Reviews

"Shut Up & Sing" takes us back to January 2003 when the Dixie Chicks (at the height of their popularity) sing the national anthem at the Super Bowl. Two months later, George W. Bush declares an illegal and immoral war on Iraq. The Dixie Chicks kick off their first world tour in the midst of the largest anti-war protests in world history.

Lead singer Natalie Maines tells the audience at their London concert that she is "with them" on their view of the war and that, "We're ashamed that the President if from Texas."

Once the right-wing political talk-show hosts in the U.S. get a hold of that comment, they immediately spread a campaign of hate towards the Dixie Chicks. Their lives, music, and fans are never the same.

"Shut Up & Sing" documents the anti-Dixie Chicks fury of 2003 (including the radio stations that ban their music and the death threat targeted at Maines herself), but it also shows their historic comeback, emerging from the ashes stronger than ever, and emerging as symbols of free speech and true patriotism.

The 1973 animated film "Charlotte's Web" was as much a part of my childhood as "The Care Bear Movie." As I remember (because I honestly haven't seen it over 15 years), the animated film was perfect the way it was. I can still hear the voices of the original Fern and Wilber.

So what do I think about the latest "Charlotte's Web?" It's all right. It doesn't bring anything new to light that the 1973 cartoon didn't already. Honestly, I don't know why they made it at all.

Though I have to admit, the casting of Steve Buscemi as the voice of Templeton the Rat was beyond perfect. My favorite lines of dialogue, however, came from Samuel the Sheep, voiced by the hilarious John Cleese. His sarcastic tone at meeting Wilber the Pig was wonderful ("What luck! We have an early riser, and there are things he has to say").

Skip the theater on this one and just buy the cartoon on DVD instead.

"The Holiday" is two movies in one. The forgettable part stars Cameron Diaz and Jude Law as two unrealistically attractive people who (surprise, surprise!) fall in love. The other part of "The Holiday," however, may be the greatest romantic comedy since "Love Actually."

Kate Winslet plays Iris, a hard-working, compassionate, and kind journalist who has spent the past three years in love with a selfish and manipulative co-worker who leads her on an uses her. When this horrible man announces that he's engaged, Iris packs up and flies to Los Angeles for Christmas. While in L.A., she meets and befriends a sweet old man who used to write movies in the golden age of Hollywood. He tells Iris, "In the movies we have the leading lady and the best friend. You're the leading lady, but you're acting like the best friend."

Iris is the greatest on-screen heroine since Bridget Jones. When she's on screen, you're either laughing or crying. And Jack Black is great, too! Honestly, you can't miss this one.

In the Bible, the story of the birth of baby Jesus is less than twenty sentences long. Writer Mike Rich and director Catherine Hardwicke managed to turn it into a movie that spans an hour and forty minute (bravo!). "The Nativity Story" is an imaginative, insightful, and completely realistic adaptation of this famous story.

You don't have to be Christian to enjoy this film. "The Nativity Story" is actually a love story about Mary and Joseph. Mary is portrayed as a sweet and simple teenage girl who doesn't even want to get married at first. But as the kind and selfless Joseph fights to protect his young wife and her holy child, Mary grows to love this heroic man.

My favorite characters, however, are the three wise men who provide ample comic relief. They are portrayed as scholars and mystics who follow the stars to Bethlehem in search of the Messiah.

Forget Charlie Brown and Rudolph, "The Nativity Story" is the true Christmas Story.

Richard Linklater did a tremendous job at turning Eric Schlosser's best-selling investigative book "Fast Food Nation" into a shocking and inspiring piece of fiction. "Fast Food Nation" (the movie) has a giant all-star cast and focuses primarily on three intersecting story lines – the corporate executive who investigates claims that there is fecal matter in their meat patties, the teenage girl who works at a fast-food restaurant but becomes an environmental activist, and the illegal Mexican immigrants who risk their lives and dignity to work in the heinous slaughter houses and meat-packing plants.

Do see this movie, but trust me when I advise you to not eat before walking into the theater. There are graphic and nauseating shots of cows getting killed, skinned, decapitated, having their limbs chopped off, having their organs pulled off, etc. It's not pretty, but it's real, and we all need to be aware of where our food comes from because we all need to be more responsible consumers.

Neither the commercials nor the marketing do this film justice. "Happy Feet" is simply the greatest animated film since "The Lion King" (remember those Disney films that had such depth and complexity that they actually made you cry?). It's so much more than the Hollywood musical version of "March of the Penguins."

Baby Emperor penguin Mambo is born with the gift of dance. Unfortunately, dancing is looked down upon in this society, and Mambo is mocked, scorned and eventually expelled from the tribe by the heads of the Established Penguin Church.

