roland-104 Reviews

Las vueltas del citrillo (2005)

This brilliant allegory about Mexico moving toward revolution demands that viewers know the history

[9/10 · 10 March 2007]

Period film gorgeously photographed with deeply etched characters and conflicts, set within a larger context of socio-political developments in pre-revolutionary Mexico, in 1903, the 19th year of the repressive regime of Porfirio Diaz, who had through colossal will and brutal force transformed the economy, built a national railroad system, and suppressed the civil chaos that had ruined Mexico for decades. Diaz accomplished these things at the terrible cost of slaughtering his opponents, making Mexico financially more dependent upon U.S. capital, and engendering even greater poverty in a land already suffering from gross imbalance in the distribution of wealth.

Vuelta (turn) refers here to visits to the local pulqueria to down a few pints of the peasants' drink, pulque, and trade stories. Vuelta also means 'revolution' (e.g., the revolutions of an electric fan); a pun may be intended here, a reference to the fact that conditions and events in this film foreshadow the Mexican Revolution that would begin 7 years later.

The principal story told here concerns three soldiers and two women, both prostitutes. We come to know each quite well, through good scripting, good acting and portrait-like camera-work that captures each character at close range throughout the movie. The pivotal character is Sargento Collazo (Damián Alcázar). He and his men come to a town where he will participate as godfather in the baptism of Melba's (Vanessa Bauche) infant. She is a fierce, self-possessed woman, one of the prostitutes, a long time friend and probable lover of Collazo's.

Collazo's two aides are the sneezy Cabo Aboytes (Jorge Zárate), a 'yes man' gofer for Collazo, and a new recruit, José Isabel (José Maria Yazpik), who is Aboytes' polar opposite. José is arrogant, insubordinate, and a braggart, boasting of his lover's prowess, enhanced by his liberal use of weed. The other prostitute is Brigida (Giovanna Zacarias). Where Melba is generous, Brigida is selfish; where Melba has some sense of higher purpose in life, Brigida seems content to live from moment to moment in an inebriated semi-stupor.

We experience other tavern tales as flashbacks, involving other colorful, often amusing characters. As in the stories of Garcia Marquez or Carlos Fuentes, the boundary between the living and the dead here is a porous one. A dead man from one of the tales welcomes José after his execution by firing squad, and later the pair return to the present to mix it up with the living.

The writer-director, Mr. Cazals, present for this screening, made helpful interpretive remarks, and I was also able to have a brief conversation with him one-on-one. Cazals makes demands upon his audiences. He expects the viewer to be equipped with an understanding of the historo-political context of the times, and the 'rules of the game' for civil and military conduct during the Porfiriana. He assumes that you already know that in Mexico in that time, having enough food to stave off starvation was far more important than advancing some political ideology.

The main story oozes with Brechtian allegorical riffs. The baptized infant's name is Doctrino, an allusion to the fact that in 1903 political awareness was barely nascent, just dawning among the peasantry, who knew only that their lives were miserable. Aboytes stands for the sort of underclass type that Porfirio Diaz would like: unthinking, loyal, reflexively obedient to the regime. José is something else: brimming with youthful insouciance, full of himself, this uppity fellow is as indifferent to the suffering around him as he is to authority. His very nature makes him subversive to everybody, an enemy of both the state and the peasantry. Small wonder that Collazo, a richly complex fellow who at once represents Diaz's insistence on law and order and, at the same time, compassion for the poor, finds a way to exterminate José.

Collazo and Melba are far richer, more convoluted characters than the others and perhaps embody Cazals's sense of the contradictory qualities that made up successful Mexican revolutionaries: toughness and compassion; willingness to ruthlessly attack opponents while tenderly safeguarding loved ones and compatriots; a bent toward generously supporting the poor and murderously plundering the privileged.

Melba, like Collazo, is capable of robbing and killing a bourgeois citizen. Melba's feelings toward Collazo are divided. Standing for the soul of the peasants, the interests of the motherland, she chooses this strong, proud man to be godfather to Doctrino. She resents his predatory overtures, his Porfirianistic demands for her sexual favors, yet she is quite willing to share her charms if he will simply ask in a civil manner, she says. She is appealing to the softer and more democratic side of this complicated man.

Brigida embodies the passivity of those peasants who respond to their misery not by attempting to change conditions but by escaping from their pain, numbing it with alcohol, drugs and other addictive habits. The most significant conundrum is José's unrepentant stance. Cazals sets up all the conditions one would expect for this man to find redemption for his hubris, even bringing José back from the grave for a clear shot at putting things right. No way, José.

I asked Mr. Cazals about this failure of redemption. "You see," he said, "nothing is important, not even redemption, when a man is starving. The only thing that matters then is food." I grasp his point, but this was not self evident watching the movie. Of course there may have been clues to this interpretation in the dialogue that I missed because I don't know Spanish.

This is a lyrical, visually grand, but highly challenging film. Variety's Eddie Cockrell calls the film "a well made but nearly impenetrable drama." Well, it's true that you do need to know your stuff about Mexican history, and few Americans qualify. I do read Mexican history. Mr. Cazals' last comment to me was that the story in this film is entirely relevant to conditions in Mexico today, where 40% of the population continue to live in severe poverty.

The Italian (2005)

An heroic, almost mythic tale of the ordeals of a young boy to reunite with his mother

[10/10 · 5 February 2007]

This film is a sublime chronicle of the adventures of an orphan in search of his mother. Vanya (Kolya Spiridonov), supposedly is 6 years old, though Kolya is more likely 9 or 10. Nor would a 6 year old be capable of displaying the intrepid resourcefulness that Vanya demonstrates over and over again in his struggle for survival on his own terms.

Vanya is stuck in a seamy orphanage in a small Russian village; the year is 2002. Foreigners pay big money to adopt these children, and the film opens as an Italian couple arrive at the place, where they agree to adopt Vanya. Two months must pass to clear the adoption, and in this time Vanya, now nicknamed "Italienetz" - "the Italian" - by the other charges, comes to a realization that he does not wish to go to Italy with this couple, but, rather, wants to find his own mother. He has no sense that, apart from the difficulty he may encounter locating her, very likely in another city, most women who give up children to such places have no interest in ever seeing their progeny again, and many are unfit for parenting.

But Vanya is moved toward a more optimistic vision as he witnesses the recurring visits of a woman - an alcoholic prostitute - who pleads in vain for the return of her son, who is a chum of Vanya's. She is turned away because to lose the boy means a great financial sacrifice for the people running the orphanage and adoption business. (A friend of mine tells the story of her son and his wife adopting 3 Russian boys at $10,000 per child, required to be delivered in crisp new US$100 bills, and that was a decade ago.) The indomitable Vanya stubbornly holds onto his vision even after a beating by an older boy for jeopardizing the prospects of the other boys to find good homes. He learns to read, finds his file in the Headmaster's office, gleans from it the address where he lived before coming to the institution, and elopes to find his mother. With the adoption arrangers in hot pursuit, and trouble makers along the way that try to thwart him, Vanya nevertheless is in the end reunited with his mother, a connection as fulfilling as it is unlikely in such circumstances.

This happy ending seems entirely justified because it is not the arbitrary, sentimentalized product of some ham-handed screenwriter. The ingredients of Vanya's successful quest are his own grit and wiles, and the unexpected acts of kindness by others to aid him: the prostitute who teaches him to read; the older bully who comes to respect Vanya enough to help him locate his file; the old man at the way station for orphans in the city who risks his position to send Vanya on his way toward his mother's apartment; the adoption arranger who captures him but then lets him go. One might even venture to say that it is the sanctity and determination of Vanya's quest, his own state of grace, if you will, that moves others to open their hearts to him.

Kolya Spiridonov is vastly charming in the best sense. He's not cute or sweet. If anything, he's got an edge, spunk, a bit of attitude (who wouldn't, living as he has). But more than that, he's whip smart and he exudes a natural sense of confidence and self assertion in a panoply of simple, swiftly passing, apparently spontaneous gestures. His barely wrinkled nose and slight turn of the head when an old man's cigarette smoke gets too dense. His brief pickup of a phone receiver out of curiosity. His audacious pilfering of his file and equally bold move of throwing sand in the faces of older kids who want to subdue him. His quick-witted lie that a drunken man next to him on the train is his father. There is something decidedly heroic about Vanya, a willingness even to sacrifice himself in the service of pursuing his dream, as he faces each test thrown up to block his progress. It is an astonishing performance.

