Munich (2005)

This is not a film I'd probably have chosen to seen if not nominated, but it wound up being much better than I anticipated.

The story is that of an assassination squad dispatched (by Golda Meir herself) to target those behind the massacre of the Israeli Olympic team in 1972. It's not exactly a "motley" crew -- but they're not seasoned, either. They're doing the job because they believe in it. I've heard complaints that what's on-screen is manipulative, and I agree, but I don't really mind that. Go ahead and get my emotions up by putting an adorable child in danger...and by letting me see that it gets the assassins' emotions up as well.

But there's just so many assassinations that the jobs simply become rote. Maybe that's the point -- we're getting jaded just as the killers themselves get jaded -- but the problem, cinematically, is that the intensity disappears. It becomes almost like a big bang blockbuster, rather than the thought-provoking piece I think it's meant to be.

The actors are, across-the-board, fantastic.

B+

Genevieve (1954)

Fluffy English comedy about two obsessive vintage car owners and their increasing competitiveness during an annual classic car rally. Their efforts to sabotage each other are rather low-key -- it all seems a little too genteel.

Another problem is that the women in their cars seem a little too patient to be believed. Every once in a while they let out exasperated sighs and roll their eyes -- but so what? If one of them had thrown a full-on fit or started scheming WITH their partner, that would have been far funnier. As it is, they're just the voices of patient reason. Yawn.

I mean, it's cute, but in a very mild way.

C+

Rent (2005)

The best song -- the best scene, really -- comes right at the beginning of the film. The principals are standing abreast on a stage in an empty theater, belting out "Seasons of Love" (525,600 minutes). I got all goosepimply with excitement for the movie to come. But, like I said, the first number is the best the film has to offer. So, dang.

There were some funny moments, some touching scenes, some vibrant dancing -- but all of it felt quite, you know, staged. And, to my ears, Roger's strained rocker voice was the worst in quality, yet he seemed to get more sing time than anyone else.

Most of the songs are worth hearing, though. If I'd fast forwarded through everything else, this might have earned a full letter grade higher.

C

Match Point (2005)

I believe this is the second most undeservingly praised movie of the year, next to A History of Violence. Now, don't you dare go pegging me as a Woody Allen hater...I am no such thing. I've seen almost everything he's done and love quite a lot of it. This stilted morality play, however, is not the return to form I'd heard it was.

I was thrilled to find that there's no "Woody Allen" role in this film. I don't just mean that he doesn't appear in it -- I mean that no one's playing the part he'd normally play, e.g. Will Ferrell in "Melinda and Melinda" or Kenneth Branagh in "Celebrity." It's a relief not to a find that nattering self-effacing guy providing unnatural comic relief.

But still - this movie isn't all it's cracked up to be. It takes too long to get where it's going and I didn't really care where it went. There wasn't a person on the screen that was truly likable. Sure, Chloe (the rich wife) was sweet and unpretentious -- but she was also a bit of a milksop. And our "hero" was, pretty much, a blank. Woody could have snuffed any of the characters and it wouldn't have moved me...either to tears OR to anger. I felt exactly the same about all of the principals: "eh." The movie only really takes off with the introduction of the Detective Banner (James Nesbitt -- one of my faves), and we barely get to know him before the credits roll.

C+

The Aristocrats (2005)

The joke's not funny -- it's just a set-up and a punchline. The teller stuffs the "in-between" with the nastiest stuff the (s)he can think of. Shock and disgust can sometimes provoke a laugh on its own, but it never does here. I mean, a story about sliding through excrement and fornicating with small children and animals could only be funny once...and I imagine you'd have to be kind of drunk even then.

There are exactly two great tellings in this film: Wendy Liebman's, which turns the joke on its head (her deadpan delivery is fantastic, though the filmmakers dampen the originality of the moment by then showing a few additional examples of the joke being told from this opposite angle) and Sarah Silverman's, which turns it into an inappropriate and uncomfortable personal anecdote. All of the others just blend together.

D-

North Country (2005)

The framework of the story can't miss: newbie in a difficult situation decides to change the situation and gets nothing but more grief for her attempts.

