It’s St. Patrick’s Day, so why not a movie with Irish characters? I am really surprised at the amount of people who tell me they have never seen ‘State of Grace.’ The same people though have seen ‘The Boondock Saints‘ which is so overrated its not even funny. It’s a ripoff of Tarantino and not a very good one at that.

‘State of Grace’ on the other hand, is an excellent film. It has a stellar cast including Sean Penn, Gary Oldman, Ed Harris, John C. Reilly, John Turturro and Robin Wright.

Sean Penn plays Terry Noonan, a Boston cop sent to New York to work undercover in his old neighborhood of Hell’s Kitchen in Manhattan. His childhood friend, Jackie Flannery (Oldman) and his older brother Frankie (Harris) are higher ups in the Irish mob (it’s based on The Westies though the term is never used in the film). They are expanding their power by partnering with the Italians and Noonan is in the middle of it all, torn between loyalty to his friends (and love for Kathleen Flannery (Wright)) and his duties as a police officer. Jackie is not happy about this partnership with the Italians, thinking his older brother shouldn’t be taking orders from them. Jackie has a short temper and at one point explodes, culminating in a shooting that could bring it all crashing down.

Director Phil Joanou, who up until this point had directed television and also the excellent (and completely underrated) Three O’Clock High, does an excellent job building tension and directing the all star cast. Everybody in the film is great, but the standouts are Ed Harris and particularly Gary Oldman. I remember reading Leonard Maltin’s review and he said, “Harris and Oldman sear the screen.” It’s true. Oldman is fantastic as usual.

This one is definitely worth checking out.

Note: This film contains a lot of bad language. In addition, it contains graphic violence and one intense sexual scene.

Rock/concert photography is not what it once was. That isn’t to say the photography isn’t as good. One only needs to jump over to Todd Owyoung‘s site to see some amazing images from concerts. What has changed is the culture. Publicists, management and even the acts these days often limit photographers to the area they are allowed to shoot from (usually from a pit) and how long they’re allowed to shoot for (three songs).

Back in the day however, things were different. Photographers had much more access, usually for entire shows and many bands would allow certain photographers to be on the stage with them. Jim Marshall is perhaps the most famous music photographer of all time. ‘Rock Prophecies‘ is about another photographer from approximately the same era who may not be as well known as Marshall, but has some iconic images of his own. His name is Robert Knight.

Knight has made famous images of Led Zeppelin, Elton John, Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix, Slash, Steve Vai, Aerosmith, Alice Cooper, Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan. In fact, Knight was the only photographer at the last show SRV played in 1990 on the night he was killed in a helicopter crash.

Rock Prophecies touches on the history of Knight’s work as well as his penchant for helping new and unknown acts such as The Sick Puppies and Tyler Bryant.

There is also a touching scene wherein Knight sells negatives of his Jimi Hendrix collection (Knight notes that he was offered $3.5 million once for his entire archive) to Hendrix’s sister who now runs the Hendrix business while still allowing him to sell the prints. The money he earned from the sale of the negatives allows for him to pay for the care of his mother who is in the early stages of Alzheimers.

The movie is short. A mere 80 minutes but a lot of fun. It’s only available via streaming. Enjoy.

The language in the movie is relatively clean save for a few f-bombs lobbed by Marshall.

Let me be blunt about Kevin Costner. He rode a wave of success that was elevated by his handsome looks and then of course, his Oscar winning effort with ‘Dances With Wolves’ (a movie that hasn’t held up well and is loaded with characters that fit absurd stereotypes) and not his incredible acting talents. He redeemed himself quite well in ‘Open Range’ both as an actor and a director.

That being said, Costner’s performance as Robert ‘Butch’ Haynes in ‘A Perfect World’ is terrific. Haynes is a prison escapee who has kidnapped a young boy, Philip ‘Buzz’ Perry (TJ Lowther) and taken him along for the ride. Butch and Buzz bond in their own way as both of them are outsiders in the midst of a “perfect world” (Perry and his family are Jehovah’s witnesses, so the boy has never participated in birthdays, Halloween or Christmas celebrations). During their time together, Butch allows Buzz to take part in the kind of indulgences he’s been forbidden to be part of including going trick or treat with a stolen Casper The Friendly Ghost costume. On their tail is Texas Ranger ‘Red’ Garnett (Clint Eastwood who also directed) and criminologist Sally Gerber (Laura Dern) who tries in at first in vain to explain to Red’s team that Haynes is no ordinary criminal. He’s one that will rely on smarts more than brawn when it comes escaping.

The film really gives Costner a chance to shine since he does most of the talking when he and Lowther are on screen together. I’m certain Costner was pushed by Eastwood to bring out some acting chops he never thought he had because his performance is top notch. The scenes with Costner and Lowther are also a testament to Eastwood’s skills as a director because they were crafted so delicately. It’s some of his best, though largely unheralded work.

It’s rated PG-13 for some curse words and some adult content.

I’m a big fan of James Woods. His best work on the big screen is behind him as it seems has become content doing television and voice over work which is great if that’s what he wants to do. But if you go back to the 80′s (1979 actually with his Oscar nominated performance as Gregory Powell in ‘The Onion Field’) he has quite the resume:

Once Upon A Time In America
Salvador
Best Seller
Cop

And then along came ‘True Believer.’ Woods plays Eddie Dodd, a once high profile civil rights attorney who now makes his living defending drug dealers. Robert Downey Jr. plays the idealistic Roger Baron who encourages Dodd to take on the case of Shu Kai Kim who is doing life for murder. His mother believes her son was not involved (Dodd makes a wisecrack to Roger, “Attila The Hun had a mother, ok?”). Dodd finally goes to see Kim and decides to take his case. This eventually leads to the discovery of a conspiracy that involves not only the police, but the District Attorney’s office.

