By Gary Dretzka Dretzka@moviecitynews.com

The DVD Wrapup: Hologram for the King, The Tiger, Women He’s Dressed, The Midnight After, Monster With 1,000 Heads, The Tunnel, Halt & Catch Fire and more

A Hologram for the King: Blu-ray

This warm-hearted, if all too topical adaptation of Dave Eggers’ novel – a 2012 finalist for the National Book Award – describes what happens when an American businessman deemed redundant travels to Saudi Arabia in a last-ditch effort to re-establish his self-confidence and make enough money to afford his daughter’s college education. It’s not as uncommon a story as one might think, considering that the Middle East is one of the few places on Earth where middle-age westerners can find work after being laid off. In yet another of his trademark Everyman roles, Tom Hanks effortlessly mines the humanity in the character, Alan Clay, while also demonstrating just how desperate he and, by extension, so many other of his contemporaries, has become. Clay was an executive at Schwinn when it was sold to Chinese interests and run into the ground to exploit the brand. He’s been virtually unemployable in mainstream commerce ever since. As the title, A Hologram for the King, might suggest to tech-savvy viewers, Clay is leading an IT team that’s attempting to convince the royal family to invest in a teleconferencing system that uses holograms in lieu of a flat-screen Skype feed. It’s a neat technology, to be sure, but one that would only be affordable by the wealthiest and adventurous of clients. Once in Saudi Arabia, Clay’s whisked away to what essentially is a desert metropolis waiting to be built. He’s been promised an audience with the king and expects that business will be conducted with the same courtesy and efficiencies he’s come to expect in North America, Europe and parts of the Pacific Rim. Not only does he run into a bureaucratic system that would make the Pentagon and Kremlin look like pikers, but he also develops a serious medical condition, which puts him at the mercy of a mysterious health-care network. Meanwhile, the American and European expats are required to abide by an Islamic morals code that forbids everything that makes living in the free world so much fun, including meaningful friendships with Saudi women. Knowing that this may be his last shot at a job that doesn’t require him to wear an orange apron or push fries, Clay uses all of the maturity and patience he’s acquired in a lifetime of sales work to resist throwing up his arms and catching the next plane home.

Clearly, Hanks was the natural choice to play Clay. He had worked with director Tom Tykwer previously, on Cloud Atlas, and hasn’t seemed to mind working in movies (Larry Crowne, The Terminal, Ithaca) that promised to return small profits, if any. He read the book and liked the character. More problematic was the likelihood that Eggers’ hipster readers might not anticipate adaptations of their favorite novels with the same passion as J.K. Rowling’s fans reserve for each new Harry Potter project.Indeed, Eggers’ name on the credits of Sam Mendes’ compelling 2009 Away We Go – alongside that of his wife and collaborator, Vendela Vida – did nothing for box-office. (Ditto, Gus Van Sant’s Promised Land or Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are.) It’s nice that indie producers think enough of Eggers’ work to give his books a shot, however. Hologram” is not a difficult film to follow or enjoy, even for Hanks’ many mainstream fans. Clay’s character is all-too-recognizable these days and the difficulties of life in the kingdom for American contractors is pretty well known, as well. Tykwer stops short of taking cheap shots of the Saudi government and, towards the end of the story, Clay even is allowed a romantic encounter of the forbidden kind, which is handled with great taste and compassion. Eggers spent quite a bit of time travelling through the region, gathering string for the novel. Tykwer did, as well. Cinematographer Lance Acord (Lost in Translation) captures both the beauty of the desert and incongruity of building skyscrapers and shopping malls in such an inhospitable environment. The special making-of featurettes are also worthwhile: “The Making of ‘A Hologram for the King,’” “From Novel to Screen: The Adaptation of ‘A Hologram for the King’” and “Perfecting The Culture.”

