Seth Rogen/Evan Goldberg/James Franco's THE INTERVIEW: Relax, it's worth the $6 stream

The first maybe 25 minutes of the much-bandied-about movie, THE INTERVIEW, is so on-target and funny that you're going to be shocked that the comedy didn't get better reviews. Most audiences, it seems, are going to the film -- in theaters, at least -- to help champion freedom of speech. Or, in this case, freedom of watch. That's commen-dable -- though one might wish for this kind of support in turning back climate change. Still, this new movie, with a screenplay by Dan Sterling, is certainly the "film of the year," so far as making news is concerned.

What with its distributor, Sony, doing back flips and pretzel twists in order to somehow "make everything all right," the fact that the film has ended up on theaters screens and digital streaming for the holidays seems a major accomplishment, considering all that has gone before (much of it for which Sony itself can take credit). After initially blaming North Korea for the hacking, it now seems more likely that Sony insiders (or ex-insiders) might be responsible for the hacking and leakage. Whatever eventually comes out, the movie, co-directed by Evan Goldberg (shown at right) and its co-star Seth Rogen (below, right) begins on such a fast-paced, funny and high note that you will fear it cannot possibly maintain this pace and humor for its full length. And you'd be right.

The reason for this, from what I can ascertain, is that its co-directors, writer, and co-star/co-executive producer (James Franco, above, left, and below, right) know and care a hell of a lot more about celebrity, success and the Hollywood life than they do about North Korea. Consequently, when the movie concentrates on satirizing the former, it is riotous and on the mark. When it reaches North Korea, about half an hour in, it relies mostly on the usual blather about that sad, dictatorial little country and, plot-wise, offers up the usual coincidence, cliche, and mostly silly nonsense of every other ordinary, tired, would-be action comedy.

Don't get me entirely wrong: There are some funny moments that take place in the Korean section. But these are too few and far between to count for much overall. Plus, the humor here relies so flagrantly on fart, poop and butthole references that one does begin to wonder, after a time, how not-so-wide-ranging are the interests of these filmmakers. What they care about most seems to concern what comes out of (and goes into) the male anus. To each his own, as they say.

The North Korea section is funniest, again, when Franco and filmmakers stick to the travails of celebrity, in which the pudgy little dictator, Kim Jong-un (played quite charmingly/nastily by Randall Park, above, center) appears to find himself enmeshed. Otherwise the movie relies on the obvious and usual: women as sex objects (more like beards for the over-the-top homo-eroticism between our boys) and blowing things up. There's even a cutesy dog (below) used for cuddly irony.

One wonders, after awhile, why the writer could not have spent a tad more time trying to come up with even a remotely believable scenario. Instead, our twosome gets into North Korea so easily and manages to outwit its rather small cadre of dictator-protectors with no problem whatsoever. (Even the expected cavity search of the Rogen character -- he's carrying a small missile up his ass -- is not done at the moment when it obviously should be. Then, rather stupidly, that search is mentioned after the fact.)

If Rogen merely does his usual good work, Mr. Franco comes through with flying colors. The actor is sensationally good at kidding his own image, calling to question the reality of each situation by milking it for every bizarre layer. He is getting to be a master at this sort of thing -- while entertaining us like crazy. So, if you miss its Christmas theatrical run, you can stream The Interview online as we did (via YouTube) for just six bucks. That's a hell of a lot cheaper than paying $23 (the typical price for two senior tickets here in NYC), and you can cuddle on the couch while you view.

James Franco is back, along with a number of other writers/directors/actors, in the two-year-old group project, THE COLOR OF TIME

Has it ever occurred to you, not to mention to the peripatetic fellow himself, that actor/ writer/director/ occasional-cinematog-rapher/editor/boom-operator James Franco is spreading his wares a tad thin? In 2012 alone (Trust-Movies chooses this year because 2012 was when the film in question, THE COLOR OF TIME, was made), Mr. Franco appeared in nine movies (plus a number of episodes of two TV series), directed three projects himself and then did appearances as himself in seven other films. Breathtaking, huh?

