My Movie Week: April 4-10, 2008

by Bill Henry on Apr.11, 2008, under Bill Henry's Movie Reviews

Reviews of The Ruins, Shine a Light, Girls Rock!, Nim’s Island, and Errol Morris at the AFI Silver

Two summers ago, Stephen King was in the process of going ape-shit (most notably in his Entertainment Weekly column) over the new novel by Scott Smith, The Ruins. Having previously praised Smith’s A Simple Plan which was then turned into a very good movie by the pre-Spider-Man Sam Raimi, King’s praise led to elevated book sales and that propelled the movie adaptation down the past track.

What could possibly go wrong?

As it turns out nothing except the movie’s fate was placed in the hands of people who had little idea how to promote a smart, well-made horror film in the modern market place and so The Ruins (3* in nationwide release) was dumped with the sort of support that usually accompanies a movie that the distributors have already concluded is a dud. Look for The Ruins to pick up a lot of buzz in a few months when its home theater release results in small screen success.

The Ruins tells the story of a quartet of pretty vacationing Americans who are convinced to leave their Mexican resort for a look at some uncharted Mayan ruins. But once they arrive, they find themselves chased up a pyramid by locals who menace them with guns and arrows if they try to leave. Now, I know I have just described the setup of every Hostel rip-off (and quite a few pornos), but from this beginning director Carter Smith (in his feature debut) and screenwriter Scott Smith (adapting his own book) spin a compelling tale. While they keep to the genre conventions of failed escape attempts leading to dwindling cast members concluding with grand revelation, the journey is a tense tale well-told.

With contemporary horror movies, mere competency already puts you miles ahead of the competition.

However, the early returns have been less than reassuring. Maybe the marketing people are not really to blame. The Ruins is nothing like the buckets of blood torture porn that virtually defines the horror movie genre for modern audiences. They do not really know how to release something that does not have the word saw in the title. And with the critical community taking too many cues from marketers, moviegoers are left with too little reliable information to navigate increasingly crowded multiples. And so a movie like The Ruins that tries to go beyond the well-defined borders of the genre can get lost in the shuffle.

And so in the grand tradition of horror movies over the century: Do not say you were not warned.

Two of the more important figures in documentary filmmaking get together in our area next weekend when Errol Morris previews his new film, Standard Operating Procedure, at the American Film Institute’s Silver Theater on April 13, 2008 at 4:00 p.m. In this movie Morris, a recent Oscar winner for The Fog of War, examines how the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay has come to define U.S. foreign policy.

The AFI Silver is the permanent home of SilverDocs film festival and this preview and post-screening discussion are part of their ongoing commitment to the exhibition of film documentaries throughout the year. This is a terrific chance both to talk to Morris and get a first look at what is expected to be one of this year’s most significant documentary features.

Another filmmaker with a substantial commitment to documentaries is Martin Scorsese whose follow-up feature to his overrated Oscar-winner, The Departed, is Shine a Light (3* in nationwide release). Throughout his career, Scorsese has interspersed non-fiction film into his long list of features, most notably the widely admired and emulated The Last Waltz.

Shine a Light’s subject is The Rolling Stones and their 2006 concert at New York’s Beacon Theater. In the movie’s first quarter we see the preparations as Scorsese (often with tongue firmly planted in cheek) gets ready mixed in with archival shots from old interviews (it turns out the Stones have been at this music business for a while) and celebrity drop-bys including President Bill Clinton. Following this, the movies serves to cater solely to those who like their rock docs with no talking just singing as the Stones work their way through a fairly standard set.

The most amazing revelation in Scorsese’s movie is the enormous energy Stones lead singer and songwriter Mick Jagger brings to the stage. It has become de rigueur to comment on the geriatric Stones (anyone remember the Steel Wheel-chairs tour), but it is hard to imagine a rocker half his age putting on the show that Jagger delivers here. Me personally I would have enjoyed more talk (something along the lines of what Marty did for Bob Dylan in No Direction Home: Bob Dylan and my preference would have been for a play list with more of their classic stuff, but I understand that the Rolling Stones have earned the right not to have to perform the millionth rendition of “Paint it Black” or “Let’s Spend the Night Together.”

The movie may not turn any new viewers into Rolling Stones fans (a tall order for any rock doc), but still it is nice to check back in occasionally as the Stones keep rolling along.

Less engaging and at other end of the age and accomplishment scale is Girls Rock! (1.5* in an exclusive engagement at The Avalon Theatre). Unfortunately, this is a documentary which substitutes good intentions for compelling filmmaking (unless they were shooting for an allegorical take on their subject matter). Set at a summer camp for girls, directors Arne Johnson and Shane King show how girls become empowered during a week in which they learn to play, form a band, write a song, and perform it at week’s end.

The whole thing is pretty amazing and ambitious, just not particularly good or interesting; the girls may rock just not here. And as for their self-esteem, the kids are alright, it is just that their music sucks… which is what you would expect some old geezer to write.

The themes of female empowerment and plucky self-reliance in the face of adversity get another workout in Nim’s Island (1.5* in nationwide release), but the resulting entertainment is even less engaging than Girls Rock!. Based on a children’s book by Mary Orr, directors Jennifer Flackett and Mark Levin have tried to create an Indiana Jones movie for the Hannah Montana set while ensuring that the movie never rises above the predictable or tedious. The filmmakers may think the world of their multi-generational heroines, but they seem contemptuous of their pre-teen audience.

Having successfully escaped the clutches of Ryan Reynolds, Little Miss Sunshine’s Abigail Breslin plays Nim, a little girl who lives with her widowed father (300’s Gerald Butler) on a south Pacific island. Nim befriends the local fauna and generally lives the sort of idyllic existence only possible in a world where no one needs latrines. A crisis is cobbled together with dad’s absence, a storm-damaged boat, and a cruise-load of eco-tourists and so Nim calls (via email) on Alex Rider (Butler again), the heroic author of a series of literary adventures that Nim favors. But in reality, Nim’s idol is Alexandra Rider (Jodie Foster), a San Francisco agoraphobe with a preference for canned soups and lengthy conversations with her fictional hero. But somehow she sees herself as Nim’s savior and sets off.

Foster’s neuroses are played only for laughs and take on a monotonous quality as she is presented with some difficulty, initially refuses, only to blunder ahead (at the urging of the imaginary Alex), and have it blow up in her face as she shrieks hysterically.

Butler making his second consecutive movie opposite a dual Oscar winner is to be congratulated for being a good sport, but provides little more than a steady smile and hearty manner. Similarly unsupported by the material is Foster one of our top actresses and a better director than either of the ones working Nim’s Island.

If an actress and filmmaker as talented as Jodie Foster is only going to make a few movies per decade, I wish she would choose better than The Brave One or Nim’s Island. None of us are getting any younger.