Movie Review Martyrs

Martyrs (2008) 

Directed by Pascal Laugier

Written by Pascal Laugier

Starring Morjana Alaoui, Mylen Jampanoi

Release Date September 3rd, 2008 

As part of our Christmas celebration each year on the Everyone is a Critic Movie Podcast, myself, and my co-hosts, Bob Zerull and Josh Adams engage in movie gift exchange. We each buy each other a movie, watch the movie and then talk about it in a special bonus podcast. This year, Bob’s not so Secret Santa gift for me was the bizarre and fascinating 2008 French horror movie, Martyrs.

French Director Pascal Laugier opens the DVD presentation of Martyrs with an apology. Laugier wants you to know that he’s sorry for what he has committed to film and while it’s half-hearted and self-deprecating, I appreciated it nonetheless. I actually don’t feel he has much to apologize for. Strangely, though, I tend to be a scold when it comes to movies that fall under the banner of "torture porn," I found something else in the movie beyond the simplistic and dismissive labeling.

Martyrs stars Mylene Jampanoi as Lucie, a woman we meet as she was escaping unimaginable torture. Taken to a nearby orphanage, Lucie is cared for and raised and eventually makes a friend in Anna (Morjana Alaoui). This all passes by during the credits and a brief prologue scene that shows us that Lucie suffers from delusions that push her to self-harm.

Cut to 15 years later and we have no idea where Lucie and Anna are. We find ourselves in a sunny suburban kitchen. A normal-ish family is having breakfast with the familiar bickering of teenage siblings and the loving scolding of parents all while food is served and enjoyed. A knock at the door interrupts things but not as much as the shotgun blast that follows. It’s Lucie, she’s come to kill this entire family.

Find my full length review in the Horror Community on Vocal. 

Movie Review Vicky Christina Barcelona

Vicky Christina Barcelona 

Directed by Woody Allen 

Written by Woody Allen 

Starring Scarlett Johannson, Rebecca Hall, Javier Bardem, Patricia Clarkson, Penelope Cruz 

Release Date August 15th, 2008 

Published November 23rd, 2022

Let's address the Woody Allen in the room. Vicki Christina Barcelona was written and directed by a man who has credibly been accused of abuse. It's inescapable that Allen's abuses and his poor response to very public allegations, colors his work. As a critic reviewing a Woody Allen movie in 2022 I have to make a determination. I must decide if I am viewing the art or the artist and how much the artist is reflected in the work. Woody Allen is particularly complicated in this way as his films have all tended to be very personal, reflective of his life experiences and relationships with women. 

Does his status as an accused, very likely real, abuser mean that his art must be shunned? Can we still view the work of Woody Allen and admire it even as we condemn him as a human being? I'd like to believe so but I am not of the authority to make that decision for everyone. I have to accept that if I choose to write about the work of Woody Allen and I find elements that I appreciate, I must accept that someone will take that as some kind of tacit endorsement of Allen. I don't endorse anything about Woody Allen the man but I understand where you are coming from dear reader. 

Why have I decided to engage with the work of Woody Allen now? Because I think Rebecca Hall is incredible in Vicki Cristina Barcelona and it was her breakthrough performance. She became a mainstay among those who love great acting after this performance. And since my podcast is going to be talking about Rebecca Hall's most recent, incredible performance, Vicki Cristina Barcelona was, for me, an unavoidable corollary. 

Rebecca Hall stars in Vicky Cristina Barcelona as Vicky, a grad student who accompanies her best friend, Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) on a trip to Spain. It's a getaway for the summer but it is also a working getaway for Vicky. Vicky is working on a masters in Catalan Culture and Spain is home to a portion of that culture which has a worldwide spread. Vicky hopes to explore the art and history while Cristina, an actress, is searching for an identity and looking to have fun. 

Vicky can be fun but she's also engaged to be married to Doug (Chris Messina), a steady, stable, investment banker back in New York. The engagement and her academic pursuits limits Vicky's idea of fun. Restless Cristina, on the other hand, has nothing holding her back. Thus, when a sexy Spanish artist named Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem) approaches them out of the blue and invites them on an overnight plane trip to a small Spanish tourist town, Cristina says yes immediately and Vicky begrudgingly tags along. 

To his credit, I guess, Juan Antonio is remarkably straight forward about his intentions. He is asking both Cristina and Vicky on this trip to show them a good time, enjoy great food, and to have sex. The sex can be one on one or all together, he's not picky. Cristina is charmed by Juan Antonio's bluntness while Vicky at least feigns being put off by the artists come on. Where the movie goes from here is a rather unique journey as each of these three people is forced to confront their conception of themselves, their identity, and their desire. 

As a writer, Woody Allen has a knack for painting his characters into corners and forcing them to confront their situation and determine a way out. Allen lets not one of these characters off the hook easily. All three will be forced to confront themselves in ways that feel true to each. The internal conflicts find physical expression in art, sex, and the everyday decisions these characters make regarding one day to the next, to the future. 

The construction of the plot is nearly flawless as Allen deploys his supporting character brilliantly to highlight the conflicts of our trio of leads. National treasure Patricia Clarkson may have a limited role but she works to provide a complication to Vicky's story that is perfectly timed. Chris Messina's character, Doug, may be merely functional in the plot but Messina infuses the character with life and he's used brilliantly as an example of Vicky's fork in the road. 

Click here for my full length review at Geeks.Media. 

Movie Review: Waltz with Bashir

Waltz with Bashir (2008) 

Directed by Ari Folman 

Written by Ari Folman

Starring Ari Folman 

Release Date June 5th, 2008

Published March 19th, 2009

Isn't it wonderful to know that with all of the sameness at the movies these days there are still filmmakers out there experimenting with the form and telling personal stories while doing it. Certainly, I appreciate a movie like I Love You Man for giving me characters that I like and a seemingly endless supply of laughs. The virtues of that film are not forgotten or discounted.

My point is this, it's just nice to know that not every movie adheres to formula and not every filmmaker simply reiterates and underlines what has come before him. In the world there are filmmakers like Ari Folman who push aside the typical and the expected and deliver something wholly unique. But, Folman doesn't stop. After deciding and executing his unique form, he also takes care to deliver a deeply personal and effecting story.

Waltz With Bashir recounts, in a pseudo-documentary form, Folman's experience during the 1981 was between Israel and Lebanon. I say pseudo-documentary because rather than simply sitting down his old war buddies in front of a camera and interviewing them about their experiences and interspersing in between interviews some found footage from soldiers or news broadcasts, Folman animates the whole thing in the dreamike fashion reminiscent of Richard Linklater's seminal effort Waking Life.

The film begins with the recounting of a dream. Folman is in a bar with a friend, Boaz, who recounts his nightly nightmare. He is in his apartment and outside his window 26 angry dogs charge through the streets in search of him. Why 26? Because during the invasion of Beirut it was Boaz's duty to shoot dogs before they could wake and alert their owners of the impending arrival of Israeli soldiers. Boaz remembers the looks on the dogs faces and the exact number of dogs he killed.

Boaz is curious if his filmmaker friend can help him somehow get past this memory. Boaz's memory ignites Folman's long dormant memories and one prominent thought about floating off the coast of some Lebanese city. He and two other soldiers are swimming in the nude and looking up at the high rise hotels as bright flares suddenly light the sky and they slowly emerge from the water, dress and take to the streets.

Folman wants to remember more of what happens and the journey takes him and several old friends on a unique and stirring journey into the past and into the nature of war and death.

