I usually only post once a week, but I received a press release the other day that got my attention.  It’s about the first Yiddish action film made in 60 years called A Gesheft (The Deal) from Kosher Entertainment Productions. You don’t see many Yiddish films in the local multiplex, so I thought I should pass on the information for all of you who have been waiting all these years for someone to finally make a new Yiddish movie. I think it’s about time, don’t you?

The film is the brainchild of two Orthodox Jewish brothers, Yakov and Mendy Kirsh, a bookkeeper and a real estate agent respectively, who have no prior filmmaking experience. “We decided that religious Jews needed their own movies far from the dangerous influence of Hollywood,” comments Mendy Kirsh. “There’s no treyf (things that are non-kosher) in this movie!”

They’re sending me a copy on DVD, and I told them I’d review it.  If you want to check it out now, you can go to their website.  Just click on the company name at the top where you can purchase the DVD for $20, or simply find out more about their film and view trailers.

Just be aware that there are no women actors in the film because Orthodox Jewish men cannot be entertained by women.  The one woman character is played by a man, though he’s covered up so you can’t see his face. Talk about your niche marketing.

If the film is a big success, be sure that the studios will be quick to come out with Yiddish teen market films such as Oy, Where’s My Oyto? and HBO will probably make a Yiddish version of The Sopranos called The Shvitzers. It also reminds me of an old TV skit about Orthodox Jews in space, but that dates me.  Zay gezunt!

Rich Burlingham

In politically incensed eras like we’re experiencing today, filmmakers enjoy reveling in issues that have no simple solutions, and with a usually stringent point of view. Films like Syriana and Paradise Now are recent examples. Another current film, Steven Spielberg’s Munich, is indeed a political thriller, but this legendary director is able to present to us points of views from two sides of an issue. The result has brought some acid criticism from both the pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian camps that are the focus of the film. The trouble with films such as Munich is critics’ objectivity can be easily tainted by the desire to give them great reviews because the subject matter is so important and the directors so admired. This happened with Spielberg’s Empire of the Sun, which even with profound subject matter, in retrospect, wasn’t that good of a film. Luckily, Munich is such a finely crafted piece of cinema with a director at the top of his game that critics such as myself do not have to worry about false praise.

With Munich Spielberg illustrates a tenuous issue that was as much headline material back in the 1970s, when the film’s events take place, as it is today and has been for a thousand years. On the one hand, the film is an essay on the disagreements over homeland that have been at the center of the hate between these two groups for ages, but these issues are only marginally explored under the veil of a taught, gut-wrenching thriller that examines many levels of right and wrong and all the gray in between.

Spielberg, along with his long-time collaborator, cinematographer Janzusa Kaminksi (Schindler’s List, War of the Worlds), decided early on that they wanted to take on more than just the décor of the early 70s and give the film a look and feel similar to many of the celebrated political thrillers from that era, such as The French Connection, Z and The Day of the Jackal. Kaminski creates a look that’s gritty on the one hand and emotionally decisive on the other by using techniques such as skip bleach, which give the film a color-muted appearance, and by the use of the zoom lens, which was a new gadget back when and understandably overused. On working with Spielberg, Kaminski says, “He’s a very skillful director when it comes to the camera.” This is illustrated by the director’s subtle placement of the camera that helps build tension and create mood simply by giving us a certain perspective to watch vital action unfold.

Much of the credit for giving Munich its gravitas is the multi-layered script that not only recounts violent events in history but also humanizes those events by using characters to represent all the emotions emoted from all sides. Spielberg gives credit to both the source material — Canadian writer George Jonas’ book Vengeance, which the director says “has never been discredited” — and playwright Tony Kushner (Angels in America), who took a draft by Eric Roth and gave to it what is his first screenplay soul, depth, and relevance.

Choosing the right actors was also integral in making Munich shine, and with over 200 speaking roles, the casting team had their work cut out for them. They scoured the world to find not only the right looks and sounds but also the best actors. For instance, they hired Palestinians and Israelis to play those involved with the Black September massacre of the Israeli Olympic team at the 1972 games. Producers say that the tension on the set during the 10 days it took to shoot those scenes was not all acting. In one case, the son of one of the slain members of the Israeli team played his own father, who died when he was only an infant. He says acting in the film allowed him to gain an understanding of the terror his father experienced.  

