The
Reader extended for a few more showings!
Chiang
Mai movies beginning Thursday, March 19
by
Thomas Ohlson
Best
Bets: The Reader. Bolt. Watchmen.
Wonder
of wonders, The Reader has been extended at Major Cineplex,
though for how long is a question, perhaps only a few more showings.
I find it astonishing that it appeared here at all, let along
last more than a week. Many thanks to Major Cineplex for bringing
this fine film to Chiang Mai. I suggest you see it while you can to
experience the story and the Oscar- winning performance of Kate
Winslet.
Here
are my comments on the movies playing in Chiang Mai at Major
Cineplex at Airport Plaza and at Vista at Kadsuankaew for the week
beginning Thursday, March 19, 2009. There is also information on film
programs at the Alliance Française and CMU’s Film Space
for the next three weeks.
Special
report: International Dance Festival 2009.
See the special section below. Plans still seem to be in a state of
flux for this – not unusual – but most posters and flyers
indicate that there will be free performances at Airport Plaza this
Saturday and Sunday from 5 to 7 pm, but there are some reports that
those have been cancelled. Additional performances are still
scheduled for Airport Plaza, and at the Chiang Mai City Arts and
Culture Center and Museum, and at the Mandarin Oriental Dhara Dhevi.
I’ll try to keep you informed with updates to this newsletter.
The Oplas Teatro Company of Umbria, Italy, with its performance of
“Touch” – shown here – seems
particularly interesting. At the last report, it is scheduled for
Monday, March 23, at the Chiang Mai City Arts and Culture Center at
around 6 pm.
This
is Issue Number 21 of Volume 4 of these listings – in our
fourth year!
Now
playing in Chiang Mai * = new this week
*
Seven Pounds: US,
Drama/ Romance – 123 mins – Rescheduled for this date. I
find this a dreadful movie, and it makes me feel very uncomfortable
just to talk about it. I think it’s grim, morose, and undone by
an illogical plot. However, I have to admit that Will Smith is a
charismatic actor, and you can hardly not watch him and get involved.
In this unbelievable and exasperating story, Smith is an IRS agent
who is depressed and guilt-ridden about mistakes from his past, and
he sets out to make amends by helping seven strangers. It’s
shamelessly manipulative of your emotions. I’d suggest that you
don’t see it, except that somewhere, someone will like this
film and be entranced by it, so if you think you might be that
person, by all means go! Directed by Gabriele Muccino (The Pursuit
of Happyness). Generally negative reviews: 36/46 out of
100.
And,
should you plan on going, don’t find out too much about the
story beforehand. That would spoil whatever excitement the film might
offer you. However, you might ponder two things, should you wonder
what that strange title might mean:
1)
Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, and what the
pledge of a pound of flesh physically refers to.
2)
The actual weight of a human heart.
* Meat Grinder/
Cheuat gon chim / เชือดก่อนชิม:
Thai,
Horror – 90 mins – A slasher/horror, torture-porn
thriller about a noodle-shop lady who serves up a special meat with
her dishes. Shades of Sweeney Todd!
Wise
Kwai:
The Thai title has undergone a change. When it
was first promoted
it was called ก๋วยเตี๋ยว
เนื้อ คน or
Guay-dteow neua kon, literally "human meat noodles", like
Soylent Green.
The
powers that be decided that title, however accurate, was a little too
explicit, so the new posters say เชือด
ก่อน ชิม,
or Cheuat gon chim, or roughly, "carve before tasting",
which still gets the point across but isn't so in your face, even if
the posters and trailers are all very graphic.
If
you’d like to see some previews, click here.
I don’t know why you’d want to, but …
The
Reader
– US/ Germany, Drama/ Romance – 124 mins – Directed
by Stephen Daldry. Kate Winslet won two Golden Globes this year, and
one of them was for best supporting actress for her role in this
film. And she won the Oscar for the role as well, but as best
actress. It’s a fine fine film! Kate’s performance is
something definitely not to be missed. I recommend it and urge you to
see it. Also starring Ralph Fiennes and the young David Cross. It’s
about an unrepentant Nazi war criminal – a female guard at a
concentration camp – and her affair with a young boy. It’s
an absolute marvel that it showed up here in Chiang Mai at all –
cheers to the Major Cineplex chain for bringing it in. Rated R in the
US for some scenes of sexuality and nudity. Mixed or average reviews:
58/60 out of 100.
