Angels in the Dust

Not very well executed documentary about the work of a family who gave up a life of ease and comfort to start an orphanage and school for children in South Africa. They have created a village, of sorts, which encompasses three towns and hundreds of poverty-stricken families. The HIV/AIDS crisis is front and center, as well as the horrible abusive conditions that many women and girls live in. These folks are doing great work, don't get me wrong, and the stories of the children will break your heart, but the editing and the overall cohesion are less than great and it simply doesn't hold up as a movie.

A Zed and Two Noughts

The fact that Peter Greenaway hasn't shown up on this blog yet is a mystery to me. Most people know him from The Cook, The Theif, His Wife and Her Lover. He has a directing resume 45 movies long and, while I have only seen about five of them, those five are some of the more brilliant and bizarre movies out there. His stunning and Weird (with a capital W) visuals and large scale thematic undertakings make him a director that I would like to expand my experience with.

Made in 1985, before some of his more acclaimed creations, A Zed and Two Noughts is full of Greenaway's trademarks: long, single shots, kinky and bossy women, hospitals and invalids, billowing curtains, sexual quirks (snails!), symmetry, multiple languages and death. Part of the fun for me is trying to find the elements he repeats throughout and follow them: twos, evolution, life and decay, black and white, the alphabet and I am still trying to figure out how the painter Vermeer van Delft fits in.

What does it all mean? Are there lessons? Should we walk away with a richer appreciation of the human condition? I don't think it matters. Greenaway himself said, "Continuity is boring." The characters are more like tools of the theme he is playing with than realistic, sympathetic people. We are never asked to believe in them. For some I recognize this would be a deal-breaker and make the film unappealing. Fair enough. And while there is a tangible story here, it's very, very weird (delightfully so!) and appears to simply be a vehicle to take you on the visual and thematic ride. It's best not to eat beforehand.

Across the Universe

Julie Taymor's trademark of the combination of stunning visuals and highly choreographed movement (as evidenced in both of her other major films, Frida and Titus) are taken to a new level in this surreal rock musical. Thirty-three new versions of Beatles songs and countless references to they lyrics (in character names, lines and details) are blended into a love story about Lucy and Jude and their involvement in the tumultuous politics and exciting sex, drugs and rock 'n roll of the 60s in America.

I don't think Taymor felt that these were literal interpretations of the Beatles songs. I think she took liberties at every turn to use their words to her end result and she does it beautifully.

Highlights for me include Eddie Izzard's appearance as Mr. Kite and the rendition of "Let it Be" which brought me to tears.

The Devil Came on Horseback

Since 2003, Sudan’s Arab government and its Janjaweed militias have been destroying villages and displacing, raping, torturing, and killing Darfur’s black African citizens.

A retired Marine, Brian Steidle, volunteers for a job as an unarmed observer in the region just south east of Darfur. He is issued a camera, a notebook and a pen. He watches for six months as the atrocities continue. He photographs, documents and sends the reports to his employer, the African Union. After 6 months, feeling helpless in the face of so much evil, he returns home to the US to spread the word about what he has seen. The movie is about him, and his journey to tell people what he saw. We see horrific and sometimes disjointed images of charred bodies, torched villages and bloody puddles in the dust. Technically, I wouldn't say the movie is well done. The editing and context are lost in the message, but the message is important. It is not easy to watch, but it should be seen.

Brian goes through a very intense transformation as a result of his experiences. His story's veracity is questioned by the Sudanese in America. He is confronted by his father who thinks that Brian's work to publish his photos and tell his story are "embarrassing" to the US Government and therefore he should stand down.

I will say that after reading countless articles from newspapers and activists, devouring Eggers' What is the What and watching God Grew Tried of Us, I still felt only partially informed, like there was a piece missing in this story. Why aren't we doing anything? This film helps to answer that question: There are complicated politics whenever it is America versus the Muslims. It would seem once again that we are saying that hundreds of thousands of black lives don't matter as much as white ones. African babies are lesser miracles and are not worth getting in the way of China's oil -- the Chinese get most of their oil from the Sudan and are then selling the Sudanese government weapons with which they continue the ethnic cleansing of Darfur's black African population. If our government wanted this to stop, they would make it so. Saying we are doing all we can is not enough. We aren't. I'm not. You're not.

