The Best Movie of 2008 Thus Far? -- "W."
The greatly underrated "W.", by Oliver Stone and starring Josh Brolin, is my pick as the best movie of the year to date.
Among critics, only Roger Ebert gave this great film a strong review. The rest were lukewarm or even tepid in their praise for Stone's outstanding and timely biopic of President Bush II.
Every line in the film seemingly comes from a documented source, and I don't remember even saying to mysef, "THAT didn't happen!" There is not one thing said by the major players that doesn't ring true according to all that I have read and seen about the current administration. Secretary of State Colin Powell turned in his ideals to gain access to power, though he knew the country was headed for disaster. Vice President Cheney is represented as the ultimate puppeteer, controlling a somewhat dim and unawares President through gentle pursuasion and ego massage. National Security Advisor Condelleeza Rice is the ultimate sycophant, at one time even exposing her derriere to an oblivious President in a show of love and sexual desire for the man. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld comes across as uncaring and unknowing, a complete arrogant fool with no regard for human life.
Laura Bush, whose entrance into young Bush's life is represented as a sweet ear of corn being crushed, goes from an intelligent and thoughtful wide eyed Texas beauty to someone who ultimately loves her husband too much to see what he has done to the country. As mentioned in Ebert's review, she belongs in Al-Anon, the offshoot of Alcoholics Anonymous that is devoted to helping loved ones of AA'ers deal with the burden of their disease.
There is a lot of eating in this film. And a lot of drinking, too, but that's too be expected. Throughout, though, a great deal of loud and thoughtless chowing and chewing is undertaken by the President and his minions. Bush talks repeatedly with his mouth full, as though he has a hard time concentrating on one thing at a time and needs to get his many thoughts expressed before he forgets them. The scene in the White House dining area where the major players are served and then one at a time consume a massive slice of pecan pie is brilliant in its representation of each member of the Bush team swallowing wholeheartedly the administration's disasterous policies.
Bush, who gave up alcohol due to an ultimatum from his wife that is left unaddressed by Stone, is shown drinking low alcohol content O'Douls beer. Any alcoholic can tell you that O'Douls DOES contain a small amount of booze, and that if you drink enough of it, you can get a small buzz. Nonetheless, it seems to be director Stone's contention that the President is a dry drunk who has never addressed his alcoholism in any meaningful way. How tragic for our nation. For Bush's drive, his charisma, and even his low grade intelligence would possibly have made solid and useful assets for, say, the CEO of a Texas oil company. But his lack of insight, his ego, and his unerring ambition to prove his father wrong about Bush I's lack of faith in his namesake son proves his, and the nation's, undoing.
President Bush's legacy will be two failed wars and an economy in freefall, with no end in sight. Thousands of United States troops have either died or been seriously wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan during the two seemingly endless wars. And so many billions upon billions have been spent destroying two countries then trying to build them back up again that the waste is astonishing in its historical wrongness and will surely go down one of the biggest foreign policy blunders in the history of the United States.
The movie itself will, I believe, stand the test of time and go down as the best film of 2008. It is a great movie that works as great history. See it in theaters if you can, or wait for the DVD. But please see it.
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The second best film of a very disappointing year for me was "The Dark Knight", the best popcorn movie to come out in some time and the best reviewed release this year.
The film will surely win a Best Supporting Actor for the late, great Heath Ledger, who will go down as possibly the finest actor of his generation. Ledger's Joker was scary because there was no explaining him. The Joker was just evil, with no rhyme or reason to his madness.
Christian Bale is terrific as the Caped Crusader. His voice, raspy and low, could have used some more volume, but the man did a terrific job giving gravitas to the role.
I didn't think Maggie Gyllenhaal was the best choice for the love interest. It would have been hard to top the wonderful job the very sexy and sweet Katie Holmes turned in in "Batman Begins, but to me Gyllenhaal has a "tired" vibe to her. She may be sexy to others and is surely intelligent in her screen presence, but to me she just doesn't come across as someone that Aaron Eckhart's "Two-Face" and Bruce Wayne would die for.
The director of the film, Christopher Nolan, wrote the script with his brother Jonathan. Both the script and the directing are top notch. My main quibble with the film is the length. The strength of the movie is in the interplay between Batman and the Joker. Once Two-Face becomes the main bad guy, I felt something was lost. The movie might have played quicker and been a tad more exciting had it been closer to two hours or an hour and forty five minutes. Hard to hold tension for 152 minutes.