To play the five significantly different covert assassins whose secret mission was to kill those responsible for the massacre, Spielberg and team purposely hired five significantly different actors. Leading the group is Australian Eric Bana (Black Hawk Down, Hulk) as Avner, the Israeli intelligence officer who must leave his pregnant wife behind in order to do his patriotic duty by leading the group. Bana creates an understated performance that underscores the hate that penetrated all who supported Israel after the athletes’ deaths but also the confusion over issues of morality and whether the mission was justified. His greatest strength as an actor was to give Avner the ability to feel some empathy for the Palestinian cause without losing his loyalty to his people. Avner is a character who acts as we all think we would in similar circumstances — willing to risk everything to correct a wrong but with an insight that doesn’t allow us to become a monster. The new James Bond, British actor Daniel Craig, plays the muscle of the group, who tries to keep their reasons for the mission clear and, by the fact that his character is South African, emphasizes their plight as a global one.  As the toy-maker turned bomb-maker, French filmmaker Mathieu Kassovitz perfectly plays the sensitive one, and they were lucky to get him because he had told his agent that he didn’t want to act anymore — unless on the remote chance that Spielberg came calling one day. Renowned German actor Hanns Zischler (Sunshine, Ripley’s Game) plays a Mossad agent who is undercover as an antiques dealer. He is the most distant of the five, but you can see by Zischler’s perfectly crafted performance that his character Hans has an inner rage that allows him to act in sometimes immoral ways. Rivaling Bana for the most complex character creation has to be Irish actor Ciarán Hinds (Road to Perdition, HBO’s Rome), whose Carl, the clean-up man, is the most meticulous member but also the one with the most wisdom and inner conflict over the moral implications of their actions. He knows they have to fulfill their mission, but he doesn’t have to like how they have to go about it. The rest of the cast is superb including Australian Geoffrey Rush (Shine, Pirates of the Caribbean) as Avner’s Mossad contact, Frenchman Michael Lonsdale (Day of the Jackal, Chariots of Fire) as Papa, and Israeli star Ayelet Zorer as Avner’s wife.  

For Avner, his struggle over the relevance of the definition of home is the key theme that resonates beyond the plot of the film.  It is the central question that many, especially emigrants and refugees, have pondered and dissected for hundreds of years. Early in the film Avner tells his wife that home isn’t Israel or any plot of land, but his family. As the film progresses this notion gets more and more muddled, and he becomes pulled from one side by the needs of his people, represented by a persecuted Jewish past, and from the other by his wife and child, whom represent what he hopes is a peaceful future. It is a question left unanswered on all levels.  At the end of Munich, when Avner is walking the streets of his new Brooklyn home with his infant daughter, he spots what he believes are men who want him dead. It is an important moment, for his past and future suddenly become in flux, and with Spielberg’s simple but effective staging and Bana’s exceptional performance, you cannot only witness a father’s worst fear — a threat to his child — but also the inner conflict between saving a whole race of people and saving his own family, which he knows will always be with him no matter where he calls home.  

Munich is playing nationwide and will probably be around through awards season. Rated R. 164 minutes. Released through Universal. Click here for listings in your hometown.

Rich Burlingham

Though professionally I have to watch a lot of television shows I really don’t care for very much, there are few that are truly must-see TV for me.  Fox’s 24 is one of those shows, and I have been happy to see that the producers have been able to continue a premise that could have easily been a two-season splash-and-crash like Stephen Bochco’s season-long murder trial series, Murder One.  The exploits of the maverick agent Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) and his breaking-all-the-rules way of saving the world is a stream of action, drama, and seat-of-your-pants thrilling suspense that easily sucks people into watching each week.  Last season I knew that I would be unable to catch every episode week to week, so I taped the entire season and watched it almost within a two-week period.  All I can say is that it was hard not to watch all 24 episodes in one sitting, and I came as close to being an addict as I would wish.

If you haven’t had the chance to catch 24 yet and you like non-stop Energizer Bunny drama, then I oblige you to watch the four-hour, two-night premier beginning this Sunday and continuing Monday.  24 is probably the only show for which could extend a premier over two nights.  As you probably know or could guess, 24 follows a storyline that takes place in one day with each episode comprising one hour of that day.  If you can suspend the belief that in many episodes Jack or other characters seem to navigate the streets of Los Angeles in a record amount of time, the real-time scenario is quite compelling, and to the writers’ credit, the show seems to keep one step ahead of what is happening in the news each week.   When recent headlines dealt with U.S. torture policy and possible illegal wiretaps, viewers of 24 can’t help but think of Jack Bauer and his dubious exploits that usually circumvent regulations, treaties, and laws but always seem to get the bad guy.   For those who are critical of officials, like Jack, who overstep their bounds, the show doesn’t let him go unpunished — just look at all he’s gone through: wife and daughter kidnapped, wife killed, electric shock torture, having to kiss the woman who killed your wife, fired from your job, being shot at constantly, becoming a heroine addict undercover, demotion, having to fake your own death, and the list goes on.  It’s not a pretty sight.

The show’s center is the aforementioned government agent Jack Bauer who happily breaks every rule in the book to help prevent some kind of disaster from occurring, from assassinations to nuclear bomb attacks.  And the writers have thrown everything they could possibly think of at him to keep him from achieving his objective — which is what makes the show so exciting.  Besides Jack and a few key characters, the cast is ever changing but always revolves around Los Angeles’ Counter Terrorist Unit, or CTU, as the agency Jack always seems to return to work for and is somewhat of a character in itself.  I wonder if college students are playing drinking games like they used to do with The Bob Newhart Show where they would take a shot every time a character would say “Hi, Bob” on that 70s sitcom — in this case, it would be whenever a character says CTU.  I don’t think anyone would be conscious for too long.

It’s hard to find another show on television with as much stuff packed into each episode, including storylines, characters, and action.  According to Jon Cassar, series producer and director of most of the key episodes (including the four hour premier), “You have to understand that we do what amounts to about ten to twelve feature films each year and I would say that the quality of our shows are equal or better than anything in theaters right now.”

