Rob the Mob

I saw Rob the Mob last week at the Landmark Embarcadero Center Cinemas.

Rob the Mob starring Michael Pitt & Nina Arianda; with Andy Garcia & Ray Romano; directed by Raymond De Felitta; (2014) - Official Website

Rob the Mob is based on the true story of Tommy and Rosemarie Uva, a Queens couple who robbed Mafia social clubs in the early 1990s.  That's a great hook - who is crazy enough to rob the Mob?  As portrayed in the film, Tommy (Michael Pitt) and Rosemarie (Nina Arianda) are more stupid and ignorant than crazy.  Set in the early 1990s, Tommy attends the trial of John Gotti.  He hears the testimony Sammy "The Bull" Gravano testify that guns are verboten at Mafia social clubs.  Tommy, previously convicted of armed robbery, gets the idea to rob the social clubs since they won't have guns.  As an added incentive, Tommy's father was killed by mobsters when he was a boy.

The predictable plot works its way to its conclusion with little to distinguish it.  Pitt & Arianda have some chemistry and are energetic enough but their dim-witted escapades never quite rise to the level of empathy.  In fact, the dialogue is stilted at times and the most common sentiment elicited from me was contempt for these two idiots.

Ray Romano plays a newspaper columnist who convinces the couple (dubbed Bonnie & Clyde) to give an interview.  Andy Garcia, with a bushy beard, plays the mob boss whose clubs are being robbed.  Garcia tries to show the quiet fury beneath the surface but once again, the dialogue fails the characters.

Burt Young &  Michael Rispoli have smaller roles as mobsters.  Cathy Moriarty has one scene as Tommy's embittered mother (best scene in the film).  Griffin Dunne has a few scenes as the owner of the debt collection agency where Tommy & Rosemarie work.

Rob the Mob is like a sport car not firing on all cylinders.  You know something is off, you're not quite sure what it is and you spend more time trying to figure out what is off than enjoying the ride. 

As I was watching Garcia trying to gain traction in his role, I was reminded of one of his films called City Island which I saw at the 2010 San Francisco Independent Film Festival.  Garcia was similarly hamstrung by mediocre dialogue and a plot which featured his prison guard character's embarrassment at trying to be an actor.  I was so lukewarm about the film that I didn't write anything about it in my post.  City Island was far from horrible but not particularly memorable although I will admit that I am able to recall a surprisingly large part of the plot.  I don't doubt that I'll be able to write the same sentence for Rob the Mob in a few years. 

I have digressed - City Island and Rob the Mob were both directed by Raymond De Felitta which means it's probably not coincidence that I feel tepid about both films.

2011 United Film Festival

I saw three films at the 2011 United Film Festival at the Little Roxie in June.

Gabi on the Roof in July starring Lawrence Michael Levine & Sophia Takal; directed by Levine; (2010) - Official Website
Cleanflix; documentary; (2009) - Official Website
Official Rejection; documentary; directed by Paul Osborne; (2009) - Official Website

The first thing I noticed about these films is that they are "old"...at least by film festival standards. Gabi on the Roof in July played at the 2010 Cinequest and 2010 Indiefest. Cleanflix played also played at the 2010 Cinequest. Official Rejection is a documentary about the film festival journey of Ten Til Noon which played at the 2006 Indiefest! Clearly, the United Film Festival is not about getting the world premiere. Although their Saturday night screening of Superheroes appeared sold out less than 10 people attended the screenings I was at. For Official Rejection, there were only three paid attendees including myself and I think all of us came because we saw Ten Til Noon at Indiefest.

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Gabi on the Roof in July is a Mumblecore film (if that terms still applies). In general, I don't like Mumblecore films. The best I can say is that I didn't dislike Gabi as much as other Mumblecore films I've seen. Actually, that left-handed compliment is more sincere when one considers that every character in Gabi behaves in unlikable ways.

Gabi, a college student and would-be artist, travels to New York City to spend the summer with her older brother Sam, an artist of modest success. Gabi is childish and disdain conventional jobs which would help pay the rent. Sam is more practical in pecuniary matters as he spends time with his girlfriend who has a regular teaching art to school kids. Sam shows his flaws when his ex-girlfriend returns to town and commissions a few pieces from him for an avant-garde bed & breakfast. Sam quickly resumes his relationship with the woman while treating his current girlfriend in an increasing shabby manner. Meanwhile, Gabi is exploring her sexuality with frequent nudity and with Garrett, Sam's ne'er do well college classmate.