That's a lot of  ground to cover, and we're not even going into Mr. Franco's various art projects. I raise this question because, while this new-age Renaissance Man, pictured at right, excels in certain roles and activities (over this past year or two in Third Person, This Is the End and even in Oz the Great and Powerful), he often comes up short, particularly on projects that he himself has brought to fruition: The Broken Tower, for instance, and now this newer one. Both of the later films deal with the life of a poet, a subject to which Franco seems quite strongly drawn.

In his earlier film, that poet was Hart Crane; here it's C.K. Williams. For whatever reason (perhaps because it was some kind of class project), Franco -- who was a producer on this new film and also stars, shown above, in the role of poet Williams -- has divided up the writing and direction chores amongst some dozen people. To somebody's credit (maybe the editors', Jennifer Ruff and Bruce Thierry Cheung) the movie -- even if it not finally very edifying -- holds together fairly well. If you did not know this film came into being via the efforts of a large group (you can find them all credited here), I doubt you'd guess this.

The Color of Time -- originally named Tar, and then, for its British opening, Forever Love -- at the rate it is going may end up with as many names as it is has creators. It tackles Mr. Williams' life in a fractured style that splinters into past and present, hopping around loosely between the two, as well as between people important to the poet. Therefore we get our guy as both adult (Franco) and as an adolescent (a well-chosen Henry Hopper, above, who looks a good deal like a young Franco).

The always on-the-mark Jessica Chastain (above) plays Williams' mom, in her best Tree-of-Life-ish look and style (the periods certainly match), while Mila Kunis (below, right) does another go-round (as in Third Person) playing Franco's wife -- but this time the two get along much better. (Come to think of it, the two played together in the Oz movie, too.)

We get snippets of Williams' poetry ("I breathe it still, that breeze" is offered up numerous times throughout), though what we hear and see may not send a lot of us rushing to read the poet's further work. (The Hart Crane movie did send me off to read a bit further, mostly to learn if Crane's poetry was really as purple and florid as what we heard in The Broken Tower.)

Zach Braff (above, right) makes an appearance or two as William's good friend, and we also get a scene (below) with a dead or maybe-just-dying horse. It seems that the natural world is primary to our poet, and his love for this does come through in the movie.

Overall, though, the film is too fractured and splintered to give us enough solidity to feel or even understand much about Williams and his work. We know there was an earlier relationship that didn't pan out, and a certain sexual experience in which the young man and his friend visit a black couple, during which the husband has his dinner while his wife sexually services Williams' friend -- much to the young poet's distress.

It is commendable that Franco would like to introduce us to these poets. I just wish that the films in which he does this didn't feel and look more like class-room exercises than actual, committed and creative movie-making.

Meanwhile, The Color of Time -- from Starz Digital and running only 73 minutes -- opens in theaters this coming Friday, December 12, after making its debut on iTunes and all digital platforms this past Tuesday, December 2. This coming Tuesday, December 9, the film will be available on all VOD platforms, as well.

Hot, hard, and rather enjoyable: James Franco and Travis Mathews' INTERIOR. LEATHER BAR

After making the rounds of some festival circuits (Sundance, Berlin, in Turkey and Taiwan, and then various GLBT fests), INTERIOR. LEATHER BAR. -- the Cruising-inspired sort-of documentary from our current Renais-sance "Entertainment" Man, James Franco (below, second from left), and the upcoming video doc writer/director who seems to specialize in full-bodied, hard-core gay couplings that appear as real as they do genuinely interesting, Travis Mathews (shown at left, below) -- finally opens theatrically here in New York City. (It played in Los Angeles back in early January.)

Because this film lasts but 60 minutes, its distributor Strand Releasing, has added to the program a worthwhile shorter "short" by both men: Franco's five-minute The Feast of Stephen and Mathews' 15-minute I Want Your Love. Overall, this adds up to a worthwhile look at the work of both men, while providing -- for those who appreciate this sort of thing -- some hot, gay sex experienced by real characters. For those new to gay sex or who may want to find out more about it, as well expand their viewpoint on the coupling possibilities in this great wide world of ours, the program may be an eye-opening (or -closing), as well as a mind-expanding experience.

