New DVD Reviews: TAKE OUT & RANDY AND THE MOB

Here's a couple of movies new to DVD that you may not have heard of. They are both indies and both deal with folks in way over their heads in debt. And they are both worth a look: TAKE OUT (Dirs. Sean Baker & Shih-Ching Tsou, 2004) We first meet the protagonist of this piece, Charles Jang as an illegal Chinese immigrant, in his grimy shit-hole of a New York apartment as he's being roughed up for money owed for smuggling him into the country. The loan shark goons tell him he has until the end of the day to pay them or the debt will double. Jang works as a bicycle delivery-man for a Chinese restaurant in the middle of melting pot Manhattan. Bit by bit he borrows from family and friends but still comes up short. His only option is to make up the difference in tips so he takes all the day's deliveries at one point yelling "I can't afford any mistakes today!" at his confused co-workers. Jang's exasperation is palpable as he deals with a dreary rainy day, his bike getting a flat tire, and scores of lousy tippers. "I could've mail-ordered Chinese food faster than this" one smarmy customer complains. Our weary yet determined trooper speaks very little English but he obviously feels the tone of hostility and racial tension seemingly hidden behind every door he comes to. Shot on digital video with a miniscule budget, TAKE OUT is gritty and engaging with a devastating last third (don't worry, no Spoilers). Whether you call the over-riding style of this fine film cinema vérité or neo-realism, there is not a single in-authentic moment present. RANDY AND THE MOB (Dir. Ray McKinnon, 2009) Alongside his varied career as a side-line character actor on TV (Designing Women, Matlock, Deadwood) and in movies (DRIVING MISS DAISY, APOLLO 13, O BROTHER WHERE ART THOU), Ray McKinnon has slowly but surely been carving a career as director. He won a Best Live Action Short Film Oscar for his debut THE ACCOUNTANT, got critical acclaim for his first full-length effort the crime-drama CHRYSTAL, and now is offering up this Southern fried comedy. Described as a "good ol' boy", Mckinnon's Randy Pearson owns several businesses in a small Georgia town and owes money on all of them because he borrowed from the Mob. Set in one of those little towns in which everybody knows each other (see such similar indies such as HAPPY, TEXAS and LARS AND THE REAL GIRL), this movie sports a strong supporting cast. McKinnon's real-life wife (Lisa Blount) plays his clinically depressed spouse, Paul Ben-Victor has an odd surly warmth as a loan shark, Burt Reynolds has a one scene cameo as a business competitor of McKinnon's, and most notably Walto Goggins portrays a very odd enforcer who wins over just about everybody with his cooking, clogging, and soft spoken, yet statically worded, advice. I couldn't possibly leave out that McKinnon plays another role, that of his gay identical twin brother. That's right.

It doesn't contain big laughs or any surprises really, but RANDY AND THE MOB has plenty of charm under its down-home yet cliché riddled surface. It's a well made movie with a likable spirit; one with the right amount of heart for its characters. McKinnon is more than just a competent director/actor - his ability to pull of the gay brother part without any of a cheap cringing undertone is worth commending (especially with Goggins' line: "He's as gay as a 1940's musical"). For a low-key comedy of modest proportions, this is certainly a success. It only had a few showings at film festivals and was passed over for a theatrical release, but now on DVD, with much hope it will find the audience it richly deserves.

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Westerns, Lovers In Paris And Media Circuses Are Doing Fine Thank You

"I feel like Dorothy - everything just turned to color."
- Don Draper (Jon Hamm) Mad Men (AMC Original Series 2007)

Got some recent moviegoing to babble 'bout so let's get at it :

3:10 TO YUMA (Dir. James Mangold, 2007) I don’t want to spend much of this review addressing the state of the modern Western – I’ll just say that it’s a genre that will never die (see Deadwood and the upcoming THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES). Those prematurely eulogizing it are discounting the allure of that period of history - tales with a backdrop of a lawless land that stretches to infinity will always be told. The tale told in James Mangold’s (WALK THE LINE) 3:10 TO YUMA is told very well – especially for a remake. I haven’t seen the original so I can’t compare but reasonably I am very skeptical about remakes so I was pleasantly surprised at how strong a movie this was. Christian Bale plays a down on his luck rancher who takes on the daunting task of transporting a villainous fast drawing outlaw (Russell Crowe) across country. The film’s title is their destination – a scheduled train with a prison car that will supposedly take Crowe to be tried and hung.

