Past the Popcorn film roundup—Daylight Savings: A Good Week for Darkness?
Each Friday, Past the Popcorn offers a thorough look at the latest round of films opening on big screens.
This week, the strongest new releases are serious, adult-oriented examinations of evil in the world—and these aren’t horror films, either. They’re dramas and documentaries.
Read on for a roundup of this week’s movie reviews.
Leading the pack, says Greg Wright, is Terror’s Advocate, a documentary about international law and the prosecution of war criminals and terrorists. At the center of the narrative is Jacques Vergès, who has notoriously defended the likes of Klaus Barbie, Carlos the Jackal, and Saddam Hussein. But “the real value of this film,” says Wright “is in showing us the company that international politicians are forced to keep. How could anyone possibly keep their hands clean when playing in such a filthy sandbox? … This is a hard film to get into, and it’s shocking as hell to digest. But if you decide to see one documentary about international politics in your lifetime, you probably won’t do better than Terror’s Advocate.”
Right behind that, and in much the same vein, is No Country for Old Men, a drama about a career law enforcement officer who finds that the will to evil is outstripping our will for peace and justice. Says Mike Smith, who wouldn’t voluntarily seek out such dark, R-rated material, “There is so much to commend No Country for Old Men… I started this movie prepared to be critical due to its subject matter. But the quality of this production and the human observations it makes are priceless. It is a terrific film.”
Darfur Now also looks at crises of global proportions, documenting the efforts of six different people to bring resolution to ongoing genocidal conflict in Sudan. But Kathy Bledsoe is not too impressed with with this documentary’s technique. “Just when a conversation with one of the characters begins to develop some depth, Braun jumps back to the Netherlands or back to the World Food Program compound or Don Cheadle’s ostentatious Los Angeles home… There is an almost constant sense of disconnection in this film.”
But global connections are what Robert Redford’s latest drama, Lions for Lambs, is all about. In ninety minutes, it weaves three loosely related stories together in demonstrating the need for individual action and an end to comfortable complacency. “For the most part,” says Mike Brunk, “the movie comes off as remarkably even-handed given the source.” Nobody gets a free pass, even if the options for action get somewhat limited by Redford’s less-than-conservative outlook on global conflict and terrorism.
Personal action was certainly no problem for the subject of Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten. “It’s a documentary,” says Greg Wright, “made by a True Believer for True Believers about an artist whose beliefs were visionary, contradictory, and (almost by definition) self-destructive.” The film itself, says Wright, might have a similar effect on audiences, since filmmaker Julien Temple doesn’t do much to help viewers get their bearings. The effect, says Wright, may feel “a bit like spending Christmas at someone else’s house.”
This big disappointment of the week, says Jeff Walls, is Fred Claus, which takes a great premise and turns it into “a clichéd, predictable Christmas comedy that we’ve seen plenty of times before.” Still, that’s precisely the kind of family-friendly thing a lot of audiences are looking for this time of year.
What nobody is probably looking for, though, suggest Walls, is P2. “I heard more laughs from this audience than I did at Fred Claus the night before—a condemnation of both films.”
