I know, I know. I'm really far behind. I'll catch up soon, I promise. Don't worry. The five of you who read this blog will have plenty of reviews coming soon!
The Conspirator: 2010 historical drama about the trial of Mary Surratt after the Lincoln assassination; directed by Robert Redford and starring James McAvoy, Rachel Wood, Robin Wright, and Kevin Kline. Review for normal human beings and/or the average movie watcher: it’s great. I’m planning a more thorough review for the hardcore history nerds in the near future, so I won’t bore the rest of you with the little details. It’s very well done, the acting is excellent for the most part, the cinematography is beautiful. See it if you like historical dramas or are as rabid a McAvoy fan as I am.
Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr.: 1999 Errol Morris documentary about execution expert and Holocaust conspiracy theorist Fred Leuchter. Leuchter was a solver of execution “inefficiencies.” Electrocution, lethal injection, gallows, gas chambers—he did it all. He speaks about electrocution mishaps matter-of-factly; seems more concerned with the engineering problem than the desire to lesser human suffering. He’s eventually called as an expert witness in a Canadian Holocaust-denier’s trial, and his methods of obtaining evidence and testimony lead to his downfall.
Leuchter is entirely unsympathetic, but fascinating to watch. The lack of empathy in his interviews is striking. This is one of the better Morris documentaries in my opinion. There’s this weird blinking on and off thing that the camera does that’s really annoying, but other than that it’s excellent.
Phantoms: 1998 horror movie based on the Dean Koontz novel; directed by Joe Chappelle and starring Ben Affleck, Joanna Going, Liev Schreiber, Rose McGowan, and Peter O’Toole. Zero exposition. The scares start at minute 4. McGowan and Going are driving along and then suddenly a bunch of people are dead and there might be a killer or alien or something bad. Schrieber’s glasses are amazing. So boring.
Jesus’ Son: 1999 dramedy (?) directed by Alison Maclean and starring Billy Crudup and Samantha Morton. FH (Crudup) is a strange, sometimes clairvoyant young man drifting through the 1970s in a drug-addled haze. It’s kind of about him working to get clean, I guess? Not at all what I was expecting (hippies). There’s narration that isn’t annoying, Denis Leary and Jack Black have small parts that are surprisingly well acted, and it’s kind of cute. In an everyone’s-on-heroin sort of way. I actually liked this a lot. There’s a particularly hilarious scene in which a whacked out Morton dances around idiotically to the song “Sweet Pea,” and since I’m the kind of person who dances around idiotically for no reason whatsoever on a semi-frequent basis I appreciated that.
Stop-Loss: 2008 drama directed by Kimberly Peirce and starring Ryan Phillippe, Channing Tatum, Abbie Cornish, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Phillippe, Tatum, and G-L have just returned from a brutal tour in Iraq, and are dealing with PTSD, depression, alcoholism, and readjusting to civilian life when one of them is stop-lossed. Choosing to go AWOL rather than returning to the place that emotionally damaged him and his friends, Phillippe goes on the run to track down a senator who promised to help him. I was totally shocked by how good this movie was. The acting is excellent (Channing Tatum! I know!), it covers all different viewpoints on the war and the stop-loss issue specifically, the pacing is good, and it felt completely realistic to me. Weird, right? See it.
Tideland: 2005 fantasy-thriller directed by Terry Gilliam and starring Jennifer Tilly, Jeff Bridges, and Jodelle Ferland. Apparently it’s about a little girl who’s essentially abandoned by her parents and creates this strange fantasy life that revolves around disembodied Barbie heads. I turned it off after 15 minutes. I’ve learned with Gilliam films that if I don’t like it immediately, investing another hour and a half isn’t going to turn that around.
Micmacs: 2009 Jeunet. ‘Nuff said. Starring Dany Boon, Dominique Pinon (heart), and Andre Dussolier. After suffering two traumatic experiences, Bazil (Boon) falls in with a group of artist-thief-scavengers and hatches a plan to take down the arms dealers who caused his grief. Totally adorable, as per usual. The Elastic Girl character played by Julie Ferrier is a little too much for me at times, but she evens out by the end. Not my favorite Jeunet film—can anything top A Very Long Engagement?—but still totally solid.
Flame & Citron: 2008 action-drama about the Danish resistance in World War II, directed by Ole Christian Madsen and starring Thure Lindhardt and Mads Mikkelsen. Flame (Thure) and Citron (Mads) are basically total badasses: assassinating Nazi officers and Nazi sympathizers, getting it on with femme fatale double agents, and looking hot doing it. All snark aside, it’s based on the lives of Bent Faurschou-Hviid and Jørgen Haagen Schmith, two of the most famous Danish Resistance fighters.
Don’t worry, this isn’t one of those uber-nerdy period pieces that only I and my fellow history buffs enjoy. I knew basically nothing about the Danish Resistance and still thought it was awesome. I realize it’s completely unrealistic to ask for a happy ending in these kinds of movies, but maybe just once? I really liked these characters and I wanted good things for them. But yeah, duh. It’s not going to end well.
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