~~Talladega Nights~~ Finally, Sasha Cohen comes to American cinema. Famous in England for the characters of Ali G (a white gangster wanna-be) and Borat (the socially inept) from Kazakhstan, Cohen in this film is a gay French Formula One driver coming over to NASCAR to whip up on redneck Ricky Bobby. This film is funny in part because Will Ferrell is the ultimate man-child; kind of cute, stupid and hilarious. This is a rare case of the previews not usurping all of the good jokes. If you haven’t experienced the Sasha Cohen phenomenon, start with Da Ali G Show.
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~~Snakes on a Plane~~ That’s right, I saw it and I don’t need to justify it either. This was a damn fun action movie. The pre-hype didn’t show anything but the basic story; it’s the execution that makes this flick worth a second look. I know, I usually like to think that I’m cooler than the masses and hype and whatnot, but this is a good case of the hype being pretty accurate. It’s would be a great one to see at the discount theater, because it’s worthy of the big screen. (R, 2006)
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Tsotsi


Synopsis
Teenage gangster thug, Tsotsi, living in the slums of South Africa carjacks a woman without realizing there was a baby in the backseat. Personal revelations and redemption ensue. Winner of Best Foreign Language film at last year’s Academy Awards. (R, 2006)


Observations
I have always had problems believing films that center around traditional ideas of redemption and Tsotsi is no different. Here’s a kid forced into shooting, stabbing and stealing his way through his young life. The he finds a baby. I wondered if there were perhaps some subtle notes of the biblical manger story in this film – a man with a child, nowhere to stay safely, no one wants to help. That makes Tsotsi the gangster a foil for the Virgin Mary and the abducted child Christ.

But ultimately I just couldn’t buy the idea that this kid would even try to keep this baby. He could have left the child anywhere, killed it, sold it, who knows? But the scenes of Tsotsi with the baby in a shopping bag seemed silly. Why would this gangster cart around a baby? It just doesn’t make sense.

The cinematography and soundtrack were excellent. This is not a film for the faint of heart as there are heaping amounts of senseless violence. Perhaps this was the best that the world had to offer last year in foreign films. One of my favorite, atypical redemption stories is American Movie. It’s a documentary about a normal guy trying to make something spectacular happen against the odds. Try it, you might like it.

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Amazon's entry for Tsotsi

Keep the River on Your Right


Synopsis
This documentary details the adventures of Fulbright scholar, artist, and explorer Tobias Schneebaum, including forty-five years ago when he made his home with a cannibalistic tribe in the Amazon basin. (R, 2002)


Observations
If you are looking for a film that will educate you on the people with whom Schneebaum stayed, the Harakambut, this is not the documentary for you. This is a film about Schneebaum, for Schneebaum. Don’t get me wrong, this old guy had an amazing life and this documentary attempts to depict that. The filmmakers take Schneebaum back to the area where he had stayed with the tribe back in the forties. I guess this is supposed to be revelatory for Schneebaum or for the natives he had encountered. It really ends up being neither. The natives no longer dress in loin cloths -- now they wear Pepsi t-shirts. So much has changed.

Homosexual relations were not taboo in the culture that Schneebaum visited, and neither was cannibalism. Schneebaum participated in both. He speaks with some sadness about the cannibal episode, but in talk show clips from the 1950’s and 1960’s Schneebaum seems more interested in titillating the masses than educating. Schneebaum’s much younger lover points out that Schneebaum has erotic fantasies about the big, strong, black men with which he spent time. Not exactly the impartial observer.

In Schneebaum’s defense, he was not an anthropologist or social scientist. He was just a dude on scholarship that decided to explore. That he infused himself among the Harakambut and was so eager to fit in with them could be a statement about the way that homosexuals at that time were being treated in the United States. It must have been amazing to meet a culture where homosexuality was not only not taboo, but expected as a natural part of adult sexuality. And those feelings of personal freedom perhaps drove Schneebaum to participate in the cannibalism of the tribe because he wanted to be part of them – a strapping black native – not a fragile white gay New Yorker. What would happen if we all found the Shangri-la where all our personal taboos are accepted without question?

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Amazon's entry for Keep the River on Your Right

Cure


Synopsis
A series of gruesome serial killings are linked together by an mysterious young man who appears to wield a power strong enough to make normal people commit horrible crimes. (NR, 2001)


Observations
I love Japanese horror films. I love the pacing, the music, the subtle acting, and the sometimes-inscrutable plots. This film is no different. Detective Takabe (Koji Yakush), a man with his own demons, is investigating a string of murders that have one nasty link – an “X” carved into the necks of all the victims. When a mysterious stranger appears the detective and his psychiatrist friend Makoto Sakuma (Tsuyoshi Ujiki) try to figure out his connection to these crimes. The story unfolds like an X-File, a cool, minimal Japanese X-File. The mysterious young man’s powers are recognized early on; the rest of the film is dedicated to the mental struggle between the young man and the detective.

