Catching up.
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BUKOWSKI: BORN INTO THIS (2004, John Dullaghan)- mostly what you'd expect, this Bukowski documentary approaches the man through his work, the memories of those he knew and some of his fans, and some footage of the man himself. The archival stuff proves to be the biggest asset of the film, as we see him at readings for his work, and in various interviews, including a few given by filmmakers Taylor Hackford and Barbet Schroeder. As expected from a writer whose work drew heavily from his life, the interviews are quite candid, and Bukowski's haggard face and voice say as much as the words he speaks. My favorite moment comes late in the film, during the Schroeder interview, when he's sitting next to his wife Linda Lee, and they begin fighting- Bukowski makes no attempt to behave for the camera, and the result is perfectly in character for him. The talking heads are pretty standard stuff (though pretty stellar- Bono, Sean Penn, Tom Waits and Harry Dean Stanton are up there along with Bukowski's old pals), and the film sometimes goes a little overboard trying to trick up his work visually- text that spins around, getting bigger or smaller, etc. But for anyone who loves his work, or even those who are curious about it, it's worth seeing for scenes like the one where he tours his childhood home and muses on his father's contribution to his writing. Rating: **1/2.

SHE HATE ME (2004, Spike Lee)- the film's reputation had me expecting the worst, and also hoping for some kind of glorious and misunderstood mess, but the reality was somewhere in between. Of course, Lee is too daring a filmmaker to make a boring film, and this one is no exception. It's actually a little surprising how seriously some critics took the film's story- a recently-fired African-American biotech exec impregnating lesbians to make money- when it's pretty clear that Lee is aiming for farce. Couldn't they guess that from the sequence in which Jack (a game Anthony Mackie) impregnates five women in one night on only Red Bull and Viagra, or the moment where Monica Bellucci instantly realizes that she was pregnant with twins just after having sex? It's pretty ridiculous stuff, but isn't especially funny, mostly because the film is too tonally inconsistent to build to a comedic release (out-and-out comedy has never been Spike's strong suit, although most of his films contain funny moments). The bigger picture here has less to do with the particulars of the hero's unconventional new job than with his struggle to do the right thing, which is something of a struggle for him, given that his high-ranking corporate office taught him the value of situational ethics, something that has been carried over to the impregnation scheme. By the time he testifies against his former employer before a House subcommittee, I had stopped caring about the film as a whole, while still enjoying some of its parts, like the scenes involving Frank Wills (Chiwetel Ejiofor), the security guard who discovered the Watergate break-in, whose story is not-so-subtly paralleled with Jack. Mackie and costar Kerry Washington give a good effort, and there are some solid turns in smaller roles, including Jim Brown as Mackie's father, David Bennent (who was the boy in THE TIN DRUM oh so long ago) as a scientist with a guilty conscience, and a GODFATHER-quoting John Turturro as Bellucci's father. If only Lee's brains were as big as his balls this time out, this might have been something. Rating: **.

ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS (1986, Julien Temple)- I'm almost uncomfortable rating this at all, since Temple's visual style here so plainly requires the big screen to be fully appreciated. As it is, this energetic and colorful musical account of a 1958 London race riot (and the events leading up to it) is a lot of fun but a tad superficial, sort of the missing link between the dancing gangs of WEST SIDE STORY and the caffeinate MTV aesthetic of MOULIN ROUGE. To his credit, Temple allows the audience to drink in his images, rather than swirling his camera around and cutting every half-second like Baz Luhrmann. As a result, his knack for bravura camera movements and set pieces becomes more apparent, with one often-cited example being the snazzy extended tracking shot near the beginning of the film. The musical numbers range from diverting to awesome, with a highlight being "Quiet Time" sung by former Kink Ray Davies, in which Temple employs the cutaway set of a house to excellent effect. I also liked David Bowie in a small supporting role as a rather mysterious figure, although I was a little bugged by his voice, which was pretty poorly post-looped. I just kinda wish I cared a little, y'know? Rating: **1/2.