ENRON THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM

Documentary

BACKGROUND
Since 1997, mark-to-market (MTM) accounting has enabled companies to change the tax status of their earnings from capital gains or capital losses to ordinary income or losses. This occurs on the last day of the year, at which time they tally all of their open holdings as if they were selling them at the market price that day. In other words, the holdings are "marked to market".

On January 1st, they re-tally their holdings as if they were repurchasing them at the current price. The basis of each holding is then adjusted to reflect these hypothetical gains and losses for tax purposes.

The MTM method of accounting also allows companies to include as current earnings the profits they expect to earn in the future from energy-related contracts. At the end of each quarter when companies typically have these type of contracts on their balance sheets, their CFOs then estimate the fair value of the contracts, based in part on their forecasts for market conditions.

These quarterly changes in noncash values subsequently show up on income statements. Corporate managers have wide discretion in how they can interpret this rule. The independent Financial Accounting Standards Board debated this technique for the past three years, but ultimately decided to leave the interpretation to the individual companies.


PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Kenneth Lay: Enron Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
Jeff Skilling: President
Andrew Fastow: Chief Financial Officer (CFO)
J. Clifford Baxter: Vice Chairman

REVIEW
The movie provides an insight how the executives of Enron (one of America’s biggest companies, seventh largest at one point in time) exploited loopholes in existing business law and created new business models to defraud the public. But beyond being an entertaining, informative and complex financial story, the movie is about human fallibility, greed and arrogance.

Along the way new facts come to light: the involvement of the Bush family in this endeavour and how the company exploited deregulation to manipulate the California electricity crisis and the effects it had on the people living out there.

CLASSIFICATION
for language and some nudity

CRASH

Drama

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Don Cheadle: Los Angeles Police Department homicide detective Graham Waters
Jennifer Esposito: Ria, his girlfriend and partner
Brendan Fraser: Rick Cabot, LA District Attorney
Sandra Bullock: his wife Jean
Chris "Ludacris" Bridges: Anthony, a young black
Larenz Tate: Anthony’s friend Peter
Michael Pena: Latino locksmith Daniel
Matt Dillon: LAPD Officer Jack Ryan
Ryan Phillippe: Ryan's rookie partner Hanson Thomas
Terrence Howard: TV producer Cameron
Thandie Newton: his wife Christine
Shaun Toub: Farhad an Iranian immigrant shop owner
Bahar Soomekh: his daughter

REVIEW
Probably no other movie explores the subject of racism as deeply as this one. We get to see seven groups of people living in Los Angeles, and how everyone has their own prejudices and intolerances. How they handle them makes for interesting comparisons. The acting throughout is uniformly excellent.

CLASSIFICATION
for language, nudity and violence

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
Near the end of the movie, a fender bender occurs when one car rear-ends another. Both drivers get out of their cars which are still within a foot of each other. As they argue about whose fault it is, the camera angle changes to an overhead shot. The cars are now four feet apart.

P.S.
Never did figure out how the LAPD Internal Investigation fit into the whole scheme of things. Seems like an unnecessary diversion.

THE EXILES

Original title: Exils
Drama
In French and Arabic with English subtitles

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Zano, a young man living in Paris
His girl friend Naima

REVIEW
Although it could be considered a “coming of age” type movie, it seems more like a travelogue. As the two principal characters make their way to Algeria, we get to see the Andalusian part of Southern Spain and Morocco. The dialog is kept to a minimum, replaced in part by music of various sorts. But the whole thing at two hours is far too long. Unless you are a big fan of Algerian music, the fifteen minutes devoted solely to one dance sequence near the end is enough to make you get up and leave.

CLASSIFICATION
for some sexual content, brief nudity, mild language and some drug references.

