Capitalism: A Love Story (2009)

Released November 5, 2009

In Michael Moore’s latest film one gets exactly what is expected, no more, no less. His usual outspoken, provocative and amusing self, he lodges a heartfelt attack on the economic system responsible for the growing imbalance of power between corporations and the everyman.

A large part of the blame, Moore claims, should be placed at the feet of Ronald Regan, whose deregulation of the economy gave the banks newfound – and unmonitored – power. It has allowed the United States to evolve into a “plutocracy”, a state where the majority of power is controlled by the wealthy. This description was printed, astonishingly, in an internal Citibank report.

Equally as surprising is the revelation of some companies taking out “dead peasant” insurance on their employees, thus profiting in the event of their death, or the privately funded juvenile detention centre whose profits increased proportionately with the number of inmates. These segments are engrossing but blatantly manipulative. If he’s not appealing to our sentimentality, he’s pressing our buttons with Carmina Burana or Beethoven’s 9th.

And yet, Moore’s appeal is not only for his by-now predictable polemic, but as an entertainer. And Capitalism: A Love Story is nothing if not entertaining. Whether he’s wrapping the New York Stock Exchange in crime scene tape or jostling with security guards outside the GM headquarters, he demonstrates that he is unwavering in his convictions, even if the very same gimmicks act to diffuse some of his more persuasive arguments.

After the amusement of Moore’s grandstanding fades, what lingers most is the recently uncovered footage of Franklin D. Roosevelt presenting the “Second Bill of Rights”. He proposed that all citizens would be guaranteed a job, a home, an education, medical care, and “freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies”. If this seemed ambitious at the time, today it feels no less relevant and just as elusive. Roosevelt was dead the following year, and his goals remain unrealised.

It’s his sincere sentiments, more than those of the rabble-rousing Moore, which remain the most affecting.

The Piano (1993)

Blu-ray Released November 4, 2009

Jane Campion is an unashamedly feminist director. This is, after all, the woman who made In the Cut, a mostly failed serial-killer lark known primarily for an unglamorously disrobed Meg Ryan. Ten years earlier she made the universally praised period film The Piano, a raw and confronting study of people on the edge of civilization in the mid 19th century without the skills to communicate effectively with each other.

For the thirty-something protagonist, Ada (Holly Hunter), it is not by choice or lack of awareness: she has been mute since the age of six. She instead communicates through sign language and vicariously through her plucky daughter (Anna Paquin), who acts as interpreter. Her real vehicle of expression, though, is her piano. She brings it with her to New Zealand when her father sells her into marriage with frontiersman, Alistair Stewart (Sam Neill).

In the untamed and almost mythical forest, Ada finds herself stuck oddly between Alistair and Baines (Harvey Keitel), a white man who has tattooed his face in the style of his Maori neighbours. Baines obtains Ada’s piano, up until now still stranded on the beach, in exchange for land from Alistair. He offers the furious Ada a deal: she can buy her piano back, one key at a time, if she will only “teach him piano”.

The piano lessons are however only a cover for the growing sexual attraction between them, a desire that feels as new and seductive as an adolescent discovering their body for the first time. Campion states in the short documentary on the disc that she was interested in the “innocence about sex, erotica and love”, a concept foreign to our modern culture of over-exposure. One of the most striking things about the film is this raw eroticism which is explicit, but not gratuitous.

All the performances are fine, especially Hunter and Paquin, both of whom won oscars from their work. It's remarkable that our sympathies always lie with Hunter even when she does not utter single word on screen. And it's hard to believe Paquin, only 11 at the time, would turn into the woman who is the star of HBO's True Blood, where little of her is left to the imagination. Here she gives a performance only a child star could give: honest and uncluttered by ego and over-calculation.

The score by Michael Nyman has since gone on to be a popular hit, the two centrepieces "The Heart Asks Pleasure First" and "My Big Secret", the most well known. By acting as Ada's metaphorical "voice", the score is massively important. Except for an odd misstep involving belching saxophones, the piano-led score captures the right mix of melancholy and romance, its mix of traditional folk tunes and contemporary styling emotive but unmanipulative. The same could be said of Jane Campion's direction, which is tremendously effective but mostly invisible.

