Category Archives: 2008

2008, Could Be Hard To Watch, Drama, Not Feel Good, Revenge, Violent

Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

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From NetFlix:

After coming within one question of winning 20 million rupees on the Indian version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” 18-year-old Mumbai “slumdog” Jamal Malik (Dev Patel) is arrested on suspicion of cheating. While in custody, Jamal regales a jaded police inspector (Irfan Khan) with remarkable tales of his life on the streets, as well as the story of Latika (Freida Pinto), the woman he loved and lost. Danny Boyle’s film won a Golden Globe and Oscar for Best Picture.

Hollywood has produced a technically excellent film that successfully exploits the misery of Indian slum dwellers by coating the film with a thin veneer of Spielberg-like good feelings. I just couldn’t buy it. During this film, which in my opinion is NOT FOR CHILDREN, you will be treated to the following spectacles:

  • The police inspector beats Jamal and subjects him to electric torture. This is perfectly acceptable because Jamal, after all, is merely a slum dweller.
  • Hindus set muslims on fire as living torches.
  • Of course Jamal will jump into the cesspool so he can get a Bollywood actor’s autograph.
  • During the day poor Indians search the garbage dump for edible food.
  • At night orphans sleep at this garbage dump
  • Predators entice these orphans from the dump with cold Coca-Cola. The orphans are taken to a camp and fed. These orphans then experience the following:
    • At the very best they are turned into beggar slaves for the predators
    • Those male orphans who can sing are then blinded by pouring hot liquid into their eyes and sent out as singing beggars.
    • Female orphans are trained as prostitutes.
  • In one scene Jamal’s beautiful sweetheart Latika has both sides of her face scarred in revenge for her disobience to her owner.

Why did not India sue the filmmakers for exposing the savage underbelly of India ? Of course every country has it shame. Do not forget that in the American South, after a negro was lynched, the spectators cut the body into parts and saved the pieces as souvenirs.

There is a large article on this film in wikipedia. Hopefully none of the children actors from slums were sent back to the slums. There is also this link to one of the many organizations that try to help.

2008, Drama, Feel Good Not For Children, Suspense, War

Australia (2008)

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From NetFlix:

In the days leading up to World War II, Lady Sarah Ashley (Nicole Kidman) inherits a sprawling cattle ranch in northern Australia. Threatened by land barons, she reluctantly joins her farmhand (Hugh Jackman) as he drives 2,000 head of cattle across the outback. While on the grueling trek, they witness the Japanese bombing of Darwin, which heralds Australia’s entry into the war. Director Baz Luhrmann co-wrote this captivating historical epic Oscar nominated for Best Costume Design.

Just enjoy this corny B-film for the satire it really is. Hopefully Nicole Kidman is ham acting on purpose. Otherwise she is just plain clueless. Bawdy, frank comedy is the film’s strong point.
Interspersed are “tense” episodes that are, under the circumstances, hard to take seriously unless
you are under the age of 15. And admit it, there is just nothing like a good old black-versus-white cowboy movie.

Don’t misunderstand me. I enjoyed the film. It tells a story and if you can do nothing more than tell a good story, you are a step ahead (think Spielberg, the king of corny).

I keep trying to spot the great actors and actresses of the early 21st century. I still have hopes for Hugh Jackman. As far as his role goes, he doesn’t miss a beat. I am just a bit disappointed when good actors go bad (for example, “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”). Remember when Anthony Hopkins played in good films ?

Wikipedia has an article about the film.

2008, Biographical, DO NOT MISS, Drama, Not Feel Good, Revenge, Suspense, Violent, War

Defiance (2008)

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From NetFlix:

Daniel Craig stars as Tuvia Bielski, one of four Jewish brothers who escape from Poland into the forests of Belarus during World War II to lead a band of resistance fighters and create a safe haven for Jewish refugees. The real-life sanctuary established by the Bielski brothers saved more than 1,000 Jews from persecution and death. Edward Zwick directs this moving historical drama that also stars Liev Schreiber, Jamie Bell and George MacKay.

Go the Wikipedia article for the history of the Bielski Partisans.

“Defiance” tells a story, an exciting, suspenseful and meaningful story to be sure. Yes, there is some nuance of personalities, but the story is first and foremost (as it was in “Shindler’s List”). However there is also quite a bit of philosophical questioning: what happens to moral principles under the pressure of persecution ? Also there is the ever present anti-semitism, for example among the Russian partisans.

