Dogs Bark

Duck Tape And Plastic - - The Martian (2015, USA, Color, 144 min) - - 28 November 2015

Recommended.  There are few post-70’s directors who have created as many iconic films as Ridley Scott. We’re comfortable with the space noir of Blade Runner or Alien but in The Martian, Scott disses dystopia for a love letter to NASA. Cheery Matt Damon plays an astronaut who gets marooned on the Red Planet, then ‘sciences’ his way through a string of McGiveresque problems. Sort of a Hanks-less mash up of Apollo 13 and Cast Away.  That sounds awful but Damon’s earnest optimism sustains us . . . leavened by his excellent co-stars.  Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty) commands a crew of insubordinates (Michael Peña, Cesar Chavez and Kate Mara, House of Cards), led herself by an equally peevish pair of NASA chiefs (Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years A Slave and Jeff Daniels, The Newsroom). There’s a couple of plot and science stumbles and the ending is padded but Ridley’s dramatic gift ultimately rescues us.

The Spy Who Came In From The Motel Room - - Citizenfour (2015, USA, Color, 114 min) - - 26 November 2015

Recommended.  Laura Poitras's (My Country, My Country) Oscar-winning documentary about her initial reporting and contact with NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden is problematic on several levels.  The first is Ms. Poitras’s direct involvement in the subject. While documentarians such as Michael Moore (Fahrenheit 9/11) are similarly biased and intrusive while creating their stories, few are actual participants in the events described in the film - - Moore was not synchronously at Columbine; however, Poitras actually was handed Snowden’s trove of classified documents on domestic and foreign spying by the man himself. She couldn’t have made the picture she did without complicity in the act itself. This creates a humongous conflict of interest. In addition, by trying to divert attention from Snowden as a person, the drama becomes very dry . . . consisting mostly of typing on a CRT (these still exist?).  I recommend it only for content; the real story seems yet to be told.