John Cusack put my review of War, Inc. on his MySpace blog

I'm so stoked. John Cusack cross-posted my review of his movie War, Inc. from Progressive Blue to his MySpace blog after I sent him the link in a comment. Thanks, John. Just for that, I'm crossposting this like crazy.

Here's the review:

The Flicks Files: War, Inc. (2008)

The best new movie I've seen all year went almost straight to video after playing in a pathetically small number of theaters for a very short time. (Has anybody else noticed that Hollywood has been putting out some real crap this year? I'm not sure this corporate conglomeratization thing is working real well for them.)

The only new movie I've really cared about seeing this year was War, Inc., the bitterly biting satire of Halliburton-style war profiteering, which stars John Cusack, was directed by Joshua Seftel, and written by Mark Leyner & Jeremy Pikser & John Cusack. As might be expected by anyone who has become as cynical as I am in this land of the corporate controlled press, the movie struggled for distribution and promotion for a brief weekend or two in May, then was quickly swept under the red carpet. This, despite an all-star cast that includes Hilary Duff, Marisa Tomei, Joan Cusack, Ben Kingsley, and Dan Aykroyd.

Of course, we wouldn't want to jump to conclusions about the reason the movie "flopped." Maybe it was censored. Maybe it just sucked. At least, that latter explanation was one I was willing to entertain up until the point where I finally saw the movie this afternoon. No, it was censored. And that really pisses me off.

This movie has a great cast and a hilariously absurdist script. It's been said, probably in what little marketing there was of this movie, that it's the spiritual twin to Grosse Pointe Blank, but after seeing it, I felt like it was more a modern day Dr. Strangelove. There was a time in America, and it was not so long ago, when this movie would have been shown widely in the theaters, boycotted by some right-wing groups, and would have generated a storm of controversy in the press. In 2008, you hardly heard it whispered about. And that is much more scary.

Full disclosure here. I wanted this movie to succeed, artistically, even if not at the box office. The issue it discusses is of critical importance. Besides that, I really like John Cusack. I have liked him ever since my sister and I first cracked up laughing during a preview of Better Off Dead when we were in high school. I like him much more now that he's become an outspoken progressive blogger.

I've blogged about this movie before seeing it, which is pretty unusual for me, and I announced ahead of time that I would review it. Yesterday, knowing that I would probably get the DVD in the mail today, I was a little stressed out hoping that my honesty would not force me to give it a bad review. Fortunately, honesty intact, I can say that I loved it.

John Cusack's character in the movie, Hauser, is a corporate hitman for Tamerlane, a fictional Halliburton kind of company. He's sent to do an assassination in a fictional Middle Eastern country called Turaqistan, during the first American war completely outsourced to a private corporation. The movie opens with him doing a shot of pure hot sauce before a hit. This is one tough dude.

To pull off the assassination, he has to pose as the organizer for an American trade show showcasing the benefits of American corporate culture to a Turaqi audience. An inquisitive reporter for The Nation (Marisa Tomei) gets in his way. You get the feeling he might kill her, if he didn't start falling for her. As part of his trade show organizing cover job, he also has to babysit a bratty, oversexed Turaqi pop star (Hilary Duff). Fortunately, his hyper and perky yet menacing secretary (Joan Cusack) is there to help him do his job. It doesn't take too long before we start realizing that Hauser has some growing moral questions about his work.

Forget realism. If you're looking for an intellectual, balanced critique of American policy, you're not going to find it here. This movie makes its point by taking everything to an absurd, yet all too believable extreme. This is a sharp and cutting picture of the ridiculousness of extreme corporatization, where you can have a clandestine meeting in an undisclosed location hidden underneath a Popeye's restaurant.

The improbable relationships between Cusack's hitman, Tomei's progressive journalist, and Duff's pop star were risky. Initially I thought they were not going to work, because they just seemed way too unlikely, but in a few quiet human moments that were a haven in the madness of this movie, those relationships came together and actually became even touching. Hauser seems at times a little too nice to be a hitman, but at those moments, the character has a soul that you wish you could see evident in some of the members of the Bush administration. His capacity to question what he is doing ultimately makes him a sympathetic character.

