BAD LIEUTENANT LATE ONE SATURDAY NIGHT

By ALI NADERZAD - Right, so yesterday was Saturday and literally minutes after a friend left my house at midnight (we had Indian for dinner and watched 'The Soloist,' which I disliked just as much the second time around, for the same reason I disliked 'Forrest Gump') I jumped in a taxi and traveled from Chelsea to Greenwich Village where my favorite theatre, the Angelika Film Center, is located. The popcorn is usually fresh and there's a full-service cafe as well. According to the marquee I had the choice between Pirate Radio and Bad Lieutenant Port of Call New Orleans, among other films on the menu. Even though the trailers for Pirate Radio look great, I have heard some people say that the film exists merely as a justification for the rock sound track. Aouch. Still want to see this some day though. Bad Lieutenant was my selection, even though it was showing in my least favorite room at the Angelika, ie, Theatre number 6 under the stairs. I like theatres to be very large, which is why I never shy away from giant multiplexes. A snob I am not. This Bad Lieutenant, a remake of the original which stars Harvey Keitel (and which I saw so long ago, I could use a refresher) came out of nowhere, it seems. I did not see any previews for it, there was no protracted mating dance with the moviegoing public. But Werner Herzog can be very unpredictable. He's a little strange, too, I think, although I never met him (Kinsky rubbed off on him a little). I remember seeing him in a scene in a Harmony Korine's film in which he is flying in a plane full of nuns. Do with this information what you will. Anyway, for his remake Herzog got Nicolas Cage to act the main character, a New Orleans cop with a conscience who veers off course a good deal. Terence McDonagh (Cage) hurts his back and gets a script for the painkiller oxycontin. From the knowing chuckles in the audience last night it was clear that something sinister was afoot and these white pills would soon become our cop's downfall. From here on, McDonagh pops, smokes and snorts his way around a fog-battered, post-Katrina New Orleans where bad guys dress smarter than cops and a big murder investigation he is heading is growing colder by the minute. McDonagh's supposed nemesis (and suspected killer) is Big Fate, played with bravado by rapper Xzibit. But as McDonagh’s key witness bials, we find out about nemesis shmenesis. Donagh hops in bed with Fate like the nice crooked cop that he is. Throughout this strange little movie Herzog's demented sense of humor insinuates itself via the strategic use of ... iguanas (or lizards, or whatever you call these things--I live in Manhattan, what do I know?) . In my favorite scene of the film, a police stakeout is shown from the perspective of a couple of iguanas on a table nearby who keep staring, smiling and then singing an oldie to a McDonagh whose face, contorted by days of no-sleep and too much white powder, belies a strangely helpless frustration. It's quite comical, and for once I believe the laughing among the audience was completely intended by the filmmaker.But, seriously, If there's one thing that really takes this movie down, it's the cinematography. The whole film is plastered with a haggard white light which makes every other scene look like fakery. The only thing that gets this Bad Lieutenant going is, like the original, its protagonist. Cage, in spite of his increasingly odd-looking hairdo, still has some charisma even when portraying a broken-down cop with a bad back. I just wonder how the film would have fared in someone else's hands. Anyway, thank God movie theatres are opened late in New York City.

NEWS OF THE WEIRD: PAVEL LUNGIN MIRED IN SO-CALLED CONTROVERSY

By ANDREW OSBORN -"Tsar," a film chronicling the bloody life and times of Ivan the Terrible, wrongly portrays the medieval ruler as a crazed sadist according to a historian who has called for it to be banned. Vyacheslav Manyagin has asked Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to outlaw the film, which he claims is an insult to Russian statehood.

The blockbuster, released earlier this month, has triggered an ill-tempered debate in religious and historical circles at a time when the Kremlin is encouraging Russians to take patriotic pride in their often brutal history.

In the film, Ivan the Terrible is shown as a murderous tyrant who puts himself above God and punishes his real and imagined enemies with cruel and unusual deaths.In one scene, the Russian ruler has his disgraced military commanders torn apart by a bear. In another, he has the head of the Russian church murdered. In a third, his enforcers burn a church and its occupants to the ground.