The filmmakers seem interested in all of the above, and while the largest audience for this will undoubted by gay and bi-sexual, Franco and Mathews make it clear that they intend (in fact, they do outright) to question things like the western word's great interest in depicting violence on screen, along with its great fear of doing the same thing with sex. This, of course, is not a new idea. TrustMovies himself has been asking that question for decades, with the major answer arising from the stranglehold that organized religion, followed by (or incorporated in) the effect that "tradition" has on the general public.

The two shorts, which I presume (as at the press screening) will be shown first, lead us nicely into the heart of the matter. In The Feast of Stephen, Franco, who directed and wrote the screenplay (inspired by a poem by Anthony Hecht), takes us quickly and effectively into the masochistic wet dream of a gay young man as he watches a group of his classmates play basketball. He disrobes them and has them attack him and finally fuck him and then rub dog-shit in his face. This could also perhaps be the sadistic wet dream of one of the boys who attacks our "hero." Either way, the movie is short, sharp and entirely credible look at the forbidden.

In I Want Your Love, on the other hand, two young men (Jesse Metzger above, right, with Brenden Gregory), obviously good friends, lounge about  in one of their bedroom, chatting about life and friends and what not. Slowly, it becomes clear that one is sexually attracted to the other but that they have not, up till now, acted on that. They do, and what follows is around ten minutes of pure sex. It is a delightful, sexy turn-on to view, and because we've gotten more than a whiff of who these guys are, it also seem like watching a couple of friends at play in the fields of the lord. Well, someone's lord, anyway. Mathews avoids the "sleaze" angle that so many porno films, gay or straight, insist on and instead gives us two people exploring and enjoying sex. Gosh, how riveting and transporting. And unusual.

Interior. Leather Bar. ostensibly wants to explore by some sort of re-creation, the said-to-be 40-minute segment from the movie Cruising that went missing in order for the film to be released theatrically back in 1980. But there is more going on than mere re-creation. So we meet the "cast" of this new footage: some gay, some straight, some perhaps still closeted. Chief among these is actor Val Lauren (above in close-up and below, left), a long-time friend of Franco who explains that, though he doesn't fully understand what his friend (and maybe idol) is doing, he so believes in Franco that he will play his part the best he can.

Lauren tells us that he is indeed straight and that he is not playing Al Pacino, the star of Cruising, but rather the character that Pacino was acting -- which was a straight cop going undercover to ferret out a murderer in the gay community. This works on a couple of levels, for Pacino presumably is straight, and so both actors were/are forced to come to grips with getting up close and personal with a community composed of the "other." Both performances reflect this to some degree, and Lauren's as well as the filmmakers' exploration of this -- in talks with his girlfriend, another good friend, and some of his fellow actors -- is pointed and unsettling.

There are a couple of hard-core sex scenes within this hour-long film featuring actors in the cast of the "new footage" doing things pretty normal for a leather bar back in the day -- some cocksucking, a little S&M -- but likely to curl the toes of newcomers to the scene. Yet the reigning input here would seem to suggest to viewers, not to mention the actors, "Man up, honey; it's good for you!" I think Mr. Franco would subscribe to this, though Mr. Mathews has clearly moved far beyond that hurdle.

Overall, this program's a good one: expansive and ground-breaking for some; interesting, hot, funny and plain enjoyable for more seasoned veterans. Interior. Leather Bar. opens today in New York City at the IFC Center, along with the ongoing James Franco festival. Click here to see showtimes and which other Franco films are scheduled for that day.

DVD/Blu-ray: OZ THE GREAT & POWERFUL --a first-rate prequel to Dorothy & the gang plus reviews from TrustMovies' grand-kids!

