2008: Year in Review

Here are ten basic rules for modern slasher films which, if you are aware of them, will save you the need to watch idiotic formula junk like this one:

Danny Boyle's winsome, gripping, ultimately inspirational fable is a modern day fairy tale of the highest order, celebrating the intelligence required to learn from your past. As the film opens, Jamal Malik (Dev Patel), a "chaiwaller" (tea-fetcher) for a telemarketing company, is being tortured and interrogated because he, by accident (or was it written?), became a contestant on the Hindi version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" and the police are convinced he's been cheating. The film quickly intercuts the present with flashbacks illustrating how he got question after question right simply by remembering the experiences that are etched into his brain, some tragic, some comic, some major, some minor. We see his childhood in Mumbai, how he was orphaned during a Muslim massacre that killed his mother, and how he and his brother Salim, with their sweet friend Latika in tow, ultimately escaped the slums in order to look for a better life. In something bearing a striking resemblence to "Oliver Twist" (the third time I've seen a film based on or inspired by that book in just a couple of months, after "August Rush" and Polanski's 2005 adaptation!), the trio is taken in by a Fagin-esque slug, exploited as beggars who literally sing for their supper, and they must soon escape this fate by any means necessary. Meanwhile, in the recent present, he must contend with a disbelieving game show host, and soon has the audience rooting for him all the way. As the chronology of the flashbacks plays catch-up, Jamal and Salim (as an adult played by Madhur Mittal) grow further and further apart as Salim is drawn into the world of gangsters, from which there may be no return. The heart of the film is in the relationship between Jamal and Latika (played as an adult by the gorgeous Freida Pinto), and his belief in their destiny to be together. Danny Boyle is not precisely known for inspirational movies, having directed such works as the Scottish noir "Shallow Grave" (1994), the druggie dramedy "Trainspotting" (1996), the zombie horror film "28 Days Later..." (2003) and, most recently, the slasher flick in space "Sunshine" (2007). However, after making the wonderful, quirky family film "Millions" (2005), Boyle has made his most crowd-pleasing film yet. Working from a screenplay by Simon Beaufoy, the film is based on the novel "Q & A" by Vikas Swarup. Boyle is above all a ferocious visual stylist, and using a grainy, often handheld and hyperkinetic digital camera, coupled with jagged editing and a pounding soundtrack, he has made a film that grips you from the first shot and never lets go, recalling such films as Scorsese's "Mean Streets" (1973) and Fernando Mereilles' "City of God" (2003). In the end, this is a powerful, surprisingly absorbing, uplifting story that makes you believe in the power to overcome your past, and to upset the low expectations of others. One of 2008's best films!



NOTE: Stay for the ending credits, which appear over a Bollywood-esque dance number in a train station; you'll be tapping your feet to the music and bobbing your head as well! Also, I would be remiss if I failed to mention Loveleen Tandan, who is the credited co-director in India. The film was nominated for 10 Oscars including Best Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Original Song (x2!), Score, Cinematography and Editing.

Noam Murro's dark-ish comedy is an acidically-witty, if somewhat watered-down, little independent film about family, loss, love and - above all - being smart. Or at least a smart ass. Lawrence Weatherhold (Dennis Quaid) is a literary professor at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh. His wife is dead, he can't remember his students' names because he doesn't get to really know them, and he is a bit befuddled in general. Example/plot point: After his car is towed, Professor Weatherhold climbs the chain-link fence at the impound lot to retrieve his briefcase, and falls to the ground, suffering a mild concussion - after he has gotten his briefcase. He is taken to a hospital and cared for by Dr. Janet Hartigan (Sarah Jessica Parker), a sexy if aging former student who Weatherhold has little to no memory of, and who harbours something of a grudge over a paper she "worked hard on." Weatherhold has two children - one is James (Ashton Holmes, who you might recognize from Cronenberg's "A History of Violence"), a poetry-crafting young guy who loafs about on campus and tries to avoid seeing his father, and devoted daughter Vanessa (Ellen Page, continuing a streak of clever young people after "Juno"), a too-witty-by-half Young Republican who has just a scintilla more wit than her father ever could dream of possessing. Since the Professor can't drive, and insurance won't cover a chauffeur, so enters Chuck (Thomas Hayden Church of "Sideways"), a sloppy, scruffy adopted brother who can't be relied upon (except to get drunk and smoke pot) and who Weatherhold must look to for help when he needs it. This tiny little would-be extended family is the creation of writer Mark Poirier, who peppers his screenplay with sharp one-liners, amusing observations and clever insights. Vanessa, for example, is not precisely the caricature she could easily have turned out to be - none of these people are. The film is the directorial debut of Noam Murro, who was once, according to IMDB, slated to make his feature debut (alarmingly) with the wretched "The Ring Two" (2005). Wise choice, then. The film has a pseudo-indie-vibe going on, though one suspects it had the budget and marketing campaign to be something more (or less) than an independent film. Still, it's smart and often very funny, and well-acted enough to pass muster.

