Weekly Top Tens: Femme Fatales - Modern Era Edition

Sadly, the art of being a femme fatale has sadly been all but lost in the modern era, which for the purposes of this list, I defined as my own lifespan (I’m still young damn it!). But these ten ladies played the femme fatale with just as much gusto and oozing sexuality as their predecessors did, so they deserve their own list.

10. Evan Rachel Wood in Pretty Persuasion (2005)
I don’t much like this movie, as it is too scattershot and not nearly as smart or clever as it thinks it is. Yet Evan Rachel Wood’s performance as Kimberly Joyce, the high school femme fatale, is brilliant. Kimberly manipulates everyone in the movie using her sexuality – including teachers, classmates and the media. She starts a rumor that a teacher has sexually harassed her, bringing a media firestorm down on the school at large. But this is just phase one of her plan, that involves her seducing just about everyone in the movie – including a reporter played by Jane Krakowski to use as pawns in her little game. That it all turns out to be a plot to get back at her best friend, who is now dating a boy who dumped Kimberly after she let him do her in the ass (because how could he respect her after she allowed him to do that) is silly and somewhat offensive. Yet four years later, despite my misgivings about the movie (which I have only scratched the surface of her), I have to admit that Wood’s performance remains one of her best – and one that I cannot get out of my mind.

9. Rebecca Romijin in Femme Fatale (2002)
Brian DePalma’s underrated film is one of the best noirs of the decade, in large part due to Romijin’s performance, as Laura Ash, diamond thief turned society girl. After her daring diamond heist, she double crosses her partners, and flees to Paris, where she meets her doppelganger, who kills herself, and allows her to take over the woman’s identity. Six years later, she returns as the wife of the new American ambassador, and is photographed by Nicolas (Antonio Banderas), setting up a series of events, where she tries to get his help to conceal her identity so that her accomplishes from the past don’t find her. Romijin is an actress who has never really been given a role this good before or since. In her opening scenes however, she establishes her brazen sexuality, as she seduces a female supermodel in the bathroom stall at the Cannes Film Festival, and takes off with her diamonds. In the main action of the film, she slowly seduces Banderas, making him think that he is in control, when in reality, he is anything but. This is an underrated performance in an underrated movie that deserves more attention.

8. Ok-vin Kim in Thirst (2009)
Ok-vin Kim’s performance in Chan-wook Park’s Thirst is classic femme fatale material. When she meets the “hero” of the movie, played by Song Kang-ho she plays her part as the put upon wife with the thoughtless husband, and abusive mother-in-law perfectly. Song is a priest, who has recently become a vampire, and is immediately drawn to Kim’s victimhood. The two start a sexual relationship, as Kim finds the kink involved with sleeping with a priest irresistible. When he finally reveals his secret to her, she is at first horrified, but then figures out a way to use it to her advantage. She tells him that her husband is abusive to get him to murder her husband, and eventually transform her into a vampire – which is when her real, evil nature comes out. This is one of the best female roles of the year, and announces Kim as one of the best new actresses around.

7. Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct (1992)
Forget the silly sequel if you can, and think back to the original movie, and how sexy and seductive Stone was in that movie. As author Catherine Tramell, she seduces and plays Michael Douglas’ dumb cop like a fiddle. She is icy cold in the movie, but also incredibly sexy. The classic scene with detective Wayne Knight, where she uncrosses her legs is justly famous, and the sex scenes in the movie are graphic, without ever crossing the line, and are truly erotic. Stone may not be a great actress, but given a role like this one, she knows how to play it to perfection. Yes, the movie is ludicrous, yet you cannot take your eyes off of Stone for a second when she’s on screen.

