F.I.L.M. of the Week (April 26, 2013)

26 04 2013

I’ve now (finally) caught up with David Lynch’s “Blue Velvet” and “Mulholland Dr.”  Those films have given me an idea of what the term Lynchian really means.  Yet while both of those movies have their merits, the director made an entirely different movie called ”The Straight Story” that’s virtually unrecognizable in his ouvre.

I saw this simple, straightforward film at the age of 7 upon its release in 1999.  Even then, its beauty was not lost on me.  I recently watched it again only to find that my critical instincts from a very young age were completely vindicated, so I figured it would make an excellent pick for the “F.I.L.M. of the Week.”

Though it’s easy enough for a child to understand, this is a film that works for everyone ages 7 to 77.  ”The Straight Story” is about family, love, and dedication at its purest.  The late Richard Farnsworth, nearing the end of his life as the movie was shot, pours his heart and soul into the role of Alvin Straight.  He’s a simple country man in deteriorating health unable to drive a car to visit his ailing and estranged brother, Lyle (Harry Dean Stanton).

But that doesn’t stop the iron-willed Alvin.  He decides to buy a tractor and drive it from his home in Iowa all the way up to Lyle in Wisconsin.  At a speed of never more than 6 miles per hour, Alvin and his trailer chug through America’s heartland.  Along the way, he meets fascinating people that give the journey a powerful emotional component.

Lynch has called “The Straight Story” his most experimental film, a strange distinction given some of the bizarre things that have happened in some of his other movies.  However, the film isn’t merely worth remembering due to the fact that the raw, unadulterated compassion is emanating from David Lynch.  It’s one of  the sweetest, most heartfelt films I’ve ever seen from any filmmaker, period.  This is the ultimate family movie, so gather everyone around the television and watch it with the whole crew.


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F.I.L.M. of the Week (April 19, 2013)

19 04 2013

I’m sure when you hear the words avant-garde or experimental cinema, your first instinct is to run as far as possible in the opposite direction.  There’s no shame in that; heck, it was how I felt for a very long time.  But now I’ve realized that sometimes to find the most exciting and challenging ideas that film has to offer, you might have to venture outside of the mainstream.

That impulse was how I stumbled upon “Koyaanisqatsi,” Godfrey Reggio’s masterpiece of picture and sound that is my pick for the “F.I.L.M. of the Week.”  Over 30 years after its initial release, the film still manages to be jolting and provocative.  It asks tough questions about modern life and our relationship to nature, suggesting that perhaps we are living out the translation of the title: life out of balance.

It engages the audience in this conversation, however, without saying a single word.  No title cards either until the ending credits.  So it’s even more silent than a Chaplin film like “Modern Times” or 2011′s “The Artist.”  Don’t be daunted though!  It’s not hard to pull meaning from this film.

The images are tremendously powerful, speaking volumes in the absence of dialogue.  Yes, that means you can’t text and watch “Koyaanisqatsi.”  But with all that extra attention that has to be paid, just think of all you can observe.  I highly recommend just sitting back and letting the film wash over you like a perfume.  Look at the beauty and simplicity of the natural world … and then contrast it with the hectic industrial and urban world.  Watch how they are different, and yet somehow similar.  See how “balance” was constructed in 1983 … and marvel at how we still grapple with the same issues.


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F.I.L.M. of the Week (January 18, 2013)

18 01 2013

When you think of the films of Spike Lee, I can imagine some of the things that come to mind are didactic, pugnacious, and aggressive political commentary.  In other words, you would think of a movie that looks nothing like ”Inside Man,” a tight thriller about the perfect bank robbery.  But precisely because it resists the trappings of a typical Spike Lee movie, it’s my pick for the “F.I.L.M. of the Week.”  (And also because it’s an AWESOME movie!)

You’ve seen plenty of movies about bank robbers, but none quite like Clive Owen’s Dalton Russell.  He’s got a master plan to pull off the perfect heist, one that slowly and cryptically unveils itself in Spike Lee’s film.  Russell is interested in more than just getting quickly in and out with the money; he’s willing to play the long game with the police and the hostages in unconventional ways.  The tension is high as you wait to see when, if ever, his master plan will unravel.

