By Dave Montalbano

http://cinemadave.livejournal.com

2013 has shown that the youth and family markets drive the box office dollar. The Top 5 box office motion pictures, Iron Man 3, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Despicable Me 2, Man of Steel and Monsters University had a cumulative gross of nearly $2 billion.

With rising ticket prices, consumers are being pickier than ever. Social Media can destroy a motion picture before it can get out of the gate, witness The Lone Ranger.

A success two years ago (Machete) became one of the biggest box office bombs of the year (Machete Kills). Harrison Ford seemed to be on career redemption with 42, but he contributed to two of the biggest box office flops of the year, Paranoia and Ender’s Game.

Film festivals and conventions are becoming more and more important to the film industry. The major studios targeted the Ft. Lauderdale International Film Festival (FLIFF) with Nebraska, starring Bruce Dern, and August: Osage County, starring Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts. Gregory von Hausch, president and FLIFF CEO, managed to produce the best local film festival in five years. It helped that the celebrities he invited this year were Class Acts.

Class Acts are hard to find in the entertainment industry, most individuals are very self-centered. Lea Thompson, John Shea, Stephen Moyer, Tab Hunter and Ann Margaret proved to be Class Acts by living up to fan expectations and having grace under pressure at FLIFF. Behind the scenes, the volunteers and Cyndi Boyar helped make FLIFF run smooth.

Pain is a rude awakening from grief. Last January, my chronic back pain got the best of me and I have spent all of 2013 treating it. Besides reading my column on a regular basis, Dr. Thomas Goberville has gotten at the root cause of my problem, prescribing regular physical therapy. Thanks to the Angels at MedDiagnostic Rehab, I was released last Friday.

Any sense of self pity was knocked out of my psyche when the Palm Beach International Film Festival presented the documentary Comedy Warriors. Severely injured in Iraq and Afghanistan, these wounded warriors found therapy in making others laugh.

This lesson was reinforced at FLIFF with the screening of the documentary Cine- Ability featuring local Class Act and now BackStage Angel, Danny Murphy. This excellent documentary looks at how Hollywood views people with disabilities. When CinemAbility ends, one realizes that everybody faces hardship. How one reacts to such hardship defines if they are a winner or loser in life.

By Dave Montalbano

http://cinemadave.livejournal.com

In storytelling, the most affecting tragedy includes the tears of a clown. Shakespeare includes comic relief even in his tragedies. The terror of the original “Wicker Man” is made more horrific by the goofy characters and cheesy music that is played previously. Given his work in Dangerous Liaisons, The Grifters, Mrs. Henderson presents… and The Queen, director Stephen Frears knows how to balance the humor and sadness of Philomena.

When journalist Martin Sixsmith (Steve Coogan) loses his high profile job with a national newspaper in Great Britain, he begins slumming in “human interest stories.” Given his international career covering the fall of the Soviet Union, Sixsmith finds “human in- terest” stories beneath his standards. Desperate for income, Sixsmith gets in contact with Philomena (Judi Dench).

When she was a naive teenager visiting the county fair, Philomena had a son out of wedlock. Without parental support, Philomena is forced into indentured servitude at a Catholic nunnery. When the boy is born, Philomena’s maternal instincts kick in. One day, rich parents from Washington D.C. adopt Philomena’s boy, while the heartbroken mother continues to fulfill her medical debt to the nunnery. Fifty years later, Philomena wants to know what happened to her baby boy.

With a mystery afoot, Sixsmith and Philomena uncover clues. Why is there an unkempt graveyard of young mothers and premature babies? How does the Reagan Administration fit into this mystery? Philomena answers these and many more questions, but it is personal resentment and human interest that form this core mystery of evil. As Philomena, Judi Dench will provide Meryl Streep competition during awards season. Dench retains the grit from her previous acting challenges as Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria, but with Philomena, the actress reveals a vulnerability not seen in many decades.

Best known from his British comedy performances, Steve Coogan co-wrote and produced this film. With low key precision as the straight man, Coogan lets Dame Judi Dench shine without shadow. With Philomena,

Coogan enters the next stage of British Royal filmmaking.

By Dave Montalbano

http://cinemadave.livejournal.com

This month marks the 15th and last December thatMuvico Pompano will be in existence. Carmike Cinemas will take over ownership of Muvico in January.

