Film Review: FUR, AN IMAGINARY PORTRAIT OF DIANA ARBUS

I was not familiar with the name Diana Arbus before watching this film and I’m still not familiar with her being that the film FUR, AN IMAGINARY PORTRAIT OF DIANA ARBUS does little in the way of telling a complete story of the female photographer. Instead, the film tries to tell the story of the events that inspired Arbus to become the photographer she is known as.

This “imaginary portrait” tells the story of housewife Diana (Nicole Kidman) who suddenly becomes smitten with her new and mysterious neighbor Lionel Sweeney (Robert Downey, Jr.). Through this extraordinary affair Diana will learn the true meaning of passion and beauty, which has been missing from her life with her husband and children. What separates Diana from taking full advantage of her relationship with Lionel is the fact that Lionel suffers from a rare disease that causes his hair to grow all over his body at an alarming rate thus rendering him looking like a “dog-faced freak” which he used to do in the halcyon days of old. Now Lionel hides away from the world in masks only coming out when in the company of other people like himself who also possess questionable sexual desires.

Directed by Steven Shainberg (who directed the exceptional SECRETARY), FUR is an erotic film in desire in the most peculiar way (just like that of SECRETARY). The film works so well because of the chemistry between Kidman and Downey who ignite the screen and this coming from Downey who is in make up for almost the entire film. Their relationship is so strong that it overcomes the shortcomings of the script.

Although not a perfect film, FUR is a very revealing portrait of a society ruled by sexual taboos which makes for interesting viewing regardless of who stars in it.

TROPIC THUNDER - Funniest Film of the Year!

The “have funny laugh-a-thon” film of the summer has to be Ben Stiller’s TROPIC THUNDER. This mile-a-minute comedy-a-thon is some of the actor/writer/director’s best work (which is a lot coming from me since I generally dislike many of his films). There is no denying that Stiller hit upon a great comedy troop of actors when he joined forces with Robert Downey Jr. and Jack Black for this movie-imitates-life-imitates –movie movie.

TROPIC THUNDER is the story of a director (played by Steve Coogen) whose career and film is falling apart because of the three big Hollywood actor-Divas he’s forced to work with. With a film rumored to be in trouble and never get finished the director decides to do something drastic which is put his actors out into the real jungle and shoot the film gorilla style. Everything goes as planned until the three actors Kirk Lazarus (Downey JR.), the Oscar winner who becomes “black” to get deeper into his role, Jeff Portnoy (Black), the comedienne who has a drug problem, and Tugg Speedman (Stiller), the former action hero whose career is fast becoming a thing of the past, all get stranded in the middle of the jungle after their director is killed. Now they must fend for themselves as a group of ruthless drug dealers will stop at nothing to stop them from accomplishing their mission to finish the film.

The great thing about this film is that not once did I ever feel like all the great jokes were given away in the previews for the film; in fact, the previews never came close to showing all the great moments in the film. I’m not a Stiller fan but this film felt fresh and new and kept the momentum from beginning to end. In addition to Coogan’s small role the film also boasts a list of great actors from Nick Nolte, Matthew McConaughey, and a stand-out performance from Tom Cruise, to name a few. If anyone steals this film it would be Cruise with his from left field performance as the Executive Producer of the film being made.

TROPIC THUNDER is just one great film from beginning to end that should not be missed.

IRON MAN - Saved By Good Acting!

As much as I’d like to admit it, IRON MAN wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. It’s by no means one of the best super hero comic book films but it’s not as bad as lets say CATWOMAN or BARB WIRE. The story’s nothing new as it is an origin story (what else) of the iconic Marvel Comic hero. If you know anything about super heroes then you know that Iron Man is Marvel’s attempt at a Batman – the so-called rich guy who has a questionable path that leads him to spend his money for the good of all mankind by getting into a suit and dressing up like a bat…or tin can as the case may be here.

In fact, this film is so by the numbers that I could have told you every plot point before actually seeing the film, which is why I was so skeptical about seeing the film in the first place. The one thing that’s memorable in the entire film is Robert Downey, Jr. as Tony Stark (which you have to call him since the appropriately named Iron Man doesn’t really make an appearance until the third act of the film). Downey is one of Hollywood’s few versatile actors who is at home in comedies (TWO GIRLS & A GUY), drama (GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK), horror (GOTHIKA), or action (KISS KISS BANG BANG or U.S. MARSHALS). The guy can do it all without skipping a beat and it shows in this film.

Few actors have been able to embody a super hero character as well as he does in this film. He’s so good that it’s a shame that all the other A-List actors (Terrance Howard, Gwenith Paltrow, or Jeff Bridges) in the film have so little to do other than look good for that impending sequel. The story is not very good, just good enough and the film is ultimately saved by Downey presence and the superb special visual effects on display which never look cartoony (like much of last year’s big summer films).
I’m sure that now that the “origin” story is out of the way the sequel will surpass this film in the same way that X2: X-MEN UNITED was a much better film then the first one.