Sometimes the staging seems a bit suspect (a beautiful snowy wedding under a silk canopy in the forest ?). But hopefully for the most part the forest encampments looked as filmed.

Daniel Craig (Tuvia Bielski) is well-known as the current James Bond. Liev Schreiber (Zus Bielski) is the bad guy in the current “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” and has played in 4 CSI TV episodes. It is a pleasure watching these two actors escape their unfortunate Hollywood pigeon holes and do an excellent job. Even their voices take on that low rumble associated with rough Slavic speakers.

Finally if you want to see a wonderful historical dramatization, DON’T MISS THIS FILM !

2008, Could Be Hard To Watch, Could Be Sad, Drama, Not Feel Good

Revolutionary Road (2008)

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From NetFlix:

Based on the novel by Richard Yates and set in the mid-1950s, this story helmed by Sam Mendes follows the Wheelers (Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslett, in a Golden Globe-winning role), a young couple in suburban Connecticut who tries desperately to confront the problems in their relationship while raising two children. Despite their best intentions, the couple’s intense arguments send them into a downward spiral. Michael Shannon co-stars in an Oscar-nominated role.

DiCaprio and Winslett are superb, but of the two, Winslett expresses such pain that her performance just soars. Michael Shannon as the unbalanced mathematician is memorable. Kathy Bates as his mother is good as usual. David Harbour, playing a neighbor who has the hots for Winslett, does his role well.

Beware: this is a very unhappy film. I’ll play Devil’s Advocate here, go out on a limb and say the unhappy couple brought their problems on themselves. Is the film’s thesis that we should never settle down into a solid, hopefully financially secure lifestyle until we have found our true selves and are living out our most cherished dreams ? True, not everyone loves his job. So why not do what the majority probably do, work at something not completely horrible and get another life outside of work ? Granted that is a bit difficult if you are working 60 hours a week. No, I cannot commiserate with this sad couple. I can feel their pain even if I do not agree with that pain.

Note how slyly the film tries to get us to agree with the thesis: at the end other neighbors in their own way indicate how they really hate their dull lives.

Would anyone out there care to champion this neurotic pair of souls ?

2008, Mystery, ShortStories

The Best American Mystery Stories (2008)

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For 2008 the guest editor is George Pelecanos who, as usual, had to pick 20 short stories from the hundreds submitted to him by the series editor Otto Penzler. Note that this book is NOT “The Best American Short Stories (2008)” which is a different book in the same series. Lately I have enjoyed the mystery stories more than the general short stories. Beware: “mystery” does NOT mean detective or murder. Instead, there is something as yet undiscovered in the story which is generally revealed at the end.

Please note that at the back of the book there are biographies of the authors as well as the author’s comments on the short story in the book. Even the biographies are fun because it always amazes me how people’s lives change.

Mist James Lee Burke
Drug addict fighting overpowering odds after having suffered through hurricane Katrina.

Mulholland Dive Michael Connelly
Really cool plot twist and surprise ending from a well-known detective author. Clever title.

The Hour When The Ship Comes In Robert Ferrigno
Redemption for a thug.

One Good One Chuck Hogan
What one lie can lead to. Terrific surprise ending.

The Monks of the Abbey Victoria Rupert Holmes
Incredibly well architected scam.

Proof of God Holly Goddard Jones
Marvelous suspense right up to the end.

Tunis and Time Peter Lasalle
FBI versus CIA, who is using whom ? Ramblings of an aging agent. Surprise ending.

A Day Meant To Do Less Kyle Minor
Near the end of the life of an aged stroke-victim mother who has suffered from a brutal rape (explicitly described in the story), there is a scene of bathing care as viewed first by her minister son and then by the woman herself in her own distorted way.

Child’s Play Alice Munro
Alice Munro (Canadian, born 1931, age 78 AND STILL WRITING !!!) strikes again. At first this story about young girls seemed too genteel, almost dull. But hang in there, the ending blew me away. This story also appeared in “The Best American Short Stories (2008)”. So somebody must have really liked this story!

Win’s Girl Thisbe Nissen
A woman down on her luck is taken advantage of. Good revenge ending.

