Wise Blood

This horrifying movie about small town America's obsession and saturation with religion is based on Flannery O'Connor's novel of the same name. With a ridiculous original score it seems perhaps a dark comedy about the illness which so fully plagues the South in the name of Jesus. A young man returns from a stint in the army to find his childhood home abandoned and a new interstate dumping country folks into the city. The protagonist soon ends up in the city himself, and in the midst of a spiritual crisis he is flung from the arms of a godless prostitute to a preacher con artist father/daughter pair. It seems that this world is a mean, lonely place with God or not. The young man's life goes downhill as he kills a man, loses his car, and becomes both blind and more insane. I suppose this slow, confined story could have its place in cautionary tales about America but perhaps its message lacks clarity and concision. Worth watching if you have an interest in American literary history, but boring at times and maybe a little too true to the novel to make a compelling film.

Um?
2 out of 5
Buy this film: Wise Blood

Plot: 2
Imagery: 2
Originality: 2
Soundtrack: 1
Overall: 2

Velvet Goldmine

This is a glittery, sequined, spandex-filled tale of glam rock, its idols, followers, and the scene in which they thrive. Christian Bale (Batman) plays a reporter who, given an assignment to cover the 10-year anniversary of a Bowie-esque glam rock star's career-ending faked public assassination, finds himself in the midst of countless suppressed memories. While investigating the disappearance of this fallen hero Bale is reminded of a self he has stifled for years - tight, revealing outfits; drug use; the shame of his parents; a love affair with a famous Iggy Pop-ish American glam rocker (Ewan McGregor); a lifestyle of shallow relationships; sexual confusion; freedom; and very few consequences. Has Bale's character lost his true self by taking a responsible job? Threaded throughout with both allusion and direct references to Oscar Wilde - was he gay/bi? Maybe I learned something from this film and, told in the Citizen Kane this-has-happened-now-go-back-and-report-on-it-tell-the-story format, Velvet Goldmine is occasionally entertaining, though sections of the film were overdone, held too long or seemingly irrelevant.

Um?
2.5 out of 5
Buy this film: Velvet Goldmine

Plot: 2
Imagery: 3
Originality: 2
Soundtrack: 4 Buy the Soundtrack or download it
Overall: 2.5

Smart People

This movie is awful. Having watched it recently, the plot is already almost forgotten - something about a curmudgeonly (but not very old) widower and professor; his prudish, pedantic, annoying daughter; a nurse; and a lazy bum of a brother. While such a combination of characters seems like a fail-proof concoction for fun and exciting scenarios, somehow it completely misses. There may be one or two amusing quips, but for the most part the dialogue is flat. A dry, offbeat feel is striven for but not obtained, and overall it seems to have been a poor attempt at mimicking the more entertaining film The Squid and the Whale.

BOOOOOOOO!
1 out of 5
Buy this film: Smart People

Plot: 1
Imagery: 1
Originality: 1
Soundtrack: 1
Overall: 1

King of California

What a horrible little slice of Americana! A teenager, abandoned by her mother and with a father on a funny farm, works full time at McDonald's instead of going to school. The daughter's routine is disrupted by her father's release. He has become obsessed by the idea that there is a Spanish explorer's long lost treasure buried somewhere near their suburban Californian home. The daughter's initial skepticism fades to enthusiasm for her father's crazy quest as he researches and spends his time roaming with a mental detector. Eventually they decide they'll find it under Costco. The daughter secures a job there, gets her hands on some keys, and in the middle of the night they drill their way into a disaster. This trashy glimpse of dream crazed America, in its shallow plot, unconvincing and depressing pretext left us with a feeling of having wasted our time more than wariness of the future. Not convincing but at least a little creative with a decent original soundtrack.

Um?
2 out of 5
Buy this Film: King of California
Download it: King of California

Plot: 2
Imagery: 1
Originality: 2
Soundtrack: 3 Buy the: soundtrack Download the: soundtrack
Overall: 2

Romance of the Western Chamber

A silent Chinese film with jerking eastern theatrical acting, ridiculous head gear and awesome clips of swords clashing. This 45-minute love story is probably one most people could happily skip. Here is the entire film in case your interest is piqued: A scholar randomly stops at a monastery to study. There is a girl living there with her family. The scholar falls in love. Bandits come for the girl. "Whoever saves my daughter can have her hand in marriage" says the mother. The scholar thinks hard. An idea! He sends a brave monk with a letter to a powerful general who comes and defeats the bandits. The scholar is happy and worn out. Crazy dream sequence. "Go pass your exams and my daughter is yours," says the mother. How do you think it ends?
This would probably make a great gift for an Asian-American friend who has lost touch with their Asianness.

