Calcio, Cancer, Castration, and Kazakhstan

After a quick binge on rentals, I discovered there were some things I was missing out on, and some I really, really wasn't.

Borat I obviously caught in the theater, and it really is funny. Borat pushes all the boundaries of good taste, but where it really rises above crude fun is when it pulls in the public and even its own audience. When this film exposes something in people, ranging from at its mildest gullibility to at its worst the racism and sexism and the condescending, ignorant xenophobia that Borat can bring out so easily, that's when it's truly memorable. The real joke is that people are willing to believe that Borat plans to kidnap Pamela Anderson in a homemade bag to drag her back to Kazakhstan, and so easily coaxed into defending slavery, or to warning him as a friendly aside to shave his mustache and not look so much like an Arab, in short that they actually believe in Borat's Kazakhstan, is hilarious. I was also impressed with the consistent tone of the film, where Cohen never winks, and never steps out of Borat's documentary.

Thank You for Smoking was pretty much everything I expected it to be, sharp, quick, and very entertaining. It's fairly light in both story and message, really not taking any of its characters anywhere new as a result of their experiences, so really it's just enjoyable to see a nice set of actors have fun dancing through an amusing script. One surprising consequence is that any meaningful comment is more subtle than I would have expected. For instance, the ironic smugness exhibited by Aaron Eckhart when he is given a nicotine overdose and the only thing that saves his life is being a smoker, I loved the refusal of the film to teach him a lesson. The look at the anti-smoking forces discussing proper auditioning of "cancer boys" mirroring the callousness of the tobacco lobby, and the general impression that everybody seems to have lost any sense of perspective they may have started out with lingers long after watching what is definitely an amusing film.

I wondered what I was missing by not having gotten around to catching Goal! The Dream Begins, which I presumed from the subtitle had further installments on the way. As it turns out, not a whole lot. This is really fluffy, and feels like the film that somebody who read Uplifting Sports Movies for Dummies would make. It's a collection of mild cliches, where our hero has to suffer very predictable defeats and betrayals yet score the big goal in the end, where every turn of the plot is so ordinary it really feels like it came from a checklist. Some things don't make a lot of sense, like how Santiago somehow doesn't need a work permit in England, but really I don't think this film needs too much nit-picking. While it never rises above mediocrity dramatically, I have to admit it pulled me in and gave a warm fuzzy feeling all over every time Santiago caught a break. The football is filmed nicely, and it has the usual cameos by legendary names which are for the most part nicely done, although Beckham's was perhaps appropriately a bit forced. It's watchable, and being so starved for quality soccer since the World Cup, I needed a fix. And Anna Friel may not be creme brulee, but she is like a chocolate-covered fortune cookie.

I also rented two films with creepy, disturbed children who invoke the story of Little Red Riding Hood, but exhibiting rather different levels of filmmaking. I haven't seen anything as clumsy as the horror movie Red Riding Hood in ages, and it was truly forgettable crap that tried to slap together superficial elements of as many horror films as it could find over terrible acting, just yikes. Hard Candy is actually a serious project, and about as far away in quality from the other as you can get. The two actors who are 99% of the film's focus are perfect as a charming photographer with an interest in teenage girls, and the emotional shadows that go over Ellen Page's face during any line are fascinating to watch on their own. The seeds of doubt and of guilt are enough to keep conflict alive and loyalties wavering all the way up to the last frame, as the film 's conflict can creepily enough be easily appreciated from both sides, predatory photographer and castrating child. The whole thing is beautifully shot, staying intimate with its actors faces under harsh light that shows every twitch. I'm actually still unnerved enough to pat my balls thankfully.

So basically, Hard Candy and Thank You For Smoking are both worth digging up and checking out if the latest Drew Barrymore romantic comedy is out of stock, and Goal! The Dream Begins is a nice guilty pleasure.