National Geographic: Beyond the Movie: The Lord of the Rings (2001)

I've been a Tolkien scholar for nearly 30 years, I know many Tolkien scholars, and I have presented papers as well as keynote addresses and emceed at national and international Tolkien conferences. So I know and have read almost everything about and by Tolkien. This documentary serves as a well-grounded introduction to Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movie but especially to the works, life, and creative impetus of J.R.R. Tolkien. (Anyone who complains that the two are unrelated is a twit.) In his letters, Tolkien asserted that "Hitler wasn't big enough!" to be a model for Sauron and the atom bomb certainly does not prefigure the One Ring; yet this documentary is spot-on and accurate when it cites Tolkien's World War I soldiering at the Somne and the industrialization of his idyllic pastoral Sarehole as primary influences in his depictions of war and evil. His legendary love for the Finnish language and the Kalevala is well depicted in a modern as well as a historical context, and the Beowulf-era discoveries at Sutter Hoo (two years after his still-classic Israel Golancz lecture on Beowulf in 1937) are thrilling to behold. True, the DVD includes an unrelated ten minutes on deforestation in Gabon that put me to sleep, but in every other instance, I found the actors' and producers' and experts' pronouncements to be wholly relevant, illuminating, and inspiring. Four stars.

Breaking the Da Vinci Code (2005)

This program is not smug, dishonest, or desperate as its partisan critics protest. It simply presents the historical facts that have been documented to be contemporary with Jesus Christ, and asserts that Dan Brown's followers cannot defend his work as a work of fiction when Brown himself claims in his own work that it is uniformly factual. There is no documentary or historical evidence of Brown's claims; he repeatedly misrepresents historical facts; and duplicate errors in works he has plagiarized demonstrate his lack of intellectual integrity. Brown may promote his own books as he sees fit; he should just not do so dishonestly or disingenuously. Yes, conspiracy theories sell nowadays; but history, and especially church history, has been openly transparent and never as sordid as Brown represents. Any truly open mind will listen to fact rather than preselected bias. Three stars.

Fallen (1998)

I caught this one on TV and found it to be an inventive and chilling cross between Along Came A Spider or Silence of the Lambs and The Devil's Advocate. Denzel Washington is a police detective possessed of such integrity and professionalism that he won't let go of a serial murder case: "It's out of my hands. It's my job." He gets more than he bargained for, however, because the killer is an evil spirit that can influence or even briefly or fatally possess others to do his evil bidding. The eons-old spirit taunts Denzel and his chief witness, letting them know he is in charge and there is nothing they can do about it. (Perhaps the most chilling scene in the movie is when the spirit chases the woman down the street, merely by causing a crowded sidewalk full of people to touch each other in rapid succession, until one man catches and pins her against a wall.) Faithwise, Denzel plays an agnostic (most cops cannot afford the luxury to reflect upon the meaning of the human condition) who simply wants to capture the criminal, and he knows that action not hocus-pocus will accomplish this. A double-twist at the end flips the ever-devious villain on its ear (and then back again). This film should keep you guessing to the end, and leave chilling bits in your mind for some time to come, if not for as long as you live. Four stars.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (The) (2005)

