Dogs Bark

Llorona Salteño- - La Mujer Sin Cabeza [The Headless Woman] (2008) - - 24 April 2010

Recommended. If you watch this excellent film, meticulously written and directed by Argentinean Lucrecia Martel, be prepared to give it your full attention. If you do, it’s a fascinating mystery; but, following the lead of Antonioni and Almodóvar (who produced The Headless Woman), her story doesn’t offer solutions. Her protagonist (María Onetto) wanders, not headless but certainly somnolent, through the residue of an auto accident in which she may, or may not, have killed a child. Clues, requiring attention, are scattered about. Background sounds effectively and mysteriously slide into the dialog. Martel’s focus is on the perp, not her perpetration, and the fugue state induced by incapacitating guilt. Obviously this requires an outstanding job by Onetto - - we have to care about her despite her cowardice. The print critics have pounded the film's invocation of Argentina’s class struggles and disappearances. Point granted . . . but that’s actually another story. 

Better to Reign In Hell - - In The Loop (2009) - - 12 April 2010

Recommended. It’s worth knowing that Armando Giovanni abandoned a dissertation on Milton to become a comic writer, and, eventually, director of In The Loop. His renown, primarily in the UK, is based on making a trumpet of his ass in the chapel of the mighty. Now he includes Beltway poseurs, in the hand-held style of The Office or the Christopher Guest films. His hero, a man with enough self awareness to sense his implied dunce cap, gains our affection for having a moral center, admittedly feckless. But unlike Minister of International Development, Simon Foster (Tom Hollander), most about him are totally soulless. Hollander’s (Pride And Prejudice) genius is this amiable cluelessness. He is balanced by Peter Capaldi’s brilliant rant as the PM’s insane and profane Scottish communications director. Sidebar: is the mouth-foaming Scot replacing the Irish drunk in English humor? I hope so. Much more amusing.

The Pity And The Sorrow - - Okuribito [Departures] (2008) - - 8 April 2010

Recommended. This movie presents a critical dilemma. Is a drama that generates a strong emotional reaction effective . . . or just manipulative? Is this poetry or rhetoric? Perhaps the Greeks need to weigh in but I think that there should be a purpose for all the wailing. In watching Yôjirô Takita’s Oscar-winning film, Departures, I expect I shared the deep feelings that motivated the Academy but to what purpose? The plot concerns a disillusioned Japanese musician, Daigo Kobayashi (Masahiro Motoki) who finds solace in the ritualistic job of preparing corpses for burial, a highly charged Buddhist sacrament. His boss/sensai, excellently animated by the talented Tsutomu Yamazaki, subtly pushes Daigo’s training to deeper levels.   This is a very well made movie, well acted and lovingly photographed; however, the simplistic conclusion of  Masahiro’s trouble seemed to eviscerate the story. A more ambiguous and unresolved ending would have made for a more useful catharsis.

Smoke And Mirrors, The Good Way - - Los Abrazos Rotos [Broken Embraces] (2009) - - 4 April 2010

Strongly recommended. I have to see this movie again; maybe then I'll be nearer to its secrets. In any case, Broken Embraces is clearly a beautiful thing. Pedro Almodóvar indulges his senses in presenting Penelope Cruz as supple and glamorous as she’s ever been. His palette is all primary colors and the camera work of Mexican master Rodrigo Prieto (Lust, Caution, Amores Perros) is breathtaking. Each frame is a individual painting. The score, by Alberto Iglesias (Volver), smokes with obsessive foreboding. All this adds up to a mystery, a movie wrapped in another movie, a blind man seeking a lost vision. This is a mystery like Vertigo and Cruz’s Lena adorns herself with the scent of Hepburn, Monroe, and Rowlands.  This may be Penelope’s best effort to date but she’s ably supported by Lluís Homar and Blanca Portillo. And in the end - - the final cut - - is anything ever completely resolved? Of course not.