According to Cassar, the decision the writers and producers made at the end of season one was key in making 24 one of television’s best series.  “When they decided to kill off Jack’s wife Teri (Leslie Hope) it ended up being the best thing we could have done because after that anything could happen.  No character is safe no matter how loved they are by the fans.  It’s funny to see the actors all rush to see if they’re the next one voted off when they receive new scripts.”  Even Kiefer Sutherland has said in interviews that he knows that Jack Bauer himself will have to be killed off at some point in order for the show to keep its edge.

To understand the reach the show has made worldwide, there’s an interesting anecdote that Cassar related.  During the filming of a close-up of someone punching in phone numbers for season one, the prop man, doubling as the actor, dialed his own cell phone number.  Usually, in films and TV shows, the 555 exchange is used in place of a real phone number to prevent anyone dialing a real person.  The show aired as shot and no one thought much about it until one afternoon while in production on season two, the prop man’s phone rang and on the other line was a curious fan from Sweden who had just seen the episode in question and decided to see whose number the character dialed.  The prop man talked with the fan for a little bit and then passed the phone around the set.  They began getting more and more calls from around the world and what they found was that the fans were not only avid about the show but offered terrific feedback that helped the writers and producers in the development of future episodes.

24 is a cornucopia of action, suspense, thrills and chills, great drama, and some of the most interesting characters on television (or in movies, for that matter).  This season looks like an even bigger thrill ride, and I highly recommend you catch every episode of this terrific series.  I bet that you’ll be riveted to your television set and so disappointed each week when the hourly time counter rolls over to the next hour.  24 premiers on Fox this Sunday at 8 p.m. ET, continuing on Monday at 8 p.m. ET, and settles in its 9 p.m. ET Monday slot the following week without any preemptions until the season finale in May.

Rich Burlingham

The holiday season is always inundated with new releases — big-budget spectacles and smaller indies vying both for your attendance and the tiny attention spans of Motion Picture Academy members — but usually inside the stockings all hung with care is a film that fits in the middle and deserves to be seen.  The Family Stone is 2005’s holiday “happy” — a well-crafted film that doesn’t hit you over the head with visual effects a la King Kong or try to nip at social norms like Brokeback Mountain.  It’s just a fun film to enjoy in the moment before moving on to fulfilling your New Year’s resolutions.

Though it has been out several weeks and overshadowed by the other big films of the season, this funny but surprisingly touching dysfunctional family dramedy deserves a viewing now that the holiday season has come and gone.  The Family Stone revolves around the Stones’ Christmas holiday in a tony Westchester County suburb as stalwart sibling Everett (Durmot Mulroney) brings home his intended fiancée Meredith (Sarah Jessica Parker) to meet the family even though he knows that they will find her rather waspish nature difficult to handle.  What he doesn’t know is that his sister Amy (Rachel McAdams), who has already met Meredith, has painted a rather unflattering picture of her to parents Kelly and Sybil (Craig T. Nelson & Diane Keaton) and the rest of her family, which includes a deaf, gay brother (Tyrone Giodarno) and his African-American partner (Brian J. White).  The fish out of stormy water is the primary plot element and source of most of the humor, but as the film progresses, it becomes obvious that everyone in the family has some kind of quirk or issue that equals that of Meredith and makes the audience feel very much at home.

When Meredith’s easy-going sister Julie (Claire Danes) arrives to help cope with the desperate situation, her self-assuredness and sanity is like a dose of strong medicine that forces a recovery for a family that didn’t realize they needed help.  The Family Stone graciously balances serious, emotional family dynamics with the almost farce-like humor, allowing the audience to experience empathy for all of the characters in the end, even Meredith, because to most of us, our own families aren’t much saner than the Stones — and are probably far worse.

As for the cast Diane Keaton stands out as the post-sixties open-minded but stubborn matriarch who only wants her kids to have happy lives.  The underrated Craig T. Nelson has the difficult task of being ringmaster when he himself must battle his own fears while masking it all from his kids.  Sarah Jessica Parker does her best Wall Street careerwoman impression but shines even more when slacker brother Ben (Luke Wilson) melts away her frozen veneer.  The best performance goes to Rachel McAdams whose acerbic Amy is out to defrock her brother’s fiancée at all costs only because she knows in her heart Meredith isn’t the girl for him.  The rest of the cast excels in their own way, giving their characters a full life even with less screen time.

The Family Stone may not win during this year’s award season, but it’s a fun film that will stave off the winter blues.  So take a break from your own family’s trials and tribulations to experience the enjoyable chaos that is The Family Stone.  In theaters nationwide.

Rich Burlingham

Woody Allen films have conveniently fallen into one of two categories — the humorous, character-driven, self-mocking comedies and the serious, character-driven, life-mocking dramas.  Only a few have achieved an adroit balance of both, and those have come to be his greatest films: Oscar-winners Annie Hall and Hannah and her Sisters.  His latest film, Match Point, joins those two films in the upper tier of Mr. Allen’s cinematic repertoire and is one of the best films of 2005.