There are groups working to keep the spotlight on the horrors until something concrete is done. Save Darfur, Aid Darfur and Global Grassroots. Please visit their websites. Please give if you can, even just $10, to help keep their work moving forward. Call your Senators and Congresspeople and ask what they are doing to make sure that the UN peacekeepers (who have recently been approved by the Sudanese government) are able to get into Darfur to do their work.

Eastern Promises

Not sure what the promises were. Not sure what Ebert smoked before giving it 4 stars. Not sure if seeing Viggo's balls made it worth it. No, wait, I am am sure. It didn't.

Czech Dream

Our membership at the Northwest Film Forum continues to be an amazing gift from our friends the Newmans. Without that membership, the obscure and rare films that come through there would be further off our radar and that would be a shame. We would have certainly missed the preview for this great documentary and that would have been a shame as well.

Two film students announce the opening of the fake "hypermarket" (think Walmart on steroids) for which they have created a fake media blitz in the month preceding its unveiling. A tension builds throughout as we near the "grand opening" and there are great scenes of market research and discussions happening at the media team's offices. They create a logo and some fantastic slogans: "Don't Come." "Don't wait." "Don't Spend Money." As someone in on the secret, you see the genius here, but the public is excited and curious.

Of course they are. Is it surprising that the public is gullible? No. Upsetting to feel manipulated? Sure. But the release of this hoax seems to be perfectly timed (perhaps by accident) with some political ad campaigns in Czechoslovakia, which makes the ruse even more clever and forces the public to think about what they are lead to believe and why.

Reminiscent of The Yes Men -- what a great movie that was too.

This is England

Somewhat predictable but still quite moving portrait of a young boy (heartbreakingly played by Thomas Turgoose, age 12 going on 45) who lives in a run down coastal town in England in 1983. He lives with his widowed mother and is bullied in school. He is taken under the wing of some working-class skinheads and made to feel welcome in their gang of misfits and outcasts. The balance is upset when an older and more militant member of their gang returns from 3 years in jail. Shawn is forced to choose who he will follow.

Part coming of age, part period piece (with great, grainy montages of what was happening in England in the early 80s) and part devastatingly realistic story that was, not surprisingly, based on the actual life of director Shane Meadows.

Manhattan

For someone who watches as many movies as I do, to have not seen very many of Woody Allen's older films is a shame. I need to work on that. What Woody needs to work on is making better films nowadays, and falling in love with women (within three decades of) his own age, but I digress...

God, this movie was great. I was floored, completely knocked over by the nuanced and dead-on character studies: Woody Allen's "portrait" of a self-obsessed, neurotic writer; Muriel Hemingway as a 17 year-old going on 35, devoid of self and utterly devoted; Diane Keaton was brilliant as the elitist intelligentsia who wants, above all, to be loved; and the city of New York itself was a character, brooding in sunrise and sunset light, skyscrapers filmed in sweeping panorama to Gershwin's over-emotional score. It is obvious who Woody loves most: the city.

Through rapid and believable dialog and quirky, yet realistic situations, we are shown just the pitch perfect moments to explain who these people are and somehow, we sympathize with them, even though there is very little to like. Really, not much happens in this movie: people meet, argue, have breakfast, pick up their kids, go to the park, get rained on, fall in love, play racquetball, blame each other, hear annoying noises in the apartment, fall out of love, carry on.

Very efficient, effective movie making. It's heartbreaking, and funny and true. Bless you , Woody.

Stardust

We put off seeing this movie for fear it would be corny and painful. When we decided to see it after all, it wasn't that anything had changed our minds, it was that we just ran out of other movies to see and decided to give it a try. Taking a lesson from our friend Gibson, we went in with low expectations so it would be harder to disappoint us.

It was only about 20 minutes into the story that I was hooked. A young man ventures across the wall in a town called Wall to a magical land where the townspeople aren't allowed. What happens there sets the course of his son's life and we are off on a fantastic journey to catch a fallen star, to win the heart of our true love, to sail the skies with a band of randy lightning pirates and outfox cunning witches.

It was well written and well acted. There is tons of imagination here. Thank you Neil Gaiman. There is enough fluff (magic and unicorns and ghosts) for kids to like it and enough humor for adults. Had Terry Gilliam directed this, it wouldn't have surprised me. Something akin to the Princess Bride, only not quite as funny. Not quite as classic. But close. I think this will hold up through the ages...or through part of them.

A solid cast with Michelle Pfeiffer, Peter O'Toole, Robert De Niro and Claire Danes.