Current Releases

BORAT: CULTURAL LEARNINGS OF AMERICA FOR MAKE BENEFIT GLORIOUS NATION OF KAZAKHSTAN Originally conceived as a character on HBO's Da Ali G Show, Borat Sagdiyev is a Kazakh journalist who comes to America to make a documentary -- and there's your plot in a nutshell. Yet what makes Borat different is that creator-star Sacha Baron Cohen, who plays the insensitive and language-mangling journalist, never breaks character, interviewing scores of ordinary Americans who genuinely believe that they're being questioned by a foreign reporter. If Borat is staged in any way, then it's a "mockumentary" that stretches its one-joke concept to the breaking point -- after about an hour, you'll be satisfied. Yet if the filmmakers' claim that everything is on the level is true, then this is borderline genius, an inspired piece of guerilla filmmaking that's able to gauge the real pulse of America and unearth some unpleasant (if hardly surprising) truths. Borat is often convulsively, savagely funny, but beneath the scatology and mockery rests a knowingness about the manner in which our societal prejudices can be hidden, diverted and even encouraged. In that regard, this is one smart movie. ***

CATCH A FIRE The title's a bit misleading, insofar as this well-meaning movie never really catches fire. Based on a true story and set in the early 1980s, it centers on Patrick Chamusso (Derek Luke), a South African oil refinery foreman whose apolitical attitude allows him to largely fly under the radar when it comes to confrontations with the ruling white class. But after the members of an anti-apartheid organization sabotage the refinery, suspicion falls on the innocent Patrick, and he's soon arrested and tortured under the supervision of Nic Vos (Tim Robbins), a key figure in the country's homeland security division. Director Phillip Noyce is no stranger to helming gripping films set in turbulent times and divided lands, but working from an unexceptional screenplay by Shawn Slovo (daughter of one of the film's characters), he's unable to duplicate the vibrancy of The Quiet American or the pathos of Rabbit-Proof Fence -- we naturally feel for these ill-treated characters, but it's more of a Pavlovian reaction to the on-screen brutalities rather than because of anything served up in Slovo's surprisingly conventional script. **1/2

THE DEPARTED At this point in his career, it's hard to imagine Martin Scorsese accepting another filmmaker's hand-me-downs. Yet in essence, that's what's taking place with The Departed, which isn't an original screen story but rather a remake of the excellent 2002 Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs. Like its predecessor, this boasts an ingenious premise: A lawman (Leonardo DiCaprio) goes undercover and infiltrates the inner circle of a crime lord (Jack Nicholson) while a mob underling (Matt Damon) simultaneously works his way up through the ranks of the police department. Neither informant knows the other's identity, prompting both men to feverishly work to uncover the plant on the other side of the fence. Given that powerhouse punch of a scenario, it's perhaps not surprising that Scorsese elected to rework someone else's property while also embellishing it with his own distinctive style. The violence and vulgarity -- trademarks of this sort of Scorsese outing -- are pitched at operatic levels, and they occasionally verge on overkill. But with weighty issues of identity, duplicity and deception remaining constants throughout the film, it's refreshing to find a stateside remake that for once doesn't feel the need to dumb down for the sake of Yank audiences. ***

FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS Easy to admire but more difficult to adore, Clint Eastwood's sober tribute to our fighting forces during World War II manages the tricky feat of honoring the past while also subtly deflating the attendant mythology that over time attaches itself like a barnacle to a ship side. It's this strength of conviction that allows the film to toss aside some niggling aspects and earn its keep as a memorable war movie. Working from a script by William Broyles Jr. and Crash Oscar winner Paul Haggis (adapting James Bradley's book), Eastwood focuses on the events surrounding the raising of the U.S. flag on Iwo Jima in 1945. The movie details how this single act, captured in a historic photograph, became a rallying point around which the military was able to energize an American nation weary of war. Eastwood looks at all sides of various issues throughout the picture, and it's this willingness to paint in shades of gray rather than stick with black and white that allows the picture to overcome a frequently choppy narrative structure (the movie skips around, ofttimes clumsily, between the past and the present) and a protracted final section. ***

