Upon request, here are reviews from all the movies I saw in 2006, in alphabetical order. There are a lot of good movies, but I have put the titles in blue for the movies I would consider the TOP DOZEN (keeping in mind that Pan’s Labyrinth was my favorite 2006 movie, but I saw it in 2007.)
A NEW WORLD. This movie about the English coming to Jamestown, with Colin Farrell as John Smith. But really, the focus of the story is Pocahantas. And it's pretty much what we learned in high school history: she saves his life, marries another guy, goes to England and dies. And life for the colonists was really hard. So there isn't much story, but this movie is so beautifully filmed it's just gorgeous to look at. It gives a great feel for what a paradise North America used to be. Since the movie focuses mostly on Pocahantas' story, I would say the new world in the title is less the new world of the colonists, but the new world that would be imposed on the Indians. I liked it, mostly for the visuals. (Jan 2006)
AKEELAH AND THE BEE. Akeelah lives in South L.A., and has a bit of an attitude problem, because she is smart and knows that the education she is getting is not top-rate. But she does have teachers that care, and she is forced to participate in the school's spelling bee. Which she wins because she has a real gift. So she gets a mentor (Laurence Fishbourne), goes the regionals, nationals... you can guess the general arc of the story. But it's a good story, because she does have hurdles to overcome, both internal and external, so there's some depth to it. And the final bee isn't quite as predictable as one would guess. This is a terrific movie for families, I would think. (May 2006)
AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH. Movie showing Al Gore giving his slideshow about global warming mixed with interviews of him talking about his personal evolution regarding the issue. I really wasn't enthusiastic about seeing the movie, and although Al does come off as a bit pompous at times, generally he comes off as more appealing than I would have predicted. He explains global warming science at a pretty simple level, and gets off a joke or two. I saw the movie because I felt I should, and it turns out I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. And I feel I understand the topic better, which is a good thing. (June 2006)
BLOOD DIAMOND. Djimon Hounsou is a fisherman in Sierra Leone. He is poor, and is placing all his dreams on his son going to school and becoming a doctor. But one day the rebels come and his wife and daughters end up in a refugee camp, his son is forced to become a child soldier, and Djimon is enslaved in the diamond mines. In a parallel story, Leonardo DiCaprio is a heartless mercenary from Zimbabwe, who has gotten into the diamond smuggling business. The point of the movie, I think, is supposed to be that the diamond trade is supporting civil war and is inherently evil. But that's just mentioned in narrative a few times, and really doesn't give the movie any emotional kick. Instead, the movie focuses on Leo and Djimon coming together to work to find an incredibly valuable diamond that Djimon found and hid before he escaped the mines. Djimon wants to use the money to save his family, and Leo just wants to get out of Africa. So the movie is more about the personal than the political. And, oh yeah, Jennifer Connelly is totally unbelievable as a reporter who wants to make a splash with the blood diamond story. (And of course, she and Leo have "a moment". Bleh.) I saw the end of the movie coming a mile away, and other than one brief moment at the end, the movie didn't grab me emotionally. (Other than the scenes of the rebel indoctrination that turns children into cold blooded killers - those were really disturbing.) The movie isn't bad; I just didn't think it was all it could have been.
BOBBY. This movie takes place the day Robert Kennedy was shot in Los Angeles, the day he won the California primary to run for President in 1968. It follows a dozen or so mostly fictionalized characters throughout the day. A lot about the movie annoyed me: most of the characters are played by celebrities, which was disconcerting. (That's Ashton Kutcher...and there's Helen Hunt. And wait, isn't that a Hobbit? etc., etc., etc.). Also, the director (Emilio Estevez) tries too hard to compare 1968 to today (hanging chads in 1968?). Still, I remember 1968, and I kind of liked remembering the era. I am not sure whether people who don't remember 1968 would enjoy the movie or not. (November 2006)
BORAT. Sacha Baron Cohen stars as Borat, a journalist from Kazakhstan who comes to America to learn about our country. He plays the journalist as being from an extremely backward country, but while interacting with Americans reveals something about America as well. Which is that while many people are polite and helpful, some are idiots (drunken frats boys and the crowd at a rodeo, for example). I put off going to see this movie, because I don't generally like this kind of "candid camera/punk'd" kind of humor, but the movie is being nominated for awards left and right, so I went. And I admit, after a slow start, I was smiling throughout the movie, and laughing out loud for quite bit of it, so I have to say it's worth seeing. Cohen does an incredible job staying in character.