Remarkably, it manages to hold up as some curious players with some very powerful ulterior motives enter the fray.  Namely, there’s the wild-card of Jodie Foster’s power broker tampering with everything she can to keep some secrets hidden inside the bank.  With so many people operating in the shadows and shades of grey, it makes the the quest of the righteous Detective Keith Frazier (Denzel Washington) all the more urgent and compelling.

There’s rarely a dull moment in “Inside Man,” and Lee manages to pull it off without ever needing to pull out a boombox and blare “Fight the Power.”  There’s a little bit of commentary on multiculturalism in New York, but it’s hands-off and not particularly distracting from the point of the film.  Which is, of course, to entertain for two hours and then yank the rug out from underneath the audience.


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F.I.L.M. of the Week (January 4, 2013)

4 01 2013

The recession has manifest itself in many obvious ways in American cinema.  There has been the vilification of the rich in movies like “Arbitrage” and “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps,” excoriation of big business excess in “Tower Heist” and “Margin Call,” and glorification of the average joe worker-bee in “Win Win” and “The Company Men.”

Though “Take Shelter”, my pick for the “F.I.L.M. of the Week,” does not indulge in direct tapping of the zeitgeist, perhaps it best embodies it.  In a statement posted on the film’s website, director Jeff Nichols wrote:

“I believed there was a feeling out in the world that was palpable. It was an anxiety that was very real in my life, and I had the notion it was very real in the lives of other Americans as well as other people around the world.”

This brilliant realization of such post-recessional anxieties has made his “Take Shelter” a superb film that plays timely now but I suspect will ring timeless in the future.

“Take Shelter” opens with its protagonist, Curtis, experiencing a rain of motor oil.  This is quickly revealed to be a hallucination, but it feels like a very real way to bring some internal storms to expressionistic life.  The movie’s magical realism is a perfect compliment to the beguiling veracity of Michael Shannon’s performance as Curtis, a man who puts on a brave face for his family in tough times but ultimately struggles with some very deep demons.

As these apocalyptic delusions get worse, Curtis becomes a sort of modern-day Noah (nothing like Steve Carell’s hokey character in “Evan Almighty,” I’ll have you know).  He quietly sets out to protect his wife and daughter from a cataclysmic event that apparently only he is able to recognize on the horizon.  This tension builds until he ultimately explodes in a fit of rage directed towards a community that doesn’t understand his worries.  In the hands of Shannon, these harbingers of doom sound completely righteous, almost like the words of a prophet.

Grounding the film in an unfair and unkind reality, on the other hand, is Jessica Chastain as Curtis’ loving wife Samantha.  She plays a very different kind of Madonna than her mother in “The Tree of Life,” one fiercely committed to the safety and stability of her family and doesn’t hesitate to fight for it.  She’s the heart and soul of “Take Shelter,” trying to work through Curtis’ torments with patience and level-headedness.  Sweet as can be, it really makes an impact when she snaps after Curtis puts a preventative tornado shelter in their backyard above their own daughter’s health.

All the while, Nichols punctuates the superb performances of Shannon and Chastain with sporadic bursts of nightmarish imagery.  Whether it’s a biting dog, masses of birds, or the mysterious motor oil, Nichols sets the mood for a constantly shape-shifting modern American anxiety.  No matter who watches this and when they watch it, I believe they will find something floating in the ambience of “Take Shelter” that will accurately represent their inner fears.


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F.I.L.M. of the Week (December 28, 2012)

28 12 2012

There has been a lot of talk about Russell Crowe’s singing abilities in “Les Misérables,” and most of it has been negative.  While I will defend (although not without a few reservations) his voice as appropriate for the role, he was an excellent choice to act the part of Javert.  And if you need any reminder as to why he was cast, look no further than the brilliant drama “The Insider,” a crowning jewel of the Michael Mann canon and my pick for the “F.I.L.M. of the Week.”

