Disgrace (2008)

A tremendously powerful and original film that tackles South Africa's culture of violence. The Australian-made movie is based on a South African novel by J M Coetzee which makes me want to seek out this guy's work. A professor loses his status in the academic world because of some blatant abuses of his position. He seeks refuge at his daughter's ranch in rural South Africa only to be faced with a culture of violence he is not able to so easily accept as his own indiscretions. The biggest revelation of this film is its treatment of rape and how it is understood so differently in the Eastern Cape.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

David Fincher couldn't resist making his own film adaptation of the wildly successful mystery novels (I've heard they read exactly like the movies...) even though the original (released just 2 years previous) was very well made and popular.

This version is no tamer than the Swedish version. It is brutally graphic in its telling of the investigation into serial/ritual murders, Lisbeth's abuse, and the original mystery of the missing girl. The acting and style are stellar with an unrelenting pace.

I still can't figure out why they had to make another almost identical version, but it was well done none the less.

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Festen (1998)

The Celebration is a cross between Monsoon Wedding and Gosford Park with some Noah Baumbach and Lars Von Trier thrown in. The setting is a Danish country mansion where family and friends have gathered to celebrate the 60th birthday of Helge - a successful restauranteur and freemason. We learn quickly of the family's disfunction and several sparks have already flown by the time the real fuse is lit at supper.

Perhaps the most remarkable touch of the film makers is their ability to infuse such brilliant humour in such a dark film. Humour and resilient humanity.

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Rosewood (1997)

This drama is based on actual events that were only recently recorded and acknowledged. The grim account of a massacre outside of Gainesville, Florida in 1923 that was essentially ignored by the state government and police.

A relatively affluent black town neighbours a white town and while racial tensions persist, they coexist peacefully until a woman makes a grave accusation that she was beaten and raped by a non-descript black man. A posse is formed and lynching ensues - men, women and children are beaten and the atrocities persist for days. Black women and children hide for their lives in the nearby swamps as they are tracked by hounds.

The film embellishes the story by including a black superhero (Ving Rhames), but the essence of the story is enraging and you can not watch this film without considering what kind of country simply allows this kind of injustice.

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This is England (2006)

The large meta-narrative of Britain and it's use of nationalism and violence to dominate in the world is replayed in the life of a young boy who is caught up in the skinhead movement of the 1980s. Mourning the loss of his father in the conflict of the Falkland Islands, Shaun is drawn in by the kindness of skinhead punks in backwater England.

I was particularly moved by the lack of pretension that the skinheads had. They genuinely cared for each other and shared their feelings frankly. The anger they directed towards immigrants was a misguided frustration with a nationalism that simply gave them groundless entitlement.

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Redacted (2007)

Brian De Palma's films seem to increasingly involve more preachy themes or be B-movies, which tends to appeal to the masses, which could be why he chose to make this film this way: the message is incredibly important: soldiers commit atrocities if left unchecked.

Redacted is a compilation of made up documentary footage surrounding the murder of an iraqi family and the rape of their daughter by a small group of soldiers. The story is based on real events.

Far better than the film itself are the DVD extra footage of interviews with Iraqi refugees!

Official Site | IMDB

True Grit (2010)

Loved the absolutely sharp dialogue in this film. Tremendous performances by Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon and the new Hailee Steinfeld. Great and gritty western!

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The Sting (1973)

This classic has inspired a slew of caper films and still holds its own against them. Paul Newman and Robert Redford demonstrate class and wit as they swindle an even more evil swindler.

Two cons team up and recruit a huge team to defraud a big time city gangster who had one of the their friends executed. The film tracks their big scheme.

The charm really comes from the two main actors and the elaborate sting operation. Really fun movie to watch with plenty of tension to keep it moving.

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Amreeka (2009)

Amreeka details the life of a mother and son as they emigrate from Palestine to the USA. It's a lovely story of resilience and pride, but at the same time it is formulaic and at times too predictable. It tries to teach about immigrant hardships more than it tries to tell a story I think. The most affecting parts of the film focus on the relationship between the son and his mother.

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Standard Operating Procedure (2008)

The maker of The Fog of War brings another personal interview based documentary focusing on the abuses of prisoners in the Abu Ghraib. Errol Morris points the camera at the people charged with mistreatment of prisoners and the people charged with investigating the matter. We get an inside look into the minds that were demonized in the media and the policies that allowed the abuses.

The film is affecting and enraging.

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Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story (2009)

This TV movie tells the very inspiring story of Ben Carson. I read his autobiography when I was a kid so I thought I'd see how they did putting it into a film.

The film bounces back and forth between Dr. Carson who is the pre-eminent pediatric neurosurgeon in the world and young Benny who is failing at school and has a serious struggle with anger. Dr. Carson has to find a solution in order to separate conjoined twins at the head. Benny struggles without a father and is encouraged by his illiterate mother.

The movie is a tad melodramatic, but it does tell the story very well and you can't help being transformed by the end.

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Half Nelson (2006)

Another film about school, except it's a more real, dimensional and broken teacher than what we are usually treated to.

Teacher Dan takes curriculum into his own hands at the urban junior high he is placed in. While offering his students college fare rather than what his principal wants him to teach, Dan has a dark addiction to cocaine and crack. He begins to build a relationship with Drey, a student and basketball player on the team he coaches. Drey also has a connection to Dan's coke dealer.

The performances are raw and honest making the message of redemption and grace all the more powerful.