Everybody in the film is good and courtroom dramas are usually a dime a dozen but what makes this a standout is Woods performance as Dodd. It’s electric.

Enjoy!

This week’s pick comes courtesy of Josh Trevino, former speechwriter for the Bush administration.

The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia.

The ‘Whites’ in this case are not a color, but a family. A modern day outlaw family from Boone County, West Virginia. This is a documentary that follows this family over a period of a year and it is a wild ride.

This film is funny. It’s sad. It’s infuriating. It’s always entertaining. The family members (often spoken about in the film by defense attorney’s, law enforcement officers and others) are notorious for their criminal activity, and their almost cartoon-like characters. They drink, make music, dance, do lots of drugs, and shoot/stab people (including each other).

The family patriarch, D. Ray White was gunned down in 1985 on his way to dancing competition (if you saw ‘Deliverance’ then you saw what kind of dancing they do. It’s a redneck take on an Irish jig) and is almost like a folk hero in Boone County. His son Jesco has somewhat taken over his role as head of the family.

The film moves quickly from story to story and it’s often punctuated by either by being a trainwreck or a total tragedy.

• One of the white family members is awaiting sentencing for shooting his uncle (Not Jesco) 3 times in the face and holding the police at bay for hours. He’s naive to think he’s charmed the judge into giving him a light sentence (later on we learn he got 50 years for what he did prompting Jesco to crack, “He probably would have been better off killing him.”)
• Kirk (a woman), Mamie’s daughter just hours after giving birth to a daughter and hoping for a better life for her, is seen in her hospital room with her baby less than 10 feet away, crushing some kind of prescription drugs and then snorting it.
• In one amusing and seemingly terrifying scene, Jesco is getting a big tatto on his back. He said it represents his “two sides.” On one side is Elvis Presley. That’s the party side. The fun loving side according to Jesco. On the other? Charles Manson. When Jesco starts talking about the urge has at times to kill, his eyes turn sinister and it’s easy to believe him.

Jesco is a fascinating person. He’s the kind of guy mothers beg their daughters to stay away from but go flocking to him anyway. The years of heavy drug use and drinking have not been kind, but images of Jesco when he was younger show that kind of “outlaw” character that that can attract the ladies (some of them anyway):

Overall, what one gets from this family from all of the crazy, is a sense of despair. These people are resigned to the fact that they’ll never get out of there. Kirk, because of her drug use, has her newborn baby girl taken away from her. She enters rehab (but not before having one last party complete with alcohol and coke) and gets clean. But she admits she’s not sure how long it could last because she says the family sucks her right back into all of it.

If there is one criticism I have of the film, it’s that it cannot decide if it wants to be a 90 minute episode of ‘Cops’ or a social commentary. In reality, the only thing separating the White family from many in the African-American inner city is skin color. Kirk’s young son is a good looking young boy that you know pretty much has no chance in life being in that situation. However, our culture is one that says its perfectly acceptable to mock the White family. It would have been interesting to see director Julien Nitzberg take the film more in that direction.

Still, the movie is well worth watching. However, keep the kids away. This is a documentary that features drug use, violence, and plenty of foul language.

I am a big fan of Sherlock Holmes. When I was 10 years old I read the Illustrated Classics version of ‘The Hound of The Baskervilles’ and I was hooked. I read so many others and so so many television shows and movies about the world’s most famous detective. There have been many television and film adaptations of the world’s most famous detective, with the most recent being Robert Downey Jr. However, there is another recent one as well in the form of a BBC television series called “Sherlock.”

In a word: Brilliant.

It’s a new twist on an old character as it takes place in current day London. In fact, blogging is mentioned within the first few minutes of the pilot episode. Playing Holmes is Benedict Cumberbatch (It is hard for me to imagine a more British name than that. I love it) and Martin Freeman plays Dr. Watson (Freeman BTW, will be portraying ‘Bilbo Baggins’ in Peter Jackson’s film adaptation of ‘The Hobbit’). Other classic characters are still there such as Mrs. Hudson, the landlady at 221b Baker Street, Watson’s girlfriend Sarah and Detective Inspector Lestrade.

Cumberbatch plays Holmes perfectly, almost to the point of being unlikeable (which is the kind of person Holmes is. He describes himself at one point as a “high functioning sociopath.”) and he is tempered by Freeman’s portrayal of Watson who is much more down to earth.

The backstory of the characters of course has changed due to being present day. Watson meets up with Holmes through a friend after returning from a tour of duty in Afghanistan and decide to split the cost of 221b Baker St. (leading some to assume they are a gay couple which is handled deftly as it’s portrayed as being no big deal). Cell phones, text messaging and current technology play into the stories as well.

But none of the detracts from the mysteries and particularly the performances. The pacing is very good, leaving enough time for back story and filler without ever getting boring.

It’s a television series but there are only 3 episodes. However, each episode runs approximately 90 minutes, so it’s really like 3 movies. Thankfully, the series is going to continue. Unfortunately, if you become a fan as I did, you’ll have to wait until the fall of 2011 before seeing any new episodes.

I know that I said when I started this I was going to try and focus on streaming content so you could watch at any time. However, this week’s pick is only available at this time on DVD. You should add this to your queue and move it right to the top.

Get them in time for the New Year’s weekend and enjoy.