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Impractical magic
On Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azbakan, director Alfonso Cuaron was faced with a challenge befitting a wizard: How to follow the success of the previous two J.K. Rowling adaptations in a series that's already grossed close to a billion dollars worldwide. The Mexican-born Cuaron-best known for 2002's risque Y Tu Mama Tambien-probably wasn't too worried. Harry Potter 3 will doubtless cast a spell over mass audiences, regardless of whether it's good or bad. For the record, Prisoner of Azbakan is the least captivating of the trio. The most admirable quality of the Matrix cycle was that it was only a trilogy. Wannabe wizard Harry Potter has the ability to go on indefinitely, or at least until he trades his broomstick in for a walker. The third time isn't the charm for screenwriter Steve Kloves, who also adapted the first two Rowling best-sellers. Kloves' tone is darker; the story even more convoluted. In his slavish fidelity to the book, Kloves crams in one incidental scene after another, regardless whether they bear a relation to the plot. Though Harry's now a teenager, actor Daniel Radcliffe hasn't grown an inch as an actor. No charmer, Radcliffe is barely the British version of Macaulay Culkin. His only expression is to open his eyes wide and look as bewildered as possible. Back again with his cruel step-family, Harry at 13 is an adolescent with angst. When angry, his powers sneak out telekinetically, like Stephen King's Carrie. Pushed too far by crabby Aunt Marge, he inflates her into a blimp, leading to her early exit from dinner. What Cuaron brings to the table is his bleak picture of the relationship between adults and children. Harry's nemesis this time isn't the sneering punk Malfoy (Tom Felton), but rather Sirius Black (Gary Oldman). According to witnesses, it was Black who slayed Harry's parents at the behest of the evil Voldemort. Since his escape from prison, Sirius is seriously after Harry, back at Hogwarts school for a third year. In the interest of preserving the ungainly structure of the plot, here's a select list of scenes, accorded all the fluidity given by Kloves: Harry is attacked by the wraith-like Dementors, who are hot on the trail of Black; Hagrid's turn at teaching goes awry when his giant half-horse, half-eagle takes a peck at Malfoy; Emma Thompson drops in as Hogwarts' new "divination" professor; one of the singing paintings disappears, a sign that Black is loose at the school; know-it-all Hermione (Emma Watson) decks Malfoy; and, of course, the obligatory game of Quidditch, Rowling's jai-alai hybrid played on broomsticks. As headmaster Dumbledore, Michael Gambon takes the place of the late Richard Harris. In the Potter series, Hogwarts has become a sort of rest home for aging British actors. To wearisome Alan Rickman and Maggie Smith, Cuaron adds David Thewlis and the scenery-chewing Oldman. In Rowling's paranoid world, non-wizard humans-Muggles-aren't to be trusted. Harry can only seek advice from Dumbledore and his teachers, who spew out more mumbo-jumbo than you can shake a broomstick at. Not so unlike J.R.R. Tolkien, Rowling manufactures mystifying jargon and nomenclature that correspond to next to nothing in our known world. This wooly escapist style had become the bible of the adventure/fantasy genre, reflecting mass culture's failure to engage the here and now. After the release of his 1940s film noir The Big Sleep, someone asked director Howard Hawks to spell out exactly who killed whom. Hawks was at a loss. That sort of confusion greeted me at the end of Prisoner of Azkaban. Werewolves, rats and snarling dogs change back and forth into humans so many times, I thought I was imprisoned in a morphing zoo. The acid test of a film adaptation is whether it can stand on its own as a movie without the book (and its fans) to prop it up. If I were to magically make Rowling's book disappear, you'd only have an empty shell of a movie left. Respond: letters@boulderweekly.com
Good and baad
Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song isn't a movie you'll likely see on Turner Classics or at your local video store anytime soon. Yet when it was released back in 1971, it became a landmark in African-American cinema. Written, produced, directed by and starring Melvin Van Peebles, it was the first in-your-face "black power" movie ever made. The better-known Shaft also appeared in 1971, but Sweetback was made underground on a shoestring budget, largely out of the Hollywood sphere. Dismissed by most critics and controversial for its sex and violence, it became one of the most successful independent films of the decade, grossing over $15 million, despite its X rating. In Baadasssss!, the son also rises. The son being writer/director Mario Van Peebles, who's made a tribute to his father and the film that defined his career. If the crude style of Sweetback worked to its advantage, the same case can't be made for Van Peebles fils' erratic docu-drama. Mario plays his father as a cool, confident player, a black man determined to make a defiant statement about racist America. But this isn't all hero worship. In an unsettling bit of autobiography, Melvin forces the young Mario to act in a love scene in which he loses his virginity. In the late 1960s, independent filmmaking as an alternative to Hollywood had begun to bust out. Easy Rider, made in 1969, proved that low-budget counterculture filmmaking could make millions. But Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda had it easy compared to Melvin Van Peebles. To skirt union rules, he had to hire a production crew from the porn industry. When the money got tight, Bill Cosby stepped forward with a loan. The bad of Baadasssss! is that the younger Van Peebles' talents rarely transcend his subject matter. Mario might have made his own statement about America in the 1970s, but instead he stays myopically focused on his father's personal and professional travails. This is one dramatized story that might have been superior as a documentary. Hampered by mediocre direction and casting, Baadassss! will have a hard time even getting the sweet audience numbers that Sweet Sweetback netted 33 years ago. Thomas Delapa reviews the latest movies on KUVO (FM 89.3) Fridays at 8:40 a.m. and on KNRC (AM 1150) Saturdays at 9 a.m. Respond: letters@boulderweekly.com
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