‘Barbershop’ a bit thin on the top

“Barbershop” is a coming of age movie. Although happily married

with a pregnant wife, Calvin dreams of a better life for his family

-- like owning and living in Oprah’s guest house. The reality,

however, of owing back property taxes on the barbershop he inherited

from his father (who inherited it from his father), along with having

to break up his employees’ shouting matches about who stole whose

apple juice and chasing down customers who skip out on their

haircuts, causes Calvin to take drastic measures to change his dreary

fortune to good fortune. He sells the shop for cash under the table

to a loan shark. Like a story out of Grimm’s fairy tales, Calvin

instantly regrets selling the shop and wants it back. Unwilling to

simply give Calvin the shop back the loan shark is more than willing

to sell the business back if he meets the new offer.

Running parallel to Calvin’s story of self-inflicted misery is

that of an ATM cash machine robbery gone awry. Two robbers, whose

combined I.Q. is lower than the bank’s interest rates, spend the

better part of the movie trying to pry open the darn machine. Their

bumbling situation finally meets up with Calvin’s. “Barbershop” is an

ensemble film, so there are a several story lines along with

Calvin’s. The only female haircutter in the shop is dealing with a

two-timing boyfriend, a fellow cutter who drinks her apple juice and

another one who has a huge crush on her. Two of the other barbers in

the shop conduct a game of ‘who’s smarter than who’ throughout the

day. Still another apparently has issues with the police. Cedrick the

Entertainer, however takes center stage as the oldest and wisest of

the group freely dispensing his opinions on everything from politics

to personal crisis such as Calvin’s.

The antics of the barbers change from wild rantings among

themselves as the day begins transforming into friendly, chiding and

teasing by the time the sun sets. Their change of heart closely

matches Calvin’s, who moves from being unable to tolerate their

whining to being unable to do without it.

“Barbershop” is light on character development and story line but

heavy on good feelings and good company. Hardly award-winning

material, “Barbershop” is entertaining, but better left for DVD or

VHS in about four months.

* PEGGY J. ROGERS, 39, produces commercial videos and

documentaries.

‘City by the Sea’ is immersing drama

“City by the Sea” is inspired by, but not faithful to, the 1997

Esquire article, “Mark of a Murderer”, by Michael McAlary. This film

is better viewed as fiction in order to avoid comparison with facts.

Robert De Niro plays New York City homicide lieutenant Vincent

LaMarca, who must investigate his own son, Joey (James Franco), who

is a murder suspect.

The two have been estranged since Vincent abandoned Joey and his

mother when Joey was a young boy. Add to this that Vincent’s own

father left him when he was only 8 years old via execution: LaMarca’s

father was a convicted kidnapper and murderer. Thus, Vincent keeps

his girlfriend (Frances McDormand) and police partner (George

Dzundza) at arm’s length and lives a lonely and routine life using

the reactionary demands of his career in the present to shield him

from the pains of the past.

De Niro’s performance is cursory for most of the film allowing the

nuances of characterizations by McDormand and Franco to shine.

Franco, in fact, displays depth that will remind viewers why he won a

Golden Globe in his portrayal of James Dean, who incidentally could

not have played the role of the strung-out Joey LaMarca better. Eliza

Dushku, William Forsythe, and Patti LuPone also provide engaging

performances. De Niro finally shows us the pain Vincent feels in a

powerful argumentative showdown between father and son near the end

of the film. This is not an action film, it is raw drama.

Director Michael Caton-Jones, who also directed the pensive “Rob

Roy”, conducted the filming admirably. Caton-Jones also chose to

retain shots containing the World Trade Center, when others might

have shied away from the reminder of what once was. The script, by

Ken Hixon, is crisp and captures the past and present ambience of New

York’s Long Beach, and the angst of family dysfunction.

What I do find fault with is the shoddy editing. It is fairly

obvious that a few scenes ended up on the cutting room floor that

cause confusion and create leaps in continuity that could have been

avoided. In one scene, De Niro’s character, Vincent, is brought into

his superior’s office to discuss spin control over the media’s

interest in him, his father, and his son. However, there was never a

scene depicting how and why the media got interested in Vincent in

the first place. Later in the film, Joey pawns his own prized

football ring to a street thug who gives him drugs instead of cash.

Later we see Joey with a gun that materializes out of thin air, and

on his finger... his ring. No explanation is offeredOverall “City by

the Sea” will immerse you with captivating drama, moody music, and

dazzling characters that may cause you to reflect on your own family

relationships, as well as the patterns we repeat, even

unintentionally.

* RAY BUFFER, 32, is a professional singer, actor and voice-over

artist.