Meek’s Cutoff: 2010 western directed by Kelly Reichardt and
starring Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, Bruce Greenwood, Will Patton and Shirley
Henderson. A small group of settlers break
away from the Oregon Trail on what they believe is a shortcut to The West, and they
come to realize their guide probably has no idea where he’s going. When they encounter and capture a Native
American the group is divided as to whose directions they should listen to
next: the potentially clueless fur
trapper guide or the potentially dangerous Indian hostage.
You
have died of dysentery. And
boredom. I weep for this period of American
history that has been ruined for my generation by a computer game. But at least the computer game was
entertaining. The pace of the movie was
plodding, nothing really happens, they just walk and walk and the ending is
stupid and inconclusive. It would have
been way more interesting if any context had been given; I had no idea that
this was based on a true story or about the background or conclusion of their
journey until I started researching it for this entry. Skip it.
War, Inc.: 2008 political satire directed by Joshua
Seftel and starring John and Joan Cusack, Marisa Tomei, Hilary Duff and Dan
Aykroyd. A hit man is sent to a
fictional Arabic country to assassinate an oil tycoon. His cover is to pose as a trade show host,
but his story starts to unravel upon meeting an enchanting American
journalist.
I was just
going to let this one pass me by, but was led to believe it was sort of, kind
of a sequel to Grosse Pointe Blank. That was a lie. But the Cusack’s! And Aykroyd!
I was misled. I see what they
were going for, but the satire was a bit heavy-handed, way too obvious. There were a few small moments I found funny,
but not enough to keep my attention.
Mississippi Burning: 1988 crime drama directed by Alan Parker and
starring Gene Hackman, Willem Dafoe, R. Lee Ermey (heart), Brad Dourif, Michael
Rooker and Frances McDormand. It’s
loosely based on the murders of three civil rights workers in 1964. Hackman and Dafoe are an FBI odd couple sent
to investigate the crime and bring the killers to justice. Should be totally easy in a hostile Southern
small town during the Civil Rights era, right?
It’s a little over the top at times, a bit preachy at times, a bit
North-good-South-bad at times, but I still found it very enjoyable.
These Amazing Shadows: 2011 documentary about the history of the
National Film Registry, directed by Paul Mariano and featuring interviews with
a bunch of awesome movie nerds. A few
years back I finished watching the AFI Top 100 movies list, and since then have
been slowly (and far less methodically) trying to watch Ebert’s Great Films
list and the National Film Registry list.
It’s daunting. As of 2011 the NFR
included 575 films deemed “culturally, historically or aesthetically
significant.” And about 25 new films are
added each year. It’s a Sisyphean task,
but maybe by the time I retire . . .
Anyway,
it’s a great documentary if you love movies.
Brothers: 2009 drama directed by Jim Sheridan and
starring Tobey Maguire, Jake Gyllenhaal, Natalie Portman and Sam Shepard. Sam (Maguire) is a stand-up guy: a Marine about to embark on his fourth tour
of duty, wonderful father to two little girls, married to his high school
sweetheart, and has a haircut you could set your watch to. Tommy (Gyllenhaal) is the black sheep of the
family, just let out of prison as his brother is heading off to war. When Sam is reported missing and presumed
dead, Tommy steps up to help his sister-in-law keep her life together. Tommy is found alive, but when he returns
home he’s not the same man he used to be, and becomes obsessed with the idea
that his brother may have been sleeping with his wife. Good story in theory, right? Yeah, I just didn’t think it was all that
good – with the exception of the performances by Portman, Gyllenhaal and
brilliant Bailee Madison as the older daughter.
The music is terrible, adds a significant cheese factor. Maguire was tolerable right up until the
climax, when he overshot it. Maybe the
original version is better.
The Warriors: 1979 cult action-thriller directed by Walter
Hill and starring Michael Beck, James Remar, Deborah Van Valkenburgh and David
Patrick Kelly. When a powerful leader is
killed at a NYC gang summit, word gets out that a crew called The Warriors is
responsible. They have to make it from
the Bronx back to their home turf at Coney Island before one of the other gangs
takes them out. Um, it’s hilarious. It’s campy and super ‘70s and I really liked
it. A gang that dresses as if KISS
formed a baseball team? But I think that
watching it at a late night screening at my local independent movie theater
surrounded by really enthusiastic people in costume probably helped.
J. Edgar: 2011 biographical drama directed by Clint
Eastwood and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Armie Hammer, Naomi Watts, Josh Lucas
and Judi Dench. If all you know about J.
Edgar Hoover is that he was the head of the FBI and that he may have been gay
or a cross-dresser, you are missing out.
The film gives him context; most people don’t remember the 1919 anarchist bombings
that helped shape his character, or about his childhood stutter or his
overbearing mother. It’s a bit over the
top at times, but I thought it did a fine job giving the broad-brushstrokes
version of the FBI’s history, and it captured the good and the bad of
Hoover. He helped build the Library of
Congress, standardized finger printing, centralized criminal records, and
embraced scientific methods of detection and forensics long before anyone else
did. He also blackmailed civil rights
leaders, illegally wiretapped like everyone in America, and was paranoid and
power-hungry. He’s a fascinating man,
and I thought the movie was decent enough.
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