filfy-2

Yep, this film looks and sounds great. The costumes, the colors, the artwork, all the little details. It's whimsical & fanciful, not unlike a really good children's book. On this aspect alone, "The Royal Tenenbaums" is a resounding success. But style alone cannot make a great film or a great director.

What's missing? Let's try real, grown-up characters. I was impressed by Mr. Anderson's ability to rustle up a great cast, but all they did was mope around in twee outfits. Meanwhile, we're supposed to have empathy for this dysfunctional family and what they've gone through, but there's really no depth here. What a waste.

Another issue is the pacing: too slow, and not on the mark all the time. With time, the jokes are fewer and farther between. The film thus starts to drag after the 1st hour. The visual aspect is the only thing keeping you in your chair at this point.

Kill Me Later" has an interesting initial premise: a suicidal woman (Selma Blair) on the verge of jumping off the top of an office building is protects a bank robber (Max Beesley) who promises to "kill her later."

The actual execution of this premise, however, falls flat as almost every action serves as a mere device to move the plot toward its predictable conclusion. Shoddily written characters who exhibit no motive for their behaviors compromise the quality of acting all around. Lack of character depth especially diminishes Selma Blair's performance, whose character Shawn vacillates from being morose to acting "cool" and ultimately comes across as a confused dolt. This is unfortunate, as under other circumstances Ms. Blair is an appealing and capable actress.

Compounding matters for the worse is director Dana Lustig's insistence on using rapid cuts, incongruous special effects (e.g. look for an unintentionally hilarious infrared motorcycle chase at the end), and a hip soundtrack in the hopes of appealing to the short attention spans of the MTV crowd. Certainly Ms. Lustig proves that she is able to master the technical side of direction, but in no way does her skill help overcome the film's inherent problems and thus the movie drags on to the end. Clearly, Lustig has a distinct visual style; however it is perhaps better suited to music videos than to feature film.

The producers (Ram Bergman & Lustig)can be commended for their ability to realize this film: they were able to scare up $1.5 million to finance the film, secure a good cast, and get domestic and foreign distribution. This is no small feat for an independent film. Yet given the quality of the product, the result is a mixed bag.

...this is the theme of the film. If you plan to screw people over for your own selfish, worldly desires, then you will get karmic payback in spades: destroyed lives, dead dogs, etc. This theme is very obvious in the first two stories in regards to the character's on-screen actions and interestingly in the last story, by learning about El Chivo's past. If there is a "winner," it is El Chivo, as he physically fares the best of the lot of the other characters, however his game is a null sum--there is still no happy ending for him.

The theme of the film is what separates it from it's Hollywood counterparts where the protagonist(s) always win. Individually, three stories vary greatly in quality: the first (Octavio y Susana) is fast and frenetic with excellent camera shots and editing. The second (Daniel y Valeria) is much slower and is too long for its own good--however it does develop the theme of karmic payback quite well. The third (El Chivo y Maru) is arguably the best, in large part due to the acting of El Chivo and how it ties up all the other stories.

This film is a breath of fresh air for Mexican cinema, especially in light of some of the dreck I've seen recently (Santitos and La Otra Conquista come to mind). Film has changed...we can't expect Mexico to produce Pedro Infante and Maria Felix-style movies anymore. Self-important "artistic" work ain't gonna cut it either. "Amores Perros" is a fine step in the right direction and one of the best films of the year.