THE INTERPRETER

Original title: L’Interprète (France)
Thriller

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Nicole Kidman: Silvia Broome, a UN interpreter
Sean Penn: Tobin Keller, a Secret Service agent
Dr. Edmond Zuwanie, dictator of Matobo, aka the Teacher

REVIEW
Too long, too complicated and too boring. At 2 hours and 9 minutes there is a need for some serious editing. And the story is very convoluted. Perhaps the reason it’s so confusing is because five writers collaborated on it? The movie also suffers from being slow and dull in spots. But it’s the acting, or should I say lack of acting: the roles the two lead actors are given requires very little of them. In fact, they could probably do it in their sleep.

CLASSIFICATION
for violence, some sexual content and brief strong language.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
Silvia gets slightly injured and winds up with blood on her left cheek. Sometimes it almost touches the corner of her mouth, while most of the time it is much shorter.

TRAVELLERS AND MAGICIANS

Original title: Dzongkha chang hup thengi thruel nang
Drama
In the the Himalayan dialect of Bhutan with English subtitles

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Dondup, a restless university graduate working as a government officer in a remote rural village
A Buddhist Monk
An old apple seller
An old papermaker
His beautiful young daughter, Sonam
Tashi, a restless farm youth studying magic in a remote rural village
An old recluse named Agay
His beautiful young wife Deki

REVIEW
This is a movie about two men taking separate but similar trips with more than one theme: “we do not always get what we aim for” and “is the grass really greener on the other side of the fence?” But it takes far too much time to deal with them, almost two hours. Everything evolves at a snail’s pace and a lot of patience is required to stay focused.

CLASSIFICATION
for some sexuality and violence.

P.S.
Some of the scenery is absolutely stunning.

BORN INTO BROTHELS: CALCUTTA’S RED LIGHT KIDS

Documentary

BACKGROUND
After earning a master's degree at the University of Cambridge, Zana Briski studied at the International Center of Photography in New York. In 1995 she made her first trip to India, producing a story on female infanticide. In 1997 she returned to India and began her project on the prostitutes of Calcutta's red light district, which led to her work with their.
Zana has won numerous awards including first prize at the World Press Photo Foundation Competition. She is the founder of Kids with Cameras, a non-profit organization that teaches photography to marginalized children in communities around the world. The group uses photography to capture the imaginations of children, to empower them, building their confidence, self-esteem and hope.

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
12-year-old Avijit, considered the most talented but perhaps the least motivated of the gang
Suchitra, who has a million-dollar smile
Kochi, a shy girl of 10, trapped into following the family line of prostitution
11-year-old Puja, the most daring, who becomes the best street photographer because of her persistence

REVIEW
The movie is about the efforts of one woman trying to improve the lives of seven children (four girls and three boys aged 10 through 14) living in Calcutta's red-light district. Being a professional photographer herself, the one thing she can teach them is how to take photographs. This she does by providing each with a point-and-shoot camera. Some of the photos are good enough to be entered in an international competition.

CLASSIFICATION
for strong sexual profanity and sexual slang terms, some drug content.

P.S.
The film won an Oscar at the 77th Academy Awards for Best documentary feature

GUNNER PALACE

Documentary

BACKGROUND
Iraq has become the new training ground for terrorists, replacing Afghanistan. It is a place where terrorists can experiment with new tactics to use against U.S. forces using live targets. Those live targets include Iraqi civilians and the soldiers shown in this film.

REVIEW
In September 2003, four months after the end of "major combat” in the U.S.A.-led war on Iraq, a small camera crew followed a group of soldiers showing us what they are now doing having "won the war". In addition to their role as police officers, social workers, crowd-control specialists and bomb-disarmers they take part in street patrols and raids. But these patrols and raids all look alike so it becomes monotonous after a while.
One telling point about how these men see themselves:“we’re not here fighting to protect our country, we’re here fighting to stay alive”.

CLASSIFICATION
on appeal for strong language throughout, violent situations and some drug references.

P.S.
The bombed out palace of Uday Hussein became the headquarters of the United States Army's 2/3 Field Artillery unit – a group called "gunners" - hence the name of the movie.