Movie Review- Che Parts 1 and 2

I have an interest in Che Guevara and his life. I had seen The Motorcycle Diaries when it had come out in the theaters and then eventually bought the movie. So when I heard that Steven Soderbergh was directing a film about Che starring Benicio Del Toro, I was intrigued. I become more intrigued when I heard it was going to be a four hour long epic. I then heard that they were going to split the film into two parts, but I wanted to see it in the original four hour long epic. This was not possible for me. I could not find it playing in the full length film, but I was able to find it in Milwaukee where it was playing in two parts. I was able to schedule it where I was able to see the films back-to-back with a small break in between the two films. The first film is about the Cuban Revolution and Che's part in organizing the revolution along with Castro. Che is portrayed as a man trying to lead a peasant revolution. He insists that his men respect the peasants that they meet. At one point, some of his men leave the revolutionary's camp and they rape a farmers daughter and take all of the farmers produce. When Che and his men eventually catch up with the wayward soldiers, the wayward soldiers are killed for disgracing the revolutionary cause. So, Che is not shown as a man who is not willing to kill his own troops or the government troops, but he still has some principles that he is fighting for. He feels that the only way to overthrow the Batista government is by violence. In the second film, we follow Che in Bolivia when he again tries to create a peasant revolution, but this time he fails. We see the failed attempts to convince the rural peasants that Che is trying to help them and the influence of the Bolivian government in working against Che. We also see the beginning of several foreign Marxist groups in working with Che and the mistrust that these foreigners and even the fact that Che is not Bolivian born creates within the Bolivian people. The film ends with Che's death by government officials in the Bolivian highlands.

I really liked both films. I had read that the first part of the film was better than the second part. I would sort of agree as seeing success is usually more interesting than watching failure. Also, the facts of the Cuban revolution are better known than the attempted Bolivian revolution, so Soderbergh was able to use some base knowledge and add upon that. But as I watched the films, both of them, I kept thinking that Che is such and icon and symbol that there is no unbiased way to make a movie about him. These films are very sympathetic toward him, he is not totally nonviolent, but his violence is supposed to be directed by principles. In this way, Che is a sympathetic character in these films, but if Che were portrayed as a violent asshole with no principles again this would show a biased. It seems to me that the truth is somewhere in between these two extremes. Che was both a violent asshole and a man who was trying to lead a revolution that he thought would benefit the poorer peoples of the countries he was leading revolutions within. I would recommend the first film definitely and would only slightly less recommend the second film if you wanted to learn more about Che and his demise, but seeing them together seems to not be crucial. On a side note, I am not sure I would want to try to see another two part film like this where I was sitting in a theater for a long time unless it was a really special set of films.

Movie Review in 10 words or less

Coraline. 3-D. creepy. cool. fun. not for kids.

Movie Review- Four Christmases

Four Christmases is a movie about a couple, Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn, who intend to go to Fiji for Christmas and avoid their families. They lie to their respective parents, but are caught in their lie when their airplane is not able to take off due to weather. They are interviewed by the local news and hence are found out by their parents that they lied about their Christmas plans. They then have to visit the parents, her mom, her dad, his mom and his dad. Hilarity ensues. Ok so it might not have been hilarious, but it was funny and there were some hilarious bits. Witherspoon and Vaughn actually do seem to have some chemistry. Their acting styles, or at least as I see it, were reflected well in their characters. Vaughn is a bit of an obnoxious goof where Witherspoon is a bit more subtle and mature in her character. They are surrounded by several great supporting actors in Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek, Jon Voigt, and Mary Steenburgen as the parents and Jon Favreau as one of the brothers of Vince Vaughn's character. I also have to add that the other brother of Vaughn's character and the love interest of Reese Witherspoon's character as two country music stars who I would have never guessed were in the film. They were so well made up and looked so unlike themselves that I didn't even know they were in the film and was surprised when I just saw that they played the parts they did. Overall, this is a dumb, but enjoyable movie. GG and I recognized elements of our own families in each of the scenarios and I would venture that most other people would recognize either themselves, their family or people they know as well in each of the families.

Movie Review- Towelhead

NOTE: When I looked this film up on IMDB.com. the title for it was Nothing is Private which may be a better title for the movie than Towelhead, but Towelhead is what the film is currently being shown in theaters as.

