Marley & Me

2008 US David Frankel
✰ 1/2

There's only one proper way to do a "dog film" without turning your work into mush, and that's by refraining from killing the cute, cuddly guy at the end. Marley & Me not only fails at this—but does so spectacularly, milking the death with cross-cuts (little kid watching doggy home videos / the dog being killed by injection) followed by a lengthy canine funeral. Neither Owen Wilson nor Jennifer Aniston are particularly good actors, which doesn't help, though at least Wilson keeps most of the goings-on goofy. Alan Arkin is a supporting pleasure. The story is predictable, formulaic; I didn't mind. The dog's antics are fun for people who like dogs. A sub-plot involving TV actor Eric Dane goes nowhere throughout the movie. I guess I should also say that this manipulative piece of trash made my eyes water. Damn you, David Frankel. Damn you!

The New Protocol

2008 FR Thomas Vincent
✰✰✰

Captivating, low-key French thriller about a father who loses a son and goes after the pharmaceutical company that may have been responsible for his death. As paranoia grows, so do implications of immoral business practices both within France and without. Throughout, however, Vincent's camera remains fixed in the grey everyday, grounding big ideas by expressing them personally rather than emphatically: car chases, conspiracies seen through the eyes of a grieving parent. Suspense, drama are earned. Debt is paid to the American paranoia films of the 1970s. The delicious Marie-Josée Croze plays a damaged, crusading nutjob (or is she?) who helps our hero in his quest. Ambiguity hovers like a fog, but the ending is an uppercut. The New Protocol explores the same territory as Fernando Meirelles' much-lauded and more-popular The Constant Gardener, but is the better film. A good, smart thriller—it's been a while. Original title: Le nouveau protocole.

The Caller

2008 US Richard Ledes
✰✰ 1/2

Yeah, it's a bit corny and too-much into Coppola's The Conversation—but can anyone truly resist Frank Langella and Elliott Gould? Once you buy into low-budgetry and lite politics, settle into a cozy zone and watch two great actors make the most of their roles. The set-up ain't too bad, either: a big-time exec with a guilty conscience and job at a shady international company pays a small-time private dick with a thing for birds to spy on him. There's also a French, wartime back story and some present-time relationships with women. Perhaps too much cynicism will ruin the film; but I was in a good mood, I bought in, I was moved.

The Baader Meinhof Complex

2008 DE Uli Edel
✰ 1/2

There's something to be said for portraying a series of based-on real life actions in chronological order; and something else entirely for showing those same actions in chronological order while also adhering to any kind of dramatic structure. Uli Edel's bright and shiny depiction of the RAF speaks only for the former: it's a chaotic mess. Big guns, loud noises, nude girls—what fun! Anyone not familiar with the history will likely get lost. Or is that the point? Since the film has nothing new, important, smart, or witty to say about its topic, perhaps confusing the audience seems the next-best effect. Politically-neutered, big budget German cream-puff that pretends to taste spicy. Original title: Der Baader Meinhof Komplex.

The Day the Earth Stood Still

2008 US Scott Derrickson
✰ 1/2

Pretty-cool effects fail to save this Al Gore-ish remake from sucking air into its gills and dying a slow, philosophically painful ("Nothing ever truly dies. Everything is simply [...] transformed.") cinematic death. Ably-made, but acting sucks—Keanu Reeves being the least of the problem. Jennifer Connelly has been shit ever since she shaved off her unibrow, and Klaatu should have killed Will Smith's kid when he had the damn chance. What an annoying brat! Otherwise: I haven't seen the original, but this one tries to be Green and well-meaning, like a dumb kid's science project. You smile, because what else can you do? Though it is hard to stomach the "progressive" attitude when you know the filmmakers have a black kid with a white stepmother and a throwaway scientist character named Yusef only so that, generations from now, when our great grandchildren are studying our cultural artifacts, they'll watch The Day the Earth Stood Still (yeah, right!) and say, "Gee, interracial marriage and smart, America-friendly Arabs—what a brave and daring portrayal."

