#2006films

Excessively wordy and disorienting but also visually distinct, interesting, and capturing its subject matter perfectly, A Scanner Darkly is not an entirely successful experiment, but I say it’s worth seeing. You’ll notice immediately that the film is “animated” in the sense that it was shot with cameras. Then the actors were rotoscoped (traced) digitally to create a realistic and visually distinct style but don’t mistake this for a children’s film.

Set in the near future, Bob Arctor (Keanu Reeves) is an undercover agent of the United States government. His mission is to track down the source of a drug 20% of the population is addicted to: a hallucinogen called Substance D. Using a camouflage suit that prevents his identity from being known by anyone - even his superiors - Arctor lives in a small house with two addict roommates, Luckman (Woody Harrelson) and Barris (Robert Downey Jr.). Part of his cover also means he uses Substance D as well. When Arctor receives a lead on someone high on the supply chain, he is shocked to discover it's his own undercover identity he's supposed to look for.

You can tell Richard Linklater loves the material he’s basing his film upon even if you miss his screenplay writing credit. I haven’t read Philip K. Dick’s novel, but it feels like no bits of dialogue have been omitted. It’s not that the film is necessarily excessively long, but there are a lot of talky scenes and little action. I understand the thought process but it’s not what most people would've done, for good reason.

A Scanner Darkly is about drug addicts. Their semi-sensical ramblings, their strange leaps of logic, their difficulty connecting dots… it’s perfect. While this helps ease you into this world and helps you wrap your head around what’s going on in the mind of our main character, it also works against you. The hallucinations Arctor and the others experience are weird, but they’re nowhere near as weird as they should be, particularly not considering the animated medium. This is one of the most visually distinct drug-related films I’ve seen, though the way it fails to fully take advantage of its medium makes you wonder if it even needed to be animated. Most of the drug trips taken by Arctor, his roommates, or his “girlfriend” Donna (Winona Ryder) don't actually show much. You want to see "Pink Elephants on Parade" but you don't.

What makes me recommend the movie is the source material. Though dialogue-heavy, it’s very well written. The plot is gripping and the ending packs a punch. The conclusion turns everything you thought you knew upside down. You have to re-think everything you saw earlier, which makes it memorable. The casting is perfect. The performances are quite good. As a man forced to investigate himself while zapping away his own brain cells, Keanu Reeves he’s perfect.

A Scanner Darkly is more of an interesting experiment than anything and there are several other things that rubbed me the wrong way, such as an unnecessary quote at the end of the film and the visuals of the “scramble suits” that doesn’t really work (though they still look cool). Nevertheless, it works more than it doesn’t and I think some people will absolutely love or find something of value to "steal" from it. (On DVD, September 10, 2015)

Flags of our Fathers is not your typical war movie. It’s a lot more thoughtful and intelligent than your typical Hoorah! about those army boys taking down the evil Axis empire. This is a war drama, with a heavy emphasis on the drama.

Returning home after the historical flag-raising on Mount Suribachi, the “Heroes of Iwo Jima” reflect on what brought them to that singular moment and where they go will now. Marine Private First Class Ira Hayes (Adam Beach), Private First Class Rene Gagnon (Jesse Bradford), and Navy Corpsman John “Doc” Bradley (Ryan Phillippe) are applauded as champions and toured around the country to promote war bonds but none of them feel at ease with their newfound celebrity status.

The costumes, vehicles, special effects are all very good. Director Clint Eastwood convincingly transports you onto the battlefield that was Iwo Jima. The money is there on-screen, allowing you to see and feel the danger of the battlefield. There’s a lot of tension there and it's heightened by a sense that these people's lives extend beyond the conflict. The soldiers have families and contrasting opinions on what the war is, what they are supposed to do after, and about the propaganda campaign that sells them as heroes. You get a wide scope of what these people are really like, warts and all. This will leave you with mixed opinions about them, noticeable Native American soldier Ira. He has a lot of survivor’s guilt and his inability to deal with it becomes self-destructive. You sympathize with him, you understand his pain and you'll also get angry. The narrative that he and his comrades basically "single-handedly turned the tide" is exaggerated but their new “orders” to tour the country and raise money is important. It's made clear over and over. Can't he set aside his outrage for the greater good?