Um?
2 out of 5
Buy this movie: Romance of the Western Chamber

Plot: 1
Imagery: 3
Originality: 1
Soundtrack: 2
Overall: 2

Last Tango in Paris

As the title suggests, Bertolucci's famous film is a story of two people engaged in a passionate, somewhat violent, and temporary relationship. Marlon Brando is a wayward American who has been living in Paris for several years. Following a sudden tragedy, he lunges into a secret affair with a malleable young French woman. They go about their 'normal' lives and meet at random in a mostly empty apartment to partake in coital activities, struggling (at the insistence of Brando's character) to maintain anonymity. The man reveals himself to be a deeply disturbed person who is completely disillusioned with conventional human interactions, while the woman (girl, really) continues to return despite other inclinations and a relationship with a kinder, though hyperactive and rather annoying, young filmmaker. The film is lavish, intense, and strangely captivating. The jazzy music swells into sudden torrents of strings and wild tango rhythms and then subsides just as abruptly, much like the emotions of the characters. Not recommended for children or conservatives.

Highly Entertaining
4 out of 5
Buy this film: Last Tango in Paris
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Plot: 4
Imagery: 4
Originality: 4
Soundtrack: 4 Last Tango in Paris
Overall: 4

Brigands - Chapter VII

This subtle Georgian satire is seemingly about the violence of mankind and the unending cycle of history repeating itself. Having never before seen any of director Otar Iosseliani's films nor read anything about Brigands - Chapter VII we have to admit that for most of the plot we were baffled as to the point. The movie is framed in a small cinema, where the projectionist is drunk and puts the reels on in the wrong order so the story slips between multiple time periods. For the most part the same actors are used for similar roles in each era but also some new ones are mixed in each time, leaving little in the way of continuity for the untrained eye to find. The main actor, at least the one the camera seems to focus on the most, plays a modern bum, a Stalinist goon, and a medieval royal. There is also a massacre of middle-aged, naked, partying French arms dealers by a child.

Straight-faced absurdity, presented through a combination of theatrical acting and a setting where human life has entirely lost its value, permeates almost every minute of the film. The picture quality is bad (the film looks like it was initially recorder onto a VHS from TV and then transfered to DVD), leaving the strongest impression of all on the viewer: low budget PBS daytime fodder. Which is, quite possibly, the only accurate idea in this review. Blame it on the subtitles if you want, but the movie was really that confusing.

BOOOOOOOO!
1.5 out of 5
Buy this movie:Brigands - Chapter VII

Plot: 1
Imagery: 2
Originality: 1
Soundtrack: 1
Overall: 1.5

The Insider

The true story surrounding CBS's 60 Minutes interview with ex-tobacco executive Jeffrey Wigand (played by Russel Crow) who, despite signing a confidentiality agreement upon his termination, took the higher moral ground, risking everything to expose the extreme corruption, lies and underlying health hazards hidden by a powerful business based in greed and dishonesty.
60 Minutes producer Lowell Bergman (Al Pacino) is the ideal reporter, operating under a strict code of ethics and doing anything to make certain his promise stays true in an otherwise flexible field. Can these two unlikely moral champions successfully take on the ugly world against them? Watch to find out! A well acted, frightening story of good versus evil that makes you question which side America is set up to foster.

