The West Wing: Season 7 (2005-2006)

So I’ve now finished every episode of the series on DVD, though I had seen the entirety of the 7th season during its original network airing. The truncated nature of this last season, so far as time line covered goes (it covers August of 06 to inauguration day 2007 in the West Wing chronology) offered new dramatic possibilities owing to the tightness of events not spread out over a full 12 months (the majority of the seasons episodes span August to the first few weeks of November). Also the general election campaign is generally compelling, with two fascinating candidates, interesting story lines, and important issues actually discussed with some intelligence. A crowded but worthwhile capstone of a season, and one of the all time great televison series. Not much left to say really, if you want more of my writings and thoughts on this last season of the show you can find them on my old blog The Dredge Report. 5 out of 5.

Aeon Flux (2005)

Based on the unique MTV animated serial of the early 90's, so far this movie has been quite true to the source material, or at least my limited knowledge of it. I say so far because I’m still watching the movie. It’s another one of those oppressive dystopia films and I find, I just don’t care anymore, even with Charlize Theron’s outfits, and her crawling an awful lot. You know from the opening scene, were Theron catches a fly by closing her eyelid on it, that this movie is all about special effects and looks, and nothing more. The bad dialogue has confirmed this, and after 11 minutes I wanted it to be over. So I’m going to comment on this tripe as it flashes before my eyes. Highlights missed so far: Why would anyone were that outfit at home alone, and Francis McDormand? Really?

24 minutes in: Aeon and the evil dictator were lovers? She didn’t know the dictator? What?

28 minutes in: Magnetic ball things that look like something you would find at Scientific Wizardry.

31 minutes in: The dictator, or ‘Chairman’ has a brother who is trying to have him killed, the viruse that wiped out 99% of the human population 400 years ago has done ‘something’ to us, and people are having weird dreams. Drink the message? I don’t know if I can do this movie? I have to put this exercise to an end.

48 minutes in: This is awful want to be metaphysical bull hockey. They have memories from 400 years ago right, is that it? I think maybe this is all an illusion, because the way that transport belt thing works doesn’t make any sense. That’s it’s Charlize, the answers to your questions have got to be on the zeplin thing, I guess. Ohhh, the inside looks like the Guggenheim. What, that guy? He looks like he just walked out of the sci-fi channels Dune mini-series. Okay the ‘Chamber of Solace Computer thing’ says people are being 'reassigned'. Sophie Okonedo’s hiding in the reflecting pool prior to her meeting with the Matrix lady, what is this crap? The chairmans brothers dressed like a new age Nazi. I think I might rather be watching In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale.

55 minutes in: Oh my God, the dead are all being re-born as babies! I don’t care. This is like a bad joke on one of these movies. There Clones, I thought I sensed The Island in this. The memories are like genetic memories, this would have been done so much better and efficiently as a half hour long Twilight Zone episode.

101 minutes in: Who directed this, and what can we do to keep them for directing again?

102 minutes in: Those solders look like Cobra commandos from the 80's animated G.I. Joe. Best we hide in the Logan’s Run like public transit system.

104 minutes in: THX 1138 hallways, this movie has become a game of find the half-assed homage.

109 minutes in: Of course, she was the Chairmans wife in another life, they have this connection. They really thought this basic idea was worth resurrecting (pardon the pun) in altered form in Hancock. I would disagree with them.

118 minutes in: This final battle is reminiscent of a paint ball match.

125 minutes in: "To live only once, but with hope", that is the message of this film. Six Feet Under’s "Why do people have to die? To make life important." is a far superior version of this sentiment, and far superior entertainment.

Well I watched the whole thing. Augh, it was awful. Aeon sucks. One of the worst movies I have ever seen. Completely derivative, completely pointless, not a compelling character there. 1 out of 5, and with spite. I think I may have to cleanse my cinematic palate on Touch of Evil tonight.