Pioneered by Hamid Hashemi, Muvico brought back a sense of grandeur and elegance to the cinema-going experience. When ousted by the company that he built, Hashemi vowed to return and now owns the iPic Theater in Mizner Plaza. Hashemi’s commitment to the South Florida movie-going experience has created competition that forced rival theater chains to raise their games as related to customer service.

It’s the holiday season, Dear Reader, take the time to see a good film this week and next. Merry Christmas!

By Dave Montalbano

http://cinemadave.livejournal.com

Forty one years ago, WPIX Channel 11 in New York broadcast Hans Christian Andersen, a MGM musical with lyrics by Frank Loesser and starring Danny Kaye in the title role. Originally, the film was to be a collaboration between MGM and Walt Disney animation, but two decades of business negotiations fell through and the studios developed their own projects.

Walt Disney Productions stuck with animation and developed the Oscar-winning The Little Mermaid, which has become culturally significant for the past three decades. Taking a dark fairy tale like The Snow Queen and mixing it with the Disney touch, Frozen has created a Hans Christian Andersen renaissance and is easily the best holiday motion picture for 2013.

The film opens in a magical kingdom that looks suspiciously like Denmark. Princesses Anna (voiced by Kristen Bell) and Elsa (Idina Menzel) love each other. However, big sister Elsa is a mutant who can shoot frost out of her fingertips. When Elsa frosts Anna’s brain and distorts her little sister’s memory, the king and queen teach the future Snow Queen to isolate herself from the world. These royal actions are observed on the sidelines by young Kristoff (Jonathan Groff) and his not-so-magical reindeer.

It is during Queen Elsa’s coronation that disaster occurs. Anna announces her impulsive engagement to a charming prince and Elsa flees into the forest to build her own ice castle. Anna recruits Kristoff in a vain attempt to get Elsa to return to the magical kingdom. With Queen Elsa and Princess Anna out of town, passive-aggressive evil brews.

One of the most overwhelming days that Disneyworld Orlando confronted this year was “Villain’s Day,” in which the Magic Kingdom was forced to stop admission. Given that The Snow Queen was one of Hans Christian Andersen’s premier villains, one expected Frozen to have sympathy for the devil. However, the dynamic between sisters keeps the villainy on a human level. In fact, it is good intentions and miscommunication that propels the plot.

The animation is filled with visual poetry, with the snowy landscapes invoking childhood Christmas season memories. There are some thrilling action sequences when Kristoff battles the Snow Beast or when the hero’s sleigh comes cliff-hangingly close to danger. There are enough action sequences to interest a father who has to babysit his kids.

Expect the song “Let it Go” to be Oscar-nominated for best song; it is a ballad tour de force sung by Idina Menzel and covered by Demi Lovato. From the breath taking opening to the clever post-credit closing gag, Frozen has all the entertaining qualities to melt one’s heart.

By Dave Montalbano

http://cinemadave.livejournal.com

After a drought of almost two decades, the Thanksgiving Box Office broke records last weekend. The one-two combination of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and Frozen proved to be indomitable family entertainment.

A film that continues Suzanne Collins’ Young Adult novel series, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire was buoyed by additional screenings at Ft. Lauderdale Museum of Discovery’s IMAX.

After their unique victory in their first movie, Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) fulfill their obligatory celebrity roles. Through their victory, Katniss and Peeta have sparked a quiet political evolution against the president (Donald Sutherland) and his oppressive policies. Thepresident recruits Plutarch Heavensbee (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) as his trusted advisor to quell the rebellion.

Although the first half drags a bit, these expository scenes set up the arch of the trilogy. When the games begin, character and story intensity pick up with personal violence and hidden character motives. Like The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, this is an entertaining middle film that promises a fine conclusion.

On the smaller screen at the Florida Atlantic University Living Room Theater, one can have an intimate experience with Italy’s Le Grande Belleza (The Great Beauty). Director Paolo Sorrentino tells the tale of Jep (Toni Servillo), a 65- year-old man who is tired of living in “La Dolce Vita” culture since the 1960s. Having written an influential novelette decades ago, Jep lives a shallow life in which he has lived off the reputation of his book. He undergoes a spiritual revelation when he meets a nun his age who has lived a life of chastity and poverty.

