There isn't an authentic moment in this entire blubbery contrivance about a white liberal girl, with the coyly ridiculous name of "Skeeter", who, returning home from college, wants to write about the women who do all the housekeeping and child-rearing in affluent white households in this small Mississippi town. There wouldn't be much of a movie if the black women, behaving entirely with attitudes that seem more native to the 1990's than the 1960's, didn't put up a resistance, and the cardboard cutout villains of the piece didn't steam in consternation. Every character seems more like a reference to another movie or book than they do to any real-life persons, including the sensitive writer, who tries vainly to disguise the fact that the story, supposedly about white repression of blacks, is really about a white girl who is so righteous and conscientious that she just can't stomach the injustice of segregation. The only fresh face here is Jessica Chastain as Celia Foote, a lush, vivacious housewife who hires Minny Jackson when nobody else will. But "The Help" can't even get the racist oppression right. At one point, Minnie's daughter interrupts a soiree hosted by Hilly Holbrooke to tell her mother something important. When her employer rightfully objects that Minnie is working and her daughter should come back later, and then fires her when Minnie argues, we are given to believe that this was an act of racist oppression when it doesn't, in fact, seem all that harshly unreasonable to me. Nor are there any traces left, in the demeanor of the help or Skeeter's family, or, conveniently, in characters who are on the side of Skeeter or friendly to her, of the corrosive relationship between classes that mark the South, or early 20th century England, or anywhere else where there was a deeply embedded master-slave relationship at one time. One of the help does describe a positive relationship with her employer-- but it feels so token that it was hard to take seriously. It's there so defenders of the movie can insist that it wasn't as one-sided as all that. In the same vein, the maids keep offering advice to the white characters, as if they think everyone knows that they are entitled to long-suffering wised old black dude status, and none of the whites appear to be insulted by the idea. This is Mississippi, right? Viola Davis was nominated for an Oscar-- they can't be serious. She struts about the movie looking grim, more grim, less grim, and grim grim, and not much else. She hardly exists on the screen, while Jessica Chastain owns it. This is the evil twin of too many movies to list, but start with "To Kill a Mockingbird".
Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Bryce Dallas Howard, Allison Janney, Jessica Chastain
Cecilia is unhappily married, working as a waitress and doing laundry in the evenings to pay the rent, all while making dinner and serving as foot-stool to her abusive husband, Monk. Her escape is the movies, and she becomes particularly obsessed with "The Purple Rose of Cairo". One day, a character from the film, Tom Baxter, looks at her sitting in the audience and comments on the fact that she has come five times in a row to see it, and then steps off the screen and into her life, introducing a host of absurd complications. The plot of the onscreen movie can't advance (and the characters can't go to dinner) and Cecilia has to start sneaking out on her husband to see the romantic Tom. This is funny at times, and poignant at times, but never really reaches a maturity of form. It's a bit of a vehicle for Farrow, who is engaging but not as entrancing as Tom and Gil Shepperd (the actor who plays Tom... never mind) find her. Charmingly inventive, nicely filmed.
Mia Farrow, Jeff Daniels, Danny Aiello, Irving Metzman
Loosely-- far more loosely than "Fair Game"-- based on the Valerie Plame/Joseph Wilson case, in which a high level U.S. official "leaks" to a reporter that the author of a report is married to a CIA agent, and, therefore, received the assignment as a favor-- a junket-- of no consequence. The reporter, in this case, discredits criticsm of the rationale given for an attack on Venezuela. Oddly, the movie doesn't address the question of whether the reporter was being used by the administration to discredit an accurate assessment of the intelligence data on the target country. It's a little disorientating-- she is nominated for a Pulitzer for her work, as if she had exposed the story of a reporter being used, rather than... never mind. Well-acted generally and well-written if not, finally, rather improbable. Worth the price of admission: Alan Burnside, her lawyer, telling Rachel that after a lifetime of good or bad works, love, and passion, the determining factor of how many people show up at your funeral is the weather.
Alan Alda, Kate Beckinsdale, Matt Dillon, Vera Farmiga
With John Williams' fine if overwrought music telling you what to feel every step of the way, typical Spielberg melodrama about a horse beloved by a farm boy, sold by the evil landlord into the army, surviving various disasters and misadventures, with dignity and horse-like grace, unlike the actors who are forced to read Hall's script and emote. The Germans, bizarrely, sometimes talk English with an accent, sometimes without an accent, as do the French. Everyone seems to think Joey is a brilliant horse but we never really learn much about him other than that he looks good while hauling weights. Waste of time.
Peter Mullan, Jeremy Irvine, Emily Watson, Niels Arestrup, David Thewlis, Celine Buckens
Fairly tight, well-written remake (essentially) of "Holiday Inn", with Danny Kaye standing in for Fred Astaire, the rather manly Rosemary Clooney and the exquisite Vera-Ellen as the Haynes sisters, and Bing crooning away as if tickling a turtle to sleep... begins with Bing and Danny in the military, admiring tough but fair Major-General Waverly. They embark on a partnership in entertainment and eventually end up discovering that the ex-General is running a winter resort that is losing money hand-over-fist because of the lack of snow. All the major end up putting on a show to save the General, and finding romance. Really, compared to the average Hollywood production today, well-written and directed. Really. And Vera-Ellen is amazing in her own way (she later battled anorexia).
Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Vera Ellen, Rosemary Clooney, Dean Jagger, Mary Wickes
Spectacularly lavish reconstruction of early 20th Century Paris at the expense of dramatic life. Hugo lives in the train station in Paris, keeping the clocks going, long after his Uncle--who's job it really was-- has disappeared. He is trying to reactivate a robot brought home by his father years ago, just before he died. The fact that the his father is played by Jude Law and presents as the usual perfect father that all deceased or missing fathers appear to be tells you-- depressingly-- that Scorcese is following Hollywood formula here. Same with the moment that Georges Melies comes unnoticed out of his bedroom as they are playing his film. You groan in mere anticipation of the cliche arriving with a giant clunk. Yet Scorcese will probably get awards for this, though none of the actors will. Scorcese, who used to get great performances from his actors, here seems to defer everything to special effects.
Sasha Baron Cohen, Asa Butterfield, Ben Kingsley, Chloe Grace Moretz, Ray Winstone, Emily Mortimer, Christopher Lee
Martin Sheen as father of a young man killed while attempting to walk the "Camino" (France to Spain). He travels to Spain to pick up his son's ashes and then decides to finish the walk. The outline of this narrative is obvious but is handled without pretentiousness and in good humour and it succeeds in conveying the contemplative character of a walking life. Even more, it transports the viewer along a spiritual path without self-conscious spirituality or overt pietisms: there is something elegant in the expectation that the participant grows as person without any kind of program or direct personal influence.
Martin Sheen, Emilio Estevez, Leanne Unger, Yorick Van Wageningen
Zelig is a chameleon of a man, capable of transforming into a resemblance of the people who surround him. In other words, a "celebrity". And then he doesn't. And then he does again. I didn't get the connection with celebrity, really. Aren't celebrities, in fact, exactly what we are not? Thin? Beautiful? Witty? They represent, perhaps, what we wish we could be. They delude us into thinking much more of ourselves than we really deserve. There is a bit of sermonizing in "Zelig": think for yourselves. But it feels gratuitous and ad hoc. So Zelig remains not much more than a clever schtick, extended over 73 minutes. Interesting note: Allen's first cut of the film was only 45 minutes. He ended up having to pad it with more archival footage and more narration.
Woody Allen, Mia Farrow, Patrick Horgan
Highly over-rated, thin story about a lawyer in Hawaii struggling to manage after his wife is seriously injured in a boating accident. His two daughters flaunt their independence and contempt, and his relatives are all hoping he will cash in some inherited land for which he is trustee. Then the shocking discovery: his wife was cheating on him. Clooney, really, should have played that part, with a bit of darkness, rather than the bumbling, emotionally inept father. Falls back on the worst cliche of all: the neglectful parent.
George Clooney, Shailene Woodley, Amara Miller, Robert Forster, Nick Krause, Matthew Lillard, Judy Greer
Dutch film about two sisters born in Germany separated at a very young age when their mother dies. One grows up in a prosperous, tolerant, liberal Dutch family; the other in a strict, traditional, uncultured German family. As they grow up, the Dutch sister marries a Jew; the German an SS officer. Lotte, the Dutch sister, develops a burning resentment of Anna\'s loyalty to her German family, even after the war. They seem unable to resolve their differences. The problem is, it\'s hard to understand how Lotte could have imagined that Anna would not have married a German involved in the war. She seems surprised that Anna would adapt to her own culture. Another problem with the film is the limited budget: some scenes cry out for a more vivid recreation of the war-- this is not the kind of quiet, intimate film that does well without spectacle.
Ellen Vogel, Gudrun Okras, Thekla Reuten, Nadja Uhl
Very odd story about a poor man in Iran who decides, on the spur of the moment, to impersonate the famous Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf, to an older woman he meets on the bus, and to her family. He thinks they would be good actors for his new film, and their house a perfect location, and he invites himself over for dinner and to stay the night. Eventually the family calls the police, he is arrested, and that is when Kiorstami read about the story in the paper and arrived with his cameras. The story rides on the peculiar personality of Hossain Sabzian, the impersonator. Most of the people involved in the real story re-enact their own roles here. There are long continuous cuts of court testimony. Quite interesting at times, but really, not all that substantial. I recall that Kiorstami shot another movie in which the young actress playing the lead role suddenly quits, and, as the cameras role, takes a bus home.
Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Hossain Sabzian
First feature film by Abbas Kiarostami about a young boy who loves soccer and hates school. One day, he manages to put together enough money to take a bus to the city, Tehran, to see his favorite soccer team, Pelepolis, play. Along the way he encounters and almost overcomes all obstacles.