Match Point’s theme centers on the belief that luck plays an important role in life and one never knows which way that luck will go — good or bad.  The key to this film’s success lies with the excellent cast — smartly deprived of the tried and true neurotic Woody — who play off each other like a tightly choreographed Gilbert & Sullivan operetta directed by Ingmar Bergman.  Leading the cast is a subdued but chillingly charming performance by Jonathan Rhys-Meyers (Bend It Like Beckham) as one-time tennis pro Chris Wilton, who by shear luck enters the world of London’s upper crust by letting the daughter of a wealthy industrialist fall in love with him.  The genius of the character, from both a written and performance standpoint, is the fact that Chris doesn’t intentionally try to weasel into a better life — it just happens, and he actually falls in love with the daughter, Chloe.  The only obstacle to Chris’ lucky situation comes in the form of a voluptuous American actress named Nola (Scarlett Johansson), the fiancée of Chloe’s brother Tom (Matthew Goode), who was the first to befriend Chris while seeking tennis lessons.  Nola neither tries to encourage Chris’ lust for her nor tries perpetuate what becomes an unfortunate affair.  

Match Point could have easily turned into a melodramatic family soap opera in the hands of a lesser-experienced writer-director, but Mr. Allen so deftly lets his actors naturally unfold the characters’ lives within the context of the story that it all feels organic and believable.  But what elevates this film isn’t the Greek tragedy you’re expecting but a right turn during the end of the second act that takes the film in a whole other direction.  Without spilling the beans, I can say it is quite thrilling.

Johansson is sexy and vulnerable, sad and hopeful, all at once but without outshining the rest of the cast.  Goode, while taking a bit of Hugh Grant and a touch of Rupert Everett, gives a vision of a 21st-century British rich kid who you wouldn’t mind being your best friend.  Brian Cox and Penelope Wilton play the parents like a privileged-class Stiller and Meara, with subtly amusing exchanges providing just the right amount of comic relief.  Chloe is the clueless plain Jane who can’t believe she snagged the cute jock, but the way Emily Mortimer plays her, you never feel sorrow or envy towards the character. The best kudos go to Rhys-Meyers who plays Chris like a poor kid in a candy store who can’t believe he’s surrounded by goodies but also can’t quite enjoy them until he’s told he’s allowed to indulge himself.

Mr. Allen deserves a lot of credit for writing a superb screenplay full of pathos, charm, and tragedy and is one of the few films of 2005 to make you ponder the particulars of life in a very engaging manner.  Match Point is one of the year’s best mature films, combining drama and humor elements in a simple but unique way.  Match Point is in theaters now.

Rich Burlingham

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe was the first book in a series by celebrated British author C.S. Lewis who was stated as saying he never wanted a live-action film made from his fantasy series.  Speed up fifty years when Disney decided the Narnia books would make a great film franchise a la Lord of the Rings and the Harry Potter books, besides Lewis’ wishes.  In Disney’s defense, Lewis probably would be singing praises with this incarnation of his book since his idea of effects circa 1959 consisted of shooting small spiders and making them look like giant killers.  Visual effects have come a long way, baby, and I’m sure Lewis would be as awed by what the effects wizards were able to put up on the screen as today’s audiences.

It boggles the mind to think of the sheer volume and complexity of the effects that bring animals to life and create new half-breeds such as centaurs, fauns, and other eclectic beings.  It’s amazing just knowing that Aslan, the Lion of the title and central figure of the story, had over twenty layers of fur to make him seem as real as possible and, in my opinion, they achieved that very fete.  In this day when digital effects are used quite frequently in all films, it is interesting to note that an epic film such as Narnia requires many different companies working in tandem to achieve what is needed to bring the story to life.  For instance, Sony Pictures ImageWorks was in charge of animating the beavers and making Mr. Tumnus’ feet that of a goat; Rhythm & Hues Studios created the big battle scenes, and Industrial Light & Magic handled many other elements that when brought together create a whole new world.

A film can have all the greatest effects in the world that razzle and dazzle, but if they don’t service the story, they are all a waste and simply a sideshow.  Fortunately, Narnia is a captivating fantasy that moves one emotionally and entertains the mind.  If it is a movie geared more to kids than King Kong, the other big effects film out now (see my review), so be it for it can be as equally enjoyable for both children and adults.

Narnia could be considered Lord of the Rings: Light as it captures many of the same elements as JRR Tolkien’s (a fellow Oxford cohort of Lewis) trilogy, but it does so purposely in order to tell a story from a real child’s perspective (or, in this case, four siblings’). Thus, the story is more relative to a kid than a view from a totally made-up being such as a Hobbit.  Where Tolkien wanted to take you away to a whole new world, Lewis’ aim was to make you keep one foot back in reality.  He also wrote the Narnia books as half fantasy and half allegory to help teach a spiritual message to children, but Disney, even though they’ve taken advantage of marketing to Christian audiences, has kept this film from being preachy, and the spiritual elements are those that you could claim are in other fantasy films, such as Star Wars.  Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe is pure, fun entertainment for the entire family but with none of the cheesiness that comes with many family entertainment films.  It may not spring a cult following like the LOTR tales, but with many more books to base films on, it will certainly be a fun and fantastic world to visit every couple of years.

Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, starring Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes, William Moseley, Anna Popplewell, Tilda Swinton, James McAvoy, Jim Broadbent, and Liam Neeson as the voice of Aslan, is now appearing nationwide and makes a great holiday treat for the entire family or for all of you with a little kid inside.

Rich Burlingham

I was privy to a screening of Peter Jackson’s reincarnation of King Kong and was utterly taken by not only the amazing visual effects but with the emotional story that makes you believe that a very large gorilla could actually fall for a cute blonde in a size-four dress.  In terms of cost, spectacle, and great buzz, King Kong is in a league occupied by very few films — the likes of Titanic, Star Wars, Jaws, and Gone with the Wind.  I’m not sure if a “monster film” will be able to beat out the box office that a certain sinking ship was able to do a few years ago, but the magical symbiosis of state-of-the-art effects and a masterly crafted story should put a lot of fannies in seats for weeks to come.