For local interest, don’t miss Bettie Page Reveals All, a documentary featuring the iconic Pin-Up girl and a bit of Boca Raton history. We learn that Bettie attended “Bibletown” (now Boca Raton Community Church) and she shot her famous jungle photos a few blocks south in the old Africa- U.S.A. park (now a housing development). Narrated by Bettie, Bettie Page Reveals All is a documentary of contrasts.

Throughout the movie, we see her glamour in various stages of dress and undress. Yet through the dead pan narration, we learn about Bettie’s battles with abuse, censorship and her own mental illness. Not seen since her spicy photographs from the 1950s, Bettie narration is hauntingly off-camera. While the woman embraces her sexual legacy, her deep-voiced southern drawl presents a warning to naïve young people everywhere.

By Dave Montalbano

http://cinemadave.livejournal.com

In the midst of covering the 28th Annual Ft. Lauderdale International Film Festival and the 30th Miami Book Fair International, one of the most asked questions I heard was, “Have you seen Captain Phillips?

Captain Phillips has Oscar nomination written all over it. It is a big story about an international incident circa 2009. It features Oscar winner Tom Hanks acting his heart out as the title character, with lesser-known actors adding believable menace to our everyday hero. So is Captain Phillips another manufactured Oscar contender like The Butler? Hardly. Captain Phillips captures the claustrophobic despair of being a hostage.

The Captain skippers a cargo ship of charitable supplies off the African coast. When the US-flagged MV Maersk Alabama is hijacked by Somali pirates, Captain Phillips must utilize his wits to save his crew. What was supposed to be a routine kidnapping for these thugs, becomes a global television affair involving the U.S. Navy. Perhaps if these pirates read Davy Jones & the Heart of Darkness, they would not have gotten involved in such a disastrous venture.

Best known for his work on the overrated Bourne amnesia spy movies, the director Paul Greengrass, who was Oscar-nominated for United 93, a movie about the 9/11 plane crash. Thanks to Greengrass, the intensity of Captain Phillips never lets up as a human story. When violence occurs, it is sudden, explosive and quick. One movie that no one mentioned to me was Escape Plan, the Sylvester Stallone – Arnold Schwarzenegger buddy movie. This team-up has been three decades in the making, though diffused by the Sylvester- Arnold Expendables of recent years. Escape Plan is pure Saturday matinee afternoon escapism.

Ray Breslin (Stallone) makes a living breaking out inescapable prisons and has written a book about the subject. After a successful payday, Breslin is kidnapped and sent to the Tomb, a prison of his own design. The villainous prison warren (Jim Cavielzel) is a student of Breslin and has an odious henchman (Vinnie Jones) do his evil bidding for him. Fortunately, Breslin befriends Emil Rottmayer (Arnold), a convict who rules the prison yard. The two team up to plan an audacious escape.

Despite a too-pat ending, Escape Plan works as an action thriller. To the credit of Summit Entertainment Marketing executives, the trailer did not reveal important plot twists and surprises. The two 60-year-old action icons provide some edge-of-your-seat moments with humor. While Captain Phillips is an Oscar contender, Escape Plan is a lot of fun.

Italy’s Oscar selection for Best Foreign movie, Great Beauty, opens tomorrow. The Observer will have a full review in next week’s edition.

Happy Thanksgiving!

By Dave Montalbano

http://cinemadave.livejournal.com

With the 150th anniversary of “The Gettysburg Address” and the 50th anniversary of the last presidential assassination this week, both Abraham Lincoln & John F. Kennedy (see more pg. 6) will be forever linked by the ironies of history.

Both men held a love for the written word. The celebration of the written word continues with the 30th Anniversary of the Miami Book Fair International, held Nov. 17-24.

Dan Brown, author of books like The DaVinci Code and Inferno, opened the festival Sunday evening with a lecture about how family life inspired him to becomeaninternationalbest-selling author. His dad was a math teacher, his mother a church organist. Filled with self deprecating humor, he also talked about working with Tom Hanks and Ron Howard on the set of the movie The DaVinci Code at the Louvre Museum, home of Leonardo DaVinci’s “Mona Lisa.” (See more, pg14)

With the production of cinematic classics like The Maltese Falcon, and Treasure of the Sierra Madre, director John Huston also carried a love for the written word. Beginning his career as a screenwriter, Huston’s coterie of houseguests included authors like Carson McCullers, Ernest Hemingway and John Steinbeck, who influenced his daughter, Oscar-winning actress Anjelica Huston.

