A few short film reviews

A few films old and new that I've seen recently.

The Candidate (1972)
(I had my class watch this one). Worth seeing for how little politics has changed, if in fact the film's portrayal of campaigning is accurate. And Robert Redford must be Brad Pitt's father. Like George Costanza, I have a staunch record of heterosexuality, but he is a good looking man.

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
Capra's best? A film that is great for more than it's idealism--it's very well told, and the acting is thoroughly professional.

Transamerica (2005)
Surprisingly good. Felicity Huffman's Best Actress nod is well deserved.

The Other Boleyn Girl (2008)
Natalie Portman. Check. Scarlett Johannson. Check. Then why was this possibly the worst movie ever made? Previews that promised a sexy historical drama, and delivered on none of its promises. Any director who could take these two women, who are thoroughly capable of very solid acting, on top of their uniquely seductive qualities, and create such utterly bland, sexless characters (despite the fact that this story is essentially about sex), needs to find a new job.

Redacted (2008)
Brian de Palma's humble, yet very effective story, based on real events, of a group of American soldiers in Iraq who revenge a buddy being killed in a roadside bomb by arbitrarily raping a young Iraqi girl and killing her family. The film does not pretend to make this a metaphor for the entire war, which is why other Iraq War films have failed to attract much attention (they're ambitious without delivering on their ambition, or offer far too simple answers). This one sets out to tell a very limited story, and its humility ends up being very powerful. The two soldiers who commit the crime are vile, but there are other soldiers in the film, who, while they do not prevent the crime from happening, are haunted by their complicity. Their regret becomes the metaphor through which this film is capable of making larger arguments about the war.

Ed Wood (1994)
Pretty much the kind of fun weirdness one expects from Tim Burton. And Johnny Depp is the best actor in Hollywood. Period.

An American Crime (2007)
Very disturbing and very good. Katherine Keener and a pre-Juno Ellen Page. Another film based on true events. A type of modern day Scarlet Letter, in which a young girl becomes the neighborhood scapegoat, locked in a basement, and tortured by her siblings, neighborhood kids, and her adopted mother, until she dies. Fun for the whole family!

Still waiting to see Oliver Stone's W.