The Life of David Gale (2003)

This crime thriller evokes the many 1980s and 1990s classic plot twist films. That isn't to say that it is any less clever than its precursors, but it does use a well-used mechanic with its audience.

David Gale (Kevin Spacey) is on death row for a murder of a colleague. Ironically, both he and his colleague were unpopular advocates against capital punishment. A reporter (Kate Winslet) is called in to interview the prisoner just days prior to the execution. She begins to unravel the real story, but will she unravel it in time to save David's life or not?

The film presents four distinct culture clashes: midwestern vs. university vs. press vs. prison. This helps the viewer see the topic of capital punishment from varying perspectives and does a fair job of fleshing out the debate.

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Dreaming of Julia (2003)

This is not an especially compelling account of the revolution in Cuba. It's told through the eyes of a boy from a middle to high class family who watches the adult scandals pre-revolution and the ultimate disintegration of his family during and after the revolution. I would be more sympathetic if it weren't so boring! The characters try too hard to be colourful and the dialogue is flat.

Beware! It also goes by the name Cuba Libre.

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The Animatrix (2003)

To complete my first viewing of The Matrix films, I watched this collection of animated shorts that flesh out some of the side stories from the live action films. Each of the nine animations are produced by a different production company and carry very different styles with them. It is clear that some of the films direct their efforts to emphasize very different aspects of the Matrix flicks: style, philosophy, and action.

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Le Temps du Loup (2003)

This is perhaps my favourite of director Michael Haneke's films. The persistent darkness surrounding the good family lifts for such brief moments that the light is dazzling when we see it.

A family on holidays finds itself trapped in a lawless part of France where no one is allowed in or out, food and water are scarce and shelter is negotiated. We see the fallen associate with the image bearers.

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Capturing the Friedmans (2003)

This is a very well made documentary in that it reveals information in such incremental and emotionally charged ways that the viewer can not dismiss anyone's point of view.

A father and son are accused of molesting children in their basement as they offered computer classes. The film documents the accusations and through home movies it also follows how the accusations and sentences affected the Friedman family. It is a raw and gut wrenching film despite the lighthearted treatment of the issues by some of the family.

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Love Actually (2003)

Despite its obvious effort to dig deep into the mystery of love, Love Actually is corny and entertaining. Good acting, witty lines, and unsatisfying stories.

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Noam Chomsky: Rebel Without a Pause (2003)

This is a low-budget doc on the famed outspoken activist Noam Chomsky. It is a collection of clips from about five different talks/discussions Chomsky delivered in and around 2003 in Canada with some interview footage from a dozen people who have interacted with him.

The purpose of the film is to show what he has to say about a variety of current event topics as well as to show what his impact has been as a living legend (the seventh most cited source in research papers).

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The Matrix Revolutions (2003)

Where there was satisfaction in the finality of the story, I think the resolution felt forced, a weak negotiation. The effects were terrific and the enigma at the beginning was fun, but the micro-stories during the battle were rather formulaic as was the final sacrifice.

A fun trilogy; I'm better for having watched it.

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The Matrix Reloaded (2003)

While there are obvious stylistic and realistic flaws in the telling of this story (as in Where do these "soldiers" find all that time to maintain such great hair? Where did Zion get all their supplies and energy to live deep beneath the earth? etc.), the story is compelling and brings out all the best questions about determinism. I personally enjoyed all the dialogue pertaining to free choice. That, and it's a great kung-fu flick too.

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Old School (2003)

Silliness on a college campus.

Three old friends a decade after college return to a campus as a relief from their lives of responsibility. When the "evil" dean of the college decides he doesn't want them around, they form a fraternity. Lots of parties and initiation rituals.

Will Ferrell is hilarious and that's about it as far as good things in this movie. It descends into a Revenge of the Nerds story that can hardly be related to by real people.

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To Kill a King (2003)

The same story erupts in nearly every revolution. This one takes place in Britain during the reign of Charles I.

When Sir Thomas Fairfax leads an uprising against the king's troupes because of the tyranny Charles I imposes upon his people, Fairfax's faithful supporter puritan Oliver Cromwell becomes ever more zealous. The Parliament is easily bribed by the king and stronger measures are needed to "persuade" the king to yield more authority to the commons. Fairfax and Cromwell disagree on the method that ought to be utilized and they part on poor terms. Cromwell, who is played extraordinarily well by Tim Roth, seizes power and becomes as despotic as the king he beheads.

The film focuses on the relationship between Cromwell and Fairfax and keeps the audience more in the background of this well known story. The story isn't overly romanticized as the recent Elizabeth films are and it attempts to maintain an earthy and realist tone. 

The message is clear - diplomacy always yields better results than violence.

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Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)

A fourth film by Quentin Tarantino could really be nothing else but Kill Bill, a tribute to film violence.

Uma Thurman plays an assassin who awakes from a coma and then seeks revenge on those who killed her groom, her unborn child and just failed to kill her. And kill she does, in just about every way imaginable. The Bride carries near supernatural powers fueled by a sense of justice that denies any kind of mercy.

The movie is a celebration of violence, a terrible thing to celebrate. But it's actually not about violence in the real sense, it's about movie and television violence which is used to tell stories. Some stories would lose their potency without the violent element - including some of the most sacred ones.

I didn't find this story to be terribly emotional because it is simply over the top to the point of comedy. Tarantino defuses some of the gore by making it ridiculus.

