Cinema’s Alive in 2005
Batman Begins
No adaptation of the Batman comic book, not even the two directed by Tim
Burton, has ever really caught the essence of the character and told us
a good story — until now. Batman Begins is the movie every
Batman fan, every reader of Frank Miller’s Dark Knight stories,
has long waited for. It is well-acted, well-written, well-directed, well-produced,
well-shot, and well-designed, by actors, writers, directors, producers,
cinematographers, and designers who all took the movie seriously. The film
was directed by Christopher Nolan, who also helmed Memento, and stars
Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne/Batman, Michael Caine in the pivoyal role
of Alfred the butler, Morgan Freeman, Liam Neeson, Gary Oldman, Cillian
Murphy, and Katie Holmes (but she doesn’t act like a crazy person.)
Capote
Truman Capote was a celebrity both inside and outside his circle in New
York City, but as Capote demonstrates, he may have been a bigger
celebrity inside his own head. The film focuses on the years during which
he was writing his true crime novel In Cold Blood and shows us how
he manipulated people and the situation to produce his last great work.
Philip Seymour Hoffman gives an unforgettable performance as the celebrated
writer of Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and he is surrounded by fine
actors in crucial supporting roles, notably Chris Cooper as the local sheriff;
Catherine Keener as Harper Lee, whose own star was on the rise after the
publication of To Kill a Mockingbird; and Clifton Collins Jr. as
convicted murderer Perry Smith. (Keener and Cooper are well-known to audiences,
but Collins is a very busy unknown who has played bit parts in many movies
and has guested on many television programs. I hope his strong performance
in this role gives him the exposure he needs to break into the big time.)
Cinderella Man
Ron Howard has become one of our finest directors. Russell Crowe has become
one of our finest actors. Together, they make a formidable pair. In this
film, the second they have made together, Russell Crowe portrays the real-life
champion boxer Jim Braddock, who managed to return from humiliating defeat
in the ring to defeat the heavyweight champion of the world, Max Baer, in
1935. Although, as in all biopics, the story is fictionalized, far more
than just the heart of the story remains. Crowe’s Braddock is a nice
guy, a regular Joe and dockworker, and like the celebrated racehorse Seabiscuit,
his real-life quest to rise from the ashes of ignominy fired the spirit
of the working man at a time in America when good news was in desperately
short supply. But his private quest to hold his family together and to provide
for them in the midst of economic despair is just as compelling. As an actor,
Crowe manages to pull off both feats with aplomb.
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)
The Reduced Shakespeare Company has been refining this program or play or
sketch or what ever you choose to call it for a number of years now, and
in the process they have perfected it. This is an absolutely insane, madcap,
and hilarious look at the life, times, and most importantly the works of
Britain’s bawdiest bard, William Shakespeare. Intellectual, but funny,
for adults and children alike.
The Constant Gardener
Based on the novel by John LeCarré and directed by the Brazilian
director Fernando Meirelles, The Constant Gardener is a powerful
and moving story, set largely in Africa, about the power the West has over
the people of Africa and about our decision, both conscious and unconscious,
to neglect and even use them. Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz are superb,
and the cinematography is haunting and beautiful while simultaneously being
maddening and saddening.
DeLovely
Kevin Kline, one of our greatest actors, deftly handles the role of Cole
Porter, one of our greatest songwriters. Unlike the previous biography of
Cole Porter, this film does not sidestep Porter’s bisexuality, and
portrays a number of his homosexual affairs while his loving wife of many
years (ably played by Ashley Judd) continued to stand by his side, despite
her full knowledge of the assignations. Porter’s bisexuality is not
the focus of the film, and is depicted instead as only a part of the man’s
overall personality. After a horse riding accident shatters Porter’s
legs, his spiral into disability is vividly portrayed. And yet this is not
your typical biopic. It is simultaneously a musical and a drama, using Porter’s
songs to illustrate portions of his life in ways that are neither distracting
nor cheesy.
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
A well-made documentary that should be used by prosecutors in the trials
of Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling to explain to judge and jury both exactly what
happened to cause the biggest corporate scandal in...well...in my lifetime
at least.
Eulogy
Three generations of a very fractured family are brought together by the
death of the family’s patriarch. Other than his wife and his granddaughter
(played very effectively by Zooey Deschanel), the deceased had no friends
in the family. But in all honesty, no one else really does either. Debra
Winger, Hank Azaria, Ray Romano, and Kelly Preston play the middle generation
siblings who have learned over the years to hate each others’ company,
and now must learn to behave like a family, at least as long as the funeral
requires. This is a very funny film.
Good Night, and Good Luck
Director, co-writer, and co-star George Clooney steps aside deftly to allow
David Strathairn to take the lead in a spot-on performance as pioneering
television reporter Edward R. Murrow, the man who dared take on Senator
Joseph McCarthy in 1953. What the film makes clear, in using actual footage
of McCarthy as a contrast, is that Murrow’s goals were not sensationalism
or personal celebrity but truth and fairness, goals that many of today’s
talking heads would be wise to strive for. McCarthy may have been correct
that there were communists in government and Hollywood, but his methods
were shameless and vile, often misdirected, and profoundly un-American.
