FROST/NIXON

Drama
Based on a true story

F.Y.I.
Phlebitis is an inflammation of a vein, frequently forming blood clots in the deep veins of the legs, a condition known as thrombophlebitis. These clots can travel to the lungs causing a fatal pulmonary embolism.

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Michael Sheen: British talk-show host David Frost
Matthew MacFadyen: his producer John Birt
Rebecca Hall: Caroline Cushing, his new found companion
Frank Langella: Richard M. Nixon, the former 37th President of the Unitied States
Kevin Bacon: his Chief of Staff Jack Brennan
Toby Jones: Nixon’s agent Swifty Lazar
Oliver Platt: former National Public Radio bureau chief Bob Zelnick
Sam Rockwell: Watergate historian James Reston Jr.

REVIEW
Although it runs for just over two hours, it doesn’t seem like it: crisp editing, an interesting story that unfolds during the television interviews and two outstanding performances all combine to make time go by too quickly.

Great attention to detail and expert cinematography recreate the time and place beautifully. Music by Hans Zimmer is not one of his best efforts; there is nothing of the calibre he has demonstrated in the past. That is not a criticism, just an observation since that the musical score does not take away from the movie, it simply adds nothing special as his music usually does.

CLASSIFICATION
for nudity (a five-second shot of a man running nude towards the ocean and jumping in) and profanity (one singular instance of the vulgar term mother******).

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
This is one of my classic nitpicks: when the telephone caller (Nixon) hangs up, the person on the end of the line (Frost) hears a dial tone. In reality the dial tone is only heard after picking up the phone before dialling.

P.S.
The Director Ron Howard has come a long way since starring as Richie Cunniningham in the TV comedy series Happy Days. Not only has he continued as a movie actor, he’s been a producer and director of many movies including Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind, Cinderella Man and The Da Vinci Code.

LA MÉMOIRE DES ANGES

Documentary
Some dialogue in French but no English subtitles

REVIEW
The producers set about to take a look at Montreal in the 50’s and 60’s making use of the archives of the National Film Board of Canada. The result is a series of short stories, snippets of film clips from over 100 documentaries bringing back the sights and sounds of the times, from the mundane city street scenes to performances by Oscar Peterson and Paul Anka to name but a few.

With no commentary to interrupt your train of thought, you are left to make your own.

CLASSIFICATION


P.S.
Most of the people in the movie are angels now, thus the title of the film, the Memory of Angels.

MILK

Political drama
Based on a true story

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Sean Penn: Harvey Milk, a New Yorker about to turn 40
James Franco: Scott Smith, someone he meets in the subway
Emile Hirsch: street hustler Cleve Jones
Zvi Rosenman: David Goodstein publisher of Advocate, a gay and lesbian magazine
Diego Luna: Jack Lira, one of Harvey’s close friends
Alison Pill: Harvey’s campaign manager Anne Kronenberg
Denis O'Hare: California State Senator John Briggs
Josh Brolin: Dan White, former San Francisco policeman
Victor Garber: San Francisco's Mayor George Moscone

REVIEW
The rise of Harvey Milk to a position of importance is adeptly played out making use of flashbacks as he dictates his memoir. Penn and Brolin give outstanding performances; the supporting cast are almost as good.

The melding of archival film and recreations is done in a manner it’s hard to tell them apart, given the attention to period detail. In fact the entire movie looks and feels so real with the exception of a few minor instances.

CLASSIFICATION
for profanity, sexual situations and some violence.

I.O.U.S.A.

Documentary

F.Y.I.
With the return of thousands of military personnel from overseas at the end of World War II, many countries such as the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand experienced an unusual spike in birth rates. This phenomenon is commonly referred to as the baby boom. The term Baby Boomer is used to describe a person who was born during this post-war period (from 1946 to 1953 or as late as 1964 according to some.)

PRINCIPAL PARTICIPANTS
David M. Walker (born 1951) served as United States Comptroller General from 1998 to 2008 and is now the President and CEO of The Peter G. Peterson Foundation. Walker has a B.S. in accounting, is a Certified Public Accountant and holds a certificate in Senior Government Management from Harvard University.

Robert L. Bixby is Executive Director of The Concord Coalition, an American nonpartisan, grassroots organization dedicated to fiscal responsibility. He has a bachelor's degree in political science, a master's degree in public administration and a doctorate from George Mason University School of Law. He practiced law and served as the Chief Staff Attorney of the Court of Appeals of Virginia.

Warren Edward Buffett (born 1930) holds a B.A. and Master of Science degree from Columbia University. He is one of the world's most successful investors and the largest shareholder and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. He is currently ranked by Forbes magazine as the second richest man in the world with an estimated net worth of US$46 billion.

Paul Adolph Volcker (born 1927) is an American economist with a M.A. in political economy from Princeton University. He was Chairman of the United States Federal Reserve under Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan from August 1979 to August 1987. He is currently chairman-designate of the Economic Recovery Advisory Board under President-elect Barack Obama.


