Movie Train - FILM REVIEWS by Morgan Bell

Fresh critical film reviews by young Australian journalist Morgan Bell. A bight-sized opinionated analysis of popular movies and indie/art-house feature films. Explores plot, themes, characters, performances, soundtracks and film technique. Morgan Bell assesses movies in the context of what makes a successful cinema or DVD experience.

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Movie Train - November 2008

REVIEW: Charlie Wilson's War

November 9th 2008 17:29

Directed: Mike Nichols (Closer, Angels In America, Primary Colours, The Birdcage, Regarding Henry, Postcards From The Edge, The Graduate)

Written: Aaron Sorkin (The American President, A Few Good Men, TVs The West Wing) based on the book by George Crile

Starring: Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams

Charlie Wilson's War is a political drama about the real life events the happened in the 1980s where the USA covertly funded arms for Afghanistan in order to defeat the Soviets both on the ground and in the Cold War. In some respects this film reminded me of Lions For Lambs, in that the message is very muddled. This is perhaps an accurate representation of what the average American feels about their own national image when it comes to the results CIA meddling in the Middle East . . . uneasy and muddled.

Charlie Wilson (Hanks) is a Texas congressman who is persuaded by a rich conservative socialite, Joanne Herring (Roberts) to make the plight of the Afghani people his pet project. The CIA sends him Gust Avrakotos (Hoffman) and together they negotiate secretly with key players in Pakistan and Israel and rally support domestically for extra funding. This is a film that leaves a bad taste in your mouth. No matter how lovable Hanks is or how funny Hoffman is, you know it is based on a true story, and you know that these underhand dealings eventually led to Taliban filling a power vacuum that the US helped create.

This film has been written as a quirky comedy about a "victory". The sub-heading of the book it was based on was "The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History". But its not a feel-good tale. It is really the story of how the USA avoided turning a Cold War into a real war by not drawing attention to themselves - they did it at the expense of the Afghani people. This is the story of how the USA used the Afghani people as pawns in their pissing match with the USSR and then abondoned them at a time where they needed to rebuild after all the death and destruction.

Charlie Wilson: "These things happened. They were glorious and they changed the world... and then we fucked up the endgame."

Tom Hanks and Phillip Seymour Hoffman in Charlie Wilsons War

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REVIEW: The Happening

November 4th 2008 11:32

OK so now that my laughter has subsided . . .

Directed & Written: M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, Signs, Unbreakable, The Village)

Starring: Mark Wahlberg (The Departed, Boogie Nights), Zooey Deschanel (Eulogy, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), John Leguizamo (Moulin Rouge, Romeo & Juliet), Betty Buckley (TVs Eight Is Enough, Carrie, singer on Broadway)

We're making a B movie. If the themes of the movie stick with you then great, but we're not going to put that in front of the movie. We're going to have a lot of fun. It's a paranoia movie and we just need to pound away at it. That's our job. So I was really clear about that.

M. Night Shyamalan

I got this very scary idea for a movie, and that's The Happening.
It's kind of like [Alfred Hitchcock's] Birds -- it has that feeling to it, where people are trapped in an area where something bizarre is happening.

M. Night Shyamalan

"The Happening" could quite possibly be the most unintentionally funny movie ever made. Or did M. Night Shyamalan do it intentionally? Is the man in on the joke? Or are we laughing at him? It's a tough call because Shyamalan's reputation for the corny and righteous has preceded him. Had this been a film made by anyone other than Shayamalan, it would be considered a masterpiece parody of Shyamalan!

The film has a similar feel to other "genre homage" movies that have been released lately. Tarantino replicating 70s sexploitation and car-chase films with "Death Proof" (2007), or comedies like Peyton Reed's "Down With Love" (2003) nodding their head to old Doris Day movies from the 60s. If Shyamalan was anyone other than Shyamalan you might think this is a really clever head nod to 50s disaster films. The disaster is completely ridiculous and the characters respond in irrational panic. Funny right? But is it supposed to be?

Mark Wahlberg seems like an actor with a good sense of humour. His over-exaggerated facial expressions and deadpan delivery of absurd dialogue make you think he must be in on the joke. Zooey Deschanel is a comic actress, she looks stunned throughout the film, its not dramatic acting, it looks like a comedian doing a spoof skit. Is it possible that all the actors were having a private joke behind Shyamalan's back?

This movie reminds me of a Stephen King book I started reading called "Cell". I ended up putting it down because I felt it was too heavy-handed an unrealistic. Radio waves from cell phones were causing people to fly into unprovoked rages and murder people. King is vocally proud of the fact that he has never owned a cell phone, and in this context it just seemed like a technophobe grinding their axe about a global trend they had not kept up with. The themes in "Cell" and "The Happening" are similar in that the villain is invisible, but Im at a loss to understand what axe (if any) Shyamalan is trying to grind!

If I give Shyamalan the benefit of the doubt I could assume that he is poking fun at the hysteria created by the 1938 Orson Welles radio play War Of The Worlds, or the perpetual paranoia of baby boomers with their doomsday clock waiting for a nuclear bombs to be dropped during the cold war. Nuclear waste and terrorism are mentioned in "The Happening" both as primary causes of poisoning and as explanations as to why the vegetation of New England would mutate to kill us out of self-preservation. If I had any faith in Shyamalan I might think this was an incredibly insightful element of the film, I might think he was commenting on the human tendancy to jump to conclusions and expect the worst . . .

But do I have any faith?

Not really - the themes of family and togetherness and love conquering all are still there as trademark Shyamalan. There is the niggling suggestion that humans will bring an armageddon of biblical proportions if we dont improve our morality and treat our earth and our fellow man better. Whether it is birds, or killer tomatoes, or locusts, or airborn toxins from angry plants, it is clear that Shyamalan intends to use this film as a warning about tampering with nature. Maybe that is his axe?

"The Happening" will go down in history as a cult film because it is incredibly funny, full stop. It is also contains genuinely frightening suspense scenes that take place in creepy derelict farmhouses and abandoned country roads. Shyamalan is amazing at framing scenes (or is that his cinematographer Tak Fujimoto?) and lighting to create the maximum amount of tension and terror - there is perhaps noone scarier. But as a writer he is practically schitzophrenic and unable to focus on any one theme. He wants to tell you everything all at once and the result is just bizarre. Funny, but bizarre! Somehow he has fluked a comedy, but somehow I dont we are laughing at the bits he thought we would!

CLICKHERE for my companion post "The Happening: learn and laugh"