WCBE 90.5 FM: "The Break-Up," "Water," "Keeping Up With the Steins"

WCBE 90.5 FM: The Break-Up Water, Keeping Up With The Steins
It's Movie Time co-hosts, writers, producers: John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Air Time: 3:01 pm & 8:01 pm, June 2, 2006
Streaming Live on the web and on-demand at: http://www.wcbe.org

The Script

Clay

The Break-Up is another break-out comedy for Vince Vaughn and his real-life honey . . .

John

Water SWIMS in social protest and sentimentality . . . .

And Keeping Up With The Steins barely keeps up with the satire . . .

HIT MUSIC THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle:

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

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

John

I'm John DeSando

And Im Clay Lowe (The Break-UP 130 words)

Folks, it wasnt long ago that when I heard a new Vince Vaughn movie was coming to town, Id deliberately miss the screening. Think of him trying to play Tony Perkins in Gus Van Sants Psycho, for instance.

But ever since Wedding Crashers Ive begun to like the guy. Nevertheless it was with an ever vigilant attitude of hope that I attended an early screening of The Break-Up.

The good news? Its not bad. The bad news? Its not Annie Hall. But give Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston credit, their rapid fire attacks on each other are charmingly delightful even though what they say is nasty and mean.

Forget the rest of the cast, these two are the perfect failed couple.

Maybe thats because shes a woman and hes a man.

John (Water 128 words)

She IS a woman!

Clay

Indeed.

John

Bollywood and Hollywood with a dash of serious cinema: Thats Deepa Mehtas Water. In 1930s India, widows are an oppressed class, relegated to an existence without meaning because their usually older husbands had the temerity to die while some of the girls were too young to have even seen the old men.

Clay

Shame on them . . .

John

I know you feel their pain.

Water is Mehtas statement about the crushing power of tradition and the sacrifices necessary to stop corrupt caste and custom. The upbeat music and scenes with two unearthly beautiful lovers remind me of the glossy feel-good sequences endemic to Bollywood musicals and Harlequin novels.

Mehta saves the film from the maudlin with a denouement reflecting the exhilaration of idealism over pragmatism and the reality of payments due for each humanistic advance.

Clay (Water 130 words)

Folks, its is easy to be a bit flippant about this movie because the filmmakers send us mixed signals.

When the young 8 year old widow is shorn of her hair and sent to a convent-like retreat full of lifelong grieving widows, it looks like a scene from Oliver Twist or The Sisters Magdeleine.
But when the young girl finds a beautiful new friend among the widows, new life comes to them all. The films colors become more lush, the music richer, and even the mean old head of the widows asylum warms up to her charges.

That some religious sects oppress women is serious business. But that the film Water states the problem, then paints rosy hues around its edges, does damage to its pleading call for reform.

John (Keeping Up With the Steins 125 words)

And the law is now on their side, but tradition is the tyrant, such as in Keeping Up with the Steins, a comedy about Benjamin Fiedlers competitive bar mitzvah. That 13 year old jumps into the backyard pool to avoid his dysfunctional family.

Benjamin Braddock of The Graduate he is not, nor does director Scott Marshall have even an iota of Mike Nichols ability to draw a witty comedy from a scathing satire of ambitious Southern California parents and their clueless sons.

Adam Fiedler (Jeremy Pevin) wants to best neighbor Arnie Steins outlandish bar mitzvah for his son, which included a Titanic theme that almost outdoes the disaster film in theatricality and expense. But Benjamin is not with the program, having far less ambition, really just wanting to get through the ceremony.

The film sinks after that humorous, skewering Titanic sequence.

Clay

Well, enough of sinking ships, John, quarreling couples, and waterlogged widows, because its grading time.

John

Holy Harlequins, Hooray!

HIT DRUMS, THEN UNDER FOR

Clay

The Break-Up gets a B because its good summer fun that's BOUND to make you laugh and cry . . .

John

Water earns a B for its BREATHTAKING cinematography and tradition-BENDING tale .. .

Clay

Water gets a C because its CAUSE is good, but its look is far too pretty . . .

John

Keeping Up With The Steins earns a D for DAMAGING the DELICATE art of satire. . .

Clay, with 30 million widows in India alone, Im sure theres an older one out there who would put up with a contrarian, celibate critic such as you . . . I'm outta here.

Clay

Put up with, put out with? Come on, John--

Neither rain, nor snow, nor gloom of night shall keep this celibate from continuing to make his solitary rounds.

Im outta here too.

See you at the movies, folks.

HIT MUSIC (BRENDA LEE), 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. FM

MUSIC DOWN AND OUT

Copyright 2006 by John DeSando & Clay Lowe