'Idlewild' is stylish and innovative regardless of flaws
Bold and brassy but at times raunchy, the Prohibition-era musical "Idlewild" (Universal) resists easy categorizing. On the one hand, it's a throwback to 1930s gangster films and Busby Berkeley extravaganzas. Yet it's also thoroughly a product of the MTV age, both good and bad.
Director Bryan Barber's experiment in fusion filmmaking is one of the more stylish and innovative films of the year, regardless of its flaws.
Hip-hop recording artists Andre Benjamin and Antwan A. Patton -- known collectively as OutKast -- are impressive as childhood friends Percy and Rooster, whose stories play out amid romance and racketeering at a speak-easy called "the Church" in the titular rural Georgia town circa 1935.
The melancholic Percy works for his overbearing father Percy Sr. (Ben Vereen) at Dad's funeral parlor but moonlights as a piano player at the gin joint, where he falls in love with its new diva headliner, Angel (Paula Patton).
By contrast, Rooster is a brash bootlegger who, when not performing onstage, is carousing with showgirls to the chagrin of his long-suffering wife, Zora (Malinda Williams). After he witnesses an ambitious young hood, Trumpy (a dynamic Terrence Howard), gun down mobster Spats (Ving Rhames) and the club's foulmouthed owner, Sunshine Ace (Faizon Love), Rooster finds himself dodging bullets.
Barber pays homage to everything from Vincent Minnelli's "Cabin in the Sky" to Baz Luhrmann's "Moulin Rouge," echoing the latter in its grafting of a contemporary vibe onto a period piece and inventive incorporation of trick effects into the narrative. (Among the more imaginative: a wisecracking fowl on Rooster's pocket flask and animated notations that playfully run amok on Percy's sheet music.)
The jazzy visuals are complemented by splashy dance numbers -- be warned, some are risque -- choreographed by Broadway's Hinton Battle and an eclectic soundtrack that consists of original songs, Cab Calloway and Bessie Smith, all with a hip-hop twist.
While the film has visual pizzazz, it loses momentum when it comes to the story, playing for stretches like an extended music video.
For all the film's virtues, its obscenity-laden dialogue and gratuitous brutality and salaciousness are objectionable. While there is a redemptive ending, especially in regard to Rooster's philandering, the troubling elements will severely limit the movie's appeal to a wider audience.
The film contains pervasive rough and crude language and profanity, some strong violence, a couple of racy sexual encounters, one with shadowy nudity, adultery, an attempted suicide, risque costuming and choreography and some racial epithets. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R -- restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
-- David DiCerto
Beerfest (Warner Bros.)
Mindless and crude comedy about two brothers (Erik Stolhanske and Paul Soter) who, together with some beer-guzzling friends (Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme and Jay Chandrasekhar, who also directs) travel to Germany to compete in an underground beer-drinking Olympics against a German team consisting of a rival branch of their family. The title says it all, as the insufferably adolescent plot is just a pole for the foulmouthed frat-house humor which is vulgar, unfunny and irresponsible. Pervasive crass and sexual humor, lewd sight gags and innuendo, much reckless drinking, a couple of racy sex scenes with partial nudity, as well as some unrelated partial nudity, comic violence, some irreverent humor, a suicide, drug content, excessive rough and crude language and some profanity. Ratings: O (R)
How to Eat Fried Worms (New Line)
Loose adaptation of Thomas Rockwell's children's book about a weak-stomached boy (Luke Benward) who, desperate to fit in as the new kid at school and silence a bully's (Adam Hicks) taunts, agrees to eat 10 worms within the span of a Saturday afternoon. With a yuck factor that may disturb some parents, director Bob Dolman's film sends a misguided message about peer pressure that undermines charming performances and themes of friendship, honesty and standing up for oneself. Scattered mildly crude language and humor, some bullying and gross-out images and a scene of breaking into a shop. Ratings: A-II (PG)
Invincible (Disney)
Inspirational sports drama based on the true-life story of unlikely football star Vince Papale (Mark Wahlberg), a bartender who, falling on hard luck, tries out for his hometown Philadelphia Eagles and makes the team, winning over the coach (Greg Kinnear) and eventually the entire city. Director Ericson Core follows a generic underdog formula but you'll find it hard not to cheer for this feel-good film about overcoming obstacles and having the courage to follow one's dreams. Some mildly crude language, intense football violence, and a presumed off-screen premarital situation, limiting its appropriateness to older adolescents and up. Ratings: A-II (PG)
Material Girls (MGM)
Leaden comedy about a pair of spoiled cosmetic heiresses (played by real-life siblings Hilary and Haylie Duff) who, investigating alleged product-related skin damage cases that threaten to sink stocks and tarnish their late father's reputation, suspect that an ambitious rival (Anjelica Huston) -- who wants to buy their company -- is the culprit. Directed by Martha Coolidge, the satirizing of celebrity and superficiality is undermined by a lame script and irritatingly ditzy performances by the sisters, while a few suggestive elements preclude recommendation for tweens. Some crude language, mildly suggestive situations and wardrobe, innuendo, and brief references to prostitution and birth control, limiting its appropriate audience to older adolescents and up. Ratings: A-II (PG)
Snakes on a Plane (New Line)
The witness (Nathan Phillips) to a brutal murder in Hawaii is flown to Los Angeles with an FBI agent (Samuel L. Jackson) to testify against a vicious mob boss who unleashes hundreds of poisonous snakes inside the aircraft, causing terror among passengers and crew. The setup of director David R. Ellis' B-movie thriller is, of course, wildly improbable, and it's a wonder that the capable cast (which includes Julianna Margulies, Rachel Blanchard and Bobby Cannavale) can deliver their lines with a straight face, but the premise is undeniably original, and the film, despite flaws, is never dull. The snake attacks, though yucky, are reasonably restrained for the horror genre, but the frequent expletives and occasional sexual elements are objectionable, all the more for being so gratuitous. Frequent rough, crude and profane language, a premarital sexual episode with upper female nudity and drug use, innuendo, intense peril, an off-camera murder and much midair death and devastation. Ratings: O (R)
David DiCerto is on the staff of the Office for Film & Broadcasting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. More reviews are available online at www.usccb.org/movies.
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