Last Chance Rants

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun

The sprawling carnival of screenings known as the Tribeca Film Festival packs up this weekend, offering the last opportunities to catch some standouts in an uneven year.The homegrown realities of documentary have turned out to deliver most reliably, though the festival attempts some Hollywood supersizing with tomorrow’s attention-soliciting premiere of “Poseidon.” Whether we need this gruesome claustrophobic nightmare of mass peril, or if you find its average entertainment hard to enjoy in the slipstream of “United 93,” there are some other films that shouldn’t get lost in the hubbub and fadeout of the big budget films on display.

If you do want the fear of God struck into you, look no further than “Jesus Camp” (showing today at 2 p.m. and tomorrow at 10:30 a.m.). The directors of “Boys of Baraka” (Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady) put the “document” in documentary with this astonishing record of an evangelical Christian camp. The religious fervor of these children, rare to see on screen, is as moving as it can be bewildering and disturbing. But the movie’s coup is its devastating expose of faith twisted to political purposes.The children’s services inevitably morph into indoctrination sessions and mini-rallies. One down-home speaker leads the kids in a chant of “Righteous judges!” in a protest against the Supreme Court, and the camp director (whose program is called Kids on Fire and is held in Devil’s Lake, N.D.) eventually voices her chilling conclusion that democracy is too dangerous an institution to maintain and still accomplish her radical goals.

A different abuse of trust for political reasons spurs the brave and hilarious efforts of Italian satirist Sabina Guzzanti in her docu-essay “Viva Zap atero!” (today at 7 p.m., in a special screening at the Museum of Moving Image presented by Ms. Guzzanti). When recently ousted President Berlusconi cravenly cancelled her satirical show after one hard-hitting episode, Ms. Guzzanti pressed the powers that be without mercy. The film is a true tonic, the voice of democracy in action, comprising a brisk (and informative) collection of sketches, buttonholed politicians, reflections on satire, and bits by fellow satirists from Dario Fo and Beppe Grillo to colleagues in France and Britain. Phooey to the nattering for and against Stephen Colbert: Ms. Guzzanti is not only sharp as a tack but also funny, period. Her masterpiece is an impersonation of the megalomaniacal businessman using heavy make-up and a baldy wig, delivering a perfect portrayal of his brash, self-enriching doublespeak and the attitudes that led to his country ranking below Benin in freedom of the press.

“Comedy of Power” (tonight, 9:30 p.m.), by prolific aging New Waver Claude Chabrol, is an anti-thriller based on the Elf graft scandals that ensnarled France’s top politicians and businessmen in the 1990s. Baggy Chabrol movies are virtually a genre now, but the center of this film is Isabelle Huppert as Judge Jeanne Charmant-Killman. Madame le Juge heads an investigation reaching high up into the ranks of political and business puppetmasters. Ms. Huppert’s cameo in “I Heart Huckabees” turns out to have been more revealing than I realized: her confident, jaunty precision and Gallic fire have reached a Hollywood movie-star caliber of cool and charisma. Even as the plot tapers with her character’s exhaustion from the case, it’s an inspiration watching her dress down one more glum bigwig in an interrogation, or struggle mightily with her foundering marriage.

The festival also offers a number of diversions worth catching before the festival winds down. In “Madeinusa” (tonight, 11:30 p.m., and tomorrow, 10:30 a.m.), a traveler ends up in a Peruvian mountain village at the height of almost comically patriarchal festivities. Even though the movie doesn’t reach its potential as an arthouse midnight movie, it’s a colorful little exercise. A high-profile film in the narrative competition, “The TV Set” (tomorrow, 1:30 p.m.), tracks a television scriptwriter (David Duchovny) and his show through the ravages of development and shooting. The banalization of the writer’s suicide-inspired pilot is amusing, particularly with Sigourney Weaver playing a producer who shows everything to her keydemo daughter to yea or nay. “The Mist in the Palm Trees” (tonight, 8:30 p.m.) makes unadventuresome but competent use of found archival footage for a mysterious tale about a fictive physicist. And if you’ve already seen all the big docs, “Tierney Gearon: The Mother Project” (tomorrow, 11 p.m.) provides the latest obliviously dysfunctional family to gawk at, with a photographer who snaps shot after shot of her delusional schizophrenic mother and her own kids, sometimes (gasp!) nude.

Finally, don’t forget about the oftoverlooked restoration showcase. “The Big Combo” (Sunday, 7:30 p.m.) is a gritty highlight.This 1955 noir triangle of ruthless detective, gangster boss, and dame is lit by a cinematographer (master John Alton) who does not shoot so much as paint with actors and shadows. It’s one way to end the festival not with a whimper but with an oldfashioned bang.


The New York Sun

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