Jim Czarnecki Movies
Director Stephen Kessler sets out to profile the prolific singer/songwriter/actor who seemed ubiquitous in the 1970s and '80s, only to disappear from the spotlight following a protracted battle with drugs and alcohol. Convinced that the once-prolific Paul Williams has passed away as he scours the Internet to purchase one of his albums, Kessler discovers to his surprise that not only is Williams alive and well, but he's also still performing regularly to adoring fans around the world. Like many teens of the 1970s and '80s, Kessler connected with Williams' pensive, poetic songs about love and loneliness, and upon learning that he would be performing at a Winnipeg screening of Phantom of the Paradise (panned by critics, the notorious Brian De Palma bomb was a massive hit in just two cities: Winnipeg and Paris), the filmmaker convinces Williams to be profiled in a documentary. At first Williams is somewhat aloof, yet Kessler persists and, in time, makes a breakthrough by bonding with the performer over his favorite seafood. Meanwhile, as Kessler begins exploring the highs and lows of Williams' career, the subject pulls the storyteller into the film, and a close friendship begins to develop. Later, Kessler tags along with Williams for a concert in the Philippines, where their bond is cemented during a tense bus ride through the Mindanao jungle. As a result, the filmmaker gets the one thing he's craved since one of his earliest meetings with Williams, though when it seems to go awry he fears that he may have betrayed his new friend's trust.
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Truth proves to be far stranger than fiction when Emmy award-winning television producer Phil Rosenthal answers the call to fly halfway across the globe and adapt his hit television series Everybody Loves Raymond for Russian television. Arriving in Moscow, Rosenthal is greeted by television producers who don't seem to understand his sense of humor, and don't appear particularly eager to receive his input. As his collaboration gets under way, however, Rosenthal quickly realizes that the unusual circumstances surrounding his voyage have all the makings of a classic fish-out-of-water comedy. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
Vidal Sassoon is the world's best-known hairdresser, and one who radically changed the way many people thought about hair styling when he rose to fame in the 1960s. But Sassoon had already lived a remarkable and adventurous life before his geometric "wash and wear" hair styles became all the rage in Swinging London. Born in England to Jewish parents, he was part of a British anti-fascist group called the 43 Group, who battled organized anti-Semitism in the wake of World War II, and when his family relocated to Israel, he fought in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War as part of the Israeli Defense Force. In the 1950s, Sassoon returned to England and began pursuing a career cutting women's hair. Within a decade, his Bond Street salon would become a sensation, and after creating distinctive styles for such stars as Mia Farrow and Nancy Kwan, he became the most famous and influential man in his field. As his shop turned into a franchise and he launched a successful line of hair-care products, Sassoon proved he was a shrewd businessman as well as an artist, but despite finding fame and wealth his life has been marked by both triumph and tragedy. Filmmaker Craig Teper offers a look into the public and private life of a man who "changed the world with a pair of scissors" in the documentary Vidal Sassoon: The Movie. Featuring exclusive interviews with Mary Quant, Michael Gordon, and William Claxton as well as Sassoon and his family, Vidal Sassoon: The Movie received its world premiere at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
Soundtrack for a Revolution takes a look at the American civil rights movement, focusing on the role that music -- spirituals and protest songs -- played, as the backdrop and the inspiration for the pickets, sit-ins, and demonstrations of the turbulent era. Directors Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman, whose previous documentary looked at the Japanese Army's atrocities against the Chinese people in Nanking, here blend images from the time and interviews with participants with new footage of contemporary artists performing the inspirational songs. Interviewees include Harry Belafonte, John Lewis, Andrew Young, and Julian Bond, and the documentary includes performances by John Legend, Joss Stone, and Angie Stone. The film examines such pivotal moments as the Montgomery bus boycott, the March on Washington, and the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King. Through old footage and interviews, spirituals like "Wade in the Water" and "We Shall Not Be Moved," and folk songs like Phil Ochs' "Here's to the State of Mississippi" are each connected to specific aspects or moments of the movement. Danny Glover was the executive producer of the film. Soundtrack for a Revolution had its world premiere at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi
In the hopes of exploring American culture's increased obsession with winning, documentary filmmaker Christopher Bell examines the anabolic steroid use of his two brothers. After setting the stage with a look at the cultural backdrop of the 1980s -- in which hulky stars like Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger were the ideal -- Bell illustrates how he and his brothers became involved in the bodybuilding subculture, eventually discovering the brutal truth that success in the lifestyle of pumping iron demanded the use of steroids. ~ Cammila Collar, Rovi
A precocious but troubled young girl living in 1950s-era Alabama seeks solace in the music of Elvis Presley in director Deborah Kampmeier's controversial tale of childhood trauma and musical healing. An air of repression lingers over the home of spirited youngster Lewellen (Dakota Fanning), who finds both comfort in the music of pop sensation Presley, as well as a place to store her pain and anger. In time Lewellen begins to find her own voice, a voice that will instill her with the strength to move beyond the pain of her past and into a more hopeful future. Piper Laurie, David Morse, and Robin Wright Penn star in a period drama that made its debut at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Dakota Fanning, Cody Hanford, (more)