Sister Aimee: The Aimee Semple McPherson Story (2006)

Bio-pic on the pioneering female evangelist, radio personalty, and Church of the Four Square Gospel founder. Mrs. McPherson’s personality and story have been minded before for use in fiction, she is the inspiration for the Barbara Stanwyck character in director Frank Capra’s early 30's film The Miracle Women, and her relationship with her third husband provides a good deal of the plot for Elmer Gantry. Here we have the story of the women’s real life, and it is inherently compelling and kind of complicated. This movie rendering however is severely handicapped by an embarrassingly small budget, the story of a women who preached to hundreds of thousands done here without a single crowed scene. With the exception of Rance of Howard in a fairly well done supporting part, none of the players are names, and their acting ability limited. This combined with costumes that might have been procured from Savers, and some scenes that may have been filmed in Church offices and peoples basements, distract from the story and periodically strains ones ability to buy that all of this is supposed to be happening between 1907 and 1944. In the end you feel like you’ve just seen something on par with a well done community theater production. I found myself throughout the viewing wishing that I was seeing this story (which really is engaging, and despite its cheap rendering here I can’t say that I was ever board) with respectable Hollywood production values. I even found myself casting this imagined remake, which should include the talents of Michelle Williams and Hugh Jackman. One’s ability to take this film depends on ones ability to stand its budget, and for the type of bare bones production it is it’s on of the few I could every stand to see again, which puts it above a lot of big budget Hollywood tripe. Being generous it’s a three, more realistically it’s a 1 ½ or a 2, so in the end I deem to give it a 2 ½ out of 5.

W. (2008)

Oliver Stone is thought of as a liberal film maker, and no doubt that’s were his politics lie, but behind the camera, perhaps especially of late, he can be a quite fair, and always (in his way) sympathetic chronicler of the story of post World War II America. From Platoon, to Nixon, and more recently World Trade Center (the last of which I didn’t like, but it was quite restrained politically), Stone puts forward a rending of a historical event or personality that while clearly embracing today’s conventional wisdom about the subject matter, is empathetic but none excusatory to its flawed characters. W. is one such rendering, with the current president seen as affable and well intentioned, but of limited ability, narrow focus, and easily manipulated. It’s a testament to the script, and especially Josh Brolin’s performance in the title role, that such a well known story can be so truly enveloping. We follow W. from his college day’s to midway into his presidency, we observe the development of his character through a prism of Shakespearian tragedy (my favorite way of viewing the Bush administration) and pop psychology, with a father complex always front and center. We like the young Bush, he’s an affable rouge, though his dad’s kind of a jerk to him, while none-the-less remaining every bit as well intentioned as W himself. Becoming born again and sober pulls our protagonist partway out of his psychological muck, though far from entirely, and while we feel the sincerity of his change, and see how it improves his life, we know it will never be able to compensate for what the film and nearly all the players seem to see as the man’s tragic shortcoming, namely that he is not Jeb.

Bush partisans may feel short changed that the highpoint of the man’s administration, namely his broadly lauded handling of events immediately post 9/11, are completely absent from the film. This is not a "complete" biography, you can get a book for that, but rather traces the man’s psychological development, with an eye on how it made the Iraq debacle possible. While future history might still see the 2003-? Iraq War as an accomplishment, it will surely never see its early handling as such (I largely blame Rumsfield for the logistical errors). You do however get both sides of the question of wether or not to go into Iraq, fairly presented as the situation would have seemed then, with the thinking and information that was prevalent and available to those who helped make the decision in 2002 and 2003. I can honestly say that there and then in that room, I would likely have gone with the Cheney faction. In the end Iraq became Bush’s Vietnam, his crucible, and unlike the often bulling Johnson who seems somehow forgiven for that conflict because we know it ate him up inside; Bush is often viewed as unmoved by the plight of the solders, to narrow minded, and to afraid to admit he was wrong to ever look at his decisions fairly and admit that he made some major mistakes. That is why to me the key scene in the film has to do with Cats (even though it is a litany of Bush dogs who make cameo appearances through the film).