That was what Murrow was trying to expose, and that is what this fine film
reminds us of.
The Good Girl
It took us a while to get around to seeing this one, but it was worth the
wait. Jennifer Anniston gives an unexpected and textured performance that
carries this little film from start to finish. Jake Gyllenhaal provides
the essential support as her freaky lover.
Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle
This is probably the most unique comedy we have seen since Bad Santa.
It has almost no redeeming qualities except that it is about the victory
of two minority college graduates over some of their more mainstream white,
redneck oppressors. It is profane, but certainly not as profane is Bad
Santa is, and replete with drug and sex references, and it’s rather
damned funny. I’m sure this will become a cult classic.
Hero and House of Flying Daggers
Like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, these are both martial arts
films for people who do not like martial arts films. There are, of course,
plenty of the martial in the films, but they are also decorously laden with
the arts. Those arts include painterly use of colors, settings, and costumes;
graceful and balletic athleticism; stirring and majestic music; and tales
so human and ancient, they stir us as only great mythology can. These two
movies are sumptuous spectacles of beauty and heroism, love and sacrifice,
life and death, and are not to be missed.
A History of Violence
Based on a graphic novel, A History of Violence is an unexpectedly
good attempt to delve into our unanswered (and often unasked) question about
our true natures, to wit, Are we who we are or who we say we are? Tom Stall
runs a small town café, lives in an old farmhouse, loves his wife
and kids, and lives a simple live of quiet anonymity. He is a good man,
a loving man, a strong man, well-liked and good to those around him. Then
the robbers come, and after them a moment in the spotlight, and then, out
of the shadows and darkest recesses of a hidden and subverted past, the
men he once worked with. As a hit man. A very good hit man. Tom’s
duality reaches into his life and marriage, reveals truths he’d rather
not face, tests his family’s love, and profoundly changes his son.
Hotel Rwanda
Don Cheadle proves once again that he is among our most versatile of actors,
this time taking on the role of a real-life Rwandan hotel manager who risked
his life and his fortune to save as many people as he could during the ethnic
genocide that transpired in that embattled nation. The film, and Cheadle,
are moving in ways so few movies can be.
Jarhead
Based on the memoirs of the same name by former Marine Anthony Swofford,
Jarhead does a damned fine job depicting the Gulf War. Jake Gyllenhaal
convincingly plays Swofford as the naïve young Marine sniper prepared
for the war but not prepared for the politics and boredom that come with
it. Peter Sarsgaard and Jamie Foxx give assured performances as well, and
it is clear director Sam Mendes chose his cast wisely. There is not a moment
where I, an Army Gulf War veteran, was abruptly pulled out of the movie
muttering “That’s not the way we behaved.” Some will complain
the movie is too long and lacks action: That’s how the Gulf War was.
Some will complain the Marines were too vulgar, too desperate for combat,
too undisciplined in their behavior: That’s how I remember the Army
behaving at the time, so I am not surprised Marines would behave the same
way. Some will complain that the film is too anti-war, too pro-war, or refuses
to take a stance: That’s real life. We can be pro-war and anti-war
simultaneously. We can despise the politics but love the adventure. We can
love our country and be willing to die for it and still doubt the reasons
they give us for doing so. We can chant “Fuck the Army!” and
still encourage our sons to join. The military is something we all love
and all hate. That’s the way it is. This film gets that.
Live from Baghdad
The Gulf War made CNN, and in some ways CNN made the Gulf War. This is the
slightly fictionalized story of Robert Wiener and Ingrid Formanek, two veteran
producers who volunteer to go to Baghdad on the eve of the Gulf War. Their
mission seemed simple: to report the war as it happened. The reality of
such an enterprise while bombs drop around them and Saddam Hussein’s
régime censors every word is much more difficult than they anticipated.
March of the Penguins
Another documentary about birds, you say? But, ah! These birds are flightless!
Emperor penguins live in the most inhospitable place on earth: Antarctica.
Over millions of years of evolution, these birds first lost their ability
to fly in exchange for a remarkable ability to swim, then became extremely
cold-adapted as the Antarctic continent moved farther south. This lovingly-crafted
documentary tells their unusual tale. In brief, the penguins march 70 miles
inland to an ancient nesting site where the female lays a single egg. That
egg must be meticulously transferred to the care of the male who hides it
between his feet and his belly fat to protect the egg from the harsh climate.
The female then returns to the sea to consume as much fish as possible to
restore her lost body weight from the two legs of the trip and the birthing
experience. The male remains the sole guardian of the egg until the chicks
hatch, and cannot eat for months. The females eventually return, take over
from the males, who now, nearly starved, return to the sea, and begin feeding
the chicks food that they regurgitate for them. This process repeats several
times until the chicks are old enough and strong enough to make the journey
to the sea themselves. Why do they engage in all this travel back and forth?
Because the freezing and thawing cycle of the ice shelves makes it too likely
that eggs, and later the chicks, will fall into the sea if they are not
raised safely inland. This is an amazing documentary that must have taken
incredible perseverance, planning, and teamwork to film.
