Scan and Pan
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
The Last Mimzy
When underachieving Noah and his gifted younger sister Emma spend their spring vacation at their family's beach-front cabin on Whidbey Island near Seattle, they find a mysterious box floating in the water. Inside the box are a crystalline tablet, rocks with amazing properties, and a stuffed toy rabbit named Mimzy that Emma claims talks to her. After Noah causes a massive blackout and begins to develop advanced mental powers, Homeland Security arrests the entire family, and it's up to Noah and Emma to get Mimzy back where it belongs.
New Line Cinema chairman Bob Shaye sits in the director's chair for the first time since 1990's Book of Love, and the evidence suggests that he should have stayed in the boardroom. The film starts out butter knife dull, and by the time something interesting happens it's almost over, making it impossible to summon up an ounce of caring about the outcome. What the characters experience is supposed to be miraculous and world changing, but there's simply no sense of awe communicated to the audience through Shaye's flat direction. It's billed as a family film, but good family films appeal to people of all ages. Adults and children alike will probably be bored stiff. I witnessed a man and his young daughter walk out and never return.
The film is based on a 1943 short story by Lewis Padgett, adapted by James V. Hart (Hook, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Contact) and Carol Skilken with a screenplay by Bruce Joel Rubin (Ghost, Jacob's Ladder) and Toby Emmerich (Frequency). Despite the involvement of several competent screenwriters, it's surprisingly weak, unfocused, and even preachy at times. It's like they watched E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (substitute Mimzy for E.T. and it's the same basic plot) and drew all the wrong conclusions about what made it good. Also, the idea that Homeland Security could be outwitted by two children and a stuffed animal certainly has some comedic value, but the script fails to mine it.
The visual effects are good but there's no emotional impact provided by them, and that's the problem with the film as a whole--instead of relying on sound storytelling for that impact, Shaye relies on effects. Cinematographer J. Michael Muro (Crash) doesn't add much pizzazz to the visuals, but he does put the Vancouver and Seattle locations to good use. Howard Shore (The Lord of the Rings) contributes an uninspired score, although the theme song he co-wrote with Roger Waters is much better.
Rhiannon Leigh Wryn as Emma is really the best thing about the film with her effortless charm and natural performance. Chris O'Neil is solid enough in his film debut as Noah. Rainn Wilson and Kathryn Hahn are funny as a science teacher and his dippy fiancee, so it's a pity that they don't have more screen time. Timothy Hutton and Joely Richardson are blandly forgettable as Emma and Noah's parents. Michael Clarke Duncan seems out of place as a Homeland Security regional director. Randi Lynne has a funny scene as a babysitter who comes unglued after witnessing what Emma can do with the rocks from the box. Bruce Harwood (one of the X-Files' Lone Gunmen) has a cameo as a scientist, as does noted physicist Brian Greene.
The Last Mimzy seems reminiscent of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, only without the entertainment value or the emotional impact. Not recommended.
This science fiction fairy tale arrives in cinemas dead on arrival.
When underachieving Noah and his gifted younger sister Emma spend their spring vacation at their family's beach-front cabin on Whidbey Island near Seattle, they find a mysterious box floating in the water. Inside the box are a crystalline tablet, rocks with amazing properties, and a stuffed toy rabbit named Mimzy that Emma claims talks to her. After Noah causes a massive blackout and begins to develop advanced mental powers, Homeland Security arrests the entire family, and it's up to Noah and Emma to get Mimzy back where it belongs.
New Line Cinema chairman Bob Shaye sits in the director's chair for the first time since 1990's Book of Love, and the evidence suggests that he should have stayed in the boardroom. The film starts out butter knife dull, and by the time something interesting happens it's almost over, making it impossible to summon up an ounce of caring about the outcome. What the characters experience is supposed to be miraculous and world changing, but there's simply no sense of awe communicated to the audience through Shaye's flat direction. It's billed as a family film, but good family films appeal to people of all ages. Adults and children alike will probably be bored stiff. I witnessed a man and his young daughter walk out and never return.
The film is based on a 1943 short story by Lewis Padgett, adapted by James V. Hart (Hook, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Contact) and Carol Skilken with a screenplay by Bruce Joel Rubin (Ghost, Jacob's Ladder) and Toby Emmerich (Frequency). Despite the involvement of several competent screenwriters, it's surprisingly weak, unfocused, and even preachy at times. It's like they watched E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (substitute Mimzy for E.T. and it's the same basic plot) and drew all the wrong conclusions about what made it good. Also, the idea that Homeland Security could be outwitted by two children and a stuffed animal certainly has some comedic value, but the script fails to mine it.
The visual effects are good but there's no emotional impact provided by them, and that's the problem with the film as a whole--instead of relying on sound storytelling for that impact, Shaye relies on effects. Cinematographer J. Michael Muro (Crash) doesn't add much pizzazz to the visuals, but he does put the Vancouver and Seattle locations to good use. Howard Shore (The Lord of the Rings) contributes an uninspired score, although the theme song he co-wrote with Roger Waters is much better.
Rhiannon Leigh Wryn as Emma is really the best thing about the film with her effortless charm and natural performance. Chris O'Neil is solid enough in his film debut as Noah. Rainn Wilson and Kathryn Hahn are funny as a science teacher and his dippy fiancee, so it's a pity that they don't have more screen time. Timothy Hutton and Joely Richardson are blandly forgettable as Emma and Noah's parents. Michael Clarke Duncan seems out of place as a Homeland Security regional director. Randi Lynne has a funny scene as a babysitter who comes unglued after witnessing what Emma can do with the rocks from the box. Bruce Harwood (one of the X-Files' Lone Gunmen) has a cameo as a scientist, as does noted physicist Brian Greene.
The Last Mimzy seems reminiscent of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, only without the entertainment value or the emotional impact. Not recommended.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
The Hills Have Eyes 2
Two years after a vacationing family is massacred in the remote New Mexico desert by a clan of mutant cannibals, scientists are investigating the area on behalf of the military. When a National Guard unit arrives with supplies, they discover the scientists are missing and soon find themselves being picked off one by one by the mutants.
Craven produced last year's remake of his own film, but he takes a more active role this time around, co-writing the screenplay with his son Jonathan. The result is one of the best films he's written in a long time, complete with his familiar dark sense of humor. Alexandre Aja is replaced in the director's chair by Martin Weisz (Rohtenburg), and the result is non-stop action that keeps the audience on the edge of their seats. If its predecessor was edgy and disturbing, this sequel is more like Aliens, a straightforward action film, and it's certainly satisfying on that level.
Much of the film is set in underground tunnels, so cinematographer Sam McCurdy's experience on The Descent allows him to light the sets of production designer Keith Wilson (Space: 1999, Mary, Mother of Jesus) in a way that makes them look real while also maximizing the claustrophobic terror of a situation where monsters can seemingly come out of nowhere in the dark. The score by Trevor Morris (E-Ring) helps build the tension to a high pitch.
This isn't the kind of film where great acting is required, but all of the actors are believable in their roles, including Michael McMillian, Jessica Stroup, Daniella Alonso, Jacob Vargas, Lee Thompson Young (Cyborg on Smallville), Ben Crowley, Eric Edelstein, and Reshad Strik as the soldiers; Flex Alexander as their sergeant; Jeff Kober as the officer overseeing the scientists; Archie Kao (CSI: Las Vegas) as one of the scientists; Michael Bailey Smith as the mutant leader Hades (he played the mutant Pluto in the previous film, a clear pun based on the various names of the Greco-Roman deity); and David Reynolds as an innocent-minded mutant who helps the soldiers.
The Hills Have Eyes 2 completely exceeded my expectations for a sequel to a remake, and I think most fans of horror and action should enjoy this film as much as I did.
The sequel to last year's surprise hit remake of Wes Craven's 1977 horror classic is an edge-of-your seat action thriller.
Two years after a vacationing family is massacred in the remote New Mexico desert by a clan of mutant cannibals, scientists are investigating the area on behalf of the military. When a National Guard unit arrives with supplies, they discover the scientists are missing and soon find themselves being picked off one by one by the mutants.
Craven produced last year's remake of his own film, but he takes a more active role this time around, co-writing the screenplay with his son Jonathan. The result is one of the best films he's written in a long time, complete with his familiar dark sense of humor. Alexandre Aja is replaced in the director's chair by Martin Weisz (Rohtenburg), and the result is non-stop action that keeps the audience on the edge of their seats. If its predecessor was edgy and disturbing, this sequel is more like Aliens, a straightforward action film, and it's certainly satisfying on that level.
Much of the film is set in underground tunnels, so cinematographer Sam McCurdy's experience on The Descent allows him to light the sets of production designer Keith Wilson (Space: 1999, Mary, Mother of Jesus) in a way that makes them look real while also maximizing the claustrophobic terror of a situation where monsters can seemingly come out of nowhere in the dark. The score by Trevor Morris (E-Ring) helps build the tension to a high pitch.
This isn't the kind of film where great acting is required, but all of the actors are believable in their roles, including Michael McMillian, Jessica Stroup, Daniella Alonso, Jacob Vargas, Lee Thompson Young (Cyborg on Smallville), Ben Crowley, Eric Edelstein, and Reshad Strik as the soldiers; Flex Alexander as their sergeant; Jeff Kober as the officer overseeing the scientists; Archie Kao (CSI: Las Vegas) as one of the scientists; Michael Bailey Smith as the mutant leader Hades (he played the mutant Pluto in the previous film, a clear pun based on the various names of the Greco-Roman deity); and David Reynolds as an innocent-minded mutant who helps the soldiers.
The Hills Have Eyes 2 completely exceeded my expectations for a sequel to a remake, and I think most fans of horror and action should enjoy this film as much as I did.
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Colour Me Kubrick: A True...ish Story
The story follows Conway from victim to victim, taking advantage of their generosity to obtain money, valuable gifts, food, alcohol, and in some cases even sex (but the last only from handsome young men). As his metaphorical house built on deceit begins to collapse around him, he fakes mental illness to avoid prosecution.
Director Brian Cook and writer Anthony Frewin, both longtime assistants to Kubrick, serve up a sly look at how the power of presumed celebrity successfully exploits the vanity of a con man's marks. Conway's victims fall over themselves ("over the moon, I am", one of them says) for the attention of a man they believe is a famous director, and the film deftly satirizes the public's obsession with celebrity to the point of behaving irrationally.
It isn't a deep examination of the inner workings of Conway's mind, but it isn't intended to be. It's an entertainingly droll comedy with a great leading performance. Several scenes are affectionate homages to Kubrick's films (including a funny variation on the famous "I'm Spartacus!" scene), while the cheerfully absurdist tone is reminiscent of Dr. Strangelove and A Clockwork Orange. Much of the music is taken from Kubrick's films, with some original music and songs contributed by Bryan Adams.
John Malkovich is sublime in a comedic turn as Conway, a fey charmer who turns name dropping into an art form that allows him to separate gullible people from their money. In the wrong hands, an unapologetic user of people like Conway could be unlikable, but Malkovich carries the film by making us fall for Conway just like his victims do. No one plays an eccentric quite like he does.
The rest of the cast is also quite good, with Jim Davidson, Richard E. Grant, Henry Goodman, and Nitin Ganatra as some of Conway's victims; Burn Gorman (Owen on Torchwood) as a Droogish-looking punk; Ayesha Dharker as the psychiatrist Conway manipulates into declaring him mentally ill; Marc Warren (Elton in the Doctor Who episode "Love & Monsters") as a potential victim who turns the tables by tricking Conway into revealing himself as a fraud; Shaun Dingwall (Pete Tyler on Doctor Who) as a Maitre D'; and William Hootkins and Marisa Berenson as critic Frank Rich and his wife. Leslie Phillips, Honor Blackman, and Ken Russell also have fun cameos.
It's an amusing film, even more so if you're familiar with the films of Stanley Kubrick. John Malkovich's performance is worth the price of admission alone. Recommended.
Loosely based on the true story of Alan Conway, a failed travel agent turned alcoholic confidence man who successfully impersonated film director Stanley Kubrick in the 1990s.
The story follows Conway from victim to victim, taking advantage of their generosity to obtain money, valuable gifts, food, alcohol, and in some cases even sex (but the last only from handsome young men). As his metaphorical house built on deceit begins to collapse around him, he fakes mental illness to avoid prosecution.
Director Brian Cook and writer Anthony Frewin, both longtime assistants to Kubrick, serve up a sly look at how the power of presumed celebrity successfully exploits the vanity of a con man's marks. Conway's victims fall over themselves ("over the moon, I am", one of them says) for the attention of a man they believe is a famous director, and the film deftly satirizes the public's obsession with celebrity to the point of behaving irrationally.
It isn't a deep examination of the inner workings of Conway's mind, but it isn't intended to be. It's an entertainingly droll comedy with a great leading performance. Several scenes are affectionate homages to Kubrick's films (including a funny variation on the famous "I'm Spartacus!" scene), while the cheerfully absurdist tone is reminiscent of Dr. Strangelove and A Clockwork Orange. Much of the music is taken from Kubrick's films, with some original music and songs contributed by Bryan Adams.
John Malkovich is sublime in a comedic turn as Conway, a fey charmer who turns name dropping into an art form that allows him to separate gullible people from their money. In the wrong hands, an unapologetic user of people like Conway could be unlikable, but Malkovich carries the film by making us fall for Conway just like his victims do. No one plays an eccentric quite like he does.
The rest of the cast is also quite good, with Jim Davidson, Richard E. Grant, Henry Goodman, and Nitin Ganatra as some of Conway's victims; Burn Gorman (Owen on Torchwood) as a Droogish-looking punk; Ayesha Dharker as the psychiatrist Conway manipulates into declaring him mentally ill; Marc Warren (Elton in the Doctor Who episode "Love & Monsters") as a potential victim who turns the tables by tricking Conway into revealing himself as a fraud; Shaun Dingwall (Pete Tyler on Doctor Who) as a Maitre D'; and William Hootkins and Marisa Berenson as critic Frank Rich and his wife. Leslie Phillips, Honor Blackman, and Ken Russell also have fun cameos.
