VoML Postfilm Report: Tyson (2008)

DIRECTOR
James Toback (When Will I Be Loved)

As the opening credits to Tyson roll in, we are shown clips from Tyson's first title fight against Trevor Berbick. In the second round, Tyson stalks Berbick before unleashing a volley of power shots to the bigger man's face. Berbick goes down once but is able to get up. The motivated Tyson once again catches Berbick and drops him with a flurry of haymakers. Berbick attempts to get up 3 times but falls over, his body unable to understand what his brain wants him to do. At 20 years old, Mike Tyson is the heavyweight champion of the world. So begins the legend of Mike Tyson.

Most people know Tyson's story, a kid from New York falls in with the wrong crowd, then the right crowd, then becomes champ, then loses to an underdog, then goes to jail, then gets his crown back, then loses it again and never gains it back. At the apex of his career, he was arguably the most dominant fighter who every lived. Even as his career wound down, he was still the most intimidating. In fact, one of the most telling shots in the film is a silent Tyson, staring directly into the camera. His eyes alone are framed by the screen, staring like a caged lion. Toback's best work comes in a scene just before a Tyson fight. Mike discusses the anatomy of the prefight staredown. Mike stares unflinching while the other fighter looks at Mike, then quickly glances towards the floor, then looks back up and stares back at Mike. In that split second where the opposing fighter looked down, Mike saw the vulnerability. Toback layers audio of Tyson saying, "He'll fight hard for the first two or three rounds, but I know I already broke his spirit."

Tyson is mostly a string of interviews with Tyson himself, interwoven with clips from his career and older interviews with others. Tyson is pretty candid about his past, showing the good and the bad. There's no doubt that the things that made Mike unbeatable in the ring also made him a hard person to live with and a hard person to be around at times. His vulnerability is put on display within the first half hour as Mike talks about his mentor/manager/trainer Cus D'Amato, the man who got Tyson off the streets for good and probably saved his life. Utterly ferocious, bordering on the verge of a complete meltdown at times, Mike took the ring with an unbridled intensity that may never be seen again.

A ball of contradiction at times, Mike will mention how fearful his walk towards the ring was, afraid to lose, afraid to be embarrassed, while in the next breath he speaks of absolute confidence in himself. Of the rape allegations that landed him in jail, Tyson calls Desiree Washington a "retched swine of a woman" and remarks that he "may have taken advantage of a woman before, but I have never taken advantage of her" without thinking twice about what he said. Fitting that his career went much the same way. While Tyson exploded onto the boxing scene, he went out with barely a wimper. The traits that made him so dominant for years had dimished. Tyson's last round ended with journeyman boxer Kevin McBride leaning on him until he simply sat down at the edge of the ring until the bell rang. When he was asked to return to the ring, Tyson remained in his corner. In the postfight interview Tyson expressed that he no longer had a desire to fight anymore and that he would no longer disrespect the sport by fighting simply for a payday. The film takes an interesting journey not only through the career, but most importantly through the mind of one of the most polarizing athletic figures this world will ever see.

FAVORITE SCENE
Tyson attempts to hold back tears as he discusses his relationship with the late Cus D'Amato.

SEE ALSO...
Man on Wire, ESPN's terrific documentary series 30 for 30

WOULD I PURCHASE IT? No

WOULD I WATCH IT IF I CAME ACROSS IT ON CABLE? Yes

I WILL GIVE A…-PSon

VoML Postfilm Report: Sleep Dealer (2008)

TOP BILLED ACTORS
Leonor Varela, Jacob Vargas, Luis Fernando Pena

DIRECTOR
Alex Rivera

5 MAJOR THEMES

1. Growth
2. Guilt
3. Repentance
4. Alternate Reality
5. Honor
   

3 POSITIVES

• The idea was great and extremely interesting. Memo (Luis Fernando Pena) lives in a future world where martial law prevails and the government holds a shoot first mentality, more worried with monopolizing, protecting and distributing their resources than they are with the well-being of their citizens. Essentially jobs all over the world have been outsourced to “sleep dealers”, workers in Tijuana (and presumably other localities) warehouses who are connected to machines via nodes implanted on their bodies. The workers clock in for their shifts and work at construction sites in San Diego, drive a cab in London, butcher animals in a Midwestern meat factory, etc… The best of the best, such as Jacob Vargas’ character Rudy, pilot drones who ferret out and destroy suspected insurgents in front of a national audience via live feeds.
  