As I mentioned, each and every character displays character flaws which I found deeply off-putting. I guess this passes for common behavior among the new Bohemians in NYC. Although it is difficult for me to personally relate, I found myself drawn to Gabi's plight. She was a girl in over her head. Still testing the limits of her sexuality, Gabi is a girl in a woman's body. She also has some anger towards her recently divorced father which manifests itself in inappropriate behavior. Sam is not much better as it becomes clear his current girlfriend was on the rebound and that he never got over his breakup with Chelsea.

Recounting the plot or the character flaws is fruitless because Gabi and Mumblecore films in general, are not about plot but rather relationships gone awry. Gabi has broken relationships in spades but it also has a semi-poignant story of a confused young woman whose summer vacation falls well short of expectation and almost ends in rough sex (at least rougher than she was bargaining for).

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Cleanflix bills itself and comes on as a documentary about companies (primarily in Utah) that edit films so that offensive material are removed. Imagine Pulp Fiction without the profanity...and violence...and sodomy...and brain matter... Actually, one of the talking heads mentions that some films are beyond sanitizing but many film just need a few surgical edits to make it past the standards broadly established by the Church of Latter-Day Saints. As you would expect, when Hollywood is made aware, arguments in support of artistic integrity and copyrights are made.

The film would be rather mediocre if that is all there was to it. Fortunately for the filmmakers, Daniel Thompson, the most successful purveyor of sanitized films in the Beehive State is arrested for paying for sex with an underage girl. Some in the film argue that the repression of sexual imagery partially caused Thompson's troubles. I don't know if that is true. Thompson never even admits to the crime on camera. He is found guilty and sentenced.

What I do know is that the filmmakers "got lucky" in that there is no way they knew that Thompson would be arrested for the crime when they started the film. As a result, the film takes this strange detour which becomes the main focus during the second half of the film. It makes the film disjointed. Thompson's story would have made a better documentary but the filmmakers seemed too invested in the original premise to let the time and footage go. By the end of the film, a court ruling had basically gutted the film sanitizing business so the film had the feel of telling the audience about a business practice that no longer occurred.

I found the ostensible subject of Cleanflix to be uncompelling and the admittedly sordid business with Thompson to be in need of more examination. Cleanflix tried to have it both ways and I wasn't buying either.

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One of the films which really turned me on to SF Indiefest was Ten Til Noon (Official Website) at the 2006 festival. That might have been the first year I bought a festival pass. Ten Til Noon had its world premiere at the 2006 Indiefest.

Ten Til Noon was an exciting story about the interconnectedness of numerous people over a 10 minute period. The 10 minutes is played over and over again from different viewpoints. Each replay adds certain details and surprises to the story. I recall being tremendously enthusiastic about the film.

Official Rejection is a documentary directed by the screenwriter of Ten Til Noon. It chronicles the trials and tribulations of the filmmakers as it Ten Til Noon on the film festival circuit. Along the way, it becomes an exposé of certain film festival practices as well as direct criticism and kudos to specific festival. San Francisco Indiefest comes off quite well. Former programming director Bruce Fletcher gets significant airtime as the audience's instructor on various film festival practices. Chicago Indiefest comes off the worst as a number technical errors and a reclusive festival director incur the wrath of Official Rejection director Paul Osborne.

What did I learn? The big four in North America are Sundance, South by Southwest, Tribeca and Toronto. I already knew that but Osborne attacks their indie street cred (particularly Sundance). Part of that may be sour grapes. Osborne goes on to criticize the film festival industry's preoccupation with "premieres." Premiering one's film at a Big Four festival is not a guarantee of success but increases the chances than if you premiere, at say, SF Indiefest.

Additionally, Osborne addresses issues such as festival entry fees, the secretive and suspicious nature of festival programming, rivalries among the festivals and the personal costs that filmmakers invest in their films. Scott Storm, the director of Ten Til Noon, gets divorce with the implication being that his frequent absences due to following Ten Til Noon on the festival circuit is a primary contributor to his marital woes.

