Movie Review: Monument Ave (1998)

Adding to our collection of Boston Irish neighbor movies is the rough and racist “Monument Ave.” The film itself isn’t racist, but it honestly depicts some of the historically nastier attitudes that tend to get whitewashed over on St. Patrick’s Day. Denis Leary beats a black man just for walking into his neighborhood; if this seems unnecessarily brutal, we advise you do a Google image search for “The Soiling of Old Glory.”

The Boston neighborhood in question is Charlestown. This movie portrays Townies as universally addicted alcohol, cocaine and hockey. Leary and friends have a hilarious drug fueled conversation early on – if you’ve every thought it would be genius to videotape yourself and your friends drunk, it won’t top this scene.

The film takes a heavy turn soon after, and never comes back from the dark. Bullets aimed at snitching family members threaten neighborhood loyalties. “Monument Ave” slows at times, and interrupts itself with supposed childhood photos of the characters. The forced emotional poignancy doesn’t really work with the escalating violence. Denis Leary's character doesn’t seem the type to sit around with a slide projector.

Overall, the movie is well done. The dialogue is excellent, most of the acting is good, and it has nostalgic touches like the hand knit afghan on the couch. Hey! My Irish grandma used to knit those too! Still, this movie paints a bleak portrait. It’s a decent movie about some very un-decent people.

Final Score = B

Movie Review: The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973)

Welcome to gritty 1970's Boston, home of our luckless antihero, Eddie Coyle. He's a perpetually broke, middle aged Quincy resident with three kids to feed. He smuggles and hijacks trucks to make ends meet. Poor Eddie, the perpetual criminal middle man, just can't catch a break.

Faced with a prison sentence for hijacking, Eddie tries desperately to help a detective in exchange for his freedom. More banks get robbed. Things go awry. The end is fantastic, but in a very unspectacular way.

The whole beauty of "The Friends of Eddie Coyle" is its subtle set ups and betrayals. It moves slowly, allowing the audience to watch every detail before the pay off. The suspense is terrific. The guns get passed around, and you just know one of them is going to get fired. Sooner or later, somebody will get shot... but when?

The people, the scenery, everything in this film is ugly... but in a very appealing way. This film can make a Dedham strip mall look interesting. That says a lot.

Final Score = A-

Friday Scoreboard

Happy Friday, on this sweltering hot day!

Periodically, we post a scoreboard of everything we have reviewed thus far. And, as always, we grade on a curve. Here are the latest rankings:

A..... The Departed

A-.... Gone Baby Gone

A-.... Good Will Hunting

A-.... Shutter Island

B+.... Black Irish

B+.... Mystic River

B+.... School Ties

B...... Blown Away

B...... The Boondock Saints

B...... Edge of Darkness

B...... Love Story

B...... Overnight

B...... The Thomas Crown Affair

B-..... The Invention of Lying

C+.... Surrogates

C...... The Bostonians

C...... The Maiden Heist

C...... Paul Blart: Mall Cop

C-..... Alex & Emma

C-..... The Box

C-..... What's The Worst That Could Happen

D+.... Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day

D+.... My Best Friend's Girl

D...... What Doesn't Kill You

D-..... Bride Wars

D-..... Furry Vengeance

D-..... The Women

F....... The Pink Panther 2

And for Not-Made-In-Boston Movie Reviews:

B- Practical Magic

D- Knowing

(click the links on the sidebar for our reviews)

So you want to be a Wardrobe PA...

While we have a little down time between productions, we thought it would be nice to review what the different PA positions on the show do. Let's start with the Wardrobe PA.

The Costume / Wardrobe department typically has a lot of women working as dressers, dyers, seamstresses, etc. You might assume their PA position attracts a lot of fashion forward Lady Gaga fans. Actually, that's false.