The people who made this movie took a big risk to make an important point. Progressives will love it for its frank presentation of the huge problem America has with corporations that lobby our government so that they can make money through killing other people. Conservatives will no doubt screech loudly that John Cusack hates America.

At least, that's what I imagine will happen if the movie manages to be seen on DVD by enough people to even become a subject of discussion. See the movie, then go out and show it to others. This movie is a teaching opportunity, as Democratic congressional candidate Alan Grayson recognized while running in Florida's 8th District. Spread the word.

War, Inc. is rated R for some bad language, a little sexy stuff, and some pretty graphic violence. Given the subject matter, the violence makes sense, but be forewarned.

Watch the trailer:



War, Inc. receives the coveted Edge of My Seat rating in the black cat rating system, the highest rating possible.

Looking forward to War, Inc.

I've blogged about War, Inc. before. This is the satire of war profiteering starring John Cusack, Joan Cusack, Marisa Tomei, Hillary Duff, Dan Ackroyd, and Ben Kingsley, which I had been looking forward to earlier this year. I never got to see it, however, because it never made it out of a few cities in its theatrical release.

I tend to suspect it got effectively censored by corporate movie distribution due to the political message.

With a cast like that, it seems illogical that the movie wouldn't get wide distribution, even if it was truly bad. I don't know about the quality, because I still haven't seen it. The preview looks very funny.

Anyway, War, Inc. comes out on DVD tomorrow, Tuesday, Oct. 14th. I plan to review it later this week, so check back for the review. Probably the review will go up on Progressive Blue first.

And yes, I've been excited about this movie, because it's got a message I agree with and believe is important, but that doesn't mean I've come to a conclusion about whether it's a good movie before seeing it. I'll review it honestly, as I always try to do. Expect the review on Thursday or Friday. Unfortunately, I pre-ordered it from Amazon, and I don't think the shipment is getting here in time for me to do it earlier than that.

Flicks Files Flash: "The Godfather" Restored

Monday night, I was invited to a special premiere showing of the newly restored version of Francis Ford Coppola's classic film The Godfather at the Senator Theatre in Baltimore, one of five "historic presentation" theaters in the country chosen to showcase the restored versions of this film and The Godfather, Part II.



At the request of director Francis Ford Coppola, the 1972 film has been restored in what sounds like a meticulous and painstaking process by film preservation expert Robert A. Harris.

Paramount delivered the film’s surviving elements — original camera negative, YCM separation masters, intermediate separation masters and thousands of feet of miscellaneous elements — to Pro-Tek Preservation Services in Burbank, where an inspection confirmed that radical surgery was required. Held together with tape, the original negative was filthy and riddled with scratches, rips and tears, some of which broke into the image area; in some sections, parts of the image had actually been torn away.

According to Senator owner Tom Kiefaber, Harris was very impressed with the Senator on a previous visit, when the theater showed his restoration of Lawrence of Arabia, and it was Harris who suggested that the Senator be one of the theaters allowed to show this new restoration of The Godfather.

The two Godfather films begin showing at the Senator on Friday, October 10, but I got invited to the free private screening Monday night, because I am on the Senator's mailing list. If you live in the Baltimore area, this should be reason enough for you to go to the Senator's website and sign up to be on their mailing list yourself.

I feel a little silly reviewing this film, because it is routinely listed among the best American films ever made, and probably there is nothing I can say about it that hasn't been said before. The Godfather came out when I was very young, and I've been hearing people talk about it for at least the last 30 years. Usually what they say is it's exceedingly good or exceedingly violent, or both.

I, however, had never seen it, and that was for one reason only --- I don't like violence. I'm not a puritan about it, and I don't always succeed in avoiding violent movies. America has an obsession with violence, and much as I hate it, it's part of our culture. I sometimes end up seeing movies I know are violent if the subject interests me for other reasons, if I like the actors or the director, if the violence is cartoonish and bloodless, or if the movie gets so much praise that it must be a real work of art. The Godfather falls into that last category, so when I got a chance to see the restored version on the big screen, I decided to put aside my natural revulsion to the subject and go see it.

