"My Country, My Country" is a Family Story

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 55 (of 2007) by Leroy Douresseaux


My Country, My Country (2006)
Running time:  90 minutes (1 hour, 30 minutes)
CINEMATOGRAPHER/DIRECTOR: Laura Poitras
PRODUCERS: Joceylin Glatzer and Laura Poitras
EDITORS: Erez Laufer and Laura Poitras
Academy Award nominee

DOCUMENTARY – Family, Politics, War

Starring: Dr. Riyadh & family, Peter Towndrow, and Edward Wong

In her Oscar-nominated documentary, My Country, My Country, filmmaker Laura Poitras provides an inside look at war-torn Iraq from the perspective of a Baghdad doctor and his family. The film follows the doctor from mid-summer 2004 to shortly after the January 30, 2005 elections.

Dr. Riyadh is a physician who serves the people of his community in the Sunni neighborhood of Adhamiya in the city of Baghdad. Working from the Adhamiya Free Medical Clinic, Riyadh is a healthcare provider, but he’s also an advocate for the people in many other areas of their lives. For instance, he helps some of his patients get much needed cash.

Dr. Riyadh, a Sunni, is a critic of the U.S. occupation of Iraq, but he supports the idea of democracy as a way to save Iraq. He runs for office during the tumultuous January 2005 elections as a candidate for the Baghdad Provincial Council representing the Iraqi Islamic Party. Poitras follows Riyadh as he campaigns for office, visits the notorious Abu Ghraib prison where he counsels prisoners (including a 9-year old boy), and consults with American military officials. Poitras also observes varied groups, interests, and parties involved with the buildup to the election including the U.S. military, an Australian private security contractor (OAM), and a New York Times reporter.

Laura Poitras’ camera is very revealing as she captures the weary Riyadh in the six months leading up to the election of the Transitional National Assembly. The Sunni doctor’s weariness is evident as he examines patients and engages his family in caustic debates and acerbic conversations – often accompanied by gunfire outside the family home or on TV. Although the election occurred just a little over two years ago, My Country, My Country isn’t dated because the Iraq War is ongoing and so are the repercussions of the January 2005 elections.

Although Poitras gives her viewers that you-are-there immediacy, the film seems too interior and insular. There are glimpses of the larger outside world, but much of the film is inside something – a doctor’s office, a home, an office, meeting hall, etc. My Country, My Country, which was broadcast as an episode of the television documentary series, P.O.V., is more about Riyadh’s dismay and malaise, and less about Iraq. Although her film is engaging, Poitras seems to have not noticed that both her camera and her narrative yearned to break free from Riyadh and see more of post-invasion Iraq. Still, My Country, My Country will remain an essential look at the personal cost of the war from the standpoint of an ordinary Iraqi man.

7 of 10
B+

NOTES:
2007 Academy Awards: 1 nomination for “Best Documentary, Features” (Laura Poitras and Jocelyn Glatzer)

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Review: Steven Soderbergh Tries Noir in "The Limey"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 14 (of 2003) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Limey (1999)
Running time: 89 minutes (1 hour, 29 minutes)
MPAA – R for violence and language
DIRECTOR: Steven Soderbergh
WRITER: Lem Dobbs
PRODUCERS: John Hardy and Scott Kramer
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Ed Lachman
EDITOR: Sarah Flack
COMPOSER: Cliff Martinez

DRAMA/CRIME/MYSTERY

Starring: Terence Stamp, Leslie Ann Warren, Luis Guzmá, Peter Fonda, Barry Newman, and Nicky Katt

Director Steven Soderbergh’s (sex, lies, and videotape) style probably took a radical turn when he saw Quentin Tarantino’s film Jackie Brown. The juxtaposition to time and scenes that made Jackie Brown so engaging is very evident is Soderbergh’s excellent 1998 film, Out of Sight (which shared the same production company as Brown), but this isn’t a knock on him, like accusing him of merely coping. Artists absorb from their experiences. Soderbergh just happened to find another way to tell a film story that would not only force the audience to pay attention and follow the story, but that would also add a dimension to the time, setting, and characters.

He breaks into this new style with a stride in the neo-noir flick, The Limey. He uses flashbacks and flash forwards that might be flashbacks. He has dialogue that overlaps into the present or that runs over a scene that happened in the past. It is not at all confusing, but it is rather bracing. This is beautiful and delicious eye candy. You could find yourself wanting more of this time slippage, indeed, eagerly awaiting each new time shift in the narrative. I really liked how dialogue that is read in one scene, actually belongs in another, but relates to both. Soderbergh uses this not only to establish the story’s timeline, but to establish character and motivation. This seems to give a better understanding of what each character means to the story, whether his part be large or small. It brings so much depth to the film and makes it all the more interesting.