There are numerous reasons why people go to the movies — with escapism being one of the more popular — and Jackson and his thousands of associates have created a perfect escapist film that takes you back to New York circa 1933 (the same period the original film took place), all created either on New Zealand back lots or via the wizardry of miniature photography and computer graphics.  I happened to be in a large theater filled to the gills with visual effects professionals, and even those who create similar wonders used in King Kong were awed by how those images were used within the context of the story and how they successfully make the audience believe what’s on the screen is real — the prime objective of a film of this magnitude.

As with the original Kong, the visual effects in this version will be thought to be archaic in fifty years or less, and so it will be the telling of the story if it will be remembered by our grandkids’ children.  As with Titanic but more so, the actors need to match the larger-than-life marvels created by geeks in cubicles.  I am happy to say that this cast successfully moves the digital magic aside, elevating the human element that lifts this Kong to new heights.  Kudos to the casting of Jack Black as film director Carl Denham whose infectious performance allows you to root for his shameless obsessive showman who ultimately is the true slayer of Kong.  The rest of the male cast brings in admirable performances, yet it is the charm and emotional truism from Naomi Watts as Ann Darrow that is the thematic center of the film.  The believable relationship she creates with Kong is both primal and emotionally complex.  You come away from this movie very much like you do from one of those weepy romance stories, such as The Way We Were or Love Story, where a tear is always shed at the sad but predictable ending.  

I can’t say that King Kong was all sheer astonishment.  The film is long (over three hours), and there are scenes that seem as though they were put in for visual showmanship without moving the story along.  There are certain areas where the effects are not up to par with many of the more compelling sequences, such as the inspiring fight between Kong and the T-Rexes.  There are moments when your disbelief is suspended because of matching problems between live actors and the computer-generated images, but for most viewers, these will go unnoticed.  Though the recreation of New York is far beyond compare, a little less would go a lot further, especially during the final Kong on the Empire State Building sequence.  When comparing this version with the original, the visuals are what stand out as far superior, but even more important is the significantly better portrayal of the core love story between beauty and the beast.  Watts has to win an award for the best acting performance to a green screen this year and for the ability to run barefoot through a jungle and over rocky terrain without even a blister to show for it.  

King Kong is the movie to beat this year as it opens at the same time as Jackson’s previous record-setting ventures, the three Lord of the Rings films.  I don’t see it bringing another gold statuette to the New Zealander, but if packing ‘em in at the theater is more a stamp of approval, then he will be heralded again as a cinematic genius.

King Kong opens December 14 worldwide.  ‘Tis the season to remember that movie tickets make great stocking stuffers or Hanukkah and Kwanzaa gifts.

Rich Burlingham

In the film Capote, Philip Seymour Hoffman, as writer Truman Capote, vocalizes the film’s theme by comparing himself to killer Perry Smith — one of the subjects of his seminal book In Cold Blood: “It’s as if Perry and I grew up in the same house. And one day he went out the back door and I went out the front.”  The film, based on the acclaimed biography of the same name by Gerald Clarke, is about a fierce, uncontrollable need for recognition and how two seemingly opposites are connected by a self-destruction rooted in childhood trauma that seems almost fateful.

Much like Jamie Foxx’s uncanny portrayal of Ray Charles in last year’s Ray, Mr. Hoffman not only embodies Truman Capote’s physical nature but incredibly shines light on the inner psyche of a writer whose exterior mannerisms and unique voice are rooted in popular culture.  I was stunned when half way through the film I realized I was watching an actor portraying a real person and not simply the man himself — like watching a very expensive home movie.  Capote has been out of the collective consciousness for quite some time, but for those of us who remember watching him on such 70s talk shows as Merv Griffin, Hoffman’s Capote is probably more accurate than the caricature Capote himself played for the cameras.

Unlike Ray, screenwriter Dan Futterman and director Bennett Miller, lifelong friends with Hoffman, did not make a simple biopic but rather a Shakespearean drama about how opposites attract…and collide.  The always lovely and amazing Catherine Keener portrays Nelle Harper Lee, Capote’s boyhood friend who became his assistant during the research for the book In Cold Blood — the subject of the film – shortly before her own novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, was published to great acclaim.  Keener’s Lee is less a character in the film and more the conscience of Truman Capote and a way for him to connect to the real world represented in this case by the small Kansas farming community where the murders of the Clutter family took place.

Every character in Capote, from the killers (Clifton Collins, Jr. and Mark Pelligrino) to the Kansas investigator Alvin Dewey (Chris Cooper) to Capote’s lifelong companion Jack Dunphy (Bruce Greenwood) seems to have a bipolar, love-hate relationship with the writer of Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and like that book’s main character, Holly Golightly, it’s difficult to hate him even with all of his unflattering, self-centered, and hurtful traits.  Capote was adept at manipulation, convincing killers, investigators, townspeople, and his closest friends that he was sincere, but in the end, his own dysfunctional desire to be the life of the party led to his own self-destruction.  Like a Muslim fundamentalist, Truman Capote was instrumental in his own grandiose demise by strapping on his book In Cold Blood like a suicide bomb, blowing his life to pieces while at the same time establishing a new form of literature — the nonfiction novel.  From the moment his book was finished, it was the beginning of a slow death that took twenty years to come about.  At his death from alcoholism in 1984, he was only a shadow of the genius writer who invented a new literary style and personified the New York elite.  It was as if he jumped into his own unfinished manuscript and became one of his lonely characters whose only desire is for someone to pat them on the back and tell them they’ve done a great job.