This is the story of an organized crime family, the Corleone family, and their various disagreements and vendettas against other Italian mob families. In it, an attempted hit against Vitto Corleone, the Godfather, begins a series of violent repercussions and revenge. These are guys you don't cross, and if you do, bad things happen to you.

Having heard this movie built up for 30 years or more, it's hard for it to live up to the reputation. In my opinion, this is neither the best movie, nor the most violent that I've seen. But I do have to agree somewhat with the general verdict --- this is a very fine movie. What makes it great is the writing, the characterizations, the compelling performances, and the chilling difference between the tenderness the members of the Corleone family show each other and the way they turn into absolute monsters when handling their "business."

Marlon Brando was superb as the Godfather, Vitto Corleone; Al Pacino was likewise as his innocent-looking young son Michael, who becomes ever more corrupt as the film progresses. Pacino is so young in this film that it took me about half the movie to realize who the actor was. And was that a very young Diane Keaton as Michael's girlfriend Kay? (Yes, it was, but again, it took me a long time to recognize her.)

I'll confess there was one major thing I didn't get about this movie, which kept nagging me throughout. What did the members of these crime families think they were gaining by all this violence? Power, maybe. Wealth, maybe, except they seemed to have little time to enjoy it, and all of their houses looked like funeral parlors. Nobody in the movie seemed to be enjoying life, so where was the benefit of this lifestyle? I just didn't get why these people considered their lifestyle one worth pursuing. Really, they seemed like ugly, mean little people living ugly, mean little lives. Perhaps that was the point.

Ultimately, I think these questions are criticisms of our society, and not of the film. What do we gain by our obsession with violence? Money? It sure doesn't look like it these days. Power? Again, I would question that. Are we enjoying life? Is this making us better? I don't think so.

The special engagement of The Godfather and The Godfather, Part II starts Friday. The movies will play for one week only. The Godfather will play at 12:30 p.m. and 8:00 p.m., and The Godfather, Part II will play at 4:00 p.m. You can see one movie or both for the admission price. If you want to catch the restored prints of these movies on the big screen, now's the time.



In any case, if you live in the Baltimore area, please sign up for the listserv and support the Senator Theatre. It's one of the few classic old movie theaters left, it's beautiful and architecturally unique, and it deserves to be preserved.

The Godfather receives the Pass the Popcorn rating in the black cat rating system, indicating it’s well worth watching.

The Flicks Files: Grace Is Gone (2007)

I'll just say it: I didn't sleep a wink after watching this movie. It was that disturbing, and without any visible violence. Grace Is Gone is a story about a man who learns that his wife, a soldier serving in Iraq, has been killed. He needs to tell his young daughters, but he just can't face doing that, so he takes them to an amusement park instead. The whole movie is about this poor man trying to find the nerve to tell his daughters their mother is dead.

The man, Stanley, is played by John Cusack, who somehow manages to look not much like himself, although the only obvious differences are nerdy, conservative clothes and glasses. A strict father type at the beginning of the movie, we watch him disintegrate and become very fragile during the course of the film, in an incredible performance.

The story is told with no varnish, no artificial sentiment, and very little background music, all of which makes it seem painfully real. Cusack's performance is heartbreaking, although the presence of his familiar Hollywood face still makes it seem too much like fiction. I found I had to remind myself that this kind of thing is happening to real people all too often, just so I wouldn't make the mistake of thinking "it's just a movie."

Throughout the film, I willed Stanley to tell his daughters what he had to tell them, but at the same time, it was so easy to see why he just could not. The older daughter suspected, the young one, not at all.

Cusack became one of my many progressive heroes earlier this year, after I learned that he had worked hard to bring War, Inc., a satire about war profiteering, before the American public. Through blogs and other media, he’s been actively raising the issues of corporate control of our military and the loss of our constitutional rights. All of that gave me more reason to be fond of an actor I've always liked anyway, and in the past few months, I've rented several of his movies that I had missed.

