Ripley’s Game (2002) Liliana Cavani

If you’ve never heard of Ripley’s Game, you’re not alone. Most moviegoers missed the film, largely due to the fact that it was never released theatrically in America. At the time, the film’s distributor Fine Line (part of New Line Cinema) was so busy promoting the final film in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Return of the King, that Ripley’s Game got lost in the shuffle. As a result, many people never saw one of John Malkovich’s finest performances in what may be the best of the Ripley movies, which is no small feat. 

That list of films includes Purple Noon (1960), The American Friend (1977), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) and Ripley Under Ground (2004), with Tom Ripley portrayed by Alain Delon, Dennis Hopper, Matt Damon, and Barry Pepper respectively. Malkovich is a much older actor playing a much older Tom Ripley than in any of the other Ripley films and that maturity - both in the actor and the role - adds a tremendous amount of depth to the film. 

Malkovich’s Ripley has always known how to exist keeping his crimes under the radar. No, “exist” is rather inaccurate; Ripley knows how to thrive as a criminal, which he does living in an Italian villa with his wife and a large assortment of the finer things that money (stolen or earned, which is often the same thing) can buy. He’s always been confident, but now, approaching middle-age, Ripley is patient, precise, and unshakable. Oh, and deadly.  

At a dinner party, a man named Trevanny (Dougray Scott) tells a group of guests that his neighbor Tom Ripley is just another American with “too much money and no taste.” He says this just as Ripley enters the room, hearing Trevanny’s entire rant. The next few moments are priceless as Ripley completely controls the situation as the dinner guests hold their collective breath. 

One of Ripley’s former partners, a British man named Reeves (Ray Winstone) - whom Ripley can barely tolerate - needs Ripley to kill a man for him. Ripley refuses, but tells Reeves that no one would ever suspect someone who’s completely innocent, someone like Trevanny. Ripley reasons that Trevanny - who has a terminal illness - has nothing to lose and the job would help provide for his family after his death. But such things never turn out quite the way we expect. 

If you’ve read any of Patricia Highsmith’s Ripley novels or seen any of the aforementioned films, you know that Ripley is going to wreak some serious havoc, which he does. It should come as no surprise that Malkovich is certainly up to that task. Neither should it surprise you that the film includes several instances of dark humor, particularly in one scene on a train. What is surprising is that we see something of Tom Ripley’s humanity in some unexpected ways, both in the manner in which he treats women and in some of the revelations he experiences. Ripley’s Game is one of those films that’s intelligent, fun, suspenseful and well-acted, certainly one you should not miss.  

4/5

The Cooler (2003) Wayne Kramer

The Cooler is one of those films hardly anyone remembers or talks about just over 10 years after its release, although at the time it was nominated for (and in a few cases, won) several awards. The strength of the film lies in its performances. William H. Macy plays Bernie, a guy who works in a casino owned by a mobster named Shelly (Alec Baldwin). Bernie is a “cooler,” a guy so unlucky that his mere presence at a crap table, slot machine, card game - you name it - causes the person who’s on a winning streak to collapse in immediate and utter defeat. Bernie is a loser, but he’s a well-paid loser. One day his luck starts to change when he gets a casino waitress named Natalie (Maria Bello) out of a jam. 

The Cooler loses its cool when the Frank Hannah/Wayne Kramer screenplay hits us over the head a little too hard with too many examples both of Bernie’s hard luck and his change of luck. A subplot involving Bernie’s son and the son’s pregnant girlfriend doesn’t really work because we know they’re just there as a plot device that helps bring the film to its turning point. Those instances aren’t really deal breakers, at least not until we get to the final slow-motion gambling scenes and a completely implausible ending. Still, the performances - including a couple of short scenes with Paul Sorvino - make The Cooler worth a look. 

3/5

God Grew Tired of Us (2006)

A few months back I was talking to a guy from my church about films, documentaries in particular. He recommended that I see a documentary called God Grew Tired of Us. I thought that, if nothing else, it was an interesting title.

The film (directed by Christopher Quinn and narrated by Nicole Kidman) tells the larger story of southern Sudanese Christians who were driven out of their country by northern Sudan's Muslim Arabs during the second Sudanese Civil War (1983-2005). Thousands of refugees walked over 1,000 miles to northern Kenya for sanctuary, where their hollow, emaciated bodies sought food and shelter. (I warn you: the footage in this section is graphic.) Relief does come to many; several of these "Lost Boys" are given an opportunity to go to America where they might work to rescue those of their families who remain behind.

Yet the smaller story of three of these boys (men by this time) is the main focus of the film. Daniel Abol Pach and Panther Bior get placed in Pittsburgh, John Bul Dau in Syracuse, NY. While in America, they will have to earn enough money to first pay for their airfare to America before they can help support their families.



