HBO Movies

Continuing the post from yesterday. Of note. Although I saw a movie in a theater over the weekend, I doubt that I will make it to the theaters very often. So I'll just have to review movies that I watch on HBO. This actually increases the chances that Warren and I will happen upon the same movie, since he seems to be watching HBO movies a great deal as well. And then we can both give our opinions and rant about where we disagree and in general the fun will commence.

I went on somewhat of a George Clooney kick over the weekend. Not by choice. HBO and the Encore channels just seemed to show more George Clooney pictures over this past week than normal. The two that I watched had come out recently; I think that they are both from 2007. And I had wanted to catch them in the theaters, but never got the chance. So I am glad that they came on over the cable.

The first one was "The Good German." It was another example of Clooney branching off from his blockbuster Hollywood persona and doing a more intellectual, more independent-film studio, type film. The plot is that it is just after Nazi Germany has fallen. The Americans, British and Russians have carved up Berlin into sections and will be meeting in Potsdam to write Germany's future. All three parties have animosities to dispel upon the conquered nation. Clooney is an American Army war correspondent, a captain, who has come to Berlin to cover the Potsdam Conference. He is met at the airport by Tobey Maguire. Yeah, Spiderman. Maguire is an entrepeneurial corporal for the Americans. He is reveling in the chaos that is post-war. As one of the victors he gets to subjugate the defeated Germans and profiteer in the decimated economy. Not a good guy, but played in a small-town boy with good intentions just trying to make good, kind of way. Maguire can't help but come across as at least one part innocent and several parts over his head. As part of his adventure within the valley of the vanquished he is banging Cate Blanchett. She is the wife of a former SS officer, who we come to learn was a scientist who was the assistant to the German scientist perfecting rocket propulsion technology. Cate Blanchett, prior to the war, had been George Clooney's assistant when he was stationed in Berlin before hostilities broke out.

Anyway, various officials, (British, American and Russian) are looking for Cate Blanchett so that they can get to her husband. She says that her husband was killed. Tobey Maguire ransoms Blanchett's husband to the Russians. He doesn't know if Blanchett is lying when she says that her husband is dead; he just wants to make a buck. He punches out Clooney in a bar, when Clooney tries to stop Maguire from taking Blanchett to the Russian sector to discuss the sale. Maguire gets killed and his body washes up on the Russian side of the river. Now Clooney, still pining for Blanchett, decides that she is danger. He commences to hide her from everybody throughout the rest of the movie. Meanwhile he trys to unravel the mysteries of 1) whether Blanchett is lying about her husband being dead, 2) who killed Maguire 3) why everybody wants the assistant to the chief German rocket propulsion expert 4) what else is Blanchett not telling him. Suspense, double-crossing, red herrings, and skulduggery ensue. In the end, the Russians are the bad guys. But so are the Americans. Clooney loses faith in all of them and ends the film as the world-worn, cynical, archetype we have seen in many other movies. Even Blanchett or Blanchett's husband, either of whom could be the good German of the title, turn out to be less so. War causes choices to be made.

"The Good German," is a gripping, well-done tale. It is shot purely in black and white. A little different, but that palette adds to the film noir aspects of the movie. Although the movie apes 1940 movie conventions, (in addition to being shot in black and white), it is shot with a modern enough sensibility that today's audience will not be put off by its different approach. The actors all do a stunning job. The genre, 1940 post war movie, calls for highly stylized acting, which they do admirably. But not to the extent that it becomes the over-emoted, violins streaming over the soundtrack, high contrast lighting effects, affair reminiscent of the movies they pay homage to. The final scene even brings to mind the last scene of "Casablanca." In the final assessment, "The Good German," may be too art-house for most. It is slower paced. A little frantic and jumbled in parts. And it is shot in black and white. But I enjoyed it and it didn't leap too far from the plausible. Warren seems to get most out of joint when the movies he sees "jump the shark." This movie didn't do that.