Soderbergh has previously worked with The Limey screenwriter, Lem Dobbs, in Kafka from 1991. They have something special together although Dobbs had complained at the time that Soderbergh had taken liberties with the Kafka script that Dobbs didn’t like. Together they create something that isn’t just different; it’s also a kind of cinematic storytelling that takes advantage of all of film’s visual possibilities.

The story, about an English father who comes to the United States to confront the man he considers responsible for his daughter’s death, is very good. Things aren’t what they seem because what starts out as a hardboiled tale becomes a study of two men’s past and how that shapes their relationship with the same woman. Terence Stamp (The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert), as the matter of fact rogue, is endearing in an odd sort of way, and the supporting cast, including Lesley Ann Warren, Luiz Guzman, and Peter Fonda, serve the story and the lead quite well.

This is a little film that passed people by, but fans of Soderbergh or Stamp’s work shouldn’t miss it. The Limey is a quality film on a landscape that is covered with too many movies that leave you with an empty feeling.

7 of 10
B+

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Review: "The Road to Guantanamo" a Sign Post on the Road to Damnation

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TRASH IN MY EYE No. 231 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Road to Guantanamo (2006)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: UK; Languages: English and Urdu
Running time: 95 minutes (1 hour, 35 minutes)
MPAA – R for language and disturbing violent content
DIRECTORS: Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross
PRODUCERS: Andrew Eaton, Melissa Parmenter, and Michael Winterbottom
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Marcel Zyskind
EDITORS: Mat Whitecross and Michael Winterbottom

DRAMA/DOCUMENTARY

Starring: Riz Ahmed, Farhad Harun, Waqar Siddiqui, Afran Usman, and as themselves: Asif Iqbal, Ruhel Ahmed, and Shafiq Rasul

Part documentary and part drama, The Road to Guantanamo presents the true story of three British Muslim men, known as “the Tipton Three,” who were arrested in Afghanistan and unjustly held for more than two years in two U.S. detention camps at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

September 2001: an immigrant from Pakistan living in Tipton, Birmingham, England, Asif (Afran Usman) is informed by his father than he is of the age in which he must marry, so Asif heads to Pakistan to meet his betrothed. Asif’s friends: Ruhel (Farhad Harun), Shafiq (Riz Ahmed), and Monir (Waqar Siddiqui) agree to accompany him to Pakistan. While there, the quartet decides to cross the border into Afghanistan just as United States begins its bombing campaign to topple the Taliban, Afghanistan’s ruling government, because it gave aid and comfort to Al-Qaeda and its leader Osama bin Laden, which the U.S. held responsible for the attacks against the U.S. on September 11, 2001.

During the chaos, Monir disappears and Asif, Ruhel, and Shafiq are captured by the Northern Alliance. They are flown by American military to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where they are imprisoned in Camp X-Ray and, later, Camp Delta. This is the first hand account of their experiences in Afghanistan and of their experiences during the two years the U.S. military held them prisoners at Guantanamo until they were released.

Director Michael Winterbottom and co-director Mat Whitecross blend dramatic reenactments, interviews with the surviving men, and archive news footage into a gripping docudrama that is a blunt expose of the out-of-control security measures that came about after 9/11. One’s feelings about this movie will depend in large part upon which side of the political spectrum one resides. If you think that the administration of President George W. Bush was correct in its attempt to skirt the Geneva Convention in regards to “enemy combatants” (which is what the administration dubbed Al-Qaeda fighters), then, you may not like The Road to Guantanamo. If you think that this administration has long been out of control, acted like war criminals, and/or broken both U.S. and international law, then, you may like this quite a bit.

Beyond politics, this film is a harrowing tale of what happens when people are falsely imprisoned. The Road to Guantanamo depicts how cruel it is to be lost in a bureaucracy that just won’t stop and listen, especially when a little extra concern on the part of American officials would have relieved this trio of much suffering.

Winterbottom and Whitecross’ choice to reenact the young men’s experiences and blend them with interviews of the actual young men themselves gives the tale, if not outright validity, then, certainly high drama. The directors engage us with their approach, and the actors in the reenactments give a rawness to their performances that in turn give their scenes a sense of verisimilitude. Although it seems a bit light and shallow at times, The Road to Guantanamo is a great story, and rather than read what I have to say about this movie, it’s best to let the real storytellers transport you to their harrowing world of imprisonment.

