moviES
by Ken Hanke & Justin Souther
Blackfish HHHH DiREctoR: Garbriela Cowperthwaite PlayERS: Kim Ashdown, Ken Balcomb. Samantha Berg, Dawn Brancheau, Dave Duffus activiSt DocumEntaRy thE StoRy: Documentary about the killer whale who killed three people thE lowDown: Very basic activist documentary. Its message is a worthy one, but its delivery is never as compelling as it should be.
There’s nothing really wrong with Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s documentary Blackfish, apart from the fact that it’s way too long for its own good. This will matter less to those who are keenly interested in whales, whales in captivity and the story of Tilikum — a killer whale who kills people. If you don’t fall under those categories, the film is kind of a well-intended slog — and one with some pretty obvious padding. (It’s not for nothing that such movies are labeled “special interest,” even though filmmakers have a remarkable tendency to believe that their enthusiasm is shared by everyone.) The fairly compelling story of a captive killer whale turning into a (supposedly psychotic) serial killer ought to be sure-fire. It probably would be at 30-40 minutes, but at 83 it’s a stretch. The film’s message is reasonable enough: Whales (and presumably other sea creatures) shouldn’t be kept in captivity and made to perform stupid tricks in the name of “educational” entertainment (for the profit of large corporations). It’s also pretty quickly established. Blackfish, however, insists on establishing it several times — mostly with lots of talking heads that range from the emotional to the scientific. (Yes, we’re going to be told that there’s evidence that killer whales are smarter than people, which is perhaps true on a relative basis.) There’s also a certain fuzziness to the film with its tag line, “Never capture what you can’t control,” which vaguely suggests that this
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would all be OK if it could be controlled. I don’t think that’s the intended message. The film would be more effective if it wasn’t so “documentary 101.” Its mix of archival footage and interviews is extremely basic. The film’s sole concession to style is to begin with old news footage of Tilikum’s most famous killing, his trainer Dawn Brancheau, and then back-track to reveal what led up to it. Is it workable? Sure. In drama, it’s been workable at least as far back as 1933 with The Power and the Glory. In documentaries, its most famous and effective use was The Times of Harvey Milk (1984). By now, it’s a little on the tired side. It also makes Blackfish feel like it was made for TV, trying to grab your attention before you switch channels. The padding doesn’t help. There is an extended sequence — one of those wildlife montages that depicts nature as a giant cafeteria — of whales working together to snack on a seal that has little to do with the story, and which makes the whales look ... well, sadistic. Don’t misunderstand — this is a worthy topic. I certainly agree with its basic premise that whales don’t belong as performers in theme parks, but I agreed with that before seeing the film. It’s adequately made, but nothing more. Rated PG-13 for mature thematic elements, including disturbing and violent images. reviewed by Ken Hanke Starts Friday at Carolina Cinemas
Getaway H DiREctoR: Courtney Solomon (An American Haunting) PlayERS: Ethan Hawke, Selena Gomez, Jon Voight, Rebecca Budig action RatED PG-13 thE StoRy: After his wife is kidnapped, a former NASCAR driver is coerced into driving around Bulgaria and performing various nefarious tasks at the behest of an unknown villain. thE lowDown: A totally moronic car-chase picture, whose only goal is to wreck cars and kill brain cells.
HHHHH = max rating Ethan Hawke is on some kind of roll, making easily the two stupidest movies to come out this year. First was The Purge, a shoddy homeinvasion movie that covered itself in the sheen of its very important, very pointless attempt at highminded ideas. Now we get Hawke in the car-chase film Getaway, a murderers’ row of stupid concepts, mindless property damage and total contempt for its audience’s intelligence. It’s the kind of moronic movie that makes The Purge look like high art. While the film’s advertising likes to compare Getaway to Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive (2011), about all they have in common are cars. The main selling point seems to be that there’s no CGI at play here, and that these are real stuntmen crashing real cars into each other in all manner of spectacular ways. While I’ll be the first to kvetch about the overuse of CGI, praising a film simply for using practical effects is forgetting that the history of film is strewn with great stunt work in really crappy movies. Getaway is the cinematic equivalent of being a child and running your Hot Wheels into one another, shooting spittle everywhere as you make explosion noises. There’s a plot, so to speak, involving Hawke (who looks like a Kevin Bacon impersonator these days) as former NASCAR driver Brent Magna, a man with a past — and Tom Cruise’s outfit from War of the Worlds (2005). Brent lives in Bulgaria as a means of escaping his shady past (and certainly not because it’s really cheap to film a movie in Eastern Europe). But he can’t escape — some sort of evil mastermind (Jon Voight) has kidnapped his wife (Rebecca Budig), and to to get her back, Mr. Magna
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SEPtEmBER 4 - SEPtEmBER 10, 2013
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