SCREENING LOG - 10/23/2006-10/29/2006

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The 49th Parallel (1941, Michael Powell)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033627/
Upon reflection, Michael Powell's wartime propaganda film is as stunning a feat as any of his more famous later works. For one, it's told perversely through the perspective of a Nazi U-boat team stranded in Canada, making their way cross-country while ruthlessly dispatching anyone who gets in their way. The Canadians are portrayed as a scattered bunch of woodsy eccentrics with oddball appreciations of Western civilization, whether it be art (Leslie Howard cries "This is for Matisse! This is for Picasso!" as he wails against a Nazi adversary) or democracy (Raymond Massey's definition: "the right to be fed up with anything we damn please and say so out loud when we feel like it"). What emerges is a goofy yet sophisticated Powellian argument for the joyous beauty of human wackiness and expressivity vs. the fascist ideal of a normalized society, supported whether through outright zealotry or complacent pragmatism (both embodied by different members of the U-boat contingent). Imagine Deborah Kerr's repressed idealogue in Nazi garb surrounded by indigenous nutcases and voila, it's Powell's precursor to BLACK NARCISSUS, and to my opinion a more interesting film.
yes (tied for #10 for 1941 with THE 47 RONIN)

The Queen (2006, Stephen Frears)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0436697/
Enjoyably light fare that offers us the heartening, thoughtful argument that celebrity mania is something that all of us, including the Queen of England, should succumb to lest we be seen as unhip. The monarchy gets a gentle drubbing while the media mania that stirred the frenzy of Diana's mourning is relatively left uncriticized. Frears workmanlike directing gives ample room for his actors to do their thing, and they oblige, with Helen Mirren leading the way. She does a great job showing the gradual shifting of registers in her regard towards her ex-daughter in law's death as well as the grief of the public (that she shows the most affection for a deer that enters her grounds says it all). But I think just as impressive is Michael Sheen as an energetic yet ingratiating Tony Blair -- a character very much written with the present in mind, his mix of calculated charisma and susceptibility to grandeur and power seems to foretell his recent demise as a Bush acolyte.
yes

The Last King of Scotland (2006, Kevin Macdonald)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0455590/
Young, randy Scottish doctor travels to Africa on a whim, bangs the first girl he sees on bus and is about to do the same to Gillian Anderson when Idi Amin shows up to personally show him a good time before going Kevin Spacey in SWIMMING WITH SHARKS on him. Basically the African equivalent of TRAINING DAY, with the main lesson being, it's probably not a good idea to sleep with the dictator of Uganda's wife, even if he has two to spare and you seem to be on good terms with him. Forrest Whitaker's performance is likely to be the most overrated of the year -- but it's hard to say how good or bad he is because the jarring camerawork and editing exaggerate his every gesticulation, like a bad attempt to lift from a so-so Scorsese movie (see DEPARTED review below). The lead actor, whose name I won't bother to look up, is incredibly unlikeable in his shallow self-absorption -- or perhaps I'm just not part of the globetrotting dogooder-cum-hedonist audience this film was no doubt made for.
mixed

Advise and Consent (1962, Otto Preminger)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055728/
If anyone wants to see how simplistic THE QUEEN is in its depiction of the moral and ethical values underlying political negotiation and public image control, check out Preminger's brilliantly realized dissection of White House politics during a Congressional hearing to approve a new Secretary of State (Henry Fonda, in his umpteenth political role, but more intriguing than usual). The conversations and on-the-record hearings have subtexts within subtexts -- belieing the detached, clinical wide angle camerawork employed by Preminger, the multifaceted relationships between humans open the film into vivid, thoughtful dimensions. The extensive ensemble is expertly juggled, and Don Murray is especially good as an earnest senator with a secret that comes to terrorize him. Come to think of it, in its wrangling with the dirty dealings of power and the constant shifting of loyalties between allies and adversaries, this film is in some ways a better (and much classier) version of THE DEPARTED (see below).
YES (#8 for 1962 between LA JETEE and THE TRIAL OF JOAN OF ARC)

