WALL-E (2008)

dir. Andrew Stanton
writ. Andrew Stanton & Jim Reardon, story by Andrew Stanton & Pete Docter
feat. Ben Burtt, Elissa Knight, Jeff Garlin, Fred Willard

Somehow, in this wild world, it has come to pass that the greatest force in mainstream animation is also the most daring group of filmmakers putting movies in the multiplexes? Following a glorious recovery to form with Ratatouille, a picture of surprising depth, invention, and humor (after an inversely pitiful offering with Cars), they chance a story of a desolate future, earth reduced to a trash heap, where we will follow a small garbage robot around without dialogue for about the first hour. When we finally meet our human counterparts, we discover that they've grown fat and lazy, losing bone mass as they suck down soda in this mad, unbelievable future time. Thankfully, WALL-E and his robot girlfriend, EVE, have our best intentions in mind and, amidst their dangerous courtship, manage to bring us back to earth with new hope.

With many considering silent films to be relics, creaky antiques tossed to the dustbin on the road of progress to bigger, louder shinier pictures, and with the trend toward faster, busier animation, packing in the obvious quips and knowing nods, Pixar takes a stand, reminding us how less can be more, in more ways than one.

The Face of Another (Tanin no kao) (1966)

dir. Hiroshi Teshigahara
writ. Kobo Abe (novel and screenplay)
feat. Tatsuya Nakadai, Machiko Kyo, Mikijiro Hira, Kyoko Kishida

The Face of Another explores questions of identity and fidelity through the eyes of a man badly disfigured in a fire. His doctor gives him a lifelike mask with which he can fool even his wife, living a second life, unknown to the world. The film benefits from stunning sets including glass walls covered in anatomical illustrations and projected imagery, lending an experimental quality that corresponds with the heavy, often redundant philosophizing that flows between doctor and patient. Sadly, this pondering bogs down the film, straying from any central point, throwing every idea at those walls and letting it all stick, without a needed editor to trim the fat.

Still, as Nakadai's character seduces his wife in his alternate persona, then condemning her for cheating, the story throws a neat twist as she claims to have known all along, recognizing him immediately as her husband, and playing along in some twisted role play. The audience can never be sure if she is telling the truth, and this doubt, along with the many other unanswered questions lends the film a satisfying sense of discomfort, leaving identity undefined and hinting at the impossibility of such resolution.

Encounters at the End of the World (2007)

dir. Werner Herzog

Given his recent output, Herzog presents a surprisinglyl hands-off documentary, permitting his subjects, both the natural wonders of Antarctica and the people who inhabit that land, to illustrate life on the fringe. Perhaps the stunning imagery of divers, overhead ice floes, and luminescent sea life spoke more strongly and beautifully than even Werner could muster, making commentary detrimental to his purpose. Certainly, the often quiet folks living out at the edge of civilization don't need exaggeration or encouragement as they relate their reasons for being there even when seeming unsure of exactly how they landed so far afield.

The real accomplishment of the film lies in the way it displays the landscape, both above and below the ice, as a reflection of the consciousness of the people who live there- cool, deep and mysterious. It is as though the habitants naturally gravitated to the end of the world, drawn by a likeness in spirit.

The Fall (2006)

dir. Tarsem Singh
writ. Dan Gilroy, Nico Soultanakis, Tarsem Singh
feat. Catinca Untaru, Lee Pace, Justine Waddell

The Fall is precisely the type of film that I enter with great trepidation, ever hopeful for a fantasy that fully consumes, transporting the viewer to a strange and beautiful new world while ever fearful that it will fall into the traps of so many such attempts, poor writing, awful acting by both children and adults and gaping holes in the plot. Perhaps because of such doubt, The Fall manages to so deeply satisfy, soaring as a personal drama as well as a grand fantasy. More pointedly, a huge portion of such credit must go to Catinca Untaru, the Romanian born actress who plays the young girl, Alexandria, so naturally as to be mistaken for the subject of a documentary, frequently stumbling over words and staring off in odd directions.

Roy Walker (Pace), an injured stuntman with a broken heart, weaves a fantastic story for Alexandria, slowly staging an elaborate ruse to trick the young girl into procuring him enough dope to kill himself. The story stumbles through the fantasy sequences as Roy, not an experienced storyteller and drifting in the haze of his pain medication, works out each new stretch, building an allegory for his recent experience of love lost. Because of this narrative device, the film suffers somewhat, dragging and meandering with Roy's mental state, the fantasy sequences occasionally stalling out or feeling forced.

But Alexandria picks up the pieces, serving as the perfect foil to Roy's dip into self-pity, always posing innocent questions reflecting her young, happy view of life. Astonishingly, where so many similar films fail, with the fantasy scenes holding all the rapture and fascination while the real world moments threaten to kill the pace and magic, The Fall nearly turns that around, with the dream world occasionally slowing the story while the moments in the hospital resurrect the life of the tale and the characters.

