Best DVDs I saw in 2006

Movie	Grade	Find the review archived in 2006: Month/Day
The Constant Gardner	A	1/21
Corpse Bride	A	2/11
The Ice Harvest	A	3/11
The Exonerated	A	3/12
Pride & Prejudice	A	3/28
Capote	A	4/2
Brokeback Mountain	A	5/7
Match Point	A	5/8
Celebrity Mix	A	6/18
The Girl From Monday	A	6/19
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada	A	6/25
Jesus is Magic	A	7/4
Nine Lives	A	7/8
Find Me Guilty	A	7/9
Sorry, Haters	A	8/13
V for Vendetta	A	8/14
Friends with Money	A	9/10
Lucky Number Slevin	A	9/16
Hard Candy	A	9/24
Down in the Valley	A	9/30
Edmond	A	11/5
Land of Plenty	A	11/19
Karzohat (Damnation)	A	11/27
An Inconvenient Truth	A	12/2
Scoop	A	12/3
Canadian Bacon	A	12/14
Little Miss Sunshine	A	12/25
Fight Club	A	12/29
The Aristocrats	B	2/12
(Proof):	B	2/18
In Her Shoes	B	2/19
Lord of War	B	2/20
North Country	B	2/26
Domino	B	2/27
The Weather Man	B	3/5
Good Night and Good Luck	B	3/18
A History of Violence	B	3/19
Derailed	B	3/26
Lost	B	4/9
Memoirs of a Geisha	B	4/9
The Squid and the Whale	B	4/17
The Family Stone	B	5/20
Eros	B	5/22
Transamerica	B	6/3
The War Within	B	6/4
Dear Wendy	B	6/13
Syriana	B	6/24
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang	B	7/1
The Matador	B	7/24
Second Best	B	7/30
Side-Effects	B	7/30
The Confederate States of America	B	8/13
Pure	B	8/19
Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World	B	9/3
Manderlay	B	9/3
Thank You For Smoking	B	10/7
Art School Confidential	B	10/15
Looking for Kitty	B	11/4
Sick & Tired	B	11/11
Archangel	B	12/12
The Devil Wears Prada	B	12/25
All the King’s Men	B	12/26

Fight Club: Grade A

A

Fight Club (1999)

Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, Helena Bonham Carter. Director David Fincher.

I picked up this 1999 movie that had slipped by me. I expected some kind of unattractive bare knuckles fighting story, but the star lineup was persuasive. Norton is a meek and burned out insurance examiner obsessively pursuing mindless consumerism to offset his meaningless job. In an edgy satirical sequence, he starts attending support groups for cancer patients, drug rehab, AA, and so on, just so he can get hugged. Eventually he ends up staying in Pitt’s derelict old house. Pitt is a charismatic, grandiose, unconventional personality, endlessly promoting a lifestyle of anti-consumerism like some spiritual guru on PBS. He has nothing, lives in filth, yet wants nothing. Presumably the soap business keeps him in beer and cigarettes. The two become comrades though not quite friends. For no discernible reason, they begin fist fighting behind a bar and enjoy it. Over time, others watch, join in, and implausibly a secret society of fist fighters emerges, eventually with franchises nationwide and globally. There is no betting, just fighting, for no reason other than sport. There is lots of blood, broken teeth, gashed heads, broken bones and so on. It is excellent filmwork, both directing and photography, but who wants to see those gruesome scenes? Not me. I don’t even like boxing. But the movie does succeed in creating an alternate world, reminiscent of what Gibson did with Neuromancer. The storyline morphs implausibly again at least three more times, with a surprise ending that, as in Memento which came out one year later, makes you re-think what you have already seen. The acting is compulsively watchable by all three of the stars, but the story is so detached from reality that you have to seriously suspend your disbelief. The last scene, of New York skyscrapers collapsing to the ground from explosives, is eerie. I give the movie an A because of the acting, photography, and especially because the writing is totally fresh and original (from a novel by Chuck Palahniuk). But the story lacks overall continuity, so it cannot be taken seriously, and one’s attention is drawn away from the characters to the writer’s ingenuity, which is not a good thing. Still, it is an important movie and I’m glad I saw it.

Shadowboxer: Grade C

C

Shadowboxer (2005)

Cuba Gooding Jr. Helen Mirren. Directore Lee Daniels

Gooding and Mirren play assassins for hire in New York. They are also lovers, even though, or perhaps because, she shot his father when he was a boy. In one group assassination she spares the life of a pregnant woman. They kidnap her, take care of her, and raise the boy. The motivation for all this, from a couple of hard boiled killers is unclear, but they continue in the assassination game anyway. Mirren dies, Gooding becomes the (white) boy’s defacto father. Inevitably, the boy’s psychopathic bio father finds them and there is a showdown. It’s not much of a thriller, just a set of scenes. There didn’t seem to be anything at stake. The violence was hard to take at times (I don’t find any excuse for depicting torture), and the nudity and sexuality were lacking in aesthetics. It’s not a pretty picture to watch, a dark movie with murky character motivation and no particular message to deliver. Mirren and Gooding give performances worth seeing, and although I enjoyed the aggressively non-stereotypical casting, it might have been just too weird.