Although I chose to attend the film due to my enjoyment of Ten Til Noon, the merits of that film were only tangentially referred to. The typical audience for Official Rejection probably hasn't seen Ten Til Noon. Official Rejection has to stand on its own two legs and not as a companion piece to Ten Til Noon. I think it does so quite well.

At over two hours, the film breezed along as I started to root for the amiable Storm who doesn't seem to take himself too seriously. By the end, I felt like I had experienced the Ten Til Noon festival tour along with Storm.

Jason Wiener gets about a minute of screen time in Official Rejection. He's interviewed in front of the Roxie as representative of the film festival audience or at least überfan. Osborne added animation to point out the $100 festival pass Jason was wearing around his neck. Jason is a good guy but he came off kind of creepy on film. There is the trench coat and the Fear-the-Beard (four years before Brian Wilson made it cool) which are attention grabbers. During the interview, the enthusiastic (and perhaps nervous) Jason periodically giggled in a manner which suggested he was slightly deranged. Obviously he made enough of an impression on Osborne to keep him in the film.

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A fixture at the 2006 SF Indiefest was John Daniel Gavin whose film, Johnny Montana (Official Website) screened that year along with Ten Til Noon. Having been to many film festival, I can say that Gavin was the hardest working filmmaker I've ever seen. I saw him all around the Mission District handing out postcards for Johnny Montana. Every cafe and restaurant in the Mission had Johnny Montana flyers in the window or on its bulletin board. The man was indefatigable.

In Official Rejection he was full of ideas to get your film noticed. One idea was to send the festival a blank DVD screener. If they call and tell you the screener was blank, you know the programming is legitimate. If they don't call you, call them and ask how they liked the film. Gavin hinted that some festival told him they had watched the screener and liked the film but don't call us, we'll call you.

A little research shows that Gavin has no credits on IMDB since Johnny Montana. A link on IMDB sends users to his official website. Mr. Gavin is now billing himself as the Film Dr. His pitch is Let me examine your work, diagnose any problems and prescribe you a winning formula. Among his clients are Adam Bronstein, director of My Movie Girl which I saw at the 2010 SF Indiefest.

2010 San Francisco Independent Film Festival

The 2010 San Francisco Independent Film Festival (IndieFest) wrapped on February 18. I was able to catch 26 of the 36 programs. All programs were screened at the Roxie Theater. The programs I watched were:

Feature Programs

Access Denied; compilation of public access videos; (2009)
A+D; (2009) - Official Website
The Art of the Steal; documentary; (2009) - Official Website
At the Foot of a Tree; (2009) - Official Website
Beyond the Pole; (2009) - Official Website
The Blood of Rebirth directed by Toshiaki Toyoda; Japanese with subtitles; (2009) - Official Website
Cigarette Girl; (2009) - Official Website
City Island starring Andy Garcia and Julianna Marguiles; (2009) - Official Website
Easier with Practice; (2009) - Official Website
Godspeed; (2009) - Official Website
Harmony and Me; (2009) - Official Website
Last Son; documentary; (2009) - Official Website
Less Adolescent; (2009) - Official Website
Limbo Lounge; (2010) - Official Website
My Movie Girl; (2009) - Official Website
Point Traverse; (2009) - Official Website
René; Czech with subtitles; documentary; (2009) - Official Website
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Undead; (2009) - Official Website
Wah Do Dem; (2009) - Official Website
Zooey & Adam; (2009) - Official Website

Short Programs

An Animated World
Backwards; (2009)
Light Headed; (2009)
Unbelievable 4; (2009)
Down to the Bone; (2009)
Manifestations; (2009)
Fuzzy Insides; (2009)
'nstaCharge; (2009)
The Falcon; (2009)
Lev; (2009)
Dave Talks About Stuff And Things; (2009)
Pause Replay; (2009)
The Stressful Adventures of Boxhead & Roundhead - Brothers In Arms; (2009)
Roue; (2009)
Entering the Mind Through the Mouth; (2009)
So Then, Don't Wait; (2009)

Games of Telephone
True Beauty This Night; (2009)
Sapsucker; (2009)
Christmas Night with Fritz Dubert; (2009)
The One Last Time; (2009)
Felicita; (2009)
Nice Shootin' Cowboy; (2009)