Mark Waters' adaptation of the acclaimed young adult books by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black is a surprisingly absorbing, enjoyable, and perfectly-tailored family entertainment for this decade. The plot: the Grace family moves from New York City to their great-aunt's (Joan Plowright) creepy old estate in the middle of nowhere, and must make a fresh start. The mother (Mary-Louise Parker) is trying to move on from her no account husband (Andrew McCarthy), who appears to be more interested in the new girl he's just moved in with than in his own family. The former Mrs. Grace must then take care of her three young teens all by herself. Freddie Highmore gives a terrific performance in a dual role as twin brothers Jared and Simon. Jared is the kind of kid who is lashing out, angry all the time, and who consequentially gets blamed for anything that goes wrong. His brother, Simon, is a bookworm, knows a little something about seemingly everything, and is a self-described "pacifist." How nice then that their fencing champion older sister Mallory (the lovely Sarah Bolger) is there to pick up the slack. The film doesn't take too long before strange things begin occurring - some objects appear to move on their own, while others disappear without a trace, only to reappear in a secret dumbwaiter hidden behind the wall (Simon's the sort of kid who knows what such a device is called). The trio of young siblings soon discovers a book written by their grandfather (the reliable David Strathairn), who disappeared shortly after its completion some 80 years ago. Turns out, the book is a passage-way of sorts to seeing a hidden world of fairies, goblins and ogres, and with the help of a kind little creature named Thimbletack (the voice of Martin Short), and a somewhat undependable sloth named Hogsqueal (the voice of Seth Rogen), the kids must keep the book out of the hands of the evil Mulgarath (Nick Nolte). Some moments will probably scare the bejesus out of kids who are younger than 8 or 9 years old, but that's up to them to decide; indeed, when Mulgarath takes his true shape, he looks something like a cross between King Kong and what you might expect an ogre played by Nick Nolte to look like. It's by sheer serendipity that I should watch this right after re-watching Spike Jonze's "Adaptation." (2002) again. Like Nicolas Cage in that film, if not precisely on the same level, Highmore here creates two distinct individual characters without a single trick of hair or makeup, or even much in the way of costuming - he's terrific. I also greatly enjoyed Sarah Bolger ("In America") as the tough, smart sister who gets caught up in her brothers' pursuits. The adults are all fine, with Joan Plowright managing to never talk down to the material, and Mary-Louise Parker even earning points in the rather thankless role of the disbelieving mother who means well but is clueless. It's worth noting that one of the co-screenwriters of the film is the great John Sayles, an independent filmmaker ("Lone Star," "City of Hope") with an eye for family-friendly magical realism ("The Secret of Roan Inish"). Without having read the books or knowing what part he played in the adaptation of them, I think I can safely attribute a good chunk of this film's intelligence and heart to him. As well, the committed A-list cast, the slick, fantastical direction by Mark Waters ("The House of Yes," "Freaky Friday"), some solid cinematography by Caleb Deschanel, and effective music by James Horner, combine to lift what could've been a low-rent modern-day "Lord of the Rings" knockoff out of the gutter and into the upper echelons of family entertainment.

Frank Miller's comic strip adaptation is a stylish mess, a grimly unwatchable parody, a colossal bore.

