Ask The Dust
Starring:
Colin Farrell, Salma Hayek, Donald Sutherland, Eileen Atkins
Director: Robert Towne
Scheduled Release: Now Showing

If Robert Towne’s Ask the Dust is the end result of 30 years of labour to bring John Fante’s celebrated novel to the screen, it gravely calls into question Towne’s current abilities as both a screenwriter and director.
Twenty-year-old aspiring Italian-American writer Arturo Bandini, Fante’s literary alter ego, is brash yet sensitive, fundamentally moral yet driven by an unquenchable, uniquely American thirst for love, lust, and romantic adventure. Bandini’s conflicting values jolt and jostle inside him, finding expression primarily through Bandini’s typewriter, as he tries to alchemise his experiences into fiction.
In Ask the Dust, we find Bandini (Colin Farrell) slumming in a flea-bitten hotel room in Depression-era Bunker Hill, Los Angeles. He dreams of living the bohemian writer’s life, nurtures fantasies of wining and dining the classiest blondes in town, of climbing the ladder of respectable white society. Despite himself, then, he falls hard for Camilla Lopez (Salma Hayek), a waitress at a local dive — headstrong, crass, illiterate, and Mexican.
Towne’s movie concerns itself largely with Arturo and Camilla’s push-pull romance and, as such, it follows a thoroughly conventional arc. Arturo, the novice romantic, trades barbs and insults with Camilla, much of it rooted in class and ethnicity before the lovers’ affection for each other gradually wins out. Camilla, the wounded faun and free spirit, finds a meaningful love with Arturo. And, aside from his sexual coming-of-age, the relationship gives Arturo his first taste of artistic and personal liberation.
Farrell and Hayek, both dependable performers, manage something of Arturo and Camilla’s fire and frailty. Farrell’s Bandini is a compelling enough incarnation of Fante’s roguish dreamer, though too brooding and mannered to contain Bandini’s combustible insecurities. Hayek, however, playing a woman nearly half her age, can’t get a bead on Camilla, and affects whatever emotion the scene calls for. To blame is Towne pedestrian’s script and direction. The writer-director’s examination of the racial dynamic of their relationship treads well-worn ground, and never ventures away to make larger, bolder statements about the irony of their relationship, and the myth of California as the land of equality, opportunity.
What fails Ask the Dust, both its source material and this production per se, is its loping, overly earnest approach; Towne’s bleeds all the spark and verve out of Fante’s prose, never finding the cinematic equivalent of the author’s jangling, psychologically driven rhythm. Ask the Dust is about the transformation of a naïve, impetuous dreamer into a mature artist who’s learned a thing or two about love and death. Never in this jerky, unsteady piece is that idea keenly felt. Indeed, Towne’s technique feels more in the vein of a stodgy PBS teleplay, leaving us aching for more a expressive telling, something that does justice to the story’s bittersweet, anarchic, and youthful heart. Jay Antani

The Devil Wears Prada
Starring:
Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Stanley Tucci, Emily Blunt
Director: David Frankel
Schedule Release: September 14

Waists are back with restrictive vengeance, black really is the new black, and size six is the new 14. These, and other extensive fashion tips, can be gleaned from The Devil Wears Prada, a new screen adaptation of the novel by Lauren Weisburger. Anne Hathaway plays dowdy wannabe journalist Andy Sachs, thrust in front of arch-bitch Runway magazine editor Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep) as her second assistant. Forced to deal with a daily barrage of ludicrous assignments – swiping two copies of the new, unpublished Harry Potter – isn’t fun, but she manages (this is Hollywood, after all). It isn’t until she ditches her baggy polyester outfits for
some thigh-high Guccis that she gains acceptance into the glitzy fashion set, thereby losing her ‘real’ friends. Hathaway plays Andy as earnest and befuddled, at odds with her ‘talented serious writer’ tag. The real star here, and the one who saves the wispy tale, is predictable: white-coiffured and magnificent, Meryl Streep relishes the venom that Miranda hisses
and whispers. Viewers bob through the rapids of catty sarcasm and wisecracks courtesy of Streep, Stanley Tucci (gay sidekick) and Emily Blunt (assistant
number 1), waiting for a happy ending. The Devil Wears Prada targets anyone with an interest in labels and glossy pages and, if it can coax them out of the malls, will attract Hong Kong’s rather forgiving audiences in droves. It’s a flimsy story, but funny enough. EK

