HEARTBEATS

If you have ever had an unrequited love, especially one in your (distant) youth then this wonderfully witty tongue-in-cheek movie from the remarkable multi-talented Xavier Dolan will really appeal to you.  The story is of a love triangle.  Twenty-year-old best friends Marie and Francis spot Nicolas, a stunning Adonis, at a dinner party, and they both fall for him big time.  Nicolas adores attention so encourages them to the point where they destroy their close friendship and become bitter rivals to win his heart. Nicolas is very self-absorbed and affected and it is impossible to tell if his androgynous personification will eventually reveal whether he is gay or straight.  The three of them have sleepovers in Francis's bed but nothing at all happens, and then one day they ago away to the country for the weekend, and after this life for them all will never be the same.

As the story progresses Mr. Dolan edits in some hilarious anecdotes in interview form from strangers whose love lives also fell part.  The man definitely has a way with words.

There is something totally entrancing about this second feature from Canada’s wunderkind filmmaker and as much as one can pick holes with annoying (and almost clichéd) touches like some of the slow motion scenes, you really sense that this is no ordinary movie from any ordinary director.  Mr. Dolan’s first movie  ‘I Killed My Mother' a totally stunning and hilarious semi-autobiographic piece won 3 Awards at the Cannes Film Festival (and another 23 other Awards around the World) in 2009 when he was a mere 19 years old.  Sadly the US Distributor went into financial difficulties and the movie,  trapped in legal no-mans-land, has never been seen beyond the Festival Circuit to date.  Now at the ripe old age of 22 he has written, directed, starred, co-produced, edited, and designed the sets and the costumes (!) for Heartbeats, which also picked up an Award at Cannes last year.  He is an enormous precocious talent and I think this, his early work, shows that he is going to be one of THE most important filmmakers of the future.

You would be a fool to miss this one.


★★★★★★★★★★
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NICE GUY JOHNNY

Johnny is possibly too nice. He’s a good lucking baby-faced 25 year-old fledgling Sports Radio Host who has a very dominating shrew-like fiancé who is pushing him hard to give up his dreams and get a well-paid safe boring job so that they can have all the materialistic trappings she craves after they marry.  The job is back in NY so he leaves LA to go to the Interview and whilst there his philandering handsome ladies-man Uncle Terry is determined that he has a weekend of fun in the Hamptons hoping that Johnny will see how wonderful like can really be like when you are young and single.

There are no surprises in this latest wee indie film from writer/director/actor Ed Burns who seems to be adept at these gentle urban romance drama-comedies so naturally Johnny meets Brooke a real free-spirit fun-loving girl who falls for him, and vice versa.  Played by Mat Bush and Kerry Bishe, two fine young actors, who make a great pair and the chemistry between them covers some of the shortfalls of the week-ish script. 

The movie did the Festival circuit last year even picking up an award for Mr Burns in Boston and then went straight to DVD.  This casual off-beat small movie deserves a look and than you can see how much of a Nice Guy Johnny really is.

★★★★★★★

LIFE IN A DAY

You Tube linked up with Academy Award winning director Kevin MacDonald and celebrated producers Ridley and Tony Scott and invited the whole world to film whatever happened in their lives on one single day : July 24^th 2010.  They were totally overwhelmed when some 8000 people from 192 different countries sent in over 4000 hours of footage, but somehow from all of that have constructed a rather brilliant 90 min movie.

Most of it is very happy and very personal. The message of the movie is one of connection. In the words of the producers ‘regardless of where we live, what language we speak, or our circumstances in life, we all need to connect with others to make our lives whole.’  Corny as it may seem, it actually works and the result is an amazing cornucopia of so many astonishing different lives that make a real cinematic experience.

★★★★★★★★

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THE GUARD

This joyous wee movie tells the story of Sergeant Garry Boyle a member of the Irish Garda (Police) in a remote town in Galway.  Sgt. Boyle has a very subversive sense of humor, a confrontational personality, a dying mother, a fondness for prostitutes, and absolutely no interest whatsoever in the international drug-smuggling ring that has brought an FBI Agent to his door. What unfolds is an unpredictable and exhilarating sort-of-cops and robber story.