"Imagine that they made a film in America about George Washington in which the first US president was portrayed as a bloodthirsty maniac," Mr Manyagin said. "This film slanders the Russian people and state."

The "unjust" depiction of Russia's first tsar as a monster would fuel Western stereotypes about modern Russia, he added.

"If you believe that the founder of our state was such a tyrant, then you could believe that modern Russia is, as the West says, a stronghold of totalitarianism."

The film's director, Pavel Lungin, has countered by saying he only showed a fraction of the bloodshed for which Ivan the Terrible became infamous. "We can see a lot of the characteristics of his power today," Mr Lungin told the Moscow Times. "After his reign, Russia was left behind in the process of progress. We have made no headway since that time." (previously published on The Daily Telegraph)

THE OPRAH PHENOMENON GIVES 'PRECIOUS' A PUSH

By KEVIN BOWEN -Grade: B; Cast: Gabourey Sidibe, Mo’ Nique, Mariah Carey; Director: Lee Daniels. I could talk about Precious as a film, but it’s far more interesting to talk about the cultural impact of Oprah Winfrey.

Derived from an Oprah Book Club selection called ‘Push,’ the arrival of Precious as a huge indie circuit hit and critical favorite is testament to her much-bowed –to influence. When Winfrey started her book club a decade, cultural observers were skeptical. Would housewives really pick up the reading bug? Would she belittle literature? The verdict is in. You can’t go on a date without hearing about a woman’s book club, and all those artsy coffee-shop skeptics should admit that she has been a one-woman last stand for American letters.

That said, there has been some truth to the criticism. It so happens that two Oprah Book Club favorites are out as films this year. ‘The Road’ (review appeared in Screen Comment) is a fine film version of a critically acclaimed novel, the sort that lit-types sneered she would never champion.

Precious, on the other hand, is both the good and the bad of what one would expect Winfrey to bring to the table. It is powerful, but it is also exploitative. It is realistic but also melodramatic. It is a story of a young woman’s empowerment, but it is also a story deeply rooted in the Culture of Victimization spread by the Winfrey culture.

The good news is that it builds into a pretty watchable film that features a tremendous amount of dangerous spontaneity. While the scenes of domestic violence in Precious might not hit that level of a John Cassavetes film in this regard, they occasionally achieve that “what the hell happens next?” momentum. Yet the film just as easily slips into comedy from out of nowhere(through the adolescent fantasies of its impoverished, overweight subject Clarice Precious Jones, an African-American teen-ager living a tough life in Harlen in the 1980s).

This is a credit to first-time director Lee Daniels, who obviously has a fantastic touch with actors (He may one day be known as the only person to get a decent performance out of Mariah Carey.) It’s also a tribute to the comedian Mo’nique, who plays the most monstrous welfare queen you’ll ever see; and its young star Gabby Sidibe, who brings both bravery and humor to the role of a teenage mother who has seen far too much of the worst that life has to offer. There is an exaggerated quality to the characters and the actions, but you have to give the actresses credit for reining it in.

There has been a habit in our recent intellectual life to celebrate (perhaps over celebrate) hidden voices and hidden perspectives. Following an illiterate heroine on the outskirts of society, Precious is undoubtedly that sort of film. It does a very respectable job of signaling the limits that we place on a person as a society based on appearance, and it breaks through those limits with a likable character with a smart inner monologue and a sweet disposition. It’s hard not to get involved in her struggle for dignity, even if it is difficult for her.

TAKE FIVE WITH ... BEN KINGSLEY

FANTASTIC MR. FOX

By KEVIN BOWEN - Grade: B - cast: George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Owen Wilson, Director: Wes Anderson.

Smart. Witty. Cool. Hip. Imaginative. Different. And, like any good fox, sly.