Offside
Starring: Ayda Sadeqi, Sima Mobarak-Shahi, Shayesteh Irani
Director: Jafar Panahi
Scheduled Release: Now Showing

Jafar Panahi’s new film is a smart social comedy about sexual inequality in present day Iran. Forbidden from entering sport stadiums, female football fans are forced to disguise themselves as men if they hope to slip past the checkpoints and cheer on the national team. Offside follows a young Iranian girl as she attempts to sneak into her very first match: Iran’s make-or-break World Cup qualifier against Bahrain in June 2005.
The camera follows the girl through the seething throngs of supporters as they make their way to the stadium, only to be quickly apprehended and taken to a temporary holding pen until after the game. There she meets a group of similarly unsuccessful young women, who spend the next 90 minutes trying to escape and catch a glimpse of the match.
Headstrong and rightly appalled at the absurdity of such discrimination, the girls berate the clueless country boy soldiers assigned to guard them. The women are told they are forbidden entry for their own protection, to shield them from the abrasive and abusive behaviour of the men watching in the stands. However, from their holding pen, within earshot of the screaming masses, the girls prove they are more than capable of firing off abuse and insults themselves.
Panahi used non-professional actors and filmed on location at Tehran’s Azadi stadium on the day of the game, giving the film an authentic, documentary feel. We never learn the names of any of the characters involved, highlighting that the film’s issues affect everyone. Touching on social problems ranging from religion and military service to class struggle and sexual discrimination, Offside skillfully manages to remain lighthearted and frequently amusing, steering thankfully clear of any preachy melodramatics. James Marsh

Banquet
Starring: Ziyi Zhang, Daniel Wu, Xun Zhou
Director: Xiaogang Feng
Scheduled Release: September 14

A loose adaptation of Hamlet, The Banquet is the much-anticipated film from director Feng Xiaogang starring Ziyi Zhang and Daniel Wu. Spoken narration sets up the story, much of which is played out widescreen as if the actors are on a theatrical stage. It’s 907 – 960 AD, Little Wan (Zhang) and Wuluan (Wu) grow up in the imperial court and fall in love. Wuluan flees, however, when his father, the emperor, marries Wan. Years later, the emperor is found dead and Wuluan returns to find his uncle (Ge You) claiming the throne – and the empress. What follows is an emotional drama examining desire and its damaging effects. The Banquet doesn’t shy away from violence, though fight sequences are kept to a minimum and when blood spatters, it’s poetic; red drops cascade upon white snow, decapitated heads sink slow-motion through pools of water. Visually decadent, the sprawling palace rooms are ornate and furnished in autumnal tones of bronze, gold, copper brown and deep red. Muslin robes, embroidered gowns and battle armour are exquisitely detailed – a woven tapestry come to life. Zhang, as calculating Empress Wan, is superb, by turns steely and emotional, choking back sobs, but always keeping the viewer guessing. Her strength is the film’s glue and leaves Wu’s WuLuan somewhat buttery. For fans of Zhang’s other epics – Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger or Zhang Yimou’s House of Flying Daggers – Banquet is a worthy installment, but don’t expect many surprises. EK

A Prairie Home Companion
Starring: Woody Harrelson, Tommy Lee Jones, Lindsay Lohan
Director: Robert Altman
Scheduled Release: September 21

