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Wag the Dog

a review by Jeffrey Overstreet

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Wag the Dog is getting a lot of attention for echoing the recent “crisis in the White House”. Fortunately, the movie came first… it’s not an echo.

In less than two hours, director Barry Levinson challenges us with political profundities, startling revelations about media power, side-splitting rapid-fire hot-shot conversations, and subtle disturbing subtexts about the future of government and news. It’s half a brilliant political satire, half a wacky outrageous comedy of errors. The first half works, the second half doesn’t.

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Waitress

a review by Jeffrey Overstreet

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Fans of Firefly and Serenity, don’t despair. The charismatic Nathan Fillion may have a bright big-screen future ahead of him!

In Waitress, Fillion is fantastic as Dr. Pomatter, the amorous doctor who comes to the rescue when a pregnant and perturbed young beauty named Jenna, played by Keri Russell, finds herself in a nightmare marriage.

But there’s a problem. Both of Jenna and her good doctor are married: Jenna to a hard-hearted, self-absorbed monster called Earl (Jeremy Sisto), and Pomatter to… well, that’s a mystery until the film’s closing scenes.

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Waking Life

a review by Jeffrey Overstreet

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“Skepticism is the beginning of faith.” – Oscar Wilde

You may have experienced dreams in which you knew you were dreaming. I’ve heard people talk excitedly about fleeting dreams in which they were semi-conscious and could control what they were doing.

Now there’s a movie in which the main character is well aware that he’s dreaming, but he can’t get out. Some viewers will be fascinated by his dreams. Judging from the reactions of a few, whose seats were empty halfway through the film, others will call this a living nightmare… or at least a dreadful bore. Too bad. You’re not likely to find a movie with a such a generous sampling of challenging conversations unless you sign up for a course in philosophy.

Waking Life, directed by Richard Linklater (Slacker, Before Sunrise) introduces us to Wiley Wiggins. Wiggins might be described as a slacker/seeker. He has the compulsion of every Richard Linklater character — he craves heavy conversation so much that I suspect he doesn’t have time for much else, like a good job or a girlfriend. His favorite songs are probably by Travis, Sparklehorse, or Elliott Smith and his favorite movies are probably My Dinner with Andre and Wings of Desire. He’s Gen-Existential. And he can’t wake up.

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Walk the Line

a review by Jeffrey Overstreet

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James Mangold’s new film about the life of Johnny Cash, Walk the Line, burns, burns, burns with energy and explosive musical performances.

Following the narrative arc of last year’s musical biopic Ray, screenwriter Gil Dennis brings spirit, energy, and humor to the story, with both eyes on Cash’s autobiographies. And the words ignite onscreen, fueled by volatile and Oscar-worthy turns by Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon.

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Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit

a review by Jeffrey Overstreet

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Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is one of this year’s “How’d they do that?” movies.

You know how it is — every year, productions arrive that provoke more discussion of their technique than their storytelling. They amaze us with what is possible, and inspire us creatively. They demonstrate new technical breakthroughs that reinvigorate the art of moviemaking.

Star Wars did it for special effects like miniatures and creature effects. The Dark Crystal did it for Jim Henson’s creature shop. Tron made a movie blending computer animation and live action, and films like Jurassic Park and Toy Story brought computer animation to lifelike proportions. Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow and Sin City showed what artists can do with simple, readily-available computer technology.

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War of the Worlds

a review by Jeffrey Overstreet

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Tom Cruise has done a lot of running for his life over the course of his glamorous career. He’s running again in Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds, and he’s never had such good reason to do so. Spielberg’s vision of H.G. Wells’ otherworldly invaders is terrifying indeed.

Unleashing some of the most alarming special effects and some of the most upsetting displays of destruction and urban chaos ever filmed, War of the Worlds excels in its technical execution. ILM serves up visual wonders and virtuosic set pieces that make Revenge of the Sith look dated already, raising the bar so high for scenes of realistic devastation that it’s unlikely to be surpassed… even when Peter Jackson’s King Kong wreaks havoc in New York later this year.

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Watership Down

a review by Jeffrey Overstreet

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Martin Rosen’s Watership Down is distinct among animated films for its exemplary adaptation of a massive, complex work of fiction into an abridged feature.

Don’t listen to anybody who writes it off as a “cartoon about bunnies.” The film fuses stunning beauty, smart scripting, a splendid original score, unforgettable characters with excellence voice casting, and an approach that refuses to dumb down the material for audiences. This is a serious film for serious moviegoers. It’s also heartbreaking, suspenseful, and unflinchingly realistic in its depiction of animal violence.

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a review by Jeffrey Overstreet

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“In the old days, the land felt a great emptiness waiting to be filled up…”

With those words, Whale Rider begins, instantly casting its contemporary tale of culture clash in mythical terms.

What catches our attention about this portentous opening is this: It is spoken in the voice of a young girl. Whale Rider stands out from the crowd of movies about young people because of how it portrays its young female protagonist. Pai is only 12 years old, but she is intelligent, deeply emotional, and impressively brave. In fact, by the end of the film, she has humbled the willful grownups around her, and won our hearts as well.

Some of the credit goes to director Niki Caro for taking this simple hero story from a novel by New Zealand writer Witi Ihimaera and making it such an enchanting adventure. Lisa Gerrard should be commended for a score that enhances the story’s powerful sense of mystery.

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a review by Jeffrey Overstreet

Way of the Gun wants to keep you guessing, but there are so many twists and turns that I gave up trying to guess. The film’s final twist is extremely strange, enough so that it might develop a cult following that argues over its meaning, but frankly I don’t care that much to try.

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a review by Jeffrey Overstreet

While the scars that the Vietnam War left on America’s conscience will never go away, such hauntings can be the provocation for profound artistic exploration. Some of America’s most memorable films have come out of that pain — Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now, Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket, and The Deer Hunter, for example. We are drawn to the muddy moral dilemmas of the war. Should America have become involved? Was our objective worth the cost of so many lives? Or was it a civil war that we should have left well enough alone? What did we accomplish? Why do so many veterans tell horror stories not only about the combat with a resourceful enemy, but about the misbehavior of American soldiers?

We Were Soldiers, the new film written and directed by Randall Wallace (who wrote Braveheart) may be distinguished as the Vietnam film devoid of any politics. It stands out from the pack of dark, cynical, and bleak portraits of the war, focusing on the virtues of men who will follow orders bravely.

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