A Single Man  (USA)  Directed by Tom  Ford   Written by David Scearce; Tom Ford   Starring Colin Firth; Julianne Moore; Matthew Goode; Nicholas Hoult; Jon Kortajarena; Giniffer Goodwin     

From the 1962 novel of the same name by Christopher Isherwood, fashion mogul Tom  Ford makes a transition to film in this story of one day in the life of gay L..A. college professor, George (Colin Firth), a British native who has lost his longtime lover, Jim (Matthew Goode) to a fatal car crash. Ford, who co-writes, has obviously devoted himself to some cinematic study, and, with DP Eduard Grau and Production Designer Dan Bishop, uses his artistic experience to create a film with an evocative, if at times, overly  self-conscious, look. Using changes in palette to charter George’s inner emotional life and flashes of memory, and an overall pristine attention to detail, Ford paints a stylized early 60’s world. Including an element of a gun into the suicidal George’s life (something that wasn’t in the book) ups the dramatic ante, but the film is still ultimately about the mundane details of George’s daily existence as he struggles with the acute pain of losing the love of his life. The acting is superb, with Firth and Goode especially (Julianne Moore plays George’s alcoholic, long time friend, Charlie; and Nicholas Hoult, Kenny, a student who becomes interested in his teacher) keeping the film  grounded with subtly drawn characterizations. The prejudice and repression against gays is handled deftly, woven into the fabric of the narrative, the script refraining from soapbox moments of any sort. This restraint makes moments like when George is contacted by Jim’s family about his death and told he is not welcome at the funeral, and Charlie questining the legitimacy of their longstanding relationship, all the more powerful. The visuals are sumptuously delivered with homage clearly being paid (HItchcock/Wai/Haynes/Sirk?) along the way, though various overhead angles, iconic feeling framing, and a certain posing of impeccably dressed (by Ford himself) actors gives the impression we are, at times, observing a series of individual product ads/model shoots. Gay directors, or perhaps those of any sexual identity, face difficulties making gay relationship themed films that will be perceived as palatable to a wide audience, and here Ford hardly pushes the envelope with sex. Concentrating on the deep emotional ties between these two men, this first time director shows a surprising confidence with tone, trusting the talents of his impeccable cast to deliver the goods. While the visuals (as wonderful as they are in places) may be a little too controlled, a little too pretty, and even aseptic in places, Ford’s eye for light, costume, set design, framing, and color is obviously a well developed one, and it will be interesting to see if more films will further illuminate and differentiate his personal vision and style from the masters he has chosen to mirror.

The White Ribbon(GE) Directed by Michael Haneke  Written by Michael Haneke Starring Christian Friedel; Leonie Benesch; UJlrich Tukur; Ursina Lardi; Fion Mutert; Burghart Klaussner; Steffi Kuhnert; Leonard Proxauf; Maria Victori Dragas; Michael Krantz

