Lars and the Real Girl (2007)–***
Quickie Review

Slightly agoraphobic, but extremely sweet, Lars shakes up his small town when he orders a human-sized, anatomically-correct female doll and treats it like a real-life girlfriend. A touching and funny dramedy, this second feature from Craig Gillespie is only as believable as the actors are good. Ryan Gosling gives a painful, tender performance as a 27-year-old just coming of age, while character actor Paul Schneider gives his best performance to date as Lars’s guilt-ridden older brother. Writer Nancy Oliver (Six Feet Under) delicately discovers a heartwarming tale inside this rather offbeat premise. (Though, it may not be offbeat enough.) Also starring Emily Mortimer and Patricia Clarkson.

Mr. Brook (2007)–**
DVD Review

Mr. Brooks isn’t a stupid movie. It’s not even a bad movie. But it certainly is a movie that thinks it’s better than it is. Because of that, a film that could have been a black comedy with a hint of Silence of the Lambs rather finds itself looking more like the Stepford Wives remake.

Kevin Coster stars as Earl Brooks, Portland area Chamber of Commerce Man of the Year, loving husband, caring father, and generally a good guy. When he’s not running his box company, he’s fighting his addiction: murder.

One night, when Mr. Brooks falls off the wagon, amateur photographer and professional voyeur Mr. Smith (Dane Cook) catches him in the act. Instead of going to the cops, Mr. Smith has an idea. He wants to follow Brooks on his next murder. But Brooks is having problems at home (his daughter may be following in his footsteps) and there’s a smart, independently wealthy policewoman (Demi Moore) on his trail. Fortunately, Brooks is an intelligent killer, one we can trust to find a way out of his predicament, even if it kills him.

The allure of Mr. Brooks isn’t just the idea of leading man Costner playing against type; it’s that he’s playing against type with William Hurt backing him up the whole way. Hurt plays a schizophrenic delusion who coaches Brooks along the way, helping the serial killer clean up his messes and giving him a hand when Brooks is doing a crossword puzzle. Thanks to Conster and Hurt’s back and forth, there are times when I laughed at the film, but with all the darkly comedic elements, I can’t help but feel that the movie wanted me to laugh.

College humor comedian Dane Cook is oddly suited for his role as the voyeur, matching the film’s campy undertone just enough to give his character credence. He is casting is just preposterous enough to make sense as the film weaves its way to the conclusion.

Don’t get me wrong, though. Mr. Brooks certainly isn’t the movie it could have been. Much of the momentum is lost on Demi Moore’s character, who must contend with a gold-digging, soon-to-be ex-husband. Moore’s casting is preposterous, much like Cook’s, but she doesn’t seem to get the movie like Cook, Costner, and Hurt do. This darkly comic thriller could have succeeded with someone whose comedic credentials are slightly more impressive than a lead in Striptease.

The thought that kept racing through my mind, even while watching Moore trample the production, was the sophisticated Mr. Brooks would make a better TV series than it does a movie. In fact, Showtime’s terrible serial killer hour-long Dexter could learn a thing or two from Mr. Brooks. The character dynamics in Mr. Brooks are certainly more interesting than those in Dexter. Yet, Mr. Brooks often finds itself giving over to a glossy, faux noir tone that counters its camp.

The disc does offer a commentary and two making-of featurettes explaining director Bruce Evans’s production. Like the film, however, the DVD doesn’t dig deep enough to make Mr. Brooks anything more than slightly entertaining.

Mr. Brooks, directed by Bruce A. Evans and starring Kevin Costner, William Hurt, Demi Moore and Dane Cook, is now available on DVD.

To Die in Jerusalem (2007)–***

To Die in Jerusalem, a documentary account of two mothers in mourning after an 18-year-old Palestinian girl’s martyrdom operation kills a 17-year-old Israeli girl, leaves the viewer with two questions in the end: who will lay down their arms first and who should lay them down?

It’s not surprising, the questions we are asking, because they are the same questions we were asking before the documentary. To Die in Jerusalem doesn’t claim to answer either question, but rather shows the audience the ideological stalemate through the eyes of mothers who lost their daughters.