Phillip Seymour Hoffman is a shoe-in for an Academy Award nomination, and perhaps the film will garner some as well.  If you’re looking for escapism, Capote isn’t the film for you, but if you want a well-crafted, well-acted character study without all the bells and whistles Hollywood throws at us most of the time, you’ll be greatly satisfied.

Rich Burlingham

Before all the holiday blockbuster and Oscar-bait movies get to a theater near you, I wanted to do a little politicking myself with a self-induced caucus on the best fictional president in film or television.  I decided to conduct my own very unscientific poll with a very biased pool of one person — myself.  I limited the possible candidates to those films or television shows after 1960, and I came up with certain criteria based on what Mr. and Mrs. Joe Schmo would use to help make up their minds.  I graded each on a scale of one to ten with one being bad and ten being excellent on the following criteria: character, intelligence and ability, charisma, family life, trust and honesty, experience, decision-making, political skills, and leadership. I added up the scores from all the categories with the result being what I call their Q rating.  

The group consisted of 16 candidates from 11 films and three television shows.  They must have all been fictional characters (no biopics), and they had to be either the lead or a very major supporting role.  After exhausting study and analysis, here are the results of the best Hollywood presidents, according to me.

The top president is James Marshall from the action blockbuster Air Force One portrayed by Harrison Ford.  His Q rating was 77 out of a possible 90.  Marshall scored high in all categories by showing his ability to not only thwart a group of terrorists threatening to kill his family but by being a president that we’d all want on our side — and women tell me he’s not bad to look at either.  Next is a tie.  First in line is Andrew Shepherd, the widowed head of state played by Michael Douglas, who becomes smitten with Annette Bening’s lobbyist from Rob Riener’s romantic comedy The American President.  Shepherd was able to gain a 72 Q rating by being tops in most categories save for political skill.  Dating a lobbyist trying to persuade your administration to change opinion on key legislation isn’t the smartest of career moves but, again, he’s not bad to look at.  Also gaining a 72 Q rating is a president from another blockbuster — Tom Whitmore (Bill Pullman), the jet-flying, alien-busting president from the action sci-fi film Independence Day.  Whitmore’s only bad marks come in the family life category because he’s too busy saving the world to worry about his wife, though he does give a good pep talk.  We then go back to the 1960s and to Henry Fonda in the film Fail Safe where he’s simply referred to as The President.  Fail Safe is a Cold War thriller directed by Sidney Lumet reflecting all the fears of nuclear annihilation brought upon by the Cuban Missile Crisis.  Fonda’s president is cool, collected, and able to make hard decisions that will affect the entire world.  If he wasn’t willing to let his family die in a nuclear blast just to save the world, he may have gotten more than a 69 rating.  

The highest TV president on the list is Jed Bartlett of The West Wing, played by the politically active Martin Sheen, with a 68 Q rating.  President Bartlett brought intelligence and consciousness to his presidency and a heartfelt desire to lead the American people through challenging times.  If he hadn’t lied about his medical problems, he would have scored a lot higher.  Next, we have another sci-fi president in Tom Beck, the first African-American chief played by the Academy Award-winning actor Morgan Freeman.  In the film Deep Impact, Freeman’s president has to play the tough father figure to a world that is certainly going to be hit by a giant comet.  What Beck lacks is charisma, but if push comes to shove, I wouldn’t mind having him in the oval office whenever a large object is heading our way.  We go back to television for our next president, the greenest member on the list and the first female, Mackenzie Allen, played by another Academy Award-winner, Geena Davis.  In Commander In Chief, you have a vice-president who assumes the presidency after her boss dies off.  She has to battle public opinion and a ruthless speaker of the house, played to the hilt by Donald Sutherland.  In the Allen White House, you have a husband who assumes a greater role than most first ladies have before him and three kids all facing the hardships of growing up with a mom who could drop a bomb whenever she pleases.  Allen still has some proving to do, experience to gain, and political moves to master but, given time, she could move up in the polls and raise her 61 rating.  We change networks for our next president, David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert) from the first couple seasons of the show 24.  After facing not only a threat on his life and an actual assassination attempt, he had to deal with a back-stabbing evil wife turned ex-wife who would do anything to get her man back.  Being able to help keep America safe and Jack Bauer (Keifer Sutherland) alive is a lot for any president to handle.  I’m sure his advice would be to get rid of a crazy wife before running for president.  Q Rating, 58.  

Finally, one of my favorite presidents isn’t really a president — he just plays one on the movie screen.  In Dave, Kevin Kline plays Dave Kovich, an everyman who happens to look like the president and assumes those duties when the real president falls into a deep coma after a sexual dalliance with an assistant.  Dave’s president wins the hearts of the people, balances the budget, and falls for the real first lady.  The only problem is he’s really just an owner of an employment agency and can’t really be president.  If only it were that easy.  Dave only gets a 58 but deserves more.  Perhaps in a sequel where Dave can move from city council to the presidency of the United States, he’ll be able to move up on the list legitimately.