Just as far too many of our cultural guardians, especially here in NYC, were slow, uninformed and/or taste-free regarding mainstream movies such as Cloud Atlas, John Carter, Sin City and V for Vendetta (while praising inflated, empty crap like Iron Man and The Avengers), so it is with Disney's OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL, out now on DVD and Blu-ray.

Neither of my grandchildren had seen this film in theaters, though they have watched the 1939 original, along with the 1978 musical version, The Wiz, numerous times. So I rented it and brought it over for a July 4th, get-out-of-this-awful-humidity, movie afternoon.

I'd never have thought of giving Sam Raimi (at left) the directorial reins here but, surprise, his movie is damned good: gorgeous to look at, filled with eye-popping effects and scenery (in which CGI is used sublimely well) and characters who are all too human, including those witches: That's Michelle Williams as Glinda (just below) and Rachel Weisz (left) and Mila Kunis (right), as the naughty duo, further below.

Yes, Oz the G&P borrows from everything from the original to Broadway's Wicked, but it mixes the merchandise into a well-told tale with eye-popping visuals. Granted, the film is no intellectual stimulant. But, hello: Neither was the original. It offered sweet enchantment, one terrific song, and a couple more good ones. The prequel does pretty much the same thing (without the songs).

Another plus: James Franco (below) does some acting for a change! He's the best here since Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Howl. (He's much better even than in This Is the End, where he must play "himself." And since he has spent so much time trying to cover his own tracks, no wonder his "himself" character is less interesting or "there" than any of his co-stars in this very funny, smart and irreverent movie.)

While nods are made to scarecrow, tin man and lion, the two new characters introduced to play sidekicks to Mr. Franco's Oz are truly inspired, even if they are simply voices (Zach Graff's and Joey King's) put to use on special effects. The good little flying monkey (below, right) and the girl made of porcelain (a truly amazing creation, shown at left, above and below) are charming creatures who entertain and move us every bit as much as did Lahr, Bolger and Haley in the 1939 version. Franco's character, by the way, is actually a very different kind of "Dorothy." But he's Dorothy nonetheless. Sure, he plays the Wizard, but his mission here is pretty much the same as Ms Garland had in the original.

Best of all, the movie manages to make a wonderful nod to the magic of motion pictures in its spectacular finale in which early movie technology is used to save the day. This is every bit as lovely and meaningful as anything in Hugo (a movie I thoroughly enjoyed, by the way) -- but it's tossed at us with a hell of a lot more subtlety -- which has, face it, never been a mark of the work of Martin Scorsese.)

So what did my grandchildren think? (Both my daughter and son-in-law loved the movie, too.) The boychik, 5-year-old Ronin (above), found it "good -- and the part I liked best was when the woman turned into the witch." OK...

Marlo (above, on the stairway doing her early-Carmen-Miranda number), the young lady of the house and now 8 years old, loved it, too (that's her mom and my daughter, Laura, above, left). "It was amazing, a little scary, a little sad, very active and very exciting. It was the most amazing movie I have ever seen -- except The Painting." (Smart girl: If you haven't seen The Painting, for art, animation and storytelling's sake, do!)

So inspired by the Oz movie was Marlo, in fact, that she sat right down after the viewing to draw this picture (shown above) of the character played by Mila Kunis before she turns bad.

Oz the Great and Powerful, out now on DVD and Blu-ray (on which it dazzles), is available from Disney, for sale or rental from the usual suspects. (I'm told by my companion that, in 3D, this film looked ever more spectacular.)

James Franco tackles gay poet Hart Crane in THE BROKEN TOWER. No one wins.

TrustMovies loves James Franco (shown on the poster at left and below). He loves to look at him and listen to him. He loves the guy's quirky intelligence and sometimes bizarre humor. He thought Franco's performan-ces in the underseen Howl and the much-seen Rise of the Planet of the Apes were both excellent. He admires the man's willingness to go out on limbs and engage with everything from life and higher education to film and soap opera and art installation and even... moviemaking. He thought Franco's 2009 five-minute short, The Feast of Stephen was somewhat interesting and certainly not awful. And now we have his new full-length THE BROKEN TOWER, which gives us a look at the life of the American poet of a century past, Hart Crane, which also proves to be somewhat interesting. But -- oh, gosh, how to put it nicely? -- this film is awful.

