Secret Agent Gal Movie Reviews

X-Men: First Class *****

 

Calling young mutants everywhere: We need you. Please save our world. Matthew Vaughn’s masterpiece of comic book action, drama and history X-Men: First Class champions being different, proud and loud. It's livelier than its predecessors The Last Stand and Wolverine.

On par with Batman and Superman, this smart, exciting prequel is an instant classic. It captures the spirit and scope of the original Marvel Comics with big talent, engaging story, sci-fi elements and James Bond-like espionage. Vaughn displays his Kick-Ass flair as the X-Men exercise mutant powers.

Freaks as valuable members of society is a major theme throughout the film. Outsiders are the ones who can see beyond the petty, dangerous wars of men. They are the true heroes of humanity. The new X-Men must learn to accept themselves fully to unlock that awesome power. 

Globe trotting, can’t-look-away action is expertly woven around larger-than-life characters. This stylish summer blockbuster has a timeless quality, with action that seems like it's happening today rather than during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

James McAvoy as humanitarian genius Professor X/Charles Xavier and Michael Fassbender as obsessed revenge seeker Magneto/ Erik Lehnsherr headline with an uneasy bromance. They’re the mutant granddaddies who lead and guide a hand-picked crew of young superpowers to battle mutant Nazi megalomaniac Sebastian Shaw/Dr. Schmidt (Kevin Bacon, better than ever).

Professor X's telepathy has given him empathy and a concern for humanity. X-Men have a responsibility to  be better than humans, using their powers to prevent catastrophe and also to lead men on the path of peace and justice. Magneto's rivalry with Professor X arises from his thirst for revenge. He'd rather be right than be happy.

Years after executing Erik's mother, Shaw is now a world threat who wants to exploit Cold War tensions to spark nuclear annihilation. Erik must stop him. “Let’s just say I’m Frankenstein’s monster and I’m looking for my creator,” he says. Bacon has played evildoers before, most notably a child molester in The Woodsman.

Charles teaches his friend to tap into authentic might. “True focus lies somewhere between rage and serenity,” he says. Erik eventually joins forces with Charles and the other X-Men to enhance his own powers.                

Sexpot Raven/Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) yearns to fit in with humans, hiding her lovely blue scales. Raven sneaks into Erik’s bed one evening. “You want society to accept you, but you can’t even accept yourself,” he chides. Nerdy scientist and Raven’s admirer Hank/Beast (Nicholas Hoult) enhances his freakishness in a botched lab experiment. Finally Raven gets it. “Society should aspire to be more like us.”

Rose Byrne plays adventurous CIA agent Moira MacTaggert who recruits Charles and Raven to join the agency’s new Division of Mutant Powers. Oliver Platt is perfect as a CIA special ops bigwig who must defer to Charles’ leadership if they stand any chance of stopping Shaw.

Rounding out the ensemble are January Jones as Shaw’s accomplice Emma Frost, a call girl and telepathic ice queen. Zoe Kravitz (Angel Salvadore/Wings) breaks a few hearts. Caleb Landry Jones (Cassidy/Banshee) rides ear-splitting sound waves. Jason Flemyng (Clash of the Titans) plays devilish Azazel. Lucas Till shows real leadership as Alex Summers/Havok. Alex Gonzalez plays soulful Janos Questad/Riptide. Edi Gathegi (Twilight) stands up to Shaw as Darwin/Armondo.

A funny cameo by one famous mutant bestows a back-handed blessing on the newest X-Men.

Top notch are John Mathieson’s cinematography, John Dykstra’s visual effects, Chris Seagers’ production design and Sammy Sheldon’s costumes.

If you like X-Men: First Class, you might enjoy:  Comic Book Movies.

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X-Men: First Class     2011  /  PG-13  /  2 hour, 10 min

Cast Overview:  James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Kevin Bacon, Rose Byrne, January Jones, Oliver Platt, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Zoe Kravitz, Jason Flemyng, Lucas Till, Caleb Landry Jones, Alex Gonzalez, Edi Gathegi

Director:  Matthew Vaughn

Genre:  Action, Adventure, SciFi, Fantasy, Comic Book

 

Trollhunter *****

 

Troll!  When tourists disappear and trees topple, a feisty band of film students seeks the facts. Legend has it that trolls rule the northern wilds of Norway. Those stories can’t be anything more than just fairy tales – right? André Øvredal’s send-up of the crusty creatures Trollhunter delivers giddy thrills.

Much like The Blair Witch Project with the scope of Jurassic Park, the folklore-inspired expose stars solitary trollhunter Hans (comedian Otto Jespersen) and the cheeky students who follow him. With an enigmatic slash across his face, intense Hans lives in a smelly trailer festooned with furry tails. Deep gashes pierce his SUV, which has been retrofitted with metal teeth and huge spotlights.

The trollhunter speeds off each night without warning. He must know something about the disappearances, the Volda College students believe. “Get lost!” he warns Thomas (Glenn Erland Tosterud).