THE BRIDGE. The film maker of this movie got permission to film the Golden Gate Bridge, telling the authorities he was filming the bridge in different lights and seasons. But what he was really doing was filming people jumping off the bridge. So interspersed with beautiful scenery are scenes of a few people's last moments. Then there are interviews with family members and friends (and in one case, a guy that survived his attempt). Interesting movie and I guess the film maker is trying to make the point that the Bridge holds a romantic fascination for the suicidal, but I don't think he made the point strongly enough that these suicides could be prevented from jumping. Instead, the movie is mostly just sad and disturbing. (November 2006)
BUBBLE. Steve Soderburgh went to a small town in West Virginia, found some nonprofessional actors, and came up with this. It involves a middle aged woman and younger guy who work at a doll factory. She considers the young guy one of her best friends (because her life is pretty unexciting: work and taking care of her elderly dad). Things change when a young woman comes to work at the factory, and also befriends the young guy. Then there is a murder. Only 73 minutes long, the movie feels very much like a filmed short story. It's not all that special, but it did keep me interested. (Jan 2006)
CASINO ROYALE. The latest Bond movie, this one goes back to when Bond first becomes a 007. The new Bond, Daniel Craig, isn't as smooth as the previous actors, but I thought he made a good Bond. Not as much high-tech stuff as the previous movies, but also less cartoony (in my opinion). I liked it. (November 2006)
CLERKS II. The movie revisits the lives of Dante and Randall, ten years after the first movie. They worked at the quickie mart/video store for years, until it burned down. Now they work at the fast food joint Mooby's. Dante is trying to grow up, but Randall is still an idiot. The first half of this movie is painfully unfunny. The second half improves a bit, with occasional smiles. But I didn't laugh out loud once, so this was a real disappointment. If you want a CLERKS fix, rent the original. (August 2006)
THE DA VINCI CODE. I haven't read the book, although like everyone else, I do know the so-called "secret" in the book. But I thought the movie might be fun, with all the codes and anagrams and puzzles that needed solving. Could be an interesting thriller. Turns out, not so much. I thought this was a real snooze. (May 2006)
DELIVER US FROM EVIL. This is a compelling documentary on the Catholic Church's pedophile priest scandal. The movie focuses on one priest, who the Church knew was engaging in questionable activity (at the very least!). From 1976 to 1996, the hierarchy moved him from Lodi to Stockton to Turlock to San Andreas, until he was finally busted and sent to jail. The movie includes interviews with him, and he is clearly a very sick man, who understands intellectually that raping children was wrong, but gives off no real emotional feeling about it. Since he is free in Ireland (he was deported after he got out of jail in 2000), that is scary enough, but what is really scary is the denial the Church is in over their culpability in these scandals. The movie includes some analysis of why the Church does what it does, why it is in such denial, as well as interviews with the victims and families of the victims, who are still suffering the effects of the priest's betrayal. A really, really powerful movie. (November 2006)
THE DEPARTED. Martin Scorsese’s film about gangsters and cops in Boston. Jack Nicholson is a crime boss, and Martin Sheen is the cop that wants to take him down. Martin recruits Leonardo DiCaprio to be a mole in Nicholson's organization. What Martin and Leo don't know at first is that Jack has recruited a cop (Matt Damon) to be a spy within the police force. But they figure it out. It's a cat-and-mouse game on who will discover their "rat" first. I really enjoyed the movie; it really kept me on the edge of my seat. And at the same time, it's often very funny! I didn't love the ending, but it's not a terrible surprise, given that it's a Scorsese move. (October 2006)
THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA. Story of Andie (Anne Hathaway), a young woman who was the editor of her college paper, and goes to New York to make it as a journalist. She ends up working for the dragon-lady editor of a Vogue-like magazine, played by Meryl Streep. I am certainly not interested in fashion (no, really!), and the story here is a pretty simple one (will Andie be seduced by the celebrity world of fashion?), but after all the world-is-dying and America-is-going-to-hell documentaries I'd been seeing, this was a nice change. Meryl Streep is fabulous as the editor, and there is a fair amount of humor. Entertaining bit of fluff. (July 2006)
DREAMGIRLS. This movie is based on the Broadway play, loosely based on the story of the Supremes and the rise of Motown. Jamie Fox is the promoter who puts business above everything. The girl group starts as back-up for Jimmy Thunder Early (Eddie Murphy, who is really good), a soul singer. Eventually Jamie gives the girls their solo shot. But he is heartless, and has the best singer in the group (Effie, played by Jennifer Hudson) step back for the prettier girl (Beyonce), who he believes is more marketable. The story is good, and I am OK with Broadway musicals, so I don't mind when people in movies burst into song, like they do here. My problem was that I didn't really care for about half the songs (some really Broadway schmaltzy stuff), even though the story is very uplifting and the acting is good (Jennifer Hudson has a knock-em-dead number that is over the top). So, just so-so.