Tarsem (as the director is often called) has created a masterpiece with The Fall, a work deserving of the many hours and days of shooting across the planet, a wildly compelling film of fantasy, beauty and heart.

You Don't Mess with the Zohan (2008)

dir. Dennis Dugan
writ. Adam Sandler, Robert Smigel, Judd Apatow
feat. Adam Sandler, John Turturro, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Rob Schneider

Who would have guessed it? A goofball comedy that sends up terrorists, hairdressers, and can't stop making sex jokes (usually involving fat or old women) is actually damn funny. Maybe it's the writing blend of Sandler, Smigel and (the seemingly unstoppable) Apatow, but somehow endless jokes about screwing old women in the backroom of a salon kept me laughing, while I shook my head stunned that I actually found it all funny. Even Schneider who hasn't made me laugh since some ancient, and only occasional, SNL schtick cracked me up as the wannabe terrorist.

Sure, there are some faults. Nick Swardson never brings a laugh though he tries damn hard as the fat lady's son who takes Zohan in to live with them. And there is a classically contrived villain, love story and climax, with supposed enemies joining forces. However, even this finale offers a fair share of laughs if not fully satisfying and loosely points at big corporations as bigger terrorists than actual terrorists. What more can one ask for from an Adam Sandler flick?

Choke (2008)

dir. Clark Gregg
writ. Clark Gregg, based on book by Chuck Palahniuk
feat. Sam Rockwell, Brad William Henke, Clark Gregg, Anjelica Huston, Kelly Macdonald

Choke may illustrate what happens when one who loves a book decides to take that story and adapt it himself into a film and serve as director. There are plenty of funny moments in the movie, but it never comes to any fruition. I've admittedly not read the source material, so I can't judge if the lack of a cohesive narrative comes from Palahniuk or Gregg, but this chaotic rambling undercuts any depth that the story or characters might offer over the course of the film.

Rockwell (again too good for the material) plays Victor believably, easing into a reprehensible yet likable character with almost unsettling ease. Other than Anjelica Huston who seems to stretch to play a ragged alzheimer's afflicted mother to Victor, all the actors perform well though suffer for the jumps in tone and story.

One is left wondering if there is a three hour version out there that was cut down to reasonable length by picking the most entertaining moments over those that would tell a story. While the laughs are hearty and plentiful, they don't lend enough to really chew on.

Dark Matter (2007)

dir. Shi-Zheng Chen
writ. Billy Shebar
feat. Ye Liu, Meryl Streep, Aidan Quinn

At its best, Dark Matter is a daring and compelling film about the challenged of living in a foreign land and navigating the politics of a competitive higher education program while studying an obscure subject. And though it feels as though stars have been shoehorned into the film to give it a bigger draw, Streep's character effectively (and often humorously) illustrates a common fascination with the other, her heavy handed Orientalism giving our main character a chance in the revered university program, a classic example of someone doing good for questionable reasons.

Sadly, the film also suffers for its pedestrian approach to Streep's fascination, as well as Quinn's stereotypical star professor, not to be questioned or to suffer the consequences. Additionallyl, for some reason, the filmmakers found it desirable to add a few special effects, music video moments to enhance the frustration of our lead, cheapening the film, and tarnishing the beautiful quiet moments that could have carried the picture if not spoiled by these other mainstream lurches.

The Linguists (2008)

dir. Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller, Jeremy Newberger

The Linguists investigates the loss of languages of the world as the last speakers die off without young practitioners to keep up the tradition. It is an important subject, greater than the loss of a way of speaking, but a way of thinking, as languages represent thought, not just communication. I couldn't help but think of the similar relationship to the loss of a medicine man (shaman, curandero) of an indigenous tribe of the Amazon rainforest, often pegged as the equivalent of a library burning to the ground, all the knowledge wrapped up in a way of thinking that doesn't exist in the same form elsewhere in the world.

As David and Greg travel to Siberia, they learn that not only is this loss of language about age and diminishing communities but also about racism, where a people, shunned by the greater society, quietly give up their private tradition in order to better fit. There, as well as in Bolivia and India, David and Greg nobly seek out resident experts in the language, stumbling along on a journey that can not always be wholly scientific, forced to deal with misleading information, confusing, previously undocumented languages, and strange rituals.

Unfortunately, our leaders are among the least socially adept people on the planet, lending an unintentional humor to the film, and nearly developing a subplot that explores the scientist as social misfit in an entirely social pursuit. And while there are entertaining and educational moments, it is hard to shake the feeling that a reasonably short article would convey the same information as effectively.