It's an amusing film, even more so if you're familiar with the films of Stanley Kubrick. John Malkovich's performance is worth the price of admission alone. Recommended.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Dead Silence
After a ventriloquist's dummy is anonymously delivered to newlyweds Jamie and Lisa, Lisa is found dead with her tongue cut out, leaving Jamie as the prime suspect in the eyes of Detective Lipton. Jamie remembers a ghost story from his hometown about a ventriloquist named Mary Shaw, and returns home to unravel the mystery and clear his name, with Lipton on his trail.
Writer/director James Wan and co-writer Leigh Whannell redefined the horror genre with the clever Saw, but where that film disregarded genre cliches in favor of a fresh approach, this film unwisely turns that formula on its head. It's a solid effort in terms of production values, with a few effective scenes and a twist at the end that I didn't see coming, but the slow pace and overall lack of originality keep the whole from being as effective as those individual scenes. It's the kind of urban legend story that the television show Supernatural does well, but the film pales in comparison to that show. Even a homage to an older style of horror filmmaking shouldn't be so by the numbers.
Dead Silence is a Universal Pictures production, so credit is due to Wan for opening with the old 'plane flying around the globe' logo used in the studio's classic 1920s-1930s horror films. This film may not be a classic, but I appreciate the nod to film history. Also, the Jigsaw Killer's dummy from Saw makes an appearance if you look close enough in the final scenes in the old theatre.
John R. Leonetti (Child's Play 3, The Scorpion King) conjures up some atmospheric cinematography, while production designer Julie Berghoff (Saw) serves up some equally good sets. The score by Charlie Clouser (Saw, Numb3rs) is a surprisingly weak contribution and is obvious to the point of annoyance.
Australian actor Ryan Kwanten is a bland protagonist as Jamie, while Donnie Wahlberg is stilted as Lipton (although the quirks the script gives him don't help). The rest of the cast is passable, including Michael Fairman as the town's mortician, Bob Gunton as Jamie's estranged father, Amber Valletta as Jamie's step-mother, and Judith Roberts as Mary Shaw. The best performance comes from Laura Regan as Lisa, so it's a pity her character doesn't last long.
If you're looking for another original horror film à la Saw, you won't find it here. Not recommended, although if you do want to see it, wait for the video release.
The creators of the Saw franchise return with a disappointing new horror film.
After a ventriloquist's dummy is anonymously delivered to newlyweds Jamie and Lisa, Lisa is found dead with her tongue cut out, leaving Jamie as the prime suspect in the eyes of Detective Lipton. Jamie remembers a ghost story from his hometown about a ventriloquist named Mary Shaw, and returns home to unravel the mystery and clear his name, with Lipton on his trail.
Writer/director James Wan and co-writer Leigh Whannell redefined the horror genre with the clever Saw, but where that film disregarded genre cliches in favor of a fresh approach, this film unwisely turns that formula on its head. It's a solid effort in terms of production values, with a few effective scenes and a twist at the end that I didn't see coming, but the slow pace and overall lack of originality keep the whole from being as effective as those individual scenes. It's the kind of urban legend story that the television show Supernatural does well, but the film pales in comparison to that show. Even a homage to an older style of horror filmmaking shouldn't be so by the numbers.
Dead Silence is a Universal Pictures production, so credit is due to Wan for opening with the old 'plane flying around the globe' logo used in the studio's classic 1920s-1930s horror films. This film may not be a classic, but I appreciate the nod to film history. Also, the Jigsaw Killer's dummy from Saw makes an appearance if you look close enough in the final scenes in the old theatre.
John R. Leonetti (Child's Play 3, The Scorpion King) conjures up some atmospheric cinematography, while production designer Julie Berghoff (Saw) serves up some equally good sets. The score by Charlie Clouser (Saw, Numb3rs) is a surprisingly weak contribution and is obvious to the point of annoyance.
Australian actor Ryan Kwanten is a bland protagonist as Jamie, while Donnie Wahlberg is stilted as Lipton (although the quirks the script gives him don't help). The rest of the cast is passable, including Michael Fairman as the town's mortician, Bob Gunton as Jamie's estranged father, Amber Valletta as Jamie's step-mother, and Judith Roberts as Mary Shaw. The best performance comes from Laura Regan as Lisa, so it's a pity her character doesn't last long.
If you're looking for another original horror film à la Saw, you won't find it here. Not recommended, although if you do want to see it, wait for the video release.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Puccini for Beginners
The official plot description: "Opera fan Allegra loves Samantha, but she won't say so. Grace loves Philip but he won't marry her. Samantha leaves Allegra. Allegra meets Philip. Philip leaves Grace. Allegra falls for Philip. Allegra meets Grace. Grace falls for Allegra. Allegra falls for Grace. Allegra sees Philip and Grace simultaneously and has no idea they're exes." In short, lesbian falls for man, straight woman falls for her, hilarity ensues.
Writer/director Maria Maggenti (The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love) serves up a sparkling romance (several of them, in fact!) with witty dialog, while also managing a clever commentary on gender and sexuality as applied to relationships. In some ways, it's the kind of sophisticated but neurotic New York romantic comedy that Woody Allen used to do so well, but with a nice twist. Its charms never seem forced, rather they flow naturally from a funny script performed by a perfect cast. At just 82 minutes in length, it says all it needs to without ever outstaying its welcome.
Despite being a low budget production shot on digital video, it doesn't look it because the cinematography of Mauricio Rubinstein is suitably bright and polished. Editor Susan Graef keeps the proceedings well-paced, and reportedly conceived of moving a key scene to the beginning, which really sets up the rest of the film rather nicely.
Elizabeth Reaser has great comic timing and facial expressions as Allegra, while making her conflicted character very sympathetic to the audience. Gretchen Mol is a believably ditzy blonde as Grace, while Justin Kirk makes a charming Philip. Also deserving of notice are the performances of Julianne Nicholson as Samantha; Tina Benko as Nell, another ex of Allegra's; Jennifer Dundas as Molly, Allegra's best friend; and Brian Letscher as Samantha's fiancé.
Puccini for Beginners is the funniest romantic comedy that I've seen in a very long time, and its postmodern take on sexuality is refreshing. Highly recommended.
If bisexual screwball comedy is a genre, then this hilarious film is an excellent example of it.
The official plot description: "Opera fan Allegra loves Samantha, but she won't say so. Grace loves Philip but he won't marry her. Samantha leaves Allegra. Allegra meets Philip. Philip leaves Grace. Allegra falls for Philip. Allegra meets Grace. Grace falls for Allegra. Allegra falls for Grace. Allegra sees Philip and Grace simultaneously and has no idea they're exes." In short, lesbian falls for man, straight woman falls for her, hilarity ensues.
Writer/director Maria Maggenti (The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love) serves up a sparkling romance (several of them, in fact!) with witty dialog, while also managing a clever commentary on gender and sexuality as applied to relationships. In some ways, it's the kind of sophisticated but neurotic New York romantic comedy that Woody Allen used to do so well, but with a nice twist. Its charms never seem forced, rather they flow naturally from a funny script performed by a perfect cast. At just 82 minutes in length, it says all it needs to without ever outstaying its welcome.
Despite being a low budget production shot on digital video, it doesn't look it because the cinematography of Mauricio Rubinstein is suitably bright and polished. Editor Susan Graef keeps the proceedings well-paced, and reportedly conceived of moving a key scene to the beginning, which really sets up the rest of the film rather nicely.
Elizabeth Reaser has great comic timing and facial expressions as Allegra, while making her conflicted character very sympathetic to the audience. Gretchen Mol is a believably ditzy blonde as Grace, while Justin Kirk makes a charming Philip. Also deserving of notice are the performances of Julianne Nicholson as Samantha; Tina Benko as Nell, another ex of Allegra's; Jennifer Dundas as Molly, Allegra's best friend; and Brian Letscher as Samantha's fiancé.
Puccini for Beginners is the funniest romantic comedy that I've seen in a very long time, and its postmodern take on sexuality is refreshing. Highly recommended.
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Top 10 Films of 2006
10. Tideland - Director Terry Gilliam's best film since Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is also the darkest film he's ever made.
This is the story of a young girl named Jeliza-Rose. After her mother dies from a heroin overdose, her musician father takes her to live in a rural Texas house that belonged to his deceased mother. After he also dies from a heroin overdose, Jeliza-Rose is alone in the world with only Barbie doll heads and some bizarre neighbors as companions.
The film opens with a darkly humorous introduction by Gilliam (appropriate for a film from a former member of Monty Python) and you immediately know that you're in for an unusual cinematic journey, which is confirmed in the first scene when you witness a young girl shooting her parents up with heroin. As dark as the film is, it's really about how resilient children are even when faced with tragedy, and Gilliam tells the story from Jeliza-Rose's perspective. The script by Gilliam and his Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas collaborator Tony Grisoni is based on Mitch Cullin's controversial novel, and brings the story to life as a Southern Gothic crossed with the surrealism of the protagonist's fantasy life. This is "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" turned on its head with the rabbit hole leading to a very dark psychological terrain, although the bleakness is tempered with a sense of hope that only a child could have and even a sense of humor, as jet black as it may be.
Gilliam and cinematographer Nicola Pecorini (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas) find beauty in isolation and decay. There's a lyrical, romantic quality to the lighting that reflects the innocence of childhood, which accurately conveys how Jeliza-Rose sees her world. Production designer Jasna Stefanovic (Cube, The Virgin Suicides) contributes two houses that are as magical as they are foreboding, especially the neighboring house filled with a taxidermist's stuffed animals. Jeff Danna (Silent Hill) and Mychael Danna (Capote) add an atmospheric score.
When a child is the main character and must carry the film, it always presents challenges, even more so in a drama with such a mature story. Jodelle Ferland, who also played the little girl in Silent Hill, is simply outstanding as Jeliza-Rose, capturing the nuances of a child for whom "normal" is helping her parents get high and talking to Barbie doll heads. The film simply wouldn't work without her performance. Jeff Bridges and Jennifer Tilly are excellent in their scenes as Jeliza-Rose's parents. Bridges plays his character as the opposite of a Father of the Year candidate but still imbues him with some rough-hewn charm. Janet McTeer is quite good as the eccentric neighbor Dell, who may have a past with Jeliza-Rose's father. Brendan Fletcher is compelling as Dell's mentally disabled brother Dickens, who forms a relationship with Jeliza-Rose that becomes more disturbing as the film goes along.
Some critics have called this film unwatchable and said it will end Gilliam's career as a director. Indeed, several people walked out of the screening I went to. However, Gilliam's films have almost always divided critics and audiences, and this film is no different. I think it's challenging, brilliant, and one of the best films he's ever made, and one that ends with a note of hope. Highly recommended.
9. Clerks II - Lewd, crude, rude, and the funniest film I've seen in a long time. Also one of the best films I've seen this year.
The original Clerks was a day in the life of twentysomething slacker convenience store clerks Randal and Dante. This film opens eleven years later after Randal accidentally burns down the store, forcing Randal and Dante to try a career in fast food as clerks at Mooby's. One year later, it's Dante's last day on the job before he moves to Florida with his wealthy fiancee, trading in slackerdom for responsibility. Before the day is over, everything will change.
Somehow I've never seen the original Clerks (I'll have to remedy this at the earliest opportunity), although I've enjoyed some of writer/director/editor Kevin Smith's other films, such as Mallrats and Dogma. This film is so good that I'll have to watch the original. Smith's script doesn't take a single wrong step as it details another day in the life of two friends. Underneath all the comedy, this is really a film about friendships and being true to yourself and your friends. No one will ever mistake Smith for Orson Welles, but as a director he has a great touch for this style of comedy and deftly gets to the core of his characters in his scripts.
Jeff Anderson and Brian O'Halloran reprise their roles as Randal and Dante. O'Halloran has the more complex role, with his character having several personal conflicts to resolve. Both actors deliver hilarious performances but also their characters' friendship shines through in every scene. Trevor Fuhrman is hilarious as Elias, their teenaged Christian Lord of the Rings fan co-worker. Rosario Dawson adds a multifaceted performance as Becky, the Mooby's manager who is also close to Dante. Kevin Weisman has a very funny scene as another LOTR fan who argues with Star Wars fan Randal about which franchise is better in what is without a doubt one of the funniest bits in the film. Jason Lee and Ben Affleck have cameo roles. Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith once again add much comedic value as drug dealers Jay and Silent Bob.
This film is not for everyone. If the mere idea of a donkey getting a blowjob offends you, avoid this film at all costs, or like critic Joel Siegel you may be forced to walk out of the film loudly complaining about how offensive it is. If your sense of humor is compatible with Kevin Smith's, you will laugh long and hard, especially about a donkey getting a blowjob. I rarely rank a comedy among the best films in any given year, but this film will be a definite exception. Highly recommended, scenes involving interspecies erotica and all.
8. The Prestige - This dark rumination on the theme of obsession is the absolute best film I've seen so far this year, pushing the previous holder of that title, The Illusionist, into second place.
Rupert Angier and Alfred Borden are ambitious assistants to a stage magician in late Victorian era London. When a trick involving Angier's wife goes awry and she dies after being unable to untie knots tied by Borden, the two men become bitter rivals, stopping at nothing to become the more acclaimed magician while trying to destroy the other.
Director Christopher Nolan (Memento, Batman Begins) creates his finest film yet which, like a brilliant magical trick, astonishes the audience while never revealing how it's done. It's based on the novel by Christopher Priest. Having never read it, I can't vouch for how faithful the film is, but the screenplay by Nolan and his brother Jonathan (soon to collaborate again on the next Batman film, The Dark Knight) is simply amazing. It's a darkly twisted look at how obsession consumes the lives of the two main characters. I thought I figured out what the ending would be, but I was wrong. I simply didn't see some of the twists coming in a film that has all the cunning of a well-designed maze. This is a film that would bear a second or third viewing to better appreciate all the misdirection.
