Dogs Bark

Be A Little More - - The Hurt Locker (2009) - - 26 July 2009

Strongly recommended - - See The Hurt Locker now and beat the Academy rush; it’s a very good film. From the opening death until the credits roll, the tension is exquisite, an ominous feeling lurking about every claustrophobic Baghdad corner. Kathryn Bigelow (Strange Days), directing a script from Iraq War journalist Mark Boal (In The Valley Of Elah), has now set the bar for this century's war movies. The film is most effective when it quietly stands by as each bomb is defused. This effectiveness emerges from several stand-out performances, great near cameos by Ralph Fiennes, David Morse, and Guy Pierce, but Jeremy Renner is required to carry the picture. He does indeed, challenging Eric Bana for top sergeant of Oscar Company. Seriously, the meaning of war craft becomes more and more polluted by political depravity and fantasy. We need Bigelow’s insight into what it means to protect people. And of the cost it extracts.

Bubbles In The Bathtub - - Les Diaboliques [The Devils] (1955) - - 25 July 2009

Recommended. I dunno. Maybe I do watch too many movies. No one’s actually inflicted an intervention on me yet. But when I see a film like Les Diaboliques, a film I’ve anticipated for so long, and I figure out the ending halfway through, well . . . maybe I’m just jaded. Whatever the case, this sort of spoiled the movie for me and, unfortunately, you’ll probably figure it out, too. Of course, my ennui could also be the fault of director Henri-Georges Clouzot (The Wages Of Fear), who never seems to connect to me, unlike most other noir fans. There’s just something so unpalatable about his characters and plots. But Les Diaboliques is beloved by many, so take your shot. There are nice creepy performances by Simone Signoret, Paul Meurisse, and Véra (Mme.) Clouzot and Clouzot’s final scene is splendid and weird. Strangely, and sadly, she met the same abrupt fate in real life

Found On Roadside Disabled - - Gran Torino (2008) - - 20 July 2009

Not recommended.This is harsh but if Gran Torino was made by anyone other than Clint Eastwood the critics would have turned it over and torched it like a black and white on Crenshaw. The story is ridiculously hackneyed and the lead character is absurd. I know cranky old racists - - plenty - - and they don’t sweeten up because a bunch of old ladies drop off a box of spring rolls. Archie Bunker was a joke, remember? In any case, Eastwood’s Walt Kowalski is just a meaner, uglier, and more heavily armed version of Frankie Dunn (Million Dollar Baby), a guy I didn’t like the first time.  Lord knows, no one loves Clint more than me. I deeply admire most of his movies, from The Outlaw Josey Wales to Every Which Way But Loose to Mystic River. But this one bites.  And will someone please tell him that he can’t sing worth a damn?

The Book Of Judith - - Butterfly Kiss (1995) - - 19 July 2009

Recommended. Within the boutique of bisexual thrill-kill heroines, the pickin's are rather anorexic. There’s Charlize Theron and Juliette Lewis but not much else. Entre Amanda Plummer and Butterfly Kiss and assuming I simply MUST have sex with a homicidal female hitchhiker, I want Eunice. Oh and how ‘bout The Cranberries, Björk, and (good golly) Polly Jean Harvey on the stereo? Oh, and can it be just off the M6 from Blackpool to Morecombe? Sorry . . . totally TMI. Ms. Plummer, fresh off of Honey Bunny (Pulp Fiction) and accompanied by Saskia Reeves gave us this Brit version of man-hating ferocity that makes Thelma & Louise look like sniggering sorority babes. Directed by Michael Winterbottom (Wonderland and soon, The Killer Inside Me) from a script by Frank Cottrell Boyce (Hilary and Jackie), this is art found in a Little Chef car park. Pass it by at your peril. 

Au Revoir, Blackbird - - Public Enemies (2009) - - 12 July 2009

Recommended. As he showed us in Last Of The Mohicans, Michael Mann loves to create a place and time with obsessive dedication but little need for commentary. Some have called him shallow - - an Albert Bierstadt, painting pretty, empty landscapes. But I prefer that historians interpret history and film makers tell stories. Public Enemies, Mann’s masterful new film, is a fun story, well told. Johnny Depp creates another memorable and mysterious character, similar in nuance to Donnie Brasco. Marion Cotillard also shines, with a wonderful scene near the end that eloquently uses her resemblance to Myrna Loy. There’s lots of these gems and surprises offered: the always brilliant Stephan Graham’s (Gangs Of New York, This Is England) loony turn as Baby Face Nelson and longtime Mann pal, Stephan Lang (Crime Story, Tombstone), as an ominous Dallas lawman hiding a heart of gold. See it with a lady in red.

Domestic Intelligence - - Burn After Reading (2008) - - 11 July 2009

Recommended. There is a point in Burn After Reading, last year's Coen Brothers comedy, where I began to anticipate seeing “based upon a true story” at the end of the movie. Why this all seems so familiar need only reference the still(?) Governors of South Carolina and Alaska and the pandemic of delusional disorders affecting almost anyone currently in the news. In short, Burn After Reading is wildly funny but it’s no farce. Perhaps we identify most with John Malkovich’s character, who battles what he calls a “league of morons,” despite being just as ludicrous as his tormentors. Everyone in this is brilliant, with Brad Pitt and George Clooney presented as more likely miscreants than Danny Ocean ever convened. Applause also to David Rasche and J.K. Simmons (Juno), as a pair of CIA managers befuddled by their charge to guard a public so intent on - - and effective at - - self carnage.

The Wolves of Beirut - - Vals Im Bashir [Waltz With Bashir] (2008) - - 6 July 2009

Recommended. I remember the 1982 Israeli-Lebanese War (the subject of Waltz With Bashir) as the moment when the government of Israel decided to surrender its moral capital with the West, so dearly earned in past Middle East conflicts - - a resource they continue to squander. Following the ‘82 war, the Sabra massacre of Palestinian civilians by Lebanese Phalangist militia was investigated by Israel and the army was determined to have had negligent, if not tacit, complicity; Defense Minister Arial Sharon was forced to resign. Thus it’s remarkable that this film, created by Israeli vet Avi Folman from his tenuous memories of the war and the massacre, got made. Folman makes an unusual, and mostly successful, use of non-fiction animation. The ending is effective and startling; however, other segments left me wondering why animation was necessary. Nevertheless, this movie’s distinction between the morality of a government and its common soldiers is worth consideration, particularly in America.