Directed by Michael Moore, whose aura of controversy only grew after his Oscar acceptance speech at the 2003 Academy Awards, Fahrenheit 9/11, like Moore's Bowling For Columbine and Roger & Me, promises to expose the corporate wrongdoings and big-money scandals perpetrated by America's financial elite. This movie, however, looks beyond the inner echelons of General Motors and Lockheed Martin in hopes of outing the evildoers in the White House, particularly in regards to the 43rd President of the United States, George W. Bush. In addition to criticizing the administration's handling of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center, Moore digs deep into the surprising relationship with the Bin Laden family held by both Bush administrations, and questions whether or not potential Saudi involvement with the attacks has been ignored. As Fahrenheit 9/11's Cannes Film Festival debut approached, marking only the second time in 48 years that a documentary has been included among the festival's main competition, Miramax's parent company Disney announced it would not be distributing the film due to its partisan nature, and, according to Moore, out of trepidation that the Florida-based Goliath's multi-million-dollar tax breaks might be negatively affected by Florida Governor Jeb Bush, whose review within Fahrenheit 9/11 is less than favorable. ~ Tracie Cooper, Rovi
The amoral world of a handful of Wall Street businessmen is delineated in this black comedy written by Lemony Snicket creator Daniel Handler. Rick takes as its central character a mid-level manager (Bill Pullman) working in a nameless corporation for a boss, Duke (Aaron Stanford), who's nearly half his age. Duke and Rick are constantly one-upping each other around the office; compounding their contentious relationship is the fact that Duke is pursuing Rick's daughter, Eve (Agnes Bruckner), a teenager who frequents Internet sex-chat rooms. Rick thinks he has found the solution to his work problems in Buck (Dylan Baker), an old college buddy who's become a paid hitman; for a fee, he'll take care of anyone who comes between Rick and his climb up the corporate ladder. But when a jilted job interviewee (Sandra Oh) puts a hex on Rick, it seems his good fortune may come to an end. ~ Michael Hastings, Rovi
- Starring:
- Bill Pullman, Aaron Stanford, (more)
Love Liza is a psychological drama about a man trying to come to terms with his wife's suicide. Wilson Joel (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) is searching for answers as to why his wife, Liza, killed herself. He is unable to bring himself to read the suicide note Liza left behind. Instead of facing his demons, Wilson becomes addicted to sniffing gasoline. Kathy Bates co-stars as Liza's mother. This film was written by the star's brother Gordy Hoffman, and directed by newcomer Todd Louiso. Love Liza was screened at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi
- Starring:
- Philip Seymour Hoffman, Kathy Bates, (more)
Filmmaker, author, and political activist Michael Moore trains his satirical eye on America's obsession with guns and violence in his third feature-length documentary, which gets its title from a pair of loosely related incidents. On April 20, 1999, shortly before they began their infamous killing spree at Columbine High School in Littleton, CO, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold attended their favorite class, a no-credit bowling course held at a bowling alley near the school, the same bowling alley which would become the scene of a robbery and triple homicide two years later. While pondering these events, Moore humorously considers the link between random violence and the game of ten pins; along the way, Moore calls on the Michigan Militia (and gets to know some of the models for their "Militia Babes" calendar); spends some time with James Nichols, brother of Oklahoma City bombing accomplice Terry Nichols; visits K-Mart's corporate offices with two teenagers injured in the Columbine massacre as they ask the retail chain to stop selling bullets for handguns; investigates the media's role in the American climate of fear and anger; compares crime statistics in the United States with those of Canada (which, despite higher unemployment and a larger number of guns per capita, manages to rack up a small fraction of the homicides committed in the United States), and questions actor and National Rifle Association president Charlton Heston regarding his appearance at a pro-gun rally held in Littleton a few days after the Columbine massacre, and a similar rally in Flint, MI, after a six-year-old boy killed a classmate with a gun he took from his uncle's house. Bowling for Columbine received its first public screening at the 2002 Ann Arbor Film Festival; the film's official premiere took place a few months later at the Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
In his second directorial effort, writer/director Harmony Korine embraces the hyper-realist aesthetic of Lars Von Trier's Dogma 95 film movement, which mandates handheld photography using only available lighting, among other restrictions. As in the controversial Gummo (1997), Korine abandons traditional narrative for a series of vignettes about bizarre characters, in this case centered on Julien (Ewen Bremner), a schizophrenic who works in a school for the blind. Julien lives at home with his pregnant sister Pearl (Chloe Sevigny); his brother Chris (Evan Neumann), who wrestles in his spare time; and their violent father (Werner Herzog), who slaps his children around, hoses them down with water, and offers to pay Chris ten dollars to dress up in his late mother's clothes and dance. Eventually Julien escapes from his home and interacts with people on the street (some of whom, reportedly, were not professional actors and had no idea that Bremmer was an actor playing a scene). ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ewen Bremner, Chloë Sevigny, (more)
- 1997
American independent filmmaker Rob Tregenza, who includes Jean-Luc Godard among his admirers, directed this deliberately paced, minimalist drama about Jean Hammett (Frederic Pierrot), a French artist who has been committed to a mental institution in the United States. One of the female inmates becomes infatuated with him as the patients react with the nuns who run the hospital and attempt to interact despite the emotional distance between them. Tregenza, who also wrote, produced, and photographed Inside/Out, shot the film in the widescreen CinemaScope format to better visually illustrate the separation of the characters. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
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