Reviews

Rafael Gonzalez (Guillermo Toledo), is a salesman in the ladies section of a fashionable department store in Madrid who has it all: good looks, a sharp wardrobe, and a confident, brash manner that allows him to get his way with women and in the workplace.

Rafael has clear goals, too, the most important of which is to lead a "perfect life," and little patience for anybody who settles for less. Such a proud man, of course, is perfectly set up to take a fall and Rafael plunges very far indeed in this hilarious black comedy by Spanish director Alexis de la Iglesia.

Rafael's slide begins when a hated rival, Don Antonio (Luis Varlea), wins a coveted promotion. An argument follows and Don Antonio ends up dead. Rafael's role in the accident goes undetected by the police only because Lourdes (Monica Cevera), an unattractive coworker he has long ignored, helps dispose of the corpse.

Lourdes assistance comes with a price. She has long carried a torch for Rafael and uses the threat of police exposure to get her own "perfect life." She insists Rafael become her lover, meet her parents, and marry her. In short, Rafael is about to be trapped in the kind of dull, mediocre existence he has always mocked.

Watching Rafael try to escape from the world Lourdes plans for him – raising children in a badly decorated suburban apartment filled with clown paintings and spending evenings collecting ugly miniatures -- provides lots of laughter and entertainment and plenty of insights into contemporary Spain. In the end, each character gets what they want – but as usually happens in life itself – there is a clear winner and loser. Highly recommended.

9/10

Ada Falcon was a talented and popular Argentine tango singer of the 1920s and 1930s. She performed with the country's best musicians, starred on national radio shows, and appeared in movies shown across Latin America. In 1942, however, Falcon abruptly left show business and never performed again.

Before dropping out of sight, she led a glamorous, lavish life and reportedly counted tango star Carlos Gardel and Argentine composer Francisco Canero among her lovers. Falcon's green eyes fascinated both men and her fans, too. Those same eyes inspired the tango that serves as the title of this documentary by Argentine filmmaker Sergio Wolf.

Falcon's disappearance and the rumors surrounding it intrigue Wolf and he sets out to learn more about the singer's career and her later life. With a cameraman in tow, Wolf visits the theaters and radio studios where Falcon once sang and the homes and cities where she lived. He also talks to musicians, neighbors, and others who knew Falcon and includes clips from her movies and concerts.

This nostalgic and heartfelt effort will likely enthrall both Argentines of a certain age and hardcore tango fans of the period. Others may find the subject too obscure, but they will certainly be fascinated by Wolf's discovery of how Falcon spent the last half of a very long life that ended with entombment in Recoleta, the most famous and exclusive cemetery in Buenos Aires.

7/10

"The Seven Madmen" draws on two novels by Roberto Arlt to show us the opulent and seedy words of Buenos Aires in the 1920s. Erdosain (Alfredo Alcon) is a failed inventor who allows himself be pressured into giving up his dreams, marrying a woman he doesn't know, and taking up a job as a bill collector that he grows to hate. A weak man, Erdosain can't no to anyone, including an astrologer who enlists him as one of seven members in a secret anarchist society that sets out to destroy the Plaza de Mayo, Argentina's religious, commercial and government center.

Much of the movie takes place in the working class rooming houses, brothels and tango bars of the period's and it also shows us the era's political and criminal underworlds. Although this a well produced picture with good costumes and sets, there is nothing glamorous about the places shown or the people who frequent them. Erdosain's rented rooms are as sad and depressing as the life he leads that results in his embrace of violent anarchism.

Look for good supporting performances by Norma Aleandro and Hector Alterio, two of Argentina's most famous actors. Highly recommended.

8/10

What is the cost of silence? It's a question faced by anyone who remains quiet out of fear. It's also a subject familiar to millions who lived in Argentina and said nothing as the country's armed forces killed as many as 30,000 people during the "Dirty War" from 1976 and 1983.