Hassan Darabi, Masud Zandbegleh
Five men share a \"loft\", an apartment, in order to cheat on their wives in comfortable discretion. But one day, the dead body of a woman is found in the apartment. Since only the five men have keys, who did it? There are a lot of twists and turns here and the shocking developments are not entirely unsatisfying. There is also a subtext here about the wages of sin, but Van Looy is sophisticated enough to not clobber you with moralisms. Well filmed, big-budget Belgium production.
Koen De Bouw, Filip Peeters
Riveting story about a working man in a mid-western town who becomes increasingly fearful of some kind of apocalyptic doom stalking him and his family, expressed in terrible nightmares. His mother is schizophrenic-- is he hallucinating, or just prescient. There\'s not a slow moment in a film that seems, on the surface, slow-moving. The tension winds tighter and tighter as his wife becomes more aware of his obsessions, culminating in the expansion of a shelter in his backyard. The ending is enigmatic, as the film connects his fearfulness to real horrors-- the loss of his job, the lack of medical coverage for his daughter with a hearing impairment, his betrayal of a close friend. Jessica Chastain should be nominated for an Oscar for her performance, but probably won\'t be.
Michael Shannon, Jessica Chastain
Made a sensational impression at Cannes until Von Trier, at a press conference, with Kirsten Dunst at his side, made a few breathtakingly moronic comments about Nazis. Justine and Claire are two sisters (with different accents!) and two polarities: Claire loves life, plans things, arranges Justine\'s entire wedding, and seems to lead a successful life. Justine is paralyzed with depression and barely bring herself to get through the day. The movie opens with her wedding, a disaster, and the volatile relationship between the two women, and Claire\'s husband who also seems to thrive on order and preparation. Until... a planet appears in the sky, headed towards earth. Will it hit the planet destroying all life? Justine: nobody will miss it. The dialogue seems improvised, often, and Von Trier seems to like method actors, and the hand-held camera work is more than a little annoying, but it\'s an exploration of despair, and Von Trier wants to suggest that depressives are more prepared for what life throws at you-- including the disaster of marriage-- than more functional people are. Really a beautiful film in many ways.
Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Alexander Skarsgard, Charlotte Rampling, Stellan Skarsgard, Udo Kier, Kiefer Sutherland
No director credit given, actually. Lovely, very formal film of a play by Kaj Munk about a Lutheran farm family and its struggles in 1925 Denmark, a small village. Patriarch Morten Borgen, an enlightened Lutheran who embraces the joy of life, his son Johannes who, unable to cope with higher education (apparently Kierkegaard drives him mad) thinks he is Jesus Christ. Sensible agnostic Mikkel has a pregnant wife, Inga, and two little girls, and Anders, who just wants to marry Anne, the tailor\'s daughter. The tailor, unfortunately, belongs to a fundamentalist faith. Until he denies Anders, Morten was also against the match. Elegant and serious, there are not many films who deal as seriously with issues of faith as \"Ordet\" does, or is as pictorially filmed, or as well acted.
Hanne Agesen, Kirsten Andreasen, Sylvia Eckhausen, Birgitte Federspiel
The theory is rather preposterous, though not without a few a few oddities in it\'s favor, but the movie itself isn\'t even all that fun. Why, in heaven\'s name, did they miss the chance to have Edward De Vere (the Earl of Oxford) applaud enthusiastically at his own words while Shakespeare takes his bows? That is emblematic of the problem with \"Anonymous\": no sense of humour. That and the Ben Jonson character forced to disgrace himself with a whining, whimpering tribute to a Shakespeare who only exists in the mind of a college sophomore without, again, any sense of humour. The lavish reconstruction of 17th century London is fun, and the reconstruction of the theatre-- but they didn\'t even have the good taste to choose a anything from Shakespeare that they thought an audience might not recognize. Even Redgrave is a disappointment.
Rhys Ifans, Vanessa Redgrave, David Thewlis, Rafe Spall, Joely Richardson
Not without it\'s charms: the players are a nicely diverse, colourful bunch, including Sheen\'s \"Wild Thing\" (the inspiration for Mitch Williams at Philadelphia). The manager looks like Jack Morris after a few years out of baseball. The stadium shots are very impressive-- how did they do that? And apparently Dennis Haysbert stunningly hit a real home run while shooting the penultimate scene, which is why he forgot to drop the bat while running around the bases. Fun. But not too much fun. They just couldn\'t pass up the clicheish ending, and the sappy music.
Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger, Corbin Bensen, Wesley Snipes
Riveting action involving a Nazi\'s attempt to spirit hundreds of masterpieces of French art back to Germany in the dying days of the occupation of Paris. The French Underground decides to try to prevent them even though it\'s leaders are not convinced that a Cezanne or two are worth the human lives it will cost. Based on a true story, infinitely enriched with the willingness of the French government in 1964 to have their old steam engines destroyed in the name of art-- the movie. The train crashes are utterly spectacular and real. In the end, Lancaster is a bit bombastic and melodramatic, but the story is not without it\'s subtleties-- does he believe it was worth the sacrifice or not? Even Christine, who hides him from the Nazis, doesn\'t seem to really believe in the cause of saving art. Yes, it\'s old Hollywood with archaic acting styles and preposterous but it\'s a grand show thanks to the trains (and the willingness of the actors to perform their own stunts, driving the trains, pouring hot metal, and so on.)
Burt Lancaster
Elegiac, lingering, meditative document of the infamous trek by a group of settlers misled by Stephen Meek into an arid wilderness, allegedly a shortcut that would lead them away from dangerous natives and difficult mountain climbs. Reichardt meticulously recreates the wagons, the clothing, the habits of the settlers as they oh so gradually become aware of their predicament and consider what to do. When they capture a lone native and he seems to know the way to water, they debate relegating meek to fellow passenger (in real life, they almost lynched him). Reichardt pays a lot of attention to the roles of the women in this group, the way they are sidelined from the discussions, at least at first. No easy answers provided, just an exquisitely textured experience.
Michelle Williams, Bruce Greenwood
Dry and sombre but interestingly detailed examination of the life of a young nun, Sister Luke (real name: Gabrielle Vandermal)played by the ineffable Audrey Hepburn. She enters a cloister with dreams of serving in a hospital in the Congo but is thwarted time and time again by her superiors\' concerns about her ego and pride (her father is a famous surgeon). Along the way she begins to have qualms about her life as a nun, the self-denial, the unsatisfying emotional life. She responds to Doctor Fortunati who appreciates her intelligence and passion, and chafes under demands to drop her worldly preoccupations every time five bells ring for vespers. Strikingly ambitious, with many wide shots of large crowds, location filming, and formal composition. Worth seeing but archaic.
Audrey Hepburn, Peter Finch, Edith Evans, Peggy Aschroft, Dean Jagger
Intriguing and well-written but very poorly managed dramatization of le Carre novel about a dissolute British book publisher being contacted by a go-between with a manuscript by a brilliant Russian scientist alleging that the Russian military-industrial complex is woefully inept and far weaker than Western governments give them credit for.
Sean Connery, Michelle Pfeiffer
100 minutes of Ryan Gosling looking alternatively google-eyed and smirking (at Carey Mulligan) or menacingly smirking. Mulligan looks helpless in the hands of misguided director Refn who seems convinced that he has Taxi Driver 2 on his hands. Gosling plays \"Driver\", a man who drives criminals away from crime scenes quickly and efficiently and the only really compelling sequence of the film is the opening ten minutes when he does just that, even if the conclusion of the scene-- he leaves the car and passengers in a parking garage at a Clippers game that has just ended and walks away-- is baffling. Mulligan is his fetching neighbor with the prerequisite cute kid and a husband about to be released from prison. The tedious obligatory scenes of Gosling being protective of mom and child, and even of her husband, are sometimes excruciatingly predictable and dull. Vastly over-rated film by reviewers who confuse it's mute inexpressiveness with profound intution. No, it's not. It's clumsy and under-developed. After getting double-crossed while attempting to rob a pawn shop, a newscaster reports that a man was killed and the owner said that nothing was stolen. The owner wouldn't "say" that: the reporter doesn't know that there was a double-cross involved. The report should have been that a man was killed attempting (and failing) to rob a pawn shop. But that's the level of sophistication of the entire movie. The difference is when you don't open your mouth the lack of ideas isn't as obvious. And this tired, old cliche -- dating back to Clint Eastwood, and even John Wayne-- of the virile, violent, silent male that is bizarrely attractive to the girl while committed horrendous acts of violence-- allegedly on her behalf-- is nauseating at every level. Finally, the idiotic last scenes, with no rational or irrational explanation other than rather ridiculously overblown sense of fate in the head of the director-- is unforgivable. This is a piece of shit.
Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan
In 2001, an extremely well-liked graduating medical doctor, Andrew Bagby, was gunned down in a parking lot near Keystone State Park near Latrobe, Pennsylvania. Kurt Kuenne set out to make a video record of Andrew\'s life, when he discovered that Andrew\'s ex-girlfriend-- a psycho named Shirley Turner-- was pregnant with his child. Turner was also a top suspect in the killing of Bagby-- he had just tried to make a decisive break with her the night of the murder. \"Dear Zachary\" is powerful and propulsive but it\'s a polemic that should not be confused with journalism. In fact, I found elements of it-- particularly Steven Bagby\'s father\'s insistence that he had the \"right\" to kill Shirley Turner-- more than a little disturbing. Even more disturbing -- most viewers won\'t realize how entirely one-sided the presentation is. For example, Kuenne seems enraptured with the Bagbys but whatever it is he adores about them didn\'t come through to me, and he seems blind to the possibility that their insistent intrusion into the lives of Shirley and Zachary in Newfoundland could only have been perceived as threatening and intimidating by this terribly insecure, unstable woman, Shirley Turner. It is appallingly necessary to state that this not an excuse for Turner's behavior-- it wasn't morally wrong of the Bagby's to intervene-- it was just glaringly unwise. While complaining bitterly about the province of Newfoundland failing to incarcerate Turner while she waited for extradition, the Bagbys couldn\'t have been that ignorant of their own possible role in driving her over the edge. Nor does Kuenne pay any regard to the death penalty issue: Canada would never allow Turner to be tried in the U.S. without a guarantee that Pennsylvania would not seek the death penalty. That doesn't get mentioned presumably because it might introduce shades of grey into what is otherwise a swimingly smooth diatribe against somebody, anybody who might be responsible, now that the only available target is dead. As I watched Bagby senior vent his anger and his willingness, in retrospect, to murder, I couldn't help but see the seeds of a blood feud, the innate propensity in all of us to kill, always for perceived maddening injustice. What's truly maddening is how often we become no better than the people we excorciate.