The brilliant auteur Michael Haneke has long been interested in visual media and its influence upon society. Earlier in his career his films were more acutely concerned with specific examinations of the relationship between how our behavior and interpersonal relationships are affected by what we watch, as well as the interactive dialogue taking place between the makers of video and their audience. Though there has been some transitioning into films related to violence and sex and the way that we as a society both judge and participate in unconventional and/or repellent behavior, the sixty eight year old Haneke’s entire oeuvre represents a kind of ongoing dialectic involving personal morality as juxtaposed with societal morays. Haneke has done much of his recent work in French, but with White Ribbonthe native Austrian returns closer to home, basing his metaphorical tale in a rural North German farming community pre-WWI. Shot in crisp black and white, the story has an an eerie underlying tone throughout. The plot chronicles a series of violent acts occurring in and around a village centered by an expansive estate. The staunchly conservative protestant area is entirely governed by a self-imposed religious rigidity (the title refers to a form of punishment meted out to misbehaved children), the severity of which naturally leads one to thoughts of what would happpen in Germany several decades later. While there is some mystery involving the school teacher (Christian Friedl ) - we hear him narrating as a much older man - who tries to get to the bottom of what is occurring, Haneke is uninterested in building tension as in a standard potboiler. Rather, he unveils small clues slowly, leaving out as much information as he chooses to include. The ultimate revelations are more about human behavior and the insidiously pervasive influence repression and fascist thought has on those being raised under its influence than about the solving of the specifics of the incidents. Though he hardly refrains from indicting those who pervert their authority in the name of promoting a personal/ political/religious ideological agenda (A Pastor; A Baron; A Doctor), Haneke simultaneously allows for some explanation as to the powerful influence of indoctrination upon all those involved regardless of the exact methodology of delivery. By showing us a panoramic view of so many of these people across microcosmic class lines he exposes an audience to variations on the group experience, providing a breadth that may have been impossible in a more narrowly focused character study. The concept of troubled young people capable of acts of cruelty is one the director has explored before, and here the kids have a Children of the Corn-like bearing that seems to border on horror genre territory at various points, though authorial restraint keeps the events in a realistic realm. Only a filmmaker at the height of his/her talents could so artfully weave this many story-lines, dually making a 2 1/2 hour grimly dark period piece pass smoothly if not exactly briskly in the process. While the perspective is certainly a dour one, the brief glimpses of humanity are enough to keep us from utter despair.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo(SWE) Directed by Niels Arden Oplev  Written by Nikolaj Arcel; Rasmus Heisterberg  Starring Michael Nykvist; Noomi Rapace; Sven-Bertil Taube; Peter Andersson; Lena Endre; Peter Haber; Marika Lagercrantz; Bjorn Granath; Ingvar Hirdwall

The late Stieg Larsson’s posthumous best selling three novel Millennium series has been turned into three separate films that will be released in succession (the sequel, The Girl Who Played With Fire, is currently in American theaters). The Girl With the Dragon Tattoois based on the first novel, but borrows from the second as well, though unfortunately those scenes turn out to be the weakest part of the film due to their explicit revealing of the childhood history  motivating female lead Lisbeth Salander’s (a scintillating Noomi Rapace) behavior, removing some of the mystery that makes the rest of the story so good. Compelling while evolving methodically, the film has the feel of some excellent modern British mini-series like Traffik; State of Play (which also involved the press) and Wire in the Blood and it is completely unsurprising to discover that this 2 1/2 hour film was  originally shot for television, as were the two sequels that follow it. Set in Sweden (mostly in the fictional town of Hedestad), the plot focuses on two main characters - the aforementioned Lisbeth, a pierced/ tattooed/twenty-something/chain-smoking/ninety pound/bisexual computer hacker/ investigator with cropped, ink-blank hair; and, divorced, late forty-something investigative reporter, Mikael Blomqvist (Michael Nykvist), who is convicted of libeling a powerful and wealthy CEO and sentenced to three months in prison. Awaiting incarceration, he quits his newspaper gig, and takes a strange gig offered by another (semi-retired) captain of industry, octogenarian Henrik Vagner, who charges him with digging up information about his teenage niece, Harriet, who disappeared in the mid-sixties. We originally meet Lisbeth as she follows Blomqvist on assignment, but when his case closes she remains fascinated by him and what she is convinced is his wrongful conviction. Blomqvist moves from Stockholm to the rural Vagner estate, learns about the powerful family’s Nazi past, and begins delving deeper into events surrounding Harriet’s disappearance. Lisbeth meanwhile, breaks into Blomqvist’s lap top to track his comings and goings, and stumbles upon the Harriet case, immediately becoming intrigued herself. Lisbeth and Blomqvist form an odd team; their understated relationship has an offbeat chemistry that, while far from dynamic, is interesting and complex. Lisbeth is a woman who has suffered abuse in her past, and her violation at the hands of a sadistic court appointed guardian is graphically detailed. She is no passive victim, however, and uses the rage inside her to fight back - with the case presenting itself as a potential path toward some catharsis for her damaged soul. A well put together policier with one outstanding performance from Rapace, who calls to mind Anne Parillaud’s title role in Luc Besson’s La Femme Nikita.

