Chatty Aliens
by Kirk Vanderbeek

Cocoon (1985)
Hey, chatty aliens, thanks for dropping your mega space turd into the pool. Now we’ve got senior citizens running around town popping boners left and right. Great. Do we really need to see Wilford Brimley waltzing down the street warning people about their diabetes with a geriatric stiffy testing the elasticity of his sweatpants? Stop talking to us, unzip your human suits, assume your glowing light forms and take your turd back home.

Species (1995)
You know, it’s all fun and games humping a hot, horny alien, until someone gets a tongue through the back of their head. So, this alien didn’t chat all that much, but you can’t really blame her, she usually had her mouth full of … someone else’s mouth. The big question this film begs is: “Sir Ben … why? Why, Sir Ben!?” Seriously, what the fuck is he doing here? No one invited you to B-movie night, Sir Ben. Make like a tree … and get Gandhi.

Contact (1997)
So, there you are. You’ve just taken the biggest chance of your life, you’ve put yourself at risk flying through wormholes into unknown reaches of space in order to make contact with some extraterrestrial life … and you do! So, what do they look like? Oh … it looks like … your dad. The alien looks just like your dad. And what does he tell you? “Cool. Nice work. We made contact. Well … until the next time!” And back you come. Great. Thanks for the chat.

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Frost/Nixon
Starring Frank Langella, Michael Sheen, Sam Rockwell, Kevin Bacon, Matthew Macfayden, Oliver Platt and Rebecca Hall. Written by Peter Morgan. Directed by Ron Howard. Rated R.
by Kirk Vanderbeek

After Richard Nixon was booted from office, much of the nation was still disgusted with the man (who was so clearly guilty as sin), particularly since Gerald Ford had granted the man an irritating full pardon. And then, three years after the fact, Nixon finally arranged for a no-holds-barred, one-on-one interview with a most unexpected journalist: British talk show host David Frost. After putting his career, reputation and money (and that of many others) on the line, Frost engaged Nixon in a series of three interviews. And while they didn’t go well at first (the heavyweight match would have been dubbed Tricky Dick vs. Frozen Frost), the interviews eventually heated up, becoming a piece of political television history.

Director Ron Howard has assembled an incredible cast to flesh out this story, and everybody on-screen brings the goods – particularly Frank Langella and Michael Sheen as Nixon and Frost respectively. And while Howard might not necessarily have a knack for creating reality, he’s more than capable or crafting a great cinematic feeling. He knows how to pace and he knows how to shoot, making him very well-suited to popular cinema. (I think he learned it all from Andy Griffith …)

Frost/Nixon shares a tonal similarity to the equally effective Quiz Show, and with its brilliant power play between two people with their reputations on the line, it achieves a helluva lot more than this year’s disappointing W. did. This is a quality film, folks. | RDW

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Nothing Like the Holidays
Starring Alfred Molina, Elizabeth Pena, Freddy Rodriguez, Luis Guzman, Jay Hernandez, John Leguizamo and Debra Messing. Written by Alison Swan and Rick Najera. Directed by Alfredo De Villa. Rated PG-13.
by Kirk Vanderbeek

Right from the start of this film, I was smiling, surprised to find that an effortless Christmas feeling was being easily instilled within me. I had expected some sort of holiday dreck, but this cast was really selling me on their version of the holidays (which I hear there’s nothing like).

This Latino family (including some extended friends) is populated by parents with a pending divorce, a failing Hollywood starlet, an Iraq War vet just back from a tour, his long-lost love, some gangstas, a white woman, etc. etc. Most of the cast is quality and the story manages to fairly deftly balance the drama with the laughs, though the latter half makes an unfortunate attempt to dive too deeply into the darker interiors of our characters’ lives, causing a bit too much wear and tear on the narrative.

Despite these issues, this is a script that likely should have been entirely bogged down by clichés and stereotypes, and believe me, some of them are very much present, but Nothing Like the Holidays is written and acted with a spark of inspiration that shines through. As soon as it starts getting too cheesy, an offhanded moment resurrects it — two young adults dancing and lip-syncing to “I Wanna Sex You Up” in a bedroom is a lame moment saved by Luis Guzman popping in the doorway and lisping, “Were you two kissing?” Not hilarious, but still an effective lifesaver. The flick might kind of fall apart near the end, but there’s a lot here to like. | RDW

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Beauty in Trouble
Starring Anna Geislerova, Roman Luknar, Jana Brejchova, Jiri Schmitzer and Emilia Vasaryova. Written by Petr Jarchovsky. Directed by Jan Hrebejk. Not rated. Now playing at Landmark’s Maple Art Theatre.
by Jeff Milo

A captivating story of a beautiful woman tangled in the trying shit-storm of family dysfunction, bad decisions, lingering political tensions and the survivor’s guilt of maybe, just maybe, finding (a shred of) happiness.

