Boiler Room

A very well told story of greed in the mold of Wall Street. It’s about a young bloke called Seth who runs an illegal casino in his New York apartment. He does it well, keeps the punters happy and makes a lot of money, but his Dad, a judge, understandably has a problem with his choice of career. So in an attempt to find a more acceptable line of work Seth signs up at a Long Island stock brokerage called JT Marlin. Ironically JT Marlin is more crooked and does far more damage than his casino ever would. JT Marlin essentially pushes shares in worthless companies and dodgy IPO’s over the phone to well-off but generally financially clueless investors. Seth becomes very proficient at making sales over the phone. Ben Affleck plays the older broker who is already rich and a now recruits new blood to the firm. Vin Diesel is another senior broker at the firm. It’s an interesting and solid cast, including Ron Rifkin as Seth’s father.

Raise the Red Lantern

Raise the Red Lantern, nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 1992, is a film by Zhang Yimou about the lives of concubines in China. It follows the story of Songlian, the young and beautiful fourth wife of a wealthy older man. She lives, together with the other three wives, each in their own house set around a courtyard with the house of the “Master” at one end. The household has long established traditions that the concubines must follow to the letter. At a certain time each afternoon they stand outside their doorways awaiting the Master’s decision on which wife he will favour with his presence that evening. Once the decision is announced by the head housekeeper red lanterns are lit in and around the house of the chosen wife. It’s a beautifully shot film. Yimou uses the perfect symmetry of the house to great effect and the shots of the courtyard that reflect the changing seasons are beautiful and evoke a peaceful atmosphere of routine and stability that stands in contrast to the underlying conflicts between the wives. It’s a well told story. The DVD version that I watched had the worst English subtitles, but even this did not detract too much from my enjoyment.

Ripley's Game

A Tom Ripley film, based on one of the five Ripley novels by Particia Highsmith. Ripley has featured in a number of films, notably Wim Wender’s American Friend and The Talented Mr Ripley where he is played by Matt Damon. Here John Malkovich takes a turn and the result is the best and most chilling Ripley of all. Ripley is a charming psychopath (perhaps also the model for Hannibal Lector), who consistently gets away with various crimes including murder. He is ruthless to the point of being amusing. There is a scene that borders on slapstick, at the end of which three bodies are piled up in a train lavatory. Ripley quips: “It never used to be so crowded in first class”.

Playtime

I must admit (to my shame again) that until I saw Playtime I did not quite get Jacques Tati. I desperately wanted to like Ms. Hulot’s Holiday. The idea of a whimsical character encountering mild misadventures on an old fashioned seaside holiday sounds like just the ticket for someone like me who loves PG Wodehouse and endlessly revisits Fawlty Towers. But I’m sorry to say that I found it just a tad too slow. I found myself unable to sustain interest in Ms. Hulot’s escapades over the length of the film. So I am very happy to report that as far as appreciating Tati is concerned Playtime has changed all that. I loved every moment. Playtime can be many things to different people. I imagine there are those who may view it as quite a biting satire on modern life, on the relentless pursuit of progress, blind to the beauty all around us. The occasional glimpses of well-loved Paris landmarks reflected in the chrome and glass of Tati’s modern city suggests this. I see it though as a far subtler and gentler commentary. It makes us look anew at the man-made world around us and consider how often our interactions with this world are amusing and even ridiculous. I cannot walk into the first class Qantas lounge at Sydney airport without thinking about Playtime. It is a space that could have been taken straight from the giant set that Tati created for this movie. As a result I find it hard to watch people in the lounge with a straight face. Playtime is a magical film, worth watching again and again. Sadly I understand that its lack of financial success bankrupted Tati, a great shame.

House of Games

A very clever film about con artists. Directly and partially written by David Mamet (The Untouchables, Glengarry Glen Ross) it stars his wife, Lindsay Crouse, as a psychiatrist who comes to the aid of a compulsive gambler and is led my a smooth-talking grifter (Joe Mantegna) into the shadowy but compelling world of stings, scams, and con men. Once you understand the mentality and motivations of the people involved it’s quite easy to predict how it will all turn out. Nonetheless its fun watching it all unfold. It one of the relatively few movies shot in Seattle and the rainy city streets provide an apt setting.

Yes Man

I always enjoy Jim Carrey, if only he could get a script that does full justice to his comedic talents. He is at his best when he can give full throat to the dangerously energetic slapstick of which he has proved himself the master. He needs a script that provides for powerful internal conflict – see Mask or Liar Liar for excellent examples. The premise of Yes Man seems promising, if rather close to that of Liar Liar. Jim plays a man (Carl) stuck in a deep rut who commits to a self-improvement routine which requires him to say yes to everything. Predictably this leads to some funny and, in the case of the sexual advances of a little old lady, rather disturbing, situations. Equally predictably Carl meets the girl of his dreams, Allison, played by Zooey Deschanel (the girl of everyone’s dreams). From here on its all a bit predictable and the movie loses it edge quite early, plodding on to a by-the-numbers resolution. Carl’s boss is played by Rhys Darbey (Murray from Flight of the Conchords) complete with Kiwi accent. Interestingly I see Rhys’s next role is in a forthcoming movie by Richard Curtis (Mr Bean, Four Weddings, Love Actually, etc), called The Boat that Rocked, about an illegal radio station in the North Sea in the 1960s and starring no less than Philip Seymour Hoffman, Emma Thompson and Kenneth Branagh! I can hardly wait.