The Flock (2007): review: 3.5/ 10

An overenthusiastic probation officer, played by Richard "gerbils" Gere, is joined by a young woman, who is shortly to replace him, They pursue sex offenders with surprisingly eccentric tastes in New Mexico. Manichean, he exceeds his remits.

This is a Silence of the Lambs revisit, with a little dash of Dirty Harry thrown in, but one which lacks the interpersonal tensions necessary to animate it. The narrative is not easy to follow either.

Teeth (2007): review: 7.5/10

Our heroine has teeth in her vagina: an unpleasant surprise for men who force themselves upon her.

The film is a bizarre mixture of high school drama, b-movie horror and satire and is very effective: there is a marvellous sequence where the heroine takes to promoting chasitity for a religious group.

The Great Debators (2007): review: 5/10

In the 30s, in racist Texas, a black teacher trains a black college dabating team: despite interpersonal difficulties, largely inspired by a pretty girl with a dimple, they prove formidible in debates with other colleges.

This is an essay in moral obviousness: we might be better served by a film which illustrated with less suffocating self righteousness the genesis of the civil right movement, and whose lead characters had the tiniest complexity: but as this film comes from Ms Oprah Winfrey's stable so we should expect nothing else.

I'd be curious to see a film describing the corrosive effects of self-righteousness on the American people -a quality which Americans seem delighted to export. This would be a film which parodies moral worthiness and all the bossiness and mental lethargy that comes with it, and which describes the nausea it induces in gentle souls who prefer to mind their own business.

Lars and the Real Girl (2007): review: 9.5/10

In a small town in Ontario, a socialy reclusive man develops a relationship with a plastic doll.

The comical elements, which fold around how the community of the Lutheran town collude with his fantasy, lead to psychological insights.


The film is elegant and moving, with excellent performances throughout.


Was the author influenced by Kafka's short stories, perhaps?

Paranoid Park (2007): review: 7.5/10

A skateboarder goes riding freight trains and causes the death of a railwayman.

A film about remorse and white suburban teen culture. It is shot with great elegance and is often moving.

3:10 to Yuma (2007): review: 6/10

A poor, one-legged farmer is hired, among others, to escort a gangster to a prison train: they have some difficulties because of the gangster's extraordinary powers and the persistence of his gang.

Everyone is grumpy except for Russell Crowe who tries to be friendly to the farmer and his son.

The film is nicely shot but goes on and on, becoming enervated, lacking the wit needed to lift it.

Savage Grace (2007): review: 9/10

A wealthy American couple seperate. The wife becomes fixated on her son, the husband steals his girlfriend.

Alas, all these shenanigans end in tears.

This is a marvellous, claustrophobic celebration of an unusual family, brilliantly acted and very tense.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007): review: 3/10

The last days of Jesse James and his gang, which largely focusses on the behavious of his young follower Robert Ford.
The story is told through a series of mumbling encounters in wintry Missouri.


The film can be judged a failure for the following reasons:


1. Pacing painfully slow.
2. Lack of examination of character and motive, with the exception of Robert Ford's, which is dwelt on to the point of exhaustion.
3. Few exciting moments: remarkable given that this is a gangster film.
4.  Pitt's silly hamster smirk throughout.
5. The cinematography is beautiful, especially in the train robbery scene but this is not, in itself, enough to justify such a long film.

Zodiac (2007): review - 8/10

A newspaper cartoonist becomes obsessed with finding a serial killer in the Bay area.

The film largely, and interestingly, deals with relations between the press, the police and the public at large.

Briskly filmed and excellently acted, and sometimes moving.

Katyn (2007): review- 5/10

A film about Soviet mass murder of Polish officers during the Second World War and subsequent decietfulness regarding responsibility for this crime.

In style it is episodic, with various confusing time leaps: this makes it difficult (probably impossible- my Brazillian wife was totally lost) to follow for those unfamiliar with the history of the Katyn massacre and Polish history and its various wartime borders.