It was months ago that I added Grace Is Gone to my Netflix queue, but it took me this long to be able to face it, because I knew what the story was about. Funny, because I’ve been looking forward to War, Inc., but I guess it’s easier to deal with tough issues through anger and cynical humor than it is to face the human cost of the individual lives destroyed in this war for oil.

I won't say Grace is Gone is an easy or fun movie to watch, but I think it's important. The movie avoids political preaching in favor of sympathy for the bereaved family, so the question I'm going to raise now is my own: how have we allowed so many to make this sacrifice just for oil and corporate profits? It's such a crime.



Grace Is Gone receives the “Pass the Popcorn” rating in the black cat rating system, indicating that it’s well worth watching, although in this case, you may lose your appetite.

Crossposted from Progressive Blue.

The Flicks Files: Serenity (2005)

River Tam's mind has been stolen from her and locked behind closed doors in her brain. It's guarded by the assassin she has become, trained to kill at a word. Her brother, Simon, has freed her body from the secret Alliance facility where she is kept, but not even he can interpret her mad, psychic ramblings sometimes.

They are fugitives on an outlaw ship, Serenity. Mal is Serenity's Captain, a rebel and a wanted man, who just wants to stay free, but must live at the edges of law and civilized space to do so.

Now, a dangerous Alliance operative is coming after River --- a man who believes to his core that the right thing to do is to kill her --- and River's presence has become a danger to Serenity and her crew.

Mal is tempted to dump River and Simon on the next civilized planet and let them take their chances, but it wouldn't be right. For all his swaggering cynicism, Mal is a decent guy. Besides, whatever information is encoded in River's brain, the Alliance desperately wants to cover it up. Mal wants to find out what makes them feel so threatened. It might be useful to him.

There is some opposition to the idea of keeping River and Simon aboard. Jayne thinks the crew should be well rid of them, and he swaggers even more than Mal. In fact, Jayne swaggers so much you have to assume that all the brain energy he uses for controlling the swaggering muscles keeps his mind from functioning.

Fortunately, cooler, kinder, and smarter heads prevail, and the crew sets off to figure out why the Alliance wants River so badly.

To unravel the riddle, the crew of Serenity must evade the Alliance operative, while outrunning the Reavers, humans who have descended into madness, violence, self-mutilation, and cannibalism.

Joss Whedon's Serenity (2005) is a wild science fiction ride with a sharply witty script. Whedon is known for quirky, humorous, and original shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the recent Internet-based hit, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.

Serenity is based on his short-lived series, Firefly, which ran on Fox for one season before being canceled. Though it didn't last long, the show's fresh writing, sarcasm, and stellar ensemble cast inspired a devoted following of fans, strong enough to pressure Universal Studios into making the movie anyway.

Fortunately for anyone who likes science-fiction adventure with a giant dose of snappy snark, both movie and show are available on DVD. If you missed this the first time, don't miss it now.

This exchange between Captain Mal and First Mate Wash comes near the beginning of the film, and gives a sample of the humor:

Wash: "... this landing is gonna get pretty interesting."

Mal: "Define interesting."

Wash: "Oh God, oh God, we're all gonna die?"

Mal: (over speaker to the crew) "This is the captain. We have a little problem with our entry sequence, so we may experience some slight turbulence and then explode."

Mal leaves the cabin and encounters Jayne.

Jayne: “We’re gonna explode? I don’t wanna explode.”

The film’s cast members play off each other wonderfully. The stars include Nathan Fillion (Desperate Housewives, Waitress) as Mal, Summer Glau as River, and Alan Tudyk (3:10 to Yuma) as Wash, Gina Torres (I Think I Love My Wife) as Zoe, as well as several other actors in key roles.

Serenity is rated PG-13 for scenes of violence and some minor sexual references. The on-screen violence isn't terribly graphic, but the implications are disturbing. This film is not appropriate for young children.

Serenity earns the coveted “edge of my seat” rating in the black cat rating system.

The Flicks Files is an occasional column reviewing movies both new and old, to increase your viewing pleasure both at home and in the theater. This is the first installment.

Previously posted on Associated Content.

 

 

Here's an article I consulted in writing this review: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/10490/joss_whedon_hits_the_big_screen_in.html?cat=40