filmland / By Charlie Myers

Charlie Says Farewell

With one good film and one lousy, Myers caps off his movie critic gig

(Sept. 29, 2011)  When I began writing reviews for the Journal in June 2003, I had no idea how it would go or how long I would keep writing the column. Now, some eight-plus years later, I think it’s time to say farewell to regular reviewing.

By and large, the years reviewing movies have been very enjoyable. If that comment sounds somewhat qualified, it is due primarily to the type of films we get locally, which, clearly, are not the sort I deeply enjoy in general although there have been any number of exceptions. At any rate, things change including me and the Journal. Initially, the column was called “Charlie in Filmland,” and I wrote all the reviews and previews. I used to cover most of the films that opened here. In the beginning, I had fun panning films I didn’t care for, but over the years that aspect just became tedious, no doubt for both myself and readers. Eventually, due to several factors including my frequent travel, the column became Filmland and material was written by a variety of people.

I would like to acknowledge one major influence that led to my reviewing “career,” namely publisher Judy Hodgson who enthusiastically pushed me into this endeavor and who constantly supported the column. Thanks as well to those who were burdened with editing the column, particularly Arts and Culture Editor Bob Doran and staff writer Ryan Burns.

Since coming to Humboldt County back in 1969 to teach at HSU, I came to know a lot of people locally, people who were familiar with my sense of humor and taste in films. As a result, the reviews have been more personal than would be possible in a big city newspaper. One of the joys of the column has been the conversations with people, both strangers and those who know me, about the reviews, conversations that likely would not otherwise have occurred. So many thanks to all who approached me to talk about movies in stores, on the street, or wherever. I hope you will not stop. Perhaps theJournal might even allow me a guest reviewer gig now and again. Meanwhile, I end with the two reviews below.

POINT BLANK. The French thriller Point Blank (no relation to the 1967 Lee Marvin film of the same name), co-written and directed by Fred Cavayé, cuts immediately to the chase — literally. Without preamble, the film begins with a man, who turns out to be Hugo (Roschdy Zem), being chased by two other men carrying guns. As one of them closes in, the man being chased is suddenly struck by a motorcycle going very fast.

He ends up in a hospital with head injuries and other damage, and when nurse’s aide Samuel (Gilles Lellouche) foils another attempt to kill the man in the hospital, he becomes embroiled in a vast web of corruption and conspiracy that involves the Paris police among others. Thus, like Hitchcock’s protagonist Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) in North By Northwest, the film follows the innocent ordinary individual who finds himself caught in forces he doesn’t comprehend but must survive.

It is also a woman in danger narrative since Samuel’s pregnant wife Nadia (Elena Anaya) is kidnapped by the bad guys (which actually is almost everyone else in the film) and threatened with death unless Samuel gets Hugo, also a bad guy, out of the hospital so he can be killed.

I can’t remember the last time I felt this tense for almost 90 minutes, and I haven’t seen so much running in a film since Run Lola Run. This is not the slow-paced, philosophical French thriller that is normally distributed here. In fact, the film rarely pauses in its relentless drive to a climax. As with Samuel, the viewer has little time for reflection. Any pause might doom both Samuel and Nadia, and give the viewer too much time for reflection. Samuel discovers that he has virtually no one to turn to for help. As it turns out, though, help sometimes comes from an unlikely source and, occasionally, doing a good turn actually has good consequences.

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