Collapse

This is a documentary centering on Michael Ruppert's view of the world. He is a former LA cop and whistleblower on CIA drug dealing. He sits for an interview in a darkened room, a symbolic bunker. Smoking cigarettes he asserts that it all comes down to "peak oil" and how difficult it will be for the world to break its addiction. And Rupert doesn't hold much faith in alternate fuels. To him it will be those that can go back to the earth who will survive the transition to a new world. I have little argument with his general assertions. Rupert is credited with predicting the recent financial collapse. But really, anyone with their eyes open could see that a major downturn was inevitable. It was only a matter of how severe and when. I also agree with him that we're not yet out of it. I do however have some faith that humans have the capacity to come to grips with the fix we're in. In spite of our troubles there are still a lot of alert,  industrious and inventive people on this planet. I have little doubt though, that there will be a great many lives that will be lost along the way to a world that will be less dependent on oil. To compound the dismal outlook for this film it ends with the notice that Rupert's latest book is drawing little attention as he's shown alone looking very isolated along with his dog and having a hard time paying his rent. Is his message ignored as well? Better not be.

Directed by Chris Smith USA 2009 7/10

A Serious Man

It's the Coen brothers at their best. Larry Gopnik is a struggling physics professor in 1967 midwest suburbia. It's all flat green lawns and bungalows with tv antennas and lots of wood paneling. The Coen's grew up in this kind of environment apparently. Gopnik's next door neighbor is a mean looking, gun-toting red-neck. Things get bad and complicated for Gopnik when his wife wants to leave him. His unemployable live-in brother and his annoying kids add to his troubles. He soon agrees to move himself and his brother to the Flying Dutchman Motel. Then a student manipulates him in order to get a passing grade. Gopnik consults three different rabbis to help him understand his problems to no avail. This is a well cast movie with no big stars and wonderful attention to detail. The interiors brought back just how terrible the decor and furniture was back then. Same with the clothing. Notice Gopnik's pant length way up his legs. I'm sure Jon Stewart would describe this film as very Jewy. They kept referring to non-Jews as "Goys". Just from the point of period detail and the delving into Jewish culture the film offers plenty enough. It is darkly funny throughout. As for the meaning of life and story of Job which this film presents --  I need to see this movie again because I have to admit I was not being quite prepared for the deep philosophy involved. Not that the Coens gave us any real answers.

Directed and written by Ethan and Joel Coen USA 2009 9/10

An Education

We're in England in 1962 where a bright, very pretty and talented  school girl faces the choice -- does she decide to run off to Paris, have fun looking around galleries, go out to jazz recitals and eat in fab restaurants with a handsome and dashing older man . . . or continue on to Oxford in preparation for a life that's hard and boring? The older man is played by American actor Peter Sarsgaart. I've seen him recently in a couple of war movies: "Rendition" and "Jarhead". Here he plays the smooth Brit role very convincingly riding around in his "Bristol", but he is a bit too old for the part. Jenny, nicely played by Carey Mulligan, is just a sixteen. But she's too intelligent and finely cultured to be seriously attracted to a forty year old man, no matter how smooth and rich he may be. And to believe that the man would be so easily accepted by the girl's parents is certainly stretching credibility. Didn't matter though as it was obvious from the outset, and from the movie's title, that this was "An Education". And that the relationship would be short and not so sweet.

Directed by Lone Scherfig, UK 2009 7/10

2012

Oh, no! Those loonies holding up signs and yelling "The end is nigh" may be right after all. In astrological circles the year 2012 will be the beginning of a new age, the age of Aquarius and some new age thinkers believe the cycle will correspond to a global "consciousness shift". They may be right. It is about time that our elite western culture began to question this current capitalist madness. But if we are to give up our sense of scientific reason and align ourselves with legends and folklore we really will be ill suited for the difficult and complicated world that lies ahead. I have far more faith in modern scholarly science which universally rejects the notion of an end-times anytime soon than any of  the astrological planet alignment prophesies. You need to read a lot into the end of the Mayan calendar stuff that just isn't there. These doomsday scenarios, along with similar UFO and other unscientific conspiracy theories, have been promulgated by popular television documentaries in recent years. No doubt money makers they appeal to the same kind of sensationalist and gullible mindset that read the tabloids. Still, it is quite logical that some catastrophe, such as impact, will happen someday. For that reason I agree with professor Stephen Hawking that we need to prepare for that inevitability by developing a viable space program.

