Front page	From the Event Guide archive! This article refers to an event which took place on, or until, 18 July 2006 Film Reviews BALLETS RUSSES Directed by Dayna Goldfine and Dan Geller. My knowledge of ballet, prior to viewing this excellent documentary, was to say the least slim. My stubborn and not a little childish contention was that this was a pursuit for other people, not me. Of course I accepted the skill involved, the hardships and sacrifices made by those who have given over their lives to honing their craft, and the pleasure derived by millions worldwide at witnessing the graceful end result, but such good intentions couldn’t mask the fact that the dance left me cold. Perhaps a greater effort of will was needed on my part, but I just couldn’t emotionally engage with ballet, and I’m sure I speak for many when I say this. And so it was with a degree of reluctance, as I’m sure you can appreciate, that I approached ‘Ballet Russes,’ a feature length documentary which aims to give a potted history of the professional and private lives of a group of revolutionary dancers who, from the turn of the century up until the 1960s, transformed ballet into a true art form, and while it would be erroneous to say that I underwent a conversion whilst under its spell, it was certainly no hardship to spend time with. ‘Ballet Russes’ is a hugely pleasurable experience; beautifully meshing archival footage with interviews with surviving members, it weaves a rich tapestry of characters and incident, with the focus always on the personal and anecdotal. I defy anyone not to be caught up in its epic sweep. Leave your inhibitions at the door and give this a try. Your daring will be rewarded. – David O Mahony ‘Ballet Russes’ runs at the Irish Film Institute, on Dublin’s Eustace Street, from Friday 7th until Thursday 20th July, club membership required. www.balletsrussesmovie.co.uk / www.irishfilm.ie DISTRICT B13 Starring Cyril Raffaelli, David Belle, Tony D’Amario, Bibi Naceri and Dany Verissimo. Directed by Pierre Morel. Luc Besson, purveyor of entertainments slick and vacuous, lends his considerable producing chops to this frenetic chase/fight movie which takes its title from a notorious no-go area in the Paris of 2010. It is a hyper-macho environment, populated by shirtless, snarling, muscular types who delight in waving their absurdly modified weaponry in each others faces, an activity that engages them for much of the film’s brief running time. Besson has been churning this sort of thing out for years now, ever since he went on sabbatical from actually directing features; since 2000 he has given us ‘Revolver,’ Ong-Bak,’ the numerous ‘Taxi’ films on both sides of the Atlantic, ‘Unleashed,’ and ‘The Transporter,’ all of which reduce down to different shades of the same film. It would appear, at this point in his career, that the enjoyable-yet-daft ‘Leon’ (1994) is his last attempt at making a proper, grown-up film, unless we are to include his execrable Joan of Arc picture, ‘The Messenger’ from 1999, which we wont. To be fair though, ‘District B13’ isn’t all that bad, provided one takes it on its own terms. Besson has cherry-picked Pierre Morel, his cinematographer on ‘Unleashed’ and ‘The Transporter,’ and plopped him into the director’s chair, a decision which pays dividends through the blisteringly choreographed and edited action sequences. The plot, of course is barking; a nutter by the name of Leito (David Belle) steals a huge amount of heroin from Taha, a crime overlord who resembles the lead singer from the Stereo MCs, and is, after a dizzying chase, apprehended by police who want nothing to do with the bad guys from District B13. They stick him in jail. Six months later the threat posed by the District has escalated – a neutron bomb has been stolen by Taha’s gang, and Damien (Cyril Raffaelli) is a cop about to go undercover in a suicide mission to defuse it before all of Paris is laid to waste. Who better to guide him through the mean streets than Leito? The building-hopping maniac is released and the two enter the District through the front door, guns blazing. With liberal deployment of free running – an athletic pursuit whereby nimble folk run, climb and leap over buildings and other such obstacles, popularised by adverts from Nike and the BBC amongst others, along with the Jump London stunt – Morel keeps his action moving at a breathless pace, so much so that it really doesn’t matter that none of it makes sense. – David O Mahony ‘District 13’ is released nationwide on Friday 7th July, certified 15A. www.districtb13.com HEADING SOUTH (VERS LE SUD) Starring Charlotte Rampling, Karen Young, Menothy César, Louise Portal, Lys Ambroise. Directed by Laurent Cantet. Does it surprise you that more films about sex-tourism don't make it to the cinema screen? However demeaning, demoralising, violent and unpleasant the actual aspects of the "industry" are, there's no denying that the subject matter would - rightly or wrongly - cross a wide variety of viewing demographics. Which means money. Which means Hollywood, where one would imagine