Anjelica Huston’s body of work stands on its own with Prizzi’s Honor (directed by her father) earning her an academy award, and with movie roles as diverse as The Big Year, The Royal Tenenbaums andTheGrifters. For young people, she is best known as Morticia Addams in The Addams Family films. Recently, she added credibility to the TV show Smash with her role as Eileen Rand.

Huston will be discussing her memoir, “A Story Lately Told, Coming of Age in Ireland, London and New York,” on Friday evening. Besides acting and growing up with an eccentric father, Anjelica will discuss being a teenager and living in London during the swinging ‘60s, her forays into modeling and her earlier attempts at acting.

The beauty of the Miami Book Fair International is the opportunity for unknown authors to be discovered. It is covered by major news networks, and C-Span spends the weekend in their book mobile. This is why Cinema Dave will be setting up his first booth tomorrow in Section D – Writer’sRowwithmytwobooks, “The Adventures of Cinema Dave in the Florida Motion Picture World” and “Davy Jones & the Heart of Darkness.” With each book sale, customers will receive an artifact from “the Cave of Cinema Dave.”

By Dave Montalbano

http://cinemadave.livejournal.com

On the surface, The 28th Annual Ft. Lauderdale International Film Festival was a success. Honored actors Lea Thompson, John Shea, Finola Hughes and Tab Hunter were class acts; they showed up on time and were gracious with their fans. Legendary actor Ed Asner and band leader Pauly Cohen revealed that their star power has not faded. When Free Ride star Anna Paquin was forced to cancel, her husband (and True Blood co-star) Stephen Moyer, executive producer of the film, substituted and he was fanfriendly.

With screenings of Life is Beautiful, Black Swan and The Artist, FLIFF has a history of presenting future Oscar winners through the years. This year, the fest screened the inspirational biography One Chance, Bruce Dern’s performance was honored for his work on Nebraska, while Meryl Streep will likely continue her Oscar streak for her performance in August: Osage County.

The evening with Tab Hunter was particularly memorable. Brooklyn College film professor Foster Hirsch conducted an onstage interview with Hunter that covered his career. In the business since age 19, Hunter has reinvented himself for many generations. He was teen idol with a hit record that rivaled Elvis Presley, and a co-star to iconic leading men like Gary Cooper and John Wayne. Since coming out of the closet, Hunter has earned a new fan base with his autobiography Tab Hunter Confidential. As he exited the Cinema Paradiso spotlight, he received a standing ovation from the audience.

FLIFF acknowledged South Florida history with They Came from the Swamp, a documentary about William Grefe’s movies produced from the ‘60s to the ‘80s. With titles like Death Curse of Tartu, Sting of Death and Mako: Jaws of Death, these independent films were created on a shoestring budget with a loyal crew. Grefe’s knowledge of South Florida swamps led to consultant work on James Bond productions, most notably Sir Roger Moore’s first outing, Live and Let Die.

The Last Hit was named Best Florida Feature. Written by Lou Pappas (who is also the leading man), The Last Hit is a modern gangster/noir film about a hit man with a conscience. Filmed in our neighborhood, this film features FLIFF photographer Irwin Levenstein as an ornery gangster.

The final screening of Krissy Belle, another locallymade film directed by Alyn Darnay and starring writer Carole Wood, was held in the new Cinema Paradiso – Hollywood. This Art House Theater is so new that the paint is still drying on the wall. Located on Hollywood Boulevard, Cinema Paradiso – Hollywood is a great cultural addition to South Florida and is worth an excursion to the south county.

Behind the scenes, FLIFF suffered. One week before the gala, office manager Jane Moguillansky passed away. A lovable presence at Cinema Paradiso, Moguillansky had a keen eye for detail. Her loss reverberated throughout the festival.

By Dave Montalbano

http://cinemadave.livejournal.com

Tomorrow, three motion pictures open with diverse stories that tackle the subject of survival. All is Lost is a tale of primal survival, Sunlight Jr. features a story about economic survival under the recession, and in Thor: The Dark World, the survival of the universe is at stake.