Here are the rest of the presidents and their ratings.  No time for explanations, but since they’re the worst of the lot, who cares?  Matt Douglas (James Garner) and Russell Kramer (Jack Lemon) from My Fellow Americans, 57 and 54, respectively; John Travolta’s Jack Stanton from Primary Colors, a 49 rating; Mars Attacks’ James Dale gets a 47 as played by Jack Nicholson; a 42 is awarded to Peter Sellers’ Markin Muffly in Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove; and the two most vile presidents on the list, each getting a 34 and 42, respectively, are Gene Hackman’s Alan Richmond in Absolute Power and Dan Aykroyd’s William Haney from My Fellow Americans, each putting themselves way ahead of the American people.

The fortunate thing is that all of these films and television shows are first-rate and deserve to be viewed many times over.  I’d also like to hear your opinion on the best Hollywood president.  I’ll tally up your votes in an upcoming column — no hanging chads, please.

Rich Burlingham

Each fall brings out emotional, character-driven, intelligent films that producers hope will garner an Academy Award nomination or two.  Fox Searchlight’s Bee Season is one of those films — an American family in trouble story to be compared to Best Picture Oscar winner Ordinary People and the critically-acclaimed The Ice Storm.

Based on the critically-acclaimed novel by Myla Goldberg, Bee Season uses a backdrop of local and national spelling bee competitions to dissect an American family fraying at the fringes but held together just enough by the strong bonds of love.  Throw into the mix heady subjects like personal spirituality, identity, and mental illness, and you have a story about washing away normalcy to reveal dysfunction in a very functional way.

Taking on duo directing duties, Scot McGehee and David Siegel (The Deep End) continue their adeptness at visualizing visceral and hypothetical ideas such as the calculating images explaining the Judaic concepts of Kaballah that are important metaphors in the film.  I also admire screenwriter Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal, mother to actors Maggie (The Secretary) and Jake (Jarhead), for using a family dynamic to illustrate the idea that we humans are always trying to obtain perfection in an imperfect world and that happiness is only realized upon figuring out that life’s goals should only be to love and be loved.

The wonderful cast all seem to embody these blemished characters like wet suits, giving pitch-perfect performances deserving of award nominations.  Richard Gere, probably the weakest of the leads, does give his character of Saul Naumann just enough flawed nuances to make him just this side of normal, yet they’re enough to alienate him from his family.  Julliette Binoche gives another solid bit of acting, portraying a woman whose motherly armor slowly disintegrates, revealing unspoken truths that have taken a toll on her psyche.  The newcomer, Flora Cross, who plays the daughter with the uncanny knack for spelling obscure words, underplays beautifully what could have been a too-charming, pre-teen performance.  Her Eliza continues her bee-winning quest even as the pillars holding up her family slowly crumble around her; yet she dodges the falling debris quite bravely.  But the most satisfying performance goes to Max Minghella, son of director Anthony Minghella (The English Patient), who has the difficult task of playing the angsty teenager trying to find his place in a world that is his own.  Without over-dramatics, he deftly gives us a dry, emotional picture of a teenager tackling the muddy waters of a post-modern coming of age.  As with all the characters, Minghella’s Aaron tries to find balance between individualism and family life, spiritual exploration and traditional thinking that can bring peace to one’s soul.  Peace seems to come from knowing that love can exist within a family that sticks together even if each member isn’t perfect.

Gyllenhaal wanted to write the kind of movie you leave the theater dying to talk about, and I think she succeeded.  Perhaps we all should leave thinking that, even with our emotional dents and imperfect personas, the most powerful energy in the universe revolves around our love for each other.

Bee Season is a unique, psychological, philosophical, emotional, and entertaining visual experience not to be overlooked now and next February.  Kudos also goes to composer Peter Nashel, whose score captures the emotional core of a film in a way that has not been heard since Thomas Newman’s infectious music for American Beauty.  Bee Season opens Friday, November 11th in select cities and nationwide later this month.

Rich Burlingham

For the real Star Wars fan there’s nothing I could say that would change your mind about the release of Star Wars: Episode III, Revenge of the Sith on DVD.  You probably have already purchased a copy or two, watched every second of every extra, and skipped the game demo because you already have it on your Xbox.  But for all the casual fans who may have missed the film in the theater or who want to check out the extras, then perhaps I have a chance to move you away from the dark side of your local video rental store.

Revenge of the Sith is the third episode in the six-movie saga but the last to be made.  It follows the story of Anakin Skywalker from chosen savior of the Republic and the Force that guides it to his fall into the Dark Side of the Force and transformation from Jedi Knight into the evil Darth Vader — the bad guy in the original films that encompass the last three episodes.  I could go on, but if you grew up in the 70s or later in any part of the world, you already know the story created by George Lucas and his team of amazing artists and technicians.  There isn’t another film franchise that has had the reach into popular culture like Star Wars, and nothing else even comes close, except maybe the Beatles.