• At the beginning of the film, Memo’s father asks, “Is our future a thing of the past?” Memo chuckles but it was a poignant question. Memo never saw the world before technological advances led to invasion of privacy, a loss of civil liberties, and the privatization of natural resources, even those necessary for survival. The family once had a future but now that future was gone, life became about surviving.
• Luis Fernando Pena was very good as the conflicted Memo. His obsession with technology and life in the outside world could destroy his family and slowly lead to his demise. Can he find a way to take back their future?

3 NEGATIVES

• It seemed that some of the technology in the film was unbelievably advanced while other things were exactly the same as they are now. Besides the unmanned drones, regular automobiles seemed to be the only form of transportation and clothing didn’t appear to be any different than it currently is. Meanwhile, Memo was able to pass cash through a machine and have it appear at his family’s home instantaneously and Luz (Leonor Varela) worked as a writer who transcribed other people’s memories into a keyboard-less computer and was able to have those memories she didn’t experience appear vividly on the computer.
• This film gives a pretty bleak outlook. Without giving too much away, the ending seemed like a short term fix to one town’s problem when the entire world appeared to be on a path towards destruction.
• This is more selfish than anything but I felt like the story was relatively small compared to the overall idea they came up with. Where films like The Matrix went HUGE, this movie went the other direction. It was probably a situation where the budget dictated how far they could go with the film but it would have been great to see what somebody like Danny Boyle could have done with this script and a boatload of money.

BEST PERFORMANCE
Luis Fernando Pena as Memo.

MOST UNDERRATED PERFORMANCE
Loved Jacob Vargas as Manolo in the film Traffic and in Sleep Dealer, he put on a winning performance as the reluctant agent to a force much greater than him.

FAVORITE SCENE
Memo first uses his nodes to work a construction job in San Diego.

HEY, IT'S THAT GUY...
Leonor Varela, Nyssa from Blade II. Jacob Vargas, Manolo from Traffic.

REMINDED ME OF...
The Lives of Others, The Matrix

SEE ALSO...
Intacto, Amores Perros

WOULD I PURCHASE IT? Maybe

WOULD I WATCH IT IF I CAME ACROSS IT ON CABLE? Maybe

I WILL GIVE…
-PSon

VoML Postfilm Report: Up (2009)

TOP BILLED ACTORS (VOICES)
Edward Asner, Christopher Plummer, Jordan Nagai, Bob Peterson, Delroy Lindo, Jerome Ranft

DIRECTORS
Pete Docter, Bob Peterson

5 MAJOR THEMES

1. Loss
2. Priorities
3. Perseverance
4. Growth
5. Aging
   

3 POSITIVES

• I'm always a little skeptical before watching animated films. Much like Wall-E, I heard a lot of good things about this film before viewing and it did not disappoint. There were enough adult themes that kept me entertained throughout.
  
• Sentimentality played a huge role in this film. I have been known to be a sucker to sentiment but I'm also very wary of forced sentiment. It felt real to me in this film; I would be lying if I said I didn't get a little teary-eyed in the first 20 minutes of this film.
  
• The dogs were excellent. The talking collar idea could have easily failed but it definitely added character to each dog. It was apparent that a lot of time was put into making each dog its own "person" yet they were all ultimately driven by the same things... SQUIRREL.
  

A NEGATIVE

• I really don't have any big gripes with the film. Just the general unbelievability of the premise. Animation filmmakers are never subject to the constraints of real life so they don't really have to worry about physics or the consequences of one's actions.
  

BEST PERFORMANCE
Ed Asner as Carl Fredricksen

MOST UNDERRATED PERFORMANCE
Dug the dog. Gotta love his anxious personality.

FAVORITE SCENE
The Ellie/Carl montage.

HEY, IT'S THAT GUY...
John Ratzenberger, Cliff from Cheers. Delroy Lindo, a veteran of many films including Get Shorty.