8 of 10
A

Friday, November 10, 2006

Warner Bros. Begins "The Gangster Squad" with Sean Penn and Josh Brolin

“The Gangster Squad” Hits the Streets of Los Angeles

Shooting begins on the crime drama starring Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone

BURBANK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Principal photography began today on Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Village Roadshow Pictures’ “The Gangster Squad,” starring Oscar® nominees Josh Brolin (“Milk,” “True Grit”) and Ryan Gosling (“Half Nelson,” “Blue Valentine”), Emma Stone (“The Help”) and Academy Award® winner Sean Penn (“Milk,” “Mystic River”), under the direction of Ruben Fleischer (“Zombieland”).

Los Angeles, 1949. Ruthless, Brooklyn-born mob king Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) runs the show in this town, reaping the ill-gotten gains from the drugs, the guns, the prostitutes and—if he has his way—every wire bet placed west of Chicago. And he does it all with the protection of not only his own paid goons, but also the police and the politicians who are under his control. It’s enough to intimidate even the bravest, street-hardened cop…except, perhaps, for the small, secret crew of LAPD outsiders led by Sgt. John O’Mara (Josh Brolin) and Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling), who come together to try to tear Cohen’s world apart.

Shooting entirely in and around Los Angeles, including in many of the actual locations featured in the story, “The Gangster Squad” is a colorful retelling of events surrounding the LAPD’s efforts to take back their nascent city from one of the most dangerous mafia bosses of all time. The screenplay is by Will Beall (TV’s “Castle”), based on Paul Lieberman’s series of articles entitled “Tales From the Gangster Squad.” The film is being produced by Dan Lin (“Sherlock Holmes”), Kevin McCormick (upcoming “The Lucky One”) and Michael Tadross (“Arthur”).

“The Gangster Squad” stars Penn as real-life mobster Mickey Cohen; Brolin and Gosling as the LAPD’s Sgt. John O’Mara and Jerry Wooters; and Stone as Grace Faraday, Cohen’s moll and the object of Wooters’ attention.

The movie also stars Robert Patrick (“Flags of Our Fathers”) as Officer Max Kennard, a deadly cop who patrols the Olvera Street beat; Michael Peña (“Battle Los Angeles”) as Kennard’s over-eager sidekick, Navidad Ramirez; Giovanni Ribisi (“Avatar”) as the force’s Conway Keeler, an electronics expert who takes as much pleasure in fixing his son’s bike as he does tinkering with experimental, military-grade equipment; and Anthony Mackie (“The Adjustment Bureau”) as Coleman Harris, a switchblade-wielding cop who proudly patrols one of the most crime-ridden areas of the city.

Joining Fleischer behind the scenes are the director’s regular collaborators, production designer Maher Ahmad and editor Alan Baumgarten (“30 Minutes or Less,” “Zombieland”), as well as Academy Award®-winning director of photography Dion Beebe (“Memoirs of a Geisha”) and Oscar®-nominated costume designer Mary Zophres (“True Grit”).

“The Gangster Squad” will be distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company, and in select territories by Village Roadshow Pictures.

Review: "Anger Management" Overdoes It (Happy B'day, Adam Sandler)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 50 (of 2003) by Leroy Douresseaux

Anger Management (2003)
Running time: 106 minutes (1 hour, 46 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for crude sexual content and language
DIRECTOR: Peter Segal
WRITER: David Dorfman
PRODUCERS: Barry Bernardi and Jack Giarraputo
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Donald M. McAlpine (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Jeff Gourson

COMEDY with elements of drama

Starring: Jack Nicholson, Adam Sandler, Marisa Tomei, Luis Guzman, John Turturro with Woody Harrelson, Lynne Thigpen, John C. Reilly, and Heather Graham

First of, let me say that Anger Management is extremely funny and all the characters are very well played, from the stars to the smaller roles. I’m still surprised that this movie was able to keep its hilarious energy so long. Actually, it doesn’t naturally run out of steam. All at once, the filmmakers decide to screw up the ending.

Dave Buznick (Adam Sandler) is a under appreciated, low level secretary who is wrongly sentenced to an anger management program, after a ridiculous incident on an airplane. He has the luck of one-eyed, one-legged dog, so he only gets into more trouble after he enters the program. His counselor, Dr. Buddy Rydell (Jack Nicholson), decides to move into Dave’s apartment so that he gave give his patient 24-hour intensive therapy. The problem is Rydell, in Dave’s eyes, is more crazy and angrier than he could ever be. However, he’s forced to live with Rydell’s unorthodox and bizarre behavior, causing Dave to slowly go insane, which is the very last thing he needs because another alleged outburst of extreme rage and the judge (Lynne Thigpen) would sentence Dave to a year in state prison.

