The rain will end, the sun will shine and spring brings forth a few delectable surprises on movie screens.

Remember when you’d go to a movie and discover something delightful, a movie that was totally unexpected and made you laugh and cry and feel that you couldn’t wait to tell your friends to go see it?  That happened with “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” and “District 9.”  I would hope it would be the same for “City Island,” which won the audience award at last year’s Tribeca Film Festival and gifts Andy Garcia with his best role in many, many years. 

Written and directed by Raymond de Felitta, “City Island” might be called, without a nod to Woody Allen, “Secrets and Lies” for it’s all about the confusions and deceptions that happen to the volatile Rizzo family as a result of never quite telling the whole truth to each other.  And not telling each other they still sneak cigarettes is only the start.

Garcia’s Vince Rizzo is a prison guard – or as he likes to say, “Corrections Officer 426.”  Vince harbors a secret dream of becoming an actor.  So instead of telling his wife Joyce (a hilariously frustrated Julianna Margulies, miles and miles from her Zen-like lawyer on “The Good Wife”) he’s taking acting classes with Alan Arkin, he lies and says it’s poker nights with buddies.  And he certainly doesn’t mention the sympathetic fellow student (a radiant Emily Mortimer) with whom he can confide his hopes and dreams and secrets.

Vince and Joyce’s daughter (Dominik Garcia-Lorido, the actor’s 26 year old real life daughter and a real talent) visits home, not from college as they imagine but from pole dancing at a strip club.  Vinnie Jr., a teenager, has a thing for overweight women: he likes to feed them food and is doing that with his 300 pound plus internet discovery who lives across the street. 

And then there’s the biggest complication: in prison Vinnie discovers the son he abandoned as a teenager with an older woman.  Eager to finally connect with Tony (handsome Steven Strait of “10,000 B.C.”), the offspring he’s never known, Vinnie brings him home without telling anyone, including Tony, the true story.

“City Island” crests and soars in its series of climactic comedic confrontations with the sureness of a meticulously well oiled French farce.
“Waking Sleeping Beauty”
This documentary look at the fall and rise and big splat! of the famed Disney animation department is the opposite of the slickly produced documentaries that Disney itself might make.  More like a home movie, filled with insider humor and bitchy retorts, it’s a view from the trenches by the young animators who came to the studio after Walt died in the late ‘70s, saw a decline and then, under Michael Eisner, Jeffrey Katzenberg and the late Roy Disney, a rebirth that produced masterworks like “The Little Mermaid,” “Beauty and the Beast” and “The Lion King.”

The hero here is the late Howard Ashman whose musical talents transformed “Mermaid,” “Aladdin” and “Beauty and the Beast” into smart, sweet, compelling Broadway musicals.  Ashman’s death from AIDS months before “Beauty and the Beast” was completed is a tragedy bracketed by the company’s subsequent loss of its consigliere, Frank Wells, the peacemaker who alone in the executive halls could balance the enormous egos of Mike, Jeffrey and Roy.  After his death in a copter crash came the deluge. 

Also of note here is how from its very beginnings Pixar, now part of Disney, was connected to the Disney studio.
Finally, Matt Damon’s latest
Why anyone would want to see “Green Zone” at this point is beyond me.  I caught Paul Greengrass’s latest teaming with his “Bourne Identity” star opening night Friday in a multiplex where the big business was for one-time Disney animator Tim Burton’s Disney-produced “Alice in Wonderland.” 

“Green Zone” is a historical screed, angry and absolute, about the Bush Administration’s lies about Saddam’s nonexistent ‘Weapons of Mass Destruction’ as the pretext to invade Iraq.  That unjustified war miserably continues with its seventh anniversary this month.  If this depressing chapter in American life is to be revived, I don’t think it’s enough to simply present it as a search for truth by Damon’s rebellious soldier and an indictment of callow D.C.types.

Another problem is that Damon looks very much like a 24-year-old innocent among the weathered faces on parade here and consequently feels miscast.  “Green Zone” says that a virtuous Iraqi general risked his life to tell Washington the truth that there were no WMDs.  But Washington wanted a war and manufactured “confidential reports” they fed to a highly placed news source (played here by Amy Ryan’s fictionalized Wall Street Journal investigative reporter).  “Green Zone” posits that the Administration which is run in Iraq by a sleazy, arrogant Greg Kinnear, would murder the courageous general and Damon’s foot soldier – “he’s off the reservation” – to silence them lest the truth get out (which we all know it eventually did).  

But isn’t there something wrong even in the context of a thriller when you’re rooting during a high speed chase for the U.S. team, including a helicopter, to die so that Damon and the Iraqi general may live and speak out?  The compensations here include a first rate Ryan and Brendan Gleeson’s good guy CIA agent (isn’t that a switch, a good CIA guy??) who backs Damon all the way.