One night in their bedroom in the White House residence W. is bemoaning his fate to his wife Laura, who lies in their bed reading a newspaper. She interrupts him to tell her husband that his favorite play is coming to town, she want’s to cheer him up. "Cat’s, now that’s something I’d stay up late for," the President responds. That George W. Bush’s favorite play would be the Andrew Lloyd Weber musical Cat’s seems just perfect to me, it encapsulates everything about the man and his presidency. It’s sentimental kitsch, decidedly middlebrough in taste, maudlin, cloying, but sincere. Bush is somewhere between Rum-tum-tugger and Memories. It’s not that the man doesn’t care, it’s just he doesn’t know how to care, or do much of anything for that matter, in a high concept way. He’s limited to the emotional length and breath of Cat’s, when only Hemingway or Faulkner will do. So the story of W. exists in an uncertain space between Frank Capra movie and train wreak, and as both of those things will command the viewers attention, so to will this film. 4 ½ out of 5.

An American Carol (2008)

From one of the three Airplane! guys comes this spoof variant on Dickens A Christmas Carol, only here the ‘scrooge’ character is a caricature of Michael Moore who hates the 4th of July. Featuring a lot of ‘hit in the face’ humor (none of which is funny), and cameos from a number of Hollywood’s best known Republican actors (when did Dennis Hooper become a Republican?), this is an ambling film, likable enough in tone, though obviously simplistic in its politics (though a lot of its history’s surprisingly good). More mildly amusing at parts then funny, flat material such as Hitler, Mussolini, and Tojo singing Kumba, and a terrorist cell made up almost entirely of men named Mohammad Hussain, elevate David Allen Greer’s cameo as a slave to the statues of movie high point. The whole thing seems four years out of date. 2 out of 5.

Mr. Conservative: Goldwater on Goldwater (2006)

Documentary on landmark political figure Barry Goldwater, produced and narrated by his granddaughter C.C. Goldwater. In addition to covering the man’s storied political career, and his central role in the birth of the modern conservative movement, the film also explores Barrys many hobbies and interests, such as photography, flying, and the Hopi Indians. The sections covering Barry and his family relationships, including interviews with three of his four children, and his then 95 year old brother, were to me the most interesting parts of the film, as they revel a man very much devoted and caring for his family, but who had a difficult time expressing that love verbally and physically, and whose lone wolf streak resulted in a well maintained aura of distance from them.

Other things that caught me about Goldwater from this documentary was his very charming personality, and how despite his downright unfair demonization in the 1964 presidential campaign (1), was almost universally loved and respected on both sides of the isle in the Senate. Also quite interesting is what is sometimes referred to as Goldwater’s 'political evolution'. Pro-choice and gay friendly Barry would seem out of place among those politicians we call conservative today. But Goldwater would no doubt consider that a category error, and rightly so, his conservatism was about limited government interference in all aspects of peoples sovereign lives, not the imposition of religious or political orthodoxy upon them. In the arc of his strongly held convictions played out against a changing national political conversation, he is reminiscent to me of William Jennings Bryan, who started out as the great progressive championing bimetallism and women’s suffrage, but at the end of his life time seemed regressive do to his outspoken biblical literalism and involvement in Tennessee’s famous Scopes Monkey Trial. Goldwater, as he says of himself in archival footage, started out his career in the Senate opposing the exercise of undo influence on the government by unions, and ended it opposing the same from the Churches. Here is a figure just awaiting a proper contextual re-discovery, one who while in life dubbed Mr. Conservative, might today stand for the vast center of American political thought. 4 out of 5

1. Though Johnson had practically no chance of losing that race to Goldwater, the sitting President authorized a series of hateful and scorching political adds that would insight widespread furor if used today.

Religulous (2008)

I like Bill Maher, I even liked him when I hated him. He fills something of the role of a loyal opposition to the conventional wisdom, an important if not often well received avocation in this country, and the world at large. Maher’s new film, often labeled a documentary, though he prefers “unscripted comedy”, (a categorization that fits all the more well given that its directed by Larry Charles of Borat fame) is about religion, and how its... ridiculous. Or at least that’s what Maher, and as much as 16% of the country feel about the subject of religion now. In fact its that 16% to whom this film is mostly addressed, not just for that constituencies entertainment, but also to call for their mobilization. The film points out how atheists, agnostics, and the religiously uninterested represent the great untaped special interest group in American politics (only 1 of the 535 members of congress will admit to a lack of belief in God). Maher wants these people to rise up and assert their influence, noting how homosexuals and NRA members have done so quite effectively, and there only 3 and 1.2% of the population respectively. I have no doubt we will see more atheistic influence in this country as we become more like Europe in many of our collective sensibilities, and this will be quite helpful in quailing many of the political excesses of the religious right, though doubtless not without its own fallouts. Anyway I digress.