DUMA. This was made by Carol Ballard, who did the beautiful movies THE BLACK STALLION and FLY AWAY HOME. This one isn't quite so excellent, but still a wonderful family movie. It involves a 9-year-old South African boy, who adopts a cheetah kitten whose mother has died. His father makes it quite clear that when the cheetah is grown up, he will have to be released. Family tragedy ensues, and the boy ends up taking off alone across the desert with the grown cheetah to release him in the area where he was found. He meets up with a hiker, whose motives are suspect. Etc., etc. Like I said, good family movie, good values, heartwarming... (Jan 2006)
FIND ME GUILTY. Vin Diesel plays Jackie, a New Jersey mobster who in the 1980's is brought up on conspiracy charges along with 20 members of his crime family. He decides to represent himself, and the movie, supposedly factual, shows Jackie's somewhat buffoonish attempts to defend himself (his line is "he's a gagster, not a gangster") during the nearly two-year long trial. He's all about loyalty to his family. The movie, for me, was a typical courtroom drama, nothing special. And, since Jackie really is a bad guy, and truly guilty, it was hard to me to care about him or the verdict. (Mar 2006)
FRIENDS WITH MONEY. Jennifer Aniston is one of four women friends. She is working as a maid, because she was teaching but got burned out. So she is poor and single, but her friends all are married and have money. As one character says, they probably wouldn't be friends if they met today. Catherine Keener writes with her husband (screenplays?), Joan Cusack must have inherited wealth, and Frances McDormand is a successful clothing designer. Anyway, there's not much of a plot, it's just about their lives. Turns out, Jennifer is pretty depressed, Frances is clinically depressed, and Catherine is very unhappy in her marriage. So money doesn't have much to do with it. Kind of a slice of life movie, interesting, but not really about much. Although there were some scenes at the end that I really liked, so I didn't feel like it was a waste of time. (April 2006)
THE GOOD SHEPHERD. Matt Damon is a young Yalie in the 1930's, doing all that is right and proper. He joins the elite club Skull and Crossbones, and marries a woman he barely knows because he gets her pregnant. When WWII is on the horizon, he is recruited to join the OSS (the precursor to the CIA). And that's his life. The movie jumps between the 1961 Bay of Pigs debacle, where it looks like he is going to take the blame for the failed invasion of Cuba, and his various exploits in counter-espionage leading up to that, starting in 1940's London. But there isn't enough about the espionage to be interesting, and other than a couple of glimpses of him caring about his son, there isn't much about the man either. It's a tough life, not being able to trust anyone, or share emotions. So I think the point of the movie is that the CIA sucked out his soul, but the movie didn't show that he had much of one to begin with, so other than a mildly intriguing last 20 minutes (and the movie is nearly 2 1/2 hours long), it didn't interest me much.
HALF NELSON. Ryan Gosling teaches middle school history in the inner city. He is trying to get the kids to care by teaching a radical view of history. Of course, it's a tough job. He copes by smoking crack after work. One day one of his students finds him in the locker room stoned out of his mind. She knows what's going on because she has a drug dealer brother in jail. Oddly enough, the two develop a kind of bond. That's it. Nothing really happens; they just become friends who understand each other, despite the age and other differences. A critic favorite, and really well acted, but I could have left halfway through and not missed a lot. (October 2006)
THE HEART OF THE GAME. Documentary about a university law professor who decides to coach Seattle high school girls' basketball team, and how they did over 5 years. There is a focus on one of the young women, who is has some trouble, but is incredibly talented. Well-done in the tradition of HOOP DREAMS - type documentaries. (August 2006)
HOLLYWOODLAND. In 1959, George Reeves, TV's Superman, was found dead, presumably a suicide. This movie explores whether it was a suicide or something else. Adrien Brody stars as a down on his luck private eye, who tries to determine whether something suspicious happened. His investigation and 3-4 theories of how Reeves died are interspersed with scenes from George Reeves' (played by Ben Affleck) life and downward spiral from someone who had promise (he was in GONE WITH THE WIND), to someone who was reduced to a laughingstock. The movie does a great job and showing the era and the place, and the acting is fine, but there isn't any resolution, and so in the end I found the movie somewhat pointless. (September 2006)
THE ILLUSIONIST. Edward Norton stars as an extraordinarily skilled magician in 19th century Vienna. He meets up with his first love, who is unfortunately betrothed to the evil Crown Prince Leopold. Paul Giamatti plays a police inspector in the pocket of the prince, determined to do the Prince's bidding so he can become Chief of Police. Will the couple be able to overcome the obstacles facing them and get together? Given that that the main character is a magician, it is no surprise that the movie entails a con. No shockers here. Not a bad movie: it has lovely settings, the magic is fun, and Edward Norton is always good, but it's not special. (September 2006)
INFAMOUS. The movie is nearly identical to last year's CAPOTE. It tells the story of Truman Capote going to Kansas to write his "non-fiction novel", IN COLD BLOOD, about a family of four who were murdered in a small town. It think this one does a better job of showing Capote's environment, and his background, but the first movie did a better job of showing how disturbed Capote was at what he did to get the story. I thought Sandra Bullock was really good as Harper Lee. Both good movies, but if you've seen the first, I wouldn't bother paying to see the second unless you find the story inherently fascinating. (October 2006)
