movies and more movies

I’ve seen some movies in the last few weeks. From Netflix I saw Born Into Brothels and The Constant Gardener. One a documentary, the other a drama, both with a liberal social conscience and neither offering any real insight into the local context of the “other” culture represented—India and Africa respectively. Born into Brothels is the more depressing for being factual, but The Constant Gardener uses its narrative devices to generate outrage for which it offers no solution. Its stylized aesthetics also work against its message—a message you can see coming from the get-go. Lots of good acting though.

In the theatre I saw Matchpoint and The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada. Matchpoint was surprisingly tense. I say surprisingly since it is a Woody Allen film, but its tone is something of a departure for him. Though thematically he’s on familiar turf. The main character is a bit slight and some of the narrative manipulations are bordering on shameless, but my real issues with the film revolve around the ending and what Allen means to imply about the relation between morality and luck.Sure, he gets away with it, but how will being a killer change him as a man and a father? Nonetheless, a sharp movie in which class distinctions play a central role and are illustrated very gracefully. Three Burials was a damn fine film. It’s a ruminative piece of work so don’t see it if you’re the mood for something fast and explosive. It handles all of its elements deftly and when the story throws a curveball, its all the more intriguing because there was nothing to suggest any sort of surprise was on the way. It plays with time and structure but in low-key ways that serve the story rather than in the showy, stylized ways we’ve seen too much of post-Tarantino. Good stuff, best flick I've seen in a while actually, and brought back lots of memories of Texas.