Brooklyn’s Finest(2009) Directed by Antoine Fuqua   Written by Michael Martin  Starring Don Cheadle; Richard Gere; Wesley Snipes; Ethan Hawke; Will Patton; Lili Taylor; Brian O’Byrne; Vincent Donofrio; Ellen Barkin; Michael K. Williams; Hassan Johnson; Isaiah Whitlock; Shannon Kane

Antoine Fuqua’s Training Day benefited from some excellent characterizations (including one brilliant turn from Denzel Washington), spot on dialogue; and an attention to detail that led to a street authenticity rarely achieved in cinema.  Some of those same elements can be found in Fuqua’s latest, Brooklyn’s Finest, and like Training Day the film unfortunately devolves into a morass of over the top violence and multiple murders. Unlike the latter, which did well sticking to two leads and essentially one tightly wound storyline, Brooklyn’s Finestattempts to cover a week or so in the lives of three separate New York City cops working the confines of Brownsville Brooklyn’s 65th Precinct. The script is from ex Transportation worker and NYC native Michael Martin, who wrote it while recovering from injuries suffered in a car crash. Though the characters look and sound like the real deal, Martin and Fuqua unfortunately employ every cop movie cliche known to man. We get the bitter, divorced, ineffectual detective, Eddie (Richard Gere), a shell of a man who is a mere seven days from retirement; a financially overextended narcotics cop, Sal (Ethan Hawke), with a big family (the kids simply keep appearing) and pregant wife (Lilli Taylor), who needs to raise funds to move out of a mold infested rat trap and into a new home; and, finally, Tango (Don Cheadle), who has been working deep cover so long that his wife has divorced him as he faces the prospect of turning on his old friend Caz (Wesley Snipes) in order to obtain his long sought after detective shield. Fuqua is clearly after a kind of operatic style, mirroring a film like Clint Eastwood’s Mystic River, but like recent similarly constructed New York “coperas” that owe a tip of the hat to the Sydney Lumet dramas of the 1970’s, James Gray’s We Own the Night(2007) and Gavin O’Connor’s Pride and Glory (2008),this one winds up allowing an overly twisted plot to overwhelm the solid visuals, strong acting, and excellent sense of place. Fuqua is after pounding home the tone and look, imbuing the film with an overbearing score (a mix of hip hop; soul; and original music by composer Marcos Zavos), and multiple scenes with characters bathed in darkness, illuminated only by shards of light catching glimpses of their faces. And despite the authentic street feel in many of the scenes, there are numerous head scratching missteps of various kinds, not limited to the Sal role being filled by Ethan Hawke, an excellent actor who looks not one iota like an Italian American; the wasting of indie fave Lili Taylor; the presence of middle-aged Ellen Barkin as a ridiculously “tough” agent; the unfortunate naming of the characters Tango and Caz (Tango and Cash?); a character named Ricky Rosario being played by real life Irishman Brian O’Byrne; Tango continually meeting his police connection, Bill (Will Patton), at a public diner; and the statement of several erroneous facts, most notably the starting salary on the NYPD being $20,000 (currently $44,000 without overtime, etc.). Fans of the brilliant HBO series The Wirewill notice the casting of no less than three actors from the show, including Michael K Williams and Hassan Johnson, there to aid the street cred, and surprise of all surprises Wesley Snipes actually does well in his role as an ex-con project kingpin. At several points throughout the film, and again toward the end there is an attempt to have the three lead characters cross paths, though these encounters lack any kind of resonance,  which can also be said for the violent individual denouments each will ultimately face. A film that takes itself as seriously as this one does simply has to deliver more.