Now that technology has caught up with the richness of George Lucas’s imagination, not only are the films themselves more vivid and exciting, but the DVDs have a load of extras that add on hours of compelling viewing no one should miss.  In terms of story, Revenge of the Sith ranks up there with the original Star Wars (now known as Episode IV) and The Empire Strikes Back, heralded by most critics and fans as the best of the entire saga.  If you’re rating quality of special effects, then this is by far the best of the lot, packing in everything that CGI can deliver in one film.  Besides the usual wide-screen, Dolby THX surround sound, and commentary track (provided by Lucas, producer Rick McCullum, and VFX producers Rob Coleman, John Knoll, and Roger Guyett), there is a bevy of extras that are worth putting in the second disk to watch.  There are a bunch of trailers and TV spots, but if you watch just one, check out the nostalgia teaser that reaches back to the original films and gives scope to the entire saga.  The behind-the-scenes stills give an easy glimpse into the world of making technical wizardry films, and if you like games but haven’t seen the new offerings from Lucas Arts, then the Xbox demos will thrill and compel you to buy them the next time you get to the mall. The deleted scenes amount to two sequences that were cut for time, but it’s interesting to hear Lucas’ explanation as to why they were exiled, even if his delivery is dry and plotting.

The most exciting extras are the Making Of documentaries, of which there are many.  The full-length documentary, Within A Minute, is by far the best and probably will be used in film schools in the future as a course all by itself. The doc takes the viewer through the creation of one sequence in the film from conception to the final completion.  The most mind-boggling aspect you come away with is the sheer number of people it takes to make just one part of a film like this and how you’ll feel compelled to sit through the five minutes of credits the next time you make it to the theater.  The other docs are just as compelling but more specialized.  The 15-part Web documentary collection used to help promote the film when it was first released repeats a lot of what appears in the other docs, but it gives you a sense of the time it took to make the entire film.  

All in all, this is a DVD that should be in every film fan’s collection and a must-view for all the young, George Lucas wannabees sitting at their laptop, hoping one day they’ll be making their own six-part, 25-years-in-the-making movie saga.  Knowing Mr. Lucas, there will probably be new and improved versions in the future with added effects he couldn’t do in 2005; but even so, you won’t be disappointed with the current disk offering.  

As Yoda would say, the force one be with, and buy or rent Star Wars: Episode III, Revenge of the Sith available practically anywhere a DVD could possibly be sold.

Rich Burlingham

There is no denying that the latest film from George Clooney, Good Night, and Good Luck, is a vanity project — those films that usually get made only for the star power of its creator and have been around since D.W. Griffith made the bloated Intolerance in 1916.  Some of these films have been hailed as the greatest films of all time — see Citizen Kane.  Others go directly to DVD never to be seen again (except for those loyal fans that, if given the chance, would watch their star read War and Peace while on the toilet).

Good Night, and Good Luck is definitely in the heralded category.  It is co-written and directed by George Clooney (Confessions of a Dangerous Mind) who is precisely a star that can exercise his pull but does so with integrity and, in this case, to make a movie that deserves to be on all of the year’s top ten lists and a contender for an Academy Award.  The film, shot entirely in black and white, tells the story of the 1952 sword fight of words between the infant CBS News and Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy, who was on a diligent and misguided one-man crusade against communism in America.  More particularly, the film is both an homage to legendary newsman Edward R. Murrow and a tutorial on why freedom of the press helps make the United States one of the greatest nations the world has ever known or how we, the people, can nip power-mongers before they get too powerful.

Where Kevin Spacey’s love letter to crooner Bobby Darin, Beyond the Sea (2004), was a vanity project that didn’t quite make the grade, Clooney uses his head as well as his heart in giving up the starring role and handing it to the excellent David Strathairn (A League of Their Own, L.A. Confidential), who gives a pitch-perfect performance as Ed Murrow that captures the arrogance, courage, and insecurity of a man who practically wrote the textbook on broadcast journalism.  Clooney smartly relegates himself to an understated supporting role — but a key one in this morality tale — CBS News honcho Fred Friendly who himself created what would give face to the “Tiffany Network,” the CBS Nightly News.

Clooney captures the look, feel, and sound of an era where cigarette smoke filled rooms and everyone wore suits and ties to work.  All of the action takes place indoors and, for the most part, in the studios and offices of CBS New York.  The claustrophobic effect adds to the thematic storyline of a Congressman’s attempt to squeeze communists out of every nook and cranny of his choosing.  Clooney himself comes from a TV news pedigree and even tried it himself, only to find his calling elsewhere, but he did make this film as a reverence to his Dad, Nick Clooney, who had a long career as a TV anchor and host in Cincinnati.  Whatever the reason, Clooney has created a tightly-weaved snapshot of one moment in the history of our country that needs to be revisited and accomplishes this feat in both an entertaining and relevant manner.

The supporting cast is no less stellar, with names like Patricia Clarkson, Robert Downey, Jr., Frank Langella, Jeff Daniels, and Ray Wise filling out the roster of almost-forgotten CBS staffers.  But the best supporting performance has to go to Sen. McCarthy himself, who only appears via actual news clips from the time.  Ed Murrow perpetuated the downfall, but only McCarthy could unmask himself and show the nation his true colors, all in stark blacks and whites.  Good Night, and Good Luck will rightly be screened in many a future journalism class, but it should also be a film every American should see because it helps remind us that the virtues that make our country great should never be taken for granted.

High ratings to Good Night, and Good Luck, now playing in select theaters.

Rich Burlingham