The Blind Man’s Sighted Daughters Joyce Carol Oates
Joyce Carol Oates just doesn’t write anything easy to read. In this case a truly horrible father has aged and is making life very difficult for his two daughters. The mystery is the past sins of the father.

The Empty House Nathan Oates
Powerful and fateful story about the murderous government of Guatemala in the 1980’s.

Car Trouble Jas. R. Petrin
Aging gangster protects his elderly woman barber from being victimized by a car salesman.

The Emerson, 1950 Scott Phillips
Series of connected vignettes involving a newspaper crime reporter.

At The Top Of His Game Steve Rhodes
Don’t miss this tense and exciting story of Wall Street warriors trying to destroy one another.

Hothouse S.J. Rozan
Unusual story about a escaped convict who helps a woman fix a city plant conservatory (hothouse) whose windows have broken in a snowstorm.

The Invisibles Hugh Sheehy
An “invisible” is someone that others just don’t notice. An imaginative (delusional ?) young girl thinks she is an invisible and the notion influences this story about serial killings.

A Different Road Elizabeth Strout
An older woman goes to a hospital with something like food-poisoning. Two young men try to hold-up the hospital for drugs. The stressful situation causes the woman to say hurtful things to her husband.

Given Her History Melissa Vanbeck
Girl orphaned because her sociopath brother Billy killed the family is passed among families until finally a somewhat strange woman takes her in. And then Billy shows up. Great ending.

St. Gabriel Scott Wolven
Man avenges five men who tried to kill his younger logger brother.

2008, Could Be Hard To Watch, DO NOT MISS, Drama, TV Series

In Treatment (2008)

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From NetFlix:

Get inside psychoanalyst Paul Weston’s (Gabriel Byrne, in a Golden Globe-winning
role) head with this original series from HBO. After dealing with his patients’
traumas and issues, Weston caps off his week with a visit to therapist Dr. Gina
Toll (Dianne Wiest) to unload his own problems. Weston’s diverse patients include
an anesthesiologist (Melissa George) in a relationship crisis, a Navy pilot (Blair
Underwood) and a conflicted couple (Josh Charles and Embeth Davidtz).

We are hooked again on another TV Series. Season 1 of In Treatment” consists of 9 discs from NetFlix. When you open one of these discs you see photos of several people. Each person (or persons) is an episode. That person is in session with the psychiatrist. Each “talking heads” session is really involving.

Some warnings:

  • Each disc treats the same patients and then the psychiatrist visits his own psychiatrist. So from disc to disc you watch the progress in each case. But they all are interrelated
  • The very first session of disc 1 could be a turnoff. Laura, the attractive young anesthesiologist, describes explicitly a tawdry sexual encounter. I hope they did not begin the series with this episode just to attract an audience. Don’t let this session keep you from the other sessions. Moreover that patient is very important in the series.

In all cases the acting is superlative. The characters for the first season are:

Paul
Gabriel Byrne is the psychiatrist.
Laura
Besides being beautiful, Melissa George is an extraordinarily difficult patient. She is intelligent, seductive, and manipulative in the extreme.
Alex
Blair Underwood is the black fighter pilot. He has appeared in “Dirty Sexy Money” and “Law and Order SVU”.
Sophie
Mia Wasikowska is just plain brillant as a young gymnast.
Jake and Amy
Amy is played by Embeth Davidtz. She appeard in “Grey’s Anatomy”
Jake is played by Josh Charles. He has appeared in “Law and Order SVU”. This is one fighting couple and how!
Gina
Dianne Wiest plays Paul’s psychiatrist. Hers may well be the most familar face. She was a regular on “Law and Order” for many episodes.

Of all the TV series that Kathy and I have watched, this one so far is the most compelling and addictive adult presentation we have seen.

2008, Drama

Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)

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From NetFlix:

Javier Bardem stars in the latest effort from legendary filmmaker Woody
Allen as a flamboyant painter who finds himself in the middle of a unique
relationship with Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Christina (Scarlett Johansson),
a pair of American tourists. Penélope Cruz (with her first Oscar win)
also stars as Bardem’s insanely jealous ex-wife, Maria Elena, in this
quirky romantic dramedy (winner of a Best Comedy Golden Globe) set in
Barcelona.