Kurt Kuenne
Chen Changhua and Zhang Changhua are a Chinese couple trying hard to support their young family, two children, Xin and Yang, a 16-year-old girl and eight-year-old boy. But to find good jobs they have to travel 2400 kilometers away to Guangzhou where they work long shifts sewing western clothes for an exporter. They are away so often, over 16 years, that their own children regard them as near strangers, and Xin in particular has become resentful of their demands upon her. She doesn\'t want to stay in school and fulfill their dreams: she wants to get her own job and save her own money. In a startling moment, she swears at her father and he swats her in the head and she fights back. Really makes you wonder about the price China is paying for their great leap forward into manufacturing and industrialization: what kind of life do Chen and Zhang have? Does it matter, when, clearly their own children no longer share their values?
Tu Lie Che Gui
Game but inadequate movie about a political fixer, Stephen Meyers, and his manipulation of events to place himself close to power at the expense-- of course-- of a politician\'s integrity. Meyers is a media adviser to Governor Mike Morris (Clooney) who\'s got a good shot at becoming the Democratic presidential nominee if he can only take Ohio. Through a series of improbably events and meetings, Meyers acquires valuable information with which he can extort favors. Which is about as disappointingly prosaic as it gets. \"West Wing\" has set an extremely high bar for this subject and \"Ides of March\" really can\'t approach it\'s level and depth of sophistication, and if you are not likely to be shocked at the idea that politics can be corrupt, you will be disappointed. Good performances by Hoffman and Giametti help, but can\'t save it.
Kevin Kline, George Clooney, Paul Giamatti, Ryan Gosling, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rachel Evan Wood
Nana Kleinfrankenheim is a beautiful young girl aspiring to be a model or an actress but driven inexorably towards prostitution and drug abuse. Godard presents her life in \"chapters\", discrete acts dramatizing her struggle with identify and roles, and her inability to transcend her own circumstances. She uses and is used and seems barely conscious of how she is being driven towards more and more limiting situations. The dialogue is at times self-consciously arty and philosophical. She sees a movie, hangs out a pool hall, works at a record store. There are no big, dramatic scenes or statements until the end, which seems abrupt and barely plausible. Considered a landmark film for good reasons, but hasn\'t aged well, when so many independent film-makers today, like Linklater, P.T. Anderson, and others, succeed so well in exploring this territory.
Anna Karina, Sady Rebbot
Clever, amusing little comedy about some jewel thieves out to double-cross each other, and then, aware of the double-cross, outwit each other. The complication is when one of them is caught (turned over by one of their own) after moving the goods. Archie Leach (John Cleese), the lawyer for the incarcerated gang member (Tom Georgeson) becomes key to the plot as Wanda Gershwitz (Curtis) must -- not entirely unwillingly-- seduce him for the vital information. It\'s all red herrings and just a vehicle for some relatively witty repartee and joyful character humour, especially with a jealous Otto (Kevin Kline) doing his best to keep Wanda from hooking up with Archie.
John Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis
Oddly audacious film about two sisters, Sadie and Georgia Flood: one a successful country and western singer, and the other a failed punker, drug addict, depressive, who resents her older sister\'s success. There\'s a lot of insight into sibling relationships, and the psychology of self-destructive, self-mutilating depressives. Georgia is so good that she\'s even tasteful in the way she tries to support Sadie without seeming to, but Sadie is too smart to miss the condescension. There are some extraordinary scenes-- Sadie performing-- badly-- an admirer begging to be abused -- domestic scenes at Georgia\'s house. Is the movie really more about Georgia, in spite of Sadie\'s spectacular failures?
Jennifer Jason-Leigh, Mare Winningham
Lumbering, stiff melodrama about a war veteran/writer returning to his home town after his drunken friends threw him on a bus and told the driver where to drop him. Dave Hirsh is not entirely welcome. His brother, who runs a jewelry store, fears bad publicity from his drunken brawling. The police see him as a trouble maker. This alls supposed to provide the depth and snuffy cache of a deep mind, an iconclast capable of writing the truth, inspired by shattering experiences. Unfortunately, one of these shattering experiences is the friendship of Bama Dillert, a professional gambler, played by a wisecracking, lazy Dean Martin, and it all becomes very brat packish, with Shirley MacLaine as a thinly desguised prostitute moon over Dave. There are some serious literary pretensions at work, but mostly stiff melodrama, but it's all quite interesting as an artifact of a different era: women pretend to not want it, but when firm, tough Frank takes Gwen in hand, she caves like giddy school-girl. And Ginne begs Dave to please, please, please let her do his laundry.
Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Shirley MacLaine, Martha Hyer, Arthur Kennedy, Leora Dana, Larry Gates
Absalon is an older pastor in a small 17th century village in Denmark whose wife has died. As the result of his intervention to save a woman from being burned as witch, he is able to marry her young daughter, Anne. We are introduced to her when another woman, Herlofs Marte, being persecuted as witch, flees to the pastor's house and begs Anne for protection, because she knows that her mother was also a witch, and that the pastor protected her. We don't know the details, but we know about debt and obligation, and when the pastor's son from his first marriage, Martin, returns from overseas and falls in love with Anne, the sense of doom is palpable. Beautifully filmed-- in an archaic, theatrical style, but beautiful nonetheless-- and directed. Scene after scene demands your attention, the luminous meadows, the horrifying children's choirs, the trial and torture of the "witch", the execution. Does it matter if Herlofs Marte really was a witch? Does Anne begin to believe that she may have magical powers? Anne is mesmerizing and convincingly "bewitching", while Martin is torn between his conscience and his desire. Wonderfully illustrates just blurred the distinction between magic and mystery can become, and how otherwise rational people can believe in something absurd. Note that this was filmed in occupied Denmark in 1943. Dreyer had to flee to Sweden shortly afterwards.
Thorkild Roose, Anna Svierkier, Lisbeth Movin, Preben Lerdorff Rye, Sigrid Neiiendam
Odd, sometimes clever story about a group of marines who have a contest to see who can arrive at a party with the ugliest date. Lili Taylor, while not the most beautiful actress in the world, would not really seem to qualify but she ends up as River Phoenix's date and she discovers the reason she was chosen and reacts furiously. This is 1963 and the attitudes show it: the girls are not outraged in that relentless, feminist political style-- it's more like they weren't very nice. While the basic plot is somewhat implausible, "Dogfight" has more than a few inspired moments, as when the couple go into an arcade of some kind in which a number of machines play music in various formats.
Lili Taylor, River Phoenix, Richard Panebianco, Anthony Clark, Mitchell Whitfield, Holly Near
Terrific adaptation of the Michael Lewis book on Billy Beane, manager of the Oakland As and how he used Bill James' theories about the value of ball players to build a competitive team at about 1/4 of the budget of the Yankees and Red Sox. Written by Aaron Sorkin and shows -- the dialogue is punchy, idiosyncratic, rich in the flavor or lingo of professionals in a specialized vocation. Pitt is barely adequate as Beane, and sometimes diminished, but the supporting cast are very good, and the blend of tv footage and film is clever and engaging. I can't quite bring myself to declare that the film is really about Billy Beane exorcising the demons of his own failures as a ball player (he was a top prospect but never fulfilled his promise) because I just couldn't see it as I was watching the film, though the pieces are there. The song at the end definitely asserts that kind of interpretation: just enjoy the ride.
Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Robin Wright, Chris Pratt, Siigrid Neiiendam
Thrilling, tightly wound drama about a deadly virus outbreak originating in Japan, in an American businesswoman returning to her home in Minnesota, with a stop-over in Chicago. Unusually accurate in terms of medical, scientific procedures, and diligently conscientious about basic political, policy issues. Very nicely balanced mix of science and the human drama, and refreshingly free of the stereotypes and sentiment. We watch the outbreak spread, governments panick, and -- here's a flaw-- the somewhat idealistically heroic scientists who struggle to contain the virus, including Elliot Gould as a outlier, and Jennifer Ehle as a self-sacraficing saintly researcher. Well acted and well filmed.
Marion Cotillard, Kate Winslet, Jennifer Ehle, Elliot Gould, Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Tien You Chui, Larry Clarke, Sanjay Gupta
Terri is a schlumpy, discouraging teenager living with his near-demented Uncle who can't even bring himself to change out of his pyjamas for school. He doesn't have any friends, and doesn't seem motivated or interested. Mr. Fitzgeral (Reilly), the vice-principal, suddenly takes an interest in him and asks him to join him every Monday morning for a chat. Reilly sometimes puts on a show of toughness, but it's only for the benefit of Ms. Hamish, his elderly secretary. Really, he's more of a therapist. He seems to see something redeemable in Terri-- or does he? Underdeveloped and sometimes develops happen too quickly. Odd, movie that lingers over little scenes, sometimes generously, and seems to follow no template. It is most generous of all in leaving Terri as he is, without a miracle or transformation-- and allowing to contemplate the triumphs and disasters of life writ small.
