Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic, DVD Review by Alan Green

Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic
DVD review by Alan Green

I first noticed Sarah Silverman when she appeared in "There's Something About Mary", and it was clear even from the few minutes she was on screen she would be a star. She had done a lot of work before TSAM but I had never noticed her in anything except that appearance in "Seinfeld", I think, but it didn't really register at the time.

I don't like comedy. I never have. It's just not funny. "Jesus is Magic", however, is a hybrid of live stage show cut with music videos and short films which is funny in an outrageous way that is impossible to describe, even though her style seems like a tangible thing and makes a writer feel as if they should be able to describe it with words. I'm at a loss. I can say, though, that I couldn't watch "Jesus is Magic" in one sitting because it's too funny. I was laughing too much and had to take a break. I don't think I've ever read anybody say that about a comedy DVD before. This could be the first time. So, even though I can't find the words to describe Silverman's tangible-like comedy, I did need to take a break halfway through her DVD and that says a lot.

Most comedians are afraid. To compensate, they use coarse language for simple gags, but it only comes off embarrassing and superficial. Silverman is crude and endearing, honest and self-deprecating, all the while pointing out society's ridiculous shortcomings. She is razor-sharp and cuddly-cute, and unafraid of any subject matter. She is a cheerleader guiding the audience through a minefield of touchy subjects, and we have two choices; squirm in our seats and sweat, or laugh like fools while we get blown to bits.

She delivers her material as if off the top of her head, and never telegraphs a joke, or tightens up during the delivery, or braces herself in case the joke flops (which never happens, except maybe once, but only for a few seconds). This woman knows she's funny, knows she's good, and doesn't have to try even a little. Silverman wins us over from her very first sentence and doesn't let up for a moment (except maybe once about 45 minutes in, but only for a few seconds).

Like most comedians, Silverman's work is fueled by anger, but in her case the anger is so refined that it imitates intellect, and is somehow transformed into a joyous derision, so that we laugh with her at the most heinous crimes the world has to offer, and love every minute of it, and love her for her brilliant smooth delivery, as in her joke: If God gives you AIDS, make lemonAIDS.

This she sells with fluid smoothness, along with an examination of a bevy of sensitive topics: Rape of children. Religion (including killing Christ again should the opportunity present itself). 9/11. Killing (Ethiopian) babies for jewelry. Sex with children. Being retarded. The rape and murder of grandparents. Childhood drunkenness. Jews (as separate from religion). Anal sex. The Holocaust. Drug use. Blacks, Asians, gays, Nazis, men with small penises. All things hokey. She hits us from all sides with multi-layered jokes with punch lines within zingers within twists, delivered in sections and parts building laugh upon laugh until the audience is helpless.

Silverman's comedy works from the inside out, and will only appeal to people honest enough to admit they're not perfect (but certain the next guy is a schmuck). One doesn't feel distanced watching her act--it's as if she were telling you her innermost secrets over a beer in a bar.

Silverman represents an evolution in comedy. Eddie Murphy is to Don Rickles (or Shecky Green, Buddy Hacket, et al) as Sarah Silverman is to everyone else working today. She is more modern, more relaxed, more offensive, and somehow, charming.

If anything in this review offended you even the slightest bit, do not watch "Jesus is Magic". Sarah Silverman, you've got balls and you're better than any three twats combined. (I'm just saying...is all).

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Flightplan DVD Review

Flightplan
DVD Review by Alan Green

When I first heard the pitch for 'Flightplan', I was impressed: a woman's daughter goes missing during a trans-oceanic airline flight. I had to admit I looked forward to seeing how this premise would play out, and for the most part this movie lives up to the potential of this idea--at least for the first two acts. But then it gives over to a queer mix of realistic human drama and Hollywood contrivance. The resulting third act is a mish-mash that might be described as 'flighty-earnest', whose plot devices are a bit unfinished around the edges. On the other hand, Jodie Foster is so committed to a sincere performance you could almost call the result fierce--and it is this sizzle which one focuses on, not the loose threads of plot. In general 'Flightplan' is a smooth-running, old-fashioned psych-thriller--a crafted homage to the Master of Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock.

Ms. Foster portrays Kyle Pratt. After a European-style prelude by German born director, Robert Schwente, we find Kyle sitting alone in a subway station watching trains go by and looking quite haunted. Her husband meets her and they walk home in the silence of a snowy night. When they get home Kyle looks around and finds her husband is not there, and only one set of footprints in the snow. She is still traumatized by her husband's death days earlier after he fell off a rooftop, and to comfort herself, imagines he is still alive. It is this emotionally frail character that must, along with her six-year-old daughter Julia, transport her husband's body from Germany to the United States to bury him and start over.