As Jeffrey Weigand, a major whistleblower for Big Tobacco in the 1990s, Crowe more than adequately portrays the internal storm of a man torn by doing what is ethical and what is easy.  Dr. Weigand’s research uncovered just how addictive nicotine is and how the cigarette companies can amplify the delivery of that kick – at the expense of his own job.  Bound by a confidentiality agreement, he must sacrifice the safety and security of himself and his family in order to do the right thing.

Thankfully, that’s where Al Pacino’s Lowell Bergman comes in.  A producer for “60 Minutes,” Bergman is an expert at coaxing sensitive information out of unwilling informants.  Convincing them to sit down with Mike Wallace, played here with a firm conviction by Christopher Plummer, and spill their guts on television is no easy task, yet Bergman pulls it off with finesse by offering the vast resources of CBS to shield and protect the interviewee.

Everything seems to be working out for “60 Minutes” to run a searing exposé of the tobacco industry’s vicious practices, but the network cowardly balks just before airing, putting Weigand and Bergman both in a lot of hot water.  The journey to make the truth known the American people is made compelling in an “All the President’s Men” kind of way thanks to the bravura performances of Crowe and Pacino, a team deserving of dual Oscar glory.

And beyond the work of Pacino and Crowe, “The Insider” also boasts some of the most precise directing I’ve ever seen from the brilliant Michael Mann.  When he’s on his A-game, there is no one better than him at creating tense, thrilling moments.  His editing rhythms are enthralling and perfectly calibrated to have your heart beating to the pace he wants it.  If watching the movie makes you think of “The Dark Knight,” that’s not really a coincidence; Nolan has clearly taken good notes from a master and expounded upon what Mann does so well in films like “The Insider.”


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F.I.L.M. of the Week (December 21, 2012)

21 12 2012

There are few movies in the world that can make me laugh harder than “Role Models,” my pick for “F.I.L.M. of the Week.”  An R-rated romp that slipped through the cracks for most upon release in 2008, David Wain’s riotous comedy is fantastic through and through.  It’s held up miraculously well, too – trust me, I’ve watched it dozens of times and still bust a gut.

As the two leads doing a comic man/straight man routine, Seann William Scott and Paul Rudd are absolute perfection.  Scott gets to play the absurd variation of the Stifler character for “American Pie” that made him famous, while Paul Rudd plays perhaps his best bleakly blunt pessimist yet.  Though Rudd rings real in opposition to the ridiculous Scott, that doesn’t mean he’s grim or depressing.  Rather, he’s all the funnier and relatable as Paul Rudd proves once again he might be the most adept actor at bringing all our frustrations and annoyances to comedic light.

The free-wheeling Wheeler (Scott) and Danny (Rudd) find themselves in a world of trouble after a particularly bad day on the job peddling energy drinks to kids.  But rather than go to prison for their trail of destruction, they wind up getting community service at Sturdy Wings, a Big Brother-Little Brother type program.  The two quickly find out that prison is a more appealing option than most people would consider.

First of all, Sturdy Wings is run by a crackpot ex-alcoholic and drug addict, Gayle Sweeney – played by Jane Lynch pre-Sue Sylvester (this part probably got her that character).  And to say she steals the show is a vast understatement.  You only hear every other line from her because your laughs from one line bleed over well into the next one.  She speaks in bizarre metaphors that don’t make sense and LOVES reminding everyone of her former habits to a painstakingly hilarious extent.

And Gayle pairs them with two “littles” that scared off everyone else who was volunteering.  Wheeler gets stuck with a firecracker in Ronnie, a crude and manipulative little version of himself.  Danny, on the other hand, is given Augie, an introvert with a good heart that loves nothing more than a good live-action roleplaying game.  Their adventures are strange and funny, leading them to campfires and virtual battlefields, but David Wain brings a funny-bone and a heart to every moment of it.  His “Role Models” packs an excellent message of mentoring and guidance towards becoming a better person without ever being sappy or cheesy; rather, he finds a way to get it across smoothly with laughs, smiles, and good feelings all around.


