Чёрное Mо́рe

Kevin Macdonald's Black Sea is a submarine movie, which is a definite plus to my mind. I love me a good submarine flick.

But... Black Sea is not a good submarine flick. Instead, screenwriter Dennis Kelly shows his hand about a million times. The whole thing feels like a stage play, one in which we are always getting information far later than we ought to get it, one in which the screenwriter can do or say basically anything he wants, and we are asked simply to be ok with that.

Macdonald tries his best with the weak material, and so does the photographer Christopher Ross. Jude Law is great, of course. He's a superb actor, and he gives his all to this role, even though the role itself is not very exciting.

Black Sea, however, fills itself with twists and turns, as well as absurd emotional "payoffs" that don't actually work at all. This is not a character study like Dom Hemingway, this is an action-suspense movie. Except that the suspense is basically non-existent and the action is consistently predictable.

I was bored.

Smart about Race

So, on the way back from Chicago this summer, Julien, Becky and I were talking about The Help. The movie hadn't been released yet, but both Becky and I were skeptical. Julien asked about our skepticism. Do you think the movie will be racist?

The point, I said, was not that the movie would be racist. Most everything is racist. Hollywood itself, for that matter. But when I think about films, I told Julien that I think some films are smart about race and some films are stupid about race. I assumed from the trailer that The Help would be stupid about race.

I was right. The Help is actually extremely stupid about race. From its total ignorance about the state terror under which black people lived (and continue to live) in the South to its insistence on black women's love for the white children they're forced to raise to the almost total absence of black men in the film to the humorous way The Help deals with black women's fear of white men, The Help is just dumb about race.

Any film with a magic negro in it falls in the category dumb-about-race for me.

But all this got the three of us to thinking about what films are smart about race. I might need some feedback on this. I could not think of that many. These are the films I could think of:

Two films by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck: Sugar and Half Nelson. The first is about a baseball player from the Dominican Republic who comes to the U.S. and is transplanted to a midwest farm team. The second is about a teacher who is addicted to crack. Half Nelson in particular taught me about my own racist prejudices when I watch a film. That film stars Ryan Gosling and Anthony Mackie. So good.

I also recently watched the film Claudine from 1974 with Diahann Carroll and James Earl Jones and found it funny and moving and extremely smart about race.

I always thought Monster's Ball was pretty smart about race, too, but it's been a while since I saw it, so I can't remember that all that well.

Of the films I've seen in the last ten years:
Precious.
The Class.
The Visitor.
The Last King of Scotland.
Caché.
Junebug.
Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle.
Dirty Pretty Things.
Raising Victor Vargas.

There are probably a couple more that I am missing here. Anyhow, the point is: the list as such is not very long.

Thoughts?

The Nominees: Part V of VIII

THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND

1 Nomination:

Best Actor: Forest Whitaker

Director: Kevin Macdonald (Touching the Void, One Day in September)
Cast: James McAvoy, Forest Whitaker, Kerry Washington, Gillian Anderson, David Oyelowo, Simon McBurney

This film is one of my favorites of the year and Whitaker has been the frontrunner in the Best Actor race for at least two months. This is another Jamie Foxx in Ray juggernaut for the Best Actor race. Unfortunately, this excellent film, which was written by The Queen's scribe, Peter Morgan, and boasts another superb lead actor performance (from James McAvoy), has been mostly ignored except for Whitaker's performance (which is, admittedly, a remarkable one). This film is the movie about Africa that should have been recognized by the Academy (have I mentioned how much I hate Blood Diamond?)At any rate, Whitaker will win his Oscar and the film will get seen because of him, so I can't complain too much.
Will Win: Best Actor
Might Also Win: N/A
My Rating: #6 out of 69

VENUS

1 Nomination:

Best Actor: Peter O'Toole (My Favorite Year, The Stunt Man, The Ruling Class, Goodby, Mr. Chips, The Lion in Winter, Becket, Lawrence of Arabia)

Director: Roger Michell (Enduring Love, The Mother, Changing Lanes, Notting Hill, Persuasion)
Cast: Peter O'Toole, Jodie Whittaker, Leslie Phillips, Vanessa Redgrave

