Jamie passion and passionfruit!

This attractively filmed movie is about an unattractive subject – the sale of arms and its proliferation all over the world thanks to the unscrupulous types like gunrunner Yuri Orlov (Nicolas Cage) in this film.  It is really frightening how easy and how brazenly successful this business is.  Andrew Niccol gives us a docudrama like exposition of the arms industry that is a fascinating subject.  The movie plays more as a documentary than fiction despite some great set pieces.  Cage is suitably cynical and manic and is ably supported by Jared Leto as his brother who loses it, Bridget Moynahan as the wife and Ethan Hawke as the drug busting policeman.  I found it an easy film to watch but don’t think it was anything that special, despite the obvious care in its filming.

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I came out of this film feeling great.  It radiates peace and love even though the story itself has hardships and misunderstandings.  The story of a Tibetan lama who discovers earthly pleasures and leaves monkhood to live among the people take a wife and have a child and then find himself yearning to return to the peace of the monastery and perhaps the tests there that are rigorous but more predictable.   The dilemma is an interesting one and not a million miles from the one in The devil wears Prada.  But the crew is different.  Director Pan Nalin is Indian and has made this film to be faithful to much of the teachings of Buddha – the story itself has many similarities to Siddharta and the use of Ladakh in the Himalayas as the setting is great.  Shawn Ku, a professional dancer is a good choice as Tashi, Christy Chung is a little Westernised as Pema but carries off her big scenes well, Neelesha BaVora does a nice job as Sujata the visiting nomad worker and temptation and Sherab Sangey as Apo the older monk is fine among a good local cast.  Scenes in the local town also remind us that although it seems like a timeless story and setting – there is a close link to today.  It is just that some people live a simple frugal lifestyle as they have traditionally done.  So, an intelligent attractive film which may be slow moving again and yet is full of things to enjoy.

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Dog Days is the English title of this Austrian film which takes place on a series of hot summer days.  From 2001 Ulrich Seidl it looks at the lives of a number of dull middle class people who engage in their various practices – a number of them having sexual elements – who work and play and try to keep their lives going.  It ends up being very depressing and rather sad as most of them cannot find what they want and grab whatever is going.  It is not without its moments of interest but ultimately it is a film you want to have end.  That is not to say that there is not a lot of authenticity about it.  Seidl comes from documentaries and that is perhaps pretty evident.

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A strange film in the sense that it purports to be a comedy but apart from a few in-jokes and some exaggerations, it really is nothing of the sort.  At least for me.

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Another of the German cathartic pieces designed to assuage the guilt over the second world war.  Sophie is a university student, nurse and member of an underground opposition to the Fuhrer.  She, her brother and a friend are guillotined in record time by a furious court and government who will brook no criticism nor mention of the losses on the Russian front.  This is a theatrical film, lots of dialogues, huis clos and interrogations which starts out being rather dull and drags in the first part and then becomes quite extraordinarily gripping towards the end.  The court scenes are quite unbelievable in their ferocity but were written based on original transcripts.  The overall result then is positive and in your face, while being also restrained at the same time.  Julia Jentsch does a sterling job in the lead role and is ably supported by Alexander Held as the interrogator, Johanna Gastdorf as the fellow prisoner and others.  A good film to add to the recent collection of Downfall and the like.

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A Winter Tan dealt with this topic better about 15 years ago or so.  The topic being older ladies who head for sunny climes to have flings with the handsome young local beach boys.  Then they find it hard to separate love from sex and charity from affection.  Mixed into all this is 70’s Haiti with Papa Doc and the Tonton Macoute.  I have to say that while it is watchable, it doesn’t quite gel.  There are anachronisms in the filming – cars, etc that did not exist then, a rather unclear political subplot and even a superficial treatment of the main theme.  There are nice dialogues though and as the film goes on the great Charlotte Rampling takes hold of the film and makes it all her own with some beautifully understated acting.  The rest of the cast do  a decent job but I expected more from Laurent Cantet who is one of the most thoughtful directors around today.