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F.I.L.M. of the Week (December 14, 2012)

14 12 2012

Blue Steel

It’s rare these days to find a taut, well-constructed thriller.  Usually these genre pics fall victim to throwing on cheap frills and pointless scenes that disrupt the forward momentum of the picture towards a heart-pumping finale.  Not Kathryn Bigelow’s “Blue Steel,” though.  This pick for “F.I.L.M. of the Week” is an early example of the director’s incredible ability to build tension to nerve-wracking effect, making it an interesting companion piece with her Oscar-winning “The Hurt Locker.”

Beyond just a thriller, “Blue Steel” is also a remarkable movie to watch from a feminist perspective.  Ironic that Bigelow would wind up being the first woman to win the Academy Award for Best Director as the film deals with many themes of male castration anxiety in the wake of female empowerment.  Bigelow uses a common symbol for masculinity, the phallically shaped gun, and makes many powerful and provocative suggestions in the film’s subtext.

But even if you don’t really want to do an intellectual read on the film, there’s still plenty for you.  ”Blue Steel” also works as an grittier, pared-down “Fatal Attraction”-esque story, a narrative that captivates when combined with Bigelow’s remarkable ability to generate suspense.

The film begins with Jamie Lee Curtis’ policewoman Megan Turner gunning down an armed robber in a convenient store, but it quickly spirals into so much more as her bold gesture piques the interest of a bystander, Eugene Hunt (Ron Sliver).  Bizarrely inspired – or threatened – by Turner’s aggression, he begins committing strange deeds in her name to get her attention.  We never quite get a logical reason for his breakdown, but we don’t need one to be terrified and riveted by his sociopathic quest.

Even though it was released in 1990, “Blue Steel” still feels incredibly intense and gripping today.  It might have something to do with the odd parallels Megan Turner bears to Kathryn Bigelow’s journey to notoriety.  However, the more likely reason is that every scene in her film is essential towards progressing the film and not a moment seems wasted.


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F.I.L.M. of the Week (November 30, 2012)

30 11 2012

It’s once again the most wonderful time of the year … which means time to dust off the Christmas favorites again.  Though the most family-friendly choices might be “Elf” or “It’s a Wonderful Life,” and the most heartfelt movies might be “Love Actually” or the extremely underrated “The Family Stone,” sometimes you want something a little different.

If you need a raunchy comedy and a Christmas movie all wrapped up in one, you have basically only one choice: Terry Zwigoff’s “Bad Santa.”  Thankfully, it’s a really good choice and I’m featuring it as my “F.I.L.M. of the Week” to kick off the Christmas season. The movie has got laughs to spare thanks to an incredibly witty script and some kick-ass performances … and it’s even unexpectedly sweet.

Billy Bob Thornton plays a familiar sardonic role in the film, here embodying boozing con man Willie Stokes.  He makes his living as a mall Santa, but not from any salary or profits – he and his companion Marcus, a dwarf who acts as his elf, rob the mall where they work that year and then scoot out of town.

However, their year in Phoenix turns out a little differently.  Willie is a little more sex-crazed and erratic than usual, catching the attention of the pushover store manager Bob Chipeska (played with brilliant naïveté by the late John Ritter).  That also puts Chipeska’s top security guard, the stoic Gin Slagel (played by another late comic, Bernie Mag), hot on their trail.

But the more significant development is that Willie starts to develop a heart for “The Kid,” a dim-witted overweight youngster with an undying loyalty to Santa.  His kindness in the face of insult and injury at first annoy Willie yet eventually force him to see some of the error in his ways.  He even begins to give generously out of his greatest strength: his unfeeling toughness.

And isn’t that what Christmas is about?  Giving?  I’ll tell you one thing ”Bad Santa” can give you this holiday season: an aching body from laughing so hard.


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F.I.L.M. of the Week (October 19, 2012)

19 10 2012

Illegal immigration is quite a hot topic, and growing up in Texas, it’s one that is discussed with flared tempers and higher stakes.  With all this talk of self-deportation and failed reforms, it’s easy to treat people like statistics and forget that what happens in our halls of legislation affects people’s lives.

“Which Way Home” reminds us of the perilous implications of our immigration policy and its failures, putting a human face on the issue.  Documentarian Rebecca Camisa cleverly avoids politics, never inter-cutting her stories of Central American children attempting to cross into the United States with shots of lawmakers in dark rooms far away.  We only get to see what directly affects the voyage of these journeymen, such as the Border Patrol and the other Mexican agencies designed to curb illegal border crossing and deport those who have made it into their country from Guatemala and Honduras.

