Category: 2000s

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The Good Shepherd (2006)

I might have seen this film about the birth of CIA counter-intelligence, but it is so dull that I barely remember it enough to write this review. Matt Damon is fine as the main character, whom the film follows from his college days being recruited by the CIA to his own son having the same experience. Most of the rest of the cast, filled with well-known names who drop relatively quickly in and out of the story, also are fine in their roles. Angelina Jolie is the exception, horribly miscast as Damon’s long-suffering wife. The story jumps back and forth between different time periods quickly and without much clarity, aside from poor aging makeup that somehow Damon managed to avoid.

Oscar Nomination: Best Achievement in Art Direction

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Antwone Fisher (2002)

I expected more from Denzel Washington’s directorial debut. The story of an emotionally troubled young man learning to come to terms with the traumas of his past with the help of a mentor isn’t particularly new. This version has a sailor prone to violent outbursts who is forced by his commanding officer to see a psychiatrist. It generally follows the expected tropes, except it speeds through the actual transformation of the main character so that it feels like a sudden, unearned change. One positive is that the acting is solid, particularly that of the actors during the flashbacks.

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Lust, Caution (2007)

Watching the NC-17 version, I have never seen such lengthy explicit sex scenes outside of porn. While framed beautifully, I’m not sure the exact purpose the length of these scenes offered to the narrative. The rest of this tale, set in China during the days of World War II, is similarly beautiful. Tang Wei is transformative in her lead role. She believably switches from shy college student who is a member of a patriotic drama club to worldly, seductive spy bent on assassinating an agent of the Japanese puppet government and back again several times over the course of the film. Tension is held throughout the film and there are incredible subtleties in the performances of each character as their expressions do and don’t bely their feelings.

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Fracture (2007) – Rewatch, I think

It is hard to know if I’d previously seen this film or not, though I’m pretty sure I have. It is one in a series of films with an über intelligent Anthony Hopkins matching wits with a potentially worthy foe. Sir Anthony plays an engineer who shoots his unfaithful wife, certain he will get away with it; Ryan Gosling, with a nonsensical Southern accent, is the young upstart district attorney who is assigned to the case. Aside from finagling himself into job at a high profile firm, there is little sense that Gosling is up to this mental challenge. The slapdash finale supports that conclusion.

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Born Into Brothels (2004)

I spent my time watching this being extremely torn. There’s the strong pull to want to ‘save’ these kids from the future that is most likely to look just like their parents’ present. But is it really the job of an outsider to swoop in and ‘fix’ someone else’s system? Helping even a handful of individuals, while worthwhile, won’t necessarily solve the problems in the brothels. At the conclusion of the film, I ended up hoping that it had just concentrated on the lessons and experiences with photography that the kids delighted in, even if it was just illustrating a short chapter in their lives. An epilogue could have been tacked on to give insight into whatever long term benefits those experiences had given them.

Oscar Win: Best Documentary, Features

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Kavi (2009)

I don’t know how intentional it was, but this movie has the acting and visual quality of a Bollywood film from many decades earlier. It pushes hard on the important topic of modern day slavery, but a short film’s runtime for this particular film offers little to convey an emotional connection to the characters and their plight.

Oscar Nomination: Best Short Film, Live Action

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One Last Dance (2003)

I watched this in hopes of seeing some beautiful dance sequences and Patrick Swayze and Lisa Niemi together in a film. At least one of those parts was successful. Sadly, the filming of the dance scenes are cold and framed in ways that don’t emphasize the dance nearly enough. Double sadly, the entire film lacks polish with uninteresting, miscast characters, jarring music, and cliché story-telling. The finished product wasn’t awful, just not interesting enough to recommend.

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Long Night’s Journey Into Day (2000)

All of my South African apartheid viewing has been limited to the days of segregation. I’m poorly informed on how the post-Apartheid era. I appreciated this window into the Truth and Reconciliation Committee even if the production quality was not far from a Public Access television level. I especially laud the choice of the filmmakers do focus on the stories themselves, only telling the viewer of the conclusion in an epilogue.

Oscar Nomination: Best Documentary, Features

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3 Iron (2004)

Gradually working through Bong Joon-Ho’s filmography, I’m more than happy to pay attention to works by other Korean directors. Like many of that director’s films, this one has some interesting commentary on social status and the invisibles in society. The primary invisibles in this case are a young man whose possessions other than a motorcycle are literally the clothes on his back and an abused housewife. Kim Ki-duk, the director here, makes incredible use of silence in this work, which makes the little dialogue between the two main characters much more powerful. There are other Korean films I’ve watched thus far that I love more, but this does make me want to seek out others.

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Memories of Murder (2003)

If you’re interested in crime dramas, but feel that maybe the cops are too capable or maybe just not shown to be in over their head enough, this might be the film for you. Somewhat based on the real story of Korea’s first serial killer, this makes you simultaneously feel bad for the cops while also still thinking ACAB. Yes, I liked it.

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