Toronto Movie Index

April 2008 Archive

21 (*½)

Posted on April 25, 2008 by

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“The best thing about Vegas,” says Kate Bosworth’s Jill near the beginning of 21, “is that you can become anything you want.” Such tacky jingoism may befit a young MIT whiz making millions at blackjack along with her professor and a crack team of student card-counters, but it can’t fuel a very good film about them. There is, indeed, little demystification of Vegas in 21. Main protagonist Ben (Across the Universe’s Jim Sturgess) has stars in his eyes pretty much from start to finish, and director Robert Luketic actually seems to think the place is glamorous. (Decadent, yes; sexy, maybe; but glamorous? Hell no.) Continue...

Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay (**)

Posted on April 25, 2008 by

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It takes Harold (John Cho) and Kumar (Kal Penn) approximately 10 minutes to escape from Guantanamo Bay, during which time they meet real terrorists in the cell beside them and fend off advances from a big, fat guard looking for a blowjob (known to Gitmo inmates as a “cockmeat sandwich”). After that, they flee with some Cuban refugees to Florida, and it’s back to the picaresque journey that defined their first film: this time, instead of White Castle, they head toward the Texas wedding of Kumar’s ex, who is marrying a “douche” with political connections that might help to acquit them. Continue...

Then She Found Me (**)

Posted on April 25, 2008 by

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As a film about a woman on the brink of 40—and as one directed by and starring a woman around that age, Helen Hunt—Then She Found Me can seem, by sheer virtue of its existence, unique, compassionate and smart. This is by no means unfamiliar territory, however. One finds it abundantly in popular contemporary fiction (Then She Found Me is loosely based on a novel by Elinor Lipman, using more clichés than even she would dare to). Its compassion is limited to its whiny subject; its smartness is for the most part hollow and quippy. Continue...

War, Inc. (**)

Posted on April 25, 2008 by

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One of War, Inc.’s clearly identifiable inspirations is Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. This is not shamefully overambitious as much as it is a misstep: do we really need another Strangelove, one of the (forgive the sacrilege) shrillest, most tedious of movie history’s acclaimed political satires? Continue...

London to Brighton (**)

Posted on April 18, 2008 by

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There is a long tradition of grit in British narrative art, and even the most provocative and moving examples of this—from Dickens to Orwell to such realist filmmakers as Ken Loach and Mike Leigh—have a whiff of upper-middle-class sensationalism about them. London to Brighton has (unlike, say, the recent Red Road) none of Brit grit’s saving graces and most of its faults: it may be involving in parts, but it always feels smarmy and exploitative. It is just not successful enough as a film to justify the kinds of suffering it so insistently shoves in its audiences’ faces. Continue...

Persepolis (****)

Posted on April 11, 2008 by

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Marjane Satrapi’s acclaimed graphic novel of the same name was a witty and moving account of her childhood and adolescence in the tumultuous Iran of the ’70s and ’80s. In this animated adaptation, Satrapi (and her co-director, comic book artist Vincent Paronnaud) loses none of the wit and emotion and, with the aid of legendary actresses Catherine Deneuve, Danielle Darrieux and Chiara Mastrioanni—who voice Satrapi’s mother, grandmother (the film’s most beguiling character) and the protagonist herself, respectively—further amplifies the drama and pathos. The animation, largely in black and white just like the comic, is deft and compelling, shifting from a Peanuts-like simplicity to a more sophisticated style that recalls the Hernandez brothers’ Love and Rockets. At the centre is Satrapi’s self-portrait of a politicized, freethinking girl whose progressive, loving parents have taught her all she needs to know in order to battle an unjust society.

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Bella (no stars)

Posted on April 11, 2008 by

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It’s phenomena like Bella that make critics feel disaffected and icky. How could such a film gain such incredible audience adoration? It was one of the top 10 highest-grossing independent films of last year, and won the People’s Choice Award at TIFF, where it was greeted with teary-eyed standing ovations. Still, at the risk of sounding misanthropic, anyone who adores Bella is a dimwit with horrible taste. Continue...

Leatherheads (****)

Posted on April 4, 2008 by

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George Clooney’s Leatherheads begins with the old Universal Pictures logo (the one with the art deco font swirling around a crystalline globe) and doesn’t quite live up to that promise—well, not stylistically at least. Because it’s in sepia-toned colour (unlike Clooney’s last film, the sumptuously monochrome Good Night, And Good Luck) and employs an omnipresent jazz soundtrack by Randy Newman (’30s comedies never had such things), it presents more as one of those post-1970s, perfectly art-decorated nostalgia trips—à la Woody Allen’s Radio Days and Sweet and Lowdown—rather than the genuine article.

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Kenny (***)

Posted on April 4, 2008 by

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If only Kenny were a documentary instead of a mockumentary—then it would be a truly astounding film. Even as is, though, this hit Australian comedy about an eponymous Melbourne porta-potty (or porta-loo) installer has its share of authentic, startling moments, owing mostly to its low budget, which forces filmmakers Clayton and Shane Jacobson to go on-location for many of their pivotal scenes. Continue...

Under the Same Moon (**)

Posted on April 4, 2008 by

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Under the Same Moon (La Misma Luna) is about a pressing, contemporary topic—illegal migrant workers in the U.S.—yet treats it with an old-fashioned sentimentality that would make even Dickens blush. Carlitos (Adrián Alonso) is the film’s Little Nell, an adorable, down-and-out Mexican boy who, after the death of his kind grandmother, goes in search of his mother, Rosario (Kate del Castillo), a maid in L.A. (She’s trying to save up enough money to get him smuggled to her, natch.) Continue...