The gang persists. “Do you think Michael Moore gave up after the first try?” Thomas asks. People have the right to know what’s behind the accidents, insists soundwoman Johanna (Johanna Morck). Cameraman Kalle (Tomas Alf Larsen) appears late during a critical moment. Blaming bears and tornadoes, the government and mainstream media seem clueless.

A government conspiracy is uncovered. The Wildlife Board has known about trolls all along, but denies their existence. The head of the ultra-secret Troll Security Service Finn Haugen (Hans Morten Hansen) hires a crew of Polish painters (led by Robert Stoltenberg) to plant false evidence at accident scenes.

Comedians Jespersen, Tosterud, Hansen and Stoltenberg elevate Trollhunter's dark comedy and interesting character development. Norway’s Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg appears in a cameo at the film’s conclusion.

With deadpan sincerity, Jespersen portrays a man attuned to freaky nature who strives to do right. Hans walks a fine line between protecting citizens and treating the mammals humanely. He confesses that he once led a murderous government mission against the trolls. Now he’s relieved that someone will document their existence.

Hans has one major weapon to combat rampaging trolls. Bright UV light makes them calcify, causing them to explode or turn to stone. “I’m not brave,” he tells Thomas. “This is dirty work.”

The lively, low budget adventure was featured at Sundance 2011. Writer-director Øvredal told Io9 that Hans’ character was partly inspired by Robert Shaw’s Quint in Jaws. 

Tall as trees, trolls can live for over a thousand years. Not too bright, they eat rocks and smell like troll stench. They’re a far cry from the homely-cute trinkets with orange or green hair. Tosserlad can sprout up to nine heads to lure lady trolls. A three-headed giant sends the hunter and initially skeptical trio scrambling.

Trolls turn furious when they smell the blood of a Christian. For this reason Hans insists that only non-believers can tag along. This detail has some historical basis. When Christianity took hold in Norway during the 13th century, people stopped believing in and worshipping trolls.

 

A rabid Ringlefinch takes the bait on a bridge, flinging Hans aloft like a plaything. Luckily the group comes to his rescue. A veterinarian later confirms that the troll was diseased. Hans fills out the government requisite Slayed Troll Form.

When power lines are ripped down around Mountain King territory, Hans and the gang travel far north to investigate. A massive, renegade Jotnar stalks them. Supersized like the Abominable Snow Monster from TV’s Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, this troll may be the most ferocious of all. Just then the Wildlife Board shows up.

Deliciously suspenseful, Trollhunter features production design by Martin Gant and sound design by Baard Haugan Ingebretsen. Impressive CGI and seamless visual effects are supervised by Øystein Larsen. Big set pieces and fearsome sound evoke the best of the Hollywood creature features.

Cinematographer Hallvard Braein achieves relatively steady handheld camerawork amidst beautiful valleys, forests, mountains and fjords. Film locations included Vaatedalen, Juten Heiman, and Sogn og Fjordane. 

Menace or national treasure? It seems trolls want to eat, reproduce and roam in peace. The pathos of the trolls will impress animal lovers even while mock bear carcasses and live goat bait may disturb some.

If you like Trollhunter, you might enjoy:  Insidious; Apollo 18; Splice.

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Trollhunter     2010  /  NR  /    1 hour, 33 min

Cast Overview:  Otto Jespersen, Glenn Erland Tosterud, Hans Morten Hansen, Johanna Morck, Tomas Alf Larsen, Knut Naerum, Robert Stoltenberg, Torunn Lodemel Stokkeland, Marte Brauteset

Director:  André Øvredal

Genre:  Mockumentary, Horror, Foreign Film

Language: Norwegian with English subtitles

 

13 Assassins *****

 

A ritual suicide opens the taut action thriller 13 Assassins. A man disembowels himself to draw attention to a barbaric killer who has been terrorizing the region. Who will be brave enough to take him on? Takashi Miike directs this stirring tale about the way of the samurai.

Lord Naritsugu (Goro Inagaki as a sadist with no conscience), is the Shogun’s half brother who’s about to assume more power.  Naritsugu rapes and kills for pleasure, hacking up bodies like a petulant child. He slaughters not just men, but whole families. With uncanny calmness he slices a husband in front of his wife. A severed head rolls across the floor.

A council of elders convenes and strategy is plotted. Bucking tradition, they summon a samurai leader to intervene and bring about peace. Shinzaemon Shimada (calmly authoritative Koji Yakusho of Shall We Dance?) is called out of retirement. A messenger finds him fishing, lost in contemplation and one with nature. There’s a sense of renewed purpose when the widower agrees to take up his sword again. He recruits a team of samurai to help him.

It was 1844, the end of Japan’s Edo period, a relatively peaceful time when samurai activities were strictly regulated. The waning samurai era is captured in gloomy, dark tones while 13 Assassins pays homage to the honor, daring and discipline of the men eager to sacrifice their lives for a noble cause. The limits of the samurai code, especially its unbreakable code of obedience to a master, are made clear.

Melding art and pop, Miike (Audition; Ichi the Killer; The Bird People in China) is a prolific director who has made 50 feature films over 20 years. This remake of Eiichi Kudo’s 1963 original is loosely based on historic events. Screenwriter Daisuke Tengan crafts outstanding dialogue and action.