"Time for Revenge" explores the cost of silence but with an odd twist. In this story, saying nothing is also a way to escape a leftist past and earn a badly needed paycheck, even if it means getting along with a corrupt and dangerous company. Eventually, however, silence becomes a form of rebellion that leads to a final – and disturbing – act of defiance.

Federico Luppi plays an engineer with a history of trade union leadership that has made him unemployable. Details about the character's political past remain murky. All that is clear is that he wants to leave politics behind.

Using fraudulent references to hide his past, Luppi obtains a job as a demolition expert at a remote copper mine run by a large corporation headquartered in Buenos Aires. The work is risky, doubly so because the company cuts corners on safety that soon lead to two deaths.

Because of that tragedy, Luppi agrees to a plan proposed by an old coworker from his union days who has also ended up at the mine. They will stage an accident, claim the experience has left them mute, and demand a settlement that will allow them to never work again.

After the "accident", Luppi presses forward with the scheme, insisting to everybody – his wife, children and friends – that he can't speak. To avoid paying up, the corporation and its managers use violent trick they can, including many of those employed by the military during the "Dirty War."

Luppi is excellent as the engineer, especially considering that he stops speaking midway through the movie. Director Aldolfo Aristarain in his first film does a good job moving the story along, filling the movie with subtle touches, and showing life in very different worlds, from downtown Buenos Aires to the backwaters of Patagonia. Strongly recommended.

8/10

"What Your Eyes Don't See" is a stylish and slick murder mystery set in the magazine publishing world of Buenos Aires, Argentina's capital city. It does a first-rate job of showing many of the local sights – Teatro Colon, Puerto Madero, Recoleta Cemetery, and the Tigre Delta, among others – and the actors are handsome and competent as they go through their paces showing us who killed the story's victims and why.

The movie's central character is a world-weary detective with the local homicide squad who is full of colorful quirks. Like Telly Savalas's Kojack, for example, this fellow sports a lollipop. It leaves you wondering if "What Your Eyes Don't See" is one entry in a recurring series on Argentine television.

7/10

Seeing the trailer for "Valentin" multiple times at my local art house theater in Oregon I was reminded of "The Courtship of Eddie's Father," an old American television series that starred Bill Bixby as widower father whose adorable seven-year-old son was determined to find a mother by marrying Dad off.

Valentin, played by the cross-eyed eight-year-old Rodrigo Noya, is just as adorable as child actor Brandon Cruz was in the American show. And like Eddie, Valentin has a colorful mother figure, a grandmother played by Carmen Maura. (The American Eddie had "Mrs. Livingston", a Japanese American housekeeper to look after him.) And while Valentin is given plenty of comic routines to perform -- Laugh as Valentin explodes a television set! Grin as Valentin dresses up as an astronaut! -- as we watch him try to cement his Dad's engagement to Leticia, a new girlfriend played by the gorgeous Julieta Cardinali, this movie isn't the heartwarming comedy the trailer promises. So be prepared for some dark moments as you watch Valentin fulfill his promise as a matchmaker.

Nonetheless, this movie has its appeal, especially I imagine for Argentines who were children in 1969 Buenos Aires where the story is set. In fact, the city often looks, well, just plain cute, as spotless vintage cars glide in and out of the background while actors dressed in the styles of the period go about their jobs.

Watching the charming and nostalgic "Valentin", it's no wonder that director Agresti says in an interview on the movie's DVD that many Argentines of a certain age – especially given the troubled times that befell the country in the 1970s and 1980s – consider 1969 "the country's last good year." 7/10

Sometimes it seems hard to find an Argentine movie released in the last 25 years with a plot that doesn't depend on corruption or economic crisis.

"Wild Horses" was made in 1995, a time of relative prosperity for Argentina, so it's corruption, not an economic crisis that leads old anarchist Jose (Hector Alterio) to threaten to shoot himself unless a large bank in Buenos Aires returns the $15,000 he lost years before because of the institution's shady practices.

