Change Your Image
jchorak7441
Reviews
I Witness (2003)
Today's Mexico, The Legacy of NAFTA and GATT
Like Bordertown, I Witness exposes another underbelly of corporate internationalism seeking windfall profits by escaping fair trade practices, fair wages and scrutiny by government agencies created to protect environmental concerns. Hiding behind Mexico's drug wars, the new gangsters of corporate thuggery use criminal means to cloak the cost of dumping toxic chemical waste upon the unsuspecting in a country where a bribe can cover any crime, no matter the number and innocence of victims. And like Bordertown, I Witness takes with fiction the excursions into truth today's mess media would dare not touch upon. Jeff Daniels and James Spader typically provide glowing performances while Clifton Collier Jr's performance places as something grand to see. Rowdy Harrington's direction is professionally able and the camera work is exceptional. Writers Colin Greene and Robert Ozn are to be commended. A film whose time is come and whose value exceeds entertainment, this should have been required viewing by Congress before passing on trade agreements that have undermined the quality of life on both sides of the border. JCH
Zardoz (1974)
Astounding Retrospect: Revisiting the Movie, Zardoz (1974)
The supremely visionary gifts of imagination of director/writer John Boorman rival those of legendary Arthur C. Clarke in this production, one even more amazing today than it was nearly thirty-seven years ago. Almost a template of what social engineering has wrought as a model for our future, depopulation and protected environment exclusively for the elite (with even a presumption of immortality thrown in) Zardoz is about manipulation through myth and where any ultimate conclusion to inherently confined and opportunistic "unnatural selection", as opposed to that natural selection of evolution, leads. This leap in inevitability is thus an utter inspiration inspired by profound wisdom in the acknowledgment of the complex that makes humankind unique in their adaptability. The very thing social engineering most frequently overlooks, in its mindless service to the elite.
The performances of Sean Connery as, Zed and that of Charlotte Rampling as, Consuella are among this film's many gifts, not the least of which is its beautiful setting, choreography, special effects, and scene changes. Be all this as it may, however, the value of this movie in expressing a potential for the future wholly untenable for most to at once conceive at the time it was made....now, which is becoming more and more apparent, at least in intent, is worthy of utmost praise. JCH
One Hour Photo (2002)
Robin Williams Proves Himself in, One Hour Photo
It would be a short stretch to imagine Robin Williams becoming tied to a similar fate as his mentor, Jonathan Winters. Becoming increasingly absorbed into the complexity of his own comic genius and less and less able to return from the various personalities he could assume (sometimes vicariously) his fans could only wonder if they might concern themselves with his mental health one day. The reassurance this might not be in the offing, however, is somewhat evidenced in his role of Seymour Parrish, found in the remarkable film, One Hour Photo. For, unlike Mr. Winters, herein we see Robin Williams demonstrate a dramatic genius in parallel with that of the comedic, and a possible saving grace of sensible balance. As a fan of both, this reviewer certainly hopes so.
Obsession represents itself always as bizarre; we are even advised to grave concerns when we see almost any manifestation of it for it is indeed tied to many sinister and criminal acts. Seldom do we ever get a chance to look closer, to see the more forgivable of its possible origins. One Hour Photo superbly takes advantage of this...in many ways, especially as its dramatic core builds to crescendo and to dramatic denouement, again, superbly. More and more we wonder if this was designed around the role expressly meant for Mr. Williams to play, a real feather in the cap of casting excellence.
Lovely Connie Nielson performs beautifully as Nina Yorkin, a wife and mother just finding out why her self-indulgent husband is becoming more and more neglectful. The "second" woman, (Erin Daniels) coming to the same photo mat for her picture development is the one and only stretch the script makes but one allowable. The viewer is not effected by any unrealistic sense of contrivance.
Viewers will presume the worst, prepare for the worst, while the unexpected ending becomes the most remarkable aspect of all. And the most heartfelt.
All in all, an incredible movie that I feel certain will justify viewers' attention...and then some.
Bravo for the writer/director, Mr. Mark Romanek and his casting staff.
JCH
Bordertown (2007)
A Movie of Our Times: Bordertown (2006)
There can be a special elegance to a movie that touches the human condition honestly and with clarity. Add to that the harshest of unrealized economic realities and you have Bordertown, a film just as significant to our future as to our past. For it shows us in the least compromising terms, what the trends of today are creating for the reality of tomorrow. It is a movie this reviewer had thought would never be made.
