Posted: December 30th, 2008 | Filed under:Uncategorized | Comments Off
Welcome to “Another Movie Guy?”! I review recent new releases, and then mention similar movies worth checking out. If all goes according to plan, you’ll have some new additions to your Netflix queue. Or someone with whom you can angrily disagree.
I will never, ever make fun of professional wrestling again. Sure it’s scripted, but these guys seriously beat the shit out of each other. Much has been written about Mickey Rourke’s performance in Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler. I was expecting a great performance (and got it), but I was not suspecting to see such brutal fight scenes. Like the main character’s signature move, this movie packs a whollop.
Randy “The Ram” Robinson (Rourke) should be a loser. He’s lost his fame, his youth, his wealth, his hearing, and his family. All that remains are his fans, and more importantly, his dignity. Still performing in small venues, Robinson relives his glory days. After a particularly hardcore bout, Robinson suffers a heart attack, and is told by doctors he must stop wrestling. Retirement means that Robinson must find purpose elsewhere, so he tries to win over his favorite stripper (Marisa Tomei) and his estranged daughter (Evan Rachel Wood). These three flawed people have old wounds that will never heal. After a hopeful moment is lost, a determined Robinson resolves to wrestle again. Because of health problems, the final bout pits Robinson not against his opponent, but himself.
Aronofsky abandons the flourishes that distinguish his previous work, and makes a movie grounded in realism. There are many shots that simply follow Robinson through his routine, which serve to establish rhythm and add to his dignity. The director also makes interesting comparisons between the stripper and the wrestler – both are over-the-hill and use their body for money. They remind themselves of who they are in an identical manner, and Clint Mansell’s score sustains a high note immediately preceding their key moments. Realism serves the movie especially well during the fight scenes. You feel each blow, and worry about Randy’s health. The second fight features broken glass and barbed wire. I spent much of the scene covering my eyes because dammit, it was still real to me. The observant screenplay by former Onion editor Robert Siegel also supplies interesting details about the sport. Even former wrestlers note that movie maintains a high level of verisimilitude. During the last fight, I was touched by the camaraderie between athletes who deliberately inflict pain on one another.
I have refrained from discussing the acting in the movie until now. Rourke simply disappears into the role, and made me feel like I was watching a documentary about Randy’s life. The lows are truly heart-wrenching, but the movie has some funny moments. One scene in particular, in which Randy awakens from a one-night stand, is bizarrely hilarious. Rourke delivers a great performance, and will assuredly earn him an Academy Award nomination. Marisa Tomei seems to only get more lovely with time, and even though we see plenty of her body, she’s far more alluring as a sensitive, vulnerable woman. The Wrestler reminds us that broken people carry on because they must. After spending time with Randy, it’s a message that won’t be easily forgotten.
Here are other movies in which a flawed man’s unexpected sexual transgression leads to unfortunate consequences:
Trees Lounge. Steve Buscemi made his feature debut with this story of a semi-functional alcoholic. Tommy (Buscemi) is an unemployed mechanic who spends his ample free time at a seedy dive. He performs stupid bar tricks, attempting to pick up strange women. His shameless behavior annoys the bartenders, who probably have seen his type before. To make ends meet, Tommy drives an ice cream truck around the neighborhood, which gives him an opportunity to converse with Debbie (Chloe Sevigny), who is about 17. Old enough to know better, the transgression occurs when Tommy and Debbie make out “like a couple of teenagers.” The unfortunate (but justified) consequence is that Debbie’s father kicks the shit out of the ice cream truck. In addition to comic scenes like this one, Trees Lounge offers a great view into the life of an alcoholic – the kind who is basically optimistic but ultimately a loser.
