Day: July 1, 2007

Ratatouille

I have no idea why the title is spelled this way, but…. just kidding. Bliss! A wonderful film–funny, engaging, smart, moving; the kind of kids’ movie you long to see (after so many hyperactive or tawdry maudlin blurs), where the intelligence shimmers behind every detail, where the film demands (or, better, assumes) a little bit of intelligence from its audience. But better yet: this is one of the best, most lovely pieces of cinema I’ve seen this year.

Near the opening the clan of rats scurry en masse away from a farmhouse and its shotgun-wielding, bespectacled granny. In ramshackle boats, rats spilling off the edges, each rat carefully defined to her or his own particular brand of bedraggled, they shiver, as raindrops pelt the dark-slate surface of the water all around them. There’s so much visual delight in this film–on top of the pleasures of narrative and score–that I think any of us would love it.

SiCKO

i have no idea why the title is spelled the way it is, but this is a damn fine movie. unlike bowling for columbine and fahrenheit 911, it’s nicely organized and focused, so you don’t have to spend precious mental energy figuring out how we got to Z from X and Y. the first part is devastating. the most devastating part is that you know everything about it. you have heard the stories, you know people who have gone through that, you know that, but for your nice university job if you are lucky enough to have one, you would be going through that too. you know all of this because it is your waking nightmare. you live under the constant threat that it might, that it will one day happen to you. Continue reading SiCKO