Virtually all the key supporting players are also first rate. For several it is their first credited screen role, but they're each one very good, a tribute to both the director and casting agent. The photography is enchanting: faint winter light and an almost milky, filmy look to everything in the exterior scenes. Intriguing views on a long train ride: farms, towns, workers, fellow travelers – all common people. Wonderful close-ups: we feel as if we have come to know several of these people – young, old and in between - at close range. This film is virtually flawless, an absolutely splendid, almost mythic tale. (In Russian) My grades: 10/10 (A+) (Seen on 02/02/07)

When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts (2006–2007)

Spike Lee documents the torment of the New Orleans people hit hardest by Katrina

[8/10 · 5 February 2007]

Spike Lee tells the story of Hurricane Katrina's toll on the people of New Orleans in this long film made for an HBO miniseries, a highly detailed account of the disaster, its antecedents and its continuing impact on the survivors. Lee has utilized a vast trove of archival footage, shot much new material, and interviewed around 100 individuals – from victims to political leaders and engineers. The version that aired on television consists of four "acts," spanning 255 minutes cumulative running time; the DVD adds an "act V – Next Movement" – another hour or so composed exclusively of further material from the interviews.

The story, of course, is familiar to all of us in both its broad outline and many of the details presented here. But Lee succeeds in elaborating upon the suffering, frustrations, and often half concealed truths of the story in a manner that far exceeds what came to us through the conventional media, with its usual foreshortened reportage. It is a monumental accomplishment, a journalistic tour de force that is unparalleled in its depth and poignancy.

We do learn new things. In one glaring instance, we are told that armed vigilantes formed human barriers to prevent the exodus of those departing flooded areas into a drier, safer place. We see evidence at every turn of the pathetically inadequate responses of local, state and federal government. In particular we get a first hand look at the absurdity of FEMA efforts, especially the horrid trailers that usually have been delivered too late, and, even then, are too often unfit to live in.

We get a fuller picture than before of the flimsiness of the barriers to water surge erected by the Army Corps of Engineers: silly, thin little walls planted with insufficient depth, virtually begging to be knocked down, where instead broad earthen levees were needed. We are confronted by the deep pain of people returning to inspect houses that are beyond repair, filled with ugly piles of goods where once orderly rooms of furniture and other belongings had their place. The insides of these places - piled full of gruesome messes of detritus that once were articles of furniture, appliances and beloved possessions, as if some hostile giant had savagely shaken the places while holding them under water – look horridly alike.

The story goes agonizingly along. And we come away wondering whether a disaster of this magnitude, had it occurred in a community not so heavily composed of underclass folks, primarily people of color, would have evoked a swifter, more supportive, and more effective response by government agencies and private insurers.

Many among those interviewed have profoundly troubling stories to tell and several tales of courage and generosity. Among the most memorable voices to me were: civil engineering professor Robert Bea; composer Terence Blanchard; historian Douglas Brinkley; trial attorney Joseph Bruno; state medical examiner Louis Cataldie; Eddie Compass, former N.O. police chief; Calvin Mackie, Tulane engineering professor, speaking of the deaths of his parents seemingly brought on by the catastrophe; Wynton Marsalis; Mother Audrey Mason, who tells Barbara Bush a thing or two; Times-Picayune City Editor David Meeks; CNN reporter Soledad O'Brien; Sean Penn, recounting his personal efforts to save people stranded in their homes; actor Wendell Pierce; local radio commentator Garland Robinette; and minister Elder William Walker, Jr.

Among other displaced survivors not so well known, some of the most arresting in their responses are Terence Blanchard's mother, Wilhelmina; Phyllis Montana LeBlanc, who recites her harsh poem about the event; Judith Morgan and Cheryl Livaudais, who deliver a shrill duet of nonstop slashing criticism of the whole post-storm relief effort; Kimberly Polk, who lost her 5 year old daughter; Michael Seelig…I could go on and on…

Lee's focus is selective. He touches lightly on the technical and engineering issues. He offers no real analysis of the political and bureaucratic problems hampering relief efforts. He doesn't follow the story of the health care crisis or allegations of euthanasia in several cases. He doesn't follow people exiled to other cities and states to see first hand how they are faring.

Lee also doesn't mention the jockeying of developers, lobbyists and politicians scheming to make money off the rebuilding process. The material Lee uses to highlight the conduct of civic leaders is closely cropped, no more comprehensive than the best news shows offered at the time. No, Lee's lens remains for the most part fixed on the suffering of the people – black, white, and mostly poor.

The quality of the photography is highly variable, as you expect when footage is extracted from many sources. But the editing is generally very good. The music is a mixed bag. There are famous tunes, like Fats Domino's "Walking to New Orleans" and the traditional "St. James Infirmary" sung, surprisingly, by Marsalis. There's footage of a wonderful funeral band processing along the street in "act IV."

Theme music that reoccurs throughout the entire series is from the recent movie, "Inside Man," composed by New Orleans' Terence Blanchard, the same man already mentioned among notable interviewees. Blanchard has worked with Spike Lee for years, doing the music on most of Lee 's film projects. His score in this instance is entirely fitting: it is elegiac, funereal, slowly paced, often rendered with a spare unaccompanied piano. But for some obscure reason Lee's sound mixer often decides to suddenly ratchet up the volume to the point that it can drown out what interviewees are saying and even feel enervating and painful to the ear. So one must sit with remote control in hand, constantly on the alert to turn the volume down, then later back up, to contend with this bothersome phenomenon.

Despite its selective focus and the sound problems, overall this unique production is one that no informed citizen will want to miss. My grades: 8/10 (B+) (DVD seen on 02/03/07)

The Bothersome Man (2006)

Big metaphysical stuff: Adreas seems to be in hell or heaven, but, unlike Sartre's, this one has an exit (yawn)

[5 February 2007]

Trond Fausa Aurvaag stars as Andreas, a solitary 40 year old man who opens this film by leaping to his death under an oncoming subway train (we hear a gruesome crunch, not the last of these we'll confront). We next find him, bearded and disheveled, arriving as the lone passenger on a bus that delivers him to a forlorn old gas station in the middle of a barren high plain reminiscent of U.S. Great Basin country, though presumably it's shot in Norway or Iceland. So, this is a flashback, right? Well, not so fast, there. Seems more like a flash forward the more we learn. Everyone's expecting him: the old man who takes him from the desert to a posh contemporary apartment house in a city full of pale gray blue modern buildings, at its center, surrounded by older urban neighborhoods. In the closet of his apartment is a complete wardrobe of clothes that fit him. He asks what job he has been assigned and is told he will be an accountant in a large downtown firm. He cleans up, shaves and arrives for work next morning, where he is warmly greeted by everyone, and starts to work as if he has all the requisite skills for the job.

He meets various people over the next weeks, takes a lover, relaxes. But there are unsettling aspects to his new life, for that is what it appears to be. Alcohol no longer makes him or anyone else high. Food looks great but has little flavor. Even sex, while easily available, seems bland . The women he takes up with seem more interested in the quarters they live in, and his ability to provide for them materially, than they are in him.

Horrid events occur: he sees a suicidal man, now dead, impaled on a sharp edged wrought iron fence. At the office, on impulse, he slices off his finger in an automated paper cutter. People seem to take such occurrences in stride, showing little or no affect. There are uniformed attendants in gray blue jumpsuits, driving gray blue minivans, who calmly, mutely service people like these. When they take Andreas home and he unwraps the dressing from the stump of his finger he finds it (magically) whole again, without a trace of trauma. Hmmmmm.

Things go on like this. Andreas attempts suicide again in the local subway but, while battered terribly (over the course of a night, he's hit and dragged by three different trains), he is able to walk away. Bloodied and looking like a cadaver when he returns to his lover's house, she merely smiles and mentions they have been invited to friends' for dinner later in the week. Hmmmmm.

Later he discovers an underground shaft that appears to lead to another world. He and an associate blast a tunnel but, just short of his goal of escape from this bizarre dystopia, the men in gray blue arrive, drag the two away, seal up the tunnel, but immediately release the men without incarceration, trial or any other punishment than enforcement of their unwanted stay in this odd paradise.

But Andreas continues to be bothersome. He acts unhappy, which turns out to be the worst offense here, one that in time leads him to be expelled from the community. He's taken back to the desert, forced into the cargo bay of the bus, and driven away. At some point the bus stops, Andreas kicks the door open, and disappears into a white, featureless expanse marked by howling winds, like the middle of a blizzard. The bus pulls away, the screen fades to final darkness.