Beauty In Trouble tells the tale of Marcela, a sexy travel agent with an unapologetic bite, still-yet-young at 32, but saddled with two kids (one fighting asthma, the other entering puberty), and battling a brutish, unappreciative husband, Jarda, who steals and strips cars to make a living through the tough times that followed after a tremendous flood hit their home in Prague. When her husband’s shady source of income gets him arrested, Marcela ends up befriending a suave, handsome aging bachelor Evzen, who happens to not only own a villa in Tuscany, but also be the most charming, sweetest guy in town. While Marcela works towards a divorce from Jarda, her heart leads her towards Evzen, and towards an awkward but still romantic courtship while hubby wilts in jail.

Marcela, meanwhile, is all too happy to, essentially, fall into the amicable arms of Evzen, giving her reprieve from her parents, the doting and submissive mother and the vindictive, shameless bastard father (not to mention the creepy clutches of her ex-communist-turned-religious-fanatic mother-in-law). But this is only the half of it —emphasizing the pressure-cooker web weaved for the distraught Marcela by all the peripheral characters, each extremely eccentric and well-developed, and each equally troubling as she simply tries to find her way. | RDW

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The Anderson Tapes
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
DVD

The Anderson Tapes is a somewhat hidden gem from the ‘70s that only recently received a DVD release in the US as part of a series of Sony films being called Martini Movies. From a marketing standpoint it’s a pretty clever idea to release, as a set, a random handful of films that could easily have wallowed in obscurity that essentially share as their only common thread an element of “coolness”. And who better to kick the series off than Mr. Martini himself? He of the eponymous Mr. Bond: Sean Connery.

As a big fan of ‘70s cinema, it was an absolute joy to discover The Anderson Tapes, a heist film that features all the familiar and welcome trappings of the decade: from the trademarked score to the yellow bubble-letter titles to the wildly diverse and distinct characters, this movie even boasts the filmic introduction of Christopher Walken. Between Walken and Connery you’ve got two of the world’s most distinctive enunciators of all time onscreen together … I’m sure there’s some sort of drinking game to be crafted here. Might I recommend using martinis?

Which brings me to my only complaint about the Martini Movies series: I’ve watched a couple of them now (others include The New Centurions, The Garment Jungle, Affair in Trinidad, Dollars and more) and I’ve yet to see anyone drink a single martini. The themed martini recipes printed onto each film’s disc are a fine touch, but it’d be nice to be able to figuratively toast a likewise drinking character or two. Drinking with a movie character isn’t drinking alone, right?

… Right?  — KIRK VANDERBEEK

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The Flaming Lips
Christmas on Mars
Warner Bros.

The Flaming Lips have finally debuted their film, Christmas on Mars, and in doing so released it in a fantastic package with its corresponding soundtrack. It's alomst as if Space Odyssey met Bowie’s “Space Oddity” — a perfect blend of film score and psychedelic pop genius. Despite the fact there are no lyrics or any of the usual flamboyance one would usually associate with Wayne Coyne and co., Christmas on Mars is infinitely interesting in its lush space sound landscapes. The only thing that could make this more fun would be if the stars of the movie, including Steve Burns of Blues Clues, got a little more involved and took it truly out of this stratosphere. — ERIC ALLEN

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cult coffin
Le Cercle Rouge

This 1970 French film is literally the definition of cool. Well, OK … not literally. Merriam and Webster would likely disagree with me on that … but regardless, this is as slick as cinema gets. You’ve got tough-as-nails, fedora-sporting, trench coat-clad gangsters, clouds of cigarette smoke and jewel heists — all constructed with the very sparsest of dialogue. That shit’s just plain cool, daddy-o. — KIRK VANDERBEEK

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Seven Pounds' Will Smith & Rosario Dawson
On Embracing Character and Each Other
by Kirk Vanderbeek

You’ve likely seen the trailer for Seven Pounds at some point by now, and you’ve just as likely found yourself asking, “So … what’s that movie about, anyway?” I wish I could tell you. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I have neither seen the movie nor understand its story; it’s simply that the film completely hinges on this sense of the unknown, which, I must tell you, makes Seven Pounds a difficult film to write about.