Obstacles aplenty surround Bale and his posse (including a wonderfully grizzled Peter Fonda) – Crowe’s murderous gang close behind set on freeing him, dangerous Indian territory, and the conniving overly confident Crowe himself. As Ben Wade –you’ll know him from the trail of the dead – Crowe does a career best performance. He perfects the kind of evil man who laughs through bloody teeth when being punched in the face, quotes ominous Bible passages, and never flickers for an instant in any hostile predicament. As an actor though he’s surely met his match with Christian Bale. Adding another sharp intense performance to an incredibly impressive roster, Bale really shines and should be rewarded come Oscar time. Far more than a genre exercise or a modernized re-imagining – 3:10 TO YUMA is one of the best films of the year. So forget about all the “death of the Western” diatribes and just savor the scenery.

2 DAYS IN PARIS (Dir. Julie Delphy, 2007) Looks at a distance like another BEFORE SUNRISE/SUNSET love story travelogue but a closer look reveals that Delphy's directorial debut is fairly removed from those chatfests. Of course there is considerable Richard Linklater influence in the dialogue and use of tracking shots but there is an offbeat dynamic that is all Delphy. The premise is simple - a couple (Delphy, Adam Goldberg) spend a few days in the city of love during what appears to be a rough patch in their 2 year old relationship. She's a photographer; he's an interior decorator though during this trip he's the one taking pictures - a lot of pictures. They seem to run into a former lover of Delphy's at every turn which makes the already extremely neurotic Goldberg's heavily tatooed skin crawl. Goldberg's Woody Allenesque asides provide the humor throughout especially in one of the best scenes - a dinner with Delphy's real-life parents (Albert Delphy & Marie Pillet). Some funny affecting moments but maybe would've worked better as a short film - even at 96 minutes it feels a bit drawn out. Better yet - condense the best moments from 2 DAYS IN PARIS into a montage and it would've made a kick ass segment of PARIS JE T'AIME! Nah, I'm just blogging out of my ass - Delphy's film may be only fair but as a first time effort it's on the good end of fair.

FILM BABBLE DVD PICK OF THE MONTH
ACE IN THE HOLE * (Dir. Billy Wilder, 1951) It's amazing that Wilder's follow-up to the inarguable classic SUNSET BLVD. has been missing in action (never available on home video until now) and undocumented for so many years. I've picked up movie guides from the last decade that didn't have a listing for it (not even in Wilder's filmography!) and when I've mentioned it to my other film buff friends it got no recognition. Well, this spiffy new Criterion collection edition should change all that. Kirk Douglas stars as a wild-eyed hard drinking newspaper man who arrives in Albuquerque, New Mexico to revive his troubled career. Stopping at a trading post on the way to a rattlesnake hunt he hears of a man (Paul Benedict) trapped in a mine because of a cave collapse. He milks the story for all its worth even delaying the man's rescue and it becomes the definition - possibly where the phrase came from - of a media circus. With Douglas at his most intensely vicious and Wilder's gloriously cynical but insightful script - it's so nice that this film comes back to bite us on the ass and show us how little has changed. After watching it I turned off the DVD player to see pundit after pundit espouse about the latest O.J. caper on cable. Hard to look at that pointless blather the same way again after seeing ACE IN THE HOLE. You can't get a higher film babble recommendation than this.

* After its original poorly received release the film was re-titled THE BIG CARNIVAL and re-released. Apparently this didn't help - the film was still deemed too dark and it failed to gain an audience. Until now...

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