King of California

It's been a long time since I've been willing to watch a movie with Michael Douglas in it - you know, like that whole period where he seemed to be working out his sexual fantasies onscreen, one by painful one (think Basic Instinct, Fatal Attraction, Disclosure.) But the dude has grown up a bit and the fact that he signed on to this sweet little film, I'll take as proof of that. This isn't a 'big money movie' and it has no semi-nekkid sexpots. What it is - a light little fairy tale about loving someone with a mental illness - has some very funny moments.

Miranda (Evan Rachel Wood) is sixteen and living on her own when her dad Charlie (Douglas) is released from a year long stint in a mental institution. The relatively peaceful life she's carved out for herself is suddenly disrupted - Charlie is not an easy person to be around. To make things worse, he has become convinced that there is ancient Spanish treasure in their neighborhood and is determined to find it. At first Miranda is dismayed at this new delusion, but gradually her love for her father drags her into his scheme. She really wants to believe him, but could there really be booty buried under Costco?

Douglas is really delightful as the manic Charlie, and Wood does a fair job of conveying the natural distrust and frustration inherent in sharing your life with a completely unpredictable and untrustworthy parent. And if the bittersweet ending blows a little sunshine up your butt, oh well, the rest of ride is pretty entertaining. See the website here.

State of Play

Okay, okay, okay... this was just fabulous. I mean really, really fabulous. Originally a miniseries on the BBC, this is what television should be and simply never is. Smart, well written, well acted, with an intriguing and relevant plot, believable characters behaving in believable ways... just wow. So suck up the fact that it's a two DVD rental and the better part of six hours to watch start to finish... it's worth every minute.

It would be impossible to sum up the plot in a paragraph here, but the gist is that the mistress of a high profile member of parliament dies violently leaving her boss devastated and the press ... interested. Apparently journalists in the UK still practice journalism which involves taking risks and digging. So the convoluted plot is driven by journalistic curiosity and a couple of detectives who are actually interested in uncovering the truth. Novel, no? You can barely keep up with where this goes but let's just add assassination, government cover ups and ... wait for it... oil companies. It just gets better and better and you will not guess where it ends.

Add to that a surprising array of British talent - some of which you will recognize like the incomparable Bill Nighy and the up and coming James McAvoy - and some that you won't, like David Morrissey and John Simm. Anyway you look at it, the acting is superb - way better than most of what we see on TV. Watch this quick because I'm sure it's about to be completely ruined by an American remake scheduled for release next year (for one they're compressing it into 2+ hours and for two they're setting it in DC.) If you're still not convinced, there's more here.

The Woodsman

Time to revisit an important film from 2004 that you probably aren't going to be in a hurry to see if I don't give you that gentle push. The Woodsman started out as a minimalist play that director Nicole Kassell felt strongly enough about to approach Lee Daniels (Monster's Ball) to see if she could get funding to make the film. That led to a call to Kevin Bacon who loved the screenplay so much that he talked his wife (Kyra Sedgwick) into co-starring with him and helped produce himself. So a whole lotta talented people went to great lengths to bring this to you. Oh, and did I mention that it's about a convicted pedophile?

Now before you run screaming from the room, consider this story: Walter (Bacon) is trying to re-enter life after 12 years in prison - he moves into an apartment, gets a job, sees his counselor, meets a girl. He tries very hard to lead an unassuming life. But his past is everywhere - he is shunned by his sister, harassed by a local cop (Mos Def) and a nosy co-worker (Eve) and tempted by his own dark yearnings. This story is told from Walter's point of view - we see his pain, his desire to be 'normal.' And in a final gut wrenching moment, his ultimate ability to see through the eyes of a child.

Kevin Bacon makes Walter so real - so human - that it will take your breath away. It is undoubtedly the performance of a remarkable career. I will call a film important when it takes me to a part of the human condition that I would never experience otherwise. This is such a film and you really shouldn't miss it. Check out the website here.

Sweeney Todd

I don't believe Tim Burton is a taste that can be acquired. You either love him, passionately, or you hate him, passionately. So those of you who have never been able to stand a Tim Burton film - and no, Beetlejuice doesn't count - you are now officially dismissed. For the rest of us who can't help but adore Burton's stylized, schizo-weird wonderfulness - it was indeed inevitable that Burton would do Sweeney Todd and just as inevitable that it would star Johnny Depp and Mrs. Burton (Helena Bonham-Carter) and that it would be very, very stylized and very, very gory and very, very wonderful.

For those of you who managed to miss the lengthy Broadway run of Sondheim's macabre musical, here's the gist: Sweeney Todd returns to London after a long unjust incarceration determined to have his vengeance on the judge who sent him away in order to acquire his wife. He falls into company with the rather lovestruck and diabolical Mrs. Lovett and the two of them proceed to off a good deal of the male population of their squalid little neighborhood - he barbering them off the mortal coil and she serving them up as meat pies. Ewwww! How delightful! Trust that there will be lots of white faces with sunken dark eyes, ooodles of gallows humor and gallons of very theatrical blood spurting.