It’s Complicated(USA) Directed by Nancy Myers  Written by Nancy Myers  Starring Meryl Streep; Alec Baldwin; Steve Martin; John Krasinksi; Lake Bell; Mary Kay Place; Rita Wilson

Meryl Streep is one of our country’s finest actors, and her iconic performances in classics like Kramer Vs. Kramer; The Deer Hunter; and Sophie’s Choice remain in our collective memory, but with a treacly, insipid, and unimaginitve film like It’s Complicatedno one (not even an estimable veteran actress with multiple Academy Awards to her credit) comes out looking very good. Writer/director Nancy Meyers is a woman who makes highly commercial films, largely centered on female characters who’ve aged as she has, which makes her standout some in a highly male dominated industry. Her work, however (with a few notable exceptions),  has always been of somewhat questionable cinematic quality. With Hollywood churning out action and effects-laden event movies based on comic books and video games, the ones that are constructed with characters resembling actual human beings (or some semblance of them, anyway) are often thrillers and rom coms with paint by numbers, signposted plotting, anemic character development, and predictable dialogue. Here, Meyers gives us nothing more than another typical inane rom com, with the only variable (and not much of one at that) being that the focus is on two aging exes (Jake and June Adler) who rediscover one another when brought together for major events in their children’s lives. Streep spends the film filling in the gaps with bouts of false sounding giggling, and Baldwin is simply awful in every respect. Both actors demonstrate their understanding that this is something far from real life by indicating throughout, clearly playing this for yucks, which comes off even stranger still because there are none. Though supposedly educated, wealthy professionals, their respective characters are foolish people, and neither are the slightest bit likable as individuals (and especially as a couple). Unfortunately, the main supporting players Steve Martin, John Krasinksi, and Lake Bell (who in fairness are given a lot less to do) aren’t a lick better in their underwritten, underdeveloped, and unfunny roles (P.S. does anyone, for a second, buy these people as an actual family?). Many of the scenes are so poorly acted and written that the watching is excruciating, both due to the fact that the overall story is entirely uninvolving, unappealing, and trite, and also because one is constantly aware that this is theMeryl Streep we’re watching, and it is acutely painful to observe an actor of her stature involved in this dismal, banal garbage. Though the intended audience is clearly baby boomers in and around retirement age, bad is bad, and fluff is fluff, no matter what the ages of the main characters. There was a time when Baldwin did quality dramatic work (see Miami Blues; Hunt for Red October; Glengarry Glenross), but though he is effective in the successful comedic series 30 Rock, it’s been ages since he gave an impressive, substantial performance in a well rendered drama. Decent supporting appearances in films like The Cooler; The Good Shepherd; and State and Main have been the highlights of his last twenty years of film work. Still, despite the spotty career path he hasn’t, to this viewer’s memory, previously demonstrated this level of ineptitude. Yes, the material is embarrassingly awful, but the performance is lazy and solipsistic, and has nothing to do with the art of embodying a living and breathing human being in any real way. Streep, who is nine years older than Baldwin, has obviously fared better professionally, especially in the past decade, though even her presence fails to contribute to delivering a single authentic scene in this entire smarmy, horribly modulated debacle.

Party Down(Starz)

Party Downrecently finished its second season on cable channel Starz. Despite being the best little known show on the airwaves, it will not be returning for a third.

 Like so many other top quality televised comedy series of the past decade (Arrested Development; Undeclared; Freaks and Geeks, et al), Party Down didn’t get enough viewers/wasn’t well promoted or given enough time to find its way, and will simply fade away to a life on DVD. There was some indication the show wouldn’t be coming back as some of the leads began taking jobs on other shows (i.e. Adam Scott on Parks and Recreation), but one hoped that the channel might’ve recognized what they had and found creative promotional ideas to push what was one of the best shows out there.