There you have it. I strongly disliked the film, and more than once had to resist the urge to leave, though it does hang together, and its protagonist is a mildly interesting character. This film will certainly be a candidate for my annual Metaphysical Melange Award. What we seem to have here is purgatory, or hell, or heaven, a nether world where you go after death but where, unlike in Sartre's formulation, there is indeed an exit. My grades: 5/10 (C) (Seen on 02/02/07)

Days of Glory (2006)

One of the best ever films about war writ small, up close and personal

[9/10 · 5 February 2007]

This riveting, poignant, deeply ironic docudrama tells the story of the 7th Algerian Infantry Division, a battle unit composed of Arab Algerians, mobilized, trained and led by French officers, that took part in the invasion of Italy and southern France to liberate these territories from the Nazis in 1944-45. It is war writ small, up close and personal. The focus is relentlessly cast upon the fortunes of the men in a single squad. Noteworthy is the subtext of unequal, discriminatory treatment of the Algerians, compared to French soldiers (e.g., inferior food, no leave). In that regard, the film prefigures circumstances that led eventually to the Algerian war of independence from France years later.

The ensemble acting is nothing short of stupendous. Deeply etched character studies are offered by Jamel Debbouze (humble Saïd, the youngest, the man with the withered arm), Samy Naceri (Yassir, the protective big brother), Roschdy Zem (Messaoud, the marksman who falls in love with a French woman), Sami Bouajila (the ambitious natural leader, corporal Abdelkader) and Bernard Blancan (Sgt. Martinez, the French Algerian squad leader). This group jointly received the Best Actor award at Cannes last May. I think that "Glory" ranks with the very best war movies made in the modern era, right up there with films like Oliver Stone's "Platoon," Terrence Malick's "The Thin Red Line," and Clint Eastwood's recent "Letters from Iwo Jima." I wouldn't argue with anyone who claims that "Glory" is the best of the lot. My grades: 9/10 (A) (Seen on 01/29/07)

12:08 East of Bucharest (2006)

Here is political farce at its best

[8/10 · 5 February 2007]

This film is set in a small Romanian city on December 22, 2005, the 16th anniversary of the downfall of the repressive communist regime of Nicolae Ceausescu, which technically occurred at 12:08, just after noon, on the same date in 1989. Virgil Jderescu (Teodor Corban), an entrepreneur who has prospered in the post-revolution free market era and now counts the local television channel among his assets, decides to devote his personal talk show today to commemorating the anniversary of the week-long revolution. His guests are an old, white maned and bearded, much beloved pensioner, Mr. Piscoci (Mircea Andreescu), known for his annual Santa Claus appearances over the years, and Professor Manescu (Ion Sapdaru), a seriously alcoholic local academic historian.

Virgil poses the question for discussion: did the people of this city participate actively in the revolution or not? The answer turns on whether locals were agitating against Ceausescu by demonstrating in the town square before the announcement of his downfall, or, instead, whether people merely came out of the woodwork afterward, when it was safe, to coattail on the revolutionary triumph courageously brought about by others, in Bucharest and elsewhere in the country.

The last hour of the film presents the talk show episode in real time, and it is as good as the very best of briefer political sketches in the salad years of Saturday Night Live. Virgil is the unctuous host, trying to satisfy his guests and the contentious viewers who phone in to criticize the discussants on live audio feed. Old Mr. Piscoci offhandedly, almost reluctantly, acknowledges that, yes, he was present on the scene in the square that morning, and no one challenges this. You get the sense that this fact, like everything in his life, is no big deal. In fact, he seems thoroughly bored with the proceedings and spends his time making paper boats and what look to me to be cootie catchers from notepaper on the table where the three principals sit.

Prof. Manescu on the other hand, nursing an especially foul hangover, asserts with all the pride he can muster under the circumstances that he certainly was present, calling for Ceausescu's scalp, in the hours leading up to the moment of capitulation. A woman phones in to state point blank that Manescu's lying, that she personally saw him drinking in a nearby tavern until well after the moment that C. stepped down. A male caller, whom Manescu had accused on the air by name of being a member of the Securitate - Ceausescu's thug police - who hit him during a scuffle in the square, admits that while it's true that he was a Securitate agent at that time, and that he was on duty in the square, because of those very facts he can vouch for the previous woman's assertion that Manescu was nowhere to be seen until later in the day. Manescu responds by first defending himself, then trying to elope from the station during a commercial break. He's brought back and spends the latter part of the show in a silent funk.

The TV station itself smacks of our familiar local cable access operations. A single staff person, an indifferent, skinny young man, runs the camera, mans the phones, helps Virgil chase after Manescu, and reaches his arm across the table at one point to sweep away Mr. Piscoci's paper boats. The whole show is steeped in dark, understated humor, with, of course, serious subtexts about false claims of political glory and the larger issue of whether anything worthy of the term revolution really occurred in Romania, or at least in their town, i.e., whether most people in Romania are better off today or not.

I'd love to give the film an "A" grade, but it is compromised by a creaking, protracted, confusing beginning: the first half hour is devoted to scenes in which each of the three principals, in their apartments, is awakening for the day. These scenes are shadowy; it's even hard to decipher who's who for a while. However, these scenes do serve to establish the fact that life for the characters other than Virgil is not very good, perhaps little better than before the revolution, if that. This film won the Camera d'Or Award for best debut feature last year at Cannes. My grades: 8/10 (B+) (Seen on 01/31/07)

Fido (2006)

Wanton homicide, zombies, slavery, bullying: yet it all makes for zany light comedy here

[8/10 · 5 February 2007]

Set in a middle class neighborhood in the imaginary town of Willard in the 1950s, this dark comedy with a light touch toys with such American obsessions as gun mania and violence, materialism and keeping up with the Joneses, fear of others, slavery, golf, and the disposing of the dead. Yes, it all sounds a bit heavy, but trust me on this, it's nearly as light as a feather.

Zombies are featured prominently among the characters. Crucial questions arise, such as: who will become a zombie (90% of the Willard folks choose this final path, while only 10% prefer a traditional funeral)? Who owns how many Zombies to do their bidding like robots (they've become a mark of social status)? And, what is the range of possible relationships that can be worked out between the living and the sort of reincarnated dead?

Somehow, director Andrew Currie, who also co-wrote the lively screenplay (with Robert Chomiak and Dennis Heaton), keeps this improbable material percolating along for an hour and a half without once faltering for want of a good laugh. A super cast helps: Carrie-Anne Moss, Billy Connolly, Dylan Baker, Henry Czerny, Tim Blake Nelson, Mary Black and Sonja Bennett are the principals, aided by young K'Sun Ray as Timmy, the innocent kid with a good heart who acts as fair witness to all the lunacy of the grownups. (Having seen her only in "Memento" and "The Matrix," I had no idea that Ms. Moss had such fine comedienne chops.)

The production design and music are exquisitely 50s, to a tee. Maybe this one isn't for everybody. It surely will be a hard film to beat for my annual Bizarro Award. But intelligent comedies that stay funny from start to finish are among the hardest won achievements in movie-making. For me anyway, "Fido" is a hoot! My grades: 8.5/10 (A-) (Seen on 01/30/07)

Miami Vice (2006)

Shamelessly superficial action flick makes you long for the TV series to restart

[5/10 · 28 January 2007]

In this bloated, interminable techno-testosteronic (rhymes with moronic) action flick, Miami vice detectives Sonny Crockett (Colin Farrell in the role made famous on TV by Don Johnson) and Rico Tubbs (Jamie Foxx, standing in for Philip Michael Thomas) can do anything that Batman or Sean Connery could ever do: look lethal force in the face on a daily basis, race gigantic power boats and sports cars, fly jet airplanes, and even bed Gong Li.

Michael Mann could have made a better film than this, for sure. After all, he was the Executive Producer of 110 episodes of the justifiably popular TV series (1984-1990), and more recently directed a very good docudrama, "The Insider" (1999). But for "Vice," Mann, who also wrote the screenplay, apparently succumbed to the belief - probably true - that today's mainstream audiences want escapist visual spectacle, lots of automatic weaponry, plenty of xenophobic slurs against Hispanics, Russians and other demographic outliers, and, of course, legions of sexy women.

Leave any hopes you might have for character development at the popcorn stand, unless you count Foxx's frowns and Feral's, wooops, I mean Farrell's silent little absence spells as signals of depth. The film basically plays like a comic strip.

There's little point in reviewing the plot, which is easy to follow in principle and impossible to follow in detail, since none of the players has the least notion of delivering lines with detectable diction. Thank Heavens for the few passages requiring subtitles. It's about drug cartels and rival gangs and big bucks and stuff like that. With a supporting cast the size of Philadelphia. (In Spanish, Cree & English). My grades: 5/10 (C) (Seen on 01/22/07)

The Last King of Scotland (2006)

Forest Whitaker is outstanding as Idi Amin in this otherwise mediocre docudrama

[7/10 · 28 January 2007]

Forest Whitaker is one of the finest yet most under-appreciated actors of our time. He is an extremely hard worker, having participated in 66 film and television acting projects over the past 25 years; and in that span he has produced and directed films as well. Among his performances, I highly esteem his Charlie Parker in Clint Eastwood's 1988 docudrama, "Bird," for which he won a Best Actor award at Cannes, and his role as a self styled Samurai assassin in Jim Jarmusch's 1999 film, "Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai." Splendid as those performances are, they pale in comparison to his personification of the Ugandan dictator, Idi Amin, in this docudrama about Amin and his relationship with a young (fictional) British doctor, Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy).