Not only was I pleasantly surprised by this movie, I was distinctly impressed. It not only lives up to the imaginative promise of its trailer, but it stands on its own beside sci-fi movies in general. It closely follows the material (even the banjo-tinged opening credits) of the BBC TV version (which was a literal if low-budget adaptation) yet makes all the effective adaptations one would expect in a big-budget sci-fi movie. (Douglas Adams himself continually adapted the story from radio to TV to computer game and so on.) I wholeheartedly endorse the casting of Martin Freeman (Arthur Dent), Mos Def (Ford Prefect), Sam Rockwell (Zaphod Beeblebrox), Zooey Deschanel (Trillian), Bill Nighy (Slartibartfast), Simon James (Magrithean ghost host -- and Arthur Dent in the 1981 production), and Warwick Davis with the voice of Alan Rickman (Marvin the Depressed Robot); everyone brought an inimitable energy to their roles but were especially brilliant in ensemble, playing off each other. (Two characters in fact share credits in Shaun of the Dead and Love Actually.) Adams' sardonic British humor (both of satire and absurdity) consistently carries through in the production values and characters' expressions and animus. The Jim Henson people are entirely effective behind the corpulent, bureaucratic Vogon antagonists. John Malkovich plays a delightfully quirky role as the increasingly chilling leader of a planetary religion where the sneeze carries a central and divine significance behind the rubric "Bless you." (Christian believers, please understand that satire means Adams is making fun of those who make fun of God.) My favorite scene involves the Point of View gun ("invented by a committee of angry housewives who were sick to the teeth of telling their husbands 'You just don't get it, do you?'") where Trillian repeatedly blasts Zaphod, who (uncharacteristically) spouts progressively sympathetic and deeper revelations into her true feelings and motives. (Out of spite, he finally wrests it away to fire upon her, but she says, "It won't work on me. I'm already a woman.") If you enjoyed Brazil or I Heart Huckabees, you should enjoy this movie even if you have not read the books. Five stars.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (The) (1981)

This 1980s BBC production strongly resembles a classic Dr. Who series, but thanks to the wit and genius of author Douglas Adams, it's intelligent, inventive, whimsical, and frequently droll-funny if not chuckle-funny. The actors do yeomanlike work but will be memorable only to cult fans, though David Prowse has a brief scene as the bodyguard for the megarock (several orders of magnitude louder than an atomic blast) pop star Disaster Area, who is spending a year dead for tax purposes. If you are a fan of Douglas Adams, then by all means see this series. Even a newbie will chuckle at Marvin the depressed robot, the Babel fish, Vogon poetry, and so forth. Perhaps the best feature of this production is found in the excerpts from the Guide, especially the fine print displayed on the screen that is not narrated; if you can freeze frame and read this stuff, it's like an extra bonus feature. Or just read the books and be equally regaled all over again. Three stars.

Whale Rider (2003)

This is a soft-spoken, spiritually based tale that grows on you as it unfolds. This movie faithfully and sensitively depicts the beliefs, languages, and traditions of the people of Papua, New Guinea in a story strongly reminiscent of the Inuit peoples of Alaska. The artwork and language are intricate and beautiful. The preteen protagonist (who had never acted before) delivers an exquisite and authentic portrayal of a young girl who knows she has a call and a mission to serve her people, even if she must take courage because they do not yet recognize or accept her gift. (The men have decided that only men can learn the tribal ways.) Hers is the way of humility and selflessness, which of course cannot shield her from her own grandfather's contempt or her own sorrow. If you enjoyed reading Orson Scott Card's Tales of Alvin Maker series (The Seventh Son, Red Prophet, and four more), you will greatly enjoy the magical realism of this captivating and slightly exotic modern-day mythic tale come true. Five stars.

Incredibles (The) (2004)

This has to be the best Pixar film yet. It's like a supercharged, animated, James Bond-squared thriller. It's an action- and humor-packed dynamo that won't quit, full of excitement and chuckles for children and adults alike. The updated twist (a litigation-driven superhero relocation program and the dynamics of a superhero family that is anything but normal when society insists that it be) takes the story beyond Mr. Incredible's macho, I-only-work-alone, glory-days histrionics and gives every family member an impetus to work together. I love everything Holly Hunter does and the rest of the cast (esp. Craig T. Nelson and Jason Lee) are literally super as lead hero and nemesis. John Lasseter's production gives us an inspired cast in a story with genius. Five stars.