Life Nor-Cal Style
Drugs; (2009)
Second Nature; (2009)
El Milagro de Stockton; (2009)
New American Soldier; (2009)
A Sentence Apart; (2009)

You're Not The Only, Lonely
Bean; (2009)
Weight; (2009)
Me, You, A Bag, & Bamboo; (2009)
Backyard; (2009)
Penance; (2009)
Lollipop Man; (2009)

None of the Above
Medicine Man; (2009)
Emotion Malfunction; (2009)
Life On Earth; (2009)
The Gynecologist; (2009)
Il Vincitore (The Winner); (2009)

The End Is Not The End
Adrift; (2009)
The Last Page; (2009)
In Space; (2009)
Dreamland; (2009)
Tungijuq; (2009)
Rufus; (2009)

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My general thoughts about the festival...

The programming was quite strong this year. I can only think of one film that I will actively discourage people from viewing. That's Access Denied which isn't a feature film but rather a compilation of public access videos. Thankfully, there was a technical glitch that reduced the screening time from 90 minutes to closer to an hour. Out of that hour, there was perhaps 10 minutes of footage that were entertaining.

There seemed to be more short films this year. There were six programs of short films. I feel the quality of the short films was down from previous years. Also, very film of the feature films were preceded by a short film. There was only one feature paired with a short film and I missed that program. Given how short some of the features were (several were between 70 and 80 minutes), I wished they would have cut one of the short programs and screened the short before the shorter features.

I saw a fight for the first time at Indiefest. After the screening of Cigarette Girl on Valentine's Day, a couple (man & woman) became involved with a verbal and ultimately physical confrontation with another man. The woman was providing running commentary during the film in a loud manner when the man told her to "Shut the fuck up." She complied for the remainder of the film but as the credits were rolling, she confronted the man that admonished her. Eventually, a shoving and wrestling match ensued between the man and the woman's boyfriend. All three were ejected from the theater.

A few minutes later, I was standing outside the Roxie waiting for the next show and the woman again confronted the man on sidewalk. Contact was made and eventually the boyfriend got into it again and all three were scuffling on the sidewalk. They were broken apart and the police came. No arrests were made.

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As for the films, there were several standouts.

My favorite was Zooey and Adam, a Canadian drama about the after effects of rape. Zooey & Adam are a married couple trying to have a baby. While camping, Zooey is raped by a group of men while Adam is beaten and restrained. Later, Zooey discovers that she is pregnant. Rather than struggle with the difficult question of parentage, Zooey decides to believe the baby is Adam's and ask him to do the same. After some argument, he agrees but it is a decision he will come to regret. The movie spans approximately 6 years from the time Zooey and Adam are trying to conceive to the time their son (Carl) is 5 years old. During those years, Adam has difficulties fully accepting Adam as his own son. As a result, he & Zooey split up. I won't reveal the ending since the film has been distributed in Canada and may be distributed in the US. I will say that the film has less to do with the act of rape and focuses on the lingering trauma caused by the rape (particularly on the man). I don't recall the performance of either lead actor to be strong but combination of their performances and the plot create a powerful film.

A half step behind Zooey and Adam was Easier with Practice. The difficult to categorize film kept my interest throughout. The basic plot involves two brothers traveling around New Mexico on a low budget book tour. Older brother Davy (Brian Geraghty) has published a set of short stories. His younger brother Sean is along for the ride. Davy hopes the book tour will lead to some bonding between him and his brother; Sean doesn't seem to have any goals for the trip except to pick up women despite having a rather attractive girlfriend back home.

One night in the motel, Davy receives a call from Nicole, a forward women with a very sexy voice. Davy and Nicole engage in a weeks long phone sex relationship. Nicole never gives Davy her phone number because her boyfriend Aaron is the jealous type. Davy patiently awaits each phone call while trying to keep his "relationship" with Nicole a secret from his brother. As the calls progress, Davy and Nicole form an intense emotional bond. When the book tour ends, Davy & Sean return to their normal lives; Davy is a temp office worker. Davy rekindles a relationship with Sarah (a previous one-night stand). Although Sarah is anxious to advance the relationship, Davy can't quite free himself from the fantasy and specter of Nicole. Eventually Davy and Nicole meet in a most memorable fashion.