Amin, a fatherless youth from a dirt poor family, became a Ugandan Army officer trained by the British and later President from 1971 to 1979. If you wonder how megalomaniacal a character Amin was, just dig the title he is said to have once bestowed upon himself: "His Excellency President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin, VC, DSO, MC, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Sea, and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular." He idolized Scotland, often wore kilts, and also dubbed himself with the title used for this film (also the title for the novel written by Giles Foden upon which the film is based.

Regarded in the West as a buffoon, Amin became an increasingly dangerous and destructive tyrant over the years, perpetrating ruthless oppression against various ethnic and religious groups, Asians and Jews in particular. Estimates of the numbers slain by his regime vary from 80,000 to 500,000.

But Amin was not a simple fellow, certainly was no fool, and his initial rise to power seemed to derive from genuine populist sentiments and ambitions. Power, however, as we well know, corrupts. Amin's conduct in office darkens over time, and we see the changes. Whitaker's interpretation has Amin by turns eloquent, charming, visionary, ebullient, and, increasingly, arrogant and paranoidally hostile. If Amin was a man of extreme passions, appetites and mood swings, then Whitaker has nailed the man cold. It is an incredibly energetic, astonishing performance.

I wish I could say as much for the rest of the cast and narrative subtexts. But strip away Whitaker, look at the scenes and subtexts in which he is absent, and there's little to see but a soap opera. The Garrigan character is based a real man named Bob Astles, called "Major" Bob, a former British soldier who, according to Foden, inveigled himself into Amin's favor and became part of his apparatus of repression. British newspapers used to call Astles "Amin's White Rat." After Amin's fall, Astles was imprisoned for ten years in a Kampala jail.

James McAvoy is a charming, impish, natural comedian. He was terrific as a mischievous paraplegic in the irreverent 2004 comedy, "Rory O'Shea Was Here." McAvoy's strength as Rory is his downfall here: he's a bright eyed comedic twit miscast as a seriously ambitious and substantial personality. He's not believable: it defies all sensibilities that Amin could take him seriously, much less make him a close adviser.

And, like Rory O'Shea, McAvoy's Dr. Garrigan is easily distracted by attractive women he has no business chasing. He tries valiantly to seduce the Medical Director's wife at the health outreach clinic where he's originally assigned. Later he manages to bed and impregnate Amin's youngest and most attractive wife, Kay (Kerry Washington), right under Amin's nose. Yeah, sure. I'd almost say Garrigan got what he deserved in the end. Not a good idea to cuckhold a murderous African tyrant. Who would be so stupid as to try? My grades: 6.5/10 (low B) (But an A for Whitaker's performance.) (Seen on 01/25/07)

Russian Dolls (2005)

An immature 20-something may or may not commit himself to his girlfriend (yawn)

[6/10 · 28 January 2007]

Cédric Klapisch showed his breadth as a filmmaker when, in 1996, he completed two wonderful films in starkly contrasting genres and styles: "Chacun cherche son chat" ("When the Cat's Away"), an endearing light comedy about the eccentrics inhabiting a Parisian neighborhood, and "Un air de famille" ("Family Resemblances"), an intense, claustrophobic psychodrama about the propagation and feeding of neurosis within a family. He made other films after that, which I have not seen, and then came "L'Auberge espagnole" ("The Spanish Apartment") (2002) and now its sequel, "Russian Dolls," both of which, while wildly popular, I find quite dull, really boring in comparison with the two films he created a decade earlier.

Nothing much happens. The old international gang who grew fond of each other as college students in Barcelona (as depicted in "L'Auberge") reunite in St. Petersburg for the marriage of one of their old chums, William (Kevin Bishop), to a Russian girl, Natacha (Evguenya Obraztsova). This event brings to a head the conflict about commitment that has plagued the narcissistic, immature Xavier (Romain Duris) in his on-again-off-again relationship with the statuesque Wendy (Kelly Reilly). At one point Xavier escapes from Wendy's clutches for a brief romp with the dazzling beauty Celia (Lucy Gordon). And so it goes. Will Xavier ever grow up? Will Wendy's short skirts eventually disappear altogether? (Yawn)

I suppose these films are well received by younger adults everywhere, in part because they see reflected in the characters their own struggles to achieve and sustain intimacy, in part because the players come from so many places that younger viewers in almost any western nation can find one of their own on the screen here, and also because the ensemble is composed of good looking people. But the maturational issues are addressed ever so much better in Richard Linklater's "Before Sunrise" and "Before Sunset."

Besides Duris, Reilly and Bishop, also reunited for the sequel are Audrey Tautou (as Martine), Cécile De France (Isabelle), Irene Montalà (Neus), Cristina Brondo (Soledad), Federico D'Anna (Alessandro), Barnaby Metschurat (Tobias) and Christian Pagh (Lars). (Zzzzz) My grades: 5.5/10 (C+) (Seen on 01/23/07)

When the Road Bends... Tales of a Gypsy Caravan (2006)

Brilliantly crafted documentary celebrating Romani music & the musicians who play it

[9/10 · 28 January 2007]

If you like Roma music (and if you don't I hope you can be reincarnated until you do; it'll be worth it) you'll love this brilliantly crafted documentary film (titled "Gypsy Caravan" in the version circulating in the U.S.). Director Jasmine Dellal and her two fine cinematographers, Alain de Halleux and Albert Maysles, go on a U.S. tour in 2002 with five of the very best Romani bands around. Their music is to die for. Here's a sketch of each group:

"Fanfare Ciocarlia" is a 12 piece brass band from Zece Prajini, a NE Romanian village near the Moldavian border. Their music, sometimes referred to as "Balkan funk," blends Romanian, Roma, Turkish, Bulgarian, Serbian and even klezmer influences. They were featured in the recent German-Turkish hit drama, "Head On," and one of their numbers closes the comedy, "Borat."

"Taraf de Haidouks" (it means band of brigands - or outlaws) hails from the Romanian village of Clejani, SW of Bucharest. The players are called lautari, meaning traditional (folk) musicians. They have played with Yehudi Menuhin and the Kronos Quartet. The actor Johnny Depp is a big fan, after working with them in the Sally Potter film, "The Man Who Died." He once flew them to his nightclub in LA and paid them $10K to perform (Depp talks about them in this film). Their leader for many years was Nicolai Neaucescu, a droll violin player who busked wherever he went. Ms. Dellal, who was present for this screening, tells a story about Nicolai when the tour was playing in Berkeley, and he went busking around town. One listener was so moved that he gave Nicolai his gold watch. I had the pleasure of seeing "Taraf" perform a few years ago at the Vancouver (B.C.) Folk Music Festival. Between gigs, Mr. Neaucescu circulated through the Jericho Beach park grounds playing for tips. In its 25 year history, no previous performer had ever busked at the VFMF. Festival staff couldn't for the life of them figure out if this was OK or not.

"Antonio El Pipa," a Gypsy Flamenco ensemble from Andalucia, Spain, is led by the dancer Antonio, who was born in Jerez de la Frontera. Performing with the group is his aunt, Tia Juana la del Pipa, whose raw, almost basso voice is as earthy as one can possibly imagine (think Tom Waits here).

"Maharaja" (formerly Musafir) is a song and dance troupe from Rajasthan in NW India. The group is influenced by diverse traditions, including north Indian folk music, Arabic and Sufi. Their star is Sayari Sapera, a gorgeous young man who performs as a dazzlingly costumed female Sufi-style dancer.

Esma Redžepova is probably the best known Rom performer in Europe. Her career spans over 40 years and 15,000 concerts, many of them benefits for her humanitarian aid projects. One of her most famous songs is featured in the recent comedy, "Borat" (she claims this was used without her permission - another among the rumored questionable dealings of the "Borat" filmmakers). Known as "Queen of the Gypsies," she hails from Skopje, Macedonia, though for most of her career she has lived in Belgrade. She sings with the Teodosievski ensemble, named for her late husband and the band's founder, Stevo Teodosievski. The couple adopted 47 boys over the years, raising them and teaching them music in particular. Esma, as she is simply known everywhere, has been nominated twice for the Nobel Peace Prize for her human rights work on behalf of Roma people, and she also received an award from UNICEF for her humanitarian activities.