Reelviews,
James Berardinelli:
It’s a difficult film in that it shows how the horror of
Auschwitz was hidden behind a curtain of ordinariness. At one point
during The Reader, one character condemns not only the likes
of Hanna but the whole of the previous generation of Germans for
their willful ignorance of what was happening to the Jews. This
question of responsibility and culpability has left a deep scar on
the collective German consciousness that even now has not healed, and
there are indications of it spread throughout The Reader. …
There is enough intelligent, compelling material here to make it
worthwhile as a meditation about the post-World War II implications
of the Holocaust upon the German psyche and as the tale of the
tragedy suffered by one man because, at a vulnerable time of his
life, he fell in love with the wrong person.
Roger
Ebert:
There are enormous pressures in all human societies to go along. Many
figures involved in the recent Wall Street meltdown have used the
excuse, "I was only doing my job. I didn't know what was going
on." President Bush led us into war on mistaken premises, and
now says he was betrayed by faulty intelligence. U.S. military
personnel became torturers because they were ordered to. Detroit says
it was only giving us the cars we wanted. The Soviet Union functioned
for years because people went along. China still does.
Many
of the critics of The Reader seem to believe it is all about
Hanna's shameful secret. … [Sentence deleted as a spoiler!]
…. Others think the movie is an excuse for soft-core porn
disguised as a sermon. Still others say it asks us to pity Hanna.
Some complain we don't need yet another "Holocaust movie."
None of them think the movie may have anything to say about them. I
believe the movie may be demonstrating a fact of human nature: Most
people, most of the time, all over the world, choose to go along. We
vote with the tribe.
To
read the whole of Ebert’s thought-provoking piece, click here
– but do it after you’ve seen the film, so as not to
destroy the story.
About
the director, Stephen Daldry: Following
the lead of such esteemed stage directors as Nicholas Hytner and Sam
Mendes, Stephen Daldry made his name in the British theater world
before he moved to films, succeeding on his first cinematic foray
with Billy Elliot (2000).
U.K.
native Daldry began his stage career early in life, doing youth
theater and spending time as a circus clown. After attending
university at Sheffield, Daldry headed to London, where he began to
draw attention for his work at the fringe theater the Gate. Daldry
went on to direct over 100 plays, including the long-running, 1992
Tony Award-winning revival of An Inspector Calls and David
Hare's one-man show Via Dolorosa, and was appointed the
director of the Royal Court Theatre at age 32.
During
his stint at the Royal Court, the British film production company
Working Title began to groom Daldry for a movie career, starting with
the short film Eight (1998). Taking a leave of absence from
the theater, Daldry subsequently helmed his first feature, Dancer,
retitled Billy Elliot so as not to be confused with fellow
Cannes Film Festival entrant Dancer in the Dark (2000). Set in
northern England, against the gritty backdrop of the 1984 coal miner
strikes, Billy Elliot's story of a boy's desire to be a ballet
dancer was praised and damned for its sentimentality, with critics
declaring it either a moving story of nonconformity triumphant, or
"emotional pornography." Regardless, Billy Elliot
became a local and international smash, earning raves for young
acting neophyte Jamie Bell's performance as the titular boy and Oscar
nominations for screenwriter Lee Hall, supporting actress Julie
Walters, and director Daldry. Daldry followed his freshman triumph by
directing Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, Ed Harris, and Nicole Kidman
in The Hours (2001). Adapted by playwright David Hare from
Michael Cunningham's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Hours
gracefully interweaves three stories about a critical day in the
lives of Kidman's Virginia Woolf as she struggles to write her
esteemed 1925 novel Mrs. Dalloway, Moore's unhappy 1950s
housewife who finds solace in Woolf's book, and Streep's 2001
incarnation of Clarissa "Dalloway." Finding visual
analogues for the novel's challenging interiority and deftly juggling
the scenarios' thematic echoes concerning the women's search for
meaning in their lives, Daldry and Hare earned kudos for adapting an
"unadaptable" book, while Streep, Moore and Kidman's superb
performances garnered further raves for Daldry's direction.
