mleeper

This film rarity was the last film directed by Tod Browning, who directed Dracula (1931) and FREAKS (1932) as well as several Lon Chaney films. Sadly it turns out to be a surprisingly conventional murder mystery. The main character, played by Robert Young, is an inventor of illusions for stage magician and in his spare time he is a debunker of fake spiritualist mediums. Browning, who used real circus freaks for FREAKS, did not bother to use real stage illusions from the magicians. Instead he uses obvious camera tricks or card tricks in which he plants convenient cards in the performers hands. Fans of Universal horror films of the 30s and 40s will enjoy seeing many familiar faces including Henry Hull of THE WEREWOLF OF London, Gloria Holden of Dracula'S DAUGHTER, and Frank Craven of SON OF Dracula. Also playing is William Demarest and Eddie Acuff. In the end the film really does not work because someone who uses a disguise is just not very well disguised. Rating: 0 on the -4 to +4 scale or 4/10

MONEYBALL

(a film review by Mark R. Leeper)

CAPSULE: Brad Pitt plays the general manager of the

cash-strapped Oakland As who ignores his scouts and

turns to the recommendations of an inexperienced

statistician to hire a winning team. In spite of

strong opposition the statistical approach proves to

be a phenomenal success for the team. Jonah Hill

plays the odd mathematician and Philip Seymour Hoffman

is very good as an uncooperative manager with fears of

his own. Bennett Miller of CAPOTE direct Steven

Zaillian's and Aaron Sorkin's adaptation of Michael

Lewis's book MONEYBALL: THE ART OF WINNING AN UNFAIR

GAME. There are lots of films about baseball and only

a handful of films about mathematics--even fewer showing

mathematics in a favorable light. It is surprising to

get such an entertaining film that combines both.

Rating: low +2 (-4 to +4) or 7/10

Our world is awash in numbers. We collect and can have available all kinds of statistics. What is difficult is collecting and understanding all the numbers, learning lessons from them, and then deciding if the lessons can be trusted. I read a review of the book SUPER CRUNCHERS by Ian Ayers. It told how Orley Ashenfelter used a statistical approach called regression analysis to predict the quality of certain wines. He determined that he could collect three numbers: average growing season temperature, winter rainfall, and harvest rainfall, and from them simply generating a number that would be expected quality of wines. There are wine experts who use very subjective approaches and a great deal of experience to predict wine quality. They laughed at Ashenfelter's simplistic approach. But a simple mathematical formula turned out to be a better predictor than trusted experts with years of experience at predicting wine quality.

If that story sounds oddly familiar, it is almost exactly what happened when Billy Beane, General Manager of the Oakland Athletics baseball team realized he did not have the budget to hire new and promising players or even to hold on to the better players whom he already had. Instead he hired Paul DePodesta who was a Harvard graduate who applied statistics to hiring a team. In MONEYBALL Billy Beane (played by Brad Pitt) hires Yale graduate Peter Brand (played by Jonah Hill with a name change from DePodesta) to pick unrecognized candidates. And the story of MONEYBALL is very much like what played out with the wine predictions.

The scouts were paid well for their gut reactions of who would and would not be good players for the team to hire. They criticize the new statistical approach to selecting new players. And initially that approach does not work at all. The problem, however, is not in the statistics but in the lack of faith in the mathematics by the manager Art Howe (Philip Seymour Hoffman, who unexpectedly seems like he was made for the grouchy role). The statistical approach to baseball (elsewhere the approach has been named "sabermetrics") makes everyone feel a little insecure, and they resist it. When Beane seems more interested in Brand's assessment than that of his scouts, one can see why they are insecure. But even Hoffman's Howe finds his career riding on Beane and Brand's radical ideas. And what happens is the story of MONEYBALL.

One arguably bad touch is the use of relatively short and stocky Jonah Hill for the statistician. Apparently director Bennett Miller was exploiting a stereotype of what the public expected a statistician would look like. In fact, the real Paul DePodesta resembles Guy Pearce and is quite unlike Jonah Hill. Admittedly Pitt and Hill do play reasonably well off each other as opposites, but the pairing is cinema, not reality. There is some drama to Hill's portrayal of a man who loves a game that he is clearly not physically suited to play. Unlikely as it seems the man still manages through mathematical skills to make himself an important figure in baseball history. It is nice to see Robin Wright in a small role as Beane's ex-wife. Pitt gives a solid performance. Miller seems to have a natural directing style if a little uneven at times. He will occasionally have realistic overlapping dialog, but does not use it uniformly.