The Blu-ray itself is superb. The video is presented in full 1080p and enhanced 16x9, while the audio is DTS-HD 5.1. The special features are few, but engaging, and include a short fifteen minute archive documentary with interviews with the principals, and a commentary by Jane Campion and producer, Jan Chapman.

Moving, beautifully photographed and performed, all film fans owe it to themselves to have this disc in their library.

Emma (1996)

Blu-ray released November 4, 2009

I confess that I seem to possess an inbuilt aversion to the costume dramas of manners typified by the Jane Austen big screen adaptations. And yet when I commit to them – Wharton’s The House of Mirth and The Age of Innocence spring to mind, I find myself taken. Austen is more comedic and spirited than the more scathing Wharton, two characteristics which could equally be used to describe the 1996 Gwyneth Paltrow-starring version of Emma.

The story is populated by characters who define themselves by their social circles and whose coded conversation is mostly gossip about who should marry whom. Directly doing her best to manipulate potential pairings is Emma Woodhouse (Paltrow). Just peppy enough to engage our sympathies, she blindly overestimates her own matchmaking abilities.

Doing all in her power to match the self-esteem challenged Harriet (Toni Collette) with Mr. Elton, she fails to notice his affections are instead directed toward her. Upon announcing his intentions, she blusterfully rejects him as if her involvment with any man were inconcievable. Other possible suitors come and go, including a young Ewan McGregor as Frank Churchill. His Fabio-esque blond locks and smooth charm does not go unoticed by the memebers of either sex. Present alongside Emma throughout her machinations is Mr. Knightley, played charismatically by Jeremy Northam. The affectionately antagonistic relationship between them manifests in a light comedic sparring which is one of this lush film's great pleasures.

Paltrow is excellent in the lead as the manipulative Emma, depicted with just enough heart to make her likable even if she is frequently blind to the impact her actions have on others (such as when she publicly insults the insufferable Miss Bates).

Less impressive than the film is this Blu-ray release which contains no special features and woeful visual quality. The picture appears to have undergone no restoration process, with film artefacts clearly visible. Such blemishes would have been unacceptable even if it were presented on DVD. Grainy and lacking clarity, it’s a shame that the lush and colourful visual palette is not given the treatment it deserves. The audio is fine, but unremarkable, and presented in a single DTS-HD 2.0 track.

The film was released the same year as a version made for British television starring Kate Beckinsale. Perfectly fine on its own merits, this version is more spritely and enjoyable. If only the transfer quality weren’t so mediocre.

30 Rock

Seasons 1-3

If you've spoken to me recently, you'd probably have noticed I have a wee bit of a crush on Tina Fey. Known to many, perhaps, for her dead on portrayal of Sarah Palin back when the election was in full swing and her stint as the first female head writer on SNL, she is also the head writer and lead actress on her show, 30 Rock.

Now entering it's fourth season, 30 Rock is a show about a show. Reflecting its principals lives possibly more than they care to admit, we follow head writer Liz Lemon (Fey) as she struggles to hold together the "TGS with Tracey Jordan" show. Various forces, such as her moody and needy actors, studio exec Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) and her own insecurities, act to make her life difficult.

The cast includes Tracey Morgan as the insane actor Tracey Jordan ("I'm black, very proud, like peacocks, baby!") and Jane Krakowski, from Ally McBeal, as his attention seeking and vain co-star, Jenna. Jack McBrayer, whom I had only seen for his small role as the sexually confused Christian newleywed in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, is the not dissimilar, but more cheerful and rosy-eyed page, Kenneth. Rounding out the regular cast are Scott Adsit as Pete Hornberger, the show's producer, and Judah Friedlander as the perpetually-capped Frank, one of the writers of Liz's eclectic staff.


The show is, essentially, a sitcom, though the single-camera setup, lack of laugh track and ongoing storylines give the characters more depth and reality than normal, even when the situations they find themselves in are often absurd. Liz is the heart of the show, a wonderful character that stands in for us all. Jack says accurately of her, to her: “"New York third-wave feminist, college-educated, single-and-pretending-to-be-happy-about-it, over scheduled, undersexed, you buy any magazine that says 'healthy body image' on the cover and every two years you take up knitting for...a week." Intelligent, funny but at heart a bit of a nerd and out of her depth, she faces many empathetic problems, even if they are as ridiculous as Tracey and Jenna attempting to one-up each other by dressing as a white woman and black man, respectively.

