The Dead Zone; Australia

The Dead Zone (David Cronenberg, 1983) - B+

Unlike Naked Lunch, below, there is nothing "Cronenbergian" at all about the subject matter here, but you can still feel the man's influence in the film's patience and intelligence (as well as the sudden appearance of matter-of-fact gruesomeness). Cronenberg's smart enough, for example, to let the movie develop without much of a plot, with a character arc instead of a story arc at its center; the resulting episodic feel makes it feel bigger, eerier (the application of Johnny's gifts ranges from the small and personal to the apocalyptic), and makes Johnny's journey from bitterness to resignation to embrace feel like precisely that: a journey. This is also one of the rare Stephen King movies to fully adopt the author's famous Maine setting, the haunting snowy backdrops perfectly complementing the slow-burn mood set by Cronenberg (though this isn't a "cold" movie -- there's a lot of green in the palette). And it's one of the few times Christopher Walken has gotten to be a straightforward protagonist. You may or may not be surprised to discover that he's a rather compelling leading man.

Australia (Baz Luhrmann, 2008) - C-

But for a moderately rousing 30-minute stretch halfway through, this would be enough to drive a man to drink, or possibly suicide. Three movies: a sweeping love story, a pseudohistorical drama about the Australian aboriginal "stolen generations" (see Rabbit-Proof Fence), and a standard-issue western with plucky cattle ranchers taking on a devious monopolist (the only part that remotely works). Really dire for the first 45 minutes or so, with Luhrmann's frantic, smirking, glaringly artificial style thoughtlessly plunked down in the middle of an Australian desert (the filmmaker, used to his elaborate soundstages, has no clue what to do with the vast barren expanses of his chosen setting); becomes more tolerable when it settles into a hard-to-resist underdog movie rhythm; goes to hell in the ugly, war-torn third act. Patronizing, saccharine, impossibly boring.

Naked Lunch; Bolt

Naked Lunch (David Cronenberg, 1991) - B-

This sort of pure metaphor isn't really my thing, but I do admire the fact that Cronenberg at least made an attempt to give it a somewhat coherent literal dimension. Essential for fans of the filmmaker since audio-visually it's probably the most Cronenbergian Cronenberg film ever, with characters constantly caressing fleshy typewriters and sucking addictive gooey liquids out of tubes protruding from the heads of buglike alien creatures. So there's that. Also: Peter Weller circa 1991 = James Woods + Daniel Craig.


Bolt (Byron Howard & Chris Williams, 2008) - C

You know, movies have been sending talking dogs and cats on cross-country adventures since time immemorial. Was it really necessary to contrive such a labored set-up to do so here? There's this TV show about a superhero dog, you see, but the dog actor thinks it's all real, and the producers of the show go to ridiculous lengths to maintain this impression, but then the producers decide that it's too predictable for the dog to save the day every time, so they end an episode with the dog's owner and sidekick captured by the show's villain, only the dog thinks it's all real, you see, and then the dog gets trapped in a box and shipped across the country, and now has to find his way back to his owner, who he thinks is in grave danger, but he thinks he has superpowers, you see... Complicated but largely charmless, and not very funny; the delusional hero thing is hard to pull off, and the movie doesn't make it work. I must say though that this is the best, most immersive use of 3-D that I've ever seen.

Quantum of Solace; Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa

Quantum of Solace (Marc Forster, 2008) - C

See here. Short version: If Bond films are going to be generic actioners, rather than trips to the familiar, idiosyncratic James Bond universe, they had better be good generic actioners. This one mostly sucks.


Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (Eric Darnell & Tom McGrath, 2008) C

A smartalecky chatterbox of a movie that's essentially a rapid-fire kidflick cliche remix. Some appealing weirdness -- the first appearance of studly hippo Moto-Moto is priceless -- but not enough of its predecessor's visual wit and originality; making the central plot a parody of The Lion King may have seemed like a funny idea, but the result is that at every turn the film recalls one of the greatest animated features of all time. It looks fucking amazing on IMAX though.

Synecdoche, New York

Synecdoche, New York (Charlie Kaufman, 2008) - C

Ho hum, another recursive autocritique from Charlie Kaufman, who is becoming like the rappers who rap almost entirely about their rapping. Kaufman is the successful but dissatisfied artist, endlessly searching for truth but being tripped up by artistic pretense and the limitations of his medium; ideas keep flowing but not adding up to anything; the rest of his life melds with his art. Starts out as a depressing absurdist comedy and turns into a disturbing, disorienting fever dream -- much like the way Kaufman sees his own life, I'm sure, or else just the Plight of the Artist. It would take a second viewing for me to really unpack this, but that seems unlikely; just because the movie comments on its self-indulgence doesn't make it any less self-indulgent. Kaufman seems to have withdrawn, his cleverness now focused toward pet themes rather than storytelling, and the opaqueness becomes increasingly irritating as we realize that he's not going to give us anything to latch onto here. Some amiably goofy gags (the house that's constantly on fire; Caden's present to his daughter), but probably not worth your time; depends on how much you're willing to humor Kaufman.

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (Mark Herman, 2008) - B

Even before the awful ending, I already thought this was one of the most horrifying movies about the Holocaust I've ever seen -- which is perverse, since it is largely about a German boy who seems never to be in any real danger. But his instinctive compassion and lack of comprehension is deeply moving, and watching the evil around him chip away at it is like being repeatedly punched in the gut. The movie is entirely unambitious and sometimes overwrought, but there's force in its simplicity: it made me physically ill. To some degree its formal banality might actually work to its advantage, since the contrast between its bland production values and its unflinching depiction of atrocity is jarring. On the other hand, the cruel, contrived irony of the last ten minutes is too much -- I was appropriately shocked that the movie Went There, but I didn't buy that it would happen like that, and it felt like the film was going out of its way to teach some of its characters a lesson. Still pretty powerful, and you haven't seen depressing until you've seen The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.

Ladder 49

Ladder 49 (Jay Russell, 2004) - C-

Wow -- I guess this can only be seen as an immediate post-9/11 artifact, when the (understandable and right) national reverence of firefighters would prompt this sort of dully worshipful, rudimentary love letter to the profession. Might have been (more) interesting had it tried to answer why people are driven to this extraordinarily dangerous job despite its toll on life and family, but it seems content with repeating that "saving people is worth it," which seems a tad reductive as insight into human motivation (and not even obviously true when "it" is a widow and several fatherless children). Formally, the film insists on the most boring version of Hollywood gloss, apt to undercut perfectly decent scenes by blaring a country song on the soundtrack, and prone to arty non sequiturs like segueing from a baptism to a water dripping on a trapped firefighter's forehead. There's a lot of firefighting action, but it's too expensive: the fancy crane shots and the lovingly observed explosions kill all immediacy, making the experience akin to watching theme park special effects. Some minor pleasures in the performances -- Phoenix is awfully good at these genial dullard roles, and it's fun to see Travolta as just a regular guy for once -- but I don't think it's possible to watch this in 2008 and not ask "why".