Bolstering the film's pre-Oscar buzz, The Hours won the Best
Picture prize from the National Board of Review and appeared on the
American Film Institute's 2002 Ten Best Films list. When the Academy
Award nominations were announced in February of 2003, few were
surprised that The Hours earned nine nominations in all,
including one for Best Director.
In
2008, Daldry returned with his third film, an adaptation of the
international best-selling novel The Reader. The movie had a
somewhat troubled production, thanks in large part to a disagreement
between producers Harvey Weinstein and Scott Rudin, but the film
proved to be very popular with Academy voters. They bestowed five
nominations on the work, including nods for Best Picture, Best
Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay. Daldry himself garnered a best
director nomination, making him the first director to earn
nominations for each of his first three features. ~ Lucia Bozzola,
All Movie Guide
Bolt:
US
Animation/ Comedy/ Family/ Fantasy – 96 mins – John
Travolta does a superb job voicing Bolt, a canine TV star convinced
of his superpowers who sets out on a cross-country journey to find
his owner. I found this whole enterprise a complete delight,
containing many moments of real heart. If you at all enjoy animation,
don’t miss this one. Great for kids – and adults!
Generally favorable reviews: 67/65 out of 100.
Watchmen:
US/
UK/ Canada – Action/ Drama/ Fantasy/ Sci-Fi/ Thriller–
163 mins – I have to admit that this film simply blew me away!
I think that once you accept the violence and the comic-book origins,
you will find this a monumental film. If you liked The Dark Knight
or A Clockwork Orange, you should appreciate this. (It’s
monumentally long as well, so be prepared.) Directed by Zack Snyder
(who gave us 300), it’s complex and multi-layered, and
is set in an alternate 1985 America in which costumed superheroes are
a part of everyday life, Richard Nixon is in his fifth term as
president, and the US won the war in Vietnam – which is now the
51st State. And that’s just for starters! Amidst all the blood
there’s a lot of philosophy, and a lot to think about and
debate before you see it again. Rated R in the US for strong graphic
violence, sexuality, nudity, and language. Mixed or average reviews:
56/53 out of 100.
Clint
Morris, Moviehole: Might just be the best-written,
best-performed, and most meaningful superhero movie ever made. Unlike
a lot of caped-crusader movies, it actually has a point to make.
Roger
Ebert:
A film experience of often fearsome beauty.
Kyle
Smith, New York Post: There are so many competing ideas
within "Watchmen" that it is built to be viewed repeatedly
and debated religiously. Among comic-book movies, only the two most
recent Batman entries compete with it for complexity. It's not clear
who the hero is, if there even is one.
Despite
the burden of a story in which "it's too late, always has been,
always will be," "Watchmen" levitates with a prophetic
fury worthy of the Jimi Hendrix cover of "All Along the
Watchtower" that blasts over a key scene. Other fantasy movies
are playing checkers. This one plays chess, with grandmaster panache.
R
ocktimists:
The original Watchmen isn’t just a comic; it’s a
commentary upon the comic genre, a satire and a parody of it, and
also a love-letter to it. The characters are deliberate archetypes
taken to extremes, the universe a fully-defined alternative reality
that posits superheroes as “costumed adventurers” out for
justice with just masks and martial training rather than laser-eyes
and mutant regeneration factors (Dr Manhattan very obviously
excepted). I’m assuming you know it’s set in 1985, that
Nixon is still in, that a giant radioactive blue god won Vietnam for
the USA, that nuclear terror pervades the whole of society, that
“costumed adventurers” have been outlawed (hello The
Incredibles, again), that someone is plotting to save the world by
making everyone think it nearly ended, etc, etc, etc…
But
it’s not really about that. It’s about…
misanthropy, and violence, and the nature of humanity, and the way we
experience time, and sexual deviance, and the justification of
bigger-picture politics, and the nature of altruism, and many, many
other things, most important of all being comicbooks as a genre, as
an artform, in and of themselves.
I
thought the Dr. Manhattan effects were great (with the exception of
the wang). For those who don’t know, Dr. Manhattan is an
atomized physicist who reunites his molecules at a sub-atomic level
and in doing so becomes … well, pretty much omnipotent. And
blue. So powerful is he that he parades around naked, like a Greek
god made of radioactive sapphire. Naked, yes, but for those of you
who wondered why his wang had this awkward fuzzy aura around it, well
that’s your Thai censors at work. We’re not allowed to
see the blue thing the rest of the world can see. Here’s a
picture of how it’s supposed to look.