More than anything else, The Broken Tower, which Franco wrote (from Paul Mariani's biography and novel), directed, edited and stars in as Crane, reminds me of those would-be "art" movies we used to see back in the 1960s, which were probably indebted to the work of, if we had to single someone out, John Cassavetes, more than anyone else. These were black-and-white, shoestring budgeted (Franco's film has a bit higher budget than that), and intently focused on being artistic at all costs -- the biggest of which would be the almost complete annihilation of any possible entertainment value the movie might have possessed. (Cassavetes was better than this, but many of his acolytes were not.)

According to the press materials, The Broken Tower is actually Mr. Franco's New York University Film School "thesis" film, and as such it deserves, if not a grade, at least a pass or fail certificate. I might give it a pass, barely, with a grade of C-, and the suggestion that Franco center his ambitions back on acting. Arty and pretentious does not a good movie make. Watching the film, it seems as though the filmmaker may have been impressed with other black-and-white art movies such as Christopher Munch's Color of a Brisk and Leaping Day. But Franco does not yet understand what to do with the camera. He has it concentrate on typing and walking -- two very paltry actions that are not designed to interest the viewer past the first few seconds of screen time -- and worse, he likes to film the back of the head on those walks, as though something is about to be revealed.... by the hair, maybe?

And, oh, the sparkling dialog!  (I jest, because there practically is no dialog -- it's mostly title cards that key us into chapters from Crane's life. And then Franco repeats in action what has been told us by those cards.) As for the man's poetry, I cannot figure out if Franco imagines that, by reading aloud what sounds like an entire, lengthy and not very well-written poem, he is honoring Crane, or showing him up for the artsy twaddle the fellow created. It is certainly easy to understand why the man's poetry is not much remembered these days. (Still, before I "down" this guy's work, I should go to the source and trying reading some of it, rather than relying on what the filmmaker has presented.)

So why did Franco bother with making this film? It must have to do with Crane's homosexuality. One of the filmmaker's best scenes involves a blow-job, and I am not being funny about this: Franco does a good job of shooting the scene, of creating tension and release, and of giving us something to look at that seems both fresh and "felt." There's also a nice scene than has Crane, who worked as an advertising copywriter, trying out the sound of the word naugahyde -- a synthetic product which was evidently new at the time. But this, as so much else in the movie, goes on way too long. Otherwise, this mostly fledgling filmmaker keeps his camera to a tight frame on everything, in order, I would guess, to make the film look more "period" by including the necessarily detailed close-up, as above, but not expanding the view into scenes that would clearly call attention to modern times. (The good cinematographer is Christina Voros.)

In the cast, the biggest name is Michael Shannon (above right), who portrays a sailor for whom Hart has the hots. There's a nice lovemaking scene (three photos above), but Shannon is given so little to do that the use of an actor this good seems a bit wasteful. Also on view, as the younger Hart Crane, is Franco's brother Dave, who may actually be even more beautiful than his older sibling and director, and -- given the parameters of the movie -- makes a pretty good impression.

The entire film is in black-and-white except for a few moments that take place in a church. These are in color -- which calls to mind once again those artsy film duds from the 60s. Over all, and over its 99-minute running time, the movie acts as a kind of cinematic vacuum, sucking up energy like a black hole. I still love Mr. Franco and in fact will look forward to his next venture as a filmmaker -- but only with hope that he gives up trying to create "art" and decides instead to simply create -- come what may.

The Broken Tower opens today in New York City at the IFC Center in New York, and is simultaneously available via VOD. Consult your TV reception-provider to see if the film is being shown  on VOD in your specific area.

Northside Film Fest: nice mix of movies in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Take a look!

