2003 Foreign, Alternative and Independent Films - Page 13

Edwin Pereyra · 11-27-2003, 01:19 AM

I've decided to skip The Human Stain theatrically for now due to lackluster reviews. Next up for me: Pieces of April.

~Edwin

Michael Reuben · 11-29-2003, 03:26 PM

Having finally gotten a chance to see In America, I can't do much more than link to Jason Seaver's thorough review from last spring. This is a remarkable film that is willing to risk being called sentimental and almost never is. The performances, even by characters with only a few lines, are uniformly excellent.

M.

Brook K · 12-01-2003, 03:01 AM

Finally made it to the theater again:

Elephant

I appreciated in theme and technique, but I didn't
connect with it emotionally the way I did with Gerry. There were two women sobbing in the aisle in front of me, but after seeing the real thing in Bowling for Columbine and the newspapers, to see the dramatized version felt
a bit like a TV movie treatment at times (let's play a violent video game, here's the guy's ordering a gun off the Internet, oh look its a pamphlet on explosives). Perhaps if Van Sant hadn't called his killers Kyle and Eric and had a more fictionalized take I could have separated myself from reality more and gotten more into it... I don't know.

But as Ted mentioned, I did appreciate the depiction of the banality of everyday life and the repeated scenes from differing POV's (although the "Benny" story brought nothing to the table and seemed completely out of place).
A good movie for how it depicts the unpredictability and unexplainability of the violence that surrounds us, but for me, not an outstanding one.

The worst thing about Chinese rule in Tibet is that one cannot say "I am Tibetan"

The "Year Of The Documentary" continues with

Tibet: Cry Of The Snow Lion

a moving and painful documentary about the Chinese subjugation of Tibet and how the Chinese are virtually expunging Tibetan culture. Martin Sheen narrates and it has a few other celeb voices, but it is mostly told through interviews with Tibetans, both inside the country and expatriates, and Western academians and others who have lived or traveled in Tibet. It also includes interviews with Chinese officials to hear the official government spin from the mouth of the beast and rightly attacks the American position of paying lip service to human rights while bending over backwards to do business with China, who's rule has resulted in the death of 1 out of every 6 Tibetans.

While there are certain aspects of the filmmaking that likely bow to commercial purposes (as in getting the film made, this isn't the kind of movie that makes $$ regardless of quality), and a couple of scenes that are unnecessary; I've always felt that documentaries should always err on the side of having too much rather than too little and the sheer power of the story told overwhelms any minor flaws. If it shows up in your area, I highly recommend it.

Lew Crippen · 12-01-2003, 12:03 PM

I agree in large part with your view of Elephant Brook, but I reluctantly conclude that Tibet: Cry of the Snow Lion is not a very good documentary.

While the plight of the Tibetan people should be a source of concern for us all, and deserves to be more widely known than it is, I don’t feel that this film will advance the cause very much. As a film it is far to long and tries to address far too many issues to be truly effective.

Aside from the subject matter, the film is at its best when it depicts concrete items like the destruction of the 1,600 Buddhist monasteries or when it focuses on the Dali Lahama, his commitment to non-violence and how effective that policy is in addressing the Chinese domination of Tibet.

For me, the film takes far too many detours, asking us (to cite one example) to also be concerned with the expansion of Western capital into China and the sale of Chinese goods to the U.S. I feel that the filmmakers would be better served if they had a more limited focus in their film.

This film got a fine review in the Dallas Morning News and I was really looking forward to seeing it. But for me the review was more on the subject matter than how it was executed. This should have been so much better.

Brook K · 12-01-2003, 12:51 PM

I disagree, there are a couple of unnecessary things, like showing the "Free Tibet" concert footage where I'm thinking "yeah, these mosh pitting dudes really care or even know anything about Tibet?" And the theory that Tibet is good for world security by providing a buffer zone between China and India seemed a large stretch, but these are relatively small pieces of a powerful document.

I think the inclusion of American complicity in what is happening is VERY necessary and some of the most damning and moving elements. This is a movie that is not just telling a story, but is attempting to generate enough outrage that people will act. What better way than to bring home that this is not something happening to a remote people very far away that we are helpless to aid, but rather one of the many peoples that America has sold out and hypocritically ignores.

Some of this footage also poses questions that aren't even related to Tibet, but should be very worrisome for everyone in this country. Like the fact that our government and corporations do business with the PLA. There have already been instances of corporations selling advanced missle and satellite technology to the Chinese with government approval. T'would appear that America is being completely manipulated by China and our government is amazingly ignorant of what is happening because A. They are beholden to corporate interests eternally chasing after the vast "potential" of Chinese markets (China has successfully manipulated this into an $80B+ trade deficit in their favor) B. Fear of the Chinese military (A continued policy of appeasement and caving to China on virtually every issue rather than dealing from a position of strength and extracting concessions for the things they want).

It also has implications regarding the rhetoric and "high-mindedness" of what we are doing in Iraq, but I'm sure I've strayed to far to the political already.

But also, I think they are right to include this material, because America is the one nation that could help if only it had the will to do so. The filmmakers want to inspire some hope but not in a naive way. They are saying "we were involved, this is why America left, and this is why we aren't interested now". I think that is a very important piece of the story.

The filmmakers only have one shot to make this movie. There isn't going to be a series of 10 Tibet documentaries. I think it is ok that they tried to fire every bullet in their gun. I'm often disappointed by documentaries that don't give enough (Spellbound for instance), I'm not going to complain about one that gives a bit too much.

