CINEMANIA:

Michael Clayton (2007, USA, Tony Gilroy)

Ben sez:

John Grisham for exceptionally bleeding hearts.

I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this, picking apart the numerous implausible aspects of the plot. Suffice to highlight that the wonderfully satisfying climax in the hotel lobby when he sets up the bust is utter jive - because he had absolutely no knowledge about who in particular to entrap, who in particular at the pesticide corporation opened the hunting season on the law firm. It is the usual case of the first act being a lot better than act two. It's quite fascinating the way the toy is wound up but watching it walk across the room while it beats a drum is not such a great trick.

The Counterfeiters (2007, Austria, Stefan Ruzowitzky)

Ben sez:

An episode of Hogan's Heros played for dread.

The concentration camp setting is no joke, of course. Yet, TC comes dangerously close to being a typical prisoner of war movie. In this genre, the challenge to defeat the enemy on the battlefield is transposed into the challenge to sabatoge whatever work the prisoners have been enslaved to perform for their enemy.

Elevator to the Gallows (France, 1964, Louis Malle)

Ben sed:

I want to apologize to Louis Malle. This is a case of me being totally ignorant but not letting that stand in the way of me having an opinion. I've been po-poing the guy all these years simply because he made Pretty Baby, which received way too much hype at the time and, of course, featured Brooke Shields, who quickly went on to receive way, way too much hype period.

Then it Was Ben's Turn

A series of reviews penned primarily by Ben Livant with sporadic and intermittent commentary from yrs truly.

Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle (USA, 2004, Danny Leiner)

Ben:

Politically correct Cheech and Chong, except that Dumb and Dumber was already Cheech and Chong without the drugs and hey, weren't Cheech and Chong just Lewis and Martin with drugs?

Well, it had to happen. My kid hoisted me on my own snobbery petard.

VIFF Day 9

Amal (2007, Canada, Richie Mehta)

Stories and films set in India have an immediate appeal to me.

VIFF Days 6 and 7

Just a couple of quickies today as I head out the door for more.

The Class (2007, Estonia, Ilmar Raag)

A really darkly disturbing drama out of Estonia much in the same vein as Gus Van Sant's Elephant, The Class is likewise purportedly based upon actual stories culled from students in the Estonian school system. And if so, Estonia has some serious work to do, because The Class left me punished and battered, bruised and huddled in a corner.

Day Five VIFF

The Tracey Fragments (2007, Canada, Bruce MacDonald)

I will admit to a certain grudging respect for some of the technical aspects of The Tracey Fragments, as director Bruce MacDonald's multifoliate split screen approach, reminiscent of Mike Figgis's Time Code, and the bundles of cameras he uses to film a single scene, borrowing the approach of Lar Von Trier in his anti-Dogme Dancer in the Dark, seems to be at loosely inspired by the themes of the story in question.

Day Two/Three VIFF

Adam's Apples (2005, Denmark, Anders Thomas Jensen)

Along with Beauty in Trouble, this is the treat of the festival so far, a tar-pitched comedy about the reformation of a Neo-Nazi, played with suitable menace by the bald-pated Ulrich Thomson, who as part of his community service is released into the custody of a relentlessly optimistic preacher named Ivan (Mads Mikkelson) in a small and remote Danish town.

Victoria Film Festival 2008 Edition:

Day One

Bab 'Aziz (2005, Tunisia, Nacer Khemir)

Bab 'Aziz is a road picture that starts strongly, begins to drift in the Tunisian sands through a substantial portion of its middle section and threatens to lose its way as well as its audience, only to pull it back together in the final moments of the closing act.

My Favourite Films of 2007

It was a strange year of film going for me, due largely to some rather daunting issues on the private life front which I have no interest in divulging at this time, but which stole a big chunk out of my life from September until mid-December. Which is to say, I had to use these last couple of weeks of the year to play some Big League Catch-Up, and though I have given it the good ol' college try, I have come up a little bit short.