FLICKA In this screen version of Mary O'Hara's classic novel My Friend Flicka, Alison Lohman plays Katy, a strong-willed 16-year-old who locates a soulmate in a wild mustang wandering the acres on her family's Wyoming spread. Katy's dad (Tim McGraw) forbids the girl to have any contact with the ill-tempered horse, but she ignores his mandate and proceeds to train the animal behind his back. It's refreshing to see an American family on screen that doesn't wallow in dysfunction: While there are plenty of conflicts, the overriding sense is that these folks truly love one another, and the relationships between husband and wife (McGraw and Maria Bello) and between brother and sister (Ryan Kwanten and Lohman) are especially fresh and reassuring. Unfortunately, more so than in its source material, the emphasis on the humans de-emphasizes the presence of the mustang, and there simply aren't enough scenes illustrating the burgeoning bond between Katy and Flicka. The heavy-handed approach to the dramatic plot devices also doesn't help: In moments of despair, you can always count on director Michael Mayer adding some heavy rainstorms to externalize the characters' inner anguish. **1/2

THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND Based on Giles Foden's novel, this employs a fictional character to take us inside the regime of brutal Ugandan dictator Idi Amin Dada (Forest Whitaker): Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy), a Scottish doctor who agrees to serve as Amin's personal physician and regrets his decision once Amin's true nature comes to light. The film could conceivably be viewed as yet one more work in which a white man is given center stage in what is primarily a black man's tale, yet a couple of elements set this apart from such pandering works as Cry Freedom and Ghosts of Mississippi. For one, Garrigan (nicely played by McAvoy) isn't the usual bland Caucasian bathed in the light of liberal guilt but a conflicted young man with his own ofttimes prickly personality. And while McAvoy has more screen time, the sheer force of Whitaker's superb performance -- to say nothing of the dynamic character he's playing -- guarantees that he remains the story's central focus even when he's not in front of the camera. Paradoxically, you can't take your eyes off him, even when he's not there. ***

MAN OF THE YEAR It's junk like Man of the Year that makes me remember movie reviewing often isn't just a job; it's an adventure -- and I'm owed some serious combat pay. Robin Williams plays Tom Dobbs, a Jon Stewart-like TV talk show host who, after joking that he should run for U.S. president, finds himself on the ballot and making progress in the polls. It's a decent premise for a piercing satire, but writer-director Barry Levinson's approach is so timid that it makes last spring's soggy American Dreamz look as incendiary as a Michael Moore documentary by comparison. The main problem, of course, is Williams, who isn't playing a fictional character running for president as much as he's playing Robin Williams playing a fictional character running for president. In other words, it's the same lazy performance we almost always get, with the actor groveling for laughs via his patented physical shtick and repertoire of stale jokes that were already passé around the time Roman emperors began chucking Christian standup comics to the lions. Soon, the attempts at humor dry up completely to make room for a dismal thriller plotline involving inaccurate Diebold-style voting machines. *

MARIE ANTOINETTE The season's premiere love-it-or-leave-it title, Marie Antoinette was booed by French scribes at the Cannes Film Festival before being rescued by American critics, the slight majority of whom have graced it with positive reviews. Yet despite its divisive nature, I've managed to come down in the middle: The movie, writer-director Sofia Coppola's first since her magnificent Lost In Translation, is better than I had expected (at least based on the trailer) but not as good as I had hoped. It's recommended, but with reservations. In much the manner of A Knight's Tale, Coppola has added a sprinkling of contemporary trappings to her luxuriant period piece; her intention was to create a teenager for our times, a girl who just wants to have fun even though her position in the French royal court demands so much more. It's an interesting idea that's only partially successful, largely because Coppola doesn't go far enough with her outré approach. Where the movie fares best is in its examination of the royal life as a treadmill of constantly winding boredom; the scenes in which Marie, winningly played by Kirsten Dunst, is forced to obey nonsensical rules and rituals are poignant because they deny a child, that most impulsive of all creatures, the chance to experience life for herself. **1/2

