Arts & Life

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Written by: Tim Riley

Published: 15 May 2022

‘MEMORY’ Rated R

There is no quit when it comes to Liam Neeson taking the leading role in action thrillers, and “Memory” proves to be no exception when calling for the seemingly ageless actor to display the requisite physical toughness.

However, the stereotype of Neeson the action figure that has gained traction since his role of revenge hero in the first “Taken” film is upended this time in the part of Alex Lewis, a professional hitman afflicted with incipient dementia.

Not straying too far from his screen persona of righteous avenger, Neeson’s character is a bad guy with scruples, which means he has no compunction about killing sex traffickers or sleazy businessmen but draws the line on the more vulnerable.

Our first glimpse at Alex’s trade and his diminished mental capacity is a gruesome hit in a Mexican hospital, followed by his predicament of remembering where he put his car keys for a quick getaway.

As an assassin working both sides of the Texas/Mexico border, Alex’s fading memory is cause for retirement but he’s persuaded to take one last job because, even though unstated, he’s still got “a particular set of skills.”

Unable to resist the insistence of his Mexico City contact offering a large wad of cash for another job, Alex is instructed to kill two people in El Paso, which happens to be his home turf.

The first job is to eliminate wealthy businessman Ellis van Camp (Scot Williams) and retrieve the flash drive stored in his safe. Pulling off this part of the assignment is easily accomplished.

Upon discovering that the second victim is 13-year-old Beatriz (Mia Sanchez), who had been pimped out by her father (Antonio Jaramillo) to the entitled son of a prominent developer, Alex won’t kill a child.

Meanwhile, undercover FBI agent Vincent Serra (Guy Pierce) is hell-bent on stopping the sexual abuse of children, along with his partner Linda Amistead (Taj Atwal) and Mexican cop Hugo Marquez (Harold Torres).

Davana Sealman (Monica Bellucci), the well-known real estate mogul, along with her depraved son Randy (Josh Taylor), runs a sordid criminal enterprise of drugs and underage sex trafficking.

Connected with corrupt officials, the villainous Sealman has wide berth in El Paso for her nefarious endeavors, such that local detective Danny Mora (Ray Stevenson) rebuffs FBI agent Serra’s dogged pursuit of justice.

For his part, Alex is not deterred from going after Sealman even if she’s protected by lawmen and a feckless district attorney thwarts the determination of the FBI agents to bring down Sealman’s sex ring.

There may be a turf war between the El Paso authorities and the feds, but Alex goes about the business of dispatching the thugs not so easily apprehended by Serra’s crew even when his memory starts to falter.

An interesting twist is that Serra is so focused on cracking Sealman’s sex ring that he ends up in the tight spot of aligning with Alex in the takedown of sleazebags.

Arguably, “Memory” is the type of action thriller that might have been more suitable for a streaming service or straight-to-video, notwithstanding it’s better than Neeson’s recent “Blacklight.”

Nevertheless, “Memory” is a serviceable B-movie that delivers the action goods craved by Liam Neeson fans, even if it offers temporary enjoyment before eventually dropping into a memory hole.

FOREIGN FILMS ON DVD

Proving that action films don’t have to be homegrown, “Indemnity,” set for release on May 10th, is South Africa’s most ambitious thrill ride packed with stylishly choreographed fights, car crashes, explosions and daring fire rescues.

Traumatized Cape Town ex-fireman Theo Abrams (Jarrid Geduld) wakes up next to his wife’s corpse, with no recollection of what transpired and all evidence pointing to him as the killer.

Labeled the prime suspect, Theo quickly finds himself hunted by sinister forces and a ruthless deputy chief of police and embarks on a breakneck mission to uncover the truth behind his wife’s death.

As the former firefighter struggles to survive, connections are revealed between his past, the mysterious death of his spouse, and a government conspiracy with terrifying implications.

A newcomer to the genre, lead actor Jarrid Geduld spent three months with stunt masters and performed all his own stunts, including a record-breaking hanging suspension stunt performed outside a 21st floor window.

In 1969, the Norwegian government announced their discovery of one of the world’s largest oil fields in the neighboring North Sea, which launched a prosperous period of offshore drilling.

The disaster in “The Burning Sea” comes fifty years later, when a crack opens on the ocean floor causing a rig to collapse and it becomes clear there would be environmental consequences for these actions.

When a team of researchers, including submarine operator Sofia (Kristine Kujath Thorp), rushes in to search for the missing and assess the damage, they discover this is just the start of a possible apocalyptic catastrophe.

As rigs are evacuated, Sofia’s loving companion Stian (Henrik Bjelland) becomes trapped in the depths of the sea, and she must attempt one last life-saving measure by diving in for a rescue.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.

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Written by: Georgina Marie Guardado

Published: 11 May 2022

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — While the COVID pandemic has many members of the community feeling uncertain and unsafe gathering in public just yet, Lake County’s Poet Laureate Georgina Marie Guardado, who was appointed at the onset of the pandemic in March of 2020, wanted to begin offering poetry in-person in a small, relaxed way.

During the pandemic local resident, massage therapist, sound healer and yoga instructor Laurel Lind also started her new business, Studio 127, in downtown Lakeport, located at 127 N. Main St.

Lind specializes in the sacred art of self-care. She offers a place undisturbed by the rush and flurry of each day, a place to recharge and re-energize, and a haven for relaxation, as well as rejuvenation. To walk through the doors of her business is to embark on a journey of stillness and radiance.