The film is equally stunning visually. Nolan's usual collaborators, cinematographer Wally Pfister and production designer Nathan Crowley, once again create a dark, stylish filmscape, taking the audience on a ride from the realm of the possible to the realm of the fantastic, the latter influenced by the aesthetics of steampunk. Crowley in particular deserves recognition for recreating late Victorian era London in modern day Los Angeles using existing buildings rather than sets. Costume designer Joan Bergin (In the Name of the Father, Some Mother's Son) contributes authentic period costuming that works with the film's muted colors. The dramatic score by David Julyan (Memento) perfectly complements each beat of the film's dark heart.
The cast is simply brilliant. Hugh Jackman as Angier and Christian Bale as Borden are riveting. Not only can you not take your eyes off them, their very different personalities and acting styles make their rivalry palpable. Neither character is heroic at all, but Jackman and Bale make us like them. I won't reveal any plot twists, but there were aspects of Bale's performance that were so convincing that I couldn't believe it. Michael Caine gives a strong performance as Cutter, a man who is a witness to, and ultimately the moral judge of, the rivalry. David Bowie is suitably restrained as Nikola Tesla and Andy Serkis (who has roles as Gollum and King Kong on his resume) is also quite good as Tesla's assistant. Piper Perabo, Rebecca Hall, and Scarlett Johansson are good as the women who are caught up in the rivalry between the two magicians, while Samantha Mahurin is charming as Borden's daughter.
There aren't enough superlatives to place on The Prestige, so just go see it. Highly, highly recommended.
7. Little Miss Sunshine - Simply put, this independent production is the best film of 2006 so far.
Olive, a young girl who dreams of being a beauty queen, wins a spot in the finals of the Little Miss Sunshine contest in California. Her dysfunctional family is determined to get her there no matter what, so they pile into their VW bus for a road trip that will change their lives.
Directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, who come from a background of television commercials and music videos, make an impressive feature film debut. Despite their background, this isn't a film that values style over substance. To their credit, Dayton and Faris focus on the story and the acting. It's part black comedy, part serious drama, and toward the end it becomes a satire of pageants. One moment you'll be laughing, the next you'll be crying, but rarely will you feel like you're watching a piece of fiction on a screen. You'll feel like you're inside the characters' lives. I was pleasantly surprised by how often Michael Arndt's script confounded my expectations of what would happen next. When you've seen as many films as I have, that's not easy to do. It has a happy ending, just not the kind of happy ending a Hollywood film might have.
Cinematographer Tim Suhrstedt (Office Space) lends the film a naturalistic look that won't distract the audience from the story or the characters. The score by Mychael Danna (Capote) and the self-described "eastern bloc indie rock band" DeVotchKa is by turns either somber or giddy. Some of the giddy music sounds similar to klezmer, but DeVotchKa is known for their Romani, Greek, and Slavic folk influences.
The cast shines like finely polished gems. Nine-year-old Abigail Breslin (Signs) is utterly charming as Olive, a smart but awkward girl with big dreams. Equally as good as her dysfunctional family are Greg Kinnear as her aspiring self-help guru father, Toni Collette as her supportive mother, Paul Dano as her teenage brother who's taken a vow of silence after reading Nietzsche, Alan Arkin as her walking on the wild side grandfather, and Steve Carell (The Office) as her suicidal gay uncle. Also good in smaller roles are Mary Lynn Rajskub as a pageant assistant, Beth Grant as a pageant official, and Dean Norris as a state trooper.
Not only is it the best film of 2006 to date, it's the best film I've seen since November 2005. That was when I saw Rent, which I later ranked as the best film of 2005. Like Rent, Little Miss Sunshine is a wonderfully life affirming film. When it was shown at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, it received a standing ovation and rightly so. I can't recommend it highly enough.
6 (tie). [The following films by Clint Eastwood tell the story of the same battle from opposite sides, and are equally good in my opinion, so they simply had to be on the list together.]
Flags of Our Fathers - Clint Eastwood has achieved much more than simply telling the story of an iconic photograph, he's directed one of the great American war movies.
The film tells the story of the Battle of Iwo Jima in February-March 1945, the raising of a flag on top of the island's Mount Suribachi by five Marines and a Navy corpsman that is captured in a quickly famous photograph, the three surviving flag raisers being sent home to do a tour selling war bonds, and what became of the them after the war.
As a director, Clint Eastwood has created his finest film, one that shows the chaos and horror of war, how propaganda creates heroes, the cynicism of those who prey on their status as heroes, how those heroes are abandoned once they're no longer useful, and how men's lives can be destroyed by the horrors they experience in war. He's in full command of the tools of narrative filmmaking, in a way that he's only shown once before, in Unforgiven.
The film is based on a book written by James Bradley, the son of one of the flag raisers, and the screenplay by former Marine infantry lieutenant William Broyles Jr. (Apollo 13, Jarhead) and Paul Haggis (Crash) thoughtfully examines these themes through the prism of a historical event and as directed by Eastwood doesn't pull any punches in the combat scenes, putting the audience into the mindset of young men sent out to kill or be killed, seeing friends dying around them. It mostly avoids sentimentalising the soldiers, focusing instead on their humanity while caught up in one of the worst things humanity is capable of, war.
Cinematographer Tom Stern (The Exorcism of Emily Rose) gives it the look of a classic war film, with harder light sources and desaturated colors almost to the point of being monochromatic, while the scenes at home are warmer and softer looking. The combat scenes are shot with handheld cameras, as co-producer Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan was, giving them a terrifying immediacy. Production designer Henry Bumstead (Unforgiven) and costume designer Deborah Hopper (Million Dollar Baby) convincingly recreate the look of war and the look of the stateside world far removed from the realities of war. The excellent score contributes to the emotional impact of the film on the audience, and I was very surprised when the closing titles credited Eastwood with the score. I know he's a musician, but it's quite another thing to expect someone best known as an actor and a director to be a good composer as well.
Adam Beach's performance as Native American flag raiser Ira Hayes is haunted and moving, as his character finds solace from the trauma of war in a bottle because he can't deal with being lauded as a hero when he saw so many friends die around him. Ryan Phillippe and Jesse Bradford also deliver excellent performances as the other survivors, John "Doc" Bradley and Rene Gagnon. Other strong performances come from John Benjamin Hickey as the military publicist escorting the men on the war bonds tour, John Slattery as the politician in charge of the tour, Robert Patrick and Neal McDonough as the officers overseeing the ground troops during the battle, Gordon Clapp as General "Howlin' Mad" Smith, and David Patrick Kelly in a brief scene as President Truman. To keep it brief, I'll also add that every actor playing soldiers during the battle scenes seems convincingly real.
After completing this film, Eastwood directed the Japanese-language film, Letters from Iwo Jima, which tells the story of the Battle of Iwo Jima from the Japanese perspective. That film will be released in the US in Spring 2007. If it's anywhere near as good as this film, Eastwood will have done something unique, made two great war films about the same battle from opposite sides of the conflict.
Flags of Our Fathers is highly recommended. If you see it, stay through the end credits and you'll be rewarded with some extra material.
Letters from Iwo Jima - With this Japanese language companion piece to Flags of Our Fathers, director Clint Eastwood has accomplished the unusual feat of making two great war films about the same battle from opposite sides.
Flags of Our Fathers told the story behind the famous photograph of American soldiers raising the US flag on top of Iwo Jima's Mount Suribachi, but Letters from Iwo Jima focuses on the daily lives of Japanese officers and enlisted men stationed on the island from June 1944 through the Battle of Iwo Jima in February-March 1945. The main characters are Lieutenant General Kuribayashi, assigned by Prime Minister Tojo to lead the all-important defense of Iwo Jima; Saigo, a reluctant young enlisted man who was a baker before being drafted into the Imperial Japanese Army, and whose wife and baby are never far from his thoughts; Baron Nishi, a nobleman, equestrian, and Olympic gold medalist turned tank commander; Shimizu, a soldier thought to be a member of the secret police sent to spy on soldiers suspected of being unpatriotic; Kashiwara, Saigo's closest friend; and Lieutenant Ito, a fanatical and brutal officer.
Eastwood's direction of Flags of Our Fathers was more emotional and epic, while his direction here is more formal and intimate. His filmmaking style could almost be described as Japanese here. Flags of Our Fathers ended with a shot of a memorial to fallen American soldiers on present day Iwo Jima, mirrored by the opening shot here of a shot of a memorial to fallen Japanese soldiers. The story was conceived by Iris Yamashita and Paul Haggis (Crash, Flags of Our Fathers) with the screenplay being written by Yamashita. It's a finely detailed examination of the character of soldiers faced with an unwinnable battle, albeit a somewhat fictionalized account inspired by actual letters sent from soldiers stationed on the island.
One of the most moving moments comes when Nishi reads a letter to his soldiers that was found on a dead American soldier. The letter is from the soldier's mother, and the Japanese soldiers slowly realize that their enemy is just like them, young men sent to a remote island to kill or be killed.
As he did so well in Flags of Our Fathers, cinematographer Tom Stern uses harsh lighting and desaturated colors almost to the point of being monochromatic, finely illuminating the realities of war. Production designers Henry Bumstead and James J. Murakami do excellent work in recreating the island of Iwo Jima as it was before, during, and after the battle. Clint Eastwood doesn't repeat his role as composer this time, leaving that to his son Kyle Eastwood and Michael Stevens, who contribute a moving and evocative score.
Ken Watanabe is outstanding in his portrayal of Kuribayashi as a dignified officer who knows that his command is doomed but is determined to carry it through with honor, and Kazunari Ninomiya, best known as a member of the Japanese boy band Arashi, is equally good as Saigo, the emotional heart of the film. The characters are from opposite ends of the military structure, but the two men are more alike than not. Tsuyoshi Ihara as Nishi, Ryo Kase as Shimizu, Takashi Yamaguchi as Kashiwara, Shido Nakamura as Ito, Hiroshi Watanabe as Kuribayashi's aide, Ken Kensei as a senior officer who disobeys Kuribayashi's orders and commands his soldiers to commit suicide, and Nae Yuuki as Saigo's wife also deliver strong performances.
Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima work as two parts of a whole, showing the common humanity of the men on both sides of the conflict, although Letters from Iwo Jima is the one nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. They're both brilliant in different but complementary ways and should be considered equals. Highly recommended.
5. El Laberinto del Fauno (Pan's Labyrinth) - This dark fantasy from producer Alfonso Cuaron (director of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Children of Men) and writer/director Guillermo del Toro (The Devil's Backbone and Hellboy) owes much to the literary genre of magical realism and is truly a work of art.
Northern Spain, 1944. Ofelia, an imaginative 12-year-old-girl, moves with her pregnant mother to live with her stepfather, an officer in the fascist government's army who's been assigned to the area to deal with an anti-fascist militia hiding in the hills. While exploring the woods, Ofelia discovers an ancient labyrinth guarded by a faun, who reveals that she is the long lost daughter of the King of the Underworld and she can return to her true home if she completes three tasks.
Del Toro's magnificent vision coalesces into a darkly poetic elegy to the end of innocence and childhood, framed as a psychological drama. As he did so well in The Devil's Backbone, which was set a few years earlier in Civil War-era Spain, del Toro grounds the fantastic elements in the very real horrors of the historical period, which provides an entrance to the magical power of another world. Like all great unexpurgated fairy tales, it doesn't shy away from the darkness of the world. The fantasy elements can be viewed literally or simply as the escapist fantasies of a lonely but imaginative girl. In common with magical realism, the film doesn't dictate to the audience which interpretation is correct, but rather allows each viewer to choose from two equally valid possibilities. The interpretation one chooses will also determine whether one sees the ending as tragic or happy.
Cinematographer Guillermo Navarro, a longtime collaborator of del Toro's, and production designer Eugenio Caballero lay a sumptuous visual feast, contrasting the realism of the house with the vivid waking dreams of the fantasy realms. Composer Javier Navarrete's score weaves its own spell, working with the visuals to draw you into the story's worlds. The visual effects are seamless and a very organic part of the film, but they are few in number compared to the average fantasy film. Master storyteller that he is, del Toro doesn't lean on the effects like a crutch. It's all about how they serve his story.
Young Spanish actress Ivana Baquero delivers an excellent performance as Ofelia that's so natural that you never get the sense that she's acting as much as channeling the spirit of her character. Doug Jones (Abe Sapien in Hellboy and the Silver Surfer in the upcoming Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer) is fabulous as both the faun and the Pale Man. As good as the makeup and effects are, it's his acting that makes us believe. Strong performances are also given by Sergi Lopez as Ofelia's stepfather, Ariadna Gil as her mother, Maribel Verdu as the housekeeper and secret supporter of the militia, and Alex Angulo as the local physician.
Mexico's official submission for a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar is a visually stunning and captivating dark fantasy film that's also one of a kind. It's not like anything you've seen before. Highly recommended as one of the best films of 2006 and an outstanding film in the fantasy genre.
4. United 93 - This 2006 docudrama remarkably captures the chaos and horror of 9/11 without resorting to sensationalism or a conventional narrative.
The film recounts the events leading up to the hijacking of United 93 on 9/11 to the moment when the jet crashes into the ground as a result of the actions of its passengers, who are determined to prevent the jet from being used as a weapon.
There are many ways to tell a story like this, but writer/director Paul Greengrass (Bloody Sunday, The Bourne Supremacy) approaches it as if he is a documentary filmmaker recording each second of history as it unfolds before his eyes. Some creative license has to be taken to fill in the gaps about what happened on board the jet, but it doesn't employ a traditional Hollywood narrative where one to a few characters are brought into sharp focus for the audience to identify with. In fact, there aren't characters as much as people you're observing in a moment of crisis.