Waltz With Bashir is one of the most striking and memorable filmgoing experiences I have ever had the pleasure of witnessing. Such a remarkable piece of work that afterward I just sort of sat and pondered it for awhile. I will carry this movie with me for a very long time. The final images transcend from animation to real life and the effect is heart rending and sad and strangely cathartic as if Folman were fully recovering his memory and we with him now can carry these real images in full flower.

Had I seen Waltz With Bashir last year it would have contested Rachel Getting Married for the best movie of 2008. A stunning work of heart and genius like few films I have ever seen, Waltz With Bashir is playing at the Nova 6 in Moline for at least a week and you must, MUST see it.

Movie Review: Turn the River

Turn the River (2008)

Directed by Chris Eigeman

Written by Chris Eigeman 

Starring Famke Janssen, Chris Eigeman, Rip Torn, Lois Smith

Release Date May 9th, 2008 

Published July 8th, 2008 

Trusting an actor like a brand name is risky. Unlike your favorite brand of pop, the consistency and taste won't always be the same. I trust actor Chris Eigeman as a brand. His work from television (Gilmore Girls) to the big screen (Last Days of Disco) have displayed consistent quality, good taste and entertainment value.

Now that he has moved into the realm of writer-director he risks his brand name on a difficult new venture. Thankfully, my trust in the Eigeman brand is well rewarded. His debut feature Turn The River is an exceptional, dark character study, consistently riveting and heartbreaking without ever cloying.

Famke Janssen stars in Turn The River as Kailey, a degenerate gambler and pool hustler. She also happens to be a loving mother who longs to see her little boy Gulley and lives for their brief Central Park meetings before school, away from prying eyes. Gulley was taken from Kai at birth by his grandmother, a pentecostal type who couldn't imagine her grandson being raised by a woman who made her money gambling.

Some ten years later, with the help of a friend and pool hall owner, Quinn (Rip Torn), Kai has reconnected with Gulley and the two are exchanging letters and meeting secretly. When Gulley shows up with a broken hand and cryptic excuses, Kai begins to suspect that his father (Matt Ross) is responsible. So, Kai hatches a plan to kidnap her boy and head for the border.

The clever twist of convention in Turn The River is having our degenerate gambling hustler played by the exotic and glamourous Famke Janssen. We have seen plots about low life characters who try to turn their lives around for their kids but they are always with male leads and the doom is predictable. With Janssen in the lead we are a little off balance with this typical plot and it's kind of nice.

Chris Eigeman's direction does a tremendous job of bringing us around to Kai's side even as she engages in less than the best behavior. She has poor judgement and grand ideas, always a bad combination and yet we are with her from beginning to an ending that will leave many audiences up in arms.

Though the film is oddly called Turn The River, a poker reference for the uninitiated, the films third lead is pool. Janssen's Kai engages in an epic series of single pocket and nine ball games with ever increasing stakes and the way they are played by Eigeman and his tremendous cast, we are sucked in and the suspense is palpable. The plot mechanics do nothing to push the outcome and the genuine unknown quality is tense.

Turn The River is a tremendous debut for actor Chris Eigeman as a writer-director. He has extended his brand loyalty to another level and it will be excited to see what he does next. Whatever comes next, I have complete faith in the quality of the effort. Turn The River demonstrates that the Chris Eigeman brand is only getting stronger as it diversifies.

Movie Review Summer Hours

Summer Hours (2008) 

Directed by Olivier Assayas 

Written by Olivier Assayas 

Starring Juliette Binoche, Charles Berling, Kyle Eastwood

Release Date March 5th, 2008

Published November 2nd, 2008

What French director Olivier Assayas accomplishes in 1 hour and 42 minutes of his simple, heartfelt Summer Hours, is something most American directors will never be capable of. With little incident and not one forced moment, Assayas rivets the audience. Here is a sparse yet warm family drama that never resorts to neurosis or pandering though it so easily could.

It's a remarkable thing to behold. It's not that nothing happens in Summer Hours but rather that Mr. Assayas sees no need to underline things, no need for punctuation and absolutely no need for the devices most American writers and directors use to shove an audience from one scene to the next.

The story unfolds at a glorious French manse where three adult children of Helene have come to celebrate her 75th birthday, though she has no patience for the counting of the years. Helene is foremost concerned with her death and with the legacy she has been building and maintaining for decades.

The home had belonged to Helene's uncle, a famed painter. He passed decades ago and Helene has made it her life's work to give him a life after death. Now with her passing she is painfully aware of all that will happen, her life's work will be carved up and sold away. That sounds dramatic but Helene treats it as a simple fact and the sadness lingers until indeed she does pass.

Her children are not unkind or insensitive; they've merely moved on and begun building their own legacy. Jeremie is a successful shoe company exec living in China, Adrienne lives in New York City and is successful in the fashion biz. Frederic, the oldest, is the only one of Helene's children still living in Paris. He's an economist and author with two kids of his own.

Perhaps because of proximity or perhaps because he has all the paperwork to do, Frederic is the most attached to the home and his mother's belongings. Jeremie and Adrienne are not indifferent but far more practical. Neither will be able to make use of the house, they could all use the money and the art has a home waiting at the Musee D'Orsay. 

You can see the potential for great melodrama. You can assume Frederic to cause trouble and drama. You can expect these things but they never come. Instead, in a true rarity, all the characters act as adults and treat the situation as real adults do. There are hurt feelings and some tears, but for the most part, Summer Hours is a movie about how a functioning family deals with loss. 

A quietly brilliant movie, Summer Hours is likely too gentle for audiences raised on modern American drama. For fans of a more refined taste, Summer Hours is a hypnotic, peaceful joy of a movie.

Movie Review: Death Race

Death Race (2008) 

Directed by Paul W.S Anderson 

Written by Paul W.S Anderson 

Starring Jason Statham, Joan Allen, Tyrese Gibson, Ian McShane

Release Date August 22nd, 2008

Published August 22nd, 2008

The description of Roger Corman's 1975 cult classic reads like a description of the latest Grand Theft Auto-style videogame. Racing across the country in souped up death cars, drivers in the death race get points not merely for winning but for killing opponents and pedestrians alike. Points are assigned for killing particular types of pedestrians such as old people or children.

A controversial premise back in 1975 becomes something only eye brow raising today thanks to the rise of the first person killer videogame. Why then did writer-director Paul W.S Anderson abandon the gimmick for his modern Death Race remake? Who knows.

In the new Death Race Jason Statham stars as Jensen Aimes, a former Nascar driver convicted of murdering his wife. The reality is that Aimes was framed for his wife's murder by Hennessey (Joan Allen) who needed him in her prison to drive in the ratings champion Death Race. Her former top draw Frankenstein has died and ratings have been dropping ever since.

However, after hiding Frank's death from the public and helped by the fact that he wore a mask, Hennessey plans on subbing Jensen for for Frank. The Death Race features some of the most violent and disturbed men in the world including the multiple murder convict Machine Gun Joe (Tyrese Gibson) and the man who actually killed Aimes' wife, Ulrich (Jason Clarke), driving cars equipped with weapons. The goal, win the race and kill your fellow racers. Win five races in a row and you win your freedom.

The plot construct of Paul W.S Anderson drives wildly off course from the Corman original. The future setting of this death race for some reason includes giant prison colonies, corporate run prisons and other such unnecessary nonsense. The race itself is an whole other kind of nonsense. It's called Death Race yet racers have survived race after race so well that each of the 8 to 10 racers has their own history and fanbase.

Then Jensen joins and suddenly racers are dying left and right. Half way through this death race Hennessy introduces a new danger, a giant truck filled with her henchman that begins killing racers. She seems to have instructed it to kill everyone but then there wouldn't be any more death racers and their is half a race left?