6. Jennifer Tilly in Bound (1996)
Jennifer Tilly has such a distinctive look, and an even more distinctive voice, that most directors never really know what to do with her. But the Wachowski Brothers cast her perfectly in this modern day noir tale (still their best film, by far). As Violet, the mafia moll of Joe Pantiliano’s money launderer, Violet uses her sexuality to seduce Corky (Gina Gershon), a lesbian handyman who moves in next door to them, and convinces her to steal $2 million in mafia money from him, so the two of them can run off together. Tilly has never been better, or sexier, than she is in this movie. Her seduction of Corky is erotic in the extreme, and she plays the part of femme fatale to perfection, coaxing not only only Pantiliano, but the other mafia men as well. When the movie ends, it ends on a happy note for both her and Corky – but can we really trust her? A great performance in a much underrated movie.

5. Kathleen Turner in Body Heat (1981)
“You’re not too smart are you? I like that in a man”, Turner’s Matty tells the cocky lawyer Ned (William Hurt) early in Body Heat. In her debut performance, Turner had the guts to take on Barbara Stanwyck’s whose role in Double Indemnity is the obvious inspiration for her work here. No, she doesn’t out Stanwyck Stanwyck, but she comes damn close. Turner’s trademark voice, which has become the subject of countless impersonations and mocking, here is as sexy as any female’s voice in cinema history. She seduces Hurt’s Ned to kill her husband for her, but brilliantly gets him to think that it is his idea. He goes along with it. In classic film noir, the sexuality could only be hinted at, but in Body Heat it is front and center. These two characters are in heat, and Turner confidentially plays Hurt like a fiddle. The movie has twist after twist in the plot – perhaps one or two too many – but at the center of it is Turner’s engrossing performance as a woman who uses sex to get what she wants. A brilliant debut performance.

4. Laura Elena Harring in Mulholland Drive (2001)
Laura Elena Harring plays Rita in David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive, named after the famed Rita Hayworth in Gilda, a poster she sees on the wall. Without a memory of what has happened, she teams up with aspiring actress Betty (Naomi Watts) to try and discover her true identity. It is only slowly that we discover the secrets in Lynch’s brilliant neo noir, and only slowly that we realize what is truly going on. Harring is not as innocent as she seemed at first, and of course neither is Watts. In the films later scenes, Harring is cruel and mocking towards Watts, her former lover, who she is now abandoning, leading her own mental break. Harring is styled after classic femme fatales of the past, and is brilliantly portrayed by Harring – who has never been given an opportunity since to play a role this good.

3. Michelle Pfeiffer in Batman Returns (1992)
Michelle Pfeiffer is the quintessential Catwoman, and the perfect femme fatale for Tim Burton to insert into his film noir version of Batman. She starts out as the meek, mild mannered Salina Kyle, but quickly transforms into Catwoman, the sexy seductress with the skin tight vinyl cat suit, bright red lips a whip, and a kittenish purr of a voice that made her the object of countless wet dreams. In the cat suit, Pfeiffer seduces Batman (including the unforgettable scene where she licks his face), and then out of the cat suit, Kyle starts a relationship with Bruce Wayne. No matter what she is wearing, Pfeiffer has never been sexier than she in this movie, and despite the fact that she has received more than one Oscar nomination, this for me will always be her best performance.

2. Nicole Kidman in To Die For (1995)
Gus Van Sant’s wonderful film mixes film noir with a media satire, as Kidman’s Susan Stone plays a lowly TV weather girl who dreams of becoming a big news star. She sees her sweet but lunk headed husband (Matt Dillon) as getting in the way of her dreams. Working on a documentary film about teenagers, she meets Joaquin Phoenix and Allison Folland, and seduces both in different ways. In Stone, Folland sees a glamorous role model, and the type of girl in high school who would never give her the time of day. Stone takes a more direct approach with Phoenix, seducing him and beginning an affair with him, threatening to cut it off if he doesn’t kill her husband for her. Kidman puts his icy good looks, and natural born sexuality to great use here. Bubbly and perky in front of the camera, coolly seductive to Phoenix, and then just downright cruel, this is perhaps the best performance of Kidman’s career – and a perfect modern femme fatale.