It's a serviceable underdog story with effective acting undone by superfluous extras: making her out-of-wedlock kid the result of a rape rather than simply the result of underage promiscuousness is a particularly eye-rolling move. Can't she be right NOW even if she was wrong THEN? There are also some incredibly silly courtroom theatrics employed -- the speechifying and witness-bullying by Woody Harrelson would've made more sense in an old Perry Mason episode.

But still -- not bad.

B-

Sahara (1943)

Three American soldiers fighting for the British in Libya are ordered to retreat south across the harsh terrain. Early in their journey, they pick up some British soldiers and, a bit later, a Sudanese sergeant with an Italian prisoner. They're also buzzed by a German pilot who they succeed in shooting down and capturing.

The group manages to find an almost-empty well and decide to make their stand there -- the better to fool the approaching enemy into thinking they've got water to spare. It falls into predictability in the last third, but the ending's enough to get a jaded American cheering. Yeah, it's propaganda, but it's entertaining propaganda -- so that's alright.

B-

Red Eye (2005)

I like a good thriller. This isn't one.

The scariest things about this movie are the overcompensating soundtrack and Colby Donaldson's acting.

D

Solaris (2002)

Whoa -- two "is she dead or what" movies in a row. Weird.

Atmospheric story of a man grieving his dead wife and being asked to go to a space station studying Solaris -- because, as his friend already there tells him, he possesses unique history that makes him particularly suited to experience it.

It's a weird place. Something's going on that's not normal. The tension is delicious -- the mood just right. Clooney finds out first-hand what the deal is the next day when he wakes up in his quarters to find his wife beside him.

I liked the look and the feel...I liked the premise...and I liked the acting. But, somehow, the idea of the film winds up being much more intriguing than the execution. It's beautiful but hollow.

B

Just Like Heaven (2005)

I was in the mood for a contrived love story, dangit!

This was fine. It was cute. It wasn't anything special. I thought that Witherspoon was waaaayyy over the top in the early "spirit" scenes and that the downstairs neighbor who's supposed to be a knockout is really weird looking.

C+

The Beguiled (1971)

One of my favorite Clint Eastwood movies. I've never really gotten his appeal -- but here? Oh boy do I get it!

Clint's a wounded Union soldier in Confederate territory. A student at an all-girls school happens upon him and drags him back there for bandaging. All the girls are pretty excited about having an enemy soldier on the grounds -- some because they can't wait to do their duty by turning him over to the authorites, and some because...well...as I said: "oh boy!"

It doesn't take long for Clint to have almost every girl and woman at the school giddy at the sight of him. While that keeps him from being turned over to the authorities, lots of females and just one male makes for a dicey situation all its own.

B+

The War Within (2005)

When we first see Hassan, he's chatting on his cell phone, discussing what movie to see with his friend that evening.

Then he's snatched off the street and out of that world forever. He's questioned and tortured by... terrorists? ...authorities? I'm not quite sure which. Whoever it was, though, was instrumental in turning this unburdened young man into a ball of righteous fervor. His roommate during his captivity is Khalid, who speaks of a "brotherhood," of which Hassan originally wants no part. When we next see Hassan, however, he's arriving in America in a shipping container and makes his way to the home of a childhood friend in Manhattan. There he lies low until it's time to strike with the brotherhood.

The title implies a mental tug of war, but the film makes Hassan so single-minded that it doesn't quite deliver. I needed to see him waver in his goal...but when the original plan is thwarted, it is he who forces a new one. I didn't hate him -- but neither could I really identify with him. I mean, it was understandable how a man might go from a state of "live and let live" to "godless heathens who should die like pigs," but believing and doing are two different things. I needed more mental anguish...it's scary to me that the film might be more accurate.

B

A History of Violence (2005)

Either I'm an idiot who simply doesn't understand genius in movies when it's displayed right in front of me -- or this is complete crap that everyone else is pretending, Emperor's New Clothes-style, is a masterpiece.

The whole "set-up" portion of the movie (and it's so obviously set-up -- there's nothing organic about it) feels like a Hallmark movie that the characters have just, themselves, dropped into. As, until the cameras started rolling, they were in a holding pattern. (Paraphrasing) Husband: "Let's go to the drive-in tonight." Wife: "There hasn't been a drive-in here for 16 years." Um...duh. Wouldn't he KNOW that? And, if he does know that -- wouldn't wife realize he's joking and, you know, smile rather than correct him? Later on...Wife: "we never got to be teenagers together so I'm gonna fix that tonight." How? By putting on a cheerleading outfit and 69ing while pretending mom and dad might hear "next door." Cute? Slutty? Both? Who cares. But could it have really occurred to her to roleplay a missed portion of life together JUST NOW? What utter ridiculous crap.