that the making of a buck would overrule any moral questions of exploitation. Well, we can always rely on the French. But with 'Heading South', director Laurent Cantent is happy to put a further twist on the tale: the hedonistic pleasure seekers are all "women of a certain age"; Ellen (Charlotte Rampling) is a Boston-based French teacher, Brenda (Karen Young) is a unfulfilled wife from Georgia and Sue (Lousie Portal) is a good-natured but sexually-frustrated Canadian factory worker. All of them are enjoying themselves (via the abundant supply of handsome young black men) in Haiti in the late seventies, caring little for the political and social repression meted out by goons of dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier. The drama is interspersed with direct-to-camera monologues from the three women, all of which attempts to highlight that - rather than being just about the sex - this is 'love-tourism', and that the women have been left to feel lonely and neglected by the men back home. Fair enough, even if the dialogue is overly-theatrical at times. More interesting are the underlying conflicts and resentments felt by Albert (Lys Ambroise) the dignified, yet put-upon, hotel manager. He and the other Haitans (including Legba, the handsome young man whom the women begin to quarrel over) are nearly always viewed from the distant, abstract lens of an outsider. Perhaps this was Cantet's intention all along: his focus is not so much on the sex, but on the emotional blankness of those who engage in it under the guise, of... well, whatever. Only scant background details are given to the locals (especially Legba), or to Haiti's tumultuous political history. Towards the end, a policeman shrugs off a chilling line to one of the women, shaken by a local killing ("Tourists never die") and - perhaps to Cantet's credit, perhaps not - that is exactly what we feel like: a tourist. ‘Heading South’ opens at the Irish Film Institute, on Dublin’s Eustace Street, on July 7th, club membership required. www.irishfilm.ie PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN’S CHEST Starring Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley, Orlando Bloom, Bill Nighy, Naomie Harris. Directed by Gore Verbinski. Sequels are rarely equals, but it’s hardly surprising that the makers of ‘Dead Man’s Chest’ have fallen a little short of the thrills, spills and guffaws of the 2003 original, ‘The Curse Of The Black Pearl’. On paper, that original really shouldn’t have worked. Based on a Disney themepark ride, produced by the film buff’s Anti-Christ, Jerry Bruckheimer, and written by the duo behind ‘Treasure Planet’ and ‘The Road To El Dorado’. Worst of all, everyone’s favourite outsider, Johnny Depp, was crossing over to the dark side and making an insider movie. Of course, what we know now is that Depp retained all his sweet madness when it came to playing Captain Jack Sparrow, a character Disney had modelled on a young Burt Lancaster. Depp decided the Rastafarian lovechild of Keith Richards and Pepe Le Pew would be more interesting. And he was right, his Oscar-nominated performance helping that first Pirates movie to a worldwide box-office of $653, 918,918. Give or take a nickel. The catch-phrase on the $200million, back-to-back shoot of the two Pirates sequels (‘At World’s End’ being due next summer) was “new and improved”. Well, they got the new part right – new characters, new plot – but it’s debatable whether ‘Dead Man’s Chest’ is any kind of improvement on the first outing. The film opens with the arrest of young lovebirds Elizabeth (Knightley) and Will Turner (Bloom) for helping notorious criminal Captain Jack Sparrow escape at the closing credits of the first film. Will is given the option by nasty corporate swine Lord Cutler Beckett – working for the evil globe-gobbling East India Trading Company – to save his beloved from execution once he brings back Sparrow’s compass, just as the cunning Jack finds himself a marked man, his soul due to be handed up to the octupus-faced Davy Jones (the great Bill Nighy), ruler of the ocean depths, no less. From that premise, writers Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio (who, to be fair, also wrote ‘Shrek’) unleash an army of scary monsters and super freaks, the occasional super-charged action set piece and, best of all, of course, more sticky situations for the slippery Sparrow to weasle his way out of. A little long, and a little uneven, sure, but you certainly get plenty of swash for your buckle here. – Paul Byrne ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest’ opens nationwide on Thursday 6th July, certified tbc. www.pirates.movies.com OVER THE HEDGE Starring the voices of Bruce Willis, Gary Shandling, Steve Carrell, Wanda Sykes, Nick Nolte and William Shatner. Directed by Tim Johnson and Karey Kirkpatrick. Bruce Willis revisits his Hudson Hawk persona as RJ, a loveable, wisecracking burglar in ‘Over the Hedge’. Two crucial differences between RJ and Hawk are that RJ is an animated racoon, and ‘Over the Hedge’ will likely be successful. (Intriguingly, Bruce’s