'Kite Runner' parallels some harsh realities
|
 | |
By G. Michael Dobbs
Managing Editor
The DVDs this week range from a great drama to one of the worst movies I've seen in a very long time.
The Kite Runner
Based on the book of the same name, "The Kite Runner" is a movie that while not depicting a true story rings very true.
The movie tells the story of Amir, a boy whose growing up is marked by a horrible act of abuse on his best friend, his inability to face that act and his departure from his native Afghanistan to the United States.
While this part of the story is compelling enough, it is what happens to Amir as young man that elevates the story to something above most dramas. Amir receives a phone call from a family friend telling him to come home, as "there is a way to be good again."
Amir discovers Hassan, his childhood friend, has been killed by the Taliban and sets out on a quest to rescue Hassan's son who still is in Kabul.
I can't give you more details, as there are several surprises.
This film is part immigrant story, part current affairs and part self-discovery for the central character of Amir. The performances by an international cast of relative unknowns are superb with Homayoun Ershadi standing out as Amir's father.
This is a great movie and one that is worth seeking out. Be warned, though, much of the film is sub-titled, but I hope that won't put you off watching this film.
For more information, go to www.kiterunnermovie.com.
The Tudors, First Season
This Showtime series, now on DVD, has a lot going for it. A loosey-goosey depiction of the life and loves of King Henry VIII, the show probably will give historians hives as it does play fast and loose with many of the details of the monarch's life.
Where it does probably succeed English history professors are encouraged to write in and tell me if I'm right is the capriciousness and the bloody politics of Henry's reign.
Oh yes, that and the fact that he was, in today's parlance, a dog.
My problem is that while the shows can boast of great settings, costumes and performances as well as well-written scripts, it cheapens itself when the story turns to Henry's bedroom antic. What was once a historical drama now is soft-core porn.
These sequences are so gratuitous that one could clip them from the film and no one would know the difference.
So while I can give a recommendation to the show in general, I have to add a big warning for scenes you really don't want your kids to see.
For more information, log onto www.sho.com/tudors.
Southland Tales
I've never seen "Donnie Darko," the cult film by writer and director Richard Kelly, but I've received many recommendations about it. That's why I decided to waste two hours of my life and watch his second film.
That was a big mistake, but I watch these things so you don't have to!
A darkly comic, satiric science fiction film with bold political themes, "Southland Tales" is one of those films that has so much potentially going for it that its failure is even more spectacular.
Kelly had come up with a plan: the film would be preceded by a series of graphic novels and the narrative would be concluded with the film itself. Perhaps the film makes more sense if you read the comics, but as a rule it should stand on its own.
The trouble is the story simply makes little sense and the film veers from something serious to something stupid. It opens with a nuclear attack on the United States, begins a story about the aftermath, World War III and the suspension of many civil liberties and then descends into a low comedy look at a group of far leftists trying to upset an election.
Kelly assembled quite a cast headed by Dwayne Johnson and includes Sarah Michelle Gellar, Justin Timberlake and a whole bunch of comic performers in straight roles (Jon Lovitz, Seann William Scott, Will Sasso, Cheri Oteri and Amy Poehler).
There's a lot of talent wasted in this film that just can't tell a story.
Yes, there are extras, but I was so disgusted by this self-important farce, I couldn't make myself watch them. The film was punishment enough.
For more information, log onto www.southlandtales.com.
Mulberry Street
My fellow horror movie fan Mark Masztal and I discovered this film when it played as part of the After Dark Horror Film Festival. After sitting though a really terrible film "Lake Dead" we had little hope for this film that depicts New York City in the midst of a hideous epidemic.
Boy, were we wrong. "Mulberry Street" is an expertly made film that packs in the jolts at the same time it establishes realistic characters. Director Jim Mickle, who co-wrote the screenplay with Nick Damici, clearly understands what is lacking in so many so-called horror films today and gives us a scary story with a very humanistic core.
The premise, like many good fright films, sounds ridiculous humans bit by rats are turning into rat-like creatures themselves. The execution is another thing. This film works on every level.
Want a good scare and a good film? Check out "Mulberry Street."
For more information, go to www.mulberrystreetmovie.com.
|
|