Neil Young: Heart of Gold: Grade D

D

Neil Young: Heart of Gold (2006)

Neil Young. Director Jonathan Demme

I confess I am not a Neil Young groupie. I like his distinctive sound; loved him in CSNY, and I respect his musical sophistication. But this movie, a documentation of two concerts he gave in Nashville, is just unbearable. It is obviously designed for hardcore fans who have romanticized the man. I am not that interested in the man, only the music, and it turns out, most of the music is not to my liking. I can’t say why. There are some fine moments, such as Harvest Moon and Heart of Gold, and whatever he sang during the closing credits- that was excellent. The support groups appearing with him are first rate. Almost anyone could sound good with that kind of support. But for some reason, this film just seemed like self-indulgent, maudlin nostalgia. And he can’t hit the notes any more, either. I was mesmerized by his recent, obscure film, Greendale, so I know he still has the magic. But Heart of Gold just didn’t work for me. Sorry, fans.

All the King's Men: Grade B

B

All the King’s Men (2006)

Sean Penn, Jude Law, Kate Winslet, James Gandolfini, Mark Ruffalo, Patricia Clarkson, Anthony Hopkins

Director: Steven Zaillian

This story, based on the life of Huey Long, Louisiana’s famous politician of the 1930’s, is of a rural politician rising to become governor on a platform of overcoming corruption and providing services for the poor. He does all that but not without becoming corrupt himself. Unfortunately the story is so fragmented, it is impossible to understand the characters’ motivations or really, what the heck is going on. It’s even worse if you don’t know anything about Huey Long. Maybe the editors killed the narrative. However, Sean Penn delivers a fantastic performance and the movie is well worth seeing just for him. Jude Law does a good job but does not handle the Southern accent well. Anthony Hopkins shines brightly as ever. The photography is compelling, walking a line between modernist and 1930’s b&w. Very creative and very good looking. The sound engineering is appalling on the DVD. I cranked the treble up to max and the bass down to 0 and still had a hard time hearing the muddy sound track. Inexcusable. See it for Penn’s great acting.

Little Miss Sunshine: Grade A

A
Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

Abigail Breslin, Greg Kinnear, Alan Arkin, Toni Colette, Steve Carell. Directors: Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris.

A struggling middle class family in Albuquerque take their 8 year old girl (Abigail Breslin) to California to compete in a talent contest. They all pile in the 70’s era Volkswagen microbus and start a road trip. There is the self-obsessed dad (Kinnear) who is a would-be writer of a motivational book, put-upon mom, sullen teenager, suicidal brother in law (Steve Carell), and Alan Arkin as the crusty old Grandfather. On the road, they eat in a diner, they get stopped by police, the clutch goes out on the car, Grandpa dies, and the horn sticks on the car, letting the directors brilliantly use the nasal, whiney, intermittent sound as an emotional highlight to the drama. The dialog is perfect, photography and sets exceptional, and the acting is enjoyably convincing. What makes this movie more than just a heartwarming family-on-a-road trip comedy is the scathing satire of beauty/talent contests for young girls. The ending brilliantly, wittily and deservedly scorches that pernicious world, raising a good, low-budget film up to a great film.

The Devil Wears Prada: Grade B

B
The Devil Wears Prada (2006)

Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Stanley Tucci, Emily Blunt. Director: David Frankel.

Recent college grad (Anne Hathaway) lands a job with a high-dollar NYC fashion magazine headed by totalitarian editor Meryl Streep. Hathaway wears frumpy sweaters and shapeless wool skirts, unaware of fashion and unimpressed by it. She is an assistant to Streep, with Blunt, who is high strung, high fashion, competitive, and wittily nasty in a Mean Girls way. Tucci is some kind of executive for Streep. Over various “crises” in the business, Streep comes to trust Hathaway, Blunt falls ill and Hathaway takes her place and eventually becomes fashion and fashion-industry aware, to the dismay of her increasingly alienated, impoverished boyfriend. Her cliché epiphany is what you would expect. The excellent humor is in ridicule of Hathaway, "fat" jokes, and parody of the fashion industry, an easy target skewered better by Altman in Prête a Porter. But the story is really only a series of clichés stitched together, its lack of inventiveness degenerating into repetitive, predictable scenes of dashing about NYC against manufactured, trivial deadlines. However, the acting of Streep and Tucci save the movie from all other ills. Hathaway is likeable but her big teeth don’t compensate for a thin performance. Funny, highly watchable, and there is one good speech by Streep that almost justifies the artificial fashion world, but overall the movie is just silly fluff.