O'Toole, who, as you can see above, has received his eighth Oscar nomination for Best Actor this year was actually given an honorary Oscar two years ago for his contribution to "cinema history". When the Oscar is awarded to Forest Whitaker on February 25th, O'Toole will be the most frequently-nominated performer in history to never actually win an Oscar. In 1963, when he was first nominated (the performance that seems to stand out in most people's minds) he lost to Gregory Peck in To Kill a Mockingbird. This seems a difficult decision with which to argue. His subsequent nominations are easier ones to argue in favor of O'Toole, but not that easy. For example: would you take away Brando's Oscar for The Godfather in order to give O'Toole one? What about De Niro's for Raging Bull? After I've said all of that, O'Toole is definitely Whitaker's fiercest competition for the trophy and though he got off to a late start, he has been campaigning like a champ. I recently heard an interview with him on Fresh Air, and he's also been appearing on Television. I think it would be a shame to rob Whitaker, but maybe O'Toole'll win one after all.
Will Win: N/A
Might Also Win: Best Actor
My Rating: I haven't seen it. (Curse you, Tallahassee!)

HALF NELSON

1 Nomination:

Best Actor: Ryan Gosling

Director: Ryan Fleck
Cast: Ryan Gosling, Shareeka Epps, Anthony Mackie, Monique Curnen, Deborah Rush, Jay O. Sanders, Karen Chilton, Tina Holmes

Another of my favorite films of the year that was all-but-ignored by the Academy. Shareeka Epps performance is an excellent one and the script is one of the smartest of the year. I've lauded the film before (you can get to that through the link down below if you are so inclined) so I won't rehash that, but I would like to celebrate Gosling's nomination, even if it meant that Sacha Baron Cohen was excluded from the category. Gosling's performance is an honest, powerful one that reveals layer upon layer. Everyone should be paying attention to this guy. He's at the top of his game and is doing excellent work.
Will Win: N/A
Might Also Win: N/A
My Rating: #3 out of 69

THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS

1 Nomination:

Best Actor: Will Smith (Ali)

Director: Gabriele Muccino (Remember Me, My Love, The Last Kiss)
Cast: Will Smith, Jaden Christopher Syre Smith, Thandie Newton, Brian Howe, James Karen, Dan Castellaneta

This is a case of a giant movie star in a vehicle that is perfect for him. Smith's performance in the film is quite good for a movie star (in the way, say, Julia Roberts' performance was quite good in Erin Brockovich). The film is ridiculously sappy and at the same time, both relentlessly depressing and wildly triumphant. The Academy, understandably, has ignored everything but Smith's work. Should we even talk about the mis-spelling in the title? It makes sense in the context of the film, but everytime I type the title I want to write [sic] after it.
Will Win: N/A
Might Also Win: N/A
My Rating: #46 out of 69

VOLVER

1 Nomination:

Best Actress: Penélope Cruz

Director: Pedro Almodóvar (Bad Education, Talk to Her, All About My Mother, What Have I Done to Deserve This?, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown)
Cast: Penélope Cruz, Lola Dueñas, Carmen Maura, Blanca Portillo, Yohana Cobo, Chus Lampreave, Antonio de la Torre

How I love this film! and how I love this filmmaker! This film totally got robbed for a nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. This hurts even more because frequently Spain has been electing not to submit Almodóvar's films for the category. The big snub is probably due to a male-dominated voting bloc in the category that would, understandably, not really connect with Almodóvar's stories about women and the men they have to overcome. Cruz's nomination is much-deserved, though, so I'll just be glad about that. It would've been really ridiculous if this film had received no nominations at all.
Will Win: N/A
Might Also Win: N/A
My Rating: #5 out of 69