REMINDED ME OF...
About Schmidt, Love Story

SEE ALSO...
Wall-E

WOULD I PURCHASE IT? Maybe

WOULD I WATCH IT IF I CAME ACROSS IT ON CABLE? Maybe

I WILL GIVE A…

-PSon

VoML Postfilm Report: Fighting (2009)

TOP BILLED ACTORS
Channing Tatum, Terrence Howard, Zulay Henao, Luis Guzman, Brian J. White, Roger Guenveur Smith, Anthony DeSando, Peter Anthony Tambakis, Michael Rivera, Altagracia Guzman

DIRECTOR
Dito Montiel

3 POSITIVES

• The title is brilliant because let’s be honest, nothing says “this movie is about fighting” like Fighting. Think about it, how happy would you have been if the new GI Joe movie would have been called, GI Joe: Give us your money because we’re going to blow shit up, and we hired these name actors to mail it in.
  
• I’ll have to admit, I have a soft spot for Channing Tatum. There’s just something about those expressionless eyes. I loved him in A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints but after GI Joe I was a little down on him. Could he be that awful? No, he can’t be THAT awful. Take him for what he’s worth, he’s a charismatic and charming guy when he wants to be. I found him to be very likeable in this film and didn’t really get the sense that he wanted to be somewhere else like I did when watching the previously named film.
• The fighting scenes were actually pretty well done. Although frenetic and a bit dizzying at times, they looked like real fights. In real fights, guys don’t throw telegraphed round-houses and haymakers, sometimes guys get knocked out by water fountains.

3 NEGATIVES

• I spent the times in between fight scenes waiting for the next fight scene. The film needed a story line so they threw one together straight off the action movie checklist. Southern boy trying to make it in the big city, check. Cryptic allusions to a troubled past, check. A love interest, complete with awkward, hastily thrown together courtship scenes, check.
• The most glaring plot point weakness comes right at the beginning. Tatum’s character Shawn basically takes flea market level goods (Harry Potter vs the Hippopotamus) and peddles them to passersby on the street. Harvey's (Terrence Howard) band of merry thieves are set up in the same area and one of his shifty-eyed minions mills around Shawn’s goods. Well one thing leads to another and Shawn ends up in a fight with said minion. He gets tossed around a little, throws a few haymakers, and knocks the guy down. At that point he flees the scene. Somehow, that display leads Harvey to believe that Shawn can fight and he should be featured in underground bouts against the dregs of New York society. In some weird serendipitous moment, he runs into Harvey later the same night, Harvey asks him if he likes to fight and he agrees to fight for money. Well I don’t think I’m ruining the movie by saying that he wins a few fights. His fights are won in the weirdest ways possible; think of him as a mix between Rocky, Louden Swain from Vision Quest, and Tom Cruise’s character in Far and Away. He gets punched in the face a lot, falls on the ground a lot, but he’s got grit and he just wants it more than the other guy. What I’m getting at is, after watching his first frenzied brawl, Harvey was an idiot to think that he could beat good fighters. After watching his subsequent fights, he’s even a bigger idiot for thinking he could beat better fighters. I guess this all stems from my problems with the Rocky series. Yes, I love Rocky. But Rocky is one of the worst fighters I’ve ever seen. Shawn wasn’t quite as overmatched, but if I was a “two-bit hustler” just scraping by, I wouldn’t put my savings up, for or against a fighter like him.
• The ending was predictable at first, then way too unbelievable. You’ll know what I’m talking about if you see it. It was like the director said, let’s take everything we know about the characters and completely throw it out the window because this film needs the happiest ending possible.

BEST PERFORMANCE
Channing Tatum’s pecks, abs, and squared jaw. Without all of those, this film and his career would not be possible.

MOST UNDERRATED PERFORMANCE
I actually kind of liked Terrence Howard's character in this film. He has the hustler thing down.

HEY, IT'S THAT GUY...
Anthony DeSando who played Frank the dog walker from A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints. Brian J. White, Sylvester from Stomp the Yard. Altagracia Guzman, grandma from Raising Victor Vargas.

REMINDED ME OF...
Never Back Down, Rocky

SEE THIS INSTEAD...
Dito Montiel's first film, A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, is a must see. Also look for David Mamet's Redbelt.

WOULD I PURCHASE IT? No

WOULD I WATCH IT IF I CAME ACROSS IT ON CABLE? Maybe

I WILL GIVE…
-PSon

VoML Postfilm Report: The Girlfriend Experience (2009)

TOP BILLED ACTORS
Sasha Grey, Chris Santos

DIRECTOR
Steven Soderbergh

3 POSITIVES

• I really liked how the film was shot. Soderbergh is particular about the lenses he uses to give you a certain feeling while watching a scene. There isn’t really a single story line so the fact that the film is shown out of sequence lends well to the documentary feel.
  
