News, Views, and Shmooze....

JUNO

Too often when a movie is hyped I'm disappointed when I finally see it. I was delighted to find that this wasn't the case with Juno, a smart film that deals with teen pregnancy with realism, humor, and poignance. The pregnant teen, Juno, played wihtout a false note by Ellen Page, is supported by a terrific cast. I particularly liked Allison Janney, who plays Juno's step-mother with a credible mix of frustration, disapproval, and family loyalty.

It's the kind of movie I'lll watch again.

Crash

I've been wanting to see Crash forever, even before it won the Oscar, and last night my son dropped off his Netflix copy.

If you haven't seen the movie, go out and rent it. It's a powerful, thought-provoking film that will leave you with many images. At the same time, it's suspenseful and filled with multiple ironies.

The kind of film I'd watch again.

Hiding and Seeking

My sister-in-law phoned last night.  "Turn on PBS," she said.

My husband was reluctant to abanndon the movie he was watching--a mediocre flick in which twenty-first-century characters travel back in time to save medieval knights and ladies. His reluctance evaporated as soon as we caught a glimpse of "Hiding and Seeking," a documentary filmed by Menachem Daum and Oren Rudavsky.

It's a powerful and powerfully told story that spans generations, continents, cultures. It's about Daum and his wife Rivka,  Orthodox Jewish children of Holocaust surviors; about their sons; about Rivka's widowed, elderly father, whose Yiddish and intonations and economy of words brought a wave of memories of my father, of blessed memory. It's about the Polish gentiles wo saved Rivka's father's life. Ultimately, it's a story of connections, of bridges formed, of hope.

From the synoposis on the film's web site:

Hiding and Seeking tells the story of a father who tries to alert his adult Orthodox Jewish sons to the dangers posed by defenders of the faith who preach intolerance of the "other," by those who feel compelled to create impenetrable barriers between "us" and "them."

To broaden their narrow and insular views he takes them on a highly charged emotional journey to Poland. To his sons, like many offspring of Polish Holocaust survivors, this is a country whose people are incurably anti-Semitic and beyond redemption. It is precisely here that he introduces his sons to Poles who personify the highest levels of exemplary behavior.

The highlight of their journey comes when they manage to track down the Polish farm family who risked their lives to hide the sons' grandfather for more than two years during the Holocaust. This encounter and its tumultuous aftermath lead the sons to at least consider their father’s viewpoint more seriously.

The film--and the Daum family journey--raises thoughtful and at times painful questions. When Rivka meets the woman whose parents saved her father's life--mentally sharp, but now so hunched that her back is almost parallel to the ground--she thanks her for her family's exceptional act of courage.

But the old woman is aggrieved. "Why didn't he [the grandfather] send a postcard?" Why  total silence, after her parents had risked their lives to save his?

Rivka, eyes tearing, tells the old woman her father regrets not having stayed in touch. The old woman gracioulsy accepts the apology; a while later she speaks to Rivka's father on a cell-phone. But for Daum, the father, there is more to learn. He urges his sons to ask their grandfather "why."  And when, back in Brooklyn, they do ask, the grandfather is sad with remorse.

The grandsons show him a digital photo of the old woman, captured on the screen of their laptop.

"Zi iz gevein a sheinheh," the grandfather said.

She was a pretty girl.

Cell phones connecting Brooklyn and Dzialoszyce in Poland; an elderly, white-bearded Holocaust survivor peering at a face from the past on a lap top.

Traveling back to a dark time, looking ahead to a brighter tomorrow...

Almost "Just Like Heaven"

Turns out that "Just Like Heaven" was a sneak preview--which explains why I couldn't find any reviews on Google after I saw the film. I prefer to read reviews after I've seen the film. I don't want my viewing experience to be shaped by another person's.

I'm partial to romantic comedies -- this  may seem odd, since I write crime fiction. I approach them uncritically, eagerly, wanting to be caught up in their magical souffle-lightness, waiting to share in the tingly sensation of that first soul-mate kiss that signals the end of the film.

I liked "Just Like Heaven." If you've seen the trailers, you know it's about a young doctor (Reese Witherspoon) whose spirit refuses to vacate her apartment, now occupied by a brooding but awfully cute Mark Ruffalo. So you have to accept the premise of spirits and ghosts.

Which I did.

I believed Reese Witherspoon as the bright, compassionate over-achieving doctor who has no life outside the hospital--and then, early in the film, has no life at all. I believed Mark Ruffalo as a man whose alarm at the appearance of Witherspoon's spirit soon turns to annoyance at her refusal to leave, which interferes with his round-the-clock wallowing in unexplained  misery and grief, and booze. I believed in the blossoming romance between the two, though I think that could have been better developed.

"Just Like Heaven" isn't a perfect film. There were a few borderline treacly moments--only in one scene, really--but on the whole the dialogue was crisp and smart and funny. 

"Did you like it?" my daughter asked as we exited the theater.

I told her yes. "It's 'Sleeping Beauty.'"

I love fairy tales.

Crash Coarse?

I thoroughly enjoyed Wedding Crashers. I made sure to see it Saturday night, before the Three Weeks began. (The Three Weeks are a period of mourning during which Orthodox Judasim proscribes pleasurable activities, including listening to live music, going to parties, to the theater, to movies. Many Orthodox Jews don't see movies in general. And some who do might skip this one because of the material and the rating. But that's another subject.)