1. Linda Fiorentino in The Last Seduction (1994)
Linda Fiorentino’s Bridget Gregory is one of the most sexual, seductive femme fatales of any era. Stealing $700,000 from her drug dealing husband (Bill Pullman), she arrives in a small town and immediately hooks up with the lunk headed Mike (Peter Berg), just back from Buffalo following a quick marriage and divorce. She is looking for sex, which he provides, but he wants more. She gets a job at the same insurance firm as Mike, and quickly figures out a way to tell when men are cheating on their wives by viewing their credit reports. She then goes out of town for a while, and when she comes back, she shows Mike the cash, and convinces him that she got it by murdering a cheating husband, and splitting the insurance money with the widow. She then convinces Mike to do the same thing – setting her own husband up as the victim. Fiorentino is brilliant in this role, coming across as innocent when faced with the police, but in reality she is a stone cold sociopath, who uses her sexuality to play all the men she meets brilliantly. Fiorentino gained a reputation for being hard to work with, and her career never really took off, but she will always have this performance – one of the very best of the 1990s – as her career best. Simply amazing work.

Weekly Top Tens: Femme Fatales - Classic Noir Edition

There is nothing sexier to me that a femme fatale. Those dangerous women in film noir who use their blatant sexuality to bring down normal, if somewhat dimwitted men, their downfall by involving them in murder. During the 1940s and 50s, if you were a female actress, the only real way to display any sort of sexuality at all was to be a femme fatale, and try and drag some innocent schmuck down with you. There was almost always a “good girl” in these movies as well, but they were thoroughly uninteresting. These are the women you fell hard for despite your best judgment.

10. Ann Savage in Detour (1945)
Edgar G. Ulmer’s Detour, shot in six days for just $20,000, features only a few bare sets and actors, is full of technical flaws and continuity errors, but remains one of the seminal film noirs, because rarely has there been a film so full of dread and doom as this one. Poor Al (Tom Neal) has no idea what he is in for when he starts hitchhiking across America to be with his girlfriend. He is picked up by a kindly driver, who winds up dead, but Al decides to take his car anyway. When he picks up another hitchhiker, Vera (Savage), he doesn’t know that she had previously ridden with the same man, and recognizes his car. Thus sets up a blackmail scheme by Vera. Savage is more raw and conniving than most of the women on this list. She doesn’t need to seduce Al, because she’s got him over a barrel from the get go. She is also the most unsympathetic woman on this list – but of course, since Al narrates the story, and paints himself as purely a put upon victim, that may not be true. Savage was a great actress though, and this was her best, most well know performance.

9. Ann Blyth in Mildred Pierce (1945)
Blyth is something of a rarity in terms of femme fatales, because it is not only men she manipulates, but her own mother, the title character played by Joan Crawford. Blyth is Veda, a young girl who dreams of riches and high social standing, who is infuriated and humiliated by her mother’s profession – as a waitress. Mildred dotes of her daughter, trying her best to give her everything she wants, which she can do when she becomes a success in the restaurant business. Still it is not enough for Veda, so Mildred marries the formerly wealthy Monty, who now has no money, but has a high social standing, to benefit her daughter. That he is a playboy, who ruins Mildred, is of no concern to Veda, who continues her greedy ways, and even seduces Monty after the divorce – which of course leads to murder. Blyth’s cute exterior, that turns progressively more sexual as she ages in the film, is a cover for the evil, greedy, spoiled little bitch that she is. She deservedly won an Oscar for her portrayal – a rarity for film noir.