Worth Watching
3.5 out of 5
Buy this Film: The Insider

Plot: 4
Imagery: 3
Originality: 3
Soundtrack:3 Buy the Soundtrack
Overall: 3.5

All About My Mother

This Spanish film by Pedro Almodovar is at once very strange and very ordinary. As typical with the popular director's (in the credits he is simply referred to as ALMODOVAR) works, All About My Mother is saturated with bright colors. It is something of a high production soap opera - full of obvious tragedy, melodrama, and thick emotions - but his subject matter, and treatment of it, is unusual. A Madrid mother returns to Barcelona after her eighteen-year-old son is killed and seeks out her old transvestite/prostitute friend, who leads her to a tainted nun with whom the mother shares a peculiar mutual friend. The characters are mostly unsubtle deviants: transvestites, transgenders, bisexuals, prostitutes, drug addicts, and surgical creations; but they are, for the most part, unabashed, if not proud, with regard to their societal status. The film contains continual references to the play A Streetcar Named Desire, and, not surprisingly, its outlandish characters all seem a little too theatrical. It is, in the end, a bizarre but sincere homage to motherhood and femininity.

WORTH WATCHING
3 out of 5
Download: All About My Mother

Plot: 3
Imagery: 3
Originality: 3
Soundtrack: 3
Overall: 3

Mahanagar (The Big City)

This Satyajit Ray film addresses issues involved in the modernization of societal roles of the sexes in India. The film concentrates on the personal difficulties of one family as their financial situation forces the daughter-in-law/wife/mother out of her traditional role in the home and into the work place. The father is furious, mother disappointed, husband humiliated, and the child confused.

The wife is very good at her job of door-to-door saleswoman and as she rakes in the cash her husband's life falls apart - very much like the patriarchal system itself. Out of work, the husband is jealous and suspicious of his wife, and while worrying about her he entirely ignores his father, who embarks on a shameful quest to collect money from his former pupils under the pretext of being neglected by his son. The movie ends on a hopeful note, with both bread winners jobless, the husband and wife equal at last and happy about it. Another not-to-be-missed, entertaining classic.

WORTH WATCHING
3.5 out of 5

Plot: 4
Imagery: 4
Originality: 3
Soundtrack: 3
Overall: 3.5

Rescue Dawn

Werner Herzog's venture into Hollywood is an extension of his documentary Little Dieter Needs to Fly, which retold the story of a German-born American pilot who was shot down over Laos before the Vietnam War "officially" started. While in the documentary Herzog had the real Dieter return to the place of his capture and relive his terrifying experiences, Rescue Dawn employs high-paid actors. It is still undeniably Herzog, however, full of brutality, tension, and realism (Herzog is famous for doing anything to achieve the desired effect). While trailers of the film show a great deal of explosions and excitement, the film itself mostly portrays a group of malnourished captives whispering their plans for escape. After crashing in the jungle, Dieter is taken to a camp where he meets other prisoners, some of whom are steadily descending into madness. Little Dieter Needs to Fly offers a little more insight into the man and his peculiar mind, but the dramatization is an unsensationalized study of madness, hunger, and the limits of human endurance - some of Herzog's favorite themes.

WORTH WATCHING
3.5 of out 5
Buy the film: Rescue Dawn
Download: Rescue Dawn

Plot: 3
Imagery: 4
Originality: 3
Soundtrack: 3
Overall: 3.5

The Wrestler

Apparently this film is supposed to be impressive because its story of a broke-down, aging wrestler seeking redemption is very similar in theme to the real life of its broke-down star, Mickey Rourke. Hollywood may love rebirths, but what is so exciting about an actor playing himself - especially when that mutual character is a worthless goon? Of course, the wrestler's pain is the spectator's joy - but the concept of self-sacrifice is a bit far-fetched in this case. The wrestler, known as 'The Ram,' is scarred and smashed up twenty years after his big fight - since then it seems his life has gone steadily downhill, though he's still wrestling and signing autographs. A sudden disaster sends the steroid junkie reeling, and he makes a couple half-assed attempts to put his life back together: trolling after an aging, broke-down stripper who insists she isn't really a stripper; and attempting to win back his estranged, college-age daughter who doesn't want him in her life. Can you guess what happens?

In other words, the story is ludicrous. A general weirdness permeates the film, simply due to the subject matter and 'backstage' look at the pro wrestling world, and it is shot in a somewhat gritty, realist style (the camera often follows the Ram's back, like a documentary) - but none of this manages to redeem the failures of the uninspired plot and flat characters. In the end, its attempts at rawness and authenticity are undermined, and The Wrestler is essentially a merger of Rocky, a porno, and a WWE show - unnecessarily graphic, smutty, and contrived.

