FILM REVIEW: BLOODWORTH

E. F. Bloodworth (Kris Kristofferson) in Bloodworth.

Sounds and furies

By Don Simpson

After a health scare, E.F. Bloodworth (Kris Kristofferson) returns to the family he abandoned 40 years ago. He left his rural Tennessee home — as well as his wife, Julia (Frances Conroy), and three sons — for a life of troubadouring and aimless wandering. The 40 years have been hard on everyone: Julia has withered to an emotionally and physically fragile skeleton; Warren (Val Kilmer) has evolved into an ego-maniacal womanizing alcoholic; Boyd (Dwight Yoakam) lives in a constant state of depression and anger after being ditched by his wife; and Brady (W. Earl Brown) relies on his bible and witchcraft to protect his mother.

Julia and her three sons share a common hatred and resentment for E.F., so when E.F. arrives in town he is promptly ushered by Brady to a disheveled old trailer home on a secluded corner of the family property. Brady attempts to keep E.F.’s reappearance a secret from his mother, which serves as punishment for E.F. and protection for Julia.

Fleming (Reece Thompson), Boyd’s only son and E.F.’s only grandchild, is the only Bloodworth who treats E.F. with respect and admiration. He has probably been told many horrible stories about his grandfather, but Fleming allows his grandfather to commence their relationship with a clean slate. In fact, Fleming seems to relate, physically and mentally, more to his grandfather than the rest of his kin. Not satisfied with the cards he has been dealt in life, Fleming is trying to find a responsible way to escape from his hometown and family — literature appears to be his best chance at success. Fate delivers Fleming into the arms of Raven (Hilary Duff), a beautiful and seductive young woman from a nearby town. Raven’s mother (Sheila Kelley) works from their home as a prostitute — Warren is one of her favorite clients — and she has raised Raven to follow in her footsteps. Like Fleming, Raven’s home life is oppressive at best, so it is only right and natural that Fleming and Raven will find a way to run away together.

Adapted from William Gay’s novel, Provinces of Night, Bloodworth is the story of an ardently literate (read: intellectual) teenager who yearns to escape his backwards back-country family and he wants to take his hussy girlfriend with him. (It is very interesting that Fleming is a high school dropout, yet an enlightened reader of literature.) 

Unfortunately, this is a story which is propagated by stereotypical white trash Southern characters (alcoholics, womanizers, prostitutes, bible-thumpers, musicians, weak women and controlling men) limping along as it relies on one age-old cliché after another. But it is this preponderance of stereotypes and clichés — as well as the timeless production design and Tim Orr’s lush cinematography — that helps Bloodworth play like a classic Southern Gothic tale of redemption.

Quite ably directed by Shane Dax Taylor (The Grey), Kristofferson is amazing as the Bloodworth family’s estranged patriarch and Duff lends her most emotionally realistic performance to date. In fact, the acting of this mostly seasoned ensemble cast is excellent all around. (Keep an eye out for Hank Williams III as Trigger Lipscomb.)

And then there is the music…Executive music producer T-Bone Burnett’s soundtrack is — as we have come to expect from Burnett — pretty damn amazing. Age has rendered Kristofferson’s vocals grizzled and foreboding, yet soothing and graceful all the same; his voice, like so many of his golden generation of singer-songwriters (Kevin Ayers, John Cale, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Neil Diamond), has aged beautifully like a fine wine. I think it is about time for Kristofferson (like Johnny Cash and Diamond) to collaborate with Rick Rubin or maybe Daniel Lanois.

LAAPFF 2011: HOSPITALITE

The main cast of Hospitalité.

Make yourself at home-lessness

By John Esther

Set somewhere on the outskirts of Tokyo, Japan, members of a makeshift family are increasingly altered as more and more people occupy their home and work space.

Mikio Kobayashi (Kenji Yamauchi) is a hardworking, rather unintelligent man who owns a printing shop he runs with his considerably younger, wife, Natsuki (Kiki Sugino), who is also teacher his daughter, Eriko (Eriko Ono), some English. Rounding off the home is Mikio's sister, Seiko (Kumi Hyodo), who has just returned home after a failed marriage.

A simple reconstructed family, the Kobayashis remain afloat in the somewhat dye-ing business when Kagawa (Kanji Furudachi), the son of old friend of the family's appears, takes residence and a position at the printing shop.

It does not take long to see Kagawa's presence is more than suspect. First his wife, Annabelle (Bryerly Long), shows up. Where she came from she will never voluntarily tell truthfully. But her appearance is no mistake. Then the others, less Japanese, came in droves to live at Kobayashis. Thanks to mistakes on their part, individually and collectively, Mikio and Natsuki are unable to stop the occupation. Apparently the Kobayashis are the target of some foreigner scheme, much to the horror of their xenophobic, anti-homeless neighbors.

A well-acted, finely paced film, writer-director Koji Fukada's funny debut feature, Hospitalité, offers a deadpan look at the absurdity of any given "family" structure and plays it to an open-ended affect. The Kobayashis are not so much victims of foreign elements but of their own devious devices. If they were not so human, they would be just fine.

FILM REVIEW: PUTTY HILL

Zoe (Zoe Vance) in Putty Hill.

The shape of things

By Don Simpson

The setting is a poor, working-class suburb of Baltimore that descriptive adjectives such as decrepit, depressing and boring seem to fit best. There is nothing of merit or worth here. It seems like no one works -- with the exception of drug dealers. This location is not the Baltimore of John Waters, nor is it the Baltimore that we have seen in The Wire. This is a place that the U.S. economy left behind a long time ago.

This, dare I say, “white trash” community -- of tattoos, dreadlocks, torn clothing, skateboarders and BMXers, graffiti, paintball and video games, and drugs -- seems like something Harmony Korine would have concocted for the silver screen but, in the sympathetic hands of writer-director Matthew Porterfield, Putty Hill brims with subtle neorealism. It feels like Porterfield is one of these characters, as if he knows them and understands their lives. Honesty and delicacy prevail throughout this film.

Cory -- the underlying link to the ensemble of characters in Putty Hill -- has died of a drug overdose. It was an untimely death but, if anything, his funeral propels his fractured and disjointed family to come together. Few of his family conversed with Cory on a regular basis; none of them really knew him. Friends didn’t even know Cory. So a majority of them do not seem all that upset that Cory died. But something about Cory brought everyone back together. Maybe they recognize that they should be closer, that they should know each other better. In some ways it might be harder to lose a relative (especially a sibling or child) if you were not close to them. Things like death seem to make you think about your relationships more.

Putty Hill is a story with a multitude of interconnected characters who do not communicate very well. Most of the characters only speak when asked a question (and sometimes those questions need to come from off camera -- presumably from Porterfield -- in true mockumentary fashion); but the heart of Putty Hill is what the actors do while they are not talking, when they are doing nothing. In a strange kind of way, Putty Hill is like Mumblecore for the working class. As with Mumblecore the focus of importance is on the space between the lines of dialog; the quiet between the action. Not much happens in Putty Hill, to be perfectly blunt. This is a character-driven story to the nth degree yet with little individual character development. I think that’s the key to Porterfield’s film and what makes it special. Who would dare make a character-driven film without proper character development? Strangely enough, it works quite well.