As he did so brilliantly in Bloody Sunday, Greengrass injects his audience directly into the chaos. Using handheld cameras and a high degree of improvisation by the actors, the effect on the viewer is one of being a participant rather than a mere witness. It takes awhile to come down from the feeling of trauma you're left with when the end credits roll. Contributing to that is the prescience that pervades every second, every frame, as the events inexorably unfold virtually in real time. You know what's going to happen, but you can't look away no matter how much you want to.
Bloody Sunday had a raw, nearly monochromatic look, but here cinematographer Barry Ackroyd (The Wind That Shakes the Barley) employs brighter colors and polished lighting without sacrificing the documentary feel. The subtle score by John Powell (The Bourne Supremacy, X-Men: The Last Stand) is organically bonded to the action in such a way that you probably won't notice it because you'll be caught up in the story, but it's still an essential part of the film.
The cast is a mixture of professional actors and non-actors. The non-actors are especially used for the flight crew, air traffic controllers, and military personnel to lend an authenticity to their actions that professional actors could never duplicate. Some participants in the real-life events play themselves. I can't single out any performers because they're uniformly excellent. If I could only choose one thing to praise director Greengrass for, it would be his ability to get strong performances from his entire cast, professionals and non-actors alike.
United 93 is one of the best films of 2006 and highly recommended. Despite the controversy over whether it was made too soon after the events, it's essential viewing and a moving memorial to the men and women who died on the flight.
3. Babel - Director Alejandro González Iñárritu follows up Amores Perros and 21 Grams with a third film exploring the human condition through interweaving stories, which earned him the best director award at the Cannes Film Festival.
The film opens with a Moroccan goat herder buying a powerful rifle and giving it to his two young sons to shoot jackals that prey on their herd. While playing around with the rifle to see how far they can shoot, one of the boys inadvertently hits a tour bus, severely wounding an American woman on a tour with her husband and whose marriage is in crisis. Meanwhile, the couple's children are in San Diego with their nanny. Unable to find anyone to take care of them so she can attend her son's wedding in Mexico, she takes the children across the border with her. On yet another continent, the deaf-mute teenaged daughter of the Japanese man who originally owned the rifle is dealing with losing her mother to suicide by becoming alienated from her father and acting out sexually.
Iñárritu and writer Guillermo Arriaga use these stories to explore communication failures, both on a personal level (between a husband and a wife, and between a father and a daughter) and a cultural level (between a deaf-mute and the hearing world, and between people who speak different languages), and how a series of such failures can have tragic, even fatal, consequences. The characters are ultimately linked by their common humanity, and the film makes the audience sympathise with them all. There aren't any bad men in black hats here, just flawed people kept separated by failures to listen or to understand. The film succeeds because it doesn't stoop to preaching about the need to communicate. Instead, it asks the audience to bear witness to -- to listen and to understand -- the characters and the situations they're faced with. The resolutions of the four stories aren't neat or even happy. Actions, no matter how unintentional or innocent, have consequences which the characters can't avoid.
Although the four stories are interweaved, they aren't told in a purely linear or parallel fashion, and editors Douglas Crise and Stephen Mirrione do an outstanding job of not losing the audience in frequent shifts in space and time. Cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto (Brokeback Mountain) uses a palette and lighting which don't distract the viewer from the characters and their stories, yet it still looks very nice. It looks less like a fictional film and more like a polished documentary. Composer Gustavo Santaolalla (Brokeback Mountain) is once again up to his subtle and evocative standard, and the conclusions of the stories are played out to his music rather than dialogue.
The cast, comprised of professionals and amateurs, is uniformly excellent. Iñárritu's ability to draw compelling performances out of all of his actors is remarkable, even more so with the amateur ones. Even the star power of Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, portraying the American couple, fades away and you simply see them as their characters. Other notable performances are given by Mohamed Akhzam as a Moroccan who aids the American couple, Mustapha Rachidi as the goat herder, Boubker Ait El Caid and Said Tarchani as the goat herder's sons, Rinko Kikuchi as the deaf-mute Japanese schoolgirl, Kôji Yakusho as her father, Satoshi Nikaido as a police officer she tries to seduce, Adriana Barraza as the American couple's nanny, and Gael García Bernal as her nephew who drives her to Mexico and back.
Babel is one of the best films of 2006. See it and let it communicate its message to you. Listen and understand.
2. Children of Men - P.D. James' 1992 novel is brought to the screen as an outstanding dystopian vision.
Earth, 2027. No children have been born since 2009. While most of the world has collapsed into chaos, Britain has survived as an authoritarian state with sharp class divisions that uses brutal methods to keep refugees out. Theo, an activist turned low level bureaucrat, is kidnapped by an alleged terrorist organisation called the Fishes, only to discover that his ex-wife, Julian, is its leader. They use a financial inducement to convince Theo to obtain a travel permit for a West African refugee girl named Kee. When Theo travels with Kee and members of the Fishes because the permit requires his presence, the car is attacked by an apparent mob of bandits and Julian is killed, forcing them to turn back. Soon Theo discovers that Kee is pregnant and the Fishes want to use her for their own purposes, leaving it up to him to get her safely to a ship from the Human Project while avoiding both the Fishes and the government.
Director Alfonso Cuaron (Y tu Mama Tambien, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) carefully crafts a dark, visceral vision of humanity's possible future in great detail. There isn't a single frame or scene out of place, and it's by turns thought provoking and thrilling. There's so much detail in the background that it might take repeated viewings to see it all. Cuaron and screenwriters Timothy J. Sexton (Live from Baghdad), David Arata (Brokedown Palace, Spy Game), and Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby (writers of the upcoming Iron Man and John Carter of Mars films) make significant changes from James' novel, but as someone who loved the novel I think the changes all work to make the film relevant to contemporary audiences by skillfully including themes of terrorism, immigration, and environmental degradation into the narrative. As such, it reflects the possible future of our reality better than a literal adaptation of the novel could have. It's both a cautionary tale and a thriller, but it's also firmly grounded in the human drama.
Cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki (Y tu Mama Tambien, The New World) creates a dark, overcast look that perfectly captures the mood of the story. The only time the look changes is a scene where Theo is driven through the area where the rich people live, which is bright and beautiful. Handheld cameras are used to give a sense of immediacy to scenes, most notably during the battle scenes at the end of the film, especially when a character's blood hits the camera lens and stays there for several minutes until a shift to a different shot. It makes the audience feel embedded in what the characters are experiencing.
Production designers Jim Clay (Blake's 7, The Crying Game) and Geoffrey Kirkland (two 1967 episodes of Doctor Who, Angela's Ashes) create a vividly realised future world which feels lived in and possible, with one set inspired by the cover to Pink Floyd's Animals album, which was itself thematically inspired by George Orwell's Animal Farm. The beautiful score by composer Sir John Tavener combines with classical pieces and pop songs, including a stunning version of "Ruby Tuesday", to create an aurally rich film.
Clive Owen's riveting performance as Theo provides the audience with a compelling protagonist and his character's journey is the heart of the film, turning the familiar trope of the cynical hero into something fresh. Michael Caine delivers a second outstanding performance for the year (after The Prestige) as Jasper Palmer, Theo's friend and a former radical political cartoonist. Julianne Moore makes a strong impression as Julian despite her limited screen time. Claire-Hope Ashitey holds her own as Kee, the vulnerable yet tough young woman who may just be the key to humanity's survival. Chiwetel Ejiofor as the Fishes' second in command, Peter Mullan as a corrupt policeman, and Pam Ferris as a former midwife also stand out.
Children of Men is one of the most engrossing science fiction films to come along in quite awhile and it's also one of the best films of 2006. Highly recommended.
At last we come to my choice for the best film of 2006...
1. INLAND EMPIRE - The prospect of seeing a new film from a favorite director is like opening a Christmas package. There's a lot of anticipation and you hope that once it's unwrapped you'll find a wonderful gift. This is perhaps the strangest feature film that writer/director David Lynch has ever made, which is saying a lot, but it's the perfect present for his hardcore fans.
Lynch describes the film as being "about a woman in trouble, and it's a mystery." It is, on both counts. To describe the story to someone who hasn't seen it is probably an exercise in futility, but suffice it to say it involves an actress named Nikki Grace starring in a remake of a cursed foreign film, her character in the film, a Hollywood streetwalker, shady men in Poland, and a television sitcom about a family of anthropomorphic rabbits. Oh, and there are dancing girls, a lumberjack, and a monkey, too.
This film represents Lynch at his absolute finest, an American surrealist telling the stories lurking in the shadows of his mind without any consideration for mainstream tastes. It isn't improvised, but it's quite close - he would write the next day's scenes each evening and the actors would receive them just before shooting. In a different director's hands this could easily turn into a self-indulgent mess, but in his hands it's an artistic statement and the purest expression of his brand of surrealism since Eraserhead three decades ago. He also serves as editor, composer, and as one of the camera operators, making him a true auteur. There's a surprising amount of humor in the film, contrasting with a sense of dread that wouldn't be out of place in a Japanese horror film. At nearly three hours of running time, it's easily his longest film, but it never feels as long as that.
It's also the first Lynch film to be shot entirely on digital video, and no attempt is made to give it a more cinematic appearance. It's the most unpolished looking film he's ever made, with the rich, vivid images of his previous films being replaced by murky, grimy ones. While some critics have complained about the look created by Norwegian cinematographer Odd-Geir Saether, this is a raw, unfiltered download from Lynch's brain to the cinema screen, and the cinematography correctly reflects this. Filmed in southern California and Poland, there's a mood of decay everywhere.
Laura Dern, who had key roles in previous Lynch films Blue Velvet and Wild at Heart, delivers an astonishing, multifaceted performance that is without a doubt the best of her career. The film may lack a traditional narrative, but Dern's performance creates a compelling narrative of its own, no matter which of the two (possibly three) characters she's playing. If this was a mainstream film, she would earn an Oscar nomination, but the non-mainstream nature of the production may hurt her chances.
Other notable performances are delivered by Jeremy Irons as a film director, Harry Dean Stanton in a funny turn as the director's right hand man, Justin Theroux as Nikki's co-star in the film being made, Peter J. Lucas as Nikki's controlling husband (possibly a gangster), Karolina Gruszka as a young woman crying in a hotel room while watching television, Grace Zabriskie as Nikki's eccentric neighbor, Ian Abercrombie as Nikki's butler, and Nae Yuuki as a homeless girl. Scott Coffey, Laura Harring, and Naomi Watts perform as the rabbit family (reprising their roles from Lynch's Internet short film series, Rabbits).
This is a film for hardcore Lynch fans or fans of avant-garde cinema. If you're not a fan or only a casual one, or if you prefer mainstream filmmaking, this film is probably not for you. I think it's an audacious and brilliant piece of art that, on its own terms, may just be the best film of 2006.
Films deserving honorable mention (in alphabetical order): Casino Royale, The Fountain, The Illusionist, Indigènes (Days of Glory), Inside Man, The Last King of Scotland, Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others), Notes on a Scandal, The Queen, Superman Returns.
Here at last is my entirely subjective list of the top 10 films of 2006 (or top 11, due to a tie), presented in reverse order with my original reviews.
10. Tideland - Director Terry Gilliam's best film since Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is also the darkest film he's ever made.
This is the story of a young girl named Jeliza-Rose. After her mother dies from a heroin overdose, her musician father takes her to live in a rural Texas house that belonged to his deceased mother. After he also dies from a heroin overdose, Jeliza-Rose is alone in the world with only Barbie doll heads and some bizarre neighbors as companions.
The film opens with a darkly humorous introduction by Gilliam (appropriate for a film from a former member of Monty Python) and you immediately know that you're in for an unusual cinematic journey, which is confirmed in the first scene when you witness a young girl shooting her parents up with heroin. As dark as the film is, it's really about how resilient children are even when faced with tragedy, and Gilliam tells the story from Jeliza-Rose's perspective. The script by Gilliam and his Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas collaborator Tony Grisoni is based on Mitch Cullin's controversial novel, and brings the story to life as a Southern Gothic crossed with the surrealism of the protagonist's fantasy life. This is "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" turned on its head with the rabbit hole leading to a very dark psychological terrain, although the bleakness is tempered with a sense of hope that only a child could have and even a sense of humor, as jet black as it may be.
Gilliam and cinematographer Nicola Pecorini (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas) find beauty in isolation and decay. There's a lyrical, romantic quality to the lighting that reflects the innocence of childhood, which accurately conveys how Jeliza-Rose sees her world. Production designer Jasna Stefanovic (Cube, The Virgin Suicides) contributes two houses that are as magical as they are foreboding, especially the neighboring house filled with a taxidermist's stuffed animals. Jeff Danna (Silent Hill) and Mychael Danna (Capote) add an atmospheric score.
When a child is the main character and must carry the film, it always presents challenges, even more so in a drama with such a mature story. Jodelle Ferland, who also played the little girl in Silent Hill, is simply outstanding as Jeliza-Rose, capturing the nuances of a child for whom "normal" is helping her parents get high and talking to Barbie doll heads. The film simply wouldn't work without her performance. Jeff Bridges and Jennifer Tilly are excellent in their scenes as Jeliza-Rose's parents. Bridges plays his character as the opposite of a Father of the Year candidate but still imbues him with some rough-hewn charm. Janet McTeer is quite good as the eccentric neighbor Dell, who may have a past with Jeliza-Rose's father. Brendan Fletcher is compelling as Dell's mentally disabled brother Dickens, who forms a relationship with Jeliza-Rose that becomes more disturbing as the film goes along.
Some critics have called this film unwatchable and said it will end Gilliam's career as a director. Indeed, several people walked out of the screening I went to. However, Gilliam's films have almost always divided critics and audiences, and this film is no different. I think it's challenging, brilliant, and one of the best films he's ever made, and one that ends with a note of hope. Highly recommended.
