A team of three Mossad agents are charged with kidnapping a Nazi war criminal out of 1964’s East Berlin. One aspect of the mission remains incomplete, and the three must address it 30 years later. It’s a ripping yarn with some serious comments on the costs of both truth and untruth. Helen Mirren is brilliant as one of the team, as is Jessica Chastain, playing her younger self. Directed by John Madden (Shakespeare in Love).
Movies
Amigo: Every character counts, making for gripping drama and sound history
The master writer-director John Sayles delivers a first-class historical drama with Amigo, set in 1900 amid the US occupation of the Phillipines. One of Sayles’ specialties is intertwining the stories of a large ensemble cast while keeping each character recognizable, distinct and textured. As in City of Joy and Lone Star, the audience sees events unfold from the perspective of various characters, none of whom know enough to fully understand the others.
Veteran Filipino actor Joel Torre (over 200 acting credits) plays the village headman, who recognizes that he is doomed to disappoint the contradictory expectations of the Filipino rebels and the US occupiers. Garret Dillahunt plays the well-meaning American lieutenant who is charged to both protect and fight a people that he is not equipped to understand. Oscar-winner Chris Cooper, DJ Qualls, Dane DeHaan, Spanky Manikan and Ronnie Lazaro also excel among the fine cast.
Sarah’s Key: an investigation becomes unexpectedly personal
Kristin Scott Thomas stars in another French film, this time as a journalist tracking the story of a girl during the WWII roundup of Jews in France. Her probe of events almost sixty years in the past becomes more and more personal, and profoundly entangles more and more people. It’s a compelling story, and no actor can portray intensity and doggedness better than Scott Thomas. Co-stars Niels Arestrup (A Prophet) and Aidan Quinn.
Movie shot on a cell phone
This one-minute movie, Discovery of the Woodsprites by Jadrien Steele, was shot on a cell phone. Sandisk was a sponsor of Cinequest 2010, and four films shot on cell phones – all less than a minute and six seconds – were shown before most features at the festival. You can watch all four movies at 4 Movies Shot on a Cell Phone
Here is Discovery of the Woodsprites.
DVD of the Week: Queen to Play
In the fine French drama Queen to Play, a working class woman discovers a passion for chess in midlife. It’s a film about aspiration. First, she must muster the courage and resourcefulness to learn the game. When it becomes an obsession, she and her family must adjust.
The excellent actress Sandrine Bonnaire (Intimate Strangers) is the perfect choice to play this laconic and controlled character, who reveals her thoughts and emotions to the audience almost only through her eyes. A French-speaking Kevin Kline is also very good as the crusty American widower who teaches her chess.
Other recent DVD picks have been Kill the Irishman, The Music Never Stopped, Source Code, Potiche and Another Year.
The Whistleblower: a potentially riveting story, clumsily told
The Whistleblower is a potentially riveting story, clumsily told. It’s a paranoid thriller about human trafficking that was tolerated and even assisted by UN peacekeepers in Bosnia. After seeing this movie, I was determined to debunk its claim of “inspired by real events”. So I looked up the story and was surprised to learn that it is essentially true. The problem is that the filmmaking caused me to think it was fictionalized.
Director Larysa Kondracki throws every Hollywood trope at the screen. The photography is dark when the movie is supposed to be foreboding, and extra dark and jerky when things are supposed to be scary. To keeps things dark and scary, Weisz uses a flashlight instead of flipping the light switch when entering an uninhabited room. Several characters exist primarily to give exposition-filled speeches. Various Eastern Europeans conveniently speak English when they encounter Rachel Weisz. And Weisz’s character is the only person in Bosnia who drives a jeep around unaccompanied.
The Whistleblower is a vehicle for star Rachel Weisz and she does a good job. David Straithern and Vanessa Redgrave contribute their customarily excellent performances. Human trafficking is topical. But this movie just isn’t up to its subject or its cast.
DVD of the Week: Kill the Irishman
Kill the Irishman is based on the real story of Danny Greene, a 70s Irish gangster who took on the Cleveland Mafia. Ray Stevenson (Titus Pullo on Rome) stars as the ambitious hood with uncommon charm, ruthless determination and knack for survival. All-in-all, it’s a worthy crime drama with an excellent cast of veteran “mobsters”: Christopher Walken, Vincent D’Onofrio, Tony Lo Bianco, Paul Sorvino, Steve Schirripa,Robert Davi, Vinny Vella and Mike Starr.
Other recent DVD picks have been The Music Never Stopped, Source Code, Potiche and Another Year.
The Guard: another winner for Brendan Gleeson
This Irish dark comedy is a showpiece for Brendan Gleeson as a lowbrow cop happening upon an international drug conspiracy. Gleeson is always very good and was especially memorable in director Martin McDonagh’s 2008 In Bruges, which was either the funniest hit man movie ever or the darkest and most violent buddy comedy ever. This time, McDonagh’s brother John Michael McDonagh directs Gleeson as a very canny man who convincingly strives to appear much dumber than he is. The perfect foil for Gleeson’s sloppy local cop is the refined FBI agent played by Don Cheadle. Those familiar with Ireland will recognize the Connemara Coast. Don’t miss The Guard.
The Names of Love: amusing but forgettable
The Names of Love is an amusing but forgettable romantic comedy about the attraction of opposites – a flighty leftwing women who converts conservatives by sleeping with them and an uptight and controlled guy. Sara Forestier won the Cesar (France’s Oscar) for her portrayal of the most attention deficient character in recent cinema. Indeed, Forestier is actually convincing as a woman so distractable that she doesn’t notice that she has left her flat and boarded the Paris Metro without wearing any clothes.
DVD of the Week: The Music Never Stopped
Here’s a crowd pleasing movie. Parents find their long lost adult son in a hospital, suffering from a brain tumor that has erased his much of his memory (and all of his short term memory). A speech therapist discovers that the son’s personality is sparked by music that he remembers from his teens. The father and the son have been estranged since the son left after an argument between them. The father finds that he can reach over the memory disability and re-connect by learning the son’s music.
The son’s music is all from the period 1964 to 1970 – and this music is another character in the film. Dad leaves behind his Big Band sensibilities to embrace Bob Dylan, Donovan, Steppenwolf, Crosby Stills & Nash and, especially the Grateful Dead. Baby Boomers and Dead Heads will really enjoy this movie from the music alone. Indeed, the Dead’s Bob Weir and Mickey Hart have been out supporting the movie.
The film is a showcase for the excellent actor J.K. Simmons, who plays the father. Simmons is always very, very good (Juno‘s dad, getting fired in Up in the Air and on TV’s Oz and Law and Order). Here, he plays a guy who is secure in his own righteousness, but then sees and accepts his own responsibility for the estrangement, and whose love for his son motivates him to make some big changes. Lou Taylor Pucci is excellent as the son. Julia Ormond does a good job playing the speech therapist.
Now I generally hate “disease of the week” movies. Really hate them. But here the real story is about the relationship between father and son, and the rebuilding of the bond between them. The memory disability, along with their past and the father’s initial stubbornness, is just another obstacle to their communication.
The story is based on an actual case described by Oliver Sacks in his essay The Last Hippie.
Other recent DVD picks have been Source Code, Potiche, Step Into Liquid and Riding Giants, and Another Year.