Fair Game

I felt pretty much the same at the end of this film as with the last one I reviewed (Inside Job), discouraged and chilled by the situation in the US. And as with that previous film, I pretty much knew the story of this one, as will anyone who was paying attention to the news during the time when Valerie Plame was outed as a CIA agent. But there were some insights and details that were new to me. As it's based on books by both Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson, her husband and equally part of the whole situation, of course it's from their perspective. And that perspective, laid out in the film, is that the White House had received many reports, both written and verbal, saying there was no evidence either that Niger was shipping uranium to Iraq, or that Iraq had any WMDs, and yet Bush and others went ahead and announced exactly the opposite and, as we all know, went to war based on supposed intelligence confirming it. The film was very well done and well acted, especially by Naomi Watts and Sean Penn in the two main roles. Despite the fact that we basically know the story, it still kept my attention throughout and had the feeling of a thriller. The personal side of their lives was also revealed more than it was in the news, showing Valerie Plame's life and work before she was outed, and how their marriage was strained almost to the breaking point afterward.

Inside Job

Toward the end of Al Gore's documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, about global warming, he sounded fairly hopeful and optimistic as he outlined some things that could be done, in his mind, fairly easily to help that situation. Inside Job, about the recent and still ongoing worldwide economic crisis, isn't like that. So if you don't want to be even more discouraged and depressed than you may already be about unemployment, Wall Street, bankers, investment bankers, mortgage brokers, etc., don't go see this film. However, it's an excellently made documentary, describing and explaining many familiar and not so familiar things about how we got here and where we are now, in a clear and concise manner. And although it has many "talking heads", it's also visually interesting in many parts. Those talking heads, by the way, utter some truly jaw-dropping statements reminiscent of the tobacco industry executives swearing under oath that nicotine isn't addictive. Many of the key players, however, not surprisingly didn't agree to be interviewed for the film. I won't spell out any more specifics, except to say that if this film is accurate, it looks like we haven't gone through the last worldwide crisis that could cause a complete economic meltdown.

Never let me go

This is the most moving film I've seen in some time, because of a combination of a compelling story; wonderful performances; and great cinematography, directing and musical score. I hardly know how to write about it in a way that will get across just how powerful I found it to be in every aspect. It's based on a novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, best known for another wonderful film The Remains of the Day. It takes place in England and could be called science fiction as it's about a society that's different from our own in that clones are created for the sole purpose of donating their organs as young adults so that other older people can live longer. This sounds quite freaky but in fact what makes the story so effective is that in most ways the people and society seem so normal. The story begins, looks and unfolds like any number of films taking place in the lovely English countryside with cute children being brought up in strict but expected residential schools, except for a few unusual details. All three of the main actors -- Carrie Mulligan, Keira Knightley and Andrew Garfield -- are excellent, though I'm especially partial to Carrie Mulligan from last year's An Education. The director, Mark Romanek, amazingly has mainly directed various video documentaries in the past. The only previous film of the cinematographer, Adam Kimmel, that I'm familiar with is Capote. The wonderfully poignant and evocative music was written by Rachel Portman, whose name wasn't familiar to me but she's done the music for many other excellent films. So what can I say to give some idea of why you should not miss this film? It's true, poignant and thought-provoking even though it's about a fictional society, but how different actually are the lives, hopes and dreams of these young people/clones from those of all of us, who know we're going to die too soon no matter how long we live?

