Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired (2008)

Roman Polanski on his way to court.

This better than average documentary comes from HBO. Years ago I watched one of those "E! True Hollywood Stories" about the Roman Polanski rape case, so a lot of this was familiar territory for me, but this film focuses less on the incident itself and more on the details of his trial and how it was mishandled. Boy, was it ever mishandled...

Again, I don't like to go into too much detail when writing about documentaries. Movies exist for entertainment and it's acceptable to reveal a certain number of plot elements to pique peoples' interest. Documentaries exist both to entertain and to inform, and giving away too many details can cause people to lose interest in seeing it, I think. I'll try to practice moderation and leave plenty of meat on the bone for those that decide to watch this.

Roman had a rough childhood. His mother was gassed by the Nazis and his father was thrown into a concentration camp while he was still very young. Somehow he overcame this, followed his dream and became a success making movies. After proving himself in his native Poland, he moved to London and became a staple of the nightlife. Charismatic and likable despite his short stature and strange looks, Roman did alright for himself with the ladies. After meeting Sharon Tate on the set of one of his films, they fell in love, married and moved to Hollywood because that's where the money was. Soon after, Sharon was brutally murdered at the hands of the Manson family. Polanski fell into a depression and unapologetically dealt with it by plowing through scores of young women. For him, chasing jailbait was a better option than drowning his sorrows in booze. On a photo shoot for Vogue, Polanski drugged and photographed a topless 13 year old girl in a hot tub at Jack Nicholson's house, then had what he considered to be consensual sex with her. She called it "rape", and Roman went to jail.

The bulk of this documentary deals with the trial and how badly it was handled by the judge, Polanski's growing hatred of the media (starting with his wife's murder) and his fleeing the country to make a new life in France. These are the details that made this an interesting film. There were long, in depth interviews from both the prosecution and defense attorneys, both corroborating each other's stories concerning the details of the trial and of Judge Rittenband's inappropriate conduct throughout. Lots of other people weighed in on the subject, too, none boring or making me question their presence in the film (see: Jack Black in any music documentary ever), and there was plenty of archival news footage and interviews that held all of this together nicely.

Overall, this was very well made, informative and entertaining. I only wish I didn't already know so much about this case going into it. Had I known nothing in advance, this would have been even better. I found this DVD at Big Lots for $1.88 and there was a huge pile of them. I figured it would be lousy because of that, but it far surpassed my expectations.

4/5

Searching For Sugar Man (2012)

Sixto Rodriguez: America's Cast Away

Sony's documentaries are usually pretty great. I picked this up hoping it would be another "Devil in Daniel Johnston" (one of my favorite music documentaries ever), but it wasn't nearly as good. I still enjoyed it, though. 
 
It's difficult to write about this film without revealing too much about it, so this will be a short synopsis. The mononymous "Rodriguez" was a mystical folk singer who recorded two albums for the Sussex label in the early 1970s. Both albums tanked here in the states and he disappeared into obscurity. Somehow, a copy of his first album, "Cold Fact", made it's way to South Africa and it spread like wildfire becoming a huge sensation there on par with The Beatles and "bigger than Elvis". This background information is given in the opening lines of this documentary, followed by a matter-of-fact account of Rodriguez dousing himself in lighter fluid,setting himself ablaze and killing himself during a poorly received concert.

One day, while visiting with one of his American friends, Cape Town native Stephen Segerman was shocked to learn that nobody in America had even heard of Rodriguez. He assumed that because he was so popular in South Africa, he must have been hugely popular in his own country, but that just wasn't the case. When Rodriguez's second album, "Coming From Reality", was finally issued on CD in South Africa in 1996, Segerman was invited to contribute to the liner notes. Within those notes he solicited further biographical information, should any exist. It was a long shot and  an open-ended request, but music journalist Craig Bartholomew Strydom was already wondering about the circumstances surrounding Rodriguez's death and got in touch offering his help. People loved Rodriguez's music, but nobody knew anything about him. The cryptic album art and lack of liner notes left only his lyrics as clues. What follows is the search for "Sugar Man".

There wasn't much to work with in making this documentary, I assume. The interviews with the players in Rodriguez's career were interesting, but there weren't very many of them to speak of. The big reveal is given away early on in the film and was predictable from the very beginning. The problem is that it didn't leave much to fill the rest of the running time. This documentary succeeded in introducing me to his music, though, which is terrific. It's my understanding that with the exception of this film's soundtrack, his music has been out of print here in America since 1971. If a CD containing both of his albums in their entirety existed, I'd happily purchase a copy today.

This was entertaining enough, but I wouldn't have bought it if I had watched it first. My wife paid for it and gave it to me for my birthday, so that works for me. If you have the chance, see it, but don't go out of your way to do so.

3.5/5

 (Watch the trailer at your own risk as it gives away more about the film than I have above.)

Little Children (2006)

The great Jackie Earl Haley.

I watched this based on Kate Winslet's performance in Roman Polanski's "Carnage". I was flipping through movies On Demand, saw her name and "pornography addiction" in the description and decided to watch it. It ended up being a terrific movie, and really depressing most of the time. Not quite Todd Solondz-depressing, but along those lines.

Sarah (played by Winslet) is a frumpy housewife with a degree in literature who meets Brad (Patrick Wilson) while taking her daughter to the park. The other women at the park were too stuck up to speak to Brad and chose instead to admire him from afar. Sarah's dislike of the other mothers drives her to introduce herself to Brad in an attempt to one-up the others. They hug and kiss as a joke to forever shut up the other mothers, but both of them have a hard time forgetting about each other after that day's kiss.

They meet every day at the city pool, become good friends and find that they're both better parents while spending time together. Brad is a stay at home father, a failed law student who had his youth stolen from him when his parents died. He feels emasculated by his wife's professional success and constant hen-pecking and puts no effort into passing the bar exam. Sarah feels like she's failing as a parent and resents her husband because he works in advertising and makes his living telling lies. On top of this, he has a pornography addiction that prevents him from covering his parenting duties at home. Their shared dissatisfaction of their home life is their common bond and, over time, their friendship evolves into a fling.

All of this takes place in a quiet little town which is the home of a sex offender just released from a two year prison sentence for indecent exposure. The citizens are outraged and Larry (an ex-policeman who plays on Brad's night football league) takes it on his own to create a committee for decency to make everyone aware of who their new neighbor is. Ronnie (played by the great Jackie Earl Haley) moves back into his elderly mother's home and is constantly under attack with flyers baring his face hung everywhere, his house spray painted, late night drive-by's with megaphones warning the neighbors of his presence and even knocking on his door trying to coax him outside to fight - all at the hands of a drunken ex-cop who, too, is a failure in his own life. The movie's most tense scenes are with Brad and Larry, and the end result of Larry's merciless tormenting is too good to give away here.

So who's more detestable? The creepy sex offender doing his best to be good and keep to himself, or the selfish, adulterous "normals" who throw away their lives for another chance at happiness at the expense of their families? Every single person in this movie is unhappy, and all instances of joy are fleeting and at someone else's expense. Damaged characters make for great movies, though, and this was no exception. There was a sinking, hopeless feeling in my stomach for most of this film and I haven't been able to push it out of my mind since it finished. There was a little bit of an Robert Altman-like quality to the film in the way the characters' lives intertwined, but not in an annoying or forced way like in "Crash". There wasn't a bad performance in the entire film. Kate Winslet was especially good and Jackie Earl Haley was brilliant in his first film in 13 years. It would be unfair to give this anything less than a perfect rating as it's heaps better than the movies I've given 4 star ratings. It's the best movie I've seen in a long while.

5/5