And so on with this "2012" movie which I enjoyed in spite of its long running time and its corny sentimentalized dialogue and its utterly predictable story-line. Get serious, Hollywood. This is the end of the world we're dealing with here. And this has to be the mother of all disaster movies. There is nothing left on the world to blow up. Visually this movie raises the bar yet again as the special effects are very impressive indeed. But the movie tries too hard to please everyone so it loses the core of those, like me, who want to see something scientifically and logically plausible. And for the most part the whole thing seems reasonable. But spare us the charming father figure, here played by John Cusack, who becomes somehow superhuman escaping the inferno that seemed always at his heals helped along by his incredibly cute kids. To build on the conspiracy theory theme of the movie the world's governments and its elite classes were planning to ride out the storm in massive arks secretly built in China. (Conceding that only China could successfully take on such a big project and complete it within only two years). Could this be, I mention cynically, another concession to increase world sales of the movie? I know "2012" has broken records in Russia. And world attendance is high. Finally, the promotion for the movie has been criticized rightly so for stirring up a lot of Y2K style paranoia.  

Roland Emmerich who also directed "Independence Day" and "The Day After Tomorrow", both of which I also liked, will not want to direct another disaster epic. What could he possibly do to top this one? 

Director Roland Emmerich   USA 2009  8/10

Sicko

Half an hour into Michael Moore's 'Sicko' I was feeling a bit sick myself. It was not pleasant watching those unfortunate Americans who have to contend with the US so called health care system. A guy who cut off some fingers working on a machine having to decide which finger he can afford to get reattached. A woman with cancer who thought her insurance would take care of her only to find her treatment would not be covered. Some of this was hard to watch.

Things got better when Moore looked at the Canadian system. And even better still when he visited England and France. (By the way the very elite US talk show host Charlie Rose had his recent heart surgery done in France -- which is a conspicuous example to those who claim that American health care is the best in the world). To emphasis Moore's point he indulges in one of his expected 'stunts'. He takes three boatloads of 9/11 survivors to Cuba. People who's health care had been held-up in the states, some of them firemen with respiratory problems. The idea was to go to Guantanamo Bay, where these 9-11 heros could get the same health care as the detainees held on the island. You know, the terrorists and enemy combatants, as Rumsfeld liked to call them.

Naturally, the military was not all that cooperative, so Moore and the 9/11 heros decide to stay in Cuba to see if Castro's doctors would be willing take care of them.  Sure enough before long a much happier and healthier group were ready to return home. I think it is quite believable and no great surprise that the group received much better attention from the medical system in Cuba than in the US.

Now that everyone who is running for president agrees that healthcare is broken in the US this movie should not be a hard sell. It aught to be force-fed to 'middle America'.

Directed by Michael Moore  USA 2007   8/10

Into The Wild

Here we have a subject that must be close to the heart of the movie's director Sean Penn – an angry young rebel sets out alone, to do his own thing. Emile Hirsch gives a convincing performance as a fresh faced college grad who seemed a perfect candidate for Harvard Law School. Instead, he defies his parents by rejecting the money, the new car, the whole thing, and sets off on a grand adventure of going up to Alaska and living off the land. On the way he abandons his old car, literally burns what money he had, and goes on to a series of experiences that were to prepare him for the hardships of a solitary existence in Alaska. He gets there alright -- but one wonders what would drive anyone to do this. It has to be a lot more than the appreciation of the beauty of being fully within nature. It has to be more than the rejection of our materialistic society which was the motive of the old hippies he met along the way. The film does make it clear that it was largely centered on having cruel, ambitious and hypercritical parents. Even the friendship of an old guy who's seen it all, (great cameo by Hal Holbrook), could not deter him from this Alaska thing.

The dominant message is that rejection of human relationships is not the answer. Though it's not much of a stretch to contemplate a future in today's world and find it wanting. It's very understandable if you really look at it. So I'm sure that most people just starting out in the working world will identify with this brave young guy and his sense of adventure. To opt-out of the system may not be any worse than becoming yet another cog in an absurd, rudderless ship. But this is just as much a waste.

Screenplay and Direction by Sean Penn, 2007 USA 8/10

Edward Burtynsky: Manufactured Landscapes

Director Baichwal shows us the work of Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky who's big, detailed images are an excellent example of the artist finding beauty in what others see as uglyness and squaller. From China's massive Three Gorges dam project to rusting ships oozing oil on the muddy sea banks of Bangladesh this is a humbling film about the impact of man on the environment. There is a large political statement here yet it is left only to the camera to relay the message. Don't miss the unusual opening sequence, though tedious it strongly convays the size of this new Chinese industrialization.

