Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

It's been a long time since Sidney Lumet was considered a master of crime drama, since back when he was Pacino's ticket with Dog Day Afternoon and Serpico. Good to know that he hasn't lost his touch. Lumet drew us into the creepy hysteria of a robbery gone wrong in Dog Day and he manages to draw us in yet again in Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (as in the Irish blessing, 'May you be in heaven half an hour....)

Picture this: Andy (Philip Seymour Hoffman,) a seemingly successful accountant has been cooking the books to feed a drug habit. His schmuck of a baby brother Hank (Ethan Hawke,) hasn't paid his child support in a month of Sundays. Out of financial desperation they hatch a simple plan, to rob a Mom and Pop jewelry store - a victimless crime, they figure, as insurance will pick up the tab. The Mom and Pop just happen to be theirs. The crime doesn't end up victimless. And when Mom ends up dead, Pop (Albert Finney) is pissed.

Devil spins a tale of woe that Shakespeare would envy - every imaginable complication, people behaving very badly, abominable luck. It is further enriched by an amazing cast doing some fine acting; in particular, Hoffman who's a marvel at breathing life into really awful characters. It does a lot of time jumping a 'la Pulp Fiction, where you end up watching the same scene play out from different perspectives - effective but sometimes annoying. However, it will keep you biting your nails to the bitter, bitter end. Read another review here.

Pu-239

HBO does some remarkable film making. What impresses me most is the willingness of this media giant to make movies that are decidedly not mainstream predigested pablum. They seem to be willing to take some risks - with edgier material or untested actors - but when you always have the outlet at the ready for your content, I suppose you can be braver than most. Anywho, being of the 'always ready to like something original' persuasion, I am often delighted to turn up yet another HBO original movie that I haven't seen. And although this wasn't their best effort, once again I was not disappointed.

Pu-239 reminds us of the very real dangers of the nuclear world. When Timofey (Paddy Considine,) is exposed to lethal doses of radiation during a near accident at the Russian nuclear facility where he works, he is the obvious scapegoat in the cover up. When it becomes apparent that he has only days to live and with a young son and wife who will be denied benefits, Timofey decides to take matters into his own hands and steals a small quantity of weapons grade plutonium to sell on the black market. Desperation drives him deeper and deeper into a bizarre world of violence and tragedy.

The film is uneven - the mobsters go from scary to ridiculous - both murderers and clowns - and Timofeys impending death and willingness to peddle the same death to save his family seems ironic and absurd at the same time. But for all it's flaws there is a sweetness to Considine's performance as a man without a future, loving his family and leaving them to try to save them. And I was glad to see a film unapologetically chastising the whole nuclear industry for vetting such poisons on the world. Pu-239 has a half life of 24,110 years. And this little story could happen. Be afraid.
See the website here.

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.