Snob Movie Review: Blindness

This film directed by Fernando Meirelles and written by Canadian Don McKellar opens in wide release on October 3rd, 2008.

The film is an adaptation of the famous novel, which I have not read and has a pretty good cast: Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Danny Glover, Alice Braga and even Gael Garcia Bernal.

The story begins when people in a non-descript large city begin to go blind. The isolated incidences become an epidemic.

Julianna Moore and Mark Ruffalo (he plays an eye doctor) are a husband and wife team. The husband becomes blind, whereas the wife doesn't. She pretends to be blind so that she can be with him as he gets put into an asylum with other blind folks.

The movie then goes the way of The Lord of Flies, where cliques are created, and food becomes more scarce. Tensions rise. Little to no help from the outside the outside city. It seems that the entire city has been abandoned after a while.

Anyways, the story goes on and there is a hopeful ending. Unfortunately, this movie is just so damn bleak and dark, it's hard to get into it. It's dreary color pallette even make the film boring to look at.

Essentially, this movie is not about everyone going blind, but rather it's about the one woman that can see. We're used to seeing Julianne Moore give so much of herself to other roles, but I just didn't buy her performance here. Perhaps it's the fault of the writing, but I didn't believe her actions, and when she took them.

This film was made by the same guy that did City of God and The Constant Gardener, both of which we love. What makes those stories so interesting is that they are about characters put into horrible situations. They then go on to make larger socio-political points.

Unfortunately, Blindness is more about a horrible situation with some characters in it. As a result, the film ends up being cold and trite.

Snob Movie Review: Ghost Town

The picture directed by Hollywood writer David Koepp, opened September 19, 2008.

Ricky Gervais plays a curmudgeonly dentist that accidentally dies for a short period of time during a routine medical procedure. He is brought back to life with the ability to see all of the ghosts in New York City. In fact, the ghosts are able to talk with him, but no one else in society. One of these ghosts is played by Greg Kinnear a philandering husband that was never good enough for his wife (Tea Leoni) when he was alive. Tea Leoni is an archeologist that has taken up with a great and smart man, whom she wants to marry. Gregg Kinnear hates the idea so he strikes a deal with the dentist to break up the wife's new relationship.

What happens with the rest of the movie is quite predictable, but somehow I was charmed. Perhaps it was Ricky Gervais playing an unlikely leading man. Or maybe it was how beautiful NYC looks.

Either way, by the end of the movie, the script has played all of its cards. However, there's still some heartwarming and emotional truth within the story. Then you realize that Ricky Gervais isn't so bad afterall, and he totally could get in there with Tea Leoni.

Aside from a questionable joke about Chinese folks, Ghost Town is a surprisingly satisfying and heartfelt romantic comedy.

Snob Movie Review: The Lucky Ones

This film opens September 26th, 2008. It was co-written and directed by Neil Burger, who was responsible for the under-appreciated The Illusionist.

Three soldiers (Rachel McAdams, Tim Robbins and Michael Pena) return from Iraq to try to move forward with their lives. Immediately after landing at JFK, everything seems to go wrong for them. Michael Pena's character (who was wounded in the 'private parts') plans to get to Vegas to find a professional to cure him of his sexual problem. Rachel McAdams, estranged from her family, decides to go to Vegas to give a guitar to a fallen soldier's family. She hopes that the family will then take her in.

Worse, Tim Robbins comes home to a wife that wants a divorce and a Son that needs tens of thousands of dollars to attend Stanford. Somehow this became a big deal; why couldn't the kid just take out a loan, like most students?!?!

Anyways, the film doesn't exactly work for a number of reasons. Most of them have to do with the odd number of coincidences that occur, and the strange situations that the characters are placed in. Not to give anything away, but I was kind of indifferent towards the picture until the scene with the tornado. Seriously, there's a tornado. That scene ruined the rest of the movie.

Rachel McAdams is kind of iffy with her accent, and Tim Robbins doesn't really do much. Michael Pena gives the strongest performance, actually showing some depth to his character.

All in all, the subject matter, the re-adjustment of soldiers to civilian life, is something serious and deserves better treatment and inquiry.