This superbly irreverent comedy is the debut feature of writer/director John Michael McDonough (playwright Martin McDonough's brother) but it is the gifted cast that makes it such an hilarious treat.  Especially the incomparable Brendan Gleason whose flippant deadpan performance is priceless.

It was one of my favorite finds at Sundance this year, a sheer job  and totally unmissable.

★★★★★★★★★

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EVERY DAY

This had the pedigree to be a real good old emotional family drama.  Written and directed by Richard Levine one of the moving forces behind T.V's 'Nip/Tuck' and starring Liev Schreiber, Oscar winner Helen Hunt, Eddie Izard, Brian Dennehy, and young Ezra Miller (T.V's Royal Pains) ....so much talent that resulted in such a disapointing mish mash.

Ned is a writer for a raunchy TV medical series and is ridiculed on a daily basis from the excessive and ludicrous demands of his boss (played by Eddie Izard who pushes the 'camp' card too far this time).  Unlike the rest of his single and fancy free colleagues, Ned has been married for 19 years, and thus (rightly ) perceived as 'boring'.   His elderly ailing irascible mean-spirited father-in-law is moving in with the family and places impossible demands on them all. Ned's teenage son Jonah is gay.  The kid is well-rounded and remarkably together about his life, unlike his stereotype of a  father who's reactions to his son are embarrassingly cliched that one would think this script was 20/30 years old.  By now you know that with all this 'pressure' on Ned he's going to crash, or run straight into the arms of a young woman.

The redeeming factor to this rather annoying and very predictable movie is Helen Hunt.  She makes the best job of an inadequate script and still manages to shine ... as does young Ezra Miller.

The house that they all live in together is quite claustrophobic .... and I think that is also an apt description for this movie too.

Totally missable.


★★★

DAD'S IN HEAVEN WITH NIXON

When Christopher Murray was born he suffered oxygen deprivation which resulted in his autism, although 51 years ago this was a ‘disorder’ still to be recognized by the medical profession.  His mother Janice always aware that Christopher was 'different',   and lacking any sound advice or help, was determined that with immense amounts of love she could give him a near normal life.

Christopher is the subject of this documentary written, directed and produced by his older brother Tom, but the story starts much earlier.  The Murray clan were a wealthy NY family with a large Park Avenue Apartment and a beach house in Southampton.  Money bought them status and privilege but not happiness or good health.  Grandfather Murray suffered with a bipolar disorder (gently known in those days as ‘melancholia’) and drunk himself to death by 37.  Christopher’s father, Thomas Murray 11, by all accounts  a very cold aloof man also suffered from depression and lost all the family money before he drowned aged 52.

Despite the father’s many faults he is remembered fondly by Christopher who, when prompted to explain where he think's he now is, declares so definitely that his father is up in heaven with Richard Nixon.  His explanation for this is that although his father was a very committed Democrat and absolutely hated the President, up in heaven everyone is friends and the two of them are probably now playing poker.

Christopher’s daily routine is mundane and strictly regimented with the two simple jobs he works at, but somewhere along the line he took a notion to start drawing and painting.  Like other autistic people his rather unique and stylized work showed wonderful symmetry and remarkable freshness  and very soon he a small piece he gave to an acquaintance was spotted by a very enamored Gloria Vanderbilt who linked him up with a NY Gallery for his first one man show.

This simple touching story is told through a wealth of home movies and contemporary interviews.  Whilst it may not be as extraordinary as the deeply moving MARWENCOL it is nevertheless a heartwarming account of a journey of a man who not only succeeded in overcoming his disorder, but who now seems so much happier and focused than his other siblings.

First shown on Showtime last year, the movie is now available on DVD.

★★★★★★★
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MONOGAMY

Theo is a bored wedding photographer who has developed a slightly dubious side gig of stalking and taking photographs of paying customers whilst hidden from sight.  And he seems to have quite a nice life too with a great apartment in fashionable Brooklyn, a very pretty guitar playing fiancee ... and a  cute dog too.

