Let the Right One In (2008)

☆ ☆ ☆

Let the Right One In (2008) -- T. Alfredson

Chilly prepubescent Swedish arthouse vampire movie -- not scary, rather gruesome and, for me, somehow sterile and uninvolving. (2010 Review)

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)

☆ ☆ ☆

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) -- D. Fincher

In the old Hollywood parlance, this is what would be called a prestige picture (and a high concept one at that). You can see the money on the screen, in the computer wizardry and the often strikingly beautiful images. But the sentimentality drifts into schmaltz and the film feels too long by half. I also hope I never have to see another framing story with old people telling their kids about their lives (as we fade into voice-over...). (2010 Review)

Frozen River (2008)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Frozen River (2008) -- C. Hunt

Profoundly depressing but well-acted drama dealing with poverty, single motherhood, race relations, illegal immigration and acts of desperation. (2010 Review).

Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008) -- G. del Toro

As far as slick fantasy action-adventure movies go, this one scores points for its tongue-in-cheek weirdness (thanks to del Toro). Amazing what they can do with a computer these days. (2010 Review).

The Bank Job (2008)

☆ ☆ ☆

The Bank Job (2008) -- R. Donaldson

Entertaining enough as a by the numbers heist thriller but too many undernourished plot threads and a general lack of depth. But what were you expecting? (2010 review)

Christmas on Mars (2008)

☆ ☆ ☆

Christmas on Mars (2008) -- W. Coyne, B. Beesley, & G. Salisbury

Not surprisingly, the soundtrack (not rock, but ambient) is the best part of the Flaming Lips movie (even with the occasional mickey-mousing). Otherwise, low budget, amateur acting, sluggish pace, obscure plotline, but also some striking imagery, cool weird moments, allusions to 2001, Solaris, Eraserhead. (2010 review)

Gran Torino (2008)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Gran Torino (2008) -- C. Eastwood

Eastwood's films often feature incredibly leaden dialogue and not-of-this-world locales -- and Gran Torino is no different. But for warm hearted racist invective, look no further than this "updating" of the Dirty Harry character and see his salvation through the love of a Hmong family. But for all its heavy-handedness, it works.  (2009 review)

The Dark Knight (2008)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

The Dark Knight (2008) -- C. Nolan

Comic book style thin plot with admittedly strong acting. A little too long I think -- and wouldn't violent anarchy really be scarier? (2009 review)

Gomorrah (2008)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Gomorrah (2008) – M. Garrone

Episodes drawn from the pages of Roberto Saviano’s exposé of the Camorra crime family (from which he now needs constant police protection), laid out unblinkingly in all their harshness and violence.  Little context is provided and apparently even Italian viewers needed subtitles to understand the local dialects here.  Basically, we are thrown into a world focused on a tenement slum where a brutal gang war is occurring, as the young turks aim to unseat the corrupt and greedy mob bosses.  There is a lot of collateral damage. Mostly, we follow kids caught up in the action, having fun modelling their behaviour on that of the men around them – and sometimes going too far.  When we aren’t seeing mobsters kill each other for revenge or over drug deals, we follow a subplot that reveals that the crime family also makes money by buying and illegally dumping hazardous waste (presumably for major companies).  Even more than the chaotically violent hoods, the crook in this scheme is intensely amoral/immoral; when one of his truckers is burned by chemicals and they protest, he gets a bunch of 11-year-old kids to drive the trucks full of waste instead.  Another subplot takes place in the fashion industry where the gang competes with the Chinese.  No one with a shred of decency seems able to survive in this brutal world (yet we do see cars passing on a local highway, suggesting the real world might exist a step away, unaware or turning a blind eye to the actions here).  Visceral and gripping with most of the plot arcs closed by the end but leaving the possibility that the ugly status quo continues. Later this apparently became a TV series.