Veggie Tales: Lord of the Beans (2005)

Argh, I've lost my Veggie Tales virginity! I've resisted my son's chattering about them and still refuse to buy or rent any, but when he wanted to watch one on Father's Day weekend, I couldn't escape. These-- things-- are-- so-- DOPEY! That said, however, they are well-drawn, creatively scripted, and professionally produced for a moral-of-story kind of production. (We've come a long way since Davey and Goliath from Clockey Productions.) This title is a semi-lame (tries and more often than not succeeds) animated spoof of my all-time favorite epic film, Lord of the Rings. Toto Baggypants does sort of look like a greenish, mawk-eyed Elijah Wood; the Other Elf is Keebleresque with a few funny pratfalls; Grumpy the dwarf is a hoot if there is one at all; and the two-dimensional villains are the Sporks. Bonus features include the song "It's All About Love" sung by Wynonna, and an animated music video within the movie with a Presleyesque "Elvish impersonator." Three stars.

Ever After: A Cinderella Story (1998)

Ever After is inevitably a chick flick because it has the whole princess thing going on, and girls and women everywhere go crazy over it. But it's also a great family movie (real-life fairy tale, lots of action and humor, no sex) and men who have a romantic side will find they love it too. I'm a big fairy tale and romance fan and I think this is the best Cinderella movie ever made (though I haven't yet seen Three Wishes for Cinderella). Drew Barrymore is a plucky, resourceful young woman with a strong back story that explains her character, yet she continues to surprise right to the end. She speaks up to the prince and sets him straight in matters of social justice and the heart, and he is taken with her. Anjelica Huston is a master of the imperious then the preening then the fawning schemer who gives noblewomen a bad name. Her daughters are inventive characters in their own right. The scenery is resplendent, the wardrobe is exquisite, the script is intelligent, and the pacing is bright. The special features include only the trailer, which inexplicably plays to the tune of Loreen McKennit's The Mummer's Dance. Four stars.

Talk to Her (2002)

Talk to Her (Habla con Ella) is a sensitive homage to the enduring influence of two women on their lovers, even from their comas or the grave. Benigno (Javier Camara) seems to be just that -- benign and harmless -- emotionally a juvenile but sincerely tender and selfless in his devotion and professional care as a male nurse for the former dancer Alicia (Leonor Watling), fallen into a coma before he could woo her and now torpid for years. Benigno befriends the sensitive writer Marco (Dario Grandinetti), who weeps at ballet performances and falls for the dashing female bullfighter Lydia (Rosario Flores), who later also lapses into a persistent vegetative state. The two odd couples form unusual pairs that are poignant esp. as the story jumps back and forth across time. A key scene is where Benigno advises Marco how to nurture any woman, conscious or unconscious: "Talk to her" (and all that that implies). Benigno has hope that Alicia will revive someday, a hope he does not see fulfilled. (He is later accused and convicted of a crime on circumstantial evidence and sent to jail for the remainder of his life.) This movie is full of crisp, memorable, and lovingly portrayed scenes, including the splendor of the bullfighter's traditional outfit (attentively donned by Lydia), an intoxicating rendition of Cucurrucucu Paloma, a silent short called The Shrinking Lover, and the two wistful friends on either side of the prison glass. This film will put down roots into your heart before it is done and ever afterwards. Benigno finds the happiest years of his life caring for Alicia and doing the things she loved so he can tell her about it -- before his part in the story fades away and two other lives begin their journey anew. Five stars.

Flightplan (2005)

I haven't yet seen everything Jodie Foster has done but I respect her greatly for what I have seen (and I plan to see the rest). This is a respectful attempt at a kickass crisis-on-an-airjet thriller; think Executive Decision or Snakes or Die Hard on a plane, but Jodie Foster adds intelligence and a mama-bear-fighting-for-her-cub dimension. Foster does a fine job as a designer of the double-decker airliner (designed specifically for the movie's multiple camera angles as detailed in the making-of materials) where her daughter disappears and no one can vouch for seeing her on the plane. Foster is either a crazy woman running amok on an airliner or the victim of a complex conspiracy. Who is in on it? She won't give up and works her way through the puzzle. Sean Bean is good as the pilot but you begin wondering why Peter Sargaard, playing the air marshal, is so soft on her. I like movies that make characters question their grasp on reality and make observers take sides (usually the wrong one). I didn't see enough emotional transition on faces other than Foster's, however: Everyone else on the plane had pretty much one expression, and stuck to it. This could be due to the nascent sense of terror that the situation might engender. Yeah, that must be it. Four stars.