It is unclear what the main objective of the director was: to evoke sympathy for those involved in events, or to examine historical memory, or to show how history is manipulated?

I don't think the film can be said to be a success in any of these terms: the characters are not memorable, (it's hard to identify with anyone- we hear about their professions but there is no construction of character, albeit of the most cardboard sort); the historical events are very unclearly narrated and the issue of the manipulations of historical memory is examined in insufficient detail (where, for instance are the voices of the ex-patriot communities, who maintained truthful accounts?). So the film feels muddled: it has the qualities of a disturbed dream.

The film also suffers from gloominess. If this criticism seems absurd, given that that it concerns mass murder, then that is to forget that it is first of all a film: and must succeed in maintaining the viewers interest as a temporal art form. Gloom militates against this because gloom is fatalism, and fatalism leads to the belief that the destinies of the main characters are pre-determined, and this in turn prevents one from caring much about the dilemmas they face as their outcome is already known.

A temporal medium such as film must succeed on a "I want to know what happens next" level, and this film doesn't because the narrative is too confusingly related and the characters too lightly sketched and because their fates can be pre-supposed.

Put another way, the characters aren't presented with real choices. Compare this film to "Bridge over the River Kwai': where moral dilemma acts in every scene to animate the film. Likewise, it's used to enliven "Schindler's List". This film does not offer moral drama because there is no lever acting upon the consciences of the oppressers -alternately Nazi, Soviet or Polish communist or a-moral Polish (while "honour" is the lever acting on both the British leader and the Japanese in Bridge on the river Kwai)- so any dealings with the baddies have a predictable outcome.

One response to my criticisms is to say- "oh but the events don't allow another approach". But surely it is the job of the director to trace an effective narrative: a narrative that is both truthful and successful as drama.

*

No film can do everything: perhaps this film attempts too much. I can't help thinking if a much more conventional format- either a linear documentary, or the dramatisation of the life of a heroic individual, Hollywood style (viz. Schindler's List) would have been a more successful means for describing the events and effects of Katyn.

It might be argued that the "disturbed dream" effect is indeed what the film is really about, and that I am asking the film to suit an audience (international, young, uneducated) that the film is not intended for. To that I would say that even I, approaching middle age, who has a good-ish grasp of events (being half Polish) found the film hard to follow.

If the film is intended as a sort of catharisis then it isnt emotionally affecting, because the means of identification offered viewers are through national symbols, not though characterisation or artistic effects (most notably apart from Penderecki's score, which is magnificent). And the film contains few memorable or beautiful images. This is a pity and is surprising because Wayda's films are usually visually very striking.

Mister Lonely (2007): review- 6.5/10

In Paris, a melancholy Michael Jackson impersonator meets a Marylin Monroe, who takes him to join her Scottish commune where she lives with a host of other impersonators.

Likable film about truth to one's destiny, and the perils of copying others.

Gone Baby Gone (2007): review- 5.5/10

This is a Clint Eastwood influenced picture that tries much too hard to be profound, but is instead rather ordinary.

In a working class Boston neighbourhood a child is abducted: a boyfriend / girlfriend Private Investigation team help the police locate it.

The film attempts, through a convoluted plot, some obvious dialogue and equally obvious acting, to tackle themes related to civic duty.

Ergo, the film is, ultimately, rather solemn.

The Golden Compass (2007): review- 3/10

An orphan is given responsibility for a magical compass which tells the truth.

Extraordinary imagery and animation does not compensate for a lack of emotional connection.

It is impossible to become emotionally involved in the character's dilemmas because the plot is so fussy and their dilemmas so obscurely related.

It's hard to know who this film is really for. From the cast, one presumes it's made for children of about 10-14 years, but the story is surely much too convoluted for them- and the themes of the film hard to relate to (freedom of academics to conduct research is one of them).

Thus, despite the amazing photography and animation, the film is boring.