One day he gets hired by the anonymous Subgirl who wants him to surreptitiously take pictures of whilst she is pleasuring herself in a public park in broad day light. Now firmly in the ride of voyeur with this total stranger exhibitionist which soon becomes an obsession with him and he neglects his work, and more importantly his fiancée and starts to question the whole validity of their impending marriage.

There is no rhyme of reason why Theo should jeopardize it all, especially as he never even meets Subgirl, but then that's why it is called an obsession.  There is no logic to the path he is following, and Theo's confusion with the mess he is creating is so perfectly demonstrated in a rather skillful and touching break-up scene when he literally cannot get a coherent word out.

This is small pleasant movie that picked up an Award at Tribeca Film Festival and had the minutest of runs in theaters here. It's the debut feature from Academy Award Nominated documentray filmmaker Dana Adam Shapiro.  Now out on dvd, and although it may not be one you will want to rush out and get, it's still worth a look .... if nothing else for handsome Chris Messina playing Theo, and Rashida Jones (The Social Network) playing the poor put upon Fiancé.

★★★★★★★
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BEGINNERS

Father and son Hal and Oliver are beginners at relationships even at this late stage in their lives.  Hal is 75, newly widowed, and declares himself gay and determined to make the most of the time he has left.  Oliver on the other hand is 38, single, with a string of affairs in his past as he is afraid to commit.  They are very similar in the way that both their lives seem broken and in need of fixing.

Hal’s voyage of discovery as a newly out gay man is a joyous journey, and as this is the movies after all, he ends up with a very handsome much younger man, who whilst not monogamous, is clearly in love with his (Number 1) boyfriend.  Oliver has the same good fortune in easily meeting his destiny when he is literally picked up by a stunning woman who is attracted to his big sad eyes.  His journey with her combines joy with confusion and we are never sure if they will succeed in making their relationship work.

The story takes place after Hal has died after a pernicious and fatal dose of cancer, and is told in a series of flash backs mixed with the current time. Hal seems to revel in the possibilities that come with a new beginning, where Oliver’s apprehension is maddeningly frustrating compounded by his inability to comprehend his father’s new happiness after a sad sterile marriage to his mother.

The credit for the fact that this story is so believable is very much due to the casting of the irrepressible Christopher Plummer who is delightful as Hal, and the sizzling electric chemistry between a charming Ewan Mcgregor (Oliver) and the delectable Melanie Laurent as Anna his girlfriend. (Every new screen appearance of Ms Laurent enforces my belief that she is going to be a major star.)  And mention too for Mary Page Keller who made big of the small but important role of Hal’s late wife.

This is the second feature from talented filmmaker Mike Mills ('Thumbsucker') who based this on a very similar story in his own life.  I guess he is no longer a ‘beginner’ as since 2009 he’s been married to another successful indie filmmaker Miranda July.  I really liked his very stylized presentation and the very skilled and interesting editing …… and who wouldn’t love Arthur the dog who added his own touch of humor to this drama. I did however leave the theater a tad under-whelmed slightly irritated at what I thought was Oliver’s lack of perspective, but on reflection as I gathered my thoughts I think I now appreciate his viewpoint and stance a little more.

★★★★★★★

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FAT, SICK & NEARLY DEAD

If the title doesn’t scare you off, then this wee joyous journey that documents a tubby transforming himself into a trim hottie will so inspire you.  Joe Cross is a successful Day Trader in Australia who has come to the conclusion that his 310 pounds and his 53” waist are the cause of his chronic autoimmune disorder. So he decides to embark on a 60-day juice fast, which he combines with a trip around the US chatting to all and sundry.…particular those of the larger variety … about their own excess weight. Armed with a juice extractor he not only survives on a total diet of vegetable and fruit juice but he flourishes and the weight literally falls off too.

One of the people he encounters enroute is Phil a truck driver from Iowa who is a hefty 429 lbs and suffering from the same illness.  Two months later with Joe now 90lb lighter and back in Australia and continuing with a new balanced healthy regime, a desperate Phil calls to see if Joe’s offer of help still stands. And the second part of this movie is the metamorphsis that he undergoes and how it not only literally saves his life but also changes him totally forever (and he is 202 lbs lighter too.)