But the really wonderful part is Johnny Depp can sing. No really. He has the presence and the timbre of a rock star, and is all Depp brooding sexuality. sigh. Carter carries a tune pretty darn well herownself and the music is catchy and memorable. Add in a hilarious Sacha Baron Cohen as a rival barber and the impeccable Alan Rickman as the evil Judge Turpin and whoa... you've got a great messy Broadway musical masterpiece ala Burton. Catch the equally cool website here.

Rendition

Movies with a political agenda rarely succeed in furthering their aims. This could be an exception to that rule, if the audience suspected that this was more than fiction. Unfortunately, I doubt that most Americans who saw Rendition believed that what this film portrays is the nature of our reality in a post 9/11 world. Even worse, perhaps they believe that this must be so. In spite of this, Gavin Hood (Tsotsi) gives us a remarkably good film.

It starts with a wrong number to the cell phone of Anwar El-Ibrihimi (Omar Metwally,) an Egyptian born American chemical engineer. This call makes him a suspect in a terrorist bombing and he's plucked off his flight home and spirited to Egypt to face interrogation. The CIA operative in charge (Jake Gyllenhall) has little stomach for the Egyptian methods (oh, the joys of water boarding!) and becomes increasingly convinced he has nothing to tell. In the meantime, El-Ibrihimi's terrified wife (Reese Witherspoon in a rare excellent performance) is trying to move someone to investigate her husbands disappearance and is given the full bureaucratic runaround.

The cast of this film includes Meryl Streep, Alan Arkin and Peter Sarsgaard and there is fine acting all around. The story and it's un-conclusion are chilling - but these are the ethics of our times. Rendition should leave you with lots of questions, but at the very least it's an entertaining evening. See the unremarkable website here, or better, read about a true story of extraordinary rendition here.

Blame it on Fidel!

Most "coming of age" films focus rather myopically on puberty and new found sexuality. It is a rarer thing to find a film that concentrates on a child reaching the age of reason and the realization that there are "others" who have feelings too. Julie Gavras has given us this gem of a film that does just that, with a back drop of social and political unrest. It's quite a worthy study.

Nine year old Anna (a gifted Nina Kervel) has a perfect little life - doting parents, a lovely home, a wonderful nanny who cooks delicious meals and the comfort of catechism class at her private school. But when her aunt and cousin come to stay with them, Anna's world turns upside down. Her upwardly mobile parents abandon their cushy jobs and become radical political activists and all Anna can see is what is being taken away from her - they move to a small apartment and eat peasant food, she is denied religious lessons and the house is suddenly full of bearded men and crying women who talk and eat and take her parents time. Kervel is brilliant at scowling and plotting her revenge and watching her grow to take in new ideas is decidedly prickly. It's hard to root for Anna, but you'll love her all the same.

Set in France in the early 70's Blame it on Fidel! captures an interesting period in world history that I wasn't terribly familiar with, the communist revolution in Cuba followed by the socialist election of Allende in Chile. The fervor of those caught up in these new ways of thinking and the hope for a better world caused a lot of stodgy, traditional folks to think again. Told from the perspective of a child - a child emerging from the familiarity of childhood things toward the horizons of adulthood - this is a sweet metaphor. Well worth an evening... see another review here.

Canvas

Just when you think you'll die of boredom or your last brain cell will commit harikari for lack of stimulation from the likes of Hollywood, some brilliant little film will come out of the nether regions (read 'independent') and renew your faith in human creativity. This is such a film. Written and directed by newbie Joseph Greco, and based loosely on his own childhood experiences with a schizophrenic parent, Canvas is a delight. And more - the doc on Psychflix gives it a big thumbs up for accuracy.
Sweet!

Ten year old Chris Marino ( Devon Gearhart) is living in chaos. His mother Mary (Marcia Gay Harden) has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, and her bizarre behavior embarrasses and confuses him. His father (Joe Pantoliano) is struggling to make ends meet and hold the family together. When a particularly bad turn for Mary lands her in an institution, the elder Chris takes time off work to start obsessively building a sailboat in the driveway, and little Chris thinks both his parents have gone off the deep end and deals with the loss of both parents and the cruel taunts of his peers. This is very real stuff, folks. About life, love and relationship.

Rarely do films about mental illness show the perspective of the family. Although Harden is wonderful in her portrayal of paranoia and pain, the real crux of this film is watching two men, (well, one and a half) deal with real emotion, helplessness and grief. Gearhart is sweet and authentic and Pantoliano is amazing as a man frustrated to the point of exhaustion. There really isn't an ending... but there is hope. Check out the website here.