Now, I realize I am injected logic where none is welcome, this is after all a supremely dumb action flick and not some high minded drama. But, when the action is as lame as that of Death Race, I am left only to my logical mind to survive such tripe. Pulling apart the ludicrous nature of Paul W.S Anderson's script just gives me something to do while I wait for the movie to be over.

Aside from his good work in The Bank Job, Jason Statham's act has gotten supremely tired. The Transporter movies, Crank, War, Statham is playing the same character over and over and over again, varying only the character name. Sure, sometimes, as in War, he speaks with a slightly more clipped pace, but otherwise it's no different.

His Jensen Aimes is merely his Transporter sent to prison. Writers and directors may as well start naming his character Jason Statham just to make things as simple as possible for the action star. Even the sense of humor he developed working with pal Guy Richie on Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch has devolved into a tired, unfunny, deadpan.

Death Race never set out to be anything more than a cheap, second rate, z-movie. Roger Corman was even kind enough to add his imprimatur just to make sure you didn't expect to much quality from this enterprise. But, most of the credit for the crappiness of Death Race falls on Paul W.S Anderson who adds to his resume of debacles from Resident Evil to Alien Vs Predator, another stupidly violent, mind numbingly idiotic, action flick.

Movie Review: Babylon A.D

Babylon A.D (2008) 

Directed by Matthieu Kassovitz 

Written by Mathieu Kassovitz, Eric Bresnard 

Starring Vin Diesel, Melanie Thierry, Michelle Yeoh

Release Date August 29th, 2008 

Published August 28th, 2008

Babylon A.D comes off far worse than it really is. That is likely because director Matthieu Kassovitz has trashed the movie in the media leaving the perception of one exceptionally bad movie. Babylon A.D is not a good movie, but with some terrific direction in the first two acts and a perfectly cast Vin Diesel, the film is not nearly as bad as it should be. In fact, if not for a third act that flies completely off the rails we could be talking about one terrific sci fi action epic.

In Babylon A.D Vin Diesel is cast as a mercenary known as Turog. Forced to live in the wilds of Russia because the American government considers him a terrorist, Turog longs to find a way home to New York. The opportunity to go home arises when a wealthy terrorist offers Turog $500,000 dollars and a way to get into the country undetected if Turog will take a package to New York City.

The package happens to be a 19 year old girl named Aurora (Melanie Thierry) whose strange abilities, including psychic visions, lead Turog to wonder if he has been set up. Aurora is accompanied by Sister Rebeka (Michelle Yeoh), her protector and surrogate mother, having raised her on a convent in a Russian hillside. Is Aurora a real psychic or is she exhibiting the characteristics of a girl gone mad from disease, a carrier of a virus meant to be spread in the United States should Turog succeed in getting her there? 

That last question is inferred by me and only vaguely addressed by director Matthieu Kassovitz. It's possible that a fuller explanation of the threat posed to or by Aurora was left on the cutting room floor. According to the director, the studio, Fox, took him out of the editing of the film and cut deeply to get Babylon A.D an PG-13 rating and a more box office friendly runtime of just over 90 minutes.

Watching the film seems to back up Kassovitz's claims. The final third of Babylon A.D is so thoroughly botched and so deeply cut that little of what is shown makes a lick of sense. As the movie attempts to untangle a thicket of a plot involving Aurora's parents and a new major religion on the rise, we are rushed to a forced, nonsensical conclusion that takes an hours worth of good work and reduces it to a whimpering, simpering, confounding end.

Babylon A.D is two thirds of a compelling, action packed, sci fi thrill ride and one third incomprehensible mess. It is clear that director Matthieu Kassovitz has a vision for this story, a grand idea to tie it all together but it never really arrives. What is left is some top notch action and effects scenes and a plot that spins out of comprehension in the last half hour before ending with a complete thud.

Vin Diesel is perfectly cast in Babylon A.D as a mercenary of the future. With that growling voice and impressive physicality, Diesel is exactly the man you want protecting you on a journey through the wastelands of outer Russia and the mean streets of New York City. If you buy the dangerous future world that Matthieu Kassovitz creates for Babylon A.D you will have no trouble accepting Diesel as that world's possible savior.

Babylon A.D had a chance to be something better than it is. It could have been more than a mere action shoot'em up with a future setting. There was, at some point, a real idea behind it. That idea was snuffed by the marketing concerns of a meddling studio, and what is left is a mess of incomprehensible plot tangles and an ending more unsatisfying than we've seen in a while. It's strange to have liked a movie as much as I liked Babylon A.D and not recommend it. But, with the final third of the film a complete disaster there is simply no way for me to justify recommending Babylon A.D.

Movie Review: Traitor

Traitor (2008) 

Directed by Jeffrey Nachmanoff

Written by Jeffrey Nachmanoff

Starring Don Cheadle. Neal McDonough, Guy Pearce, Said Tagmaoui

Release Date August 27th, 2008

Published September 10th, 2008 

Traitor has a complicated premise that is difficult to describe without taking some of the suspense out of it. This may explain why Traitor arrived in theaters with little promotion and to confused and mostly indifferent potential audiences. Studio marketers simply could not turn the trick of enticing audiences without giving away the films most satisfying twists and turns. The marketing then comes down to star Don Cheadle and while he is a respected actor, the star of Talk To Me and Boogie Nights is still not a household name.

When Samir Horn (Cheadle) was a boy he watched his devout Muslim father killed in a car bombing. Taken from his home in Sudan to the United States by his mother, Samir was a brilliant student who joined the military, made special forces and then disappeared. After years off the grid from Chicago to various points in the middle east, Samir is captured in Yemen while building and selling bombs to a group of jihadists.

After befriending the terrorist leader Omar (Said Tagmaoui) Samir, is invited into the terrorists' inner circle and eventually is asked to take part in an major attack on US soil. On the heels of the terrorists are a pair of FBI agents, Roy Clayton (Guy Pearce) and Max Archer (Neal McDonough), both of whom believe that Samir is the key to cracking the plot but for different reasons.

Directed and adapted for the screen by Jeffrey Nachmanoff, Traitor is a smart suspense flick with the popcorn thrills necessary of good entertainment and the top notch performances of a high end drama. Though the plot grows convoluted as more and more of the story unfolds, Nachmanoff keeps audiences engaged by highlighting the performance of Don Cheadle who commands the screen with an actorly presence.

The cast of Traitor is the glue that holds it together. As the plot grows a little weedy near the end, Don Cheadle and Guy Pearce keep things in line with their incredibly engaging performances. Cheadle especially has a talent for getting an audience in rapt attention. See his performances in Boogie Nights and Hotel Rwanda, Cheadle is among the most fascinating and compelling actors working today. 

Pearce, though he has acted sparingly since his blistering debut in L.A Confidential, makes exceptional use of his weary eyes and measured monotone voice, tinged here with a slight southern accent, to give his words greater import. Scenes between Pearce and character actor extraordinaire Neal McDonough, crackle with energy even as the two are just laying plot groundwork.

Traitor is not without flaws, the terrorists are weak characters and some of the twists and turns don't pay off as well as they should. Nevertheless, Traitor hits enough of the right notes to be a compelling often exciting pop entertainment. Don Cheadle may never grow into a box office titan but his talent cannot be measured in box office dollars.

See Traitor for Cheadle and Pearce, performances worth the price of admission.

Movie Review: The Women

The Women (2008)

Directed by Diane English

Written by Diane English

Starring Meg Ryan Eva Mendes, Annette Bening, Debra Messing, Carrie Fisher

Release Date September 12th, 2008 

Published September 13th, 2008

George Cukor's The Women from 1939 is an undeniable classic of wit and feminine mystique. For years many of Hollywood's top actress's including Julia Roberts when she was the biggest star in the world, have dreamed of getting a remake done. It wasn't until uber-producer Diane English, best known for TV's Murphy Brown, put the pieces together that something finally got done.