A Prairie Home Companion (2006)

Being from St. Paul, I'm a lifelong fan of Minnesota Public Radio, The Morning Show, A Prairie Home Companion, and Garrison Keillor as well as Robin & Linda Williams. (My ex attended one of the first shows when it was held outdoors in the sculpture garden. We attended shows before Keillor was on the cover of Time magazine, the Fitzgerald Theatre was built, and the rift between Keillor and St. Paul ensued. We first encountered Robin & Linda when they sang and spoke on folk music for a University of Minnesota class in 1983. I've tried never to miss a broadcast in 28 years.) So yes, I loved the movie, though not without a few quibbles, most which can be covered by "It was Garrison's first screenplay," or "Robert Altman must be getting old." My biggest warning is for those who prefer summer blockbusters, postmodern ennui, or Lewis Black-style comedic delivery: Stay away lest your kvetching dampen the experience for the rest of us in the capacity-crowd theatre who are chuckling away. My second warning is for those who abhor sadistic humor (bad jokes that make you wince): Flee! This movie preserves a thoroughly Minnesotan, midwestern, old-timey, folk- and cowboy-music sensibility; it's like a pot of trail beans (don't miss the song or the toots) cooking slowly amidst the fast-paced patter and chatter of producing a live radio variety show. (Keillor seems to have at least ten stories of how he got into radio and he utters a multilayered insult to Texans worthy of Mark Twain.) Meryl Streep carries the show as a chirpy yet conflicted folk-music chanteuse and she sings beautifully. Her sister (Lily Tomlin) antiphonalizes as they slowly spill out their bittersweet stories about loss and sacrifice as the remaining two sisters in a legendary folk-music family. Lindsay Lohan's performance was reedy (strained) in the high register but she belted out the final line like a pro. Kevin Kline dopily plays a clueless detective, Guy Noir; his gumshoe persona serves as a thread to bind the story from start to finish, but his performance is lackluster and the sight gags wear thin. The cowboy duo (Woody Harrelson and John C. Reilly) are perfect for their parts and full of hoots (and toots). Tommy Lee Jones phones in his performance as does Virginia Madsen. Everyone else in the ensemble cast does a super job with their parts, from the sandwich lady to sound effects man Tom Keith (as himself), who has a superb scene opposite Lily Tomlin. Make no mistake about this movie and the radio show it is based upon: You come for the live music, the repartee, and a spirit and sentiment that cannot be described. (Listening to Keillor's voice is so much more alluring than seeing him.) You leave with memories and emotional fuel, built partly on the values of the past and reincarnated for the present day, to make it another week in the postmodern world. Four stars.

Good Night, and Good Luck (2005)

Back in the 1950s, when everyone smoked everywhere (even on air), freely hobnobbed socially (before the mass media culled some of that interpersonal touch from us), and listened to really good live jazz... Yeah, that's the ticket. Actually, this is a black-and-white film about the early days of black-and-white TV journalism, when integrity was iconic, and Edward R. Murrow (reincarnated in word and mannerism by David Strathairn) made a pioneering difference in courage and impartiality. He stood for the Constitution and its rights for all above partisan power plays. Don't listen to the right-wing harpies who still maintain "Sen. McCarthy was right! The government and Hollywood were infested with Soviet sympathizers!" (They imply that any amount of paranoia and unsubstantiated character assassination and defamation were and are today justified. They have failed to learn the lessons of history.) The tension and persecution of the McCarthy era is palpable throughout this film. As Strathairn says, "The terror is in this room." To face McCarthy, Strathairn's Murrow walks the line of utter journalistic integrity, demanding impartiality in his team's research and refusing to be compromised by potential character attacks on his team (even as the life of one TV anchor is literally destroyed). Make no mistake: Without Murrow, we would live in a vastly different nation than we do now. Americans self-govern by the rule of law and electing its officials, not by witch hunts and the autocracy of any official who would wrap himself in the flag as an excuse to break the law and try others or ruin their lives without due process or the right to face his accusers in a court of law or trial by a jury of his peers. Five stars.