hit-to-flop ratio is an almost constant 50/50.) A lead voice in a big-budget animated film is a perfect showcase for the aging action man - capitalising on his gift for delivering one-liners and his signature laid-back whisper. RJ is having a rough night when we first meet him. His unsuccessful attempted robbery of a hibernating bear (Nick Nolte) leaves him in a quandary - RJ must replace a mountain of food for the bear within a week or he’ll become an entrée himself. So RJ introduces himself to a disparate group of animals including Verne the turtle (Gary Shandling), Hammy the squirrel (Steve Carrel) and Ozzie the possum (William Shatner, very funny). Tempting them with previously unknown household foods, RJ cons the group into helping him raid suburbia for leftovers. Ready and waiting to thwart RJ’s plans are a ghoulish yuppie (Alison Janney), a sadistic exterminator and, of course, Mr Bear. Hmmm…animation is in a funny place right now. Overall, the standard of studio-animated films is respectable, with the magnificent exception of Pixar whose films now command the anticipation of a new Speilberg movie. Yes, it may be unfair to compare ‘Over the Hedge’ to say, ‘The Incredibles’ (one of the best films - animated or otherwise - of the last few years), but since the former has been heavily influenced by the makers of the latter, contrast is acceptable. ‘Over the Hedge’ is definitely fun, but the familiarity is a little wearying. The dynamic between laid-back and uptight group leaders RJ and Verne is straight out of ‘Toy Story’, and that’s not all that’s cribbed from John Lasseter’s classic. Other derivatives are the gentle satire of American suburbia, the secret lives our heroes keep from the human world and the car-based action scene. In fairness, though, one of the best trends introduced by Pixar is the change they brought to music: no longer do intelligent animals burst into power ballads by the likes of Vanessa Williams or Linda Ronstadt. Instead, we’re treated to a few choice cuts by a super-cool songwriter. In ‘Toy Story’ it was Randy Newman and in ‘Over the Hedge’ it’s Ben Folds. Hooray! ‘Over the Hedge’ is a lively little film, with some glorious slapstick set pieces in the final reel. The good-natured comedy and attractive animation will make it more than tolerable for the cynical grown ups forced to sit through it. And, considering that much of the target audience weren’t even born when ‘Toy Story’ came out, the plagiarism will go mostly unnoticed. – Joe Griffin ‘Over the Hedge’ is now on general release, certified G. www.overthehedgemovie.com KISS ME DEADLY Starring Ralph Meeker, Albert Decker, Paul Stewart, Maxine Cooper, Marian Carr and Cloris Leachman. Directed by Robert Aldrich. ‘First, you find a little thread, the little thread leads you to a string, and the string leads you to a rope, and from the rope you hang by the neck.‘ Ooh, what a great line. That hard-boiled warning is brought to you by pulp writer Mickey Spillane, and ‘Kiss Me Deadly’ is another chapter in the very eventful life of Mike Hammer. Hammer has been played by a number of other well-known actors, probably most memorably by Stacey Keach in the popular TV show of the 80s. Readers with long memories may recall that ‘Kiss Me Deadly’ came out 55 years ago and starred Ralph Meeker as Hammer, Maxine Cooper as Velda, his dame, and Albert Decker as a shady government agent. A restored cut, complete with new and (for this writer) marginally inferior ending, is coming to the IFI so you can see Hammer knock someone down the stairs on a big screen and hear Coris Leachman’s blood-curdling scream in glorious surround sound. It began on a clear, dark night. Hammer was cruising his convertible along the California highway when he saw a dame in a bathrobe in the middle of the road. He had no choice but to stop, and though he thought better of it he figured he’d give the broad a ride to the next bus stop. Hell, maybe this chick on the lamb (a fugitive from the laughing-house!) could lead Hammer to a big case. Maybe he’d get the chance to quit those nickel and dime divorce cases that pay the bills. A lot of people want to keep her quiet, that’s for sure. “It rings bells all the way to Washington. “There's gotta be a pitch... I picked up a girl. If she hadn't gotten in my way, I wouldn't have stopped. She must be connected with somethin' big.” ‘Kiss Me Deadly’ is, admittedly, rather routine. It follows the noir formula of the PI chasing up clues, questioning colourful suspects and fighting off sly women and dumb heavies. Though it is rather familiar, it has an admirably nasty edge to it. Hammer’s love/hate relationship with women is an asset and a liability, and the bad women are categorically bad. The violence is mostly off-screen, but the sharp editing and imaginative use of sound give many moments the necessary umph! The unwavering dark tone and a weird atmosphere were reportedly was a big influence on David Lynch’s magnificent ‘Lost Highway’. Among many things, Meeker’s gruff central performance certainly would be at home in one of Lynch’s LA noirs. ‘Kiss