The music these groups create is sublimely exciting, amusing, and full of attitude. In the case of the eastern European groups, there is also more than a touch of what one might regard as a sort of blues idiom. The music is one of two wondrous elements in this film. The other is the superb way in which the film itself is built. Ms. Dellal blends concert footage with scenes of the musicians at leisure or dressing for performances. The musicians delight in getting to know each other.

Ms. Dellal also visits the villages where these people come from. There are remarkable views of the musicians' homes and families, townspeople, buildings, farm animals, a camel pulling a cart through the street, countryside, you name it, in places like Jerez, Zece Prajini, rural Rajasthan and Clejani, where the indomitable Nicolai, while showing us his house, tells us he may build a pool there "like Johnny Depp's."

The photography and editing - indeed all filmic production values - are first rate. This is quite a step up for Ms. Dellal from her 1999 film, "American Gypsy: A Stranger in Everybody's Land." That film featured some interesting characters but was not nearly as well made as "Caravan." For lovers of world music and cultural diversity, "Caravan" is a film you must not miss. (In Romani, Spanish, various North Indian dialects & English) My grades: 9/10 (A) (Seen at the NWFC's Reel Music series, 01/26/07)

Canvas (2006)

Insightful look at the impact of mental illness on the family

[8/10 · 12 January 2007]

This debut feature film by writer-director Joseph Greco dramatizes the impact of mental illness on the family. Mary Marino (Marcia Gay Harden) suffered the onset of a schizophrenic disorder in her early 40s, a couple years before the film's story begins, and her illness has made life very difficult for her, her husband John (Joe Pantoliano), and their 10 year old son Chris (Devon Gearhart).

Ms. Harden is quite convincing. She gets the furtive, doubting look of a distrustful, paranoid patient. She has emotional displays that are by turns inappropriately silly, sad or enraged. She is capable of socially disruptive, even dangerous, behavior. She makes shadowy references to outside forces that may have wired the house and are spying on everyone. She worries obsessively about her son's safety. She hears voices that cause her acute psychic pain. She's ambivalent about treatment. A particularly disruptive episode, one that causes commotion in the neighborhood, brings the police and Mary's readmission to the state mental hospital for extended care. John and Chris must carry on without her, and they do.

What's special about this film is it's central focus on the impact Mary has on her family. John is a good but simple man who works with his hands, a foreman for a house building crew employed by a developer. He tries to do right by Mary and Chris, but his coping skills are limited and often sorely tested, and he can react blindly at times out of his frustration. The role of John, wonderfully managed by Pantoliano, is reminiscent of Peter Falk's character Nick, the frantic, bumbling yet obviously caring husband of a psychotic woman, in John Cassavetes' 1974 film, "A Woman Under the Influence."

It's good to see Pantoliano playing a sympathetic character for a change, not the usual nasty fellow we know from his Teddy in "Memento" or Ralphie Cifaretto in "The Sopranos." Ten year old Devon Gearhart is a delight. He not only has charm, but conveys a remarkably broad range of emotional responses – joy, wonder, embarrassment, anger, sadness – that seem entirely natural and authentic.

We see and feel Chris's extreme embarrassment when Mary rushes aboard a school bus to embrace him and reassure herself that he is safe. When Chris spends his birthday at an amusement park with friends, Mary arrives unannounced and uninvited with a birthday cake to crash the kids-only party. Chris takes abuse from his peers in the aftermath of such episodes: they taunt him about his crazy mother. He begins skipping classes as a result. Chris and John are both put to pain when Mary erupts in the waiting area of a restaurant, and on another occasion when she wildly dashes outdoors in a rainstorm and creates a flap.

There is a brief bedroom scene while Mary is home on pass from the hospital, when lovemaking is interrupted because Mary is frightened of her skin being exposed and must peek through the drapes to be sure no one outside is watching. It is subtly made clear that her preoccupations have stifled John's arousal, and we can imagine this has happened before. We also share times of nostalgic reminiscence and bereavement, when Chris or John pauses, tearfully, to recall happier times with Mary, before her illness, and mourns the loss of the wife and mother they once knew.

The ending is somewhat ambiguous. John and Chris have cemented a mutually supportive relationship, while Mary is away in the hospital, by building a sailboat together. When the boat is finished, and the fellows invite Mary to join them on its maiden voyage, she is still in the hospital and quite symptomatic, hearing voices and experiencing difficult mood swings. Mary musters enough insight to realize that if she accepts the invitation, her behavior could deteriorate and spoil the day for her loved ones. So she declines to go along.

The voyage is a huge success: we can feel and see the bonding that occurs between father and son. The next scene at first glance seems to show Mary with John and Chris aboard the boat, perhaps on another outing soon after the first. Instead, in an inspired sight gag, the boat is revealed to be resting atop a trailer being pulled around the hospital parking lot. Mary is obviously contented, relaxed, at peace. Her husband and son are close by and also happy. It is the picture of a normal family at play, and these final images conjure the impression that Mary has turned a positive corner on the road toward health.

The fact that the film has a happy, hopeful ending does not trouble me. It is perfectly plausible for a person suffering from schizophrenia to make significant strides toward regaining normal emotional experience and behavioral self control, with effective treatment. My concern is that viewers of "Canvas" who are uninformed about schizophrenia might leap to the conclusion that Mary has made great strides toward recovery in a very brief time, failing to consider that this may just be another transitory mood. Such viewers might also attribute her improvement to the loving, inclusive attitudes of her family, rather than to proper psychiatric treatment. (On first viewing I myself had such a take; I had to see the film a second time to gain critical perspective.)

Of course we know that good professional care and positive family support are not mutually exclusive influences for the better: they serve synergistically to aid recovery. The ambiguity at the end aside, "Canvas" offers a uniquely insightful, compassionate perspective about mental illness within the context of the family. It deepens our appreciation for families who must carry on their own lives while enduring heartaches and a great sense of loss when their afflicted loved ones undergo radical disruptions of their psychological integrity and capacity to return their love. My grades: 8/10 (B+) (Seen in 01/07).

Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin' About Him?) (2010)

Great account of Nilsson's life; great talking heads; but - make that BUT - not nearly enough music

[7/10 · 9 January 2007]

Biodoc on the enigmatic singer/songwriter who, according to friends' accounts, spent the last 15 years of his relatively short life seemingly on a mission of self-destruction. He died at 52, overweight and dissipated, of heart disease, after a protracted rampage of virtually non-stop overindulgence in alcohol, cigarettes, marijuana and cocaine, raucous partying, and flagrant misuse of his vocal instrument (he confided to a friend that he shouted out his lyrics at one performance with such force that spattered blood was left on the microphone).

All of this despite the fact that he was: (1) widely considered to have perhaps the most gifted pop singing ability of his generation; (2) successful, after years of effort, in terms of industry acclaim - a Grammy, an Oscar, a decent recording contract with a top label, and at least two stellar albums - 'Nilsson Schmilsson' (originals), and 'A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night' (standards); and (3) very happily married (for the third time), with a lovely young family that he seemed to adore.

The film's strengths begin with the completeness of its account of Nilsson's life, including fine use of archival film footage and many stills of Nilsson; the editors do an especially good job of bringing movement to the stills. We learn of his close ties to John Lennon and, later, Ringo Starr (Lennon often said that Nilsson was his favorite American musician).

Even more impressive are the talking heads, often a documentary's weakest aspect. Here we get people like Perry Botkin, Jr., Ray Cooper, Mickey Dolenz, Terry Gilliam, Mark Hudson, Eric Idle, Rick Jarrard, Randy Newman, Van Dyke Parks, Jimmy Webb and Robin Williams, all telling amazing stories about Nilsson – many uproariously funny, others deeply pathetic - and everyone conveying their deep affection for him. Equally informative and moving are interview segments with Nilsson's wives – Annie and Una, his son Zach, and cousin Doug Hoefer. Best set of heads I can recall in a biodoc.

The most glaring deficiency of the film is that it crowds out Nilsson's music. Even the performance of his greatest hit, "Without You," is cut short after about 8 bars. Arrrrgh!! There is no excuse for this, not given that the movie runs a full two hours as it is. Lose a few head shots and we could have heard at least that song through, and perhaps one or two more, like "One," or his Oscar winning cover of "Everybody's Talking.'" The filmmakers are simply too intent on plumbing Nilsson's psychological mystique and not attentive enough to his music. My grades: 7.5/10 (low B+) (Seen at the NWFC's Reel Music series, 01/07/07)

New Orleans Music in Exile (2006)

Poor production values and variable performances compromise a good idea for a film

[5/10 · 9 January 2007]

Director Mugge and his team went searching for New Orleans musicians who had dispersed from that city in the first few months after Katrina. They traveled to places like Austin, Memphis and Baton Rouge, but also looked around New Orleans for players who had returned or never left.