Sideways. Alexander Payne excels at satirizing ordinary people, and this examination of two middle-aged friends is him at his most sympathetic. The movie is a little too precious, and I have read theories claiming that it received undue praise because film critics, like the movie’s protagonists, are sad middle-aged men. Nevertheless, the movie’s funniest moment occurs when Jack (Thomas Haden Church), stark naked, returns to the room he’s sharing with Miles (Paul Giamatti). Jack announces that he left his wallet/wedding bands in the house of the chubby woman he just fucked. This puts Miles in a sticky situation: he must break into the house, and retrieve the wallet. For a movie full the kind of whiny bad behavior one associates with a mid-life crisis, this scene is a nice change of pace. It’s not compelling to watch grown men act like children. The dubious label of a “dick flick” does not help things. Perhaps if Payne skewered his characters as he did in About Schmidt, Sideways would have been more memorable.
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Before he became Iron Man, Robert Downey Jr. played Harry in this endlessly quotable comedy/thriller. Through happenstance, Harry ships from NY to LA to star in a detective movie. There Harry runs into Harmony (Michelle Monaghan), a girl from his past. Their first meeting is an awkward, and it only gets worse. A drunk Harry “accidentally” sleeps with Harmony’s friend, and is caught red-handed. The plot is full of noir cliches, so the movie excels when it riffs on those cliches and makes self-aware jokes. Harry narrates the movie, and apologizes for fucking up the story. He says he won’t end the movie a hundred times like Lord of the Rings. You get the idea. The best lines, however, come from Val Kilmer, who plays a character named Gay Perry (I must confess that I did not get the joke until I saw the movie a second time). In lieu of heaping more praise, I’m just going to post one of my favorite exchanges:
Perry: Did your dad love you?
Harry: Only when I dressed up like a beer bottle, how about you?
Perry: Well, he used to beat me in Morse code, so it’s possible, but he never said the words.
If you haven’t seen Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, go rent it. It’s fun to annoy your friends by quoting it endlessly.
Posted: December 29th, 2008 | Filed under:Uncategorized | Comments Off
Welcome to “Another Movie Guy?”! I normally review recent new releases, and then mention similar movies worth checking out. Today there is a slight deviation because I am in the midst of a holiday hangover. As penance for an incomplete column, I will do a complete write-up of The Wrestler later this week. As always, you should still feel free to angrily disagree.
There are few things that can be said with certainty. One of them is that time only moves in one direction. David Fincher‘s The Curious of the Benjamin Button tries to find a way around this certainty. It cannot convincingly tell the story of a man who ages in reverse because one simply cannot do so. The premise is riddled with holes, and while the movie is beautiful and has some effective scenes, it does not achieve more.
Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt) is indeed born under unusual circumstances. World War I just ended. Benjamin’s mother died in childbirth, and upon looking at a wrinkly baby, his horrified father leaves the baby on a doorstep. He’s only been around a short while, but with the body of an old man, Benjamin finds a home among others with wrinkles and bad hips. He meets Daisy (Cate Blanchett as an adult), a redhead who is the granddaughter of a housemate. Benjamin’s body begins to be more youthful. He spends time at sea, has an affair, goes to war, and eventually returns home. Daisy is now a young woman, but his romantic relationship with her does not begin until they look about the same age. Because of his predicament, Benjamin feels that he cannot stay with his love. All this is told in flashback as we see Daisy’s daughter (Julia Ormond) read Benjamin’s diary to her dying mother.
For a premise that toys with time in such a way, it needs a consistent framework for any emotional impact. We understood the rules and limitations of Bill Murray’s universe in Groundhog Day, so when his character changes, it makes a certain sense. There is no such consistency in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Consider, for example, the mental state of someone who ages backward. Age is not just defined by one’s appearance and physical limitations. At the start of his life, does Benjamin have the mental state of an old man? As his life continues, does Benjamin’s mind become more youthful as well? There are small clues suggesting that only his body ages backward, and his mind ages forward. But if Benjamin Button ages backward, shouldn’t everythingage backward? The movie does not know how to answer this question because it is impossible to answer. Screenwriter Eric Roth cherry picks how Benjamin ages backward, and because of this, the character is incomplete. And because he’s never fully developed, it’s difficult to care about his relationships. Brad Pitt really does his best. Even he cannot escape the fact that time only goes in one direction.