The last episode of Season Two (entitled Constance Carmel’s Wedding) wasn’t a conclusive one as obviously there wasn’t enough cancellation warning. The show brought back ex-Party Down staffer Jane Lynch (Glee) as Constance, the bride celebrating her new age wedding to Howard Greengold (Alex Rocco), a loud, obnoxious oldster with an air tank and multiple marriages under his belt, whose daughter Mona (Jennifer Irwin) wants to stop the wedding to prevent, as she puts it, that ”cunt (from) spending our fortune on scented candles”

Like all of the events catered by the pink bow-tied ones the wedding winds up being something of a disaster. Casey (Lizzy Caplan) finds out that her scene in the Apatow movie has been cut. When Henry (Scott) tries to console her, she accuses him of not being able to understand because he doesn’t care about anything. Later, the vacuous Ryan (Kyle Bradway) is having trouble understanding a script he is reading for an audition, and (perhaps in part to prove something to Casey) Henry gets inspired by the project. Roman (Martin Starr) samples some wedding treats that turn out to be marijuana infused and gets hilariously super high. Supervisor Ron (Ken Marino) is looking at a promotion from owner Bolus Lugozshe (Michael Hitchcock), but finds his love for the boss’s daughter, the engaged Danielle (June Diane Raphael), too overwhelming to contain. Lydia (Megan Mulally) meanwhile, sees an opening with the divorced Bolus, and attempts to apply her charms.

The hijinks and basic formula were pretty much the same episode to episode, and yet writers/producers/ creators, ex-Veronica Marspartners, John Enbom and Dan Etheridge (Rob Thomas and Paul Rudd also co-created) managed to infuse the well-paced show with so much intelligent, cutting edge, pop-culture infused humor that it seemed to matter little. Recurring roles, guest stars, and cameos from the likes of Kristen Bell; JK Simmons; Ed Begley Jr., Rick Fox, Andres Royo; Joey Lauren Adams; George Takei; Ken Jeong; Thomas Lennon; Christopher Mintz-Plasse; and Steve Guttenberg added to the talents of a wonderfully strong cast. Unfortunately (though at this point, not surprisingly) another good one bites the dust, leaving the television landscape that much more barren in its wake.

William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe (USA)Directed by Sarah Kunstler; Emily Kunstler

Access is often king when it comes to documentary, and who better to obtain entry to a subject than those individuals closest to said subject. At the same time, those who choose to take on the task of documenting real life people and events have a certain inherent responsibility, regardless of agenda, to try to tell the truth, a task made exponentially more arduous when said filmmaker has a close personal investment in their relationship with his or her subject or their legacy. The good news here is Sarah Kunstler and Emily Kunstler (who narrates), daughters of controversial defense attorney and social and political activist William, do a laudable job of asking some pertinent and difficult questions about many of the professional decisions made by their father. Were they as circumspect when it came to detailing and analyzing his personal life, this portrait might have felt a bit more rounded, though there is some brief coverage of the time before he became famous, which included a privileged upbringing, a stint in the army during WWII, a small private law practice, a first wife and two daughters, and a placid suburban New York existence. Kunstler served as director of the ACLU during the sixties, and is perhaps best known for his role in the 1969/70 Chicago Eight (later Seven) trial, where the sight of Black Panther Bobby Seale being bound and gagged in the courtroom would affect him to such an extent that he found himself forever changed. Through photographs, news footage, and taped interviews with Kunstler and many of those who knew him best, his career is recounted from his early activism for civil rights and peace, and his involvement with famous historical events like The Attica prison riot, the siege at Wounded Knee, and the Central Park wilding case. Emily talks about growing up in a household with a famous father who was a constant target for threats, and how the fear she and her sister felt as children affected them. At one point, the FBI purchased an apartment across the street from their childhood household to monitor their father’s  comings and goings. Later in his career, Kunstler began taking on a series of cases that confused even his most loyal and ardent supporters, defending mafia figures and a series of terrorist bombers. Regardless of what one thinks about Kunstler’s politics, however, his dedication to his ideals, which included the staunch commitment to the concept that even the most heinous of accused criminals deserve an adequate defense, must be admired. For many years, he was at the forefront of defending the disenfranchised, risking his own personal safety and reputation in mainstream society to put his money where his mouth was. Despite the many people who were critical of his love for publicity, and refusal to bow to public pressure when it came to unpopular clients, his funeral in 1995 was attended by thousands, many of whom benefitted in ways great and small from his fearless dedication to the principles he held sacred.