Those are the words that apply to The Fantastic Mr. Fox, Wes Anderson’s impressively retro journey into stop-gap animation. The film is a breakthrough for those thirsting for something other than CG animation. It is also a breakthrough for Anderson, who has been looking for a second act. The Fantastic Mr. Fox is first an exercise in style. The film is layered in fall colors –oranges and yellows and browns. More importantly, it is a piece of animation that is directed rather than produced.

Where Pixar’s animation bears the brand and the qualities of the studio that makes it, The Fantastic Mr. Fox is clearly the act of a single mind on a visual level. All the hallmarks of Anderson’s visual style are there – extreme use of the screen’s width, and most impressively, a world that extends beyond the screen. The camera goes up, down, all around. Has the visual style of an animated film ever seemed so liberated?

Yet its story (Based on the Roald Dahl book) of a patriarch in midlife crisis is sufficiently foxy. Mr. Fox has traded stealing chickens for a day job as a columnist, a wife and a freaky outcast son. Yet something’s missing, because a fox is made to steal a chicken. He resorts to thievery of a major corporation. That brings all sorts of hell when the owners decide to seek revenge.

Anderson has suffered the build him up. Like what once happened one of his many heroes, Francois Truffaut, observers have unfairly thrown him into the category of early brilliance who has not been able to live up to it. Having recently re-watched 'The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou' recently, I feel confident in saying that reputation won’t last, as it did not with Truffaut. However, it is nice to see Anderson laugh again and break out of his ultra-deadpan Hal Ashby phase.

A DIRECTOR SPEAKS UP

By JOHN HILLCOAT - Making The Road has been a unique and incredible experience for me. The film opened on Wednesday and so I have been reading some advanced reviews despite myself. I have personally been most pleased by both Cormac McCarthy and the fans of the book's reaction. However, I've seen a few reviews that see the film purely as dark or bleak which I found somewhat perplexing. I know that everyone involved in the making of the film and Cormac, himself, who dedicated the book to his son, set out to tell a life-affirming and strangely uplifting story. In fact McCarthy describes the book being at its core about human goodness, human kindness. I think that this positive message is obviously why this book has become one of the most translated of the modern era and why Oprah picked The Road for her prestigious book club. It is a great adventure between a father and a son, where they are tested and their love drives them forward. It is primarily a celebration of family and mankind, made all the more special when pitted against such odds.

Luck is such a big part of life and of moviemaking. To have the manuscript of Cormac McCarthy's The Road fall into my lap before it was published was a case in point. I had no idea that the book would go on to win the Pulitzer Prize and become so influential and popular. It so profoundly moved me that I knew back then it was a great gift carrying a huge responsibility. My last movie, The Proposition was actually inspired by McCarthy's Blood Meridian. But with The Road Cormac surpassed even my expectations. It is the most poignant love story between a father and son that I know of, so I wanted, above all, to respect the book and his work, to be authentic and not 'Hollywoodize' it, to use great restraint and focus upon its core qualities.

The Road is also about civilization's slow death where disaster is made to feel physically and spiritually real -- it's literally apocalypse now. I feel that Cormac's immense talent lies not only in his poetic language but also in his insightful and unflinching view of humanity when stripped bare, of how people behave under extreme pressure revealing the worst and best in humanity with the precision of a scientist -- grace under pressure via great characters, great dialogue and great story telling. Above all, this is why I'm personally so attracted to his work as a filmmaker. To me the book felt uncomfortably familiar and uncomfortably real which is why we pursued a naked realism -- we thought that was in the spirit of the novel.

The film can be viewed as a more mythic metaphoric journey of the soul -- a fable, an adult fairytale about the passing of one generation to another -- that inescapable reality of mortality and the archetypal parent's greatest fear, guilt and heartbreak in leaving the child behind and by extension everyone's fear of being left behind utterly alone. On another level is the morality tale, an urgent wake-up call to us all where kindness, trust, hope and faith must prevail against all odds in the face of debased human behavior amongst impending destruction and horror. As we all bear witness to a new age of violent global conflict, together with the specter of apocalyptic environmental catastrophe, The Road manages to tap into our collective psyche as a universal nightmare. It evokes our deepest and darkest fears -- and with prescience and lucidity looks at what matters most -- family, kindness, and love.