Joe Cross is no preachy Michael Moore, nor does he have the wit of Morgan Spurlock, but his unbridled passion for  getting his act together is totally infectious.  So he’s forgiven the few cinematic clichés that spring up in this delightful movie, and anyway he was right cos once he lost the weight the disorder totally disappeared and he is completely well.

My dilemma is not in the rating that I will give the movie, but whether I could/would have the willpower to try the Fast for just 10 days, cos I know I should.

Click for the Juice Recipes

★★★★★★★★★
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CARANCHO

The opening credits of acclaimed filmmaker Pablo Trapero (‘Lion’s Den’) latest movie contain the disturbing fact that some 8000 people die in car accidents in Argentina each year. It’s created a whole industry devoted to scamming victims out of insurance money which is the basis of this gripping bloody socio-drama thriller that makes for a very queasy view.

Sosa is a lawyer who’s lost his license and to make ends meet has become an ambulance chaser who splits his time between staging fake accidents and bullying traumatized victims and their families to get power of attorney for ‘The Foundation’ who employ him so that they can rake off most of the payout.  He’s getting really fed up with doing this when his path crosses with an emergency female Doctor, and despite her disdain for Sosa’s work, they hook up.

The only exit that Sosa can see out of his crummy job is to use all the dirt he has accrued on his devious bosses activities, and maybe also start to honestly help some victims.  There is too much at stake for him to walk away so lightly and it all gets very violent and too bloody for words.

Theirs is a bleak dreary grimy and depressing world and this adds to the unrelenting tension, and to  the movie's violent ending which I guess wasn't totally unexpected, but is still caught me unawares and shocked me out of my seat.

The movie is lifted by sterling performances from the two lead actors.  Martina Gusman, the director’s wife and a regular in his films, played the dour doctor with her own problems.  Sosa was played by Ricardo Darin, who I have read is considered to be Argentina’s George Clooney! I’m not sure about that, but you may remember him for his award winning turn in the superb 'The Secret In Their Eyes'.

Well worth watching, and a reminder to us all to never ever consider driving in Buenos Aires.  Or Argentina generally!

★★★★★★★★
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3 BACKYARDS

I’m been staring at a blank screen long after this movie finished trying to make some sense out what I had just seen. Its been some 11 years since filmmaker Eric Mendelsohn’s’ promising debut and Sundance Award winning movie ‘Judy Berlin’ and maybe he just used all that time to ‘over-think’ this totally incomprehensible follow up.  It is essential 3 totally separate stories that happen the same day in the same suburban town on the shores if Long Island.  There is no link between any of them, or any logical connection other than their locale.

One story is about a man having marriage problems who, when his business trip gets cancelled last minute, instead of returning home, hangs out near the airport hotel and begins to follow a mysterious woman. One is about a little girl who on her way to school loses an expensive bracelet of her mother's and who must retrieve it from a local pervert’s backyard before she can return home. The third story concerns a star-struck housewife who is given the honor (?)  of driving a famous actress to the nearby ferry.  Each starts off with promise but they all soon go off at ridiculous tangents with plot twists that have you shaking in bewilderment.  It is so infuriating.

This movie has just two things going for it …. well, maybe three … firstly the housewife is played by the wonderful Edie Falco and she does her best with this ill-conceived story line, as does the ‘star’, Embeth Davidtz.  And the photography is nice.  That’s it.  I’m teetering between deciding if this is a self-indulgent precocious piece of nonsense a la 'the emperors new clothes', or it is simply just a very poor excuse of a film.  Either way, don’t waste a precious 90 minutes of your time in it.

P.S. In doing my research for this I discovered that Mr Mendolson was previously an Assistant Costume Designer for Woody Allen. Hmmmm. Obviously in Woody's 'muddled period' !

