Film Review by Kam Williams
Billionaire Builds McMansion for Trophy Wife in Dysfunctional Family Documentary
Real estate mogul David Siegel founded Westgate Resorts back in the Seventies and went on to strike it rich selling luxury time shares in 28 locations around the country. Unfortunately, his obsession with work took a toll on his first marriage, but after a messy, decade-long divorce battle, he started another family with a gorgeous trophy wife 30 years his junior.
The 74 year-old CEO now has 7 children with Jackie, 8 if you count her orphaned niece they adopted. Although Siegel was already keeping his flamboyant, young spouse in the lap of luxury, against his better judgment he also agreed to build her the biggest and most expensive single-family home in the United States.
A replica of Louis XIV's 17th Century Palace of Versailles, plans for the sprawling, 90,000 square-foot estate included 10 kitchens, a grand ballroom with a staircase at either end, a skating rink, a bowling alley, a health spa, tennis courts, a baseball field, a performance theater, maids quarters, etcetera. But when the real estate bubble burst in 2008, the economic recession took a terrible toll on Siegel's entire empire.
Not only did he have to lay off 7,000 corporate employees at Westgate Resorts, but he also had to scale back his on his lavish lifestyle. The household staff shrank from 19 to 4, the kids were moved from private to public schools, and the family started flying on commercial airliners instead of by a private Gulfstream jet. In addition, the dream mansion project had to be halted halfway to completion when the bank threatened to foreclose on the property.
The stress started taking a toll on the Siegel marriage, too, especially after David tried to put Jackie on a budget. And when the reckless 43 year-old failed to implement some of the suggested cost-cutting measures, he went so far as to threaten to trade her in for a couple of cute 20 year-olds.
All of the above was captured on camera by Lauren Greenfield, the masterful director of The Queen of Versailles. The dysfunctional family documentary is compelling because it invites the audience to see just how decadently the other 1% lives which only makes it that much easier to take pleasure in their subsequent misfortunes.
A brilliant biopic which elicits an emotional response that's the epitome of schadenfreude!
Excellent (4 stars)
Rated PG for mature themes and mild epithets.
Running time: 101 minutes
Distributor: Magnolia Pictures
Film Review by Kam Williams
Ferrell and Galifianakis Square-Off as Funniest Candidates Money Can Buy
If you've been looking for a laugh-a-minute comedy as a refreshing alternative to all the kiddie flicks and bombastic summer blockbusters currently at the megaplexes, your wait is over. And what could be more timely than a picture about the dirty tricks being employed during a cutthroat political campaign?
The Campaign was directed by Jay Roach, a proven master of the comedy genre, a brainiac best known for making Meet the Parents and the Austin Powers trilogy. The movie stars Will Ferrell as Cam Brady, a popular North Carolina Congressman who's running unopposed for his fifth term in office until an Anthony Weiner-level peccadillo becomes public knowledge.
That boneheaded blunder opens the door for a nerdy, unworthy opponent like Marty Higgins (Zach Galifianakis) to enter the race because he's being bankrolled by a couple of very wealthy businessman. Glen (John Lithgow) and Wade Motch (Dan Aykroyd) are sleazy, power-hungry siblings ostensibly patterned after the billionaire Koch brothers, notorious backers of arch-conservative causes.
Bragging about being "candidate creators" more than "job creators," the Motches specifically seize on naïve Marty since he's so malleable. Unseen behind the scenes, they orchestrate a complete overhaul of Higgins' image with the help of a no-nonsense campaign manager (Dylan McDermott).
Soon, Brady realizes he's in the fight of his life, as both sides resort to increasingly-devious tactics to prevail on Election Day. For instance, we find Marty wearing what he calls a "Yamaha" on his head during services at a synagogue, while Cam sings in the gospel choir of a black Baptist Church and plays with rattlesnakes to curry favor with the congregation of a sect of serpent-handling evangelists.
But despite his best efforts, Brady continues to sabotage his own campaign at every turn, whether by accidentally punching a baby and a puppy, or by being caught having sex with a supporter in a port-o-john. And as the polls indicate that the tide is turning decisively in Marty's favor, the focus becomes whether he'll be a tool of the Motch brothers or choose to do what's best for his district.
Will Ferrell's over-the-top approach to Cam serves as the perfect counterpoint to Zach Galifianakis' relatively-subdued interpretation of sweet-natured Marty. The film also features several inspired support performances, most notably, Dylan McDermott and Jason Sudeikis as devious campaign managers and Karen Maruyama as an ebonics-accented Asian housekeeper.
Throw in amusing cameos by a neverending string of political pundits like Bill Maher, Wolf Blitzer, Chris Matthews, Piers Morgan, Joe Scarborough, Lawrence O'Donnell, Willie Geist, Mika Brezinski, Ed Schultz and Dennis Miller, and you've got all the makings for a bona fide election year hit. Ferrell and Galifianakis hit their stride as the funniest candidates money can buy!
Excellent (3.5 stars)
Rated R for profanity, sexuality, nudity and crude humor.