"Happy Feet" gets quite dark and somber when Mambo is captured and forced to live in a zoo where all the animals eventually drift into a glazed dementia. But I promise that most of the film is funny, beautiful, enchanting, and a total treat from start to finish. The kids will love with cute penguins while the grown-ups will jam to the music of Queen, the Beatles, Prince, the Beach Boys, Elvis, and more! It's simply spectacular!

I see A LOT of movies, and very few big Hollywood studio-produced movies surprise me anymore. I can see the cheap, predictable, and formulaic story lines and twist endings a mile away. "The Prestige" is not one of those movies. Like a bad magician attempting to perform the bullet trick, I was blown away!

Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale are devious feuding magicians, living in turn-of-the-century London (not to be confused with another movie about a magician living in turn-of-the-century Europe, which was, honestly, crap). Jackman and Bale start off as partners, working in the same magic act. But when Bale accidentally kills Jackman's wife in a blotched magic trick, the two spend the rest of their lives trying to destroy one another.

Every twist in the plot is more mind-blowing than the one before, and the ending is nothing short of spectacular. "The Prestige" may not leave you believing in magic, but it left me believing in movie magic, and I haven't felt that in a long time.

This is the first time that I've seen British comedian Rowan Atkinson playing a part that isn't just another version of Mr. Bean, and he's actually a fantastic actor! In "Keeping Mum," Atkinson plays the local vicar, Walter Goodfellow, a loving father and kind husband. His wife Gloria (Kristin Scott Thomas), however, is unsatisfied by her marriage and starts an affair with a smarmy and sleazy golf instructor, played by Patrick Swayze (strangely enough, he was perfect for the part).

Along comes the new housekeeper, Grace Hawkins (Maggie Smith), a tender and caring addition to the household, who's also a convicted murderer. She's sort of a psychotic-but-sweet Mary Poppins who makes all the family's dreams come true… by means of murder, mayhem, and manslaughter.

Atkinson hasn't been this good since Mr. Bean, and Smith is so classy and so funny that you can't help but love her, no matter how demented her character may appear. "Keeping Mum" is the perfect comedy.

The documentary is brilliant – it's the content that's scary as Hell! "Jesus Camp" tells the story of an Evangelical Pentecostal preacher named Becky Fischer and her mission to turn young children into martyrs for Christ. She proudly states, "I want to see kids as radically willing to lay down their lives for Christ as Muslim kids are in places like Palestine and Pakistan." She sounds like she's advocating little Christian suicide bombers!

This film examines the Evangelical Christian culture where home-schooled kids don't believe in science and aren't allowed to read "Harry Potter" because (as one mother put it), "Had it been Old Testament times, Harry Potter would have been put to death." Small children who still suck their thumbs are talking in tongues and praying over a cardboard cut-out of President Bush.

"Jesus Camp" is also a chilling study of the power of the Evangelical vote in today's political climate, and having the power to sway a presidential election gives Evangelicals the indirect power to appoint Supreme Court Justices. It's scary, but we have to know that it's out there.

Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. If "The U.S. vs. John Lennon" is anything, it's an examination of the similarities between the Nixon Administration and the national debacle that was the Vietnam War, compared to the current Bush Administration and the national debacle that is the Iraq War. The difference, of course, is that Nixon had John and Yoko Lennon to contend with. Who do we have to lead our protests and write our anthems? Michael Moore? Not good enough.

When Lennon moved to New York City in 1970, the Nixon Administration was terrified that he had the power to organize the anti-war protesters and affect the outcome of elections (particularly Nixon's 1972 run for re-election). Lennon was wiretapped and followed by the FBI (which was being used at that time to "quell decent"). The Immigration and Naturalization Service tried for five years to deport him, but he got a lawyer and fought back, and in 1976, on his birthday, on his son Sean's birthday, he learned that he and Yoko had won their case, and they could stay.

"The U.S. vs. John Lennon" makes you want to take a stand, organize a protest, demand peace, and stick it to the man!

Yes, everything you've heard about Forest Whitaker's career-defining role as former Ugandan president/dictator Idi Amin is true. The Oscar is in the bag. But let me be the first to tell you that his co-star James McAvoy (playing a young Scottish doctor who becomes the president's personal physician) is a scene-stealer as well. McAvoy's character, Nicholas Garrigan, comes to Africa with the most unselfish intentions possible but is lucky to leave with his life. His charm and appeal, however, never fades.

"The Last King of Scotland" is about more than a murderous African dictator or another African genocide. It's about the long and short-term affects of colonialism. The British Empire had the biggest hand in carving up the continent of Africa in the 19th century, and British weapons and funds put Amin in power in 1970, so how much really changed in a hundred years? It's terrifying, grotesque, and haunting, but there are unexpected moments of comedy and humanity, and come Oscar season, you're going to wish you saw that film that everyone will be talking about.