I said earlier that the movie looks great. Fincher, director of such dark fare as Se7en and Fight Club, is an expert stylist. Here he has an impeccable eye for period detail, and there’s something to admire in every shot. Some scenes, like the one in which Benjamin’s ship is attacked by a German U-boat, are thrilling. Other scenes, like the one in which a youthful Benjamin fucks an aging Daisy, are perfunctory and even a little creepy. Friends and family have observed that I have seen too many movies, and have become nitpicky. They may be right. Nevertheless, I cannot help that I did not find the movie affecting, so with these paragraphs, I try to explain why. Roth, Fincher, and Pitt simply bit off more than they could chew. They could not elude what is certain.
That’s it for this weeks “Another Movie Guy?”! Tune in later this week when I enter the ring.
Posted: December 22nd, 2008 | Filed under:Uncategorized | Comments Off
Welcome to “Another Movie Guy?”! I normally review recent new releases, and then mention similar movies worth checking out. Today there is a slight deviation. I have the unique pleasure of reviewing a movie before its release. I won’t follow the usual format, but still feel free to angrily disagree.
It’s a tricky thing to generate suspense when a story has a foregone conclusion. Bryan Singer, the director of the new WW2 thriller Valkyrie, knows this. I’m pretty sure that Tom Cruise, the movie’s star, know this. Everyone does their best, but we all know that Cruise’s character, a German military officer, fails to kill Hitler. There is no suspense. Despite all its polish, the movie is amounts to little more than a tedious exercise.
Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg (Cruise) seriously dislikes the Chancellor of Germany. While serving his country in northern Africa, Stauffenberg is hurt in the line of duty, losing his left hand and two fingers on his right hand. Sure, he hates Adolf before the attack, but after Allied warplanes fuck up his shit, he gets fucking pissed. At his new job in Berlin, Stauffenberg finds like-minded German officers who want to kill Hitler. Admittedly, their plan is pretty clever. They intend to blow Hitler to smithereens, and use a secret army intended to secure Berlin, called Valkyrie, as a means to arrest the SS. Because of dumb luck, Stauffenberg fucks up big time, yet somehow believes that he can still save the German people from their leader.
A huge problem with Valkyrie are the accents. Except for the introduction, Cruise sounds like an American. All his accomplices sound English. The only character who actually sounds German is Hitler himself, which implicitly suggests that those who sound German are unfathomably evil. The bigger problem, however, is that because the audience walks in knowing what happens, the story is not interesting. There are some Hitchockian moments in which unexpected situations complicate the mission, but they are perfunctory. We know Hitler will survive, and that the conspirators will not. Other WW2 movies had character development, which forced the audience to care about a characters’ fate. Valkyrie has absolutely no character development. All we learn about these men is that they hate Hitler, and will continue on their mission even if failure is absolutely certain. At one point, Cruise encounters a younger German officer, and without blinking an eye, asks this young man to commit high treason. The younger officer accepts, and we learn nothing else about him. Such scenes are designed, I think, to show how passionate these Germans were. Yet we are never made to understand why they felt their mission was so necessary.
Valkyrie does not care about the atrocities of World War 2. It does care about that an entire nation could adopt a viewpoint that’s fundamentally wrong. Hitler’s horrors are brought up briefly in the opening monologue, and are never considered again. Valkyrie instead presupposes that Hitler’s assassination is a near-impossible undertaking, and that these men deserve special distinction. I think an argument could be made that these would-be assassins were simply egotistical and foolhardy. This movie made me laugh unintentionally on multiple occasions. Sure, the direction is polished, but the basic premise of the movie is fundamentally flawed. More importantly, Tom Cruise is far too controversial to play a character who requires instinctive sympathy from the audience.
If you want a truly chilling movie about Hitler’s final days, rent Downfallinstead. It argues that Nazis were not monsters but human, which makes their actions far more terrifying. Learning about this moment in history could force even the most optimistic person to reconsider their faith in humanity. But Valkyrie never supplies the audience the crisis of conscience that its characters felt. I never believed any of it.