This movie has many philosophical overtones – who am I? am I always in control of myself? what influence do others have on me? But you don’t have to read Jung to get a thrill from this flick. Turn the lights down and enjoy the creepy ride!!

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Amazon's entry for Cure

Sound and Fury


Synopsis
Two brothers and their families try to decide where they stand on cochlear implants, a device with which a deaf person can gain some hearing. (NR, 2000)


Observations
At times this movie’s message is if you’re not deaf, you don’t get it. And that’s exactly how I felt. If a part of your body or your child’s body were broke, why wouldn’t you want to fix it? The arguments against getting the implant revolved mainly around the idea of “deaf culture.” To get a cochlear implant, the deaf parents felt, would alienate their child from the rich heritage of deaf culture. But is that an excuse? An excuse to keep their child not only close to them, but just like them? Is it child abuse to have this technology available and deny it to a child, in whom the formative years of language development are short-lived and critical to success? These questions are all raised in a compassionate but inquisitive way.

The idea of deaf culture was foreign to me. And I can see how to the older generation, who would not be helped by the implant, could feel that their culture was being threatened. But is it more important for your child to function in this deaf culture than to have all the opportunities a hearing person has? One hearing parent makes the observation – if your child is deaf, how can he be a surgeon? In thinking about that, there are many occupations that rely on hearing. Even the deaf father in the film agrees that although he has a white-collar job, he cannot climb much higher on the corporate ladder because of his disability. Why would you be willing to limit your child when the technology is available? Like I said, I don’t get it.

It was riveting to watch five-year-old children sign -- absolutely amazing, and a true tribute the visceral importance of our need to communicate. I was saddened watching the young girl play. She did her best to make Barbie sign, but it just doesn’t work. How isolating that must seem.

This film has translators for the deaf people. They sounded a little like Japanese anime characters, but it was tolerable. What was intolerable though was that there are NO subtitles with this film. Was this oversight, or a way of making the point that this is a hearing world? You decide.

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Amazon's entry for Sound and Fury

~~Thirteen~~ Caught this for the second time on IFC this weekend. I had forgotten how incredible the opening scene is. Doubts about having kids? This film could swing you in the direction of NO WAY! Though it lacks the cinéma vérité grittiness of Kids, the performances are superb and the camera work very intimate. If you missed this one the first time around, it’s definitely a must see. (R, 2002)
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Cache (Hidden)


Synopsis
Disturbing videotapes sent from an unknown source slowly tear apart a middle-class Parisian family. (R, 2005)


Observations
I have often heard the complaint that Americans want our movie plots spoon-fed to us. I sometimes have the converse of that complaint about French cinema – sometimes it’s just too damn obscure. Cache is a well-acted, suspenseful, unique and interesting drama. But there are so many loose ends, I felt like hiding under the sofa. There’s a great “OH MY GOD, WOW” scene and many textures and layers and dynamics. But there were so many points where the film was reveling in it’s obscurity a little too much for my liking. It’s hard to get a read on any of the characters and therefore difficult to be sympathetic.

While the movie questions how responsible we are for small transgressions made at a young age, it is also a study in the psychology of grudges. Perhaps the politics of the film would be clearer to a Parisian, but I would have liked a little more exposition. Overall, this could have been a great film, but it ended up just ok.

Watch the entire final scene (behind the credits). Some people swear that it brings the whole story together… I would argue it introduces even more confusion. What do you think??

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Amazon's entry for Cache

~~Clerks II~~ If you go into this film expecting anything other than Clerks in color with less witty and poignant dialogue, you will be sorely disappointed. That being said, it’s not horrible. Newcomer Trevor Fehrman almost steals the movie as the young, religious, Transformer-loving co-worker of Dante and Randal. I hope that Kevin Smith has more up his sleeve for the future, as now the New Jersey saga is over (ok, it was over way before this came out), and the world awaits. (R, 2006)
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The Aggressives


Synopsis
This documentary follows the lives of several woman who identify as lesbian and present themselves socially as men. (NR, 2005)


Observations
If there ever was a film to make you question some of your assumptions about sexuality and gender, this is it. Ripe with great quotes and queer conundrums (ha!), this documentary does a stellar job of handling a complicated issue without making the woman seem freakish or mentally unstable. These are women; women just living their lives. Most identify as aggressive butch, with femme-aggressive attitudes. But the splitting of sexuality and gender isn’t simple and that’s reflected here. One of the women says “I’m not a lesbian if I date transgendered people and have heterosexual sex with them.” Wow. Think about that for a second!