8. Rita Hayworth in The Lady from Shanghai (1948)
In Orson Welles’ The Lady from Shanghai, Hayworth plays Elsa, the wife of a rich defense attorney (Everett Sloane), who meets Welles’ seaman in Central Park and convinces him to join the crew of her husband’s boat, which is about to set sail. Welles and Hayworth begin a relationship on board the ship, and when her husband’s business partner Glenn Anders approaches Welles with a plan to fake his own death, in the guise of a murder to be committed by Welles himself, he agrees, planning on using the money to run away with Hayworth. Of course things go horribly wrong. Despite the fact that Welles miscast himself (he was not quite able to play the stupid guy in the movie), Hayworth was never sexier than she was in this movie – an accomplishment considering that her marriage to Welles was falling apart at the time, and the camera seems to lash out at her. Welles made Hayworth cut her signature long red hair for the role, and dyed it blonde for the role, yet Hayworth was still supremely sexy and wicked in the role. A great performance by an underrated actress.

7. Peggy Cummins in Gun Crazy aka Deadly is the Female (1950)
Cummins seems to have taken director Joseph H. Lewis’ advice to heart when he told her that her character was “a female dog in heat, and you want him. But don’t let him have it in a hurry. Keep him waiting”. That is exactly what Cummins does in this movie. She plays a sharpshooter at a carnival, who meets a fellow gun enthusiast played by John Dall. They both get fired, because the carnival boss lusts after her, and the two go on the run, and start to rob banks – all at her behest. Cummins did not have a particularly brilliant career, and Gun Crazy is undeniably her most famous role, and she made the most of it. She oozes sexuality in this film, as she seduces not only Dall but the audience as well. A brilliant performance by an actress who never really got the roles she probably deserved.

6. Joan Bennett in Scarlet Street (1945)
Edward G. Robinson makes the perfect foil for Joan Bennett’s Kitty, a femme fatale that the movie implies is a prostitute. Robinson sees Kitty arguing with a man on the street (the great Dan Duryea), and “rescues” her, not knowing that he is really her pimp. He falls in love with her, despite the fact that he is married, to a woman who constantly puts him down. Duryea convinces Kitty to string Robinson along, thinking that he is a famous painter, so they can extort money from him. Of course things do not work out as planned by anyone. One of the most painful scenes in all of film noir is when Robinson comes to ask Kitty to marry him, and she merciless mocks him, driving him to kill her with an ice pick. Bennett is everything a great femme fatale needs to be – icy cold, sexy and amoral. A perfect performance in this great Fritz Lang movie – which I much prefer to Lang’s previous The Woman in the Window, which has a better reputation, and the same cast.

5. Ava Gardner in The Killers
Ava Gardner was never as sexy or seductive as she was in this, her first major screen role. The film opens with the murder of the Swede (Burt Lancaster), and then flashes back to tell his story, where he was roped into a bank robbery by Gardner, who casts her merciless gaze on him and has him hooked right from the start. In the movies elaborate series of flashbacks, we see Gardner’s Kitty (a classic femme fatale name), as she manipulates all the men involved in a payroll robbery. Years later, Kitty has not really changed, as she is still pulling the strings from behind the scenes, and allowing the men in front of her to take the fall. Of course, a femme fatale was never allowed to get away with anything in those days. Gardner was sexy and seductive as a nightclub singer, and you can easily see why all the men immediately fall for her and trust her – even as it brings about their doom.

4. Gene Tierny in Leave Her to Heaven (1945)
John M. Stahl’s Leave Her to Heaven is different for a film noir, as it was shot in color. Yet Tierny’s femme fatale is as black and heartless as they come. Tierny’s Ellen is devoted to her husband Richard – much, much too devoted. At first it takes the form of not wanting to hire servants, because she wants to do everything for him herself. That’s kind of sweet. But then Ellen gets jealous of Richard spending any time with anyone else, and of his writing. She takes his younger brother, stricken with polio, swimming, and when he gets a cramp, and cries out for help, she simply watches him drown. Later, she becomes pregnant, but seeing how excited Richard is at the prospect of having a baby, she throws herself down the stairs, killing their unborn child. She plans an even more elaborate revenge on both her husband and sister, who has fallen in love with Richard, and it almost works. Tierny’s performance is a brilliant portrayal of love turning into dangerous obsession – she is one of the most unforgettable screen women in history.

