Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed

Ben Stein has apparently studied every Michael Moore movie ever produced and come to the conclusion that if Michael could do it, HE could do it. When I say studied, I mean with diligence - he copied the Hated Liberal so well that leaving Michael out of the credits should be cause for a lawsuit. Soundtrack, cheesy gimmicks, pacing, even monotonous voice over - everything smacks of Michael Moore. Too bad Ben didn't bother with the fact checking.

The premise of Expelled is that "Big Science" (unclear as to just who that is,) will not allow anyone to question evolution - that all scientists are godless atheists and dissent in the ranks will get you canned, blacklisted, and ridiculed. Ben, our freedom lovin' all American questioner, asks pointy questions of lots of the evil atheists, and less than pointy questions of the persecuted, interspersed with clever graphics and film clips and Ben's whiny, nasal voice telling us what is really being said. It's faulty logic that skims right over into offensive when he concludes that the Holocaust was the result of Hitler's belief in evolution.

I found the movie hard to swallow - I doubt that any serious evolutionary biologist is really satisfied that we know everything about the origin of life, however the concept of intelligent design assumes that since we don't know - then the answer MUST be God. Stein's arguments assume this. Furthermore, a little research will show that not only did the producers of this masterpiece outright LIE to obtain their interviews, they have a summarily religious agenda AND banned certain academics from their screenings. Interesting answer to their questions about freedom, don't you think? Check out the very well funded Expelled website here and the far more interesting Expelled: Exposed website here.

A Mighty Heart

I really haven't been a fan of Angelina Jolie as an actress. Okay, as a mom and humanitarian she seems pretty cool. And she's gorgeous. But as an actress? Well, her turns as action heroes (Tomb Raider, Mr. & Mrs. Smith) left me less than impressed and is a Best Supporting Actress Oscar (Girl, Interrupted) all that difficult to obtain when acting opposite Winona Ryder? That gal makes anyone look like a Dame Judy Dench by comparison. Sooo, I didn't have high hopes for this ambitious project (Angelina went after this one like Madonna after Evita...) Okay, so it was a pleasant surprise that Angelina more than does justice to the film.

Of course this is the Daniel Pearl story from the perspective of Marianne Pearl, and based on her book. Daniel, a journalist with the Wall Street Journal, was kidnapped in Pakistan in January, 2002. The film follows his 6 months pregnant wife as she, Pakistani law enforcement and the FBI desperately try to piece together what actually happened to Daniel and to find him. It's a harrowing account of great personal courage in the face of terrible odds and a widow's gift to her son... a true legacy to his father and his belief that the truth is what sets us free.

It's a hard film to watch; even knowing the tragic ending in advance the tension and desperation of the dedicated folks who tried to save Daniel's life is palpable. And Jolie is masterful both in her anger and her grief. Irrfan Khan (The Namesake) is impeccable as the captain in charge of the Pakistani investigation. All in all this is a moving account of a heinous crime, the realities of a world where the rules never seem clear anymore, and continued faith in humanity. Well done.
See the excellent website here, and don't miss the memoriam for the 230 journalists who have lost their lives in the pursuit of truth from 2002-2007.

Death at a Funeral

If you're in the mood for a bit o' fluff... and not easily offended by the darker side of pitch black humor, then Death at a Funeral is a pleasant way to waste an evening. Frank Oz has directed a decidedly British farce with a mostly British cast and the devil's own eye at how to make a completely outlandish situation seem plausible. Well, maybe not all that plausible, but at least I bought in enough to find myself snorting under my horrified breath.

Our story begins with a gathering of the clan for the final send off of a perfectly respectable old gentleman - the grieving widow, the put upon second son left holding the fort whilst his dazzling novelist brother gets all the glory, the old codgers' even older sibling straight from the nursing home et al. There's an additional guest that no one recognizes who turns out to have a dark secret and blackmail on his mind. So to the brew of dysfunctional family fun add some misplaced hallucinogenic substances and things get all kinds of interesting - naked man on the roof interesting.... extra body in the casket interesting.

Oz keeps the whole thing moving at a frenetic pace but the really funny stuff comes from Alan Tudyk (remember Firefly?) who is hilarious as a niece's intended, stoned mindless on the accidental acid cocktail. And Peter Dinklage (remember The Station Agent?) is brilliant as the lover come to get what he's due. And does he get it! There's plenty of innuendo and more potty humor than necessary but it all comes right at the end. See another review here.

Margot at the Wedding

Nicole Kidman really needs to stop making bad movies. No, really. She is a GOOD actress. Think Dead Calm, The Hours, Cold Mountain. Who makes lots of BAD movies. Like Birth, Eyes Wide Shut, Birthday Girl and this piece of crap. Nicole, I implore you. Read the script and Just. Say. No. Or - if you'd like to streamline your life - don't even read the script if it's from, say, Noah Baumbach. For God's sake, he wrote The Life Aquatic!

