Worth the hype, Iron Man (rated PG-13 for some intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence, as well as a brief sexual situation and language) is an imposing addition to Marvel’s big-screen superheroes. Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) is a playboy and the grown-up whizkid head of Stark Industries, a weapons manufacturing company started by his father.

After an ambush in the Afghani desert, he’s holed up in a cave for three months, ostensibly building a missile for his captor. Upon his escape, having discovered that the weapons he’s built to defend his country are being placed directly in the hands of the bad guys, he vows to reform his company and starts tinkering in the basement. Meanwhile, his business partner Obadiah Stone (Jeff Bridges) is out trying to save the company . . . or is he?

Iron Man is certainly backed by some political undertones. The original comic book placed Stark’s saga against the Vietnam War, but it’s been easily updated for today; these familiar terrorists hide out in caves and prey on innocent villagers. Stark Industries’ logo bears a striking resemblance to that of Lockheed Martin. Tony’s change of heart doesn’t equal simple pacifism, but rather a desire to come up with something to save the innocent while punishing the bad guys.

Director John Favreau has pulled together a tour de force film, equal parts adventure and drama, in which stuff blows up with impressively satisfying force. Robert Downey, Jr. is, simply put, brilliant - rather than succumb to the melodrama that often pops up in this genre, Downey mumbles his way around screen, rarely taking his wealth or braininess too seriously, but is downright frightening when he is doing what he feels is right. He doesn’t have any particularly magical superpowers. All of his clout lies in his wealth, brains, charm, as well as his canny assistant Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) and a handful of near-future technologies.

Posted in Movies & TV, Reviews | 12 Comments »

Jet Li and Jackie Chan are two of the greatest martial artists to come out of China - however, they have never been in a film together and certainly not “fought” in any film or show. That changes in The Forbidden Kingdom, a film they have been promising their fans since 2001. Kung Fu fans have been buzzing about this event since the first trailer, their enthusiasm reminding me of seeing Star Wars III in a packed theater. The moment Yoda took light saber in hand to duel Christopher Lee the entire theatre let out a thundering cheer of dreams come true. Seven years after the Li/Chan promise, kung-fu dreams are coming true.

If that isn’t sufficient reason to see this film, consider that The Forbidden Kingdom has reinvented The Karate Kid for a new generation. Michael Angarano (Sky High’s charming hero returns to play another charming hero) is Jason, a kung-fu movie fan from Boston. His friendship with an old Chinese pawnshop owner means he gets classic martial arts films cheap, a peek at an authentic battle staff, and a beating from the neighborhood thugs. The thugs use Jason to rob the pawnshop, where one thief shoots the resisting owner. Helplessly overpowered, Jason grabs the staff and runs for his life. Thugs on his heels, he gains the roof only to fall over the edge. He lands – or wakes – in medieval China, wearing monk’s robes, staff still in hand.

It turns out Jason is ‘the seeker’ destined to return the staff to the Monkey King’s immortal hands. This will free the King from imprisonment as a stone statue and send Jason home. Jason encounters a drunken kung-fu master (Jackie Chan), a beautiful girl, and a silent monk (Jet Li); together they teach Jason kung-fu, bravery, self-sacrifice and discernment, especially as the group fights and avoids the minions of the evil Jade Warlord.

I preferred this movie to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. I liked the complex yet clear plot, the humor, the duel between Chan and Li, and particularly liked Jason’s journey from a decent but scared young man to a heroic protector of others. The film is rated PG-13 for violent kung-fu fights.

Posted in Movies & TV, Reviews | 4 Comments »

Nim (Abigail Breslin) and her father Jack (Gerard Butler) live alone on an uncharted island. Secure from the world, Jack focuses on science while Nim makes friends with animals and reads Alex Rover adventure stories with such enthusiasm that she brings them to life.

Unknown to Nim, the woman who writes the Alex Rover books is as isolated from the world as she is. In San Francisco, Alexandra Rover (Jodie Foster) uses her adventurous alter ego to overcome her fear of the world. One day, as she looks for inspiration for a new novel, Alexandra discovers one of Jack’s scientific articles and emails him. Jack, meanwhile, confident Nim will be fine by herself for two days, has sailed off to discover a new life form. Nim answers the email from her hero and a friendship forms between them.