From this point, God Grew Tired of Us becomes a multifaceted film that touches on themes of joy, cultural confusion, adjustment, loneliness, striving, unrest and hope. These men have no idea how to react to American culture. Some of them have never even experienced electricity. Without realizing it, the men point out some of the less attractive aspects of American culture. After one year in America, Panther comments, "In the United States, people are not friendly. You can find someone that's walking in the street by himself, you know, don't even talk, you know. You cannot go to the house of somebody you don't know, though you are all Americans. They call the police and say, 'why did this guy come to my house? I don't know him." In one of the film's most telling scenes, John looks in wonder at all the Christmas lights, Christmas trees, all the signs of commercialism and says (paraphrase), "There are so many ways to celebrate Christmas here... All our people have is Jesus Christ."

The camera follows these men for three years during which time they work two or three jobs so they can send money home. It doesn't take long for them to understand that people working minimum wage jobs can't get very far. In one scene, John sits down, tired from all his work, and reflects on what life was like during the genocide in Sudan. He's clearly thankful for his new life in America, but longs to see his family again. He realizes that because of the genocide (which at this point is still going on), this may never happen. When he was a boy of thirteen in Sudan, one of his jobs was burying the bodies of the slaughtered. "I began to think," John reflects, "that God had given up on us."

God Grew Tired of Us shows us all the things we take for granted as Americans. It shows us what it's really like to be a stranger in a strange land. And it shows us the lengths that some people will go to in order to provide for the ones they love. I don't want to tell you too much more; I'd rather you see the film for yourself. Be prepared for an incredible experience.

Another Forgotten Film

Last night a woman came into the library with her two daughters who were getting library cards for the first time. They were probably twelve or thirteen and clearly excited. Were they interested in the Twilight books? No. When I asked "Can I help you find anything?" their answers were Pat Benatar and Joan Jett.

Wow. Two names you don't hear every day, not anymore. I found a couple of CDs and showed them where all the books on Rock n Roll are and they were very happy. For some reason the movie Light of Day (starring Joan Jett) popped into my mind. I mentioned it to the girls' mom and she said "I remember that movie. Haven't seen it in years."



I remember seeing that movie in a theater in 1987, thinking that it was good, despite the fact that it was not the rock n roll movie I was expecting. It starred Joan Jett (whom I remember delivered a surprisingly good performance) and Michael J. Fox. I even remember thinking, "I'd like to see this movie again someday" after it was over. But I never did.



Rock n roll was important in the film, but the central focus was family. Fox and Jett played a brother and sister who were in a rock n roll band, much to the displeasure of their parents. (Read Roger Ebert's review from 1987 for more details.) The film was directed by Paul Schrader, who wrote screenplays for Taxi Driver and Raging Bull and directed Cat People, American Gigolo and Mishima.

I'd love to see Light of Day again, but it's currently unavailable on Region 1 DVD.

Wise Blood (1979)

As far as I know (and I make no claims to know very much at all), John Huston's Wise Blood is the only existing feature film adaptation of a Flannery O'Connor work. If you've read any O'Connor at all, you can understand why. Her darkly comic, grotesque Southern tales of a fallen world and the promise (or hint of promise?) of redemption in Christ could easily misfire in a visual medium. But I believe Huston comes as close as anyone could.

As the film opens in an unnamed Southern town (which turns out to be Macon, Georgia), Hazel Motes (Brad Dourif) is coming home from military service. He's been in a war, but we don't know which one. Vietnam would be the obvious choice, but it doesn't take long before you realize your bearings are out of whack. The film was released in 1979, but the cars and the clothes appear older, as if Motes were parading through a cultural museum. Of course, that could all be explained by what many visitors to the South report after returning home: "It's the land that time forgot," or something to that effect.



Yet I digress. Motes returns to his childhood home, now long abandoned. He decides to head to "the city," takes a cab and is mistaken for a preacher. "I ain't a preacher," Motes says. "You look like one," the cab driver says and thus begins a mission for Motes, the founding of a Church of Christ without Christ where "the lame don't walk, the blind don't see and the dead stays that way."

What follows is a bizarre trip through a menagerie of misfits and oddities that would make David Lynch proud: Harry Dean Stanton as a blind preacher/beggar/con artist, Amy Wright as his daughter, a young, precocious Sabbath Lily Hawks and Ned Beatty in a brilliant but brief performance as Hazel's competition. Lest I forget, John Huston (billed in the credits as Jhon Huston) slips in and out of the picture as Hazel's fire-and-brimstone preacher grandfather.



As a narrative, many of the scenes just don't work, seeming to fall through the cracks. In one such scene, the slightly off-balance country boy Enoch Emery (Daniel Shor) becomes obsessed with a movie theater's promotional stunt in the form of a man wearing a gorilla costume. We know this is significant since Enoch works in a zoo, but it's a loose connection that's better developed in the novel. The same thing happens early in the film in a scene with a street peddler selling potato peelers. Dourif touches on these disconnects somewhat in one of the Criterion Collection disc's bonus features, stating that a film just can't capture everything O'Connor put on the page, which is true of just about every adaptation. (I point it out only in the hopes that you'll read the book!)