Jacob Wysocki, John C. Reilly, Bridger Zadina, Creed Bratton, Olivia Crocicchia, Mary Anne McGarry
Dramatization of the Scooter Libby - Joe Wilson - Valerie Plame scandal.
Documentary about Brandon Darby, and FBI informant, and the two young protesters who ended up serving prison time because of his activities.
Lame on every level, "The Adjustment Bureau" is about a candidate for the senate who inexplicably "blows" his election with a misbegotten prank, then meets an inexplicably attractive and friendly woman in a bathroom while mentally preparing for his concession. A number of dark-suited men appear-- and he detects them-- who "correct" variations in "the plan" of his life, and the development of world civilizations. It is not in the plan for David and Elise to fall in love, and David, who has a remarkable fate in store, must forego his true love to realize it. People who liked this movie defended it as essentially a love story, thereby condemning with faint praise the fantasy elements (it is based-- astonishingly-- on a story by Philip K. Dick). But the love story itself is the fantasy and the rest of it has neither the whimsy nor depth required to be entertaining. This is a "Shawshank Redemption" of sci-fi, all glib scenes with no substance. It's really far more "Truman Show" than "Matrix" or "Blade Runner". And no, Emily Blunt did not do her own dance scenes, and it's not as if you would have been amazed if she had. The two leads should have done better but seem under-rehearsed and careless. None of the characters seem to have any off-screen existence-- they pop in, do their mechanical function, and then disappear from the movie and our minds forever. It is so, so emblematic of American culture nowadays that the ending has it both ways.
Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Terence Stamp
Confused and unfocussed story of three Mossad agents who kidnapped a Mengele-type Nazi concentration camp doctor in East Germany in the early 1960's and killed him when they were unable to extract him to Israel for trial. Turns out that all is not as it seems. The man they claimed to have killed has surfaced in the Ukraine and Rachel must track him down and eliminate him before the truth comes out. Confused at times and illogical at others, and always under-rehearsed and rather facile. Sometimes reads like a sophomoric attempt to impute significance to what is really a soap opera about the threesome. Jessica Chastain as the young Rachel just doesn’t seem to have any hardness or ruthlessness to her, which might have worked had it been part of the story. Instead, the three of them seem unprepared for the difficulties they encounter, and the entire premise of the story seems improbable.
Helen Mirren, Tom Wilkinson, Ciaran Hinds, Jessica Chastain
Powerful documentary abouy Danish troops in Afghanistan, and a specific encounter they have with Taliban insurgents that scars all of them for life. You get to know the soldiers, get a sense of their routine, their challenges, and then you get to see them in action.
Amazing documentary about ill-conceived attempt to raise a chimp, Nim, as a human baby, hoping that he would learn language thus proving Noam Chomsky wrong when he asserted that only humans have that faciltity. This is a tragedy of confused science and cruelty and misguided attempts to "rescue" Nim (his full name is "Nim Chimpsky"). His handlers care for him but are ill-prepared for the sometimes violent outbursts of this very powerful, sometimes ill-tempered creature. Lots of stunning footage from the study and his later life in a rescue shelter. In spite of his occasional violent outbursts, you begin to sympathize with this creature who, after all, never asked for any of it.
The story of Brian Clough\'s 45 days as manager of Leeds United, a disastrous affair brought about by his misunderstood phenomenal success with Derby, which he took from deep in the second division to tops of the first division in just a few years. Unbeknownst to almost everyone, his loyal assistant, Peter Taylor, was the real brains behind the operation and the real reason for his success. When Taylor loyally adhered to a contract with Brighton and Hove Albion after Leeds offered a contract to Clough, Clough was on his own. After alienating his own players and the team\'s former manager-- whom he despised--Leeds had it\'s worst start in 20 years. Superbly acted and filmed in a punchy, frenetic style, Damned United is entertaining from start to finish. Dwells less on the football than on the personal relationships. However, \"Damned United\" takes a number of liberties with the facts, sometimes illogically (Derby defeated Leeds 4-0, not 2-1, while Clough hid in his office, unable to bear another possible loss to his arch-rival).
Michael Sheen, Timothy Spall, Colm Meany, Stephen Graham, Henry Goodman
Powerful dramatization of the infamus Katyn massacre of Polish officers, intellectuals, and other potential leaders by Stalin's NKVD in spring 1940, after the Russians, in a prearranged deal with Germany, seized the eastern half of Poland. The Germans, after launching Barbarossa in 1941, and seizing the terrirtory previous occupied by the Soviets, first exhumbed the bodies, launched an investigation, and blamed the Communists. The Russians denied it for years until Gorbachaev and Yeltsin officially acknowledged it in the 1990's. Follows closely a Polish officers Andrzej and his wife and daughter and sister and parents as events unfold. The officers, held as "hostages" had no idea of the fate being planned for them. They are interrogated and moved around and frustrated at their inability to form a resistance. The Germans and Russians both seek to exploit the families of the victims for propaganda purposes and the families resist at their peril. Even-handed and meticulous, beautifully recreated. Outstanding historical drama.
Maya Ostaszewska, Artur Zmijewski, Jan Englert, Magdalena Cielecka, Agnieszka Glinska
Cheesey, amateurish (it was made by amateurs, really) horrifying account of serial killers inspired, obviously, by Henry Lee Lucas and Ottis Toole. The film doesn't moralize or glamourize the violence- it's rather "matter-of-fact", which might have been refreshing if the acting performances had been better. The real-life Lucas claimed to have committed more than 600 murders but, long after this film was conceived, most if not all of his confessions have been thrown into doubt. He was convicted of 11 murders but Governor George W. Bush commuted his death sentence, presumably because of serious doubts about any of the cases against him. But the film is based on some of the discredited confessions, and one for which he was convicted. In real life, "Becky" was more like 11 years old-- not the mature young woman played by Tracy Arnold.
Michael Rooker, Tom Towles, Tracy Arnold
Very amusing travelogue: two friends (one a substitute for the other's girlfriend) travel around the Northern English countryside sampling high-end restaurants and talking, joking, arguing, doing imitations of famous actors, and enjoying each other more than they care to admit. A good deal of improvisation involved, relying on the entertainment value of the two actors, their wits, their charm. They are engaging and different: Steve is quieter, more introspective, and more of a womanizer. Rob is happily married and misses his wife and calls her every night. They rub each other the wrong way at times, but a sense of joy of companionship gradually emerges, given poignancy by the ending, when each goes back to their homes as they are.
Steve Coogan, Rob Brydon
Trevor Reznik can't sleep. Something has gotten under his skin and it seems beyond his abilities to work it out. He spends time with a good-hearted prostitute -- Jennifer Jason Leigh-- and has issues with co-workers. He works lathes in a machine shop and one day his carelessness causes a devastating accident. A stranger appears who seems to know something about Trevor that he is unaware of. It's Christian's Bale's performance that holds together a surprisingly tightly constructed story the unpeels itself in disturbing layers.
Christian Bale, Jennifer Jason-Leigh
Give him credit for trying: Allen does a musical. And it's actually quite amusing. Allen is Joe Berlin who, at the end of another relationship, goes to Paris where he meets Von (Julia Roberts). But their love is not true, so they sing and dance about it, and Von ends up going back to her husband, while the action shifts to Skylar and Holden. The songs are not written for this production-- they are standards and classics from the light jazz repertoire, with dancing, with Groucho Marx getups, and generally a joyous celebration of love and desire and the vicissitudes of romance.
Edward Norton, Drew Barrymore, Alan Alda, Gaby Hoffman, Woody Allen, Tim Roth
Agnes is dying of cancer and her two sisters, Maria and Karin come to visit. Also present is the maid, Anna, who, at times, seems to be the only one capable of providing comfort to the dying woman. As the tension increases as Agnes approaches her painful death, Karin and Maria raise long suppressed grievances and jealousies, which prevent them from providing real love and comfort to their dying sister.
Harriet Andersson, Kari Sylwan, Liv Ullman, Ingrid Thulin, Erland Josephson
Rather pedestrian if lavish "true" story about Li Cunzin who was taken from his home at a very young age to train as a ballet dancer in China. He is given the opportunity to train abroad in Texas and chooses to defect to the U.S. introducing many personal and political complications into his life. There are occasional moments of authenticity-- his girlfriend is a mediocre dancer and he is paired with someone else for the climatic, obligatory, revelatory performance-- and the scenes in China especially feature loads of extras, costumes, and sets, but never really rises above the biopic genre.
Chi Cao, Bruce Greenwood, Christopher Kirby, Penne Hackforth-Jones, Kyle McLachlan
Richly imagined satire of everything to do with writing and awards and celebrity and love, with Allen as Harry Block, and various familiar faces as his fictional characters, or the people in his life, or both, as he sets out to receive an award-- an obvious allusion to Bergman's "Wild Strawberries"--from the college that expelled him. His three ex- wives are enraged by allusions towards them in his novels. He hires a hooker because you don't have to discuss "Proust or films" with them. But he's in love with Fay (Elizabeth Shue) who is headed for a marriage to Billy Crystal. My favorite is a fantasy sequence in which a wife discovers that her husband has a colorful past which might have included cannibalism.
Woody Allen, Elizabeth Shue, Billy Crystal, Hazel Goodman, Demi Moore, Robin Williams
Classic film noire, with all the b-movie stylizations of the genre. Glenn Ford uncovers corruption in the police force but the closer he gets the truth, more dangerous it becomes. Lee Marvin is sizzling as the heavy, and Gloria Grahame is sultry and charming at once, but the contrivances get the better of the plot. This is the film you want to check out if you want to see the source of all that parody. Jocelyn Brando is a kind of sugar-coated wife to Ford's character, with a look that seems somewhat anachronistic to me.
Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, Lee Marvin, Jocelyn Brando
Pretty good movie about a narcissistic woman with ambitions of being a big-time tv broadcaster who marries a loser and has an affair with a young teenager, and then persuades the teenager to murder the loser who now stands in the way of her career. Unusual, fresh, and cutting, and rather dark: is there a single good character is the story? Well acted and well directed.