BOOOOOOOO!
Rating 1.5 out of 5
Buy this film: The Wrestler
Download: The Wrestler

Plot: 1
Imagery: 2
Originality: 2
Soundtrack: 1 The Wrestler
Overall: 1.5

Only Yesterday

This film comes from Studio Ghibli, the Japanese animation company responsible for such imaginative classics as Castle in the Sky and Porco Rosso, two movies which Only Yesterday matches in animated design but does not even approach in plot or characters. Taeko, a twenty-seven year old office worker from Tokyo, chooses to spend her ten day vacation working with family friends in the countryside instead of traveling. While packing she slips into nostalgic memories of her ten-year-old self. She drifts in and out of this sentimentalism throughout the entire movie, mainly imposing on strangers, one of whom somehow falls in love with her. Only Yesterday is a long, tedious story that leaves you wondering- so what? Aside from the beautiful animations and a few moments of realistic ten year old reactions your time might better be spent reflecting on your own ten-year-old self - as long as you don't feel inclined to share.

Um?
2 out of 5
Buy this film: Omohide poro poro (Only Yesterday)

Plot: 1
Imagery: 4
Originality: 1
Soundtrack: 1
Overall: 2

Nayak (The Hero)

This Indian film by Satyajit Ray has a definite Italian quality to it, with especially obvious similarities to Fellini's 1960s pictures. The main actor even bears a strong resemblance to Marcello Mastroianni, and his character is, much like Mastroianni in 8 1/2, trapped and jaded by the entertainment business. In Nayak, a popular movie star travels to Delhi to receive a prize of some sort, but having decided at the last minute to go, he has no choice but to take a common sleeper. On board he finds himself surrounded by nosy fans, a fiery old man, a conniving couple, and many other characters, all of whom distract him from his 'wish' to sleep and be ignored. As the train rolls on, the star - confined to a compartmentalized locomotive - is compelled to lower his suave, detached manner and reveal some of his troubling past. Unfortunately, the film displays little of Ray's talent for musical composition, though it does employ esoteric dream sequences, illuminating flashbacks, and a few cutting criticisms of the state of Indian cinema. In short, a tightly crafted, insightful, and witty film.


Worth Watching
3.5 out of 5
Buy this film: Nayak - The Hero

Plot: 3
Imagery: 4
Originality: 3
Soundtrack: 3
Overall: 3.5

Chop Shop

With shaky, raw camera work and non-professional actors, this independent film about a brother and sister struggling for an existence in a rough New York neighborhood definitely has an air of realism. But the very things that give it its edge may be its downfall - the acting is barely passable at times, and the story lacks a strong thread, perhaps limited by inadequate resources and talent. The subject matter is honest but not particularly original - a young, hardworking boy fends for himself in the big city, begging for work and selling candy on the subway until he manages to find odd work (and housing) at a chop shop. Soon his older sister comes to live with him and work in a taco truck, and the two of them dream up a solution to their dependency and poverty. Chop Shop offers a melancholic, candid look at a strained sibling relationship, but its potential for insight and emotional power is not quite fulfilled.

Worth Watching
3 out of 5
Buy this film: Chop Shop

Plot: 3
Imagery: 2
Originality: 2
Soundtrack: 3
Overall: 3

The Last King of Scotland

Instead of focusing on the atrocities perpetrated by the Ugandan regime of Idi Amin, this film tells the surreal story of a young Scottish doctor who unwittingly forges a relationship with the megalomaniac but charismatic dictator. Driven by rash idealism, the doctor abandons a family practice to work in the third world, by chance finding himself treating Amin, before long he is irreversibly entangled in the uncertain world of Ugandan politics and civil war. By avoiding graphic images of the genocide, or hardly referring to it most of the film, the viewer experiences the Scotsman's amazingly limited understanding of the situation around him. While surely altered and magnified by Hollywood, the premise of this story is intriguing, and Forrest Whitaker successfully brings to life the infamous Amin's childish insanity.