It should have remained a dream.

Meg Ryan stars in The Women as Mary Haines a rich housewife who devotes her life to her daughter and the many charities she funds. Mary's friends are a devoted lot. Sylvia (Annette Bening) is a high powered magazine editor on the verge of being fired. Debra Messing is the perpetually pregnant Edie. And Jada Pinkett Smith is Alex a character who covers all of the multicultural bases for the movie by being an african american lesbian.

None of these characters has much of a life beyond my one line description of them. The plot revolves around the friends' discovery of Mary's husband's mistress played by the sultry Eva Mendes. Eventually, the friends tell Mary who leaves her husband and finds a life on her own.

And that's pretty well it. If I am to venture a guess I think the movie is meant as a comedy. I didn't laugh much throughout so it's difficult for me to say. I did little much of anything during The Women a movie that was rendered completely unnecessary with the creation of Sex and the City. Carrie and her friends are the logical extension of Cukor's original premise and because it was a TV show it was allowed to be even more in depth and probing of these characters.

No, Sex and the City did not feature an african american lesbian but Samantha had a dalliance with a multi-culti lesbian character. The Sex and the City movie further pushed The Women into the realm of unnecessary by taking its well rounded characters to the big screen, the change in format and the title being the only things that made Sex and the City much different than The Women.

Sex and the City is funnier, sexier, smarter and more caring than this remake of The Women. With Sex and the City out there, it is a wonder why Diane English and Meg Ryan pushed so hard for this film to be made. Was it jealousy? Hubris? Did they think they could do this premise better than Darren Star and company?

Well, they didn't. Skip The Women. Get Sex and the City on DVD.

Movie Review: Bangkok Dangerous

Bangkok Dangerous (2008) 

Directed by The Pang Brothers

Written by The Pang Brothers 

Starring Nicolas Cage, Charlie Yeung

Release Date September 5th, 2008

Published September 5th, 2008

The Nicolas Cage bad hair hypothesis goes something like this. In Leaving Las Vegas, arguably Cage's finest work, his hair looks relatively normal. In the goofball actioner Con Air; Cage's hair is a salt and pepper mullet. In Matchstick Men; Cage's sartorial look is tight to the skull and looks good. In Next Cage goes with a big forehead and extensions in the back and the movie is as foolish as his hairstyle. For his latest action flick Bangkok Dangerous, Cage has gone back to the giant forehead, long weave in the back look and as per the hypothesis, the movie is as ludicrous as the hair.

Bangkok Dangerous stars Nicolas Cage as Joe, an international assassin for hire. Needless to say, Joe is not his real name. Joe is a ghost. Moving from place to place killing for whomever pays, Joe has become a relatively wealthy man. His latest job will be his most lucrative to date. Hired in Thailand to kill four men in a single week, Joe looks to make the score of his career.

With so much work and the secret of his identity to keep, Joe hires a local named Kong (Shahkrit Hannarm) to be his courier. The wide eyed Kong was a mere street thief but after meeting Joe he decides he wants to learn to be a killer. Eventually, Kong becomes Joe's student. Though this breaks his rule of no personal attachments, Joe can't help but see a little of himself in Kong.

Breaking another rule, Joe finds himself falling for a deaf, mute pharmacy worker who helps him with a cut on his arm. She is told that he is a banker but soon she will witness his true profession. The plot turns on Joe having to decide whether he will kill a rising political star or heed Kong's warning that the man is a true man of the people.

Danny and Oxide Pang already made this movie. Produced in 1999, the original Bangkok Dangerous is allegedly exciting, action packed and carries an emotional wallop. The new Bangkok Dangerous is a lumbering, clumsy, dull movie that has one impactful scene at the very end but by then, trust me, you won't care all that much.

Bored nearly to sleep by Cage's laconic voiceover and yawning attempt at looking intense, I could not help but become obsessed with that ridiculous looking haircut. I know that making fun of personal appearance is not really the realm of a movie critic, especially one with my colicky do, but I must say the hair was distracting.

Wearing a weave of black hair extensions that cling desperately to what little real hair Cage has left, the style is something akin to mangy black lab spray painted here and there but clearly losing it's hair. Look, I feel for Nic Cage. No man wants to lose his hair. With Bruce Willis having beat him to the bald look, Cage has little choice but to try and cling to what little hair he has and what he can try and attach to what is left.

Nicolas Cage's hair aside, the most damning sin of Bangkok Dangerous is being an absolute snooze. Why, if the movie were any good I might not have noticed Cage's haircut at all. OK, that's not true. But it might not be the dominant memory of the movie. As it is, Cage's cut is the perfect metaphor for the film itself, a ludicrous attempt to cling to the remains of something that came and went years ago. (the original Bangkok Dangerous came out in 1999).

Movie Review: Eagle Eye

Eagle Eye (2008) 

Directed by D.J Caruso 

Written by John Glenn, Travis Adam Wright, Hillary Seitz

Starring Shia LeBeouf, Michelle Monaghan, Rosario Dawson, Michael Chiklis, Anthony Mackie

Release Date September 26th, 2008

Published September 25th, 2008

Director D.J Caruso has had a strange career. He debuted with a funky modern noir character piece called The Salton Sea. He followed that brilliant indie feature with a braindead studio flick, Taking Lives, with Angelina Jolie and Ethan Hawke. He followed that with another piece of junk, the Matthew McConaughey-Al Pacino thriller Two For The Money.

Then Caruso remade Hitchcock's Rear Window with a modern twist and Disturbia returned the talent of the guy who made The Salton Sea. Now, reteamed with Disturbia star Shia LeBeouf, Caruso has taken another step back. With the chase movie junk of Eagle Eye, Caruso demonstrates a talent for blowing stuff up with a nihilists eye for consequence.

Jerry Shaw (LeBeouf) is something of a loser. Though he had opportunities, like a full ride to Stanford, he blew them off to become a copy technician in Chicago. One day Jerry hears that his twin brother has passed away. The brother was a military genius with a top secret job that neither Jerry or his parents knew anything about.

Days after his brothers death, Jerry's once empty bank account begins spilling cash on the street in front of him. The euphoria lasts until he arrives home and finds a large weapons cache awaiting him. A mysterious woman's voice on the phone tells him he has been activated and has 1 minute to get out of the apartment. He is captured by the FBI lead by Agent Morgan (Billy Bob Thornton).

While in custody that mysterious voice somehow ends up on his one phone call and once again Jerry is given a chance to escape. Meanwhile, a woman named Rachel Holloman is told by that same mysterious voice that her son will die if she doesn't get in a car and pick up Jerry. These two strangers are now pawns in a game of nationwide terror and can only follow orders to stay alive.

The plot of Eagle Eye is mousetrap efficient. The stakes are set and the players are put in place with proper motivations. The failing of Eagle Eye comes in not knowing what to do once all the pieces are ready to fall into place. The unfortunate fallback position of director D.J Caruso are a series of ever increasingly violent car chases.

These characters, their plight, could be interesting if the writers and director had serious intentions and an over arching point of view. But they don't. What they have is a plot on which to stage a series of car chases that at one point take on the comic pose of The Blues Brothers with nameless, faceless Chicago cop cars getting, flipped, flopped and smashed with little regard for the cops inside.