The daughters are Rachel and Ayat, the former being an Israeli teen who went to the supermarket for her mother and the latter being a suicide bomber. Both girls look eerily similar with long dark hair, dark eyes, and dark complexions. Their deaths were not lost on the world, so much so that the director even includes a sound byte from George W. Bush that is surprising in its eloquence. Bush mentions the dying of youths as the death of the future, and for the mothers, their ideas of what the future should be are representative of the broader conflict.

Though the film has about 40 minutes of poignant exposition, To Die in Jerusalem is mainly focused on getting to the last 30. In that half hour, the mother of the Israeli girl, Abigail, confronts the mother of the Palestinian girl, Um Samir, via satellite. The meeting comes four years after the bombing, and whatever answers Abigail was still looking for aren’t found.

The mothers tend to talk around each other, Abigail from the perspective of the free Israeli who has time to ponder the seemingly illogical attack and Um Samir from the perspective of the oppressed Palestinian who mourns her daughter but not the reasoning behind the attack. Um Samir, in fact, has one of the single most passionate moments when she argues that only through resistance have the shackles of oppression been historically removed.

Um Samir doesn’t have the ability to see the event from Abigail’s perspective. Likewise Abigail, who could barely stand to be in Palestinian Authority-controlled territory long enough to experience its horrors, cannot empathize with Um Samir’s life. Even the mutual prayer for peace and their hatred of the political systems that perpetuate the violence come from their differing points of view.

To Die in Jerusalem ends with the pictures of the girls juxtaposed once again on screen, a sobering reminder of the tragic consequences of the continuing struggle to find peace. There are no solutions proposed, but the delicacy of the subjects allows an audience well aware of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to consider it again in a way they haven’t before.

To Die in Jerusalem, directed by Hilla Medalia, airs Nov. 1 at 9 p.m. on HBO.

This is really a visual entry. I don’t know what else to say, other than this is seriously a logo from the CIA for its Terror Busters campaign. Seriously…here’s the link. Beyond words.

I ain’t afraid of no terrorists.

So what movies are up for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2008 Oscars? The Academy announced it today. Noticeably absent is Israel’s “The Band” which was replaced by “Beaufort” after “The Band” was disqualified for having too much English. The Cannes Palm d’Or winner “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days,” however, has enough Romanian to qualify.

Who are you rooting for? Is it France’s early frontrunner “Persepolis?” Something else? The nominees will be announced on Jan. 22, 2008 with winners announced at the Oscars, hosted by Jon Stewart, on February 24, 2008.

Argentina, “XXY,” Lucia Puenzo, director;

Australia, “The Home Song Stories,” Tony Ayres, director;

Austria, “The Counterfeiters,” Stefan Ruzowitzky, director;

Azerbaijan, “Caucasia,” Farid Gumbatov, director;

Bangladesh, “On the Wings of Dreams,” Golam Rabbany Biplob, director;

Belgium, “Ben X,” Nic Balthazar, director;

Bosnia and Herzegovina, “It’s Hard to Be Nice,” Srdan Vuletic, director;

Brazil, “The Year My Parents Went on Vacation,” Cao Hamburger, director;

Bulgaria, “Warden of the Dead,” Ilian Simeonov, director;

Canada, “Days of Darkness,” Denys Arcand, director;

Chile, “Padre Nuestro,” Rodrigo Sepulveda, director;

China, “The Knot,” Yin Li, director;

Colombia, “Satanas,” Andi Baiz, director;

Croatia, “Armin,” Ognjen Svilicic, director;

Cuba, “The Silly Age,” Pavel Giroud, director;

Czech Republic, “I Served the King of England,” Jiri Menzel, director;

Denmark, “The Art of Crying,” Peter Schonau Fog, director;

Egypt, “In the Heliopolis Flat,” Mohamed Khan, director;

Estonia, “The Class,” Ilmar Raag, director;

Finland, “A Man’s Job,” Aleksi Salmenpera, director;

France, “Persepolis,” Marjane Satrapi, Vincent Paronnaud, directors;

Georgia, “The Russian Triangle,” Aleko Tsabadze, director;

Germany, “The Edge of Heaven,” Fatih Akin, director;

