Angry Monk: Reflections on Tibet (Switzerland, 2005) The subject
of Angry Monk is so compelling, he transcends the
unimaginative, off-the-rack style of this documentary. Tibet’s Gendun
Choephel (1903-1951) was a brilliant and intellectually curious youth
who enrolled at a lamasery in Lhasa at a period when Tibetan society
was stagnant and conservative, ignoring the outside world and its
mid-20th-century upheavals of war and revolution. After traveling
extensively throughout Tibet to set down the land’s history using
long-neglected ancient texts, Choephel sallied through Gandhi’s India,
a country looking toward modernization in a way that Tibet wasn’t.
Choephel began writing for a Tibetan-Indian newspaper and translating
Indian literature into written Tibetan — most notoriously, the
Kama Sutra. Choephel was hardly the expected austere, ascetic
type of monk. He smoke, drank and whored with gusto. His widow,
interviewed here, says he more or less drank himself to an early grave,
after having been arrested and imprisoned in Lhasa, charged with being
a Communist stooge. In fact, Choephel was trying to warn his countrymen
about the ascent of Mao, and he lived just long enough to see his
Cassandra-like prophecies come true, as Chinese troops swarmed into
Tibet in 1950, sending the Dalai Lama into exile. Cleveland Museum of
Art Lecture Hall. At 7 p.m. Friday, May 29. ** 1/2 (Charles Cassady Jr.)
Brothers Bloom A couple of orphans, Stephen (Mark Ruffalo)
and Bloom (Adrien Brody) learn at an early age that they have a knack
for conning people. It all starts when they trick their classmates into
thinking there’s a monster in a cave, and they charge their fellow
students admission to see the monster — really just one of the
brothers. They get caught on a regular basis and move from foster home
to foster home. Flash-forward a few years. Stephen and Bloom, now young
adults, have figured out how to pull off heists without getting caught.
They’ve partnered with Bang-Bang (Rinko Kikuchi), an Asian woman who
doesn’t speak, and pulled off one lucrative job after another. They
could retire on their earnings, but they decide to do one last con and
find an heiress, Penelope (Rachel Weisz), who could easily be bilked of
her millions. Problem is, Bloom falls in love with her. Much like Wes
Anderson, director Rian Johnson (Brick) relies on quirky
characters and distinctively colorful cinematography to create an
alternate, anachronistic universe. While the film predictably blurs the
lines between what’s a con and what’s not, its intriguing narrative
holds it together. Cedar Lee Theatre. ** 1/2 (Jeff Niesel)
Katyn (Poland, 2007) The 1940 Soviet massacre of 15,000
Polish soldiers in the Katyn forest is the jumping-off point for
veteran director Andrzej Wajda’s (Ashes and Diamonds, Danton)
provocative and compelling new historical drama. Told largely through
the gut-wrenching stories of a group of slain Polish officers and their
survivors, Wajda dispassionately exposes a Communist-engineered
cover-up of the genocide for which Hitler was officially blamed. The
83-year-old Wajda remains Poland’s greatest, most poetic chronicler of
that country’s 20th-century political upheavals and domestic traumas. A
2007 Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Language Film, Katyn screened twice at the 2008 Cleveland International Film Festival.
Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque. At 9:25 p.m. Friday, May 29,
and 7:05 p.m. Saturday, May 30. ***(Milan Paurich)
Lemon Tree After the Israeli defense minister (Doron Tavory)
moves into a new house on the border between Israel and the West Bank,
he begins fortifying the place. He implements security measures,
installing video surveillance cameras and putting up barbed-wire
fences. He also offers Palestinian widow Salma (Hiam Abbass)
compensation for her lemon grove, which he plans to uproot. She wants
to keep her lemon trees, however, and hires a lawyer to keep the
defense minister from cutting them down. Though the Israeli court rules
against her, she takes her case to an international court, determined
to keep her grove. Complicating matters is the fact that the defense
minister’s wife Mira (Rona Lipaz-Michael) ends up on Salma’s side.
Based on a true story involving olive trees, Eran Riklis’ film is
thankfully less about politics and more about personal choices and
relationships. Cedar Lee Theatre. ***(Niesel)
Silence and Cry (Hungary, 1967) A Miklós Jancsó
drama about a Red Army refugee. Cleveland Institute of Art
Cinematheque. At 5:30 p.m. Saturday, May 30, and 7 p.m. Sunday, May
31.
Slap Shot (US, 1977) Paul Newman stars as a struggling minor
league hockey coach in this comedy. Cleveland Institute of Art
Cinematheque. At 7 p.m. Friday, May 29, and 8:35 p.m. Sunday, May
31.
Two Lovers (US, 2008) Director James Gray (Little Odessa,
We Own the Night) takes a break from his usual genre fare with this
unexpectedly touching, beautifully played urban romance set in
present-day Brooklyn. Joaquin Phoenix plays Leonard Kraditor, a bipolar
young man who moves back in with his parents (Isabella Rossellini and
Moni Monoshov) after getting dumped by his fiancée. While he’s
only too happy to play along with his folks’ attempt to fix him up with
the comely daughter of a business associate (Vinessa Shaw), Leonard
really has eyes for the blonde shiksa goddess (Gwyneth Paltrow) who
just moved into their apartment building. The emotional tenor of the
movie feels exactly right, and the performances are extraordinarily
empathetic. This is Gray’s most satisfying and mature work to date.
Maybe he should give crime dramas a rest and concentrate on telling
heartfelt people stories like this from now on. Cleveland Institute of
Art Cinematheque. At 9:30 p.m. Saturday, May 30.
*** 1/2 (Paurich)
Tyson James Toback’s new documentary is a fascinating look at
the former heavyweight champ who’s had one of the most notoriously
controversial careers of anyone who’s ever entered the ring.
Essentially an extended interview with its subject, the movie pulls no
punches in recounting Tyson’s life, starting with a troubled youth
going in and out of juvenile detention centers and ending with his
evolution into the proud father who maintains he’s a new man now that
he leads a quiet life in the suburbs just outside of Las Vegas. Not yet
20, Tyson found a much-needed mentor in trainer Cus D’Amato, who not
only taught him how to win but also instilled a sense of discipline,
fleeting as it was. From that point, Tyson became one of boxing’s most
menacing fighters. The film touches upon all the controversy: the Robin
Givens abuse charges, which Tyson still denies; the ugly, ear-biting
fight with Evander Holyfield, which Tyson says he can’t recall because
he blacked out; and the now-strained relationship with promoter Don
King, about whom Tyson has nothing good to say. Almost apologetic, the
soft-spoken (albeit with that distinctively high-pitched voice) Tyson
certainly doesn’t gloss over any of this. And yet the film’s point of
view is purely one-dimensional; we never hear from Givens, Holyfield or
King. All we get is Tyson on Tyson. And that limitation keeps a good
movie from becoming a great one. Cedar Lee Theatre.
** 1/2 (Niesel)
This article appears in May 27 – Jun 2, 2009.