The Tiger: Blu-ray

Nature’s greatest predators have become so endangered in their natural habitats that it’s easy to cheer for them when confronted by men with guns and a desire to kill them. Such adventures as The Edge, The Ghost and the Darkness, Jaws, Rogue and The Grey are movies in which a bear, lions, a shark, crocodile and wolves have given as good as they got before ultimately succumbing to cinematic destiny. If the bear in The Revenant had made its presence known a little later in the narrative, it, too, might have been accorded a bit more sympathy from audiences. Killer tigers are generally associated with India, where news reports of deadly attacks are only slightly less common than litigation involving pit bulls on “Judge Judy.” What’s so compelling about Park Hoon-jung’s gorgeously photographed adventure, The Tiger, is that it takes place in a part of the world not commonly associated with tigers, Korea. But, why not? It opens in 1915, with the elderly hunter Chun Man-duk (Choi Min-sik) teaching his young son how to shoot and track animals in the country’s highest mountains. Ten years later, with Japanese troops in full control of the peninsula, a pompous general commands his soldiers to eliminate the few remaining tigers, including the 850-pound “mountain king” who also serves as the region’s primary sperm donor. When ordered to come out of retirement to serve the Japanese officer’s obsession with collecting pelts. Chun asks, “Why would you dare provoke the mountain lords?” It isn’t until his son agrees to join one of the hunting teams that his father takes it upon himself to kill the tiger before it takes the young hunter from him. Although the tiger is practically omnipotent, Park reveals a side of the beast that gives us even more reason to sympathize with him. Every time a female tiger is killed, two more of his cubs die of malnutrition. Chun also reminds us that the elimination of all tigers will allow the wolf and wild boar populations to prey on native deer and farm animals, as well as defoliate the valleys. There are times in The Tiger when the CGI seams show, but not with any frequency. More than anything, it’s a terrific yarn, well told.

 

Women He’s Undressed

Last week in this space, I reviewed Joe Forte’s indie documentary, The Man Who Saved Ben-Hur, which introduced readers to his 89-year-old second cousin John Alarimo, who, as a highly placed assistant and confidante to the stars, left behind an apartment full of memorabilia, letters and gifts to show for it. By coincidence, another terrific film about a largely unsung Hollywood hero has just been released into DVD. In Women He’s Undressed, it’s the legendary costume designer Orry-Kelly, whose credit appears on an astonishing 282 motion pictures, designing for Marilyn Monroe, Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart, Rosalind Russell and many more Golden Age stars. Aussie director Gillian Armstrong (My Beautiful Career) and writer Katherine Thomson put a tight focus on the continent’s native son, who moved to America in search of an acting career on Broadway, but settled for work in vaudeville and as a mural artist in nightclubs, designer of neckties, cushions and shawls. He migrated to Southern California with everyone else, when the movies began to talk and the Depression-weary audiences needed to get over their blues with some Hollywood make-believe. The opinionated three-time Oscar recipient — Some Like It Hot, Les Girls, An American in Paris – remained with Warner Brothers and First National Studios before moving on to Universal, RKO, Fox and MGM. The film includes interviews with actors Jane Fonda and Angela Lansbury, critic Leonard Maltin, costume designers Ann Roth, Catherine Martin, Colleen Atwood, Michael Wilkinson and Kim Barrett. Orry-Kelly (nee, Orry George Kelly) was known for his ability to “design for distraction,” to compensate for difficult figures, an illusion that sometimes borders on magic. Monroe’s seemingly diaphanous gown in Some Like It Hot remains one the 20th Century’s great architectural wonders. In Forte’s bio-doc, the gay-Hollywood subtext is implied, rather than openly acknowledged. In Armstrong’s Women He’s Undressed, also the title of his newly discovered memoirs, Orry-Kelly openly discusses his travels and extremely close relationships with “Archie” (Gary Grant), Randolph Scott and other prominent Hollywood “bachelors,” whose reputations are on the down-low to this day. After the imposition of the Production Code, being openly gay and not agreeing to a sham marriage could mean the difference between working in the industry and permanent banishment. Having important friends in the industry – Jack Warner’s second wife, Ann, Rosalind Russell and Bette Davis, among others – made sure Orry-Kelly stayed employed between Oscars. Once again, Women He’s Undressed would be the perfect gift for loyal watchers of TCM. The DVD adds more interview material.

 