3. Jane Greer in Out of the Past (1947)
Jeff (Robert Mitchum) is just a small town gas station owner living in California, when his past comes back to haunt him. He tells his story to his girlfriend, and then the movie flashes back to the time when Jeff was a P.I. hired by Whit (Kirk Douglas) to find his girlfriend Kathie (Greer), who ran off with $40,000 of his money. Jeff tracks Kathie down, but like all femme fatale in the movies, she seduces Jeff the two fall in love with each other. One murder leads to another, as Kathie keeps killing people and setting Jeff up to take the fall. He gets away, and thinks the past is behind him, until Whit calls on him once again, and Jeff discovers that Kathie is back with him – but she hasn’t changed a bit. Greer is a classic femme fatale – her long dark hair, distinctive voice and seductive good looks makes her a woman you cannot help fall for. Jeff knows he is in trouble from the get go with her – especially the second time – but cannot help himself. This is perhaps the greatest film noir ever made, and Greer is a big reason for it.

2. Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Gloria Swanson’s Norma Desmond is not your typical noir femme fatale. For one thing, she is an aging Hollywood star, not the young type normally associated with the role. In fact, one could argue that she really is a failed femme fatale, as her attempts to seduce the object of her affection Joe (William Holden), a struggling Hollywood screenwriter all fail. Yet in many other ways, she fits the bill fine. Although she is not able to seduce Joe sexually, she uses her wealth to seduce him to stay with her and help her with her screenplay. She becomes possessive in the extreme, and threatens suicide every time that Joe threatens to walk out on her. She has a hold on him that is more than just money. One of the greatest of all screen performances (and the best one on this list), she only takes second place here because I’m not quite sure she should qualify at all. But I love the performance so much, that I couldn’t not have her here.

1. Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity (1945)
For me, Barbara Stanwyck’s Phyllis Dietrichson will always be the standard on which to judge every other femme fatale. Stanwyck was one the best actresses in Hollywood history, using her natural born sexuality to great advantage in her best roles (Baby Face and The Lady Eve come to mind). Here, she is a heartless seductress, who convinces insurance salesman Neff (Fred MacMurray) to kill her husband for her – preferably under strange circumstances so that his life insurance will pay double the normal amount. But an investigator (Edward G. Robinson) gets suspicious, and starts poking around. Phyllis is conniving in the extreme, and plays everyone right down until her final breath. A brilliant performance in one of the best film noirs in history.

Video Views: DVD Releases November 24, 2009

After last week's outpouring of new DVD releases, this week only sees two - only one of which is actually worth your time, although I am sure that many more people will rent the one that isn't.

Angels & Demons * ½
Ron Howard’s follow-up to the massively successful The DaVinci Code is even more inane and stupid than that film was. The movie, based on a book that was much better than The DaVinci Code was, seems to lack all sense of drama and excitement. Once again, we are stuck watching Tom Hanks and a beautiful woman run from place to place all over Rome to try and connect the dots to what is going on. The supporting cast, including Ewan McGregor as a priest, is wasted and seem bored. But not as bored as the audience. For my original review please see: http://davesmoviesite.blogspot.com/2009/05/movie-review-angels-and-demons.html

Funny People *** ½
Judd Apatow’s third feature, following the massively successful The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up, is much more ambitious than either of those films, but also less successful. Apatow is drawing on a bigger canvas this time, focusing on a movie star (Adam Sandler) who learns that he’s dying and tries to reconnect with his comedy roots, via his new assistant and struggling comedian Seth Rogen, and with the girl who got away, played by Leslie Mann. The movie is very funny, and at times quite touching as well. Sandler gives one of his best performances, and isn’t afraid to look like an asshole. Rogen and Mann are also quite good, and the supporting cast – including Jason Schwartzman, Jonah Hill, Eric Bana and a host of celebrity cameos make Funny People enjoyable from beginning to end. For my original review please see: http://davesmoviesite.blogspot.com/2009/08/movie-review-funny-people.html

DVD Views: Valentino: The Last Emperor

Valentino: The Last Emperor ** ½
Directed By: Matt Tynauer.

