Romancefest 2015: Dave

Here's another one I can file under "I kinda/sorta saw this one time, maybe." 1993's DAVE is a warm, light hearted, political comedy from mastermind Ivan Reitman, starring the always likable Kevin Kline as both the dickhead president of the US and an affable, small town owner of a temp agency who happens to look just like him.

Enlisted by the feds to double for the president during his dalliances, Kline is pressed into service as the real thing when the prez strokes out mid-affair. The president's closest advisors (Kevin Dunn and Frank Langella) hatch a plot to let Kline double just long enough to disgrace the vice president (Ben Kingsley) and nominate Langella as his replacement, so they can then reveal the death and Langella can rule as Master of the Universe! Or, the free world.

Kline has a little crush on the first lady because she is played by Sigourney Weaver. Who wouldn't. But, the first lady and the president are on the outs.

The beauty of the movie comes in the way the imposter slowly starts to take over as a real president, and injects his own simple, straight forward values into running the country in a way I think probably everyone has wanted to at one time or another specifically in a scene where he cuts the budget (with the help of Charles Grodin!) to keep a program that helps underprivileged kids. This is the kind of stuff classic Hollywood was made for, and Frank Capra would be proud. Is it a simplistic fantasy? Maybe. But damn it feels good.

One thing that helps legitimize the warm fuzzies is the way the screenplay earns them. Even though this is a case of mistaken identity, no one is written to be stupid just for the plot's sake. You might think, wouldn't the first lady be able to tell her own husband from a complete stranger? And the answer is not a contrivance. The answer is yes, she can. And she likes him better. Again, who wouldn't?

Reitman directs with a sure hand and has a great cast to work with, including a pre-PULP FICTION Ving Rhames who steals a couple scenes as a Secret Service man. I already mentioned Frank Langella but it's worth mentioning again – what a great villain, embodying everyone's worst political nightmare, the slimy double dealer who only cares about power. Also, just when you've forgotten he's in the movie, Ben Kingsley shows up to class up the joint and stands as a symbol of hope and goodness, better even than Dave (Kline) himself.

Romancefest 2015: Leaving Las Vegas

LEAVING LAS VEGAS is another in a long line of flicks where I feel like I basically saw it at one point but also can't really remember it that well. So, what better occasion than to re-watch it (or watch it for the first time) than Romancefest?

The much acclaimed flick from 1995 stars Nicolas Cage going full Nicolas Cage before it was disgraceful to go full Nicolas Cage as an alcoholic who loses his mid-level Hollywood career and his family and takes his severance to Las Vegas with a plan to drink himself to death. He figures it'll only take a few weeks and the liquor stores will never close on him.

Meanwhile, Elisabeth Shue stars as a Las Vegas prostitute who claims to be relatively happy with her life (it's not as bad as it used to be, anyway, she says) but endures an abusive relationship at the hands of her pimp (Julian Sands) who is in over his head with some organized criminals.

The two meet and are drawn to each other. Shue can't figure out why, but she likes the guy, maybe because he just wants to talk to her and doesn't really feel like having sex. Cage likes that she doesn't pressure him to give up on his deadly drinking mission. They love each other because they accept each other. Some might call this enabling, and it is. But it's also liberating.

These are two great performances, although Cage's stretches the limits of credibility. He plays a very theatrical drunk and does lots of cinematic drinking – the kind where you pour drinks from a foot away from your mouth, wasting all your precious alcohol. The kind where you dance in the grocery aisles, chug straight liquor while you drive. So, it's a little cartoonish if you think this is supposed to reflect All Alcoholics. But, if that's just the kind of guy this is, then that's something else.

Shue is more grounded and down to Earth, and plays the "prostitute with a heart of gold" not as if she knows what part she's playing, but as if she's a human who happens to be playing that part. She treats the job like a job, and has every day concerns. But, she doesn't swing too far the other way, either – she's not one of those "I've seen it all" characters you're supposed to be impressed with. You never once get that, "I'm supposed to think it's cool how cynical she is," vibe. And that's pretty amazing, considering the kind of movie this could have descended into if it had indulged that angle.

The movie would be clichéd if the two main characters weren't so carefully and individualistically observed. It also proceeds to a logical conclusion, which rescues it from any overly cinematic flights of fancy it might have indulged in early in the running time.