Youth in Revolt(USA) Directed by Miguel Arteta  Written by Gustin Nash  Starring Michael Cera; Portia Doubleday; Jean Smart; Steve Buscemi; Zach Galifinakas; Ray Liotta; Eric Knudsen; Adhir Kaylan; Justin Long; Mary Kay place; M. Emmett Walsh; Fred Willard

Based on the six book series by C.D. Payne, Youth in Revolt: The Journals of Nick Twisp, Miguel Arteta (Star Maps; Chuck and Buck; The Good Girl) directs from a script by Gustin Nash (Charlie Bartlett). Twenty two year old Michael Cera plays the sixteen year old (he was turning fourteen in the book) titular character, as well as his mustachioed alter ego Francois Dillinger. Though the source material obviously preceded Rushmore (1998), Youth in Revolt’sfilmic life nonetheless owes a debt of gratitude to Wes Anderson’s seminal tale of prep school dropout Max Fischer. Derivation, or at least homage, is to be expected whenever innovated work is presented, and so it’s no surprise that a number of similar films have followed in its wake, including the aforementioned Bartlett. The story focuses on Nick (Cera doing Cera), who is also the narrator - a high school student/aspiring writer/virgin, who longs to reach beyond the limits of his hometown, Oakland, CA, to fall in love and have a sexual relationship with the girl of his dreams, to escape his oversexed Mom, Estelle (Jean Smart) and her moronic truck driver boyfriend Jerry (Zack Galifinakis), and perhaps connect with his unemployed father, George (Steve Buscemi). When Jerry cheats three sailors on a car deal, Nick, his Mom, and Jerry hide out at a Ukiah, CA trailer park, where Nick meets precocious Francophile Sheeni Saunders (Portia Doubleday), the daughter of a pair of religious fundamentalists (Mary Kay Place and M. Emmett Walsh), with whom he instantly falls in love. Though he is soon forced to return with Jerry and his Mom, Nick decides to do everything in his power to get thrown out of his home, get his father a job near Ukiah, and move there to be near his new love. This plan brings about the development of his alter-ego (an embodiment of what he believes Sheeni wants), and sets in motion a series of outrageous developments that will eventually land Nick in all kinds of hot water. The film is often funny, and though consciously “quirky,” it is still a cut above most youth comedies. Nothing ground-breaking or overly innovative here, and there is a feeling we have seen much of this before, but Cera and a stellar cast help turn this otherwise well-written diversion into a satisfying watch   nonetheless.

She’s Out of My League(USA) Directed by Jim Field-Smith  Written by Sean Anders; John Morris   Starring Jay Baruchel; Alice Eve; Lindsay Sloane; Mike Vogel; Nate Torrence; TJ MIller; Kyle Bornheimer; Jessica St. Clair; Krysten Ritter; Geoff Stults

Thirty one year old Brit Jim Field-Smith directs from a script written by the team of Sean Anders and John Morris (Sex Drive; Hot Tub Time Machine). She’s Out of My League (which was originally entitled Hard 10)stars the rail thin Jay Baruchel (Undeclared; Knocked Up; Tropic Thunder) as nerd-boy/TSA agent/under-achiever Kirk. His love interest is Molly, played by British actress Alice Eve, who struggles with her put-on American accent, but is at least fittingly gorgeous enough to inspire some of the fuss. The basic premise is that lovable loser Kirk has a shrewish ex, Marnie (Lindsay Sloane), who insists on bringing her new boyfriend around to visit Kirk’s horrible immediate family, a nowhere job, and a group of equally stalled friends. He has some aspirations to become a pilot, but his low self-esteem prevents him from taking the steps necessary to achieve his dreams. He bumps into the beautiful Molly while at work, does her a favor, and the two begin a relationship that seems doomed from the start. Kirk’s friends school him on the utter hopelessness of their mis-matched coupling, mainly because he’s a “five” and she a “ten” and one can never jump more than a few spots from one’s station. Tj Miller (Stainer); Nate Torrence (Devon); and Mike Vogel (Jack) make up Kirk’s odd group, and their collective advice ranges from horrible to sound. The film has a number of funny moments, and several over the top gross out gags one would expect from a modern comedy aimed at younger viewers. As it reaches its conclusion, however, the enterprise begins to devolve into predictable standard fare, hitting many of the usual notes covered in films occupying this new genre territory. The best of these Apatow-like films manage to transcend the foolishness of their premise by establishing relatively plausible characters and story-lines we can buy into. Though not without its charms, She’s Out of My League fails to sustain the momentum it establishes early on, rendering it an entertaining, but ultimately unmemorable addition to a growing collection of the type.