A revelation, of sorts, is the comedic talents of Alec Baldwin as the Vice President of East Coast Television and Microwave Oven Programming. His backhanded compliments to Liz about her masculine clothing and love-life advice are pure deadpan genius. It is particularly interesting that Jack, initially an antagonist to Liz, has become her closest confidant as the seasons have progressed, and a character that has shown much compassion underneath his manipulative streak.


The writing, lead by Fey, is smart, wry and clever. It's much more sophisticated than most other current TV comedies, and makes other current favourites of mine, such as The Big Bang Theory, seem hammy and formulaic. An extra layer is added simply by being a show-within-a-show, providing plenty of opportunities for stabs about the unpredictably of actors, the meddling of studio bosses, product placement and TV as commodity. Particularly hilarious and bizarre are those occasional moments when the characters, usually Liz or Jack, break the fourth wall and stare down the barrel of the camera, almost as if Fey and Baldwin are winking at you, letting you in on the joke.

As the show has progressed, it has only gotten stronger, giving more depth to their lovable characters and consistently providing laugh-out loud laughs. Tina Fey is obviously riding a whirlwind right now, with a cabinet full of Emmys and her creation a critical-smash hit. Her show deserves all the accolades heaped upon it, even if it curiously does not have the ratings figures to match. Maybe that will change upon the imminent arrival of the fourth season. I can't wait.

Season 4 premieres on October 15 on NBC.

Kung Fu Panda (2008)

Released June 28, 2008

Jack Black is Kung Fu Panda, a fat, clumsy noodle chef with martial arts dreams. While Keanu Reeves might be able to learn kung-fu after seconds of being plugged into a computer, for our Panda, “Po”, things will be more difficult.

By matters of fate and story necessity betrayed by its title, Po is chosen as the new “Dragon Warrior” by the mysterious turtle Oogway, master of the temple perched, as they always are, on the side of a mountain in the ranges of China. Shifu (Dustin Hoffman), who will be his master and trainer, and his five disciples, Tigress, Monkey, Mantis, Viper and Crane, are none too pleased. It’s a sacrilege, they say, that an unglamorous, unprepared and overweight Panda be chosen. Oogway is wise however, and knows that Tai Lung (voiced by Deadwood’s Ian McShane), a misguided student of Shifu, has escaped from prison and is on his way to battle the one destined as the Dragon Warrior. One does not need to extrapolate too far to see where the story is headed.

It doesn’t matter, however – Kung Fu Panda works because of its charm and humour which riffs on old kung-fu movies and the expected conventions but yet still remains, unlike the Shrek films, within its own universe. The visuals, lighting and landscapes are often truly beautiful, and while the characters lack the nuance of those in Ratatouille, the voice cast, which also includes Seth Rogen and Jackie Chan, are fine.

The story is merely a retread of a thousand other children’s films, but its delivered with such verve and exuberance that it’s the story’s inherent strength rather than familiarity that dominates. After all, what child – or adult – does not dream of being a kung fu master?

The Box (2009)

Released October 29, 2009

A strange man arrives at your doorstep with a box which has atop it a big, red button. If you press the button two things will happen:
(a) you will be rewarded with one million dollars, and
(b) somewhere, someone you don't know, will die.
If you don't press the button, you can return the box without obligation. What do you do?

This is the moral dilemma presented in Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly's third feature, The Box. The hard questions, however, come in the consequences following that decision, since it is hardly a spoiler to reveal that Cameron Diaz as Norma, and too-pretty-to-be-true James Marsden as husband, Arthur, do make the seductive choice.

It's not long before strange and horrific events start intruding on Norma and Arthur's lives, affecting not only them but their young son, Walter. Frank Langella plays the strange man, his face disfigured a'la Harvey Two-Face. Intimidating but seemingly honest, his origin and affiliation is unknown. Kelly, who wrote the screenplay, cleverly refrains from explicit explanations and instead allows his philosophical ramblings free reign. Causality takes a back seat to theme, in which it is suprisingly coherent, with an ending manages to tie enough of a bow to be satisfying without feeling contrived.

Occasionally frightening and often suspenseful, your enjoyment will depend on whether you accept the premise and the morbidly humourless tone. Like other well-intentioned and sometimes provocative science-fiction films based in the real world such as Alex Proyas' Knowing, The Box treads perilously close to hokum, sometimes crossing the line, before being pulled back by the strength of its ideas.