Striving to recruit a worthy team, Shinzaemon visits a brothel to enlist his wayward nephew Shinrokuro (rising star Takayuki Yamada). Also joining the mission is handsome master warrior Hirayama (Tsuyoshi Ihara), and explosive experts Horii (Koen Kondo) and Higuchi (Yuma Ishigaki).

Staving off an attack from Naritsugu’s supporters, the group enters the deep forest to ambush him. Along the way they rescue Koyata (Yusuke Iseya), a forest hunter who had been left for dead suspended from a tree. Koyata scoffs at the arrogance of the samurai even as he admires the fighters and itches to join them in combat.

Shinzaemon must match wits with his old sparring partner Hanbei (Masachika Ichimura), Naritsugu’s lead samurai. Even though Hanbei detests his master’s crimes, he follows him without question. Shinzaemon regards his old friend as a fish to catch. He employs kensho, seeing nature without duality, to understand his opponent and himself.

As the 13 men ambush Naritsugu’s well-trained army of 200 in a mountain village, the 45-minute-long battle becomes a macabre dance. An excruciating, intimate bloodbath plays out with occasional lulls. Catching the enemy off guard succeeds. Naritsugu is strangely unafraid, even titillated by the slaughter of his own men. Blood flows and heads roll with grisly realism and subtle, effective CGI.

“Your samurai brawls are crazy cool!” Koyata exclaims. “This is no brawl!” answers a warrior. Koyata is a comical, tree-hugging David hurling rocks at Goliath. He relishes the excitement yet sees folly in the intense killing spree. Iseya recalls Toshiro Mifune’s character in Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai.

 

Dignified camerawork by Nobuyasu Kita, lovely costumes by Kazuhiro Sawataishi and a rousing musical score from long-time Miike collaborator Koji Endo help make 13 Assassins a genre classic.

Tragedy is inevitable as the film ends with a playfully metaphysical reaffirmation of life. Influenced by the Rinzai school of Zen Buddhism, the samurai code remains relevant today with its loyalty, devotion, duty, respect and self-sacrifice.

If you like 13 Assassins, you might enjoy:  Unknown; War & Military Movies.

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13 Assassins     2010  /  R  /    2 hours, 6 min

Cast Overview:  Koji Yakusho, Takayuki Yamada, Yusuke Iseya, Goro Inagaki, Masachika Ichimura, Mikijiro Hira, Hiroki Matsukata, Ikki Sawamura

Director:  Takashi Miike

Genre:  Action, Foreign Film

Language: Japanese with English subtitles

 

Happy *****

 

Oscar-nominated director Roko Belic’s film shares insights from psychology, neuroscience, and multicultural wisdom to discover the keys to deep and lasting joy in the documentary Happy.

Belic, who shared a 1999 Oscar nomination with his brother Adrian for the musical documentary Genghis Blues, asks why the United States, one of the wealthiest nations in the world, ranks low in happiness.  He traveled to 14 countries, interviewing positive and optimistic individuals both rich and poor.

Happiness is 50% genetic, 40% intentional, and only 10% circumstance, according to scientists. This contradicts the widespread belief that attaining wealth and material things guarantees delight. Once our basic human needs are met, researchers say, $50K and $5 million look very much the same to our brains.

Adversity can kick start happiness, giving our brains the biochemical contrast needed to create new, better realities, according to scientists. Melissa Moody recounts her comeback from despair following a truck accident. While recovering from multiple reconstructive facial surgeries, long-buried memories of childhood abuse resurfaced. Her husband left her. She contemplated suicide. Moody hung on for the sake of her children. Today she says she has reached a more centered, happy place. She helps others with physical rehabilitation. She met and married someone new.

The happiest countries promote community. Denmark offers co-housing groups where families share chores and rewards. Anne Bechsgaard, a divorced mother, says she rebounded from depression after moving into co-housing. She and her children enjoy many friends and caring neighbors there. Communal dining has lightened her workload. Bechsgaard cooks supper and cleans up afterwards only twice a month.

 
 
A rickshaw driver living in the slums of Kolkata, India, Manoj Singh exudes happiness through arduous work days in extreme heat and monsoons. His family and neighbors are key, he says.

Bhutan’s government now weighs Gross National Happiness as well as Gross National Product, according to government official Dasho Kinley Dorji. For example, flooding a valley for a new dam would bring economic benefits, but would not be feasible because many would be displaced, and places of worship would be destroyed. The Gross National Happiness experiment is relatively new and results are forthcoming, we are told.  

Andy Wimmer, a former West German banker, volunteers at Mother Theresa’s Home for the Dying in Calcutta, India. As he moves about the hospice room filled with the destitute, he helps them eat and clean themselves. He feels deep peace knowing he is doing “something more” with his life.

 “It’s the values we have that are the biggest indicator of our happiness,” Belic learns. Intrinsic goals such as compassion, friendship and contributing to one’s community are much more conducive to happiness than extrinsic goals like money, power and social standing, he discovered.

