-clad melodramas, they used very little computer effects – the actors and actresses had to swim around with real tiger sharks…

Keep this in mind while watching and/or re-watching INTO THE BLUE… It makes the whole trip that much better, while the gorgeous location and cutthroat (albeit toned down for a PG-13 rating) action sequences justify too many extreme close-ups and the sporadic use of corny dialogue – although the pulpy stuff just might have been intentional.

One of many actual tiger sharks... There could have been a shark union for this movie

Jessica Alba remains the most centered character...

Ashley Scott as Amanda soaking in the sunshine

There are sharks and bikinis and bare chests, but deep down this is a sunken treasure flick, and a pretty good one...

BRUCE DERN IN NEBRASKA

year: 2013 cast: Bruce Dern, Will Forte, June Squibb, Stacy Keach, Rance Howard, Bob Odenkirk rating: ****

Will Forte has an interesting face, his mouth naturally curved to a frown. Not that his mellow, put-upon David Grant has much to celebrate. His girlfriend dumped him and his aged father Woody, played by veteran actor Bruce Dern, is bent on taking a trip from Montana to Nebraska after receiving a Mega Sweepstakes Marketing Prize in the mail.

David knows it’s a scam to sell magazines, but Woody, a lifelong drinker, will make the trip if he has to walk… Not an easy task given his frail physical and mental status… Thankfully, David decides to give poor dad a ride.

Like director Alexander Payne’s SIDEWAYS and ABOUT SCHMIDT, this deadpan odyssey is a “road movie” fully epitomizing the genre, although most of the time’s spent sidetracked at Woody’s home town where his brother… and then later on, several brothers… aren’t much different in tone: passive and mundane “men of few words.” But Woody has a destination and the entire town thinks he’s a millionaire already...

Bruce Dern confronts Stacy Keach in NEBRASKA

Enter the chief antagonist played by Stacy Keach who, like Dern himself, is known for edgy roles during the 70’s and ‘80s… His laidback yet investigative Ed Pegram likes to drink and hang around the local tavern, and now there’s an agenda – he wants a payoff along with Woody’s family, particularly two fat oddball nephews straight out of the Coen Brothers universe.

David becomes a shadow on the wall during in-house family scenes, and his barroom conversations with Keach are reminiscent of George Clooney and Beau Bridges in THE DESCENDANTS, a polite, friendly tone obscuring an underlying rancor.

Will Forte and Bob Odenkirk play brothers to contrary parents June Squibb and Bruce Dern

In a story replete with intentionally sparse characters, June Squibb is the obvious audience favorite as Woody’s sarcastic, foul-mouthed, hen-pecking wife Kate, stealing scenes not only because she has the funniest lines. Like the rest of the cast, she's a complete natural, more realistic than your typical actress/actor playing down to cliché (but not condescending) small town mentality the director previously covered in ABOUT SCHMIDT (where June was Jack Nicholson's wife)...

In fact, NEBRASKA often feels like an extremely subtle art film satire, while the plush yet primitive B&W cinematography turns the titular state into a rustic hybrid of paradise and purgatory… Some of the best scenes are the scenery, taking place outside the window.

One of the best shots in the movie and an image closing the promotional trailer

Thanks to the gorgeous aesthetic, the odd casting of Will Forte can be forgiven – at first he's not that interesting but once you realize his fourth fiddle status to the location, journey, and especially his father, it all becomes perfectly clear...

Like James Taylor in TWO-LANE BLACKTOP, another road movie where location exceeds character, Forte's an awkward yet ultimately wise choice opposite Bruce Dern... Although whiny, the passive son exists beneath dad's rhythm instead of playing loggerhead to his unnerving, unapologetic neurosis. David Grant seems to have given up long ago, and despite being the driver on this trip, he’s merely along for the ride.

Bruce Dern stars as Woody Grant in NEBRASKA directed by Alexander Payne

Meanwhile, the “man of the hour,” Bruce Dern… in a role one that garnered the Cannes Award and is (probably) destined for an Oscar nod… seems almost too authentic. The sporadic dialogue and a few blunt moments of passion aside, his expressions are what really matter…

Woody's a man who has kept everything inside while traces of a buried life seep out from his gentle, timeworn face, painfully etched with age and mileage but not without a faint glimmer of hope, no matter how unavailing and desperately futile: therein lies the mystery and adventure of NEBRASKA.

Bruce Dern and Will Forte take in the sites of NEBRASKA and here's a bonus interview selection...

Actress MISSY DOTY played Cammie the waitress in SIDEWAYS and is Will Forte's ex girlfriend in NEBRASKA

Working with Alexander is a dream for any actor... because he's an actor's director. What I mean by that is he lets you do your work and gently guides you so that he can let the camera discover the character as it comes to life... much like an audience member watching the characters come to life on screen.  

Working on Sideways was so much fun... the whole crew, production team, cast... we all felt like family. And it's highly known that Alexander is loyal to anyone who works with him, so walking onto the set of NEBRASKA, it was like coming home... Comfortable and welcoming.

Alexander Payne, Cult Film Freak's favorite director as of late, directing Bruce Dern in NEBRASKA

FROZEN

year: 2013 voices: Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Jonathan Groff, Josh Gad, Chris Williams rating: ***1/2

The hills are alive… with the sound of… bland pop songs with corny lyrics describing what could easily be spoken, sung by characters who aren’t very interesting…

Well that’s what the casual viewer might think, at first, about FROZEN, a computer animated Disney musical about two sisters, one that happens to be an Ice Queen… Anyone not familiar with their chilly powers can revisit the first NARNIA film…

Although this particular snowy witch is good, deep down, only she can’t control her spells. Especially when her more normal, naïve sibling is old enough to not only engage the first guy she meets, but on the same day she meets him. That's when an extremely angry Elsa morphs the kingdom of Arendelle into eternal winter.

The adventure improves once the adventure actually begins. After an overlong, somewhat ponderous prologue, Anna, our tomboy black sheep heroine, journeys to find Elsa, holed up in a giant ice castle atop a mountain far enough away for a worthy trek… Here’s where the characters worth developing are introduced…

The charging Sven the Reindeer remains in charge of his quirky master Kristoff

Having kept her charming fiancé at home, Anna is teamed with clumsy, sweet, subliminal love interest Kristoff who, with his pet reindeer Sven, interact like a frolicking version of Princess Leia, Han Solo and Chewbacca. But the scene-stealing comic relief is Josh Gad’s neurotic snowman Olaf, providing genuine laughs while bringing the group closer together.

There’s an exciting homage to KING KONG when Anna and Kristoff confront a formidable ice monster, summoned by Elsa, who yearns to remain a tortured, brooding recluse… Meanwhile, Anna’s slowly dying from her sister’s curse and only an act of true love can save her.

This perfectly melodramatic do-or-die element is both heartfelt and suspenseful, making FROZEN an above-average kid’s movie that… despite the irritatingly uncatchy songs and a cliché money-hungry villain (albeit he's surpassed by an unexpected, more sinister foe)… is a thoroughly fun ride to keep adults equally engaged.

A movie that vastly improves once the songs taper off and the adventure begins...