INSIDE MAN. Clive Owen and his gang rob a bank in Manhattan and take several people hostage. Denzel Washington is brought in as the police detective-negotiator. The movie switches between the two of them, and follows the cat-and-mouse game they are playing with each other. They are both extremely bright, and you wonder who will win the game they are playing.) I was definitely interested for the majority of the movie, although after the robbery is over, the movie could have been edited a little (the last 20 minutes or so). Still, a very good movie for the genre. And it's by Spike Lee, so it's all very stylish. (Mar 2006)
JONESTOWN. This is a documentary on the People's Temple, the cult that ended in 900 suicide/murders in Jonestown, Guyana in 1978. The movie includes a lot of footage of the early days of the Temple in Northern California, when it was a very progressive church, involved in social justice and civil rights. It shows why Jim Jones was attractive to people, before it became obvious he was going off the deep end. As someone says, people don't knowingly join a cult, it evolves. Interviews with ex-cult members, family members of those that died, and the few who survived Jonestown make it a fascinating look at how the tragedy could happen. (November 2006)
JOYEAUX NOEL. Based on fact, this French movie is the story of Christmas Eve 1914, when Scottish, French, and German military units on the Western Front in WWI put down their arms and celebrated Christmas together. The movie starts before the war, so you get to know a little of some of the main characters. Then they go to war, all gung ho, mostly. After slaughtering each other for months in the trenches, the fact that the soldiers could put down their arms, even for one day, is amazing. Watching these "enemies" get to know one another, play games, share food and liquor, and realize they are not that different from one another is moving. And knowing they mostly ended up dead afterward even more so. Nominated for Best Foreign Language movie this year, it's in English, French and German (not that many subtitles). (Mar 2006)
KEEPING UP WITH THE STEINS. Jeremy Piven is a Hollywood agent, who is very competitive with his former mentor, Larry Miller (the Stein in the title). When Larry gives his kid a bar mitzvah to beat all bar mitzvahs (it takes place on a cruise ship), Jeremy decides he has to do the same. So the movie follows some of the over-the-top planning for the party (which will take place in Dodger Stadium). But the heart of the story is the kid inviting his free-spirit grandfather to the party, even though his father and grandfather are estranged. So of course there is conflict and anger and elders spouting wisdom. It's a cute story, but not all that special. (May 2006)
KING KONG. Excellent remake of the classic. Lots of great visuals. Naomi Watts does a great job. Worth seeing. But really, someone needs to tell director Peter Jackson that not every movie needs to be 3 hours long. (Jan 2006)
THE LAKE HOUSE. A movie for romantics. Sandra Bullock lives in a house on the lake, and when she moves out, she leaves a letter with her forwarding address for the next occupant. The occupant (Keanu Reeves) gets the letter, but turns out he actually lived in the lake house two years before she did. They continue to write letters to each other and of course, find themselves falling in love. But can they ever meet, given that they exist in parallel worlds two years apart? Of course, you don't expect a plot like this to make perfect sense, because it can't, but if you are in the market to see a love story, this isn't badly done. Although I think there are episodes of STAR TREK that did it better. ; -) (June 2006)
LAST KING OF SCOTLAND. Nicholas has just graduated from medical school, and is facing a routine life practicing medicine with his father. He wants to escape the humdrum life, spins a globe, and ends up working in a clinic in Uganda. It all is a great adventure, and then Idi Amin (Forest Whitaker) comes into power. Through a series of circumstances, Nicholas ends up as Amin's personal physician. And at first, he is really caught up in Amin's charisma and seduced by the power. But when he finally comes to realize that Amin is dangerously crazy, he is in serious trouble and can't escape. It gets pretty intense. A fascinating movie, and Forest Whitaker is amazing as Amin. (The movie is pretty factual as far as the Amin part of the story, and he did have Westerners in his inner circle.) (October 2006)
THE LAST KISS. This is a terrific movie about relationships and coming to terms with not being a kid anymore. Zach Braff plays a 29 year old architect. He has a great job, great friends, and a beautiful girlfriend that he knows he is lucky to have. But she's pregnant and he starts to feel like his life might be over. How he copes, and how his friends cope with the changes in their lives (getting dumped, being in an unhappy marriage, etc.) make for a very believable and enjoyable movie. (September 2006)
LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA. At the same time that he made FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS, Clint Eastwood made this movie. It's about the battle for Iwo Jima from the Japanese perspective, starting from preparations for the American invasion, to the Japanese defeat. The battle is run by a general who knows what strategy could work best (he'd been in a exchange program and knew the American military), but he is thwarted by junior officers who are true believers in dying for the Empire, and think his strategy of fighting from caves and tunnels is cowardly. The movie also follows a young draftee, who is considered disloyal because all he wants is to go home to his wife and baby. The concept of living to fight another day was not Japanese; their culture at that time was more about death before surrender, or even death before retreat. No matter what side they are on, men can act either honorably or dishonorably in battle, and this movie shows both. Although often gruesome, this movie is really good, and an excellent entry in the "war is hell" genre. (Dec 2006)
LITTLE CHILDREN. Kate Winslet is a wife and mother of a 4-year-old. She lives in the suburbs, surrounded by housewives that she looks down on, and she isn't happy. One day the local house-husband/stay-at-home dad comes to the playground and piques her interest. In another sub-plot, the neighborhood is up in arms because a sexual deviant has gotten out of jail and moved back home. This is not my kind of movie. But it does start out comically, with one of the guys that narrate PBS nature shows doing a sociological voiceover that is pretty funny. But it devolves into a story about people I had no sympathy for behaving badly, and the last quarter of the movie I had the uncomfortable feeling of just waiting for something really awful to happen. A movie where the deviant is the most sympathetic character (great acting!) has problems, in my opinion. Critics like this kind of the thing, but without a single character to like or root for, I just don't care. (Dec 2006)
LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE. Very funny movie about a family who goes on a road trip from New Mexico to California, so their little girl can compete in the regional Little Miss Sunshine contest. They are an interesting family: Greg Kinnear is the insufferable dad, and wants to publish and go on the road with his 9 steps to self-improvement. Mom Toni Collete is trying to hold it all together. Her brother Steve Carrell is an academic who just tried to commit suicide. The teenage son is going through a weird adolescent phase. And profane Grandpa Alan Arkin snorts heroin and has gotten kicked out of assisted living. Terrific movie, very entertaining. Loved the commentary on child beauty contests. Highest recommendation :-) (August 2006)
MONSTER HOUSE. Animated children's movie of the scary house in the neighborhood, with the scary neighbor who terrorizes all the children. Say goodbye if your ball lands on his lawn! Anyway, the neighbor dies, and the house turns evil, swallowing dogs and people who dare go near. So the kids scheme to "kill" the house. A good movie for kids, but I wasn't that impressed. I saw it in 3D, which had cool moments, but basically was annoying. (August 2006)
MRS. HENDERSON PRESENTS. Inspired by a true story. Judi Dench plays an upper class British woman in 1930's London. She is widowed, and becomes quite bored. So she buys a music hall, and hires Bob Hoskins to run it. They are successful at first, but eventual people stop coming. So she comes up with the idea of having naked women in the shows. This gets approval from the powers-that-be, as long as the women don’t move. She has very little understanding of people without money, and is a bit of a pill. Bob is pretty cranky himself. So the movie shows their relationship, as well as the morale booster the music hall was during WWII. This is a very old-fashioned movie, just a small story, and the relationship of two people. No great themes or meaning. But it is entertaining. (Feb 2006)
MUNICH. Based on the fallout from the 1972 Munich Olympics, where Palestinians took Israeli athletes hostage and they all ended up dead. In response, Israel was determined to hunt down the masterminds behind the hostage-taking and kill them. The movie follows the Israeli team that did the killings. The leader is a young man with a pregnant wife, who takes the job knowing he will be away from home for quite a while. The other members of the team range from a man who has no qualms whatsoever about what they are doing, to others that have more serious moral issues. The point of the movie, I guess, is to take a look at the philosophy of "an eye for an eye", but it really didn't do much for me. I don't find the concept that two sides of a conflict can be both right and wrong to be all that deep or compelling. (Jan 2006)
NOTES ON A SCANDAL. Judi Dench is an unhappy, bitter, and hateful high school teacher. I am not sure if she is hateful because she has never been loved, or never been loved because she is so hateful. Regardless, she longs for companionship. One day, Cate Blanchett appears to teach art at the school. Judi manages to hides her true self, and the two become friends. Cate even invites Judi to her house to meet her older husband and her disabled son. Then, one day, Judi finds Cate having sex with one of the 15-year-old students. And rather than inform the police, Judi decides that this is her opportunity to manipulate Cate, and get what she wants. In lesser hands, this movie would be really tawdry, but Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett are so good I was completely into finding out how it would all be resolved. Top notch. (Dec 2006)
NOTORIOUS BETTIE PAGE. Gretchen Mol plays Bettie Page, who was a premier soft-core porn queen in the 50's. Lots of bondage and S&M photos. Bettie is very innocent about it all, considering the modeling just costumes and play acting. I am not sure if Bettie was that naive or that dumb. (She wasn't innocent, as the movie implies she was sexually abused as a girl, in an abusive marriage, and suffered a gang rape.) Regardless, the movie is entertaining, and boy, does the stuff she was doing seem tame by today's standards. (April 2006)