A storm comes tearing through their lives and the real adventure begins: Jack is lost at sea, Nim is alone and wounded, and Alexandra realizes Nim is a child. Having lost the comforts of isolation, these three discover that people have more value than science or books or safety, and they risk their lives to reach each other.

Casting Gerard Butler to play both Jack and Alex unites the plot. As father and character, he inspires both women to brave adventures. His failure to resolve their dilemmas (let alone his own) forces them to leave the safety of dream worlds to help someone real. They learn to treasure people over isolation and relationships over dreams.

Although many critics have panned the movie for being a failed adventure story, I found the story to be a good lesson and a good movie. Life-in-peril situations earn the PG rating, but the film is suitable for young children. If this movie appeals, I highly recommend the even better Dear Frankie (a smaller, quieter, and more grown-up story now available on DVD).

Posted in Movies & TV, Reviews | Comments Off

American critics often decry the “televisionization” of a historical event or a classic work of fiction as a minor tragedy, an event to be mourned by anyone with an appreciation for all that is true and good. But critics apparently liked the smooth flesh and colorful costumes in the first season of Showtime’s The Tudors enough to say it was at least “entertaining,” despite their professional objections to its “neutered” history.

Now in the early stages of its second season on Showtime, The Tudors (rated TV-MA for occasional bloody violence and sexual content) is a simplified, romanticized depiction of Henry VIII’s “reign and marriages.” Jonathan Rhys-Meyers (he of the smoldering blue eyes) plays Henry, who by historical accounts probably looked more like the ruddy, bearded John Rhys-Davies. Rhys-Meyers, who stunningly portrayed the intense, womanizing Raskolnikov character in Woody Allen’s Dostoevsky allegory Match Point, is without question flat and dimensionless as a monarch. He vacillates between sensual whispering and petulant shouting without much of anything memorable to say.

But he is one thing that’s entirely believable: insane. The real, unscriptedness of Rhys-Meyers’ acting does give The Tudors the quality of seeming like we might be watching the real Henry VIII in action. In this sense, the unrealistically hot Henry is a success; we watch him because he’s Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, and hate him anyway, just like we would if he were played by someone more repulsive … more historically accurate, perhaps.

The New York Times whined that the show is “spritzed with Febreze,” but that’s precisely why it works as “historical” entertainment from the masses. “Showtime commissioned me to write an entertainment, a soap opera, and not history,” creator/writer Michael Hirst told the New York Times. “And we want people to watch it.” Common people arguably have always remembered more of history as sexed-up, simplified storylines than as nuanced, academic psychoanalysis. No objection to accurate, scholarly history or even to the occasional intellectual T.V. series, but this is still television. And most people still watch television to enjoy attractive actors and the escape of a fictional story.

This isn’t a fictional story, however, and the occasional intellectual stimulation The Tudors provides is a pleasant surprise. The back-dealing, sinister Cardinal Wolsey (Sam Neill) is a creepy delight to watch, and a painful reminder of the medieval Catholic church as a parallel political system, all the more disgusting for packaging its misdeeds in the will of God. (Also noted: these 16th-century Christians are portrayed, fairly or unfairly, exactly the same way modern ones always are).

But bad as the church is, The Tudors doesn’t play to evangelical Catholic-bashing. Martin Luther, seen from the stained-glassed windows of the English monarchy, was a crackpot heretic who posed a serious threat to Christianity and to the Western world. Which got me thinking: if I were a devout Catholic at this moment in history, would I have objected to the bonfire that consumes Luther’s books in the first season? The reign of Bloody Mary, darkly foreshadowed in the scenes of Henry’s pretty little daughter?

Sure, there’s not much take-away value except for a Cliff’s Notes history of England and a renewed appreciation for the physiques of Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Natalie Dormer. (To be perfectly honest, I’ve learned more history catching up on the first season than I ever did from History of Western Civilization II). If that’s all America gets from The Tudors, we will still have it just about right: Beautiful people fought battles, had sex, and died. And everybody—king, church, and all—were selfish, corrupt human beings.

