Oswald's Ghost was a short, and a shade sentimental documentary by Robert Stone on the Kennedy assassination's impact on U.S. society. As the title suggests, the film is centered on the role of Lee Harvey Oswald and the many subsequent conspiracy theories in the years after his murder. Though the film doesn't offer any new perspective on the history of the assassination, it does make use of long reels of news footage that are usually only seen in the length of a soundbite. Dan Rather is young, dewy-skinned freshman reporter, and the now gray and frazzled conspiracy theorists looked like young and frazzled conspiracy theorists; Jim Garrison is one in particular, the story of whom is the base of Oliver Stone's JFK (1991). In all, what makes the movie compelling is not actually cinematic, but the result of the subject matter itself that's an inextricable part of the American political and social sphere. Looking at the Zapruder film up close and re-magnified is like living through that moment, now over forty years in our past, again for the first time (even for those of us who weren't alive to see it upon release.) The film mentioned a figure somewhere around the 70% range for the section of Americans that believe President Kennedy's death was conspired by our own government, using Oswald as he himself says on one famous newsreel, a "patsy." The film is kind of like an undergraduate level paper on the Kennedy assassination; interesting and genuinely curious and earnest in its questioning, but doesn't uncover anything new on the subject. That said, history buffs will delight (as I did) in the rekindling of facts it provides.
Friday, November 16, 2007
I Think I Love My Wife, Chris Rock's second directorial feature, was the most misogynist film of the year, gleefully congratulating itself with an internal monologue of cat calls from the film's lead character Richard Cooper (Chris Rock). Meanwhile back at home, his wife stakes her claim as a shrewish, demanding and humorless teacher/homemaker. Is Richard honestly shocked by their non-existent sex life when he is the only half of their so-called partnership that gets to have fun and make a joke or two? Rock's adaptation is based on Eric Rohmer's Chloe in the Afternoon (1972), but is written for a much wider base; likely Rock's target audience is a far cry from those who sit down for the high concept ideas of Rohmer. The modern version of the film then becomes more of an exercise on bashing the low points of marriage, which are summed up from the male perspective only, thus pinning the roots of that anxiety on the boring, humorless wife. If only she were more fun, more spontaneous, then maybe he wouldn't be so tempted to undress every attractive woman with his eyes.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Besides Rushmore (1998), The Darjeeling Limited might be the best Wes Anderson flick yet. I think the main criticism I've read about the film is its redundancy in terms of style, that it looks like every other W. Anderson film. His signature is surely there onscreen, but I adored it anyway. Everything from Bill Murray's opening cameo, to Jason Schwartzman's pepper spray scene was a lot of fun, and most of it was done with so little dialogue that it gave us a good chance to just watch a solely visual story. The fact that the three American brothers are deserted in a country where their language isn't understood in the first place, is a good premise for the muted scenes. Most notable are the shots of simple human movement: watching the brothers walk or run with old-school designer suitcases in tow, regular mundane exercises become elegant.
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