By Kenneth Turan

FILM: Low Down
CAST: John Hawkes, Elle Fanning, Glenn Close, Lena Headey
DIRECTION: Jeff Preiss

Low Down is one from the heart. It’s a melancholy, evocative, beautifully-made memory piece, unblinking and unromanticised, a lovely film that brings great emotion and a dead-on feeling for time, place and recaptured mood to a story that is as universal as it is personal.
Starring the letter-perfect duo of John Hawkes and Elle Fanning, Low Down is based on Amy-Jo Albany’s finely written memoir of growing up with her father, legendary jazz pianist Joe Albany, a heroin addict living in the on-the-skids Hollywood of the 1970s.
Co-written by Albany and Topper Lilien, this atmospheric film is directed by Jeff Preiss with a real love for the period and its long-gone ethos of impoverished hipster artists passionate about creating and appreciating jazz.
Preiss, the cinematographer on Bruce Weber’s Let’s Get Lost, is not only at home in the ‘70s but he’s made a film that is something of a throwback to the independent ethos of that time as well.
Very contemporary, however, is the impeccable naturalness of Hawkes and Fanning, performers incapable of setting a foot wrong. Though other actors are impressive, especially Glenn Close as Gram, Amy-Jo’s grandmother and Albany’s iron-willed mother, musician Flea as his close friend Lester Hobbs and Lena Headley as his toxic ex-wife, Sheila, it is the convincing bond between Hawkes and Fanning that sustains this story from its opening in 1974 to its conclusion two years later.
Setting the scene for what is to come is the film’s graceful opening sequence. We see a jazz record on the turntable and then watch Fanning’s Amy-Jo in the apartment she shares with her father as she tells us, in the poised voice-over of the memoir, everything we need to know about her relationship with her dad, starting with he was a great jazz pianist who played with people such as Lester Young and Charlie Parker.
“I often thought my father was born of music, some wayward melody that took the form of a man,” she says. “I was in awe of his talents, I loved him out of all proportion, as only a daughter can.”
While we’re hearing this, Amy-Jo is looking out of their apartment window, where within the space of a few seconds we see both the joy that characterised their bond and the real-world, addiction-related complications that continually made it difficult.
Though she is playing younger than her age, Fanning nails this part. She is earnest and yearning as young teenager Amy-Jo, wonderfully proud of her father but somehow made melancholy, as she’d have to be, by the hardscrabble circumstances of her life.
Hawkes, who is all about low-key intensity, is equally strong as the rail-thin Albany, cigarette eternally dangling from his lips, a sweet man whose brilliance as a pianist goes hand in hand with an unapologetic addiction he can never completely escape.
Though it is Albany’s superb work we hear on melodies such as Billy Strayhorn’s Lush Life and his own AB Blues, it is Hawkes we see playing, and the extended period of time the actor put in ensuring that his work would look completely realistic pays off nicely.
As much a character as anyone flesh and blood is the pre-urban renewal Hollywood of the 1970s, typified by the seedy, single-room occupancy hotel where Albany and his daughter stay for a time.
Low Down is intentionally episodic, providing slices of Amy-Jo’s life with her dad and, when he is away, her Gram. What holds us is the drama of this young girl confronting this hard life, trying to keep her balance and deal with its challenges.
But even at Amy-Jo’s worst moments, the love she shares with her dad is as strong as the pain, and that is a remarkable thing to experience. -Los Angeles Times/TNS

Danger drive

FILM: Curve
CAST: Julianne Hough, Teddy Sears, Madalyn Horcher
DIRECTION: Iain Softley

Bride-to-be Mallory (Julianne Hough) is driving to Denver for her wedding when her car breaks down on a deserted highway.
Accepting help from a person called Christian (Teddy Sears), she offers him a lift after he fixes the engine.
But soon Christian’s sick agenda become clear and to avoid his clutches she deliberately crashes the car in the mountains.
Trapped in her overturned vehicle, she must use every trick in the book to escape the predatory hitchhiker.
After the fairly clichéd set-up we are left with what is actually a fairly tense movie. Mallory has to show ingenuity and navigate through two problems, how to survive trapped in a car with no food or water and how to stay out of the clutches of Christian who seems to relish watching her suffer.
Hough and Mallory put in good performances.

Virus mystery

FILM: Quarantine 2: Terminal
CAST: Bre Blair, George Back, Mercedes Masohn, Josh Cooke
DIRECTION: John G Pogue

A direct-to-video sequel, Quarantine 2: Terminal picks up shortly after the events of its predecessor and details the chaos that ensues as a deadly virus makes its way onto a commercial airliner — with the film subsequently following the passengers and flight crew as they attempt to survive within a closed-off airport terminal.
But it gets off to a less-than-impressive start, as writer/director John Pogue blankets the proceedings with one-dimensional, stock characters that are, at the outset, simply unable to engender the viewer’s interest of sympathy.
The mystery surrounding which of these figures is carrying the virus generally compensates for the underwhelming vibe. Once the narrative shifts to the terminal, however, Quarantine 2: Terminal hits a demonstrable lull that is alleviated by the sporadic emphasis on tense sequences and interludes.
The ongoing bickering and squabbling among the remaining uninfected characters is often tedious.

DVDs courtesy:
Saqr Entertainment Stores, Doha

Related Story