Movie Reviews @ The Temple

Okay, so here's some stuff I saw recently:

Babel: Very good.  Very tense.  Not a popcorn movie.  Also, it turns out, not a DATE movie.  But still very good, I felt, smart in the ways it had to be, understated in the politics, but effective.  I believe the other title they were kicking around for this movie was The World Is Fucked Up, subtitle: also, people speak different languages.  Nonetheless, great movie, go watch, don't bring popcorn.

Borat:  Shitty shitty movie!  And not for the reasons I expected.  We had a debate, the other day, about the validity of satire, if there's a "too far", when pranks are ok (on the Daily Show to Howie Mandel spectrum), etc.  I expected to have to debate w/ myself after seeing Borat why I laughed and whether it was ok that I did.  Trouble is, I barely laughed.  It wasn't god damn funny!  I don't mind offensive humor, I listen to Keith and the Girl!  I obviously don't mind smart humor.  Trouble is, this movie was neither smart, nor humorous.  Bad movie.

Manderlay:  Wtf?  This is the weirdest effin' movie I've seen in a long time.  I don't even know how to describe it.  A white lady comes to a 70-years-post-emancipation plantation still with slaves and decides to free them and make them self sufficient.  But it's done in a weird play-like way, the whole movie is on a white flat set that has a map drawn on it.  Set pieces are like a play, i.e. instead of a whole house, there's just a window here, a door there, a bed here, and a book case there.  Lit in such a way that you only see this circle of light where the important stuff is, and it's black beyond.  Very cool looking, really.  But super weird.  I like it for what it was trying to do, it is certainly a different movie than most.  But I think it failed in a few ways, chiefly in its heavy handed thesis.  Still, worth seeing.

Akeelah and the Bee:  Exactly what you would expect.  If that's your bag of bricks, go see it.

The Boys of Baraka:  Documentary on inner city Baltimore black jr. high age kids sent to school in Baraka, Kenya.  Generally very interesting all around.  Sad, as such things go.  Inspiring, as such things go.

40 Year Old Virgin:  I've actually seen this before, but I saw it again, and it's even funnier than I remember.  Everyone should see it!  Then I watched it again with commentary.  Then I watched it again.  So, yeah, it's funny.

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada: Very good.  You should probably see it.