Some Movies I've Seen Recenlty

I’ve seen a bunch of movies lately, and I thought I’d write a little about them.

The Hurt Locker

The Hurt Locker is the latest in the long string of financially unsuccessful films about the Iraq war. Jeremy Renner plays the lead character, a bomb specialist whose methods are less than traditional. At the beginning of the movie, having just arrived in a new squadron to replace the old bomb specialist, Renner is seen trotting off to diffuse the bomb, hiding himself from the watchful eyes of his superiors by dropping a smoke bomb an dancing into the fog. Right away, he is set up as the wild card. He’s reckless and full of energy. Immediately, we are meant to like him, and we do. It’s Jeremy Renner. The rest of the small group is equally easily identifiable with any audience who has seen a war film in the last thirty years. There’s the uptight Captain who has no patience for Renner’s peculiarities, and there’s the green specialist, who quickly falls under Renner’s spell. 

But there’s a lot in this movie that sets it apart from other Iraqi war films. For one thing, it moves from tense suspense piece to tense suspense piece. Every sequence is another excuse to set the audience on edge. Mainly though, the movie doesn’t have some big statement to make about war. We get it. War is bad. People who don’t feel that way, will probably always feel that way. Instead, The Hurt Locker focuses on character. It goes delves much further into Renner’s character than most would. Ultimately, its ending is not about war, but about one particular soldier. Renner is great (as usual) as the soldier who keeps mementos of near death experiences under his bed. His downtime consists of mini-fight clubs with his friends. He is more daunted by which cereal he should pick than which wire he should cut. The movie is directed by Kathryn Bigelow, who has gained a reputation as a great action director – a reputation I never really thought she deserved that much . . . until now.

Humpday

Humpday is typical mumblecore. Take a “controversial” subject and talk the fucking thing to death. Both actors are good as two old friends who reconnect and dare each other to make a gay porno together, but I got real sick of hearing these two play their game of gay chicken over and over. The movie is well acted – particularly by Alycia Delmore as the housewife who cannot bring herself to get behind her husband’s sudden Bohemian desire to make artsy gay porn. In the end, the movie doesn’t make any huge statements about sexuality or even porn. The characters have attacked both subjects from every angle themselves until there's nothing left to say on the subject. But it is revealing that at the time the two characters book the motel room and prepare to make the movie, they have no camera crew. This is just for them.

Adoration

The latest from Atom Egoyan. As usual, Egoyan is obsessed with media. And with media changing radically every day, one would expect him to have more stories in him. Adoration is about a kid whose phoney story spreads across the Internet like wildfire, and then gets talked to death in “chat rooms.” These particular chat rooms consists of video screens and everyone talking over each other – much how I use Twitter, only with actors rather than fonts.

I imagine this movie is a reaction to how anyone can vomit their useless, uninformed, reactionary opinions all over the Internet – inviting only more useless, uninformed, reactionary responses. The main kid goes about – checking his phone which is always at the ready with the latest diatribe from the “chat rooms” aimed squarely at himself. I hated this. The dialogue is contrived and stilted. The teacher really needs to do something about that unibrow she’s sporting. And the opinions expressed in the movie prove just as obnoxious as any on any message board. It’s official: Egoyan is not for me.

District 9

District 9 plays like a cross between Cloverfield and Starship Troopers. It begins as a faux documentary with clever satirical overtones, but regularly breaks out of its documentary convention and becomes more and more like a thriller. Eventually, it is nearly all thriller – mirroring the kind of transformation the main character takes from . . . well, I guess I won’t get spoilerish. Unlike most alien invasion movies, this one supposes that aliens land – not in America or even England – but in South Africa. The plot involves aliens becoming stranded on Earth and getting herded in slums where they are harassed and ostracized. Frankly, I think this is giving the human race too much credit. I have difficulty believing that we wouldn’t blast them all to hell and examine their parts for medical fodder, but instead their treatment is meant to mirror apartheid times.

It is shot on an extremely low budget, at least for a action blockbuster – like Coverfield – but its special effects are impressive nonetheless. The acting is too broad at times, but the but the script and direction are bold and clever. It’s not especially tense or funny, but it is fascinating and involving. The movie is strongest when it moves away from big broad statements and focuses on action and the two sympathetic aliens. There are many holes that the audience is invited to fill in. Plus an ending that leaves some rather ominous threads dangling, but as anyone familiar with my taste can tell you, I dig that shit. My expectations were high, and I was disappointed, but not by much.

In the Loop

The rapid-fire political comedy that reminds me of Billy Wilder’s 1961 movie, One, Two, Three. The puns, name-calling, and gags come at a furious pace. The camaera is never still. Characters rip into each other for fear of being discovered as frauds. As an observation on politics, it is the complete opposite of The West Wing. With In the Loop, characters are barely even aware of their own political beliefs and instead focus their efforts on making headlines and not pissing off the wrong people. Everyone shouts each other down. People take trans-Atlantic flights just to be “room meet”. Memos and reports are leaked. And stances are made based on which way the wind is blowing.

The movie portrays politics in the most cynical light. It’s not about people pushing evil agendas as much as it’s about incompetents trying not to be found out. The dialogue is wicked clever. The acting is perfectly breathless. And in typical British fashion, it is all so wonderfully dry. Best of all, the stubborn refusal to deliver a happy ending. It’s not heartbreaking, or inspiring, but it is damn funny and entertaining.

 Ponyo

Tonight, I made a revelation: I am not a fan of Miyazaki when he is in kiddie mode. I absolutely love Spirited Away, and much of his adult fantasies, but when he commits to a children’s movie (like My Neighbor Torturo), he really commits to making something upbeat and hopeful and brightly colored and full of children’s music. I never winced or cringed at the material. And if I ever have children (bah!) I wouldn’t hesitate to show them this or any Miyazaki movie. They are damned charming and sweet. But I ain’t into charming and sweet. I wish he would let up on the sugar just a little bit.