The Last Confession of Alexander Pearce

2008 AU Michael James Rowland
✰✰✰

Alexander Pearce was an 19th-century Irishman sentenced to Sarah Island penal colony in Australia. Twice he escaped—once with seven men, once with a single partner—and twice he came out alive, alone, having eaten human flesh to survive. For his crimes, he was sentenced to hang, and did so. Prior, he gave his confession to a priest, Philip Connely, and shocked the "civilized" British world. This 60-minute docudrama (that most-maligned of genres, though excellent if done right) makes visual these confessions in a haunting yet rugged way. It is an old-style adventure / survival story with a horrific twist and an eye to the effects of human mistreatment, beatings. Question: who is the monster? Film is sympathetic to Pearce, as was (?) his confessor. It is humane—history with a conscience. The picture looks excellent. Digital cameras, locations, period detail, and beautiful nature cinematography create a sense of immediacy and involvement. Stirring stuff, indeed.

Summer

2008 GB Kenneth Glenaan
✰✰ 1/2

Story of two life-long friends, friendship cemented by an accident that left one crippled. Told in the kind of split-time, parallel narratives writers can't help indulging in. As both past and present unfold over Summers, climaxes converge. But, surprise: film doesn't play "the accident" as an emotional trump card, there's no [sick] thrill from "finally" seeing the character shattered. It doesn't happen after a 10-minute police chase, on a cliff, with musical strings swelling. I like that. The style is also quite nice throughout. A bit too polished, maybe; but certainly adventurous enough you're glad some other filmmaker didn't make it. Time gets stuck in a few places, the past invades the present, signaling its permanence. Robert Carlyle tries too hard in the main role. Bottom line: for a film dealing with disabilities, death, tragedy—there are many, and most are manipulative trash—I felt real emotions.

Humboldt County

2008 US Danny Jacobs
✰

Awful "indie" about a lost (played: comatose) medical student who follows a girl (where did you go, Fairuza?) to a Northern California pot farm, where he learns to live again. Excusing the green photography and setting, this film tastes like bong water. Main character's transformation is unbelievable—unless he just needed oxygen, crises happen on clockwork cue, and [excess] characters pass around life speeches like so-many empty reefers. The climax involves a shotgun, a helicopter, running around, and the DEA. Peter Bogdanovich, who is undoubtedly now searching for acting jobs in porn, looks appropriately bewildered throughout.

Babysitter Wanted

2008 US Jonas Barnes
✰✰

Disarmingly-entertaining flick about a devout Christian girl who goes to college (Art History) and takes a babysitting job at a farmhouse out in the sticks to earn money. Her seemingly-normal employer family isn't so normal, however; comic-relief sprinkled horror follows! Good production values make good-looking picture, suspenseful, acting is what it should be (Bruce Campbell twin Bruce Thomas looks like he had an especially good time). But: long beginning is stronger than ending, which gets cheesy in a bad way. Soundtrack is emotionally-abusive at times, too. Gore is restricted to a handful of scenes, played over-the-top. Surprisingly, no nudity.

Achilles and the Tortoise

2008 JP Takeshi Kitano
✰✰

What begins as a coming-of-age satire of the art world passes through an un-engaging romantic phase and ends as an absurd story about a ruined artist—macabre undercurrent flowing throughout. The pivotal event: our artist, poor but passionate, paints a beautiful seascape; he takes it to a gallery filled with ugly, inferior works; it's rejected: too conventional. Everything he makes afterwards is an imitation of the poor and inferior, of which the film becomes a (conscious?) mirror: parade of copied styles adding up to something long and incomplete. There is still entertainment to be found in a twisty sense of humour, but what else? No beauty, no emotion, limp irony. The artist, whom we see in three stages of his life, remains a mystery, empty. Takeshi has finished this canvas. Now he should move on. Original title: Akiresu to kame.