Valentino is one of the biggest names in the fashion world. At the time of his retirement, he had been in the industry for 45 years, and was the last of the huge names in fashion that rose to prominence in the 1960s still designing clothing. He is a man who values beauty above everything else, and shut out anything that was not beautiful. Throughout all those years, he had Giancarlo Giametti, his business partner and companion, by his side. While Valentino focused on beauty, Giametti focued on the business end of things, and helped make Valentino who he is.

The movie, Valentino: The Last Emperor, follows the man at the close of his career. Right up until his retirement, he was designing beautiful gowns for women, and insisted that he make dresses that women would actually want to wear. The business end of things seems to be a mystery to him. His company went public, and had the majority of its shares bought by one congolerate, and then sold off to another. Valentino doesn’t much care. He wants to continue to make clothes.

The heart of the movie is the relationship between Valentino and Giametti who argue and bicker just like any other old married couple. They have been around each other for so long, that they have a shorthand with each other. Giametti understands Valentino’s flourishes and his insecurities, because he is really the only one that Valentino lets see them. He handles him remarkably well – he gives him a rock to lean on when he needs one.

The rest of the movie is far less interesting to me. I’m sorry, but fashion has never really been an interest of mine, and no documentary is really going to change that. Watching as they prepare for numerous runway shows, and Valentino’s grand exit from the fashion world, simply was not all that interesting to me. For someone who likes this world, I’m sure the movie would be fascinating. For me, not as much.

Valentino is a fascinating man, but one that keeps everyone at a distance. He seems unsatisfied all the time, overly pressured, overly managed. All he wants to do is dress beautiful women in beautiful clothing. He has done that for 45 years, and become a multi-millionaire with everything that he could possibly want. In a way, his life resembles something out of Fellini’s La Dolce Vita – surrounded by shallowness all the time, how could we possibly expect him to be anything but shallow?

And therein lies the problem for me with this movie. It is all surface, much like the dresses that Valentino designs. Yes, it is all very beautiful. But does it mean anything?

DVD Views: Every Little Step

Every Little Step ***
Directed By: Adam Del Deo & James D. Stern.

I have never seen A Chorus Line, either on stage on the movie version, so dispite strong reviews, I didn’t bother to see the documentary Every Little Step when it was released this summer, or when it came out on DVD. But considering that the film was one of the 15 shortlisted for the documentary Oscar this year, I decided to give it a chance over the weekend. What I found was a surprisingly entertaining, funny and ultimately moving documentary about the lives of actors. From what I gathered about A Chorus Line while watching the movie, in its own way, this documentary reflects the original vision of the Broadway show.

When A Chorus Line debuted in 1976, it became an instant success, won a bunch of Tonys and the Pulitizer Prize for Drama, and became one of the longest running shows in history. The brainchild of Michael Bennett, a dancer himself who gathered a group of his fellow dancers together and recorded the 12 hour session where they all opened up about their lives. He, and his writers, then turned these confessions into a Broadway show, where 19 actors get up to audition for a spot in the chorus line for an upcoming Broadway show.

30 Years later, Bennet dead for almost two decades, they decide to revive A Chorus Line for Broadway once again. The producers of the show hold open auditions, which thousands of people show up for. The movie follows the audition process for 8 grueling months and callback after callback, as actors show up and try their damnedest to earn a spot in the revival.

What emerges is both an homage to the original show – as we hear all the shows classic numbers (making me wonder how the hell I knew almost all of them despite the obvious disadvantage of never having seen the production), as well as a tribute to actors everywhere. Unless you are one of the lucky few celebrity actors, being a professional and making a living doing this is damn near impossible. Everyone wants to be a star, but there are not all that many spots open. During the course of the movie many dreams are made, but many more are shattered. It is not so much the people who make the show, but the ones who do not that stick out in my mind.

