| for this week's Tribune: MOMMA'S MAN [5/10]; SOUNDS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT [6/10] |
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 Momma's Man USA 2008 Starring : Matt Boren, Ken Jacobs, Flo Jacobs Director : Azazel Jacobs ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Sounds Like Teen Spirit UK 2008 Documentary Director : Jamie Jay Johnson ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- FAMILY ties prove suffocatingly resilient in Momma's Man, lukewarm third feature by writer-director Azazel Jacobs. It's the first movie by this son of legendary avant-garde film-maker Ken Jacobs to obtain UK release and, though warmly received in certain critical quarters - not to mention a surprise arthouse box-office success - provides little evidence to suggest that Jacobs Jr deserves to be ranked among the more talented directors in the current non-mainstream American scene. Indeed, his sensibility is closer to lowish-budget Hollywood fare than anything resembling the envelope-pushing work (Blonde Cobra; Star Spangled to Death) for which his father has so long been renowned. Those conversant with Jacobs Sr's output may get the most out of Momma's Man, in which he plays the lead character's father - a celebrated avant-garde film-maker - and which largely takes place within the confines of his actual Tribeca loft-cum-atelier. The latter is a fascinatingly, quintessentially Bohemian residence jam-packed from floor to ceiling with the accumulated stuff from a career on film's wilder margins. Jacobs has also cast his own mother Flo - herself an artist of considerable talent - as the wife of the "Ken" character, which perhaps makes it a little surprising that the main protagonist should be a very un-Azazel Jacobs figure, the schlubby, thirtysomething Mikey (Boren). Married and resident in Los Angeles, the not-especially-creative Mikey flew the coop some time ago, but during one of his regular visits home comes up with all manner of excuses to remain among the comforting relics of his childhood - to the bemusement and eventual concern of his doting parents. What unfolds is a queasy quasi-comedy of unease, in which Mikey's increasingly infantile behaviour shades into neurosis, perhaps even psychosis - without yielding much in the way of social or psychological insight. It doesn't help that solipsistic man-child Mikey , easily the film's least interesting and least sympathetic character, is also the one who gets by far the biggest share of screen-time. Mr and Mrs Jacobs, meanwhile - he cagey-flinty, she ever-fussing but quite heart-breakingly tender - quietly, effortlessly steal each and every scene in which they feature. IF the cutely punning title of Sounds Like Teen Spirit - even more cutely subtitled A Popumentary - doesn't put you off, then you may well enjoy the film itself, which chronicles several participants at the 2007 renewal of what's described as "Europe's premier youth contest." British audiences would be forgiven for never having heard of Junior Eurovision, as it's never (yet) been broadcast in this country, nor has the UK ever taken part. But, just like the "Senior" Eurovision, the kiddie equivalent is apparently quite a big deal on the other side of the channel, especially among "newer" nations on the continent's central and eastern fringes. Adhering to the "competition-documentary" format that's become a (disappointingly) common manifestation of non-fiction film-making - and which still hasn't been surpassed since Jeffrey Blitz`s genuinely palm-dampening Spellbound (2003) - director Jamie Jay Johnson (whose previous credits include a "Dogumentary" short) tracks a small handful of hopefuls through their national competitions and on to the grand finale in Rotterdam. The latter turns out to be every bit as overproduced and kitschily amusing ("I'm wetting myself with excitement" bleats one of the hosts) as one might fear/hope, with no end of laughter, showbizzy effort and tears before bedtime. Shot on video, briskly edited (we're skipped across vast geographical distances with breezy nonchalance) and executed with a bouncy off-handness that walks a narrow line between affectionate parody and condescending bemusement - with some flip, animated interludes recounting turbulent periods from European history along the way - Sounds Like Teen Spirit is an entertaining and undemanding affair that would work just as well on the small screen as the large. There are some intriguing and topical subtexts about the Americanisation of Europe (a Bulgarian 14-year-old from a well-off background acts and sounds eerily Californian) and also the "Europeanisation" of the disparate continent, whose junior members, as we see and hear, are now almost entirely conversant in the increasingly global lingua franca of (American) English - even if competition rules insist they perform in their own languages. Many of them are also, as we witness, growing up alarmingly fast - not that Sounds Like Teen Spirit, which ends up much more of a celebration than a mockery - troubles itself to ponder too deeply the potentially damaging impact of such high-pressure, hyper-competitive enterprises upon the fragile psyches of its precocious entrants. Neil Young 28th April, 2009  written for the 8th May edition of Tribune magazine MOMMA'S MAN : [5/10] : USA 2008 : Azazel JACOBS : 98m (BBFC) : seen 1st February 2008, Cinerama cinema, Rotterdam (public screening - International Film Festival Rotterdam). Original review. SOUNDS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT : [5/10] : UK 2008 : Jamie Jay JOHNSON : 93m (BBFC) : seen 22nd January 2009, CineWorld cinema, Milton Keynes (press show - 60th CinemaDays event) [click here for a second opinion on Momma's Man, by Matjaž Ličer] |
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