★★★

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BEATS RHYMES & LIFE : THE TRAVELS OF A TRIBE CALLED QUEST

A Tribe Called Quest is an American Hip Hop Band formed in 1985 that achieved a great deal of success with their first three albums and disbanded in 1998, but then got back together in 2005 to tour the country again.  Their became recognized as innovators at fusing hip hop with jazz and winning them some prestigious awards. They evidently are the pioneers of 'alternative rap'. Even so, I just didnt get it.  Maybe I’m too much of a white Brit Methodist and I never ever got to meet such characters as Q-Tip (also known as Kamaal Ibn John Fareed, and formerly Jonathan Davis).  But at least I tried.  For  an entire 95 minutes.

★★★★
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KAREN CRIES ON THE BUS

A desperately unhappy Karen leaves her married home and her successful but slimy husband and with her small savings rents a scruffy room in a slum-like house in Bogota.  Penniless and friendless and unable to find any work she resorts to pilfering from food stores and begging in the streets.   Patricia, one of the other tenants in the house, befriends her and suddenly life doesn’t seem quite so bad.  The fact that Patricia’s own life is in a state of perpetual drama doesn’t seem to throw Karen off-balance as she takes  her first steps towards finding out what she really wants out of her life as a liberated single woman.

And then things start to get better.  The Bookstore she left her resume at some months ago phones and  offers her a dream job, and at the same time she meets a gentle and understanding attractive man who is not only nice but falls in love with her.  Trouble is that soon after he is offered a job in Argentina which he wants to accept and take Karen along too.  Is this too soon to give up her fiercely fought new independence?

The film’s opening shots are of Karen sad, alone on the bus, crying and not knowing where she is going.  The ‘journey’ we subsequently follow her on in this very gentle sensitive movie is shown from her perspective as she copes with all the obstacles in her path and moves forward with as much determination that she can muster.

The surprise to me was discovering this movie with its potent feminist theme was actually written and directed by a man!  Hmmm.  And usually the Latin-American movies that get released in the U.S. are highly dramatic pieces, and this one is far from it.  A refreshing change, and one that wont have you crying on the bus home.

★★★★★★★

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MUMBAI DIARIES (DHOBI GHAT)

As Hollywood tries to ape Bollywood’s success stories, some leading lights of the Indian film industry are now making movies that are aimed just as much for a western audience as their home crowd.  If it wasn’t for the setting and the language, you could actually mistakenly think you were watching an American indie production when you view ‘Mumbai Diaries’.

It follows the lives of four different people that cross over each other as the story develops. Shai is taking a break from her high-powered banking job in NY to come back home for a sabbatical and also indulge in her passion for photography.  She meets Arun, a handsome but very aloof artist at his Gallery Opening, and after spending the night with him she immediately gets the cold shoulder treatment.  They both unwittingly share the same (very hot-looking) laundry man (dhobi) Munna and when he delivers clothes back to Shai, a friendship starts up between the two of them despite their obvious class (caste?) difference.  She would like a guide to show her the underbelly of the city, but he on the hand would like her to be his girlfriend.

Arun meanwhile moves to a new apartment in the old part of the city and when he is tidying up discovers 3 video tapes that were made by a former tenant Yasmin who was very unhappy with her life …something that the miserable Arun can relate too … and he becomes obsessed with her.

The film follows how all the intertwining relationships pan out in this gentle intriguing drama, which seemed tinged with more than it’s share of sadness.  Using the city as a backdrop really enhanced the picture and gave it both color and vitality and an added depth.

Arun was played by Aamir Khan who is a mega Bollywood Star … and his wife Kiran Dao directed …. but Munna is played  by a total newcomer, Prateik and his performance was equally as strong.  There is still a cultural difference in acting styles that can make some characters seem a tad stilted, but I’m convinced that is because of our western perception and the relative newness of movies like this.  I think they will grow on us, just like this whole new genre will in time.

P.S. I loved the the fact that despite the film’s title, all the locals still insist on referring to their city as Bombay.

★★★★★★★
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LOOSE CANNONS aka MINE VAGANTI

The Cantone family pasta business in Italy is ready for some new blood. Dad is getting old and looking to his two grown up sons Antonio and Tommaso to take over so that he can retire.  Tommaso wants no part if it as he wants to be a writer and return home to Rome to be with his boyfriend Marco, and confides this all to his brother by coming out  and tells him that he is going to ‘fess up to the family at dinner that night so he can be disowned by his strict catholic father and be free to have his own life.   Antonio is happy enough to stay and run the factory, but professes to Tommaso, that he too is gay.  And without warning him, steals his brother’s thunder by coming out to the family at the dinner table before Tommaso can even speak. 