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Basquiat (1996)

Jeffrey Wright is a fantastic actor and he holds up this fascinating film about 80's artist Jean Michel Basquiat.

Bordering on homelessness in NYC, a drug dependent Basquiat makes a name for himself through graffiti. He boldly enters the art scene by presenting himself to Andy Warhol and procuring a devoted agent. From rags to riches over night, he struggles to control his bad habits and maintain fame without bowing to it.

The film is director Julian Schnabel's first before making Before Night Falls and one of my all-time favorites, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Aside from all of these films being biographical, he brings a beautiful sense of the imagination and cinema clothing his subjects with a sense of self without giving over to straight narration.

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Avatar (2009)

In 3-Dimensions!! Despite my plan to boycott the film (because Mr. Cameron doesn't need my $10), I ended up caving and going to see it based on many people's recommendations.

Futuristic mining operation on a distant and inhabited planet is being run by the US military. The indigenous tall and naked blue people are resistant to the plans to turn the whole place into a mound of dirt, so a subversive method of sending in spy blue people in to learn how to convince them to yield is employed - a human controls the body of a void blue person (an avatar). A lame soldier controlling his avatar ends up falling in love with the indigenous and joining their cause (big twist!!).

So yeah, the visuals were pretty great, though I would have enjoyed more real life mixed in with CG (the final sequence has quite a bit). The 3-D element worked really well and it wasn't abused.

What wasn't terribly impressive was the story, the characters, and the overall challenge. It is clear that they are drawing a parallel between the blue folks and planet earth's indigenous population. The happy ending scenario is clearly a departure from reality and is clearly motivated to make money, not good cinema. The notion that the earth is a deity is lectured heavily too.

Official Site | IMDB

No Direction Home: Bob Dylan (2005)

Martin Scorsese put together this 3 1/2 hour documentary of legendary Bob Dylan's first 6 years of his musical career by compiling archive concert footage, clips from other films, photos, current interviews and older interviews. The result is a portrait of an era that was defined by the bard.

Working towards Dylan's apostate, electric tours of the "Highway 61" and "Bringing it All Back Home" albums, we begin in Minnesota and travel through the beat poets and folk roots in New York City. Dylan's rise to stardom is continually juxtaposed with 1966 footage of people shouting disapproval during the early electric era.

The film is tremendously satisfying and the music is amazing - especially the live performances which have surprisingly great sound.

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A Passage to India (1984)

This epic film tells the story of a colonized India that is nearly ready to revolt the the personal story of some Brit ex-pats and local nationals.

Adela travels to the interior of India to become engaged to a British city magistrate. She befriends an Indian professor who is so smitten by the fact that a white woman would take the time to befriend him that he decides to extend incredible hospitality to her. He invites her on a trip to see a set of caves. The result is catastrophic and the entire empire goes on trial.

It helps that the film is based on a thick novel giving it incredible depth. Some of the events are somewhat difficult to piece together, but the thread holding the film intact is the parallel of one people's subjugation of another and the one thing that can mend the brokenness.

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Do the Right Thing (1989)

For me Do the Right Thing was synonymous with Spike Lee, even though I had never seen the film - it's the movie that launched this director into the record books as one of the most talented directors ever. I figured it was time to see the film.

It's a scorcher in Bed-Stuy - the notoriously violent borough in NYC. While everyone gets along for the most part and as the day progresses, it seems like people can take just about anything. Hispanics, Blacks, Vietnamese and Italians go most of the day with out provoking anything but words out of their neighbours until some people begin to snap in a pizzaria.

The film is punctuated with Public Enemy's "Fight the Power" which really speaks for what is lurking in everyone's heart - a desire for good, but a desire for justice as well. The ending for me was ambiguous which kept the film from being preachy and kept the question alive: What is the right thing?

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District 9 (2009)

This is such a bold, imaginative, and well made film that it is difficult to know where to begin. Peter Jackson gave this kid director a shot at making whatever he wanted and District 9 is the result. Thanks Peter Jackson!

Twenty years ago an alien ship descended upon Johannesburg, South Africa. Inside were thousands of languishing aliens who became refugees that settled in districts surrounding the city. The prawns (as they are soon called) and humans don't get along super well, but they coexist as long as they stay in their own areas. When a corporation is given the task of caring for the space refugees, a resettlement program is put into effect and all hell breaks loose.

What is absolutely stunning about this film is that it is a perfect alien movie, a perfect study on apartheid, and a perfect comedy. It is shot as a combination documentary about the events mixed with live action as it follows the adventures of Wikus van der Merwe, a supervisor at the corporation. 

Just fantastic!

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Gran Torino (2008)

There is very little of Clint Eastwood's films that I dislike. He consistently delivers human drama and tension that can be understood and empathized with.

Gran Torino tells the tale of Walt - a Vietnam vet with a racist streak and little tolerance for the aires that people put on. Walt becomes entangled with his Asian neighbours after his wife passes away. The end result is one of transformation and love. Can you tell I don't want to give away the plot?

I discussed this film at great length with my pastor before he preached a sermon about the film. You can watch/listen to the sermon here. We can see tremendous parallels between Gran Torino's and the transformation that the Gospel proclaims. There is also little room for pretending in the film which speaks volumes about truth. I was struck particularly by the action of grace at the end and analyzed how I accept/live the grace so tentatively even after understanding at what great cost it was given so lovingly to me.

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