finnegan’s film blog

Like Traffic or Magnolia, Crash is not a straight story. It’s a dozen or so characters’ lives woven together to create the bigger picture–a picture that most Americans from multi-ethnic towns are familiar with. Using a grab-bag variety cast (everyone from Brendan Frazier and Sandra Bullock to a handful of unknowns show up in this film), writer/director Paul Haggis shows us that American racism is alive and well in the city of angels.

The official synopsis says “funny, powerful and always unpredictable.” While the film is definitely powerful, to call this film funny is a bit misleading. When you look at the way Haggis captures human frustration and misery on celluloid, you realize why his script for Million Dollar Baby helped Clint Eastwood secure his third best picture trophy. Haggis knows how to put you on the edge of your seat and break your heart.

There’s nothing particularly astonishing about Crash–the actors’ great emotional performances tend to get lost in the sheer number of scenes and characters–but the film as a whole serves as a strong reminder to all of us to live by the golden rule. Just as every action has an equal and opposite reaction, racism begets racism.

Every once in a while you come across a gem among the massive pile of mediocre on-screen stories. Not since ET has there been a family movie this genuine and heartfelt. Danny Boyle, director of the heroin addition epic Trainspotting and zombie flick 28 Days Later has traded in hard violence and hallucination sequences for honest, down-to-earth characters and childlike imagination.

The fantastical world of Millions is seen through the eyes of Damian (Alex Etel), a young boy who recently lost his mother. When he relocates with his father and older brother to a new neighborhood, he escapes into a cardboard fortress where he talks to his heroes–the Catholic saints and martyrs. From Saint John to Saint Francis of Assisi, Damian converses with the heavenly hosts, asking them if they have seen his mother. When a bag of money falls from the sky, he and his brother do their best to keep it a secret, but Damien wants to emulate his role models and give the money away to the poor.

The casting for this film was flawless. Alex Etel was perfect. I don’t know that I have ever seen a family movie that promotes charity and good will, while at the same time avoiding the cheesy pitfalls that those morals are often associated with in films (e.g. Hallmark movies of the week). As a testament to how different Millions is compared to other so-called childrens films, there’s actually a “product” placement for a real-life charity (wateraid.org) that eventually weaves its way into the story.

With a Burton/Elfman-like soundtrack and an ending that falls more closely in line with the Beatitudes than the conventions of Hollywood, Millions is a wonderful family film. The characters are sincere and the story is beautiful.

Outfoxed is an attempt to expose the Fox News Network’s right-wing, pro-administration agenda. It explains what some Americans already know: that FN has very little journalistic integrity. It was designed to be (and has become) the mouthpiece of conservative politicians and those who wish to maintain the status quo.

Although this film is full of interesting information, I’m not a fan of director Robert Greenwald’s cheezy clip art graphics and sloppy editing. Compared to Super Size Me or The Corportation (both political documentaries with prominent CG interludes), the cartoon graphics in Outfoxed detract from the impact of the story and make it look well, dumb. For a much more tasteful and well-written story on the same topic, watch Bill Moyer’s final report on “Now with Bill Moyers”.

There is no real counterpoint in this film. It doesn’t appear as though Greenwald was striving for objectivity. This is an exposé in the same sense that Fox News produces exposés. Perhaps the thinking is that all you have to do to find a pro-Fox opinion is to turn the TV on to Fox News, so why bother giving equal time? For better or worse, Outfoxed plays by Fox’s own “unfair and unbalanced” rules, giving us only one side of the story. Despite all this (and in spite of Greenwald’s slapdash style), Outfoxed is still worth a gander. If nothing else, it gives the public a glimpse of the man behind the curtain, and a better understanding of how the news media spins the stories.

The Corporation is a good example of a political documentary that is free of the emotion-evoking propaganda prevalent in many high-grossing docs these days. The filmmaker’s level-headed approach results in a seemingly well-balanced (albeit decidedly leftist) informational film that is easy to hate, but hard to argue with. It has enough corporate blunders to make even the most calloused business student shake his head. The revelation that 9-11 was a welcomed blessing for Wall Street traders might even make you wish that the planes had crashed into the NYSE instead of the Twin Towers.