Pedro (Leonardo Sbaraglia) is the yuppie executive chosen by Jose to turn over the money. The two leave the bank with a far larger sum and soon find themselves together on the road bound for Patagonia, pursued by police and paid assassins, and cheered on by the poor and the media as modern-day Robin Hoods.

Unlikely as this story sounds, it works well enough, thanks to great acting by Alterio. Director Marcelo Pineyro also keeps everything moving along fast enough so that we don't dwell on the occasional plot holes. Federico Luppi pops up at the end of the picture in a wonderful cameo. His performance alone is worth the price of admission.

7/10

Argentina, like the United States, is a country whose ideal female is thin, tall and blonde. Marcia (Tatiana Saphir), is none of these things. She is fat, short and dark and stuck in a working class job staffing the counter of a tiny lingerie store in Buenos Aires with almost no customers. With few friends and no man in her life, there's little likelihood that anything will ever happen to change Marcia's life.

Suddenly, Marcia's tedious routine of sleep, work, and food followed by more of the same is interrupted by the arrival of Mao (Carla Crespo) and Lenin (Veronica Hassan), two young lesbians who approach her on the street. Mao declares her love for Marcia and the three women spend a long weekend together that takes them to Mar del Plata, Rosario, and back to Buenos Aires and teaches everybody involved lessons about the pleasures and pains of life.

Director Diego Lerman films this story in a moody and hip black-and-white style that recalls the early work of Jim Jarmusch and other independent filmmakers of the 1980s. All the actors give good performances, particularly Beatriz Thibaudin as the elderly aunt Blanca who does a terrific dance number. Strongly recommended.

8/10

Leopoldo, (Dario Grandinetti), is a timid man in his 40s who toils away in his spare time on unsuccessful inventions. His latest project: a machine to record dreams while people sleep for later playback.

Leopoldo's life is not a happy one. The owner of a failing movie theater in Buenos Aires, he has trouble making ends meet and may soon lose his business. He long-suffering wife Susana, (Monica Galan), is unable to have children, which puts more pressure on an already strained marriage. And it doesn't help matters that Leopoldo behaves eccentrically in public places, conducting conversations with a potted plant carried everywhere as a companion.

On day Rachel, (Mariana Arias), appears. Dressed in the styles of the 1880s, she tells Leopoldo – the only person who can see her -- that she is a reincarnated spirit and they have met and loved each other in different lives during the previous 300 years. The story that follows is an odd, sometimes slow, though rewarding fantasy about life, dreams, and reincarnation. Strongly recommended.

8/10

Two Men at a Crossroads "Waiting for the Messiah" shows us two different worlds and two different men and how each deals with personal and professional loss.

Ariel is a young man living in Once, the predominately Jewish neighborhood of Buenos Aires, a city that also has Latin America's largest Jewish community. The path of Ariel's life is clear and certain: marriage to Estela, a beautiful waitress working in his father's restaurant, followed by children, and a long life in the tight-knit neighborhood he's always known.

But the unexpected death of Ariel's mother and the temporary closing of the family restaurant because of Argentina's economic crisis lead Ariel, an amateur filmmaker, to leave the Once barrio each day for a night shift job editing video tape. There Ariel meets Elsa, a lesbian who makes him reconsider his earlier choices.

The life of Santamaria, a middle aged, middle class bank clerk, is also transformed by Argentina's economic problems. Santamaria is thrown out of work and dumped by his wife when his bank closes. Soon he's living on the streets and reduced to rummaging through trash to find stolen identification cards that he can return to owners in hopes of a reward. Santamaria yearns for the conventional wife and the family life that Ariel is considering escaping.

"Waiting for the Messiah" skillfully weaves together the stories of Ariel and the people of their lives as each man explores what to do next. Though the ending feels forced and almost tacked on as an afterthought, the stories that take you there are entertaining and absorbing. The real strength of this movie, however, lies in the glimpses it offers of Jewish life in Argentina and how ordinary people have coped with the country's latest round of economic troubles.