Posted: December 19th, 2008 | Filed under:Uncategorized | Comments Off
Welcome to “Another Movie Guy?”! Normally I review recent new releases, and then mention similar movies worth checking out. But it’s nearing the end of the year, which can only mean one thing: I churn out my annual “Another Movie Guy?’s Top 10 Movie Superlatives!” It was a great year for movies, and I saw a ton (250+, I think). It’s therefore hard to pick, let alone rank, ten superlatives. So rest assured that spots 6-10 are slightly more arbitrary than spots 3-1. Actually, who am I kidding? They’re all arbitrary. Let’s get to it:
Far more than a truly excellent title, OSS 117: Cairo Nest of Spies has a truly catchy musical number. In this scene, our hero uses the cover of a musician to spy on his target. When he discovers that the audience requires more than a fez, he rises to the occasion with something that’s both catchy and hilarious. Watch below:
9. Best Movie That Indirectly Inspired a European Vacation: In Bruges
Far more than the best comedy of 2008, In Bruges partially inspired me and some friends to visit Belgium this year. Bruges was pretty but a little boring. I reacted better than Colin Farrell’s character did to the city, but Gent was a far more memorable town. Below you can find a picture yours truly took from the top of the famous Bruges tower:
Far more than a parent, my dad was my most consistent movie companion until I figured how to sneak into R-rated pictures. We still see stuff for old time’s sake, and we were both pleasantly surprised by The Bank Job. It’s a densely layered heist story with believable characters and an intelligent script. There are at least four major plot lines, and they are wrapped together nicely. Me and my Pops highly recommend this one for a rainy afternoon.
Far more than a Hitchcockian Thriller, Transsiberian was all the better because I enjoyed it (for free) from the comfort of my living room. When I said that I was on the edge of my seat, I was lying. I was laying down on the couch.
6. Best Movie I Saw While Playing Hookie: Shine a Light
Far more than a Rolling Stones concert film, Shine a Light was enhanced by the fact that while I was watching it, I should have been at work. There were maybe 4 people in the audience when I saw it at the Uptown, and I’m sure they had a similar inkling. For no particular reason, here’s the opening number:
5. Best Intentionally Funny Performance: Tom Cruise, Tropic Thunder
4. Best Unintentionally Funny Performance: Tom Cruise, Valkyrie
Far more than a universally reviled scientologist, Tom Cruise is an actor who undeniably gives his best effort with every performance. He didn’t take him himself seriously in Tropic Thunder, so when his character busted the proverbial move, it was hilarious. He took himself too seriously in Valkyrie, so when his character delivered a handless Nazi salute with an American accent, it was fucking hilarious.
3. Best Unexpectedly Moving Scene Involving Ubiquitous Music and a Large Dog: Tell No One
Far more than my favorite French movie of the year, Tell No One had a scene that seemed silly but quickly lost (most) of its silliness. Our hero needed to check his e-mail, and tied up his shaggy dog while stopping at an internet cafe. All the while “With or Without You” by U2 was playing. At first I was all, “Dude, why are they using this corny song for this dramatic scene?” But when the song reaches its big finish, our hero saw that his supposedly dead wife had been trying to contact him, and I was won over. What can I say? I’m a romantic. Oh, and the dog was cute.
2. Best Ego Trip Featuring Dialog in a Foreign Language I Could (Mostly) Understand: The Fall
Far more than an extravagant visual orgy, The Fall features an adorable young Romanian actress who seemed to pull her dialog out of thin air. To make a long story short, my parents are both Romanian, and out of spite, never taught me the language. Nevertheless, I retain a some basic understanding. So when the cute girl speaks to her mother in my parents’ native tongue, I got excited because I knew (mostly) what she was saying . I must say for a movie with one-of-a-kind visuals, it’s a little embarrassing that this minor detail is what I most vividly remember.
1. No, Seriously, Best Movie I Saw This Year: The Dark Knight
Far more than the best superhero movie EVAR, The Dark Knight is exquisitely plotted with sharp dialog and fantastic action. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it, and I doubt I will for years to come. The movie succeeds on every level, and is among the best I’ve seen in tears. Full disclosure: I am a huge Batman nerd, going so far as to possess Batman sweatpants as a child.
