Tsotsi (2005)

TSOTSI won the Academy Award for Foreign Language film, and had been on my list of films I've wanted to see since I first read of its nomination. It took me four years to get around to finally seeing the film, and I was not disappointed.

The story of a South African "thug" (which is what "Tsotsi" means), TSOTSI is cleanly-written, well-acted, competently-directed and emotionally-impactful, with an ending I did not expect.

Tsotsi leads a loosely-organized and small gang of petty criminals in Johannesburg, though he is clearly more capable of great violence, even cold-blooded murder without a guilty conscience. Two of the other three members of his group of thieves are easily controlled by Tsotsi, and the third is beaten severely by him for questioning his understanding of what "decency" is when a robbery shown early in the film is taken to an extreme.

Asking Tsotsi to consider "decency" is clearly an insult to him, but the joke is on him when he goes out on his own and ends up finding a baby in the back seat of the car he's stolen. No matter how horrible he is -- no matter how blank his stare and cold his heart -- he cannot kill a baby.

Nor can he care for it. He keeps the infant in a shopping bag under his bed and uses newspapers as diapers. He feeds it whatever he can, though nothing is appropriate for an infant of that age. Inevitably, he returns again to violence, holding a local woman at gunpoint until she breastfeeds the baby.

When the woman finds out that the baby's mother is still alive, she encourages Tsotsi to return the baby, or at least give him to her to care for. In a powerful flashback sequence, we see in just one scene what turned Tsotsi into a street thug and created his hardened outlook on life and parenting.

What makes TSOTSI such an excellent film is that it doesn't end in full-blown disaster as one might expect, but it also doesn't end in an unrealistic, "It's a Wonderful Life"-like revelation about changing one's ways. In the end, Tsotsi does not necessarily become a "good person." He just becomes a bad person who is able to stop doing bad things for a few minutes, and those minutes are precious.

TSOTSI is a spare, low-key film with a quick running time and no side plots. It's like a great short story, which makes sense, as it's based on a book by the great writer Athol Fugard. If you let this one get past you as I did, it's worth your time to go back and find it. It's hard to find movies about redemption that don't do redemption like, well, the movies...

4.0 out of 4

Precious (2009)

Anyone who watches PRECIOUS and thinks that they've seen these kinds of stories before is a person who is taking a film at face value. Have there been films about emotionally, physically and even sexually abusive families who live in poverty with seemingly no realistic means of rising out of the mud? Of course. But I'd be hard-pressed to remember one that so deeply communicates every aspect of such an existence as this film. PRECIOUS is just that. For anyone who can relate to even bits and pieces of the story, it's a cathartic American masterpiece. And for those who have never experienced anything like what these characters do or haven't known someone who has, it is as good of a lesson as any I can think of.

Where I grew up, there were girls like Claireece Precious Jones all over the place. I did not personally know of any girls who were 16 year-old mothers to babies at the hands of their fathers, but I certainly knew some kids who had it bad and did not have parents who made them feel like it would ever get any better.

Gabourey Sidibe is Oscar-ready as Precious. She has shut down to cope. When things get bad --which is daily -- she escapes to fantasies she holds of herself as famous and desired. Director Lee Daniels, who could have easily made a TV movie-of-the-week from this material, masterfully cuts us away from Precious' most horrific moments of violence and abruptly throws us into these fantasies in her head. They are barely moments of lightness. We wonder during each of these segments what horror was too graphic to even be seen on screen and meet Precious on the other side of her out-of-body experiences to witness the damage that has been done. We are simply more deeply reminded that Precious has nothing but these fantasies.

Much of the damage, both past and present, is at the hands of her mother, Mary. Played with fantastic fire and pathetic ignorance by Mo'Nique, Mary is so f-ed up that she hates her daughter for stealing her man instead of protecting her daughter as a victim of incestuous rape. Until the final scenes of the movie, in fact, it is hard to find a single thing to feel sympathy for in Mary. Once again, Daniels is wise to bring us to the brink of disgust with this woman who so spitefully plays the welfare system and turns a blind eye to unthinkable domestic horrors. But then, before it's over, Daniels and Mo'Nique carefully massage some empathy out of this monstrous mother.

