BABEL An award winner at Cannes, Babel arrives courtesy of director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and writer Guillermo Arriaga, the same team that gave us 21 Grams and Amores Perros. Like their past efforts, Babel is a gloom-and-doom dissection of society, whipping between various characters and their interconnected storylines. Certainly, this is the duo’s most ambitious undertaking, yet for all its scattered strengths, it’s also the least satisfying, hampered by a structure that feels schematic rather than organic. Several of the Big Issues — border disputes, Middle Eastern tensions and gun control — are handled in ways that feel overly familiar, perhaps because we’ve seen them tackled more adroitly in other multistory flicks like Traffic and Syriana. The freshest storyline concerns a deaf teenage girl (excellent Rinko Kikuchi) in Tokyo who grows increasingly frustrated as she’s unable to find any male who’s willing to provide her with love and compassion — this plot seems the least driven by obvious ideology and therefore best illustrates the picture’s theme of the lack of communication that exists between people. There’s a lot to chew over in Babel. But because it’s overstuffed, it also means that there’s a lot not worth swallowing. **1/2
BORAT: CULTURAL LEARNINGS OF AMERICA FOR MAKE BENEFIT GLORIOUS NATION OF KAZAKHSTAN Originally conceived as a character on HBO’s Da Ali G Show, Borat Sagdiyev is a Kazakh journalist who comes to America to make a documentary — and there’s your plot in a nutshell. Yet what makes Borat different is that creator-star Sacha Baron Cohen, who plays the insensitive and language-mangling journalist, never breaks character, interviewing scores of ordinary Americans who genuinely believe that they’re being questioned by a foreign reporter. If Borat is staged in any way, then it’s a “mockumentary” that stretches its one-joke concept to the breaking point — after about an hour, you’ll be satisfied. Yet if the filmmakers’ claim that everything is on the level is true, then this is borderline genius, an inspired piece of guerilla filmmaking that’s able to gauge the real pulse of America and unearth some unpleasant (if hardly surprising) truths. Borat is often convulsively, savagely funny, but beneath the scatology and mockery rests a knowingness about the manner in which our societal prejudices can be hidden, diverted and even encouraged. In that regard, this is one smart movie. ***
DELIVER US FROM EVIL A documentary with the power to affect even the most jaded of moviegoers, this centers on Oliver O’Grady, a priest who over the course of three decades sexually molested countless children throughout the state of California. In a perfect world, a bullet would have been put in his brain a long time ago; instead, he served seven years in prison and is now leading a peaceful life in Ireland. This is where director Amy Berg (a former CNN journalist) caught up with him, and one of the strengths of the picture is the complete access she had in being able to interview her subject at length. Yet Berg also moves past the pedophile priest and indicts the other, equally culpable villains of the story: the Catholic Church superiors who knew of O’Grady’s crimes yet did nothing to stop his rampage. For all of Berg’s research, the most powerful sequences are the unscripted ones, the moments when O’Grady’s now-grown victims and their families express their rage at the Catholic hierarchy that repeatedly placed the institution’s image over the welfare of the children. As we witness how people’s lives have been shattered by men who profess to work for the glory of God, we come to realize that even eternal damnation isn’t punishment enough for some people. ***1/2
FLUSHED AWAY It’s a textbook Faustian example of selling one’s soul to the devil. Great Britain’s Aardman Animations, the studio behind the delightful Wallace & Gromit films, has always ignored the American modus operandi of churning out loud and obnoxious toon flicks by sticking to its veddy British guns and producing works that relied on clay animation rather than CGI and clarity instead of chaos. Flushed Away, however, reveals that the devil is starting to collect his due. The story of a pet mouse (voiced by Hugh Jackman) who gets flushed down the toilet and ends up in an underground city populated by rats, frogs, slugs and other critters, the film exhibits the frenzied pace and overbearing characterizations that have become standard in US-born-and-bred animated features. The story is strictly perfunctory — and further hampered by the sort of puerile gags that have come to define Yankee toon flicks. Where the Aardman wit is retained — and what significantly elevates the film’s worth — is in the small details, tossed-off asides and background imagery: Keep your eyes on the margins and you’ll remain satisfied by the gems found among the clutter and cacophony. **1/2
A GOOD YEAR Moviegoers who condemn Shortbus as porn might want to take a look at A Good Year, which offers a different form of hedonistic pleasure. Set in the south of France, it’s unabashed erotica for wanna-be world travelers, offering orgasmic visions of the provincial countryside and its attendant vineyards, chateaus and lusty locals. Based on Peter Mayle’s novel, this stars Russell Crowe as a ruthless London trader who discovers his own humanity after he inherits an estate owned by his late Uncle Henry (Albert Finney). Director Ridley Scott, used to overseeing weighty projects, tries to pump up this slender tale into something more meaningful: His tactic of choice is to bully us into always feeling something, which leads to an astonishing amount of clumsy comedy and overreaching sentiment. Crowe, on the same wavelength as his director, oozes charm in every scene, a decision that makes it all the more difficult to accept the fact that his character is initially supposed to be a heartless profiteer. Minor annoyances such as these pop up throughout the picture, but then along comes another cheesecake shot of gorgeous wine country, and whoops, off scampers our one-track mind. **1/2