7/10

The collapse of Argentina's peso in 2001 threw millions out of work and plunged what had been one of Latin America's most prosperous countries in the 1990s into the kind of economic depression not seen in the United States since the 1930s. Four years later thousands of ruined businesses remain closed. In a handful of cases, though, workers occupied and reopened shut factories, health clinics, and schools as employee-owned and operated- cooperatives.

How Argentine workers did this is a terrific story. Unfortunately, "The Take", a film directed and narrated by anti-globalization activists Naomi Klein and Avi Lewis raises more questions than it answers.

According to Klein and Lewis, Argentine workers now run more than 200 companies employing 15,000 people. To explain how this happened, the movie documents a campaign by unemployed machinists to put a casting parts plant back in business. Along the way, we see examples of other successful cooperatives, including a shop of seamstresses, a ceramic tile manufacturer, and a tractor factory.

The new worker owners featured in "The Take" are earnest and enthusiastic. They are especially moving when describing the effects of years of unemployment and how their lives have improved for the better after returning to work. No one, though, tells us basic facts about these companies, such as whether wages and benefits have gone up or down under cooperatives, how the worker-owned companies pay for their raw materials, who buys their products, and if they make a profit. These are not idle points, as any owner – Argentine worker or multinational plutocrat -- knows.

How does the "The Take" fill up its time? In between interviews with cooperative members about the glories of worker control we get lectures about the lack of differences among candidates in the 2003 Argentine presidential election, the pointlessness of voting, and the failings of the International Monetary Fund. We're also treated to a long slow motion sequence of a street riot in Buenos Aires – complete with Mercedes Sosa soundtrack -- that depicts heroic workers and the equally heroic Klein and Lewis calling each other on their cell phones.

There's a good documentary to be made about what has happened to Argentina's economy and its workers. Klein and Lewis, however, take the easy way out and give us slogans and mushy analysis that leave the audience skeptical and suspicious.

4/10

"Mercano, the Martian" is the first full-length animated movie made in Argentina. Heavily influenced by the crude graphic styles and jokes of "South Park" and "Beavis and Butthead", "Mercano" uses the trademark gore and grossness of those shows to make its comedic points while delivering serious warnings about technology and globalization. There are also jokes about plastic surgery and psychiatry – two uniquely Argentine obsessions – that you would only find in a picture set in Buenos Aires as well as depressingly accurate depictions of that city's tough street life. This is odd but entertaining movie made even more enjoyable by a big ending that includes a South Park-style musical number.

Regina, played by Fernanda Montenegro, is an older woman with firm opinions about people and life. Retired, estranged from family, and living with a pet dog, she spends her days (and nights) as a police volunteer reporting criminal activity near her home, a large apartment tower across from Copacabana beach.

The work gives Regina gives purpose and meaning to any otherwise empty life. Much of her success is likely due to the fact that in a neighborhood crowded with young, beautiful people, an elderly woman is practically invisible.

One day she sees a man kill his wife. When the police refuse to act, Regina decides to investigate on her own. The quiet story that follows is engaging, surprising, and full of insights into the life of the elderly.

7/10

The buzz about "Beyond the Sea", Kevin Spacey's big biopic about 1960s singer Bobby Darin, has not been not good. Based on local newspaper reviews, I expected a laughable, expensive vanity project that would drive me from the theater. This film has its weaknesses, but overall it's a pleasant enough way to spend two hours.

First, let's talk about the flaws. The main problem here is the structure, especially the frequent dialogues between Bobby Darin as an adult (Kevin Spacey) and Bobby Darin as a 10 year-old boy (William Ullrich). It's an approach that probably looked fine on paper but is ridiculously distracting on the screen. A similarly dumb idea is a long scene in which the story's characters talk about how to organize the movie itself.