Nicole Kidman, Joaquin Phoenix, Matt Dillon, Dan Hedaya, Casey Afflect, Illeana Douglans
Saw this is New Haven, Connecticut. Beautiful, exquisite, meditative, unorthodox film about a family struggling with death, acceptance, and love, in 1950's U.S., and the cosmos and the universe and life itself. Ostensibly about nature vs. grace (authority/father vs. nurture/mother), the film dwells a lot on interactions with friends and family of Jack O'Brien, as a 10-year-old, and later in life as an architect, as he tries to resolve his feelings about his bullying, strict, humourless dad, and the tragic death of his younger brother. Mom, played by Jessica Chastain, is almost angelic but never not grounded. Her struggle to accept the death of Jack's brother-- which is unexplained in the film-- relates somehow to the introductory quote from Job, "where were you when I laid the foundations of the universe", which is alluded to by the scenes of exploding stars, the dinosaurs (including a T-Rex who places his foot on the head of a defeated dinosaur). In real life, Malick's brother went to Spain to study with Segovia, who, apparently, was a relentless task-master. He broke his own hands in frustration and then committed suicide. Terence had been asked by his father to go to Spain to help him and had refused.
Jessica Chastain, Brad Pitt, Hunter McCracken, Fiona Shaw
Woody Allen leads a gang of thieves who buy a pizza parlour to tunnel into a nearby bank. To keep up the charade, he gets his girl to run the store. She can't make pizza but she makes great cookies and, while the thieves are lost underground, her business thrives and expands into a chain and they become rich. But money spoils the relationship and they find that they are not really accepted by society just because they are wealthy, though they are interviewed by Steve Kroft. Unexpected at times, and always literate and amusing, but lesser Allen.
Woody Allen, Tracey Ullman, Michael Rapaport, Jon Lovitz, Elaine May
Odd comedy about a drunk (Stewart), Elwin P. Dodd, who has an imaginary friend, a six foot three and half inch rabbit named Harvey. It's not all that amusing to consider the possibility that either Dodd knows Harvey is not real, or that Harvey might be "real" in some absurd sense. The comedy is in how Dodd manipulates people into doing what they want to do anyway, including falling in love, through his genteel, amused indulgence in friviolity. His sister and niece want him locked up in a home, but his friends humour him and doctors and police are charmed by him. Otherwise, nothing particularly satisfying psychologically or artistically.
Ponderous, slow-moving -- some might say, eligiac-- drama about an elderly rural doctor in Quebec, a town called Normetal, seeking a replacement for himself as he approaches his twilight years. He finds one: Dr. Jeanne Dion (Elise Guilbault), who seems to have the patient, meditative disposition suited to Dr. Rainville's stable of eccentrics, recluses, rebels, and abused wives, and to the rugged, open landscape and harsh winters (though we don't get to see much of the winter in Normetal, which is a bit of a pity.) This movie proved to me that being slow-moving for the sake of being slow-moving doesn’t make a elegiac. There are moments that inspire appreciation, and the director never glamourizes the geography or the people. Unfortunately, Dr. Dion never emerges as a real person. She has dignity but dignity without personality is airless.
Jeanne Guilbault, Jacques Godin
Fairly entertaining-- because of the extraordinary rapport among the kids-- thriller about something on the loose in a small Ohio town while Joe and his friends, including the hot Alice Dainard, try to make a film with Charles' super 8mm camera. Joe is still dealing with the accidental death of his mother at the steel milll, will Alice's father seems distracted and mean. J. J. Abrams is probably incapable of making a movie that goes anywhere below any surface, so it seems perfect for him that Steven Spielberg produced this lightwave by lively umpteenth remake of "Them".
Joel Courtney, Joel Fanning
The usual Woody Allen stick with just enough fresh spin to be interesting and entertaining, and always above average. Gil and Inez are a young couple who-- in true Shakespearean tradition-- don't really belong together. She shops while he wanders Paris at night (having hitched the excursion with her parents). Magically, at midnight, Gil is swept away to Paris of the 1920's and meets Getrude Stein and Picasso and Fitzgerald and others, and begins to absorb the wondrous sweep and glory of great art and passion. Inez is not interested, of course. A distillation of Allen's romanticism about art and beauty and youth and love.
Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Michael Sheen, Yves Heck, Alison Pill
Conscientious biography of the iconic leader of the Congo at independence from Belgium, and how he was manipulated and tricked, and eventually deposed by France, Belgium, and the U.S. A truly remarkable, tragic figure, he was clearly in over his head as prime-minister of the newly independent country, but won the hearts of his countrymen with his unusually forthright speech on independence day, in front of an angry King Baudouin. Throughout, he struggled to make decisions that were generally morally defensible but strategically foolish, as when he remonstrated with then head of the police force Mobutu for excessive violence in putting down a rebellion. He was forced to ask for aid from the Soviet Union when Katanga province, with the encouragement of Belgium which wanted it's minerals, declared independence, but only after he had asked the U.S. (first) and the U.N. for aid. The Americans then took this as proof that he was a communist and orded him assassinated. It was, by the way, in reference to Lumumba that Malcom X was thinking when, after hearing of Kennedy's assassination, he said "the chickens have come home to roost".
Eriq Ebouaney, Alex Descas
Well-filmed look at the issue of school choice among parents in neighborhoods with dysfunctional school systems. They are forced to enter a lottery to try to get their children into decent schools. Takes a broad look at the system, teachers and teachers unions, tenure, and why it is so difficult to reform the public system. In particular, the Washington D.C. school system is examined when a determined young superintendent, Michelle Rhee, sets out to make things right. As many critics have pointed out, Guggenheim seems oblivious to the fact that the parents of the children in the successful schools are clearly motivated and involved and he side steps the fact that most children in the impoverished urban areas don't have the luxury of motivated and involved parents. Still, he highlights an issue that many people have been angry about for years and seem unable to solve. And the scenes towards the end, as the children we have come to know wait to see if they will win the lottery to get into the school they really want to get in to, are heartbreaking and moving.
Likeable if somewhat diffuse drama about a 41-year-old woman, whose artist-teacher husband has left her for one of his students, meeting a truckdriver with a questionable past. He's a determined suitor, and you're not quite sure what he sees in her, but the movie avoids the cheapest, most contrived developments. It's a hopeful slice. And you begin to realize with her that her first, most obvious paths may not be the best ones.
The obvious inspiration for "Run Lola Run" by Kieslowski's admirer, Tom Tyvek. Subtle, rich study of fate and how worldview is shaped. Witek, as his father is dying, drops out of medical school and heads to Warsaw where he joins the resistance to the communist regime and but ends being suspected of betraying the cause by his friends, including his lover. Or does he miss the train and join the communist party, rising through the ranks to become a dissastisfied functionary or does he return to medical school? Each twist of fate alters his worldview, his values, and his satisfaction with life, with the implication that, really, neither of the first two options are particularly satisfying. A mature, subtle, complex film; very satisfying performances.
Boguslaw Linda, Lomnicki Tadeusz, Trybala Marzena
Amateurish, under-written drama about a young boy coming of age during the hard winter of 1945, encountering good and evil in surprising contexts in his small Dutch town, after he finds a downed pilot hiding in the bush. One cringes at certain moments of dramatic clumsiness, or implausibility, and the tone of self-suffering, and the sentimentality.
Martijn Lakemeier
A gem of a film about a gem of a guy: Bill Cunningham, 82, a street fashion photographer for the New York Times, who still rides his bike to work every day, and lived in a tiny apartment in Carnegie Hall until he was recently evicted. Bill is as cheerful and optimistic as anyone, yet not afraid to declare that someone is not wearing anything interesting and therefore not worth shooting. He also likes to post photos of new dresses by cutting edge designers alongside a 30 years old picture of the same design by someone else. He receives a Legion of Honour award in France and spends most of the time snapping pictures of the other guests. He refuses a large check for his share of Details Magazine when it was sold to Conde Nast because he doesn't want to be "owned". The film itself is prosaic and a bit raw; it's the odd discoveries about Bill Cunningham that make it worth watching, particularly a moment later in the film where the interviewer briefly, carefully gets personal.
Brilliant, concise documentary about the financial meltdown in 2008, with a cast of depressingly familiar characters-- Henry Pauls, Timothy Geitner, Lawrence Summers, who all ended up in the Obama administration instead of the outhouse after guiding the U.S. banking system to a catclysm.
Unexpected, raw, and unpolished story about a pitcher from the Dominican Republican and his setbacks as he tries to make it as a professional in the U.S. Follows an idiosyncratic path with unexpected developments. You really grow to like Sugar and empathize with him as he is thrust into an alien culture, far from home, uncertain of his own values, and unsure of his place. Not always well-acted or written, it's power lies in it's honesty and its' compassion for its characters. A lovely, remarkable film.
Angelina Perez Soto, Rayniel Rufino, Andre Holland
Tomek watches Magda with binoculars from his fifth floor window. He sees her meet various men, make love, cry, and decides to rig up a meeting through his job at the post office. Magda catches on teases and provokes him, but Tomek is more comfortable watching than he is participating. As their relationship develops, it becomes clear that this is a rather dark view of "love", probing that aspect of it that involves the terrifying surrender of personal identity, of need, and desire, and the way we resist.
Grazyna Szapolowska, Olaf Lubaszenko, Stefania Iwinska, Piotr Machalica
Annoyingly self-conscious drama about a man who thinks he is dying of an illness and seems to spend all his time maintaining a 5:00 shadow so he can look sufficiently bedraggled to his nosy neighbors. Jesus' face appears in the stucco of his house inspiring his devout neighbors to ectasy. A little girl sneaks around recording his conversations. The plot is illogical and carelessly devised and there is nothing else interesting in the movie.
