He Said, Miracle at St Anna

Spike Lee frustrates me. Clearly one of our most talented filmmakers, Lee makes films of substance and quality that will stand the test of time. Years from now people will see these films and for a fact know what was on our mind. His films have challenged the accepted state of race relations in our society and the held the a mirror to the face of history which attempts distort the ugly truth and soft pedals the atrocities of the past.

In the is film, Lee gives us his take on the condition of the American Negro during WW II. The script is rift with contradictions and what I call bumps in the road. It's those things that make you notice that your watching a movie rather than gathering you in to the arms of familiar but willing world of your imagination. The walk and talk arguments about the difference between the way the black man is treated in Europe and back home were relevant and needed, but I found the language stiled and preachy. and that is the consistent problem with Lee's hand on the throttle. He makes his point with a damn good story and compelling characters, but he can't resist that climb up to the top of the soap box for one more verbal whack at the injustice of it all.

I certainly think this film, with it's minor flaws, is more than worthwhile seeing. Lee uses and even hand in finding evil and courageous human behaviour on all sides of the conflict. Regardless if they be the in the German Army, the liberating US fores, the townspeople, or the partisan underground, there is enough bravery and treachery to go around. Evil in uniform is not an unusual theme, but in this age of political correctness it's uncomfortable watching a US Army officer screaming racial remarks at the compliant, loyal black soldier. It's uncomfortable watching hundreds of people die because the betrayer has betrayed once more. And even though there is a measure of justice in this film, but far to many people have to die to accomplish that small step.

Spike Lee is a great talent and his heart is always out there were we can see it. He just has to have more faith in our ability to get it

Before the Rain, He Said

Henry Moores, played by Linus Roache is a man of many facets. In the opening scenes, we see him side - by - side with his Indian partner T. K., played by Rahul Bose,as they plan and dream of expanding the spice plantation. He seems to be a progressive man who values his native friend both as a man and as a co-worker. This is no small gesture in southern India in 1938. The British are barely hanging on to their colony and anti-British sentiment is sucking all of the oxygen out of the air. T. K. believes in progress and feels that by working with Moores, he can better his community and therefore his country. He comes to see those who seek rebellion as people who can not move on to the modern world, but are stuck in the past. Moores and T. K. are going to build a road into the mountains so they can harvest more spices and expand their business. The road must be done "Before the Rains".

When Moores returns to his house after his days work, we quickly realize that he is having a love affair with his Indian house maid Sajani (Nandita Das ). Their affair is so far been hidden, even from T.K., but a romp in the forest is interupted by two small village children. Moores dismisses the incident.

The deception deepens as we find out that Moores is married and his wife and child are returning from holiday in England. Laura Moores, played by Jennifer Ehle brings her love and devotion and the warning that her father thinks her a fool for trusting her life to a man such as Moores. Moores takes all of this with good humor, but it is clear the pressure is building. His wife has no reason to suspect that Moores is anything but commited to her and their future. In fact , she befriends Sanjani and compliments her for taking such good care of her husband and house in her abcense.

Sanjani is also married to a crude and hostile man who is jealous an violent. Her brother, a good friend of T. K.'s is also very protective of her and is supicious of the situation at the Moores house.

The tension is drawn tighter as Moores takes out a loan for the construction of the road. The conditions are that it mus tbe completed before the Monsoon season and it must not wash away when the rains come. T. K. has assured Moores that his design will prevent the errosion of the road.

Aside from the monsoon destroying his road, the element that can destroy Moores and shatter his dream is his relationship with Sanjani. And like every love affair that is to be kept private, this one proves impossible to hide and leads to Moores downfall.

But this story is not just a story of misplaced passion. Moores believes he is the future for this area and it's people. He is like a lot of people who champion the downtrodden only to find out the people he wants to help may not want his help. The changes he brings maybe frightening and destabilizing. Throwing over tradition always means displacing power and those with power do not merely step aside. Yes, there is little doubt that Moores deserves his fate in this story, but the undercurrent is clarly true also. By destroying Moores other purposes were served. Moores weakness for Sanjani was a convenient tool for his enemies to destroy him.

The style of this film is typical Merchant Ivory. Filmed with rich and colorful scenes where the camera lingers just long enough to pass on the flavor of the setting without making it anything more than the spice in the stew. Roache and company do a superb job of making these people come to life and compel us to know them and what they are all about. In the vin of "Painted Veil", this cautionary tale about the clash of civilizations is most note worthy for its respect for the cultures involved and an evenhanded judgement of the times.

Bella, He Said

Bella, a 2006 film, only recently available on DVD, is a heart wrenching tale of personal growth and redemption. Director, writer Alejandro Gomez Monteverde presents his story in an intriguing series of revelations about the characters that always challenges our first impressions.