The Midnight After

Any movie co-written and directed by Fruit Chan (Durian Durian), from an Internet serial by a guy who calls himself Pizza, is sure to attract the attention of curiosity seekers, at least. The title of the source material, “Lost on a Red Minibus to Tai Po,” suggests that Chan may have been shooting for a Hong Kong-set edition of the ABC series, “Lost,” by way of “The Twilight Zone.” In The Midnight After, a mini-bus filled with17 mostly young riders and a portly driver, is on its way from the high-density shopping and nightclub district of Mongkok, to the high-rise residential community of Tai Po. Once it passes through a tunnel linking the districts, the passengers are astounded to discover that the entire area appears to be depopulated and absent any cars or telephone connections. When a couple of the riders attempt to escape back to Mongkok, they hit an invisible wall and are turned into dust. The survivors head for a local café, where their imaginations are allowed to run wild and rivalries between them become heated. Eventually, a couple of radio signals are able to cut through the cone of silence, including one from five years in the future and another, in Morse Code, that translates into David Bowie’s “Space Oddity.” A strange figure in a hazmat suit turns out to be a Japanese man who says he has come to save them. It’s pretty crazy stuff. Apparently, Chan has loaded The Midnight After with references that will make sense primarily to frustrated residents of post-British Hong Kong. A basic knowledge of the island’s geography and background will give viewers a better appreciation of Chan’s motivations.

 

The Monster With a Thousand Heads

There’s hardly an American of limited financial means who can’t relate to the Mexican wife of the dying man in The Monster With a Thousand Heads, when she goes postal on the executives of a medical-care insurer that’s denied him proper care. Based on a novel by Mexico-based director Rodrigo Plá’s regular screenwriter, Laura Santullo, the 74-minute drama describes how a bureaucratic snafu escalates into a life-and-death confrontation between a seemingly powerless consumer and heartless representatives of industry without a soul. When Sonia (Jana Raluy) receives the news that her husband’s cancer has progressed to a terminal stage, she races to secure the insurance company’s approval for an experimental medicine that could help him. She’s met with indifference and negligence at every turn. Sonia finally reaches her boiling point when she’s told that treatment has been rejected because the company had already met its quota of qualified patients and her husband was simply out of luck, despite previous insurance payments. She’ll need to get the approval from doctors and executives on every subsequent step of the ladder and, heading into a holiday weekend, they’ve already given their receptionists instructions not to be disturbed. It’s at this point that Sonia cracks and, with her teenage son in tow, decides to reach the proper authorities, gun in hand, whether or not they’re at home or in the sauna after a game of handball. As deathly serious as the situation is, The Monster With a Thousand Heads is not without humor. If an American wife did the same thing in defense of her husband’s health, she’d never be convicted by a jury of her peers.

 

Up in Flames

Along with the many eccentric characters invented by R. Crumb, Gilbert Shelton’s Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers are the most endearing and enduring of all comix superstars. The FFFB first appeared in the Rag, an underground newspaper published in Austin, Texas, in May 1968, with Shelton still associated with the strip until 1992. Their lives revolve around the procurement and enjoyment of recreational drugs, particularly marijuana, without getting busted or burned in the process. Freewheelin’ Franklin summed up their entire raison d’être by observing, “Dope will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no dope.” In a very real sense, the FFFB were Cheech and Chong before Cheech & Chong were Cheech & Chong. What I don’t know is if the unauthorized porno, Up in Flames, was shot and titled in 1973 or 1978, when C&C’s Up in Smoke was released to universal stoner acclaim. No writer or director has stepped forward to take credit for the film, which changes the physical stature and names of the characters a bit, and only Colleen Anderson, Richard Mailer, John Seeman and Erica Havens might be recognizable to habitual viewers of vintage adult pictures. Otherwise, it’s pretty true to form. Their landlady has tired of the brothers’ dodging rent and throwing parties, and given them one day to come up with the cash or be evicted by sundown. It isn’t much of a pad, but it’s home. Fat Freddy goes to work for R. Crumb’s Mr. Natural – again, in an unauthorized appearance — a vitamin salesman, who dresses in a potato sack and fake beard. Mr. Natural cons Fat Freddy into accepting “vita-beans,” in lieu of cash, after two of his skanky saleswomen feign a desire to be him when he holds them. Among the reasons that I think Up in Flames may have been made before 1978 are the appalling production values and sexual encounters that are the antithesis of couples’ porn. Nonetheless, it can be enjoyed for its historic value, if nothing else. Considering all the attention accorded Ralph Bakshi’s X-rated and authorized Fritz the Cat, a year earlier, Up in Flames may not have enjoyed a XXX-theatrical release. The DVD arrives with previews of material in Impulse Pictures’ “42d Street Forever: The Peep Show Collection.”