Canadian Bacon: Grade A

A

Canadian Bacon

John Candy, Alan Alda, Rhea Perlman, Kevin Pollack, Rip Torn. Writer, Producer, Director= Michael Moore.

This is an old DVD (1995) but I only just discovered it. A U.S. president with sinking poll numbers (Alda) manufactures a new “cold war” with Canada to boost his stature. Candy is a patriotic Niagra Falls Sheriff who takes his team into enemy territory for sabotage (littering a beach- Canadians hate that). The movie is filled with satirical jokes about Canadian and American stereotypes and Americans’ shameful ignorance of Canada. It is laugh a minute enjoyment. It has the pace and form of a Leslie Nielsen comedy, with some allusions to Dr. Strangelove, with an overarching political theme. In an article in The Nation, Moore said he was appalled when GW Bush manufactured an “axis of evil,” sold it to the people, then started military actions. Events since then make the movie’s ridicule of American foreign policy look prescient. Moore also noted in his article that distributor Polygram (owned by Dutch company, Phillips) thought the movie was “too political” and released it only to a few dozen theaters then put out only a handful of DVDs, so the movie would not get seen. However, it has become popular by word of mouth, for good reason. Wag the Dog, which came two years later, told the same story without humor, and enjoyed wide theatrical release, so maybe there is more to the Polygram incident than Moore reveals.

Archangel: Grade B

B

Archangel

Daniel Craig, Yekaterina Rednikov. Dir=Jon Jones.

An American history professor, DC, gives a lecture in Moscow about Stalin’s pathological genocides. An old man on the street tips him off to the existence of Stalin’s hidden personal diary. DC dashes all over Russia in the winter without a proper coat or gloves, money or visa, evading secret police at every turn to find the diary, which reveals that Stalin had a son. Even more police pursue in helicopters, humvees and SWAT team convoys, but he locates Joe Jr, who is grown, looks like the old man, and plans to re-establish a Stalinist totalitarian regime. The sudden and predictable ending does not address the interesting theme of whether Russia today wants, needs, or is, in fact, a totalitarian regime. The plot, like that of the Davinci Code, assumes we care if The Man had offspring, but ignores the question of what that would mean for contemporary society. Also like The Code, the story moves from one incident to another at random, plot rather than character driven, so it gets cartoony after a half hour of its 2 hour length. It looks like it was shot in Russia and the Zhivago-esque scenery and sets are impressive, although the music falls short. DC and especially YR give competent performances, but the film is supposed to be a head trip and a kinetic thriller, not an artistic display. As such, it is engaging, though not ultimately satisfying.

Scoop: Grade B

B

Scoop

Scarlett Johansson, Hugh Jackman, Woody Allen. Written and directed by Woody Allen

Scarlett plays a U.S. college newspaper reporter out to interview aristocrat Hugh Jackman in London. At Woody Allen’s vaudeville magic show, she is “having her molecules disassembled” when a spirit appears to her to say that Jackman is actually the Tarot card killer, a Jack-the-ripper type. She and Woody set out to penetrate the aristocratic life to get the goods on Jackman. It is a completely silly movie, with a steady stream of laugh out loud Woody Allen jokes. I loved the Bergman visual allusion in the beginning. Terrible acting, especially by Scarlett. Could she have been directed that way, to emphasize the comic theme? She looks good though. The story, pace and tempo are like a mix of last year’s Match Point and an older picture, Curse of the Jade Dragon. This is recycled Woody Allen for sure, but the man is funny. I hope he lives forever.

An Inconvenient Truth: Grade A

A

An Inconvenient Truth

Al Gore. Director=Davis Guggenheim; Editors: Jay Lash Cassidy & Dan Swietlik

Former vice president Al Gore gives a slide show with evidence for global warming, its consequences, and a call to action. It is a montage of lecture events; he says he’s given the talk thousands of times all over the world. There’s nothing new here for someone who is up to date on science, but the presentation is masterful. The centerpiece is a chart of atmospheric CO₂ levels for the last 6,000 years (derived from ice cores) compared to atmospheric temperature. The two curves track each other precisely and rise exponentially, dramatically, unbelievably, almost straight up, since the industrial revolution. Stills and movie clips show polar ice sheets melting, and NYC being flooded by rising sea levels. There are also some clips of Gore’s autobiography, possibly to answer the question of why he should be the messenger, but also possibly because he is running for president in ’08. Politicians never miss a chance for self-aggrandizement. But I was convinced on both counts. He is a legitimate messenger and focused on this issue as a good candidate should be.

The film is extremely well-edited, saving Gore from himself. Whenever he speaks more than two sentences with the camera on him, he is boring as dirt. He can’t help it. He goes all stentorian, stating the obvious. The editors only let that happen a couple of times. As for the call to action, it is missing. The thrust of the movie is to demolish global warming skeptics, which it does, but as for what we can do about it, nothing is said. Maybe we are supposed to elect him to find out what the plan is.