Reviews

I saw "Beasts of the Southern Wild" In it, poor whites and blacks struggle to survive in a hardscrabble hamlet--"hardscrabble" barely describes the place--on the Louisiana coast, caught between the expanding chemical plants and oil refineries of the mainland on the one hand and the storms of the Gulf of the Gulf of Mexico on the other. The story is seen through the eyes of--and told in the voice of--a six-year-old black girl being raised by her ailing and alcoholic father. Through her radical innocence, child's imaginativeness, and innate intelligence, the girl strives to deal with premature experiences, familial chaos, menacing outside forces, and natural disasters. The film is somewhat similar to those of Terrence Malick ("Days of Heaven," "Tree of Life") in that it is a kind of beautifully photographed documentary infused with "magical realism." The settings and production design are amazing, and the soundtrack--composed by the director/co-writer from jazz, classical, and soundscape elements--is wonderful. The performance by Q. Wallis as the girl is phenomenal. "performance" isn't even the right word. "Embodiment" would be better, and not just because Wallis is a six-year-old girl. If you watch her facial expressions change, you will see that they are perfectly attuned to whatever scene she is in. Her father is also played well--by a man from the area who rehearsed after working his night stint as a baker. Interestingly, the film is also simultaneously a parable that can appeal to both left and right. Corporate power is not viewed positively, and there is a global warming element. But government bureaucracy of the "we're here to help" kind is also viewed unfavorably, and the film is "colorblind." The characters, though poor, do not see themselves as "victims" and are not depicted that way; race is not an issue; and both blacks and whites stand in solidarity to save the way of life of their"messy," very messy, community. Altogether, this low-budget, independent film is a welcome break from the CGI, 3-D, comic-book superheroes, and violent action of the dominant Hollywood universe.

"Blackthorn" is a fine addition to the genre of "elegaic Westerns," such as "High Lonesome," "The Wild Bunch," "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," "McCabe and Mrs. Miller," and "The Shootist." An exotic touch is added by the fact that it's set amid the varied and spectacular scenery of Bolivia, which now joins Mexico and Australia as the setting for Westerns outside of the American West. Sam Shepard is excellent--and the essence of "grizzled." There is also some strong acting by Bolivian actresses and a soupçon of social consciousness in the plot. Flashbacks add to the richness of the film but could have been shot in a more lyrical manner to differentiate them more from the main plot. In conclusion: More movies of this quality, please!

"Hanna" is a combination of action thriller (spy division), coming-of-age story, Grimm fairy tale, and sci-fi. It's an ambitious undertaking that's hard to bring off--and that probably explains some of the quirkiness in the film. It also explains why the film is so compelling and stays with one after one has seen it. The performance by Saoirse Roinan was terrific. To see such an ethereal creature kicking ass from Finland to Morocco to Spain to Germany was a delight. Eric Bana was rather good. (I haven't liked him in other things that he's done.) Cate Blanchett was also good, and I do think that her on-and-off accent was a deliberate device to display the character's manipulative nature. The English family was wonderful, and those impressed by Jessica Barden's performance as the teenage daughter should see "Tamara Drewe," where she made her very amusing debut. She, like Saoirse, is obviously destined for stardom. People should bear in mind that Natalie Portman started on her path to stardom at age 12 when she played an assassin in "The Professional." The production design of the film added much to it-- particularly the weird structure where Hanna is interrogated, the even weirder actual landscape of Morocco, and today's Berlin, which looks like NYC of the '70s and '80s. Ugh! Finally, Hanna did have a human mother (embryo provider), and it wasn't Marissa.