The heart of Easier with Practice lays with Geraghty's portrayal of the emotionally timid Davy and his inability to form meaningful relationships. The film handled the material with liberal doses of humor but it was utlimately painful to see Davy waste his opportunity with Sarah and meet Nicole.

I enjoyed the stylish Blood of Rebirth from Japanese director Toshiaki Toyoda. I've seen two films from Toyoda at previous Indiefest - the dysfunctional family drama Hanging Garden (2005) and the brassy jailbreak film 9 Souls (2003). Having enjoyed both films, I was looking forward to Blood of Rebirth.

The plot is a little thin - "in a time when gods and demons ruled the earth," a traveling masseur finds himself entangled with a warlord (most likely suffering from gonorrhea). He is killed by the warlord but returns to "life" in his pre-death form. With the help of one of the warlord's concubines, he is reanimated and confronts the warlord for a final duel (in a memorable and surreal finale).

That's not much to hang a film on but Toyoda has a few tricks up his sleeve. First he commissioned a driving, percussion heavy soundtrack that sounded a lot like Led Zeppelin. Next, he makes us of beautiful earth tones in his cinematography. Finally, he lets the story develop at leisurely pace with the seeming intent to show off his directorial flourishes and give the lead actors free reign. The end effect is quite stylish and eminently entertaining. Clearly Toyoda is a film director of the highest degree.

Finally Point Traverse was a minimalist film about two friends in their early 20's. The more grounded one if Adwin, the manager of fast food restaurant. Cael is a drifter, roaming from town to town, looking for something he can't quite define and engaging in petty crimes along the way. Their lives converge and diverge as we see them interact with other people. Did I mention that Adwin was likely a serial killer? Actually, that wasn't major plot point of the film. In fact, there wasn't any major plot points. They went through life with a vague sense of ennui and resignation. A summary of the film can't adequately express the existential mood conveyed by the film. My favorite scene was when Adwin inched his hand closer to a circular blade saw (presumably to feel something). The entire audience (myself included) was squirming in their seats.

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A few films surprised me at how much I enjoyed them. Limbo Lounge is a Twilight Zone inspired film about Silas, a con man that is killed in a car accident. Sent to limbo (nicely represented as an endless backup on the Bay Bridge), Silas is given the "opportunity" to work in hell and reap all the benefits. To earn this job, he must corrupt one innocent soul - an advertising executive (how realistic is that). Armed with an afterlife Blackberry, he sets about his task with efficiency and gusto. As the moment approaches he begins having second thoughts.

As I watching the film, I thought it was predictable but as it progressed, I became drawn into the story by the performances of the cast. I still predicted the ending but the performances by the three female leads lifted an otherwise mediocre film up a notch. The three lead actresses were Robyn Cohen, Tamara Braun and Stephanie Lemelin.

Limbo Lounge was also aided by it being filmed locally. It's always nice to see locations you are familiar with. My Movie Girl was also filmed in San Francisco. The film struck a delicate balancing act. Adam is a movie buff and pines away for his artist friend Kate. They shared one drunken night together. Kate has moved on but Adam can't accept it for what it was. Adam's idea of closure is to make film about the night. Ostensibly to come to terms with Kate, the line between reality and fantasy gets blurred in the film within the film. First Adam casts himself as Adam and Kate as Kate. When Kate refuses to portray the night as Adam remembers it, her role is recast. A succession of Kate look-alikes audition for the role.

Eventually Adam puts the film aside for a weekend to serve as the videographer for the wedding of a friend. While there, he spies Vivian (nice performance by Mackenzie Firgens). Reading into her actions and behavior what he wants, he engages in an intense (for him) sexual/emotional relationship with Vivian. Eventually, he discovers that Vivian isn't her real name and that she is largely unsympathetic (even mocking) of his relationship with Kate.

I won't continue the plot summary because the main problem with the film is that I felt the same as Vivian. Adam Bronstein's portrayal of Adam in My Movie Girl irritated me no end. Adam is a schmuck and he drones on and on about his night with Kate and how he wants a life like in the movies. I came to dislike Adam although I still laughed at times.

My ultimate verdict My Movie Girl is a flawed film but good for more than few laughs.

