Constant Gardener (The) (2005)

The Constant Gardener is a grand film of British manners encountering third-world suffering in Africa, and how the two societies cross-pollinate (with corruption and nobility on both sides). The story gradually reveals itself right up to the end, with plot twists that make you think throughout. It's all about the humanity of the people of Africa and the people of Britain; the story is told through the powerful love of a married couple, the altruism of those who seek to save lives in Africa, and the betrayal and complicity in murder of those who seek riches and control. The movie carries the ball from start to finish, and impressively; the acting is of a fine level; however, with no gratuitous explosions or automatic gunfire, the philistines will find it boring. Five stars.

La Femme Nikita (1997-2001)

This is the best dramatic TV series I have ever seen, bar none. I will watch it over and over to no end because the psychology of all the characters is so complex, layered, and deep. As a shadowy-antiterrorist-organization suspense-drama series, La Femme Nikita is patently more realistic and riveting than 24, MI-5, and all the rest. Peta Wilson plays the street urchin who is offered a deal she cannot refuse: train to become a lethally effective antiterrorist operative (though her independent spirit steadily resists the dehumanizing ethic of Section's tactics of coercion and manipulation because she cares about innocent lives). All this plus she is a sexy chameleon of a fashion plate. Roy Dupuis as her consummate mentor and once-consummated love interest is fascinatingly understated in his emotional reserve and self-control (and you learn why as they dole out his back story in dribs and drabs over the seasons). All that plus he's an athletic Adonis who doesn't shoot blanks. Eugene Glazer is brilliant and bloodless as (head of) Operations and Alberta Watson is unforgettable as his second-in-command, a masterful tactician of torture and psychological strategist. Don Francks and Matthew Ferguson are memorable for their yeomanlike contributions as suppliers of weaponry and surveillance, and all the lesser players (including two characters who are Watson's greatest challenges and two who are Nikita's) play their parts excellently. The set design, costuming, tactical realism and music are always top of the line. Five stars.

Respiro (2002)

This film is a combination of I'm Not Afraid, Chocolat, and The Closer You Get, set in a semisqualid Italian coastal fishing town. Valeria Golino is a free spirit who cannot break loose of her restrictive small-town surroundings. Her husband won't let her take a three-hour sailboat ride with two Frenchmen, whom he then attacks; her sons won't let their sister sit with her new beau and gaze at the sea; and so on. As happy as she is with her family, her husband and indeed the whole town squelches her adventurous spirit, telling her what she must or must not do, so that she finally sets free the only creatures she can; subsequently, the town decides to banish her to an institution in Milan. Her son helps her find a limited freedom that in time brings a resolution to these dramatic tensions.

Respiro (I Breathe) is rough-cloth tapestry about the simple day-to-day ministrations of life in a small Italian coastal town where prepubescent boys run barechested, alternately ranging the countryside or bullying each other; the men cast nets for a steadily diminishing stock of fish; and the women alternately embody the town's manual-labor fish-canning industry or serve rustic food to their families. No Hollywood formulas, special effects, or explosions; just real, simple human lives that tell a story as humdrum yet fascinating and memorable as the Italian language is beautiful. Three stars.

Johnny Mnemonic (1995)

Johnny Mnemonic precedes The Matrix; Johnny is ur-Neo. Keanu Reeves is just as wooden an actor -- but he never could act, so what's the big deal? No, he doesn't have Sandra Bullock as a co-star -- but she can't act either, so what's the big deal? (The Net is way sucky as SF movies go.) Yes, this is chop-socky futuristic sci-fi -- not the most enlightened genre for character development and interpersonal nuance, so what's the big deal? And folks, cyberpunk is even further down the totem pole. Detractors, be gone!

But as a cyberpunk science-fiction movie circa 1995, this movie rocks. It's better than Tron (but not better than Blade Runner), blends disparate story elements, and has innovative special effects (like the fiery razor wire). Yes, the plot is leaden, but it soldiers on like a juggernaut; what more do you want (or can you expect) from cyberpunk sci-fi? This movie does a fine job with its material -- not stellar or scintillating like Blade Runner, but very well. Dolph Lundgren is particularly chilling as the unstoppable messianic-complex assassin who has to crucify everyone in his bloody path. If you like cyberpunk vixens and technofiction, then you could easily do worse (say, any Scharzenegger save the Terminator series). This is a seminal film and a keeper. Three stars.

Crash (2005)

Crash is one of the most well-crafted and moving films I have seen. I put it up there with Garden State, Love Actually, American Beauty, Grand Canyon, and others. It has a deep underlying spiritual and aural texture that weaves the stories together in a tapestry that appears flawless. The movie asks the question: Are we so lacking in physical and emotional contact that we (for whatever reasons) crash into and shoot at each other out of sheer fear and need? Crash alternates between being intensely suspenseful and emotionally evocative; people's inner core is revealed for who they are under pressure, and if they are lucky they find healing and redemption (or else they continue to seek it). A humanizing film for those that believe we all have good inside the flawed vessels. Five stars.

