Four More Mini Reviews

I’m trying to get up to date. After these four, I think I’ve got four more to write up, and then we’re up to August 8:

Nacho Libre – 4.5/10 – I wanted to enjoy this movie more than I did. Despite its exotic setting at an orphanage in rural Mexico, its formula is very similar to the director’s previous effort, Napoleon Dynamite: goofy misfit with ridiculous sidekick struggles against ridicule to achieve some peculiar public goal. Like Napoleon, it was amusing without being fall-out-of-your-seat funny. There’s nothing really not to like about the film, but I instantly forgot it when I left the theatre.

A Scanner Darkly – 7/10 – I did not, on the other hand, forget A Scanner Darkly. The film’s visual style is fascinating and quite hypnotic, and I feel like I need to watch the film again to separate its presentation from its content a little more clearly. Everyone likes to diss Keanu Reeves, but I think he’s an adequate ‘straight man’ most of the time. Unfortunately, Winona Ryder was less adequate. Robert Downey Jr., on the other hand, was at his manic best. Technically speaking this is a science fiction film, but it’s really a film about addiction.

The Devil Wears Prada – 5/10 – Every establishing shot in this film starts with the feet and pans up. I assume that this is because much of the audience is here mostly to see the shoes. It’s an innocuous film, and got me thinking of Robert Altman’s much weirder film about the fashion industry, Pret a Porter. The three leads–Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway and Stanley Tucci–are all good actors, so it’s a watchable-enough film. I’m pretty skeptical about the fashion industry, and was bemused by the accolades the film laid on it.

Who Killed the Electric Car – 5/10 – It’s a pity that this film followed An Inconvenient Truth so closely in release. It doesn’t stand up well to comparison. It’s a very ordinary documentary, and I’m not sure it tells the right story. Far too much time is dedicated to a protest by electric car owners who have to give back their cars. Frankly, I sat in the theatre laughing because these people were so ridiculously passionate about their motor vehicles. Also, I didn’t think they gave enough context for the emergence of the hybrid.

Here, incidentally, is the current complete list.