Owen Wilson, Radha Mitchell, Adriana Barraza, Richard Benjamin
Keaton tells three parallel stories, set in pre-history, the Roman empire, and modern times. In each, Keaton courts the same girl, with various frustrations and setbacks.
Buster Keaton, Margaret Leahy, Wallace Beery
Buster as a young suitor who finds out his rival is a thief and, like Walter Mitty, fancies himself a private eye. Beautifully polished physical comedy, pathos, and story. Astounding stunts filmed, obviously, in real time without special effects.
Buster Keaton, Kathryn McGuire
Powerful drama about the last days of the Warsaw uprising, focussed on Polish partisans and their desperate attempts to evade the inevitable German reprisals that left Warsaw in rubble. They engage in one last confrontation then take to the sewers to try to claw their way back to the center of the city. There is romance and despair, and some lose their minds, including the artist, the pianist, who wanders the sewers alone playing his pipe. This is a journey through hell to another hell, and existential meditation on the futility of resistance that barely even leaves its characters with dignity.
An odd combination of Groundhog Day and Total Recall-- Colter Stevens suddenly finds himself on a train. After 8 minutes, the train explodes. A feminine, directive voice tells him he is going back-- he has to find the bomber. He's suddenly back on the train, reliving those eight minutes. What is happening? Turns out Stevens has been connected to the brain of a victim of the explosion, to relive his last 8 minutes, so he can try to find the bomber who -- for reasons known only to the writer-- is announcing that he has a bigger bomb which will go off a little later. If you can suspend your disbelief long enough, there's actually a compelling story here, a humanist paean to life's small pleasures, to the beauty of life and of the sorry lot of us we call human, and the desperate desire to keep it all in spite of the fatal reality that everything is already gone. That said, the idea that he could relive anything but the exact 8 minutes of experience of the deceased's brain is a stretch no matter how far you suspend your disbelief. So, okay, this is a fantasy, a parable, if you will, but what saves it is the fact that you end up caring for the characters and moved by their plight.
Jake Gyllenhaal, Vera Farminga, Colleen Monaghan, Jeffrey Wright
There is a lovely, entrancing scene near the beginning of "Blue Valentine" when Dean (Gosling) persuades Cindy (Williams) to dance for him, on a darkened store front sidewalk, while he plays the ukelele, singing "You Always Hurt (the one you love)", and she complies, all legs and arms akimbo, giggly, charmed. Gosling's interpretation is often misguided and narcissistic (I have something in my mind so wonderful I must bring it out in this role) and it is really hard to believe she would see anything in him after a while, especially after a few passive-aggressive episodes of him demanding something from her that he can't express and she can't translate. It's a miracle that there is still something remarkable in this otherwise good film.
Ryan Gosling, Michelle Williams, Faith Wladyka
A long, predictable chase scene, with cliché-ridden characterizations (including, shamefully, the sterile, bitch career-woman), long drawn-out pointless sequences of no particular logic, and a lot of noise. The only charm is the brief appearance of an Australian family and the teenage girl, who, frankly, is a hoot. Otherwise-- they credit a writer? All they needed was a driver. Eric Bana surprised me by proving his screen persona can be remarkably tiresome and Cate Blanchett should avoid roles like the ice queen bitch she plays here.
Saoirse Ronan, Eric Bana, Cate Blanchett, Tom Hollander
Sad to say, I began to suspect this film was written by a woman about 1/3 of the way through. I don't mean anything perjorative by it-- I just note it. Anyway, this film is primarily noteworthy for Reese Witherspoon's remarkable debut: she really is incredibly watchable and she can act even if it all does seem to be external to her character. She falls in love with a neighbor boy who falls for her sister, once he meets her, because she is actually his age, and she's pretty, and there is the legal thing.... There is a desperate attempt to impart significance to this story but the events overwhelm the likeable, earthy, feel of the first half and it ends up as a pretentious, soulless imitation of nostalgia. How desperate were they, for drama, to inject plot developments in order to monumentalize what is really nostalgia.
Reese Witherspoon, Tess Harper, Sam Waterston, Gail Strickland, Jason London, Emily Warfield
Powerful five and a half hour long dramatization of the career of Ilich Ramirez Sanchez also known as Carlos the Jackal, the Venezuelan terrorist, who was active in Europe and the Middle East for 20 years in the 1970's and 80's, highlighted by his sensational kidnapping of the Opec oil ministers in 1975, apparently at the behest of Saddam Hussein. Ramirez worked mostly for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine under Waddie Haddad, and the film is instructive on the complexities of his relationships with Moslem fundamentalists, German revolutionaries, various factions in Lebanon and Syria, and the East Block, which still had hopes of world wide revolution. "Carlos" explores his love life, his serial relationships with women involved or not with this terrorist activities, his vanity. Carlos is vain and egocentric, but he is also at times dutiful and ambitious, but he is always ruthless. When events overtake the movement, washing it out in a wave of corruption and decay as the East Block crumbles, Ramirez becomes a pathetic figure, begging rogue governments like Libya and Algeria for admission and protection.
Edgar Ramirez, Alexander Scheer, Alejandro Arroyo, Fadi Abi Samra, Ahmad Kaabour, Talal El-Jordi, Nora Von Waldstatten, Christoph Bach, Rodney El Haddad, Julia Hummer, Antoine Balabane
Sprawling, 12 hour epic of humanist Kaji struggling to maintain his humanity through the devasting destruction and cruelty of Japan's World War II occupation of Manchuria. He is, first, an "enlightened" functionary at a labour camp, hoping to win over the workers with progressive practises. Then he is drafted into the army and plays a part in the disastrous campaigns late in the war against the Soviets and the Red Chinese. Those these battles took place after the nuclear bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, the bomb itself is not mentioned. Nor are the Japanese atrocities against the Chinese given much attention. Thrilling spectacle alternate with melodrama and speechifying; fights are not very convincingly staged-- though, perhaps, more realistic than most Hollywood versions. Kaji in the end is disillusioned and driven mad by man's inhumanity to man and the film becomes somewhat diffiuse.
Tatsuya Nakadai, Machiyo Aratama, Kaiji Sada
Exquisitely patient, meditative study of a group of monks in 1990's Algeria subject to possible attacks by Moslem extremists, an annoyance to the French government who want to evacuate them. They decide to stay true to their mission, fully aware of the danger. The film is really a study of their meditative lifestyle of service and prayer and song, their communal relationships, and the characters of each of the monks as they consider their predicament. Not especially well-filmed, but well-acted and courageous.
Lambert Wilson, Michael Lonsdale, Olivier Rabourdin
Fascinating true story-- in the Hollywood sense-- of Steven Jay Russell, con man, impersonator, master fraud artist-- and his relationship with Phillip Morris, whom he met in prison and fell in love with. As the movie version has it, driven by love for Morris, Russell escaped, impersonated doctors, lawyers, judges, and anyone else he could use, was arrested, escaped, arrested, and so on. Carrey's best performance, but the support cast is also excellent, including various prisoners, especially the prisoner janitor who makes it a point of personal honor to play a romantic song on his stereo for Phillip and Steven in exchange for a blow job even after the guards tell him to turn it off. Russell paid a heavy price for his irreverent mockery of the law in Texas: he received a 144 year sentence, of which 23 hours a day is solitary confinement. It has been said that a touch from an admiring fellow prisoner was the first in ten years.
Jim Carrey, Ewan MacGregor
Rather implausible, under-developed attempt to find social significance in a pair of war protestors living on the run with their two children. The older boy, River Phoenix, falls in love with a girl and decides he wants to go to Julliard (he is a brilliant pianist). The couple struggle with the price they make their children pay for their continued freedom and the mother, Christine Lahti, is tempted to turn themselves in. Coy at times, and thoughtless at others, every single scene looks like the actors became the characters just for that scene. They never seem to have any accumulated feeling from anything that happened off camera. Everything is explained, schematically, and the "arguments" for any particular action seem feeble and weak. Best part of the movie: River Phoenix and Martha Plimpton develop some chemistry-- they should-- they were dating each other off screen. Worst part of the movie: the dancing to "Fire and Rain"-- one of the songs that ushered in the era of navel-gazing self-reflection instead of social activism.
Judd Hirsch, Christine Lahti, River Phoenix
Clearly the inspiration for "Due Date", but far more plausible and patient. Del (John Candy) is a recognizable character, a loud-mouthed, aggressive and over-bearing schmuck, who inadvertantly causes Neal Page (Steve Martin) to miss his crucial flight home for Thanksgiving. The film believably strings them together through various misadventures. Candy is all in the moment, spontaneous, emotional, and Martin is up-tight, constricted, and controlling. You know people like this, and their interactions resonate with with real world experiences. It's even believable when Neal begins to sort of like the big lug, and then gets mad at him all over again. Kevin Bacon, Michael McKean appear. There is an exceptionally funny scene at a car rental desk, with Edie McClurg. What saves this from slapstick is the relatively well-developed character of Del-- he's not totally a punching bag; he is, at times, poignant, a child-like soul, who doesn't completely surrender to the judgment of frigid Neal.
Steve Martin, John Candy, Laila Robins
Dignified if somewhat understated rendering of the brilliant Graham Greene novel about early American involvement in Viet Nam (and an astonishing prescient rendering it was - the book, written in 1955, almost exactly predicted how America's involvement would go). Caine is solid as Fowler, passionately in love with Phuong, a Viet Namese beauty whose sister reels her in and out like bait. Brendan Fraser is surprisingly good as Pyle, the American with the doomed grand vision for intervention, all well-meaning and foolish, simultaneously naïve and sinister. The tragedy of the relationship of these three parallels-- rather explicitly-- the tragedy of Ameircan involvement in Viet Nam.