Religulous can be approach two ways, for its polemics, many of which have great merits, and for its entertainment value. For blogging comment safety purposes I’ll limit myself largely to the entertainment aspects. This movie is funny. It is also smart. Some of the great moments come simply from Maher’s facial expressions following any of a number of interview subjects making particularly incredulous statements. Maher stacks his film with religious persons whom it is easy not to take seriously, the Rabbi who is a militant anti-Zionist and once exchanged hugs with Iran’s president at a Holocaust deniers conference (one desperately wants to see that guy mocked), an ex R & B singer turned pastor fond of $2000 suits, a Muslim rap artist whose attempts at being insightful and nuanced only make him look foolish, and even tolerant of murder. True a handful of well educated religious people appear in the film, most notably two decidedly unorthodox seeming Catholic priests, but they seem mostly if not exclusively on Maher’s side (what’s the old joke about all Bishops in the Church of England being atheists). But as one reviewer said of the film, maybe its best just to ignore the parts about your own religion in the film (in my case Mormons get about 4 or 5 minutes of air time), and enjoy the skewering of everybody else’s. In a religiously charged world there can be some value to channeled venting, the 2 minutes or so spent watching audiences cheer the re-enacted beatings and lashings of Christ at a Bible themed amusement park, pretty much sums up most of my criticisms of Evangelical Christianity. This is provocative humor and social commentary of almost rare rawness, and thusly a joyous blessing to behold for those who have the stomach for it. I’m glade I was able to rush from my Tuesday night Doctrines of the Gospel class in time to see it. 4 out of 5.

Henry Poole is Here (2008)

A ‘Christian’ themed movie staring Luke Wilson, yes I was skeptical to when I first saw the televison adds. But Henry Poole is Here is better then the typical ‘Christian’ fair, in large part I’m sure do to the fact that its director Mark Pellington (The Mothman Prophecies, among others) has roots in film making beyond the particular ‘nich market’ one associates with the works of Kirk Cameron (and Wilsons a level or two above him as an actor to boot). Poole is the story of man diagnosed with an unspecified but rare terminal illness (this news broken by Richard Benjamin in a cameo role that makes you realize just how long its been since you saw Richard Benjamin in a movie) who buys a house on the street were he spent his troubled boyhood, with the intent to die there, quietly, alone, and most likely drunk. However the self imposed exile of this “sad and angry” atheist is not to be. You see his over enthusiastic real estate agent (Cheryl Hines) thought she got a good deal on a new stucco job for the house, but it left behind a water stain that very Catholic neighbor lady Adriana Barraza is just sure to be the face of Christ, and by extension a good candidate for official miracle statues. Poole fights this intrusion on his solace, and the well intentioned but unwanted concern of a number of acquittances, while simultaneously developing an affection for the beautiful single mother next door Radha Mitchell and her emotionally troubled young daughter Millie Morgan Lilly (Who from her first moment on screen, doe eyed and clutching the tap recorder she uses to capture the conversations of those around her, you just know is going to break your heart).

There’s a maturity here about human suffering that to me evoked Six Feet Under. At first I didn’t fully understand why, though this is a more sobber then typical ‘Christian film’, it certainty didn’t approach the darkness and vulgarity of the late HBO series. Upon reflection I think that what I was picking up on is how both works took what are often stereotypes we’ve seen before (Here the angry atheist, hot signal mom, latina catholic, Under, ageing ladies man, repressed housewife, arty teen) and presented them to us in a deeper, more honest way. I also liked the ambiguity of much of the film, and the fact that the atheist often has the strongest argument. I’d say I was 90% with this movie, it decided to give us something of a connect-the- dots happy ending, and I understand why, though that diluted the piece a little bit for me. Still a surprisingly strong film, that has genuine merit. This could easily end up on MySpace top 20 films I saw this year list. 4 out 5.