While she offers sound healing, yoga, and more in a large, quiet space with hardwood floors and a silver ceiling, in the front of her business is a magical shop with loose leaf tea, crystals, candles, clothing, mystical wares, and organic products for skin, face, and body care.

Guardado, an advocate and practitioner of self-care regimes, such as breath work, mindfulness, massage, and yoga, partnered with Lind to create the monthly Tea & Poetry offering at Studio 127, which began in February 2022.

The next Tea & Poetry will take place on Saturday, May 21, from 4 to 5 p.m.

Tea & Poetry is open to everyone, whether you’re new to poetry or an experienced writer, a fan of reading poetry, or a complete beginner to any creative writing.

Participants are invited to bring a meaningful item to add to an altar and/or a favorite poem to share, and pen and paper to free-write from prompts offered to the group. Participants will choose a loose-leaf tea from the studio’s varied selection to enjoy while reading and writing.

Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with any questions or to RSVP. A suggested donation of $10 is requested however no one is turned away due to lack of funds. Seating is limited to eight spaces.

Visit Studio 127 online at https://thestudio127.com/ and Guardado’s website at https://www.georginamariepoet.com/.

Details

Written by: Tim Riley

Published: 08 May 2022

‘THE UNBEARABLE WEIGHT OF MASSIVE TALENT’ Rated R

Nicolas Cage as a fictionalized version of himself in “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent” has odd parallels to troubled legal, real estate and tax issues in his past.

For all his perceived quirks, Cage is more than just an actor. In the words of director/co-writer Tom Gormican, Cage has become not only “a cultural figure,” but the “patron saint of strangeness” and this film sets out to prove it.

In the dramatized tale of this film, Cage is first seen deep into compounding his personal and professional difficulties. His career is floundering and huge debts are about to put him out on the streets.

Divorced from makeup artist Olivia (Sharon Horgan) and not relating well to their teen daughter Addy (Lily Sheen), Cage receives the distressing news that he’s not getting a great role that could easily launch his comeback.

Hallucinating at times with the surreal presence of his younger self named Nicky, apparently from his “Wild at Heart” era, Cage is admonished that he’s a movie star and not an ordinary mortal dealing with family and career issues.

But the best that his smarmy agent Richard Fink (Neil Patrick Harris) can come up with is a strange invitation to collect one million dollars to attend the birthday celebration of obsessed fan Javi Gutierrez (Pedro Pascal).

With no other options on how to pay $600,000 owed to his hotel residence, Cage ends up as the guest of honor at the eccentric billionaire’s oceanfront estate on the Spanish island of Mallorca.

The movie-obsessed Javi, who includes “Paddington 2” as one of his personal favorites, maintains his own little museum of Nicolas Cage memorabilia, including film props and a life-size wax figure brandishing two golden handguns.

Bonding over a love of cinema, Javi persuades Cage to take a look at a screenplay that offers a chance for their incipient friendship to evolve into a working collaboration that could easily be a caricature of Hollywood fantasy.

The wrinkle to this tale of fandom is that Javi is an international arms dealer, and two CIA agents (Tiffany Haddish and Ike Barinholtz) enlist Cage on a spy mission to rescue a kidnapped daughter of a political leader.

The movie turns into the kind of action thriller that was once the staple of Cage’s career, and now he’s mired in his screen persona of confronting thugs in the Gutierrez crime family with some gunplay and a car chase through quaint Spanish streets.

More than anything, “Massive Talent” places Cage in absurd situations of living up to his own legend, channeling his most iconic screen characters in order to save himself and his loved ones.

TCM CLASSIC FILM FESTIVAL FINALE

The 13th TCM Classic Film Festival, or as I prefer to call it the 11th because the last two gatherings were virtual, came to an end with the usual flourish.

Classic films on display include fan favorites that most cinephiles have already enjoyed over the years. It’s great to see Humphrey Bogart in “Key Largo” or Paul Newman and Robert Redford in “The Sting” on the big screen.

On the last day of the festival, the better option was to choose films not as readily available. Watching Piper Laurie and Rock Hudson as young actors in 1952’s “Has Anybody Seen My Gal” was a welcome treat.

Ostensibly, the star was Charles Coburn in the role of aging bachelor Samuel Fulton, a millionaire without an heir, who wants to find out if the family of the woman who rejected his marriage proposal decades ago deserves to inherit his fortune.

Fulton finagles his way into the home of the Blaisdell family as a boarder under an assumed name and arranges for them to receive an unexpected windfall and sits back to observe the results of his anonymous beneficence.

The family patriarch (Larry Gates), who runs a pharmacy and soda fountain in a small town, is prompted by his social-climbing wife (Lynn Bari) to sell the family home and business in order to relocate to a wealthy neighborhood.

Piper Laurie’s Millicent, the eldest Blaisdell daughter, is romantically linked to Rock Hudson’s soda jerk Dan Stebbins, but her disapproving mother tries to arrange a marriage with a rich socialite.

The nouveau riche status of the Blaisdells is soon derailed by poor decisions, and the family finds themselves broke and returning back to their old lives. Yet, everyone seems to be happier, and a life lesson proves that the grass is not always greener on the other side

“Has Anybody Seen My Gal” is a remarkably agreeable and charming comedy, mostly due to Coburn’s bluffing his way into an ordinary lifestyle, going so far as to train as a soda jerk with hilarious mishaps.

A bonus for film buffs at the screening was seeing James Dean in a cameo appearance as a soda fountain customer and hearing from Piper Laurie in person that Charles Coburn’s fondness for pinching young ladies was problematic even back then.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.