Towelhead is the story of a young women, Jasira, whose mother is White and father is Lebanese. At the beginning of the film, Jasira is living with her mother and her mother's boyfriend until the mother walks into the bathroom to find her boyfriend shaving her daughter's pubic area. The mother then realizes that Jasira should not be living in the same house as the mother's boyfriend and sends Jasira to live with her father in Houston. It seems unclear how long her parents have been divorced, but Jasira knows her father pretty well, but has not lived with him for many years. She is now living with her father in a brand new house in the 'burbs where two houses down live a White family with a young boy. The family comes to welcome Jasira and her dad to the neighborhood and are taken aback by the fact that their neighborhood has been invaded by Arabs. The father is in the National Guard and is about to be sent to Iraq in the first Gulf War under George Bush the First. The father played by Aaron Eckhart, is a stereotypical military Southern man with his blatant xenophobia and racism. He also is very creepy in the amount of attention he pays to Jasira. There are other neighbors that appear about midway through the film are played by Toni Collette and Matt Letscher who are a married couple just returned from the Middle East where they were Peace Corps workers. They also realize that Jasira may need some adult guidance and become involved in helping her to mature as much as they can.

The film follows Jasira and her developing sexuality as she has many different sexual experiences occur to her and the experiences that she initiates. As Jasira's sexuality and maturity are developing she is surrounded by an unstable environment with adults who are very immature and abusive toward her. She experiences physical and emotional abuse from her father and sexual abuse by another character in the film. She is also trying to figure out where her boundaries are sexually and struggling with hormones that are raging. Since the film focuses on the sex and sexual development of a 13 or 14 year old girl, it is very disturbing and cringe worthy at times. But these cringe worthy moments are what makes this film so strong. It is the struggles of the audience especially as adults who can see where the mistakes are being made and the problems when a child is maturing with few stable adult figures in their lives to help them to navigate through the hormonal rushes of the onset of puberty.

I saw this film with GG, of course, but there was no one else in the theater when we saw it. We were not sure why we were the only ones there. It was the opening weekend for the film and I didn't expect the theater to be packed, but I did think more people might be interested in the film. Aaron Eckhart, Maria Bello, and Toni Collette all have large parts in the film which I would have thought would have had drawn some people to the film. But I would recommend this film if you are willing to cringe at a film, but like Todd Soldonz, who did not direct Towelheads, films the film feels real because of the cringes not in spite of those moments.

Movie Review- God Grew Tired of Us

God Grew Tired of Us is the story of three men who were part of the Lost boys of Sudan. The Lost Boys of Sudan area group of over 27,000 men who were driven out of southern Sudan in 1987 due to civil war. After many years as refugees, approximately 3800 of them were given the opportunity to come to the U.S. to have new opportunities. This film profiles three of the men, but in talking about these three men it is a great case study all of those who cam to the U.S. The film begins with some history on the Lost Boys and their having to travel, first to Ethiopia and then later to Kenya where they had been living for about 10 years when they left for the U.S. We see some of the refugee camp life and the ways in which this large band of peoples, mostly male have become a large family as they have struggled to survive. The movie then goes on to show the mixed emotions that the men who get to leave are feeling, sadness in having to leave their home and their family, but also excitement to begin something new and maybe not have to starve and struggle for food as much. The rest of the film, about an hour, shows the adjustment of the men to the U.S. from learning about running water and electricity to having to get a job or go to college. We experience the joys and struggles of these men as they adjust to a life that is so different than what they were used to. We also get to see toward the end of the film one of the boys reunited with his mother who he had not seen in seventeen years.

The film is incredibly powerful in he range of emotions you go through, watching them at the supermarket right after they have come to the U.S. is really funny and also interesting. The struggles they have as they adjust to living in much more isolating conditions for them. As one of the men comment at one point that he was so used to living with a lot of people that the three other Sudanese who are living with him are not enough. Many of them discuss the importance of family and community relationships. They struggle with the ways in which they feel isolated from each other as they have to work two and three jobs at times, thus giving them no time to socialize with each other. They also comment on how unfriendly Americans are and how they seem to be more isolated from each other than the Sudanese or at least in the refugee camps they were used to. The ending where one of the individuals is now reunited with his mom is very powerful along with one of the other men going back to Africa to marry and then return with his bride. There are times at which this is a hard film to watch, but it is also a film that needs to be shown in schools so that children can realize how truly lucky they are to live here in the U.S.