Shia LeBeouf has a tremendous talent for bringing the audience inside his character's troubles. We identify with him quickly because he is not the most handsome, or the biggest, or buffest action hero. He is street smart and witty and not every solution he invents actually works. He brings to Jerry Shaw the same qualities he brought to his hero in Disturbia and Transformers, a sense of awe of the situation he is in.

So often action movies or thrillers have characters who quickly adapt to the most outlandish circumstance. Not LeBeouf who allows himself to look and be out of his depth. It is a seeming lack of ego that endears him to audiences. Now, there are a few moments in Eagle Eye that force him to be a little more adept than your average person, but not for long and LeBeouf smoothes it over with good humor and a sly wink.

The script for Eagle Eye lets LeBeouf down by not giving his character more of an inner life. Jerry reacts to everything around him very well but the why behind his plight is weak. Eagle Eye wants to be about paranoia, technological emperialism, and big brother government. Those ideas are there in small bites but the overall purpose of Eagle is chase scene carnage.

There was an opportunity for Eagle Eye to be a modern techno thriller with a brain. D.J Caruso has that kind of talent. Sadly, Caruso has coopted his talent to the mainstream movie audience and now only delivers hyper-adrenalized, highly stylized, violence that measures on the Michael Bay scale. The funk is there in Eagle Eye, in the performance of Shia LeBeouf and the slightly offbeat energy of Billy Bob Thornton, but it is overwhelmed by mindless carnage.

Movie Review: Choke

Choke (2008) 

Directed by Clark Gregg

Written by Clark Gregg

Starring Sam Rockwell, Anjelica Huston, Kelly McDonald, Jonah Bobo 

Release Date September 26th, 2008

Published November 24th, 2008

The thing about Choke is if you aren't a fan of Chuck Palahniuk's disturbing prose I cannot think of one reason why you should see this movie. Choke stars Sam Rockwell as a sex addict who doesn't learn anything, doesn't really grow and really doesn't do much of anything but revel in his own crapulence. If you find that idea appealing, maybe you might like this movie.

Or you should just read Palahniuk's book.

Sam Rockwell stars as Victor Mancini. A tour guide at some nameless olden days village, Victor only maintains so he can hang out with his pal Denny (Brad Henke) and pick up the occasional quickie with a tour goer, chaperone or fellow employee. His real job, the one that pays to keep his mother in a nursing home, is getting people to save his life in restaurants.

Victor intentionally chokes on food and enjoins the person performing the heimlich maneuver on him to take care of him. Generally, when people save someone's life they feel good about and are open to further helping the victim. Victor takes full advantage of their charity. In his spare time Victor attends a support group for sex addicts. He's not there for counseling but rather to meet easy women.

Why is Victor who he is? It's his mother. Ida Mancini is a manic depressive. Her wild mood swings found young Victor constantly on the run, often from the authorities. Victor went to a number of foster homes but was always 'rescued' by Ida when she extricated herself from whatever trouble she found for herself. Now Ida is suffering from dementia and Victor spends hours pretending to be whoever she thinks he is that day.

Choke is a character study. We are to examine and I suppose learn something from Victor. Myself? I was left to observe how unappealing Victor is. Sam Rockwell is a good actor and in the right role he is exceptional. Here he seems to get Victor on a human level but he doesn't seem to bring anymore to him than what was on the page.

The role of Victor requires an actor who plays things with his face and body and voice. Rockwell puts on the airs of Victor but doesn't go much deeper. Director Clark Gregg tries to flesh things out with flashbacks to Victor's childhood but the whole Oedipal story is a non-starter.

I just can't figure out what I am supposed to have enjoyed about Choke. It's the unpleasant story of a man addicted to sex who doesn't have sex for love or to connect with another person but only for the temporary escape from his misery. I don't doubt there are people like Victor in the world but I don't want to watch a movie about them either.

There simply isn't anything to recommend about Choke. Victor begins a miserable slob and ends as a miserable slob. He doesn't really learn anything and though the ending teases a lesson learned it's confusing as to what the lesson is or whether we are seeing what are really seeing. Even if the ending meant to tease a change in his life Victor never earned the change. He didn't change his life he merely demonstrates again and again his misery.

How can anyone recommend you watch that?

Movie Review: W

W. (2008) 

Directed by Oliver Stone 

Written by Stanley Weiser

Starring Josh Brolin, James Cromwell, Elizabeth Banks, Ellen Burstyn, Scott Glenn, Thandie Newton

Release Date October 17th, 2008

Published October 18th, 2008

The best satire that Oliver Stone could bring to his latest controversial effort, W., was to quote his subject accurately. President George W. Bush is as well known for his verbal gaffes as he is for his Bush doctine of pre-emptive war. Quoting the President accurately Stone gets unintentional humor from a situation that isn't really funny in context.

The first ever film biography of a sitting President, W. stars Josh Brolin as both the young brash alcoholic George Bush and the faithful man who fought to get out of his father's shadow and become first Governor of Texas and then President of the United States.

It's a performance of great humor, warmth and humanity that, though it will not change perceptions of the President, it will give even his most ardent critics a look at a man they might not have expected. Directed by Oliver Stone, W. cuts back and forth in time from a young George Bush at Harvard to a confident chief executive who makes gut decisions he believes in without second guessing himself.

If you are someone who believed that Dick Cheney pulled the strings behind the scenes you will be surprised how the President kept the man he refers to simply as Vice in line. Richard Dreyfuss captures the Vice President with a perfect Cheney sneer and without any hint of the mustache twirling villain that so many perceive him to be.

Jeffrey Wright has the most dramatic turn in the film. Playing General Colin Powell, Wright is the voice of reason on the war in Iraq. A good soldier who does his President's work at the UN but privately argued vigorously over the propriety of a pre-emptive war including a dramatic rendering of his "You break it, you bought" analogy to the Iraq war.

Thandie Newton earns some of the films biggest laughs as Condoleeza Rice without ever actually saying anything funny. Her exceptional impression of Rice's voice is both an impressive piece of mimickry and a very funny unintentional send up. Scott Glenn, Bruce McGill and Toby Jones round out the main cast with spot on takes on Donald Rumsfeld, George Tenet and Karl Rove respectively.

For those who presume W. is an attack on the President you likely can't be swayed. All I can tell you is what I believe and I believe that W. is relatively fair to the President even at its most satiric and biting. The best satire of President Bush is to quote him accurately and many of his most famous quotes are in the movie and get the biggest laughs. "Misunderestimate", "Strategery", "Fool me once shame on you Fool me twice.. you shouldn't fool people".

The best example of of Oliver Stone's fair appraisal of George W. Bush comes in the demonstration of the President's faith which is dealt with head on, without commentary. Stacey Keach is tremendous in the role of President Bush's spiritual advisor Earl Hudd.

The President turned his life around after being born again and it created in him the drive and determination to rise from a troubled youth to commander in chief. Oliver Stone observes the change without mocking, without commentary but with the same clear eyed take on faith that the President himself likely carries.

The most controversial aspect and the one with the most artistic licence is Stone's psychoanalytic approach to George W's relationship with his father, the man he calls Poppy. Stone portrays much of George W. Bush's life being driven by being in and trying to escape from George H.W Bush's shadow.

Whether the President has daddy issues is debatable but James Cromwell and Josh Brolin strike extraordinary chemistry in their father and son exchanges. The relationship is realistic if not historically accurate. It's also undeniably compelling and dramatic.

W. will not change anyone's position on President Bush, whose legacy is likely sealed with most of us. What it does is take the history of the Bush administration from insider accounts and public records and condense them into a believable ordering of history and in that is valuable,

That it is also quite humorous without trying is a byproduct of that history. President Bush's foibles are as much apart of the man as his faith and his father and Oliver Stone brings it all together with great artistry and craftsmanship.

