Steven Spielberg's terrifying,
apocalyptic alien epic is one of the
best sci-fi films of the past few
years. Sure, it has that traditional
Spielbergian ending that seems to
get lopped onto every other film of
his, but the two hours before that
are hypnotic in their shock, terror,
and realism. There are several
stunning scenes -- the initial street
attack, the ferry overturning, the
basement infiltration -- that are
destined to become classics in the
director's oeuvre. Just stop Dakota
Fanning from screaming.
In many ways, Bennett Miller's
"Capote" is a stately, urbane
affair. It mixes mid-century
society scenes with small-town
drama and the famed author's
emotional unrest. But it digs
deep into the complex
motivations behind Capote's
friendship with a mass murderer.
Was it to sell books? To crack a
mystery? To save a soul not too
unlike his own? For the rest of
his life Truman was haunted by
what he saw and learned, and I
was similarly engaged by this
stirring retelling.
"Traffic" screenwriter Stephen
Gaghan reaches into his bag of
tricks -- globe-trotting locales,
dozens of characters, intertwining
plot developments -- and pulls out a
winner of a political thriller. Its
concerns are as timely as they are
interconnected, and he coaches ace
performances from a large,
international cast. George Clooney
is fine, but Alexander Siddig, Jeffrey
Wright, and Amanda Peet really
bring this one home.
How long will terrorism persist? Forever, if
"Munich" is any indication. A battle of wills and
pride is at the center of the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict, and Steven Spielberg's superb depiction
of the Munich aftermath tells one theoretical tale
of how the struggle continues to this day. Like a
conspiracy thriller from the 1970s, the director
aims for a refreshingly high degree of difficulty.
A divinely fact-based depiction of the
1950s Red Scare and how one daring
reporter led a crusade against a
fear-mongering Senator, George
Clooney's second directorial effort
shows the actor stepping up his
game to unanticipated levels.
Character actors like Frank Langella,
Patricia Clarkson, Jeff Daniels, and
Robert Downey, Jr. have their
impressive scenes, but this is
ultimately the David Strathairn show.
He holds the screen with his
smoldering, cigarette-holding
intensity and never lets up.
Woody Allen is back! Woody
Allen is back! You've heard the
fanfare, now experience the real
deal. For only the third or fourth
time in his long and storied
career, the Woodman styles a
suspense-thriller around marital
infidelity, and he hits it out of
the park. There's a femme
fatale, high-class intrigue, moral
dilemmas aplenty, and a
resonate theme of luck's role in
our lives that is depicted
brilliantly. Let's hope this is the
start of another chapter in Allen's
career that lasts for as long as
he keeps making films.
David Cronenberg's latest work took a
while to grow on me. (Off-putting from
the get-go: Ed Harris's cartoonish
appearance and line delivery.) But upon
further reflection, I came to see just how
taut and daring of a film it is. It gets to
the heart of violence in our society,
specifically the violence of one man who
may or may not have a hidden past he
wants to keep hidden. The pic takes
turns you'd never expect, and features
one of the top female performances of
the year in Maria Bello. A class act.
It was the year of political issues in
film, from class to race to free speech
to oil to war to terrorism. But Ang
Lee's masterful work is more than just
a "message movie" ready to be
pigeonholed into acceptance by the
masses. It's a romance that spans
the years and crosses boundaries in
ways that its lead characters could
never even begin to imagine. The Ang
Lee of old is back, and he's made
another classic.
The melting pot of Los Angeles
is a tense brew, and Paul
Haggis stirs things up forcefully
in this accomplished,
multi-storied tableau of race in
the city. The year's best
ensemble cast -- including
bravura against-type turns by
the likes of Ludacris, Brendan
Fraser, Sandra Bullock, Matt
Dillon, and Ryan Phillippe --
pretzel their way into a series
of interlocking stories that
never ceases to provoke
thought. All-out didacticism
has its drawbacks, but "Crash"
is a work of art.
Ironic and fitting that in the year of Hollywood's
big box office malaise, the year's best film is a
documentary. Director Werner Herzog fashioned
the home movies of naturalist Timothy Treadwell
into a larger statement about the divisions
between man and nature. During his summers
in the Alaskan wilderness cavorting with bears
and foxes, Treadwell experienced a unity with the
beasts that he never seemed to find in civilized
society. He befriended the grizzlies, named
them, interacted with them, and felt he spoke for
them. Treadwell's story had a tragic, but fitting,
end -- and Herzog's compilation spares no
judgment or morbid rumination. It's a classic.
