Al Franken: God Spoke - Reaction

Okay film covering a period of Franken's life from publishing "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them" through the 2004 election to the announcement he was considering running for senate. Felt fairly straight-forward / one-note, but that could be because Al Franken is a simple and direct politically active comedian. (If there is much more to him, this movie doesn't show it.) Lacks much forward momentum. I tried to feel a climax at the 2004 election but the movie continued. And it just petered out after his senate posturing. Still, a funny movie (because he's funny). Same directors as "The War Room," a political documentary covering Clinton's campaign. The directors were there to answer questions after the movie.

Eden - Reaction

[Germany/Switzerland]

Touching film that shows how food can open up the heart. Chef-actor performs excellently; he can say a lot without words. "Nuanced film [about] aloneness and relationships." Doesn't end the way you think it will. My screening was odd due to mis-cut film, missing scenes, and bad color on the DVD. This problems prevented us from seeing 15 minutes of the film and delayed the middle by over an hour. Despite this obstacle, the movie is very good. (Also, the director and producer were there and intelligently answered interesting questions about casting, framing, and more.)

Annie Hall - Reaction

Woody Allen's retrospective tale about the relationship between a morose Jewish comedian and his neurotic girlfriend. A pretty good -funny, witty, sad, and true- film that uses some innovative storytelling techniques such as on screen subtitles that reflect what the characters are really thinking, split screens, children talking like adults, characters speaking directly to the character, and a non-chronological structure. Reflects Allen's quirks, including his obsession with anti-semitism and his hatred of California.

Confederate States of America - Reaction

A creative, fake documentary on America, covering the last one hundred and fifty years, all based on the assumption that the south won the civil war. Felt authentic, with old shaky news clips and radio broadcasts. Makes one think about implicit racism, especially with the mock commercials (for a show like cops, niggerhair cigarettes, etc.). (Many of these mock commercials are for products that turn out to be real.) Yet doesn't feel deep enough to me. For instance, they have parallels with the kennedy assassination, America surprise attacking the Japanese, an alliance with Hitler, and more, but all these are covered so briefly they doesn't shed new light on either the real history or the movie's.

Syriana - Reaction

Eh. If the politics and business surrounding oil are complicated, this movie accurately represents and reflects it. But then it also includes many story lines that don't really interact; people in one area don't seem to know, understand, or care what the other area is doing. No characters are really worth caring about much. Some or all of these may be intentional, but those facts don't necessarily make for a good movie.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (#4) - Reaction

A good, accurate, condensed translation of the book to film. Good special effects, but not as in look-at-these-special-effects but used as if they were natural. Like the other Harry Potter movies in that it puts character development to the side in order to try to put as much plot from the book as possible into the movie. It also abbreviates plot explanations for the sake of brevity, possibly under the assumption that most of the audience has read the book. (I have.)

The Dinner Game - Reaction

[France]

Fairly fun and funny. Not very deep. Much like the three stooges but without the physical humor, if that makes any sense. A bit mesmerizing, like watching a person's relationship/social life crash in slow motion. You know it won't turn out well, but you constantly hope you're wrong.