Greece, “Eduart,” Angeliki Antoniou, director;

Hong Kong, “Exiled,” Johnnie To, director;

Hungary, “Taxidermia,” Gyorgy Palfi, director;

Iceland, “Jar City,” Baltasar Kormakur, director;

India, “Eklavya – The Royal Guard,” Vidhu Vinod Chopra, director;

Indonesia, “Denias, Singing on the Cloud,” John De Rantau, director;

Iran, “M for Mother,” Rasoul Mollagholipour, director;

Iraq, “Jani Gal,” Jamil Rostami, director;

Ireland, “Kings,” Tom Collins, director;

Israel, “Beaufort,” Joseph Cedar, director;

Italy, “The Unknown,” Giuseppe Tornatore, director;

Japan, “I Just Didn’t Do It,” Masayuki Suo, director;

Kazakhstan, “Mongol,” Sergei Bodrov, director;

Korea, “Secret Sunshine,” Chang-dong Lee, director;

Lebanon, “Caramel,” Nadine Labaki, director;

Luxembourg, “Little Secrets,” Pol Cruchten, director;

Macedonia, “Shadows,” Milcho Manchevski, director;

Mexico, “Silent Light,” Carlos Reygadas, director;

The Netherlands, “Duska,” Jos Stelling, director;

Norway, “Gone with the Woman,” Petter Naess, director;

Peru, “Crossing a Shadow,” Augusto Tamayo, director;

Philippines, “Donsol,” Adolfo Alix, Jr., director;

Poland, “Katyn,” Andrzej Wajda, director;

Portugal, “Belle Toujours,” Manoel de Oliveira, director;

Puerto Rico, “Love Sickness,” Carlitos Ruiz, Mariem Perez, directors;

Romania, “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days,” Cristian Mungiu, director;

Russia, “12,” Nikita Mikhalkov, director;

Serbia, “The Trap,” Srdan Golubovic, director;

Singapore, “881,” Royston Tan, director;

Slovakia, “Return of the Storks,” Martin Repka, director;

Slovenia, “Short Circuits,” Janez Lapajne, director;

Spain, “The Orphanage,” J.A. Bayona, director;

Sweden, “You, the Living,” Roy Andersson, director;

Switzerland, “Late Bloomers,” Bettina Oberli, director;

Taiwan, “Island Etude,” Chen Huai-En, director;

Thailand, “King of Fire,” Chatrichalerm Yukol, director;

Turkey, “A Man’s Fear of God,” Ozer Kiziltan, director;

Uruguay, “The Pope’s Toilet,” Enrique Fernandez, Cesar Charlone, directors;

Venezuela, “Postcards from Leningrad,” Mariana Rondon, director;

Vietnam, “The White Silk Dress,” Luu Huynh, director

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)–****

It’s not often I can say this about a movie, but when it comes to kiwi director Andrew Dominik’s The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, I’d be lying if I said I’d seen anything like it before. Jesse James is a folk ballad turned into an epic poem. It’s a film that could have twitched and nerved its way through the sprawling paranoia, but remains controlled amid the chaos. It’s a beautiful Greek tragedy in the Old West, and, more than that, it’s a masterpiece.

Jesse James (Brad Pitt) is only 34-years-old but has the weary eyes of a retirement age cop whose seen too many bad days. His own legend wears on him, which is why he seems simultaneously repulsed and intrigued by the 19-year-old wannabe outlaw Robert Ford (Casey Affleck). Ford has followed the James gang since he was a kid and his youthful enthusiasm, in spite of obvious ineptitudes, leads James to bring him into the fold.

Ford makes James nervous. But there is a growing call for James’s head by the state of Missouri and he needs reliable hands to help him evade the law. Others begin to plot against James, and he takes care of them in his own heavy-handed way. James makes the choice to keep Ford and Ford’s brother Charlie (Sam Rockwell) close, even inviting them into his home until James finally plans to rob something.

Ford, who is secretly working with Missouri’s Governor, doesn’t want to wait around for a career as a criminal to make him as famous as Jesse James, something he feels he’s entitled to. He decides the best, fastest way to become a legend is to be a legend killer.