Paul Newman: 1925-2008

I’ve let far to much time pass without stopping to type a few words about Paul Newman’s passing. I think a headline on the MSNBC web page said it best, in summery he was a man who had a lot to be proud of, an Oscar and many nominations, a fifty year marriage to Joanne Woodward, and vast charity work. Paul Newman was an unusually good man for Hollywood, and the world at large. He was great both on and off the screen, and will be sadly missed.

1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

I recently checked out from the library the (2002) book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, to see how much longer I needed to live to be a satisfactory cineaphile in the eyes of compiler Steven Jay Schneider. Turns out I have only seen 296 of the 1001, and thus have a long ways to live yet, especially given the fact that some of the titles listed, such as the silent, Danish, witchcraft movie Haxan, will likely require years to come across an available copy. Listed bellow are all of the films on the list which I personally have seen:

1902

1. A Trip to the Moon

1903

2. The Great Train Robbery

1925

3. Seven Chances
4. The Phantom of the Opera
5. The Battleship Potemkin
6. The Gold Rush

1927

7. Metropolis
8. The General

1928

9. The Crowd
10. Steamboat Bill, Jr.

1930

11. Little Caesar
12. All Quiet on the Western Front

1931

13. Dracula
14. Frankenstein
15. City Lights
16. The Public Enemy
17. M.

1932

18. I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang
19. Freaks

1933

20. Duck Soup
21. King Kong
22. The Bitter Tea of General Yen

1934

23. Triumph of the Will
24. It Happened One Night
25. The Thin Man

1935

26. Mutiny on the Bounty
27. A Night at the Opera

1936

28. Modern Times
29. My Man Godfrey
30. Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
31. Things to Come

1937

32. Grand Illusion
33. Stella Dallas
34. The Life of Emile Zola
35. Snow White and the Seven Dwarves

1938

36. The Adventures of Robin Hood
37. Angles with Dirty Faces
38. Bringing Up Baby

1939

39.Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
40. The Wizard of Oz
41. Destry Rides Again
42. Gone With the Wind
43. Ninotchka
44. Wuthering Heights

1940

45. His Girl Friday
46. Rebecca
47. Fantasia
48. The Philadelphia Story
49. The Grapes of Wrath
50. Pinocchio
51 The Bank Dick

1941

52.Citizen Kane
53. The Lady Eve
54. The Maltese Falcon
55. Sergeant York
56. Dumbo
57. Sullivan’s Travels
58. How Green Was My Valley

1942

59. The Palm Beach Story
60. Now, Voyager
61. Casablanca
62. Cat People
63. The Magnificent Ambersons
64. Yankee Doodle Dandy

1943

65. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
66. Shadow of a Doubt

1944

67. Meet Me in St. Louis
68. Laura
69. Double Indemnity

1945

70. Spellbound
71. Mildred Pierce
72. The Lost Weekend

1946

73. The Best Years of Our Lives
74. The Postman Always Rings Twice
75. The Stranger
76. The Big Sleep
77. Notorious
78. Black Narcissus
79. It’s A Wonderful Life

1947

80. Monsieur Verdoux
81. Out of the Past
82. The Ghost and Mrs. Muir

1948

83. The Bicycle Thief
84. Rope
85. The Red Shoes
86. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

1949

87. The Heiress
88. Adam’s Rib
89. White Heat
90. The Third Man

1950

91. The Asphalt Jungle
92. Winchester ‘73
93. Rio Grande
94. All About Eve
95. Sunset Blvd.

1951

96. The Big Carnival (Ace in the Hole)
97. A Streetcar Named Desire
98. Strangers on a Train
99. The African Queen
100. An American in Paris
101. A Place in the Sun
102. The Day the Earth Stood Still

1952

103. The Quiet Man
104. Singin’ In The Rain
105. The Bad and the Beautiful
106. High Noon

1953

107. From Here to Eternity
108. The Big Heat
109. Shane

1954

110. Johnny Guitar
111. On the Waterfront
112. Rear Window
113. A Star is Born
114. Carmen Jones

1955

115. Bad Day at Black Rock
116. The Lady Killers
117. Marty
118. Kiss Me Deadly
119. The Man From Laramie
120. Rebel Without A Cause