The father throws Antonio out of the house and then immediately has a heart attack and is rushed to the hospital.  Tommaso now feels trapped thinking that if he now told his father he was a homo too, that would totally finish him off.  So he stays at home and reluctantly puts on a brave (straight) face and starts to run the pasta factory, even making people believe that he has fallen in love with a local girl.  This all starts to unravel when a group of his outrageous friends from Rome come visit, and eventually the family catch on to the reality that their wily old Grandmother, who had been a rebel in her own day,  had guessed many years ago.

It’s a sweet old fashioned un-politically correct comedy that works because it is set in a patriarchal Italian family which is ripe for these situations even in these times.  It’s gently, warm and funny, and an enjoyable real feel-good movie.  It is in fact the latest film from Turkish born director Ferzan Ozpetek who’s credits include some remarkable good work with gay stories and/or sensibilities inc. ‘Steam’, ‘His Secret Life’  and 'Saturn in Opposition’.  There is a common theme through most of the movies that Ozpetek makes that and that is family is what you make for yourself rather than something dictated by blood.  


And even though ‘Loose Cannons’ was a very big hit in Italy his adopted country, it never made it to a Theater in the U.S. (shame!), but look out for it on DVD or VOD … you’ll be pleased that you did.


★★★★★★★

Happythankyoumoreplease

Life always seems so relatively easy for attractive 20 & 30 year olds living in Manhattan and juggling love and friendship as they finally grow up.  Sam, an aspiring writer, is on his way to an important meeting with an Editor when he becomes the temporary caretaker of a young African/American boy who has been separated from his foster mother in the subway.  The fact that he bonds with the child and hangs on to him for few days without any real legal repercussions sort of stretches the plausibility of the story  …..whilst at the same time he is pursuing Mississippi an attractive waitress intent on pursuing a singing career.

Sam’s best friend Annie  is bald and very self-conscious and dates losers to compensate, and then there are his pals Charlotte and Charlie…. she’s an artist and he’s a budding filmmaker, and they cannot decide whether to split up or get married.

It’s a surprisingly engaging wee indie movie that tackles a topic that we would expect from a major film studio, and it does it well, and with style.  The humor from the drama is in it’s script peppered with some witty one liners ….’she was totally unburdened with any talent’ and ‘the trouble with optimism is that it is f..king exhausting’.  And its well served with a fine cast …… Michael Algeri, without a single hint of being the usual precocious child-actor was enchanting as the kid, and I really liked Tony Hale who was simple brilliant in the tough role of being the dorky guy who had to convince Annie that she would fall in love with. 

This is the first movie written and directed by Josh Radnor who I didn’t know is the star of the hit TV series 'How I Met your Mother' , but that's what you miss when you don't ever watch TV.  He also starred in the movie  too, making this  feature film a remarkably warm and enjoyable unpretentious successful debut. And he ensured that all the plot story lines have credible happy endings, which is quite refreshing these days.

On one hand it won the Audience Favorite Award at Sundance which is no mean feat, whilst at the same time it collected a couple of quite hard-hitting reviews including one from the Critic of The NY Times who  dismissed the whole thing as  ‘insufferably’.  I’m firmly with the Sundance crowd on this one …. it’s totally charming ….. and Mr Radnor is a very promising talent that I hope we see more off. 

★★★★★★★
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BEEN RICH ALL MY LIFE

In my continuing quest to catch up with American Cultural Icons that never featured anywhere in my Brit upbringing, I discovered this wee gem of a documentary from 2006 about 5 octogenarian ex-chorus dancing girls from Harlem who are still dancing professional.  The Silver Belles may be falling apart physically and ‘can’t remember shit’, but they make it to performance after performance wearing spangled sequin outfits and having a ball in front of sold out audiences.

