Here is another mixed bag, including some from the last
Oscars, newer PBS TV, four more from Netflix and the 25 year old Civil War
series re-done for TV.
Still Alice –
2014 (3.2). Julianne Moore probably deserved her Oscar for her sensitive
performance in this adaptation of the novel about a fifty year old linguistics
professor who learns she has early onset Alzheimer's. After briefly
establishing the woman, her husband and her adult children, the script
efficiently moves to the process of the neurologist testing and then giving her
the diagnosis. She then informs her husband who is skeptical, but after further
testing he is convinced. Together they break the news to the children and the
family begins struggling to deal with the problem. The film nicely balances the
time spent by the mother with her husband and her children, particularly the
youngest daughter whose unschooled pursuit of an acting career is a prime
concern of mom. Criticized by some for focusing on the much less common early
onset case, this movie actually helps break the stereotype that Alzheimer's is
an old age disease not deserving of higher research concern and thereby helps
increase public awareness and concern.
Neuland – 2013
(3.2). At first the man who teaches a program for refugee high school students
seeking asylum in Switzerland seems sort of like a dork. But as this
documentary follows him over two years working with his diverse group of
students who have immigrated without parents and live in dormitories, we begin
to more fully appreciate what he does. In addition to teaching the students
German as is spoken in the part of Switzerland where they are settling, he also
mentors them in career choices, helps them attain apprenticeships, counsels
them in their personal struggles and becomes a sort of surrogate parent or
uncle. Two students in particular are followed closely, an orphaned girl from
Serbia who wants to go into social work, and a young man from Afghanistan who
just seems to want to be able to start putting his traumas behind him. Coming
without parents to a new land after escaping trauma in the old is a tough life
challenge and these children were fortunate to have had a dedicated, loving and
effective teacher to help them.
The Civil War –
1990 (3.2). This venerable documentary series from Ken Burns holds up well
after 25 years because the style it pioneered has become classic and the war it
presented remains fundamental to understanding what has always divided
Americans. Using archival photographs and paintings in dynamic ways with
evocative music and sound effects, and adding dramatic readings of historical
writings of important leaders, ordinary soldiers and citizens creates a feeling
that we somehow are watching a sound film from a time before such technology
existed. Mixing in interviews with historians enhances context and adds depth.
Finding Vivian Maier
– 2013 (3.1). After finding a trove of photo negatives in storage locker
contents he purchased at a delinquency auction, a young man printed some of the
images and was impressed with the eye of the street photographer. Putting a few
images on the Internet created a sensation of adulation. This led him on a
journey to learn who the female photographer was and why her work was unknown.
He recorded his search in this well-paced Oscar nominated documentary which
includes many of her images and interviews with people who knew her through her
work as a nanny. This secretive artist died shortly after the negatives were
found, but fortunately her work has now become known to the public, though much
of her personal life still remains a mystery and there is ongoing litigation
regarding the rights to her work.
Smothered – 2002
(3.0). The Smothers Brothers were an unlikely duo to be the lone protest voice
on network TV starting in 1967. At that time the three networks were the only TV
broadcasting available and they pretty much toed the line to the colleague
corporations who sponsored what was shown. With the civil rights movement
growing and opposition to the war in Vietnam on the rise, eventually the
anti-establishment voice was bound to start finding a TV voice. Using archival
broadcast footage and interviews with the Brothers and some of their writers,
producers, guests who appeared on the show, retired network execs, a media
critic, a former FCC head and the journalist David Halberstam, this documentary
does an effective job of explaining how the show was given the suicidal Sunday
night spot opposite Bonanza and became a surprise hit. As Tommy Smothers became
emboldened to start speaking out, the CBS censors started a pitched battle
which only caused Tommy to push harder. After three years, CBS managed to
concoct an excuse to abruptly cancel the show for a reason other than
objections to content, which led to four years of litigation between the
Brothers and CBS.
The Storm Makers
– 2014 (2.9). Cambodian peasant families are preyed upon by human traffickers
deceiving them into believing their children are being sent to good jobs in
Malaysia or Thailand when in fact they become slaves in domestic work,
factories, fishing boats or the sex trade, This intimate documentary tells the
story of a couple of these families and also shows some Cambodians involved in
recruiting and cheating these victims. One Christian convert business man
proudly brags about his successful exploitations, while a young girl who
escaped from slavery only to be raped and then imprisoned brings the boy
product of the attack back to her village and forlornly tries to cope with her
traumatic memories. What is missing from the movie is any prescription for how
this horrendous travesty can begin to be stopped.
War Witch – 2012
(2.8). Shot in the Congo by Canadians, this Oscar nominated drama follows a
twelve year old girl kidnapped by rebels when her village is annihilated.
Forced to kill her own parents she is abused into fighting for the rebels and
then becomes anointed as a witch with spirit powers to detect opposing forces
hiding in the jungle. A young albino rebel magician encourages her to run away
with him to his village but the danger of being recaptured always lingers. The
low cost production values give the film an immediacy and documentary look and
the unknown cast adds to the authenticity, with the young lead actress giving
an especially good performance.