Robert Redford is “Our Man,” the only actor seen in All is Lost, a thriller about a man lost in the Indian Ocean. With the exception of one utterance of desperation, the only words spoken are in opening narration. For the next 106 minutes, we witness the Sisyphean efforts of “Our Man” trying to keep his boat afloat. The ending will inspire discussion for both sailors and landlubbers.

Redford is fantastic; he underplays brilliantly and spends most of All is Lost thinking of his next solution. In its simple storyline, All is Lost contains as much depth as Ernest Hemingway’s Pulitzer Award-winning novel The Old Man and the Sea. Expect Oscar buzz for this film.

Sunlight Jr. is Florida Film Noir, featuring dark performances from Naomi Watts, Matt Dillon, Tess Harper and The Walking Dead’s leading man, Norman Reedus. Filmed in the St. Petersburg/Clearwater area, the poverty of Sunlight Jr. is interchangeable with the poverty of Downtown Ft. Lauderdale. Sunlight Jr. is a dark movie that goes from bad to worse.

Richie (Dillion) is a paraplegic who is married to Melissa (Watts), a clerk who works at a mini-mart called Sunlight Jr. Living in an efficiency apartment, the two obviously love each other, despite living from paycheck to paycheck. The couple is better off than her bloated Mom (Tess Harper) who raises white trash grandchildren. Richie and Melissa have one night of grace that leads to their most disastrous decision.

For pure Saturday Matinee popcorn-eating fun, go see Thor: The Dark World. The formula for fan favorite moments are there: three riproaring cameos, two post credit sequences that tease the next movie and provide a chuckle for those who wait. This film also features some fantastic visual sequences and cliff-hanging moments.

While it would help to review Thor and The Avengers, Thor: The Dark World is a stand-alone movie. Thor’s human love interest Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) stumbles from the dark ages with the potential to destroy the entire universe. Thor (Chris Hemsworth) attempts to rescue, but first must enter in an alliance with his villainous brother, Loki (Tom Hiddleston). For all of the fantastic set pieces, it is the character dynamic that makes this film this weekend’s predictable box office blockbuster. However, for quieter tastes, check out All is Lost.

By Dave Montalbano

http://cinemadave.livejournal.com

It is amazing to me that a culture like the film industry consistently makes films that are anti-Capitalist.

Based on a French novel by Stéphane Osmont, Capital is a film directed by Costa Gavras, an international director best known for left of center films like Missing, Z and State of Siege. Capital is multilingual with English subtitles.

The film opens on a golf course in which a bank CEO dies. Marc Tourneuil (Gad Elmaleh) becomes the heir apparent and flies to Ft. Lauderdale for a business deal. Upon returning, Marc is given the task of firing his employees to receive a substantial bonus. Tourneuil is your typical Woodstock hero — infidelity and stealing from the rich are morally correct, paying for your sins is considered stupid.

The Ft. Lauderdale International Film Festival continues with some interesting screenings this weekend.

The Pin is a minimalist motion picture that takes place in two separate time periods set in either the countryside or the morgue. A Canadian motion picture in Yiddish with English subtitles, The Pin is a tale about a Shomer, a religious watchman who is responsible for guarding the recently deceased. As fate would have it, this Shomer is reunited with the corpse of this long, lost love. The film flashes back to more innocent times when they were refugees hiding in an abandoned farmhouse.

With a literate title, themes about cultural differences and shot composition worthy of a Guggenheim Art Museum, Chasing Shakespeare is your typical “festival” entry. Set in the west, it features a talented Native American who wants to perform Shakespearian monologues in a society that thinks that only pretty white girls should be allowed to perform. Graham Greene and Danny Glover are given strong supporting roles.

While not screened at press time, Alyn Darnay’s Krissy Belle makes its festival debut this weekend. A recently divorced Southern belle relocates to Latin real estate in Miami. Krissy Belle is played by Carole Wood.

More film noir than Halloween, The Insomniac traces the rise and fall of John Figg (Eddy Salazar), a victim of theft. The thief confiscated many of Figg’s personal items, and the protagonist starts an all-night vigil in an effort to catch the thief.

Happy Halloween!