Movie Review- Wanted

I saw Wanted last night with GG. As she commented it was our first date like thing that we had done except for dinners, of course, which was very cool for us. Wanted is the story of a man who is stuck in an office job that he hates and a life that he is dissatisfied with and one day discovers that his father, that he never knew, was an assassin for a secret organization. This is obviously a high action film with plot holes, events that defy logic and physics and much violence. It is a film in the post-Matrix era where special effects are paramount and amazing at times. The film also hearkens back to some Greek and Norse mythology which from looking on imdb.com, some people are not getting at all. It is a popcorn flick, not a movie that requires a lot of thought, but one that is very enjoyable.

Timur Bekmambetov directed this film. Bekmambetov also directed Night Watch and Day Watch, two films that I really really like. If you have seen either in the Night Watch/Day Watch series this film is very reminiscent of those films. The secret organization was formed a thousand years ago and was developed to fight evil. There are also nods at mythology as I have mentioned and as with the really great subtitles in Night Watch, demonstrate at times, he has objects that have words on them as a way of reinforcing or adding to the effect. One of the best examples of this from Wanted is that toward the beginning of the movie, Wes Gibson, the protagonist, played by James McAvoy hits someone with a key board and as the pieces of the keyboard are flying around at one point the words Fuck You are spelled out by keys from the key board and a tooth. I found the film to be really interesting and engaging. Yes, there are plot holes and jumps in logic at times and yes it does remind me, at times, of other films like Night Watch, Day Watch, and The Matrix, but it is an action film. I don't go to see those to really have to think a lot or to expect to see an entirely new concept. As has been said before, there are only so many good ideas in the world and they have all been used by now.

If you like action films and the films of Bekmambetov, I would recommend this film. If you have never seen Night Watch of Day Watch, I even more highly recommend you see those films.

Movie Review-Lars and the Real Girl

Lars and the Real Girl is the touching story of a man who falls in love with a love doll. It is difficult to do too much of a synopsis of this film as you either give too much away or you make it sound frivolous and in many ways kind of perverted, which it isn't. The film is portrayed as a oddball comedy which it is for the most part. It is also a story of a man and his trying to overcome his own insecurities and social anxiety and a film about one community coming together to help him. So I will just use the description I have, it is about a man who falls in love with a love doll and then tell you to just rent it and know that there is so much more to this film.

The acting by Ryan Gosling, who plays Lars, is amazing. He has to be able to convince us as an audience that he has this social anxiety and then as the movie progresses he has to interact with an inanimate object as though she were real. You feel for him and his attempts at normality in a very difficult life. The rest of the cast is amazing as well. It is hard to single out his brother, sister in law, the doctor who helps him and a whole town of people that allow him to feel normal and that encourage him to find ways to become more active in the community. After watching the extras for this film, I appreciated it even more as each of the actors and the director and writer talked about how it was a team effort to make this film and yet the script was not altered very much. This is a film about love and about how important human connections are. We all need connections in our lives and this is just one film's way of showing these connections.

Movie Review-Quinceanera

Quinceanera is the story of a young Latina and her quinceanera. The quinceanera is the celebration of a girl's 15th birthday within several different Latino cultures. It is a celebration of a girl becoming a women, in many ways it reminds me of a Bar/ Bat Mitzvah for Jewish children although the age of 15 does seem to make more sense than 13 for us Jews. The story surrounds the impending quinceanera of Magdalena. In addition to the up coming life cycle event, Magdalena is also pregnant, which she does not know for much of the time, but does have a huge impact on the film and her life. When her father finds out Magdalena is pregnant, he kicks her out of the house and she goes to live with her 85 year-old uncle where she joins her cousin who has been kicked out of his parents house. The story now follows Magdalena and her uncle and cousin in their house and her struggles with being a 14 year-old teenage mother. There are never any question of abortion or of adoption, it is taken for granted that she will have the child. The father of the baby is willing to be there and does seem to love Magdalena, but when his parents find out that he is the father to Magdalena's child, he is sent away to live with other relatives as he is supposed to have a future.

