Jamie passion and passionfruit!

An enjoyable thriller without having us hanging on the edge of our seats, and is best described as adult drama which has a not too obvious plot and plenty of issues or moral dilemmas to debate.  George Clooney is aided by Tilda Swinton, Tom Wilkinson and Sydney Polack to create a believable cast of lawyers and fixers in the murky pastures of corporate crime and responsibility.  The plot may not be that exciting but it is revealed in due time so we get hooked on working out what is really going on.  Clooney reiterates his ability to carry a film with a performance that is understated and never obvious.  Swinton does a great job as we would expect from her.  Tony Gilroy’s debut film is an auspicious one and while this was justifiably not film of the year, it has plenty of merits.

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A rarity from France in the form of an animated biography/agit-prop against the regime in Iran and the treatment of women.  The merits of this film are the fact that it deals with a controversial topic in a humourous and serious way at the same time, with a veneer of matter of factness.  The criticism of the regimes in Iran, especially the clergy and the trials of being a woman in a muslim world are deftly depicted with the appropriate black and white graphics.  The end result is very effective and makes you really think.  I also found it particularly good to see how the mood changes in the film from the young energetic angry and curious schoolgirl to a more resigned young adult who finds it hard to fit in anywhere, be it Iran or Austria where she is sent by her parents during the worst of the revolution.  Imaginative, different, personal and yet universal, it may not be a great work but it is full of delightful moments and wry observations about revolutions.

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Little to say about this but a flop.  Heavy handed and an unfunny attempt to deal with a ´ghost´ guiding his widow’s life after his death.  It doesn’t seem to know where it is going most of the time and several scenes and characters are flat or embarrassing.  Does Hilary Swank no favours.

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The two major awards this year have gone to violent films, the Oscar and Berlin.  What does this say about cinema and the critics and juries?  Tropa de Elite may not be a great film but it does not warrant some of the very strong criticism it has also received.  It is an important film because of the impact it causes, shocking you with its grim depiction of police corruption and violence in the favelas of Rio.  As it is based on real stories, we have to see it as being reasonably authentic and certainly reports from Brazil suggest it to be so.  And it is an ugly tale that it has to tell. In it, we see the endemic, uncontrollable and senseless corruption in the police force, buying and selling everything, graft and bribes galore.  Filmed with a dizzying speed, hand-held cameras and all different angles, it is almost too much to take in, but one suspects that this is also part of the everyday life in the force there.  Then we have the idealistic rich kids helping in the favelas and becoming embroiled in all the drug use and trafficking and finally the BOPE, or elite squad that goes in when the police can’t cope and has barbaric training and initiation ceremonies.  All this leads to a picture of us as a decadent civilization where limits were not set when they should have been and we are left with a mess that is going to be nigh impossible to fix.  The same Latin American recipe of corrupt police, excluded urban poor and ready guns and drugs is clear here and for my money Jose Padilha translates it to the screen in all its glory.  He uses a similar style to City of God to give us this powerful effect and make us believe we are actually in the crossfire as it were.  Apart from this style, the cast is fine, especially Wagner Moura as Nascimento the jaded police captain who is far from in control as he would like to think.

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A typical French film about a rambling family with ex-lovers and ex-wives, a soon-to-be closed cabaret and a wide chorus of characters.  Nothing very original but useful to see stars like Emmanuelle Beart, Catherine Deneuve, Miou-Miou, Gerard Lanvin, Valerie Lemercier and others in action.  I watched it more as a fantasy than as reality and the time passed pleasantly enough but I would not rush to see it again.

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I like Julie Delpy. She is a smart, intelligent, witty actress who brings a lot to the films she stars in. I laughed a lot during most of this movie. Some critics compared her to Woody Allen with this movie and before I saw it I was somewhat shocked at this comparison. Now, I see what they mean. Apart from the portrayal of a neurotic Parisian returning home for two days to see her family and friends with her newish boyfriend in tow, there is also the sensation about two thirds of the way through that you have had enough – it is all very amusing but enough is enough. Just like I often feel with Woody Allen. This is a good little movie but … it becomes repetitive in the last part and I felt that I had got the message. The episode with the anti-MacDonald’s activist and the case of mistaken identity in the street that Jack experiences don’t really add to the plot and although the final ending is more or less satisfactory, getting there is not totally convincing. The best parts are those of Julie and her real life parents, most of which are lessons in culture. That of Paris and that of her own family and these make you laugh. Adam Goldberg does his bit as the neurotic American well enough, so much so that you end up sympathising with his desire that the Paris sojourn is over asap.
Enjoyable but not quite tight enough for a higher grade.

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The main merit of this film is that it comes from Lebanon, not a common source of cinema and we get to see scenes of everyday Beirut.  It is definitely a woman’s film focusing on the lives of five women in and around a neighbourhood hairdressers. Typically, all the women have secrets and stories and Nadine Labaki shows us slices of their life from the respressed homosexual to the non virgin bride to the impossible affair with a married man.  All fairly typìcal issues and yet the characters are full enough for this not to be a cliché. Labaki is the director, co-writer and lead actress and she does very well, aside from being very beautiful.  I found Gisele Aouad a bit grotesque but credible as the menopausal customer trying to look younger, while the subplot involving Aunt Rose and her demented sister Lily (Aziza Semaan) grows on you. Overall, it is a watchable film without being anything special.

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A road trip on film.  A treatise of escaping from society on celluloid.  Sean Penn does something very different and it is undoubtedly up to the high quality of his previous work.  It is also rather long.  This is the real story of Alexander Supertramp, a highly intelligent student from a well-off family who drops out of society, hikes around the US and ends up in Alaska, where he eventually dies.  He is a resourceful, organised, systematic boy but at the same time, there is something extreme in his mind which leads him to this sort of suicide.  We follow Alex around a variety of locations in the States and Mexico in the early 90’s which provides an interesting look at the drifters and small people of the US.  There are occasional voiceovers from his sister and flashbacks to a violent family life and many scenes of survival in Alaska which would do credit to an Audubon magazine.  Penn helps us to understand his motivation in hitting the road and keeping on it, the scenes of nature are gorgeous, and undeniably wild.  We have some nice relationships along the way, with Wayne (Vince Vaughan) with Jan (Catherine Keener) and Mr Franz (Hal Holbrook).  Emile Hirsch is absolutely fine as Alex, it is one of those roles you slip into and live.  Apart from all the respect Penn shows to his characters, he also recreates the rhythms of this trip.  And it is there that perhaps, we find in parts that despite the pleasure of the images, the film begins to seem rather long and self-indulgent.  Nevertheless. It is overall, quite an achievement.

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