Zac Efron shirtless (and other things to see this summer)

Like Olivia deHavilland, I was released from the snake pit this week once and for all. Dr. Kick told me I was totally ready to not only face the world as a sane and functioning person but that I could even start going to the movies again! After what I have seen I may be returned at once with acute depression.

Photo: Universal Pictures

The Concert

This French film is quite charming and features the luminous Melanie Laurent, who was one of the few good things in Inglourious Basterds. The story about a former symphony conductor who was fired by the Russians and his attempts to reunite his orchestra for a Paris concert is delightfully acted and totally worth seeing—especially for the glorious Ms. Laurent.

Charlie McCloud

The new Zac Efron movie is quite dreadful by any standards. Lousy as a tearjerker and filled with a bunch of terrible performances, this movies makes The Notebook look like Gone With The Wind. Zac is beautiful and acquits himself ably, but the script and his co-stars are really weak. Only Kim Basinger as his mother gives the pic any kind of class, and she’ only onscreen for about 4 minutes. When an Oscar-winning star who’s still quite lovely is forced to play a teen hearthrob’s mom in a tiny role, you know that there is something really sick about the powers that run the studios. What’s really strange in this film is that almost all of the non-star supporting performances are uniformly wretched. The female “lead” was not only creepy looking but she brought nothing to the role at all. Poor Zac just had to look sad and dreamy all the time, which is easy for him to do. His buffed up body also helped, but contrary to early reports he was not shirtless very often. Whether or not he’ll be able to graduate from these kinds of parts to a decent adult role remains to be seen. He should definitely avoid doing any more films like this drek.

Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Inferno

This French film about the uncompleted 1964 epic Inferno is well worth seeing for its historical interest and for the presence of the great Romy Schneider. For those film buffs out there, Henri-Georges Clouzot was a famous French director who reached his zenith in the 1950s with the films Wages of Fear with Yves Montand and Diabolique starring Simone Signoret and the director’s wife, Vera Clouzot. Diabolique, which was written by the same authors who brought us the source material for Hitchock’s Vertigo is the fabulous French mystery with the fantastic trick ending that came long before such films as Wait Until Dark and Fatal Attraction, etc. The main reason to check out Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Inferno is to see the footage of the gorgeous Romy Schneider. Ms. Schneider was born in Austria but came to France in the 1960s. She was gorgeous and a wonderful actress. Check out Visconti’s Bocaccio ’70 for her part in a simple story that earned her the 1962 Cesar (French Oscar) as Best Actress. Her last good role was as the Empress Elizabeth in Visconti’s Ludwig. Ms. Schneider’s life took a downward turn when her 14-year-old son died in her presence. A year later, she was dead of a heart attack. But the glowing footage of her from this aborted 1964 film will give you some idea of her special radiance.

Photo: IFC Films

Life During Wartime

The new Todd Solondz film revisits the characters of his earlier 1998 film Happiness using completely new actors. To say this one is weird is the understatement of the year. The film focuses on three sisters played by Allison Janney, Shirley Henderson, and Ally Sheedy. Janney has the best part in the film and gives a really great performance, which is not easy with the subject matter she had to deal with. She has to explain to her 13-year-old son why she is “wet” after her date and what sodomy involves. (Her character’s husband has just been released from jail after raping a number of young boys.) The movie’s tone is pretty twisted as younger sister Shirley Henderson is married to a black man who also has a few sick issues of his own. Paul Reubens has several scenes as the dead former boyfriend of Henderson. The movie is fitfully amusing and a definite change of pace from the usual summer fare, but I can’t say that I liked it very much. The main things I noted were: Allison Janney looks younger and more vibrant that ever, Shirley Henderson is creepy beyond belief, and poor Ally Sheedy is not aging well at all. See this one at your own risk and don’t bring Mom with you!