Letters From Iwo Jima (2006)

I was never really planning on watching "Flags of Our Fathers" but, after having now seen this one, I think I might kind of have to. This film feels more like a counter-point than like a fully formed story all its own...like a couple of episodes in an HBO miniseries on the subject.

Ken Watanabe gives a beautiful performance as the general in charge of defending the island. He knows that the job he's been given is near impossible but still wants to play it smart -- doing as much as he can for his country. His unconventional methods put him at odds with the traditionalists he commands and makes his difficult task doubly so. The other character we spend a lot of time with is Saigon, a bottom-of-the-totem-pole soldier. I think he's supposed to be the guy who helps us identify with the boys on the other side, but I found him to be overly sentimental. He believes in the general, wants to get home to his wife, and is just altogether charming -- basically an invention rather than real.

The severe look of the film was great, but I would've preferred that the running time and content be treated with like severity.

B-

Waitress (2007)

I'm a huge Firefly fan. I think it's possible that I'm an even bigger Felicity fan. And Six Feet Under? Only the most amazing show ever to be on my television screen -- I played that final scene about 180 times and cried through each one (and I'm actually kind of tearing up just thinking about it now). I explain this so that everyone understands that Nathan Fillion is a god to me, Keri Russell can do no wrong in my eyes, and the presence of Jeremy Sisto even forced me to watch "Kidnapped" during its short run this past fall.

I'm sad that I don't love this movie. Truth be told, I'm kind of shocked that I don't love this movie. But, despite my predisposition to support everything these people do, I just thought this was a misfire. The funny stuff felt obvious, the casting of Andy Griffith as a randy rascal felt engineered to jaw-drop, and the story was just kinda "whatever." I didn't leave satisfied and I couldn't help but wonder if the director hadn't been murdered pre-release whether this movie would have been a lot less well-received. The awful thing is that I feel like it's somehow WRONG for me to voice that question...like I should just keep my mouth shut and keep the applause going because, you know, the woman died, for crying out loud.

C+

The Dead Girl (2006)

Had the same vibe as Personal Velocity -- you know, the "here's several vignettes of women in transition: watch! be moved!" vibe. The changes in the lives of these women are all spurred by the the discovery of the title character's body . There are five chapters to this story: "The Stranger" (Toni Collette, who discovers the body), "The Sister" (Rose Byrne, whose standard blank-faced acting for once serves the story), "The Wife" (an incredible Mary Beth Hurt), "The Mother" (a heartbreaking Marcia Gay Harden), and "The Dead Girl" (a kind of annoying Brittany Murphy).

I've heard complaints that Murphy's character is the weakest link and, while I agree, I don't think that really matters. See, the story isn't about her -- it's about the way that one person's tiny life can touch so many others; how people who otherwise have no connection whatsoever can be changed forever because someone else made an appearance in their lives.

I wouldn't say that the movie is an out-and-out success, but I liked the idea of it and it stayed with me for several days.

B

Brubaker (1980)

Robert Redford is Brubaker, a new inmate at the horrible-in-every-way Wakefield Prison. The food is full of maggots, the building is falling down, the fellow prisoners are a constant threat, and the guards are even worse. Brubaker is sharp -- he quickly learns who's got the power, how the system works, and how to survive in the place. And then Brubaker reveals that he's not inmate Brubaker, but warden Brubaker -- the guy who's a-gonna clean up this here mess.

The thing is, I've seen it all before. It's not the film's fault, but it's lost the power I'm sure it had (especially as the story's based in fact) during its theatrical run 25+ years ago. The performances are strong but, sadly, the horror in the prison just isn't that shocking to the jaded residents of the 21st century. People in prison are bad -- and those in charge of keeping them there are usually pretty bad too. I learned that from Shawshank.

B-

Lucky Number Slevin (2006)

I knew from the get-go that this was gonna be one of those movies...twists and turns and doublecrosses -- feeling like a puzzle to be solved, while refusing to provide the necessary pieces to even have a prayer of correctly solving the puzzle before the filmmakers pull the answer out of thin air and shove it in my face. I hate those kinds of movies because knowing that information is being withheld or that I'm being purposely led astray generally pisses me off.

So I have no idea why this movie didn't make me want to throw something at the TV screen. I guessed wrong at every turn, but I still liked it -- probably way more than it deserves to be liked. A couple of factors that probably helped: Lucy Liu and Josh Hartnett make an impossibly adorable couple and the story had just enough ridiculousness in it to make me smile rather than take it too seriously.

B

Deliver Us From Evil (2006)

It's hard to review a movie like this because it's not entertainment. It is, however, completely captivating -- I felt as though the very least I could do is to watch in sad compassion while just a fraction of the victims of Oliver O'Grady, former parish priest in several California cities, relayed portions of their stories to the camera.

This man is a predator in the scariest sense of the word. He wasn't only a friend, he was a vital part of the household -- more than simply trusted by the families he violated, he had spiritual authority over them. He hurt young bodies and minds and robbed people of their faith -- and yet the church just kept shuffling him on down the road, caring less for the congregants he was raping than for their own reputations.

O'Grady gets more face-time than anyone else here. He tells horrifying stories -- about masturbating young boys or lifting up a little girl's long nightgown while her parents sleep in the next room -- all the time with a half-smile on his face. He seems like someone relating pleasant memories of a particularly relaxing canoe ride...how on earth could families have been expected to see the monster beneath the placidity?