Not since Apocalypse Now, has Martin Sheen delivered his role so magnificently. As the newspaper editor, George Morgan, his delivery of lines in a particular scene (summing up these aforementioned trends,) is comparable with that elegant rendering of Sir Richard Burton when that late great stands before the bar to indict a system showing neither fairness or justice to his client in the Medusa Touch.
Jennifer Lopez as Lauren Adrian, an investigative reporter sent into a story neither her editor or her can imagine in scope, IS the part. Revealing just how capable she is with character delineation, Lopez excels beyond all expectation. Had this performance been on the stage, five minutes of "bravo" would have ensued at curtain.
Writer/director Gregory Nava is to be applauded on every score, not the least of which is his courage.
This reviewer does not say this easily nor lightly: If adequately promoted for what it was worth and for the import of its message, this movie might have changed the course of history if made a decade earlier. It still might make its mark in helping to remedy the economic and political madness now placed on the world's table.
Highly, highly, highly recommended. JCH
Strange Culture (2007)
The Amazing Application of the Docudrama Genre in, Strange Culture (2007)
The Amazing Application of the Docudrama Genre in, Strange Culture (2007) (or, government exploitation of event to circumvent expectation of human rights in the fulfillment of social contract.)
The making of, Strange Culture, establishes a genre form within a genre, so elegantly does it apply both a storyline and it's backing with factual event but incorporates the "director's cut" inside to the making at the same time. Although a feat not for the faint of heart, the production carries its flow in a highly clarifying manner and with the very warmth of both actors and those they portray, seemingly caught up in a labor of love. Even more astounding when the viewer begins to realize the concerns at hand are wrought upon the innocent by a monstrosity that has come to be made in and by the aftermath of America's single greatest outrage, 9/11, exploited to mindlessly move this society closer to a police state.
The government's case against one man becomes solely a pursuit against both the academic world, the world of art and the rights of all to know from whence and by what manner their very food source comes; even the pseudo science employed in tampering with it genetically. A wake-up call we all need that touches upon every right we increasingly only presume to have.
That a group of learned professionals, utilizing their own artistic talents, scholarly knowledge base and friendship as colleagues could put together such a talented art exhibition so incredibly poignant to the social and health concerns of their audience would obviously draw the concerns of the powers that be, the kind of elite that own Monsanto.
In the end we do not know the designs of this most dubious actionable effort of government against its people was early-on instrumented. We do not know this, but we come to suspect it.
The laudable performance of the talented and hauntingly beautiful Tilda Swinton, the superb choice of casting Thomas Jay Ryan in the lead role, and the participation and obvious concern of Peter Coyote are wonderful extra attractions. Writer/director, Lynn Hershman-Leeson, has done far more than a successful job. To attest to this is the placement of a scene in which a group of grad students in a class are asked, "does anyone know about the McCarthy Era?" When no one replies, we immediately know the utter importance of this film.
JCH
From Hell (2001)
Displaying the social relevance the remarkable move From Hell deserves in a review.
It Was Indeed Along Those Lines
(Displaying the social relevance the remarkable movie, From Hell, deserves in a review)
Perhaps few episodes in history have had more entwining attempts at interpretation than the carnage practiced upon London's underworld by the ignoble "Jack the Ripper". This writer can think of one at present, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Be as it may, though differences are stark, these two events are both ignoble, made much more so, by the complicity of authorities, in both the progress towards their culmination and the cover-up of evidence, even to the extent of the murder of witnesses. Again, the ramifications go much further, even deep within the social fabric. For they touch upon the use of secrecy to hide misdeed and secret societies to commit them.
The movie, From Hell is excellent, venturing into areas of high probability to weave a likely scenario with the established facts at hand, making sense of the puzzling anomalies so carefully avoided historically. So well does it succeed, we might wonder when the JFK assassination will be visited in similar fashion. The significance becomes imperative when society's own prerogatives are becoming more and more constrained to the privileged few.
Excellent use of casting talent, the best job I've seen Depp perform, sets and camera work exquisitely utilized. Hope this exceptional film reaches the clarity threshold with you it did with this reviewer.
JCH