• The film really feels like a documentary even though the people in the film are acting. I think The Girlfriend Experience succeeds as a mockumentary where Full Frontal didn’t (even though I’m a big fan of Full Frontal) because it lacks big name actors. The relationship between Sasha and her boyfriend is very interesting and part of the movie is devoted to Chris and his struggles with having a girlfriend in her line of work. He is remarkably supportive when she talks about “work problems”; he of course has his own in a similar yet completely different job, as a personal trainer. It's interesting to see those experiences juxtaposed. How can a relationship like this work when she is paid to feign intimacy with other men, then she has to come home and show real intimacy in a committed relationship?
• The subject matter was one that hasn’t really been delved into yet. The “girlfriend experience” is the reason a person would seek out an escort as opposed to a prostitute. It isn’t all about sex, sometimes the “client” is looking for somebody to talk to and have a feeling of companionship with. The film shows Grey’s struggles with increasing her client base as well as maintaining it. How does a “sophisticated escort” get her name out there and how can she trust the men she has hired to market her when they aren’t always after monetary compensation?

3 NEGATIVES

• While the subject matter is interesting, I can’t really say the same about the subject. The only insight we get into why she started doing what she does is that she didn’t want to rely on her parents for support.
• Even though it goes well with the film, the scenes where she negotiates with men who seem a little too willing to help her further her business feel so dirty. Everything about her home life and even a lot of her scenes relating to clients are pretty clean and tidy so it’s tough watching her deal with the leaches and predatorial figures. It’s easy to say, hire an agent or a manager but even that is a tricky proposition when faced with a fluctuating income and a budget that includes expensive clothes and accessories.
• If you're looking for a film with a solid story line, you shouldn't rent this. Stuff happens but nothing is really resolved in the end. You're left with a glimpse of an interesting life and an interesting set of circumstances but really nothing more.
  

BEST PERFORMANCE
It’s tough to give this to any of the actors as it’s really just Grey and Santos surrounded by bit players. I’m going to give this one to Soderbergh for the masterful weaving of conversations and silent everyday moments into an interesting film.

MOST UNDERRATED PERFORMANCE
I would have to say Sasha Grey. Although I did not find her character (or perhaps her) to be particularly interesting, I thought she played the part she was given pretty well.

HEY, IT'S THAT GUY...
There were no recognizable actors although some people may recognize Sasha Grey from previous... [cough] ahem… films.

WOULD I PURCHASE IT? No

WOULD I WATCH IT IF I CAME ACROSS IT ON CABLE? Maybe

I WILL GIVE…
-PSon

VoML Postfilm Report: Away We Go (2009)

TOP BILLED ACTORS
John Krasinski, Maya Rudolph, Catherine O’Hara, Jeff Daniels, Allison Janney, Jim Gaffigan, Carmen Ejogo, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Josh Hamilton, Paul Schneider, Chris Messina, Melanie Lynskey

DIRECTOR
Sam Mendes

3 POSITIVES

• At times, Krasinski (Burt) was actually quite charming and despite my annoyance with Rudolph (Verona) from her SNL days, I thought she was pretty good in this film. The two actors had good chemistry.
  
• The diner scene (in Montreal) is actually pretty great. Chris Messina pretty much stole every scene he was in.
• The entire Madison sequence was so awful it was actually funny. Is it a bad thing when the funniest scenes were when a toddler admits to trying to smother his baby sister and when Burt fake yells at Verona, calling her a “cunt-sucker”?

3 NEGATIVES

• Didn’t actually see any of the cities. In fact, I would be surprised if any of the scenes were shot in the cities they claimed to be in. I understand that their reasons for going to each city was because they knew people in them but it seemed like 100% of their reasoning for liking one city over another was whether they had good experiences with the people they were seeing. It just doesn’t seem consistent with their lifestyles (doesn't seem like they have any friends where they currently live).
• I hated Juno. Why is that pertinent? Because I hated the writing in this film for some of the same reasons. There were very few actual characters, only caricatures. I felt like I was constantly being punched in the face with character traits. If I was from Madison, I would be pissed after watching this film.
• Small stuff: Burt’s blatant breast fetish was a little creepy. Paul Schneider was criminally misused in this film. Go rent All the Real Girls or The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.