OVER THE HEDGE. Animation. It concerns animals that, while hibernating, have been surrounded by the suburbs. A wily raccoon (Bruce Willis) needs to scavenge a bunch of food to replace what he took from a menacing bear (Nick Nolte), and so he scams the hibernating animals to go "over the hedge", into suburbia to scavenge in garbage cans and homes. This isn't as good a SHREK, for instance, and I would say it is more of a kids' movie. But I laughed out loud a lot (there are lots of digs at humans and suburbia), so it's fine for parents to go to as well. (May 2006)
THE PRESTIGE. Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman play magicians in turn-of-the-last-century America and England. When a magic trick goes wrong and Hugh's wife dies, he blames Christian and they become lifelong enemies and competitors to have the "best" magic tricks. They each try to top the other, and actually become cruel at times when they ruin the other's illusions. So eventually one of them "wins", and is no doubt the winner of their competition to be the best trickster, but I didn't like either one of the characters, so I didn't care. (And I really like both of the actors.) The earlier film about magicians, THE ILLUSIONIST, had better atmosphere, while this one was had a better surprise ending. Still, I don't highly recommend either movie. (October 2006)
THE PUFFY CHAIR. The movie starts with two young people having dinner, talking cutsie nonsense talk to each other. So, immediately, I hate them both. The story goes that the young man bought a chair for his dad's birthday off of E-Bay, and he and the girlfriend take off on a road trip to pick up the chair and deliver it to dad. The young man turns out to be not so bad, in my opinion, but the young woman (who is the type to wake up her boyfriend to ask him why he loves her), was the kind of character I despise. On the way to get the chair, they pick up the young man's younger brother. And the brother is a flaky idiot as well. So, between the shaky camera work, the in-and-out focus, and the two-out-of-three characters I didn't like, I really hated this movie. I might have been more tolerant of the characters if I was younger, but I am too old now to find their cluelessness charming. One of those "critics like it" but it’s-a-mystery-to-me-why movies. (June 2006)
THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS. Will Smith stars as Chris Gardner, who in 1981 is really down on his luck. He has a sales job selling a product no one wants and a wife who is bitter and angry about their lot in life. But Chris is really smart, and has ambition to make a better life for him and his family. Still, one day the wife leaves, and Chris struggles to get by and take care of his young son (played by Will Smith's real son, who does a great job). Chris's goal is to become a stockbroker, and he does get an internship at Dean Witter. But it is unpaid, and Will has really bad luck, so much so that he and his son end up on the street, eating and sleeping at Glide Memorial. You know the movie isn't going to end up being a total downer, but despite a lack of suspense, it was still enjoyable. Will Smith makes you feel his pain, and I got a little teary in the end. It's nice to see someone work hard and make it, despite all the odds. Based on a true story. (Dec 2006)
THE QUEEN. Helen Mirren stars as Queen Elizabeth II. The movie is about the relationship she has with Tony Blair at the beginning of his term, when he is very popular, and somewhat anti-royal. The movie focuses on the week after Princess Diana was killed, and how the Royal Family's initial reaction is to keep it very private, make no statements, and not reach out to the people. Tony Blair's intuition, correct as it turns out, is that the Royals have to change their ways and become more connected to the population. The relationship between the Queen and Tony evolves, and we see the Queen coming to grips with how the world has changed since she became Queen 50 years earlier. A very interesting movie. (October 2006)
QUINCEANERA. This story takes place in Echo Park, a Mexican-American neighborhood in Los Angeles that is being gentrified. The story revolves around two teenagers: Magdalena, who is on the verge of celebrating her 15th birthday, and her cousin Carlos. Both are kicked out of their homes for alleged sins, and end up with their great uncle. I don't want to say much more about the movie, because I am afraid that would ruin it, and it is just a small slice of life story, beautifully done. You get a real feel for the community and the main characters are wonderful. I really liked it, even though not a lot happens. (September 2006)
ROAD TO GUANTANAMO. In late September 2001, a young British Pakistani, at the urging of his mother, goes home to Pakistan to meet a potential wife. He does decide to get married, and invites 3 British friends to come to Pakistan and visit. After a few weeks in Pakistan, they decide to go to Afghanistan to see what it is like. A really stupid move, I think they would now agree. But they certainly didn't deserve what happens to them. They get caught up in the war, and end up being arrested by the Northern Alliance. After a bit of time with the Afghanis, they are transferred to the Americans, and spend 2 years as prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, where the conditions were, to put it mildly, not good. Not a fun movie to watch, but important to see. (July 2006)
SENTINEL. Michael Douglas, looking way past mandatory retirement, plays a secret service agent who protects the president and his wife. He is also having an affair with the First Lady. Someone is planning to kill the president, and Michael is being set up. Keifer Sutherland, in full on Jack Bauer mode, plays the investigator brought in to investigate the threat on the Prez's life. Of course, Keifer and Michael have a history: best friends but now enemies. Will Michael be able to clear himself? Not a horrible political thriller, but barely OK. I wouldn't recommend paying to see it. (April 2006)
