Category: Film

“The once and future King”

Bobby opens with a scrolling text that makes Robert Francis Kennedy out to be a golden god, the only man who could have set America down the right path. It’s laughable in its propagandistic shouting from the rooftops.

The story of Bobby has always been more the tale of its creation … Emilio Estevez was advised by Charlie Sheen to keep on writing after he hit a wall, and people kept on cropping up who were connected to the day that Kennedy was shot … than of its actual cinematic qualities. In interviews, Estevez truly did believe that Kennedy could have brought about the perfect America. It’s almost scary.

Fortunately, it rises above its limitations in its actual execution. There’s far too much in the way of “meaningful speeches”, as Estevez is not near the orator that Kennedy clearly was, but it becomes a movie about people connected to an event and actually lets the audience make up their own minds about Kennedy through Kennedy’s own words.

In space, nothing good ever happens. Really, I don’t know why you’d bother.

Science fiction from Danny Boyle, the director of Trainspotting and 28 Days Later. That simple description of Sunshine may be enough to sell it to quite a few people.

Some wonder why more SF doesn’t get made and, beyond the fact of the high budgets expected to make them look good, there is a simple explanation: space is bleak. Sunshine gives hope, but ultimately all is an endless vacuum.

Trailer Warning: Don’t watch the trailer for this movie, as it apparently spoils many of the pertinent plot elements.


Transformers, He-Man, G.I. Joe et al are more my brother’s vintage. I was a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles boy, myself.

When I saw Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny, I caught the majority of the new Transformers trailer. It was … hilarious in its badness. Now, the movies are a good way of telling people how to feel. We’ve had, over the years, homo panic, Islam panic, Commie panic, even North Korea panic.

Today, thanks to Michael Bay, we’ve got a new twist on AI panic: the fear that our cars will TURN INTO ROBOTS AND KILL US ALL. That’s why I don’t drive: I live in fear! The reason I upgraded from a Walkman to an iPod is because I’ve seen what Walkmen can do.

So if you look at Transformers, you can tell that what we’re in for is a ride of pure hell. There could, even as we speak, be a Transformer hiding in your pool waiting to pounce on your unsuspecting children. It is unclear precisely what this Transformer intends to do your little girl, as I believe that Decepticons run on fuel rather than blood. Perhaps plasma is simply delicious.

In fact, none of this makes any sense at all. That’s the good thing about irrational fear: it’s irrational. I don’t believe that society has a history of oppressing sentient machines, enslaving them to our whims. I’m more in league with the types of cars that burst into dance at the slightest provocation.

How Transformers can be anything but bad is beyond me. Unless it turns out to be a documentary: a stern warning of things to come. In which case, Michael Bay for Antichrist!

It’s fair to say that you don’t need to be Chinese to like a Chinese movie, or gay to like a gay movie, or French to like a French movie (although not being an American helps on that particular front). However, I’m coming around to the view that to enjoy a stoner movie … you kind of have to be a stoner.

Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny, a film with a name that wants to imply limitless sequels, lets you know what you’re in for from the very beginning with its “THC” logo. Thereafter it’s sporadically funny but it tends to sacrifice the subtlety and nuance that we all know that Kyle Gass and Jack Black are capable of … all for the sake of people saying “dude, I am so high right now.”
Well, I’m not high right now. I was not high when I watched the movie. That is possibly why it skirted along the shores of awfulness.

Buy war bonds.

I am now ashamed of not having seen this at the cinema. It just goes to show, though, that a bad trailer can break a good movie. Flags of Our Fathers had a trailer aimed at the Ur-American who wanted to celebrate the glories of war. The film itself is actually an examination of the necessities and cruelties of war, and of the war machine itself.
It fails to pass judgement for the most part (with the exception of a brief reference to Vietnam), and to that end is a good movie. However … and I personally don’t see this … Paul Haggis’ script may be too leftist for some. Why, if he had run World War II, we’d all be communists by now!

I can’t decide …

My friend Annie was the only girl in the cinema. That sounds about right. The Dying Gaul is an adaptation of a stage play, and at times it certainly feels like it. For all of its strengths, its power, and the excellence of Patricia Clarkson, it has a certain pretentiousness in its staging and an abrupt ending of the kind generally reserved for the stage.

In a festival that includes Poltergay (which sounds stupid but looks hilarious), Another Gay Movie (homosexual American Pie) and Dead Boyz Don’t Scream, another addition to the presumably until recently unexplored genre of the homosexual slasher movie, The Dying Gaul is one of the more serious entries; perhaps a little too serious. Still, Patricia Clarkson is always worthwhile.

Tonight I saw Little Children. Horrible but great. It was the calibre of film that attracts a good calibre of trailer. In addition to the now customary Notes on a Scandal trailer, there were two other good things.

They both look interesting enough to both be featured here.

Letters from Iwo Jima

This actually looks incredibly good. Unlike the Flags of Our Fathers trailer, which was always going to be a soft-sell to the “America, America, rah rah rah!” troupe, Letters from Iwo Jima‘s trailer concentrates on the human side of the story. It looks like a movie I could get emotionally involved in, and I’m now used to the colour scheme. I would feel kind of bad deciding this was the best picture Oscar winner a mere two days before the ceremony, but if it is, so be it.

The Good German

I was going to say something along the lines of George Clooney not liking colour anymore, but then I remembered Syriana. Dang, I hate that movie.
Anyway, George Clooney and Steven Soderbergh teaming up means that the movie will either be good or a preachy snoozefest. I think that’s at their discretion, but I’ll look forward to this. One criticism of the trailer, or maybe I simply wasn’t paying attention: I don’t really have any idea of what this movie is about.

What am I going to do when I run out of Greek alphabet?