The manner in which this film is narrated reminds me of that quirky TV series “Arrested Development”. There is a continual voice-over that seems to be serious, but in reality the narrative is a bit tongue-in-cheek. In any case, the style lends a certain lightness to the story.

The film may be fun to watch, but the characters constitute a set of really mixed-up people. I just don’t buy the philosophies. What’s wrong with a marriage that seems to have a future ? Granted, all that talk about the perfect house and the perfect decorator gets to be a bit much. But don’t underestimate the value of finding a “steady Eddie”.

Scarlett Johansson is easy on the eyes, but sometimes I swear she reads her lines like a high-school sophomore.

And wasn’t Javier Bardem better in the films of Almodóvar ?

When the characters speak Spanish, there are English subtitles.

2008, Drama

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)

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From NetFlix:

David Fincher directs this adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic
tale set in the early 20th century that follows Benjamin Button (Brad
Pitt), a man who was born in his 80s and continually grows younger. The
story throws linear conventions upside down to explore love, loss and
memories from the perspective of a character living under incredibly
unique — and unexpectedly difficult — circumstances. Cate Blanchett
co-stars in this Oscar nominee for Best Picture.

This is one long film – 3 hours! But it was good enough that I did not mind the length. At times I felt that the segments of Button’s life were too disjointed, but toward the end of the film it made for better continuity and sense.

The conceit is clever and entertaining. It is actually fun watching someone begin his life as an old man and then become younger and younger until he is an infant. The story actually works! I am not sure an expert in facial development would agree with each stage of Button’s life.

But get serious: would I really want to grow younger so that in time (for however briefly) I looked like Brad Pitt ?

YOU’RE DAMN RIGHT I WOULD !!!

2008, Biographical, Could Be Sad, Drama, Imperfect, Not Feel Good, Redemption, Violent

What Doesn’t Kill You (2008)

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From NetFlix:

Partners in crime Paulie (Ethan Hawke) and Brian (Mark Ruffalo) find themselves at odds after years of pulling dangerous jobs, surviving turf wars and evading a determined detective (Donnie Wahlberg) in this gritty crime drama set in South Boston. The childhood buddies have gone through the wringer together, but when Brian’s relationship with his wife (Amanda Peet) begins to fall apart, their loyal friendship is tested.

I almost did not finish this film. It just seemed like any other film about South Boston hoodlums. However, the last part of the film contains the film’s message. Indeed that half belongs to Mark Ruffalo who beautifully portrays a discouraged former alcholic who desperately wants to be a good father to his sons. This story is based on the life of Brian Goodman who plays Pat Kelly in the movie. The film ends, as do many “true” films, with lines of text that explain what happened in Goodman’s life beyond the end of the film. Note also that the minor role of Detective Moran is played by the brother of Mark Wahlberg. This is only a B-film, but Ruffalo does a wonderful job.

2008, Animated, Feel Good For All

WALL-E (2008)

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From NetFlix:

In a futuristic world, human beings have destroyed Earth and evacuated the planet, leaving the cleanup to an army of robots they’ve programmed to do their dirty work. Due to a mishap, the dutiful WALL-E is the only one left. But with the arrival of a female probe named EVE, the monotony of WALL-E’s existence is broken — and he experiences love for the first time. Andrew Stanton directs this Golden Globe- and Oscar-winning Pixar tale with a sci-fi twist.

Not everyone loves animated films. In the hopes that I could get interested I gave the film a try. WALL-E is built on at least two questionable premises: the earth becomes an uninhabitable junk heap, AND humans abandon earth to live a life of robot-served bliss on a space station. (With regard to the first premise, there is a 2008 documentary called “Life After People”.) Without giving anything away, the conjectured resulting state of those blissful humans is amusing (but I don’t accept the idea that every human would accept the bliss and its consequences). Finally the glorious triumphant end of the film seemed entirely bogus to me.

Much detailed hard work went into making WALL-E. The eye candy alone kept me interested for at least half of the film. But toward the end I was squirming waiting for it all to be over. Enough with chasing robots, electronic traffic control, etc.! Maybe I am just too old for a mini-Star-Wars-clone. And I wonder how a pre-teen or teen would react to this film appropriate for all ages.

As an alternative, try an animated film by Hayao Miyazaki such as “Spirited Away”.

Hopefully someone out there will disagree with me.