The other Clooney project that I saw over the weekend was "Michael Clayton." This movie was even up for a few Oscars this past year and I believe that Tilda Swinton won hers for Best Supporting Actress. Clooney is again pursuing a mystery and avoiding violence at the hands of them that mean him harm. He is "Michael Clayton" and works for a high powered law firm. He has been there for years, yet never made partner. He has been kept in place by the managing partner, Sydney Pollack, as the firm's fixer. Think Harvey Keitel in "Pulp Fiction," although not with as well written dialogue or as viciously morbid a sense of fun. Law clients mess up and Clooney makes arrangements to help them. Only this time its one of his own fellow lawyers who messes up. Tom Wilkinson freaks out at a deposition, takes off all his clothes, rambles nonsensically and just generally weirds out everybody in the room. The man is off his meds.

Clooney is sent to reel Wilkinson back in. Clooney gets him out of the town he is in and back to home base in New York. There Wilkinson reveals his true colors essentially rejecting his former duties as defense lawyer for the pesticide manufacture whose products seem to have caused cancers and death. Wilkinson has proof that the manufacturer knew that their products were deadly but sold them anyway. He secretly contacts people who are suing the manufacturer. Clooney is given the task of watching him and trying to bring him back to the fold. Tilda Swinton, as the Chief Legal Counsel for the manufacturer, sends her minions to watch Wilkinson and upon finding out what he knows and what documents he has in his possession, kill him. So now Clooney has to 1) mourn the death of a colleague 2) find out what he knew that got him killed 3) find out who killed him and 4) avoid the same fate. There are subplots about Clooney's drunk of a brother losing Clooney's $75,000 to the mob and now the mob is after Clooney, and Clooney's law firm is being sold and he will lose his job. Also, Clooney's young son, a product of divorce, doesn't like his Dad because Dad works too much and doesn't indulge the child's imagination or sense of fun. But none of these subplots amount to much.

The movie has a quirky sensibility about it and you never know quite what will happen next. That is due in part to the miscellaneous subplots and their ancillary characters buzzing about. It gets confusing. But the main themes are explored in interesting ways. I can't tell you the resolution. It isn't expected, but once it happens you say, "Well, that's a convenient way to wrap everything up." A little too convenient and pat. The main theme of business = bad, high end executives think of nothing but making money even at the expense of sacrificing little people lives, is a more resonant these days given the recent Wall Street meltdowns and revelations of how greed got us here. So the movie posits a populist resolution. And Clooney ends the film self satisfied.

This is another example of Clooney trying to establish a wide range of acting and a wide base of genres and characters. I must admit I prefer ol' George in either his suave, smirky fluff (Oceans Eleven, Out of Sight) or his bumbling buffoon roles (O Brother, Where Art Thou) so I am anxious to catch him in the latest Coen vehicle, "Burn Before Reading." These examples of him as the outsider, looking behind every corner to avoid his pursuers who mean to kill him all while solving the noble mystery and in the end striking a blow for righteousness or becoming weary from the fight, just isn't what I want to see him doing. He is a talented actor. He fills the roles. He performs well. But he is better at being smirky or dumb as opposed to being a moral compass. All the other actors did well and I suppose that Swinton deserved her Oscar, although I don't think that I saw any of the other movies from which actresses were nominated.

And finally, last night on HBO I saw "Reno 911: Miami." Just so you don't think that all I do is view intellectual movies. I have been told by many people whom I respect that I should be watching Reno 911 on Comedy Central. What the heck I have already declared Reno to be a hellhole of despair, I may enjoy others poking fun at it. But I gotta tell ya'. I just can't watch that show. I get it. The characters are stupid and don't understand how stupid they truly are. I've never been a fan of that type of humor. Pratfalls are occaisionally funny, but not as the defining premise of the show. And it has already been written by others that the movie is trying to carry that humor on for an hour and it just can't fill that large a time slot. I agree. The movie stumbled and dragged. I have to imagine that the producers injected far more cursing then would normally be allowed on basic cable, possibly in hopes of attracting more movie goers because the movie is allowed to more racy. It all just didn't work. Although I wasn't predisposed to the premise anyway. I won't bore you with the plot, there really wasn't much of one. Idiot cops act stupid, get lucky and solve big crime, and then return to Reno to be stupid in their home town. No reason for anyone else to see this movie. The nudity wasn't even any good. Saggy and older. Echh!

I'll continue to watch for movies to review. Let's see if Warren has seen any of these movies and then he and I can actually debate merits of some of these.

Matthew