When the film opens, Jose, played by Eduardo Verástegui, is sitting on a beach his full beard and long flowing hair and his penetrating eyes give him a Christlke look. Jose's fascination with one girl playing in the surf with other children is disturbing enough tp cause a man to summon his children to his side, as if to protect them.
Then we flash back to an earlier day. Jose is being idolized by the neighborhood kids. He has just signed a contract to play professional soccer. He and his manager are leaving the New Jersey neighborhood, where his family lives, to attend his first big press conference. The old Caddy convertible rolls down the residential streets as the two men get into an animated conversation about Jose's impending interview. The music from the radio is hot salsa and the conversation becomes more intense. The speed of the car and the lack of attention portends disaster, but than we flash forward.

I'm not a huge fan of the flashback technique. There are many ways to set up history without going backwards and forwards multiple times. That being said, it is used about as well as can be done in this film. One of the things the director must do is establish in the minds of the viewer which era he is watching. Monteverde uses facial hair on Jose as a time setter. When we are back in the good old days he is relatively clean shaven. When we are in the present, he is full bearded. Also, and this one really bothered me, he wears his chefs white coat in every scene that is in the present. There were so many times I just wanted to scream," take that damn thing off!" As it happens, there is a scene toward the end of the film when his removal of tthe chef's coat is highly symbolic.

Chef's coat? We learn as the story develops that for whatever reason, the soccer career is over and Jose is laboring as the indispensable head chef in his bother Manny's upscale Manhattan restaurant. Manny is the hard driving boss with little concern for anything but his customers. Manny fires a waitress, Nina, played by Tammy Blanchard. In an impetuous move, Jose follows Nina to return a stuffed animal that has fallen out of her bag, only to find himself spending the entire day with her.

They slowly reveal their stories to each other as a bond grows between them. First it's their mutual problems with Manny, who is depicted as dictatorial and unfeeling. Than there is the problem of Nina's newly discovered pregnancy and what she will do with the situation. Later we get the story of why he is not playing soccer and why he is so insistent that she has her baby, even if she adopts the child to others.

The resolution of all these problems are built on the platfrm of the strong family Jose leans on and that welcomes Nina in her hour of need. Tearjerker? Yes. Maybe it's just that the characters in this film are slowly and strongly built that we care about them. Maybe it's a clear eyed look at one soluiton to an unwanted pregnancy. Maybe it's one more look at a successful immigrant family in a time that immigrants are once again in our long history of assimilation are under attack. For these and many more reasons, this is an excellent film and one that will stick with me for quiet a while.

Sabbatical Notice

Actually, I'm not an academic, nor am I getting paid to not write my blog, but I am taking some time off to do some personal writing. I expect to be back in July. If you are one of my regular readers, I hope you'll indulge me.

Flawless, He Said

Starring Demi Moore as the career impaired American in the multinational behemoth London Diamond Corporation and the always interesting Michael Caine, as the unseen Janitor. this highly unlikely pair manages to bring the powerful and greedy men who run this monopoly to it's knees. Both, for their own reasons, has a need to strike back at the puppeteer who pulls their strings, and strike they do

Caine's character Hobbs is another in the long string of charming rascals that he does so effortlessly. Hobbs is just one of the janitors in the sparkling clean and sterile offices of the Corporation. At one point the career obsessed Laura Quinn asks him how he has access to so much information about her and the inner workings of the company. He tells her that people discuss things in front of him as if he wasn't even there. Than given the access to all of the office waste and the information that contains, Hobbs has a unique perspective on this super-secretive organization. Hobbs convinces Laura that he only wants to steal a small amount of diamonds to secure his retirement. He recruits her because he knows that not only has she been passed over for advancement six times, but that she is going to be fired. Once she verifies that he is correct, she steals the secret combination to the main vault.

Laura is a reluctant participant in the crime and at every turn becomes Hobb's accomplice and worst problem as she vacillates from wanting to succeed and fear of failure. when the film opens and older Laura Quinn is giving an interview to a clueless young reporter who is writing a puff piece on the women who forged the path for women in the all boys club atmosphere of the business world in the nineteen sixties. Laura wipes the smugness off the young woman's face when she pops a legendary diamond out of her purse and implies that the gem was the cause of her imprisonment until the very day they were meeting.

When we get pulled back to London in the sixties, we see young Laura as an ex-patriot American trying to work her way up in the corporation. Quickly we learn that her intelligence and are both a asset and threat to the men who run the company. We can see even if Laura won't admit it that she is going no where in this firm for one reason and one reason alone, she is a women in a mans world. Her manipulation by Hobbs is almost as ruthless as the neglectful corporation, for it soon becomes apparent that Hobbs has and agenda that is wider than enhancing his self-styled retirement fund.
This film is a fun romp of a "how'ed he do it" and look at the way things were and continue to be for women in the man's world. I know the Demi Moore is the actress that critic's love to hate, but this role is one she handles as easily as "G. I Jane", where she ventures into this war of the sexes. Caine as alternatively the resourceful thief and father figure compliments her completely. The script is tight and the ending completely a surprise.

