ChelseaOnTheRocks Tagged Articles at Cinematical

I just saw Gerald Peary's new documentary For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism -- which incidentally features Cinematical's fearless managing editor Scott Weinberg as well as Cinematical alum Karina Longworth -- and I thoroughly enjoyed it, despite some lumps here and there. I'm having a hard time deciding whether or not non-critics will like it, but it celebrates many of my heroes (James Agee, Manny Farber, etc.) and even included one or two historical tidbits I did not know. One thing it talked about was the immense power wielded by Bosley Crowther at the New York Times from 1940 to 1967 -- he alone could make or break a movie -- until a new generation led by Andrew Sarris and Pauline Kael began to directly challenge him. Crowther was mainly interested in social responsibility in films, films that managed to "say a little something," rather than sheer artistic exercises or works of personality. The new documentary treats Crowther kindly, but dismisses him as a relic.

Here's a quick look at what's opening in limited release this weekend. If they're not playing where you live, keep an eye out as they make the rounds. And if all else fails, there's always DVD....

More Than a Game (pictured) is a documentary about basketball phenom LeBron James and four of his Akron, Ohio, high school teammates. Reviews are about evenly split so far, though none are terribly negative. I get the feeling that fans of James and/or basketball will love it while those with a more casual interest might find it lacking. Playing in L.A., New York, and several theaters in the Akron area (nice touch!). The official website has a schedule of when it's opening in other cities.

Afterschool premiered at Cannes last year and has subsequently played at several other festivals, including South By Southwest. It's a drama about students at a New England prep school in the aftermath of a tragedy involving some of their classmates, and how they retreat into YouTube and the Internet to deal with their feelings. About three-fourths of the reviews so far are positive, with critics calling it a sobering, honest look at 21st-century youth. Playing in New York City now.

A Beautiful Life is about a runaway teenage girl and an illegal-immigrant teenage boy whose paths cross in Los Angeles. It's based on a play called Jersey City. Bad news, though: All six of the reviews posted so far are negative: melodramatic, heavy-handed, poorly acted, etc., etc. Playing in New York, L.A., Chicago, and San Francisco.

Finished with my jury responsibilities, I managed to check out some features. A favorite of mine was Chelsea on the Rocks, by Abel Ferrara (director of Bad Lieutenant and a terrific little mob flick called The Funeral). It's a documentary about the infamous Chelsea Hotel in Manhattan, but it's far from traditional. There are lots of odd transitions and edits, the interviews are beyond casual (Ferrara says something along the lines of "No shit!" every ten seconds while listening to the stories of those living in the building), and there are some utterly ridiculous and unnecessary re-enactments of notorious events in the hotel's past (actors play Sid and Nancy, Janis Joplin, and assorted hangers-on). Truth be told, the whole thing was kind of a mess. But watching it felt a lot like spending a night in the hotel, and it's a ride I'm glad I took. I didn't learn a thing, but it brought me inside a place full of fascinating characters, a place I walked past countless times in Manhattan without a second thought.