Sandler and Nicholson make an excellent comedy team, and they have such amazing, yet surprising chemistry. Jack does what he does best; he’s the wicked, little devil and conniving imp at the seat of the controls – the conductor, the master manipulator, Rasputin.

Sandler tempers the sullen and explosive character traits that he gives most of his others characters to play Dave Buznick, who is a put upon guy simmering quietly beneath his clothes and ready to have one good explosion. He makes Dave very sympathetic. The audience can feel the stings of the wrongs done to Dave and can root for him to win. I know that I certainly wanted him to just really get angry and let his tormentors have it. This is an understated performance that’s just obvious enough to work. However, Sandler does experience the occasional lapse; he plays such a second banana to Nicholson’s antics that he falls into moments when he isn’t even acting. It’s like he’s just serving up volleys for Nicholson to jump on, and he’s just an emcee. Still, Sandler and Nicholson worked together like a veteran comedy team.

There’s not much to the story, and a plot is nonexistent. Really, the writing and directing only exist to serve as staging for the two main players to exercise their shtick. It’s much the same with the supporting cast, but they make the most of their onscreen time, especially Luiz Guzman and John Turturro. Sadly, Marisa Tomei is less than a cipher, and her talent is wasted; pretty much any actress of modest attractiveness could have played her part.

Now to the end – it’s mostly a New York Yankees, New York City, NYC folk heroes love fest, and it kills this movie. In fact, the resolution of the story and the ridiculous explanation for Dr. Rydell’s behavior almost kills the story and certainly retards Nicholson’s very entertaining character and performance. There are certainly several other endings that would have made perfect sense in the context of Rydell’s antics and Buznick’s predicament. Instead, the filmmakers tie everything up in a most awful and sappy finale that truly deserves to be called a “Hollywood Ending.” Worst of all is a cameo by Rudolph “Rudy” W. Giuliani, former mayor of NYC. He is someone I wish would have been in the Twin Towers the day they fell and not made it out alive.

Girl, did I say that? Anyway, Anger Management is still very funny, at least up to the end, and worth seeing.

6 of 10
B

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Baz Luhrmann's "The Great Gatsby" Begins with Leonardo DiCaprio in Lead

“The Great Gatsby” Begins Production

Shooting underway on new adaptation starring Leonardo DiCaprio in the title role, under the direction of Baz Luhrmann

BURBANK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Principal photography began this week on Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Village Roadshow Pictures’ “The Great Gatsby,” the new big screen adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel from the uniquely imaginative mind of writer/producer/director Baz Luhrmann. The filmmaker will create his own distinctive visual interpretation of the classic story, bringing the period to life in a way that has never been seen before. Leonardo DiCaprio stars in the title role.

“The Great Gatsby” follows Fitzgerald-like, would-be writer Nick Carraway as he leaves the Midwest and comes to New York City in the spring of 1922, an era of loosening morals, glittering jazz and bootleg kings. Chasing his own American Dream, Nick lands next door to a mysterious, party-giving millionaire, Jay Gatsby, and across the bay from his cousin, Daisy, and her philandering, blue-blooded husband, Tom Buchanan. It is thus that Nick is drawn into the captivating world of the super rich, their illusions, loves and deceits. As Nick bears witness, within and without the world he inhabits, he pens a tale of impossible love, incorruptible dreams and high-octane tragedy, and holds a mirror to our own modern times and struggles.

Academy Award® nominee DiCaprio (“Blood Diamond,” “Aviator”) plays Jay Gatsby, with Tobey Maguire starring as Nick Carraway; Joel Edgerton and Oscar® nominee Carey Mulligan (“An Education”) as Tom and Daisy Buchanan; Isla Fisher and Jason Clarke as Myrtle and George Wilson; and newcomer Elizabeth Debicki as Jordan Baker. Indian film legend Amitabh Bachchan will play the role of Meyer Wolfsheim.

Oscar® nominee Luhrmann (“Moulin Rouge!”) directs the film in 3D from a screenplay co-written with frequent collaborator Craig Pearce, based on Fitzgerald’s book. Luhrmann produces, along with Catherine Martin, Catherine Knapman, Lucy Fisher and Academy Award® winner Douglas Wick (“Gladiator”). The executive producers are Barrie M. Osborne and Bruce Berman.