Exit through the GiftShop – 2010 (2.8). Whether graffiti is vandalism or art may be a matter of
opinion. In fact just what is artistic is open to debate. A man obsessed with
his video camera became intrigued with graffiti artists and embarked on a many
year program of videotaping them in action. Eventually he was able to meet and
befriend Bansky, the man acknowledged as the king of graffiti and a bona fide
artist. The video maker tried to make a movie from some of his tapes but it was
a terrible mish mash, so Bansky himself edited the tapes to make this Oscar
nominated documentary. Bansky also suggested the man with the camera try his
hand at graffiti, which then morphed into trying to create art work and put on
a public show like his mentor. Whether the resulting art show is actually
meritorious art is definitely a matter of opinion. This movie is different
enough to hold interest, but a more straightforward presentation of the works
created by top graffiti artists could also be satisfying.
Shun Li and the Poet
– 2008 (2.8). A one year widowed long time Yugoslav immigrant to Italy works as
a fisherman near Venice and meets with other older fishermen in a dockside café
where the waitress is a young Chinese mother from a long time fishing family
who is working under some form of indenture to earn enough money to have her
son sent to live with her. The two immigrants strike up a friendship which
becomes the subject of xenophobic gossip undermining their relationship. There
is not much plot or drama in this Italian drama, but the acting is top notch
and the winter time connection with the sea is evocatively captured.
Point and Shoot –
2014 (2.7). After getting his Master's degree in Middle East matters from
Georgetown a somewhat spoiled young man with OCD decides to go out into the world
to work on becoming a man. Armed with a video camera, he takes his new
motorcycle through North Africa and the Middle East to Iraq and Afghanistan,
teaches himself how to do wheelies, gets some press credentials from his
hometown newspaper so he can embed with US troops who let him play with their
guns, and periodically checks in with his girlfriend back home. His favorite
friend from his travels is a hippie style Libyan with whom he stays in touch.
After a few years of this he returns home to settle down, only to be drawn back
to Libya to join his friend in the fight to oust the dictator. Captured and
imprisoned he manages to escape and be part of the rebel forces when the
overthrow is accomplished. The man turned his footage over to a film maker who
had freedom to make this movie which asks the viewer at the end whether these
adventures made the youngster a man. In
the absence of any explanation of how these adventures were financed or any
showing that the man actually accomplished anything truly worthwhile, one does
have to wonder whether this is just another self-indulgent adventure
travelogue, albeit with some Libyan rebellion footage at the end.
The Last White Knight
-2012 (2.7). In 1965 the Jewish Canadian maker of this film had been sent to
Mississippi by SNCC to help register black voters. He was quickly assaulted by
a group of young white men, one of whom sucker punched him in the face. For
reasons never quite made clear, the victim decided forty years later to go back
and find his assailant and begin a dialog with him which he captured in this
movie. Supplemented by archival footage, animated reconstructions of events,
interviews with civil rights workers and the current KKK leaders in Mississippi
(proving that the title of the movie is not accurate), and some current footage
of blacks and whites engaging in an unsegregated manner, most of the movie
consists of the actual discussions between the two men over a period of several
years. The old pistol packing assailant maybe is supposed to come across as a
bit reflective and reconciled, but in fact he just confirms what bigots look
like when they are not wearing their sheets.
Get on Up – 2014
(2.4). Chadwick Boseman does a fine job of playing James Brown in this musical
biopic, but the performance is sabotaged by a terrible script which fails on
both form and substance. Flashbacks have their place in movies, but it is a
limited one often overused. This film may set a record for the most times a
story jumps around in time, backwards and forwards with no apparent reason for
the jogs. As for the substance of telling the story, in spite of extra length
we never get an understanding of who James actually was and why he got to be
that way, except that he was poor and basically abandoned by his mother – and
we are not even sure she was his mother. How his music compared to the music of
his time and the impact that it had on audiences is never developed. The only
salvation of the movie is the musical performances, which makes one want to
look for a JB concert film and a decent documentary.
Whiplash – 2014
(2.4). A young would be jazz drummer gets admitted to a top music school where
his teacher is an abusive foul-mouth who hopes his pushing of students will
cause one to excel beyond all expectations. The student is equally obsessive in
his ambition and what ensues is a movie obsessed with the struggle of these two
people. There are lots of musical performances in the film, constantly
interrupted by the overbearing teacher, so generic appeal of the striving for
perfection theme is skewed in the particular direction of jazz drumming. This
is because the writer-director was a jazz drummer. We never get to see any
other teacher at the school and barely get to meet any other students. A girl
who is struggling to find out what she wants to pursue in her education is a
brief love interest, but the drummer cuts it off quickly, lest it interfere
with his pursuit. A movie about the girl might have been more appealing.
Birdman – 2014
(1.4). Shooting movie scenes in long continuous shots goes back at least as far
as Touch of Evil directed by Orson Welles in 1958. Birdman tries to take the
technique to extremes just for the fun of it or the challenge to the actors,
but the result is not fun and is more of a challenge to the audience. This is
form over substance, though that is not a problem when there is no substance to
the script anyway. This very boring mish mash about a washed up action movie
hero trying to become a Broadway sensation is the kind of nonsense that would
appeal only to actors who understand such insecurity, like the ones who voted
it an Oscar. The dynamic action scenes from the previews do not appear until
the last one quarter of the film and I bet a lot of people had left the
theater, fallen asleep or were in the bathroom or buying popcorn by then.
The movies on this list streamed via Netflix were (though
some of the streaming rights may now have expired):
War Witch
Exit through the Gift Shop
Shun Li and the Poet
The Last White Knight
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