Their energizing zest for life is completely infectious and filmmaker Heather McDonald has the sense to capture their wonderful indefatigable spirits unscripted and un-narrated in this movie that is a sheer joy to watch.  She includes some great archival clips when the ladies started out as young girls in the 1930’s playing The Cotton Club and The Apollo in Harlem (which they actually managed to close down once when they led a chorus girls strike for better pay).  And it is so moving hearing them recount the struggles they all faced during segregation even when they were in the USO entertaining troops in World War 11.

With their advanced ages the inevitable happens, and one falls down a flight of subway stairs, another needs a heart-pacemaker fitted, and one has to go through chemo-therapy, and the oldest one (96) goes to 'the big ballroom in the sky'.  But after getting to know the ladies over the  past 90 minutes, you know that this will not be the end of  their dancing days.  Thank God.

P.S. The title is an expression that one of the ladies uses with such glee to describe her own life, and she is certainly not referring to money.

★★★★★★★★

PAGE ONE : A YEAR INSIDE THE NEW YORK TIMES

A wonderful insight behind the scenes of one of the world’s greatest newspapers in a tumultuous period where it deals with its very own survival, as well as competing newspaper groups, in a rapidly evolving new world that has completely changed the landscape of the news media.  The other major news story the movie focuses on is the emergence of Wiki Leaks and its power-mad and somewhat unstable leader Julian Assange who proves to be as difficult to handle as the news he wants to process.

This riveting movie makes compelling viewing as you realize how very earnest the editorial team are in their efforts to maintain an impeccably high standard in all their reporting and writing.  The one star that shines bright from this documentary is David Carr who emerged from his own very colorful and drug hazed past to become one of the very best analysts and commentators on current media affairs. He is a real joy to listen too, and I’m going to ensure that (along with the must-read pieces from op-ed writer Maureen Dowd)  I will never miss Mr. Carr’s work ever again in the future.  Totally fascinating.

★★★★★★★★★

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ABSOLUTE WILSON

As part of my continuing process of brushing up on American Cultural Icons I viewed Katherina Otto-Bernstein’s 2006 documentary on ROBERT WILSON, who is arguably the pre-eminent avant-garde theater director/artist in the world.  I shouldn’t have been quite so ignorant of Mr. Wilson as although he is American, most of his work has been in Europe where there is a much healthier respect and a very definite audience for his work.

Born in Waco Texas in 1940 to a family of wealthy but strict Southern Baptists, young Robert had both a stutter and learning difficulties, two significant traits that he not only overcame, but which provoked him to constantly help others in similar predicaments throughout his life, sometimes ending with participating with them on performance pieces.

He went to NY to study architecture at Pratt where he cared less abut completing his study assignments and more about a ballet group affiliated to the school where he started to create and perform some very eclectic contemporary pieces. After he graduated he foolishly went back to Texas which ended in a failed a suicide attempt (he was openly gay in a very hostile environment) and that had him scurrying back to NY and very soon  creating his first major success ‘Deafman Glance’ based on a deaf –mute African-American child he befriended and later adopted.

Bernstein's film painstaking traces every step of Wilson’s career and how it took off …..and with the use of some excellent archival footage … and lengthy interviews with Wilson himself, pieced together his un-parallel prolific body of work.  The man is unquestionable a creative genius often applauded for work way way ahead of the field, and on other occasion derided for the very same reasons. He collaborated with the likes of Philip Glass, David Bryne, Jessye Norman, Tom Waits etc etc  and his work had devoted fans like Susan Sontag who claimed to have seen one of Wilson’e best pieces over 40 times.

This is a well-crafted film about an articulate and visionary artist whose work when just viewed in clips like this is breath-takingly stunning, and frankly leaves one in awe.  There were flashes of what a nightmare he could be with his rages over finite detail (the look on Isabelle Hupert's face as he kept correcting her said it all), but for us who view just the work, it is well worth every part of their pain.

If you are as ignorant of the man and his work as  I was, I cannot recommend this movie enough,  And if you are familiar with his work  them seeing clips of so many of his best pieces is well worth renting this from Netflix /Amazon.

