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Inside Job
Inside Job (2010)
5/10
Great Talking Heads, Could Use More Drama
24 October 2010
This movie does some things well. Script is excellent. Interesting talking heads, including some heavy hitters. And it's less than two hours. But Inside Job relies too heavily on narration.

Compare it to the banned Saturday Night Live skit of October 2008. (It's back. Google "SNL banned skit" to see it.) In under eight minutes, SNL tells the same story but in a more memorable way.

SNL had George Soros saying he's shorting the dollar, which prompts this: Bush: Oh, really. That's not good. Soros: You're not to speak. I don't like you. In response, President Bush shrugs and moves to the background.

Is that a good summary of the relationship between the financial industry and the government, or what?

SNL dramatized using fiction. Inside Job could have dramatized using facts. How about interviewing a mortgage broker in Las Vegas, where 85% of single-family residences are now under water? How about interviewing a 56 year-old with retirement money gone and an unemployed daughter & family in the spare bedroom?

There is natural arc to this story. Deregulation under President Reagan. Slow easing of lending standards. Weak warnings. Accelerated easing of lending standards. Stronger warnings. Crash! Bam! Lehman Brothers! Paulson down on one knee. Armageddon avoided. Country holds breath for next two years.

This dramatic arc should have been played more heavily.

Five stars.
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Putney Swope
Putney Swope (1969)
5/10
Obscure Political Essay, Howlers Galore
7 January 2010
The outrageous humor that peppers this cheap dated B&W film enlivens the leaden cynical world view behind the plot. It is obscure to the nth degree, a serious flaw. For example: Putney is on the phone to "The President", who is a midget and a pawn. Why? Never explained.

Mr. Swope fails to take the high road, which would have turned his surprise elevation to a position of power into a grand leap forward for his Brothers. Instead he improvises, day to day, in the end painting a picture of leadership that lacks any sense of responsibility to his racial group or to society as a whole. The word "opportunist" comes to mind.

Meanwhile "The President" also lacks any sense of responsibility to the role he inhabits.

The cynical, or should we say realist, view of those in power is as relevant today as it was forty years ago. The humor, erotic scenes, and gross vulgarity are enjoyable, if you're in the right mood.
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Frozen River
Frozen River (2008)
4/10
Soap Opera in the Snow
16 December 2009
FROZEN RIVER is mediocre. The protagonist is shown, her struggles are compelling, and the bleak resolution has the satisfying quality of plausibility. The soap opera is there. The society and political context of the drama are absent.

The action is slow, letting you savor the situation she and her sons face as they sink into desperation. Camera work and other production aspects are barely adequate. Acting is quite good.

As others have noted, the script has continuity problems, but it has another major flaw -- it misses the opportunity to inform. For example, the patrolman could sit down for coffee and say how the volume of smuggled foreigners is today compared to four years ago. He could list the most common countries from which the illegal entrants come. One short scene and we'd get the context. But this scene is absent in Frozen River.

Compare to BORDER INCIDENT (Ricardo Montalban, 1949) which, without being boring, provides lots of context. It shows illegals crossing, farmers conspiring to commit document fraud, law enforcement discussing what's going on and what they're going to do. All this "context" and an action drama too.

While FROZEN RIVER has the situation and the characters, it neglects to flesh out the human drama with a political and societal context.
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Border Incident
Border Incident (1949)
6/10
What a difference 60 years makes, 24 gazillion little hours
16 October 2009
Warning: Spoilers
/Border Incident/ is successful both as a tale and as a window into 1949.

The drama takes us to unusual places and situations. It has a fine range of characters. Following the number one good guy, we visit Calexico, California, a border town, we follow a truckload of illegal workers, and in their barracks we see them ponder their low pay and abusive treatment. Following the number two good guy, we see the world of deals in fake ids, management of the flow of illegals, and, ta daaa, a ring of thieves that kills illegals returning to Mexico for the wad of bills each has in his pocket.

The opening exposition is straightforward, almost pedestrian. Typically 1949. Once the stage is set, "BI" changes from documentary to drama, moving forward like a play.

It bothered me that the number one good guy, (Ricardo Montalban), sometimes goes out of character to augment the exposition. Would a government agent, undercover as a bracero, speak up when one of his group needs medical attention? Hardly. Would he be the one to politicize the workers in the bunkhouse? Hardly. More likely he'd keep his head down and his mouth shut. Still, the lines get delivered; the audience gets to hear them. Not ideal, but it works. As a drama I rate it: five stars.

As a window on the past, Border Incident is quite fascinating. They didn't have cell phones! Both governments were against the illegal flow of workers! Ah, the good old days. NAFTA had not displaced a flood of subsistence farmers. The Mexican government had not published the infamous "Guide For The Mexican Migrant", the pamphlet which helps one cross illegally (take lots of water) and live in the US inconspicuously (avoid domestic violence -- picture of a man slugging his wife).

In 1949, according to BI, US law enforcement officers were honorable people who made an honest effort to do their jobs! Mexican, the same! The cynicism (realism?) of 2009 is not present. Plenty of food for thought in the time travel aspect of Border Incident. Eight stars.

Overall, 6 stars.
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The Visitor
The Visitor (I) (2007)
6/10
Lets Ignore Laws We Don't Like
25 May 2008
This movie is designed to make a specific point. It manipulates the emotions of the audience to make folks feel our immigration laws should not be enforced. When the character Tarek, who has entered the US illegally, complains of his imminent deportation, his cry that it would not be fair is never answered by the obvious, that he DID break the law and that deportation is the usual punishment. Instead, the audience is offered only the emotion of sympathy for Tarek.

All the events leading up to this scene generate sympathy for the illegal aliens. The script is well constructed. It is not a comedy. It is a political essay.

Excellent acting, very good photography, good use of NYC color.
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