Running time: 97 minutes
Distributor: Warner Brothers
Film Review by Kam Williams
Carefree Cherub Laments Climate Change in Enchanting Cautionary Parable
6 year-old Hushpuppy (Quvenzhané Wallis) is being raised under the radar in "The Bathtub," a backwoods bayou located on the swamp side of a Louisiana levee. The self-sufficient tomboy divides her days between attending to her sickly father (Dwight Henry) and living in harmony with a handful of other hardy refugees from civilization.
Hushpuppy feels sorry for children growing up on the land in nearby New Orleans because they eat fish wrapped in plastic and have been taught to fear the water. And while those city kids were caged in strollers and baby carriages during their formative years, she's been free to explore surroundings teeming with vegetation and a menagerie of wildlife.
Yet, her existence is far from idyllic, given how much she pines for the mother her ostensibly-widowed daddy explained simply "swam away" one day. The heartbroken little girl tries to fill the void via flights of fancy coming courtesy of a vivid imagination that enables her to carry on imaginary conversations with her long-lost mom.
Hushpuppy's vulnerability is further amplified by her father's failing health and by an ominous foreboding that climate change could destabilize the eco-system of her natural habitat. For, she's been warned by Miss Bathsheeba (Gina Montana), a sage soothsayer who also serves as her surrogate mother, that "The trees are gonna die first, then the animals, then the fish."
So unfolds Beasts of the Southern Wild, a compelling, coming-of-age parable marking the extraordinary directorial debut of Benh Zeitlin. An early entry in the Academy Awards sweepstakes, this surreal fairy tale about the prospects of the planet so richly deserves all the accolades already heaped upon it at Sundance, Cannes and other film festivals.
Considerable credit must go to newcomer Quvenzhané Wallis, a talented youngster who not only portrays protagonist Hushpuppy but narrates the film as well. Like a clever cross of Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn and Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, the movie repeatedly reminds us of a pre-pollution, pre-digital era when children were still encouraged to plunge headlong into nature to experience the world firsthand rather than artificially through electronic stimuli.
A visually-enchanting fantasy shot from the perspective of a naïve waif magically untouched by the 21st Century.
Excellent (4 stars)
Rated PG-13 for profanity, mature themes, child imperilment, disturbing images and brief sensuality.
Running time: 91 minutes
Distributor: Fox Searchlight
Film Review by Kam Williams
Coming-of-Age Drama Revolves around Lesbian-Curious Latinas
Besides being 15 year-old Chicanas, Yolanda "Mosquita" Olveros (Fenessa Pineda) and Mari Rodriguez (Venecia Troncoso) are about as different as night and day. The former is a straight-A student and the only child of overprotective parents (Joaquin Garrido and Laura Patalano) with high expectations for their dutiful daughter. The latter, by contrast, is a relatively-troubled rebel being raised by an overwhelmed widow (Dulce Maria Solis) who's been struggling just to keep a roof over their heads since entering the U.S. illegally after the death of her husband.
The Rodriguez's plight as undocumented immigrants means that Mari has to work part-time to help out her mom financially, a burden that has taken a toll on the kid academically. Consequently, the grieving, underachieving street urchin has learned to mask her pain with a tough "I could care less" veneer.
Mari and Mosquita's paths do cross when the Rodriguez family moves next-door to the Olveros in a Spanish-speaking neighborhood located in the Huntington Park area of L.A. The two sophomores initially forge a grudging friendship at school, trading off tutoring in geometry for protection from a clique of mean girls.
But soon, they're happily spending so much time together in the afternoons and evenings that Mari loses her job while Mosquita's grades start to suffer. The plot thickens as it becomes clear that these polar opposites are not only lesbian-curious but experiencing barely-contained pangs of puppy love for each other.
Tension builds as the schoolgirl crush blossoms into a passion simmering close to the surface as each waits for the other to make the first a move. But the best these awkward neophytes can do is snuggle under a blanket while studying and scribble their names in a dirty automobile's dust.
Finally, the moment of truth arrives after a handsome boy asks attractive Mosquita for a date around the same time that a seedy man offers cash-strapped Mari money for sexual favors. At that point, obviously, something's gotta give.
The question is whether or not they're ready to take a big leap.
Marking the marvelous writing and directorial debut of Aurora Guerrero, Mosquita y Mari is a subtle exploration of coming out from the perspective of introspective adolescents at an awkward age. However, the movie has much more to offer, as it is equally sensitive in its examination of a variety of issues of urgent concern to the Latino community.
To think that in just one generation we've gone from Chico and the Man to Chica and the Girl!
Excellent (4 stars)
Unrated
In Spanish and English with subtitles
Running time: 85 minutes
Distributor: The Film Collaborative
Directed by Véréna Paravel and J. P. Sniadecki documentary "Foreign Parts" about the Willets Point section of Queens recieves NY Times Critics' Pick.
It’s a safe bet that the Willets Point section of Queens, setting and subject of the new documentary “Foreign Parts,” does not figure in many New York tourist itineraries, though it has starred in a movie before, Ramin Bahrani’s “Chop Shop.” This battered stretch of junkyards and auto repair shops may thrive (or fester, depending on your point of view) in the shadow of Citi Field, but it seems a universe away from that gleaming corporate food court where the Mets occasionally win a baseball game.
Read the review on The New York Times
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