Movie Review: Australia

Australia (2008) 

Directed by Baz Luhrmann

Written by Baz Luhrmann 

Starring Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, David Wenham, Bryan Brown 

Release Date November 26th, 2008

Published November 25th, 2008 

The modern audience is often accused of having a short attention span. It's undeniable of course that with half hour television and now bite size internet videos, the modern audience has shown a taste for constant stimulation. But that fact does not mean that a movie of a good length cannot succeed. I point you to Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia which floats through 3 hours without ever loosing its grip on the audience.

If you have seen a double feature of Tarentino's Kill Bill, which clocks in at nearly 4 hours you know the power a great movie has to glue you to your seat. The modern attention span isn't the issue, it's the modern epic. The fact is, too often, these 'epics' are not lengthy with a purpose but lengthy due to directorial indulgence. That is most certainly the case with Baz Luhrmann's 'epic' Australia. An at times exceptional display of visual craftsmanship. Australia overstays its welcome with 3 different endings and dangling subplots.

Australia stars Nicole Kidman as Lady Sarah Ashley, a British aristocrat who comes to Australia to retrieve her husband who moved down under months earlier to make money in the cattle business. Convinced he has taken up with another woman, Lady Ashley plans on selling the cattle interest and taking her husband back to England.

Sadly, upon arriving at the ranch, called Faraway Downs, she finds her husband murdered, allegedly by an aboriginal mystic named King George. On the other hand she finds that the cattle biz is for real and with an evil land Barron named King Karney looking to steal her land for a quarter of what its worth, Lady Ashley decides to stay on and garner the profit herself.

To do so she will have to drive the cattle to the coastal town of Darwin. Thus she hires the rough and tumble Drover (Hugh Jackman) to lead the way. He needs help and doesn't have it. Aside from two aboriginal friends, there is a drunk accountant, two maids and Lady Ashley herself whose experience riding show horses is her only qualification.

Then there is Nullah. Half white, half black, 11 year old Nullah (Brandon Walters) lives in constant danger. The state has a policy of rounding up mixed race children so that they can 'breed the black out of them' and train them to be servants. Nullah has lived at Faraway Downs in secret for years after being born to a maid and a ranch hand named Fletcher (David Wenham).

Fletcher works for King Carney and cannot afford to have anyone know he fathered a mixed race child. All of this melodrama unfolds in the foreground as World War 2 emerges in the background. In newsreels and conversations we overhear Germany's march, Hitler's call for Japan to join the war and the attack on Pearl Harbor that will soon lead to attacks on the Australian mainland where Americans begin arriving for an assault on Japan.

It's a sprawling, ambitious story that director Baz Luhrmann no doubt loves. It's also a flabby, unkempt mess of competing plots that amount to three different movies forced together. The first movie, playing out as act 1, is a tribute to old Hollywood, just after the introduction of color. Luhrmann uses CGI to give Australia the coloring of a movie made in the 1930's. The effort may dazzle lovers of classic film. But, modern audiences are likely to mistake the look for bad CGI.

At the death of Lady Ashley's husband Australia becomes a gripping western. The cattle drive scenes are the movies best moments with Jackman looking quite the hero, Brandon Walters delivering the compelling drama and Kidman holding her own in the saddle. Had Australia stuck with the western aspect, with a tighter narrative focus, we could be talking about a pretty good movie.

Unfortunately, the western is merely the second act. The third act brings World War 2 and Australia's disturbing racial politics into to the forefront and begins to drift. Trained moviegoers know that the 3rd act requires the lovers to separate and for good to turn to bad so that it can be righted in the end and Australia delivers it all in rote, mind numbing fashion.

Oh, did I mention that the film ends THREE TIMES! There are two false endings. Two spots where director Luhrmann could have ended the movie with a minimum of consternation. But no. Two endings stall and start and stall again only to drive one to the point of walking out by starting up one more time. I get what the director was going for but by the second ending I was almost to the door of the theater.

Australia is likely a case of too many cooks in the kitchen. Four screenwriters contribute to a movie that feels like three movies in both length and structure. It is rumored that Luhrmann only completed the final edit of Australia 2 weeks prior to worldwide release. That might explain the rushed necessity of a 2 hour 45 minute cut of a story that can only sustain maybe 2 hours, at most.

Tedious, overlong, flabby, Australia has the look of an epic and the feeling of a butt numbing disaster.

Movie Review: Transporter 3

Transporter 3 (2008) 

Directed by Olivier Megaton

Written by Luc Besson, Robert Mark Kamen 

Starring Jason Statham, Natalya Rudakova 

Release Date November 26th, 2008

Published November 27th, 2008

Memo to the producers of the upcoming Cannonball Run remake (I know you're out there): if you haven't already made Jason Statham an exorbitant offer to appear in your movie, don't bother making it. No, The Transporter is not exactly an iconic character on which makes such great demands. But, the Transporter movies having made a few hundred million combined at the worldwide box office, the character has earned enough cultural cache to deserve to be a one off punchline in a throwaway remake. It's the least you could do.

Yes Transporter fans (I know your out there, put down the Grand Theft Auto for a moment) Frank Martin is back. Who the hell is Frank Martin? He's the Transporter. Nevermind. He's Jason Statham in the Transporter movies. Nevermind. He's the bullet headed guy who beats people up and drives fast. You're really making this too difficult.

Back behind the wheel of his newest edition Audi, Frank Martin has a new 'package' to deliver. Her name is Valentina (Natalya Rudakova) and she is the daughter of the head of the Russian equivalent of the EPA. The russkie dad doesn't want to let some American industrialist park nuclear waste in his back yard so the industrialist has thugs kidnap the russkies' daughter and give her to Frank.

Why Frank? Who knows. She is a hostage? Yes. Why don't they just hold on to her until they get what they want? Because then we couldn't have cool car chases and scenes where Jason Statham beats people up for asking such questions about this ludicrous plot.

Anyway, before I so rudely interrupted myself with unwelcome logic, Frank will drive the girl across Europe to Asia. If he doesn't do as he is told he will blow up. He was drugged and had a bracelet attached that will go boom if he gets 75 feet away from his car. No points for guessing that that whole 75 feet from the car thing will come back in the final face off with the bad guys.

The Transporter 1,2 and now 3 are not about logic. If they were then Frank wouldn't have been so surprised to find his package is a beautiful woman, as has been the case in each of the other Transporter movies. Logically? Pattern recognition might kick in and Frank would consider moving somewhere where people don't know where he lives and thus can't drug him and place exploding bracelets on him.

Logically.

But this isn't about logic, coherence or even a movie. It's about stunts and lots of them. Frank jumps a car off of a bridge and uses James Bond's classic underwater tire breathing trick. Later, Frank drives that water logged car off an over pass and on to the top of a moving train. Later, still on the train, he jumps the car from one car through the roof of another one.

Who needs logic when you don't give a rats ass for even the basics of physics.

It reads as if I hated Transporter 3. I didn't. It's not bad as far as cheap thrills go. I'm generally not a 'turn off your brain' kind of guy. However, catch me in the right mood and I can be forgiving of even the most illogic of leaps. Transporter caught me in just one of those moods and I found myself smiling my way through much of the blasted ludicrousness.

I particularly enjoyed the work of French actor Francois Berleand as Frank's French cop pal. As the only character who seems to remember having been through this before his nonchalant attitude toward Frank's astonishing acts is charming. He is either bored or simply unimpressed with his old friend's antics and his manner is quite amusing in the brief glimpses of him we get in between the driving and the beatings.