Often the Wardrobe PA ends up being a straight male, and here's why: The Wardrobe PA has to move the clothing racks. They get quite heavy. Inevitably, there's gonna be an ill-placed flight of stairs between the fitting room and the wardrobe trailer. Male or female, do not go into this position assuming it's a lot of light work and frou frou shopping.

That said, there's also time spent at the malls returning unused items. I always felt really bad returning all those clothes -- especially if there was commission involved. The clerk often asks for the reason for the return, and it gets pretty old.

Being a Wardrobe PA, like any other department, will teach you a lot about the prep work that goes into any film. It will also get you on set from time to time. You're more likely to meet the actors than other departments, which for some is a perk. It's hard work, but if you're willing to do that, you'll probably have a good experience. Bonus, it never hurts to be a straight guy in a department with lots of women.

Movie Review: School Ties (1992)

Before Matt and Ben were Matt and Ben, and before they teamed up with Cole Hauser in "Good Will Hunting", these three unknowns played supporting actors to Brendan Fraser in "School Ties". Think about that. Then add a pre-"Scent of a Woman" Chris O'Donnell, a pre-"Rent" Anthony Rapp... this movie has quite a cast.

"School Ties" tackles the topic of anti-Semitism at a 1950's New England prep school. Fraser arrives as a poor, Jewish quarterback who tries to hide his faith from his WASPy new friends. They figure it out, discrimination ensues. We all learn a valuable lesson about tolerance in the end, right?

Though we assume that the Exeters and Andovers now have a significantly diverse student body, the current parallel would be homophobia. You can't help but think of that while watching "School Ties" -- with all it's fighting naked in the locker room scenes, and shirtless dancing in the all boys dorm. This had to be intentional on the director's part. The homo-eroticism is a little distracting, maybe, but effective in getting you to sympathize with the role of the Outsider.

New England gets the pastoral treatment for this film -- autumn colors, brick school buildings, rolling farmland hills, white steeples. It's a little Thomas Kinkade, but fair enough... we couldn't figure out which prep school they filmed this at since so many of them look like that.

"School Ties" is a well made film with good acting across the board, and a visual sense of time and place.

Final Score = B+

The Top 5 New Yorkers that we like

There's a lot of talk about city rivalries these days, especially now that the Celtics and Lakers are playing another NBA final. Sure, half of us move to LA for production jobs, and sure the Dodgers have become a retirement community for former Red Sox darlings... but come on. We're 3000 miles apart. Boston vs. LA doesn't really exist.

Meanwhile, to the south... the mud flinging between Boston and New York is constant. I was in a club this weekend, and when "Empire State of Mind" played people actually booed the DJ. Yeah, it's like that. Luckily, it's more of a Love-Hate rivalry than a full blown feud. In the name of diplomacy, we decided to create the following:

TOP 5 NEW YORKERS WE BOSTONIANS LIKE

(Our criteria for this is people born in New York who have done something for Boston or our film community as a whole. The converse of this would be Denis Leary -- a Massachusetts native who champions the NYFD and makes quality television in New York. Good guy...)

5. Amy Ryan

She comes from Queens, but managed to score an Oscar nomination for her Boston accent. It was a gritty role -- a Southie welfare junkie in "Gone Baby Gone" -- and there were so many ways Ryan could have screwed it up. She gave the character dignity where many others would have made a caricature. Well done.

4. Bridget Moynahan

Moynahan was born in NY, but eventually moved to the Springfield/Longmeadow hood, then back

to NY, back to Boston, LA, etc. She had Tom Brady's baby, which gives her instant street credit around here, BUT, that is not why she made our list.

Moynahan starred opposite Donnie Wahlberg in the locally produced tv pilot, "Bunker Hill." When that didn't get picked up, we were delighted to see her and Wahlberg give it a second go with the upcoming series, "Blue Bloods". She has a baby with Tom Brady and she likes to work with Donnie Wahlberg? That's just outstanding!

3. Martin Scorsese

We love having the legendary director in town because we know that: A) It's gonna be big budget, B) We'll get several extra months of work out of it since his shoots always run so long, and C) The movie is going to be excellent.

