Dogs Bark

I See My Life - - Auf Der Anderen Seite [The Edge Of Heaven] (2007) - - 27 December 2008

Strongly recommended.  As he did in Gegan Die Wand, filmmaker Fatih Akin returns to the lives of Turks in Germany and Germans imagining Turkey. This 40-year, occupational subway, perhaps only rivaled by the US and Mexico, is woven into a multi-character, interlocking story (e.g., Babel, Crash). However, this time, the woman whose daughter’s lesbian lover’s mother was murdered by her landlord’s father never learns this, none of them ever learn anything, and little is resolved in the end. This narrative metaphor allows the movie to comment on the mysterious connective tissue of life without dramatic sentiment. The pains of culture and family become the important focus. It’s also nice to see a lesbian relationship presented as no bfd . . . despite the fact that it certainly is in Turkey. Excellent acting by his cast, including a return of Fassbinder ingénue, Hanna Schulyer, grounds Akin in this resonant film.     

The Art of War - - Frost/Nixon (2008) - - 26 December 2008

Strongly recommended. The great thing about hating Nixon is he’s such a fascinating adversary; some of us are still wrestling his ghost, and will be, long after W becomes just another consonant. Given that, this is the Nixon movie and Frank Langella has turned in the definitive portrait.  Langella is hitting a career best with each new role (cf., Starting Out in the Evening) but the incredible precision and creativity of his acting in Frost/Nixon is breathtaking. Given a chess match, Langella needs, and gets, Michael Sheen's (Frost) full attention in building the slowly emergent end game. As in The Queen, Peter Morgan developed a script (from his play) that builds tension out of gamesmanship, nuanced manipulation, and raw power. Ron Howard is smart enough to step back and keep the direction from mucking up the drama.  In fact, this may be his most sophisticated helming yet, a clear Oscar contender.

Of Bitterness and Betterment - - Up The Yangtze (2007) - - 22 December 2008

Recommended. This well-constructed documentary on the cultural impact of the Three Gorges Dam was just nominated for a 2009 IFC Spirit Award.   I found it lacking in focus.  Chinese-Canadian filmmaker Yung Chang says in the opening narration that he is looking for his father's China; however, over the hour and a half film, his camera primarily wanders over American tourists and a Chinese peasant family without ever getting back to the opening objective. Two young workers on a tour boat (one a peasant girl, the other a self-described rich kid but neither particularly interesting) are afforded the bulk of the film's attention.  While the cultural loss and environmental harm inflicted by the project is substantial enough to cause official governmental self-criticism, the carbon-less energy and flood control benefits are also huge. Although Up The Yangtze is worth a viewing, there is a much more tortuous river left unexplored. 

Vishnu’s Final Answer - - Slumdog Millionaire (2008) - - 20 December 2008

Strongly recommended.  There’s a trend in Danny Boyle’s movies. Whether beset with heroin addiction, a zombie uprising, or general poverty, torture, and repression, one simply does one’s best to hold on tight. In Slumdog Millionaire, Boyle’s hero (Dev Patel) must pedigree the hard-won knowledge he uses to win the Mumbei-TV version of ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.’ The telling of the tale zephyrs through the terrible, yet absurdly comic, miasma of street life in India, into and out of romantic bliss (lovely Freida Pinto), to the doorstep of material paradise. I’d have written this last step differently but no worries; this is one of the most charming and satisfying movies of the year. Boyle, steady-cameraman Anthony Mantle and jump-cut-editor Chris Dickens, effectively measure the whirlwind pace of 28 Days Later with more languid moments.  The outcome is one answer to the horror and beauty of this world – just keep breathing. 

Lovely Rita - - Cover Girl (1944) - - 15 December 2008

Recommended. I was sick last week, which always triggers in me a need for musicals. What can I say? It's a guy thing. Cover Girl was largely a successful effort to jump start the careers of Gene Kelly and Rita Hayworth, working also with uncredited choreographer Stanley Donen (Singin' In The Rain). Rita had already done two classic movies and reached a level of dancing unsurpassed in sensual joy, then and since. Her acting was still emergent but she carries the part with a natural grace. Kelly's numbers with her or alone are also astonishing. Despite this, the script is uninspired and wastes the comic talent of Phil Silvers. The great Eve Arden seems to be moving in slow motion - - a sacrilege. The montage of real cover girls from women's magazines (Mademoiselle, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Cosmopolitan, et al) of the day shows how astonishingly long-lived these institutions are. 

Tom Traubert's Other Blues - - Down By Law (1986) - - 30 November 2008

Strongly recommended. When ‘Small Change’ was released, my best girl of the day flattered me by saying, “You gotta hear this guy. He’s a cleaned-up version of you.”  And whether by design, evolution, or the left hand of Beelzebub, Down By Law, written and directed by Jim Jarmusch, is a cleaned-up version of ‘Small Change.’  Therefore, casting Tom Waits in the movie allows the horse's mouth to re-riff on the same subjects:  female complaints, injustice, criminal bullshit, and 15-foot gators. Additionally, Waits's 'sad and beautiful world,' is well drawn by Robbie Muller's Black Velvet camera work and the long takes and languid pace crafted by editor Melody London.  The episode in the jail is as authentic (trust me) as anything I've seen, capturing the hateful and the humdrum splendidly.  I'm not a big fan of Roberto Benigni but he's actually pretty effective. And the ending is near perfect.