Yet Dourif's performance is a wonder to behold. Dourif's Motes has plenty of urgency but no joy. He (like the Misfit in O'Connor's most famous story "A Good Man Is Hard to Find") wants a world without Christ because he can't believe in Him. He can't believe in anything, yet makes statements that seem to be almost creed-like. In talking to mechanics about his junker of a car, Motes claims "This is a good car" and "A man with a good car don't need to be justified." This is an amazing performance. If you thought Dourif was good as Billy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (and he was), you'll be stunned at his portrayal of Hazel Motes.

So what is O'Connor (via Huston) trying to say? That there's nothing to believe in? Or is this a religious parable? A picture of Postmodern man? Again, if you've read much from O'Connor or know much about her life (She was a devout Roman Catholic.), the picture becomes clearer. Or does it?

Wise Blood is a fascinating, off-beat film that won't work for everyone, but could definitely generate some good discussion. (Huston filmed it just after the outstanding The Man Who Would be King and the forgettable Phobia.) Wise Blood may not be a film you'd want to own, but then again, it includes as a bonus feature an audio recording of Flannery O'Connor reading "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," the only known recording of O'Connor reading her work. That bonus feature alone is worth the price of the disc.

Inside Moves (1980)

It’s happened to me more times than I’d like to count: I remember with fondness some movie I saw in high school or college, then revisit it years later only to cringe with embarrassment at how bad it is. Such movies were probably just as bad when I initially saw them; I just didn’t have enough life experience at the time to know it.

Inside Moves was released in 1980, my senior year in high school. I probably saw it on HBO a year or two later, finding nothing else on TV on some cold, rainy afternoon. I do remember being sucked in by the film’s opening: a man walks into a building with a confident swagger, checking out a few attractive women on the way to an elevator which takes him to the building’s 10th floor. He enters an empty room, opens a window, perches himself on the ledge and jumps to the street below.

That scene is still effective nearly 30 years later, but I feared the remainder of the film would descend the slippery slope of sentimentality. The man who jumped, Roary (John Savage), survives the fall, but is left with a sideways crab-like walk. We still don’t know at this point why he jumped when he walks into Max’s Bar, a place where other disabled people seem to converge on a daily basis. Roary becomes slowly immersed into this world of crippled characters and the guy who runs the bar, Jerry (David Morse), a good basketball player who could be great, if only he could get his leg operated on.



Sounds like a cliche-ridden beginning, doesn’t it? But director Richard Donner (Superman, the Lethal Weapon series) handles the story with remarkable restraint. A couple of scenes feel forced and a bit heavy-handed, but the overall tenor of the film is quiet and reserved. This is a film full of broken people and how brokenness can be a conduit for grace, mercy and friendship.

Part of the film's restraint comes from strong performances from Savage and Diana Scarwid, a barmaid at Max’s. Scarwid (who earned a Best Supporting Actress nomination for this film) sort of faded into obscurity after the disastrous Mommie Dearest (1981) and has since worked mostly in TV roles. Savage, who appeared in several big pictures early in his career (The Deer Hunter, The Onion Field, Hair), has gravitated to mostly lower-profile movies, yet he works like a demon. (He’s working in 16 movies in 2009 alone!)

Inside Moves is not a great film, but it’s a very good one, one that did not disappoint me nearly 30 years after my initial viewing. And anytime a 30-year-old memory gets validated, that's something to celebrate. Inside Moves is also worthy of celebration.

Repentance (1984)

Georgian director Tengiz Abuladze's film Repentance is one of the most amazing, fascinating and disturbing films I've seen in years. (I have to give credit to Cindy for discovering it, mentioned in a book by Philip Yancey.) I'm sending it back to Netflix today, wishing I didn't have to.

After burying his father (the former mayor of a small Georgian town), Abel Aravidze settles into his large estate for what he hopes will be a night of much needed rest. It is far from restful. Aravidze awakens to his wife's screams. She's looking at something outside their bedroom window. That something is Aravidze's father's corpse, leaning against a tree.

The man is reburied. The next day, he's back again. And buried again. And back again.

The situation would almost seem comic, yet we know it's not. Mostly from flashbacks, we learn that Aravidze's father was not only the mayor of their small town, he was a tyrannical mayor, for all practical purposes a ruthless dictator. And someone refuses to let the man's earthly remains rest even for one night.

I won't tell you any more of the plot; you'll have to see it for yourself. What I will tell you is to expect a challenging, thought-provoking and utterly unique film experience with Repentance. Director Abuladze uses many surreal touches, non-linear storytelling and black humor in telling this amazing story. The film was apparently banned in the Soviet Union for three years, first appearing at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival, where it unanimously won the Grand Prize of the Jury. Rightfully so. Repentance is a film not to be missed.