Most of the remainder of the picture, though, gives a straightforward and entertaining account of Darin's career and life. Yes, it's hard to take Bobby Darin as seriously as he is treated here. The fellow was at best a minor celebrity and is remembered today, if at all, for his classic cover of "Mack the Knife." But Kevin Spacey does a credible job of belting out Darin's signature songs, including the title piece. And John Goodman, Bob Hoskins and Brenda Blythen turn in solid performances as Darin's manager and family. The period costumes, sets and cars look perfect and the musical sequences, several featuring dance numbers, are good. This is a hardly a "must see" movie, but if you enjoy Bobby Darin's music and his era you'll probably like "Beyond the Sea." 6/10

Every generation produces its own "coming of age" movie. In the 1960s, there was "The Graduate", for example, and a few years later, "Harold and Maude". "Garden State", which Zach Braff wrote, produced and stars in, covers the same territory: a depressed young man, alienated from family and friends, struggles to establish his own identity as he seeks love and happiness.

Time will tell if "Garden State" will become as important to Generation Y as "The Graduate" or Harold and Maude" are to certain Baby Boomers. But if you've already seen those pictures, you needn't bother with this one.

6/10

Remember those television variety shows from the 1960s and 70s? The producers and writers of the "The Nick & Jessica Variety Hour" certainly do. They've dug deep into television's archives to mimic the kinds of skits, patter, and songs that popped up on programs hosted more than 30 years ago by Sonny and Cher, Tom Jones, Dean Martin and other singers.

Although the variety show is no longer popular, many of those old shows remain entertaining today. The same cannot be said of "The Nick & Jessica Variety Show." The hosts are the main problems. Jessica Simpson is an average singer with an overwrought style that will either make you laugh or squirm with embarrassment. This woman simply has no idea how ridiculous she looks, and this program, unfortunately for us, provides plenty of opportunities for her to prove it. A duet with the singer Jewell is especially painful to watch.

Nick Lachey has a better voice than his wife Jessica, but given the comparison, I'm afraid that amounts to very faint praise indeed. He appears mostly in hammy duets with Jessica or lame comic pieces with almost forgotten, third-tier celebrities – Kenny Rogers, Johnny Bench, and Miss Piggy and Kermit the Frog.

Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey are best known for their MTV show, "Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica." Whatever the merits of that program may be, (I've never seen it), don't waste your time on this claptrap unless you want to have a 43-minute laugh at Jessica and Nick's expense.

3/10

Were you thinking big when you made your New Year's resolutions last month? See this movie and think again.

That broken relationship you're determined to salvage? The big promotion you're certain you can still land? Those piano lessons you've been meaning to start? "Sideways" shows that as you approach the second half of life, it's time to accept that some dreams, no matter much you want them, may never come true.

That fact is becoming painfully obvious to Miles Raymond, a middle school English teacher in his mid-40s who has written a 700-page novel that publishers keep rejecting. Divorced, short of money, and living in a run-down rental apartment in a tired section of San Diego, Miles, as played by Paul Giamatti., is a man with plenty of disappointments.

His best friend is Jack, an aging actor who once had recurring roles on television series, but now gets by doing voice-over work and other commercial jobs. To celebrate Jack's impending wedding to a young and wealthy woman, Miles takes him on a week-long road trip through California vineyards.

Paul Giamatti is perfect as the neurotic and tightly wound Miles, a man who uses anti-depressants, wry humor, and his erudite knowledge of wine to get through the day. Easy-going Jack, played by Thomas Haden Church, is his polar opposite: a friendly, outgoing man who loves to flirt and chase women even days before his wedding.

Almost immediately Jack meets Stephanie, played by Sandra Oh, and Paul finds himself with Maya, a divorced waitress played by Virginia Madsen, who is beginning to pursue new dreams of her own. How these four people spend the next six days together – and what follows after Jack and Miles return home – makes "Sideways" one of the funniest and most satisfying movies I've seen this year.

Rating: 9/10

Enrique Goded, played by Fele Martinez, is a young film director in 1980 Madrid enjoying his first commercial success. Ignacio, played by Gael Garcia, an old schoolmate who is now an actor, visits and leaves behind a story he has written inspired by their time together in a Catholic boarding school for boys.