9. Clerks II - Lewd, crude, rude, and the funniest film I've seen in a long time. Also one of the best films I've seen this year.
The original Clerks was a day in the life of twentysomething slacker convenience store clerks Randal and Dante. This film opens eleven years later after Randal accidentally burns down the store, forcing Randal and Dante to try a career in fast food as clerks at Mooby's. One year later, it's Dante's last day on the job before he moves to Florida with his wealthy fiancee, trading in slackerdom for responsibility. Before the day is over, everything will change.
Somehow I've never seen the original Clerks (I'll have to remedy this at the earliest opportunity), although I've enjoyed some of writer/director/editor Kevin Smith's other films, such as Mallrats and Dogma. This film is so good that I'll have to watch the original. Smith's script doesn't take a single wrong step as it details another day in the life of two friends. Underneath all the comedy, this is really a film about friendships and being true to yourself and your friends. No one will ever mistake Smith for Orson Welles, but as a director he has a great touch for this style of comedy and deftly gets to the core of his characters in his scripts.
Jeff Anderson and Brian O'Halloran reprise their roles as Randal and Dante. O'Halloran has the more complex role, with his character having several personal conflicts to resolve. Both actors deliver hilarious performances but also their characters' friendship shines through in every scene. Trevor Fuhrman is hilarious as Elias, their teenaged Christian Lord of the Rings fan co-worker. Rosario Dawson adds a multifaceted performance as Becky, the Mooby's manager who is also close to Dante. Kevin Weisman has a very funny scene as another LOTR fan who argues with Star Wars fan Randal about which franchise is better in what is without a doubt one of the funniest bits in the film. Jason Lee and Ben Affleck have cameo roles. Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith once again add much comedic value as drug dealers Jay and Silent Bob.
This film is not for everyone. If the mere idea of a donkey getting a blowjob offends you, avoid this film at all costs, or like critic Joel Siegel you may be forced to walk out of the film loudly complaining about how offensive it is. If your sense of humor is compatible with Kevin Smith's, you will laugh long and hard, especially about a donkey getting a blowjob. I rarely rank a comedy among the best films in any given year, but this film will be a definite exception. Highly recommended, scenes involving interspecies erotica and all.
8. The Prestige - This dark rumination on the theme of obsession is the absolute best film I've seen so far this year, pushing the previous holder of that title, The Illusionist, into second place.
Rupert Angier and Alfred Borden are ambitious assistants to a stage magician in late Victorian era London. When a trick involving Angier's wife goes awry and she dies after being unable to untie knots tied by Borden, the two men become bitter rivals, stopping at nothing to become the more acclaimed magician while trying to destroy the other.
Director Christopher Nolan (Memento, Batman Begins) creates his finest film yet which, like a brilliant magical trick, astonishes the audience while never revealing how it's done. It's based on the novel by Christopher Priest. Having never read it, I can't vouch for how faithful the film is, but the screenplay by Nolan and his brother Jonathan (soon to collaborate again on the next Batman film, The Dark Knight) is simply amazing. It's a darkly twisted look at how obsession consumes the lives of the two main characters. I thought I figured out what the ending would be, but I was wrong. I simply didn't see some of the twists coming in a film that has all the cunning of a well-designed maze. This is a film that would bear a second or third viewing to better appreciate all the misdirection.
The film is equally stunning visually. Nolan's usual collaborators, cinematographer Wally Pfister and production designer Nathan Crowley, once again create a dark, stylish filmscape, taking the audience on a ride from the realm of the possible to the realm of the fantastic, the latter influenced by the aesthetics of steampunk. Crowley in particular deserves recognition for recreating late Victorian era London in modern day Los Angeles using existing buildings rather than sets. Costume designer Joan Bergin (In the Name of the Father, Some Mother's Son) contributes authentic period costuming that works with the film's muted colors. The dramatic score by David Julyan (Memento) perfectly complements each beat of the film's dark heart.
The cast is simply brilliant. Hugh Jackman as Angier and Christian Bale as Borden are riveting. Not only can you not take your eyes off them, their very different personalities and acting styles make their rivalry palpable. Neither character is heroic at all, but Jackman and Bale make us like them. I won't reveal any plot twists, but there were aspects of Bale's performance that were so convincing that I couldn't believe it. Michael Caine gives a strong performance as Cutter, a man who is a witness to, and ultimately the moral judge of, the rivalry. David Bowie is suitably restrained as Nikola Tesla and Andy Serkis (who has roles as Gollum and King Kong on his resume) is also quite good as Tesla's assistant. Piper Perabo, Rebecca Hall, and Scarlett Johansson are good as the women who are caught up in the rivalry between the two magicians, while Samantha Mahurin is charming as Borden's daughter.
There aren't enough superlatives to place on The Prestige, so just go see it. Highly, highly recommended.
7. Little Miss Sunshine - Simply put, this independent production is the best film of 2006 so far.
Olive, a young girl who dreams of being a beauty queen, wins a spot in the finals of the Little Miss Sunshine contest in California. Her dysfunctional family is determined to get her there no matter what, so they pile into their VW bus for a road trip that will change their lives.
Directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, who come from a background of television commercials and music videos, make an impressive feature film debut. Despite their background, this isn't a film that values style over substance. To their credit, Dayton and Faris focus on the story and the acting. It's part black comedy, part serious drama, and toward the end it becomes a satire of pageants. One moment you'll be laughing, the next you'll be crying, but rarely will you feel like you're watching a piece of fiction on a screen. You'll feel like you're inside the characters' lives. I was pleasantly surprised by how often Michael Arndt's script confounded my expectations of what would happen next. When you've seen as many films as I have, that's not easy to do. It has a happy ending, just not the kind of happy ending a Hollywood film might have.
Cinematographer Tim Suhrstedt (Office Space) lends the film a naturalistic look that won't distract the audience from the story or the characters. The score by Mychael Danna (Capote) and the self-described "eastern bloc indie rock band" DeVotchKa is by turns either somber or giddy. Some of the giddy music sounds similar to klezmer, but DeVotchKa is known for their Romani, Greek, and Slavic folk influences.
The cast shines like finely polished gems. Nine-year-old Abigail Breslin (Signs) is utterly charming as Olive, a smart but awkward girl with big dreams. Equally as good as her dysfunctional family are Greg Kinnear as her aspiring self-help guru father, Toni Collette as her supportive mother, Paul Dano as her teenage brother who's taken a vow of silence after reading Nietzsche, Alan Arkin as her walking on the wild side grandfather, and Steve Carell (The Office) as her suicidal gay uncle. Also good in smaller roles are Mary Lynn Rajskub as a pageant assistant, Beth Grant as a pageant official, and Dean Norris as a state trooper.
Not only is it the best film of 2006 to date, it's the best film I've seen since November 2005. That was when I saw Rent, which I later ranked as the best film of 2005. Like Rent, Little Miss Sunshine is a wonderfully life affirming film. When it was shown at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, it received a standing ovation and rightly so. I can't recommend it highly enough.
6 (tie). [The following films by Clint Eastwood tell the story of the same battle from opposite sides, and are equally good in my opinion, so they simply had to be on the list together.]
Flags of Our Fathers - Clint Eastwood has achieved much more than simply telling the story of an iconic photograph, he's directed one of the great American war movies.
The film tells the story of the Battle of Iwo Jima in February-March 1945, the raising of a flag on top of the island's Mount Suribachi by five Marines and a Navy corpsman that is captured in a quickly famous photograph, the three surviving flag raisers being sent home to do a tour selling war bonds, and what became of the them after the war.
As a director, Clint Eastwood has created his finest film, one that shows the chaos and horror of war, how propaganda creates heroes, the cynicism of those who prey on their status as heroes, how those heroes are abandoned once they're no longer useful, and how men's lives can be destroyed by the horrors they experience in war. He's in full command of the tools of narrative filmmaking, in a way that he's only shown once before, in Unforgiven.
The film is based on a book written by James Bradley, the son of one of the flag raisers, and the screenplay by former Marine infantry lieutenant William Broyles Jr. (Apollo 13, Jarhead) and Paul Haggis (Crash) thoughtfully examines these themes through the prism of a historical event and as directed by Eastwood doesn't pull any punches in the combat scenes, putting the audience into the mindset of young men sent out to kill or be killed, seeing friends dying around them. It mostly avoids sentimentalising the soldiers, focusing instead on their humanity while caught up in one of the worst things humanity is capable of, war.
Cinematographer Tom Stern (The Exorcism of Emily Rose) gives it the look of a classic war film, with harder light sources and desaturated colors almost to the point of being monochromatic, while the scenes at home are warmer and softer looking. The combat scenes are shot with handheld cameras, as co-producer Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan was, giving them a terrifying immediacy. Production designer Henry Bumstead (Unforgiven) and costume designer Deborah Hopper (Million Dollar Baby) convincingly recreate the look of war and the look of the stateside world far removed from the realities of war. The excellent score contributes to the emotional impact of the film on the audience, and I was very surprised when the closing titles credited Eastwood with the score. I know he's a musician, but it's quite another thing to expect someone best known as an actor and a director to be a good composer as well.
Adam Beach's performance as Native American flag raiser Ira Hayes is haunted and moving, as his character finds solace from the trauma of war in a bottle because he can't deal with being lauded as a hero when he saw so many friends die around him. Ryan Phillippe and Jesse Bradford also deliver excellent performances as the other survivors, John "Doc" Bradley and Rene Gagnon. Other strong performances come from John Benjamin Hickey as the military publicist escorting the men on the war bonds tour, John Slattery as the politician in charge of the tour, Robert Patrick and Neal McDonough as the officers overseeing the ground troops during the battle, Gordon Clapp as General "Howlin' Mad" Smith, and David Patrick Kelly in a brief scene as President Truman. To keep it brief, I'll also add that every actor playing soldiers during the battle scenes seems convincingly real.
After completing this film, Eastwood directed the Japanese-language film, Letters from Iwo Jima, which tells the story of the Battle of Iwo Jima from the Japanese perspective. That film will be released in the US in Spring 2007. If it's anywhere near as good as this film, Eastwood will have done something unique, made two great war films about the same battle from opposite sides of the conflict.
Flags of Our Fathers is highly recommended. If you see it, stay through the end credits and you'll be rewarded with some extra material.
Letters from Iwo Jima - With this Japanese language companion piece to Flags of Our Fathers, director Clint Eastwood has accomplished the unusual feat of making two great war films about the same battle from opposite sides.
Flags of Our Fathers told the story behind the famous photograph of American soldiers raising the US flag on top of Iwo Jima's Mount Suribachi, but Letters from Iwo Jima focuses on the daily lives of Japanese officers and enlisted men stationed on the island from June 1944 through the Battle of Iwo Jima in February-March 1945. The main characters are Lieutenant General Kuribayashi, assigned by Prime Minister Tojo to lead the all-important defense of Iwo Jima; Saigo, a reluctant young enlisted man who was a baker before being drafted into the Imperial Japanese Army, and whose wife and baby are never far from his thoughts; Baron Nishi, a nobleman, equestrian, and Olympic gold medalist turned tank commander; Shimizu, a soldier thought to be a member of the secret police sent to spy on soldiers suspected of being unpatriotic; Kashiwara, Saigo's closest friend; and Lieutenant Ito, a fanatical and brutal officer.
Eastwood's direction of Flags of Our Fathers was more emotional and epic, while his direction here is more formal and intimate. His filmmaking style could almost be described as Japanese here. Flags of Our Fathers ended with a shot of a memorial to fallen American soldiers on present day Iwo Jima, mirrored by the opening shot here of a shot of a memorial to fallen Japanese soldiers. The story was conceived by Iris Yamashita and Paul Haggis (Crash, Flags of Our Fathers) with the screenplay being written by Yamashita. It's a finely detailed examination of the character of soldiers faced with an unwinnable battle, albeit a somewhat fictionalized account inspired by actual letters sent from soldiers stationed on the island.
One of the most moving moments comes when Nishi reads a letter to his soldiers that was found on a dead American soldier. The letter is from the soldier's mother, and the Japanese soldiers slowly realize that their enemy is just like them, young men sent to a remote island to kill or be killed.
As he did so well in Flags of Our Fathers, cinematographer Tom Stern uses harsh lighting and desaturated colors almost to the point of being monochromatic, finely illuminating the realities of war. Production designers Henry Bumstead and James J. Murakami do excellent work in recreating the island of Iwo Jima as it was before, during, and after the battle. Clint Eastwood doesn't repeat his role as composer this time, leaving that to his son Kyle Eastwood and Michael Stevens, who contribute a moving and evocative score.
Ken Watanabe is outstanding in his portrayal of Kuribayashi as a dignified officer who knows that his command is doomed but is determined to carry it through with honor, and Kazunari Ninomiya, best known as a member of the Japanese boy band Arashi, is equally good as Saigo, the emotional heart of the film. The characters are from opposite ends of the military structure, but the two men are more alike than not. Tsuyoshi Ihara as Nishi, Ryo Kase as Shimizu, Takashi Yamaguchi as Kashiwara, Shido Nakamura as Ito, Hiroshi Watanabe as Kuribayashi's aide, Ken Kensei as a senior officer who disobeys Kuribayashi's orders and commands his soldiers to commit suicide, and Nae Yuuki as Saigo's wife also deliver strong performances.
Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima work as two parts of a whole, showing the common humanity of the men on both sides of the conflict, although Letters from Iwo Jima is the one nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. They're both brilliant in different but complementary ways and should be considered equals. Highly recommended.
5. El Laberinto del Fauno (Pan's Labyrinth) - This dark fantasy from producer Alfonso Cuaron (director of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Children of Men) and writer/director Guillermo del Toro (The Devil's Backbone and Hellboy) owes much to the literary genre of magical realism and is truly a work of art.
