The Kid

The new year is barely two weeks old, and I already have a movie memory for the ages.

There's a scene in THE KID during which the '20s equivalent of Child Protective Services shows up to deliver young Jackie Coogan from the loving squalor of life with tramp Charlie Chaplin. It's heart-rending stuff, as the kid screams for the only father he's ever known and the tramp tries everything he can think of to save his son. I was into it, as I always am, but I took a moment to glance over and see how it was working for my seven-year-old.

He was horrified and heartsick and totally, completely captivated. I won't forget the look on his face as he whispered, "Go, go!" for a long time.

Later, there was laughter, and the ending sewed everything up nicely. But what a delight to see THE KID capture the imagination of my kid, as it has mine for so many viewings. Surely, this film deserves its place in the canon.

What I Thought About What I Saw: 2007

Since I rarely see movies in the theater, I haven’t had a chance to catch up on the year-end Oscar bait. That said, here are my top and bottom ten for 2007. The competition for “worse” was fierce this year, but “best” was easy, as one film far outpaced the rest.


1. RATATOUILLE
In a year as good for movies as any I can remember, RATATOUILLE shines as a lovely, multilayered story, a compelling argument for criticism, and a remarkable technical achievement. I thought this film was doomed from the first promo reel – who cares about a rat that cooks? Boy, was I wrong. RATATOUILLE does everything right, and it’s a film that with genuine, earnest appeal for every member of its audience. In short, it’s a masterpiece.

2. SUPERBAD
I started laughing about thirty seconds into SUPERBAD, and I didn’t stop until the end credits rolled. Then I went out and discussed the film with friends, and I laughed for another two hours. SUPERBAD’s comedy does not derive from silly costumes or outrageous gags. Rather, it derives from its characters; people who, while comic, still feel authentic. I enjoyed the hell out of my ride with them, and I look forward to taking it again.

3. 1408
In a genre filled with slashers who are no more terrifying than anything else we might read about on the front page of the Washington Post, what a pleasure to find a well-executed ghost story. Not only did 1408 genuinely scare me, but it delivered delicious residual scares on my next hotel stay. I went into this movie with zero expectations. What a pleasant surprise.

4. BLACK BOOK
Say what you will about the moral codes of its characters, BLACK BOOK excels at first creating tension, then ratcheting and ratcheting until our hearts are in our throats. BLACK BOOK works as a thriller, as a study of people under duress, and as an astonishing U.S. debut for Dutch star Carice van Houten. I’d gladly see it again.

5. SURF’S UP
I expected SURF’S UP to be a moderately entertaining kids’ movie about talking penguins. I was surprised and delighted to find that it’s a genuinely funny and creative kids’ movie that had three generations of my family laughing out loud. SURF’S UP is smart, fun, and funny. Combine those qualities with beautiful CGI, and you’ve got yourself a first-class film.

6. ZODIAC
I’ve had it with serial killer movies and police procedurals. I’m not into the fetishization of murder, and there’s no glamour in police work that I can see. It would seem that David Fincher, director of ZODIAC, feels the same. He takes a film that could be serial killer movie, or a simple procedural, and turns it into an examination of the obsession, influence, and the thin, thin margin between historic success and devastating personal failure. ZODIAC captures its time and its people and, though long, races by and never lets go of our imaginations. This is a film that’s well worth seeing.

7. SERAPHIM FALLS
SERAPHIM FALLS is a western that takes westerns seriously. It nails the small details of the Mountain West, and its unique take on pursuit and revenge engages the mind and heart. I believed in Brosnan and Neeson’s characters, I believed in their world, and I couldn’t believe my eyes or ears when John Huston’s daughter showed up and actually said, “A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do.” This film did not deserve to vanish.

8. BLACK SNAKE MOAN
Here’s another film that disappeared unjustly. I think the whole “Samuel L. Jackson keeps that girl from THE ADDAMS FAMILY chained up in his house” angle didn’t attract the dating crowd, and that was a real shame. BLACK SNAKE MOAN, from the director of HUSTLE & FLOW, represents an authentic voice from the American South telling a story about his people and his world. This film made me reevaluate Christina Ricci and supporting actor Justin Timberlake, and it confirmed Samuel L. Jackson’s status as one of the best American actors (in films where he’s actually paying attention).