Still Walking

2008 JP Hirokazu Koreeda
✰✰✰

Modest, unassuming film about the joy and sadness of families and their passing. The mode? A gathering in a quiet, seaside town: parents, children, spouses, grandchildren. Interactions tease out complex relationships and the persistence of the past—of past histories. There is pain, the death of a young son / brother commemorated each year, but also happiness, love, and the beautiful inevitability of child becoming parent. Characters are vibrant, well-written: faulty creatures with goodness at heart. The old order is different from the new, but only superficially. Differences are often mere theatre. Therein lies the tragedy: disconnection is a choice, a punishment against the self. We are Still Waiting because we choose not to ask, answer, engage. And then they're gone, our families—and we realize our selfishness. Style: camera is unobtrusive, floating; edits are invisible. Original title: Aruitemo aruitemo.

Frozen River

2008 US Courtney Hunt
✰ 1/2

Ugly NY-state Winter provides backdrop for unlikely friendship between White & Mohawk women that ends predictably / tragically, with important lessons for all—at Christmas! Expect a filmmaker trying to play your heartstrings like an over-eager fifth grader plucking a violin, and with as much intelligence. Amidst the human trafficking and poverty there's even a baby, used as a MacGuffin in a rather horrible 'lil sequence of "will it or won't it die" suspense. Lead actresses do a fine job, look is acceptably dirty, but the script: Jesus. Not that there are many films about the Mohawk, so at least there's that.

Hamlet 2

2008 US Andrew Fleming
✰✰

Zaniness about a high-school drama teacher writing and staging a sequel to Shakespeare—with time machines, Hillary Clinton, and Sexy Jesus! Funny, if you got the knack. Follows Hollywood formula, but seasons with pleasing pinch of chaos. Like an angry anarchist's bomb: loud, skewers everything, means little. So lovable, like an insane puppy. But the film's greatest accomplishment is that it doesn't wear out its welcome. Truth: not particularly well made.

Revolutionary Road

2008 US Sam Mendes
✰ 1/2

If Sam Mendes rewrote a good book, it wouldn't be good, either. Alas: like a blood stain slowly filling out the front of a nice dress, the film ruins, smears, stains. Players do well to say impossibly-literate lines and attempt stylization, but else runs screaming towards "realism". Realism? Hardly. Melodrama, but Iz bin Done, dee-done Done [before]. Idea to adapt takes hit: 60s satire of 50s is expired, bad milk. Overwrought, mawkish, yes; but why so self-serious, Sam?

The Wrestler

2008 US Darren Aronofsky
✰✰ 1/2

Precisely-styled, but clean and conventional "sports" movie. Good contrast between brutal fight scenes (ouch!) and pitiful existence (Nintendo!), but daughter scenes: bleh. Ending similar. Could have been tragic, but why the excessive post-processing, why the stripper racing against time? Best scene is in supermarket as Wrestler gets worn down, chucks salad. Iran doesn't like Ayatollah breaking in-half Iranian flag. Confession: Mickey Rourke is good, give him that.

Somers Town

2008 GB Shane Meadows
✰✰✰

Polish immigrant meets British rascal, make friendship, share an older, French first-love. Meadows channels simplicity and the taste of Jules et Jim. Characters are deeper than appear, story is not; could have been a Eurostar (financier) commercial, but isn't. Good tone, teases against sinister expectations. Bad montages, especially at the end, in colour. Slight only on the surface. Hemingway's iceberg floats down below.

Synecdoche, New York

2008 US Charlie Kaufman
✰✰✰1/2

It's not pretentious, it's about something (what?)! A vanity project, sure—but one that eats with both hands: ironic detachment, we laugh at the characters; attachment, we feel sympathy for those we laugh at. Writing is top-notch, as expected. Cinematography is good, direction above-average. Overflows with ideas, surrealism. Touching. Cons: suffers from over-length, beginning is better than ending, certain weirdness is excessive. But Samantha Morton is adorable. All is well, because I'm in love again. Says the ear-piece: "Die."

Vicky Cristina Barcelona

2008 US Woody Allen
✰✰ 1/2

Woody pencils a flowing, intelligent sketch, not fully-formed, of four characters and a pack of stereotypes. Enjoying himself in Spain. Quick, loose, funny, bit of drama, romantic. Voice-over grates, then amuses. Stale dialogue is sub-par for Woody's course. Conflict: US vs. European culture, Responsibility vs. Living. Mad Penelope won the Oscar, but it's Javier Bardem (sexy, slightly-creepy) who's indispensable.