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Angels in America (2003)

Angels in America is a 6 hour epic set in the 1980's taking on American politics, the new plague of AIDS, and religion. It has a strong agenda against belief in a "good" god, but it has an interesting commentary on human nature and what should be most important: compassion and honesty.

Ronald Reagan is president and people are beginning to die of AIDS in the United States. A corrupt and high profile NY lawyer tries to get his protégé to be his flunkey in Washington. The protégé is also a Mormon closet homosexual whose wife is beginning to catch on to. He becomes romantically involved with a filing clerk whose boyfriend is languishing in a hospital in the final stages of AIDS. His mother flies in from Salt Lake City to talk him straight. They all have supernatural encounters with otherworldly beings (angels) that try to guide them into some truth.

The HBO miniseries features a star studded cast with Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, Patrick Wilson, Emma Thompson, Jeffrey Wright, and Mary-Louise Parker. There performances as multiple characters gives the film more of a stage play feel (which is what it is based on).

I didn't agree at all with how they represented God as a being who had gone astray and was only seeking our participation for some selfish deed. Judaism and Mormonism were the lenses through which the characters understood their visions and everything had a very dogmatic feel without much concern that it might be touching on something real (as in, they can play with it because God doesn't really exist anyway). 

Well made, misdirected.

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And Starring Pancho Villa As Himself (2003)

At the same time a footnote in history and cinema, Pancho Villa once dominated the headlines in the United States as he waged war on United States interest (those of William Randolph Hearst in particular) and on the Mexican despotic regime.

This HBO production focuses on the relationship Villa had with a film producer whom he hired to tell his story and to document the civil war battles he was waging. The films went on to heavily influence popular opinion in the U.S. even though they were heavily edited and the story was modified.

The film's success stands on the great acting (especially Antonio Banderas) and from what I can tell, a faithful retelling of formidable events with colourful characters. No one is perfect and while they are shaken by the painful subject matter, life does continue.

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Tarnation (2003)

This is definitely the most unique, personal, and painful telling of a story I have seen.

The documentary is a collection of home movies that Jonathan Caouette shot over 20 years then edited on iMovie (he uses every possible effect that iMovie allowed). The story of his life is indeed worth telling and the modus operandi is certainly appropriate with all of its shaky camera movements and washed out colour.

Jonathan is raised by his grandparents, the parents of his mother who they elected to have treated with electric shock therapy after falling off a roof. Jon's mother is not herself and is not competent to raise Jonathan. After suffering abuse in his childhood, he enters an adolescence defined by drug use, homosexual relationships, violent psychotic episodes, alternative films and punk music. As he matures and moves to NYC, he begins to seek what went wrong; he begins to seek the truth.

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Mambo Italiano (2003)

Set in Montréal, a man from the Italian sector struggles with coming out of the closet to his parents and community. Of course, the comedy is largely based on Italian machismo in the face of homosexuality. The story is a moral tale of a family's unconditional love and it really doesn't stray much further from this. It's a sanitized and fairy tale look at some people's real life misery.

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Raja (2003)

An orphaned young woman with a checkered past begins work as a gardener for a benevolent Frenchman in Morocco. She is seeking love and stability. He is seeking sex. It becomes a dramatic and painful game to see if one will offer what the other desires as they interchange dialogue in broken French and Arabic.

The film certainly has merit as a study in human behaviour and how cultures and classes clash. Prepare to be befuddled as it may be difficult to understand all the nuances in the film. There is plenty of tension however to keep you locked into the story and the characters.

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Bright Young Things (2003)

Rich Young Things could easily have been the title for this film of wanton debauchery and boredom. Before the war, rich Britons had nothing to capture their imagination besides drugs, sex, wild parties and big wastes of money. This is a story of peril.

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Shattered Glass (2003)

A smart film about a recent event. We get a glimpse behind the scenes of a scandal that almost took down a magazine.

The New Republic, a political magazine with a history of important readership, finds itself with a renegade reporter who not only fabricates stories, but the sources and references for the story. What is also remarkable about this reporter is the deft manner he draws allies to himself and insists his innocence to the end.

I enjoyed this film quite a bit. It's neither pretentious nor does it over explain the story. The acting is very strong, particularly with Peter Saarsgard, one of the antagonist. The a less than likable protagonist's character, Glass, is particularly manipulative and we get a glimpse into a bit of his psyche thanks to Hayden Christensen. The film is pretty straight forward.

Truth: We tend to believe who we want to believe.

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Runaway Jury (2003)

Twists and turns. Psychological and violent thriller. Idealism and ruthlessness. What else could one expect from a film based on a John Grisham novel?

As usual, we are taken along for a ride with both lawyers and the people who hang around lawyers. The case is a civil one where a widow is suing a gun manufacturer for being indirectly liable for her husband's death. Because of the fallout if the plaintiff wins, the defense calls on the aid of an expert jury selection team who profiles each potential juror and recommends which ones out to stand. One juror however has his own rules and everyone except the judge gets to play along.

Again, as with all Grisham adaptations, the cast is loaded with high profile actors and all of them turn terrific performances. The film gained attention for pitting Dustin Hoffman against Gene Hackman, the first time the two legends had collaborated.

The film is smart. The film is fast. The film is full of adrenaline. The film is mildly thought provoking too, though the issues of integrity and justice are muted by the excitement of the film. It's a good time chasing some good ideas.

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