Margot at the Wedding follows Margot (Kidman) - our resident borderline personality - as she heads off to wreck havoc at the nuptials of her long suffering sister, Pauline (played unhappily by Jennifer Jason Leigh.) Pauline is about to wed a loser named Malcolm (Jack Black, who is also in the habit of Making Bad Films) because she's in the family way. Let's not mention that Margot's dragging around her nearly grown son in a decidedly Oedipal way and cheating on her husband. Add some neighbors that seem out of Deliverance and I think you're getting the picture. Really Bad Movie.

Hollywood got all swoony over Baumbach when he wrote and directed The Squid and the Whale. For the record, I hated that one, too, but I'm not always willing to watch miserable people behave badly for the sake of art. This film was supposed to have something to say about family, I believe, but I must have missed it while I was observing the miserable people behaving badly. I mostly found it incredibly dull. And no matter how luminous her milky skin, Nicole as passive-aggressive psycho bitch is not all that amusing. Worst of all, the trailer seemed to imply that this was supposed to be comedy. Yuck. Click here for the website, if you must.

Lust, Caution

I'll confess that I'm a trifle smitten with Ang Lee. Ever since Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, I'm afraid. It started with a simple fascination with his visual style and morphed into adoration with Brokeback Mountain and the amazing gift he seems to have of drawing out and making visual the emotional turmoils of his principals. Lust, Caution couldn't hold a candle to either of those films, but it gave me a nifty little fix nonetheless. Gorgeous visual stylization and raw, emotional depth are abundant. (Some rather visual sex is also abundant and earned the film an NC-17.)

The story is a bit simplistic - your basic college kids get passionate about taking down the bad guys who are collaborating with the occupying other bad guys type of thing. The place is Japanese occupied Shanghai during WWII and the drama department at the local U decides to help the war effort by attempting to infiltrate the household of local head Bad Guy with an eye to off him. Of course the only one to get in is the babyfaced beauty with a crush on the leading man, and then she's asked to use her feminine wiles to ensnare him. It then gets a wee bit fuzzy about who ensnares whom, there is a lot of, um, the stuff that gets the NC17, and a highly predictable ending.

That said, I still ate it up with a spoon. The sets are lavish, the costuming supurb and that unmistakable Ang Lee camera angle/lighting genius is on full display. But even better were the beautiful performances of Tony Leung and Tang Wei as bad guy and beauty respectively. If eyes are the windows to the soul, I could have watched this film without subtitles and understood it perfectly - so nuanced are the glances, so naked and raw. Guess I'm still smitten.
Read another review here.

Dan in Real Life

Okay, I like Steve Carell. So I was all set to like this movie... I mean really like it. I think he's an incredibly subtle comedian who can manage to humanize situations that are amazingly uncomfortable because they seem so authentic. He's also pretty cute in an EveryGuy sort of way. So a romantic comedy with some terrific co-stars (even if the love interest seems miscast) ... it just sounded like a recipe for a warm fuzzy evening. So how come I didn't like it?

Carell is Dan, the widowed dad to three precocious girls and an "expert on relationships" by virtue of writing an advice column. Our story starts as Dan and daughters head out to an extended family vacation - I mean the big 'Family as Imagined in Hollywood' type of thing - with brothers and spouses and cousins and Mom and Pop all doing crosswords, and charades and aerobics in the morning together. When ordered out from underneath every one's feet, he runs into the girl of his dreams in a bookstore. Too bad when she arrives at the family home for the vacation and turns out to be dating Dan's bro. Poor Dan.

Okay, so you know this is all going to turn out for the best, but it's a pretty miserable ride there. Carell does his angst/jealousy/trying to do the right thing best, Julliette Binoche (?) seems alternately insensitive and confused, and the rest of the clan (with outstanding actors like Dianne Wiest, John Mahoney, Dane Cook and Emily Blunt) are just nosy, noisy and self involved. In the end, I just felt sorry for this long suffering doormat of the family. Sure, there were some funny moments.... just not enough to justify the pain. If you still want more, the website is here.

Thesis

It has been suggested that Alenjandro Amenabar is one of the best things to come out of Spain since paella. I have to admit that I found his direction of The Others incredibly gifted... particularly since he was working in a foreign language. To truly appreciate his talent, however, you will need to check out some of his Spanish work. Thesis is a nifty, creepy place to start.

Angela (Ana Torrent, recently Katherine in The Other Boleyn Girl) is an undergrad on a deadline. Her thesis is on violence in film, whether it's ethical to exploit it and why death and mayhem is always so fascinating. This leads to the acquisition of a videotape that apparently records the horrific murder of a former student of the university... and a private investigation - who killed her and who recorded the deed. Enter Chema (Fele Martinez) another film student with his own fascination with violence, and handsome, charming Bosco (Eduardo Noriega, yum!) who seems unnaturally fascinated with Angela. So who's next for a screen test?

Amenabar does a fine job in weaving in a lot of repressed sexuality, and Torrent is fabulous at maintaining a dance of obsession and terror. But the real fun comes from a constant jumpiness that builds throughout the film. By the time you know she's in real trouble, you're just as frightened as our heroine. Down to your last match in a dark basement.... See another review here.