At the movies: Hadewijch (Take 2)

So back in the long, long ago, when I still wrote for The Tennessean but was stuck in online Siberia, I decided to try and through some love to afilm that wasn't going to show in town. As Bruno Dumont's Hadewijch wasa entering its last week as part of IFC Films' On Demand/In Theatres program, I had to act fast. SO I did a full-on piece on the film in order to convince people to experience. I got some shit about it, but I still feel it was the right thing to have done. And now, months and months later, Hadewijch is going to be showing in Nashville thanks to Sarratt.

I am ecstatic. Ecstatic enough to have written a different review of the film. You can read it here...

At the movies: The Tree of Life.

So the latest Terrence Malick film had finally made its way to Nastyville. Here is my perfectly respectable review of it for The Tennessean.

Now for comparison's sake, here's my Metromix review, which is- at best, unhinged. This wasn't a case of me submitting this piece and the Tennessean version being edited out of it, but rather my submitting two different reviews for each of the publications. I wanted to try and encompass all the feelings the film posed, while at the same time remaining nimble and diffuse in making any specific grand statements. I can't decide if this take on the film is genuinely reflective or if it veers into gibberish. Let me know your thoughts on this one.

At the movies: Paul.

So, apparently I liked this movie way more than the rest of the world (barring Steve K and Zack H). I acknowledge some of its flaws, but I stand by it as being a lot weirder and more complex than it's getting credit for.

Also, it does that epic tracking shot along the underside of a spacecraft, and I just adore that.

At the movies: Hadewijch.

Not playing in Nashville, except on IFC On Demand/In Theatres. But well worth your time. It's haunted me since I first saw it back in Fall '09.

At the movies: The Book of Eli.

The shame-spiral of Dead Presidents-American Pimp-From Hell weren't enough to stop The Hughes Brothers, who have returned to give the moviegoing public a desaturated, blood-splattered almost-Western about a dismemberin' loner (Denzel Washington) who protects the last Bible in the world. Gary Oldman wants it, and has several hundred henchmen to throw at Denzel to try and get that Bible, because it holds the key to rebuilding society after a horrifying cataclysm.

But here's the deal- the simple truth is that if you're looking for any sort of provocative statement about theology, society, or morality, you will find it sorely lacking. The film's actions are grounded deeply in Old Testament rhetoric about laying down vengeance and such, but at its center is the void.

I'm not surprised Denzel Washington took the part- he gets to be a stone cold badass fighting for decency and literacy in a postapocalyptic wasteland. He also gets to teach sexy women how to use high-power weaponry, then deploy some slice-and-dice-and-julienne skills to make the world safe for some righteous living. But The Book of Eli is both shameful and stupid (its one-two punch of an ending is a truly special kind of ridiculous), and gorehounds and evangelicals will both be horribly disappointed.

If the film had any sort of specificity to its theology, or even a willingness to bring some divine intervention into the picture, that would be one thing. But no.

Nothing.

Just more blood spilled in the name of religion by people who have no grasp of the material they're using to define their lives, and worse, the lives of others.

Damn.

Well, I'm sold.

At the movies: Doubt.

In adapting his own Pulitzer Prize-winning play, John Patrick Shanley (the masterful Joe Versus the Volcano) gives us the acting steel cage match of 2008: in this corner, Meryl Streep as the tough-as-nails nun who takes no crap, and in the other corner, Philip Seymour Hoffman as the progressive priest with a secret. Grab your rosaries and some popcorn, because sparks will fly- this is the Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla of Oscar bait.

With its central Hoffman/Streep showdown, its addressing of issues of sexual impropriety amongst the clergy, and its focused and claustrophobic use of the central church school setting, Doubt is primed for Oscar gold. Already legendary character actress Amy Adams (Enchanted, Drop Dead Gorgeous) also shines as the voice of steadfast decency, and Viola Davis, always a mark of quality, takes a two-scene cameo and makes it an indelible portrait.

It's Acting with a capital A here, folks, with Streep tearing into her role with a steely presence at times reminiscent of The Blues Brothers' Mother Superior- it's hard to believe how ebullient she was in Mamma Mia! In comparison to this. She hits around eighty-five percent of the time, but when she misses (that is, the very end), it's a doozy. Theatre buffs and anyone who likes to see acting titans battle shouldn't miss this.

"A real blast."

I love a good bit of controversy, and I love a controversial film even more. So it brings me a great deal of joy to give y'all an advance warning of a pretty staggering film that is coming your way that will fuck some people up. The film is an animated Israeli documentary called Waltz with Bashir, and it details a man's efforts to reconnect with other members of his army division during Israel's Lebanon War in the early 80s, specifically in relation to two massacres that occurred in two refugee camps during that time.

The film is remarkable, using the smae sort of psychogenic fugue-narrative that David Lynch worked so well in Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive, but applying it to real-life trauma and shock. It's like nothing I've ever seen before, but you could almost call it a head-on collision between A Scanner Darkly and Redacted, except much much better than the latter and on par with the former.

So there are a couple of reasons why people are going to lose their shit about this film- one is that it deals with the ongoing Israeli/Palestinian conflict, but what's going to cause the big freak-outs left and right is that the massacring in those refugee camps was done by Christians. Since contemporary evangelical Christianity in the U.S. has taken to walking a hard pro-Israel line (basically in order to force the hand of the divine, which is stupid, ignorant, and blasphemous all at the same time and perfectly illustrative of what's achingly wrong with the current theological mindset of U.S. Christianity), I don't imagine that they're going to take too well to this, and I can't wait.

So when Pat Robertson and Rexella van Impe or whoever is trying to exploit faith for power starts decrying this film in the near future, you can remember you got your heads up from me.

Today I saw:
I DON'T FEEL LIKE DANCING (d. Joachim DOLLHOPF and Evi GOLDBRUNNER) ***
WALTZ WITH BASHIR (d. Ari FOLMAN) *** 1/2

Yesterday I saw:
C.R.A.Z.Y. (d. Jean-Marc VALLEE) ***
SHROOMS (d. Paddy BREADNACH) * 1/2

A veritable Whitman's Sampler of stuff.

Here's where my mind is at:

The latest on the Georgian front.

Some good news regarding the evershifting balance between common sense and belief in the world of academia.

The lineup for this year's New York Film Festival is up.

Much in the way that Madonna's "Sky Fits Heaven" worked in spite of using lines from a Nike commercial, R&B phenomenon Chris Brown combines trance-rap synths, Timbaland beats, and a DOublemint slogan and makes pop gold.

Detroit sets what must be some sad new kind of trend.