Goded decides to use the material for his next film and to let Ignacio play himself. Through a series of intricately plotted flashbacks, we learn about the two men's childhood friendship, their relationship with a disturbed priest, and a secret that won't go away.

Director Pedro Almodovar is obviously a huge fan of Alfred Hitchcock. The movie is full of Hitchcock's trademark tricks, including elaborate studio sets, a plot twist involving impersonation, and a musical score that could have been composed by Bernard Hermmann.

La Mala Educacion tells a satisfying story with unexpected twists about characters who are driven by passion. Highly recommended.

For most of the last six weeks it's been impossible to pick up a newspaper or watch a news show without a story about people everywhere pitching in to help survivors of last month's tsunami in Asia that killed at least 150,000. Hotel Rwanda, a grim movie about genocide in Central Africa, shows how equally indifferent the world can be to human suffering on an even greater scale.

In 1994, the Rwandan government, controlled by the Hutu ethnic group, which accounts for a majority of the country's population, launched a vicious campaign to wipe out the Tutsi minority. Before the year was out, more than one million Rwandans were dead.

What was happening in Rwanda was no secret. News outlets were full of graphic and grisly pictures of Hutus murdering Tutsis, often with machetes, and fields and roads full of corpses. This time, however, the world did nothing. President Bill Clinton says it is the biggest regret of his political life.

Hotel Rwanda is about one man who did act, and by doing so, saved more than 1,000 lives. Don Cheadle plays Paul Rusesabagina, the manager of a luxury hotel. Paul has made a career of knowing how to understand and meet the needs of his customers and staff. He uses these skills to keep alive his family, neighbors, coworkers and others who come to him for help.

Cheadle gives a wonderful performance, Sophie Okenodo as his wife is equally good, while director Terry George does a terrific job at showing the horrors of what happened in Rwanda. This is a movie well worth seeing.

Who knew that Werner Herzog – the director of "Aguirre: the Wrath of God", "Fitzcarraldo", and other weighty dramas -- could do comedy? Herzog proves it here in Zak Penn's terrific send-up of "the making of the movie" documentary.

"Incident at Loch" purports to document a film Herzog sets out to make in Scotland about the Loch Ness monster. Overseeing the production is Penn, a successful screenwriter. Along for the ride are a famous cinematographer, an Academy award winning sound man, a Playboy model, and a radio controlled six-foot "Nessie."

Penn puts it all together in a clever, inventive way. The result is one of the most original – and funniest – movies of the year.

Remember in the late 1980s when Japan's economy was the envy of the world and best-selling books said a company's survival depended on doing business the Japanese way? Belgian writer Amelie Nothomb was in Tokyo in 1989 and later wrote her own book – an autobiographical novel -- that inspired this dark, often funny, story about life inside a giant Asian corporation. It is well worth watching.

Amelie is hired as a translator for the enormous Yamimoto Corporation and put in the accounting department. She is bright, talented and fluent in Japanese and all goes well at first. Unfortunately, Amelie doesn't fully understand the office culture and protocols. That leads to a series of missteps that result in her receiving increasingly degrading assignments.

Amelie's descent down the corporate ladder provides a fascinating glimpse into Japanese corporate life. It is a place that rewards loyalty, not initiative, where workers are promoted based on time served, not because of accomplishment, and bosses use public humiliation to keep employees in line. Watching the managers at Yamimoto in action you begin to understand why the Japanese economy has been in the dumps for the last 15 years.

Eddie Murphy and the writers of the special effects laden (and leaden) "Haunted Mansion" could have learned a lesson or two by watching this workman-like picture, the sixth in the Blondie series. In this installment, Mr. Dithers asks the Bumsteads to move into a remote mansion until he can sell it. The house has a menacing butler, on-again, off-again utilities, and hidden passages and secret doors. "Blondie has Servant Trouble" provides an enjoyable mix of suspense and comedy. One sour note mars the movie: Ray Turner plays a chronically frightened African American – a standard stereotype of the period -- who faints at the slightest scare.