Five Movies for Hump Day

Roomie and I went to see Jesus Camp this evening at the Student Life Building. Jesus Camp is a documentary about an Evangelical youth ministry, and specifically one youth pastor named Becky Fischer, who wants to train children to be militant about Jesus. The film posits it as a fiercely political movement aimed squarely behind the Christian president George W. Bush and directed against global warming (!) and a woman's right to choose. The film is very problematic. It can't hep but totally deride these Christian people who have let them into their homes and the camera feels a little exploitative. This is especially true when the children are being interviewed. They are, of course, terribly indoctrinated and impressionable young people, but they appear really sweet and one ten-year-old girl really tugged at my heart with her story about how she wanted to run a nail shop and just tell people about Jesus while they got their nails done. What's fascinating in the film--the filmmakers make no point of this--is that the film has no reference to anything in the Bible. These people who purport themselves to be Christians and want the world to be Christian have no relationship to Christianity's holy texts, probably haven't even read them. It's extraordinary. They have this twelve-year-old child up onstage preaching to them, but the child wrote his sermon without looking at any scripture whatsoever. This is what terrifies me the most about the people in this film and the Christian Right in general: becaue their faith is grounded in nothing at all, not the words of Christ, not the words of the prophets, not Judaeic teachings, their speech is completely, totally rhetorical. This fascinates me. I'm not even sure why they believe what they believe. Believing I have god's word in my hands and reading it and spending my life learning what it says is one thing. Yelling about bringing Jesus back into our schools is just empty rhetoric without any basis in Christianity.
Anyway, the film reminded me of my childhood a lot, but I didn't really enjoy the picture, and it's shot for television and not the cinema, so if you do feel like watching it, rent it, because it will look better on your tv than it did in the giant theatre I saw it in.

Derek Jarman's Edward II is a quasi-modern, very gay adaptation of Christopher Marlowe's Edward II. It was an important film in 1991 when it came out and there was much brouhaha over it. Tilda Swinton stars (and is incredibly overdone.) I didn't like it at all, I have to confess. And maybe that makes me a bad gay man, but, though the costumes are always intriguing, the film has no structure at all. A still bigger problem is that the gay characters are unlikeable and (unfortunately) also uncomplicated. Skip this unless you want a history lesson in gay cinema or really like Marlowe.

I LOVED The Last King of Scotland. I know everyone's been talking about Forest Whitaker all season, but why has no one mentioned how brilliant Kevin Macdonald's film is? It's one of the best of the year, and boasts a second excellent lead performance from James McAvoy. This is a movie about struggles in Africa and a psychotic dictator, but also a film about white privilege and (I felt) recalled Rachel Corrie's story in a few key ways. By this I mean that The Last King of Scotland seems unafraid to explore the feeling of invincibility that white people seem to feel when they are abroad. It's a superb thriller with some breathtaking action sequences and moments of sheer terror while also being a sensitive, intelligent inquiry of race relations in post-colonial Africa. I loved it.

Letters from Iwo Jima was not as good as Flags of Our Fathers for me. Everyone likes Letters better than Flags, so I am clearly in the minority on this one, but though I thought Letters was a sturdy, committed picture, it lacked a lot of things I needed it to have. There was, for instance, no rooting interest in the film. The Japanese are all going to die on that island. This is a given from the very beginning and yet the film is still about the fighting of the war. I'm not going to trash the movie too much, but I was bored and everything in the film is so dark (they're in those caves) and for so long. The film also praises the Japanese soldiers who aren't traditionally Japanese and approach the war from a more American point of view. It's more interesting than that, and Eastwood complicates the American soldiers, too, but the whole thing felt vaguely colonialist. The acting is excellent, though. Ken Watanabe and Kazunari Ninomiya are wonderful in their twin lead roles and my favorite performance comes from Tsuyoshi Ihara as a horse-loving former Olympian.

And I saw The Good Shepherd which is painfully, horribly bad. I moved it to the very bottom of my list for '06. I haven't been that bored in a film since Pirates of the Caribbean 2. It's totally plotless, completely lacking in stakes of any kind and boasts about twenty well-known actors saying and doing absolutely nothing. This list includes Matt Damon, Alec Baldwin, William Hurt, Billy Crudup, Michael Gambon, Barton Fink John Turturro, Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Lee Pace, and many more that you would recognize immediately--which just makes the whole thing so much worse! Angelina Jolie is quite good in the film, doing unexpectedly good work with terrible material. This film is terrible. It's this year's Alexander. Avoid at all costs.