Spango Dips

Brick (2006) C-117m. ★★★ D: Rian Johnson. W: Rian Johnson. DP: Steve Yedlin. JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT, LUKAS HAAS, NORA ZEHETNER, NOAH FLEISS, MATT O’LEARY, NOAH SEGAN, MEAGAN GOOD, EMILIE DE RAVIN, BRIAN WHITE, RICHARD ROUNDTREE. Tantalizing genre experiment: a hard-boiled noir, played absolutely straight, but set in an environment utterly hostile to the usual noir shticks (in this case, a present-day high school in a Southern California oceanside community). Our hero is dour loner Brendan (Gordon-Levitt), who must dive into the deepest trenches of his school’s criminal underbelly to find his ex-girlfriend’s killer. Violent and ugly, but not without levity, much like the films which inspired it. A total success from a genre perspective; doesn’t miss a trick, “unrealistic” though it may be (not a particularly robust criticism). Famously edited by the director on a Macintosh computer. [R]

Bubble (2006) C-73m. ★★★½ D: Steven Soderbergh. W: Coleman Haugh. DP: Steven Soderbergh (as Peter Andrews). DEBBIE DOEBEREINER, DUSTIN JAMES ASHLEY, MISTY DAWN WILKINS, KYLE SMITH, DECKER MOODY. The ultimate murder-in-a-small-town movie and a veritable cinematic landmark, this hypnotic knockout made history in two different ways: first, by being filmed entirely in a real small town, with real locals playing the roles, improvising much of the dialogue, and using their actual homes as sets, giving the film a remarkable documentary quality; second, by being the first film ever to be released in theaters, on cable and on home video at the same time, according to a new distribution model conceived by Soderbergh, George Clooney and Mark Cuban. Were it not also richly rewarding viewing, it would be dismissable as a mere curiosity, but no: its means of production make for the absolute perfect vehicle for Coleman Hough’s peculiar, fascinating story. HD 24P Widescreen. [R]

United 93 (2006-US-France-Great Britain) C-111m. ★★★½ D: Paul Greengrass. W: Paul Greengrass. DP: Barry Ackroyd. DAVID ALAN BASCHE, RICHARD BEKINS, SUSAN BLOMMAERT, RAY CHARLESON, CHRISTIAN CLEMENSON, KHALID ABDALLAH, LEWIS ALSAMARI, DAVID RASCHE, CHIP ZIEN, DENNY DILLON, REBECCA SCHULL, GREGG HENRY. Devastating play-by-play of the September 11, 2001 attacks as seen through the events of the title flight, whose civilian passengers thwarted a terrorist hijacking and wrestled the plane to the ground. For coverage purposes, the alternative perspectives of air traffic controllers and military personnel are given time as well (with many of the story’s central figures portraying themselves), but the action aboard the aircraft, as passengers and flight attendants rally for control against their captors, is necessarily the focal point. Bracing, heartfelt, and modest, this is just about the best film that could have been made on the subject. Super 35. [R]

Departed, The (2006) C-151m. ★★★½ D: Martin Scorsese. W: William Monahan. DP: Michael Ballhaus. LEONARDO DICAPRIO, MATT DAMON, JACK NICHOLSON, MARK WAHLBERG, MARTIN SHEEN, RAY WINSTONE, VERA FARMIGA, ANTHONY ANDERSON, ALEC BALDWIN, KEVIN CORRIGAN. Remake of the Hong Kong film INFERNAL AFFAIRS, reconceived to pit a squad of Massachusetts State Troopers against an Irish mafioso (Nicholson), is Scorsese’s best film in years, managing to epitomize a somewhat standard crime-picture formula (two moles?! who’s-conning-who?) and transcend it at the same time. No cheap thrills here, despite the voluminous bloodshed; all characters are fleshy, all performances are magnificent (DiCaprio, in particular, amazes), all plot points are at once surprising and sensible, and everything is touched by Scorsese’s visible excellence as a director. Don’t miss it. [R]

Here, now, just in time for Oscar night, my Top Ten Films of 2006. Reviews not already submitted are soon to follow.