MONEYBALL is a true story about a cash-strapped baseball team that was able to intelligently become a winning team on limited resources. Maybe that makes it a perfect film for these times of failing economy. I rate MONEYBALL a low +2 on the -4 to +4 scale or 7/10.

RANGO

(a film review by Mark R. Leeper)

CAPSULE: A pet chameleon falls from a truck in the

middle of the Nevada desert. He soon finds his way

to the dying Western town of Dirt where his bragging

and his lucky defeat of a predatory hawk make him the

town's new sheriff. Sadly, the town is drying up for

shortage of water. In the best Western tradition

Sheriff Rango sets out to save the town. Sight gags,

film references, jokes, action, and just plain funny

storytelling follow as thick as a hail of bullets.

Director Gore Verbinski shows his animation direction

of John Logan's script is as good as his live-action

direction on films like PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN.

This is a smart, hip comedy that works for adults and

youngsters alike. Rating: high +2 (-4 to +4) or 8/10

RANGO is a "funny animals" sort of animated film, but the writing and situations are funny enough that it might turn out to be one of the best animated films of the year.

In a world like ours (but where intelligent talking animals live side-by-side with humans) the chameleon who comes to be called Rango (voiced by Johnny Depp) would like to be an actor. He dreams of a life in front of a camera. Then his habitat terrarium rolls off the back of a truck and he finds himself stranded in the dry Mojave Desert. He wanders into the animal-run frontier town of Dirt. Swaggering into the saloon he tries to play the part of a Western tough guy. He brags that he killed a gang of seven outlaws with a single bullet. In a fight with predatory hawk Rango lucks out and kills the hawk. The townspeople now believe his bragging and want Rango as their new sheriff--failing to tell Rango that his predecessors named to that job may have lived to regret it ... or not.

But Rango probably won't have his job long. Dirt has some real problems. Rango comes to the town just as Dirt is parceling out to its citizenry the last few days of water. When the water source dies the town will soon follow it, and that day is less than a week away. Meanwhile the mayor (Ned Beatty) of the town seems to still have big plans. He tells Rango that who controls the water controls everything.

Okay, let me digress here. This is what THE INCREDIBLES called "monologing." It is a major weakness in the writing. This statement is the key to everything that is happening in the town. In his anxiousness to make sure the viewer knows what is going on writer John Logan has the mayor saying exactly the wrong thing to the new sheriff. It is not hard for the viewer to figure out who the villain has to be just by his appearance. This is virtually a confession before Rango even knows there is chicanery going on. And part of the chicanery is the stealing of the plot of CHINATOWN. Another part is the counterfeiting of a cameo appearance that had me fooled. Timothy Olyphant does a spot-on impression of another famous actor. I found completely convincing, and I am generally good with voices.

There were several familiar actors voicing major roles. Besides Depp, Beatty, and Olyphant, there was Isla Fisher, Abigail Breslin, Alfred Molina, Bill Nighy, Steven Root, Harry Dean Stanton, and Ray Winstone. Animation directors seem to feel the public needs familiar voices to appreciate the characters. I frankly doubt that most viewers pick up on all these voices. Admittedly some of these are very good actors. But the film industry is full of good and deserving actors who are out of work. I personally think that it is bad for a successful actor to accept a voice-only role that could go to an actor less successful.

It is good that animated films are starting to be considered acceptable for adults with or without children to see. Some of the best writing is going into animated films. I often find myself in theaters seeing animated films where my wife and I are the only party without children present. Good writing should be savored and appreciated and there was really even too much good writing for anyone--adult or child--to take in on one viewing.

Smart, crafty, hip, and full of wit, RANGO may be one of the best films of the year, animated or live action. I rate it a high +2 on the -4 to +4 scale or 8/10.

Film Credits: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1192628/

What others are saying: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/rango-2011/

Mark R. Leeper

Copyright 2011 Mark R. Leeper