Cormac McCarthy has spoken about how people have connected with the novel saying, "I have the same letter from about six different people. One from Australia, one from Germany, one from England, but they all said the same thing. They said, 'I started reading your book after dinner and I finished it 3:45 the next morning, and I got up and went upstairs and I got my kids up and I just sat there in the bed and held them.'" Viggo Mortensen and I also have boys and I think this strong emotional response in a family that the book evokes is what drew us to this project. In fact, it is in the humanity of The Boy in this story where the most uplifting message lies. The Boy has been born into a world where morals and ethics are at their lowest point ever, but he remains the most moral character which is a testament to mankind's more extraordinary innate values. He even becomes the teacher by handing back to The Man his own humanity.

The specific reviews that just focus on the film bleakness seem to have missed the point. In fact, the film is quite the opposite. Yes, there are dark and horrifying moments in the film, just like there are tough times in everyone's life. However, what McCarthy's novel and this film display is that it is what you do under real pressure in those hard times -- when your world is turned upside down, when everything is taken from you -- that makes you the person that you really are. Some people choose to live selfishly and their morals slide down to the base levels of humanity, while others choose to do the opposite. In this case, the Man and the Boy, choose to "carry the fire" -- to forge onward with the same moral code and values that they would uphold in the most comfortable of times. Their love for each other and for fellow mankind is what keeps them alive and hence our future burning bright.

The Road is the kind of film that challenges, excites, thrills, and gets your blood racing. They're the kind of movies I love. I hope that you will experience the film so you can be moved by this more significant and ultimately beautiful message at the heart of the journey in much the same way that the millions of readers of Cormac McCarthy's beloved book have been, myself included. (previously appeared on The Huffington Post)

IRANIAN DIRECTOR HONORED

(REUTERS) Iranian film director Mohsen Makhmalbaf won the Freedom to Create Prize on Wednesday, and dedicated his award to leading cleric Hossein Ali Montazeri and the popular opposition movement he supports. Makhmalbaf, 52, is a respected film maker who won international acclaim with his 2001 Afghan picture "Kandahar." He is also one of Iranian opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi's most well-known and vocal supporters overseas, having left Iran around five years ago. "I've been in Afghanistan, Tajikistan and India making films about Iran but from the outside," he told Reuters in London before receiving the annual award that honors artists working in difficult or dangerous environments. "All my scripts were banned, so I moved from Iran to make more films. If I went to Iran I would go directly to prison. This not only goes for me, but also my family." Makhmalbaf, whose daughters Samira and Hana are also film makers, said he would use the prize, which comes with a $50,000 purse, to highlight what he called injustice in Iran. "People of my country are killed, imprisoned, tortured and raped just for their votes. We as artists are using these awards to shed light on the darkness." He described Montazeri as a key "spiritual leader" of the Green Movement, named after the green colors worn by Mousavi's sympathizers who took to the streets to protest against the outcome of the presidential election in June. Mousavi lost to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the disputed poll, and the Iranian opposition says more than 70 people were killed in post-election violence. Officials say the death toll was half that and that members of the security forces were among the victims (photo by Screen Comment's SAÏDEH PAKRAVAN)

JOHN WOO'S RED CLIFF SPECTACULAR

By CARY DARLING - No doubt, many viewers are going to be comparing "Red Cliff" - director John Woo's sword-and-silk spectacular based on an epic battle that took place in southern China in 208 A.D. - to "300," Zack Snyder's high-tech reimagining of the infamous tussle at Thermoplyae in ancient Greece.

Both center on righteous good versus tyrannical evil. Both feature underdog yet stout-hearted commanders going up against better equipped yet slavish hordes. Both sport legions of CGI warriors ready to wage war until digital death.

Yet, whereas "300" was all about great style, neck-hewing violence and six-pack abs, the somewhat more contemplative yet still visually ravishing and violent "Red Cliff" catches its breath once in awhile to tell a story and is all the better for it, even if it is equally stylized and far-fetched.

