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The Fog Of War (USA, director Errol Morris): This was a very strong documentary focussing on the life of Robert McNamara, the Defence Secretary who served under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. McNamara, now 85 years of age, talks at length about his experiences and the lessons he has learned. His mind still razor-sharp, he admits that he made many mistakes in the “fog of war” and that he was responsible for many thousands of lives being lost. But he doesn’t really admit guilt. He talks about how he made the best decisions he could at the time, and how his advice often went unheeded. He and Johnson eventually disagreed so severely about policy on the Vietnam war that he either resigned or was fired. He says he can’t remember which it was, but that one of his friends always reminds him that of course, he was fired. I never got the feeling that he was trying to justify himself, and yet Morris is such a clever filmmaker that he leaves quite a bit of room to ask questions, even while painting a mostly sympathetic portrait of a very powerful man. A fascinating experience.
(9/10)
Tagged as:
vietnam
I Love Your Work (USA, director Adam Goldberg): Giovanni Ribisi is a movie star living what I hope is a caricature of a movie star’s life (although in Hollywood, there seems to be no such thing as a caricature). He’s becoming paranoid, seeing stalkers everywhere and suspecting his movie-star wife of infidelity (with Elvis Costello, no less). Then he meets a fan who seems so normal, and proceeds to screw up this man’s life, all the while descending into some sort of madness, and flashing back to a time in his life when he seemed to have normalcy and real love. This film is a bit of a mess, actually. Lots of flashbacks and movie stars portraying movie stars portraying movie stars. It got a bit too “meta” at times, and the narrative was muddled. There was also an ambiguity about the whole fame thing, which is not very new, and frankly, hard for an audience to sympathize with.
I love movies and hate the movie business. So, apparently, does Adam Goldberg. So how come I didn’t like this more?
(7/10)
P.S. I’ve always loved Goldberg. He’s always played sort of “sidekick” roles, first on the short-lived TV series Relativity, then on Friends.
P.P.S. Before the screening, I saw Giovanni Ribisi walking down the lineup filming the crowd with his camcorder. In addition to Ribisi and director Adam Goldberg, Franka Potente, Christina Ricci, and Shalom Harlow were also at the screening. Of course, after seeing the caustic way in which fans (and stars) are portrayed in the film, it would be just about impossible to say anything to any of them, even if you could get close.
Nói Albinói (Iceland/UK/Germany/Denmark, director Dagur Kári): Nói is an oddity in a land of oddities. He’s bright, but never in school, and his tiny remote town is boring him to death. All his attempts to escape seem to fail, and then a cruel twist of fate leaves him even more isolated than before. Clearly a bit autobiographical, this first feature contained some clever ’80s kitsch (Rubik’s Cube, MasterMind, ViewMaster) from the director’s own teen years. Though not particularly original, the film was well-made and filled with dark humour and some wonderful images (and not just of the “beautiful Iceland” variety, though it had those, too.) Nói shooting at huge icicles with a shotgun, and later, digging a grave in a snowstorm, were particularly arresting. I’d like to see what Dagur Kári will do next.
(7.5/10)
Tagged as:
debut,
iceland