It also creates something of a challenge for the film’s stars, Will Smith and Rosario Dawson, when speaking with the press. They can convey their palpable passion, and we in turn can relate it to you, but our words must be choosy, our descriptions oblique, our plot-points kept dulled so as not to puncture the bubble of mystery. Man, have I just perpetuated this film’s mythos or what? Well, what I can say is this: Will Smith portrays Ben Thomas, a man who spends the course of the film seeking out seven strangers who meet his criteria in order for him to consider drastically changing their lives. One of these seven is Emily Posa, as portrayed by Rosario Dawson — a woman desperately in need of a heart transplant who, despite the weakness of her own, causes Ben’s heart to pump in ways it hasn’t for years.

There’s a natural chemistry that one hopes two stars of a film will have, and while I can testify to the authenticity of their onscreen chemistry, I don’t know how well they play off of each other in a small room full of journalists, as we spoke to these celebrities separately. But this affords a whole other opportunity, one in which they can candidly discuss the same topic without the influence of the other’s presence.

EMBRACING CHARACTER
Actors can often draw on something within themselves when bringing a character to life, but what if one rejects their onscreen counterpart? In discussing their almost unheard of five rehearsal weeks that preceded their two months of shooting, Rosario Dawson describes, “The chemistry between these two characters was so important, and we worked through the entire script from beginning to end and changed a lot of things, and we would do the scenes over and over and over again, trying to find our place and pushing ourselves. So it was incredible, we really fell in love with these characters. Will, towards the end, hated Ben. I continued to fall in love with Emily, but Will started getting really over Ben, and that was interesting to sort of work through.” She laughs, adding, “You know, he was incredibly gracious and amazing throughout almost all of it, up until that point where he was really resisting and fighting being this person, and ultimately that’s because Ben was fighting being who he was, as well. And that was really interesting, just seeing how far we were falling into these characters. It was incredible; I was really grateful to be working with someone as committed and as great of an actor as Will is.”

Will Smith, in turn, describes his reaction to Ben as “a self-examination; a self-exploration.” He explains, “Jada said something to me a few months ago, she said it’s funny how much I was rejecting this character, she was like, ‘You know that you are Ben, right?’ I was like, ‘What?’ She was like, ‘The reason you’re so nice, and the reason you fight so hard to be up-tone is because you’re at war with that guy inside of you.’ I was like, ‘Damn, deep lady!’” And with a laugh that booms through the room, Will finds that “up-tone” light in his soul’s deep depths and spreads it around the table.

“If there’s been a movie in my career that I would say changed my life, it’s Seven Pounds,” Will adds. “Not Independence Day?” someone quips. “Not Independence Day!” he laughs. “I mean, when I punched that alien and said, ‘Welcome to Earth,’ that was a huge moment!”

EMBRACING EACH OTHER
When you picture a love scene with Will Smith (and don’t tell me you haven’t), you probably don’t picture this:

“Will is shockingly shy about intimacy,” says Rosario. “I mean he pushed our kiss scenes even, for weeks, like to the point where I started getting really nervous about my breath. It started to get down to the little details of going,” Rosario bounces breath off of her hand, inhaling the rebound. “I mean, ‘Seriously? It’s not that bad! We don’t have to totally do tongue … we can work on this.’”

Will explains, “My worst nightmare is for an actress to come on my set and feel like I’m taking this as an opportunity to get a little quickie feel, you know, some legal cheatin’ goin’ on … I just … I need, specifically women, to be comfortable around me, I just don’t wanna feel like I’m … that dude. And doing a love scene and, you know, her clothes are off and all that, it just puts me in my defensive space, but it also hurts the acting if I’m in that space; you gotta feel free, and your hand can brush up against her,” his hand rubs across an imaginary breast, “and it’s not, ‘Oh, excuse me.’”

Rosario smiles her arresting smile and informs us, “I mean it was such a big deal, talking about having Jada there, it was kinda getting awkward at a certain point. I remember actually going into the scene where we’re kissing … the way we revved up into that was Will standing outside going, ‘Yeah! We gonna get this scene! Whooo! Yeah! I’m ready to go today!’ And I was like, ‘You haven’t done that for the past 55 days, why today, babe? You’re kinda freakin’ me out, I need a little bit of calm to go into this. I need some candles, some nice music, and you’re screaming at me like we’re about to play football or something.’ It was so sweet; everyone could tell he was really, really nervous. So I just was very gentle …”

With a loaded gun, a reporter later asks Will if Jada came to set the day of the love scene. Will shakes his head, “No, no, she didn’t come to the set. I asked her to, she was like, ‘Are you stupid?’”  | RDW

Seven Pounds opens 12/19

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