Connectedness, generosity, play, flow, health and longevity are parts of the puzzle. New twists on traditional approaches are offered. “Nature is good medicine,” we’re reminded. Exercising in novel ways increases the brain’s dopamine levels most effectively, say neuroscientists. Choosing a new running or walking route can accomplish this.

Among the experts featured are “Dr. Happiness” Ed Diener, who has studied happiness in America for over 35 years, and Richard Davidson, a neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies meditation’s effects on individual happiness.

Not for cynics, this decidedly upbeat exploration will appeal most to those who yearn for genuine contentment, and to others who are already happy to some degree.

Like his producer Tom Shadyac (who directed blockbusters such as Bruce Almighty and, more recently, the documentary I Am), Belic sold his home and moved to a trailer on the beach in Malibu. He enjoys surfing and a sense of community, he told Paste Magazine. “Within the first two weeks of moving here, I met more people than I did in 10 years of having a house in the suburbs of San Francisco.”

Happy is narrated by Marci Shimoff, author of Chicken Soup for the Woman’s Soul.

If you like Happy, you might enjoy:  I Am; 2012: Time for Change; Thrive.

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Happy     2011  /  G  /  1 hour, 18 min

Cast Overview:  Ed Diener, Daniel Gilbert, Gregory Burns, Read Montague, The Dalai Lama, Matthieu Ricard, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Nic Marks, Richard Davidson, Sonja Lyubomirsky, Tim Kasser, Andy Wimmer, Chikanobu Okamura, Anne Bechsgaard and family, Hiroko Uchino, Kundo Bo and family, Manoj Singh and family, Melissa Moody, Michael Pritchard, Ronaldo Fadul, Roy Blanchard and Family

Director:  Roko Belic

Genre:  Documentary

 

Incendies *****

 

A daughter investigates her mother’s life and her own roots in the Oscar-nominated mystery Incendies. Denis Villeneuve writes and directs this suspenseful family drama that intertwines the daughter’s journey with scenes from her mother’s traumatic early years in the Middle East.

When their mother dies, grown twins Jeanne (Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin) and Simon (Maxim Gaudette) arrive for the reading of her will. They are stunned when Jean Lebel (Remy Girard), a notary public and their mother’s former boss, hands them two envelopes. Jeanne is asked to deliver a letter to their father. Simon is asked to deliver a letter to their brother.

Jeanne and Simon had no idea that their father was alive. They never knew they had a brother. Nawal Marwan (played by talented Belgian actress Lubna Azabal) had been quiet, and worked as a secretary. Bewildered, Jeanne tries to make sense of her mother’s words. If the twins deliver these messages, “the silence will be broken, a promise kept.”

Simon balks and remains in Montreal. He does not want to delve into the past. He’d rather abandon his family history and any unseemly details. The strain of his mother’s nervous illnesses has been enough for him. Simon urges Jeanne not to go.

A graduate student in mathematics, Jeanne seeks the advice of a professor. He compares mathematics to her complex relationship with her mother: “Now, you enter an entirely different adventure. The subject will be intractable problems that always lead to other problems, just as intractable. People around you will repeatedly say that your struggles are in vain. You’ll have no argument to defend yourself, for the work will be exhausting and complex. Welcome to pure mathematics, the land of loneliness.”

Jeanne insists on going alone if she must, compelled to hunt down the truth so her heart can be at peace. She sets out for the unnamed Middle Eastern country.

We witness the daughter following each clue, talking to people who knew Nawal, or knew of her. A group of village women is cruel and judgmental. Desormeaux-Poulin (Taking the Plunge) gives an intense but nuanced performance, filled with insatiable curiosity and growing dread. Much later when she faces danger, Simon rushes to her side to help complete the search. Gaudette (Polytechnique) conveys the male heart with pitch perfect acting.

Renowned Canadian actor Girard crafts a memorable character in Lebel, who guides and protects the twins. He assures them that their mother was of sound mind, but indelibly marked by her early years.

 

Nawal was beset by tragedy from early girlhood through the horrors of her country’s civil war. Key scenes from Nawal’s life are shown as Jeanne walks the same streets her mother once did. Azabal (Body of Lies) evokes great dignity which explodes into anger as she struggles to overcome unimaginably painful personal ordeals.

Nawal is rebuked by her Christian family when she falls in love with a Muslim. Her brothers track the lovers down in an orchard and murder her beloved. Later her grandmother helps her deliver a baby boy, who is quickly given up for adoption to save the family from shame. The grandmother tattoos three dots on the baby’s heel, an identifying mark. “I’ll find you again one day,” Nawal promises him.

Nawal is sent away to live with relatives. She becomes a student and political activist. Deciding to search for her son, she sets off on a bus filled with Muslims. When Christian extremists detain the group, Nawal pretends she is still a Christian to save herself. Helplessly, she watches as all aboard are massacred, flames exploding in the middle of the desert.

Rage takes over as Nawal joins an extremist group, assassinating a Christian leader while posing as a tutor. She is sentenced to 15 years in prison, where she is tortured and raped. Nawal survives by singing in solitary confinement. This enrages her captors. Jeanne and Simon eventually meet a midwife who worked at the prison. She remembers Nawal fondly as “The Woman Who Sings.”

