If Man on Wire brought the mechanics of a suspense thriller to the structure of a documentary, The Cove goes one step further: Marrying Michael Moore activism to that film’s docu-thriller aesthetic. Just as the suspense in Man on Wire hinged on wire walker Philippe Petit’s attempts to not get caught in an elaborate scheme to walk a wire between the Twin Towers, The Cove’s … [Read more...]
‘Ugly Truth’ is rom-com by the numbers
The ugly truth about the new romantic comedy The Ugly Truth is that it wastes a talented cast on a formulaic story that audiences are either going to be way ahead of or shaking their heads in disbelief over. Like The Proposal, the Sandra Bullock vehicle that has proven inexplicably popular, this is another tale of a savvy, professionally successful woman who suddenly turns … [Read more...]
‘Girlfriend’ an intense look at way we live now
No film better describes the world we live in right now than Steven Soderbergh’s The Girlfriend Experience. The film is almost designed to be a time-capsule artifact, a vivisection of America in late 2008, ready to be unearthed and dissected in some future economics, political science or cinema studies course (because The Girlfriend Experience is about all three). On the … [Read more...]
‘Outrage’ aims at closeted anti-gay lawmakers
It’s not the sexual orientation of so many gay politicians that bothers documentary filmmaker Kirby Dick, it’s the hypocrisy. His partisan movie Outrage rehashes the outing of such well-publicized gay elected officials as New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey and Idaho Sen. Larry Craig, the latter having a particularly anti-gay voting record on marriage rights, HIV/AIDS, employment … [Read more...]
‘Afghan Star’ explores gap between pop stardom, repression
About halfway through her new documentary Afghan Star, British filmmaker Havana Marking finds an image that best expresses the confused, artificial progress of post-Taliban Afghanistan: A woman, completely covered by a burqa, snaps a photo of a wannabe pop star with her cellphone. For a movie about modern, Westernized culture attempting to flourish in a land still dominated by … [Read more...]
‘Every Little Step’ movingly depicts backstage reality show
If ever there were a natural angle for a documentary about a Broadway show, it would be to show the auditions for A Chorus Line, the Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical about dancer hopefuls auditioning for a fictional Broadway show. Even though having the idea and gaining the backstage access are much of the reason Every Little Step is such involving … [Read more...]
‘Whatever Works’ slight, but at least it’s funny
You would not need to know that Woody Allen first wrote the screenplay for his latest film, Whatever Works, more than 30 years ago to recognize it as a refreshing throwback.To say that the past decade or so have been artistically fallow for Allen, despite the arrival of at least one movie a year, would be an understatement. To those of us who feel Allen has made some great … [Read more...]
Engaging ‘Away We Go’ marks advance for Mendes
Has Sam Mendes turned into an old softie?The proficient director has earned the reputation, perhaps unfairly, as a chronicler of suburban discontent and alienation, thanks to the breakthrough success of American Beauty and last year’s Revolutionary Road, a histrionic study of a couple’s picket-fence-stifled disintegration.Like Revolutionary Road’s subtler, inverted flipside, … [Read more...]
‘Food, Inc.’ a disturbing look at the industry of eating
Movies are a very effective medium for entertainment, but can they fundamentally change the way we think about the food that we eat?That is the task that director Robert Kenner gives himself in Food Inc., a look at what has happened to the livestock, poultry and produce we consume ever since the corporate world took over farming and turned it into big business.This documentary … [Read more...]
‘Year One’ an unfunny comedic fossil
Year One is grounded in a premise so thin it’s practically invisible. “Hey, studio executives, wouldn’t it be great if we cast Jack Black and Michael Cera doing and saying exactly the same things they do and say in every modern picture, but set it in Biblical times? What a riot!”This is what the filmmakers are banking on: that you’ll find the very idea of Black and Cera talking … [Read more...]