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WET ’N WILD: Hugh Jackman as the Drover (left) and Nicole Kidman as Sarah

If The African Queen and Indiana Jones had a baby with a chronic case of A.D.D. and raised it Down Under, it would grow up to be Australia, Baz Luhrmann’s overinflated romantic saga.

In previous films such as Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge, Luhrmann never let audience headaches get in the way of his pursuit of hyperbolic stylishness. Australia’s first third unfolds like a cartoon of romance novels. On the eve of World War II, Lady Sarah Ashley (Nicole Kidman) travels from England to Australia to save her late husband’s ranch, Faraway Downs, from a beef baron (Bryan Brown) and his vicious henchman (David Wenham). Sarah only finds allies among a rag-tag group of drunks, Aborigines and a rough-hewn cattle driver called “The Drover” (Hugh Jackman). (If this were an American film, he’d be a cowboy named “The Cowboy.”)

Australia’s shrill, spastic first act plays like this summer’s eyesore Speed Racer movie, pitched to middle-aged ladies. Once the massive cattle drive starts, however, Luhrmann catches a breath and lets the story calm down and expand to fill the gorgeous vistas of his native land. Australia features an adorable supporting turn from young Brandon Walters as Nullah, a “half-caste” boy born of Wenham’s character and an Aboriginal mother. Luhrmann uses Nullah’s travails to decry the racist aspects of Australian history in sharper terms than, say, Gone With the Wind ever did.

Eventually Kidman and Jackman’s charms emerge and the story intermittently clicks as an old-fashioned melodrama, culminating with star-crossed lovers and surrogate families trying to reunite during a Japanese attack. Even when Luhrmann’s epic successfully sweeps and sprawls, it still has to contend with heavy-handed Aboriginal mysticism and shameless tributes to The Wizard of Oz. As an Old School, Really Big Movie, Australia should fare well at the Oscars, even though it amounts to little more than a giant “Welcome to Australia!” postcard with super-saturated colors and historical footnotes written on the back.

Australia 2 stars Directed by Baz Luhrmann. Stars Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman. Rated PG-13. Opens Wed., Nov. 26. At area theaters.

(Photo by James Fisher)

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LIGHT SABER: The cinematography glows in Wong Kar Wai's 'Ashes of Time Redux.'

Director Wong Kar Wai’s Ashes of Time Redux showcases blind swordsmen, bounty hunters and courtesans in ancient China who display superhuman, gravity-defying martial arts feats. That said, it’s best not to think of it as one of those “wire-fu” action movies like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar Wai specializes in sensual mood pieces over conventional narrative films. Ashes of Time Redux has much more in common with the director’s lush but enigmatic present-day narratives such as In the Mood for Love or My Blueberry Nights than any Jet Li popcorn movie.

The “Redux” part of the title comes from Wong’s decision to re-edit his 1994 film Ashes of Time, which has a cult following despite never being released in the United States. The new version features a shorter running time and new digital color tinting, which gives the cinematography the quality of spun gold in some scenes. The late Leslie Cheung narrates the film as Ouyang, a broker of swords-for-hire who lives at the edge of a vast desert. Wong shows the precision of a painter in matching the inhospitable climate to the cynical character’s emotional desolation. Similarly, close-ups of a woman embracing a horse’s neck have the heady, tactile quality of Wong’s best work. (more…)

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Gangly, charmingly quirky character actor and blogger James Urbaniak became a familiar face to indie movie audiences thanks to breakthrough roles in American Splendor and Hal Hartley’s Henry Fool. He’s most respected for his Drama Desk-nominated turn in the acclaimed one-man show Thom Pain (Based on Nothing), but may be most beloved as one of the lead voice actors on Adult Swim’s “The Venture Brothers,” a parody of vintage cartoon adventure shows along the lines of “Johnny Quest.” Local fans will get the chance to see Urbaniak in the flesh at Atlanta Supercon, Nov. 21-23. He’ll also has a guest spot on “CSI: Miami” on Mon., Nov. 24.

Since 2005 you’ve kept the urbaniak blog on Livejournal. Why do you blog?
I started because Jackson Publick, creator of “The Venture Brothers,” had a Livejournal account. He inspired me to start one. I was doing Thom Pain: Based on Nothing, which was a one-man show that lasted about an hour. I developed this routine where every night I’d come home from the theater and go on the “Venture Brothers” fan site, The People’s Republic of Venture. I used to write in anonymously and I got hooked on that kind of dialogue. When the play ended, I thought, “Well, why not blog as myself?” I was a little hesitant at first, but it’s an enjoyable way to communicate thoughts and ideas. Plus, if there’s a topic that interests me, blogging provides an excuse to research it. I’m not aware of the blog specifically affecting my acting career, but I have gotten some attention to it from larger media outlets. I guess in that sense, it’s raised my profile a notch or two.

“The Venture Brothers” has always struck me as appealing to slightly older fans more so than most of the Adult Swim shows. Do you think that’s the case?
The fans are definitely all ages. The initial audience for my blog was “Venture Brothers” fans, and a lot of them are pretty young, in high school or college. I just did an episode of “CSI: Miami,” and the director was this guy in his 50s who said, “I love ‘The Venture Brothers,’ and so does my son!” He asked me to call his son on his cell phone, and when the son picked up, I said “Hi, it’s Dr. Thaddeus Venture!” When we were done talking, the father got back on the phone and said “You owe me one.”

(more…)

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Halloween is over but new blood will pump up vampire fans this month. Nov. 14 sees the Atlanta release of Sweden’s Let the Right One In, a spooky drama and  international film critics’ hit about a starcrossed friendship between a young vampire and a human, and then Nov. 21 marks the nationwide bow of the film version of Twilight, based on the popular Young Adult novel series of forbidden teen love with a bloodsucker. Onstage Atlanta takes a nibble of the vampire vogue with St. Nicholas, an eerie little monologue play by Irish playwright Conor McPherson.

The one-man show stars Michael Henry Harris as the unnamed narrator, a bitter, boozing theater critic living in a major Irish city. Fictional critics are usually defined either by self-loathing or verbal sadism, and St. Nicholas doesn’t break the pattern. Harris’s miserable theater reviewer acts out a mid-life crisis by developing an embarassing crush on a rising young actress. When he follows her production of Salome to London, he meets a stranger named William who turns out to be the leader of a household of vampires, and in need a human agent to invite guests for non-fatal blood “donations.” The theater critic becomes a contemporary equivalent to Renfield, Dracula’s unhinged manservant best known for eating bugs. Harris’s character goes to moral extremes, not physical ones, and while the actor has plenty of presence, his level delivery threatens to become monotonous. (In fairness, it’s a brisk show and it’s hard to imagine the downbeat character being much more animated.)

Onstage Atlanta is presenting a kind of Conor McPherson two-fer, with the small second stage hosting St. Nicholas and the larger mainstage presenting The Weir, a melancholy evening of ghost stories retold at a remote Irish pub (and staged several years ago by Theatre Gael). Both shows use horror conventions as a kind of misdirection, drawing the audience in while offering character studies of lonely, isolated individuals. St. Nicholas’ vampires rely less on supernatural hocus-pocus, and the play instead sheds light on the ideas of compassion and cultivating a conscience. It’s comparable to the original Interview with the Vampire, only without the Goth window-dressing.

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