The Corporation’s Achilles heel is the massive scope of the subject. From Noam Chomsky to advertising executives to Howard Zinn to the head of the Shell corporation to a carpet tycoon to Michael Moore, the interviewees run the gamut. I counted at least 17 different talking heads in the film (no doubt there are more) and each interview excerpt is so short that you don’t really get a sense of the individual viewpoints represented. I’m sure that the filmmakers included this range of voices under the banner of equal representation, but keeping up with who is saying what is a bit daunting for the viewer. Also, the Monsanto “Posilac cover-up” story seemed too large a tangent to blend with the rest of the film. Perhaps that should have been relegated to a separate mini-documentary to be included on the DVD.

As with most political documentaries, chances are your like or dislike of this film will depend heavily on the political views you walk into the theater with. For those of us who question consumerism, The Corporation is a re-affirming and eye-opening experience. Through the filmmaker’s eyes, we get a glimpse of a world not unlike The Matrix: a place where corporations have covered the earth in such a thick layer of advertisements that we have no idea what life could be like without them.

This neo-noir collaboration between director Robert “churn em out” Rodriguez and cult comic book author Frank Miller falls short in several categories.

If you object to uber-violence or that evil-vs-evil scenario, be advised to avoid this movie. Personally, the film was too dark for my taste. Call me old-fashioned, but I like tales of good vs evil. If you’ve read more than a few comic books in the last decade or two, you already know that the hero has been permanently replaced by the antihero–so that aspect was really no surprise. Sin City is a violent revenge tale, not unlike Kill Bill. However, Kill Bill had more campy panache and humanity in one frame than Sin City does in it’s entire 2 hours and 6 minutes.

On a narrative level, the film was nothing more than a series of unrelated greusome death scenes, interrupted by gratuitous T&A (a comic book geek’s wet dream world). Where was the plot? All of the geeks at AICN absolutely love it, becuase it’s so incredibly true to the comic book novel. but just becuase a film does not deviate from the source material does not make it great. If that were the case, all of those made-for-VHS Danielle Steele novella films starring Fabio and George Hamilton would be up for best picture every year.

On the plus side, I thought the CG cityscapes and effects were well-concieved and blended seamlessly into the world of the film. In terms of visuals, it’s a masterpiece. This is undoubtedly the closest a film has come to achieveing the look of the pulp comic books in the history of cinema.

Frank Miller’s world is darker than dark. If darkness and evil are your idea of a good time, then Sin City is the film for you. But I’m holding out for something better and brighter.

This documentary follows a group of Amish teenagers in Indiana during their rumspringa–that rite-of-passage thorugh the no-man’s land between childhood and married life in the Amish church community. these kids, living the high life in the “English” world (rock and roll, alcohol, fornication, drugs, etc) must decide whether to be baptized and pledge to live the Amish life, or join modern America and be excommunicated from their friends and family forever.

This raw documentary is shot cinéma-vérité: it has no narrator, and relies almost solely on footage of the Amish teens going about their day. Faron, the primary subject of the film is just as scared, confused, horny, and insecure as any American teen, but the additional weight of the decision he has to make is more than any teen should have to handle. The fact that these kids are having to choose between their heritage and “the American dream” is something none of them take lightly. When you think about how crucial tradition and family are in Amish life, the thought of abandoning that must be utterly terrifying, even if they decide to stay within the Amish faith. There would still be that nagging doubt: what if my parents were right?

The idea of rumspringa might seem absurd to some, but I think it fits the Anabaptist concept of waiting until a person can make a conscious, responsible decision to become a Christian, and it does have a biblical basis. It gives every individual their own opportunity to become a prodigal son. It’s certainly not something Amish teens have to do. it’s a choice, just like the choice to be baptized. I also see the way the church and community are willing to forgive and forget the sins of rumspringa mirrors the prodigal son’s father’s reaction to his son’s return.

I don’t know how one could see this as a “smear piece” on the Amish church, or faith in general. When Faron explains the Amish book of martyrs, he has an obvious reverence for the unbreakable faith of his ancestors. In fact, none of the teens in this film–regardless of their decision–turned away from their faith in heaven, hell, marriage, or God.

Kudos to Lucy Walker and the other filmmakers involved in the making of Devil’s Playground. The more I think about this movie, the more I want to see it again–the mark of a truly excellent film.

I joined Netflix yesterday. I realized that I need to stop buying DVDs (because I only watch them once or twice ever) and start watching more indie films and docs.. And stop supporting Blockbuster, the Wal-Mart of video store chains.

Currently in my queue: The Corporation, Bus 174, and Devil’s Playground. I’ll let you know how they are.