exiledfilmreviews - the footnotes of an obsessive reviewer

Now, I know this blog is primary about the celluloid world and the content usually reflects this.

But for once, I’m going to veer off from film and talk about something else. That something is basketball, to be more precise, I’m going to wax poetic on basketball and Adam Morrison. Why all of a sudden am I compelled to write about Adam Morrison and basketball on a film blog? Well, the easy answer is, because it’s my blog. I control the content, so I can write about whatever my heart desires. So, with all that said, no film review, just my thoughts on Adam Morrison and the NBA.

Adam Morrison has always been a fascinating figure to me. My first impression of Morrison was that he was a mercurial character who looked like a musician who belonged in the Seattle grunge scene and that he sported a wicked handle bar moustache. Also, like anyone else who sorta follows basketball, I was utterly intrigued when I saw him openly weep when Gonzaga was defeated by UCLA.

So what happened? How did a supersensitive handlebar sporting ball player who was on his way to becoming a legitimate NBA star fall so far from NBA grace?

During the 2006 NBA draft, Morrison was expected to be one of the top three prospects. Critics believed that he was an accomplished scorer who could provide instant offence but expressed concern for his inability to play defense, run and his overall weirdness. Morrison eventually ended up going third, handpicked by MJ to carry his young Bob Cats team.

Morrison’s NBA career unfolded just as people thought it would. He had a solid rookie season that showcased his knack for scoring but also highlighted his inability to play defense, run and his overall weirdness. Sounds familiar? Coming in to the NBA, everybody in this planet knew that about Morrison! Calling him a bust and criticising him for his many shortcomings as a basketball play is the equivalent to a film director casting Keanu Reeves in a heavy duty dramatic role and then chastising him for not having the acting crops to pull it off. Well, what were you expecting? Those who lambasted Morrison for not meeting his potential as a ballplayer are missing the point. His tragedy is not that he failed to accomplish anything during his time in the NBA. Rather it’s the fact that he managed to fail exactly the way we all thought he would. Now that’s sad.

Adam Morrison is no longer playing in the NBA. The Washington Wizards waived him, despite being one of the lowest scoring teams in the NBA.

By David Lam

Oh my, this movie has been on my most anticipated list for two years now. If you haven’t seen the 5 minute promo reel online, do yourself a favor and check it out. First of all, you’ll be hard press to find another movie with a more appealing cast than I Come With The Rain. It features a who’s who of Asian cinema and throws in a decent Hollywood leading man for good measure. Then there’s art house favorite Tran Anh Hung behind the camera, getting carte blanche to go all art house on us. To top it all off, the movie features a gloomy Radiohead soundtrack that’s sure to get all the cool kids drooling. 

So why did this movie get designated to the wasteland where all unreleased movies go? It came and went in Japan and Korea and I don’t know if there will ever be a North American release. So what happened? 

Well, lets get into the plot first. Josh Hartnett plays Kline a cop turned private detective  who after a very nasty encounter with a serial killer (Elias koteas) is left emotionally traumatized. He’s hired by the head honcho of a pharmaceutical company to find his long estranged son Shitao (Takuya kimura), who’s apparently slumming it in the Philippines. Once Kline arrives, the detective who was originally hired to find Shitao believes that miners have killed him but still nevertheless convinces him to go to Hong Kong to get to the bottom of it.. From there he hooks up with a buddy Meng Zi (Shawn Yu), who conveniently happens to be a cop ends up bumping heads with a ruthless crime boss Su Dongpo (Lee Byung-hun). 

So as you can tell, I Come With The Rain presents itself as a psychological cat and mouse thriller but in actuality is a bona fide art house offering. Hung lavishly fills each frame with a saturated colour palette, awkward camera angles and a moody soundtrack. All of this works if you’re content with the story being secondary and action being replaced with characters stuck in a meditative state.  I for one appreciated the craft and the hypnotic pacing of the movie but I can definitely see people being turned off by the excessive of it all.  

Acting wise, everyone is pretty much bringing it full force. Shawn Yu is refreshingly solid as the arrogant cop who’s not afraid to get his hands dirty. Koteas is appropriately sinister as Hasford the serial killer, while Byung-hun’s Dongpo is brutal and oddly sympathetic at the same time. The most surprising though of the bunch is Hartnett who is able to convey his character’s crippling sense of dread without ever going overboard. His Kline is a tortured mess who’s constantly on the brink of a nervous breakdown.

  A knock against the movie would be that Hung crams every frame with some sort of biblical reference which by the end gets really tiresome. Also, as cool as the Radiohead soundtrack is, it gets to a point where you’re wondering if this is a music video you’re watching.

An uneven movie that is at times startling, meandering and eerily beautiful. It’s overstuffed with style but lacking in substance. Sometimes that’s not a bad thing, heck, Wong Kar Wai made an entire career out of it.