The film is an amalgam of footage from the storm and flood, post flood damage in the city, the current (end of 2005) club scene in NO, and scenes at venues in other cities, featuring a number of bands in performance and several talking heads, the best known being Cyril Neville, Mac Rebennack (Dr. John) and Irma Thomas. Neville gets off one of the best quips when he says that he doesn't think of NO as a point in the deep south, but as the northern most point in the Caribbean.

I think this documentary was made on the cheap: it suffers from poor production values, the photography is mediocre, the editing unimaginative. The bands skew decidedly towards rock and roll, not my sense of what is unique about the NO musical heritage. At least one group is little better than a garage band. Marcia Ball offers the best singing performance in the film.

I did find it interesting to catch a glimpse inside several of the well known NO music venues, places like The Spotted Cat, Maple Leaf, Snug Harbor, Palm Tavern, and Irma Thomas and her husband Emile Jackson's Lion's Den, sadly now ruined, probably beyond repair, by flood damage. The concept for this film was a very good one, but the product's main value is and will be archival. My grades: 5/10 (C) (Seen at the NWFC's Reel Music series, 01/06/07)

Notes on a Scandal (2006)

Electrifying psychodrama about two complex women drawn to each other for quite different reasons

[9/10 · 6 January 2007]

Brilliant psychodrama about an intense relationship that develops between two London high school teachers. Barbara Covett (Dame Judi Dench), who teaches history, is cynical, lonely and close to retirement; Sheba Hart (Cate Blanchett), an art teacher, is 37, married and the mother of two teens, surprisingly naïve, a new arrival on the faculty. Both women are complex characters, vulnerable, needy, and these shared attributes draw them toward one another.

Sheba gets off to a rotten start at the school, unable to control her students' behavior. Barbara, who brooks no misconduct, having honed over the years skills that would do a drill sergeant proud, comes to Sheba's aid after a terrible row in Sheba's classroom. Barbara reaches out to befriend Sheba after this, and we gradually come to understand that Barbara, a spinster, is in fact a well closeted lesbian who remains bereft after another teacher spurned her and actually fled her job and the city to get away from Barbara the previous summer. Now attracted to Sheba, she makes a number of well calculated efforts to insinuate herself into the younger teacher's life.

Trouble is, Sheba is preoccupied not only with the challenge of her new career, but also with her unfulfilling marriage to an older writer, Richard (Bill Nighy), and the demands of her post pubescent, boy struck daughter, Polly (Juno Temple) and Downs son Ben (Max Lewis). As if there weren't enough already on her plate, Sheba, who has no clue about nor interest in any erotic entanglement with Barbara or any other woman, lets herself become involved in a sexual liaison with one of her young students, 15 year old Steven (Andrew Simpson).

Barbara fortuitously discovers their affair, lets Sheba know she knows, then hastens to pledge to keep their secret, if only Sheba will end her little romance before real damage is done. It is through this manipulation that Barbara intends to intensify her grip on Sheba. From here a series of misadventures unfolds, and no one is spared a stiff dose of humiliation and dislocation: not Barbara, not Sheba, Richard, Steven or anyone else associated with them. A scandal of broad proportions is indeed in the making.

The director, Richard Eyre, has done very good work with Judi Dench before, in "Iris." The sizzling screenplay, by Patrick Marber, was adapted from Zoe Heller's 2003 novel, "What Was She Thinking: Notes on a Scandal." Marber pushes the psychodynamic limits here, moving the viewer close to the tipping point for suspension of disbelief, as he did in his equally accomplished screenplay for the marvelous 2004 film, "Closer," adapted from his own stage script.

There are two developments in particular that test us. Why should Sheba yield so readily to young Steven's amorous overtures? And, later, why should the usually cool headed Barbara make such boldly possessive demands of Sheba, right in front of Sheba's family, in the nasty encounter the day Barbara's cat must be put down? The answer in both cases has to do with the vulnerability, the longing, that these women have been enduring, expressed by each in a manner consistent with her psychological makeup. Both are close to desperation.

We've been told and even shown, flat out, after all, that Sheba has a vicious and unloving mother. Presumably she was twisted to severe neuroticism long before she ever married her older professor. She persevered, raising two kids, one a tough challenge, but now, stressed by her teaching job and out of love at home, her reserves have run dry and she is at high risk for impulsive behavior. Barbara, we can surmise, has struggled through painful decades of despair over her largely unfulfilled homophilia.

This is a splendidly constructed and enacted drama of the heart, full of scathing humor (from Barbara) as well as cliff hanger suspense and emotional tension. All the players named are good, and they are aided by others: all the roles are uniformly well performed. For Ms. Dench, it's a turn on a par with Helen Mirren's Elizabeth II in The Queen - these are the best two film performances by an English speaking actress in 2006. Indeed, these two are perhaps Britain's finest female actors of their generation. Ms. Blanchett's work is evolving toward a similar distinction among performers of her generation. My grades: 9/10 (A) (Seen on 01/05/07)

United 93 (2006)

Agonizing docudrama of the fate of the fourth plane hijacked on 9/11

[9/10 · 6 January 2007]

A taut, saddening, intensely realistic docudrama about the fate of the fourth airliner hijacked on September 11, 2001, the one intended to hit the Capitol in Washington, DC, or so we all imagine, but that crashed instead in the Pennsylvania countryside, killing the crew and all 92 passengers, including the four young Islamic terrorists who had seized the plane. Much of the film depicts the increasingly frantic efforts of civilian air traffic controllers and air force emergency response personnel to first comprehend and then take preventive action on that horrid morning, as the saga of four hijackings, and the destruction that followed, unfolded.

These scenes are intercut with others inside the cabin, aboard United flight 93, as terrified passengers and crew try to survive and retake control of the plane. What is underscored so effectively is our nation's shocking lack of preparedness for such an unprecedented attack. Adding to the realism of the film story is the participation of a number of actual personnel (air traffic controllers and military figures) who were involved that terrible day, i.e., playing themselves.. (In English & Arabic) My grades: 8.5/10 (A-) (Seen on 01/05/07)

Wide Awake (2006)

Winsome confessional narrative, decent intro to the problem of chronic insomnia & terrific montage work

[8/10 · 3 January 2007]

The filmmaker, Alan Berliner, has suffered from lifelong insomnia. He gets only two to four hours sleep most nights, and as a result he feels fatigued and irritable nearly all the time. On the other hand, this night owl does his most creative work while everyone else is asleep. So his insomnia pattern is highly reinforced by his proved nocturnal productivity. In any event, this film demonstrates his problem and calls upon the collective expertise of five well regarded sleep scientists to enlighten him and the viewer about the general problem of insomnia.

The film serves another purpose as well: to present the story of Berliner's life, his autobiography, or at least parts of it. He covers everyone from his grandparents to his new infant son. We get to visit with his mother and his sister and see his baby pictures, as well as stills taken in 1984 when he was just getting rolling in film-making. Berliner also shows off his very impressive collections of film clips, photos, sound effects, newspaper clippings, and found objects (a drawer full of wristwatch parts, for example). What we have here is an impassioned, driven, obsessive fellow, overworked by his own decree. Imaginative, fast paced visual sequences in this film demonstrate that Berliner is, among other talents, a first rate film editor, an astonishing master of montage.

I invited two internationally known sleep researchers – Robert Sack and Alfred Lewy - who happen to be good buddies and faculty colleagues of mine, to attend this screening with me. We spoke together over a beer after the film, which both of them thoroughly enjoyed. Dr. Sack, who created the sleep medicine program at my medical school, OHSU, is in fact eager to acquire a DVD copy of the film for use as an instructional aid.

Drs. Lewy and Sack both felt that the film was really more about Alan Berliner than about sleep disorders. For example, the doctors call attention to the fact that specific treatment options are alluded to in only hazy terms. The use of melatonin and bright light as treatments for delayed sleep phase syndrome (DSPS), which is what Berliner suffers from, are not spelled out in any useful detail (e.g., melatonin dose and optimal timing; type, timing and duration of exposure of bright light).

All three of us (Lewy, Sack and I) also have our doubts about Mr. Berliner's level of motivation for treatment, given the upside of his disorder, i.e., his record of nocturnal productivity. Anyone in such circumstances could hardly be faulted for having trepidations about correcting DSPS. Also, any behavioral pattern marked by such chronicity – 30 to 40 years perhaps in the case of Berliner's insomnia – is difficult to change by any means.