Northern Spain, 1944. Ofelia, an imaginative 12-year-old-girl, moves with her pregnant mother to live with her stepfather, an officer in the fascist government's army who's been assigned to the area to deal with an anti-fascist militia hiding in the hills. While exploring the woods, Ofelia discovers an ancient labyrinth guarded by a faun, who reveals that she is the long lost daughter of the King of the Underworld and she can return to her true home if she completes three tasks.
Del Toro's magnificent vision coalesces into a darkly poetic elegy to the end of innocence and childhood, framed as a psychological drama. As he did so well in The Devil's Backbone, which was set a few years earlier in Civil War-era Spain, del Toro grounds the fantastic elements in the very real horrors of the historical period, which provides an entrance to the magical power of another world. Like all great unexpurgated fairy tales, it doesn't shy away from the darkness of the world. The fantasy elements can be viewed literally or simply as the escapist fantasies of a lonely but imaginative girl. In common with magical realism, the film doesn't dictate to the audience which interpretation is correct, but rather allows each viewer to choose from two equally valid possibilities. The interpretation one chooses will also determine whether one sees the ending as tragic or happy.
Cinematographer Guillermo Navarro, a longtime collaborator of del Toro's, and production designer Eugenio Caballero lay a sumptuous visual feast, contrasting the realism of the house with the vivid waking dreams of the fantasy realms. Composer Javier Navarrete's score weaves its own spell, working with the visuals to draw you into the story's worlds. The visual effects are seamless and a very organic part of the film, but they are few in number compared to the average fantasy film. Master storyteller that he is, del Toro doesn't lean on the effects like a crutch. It's all about how they serve his story.
Young Spanish actress Ivana Baquero delivers an excellent performance as Ofelia that's so natural that you never get the sense that she's acting as much as channeling the spirit of her character. Doug Jones (Abe Sapien in Hellboy and the Silver Surfer in the upcoming Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer) is fabulous as both the faun and the Pale Man. As good as the makeup and effects are, it's his acting that makes us believe. Strong performances are also given by Sergi Lopez as Ofelia's stepfather, Ariadna Gil as her mother, Maribel Verdu as the housekeeper and secret supporter of the militia, and Alex Angulo as the local physician.
Mexico's official submission for a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar is a visually stunning and captivating dark fantasy film that's also one of a kind. It's not like anything you've seen before. Highly recommended as one of the best films of 2006 and an outstanding film in the fantasy genre.
4. United 93 - This 2006 docudrama remarkably captures the chaos and horror of 9/11 without resorting to sensationalism or a conventional narrative.
The film recounts the events leading up to the hijacking of United 93 on 9/11 to the moment when the jet crashes into the ground as a result of the actions of its passengers, who are determined to prevent the jet from being used as a weapon.
There are many ways to tell a story like this, but writer/director Paul Greengrass (Bloody Sunday, The Bourne Supremacy) approaches it as if he is a documentary filmmaker recording each second of history as it unfolds before his eyes. Some creative license has to be taken to fill in the gaps about what happened on board the jet, but it doesn't employ a traditional Hollywood narrative where one to a few characters are brought into sharp focus for the audience to identify with. In fact, there aren't characters as much as people you're observing in a moment of crisis.
As he did so brilliantly in Bloody Sunday, Greengrass injects his audience directly into the chaos. Using handheld cameras and a high degree of improvisation by the actors, the effect on the viewer is one of being a participant rather than a mere witness. It takes awhile to come down from the feeling of trauma you're left with when the end credits roll. Contributing to that is the prescience that pervades every second, every frame, as the events inexorably unfold virtually in real time. You know what's going to happen, but you can't look away no matter how much you want to.
Bloody Sunday had a raw, nearly monochromatic look, but here cinematographer Barry Ackroyd (The Wind That Shakes the Barley) employs brighter colors and polished lighting without sacrificing the documentary feel. The subtle score by John Powell (The Bourne Supremacy, X-Men: The Last Stand) is organically bonded to the action in such a way that you probably won't notice it because you'll be caught up in the story, but it's still an essential part of the film.
The cast is a mixture of professional actors and non-actors. The non-actors are especially used for the flight crew, air traffic controllers, and military personnel to lend an authenticity to their actions that professional actors could never duplicate. Some participants in the real-life events play themselves. I can't single out any performers because they're uniformly excellent. If I could only choose one thing to praise director Greengrass for, it would be his ability to get strong performances from his entire cast, professionals and non-actors alike.
United 93 is one of the best films of 2006 and highly recommended. Despite the controversy over whether it was made too soon after the events, it's essential viewing and a moving memorial to the men and women who died on the flight.
3. Babel - Director Alejandro González Iñárritu follows up Amores Perros and 21 Grams with a third film exploring the human condition through interweaving stories, which earned him the best director award at the Cannes Film Festival.
The film opens with a Moroccan goat herder buying a powerful rifle and giving it to his two young sons to shoot jackals that prey on their herd. While playing around with the rifle to see how far they can shoot, one of the boys inadvertently hits a tour bus, severely wounding an American woman on a tour with her husband and whose marriage is in crisis. Meanwhile, the couple's children are in San Diego with their nanny. Unable to find anyone to take care of them so she can attend her son's wedding in Mexico, she takes the children across the border with her. On yet another continent, the deaf-mute teenaged daughter of the Japanese man who originally owned the rifle is dealing with losing her mother to suicide by becoming alienated from her father and acting out sexually.
Iñárritu and writer Guillermo Arriaga use these stories to explore communication failures, both on a personal level (between a husband and a wife, and between a father and a daughter) and a cultural level (between a deaf-mute and the hearing world, and between people who speak different languages), and how a series of such failures can have tragic, even fatal, consequences. The characters are ultimately linked by their common humanity, and the film makes the audience sympathise with them all. There aren't any bad men in black hats here, just flawed people kept separated by failures to listen or to understand. The film succeeds because it doesn't stoop to preaching about the need to communicate. Instead, it asks the audience to bear witness to -- to listen and to understand -- the characters and the situations they're faced with. The resolutions of the four stories aren't neat or even happy. Actions, no matter how unintentional or innocent, have consequences which the characters can't avoid.
Although the four stories are interweaved, they aren't told in a purely linear or parallel fashion, and editors Douglas Crise and Stephen Mirrione do an outstanding job of not losing the audience in frequent shifts in space and time. Cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto (Brokeback Mountain) uses a palette and lighting which don't distract the viewer from the characters and their stories, yet it still looks very nice. It looks less like a fictional film and more like a polished documentary. Composer Gustavo Santaolalla (Brokeback Mountain) is once again up to his subtle and evocative standard, and the conclusions of the stories are played out to his music rather than dialogue.
The cast, comprised of professionals and amateurs, is uniformly excellent. Iñárritu's ability to draw compelling performances out of all of his actors is remarkable, even more so with the amateur ones. Even the star power of Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, portraying the American couple, fades away and you simply see them as their characters. Other notable performances are given by Mohamed Akhzam as a Moroccan who aids the American couple, Mustapha Rachidi as the goat herder, Boubker Ait El Caid and Said Tarchani as the goat herder's sons, Rinko Kikuchi as the deaf-mute Japanese schoolgirl, Kôji Yakusho as her father, Satoshi Nikaido as a police officer she tries to seduce, Adriana Barraza as the American couple's nanny, and Gael García Bernal as her nephew who drives her to Mexico and back.
Babel is one of the best films of 2006. See it and let it communicate its message to you. Listen and understand.
2. Children of Men - P.D. James' 1992 novel is brought to the screen as an outstanding dystopian vision.
Earth, 2027. No children have been born since 2009. While most of the world has collapsed into chaos, Britain has survived as an authoritarian state with sharp class divisions that uses brutal methods to keep refugees out. Theo, an activist turned low level bureaucrat, is kidnapped by an alleged terrorist organisation called the Fishes, only to discover that his ex-wife, Julian, is its leader. They use a financial inducement to convince Theo to obtain a travel permit for a West African refugee girl named Kee. When Theo travels with Kee and members of the Fishes because the permit requires his presence, the car is attacked by an apparent mob of bandits and Julian is killed, forcing them to turn back. Soon Theo discovers that Kee is pregnant and the Fishes want to use her for their own purposes, leaving it up to him to get her safely to a ship from the Human Project while avoiding both the Fishes and the government.
Director Alfonso Cuaron (Y tu Mama Tambien, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) carefully crafts a dark, visceral vision of humanity's possible future in great detail. There isn't a single frame or scene out of place, and it's by turns thought provoking and thrilling. There's so much detail in the background that it might take repeated viewings to see it all. Cuaron and screenwriters Timothy J. Sexton (Live from Baghdad), David Arata (Brokedown Palace, Spy Game), and Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby (writers of the upcoming Iron Man and John Carter of Mars films) make significant changes from James' novel, but as someone who loved the novel I think the changes all work to make the film relevant to contemporary audiences by skillfully including themes of terrorism, immigration, and environmental degradation into the narrative. As such, it reflects the possible future of our reality better than a literal adaptation of the novel could have. It's both a cautionary tale and a thriller, but it's also firmly grounded in the human drama.
Cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki (Y tu Mama Tambien, The New World) creates a dark, overcast look that perfectly captures the mood of the story. The only time the look changes is a scene where Theo is driven through the area where the rich people live, which is bright and beautiful. Handheld cameras are used to give a sense of immediacy to scenes, most notably during the battle scenes at the end of the film, especially when a character's blood hits the camera lens and stays there for several minutes until a shift to a different shot. It makes the audience feel embedded in what the characters are experiencing.
Production designers Jim Clay (Blake's 7, The Crying Game) and Geoffrey Kirkland (two 1967 episodes of Doctor Who, Angela's Ashes) create a vividly realised future world which feels lived in and possible, with one set inspired by the cover to Pink Floyd's Animals album, which was itself thematically inspired by George Orwell's Animal Farm. The beautiful score by composer Sir John Tavener combines with classical pieces and pop songs, including a stunning version of "Ruby Tuesday", to create an aurally rich film.
Clive Owen's riveting performance as Theo provides the audience with a compelling protagonist and his character's journey is the heart of the film, turning the familiar trope of the cynical hero into something fresh. Michael Caine delivers a second outstanding performance for the year (after The Prestige) as Jasper Palmer, Theo's friend and a former radical political cartoonist. Julianne Moore makes a strong impression as Julian despite her limited screen time. Claire-Hope Ashitey holds her own as Kee, the vulnerable yet tough young woman who may just be the key to humanity's survival. Chiwetel Ejiofor as the Fishes' second in command, Peter Mullan as a corrupt policeman, and Pam Ferris as a former midwife also stand out.
Children of Men is one of the most engrossing science fiction films to come along in quite awhile and it's also one of the best films of 2006. Highly recommended.
At last we come to my choice for the best film of 2006...
1. INLAND EMPIRE - The prospect of seeing a new film from a favorite director is like opening a Christmas package. There's a lot of anticipation and you hope that once it's unwrapped you'll find a wonderful gift. This is perhaps the strangest feature film that writer/director David Lynch has ever made, which is saying a lot, but it's the perfect present for his hardcore fans.
Lynch describes the film as being "about a woman in trouble, and it's a mystery." It is, on both counts. To describe the story to someone who hasn't seen it is probably an exercise in futility, but suffice it to say it involves an actress named Nikki Grace starring in a remake of a cursed foreign film, her character in the film, a Hollywood streetwalker, shady men in Poland, and a television sitcom about a family of anthropomorphic rabbits. Oh, and there are dancing girls, a lumberjack, and a monkey, too.
This film represents Lynch at his absolute finest, an American surrealist telling the stories lurking in the shadows of his mind without any consideration for mainstream tastes. It isn't improvised, but it's quite close - he would write the next day's scenes each evening and the actors would receive them just before shooting. In a different director's hands this could easily turn into a self-indulgent mess, but in his hands it's an artistic statement and the purest expression of his brand of surrealism since Eraserhead three decades ago. He also serves as editor, composer, and as one of the camera operators, making him a true auteur. There's a surprising amount of humor in the film, contrasting with a sense of dread that wouldn't be out of place in a Japanese horror film. At nearly three hours of running time, it's easily his longest film, but it never feels as long as that.
It's also the first Lynch film to be shot entirely on digital video, and no attempt is made to give it a more cinematic appearance. It's the most unpolished looking film he's ever made, with the rich, vivid images of his previous films being replaced by murky, grimy ones. While some critics have complained about the look created by Norwegian cinematographer Odd-Geir Saether, this is a raw, unfiltered download from Lynch's brain to the cinema screen, and the cinematography correctly reflects this. Filmed in southern California and Poland, there's a mood of decay everywhere.
Laura Dern, who had key roles in previous Lynch films Blue Velvet and Wild at Heart, delivers an astonishing, multifaceted performance that is without a doubt the best of her career. The film may lack a traditional narrative, but Dern's performance creates a compelling narrative of its own, no matter which of the two (possibly three) characters she's playing. If this was a mainstream film, she would earn an Oscar nomination, but the non-mainstream nature of the production may hurt her chances.
Other notable performances are delivered by Jeremy Irons as a film director, Harry Dean Stanton in a funny turn as the director's right hand man, Justin Theroux as Nikki's co-star in the film being made, Peter J. Lucas as Nikki's controlling husband (possibly a gangster), Karolina Gruszka as a young woman crying in a hotel room while watching television, Grace Zabriskie as Nikki's eccentric neighbor, Ian Abercrombie as Nikki's butler, and Nae Yuuki as a homeless girl. Scott Coffey, Laura Harring, and Naomi Watts perform as the rabbit family (reprising their roles from Lynch's Internet short film series, Rabbits).
This is a film for hardcore Lynch fans or fans of avant-garde cinema. If you're not a fan or only a casual one, or if you prefer mainstream filmmaking, this film is probably not for you. I think it's an audacious and brilliant piece of art that, on its own terms, may just be the best film of 2006.