A Prairie Home Companion is a barely fictionalised version of the radio show. It’s the sort of corny jokes and quaint folk singing that went out of fashion a half-century ago, and to listeners it can be a soothing throwback — unbearably, cloyingly sweet — or, so uncool it’s hip. It has precisely the same appeal and built-in fans of the programme. Fans of director Robert Altman will be most pleased. If you aren’t a follower already, well, there is precisely nothing here to win you over. It’s A Mighty Wind without the irony.
Despite decades of popularity, it’s the end of the road for A Prairie Home Companion, because the radio station was sold to a Texas corporation (undoubtedly one in the oil business) that sent someone north to fire the cast and raze the theatre. Flitting between onstage and off are the cast and crew, now abuzz at the thought of a looming axe: a pair of floopy, scattered singing sisters; two ribald cowpokes; a stage manager harried by the performers’ eccentricities; a tritely rebellious teenager; a weepy sandwich lady and her lover; a blonde in a white trench coat acting as a ham-fisted filmic device; and a house detective so trapped in the dames-and-private dick era that he’s named Guy Noir. At the centre of it all is Garrison Keillor, playing himself as the unflappable, vaguely bewildered host of the programme.
The manic energy, overlapping scenes, and meandering (and often unresolved) storylines are all Altman trademarks, to be sure, but as scripted by Keillor, they all fit in nicely with this cosy brand of Americana. Also, the setting falls in with Altman’s affinity for
setting films amid the controlled chaos that goes into creating art, which has led him to making some masterpieces (The Player) and some majestic flops (Ready to Wear). Companion, it must be said,
is neither.
It does hop with rapid-fire wit, and the cast is enviable, if occasionally baffling. The standouts are hardly surprising: Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin are charming as the flighty Johnson sisters; Kevin Kline embraces anachronism as the hapless Noir; and though it seems unfair to commend him for playing himself, Keillor is a delightful centre to the storm. And though she may appear incongruous on the list of heavy-hitters and accomplished character players, Lindsay Lohan, playing Streep’s sulky daughter, is either quite sweet or not intolerable, depending on how tired you are of her tabloid persona.
The missteps are unmistakable, though, glaring despite the frantic pace and mishmash of characters and stories. Plot points are picked up and promptly dropped, which is simply ambiance when it is a running joke about how Keillor got into radio, but feels inappropriate when it is the death of one of the show’s regulars. And the unevenness of the Noir character is aggressively irritating – fart humour and slapstick who’s-on-first routines? Really? That’s beneath this film, or it should be.
Perhaps the stylings of Keillor and Altman are oddly too well-suited. For rabid Companion fans – and perhaps avid Altman followers as well – the film is like watching something you have seen and loved a hundred times already, but in some new way. If you are outside the built-in audience, however, the entire film is an inside joke: someone can explain it to you, but it will never be as fun as if you just… got it. Anne Gilbert

Men Suddenly In Black 2
Starring: Teresa Mo, Josie Ho, Marsha Yuan, Gia Lin, Eric Tsang, Jordon Chan, Cheung Tat Ming, Wong You Nam, Sandra Ng, Leung Ka Fai
Director: Zhong Qing
Scheduled Release: September 14

Is there actually a secret war between men and women, no matter how intimate they are? Tin (Tsang), his bad companion Dr Lee (Chan), and Chao (Cheung) are all members of a cheating wives ‘club’ teaching fellow member Sai jaw-dropping tricks to fool his girlfriend. But while the men are out swelling their heads, their other halves are hatching a clandestine plan to take revenge. They’ve got guidance from Ninth Auntie (Ng) who is experienced in fooling around with men, plus numerous how-to videos – locating the G-spot, cutting veggies into appropriate masturbation tools and yoga for strengthening the neglected muscles ‘down there’. “If women don’t fool around, men won’t care” is their mission slogan, though what the fun and games amounts to is an all-out attempt to keep their families intact. Packed with puns, the movie, like its predecessor, is a parody. Where the original poked fun at 2002’s Infernal Affairs, MSIB 2 takes aim at last year’s Election. MSIB 2 continues with the exaggerated humour of its predecessor and, like MSIB 1, had viewers sparked and howling. But for all that, the laughter couldn’t quite drown the suspicion of an old fashioned evasion – if men can betray their lovely innocent wives, why can’t the women similarly just cheat on their men? WN