Rick's Flicks Picks on AWN

High school student Richard Samuels dreams of being an actor on the stage. He idolizes Orson Welles and shows up at the Mercury Theatre with the slimmest of hopes to be part of their first production, JULIUS CAESAR set in Mussolini 's Italy. By chance he amuses the players and lands a small part. He's actually going to act with Orson Welles. But the legend is different from the reality.

Richard Linklater's film cuts to the core of the ruthless politics, often fueled by enormous egos, that rule the theater world. At the Mercury Theatre, Welles is the sun and the rest of the company is the planets circling him. A great deal of time they are simply waiting for the man to arrive. When he arrives he is often short with those that his vision does not come so easily to. But when he needs or wants something from you (or is just showing off) he can make you feel like you are a superstar.

Having recently seen Franco Zeffirelli's 1996 version of the Charlotte Bronte tale, it's hard not to compare the two. It's easy though to be impressed with what director Cary Fukunaga has accomplished with this new version of the much-adapted romance. He brings new tension and artistry.

The film begins with an extremely effective foreshadowing. We see the older Jane Eyre (Mia Wasikowska, ALICE IN WONDERLAND) fleeing from Thornfield Hall, across a rocky field. She is exhausted. Seeing a house distant she makes her way there and collapses on the doorstep where she is saved by preacher St John Rivers (Jamie Bell, BILLY ELLIOTT). He and his sisters nurse her back to health and find her employment at a charity school. She says she is content because for the first time in her life, she is not subordinate to anyone.

With this film, Takashi Miike has made his most accessible movie to date. I'd argue it is his best because it is tighter and less obsessed with shock than any of his previous work. Some might say this ode to the samurai genre, especially the work of Akira Kurasawa, is his least daring, but his daring sometimes doesn't make for a compelling story. This is an actioner done the right way.

Set in 1844 when the reign of the samurai was coming to an end, a samurai commits seppuku in protest of the political advancement of Lord Naritsugu (Goro Inagaki, SAIMIN), the son of the former shogun and the brother of the current one. He is a ruthless sadist, who enjoys murder, torture and rape as a form of control over the peasants. Top official Sir Doi (Mikijiro Hira, SWORD OF THE BEAST) makes the decision to have Naritsugu assassinated and calls on veteran samurai Shinzaemon (Koji Takusho, SHALL WE DANCE?), who when found is fishing on a ladder in the ocean. Shinzaemon is eager to take the job. He shakes at the thought of having a noble death.

As is a staple of the genre, he seeks out some of the last remaining samurai to recruit them for the virtual suicide mission to ambush Lord Naritsugu's convoy. He can only find 13 to go against 70. When the epic battle begins, the 13 will be facing 200. But these are distinguished samurai and they have tricks up their sleeves.

Like any good samurai flick, Miike takes his time establishing his characters, so that when the action starts we are captivated with how their personalities come out in battle. Shinzaemon's right hand man is Kuranaga (Hiroki Matsukata, SHOGUN'S SAMURAI), who shows that age hasn't slowed his skills with the sword. When Shinzaemon finds his nephew Shimada (Takayuki Yamada, THE CAT RETURNS) he is gambling in a whorehouse. Fans of the genre might expect that his character is the one that legend Toshiro Mifune would have played, but he's not. Hirayama (Tsuyoshi Ihara, LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA) is the quiet killer much like Kyuzo in SEVEN SAMURAI. Kiga Koyata (Yusuke Iseya, CASSHERN) is the mysterious thirteenth assassin who the others meet in the forest. He is the kind of rough and unpredictable character that Mifune would have played. But he might not be human.

The other samurai are the stalwarts of the genre. Mitsuhashi (Ikki Sawamura, STEAMBOY) is the scout. Otake (Seiji Rokkaku) is the heavy-set samurai that serves as comic relief. Hioki (Sosuke Takaoka, BATTLE ROYALE) is the devoted follower of Kuranaga. Higuchi (Yuma Ishigaki, AZUMI) and Horii (Koen Kondo, LINDA LINDA LINDA) are the explosives experts. Sahara (Arata Furuta, HANA) is the oldest samurai who prefers a spear to a sword. Ogura (Masataka Kubota) is the young samurai with little experience, but a lot of heart.