Films deserving honorable mention (in alphabetical order): Casino Royale, The Fountain, The Illusionist, Indigènes (Days of Glory), Inside Man, The Last King of Scotland, Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others), Notes on a Scandal, The Queen, Superman Returns.
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Zodiac
After claiming his first three victims, the mysterious Zodiac begins sending letters to the press, including the San Francisco Chronicle where journalist Paul Avery and cartoonist Robert Graysmith work. Avery begins writing about Zodiac, while Graysmith remains on the periphery at first. When Zodiac kills a cabbie in SF, Inspectors Toschi and Armstrong take charge of the investigation, intersecting with the paths of Avery and the increasingly obsessed Graysmith as Zodiac claims more victims and continues to taunt the police.
Director David Fincher (Se7en, Fight Club) once again demonstrates his meticulous craftsmanship as he melds three related but distinct genres -- true crime, police procedural, and crusading investigative journalist -- into a riveting and complex film. Although Fincher's noted as a visual stylist, this film's story never falls into the ocean of style over substance to suffer the cruel fate of drowning in it. He steadfastly focuses on the characters and the details of the investigation, letting them guide the audience along in an unhurried but never slow manner.
The screenplay by James Vanderbilt (Darkness Falls), based on the book by Graysmith, takes a fairly comprehensive look at the investigation over many years. Fincher and Vanderbilt interviewed all of the surviving participants and victims in order to make the film as authentic as possible, and that level of detail seeps into every scene and every performance. Even the routine details of the investigation become interesting. The script also respects the audience enough to allow them to put the pieces together much as the investigators had to do, and nicely avoids a definitive conclusion.
Harris Savides (The Game, Finding Forrester) contributes highly polished cinematography using the Thomson Viper high definition digital video camera, notably making this the first production to be recorded entirely in the camera's uncompressed digital data format. The images are very filmlike, with the exception of a noticeable lack of grain, allowing Fincher and Savides to gain the advantages of digital video without sacrificing the richness of image usually obtained by shooting on film.
Production designer Donald Graham Burt (The Joy Luck Club, Donnie Brasco) ably recreates San Francisco of the late 1960s to late 1970s, aided by seamless CGI. Composer David Shire (All the President's Men, 2010) provides a good score that recalls the music from the films of the story's era. Some critics have said that the film is too long at 158 minutes, but editor Angus Wall (Panic Room) deftly keeps the pace going strong, avoiding crashing on the rocks of boredom.
The film is filled with quirky but realistic people, and the actors bring them to life with a high standard of excellence, including Robert Downey Jr. as the boozing Avery; Jake Gyllenhaal, who's spot on as the overly earnest Graysmith; Mark Ruffalo as the Columboesque Toschi, Anthony Edwards as Armstrong, and Dermot Mulroney as their captain; Brian Cox as attorney Melvin Belli in a brief but brilliant performance; John Carroll Lynch as the prime suspect and Charles Fleischer as his former friend; Elias Koteas and Donal Logue as investigators from other police agencies; and Chloe Sevigny as Graysmith's wife. There are so many other good actors in small roles that I can't name them all.
Zodiac is as close as you'll get to experiencing an investigation of this magnitude without actually being a journalist or a detective, and it's also a damned fine piece of dramatic filmmaking. Highly recommended.
The true story behind the investigation of the infamous Zodiac killings comes to the screen as one of the best films of 2007 so far.
After claiming his first three victims, the mysterious Zodiac begins sending letters to the press, including the San Francisco Chronicle where journalist Paul Avery and cartoonist Robert Graysmith work. Avery begins writing about Zodiac, while Graysmith remains on the periphery at first. When Zodiac kills a cabbie in SF, Inspectors Toschi and Armstrong take charge of the investigation, intersecting with the paths of Avery and the increasingly obsessed Graysmith as Zodiac claims more victims and continues to taunt the police.
Director David Fincher (Se7en, Fight Club) once again demonstrates his meticulous craftsmanship as he melds three related but distinct genres -- true crime, police procedural, and crusading investigative journalist -- into a riveting and complex film. Although Fincher's noted as a visual stylist, this film's story never falls into the ocean of style over substance to suffer the cruel fate of drowning in it. He steadfastly focuses on the characters and the details of the investigation, letting them guide the audience along in an unhurried but never slow manner.
The screenplay by James Vanderbilt (Darkness Falls), based on the book by Graysmith, takes a fairly comprehensive look at the investigation over many years. Fincher and Vanderbilt interviewed all of the surviving participants and victims in order to make the film as authentic as possible, and that level of detail seeps into every scene and every performance. Even the routine details of the investigation become interesting. The script also respects the audience enough to allow them to put the pieces together much as the investigators had to do, and nicely avoids a definitive conclusion.
Harris Savides (The Game, Finding Forrester) contributes highly polished cinematography using the Thomson Viper high definition digital video camera, notably making this the first production to be recorded entirely in the camera's uncompressed digital data format. The images are very filmlike, with the exception of a noticeable lack of grain, allowing Fincher and Savides to gain the advantages of digital video without sacrificing the richness of image usually obtained by shooting on film.
Production designer Donald Graham Burt (The Joy Luck Club, Donnie Brasco) ably recreates San Francisco of the late 1960s to late 1970s, aided by seamless CGI. Composer David Shire (All the President's Men, 2010) provides a good score that recalls the music from the films of the story's era. Some critics have said that the film is too long at 158 minutes, but editor Angus Wall (Panic Room) deftly keeps the pace going strong, avoiding crashing on the rocks of boredom.
The film is filled with quirky but realistic people, and the actors bring them to life with a high standard of excellence, including Robert Downey Jr. as the boozing Avery; Jake Gyllenhaal, who's spot on as the overly earnest Graysmith; Mark Ruffalo as the Columboesque Toschi, Anthony Edwards as Armstrong, and Dermot Mulroney as their captain; Brian Cox as attorney Melvin Belli in a brief but brilliant performance; John Carroll Lynch as the prime suspect and Charles Fleischer as his former friend; Elias Koteas and Donal Logue as investigators from other police agencies; and Chloe Sevigny as Graysmith's wife. There are so many other good actors in small roles that I can't name them all.
Zodiac is as close as you'll get to experiencing an investigation of this magnitude without actually being a journalist or a detective, and it's also a damned fine piece of dramatic filmmaking. Highly recommended.
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
300
Greece, 480 BCE. As the Persian armies advance on Greece, King Xerxes sends emissaries demanding tributes of "earth and water". Leonidas, King of the Spartans, refuses to offer tribute and kills the emissaries. Against the advice of Sparta's priests and oracle, Leonidas leads three hundred of his most elite warriors into battle at the pass of Thermopylae against tens of thousands of Persian soldiers.
Director Zack Snyder (Dawn of the Dead) creates an eye candy film which has some of the most jaw-dropping, eye-popping imagery since Lord of the Rings. However, it's far too stylized for its own good. Where LotR director Peter Jackson took a fictional world and made it look real, Snyder takes the real world and makes it look artificial.
The film is based on the graphic novel by Frank Miller (Sin City), and the screenplay by Snyder, Kurt Johnstad, and Michael B. Gordon is faithful to the to the source material, serving up an overblown story and cardboard characters. Not once did I feel engaged by any of the characters or moved by their fates, nor did anything in the story reach out and demand my attention. There's a good story waiting to be told about the Battle of Thermopylae, but you won't find it here.
The film could have easily been written by Karl Rove, it's so much of a conservative propaganda piece with the central theme being allegedly civilized white people versus dark skinned barbarians from the East. The Persians in this film are no different than the zombies in Snyder's Dawn of the Dead, mindless killing machines without any spark of humanity, while the Spartans are idealized beyond any semblance of reality. If you're dark skinned, physically disabled, or a somewhat effeminate man, then you're one of the evildoers in the world of 300.
The cast generally doesn't act as much as it postures like professional wrestlers in an amateur Shakespearean production. Gerard Butler's Leonidas never met a line of dialog that could be delivered without bellowing in a gruff voice, which quickly grows tiresome (also, dude, lose the Scottish accent when portraying an ancient Greek). Dominic West was the only really good actor in Hannibal Rising, but here he's completely over the top as Theron, a devious Spartan politician with an agenda. Vincent Regan fares better as Leonidas' captain, especially in the scenes after his son is killed. Rodrigo Santoro is physically impressive as Xerxes. Lena Headey is wooden as Queen Gorgo, while model Kelly Craig is appropriately beautiful and mysterious as the oracle (really, all she has to do is dance naked and mumble). As for the Spartan warriors, there's so much macho posturing that one wonders if it's supposed to be a parody.
With more than 1,500 visual effects shots, the real stars of 300 are cinematographer Larry Fong (Lost), production designer James D. Bissell (E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, The Rocketeer), and costume designer Michael Wilkinson (American Splendor, Babel), who create an intensely visual world, realized by shooting actors against blue screens and adding the digital backgrounds in post-production. It's like watching a series of beautiful paintings in quick succession.
As breathtaking as the imagery is at times, 300 is woefully lacking as a dramatic work. It represents the worst excesses of Hollywood style over substance in a single film, hammering away at you until you feel completely benumbed. I don't mind an eye candy action film as long as it can muster some entertainment value, but this film can't even manage that. Not recommended.
"Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing" is a phrase that was seemingly invented to describe this overhyped but underwhelming film.
Greece, 480 BCE. As the Persian armies advance on Greece, King Xerxes sends emissaries demanding tributes of "earth and water". Leonidas, King of the Spartans, refuses to offer tribute and kills the emissaries. Against the advice of Sparta's priests and oracle, Leonidas leads three hundred of his most elite warriors into battle at the pass of Thermopylae against tens of thousands of Persian soldiers.
Director Zack Snyder (Dawn of the Dead) creates an eye candy film which has some of the most jaw-dropping, eye-popping imagery since Lord of the Rings. However, it's far too stylized for its own good. Where LotR director Peter Jackson took a fictional world and made it look real, Snyder takes the real world and makes it look artificial.
The film is based on the graphic novel by Frank Miller (Sin City), and the screenplay by Snyder, Kurt Johnstad, and Michael B. Gordon is faithful to the to the source material, serving up an overblown story and cardboard characters. Not once did I feel engaged by any of the characters or moved by their fates, nor did anything in the story reach out and demand my attention. There's a good story waiting to be told about the Battle of Thermopylae, but you won't find it here.
The film could have easily been written by Karl Rove, it's so much of a conservative propaganda piece with the central theme being allegedly civilized white people versus dark skinned barbarians from the East. The Persians in this film are no different than the zombies in Snyder's Dawn of the Dead, mindless killing machines without any spark of humanity, while the Spartans are idealized beyond any semblance of reality. If you're dark skinned, physically disabled, or a somewhat effeminate man, then you're one of the evildoers in the world of 300.
The cast generally doesn't act as much as it postures like professional wrestlers in an amateur Shakespearean production. Gerard Butler's Leonidas never met a line of dialog that could be delivered without bellowing in a gruff voice, which quickly grows tiresome (also, dude, lose the Scottish accent when portraying an ancient Greek). Dominic West was the only really good actor in Hannibal Rising, but here he's completely over the top as Theron, a devious Spartan politician with an agenda. Vincent Regan fares better as Leonidas' captain, especially in the scenes after his son is killed. Rodrigo Santoro is physically impressive as Xerxes. Lena Headey is wooden as Queen Gorgo, while model Kelly Craig is appropriately beautiful and mysterious as the oracle (really, all she has to do is dance naked and mumble). As for the Spartan warriors, there's so much macho posturing that one wonders if it's supposed to be a parody.
With more than 1,500 visual effects shots, the real stars of 300 are cinematographer Larry Fong (Lost), production designer James D. Bissell (E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, The Rocketeer), and costume designer Michael Wilkinson (American Splendor, Babel), who create an intensely visual world, realized by shooting actors against blue screens and adding the digital backgrounds in post-production. It's like watching a series of beautiful paintings in quick succession.
As breathtaking as the imagery is at times, 300 is woefully lacking as a dramatic work. It represents the worst excesses of Hollywood style over substance in a single film, hammering away at you until you feel completely benumbed. I don't mind an eye candy action film as long as it can muster some entertainment value, but this film can't even manage that. Not recommended.
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Indigènes (Days of Glory)
During World War II, the Free French Army of Charles de Gaulle recruits young men from the French colonies in North Africa, including Algeria. Some of the men are patriots, some are looking for adventure, and some join because the pay is good and poverty isn't. Once in the army, they discover that there's one standard for French Christian soldiers, and another for North African Muslim soldiers. The former get better food and are even allowed leave, while the latter are looked down on as inferior men, not deserving leave or any other consideration--in short, cannon fodder. One soldier's love letters are even censored because his relationship with a French woman is disapproved of. Despite this, one unit makes its mark in battles from Italy to France, and they're given a final mission to hold a small town from German forces at any cost.
Writer/director Rachid Bouchareb and co-writer Olivier Lorelle bring the struggles of these forgotten soldiers back into the light of day, examining their sacrifices for a country that saw them as lesser human beings. The film employs a traditional war film narrative with the dramatic punch coming from the conflict between French officers and North African infantrymen, the conflicts between the infantrymen themselves, and the sergeant who has to mediate the contradictions. Although the latter part of the film seems to borrow from Saving Private Ryan, the well-realized characters, vivid battle scenes, and a sense of justified indignation combine to make it a powerful film, powerful enough to shame the current French government into paying pensions to surviving North African soldiers, a practice that was stopped after the colonies they came from gained independence.
Excellent cinematography by Patrick Blossier (Music Box, Mad City) captures the look of war-torn Europe with desaturated colors, the standard in war movies since Saving Private Ryan, and that of Algeria with brighter colors, while finely balancing the epic sweep of the battle scenes with the more intimate character scenes. Armand Amar and Cheb Khaled contribute a good, and at times moving, score with both European and North African influences.