The dialogue is stupid. The sex is gratuitous...embarrassingly so. The story is simple-minded and problematic. I mean, would mobsters call attention to themselves by rolling right into town and announcing their deduction so that they'll be the prime suspects when mild-mannered Viggo goes missing? Please. Why terrorize him at all? Just snatch him and drag him away. And would wifey-poo truly get sick to her stomach over finding out that her husband of 20 years or so didn't tell her about his past but get rather INTO being violently raped by him on wooden stairs? Seriously? Ugh.

Best part of the movie is William Hurt's scene. I don't think I'd have handed him a nomination, but he certainly does liven things up.

D+

P.S. Why had no one mentioned -- anywhere -- the fact that Viggo Mortensen has a tail?

Othello 1965

Laurence Olivier took on the role of the title character. And, apparently, he translated "black man" as, you know, BLACK MAN, and used up all of the black spray paint at the Home Depot. Is anyone this color?

Anyway. I'm not really what could be called a Shakespeare fan -- I can take him or leave him. This one, I'll leave. The framework's not bad: very much in love newlyweds Othello and Desdemona become the victims of Iago's plan to destroy Othello. The filming is also quite interesting - it's basically staged as though being performed in a theater. The sets are as you'd find them on a stage in front of footlights. It's certainly an cool idea, but it makes a hard-to-relate-to play that much more unreal.

Olivier, for me, is the biggest problem. He plays Othello as a confident man -- sure of his decisions and his wife and his control over his men. For some reason, though, he chooses to trust Iago implicitly and becomes a jealous maniac in no time flat. I hated the scenes in which he's whining and simpering to Iago as though he'd lost all ability to be a MAN. It's an uneven and kind of disgusting interpretation of this proud character.

Maggie Smith is luminous as Desdemona. She's not the beauty the script calls for, but she is the heart of the film. She's hurt, confused, trusting, helplessly in love, and defensive of her lover until the very end. Beautiful work.

C-

The Chumscrubber (2005)

The Chumscrubber is a movie set in one of those "everything's fine" movie suburbias where nothing ever IS.

It kicks off with a suicide that sets in motion a plan to get the dead kid's (who happened to be the former drug supplier to the rich and bored population of the local high school) stash of drugs. The budding delinquent in charge decides to kidnap a kid and threaten the kid's brother (dead kid's former best friend) until he's forced to retrieve the drugs for them.

This big storyline rather gets in the way of the moments of incisiveness in the script, such as the parent so careful not to invade her child's privacy that she doesn't even realize he's missing and the grieving mother trying to force everyone into her private pain by repeating the phrase "in no way whatsoever do I hold you responsible for [my son's] death." I liked those kind of peripheral touches that were woven throughout -- on the basis of those alone, this movie is worth seeing. But as a cohesive storytelling effort? It failed.

C+

Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price (2005)

Well, Wal-Mart certainly comes off bad here. No debate.

The problem with the film is that it could have been more effective if it'd been structured better. The story is told in chapters -- first we get the "employee" chapter. Then we get the "Wal-Mart ruined our mom-and-pop store" chapter. Then we get into Wal-Mart destroying communities and not caring about the environment and outsourcing jobs to China.

Basically -- most of us aren't Wal-Mart employees. Most of us don't own small-town retail stores. We can't relate to their "hook." Sure, I sympathized...but thinking "those poor people" isn't the same thing as feeling personally offended. Leading with the crimes felt by the general public would've been smarter. The story's structured like this: "You know that guy? He's a bully. He flicked boogers on that other guy. He also insulted this other really nice dude you don't know. And he poisoned a girl's dog. Oh -- and he's holding your grandfather hostage." Kinda backwards, right?

There was also some serious inconsistency in the recording levels. At times I had to have the volume as far up as it could go to make out some of dialogue, which caused a sudden shock when the next interviewee's voice blasted full force.

Certainly interesting and makes a solid case -- but it's just not as effective as the material warrants.

B