9. 300
300 takes “over the top” and goes over its top, giddily piling visual on top of visual as it tells the story of Sparta’s defense of the Hot Gates, a strategic chokepoint, from assault by the vast armies of Persia. 300 loves the movies: it loves lighting, and music, and digital manipulation of image and sound to mine the most effect from every moment of its screen time. Further, it’s educational: before watching this movie, I had no idea that Spartan warriors took regular injections of vitamin B-12.

10. Vitus
VITUS tells the story of a boy so brilliant, not even the film is certain how brilliant he is. With the help of his grandfather, Bruno Ganz, Vitus must find his place in a world not designed for those as remarkable as he. While this movie started like a Swiss rehash of SEARCHING FOR BOBBY FISCHER, it went in a different direction that both surprised and delighted me. Of all the film I’ve seen this year, I’ve made people sit down for only two of them: VITUS and RATATOUILLE. That ain’t bad company.


10. BLADES OF GLORY
An intermittently funny riff on the world of figure skating, BLADES OF GLORY’s premise got stale in the first act. Everything it tries to do, SOUTH PARK: BIGGER, LONGER, UNCUT did better with just one song.

9. SMOKIN’ ACES
SMOKIN’ ACES wants to be loud, frenetic, and dazzling. It’s just loud. I didn’t care about any of the characters onscreen, so I didn’t care about the action the film was designed around. SMOKIN’ ACES promises guns, ‘splosions, and plenty of gratuitous nudity. But without characters worth investing in, what’s the point?

8. FANTASTIC FOUR 2: RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER
Both this film and the next suffer from the handicap of having been viewed while sitting in Coach on a long transpacific flight: surely not the intended venue for these large-scale, summer blockbusters. Fantastic Four 2 is ok enough, I suppose. It has a few amusing moments, and the world is duly saved, but I just couldn’t bring myself to care about these people.

7. HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX
Not only did I see this one on a plane, but I made the mistake of reading the book just a couple of weeks prior. ORDER OF THE PHOENIX left me focusing mostly on what was left out from the dour, troubling book. Unfortunately, it seems that what was left out was levity. This movie felt like drudgery, not my idea of a good time.

6. THE HOST
THE HOST is a Korean take on the monster movie, and it features a wonderfully realized, legitimately scary monster. Unfortunately, that monster upstages the hero of the movie, a ne’er do well dad frantically searching for his daughter (last seen in the clutches of the beast). Beyond the sympathy of paternity, THE HOST gave me no way to identify with the father, and thus no way to fully engage with the story.

5. SHOOT ‘EM UP
I may be the only guy on Earth who still doesn’t “get” Clive Owen. Sure, I liked him in those BMW shorts, but he has left me cold in every single role in which I’ve seen him since. SHOOT ‘EM UP, a nihilistic thrill ride with a treacly and intellectually dishonest twist-premise, gives us Mr. Owen as a modern gunslinger on an adventure with a body count to rival that of any video game. Here’s another premise that sounds like fun, but the movie’s such an unrelenting downer that it’s more like an hour and a half of bitterness. One bright spot is Paul Giamatti in the villain role to end all villain roles, but one actor cannot save an entire production. What a shame.

4. TMNT
TMNT, apparently entitled for people who can’t yet read the words “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” gives us a bunch of cartoon characters on an adventure. Unfortunately, the move assumes that we already know who these characters are and why we should have a rooting interest in their success. Further, the movie assumes that we should root against the bad guy because he’s, well, the bad guy, without giving us any sense of what makes him so much worse than other conquerors before him. Hey, my kid enjoyed TMNT, but the kids’ movies have something to offer parents, as well. TMNT didn’t bother.

3. BALLS OF FURY
Thanks to BALLS OF FURY, my wife need no longer be jealous of Maggie Q, an actress so overexposed in this movie that she comes out as thin as tissue paper. But that’s a minor quibble. The worst thing about BALLS OF FURY is that it’s a comedy without a single laugh. It sets up ridiculous situations, costumes, and characters, then expects us to laugh because of all the trouble it has gone to. Problem is (and I’m beginning to sense a theme in this post), BALLS OF FURY gives us no one to believe in, no character who seems real enough to invite us to suspend our disbelief and follow him or her on a journey. And when we don’t believe in the characters, even in a broadly comic way, we’ve got nothing. I saw this one for a buck-fifty at a military theater, and I felt that I’d been cheated.

