DIRECTED BY Brian De Palma
STARRING Josh Hartnett, Hilary Swank, Scarlett Johansson
US 2006 121 mins.
MONSTER HOUSE ****
DIRECTED BY Gil Kenan
WITH THE VOICES OF Mitchel Musso, Sam Lerner, Spencer Locke
US 2006 90 mins.
Films don’t exist in isolation. That’s the problem when recommendations are solicited, when the dread question comes up – ‘So, is it any good?’ – about this or that movie. I don’t know if it’s any good. What I see, with my terms of reference, will be different to what you see, or what a person who watches one film a month will see, or what a young kid with no life-experience will see, or what a Martian who’s never even watched a film before will see. (This is why people, quite reasonably, take their friends’ recommendations over those of critics.) Ideally, perhaps, we should all write for that hypothetical Martian – a kind of baseline audience – looking at films ‘in themselves’, without preconceptions. But then how can you evaluate The Black Dahlia without thinking of James Ellroy’s novel – one of the most twisted and notorious crime novels of the past two decades – or director Brian De Palma’s previous films (Carrie (1976), Dressed to Kill (1980), Carlito’s Way (1993)), or the abiding glamour of 40s ‘noir’, or the allure of Hollywood in general? They’re all there, in this flawed, somewhat unpleasant, haunting movie.
What about Black Dahlia ‘in itself’? A mixed bag, I guess. Stylish, certainly, with some lavish visuals and a Grand Guignol climax, but marred by some weak performances. Josh Hartnett – as our hero, ‘Bucky’ Bleichert – either looks vacuous or squints at people with a wounded expression, like a wronged puppy. Scarlett Johansson looks great but has nothing to do. Hilary Swank is all wrong as a femme fatale – too eager, too blatant. There’s loads of plot, not streamlined and filleted as it was in the 1997 L.A. Confidential (a more elegant adaptation of an Ellroy novel) but spewed forth in a rush, the various scenes treading on each other’s toes.
Strangest of all, the plot consists of two separate halves that don’t really meet in the middle – making it exactly like the body of the ‘Black Dahlia’, a Hollywood starlet named Elizabeth Short who was found murdered, mutilated and messily bisected in 1947 Los Angeles (this really happened, though the film’s plot and characters are fictional). Coincidence? Maybe, but in fact the ‘Dahlia’ hangs so heavy over Dahlia I wouldn’t be surprised if the whole film were structured in her memory – and De Palma’s Hollywood career has been so blighted, I wouldn’t be surprised if he identified more with his dead catalyst than his actual heroes.
We only see the ‘Dahlia’ (played by Mia Kirshner) in black-and-white clips from a screen test she made – where it soon becomes clear her talent was for sex, not acting. An unseen director mocks and belittles her as she tries to act, and De Palma uses his own voice for the voice of the director – a hint of how personal the film is. Like the dead girl, De Palma has been mocked and belittled by ‘official’ Hollywood. Like her (albeit more metaphorically), his real talent is for sex, making sensually pleasing films that keep their distance from plot and character – films like Femme Fatale (2002) and Snake Eyes (1998) which are all about style and legerdemain and the play of images. The ‘Dahlia’ is an outsider, used and abused – and finally killed – by the Establishment. ‘Bucky’, our hero, is also an outsider, marked by his cop status and immigrant father. The film is obsessed with outsiders: the first thing we see are the “Zoot Suit Riots” of 1942, violent clashes between whites and Mexican immigrants. De Palma is also an outsider.
In fact, The Black Dahlia is one of those rare films – Vertigo (1958) is another – which are ruled by a corpse. Maybe that’s why it doesn’t matter that the leads are weak, because their characters aren’t as real (or important) as the dead woman shaping their narrative. Maybe that’s why audiences rejected the film – it was a flop, despite tremendous hype – because they instinctively sensed how morbid it is, and shuddered at its lush necrophilia. The Dahlia’s fixed smile – carved, ear-to-ear, with a killer’s blade – might also be De Palma’s mocking riposte to those seduced by Hollywood’s treachery, its mask of wealth and glamour. The film is nightmarish, and a little creepy. Is it any good? I liked it, but the Martian wouldn’t.
The Martian might be happier with Monster House, assuming they have kids and haunted houses on Mars – but he’d be even happier if he’d seen E.T. (1982) or The Goonies (1984), or Joe Dante films like Gremlins (1984) and Matinee (1993), or even The Iron Giant (1999); it might also help if he’d read, or seen, To Kill a Mockingbird. This is one of those films rooted in a vision of small-town America, and wondrously retro – not self-consciously ‘nostalgic’ like Cars but happily wide-eyed and childlike, a style reinforced by the rather square-cut animation (it’s the storybook look familiar from The Polar Express). It aims to be timeless, though it does feel rather 80s. A videogame looks distinctly Pac Man-esque; the kids’ clothes are tight rather than baggy. Even the gender roles feel retro, like the two boys arguing over the girl and trying to impress her. Compare the equivalent trio in Harry Potter, so much more non-sexist and egalitarian (and boring).