So there you have it, folks! There are other superlatives that fell by the wayside, but surely you have your own. Let me know what I missed.
Posted: December 15th, 2008 | Filed under:Uncategorized | Comments Off
Welcome to “Another Movie Guy?”! I review recent new releases, and then mention similar movies worth checking out. If all goes according to plan, you’ll have some new additions to your Netflix queue. Or someone with whom you can angrily disagree.
There’s something so seamy about the sentence, “Father Flynn called Donald Miller to the rectory.” Even without a context, it sounds unwholesome. It’s a line quietly uttered by a character in Doubt, John Patrick Shanley’s film adaptation of his hit Broadway play. The line is what sparks a battle of wills between two formidable adversaries. But this movie is about much more than just kid touching. Shanley explores essential issues in an engaging way, and when it is all over, everyone emerges shaken – even those in the audience.
Set during the Vatican II reformations, Sister Aloysius (Meryl Streep) is the stern principal of the Bronx’s St. Nicholas school. She has deep concern for the students there, but hides it with her unsympathetic eyes and severe demeanor. On the other end of the spectrum, Father Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman) establishes a rapport with the children. He tries to be a friendly face in the community, something which infuriates Aloysuis’ traditional sensibilities. When Sister James (Amy Adams) says the seamy line to Aloysius, the elder nun immediately suspects the worst. She begins a campaign to remove Flynn from the school, but finds that the clear-cut values of the Catholic church are losing their place in the real world. She expects the support of Donald’s mother (Viola Davis), but encounters a woman who accepts the moral concessions that Aloysius cannot. The conflict eventually ends, but little is resolved.
As with the play, the movie is a showcase for actors. Of course Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman are excellent – they’re among the best actors of their generations, and you already know this. The church is rigidly patriarchal, so it’s fascinating to watch how these two struggle with the deck stacked in favor of one side. The supporting performances deserve special mention. Amy Adams is one of the most likable actors working right now, and that quality serves the movie well. Stuck between Flynn and Aloysius, Sister James is a conduit for the audience, so her warm eyes and kind demeanor are an asset. Viola Davis is only in one scene, but her brief appearance is what lingers most in my memory. Donald’s mother has motives and beliefs that are far more murky than Aloysius can previously fathom, and it’s difficult for any actor to convey this in a short time. Davis is stunning, and I am certain she’ll get an Oscar nomination for her work.
Doubt is an intense movie, one that will linger with you long after it’s over. It’ll spark fierce debate, but somehow the final product isn’t as powerful as the stage version. Shanley wisely adds more characters and dialog (if he simply filmed the play, it would be too static). Yet his additions make the characters’ world less self-contained. One’s imagination is infinitely more vivid than film, so when I saw Father Flynn interact with Donald (something never seen in the play), it was a bit of a let-down. Without revealing too much, let’s just say that the play is concerned with the audience’s doubt, and the movie is concerned with Aloysius’ doubt. My friend who accompanied me to the movie also accompanied me to the play, and we agreed that the movie left us more certain about whether Flynn is guilty. But please don’t let our minor disappointment deter you from seeing Doubt. I wouldn’t rush to the theater if you have seen the play, but if you aren’t familiar with the material, you should make time for this uncommonly arresting parable.
Here are other movies based on plays that feature adversarial dialog between men and women:
Tape. Taking an entirely different extreme with his exploration of digital video, director Richard Linklater confines this movie entirely a motel room. Vince (Ethan Hawke), a part-time fire-fighter, is in Lansing to support his friend Jon (Robert Sean Leonard), whose movie is premiering at the local film festival. The two men chat uneasily, and it soon becomes clear that Vince has an ulterior motive. Vince believes that Jon assaulted Amy (Uma Thurman), Vince’s high school flame who coincidentally lives in Lansing. A confession of sorts is soon recorded, but to whom does the tape belong? The movie toys with ideas of guilt and forgiveness, and creates an unexpectedly complex situation. Once Amy arrives, the dynamics become increasingly sinister, and it’s never quite clear what anyone is thinking. The performances are all strong – Hawke in particular excels at playing a deceptively simple man, one with hidden depths of manipulation. Rather than use the digital camera for electronic rotoscoping, Linklater explores the freedom of movement that such a small instrument provides. It never feels like you’re watching an adaptation of a play. The movie is not among Linklater’s best,but you’d be hard-pressed to find such electric verbal sparring.