But overall it was terrifically entertaining and well made. And in a weak year for films, "The Dark Knight" was my second favorite film.
Among critics, only Roger Ebert gave this great film a strong review. The rest were lukewarm or even tepid in their praise for Stone's outstanding and timely biopic of President Bush II.
Every line in the film seemingly comes from a documented source, and I don't remember even saying to mysef, "THAT didn't happen!" There is not one thing said by the major players that doesn't ring true according to all that I have read and seen about the current administration. Secretary of State Colin Powell turned in his ideals to gain access to power, though he knew the country was headed for disaster. Vice President Cheney is represented as the ultimate puppeteer, controlling a somewhat dim and unawares President through gentle pursuasion and ego massage. National Security Advisor Condelleeza Rice is the ultimate sycophant, at one time even exposing her derriere to an oblivious President in a show of love and sexual desire for the man. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld comes across as uncaring and unknowing, a complete arrogant fool with no regard for human life.
Laura Bush, whose entrance into young Bush's life is represented as a sweet ear of corn being crushed, goes from an intelligent and thoughtful wide eyed Texas beauty to someone who ultimately loves her husband too much to see what he has done to the country. As mentioned in Ebert's review, she belongs in Al-Anon, the offshoot of Alcoholics Anonymous that is devoted to helping loved ones of AA'ers deal with the burden of their disease.
There is a lot of eating in this film. And a lot of drinking, too, but that's too be expected. Throughout, though, a great deal of loud and thoughtless chowing and chewing is undertaken by the President and his minions. Bush talks repeatedly with his mouth full, as though he has a hard time concentrating on one thing at a time and needs to get his many thoughts expressed before he forgets them. The scene in the White House dining area where the major players are served and then one at a time consume a massive slice of pecan pie is brilliant in its representation of each member of the Bush team swallowing wholeheartedly the administration's disasterous policies.
Bush, who gave up alcohol due to an ultimatum from his wife that is left unaddressed by Stone, is shown drinking low alcohol content O'Douls beer. Any alcoholic can tell you that O'Douls DOES contain a small amount of booze, and that if you drink enough of it, you can get a small buzz. Nonetheless, it seems to be director Stone's contention that the President is a dry drunk who has never addressed his alcoholism in any meaningful way. How tragic for our nation. For Bush's drive, his charisma, and even his low grade intelligence would possibly have made solid and useful assets for, say, the CEO of a Texas oil company. But his lack of insight, his ego, and his unerring ambition to prove his father wrong about Bush I's lack of faith in his namesake son proves his, and the nation's, undoing.
President Bush's legacy will be two failed wars and an economy in freefall, with no end in sight. Thousands of United States troops have either died or been seriously wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan during the two seemingly endless wars. And so many billions upon billions have been spent destroying two countries then trying to build them back up again that the waste is astonishing in its historical wrongness and will surely go down one of the biggest foreign policy blunders in the history of the United States.
The movie itself will, I believe, stand the test of time and go down as the best film of 2008. It is a great movie that works as great history. See it in theaters if you can, or wait for the DVD. But please see it.
---------------------------
The second best film of a very disappointing year for me was "The Dark Knight", the best popcorn movie to come out in some time and the best reviewed release this year.
The film will surely win a Best Supporting Actor for the late, great Heath Ledger, who will go down as possibly the finest actor of his generation. Ledger's Joker was scary because there was no explaining him. The Joker was just evil, with no rhyme or reason to his madness.
Christian Bale is terrific as the Caped Crusader. His voice, raspy and low, could have used some more volume, but the man did a terrific job giving gravitas to the role.
I didn't think Maggie Gyllenhaal was the best choice for the love interest. It would have been hard to top the wonderful job the very sexy and sweet Katie Holmes turned in in "Batman Begins, but to me Gyllenhaal has a "tired" vibe to her. She may be sexy to others and is surely intelligent in her screen presence, but to me she just doesn't come across as someone that Aaron Eckhart's "Two-Face" and Bruce Wayne would die for.
The director of the film, Christopher Nolan, wrote the script with his brother Jonathan. Both the script and the directing are top notch. My main quibble with the film is the length. The strength of the movie is in the interplay between Batman and the Joker. Once Two-Face becomes the main bad guy, I felt something was lost. The movie might have played quicker and been a tad more exciting had it been closer to two hours or an hour and forty five minutes. Hard to hold tension for 152 minutes.
But overall it was terrifically entertaining and well made. And in a weak year for films, "The Dark Knight" was my second favorite film.
posted by joe sweeney at 6:10 AM
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