This is why PRECIOUS works so well. Viewers probably assume that there has to be some light at the end of the tunnel, some hope. And when we're introduced to Ms. Rain, a light-skinned woman who teaches Precious at an alternative school, we worry that the film will go the route of "Freedom Writers" or countless other films of its kind. It does not.

Ms. Rain does share qualities with other on-screen teachers of misguided, inner-city youth, but she is not a self-sacrificing ninny. Paula Patton, who plays Ms. Rain, does a great job with the most thanklessly un-flashy of the film's main characters.

And then there's Mariah Carey as Precious' social worker. I am not sure I'd go as far as some of those who have raved about her work as Oscar-worthy, but she is excellent. Maybe it's to her credit that Daniels really doesn't give her character any dramatically huge moments in the film. She is firm and dowdy and totally un-Mariah-like. But I'd hate to award her just for doing a good job at vacating a famous public persona. That doesn't seem fair, and it's a strategy that Oscar-campaigners will also apply to Mo'Nique and Sidibe, both of whom are funny and warm in reality.

Still, Carey is more than effective in her role. I heard that Daniels turned down money from Carey to co-produce the film so that he could force her to do as he said. If he took her money, I heard, he feared that Carey could control aspects of her performance, such as her appearance. If this story is true, than Daniels is truly one of the best directors of the year for his work with actors, not just for his ability to make something cinematic out of something that people could have said they've seen before.

I suspect that PRECIOUS will be even more devastating to those who haven't read Sapphire's novel, "Push." But I have read the novel, and this film -- for as graphic and horrible as it is -- is hardly the half of it. The film is faithful to the novel that is short in page numbers but hard to read quickly due to its unspeakable horrors. And the film, I think, leaves one with a bit more hope, which is the right thing to do. If you haven't read "Push," you should.

For all that has said about PRECIOUS, my upbringing as a welfare kid who lived in a lower-income neighborhood and attended a mostly-black high school allowed me to be affected on many more levels. The film is not just about having a bad family life, though it is certainly about this. It's about fundamentally, to your core, wanting to be everything that you are not. It's about standing at the bottom of the well and looking up at the circle of light at the top where the bucket hangs, but there is no rope descending that you can hold onto. It's about setting goals that are sadly low-balled to those of us who have, but barely even realistic to those who have not.

PRECIOUS is a revelation.

4.0 out of 4

Entre les Murs (The Class) (2008)

Finally, a film that gets the teaching profession RIGHT! I am so sick and tired of movies like "Freedom Writers" that show that in order to be a "great teacher," one must sacrifice his/her personal life and paycheck for the students. Not so with THE CLASS.

While I think THE CLASS (ENTRE LES MURS) is a fantastic film, I also have to say that it was not a comfortable one for me to watch. The reviews of this Palm d'Or winner have been glowing, but I did not "enjoy" watching it. As a teacher, it hit far too close to home. I saw so much of myself in Francois Begaudeau's cinematic version of himself (the film is more or less a dramatized version of his real life as a teacher) that I couldn't sit back and enjoy it as a masterstroke of cinema verite. Instead of wowing over the fact that I had just seen one of the first-ever realistic portrayals of the teaching profession, the wheels were busy turning.

Maybe even though I am in the teaching profession, I want, as a film-goer, the Mr. Holland/Mr. Keating version of inspirational teacher I would frequently turn to for motivation and idealistic fortitude. There's little of that here. M. Marin (Begaudeau) is idealistic, to be sure. He allows for a chummy looseness in his classroom management that opens the door for a few too many loose comments from students that end up causing one problem or another. It's not that he's trying to be "cool," per se. But I think he thinks he's trying to be fair, or at least treat each child as worthy, regardless of their backgrounds or reputations.