Errol Morris' powerful, angering documentary is not an expose of the criminal acts committed at Abu Ghraib military prison, as the cat's already out of the bag, but rather an absorbing examination of the meaning behind the infamous photographs which leaked out of the facility, causing an uproar over the apparent torture of prisoners. Several young American soldiers working in various capacities at the prison famously posed for photographs, with Lynndie England being the poster-girl, the face of humiliation and torture at Abu Ghraib, if you will. Interviews with England suggest that she, 20 at the time, was merely a cog in the machine orchestrated by her superior officer, over 15 years older than her, her boyfriend at the time, Charles Graner. Apparently, he was telling her how to pose and what to do and she was going along with it; indeed, it's said that all it takes for evil to succeed is for "good people" to just "go along." We get a mosaic of accounts from many of the soldiers, including a female officer named Sabrina Harman, whose letters home to her wife provide occasional narration and a would-be conscience juxtaposed with the horror and grotesquerie; indeed, she intended to turn the pictures she took over to the press or authorities but it was too little too late and she was ultimately punished alongside the rest of her comrades. Nobody above staff sergeant was ever imprisoned or found guilty of anything, and the film makes clear that although never shown in the photos, others were giving orders at all times - the soldiers did what they were told and paid the price. Errol Morris is maybe the best documentarian we have today. Having started with investigations of pet cemetary culture ("Gates of Heaven") and small town life ("Vernon, Florida"), he has since moved on to greater hights. Once having worked as a private investigator, his documentaries of late have had great success at achieving unique results, using the Interrotron - a device allowing Morris to be seen by and see his subjects while they look into the camera - to probe and search the frame for the truth. This device has worked to help get an innocent Death Row inmate out of prison ("The Thin Blue Line"); to probe into the personality of a Holocaust-denying creator of modern execution methods ("Mr. Death: The Rise & Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr."); to investigate the 11 life lessons learned by former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara ("The Fog of War"); and now to gain a scintilla of understanding of what was going through the minds of the young men and women who became scapegoats for the unspeakable acts committed at Abu Ghraib. What Morris discovers is alternatingly disturbing, fascinating and heartbreaking. One of the year's best films.

Kimberly Peirce's "Stop-Loss" is a bit of a disappointment coming 9 years after the director's brilliant debut feature, "Boys Don't Cry." That was a relevant, effective and poignant story of tolerance (or lack thereof) in America's heartland. This new film is a tale of military abuse of its soldiers and the problems that coming home from Iraq can cause. Well-acted, well-made, but a bit melodramatic and strains too hard.

Writer-director Bryan Bertino began as a key grip before making his directorial debut with this creepy, but ultimately none-too-effective horror chiller, "inspired by true events" (which could've been the same ones that inspired anything from "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" to the Manson Family murders). In 2005, a young couple (played by Scott Speedman, formerly of TV's "Felicity," and Liv Tyler, formerly of Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler's loins) attended a friend's wedding and then headed to a family vacation home in the middle of a quiet, isolated area. The guy proposed and the girl claimed she was "not ready" to accept, and this intriguing beginning would've made for a series of awkward attempts at conversation and a long dark night of the soul, but Bertino quickly shifts into terror mode with everything from a creepy girl appearing at the door, to a series of loud knocks, and finally three masked assailants taunting and scaring the bejesus out of the young couple. This is sort of like the lead-up to Michael Haneke's "Funny Games" (1997, remade in 2008) if the lead-up was 90 minutes long. This is basically a great 3 minute trailer or 30 second TV spot stuck inside of a pretty mediocre 90 minute film. The greatest assets of Bertino's film are its cinematography and a very effective sound design (notice one or two songs that appear to be commenting on the action, playing on an old record player). A couple of decent chills recall the grand master of the genre, John Carpenter's "Halloween" (1978), but unfortunately, by the end, it's much ado about nothin'.