To a certain extent, Every Little Step is lightweight entertainment. You cannot help but think of reality shows like American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance while watching the movie (the later of which is particularly strong, since one of the choreographers from that show, Tyce Diorio is one of the auditionees for this show). But while those films celebrate amateurs, this movie is about professionals who long to work. True, they do this out of love, but also because they want to make money. There is much more sadness in this film that I expected there to be.
Every Little Step is a fine documentary of a certain type. I cannot really recall another documentary that looked with such an unblinking eye at the world of actors. The movie does justice to the musical on which is it based – at least I think it does.

DVD Views: Ballast

Ballast *** ½
Directed By: Lance Hammer.

Written By: Lance Hammer.

Starring: Micheal J. Smith Sr. (Lawrence), JimMyron Ross (James), Tarra Riggs (Marlee), Johnny McPhail (John).

Ballast is a movie about a family that was torn apart years ago. Although they all continued to live in the same small Mississippi town, they never see each other. Now the estranged father has killed himself, and left his small house to his ex-wife and son. The problem is that the house is on the same property as another small house, belonging to the dead man’s brother, who may have been responsible for the family coming apart in the first place. To make matters worse, the two brothers also run a convenience store together, which now belongs in part to the mother. Bitter feelings are on all sides of this battle. But what Ballast is not, is a film about hysterics and arguments and really resolving the problems. These people have too much to do in their lives to get into arguments about the past. Although they don’t much like each other, they need to find a way to co-exist.

At the beginning of the movie, we don’t really know why everything fell apart in the first place, just that it did. Now Lawrence (Michael J. Smith) is all alone, and depressed, since his brother killed himself. He tries to kill himself as well, but is not as successful as his brother was. When a young teenager, James (JimMyron Ross) arrives at the door and demands money, he knows that it is his nephew, and he gives him what he can. He doesn’t even report it to the police, even though the teenager arrives with a gun in tow. Marlee (Tarra Riggs), the mother, doesn’t want anything to do with her ex, or his brother, but she has no job and no money, and sees this as perhaps a chance to give her, and her son, a leg up in a world that doesn’t seem to care about them. When James gets into debt with some local drug dealers, who appear dangerous, she decides that they have no choice but to move in next to Lawrence. They try and stay away from each other, but cannot. It’s a small property after all.

Ballast is probably a film that will frustrate most viewers. There is no artificial drama in this film – in fact there is nothing artificial about the film at all. It simply observes these characters in their day to day lives. It doesn’t feel the need to explain everything from one scene to the next. These characters know what happened in the past, so why do they need to discuss it? It is a film about ordinary lives – about three broken, wounded people, who slowly, gradually lean on each other to help fix themselves.

I will admit to being kind of frustrated at the beginning of the movie, as I struggled to connect the dots between these characters, and what it all meant. But the movie won me over a little more with each passing scene, until by the end I was completely absorbed by these characters and their lives. The ending of the film isn’t exactly a happy one – but it signals that perhaps at some point in the future, there could be one. For characters in a movie like Ballast, perhaps that is the best we can hope for.

Movie Review: The Twilight Saga: New Moon

The Twilight Saga: New Moon * ½
Directed By: Chris Weitz.
Written By: Melissa Rosenberg based on the novel by Stephanie Meyer.
Starring: Kristen Stewart (Bella Swan), Robert Pattinson (Edward Cullen), Taylor Lautner (Jacob Black), Billy Burke (Charlie Swan), Ashley Greene (Alice Cullen), Jackson Rathbone (Jasper Whitlock), Anna Kendrick (Jessica), Michael Welch (Mike), Michael Sheen (Aro), Jamie Campbell Bower (Caius), Christopher Heyerdahl (Marcus), Peter Facinelli (Dr. Carlisle Cullen), Rachelle Lefevre (Victoria), Elizabeth Reaser (Esme Cullen), Kellan Lutz (Emmett Cullen), Nikki Reed (Rosalie Hale), Chaske Spencer (Sam Uley), Gil Birmingham (Billy Black), Graham Greene (Harry Clearwater), Kiowa Gordon (Embry Call), Tyson Houseman (Quil Ateara), Edi Gathegi (Laurent), Dakota Fanning (Jane).