BEST PERFORMANCE
Chris Messina as Tom Garnett

MOST UNDERRATED PERFORMANCE
Chris Messina as Tom Garnett

HEY, IT'S THAT GUY...
Hot pocket guy, Jim Gaffigan. Allison Janney, Juno’s stepmom and the romance novel writing counselor from 10 Things I Hate About You.

REMINDED ME OF...
Juno

WOULD I PURCHASE IT? No

WOULD I WATCH IT IF I CAME ACROSS IT ON CABLE? No

I WILL GIVE…

-PSon

Kyle The Better-Than-Marginal: The Growing Legend of Neckbeard

Don't let the title fool you. This piece isn't just about Kyle Orton. In fact, you could say it is 90% inspired by Josh McDaniels. After all, he is the main reason behind the remarkable play of the Denver Broncos this season. It's not necessarily the success, Denver has been a winning organization for years now, but it is the way they are winning. With a dominant defense and a balanced offensive attack that commits few errors. McDaniels and D-coordinator Mike Nolan have instilled a grit that has been lacking since the days of the Orange Crush.

Nolan, the architect of the Baltimore D that was feared for so many years, arrived along with an army of NFL veterans on the defensive side. Much like the defense of McDaniels' former team, every player was handpicked for a specific role. Some Bronco veterans have shifted roles to better fit in with Nolan's defense of choice, the 3-4. Former DT Elvis Dumervil switched to OLB and has thrived, tallying 10 sacks through 7 games, good enough for second in the league. Dumervil has been the Broncos' best pass rusher since 2006 (his rookie season) but his best year was 2007 where he had 12.5 sacks and 34 total tackles. Dumervil has 24 tackles in the first 7 games.

Consider the following stats:

• The Broncos are 1st in total D this year, giving up 266.7 yards per game. Denver was 29th last season, allowing 374.6 yards per game.
• Nolan's 3-4 defense is 6th in the NFL in pass defense and 3rd in rush defense. Denver finished 2008 as the 26th ranked pass defense and the 27th ranked rush defense.
• Denver has given up 13.7 points per game, good enough for 2nd in the league this season. Last season they finished at 30th in the league, having given up 28 points per game.
• Denver has a turnover differential of +6, good enough for 6th in the league. Last season, they finished tied for dead last at -17.
• Denver has thrown 1 INT. In contrast, Detroit's quarterbacks have thrown 16. Surprisingly, Brett Favre's Vikings are second in the league, having only thrown 3 INTs.
  

The offense has contributed consistency. The 2008 Broncos were prolific on offense but short drives and turnovers often put the defense in situations they couldn't dig out of. With Orton, Denver has traded gaudy numbers for dependability. Through 7 games, Orton has thrown 1 interception, an end of the half hail mary that was picked off by Randy Moss of all people (Moss has as many INTs this season as Bronco TE Tony Scheffler). He has shown competence while running McDaniels' offense as well as the ability to know when to make a throw and when to throw the ball away. Against New England, he showed that he has the ability to sustain a game winning drive, when he picked the Pats D apart with precision throws and quality decision making. Rookie RB Knowshon Moreno and former Philly backup, Correll Buckhalter have run the ball with tenacity and have shown the ability to be decisive when hitting holes, gaining yards on every rush. Many questioned McDaniels' choice to draft a RB when he already had a gaggle of them on his squad (with Peyton Hillis returning and the signing of Correll Buckhalter, J.J. Arrington, and LaMont Jordan) but Moreno has cemented himself as one half of a dynamic running duo. The two have melded into one runner, capable of playing an entire game at 100%, wearing down opposing defenses after 3 quarters of constant pounding.

At 6-1, Denver looks good heading into their Week 9 game against Pittsburgh tonight. It's always a battle against the Steelers; Denver's heart will be tested after last week's loss to Baltimore. We'll know after tonight whether Denver truly belongs amongst the elite of the NFL. San Diego has recovered from their early season woes and if Denver loses, the Chargers will only be a game back.

I leave you with an audio clip of the pregame speech given by Brian Dawkins prior to Denver's first game against the Bengals. If you're looking for a catalyst behind Denver's defensive improvement, look no further.



-PSon