Curiously, Dr. Sack notes, few "night owls" - or, for that matter, "morning larks" (those with the opposite disorder, Advanced Sleep Phase Syndrome, people who wake up very early and go to sleep early as well) - seek treatment. Most somehow adapt themselves to their disorder, tailoring their lives accordingly, as Berliner has so obviously done. Clinically, Drs. Sack and Lewy tell me, there is an overlap between mood disorders and sleep phase disorders (though we saw or heard no evidence that depression is a problem for Berliner).

All-in-all I would say that this film (a) is highly entertaining, and (b) works fairly well on both the level of confessional narrative and as an introductory overview of the problem of deeply entrenched insomnia. The film was produced by HBO and will be shown on the HBO channel in May, 2007. My grades: 8/10 (B+) (Seen on 12/30/06)

The Painted Veil (2006)

Merchant-Ivory Redux, but the location (China's southern Guangxi Province) is sublime

[7/10 · 3 January 2007]

Watching the trailer for this film several times, I thought, oh, oh, what we've probably got here is a production reminiscent of typical Merchant-Ivory fluff: a so-so enacted drama wrapped in a gorgeous travelogue to disguise the movie's shortcomings. Turns out that's about right.

The story, adapted from the novel by Somerset Maugham, is set in 1925 in China. It concerns the frayed relationship of a young married couple, neither of whom is attractive enough to me to care much about, one way or the other. Walter Fane (Edward Norton) is an English microbe hunter, a humorless workaholic, trying to stem the evil tide of a cholera epidemic. His wife, Kitty (Naomi Watts), has the imagination of a jackrabbit.

All Kitty can think of to relieve her boredom is to strike up an affair with a narcissistic, very much married fellow, Charlie Townsend (Liev Schreiber). Oh, well, to paraphrase Rummy, you don't go into a movie that has the very best group of characters you could ever want, you go with the group the filmmakers have given you. And, so, it is difficult to warm to the opening of love between the Fanes, after they leave Shanghai in favor of the isolated back country where the epidemic is raging.

In fact, it is the rugged, isolated location where most of the story takes place that is the most attractive aspect of this film. Guangxi Province, in southern China, features spiky limestone mountains and glorious rivers. Thank goodness a skilled DP, Stuart Dryburgh, was on hand to record the stupendous beauty of the setting. The couple sitting next to us at the screening had biked through Guangxi just last summer. They say the area is virtually no different today than as depicted in 1925. The towns are humble. Carts drawn by livestock, and wooden passenger conveyances carried by men on foot, are still quite common.

The best turns are by Toby Jones, as the dissipated but sweet ex-pat, Waddington; Diana Rigg as the Mother Superior of a local orphanage where Kitty finds useful work for a change, teaching music to the kids; and Anthony Wong Chau-Sang as Col. Yu, an ultra cool military attaché to Dr. Fane, who saves Fane's bacon by subtly intimidating the local warlord into allowing proper disposition of deceased cholera victims. The music throughout is lustrous, brilliant, too much so in fact. The music is downright commanding, providing an unavoidable thrust of manipulation that is all too familiar to us from a gazzilion Hollywood extravaganzas. (In Mandarin & English) My grades: 6.5/10 (low B) (Seen on 12/28/06)

The Good Shepherd (2006)

Superb, intense account of the inception and early years of the C.I.A.

[9/10 · 3 January 2007]

Superb pseudo-docudrama using fictitious characters and narrative to represent a more-or-less accurate account of the origins and early operations of the Central Intelligence Agency (C.I.A.). Matt Damon assumes a role against type here, as the carefully meticulous, self-controlled, colorless protagonist Edward Wilson, who is a pivotal higher up in the CIA in the 1950s and 60s. His devotion to family and to his job inevitably leads him into crises of priorities and conscience for which there are no satisfactory solutions.

The other subtext of importance is the pervasive sense of distrust that overtakes Wilson and everyone else in the agency. Who's spying on whom? Who in the agency is a double agent? Is the Russian spy who flips actually the fellow he claims to be? Damon offers a brilliant turn, one in which he sheds the whip smart cockiness we saw in his characters in "The Departed," "Good Will Hunting," and "Rounders," among other roles, in favor of a plodding, depressive, burdened yet resolute character, just the traits one might expect in a principled man who carries the shame and responsibility associated with his father's suicide years earlier.

The rest of the superb cast are also fascinating to watch, including fine turns by Alec Baldwin, William Hurt, Michael Gambon, John Turturro, Billy Crudup, John Sessions and DeNiro himself. Mr. DeNiro can take credit for evoking these uniformly excellent performances. Angelina Jolie, as Edwards' wife Margaret, is left behind in this fast company, adding only ornamentation to the proceedings. My grades: 8.5/10 (A-) (Seen on 12/29/06)

Men at Work (2006)

Four guys, two women and a very tall rock, but interesting

[7/10 · 27 December 2006]

A bare bones synopsis of this film might lead you to expect that it is lethally boring. Four middle aged buddies are returning to Tehran from a trip to the mountains, trying to get back in time to watch an important soccer match on TV. Their homeward journey grinds to a halt when they round a curve in the highway and are confronted by a natural monolith, a 10 foot high, narrow rock formation, projecting straight up out of the ground, overlooking the canyon below. They spend the rest of the movie trying to topple it. Hmmmmm. Not a narrative arc that causes gooseflesh exactly, am I right? What makes this short movie almost spellbinding instead has nothing to do with the rock, but everything to do with the etchings of character that unfold as each man reacts to the circumstances, and they all kill a lot of time just doing guyspeak, largely about their women, past and present. Fleshing out that theme, one might say, are appearances by two of the women in their lives who – either inadvertently or by design – show up at the rock project. They too prove to be intriguing and contrasting personalities.

This film, based on a story by Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami, is reminiscent of the work of John Cassavetes, and, like his films, this one is not for everyone's taste. Even an Iranian attendee left half way through. But not us. (In Farsi) My grades: 6.5/10 (low B) (Seen on 12/18/06)

The Cave of the Yellow Dog (2005)

Life and times of a contemporary nomadic Mongolian shepherd's family

[7/10 · 27 December 2006]

Byambasuren Davaa, a Mongolian ex-pat filmmaker living in Germany, here follows up his 2004 documentary masterpiece, "The Story of the Weeping Camel," with another tale about the daily lives of a real nomadic shepherd family – the Batchuluuns – that live on the isolated Mongolian veld.

"Weeping Camel" featured an intense drama, chock full of suspense, when a postpartum camel rejects its albino newborn, thereby threatening its life. "Yellow Dog" offers no comparable crisis or suspense. It is in fact more than anything a sweet children's story. The older daughter, Nansal, who's around 9, finds a stray pup to dote on as a pet. But her father, Urjindorj, wants the dog – Zocher - lost pronto, fearing that it was raised by wolves that might show up and slaughter the family's goats. Will Nansal get to keep her beloved pooch? There is a brief yet dangerous turning point in this story, one that modifies Urjindorj's attitude.

The story, which, like "Camel," also provides allusions to the supernatural beliefs of these people, takes place over a summer, and, as autumn draws close, we have the opportunity to witness the step by step dismantling of the family's commodious yurt and its furnishings, as they prepare to migrate to more propitious winter grazing land. It's a far cry from car camping. (In Mongolian & German) My grades: 7/10 (high B). (Seen on 12/09/06)

Stranger Than Fiction (2006)

Zany story built of nonsense that is very funny if you don't analyze the plot

[8/10 · 27 December 2006]

A delightful confection made of pure nonsense, this romantic comedy features an outrageous screenplay, by Zack Helm, that rivals the zany imaginings in Charlie Kaufman's scripts for "Being John Malkovich," "Adaptation" and "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind." Harold Crick (Will Ferrell) is a gangly, nerdish bachelor IRS agent who is obsessed with numbers (his favorite word is "integer"), a math savant who can solve complex arithmetic problems instantly in his head. His most prized possession is a hi-tech wristwatch. Every one of his daily routines involves split-second timing to save up the minutes for…well, nothing in particular, since his life is utterly sterile, devoid of friends and interests.

One day Harold's pristine world is invaded…by a voice, a woman's voice, a voice with an English accent that narrates his every move as he makes it. Try as he might, he cannot shake the voice. He consults a shrink (Helen Hunt, in a fine little cameo in which she assures him he has schizophrenia); he takes a vacation, but nothing works. Finally he consults a literature professor, Jules Hilbert (Dustin Hoffman), after someone suggests that he may somehow have become a character in a novel being written by the woman whose voice has begun to ordain his conduct. Hilbert asks a bunch of questions to try to discern a pattern that would allow him to accurately peg the identity of such an author.