David Ayer's violent, over-the-top melodrama swings for the fences, attempting (apparently) to be the corrupt cop film to end all corrupt cop films - and that's the best thing that can be said for it. Keanu Reeves stars as Detective Tom Ludlow, a drunken, racist, widower who is also a vigilante cop working on an elite team run by Captain Jack Wander (Forest Whitaker), who makes no apologies about sending out Ludlow to clean up the streets in off-the-books fashion. Ludlow was once partners with Terence Washington (Terry Crews), who (apparently) was ready to "dime out" Ludlow as a corrupt cop; that would be somewhat akin to telling the crow it has wings. Ludlow's current partners in crime, if you will, are Sgt. Mike Clady (Jay Mohr) and Detectives Dante Demille (John Corbett of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" and TV's "Sex and the City") and Cosmo Santos (Amaury Nolasco of TV's "Prison Break"), none of whom ever quite seem to match up to Ludlow's own level of creephood. One day, Ludlow is driving along off-duty when he sees two gang-bangers about to rob a convenience store. He beats them to the place, planning to lie in wait, but who is there but his former partner, convinced Ludlow is there to assassinate him (he may not be far off from the truth). Ludlow and Washington try to take out the gang-bangers but Washington is hit, partially by a stray bullet from Ludlow's gun, and dies holding Ludlow's hand. Captain Wander wants to preserve Ludlow's career, and advises him to destroy the disc from the video camera, effectively erasing Ludlow's participation in the incident. Soon, fresh-faced Detective Paul Diskant (Chris Evans of "Cellular") is on the case, working for Internal Affairs, which is run by Captain James Biggs (Hugh Laurie, doing his best "House" impersonation), who can't seem to decide if he wants to take Ludlow down or pull him under his wing. That's quite enough of the plot, and yet there's more, including a snitch called Scribble (Cedric The Entertainer!) and a couple of thugs who may or may not be what they appear to be (one of whom is played by rapper Common). It's all quite lurid and over-the-top, which is normally a compliment for me, but something's rotten in Denmark. The film was directed by David Ayer, previously known as the writer of such corrupt cop sagas as "Training Day" (2001) and "Dark Blue" (2002) - so he's no stranger to the subject. This is his sophomore directorial effort after the small-scale, low-budget disaster which was "Harsh Times" (2005). Here, Ayer's plot (and it's a doosy) has been provided by novelist James Ellroy's original script (which was then, we sense, heavily re-written by Kurt Wimmer and Jamie Moss). The film has twist after twist before arriving at a conclusion that is all but inevitable - and rather predictable. The material borrows from those previous films I mentioned as well as superior cop sagas, including Ellroy's own "L.A. Confidential" (filmed by Curtis Hanson in 1997). The results then are not as bad as they could be, but not quite good enough either. Think of this film as the corrupt cop version of reheated pizza - it's never quite as tasty as it was the first time around.

Brad Anderson's slow-building, tightly-wound, nail-bitingly tense Hitchcockian thriller is as mountingly unnerving a film as I can recall; a genuinely terrifying sojurn into a modern, international Twilight Zone. Jesse (Emily Mortimer) and Roy (Woody Harrelson) are an American couple that has just finished a church-sponsored mission to help poor kids in China. Jesse is a photographer with a wild past and Roy is a nerdy train buff and a "safe" significant other. All is not perfect: he wants to take a chance on getting pregnant and she wants to avoid "putting down a root." They have boarded a trans-Siberian train from Beijing bound for Moscow. Little do they know that their lives are about to change. Innocently enough, Jesse and Roy meet their bunk-mates, Abby (Kate Mara) and Carlos (Eduardo Noriega), she a 20-year-old Seattle-based drifter and he a mysterious, older Spaniard, tall, dark and handsome - but vaguely dangerous. At a rest stop in a small Russian village, Roy goes missing from the train and Jesse is frantic, searching all over, unable to find him. We can feel Jesse's palpable sense of fear and growing suspicion before Roy turns up (apparently, he simply missed the train and is in a hotel somewhere). Meanwhile, as Jesse and Abby grow closer, finding much in common, Jesse's ill feelings about Carlos' true nature intensify and she begins to wonder if he is who he appears to be; a conversation about fake passports and some matryoshka dolls might be a clue. Disembarking from the train to do some sight-seeing near an old abandoned church, Jesse and Carlos come face-to-face with some unspoken connection between them, and more you'll have to learn for yourself. At roughly this point, Roy rejoins the train with his new bunk-mate (from the hotel), Grinko (Ben Kingsley), a former KGB officer turned narcotics investigator who thinks Jesse may be hiding something behind that pretty face, twisted by nerves, fear and paranoia. He may be right. Brad Anderson is a thoroughly independent filmmaker who began in rough romantic comedy ("Next Stop, Wonderland" and the sci-fi-tinged "Happy Accidents") before seguing into thriller mode ("The Machinist," "Session 9") and this is perhaps his most controlled and best film to date. In a scenario borrowing much from Hitchcock's "The Lady Vanishes" (1938), though not its sense of humor, Anderson manages to find a tense, claustrophobic and mountingly disturbing way of portraying the modern tourist experience; if Woody Allen's "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" (2008) was a tourist's wet dream, this must be some kind of vivid nightmare. Mortimer is utterly sympathetic as a woman who makes a mistake out of fear and desperation, attempts haphazardly to cover her tracks, and then must cover the attempts at covering her tracks. The ways in which she uses her eyes, mouth and the very sweat on her face to convey fear are a lesson in realistically acting "terror." Harrelson is effective in the token role of the dumb husband who loves his wife but seems to be clueless throughout. And Ben Kingsley is terrific as a cop who may have some secrets, may be on the up and up, and is certainly intimidating even to those who've done nothing wrong. This is, simply put, one hell of a thriller.

