Lena Morelle (Iben Hjejle) and Michael Farr (Ciarán Hinds) battle their pasts in THE ECLIPSE
THE ECLIPSE (Conor McPherson, 2009)
Angelika New York
18 West Houston St. at Mercer St.
Opens Friday, March 26
212-995-2000
www.angelikafilmcenter.com
www.magpictures.com
Adapted from Billy Roche’s short-story collection TALES FROM RAINWATER POND, Conor McPherson’s THE ECLIPSE is a gracefully told love story / ghost story, a romantic melodrama with surprising, horrific jump-out-of-your-seat elements. Ciarán Hinds, who was named Best Actor at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival for his complex performance, stars as Michael Farr, a recent widower with two small children living in the seaside town of Cobh in County Cork. Michael, a high school shop teacher, volunteers for the annual Cobh Literary Festival, serving as a driver for such special guests as bestselling authors Nicholas Holden (Aidan Quinn) and Lena Morelle (Iben Hjejle). While Nick, a nasty, bombastic blowhard, tries to rekindle a previous brief fling with Lena, Michael thinks she might be able to help him explain the nightmare visions he’s been experiencing involving his aging father-in-law (Jim Norton). Dublin-born McPherson, who has written such Broadway plays as SHINING CITY and THE SEAFARER and written and directed such films as SALTWATER and THE ACTORS, has crafted a nearly perfect movie, a slice of life that is captivating from start to finish, with beautiful cinematography by Ivan McCollough and a moving score by Fionnuala Ní Chiosáin (with McPherson contributing guitar, bass, and drums). Hinds and Hjejle are both gentle and electrifying together as two lonely people desperately trying to get on with their lives. THE ECLIPSE is a special, magical movie that should not be missed.
Park Chan-wook kicked off his revenge trilogy with SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE (even though the second film, OLDBOY, was the first one released in the States), a creepy, quirky tale that lays low for quite a while before busting loose with a massive splattering of the old ultra-violence. After deaf-mute Ryu (Ha-kyun Shin) fails miserably in a desperate, ridiculous attempt to get his dying sister (Ji-eun Lim) a kidney, the recently laid-off Ryu is convinced by his anarchist girlfriend, Youngmin (Doo-na Bae), to kidnap the four-year-old daughter (Bo-bae Han) of Park (Kang-ho Song), the man who owned the factory that kicked him out. But when the plan goes awry, both Ryu and Park become obsessed with avenging their torn-apart lives. Although the first half of the film is too slow and heads off in too many directions, the second half brings everything together, chock full of the kind of violence promised by the title. The film is being screened as part of Korean Movie Night presented at Tribeca Cinemas by the Korean Cultural Service and Subway Cinema.
Writer, director, songwriter, and star Rob Stefaniuk (PHIL THE ALIEN) was well aware that he was daring critics and audiences to attack his sophomore effort by titling the vampire rock-and-roll horror comedy SUCK. Well, it doesn’t. SUCK is a playful little piffle about the Winners, a loser of a group that is taking its last shot at the big time, going on a road trip from Toronto to New York City for a supposed CMJ showcase gig set up by their pitiful manager, Jeff (Kid in the Hall Dave Foley). But when bass player Jennifer (Jessica Paré) gets seduced and turned by master vampire Queeny (Dimitri Coats), the band starts getting popular, much to the chagrin of lead singer and songwriter Joey (Stefaniuk), who is not sure this is the best way to make it. Drummer Sam (Mike Lobel), guitarist Tyler (Paul Anthony), and Renfield-as-roadie Hugo (Alex Lifeson) have different ideas, as does afraid-of-the-dark vampire hunter Eddie Van Helsig (Malcolm McDowell). With teeth in neck – er, tongue in cheek – SUCK spoofs several genres in silly but fun ways, throwing in a little ROCKY HORROR here, some THIS IS SPINAL TAP there, and a dash of GET CRAZY over there, with hysterical guest appearances by Alice Cooper as a demonic bartender, Iggy Pop as a suburban record producer, Henry Rollins as an annoying radio host, and well-known vegan Moby as Beef Bellows, the lead singer of the Buffalo-based punk-rock band the Secretaries of Steak.
In April 2005, Neil Young underwent brain surgery for an aneurysm. Four months later, he gathered together friends for two special nights at Nashville’s historic Ryman Auditorium, captured on film by Oscar-winning director Jonathan Demme, who has previously helmed such fab music docs as STOP MAKING SENSE and STOREFRONT HITCHCOCK. NEIL YOUNG: HEART OF GOLD was an intimate portrait of man who looked death in the face and survived; the film featured acoustic songs primarily from Young’s beautiful PRAIRIE WIND album. But the Godfather of Grunge wasn’t about to let a little thing like a brain aneurysm stop him from rocking in the free world. As he continued his long-term project of reaching deep into his past for his archival box sets, he released CHROME DREAMS II in October 2007, a sequel to an unreleased 1977 album that was rumored to include such future Young classics as “Pocahontas,” “Like a Hurricane,” “Homegrown,” and “Powderfinger.” For CHROME DREAMS II, Young strapped on the electric guitar and held nothing back, joined by longtime partners in crime Ralph Molina on drums, Rick Rosas on bass, and Ben Keith on guitars and keyboards.
Fashion photographer and video director Floria Sigismondi makes an inauspicious feature debut with the bland, cliché-ridden biopic of the first major all-girl group in rock and roll history, the teenage band the Runaways. In 1975, record producer Kim Fowley (a scenery-devouring Michael Shannon) introduced guitarist Joan Jett (Kristen Stewart) to drummer Sandy West (Stella Maeve); they were soon joined by guitarist Lita Ford (Scout Taylor-Compton) and nubile singer Cherie Curie (Dakota Fanning). (Alia Shawkat plays bass player Robin, an amalgam of the band’s several bassists, which included at one time future Bangle Michael Steele.) Jett and Curie instantly bond, dreaming of great things while hanging out under the Hollywood sign before diving headfirst into the whole sex, drugs, and rock and roll thing. The film is based on Curie’s 2006 autobiography, NEON ANGEL, and Jett and her partner, Kenny Laguna, are among the executive producers, but that pedigree doesn’t help it from seeming forced and fake. Every scene is diagrammed, with no surprises or anything interesting to say. Sigismondi truncates the story to keep it at under two hours, but in doing so the plot takes gargantuan leaps that are completely unbelievable. Unfortunately, the film is more like Oliver Stone’s dreadful THE DOORS or Joan Freeman’s ridiculous SATISFACTION than Susan Seidelman’s SMITHEREENS or Lou Adler’s LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THE FABULOUS STAINS. Of course, the soundtrack is terrific, with songs performed by the real Runaways as well as Stewart and Fanning, along with tunes from Nick Gilder, Suzi Quatro, the Stooges, the Sex Pistols, and David Bowie. In 1975, the Runaways exploded onto the music scene with “Cherry Bomb”; thirty-five years later, they return with a dud.