Do Thi Hai Yen, Michael Caine, Brendan Fraser, Rode Zerbedzija, Holmes Osborne
Nora is the bad sister; Rose is the good sister. They are both struggling to get by. Nora lives with her dad, Joe, who is just one hare-brained scheme away from grand wealth. Through her cop lover, Rose learns about he potentially lucrative field of cleaning up crime scenes and embarks on a new venture. Seriously under-developed-- every scene in the first half just seems to happen out of nowhere, simply to drive the narrative-- and trying hard to be lovably quirky and soulful but not quite pulling it off. Emily Blunt is worth watching, however, and gets a chance to shine here -- that she didn't get in "Devil Wears Prada" but Amy Adams struggles with an underwritten role. At least it doesn't sell-out at the end.
Amy Adams, Emily Blunt, Alan Arkin, Jason Spevak
Powerful film on the effects of civil war, developed around the death of a Lebanese Christian woman in Montreal and her legacy to her children: she asks them to find their father and brother, neither of whom they believed was alive. As they set out to track them down, they uncover their mother's tragic past, and it's ongoing threads to the present. The story is told in parallel, revealing the destructive fragments of ethnic and religious hatreds. One scene, reminiscent of "Sophie's Choice", was nearly explosive.
Lubna Azabal, Melissa DesormeauxPoulin, Maxime Gaudette, Remy Girard
The only things this film had going for it was the dim hope that it was odd enough to earn the term quirky, and a very young Scarlett Johansson playing Manny, the smart, thoughtful 10-year-old sister of Lo, who is pregnant. They are both on the run from their separate adoptive families, and decide to kidnap a nurse-- who, perhaps, isn't all that reluctant-- to help deliver the baby.
Scarlett Johansson, Alecksa Palladino, Mary Kay Place
Very intriguing, odd, quirky, amusing pastiche of events surrounding the relationship between a nasty, self-centred nerd and the girl who worships him. Most reminiscent of "Napoleon Dynamite", which is a hit or miss approach, and "Eagle" mostly hits. Jarrod has set out to train himself in the martial arts in order to wreck revenge on a high school classmate who bullied him. When he phones to tell him "justice" is coming, the person answering the phone promises to tell him "Justin" called. Lily adores him but he dumps her for Tracy, who, apparently, doesn't really have an interest in Jarrod. Lily tries to leave but the bus doesn't come until Sunday. It's all done in a very deadpan, dry manner, and very entertaining. It's insistently goofy and Loren Horsley hits the right notes as Lily. The fact that I liked it inspite of the blatant copping of "Napoleon Dynamite" tells me it has something.
Jermaine Clement, Loren Horsley
There really is no excuse for yet another remake of "Up the Down the Staircase", with Meryl Streep the gratuitous put-upon esteemed inspirational teacher in this one, as Roberta Gauspari, a real-life New York City teacher who fought for a place in the curriculum for music. You know what happens next. Unusually sloppy even for that genre-- you can peg the cliche's as they walk through the door. Allegedly a true story, which is like saying that McDonald's does produce hamburgers. In real life, she taught at one of the most privileged schools in New York, and the colorful background in the film, including shootings, knives, women's shelters, etc., are made up. Of course. Unusually lame performance from Streep. Manipulative and sentimental, of course. Worst of all, just another round of "white savior", to be piled in with "Blind Side".
Meryl Streep, Aiden Quinn, Cloris Leachman, Angela Bassett
So-called "classic" of film-noire comes off as a bit stodgy and stagey nowadays. Still something to see-- Bogard and Bacall, who were hot into an affair at the time of filming-- teasing and playing each other. The incoherent plot, however, doesn't hold up very well nowadays, and the fights and shootings are down-right comical.
Humphrey Bogard, Lauren Bacall
Lovely, low-key film about four sisters. One has a severe mental disability and one, Marta, looks after her. When Marta dies, Paulette and Cecile must decide what to do with Pauline. When it is discovered that Marta's will splits the inheritance three ways only if one of the sisters looks after Pauline in her home, the two struggle with the responsibility. Neither of them really wants Pauline in their lives, Paulette because of her fabric shop and opera (she is a performer) and Cecile because of her boorish boyfriend, Albert. The film never cheapens the narrative with sentiment or manipulative plot turns. Choices must be made the emotional consequences are real and poignant. A wonderful "small" film.
Dora Van der Groen, Anne Peterson, Rosemarie Bergmans, Julianne DeBruyn
Entertaining if predictable odd couple road picture with Downy as the uptight executive and Zach Galafianakis as the whacky man-child-- as the Lucy character, really, stuck with each other after getting kicked off a plane and added to the no-fly list. As with almost all of these films, you have to ask yourself why a sane man like Peter (Downey) would continue to allow himself to be roped into such unpromising predicaments as he is here. But the plot depends on that belief and if you don't by it, a lot of the movie is drained of interest. As always, we are also asked to believe that the idiot is somehow lovable no matter how much pain and suffering he inflicts on the repressed people around him. Why is Juliette Lewis so often the most amusing person in her recent films?
Zach Galafianakis, Robert Downey Jr., Jaime Fox, Juliette Lewis
Earnest if schematic at times, biopic about Temple Grandin, who overcame her autism to become obtain a PHD and develop several innovative procedures for handling livestock at markets and slaughter-houses. The movie is a diagram and in spite of attempts to liven it up with imaginings of what Temple sees in her mind, unfolds without much surprise. Grandin is played as tough and determined, more puzzled by the bullying she encounters than hurt by it.
Clare Danes, David Straithairn
Lovely but somewhat unfocussed story about a magician who befriends a poor servant at an inn in Scotland and takes her back with him to his home in Edinburgh where they kind of just get by. It's really about the loss of magic in life-- the magician is being replaced by rock stars and tv, and finds his horizons increasingly constricted. The girl wants a dress and shoes and gets them and meets a man and the magician, on cue, disappears from her life. There's some magic in the story, some sadness, and an inchoate sense of absence -- their relationship is never satisfactorily explained. It just is. Perhaps that's the point, but Tati's real abandoned first daughter found the film a little hard to stomach. She was conceived in World War II Paris and Tati abandoned her and her mother.
Serious, earnest study about a brother and sister whose parents died in a car accident when they were very young, struggling to rebuild their relationship now that she is a single mom and he is a wandering, uncommitted, impulsive-- if charming-- layabout. Very well acted but occasionally fails to find the right pitch-- see "Another Year" for how it should be done. Still, a lovely, sincere film about relationships and life and the choices we make, and how paths are fraught, sometimes, with a kind of inertia that gives us illusions of choice. Terry, in fact, calls to mind, at times, Chris McCandless, the subject of "Into the Wild".
Laura Linnea, Mark Ruffalo, Rory Culkin, Matthew Broderick
Lovely, sensitive film about a boisterous record producer, Rip Torn, who meets and marries a Russian woman 30 years young than he is. They have a child. When his estranged son returns for visit, contemplating splitting from his pregnant wife, the relationship becomes unbalanced. She becomes more self-aware, and begins to question her position, while surprisingly grateful for the blessings of life in the U.S. with a well-off sugar-daddy. No one goes quite where you expect. Rip Torn plays a lout but he's not unaware, and he's not unkind to Laura. And the son, Michael, is not the redemptive presense he seems at first. Above average, with a interesting sound-track to boot.
Rip Torn
Lovely if occasionally clumsy portrait of a misfit adolescent, Billy, who finds solace in the art of training a falcon to hunt. In conflict with this brutal teachers and a bullying older brother, Billy is cipher: he is small and unathletic but smart and he has a soul that is expressed through his patience with Kes, the Falcon he patiently trains. There are astonishing scenes-- a group of boys being punished for misbehavior including a beautiful lad who only came to deliver a message from another teacher, a scene on the soccer pitch, Billy with his bird-- and the film is rather rough at times, obviously cheaply filmed, but it's a gem.
David Bradley, Brian Glover
Tom and Gerri are happily married, nearing retirement age, settled in, stable, solid. But in the orbit of their lives friends crash and burn, wallow in despair, and struggle to find some coherence to their lives. In particular, Mary longs for a long-term relationship-- preferbly with Tom and Gerri's son, Joe. The movie takes you through four seasons with Tom and Gerri, the ups and downs of their friends, and illuminates how the stability of their relationship both inspires and frustrates their friends. Beautifully acted and filmed-- one of the year's best.
Jim Broadbent, Leslie Manville, Ruth Sheen, Oliver Maltman, Peter Wright, Imelda Stauton
Two bad signs: the author, David Lindsay-Abaire, wrote "Shrek, the Musical", and Nicole Kidman was a producer of this film. Emblematic scenes: Becca, who has recently lost her son to an accident, sees a young child in the grocery store begging his mother for a treat. When she refuses, Becca impulsively accosts the mother and insists she should buy him the treat. Another: Howie returns home early from his group therapy and doesn't even notice that Becca's car isn't in the driveway. He charges into the house calling her name. Becca earlier drove off to secretly meet the boy who was driving the car that struck her son. She calls him on the phone only after she has left, and gets his voicemail. She bursts into tears when she sees him with a prom date, and doesn't hide from him as he drives past, staring. Earlier, he showed up at her house to deliver a comic book he was writing, that she was interested in seeing. Howie is shocked and Becca acts as if she was caught out in something only because we are supposed to think she was caught out and the writer couldn't imagine that she could imagine anything else to say about it. There's not an honest moment in this contrived, facile movie that couldn't possibly have anything to do with any real incident. It's all sophomoric symbols of grief and marital conflict, thoughtless and shallow, and ultimately trivial and unnaturally chaste and uninteresting. Nicole Kidman's worst performance yet. And poor Sandra Oh-- when Howie drives out to her house to meet her, presumably, for an affair, and then changes his mind in the driveway, as she stands there frozen, unattractively trying to look understanding as we are invited to sympathize with him. Was there no drama in this rejection? Did the writer really have nothing at all to tell us about Gaby's feelings here?