Burma VJ (DAN) Directed by Anders Ostergaard

There are rare documentaries (Sorrow and the Pity; Harlan County USA; The Tittcut Follies; Shoah, et al) that contain subject matter so compelling and universalthat their importance as a teaching mechanism virtually eclipses any would-be conversation about structure, or for that matter any other technical detail one might normally critique when examining non-fiction work. Burma VJ (Video Journalist) is one such film.

Documentary film, like the best of written, photo, and tele journalism, has the power to advocate for politicaland social change. Burma VJ  endeavors to provide a context for the grouping of footage shot during the protests in Burma that occurred mostly in September 2007. The unrest was originally brought on by a hike of some 500% in oil/gas prices in August that immediately caused massive hardship for the poorest of the country’s people.

Burma, or officially, Myanamar, has long been the subject of worldwide controversy due to a fascist military leadership responsible for countless human rights violations throughout the history of the regime. It had been almost twenty years since the country experienced any significant organized protest, a period replete with countless state sanctioned arrests, imprisonment, beatings, kidnappings, torture, and murders. This time also included the house arrest (for fourteen of these years) of opposition leader Aung Sun Suu Kyi, who has become a martyr of sorts for the Burmese people. In a country that spends less on public health care than any other in the world, there are 488,000 troops in Burma, and the Junta essentially maintain a constant police state that strictly outlaws all unsanctioned speech in any form.    

The film centers on “Joshua,” one of the leaders of the DVB (Democratic Voice of Burma), a group dedicated to exposing the government’s many abuses by employing camcorders, the Internet, and satellite TV to shoot and smuggle the video out of the country. During the 2007 protests they were directly responsible for providing the BBC, CNN and multiple media outlets across the world with up to date evidence of the historical events unfolding on the streets of Rangoon. 

With his face obscured, Joshua is filmed mostly in a single room where he speaks with various VJs and others by cell phone and email about the events as that are unfolding, mostly in realtime. Obviously, there was some creative license that went into the shaping of Joshua’s communication, which is clearly dramatized for the purposes of the film, but these kinds of details are fairly inconsequentialal when one considers the gravity of what is at work here.

The VJs are literally risking their lives as they film, and the danger escalates as they further expose themselves over repeated days. In fact, some will wind up facing life in prison for their “crimes”. The imagery they manage to obtain, though often shaky in quality, is compelling, with scenes of government sanctioned beatings and shootings occurring on the main streets of the city. There is a feeling of being there with the camera person as often they narrate what they are filming, including some harrowing moments when they themselves are in imminent danger of being exposed.

Perhaps the most compelling visuals though are those of the protesting Buddhist monks, who also risk their lives to take a stand against an unjust government. The sight of hundreds of maroon robed monks marching and chanting protest slogans, some holding overturned alms bowls over their heads, is one that is difficult to erase from the memory bank. With 400,000 in their ranks, the monks knew that they were the only ones with enough leverage to attempt to stand up to the oppressors.

The bravery displayed by the monks, students, and average citizen alike is an incredible thing. Given that 3,000 were reportedly killed in 1988, the last time the Burmese people took to the streets, there is no doubt in any of the protesters minds that they might be shot or thrown in prison at any moment.  They march to speak for those who have previously died for the cause, for their children, for future generations, for their country.

This Academy Award nominated film, which is now available on DVD, is as important as anything one is likely to see this year or any other.