1956

121. The Searchers
122. The Man Who Knew Too Much
123. Giant
124. All That Heaven Allows
125. The Wrong Man
126. High Society
127. The Ten Commandments

1957

128. 12 Angry Men
129. The Seventh Seal
130. The Incredible Shrinking Man
131. The Bridge on the River Kwai
132. Paths of Glory
133. The Sweet Smell of Success

1958

134. Touch of Evil
135. Gigi
136. Vertigo

1959

137. The 400 Blows
138. North By Northwest
139. Some Like It Hot
140. Anatomy of a Murder
141. Ben-Hur
142. Rio Bravo

1960

143. La Dolce Vita
144. Psycho
145. The Apartment
146. Spartacus

1961

147. Breakfast At Tiffany’s
148. West Side Story

1962

149. Lawrence of Arabia
150. To Kill A Mockingbird
151. The Manchurian Candidate
152. Lolita
153. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
154. What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

1963

155. The Birds
156. 8 ½
157. HUD
158 Winter Light
159. The Great Escape
160. The Leopard

1964

161. Marnie
162. My Fair Lady
163. Dr. Stranglove; Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love The Bomb

1965

164. Doctor Zhivago
165. The Battle of Algiers
166. The Sound of Music

1966

167. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf?

1967

168. In the Heat of the Night
169. Cool Hand Luke
170. The Jungle Book

1968.

171. Once Upon A Time in the West
172. Planet of the Apes
173. The Producers
174. 2001: A Space Odyssey

1969

175. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
176. Easy Rider

1970

177. Patton

1971
178. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Facotry
179. Harold and Maude
180. The French Connection

1972

181. Solaris
182. The Godfather
183. Frenzy

1973

184. The Sting
185. Papillon

1974

186. Young Frankenstein
187. China Town
188. Blazing Saddles
189. The Godfather Part II

1975

190. One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest
191. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
192. Barry Lyndon
193. Nashville

1976

194. All the Presidents Men
195. Rocky
196. Taxi Driver
197. Network

1977

198. Star Wars
199. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
200. Annie Hall
201. Eraserhead

1978

202. The Deer Hunter
203. Grease

1979

204. All That Jazz
205. Being There
206. Kramer Vs. Kramer
207. Apocalypse Now
208. The Muppet Movie

1980

209. Ordinary People
210. Star Wars: Episode V- The Empire Strikes Back
211. The Elephant Man
212. Airplane!
213. Raging Bull

1981

214. Raiders of the Lost Ark
215. Chariots of Fire

1982

216. E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial
217. Blade Runner
218. Tootsie
219. Gandhi

1983

220. A Christmas Story
221. Star Wars: Episode VI- Return of the Jedi
222. Terms of Endearment
223. Once Upon A Time in America

1984

224. Amadeus
225. This Is Spinal Tap
226. Ghost Busters
227. A Passage to India
228. The Killing Fields

1985

229. RAN
230. Out of Africa
231. The Purple Rose of Cairo
232. Back to the Future
233. Brazil
234. The Color Purple

1986

235. Blue Velvet
236. Hannah and her Sisters
237. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
238. Platoon

1987

239. Raising Arizona
240. The Princess Bride

1988

241. Cinema Paradiso
242. The Naked Gun
243. Big
244. Who Framed Roger Rabbit
245. Rain Man

1989

246. Batman
247. Roger & Me
248. Glory

1990

249. Dances With Wolves
250. Edward Scissorhands
251. Total Recall

1991

252. The Silence of the Lambs
253. JFK

1992

254. The Player
255. Glengarry Glen Ross
256. Unforgiven

1993

257. Groundhog Day
258. Philadelphia
259. Jurassic Park
260. Schindler’s List

1994

261. Forrest Gump
262. The Lion King
263. Pulp Fiction
264. The Shawshank Redemption

1995

265. Babe
266. Toy Story
267. Braveheart

1996

268. Fargo
269. Independence Day
270. The English Patient

1997

271. Deconstructing Harry
272. L.A. Confidential
273. Titanic

1998

274. Saving Private Ryan

1999

275. Three Kings
276. Fight Club
277. Being John Malkovich
278. American Beauty
279. The Sixth Sense
280. The Matrix

2000

281. Gladiator
282. Traffic
283. Memento
284. O Brother, Where Art Thou?

2001

285. Amelie
286. Moulin Rouge!
287. Mulholland Dr.
288. The Royal Tenenbaums
289. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
290. A.I.: Artificial Intelligence

