Movie Reviews

The Cat's Meow to make audiences purr

By Nicole Rodriguez

TSC Writer

Today Hollywood scandals are a dime a dozen, filling every aisle of the supermarket checkout line and filling hours of television airtime. However, things weren't always as out in the open as they are now. In fact, according to the recent Lions Gate release The Cat's Meow, there was a time when even the most scandalous behavior went purposely unnoticed by the press.

The film opens on a sunny afternoon in 1924, with the who's who of Hollywood coming to spend a much-anticipated weekend aboard media tycoon William Randolph Hearst's private luxury liner to celebrate a birthday party. According to Hollywood executive Tom Ince, this weekend is going to be "the cat's meow," a party so wonderful that it will be remembered for centuries. Unfortunately for many of the film's characters, this turns out to be true.

From the beginning, the audience knows that no one on this boat is innocent. A well-aged Hearst is accompanied by his gold-digging twenty-something mistress, actress Marion Davies (Kirsten Dunst). Marion, in turn, is supposedly having an affair with actor/director Charlie Chaplin (Eddie Izzard), who is in the midst of his own scandal for impregnating his sixteen-year-old co-star. And so continues the pattern for most of the party's guest list.

Derived from true events, The Cat's Meow is an upbeat comedy-drama that attempts to offer a resolution to the as-of-yet-unresolved killing of one of the boat's elite passengers, as well as provide an accurate portrayal of how corrupt 1920s Hollywood really was.

Director Peter Bogdanovich (Paper Moon) has assembled what may be one of the most successful ensemble casts of the year.

Dunst, who sprang to stardom opposite Brad Pitt in 1993's Interview with the Vampire, uses the role to successfully portray her versatility as an actress. When the story begins, Marion is a sweet and bubbly social butterfly, who loves to act almost as much as she loves to Charleston. However, as the film progresses the viewer is allowed further into her psyche, and we eventually begin to see her deeper, darker side. It seems as though the Marion we see at the end is a completely different person from the one who greeted us in the beginning. However, Dunst's acting is so subtle that we cannot pinpoint the exact moment the change was made. Maybe, as Dunst's performance implies, this is because Marion really was the darker character all along.

Cary Elwes (The Princess Bride, Kiss the Girls) portrays Hollywood executive Tom Ince, whose birthday is the cause for the vacation weekend. Although he may be lesser known to mass media than Dunst, his performance is certainly up to par with hers. Tom is as slick and sneaky as he is charming and handsome. He lies to his wife, only acknowledges his love-starved mistress in the bedroom, and spends the entire weekend trying to trick Hearst into funding his next film. The audience knows we're not supposed to like him, but we just can't help it. It takes a good deal of talent and charisma to elicit that kind of reaction, and Elwes accomplishes the feat gracefully.

However wonderful Dunst and Elwes are, Jennifer Tilly (Bound) and Eddie Izzard (Shadow of the Vampire) steal the show. Her hilarious portrayal of now well-known gossip columnist Louella Parsons and Izzard's witty Chaplin make up the comedic backbone o f the film's first half, but then swiftly shift modes to keep our tensions going in the film's dramatic ending half. When we watch the screen, we don't see these actors playing their parts. They're better than that, they are there parts. Given the real-life popularity of their characters, this is a difficult feat to accomplish for they are left little room for improvisation. They both pull of this difficult feat with seemingly minimal effort. They're performances alone make this movie worthwhile.

Set against a backdrop of catchy tunes and flapper dresses, The Cat's Meow is one of the most successful whodunit mysteries to come out of Hollywood in years. In fact, the greatest scandal of all isn't committed by any of the characters, but rather by the film's distributors, who continue to keep it in such limited release. A

Salton Sea to be taken with a grain of salt

By Patricia Ho

TSC Writer

Directed by newcomer D.J. Caruso, The Salton Sea centers around a man and his grief, self-loathing and desire for vengeance for the murder of his wife. Satisfactorily played by Val Kilmer, Danny Parker works himself into the confidence of a group of speed freaks, dealers and narcotics agents. Through snorting and snitching, Danny plans to execute his elaborate revenge on his wife's killer.

Though marketed as a thriller, The Salton Sea is not exactly an edge-of-your-seat kind of movie. To start with, the backward narrative with flashbacks is not used to good effect but instead is quite confusing. For a large part of the movie, we do not know what the jazz trumpet player has to do with the tattooed tweaker, and after that, what the drug scene has to do with his wife's murder.

Little enticing morsels of information are lacking, probably because the premise of the plot is flimsy. For example, we are told that Danny is able to identify the killer simply by a strand of red hair and the coincidental recollection of a random red haired person at a gas station.

Fortunately, interesting characters and amusing digressions make the movie entertaining. Danny Parker suffers from Hamlet-esque indecision, delaying action despite knowledge of who the murderer is. Though his psychology may be intriguing to some, Danny is too detached and self-absorbed to have mass appeal. It is a host of secondary characters that helps keep the audience involved. Peter Sarsagaard plays a comical and charming sidekick, while Adam Goldberg is the animated and farcical Kujo.

Most worthy of mention is a drug baron, nicknamed "Pooh Bear," who has no nose and eats brain for breakfast. Unlike most sneering, skinny and dark-haired villains, Pooh Bear (Vincent D'Onofrio) is a bleached blonde, chubby guy who talks with a buck-toothed drawl, underscoring the perversity of his evil. His manner of speech and mannerisms are almost idiotic, contrasting sharply with the sadistic messages they convey.

While the villain is nuanced and intense, the angel of the movie, Parker's wife (Chandra West), is a complete joke. Lame lines are made worse with overacting for this barely one-dimensional character.

Amir Mokri's beautiful photography may make such an indiscretion easier to overlook. Scenes are shot masterfully, with the weatherworn texture of skin highlighted, and light and shadow juxtaposed nicely.

In addition, almost random shots contribute to the atmosphere of the movie. For example, the sun sinking in a valley seems to pull down the landscape with it. Despite some flaws, The Salton Sea remains an entertaining movie. B-