Mark Jenkins

'Bidder 70,' Still Raising His Hand To Be Heard

Mark Jenkins — Thu, 16 May 2013 21:03:00 +0000

In its final months, the George W. Bush administration hastily organized a mineral-rights auction for federal land in Utah, much of it near national parks. Environmentalist and economics student Tim DeChristopher attended the sale and — impulsively, he says — bid on and won 22,000 acres he had no intention of exploiting.

The feds came down on him like a ton of oil derricks.

'Augustine' And Her Diagnosis Get Another Look

Mark Jenkins — Thu, 16 May 2013 21:03:00 +0000

Onstage, in front of an audience, the young woman seemingly goes into a trance, overcome by a power that shakes and contorts her. The commotion appears profoundly sexual; she grabs at her crotch as she writhes. When the woman reaches some kind of release, the spell is broken, and she becomes calm. She leaves the stage to enthusiastic applause.

This isn't one of those New Vaudeville acts; it's what passed for medicine in 1870s France.

'In The Air,' A Sense Of Stakes For A '70s Youth

Mark Jenkins — Thu, 02 May 2013 21:03:00 +0000

In the opening minutes of Something in the Air, the protagonist carves an "A" (for anarchy) into his school desk, and participates in a street demonstration that ends in a punishing flurry of police billy clubs.

'Arthur Newman': A Bored Man's Bland Ambition

Mark Jenkins — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 21:03:00 +0000

Being a movie actor is glamorous servitude. On the silver screen, the actor's presence is necessarily bigger than life — yet it's often yoked to parts that are much smaller.

The dreary Arthur Newman inspires such musings not just because it's about role-playing, but also because its two principals are so clearly acting — if for no other reason than they're famous Brits playing ordinary Yanks.

In 'Paradise,' Pursuing Something Less Than Love

Mark Jenkins — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 21:03:00 +0000

The opening sequence of Paradise: Love doesn't really have anything to do with what follows, but it does establish director Ulrich Seidl's unflinching eye. At a pavilion somewhere in Austria, a group of cognitively challenged children, many apparently with Down syndrome, ride bumper cars under the supervision of Teresa (Margarethe Tiesel). There's no hint of sentimentality, no attempt at reassurance.

In fact Teresa, a corpulent middle-aged divorcee with a surly teenage daughter, clearly needs a vacation — and the Alps or the Baltic won't do.

Building A Home For A Client Who Can't Live In It

Mark Jenkins — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 21:03:00 +0000

The off-screen protagonist of Herman's House, Herman Wallace, already has a dwelling for his body: a 6-foot-by-8-foot cell at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, aka Angola. But the documentary's on-screen protagonist, Jackie Sumell, wants him also to have a place for his soul: a dream house for a man who desperately needs dreams.

Sumell's project, like the movie that recounts it, mingles art and politics. The Brooklyn-based conceptual artist first contacted Wallace in 2001, after hearing a talk by Robert King, Wallace's friend and colleague.

A Hazy Ode 'To The Wonder' Of Hidden Worlds

Mark Jenkins — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 21:03:00 +0000

Pretty but inert, To the Wonder is a vaporous mystery wrapped in a gauzy enigma — a cinematic riddle that'll appeal principally to those eager for another piece, however tiny, of the puzzle that is Terrence Malick.

To the Wonder continues in the lyrical-to-a-fault mode of the writer-director's The Tree of Life; in fact, this film includes some footage originally shot for that one.

Robert Redford Keeps Revolutionary'Company'

Mark Jenkins — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 21:03:00 +0000

Crisp in execution and classic in ambiance, The Company You Keep is star Robert Redford's most persuasive directorial work since 1994's Quiz Show. It's a pleasure to watch, even if the payoff is rather less substantial than the backstory.

The latter is established by an opening flurry of real and simulated TV news clips about the Weather Underground, the early-1970s leftist group. In this fictionalization, three former members are still wanted for a Michigan bank robbery.

'The Place Beyond The Pines': It's A Far Piece

Mark Jenkins — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 21:03:00 +0000

There are moments, as Derek Cianfrance's Blue Valentine informed us, when the barely controlled rage that is masculinity can be tempered by feelings for woman and child. But eventually the male Id will erupt, and everything will go to hell.

That happens more than once in Cianfrance's new The Place Beyond the Pines, a would-be epic that shifts from character to character and story to story to show how fury passes from fathers to sons.

'Retaliation': Harsh Payback For Poor G.I. Joe

Mark Jenkins — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 21:03:00 +0000

What's the difference between an action figure and an action star? Very little in G.I. Joe: Retaliation, which features no performances of note, even from such combat-tested thespians as Bruce Willis, Jonathan Pryce and Dwayne Johnson.

The sequel to 2009's G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, the latest Joe is a near-surrealistic mashup of serious themes and juvenile humor, realistic locations and cheesy CGI.