Past the Popcorn film roundup—A Light Week, and Slim Pickings
Each week, Past the Popcorn offers a thorough look at the latest round of films opening on big screens.
The week sandwiched between Enchanted and The Golden Compass doesn’t have a lot to offer—and what it offers doesn’t satisfy, either.
Brian De Palma’s Redacted has its intentions in the right place, says Mike Smith. But his attempt to duplicate the “new media” approach to the War in Irag blows up like an IED. The film, says Mike, “is too production-ready to be believably blogged. The film’s dialogue, which appears to be pulled verbatim from troop blogs, is shockingly scatological—exaggerated to the point of being nonsensical. The script is too cliched to have been filmed on the spot.” Mike still recommends the film, if one also has the stomach to checkout the real stuff on YouTube to balance things out.
Meanwhile, the documentary War/Dance has its heart in the right place—but puts too much stock in its artfulness. The tale of child survivors of Ugandan civil war, the films documents dance competitions which help deal with the psychological ravages of war. Still, says Mike Brunk, “War/Dance fails to do the story justice. When it tries for artistic cinematography it comes off feeling less than real, and when it tries to seriously present the reality of the situation it feels dull and lifeless.” The subject matter itself, though, is quite compelling.