The Shape of Things. There’s a special place in my heart for Neil Labute, the writer/director who loves to explore middle class cruelty. With the adaption of his play, Labute aims his sights at academia and male vanity. Adam (Paul Rudd) is an unassuming graduate student who begins an unlikely relationship with Evelyn (Rachel Weisz), a beautiful firebrand artist. As time passes, Adam loses weight and takes more pride in his appearance, going so far as to style his hair and consider plastic surgery. These developments alienate Adam’s asshole friend Phillip (Fred Ward), who is probably upset that his girlfriend Jenny (Gretchen Mol) is attracted to the New Adam. All the while Evelyn discusses art’s capacity for provocation, and her secret graduate thesis. When she finally exposes her thesis, it’s a twist that it’s both insightful and monstrous. Needless to say, the project puts the relationship of these four into a tailspin. Like In the Company of Men (one of my favorites), Labute excels at his ability to shroud unexpected motives just beneath the surface. When the end finally arrives, it feels like a punch in the gut. The Shape of Things has few laughs and no sympathetic characters, yet no other director is so willing to explore how malicious ordinary people can be.
Oleanna. David Mamet directed this adaptation of his two character play, which also examines the gender dynamics of academia. William H. Macy plays John, a professor at a small liberal arts school who receives a visit from Carol (Debra Eisenstadt), one of his students. Carol is having trouble with John’s class, and is worried she might fail. In the course of their first meeting, he dominates her and there an awkward encounter. They meet again later. With the help of a campus group, Carol brings forth charges of sexual harassment against John, who is now in danger of losing tenure. John is flabbergasted by the accusation, and reaches a point where he violently snaps. Macy is convincing as a confident man who is set in his ways, and Eisenstadt effectively transforms from naïve to empowered. Mamet’s point, I think, is to try and demonstrate how differently men and women perceive the same events. Apparently his intention is to have women outraged by the first half, and men outraged by the second. If so, Mamet certainly succeeded – Oleanna sparked angry debate during its initial run. Early reviews say the movie isn’t as powerful as the play, but I have no such complaint. The movie is fascinating – I even asked my then-girlfriend to watch so I could get her perspective.
That’s it for this weeks “Another Movie Guy?”! Tune in next week when I can’t kill Hitler.
Posted: December 8th, 2008 | Filed under:Uncategorized | Comments Off
Welcome to “Another Movie Guy?”! I review recent new releases, and then mention similar movies worth checking out. If all goes according to plan, you’ll have some new additions to your Netflix queue. Or someone with whom you can angrily disagree.
An expert observes that if most Americans underwent the ordeal that many Sudanese child soldiers had, they would require many years of therapy. Hearing the unimaginable conditions they faced, I don’t doubt him. Yet Emmanuel Jal, the focus of the new documentary War Child, is an engaging young man with a positive attitude. His life is a great way to approach the atrocities of Sudan, but the movie falters when it tries to be just another message documentary.
This child soldier turned hip-hop star truly has a remarkable story. After his village (and mother) were slaughtered, Jal fled with many other boys to Ethiopia. Right away cameramen recognized Jal’s charm, and this young boy became a spokesmen for the boys who simply wanted to find a home. Even in these circumstances, he had a winning smile. Sadly, members of Sudanese People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) also saw opportunity in the boys. Jal and the others were given a rifle and told to fight. Understandably, Jal does not dwell on this part of his life, but tells us that he was involved in four battles. Through a stroke of luck, Jal met Emma McCune, the woman who rescued Jal by smuggling him to nearby Kenya. Eventually the boy became a spokesman for Sudan, traveling around the US to promote his message of peace.