Anvil: The Story of Anvil (2008)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Anvil: The Story of Anvil (2008) – S. Gervasi

A couple of times, toward the beginning, I had to check to see whether this was a mockumentary (a la Spinal Tap) or an actual documentary.   It was the latter and although at first I thought the “joke” about dumb heavy metal dudes was too old or dated – it turns out that the deeper truths available in the story of Anvil became palpable and were more important than the failed tour or unmarketable album that this old metal band experienced.  The deeper truth probably resonated more with this 50-year-old because it is about keeping the dream alive after many years, about living with your past success (they played with Bon Jovi and others in Japan in the 1980s) even as your present success pales in comparison.  It is about rejuvenating yourself in your 50s and giving it a go, even if the world has changed and maybe passed you by.  It is about coming to terms with yourself and your context.  Of course, these lessons can be applied to all of us but for those of us who thought about music (if not metal) across these years, there are other insights to be had here from Lips and the Anvil gang.  I think about my friend who gave up his psychology career, post-50, to get his old band back together and put out CDs and tour Europe multiple times.  Surely, he’s enjoying himself a hell of a lot more than being stuck in the bureaucracy of academia.  So, is it worth it to take a risk to follow your dream, even if it is obvious that it won’t pay off in dollars and cents? I’d say yes.

Summer Hours (2008)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Summer Hours (2008) – O. Assayas

The movie opens with Helene’s 75^th birthday and her three children (with spouses) and grandchildren are gathered at the country estate, about an hour from Paris by train.  Helene (played by Edith Scob, from Eyes Without A Face) is an art collector, or more specifically, the guardian of the art treasures of her uncle, a famous painter long deceased.  The atmosphere is relaxed but a little wistful and Helene wants to talk about her will with her oldest son (played by Charles Berling) who is reluctant.  Later, after Helene has passed, the three children (including Juliette Binoche as the daughter) discuss what to do with the house, the artworks, the memories.  It is melancholy but real, not difficult, manageable -- but existential.  A museum is contacted and a bequest is made.  Director Olivier Assayas is interested in these people but also in the stuff in which time and energy and love have been devoted.  There is a real sense of place and we as viewers also grow comfortable in the estate and feel a bit mournful as it is packed up.  But after all, it is just stuff and Assayas seems to know this (or he is willing to contemplate it).  Two out of three siblings have left France and their lives are elsewhere (as globalisation takes hold).  Then, there is a shift to the younger generation, living their lives, building new memories perhaps, instilling their will and emotions into objects, places, music, and more.  All that will later dissipate.  But the film is so alive that it makes it all seem worth it nevertheless. 

Wendy and Lucy (2008)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Wendy and Lucy (2008) – K. Reichardt

Kelly Reichardt’s movies are probably an acquired taste.  Some use the word “minimalist” to describe them but I’m not exactly sure what it means in this context (anti-Hollywood, for sure).  If it signifies that there’s not much going on in her movies, just plainly told stories of everyday events, unfolding slowly and shot with a clear-eyed skill in observation, then OK.  However, less is often more, as they say and, if you give in to them, Reichardt’s mundane stories somehow become sublime.  Perhaps it is her eye for beautiful compositions that heightens the experience or the inner resolve that her characters have or need to muster.  Wendy (Michelle Williams) is on her way to Alaska in a junky old car with her dog, Lucy.  She seems to have very little money, sleeping in her car, washing up in gas station restrooms.  Her relations with other people seem strained.  And, of course, somewhere near Portland, OR, things go wrong (she loses Lucy among other trials).  Apart from Williams, many or most of the other actors seem to be non-professionals and the action takes place on the streets (or in the woods) in real locations.  What happens to Wendy could happen to you or me, if things took a wrong turn.  The desperation is real and Reichardt is wise not to sensationalize it. 

Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired (2008)

☆ ☆ ☆

Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired (2008) – M. Zenovich

Even-handed review of the Polanski statutory rape case that manages to make relatively clear the legal shenanigans that have been involved while also making it clear that the director was guilty.  Just taking one look at the school photo of the 13-year-girl makes you realize how wrong he was – so young.  I don’t think it mitigates things to ponder the fact that Polanski’s parents died in the Holocaust and his wife, Sharon Tate, was murdered by the Manson family. In archive interviews, Polanski himself seems to brush off the seriousness of the charges, as did the French, who received him when he fled the US.  However, this documentary does make it clear just how much Polanski was jerked around by the judge, a publicity-seeking knob (as suggested by both prosecution and defense lawyers in interviews), and why he decided to escape to avoid any further complications in the case and its resolution.  I didn’t realize that the film was 8 years ago and therefore omits the most recent moves by the U. S. to extradite Polanski again and their unwillingness to allow him to wrap things up with “time served” as even the victim and her family now think should happen.  I’m of two minds – 42 days isn’t much of a sentence (the time he actually spent in prison) – but 40 years in exile might be. As a parent (albeit of boys), it is hard not to see the ugly side of things and hard not to doubt the complicity of the victim at the time.  All told, this is a lot of talking heads to watch but director Marina Zenovich keeps things interesting.

