Category: 2010s

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Confirmation (2016)

In 1991 Clarence Thomas (played here by Wendall Pierce) was nominated to the Supreme Court. This follows the point in his hearings when lawyer and educator Anita Hill (in the film portrayed by Kerry Washington) was compelled to share her experiences of sexual harassment while working with him. I admittedly didn’t watch the hearings as they happened, but it is infuriating to watch them unfold in the film. It truly illustrates how broken the system, and perhaps all political systems, can be. While it’s difficult to know how accurate the behind the scenes parts are, the hearings come across realistically as do the portrayals of the various political figures.

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Triple 9 (2016)

A team of ex-Navy SEALs and corrupt cops, including Chiwetel Ejiofor, Aaron Paul, and Clifton Collins Jr., conspire to kill another police officer Casey Affleck in order to create a diversion to pull off a heist for the Jewish-Russian Mafia led by Kate Winslet. Despite having an incredible cast, this movie is dull and way too convoluted for a heist film. The heisting gets completely overwhelmed by the many interpersonal relationships and cop drama, which could be fine but the Mob angle is very silly and the ‘good’ cop isn’t worth rooting for.   Crime

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Theeb (2014)

In the Ottoman Empire during days of World War I, a young Bedouin boy surreptitiously follows his older brother who is guiding a British officer to a railway. The group is ambushed by raiders and Jacir Eid Al-Hwietat’s titular Theeb is forced to grow up quickly. It’s an interesting context for a coming-of-age story. For a mostly amateur cast, the acting is quite good and believable. The desert setting is beautifully presented in all its dangerously arid glory.

Oscar Nomination: Best Foreign Language Film of the Year

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Red (2010)

When ex-CIA agent Bruce Willis and his girlfriend Mary-Louise Parker are targeted by assassins, he reunites a team of fellow retired agents to get to the bottom of the conspiracy. It’s refreshing seeing a mix of older actors (Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren, John Malkovich) in an action film and they do indeed all kick ass in their roles. The main downer is Willis, and Parker by extension. He’s the only one really given anything as a character and his acting offers not an ounce of depth or development in any of those scenes. It’s light fun otherwise.  Action

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Night Will Fall (2014)

When the Allies liberated the Nazi concentration camps, cameramen were there to document the atrocities. Some of that footage was compiled into the British documentary German Concentration Camps Factual Survey which was inexplicably shelved for 70 years. This film documents the making of that one, including footage from it as well as interviews with more recent interviews with survivors and other people who were there at the time. The footage is very similar to that shown in Night and Fog. Though just as horrifying, my recent viewing of that film may have diminished some of the impact here. The rest of the film is an interesting, albeit rather standard format, documentary chronicle.  War

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Roots (2016)

It has been quite a while since I’ve seen the original Roots miniseries, so it seemed a good time to check out this newer rendition. In the heavily fictionalized account of his family history, Alex Haley laid out the tale of how his first ancestor, Kunta Kinte, came to America on a slave ship proceeding through the generations to Haley himself. While overall I think I like the earlier version of the story, there were some highlights to this series. The budget for this seemed much higher, resulting in a higher quality and more realistic looking product. The sets in Gambia were more extravagant and portrayed a people less uncivilized than previous. One big issue I had was with the torture porn aspects of the slavery chapters. It somehow overwhelms the more everyday degradations and cruelty of slavery by only showing the extremes.

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The Salt of the Earth (2014)

Co-directed by his son, this documentary chronicles the career of photographer Sebastião Salgado. Trained as an economist, Salgado almost accidentally stumbled into his chosen career after his wife bought him a camera in Paris. After that moment, his work took him across the globe, photographing native tribes in South America, famine in Africa, and wars in Yugoslavia and Rwanda. Filming the worst of humanity led him to begin work reforesting his native Brazil and a somewhat renewed career in wildlife photography. His photographs are beautiful, dramatic, stark, and real. I hadn’t been aware of the artist before and this documentary gives a close view into his life and work.

Oscar Nomination: Best Documentary, Feature

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Tomboy (2011)

When a French family moves to a new apartment, 10 year old Zoé Héran is immediately mistaken for a boy, spending the rest of the summer being Mickaël amongst their new friends. With this new identity, they are able to throw off many of the prescribed gender norms, continuing to wear the clothes they like, roughhousing with the boys, and playing with makeup with girls. There is a lot of sensitivity in this portrayal, not even committing to how the character really feels about their gender, just that for this moment in time, they are enjoying the change in how people view them. Unfortunately many people, adults and children alike, don’t have the language available to discuss gender exploration and the idyllic summer must come to an end with the harsh realities of fall.

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Amira & Sam (2014)

When she is almost busted for selling bootleg DVDs, undocumented immigrant Dina Shihabi is forced to hide out in the apartment of Martin Starr, a former soldier who worked with her uncle in Iraq. Against their better judgment, the two fall in love even while immigration officials are closing in. The two actors have a casual chemistry between them that grows as they get to know each other. Delightfully, Shihabi’s smile lights up the screen during their courtship. I find it interesting whenever a work has a woman who wears hijab on her own terms and here it reflects on her attempts to meld her traditional Muslim with her new-found American culture.  Romance

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The Legend of Hei (2019)

When his forest home is destroyed by humans, cat demon Hei is taken in by a motley group of other demons. Before too long, he is kidnapped by a human who takes him on an extended journey where he learns more about his powers and the world at large. In the end, Hei must decide in the end where his loyalties lie. Serving as a prequel to a popular web series, the story isn’t particularly fresh view on environmental concerns, but it is beautifully animated. Many of the backgrounds particularly are gorgeous. I’m not a fan of cats, but Hei in cat form is endearingly rendered in a very simple form.

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