War Child works best when Jal interacts with others. Director Christian Karim Chrobog is from DC, and a significant chunk of the movie’s running time is devoted to Jal touring the city. He plays a show at Ibiza, and talks to students at Anacostia Senior High School. A smart-ass kid asks whether Jal killed anyone, but is silenced by the introspection of the answer. When Jal returns to Sudan and interacts with his sister, we see how genocide affects people and different ways, and how they still manage to maintain their optimistic attitudes. The DC scenes are enthralling because they demonstrate that even after suffering more than I could imagine, Jal still knows how to energize a crowd. As an interviewee, however, Jal does not capture my attention. I’m not sure whether to blame him or the director, but the interview footage (clearly intended to pull at the heart strings) does not illicit an emotional response.
The genocide in Sudan is an outrage, and it’s unfortunate that more people aren’t engaged with what’s happening in that part of the world. We need charismatic spokesmen like Emmanuel Jal to engage and inform us. Ultimately, War Child gives substantial insight into the man, but less into the larger conflict. It fails to invoke the same passion that Jal gets with his crowds. The movie is worth seeing*, but if you want to learn more, you’d be better served with other Sudan documentaries.
* War Child is playing at E Street, but only until Thursday.
Here are other movies about Africans that feature optimistic endings:
Dirty Pretty Things. Whether he’s examining the lives of royalty or record store employees*, fringe socioeconomic strata interest director Stephen Frears. Dirty Pretty Things, an absorbing thriller, is his examination of the immigrant class in modern London. The movie stars Chiwetel Ejiofor as Okwe, a Nigerian doctor with a dark past, now working in a seedy hotel. One day he’s unclogging a toilet, and finds a truly unlikely obstruction: a human heart. Okwe spends the rest of the movie uncovering an underground organ market, eventually teaming up with Turkish immigrant Senay (Audrey Tatou) to use his discovery to their advantage. Ok, so this movie has only a tangential relation to the plight of an entire continent. But when asked about his past, Okwe simply states, “It is an African story,” a line that is both sad and deliciously mysterious. This is a good thriller that says a lot to say about group that are routinely ignored by the mainstream. Also, Dirty Pretty Things is also the first time I noticed Ejiofor, who is quickly becoming one of favorite actors.
Tsotsi.Before he signed on to direct the Wolverine origin story, director Gavin Hood won Best Foreign film for this movie. Presley Chweneyagae is great as the titular character, a South African street thug who has no trouble with murder. He kills a middle class woman and steals her car, only to find an infant in the back seat. As one who fundamentally has little respect for human life, he becomes an unlikely caregiver. Slowly, Tsotsi changes for better, and demonstrates genuine (if not reliable) care for the baby. One shot, in which spiders crawl over the baby’s face, is the among the most haunting I’ve seen. We see hints that this murderer used to be a happy child, and was transformed by the poverty surrounding him. This material could easily have been too sentimental, but Hood’s assured screenplay/direction does not take the easy route, which makes Tsotsi’s transformation all the more remarkable. Of course, a cold-blooded murderer must face reprisals, but when Tsotsi gets his comeuppance, his punishment pales in comparison to his regret.
Mooladé. Released four years ago, this is the happiest movie about female circumcision that you’ll ever see. It tells the story of a small village in Burkina Faso. Four young girls seek mooladé (meaning protection) from the village elders, who demand that the girls undergo the barbaric “purification” ritual. The girls find protection in house of Colle, the movie’s heroine, who was once “cut” and now fiercely defends the girls. Colle is brave and stubborn, risking her own life to protect those who sought refuge. Yes, there are scenes where girls get mutilated, but they are handled swiftly. The movie does not exploit. While all this is happening, a young man returns from Paris. His cosmopolitan status helps him gain the respect of the elders, and eventually thrusts the village into modernity. While the movie’s subject is not the most rosy, director Ousmane Sembene infuses his characters with human characteristics and genuine warmth. One merchant in particular is such a fool that his nonstop chatter provides unexpected laughs. As with Tsotsi, I couldn’t help but admire how the seemingly worst people have the capacity for change.