A+D is an emotionally raw film about the life of a romantic relationship between Alice and Dan. Much of the footage appears as though it were a mocumentary. The premise in the film is that Alice and Dan (more Alice) videotape each other at unguarded moments. The audience sees the relationship start, crescendo and ultimately break apart. While watching the film, I thought when Alice introduced the video diary concept, the relationship was doom. The idea has failure written all over it and it seemed more like something that a performance artist would do than a woman in a relationship. Actually, Alice may have been performance artist. With some time since I viewed the film, I've cooled on it slightly but still think the two leads (actually the only two actors) delivered fine performances that made the film better than it had any right to be. The two leads were Amber Sealey and Anton Saunders.

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My favorite documentary was The Art of the Steal, a fascinating documentary about the Barnes Foundation. The Barnes Foundation is an art educational institution founded by Albert Barnes in the 1920s. Barnes (the man) accumulated an art collection of unfathomable proportions - 181 paintings by Renoir, 69 by Cézanne and 59 Matisse and many more. The current estimated value of his works are $25B.

Barnes left very specific instructions in the Foundation trust documents about how often the public could be allowed in to view the works and that the works were never to be lent out or toured. In the 1990's, a steady erosion (a conspiracy if you believe the film makers) of the Foundation's intent began which has culminated in the Barnes Foundation moving to a downtown Philadelphia location and operating as a traditonal art museum. This is exactly what Albert Barnes did not want to happen to his art.

I've left out many of the details but the combination of iconic art works (I recognized several and am far from a connoisseur of fine art), high society rivalries, greed and old-fashioned mystery make The Art of the Steal a very compelling documentary.

Not nearly as well made was Last Son, clearly a labor of love. Last Son tells the story of the men who created Superman. I'm not a comic book fan but was fascinated by how much of the Superman mythology was taken from the lives of Jerry Siegel (writer) and Jon Shuster (illustrator). Particularly intriguing was Siegel's life - murdered father and Jewish based name of Jor-El. Also, Shuster was an amateur bodybuilder and he borrowed images from that world to give Superman his physique, various poses and costume. For anyone that is mildly a fan of Superman, I think this film would be of great interest.

René is a Czech documentary that follows ~20 years in the life of a career petty criminal who has become a published author (and minor celebrity?) in his homeland. I could never feel empathy much less sympathy for the eponymous convict nor was I very surprised at how his life became a revolving door in and out of prison. However, the film has the benefit of 20 years of footage as you watch the relatively clean cut boy transform into a tattooed career criminal.

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The short films were more hit or miss. I fell asleep for several of the film in An Animated World. Also, The One Last Time did not screen due to technical difficulties.

A grab bag of my favorites:

Unbelievable 4 - animated versions Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rice save the world and rock out to Europe's The Final Countdown. The animator nicely captured Cheney's scowl and Bush's hangdog expression of confusion and/or contempt.

Backwards - an alien plot to takeover the world is foiled by a sexual encounter with transgender woman; story is told in reverse chronological order.

True Beauty This Night - a purse snatcher thinks he has found true love...with one of his victims.

Second Nature - an Ari Marcopoulos short about some guys skating down a steep hill at incredible speeds.

Lollipop Man - chilling story about an ominous crossing guard (dressed in a yellow rain slicker hence the title) who begins to observe more than just the traffic patterns on his route.

Penance - my favorite of the festival. This film cover a several week period where an ex-con who runs a landscaping business befriends a man with Asperger's Syndrome. Their relationship eventually bottoms out but not before someone gets a weedwacker to the mouth.

Me, You, A Bag, & Bamboo - a love story; I can't remember the details. The plot was nonsensical - a robot boy and adopted girl or something. The soundtrack was very memorable - Sexy Robot Man.

The Gynecologist - my second favorite short. A female gynecologist finds it strange that a man comes to her office for an examination and even more strange that her supervisors, the man's father and media insist she treat him like any other patient.

Medicine Man - a black kid from Harlem goes upstate looking for ancient Indian herbs to cure his father's paralysis.

The Last Page - a writer with a serious case of writer's block goes through serious hell to find his inspiration

In Quiet - a slowly paced Thai film about a young man who becomes a Buddhist monk after his grandmother dies.