From this perspective, we are trapped with the migrants, confined to their point of view, left to wander with them.  Camisa literally gets her cameras on top of the freight trains that transport so many immigrants to America and gently prods into the souls of the children (yes, some are even as young as 9).  She gets a peek into what motivates and scares them, what makes home so awful as to abandon it and what makes the United States so great as to flock to it.

It’s these revealing, in-the-moment revelations that give “Which Way Home” such a quiet power.  And while there are the occasional moments of sensationalism like a dead body floating in the river (that’s the opening shot), the movie draws its strength from the words and faces of the immigrants themselves.  Who needs second-rate dramatizations of the passage like ”Sin Nombre” when Camisa provides a much more jarring glimpse with real life?


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F.I.L.M. of the Week (October 5, 2012)

5 10 2012

It’s getting down to the wire in the presidential election, meaning the facts are about to become so irrelevant it’s not even funny (that goes for both parties).  No one is going to say they want to fire teachers.  Everyone is going to say they love education and that fixing our schools is a priority for their term and for our future.  But when all that empty campaign rhetoric goes away, what then is left?

That’s the focus of “Waiting for Superman,” Davis Guggenheim’s stirring documentary about the American education is failing its students and setting up the country much bigger issues down the road.  It’s a fearless look at the issue not from a merely by-the-numbers, students as a statistics standpoint; it’s looking at education as a human calculation.  Emphasis on the human.  For that reason, it’s my pick for the “F.I.L.M. of the Week.”

The gripping documentary takes a look into the policies that aren’t working and then finds some common sense solutions.  Guggenheim provides far too many horrifying examples of dissatisfactory education, and I’ll leave the majority of them surprise you in the same way they shocked me.  But I will share some of the struggles of Michelle Rhee, the controversial D.C. Superintendent.

I do share a rather personal connection to Rhee as one of my cousins taught in her district (and to brag on my incredible relative, was feted by Rhee for her exceptional work).  She saw the biggest problem for these children was the district’s terrible teachers.  But she had to deal with the teacher’s union, which would not budge on the current agreement that provided tenure to teachers who had taught for only a few years.

Her efforts were unpopular, aggressive, and bold – but she did what had to be done in order to get rid of the teachers who were falling asleep on the job.  Thanks to people like Rhee, our school systems are making progress.  How many of us can say we are doing the same – or even doing anything to help?  As some would say, “if you aren’t a part of the solution, you’re a part of the problem.”  The future of our nation depends on it.


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F.I.L.M. of the Week (September 7, 2012)

7 09 2012

It’s football season again, now officially resumed on both the collegiate and the professional level.  And while you may think the sport is only a backdrop for the campiest of film (COUGH…”The Blind Side“), “The Wrestler” scribe Robert Siegel dared to take the popular game and craft a searing small-scale ethical drama that asks some challenging questions.  I’m such a big fan of his “Big Fan” that I’m naming it my pick for the “F.I.L.M. of the Week.”

I’m convinced “Big Fan” had to have been some form of audition for “Young Adult” for Patton Oswalt because these two performances work so well in tandem.  Here, Oswalt bares his dramatic chops as Paul Aufiero, another stalled thirty-something living in his childhood home.  He may be just a lowly parking garage attendant, but Paul has one thing that brightens his life and gives him purpose: the New York Giants.

He’s a reminder that the word fan comes from the word fanatic.  Paul calls into the local sports radio station with intricately pre-fabricated monologues and sees himself as at war with the dreaded Philadelphia Eagles.  And as these types of movies often do, a single event changes everything.  In “Big Fan,” Paul takes a big hit – quite literally, at the fists of his favorite Giants player, Quantrell Bishop.

Beyond just the questions of how it affects the way he obsesses over the team, it also brings up issues of criminal liability for Bishop.  Assaulting Paul could lead to jail time and suspension, thus harming the Giants.  But is he willing to take this hit for the team?  Paul Aufiero the fan and Paul Aufiero the human being can no longer coincide peacefully … one must vanquish the other.  So what will it be?  Oswalt’s starkly meditative performance keeps us on the edge of our seat until Paul takes decisive action.