The saddest thing about My Country, My Country is that the people who need to see this the most (those people who think that Americans are liberators in Iraq and those who think Iraqis are ignorant babies who cannot govern themselves and are better off under American occupation) are the exact people who will never go and see it.

My Country, My Country is a documentary about Iraqi society in the months leading up to the historic elections on January 31, 2005. Director Laura Poitras follows a doctor from Baghdad who's running for City Council, the United Nations team who will organize and monitor the elections, and a private security firm from Australian that's hired to oversee the security and safety of the elections.

Dr. Riyadh is an amazing man. Not only does he work for a free clinic in Baghdad, and not only does he help his friends and neighbors by giving them money when they need it, but he also goes to the Abu Ghrabi Prison Camp to speak with the prisoners and learn about their health problems and living conditions. He's a soft-spoken man, but a smart and compassionate man – the kind of man you want to see in a position of power in Baghdad.

So the good news is that there are intelligent people in Iraq who are more than capable of governing their own country. The bad news is that this war has made their lives hell. Two months before the elections and Baghdad is in ruins, with no running water and no electricity. Families don't go out for fear of being killed, and rightfully so. One day before the election, a friend of Dr. Riyadh's is a wreck because his son has been kidnapped and the extremists want ransom money to pay for more weapons.

The good news is that, despite the death threats and warnings from extremists, millions of Iraqis went out and voted on January 31, 2005. The bad news is that Dr. Riyadh didn't get elected to the City Council. The good news is that the kidnapped son was returned a few days later. The bad news is that over a year and a half later, the war wages on with no end in sight.

If you love drinking games and bad European stereotypes, you will LOVE Beerfest! Two brothers go to Germany to fulfill their dead uncle's final request to have his ashes spread in Munich during Oktoberfest. What the brothers find instead is Beerfest – a secret, underground, international competition of the greatest beer chuggers in the world! After getting humiliated by the Germans, the brothers vow to assemble their own American drinking team, train for an entire year, then return to Beerfest and kick some German ass! Of course it's stupid, but it's funny! If you spent the better time of your college career doing Keg Stands and playing ridiculous drinking games like Quarters, Beer Pong, "I've Never," Asshole, Queens, and Chandeliers, then Beerfest will crack you up! It's a movie about nothing more than drinking games, but it's hilarious! I don't really know a whole lot about the Broken Lizards' comedy group (except for what I just now read on IMDb), and I've never seen Super Troopers or Club Dread, but I can tell you that Beerfest is ten times more fun than the best frat party you've ever been to. And if you've ever had a bad Goldschlagger experience, Beerfest is your kind of movie.

Thank God for "Little Miss Sunshine" because I hadn't seen a truly superb comedy since "Thank You For Smoking," and after watching "World Trade Center" I was in dire need of comedy.

Every member of this family is miserable and self-absorbed (except for the irresistibly adorable young Olive, played by future-super-star Abigail Breslin), but I loved them all! Alan Arkin is the funniest and coolest coke-sniffing grandpa ever! He tells his grandson, Dwayne, that his only advice to him is to "F**k a lot of women, not just one."

"Little Miss Sunshine" is a road trip film where the entire family drives across the Southwest so that little Olive can compete in the Little Miss Sunshine Beauty Pageant. Olive's song-and-dance performance at the beauty pageant is one of the single funniest (and brilliantly unexpected) scenes ever captured on film. My vote for Best Supporting Actress at next year's Oscars already goes to Abigail Breslin, and you can tell the Academy I said so.

Adam, a 32-year-old Filipino security guard from San Diego, must fly home to the Philippines after learning that his father is died. He lands at the Manila airport and waits for his mother to pick him up. She never does. He hears a ringing in his bag. It's a mysterious package with a ringing cell phone (think of The Matrix when Morpheus contacts Neo for the first time). Adam picks it up, and for the next hour, an Islamic extremist (who has kidnapped his mother and sister) threatens to kill Adam's family if he doesn't follow every single order he's given. Now that's suspense.

I love that Cavite truly takes you down the streets of the Philippines, where people drink soda from a plastic bag and bet on cockfights (reminds me a lot of Mexico). Everything about this film is original and surprising. The only problems were technical (and hardly worth mentioning). One problem was the discontinuity of the sweaty shirt. Adam wears the same shirt throughout the film, and the shirt is sweatier at some points than at others. The other problem was believing that two cell phones batteries could last an entire day. Adam is constantly on the phone with his family's kidnapper, and he only runs out of battery once? I don't buy it. But I bought everything else.