The tale is pretty simple: The emperor Han (Wang Ning) sends his powerful general Cao Cao (Fengyi Zhang) far to the south to put down rebellious warlords Sun Quan (Chen Chang) and Liu Bei (You Yong). But neither Quan nor Bei are intimidated and decide to combine forces, resulting in a sprawling ground and naval clash infused with elements of guerilla warfare.

Heading up the fight for the good guys is Zhou Yu (Tony Leung), who just happens to be married to "the most beautiful woman" in China, Xiao Qiao (Chiling Lin), a fact that has not escaped Cao Cao who wants Xiao Qiao for himself.

With its $80 million budget, "Red Cliff" is billed as the most expensive Asian film in history and it has been a big hit on that continent. It's also sparked a career revival of sorts for Woo ("Mission Impossible II," "Face Off"), who hasn't released a full-length feature since the less-than-well-received "Paycheck" six years ago.

Here, he has returned in strong form even if he still relies on storytelling tics - the release of white birds, a warrior fighting with a baby on his back, two warriors at an impasse with weapons drawn on each other - that are now cliche in his films. But these moments don't obscure the movie's many other wide-screen pleasures.

Welcome back, John. Director: John Woo; Cast: Tony Leung, Fengyi Zhang, You Yong, Chiling Lin; Running time: 147 min; Rated: R (scenes of epic warfare); (previously published by Miami Herald)

SNEAK PEEK: THE ART OF THE STEAL

FROM OUR TOP SECRET FILES - “The art of the steal,” Don Argott’s thrilling documentary investigation into the decades-long tug-of-war over control of the Barnes Foundation, a private collection of Post-Impressionist and early Modern art worth more than $25 billion is slated for release in March. A controversial exploration of art, ownership and the value of culture, “The art of the steal”suggests that what may be the biggest art heist of the century is happening right now, with public money and in plain sight. The film screened to considerable acclaim at the Toronto, New York and AFI film festivals and will open in New York on February 26, with a national release to follow. It will simultaneously be available nationwide on Sundance Selects’ on demand platform, available to over 50 million homes in all major markets.

In 1922, rags-to-riches industrialist and visionary art collector Albert C. Barnes created an educational institution—which he located in Merion, Pennsylvania—based on his unparalleled collection of masterworks by the likes of Van Gogh, Picasso, Cezanne, and Matisse. When he died, the Barnes Foundation carried on as his will stipulated for fifty years—until a powerful group of moneyed interests plotted to relocate the art to a new museum in Philadelphia. With the governor, the mayor, and several of the country’s most powerful charitable organizations on the verge of moving the Barnes, a loyal group of former students has gone to court to stop them. Will the students succeed in their David vs. Goliath campaign, or will a man’s will be broken and one of America’s greatest cultural monuments be destroyed?

“The art of the steal” weaves together archival and dramatic new footage with candid interviews from all sides of the hotly contested debate. Philadelphia-based Argott (“Rock School”) takes the viewer into the back rooms of corporations and government, where decisions over the fate of our cultural institutions are shrouded in secrecy and tangled in strategic red tape, and into the still-standing institute, whose days as a one-of-a-kind art haven may be numbered. “The art of the steal” is a bold, impassioned film that is destined to court controversy and inspire vital, timely discussions about the fate of our cultural legacy. Whose art is it anyway?