THE PRESTIGE In this twisty thriller about the rivalry between two tortured magicians (Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale), writer-director Christopher Nolan has crafted an exemplary drama that explores his usual recurrent themes while serving up a cracking good mystery yarn. In Memento and Batman Begins, Nolan took the time to painstakingly explore issues of identity; in this regard, he recalls David Cronenberg, who frequently returns to the topic of competing identities. Nolan is the more guardedly optimistic of the pair, believing that people have as much chance of improving themselves as they do debasing themselves. It's this moral uncertainty that provides The Prestige with most of its power, since it allows the characters to evolve in intriguing ways. The movie isn't simplistic enough to pit a "good" magician against an "evil" one; instead, it recognizes the duality of each man's nature, a theme that eventually expands to a startling degree. It can be argued that the story becomes too fantastical for its own good -- it's more compelling when it's rooted in reality rather than when it enters the realm of science fiction -- but except for a nagging final shot, the filmmakers at least take care to cover all their narrative bases with acceptable explanations and believable character arcs. ***1/2

THE QUEEN Whether or not one agrees with a character's declaration that the royal family is comprised of "freeloading, emotionally retarded nutters," it's fascinating to watch these upper-crust Brits play out their own sordid soap opera in this wicked -- and wickedly good -- show that takes a highly dubious premise and somehow turns it into one of the year's best films. Set mostly in the days following the death of Diana back in 1997, it focuses on the reactions of Queen Elizabeth II (Helen Mirren) and the rest of the royal family to the tragedy as well as the efforts of newly elected Prime Minister Tony Blair (Michael Sheen) to take control of the situation. It sounds like so much dreary sensationalism, yet because Stephen Frears' direction is nimble and Peter Morgan's script clever and resourceful, The Queen never bogs down in any potentially problematic areas. It manages to be both respectful and critical of the monarchy, a double-edged viewpoint that neatly reflects the attitude of the characters themselves. Mirren's performance is a thing of beauty, but Sheen admirably keeps pace with his formidable co-star in this majestic entertainment. ***1/2

SHORTBUS A multi-layered film featuring a multi-character ensemble, Shortbus pushes the envelope of what's allowed on screen further than just about any other non-porn flick that comes to mind. The result isn't distasteful or juvenile; instead, it's a celebration of sex that, in turn, morphs into a celebration of those most inalienable of American rights: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. In focusing on a handful of New York residents struggling with relationship woes, writer-director John Cameron Mitchell isn't so Pollyanna that he's suggesting everyone's difficulties will be solved by one good bout of sexual acrobatics -- indeed, many of the characters' problems and hang-ups are directly hardwired into their own opinions on the subject. But what makes Shortbus unusual for an American movie is that it isn't frightened of sex, it doesn't reduce the act to insensitive frat boy gyrations, and it doesn't employ it as a bludgeoning weapon. As a movie, Shortbus is a turn-on, but not in the sense readers might imagine. The picture isn't physically stimulating so much as it's mentally and emotionally arousing -- it considers the brain and the heart the true erogenous zones, a viewpoint that ultimately turns out to be the movie's most startling declaration. ***1/2

OPENS FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 10:

BABEL: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett.

DELIVER US FROM EVIL: Oliver O'Grady, Tom Doyle.

A GOOD YEAR: Russell Crowe, Albert Finney.

HARSH TIMES: Christian Bale, Eva Longoria.

RENAISSANCE: Daniel Craig, Ian Holm.

THE RETURN: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Sam Shepard.

STRANGER THAN FICTION: Will Ferrell, Emma Thompson.