A martial arts saga reaches its conclusion with 'Ip Man 4: The Finale'

[IP MAN 4: THE FINALE screens Saturday March 14^th at 9:40 pm at the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

Review by Bob Ignizio

As the title proclaims, IP MAN 4: THE FINALE brings to a conclusion the series of films based (very loosely) on the life of Chinese martial arts master Ip Man. Like all its predecessors, it stars Donnie Yen in the title role and was directed by Wilson Yip, with Edmond Wong and Chain Tai Lee once again serving as screenwriters, this time in collaboration with Dana Fukazawa and Jil Leung Lai Yin.

Set in 1964, for his final adventure in the series Ip (Yen) travels to San Francisco’s Chinatown. There he hopes to find a new school for his son Ip Ching (Jim Liu), who has been kicked out of school in Hong Kong for fighting. Ip also checks in on his former student Bruce Lee (Danny Chan), who has opened a martial arts school that teaches Wing Chun style kung fu to anyone, regardless of race. This doesn’t sit well with the Chinese Benevolent Association, headed by Wan Zong-hua (Wu Yue). Wing and his fellow board members are adamant that Chinese martial arts should only be taught to Chinese people.

A hand seeks its host in the Oscar nominated animated film 'I Lost My Body'

[I LOST MY BODY screens Thursday January 30^th at 6:45 pm and Friday January 31^st at 9:35 pm at the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

Review by Bob Ignizio

Seems like every year, the Oscars nominate one film in the Best Animated Feature category that is original, innovative, geared towards adults, and (usually) made in a non-English speaking country. If the last decade or so is any indication, it’s not going to win, but hey, at least they made one token attempt to show people animation isn’t just for kids, right?  This year, that film is I LOST MY BODY, co-written by AMELIE screenwriter Guillaume Laurant (adapted from his novel) and the film’s director, Jérémy Clapin, making his feature length debut.

Hollywood still thinks the suburbs are weird in 'Greener Grass'

[GREENER GRASS screens Saturday January 18^th at 9:50 pm at the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

Review by Bob Ignizio

Everyone in the pastel world of GREENER GRASS seems blandly happy, but (shocker) there’s a darkness underneath. Hollywood has given us similar visions of twisted suburbia in films like EDWARD SCISSORHANDS, THE BURBS, and BLUE VELVET. But writers/directors Jocelyn DeBoer and Dawn Luebbe distinguish their film with a comically surreal flavor of their own. “Jokes” like having housewife Jill (DeBoer) offer up her new baby to fellow soccer mom Lisa (Luebbe) as though it were simply good manners to do so display a level of matter of fact weirdness that recalls Luis Bunuel.

'Atlantics' is both deep and eerie

[ATLANTICS screens Thursday December 12^th at 8:35pm and Friday December 13^th at 7:00 pm at the Cleveland Cinematheque.

ATLANTICS (Atlantique) tells the story of Ada (Mame Bineta Sane), a young woman living in Dakar, Senegal. She is in love with Souleiman (Ibrahima Traoré), one of the construction workers erecting a luxury skyscraper on the seacoast, but is betrothed to the less personable but more financially stable Omar (Babacar Sylla). It would seem Ada has a decision to make, but the choice is taken out of her hands.

Soulemain and the rest of the workers haven’t been paid in 3 months. Hoping to find better prospects, they head out to sea. Ada doesn’t find out until after the fact, and is understandably upset. But with her nuptials fast approaching, she can’t exactly talk about her feelings openly, even when it begins to seem likely that Souleiman and the others have died at sea.

Errol Morris questions controversial figure Steve Bannon in 'American Dharma'

[AMERICAN DHARMA screens Friday December 6^th at 7:00 pm and Sunday December 8^th at 8:20 pm at the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

Review by Bob Ignizio

A documentary about Steve Bannon probably seems like an odd choice to review for Utter Trash. I could be snarky and justify it by saying that Steve Bannon is utter trash, but that would be beneath me. No, the real reason I’m reviewing AMERICAN DHARMA is because it was directed by Errol Morris, the filmmaker responsible for some of my favorite documentaries. And since this is my blog, I get to do what I want, dammit!

I may not care much for Bannon, but there’s no denying he’s an interesting figure. And if anyone could make a good film out of such a despicable guy, I figured it would be Morris. After all, he pulled the same thing off with such questionable individuals as Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. (MR. DEATH) and Robert S. MacNamara (THE FOG OF WAR). Both of those subjects proved to be forthcoming and open in their interviews with Morris. But Leuchter was frankly kind of naïve when it came to revealing himself, and MacNamara was looking back on his career with regrets he wanted to get off his chest. Neither of those things is true of Bannon.

It May Be 'First Love', But First They Have To Survive.

[FIRST LOVE screens Friday November 22^nd at 9:00 pm and Saturday November 23^rd at 9:25 pm at the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

Review by Bob Ignizio

As FIRST LOVE (Hatsukoi) begins, a severed head rolls into the middle of the street and blinks in shock. It’s the kind of moment one expects from prolific Japanese cult director Takashi Miike (ICHI THE KILLER, GOZU, 13 ASSASSINS, HARA-KIRI: DEATH OF A SAMURAI, and so many others).

Written by frequent Miike collaborator Masa Nakamura, FIRST LOVE crams a small army of characters and just about every noir and yakuza movie trope one can think of into its script. Double crosses and twists abound, but the complex plot of can be boiled down thusly: Leo (Masataka Kubota), a boxer told that he is dying from a brain tumor, saves Monica (Sakurako Konishi), a prostitute and drug addict, from corrupt police officer Otomo (Nao Ōmori), who is trying to kill her as part of a scheme to steal drugs from the Yakuza.

Genre Tropes and Arthouse Pretensions Combine in 'Let The Corpses Tan'

[LET THE CORPSES TAN screens Sunday November 25th 2018 at 6:30 pm and Monday November 26th 2018 at 8:45 pm at the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

 

You can’t say that LET THE CORPSES TAN doesn’t have a plot. It’s just that co-directors Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzaniand seem less concerned with the straight-forward crime story their film hangs on than in conjuring up striking imagery informed by fetishized B-movie tropes and art house pretensions. They don’t care about the assortment of crooks, cops, and artistic outcasts who inhabit their sunbaked neo-noir spaghetti western, and neither do we. So all that’s left is to sit back and look at the pretty pictures.

To be honest, that’s good enough at times. There are some shots here worthy of Jodorowsky, such as one scene in which a woman is bound tightly with ropes by a group of men until champagne starts spouting from her breast, a scene which exists apart from the storyline and serves purely as symbolism. Most of the film, however, is an all-day shootout between the various parties. Plenty of compelling visuals in that aspect, as well, but not enough to alleviate the tedium.