Villeneuve defines the title Incendies as an inferno, “something totally destroyed, totally transformed . . . destruction that you cannot change afterwards.” Filmed in Montreal and Jordan, it is based on the play of the same name by the Lebanese-born writer Wajdi Mouawad. The scars that violence leaves, and its senselessness, are stark in Incendies’ explosive conclusion.

Beautiful and devastating, the film features wrenching imagery and ominous sound. As it opens, young Muslim boys are having their heads shaved, apparently being prepared for terrorist training. The eyes of one boy stare back into the camera, bottomless, empty.

“Death is never the end of the story,” Lebel reminds us. “There are always details.”

If you like Incendies, you might enjoy:  Nora’s Will; A Prophet; Lemon Tree.

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Incendies     2010  /  R  /  2 hours, 10 min

Cast Overview:  Lubna Azabal, Melissa Desormeaux-Poulin, Maxim Gaudette, Remy Girard, Abdelghafour Elaaziz, Allen Altman, Mohamed Majd, Nabil Sawalha, Baya Belal 

Director:  Denis Villeneuve

Genre:  Drama, Mystery, War, Foreign, Drama Based on the Play

Languages: French and Arabic with English subtitles

 

 

Cave of Forgotten Dreams ****

 

New wave German filmmaker Werner Herzog reveals a protocinema of Paleolithic drawings in the documentary Cave of Forgotten Dreams. Herzog’s enthusiasm is contagious in this unprecedented filming of Chauvet Cave in southern France. Here Earth’s earliest known drawings, about 32,000 years old, were discovered in 1994.

Cinematographer Peter Zeitlinger’s exquisite 3-D images show horses gallop, and now-extinct cave bears and cave lions stalk the undulating walls glittering with calcite. Woolly mammoths peer back at us. Spotted panthers prowl.

The 3-D camerawork brings viewers more deeply into the cave. Herzog’s offbeat narration and signature metaphysical musings keep the film lively. A sacred feeling is evoked in kinship with the ancients.

Cave bears clawed these walls. Leaving their mark on the drawings, they seem like collaborators. Only a small camera and four small, portable panel lights were allowed. Filmed under strict limitations to protect the delicate ecology, the scenes inspire awe.

Since ancient artists carried torches to provide light, Herzog theorizes that they held these aloft and danced, their shadows moving with the animals in an ancient cinema. Impishly, he shows us a clip of Fred Astaire dancing with his own shadow in Swing Time.             

 

In a striking marriage of science and art, a laser spectroscopy image is shown. Hundreds of thousands of points of light reveal every detail and contour of Chauvet Cave's 1300 feet. Jean Clottes, head of the scientific team studying the cave and its art, shares his excitement and theories.

Europe was a dry, cold glacial land back then. One could journey on foot from England to France and Germany. Dominique Baffier, archaeologist and curator of Chauvet Cave, tours the drawings. Each one tells a story, she believes. Rhinoceros lock horns. Bison run, their multiple legs meant to show movement.

Archaeology Magazine reports that the Chauvet artwork was created 35,000 years ago, and again 5,000 years later. Looking fresh and new, the images have been carbon dated.

Fantastic beauty fills the cave. Stalactites and stalagmites glow. Some formations unfurl like candy ribbon. Others evoke thin, frozen needles of rain.  

In another mystery, only one human form was drawn. On a rock pendant, the bottom half of a woman with Venus of Willendorf proportions appears. The team mounts its camera on a stick to reveal the upper half of the image for the first time. It is a bison head.

Animals and humans shared a common, dreamtime existence then. Trees spoke. Have we forgotten how to listen? The footprint of an eight-year-old is found next to a wolf paw print. Herzog wonders whether they walked side by side.

The cave was used for drawing and ceremony, experts believe. There are no human remains. Animal bones, including cave bear skulls and even a golden eagle skeleton, carpet the floor. A Bear Skull Altar faces the cave’s entrance. Bits of charcoal are strewn about like remnants of incense.

Herzog interviews several odd, passionate spiritual seekers. Reindeer-skin clad Wulf Hein plays The Star-Spangled Banner on an ancient flute made from a vulture’s ulna. Archaeologist Julien Monmey shares a story about an Australian aborigine. When asked why he was painting on rock, the aborigine replied, “I am not painting. The hand of the spirit is painting.”

Marring this beautiful documentary is its obtrusive soundtrack, ill-suited to quiet reverence. When Herzog asks his team to observe silence and listen to the cave, moviegoers listen with them for only a few seconds before the heavy-handed score intrudes. Herzog also invites a master perfumer along, but he is unable to detect much aroma.

Risking his life to uncover mystery and truth in his work, 68-year-old Herzog explored some of the most remote areas of the South Pole in Encounters at the End of the World. In Fitzcarraldo and Grizzly Man, he delved into man’s improbable visions and showed the price for realizing those dreams.

