Movie Reviews

After not having seen many movies last year, Frankye and I have seen 5 in the past month. We go so infrequently that we try to pick films that we heard were great or important and that we really want to see. Of the 5 we've seen, I'd have to say that I enjoyed them all.

We ended 2005 by going to the movie on New Year's Eve and seeing a film called The Family Stone. It stars Diane Keaton, but was mostly an ensemble piece. It is funny, moving, engaging and entertaining. Its the kind of movie that I would watch over and over again when it comes on TV, even if it had already started when I came across it. Other movies like that are Murphy's Romance, Steel Magnolias, and Moonstruck, to name a few.

The next film we saw was Brokeback Mountain. I wanted to see this movie for several reasons. It is based on an Annie Proulx short story, adapted by Larry McMurtry and directed by Ang Lee. The movies stars Heather Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, two good, young actors. The total of the film is as good as its parts. It is a moving and sad commentary on the homophobia, internal and external, that still lives loud within communities in America. To think that the kind of homophobia these men feared is unrealistic in the time period portrayed, one ony has to remember Matthew Shepard. Brokeback Mountain is a ground breaking movie.

The 3rd film we saw was Munich. This is a difficult movie. Steven Spielberg is a good director, but I consider most of his movies to be childish fluff. There are few films of his I consider "adult" films. He attempted to make The Color Purple an adult film, but I always felt he failed miserably at that attempt. He succeeded with Schindler's List, Amistad and Saving Private Ryan. He also succeeds with Munich. Munich is good on so many levels. The story itself is interesting, and timely. It begins with an incident at the 1972 Olympics in Munich and the last frame of the movie brings it to the present, as recent as September 10, 2001. The acting is good and each scene is efficient. There's no excess in the movie. But the real success of the movie is the pace of it and the way Spielberg builds the tension and the violence in the story. In so doing, he also builds the argument against retaliatory action and shows the futility of violence as a tool of peace.

The next film we saw is a quiet, slow, but beautifully filmed telling of John Smith, Pocahantas and the Jamestown settlement, called The New World. Starring Colin Farrell and Christian Bale, and directed and written by Terrance Mallik, the real stars of the film are Q'Orianka Kilcher, who plays Pocahantas, and the cinematography. The film is filled with authentic looking tribal people and the awfulness of building a community in a strange land, from nothing.

The last and most recent film we saw was Syriana. Based on the non-fiction book, "See No Evil" by Robert Baer, this is a political thriller about American business and Mideast oil. The film is relevent to today's politics, today's gas prices, and today's war. There is no one star of this film, although some of the actors are better known than others. Everyone is a supporting player, as there are several subplots weaving its ways though this film. This is the kind of film that requires attention to every frame. A knowledge of CIA and the Mideast helps to understand the actions of the characters. George Clooney and Jeffrey Wright are wonderful in this film.

I recommend all 5 films, as well as Walk The Line, which we saw in early December. There are several films I missed, which I hope to see on DVD when released. The top of that list is another George Clooney film, Good Night and Good Luck.