Aaron Eckhart, Nicole Kidman, Sandra Oh, Dianne Wiest, Miles Teller
Rather schematic story about a Turkish woman, Umay, who escapes her abusive husband to return to her family in Germany-- but they are appalled at her act and urge her to return to her husband. She struggles to establish her own life with her young son Cem but craves the acceptance of her family. The strength of this movie is Aladag's determination to resist creating two-dimensional villains for a problem that is really cultural and sociological -- Umay's family are just doing what they have been trained to do from time immemorial: preserve the sanctity of the family unit as they understand it. Well acted, generally, and sustains the viewer's interest. Based on a true story about a woman, Hatun murdered in 1999 in an "honor killing" by her youngest brother.
Sibel Kekilli, Nazim Schiller, Setar TanriÃÆâ€, Tamer Yigit
Kingo Gondo-- yes, that's the name-- is a wealthy businessman, a factory manager for National Shoes. One day, someone tries to kidnap his son, just as Gondo is about to close a bold deal to take control of the company. But the kidnapper mistakenly takes his chauffeur's son instead. The tension created by Gondo's sudden disinterest in paying the ransom is a marvel-- the chauffeur knows his place but must beg, at one point, for Gondo to acknowledge his humanity. But then, it becomes a thrilling police procedural as the police, impressed by Gondo's ultimate sacrafice, determinedly pursue the kidnapper. There is a wonderful sequence where the kidnapper goes out to acquire drugs and then tests them on a pathetic junkie. Really lesser Kurosawa, but still a marvel.
Toshiro Mifune
Based on Aron Ralston's book "Between a Rock and Hard Place". Leaving aside the point that someone who did something unimaginably stupid (tracking off into the back country without telling anyone where he was going) now commands $30K + to give inspirational speeches, this is a very compelling true story about how Ralston was trapped in a narrow crevice with a large chockstone rock pinning his hand against the side, for 5 days. He had no cell phone or personal locator, only a small amount of water, and a dull knife. As the world knows, Ralston eventually had to cut off his own arm to escape, and was rescued a few hours later by some Dutch hikers. Not much actually happens, but Boyle imbues the story with stylish flourishes, exploring Aron's memories and feelings as his predicament becomes progressively grim. Well-filmed at the exact location it happened. I guess I missed the part where this is an "uplifting" paen to the human spirit-- he made a stupid mistake and, like any sentient being, wanted very, very badly to survive, and that's what the movie shows us. For my money, "Into the Wild", about a not dissimilar situation, has far greater insight into the issues involved, distilled, at one moment, into the sadness of Hal Holbrook's face as he realizes that Chris McCandless is about to do something precisely that stupid.
James Franco
Unexpected pleasure about a young high school student who happens upon Orson Welles putting together his cast for "Julius Caesar" at the Mercury Theatre. He is auditioned and assigned the role of Lucius and he bravely goes after the loveliest girl in the company. Along the way, we watch the magic of the bellowing, over-bearing, impulsive genius, Orson Welles, as he assembles his brilliant production, a legendary production of Julius Ceaser, while pursuing chorus girls and raising money. Very entertaining. Not in the same league as "Topsy Turvey", but a real gem.
Zach Efron, Clare Danes
Bland, colourless, uninteresting adaptation of Mordecai Richler's last novel, about a Jewish TV producer in Montreal who chases the girl of his dreams on the day of his wedding to a shrill punching bag of wife. If this production were not so smugly convinced of the illusory moral superiority of Barney Panovsky, it wouldn't have been as nearly as offensive. Every crisis is telegraphed, every subtlety removed. When Barney's father gazes at Marium and says "you did well, boychik", you realize just how shameless this movie is. And why do the promotions claim that Barney is "politically incorrect"? Name one politically incorrect thing he says or thinks in this movie? And Giamatti simply recycles his Harvey Pekar character-- where's the edge, the anger, the outrage? Boring. Not one thing said in this movie that wasn't said much better in "The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz", and Richard Dreyfuss spectacularly blows Giametti off the screen. Doesn't even have the guts to show Barney at least enjoying the obvious benefits of Minnie's "rack"-- he lays back in disgust as the director couldn’t bear to show him extracting even an ounce of pleasure out of this relationship, just so the audience wouldn't be confused about where his heart is.
Paul Giamatti, Minnie Driver, Dustin Hoffman, Rosamund Pike, Bruce Greenwood
Just because it's Japanese and concerned with spiritual issues doesn't mean this particular film has anything remarkable to show you. Aside from a few quiet scenes of grace-- a family discovers a renewed sorrow for their mother's death as Daigo prepares her body-- most of the narrative consists of our hero discovering that he can handle dead bodies. It did strike me that the service he provides is similar to embalming in North America, a costly and largely unnecessary service that this movie tries to sell you as essential to correct mourning. Add to this the fact that the mourners in this film are largely how the film-maker imagines we imagine them, and Departures is a nicely filmed cliché.
Masahari Motoki, Tsutomu Yamazaki
Conventional private eye thriller distinquished by occasional forays into some kind of existential drama-- Harry Moseby is at loose ends, his marriage failing, his ambitions thwarted, and he discovers that all is not as it seems, and even becomes implicated in murder. Some very cheesy moments, enlivened by Melanie Griffiths debut. Yet, some critics regard this as a landmark film, particularly in reference to film noire. They see Harry as representative of a disillusioned generation (the film came out shortly after Watergate), which sees life as cyclic and pointless. There is no "justice", no satisfying resolution here-- just misunderstandings, corruption, and faithlessness. The ending, the plane crash, shooting, is out and out preposterous, but perhaps an artifact of 1970's film technology.
Gene Hackman, Jennifer Warren, Melanie Griffith, Edward Binns, James Woods, Susan Clark
Interesting, solid, if a bit stolid and somewhat homogenized version of the veritable royal stutter, which supposedly endangered the morale of Great Britain during World War II. The predilection of the royal family for Nazi politics is sweetly ignored.
Sincere, thoughtful film about an aging novelist, Leonard Schiller, who becomes the subject of a young graduate student's thesis. Heather Wolfe wants to revive interest in his work, and perhaps more. As played by Lauren Ambrose from "6 feet Under", she is something of a predator, and we're never quite sure of her motivations. Schiller's daughter, in the meantime, is nearing 40 and wants to have children, but her boyfriend, Casey, does not. The two of them, father and daughter, are "starting out in the evening", facing decisions to be made based on possibilities and hope and sometimes not much else. A film that lingers over moments, meditates gently about life issues, and surprises with striking moments of revelation. There is a misstep, I think, near the end, a moment that was supposed to be shocking and revelatory but was neither. But it's worthwhile rental, especially if you love books and reading.
Frank Langella, Lauren Ambrose, Adrian Lester, Lili Taylor
Lame, uninteresting extension of the C.S. Lewis "franchise", of interest only to those who reject every development in film-making in the last 40 years. This film could have been made in 1950-- it's that chaste and that inane.
Disappointing, though still interesting, biography of Malcolm X, shot in a somewhat daring, bold style by Lee, but sometimes oddly unfocussed, diffuse, as if Lee couldn't make up his mind about what exactly he wanted you to think of Malcolm.
Plot lifted by Tom Twyker for "Run Lola Run": Witek, shortly after his father dies, runs to catch a train. Does he catch it? Apparently-- and leaves his medical studies to become a Polish Communist Party functionary, negotiate an end to an uprising by addicts in an institution, and betrays his friends. He ends up unhappy and unfulfilled, and caught in moral ambiguity. Or does he catch the train? He is placed back where he started but this time he misses the train and runs into a guard. He is arrested and later joins a resistance movement, but is suspected of betrayal again and loses his friends, and seems trapped in an equally unsatisfying arrangement. He runs after the train again, and the outcome is again different. Kieslowski explores the idea that one's philosophical and religious beliefs tend to conform to the perceived advantage of position and culture. His relationships with women are also twisted as a result of his compromises and failures. This is an adult movie in the best sense of the word: complex, subtle, and rich in meaning.
Boguslaw Linda
Underdeveloped film about a young girl, Lina, who impulsively invites a high school acquaintance named Leco to join her on a trip to her native Slovakia, her parents' home town, Modra, after being dumped by her boyfriend. While nodding occasionally to plausibility, the movie explores their growing attachment and their insecurities and their adolescent conflicts following an unpredictable trajectory. The townspeople, all played by non-professionals (the girl too is Veninger's daughter) are colorful and quirky, but not too quirky, and the inevitable culture clash is occasionally amusing, but remains a bit underdeveloped. The music is above average.
Stately and delicate study of a man living in the early 20th century engaged to a lovely, refined woman of utter conventionality named May. When he meets her cousin, and adventurous non-conformist named Ellen Olenska, who has left her abusive Polish husband, a count, he begins to imagine greater possibilities for his life and struggles to free himself from May. But the family, conscious in some undefined way of the danger, closes ranks and, indulging in rank hypocrisy of the highest order, suppresses the danger. Beautifully acted and filmed, subtle and rich.
Daniel Day-Lewis, Michelle Pfieffer, Winona Ryder, Alexis Smith
Brilliant, searing story about betrayal, romance, and deception, in Victorian America.
Needs notes.
Well acted and filmed story about a struggling black family of sharecroppers in Louisiana in the 1920's. When they are not able to sharecrop, Nathan, dad, hunts for game. One night, when he can't find game, he steals an animal from a white family, is caught, convicted, and sent to a brutal workcamp. His son, David, sets out to find him (they are not told which camp he is sent to) and, in the process, discovers that he has an aptitude and desire for education.
Moving, unsentimental version of a graphic novel about Marjane Satrapi's life as a precious child and then confused adolescent, from the fall of the Shah to the repression following the Islamic revolution.
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