2. EVAN ALMIGHTY
EVAN ALMIGHTY was neck-and-neck with HOT ROD for last place honors, but it takes second place because at least it made me care enough to hate it. EVAN ALMIGHTY is the worst kind of activism-lite bullshit for the masses, a comedy that feels more like a civics lesson given by a really lousy and self-satisfied teacher. It has an utterly predictable, insultingly bland by-the-numbers story, an insulting subtext, and a knowing, superior smirk that makes me want to slap it across the face. Not even the charisma trifecta of Morgan Freeman, John Goodman, and Steve Carell can save this ghastly film. When my kid laughed at it, it made me wonder if he was really my son.

1. HOT ROD
When I was a teenager, I attended a high school production of “Oklahoma!” that starred a girl I wanted to date. After the show, she asked me what I thought. I gave her my honest opinion.

Having learned from that mistake, I now stick to comments like, “I’ve never seen anything like it,” and “Wow! You’ve given me a night to remember!”

But I’m not trying to date anyone associated with HOT ROD. If I had been, I would have stopped after sitting through this woeful waste of time, energy, and resources. HOT ROD isn’t even hateful, like EVAN ALMIGHTY. It’s just painfully dull, like an amateur’s first shot at putting comedy sketches on film. Its jokes fall flat, its lead actors can’t act, and nothing about this film is remotely interesting. Do not see this film.

And that’s it, folks. I can’t wait ‘til the end-of-the-year stuff hits DVD so I can see all the prestige pictures. Even so, I had a hard time whittling all the good 2007 films I’ve seen to just a top ten. Its been a great year for movies, and I look forward to 2008.

Ninotchka

NINOTCHKA demands that the viewer fall in love with Greta Garbo. I did not, and the film never rose above the level of amusing diversion because of it.

Here's the setup: Ninotchka's a mid-level Soviet apparatchik sent to Paris to complete the sale of a set of royal jewels. But hey, it's Paris. Who can't fall in love in, and with, Paris? Will Ninotchka loosen up and live a little? Will she accomplish her mission? Will capitalism defeat the tyranny of communism? Aw, hell - you know the answers to all those questions, so the only real question is whether you want to go along for the ride.

Problem is, Ninotchka is distant, brittle, and unwise. While watching her adventure, we get the sense that the actress playing her is smarter than she is, is perhaps smarter than us, and is merely shovelling it out for mass consumption. There is no spell, there is no magic, and there's barely even Paris.

What a drag.

The Last Starfighter

THE LAST STARFIGHTER is better than STAR WARS. It's as much better than STAR WARS as Robert "A pool table! Dontcha understand?" Preston is than Alec "Man, there's nothin' I love more than buildin' bridges!" Guinness.

The movie opens with a young Lance Guest, trailer park teen, defeating a video game called "Starfighter." Wouldn'tcha know it, the thing's actually a recruiting tool for some interstellar navy, and guess who's doing the recruiting? That's right, Robert Preston: a guy who could sell sand to Arabs, sell salt water to Tahitians, sell a woman as a male female impersonator to French club-goers! We're talking about an alien emissary and mentor-figure with more charisma in his hairpiece than the entire cast and crew of STAR WARS has en toto. When Robert Preston tells you to go man up a spaceship and save the galaxy, buddy, you go.

Pay no attention to the fact that the film's special effects make Season One of "Babylon 5" look like the new "Battlestar Galactica." Pay no attention to the fact that Villain #1 is just plain silly. Instead, groove on the excellent prosthetic work, the sense of goofy fun, the awesome closing line of Villain #2, and the fact that, unlike Luke Skywalker, Lance Guest's Alex Rogan is actually going to close the deal with the romantic lead. Oh, and groove on Robert Preston in his final Big Screen role, hamming it up, having a great time, and, yes, saving the galaxy.

THE LAST STARFIGHTER is a success. It does all the things it sets out to do, and it hits all the right notes in so doing. This is a neat movie.

Letter From An Unknown Woman

Some time ago, I read a glowing review of LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN, starring Joan Fontaine, and Netflixed it right away. I then forgot all about it and, when LETTER FROM AN UNKOWN WOMAN arrived in my mailbox, I was mildly perplexed. "I thought this was Joan Fontaine movie," I, er, thought. "I must be mixed up. I'm sure I'll like this Chinese movie just fine."