Being a teenager is hard. It is a time of personal upheaval, confusion and raging hormones as kids try to become adults too quickly, and end up making mistakes. This is why teenagers are at the heart of many movies, TV shows and books. Their lives, even when mundane, are just so much more dramatic than adults lives are. Every little thing that happens to them is the BIGGEST THING EVER to them – at least for that moment. This is why the Twilight series – both in book form where I read all four novels, for reasons I do not understand myself – and in the movies is so frustrating to me. Never have I seen a group of teenagers so bloody lifeless and morose. That the series has legions of teenage fans is somewhat curious to me – does anyone actually relate to these characters? They certainly do not reflect my life as a teenager in any way.

But I digress. The second movie in the Twilight series, New Moon, is worse than the first film, even if they did drastically improve on the special effects of the first film. Director Chris Weitz, coming off the vastly superior The Golden Compass, knows how to use CGI very well in his movies, and in particular here he gives us some great work – particularly in the scenes of the werewolf’s transformations.

But the story is still so cheesy and lame, isn’t it? In this one, our teenage heroine Bella (Kristen Stewart, once again valiantly struggling in a movie so far beneath her obvious talent level it’s frustrating) and her vampire love Edward (Robert Pattinson, once again mistaking staring off into space and speaking slowly for being dramatic) are forced apart by Edward’s conscience. He doesn’t want to see Bella get hurt, so he decides to leaves Forks, and her, forever. She is torn up by his abandonment, and in what may be the films worst scene, spends months in her room simply staring out the window. Then she discovers that is she does something stupid or self destructive, she can bring Edward back – not really, but she sees him in her mind telling her not to do it. This leads her to do more and more stupid things. She rescues a couple of motorcycles for the dump, and takes them to her old friend Jacob (Taylor Lautner), on the Native Reservation, because he is a good mechanic. The two of them become close over the months, and although Bella knows that Jacob is in love with her, she doesn’t give in. She is in love with Edward, and always will be. But then Jacob pulls away for reasons she doesn’t understand. We of course, figure out long before she does, that he has become a werewolf. But much like the Cullens, Jacob’s werewolf pack are not really “monsters”, but kind and benevolent werewolves. They are just there to protect their people, and the people from Forks, for the vampire horde descending on them. Much like Sunnydale, the city in which Buffy the Vampire Slayer takes place, Forks seems to be a magnet for monsters.

For a series that contains vampires, and now werewolves, Twilight is rather bloodless. Bella is seen to be in constant danger, and yet nothing ever really happens to her. She wanders around depressed, is put under threat for a few moments, but really, she is not in danger. There are too many monsters in love with her for that to happen.

I suppose that a series like Twilight could work, if the writing was better. The screenwriter is Melissa Rosenberg, who does great work season after season on Dexter, but here her hands are tied by the terribly written novels by Stephanie Meyer. Because teenage fans have eaten up the novels in record numbers, they don’t really change anything for the movie versions. The same lame dialogue has to be delivered, the same false dramatic episodes, the same lame characters. Because of their success, the movies have drawn some big name talent to star in the movies – not only Stewart, who will recover and return to doing great work after this series is over I hope, but now Dakota Fanning and Michael Sheen as two members of the “Volturi”, vampire royalty who make the rules that all vampires must live by. They try hard to be dramatic and evil, but they cannot pull it off.

I am under no delusions that anything I write here will have the slightest bit of impact. The movie just made $141 million in its opening weekend, which is the highest three day total of the year. Sad really that teenagers are flocking to this series, but whatever. They like what they like. When they grow up a little bit though, I wonder if they’ll look back at their Twilight love with nostalgia or embarrassment.