SHUT UP AND SING. Right before the war started in Iraq, the Dixie Chicks were on a concert tour in London. There were demonstrations outside, and between songs, Natalie Maynes, the lead singer, tossed off a line about how they were ashamed the President was from Texas. The right wing media went into high gear, and the Dixie Chicks found themselves blacklisted from country radio. This documentary follows them, from the fateful comments, until 2006. They are interesting women, and even can be quite funny, so the movie was a good watch. The amount of hate (including death threats) that they received was so out of proportion with what they said, it's unbelievable. This movie made me so angry I went right out and bought the Dixie Chicks' latest CD, and I don't even like country music. (November 2006)
SOMETHING NEW. Sanaa Lathan is a professional woman, who along with her friends, complains about the lack of professional black men to date. So she is a surprised as anyone when she starts relationship with her white landscape developer. But he doesn't understand her life, and she is a bit embarrassed by being with him. And then she meets Blair Underwood, who is everything she thought she wanted. So, will she end up with the man that challenges her, and forces her outside of her comfort zone (which would be good for her), or the one who understands her and what her life is like? Good, entertaining, romantic movie. Sanaa Lathan (BROWN SUGAR, LOVE AND BASKETBALL) is the queen of good date movies, in my opinion. She makes them work. (Feb 2006)
STRANGER THAN FICTION. Will Farrell is an IRS agent who lives a very orderly life. One day, he starts to hear a woman's voice narrating his life. Obviously, he is a little put off by it, but not really frightened until he hears the voice say he is going to die. He engages a professor of literature (Dustin Hoffman) to try to help him figure out who the narrator is. While trying to figure that out, Dustin advises Will to live his life more fully, because maybe he will die. So Will tries to develop a relationship with Maggie Gyllenhall. Very interesting movie; I liked it a lot. Although it is being advertised as a comedy, and it does have amusing parts, it is also a romance, and even more seriously, a movie that makes a statement about the value of art vs. the value of a life... I liked the movie more and more as I thought about it. (November 2006)
TALLEDEGA NIGHTS: THE LEGEND OF RICKY BOBBY. This parody of the world of NASCAR stars Will Farrell as Ricky Bobby, who believes "if you're not first, you're last". There are big stretches of really stupid in this movie, but they are interrupted by lots of smiles and some outright belly laughs. I would say if that is what you are in the mood for, check this out. (August 2006)
(And if you rent the DVD, check out the outtakes – hysterical!)
THANK YOU FOR SMOKING. Another movie I really liked. It follows Aaron Eckhardt, who is a lobbyist for the tobacco companies. There isn't much of a plot, just a lot of very black humor as he goes about defending his work on TV and in front of Congress. He also tries to get more smoking in movies, and the part showing tobacco lobbyists meeting Hollywood players is quite the thing. I was the only one in the theater laughing at times, but I thought this was hysterical. (Mar 2006)
TRANSAMERICA. Felicity Huffman stars as Bree, a male-to-female transsexual who is one surgery away from her transformation. She is living as a woman, and ready for that last surgery, when she gets a call from a teenage son she never knew she had. She wants to deny her past, but her psychologist won't let her get the surgery unless Bree deals with the son. So she ends up flying to New York to get him out of juvie, and driving the kid (who doesn't know Bree is biologically still a man, let alone his father) back to California. So it's kind of a classic road trip movie, with two people who don't know each other getting to know one another as they have adventures along the way. And both have issues to deal with (their stop in Phoenix with Bree's parents is priceless). This movie isn't at all sugary sweet, but it is often amusing, and it was much more fun than I expected. (Feb 2006)
TRISTRAM SHANDY. This is a weird one to explain. For those of you who don't know (I didn't) Tristram Shandy is an 18th century novel, supposedly an autobiography, but Tristam gets easily side-tracked during his story, and the novel ends before Tristram is born. The movie is about an underfunded group of filmmakers trying to make a movie of this novel. It is interspersed with scenes from the movie, and then scenes of the guys making the movie. Including the lead, who is extremely self-centered and always trying to ensure that his role is the best. It's full of very dry humor, and I feel like I missed half the jokes. But I got half of them, and that was enough. (March 2006)
TSOTSI. Tsotsi is destitute young man living in a South African shanty town. He gets by robbing people with his gang, and is a pretty cold blooded. Until one day, when a carjacking goes wrong and he ends up with a baby in the back seat. Something in the baby touches him, and he spends the rest of the movie trying to do right by the baby. (It also explores how he got to be the way he is.) But the question is - can he really be redeemed? Nice little movie, winner of the Best Foreign Language movie Oscar this year. (Mar 2006)