Scorsese may be a New Yorker through and through, but his films make Boston look good. We have no problem working a 23 hour shift for him any day!

2. Adam Sandler & Kevin James

Sandler & James have employed hundreds of us for their goofy comedies, be it "Mall Cop," "Grown Ups" or the upcoming "The Zookeeper." They're generally fun to work for, set their films in cool locations, and can draw half a dozen SNL cast members to the set as needed. Please, please come back this summer...?

1. Alec Baldwin

Not only do we like Alec Baldwin, but we're pretty sure he likes us too. Any fan of "30 Rock" could recite the many way's his character gives us backhanded nods: Jack Donaghy grew up in Southie, paid his way though Harvard Business School as a swan boat operator, he and his high school sweetheart created a taffy flavor of peanut butter and Miller High Life... (okay, that last part isn't really Boston, but it's funny).

Baldwin brought the much needed comic relief to two Boston movies -- "The Departed" and "My Best Friend's Girl" (the latter needed it more). He lent his vocals to the Boston Pops tribute to the Kennedys.

How has he not won a Hasty Pudding award yet?

Best of all, Baldwin does not use a crappy Boston accent for his characters. Thank you. At least one person realizes that we don't all talk like that.

Movie Review: Overnight (2003)

We've been telling people how we recently sat through "Boondock Saints II." Several of them countered with, "Have you seen 'Overnight' yet?"

This making of "The Boondock Saints" documentary is glorious trainwreck. The camera starts rolling just after Boondock's writer-director-problem drinker, Troy Duffy, has inked a deal with Harvey Weinstein. He's the new Hollywood It Boy.

Unfortunately, Troy's also what we Bostonians like to call "Wicked Retahded." Plus, he's an asshole. At age 25, he sees himself as God's gift to media. He doesn't acknowledge his lucky break with Weinstein, and instead attributes it to his lifetime of hard work. Um... you're 25, Troy.

Worse than his epic ego is Troy's lack of appreciation for anybody else: his band, his family, his executive producer. He hoards money from them. The verbal insults fly out of him like a guest on Jerry Springer. It's fascinating... you find yourself disgusted but unable to look away. Troy screams and insults until finally all his bridges burn. The movie loses its funding. The band gets dropped from its record label. Call it schadenfreude, perhaps, but this is a deeply satisfying conclusion.

Thank God the cameras just happened to be rolling this whole time. They even managed to capture Troy Duffy's recreation of the "I am a Golden God" pool dive from the roof. We can think of few films with such a dislikable and ridiculous protagonist; we can't think of any that are actual documentaries. Well done, EPK guys (or whatever purpose you started making this for).

Final Score = B

Movie Review: Surrogates (2009)

Let's take a moment to consider the comic book movie genre. When one of these films works (Batman, X-men, Sin City, etc.), usually it has strong character development and a clear sense of the mission. When it fails (Watchmen, The Hulk), we leave the theater reminded that reliance on CGI action sequences does not replace a good story.

This brings us to "Surrogates." At 89 minutes running time, it has a lot of ground to cover, and quickly. It doesn't work. We don't get a lot of back story, so we never really feel connected to the hero. He chases the bad guy through a landfill; we shrug. Characters explain away the details of the plot instead of us actually getting to watch them in action. Remember your teacher saying, "Show, don't tell"? This film mostly tells.

On the positive side, "Surrogates" has a very sleek production design. Boston initially looks dark and futuristic, just as you would hope for in a comic book movie. A car zips through the Seaport and Fort Point district, and you think you are watching "Batman."

Bruce Willis is very bland as FBI agent Tom Greer. There are whispers that he and his entourage were completely juvenile to have around the set -- catcalling female crew members and taunting people. Maybe if his surrogate had been a 17 yr old hockey player, it might have been a more convincing film.

Final Score = C+