In fact the notion that he is a character in a novel proves to be true, and the novelist in question is the celebrated Kay Eiffel (Emma Thompson), who has been suffering through an agonizing case of writer's block in pursuing her new manuscript about…yes…Harold Crick, of course, the bachelor IRS nerd. She's stuck trying to find a way to kill him off (the protagonist in every one of her highly successful books dies). The publishers are so concerned as Eiffel falls further and further behind the deadline for completion that they send over their in-house special assistant/baby sitter for blocked authors, Penny Escher (Queen Latifah), who tries to soothe the agitated, chain smoking Eiffel and pull her through to success.

The other pivotal character in this crazy yarn is the woman who becomes Harold's unlikely love interest: Ana Pascal (Maggie Gyllenhaal), a casual, tattooed, New Agey bakery owner who at first glance seems to be everything Harold is not. He only meets her when her case of underpaid taxes comes up for audit and is assigned to him. They form an intense mutual dislike at first, but all of that gradually changes.

So how is this weird predicament going to be resolved? Where does life leave off and fiction begin? Life emulating art emulating life, and so on. Is Harold inexorably doomed to whatever fate Eiffel has in store for him, assuming she can break through her block to have anything at all in store? I'll leave you with these existential questions to mull over. If you see this film, prepare yourself in advance by repeating at least 100 times: "I will not suffer trying to make any sense of this story; I will simply yield to its pleasures." My grades: 7.5/10 (low B+) (Seen on 12/26/06)

Sweet Land (2005)

Wonderfully nostalgic, funny, sad, ironic tale of immigrant farmers in Minnesota

[9/10 · 27 December 2006]

Delightful, richly imagined story of a young immigrant woman who comes from Norway to Minnesota in 1919 as a "mail order bride" to marry a Norwegian farmer. By turns slapstick funny, tender, ironic and sad, this movie successfully evokes the difficult life of foreign homesteaders in a new land, in a story told simply, with no pretensions and with a wondrous range of nuances.

We confront outrageous instances of religious, ethnic and political bigotry, and the cruel predations of wealthy money lenders who don't blink an eye when pressing foreclosures, ruining families who have sat elbow to elbow with them at church every Sunday for years. But we also see examples of kindheartedness, longing for love and gradually dawning romance, individual integrity and group justice, not to mention hilarious moments, both intentional and unintended.

Inge (Elizabeth Reaser, a luminous beauty) is the stalwart German woman who comes to marry the reticent Olaf (Tim Guinee), who had thought she was Norwegian like him, since she came from a town in Norway. Olaf is a character straight out of a Garrison Keillor monologue: he's the quintessential shy Norwegian bachelor farmer.

Inge, on the other hand, is deferential only because she can't speak English or Norwegian, only German, and that only with the church pastor, Rev. Sorrensen (John Heard), who refuses to conduct the wedding because Inge has no citizenship papers and, ironically, he is suspicious of her German roots, in a time when anti-German sentiment was still at a peak following WW I. Once Inge's got a handle on language, she starts to show her pluck, for, beneath her stunning physical beauty, Inge is in fact a forceful woman.

Comic relief is afforded in a marvelous turn by Alan Cumming as Frandsen, another - and altogether inadequate – farmer. Rather than actually work at farming, Frandsen would much rather entertain his wife and nine kids, and his friends, with funny gestures and tunemaking. Cumming's performance reminds me of Ray Bolger as the scarecrow in Wizard of Oz, or Håkan Hagegård, as Papageno in Bergman's "The Magic Flute," or some of the masters of physical comedy in the silent film era. Rounding out a superb cast are Ned Beatty as Harmo, a ruthless banker, and Alex Kinston as Frandsen's wife, Brownie.

Director Ali Selim, a native of St. Paul, Minnesota, had a highly successful career making commercials for television before undertaking this picture, his debut feature narrative film. He worked from a short story by Bemidji writer Will Weaver, called "Gravestone Made of Wheat." The movie was shot on location in a rural area of southwest Minnesota. This film will leave you laughing and crying. It is a treasure. (In English, German and Norwegian) My grades: 8.5/10 (A-) (Seen on 12/26/06)

Candy (2006)

Incredibly accurate, dramatically compelling story of heroin addicts in love

[9/10 · 27 December 2006]

Here's the all around best film about drug addicts since Gus Van Sant's 1989 cult hit, "Drugstore Cowboy." Specifically with reference to heroin addiction (the characters in "Cowboy" were polysubstance prescription drug addicts), "Candy" offers a far more representative and fully developed picture of that particular addiction than many of its predecessors, like "Man With the Golden Arm," "High Art," "Requiem for a Dream" or the recent film, "Clean," and it holds its own when compared with "Trainspotting" and "Pure," two of the all time best junkie films.

Though it's a love story, "Candy's" narrative arc is in fact the arc of addiction itself. Dan (Heath Ledger), an addicted slacker, meets and falls in love with Candy (Abbie Cornish), a beautiful artist, truly a vision of womanly perfection, candy for the eye and the heart, among other organs. I suppose Candy sees in Dan what some vulnerable women all too often find attractive: somebody to dote upon and look after, possibly rehabilitate, change into the man of her dreams. We then follow the couple through the bliss of early love, then marriage, then down the rabbit hole into ever more serious mutual addiction, for Candy almost begs to be initiated into heroin use early on.

Don't get me wrong, though. This is no cut and dried clinical saga. It may resemble many heartbreaking case histories, but this story is well written and well acted; it's got sturdy dramatic legs to stand on. Apart from being drop dead gorgeous, Ms. Cornish gives a highly skilled turn. She goes through so many poignant changes, ranging from naïf to drug addled vixen.

Mr. Ledger, fresh off his astonishing performance in "Brokeback Mountain," here gives us another troubled, morose character not unlike "Brokeback's" Ennis or his earlier, smaller role as the suicidal Sonny in "Monster's Ball." Ledger needs to watch out lest he become typecast as an actor for depressive characters. But he is so good at them! Aiding the proceedings is a splendid supporting turn by Geoffrey Rush as Casper the friendly dope maker, a chemistry professor who has turned his skills to perfecting designer opioids.

The ending is so similar to that in "Drugstore Cowboy" that I suspect a homage was planned. But that takes nothing away from the dramatic appropriateness of "Candy's" wrap up. Mark this one down as one of the best psychflix ever made about addictions. My grades: 8.5/10 (A-)(Seen on 12/09/06)

Wondrous Oblivion (2003)

Adultery, racism and anti-Semitism wrapped in a feel good movie. Huh?

[9/10 · 27 December 2006]

What if you're a studio executive and I come to you to pitch my idea for a film? I tell you it's about adultery, racism and anti-Semitism. Oh, and, yes, I almost forgot: it's mainly a feel good, family friendly movie. You'd think I'm nuts, right? Well, could be, but in a nutshell that's what we have here in "Wondrous Oblivion," an audacious, charming little film in which heart trumps hate as people sort out a crisis in a working class London neighborhood.

Set in the 1960s, the story concerns two immigrant families - one Jewish, the other Afro-Jamaican – interlopers in an otherwise traditional white Anglo neighborhood. The catalyst for action is eleven year old David Wiseman (Sam Smith), whose desire to excel in cricket is not matched by his bumbling play on the field. When the blacks move in, two doors down from the Wisemans, the neighborhood gossips crank up their whispered invective, but the newest family on the block presents a wondrous opportunity for David.

The reason: as soon as the kitchenware is unboxed, Dennis (Delroy Lindo, one of my favorite actors) sets about erecting a tall net enclosing his entire rear yard so he can coach his daughter Judy (Leonie Elliott), David's age mate, to improve her cricket skills. Before long David makes friends with both and is included in the practices. His skills blossom, and soon he morphs from goat to hero on his boys' school team.

Meanwhile, on David's home street, matters turn progressively nasty. Hate notes turn up in Dennis's mailbox, and, because the Wisemans have befriended the West Indians, for the first time after years of living there, they also begin to receive anti-Semitic hate notes. Complicating matters further, David's mother Ruth (Emily Woof), love starved at home, where her husband Victor (Stanley Townsend) is forever preoccupied with business issues, gets the hots for Dennis and pursues him.

Can all of this end in anything other than pathos? By golly, the answer here is yes, though it requires of the viewer more than the usual degree of suspension of disbelief. Check out this gem of a film. You wonder why it has taken three years to find domestic theatrical distribution. But then the answer comes: the film no doubt lacks broad U.S. commercial appeal (its exclusive run here was at a neighborhood art house). The acting is terrific all around. Sam Smith, around whom the narrative stands or falls, is a quirky and entirely endearing youngster, and his turn succeeds completely. (In English & Hebrew) My grades: 8.5/10 (A-) (Seen on 12/18/06)