UNITED 93. September 11, 2001. Watch what was happening on that day, ending with the plane that crashed into the Pennsylvania field, pretty much in real time as it happened. The early movie is mostly about the air traffic controllers and the military, who were just trying to figure out what was going on, when it was all so unbelievable, and the information they had was sometimes contradictory. This part was really interesting to me, because I hadn't read that much about their experiences. There's not much about the events on United 93 until that last third of the movie, because of course a bunch of people sitting on a plane isn't that compelling. I thought this was really well-done in an almost matter of fact way, because it makes the heroism of those involved all the more real. It's not a fake inspirational rah-rah kind of thing. (May 2006)
V FOR VENDETTA. Some years in the future, America's population has been decimated by a virus, and having a Civil War. In England, a Fascist government had taken power. Evey (Natalie Portman) works for the British news service and one day goes out after curfew, and the SS-like "Finger Men" accost her. She is only saved by a man in a Guy Fawkes mask, "V" (Hugo Weaving). He takes her to the top of a building and they watch Old Bailey (London's criminal courthouse) blow up. (All this in the first few minutes!). "V" is out to destroy the fascist government, and two policemen try to find him through Evey (they were taped watching the explosion, I think). The movie covers the next year in their lives, as he tries to rally the population, and she tries to do what's right. I really, really liked this one. It's one of those movies you can discuss the politics of and also it's really visual (produced by the guys that did THE MATRIX). Fun to watch. (March 2006)
THE WAR TAPES. The director of this movie gave mini-cameras (that fit on their helmets) to 3 National Guardsmen who were off to spend a year in Iraq. She edited the 1,000 hours of film down into this documentary about their experiences (they mostly did convoy duty). Two of the guys filming are gung ho Iraq occupation, and the third is a Lebanese-American Democrat, who has a different take than the usual military guy. It's interesting to see how their attitudes evolve over their year, and the effect their time had on them when they return to the U.S. Good movie. (July 2006)
WATER. It's 1938 India, and Chuyia, a 7-year old girl, has just been widowed. She is so young she doesn't even really remember getting married, nor does she understand what being a widow means. In 1938 India, Hindu law means she can throw herself on her husband's funeral pyre, marry his brother, or become a chaste woman, the equivalent of a nun. So, her father abandons her to the ashram, with all the other widows. Where they survive pretty much by begging on the streets. At first Chuyia doesn't realize what is happening, but eventually adapts, as a little girl can. She gets to know the women, including the battle ax who runs the place with an iron hand, the woman who is very sad about her situation but has religious faith and believes she is doing the spiritual thing, and a young woman who was also widowed young, and yearns to have a another chance at life. This is a fascinating movie, providing a window into a time and place I had no knowledge of. How Chuyia’s situation is resolved is wonderful. Beautiful movie; this is why I go to movies. (May 2006)
WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR? This interesting documentary provides a history of electric cars, especially GM's EV1, and evaluates why the car failed. Potential culprits include consumers, the technology, General Motors, Big Oil, fuel cell technology and the California Air Resources Board. If you're not already depressed / outraged / cynical about the way things work in America, go see this movie. (August 2006)
WORDPLAY. This is a documentary on those who do crossword puzzles, including background and interviews with the editor of the New York Times crossword puzzle, which is considered the top puzzle in the country. The movie also shows how the puzzles are constructed, gives a little history, has interviews with famous folk who like crosswords (Bill Clinton, Jon Stewart, some baseball player), and profiles a variety of people who compete in crossword puzzle contests. The movie culminates in the 2005 national Crossword Puzzle contest. This may not sound like much fun, and while I wouldn't say it was top-10 on my documentary list, the movie was interesting and entertaining. (June 2006)
WORLD TRADE CENTER. Oliver Stone's movie centers on two Transit Authority policemen (Nicholas Cage and Michael Pena) on Sept. 11. It's a beautiful day, everybody gets up and goes to work, and then all hell breaks loose. A small crew, including these two, goes to the site to help evacuate people, and before they can even go upstairs, the tower collapses around them. Up until this point, I thought the movie was quite moving and very well done. But that's only about 30 minutes. The remainder of the movie is the two cops buried in rubble, not really able to move, trying to keep each other's spirits up, interspersed with scenes of their wives and families worrying, and the Marine who would eventually find them so they could be rescued. Of course what they did was heroic, but it's not that scintillating to watch. So, a good movie, but not great. UNITED 93 had a lot more tension, because really, that story is more compelling to show than two guys lying in rubble. (August 2006)
X-MEN III - THE LAST STAND. First X-men movie I've seen. I am not all that impressed. Sure, there are cool effects, but it wasn't that compelling. I did like the idea, which in this case has the mutants fighting the humans, because the humans have come up with a vaccine to "cure" the mutants, who for the most part, don't think they need to be cured. So I suppose you could argue that the movie could lead to discussions about conformity, the right to be different, etc., but I don't think the movie was worth it. (May 2006)