The movie is very well written and directed. Emily Rios who plays Magalena does a superb job as a 14 year old who is struggling with pregnancy and her father and also wanting to be able to not have this baby stop her from accomplishing her dreams. The film switches back and forth constantly throughout the film between subtitled Spanish and English, which took me a few times to get used to. I have been around children who are bilingual and watched them switch back and forth quickly between languages, but having to read subtitles and then not having subtitles as the characters were speaking English took some switching in the brain. The film does a wonderful job of giving an insight into the culture of this family and the evolving culture of the Latino Americans who now live here. We see a tradition that was at one time much more religious turned into a giant party where some of the tradition and religion have begun to fade away, another similarity between the Bar Mitzvah and the Quinceanera. This film echos real life in that even at the end, things are not tied up. We are not sure what is to happen with the baby and life will still continue on after movie is over. There is no total conclusion to the film, but this episode of the Quinceanera in Magdalena's life has now been concluded. This is a wonderful film that is both funny and dramatic at the same time without being overly dismissive of the Latino culture and yet not overly sappy either. There is no violence, not much swearing and no sex in this film, so don't be scared off by the "R" rating. There are a few short scenes of one character smoking marijuana and some brief and really general discussion of sex, but nothing that deserves an "R" rating in my opinion.

Movie Review- Night Watch

Nochny dozor (The night watch) is a brilliant film. I first heard of the film in a comment thread over at Sir Robin's place, I think, when he and Gourmet Goddess were discussing it. At that point, I am not sure how much GG and I were taking, but it sounded interesting so I put it in my queue. I finally decided it was time to watch it. Now I have kind of a hard time discussing this film as it is part of a trilogy of films, so it is kind of hard to discuss one film without the others. But I have no yet seen the second one and the third film does not come out for another year according to IMDB. So I figured I would just talk about this one and the next one when I see it, hopefully this weekend.

The film is set in Russia and surrounds the mythology of good versus evil or the Light versus the Dark in this film. There is a truce between LIght and Dark, where they coexist until the final battle is to commence sometime in the future and it seems as though this is the future and the battle is about to start. The effects are awesome and the action is also incredible. On the DVD I had, there was a dubbed in English version with the Russian version on the flip side. I, of course, went with the Russian version with the subtitles because dubbed movies bother me so much. So, I was even amazed at the subtitles. They are not just words across the bottom of the screen, they fade in and out at times, they are red at times to represent blood and they vanish at times like smoke. Yes, this is a really minor thing and is easily done with computers, hell it is similar to PowerPoint, but it does also add to the movies when even the subtitles are part of the action. This is such a great film and blew my mind. I cannot remember a film that I liked quite as much and that blew my mind quite as much.

Movie Review- Funny Games

Funny Games has a very simple plot, it is the story of a middle-class family who are held hostage and tortured by two young men. Yep, that is whole plot, it is complex in its simplicity. As you watch the film, you kind of know how it will end and you can predict much of the action, but that is not the point of this film. This film, according to the director, is about the portrayal of violence in the media. We watch a family get tortured and yet we never actually see them shot, stabbed or hit with a golf club and yet all of these things happen. We hear their screams and we see the after affects of the violence, but the actual violence is not on screen. As an audience we are also accomplices in this violence, because we never see the actual violence, we cannot act purely as voyeur. We are like the husband or wife when the other is being tortured, we are there and we hear what is happening, but of course we do not actually want to see the violence. We do not want to watch our significant other get stabbed. We are also implicated in the movie as one of the actors, throughout the movie, looks directly into the camera and talks to us in the audience. We are asked our opinion on the violence, at one point he even asks us if it has been enough and in anticipation of our reply, he answers, "We're not up to feature film length yet. You want a real ending with plausible plot development." We are not able to see this film as merely a movie, it is more about us and our perceptions of the acceptability of violence in the media, or at least that is how I saw it. So, do I recommend this film? Yes and no, I think it is an incredibly powerful film and the direction, acting and writing are outstanding, but it is also not for the faint of heart. This is not what has now become called horror porn, where we are watching gore for the sake of gore, we are watching a film about violence with no reason at all.

As an additional note, there are two versions of this film. The original, which is the one I just saw, from 1997 and is in Austrian and the new American version. The American version is supposed to be a shot-by-shot remake of the original and from the trailer I found, it appears to be very much the same film, but with different actors and in English. The director is also the same for both versions, Michael Haneke. Even the lake house where the action takes place appears to be the same set. I am curious to see the American version because Naomi Watts, Tim Roth and Michael Pitt are in it, but I am not sure as it is the same movie, if it will be as powerful the second time as it is the first time.