The unnerving thing about Affleck’s Ford is that he’s so meek. He’s so unassuming. When he is quick to finish the Beatitudes by reminding the person praying that blessed are the meek, we realize it haunts him. Though he talks big, it’s hard to believe it when he finally does pull the trigger. Affleck creates a portrait of a man so imprisoned by his own failings that the only way to break out is to blow up the jail.

Pitt is great too, portraying an edgy, paranoid Jesse James that lacks the mythic grandeur of portrayals past. He has help though. Much of the credit for the film’s mood, its controlled nervousness, belongs not with the actors, but with cinematographer Roger Deakins’s isolating, fragmenting photography. Much of the lighting, too, appears to be at least partly natural, reminiscent of the candlelight scenes in Barry Lyndon. The scenes in Lyndon won Jon Alcott an Academy Award for cinematography, and Deakins turn at the podium should come in February.

Knowing the Academy, director Dominik won’t likely grace the red carpet. His poetic-style is reminiscent of the long-admired but perennially-snubbed Terrence Malick. Also like Malick, Dominik has taken the long road to completing is second feature, coming seven years after his first effort Chopper. One can only hope that in the wake of The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford that we don’t have to wait too long for another Dominik effort. This master-in-waiting has created a film that will stand the test of time and one that in spite of its long runtime (160 minutes), I’ll be seeing again soon.

The Hoax (2007)–***
DVD Review

The main conflict in The Hoax is illustrated in the second scene when we hear an executive at McGraw-Hill publishing discuss Clifford Irving’s book about the infamous art forger Elmyr de Hory. The executive juggles his words, determining whether to call de Hory an artist or an art forger. We too are often juggling our own thoughts when it comes to Irving, who attempts to publish a fake autobiography about Howard Hughes. Is he just a liar, or is he a damn good liar, worthy of admiration? In the hands of actor Richard Gere, the character Irving is, in fact, an artist who works in lies.

The lies start quickly after McGraw-Hill rejects a fiction novel written by Irving. Desperate to do something, to be someone, Irving barges into the McGraw-Hill offices and tells them that he is working on the most important book of the century. It’s a lie. He has no book in mind, but it gets the publisher interested. So he, his friend Dick (Alfred Molina) and his wife (Marcia Gay Harden) throw around ideas until one finds him.

Howard Hughes. The eccentric, reclusive billionaire, who is more intriguing than any other man on the planet, and who has little contact with the outside world, is the perfect subject.

When Irving lies, he lies big. He perfectly forges letters from Hughes saying he is authorized to write the billionaire hermit’s autobiography. He has Dick go to the Bahamas and mail forged letters from Hughes. He listens to tapes and illegally copies government documents, all to make his book the perfect fraud. Every time it looks like the jig is up, Irving schemes his way out of it. But finally having the book printed doesn’t mean he’ll make it out of this one.

With the always charming Gere in charge of such a charismatic character, it’s no surprise that we too go along with the ruse. Gere makes it easy to root for, empathize with, and despise Irving, often at once. As Irving becomes wrapped up in his lies, donning the look of Howard Hughes to get into the eccentric’s mind and creating a parallel world where Hughes’s cronies hunt him down, we see him for the egomaniac he is. Still, Gere captures Irving’s human side with surprising resonance.

Human or not, Irving is a liar and a surprising number of smart, highly-paid people believe his implausible story. The always solid director Lasse Hallström even gets us to believe in Irving’s irrational delusions because, in the end, we want to go along for the ride. I imagine most of the other characters, Dick, his wife, and the publishing people, felt the same way. It’s invigorating while the wild adventure is going on, and even in the end, I don’t think anyone who was duped really regrets their time with Irving.

Extras:

Don’t miss the interview with 60 Minutes newsman Mike Wallace, who tells his own personal anecdote about interviewing Irving. Even he admits that he wanted to believe Irving’s outrageous lies.

The Path of Most Resistance (2007)–***1/2

The Path of Most Resistance is a tremendous short film from writer/director Peter Kelley, one that not only sails by on first viewing, but also retains its momentum the second (or third) time through. The real test, in fact, was that second viewing. While the film has its issues, the things we enjoy the first time through are the things we flat out adore on subsequent viewings.