I feel like I manage my classes in a similar manner, so what happens to this teacher in THE CLASS was startling and uncomfortable. Through a natural series of twists and turns, the diverse student population of the rough and economically-stunted suburb of Paris that attends this school start to turn classroom discussions into "street conversations" about race and the politics of authority figures versus those who are expected to submit to them. As would be any teacher's nightmare, the students are often quite witty and clever, able to pick holes in their teacher's logic and resist authority just for the hell of it, a Thoreau-style resistance that might be entertaining to the average filmgoer, but bordered on a horror film for me.

One tiny problem I had with THE CLASS is that it is SO realistic that it almost lacks a narrative rise of action until it finally gains a climax when one of Marin's comments to a few students gets him in trouble and another student faces expulsion for unacceptable classroom behavior. In this moment, the brilliant complexity of the film reveals itself. This teacher is both the one who is provoked to use insults worthy of his students and seemingly the only teacher on staff who is willing to work to help a troubled kid succeed instead of just kicking him to the curb.

Having said this, I have to overlook a slight narrative flatness and bitter realism and say that because THE CLASS manages to show the teaching profession as it really is -- with all of its contradictions and "why am I putting up with this crap for so little pay"-ness -- it is deserving of being called one of the greatest films ever made about the profession of teaching, if not something more.

4.0 out of 4

Coco Avant (Before) Chanel (2009)

For much of COCO AVANT CHANEL ("Coco Before Chanel"), I worried that I was watching nothing more than a standard bio-pic and - much worse - one about someone I cared little about. Two things, however, pulled me out of that feeling.

The first was Audrey Tatou, who, I think, gives a fantastic performance as the woman who would become Coco Chanel, fashion icon. Somewhat surprisingly, Tatou plays Chanel as a woman who saved outward joy (such as a smile) for rare occasions. It's a sharp contrast to our idea of the joy a designer would feel when creating, and an even more shocking contrast to Tatou's most famous acting work in "Amelie," one of the decades most striking films (albeit one that I feel is overrated).

The other thing that swayed me to the positive side about COCO AVANT CHANEL was an incredibly cinematic moment that did not come until three quarters of the way through the film. In a gorgeously-choreographed ballroom scene, Chanel conspicuously swirls around the floor in a short, black dress, while every other woman in the frame is laced tightly in the corset-supported, frilly and flowing gowns of the day -- the very sort of clothing that drove Chanel to create clothes that were more comfortable for women.

In this fantastic scene, everything clicks: why Chanel is so motivated, what she is revolting against. One sees in this moment that the simplicity of her style was likely inspired by the nuns who raised her as a young girl. If you're a woman and at all interested in fashion, you would probably enjoy this chapter in the history of the black dress mystique.

That said, I can compliment COCO AVANT CHANEL for being a biography film that felt as though it could have been a fictional story. Beyond that, however, it was fairly conventional in many ways, short of the fact that the story ends right at the moment when most people with an interest in Chanel would be most interested: when she hits the big time as a designer. Actually, we don't even see that...we assume that what we do see is what leads up to it.

There is surprisingly little in the way of fashion tutorials. No Rocky-style montages of Chanel sewing up frocks or giving an impassioned monologue about her dreams. Rather, she lives a somewhat sad and dreary young life and has the clear vision and determination to make something better of it. The film is as unsentimental as she is. Chanel was willing to do whatever to achieve her goals, including using men.

While the story of Chanel was not something I was seeking out or necessarily drawn to or interested in, there were a few moments of spark in COCO AVANT CHANEL that kept my interest, Tatou most prominent among them.

2.5 out of 4

Zombieland (2009)

"Zombieland" has moments of humor as good as anything I've seen in the last year or so. From a dryly-delivered voice-over narration by the underrated "my name is not Michael Cera" Jesse Eisenberg to the film's great highlight and centerpiece involving Bill Murray, I laughed hard.

Sadly, "Zombieland" falls apart at the end. It's tone, pitch perfect for 65 of its fast 85 minutes, changes. It's climactic scene is, well, anti-climactic. It's a shame, too, because the film has a lot going for it.

