Mooz-lum

Bea says: This film was so absorbing and evocative that I could have sat in the cinema all night and watched it unfold. Essentially - for me - a coming of age story, it follows the arrival to college of a young man, Tariq. The background of his difficult childhood/schooldays is provided in flashback, and events hit crisis point as he searches for his missing sister in the terrible days following 9/11.

Although Tariq and his family are muslim, his story of a young person transitioning into adulthood, whose parents' divorce and abusive school has made him question himself and the faith he has been brought up in, has universal relevance. The film portrays a currently very misunderstood faith sensitively and well, and focuses on the complex relationships in the lives of young people. An excellent film - a shame there were only 5 of us in the cinema to experience it. The soundtrack is particularly beautiful - also a shame that the cinema suddenly cut it off at the end to play standard Western style rock music.
****

Cecil says: We had liked the look of this film when it was previewing in cinemas a few months ago, but actually trying to find it playing somewhere in the DC area proved a lot harder than it should have: only one screen, way out in Alexandria, was showing the film. And yet it is a better watch than most of the Oscar nominees (I don't recall it being shortlisted anywhere for tomorrow night's big event...).

The soundtrack is utterly spell-binding. The plot totally believable (except for a couple of moments: one when the vigilante group on campus suddenly change their minds about beating up the muslim kids; and the rather strange hate mail sent by the black school director). The acting really good, especially considering it was a pretty unknown cast - I hadn't even realised that Diana Ross had a son, let alone that he was developing into rather a good actor. And nice to see a new young director producing something this good: watch out for Qasim Basir.

Very moving moments as the family deals with discovering the violence Tariq had to endure at school, and the new threat against all Muslims in the wake of 9/11.

Yes, I enjoyed this film more than most of the other films I have seen this year. Well worth seeing.

***.5

Unknown

Cecil says:

This film felt like a combination of The Bourne Identity, The Terminator and, as with so many American films these days, Scoobie-Doo. But it’s set in Berlin, which gave it a bit of exoticism and felt good for both Bea and me since we have fond memories of travelling there in earlier years; and it has a fantastic bit of acting from one of my favourite actors of all time: Bruno Ganz.

The plot: American couple arrive in Berlin for a big world conference on the biotech industry. A series of disasters befalls them, culminating in a car accident which leaves male lead (Liam Neeson) with confusion and his wife (January Johnson – Betty in Mad Men) apparently in a parallel life with a different man.

It’s the kind of start to a film that makes you see your own life in perspective. However bad your day might just have been, it’s nothing compared to this.

And the plot builds nicely, as we stay with Neeson, trying to convince the world that he really is the scientist who flew in for this biotech conference. He engages ex-Stasi private detective (Ganz) who just gives the whole film an extra quality with his fantastic character-acting, and some great lines about the psychology of the Communist-regime Stasi methods.

It somehow lost me when suddenly we were thrown into a dramatic car chase through the streets of Berlin, the like of which seemed to be a mainstay of all American films in the 60s and 70s, but which I hadn’t really seen for some time. It just became too unreal at that stage, and any extra drama points from the screeching brakes and hand-brake turns are lost on me as I search for a connection to a reality I can relate to.

It was from this point that the Scoobie-Doo and Terminator feel somehow, amazingly combined to make me care even less about the outcome.

And as the film ends, we return to the biotech theme, and I couldn’t help wondering if the whole thing had been funded by the biotech industry, given the conclusions they come to on genetically-modified food; though note also the subliminal reference to the European Parliament in the final clip: did they have something to do with the film, too?

If this film were based solely on Bruno Ganz’s character and acting, I’d give it five stars, but as a whole I can give it only:

**.5

Bea says:

Is everyone in Chester, New Jersey hard of hearing? I was, after we left this film. Is there really any need to have the volume up THAT LOUD? Any loud scene (e.g. the car chase) required me to put my fingers in my ears – and after years of nightclubs and gigs in my teens and 20s, my hearing isn’t all that great anyway!

However, I did find this an enjoyably diverting film. The plot is interesting, and as I haven’t seen The Bourne Identity, it didn’t feel too recycled to me. I really liked the setting of a mid-winter Berlin – just as I remember it from the 90s; cold, snowy, edgy. I thought all the leads (Liam Neeson, January Jones) acted well, but agree with Cecil that Bruno Ganz outshone them all effortlessly, and appeared to be having a lot of fun as well.

This film may not be a “must-see”, but if you like thrillers, or if you’ve ever been to Berlin and enjoyed it, or if you’re a die-hard Ganz fan like Cecil, it is recommended.

**1/2

True Grit

Bea Says: I am a long-time admirer of the work of the Coen Brothers, and was also raised by a baby boomer father who loves Westerns, so I was keen to see their adaptation of the classic novel and film True Grit. I think I have read the book, a long time ago, and think I have seen the old John Wayne film – again long ago – but my memory of the details of the story was hazy.

This film served to remind me of the power of a good story, with each gripping event helping the audience unpeel layers from the three central characters – fourteen year old self-possessed Mattie Ross, who becomes more child-like as the story progresses and the dangers deepen; The Rooster, a maverick bounty hunter who likes his whisky a bit too much, and who softens considerably as he and Mattie develop a father-daughter, or perhaps grandfather-granddaughter relationship in their hunt for her father’s killer; and Le Boeuf, brilliantly played by Matt Damon, as the attractive and comically earnest “ever stalwart” Texas Ranger who divides his role between falling out with the pair, but also crucially aiding them when they need it most. The spark between him and Mattie is well handled by the writing and direction.

The final scenes had me gripping my seat and nearly in tears as The Rooster tries to save Mattie’s life, and my memories of the original story came flooding back. The wrap-up, 25 years on, is beautifully crafted, thought-provoking and poignant and its final narrative evokes themes of friendship and the enduring, yet not necessarily popular or accommodating, nature of character – Mattie’s “true grit” does not lead her into any traditional construction of a happy life. And 25 years on, the wild west is reduced to being merely a travelling theme show. 25 years is indeed a long time.

I wish the Coen Brothers made more films, or that more directors would emulate them. A choice between Black Swan and this for the Oscars? Black Swan isn’t even in the running as far as I’m concerned.

****1/2

Cecil says: I haven’t seen a western for years. Maybe not since those black and white films from the 1950s which seemed to be the only thing to watch on TV on damp Saturday and Sunday afternoons. I have a vague memory of those westerns being all about good and evil, a world seen in black and white and a 1950s advert for the great American dream (or at least that’s what my film study contemporaries at uni would tell me)

If this Coen Brothers adaptation of True Grit is anything to go by, I should see more modern-day westerns. There’s more nuance to the characters; the same story can be told in a completely different way; and maybe even the ending is unlike the original (though I don’t remember for sure).

The acting and the screenplay were brilliant across the board, from the three main characters through to the small cameo roles. The detailed observations in some of the minor roles were insightful: the final speeches of the three men about to be hanged; the spooky Irish undertaker; the young lad caught up in the middle of nowhere in gang warfare he was ill suited to.

But this is the kind of film where you actually need to buy the screenplay and read it again. I’m sure in those 1950s westerns, you didn’t struggle to understand every word spoken. So have contemporary film-makers just got more real in this respect too? It was the same with Get Low a few weeks ago, and I’m guessing this must be more like real southern and western Americans speak than the sanitised speech of John Wayne or Gary Cooper.

Hey, there are so many potential Oscar winners out there this year, and a few must surely come from True Grit

****