The film follows Tom (Tim Rouhana), a high-end cat burglar whose job is getting in the way of his romantic life. He can’t tell people, even girlfriends, what he does, so he’s rebuffed on his attempt to connect with an ex on New Year’s Eve. He has a job to do while everyone else is celebrating, meaning the promise he makes to show up at a party will likely be broken. His ex expects it.

The ex’s assumption is confirmed when Tom runs into a little problem. The house he breaks into has someone in it, someone who swings a mean toilet tank lid. Her name is Prudence (Spencer Grammer), and she is visiting her father, a collector of very rare Beatles items. After knocking Tom out, she ties Tom up, partly because she’s intrigued and partly because she needs someone to be with on New Year’s Eve. The two spend the evening together, learning each other secrets and quirks until the clock strikes midnight.

Clocking in a 50-minutes, The Path of Most Resistance isn’t a long film, but it certainly should be longer. That’s one of the few criticism’s I have. In fact, it’s not much of a criticism; it’s more a suggestion to anyone willing to revisit a short film and turn it into something bigger.

I say bigger knowing full well that this small film must stay confined in the house setting where most of the events takes place. Yet, The Path of Most Resistance could do well to recast with name stars and add about 20 or 30 minutes of Tom and Prudence banter. It has the all potential to be a classical Hollywood romance; it just needs Hollywood power burst.

In the hands of the current stars, the film is still solid entertainment. Grammer, whose natural charm will lead to a bright future in screen acting, gives the kind of bubbly, kind of sad performance we got from Natalie Portman in Garden State. Unlike Rouhana, Grammer can deliver all the lines with ease, even if the dialogue isn’t always the most natural.

I expected a better performance from Rouhana, especially considering Kelley’s history as an acting coach. Rouhana’s David Schwimmer meets Tobey Maguire acting style doesn’t fit the sophisticated criminal. Fortunately, he manages to find the chemistry with Grammer.

That chemistry is important, as it holds the film together in spite of the things I mention above. Rouhana is good at being charmed, and Grammer is good at being charming. Combined with a energetic original score by Kaz Boyle and production value that most television shows would envy, the performances make The Path of Most Resistance a gem of a short film.

The Path of Most Resistance, starring Tim Rouhana and Spencer Grammer, directed by Peter Kelley, was recently screened at the DGA Theater in New York City. For more information on upcoming screenings visit www.thepathofmostresistance.com.

I had to see Into the Wild before I would even consider it an Oscar contender. I had to see it with my own eyes. You see, after the over-hyped Sean Penn-directed feature The Pledge, starring Oscar fave Jack Nicholson, was nowhere to be found come awards season 2001/2002, I had to be cautious. Penn, though a beloved Oscar-winning actor, has seen two Oscar-worthy feature films go through awards season without notice. (The other being The Crossing Guard, also starring Nicholson.) But with Into the Wild, Penn may have his best chance at snagging Hollywood’s top prize.

Into the Wild is based on the best-selling non-fiction novel of the same name (written by Jon Krakauer). Through the film, we experience the journey of Christopher McCandless, who just out of college leaves his privileged existence for life on the open road. Influenced by the works of Tolstoy, Thoreau and London, among others, McCandless sets out to seek his own truth in the Alaskan wilderness.

Into the Wild stands in stark contrast to the heavy anti-war films that are already inundating the theaters. It has a humanistic twist to it that, in our current state of affairs, may begin to seem more appealing than anyone of the films that concerns itself with America’s geo-political missteps. Maybe a little hope is exactly what we all need.

Top 8 Chances
The film is outstanding, easily one of the best, most resonant films of the year, meaning it has a solid chance of getting into the Best Picture race. (I even updated the charts to reflect my confidence in the film.) Penn’s screenplay, as well as his directing, look solid for nods, especially if the Academy falls in love like audiences do. The most likely nomination, maybe even more likely than Best Picture, will be a Supporting Actor nod for Hal Holbrook, who creates sad, honest moments that standout more than most others.

TheFilmChair.com 2007-2008 Oscar Charts