The plot of "Zombieland" centers around a small, disjointed band of road warriors at a time when the undead so heavily outnumber the living that the living refer to each other by the cities they come from, and basically now, represent entirely. We begin by meeting Columbus (Eisenberg), who provides us with all of the background we need -- a tutorial on how one survives in a world filled zombies. It is the best chunk of comic, meta-horror parody since "Scream."

While on the run, Columbus meets up with Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson playing, basically, the same thing as always -- though here it's perfect) and two girls, played by Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin (who is quite different from how we remember her), who trick the guys into situations that force the four of them to work as a team.

To give away much more of the plot would be to give away too many of the jokes, but I will say that one of the funniest bits in the film centers around Tallahassee's craving for a Twinkie, a snack so preservative-filled that it could, conceivably, survive the extinction of most of mankind.

"Zombieland" has some gore, as it should. It is, after all, a zombie flick, albeit a comic one. The odd couple pairing of Eisenberg and Harrelson works in the tradition of any buddy road film or mis-matched cop partners movie.

As I mentioned before, a final showdown between the humans and the zombies at an amusement park went foul for me. The jokes weren't sustained and the tone chained. It was, in my mind, a failed ending. But not so bad an ending that you shouldn't see what has got to be, when it's all over, one of the funniest movies this year.

3.0 out of 4

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (2009)

I just looked up the information on "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs," the movie I just saw this morning with my kids (in 3-D, no less), and was shocked to find that the film is not even 90 minutes long. Why, then, did it feel like far longer?

I have two theories. Theory number one -- and it's entirely probable -- is that my son's incessant squirming and the duelling match between my kids on either side of me to stuff their hands in the popcorn bag in my lap provided too great a distraction from a movie that wasn't good enough to pull my attention away from my kids. That and the fact that, as I held my son's 3-D glasses on him for most of the film, I obsessed over the idiocy that they don't make 3-D glasses for toddlers...the very market for the film itself! Adult-sized glasses don't sit on button noses and tiny ears, but I digress.

Theory number two is equally probable. And that's that "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" delivers a charming first half and a ridiculously flat, loud and eye-irritating second half.

As everyone probably knows by now, the film expands on the children's book, of which I am a big fan and have used in my creative writing class for years. Here, the main character (voiced generically by Bill Hader), is kid who grows up to be an inventor. His mom believes in him but dies young, and his dad is too old-school and simple-minded to support his son's crazy dreams or even communicate his feelings for him. Thow in a weather girl who dumbs herself down from the nerd she used to be to the if-this-weren't-a-kid's-cartoon-she'd-be-a-sexy TV-ready beautiful girl, and you have a couple of great morals to explore in the story.

Fantastic voiceover work brings life to support characters thanks the the work of Andy Samberg and Mr. T (we've MISSED YOU!).

At the end of the film's more complicated and interesting first half, the inventor's machine that turns water into food goes from being a blessing to a curse when the town's greedy mayor, in search of a marketable tourist attraction, essentially hijacks both the boy's emotions and his creation. Naturally, the machine's limits are tested in the hands of someone who doesn't know how to use it and all hamburger breaks loose (not to mention dozens of other treats). Before long, a town excited about having an alternative to the sardines it is known for is now staring down the terror of a cyclone made of spaghetti noodles. And the only one who can stop it is...well, you know...

I've not been quiet about my distaste (pardon the pun) for 3-D films, and once again (as with the even LESS exciting "Monsters vs. Aliens"), I walked out of this one thinking that the 3-D work was really responsible for all of the films most worthy moments. A great animated film like "Up" does not require the gimmick of 3-D, but a mediocre film like this one truly depends on it. Really, it's nothing without it. "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" showed some promise in its first half and even managed to use 3-D technology in a realistic and integrated way, instead of simply going for the "rubber ball on the paddle into the audience moments." But it couldn't sustain my interest or the quality of the storytelling, and that's a bummer. Maybe I'll like these 3-D kids' films more when someone invents smaller glasses for little kids.

2.0 out of 4

Michael Jackson's This Is It (2009)

I'm not sure that, under the circumstances, Michael Jackson's "This Is It" could have been any better. It was as fantastic of a movie-going experience as I've had in years, to the point where there were moments when I felt like I was at a concert instead of a movie theatre. And there was a short list of things I wished the film contained but, ultimately, didn't.

