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| gromit |
 Posted: Sun Feb 20, 2011 12:17 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
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Of the dueling education documentaries, I'd certainly rec The Lottery which focuses on a few public charter schools in Harlem, families hoping to get accepted, and the interviews with charter school staff and leaders. It's very well done, with the only caveat that it is very pro-school choice and pro-charter school, so the other side is presented as the villains. This might indeed be completely accurate, but the opposition is simply presented as entrenched interests against progress.
Waiting for Superman is a much broader overview, with brief stops in Harlem and a quick glance at the charter schools there. The film is rather bland and obvious for anyone who has semi-paid attention to the general issues of failing schools, union contracts, tenure, etc. They actually interview interesting people (Michelle Rhee, Jonathon Alter, etc) but just get them to tell familiar anecdotes and other widely known info. The Michael Moore style graphics never really enlighten or do much. Actually, I didn't finish it last night, but I doubt the last 1/2 hour is going to be much different. It seems the film is a basic primer of problems in the education system for those who haven't bothered to keep informed.
One interesting fact I learned is that NYC has a place for problem teachers. They are on administrative leave/suspension (or whatever it's called), where they are relieved of teaching duties and just need to show up and sit around for 7 hours a day. It's like detention for teachers. Some are there for chronic lateness, or terrible teaching or other infractions. While their cases and appeals are being processed, they collect their full salaries and benefits, and hang out with other problem teachers, playing cards, reading newspapers, sleeping. Reportedly a case takes 3 years on average. I'll check the number, but I think there were about 100 of these cases, costing millions per year for non-teaching.
Nothing else in the movie was nearly as interesting. That's all I learned.
To summarize for any poor readers out there: The Lottery is quite good, Waiting for Superman pretty uninspired. The 81 minutes of The Lottery breezes by and you get involved in the human stakes, while the 111 minute Superman drags like a super-extended soft-hitting 60 Minutes piece. It's odd that Waiting 4 Superman has got a good amount of attention and decent buzz, while The Lottery seemed to slink below the radar.
Kind of reminds me of all the pub the mediocre Catfish garnered, next to none for talhotblond, the far superior film. |
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| Earl |
| Posted: Sun Feb 20, 2011 10:41 pm |
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Joined: 09 Jun 2004
Posts: 2621
Location: Houston
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Biutiful
"Why the shitty look?" someone asks Javier Bardem's character, Uxbal, midway through Biutiful and the movie is about why he has that look on his face and his attempts to get, if not a happy look, then a less shitty one than the one he wears.
This is not easy for Uxbal. He is trying to raise two kids on his own because their mother is a bipolar drunk who cheats on him. He communicates with the recently dead who have trouble passing to the other side. (Imagine Matt Damon's character in Hereafter were taller, Spanish and didn't shave for a week and you've got it.) He is running a handful of low-level illegal operations including human smuggling.
And, oh yes, he's urinating blood and his doctor has just told Uxbal that his late-stage cancer means he has about two months to live. It must be complicated enough for most people when they are told to get their affairs in order. But when one's affairs include criminal enterprises, well, those need to be gotten in order also and it's probably even more complicated.
In case you're worried I've given you too much of the story, I haven't. All of those details are established in about the first twenty minutes of this two-and-a-half hour brutally graphic and unsettling portrayal of a lonely, flawed man's search for redemption. His search is made all the more difficult by the fact that, due to circumstances of his own making, he has little room in which to move.
Javier Bardem picks up Biutiful, puts it on his back and carries it from start to finish. He firmly establishes himself as one of the best actors in film right now. He's not pretty to watch in this movie. But I couldn't look away.
Strongly recommended, if you can take it. |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Sun Feb 20, 2011 11:43 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
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[quote]Finished watching The Company Men, which would be an Oscar contender if the Weinsteins hadn't decided to throw all their weight behind The King's Speech. TCM is a terrific take on the economic crisis seen through the eyes of the types of people we generally have little sympathy with--the men who make the big bucks and who were thrown out of work in 2008 and beyond.
The movie was given a token short run in December to qualify for the Oscars, but it's really being released in January, where it will make quite a splash, one hopes, being one of the only first-rate films I remember to be released during that misbegotten movie month.
It deserves credit for perfectly casting Ben Affleck as an elitist, arrogant asshole, a role he plays with unusual spunk and vividness.
As noted before, Chris Cooper and Tommy Lee Jones as execs and Kevin Costner as the embodiment of "down with the peeps" are all aces, and so is Craig T. Nelson as the 18th-highest-paid CEO in America, the king of the downsizers. The movie is sometimes very depressing but overall exhilarating because of the energy of the acting and the sharp writing and direction. Despite a couple of last-act storytelling cliches, one of which you can see coming from the first scene, this one is a definite keeper and a serious contender for Blanche notice.