House is unusual in lots of ways. For one thing, there’s none of the toilet humour that’s taken over kidpics, and none of the pop-culture in-jokes found in Shrek and its progeny. For another, it skews impressively dark. The build-up is like a horror movie, with eerie detail like the tinny phone sound across a vast silence; our young hero D.J. spends most of the film thinking he’s killed a man, and at one point has a nightmare where a huge shadowy hand swoops down to grab him. The film earns its ‘12’ rating, though I’ve heard of kids half that age watching it without any trouble; still, it’s not recommended for the very young or very squeamish.
Caveats aside, I loved Monster House. The plotting is solid, even holding on to the Aristotelian Unities (it takes place over 24 hours in a single setting); there’s even a subtext, the haunted house standing for the spectre of approaching puberty – and it’s no surprise that it finally needs to be understood not in the childish terms of scary bogeymen but the grown-up terms of perverse love and amour fou. More importantly, the film is a cracking adventure, scary in parts, dealing in the brilliant old chestnut of the hero(ine) who knows a truth so outlandish the authorities refuse to believe it (it’s not just for kids; Hitchcock used it all the time). The house itself is a great monster, gobbling up stray toys and flicking out a rug to enfold unwary passers-by.
Monster House is also funny, whether observing the byplay between D.J. and best friend Chowder or delighting in the embarrassment of a pre-teen boy showing a girl to his room for the first time: “Yeah, the posters are stupid. I keep meaning to tear ’em down and put up some Art…” It’s true you need to be a child (or in touch with your inner child) to fully enjoy this film, but I also ask: Has there ever been another film – let alone a kids’ film – in the whole history of films that based one of its gags on the confusing similarity between the words “uvula” and “vulva”? I don’t think so.
NEW DVD RELEASES
Here’s our regular look at the more interesting titles released on DVD in the US and UK over the past few weeks. Some may be available to rent from local video clubs, or you can always order over the Internet: dozens of suppliers, but http://www.amazon.com (for US) and http://www.play.com (for UK) are among the most reliable, if not necess
arily the cheapest. Note that US discs are ‘Region 1’, and require a multi-region player.
NEW FILMS
HARD CANDY: Controversial black comedy about precocious 14-year-old girl turning the tables on online pervert. Extras include commentary and deleted scenes. [US]
36 QUAI DES ORFEVRES: French policier (also known simply as ‘36’) with the dream-team of Daniel Auteuil and Gerard Depardieu as rival cops. Extras include director interview and featurettes. [UK]
CONFETTI: Fluffy British comedy about three couples competing for ‘Most Original Wedding of the Year’. Extras include featurettes and deleted scenes. [UK]
I AM A SEX ADDICT: Confessional comedy starring and directed by Caveh Zavedi; one of the year’s most talked-about ‘small’ films. [US]
THE DEATH OF MR. LAZARESCU: Hugely acclaimed Romanian drama about elderly hospital patient is compassionate and not as depressing as it sounds. Extras on the Region 1 disc include a “Perspective on the US Healthcare System”, presumably noting how much better things are in the US as opposed to Romania! [US]
LITTLE BRITAIN, SERIES 3: I want that one. [UK]
OLD FILMS
MAX OPHULS x 4: Not a collection per se (the 4 films are sold individually), but still a quartet of lush, bittersweet masterpieces from the still-underrated Ophuls. In approximate order of greatness: ‘Madame De’ (1953), ‘The Reckless Moment’ (1949), ‘Letter From an Unknown Woman’ (1948) and ‘Le Plaisir’ (1952). Image quality is acceptable, extras include video essays and introductions. Buy! [UK]
PLAYTIME (1967): From the good people at the Criterion Collection, Jacques Tati’s much-misunderstood modernist classic comes in a 2-disc package replete with documentaries and interviews. The film itself, a deadpan comedy shot on huge custom-built sets, remains unique and fascinating. [US]
FILM NOIR: THE DARK SIDE OF HOLLYWOOD: Not the greatest ‘noir’ collection, but the price is unbeatable – $32 (plus shipping) for five films. They include Joan Crawford in the scary ‘Sudden Fear’ (1952), ‘The Long Night’ (1947) starring Henry Fonda, and ‘Hangmen Also Die’ (1943) which is really a WW2 drama rather than a ‘noir’. Also ‘Railroaded’ (1947) and ‘Behind Locked Doors’ (1948). [US]
HUNGER (1966): Classic tale of 19th-century writer roaming the streets of Copenhagen, based on Knut Hamsun novel. Splendid extras include a 26-minute conversation between writer Paul Auster and Hamsun’s granddaughter Regina. [US]
ALL THE KING’S MEN (1949): Dated Oscar-winner, out in a new DVD because of the upcoming remake. Mostly of historical interest. [US]
KNIGHT RIDER, SEASON 4 (1986) and THE ‘A’ TEAM, SEASON 4 (1987): Did you know David Hasselhoff’s trendy again?… [UK]
