Movies (Not Naruse)

It is true that I promised (myself mainly) to post weekly reviews, Sunday nights - this is a bit late. Naruse, of course. Anyway, here we are - capsules... a pretty good week for it, really - I don't know what the star ratings mean, really - all three films were very enjoyable and thought provoking.... Anyway, here you go...

History of Violence **1/2 - I am not a big Cronenburg fan, but I had high hopes for this. Everyone loves it, right? All the reviews and comments I've seen have been gushing. I am not sure. I don't mean that it is a bad film, or even not a good one - but it seems to be freighted with a lot of intellectual and political baggage, and I don't think it's quite deserving of it. It's a well made film - efficient and subtle, it is easy to admire the skill in its making. But what is it: the story is standard issue gangster material, given a little bit of bite by coming at it from a somewhat unusual angle. But that angle - the peaceful, small town utopia the family lives in at the beginning of the film - is itself perfectly recognizable from the movies. It's David Lynch lite - every bit as ironic, but without the underlying sense that these people (however deluded the may be) are, first, real, at least in their universe, and second, deserving of our love. The opening section is all set up - then the plot kicks in - and then, Cronenburg keeps coming back to the family as if it were some kind of alternative to the gangster plot - as if it were connected to the "real" world. It's not. The film almost works as an exercise in metafiction - a character from a TV dramady about a small town suddenly finds himself in a mafia movie - someone keeps flipping channels on him. But it's being read as more than that (or different than that) - as being about the real world in a more direct way than that.... Now - complaining aside, it is the kind of film I'm likely to change my mind about: solid genre work mixed with first rate filmmaking - like a Clint Eastwood movie, only a bit more pretentious. Give it a couple views and - maybe... But right now? And while it was playing? It reminded me of a few too many Japanese gangster films, where someone always seems to be in the same fix this guy is in - and which, almost as explicitly as this one, use gangsters to critique (mock) conventional society. I kept thinking, I wish Takashi Miike were directing this. Of course I feel that way a lot, but that's another story.

The Corpse Bride ***1/2 - beautiful, moving, funny - a Johnny Depp lookalike is about to marry ad Emily Watson character, but gets pulled into the underworld by Helena Bonham Carter, who is dead, but willing... things have to work themselves out - and do so with remarkable grace and sympathy. I think this and the Nightmare Before Christmas probably are the best things Tim Burton has ever done. The stop motion animation fits his breed of wistful strange menace just right - it's haunting, nostalgic, obsessive, and moves with the impurity of dreams. I love those films. Of course, I love old Rankin/Bass shows - Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer - Santa Claus is Coming to Town - but Burton adds a level of artistry to the animation and sets... great stuff.

Good Night and Good Luck *** - George Clooney and David Strathairn take on the media. Strathairn plays Edward R. Murrow, (also Wikipedia) taking on Joe McCarthy - a fine, controlled performance. Handsome looking film, black and white, with a clean, efficient script, and political seriousness. And Joe McCarthy himself, overacting outrageously...