MARIE ANTOINETTE The season’s premiere love-it-or-leave-it title, Marie Antoinette was booed by French scribes at the Cannes Film Festival before being rescued by American critics, the slight majority of whom have graced it with positive reviews. Yet despite its divisive nature, I’ve managed to come down in the middle: The movie, writer-director Sofia Coppola’s first since her magnificent Lost In Translation, is better than I had expected (at least based on the trailer) but not as good as I had hoped. It’s recommended, but with reservations. In much the manner of A Knight’s Tale, Coppola has added a sprinkling of contemporary trappings to her luxuriant period piece; her intention was to create a teenager for our times, a girl who just wants to have fun even though her position in the French royal court demands so much more. It’s an interesting idea that’s only partially successful, largely because Coppola doesn’t go far enough with her outré approach. Where the movie fares best is in its examination of the royal life as a treadmill of constantly winding boredom; the scenes in which Marie, winningly played by Kirsten Dunst, is forced to obey nonsensical rules and rituals are poignant because they deny a child, that most impulsive of all creatures, the chance to experience life for herself. **1/2
THE QUEEN Whether or not one agrees with a character’s declaration that the royal family is comprised of “freeloading, emotionally retarded nutters,” it’s fascinating to watch these upper-crust Brits play out their own sordid soap opera in this wicked — and wickedly good — show that takes a highly dubious premise and somehow turns it into one of the year’s best films. Set mostly in the days following the death of Diana back in 1997, it focuses on the reactions of Queen Elizabeth II (Helen Mirren) and the rest of the royal family to the tragedy as well as the efforts of newly elected Prime Minister Tony Blair (Michael Sheen) to take control of the situation. It sounds like so much dreary sensationalism, yet because Stephen Frears’ direction is nimble and Peter Morgan’s script clever and resourceful, The Queen never bogs down in any potentially problematic areas. It manages to be both respectful and critical of the monarchy, a double-edged viewpoint that neatly reflects the attitude of the characters themselves. Mirren’s performance is a thing of beauty, but Sheen admirably keeps pace with his formidable co-star in this majestic entertainment. ***1/2
RUNNING WITH SCISSORS Heaven help us, this is one godawful movie. A grotesque adaptation of Augusten Burroughs’ best-selling memoir, Running With Scissors is alternately grating and boring, as deadly a combo as one could imagine sitting through for two unendurable hours. Young Joseph Cross plays the Augusten surrogate, a teenage lad saddled with a lunatic mother (Annette Bening) who’s convinced that she’s going to strike it rich as a writer some day. Once his parents divorce, Augusten is sent to live with Mom’s eccentric psychiatrist (Brian Cox) and his equally out-there brood: wife (Jill Clayburgh), daughters (Evan Rachel Wood and Gwyneth Paltrow) and adopted son (Joseph Fiennes). Writer-director Ryan Murphy displays no feeling for or understanding of these characters, and, as a result, their colorful behavior comes across as repellant rather than ingratiating. Instead of drawing us into the movie, Murphy’s ham-fisted approach insures that we’re perpetually kept at arm’s length. The cast labors mightily, but most of the performers are either mishandled or miscast. *
SHORTBUS A multi-layered film featuring a multi-character ensemble, Shortbus pushes the envelope of what’s allowed on screen further than just about any other non-porn flick that comes to mind. But the result isn’t distasteful or juvenile; instead, it’s a celebration of sex that, in turn, morphs into a celebration of those most inalienable of American rights: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. In focusing on a handful of New York residents struggling with relationship woes, writer-director John Cameron Mitchell isn’t so Pollyanna that he’s suggesting everyone’s difficulties will be solved by one good bout of sexual acrobatics — indeed, many of the characters’ problems and hang-ups are directly hardwired into their own opinions on the subject. But what makes Shortbus unusual for an American movie is that it isn’t frightened of sex, it doesn’t reduce the act to insensitive frat boy gyrations, and it doesn’t employ it as a bludgeoning weapon. As a movie, Shortbus is a turn-on, but not in the sense readers might imagine. The picture isn’t physically stimulating so much as it’s mentally and emotionally arousing — it considers the brain and the heart the true erogenous zones, a viewpoint that ultimately turns out to be the movie’s most startling declaration. ***1/2
STRANGER THAN FICTION Harold Crick (Will Ferrell), an IRS agent whose dull life is marked by rigid routine, learns that he has inadvertently become the lead character in a book being written by reclusive author Kay Eiffel (Emma Thompson). What affects the character also affects him, a disaster once he realizes that the author is plotting to kill off her creation. Despite the innovative premise, the script by Zach Helm never matches the existential, mind-bending depths of, say, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind or I Heart Huckabees. This remains a resolutely mainstream offering, with flights of fancy that lightly tickle the brain but never really challenge it. The upside is that this allows a conventional love story to take root amid the high concept, and as enacted by Ferrell and Maggie Gyllenhaal (playing a baker who awakens Harold’s dormant passions), it’s both charming and disarming. Stranger Than Fiction promises a heady experience, but it ultimately heads for the heart instead. ***
OPENS FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17:
CASINO ROYALE: Daniel Craig, Eva Green.
FAST FOOD NATION: Greg Kinnear, Bruce Willis.
HAPPY FEET: Animated; voices of Elijah Wood, Hugh Jackman.
LET’S GO TO PRISON: Will Arnett, Dax Shepard.
This article appears in Nov 15-21, 2006.