Anyway, I found myself laughing throughout the film. Vince Vaughan, in my opinion, steals the movie with his rapid-fire dialogue and perfect performance, but Owen Wilson holds his own. So do the supporting cast, which includes Christopher Walkin, his two on-screen daughters--Rachel McAdams and Isla Fisher (she's engaged to Ali G, aka Sasha Baron Cohen), whose manic-maiden character latches onto Vaughan with phyranna-like ferocity. And there's McAdam's snarky, sadistic boyfriend, a guy you're dying to see punched into oblivion.

The film isn't perfect. Wilson's character indulges in melancholy that drags. And Crashers isn't for everyone. There's a marvelous scene at the beginning--a montage of weddings our crashing duo have invaded--that sets the tone.

Shameless. Sleazy. Irreverant. Exuberant. Juvenile. Hilarious.

Apparently, not everyone is amused. War veterans take issue with Vaughan and Wilson flaunting fake Purple Hearts to seduce women. And with New Line:

New Line Cinema's movie Web site includes a fake, paper Purple Heart to cut out, with the spoof: "Carrying a Purple Heart in your jacket guarantees you attention, admiration and plenty of free booze."

"I challenge the producer of that movie to go to Walter Reed Hospital and walk through the ward and see if he still wants to print out a fake Purple Heart," said Thomas Cottone, Jr., a special agent with the FBI who enforces a federal law that prohibits wearing, manufacturing, buying, selling or trading a Medal of Honor.

I can appreciate the concern of veterans who don't want the Purple Heart debased. If the site is encouraging guys to fake military honors, I think they're crossing the line.

But the movie? The characters Vaughan and Wilson play are tawdry, clearly breaking all rules of decency. That's the point of the film. That's the lesson they learn.

Kind of...

Who's Starring Now?

A while back I referred to a film I'd watched about Hollywood and the Holocaust. At the time I was too lazy to research the name, but yesterday I found it-- Imaginary Witness: Hollywood and the Holocaust--and a description in the New York Times:

The American film industry took it upon itself to act as a cheerleader for United States and Allied military interests during World War II, but Hollywood was initially reluctant to directly condemn Nazi anti-Semitism, and it wasn't until years after the war ended that American filmmakers began offering a realistic, dramatic look at the horrible toll of Hitler's "final solution." Imaginary Witness: Hollywood and the Holocaust is a documentary which examines how filmmakers reacted to German scapegoating of Jews before, during, and after the war, ranging from the boldness of Confessions of a Nazi Spy and The Mortal Storm (both of which were produced before America entered the war) to more oblique statements during the war itself, and then finally leading to an honest portrayal of the full consequences of the Holocaust beginning in the '50s.

It's an excellent documentary, well worth your time. It was directed by Daniel Anker and offers insightful observations from film luminaries including Gene Hackman, Steven Spielberg, Sidney Lumet, Branko Listug, and Greg Reynolds.

The descriptive in the box says "starring" Hackman et al, but that's Hollywood talk to grab the viewer. The stars are the filmmakers and actors (like Charlie Chaplin) who jeopardized their careers by insisting on telling the truth about the war and the Nazis.

I wish I could remember all of their names.

I'll have to watch the film again.

Still Scrubbing...

Some of the discussion on last night's AMC documentary, "Hollywood and the Holocaust," centered on the problem of trivializing the Holocaust through fiction or film.

Is it possible to render justice to the Holocaust?

What movies have you seen on the Holocaust that have impressed you?

I'd be interested in hearing your views.

"Scrubbed"

I generally watch Scrubs Tuesday nights, but tonight AMC aired "Hollywood and the Holocaust." Some of the people who participated in the documentary were familiar names. Holocaust scholar Michael Berenbaum; film historian Neil Gabler; actor and Holocaust survivor Robert Clary (of Hogan's Heroes); Rod Stieger (The Pawnbroker); writer Thane Rosenbaum; directors Sidney Lumet and Steven Spielberg. (According to the credits, Gene Hackman narrated, but I can't say that I heard his voice--or perhaps I just didn't recognize it.) Others who were less familiar were no less fascinating in what they had to say.

I was surprised, and maybe a little embarassed, to learn how little I know about films that deal with the Holocaust, and how they evolved from the 1930s to the present. I'm a daughter of Holocaust survivors (my parents, Polish Jews, lost most of their families in the war; my father lost his first wife and two young daughters), but I've actually seen only a few films on the subject: Holocaust, with James Woods and Meryl Streep (that was the first time I saw her; I was mesmerized by her face and her performance); Sophie's Choice; Schindler's List.

I was interested, but not surprised, to learn that Joseph Kennedy flew to Hollywood to disuade filmmakers from producing anti-Nazi films; that Congress worried about filmmakers stirring anti-German sentiment; that one senator (I can't recall his name) announced that it was the Jews, not the Nazis, who posed a problem for America.

Kennedy's words (according to Gabler, I think) had a chilling effect on filmmakers, and most studio films that did deal with the Nazis never mentioned the word "Jew."

The message was scrubbed to make it palatable to audiences.

Not Charlie Chaplin's message. He braved criticism by producing and starring in (and funding) The Great Dictator. There's a scene in the film where Chaplin, playing Hitler, is balancing a huge balloon of a globe. Dancing with it, flirting with it. Tossing it up into the air and catching it.

Owning it. And then the balloon bursts.

Too late...