short film reviews, criticism, and occasional musing.

Monday, March 08, 2010

A Prophet (2009, France)

If the world of A Prophet even only somewhat related to the realities of prison life, there goes the argument for rehabilitation. Jacques Auidard's incredible film follows 19-year-old Arab prisoner Malik El Djebena (Tahar Rahim) as he learns - quite well - the rules of the game. Incarcerated for assault after a childhood in the system, Malik is friendless, illiterate, and virtually defenseless (on his first day in the slammer, he's beat up for his shoes). But one of the things that initially makes him an outcast - his race - soon turns into something of an unfortunate opportunity, as the leader of the Corsican mafia comes to Malik to murder of another Arab inmate. With this crash course in prison politics under his belt, Malik proves a shockingly apt pupil.

I think it was someone over at the A.V. Club who dinged A Prophet for the fact that the French don't have quite the legacy of prison cinema that we have in the States. But I've got to say that any film that's compared to both "Oz" and The Godfather in a positive light obviously doesn't need a "native" tradition to get the details right. Auidard's film is incredibly visceral, a character study as much as a take on both prison psychology and contemporary race relations in France. Malik's story both generalizes the prison experience and roots it in a very particular time and place.

Auidard loves his losers, but neither Paul in Read My Lips nor Thomas in The Beat That My Heart Skipped get their hooks in you quite so much as Malik does - partly because unlike Paul and Thomas, we get to see Malik when he was still (somewhat) innocent. Rahim is a find - at first, it seems as if he'll just be a foil for all of the characters around him (in particular, the terrifying Niels Arestrup as mob boss Cesar), but he slowly builds into something much more complex. This is the delight of Auidard's films - in other hands, they could easily sink into their pulp origins, but he strips them down without rendering them any less juicy.

The Cove (2009, USA)

In the various traditions of documentary filmmaking, the last category that The Cove would fit into is the "objective". (Not that you'd really expect it be, seeing that it was co-financed by the Oceanic Preservation Society.) The Cove is a documentary about dolphin capture and slaughter in the small town of Taiji, Japan. The main players here are crusader Ric O'Barry, former dolphin trainer turned dolphin rescuer, and a convert to the cause, director Louie Psihoyos. Together they execute a plot to expose what happens to the Taiji dolphins that are not taken by aquariums and places like SeaWorld. It's rare that a film this strident is still this affecting - a tribute to how disturbing the footage they bring back from the cove really is.

Sunday, March 07, 2010

Random, Not at All Collected, Thoughts on the 82nd Academy Awards

* Way to go, Christoph Waltz. To get yourself noticed in a film THAT LOUD, you pretty much rule.

* I'd like to thank the Academy for skipping the terrible medley of nominated songs.

* My friend Drew and I decided yesterday that any film that makes more than $500M (let's say domestic, just to be nice) should immediately be struck from the running. At that point, just stay home and roll around in your piles and piles of money.

* Colin Farrell is in Crazy Heart? As a Country-Western singer? Now I'm TOTALLY not going to see it.

* It's kind of gross that they sat Cameron behind Bigelow. (Though at least they didn't seat him in front of her.)

* Catherine Keener is the new voice of Hyundai?

* BTW, if you have not seen In the Loop, fix that. Now. It is fucking hilarious.

* I kind of wish that they had televised the Governor's Awards rather than this dreck - Roger Corman and Lauren Bacall, together at last.

* Precious was completely overwrought, but featured incredibly strong acting. And now Mo'Nique has an Oscar. This is Eminem all over again - deserving, but if you'd told me a year ago, I would have laughed in your face.

* I'm sad that Colin Firth (the good Colin!) is going to be overlooked this year. He was amazing in A Single Man (which should have been nominated for Production Design and Costume).

* The Academy has cemented its reputation for being stodgy by not realizing that the kids aren't going to watch the Oscars for Taylor Lautner and Zac Efron. That's why the internet was invented.

* Wow, they made a way to make the death montage even worse.

* Why are there lamps? Why is Sam Worthington so attractive? What will finally make Gerard Butler go away?

* UP totally deserved Best Score. That tune is an earworm, but in a good way.

* "Will the first woman win? The first black guy? Or one of these white dudes?"

* Keanu! Why!

* El Secreto de sus Ojos must be REALLY good if it beat out both A Prophet (review tomorrow) and The White Ribbon. (Fun fact - the director of El Secreto has directed SIXTEEN episodes of Law & Order: SVU.)

* I'm not at all a fan of this style of nominee introduction. I believe it is meant to humanize the nominees, but it just feels like a big circle jerk. (Thanks, Lauren!) Also, it goes on FOREVER.

* "He comes from a show business family . . . " DOES ANYONE NOT KNOW WHO JEFF BRIDGES IS?!?! Also, The Dude now has an Oscar. (As well as the award for most uses of the word "man" in an acceptance speech.)

* Meryl Streep always oversells her audience reactions. Borderline Tom Cruise, really.

* Congrats to Sandra Bullock on her Oscar and her Razzie in the same day.

* Eat it Cameron. Go home and roll around on your piles of money.