Movie Review Roundup

Bug is an incredibly interesting film about paranoia and what it does to people. I am still not sure what I think about this film over all. The film is based upon an off-broadway play by the same name that was written by Tracy Letts who also wrote the screenplay for this movie. The entire film takes place, basically, in a hotel room. Ashley Judd plays Agnes, an emotionally scarred and battered women. Harry Connick, Jr. plays her abusive ex-husband who has recently gotten out of jail and is still emotionally and physically abusing her throughout the movie. Finally, Michael Shannon plays Peter, a paranoid schizophrenic, who meets and eventually befriends Agnes. Most of the movie the only two people shown are Agnes and Peter. We see Agnes descend along with Peter into his paranoia of the invasion of bugs into his body and their hotel room. This is an amazing performance by both actors. I was amazed at how believable both Judd and Shannon are as two people who at first glance appear to be stable individuals and even ones who are creating a realtionship which will help both of them. We then watch them fall apart both physically and mentally and descend into a destructive spiral that consumes both of them. Harry Connick, Jr. performance as the abusive boyfriend is also amazing. He is not on the screen that much, but he does help to feed much of Agnes's paranoia and when he is on the screen, he is an intense and overpowering man. Although, we only see him hit Agnes once, we see that he still has much of an emotional hold on her. This is an awesome film about paranoia and two people's descent into their own private hell.




But I'm a Cheerleader is a 180 degree change from Bug. This film is a comedy about a young girl, Meagan played by Natasha Lyonne, whose parents think she is a lesbian so they send her to a "deprogramming" camp to get rid of her homosexual tendencies. Cathy Moriarty plays the camp director along with an out-of-drag RuPaul Charles as her male counterpart that helps the gay boys to get over their tendencies. This film is hilarious and makes me wonder if these deprogramming camps really do seem this incompetent. I am sure the real thing is much more religiously based and the whole Jesus can heal me thing, which in the movie is missing, thanks be to the Spaghetti Monster. But it does seem to be slightly contrary to take a bunch of hormonal homosexual teens and then put them into a same-sex camp bunk with no real supervision. I am sure this is totally opposite of what happens in real life, but in the movie this creates very funny consequences. There are also some great scenes of perpetuating the gender stereotypes like all the girls are taught to do is clean, while the boys are taught football, to chop wood and to work on cars. Sure the characters are all a bit stereotypically gay, but that is part of the whole cheesy appeal of this movie. There is also some great cameos by Richard Moll and Wesley Mann as a gay couple who are trying to provide the teens as an alternative to the deprogramming, basically being themselves and accepting their own sexuality. This is another of those really funny movies that I am not sure everyone has seen and yet, I think everyone should see, yes even those fundamentalists. May be they would realize that their delusions of trying to change a person are stupid and we should learn to just accept ourselves and those around us for the person they are.

Movie Reviews- Chalk/Brick

The past two weekends I have two different films that both are set in high schools. First, Chalk is a mockumentary about four different teachers in a high school. All three are shown as humans warts and all. We see the struggles these three teachers go through and we see the successes they expereince. One of the teachers is a brand new teacher who has just come from the business field in a midlife career change. he struggles with adjusting to teaching in a school and connecting with the kids. The next one is in his third or so year of teaching and is working on trying to get teacher of the year. He sees this as a validation of his work and how hard he works with the kids. He is obsessed with this desire and even lets it interfere with teaching. The third teacher is a phys. ed. teacher who seems to have been teaching for a while and seems to care for the students she is working with, but also is a stickler for the rules and so comes into conflict with other teachers at the administration over her wanting to have everyone obey the rules exactly as they are written. The fourth educator is a women who was the chorus director and has now been promoted to an assistant principal. She struggles with balanacing the administrative work with her personal life and being split between having been a teacher and established relationship with the faculty that now have to change since she is now in the administration. Overall, the film was really well written and acted. Both of the writers for the film had been educators so they did a great job of showing what the typical year looks like for most high school teachers. As we tend to see in the media how much our eduction is failing our children and how it seems to be the teachers fault, this film shows us that teachers are humans too and they have to struggle to educate our children. The extras are also hilarious, especially the PSA announcements.

Brick is a noir film set in a modern high school. Although, I have not seen that many noir films except Chinatown and the occasional snippet from movies on AMC that I have seen with my grandparents, Brick seems to have all of the elements. It has interesting background music that sets the mood, the detective who is neither entirely good nor entirely bad, underworld characters and the femme fatale. The film surround the murder of a girl who was the ex-girlfriend of the detective. In this case the detective is played by a high school student who wants to know what happened to his ex-girlfriend. As we watch him try to figure out who is who in this complicated web of the underworld of high school, we are given many false leads and dead ends. Although, if you understand the typical plot for a noir film, it is not hard to figure out what happened, it is interesting to see who did what and to take the ride to figure out why the murder took place. This film takes an old genre of film and renews it. The noir film genre is given new life by Brick which now makes me want to go bck and watch the old noir films of the 1930s and 1940s.