13 Going on 30 (2004)

This movie hooked me on Jennifer Garner (and just as her career took off too)! Her performance as 13-year-old-turned-30 Jenna is full of energy and vitality. Just her dance scenes (Thriller, woo-hoo) are worth seeing the movie for. Yes, it's chick-flicky to beat the band, but it's pretty funny and there's a lot for the guys too--like Jennifer. Four stars.

Kingdom of Heaven (2005)

Leave it to historians to pooh-pooh a film of historical fiction as not factual enough. Leave it to the counter-P.C. police (who are just as zealous for their own perceived version of the truth) to criticize a work of fiction as not idealistic enough (for their side). Uh, people...? This is Hollywood, remember...? This is not a documentary, it's called entertainment.

I give this movie five stars because of its historical accuracy (as far as it goes), scale of drama (esp. the war scenes), costumes, story, and characters. Although I can appreciate the story's telegraphed style, I flagged between lagging a bit at times and grasping the story line enough to foresage what was about to happen. However, the characters were always drawn in sufficient depth and spirit that I was interested in what happened to them. Orlando Bloom detractors, be still; he carried the film quite well as the taciturn blacksmith-made-knight who faithfully discharged his vows of loyalty to God, king, and people with integrity and courage. In fact, if the panorama of this film hadn't fully won the five stars for me, it was clinched by the nobility quietly displayed in his reluctant leadership and selfless love for God's people (as opposed to the politics-bound church hierarchy that advocated leaving the people to slaughter, to save their own hide, as "God's will"). A church-state hegemony really is like that, you know. That's why we don't want to make such grave mistakes again in America.

"Always tell the truth, even if it leads to your own death." Bloom's character strove to be a perfect knight -- and succeeded. How many today could take such vows and keep them so well? I guess that's why this movie really is a work of fiction, right? Five stars.

Animatrix (The) (2003)

I found the Matrix movies to be milestone statements that are artistically and intellectually cogent, relevant, and stimulating. Few movies ever get computers right, much less portray (much less codify) a consistent body of philosophy and cyberculture. Even the music portrays the worldview! I am not a fan of anime in general -- with a few exceptions for exquisite renderings, and there I include Animatrix. The Last Flight of the Osiris is the most captivating and memorable of the nine animated shorts, but all titles support and extend the Matrix story in an attractive and memorable fashion, and anyone who says otherwise probably hasn't watched the shorts closely enough. Five stars.

Play It Again Sam (1972)

I hadn't seen this Woody Allen movie in 20-25 years but it made me belly laugh again like no movie has in that time. The scenes and dialog are so classic and memorable, they stick in your mind almost as well as Casablanca (which plays an important theme in this movie). Allen plays the nebbish macho-wannabe who idolizes Bogart and agonizes over what cologne to wear (to which Bogart says, "Somewhere you got it mixed up, kid; it's the dame's job to smell good for you!"). Tony Roberts is a recurring hoot as the phone addict who ignores his wife, Diane Keaton. If you enjoy movies like Raising Arizona, or just love movies in general, this one displays an affection for cinema (esp. Casablanca) and a proclivity for punch lines that will keep you laughing time and again. Four stars.

King Kong (2005)

All three in my viewing party (40-ish male, 40-ish female, 20-ish male) back in December agreed that this was the most intense--and long--movie we had ever seen--longer than every Lord of the Rings movie but the final episode! The brontosaurus chase-and-tumble scene in particular showed such intense and extended permutations of peril that I finally burst out laughing, saying, "Oh, come on, this is ridiculous!" I should say that given my love for J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, Peter Jackson's cinematic versions should be my favorite movies of all time; but they mostly gloss over the spiritual heart of the books to nearly pillory us with hours of nonstop action and CGI. Kong tries to trump Rings with more of the same, yet some of its CGI is visibly flawed, and clearly someone should have told Jackson at some point, "Enough already!" Jack Black did better than I would expect in the lead role, but the whiff of his hackery remains, and finally overpowers, as he enunciates The Moral of the Story, clear as a cracked bell, at the tale's ending toll. I believe the word is overwrought. Simply too much, and not all smoothly portrayed. This film's only salvation is to be found in Andy Serkis and Naomi Watts. Serkis endows an evocative moodiness to Kong that more than bests all the other ciphers on the screen, he proves groundbreaking in the emotions he can evoke from a sympathetic CGI character (more so than Rings' complex, if often cartoonishly rendered, villain Gollum). Meanwhile, Watts emoted her heart out against the blue screen to which Kong would later be digitally added; she should have received best actress. This film could have received five stars if it had gone on a diet instead of a binge. Indeed, as the young man in our party said, he would have given the movie five stars for its sheer grandiosity, but he dinged it one star because it made (even) him get teary-eyed. Four stars.

To Build A Fire (1969)

I'm from Minnesota and have been out in weather as cold as the protagonist (generally in Wyoming), so I could really enter into the suspense of his trek (his cluelessness, then his urgency). The story translates well enough from print to screen. Since it's from 1969, I was prepared to give it two stars, but I give it three because it really caught me up in the story; I felt for the guy. Only someone who doesn't understand the life issues that are at stake for anyone in this situation (i.e., some callow youth who is as ignorant as this character, whom no one with a heart should want to die) would fail to empathize with the protagonist (however ironically termed a "hero"). Three stars.