Leading the army set to protect Lord Naritsugu is Hanbei (Masachika Ichimura, FINAL FANTASY VII: ADVENT CHILDREN), a former school rival of Shinzaemon, who knows that no matter how many men they bring, if his old classmate is involved, there will be a great deal of bloodshed. He even goes to warn Shinzaemon that the effort is futile and that the time of the samurai is over. Shinzaemon is not persuaded. Lord Naritsugu is perverting the code of the samurai and he does not fear death in defending it.

The siege on the village at the end presents some implausible elements when it comes to the time the 13 samurai have to set their traps, but it's too fun to mind. By then you are too wrapped up in the story. Miike handles his bloody action with a visceral flare, but never loses his characters in the swordplay. For 40 minutes, we get to see how these warriors handle battle in choreography that we actually get to watch because Miike doesn't try to hide it with fancy camera work.

Naritsugu is the perfect villain to tell this story with. In a signature Miike moment, we meet one of his victims a naked, starved woman who has had her arms cut off. This is the aloof monster that we want Shinzaemon to take down. He represents the corrupt government that ruled following the nobler reign of the samurai. Shinzaemon knows that the time of the samurai has come to an end. What he can't stand is that the future is in the hands of men like Naritsugu. He knows he might not succeed, but he will show him what the samurai are all about. One of them will have a noble death for sure.

ROLLER BOOGIE is from the long Hollywood tradition of trying to cash in on youth trends. This little confection tried to capture the roller skating culture of Venice Beach. It casts a 20-year-old Linda Blair in the lead and a roller skating champion with no acting experience as her love interest. They're just kids having fun, but it's the stuffy adults that always have to come and ruin their vibe.

Blair (THE EXORCIST) plays Terry Barkley, a rich girl from Bel-Air whose parents want her to be a concert flutist. She wants to be a roller skating champion. As an adult myself, it's hard to 100% root for her life decisions there. Bobby James (Jim Bray) is an amateur roller skating champ, who works at a skate rental stand on the boardwalk. They met up at the local roller rink where his friends bet him that he can't get her to skate with him, because there is no way a girl driving a million dollar car would ever skate with a beach bum. As you can guess, she not only skates with him, but also asks him to teach her to skate like him.

Bill Cunningham is a man of integrity. Despite being a legendary photographer in the fashion world, he lives in a tiny, rent-controlled apartment in Carnegie Hall. His room is filled with file cabinets with decades of negatives and a bed. The bathroom is in the hall. For much of his work, he refused to take money, because he didn't want anyone to own him or his work. He won't even take a free glass of water at the events he covers. His work is his life and he won't compromise that.

During the film, Cunningham celebrates his 80th birthday. He has been taking pictures of New Yorkers and what they wear for decades. The film features a who's whos list of editors from the top fashion magazines who follow is work because he has a keen eye for catching trends that are growing out of the streets. In covering fashion shows, he has a keen eye for when a designer is copying something done before and has no qualms pointing it out. He loves fashion, which he describes as our armor to go out into the world.

Albert Brooks' character was once a movie producer. He describes his films as action-filled and sexy. Once a critic described them as European, he says. I'd call this intense actioner European as well, but not for the same reasons. The action is precisely planned in bursts in an otherwise quiet film. The tone never shifts but depending on what is going on it can be ominous or romantic. It's artful and bloody. It's visceral and elegant.

In an existential move harkening back to car movies of the 1970s like TWO-LANE BLACKTOP, the protagonist is simply known as Driver (Ryan Gosling, CRAZY. STUPID. LOVE.). He works for Shannon (Bryan Cranston, TV's BREAKING BAD) as a mechanic at his auto shop and part time as a stunt driver for the movies. Shannon wants to start racing cars and asks shady business man Bernie Rose (Brooks, DEFENDING YOUR LIFE) and Nino (Ron Perlman, HELLBOY) to invest in the young man. Moonlighting, Driver drives get away cars for criminals. He gives the thieves the same deal. A five-minute window, he doesn't carry a gun and he doesn't get involved.