★★★★★★★★★

MY NAME IS KHAN

And I am not a terrorist’ proclaims the hero in this highly emotional well-meaning Bollywood response to the paranoia that Asian Moslems faced in the US after 9/11. 

Rivran Khan is a simple and innocent man with Asperger's Syndrome who unnerves the immigration officials when he first arrives in San Francisco chanting his mantra.  He has a tough time acclimatizing to his adopted country but he finds a job, meets a girl, and after the most oddest of courtships, marries her.   And then after 9/11 happens his cozy world is shaken up by the hostility he encounters when his insists on remaining true to his faith.

After his son is a victim of a hate crime, his wife throws Rivran out of the house and he takes it upon himself to seek out the President of the US to get him acknowledge that he is indeed, not a terrorist, but a upstanding citizen just like all his white neighbors.

The journey that he embarks upon is when classic Bollywood fantasy kicks in big time and frankly the plot stretches our imagination way too far and starts too spoil what set out as an engaging wee film. Like any good fairy tale it does have a happy ending, which may not quite suspend our disbelief, but it does at least make one feel warm and cozy towards Rivran who, despite the incredulous script, really grows upon you.  The lead actors are all totally superb.

This movie holds the record as having the largest oversees gross for a Bollywood movie, even though it survived mere weeks in very few theaters in the US and the UK, so there definitely is a large audience for it.   I'm thankful that I received the DVD as a gift as I doubt if the movie  would have even entered my radar otherwise.  I will admit that despite all its faults, its sentimentally lured me in as  I am such a sucker when all’s well end’s well for nice folks like these.

★★★★★★
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TERRI

Terri is a fat adolescent boy who lives with his ailing uncle in a small suburban town. He is a bit of a loner who insists on wearing pajamas to school (cos they're comfortable) and he is teased relentlessly by the other pupils at school and totally ignored by all the teachers until one day the Mr. Fitzgerald, the Vice Principal, takes him under his wing.  Mr. Fitzgerald sees a lot of himself in this insecure and misunderstood kid, and he encourages Terri to not only believe in himself and that life should not just be endured, but actually enjoyed.

This captivating comedy succeeds so well because of the two main lead actors.  John C Reilly adds his usual deft touches in making Mr. Fitzgerald both believable and likable, but it is the breakout performance from young unknown Jacob Wysocki as Terri that makes this movie a real joy to watch.

★★★★★★★★

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MIRAL

Like his previous 4 movies filmmaker Julian Schnabel’s latest work is essentially biographical and whilst it is probably his weakest one to date, it is also his most controversial.  Based on Rula Jebreal’s autobiographical novel it traces the lives of four Palestinian women from the last days before the State of Israel was formed in 1948 right up to the 1990’s.

Hind Husseni the first of the women starts an Orphanage and School for the all the Arab children whose parents have been killed in the struggles.  Nadia flees an abusive home only to end up in an Israeli prison where she meets Fatima who is serving several life sentences for her failed attempt at terrorism.  Nadia commits suicide abandoning her daughter Miral to her father a Mosque Employee, who manages to place his daughter at Ms Hussein’s Home, thus linking all the women's stories

Miral grows up in the first intifada In the 1980’s which greatly limits the freedom of all Arabs and thus awakes her political conscience into becoming an activist much to the chagrin of her religious father and Ms Husseni, both mindful of the dangers such activities can bring to not only Miral, but to the community as a whole.

Schnabel’s telling of this very legitimate struggle is muddled and highly emotional mainly due to a less than perfect script which results in confusion at times.  He set such a high standard with his previous movies that anything less is a tad disapointing, but it is still very watchable regardless. Schnabel does take great strides to be as objective as he can about the whole Palestinian situation and their demands for a State of their own.  I personally thought he really succeeded with a very balanced viewpoint that never took sides but just told the story as it was, and think some of the accusations of being either anti-Israeli or pro-Palestine are totally unfounded.

The photography is, as you would expect from a Schnabel movie is excellent and make for a visually stunning film. That, and the fact it makes a refreshing change to see another side of how this long struggle has tragically affected so many lives, makes this a movie really worth adding to one’s list. 

★★★★★★
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