Worth Watching
3 out of 5
Buy this film: The Last King of Scotland
Download: The Last King of Scotland

Plot: 3
Imagery: 3
Originality: 3
Soundtrack: 3
Overall: 3

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story of the same name opens with the following image: "Wrapped in a voluminous white blanket, and partially crammed into one of the cribs, there sat an old man apparently about seventy years of age. His sparse hair was almost white, and from his chin dripped a long smoke-colored beard, which waved absurdly back and forth, fanned by the breeze coming in at the window." The filmmakers who adapted Fitzgerald's tale either completely missed that passage, or deliberately decided to ignore the absurd tone it set so well. The film version frames the real story by placing it within the ludicrous plot of a dying woman revealing a long-held secret to her daughter. Instead of embracing the obviously silly nature of the premise, that of a person being born as an old man and growing young, the film attempts to use it as a vessel for cliche life lesson after cliche life lesson. The major mistake was choosing drama over comedy - it would have been more effective to cast a bumbling Will Ferrell type in place of Brad Pitt.

Um?
2 out of 5
Buy this film: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Buy the original story: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Other Jazz Age Stories

Plot: 2
Imagery: 2
Originality: 1
Soundtrack: 1
Overall: 2

The Elephant Man

Though it begins with a segment of odd, art house imagery, David Lynch's film about a horribly deformed Englishman is mostly subdued and normal, as far as style goes. Its black and white cinematography is crisp and pleasing to the eye, and in many ways the techniques seem almost anachronistic (aside from a couple of bizarre, dreamy sequences). Anthony Hopkins plays a benevolent surgeon who locates the so-called 'Elephant Man' and attempts to save him from his depraved circumstances. Lynch provides an interesting, compassionate look at perceptions of weirdness in society, and questions both our repulsion and fascination of differences, here shown is the form of an extreme physical mutation. The scenes are unfocused at times, with some abruptly fading away when they ought to continue, and others dragging with no forwarding of the plot, but as a whole it is a very watchable, carefully-crafted film and an revealing critique of human cruelty and hypocrisy.

HIGHLY ENTERTAINING
4 out of 5
Buy this film: The Elephant Man

Plot: 4
Imagery: 4
Originality: 4
Soundtrack: 3
Overall:4

Army of Shadows (L'Armee Des Ombres)

This semi-fictional Jean-Pierre Melville film about the French underground resistance and their struggles against Nazi occupation during WWII, originally released in 1969, was not made available to foreign, English speaking audiences until 2006 (hence its placement on many critics' top ten films of that year). Army of Shadows, though perhaps a bit long (in shots and story), is worth watching for a number of reasons, including - but not limited to - bowler-topped heroes, sadistic humor, no irrelevant cuts, and historical significance. In other words, this film is well directed, well acted, and well edited with a compelling storyline, which is much more than can be said for most contemporary cinema. One scene stands out as particularly demonstrative: After escaping the clutches of his Gestapo interrogators, the protagonist runs down the curfew emptied street, ducking into the first lit establishment he finds himself in a barber shop. He asks for a shave and a painfully quiet, slow scene unfolds. As an audience member you find yourself in uneasy anticipation, uncertain if he'll survive, flinching with each pass of the razor scraping over his throat. Army of Shadows is well done and worth the hype - a not to be missed piece of French cinematic history.

IMPORTANT!
4 out of 5
Buy this film: Army of Shadows - Criterion Collection

Plot: 4
Imagery: 4
Originality: 4
Soundtrack: 3
Overall:4

In the Electric Mist

Tommy Lee Jones once again plays a tough, sharp-tongued cop in this Southern mystery, in which a prostitute found dead in the Louisiana swamp somehow connects with a murder that Jones' character witnessed decades before. There is absolutely no suspense in this film, as it is quite clear that every problem that arises can easily be solved by a few quick elbows, gunshots, or whacks with a baseball bat. The characters, who run the gamut from stereotypical poor black people to stereotypical rich white people, deliver their lines as though they're being whispered into the other ear moments before, and a cameo by blues man Buddy Guy backfires due to his unbelievable lack of soul while away from a guitar. Jones is occasionally visited by the ghost of a wisdom-spouting Confederate general, whose enigmatic presence just made us wish we were watching Wayne's World 2 instead. The film never hesitates to throw in reminders of the tragic Hurricane Katrina, but meanwhile portrays the south as an ignorant, corrupt wetland not worth saving.

BOOOOOOOO!
Rating 1 out of 5
Buy this film: In the Electric Mist
Download: In the Electric Mist

Plot: 1
Imagery: 1
Originality: 1
Soundtrack: 1
Overall: 1