  

Shirin (2008)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Shirin (2008) – A. Kiarostami

To commemorate the great Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami’s death this week, I watched this very conceptual art film that ironically features 112 of Iran’s top actresses along with Juliette Binoche.  What we see is only their faces, apparently watching a film version of the classic tale of Shirin and Khosrow. The film is about 90 minutes long, so we are compelled to listen carefully to the film’s soundtrack and to see how this registers on the actresses’ faces.  Do they know they are being filmed?  Are they over-doing it?  As is always the case with Kiarostami, there are some questions about fiction and reality here. However, things are not really what they appear (which is also typical of Kiarostami’s work).  Rather than film all of these actresses in a real cinema watching a real film, Kiarostami filmed each of them separately (or in small groups of two or three) in his own living room.  It may have been a bit like Warhol’s Screen Tests.  But what’s more, they weren’t reacting to a film at all but instead to Kiarostami’s spoken direction.  Even more bizarrely, Kiarostami selected the “film” to be watched after the actresses had already been recorded and created the version of Shirin and Khosrow himself with another set of actors and actresses.  The foley artists are really working overtime!  He then edited together the soundtrack and the clips of the actresses to create a seamless whole that relies on a sort of audio version of the Kuleshov effect to trick the viewer into believing in cause and effect.  A bloody battle in the story (replete with the usual sound effect of smashed watermelons) results in an almost comic moment when the stars shrink away from the screen (what did Kiarostami really tell them?).  Of course, the film is something of an endurance test and not for the casual viewer but it is impossible not to begin to have thoughts and to engage interactively with the film and this is clearly one of Kiarostami’s goals – he wants us to wonder what the hell is going on!  In addition, there is an additional subtext about the faces of women in an Islamic society when strict religious tenets might require them to be covered – here they are unveiled.  Is this empowering? Is it taboo-breaking?  Do these women feel even more self-conscious?  But then again they are already actresses.  With Kiarostami, the questions never cease.

  

35 Shots of Rum (2008)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

35 Shots of Rum (2008) – C. Denis

Somehow Claire Denis has managed to create a warm moody film, one that ruminates about the positive aspects of our closest relationships (in this case between single dad and daughter), even as it signals the changes that must occur without ever making them too sad.  In this way, Denis has taken her cues from Ozu, particularly Late Spring (1949) which also sees a father contemplating his daughter’s future life without him.  Alex Descas plays the dad as a man of few words but deep feeling.  His life is complicated by romantic pursuit from a neighbour, a chain-smoking taxi driver, who has long been treated as part of the family.  Another neighbour provides a romantic interest for Josephine, the daughter (played by Mati Diop).  The relationships between these four principals and a few others make up the heart of the film and Denis allows the richness and complexity of real life to infuse the film.  At the same time, her eye for composition (including Ozu-like still lifes), her ear for the way that the soundtrack can evoke moods (courtesy of the Tindersticks), and her thoughtful script that leaves ambiguities everywhere, such that we don’t really know anything about the backstory of the characters except what we can infer, elevate the film beyond an ordinary drama.  In the end, Alex drinks the 35 shots of rum to mark a special occasion, though we are left to guess at what has happened (but the second rice cooker gives it away). Rich and satisfying without ever threatening to be a major statement.

Three Monkeys (2008)

☆ ☆ ☆

Three Monkeys (2008) – N. B. Ceylan

Nuri Bilge Ceylan, the Turkish master, directs movies that contain images of stunning widescreen beauty, often of the Anatolian foothills but sometimes, as in this film, just in a grungy apartment building.  The slow plots of these films can burn with a mysterious intensity that makes it hard to look away.  However, Three Monkeys is a lesser work and although noir-ish in its focus on the poor choices and inescapable fates of a chauffeur, his wife, and his son, it drags rather than grips.  Perhaps this is because Ceylan uses tectonic slabs of storyline that drift and then fit together too easily compared to the expected twists and turns of the usual noir (a late surprise offers nothing but resolution, satisfyingly apt though it may be). The acting by the four leads, particularly Hatice Aslan as the wife, is strong.  But for choice Ceylan, I would recommend Once Upon a Time In Anatolia (2011), Winter Sleep (2014), or Distant (2002) ahead of this one.  And I’ll be anticipating whatever comes next from this auteur!