ACE IN THE HOLE (1951). One year after scandalizing Hollywood with his bilious classic Sunset Boulevard, writer-director Billy Wilder was up to his old tricks with Ace in the Hole, which did to journalism — to say nothing of the average American — what his previous picture had done to Tinseltown. Remarkably topical, the film stars Kirk Douglas as Charles Tatum, a conniving newspaper reporter who ends up at a small New Mexico rag after getting fired from too many big-city publications. Tatum’s hoping for that one story which will take him back to the majors, and he stumbles across it when he learns that a local (Richard Benedict) is trapped in a cave. Starting with this small item, Tatum expertly expands it into a nationwide sensation, a “human interest” piece that eventually draws the attention of other media, a sheriff running for reelection, American families who travel from miles away to gawk at the spectacle, and even entertainers of all stripes (admission is charged just to see the cave, and a Ferris wheel is merely one of the many carny activities set up on the site). Cynical to its core, this powerful film is prescient in the manner in which it mirrors our nation’s current fascination with cheap sensationalism and shallow journalistic practices. A box office flop (even when it was re-released under the title The Big Carnival), this earned an Oscar nomination for its script (penned by Wilder, Lesser Samuels and Walter Newman), while Jan Sterling, as the victim’s icy wife, snagged the Best Actress prize from the National Board of Review.
Extras in Criterion’s two-disc DVD edition include audio commentary by film scholar Neil Sinyard, the 1980 documentary Portrait of a “60% Perfect Man”: Billy Wilder, a 1984 interview with Douglas, and a new video afterword by Spike Lee.
Movie: ***1/2
Extras: ***
HOT FUZZ (2007). The team that brought us Shaun of the Dead — writer-director Edgar Wright, writer-star Simon Pegg and co-star Nick Frost — takes a shot or 12 at the police procedural with Hot Fuzz, a funny if distressingly overlong comedy that also manages to evoke memories of The Wicker Man, Plague of the Zombies and other spooky yarns centering on eccentric villagers inhabiting the less-traveled paths of the British Isles. Pegg plays Nicholas Angel, a dynamic, by-the-book cop who’s so efficient at nailing the bad guys that his three superiors (cameos by familiar English actors) ship him off to the remote hamlet of Sandford so he won’t keep embarrassing the rest of the London force. Upon arriving in Sandford, he realizes that his commanding officer (Jim Broadbent) is a flake and his peers are morons, although he does strike up a friendship with Danny Butterman (Frost), a well-meaning cop who finds spiritual guidance in the movies Bad Boys II and Point Break. But a string of gruesome accidents convinces Angel that some dark secret exists in Sandford, and he enlists the bumbling Butterman to help him get to the bottom of the mystery. Hot Fuzz appears to be England’s attempt to prove to Hollywood that it can make brawny, blustery blockbusters every bit as noisy as those churned out by the film capital on a weekly basis, but even this pissing-contest mentality can’t drown out the satiric edge that earns this a recommendation. But did the film have to feature more faux-endings than even The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King?
DVD extras include audio commentary by Wright and Pegg, 22 deleted scenes, 10 minutes of outtakes, and a “Fuzz-o-Meter” option (trivia facts that pop up during the film).
Movie: ***
Extras: ***
PERFUME: THE STORY OF A MURDERER (2006). As chilly as Nova Scotia in December, this underrated film draws its fire not from its cold-hearted plotline but from director Tom Tykwer’s passion for dressing up this tale with all manner of technical flourishes. Working from Patrick Suskind’s worldwide bestseller, Tykwer (best known for the similarly audacious Run Lola Run) examines the life of a serial killer in 18th century France, a mass murderer with a singular — and unique — obsession. Jean-Baptiste Grenouille (Ben Whishaw) is an orphaned peasant who possesses the world’s greatest olfactory mechanism, the ability to absorb and analyze each and every scent that exists on this planet. Eventually, Jean-Baptiste becomes obsessed with discovering the perfect scent, and so he starts murdering women in the belief that extracting their aroma will help him create this ultimate fragrance. Running overlong at 150 minutes, Perfume stalls during its final stages, culminating in a risible (and too-literal) finale that reminded me (though not in a good way) of similar setups in Shortbus. Yet Tykwer’s startling stylistics tilt the film into the realm of pitch-black satire — as straightforward drama, this would doubtless be too much of a slog — and casting Dustin Hoffman and Alan Rickman in choice supporting roles doesn’t hurt, either. Unpleasant yet intriguing, Perfume isn’t exactly a breath of fresh air — it’s more like having smelling salts applied to one’s cinematic experience.
DVD extras include a short making-of piece.
Movie: ***
Extras: *1/2
ZODIAC (2006). Refusing to wear out its welcome even at 160 minutes, Zodiac is a satisfying hybrid of a police procedural (think L.A. Confidential), a journalism yarn (think All the President’s Men) and a serial killer flick (think The Silence of the Lambs). That it doesn’t come close to breathing the rarefied air of the three aforementioned classics isn’t necessarily meant as a putdown, but it’s clear that David Fincher’s new movie doesn’t provide the same level of either visceral thrills or sublime plotting as its predecessors. Instead, Fincher (Seven, Fight Club) and scripter James Vanderbilt prefer to keep most emotions in check, putting their heads down and dutifully relating the real-life story of how a notorious murderer managed to elude the authorities for decades. Working from a book by Robert Graysmith, the film casts Jake Gyllenhaal as Graysmith, a San Francisco Chronicle cartoonist who becomes obsessed with uncovering the truth behind the series of grisly slayings plaguing the Bay Area. Yet Graysmith isn’t alone in his fanatical devotion to the case: The mystery also haunts the dreams of Chronicle reporter Paul Avery (Robert Downey Jr.) and detective Dave Toschi (Mark Ruffalo), and as the years march on, the trio’s pursuit of justice (or is it merely ego gratification?) begins to take its toll on health, marriage and career. Methodical in its storytelling yet purposely ambiguous in its intentions, Zodiac is a welcome change from the moronic murder-mysteries that usually clog the New Releases shelves.
Aside from a couple of trailers, there are no extras on the DVD.
Movie: ***
Extras: *
This article appears in Aug 1-7, 2007.