Two-time Academy Award®-winning production and costume designer Catherine Martin (“Moulin Rouge!”) also designs with the director. The editors are Jason Ballantine, Matt Villa and Jonathan Redmond, and the director of photography is Simon Duggan.

Luhrmann said, “Fitzgerald loved the movies and was a passionate believer in the power of cinema. “The Great Gatsby” has been adapted for the screen no less than four times. Fitzgerald’s story defies time and geography. The vision and the goal of our remarkable cast and creatives is to do justice to the deftness of Fitzgerald’s telling, and illuminate its big ideas and humanity. This is our challenge and our adventure.”

“The Great Gatsby” is being shot in Luhrmann’s native Australia. The filmmaker stated, “The opportunity to make the film in Australia with the Bazmark creative team is very important to us; the assistance from Screen Australia and the NSW Government has made that possible.”

The film will be distributed in 3D and 2D by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company, and in select territories by Village Roadshow Pictures.

Review: "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country" Gets Better with Age (Happy B'day, Star Trek)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 233 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)
Running time: 109 minutes (1 hour, 49 minutes)
MPAA – PG
DIRECTOR: Nicholas Meyer
WRITERS: Nicholas Meyer and Denny Martin Flinn; from a story by Leonard Nimoy and Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal (based upon the TV series “Star Trek” created by Gene Roddenberry)
PRODUCERS: Steven-Charles Jaffe and Ralph Winter
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Hiro Narita
EDITORS: Ronald Roose with William Hoy
Academy Award nominee

SCI-FI/ACTION/ADVENTURE/MYSTERY

Starring: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols, George Takei, Kim Cattrall, Mark Lenard, Grace Lee Whitney, Brock Peters, Leon Russom, Kurtwood Smith, Christopher Plummer, Rosanna DeSoto, David Warner, Michael Dorn, Iman, and Christian Slater

The cast of the original “Star Trek” (1966-69) returned for its sixth and final feature film, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (also known as TUC).

After the explosion of its moon, Praxis, the Klingon Homeworld has only a 50-year supply of oxygen left. The subsequent economic and environmental instabilities mean that the Klingons won’t be able to continue their long-running hostilities with the Federation, so they sue for peace. Starfleet, the diplomatic, exploration, military defense, and research arm of the Federation, sends the U.S.S. Enterprise to meet the Klingon ship Kronos One, which is carrying Klingon Chancellor Gorkon (David Warner) to Earth for negotiations. The Enterprise’s Capt. James T. Kirk (William Shatner) is not only upset about escorting a Klingon ship, but also about peace with them because it was a Klingon officer that murdered his son.

While en route to Earth, the Enterprise appears to fire on Kronos One, and assassins, apparently from the Enterprise, murder Gorkon. The Klingons arrest Kirk and Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy (DeForest Kelley) for the death of Gorkon and imprison them on the penal mining colony, Rura Penthe. Gorkon’s daughter, Azetbur (Rosanna DeSoto), becomes the new chancellor, and she vows to continue negotiations with the Federation.

Meanwhile, Captain Spock (Leonard Nimoy) assumes command of the Enterprise. Spock must discover how or if the Enterprise fired on Kronos One when the ship’s computer says it did, but no weapons were expended, and he must clear Capt. Kirk of Gorkon’s murder. With the aid of the U.S.S. Excelsior, commanded by former Enterprise crewman, Captain Hikaru Sulu (George Takei), Spock must also rescue Kirk and Dr. McCoy from their imprisonment. The heroic Enterprise crew is running out of time to discover the identities of the Gorkon’s assassins and of the traitors aboard the Enterprise before they strike again to stop peace negotiations between the Federation and Klingon Empire.

An allegory for the fall of communism in Eastern Europe (which had occurred around 1990, just before this film went into production), Star Trek VI is a poignant expression of the need to end cold wars, constant hostilities, and old grudges. It emphasizes letting go of yearnings to avenge personal and painful losses that come about because of war (the death of Kirk’s son).

The film also has a melancholy edge because the Enterprise is to be decommissioned after this adventure, and this is the last time the original crew would be together. The performances, all of which are good (especially Christopher Plummer as Klingon General Chang), portray the essence of something grand coming to an end. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country is not the best Star Trek feature film, but its sense of purpose and determination, and the engaging mystery that hangs over the narrative make this a nice farewell.

7 of 10
B+

NOTES:
1992 Academy Awards: 2 nominations: “Best Effects, Sound Effects Editing” (George Watters II and F. Hudson Miller) and “Best Makeup” (Michael Mills, Ed French, and Richard Snell)

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