I recommend both of these films but for different reasons. Chalk gives a great insight into the field of teaching and what teachers have to go through on a daily and yearly basis. Brick is a great noir film with new twists on this old genre.

Movie Review- Heavenly Creatures

Heavenly Creatures is the story of two girls in New Zealand between the years of 1953-1954 and the friendship and ultimately tragedy that surrounds this friendship. Pauline and Juliete become friends at a girls school in Christchurch, New Zealand where they bond over a fantasy story they create together in their minds. This fantasy story becomes very real to them so much so that they begin to call each other by the names of characters in their "novel". We also see scenes where they imagine their world exists with them in it. These scenes are amazing as they are a combination of the two actresses and these clay figurines that they have made that are now life size. Both of the girls are trying to use this story as a means to escape their own lives and the tragedy that they see their lives becoming. The girls become very attached and this attachment leads to tragedy and murder as they try to continue their relationship even after both sets of parents are trying to separate the girls. The movie is based upon a true story and the characters and diary entries of Pauline.

Heavenly creatures is directed by Peter Jackson who later went on to do the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and again the backdrop of New Zealand is used superbly. Juliete is played by Kate Winslet in what seems to be her first motion picture film. She is incredible as a young women who seems to be cheerful and imaginative and yet is trying to cover her disappointment and frustration with her parents. Melanie Lynskey plays Pauline incredibly as well especially considering that this was her first acting role anywhere. This is an incredible film and so very scary and interesting cause the whole movie is true.

I have to end this review with possibly my favorite exchange in the whole movie and one of my favorite of any movie.

Pauline Parker: Oh, I wish James Mason would do a religious picture! He'd be perfect as Jesus!
Juliet Hulme: Daddy says the Bible's a load of bunkum!
Pauline Parker: But we're all going to heaven?
Juliet Hulme: I'M not! I'M going to The Fourth World... it's sort of like heaven. Only better, because there aren't any Christians!

Quick Movie Reviews

Over the past two weekends I have seen three movies, yeah I know that isn't a lot, but still...



First I saw, Jaws. I was underwhelmed by this film. I had heard how this was a classic horror film, how it was the first great summer blockbuster and yet I wasn't sure it lived up to its hype. I liked the acting in it especially Roy Schneider and Richard Dreyfuss, but overall I thought it was an OK film. I guess it just couldn't live up to the hype that I already had in my head.



Then I saw The Day of the Jackal. This movie I really liked. The twists and turns were great along the way. I loved the whole fact that you know thought you know what was happening th whole way through the movie and the police were able to fill in much of that detail and yet in the end you knew nothing. It was even great as the police were onto the Jackal for much of the story and so it turned into a chase story as well as a story about an assassin. The story was strong and the acting was very good, IMHO.



Finally, this weekend I saw Meet the Robinsons. Yes, it is a family film and I knew that when i got it from Netflix, but every once in a while it is nice to see a family film, something that is not real heavy. This film was pretty good, I like some of the older Disney films like The Jungle Book and Robin Hood and I went to see Aladdin and The Lion King when they were in the theaters, but really lately most of the Disney films have not been very good and have really lacked any enticement for anyone over the age of 10, I would say. This film did a much better job of having a better plot and didn't treat the audience as though they were stupid. In fact, even though I had and I think most thinking adults would have figured out the "big surprise" even before more than half way through the film, it was also told in the movie with a lot more of the film to go and the rest of the film was resolving the issue and not still pretending that no one could figure out the "big surprise". There is also a great scene where you get this whole bad dubbed Asian martial arts film where the dialogue does not match the "actors" lips which is so funny and yet most kids wouldn't get it and yet I would hope most adults would.

So there are three quick reviews of movies I have seen lately.

Movie Review- For your consideration

For your consideration is a Christopher guest film which includes a similar ensemble cast that have appeared in some of his other films like Best in Show, Waiting for Guffman, and A Mighty Wind. It is the story of a small independent film called, Home for Purim, in which Oscar buzz develops around the cast and the film. It shows the ways in which the actors change and the ways in which the film changes before and after the Oscar buzz develops. It has a hugely funny cast, but like many of his other films the humor is subtle and dry at times. There is also a lot of humor that surrounds the fact that this is a "Jewish film" and so there are a lot of Yiddish jokes throughout the films. Although some of the cast is the same as other films like Harry Shearer, Eugene Levy, Jennifer Coolidge, and my personal favorite Fred Willard, there are many new faces to Christopher Guest films and each of them are really sublime. This is a really funny and enjoyable film and if you liked any of his other films, you should check out For Your consideration. But I should say that it is not Guest's best film, so if you have never seen a film by him, check out Best in Show or Waiting for Guffman, which are my personal favorites.