Crime of Father Amaro (The) (2002)

This is a beautifully filmed, culturally dead-on story about faith and politics in small-town Mexico. Every detail of every scene accurately displays life in Mexico, down to the broken-doll shrines and subtle facial expressions of the town gossip that I call La Befana. Gael Garcia Bernal is handsome (even hunky) as a newly ordained priest and archbishop's favorite; right away, the most religious young woman in town (the beautiful and nubile Ana Claudia Talancon) is smitten with him. (Uh, oh.) Bernal dutifully minds his vows of chastity, but his will has apparently not been speaking with his feelings, so he eventually succumbs after temptation works its wiles on him subconsciously (or inscrutably -- Bernal may be handsome but he is not particularly expressive). The patriarchal parish priest (Sancho Gracia) has fallen from greater grace as he has wended his way through the loneliness of ministry and the pressures of the narcomafia. This film is about the pivotal points and the permanence of moral and esp. immoral decisions, and how one wrong turn can snowball down a slippery slope, even when serving selflessly in God's calling. (The true crimes, in my mind, belong to the archbishop, who uses Father Amaro to quash the truth and a young journalist's career in order to protect the church from scandal, and the church, which imposes celibacy on its pastors then sends them to minister solo in small towns.) Bernal, who disappointingly played a sniggering sex-obsessed adolescent in Y Tu Mama También, here plays a serious up-and-coming young pastor who regrettably begins to go bad -- yet sadly, this is not a concern of the archbishop. The conclusion should leave you sad and hanging -- not quite like when Darth Vader escaped after the destruction of the Death Star, because this is a human story (not a soap opera or a space opera), but one wonders if a sequel would be possible. Overall this movie is cinematically rich and filmed impeccably compared to Sex and Lucia, which is an emotionally more revealing and complex film. Four stars.

Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003)

Scarlett Johansson is a luminous gem, redolent in an flawless setting. Her elegantly understated acting is iconic and unforgettable. In fact, the entire film is an illuminated canvas, every scene like a Vermeer painting. Johansson's Griet, her hair always hidden, is an innocent cherubic likeness who is sent by her blind father as a serving girl into the larger world where the rich evict the poor and the mercenary (Vermeer's wife and his patron) wield their machinations upon the gifted or vulnerable (Vermeer and Griet). She begins to come into her own as she takes on responsibilities and understands relationships in the household and community. She realizes she is drawn to and understands the marvels of light, color, and texture seen in the real world and reproduced on the artist's canvas. Vermeer perceives her artistic affinity and is drawn to her, probably desiring her, but for all their wistful chemistry they barely touch and they certainly never kiss. This is a very sensual film without being sexual in the least. It is true to the period and to an artist's sensibilities. There is a spirit and a texture to this film that inspires and illuminates; it is in fact spiritual. The story is subtle with the pacing of a promenade; one needs a depth of character to perceive the emotions and motives that lie beneath the surface. This is an intensely rewarding movie, for those who can recognize precious gems, expressed in spirit and in truth, when they see them. Five stars.

Family Guy Presents: Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story (2005)

See Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story if you are a Family Guy fan in general or a completist, just be aware that this three-part compilation is only 60% as funny as your average Family Guy episode. The jokes are more lame and the timing feels off. (Quagmire, for instance, rarely rises above utter predictability, simply spouting his reprise line "Giggity giggity!") Kudos for a slightly inventive storyline where Stewie searches for his (he supposes) real father, but I'll take any Family Guy episode over this DVD, now that I've seen it. Three stars.