In a surreal coda, we see a nuclear power plant some 20 miles away from Chauvet Cave. Its super-heated water prompted officials to build a tropical biosphere dome there. Alligators were introduced. They thrive, some mutating into a ghoulish white.

Might the reptiles escape one day and invade the Chauvet area, once covered by thousands of feet of ice? Two albino alligators face each other in the waters, teeth bared. Herzog asks whether we are doppelgangers, ghostly doubles of the ancients.

If you like Cave of Forgotten Dreams, you might enjoy: The Wind Journeys; Sanctum.

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Cave of Forgotten Dreams     2010  /  G  /    1 hour, 30 min

Cast Overview:  Werner Herzog, Dominique Baffier, Jean Clottes, Jean-Michel Geneste, Carole Fritz, Gilles Tosello, Michel Philippe, Julien Monney, Charles Fathy 

Director:  Werner Herzog

Genre:  Documentary, Nature, Science, Spirituality

 

Miral ***1/2

 

A schoolgirl flirts with terrorism and falls in love in the controversial drama Miral. Jewish American director Julian Schnabel directs this film from a Palestinian perspective.

Miral follows four generations of Jerusalem-born Muslim women beginning in 1948, before Israel was formed. Hiam Abbass (The Visitor; Lemon Tree) plays Hind Husseini, an affluent woman who converts her father's estate into an orphanage for war refugees. Graceful Abbass conveys matter-of-fact compassion, especially in a scene where she finds children, huddled and dirty, abandoned on a street.

The character of Hind is based on the real social activist who founded the Dar El-Tifl El-Arabi orphanage and school. Hind meets quirky, charming Col. Edward Smith (Willem Dafoe) at a holiday party. The two sparkle together, but she chooses to devote her life to displaced Arab youth. Vanessa Redgrave shines in a very brief appearance.

The film also depicts the life of Nadia (Yasmine al Massri), beginning with a rape by her father. Schnabel (Before Night Falls; The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) reveals the scene by focusing on a bed frame moving up and down. Nadia flees home. Later, we see Nadia’s belly in slow motion, dreamlike, as she performs at a club. By the time Nadia gives birth to Miral, she is full of self-hate and drowns herself in the ocean.

Thrown into prison for punching a heckler on a bus, Nadia meets her compassionate cellmate Fatima (Ruba Blal), a nurse who helped a Palestinian prisoner escape from a hospital, and later left a bomb in a crowded theater.

After her mother’s death, Miral will live at Hind’s orphanage but will be allowed to visit her father Jamal (Alexander Siddig) every weekend. Siddig (Syriana) is wonderful as a devout Muslim.

Indian actress Freida Pinto (Slumdog Millionaire) brings depth and complexity to the role of Miral. Following the Intifada in 1987, Miral is asked to teach Palestinian children in a refugee camp. She becomes radicalized and begins to fall in love with revolutionary Hani (Omar Metwally). 

 

Miral is detained for 24 hours, questioned and whipped. After the girl is released, Hind urges Miral not to get involved in politics, for it might endanger the orphanage. Jamal forbids Miral to hang out with Hani and his crowd. She screams at him, “You just don’t understand anything!”

Jamal sends Miral away to her aunt’s home in Haifa, where she meets her cousin’s Jewish Israeli girlfriend Lisa (played by Schnabel’s daughter Stella). As the friendship unfolds, Miral asks, “How can you love an Arab man?” He is a good man who "kisses like an angel," Lisa says. 

Can a budding terrorist reform? Miral comes full circle by the end of the film. Metwally (Munich; The City of Your Final Destination) is convincing as his idealism ultimately leads him in the direction of peace.

Miral is a moving study of personal transformation set in geopolitical turmoil. It is worth seeing despite numerous flaws. The project is marred by occasional preachiness, weak dialogue, uneven editing, odd musical score, and poor makeup to simulate aging for Hind.

Produced by the Weinstein Company, Miral’s screenplay was adapted by journalist Rula Jebreal from her own semi-autobiographical novel.

If you like Miral, you might enjoy:  Lemon Tree; Ajami.

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Miral  2010  /  PG-13  /  1 hour, 52 min

Cast Overview:  Hiam Abbass, Freida Pinto, Alexander Siddig, Omar Metwally, Yasmine Al Massri, Ruba Blal, Willem Dafoe, Vanessa Redgrave, Stella Schnabel

Director:  Julian Schnabel

Genre:  Drama, Foreign, Drama Based on the Book

Language: Arabic and English with English subtitles

Lemon Tree *****

 

A Palestinian widow tends the lemon grove left by her father in the geo-political drama Lemon Tree. When the Israeli Defense Minister moves in next door, Salma (Hiam Abbass) must defend the trees she loves so dearly. The heartbreaking film is based on a true story.

The lemon trees are a bittersweet metaphor for generations of struggle over security and ownership. Director Eran Riklis (The Human Resources Manager; The Syrian Bride) crafts a very human look at the Israeli-Palestinian standoff.