Lew Crippen · 12-01-2003, 02:16 PM

Quote:

Some of this footage also poses questions that aren't even related to Tibet, but should be very worrisome for everyone in this country. Like the fact that our government and corporations do business with the PLA.

Not to comment on the politics, I just felt that the documentary would have been more powerful if it had stayed focused on matters pertaining to Tibet (at least more directly).

I thought, for example that the withdrawal of CIA funding for the Tibetan resistance was handled very well and left the audience with only two possibilities: that either the withdrawal of funding after Kissenger’s initial foray’s into rapprochement with China was betraying an earlier commitment or we should never have begun it in the first place. That the funding was only sufficient to annoy China, but not enough to return political power to Tibet was something I had not considered.

But the digression into the morality of investing in China and the consequent trade is, in the end, a minor side issue (from a ‘free Tibet’ perspective and I thought that it came at a point in the film where the documentarions should have been driving their core message home, rather than losing the plot.

It will be very hard to stem the ‘trade with China’ issue—less hard to focus on the issue of Tibetan independence. To try to do both, does a disservice to both.

Lew Crippen · 12-01-2003, 02:25 PM

Quote:

but I reluctantly conclude that Tibet: Cry of the Snow Lion is not a very good documentary.

After reading your comments a second time Brook, I think that I was a bit harsh in this statement and it does not reflect my real feelings: "I reluctantly conclude … is not as good has I had hoped or the subject deserved." But still a film that ought to be seen by a wide audience.

Brook K · 12-01-2003, 03:01 PM

Again, I maintain this material is extremely important in detailing what the struggle for Tibetan independence is up against. The commerce is not "a side issue" (yes, it led me down different paths of thought, but it is still inter-related). It is a principle contributing factor in the world's willingness to shuffle the issue under the rug. They listen to the Dalai Llama's speeches and shake his hand, but governments aren't going to ruffle China's feathers with concrete action.

And again, this is a movie trying to rouse people to action. What better way to rouse the liberal intelligentsia than show how America is helping to finance the PLA and then turn around and buy more weapons to meet a threat we're helping to create, all the while selling out the indigenous populace while paying lip service to being protectors of democracy? (hmm, when has this happened before?)

Straight out of the Michael Moore playbook.

And before movie they showed the trailer to Errol Morris's Fog Of War. I cannot wait to see that.

Lew Crippen · 12-01-2003, 03:35 PM

Quote:

And before movie they showed the trailer to Errol Morris's Fog Of War. I cannot wait to see that.

Me too. As you already wrote—“The Year Of The Documentary”

Jason Seaver · 12-03-2003, 08:33 AM

Pieces Of April -

¾

There are only a few prodcuers who are a better indication of what a movie will be like than the director. Jerry Bruckheimer, for instance, will give you a glossy movie with a fine cast all playing well below their capabilities in a story that doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but which has some memorable bits. Meanwhile, on the other end of the spectrum, Gary Winick's InDigEnt (Independent Digital Entertainment) will generally deliver a grainy, flat-looking movie with a surprisingly good cast that talks a lot but doesn't say as much as they think they do.

Just as Bruckheimer sometimes lucks into a good movie every once in a while (The Rock, Pirates Of The Carribean), so here does Winick. Pieces Of April looks nicer than the other InDigEnt films I've seen (Sam The Man, Tape), which may just be a factor of better technology, but also seems to be the result of better lighting. Which is good, because what use are the fine performances by Katie Holmes, Patricia Clarkson, Oliver Platt, et al., if you can't see them?

The story itself is simple; April (Holmes) is the black sheep of her family. Neither her parents (Clarkson and Platt) or siblings can think of any happy memories involving her, and since leaving home, her life has been one disaster after another. As this Thanksgiving starts, though, she seems to have turned a corner - her boyfriend (Derek Luke) seems like a nice enough guy, and she's offered to host the family's holiday dinner.

There's a likable desperation to April - though at times she seems too nice to have been the nightmare her family describes, she has lapses where she's rude or inconsiderate, and there's a subplot with her boyfriend that indicates she may still be quite capable of bad judgment. But her mother has cancer, and it's quite clear that this may be April's last chance to prove to her family that she's not a total screw-up.

There's a fair amount of padding - Sean Hayes has a character who is little more than obnoxious, and it occasionally seems that about twice as much time is spent on April's family in the car as needs to be. But there is one magical moment, where April is trying to explain Thanksgiving to a Korean family that knows little English - she stumbles over the sugar-coated version I learned in first grade, then the politically-correct rebuke, before finally cutting right to the heart of it. There's been lots of "true meaning of Christmas" movies, but a "true meaning of Thanksgiving" one is rarer, and interesting because of that.

Michael Reuben · 12-03-2003, 02:17 PM

The Cooler

This is an exceptional film that works on the simple premise that superstitions about luck (good and bad) are all true. Once you accept that there really is a guy (William H. Macy's Bernie Lootz) whose luck is so bad that he can cool a gambler's hot streak just by standing at the table, and that Bernie's luck can be changed overnight when he falls for a casino waitress (Natalie, played by Maria Bello), the entire plot unfolds in a way that makes perfect sense but continues to surprise. (The script throws you a few nice miscues along the way, too.) Even the ending, which could easily have seemed arbitrary, fits beautifully with what's gone before.

Macy has never been better, and considering how good he always is, that's saying a