REVIEW
This is a timely documentary about the growing national debt of the United States of America and the impact it will have in the years to come. Making use of animated graphics with archival news footage this slick presentation is far better than the conventional PowerPoint slide show. Without “talking down” to the audience they take the time to explain the basic principals of Macroeconomics 101.

Presented in a cool dispassionate manner without “the sky is falling” rhetoric there is much food for thought and some truly shocking facts not generally that well known.

CLASSIFICATION
for some thematic elements.

SYNEDOCHE, NEW YORK

Drama

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Philip Seymour Hoffman: Theater director Caden Cotard
Catherine Keener: his wife Adele
Sadie Goldstein: their 4-year-old daughter Olive
Samantha Morton: Hazel, an employee of the theatre
Hope Davis: Dr. Madeleine Gravis, Caden’s therapist
and no doubt others I didn’t get to see

REVIEW
Let me be perfectly frank with you. I don’t get it.

I tried, believe me I really did by hanging in for an hour before I got up and left totally confused and no longer willing to try figuring it out. I’ll leave that to others.

In the meantime here are a few examples to test your skills.

The movie opens to the sound of the clock radio alarm. Caden is slow to get up, sitting on the edge of the bed listening to the weather forecaster who says it should be a lovely September day. When he gets to the breakfast table and picks up the paper the date is October 15. He then gets dressed and glances once more at the paper and now it’s November 5. He goes to have work done by his dentist and the calendar shows it to be March. OK we got serious time shift so where’s reality in all this? Or is there any?

Hazel sees a house on fire and enters it. She is then given a tour by the real estate agent who points out the salient features of the house while smoke and flame are much in evidence. OK that’s fantasy but what has it got to do with the rest of the story?

Caden answers his daughter’s question about the ugly blotches on his face by telling her it’s an inflammatory skin disorder called sycosis. The scene changes and his skin is perfectly fine. OK that’s a time-shift in the future but we soon find out that Olive has moved to Paris with her mother and Caden no longer has contact with her so how could this take place at all?

CLASSIFICATION
for offensive language, some sexual content and nudity.

F.Y.I.
Synecdoche (pronounced “sin-ECK-de-key”)
a figure of speech by which something is referred to indirectly, either by naming only some part of it (e.g. ‘hands’ for manual labourers) or by naming some more comprehensive entity of which it is a part (e.g. ‘the law’ for a police officer). Usually regarded as a special kind of metonymy, synecdoche occurs frequently in political journalism (e.g.‘Moscow’ for the Russian government) and sports commentary (e.g. ‘Liverpool’ for one of that city's football teams). Some other examples: saying fifty sail for fifty ships, saying society for high society, saying cutthroat for assassin, saying a creature for a man, saying boards for stage.

JCVD

Crime\drama
With English subtitles as required

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Jean-Claude Van Damme: JCVD, famous martial arts movie actor
Francois Damiens: Detective Bruges
Herve Sogne: Lt. Smith
Karim Belkhadra: Vigile, leader of the bad guys
Norbert Rutili: his partner Perthier

REVIEW
Fans of Jean-Claude Van Damme, better known as “the Muscles from Brussels”, will no doubt be absolutely thrilled to see their hero playing a more serious role. The rest of us probably could care less.

It seems the producers have thrown out the book on how to make a decent movie. The washed out colours, primarily a yellowish sepia, set a dreary tone as well as being downright boring. Perhaps to offset that the use of strong overhead lighting creates bright over-exposed areas. Weird.

Instead of sticking with a traditional linear time frame after seeing a snippet of action we are then taken back to some minutes before the action began to view again the first scene in its entirety plus a little bit beyond. Then the process is repeated. Weird.

Midway through the movie JCVD launches into a long monologue about his failing career, talking directly at the camera while somehow perched way above the others. It is entirely out of place and has no connection with what is going on below. Weird.

for language and some violence.

AUSTRALIA

Drama, action\adventure

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
David Gulpilil: King George, an Aboriginal shaman
Brandon Walters: his 11-year-old grandson Nullah
Nicole Kidman: British aristocrat Lady Sarah Ashley
Hugh Jackman: The Drover
Bryan Brown: “King” Carney, wealthy cattle baron
Ben Mendelsohn: British army Captain Dutton
Jack Thompson: Kipling Flynn, accountant of Faraway Downs
David Wenham: Neil Fletcher, manager of Faraway Downs

REVIEW
“You got to know when to hold em, know when to fold em,
Know when to walk away and know when to run.”

The producers should have followed the advice of The Gambler sung by Kenny Rogers and rolled the end credits when the herd arrived in Darwin. But no they tacked on another movie about the World War II invasion of Australia and the result is an overblown film that goes on for 2 hours and 37 minutes.

So let me backtrack: the first half of the movie is a “Western” with the usual cast of a nasty cattle baron, an unyielding independent rancher, big cattle drive and a very predictable outcome. What with the decent acting and great camera work, in a generous mood it might get a 4 star rating.

But having to sit through another hour of very fake-looking battle scenes with a very predictable outcome results in one less star.

In a nutshell, it’s a good movie but not a great one.

CLASSIFICATION
for some violence, sexuality and brief strong language (very brief, just one f-word).