Abbass (The Syrian Bride; Satin Rouge) is mesmerizing as the widow who embodies dignity, loneliness and eroticism. Her daughter is married and her son works as a dishwasher in America. Salma lives simply, caring for the trees, harvesting their fruit, and serving lemonade that thrills her occasional guests. Hers is a bountiful solitude in rhythm with nature.

When defense minister Israel Navon (Doron Tavory) moves into a mansion bordering Salma’s land with his wife Mira (Rona Lipaz-Michael), a watchtower is built and soldiers patrol the area. Salma receives a letter. The Secret Service orders that her trees be cut down for security.

Failing to get any assistance from the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli army, Salma meets with a young attorney Ziad Daud (Ali Suliman). Ziad is drawn to beautiful, stoic Salma. While the courts deliberate, the Israelis fence off the lemon grove, preventing Salma from entering. The trees begin to wither. Lemons cover the ground.

Lipaz-Michael is excellent as the minister’s cultured, lonely wife. Mira wrestles with contradictions. While she enjoys privilege, she becomes increasingly upset with the treatment of her neighbor Salma. Her struggle is heightened when she suspects her husband is having an affair. 

Mira and Salma never really meet, except for a tense encounter across the fence. Salma’s anger and Mira’s empathy are evident. Fear transforms into uneasy acceptance and respect. This invisible bond grows as Salma pursues her case all the way to Israel’s Supreme Court. An Israeli journalist also sympathizes with Salma.

 

Lemon Tree imparts wonderful surprises and humor. Tenderness grows between Ziad and Salma. Salma's elderly Arab gardener Hussam declares that trees have souls. Salma endures a neighbor who admonishes her for disrespecting her husband's memory by seeing Ziad. There are humorous moments surrounding her husband's photograph.

Rainer Klausmann achieves plain but vivid cinematography, from Salma’s bold climb over the fence, to the stark wall between Israel and Palestine.

If you like Lemon Tree, you might enjoy:  Miral; Ajami; Welcome.

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Lemon Tree   2008  /  NR  /  1 hr, 46 min

Cast Overview:  Hiam Abbass, Ali Suliman, Rona Lipaz-Michael, Doron Tavory, Tarik Copti, Makram J. Khoury, Amos Lavi, Amnon Wolf, Smadar Jaaron

Director:  Eran Riklis

Genres:  Drama, Foreign, True Story

Language:  Israeli and Palestinian with English subtitles

Ajami ****

 

The Israeli drama Ajami reveals what it’s like to live in the Arab-Jewish city of Jaffa today. With a cast of mostly non-professional actors, it immerses us in a frenzy of desperate, heart-breaking episodes. Ajami won Best Picture at the Israeli Ophir Awards and was nominated for an Academy Award.

The Crash-like film’s myriad actors, stories and relationships are often difficult to follow. Writer-directors Yaron Shani (an Israeli from Tel Aviv) and Scandar Copti (a Palestinian from Jaffa) frenetically shift time and perspective. The same events are reenacted from different points of view. Chapter headings are used, but more linearity would have helped. Very late flashbacks clarify the big picture. 

Centuries long Middle Eastern animosities play out as the directors zoom in, initially on Arabs of various socioeconomic backgrounds. To their credit, Shani and Copti show rather than tell the stories. Absent are the maudlin emotions and farfetched coincidences of the American Oscar winner Crash.

Shot with hand-held cameras in medium close-up, Ajami is set in the streets, homes and restaurants of Jaffa.

Ajami is a tragedy. Bickering and animosity fill its dialogue as both sides struggle to exist. Survival dictates every breath. People scurry and hide. No one wants to be snuffed out in the latest shooting or bombing. If a drug lord or powerful family is offended, meetings are held and large fees paid to correct real or imagined offenses.

Family ties become an excuse for violence. Senseless murders happen. Ajami’s beginning and end are sickening and inevitable.

Crime thrives. Arab on Arab violence and exploitation (Muslims by Christians and Palestinians by Israeli Arabs) poisons the community of scarce resources and few options. Poverty is more compelling than racism.

Several major stories emerge. Omar (Shahir Kabaha) is a Muslim Israeli Arab teen whose uncle shot a gangbanger in self-defense. Omar’s neighbor is shot when Bedouin assassins mistake the boy for Omar. Now his family is deeply indebted to a Christian Arab godfather Abu Elias (Youssef Sahwani) for protection.

 

Omar and his artistic kid brother Nasri (Fouad Habash) scramble to raise cash. They steal car parts and sneak into Israel to work as illegals. A profitable drug deal lures them. Omar takes a huge gamble with the help of naïve Malek (Ibrahim Frege), a Palestinian teen who works with him in Abu Elias' kitchen. Malek needs money to pay for a lifesaving bone marrow transplant for his mother.

A dangerous love affair between Omar and Elias’ beautiful daughter Hadir (Ranin Karim) adds even more tension. Meanwhile an affluent Palestinian Binj (played by Copti) yearns to live with his Jewish girlfriend in Tel Aviv.

Dando (ex-policeman Eran Naim) is an exhausted, brutal Tel Aviv cop who’s also a dedicated family man. His soldier brother was kidnapped from an army base. Dando’s search for his brother eventually leads him to a drug bust.