The cast is outstanding all around, with Sami Bouajila as Abdelkader, a corporal who stands up to French racism; Jamel Debbouze as Said, a shy but illiterate peasant who becomes valet to the unit's sergeant; Roschdy Zem as Messaoud, the unit's best marksman, who falls in love with a French woman in Marseilles; Samy Naceri as Yassir, a Berber who joins for the money and has a penchant for stealing from the dead; Assaad Bouab as Yassir's younger brother, Larbi; Bernard Blancan as the French sergeant who conceals that his mother was an Arab so he won't be discriminated against; Antoine Chappey as a French colonel; and Aurélie Eltvedt as Irène, Messaoud's lover.
The sacrifices these men made in the face of colonialism and racism deserve to be remembered, and this film not only serves as a fitting memorial, it's also good enough to form a triumvirate of great 2006 war movies with Letters from Iwo Jima and Flags of Our Fathers. Highly recommended.
This 2006 Algerian production tells the story of a forgotten group of soldiers and was nominated for a Best Foreign Language Picture Oscar.
During World War II, the Free French Army of Charles de Gaulle recruits young men from the French colonies in North Africa, including Algeria. Some of the men are patriots, some are looking for adventure, and some join because the pay is good and poverty isn't. Once in the army, they discover that there's one standard for French Christian soldiers, and another for North African Muslim soldiers. The former get better food and are even allowed leave, while the latter are looked down on as inferior men, not deserving leave or any other consideration--in short, cannon fodder. One soldier's love letters are even censored because his relationship with a French woman is disapproved of. Despite this, one unit makes its mark in battles from Italy to France, and they're given a final mission to hold a small town from German forces at any cost.
Writer/director Rachid Bouchareb and co-writer Olivier Lorelle bring the struggles of these forgotten soldiers back into the light of day, examining their sacrifices for a country that saw them as lesser human beings. The film employs a traditional war film narrative with the dramatic punch coming from the conflict between French officers and North African infantrymen, the conflicts between the infantrymen themselves, and the sergeant who has to mediate the contradictions. Although the latter part of the film seems to borrow from Saving Private Ryan, the well-realized characters, vivid battle scenes, and a sense of justified indignation combine to make it a powerful film, powerful enough to shame the current French government into paying pensions to surviving North African soldiers, a practice that was stopped after the colonies they came from gained independence.
Excellent cinematography by Patrick Blossier (Music Box, Mad City) captures the look of war-torn Europe with desaturated colors, the standard in war movies since Saving Private Ryan, and that of Algeria with brighter colors, while finely balancing the epic sweep of the battle scenes with the more intimate character scenes. Armand Amar and Cheb Khaled contribute a good, and at times moving, score with both European and North African influences.
The cast is outstanding all around, with Sami Bouajila as Abdelkader, a corporal who stands up to French racism; Jamel Debbouze as Said, a shy but illiterate peasant who becomes valet to the unit's sergeant; Roschdy Zem as Messaoud, the unit's best marksman, who falls in love with a French woman in Marseilles; Samy Naceri as Yassir, a Berber who joins for the money and has a penchant for stealing from the dead; Assaad Bouab as Yassir's younger brother, Larbi; Bernard Blancan as the French sergeant who conceals that his mother was an Arab so he won't be discriminated against; Antoine Chappey as a French colonel; and Aurélie Eltvedt as Irène, Messaoud's lover.
The sacrifices these men made in the face of colonialism and racism deserve to be remembered, and this film not only serves as a fitting memorial, it's also good enough to form a triumvirate of great 2006 war movies with Letters from Iwo Jima and Flags of Our Fathers. Highly recommended.
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Black Snake Moan
Rae is a young woman with a history of sexual abuse and nymphomania. When her boyfriend Ronnie leaves for boot camp, the loss of the only stable influence in her life leads her back into old patterns with a night of sex, alcohol, and drugs. The next morning, her battered body is found in the road by Lazarus, an aging bluesman turned farmer who's embittered by his wife leaving him for his younger brother. Lazarus believes God has set Rae in his path for a reason, so he chains her up inside his house intending to cure her of her wild ways.
Writer/director Craig Brewer (Hustle & Flow) serves up an intense film that's equal parts sin and salvation. He takes an exploitative premise and turns it into a deftly observed character piece about two disparate people who hold they keys to each other's salvation. At times trashy and pulpy in the very best ways, you simply can't look away as the story winds its way along a steamy path thick with Southern Gothic atmosphere and soul. Brewer's direction mines the sharp humor lying under the story's surface without diminishing it as a drama, while cutting right to the hearts of its protagonists. He also makes good use of music and songs to tell their story. Cinematographer Amy Vincent (Hustle & Flow) evokes the Southern Gothic atmosphere in her lighting without distracting the audience from the story and performances, a fine balance maintained from beginning to end.
If someone described a character like Lazarus and asked you to cast the role, Samuel L. Jackson would be your first choice because this is the kind of role he thrives on so brilliantly. His Lazarus palpably aches with betrayal and loss, feelings that go to the heart of what the blues are about, and it drives him to intervene in the life of a troubled young woman not simply for her sake, but also for his. He also demonstrates a genuinely bluesy singing voice. Christina Ricci's uninhibited performance is electrifying, as she portrays Rae as a desperate junkie whose drug is sex rather than heroin. Jackson and Ricci feed off of each other in what are some of the best performances they've ever given.
Justin Timberlake is surprisingly believable as Ronnie, who loves Rae despite her problems and wants to save her in the same way she saved him. The rest of the cast is also very good, including John Cothran Jr. as Lazarus' preacher, S. Epatha Merkerson as the pharmacist Lazarus shows a romantic interest in, Michael Raymond-James as Ronnie's duplicitous best friend, Kim Richards as Rae's mother, and Neimus K. Williams in a funny turn as an awkward delivery boy who loses his virginity to Rae.
As bluesman Son House explains in documentary footage included in this film, the blues are about pain that lives in the heart. If there's such a thing as a blues film, Black Snake Moan might be it. Highly recommended.
The first great film of 2007.
Rae is a young woman with a history of sexual abuse and nymphomania. When her boyfriend Ronnie leaves for boot camp, the loss of the only stable influence in her life leads her back into old patterns with a night of sex, alcohol, and drugs. The next morning, her battered body is found in the road by Lazarus, an aging bluesman turned farmer who's embittered by his wife leaving him for his younger brother. Lazarus believes God has set Rae in his path for a reason, so he chains her up inside his house intending to cure her of her wild ways.
Writer/director Craig Brewer (Hustle & Flow) serves up an intense film that's equal parts sin and salvation. He takes an exploitative premise and turns it into a deftly observed character piece about two disparate people who hold they keys to each other's salvation. At times trashy and pulpy in the very best ways, you simply can't look away as the story winds its way along a steamy path thick with Southern Gothic atmosphere and soul. Brewer's direction mines the sharp humor lying under the story's surface without diminishing it as a drama, while cutting right to the hearts of its protagonists. He also makes good use of music and songs to tell their story. Cinematographer Amy Vincent (Hustle & Flow) evokes the Southern Gothic atmosphere in her lighting without distracting the audience from the story and performances, a fine balance maintained from beginning to end.
If someone described a character like Lazarus and asked you to cast the role, Samuel L. Jackson would be your first choice because this is the kind of role he thrives on so brilliantly. His Lazarus palpably aches with betrayal and loss, feelings that go to the heart of what the blues are about, and it drives him to intervene in the life of a troubled young woman not simply for her sake, but also for his. He also demonstrates a genuinely bluesy singing voice. Christina Ricci's uninhibited performance is electrifying, as she portrays Rae as a desperate junkie whose drug is sex rather than heroin. Jackson and Ricci feed off of each other in what are some of the best performances they've ever given.
Justin Timberlake is surprisingly believable as Ronnie, who loves Rae despite her problems and wants to save her in the same way she saved him. The rest of the cast is also very good, including John Cothran Jr. as Lazarus' preacher, S. Epatha Merkerson as the pharmacist Lazarus shows a romantic interest in, Michael Raymond-James as Ronnie's duplicitous best friend, Kim Richards as Rae's mother, and Neimus K. Williams in a funny turn as an awkward delivery boy who loses his virginity to Rae.
As bluesman Son House explains in documentary footage included in this film, the blues are about pain that lives in the heart. If there's such a thing as a blues film, Black Snake Moan might be it. Highly recommended.
Sunday, March 04, 2007
Fah Talai Jone (Tears of the Black Tiger)
Dum, the son of a farmer, and Rumpoey, the daughter of the provincial governor, become friends as children. Many years later, they are reunited as college students and fall in love. When Dum returns home to find his father murdered, he delivers vengeance on his father's killers and is recruited into a gang of outlaws led by the notorious Fai. Dum and Rumpoey agree to meet each other at a remote spot they visited as children, but when Dun is late, Rumpoey thinks he's abandoned her and returns home to become engaged to a police captain working for her father. Her husband-to-be has orders to destroy Fai's gang, including his best gunman, the Black Tiger. Unknown to Rumpoey, Dum is the Black Tiger.
Writer/director Wisit Sasanatieng (writer of the Thai horror film, Nang Nak) has a great deal of affection for Thai westerns, action films, and melodramas of the 1960s and 70s. This film is both a homage to and a parody of those films--part romantic melodrama, part western, part ultraviolent action film. It succeeds with its hyperkinetic action scenes Quentin Tarantino would die for and a completely over-the-top camp sensibility (cowboys with bazookas? oh, yes!), but it turns deadly dull when it slows down to become a romantic melodrama. The film's two personalities co-exist uneasily and never manage to collaborate on forming a cohesive whole.
However, Sasanatieng has a great visual sensibility, and along with cinematographer Nattawut Kittikhun (Ong-Bak) and production designer Ek Iemchuen (Nang Nak), brings the story to life with vividly colorful lighting and sets that make it a richly visual cinematic experience. This is where the film succeeds most brilliantly, as an almost psychedelic film that recalls classic three-strip Technicolor films like 1939's The Wizard of Oz in its use of color.
Chartchai Ngamsan is just right as Dum, the stoic gunfighter in love with a high-born woman he's fated to never have. Italian model Stella Malucchi plays Rumpoey as a woman trapped by her station, who loses her one chance for freedom and achingly regrets it every second. Supakorn Kitsuwon is magnificently over the top as Mahesuan, Dum's sidekick, who is the best gunman in the gang before Dum arrives. He has a great evil laugh and he isn't afraid to use it. There's also far more passion in the homoerotic rivalry of Dum and Mahesuan than between Dum and Rumpoey. Sombat Metanee, who was a big star in the very films this one parodies, chews the scenery with much gusto as Fai. Arawat Ruangvuth is a bit stiff as the captain, but whenever the acting seems bad in the film, it's more by design rather than poor actors.
Perhaps this film plays better if you're more familiar with what it's a parody of or homage to, but to my eyes it's a very inconsistently entertaining film. When it's over the top, it works marvelously well; when it's not, it quickly becomes dull, with only the colorful sets and lighting to hold your interest. It's worth seeing just for those sets and lighting, though.
This Thai film from 2000 looks striking and is at times hilariously over the top, but not enough to make it a consistently entertaining film.
Dum, the son of a farmer, and Rumpoey, the daughter of the provincial governor, become friends as children. Many years later, they are reunited as college students and fall in love. When Dum returns home to find his father murdered, he delivers vengeance on his father's killers and is recruited into a gang of outlaws led by the notorious Fai. Dum and Rumpoey agree to meet each other at a remote spot they visited as children, but when Dun is late, Rumpoey thinks he's abandoned her and returns home to become engaged to a police captain working for her father. Her husband-to-be has orders to destroy Fai's gang, including his best gunman, the Black Tiger. Unknown to Rumpoey, Dum is the Black Tiger.
Writer/director Wisit Sasanatieng (writer of the Thai horror film, Nang Nak) has a great deal of affection for Thai westerns, action films, and melodramas of the 1960s and 70s. This film is both a homage to and a parody of those films--part romantic melodrama, part western, part ultraviolent action film. It succeeds with its hyperkinetic action scenes Quentin Tarantino would die for and a completely over-the-top camp sensibility (cowboys with bazookas? oh, yes!), but it turns deadly dull when it slows down to become a romantic melodrama. The film's two personalities co-exist uneasily and never manage to collaborate on forming a cohesive whole.
However, Sasanatieng has a great visual sensibility, and along with cinematographer Nattawut Kittikhun (Ong-Bak) and production designer Ek Iemchuen (Nang Nak), brings the story to life with vividly colorful lighting and sets that make it a richly visual cinematic experience. This is where the film succeeds most brilliantly, as an almost psychedelic film that recalls classic three-strip Technicolor films like 1939's The Wizard of Oz in its use of color.
Chartchai Ngamsan is just right as Dum, the stoic gunfighter in love with a high-born woman he's fated to never have. Italian model Stella Malucchi plays Rumpoey as a woman trapped by her station, who loses her one chance for freedom and achingly regrets it every second. Supakorn Kitsuwon is magnificently over the top as Mahesuan, Dum's sidekick, who is the best gunman in the gang before Dum arrives. He has a great evil laugh and he isn't afraid to use it. There's also far more passion in the homoerotic rivalry of Dum and Mahesuan than between Dum and Rumpoey. Sombat Metanee, who was a big star in the very films this one parodies, chews the scenery with much gusto as Fai. Arawat Ruangvuth is a bit stiff as the captain, but whenever the acting seems bad in the film, it's more by design rather than poor actors.
Perhaps this film plays better if you're more familiar with what it's a parody of or homage to, but to my eyes it's a very inconsistently entertaining film. When it's over the top, it works marvelously well; when it's not, it quickly becomes dull, with only the colorful sets and lighting to hold your interest. It's worth seeing just for those sets and lighting, though.