In a war film, you want that right mix of emotion and adrenaline. It's tricky to both show the excitement of dodging mortars and condemn war but it can be done. Just don't turn the military tactics and heroism into a video game where people dying is seen as good fun. This film achieves that delicate balance. Seeing all of these young men with bright futures get torn apart by bullets and explosions, tears you up inside because a part of you feels as though you know them. You know their exploits, you've "seen" them before. Finding out how most of their lives were so tragically cut short is eye-opening and a story worth telling.

You don't expect it going in but Flags of our Fathers has a surprising amount of hard questions for its audience. More than just the true cost of war. The screenplay by William Broyles Jr. and Paul Haggis examines the concept of heroes, of what they mean to us, and what getting elevated to mythical status can do to a person that - at the end of the day - is no grander than we are. It explores the harsh realities soldiers like Ira Hayes faced when they returned home and shows him as someone worthy of both praise and contempt. Individuals we've all "known" since we learned about the war in class are examined closely through ample character development and complex emotions. They're given new humanity we never knew existed. The war itself is shown in all of its inhumanity. There is one character whose life is brutally, cruelly, and violently ended and you're never given the relief of even knowing what actually happened to him. We see the consequences of it all through the eyes of those who were there, and those left to pick up the pieces, like the parents whose sons left home and then died heroes. Paired with Letters from Iwo Jima (the preferred way to see it) or on its own, it's a powerful experience. (On DVD, July 18, 2015)

The way you ultimately feel about Kenneth Branagh's adaptation of William Shakespeare's As You Like It depends on how digestible you find the play. It contains some of the Bard's most memorable lines but this presentation makes some bad calls along the way.

Set in Japan, the story begins with a coup. Having taken over, Duke Frederick (Brian Blessed) exiles his older brother but allows his niece, Rosalind (Bryce Dallas Howard) to stay. Rosalind is best friends with Celia (Romola Garai), Federick's daughter. When his patience with them runs out, they run away to the forest of Arden, accompanied by the court jester Touchstone (Alfred Molina). In the woods, they find safety and eventually, love.

I enjoy most of Shakespeare but this play isn't among my favorites, which is fine because this film decides to change certain details. Unfortunately, the changes are most puzzling. Why is the story now set in Japan instead of France? It's not like Japanese actors have been cast in any important roles. This is most problematic when we look at Rosalind. Bryce Dallas Howard is talented but when her character disguises herself as a man, you're not convinced for a second. The idea of anyone being fooled is ludicrous. This would've been a perfect opportunity to cast a Japanese actress. You could've played on the culture's views of cross-dressing or poked fun at the white characters being unable to identify masculine/feminine features in Asian faces but it's a prime opportunity director Kenneth Branagh fails to take advantage of.

The original dialogue is preserved, which makes the film enjoyable to simply listen to. On DVD, you can turn on the subtitles and get your money’s worth of this script. It'll allow you to clearly understand everything being said and you won’t miss a single word of that witty dialogue. There are many memorable speeches and several lines will have you exclaiming “Oh! THAT’S where that came from?!” Yes, the language is archaic but you can still understand what people are saying, particularly when you get to see the actions that match them.

The story is light as air and idealistic. As You Like It believes in true love at first sight and fully embraces comical situations that stem from disguises and cross-dressing. Some might call it unrealistic but by being consistent throughout, it feels natural. Either you can get past this type of storytelling or you can't. I could, for the most part. While Branagh was altering the setting and inserting a new prologue (along with trimming down some of the dialogue for pacing and brevity) the ending could've been expanded upon a bit to make it feel like less like it comes out of nowhere.

Everyone should see a rendition of As You Like It at some point. Is this one the definitive adaptation? Not quite. It stays true to its source and there's a lot of talent on-screen but its strength lies in the source material, not the treatment it's been given. (On DVD, April 25, 2015)

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (or simply Borat) is as audacious now as it was in 2006. You can’t believe Sacha Baron Cohen put himself out there - quite literally - the way he did. It’s packed with memorable lines from a character you cannot forget. It even manages to educate you by surreptitiously inserting a couple of smart observations made here and there. They raise eyebrows even more than the comedian’s antics. Sometimes it goes too far but in a picture like this, that’s preferable to not going far enough.

Kazakh journalist Borat Sagdiyev (Sacha Baron Cohen) is tasked by his government to make a documentary about what makes the “US and A” the “Greatest Country in the World”. With the help of producer Azamat Bagatov (Ken Davitian), the clueless, jew-hating, misogynist foreigner does his best to navigate the country.

