WCBE 90.5 FM: "Caché," "Freedomland," "Mrs. Henderson Presents," "Ushpizin"

WCBE #257-Final: "Cache," "Freedomland," "Mrs. Henderson Presents,” “Ushpizin"
It's Movie Time co-hosts, writers, producers: John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Air Times: 8:01 pm, February 24 & 1:01 pm, February 25, 2006
Streaming Live on the web and on-demand at: www.wcbe.org

The Script

Clay

"Cache" is a politically relevant mind blower . . .

John

"Freedomland" is lost like its child . . .

Clay

"Mrs. Henderson Presents" naughty shows during the London blitz . . .

John

"Ushpizin" will change your attitude toward guests . . .

HIT MUSIC THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle:

"It's Movie Time" in central Ohio with John DeSando and Clay Lowe.''

MUSIC UP, THEN UNDER FOR

John

I'm John DeSando

Clay

And I'm Clay Lowe ("Cache" - 153 words)

Folks, if you’re drawn to the visual equivalents of crossword puzzles, acrostics, and cryptograms, your left brain is going to crash when you try to figure out what’s going on in Michael Haneke’s new film “Caché.” 

Roughly translated into English as the word “hidden,” Caché is, on the surface, a simple story about a couple who discovers their everyday lives are being taped by a hidden camera. Shades of Jim Carey’s plight in Peter Weir’s “The Truman Show.” 

But instead of playing it for laughs, Haneke focuses on the masochist recriminations the spied-upon couple unleash on each other when they attempt to discover what they’ve done to deserve this surveillance.

Not since Resnais’ “Last Year At Marienbad” and Antonioni’s “Blow Up” have critics, audiences, as well as a film’s own characters, been so confused by a director’s deliberate intentions.

But not to worry, if you’re not planning on being watched, the question is moot.

John ("Freedomland") (134w)

How about a RADIO SHOW not being HEARD!

Oh, well, listen here! Julianne Moore is looking for a child again, but this time it’s real-time, hardscrabble New Jersey projects.

Moore plays Brenda Martin, who claims to have lost her son to a carjacker abscondong with her son sleeping in the back seat. Veteran detective Lorenzo Council (Samuel L. Jackson) is indeed the counseling type, whose patience with the ranting Martin wears thin as he suspects lies among her details of the abduction.

Director Joe Roth goes to lengths to show white police confronting black protesters, who are rightfully furious at the support for the disappearance of one white child when many more black missing children barely cause a ripple.

Freedomland turns on social tension but never gives it a chance to
be fleshed out. The issues are lost like the child among too much Moore moaning.

Clay ("Mrs. Henderson Presents" - 134 words)

Folks, there’s moaning galore in Stephen Frear’s new film Mrs. Henderson Presents.  A kitschy crowd pleaser, the movie shamelessly carries on the shoot-the-moon traditions of “The Full Monty” and the all-nudie tableau traditions of Las Vegas. 

If it weren’t for the integrity of the director, one might suspect a bit of a pander.

Starring as a widowed dowager is Dame Judi Dench.  And standing by as her mismatched co-star is Bob Hoskins, a rather ill-defined character she hires to run her newly-bought theatre.
Set in London’s West End at the advent of World War II, Mrs. Henderson Presents cashes in on the patriotism of those invincible Brits, who, as we shall see, carried on with a stiff upper lip even when Hitler continued to blitz them.

Though Dench is good, Witherspoon and Knightly are better.

John ("Ushpizin" - 149 words)

Then let’s see what Jerusalem can offer.

It’s pleasant to view a parable like Ushpizin, given its locale
and the durable hatred between Jews and Arabs.

All this film REALLY cares about is the reconciliation between impoverished Moshe and his God, who seems to have neglected him and his wife around Succoth holiday, when ultra-Orthodox Jews find temporary housing in frond-covered shacks and invite Ushpizins (holy guests) to join them.

Be careful what you pray for because Moshe gets money and 2 guests, the latter bringing more chaos to Moshe’s life than the money. After all, one of the 2 guests is named Eliyahu, who in Jewish legend comes calling on houses in disguise. Both guests are escaped convicts testing Moshe and wife at every turn.

The lesson is that if good things don’t happen, it’s because you don’t pray enough. Ushipizin is that simple minded; just think Tevye in Fiddler.

Clay

Enough of TV snoops, kidnapped kids, naked chorines, and pray-for-pay pilgrims, John, because it's grading time . . .

MUSIC OUT, CUT TO DRUMS, THEN UNDER FOR

John

Holy Hootch, Hooray!

HIT DRUMS, THEN UNDER FOR

Clay

"Cache" gets a “B” because its BARK is as BAD as its BITE . . .

John

"Freedomland" earns a “C” because a missing CHILD is not enough to CARRY a film . . .

Clay

"Mrs. Henderson Presents" gets a “C” because it’s less CLEVER than CUTE . .

John

"Ushpizin" earns a “B” because BEING Jewish isn’t always BEING BRAVO at the BOX OFFICE . . .
DRUMS OUT

John

Clay, I encourage you to start your own nubile revue, something like "Dr. Lowe Presents His Full-Monte Shadowbox."

At your age, what harm could there be? Or more to the point, will you even care about the nudity as much as the wardrobe savings?

I'm outta here.

Clay

No nudity for me, folks, I’d rather hob nob with the rich and shoot quail with my lawyer.

I'm outta here, too.

See you at the movies, folks.

HIT MUSIC, THEN UNDER FOR

Richelle

The award winning "It's Movie Time" is co-hosted, written, and now produced by John DeSando
and Clay for WCBE 90.5.

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

Copyright John DeSando & Clay Lowe, 2006