Equally as original as the plot of Cavite is the story about how this indie film found it's distribution. A U.T. class on advanced film producing promoted Cavite through the 2005 SXSW Film Festival and the 2005 Los Angeles Film Festival, and thanks to a deal with Mark Cuban's "Truly Indie" distribution initiative, Cavite is now showing at a theater near you, so check it out.

Ripping this movie apart is like shooting fish in a barrel. It's too easy. So I'm going to challenge myself to acknowledge the positive aspects of Little Man. First, I'm impressed with the special effects. It really did look like Marlon Wayans' head was attached to the body of a little person. I never doubted it for a minute.

Secondly, I loved some of the unexpected cameos. David Alan Grier played an annoying restaurant singer, and his renditions of "Havin' My Baby" and "Movin' On Up" were priceless. John Witherspoon, who, coincidentally, played Grier's father in 1992's Boomerang (if you remember, he "coordinated" the mushroom belt with the mushroom jacket) now plays Vanessa's father in Little Man. So that was fun.

Beyond that, this movie is about as believable as White Chicks. How dumb is it when even the doctor can't tell that it's a 40-year-old man and not a baby? He's got a full set of teeth!!! How is it possible that no one seems to notice that it's not a baby? Little Man is so bad that there's a Rob Schneider cameo. And please, if you're stupid enough to waste $8 on this movie, at least do me a favor and DO NOT bring your children. This movie is way too sexual for small children (lots of jokes and innuendo about sex, going down, eating out, etc.), and I felt embarrassed for the parents who brought their kids to the screening I was forced to endure. If you insist on seeing an idiotic film, as least spare your children the pain and suffering.

Pick a stereotype, any stereotype (whether racial, sexual, cultural, etc.), and I bet you'll find it in Wassup Rockers. Do you think that all Hispanic teenage boys are stupid, hairy, inarticulate, and dirty troublemakers? Are Hispanic girls sex-crazed, easy, ass-baring sluts? Do Black people all want to start fights and carry guns? Do all gay people throw themed parties with pink drinks and ask young boys to model for them? Are all White teenage girls rich, stuck-up princesses who are bored with White teenage boys and are looking for something a little more dangerous? If you answered "yes" to any of the previous questions, you, my friend, are a bigot, and you will LOVE Wassup Rockers.

Director Larry Clark likes to shock his audiences (I was 15 years old the first time I saw Kids and I think that's why I'm still a virgin), but Wassup Rockers isn't shocking… it's just bad. He tries to be edgy and realistic with his minimal dialog and body-hair close-ups, but these characters and this story are completely unrealistic.

Simply put, Wassup Rockers is a teenage boy's fantasy. What 14-year-old boy doesn't want to be a skater who gets in trouble, crashes parties, drinks 40s, and is told by the hot, rich, White girl that his uncircumcised penis "looks dangerous?" Besides that demographic, I really don't know who's going to enjoy this film.

Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man is part concert, part interview, and in-between are all these amazing musicians (Rufus Wainwright, Bono, Jarvis Cocker, etc.) waxing philosophical on the musical genius that is Cohen. I, however, learned absolutely nothing about Leonard Cohen from this pretentious and arrogant documentary.

I'm not a Cohen fan, personally. I think he's one of those musicians who's worshiped by other musicians so that they can sound really cool and pompous when they say, "You don't know who Leonard Cohen is?" All the musicians talk about Cohen's music being so spiritual and transcendental, and they describe Cohen more like a messiah than a musician.

We never see a full facial shot of Cohen during the interviews, always keeping a part of him secret. Cohen spends more camera time reading his poetry than talking about his life. It's as if we're not worthy of seeing and truly knowing "the great" Leonard Cohen. Or maybe he's just too great and mysterious to be understood by the simple lay people.

However, I did enjoy the Rufus Wainwright rendition of "Hallelujah" with the three-part harmony. That was pretty. The rest was a highbrow bore.

Talk about the Emperor's New Clothes! Critics everywhere are ranting and raving about Robert Altman's "A Prairie Home Companion," and I don't know what all the fuss is about. It's boring, boooorrrring!!! This statement, mind you, coming from a girl who actually likes musicals. I wasn't bored with all the singing. I was bored because the songs they sang were stupid. I really don't want to hear about grandma's rhubarb pie. Not interesting. What is uncanny about "A Prairie Home Companion" is how much talent they managed to squeeze into one film. Meryl Streep, Woody Harrelson, and John C. Reilly aren't just fabulous actors, but they can all sing and play instruments as well. My fault for going into this movie with the wrong expectations. I just didn't expect so much damn singing. But if you know that that's what you're getting into, and that's what you want, you won't be disappointed. Even Lindsay Lohan's not that bad.