“The Tudors” airs Sunday evenings at 9 p.m. E.

Posted in Movies & TV, Reviews | 8 Comments »

Hollywood is uncannily good at accidentally making films with similar plot elements at the same time; witness both the two Truman Capote biopics and the two magician movies (The Illusionist and The Prestige) in nearly simultaneous production during 2006. Sometimes, however, the clustering is more purposeful, if unintentional – the spate of recent Iraq films illustrate the long-identified principle that when politics are in the picture, the movies tend to bunch up, too.

Now that illegal immigration has resurfaced as a hot topic, filmmakers are taking notice. Two recent films have gingerly approached the topic, choosing to at least partially diffuse the inflammatory nature of the material by focusing on individual stories that, if not based on real stories, certainly could be.

La Misma Luna (Under the Same Moon), an undeniable tear-jerker, is the story of Rosario (Kate del Castillo), a Mexican woman living illegally in Los Angeles and working several housekeeping jobs to earn enough money to apply for citizenship and bring her son, Carlitos (Adrian Alonso), into the United States. Carlitos is tired of waiting for her and decides to take matters into his own hands. From here, it turns into a kind of Homeward Bound remake, as Carlitos crosses the country, runs from the INS, warms the heart of a gruff itinerant laborer (Eugenio Derbez), and looks for his mother. Rosario, in the meantime, struggles with her loneliness and her desire to provide for Carlitos’ future.

The film is equal parts Spanish and English (Ugly Betty’s America Ferrara has a small role as an American college student) and it’s obviously heartfelt. Unfortunately, it’s also sometimes cloyingly sentimental, with a supporting cast of not-quite-three-dimensional characters (the oblivious rich boss, the benevolent café owner, the conniving relatives, the lovable grandmother), and the conclusion calls for suspension of disbelief – not necessarily a bad thing, but if a filmmaker’s goal is to portray the plight of a particular group of people, the last thing they need is for the audience to leave feeling that they’ve seen a fairy story.

The Visitor moves off the west coast and explores a different kind of tale. Directed by Thomas McCarthy (whose earlier work includes The Station Agent), the story mostly avoids the syrupy-ness trap and bucks the ironic bent of the current independent film scene with an earnest, distinctly un-supercilious tale. Walter (Richard Jenkins) is a crotchety college professor living a sterile self-absorbed in suburban Connecticut. Upon arriving in New York City for a conference, he finds a young couple living in his apartment: Tarek (Haaz Sleiman), a Syrian-born drummer, and his Senegalese girlfriend Zainab (Danai Gurira), who sells handmade jewelry in a street market. Initially withdrawn, Walter warms to the couple – victims of a real estate scam - as Tarek shares his love of drumming with him. But when Tarek is arrested for allegedly jumping a subway turnstile, the tale turns to heartbreak, and Tarek’s mother (a stunning Hiam Abbass) comes to New York to search for her son.

Jenkins, who hasn’t done much work as a leading man, turns in a wonderfully nuanced and understated performance; his growth from cold reticence to passionate involvement happens in small gestures and looks. The rest of the cast throws themselves into their roles with aplomb and heart, and the tale’s melancholy conclusion proves more poignant than the happy ending of La Misma Luna.

In contrast to the recent proliferation of war movies, these films also approach a similarly politically divisive topic with some joy and humanity, making them far more delightful to the audience. Instead of painting in broad strokes, they tell intensely individual, humanizing stories that put a face to something you may only read about in the newspaper. Whatever your political beliefs, films such as these are a thoughtful reminder that nobody is simply a statistic.

Posted in Movies & TV, Reviews | Comments Off

Wong Kar Wai’s films are most closely related to poetry – nonlinear, dreamy, sumptuous. Rather than making the film’s elements subservient to plot, Wong plays with lighting, color, editing, speed, and sound to cast a mood, allowing the audience to intuit the story, rather than simply tell it to them, and interpreting the adage “show, don’t tell” in his own distinct way. My Blueberry Nights is the internationally acclaimed Hong Kong director’s first English-language film, though his earlier work (including In the Mood for Love and 2046) has garnered a modest but rabid global following.