I am love

I'm recommending this film because of the visuals and Tilda Swinton's performance, her mesmerizing presence, not for the story/plot, which is a pretty predictable melodrama. Tilda Swinton is one of those fascinating actresses who can appear luminously beautiful, almost angelic (as she does for much of this film), and then suddenly look boyishly gawky, angular and cold, almost ugly. If you want more details about the plot, go to Roger Ebert's website, but briefly, it revolves around three generations of a wealthy, aristocratic family in Milan in which Tilda Swinton plays the Russian-born wife of the elder patriarch's son. She begins an affair with one of her son's friends, a chef, and the story plays out as you might expect, in the style of a passionate Italian opera. (All the other actors are Italian and the film is in Italian with English subtitles.) The cinematography is quite extraordinary, everything seeming larger than life, many close-ups not only of people but erotically-charged food preparation and dishes, opulent dinner scenes, massive buildings, snowy city-scapes, grass and insects. If you go to this film I recommend sitting quite far back in the theatre because the camera often moves very quickly and jerkily and those close-ups, literally in your face, fill the screen. This is a long film that spends lots of time on those visual details; some people will find this boring and the story over-the-top, so be warned.

Joan Rivers: A piece of work

I saw Joan Rivers live once in the 80s, so even before watching this frank and revealing documentary I knew her live comedy included almost nonstop profanity of the most potty-mouthed kind. I usually have no respect for and don't enjoy comics who seem to depend on swearing and insults for their laughs, but I have to admit that Joan Rivers is also very funny. I used to watch her frequently in her heyday of frequent appearances on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, both as guest and guest host (but naturally without all the profanity). What this documentary displays is her extreme dependence on her career of standing in front of people and hearing their laughter and applause, the only time she's truly happy, as she says in the film. She'll do anything in order to fill her calendar - calling her a workaholic is an understatement, and I was exhausted watching this 75-year-old woman dashing from place to place, always of course in full makeup that can't hide the extensive "work" she's had done on her face, her first act upon getting out of bed each day. She gave the directors full access over a year of her life, and they (Ricki Stern and Anna Sundberg) did an amazing job. If you enjoy this type of voyeuristic and fascinating documentary, I highly recommend the film.

Jean-Michel Basquiat: The radiant child

Well, my first film at this year's Atlantic Film Festival turned out to be a winner. I don't know how wide a circulation this documentary will be getting, but if you have the chance to see it, I highly recommend not missing it, even if like me, you're not particularly involved with art or the art world. I had seen the earlier Julian Schnabel film simply called Basquiat, which isn't a documentary, and found it very compelling but now I really do prefer this one. We're lucky that the director, Tamra Davis, was a friend of Basquiat and filmed interviews and lots of other footage of him so that we get a rich picture of this amazingly talented, intelligent and sophisticated young man, who emerged from seemingly nowhere first as simply one of many graffiti artists in NYC and then became the darling of the art world and a close friend of Andy Warhol. Sadly, like many others he got involved in drugs and died of an overdose at the age of 27. I haven't heard why Davis waited till now, over 20 years later, to make this film, but she did a great job of putting it all together, including a wonderful jazz soundtrack that goes perfectly with the film.

The American

I've been away for a while at a month-long meditation retreat, so I may have missed some films during August and early September, but now it's the Atlantic Film Festival season as well as the start of the Fall/Winter generally more interesting films time of year, so you may be hearing from me more often. I went to see The American after having heard that a few people I know really disliked it. But the reviews I read continued to make it sound interesting and so I followed my gut instinct. I still don't feel quite as clear on some of what happened in the film as Roger Ebert did, but I do agree with his very favourable review of it. I especially applaud George Clooney's tour de force acting performance, which included very little dialogue. Briefly, the film is about a professional hit man (Clooney) who's either completely cool and in control or constantly nervous and on edge, or both. The setting is Italy, mainly a small town where he's working on a job of preparing a very specialized weapon for a client; all the arrangements are made by his boss/master, with whom he has very terse communications by phone. As described in the reviews, the film has very stark, minimalist and Zen-like feel to it. The scenery was compelling though not the green lushness one often associates with Italy but in general rather craggy hills with colourless villages built on them. I thought all the cinematography was also excellent. I didn't find it a terribly violent film, though of course because of the plot and characters, there are a few scenes of shootings. Anyway, this film is obviously not for everyone; it doesn't have a thought-provoking message but I found engrossing and haunting and a very interesting character study.