Define “Dancing”
July 28th – August 4th
Wall-E – I really enjoyed this one. I don’t see that many G Rated movies. It was hell getting through a behind-the-scenes featurette and eventually a trailer for the upcoming Beverly Hills Chihuahua. Eck! But Wall-E was good enough that I’m looking forward to rewatching this one on DVD. There seemed to be a lot of little references that will make additional viewings enjoyable. I was most impressed with the portions that took place on Earth. Earth looked so dusty and grimy. And I could have watched Wall-E roaming around by himself all day. And while EVE and the Axiom are slick and futuristic, they lack the realism and individuality that a little dirt and rust add.
Stop-Loss – The second film (9 years after Boys Don’t Cry) from director Kimberly Peirce. I haven’t seen many of the narrative films that have come out of the Iraq war. But this one wasn’t horrible. Some of the video segments–meant to imitate the type of videos shot by soldiers–seemed quite authentic. The battle scenes were convincing. It wasn’t overly political yet still not timid either. And I’ll even admit that I was a bit smitten by Abbie Cornish. But it seemed to miss the mark on a few points. First, it seemed like a bit of a stretch that this guy would be stop-lossed as he was essentially walking out the door. It also seemed strange that he had to be told what stop-loss was (as it is spelled out for the audience as well). Second, the whole underground changing your identity thing and going to Canada seemed a bit contrived. Is the military really going to let you just slip away? Then again, they still haven’t found Bin Laden… Third, I think it presses its case a little too far by suggesting that every soldier is going to go through some sort of freakout (digging a foxhole in your girlfriend’s front yard, assaulting the MP and going AWOL, or committing suicide). It just seemed a bit over the top in that regard. Not everybody is going to suffer from PTSD.
Chop Shop – Ramin Bahrani’s follow up to 2005′s Man Push Cart. Like the previous film, this one is small, dark & dirty, and sympathetic towards those who don’t get to live the American Dream. It’s strange to realize–in this country where a man named Barack Obama is possibly 3 months from the Presidency–that this is an American film. Like Obama, Bahrani has a non-typical name, yet he was born in North Carolina. Bahrani’s films are shot in a style, with mostly non-actors, and in locations that seem more like foreign films than typical domestic films. And yet both of Bahrani’s films are very American. They are both about working to struggle to stay afloat in the dingy background of everything America has to offer. It is so important to remember–and easy to want to forget–that despair exists not only in the slums of Rio de Janeiro and other far away places but also right here at home.
I also kept wondering why Ryan Phillipe’s character didn’t seem to know what a stop-loss was. That really bugged me.