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Thursday, August 31, 2006
The start of the school year means a busy time at work as I hire and train new students, which also means only one movie review this week.
The Lost City
Director: Andy Garcia
Possum’s Grade: C-
In The Lost City (now on DVD), Andy Garcia plays Fico, a Rick Blaine type character. El Tropico is his Café Americain and Havana in 1958 is his Casablanca. Also like Rick, Fico struggles to remain apolitical in a supremely polarized era for the sake of stability in his establishment. Cuba is on the verge of revolution. If General Batista remains in power, the status quo and general prosperity of Fico and his friends is not bothered. The success of Che Guevarra and Fidel Castro’s revolution (with which his brother sides) means the potential, and uncertainty, of freedom.
This movie brings to mind 1999’s The Cradle Will Rock, another pet project of a respected actor (Tim Robbins). Both pictures parade recent historical figures in front of the camera giving them a certain human-ness and a greater amount of context than your typical history book. For Cradle it was Nelson Rockefeller, Orson Welles and Diego Rivera. In The Lost City we get to spend some time with Che Guevarra, Fidel Castro, Fulgencio Batista and Meyer Lansky (Dustin Hoffman) who attempts to make Fico an offer he can’t refuse. Both films deal with government suppression of the arts, yet The Lost City does not inspire in the same way as Cradle.
The artistic direction and choreography of the dance sequences carry the film. The scene where the revolutionists storm Batista’s palace in an assassination attempt that is cross-cut with a dance number at Fico’s club is reminiscent of Cabaret. Compared to the same film, though, it fails in capturing the decadence of the era and the restlessness of the people.
Ultimately, this is an extremely ambitious movie that fails to generate enough excitement to carry the audience through two and a half hours even though the subject matter is highly intriguing. It loses any moment it might have built in the third act as Fico flees Cuba for New York. Bill Murray provides the only shining moments despite the heavyweight cast (Garcia captures the stiffness of a Blaine-like character without any of the charm). He does an incredible job of playing himself as if he weren’t funny and only told bad jokes.
Possible coming reviews:
Theatres: Idlewild, The Illusionist, Hollywoodland
DVD: Inside Man, Brick, Friends With Money
The Lost City
Director: Andy Garcia
Possum’s Grade: C-
In The Lost City (now on DVD), Andy Garcia plays Fico, a Rick Blaine type character. El Tropico is his Café Americain and Havana in 1958 is his Casablanca. Also like Rick, Fico struggles to remain apolitical in a supremely polarized era for the sake of stability in his establishment. Cuba is on the verge of revolution. If General Batista remains in power, the status quo and general prosperity of Fico and his friends is not bothered. The success of Che Guevarra and Fidel Castro’s revolution (with which his brother sides) means the potential, and uncertainty, of freedom.
This movie brings to mind 1999’s The Cradle Will Rock, another pet project of a respected actor (Tim Robbins). Both pictures parade recent historical figures in front of the camera giving them a certain human-ness and a greater amount of context than your typical history book. For Cradle it was Nelson Rockefeller, Orson Welles and Diego Rivera. In The Lost City we get to spend some time with Che Guevarra, Fidel Castro, Fulgencio Batista and Meyer Lansky (Dustin Hoffman) who attempts to make Fico an offer he can’t refuse. Both films deal with government suppression of the arts, yet The Lost City does not inspire in the same way as Cradle.
The artistic direction and choreography of the dance sequences carry the film. The scene where the revolutionists storm Batista’s palace in an assassination attempt that is cross-cut with a dance number at Fico’s club is reminiscent of Cabaret. Compared to the same film, though, it fails in capturing the decadence of the era and the restlessness of the people.
Ultimately, this is an extremely ambitious movie that fails to generate enough excitement to carry the audience through two and a half hours even though the subject matter is highly intriguing. It loses any moment it might have built in the third act as Fico flees Cuba for New York. Bill Murray provides the only shining moments despite the heavyweight cast (Garcia captures the stiffness of a Blaine-like character without any of the charm). He does an incredible job of playing himself as if he weren’t funny and only told bad jokes.
Possible coming reviews:
Theatres: Idlewild, The Illusionist, Hollywoodland
DVD: Inside Man, Brick, Friends With Money
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