Elizabeth (Norah Jones), heartbroken and lonely, spends her evenings in a tiny New York café talking and eating blueberry pie with the proprietor, Jeremy (Jude Law), who has his own story of lost love. In an effort to break free of her sadness, Elizabeth travels to Memphis, where she waits tables, tends bar, and catches the tail end of Arnie and SueLynn’s tragic marriage (David Strathairn and Rachel Weisz). In Nevada she meets Leslie (Natalie Portman), a big-talking, high-flying Nevada gambler, before making peace with her past and turning her face toward New York again.

Though Elizabeth’s travels take her across the country and back - on the open road, under hazy bar lights, backlit by neon signs, and in the inky blackness of a New York night – there’s no real pretense at historical or geographic accuracy. Instead, he’s created a dream world, succulent and filled with lovely, sad women, a world in which romance and love ebb and flow slowly and stickily. Jones isn’t a great actress, but she certainly has expressive eyes and a sweet demeanor fitting to her character. In fact, all of Wong’s female actresses look uncannily, attractively alike, in keeping with his fluid fantasy of beauty. Jude Law is merely lovable, but Strathairn stands out against the rest with a heartbreaking performance.

The whole movie doesn’t hang together quite right, but there are enough truly lovely moments to make the rest seem forgivable. My Blueberry Nights isn’t destined to top Wong’s canon or anyone’s best films list, but like a big piece of blueberry pie, it goes down easy and leaves one with a smile.

Posted in Movies & TV, Reviews | 5 Comments »

A trio of neglected lower-class brothers, raised in southern Arkansas, has been taught by their embittered mother to hate their father’s four other sons, who were brought up in comfort and security. Living as adults and relative strangers in the same small town, both sets of brothers are drawn into conflict after their father’s funeral. Both the peaceful and the guilty are dragged into the tragedy – a vengeful give-and-take that doesn’t seem likely to end.

This is the feature debut of writer/director Jeff Nichols – an Arkansas native - and if it’s a harbinger of things to come, Nichols’ career will be worth tracking. Tautly calm, with hints of Flannery O’Connor, Shakespeare, and Cormac McCarthy, the tale moves smoothly and subtly toward the inevitable, never once tipping toward sappily suggesting that the boys are all brothers and should just get along. The dialogue is real and often funny, and the cast, led by the craggily rugged Michael Shannon, is simultaneously understated and inspired.

Because the father’s funeral sparks the story, his specter hovers hazily over the story – though absent, the ambiguity of his character is palpable in nearly every word, decision, action, and conversation. Each man is innately aware of “what has to be done”, not only to protect his family but also to quench his thirst to prove something to his father who, whether through his presence or absence, love or neglect, has taught him how to see the world.

Shotgun Stories is a tale about familial duty, bitterness, and hatred. It’s clear that revenge cannot satisfy the hurts of the past, but the film holds out hope that while old wounds are never fully healed, those who are enemies can still learn to live in peace.

Posted in Movies & TV, Reviews | 4 Comments »

In 1533, King Henry VIII (Eric Bana) divorced his wife, Queen Catherine, and married a young girl in his court named Anne Boleyn (Natalie Portman). Historians still debate the influence Anne and her family had in the king’s decision… did they orchestrate the divorce? Was the King of England a pawn to Boleyn ambition, or was Anne attempting to gain some control over a situation that had been disastrous for so many girls before her?

One girl in particular served as example of the fate a monarchical mistress could expect: Mary, Anne’s sister, The Other Boleyn Girl. In most Henry VIII biographies, Mary (Scarlett Johansson) gets little more than a line designating her the sexual conquest who came after Bessie Blount and before her sister. Phillipa Gregory, however, uses Mary as a character study, exploring these historical proceedings through the lens of this forgotten sister.