I'm here to tell you that I did not like the 2004 Chinese remake of LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN. While director and lead actress Xu Jinglei sells her character's aging and emotional development, she fails to capture the imagination or the heart with her maudlin, ponderous retelling of the story.

LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN opens with a rich guy reading his mail. One of the letters begins, "Now that my son is dead, I can tell you the truth: that I've always loved you. If you're reading this, I'm dead, too, so fear not: I ask nothing of you, for the dead have no needs." The movie lost me right there, as I rolled my eyes at the kind of "doomed romantic" bs that even the most callow of schoolgirls would find ridiculous. The movie takes us through the author of that letter's life as, yes, a callow schoolgirl, a slightly older callow schoolgirl, and, well, some other things, too. As I said, I bought the character's life transitions, but I couldn't get past the sickly-sweet nature of the story, the celebration of the ultimate in passive aggressiveness: bringing the guilt from beyond the grave.

Reviewer, now that the movie is over, I can tell you the truth: that I spent an hour and a half wondering what got into you. If you're reading this, fear not: there must be DVD of the other, better LETTER FROM AN UNKOWN WOMAN out there. After I wash the taste of this one out of my mouth, I just might give it a try.

Evan Almighty

Oh, how I loathed EVAN ALMIGHTY. Here's a movie that takes the most banal platitudes:
((1) Dad needs to make more time for the kids.
(2) McMansions are bad.
(3) SUVs, and particularly Hummers, are bad.
(4) Development is bad. (5) Realtors are bad (ok, that was a new one).
(6) Animals are good.
(7) That "random acts of kindness" meme is the height of Divine truth.
(7) Wanda Sykes is funny.),

combines them with stunning ignorance:
((1) Small-time TV news co-anchors and congressmen can afford giant houses and fabulous cars.
(2) House committee chairmen are just slightly less powerful than the President.
(3) Congressional chiefs of staff and legislative aids are basically the same thing.
(4) A committee chairman can fire a congressman.
(5) The Blue Ridge Mountains are short commute to DC.
(6) God is a moron.
(7) Anyone would choose to live in Buffalo instead of anywhere else in the world, including Port au Prince.),

and creates a lazy, preachy, treacly, unfunny mess of a film that amused my 7-yr-old, but made my wife and me want to stick forks in our eyes.

EVAN ALMIGHTY's jokes are lame. Its characterizations are lame. Its politics are lame. Its religion is lame. Its dialogue, its CGI, its direction, its music, its buildup, its climax, its ending, even its closing credits are lame (Ok, its ending and closing credits are more desperate than lame, but still...). Morgan Freeman makes for an agreeable King of Kings and Steve Carrell makes for an agreeable prophet, but that's about all this movie has to offer. Avoid, avoid, avoid this movie. It's not worth seeing.

Brief Hiatus

To my regular reader (Hi, Mom!):

I'm totally clobbered right now, so I don't even have time to watch movies on the Metro in to work. I expect things to loosen up in a few weeks, and then we'll be right back at it. 'Til then, browse the archives - you might see something you like!

Happy holidays,
FC

Cars

CARS isn't wildly funny or illuminating or anything else. It just sorta rocks along pleasantly for an hour and a half, content to be content in the journey.

Here's the setup: Lightning McQueen is *this close* to winning the coveted Piston Cup and making all his dreams come true. He's just gotta get to LA in time for the race and the meeting with the big sponsor and the fame and the fans and so on and so forth. But then he gets sidetracked, DOC HOLLYWOOD style, in a litte town on Route 66. Surprisingly, he learns some life lessons about community and selflessness, and he finds out that maybe what he wanted isn't what he wanted, at all. It's a fine chassis for a kids' story, and it works as advertised, with some particularly clever touches in the realization of an all-autos world. This is a Pixar production, so it looks fabulous and has all the marks of a precision machine. It hits its marks and, while not a masterpiece, it answers the mail.

What's more interesting is the trend to focus on the importance of sportsmanship and fair play in kids' movies that I've been noticing. It's a delightful change from the "2nd place is first loser" mentality that I see permeating much of popular culture and a message that's worth getting out there. There's nothing trite about class, and it's good to see that reinforced in popular entertainment.

Surf's Up

SURF'S UP is the funniest movie I've seen since SUPERBAD.