Romancefest 2015: Lemon Tree

Israel's 2008 flick LEMON TREE is kind of the opposite of CARAMEL – where politics took a backseat in CARAMEL in favor of the private lives of individuals, they're front and center here. This isn't necessarily a bad thing – I'm not one of those "Keep politics out of it" types. But, subtlety is nice, and while LEMON TREE is a good film, there is a better film buried inside of it, where the central message ("Can't we all just get along?") is not hammered home but told more quietly.

The movie tells the story of a Palestinian widow (Hiam Abbass) whose children have all moved out of the house. She spends her lonely hours tending the lemon grove on her property, as her family has done for generations. It is apparently her only source of income, and that is disrupted when the Israeli defense minister (Doron Tavory) moves in next door.

The defense minister's home is right on the border between Israel and the West Bank, and the lemon grove is viewed as a safety hazard – after all, there could be terrorists in them thar trees. A fence and watch tower is erected, and eventually the government wants to tear the grove down. The widow appeals. A legal battle ensues.

You might be wondering where the romance is here, and there are two relationships that form throughout the movie. The first and more conventional is between the widow and the lawyer she hires (Ali Suliman). The second, and more interesting, is a less literal relationship that forms between the widow and the defense minister's wife (Rona Lipaz-Michael).

The defense minister's wife is also lonely, in her own way, unsatisfied by the role she plays in politics and diplomacy and isolated in her big, new house. As she looks down from the windows at the lemon grove she can't help but feel for the widow on the other side of the fence who is fighting against her husband. She begins to identify with the widow, and disagree with her husband.

Romancefest 2015: Moscow, Belgium

Now let's go to Belgium for 2008's MOSCOW, BELGIUM starring Barbara Sarafian as a middle aged single mother of three whose husband (Johan Helengbergh) has left her for a younger woman. Harried, overworked, stressed and in a hurry, she backs into a truck and meets the driver, a man in his 20s (Jurgen Delnaet) who has recently experienced a break up.

They meet fighting, but the trucker has a change of heart and shows up to help fix the single mom's car. She's reluctant at first but eventually agrees to go on a date with him. She tells it like it is, and he likes that. She thinks he's too young, but he's intrigued. She has him over for dinner.

Not much happens in this little domestic romance, though there is plenty of drama in the form of the trucker's unfolding past and the single mother's continued relationship with her husband. It's mostly about big personalities butting up against each other, and how that can be both infuriating and invigorating.

It's refreshing to see a performance and character like the single mother played by Sarafian, and it's too bad we don't get more of these characters and performances. She's pretty, but definitely looks her age – her unique, lived in face is part of the charm. She looks like she really could have raised three kids and like her life really has been a series of annoyances and stressors. That all works to the movie's advantage – you feel like you're seeing a real, specific person and not just a stand-in. That's worth more emotion than a series of big, sweeping, epic events.

Romancefest 2015: Near Dark

Let's do two movies directed by women in a row! Next we have NEAR DARK, the 1987 vampire flick by Kathryn Bigelow, who recently enjoyed critical success with ZERO DARK THIRTY and THE HURT LOCKER, but who is also comfortable slumming it in action classics like POINT BREAK.

Here she's in slum mode with this quick and dirty little vampire yarn about a cowboy (Adrian Pasdar) who is seduced by a vampire (Jenny Wright) who is passing through town with her makeshift vampire family. At first left to dry up in the sun as he slowly transforms into a vampire, the vampire clan takes pity on the cowboy and swings by to pick him up in their RV. His father (Tim Thomerson) and sister (Marcia Leeds) witness the abduction and give chase.

The vampire clan is led by the always great Lance Henriksen and includes the also always great Bill Paxton. At first the cowboy is reluctant and wants to get away, but he wavers between the possibility of continuing some kind of existence with the immortal family and the impossibility of returning to a normal life.

This is a no nonsense flick that has a great pace and speeds to a logical conclusion. Even the characters don't have much time for nonsense. For example: after the cowboy is kidnapped, he doesn't just go along for the ride. The first chance he gets, he simply walks to the nearest bus station and hops a bus home. Similarly, his family doesn't just sit around figuring he's gone forever. They get off their asses and hunt the vampires down.

NEAR DARK benefits from having common sense, so it's smarter than most other movies of its kind. It also doesn't aim too high – it shoots straight for the middle, and does that really well. The performances are all high octane, especially Henriksen and Paxton, and Bigelow shows early on that she has the chops to make a mean movie.