Based on a short story penned by Richard Matheson and subsequently turned into a Twilight Zone episode, Kelly’s version, set in 1976, is as old fashioned as the original series. Rod Serling would have approved.

An Education (2009)

Released October 22, 2009

Peter Sarsgaard has a peculiar way of being simultaneously seductive and sinister. He plays David in this 1960s coming-of-age tale from acclaimed scribe Nick Hornby (About a Boy, High Fidelity) and director Lone Scherfig.

David somehow makes a living through real estate, though he seems to spend more time hustling and crusing in his Bristol sports car. His charms seduce not only the young sixteen year old Jenny, played luminously by Carey Mulligan, but also her parents, Jack and Majorie. Alfred Molina's Jack is one of those stodgy, conservative and meddling fathers with a clear plan for his daughter's life: she is to advance her social status by striving academically and gaining entry to Oxford.

Living in the lower-middle class Twickenham, Jenny feels constrained by the conservative suburbia that has not yet hit the 60s revolution. She shuns her studies for, in her eyes, the far more attractive and carefree life with David and his swinging friends which include Dominic Cooper and the very blond Rosamund Pike. They frequent classical concerts, nightclubs, auctions and even have some time for a spot of low-class thieving: “I never did anything before I met you,” she tells David.

Even as the perceptive Jenny becomes aware of the less savoury aspects of her newfound life, and of the emptiness at the heart of her lover’s character, she feels compelled to follow it to its end. This is despite the stern words from behind the glasses of Emma Thompson’s headmistress, and the objections of Olivia Williams’ kindly teacher, Miss Stubbs. An attractive woman dressed unflatteringly by her own volition, Miss Stubbs feels an odd identification with her student, and perhaps a regret for paths not taken.

Beautifully shot with a real sense of the period, An Education is delightful and honest, even though the age difference between the burgeoning lovers is oddly never raised.

While Mulligan is the obvious star, also noteworthy is Ellie Kendrick as one of Jenny’s school friends. It’s a small role, but on the basis of her star turn in the BBC series The Diary of Anne Frank, she, like Mulligan, is destined for bigger things.

Stargate Universe

SyFy Channel on Fridays from October 2, 2009



Stargate Galactica
Air Parts 1, 2 and 3

I have just had the modest pleasure of watching the three-part pilot of the third Stargate TV series, Stargate Universe. It shows great promise and is far more interesting than the later seasons of either earlier series, which seemed too stuck within formula and their clean, PC sci-fi world.

Entitled "Air" and set in the present day, it follows the story of a group of humans stranded far from Earth on the spaceship "Destiny", built eons ago by the Ancients. It a familiar but reliable conciet already exploited in shows such as Battlestar Galactica and Star Trek: Voyager.

As one may expect, aboard the newly discovered ship are a diverse array of military officers and civilians, a perfect setup for much of the tensions which will no doubt arise. Characters which make themselves notable are Robert Carlyle as the practical and not-entirely likable Dr. Nicholas Rush and the requisite geek character, Eli Wallace (David Blue), who finds his way into the Stargate world by solving a mathematics puzzle embedded in a MMO game. While perhaps sitting well within the world of SG-1, his presence is mostly a contrived distraction in Universe, which draws more than plot inspiration from the recent gritty, and brilliant, Battlestar Galactica.

If nothing else, creators and Stargate veterans, Brad Wright and Robert C. Cooper must be applauded for trying to create a show distinct from either of its forerunners. Still, at this early stage, much of the attempts for darkness seem as tepid as Susan Ivanova's lesbian dalliance in Babylon 5. There's a 20 second sex scene, for example, that seems included merely to say "look BSG! Stargate can be racy too!", and while the plot revolves around usual Stargate territory (the main problem facing the crew at the outset are the malfunctioning life-support systems), there are attempts to give major characters moral dilemmas. One particular moment late in Part 2, everyone's survival on the line, sees Dr. Rush intending to choose a sacrifical lamb. Later it is implied that it is instead through an act of noble sacrifice than the crew are saved, though the dialogue itself is somewhat ambiguious. It is possible the writers are planning something more subversive that is evidenced here, and I certainly hope they are willing to have faith in their characters rather than bending them to the whim of the plot.