The movie dramatizes Phillipa Gregory’s bestselling novel, adhering to the plot admirably considering the reduction of a 600 page novel to a 2 hour movie. Mary’s perspective affords a fascinating glimpse into the sexual politics surrounding Tudor women, but this necessarily truncates the larger historical perspective. The dissolution of the Catholic Church in favor of the Church of England (the largest outcome of the divorce) occurs so swiftly that the audience may miss it altogether.

A warning: while rated PG-13, the subject matter of this film is entirely adult in nature. These historical figures exemplify the dark nature of passion. Expect prostitution, adultery, rape and incest, not romance. The cinematography reflects the subject matter, showing us historical events through a dim, often obscured lens. Expect a film dark in subject and color, reflective of the history it portrays. Want more history? Try two film classics: Anne of the Thousand Days and A Man for All Seasons.

Posted in Movies & TV, Reviews | 6 Comments »

The political thriller Vantage Point explores a terrorist attack in Salamanca, Spain through the unfolding perspectives of witnesses, accomplices, and victims. Upon first observation, the President of the United States (William Hurt) is assassinated when opening an international summit on terrorism… or is he?

We quickly learn that the man shot in the public square doubles for the President; additionally, the terrorists who shot the presidential double set off two bombs. Is this public destruction or do they have a subtler plan?

Dennis Quaid plays the heroic Secret Service agent who spearheads the discovery of the truth, but he by no means carries the film. Instead, the film retells the first twenty minutes of action five times, each from one individual’s ‘vantage point’ that provides new information. Multiple retellings of a narrative are always difficult to execute, requiring the viewer to wade through previously-told, superfluous information in order to discover those moments that propel the plot. This movie increases the audience’s frustration in the narrative by visually rewinding each perspective before moving on to a new analysis. By the second rewind the audience sounded restless, and by the fifth I heard laughs of annoyance.

Free of sex and surprisingly tasteful in its depiction of violence (rated PG-13 for the violent subject matter and some language), Vantage Point nevertheless fails to thrill. Plot holes abound, driven by inconsistencies of character and action. The movie asks us to believe that every president has a double but that no Secret Service agent wears a bullet proof vest, that a special services officer is more intimidated by five lone terrorists than he is by the collected forces of the President’s security guards. Ultimately the array of illogical plot points overpowers the film, making more of a comedy than a thriller.

Posted in Movies & TV, Reviews | 3 Comments »

The first thing you have to know when seeing Michel Gondry’s films (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Science of Sleep) is that he was out sick the day they sent the junior high memo that growing up means losing your imagination.

And what an endlessly inventive imagination Gondry possesses. He inhabits a world that resembles ours but is a little less rational, a little more playful, with slightly brighter colors. Pretty much anything can happen in his films without surprising the characters. Essentially, he’s retained what we all had when we played princesses or pirates as children. In Eternal Sunshine, people’s memories are erased as a sort of reverse therapy for past loves and losses; in The Science of Sleep, dreams and whimsical fantasies and little handmade stuffed animals fuel a one-sided romance.

His latest (and far more light and cheery) film, Be Kind Rewind (rated PG-13 for some sexual references), sets the latest magical Gondry-land in Passaic, New Jersey – one of the little decaying towns a half hour’s drive in no traffic from New York City. Mike (Mos Def) works at Be Kind Rewind, a thrift/video rental store – of the old variety, no DVDs – owned by Mr. Fletcher (Danny Glover), who’s on vacation. Jerry (Jack Black) is the mechanic living in a trailer across the intersection. When Jerry becomes magnetized and accidentally erases all the tapes in the store, they decide they’ve got to record their own versions of all the films, from Ghost Busters to 2001: A Space Odyssey to Rush Hour 2. As you might imagine, hilarity ensues.

Be Kind Rewind might be a little kooky for many moviegoers. Driving narrative isn’t Gondry’s strong suit, and the story is unashamedly gimmicky. But it’s funny and heartfelt, a tale of a community banding together around art, and for the camcorder generation – those of us who grew up making homemade movies in our backyards – it’s warmly nostalgic.

Posted in Movies & TV, Reviews | 1 Comment »