1. The Departed
2. Pan’s Labyrinth
3. United 93
4. Letters from Iwo Jima
5. Bubble
6. Volver
7. INLAND EMPIRE
8. Brick
9. Children of Men
10. The Queen

So I’m drumming in a high school production of Kiss Me, Kate, which is a really glorious Cole Porter musical from the 40s that’s packed to bursting with beautiful, catchy songs. Hopelessly trapped in my head as these songs now constantly are, I go around whistling and humming them to myself all the time.

Now, when I get near an old person—someone who looks to be of an age that would correspond to having been aware/fond of Kiss Me, Kate when it was fresh—I seriously jack up the volume on my whistling or humming. I guess I’m really hoping some senescent crank who still thinks Elvis is Satan’s Minister of Culture will run up to me and holler, “God bless you, young man, for keeping real music alive in these days of wickedness!” And then I would wonder how that person feels about homosexuals.

I’ve got a longer post in the works about the three movies that I recently vilified, and the horrible cinematic apocalypse they seem to be signaling, but I struggle to find the time to finish it. Keep watch.

Crash (2005-US-Germany) C-112m. ★½ D: Paul Haggis. W: Paul Haggis and Bobby Moresco. DP: James Muro. DON CHEADLE, SANDRA BULLOCK, MATT DILLON, THANDIE NEWTON, BRENDAN FRASER, RYAN PHILLIPPE, JENNIFER ESPOSITO, CHRIS “LUDACRIS” BRIDGES, TERRENCE HOWARD, WILLIAM FICHTNER, LARENZ TATE, NONA GAYE, LORETTA DEVINE, KEITH DAVID. Ensemble number, a supposed investigation of racial tensions in Los Angeles, is a dreadful assembly of lurid vignettes, each a sickeningly obvious little parable about racism, with nary a shred of artistic or sociopolitical credibility to be found among them. Its characters are paper-thin caricatures, its plot is driven by one preposterous contrivance after another, its emotional content is affected and schmaltzy, and it’s agonizingly preachy—at a grade-school level (wow—we’re all racists!). Surprisingly (I should say sadly), there are good performances to be found, particularly from Howard and an uncommonly nimble Bullock, but none of these can elevate the muck. Bafflingly exalted by Hollywood and the critical population at large; winner of Oscars for Best Picture (augh!), Best Original Screenplay (augh!), and Best Editing (well, okay, fine). Super 35. [R]

Babel (2006-France-US-Mexico) C-142m. ★ D: Alejandro González Iñárritu. W: Guillermo Arriaga. DP: Rodrigo Prieto. BRAD PITT, CATE BLANCHETT, GAEL GARCÍA BERNAL, KÔJI YAKUSHO, ADRIANA BARRAZA, HARRIET WALTER, RINKO KIKUCHI, BOUBKER AIT EL CAID, SAID TARCHANI, MUSTAPHA RACHIDI, ELLE FANNING, NATHAN GAMBLE. Quadruple-thread allegory about how cultural misunderstandings apparently lead to irreversible tragedy, for everyone, everywhere, all the time. An interminable grief orgy that pretends oh-so-assiduously to have any kind of relevance to anything, with a CRASH-like insulting reductionist multiple narrative that subjugates any potential character development to the machinations of an embarrassingly predictable plot engine. Insufferably pretentious, maudlin, manipulative, full of itself, and stupid; somehow even worse than Iñárritu’s earlier 21 GRAMS. [R]

21 Grams (2003) C-125m. ★½ D: Alejandro González Iñárritu. W: Guillermo Arriaga. DP: Rodrigo Prieto. SEAN PENN, BENICIO DEL TORO, NAOMI WATTS, CHARLOTTE GAINSBOURG, MELISSA LEO, CLEA DUVALL, DANNY HUSTON, PAUL CALDERON. Lumbering, strident and crassly sensational meditation on death, seen through the eyes of three miserable human beings (Penn, Watts, Del Toro) who share in the guilt and grief that follows a catastrophic tragedy. So smotheringly downbeat that it’s not only draining, but boring, with Watts screaming her head off in every scene where she’s not asleep. Waste of time. [R]