Despite these quibbles, and the other leads which have yet to establish an obvious identity, there's plenty to enjoy: Richard Dean Anderson, Michael Shanks and Amanda Tapping all make cameos, the mammoth ship clearly provides endless scope for storytelling and the use of flashbacks help ground the characters in real emotion. The heavy use of hand-held cameras also works suprisingly well in conjuction with the slightly darker tone.

Stargate Universe has little claim to originality solely by being part of a franchise, and especially in light of its borrowings from BSG and Voyager. Still, if there must be another Stargate TV series, this is probably the best one could have hoped for. Now it just depends on whether the writers continue to follow the more innovative (at least for Stargate) elements rather than falling back upon the less-interesting and formulaic tropes already established.

Okuribito (Departures, 2009)

Released October 15, 2009

Beating out other high profile releases such as Waltz with Bashir for the best foreign film Oscar is this touching Japanese drama about an out-of-work cellist who falls into a career as an “encoffineer”: those who dress and prepare the dead as the bereved say their final goodbyes. Daigo is played by Masahiro Motoki as a sort of well-meaning awkward child who slowly becomes more comfortable with his socially maligned job and, critically, his relationship with his estranged father, whom he has not seen since he was a child.

He is instructed in the fine art of washing and dressing the corpses by the hardened veteran Sasaki, his boss and mentor. The care and affection to which Sasaki and, eventually, Daigo, pay to their work is touching, poetic and accompanied by the aching strains of Joe Hisaishi’s cello-based score.

What’s most impressive is director Yokiro Takita’s bravery in taking on the subject of death and how it is perceived – or denied – by the living. His thesis seems to be that embracing the “circle of life” is the only way to find solace with our ultimate fate. The dead and roasted chicken Daigo and Sasaki devour on Christmas Eve, for instance, is representative of this never ending cycle.

While beautiful in its monotone reverence of those passed, the dramatic beats are telegraphed too early and the final act is too repetitive. Shameless emotive montages over soaring strings push and pull in all the right places and threaten to replace the heartfelt sincerity with something more manipulative. There’s also a very uncomfortable splash of oddball humour that is too weird to gel comfortably with the otherwise respectful and sincere tone.

Clearly perfect award bait, Departures is nonetheless at pains to avoid any real drama. Like the musician, later mortician, who seems more interested in the art of his profession than its heart, it is a beautiful and uplifting affirmation of life through death, but one constrained by its own peculiar brand of manipulation.

Astro Boy (2009)

Released October 15, 2009

I confess to never having seen the original series - either of them. Signs of my deprived childhood perhaps, though I am familiar with other luminaries such as Bananaman, SuperTed and Danger Mouse.

It needn't matter, since this CG-animated revision is similar to many other recent superhero-origin stories. All the usual elements are here: science experiments gone wrong, disenchantment with the father, a nasty villain, glorious action and comic relief in the form of three inept robots claiming to represent the "Robot Revolutionary Front".

In the world of Astro Boy, the floating Metro City, robots are marginalised in society as workers and slaves. A new addition to their ranks is the hero of the title, a robot created in the likeness of Dr. Tenema's (Nicholas Cage) tragically dead son. With rocket boots in place of feet and hair that magically always keeps its form, he flees to the wasteland below in search of his new identity. There he comes across our three bumbling revolutionaries and a kid-dominated Neverland. Catching his eye is the attractive free spirit Cora (Kristen Bell) and the kids' father figure Hamegg (Natahan Lane), who's obsessed with robots and is suspicious of their latest visitor.

Naturally there's a nefarious politician played by dependable bad-guy Donald Sutherland and the requisite mixture of explosions and character development. It's all very entertaining, surprisingly funny and layered with interesting but mostly unexplored science-fiction themes about the ethics and politics of artificial intelligence. There's even more than one mention of Asimov's three rules of robotics.

Where it fails is the script, which is obsessed with re-stating that which is clearly visible on screen. Unnecessary platitudes abound, such as when Bill Nighy's massive-nosed Dr. Elefun magically appears at the climax and proclaims Astroboy a noble hero. It’s a shame because the story is strong, the animation fine and the heroic John Ottman score better than anything written for any recent comparable live-action superhero flick. It inhibits, but doesn't ruin this amiable animated alternative to the usual superhero schtick whose main problem stems from the filmmakers' lack of faith in their audience.