Taking A Break From Blockbuster Bombast With SUGAR

SUGAR (Dirs. Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck, 2009) "Sugar" is the nickname of Miguel Santos (Algenis Perez Soto), a Dominican baseball player. His strong pitching arm gets him noticed and he is recruited to play in the U.S. minor-leagues for the fictional Kansas City Knights. He leaves behind his family living in poverty in a village outside San Pedro de Macoris, and promises them he will send back money to them as he jokes with his girlfriend that he will drive her to New York in a Cadillac that can drive on water. Such are the dreams of the shy young man who is going to America for the first time. A series of lessons follow: in ordering a meal at a diner, not to use the hotel mini-bar, and how to avoid a bar brawl among other things. Assigned to Iowa, Sugar stays with a host family on a farm and makes friends with a few of his fellow players (Andre Holland and Rayniel Rufino). He is lost in translation, literally, as he knows very little English but strives to be polite and do right admirably. It's not at all smooth sailing for Sugar as his arm falters and a friend is cut loose from the team. After a few more setbacks he finds himself estranged from the game and travels to New York where he finally begins a more natural American assimilation. Now I'm not a fan of baseball but I am a fan of baseball movies. From THE BAD NEWS BEARS to BULL DURHAM it's an endearing film formula. Baseball is easier to follow in a movie, I mean I could never figure out just what the Hell was going on in the field scenes of football movies like ANY GIVEN SUNDAY, LEATHERHEADS, JERRY MAGUIRE (or HEAVEN CAN WAIT for that matter). But I'm just not sports minded and SUGAR is much more than a baseball movie. It has the same sober intensity that made Fleck and Boden's previous work, HALF NELSON, one of the best films of 2006. A thoughtfull well made movie that is worth seeking out, so bypass the multiplexes and make your way to your local indie arthouse theater. That is, if your town still has one. More later...

The End Of The Varsity Theater? Well, not just yet.

If you follow this blog with any frequency you know that I work part-time at the Varsity Theater in my hometown of Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Earlier this month the theater's owner, Bruce Stone, told his employees that he would not be renewing the lease come June 1st. Since then many rumors have circulated throughout the Triangle area about the fate of the theater. All that was certain, at that time, was that he was negotiating with potential buyers and the Varsity's last day would be Thursday, May 28th. Now though it looks like he will keep the theater open 1-3 weeks more in hopes of making a smooth transition with a new owner. Whether this happens remains to be seen and I, as well as my co-workers, have been trying to deal with the notion that the Varsity may close - with hope just temporarily but very possibly for good. Here's some links to some local articles about the up-in-the-air situation:

Lights May Dim At Varsity Theater (The Herald Sun - May 26th, 2009) Owner May Sell Iconic Theater (The Chapel Hill News - May 27th, 2009) Varsity Theatre Set To Be Sold But Not Closed (Daily Tar Heel - May 27th, 2009) This is all frustrating and depressing for me and many folks as the theater has been a beloved institution since its birth in 1927. I grew up going to the Varsity. When I was seven years old I saw STAR WARS there in 1977 - a memory I've never forgotten and possibly why that movie keeps coming up on this blog. I attended many movies over the years as it changed hands from a one screen first run movie house to a bargain theater in the early 80's then, after being closed for a bit, re-opened as a art house with 2 screens (the large theater was split in half in 1982). Stone, who founded the Chelsea Theater at Timberlyne Shopping Center roughly 20 years ago, bought the theater in 2000. I got a job at the Varsity in 2004 (the same year I started this blog) and have highly enjoyed working there - seeing many movies and forming many friendships. Like I said before, I thought tomorrow night would be both my final night and the Varsity's but it looks like we both will see a bit more of each other. I, of course, hope that the theater will continue but as so much on Franklin Street in downtown Chapel Hill has changed it may be time to adjust to this major change. I'll keep you posted with what happens as I hear it. If you live in the area you may consider coming to seeing what just could be the last double bill (pictured at the top of this post). It's such a great old school theater with a great atmospheric vibe I know I won't be alone in missing. More later...

The Pre-Summer Season Soldiers On With TERMINATOR SALVATION

TERMINATOR SALVATION (Dir. McG, 2009)

  Warning: This review contains Spoilers!

You want to know how to begin what proposes to be an "event" motion picture? You first see the edges of ginormous letters that form the film's title shrouded in black or standing in space (or both). They are either shining metallic silver or beaming black like they are made out of the same alien substance as the monolith from 2001. They are so huge they at first can not be contained by the silver screen. They look as if as if they will collide but they glide into place as we pull back to see them in their entirety. 

They, with the booming bass section on the score, announce that this is a big blaring blast of a movie that demands your attention up front. That's how you begin an "event" motion picture and that, like every other piece of the franchise blockbuster formula, TERMINATOR SALVATION makes good on.

As the fourth entry in THE TERMINATOR series, SALVATION doesn't intend to surprise or re-write any former history, it just intends to be a solid entertaining action film and on that level it succeeds enormously. 

It opens in 2003 with an odd appearance by Helena Bonham Carter as a doctor representative for a large corporation trying to persuade a death row inmate (Sam Worthington) to donate his body to what, of course, is an ominous project. From there we jump forward 15 years (surprisingly that's the only time jumping we do - the rest is set in 2018) with Christian Bale as the intensely determined John Connor leading the resistance in the massive war against the machines across the definitively apocalyptic terrain. There's no reason to recount any more of the plot - it's a series of bombastic set pieces with tons of physical violence, devastating destruction, and ginormous explosion after explosion. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

As one of the most capable actors working today, Bale is as ferocious in the iconic part (he's the fourth actor to take on John Connor) as he was in his infamous on-set rant. Worthington, possibly the real protagonist of the piece, is stoical and restrained with the right tone as he jumps from cyborg fight to cyborg fight. Many genuinely scary (or at least extremely jarring) moments abound with no wasted scenes or unfocused direction. 

The former TERMINATOR movies are referenced in a non-offensive manner - Linda Hamilton's picture and voice on the tapes that Bale reviews for clues, the now set in cinematic stone "I'll be back" line, and (I warned you about Spoilers!) the face of Arnold Schwarzenegger via CGI on one of the Terminators in factory production.

Is this movie, which counts as both a sequel and a prequel (but then what franchise entry doesn't these days?), really necessary? Well, my first thought is no. James Cameron's first 2 TERMINATOR movies really had all these themes and the patented style of relentless action covered. TERMINATOR 3: RISE OF THE MACHINES seemed like just an excuse for one more go around before "Ah-nold" took command of California, and I don't even know how the TV series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles fits in to all of this. However, perhaps there is a need for a finely tuned franchise like this to keep going. As dark and desperate as it gets, we know the humans will survive against the machines and we like to see that over and over on the big screen with the best effects possible, booming sound, and folks of all ages gasping around us. Most likely I'll be back for that next time too.

More later...