Me Deadly’ is a solid noir. Though it’s not in the same league as many of the better-remembered classics of the time, it’s worth catching on the big screen as a reminder that they don’t make ‘em like they used to. – Joe Griffin ‘Kiss Me Deadly’ opens at the Irish Film Institute, on Dublin’s Eustace Street, on Friday 7th July, club certificate. www.mgm.com FORTY SHADES OF BLUE Starring Rip Torn, Dina Korzun, Darren Burrows, Paprika Steen, Red West, Jenny O Hara and Andrew Henderson. Directed by Ira Sachs. Blue is an apposite colour for this chilly drama which focuses its attentions on a love-triangle between variously damaged individuals. Indeed, the pervasive air of frosty melancholy may inspire some viewers to bring with them an extra cardigan as a comforter. The key player in this solemn show is Alan, played by Rip Torn, whom we all love as Artie from ‘The Larry Sanders Show,’ cast here as a successful music producer still living off of his reputation as a seminal figure in 60s and 70s Memphis soul. He has a Russian girlfriend, Laura, played by Dina Korzun, who is many years his junior, and with whom he has a three year old son. Laura is, initially at least, a remote figure; beautiful in a painfully thin way, she glides through Alan’s enormous house looking poised and elegant, yet haunted. The circumstances as to how she came to be living in the Memphis home of a famous producer are not elucidated upon, but what is clear is that she has resigned herself to her husband’s frequent infidelities, and her inscrutable, almost expressionless persona is somehow revelatory of a deep inner pain. Into this frosty dynamic comes Alan’s son, Michael (Darren Burrows), who, as the film begins, we see failing to turn up for an awards ceremony honouring his dad. Michael, who is having his own relationship problems, is rather predictably drawn to Laura, and the two soon become intimate. The stage would appear to be set for a melodrama, but this being the austere movie it is, there is no recourse to shouting and slamming doors. Director Ira Sachs is more interested in the quiet interludes between the moments of high drama, much of which is played out off-screen, and as a result has delivered a film which is admirable, but less than engaging. There is nothing essentially wrong with ‘Forty Shades of Blue,’ it’s just that it’s difficult to be enthusiastic about a film that, like the character of Laura, continually keeps you at arms length. – David O Mahony ‘Forty Shades of Blue’ runs at the Irish Film Institute, on Dublin’s Eustace Street, until Thursday 13th July, club membership required. www.fortyshadesmovie.com / www.irishfilm.ie JUST MY LUCK Starring Lindsay Lohan, Chris Pine, Faizon Love, Missy Pyle, McFly, Samaire Armstrong, Bree Turner. Directed by Donald Petrie. Lindsay Lohan has gone to great lengths to shed her teen rom-com image lately, primarily by way of chasing more adult roles, becoming a tabloid train wreck, dying her famed red hair, and joining Hollywood’s ever-expanding (or should that be shrinking?) ‘boneyard brigade’ of stick-thin actresses. The awesomely catty ‘Mean Girls’ and even ‘Freaky Friday’ were perfect vehicles for Lohan, and if ‘Just My Luck’ had been made alongside those three years ago, then critics and audiences might have been kinder to this stupendously average comedy. Lohan has lost that shine, that ingénue glow that she once demonstrated. Here she just looks hungry (and possibly hungover) as Ashley Albright, a perky marketing exec blessed with unbelievable good luck (she always wins on scratchcards, accidentally gets promoted, and lands millionaire boyfriends by chance). At the same time, we’re introduced to Jake (Pine), a struggling, hapless but ultra-sweet music producer who’s trying to get tweenage rockers McFly (played by, er, McFly) signed to a major record company. Jake is hopelessly unlucky and accident prone but, by some plot contrivance that escapes me now, he and Ashley share a kiss at a launch party and magically exchange each others’ (mis)fortune. As Jake’s life and career soars, Ashley’s hits rock bottom, leading eventually to love, life lessons and group hugs for all. ‘Just My Luck’ labours under a truckload of sickly-sweet treacle, glaring structural problems, and some shameless product placement. At times, it appears to be merely a promo for McFly (who aint that good anyway), rendering it the movie equivalent of one of those tie-in meals from McDonalds or Burger King. However, I did find myself laughing out loud at some of the set pieces, despite myself. Lohan can be quite a good physical comedienne, and rom-com veteran Petrie (of ‘Miss Congeniality’ and ‘How To Lose A Guy in 10 Days’ fame/notoriety) injects enough charm into proceedings to just about keep the whole thing afloat. But Lohan is now at a crossroads and needs to decide who she is, and what kind of career she wants. If she continues to wallow in this kind of mediocrity, her luck is going to run out very quickly. - Declan Cashin. ‘Just My Luck’ was released nationwide on Friday 30th June, certifiied 12A. www.justmyluckmovie.com