This is the set-up for a classic Hitchcock story design: a protagonist is thrown into a stressful situation, then is wrongly accused, and left to question their sanity. Kyle falls into this role head first as, three hours into the flight, her daughter disappears. After a routine tour of the plane turns up nothing, she asks for help from the flight attendants. They dismiss her as an over-worried mom, and she demands to see the captain. When she pounds on the cockpit door she is restrained by the flight marshal, Gene Carson (played by a sleepy-eyed Peter Skarsgaard).

Here is where Ms. Foster turns on her trademark intensity and there isn't a frame of the remaining movie in which she lets up. Her performance is the most appealing part of 'Flightplan'--she employs such preternatural focus and channels so much personal pain that it makes one sit up and pay attention for fear she will reach through the screen and dope-slap you. The result is that Kyle Pratt seems so real and her circumstance so compelling it's both exhilarating and exhausting to watch as events unfold.

As Act II plays out the script avoids whiz-bang Hollywood devices in favor of focusing on Kyle's emotional trials and how she deals with each new challenge. However, this approach is no more believable than common tricks used in so many psych-thrillers. For instance, when the pilot, captain Rich (Sean Bean) informs Kyle that, as it turns out, it is impossible for her daughter to ever have been on the plane at all, Kyle protests, but in the end, accepts this. In fact, she even accepts the kind counsel of a therapist (played beautifully by Greta Scacchi), who convinces Kyle that she has been imagining her daughter was with her as a way of dealing with the pain of her husband's death. While well crafted in the writing and convincingly executed in the acting, this turn of events is not believable. This holds true for all the plot events remaining in the movie. It just makes you squirm in your seat.

Events from this point on alternate from fatiguing to exasperating. Mere moments after accepting her daughter is not on the plane, Kyle reverses herself and becomes convinced she is. Then, she begins a frantic search. Well as it turns out, Kyle is a propulsion engineer. Not just any engineer--she is the one that designed the engines of the plane she is flying in. She uses her detailed knowledge of the plane's design to access various sections of the craft, including electronic controls and guidance systems. After causing a panic and endangering the lives of everyone on board, Carson is instructed to arrest Kyle.

This sets the stage for a preposterous plan by the bad guys to convince captain Rich that Kyle is in fact a terrorist who will blow up the plane unless millions of dollars are deposited in a Swiss account. Well, captain Rich buys this at face value and has the airline deposit said cash (which takes a few minutes) then has Carson placate Kyle until the plane can land. And, we haven't even gotten to Act III yet. Suffice it to say the contrivances keep coming, we keep squirming in our seats, and Kyle keeps beating the odds.

On the technical side, the music cues, editing, and lighting all seem haphazard. Camera framing especially seemed always just a bit off. Even the sound effects were metallic and too loud. Mr. Schwentke quotes camera shots directly from two of Ms. Foster's previous movies--'Contact' (directed by Robert Zemeckis) and 'Panic Room' (directed by David Fincher). Unfortunately, neither of these are as good the originals, and one wonders what Mr. Schwentke's plan was. Zemeckis and Fincher display greater technical acumen, and Schwentke would have been better off coming up with something that wouldn't invite comparison to their work. As for the script, there are problems with motivation. The antagonist(s) never explain themselves. Except for wanting money we never know who they are or why they subject poor Kyle to this torment. In the end the desire for money is just not enough to support their actions.

It's Jodie Foster's resolute sincerity that sees us through. She convinces us, sometimes with blunt force, that Kyle is real and somehow, some way, this might just happen to us on our next flight. It's hard to imagine that Kyle Pratt's character could have been portrayed nearly as well by any other actor. 'Flightplan' is as suspenseful as Hitchcock's work, just not as believable. Ms. Foster's performance makes 'Flightplan' a cool, emotionally compelling diversion.

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Flightplan
Directed by Robert Schwentke; written by Peter A. Dowling and Billy Ray; director of photography, Florian Ballhaus; edited by Thom Noble; music by James Horner; production designer, Alexander Hammond; produced by Brian Grazer; released by Touchstone Pictures and Imagine Entertainment. Running time: 93 minutes. Rated PG-13.

With: Jodie Foster (Kyle), Peter Sarsgaard (Carson), Sean Bean (Captain Rich), Kate Beahan (Stephanie), Michael Irby (Obaid), Assaf Cohen (Ahmed), Erika Christensen (Fiona) and Marlene Lawston (Julia).