I'd like to think everyone would realize there's something amiss about this portrayal of Kazakhstan instantly. This mockumentary fills it with children who play with AK-47s, the town rapist is little more than an annoyance, pubic hair is a form of currency, women are kept in cages and scientifically proven to be less intelligent than men, and so on. Then again, most people have probably never even heard of Kazakhstan, which is why Cohen gets away with everything he says so matter-of-factly. “Against animal cruelty?!” might be one of my favorite lines from the film.

Borat is convincing as he interacts with people because there's nothing the actor won’t do. Some of it you might even believe from a foreigner unaccustomed to our customs. He slowly leads to his outrageous comments or slips them in so quickly that people are either too taken aback to confront him about it or don’t react at all. His demeanor makes everyone let their guards down. He'll throw in a jingoistic remark. Did it spark outrage? No? Better go a little further. All the non-actors either show superhuman patience, which makes their bamboozled reactions hilarious, or they incriminate and embarrass themselves so thoroughly you laugh at their expense. As cringe turns to hilarity, you wonder, "Did no one remember they were on camera?"

I first saw Borat in 2006. Its iconic lines have never left my memory. "Very Nice!" indeed. What shocked me this time around was that many of the people I initially categorized as victims of the prankster's filmmaking... kind of deserved what they got. The scenes in the deep south gave me a twisted smile where before - when I didn't understand what was actually being said - I saw innocent bystanders being taken advantage of. Seeing these wretches exposed is a pure delight.

Borat is deceptively intelligent and also works as an outlandish "put it all out there" comedy. It's nasty, vulgar, outrageous, and bold. The fact that it sparked controversy and multiple lawsuits shouldn't be a surprise. While the plot itself is only so-so, the end results make it a must-see comedy. (October 27, 2020)

Different people will react differently to Pan’s Labyrinth  due to its themes of innocence and reality. Is magic real? Can the light of childhood persevere despite the ugliness of the real world which surrounds it? Your answer depends on your interpretation of the film's ending.

Set in Spain, in 1944, young Ophelia (Ivana Baquero) learns from a strange creature (performed by Doug Jones, voiced by Pablo Adán) that she is the reincarnation of a fairy princess. As she accomplishes the tasks that will allow her to return to her kingdom, Ofelia’s stepfather, the cruel Falangist Captain Vidal (Sergi López) searches for republican rebels.

As an adult, I often find myself longing for the days when I believed in magic. Although they were often filled with nightmares (even a simple sticker marked Dracula pasted onto my bed frame was enough to terrify me at night), I was too preoccupied with the make-belief to realize how frightening reality can be. Despite the witch in Snow White being irredeemably evil, her realm of fantasy will always prevent her from being as frightening as Captain Vidal. Just as fairytales and myths prepare children by showing them the dangers of the outside world, Pan's Labyrinth prepares us for the worst of humanity. It teaches us that although there are dazzling wonders and beauty to be found, some forms of evil cannot be reasoned with and must be avoided at all costs. It's been so long since we've sat down with a story of fauns and princesses that we've forgotten how important the lesson is. This makes Pan's Labyrinth a fairytale for adults.

There’s something about this film that appeals both to the child inside you and the adult, mixing the fairytale elements and the war dramas in a way that is rarely attempted. Ophelia's magical trials are distractions from the real world ruled by her vicious stepfather but deep down, you know it's only a temporary escape. The story makes you feel both young and old at once. It arouses such complex emotions and states of being so effectively - and all without spelling it out - that it’s a masterpiece of storytelling.

If this weren't enough, Pan’s Labyrinth is an incredible sight filled with imagination. Its creatures are unique creations that will fill your eyes with stars or your nights with chills. You want to see this tale by Guillermo del Toro just to witness the makeup and puppetry used to bring the fantasy realm to life. The art direction and design are superb.

The plot and themes are sophisticated, the visuals gorgeous. What about the people within this world? Normally, it would be hard to tell, at least for this reviewer, as I don't speak Spanish. This time, it didn't matter. The cast is excellent, particularly young Ivana Baquero.

The only thing to criticize about Pan's Labyrinth is its title, which would be better translated as The Labyrinth of the Faun. It's a story that will appeal to anyone that used to be a child and has now grown up. Its narrative holds tremendous power, more than enough to earn it full marks. The same could be said about its visuals and emotional weight. (Theatrical version with English Subtitles, February 2, 2015)