God bless her, Mo’Nique accepted her Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for “Precious” with: “First, I would like to thank the Academy for showing that it can be about the performance and not the politics.”

If that were true! Mo’Nique was referring to the comments that came with her refusal to do publicity – like a Boston Herald interview – in conjunction with her film’s release because she was simultaneously launching her own TV talk show.  The word was that she was destroying her chance of being nominated, much less winning, by not “campaigning.”  Yet she’s won virtually every award in this category.

What’s apparent after last night is that shiny, glistening, much desired Oscar has to carry a lot of weight on his little gold shoulders. “Avatar” may be the kind of movie that causes people to part with cash and go see it in a movie theater, “Avatar” may involve an incredibly complex filmmaking apparatus that employs hundreds of people and years of effort and technological breakthroughs and it may be the most “auteur” film of this or any year since Alfred Hitchcock and Francois Truffaut went to that Great Cinema in the Sky (the one where Jeff Bridges was looking when he talked about his mom and dad onstage). But it lost to a movie a lot of people have never heard of, much less seen: “The Hurt Locker,” which in the grand Hollywood tradition is a “dark” movie – its subject is a bomb removal squad in Iraq – with a “happy” ending – the hero is still alive at the closing credits. “Precious,” another “dark” movie involving poverty, incest, AIDS and societal oppression, might have gone straight to DVD it was announced at the Spirit Awards Friday night (where it won best picture, director and actress and supporting actress) had it not been for the intervention of two moguls: Tyler Perry and Oprah Winfrey who “presented” it to the public and gave it a berth to be seen. “Precious” you might remember ends in 1987 with its teenaged heroine infected with AIDS. This is a couple of years before the antiviral medicines arrived and gave HIV/AIDS patients a chance at living regular lives. Precious could very well be dead before then but “Precious” the movie, like “Hurt Locker,” ends on an upbeat, happy note. This is all, sorry Mo’Nique, politics and in the best Hollywood tradition.

Dark subjects with positive messages, little movies that matter.

Even Kathryn Bigelow’s win as the first woman to receive a Best Director Academy Award is tinged with gender politics, a fact acknowledged by the Academy’s decision to have Barbra Streisand, twice denied a Best Director nomination (for “Yentl” and “Prince of Tides”), present the Oscar. We can now look at Streisand’s non-nominations as sexist – wasn’t she criticized for the very things that James Cameron is hailed for today as a “genius”? – the perfectionism, the inability to do just one thing, direct, when instead they control every other aspect of production. So we can say, “It’s about time” for a Bigelow to win.  For a “Hurt Locker” to beat the mighty box-office behemoth “Avatar” and for Hollywood to try to do the right thing.

As for the show itself, it was too long (as usual), the direction was often awful but the hosts, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin, were fun in the Bob Hope-Bing Crosby tradition of trading insults and quips. Who decided to shoot “from Indiana” (as a friend complained) every celebrity who introduced one of the ten Best Picture nominated clips?  Did you know that was Samuel L. Jackson because you recognized his voice?  Or Kathy Bates?  You certainly couldn’t see any of them.

Similarly, the tribute presentation to those who have died in the past year, including Patrick Swayze, Brittany Murphy and Kathryn Grayson, was marred by bad direction – the camera was too far away “in Indiana” at both the beginning and the end. It’s sad when the Motion Picture Academy doesn’t honor its own as well as Turner Classic Movies does with its year-end salute to the departed.

While the Oscar show dropped the Best Song presentations – and this year there were at least three that would have been fun to hear out of the five including “The Weary Kind” which won – what possessed Oscar producers to mount a dance presentation of the nominated Best Scores! And again film it “from Indiana”?

Having five associates praise the Best Actor and Best Actress nominees was a bit like watching the Cecil B. DeMille Award tribute at the Golden Globes.  Sweet but squirmy.

It was a night curiously minus much emotion. The only time I really got choked up was when a dignified and eloquent Sandra Bullock talked about Helga, her late mother, and held back the tears.  And what was the story on George Clooney throwing her into a pool?  A prankster, a notorious prankster we are led to believe, it seems there is a gag order on anyone on a Clooney set every saying anything about his shenanigans.  Backstage, asked to explain it, Bullock demurred, saying “Ask George.”

Speaking of mysteries, WHAT was Sean Penn talking about when he came out?

It was beautiful to see a teenager like Miley Cyrus excuse herself onstage in her grown-up gown and admit she was nervous. It was beautiful to see the unabashed excitement and genuine glee Gabourey Sidibe had for this “Hollywood prom” as she called it.

