Two Movies: The Complex Life
I think what makes great movies great is that they don't oversimplify the ambiguities of life. They often bare it for all to see and, in many cases, leave you hanging- unfinished- yet knowing that there is nothing more to say. The rest goes on in your own head.

It is the end of the year movie season and I am beginning to catch up on the movies I haven't seen this year and gorging myself on the great movies that always come out at the end of the year. I have two to add today that I saw before Christmas, but didn't want to interrupt my Christmas posts to talk about.

Cronicas

If it's on TV it's real.

As taglines go, this one gives away a bias that you don't catch until the end of the movie. And only then if you have been paying attention to the John Leguizamo character's descent into himself. This is one of the foreign films that hopefully will get nominated for an Academy Award. It is Ecuador's official entry. Parts of it look like a documentary, others a sensationalist newscast, and finally, a story of human grandiosity and the price we pay to have it.

We all know, or at least I hope we all know, how easy it is to twist the plot of a story. Politicians call it "spin." But the tone of the piece, the adjectives used, the framing of the scenes, even the couple sentence introductions setting up the piece on TV will determine what the meaning is to be. What happens when you get it wrong? What happens when you are doing it for yourself and not the story?

Watch Cronicas and you may get an idea. Then, on the DVD, look at what the director had to say about an "alternative ending" that fortunately didn't happen.

Crash

We miss that [human] touch so much, we crash into each other.

Here is powerful moviemaking from the writer of Million Dollar Baby. He leaves no one untouched, unscathed, all guilty, or all innocent. No one. Even me.

Roger Ebert has this as his #1 movie of the year. And may very well be the best. It is an indie movie that has a great ensemble cast. Don Cheadle, Sandra Bullock, Matt Dillon, Brandon Fraser, Ryan Phillippe, Terrance Howard. It is all about prejudice. White, black, Asian, Latino. Take your pick. It grabe you and won't let you go. There were times I wanted to throw my computer through the window as I watched.

Prejudice can't be this common. It can't be so pervasive. It just can't. It just can't. But it is, I am afraid. It may very well be the great, dark, underbelly of the human experience.

The day after watching I was in a local Barnes and Noble store. I was in line at the coffee counter for a mocha when I noticed the guy in front of me. He wasn't dressed as neatly as most of us. He looked a little ragged around the edges. "What's he doing in here?" I wondered to myself. "Trying to get warm?"

"I'll have a cappucino," he said, as he handed his B & N discount card and platinum credit card to the server.

Paul Haggis knows what we're like. Sadly. And none of us is all good nor all bad. We're just human beings struggling to find the touch that keeps us in health and hope. You will be sitting in stunned, humble silence. Which may be the start of confession and redemption.

By the way, Here is a link to Roger Ebert's list.