Transporter 3 was directed by someone  named Olivier Megaton. The explosive name is a fake, for those you with zero cognitive activity. He bestowed the moniker on himself to describe his audacious style. He may well have only got this gig based on that name. That he delivered big explosions is only him living up to the promise of his name. His next film should just be called 'Explosion'. As demonstrated in Transporter 3, he needs not a plot, just pyrotechnics and he can dazzle the willing masses.

Again, I implore you Cannonball Run producers, a cameo or even a starring role. Either works. Just make sure he drives an Audi A1 and gets to beat on someone. It's comic gold. You'll thank me later.

Movie Review: Cadillac Records

Cadillac Records (2008)

Directed by by Darnell Martin

Written by Darnell Martin

Starring Adrien Brody, Jerffrey Wright, Gabrielle Union, Columbus Short 

Release Date December 5th, 2008 

Published December 12th, 2008

Without Muddy Waters there is no Mick Jagger, there are no Rolling Stones. The hardest working band in Rock N' Roll heard Muddy Waters when they were just passing puberty and were so effected by it that their whole lives have been shaped by the experience.

Thus the extraordinary influence of a man and a genre of music that has too long gone unnoticed. Cadillac Records is a far from perfect tribute that comes up short of truly honoring the history the history of Chess Records and the Blues but as a reminder of it does an effective job of getting your attention and making you at least hear the music.

Leonard Chess (Oscar winner Adrian Brody) was a Chicago nightclub owner whose club mysteriously burned to the ground leaving him just enough insurance money to build a recording studio and found a record label. Having just met and heard Muddy Waters (Geoffrey Wright) and his protege Little Walter (Columbus Short) for the first time, I'm sure the fire was just a coincidence.

Chess got Muddy and Walter in the studio and with a little grease for the local DJ's, Chess Records started making big money. The nickname Cadillac Records because instead of paying his artists royalties, early on, he gave them Caddies paid for with their royalty money.

From there Chess went on to discover Howlin Wolf (Eammon Walker), Willie Dixon (Cedric The Entertainer), Etta James (Beyonce) and his most famous find Chuck Berry (Mos Def). After introducing the actors and the artists they portray we are treated to a song or two some manufactured melodrama and then it's over. Say this for Cadillac Records, it's efficient and to point.

The pre-packaged drama is as weak as I imply but director Darnell Martin smartly doesn't dwell on it to much, Martin knows where the bread of Cadillac Records is buttered, it's all about the tunes. Geoffrey Wright, Beyonce and Mos Def sing these indelible classics themselves and the performances capture the passion of live performance like few music movies have.

This is powerful stuff and though many will be distracted by Beyonce's celebrity, all reservations about her taking on the role of Etta James will be alleviated when her performance of "I'd Rather Go Blind" is belted out through tears and deep, deep subtext.

Mos Def gives the film a jolt of joy as the ebulliant Chuck Berry. The irreverent, duck walking Berry is the perfect role for Mos Def an actor who does childlike joy and mischief like few other actors working today. Even portraying the darkest moments of Berry's life, Mos Def captures the roll with the punches style that has sustained Berry to this day.

Cadillac Records is not the tribute that people like Muddy Water, Etta James or Leonard Chess deserves, not to mention Chess' brother who was shamefully left out of the movie over life rights issues, he's still alive, but it is a solid reminder of these legends collective greatness and it gives us a chance to hear these songs again.

That alone is worth the price of admission.

Movie Review: Doubt

Doubt (2008) 

Directed by John Patrick Shanley 

Written by John Patrick Shanley 

Starring Meryl Streep,, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams

Release Date December 12h, 2008

Published January 5th, 2008 

I did not attend Catholic School but some of my favorite people have and the experience shaped their lives. The most famous example is George Carlin whose catholic school experience fostered the rebellious spirit that would lead comic explications of the churches and indeed religions many failings.

Doubt, the film version of John Patrick Shanley's stage play, displays catholic school as it was just after Carlin left. Set in 1963 we witness the clash of 50's parochialism and the mind expanding 60's and the result is surprisingly fair to both sides. If you believe completely in the discipline of the 50's or subscribe entirely to the freedom of the 60's you will leave this movie with doubts.

Meryl Streep stars in Doubt as Sister Aloysius the principle of a New York catholic school in flux. The school has its first african american student, Donald Miller (Joseph Foster), and the parish home of the school has a priest. He is father Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and his approach to catholicism and to the school is open minded and compassionate.

The approach rankles Sister Aloysisus who believes in fear as the best teacher and motivator. The interesting thing is that both approaches really have merits. In fact both are demonstrated by Sister James (Amy Adams). Caught in the middle of the changing times, Sister James is an example of the balance that could be struck if both sides weren't so intransigent.

The plot of Doubt centers on Father Flynn's relationship with Donald Miller. He immediately takes the boy under his wing. Donald is an alter boy and I know your mind has already jumped to a particular conclusion. Sister James and Sister Aloysius jump to the same conclusion only Sister Aloysius is certain of her suspicions, Sister James is conflicted.

When Father Flynn is confronted about these suspicions the scenes are explosive and Doubt becomes a fiery, passionate battle of wills. Streep and Hoffman are perfectly cast as two willful personalities incapable of conceding. In Father Flynn's case conceding is inconceivable not just because he is willful but because of what conceding means.

For Sister Aloysius self doubt is a sin. Her life is lived in service of a belief. When she comes to believe her suspicions about Father Flynn she cannot allow herself to be proven wrong. To be wrong would be as if to prove God himself were wrong.

Streep is cast as the villanous in much of the press about Doubt. In reality her Sister Aloysius is just a fervent defender of what she believes and if you concede that she has something to be worried about in Father Flynn's relationship with her students then you must sympathize with her even if her severity is off putting.

Shanley doesn't aim to make Doubt a mystery. There are no gotcha moments. You will likely leave the theater debating Father Flynn's guilt as much as you talk about whether you liked the movie. I will keep my thoughts to myself on the matter. If you want to talk about it off the blog where spoilers can be shared, please email.

Doubt is one of the best movies of 2008. A powerful, thought provoking and moving drama that has numerous levels to its drama and passion. Meryl Streep will win and deserve to win Best Actress for her role. The greatest actress of her time has once again shown why she is worth such hyperbolic praise.

Movie Review: The Wrestler

The Wrestler (2008) 

Directed by Darren Aronofsky

Written by Darren Aronofsky 

Starring Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei, Evan Rachel Wood

Release Date December 17th, 2008

Published January 12th, 2008 

As a fan of professional wrestling and someone who owns the DVD of the dark and compelling documentary Beyond The Mat, I thought I was prepared for anything when I sat to watch Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler. Oh, how wrong I was.

Mickey Rourke's seering, visceral, forthright performance is devastating in such a human manner that really nothing can prepare you for the assault on your sympathies. It is arguably, the best acting job I've seen by anyone in my time as a critic, more than 9 years.

In The Wrestler Mickey Rourke plays Randy The Ram Robinson a pro wrestler clinging to the last vestiges of a long faded glory. An opening credit montage tells us that more than 20 years ago Randy the Ram was a big deal in the wrestling world. It doesn't take long however to tell us where that got him.

We meet Randy backstage in the locker room of a non-descript High School where he is taping his broken down body together for a main event match in the school gymnasium. It's a brutal thing what wrestlers do to themselves and one of the first things we see Randy do is use a razor blade to cut his own forehead.

It's a shockingly typical way for wrestlers to build drama and create tension in a match but when you watch wrestling they hide this from the audience, The Wrestler makes you watch Randy do this and it's a jarring incite into his character.