NEW MOON HIT AT THE BOX OFFICE

By BEN FRITZ - Recession be damned, Hollywood is on its way to what could be its merriest holiday season ever, thanks to a group of undead teenagers. "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" posted the third-largest opening in domestic box-office history, not accounting for ticket price inflation, having sold an estimated $140.7 million worth of tickets in the U.S. and Canada from Friday through Sunday. Only Warner Bros.' "The Dark Knight" and Sony's "Spider-Man 3" had bigger openings. Summit Entertainment's "New Moon" smashed the previous record for a movie opening outside the summer event movie season and more than doubled the launch of the first "Twilight" movie last year. Though the audience for the new movie was slightly older and included more men than its predecessor, crowds were still overwhelmingly female. The success of the "Twilight" DVD, released in March and the No. 1 seller this year, probably helped increase interest among adults and males and persuade more young women to see the sequel on the big screen. The good news for the vampire series wasn't bad news for everyone else. Several other pictures, including "The Blind Side" and "Precious," had strong weekends, driving overall domestic box-office receipts to their second-highest total ever on a non-holiday weekend. For an industry reeling from major executive shifts at three of the six major studios this year, declining DVD sales, piracy and other challenges to traditional business models, this weekend provided a sign of strength going into the holiday season, which is second only to summer as Hollywood's biggest time of the year. Despite tectonic changes in the entertainment business, it seems, the oldest form of watching movies remains vibrant. "It's a really good sign for the industry," said Dan Fellman, president of domestic distribution for "Blind Side" distributor Warner Bros. "It just goes to show you good movies can expand the marketplace and we still have strong potential." For Summit, which at less than 3 years old has very few hits under its belt, "New Moon" is a massive financial success. The movie grossed an additional $118.1 million in 25 foreign countries, giving it a worldwide launch total of $258.8 million. Studios typically keep about half of their films' domestic box-office receipts and 40% from overseas. "New Moon" cost just under $50 million to produce, making it the least expensive movie ever to open to more than $200 million worldwide. Even including Summit's marketing costs, it is likely to start generating profit from box-office revenue alone, before hitting DVD, pay cable and the other post-theatrical markets where most successful films go into the black. When "New Moon" broke the record for the biggest opening day in history on Friday, some in the industry thought fans of the first "Twilight" had simply shifted up attendance to the first day with the help of online ticketing. But "New Moon's" 41% drop on Saturday was the same as its predecessor's, an indication that the vampire series' audience expanded significantly and that "New Moon's" box-office declines in the coming weeks will be similar to "Twilight's." "We certainly thought it might be a bigger drop [than "Twilight"] on Saturday given that Friday was so much bigger," said Richie Fay, president of domestic distribution for Summit. "The exit interviews we are gathering are so good that I think the multiple will be about the same." If it does enjoy the same multiple -- a comparison of final gross to opening -- as "Twilight," "New Moon" could end up grossing nearly $400 million domestically. ("Twilight's" domestic gross was $192.8 million.) The sequel could easily match its domestic numbers internationally, based on initial stellar results in places such as Australia, France, Italy and Britain. Still, "New Moon" will probably make the vast majority of its money in the next two weeks, leaving plenty of room in the market. That's good news for several other movies that found their audiences this weekend in the wake of the vampire film. "The Blind Side," financed by Alcon Entertainment, generated the biggest opening ever for a Sandra Bullock movie, with $34.5 million. It garnered an average audience grade of A-plus, according to market research firm CinemaScore; the only other film to do so this year was Pixar's "Up." Word-of-mouth could drive "The Blind Side" to more than $150 million if, as Fellman predicted, it keeps playing well through Christmas. Lionsgate's Sundance Film Festival purchase "Precious" continues to play extremely well, collecting $11 million as it expanded to 629 theaters in most major cities. Numerous other pictures with big expectations are rolling out in the coming weeks, hoping this weekend's box-office momentum will continue. On Wednesday, Disney's "Old Dogs," Warner Bros.' "Ninja Assassin" and Fox's "The Fantastic Mr. Fox," which has performed well in four theaters for the last two weeks, will enter the fray. December will see several highly anticipated movies, including Disney's animated "The Princess and the Frog," Paramount's "The Lovely Bones," Warner Bros.' "Sherlock Holmes" and Fox's "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel" and $300-million-plus event film "Avatar." Although "New Moon" easily vanquished last weekend's No. 1 picture, "2012," domestically, Sony's $200-million disaster film held on much stronger overseas, grossing $100.5 million in its second weekend and bringing its worldwide total to $449.8 million (article was previously published by L.A. Times)