Movie Review- Trembling before G-d

FranIAm has mentioned this film to me several times and each time I think, I need to see that. I think I have seen it before and after watching it, I was right. I had seen it before, but it is such an interesting and well made documentary that I am glad I saw it again. This film looks at individuals who are homosexual while also being very observant Jews. It looks at the prohibition against homosexuality as it is written about in the Torah (Bible) and how this affects individuals who are gay. There are several different people, both male and female who are profiled in this movie. Each of them has their own story and their own demons to face. Each of them also face a different reaction from their family. Many of them are shunned from their community and family, but it seems as though at least one of them has a better relationship with their parents. They all seem to have a partner in their lives that help them to cope with these issues as it seemed most of them were also with very observant Jews. The movie seems to touch upon the same issues that occur in the conservative Christian community surrounding homosexuality and the stigma that is attached. If you have not seen this movie yet, do so as it is very well made and does give some insight into a cross section of individuals we rarely get a chance to learn about, those who are happily gay and also religiously observant.

I find it interesting, though, that the Bible only specifies male homosexuality as wrong, the addition of female homosexuality is added later on in further commentary. This only reflects a patriarchal society where men where valued higher that women and so the sin of a man being with another man seemed more important. I also think that this is at its base a kind of "yuck" factor, men seem to have this kind of aversion to men being with other men. I have been around plenty of men who say they have no problem with homosexuality, but do not want to see two men kiss. This is reflected in the prohibition against male homosexuality in both religious and secular society. But, of course, this same societal pressure is not applied to when two women kiss and in fact women kissing is encouraged. Hell go to a bar, party or other place where college kids or other young adults are socializing and I am willing to bet that you will see two women kissing, mostly because of the encouragement of young men. This sexual experimentation is expected and even desired for girls by men, but it is not socially acceptable for two men to kiss in public. I will point to this case of two football players from the University of Florida where after a big play, one of the players kissed the other on the cheek. There was a huge uproar about it in the national media and you couldn't watch a sports show that week without someone saying something about it. The reaction was not generally positive either, but I bet that if this had happened among women in say the women's World Cup soccer games this summer, there would have been little said about it or it would have been one of those, "heh heh heh see I told you all women were secretly lesbians" type of things that the media and the majority of men love to say.

Now I am not saying that I have any interest in kissing another man, but I also have no issues watching two men who care for each other to share a kiss whether it is on the cheek or on the lips. As for women who kiss, I guess since it was not that big of a deal and was pretty usual when I was in college only a few years ago, my attitude is more of that it is silly most of the time and that it is just another facet of this misogynistic society that we live in.

Movie Review- Mendy

The movie, Mendy: A question of faith, is a look at a young Chasidic Jew who decides to leave his community. It explores the internal conflict within this young man as he has to try and survive in the world outside of his cloistered community. He leaves for reasons that we cannot be totally sure of, but he says many times in the film in defense to his close friend who also left the same community, that he can go back at any time. The film explores this individual and his attempts at figuring out his life and what it means for him.

To start with the cinematography is amazing. It reminds me very much of a documentary film or a television show. It is obviously not a large corporate film house that has done this film, it is an independent film company. According to this site, Mendy's box office gross was $7123. But this lack of finish to the film and the way it is filmed gives it a base in reality, it feels as though this is real. I didn't feel as though I was a work of fiction, it seemed more autobiographical. There are even points at which the use of black and white photography is used to move the story along. Much of the film is also done in Yiddish with some English thrown in as well so you again feel the authenticity of the story and movie.

The story itself is amazing. You get a glimpse into a world that many of us do not know about. But instead of being fully immersed in the community or have the rituals and routines of the community thrust upon you, we see the world of someone who is leaving the community, someone who is looking for something more, something that was not given to him within his community. He is one that could make it there, he could become a Rebbe or a respected person in the community, so it is not that he did not fit in, he fit in well, he just wants more. He is curious about the outside world, the world of sin as he refers to it. But he also is drawn to and feels a apart of the world of the Chasidics, he is still an observant Jew for much of the film. He really struggles with even being around non-Jews. At one point, he asks his friend why he (the friend) would want to live in a world surrounded by non-Jews. Mendy is never really ready to cut his ties completely with his upbringing, it gives him structure and comfort and at times in the movie he struggles when that structure seems to disintegrate. This is a story of metamorphosis and change.