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F.I.L.M. of the Week (June 22, 2012)

22 06 2012

Have you been looking for a way to fill the Lena Dunham void in your life after last week’s season finale of “Girls?”  Or have you been the idiot that hasn’t experienced the brilliance of “Girls” and thus needs to be introduced to the comedic genius of Lena Dunham?  Regardless of which person in the scenario above you are, you need to see “Tiny Furniture,” Dunham’s debut future which introduced her to talents into the entertainment world.  It’s a freshly real burst of humor into a genre characterized now mostly by vapid ribaldry and high concept hijinks, so much so that I have named it my “F.I.L.M. of the Week.”  (I realize it’s been a while, so I owe you all another unpacking of the acronym “F.I.L.M.”  It stands for First-Class, Independent Little-Known Movie.)

I often use the phrase twentysomething as a pejorative, but now that I’m three months removed from becoming one, it’s about time I start embracing it.  Thanks to Lena Dunham, I know what to expect.  I know to embrace the awkwardness, the uncertainty, the belittling, and the pockets of fun as just part of the age.  Most movies painting a portrait of an age or a specific stage of life usually wind up totally missing the mark and just make me scoff.  Yes, I’m looking at you, just about every high school movie whose title is not “Easy A.”

Dunham’s “Tiny Furniture,” on the other hand, suffers from no Hollywood-itis.  Her storytelling suffers from no illusions or fabricated myths about being twenty.  Aura, her surrogate here that yields many revelations into her character Hannah on “Girls,” is not even trying to get her footing in the professional or post-collegiate world; she’s trying to find where the ground is.  Her frustrations are chronicled with her family, her job, and her friends.  While it’s nerve-wracking for her, thankfully Dunham’s organic sense of humor makes the discontent more than just watchable – it becomes insightfully entertaining.

“Tiny Furniture,” much like “Girls,” isn’t a typical comedy where people just spout off ridiculous lines that make you think, “Gosh, whoever wrote that is wicked clever.”  Dunham’s film finds humor in the mundane and ordinary – in other words, where us regular people are forced to find it (because not everyone can wake up with a tiger in Las Vegas).  The dialogue gives us plenty of quotables but nothing too outrageous; they are the kind of things that normal people would say.  Her slice-of-life is filled with bitter cherries, tasty but not withholding the painful nature of things.  So if you are like me and had “Tiny Furniture” dwelling in the middle of your Netflix queue for months, it’s time to bump this to the top.  The furniture may be tiny, but the payoff is huge.


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F.I.L.M. of the Week (March 30, 2012)

30 03 2012

Where do you draw the line between fantasy and reality?  Between art and mental illness?  Between personal and public?  This may sound like any old fictional movie at the theater nowadays, but it’s equally (if not more) fascinating when subjectivity is explored in real life.  My pick for “F.I.L.M. of the Week,” Jeff Malmberg’s “Marwencol,” provides no easy answers to these tough dilemmas in his study of a traumatized man with a bizarre compulsion.

Mark Hogancamp, the film’s subject, sees his life turned upside down by a debilitating attack by assailants outside a bar.  After emerging from a coma, he decides to dedicate his life to giving it to others.  And by others, I mean dolls.

Yes, Mark decides to build a 1/6 replica World War II-era town called Marwencol, which he designs and populates himself.  He even acts as God and narrates their lives, giving them drama, conflict, and meaning.  Take out the brain injury at the beginning, and you would be laughing your head off.

But that’s not what happens, and Malmberg makes sure that you take Mark very seriously.  His in-depth character study that really takes the time and care to show just how passionately Mark feels about the town of Marwencol.  For he from whom life was taken, this is life, and Malmberg will have us respect that.

Obviously, word gets out about Marwencol (otherwise we wouldn’t have the movie “Marwencol”), and art collectors flock to get in on the picee of the action.  Then, things start to get interesting.  Is it OK to masquerade someone’s personal therapy as art, opening it up to mockery and criticism?  Who gets to call it art, anyways?  The drama is real, and the stakes are high – Marwencol was Mark’s way of coping with the harsh realities of his existence.