The Merchant of Venice
What? Shakespeare again? I know, I know, but this time it stars Al Pacino
as the Jewish moneylender Shylock, and he gives a riveting performance in
a faithful adaptation of Shakespeare’s play. In fact I had no problems
with the movie, nor with the inherent racism within it, for that racism
is in Shakespeare’s play, and to have expected him to portray Jews
otherwise in his day and age would be pointless and a-historical. I do have
one problem with play, however, and that is in Shakespeare’s attempts
— at least I assume they were attempts — to sprinkle some humor
into the play with pointless instances of women masquerading as men, of
men lying to women, and of mistaken identities and fraud. These feeble efforts,
I feel, are more suited to one of Shakespeare’s comedies, and only
distract from the quality of this drama.
Million Dollar Baby
Clint Eastwood, the director, understands that simple stories often need
to be told simply. Two years ago, his film Mystic River made it onto
our best of list, and now he has done it again. By now, most of you will
have heard of the surprise twist in the film, but for those of you who have
not, I will continue to refrain from discussing it. I will merely say that
this might be a movie about boxers, but it is more importantly a movie about
people. It is not about what they do; it is about how they go about doing
it. It is a worthwhile achievement for this actor-director who now has nearly
30 films on his directorial résumé.
Murderball
A crazy documentary about the crazy sport of wheelchair rugby, A.K.A. murderball,
an exciting, high-speed, full-contact, rough-and-tumble sport played by
paraplegics in homemade armored wheelchairs. Murderball focuses on the rivalry
between the U.S. and Canada teams and the personal animosity between the
teams’ captains, two men we can respect but whom we find almost impossible
to like.
Possession
This British film stars Gwyneth Paltrow and Aaron Eckhart respectively as
British and American literary scholars who begin to slowly fall in love
while reading and investigating long-lost love letters exchanged between
two of their literary idols. The bygone lovers are played wonderfully by
Jeremy Northam and Jennifer Ehle. Time and place are captured wonderfully
in this film, and while two mysteries, one past and one present, simultaneously
unravel, two loves advance in ways that are not always predictable.
Serenity
Once upon a time, Joss Whedon created a fun little science-fiction television
series called Firefly. Then it got canceled. Undeterred, Joss managed
to get the financing to bring his television show to big-screen, and thus
Serenity was born. Most movies based on television shows are only
barely watchable at best, but that is not the case with Serenity.
If I had to compare it to another movie, I would probably compare it to
Silverado, and not to another science-fiction film, although I could
easily contrast it with the ponderous dreck that George Lucas has put out
the last few years. The film is fun, adventurous, thrilling, and imbued
with a great sense of humor throughout.
Sin City
There have been many attempts to bring comic books to the silver screen,
but nothing has ever come close to Robert Rodriguez’s adaptation of
Frank Miller’s Sin City. Rodriguez filmed his actors entirely
in front of green screens, which allowed him to create all of the props,
sets, backgrounds, and much of the action, inside the mind of his computer.
This in turn enabled him to create something that had never been created
before: a film that looks like a graphic novel. The stories and action can
only be described as hard-boiled, like the pulp novels and film noir Miller
drew his inspiration from, and the visuals that accompany them are stunning.
This is a film that will long be remembered as something new and innovative
in a Hollywood that prides itself on its sameness.
The Squid and the Whale
A weird little film about a dysfunctional family filled with great intellects
who fail as basic human beings. Wonderful performances from the ever-popular
Laura Linney, the under-rated Jeff Daniels, rising young star Jesse Eisenberg,
and relative newcomer Owen Kline, the son of Kevin Kline and Phoebe Cates.
A Very Long Engagement
Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Never heard of him.) apparently makes a new film about
every two-and-a-half years, having directed only ten films since 1978 (Guess
he’s lazy.), including Delicatessen (Never saw it.), The
City of Lost Children (Almost rented it once.), Alien: Resurrection
(Didn’t like it.), and Amélie (Loved it! Made me smile!
Made me laugh! Warmed my heart! Made me wish I knew how to pronounce “Tautou.”).
Now he has wisely re-teamed with Audrey Tautou to make this delightful romance
set in the years just prior to, during, and just after WWI. There are moments
in this film that are just visually stunning, and it is filled with enough
romantic charm, and longing sadness, to make it a worthy but more serious
successor to Amélie.
The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill
In San Francisco several flocks of parrots, non-native invaders who have
apparently been released from captivity, have managed to establish themselves
as part of the local ecosystem. The flocks are not yet large, as the parrots
do not breed prodigiously and are easy prey to a number of local predators,
but they have created quite a following for themselves, a following of interested
humans. This documentary follows the efforts of Mark Bittner, a man unemployed
apparently for decades, to manage and nurture one of these flocks. He feeds
them daily, nurses them when they are sick, grooms them when no one else
will, and knows all of them as individuals on sight, as they do him. This
is a charming story about a charming man, who isn’t nearly as crazy
as he first appears, and a group of birds, many of whom you will get to
know by name.
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