Terrifying stuff. Hatred of the church and, by extension, God is a perfectly reasonable response.

A-

The Ox-Bow Incident (1943)

Everyone in the dusty nowhere town has been hearing about the rustling that's been going on, but when one of their own cattlemen winds up dead it gets personal fast.

Just a simple movie about how hard it is to stop a group once it gets going in a certain direction...and how scary such a group can be, regardless of whether you're on the outside or part of it. A tight screenplay (less than 80 minutes) that packs quite a wallop.

A+

Over the Hedge (2006)

The set-up of the movie -- about the first 15 minutes or so -- had me ready to switch it off. Nothing seemed inspired, the voice work felt labored, and the "funny" stuff was falling flat.

Thankfully, we soon get to the main story (outsider raccoon cons a group of trusting hibernates into gathering food for him) and it started working. The innocence of the woodland critters and their interpretations of what the humans were doing "that is the device to summon food...that is the altar where they worship food!" just worked.

Fun movie for a nice span of ages.

B

Spanking the Monkey (1994)

I remember one summer when I decided to stay in my college town rather than going back to Florida. My father told me angrily over the phone that I didn't have a choice in the matter...that I WAS going to come home. But I understood the rules even if my father needed them explained: older than 18 and out of the house means that I can respect my father without necessarily obeying him.

So I was pretty confused about why in the world the college kid in this film (Ray) would put up with the tonnage of crap that he does. The movie opens with him heading home from MIT expecting to quickly leave again for a prestigious summer internship with the Surgeon General...but his mother has a broken leg and needs care and his dad's going on the road so he's stuck with the job.

Now, caring for your broken-legged mother when you could be advancing your career is annoying...but that's just the very least of this kid's troubles. I did feel the "trapped" vibe that was emanating from the lead, but I couldn't help just wanting to slap him. Hard. Get the hell out of the bad situation! Don't stay there all whiny and pathetic! You're obviously smart...so apply those brains.

I mean, what the heck did I just watch? This is one of the few movies that made me physically shudder.

C-

Alpha Dog (2007)

It does a great job of conveying the world of privileged groups of kids who just have way too much cash and freedom without the maturity that usually comes with having earned those things. I have no idea if the picture it drew is accurate, but I believed it. Just thinking about the way that the school bullies of my youth inspired fear in their victims and loyalty (with, still, a component of fear) in their groupies, I could see how that could magnify exponentially when enabling parents, drugs, and ridiculous amounts of cash get tossed into the mix.

I felt a sense of doom throughout. The arc felt inevitable, and I thought that made the movie feel true -- as right as a wrong situation can be. The actors were all quite good, but I think that Emile Hirsch didn't really work as the group's despot. He was the unquestioned leader -- but I'm not sure why anyone would do the bidding of a guy whose mannerisms and wardrobe reminded me so much of Turtle.

I knew nothing about this film going in -- didn't even have a clue that it was based on real happenings. I was impressed with how close it was to the facts of the case when I did a little research on it.

B+

The Goddess (1958)

The movie's divided into three parts: "Portrait of a Young Girl," "Portrait of a Young Woman," and "Portrait of a Goddess." The first portion is given just a small amount of screen time, but we get it: she's a lonely latchkey kid before it was the norm.

In the second act, her desire to be accepted despite living in the bad part of town causes her to give the boys what other girls won't...and to dream of escaping to Hollywood to become a star and prove to everyone that she's as good as they are.

The third, and longest, part is all about Hollywood. I've read that Paddy Chayefsky based his screenplay on Ava Gardner's life -- but there's a competing theory that it's all about Marilyn. Regardless of who the inspiration was, it's damned depressing. It's also insightful, well-acted, and powerful. I didn't enjoy it, but I do respect it.

B-

Old Joy (2006)

A nice married guy with a baby on the way gets a call out of the blue from an old, slightly flaky, friend who's back in town. Does he want to go camping? Well...sure he does.

I've had friends like this -- you've probably had friends like this. They're long on ideas, short on planning ability, eager to reflect upon/repeat fun episodes from the long-gone past, but have a difficult time just accepting who everyone else has become. Their friends grow and change -- they stay the same. There's something kind of refreshing about these people, but also kind of frustrating in that, when you spend time with them, you're either forced into the role of "grown-up" or have to pretend not to care that there isn't one. And that's near impossible, at least for me.

So, anyway, back to the movie. It's a beautiful meditation on all of the above -- two men on a trip, getting lost and found, wondering who the other is and solidifying who they themselves are. There was one particular scene which I found incredibly difficult to watch because of the fact that I hate any physical demonstration -- no matter how purely intended -- that makes anyone involved in it uncomfortable. I think, however, that what I was feeling was the intended feeling. The entire movie felt as though I was "getting" what I was meant to get and I really liked that.

The soundtrack, by Yo La Tengo, was beautiful and set just the right mood.

B+

The Seventh Veil (1946)

We start near the end -- a silent young woman in a hospital room waits until the doctors depart and then furtively escapes in an attempt to commit suicide by jumping off a bridge. A hypnotist is called in to explore the cause of her desperation and to find a cure. The bulk of the story is told through these memories uncovered during treatment.

The story is sad and desperate with a fantastic vibe -- I was rooting for the lead to recover...to understand the abuse in her past and triumph over it. Instead, the ending has her making the absolutely WRONG choice and the entire effect of the movie was spoiled. Went from creepy and hopeful to creepy and kinda twisted.

B-