Vera Farmiga

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

Dir: Mark Herman (2008)

I will go to see Vera Farmiga in just about anything.* She is destined for Cate Blanchett-like greatness. I even plan to rent her first breakout role in the indie "Down to the Bone." I say this to explain what would make me go to this troubling concept film: an adaptation of a children's novel that deals with the Holocaust from the point of view of a privileged German child. Touchy material, to say the least. I myself am very wary of any depictions of World War II atrocities in the context of an 'entertainment' (see, or better yet, don't see, Miracle at St. Anna). And I cannot argue with people who find this movie morally reprehensible -- except for those critics who feel so high and mighty they break the cardinal rule of movie-reviewing by revealing the ending!! (Don't worry, I gave the NY Times' Manohla Dargis a piece of my mind!) But I am not one of those people -- I found it powerful and moving.

I am using the proper British title, per IMDB, because this is a veddy British production down to its core: all the Germans speak with British accents which, once you resign yourself to this anachronism, isn't as distracting as I would have thought (at least all the accents are consistently British). And the story moves down a conventional path: family of Nazi officer leaves their secluded life in Berlin to move next door to a concentration camp, and predictably lose their illusions about the world they live in. (It takes them a surprisingly long time, considering they moved next to a CONCENTRATION CAMP!!) True, this is a story told from the point-of-view of an eight-year-old, but at times you want to tell the kid to "wise-up already!!"

He does eventually wise up, but the payoff is so emotionally powerful and gut-wrenching ... while at the same time doing justice to the unspeakable horror of the millions of victims this movie had previously ignored ... that I do not feel bad recommending it for its small contribution to our collective memory.

This is the film that made Vera famous!

* I make an exception for "Joshua," because I am so sick of movies about creepy & evil little boys... The Omen, The Omen: II, Damian: Omen III....enough already!

Brad Pitt's two most recent movies reviewed

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Dir: Andrew Dominik (2007)

I am kicking myself for not seeing this film the year it was released (I caught it last night on Cinemax). It would definitely have made my Top Ten. It is an evocative, moody period piece that takes its place alongside other notable 'modern' Westerns that revitalized the genre: from Unforgiven to Deadwood. My one sentence synopsis would be "Deadwood, starring Brad Pitt!"

I don't mean that as a slight, either. Brad Pitt is amazing as the iconic Jesse James--another tormented anti-hero who has reached a level of notoriety where he mistrusts everyone. (If it reminds you of Keith Carradine's excellent turn as Wild Bill Hickock in Deadwood, it should: the movie captures the same zeitgeist perfectly). Also like that HBO series, the film's supporting cast is without flaw -- a who's who of indie character actors: starting with memorable Deadwood alum Garret Dillahunt; Sam Rockwell (Choke); Paul Schneider (Lars & the Real Girl); a sadly-wasted Mary Louise Parker as Mrs. Jesse James; and Sam Shepard in a cameo as older brother Frank.

It is a shame Casey Affleck turned in his performance of a lifetime the same year as Javier Bardem's Anton Chigura in No Country: he inhabits the character even more than he did in his other breakthrough performance in last year's Gone Baby Gone. And kudos to the director, an obscure New Zealander who brought Eric Bana to these shores in Chopper. I wish I had been on board this movie from the start.

Burn After Reading

Dirs: Joel & Ethan Coen (2008)

For every Big Lebowski there has to be a Barton Fink.

That is the immutable rule of the Coen Brothers comic universe: you stomach the bad (Fink) in anticipation of the classic (Lebowski). For one Raising Arizona, Hudsucker Proxy, Fargo, and O Brother, Where Art Thou?, you have to sit through the dreck of The Ladykillers and Burn Without Reading. In spite of its A-list cast (George Clooney and Frances McDormand are comic masters--Tilda Swinton cannot do much with a one-note role), Burn is just that: another mean-spirited look at a collection of losers who are not so much funny as pathetic. That doesn't stop the Coens from holding them up to ridicule and then pulling the rug out from under the audience for sympathizing with them.

For a supposed comedy, I didn't laugh out loud once until the very end of the movie, where character-actor par excellence J.K. Simmons delivers some hilarious lines at CIA headquarters. That and the authentic DC locales (where I used to jog in George Clooney's footsteps! ... or his in mine, more accurately) are the only redeemable features.

But this post is about Brad Pitt, so I have to comment on his performance. I took alot of heat in some quarters for saying this about a long-forgotten Matt Dillon role, but I think it applies even more to Mr. Pitt: He is too smart an actor to play dumb. He is!! He doesn't give a bad performance so much as an unconvincing one (like he's trying too hard). I can only hope he proves my point with an award-worthy performance in the much-anticipated Benjamin Button.

Honestly, doesn't he strike a more iconic, larger than life, movie star pose in the picture at the left than the one on the right? (I'm just saying .... )

Rachel Getting Married

Dir: Jonathan Demme (2008)

It is hard to describe the premise of this movie without making you think of a dozen other movies: main character returns home for a big family get together, and all hell breaks loose as past resentments and buried dysfunctions come to the surface. It's usually a holiday (Thanksgiving--Home for the Holidays; Christmas--The Family Stone, just to name two), but a wedding works just as well: remember "Margot at the Wedding"? Of course you don't--NO ONE saw it!! (despite my glowing review).

RGM is a better movie than Margot, because it has a heart. Nicole Kidman gave a brave, uncompromising performance as a selfish, uncaring sister in the latter, but Anne Hathaway is even better...as a selfish, uncaring, but damaged sister Kym to Rachel. It is her Best Performance since "Becoming Jane." Seriously! She is totally believable as an addict recently released from rehab. In a revealing scene at the rehearsal dinner, everyone toasts the bride and groom--except Kim, whose toast is all about herself. Who hasn't had that happen at a family gathering? (foreignfilmguy is naming no names.)

The movie is filled with a multi-cultural stew of relatives, friends, entertainers and wedding traditions. That is refreshing -- up to a point. The movie never explains why this inter-racial marriage of a white, suburban Connecticut bride to an African-American groom had a Hindi wedding ceremony. And don't get me started on the reception! They hired enough entertainers for 5 receptions! Jamaican singers, jazz, samba dancers, even Robyn Hitchcock shows up, for Pete's sake! (I thought that dude was dead.) The family is all upset when the estranged mother (played by a radiant Debra Winger) decides to skip out. I'm thinking "I'm with you, Deb!"

A note on casting: Bill Irwin--Great as the Dad who is the emotional, nurturing core of the family (another refreshing surprise); Rosemarie Dewitt--Great as Rachel (and the spitting image of a young Debra Winger!); in fact, the only bland character at this shindig proves to be the Groom. Sydney is a real Dud.

But the positives far outweigh my negatives. Jonathan Demme has fashioned one of the Ten Best Movies of the Year. Go see it.

Anne Hathaway did NOT wear this to Rachel's wedding (thank goodness!)