Weekly round-up

>> Humorous heists, surfing birds
and cynical hustlers

by MALCOLM FRASER
ANNE MARIE MARKO and
MARK SLUTSKY

Ocean’s 13

In recent interviews, Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney seem to let on that they realize they bungled the godawful Ocean’s 12, the self-congratulatory heist movie sequel that didn’t even bother to feature a heist. For the third Ocean’s movie, they’ve wisely returned from Italy to Las Vegas, and returned to what they did right in the first one: robbing a casino. The results are more entertaining than 12, and there’s definitely less capoeira this time around, though the movie’s big set piece is pretty anti-climactic, and the signature, smarmy, grab-ass humour hasn’t changed.

Al Pacino’s along for the ride this time as evil casino kingpin Willie Bank (and Ellen Barkin shows up as his assistant), who screws the loveable Reuben Tishkoff (Elliot Gould) out of his fortune, giving him a heart attack in the process. This doesn’t sit well with our gang of wisecracking career criminals, so they set off to ruin the launch of Pacino’s deluxe new casino through cheating, stealing and other multifarious prankery.

The movie certainly looks great. All shiny, glowy, super-saturated colours and high-end interiors, it feels more like an expensive luxury product than a goofy caper comedy. And there’s plenty of funny-enough gags involving disguises and double-crosses. But when the chips are down, the movie just doesn’t pay off. The big score they’ve been working towards the whole time is a bit of a washout, amusing but never really exciting or tense. Playing it that cool, for a heist movie, is a losing gamble. (MS)

Surf’s Up

Penguins, eh? When they’re not dancing while averting some eco-disaster or marching to their breeding grounds, they’re surfing! And they not only do it, they actually invented it! Makes sense. Not really, but accept the premise and you’ll buy the bit.

That’s the assertion in Sony Pictures Animation’s latest offering. Surf’s Up is a fake (animated) documentary that takes its viewers behind the scenes and into the thick of the action at the annual Big Z Memorial Surf-Off on Pen Gu Island, where the raddest surfers compete for the title in the world surfing championships. Cody Maverick (voiced by Shia LaBeouf) is a Rockhopper penguin from Shiverpool, Antarctica, whose passion for surfing is matched only by his respect for his hero, Zeke “Big Z” Topanga. He’s the legendary surfer after whom the event is named and who, almost 10 years earlier, perished while competing in the annual championship. Or did he?

Cody not only gets the answer to that question but also discovers, with the help of a doe-eyed lifeguard and a surfing chicken from Sheboygan, that it’s not about how to win but how to be a winner.

Like so many other animated features, Surf’s Up has the usual animals, underdog, bully, lesson, dumb best friend, poop references etc. but because of the format and a slight twist to an otherwise predictable ending, it stands out some from its crowd. Jeff Bridges, Zooey Deschanel and Jon Heder also lend their pipes. (AMM)

BOARDIN’ BIRDS: Surf’s Up

Boy Culture

A multiple prize-winner on the gay festival circuit, Boy Culture is the story of X (Derek Magyar), a cynical, 25-year-old Seattle hustler who hasn’t had non-professional sex since he was a teenager. He lives with roommates Andrew (Darryl Stephens), a recently out black man with whom he shares a not-so-secret mutual attraction, and Joey (Jonathon Trent), an 18-year-old club kid. When Magyar gets close to a new client, aging recluse Gregory (Patrick Bauchau), he starts to question the emotionally detached place he’s got himself to.

The script, adapted from Matthew Rettenmund’s novel by magnificently named director Q. Allan Brocka, succeeds in capturing an emotional resonance—where most portrayals of the hustling world are either glamorously nihilistic and/or descend into after-school-special fearmongering, this one mostly skims over the lifestyle to concentrate on the character’s inner state. Magyar, in his feature film debut, is compelling, his turmoil barely hidden under his caustic wit.

Like many low-budget indie films, Boy Culture suffers from an occasional lack of subtlety. This applies both to the narrative—many of the characters are underdeveloped, leaving them floundering as unreconstituted archetypes—and to the aesthetic. Shot on video, with competent but generic lighting, it sometimes resembles an accomplished student film, and the soundtrack of cheapo club music gets a bit much. But it’s witty and emotional without sentimentality, and as a film by, for and about young gay men, it’s likely to appeal to some or most of its built-in audience. (MF)

All films open this Friday, June 8

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