With Houston Cinema Arts Society celebrating its tenth anniversary this year, the organization that's devoted to showcasing unique films, media installations, and performances to local cinephiles has a couple of cool things on the marquee this month.
On Friday, July 13, the nonprofit will launch CineBrew, a monthly, three-part series that will have local breweries supplying the suds during a movie that will also have connections to this fair city. The inaugural film will be The Sugarland Express, Steven Spielberg's 1974 feature-film debut, starring a young Goldie Hawn as a lady on-the-lam with her escaped-convict husband. The film was shot in several Texas locations, including Jester State Prison Farm in Sugar Land. For that film, Spindletap Brewery will provide both the beer and the screening spot. It starts at 6:30 pm.
The other films in the series are Ron Howard's Apollo 13 (August 25, 6 pm, at Eureka Heights Brewery), which used Johnson Space Center as a prime location; and School of Rock, directed by Houston-born Richard Linklater (September 20, 7:30 pm, at 8th Wonder Brewery).
On July 21, HCAS will also host Julydoscope, a family-free evening of film and arts at Discovery Green. While last year's festivities was cancelled due to inclement weather, the Society has went all out with providing goodies for this year's event. For the film side, there will be a selection of CineSpace shorts, a dozen or so films that all deal with the utilization of NASA imagery from its half-century-spanning archives. That will be screened right after live performances from Opera in the Heights and saxophone quartet Musiqa. That starts at 7 pm.
Tom Rhys Harries and Naomi Ackie are patient and doctor in Clayface.
The history of DC Comics in movies has been hit-and-miss, especially when it comes to anything not directly involving Batman or Superman. Over the years, films have been headlined by heroes like Catwoman, Green Lantern, Aquaman, Shazam, the Flash, and more, and while some succeeded, none left a lasting mark on moviegoers’ imaginations.
Much like they did with Joker, the powers-that-be behind DC Studios productions are trying to entice viewers with a no-holds-barred story in Clayface. Matt Hagen (Tom Rhys Harries) is an A-list movie actor with both critical and commercial appeal. Unfortunately, a night of celebration for his recent Oscar nomination leads to him sleeping with Theresa (Ruby Sear), the girlfriend of Markos Szabo (David Dencik), a prominent mobster in Gotham City. Markos then enacts revenge by taking a razor to Matt’s face.
Desperate to find a way to look like his old self again, Matt seeks out Dr. Caitlyn Corr (Naomi Ackie), who’s conducting cutting-edge nanotechnology research that can heal any kind of damage. While the solution works on Matt, it also has the side effect of his body doing unintended things, even morphing into those with whom he comes into contact. After initially struggling with his new body, Matt decides to use his powers to enact revenge on those who’ve done him wrong.
Directed by James Watkins (Speak No Evil) and written by Mike Flanagan (The Life of Chuck) and Hossein Amini, the film is only intermittently entertaining as it tries to sell its ridiculous premise. Right from the start, it seems like the filmmakers have been given a limited budget, as everything from the sets to the CGI to the stilted dialogue feels cheap. For a film coming from a major studio, the whole thing comes off as schlocky and undercooked.
Watkins and his team try to make up for that shoddiness by delivering R-rated thrills like nudity and body horror, but those elements can only distract for so long. Much of the film is spent dealing with Matt’s trauma, and the downbeat nature of his body issues combined with very little action makes the movie not very fun to watch. The film also tries to make hay with more than a doctor-patient bond between Caitlyn — who has a boyfriend on the police force — and Matt, but like the most of the film, it never connects.
It’s not until the final third of the movie that the filmmakers land on the tone they should have been using the whole time. Matt’s ability to transform himself, while illogical and confounding, provides multiple over-the-top, funny moments and some legitimately creative kills. Instead of taking forever to set up Matt/Clayface’s origin story, Watkins and his team should have just cut to the chase and let him loose to see what the character could truly do.
This is the first big role for Welsh actor Harries, and while he’s not exactly magnetic, he proves himself worthy of the lead role. Ackie is also fine, but after several years of trying to advance up the Hollywood ladder, she may be running out of time to show she’s a star. The supporting cast has a couple of familiar faces, but it’s mostly lesser-known actors who do nothing to indicate they deserve bigger showcases.
It’s difficult to imagine any non-DC Comics fans having a strong attachment to the character of Clayface, and the film fails to make the case that he should be a continuing character. The poor quality of almost everything that appears on screen is indicative of the kind of effort and money that was put into the film, and sometimes you really do get what you pay for.