2002

291. Gangs of New York
292. The Pianist
293. City of God
294. Adaptation
295. Far From Heaven
296. Chicago

(Since original compilation of this list on the 24th, I have added Heat as my 297th viewed)

Cleopatra (1934)

Cecil B. DeMille’s take on the story of the iconic Egyptian queen and her relationship with two rulers of Rome , this is thankfully much more condensed then the later, better known Liz Taylor version. Claudette Colbert plays the title role, in a year that also saw her Oscar winning performance in It Happened One Night. This film was the eightieth motion picture to be given a passing certificate by the then newly established production board (for runner to today’s MPAA) but I don’t see how. One of the first images you see on screen is what certainly looks like a naked women, though lit in such a way that I suppose it could be taken as ambiguous, but I’m pretty sure those were nipples. That’s the thing about DeMille, did you he use the sex to sell the piety, or the moralism to justify the depravity, me thinks a little of both. Pretty sensual stuff for its time, and some of those outfits still warrant a double take. In all though more watchable then either The Crusades or Sign of the Cross. Some great set pieces and production numbers. 3 out of 5.

Through a Glass Darkly (1961)

The first chapter of Bergman’s faith trilogy. Here the director explores how we play roles for others in our lives, and the guilt that can come from that, when we know they know, and we feel we fall flat. Set on an island off the Swedish coast there are only four characters, a popular though not critically acclaimed novelist (Gunnar Björnstrand) , his subtlety estranged 17 year old son (Lars Passgård) , his psycho frantic daughter (Harriet Andersson), and her doctor husband (Max von Sydow) . The author, though doubtless pained by his daughters condition, is simultaneously exploiting it, and studying her, for material for his next novel, one which he hopes will finally provide him with the positive critical recognition he craves. The man feels conflicted about this, but it's also a part of his nature, and perhaps a commentary on how our sympathy for others can often be limited, be an obligatory role that comes from our socially dictated relationship with a person. The daughters condition makes her crazy, but also quite honest in her way, and when she discovers what her father has written about her in his notebook, it sets off, or rather exacerbates an episode, that forms much of the narrative core of the story; what happens to her, how others react, not just to her, but to the way the father reacts. Often silent, and sometimes slow, I regret to say I had a hard time paying attention, and multitaskesed some, thusly limiting the full impact of the film on myself. I should probably try and watch this one again, but I doubt I will, least not in the near future. Interesting premise, if dragged out more then I was in the mood for. 3 ½ out of 5.

Smart People (2008)

Intellectuals can be pretentious and self involved, thus alienating others in there lives and making themselves unhappy, unless of course they learn to overcome these self-defeating impulses, this is what Smart People is about. Dennis Quaid gets to play one of these smart people, a professor, which is a little different for him, and Ellen Page whose trademark aura of being beyond her years I do enjoy, plays his daughter. They have parallel storylines about how they strain relationships with people they’d like to be close to, Quaid his doctor girlfriend, Page her uncle. There’s really not a lot new here, but its done pretty well, despite a certain superficiality about the proceedings, and my not buying everything about how the characters progressed. Upon reflection though, I really can't say I liked it, 2 out of 5.