Here's the setup: Cody Maverick (Great name!) is an Antarctic penguin who has just plain gotta surf. Will he win the big surf-off? Will he win the respect of the Big Kahuna? Will he win the heart of the cute lifeguard girl? Ok, sounds pretty standard so far - I get it. But have no fear. SURF'S UP is done in a witty, surfer-doc style that feels like half Warren Miller and half Bruce Brown, and it succeeds in being both visually exciting (actually, no small feat for a CGI movie about surfing penguins) and laugh-out-loud funny. Shia LaBeouf voices Cody, The Once and Future Dude voices the Big Kahuna, the unbearably cute Zooey Deschanel plays the lifeguard, and even Jon Heder manages to entertain as the stoner chicken buddy who'll pass as merely goofy in front of the youngsters at whom this film is ostensibly targeted. Yes, that's right: I just wrote the words "stoner chicken buddy." Roll with it.

The gags come at just the right pace, with different aspects of the same bit targeted for different ages. One more than one occasion, this film had my whole family laughing at the same time, but for different reasons. The story clips right along, the thing looks great, and I suspect there's more to find on subsequent viewings, of which I predict there will be many.

Though SURF'S UP does have a downside in that it made me seriously question my decision to move away from San Diego and its perfect slow rollers, I recommend this film without reservation. Who'd have thought I'd love an animated movie about surfing penguins? But there it is.

Vitus

Thanks, Roger Ebert!

I'd never have heard of VITUS if Ebert hadn't reviewed it. It didn't pop on CHUD, which is where I go for movie news, and it didn't pop here, which is where I go for movie conversation. If Ebert hadn't given it a few hundred words, it would have disappeared.

But he did give it a couple of hundred words, and he had me sold at "Bruno Ganz," and I'm glad I sat down for it. VITUS is a Swiss film about a kid named Vitus who is so incredibly brilliant that his parents can't even comprehend how brilliant he is. I thought it was going to be a piano-oriented rehash of SEARCHING FOR BOBBY FISCHER but, when the film went on to show my that I couldn't comprehend how brilliant this kid is, it took me in a new direction, one I thoroughly enjoyed.

The light in this kid's life is his grandfather, played by the incredible Bruno Ganz. Ganz is one of those everyman-type actors whose comforting onscreen presence belies a sharpness that gives him the ability to act in films in a variety of languages. So far, I've seen him do German (in multiple dialects), Italian, and Greek, all while sounding like a native speaker. Here, he assays Swiss German, and it's extraordinary. As the kindly grandfather and font of vitally important folk wisdom, he gives Vitus the two things he needs: unconditional love and the chance to act like a kid, or act like a grownup, or act however he needs to act. And it's wonderful.

The conflict, well, it's not a "kid against the world" kind of thing so much as it is a story about "kid finding his way in the world." It's sweet, but not overly so, and it holds some pleasant surprises. I liked VITUS enough to re-screen it for my wife. I think she's going to like it, too. I had her sold at "Bruno Ganz."

Meet The Robinsons

MEET THE ROBINSONS is your standard kids' fare, hot off the assembly line. It has bright and adorable orphans, a fun villain right out of "Dudley Do-Right," and a moral that we can't help but get behind, even if we may object to being bludgeoned with it so mercilessly.

Here's the setup: Orphan Boy is a super genius who turns off every potential set of adoptive parents at the fantasy orphanage in which he lives. One day, Marty McFly -er, some kid- shows up, gets involved in his life, and puts him on track to happiness. And that's it, really. Beyond that, all I can say is, hey, it entertained my 7-yr-old while teaching a mantra "Keep moving forward" that's a great thing for people to carry around. It was bright, it was shiny, and it did what it was supposed to do. Yeah, it was no RATATOUILLE, but not everything can be. I'll take it.

Paris, je t'aime

PARIS, JE T'AIME isn't a film so much as it is a mini film festival. Imagine, if you will, two hours worth of five-minute short films set in Paris, directed by a veritable Who's Who of directors and performed by a veritable Who's Who of French, English, and American actors. These films share a love of Paris, a love so thorough that it may freeze out those who have never been to nor dreamt of the city.

Fortunately for me, my wife and I took a marvelous vacation to Paris some years back and, yes, we fell in love with it. So I was in. But how was the festival? Well, like all festivals, this one offered some memorable and some forgettable films, and it's a good idea to take breaks between blocks of viewing. That said, there's one short with Elijah Wood and Olga Kurylenko that's hypnotic, audacious and absolutely memorable. In fact, it's so good that it makes the disc worth renting on its strength alone.

