Daily Archives: November 25, 2007
The Lives of Others (2006)
A mesmerizing and piercing human drama that burns into your memory long after it’s over. This Oscar-winner for Best Foreign Film actually deserved to beat out Pan’s Labyrinth. This vastly intriguing, dense, and extremely moving film explores life inside East Germany before the Wall fell, a life not often seen in the movies. The crux of the movie follows a career officer (Ulrich Mühe) in the secret police who has been assigned to eavesdrop on a playwright and his actress girlfriend. It is this assignment that shakes the man’s blind faith in his government, and The Lives of Others becomes nerve-wracking when our silent listener decides to become active in trying to protect his subjects from his boss. This is masterful, artistically illuminating filmmaking with a tight, deeply felt story and superb acting and direction. Germany has been crafting some of the world’s finest cinema as of late, including Oscar-winner Nowhere in Africa and Oscar-nominees Downfall and Sophie Scholl. See this film before Hollywood remakes it and ruins it. Tragically, Mühe died of stomach cancer in July 2007 just as American audiences began to see The Lives of Others and witness the depths of his talent. He will be missed by the world of cinema but his work in The Lives of Others is a lasting testament.
Nate’s Grade: A
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Freedom Writers (2007)
Add this to the feel-good genre of true-life teacher-makes-a-difference movies. It is suitably well acted and uplifting and doesn’t necessarily pander even if it does hit all the expected stops of the genre. These kids have grown up in an area heavy with gang affiliations, and the film earns extra credit for dealing with the heavy reality of gangs better than most any other teacher-in-urban-setting flick. Hillary Swank relies on her mega-watt smile to communicate her character’s perseverance and idealism and does a fine job along with a strong supporting cast including Imelda Staunton as the doubtful, pessimistic, dismissive principal. Freedom Writers clings to the us-vs.-them model and builds a believable underdog tale that actually could inspire a few future educators out there. This film is cozy and familiar but it also made will skill and care.
Nate’s Grade: B
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Shooter (2007)
A passable albeit mediocre action thriller, this humorless tale about an elite sniper framed for a presidential assassination is more interested in the nitty gritty of sharp-shooters than building a credible plot. Mark Wahlberg grumbles through uninspired action sequences but who really draws attention is a villainous Danny Glover. The man has a lisp and carries it until the end of the film, and it is never explained. It’s so weird and distracting and it feels superfluous, like Glover was hard-pressed to make his rote villain interesting, so he thought, “Why not a lisp?” Shooter is more proof to my ongoing assertion that Antoine Fuqua (King Arthur, Tears of the Sun) is a director with little interest in storytelling; he’s studied at the Tony Scott school of Visual Indulgence. The characters are either stock roles or superhuman, and how in the world does a man get pinned for almost taking out the President and then buy mass quantities of weapons with the clever disguise of sunglasses?
Nate’s Grade: C
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