I found it curious that all but one of the women in the film were black (one was Asian). Is this perhaps a more culturally acceptable way for some people to come out as homosexual? Is it somehow easier to accept these rough and tumble lesbians than to accept lesbians who make other appearance and presentation choices? This film really drives home the fact that not only are we unique individuals, we also have the capacity to live outside the parameters with which we have been socially engrained. And live happily!

The quality of this film is quite good and the length of the film is exactly right. However, the director made some bizarre choices when subtitling -- occasionally perfectly clear dialogue is subtitled. Go with it. It’s worth it.

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Amazon's entry for The Aggressives

The Inheritance


Synopsis
After the suicide of his industrial tycoon father, Christoffer (Ulrich Thomsen) must return home and fulfill his familial obligation to the business while putting his own marriage and professional life in flux. (Unrated, 2004)


Observations
This film swept the Swedish equivalent of the Oscars, winning for best picture, best director, and numerous other accolades. It’s a very masculine film with some serious Shakespearian undertones. Christoffer is expected to move home to take the helm of the family business. He already has a life away from the family’s steel empire with a beautiful Shakespearian actress wife, Maria, (played by Lisa Werlinder). The sense of duty to the family that Christoffer feels, that brings him back into the matriarchal fold, is a feeling that most Americans find hard to relate to. Though this movie is a masterpiece – impeccable acting, stunning camera work, strong and elegant plot, it just fell flat for me.

I didn’t know whether to hate Christoffer or to pity him, and that direction was pleasantly ambiguous. Was I supposed to see how work slowly erodes our humanity, our family, our friends, our colleagues? Maybe. But I did learn that even Swedish people have brown servants (a nanny and a housekeeper in this film). I think that the final shred of Christoffer’s humanity is destroyed when he assaults the housekeeper. At first this seemed completely out of character, but the more I thought about it, the more I saw it as the ultimate way to prove to the viewer that any piece of the old Christoffer is dead. What was the catalyst for him to attempt the rape of the housekeeper? Her menialness? The idea that she could be paid off? Or good old Shakespearian hubris? You make the call.

If you are interested in a Swedish film, take this time to watch The Seventh Seal by Ingmar Bergman. First off, it will increase your movie knowledge ten-fold because this film is a cornerstone of 20th century American and foreign cinema and gets referenced everywhere. And though it may not make a great date flick, it might make you feel a little smarter to say you’ve seen an Ingmar Bergman film.

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Amazon's entry for The Inheritance

~~Hide and Seek~~ Save your time and money and watch The Shining again or for the first time. Dakota Fanning is super creepy with lots of dark eye make-up, but DeNiro misses the mark completely as the concerned father. This movie is neither supernatural nor original. The best parts are the four alternate endings and the associated commentaries. The endings are only a couple minutes long; so if you make it through the whole movie it's worth your while to check them out. Otherwise, pass on this one. (R, 2005)
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Me And You And Everyone We Know


Synopsis
A divorced shoe salesman meets an eccentric visual artist; neighborhood teenage girls experiment with their emerging sexuality, and much, much more in this debut effort by Miranda July. (R, 2005)


Observations
This is one of my top 5 favorite movies of 2005. I’ve watched it for a second time and was just as enamored as I was the first. Miranda July is amazing as both director and lead actress. Her background as a visual artist brings a unique style to this film. Christine Jerperson (Miranda July) is a visual artist in the movie and the vignettes showcasing her work are unique and heart-warming. Christine is fascinated with Richard Swersey (John Hawkes). His life is one full of loose ends and failed attempts -- but also with genuine affection.

There are a few scenes that are a little weird with his two sons (one adolescent and one grade-schooler). Taken out of context they could have been obscene, but with the careful mastery of the director they make sense and are necessary to the film. I also liked how July let the two neighborhood teenage girls try out their sexuality on their own terms. These teenage girls manipulate instead of being manipulated. Well done!

This film filled my heart with hope for all the quirky, nerdy, neurotic lonely out there. What do we see in each other? What do others see in us? Do any of us really see each other? These eternal questions play out against a backdrop of everyday suburbia.

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Amazon's entry for Me And You And Everyone We Know