The John Hughes tribute worked exactly as it should and it was amazing to see so many of those faces in his movies.  I couldn’t help but wonder if the “Twilight” pair in the audience, 19 year old Kristen Stewart (lovely minus any jewelry) and 17 year old Taylor Lautner, gazed at the Hughes veterans onstage – among them Molly Ringwald, Jon Cryer, Ally Sheedy, Judd Reinhold – and asked themselves, In 20 years will I be a has-been or still working?

The horror tribute was just odd – and seemingly pointless. As for having Doogie Howser sing and dance for the opening, I guess the Oscars felt if he could help the Tonys and the Emmys, he could help them as well. It wasn’t much of a number but they were right – it kickstarted the show and it’s a shame those dancing girls weren’t brought on at the end to bring down the curtain, so to speak.

Sunday’s Academy Awards telecast – bouncy or boring?
If you figure that we know all the major winners, with no suspense or surprises, it’s going to be slog.  I do expect that there will be a dancing production number, probably for the opening.  As for the rumor of a month ago that a mysterious third host would join Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin, that’s been forgotten.  But for the “It’s Complicated” costars and hosts, if there really is a surprise third at some point, could it be Meryl Streep? 

The consensus is that these are the sure fire winners:
Actor – Jeff Bridges
Supporting Actor – Christoph Waltz
Actress – Sandra Bullock
Supporting Actress – Mo’Nique
Original Screenplay – Quentin Tarantino
Adapted Screenplay – Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner
Animated Feature -  “Up”
Director – Katherine Bigelow
Foreign Language Film – “The White Ribbon”
Documentary Feature – “The Cove”
Song – “The Weary Kind”
Score – “Up”

The only real race then, if the above do fall into place, is the final Oscar to be given for Best Picture.  Will it be for “Avatar,” which has shown that studios can still gamble, back an auteur and win?  Or will it be “The Hurt Locker,” a powerful, low-budget, no-stars independent production about a subject that even with critics’ unstinting praise few (relatively speaking) want to see?

Film critic Elvis Mitchell was interviewed Friday night on CNN (I believe it was CNN) and he remarked how much fun it was when Chris Rock went to Magic Johnson’s Theater and asked regular moviegoers if they knew any of the people or movies that had been nominated that night.  It was hilarious for us the viewers to see that no one did.  It was downright uncomfortable for the Academy members sitting in the Kodak Theater’s seats to see how the best of the year was so removed from mainstream moviegoing.  This year’s change with 10 Best Picture nominees was supposed to herald a way for the Academy to connect the Oscars with moviegoers.  Will it?  That’s just one of the reasons I’m hoping “Avatar” takes home the gold.

As readers of this blog know, my favorite film and favorite female performance of the year remain “An Education” and Carey Mulligan.  I don’t expect either to go home winners Sunday night.  But wait, isn’t “just being nominated” winning enough!

First, “The Hurt Locker” producer is banned from the Oscar ceremony for his rotten email asking voters to ignore the “$500 million” movie.  Now more “Avatar” dustup with Sacha Baron Cohen and Ben Stiller’s skit dropped from the show by producer Bill Mechanic so as allegedly not to offend James Cameron.  What next? 

Why is no one protesting the fact that an actor like Christophe Waltz CANNOT be nominated as Best Supporting Actor for “Inglorious Basterds” AND as Best Actor for the same movie when the Disney/Pixar “Up” CAN be nominated as Best Picture AND Best Animated Picture.  Not only does it not make sense, it’s inconsistent!

“Party Animals”
Since it’s Oscar time and having just been to a marvellous party – Michael Musto’s 25th anniversary Tuesday night bash for his work as the Village Voice’s leading columnist – it seems appropriate to talk about Robert Hofler’s latest biography, the just published “Party Animals.”

Today’s Boston Herald quotes Hofler on Oscar disasters but that is only part of the fun and horror found in this Life & Times of Allan Carr, a chubby gay guy from Illinois who was bright, ambitious, manipulative, self destructive, generous and creepy.  Carr managed Ann-Margret in the late ‘60s and turned her career around.  He took a cheapo Mexican movie that was just godawful about the Andes plane crash with the rugby team who had to resort to eating their dead comrades to stay alive and dubbed it, gave it a new title Survive! and had a smash summer hit.  From there he went on to take the long running but no respect Broadway musical “Grease” and refashioned it to fit his own high school experiences, got a BeeGee to write a new title song and produced the highest grossing movie musical since “The Sound of Music.”

Then came the downfall(s).  Carr did a sequel to “Grease” that bombed.  He took the Village People who had already peaked and bombed big time with “Can’t Stop the Music.”  He produced the 1989 Oscar telecast and found himself, the town’s premiere party giver, suddenly persona non grata for a broadcast that became synonymous with “live television disaster.” (See today’s paper).