A side note is that Costner has obviously been working on his Boston accent since the ear-splitting Thirteen Days. He's still not the male Meryl Streep, but he's doing well and the effort is appreciated.[quote]
Don't know that I can add to what Billy wrote about The Company Men because I agree with him completely. It's a good, meaty, well-acted movie.......don't forget Maria Bello. And topical......I've rubbed elbows with a number of people who've lost their jobs.......one is my son who will be moving in with me soon.  |
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| jeremy |
| Posted: Mon Feb 21, 2011 12:30 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 6794
Location: Derby, England and Hamilton, New Zealand (yes they are about 12,000 miles apart)
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| I am willing to take your word that The Company of Men is an excellent film, but, from your description, I can also see why the Weinstien's decided to pin their Oscar hopes on The King's Speech. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Mon Feb 21, 2011 2:54 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
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Oddly the end of Waiting for Superman becomes a mini-The Lottery, with kids&moms in 4 or 5 different cities sitting in auditoriums hoping to be randomly selected for various public charter schools.. Even one kid has applied to the same Harlem Success Academy featured in The Lottery. The same basic effect as The Lottery, hopes and dreams are indeed riding on this process, but less compelling since we've spent less time with these kids/families, know little about the schools and staff, and there are 4 or 5 lotteries spread around the country.
One footnote: it's much more presentably human to call out the chosen kids' names, followed by simple assigned numbers (1 through 35 in one case), rather than to assign some bureaucratic impersonal code to each applicant, such as BN021305 as one school lottery has it. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Mon Feb 21, 2011 6:44 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Befade wrote: ...if you haven't already, see All or Nothing. Ruth Sheen plays a very likeable single mother with short dark hair and a great singing voice. Lesley Manville plays a mousy, miserable, married mother of teenagers. In this film there is character development, a plot that resolves nicely, and some really dear characters.........along with the typical lower class troubles.
Just took your advice and saw All or Nothing. An excellent movie, a little unrelievedly glum until the ending, but very well acted and worthwhile. Strangely, I had never heard of it before your comment. Thanks! |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Mon Feb 21, 2011 6:45 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| Sorry. Meant to post that in Couch. Oops. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Mon Feb 21, 2011 12:24 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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jeremy wrote: I am willing to take your word that The Company of Men is an excellent film, but, from your description, I can also see why the Weinstien's decided to pin their Oscar hopes on The King's Speech.
That "of" you added led me to think of this film....
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119361/
...also not one to pin Oscar hopes on.
Befade, nice review, and I'm now looking forward to seeing it. And sort of amused how no one can resist calling it "perfect casting" whenever Ben Affleck gets to play an arrogant asshole. |
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| inlareviewer |
| Posted: Mon Feb 21, 2011 12:36 pm |
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Joined: 05 Jul 2004
Posts: 1949
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Biutiful is in the screener queue; ditto 127 Hours. Will likely see them sooner than later.
Inside Job is an exceptionally well-researched, expertly made, faintly pro-forma documentary about the root causes and exacerbating complications of the U.S. financial systems collapse. It held my interest despite my having followed its subject at the time it was emerging (much like The Tillman Story did), and wholly merits the Gold Bald Man With a Sword it's favored to take home next Sunday. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Mon Feb 21, 2011 1:38 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12944
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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| I'm expecting Restrepo or Exit through the Gift Shop to take that award. |
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| yambu |
| Posted: Mon Feb 21, 2011 6:36 pm |
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Joined: 23 May 2004
Posts: 6441
Location: SF Bay Area
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| I don't care for modern British royalty in the abstract, but I liked everything about The King's Speech. I must mention Helena Bonham Carter as Queen Elizabeth (later the Queen Mum). She's here in the fullness of womanhood, already with all the mannerisms that were to endear her to the world later in life; eg, the way she leans back, tilts her head, and gives us that world-class smile. |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Mon Feb 21, 2011 9:59 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
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Quote: Just took your advice and saw All or Nothing.
Billy........glad you liked it. Happy to share. |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Mon Feb 21, 2011 10:01 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: AZ
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Quote: Befade, nice review
Bart......actually that's Billy's earlier review that I quoted. But yes, see it! |
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| inlareviewer |
| Posted: Tue Feb 22, 2011 12:26 am |
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Joined: 05 Jul 2004
Posts: 1949
Location: Lawrence, KS
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yambu: Am so with you on HRH HBC in King's Speech. Apart from what you noted, there's such a degree of unshowy nuance to her gestures and eye focus, and she's infinitely touching at the ending, It's conceivable that she could still sneak past Melissa Leo (and New Grit's Mlle. Braidsfeld) on Sunday if there's a TKS sweep/near-sweep.
Syd wrote: I'm expecting Restrepo or Exit through the Gift Shop to take that award.
Am inclined to agree with various members here about Waiting for Superman, very much liked its intent, certainly it deals with an urgent topic, yet its filmmaking finally seemed a tad forced and inchoate.
Am still sad that The Tillman Story didn't make the cut. |
Last edited by inlareviewer on Sat Feb 26, 2011 3:43 pm; edited 4 times in total
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"And take extra care with strangers/Even flowers have their dangers/And though scary is exciting/Nice is different than good." --Stephen Sondheim |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Tue Feb 22, 2011 1:57 am |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
Posts: 8424
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I saw The Company Men several months ago at the Austin Film Festival and was unimpressed. TV movie stuff.
Saw Another Year last night and loved it. Mike Leigh and his acting collective continue to amaze. I'm re-watching Secrets And Lies right now. |
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