What the world needs now is not another film festival (unless its content helps plug a certain oil spill), but I have to say that an email I received yesterday sure piqued my interest.  First of all, this particular fest -- NORTHSIDE FILM, a new addition to the second annual Northside Festival opening this Thursday, June 24, and running through Sunday, June 27 -- takes place in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, land of the artsy, up-and-coming and a fun place to visit.  Second: its very well-chosen, interesting and quite varied film programs -- eight of them -- are the kind that TrustMovies would jump at the opportunity to view. Third: this is the kind of festival that you can easily get your head around, for it unfurls over only four days, with two evening programs on each of those days at 8 and 10 pm.

The price is appealing, too, as the tickets cost but $9 (and you don't have to be a senior or a seven-year-old to get that rate).  It's even cheaper ($6.25 per event) if you buy a Badge that entitles you to see all the movies. Plus, the venue itself sounds like fun: indieScreen, a new 100-capacity art-house-movie-theater-meets-music-venue-meets-restaurant-and-bar (whew!) opening on Kent Ave & 2nd St.

You can find the entire film program here, and the festival's music schedule here.  While all eight of the film events sound plenty good, several of them stand out, one of which I've already seen:  Todd Solondz's LIFE DURING WARTIME (to be released later this summer via IFC Films). 

Solondz -- of Welcome to the Dollhouse, Happiness, Storytelling and Palindromes -- is among America's best and most original filmmakers, and Life During Wartime finds him at the top of his form. In it, he takes characters from his earlier Happpiness and runs them through the wringer (gentle cycle) one more time.  If you haven't seen that earlier movie, don't fret: Wartime stands on its own just fine.  In fact, the first time I saw the film -- at last year's New York Film Festival -- I didn't even realize that the writer/director had recycled many of the same characters from his Happiness.  (Though the cast is completely different, the situation in the two films struck me as similar, but since I am not good at remembering the names of most movie characters, I didn't worry about it.)

Solondz's unique gift is to be able to create the oddest scenarios peopled with the strangest characters and make all this seem somehow appropriate, if not normal, so that soon we are laughing with, as well as at, his people while growing to love them and hoping for -- if not the best, at least something good. He achieves all this in even stronger fashion in this film, so I cannot recommend Life During Wartime strongly enough.  (Click here for my earlier review, from last year's New York Film Fest.)

 

THE FEAST OF STEPHEN, written and directed by James Franco, remains unseen by me, but as Mr. Franco is among our best and brightest young actors, anything and everything he does is worth tracking down, so far as I am concerned. And even if you hate his short film, its running time is only five minutes, so what can you lose? Making its debut at this year's Berlinale (winning the Best Short Film prize) and earlier this month at the CineVegas fest, "Feast" seems to divide audiences, while pouring more fuel on the "Is Franco gay?" question. But, as I always say: gay, straight, good, bad, only "the thing itself " counts.  So let's watch the film, and then we'll talk. On the same program is Jake Yuzna's OPEN, which won the Jury Prize at that Berlin fest. I know nothing about this 90-minute film, except what I learned from the IMDB: "Interweaving love stories centering on real individuals who are utilizing medicine to explore new frontiers of love, sex, and the human form."

Finally there is CENTURION, the new film from Neil Marshall, a writer/director whose work I very much like, who has earlier given us Dog Soldiers (the best werewolf movie since The Howling and/or An American Werewolf in London and the underrated Paris version) and Doomsday, a dark, slambang, knock-your-socks-off, post-apocalyptic thriller). Marshall's most popular movie, The Descent (he only co-produced its sequel) is my least favorite of his work, but I wouldn't miss this new one, in which it appears that he tackles the early days of the Roman/British connection in a kind of cross between Gladiator and The Last Legion.  Centurion stars the wonderfully versatile and sexy Michael Fassbender, whom I'd view in just about anything, plus an additional bunch of good actors.  Cuter than Crowe and every bit as good an actor, Fassbender probably lobs phones at hotel staff more gently, too.

So that's it, film fans. The next move is yours.   But I would definitely stick Northside Film on your list of things to do in the days to come. Again, here's the schedule.