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A much praised French film that I found rather slow and less than gripping.  Nicholas and Marie come back to visit friends in Paris.  They are in the middle of a break up after fifteen years and the film takes us through this process; the awkward sharing of the hotel room, what to say to friends, the meetings with new people, the doubts, the blame, the silences.  It is a very realistic film in the sense of giving us an accurate portrayal of what happens at these times when life seems sucked out of you, but as a piece of cinema it seems to drift along in a sort of improvisation that ends up sapping our interest.  By the finale I couldn’t really care less about the main characters. Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi is very good again but her Marie is rather wet and Bruno Todeschini is literally in the shadows most of the way.  Interesting camerawork which could alienate some but which effectively conveys the divide.

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This is definitely a film in the realms of agit-prop but in a way it is more than that.  A testament to the abuse of power by the world’s biggest and more influential army and the powerlessness of ordinary people in the face of it.    Michael Winterbottom is the British director who never does the same style twice – even if this has elements of 24-hour Party People.  This time he does a drama documentary recreating the fate of the Tipton three – Pakistani British boys in the East for a wedding who go to Afghanistan and end up being caught and sent to Guantanamo as terrorists.  Over two years later they are released following a failure to find any evidence against them but after being tortured and maltreated and without so much as an apology.  Winterbottom uses interviews with the real survivors, recreates scenes with actors and uses real TV footage of both Afghanistan and Bush to make his point.  As with all his films there may be rough edges, some slack plot moments and in this one a degree of confusion which reflects what was going on at the time.  And yet, there is also a fascination and a sense of measured discovery as we get to see something that purports to show us what the media were muzzled from doing at the time.  This is not a great film but it is an important one and it works.  The acting is fine and as a stone in the wall to balance the propaganda we get from the world’s governments it can only be hailed.

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Legendary (if only for lack of output) director Terrence Malick takes on the Pocohontas story.  This is a visually excellent film as Malick’s films all are, the sound and music (James Horner) are also first class.  It is slow and in an almost documetary style we get to really feel we are in Virginia of 1607 with the textured look that Malick and his crew have created.  Time also stands still and text is sparse giving us the sensation of being in a land that is still part of nature and uncivilised by the world of words.  All of this makes the film special.  Of course, in terms of story the film winds up being less than satisfactory – it sort of peters out in the end and although some interesting dramatic dilemmas emerge, they are, for the most part, unexploited.  I felt in two minds over this.  Yes, the subject matter is safe from a cliched 21^st century Hollywood exploitation and this can only be good, but from the Greeks on we know that the dramatic arts need conflicts, resolution of conflicts  and this is just a little too lethargic in parts.  Colin Farrell does a fair job as Smith.  I found Christian Bale more interesting as Rolfe and Q’orianka Kilcher is a fine Pocahontas.  I saw this on video and would have liked to see it on a huge screen.  All the same it is a good piece of cinema with the reservations I have mentioned above.

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A delightful film which is a sort of road movie about a dysfunctional family and which shows just how comedy can unveil greater truths in a way that is more subtle than say, Transamerica.  The film has lots to say about topics like old age, motivational speakers, children’s beauty contests, marriage, diet and death which all comes out thanks to the wierd and wonderful characters and their adventures.  Greg Kinnear is great in one of his best roles as the failed motivational speaker, wife Toni Collette does another grand turn as the glue keeping the family together, Alan Arkin is a hoot as the grandfather, Steve Carell is almost unrecognisable as the brother who is the suicidal Proust expert and Paul Dano as the mute adolescent brother hits just the right note.  And then there is Abigail Breslin as little Miss Sunshine candidate herself.  The antithesis of other candidates, a little fat and ungainly and definitely after her own dream.  Her performance in the talent section of the contest is a delight!  The directors and screen writers balance humour and reality exquisitely in this little gem that I thoroughly enjoyed as an example of a small big comedy in the same way as the Aussies did with Priscilla and Muriel’s Wedding some years back.

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