The Visitor, He Said

This skillfully written and presented "little film" stars the familiar but little known Richard Jenkins as Walter Vale, a discontented economics professor. Jenkins is one of the many character actors, we see in films and on television, but until now has not been asked to carry the film. Ably supported by Haaz Sleiman as the illegal immigrant Tarek and his also illegal street vendor girl friend Zanib played by Danai Jekesai Gurira.

The story begins by slowly revealing Walter in his life as professor on a small campus, who is clearly burned out uninterested in his career. We know almost from the beginning that the book he is working on is not going well and his reluctance to teach, he only has one class, is a symptom of a greater discontent. Walter returns to his apartment in the New York City because he is forced to present a paper that he co-authored to a seminar.

When he gets to the apartment, he finds that someone has rented the unit to two illegals, Tarek, and Zanib. At first, he merely wants them out of his apartment, but when he sees that they are decent people, he invites them back on a temporary basis. As they pursue their living, Tarek is a musician and Zanib as a street vendor, Walter attends the seminar. They begin to get to know each other and relate to each others cultures. Walter has tried to learn to play the piano with little success, but when Tarek offers to show Walter to play the African drum, Walter begins his transformation.

When Tarek is arrested for a bungled attempt to get he and his drum through a subway turn-style, his status is revealed and he is interned in a holding prison in Queens, NY. Sanib dare not visit him because she will also be arrested. Tarek does not want his mother, who lives in Michigan, to know what is going on because she will worry to much.

Walter tries to get Tarek released by hiring a immigration attorney. When Tarek's mother comes to New York because she hasn't heard from him, our story takes a different turn. Their sweet and evolving relationship makes Walter realizes the the loss of his vitality and desire to live has been dashed by the death of his wife and his disillusionment with his career.

Thomas McCarthy's script and direction does not permit the Hollywood ending that we might hope for, but the scene with Walter drumming on the platform of the New York subway is probably more telling and inspiring than what Hollywood would usually provide.

This film is worth more than the tale of redemption. Walter, Tarek and Sanib's story tells us more about what it's like to be and illegal immigrant in this country. As in the film "Under the Same Moon", we are forced to see the bad things that happen to these generally good people. I don't think these films have any answers to the problems that illegal immigration bring to our table, but it forces most of us, who don't have to face the conditions of these people on a daily basis, look and feel their plight.

Under The Same Moon, He Said

This is a story of a little boy whose mother has chosen to come illegally to the United States and work in order to make a better life for him. He lives each week for the phone call that comes every Sunday at 10:00 a. m. His mother, also looks at these precious moments on the same corner, at the same pay phone as the highlight of her week and clearly this ritual gives them both hope. But this story is about much more than the hopes and dreams of a little Mexican boy and his mother. it is about the experience of many illegals in this county regardless of their country of origin or their reason for coming here. It's about the image we have as a country of inclusiveness and the reality of our fear of foreigners.

We, on one hand, depend on the hordes of South American illegal workers to pick our vegetables and fruits, to do our gardening and landscaping, to roof our houses clean our homes and tend our children, while at the same time pursue them for deportation. In one scene of this film Rosario, the mother of our hero Carlito, is fired by an obviously over-privileged, vain and thoughtless women for whom she has been working as a house maid. Not only does this women cruelly dismiss the young women who desperately needs the job, but she refuses to pay her for the time she has put in fort that week and taunts her because she knows Rosario has no recourse.

The story portrays for us the disliked and distrusted Mexican women in Carlito's home town, who arranges for people to cross the border illegally. She is resented for the high prices she charges and the apparent lack of concern for her customers, but she is tolerated because she is necessary in this corrupt business. We still find that she is only as cruel as she has to be to survive.

Our story begins with the death of Carlito's grandmother. He does not want to live with his greedy Uncle and he is tired of waiting for his mother to send for him or come home. He decides to go North and find her himself. His journey will entail the intervention and help of many people. Much of this part of the film is fanciful and somewhat unbelievable, but the spirit of the character of little Carlito is infectious and his cause is noble.

In the end, this film is uplifting and gratifying only because it depicts the best in the immigrants who come here seeking to better themselves. The story gloss's over what happens to those who in their hopelessness and need turn to crime and violence in order to survive. We need to be challenged to a greater extent for our duplicity and neglect of our fellow citizens of the world who look to us for leadership and example. At this point, we fail not only the Carlito's of the world, but our own ethic and image