Ben Stiller's curious, odd, and often very funny satire of Hollywood egos, big budget action films, and the Vietnam War is somehow slightly less than the sum of its parts. That being said, the parts add up to enough to highly recommend it. The film stars three big Hollywood stars, playing three big Hollywood stars, playing three Vietnam War movie stereotypes: Stiller is Tugg Speedman, the Stallone-esque aging action star of the "Scorcher" series of films (his sixth film in the series is presented as a faux trailer at this film's start). He is the overly-gung-ho leader of the pack. Jack Black plays Jeff Portnoy, whose "Fatties: Fart 2" is the second faux trailer at the beginning. Basically a cross between Chris Farley and Eddie Murphy, Black is the heroin-addicted scatalogical comedy star who has come to this Vietnam epic we know not how. And finally Aussie Kirk Lazarus (think Russell Crowe) is a 5-time Oscar-winning method actor (I wouldn't dream of giving away his - the best faux trailer since "Grindhouse") who (as played with tremendous courage by Robert Downey Jr.) has undertaken a skin pigmentation procedure to make himself into the leading black character in the film within the film. This is much to the chagrin of Booty Sweat energy drink and Bust A Nut protein bar shilling Alpa Chino (think about it) played by Brandon T. Jackson, who gets the supporting black role. Rounding out the cast is the typical youngblood nerdy type (well played by Jay Baruchel of the Judd Apatow camp) who is the only one to have gone to boot camp, read the book the film's script is based on, or read the script for that matter. This fivesome is contending with a psychotic redneck explosives manager (Danny McBride who only a week earlier played a ratfink druggie in David Gordon Green's "Pineapple Express"), a terribly inept former stage director turned filmmaker named Damien Cockburn (played all-too-briefly by Steve Coogan) and the author of the book/inspiration for the story Fourleaf (Nick Nolte, in full on raspy mode). When the egos begin to clash and get in the way of what could be the best Vietnam movie turned disaster turned classic since "Apocalypse Now", the director and his crew take the actors and some digital cameras into the "real deep shit"; and leave them to their own devices, resulting in a "Three Amigos"-esque scenario where a group of dumb Hollywood types think they're still acting even when real gunplay and explosives start happening. Add to this a couple of great cameos (credited) by a couple of big name Hollywood actors (the least recognizable of the two provides much of the humor), and you have a wild, insane, nonsensical and ultimately silly film that is sure to entertain. If I have one complaint, it's that Stiller's effects budget (while probably parodying Hollywood action epics) threatens (like the violence in "Pineapple Express") to kill the jokes, and makes the film overly loud (along with the overbearing soundtrack at times) in such a way as to make a DVD rental necessary just to get the dialogue you missed. Odd for a comedy. If "Pineapple Express" is funnier for sheer laugh velocity, this is still a very worthy effort.