Snob Movie Review: Ballast

This film opens in NYC October 1st 2008, and much wider later on. It was written and directed by Lance Hammer, and has won a slew of awards (most notably the directing and cinematography awards at Sundance).

It's hard to give an opinion on a film like this, which admittedly is not concerned with plot, or storytelling. Rather, its sole intent is to create a mood or tone. This tone, quite overtly is grey and gloomy.

The plot involves rural Mississippi, where a man has committed suicide. His estranged son and the son's mother are left to deal with the man's twin brother. The plot is a bit more complicated, but honestly, plot is irrelevant.

The film begins with a beautiful sequence, and introduces us to interesting places and people, but then it doesn't deliver much of a story. This gets incredibly frustrating as provoking situations lead to empty questions and an unfulfilled feeling. I began to feel misled by the director.

The film seems to be in search of some greater truth, or realness in it's characters, but I stopped believing in the characters and got bored by the constant gloom. There is something inherently false about cinema, and trying to create something otherwise is futile.

The film also does away with any traditional soundtrack, with no score, or obvious sound design. I believe that a nice soundtrack does not have to be heavy-handed or 'telling the audience what to feel'. Rather, the creative use of sound is just another tool in a director's arsenal.

With all of this being said, Ballast is incredibly well crafted, well shot and clearly means a lot to the eloquent Lance Hammer. I'm glad that there are people like him crafting films like this, it's just not my cup of tea.

Snob Movie Review: Entre Les Murs (The Class)

This film, directed by Laurent Cantet, opens the New York Film Festival on Sept 26, 2008 and probably wider later on. It won the Palme d'Or at Cannes this year.

The film chronicles a French teacher's (played convincingly by François Bégaudeau) year at a struggling inner-city school in Paris.

The class takes place mostly in a classroom with non-professional actors of all stripes, from all corners of the world, which is a refreshing change. There is also a lot of time spent in meetings with other teachers during various committee meetings and such. Stuff like this has never really been explored in film.

There is much to say about it's verite and incredibly natural performances. The problem with films of this style, is that they quickly become boring. There is just so much talking, monotonous speeches and confrontational exchanges between the teacher and the students, that the genuiness of the performances begin to be overshadowed by the boringness that sets in.

The film does address many of the problems afflicting education in modern France (and North America, for that matter) such as assimilation, letting people fall through the cracks, fostering the brighter students etc... However, no real stance is taken and there is no serious discussion.

Perhaps besides the point, but I would have loved to have seen the students in their home life, or the teacher's life away from school.

I like the idea of being able to put a camera on every day situations and being able to find a story. Unfortunately, in real life, there is seldom any cinematic drama that occurs. Much like this film.

Snob Movie Review: Appaloosa

This movie is co-written, directed and stars Ed Harris. It opens in limited release on September 19th, and then wider October 3rd, 2008.

In a nutshell, Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen plays hired cop-buddies that are paid to clean up a town that is being ruled by a rancher (played by Jeremy Irons), who also killed a bunch of other lawmen at the beginning of the movie. A lady comes to town and complicates stuff.

I guess Ed Harris was thinking of making a straight up Western genre movie, as opposed to the more interesting Revisionist Western. He really made a mistake.

There is just so much wrong with this picture, that it's hard to understand what all of the buzz is about. Perhaps the main problem is that the lady, played by a horribly looking Renee Zelwegger, doesn't really complicate issues too much. No real love triangle develops, and Renee plays it completely melodramatic. I just don't understand the real purpose of this character.

Jeremy Irons tries his best as an evil Rancher, but ends up playing a caricature of Daniel Plainview. Ed Harris is also unconvincing as a strict law man. It's painful to watch him trying to convince the audience that he's actually enjoying this.

Did I mention that there's a band of Native Americans? I mean, INJUNS! Another calamity is the lone Asian guy in the cafe. I believe the direction must have been "Play the most stereotypical Chinese guy you can think of!".

At the end of the day, this is one of the most indulgent, directionless and pointless pictures of late. Neither tribute or critique of the Western genre, Appaloosa takes the worst parts of the genre and makes them even worse.