 

TV-to-DVD

PBS: The Tunnel: The Complete First Season: Blu-ray

AMC: Halt and Catch Fire: The Complete Second Season

PBS: Frontline: The Secret History of ISIS

PBS: 9 Months That Made You

Originally a co-production of Sweden’s Sveriges Television and Denmark’s Danmarks Radio, the 10-part mini-series, “The Bridge,” has directly spawned original series set on the Bridge of the Americas, separating El Paso and Juarez, and the Chunnel connecting England/France. It has aired in more than 100 countries since its debut in 2011. In the first episodes of each series, the bisected body of a prominent politician is found straddling the border of the respective countries. The bodies have been surgically severed – the bottom halves of the first victims belong to prostitutes — as if to require police on both sides of the border to combine their resources to solve the crime. The Scandinavian “Bridge” and “The Tunnel” bear the closest resemblance to each other, in that a Truth Terrorist claims to be committing his crimes in order to draw attention to various social problems. Further crimes are telegraphed ahead of time by the TT, who touches all of the right buttons of his pursuers. In all three series, the female cops display such symptoms of Asperger syndrome as poor social skills, difficulty empathizing with others and an inability to channel her emotions. They’re forcibly partnered with male cops from across the border whose loosey-goosey approach to crime solving contrasts with the women’s strictly by-the-book principles. “The Tunnel,” which aired here on PBS affiliates, stars Stephen Dillane (“Game of Thrones”) and Clémence Poésy (“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”) as British and French police detectives Karl Roebuck and Elise Wassermann. Her laissez-faire attitude toward sex stands in direct counterpoint to his unnecessarily messy marriage and relationship with his 18-year-old son. The top half of the first victim belongs to the French minister with strong opinions on immigration, trade and European unity. The primary difference between “The Tunnel” and “The Bridge” is the screenwriters’ willingness to dig deeper into Karl and TT’s backgrounds in covert intelligence. It took me less than a day to binge on the whole series, which was accorded extraordinary access to the Chunnel and its infrastructure. The Blu-ray adds commentary and making-of material.

 

In the 1980s, when “Halt and Catch Fire” is set, the role of women in the personal-computer industry was said to be relegated to asking the male geeks if they wanted fries with their hamburgers at McDonald’s. The more strong-willed the woman, the more marginalized they were. And, the same can be said for the female protagonists in Season One. Where characters played by Lee Pace and Scoot McNairy dominated the storylines in the first go-round, their better halves, Mackenzie Davis and Kerry Bishé, found their footing in the second, with Aleksa Palladino coming on board to add a California element to the Silicon Prairie crew. Season Two, which takes place in early 1985, chronicles the rise of Mutiny, Cameron and Donna’s start-up company, which is built upon the most disruptive idea of the modern era the Internet, a customer’s willingness to pay for the privilege of chatting and playing games over land-line telephone connections. They’re also asked to pull the trigger on deals that could benefit one, all or none of the company’s employees. Joe Macmilian gets married, without dealing first with his feelings toward Cameron; Gordon tries to hide his illness from everyone; and newcomer John Bosworth almost gets caught in the crossfire. Special features include “Inside Episodes 201-210,” “History of Now,” “Joe’s Strategic Benchmarks,” “Tour of an ’80s Startup” and “Set Tour With Lee Pace And Scoot McNairy.” Season Three begins in two weeks.

For all of the money spent on gathering intelligence to win the war on terrorism, it’s fair for taxpayers to ask how it came to be that an entire army of terrorists could hide from view as it accumulated enough trucks, tanks, all-terrain vehicles and mobile missile launchers to capture half of Iraq, practically overnight. The “Frontline” episode, “The Secret History of ISIS” examines how the leaders of the Al Qaeda spinoff organization grew from practically nothing after the invasion of Iraq to a force that’s struck fear in the hearts of political leaders and civilians around the world. Not only does it once again trash the Bush administration’s half-baked strategy for the democratization of Iraq, but it also questions President Obama’s waffling on the civil war in Syria. It’s a tough hour to watch, especially knowing that our vaunted intelligence agencies missed all of the signs of a caliphate suddenly emerging in the middle of nowhere.

 

In 180 minutes, PBS’ absolutely fascinating “9 Months That Made You” chronicles the story of how we all were made, from conception to the moment of birth, 280 days later. This breakthrough series follows the gestation process, using state-of-the-art CGI to reveal the most exquisite biological choreography found in nature. Across three episodes, the show charts how 100 trillion (with a “t”) cells come together to make each of us a unique individual. The producers also travel outside the womb to show the consequences of minute abnormalities that are both predictable and completely unexpected. The miracle of birth isn’t made any less miraculous in “9 Months That Made You,” just easier to understand and appreciate.

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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon