The Ides of March

George Clooney, 2011 (8.4*)

This is an intelligent political thriller with a few unpredictable twists. One would say the acclaim is due George Clooney, since he co-wrote the screenplay, directed the film with himself in a lead role.

His character is a new presidential candidate, whose idealistic follower Steven Myers, brilliantly underplayed by Ryan Gosling, is second-in-command of the campaign, which is headed by veteran campaigner Paul Giamatti. None of these men are saints, and over the course of the story we get to see each character in a more revealing light.

It’s hard to describe the film without giving away some important plot turns, but place this film on a short list of intelligent and adult political films, each revealing something about the process of government: Advise and Consent, All the President’s Men, The Queen, Executive Suite, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.

This is one of the better films of 2011, for me in that "second tier", with Rango, The Artist, and Take Shelter.

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The Manchurian Candidate

John Frankenheimer, 1962, bw (8.6*)
#81, Top Ranked 1000 Films, 2011 Update, all polls.

This is the film that set the standard for cold-war thrillers, and also put director John Frankenheimer on the map. The film features a thankfully subdued Frank Sinatra in a dramatic role as a Korean War veteran, who returns to America a changed man. He suspects that a hero from his unit, played by Laurence Harvey, may have been brainwashed by the North Koreans. The problem of course is that the entire story could be in his own imagination, he has no evidence.

As the story unfolds, we find out in short flashbacks a little more of what happened in Korea, while the plot moves toward timed conclusion using the countdown technique, which works well here. One of those 'we have three days to save the free world kind of things', because of a plot already in motion which could have world-shaping implications.

Frankenheimer expertly plays into the hands of the paranoid right-wingers who, led by Sen. Joseph McCarthy in the 50’s, began to suspect a red commie hiding inside every industry and business in the U.S. He creates a nighmarish vision of their worst paranoia, that the communists are able to alter the minds of heroic American citizens and then unleash them on an unsuspecting American public – kind of like what Wall St. has done in the new milennium with even greater success than our enemies imagined.

Frankenheimer was a master at a low-key type of thriller that maintained great tension and apprehension throughout, and events seemed to be moving unhampered toward some bone-chilling conclusion. For me, he went on to make even better thrillers after this one. The Train (1964) bw, with Burt Lancaster, was about a Frenchman trying to stop the Nazis from carting off valuable art treasures back to Germany in a trainload of stolen French culture pilfered from the best museums.

Even better was Seven Days in May (1964) bw, in which Lancaster plays a right-wing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who is upset with a left-wing President, expertly played by Fredric March in his last performance, who he feels is weakening the U.S. politically, so he plots a military overthrow of the government, while an officer on his staff, Kirk Douglas, slowly suspects the Chairman. This is eerily similar to the arguments made by the CIA against John Kennedy, who had decimated the branch with massive cutbacks in manpower - Langley was said to resemble a 'ghost town' during his administration.

More recently, Frankenheimer directed the excellent heist film Ronin (1998), featuring Robert De Niro and Jean Reno leading a team to recover a stolen briefcase for a suspected IRA terrorist, Natascha McElhone. This barely noticed film runs rings around the big budget, non-stop car chase films, with an intelligent script that allows for some development of complex characters.

Stick with the original (#81 on the all-time top 1000), the remake with Denzel Washington is ranked 2098th by comparison.

Whoa, is this James Bond or some Korean war vet?

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Of Gods and Men

Xavier Beauvois, France, 2010 (9.4*)
Grand Jury Prize, Cannes
Beautifully filmed, gripping story of a small group of French Trappist monks who run a local hospital in the mountains of Algeria, who treat hundreds of poor local villagers a week, mostly children. Suddenly, Islamic fundamentalists start executing foreigners in the region, including one Algerian teen not wearing a veil in public.

The government wants to send the military to guard the small monastery, but their leader, Brother Christian, well protrayed by Lambert Wilson, who displays an even temperament and firm resolve fueled by inner faith, refuses to sanction the proximity of weapons to their sanctuary. My favorite actor in the cast is the veteran Michael Lonsdale (the French patriarch who helped the Isaelis find terrorists in Munich), who is the real doctor for the clinic, and who lived much of his life in the secular world, so he can see events unfolding without a clouded perspective.

In the face of increasing threat from extremists, the brothers must decide to follow their calling and service to their faith, or face the reality of the modern world and continue their mission elsewhere, either back in France or a safer country in Africa.

This is a recounting of real events, which adds more weight to all decisions involved, the characters are all real people. Beautifully filmed in a dramatic mountain setting with awe-inspiring vistas; you can understand why they chose to build a monastery at this location. It's rare that a film about faith and religion can also successfully deal with real issues like this film. This one of the best films about faith ever made, and is a work of rare cinematic art.

Winner of five awards out of 11 nominations, including the Grand Jury Prize and the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at Cannes.

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One, Two, Three

Billy Wilder, 1961, bw (8.6*)
One of Wilder's funniest films, a spoof of both capitalism and cold war politics. This is also the last film of James Cagney, and it's a fine one to bow out with - I can't think of any other comedy of his that is this funny from beginning to end, never marred by a message or anything serious (such as Wilder's The Apartment, or Cagney's other late comedy gem in Mister Roberts).

Cagney plays the Coca-Cola man in Berlin, and he's chomping at the bit to open up the "commie market" behind the Iron Curtain, and sell Coke to another 200 million people. At about this time, he gets the air-headed daughter of the Coke CEO, Pamela Tiffin as Scarlett, dumped into his care until her dad's arrival, along with her leftist slogan spouting boyfriend from East Berlin, Horst Bucholtz, who is dim enough to not really understand what he's talking about.

Cagney's dilemna is the impending arrival of the CEO (Howard St. John) - he's got to somehow either get rid of Bucholtz or convert him to capitalism quickly, so this puts a countdown timer on the film's plot. There are other plot twists I won't reveal here.

Cagney is quick and sharp in this, with perfect comic timing. There's plenty of rapid-fire dialogue to help, similar to the Howard Hawks gem His Girl Friday. The pace may seem a little exhausting, but it works in comic farce like this one. Wilder also gets to poke fun at both sides in this one, making them all look like caricatures of idealogical propaganda, as Cagney thinks getting communists to drink Coca-Cola will turn them into capitalists.

Wilder shot this film in Berlin (at one point using the Brandenberg Gate), and complete it just one year before the wall was built.

Wilder is one of the great directors, here's a small list of his best films:
The Front Page, Double Indemnity, Sunset Boulevard, Lost Weekend, The Spirit of St. Louis, The Seven Year Itch, Sabrina, The Apartment, Some Like It Hot, Witness For the Prosecution, The Fortune Cookie.

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Gorky Park

Michael Apted, 1983 (8.1*)
A homicidal puzzle turns into a Cold War mystery in this entertaining spy thriller. William Hurt plays a Russian detective, who is baffled by three bodies discovered in Moscow's public Gorky Park, which have had their faces removed to prevent identification.

In the course of his investigation he discovers that the upper levels of government are stonewalling his efforts - it seems that he may have uncovered an uncomfortable conspiracy. He crosses paths with mysterious American businessman Lee Marvin, who has a few skeletons in his closet, even if he's not responsible for these murders. Joanna Pacula provides the proper eye candy and romantic interest, while Brian Dennehy provides his particular brand of homicidal bravado (he was a real assassin in Vietnam, often killing targets with a knife).

Maybe not a bona fide classic, but still a better mystery than most that are filmed nowdays, and one with some unique and unforgettable images, especially toward the film's climax. If you enjoy all these new forensic investigative police drama, here's one that takes place in Russia, and in a large-budget film with a couple of previous Oscar® winners in Hurt and Marvin.

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Inside Job

Charles Ferguson, 2010 (9.0*)
Best Documentary (AA)
This is probably the most important documentary made in our lifetime, as it covers the biggest financial crime ever committed which will have worldwide repercussions for decades to come. Actor Matt Damon narrates a story that is pure nightmare become reality, one that has touched most of the world by now in one way or another. (Many lost jobs, houses, life savings, pension plans - the rest will pay higher taxes and have higher inflation as a result)

Director, author, producer Charles Ferguson does a good job explaining exactly how this all happened, and won an Oscar® for documentary as a result. I for one am glad he included the repeal in 1999 by a Republican Congress of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, which was put in place to prevent banks from taking unnecessary risks in order to prevent the exact scenario which took place within a decade after it's repeal. (me and many financial experts predicted this exact outcome over time - my friends called me a "doomsayer"; now they don't call me at all - they're probably broke; I pulled all my money out of the market in 2003) Every time you hear someone ask for "deregulation", remember that it's NEVER WORKED YET, so get ready to be fleeced again by con artists. (it was deregulation that caused strikes, riots, and death squads in Argentina; it was done as a condition for a loan from the World Bank, controlled by the U.S., which was, of course, to allow corporations to pillage Argentinians as a test)

This film shoud infuriate everyone. Hopefully, many people not currently in prison will be put there eventually, especially the fat cat execs at the superbanks like Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Bear Stearns, etc.. One of these guys (Fuld at Bear Stearns?) pulled 246 million out of his company in "compensation" just before it went bankrupt. Good grief, this would bankrupt 99% of all companies in America. How could we NOT have gotten his money back? If this nation was any more spineless, we'd have to be reclassified as earthworms, and at about that level, for letting these crooks get away with pillaging the world's wealth for their own private benefit.

The most maddening part is that Obama hired many of the same criminals himself - perhaps they really work for the Corleones and Sopranos and everyone has a gun to their heads. That's the only possible explanation for this entire baffling chain of events, especially giving the same crooks even more money to throw into their private coffers.

This film will hopefully ignite a fire under someone here with BALLS - it's obvious that NO ONE in our government has any, and the populace is suffering as a result. This truly is a government "of, by, and for the corporation", as Jim Cramer on MadMoney termed it. We are living proof that "democracy" just plain doesn't work, due to the corruptable nature of humans, who will sell out to the highest bidder, in this case the corporations willing to pay them off in the guise of "campaign contributions", so it has the appearance of legitimacy.

How typical that NY Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, interviewed here, who tried to go after some of the crooks, was then painted with the "immoral" brush for using hookers, something the Wall Streeters did by the tens of thousands, according to one high price escort madame interviewed in this film. He paid a personal price while the crooks have gotten off scot free so far. If I were these guys, I'd not only leave the U.S. for good, but I'd hire a small army of bodyguards, as they won't be able to sleep safely anywhere in the world now that Al Quaeda and everyone else knows who they are.

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Note: everyone should read journalist, and former corporate corruption investigator for the insurance industry, Greg Palast's eye-opening expose of U.S. corporations and politics "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy", about how all western politicians are controlled by big money who simply buys the favorable legislation they want, and who also control the media that refused to report or even print his findings. In England, the government ransacked his office and gave him death threats, likely due to pressure from the U.S. "Freedom of the press" and "free speech" are just expressions used by politicians - if they have to tell us that we have them, then we really don't, which is obvious to everyone by now. In fact, in the Smother Bros vs CBS trial, U.S. government lawyers testified for CBS, and said "freedom of speech is only for owners, it was never implied for individuals". That was news to nearly everyone who has read the Constitution.

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The Last King of Scotland

Kevin MacDonald, 2006 (8.4*)
Told from the point of view of his personal physician from Scotland, played by James McAvoy, this film offers a biopic of the ruling years of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin. The film becomes an acting tour-de-force for star Forrest Whitaker, earning him 28 awards including an Oscar® for his complex and sympathetic portrait of a charismatic madman. The title comes from Amin claiming to be from Scottish ancestry, and royalty at that, so he could have been king of Scotland (!)

The film includes a realistic version of the events leading to terrorists holding hostages at the Entebbe airport, and the subsequent Israeli raid, which features prominently in the physician's story. Whitaker has won awards for other performances, notably in Clint Eastwood's Bird, but he has never has the part to show his acting skills like this one, which allowed him to pretty much dominate the film.

This is a must-see for fans of historical docudramas or great acting performances. The film won 35 awards overall

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The Best of Youth

Marco Tullio Giordana, Italy, 2003 (9.0*)
This epic Italian miniseries of four hours, now packaged as a solo feature film, follows two brothers from the time they leave home after high school and go their separate ways up until they are middle-aged. One brother takes a more free-wheeling, soul searching route that takes him to the near wilderness of Norway then back to Italy. The other brother opts for the more fascist tradition, first in the military, later in an urban police force. You might say one is left-wing politically, the other right, or at least they come to represent those two sides of Italian politics at the time the story begins in the 60's.

We see the different characters develop over time, their romances, their career changes, and also how their stories occasionally intersect. This is a well done, complete, and satisfying story that gives justice to the epic story of adult lifetimes.

Winner of 19 awards overall, including Un Certain Regard at Cannes, and numerous Italian film awards (the entire male cast won best actor, and the female cast best actress). It's also now showing up on many all-time top 1000 film lists. It's ranked #700 on our compendium of internet polls.

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I Served the King of England

Jirí Menzell, Czech Republic, 2006 (8.5*)
Czech Lion, Best Picture
From the director of Closely Watched Trains (1966), this is one of the more unusual comedies you'll ever see (from a novel by Bohumi Hraba). It covers about half a century in the life of a waiter, who starts out small, saves his tips, and gradually works his way up in status and in the class of his employers. It seems that everything this waiter did grew his financial assets; he often pulls out his money and spreads it across the floor, which allows us to track his financial progress.

This entire story is told in flashback from a present when he is moving into an abandoned home near the border in his late middle ages, fifty-something. Because of the length of this story, two actors play the main character, but the funniest is Ivan Barnev, when he was a young man and his life-shaping incidents occur.

For this actor, eventually the world interrupts his private and romantic dreams, and the 2nd world war threatens his stability. Fortunately, his girlfriend has some savvy plans for survival.

This won 8 awards internationally, including four Czech Lions, one for best picture

[This is our film review #667, so we are 2/3 of the way to 1000]

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The Informer

John Ford, 1935, bw (8.8*)
Possibly the best John Ford film, this one is not a western but a political film in which Victor McLaglen plays an alcoholic member of the IRA in the 20's, in an Oscar®-winning performance for best actor (the best of his long career), who can't decide if he's fighting a revolution or looking for his next drink. Intelligence personnel know his weakness for alcohol and he becomes a target of those seeking information for the British side.

Winner of four Oscars, for best actor, director, music score, and screenplay - it lost best picture to Mutiny on the Bounty. This is still a riveting, politically-charged story 75 years later.

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Women Without Men

Shirin Neshat, Shoja Azari, Iran, 2009 (8.1*)
This story links the lives of four different women living in or near Tehran, Iran during the time, 1953, that their elected President was replaced by the Shah in a CIA-backed coup, after British ships blockaded Iranian oil tankers. Their stories are unified by an idyllic garden location, and the symbology of Eden is apparent. Co-director Shirin Neshat is a visual artist turned director, known for her works exploring gender relations.

One woman is unmarried at 30, living with her brother, who considers her a family disgrace for not yet accepting any suitor. He truly cares more about his own social status in the community than his sister's happiness. Another woman is a miserable and bored prostitute. Another is the jaded wife of a long, boring marriage, whose husband has a younger mistress.

Using some indelible and haunting images, we are given a poetic story of the stuggle of women in a fundamentalist society in political turmoil. Most of the women here had their lives dominated by men, so there was no personal independence for an entire gender. The film succeeds most when it ignores politics and becomes lost in the imagery of people in nature, dwarfed by the vast landscapes here.

It's not surprising that the novel this is based on by Shahrnush Parsipur is banned in Iran, and also this film, it's an important look the plight of women in some cultures of the world, and the hopelessness faced by some of them.

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Metropolis

Fritz Lang, Germany, 1927, silent, bw (7.8*)
[Restored version]
Of course this looks pretty dated now, but when Fritz Lang created his science fiction masterpiece, there were no films as experimental or as striking an individual vision in the history of cinema up to that point. This version has some lost footage restored that was found in 2008 in a film warehouse in Argentina, who didn't return the print when WW2 broke out in Europe, so this is the most complete version available since it's release as all the other copies were destroyed by Allied air raids.

This story is from a novel by Thea von Harbou, who also wrote the screenplay. The heavily symbolic story involves a society where the wealthy live in a club above ground that resembles heaven, while the workers live and work underground in repetitive drudgery running giant machines. Lang's entire film is an indictment of a mechanized world usurping human individuality and choice, where there is no escape from the 'worker's hell' underground.

One particular woman, an angel named Maria, is a voice against the system who incites the workers to stand up. Meanwhile, the head capitalist has an inventor with a female robot he calls "Machine Man", who gets used in a political scheme to destroy Maria and a mysterious coming 'mediator', who can unite the two factions.

A lot of this story is pretty corny ("the head and the hands need a heart to unite them"), yet you can see that it influenced later films like Chaplin's Modern Times, Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, and even the dark mood of Gotham City in the Batman films. In fact, it was decades before sf films even had this much vision again.

This is a must for fans of German expressionism, it's probably the finest example of that movement. It's #96 on the IMDB top 250 films, which is probably a bit high, but you can see its influence in cinema history.

One of the first recipients of  our World Film Awards, as we awarded 15 silents films first.

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A Raisin in the Sun

Daniel Petrie, 1961 (8.6*)
Winner of the Gary Cooper Award at Cannes

One of the first major plays to deal with the frustrations and economic plight of lower-class black families in urban America, from author Lorraine Hansberry, makes an emotional tour de force film for a terrific cast, led by Sidney Poitier as the sole-surviving adult male of the family, Walter Lee Younger. He shares a small two-bedroom tenement apartment in Chicago with his wife, his son, who is forced to sleep on the couch, and his mother and sister, who share the other bedroom.

Even though he has a steady job as a chauffeur for a wealthy white family, the other adults are forced to engage in part-time work in stereotypical jobs, such as kitchen, maid and laundry work. His sister, a part-time student, has dreams of becoming a doctor, while Sidney has dreams of making it big in some emerging business opportunity, as a friend did in dry cleaning.

Most of the film takes place in the small apartment, so we feel both the claustrophobia and despair of their situation. The mother immigrated there from the deep south when a teen, in order to escape racism and to find some opportunity for advancement out of poverty, which until her husband's death has been an elusive and unattainable dream.

The play and film begin as a glimmer of hope is on its way in the form of a life insurance check for ten thousand following the death of his father, who also lived in the apartment for most of his adult life as well. His mother, played by Claudia McNeil in a Golden Globe and BAFTA nominated performance as the new head of the family, hasn't decided yet what to do with all the money, while the rest of the family dreams what it could mean to each of them. Along the way we get to see a very young Lou Gossett, Jr., and Ivan Dixon in small parts as romantic interests of the sister.

It may seem a little stagy, but it's obvious that director Petrie wanted to keep the feel and intimacy of the play. At times it seems a bit overemotional perhaps, with some acting bordering on histrionics; nevertheless, the entire cast turns in excellent, heart-rending performances, led by Poitier and Ruby Dee as his wife. This is a tough pill to swallow, but if you've grown up poor or within a minority, it feels right on target and gives honest expression to the plight of the economically deprived in this over-abundant yet unequal nation. Given the current economic climate, it truly seems that some things never change.

Quote: "God seems to have only given black people dreams, but also their children in order to provide hope for those dreams."

Note: This was the first Broadway play written by a black woman and directed by a black man.

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Butterfly

aka La Lengua de las Mariposas (Butterfly's Tongue)
Jose Luis Cuerda, 1999, Spain (8.5*)
A very warm coming-of-age film, in which a young Spanish boy, naturally played by Manuel Lozano, in a small rural village in Northern Spain is tutored in more than school by his teacher, veteran actor Fernando Fernán Gómez. A naturalist, and a leftist, he teaches the boy about the beauty of nature (and freedom), and together they spend spare time in the wild, looking at plants and catching butterflies.

Meanwhile, the Spanish society is being torn apart by politicians (so remote that only the radio brings the trouble home), as fascists are determined to make the new republic fail. This film deftly shows how the innocence of childhood, the beginning of romance, and the wonder and awe about life can be twisted by the times one lives in and the bigotry of adults, even before the advent of the next world war.

The acting is so natural that you soon forget that you are watching a movie; it seems as if the director used all local amateurs and simply put their lives on film. Gómez will win your respect and admiration, and young Lozano your heart. One of the best Spanish films I've seen, and one of the best about the positive influence of education.

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Triumph of the Will

[Our 600th film reviewed]Leni Reifenstahl, Germany, 1935 (8.2*)
This is a hard film to recommend, but an important documentary for both historical events covered as well as pioneering film techniques. Leni is a former actress turned filmmaker as Hitler's chosen film propagandist. In her first major film here, she documents the rise of the Nazi party in Germany.

She later apologized for the film, but it's so eerie to watch today that it's effective as anti-propaganda as well, likely scaring far more people than it inspires. She went on to direct the documentary of the 1936 Olympic games in Berlin, in Olympia, also a classic of film technique. She buried a camera in the earth to get a shot of the starting line of the 100 meter dash. In Triumph, she uses striking geometric compositions to amplify the impact of crowd scenes, into what could rightfully be called, in Clockwork Orange vernacular, real 'horrorshow', something so terrifying that you have to watch it.

Down a point or so in the rating for being blatant propaganda, but it's still cinematic art, and influenced many other directors.

Note: posted on Pearl Harbor day, as this film shows the seeds of war being sown in the 30's

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Green Zone

Paul Greengrass, 2010 (8.4*)
This is another intense action film from terrific director Greengrass, best known for the award-winning docudrama films Bloody Sunday and United 93, and the action adventure Bourne Trilogy with Matt Damon.

The two are reunited here as we follow chief warrant officer Damon in the early days of the U.S. invasion of Iraq leading a special squad on a search of suspected WMD sites. The search keeps coming up empty, which leads Damon to question the validity of their intelligence. When he gets stonewalled, his quest leads him to a CIA field head, played by terrific Irish actor Brendan Gleeson (In Bruges).

Greengrass delicately balances action sequences with plot exposition, using an administration puppet, Greg Kinnear, and a Wall St Journal writer (Susan Lynch) who released articles about WMDs in Iraq, using an internal intel source called Magellan to protect their identity. This becomes a chase film, a nailbiter, and though light on character development, it's strong on plot and action.

Green Zone makes a good companion film to Kathryn Bigelow's best picture of 2009, The Hurt Locker, this one as we invade Baghdad, Locker following a bomb squad after we occupy the city.

Paul Greengrass [photo rt] has won 30 awards for his films so far, most for Bloody Sunday and United 93. IMDB awards page for Greengrass

Note: Roger Ebert gave this film four stars

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Seven Days in May

John Frankenheimer, 1964, bw (9.2*)
[Posted on Burt Lancaster's birthday, who would have been 97 today]

One of director Frankenheimer's best is also one of the most interesting and rewarding from the long career of impeccable actor Burt Lancaster, Oscar® winner for Elmer Gantry. Here he plays an ultra-patriotic military hero, General Scott, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, a likely future Presidential candidate, and a vocal critic of President Fredric March (who has two well-deserved Oscars® for actor, acting in his last film) and his support of a nuclear disarmament treaty with the USSR.

Leading a surge of anti-presidential sentiment are a phalanx of right-wingers, who use television to stir up the public against the treaty (some things never change). Kirk Douglas plays a staffer of General Scott's who thinks he uncovers some coded messages and a subversive plot within the military. With a countdown style plot, the viewer is in 'edge of the seat' status throughout the entire film. An aging but still classy Ava Gardner adds some romantic interest, which seems a bit superfluous to this plot.

Faithfully adapted from the best-selling novel by Fletcher Knebel and Charles W. Bailey II (with a screenplay from Rod Serling), Frankenheimer has made one of the best political thrillers of all time, in classic black and white, with almost documentary style cinematography from Ellsworth Fredericks. Frankenheimer said that the scene with Fredric March confronting Burt Lancaster in the White House was the most rewarding he ever shot (after March requested many extra rehearsals) - with three Oscars® between the two actors, it's a rare classic mano a mano between two of the best in front of the camera. A very spooky scenario for those who think "it can't happen here".

Lancaster was Frankenheimer's favorite actor, of whom he said "just watching him walk across the room was art in itself". In Frankenheimer's WW2 classic The Train, Burt did all his own stunts, once leaping on a moving train, and often limping badly from an injury that occurred during the shooting.

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Vantage Point

Pete Travis, 2008 (8.2*)

Getting it's inspiration from Kurosawa's Rashomon, this action thriller involves the President, William Hurt, being shot in the beginning of the film while appearing in public to address the crowd at an international summit in Spain. We are then shown the same event in small flashbacks from the points of view of various characters each with a different perspective and role in the crime.

We see the events unfold live at first from a CNN-type media command center, led by Sigourney Weaver as the director of the live tv newsfeed. Dennis Quaid plays the lead secret service agent on the site (Matthew Fox his assistant agent), and we begin with his viewpiont of the crime from eyewitness level. Before we are done, this gripping story is unfolded from the points of view of 8 characters, including the perpetrators and ground-level crowd eyewitness Forest Whittaker. We are eventually brought up to the present again, and the action continues forward from there.

Don't expect anything cerebral here, this film is about action, violence, stunts, and politics - as a book it would be called a 'classic page-turner'. The fact that it modernizes and politicizes Rashomon makes it worth seeing for classic film buffs, and it should also please the action-adventure crowd that enjoyed such films as The Kingdom, The Parallax View, and The Manchurian Candidate.

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The Secret in Their Eyes

(El secreto de sus ojos)
Juan José Campanella, Argentina, 2009 (9.5*)
Best Foreign Film (AA)
A retired couselor, played by Ricardo Darín, who worked for the court system in Argentina, is writing a novel about a homicide case that haunted his career. He goes to visit a former female colleague, Soledad Villamil, to discuss the case and get some input for shaping the story for his novel - he wants credibility, he's not just writing a memoir. The original homicide case, as well as the couple's work history, is then shown in flashbacks, from the time the politically connected Irene is newly hired into the office of a court judge where Benjamin is a dedicated and determined mid-level bureaucrat.

What follows is a complex and sophisticated crime story, which takes the viewers on a serpentine path that wanders from past to present. At times this is a mentally engrossing puzzle, but at others can be a brutal, conscience churning exercise in trying to understand the will and methods of governments, especially one controlled by police state fascists.

Mixed with the homicide investigation is an undercurrent of romantic intrigue, as the older bachelor, mired in a anonymous obscurity, has an obvious attraction for the younger, attractive, but engaged Irene. This is understated but to some may seem an unnecessary sub-plot that detracts from the crime story; it's for this reason that I didn't rate this a 10. Still, the screenplay, from a novel by Eduardo Sacheri, is terrific, as are the cinematography, editing, and Campanella's superb directing. This is one of the best crime films of the first decade of the new millenium, some are saying 'of all time'.

Including the Oscar® for Foreign Language Film, Secret won 34 international awards, and had another 19 nominations (awards page at IMDB). It's currently ranked #170 on the IMDB top 250, as rated by regular reviewers. It won 13 Argentinian academy awards with another 4 nominations.

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Bloody Sunday

Paul Greengrass, 2002 (8.8*)

The events of the day now known as Bloody Sunday in 1972 in No. Ireland are shown in documentary style as they unfolded for each of the participants. Director Greengrass (United 93) excels at this type of recreated documentary, using well-researched facts to recreate historical events as accurately as possible. His films have the look that journalists just happened to be there, up close, and were able to film events from an eyewitness perspective.

Here Greengrass shifts between the politicians planning a civil rights march in Derry, Northern Ireland, which has been prohibited by the British occupying forces, to the command of the local British army unit, to local teens planning on participating in the march. This style maintains the tension throughout even if you know the march's outcome already, even though it begins more slowly then builds momentum. The resulting tragedy is almost too much to witness again; I imagine that many in the U.K. can't find the strength to view this film.

Bloody Sunday won 19 awards worldwide, and garnered another 21 nominations. The awards page at IMDB

This intimate style of Greengrass's also worked very well in his riveting story of the events of 9/11 as they unfolded in the film United 93, in almost real time.

Greengrass (photo rt) was ranked #56 on the list of "most influential 100 in British culture" in 2008

The Wikipedia article on the events leading up to and Bloody Sunday itself

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The Wind That Shakes the Barley

Ken Loach, 2006, Ireland (8.9*)

Palm D'Or, Cannes

Terrific film of the Irish Republicans in the 1920's, and how the British tried to turn brother against brother to divide opposition. This is a non-compromising look at an era of U.K. history that we know little about here in the U.S. This particular story is about two brothers, played by Cillian Murphy (cover photo) and Padraic Delaney, in the area of Cork, who are together in fighting the occupying British forces.

The title is from a poem about the 1780's rebellion, and the losing of a loved one. Apparently this film got almost no release in England, being about the Irish side of the struggle, with simple people fighting an invading army. It's an excellent war film in any case, as it garnered 5 awards and 19 nominations worldwide. Awards page at IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0460989/awards

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Invictus

Clint Eastwood, 2009 (7.5*)

Not one of Clint's best as director, a by-the-numbers sports film which contains little drama or conflict to pull the viewer in. Morgan Freeman, who produced, is excellent as Nelson Mandela, even somewhat resembling him physically, and garnering another best actor Oscar® nomination. Newly elected, his country is still torn apart racially, so he sees the upcoming 1995 rugby World Cup, being held in South Africa, as a potentially unifying event. Their rugby team, though world ranked, is being manhandled by better teams like England.

President Mandala calls in the team's captain, blandly played by Matt Damon, who does little here to convince skeptics that he can act (in spite of a supporting actor Oscar® nomination, where the heck did that come from?) to his office for an inspirational meeting. Damon has little do other than play rugby and tell his players "we can do better for our country". If you don't know this story or the outcome, it may have a little suspense for you, but it seems to be directed as if everyone knows the outcome, here's the 'behind the scenes' inspiration.

Don't expect to learn much about rugby here, but you will learn something more about South African racially motivated politics. All in all, a pleasant but forgettable sports film. Good for soccer junkies disappointed that the 2010 World Cup is now over.

Quote: Soccer is a gentlemen's game played by hooligans, rugby is a hooligan's game played by gentlemen.

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Earth

Deepa Mehta, India-Canada, 1998 (8.8*)

aka 1947: Earth

From the novel Cracking India by Sapsi Sidhwa, this courageous film from director Deepa Mehta on the 50th anniversary of Indian independence and the creation of Pakistan proves that she belongs in the ranks of brilliant worldwide female directors.

A small circle of friends in Lahore (which will become Pakistani) that surround the beautiful Hindu nanny Shanta, perfectly played by Nandita Das, represent all the major religious factions of India, and they are worried how the upcoming splitting of India into two countries will affect the major sub-cultures. Each side accuses the other of being the more violent historically, and you can feel the tensions rise as the event draws closer.

Events eventually culminate that will leave you emotionally shocked, and I'm sure this film generated much discussion. Banned in Pakistan, and with major censorship in India, especially for a sex scene which was still allowed to show a lot for that nation which generally bans onscreen kissing.

Part of a trilogy by Mehta, begun by Fire (96, also banned for its Lesbian theme), followed by the even more artistic Water (review to follow), about Hindu widows. She has a terrific photographer's eye, as well as a sensitivity to the effects of a society and its customs on the daily lives of individuals.

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Rendition

Gavin Hood, 2007 (8.1*)
This is not a very pleasant movie to witness, but it is both a timely one and make some important political statements regarding terrorism and national security. The story begins with Reese Witherspoon on the phone with her husband, played by Omar Metwally, now a petro-engineer attending a conference in So. Africa, about picking him up at the D.C. airport. He boards the plane but upon arrival is whisked away by U.S. security agents, apparently because his cell phone was called by a suspected terrorist, and he's an Egyptian national living in the U.S. on a green card, which makes him a third class citizen with few rights. We are then shown a suicide bombing in a public plaza in Cairo, witnessed by CIA field operative Jake Gyllenhaal (whose name is "Freeman", perhaps too obvious) to visually illustrate what real worldwide terrorism is about. Over the course of the film, British director Gavin Hood brings these stories slowly together in what is both a scary and a realistic scenario.

This film exposes some important dilemnas, voiced by Meryl Streep in a small but very effective role as the CIA op who can have certain suspicious individuals whisked away, under "extraordinary rendition", a polite way of saying that individual rights and due process under law are waived in times of martial law, which certainly now exists to combat militant extremists. Veteran Alan Arkin is also perfect as a politically-minded U.S. Senator, balancing the thin line of what's right vs. staying electable. Gyllenhaal is effective as someone relatively new to the game of information extraction from prisoners, witnessing the best acting in the film for me by Yigal Naor, totally believable as the ruthless Egyptian security head who will stop at nothing to gain information from suspected terrorists, and to protect his beautiful daughter, played by Zineb Oukach.

If you can stomach it, watch the documentary on the dvd, called "Outlawed" for a brutal look at eyewitness accounts of torture under U.S. supervision, which inspired director Hood in making this movie. It also helps explain why much of the terrorism is directed at the U.S. This is a scary subject, one that likely won't go away anytime soon, as each side refuses to budge and insists on it's own self-righteous political stand.

Quote (from Alan Arkin as the Senator, to a lawyer on his staff): "If you don't want to compromise, join Amnesty International"

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The Power of Nightmares

subtitle: The Rise of the Politics of Fear

Adam Curtis, 2007 (9.0*)

This three-hour BBC documentary details the historical and concurrent rise of Islamic fundamentalism, esp. Al Quaeda, and the neo-Christian right wing, both beginning around 1948 in the U.S. Most don't know that Al Q was basically started by a professor in Colorado that was disgusted by the lack of spirituality in the U.S., who "only worships the dollar". He went to Egypt to fight agains U.S. influence and imperialism in the Islamic nations of the Middle East, and was executed by the Egyptian government. The next day Al Quaeda had 5000 new members.

Meanwhile, in the U.S., the right wing began to urge both politicians and the clergy to "perpetuate the myth that the U.S. is the moral police of the world" and to mobilize church-goers to vote, who had become so dis-enfranchised that they shunned politics altogether. This documentary shows how each side built power by broadcasting a fear of the "other side", and gains financial, government, and military support the more each attacks the other and the media broadcasts all the "messages of fear".

In one part, the CIA admits that it created the "myth of organized international terrorism" in the 80's to help bring down the USSR by linking them to the terrorists. After the USSR fell, the CIA was unable to convince the right wing and the Christians that it was their own fabrication from their "black ops" or disinformation department, especially the "Bushy" Republicans.

This is uneven, at times repetitive in its use of the same footage, but is a must see by all who are interested in how we arrived at the current situation of chaos in the world. This film is free at http://www.archive.org/, or can be rented or purchased on DVD.

Note: rated 9.1 at IMDB, this has one of the highest ratings there - in fact it's the same rating at the #1 rated film there, The Shawshank Redemption

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Mr. and Mrs. Iyer

Aparna Sen, 2002, India (9.6*)
(mostly in English with some subtitles)
This small film is one of the most inspiring and heartwarming you can see, so this makes the perfect holiday movie. Directed and co-written by former actress Aparna Sen, who has crafted an understated story about travelers on a bus, from a multitude of backgrounds, and who are able to forget their political, religious, and cultural differences in a time of need and simply become humane people befriending and helping strangers whenever possible.

The story concerns a young married Tamil Hindu mother, Meenakshi Iyer played by Konkona Sensharma, traveling alone with her infant son, Shandaman, beginning a bus trip by saying goodbye to her father. He meets a male photographer, Raja (in a brilliant and subtle performance by Rahul Bose), also traveling alone, so the concerned dad enlists Raja's chivalry in ensuring that his daughter and grandson arrive safely at their train to Calcutta to reunite with her husband. What follows is an often pleasant journey that eventually literally hits a roadblock and traffic jam at a river crossing with much confusion as to the cause.

There are many small stories here (with perfect casting, esp. the baby "Santa", as Raja calls him), interwoven into one tapestry of human kindness and caring in spite of unrest and turmoil in society, as this takes place in a world of warplanes, terrorism, and even community riots, which are sadly commonplace in parts of Asia. India alone has 17 official languages, so most people learn and communicate in English, as in this film. I don't want to give away too much here, as there are several plot surprises that propel and intensify the story and make it engrossing as well as inspiring.

This film won 9 of the 10 award nominations it received internationally, most were best film or screenplay at smaller festivals [Awards page at IMDB]. For me, this is one of the best Indian films I've seen, there are no Bollywood songs, just a couple of poems set to music as part of the terrific film score - even the music itself is inspiring, especially one song that is a 10th century poem from an Indian poet-saint, which also begins the film:

For what shall I wield a dagger, O Lord
What can I pluck it out of, or plunge it into
When You are all the World?
- Devara Dasimayya, 10th century

This film and its story are just as eloquent as this poetry, as director Sen has successfully risen above religion to create the most perfectly spiritual story imaginable about the selfless love arising from friendship.

[Note: for those not familier with Indian regional cultures, this will be a fine introduction into all the different people there, and the still too prevalent idea of the caste system, as you hear bigoted comments like "you don't know what kind of person cooked the food" - while I'm thinking: just be glad you have food at all!]

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W.

Oliver Stone, 2008 (7.6*)

Though promoted as a comedy, this is such an accurate portrayal of the adult life of George W. Bush that it's a little eerie to witness. Josh Brolin is amazing, he has both the diction and even the look of "Dubya" himself, and was nominated for three international acting awards for his performance. The story is a little watered down however, based on accounts I've read. For instance, the opening sequence of his fraternity initiation at Yale has them drinking booze from watering cans and hoses, and reciting frat member's names, while insiders say that the "Skull and Bones" society drank from skulls (they claim one is Geronimo's!) and recite all the women they've made love with. His alcoholism is heavily emphasized, but no drug use is shown at all (he admitted to cocaine use).

Later political events are also glossed over, and there's no mention of either Bush's economic disasters, each leading to massive numbers of bank failures. However, director Stone does show Bush's imaginary baseball dreams, where "when I'm troubled I just stand here in center field" at the Texas Rangers' stadium. Stone does not reveal that he was basically fired as manager/owner of the team due to ineptitude, though he does mention that "I traded away Sammy Sosa, that was my big mistake".

The casting of actors is uncanny in some cases. Richard Dreyfuss looks just like VP Dick Cheney (in poor health), who is scarily megalomaniacal - when looking at a map of US troop placements in the Middle East, he states "Iran is the only place where we don't have a presence; once we go into that area, we can control the world's energy supply". Thandie Newton is a perfect butt-kissing, patriotic Congaleeza Rice with an offensive nasally voice; underused Stacy Keach shines as the preacher leading Bush's AA group; Ellen Burstyn is right on as a strong-willed and perceptive Barbara Bush; Toby Jones is perfect as campaign manager Karl Rove (and he got one supp. actor nod), getting Bush elected governor of Texas when he had failed at everything else. The only casting misstep to me is the usually perfect James Cromwell as his father (there was no attempt to even sound like Bush Sr), and the story shows nothing of H.W.'s intelligence work or genius in that area (helping bring down the USSR by a bankrupting arms race) - it just makes him look like an inept politician who needed Dubya's help to get elected president, while usually being a dis-approving parent, obviously favoring non-troubling son Jeb Bush over Dubya's lack of commitment to any career.

Most of Dubya's stupid comments are also omitted - just the "Saddam has mis-underestimated me" one was included, when there are dozens available. Also ignored was his being caught on tape saying he wasn't really religious, just "using Christianity to get elected" (a comment the White House said "wasn't meant for public consumption" - I guess not!) This is almost like an authorized and sympathetic version of his political life, making the audience see more of "the guy you'd have a beer with", as Rove puts it (as if our beer buddies would make good leaders), and less of the "evil minion of Satan", as many think of him now. In my opinion, the senior Bush should have been shown as more intelligent and conniving, and Dubya's stupidity, illiteracy, and economic failures emphasized more, especially his fights for deregulation of energy in California (leading to economic collapse there), his connections to the Enron scandal, and other pro-corporate criminality. Still, W. is an enjoyable, if unenlightening portrait of a man who wouldn't have been elected if a valid recount had occurred, as an independent election evaluation later found that TEN MILLION Gore votes had been tossed aside nationwide (likely with pressure from dad), vs. only two million Bush votes, and that Gore would have won every close state race that went for Bush, including Florida.

Quote: "History? in history we'll all be dead" (when asked how history would view his presidency by a journalist Bush calls "Miss China" - what an idiot!)

[Note: in JFK, Stone ignored public court testimony from the mid-80's by CIA heads who admitted to hiring the Mafia for the hit on Kennedy, so I'm inclined to think that Stone actually works for the "black ops" (disinformation) dept of the CIA - at the least, he's adding to their stated tactic of "confusing the facts with so much disinformation that only we know the truth". Who knows for sure? so they've achieve their goal..]

SEE my re-post below this one of Bush's infamous quotes..

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The Girl in the Cafe

David Yates, 2005 (8.6*)

Emmy Award, best tv movie
This is a small, captivating film of an improbable romance, closely tied to political events surrounding a G8 economic summit in Iceland. Veteran actor Bill Nighy (who has been much better, he's a little too mannered and unnatural here) is an withdrawn economist for the British government, preparing some proposals and financial feasibility for their participation in the upcoming G8 summit in Reykjavik Iceland, who can't find a table at lunch and sits with a young woman, having coffee alone. Kelly MacDonald is terrific as the young Irish woman, slowly warming up to Nighy, as we watch her character change and come out of her shy shell over the course of this film and become more vocal about her concerns; she won an Emmy for actress in a movie.

The script by Richard Curtis tackles some tough political issues, especially poverty and hunger in the world, so some have dismissed this as "propaganda", an attitude I just don't understand. I guess most westerners would rather see a dumb Bullock or Sandler romantic comedy, than a serious film about society's shorcomings. If you're one of those, avoid this, but if you want an engaging romance on a intellectual level, with complex and real people, this Emmy winner for TV movie is a small gem. Also won a Humanitas Prize, and the Shanghai TV Festival award.

[Note: even though for tv, this features brief frontal nudity, but don't panic, it's neither gratuitous nor arousing]

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Nothing But the Truth

Rod Lurie, 2008 (8.2*)
This is a gripping and timely film that features the finest performance to date by British actress Kate Beckinsale as a Washington journalist who outs a CIA agent in a news story because the U.S. has invaded Venezuela after a failed assassination attempt, which the administration blames on that country. Does this sound familiar - can anyone remember Iraq, erroneously linked to the 9/11 terrorists? Kate is facing a jail term for contempt of court for refusal to reveal her source, based on an 80's law making it illegal to reveal a covert agent's identity, even though she hasn't broken the law, her informant has.

The excellent screenplay by director Lurie is another plus for the film, featuring some unforeseen plot twists. However, Matt Dillon is unfortunately out of his element as the prosecuting attorney here, though Alan Alda turns in an adequate job as Kate's defense attorney. There are excellent points raised here re national security vs. freedom and access to information for the public, a problematic issue in today's complex world, as either side can claim a threat to society, especially to our supposed freedom, which is an illusion at best. In a year with a large number of films worth seeing, this one seemed to escape notice but examines some important issues for all western nations, and is an intellectually rewarding political thriller.

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Che

Steven Soderbergh, 2008, two parts (8.0*)
Best Actor, Cannes
Ernesto 'Che' Guevara was a wealthy Argentinian doctor with a wife and five children, who gave up his comfortable life to help bring justice and dignity to the poorest classes in the Americas south of the U.S. If his was a U.S. 'pro corporate capitalist' story, he'd be a national hero here as well, rather than just in the rest of the world.

This bio of Che's guerrilla wars in Cuba and Bolivia is really two different films, but both are based on his diaries (he wrote five books). The first, originally called "The Argentine" is about the Cuban revolution, beginning with Che and Fidel in Mexico, then sailing for Cuba with just 82 men; it ends with the successful overthrow of military dictator Bautista, who fled Havana when it was obvious the rebels had succeeded. The cause was US corporations buying farmland from landowners there, and kicking off poor sharecroppers, who got nothing for their years of service. With 20% nationwide unemployment, many who had nothing else to do joined the guerilla army in the mountains in the east, and the movement steadily grew. This film also splices in media interviews and speeches of Che's at the UN after the revolution's success, all in black and white, while the war history is all in color.

The second, and more depressing half as it ends in failure and death, is 'Guerrilla', about the ill-fated and tiny Bolivian Liberation Army, which never exceeded 37 people, and was just 22 strong when he was finally captured and executed, after being hunted for a year by 5000 (or more) Bolivian army troops and US 'specialists' (meaning military and CIA intelligence personnel). What this film is lacking is showing the popular support in the cities, where over 100,000 were striking in support, as students, teachers, government, energy, and mining workers were all on strike in sympathy. Benecio del Toro gives a remarkable performance in these films, and was justly rewarded with the best actor award at Cannes. Unfortunately, the films fail to give us any other fully realized characters, including Castro himself.

These make a nearly exhaustive biography of Che when added to Brazilian filmmaker Walter Salles' excellent film The Motorcycle Diaries (2004), about his travels around So. America on a motorcycle with best friend and fellow doctor Alberto Granada (who later founded the modern hospitals in Cuba). All these films are based on Che's own diaries, so we have an accurate first-person account of the important events of his life. Even though I would personally prefer Gandhi's non-violent approach to political change, I wasn't a doctor watching poor people dying daily from lack of healthcare, money, and food while U.S. corporations made billions in profit without sending a dollar of support, but rather syphoning off the wealth of these nations' natural resources for their own benefit alone. UN global economic experts today still bemoan this policy, enforced through the U.S. control of the Int'l Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, which make multi-billion dollar loans to governments, but often only if they enforce regulations that benefit only U.S. based corporations at the expense of the local citizens. (ie, Africa can export raw peanuts, but is NOT allowed to make the more profitable peanut butter!)

These will basically appeal to war and history buffs, and those with revolutionary sympathies, which pretty much means a tiny western audience. Che said "a true revolutionary has to have a love of humanity, and a desire to see justice and dignity for all - I can't imagine any true revolutionary without these traits". In a century with very few real heroes or anyone who caused political or social change, Che, ranks alongside Gandhi, Mao, and FDR, and will inspire generations of revolutionaries worldwide.

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