Interested yet?  Mull over these issues, and many more, with popcorn and “Marwencol.”  It would make for an unconventional, but decidedly meaningful, movie night.


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F.I.L.M. of the Week (March 9, 2012)

9 03 2012

It’s the movie the oil companies don’t want you to see.  It was a nominee for Best Documentary Feature at the Oscars in 2010.  Now, “Gasland” is my pick for this week’s “F.I.L.M.” (Just another reminder, that’s First-Class, Independent Little-Known Movie.)

Filmmaker Josh Fox takes the Michael Moore approach to documentary filmmaking – that is, making a movie about an issue that concerns them, explaining it, and then filming their active involvement in trying to change it – but actually does it right.  There may be some errors, according to various fact-checkers who have examined the movie, but at the very least, “Gasland” will make you think twice before jumping immediately on the natural gas bandwagon.  It’s all too easy now with gas prices soaring to record highs; however, there is no easy solution to America’s energy problem, no silver bullet.

If natural gas is ever going to be more than just an alternative form of energy, Fox shows us how the industry is in dire need of reform and regulation.  After receiving a letter that a gas company wanted to drill for gas on his land in Pennsylvania, Fox decides to look into the process of hydraulic fracking that would be happening on his property.  Going from house to house in areas where fracking took place, he finds that the gas companies often contaminate the water supply.  Put a lighter under the faucet at these homes, and you can light their water on fire.  Scary, right?

Turns out, Congress exempted the natural gas industry from following the Safe Drinking Water Act in 2005 when new energy policy was being pushed down the pipelines.  If this frightens you, this is only the beginning of the real-life horror story in “Gasland.”  It’s worth a watch if you are concerned about what these companies can do to average citizens without the knowledge to realize it or the resources to stop it.


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F.I.L.M. of the Week (October 7, 2011)

7 10 2011

I don’t quite know what inspired me to watch “25th Hour” recently, but I’m certainly glad that I did.  Spike Lee’s 2002 film about the heavy weight of the past and the future that we carry around in the present got little attention at the time, but over time, it has gained some passionate backers, namely Roger Ebert.  That inspired me to check the movie out, and while I don’t think it’s one of my favorites of the decade, it’s good enough to qualify as a “F.I.L.M. of the Week.”

David Benioff’s script captures a day of solemn importance in the life of Montgomery “Monty” Brogan, played with typical excellence by Edward Norton.  We follow Monty in the last 24 hours before he must head up to prison to serve a 7 year sentence for dealing drugs.  He is remorseful for his past, apprehensive for his future, and filled with anger and hatred in the moment.  As he spends a day in a sort of purgatory state, we see the uneasy state of his relationships with his friends (Philip Seymour Hoffman and Barry Pepper) and girlfriend (Rosario Dawson) as they all offer a sort of false optimism.

While this story is quite limited, what makes “25th Hour” such an interesting film (and one that I suspect will be increasingly viewed as a reference for future generations) is how poetically Spike Lee juxtaposes Monty’s biography with the larger tale of society, here post-9/11 New York City.  After the film’s prologue, Lee rolls the opening credits over various takes of the two bright beams of light shining to the heavens from Ground Zero.  Much like Monty, the site is a reminder of the emptiness of that day, while the lights represent a brighter future that can still be rebuilt once the ashes are removed.

In perhaps the film’s most memorable scene, Lee employs a sort of Allen Ginsberg-meets-NWA rhythmic lyricism to express the pent-up rage that many New Yorkers felt in the wake of the tragedy.  It’s an unsettling, no-holds-barred diatribe against the city and everyone in it, and a man like Monty about to lose everything is the perfect person to deliver it.  Yet “25th Hour” is not just a movie of anger; indeed, Lee, ever the New York filmmaker, makes his movie an admiring tribute to the city’s strength and perseverance.  Even as Monty heads off to the pen, there’s a smiling child on the bus in the next lane willing to smile at him.


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Categories : F.I.L.M. of the Week, Movie Reviews

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