Dragonball
Evolution: US,
Action/ Adventure/ Fantasy/ Sci-Fi/ Thriller – 100 mins –
This film doesn’t open in the US/UK until April 8; they’re
testing it on us here in Asia! It’s the tale of young warrior
Son Goku, who seeks to fulfill his grandfather's dying request to
find the great Master Roshi (a very delightful Chow Yun Fat) and
gather all seven magic Dragonballs before the evil Piccolo does.
Feels much like being caught inside an arcade computer game, but with
less logic. Based on the hugely popular 1984 Japanese manga by Akira
Toriyama which lasted for 519 issues and spawned a phenomenally
successful television series. This live-action film, directed by
James Wong (Willard, Final Destination Jet Li’s
The One).), is vastly confusing to all who have not read all
519 manga.
Best
of Times / Kwamjam San Tae Rak Chan Yao / ความจำสั้น
แต่รักฉันยาว:
Thai
Romance/ Drama – 90 mins – Yongyooth Thongkongtoon’s
leisurely romantic drama centers on two couples, young and old. A
young vet struggles to forget his first love when she married his
best friend, but when he meets her again years later she doesn't seem
to remember him at all. And an elderly man and woman, each alone in
the world, meet and fall in love – and their children don’t
like it. Two love stories by the director of Iron Ladies and
Metrosexual, which I found tedious and unremarkable, though I
did enjoy the performances of the older couple.
Wise
Kwai, Nation:
Yongyooth Thongkongtoon offers his most mature film yet with the
romantic drama Best of Times. (Thai title: Kwaam Jam San
Dtae Rak Chan Yaao, ความจำสั้น
แต่รักฉันยาว,
literally "[my] memory [is] short, but my love [is] long.")
The veteran director of such comedies as Iron Ladies and
M.A.I.D. has put together a lucid yet dreamy rumination on the
fleeting passage of time and the connections we make in our
all-too-brief moments on this planet. …
It's
all very touching and poignant, beautifully filmed and sumptuously
scored -- the strings swell at all the predictable moments, just to
cue the audience that something significant is happening. …
Less-patient
viewers will start checking their watches and cell phones sometime
after that cool and funny scene at the black-light bowling alley.
…
Kong
Rithdee, Bangkok Post:
A calibrated drama aimed at achieving warm escapism. … It
stays on course, hardly taking risks yet effectively pressing our
buttons.
Miss
You Again / A-Nueng Kidthueng Pen Yang Ying / อนึ่ง
...
คิดถึงเป็นอย่างยิ่ง:
Thai,
Comedy/ Drama – 90 mins – The third entry in veteran
director Bhandit Rittakol’s romance series that began in 1992
with I Miss You, then I Miss You 2 in 1996. It's a
teenage movie about old school friends trying to save their
financially-troubled school from closing and being sold to a big
supermarket company. In Thai only, without English subtitles.
Kong
Rithdee, Bangkok Post:
It's not very funny or touching, the acting stagy and amateurish, and
despite the contemporary setting, the movie feels like something
warped through the gap of time from 20 years ago. Yet in a way,
viewing the film as a piece of cultural artifact, there's something
refreshing about this mild anachronism, about the way Bandit
consciously continues to make films the way he has been for 30 years,
unperturbed by the pressure of up-to-date hipsterism that seems to be
the priority of most Thai cinema about teenagers.
Scheduled for
Chiang Mai cineplexes on Thursday, March 26
Knowing:
Australia/
US, Drama/ Mystery/ Thriller – 122 mins – A teacher opens
a time capsule that has been dug up at his son's elementary school;
in it are some chilling predictions – some that have already
occurred and others that are about to – that lead him to
believe his family plays a role in the events that are about to
unfold. Starring Nicolas Cage.
Khan
Kluay 2 / ก้านกล้วย
2:
Thai,
Animation/ Adventure – 90 mins – Khan Kluay, the
legendary elephant, is back in action in this sequel to the animated
movie Khan Kluay. Set after the victory at Ayuthaya against the
invasion of the powerful Burmese Empire, when Khan Kluay is appointed
King Naresuan's royal elephant.