The Departed (2006, Martin Scorsese)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0407887/
When I first reviewed INFERNAL AFFAIRS a few years ago, while others gushed at its high concept brilliance, I lamented how it seemed like a bellwether for a colder, darker and slicker era of Hong Kong filmmaking, instead of the rough and tumble heyday of the 80s and 90s. One could say similar things about Scorsese's latest, as he trots out his well-worn shooting and editing techniques from his previous forays into gangland. Scorsese's pacing is as high-calorie as ever, and with the dream ensemble of male leads he wields, the star power is as dazzling as the firefights. But, not unlike his last two epics, there's a manic sense of everything trying to be crammed into a limited space, so that even at 2 1/2 hours, it feels a bit rushed and the movie doesn't settle in the mind as much as it could have. DiCaprio's lost soul undercover police informant is the only character that achieves three dimensional weight (though I'm concerned that, between THE AVIATOR and this film, DiCaprio may have permanently disfigured his brows from all their angst-ridden furrowing). Damon plays DiCaprio's doppelganger as a ruthless career survivalist even more inscrutable than his Mr. Ripley. In contrast, Jack Nicholson and Mark Wahlberg get to chew entire acres of scenery -- it's almost as if they sensed Marty's ADD while shooting and figured they had to act big for screentime. But most gratuitous of all is the overabundance of racist and sexist epithets and general bad behavior slathered on the script gratuitously -- this kind of instant street credibility has long become formulaic in itself (thanks in no small part to Scorsese's past films). Overall, it's a gripping entertainment with a modicum of moral complexity thrown in, chiefly through DiCaprio's character. But who would have thought that 2006 was the year that Spike Lee proved to be a better crime action director than his idol?
yes

The More the Merrier (1943, George Stevens)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036172/
Kudos to the folks to turned the real life housing shortage that befell Washington DC during WWII into an irreverent bedroom farce -- perhaps George Stevens felt guilty about making such a trifle while millions were dying in Europe and thus became a Serious Artist. Jean Arthur sparkles like a diamond -- she has more life in one step than the entire performance of Oscar winner Charles Coburn nearly sunk the picture for me -- his corpulent, opportunistic Benjamin Dingle is like a big black hole whose comic timing feels leaden to me. It's not until Joel McCrea shows up as the third roommate that things really heat up and the sparks fly between Jean and Joel. McCrea has such an unexpected verve to enliven what would otherwise be a liability, his innate decency. What strikes me this time around is his incredible generosity as an actor, he's not afraid to take a step back or play it on the quiet side in a given scene, and it just adds to his likeability.
yes

Hud (1963, Martin Ritt)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057163/
It seems to me that movies based on the work of Larry McMurtry don't age terribly well -- they seem to wear their Western revisionism a little too much on their sleeve. However, this film, like BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN and LAST PICTURE SHOW, is never bad and is often absorbing in its concern towards the dwindling options facing the members of a ranch house whose stock is suspected of carrying foot and mouth disease. It's perhaps most compelling as a historical signpost of the generational schism in values dividing Kennedy-era America - and certainly more compelling along those lines than the token genuflections in THE QUEEN. James Wong Howe's slick lensing suggests a rural version of SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS -- with hard glares exchanged between Melvyn Douglas and Paul Newman in the place of Lancaster and Curtis' hard dialogue -- but with just as much anti-establishment cynicism. Patricia Neal is the sexiest ugly duck to win an Oscar, exuding frumpy housemaid sensuality with her slow drawl and slower-lidded gaze.
yes

The Big Trail (1931, Raoul Walsh)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0020691/
John Wayne and the grandeur of real frontier locations are the two main attractions in Walsh's epic telling of 19th century wagon settlers fending off threats from outside and in. Young Wayne is fascinating -- his tall stature looms over the ensemble, but it's his booming voice that makes him into a rare creature and a true star. Walsh's insistence on re-enacting the hardships of pioneering, with wagon trains crossing churing rivers or being lowered down cliffs, takes on Herzogian levels of pathology.
yes

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