First impressions and unreliable information lead the characters to wrong conclusions. Disastrous decisions are carried out.

Ajami, along with recent Israeli films The Band's Visit, Beaufort and Waltz with Bashir, is notable for its innovation and human perspective on Middle Eastern conflict.

For a region locked in violence, the directors suggest that the new generation, with its internet savvy and willingness to cross racial and religious divides, may hold a key to peace.

If you like Ajami, you might enjoy: Lemon Tree; Miral.

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Ajami    2009 / NR / 2 hours

Cast Overview: Fouad Habash, Nisrine Rihan, Elias Saba, Youssef Sahwani, Abu George Shibli, Ibrahim Frege, Scandar Copti, Shahir Kabaha, Hilal Kabob, Ranin Karim

Director: Scandar Copti, Yaron Shani

Genres: Drama, Foreign

Language: Arabic and Israeli with English subtitles

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives ****

 

A dying man recalls his other lives in the mystical reflection Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. The Thai fantasy won top prize, the Palme d’Or, at the Cannes Film Festival 2010.

More experience than movie, this film doesn’t offer much plot or character development. It requires surrender to a very slow pace and the play of alternate realities. Suffering from kidney disease, Boonmee (Thanapat Saisaymar, who is not a professional actor) has moved to an isolated home in the jungle where he runs a tamarind orchard.

Boonmee knows death is near because he is able to see his other lives clearly. His deceased wife Huay (Natthakarn Aphaiwonk) appears at the dinner table one night, sensing that he will make his transition soon.

What’s striking is that Boonmee’s elderly sister-in-law Jen (Jenjira Pongpas) and his nephew Tong (Sakda Kaewbuadee) can see and talk with the ghost too.  There is an acceptance of mystery as magic, spirituality and everyday reality coexist. Huay tells Boonmee, “Heaven is overrated. There is nothing there.” Existence is a journey with many wanderers.

Boonmee’s son Boonsong (Geerasak Kulhong) arrives next to explain his disappearance years ago. Following a ghost monkey with his camera, he was transfixed by the silent, black, Big Foot-like creature with glowing red eyes. When he mated with one he became a ghost monkey himself. The group is alarmed by Boonsong’s appearance at first, but gradually accepts him. Boonmee is grateful to reconnect with his family.

Very slow and meditative, the film unfolds scenes from Boonmee’s animal lives. Each is a folk tale in itself. When an aging princess sees her youthful reflection in a forest pool, a catfish (Boonmee), who she calls The Lord of Water, assures her of her worth and beauty. Their sexual encounter is extraordinary, a mystical union of nature and humanity.

Gifted director Apichatpong Weerasethakul, who asks Western interviewers to call him “Joe,” conveys a reflective and mischievous, Buddhist-inspired vision where all life is sacred and transitory. "Cinema is a man's way to create an alternate universe," he says. His signature blend of surreal and ordinary mark his art house features Blissfully Yours, Tropical Malady and Syndromes and a Century.

In an interview with The Globe and Mail, Weerasethakul said that meditation for him is “like taking a shower for my mind. I had notes for Uncle Boonmee for years, but I couldn’t complete it. I went to a temple near my home for 10 days straight and did nothing but meditate. When I finished, my mind was clear, and I sat down and wrote the script.”

Boonmee regrets that he killed so many insects in this lifetime. During a walk in the forest, he shows Jen how to eat honey out of a hive. He offers to leave her his home and land. Jen refuses, dwelling on her distrust of the immigrant workers Boonmee employs.

Progress is measured over centuries, like stalactites on cave ceilings. A visit to a cave with ghosts past and present reminds Boonmee of the safety of a womb. Glittering bits of mica shimmer on a cave wall. Slowly the scene transforms into a night sky.

 

Uncle Boonmee is both simultaneous and linear. Weerasethakul often films in dim light, creating a semi-mournful, plodding mood. Cinematographers Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, Yukontorn Mingmongkon and Charin Pengpanich render seamless stylistic shifts amidst the gorgeous jungles of northeastern Thailand. Lush soundscapes of birdsong and crickets provide uplift.

A brief depiction of young Thai soldiers killing a communist seems to reflect Boonmee’s anxiety that he broke with his belief in non-violence during a lifetime in the Sixties.

What is the nature of life? Uncle Boonmee ends in meditative paradox. Jen is transfixed by images on a black and white television screen. She doesn’t want to go out, she tells Tong (who is now a monk with a cell phone). Other Jens who dance and sing are alive too. Love life, the director suggests.

If you like Uncle Boonmee, you might enjoy: Biutiful; Nora’s Will; Letters to Father Jacob.

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Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives  2010  /  NR  /  1 hour, 53 min

Cast Overview:  Thanapat Saisaymar, Jenjira Pongpas, Sakda kaewbuadee, Natthakarn Aphaiwonk, Geerasak Kulhong, Kanokporn Thongaram, Samud Kugasang, Wallapa Mongkolprasert, Sumit Suebsee, Vien Pimdee

Director:  Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Genre:  Drama, Fantasy

Language: Thai with English subtitles