Directed by Jennifer Baichwal 2006, Canada, 90 mins. 8/10

The Wind That Shakes the Barley

9/10 I didn't know about this movie which was the winner of the PALME D'OR at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. It's a great lesson in Irish spunk. To me this movie begs the question: If we are to achieve greatness as a country, do we need to undergo hardship? After seeing this I can't help but view Canadians as complacent whimps by not standing up to American atrocities in the world. This movie gets the difficult messages across better than the "Michael Collins" movie of ten years ago, despite the difficulty I had with understanding much of the dialogue. I almost wished for subtitles.

Directed by Ken Loach, Ireland, 2006

The Bourne Ultimatum

Matt Damon is a busy guy. And he's perfectly cast as the central character in the "Bourne" series. This trilogy completing installment is just as good as the other two. The high pitched action is directed by Paul Greengrass who also did "Bourne Supremacy".

The nearly seamless action is beautifly shot, too. Comparison could be made to James Bond, but 007 was always fighting foreigners. Here the villain is the CIA. Conservatives will see the movie as: "there's those Hollywood liberals again making Americans out to be 'the bad guys', even if it's just "a few bad apples" . . . it's all pretty familiar stuff. Remember "Seven Days Of The Condor" had Robert Redford being hunted by the CIA because he was onto something that might threaten "the American way of life", like screwing with the world oil supply. Cliff Robertson laid it out perfectly in a rant at the end of that movie.

It is a hackneyed theme, alright. The way the movie ended it certainly looked that more "Bourne" will be coming along. But there will have to be a totally different plot-line.

Directed by Paul Greengrass, USA 2007 8/10

The Queen

What really seemed obvious in "The Queen" was that there was no intention to make anyone look bad. Even Prince Charles comes off as a well-meaning fellow, if somewhat paranoid. Helen Mirren is very much the queen as she indeed delivers an Oscar winning performance, stiff upper lip and all. Quite amazing. It was all about the royals' reluctant reaction to the untimely death of Diana, Princess of Wales.
Directed by Stephen Frears, UK 2006 9/10

Babel

Babel is a very good film that barely has room for its leading actors: Cate Blanchett and Brad Pitt, who aside from their surprisingly small screen presence assure the film's commercial viability as many people will see the picture. Although they both performed brilliantly some unknown actors would have served just as well because the real star of the movie is Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu. There is hardly a happy minute in the film but Iñárritu's deft vision keeps things interesting throughout. In spite of the unpleasant series of events the movie is visually rich and fastenating. The film is reminiscent of "Road To Guantanamo", a fake documentary, and a fantastic movie that was largely ignored by the public. It featured no movie 'stars' at all. The 2004 American academy award winning "Crash" and the 2000 film "Traffic", which was about drug trade, must have served as inspiration for "Babel" as all these films unfold as a complicated, interwoven series of events that ultimately connect. This one has three story lines taking place in three different, diverse locations on three continents.

In rural and dusty Morocco a peasant farmer negotiates the purchase of a high power hunting rifle. "Will you take a goat?", he asks the seller. Later, the man's young son takes the newly acquired rifle to the nearby hills for target practice. The kid decides to shoot at a passing bus full of tourists seriously wounding an American woman, played by Blanchett. It becomes a major international incident as the stricken woman's husband, played by Brad Pitt, desperately seeks medical attention in a nearby dirt poor town, right in the middle of nowhere.

Meanwhile, in Tokyo, in a dramatic change of scene, we look in on the life of a young, well-to-do Japanese girl. Her existence is also full of hardship, in spite of her affluence. This is a window into the problems inherent in the well ordered Japanese culture. The fact that she is a deaf mute seemed to be the least of her problems. Her relationship with her father is complex and strained. She feels pressured by her peer group to take recreational drugs and indulge in awkward and foolhardy sexual relations. She even makes a clumsy advance on a police detective who visits her apartment to investigate her father, a wealthy businessman. There was a report that the rifle used in the Moroccan shooting was owned by the man. He had given the rifle as a gift to his guide when he was on a recent hunting trip in Morocco.

Then, in San Diego, the wounded American woman's two young children were being cared for by their Mexican housekeeper, an illegal immigrant, who decides that she must go to a family wedding back in Mexico, and had no choice but to take along the two kids. The wedding was okay in spite of being a culture shock for the two American children, but getting back across the US border turns out to be yet another nightmare.

Indeed, no-one escapes the hardship and tragedy in the rather long 142 minute production. And we are given nothing in the way of comic relief by the talented Mexican director. Sure, it's a difficult film full of gritty and disturbing reality, but it's well worth the time and agony. This is 'Oscar' territory.
USA - Alejandro González Iñárritu 2006 8/10