But Kenny Ortega only had to work with what he had to work with, and we're lucky he had what he did have. Therefore, it's not worth wishing for more close-up shots of Michael that might have revealed illness or drug abuse. The cameras were being used to capture the broad scope of rehearsals for the purpose of fine-tuning choreography and the tour's artistic elements. And it's also silly to discredit the film for not dwelling on Jackson's death. If you feel the film is lacking because this is not addressed, than you simply wanted an E-True Hollywood Story-type affair that was never Ortega's intent.

I knew going in that the film was meant to show me the concert that I'd never get to see, as best as could be shown to me given the circumstances. I got that in a big way. It's reasonable to admit that "This Is It" is a cashing-in. What it is not is a selling-out.

Can you blame the folks at AEG for wanting to recoup some of the money it invested in this mammoth, theatrical undertaking? You need only see the film for yourself to understand what an expense it already was in the months before the concerts were set to begin. Likewise, it's hard to blame the Jackson family for so strongly guarding Michael's image after his death. There was little more you could do to the man to damage his reputation than had already been done by both the press and Michael himself.

So we get a concert documentary here that is largely guarded, and I know that some will criticize that. My opinion on that is that if you are critical of the lack of sorrow and sadness on display in "This Is It," then you were missing out on the abundance of joy present. The only sadness I felt was the profound sense of loss of this genius of an entertainer. When leaving the theatre, I saw men and women around my age and slightly older stuck to the backs of their seats as the mediocre title track, newly released from the Jackson vault, played over the closing credits. Tears were in their eyes. He's gone. It hurt as bad at the end of watching "This Is It" as it did at Jackson's memorial service.

But about the movie itself! Ortega was clearly a yes-man to Jackson, and "This Is It" is evidence of that. But newly-filmed sequences that were meant to play on a giant screen at the back of the stage for "Smooth Criminal," "Thriller" and "Earth Song" show that Ortega is no slouch. And even if all he did was find a way to deliver on what Jackson wanted, he deserves credit. At one point in the film, Jackson is complaining about an ear piece and the sound level and is so unintelligible in his dissatistaction that the audience in the theatre where I saw the film burst into confused laughter. Numerous times, in fact, we were reminded how difficult it was to please Jackson.

I liked these sections of the film because it kept "This Is It" from coming off as a buffed, warts-removed production. We see him singing at less than full strength at times. We watch him drop some lines to songs. And, perhaps most egregiously, we NEVER see the moonwalk! Though he teases us toward the end of "Billie Jean," the final song in the concert's sequence, it never materializes. After almost two hours of being reminded of how amazing Jackson's dancing was, the move most of us love the best never happens, just like the concerts themselves. It's a reminder of the fact that "This Is It" is only capable of providing 90% satisfaction. The other 10% can never be because Jackson is dead.

My favorite moments in "This Is It" were the ones in which his backup dancers and crew members watched Jackson performing alone on stage from an open area on the Staples Center floor in front of him. In these moments, they forget that they are Jackson's employees and, to their credit, dancers with the skill to keep up with him. Instead, they represent us...giddy fans who cannot believe their good fortune to be seeing what they are seeing.

I am grateful to Kenny Ortega -- no matter how rushed and for what purpose -- that "This Is It" exists. It gave me the same feeling as those dancers.

3.5 out of 4

An apology to readers...

As you can see, I haven't posted anything in a full two months. Assuming that anyone out there was actually reading this, I am aware of the fact that there has to be new content a bit more frequently to merit your loyalty and readership. I humbly apologize.

I have tried to update "On the Movie" by posting my reviews in the order that I've been seeing movies. But now that I'm behind, there's a backlog of a half-dozen or so films for which I've either written reviews for Facebook only or no review at all. In the effort of catching up, I have to throw organization out the window and simply settle for getting reviews posted here in whatever order I can manage them.

I plan to be "back to normal" in time for the holiday film season and my favorite time of year, the Oscar season. I apologize for the long delay and thank you for your readership!