So, there it is. If you're a francophile, I think you'll surely enjoy this movie. If not, your mileage may vary.

But I liked it.

Rescue Dawn

In RESCUE DAWN, Christian Bale gives another one of those performances that reminds that he's a quality, quality actor who happens to lack that certain something that makes us connect with him on a visceral level.

In the film, Bale plays Dieter Dengler, a real-life Navy pilot who has the misfortune of getting shot down over Laos on his very first mission. His story, from capture to rescue, feels believable on both technical and personal levels. The movie gets the Navy stuff right. It gets the aviation stuff right. It gets the personal interactions between Dengler and his squadronmates, captors, and fellow captives right. It's shot magnificently. The music is excellent. Even the supporting work by Steve Zahn and Jeremy Davies is absolutely (and career-enhancingly) first class.

But there's something about Bale. I never didn't buy him as Dengler, just as I accept him in all his roles. I never particularly liked him, either. Sure, I sympathised with him. I respected him. But if he were in my squadron, he isn't one of the guys I'd go out of my way to go on detachment with (but neither would I go out of my way to prevent it). And while that didn't take away from the character or the journey of that character, it detracted from my investment in Dieter Dengler. When he finally got rescued and I was supposed to feel relieved, or happy, or something, I felt nothing at all.

I can see them screening RESCUE DAWN at Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape School. But though I respect the film, I can't say that I like it. But I'll keep watching Bale because I respect his craft and his dedication. Perhaps I'll connect with him in his next role.

Now, Voyager

From Netflix: Bridled by an autocratic mother, Charlotte Vale (Bette Davis) borders on a nervous breakdown. But when a psychiatrist (Claude Rains) persuades her to drastically change her life, she blossoms into a self-possessed woman. The newly confident Charlotte takes a voyage, where she falls in love with the unhappily married Jerry (Paul Henreid). Though their romance is doomed, Charlotte finds solace in helping Jerry's emotionally unhinged daughter.
===
That synopsis makes NOW, VOYAGER seem like a three-hanky estrogenfest that'd require at least three viewings of ALIENS to wash the smell of perfume out of your clothes.

I loved it.

To me, Bette Davis has always been the scary lady from RETURN FROM WITCH MOUNTAIN. Something about those eyes creeped me out, man, and I never went looking for her work. NOW, VOYAGER leads me to see that she was much more than a kids' movie villain and that those eyes, far from creepy, offer a range of expression that make her a pleasure to see onscreen.

The thing about this movie is that it could have been simple melodrama, but the execution makes it so much more. Claude Rains is brilliant, Paul Henreid is wonderfully conflicted, and Gladys Cooper brings a spectral spookiness to the cardboard role of the oppressive mother. And as for Bette Davis, well, she's luminous. I bought every single step of her journey. I laughed when she laughed; I cried when she cried. What a wonderful, magnificent performance she gives, anchoring the whole enterprise in believability and humanity.

NOW, VOYAGER is a big, big winner. I give it five hankies out of five.

Trouble in Paradise

TROUBLE IN PARADISE, an Ernst Lubitsch film from 1932, is ostensibly about two thieves and a mark. But it's really about class - about style, and cool, and knowing just the thing to say and just when to say it. I know this because it gives the magnificent Edward Everett Horton a brilliant role as the least cool guy in the room. When you cast Horton, you're casting the kind of class that makes real class look like the halls of Olympus.

And who walks the Olympian corridors? Herbert Marshall and Miriam Hopkins as the thieves, and Kay Francis as the mark. And they're so witty, so smooth, so self-aware, that you can't help but love them, can't help but want to be like them, feel sad that your time with them is over when the film draws to a close. They're funny, but in a knowing smile kind of way. They're thoughtful, but they know where the exits are. In short, they're wonderfully idealized aspirational figures, and following them through the grace and eye of Lubitsch, we're happy to be in their company.

Yes, there's a story. And turnabouts, and great dialogue, and all of that. But TROUBLE IN PARADISE is really about intangibles, and it delivers them with gusto. This is an enormously pleasurable film.

I'm Not Scared

What a great movie!