In case you couldn't tell, I really liked this film. I liked the way it was filmed and I liked the story. It seemed honest and fresh to me, it was a story of a person who has to change to find himself. This film is one that seemed to have made the film festival circuit, I would guess especially Jewish film festivals, but it is a shame that films like these do not get more attention. I know that not everyone would want to see it, but as an Indie film, it would seem to have some appeal at least in larger cities. The story is of hope and love and change, and isn't that what all really great films are about at least in part.

There is also an interesting interview in the extras for this film with one of the co-writers of Mendy, Heshe Schnitzler. Heshe was raised in the Satmar Chasidic community of Williamsburg, NY. He was even married at 18 and then left the community at 24 leaving his wife, kids and community behind. He puts some interesting perspective on Mendy and the characters in Mendy. He discusses the realities that are involved in this story and that this is not his story directly, but the story of him, his friends and others that he has heard about people who have left the Chasidic community. The interview is almost as long as that movie at close to an hour, but if after watching the movie you want to know more about "Mendy" and about the way in which this movie was created, it is an incredible interview.

Movie Review- Juno

This a great movie about teen pregnancy. Ellen Page is awesome as Juno, a smart, funny, witty high school student. Micheal Cera, yes that kid from Arrested Development, is great as the baby daddy. After being disappointed with him in Superbad, this was a great role for him. The whole film is a great look at relationships varying from Page and Cera to Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman who play the couple who will adopt Page's child. In addition to Page, Cera, Garner, and Bateman, J.K Simmons and Allison Janney are great as the parents of Juno. Raine Wilson has a great little role at the beginning. So basically the entire cast is amazing. This is a hugely funny movie and one that I recommend to everyone. It kind of reminded me of a Todd Soldonz film, but not quite as messed up. It had that same honesty and reality that seems to be missing from many of the movies that are being made. Sure, Juno is really smart and witty, which may not seem like a typical 16 year old, but she could be a typical 16 year old, many are articulate and are not totally annoying. There is also a maturity that is nice to see as it seems most films treat teens as just interested in sex and drugs and alcohol.

So go see this film. No, you do not need to see it on the big screen, sure you can wait till it comes out on DVD, but if you want to get out of the house and see a good movie for a date night or a family outing, than see this film.

DISCLAIMER: This is not a typical family movie, but would work really well if your kids are older and/or mature enough to handle a movie about teen pregnancy even with the humor it is still about teen pregnancy. It also would be a great jumping off point for the discussion of teen pregnancy the different options available from abortion to adoption to keeping the baby.

Movie Review- The Kite Runner

I had read this book and was interested when they turned it into a movie. I thought it was well done. The film is well directed and acted by all. The boys who play the parts of Amir and Hassan do a good job of demonstrating the undying loyalty that Hassan has for Amir and the lack of understanding of this by Amir. I didn't think that much of the book was taken out of the film as does seem to happen many times when a film is adapted from a book, but I also have not read the book in a while and so I may be mistaken on this account.

I also recommend this film as it is well done and gives an interesting perspective into an area that I did not know a lot about, but I would recommend the book as well and possibly reading the book before watching the movie.

Movie review- Sweeny Todd

That was a large part of why I wanted to see Sweeny Todd, I have a man crush Johnny Depp and I was curious to see how he would do with this role. I also like Tim Burton and thought he could do a good job of making this into a movie. I was not disappointed. I thought Johnny Depp did a good job at the role and even was pretty good for a non-singer in a singing role. I cannot carry a tune in a bucket, so I can't criticize anyone else's singing, but I did think that Helena Bonham Carter may have had a bit of a weaker voice for the role. But overall she was good in the role, although I have read the Angela Lansbury is amazing in the film that was put out in the 1980s with her in the role of Mrs. Lovett. Sacha Baron Cohen was really good at the role of Pirelli as it seemed to fit him well, it was a bit comedic and yet also showed off his ability to really act. Overall a really good movie that I may have to buy when it comes out as I really want to see what extras they will put on the DVD.

If you have not seen it and want a bit of a no-brainer movie with some good enough singing then definitely check this movie out.