His pay for mauling himself? 50, 60 bucks maybe. He returns home to find his trailer locked because he hasn't paid his rent, he sleeps in his van. Randy's free time is spent training, obtaining and using steroids to keep his busted up physique in shape and attending a local strip club where he harbors a fantasy of a relationship with Pam (Marisa Tomei), a stripper whose been on the pole for far too long.

Pam has a rule about not dating customers but there is something so heartbreaking and charming about him that she might let him get close. It is with Pam's urging that Randy attempts to reconnect with the only family he has, a daughter named Stephanie (Evan Rachel Wood).

It's a small role but Evan Rachel Wood brings extraordinary life to it. She has lived with the disappointment of Randy as her father and when she allows herself to believe in him again you can feel the seismic shift in her life even as convention tells you what has to happen next.

There is a twist in Randy's career path that I won't mention other than to say that  it sets up for an ending that will leave many unsatisfied. I myself was quite satisfied with the ending. Even though I was left with a sense of dread and sadness, it wasn't a disappointing feeling, it was a draining and cathartic feeling.

This is a draining and cathartic movie that is filled with sadness and heartbreak and not much light. And yet, there is Mickey Rourke whose Randy 'The Ram' who has found sad resignation to his place in life and lives for the small pleasures and finds them in the ring.

For all the pain, the ring is the one place where things make sense. The roar of even the smallest crowd is like a hit of the most potent drug imaginable and with no other aspect of his life that makes sense, the ring is the one source of happiness and stability he has.

That is what makes the ending of The Wrestler so potent and appropriate. It is the only way the movie could end. Anymore and the drift toward melodrama might become overwhelming. Aronofsky and screenwriter Robert D. Siegel no when to, in wrestling parlance, 'go home'. They end the movie just as the crowd is peaked, just as our emotions are heightened and we long for more.

The Wrestler is a powerfully sad movie but with a performance by Mickey Rourke that finds an oddly uplifting note. It's odd but recalling Randy The Ram I don't feel as much sorrow or pity as I do empathy and understanding. Sorrow and pity seem more appropriate in many ways but The Ram isn't looking for that.

In every way he wants understanding and while most will never fully understand how people can destroy there bodies as he does, we come to an understanding of why Randy does it and that is a powerful connection for him and us to make.

Movie Review: Yes Man

Yes Man (2008) 

Directed by Peyton Reed 

Written by Nicholas Stoller, Jarrad Paul, Andrew Mogel 

Starring Jim Carrey, Zooey Deschanel, Bradley Cooper, John Michael Higgins

Release Date December 19th, 2008 

Published December 18th, 2008 

In Liar Liar Jim Carrey played a lawyer who could not tell a lie. This, naturally, lead to a number of awkward situations that allowed Carrey to whip himself into a comic frenzy. Now in his latest feature Jim Carrey plays a loan officer who must say yes to everything. If you think this premise allows Carrey to once again whip himself into a wild comic frenzy, you may as well skip the rest of this review. I'm kidding, please keep reading.

Carl has been a sadsack since his wife left him 3 years ago. He rarely leaves his apartment and when he does it is just to rent videos. His best friend Peter (Bradley Cooper) is getting married and expects him to be there for him but even his best pal can't drag him out his funk.

It is not until he attends a self help seminar, at the urging of a strange former acquaintance, Nick (John Michael Higgins), that Carl finally comes out of his shell. The seminar is hosted by Terrence Bundley (Terrence Stamp) whose schtick is getting people to say yes to every opportunity.

With some further prodding from Nick, Carl says yes to giving a homeless man a ride miles out the way. The homeless guy uses up Carl's cell battery and the drive runs him out of gas. However, while filling a gas can Carl meets Allison (Zooey Deschanel). They have instant chemistry and Carl finds the yes to everything strategy could have some real perks.

From there we get a series of scenes that allow Jim Carrey to act more and more goofy and have more and more good things happen to him. That is until, the predictable scene where saying yes finally gets Carl in trouble. A valuable lesson in moderation will be learned while Carrey all the while flips and flops about in search of laughs.

To be fair, Carrey finds plenty of laughs in Yes Man. The guy is a natural comic talent who can't help but stumble into laughs and Yes Man is a movie designed specifically to play into Carrey's strengths. Each scene gives Carrey reason to launch into some kind of comic riff. Some of them are laugh out loud, some, like a Harry Potter themed costume party, lay there in search of a punchline.

The structure of Yes Man may play to Carrey's strengths but the choppy, predictable narrative is in the end terribly unsatisfying. A series of set ups and punchlines fail to serve as a character arc or really a story. There is romantic chemistry between Carrey and Zooey Deschanel but that too is undercut by the lack of a compelling narrative.

Funny in bursts but short one compelling story, Yes Man is a movie for hardcore Carrey fans and no one else.

Movie Review Synechdoche, New York

Synechdoche, New York (2008) 

Directed by Charlie Kaufman

Written by Charlie Kaufman

Starring Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Samathan Morton, Michelle Williams, Catherine Keener

Release Date October 24th, 2008 

Published November 7th, 2009

Some movies piss off as many audience members as they enchant. That was certainly the case with Fellini whose masturbatory explorations of his own wild mind kept him a cult favorite in America though a hero in Italy. Charlie Kaufman may want to see if the Italians find his work interesting. Kaufman's film Synecdoche, New York is rather Fellini-esque in the way the director goes all internal, walking around in his own weird imagination, but without Fellini's affinity for circus performers and other such absurdities.

Synecdoche, New York stars Philip Seymour Hoffman as a hypochondriac playwright trapped in a bad marriage. Catherine Keener, always Kaufman's idea of the castrating female, plays Hoffman's wife with the requisite disdain for the male gender. Keener's character has barely tolerated her husband for years but he has hardly noticed. 

Together they have a daughter who carries equal parts of dad's hypochondria and mom's disdain. At work, Hoffman has a sweet flirtation with a box office worker played by Samantha Morton who, despite a mousy appearance, has an outward sexuality. The straight forward aspect of Kaufman's screenplay ends when Keener takes the kid and splits for Germany. She claims she'll be back but she never returns. From here Synecdoche, New York turns from the story of a sad sack writer into an exploration of this man's psyche.

We are never clued into the change of setting from the suburbs of New York City to Hoffman's frontal lobe but it's not that difficult to figure out if you are willing. Some viewers will not be so willing. When a seemingly random whim finds Morton's character purchasing a house that is on fire and will remain so for the next 40 years, many in the audience will get irretrievably irritated and give up.

It's not an entirely unreasonable reaction. Hoffman's character goes on to win unlimited funding to put on the play of his choice and begins a play in a giant stadium like building that becomes a play within a play within a play about Hoffman's life putting on a play within a play within a play. At one time Hoffman hires actors to play himself and another actor to play that actor playing him. You can see where some would grow tired of this. I did not. As I watched Synecdoche, New York I found myself becoming enrapt in Kaufman's endless self investigation.

The repeated ways in which Kaufman explores his fears, fantasies and obsessions is almost hypnotic in its oddity. I say his fears, fantasies and obsessions because the playwright is clearly a stand-in for Kaufman whose fascination with the exploration of the mind has run through each of his scripts, most obviously in Being John Malkovich where characters literally went inside the mind of the Oscar winning Malkovich.

Synecdoche, New York won me over with the ways in which Kaufman so nakedly explores his own mind. The honesty, hidden behind the play within a play blah, blah, blah, aesthetic is stunning and it stays with you long after you watch the movie. Indeed, even those who come away irritated by Synecdoche, New York likely won't be able to shake it for a few days. Some may even find themselves moving from baffled and disturbed to appreciating the movie. That's powerful work. Synecdoche, New York is a powerful movie experience.