Oh yes, Carr did manage to get Jerry Herman (music, lyrics) and Harvey Fierstein (book) to take the French stage hit “La Cage aux Folles” and transform it into a smash Broadway musical that is being revived this season with Kelsey Grammar.  But as Hofler vividly recounts with backstage gossip, intricate details of financial deals and first-hand accounts of Carr’s numerous sexcapades and coke-driven parties, Allan Carr was his own worst enemy.  Rotund, one of the first to have his stomach stapled – and later his jaw wired shut – Carr was a man of excess.  There is pathos in his lusting for the straight guys he often cast in his movies like Maxwell Caulfield in “Grease 2” or Russell Todd in “Where the Boys Are 84.”  Ultimately it’s a cautionary Hollywood story:  Beware what you wish for; you may get it and it will kill you.

Berlin supports filmmaker vs. Iran
God bless the Berlin Film Festival for their unstinting support of Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi who has been under house arrest since last month when he was to attend the 60th anniversary of the festival and appear on a panel.  Here is the official statement:

The Berlin International Film Festival protests against the arrest of Iranian director Jafar Panahi. With his film The Circle, Panahi won the Golden Lion in 2000; and with Offside, the Silver Bear in 2006. Prior to his arrest, Panahi had been denied permission to leave his home country for Berlin, where he was to be an honorary guest of the 60th Berlinale and, within the scope of the World Cinema Fund, participate in a panel discussion on the topic “Iranian Cinema: Present and Future. Expectations Inside and Outside of Iran”.

“We are concerned and dismayed that a director who has won many international prizes has been arrested due to his work as an artist,” commented Berlinale Director Dieter Kosslick.
 Press Office
  March 3, 2010

Pierce Brosnan’s certainly on a roll.  “The Ghost Writer,” easily destined for year end 10 Best lists and a new peak for writer-director Roman Polanski, has given him the best reviews of a remarkable career.  He’s charming, magnetic and a bit scary as Adam Lang, the former British Prime Minister implicated in a rendition and torture scandal while in office who is being picketed by angry protesters and who lives in a not quite cozy bubble in America, far he’d hoped from his English woes, with his security staff, high strung wife and perhaps mistress/secretary. 

Then there’s his memoir that needs to be quickly finished as an image polishing job.  That’s where the titular ghost writer enters.  Lang’s long time associate who had the job has died under what may be mysterious circumstances – or even possibly a suicide.  A London meeting of Lang’s lawyer ends up with Ewan McGregor’s financially strapped writer getting the job – and for McGregor, another career-best role and performance.

For Brosnan this Hitchcockian sure to be hit is just the start.  I’ve seen “Remember Me” which opens on the 12th and he’s every bit as accomplished and memorable as the rich lawyer/divorced father of Robert Pattinson’s troubled son.  There’s a boardroom encounter between the two that is all snap, crackle and a huge Pop!  You’ll remember it well. 

“Remember Me” is a cross between “Love Story” with Pattinson the rich collegiate in love with the cop’s daughter played by Emilie de Ravin and “East of Eden,” where Pattinson’s son is unabashed in his emotional turmoil and desperate to forge a link with his father.  Boldly melodramatic, “Remember Me,” directed by Allen Coulter from a debut screenplay by U. of Delaware grad Will Fetters, is impeccably played by a cast that includes Oscar winner Chris Cooper as de Ravin’s widower dad, Lena Olin as Pattinson’s remarried mother, Kate Burton as Brosnan’s devoted assistant and an amazing child named Ruby Jerins as Pattinson’s baby sister.  It’s going to cause many people to reconsider Pattinson.

Ghastly “Alice”
As a longtime fan of Tim Burton’s I was eager to see his new “Alice in Wonderland.”  I left wondering what happened – and who exactly is this for?  Certainly not young girls, despite the PG rating.  Burton has taken the structure of “The Wizard of Oz” and merged it with Narnia’s “Prince Caspian” in the weirdest way possible and made a Goth war movie that is unpleasant as it is spectacular.  I imagine teenaged boys who love violent videogames may find it irresistible. 

There’s nothing wrong with the ample budget creating an amazing array of creatures, including the Cheshire Cat, the opium smoking caterpillar, the Dormouse, March Hare, White Rabbit and an agreeably fat pig used by the Red Queen as a foot rest.  But Anne Hathaway looks a fright as the White Queen. And having Wonderland be a forbidden forest with dragons, dragoons  of red playing card soldiers and the nonstop, frenetic violence?  The wonder is lost, all charm is abandoned and tedium soon sets in.