Drama

War/Dance

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: War/Dance
  • IMDB: link

“In my heart I am more than a child of war.”
 

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The film tells the tales of three children – Nancy, Dominic, and Rose – from the Acholi tribe in the Pantongo region of northern Uganda.  These children live in a refugee camp among 60,000 other members of their tribe, displaced by a violent terrorist group known as the Lord’s Resistance Army.  Each has harrowing tales of tragedy to tell.

As the film opens these children, along with many others from the camp, are training and working towards winning the national dance competition in the town of Kampala.  This is the first time a primary school from a camp such as this has earned a spot in the final competition and the children hope to do honor to their tribe and bring a trophy home.

The documentary from Sean Fine and Andrea Nix does many things well including capturing the look and feel of the various settings in the film from the camp, to the open bush, to Kampala.  Facts and statistics are also inserted throughout the film in way that doesn’t make them seem forced or distracting.

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Meet the Savages

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: The Savages
  • IMDb: link

The SavagesWritten and directed by Tamara Jenkins (Slums of Beverly Hills) The Savages tells the tale of a dysfunctional family brought back together to deal with illness and the hovering specter of death.  With a bittersweet tone, finding humor in human frailty and the stark drama, it’s a film definitely worth you time.

Jon Savage (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is a college professor and writer of scholarly work in Buffalo.  Wendy Savage (Laura Linney) works temp jobs and is a struggling playwright in New York City.  The pair are brought back together to deal with their estranged father’s (Philip Bosco) increasing dementia and failing health.

This is a film about the tough choices and circumstances families go through with the ailing of their parents.  It doesn’t shy away from the pain and guilt inherent in the tough but necessary choices so many families are put through dealing with parents who can no longer take care of themselves.

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God That’s Good!

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
  • IMDb: link

“There’s a whole in the world like a great black pit, and the vermin of the world inhabit it, and its morals aren’t worth what a pin can spit, and it goes by the name of London.”

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When I heard Tim Burton was set to direct Sweeney Todd my initial response was to expect a great looking but overproduced and underwhelming film (like say Sleepy Hollow).  I was dead wrong.  In another director’s hands the bloody tale would have been cut, trimmed, and made to look nice enough to earn a PG-13 rating.  Burton however embraced the story of vengeance and loss and gives us a Sweeney Todd worthy of the name.  How good is Sweeney Todd? It’s arguably Tim Burton’s best film.

For those unfamiliar with the original story and the Broadway musical, the plot involves a young barber named Benjamin Barker (Johnny Depp) whose wife Lucy (Laura Michelle Kelly) and infant daughter Johanna are taken from him by Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman).  Turpin steals the women for himself and sentences Barker and banishes him from London forever.  The film opens with the return of Barker years later under the new name of Sweeney Todd

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Charlie Wilson’s War

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Charlie Wilson’s War
  • IMDb: link

“You can teach them to type, but you can’t teach them to grow tits.”

Charlie Wilson (Tom Hanks), a junior Congressman from a small district in Texas, did the impossible.  Not only did he spearhead the largest covert war in United States history, but he kept it a secret for years.

Wilson, a member of the Defense Appropriations subcommittee and the only Congressman from a district “who doesn’t want anything,” was in an unique position to change the world while nobody was looking.

After learning about the Afghan resistance against the Soviets, and being cajoled into providing more assistance by a powerful political contributor (Julia Roberts), Wilson with the help of his friends and CIA operative Gust Avrakotots (Philip Seymour Hoffman), over the course of the decade began increasing the money, weapons, and training being put into Afghanistan and began fighting a covert war which only a scant few even knew was taking place.  And we aren’t talking a small increase here; we’re talking about hundreds of millions of dollars.

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Atonement

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Atonement
  • IMDb: link

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Robbie Turner (James McAvoy) is the kitchen helps son and in love with Cecilia Tallis (Keira Knightley) the head of household’s daughter. Cecilia is a stuck up rich brat who plays hard to get, but conforms to her one true love in the end, Robbie. Briony Tallis (Saoirse Ronan), the youngest daughter has a huge crush on Robbie and finds herself in a very jealous predicament, in return she lashes out and lies about whom she caught accosting her cousin in the woods.

Briony’s lie sends Robbie away to war and trashes his name forever making it impossible for Robbie and Cecilia to be together. Cecilia leaves the family estate and makes a go of it on her own as a nurse for the effort, running into Robbie one last time before he is sent off to the front, they agree to find one another after and marry.

Briony (Romola Garai) grew out of her impish childhood and into guilt and a need to correct all that she had wrong. Believing she was paying for her lies, she signed up as a nurse to help the wounded in an effort to ease her mind. She hunted down her sister, Ceclilia, but was never forgiven.

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