Square Eyes

the life aquatic

Wes Anderson scores again. I don't like to gush, so here are just a couple of reasons you ought to see this one:

1. The soundtrack is mostly Bowie songs sung bossa-nova style to solo guitar accompaniment
2. The sea life is done by the same guy who did the nightmare before christmas
3. Bill Murray
4. Owen Wilson
5. "Revenge"

It's a different kind of movie than Rushmore and Tenenbaums, but the carefully composed whimsy and the awkward pathos of those movies is still present and accounted for.

If you liked Bottle Rocket, Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums, you are in for an absolute treat. If you didn't like those movies, we need to talk about how it is that you've become the enemy of cinematic joy.

Meet the Fockers

If you need to know more about this than the title provides, you're beyond my help.

Less funny than the first one, but if you like seeing Ben stiller act uncomfortable and Deniro slumming as a sneaky dumbass you'll be glad to know all that is still in here. There is also one of those creepy babies that are supposed to be smart too - kind of like "Look Who's Talking." There are cats fighting dogs.

I can't even remember what made me bother - I think I was hoping to wait out the rain. I should have just gotten wet.

the motorcycle diaries

A touching, lyrical road movie about Che while he was still Ernesto. People have been telling you that you oughta see it. They're right.

Hotel Rwanda

Don Cheadle doesn't get the chance to star in films much. He's generally relegated to the task of brilliant supporting player. In this role, he never disappoints.

So in this movie, which i've heard him say only came his way because Will Smith passed, he takes that chance and makes the most of it. He's so good in this that I now dare to dream of an end to the Willenium.

The story is essentially an African Schindler's List. It's a heartwarming tale set in the middle of one of the great humanitarian crises of our time. That could be highly gratuitous, but the melodrama is more restrained than I was expecting.

Don is great in this movie and I hope he wins some awards for it. I don't hold out much hope that watching a movie will make people want to do something about the other genocidal horrors going on in our world, but it's got more chance of making that happen than another assy Will Smith movie does.

the aviator

Martin Scorcese is the kind of director who deserves the benefit of the doubt. There are far too many brilliant films to his name for him to have to answer to me or anyone else about his choices. That said, I'm gonna object to a bunch of them

I'm really not capable of objectivity when it comes to Leonardo diCaprio. I think he picks bad movies and is quite often very bad in them. Scorcese has made the baffling decision to place his petulant and Macchioesque mug in the middle of two major historical epics recently. Maybe that's because Martin sees something in him that I'm just missing. Maybe that's because Leo has unflattering pictures of Martin. I can't really say, but I'd like it to stop.

Howard Hughes is a perfect subject. His deeply American obsessions with airplanes, movies and boobs are a wide-open allegorical canvas. His attraction to excess, his descent into pampered madness - even I want to make a movie about him once i start thinking about it.

But the movie ends up beautiful and disappointing at the same time. The visuals are gorgeous and thought through in a way that's uncommon in big-budget flicks. Watch for the differences in color as the movie progresses - they're meant to mimic the available film process at the time period being portrayed. The disappointment is that despite the fundamental bigness of Hughes' life and the 3hour running time. it still ends up feeling like something shot for the History Channel - a sort of Cliff's Notes version of the mightiest man of his age. It never feels like we get away from plot and into character.

Maybe a life as big as this one is too big for one film. Maybe Mr. Scorcese just couldn't bring himself to pick a chapter of this life and make a movie that has time to linger and probe.

Not in any way a bad film, but not the film Hughes deserves, either.

the assassination of richard nixon

Sean Penn is never boring on screen. This is important in this film, because his rather sizable melon is where most of the action takes place here.

I'm not saying that just to be snide. This is a very interesting film with modest but intriguing ambitions, and all of its promise rests on the endlessly expressive face of Sean Penn. He does not disappoint.

The story is based on the true story of a plot to assassinate richard nixon at the height of the Watergate scandal. The film follows the awkward, wounded man who hatches this plot and makes a gentle and surprisingly evenhanded attempt to understand the nature of his situation, to unravel the mystery of this forgotten political footnote.

It's the first feature for the director, and his hand is sure and patient. I don't know if the movie will make a lot of money, but it deserves the attention far more than "Meet the Fockers." If it's playing where you live, you should see it before it's gone. If it's not, keep an eye out for the DVD.

alexander

Wow. I've often been stuck in the position of being an Oliver Stone apologist, but even I can't defend this floater. Terrible voice-overs to mask a meandering script, terrible scenery-chewing to hide dimly conceived characters and terrible accents to make sure I never get invested in the movie for a second.
I'm willing to suspend disbelief about all ancient Mediterranean types speaking with UK accents, but what is that "get moose and squirrel" thing they have Rosario Dawson doing?

Seriously, not even on video. Read some Plutarch and thank me in the morning.