10-year-old Michele has a problem. There's a boy chained up in a hole in the ground out in the country, and his parents may be the kidnappers. I'M NOT SCARED has an excellent premise, but it really excels in what it does with that premise. Michele isn't an adult in a child's body, and he isn't superhuman. He's a normal kid with an extraordinary problem, and he handles it in plausible ways.

The movie draws its tension from the questions of who knows what, and when, and it gathers its power from our natural sympathy for the young and culturally reliable resonance of Christian themes in the rural farms of Italy.

The aptly named Giuseppe Cristiano delivers an eye-opening performance, and he's supported by naturalistic performances, photography, editing, and music. I'M NOT SCARED is nail-baiting, tear-jerking, and altogether successful.

I say again, what a great movie!

Battlestar Galactica: Razor

Ok, this didn't get a theatrical release, and it didn't go right straight to video, but I hope you don't mind if I geek out over a made for TV movie.

I had low hopes for BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: RAZOR. the movie tells the story of the Pegasus, a starship whose fate I, as a regular "Batlestar Galactica" viewer, already know. How interesting is it, really, to learn about how a terrible commanding officer became a terrible commanding officer? How a ship went wrong?

Not very, sad to say. Early in RAZOR, the commanding officer of Pegasus shoots her XO right there on the bridge, thus committing the tyrant's mistake: when you strike fear into your advisors, you will get no good advice. And without good advice, you can't make good decisions. And then things go to hell. And that's it, really. There's plenty more story, lots of nuggets for fans of the program, and some nifty space battles, but it simply isn't fun to watch the character arc of someone who makes such remarkably poor decisions. And our window into the story, the young officer who's intimidated, then awed, by said CO, well, she isn't very interesting, either. Her emotional range seems to go from sullen to angry to sullen, and it's hard to grow attached to her.

Hopefully, the next Battlestar Galactica movie will be two hours of Admiral Adam and President Rosslyn chatting over coffee. Frankly, I'd find that more interesting.

Monsters, Inc.

I have kids, so I've seen MONSTERS, INC. enough times now that I know its every beat. I've looked in every corner of every frame to spot all the little details. There just doesn't seem to be anything new there for me any more - I'm practically a MONSTERS, INC. -ologist.

And you know what I've learned? I've learned that MONSTERS, INC. is a well-crafted, beautifully realized, heartfelt, and funny movie. It does everything right, from the jaunty opening number that tells its juvenile audience not to get too scared by the opening scene to the absolutely perfect, absolutely heartbreaking closing shot to the fun outtakes that run with the closing credits. From the perfectly realized monsters that manage to stay just on the funny side of scary to the terrific voiceover work by Goodman, Crystal, Coburn, Buscemi, and the rest of the cast, the movie just plain nails it.

Bring on the next 25 viewings.

Vampyr

Carl Theodore Dreyer's VAMPYR is a moody, creepy horror film that seeks to unsettle and disturb us. It succeeds, and it does so through a combination of compelling story and wonderfully creepy atmosphere.

The story is the stuff of great horror. An inquisitive young man takes a room in a creepy European village. Late at night, someone enters his room and leaves a box with a note that reads, "To be opened in the event of my death." That box gets opened pretty darn quickly, and we're off to a different kind of vampire story. Why different? Well, Dreyer's idea of a vampire is neither ratlike creature nor hunka hunka burnin love. Rather, he gives us something more mysterious, perhaps more creepy, than we're used to in a vampire film. And he does it while using all the cinematic tricks available to him to create a pervasive sense of unease. VAMPYR is the kind of movie that sneaks up on you, and it's a delicious feeling. I'd gladly see it again.

Benji

BENJI (1974) is the mashed potatoes of movies. It's warm and comforting and nice and does all the things you expect it to do.

Here's the deal: Benji's the town stray, and he has a good little deal working for himself. He lives in a creepy old house that the locals think is haunted, so no one bothers him. He scores his chow from some local kids who've taken him to heart, as well as at least one local restaurateur who can always find a few scraps. He has friends throughout the town, and the film enjoys taking its time as it follows the loveable pooch on his rounds. Heck, he even goes on a date. How cute is that?

But it wouldn't be a movie without drama. Soon enough, the kids are in danger and Benji has a problem Lassie never had to handle. Who's going to listen to a stray? It's a good problem, and it's resolved well, and BENJI wraps everything up with a great big comforting bow. BENJI is a wonderful movie.