Hamlet 2 (2008)

Sometimes your just in the mood for a little light hearted blasphemy, and in Hamlet 2 you’ll defiantly find it, both religious and PC. Actually this is a deceptively smart movie, a kind of Ed Wood meets Six Feet Under. British comedian Steve Coogan, who I had basically dismissed out of hand before observing him in a brief role in Sofia Coppala’s Marie Antoinette, plays a never-was actor (career highlights include a juicer commercial and episode of Xena) just barley subsisting financially as a Tucson high school drama teacher, whose enthusiasm far outstrips his talent. When the financially strapped school system decides to scrape his program, and by extension his job, Coogan decides to re-invigorate interest in the arts by having his ‘rag tag’ class perform a sequel he wrote to Shakespear’s Hamlet. As you’ll recall pretty much everybody died at the end of the original Hamlet, but that’s not a problem when one employs dramatic devices such as a time machine, and a cell phone sporting Jesus Christ. The triumph of the movie, and the musical play within, is the concept, surpassingly well pulled off, that trash can be elevated to beauty, that art can be made of a mess if there’s a enough (for lack of a better word) sincerity to it. The hodge poge of satirized tripe that fills the screen and stage proves a metaphor for forgiveness and transcendence probably more effective then the pretentious guff of many a would be art genius, just like Coogan’s character, its all self referential to a absurdly sublime degree. So all I can say is: "Oh, Shue." 4 out of 5.

An Unreasonable Man: Ralph Nader (2006)

Ralph Nader is more then a perineal spoiler, and in fact its kind of sad that that is what he’s most likely to be remembered for. Simply put Ralph Nader is the most legislatively influential private citizen in the history of this country. He is one of the most important men in the past hundred years, in his effect on the every day life of the American people. Seat belts, air bags, the Freedom of Information Act, nuclear regulation, the clean water act, emission standards, government oversight, third party development, charitable organizations, the political mobilization of college students, Michael Moore, and ironically Al Gore have all been profoundly influenced by him. He is a good man, he really means it, he’s given his all towards making America a better place, to encouraging us to live up to our civic ideals, if he gets a little bit of an ego trip out of it, so be it, though I think the megalomania allegations are over-rated. I was surprised how much I agreed with and liked this man, and all that he has done, though I had previously heard him speak live, it was with this documentary (which is pretty balanced, particularly about his notorious 2000 presidential campaign), that I really came to ‘get’ Nader’s appeal. Worthwhile and largely engaging viewing. 4 out of 5.

Now I really want to track down the 1977 Saturday Night Live episode he hosted.

Heat (1995)

An opus. The film for which Michael Mann will rightly be remembered. It is an urban environment, particularly that of Los Angels, that seems to be Mann’s muse. He likes to play with the dynamic between the honest and law abiding, the good cops, and the fascinating but amoral, Tom Cruse in Collateral, and here Robert De Niro’s Neil. Al Pacino is Vincent the good cop, and he and Neil serve as mirrors to one another, much as could be argued Pacino and De Niro do in real life. It’s all about parallels, and this is never more apparent then in the two dinner party scenes, De Niro’s able criminals, and Pacino’s capable cops. There essentially the same, not in words, but in setting, the simple conversations people have away from work, and what they revel about the leads relationship with the women in there lives. A cast of massive talent. Intimacy in epic. Ruminations on genera conventions, and human relationships. A master piece, you will remember this movie as an experience. Five out of Five.

Dexter: Season 2 (2007)

Dexter season one was a novel for television, it impressed me with its finely constructed story arc, compelling characters, intriguing premise, and acerbic wit. I didn’t think it could get any better, but here it did. A logical extension of what happened in season 1, season 2 evolves for the most part quite naturally, and while seemingly less focused in some ways then its predecessor, it has a freedom about it that re-invigorates us from all that came before. Even more addicting and suspenseful then season 1, I was just overjoyed to watch Dexter season 2. Keith Carradine even manages to create a character whose an equal foil for our serial killing anti-hero. Five out Five.

Persepolis (2007)

French made adaptation of a young Iranian women’s autobiographical graphic novel. Animated mostly in a simply black and white style, reminiscent of a weekday comic strip, this is a powerful coming of age story set against the backdrop of two decades of recent Iranian history. You’ll learn a lot from this movie, and perhaps be surprised how emotionally effective a medium this simple two-toned animation proves to be. Unique and satisfying, shows there’s still a lot of new ground that can be covered in film making, both thematically and stylistically. 4 ½ out of 5.